Goin out to all the young niggaz who died in the struggle sh is real in the field you know sparkin blunts for all you niggaz word up [ theme ] bill good morning everybody. What do you say . It is the full court press here on current tv this morning. Good to see you this Tuesday Morning. February 26th. Welcome to the program. Thank you so much for joining us as we bring you up to date on all of the latest from our Nations Capital from around the dunn and around the globe. On the sequester now it is a matter of National Security. Janet napolitano telling us in the White House Briefing room yesterday, there is no way that they can keep this country as safe and secure as it is today if the sequester cuts go in. Getting serious folks. Getting serious. An assault weapons ban hearing on the Dianne Feinsteins legislation, the assault weapons ban tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary committee. Washington gearing up for that. And a new diet says you can eat all the olive oil fruits, vegetables and fish you want and live forever. But dont you dare touch the horse meat. So far we havent found any horse meat in ikeas meatballs in the United States. All of that and more coming up today on current tv. Billy zane stars in barabbas. Coming in march to reelz. To find reelz in your area, go to reelz. Com alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . vo this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. Jack, how old are you . Nine. This is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. vo with Award Winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. vo from the underworld, to the world of privilege. Everyone in Michael Jacksons life was out to use him. vo no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. Nounce broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. Bill the sequester now becomes a matter of National Security. Want to keep this country safe or not . That is the question. What do you say . Good morning everybody. Good Tuesday Morning. Tuesday, february 26th. So good to see you today. This is the full court press. We are coming to you live on your local progressive talk Radio Station. On current tv and on sirius x. M. This hour only. Happy Tuesday Morning. Good to see you. Weve got lots and lots to talk about today. Everything from diets to Homeland Security. Governors in town. Actually theyve left town now. They made a big stink before they left town yesterday. Well bring you up to date on it. Kucinich getting geared up for the assault weapons ban. Well cover everything happening here, not only in our Nations Capital, around the country and around the globe. And, of course, heres what we love about this show and you love about it, too you get a chance to join in. Sound off let us know what it means to you. You can do so by giving us a call at 186655press. By joining us on twitter at bpshow. And joining us or joining us on facebook, i should say. Facebook. Com billpressshow. As long as there is a current tv, this is the current chat room. If you go to current. Com click on the chat room. Youre in to talk about the issues with your fellow full court pressers across the land. Make a lot of friends there. Again, get your comments out. We have the whole team here this morning as always. Peter ogborn and dan henning what do you say guys . Hey, hey. Bill good morning. With phil backert on the phones and acceptrian bolding as always on the video cam. So nice little reception for senator Heidi Heitkamp. New senator from north dakota and you know, north dakota, it is really a very interesting situation out there. Because it is a red state right. And yet north dakota has given us byron dorgan, kent conrad and now Heidi Heitkamp. Three real progressives. Yeah. Bill in the senate. Heidi heitkamp won last time in november. President obama lost north dakota by 23 points. So it is just that theres this homegrown progressive tradition in north dakota and if you grow up there and youre known there you could can be a preggive. They like you you get elected. The way to get elected in north dakota is pretty clear. I learned last night. Byron dorgan was the tax commissioner elected statewide for north dakota. He was succeeded by kent conrad, the tax commissioner from north dakota. Kent conrad was succeeded as tax commissioner from north dakota by Heidi Heitkamp. All right. Bill kent worked as an assistant to byron and heidi worked as an assistant to kent. So we all wanted to know who is the next tax commissioner . Shes great. Shes great. Were going to get her in the studio here one of these days before long. Also, what was interesting last night is former Vice PresidentWalter Mondale was at this party. I havent seen him in a long time. He doesnt do a lot of stuff apparently. Bill tweeted out a photo with me and Heidi Heitkamp and me and the Vice President. A sad passing last night. A man who really made a mark. Every Surgeon General from now on will be rated as to how he or she stacks up with everett koop, the man who put the ban on not ban but put out the word about cigarettes, yes indeed, they do cause cancer. And we should have warnings on the pack of cigarettes. Took on all of the Tobacco Companies. Passed away yesterday at the age of 96. Just a few years ago, he actually sat down with an interview with ally g and they were talking about the inevitable. Lets talk about a big thing. Death. The end. Im talking about the thing that happens to you you know, a few weeks after you were alive. Thats bad isnt it . You dont spell it that way though. It is death. Bill it happens to you a few weeks after youre alive. I like that. What are the chances here that this is going to happen to me . So what are the chances that me will eventually die . That you will die . 