the straw polls, he ll have to do well in the debates. until we see him onstage, mitt romney, get your flak jacket out, because the next time tim pawlenty is around, he ll be going for you. stick with me. we ll talk about primary calendar chaos in our favorite state, the state of florida, and also some interesting comments from john boehner on the debt ceiling. but trivia time, who is the first welfare recipient to be elected to congress? the answer, congresswoman lynn woolsly, why do we want to do this? because she ll retire after representing her northern california district. she s not the only member of congress who was once a welfare recipient, gwen moore of wisconsin relied on welfare and hanson clark of michigan has spoken publicly about depending on food stamps in the past. all right, as goes florida, so goes, guess what, georgia, they re always trying to follow in florida s wake. we ve got a presidential primary
,lh. it s wednesday, june 29th, 2011, i m chuck todd, all that ahead. fáplus, have you heard abou whole idea of financial armageddon? what would happen ifc the president simply ignored it? in fact, would it beé@ ko unconstitutional for anyone in the government to stop the government from incurring debt?r we ll get into that. anyway, let s get to the first read of the morning. president obama holds his first news conference since early april, really since march for a full-fledged one,;qw okñ11:30 i the morning in the east room, he ll talk about theçó deadlockn the growingxd debtñr and the c the president meets this afternoon on senate democratick leaders on the debt. why? they don t necessarily have the áár e. both parties are digging in with som$8ñe1entrenched positions an there s growingt( skepticism on capitol hill that the treasury department august 2nd debt deadline is all that urgent. here s joq+h!oehner last night. nobody believes that the united stat
involving the new york city fire department. should the city be forced to pay money to those who couldn t pass the entrance exam? i m breech breech and america s news headquarters from the nation s capital starts right now i m shannon bream and america s news headquarters from the nation s capital starts right now. we begin in japan. the spike in radiation level that led to evacuation was just a mistake. we have the latest. reporter: it was a breach coming from the authorities this sunday and we heard an official say that the radiation in water at the plant went to 10 million levels, that would be a catastrophic meltdown scenario numbers. fortunately, it was nowhere near that. radiation levels in the water have spiked four times now and that caused evacuation again in the restoration crews who are dealing with the reactor number two. where we got the [ audio interruption ] around the plant. the plant is not entirely sure where exactly the leak is coming from, whether it
aaron gilchrist explains why, and why one group says taxpayers are getting cheated in the process. reporter: when night falls on capitol hill, the halls go empty, and occasionally some congress members will burn the midnight oil. but even after that flame goes out, dozens of congressmen don t go home. sleeping in my office gives me that extra hour in the evening, the extra hour in the morning that i need to read up on things. i want to be prepared, myself. reporter: hanson clark is a freshman representative from detroit. he s among 30 to 50 male congress members who bunk for the night in their offices. as he showed nbc s kelly o donnell. you ve got to move this table back. i ll move this chair over to that door after i lock it, and then bring my mattress out and put it right here. reporter: a quick change means total immersion in work, says clark, but it also means breaking the rules, says a washington ethics watchdog. certainly, it turns the house office building
and why one group says taxpayers are getting cheated in the process. reporter: when night falls on capitol hill, the halls go empty, and occasionally some congress members will burn the midnight oil. but even after that flame goes out, dozens of congressmen don t go home. sleeping in my office gives me that extra hour in the evening, the extra hour in the morning that i need to read up on things. i want to be prepared, myself. reporter: hanson clark is a freshman representative from detroit. he s among 30 to 50 male congress members who bunk for the night in their offices. as he showed nbc s kelly o donnell. you ve got to move this table back. i ll move this chair over to that door after i lock it, and then bring my mattress out and put it right here. reporter: a quick change means total immersion in work, says clark, but it also means breaking the rules, says a washington ethics watchdog. certainly, it turns the house office buildings into basically flats or dorm