100 . I can guarantee you that 100 . You will die. A bit of a pessimist there. Im being an absolute realist. I would like another opinion on that. There is nobody i know who has a mind and brain who doesnt know that everybody will die. Expert analysis. Bill oh, god. You havent seen one of the old alley g. Interviews, Newt Gingrich does one. Sam donaldson did one. He convinces pat buchanan and Sam Donaldson to rap with him. And it is great. It is an old hbo show. Bill so funny. All right. So yesterday the sequester took on a new turn with a big warning at the white house from Janet Napolitano. I was there. Ill tell you all about it. But first. Announcer this is the full court press. Other headlines making news on this tuesday. Load up on the olive oil, wine fruits and veggies if you want to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. A new spanish study spanished in the new england journal of medicine found that people eating a mediterraneanbased diet with moderate amounts of red meat lowered their risk of stroke and heart attack to 46 . It followed 7700 people over five years telling them not to count calories but Pay Attention to the types of foods they were eating and the results of this study were so stunning, that they ended it early. Because of what they found so quickly. Bill you dont really lose weight but you live longer. Right. Not losing weight. Bill diets are so all over the place. But this one makes a lot of sense to me. First of all i think Mediterranean Food is the best foods. Most attractive. Most tasty. Seth macfarlane in this years popular movie brought in olive oil and wine, i can live with that. Seth macfarlane in this years popular movies brought in the viewers for the oscars. Sunday nights broadcast on abc hits highest viewership since 2010, over 40 million tuned in, 3 higher than last year. A far cry from the alltime record in 1998 when titanic won best picture. 56 Million People watched it that year. Bill i think the good movies brought people in. I dont think Seth Macfarlane brought people in. I dont want to believe it at any rate. Nelson mandelas name will be associated with Something Different besides being the former president of south africa and the struggle with apartheid. Wine. His daughter and granddaughter have launched a Company Called house of mandela wine saying theyve enjoyed experimenting with wines over the years and bringing them to the market and their grandfather is proud of them. It will cost from 8 to 50 a bottle. Nelson mandela wine. Bill paul newman salad dressing. Nelson mandela wine. Exploit the name. Sure. 14 minutes after the hour. Yes, indeed. Down at the white house yesterday, a lot of talk about sequester. The nations governors were meeting met with the president yesterday morning. And he asks their help in putting pressure on congress to do something, get together, particularly on republicans in congress to compromise and to accept some new revenue in addition to new spending cuts as a way of heading off the sequester. After their meeting with the president , several of the governors came out. Again, i tweeted photos of the governors there in front of the white house yesterday. I have to tell you, they were an impressive bunch. And bipartisan bunch saying the sequester is bad for the country. With one exception. Governor jack markell governor of my home state of delaware started out by he is ahead of the National Governors association. He started out by saying he had a good meeting with the president. Everybody had their points of view. The president told us what he thought. And then we told him from our perspective what it all means for us if the sequester goes in. The cuts well have to face in our states. He said i thought he was very good when he said look, were republicans. Were democrats. We dont all agree on how they should fix it. Some say it should be all spending cuts. Some say it should be a combination of revenue and spending cuts but all of us agree congress has to fix it. Congress cant let the sequester kick in. It would be bad for this country. And then the governor of oklahoma republican, mary fallon stepped up and basically agreed with that and said im a conservative. Im a republican but this is bad for oklahoma. She talked about 8,000 teachers that would lose their jobs in im sorry. 8,000 military personnel and bases, civilian employees of the military and bases in oklahoma that would lose their jobs. That would not be good for oklahoma. Then the Ripple Effect of the economy. Then the gore governor of connecticut, governor dan malloy stepped up. Again, said to congress, look, in effect, we dont care how you fix it. Just dont let this happen. He said thats your job. Your job is to do whats best for this country. And youre not doing your job. He was talking to republicans and democrats alike. And then you know, like the turd in the punch bowl, bobby jindal steps up. You know, ive hated him from a distance like i hate him close up. First of all hes just i dont want to get into physical appearance okay. Go ahead. You can. Bill makes you want to throw up. But anyhow, he was total it was total discord. He steps up. Hes running for president in 2016. He goes on the attack for all of the others now republicans and democrats were saying we may differ on how to do this. No, no instead jindal attacks president obama. Now is the time to cut spending. It can be done without jeopardizing the economy and critical services. The president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American People, stop trying to scare skate. Bill he said the president has to show some leadership. I was holding myself back. What do you mean . Show leadership . He called john boehner. He called Mitch Mcconnell. Hes made deals with mcconnell and boehner. The put has put out a plan on how to avoid the sequester. Congress for the last two weeks wasnt even in town. The president has to show some leadership . What a total horses ass. Bobby jindal. I feel sorry for the people in louisiana. Then we went in the Briefing Room. As if that wasnt enough and Janet Napolitano came out. We talked about what ray lahood told us about disruptions in air travel on friday. Yesterday, Janet Napolitano scared the bejesus out of us talking about the impacts on National Security and thats our baby Homeland Security. Heres what she said heres what the sequester means for keeping us safe. Put simply, the automatic Budget Reduction mandated by sequestration would be disruptive and destructive to our nations security and economy. Bill several people asked the question, are you saying that there would be a greater risk of a terrorist attack, greater risk of something happeninging to the United States if the sequester goes through . Damn right, she said. I dont think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester. Bill this is serious folks. This is serious. We wont have as many inspectors at the ports. We wont have as many guards at the border. Theres no way we can keep this country safe. Heres what it gets down to. Okay. You can say who cares if teachers lose their jobs. Who cares if headstart goes, who cares if the civilian employees of the military have to take a 20 pay cut. Now the republicans are saying who cares if all the progress weve made since september 11th, who cares if all of that suddenly disappears . Not all of it. But a good deal of it. Who cares if were not as safe from a terrorist attack today as we were yesterday. We would rather heres what republicans are saying, i want you to understand this. This is for real. Republicans are saying we would rather risk our National Security than close tax loopholes for the Big Oil Companies and for the owners of corporate jets. Thats it. Thats right on the bottom line. Can you imagine how irresponsible the Republican Party is to take that stand . Thats where they are. I hope the American People understand. It is as clear as day. 186655press. Lets talk about it. How far are they willing to go . To protect their multimillionaires in the Oil Companies . Theyre willing to put all of us at risk. Announcer radio meets television the bill press show. Now on current tv. Date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. In reality its not like they actually care. This is purely about political grandstanding. Alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. Bill Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano says we just cant keep this country as safe if the sequester goes through and republicans say eh, who cares about National Security. Peter ogborn . Couple of comments from twitter where were tweeting at bpshow on C Everett Koop who passed away. Remember he served for ronald reagan. Ed hull says dr. Koop was a good guy who care about a lot of people. Sequestration, shelly brown says can we just get congress to pass a oneline bill to repeal the damn sequester . Bill thats all it would take by the way then they could go back to work on longterm debt reduction. On bonny jindal, hes the head of a state who needs more federal funds for poverty and destruction from weather events. He just wants to keep the Oil Companies happy. Find us on twitter at bpshow. Bill the question before we get to your calls just imagine this. I made this point yesterday. I have to make it again today. What if there was a republican in the white house and we got to this point where the sequestration and National Security is on the line and the head of the Homeland Security secretary, whoever it happened to be, some republican, came out, at the white house the way Janet Napolitano did yesterday and said our National Security is at stake. Were putting our safety and our security in jeopardy. If these cuts if this sequester happens. And imagine how democrats who oppose it, if democrats oppose it, would be treated. In the media and by the republicans. There would be ads out there linking these democrats to Osama Bin Laden as enemies of the United States of america. Thats exactly the way the republicans would treat them. I think we out to treat it the same way. Theyre the enemies of america those people who refuse to compromise on the sequest err. And avoid it. Jim is calling from albuquerque new mexico. Hey, jim. Caller good morning, bill. Im a federal worker from local afge out here in albuquerque. I wanted to make a comment. You know, right now the republicans will not cut the subsidies to the Oil Companies. Bill right. Caller were at their whim right now. Have you seen the price of gas . Do the republicans have to pump their own gas . I dont understand that. Why cant we cut that but yet the Oil Companies by this summer will be charging me 5 a gallon for a gallon of gas. Bill the problem is the republicans are owned by the Oil Companies, you know that. Thats why just taking away the tax breaks that they have enjoyed for decades when theyre making the biggest profits ever in the history of the oil industry. And republicans still wont do that. Jim, good to hear from you. Afge, great union and my union brother. Thanks for checking in. Announcer this is the bill press show. Commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Announcer this is the bill press show. Live on your radio and current tv. Bill 33 minutes after the hour now here. It is tuesday tuesday tuesday. 26th of february. We always like tuesdays because igor volsky from think progress comes in to join us to bring us up to date on all that theyre working on. Which is like everything happening. This is the full court press, of course, coming to you live from our Nations Capital and our studio on capitol hill and brought to you today by afscme, the largest Public Employee and Healthcare Workers Union in the entire country under president lee saunders, good men and women of afscme making america happen. You can find out for yourself, go to the web site, afscme. Org. Thats afscme. Org. Igor good to see you as always. Good morning, guys. Happy to be here. Bill i know that think progress is on top of everything because thats where we get everything we talk about. But even the oscars . Oh yes. You know, we have with alyssa rosenberger, our culture critic, have your complete oscar coverage. We were live blogging the oscars. Bill they live blog the state of the union the inauguration. It is a fullservice newspaper. You learn about everything. Whats a newspaper . What . I dont know. It is online or something now. This thing online called a newspaper. Bill from the the mighty think progress, your take on the oscars . Seth macfarlane, i think a lot of people said what happened there . This is a guy who had a chance to kind of poke fun at hollywood, poke fun at the fact that it is kind of a bunch of older white guys and instead picked on the 9yearold girl who was nominated for best actress, made sex jokes about her and george clooney. It was a little awkward. I think that came through to a lot of people. Bill well, and yeah. He was as bad as the anion. I think that every year they try to find a way to make this old, established awards show bill hip. Hip. And cutting edge and its just not a hip cutty edge kind of show. As much as i like edgy humor i just dont think it works very well in that environment. What i said yesterday Seth Macfarlane was a terrible host but he would have been a lot of fun to watch the Academy Awards with. Bill and have a few beers with. Exactly. Maybe be on think progress. Not that we would want that. Bill speaking of hip performers then theres senator grassley from iowa. Speaking of hip. Bill crotchety old farmer from iowa who surprised people yesterday. He has always been mr. Nra. But you know, not from an assault weapons point but from a culture and a farmer where they use a lot of go United States to shoot varmints, probably around their barns or Something Like that. And in a town meeting yesterday he made a surprising statement about a couple of days ago about background checks. There is this growing consensus now that if anything can be done on gun regulation it is expanding background checks so the 40 of purchases that are private purchases we know who these people are. He said at a town hall in iowa, reporter scott kice was there. Look, i voted against background checks in the past. Theres this growing bipartisan effort. Theyre trying to work on a deal with coburn and some other folks and it is something i would look at. I voted against it in the past. Now things have changed. Bill thats pretty significant for grassley to take that stand. It is a big deal. You look at the polls. 90 of americans 89 pest. Do we all agree on as a nation . Apparently background checks. The apple pie industry had this great graphic saying that background checks are as american as appear am pie because the same number of people love apple pie as support background checks. Bill is that right . Yes, they do. Bill i sawgrassly said he would vote for it as long as it didnt mean if a father has a gun and gives it to his son that they would have to have a background check. A family heirloom or shotgun or whatever. The governors in town. I saw a good hassle of them yesterday when they were leaving the meeting with the president. The whole conversation was about the president and with us, the media the sequester and what impact it would have in their home state and youve been reporting on that, too. The white house has been outfront on this, releasing the state by state numbers. What will this mean for americans across the country if the cuts go into effect march 1st. We put together kind of a rundown of what would it mean for the home states of the g. O. P. Leadership in the house. It would mean fewer teachers, fewer education funds less money for headstart for child care for health services. You go down the line. It is really kind of a gamble on boehners part, on the republicans part. They think these cuts go into effect and americans dont really feel the pain then they cut across the divide. And thats going to be that cuts go into effect and nothing really bad happens and so you americans are used to these cuts. It is not a big deal and they can continue pushing their agenda of cuts, cuts, cuts. This is going to be key, i think, how it plays out if americans feel pain, it will be a political problem for them. But if nothing really happens theyve kind of won this argument that cuts are okay. Democrats and progressives are saying is that if you cut these vital services, it is going to cause pain. So the question is it going to cause pain . How are americans across the nation going to feel about it and how are they going to react . Bill when does the pain kick in . Everybody says it wont be march. It will get it will get worse as the year goes on. But doesnt isnt the key question not just cuts, okay. Cuts but acrosstheboard cuts. Indiscriminate cuts. Bill thats the problem. Thats really you kind of see now this fairly smart tactic by the republicans saying well yes, these cuts are across the board. Theyre roomic. Theyre nondiscriminant but we should give the president more flexibility so he can decide he can only target the waste fraud and abuse. Bill sequester doesnt have that flexibility. Right. They want to pass legislation to give them extra flexibility. Thats like stabbing somebody and then giving him the knife and say were passing on all of the responsibility to you. Because from these reports and from economist and government folks you talk to, theres not enough waste, fraud and abuse to go after with just the sequester cuts. It will be real programs that are going to impact people. The republicans now are hoping to pass that responsibility over to the president. So hes holding that knife not them. Bill right. Now, yesterday, i was at the briefing yesterday. We talked about this at the top of the hour. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano came in. She said flat out if you talk about the ports the border, if you talk about airports, if you talk about the coast guard and patrolling those coasts, we will not be able to keep this country as safe after the sequester if it kicks in. As it is today. All of this progress we made since september 11th is going to be rolled back to a certain extent. Im not getting rid of all of the protection. That ups the ante here, doesnt it, on the sequester . Like bigtime . It is amazing though. This isnt the Republican Party after 911. A lot of these folks arent in power anymore who the hawks of the party who were there for the beginning of iraq and afghanistan and Homeland Security and establishing that department, would have never let Something Like this happen. Now that the house has kind of dominated by these spending hawks, the tea party guys, thats it is kind of a reflection of what that caucus looks like. A lot of the folks who came in, who were there for whom 911 changed a lot and changed their views on security, those guys are gone. You have a Republican Party thats not shaped so much by the challenges of security but is shaped by 2009 and 2010 and spending cuts and a response to obama and the stimulus. And you really see what it means and what it means is that key security programs are in danger now. Bill i hope there was some bonehead reporter in the briefing yesterday, i dont know who he is, that said well, look, so there are going to be longer lines at the border and longer waits in the ports. So like so what. He didnt say so what but he said isnt this just something that americans will accept as part of the price for having good deficit reduction and a balanced budget . Napolitano just looked at him and said i dont think you understand what im talking about. She said if youre a business and you depend on getting your goods, your trucks, right into this country so you can sell your products across the line and youre like threeday delay instead of being able to drive in or youve got stuff on a ship that youve gotta get in and get in the supply line and theyre stuck in some port because they dont have enough customs inspectors, she says there is a huge Economic Impact to these lines. It is not just it is bad enough for somebody going off to see grandma take the kids to see grandma and they may have an hour wait at tsa. Were talking about a lot more than that. Were talking about american businesses that depend on the flow of goods that are really going to be handicapped in their ability to deliver. It is our conventional wisdom in this town that you know, for real good deficit reduction and real good policy, a lot of middle class folks have to feel some pain whether it comes from medicare or medicaid or the other cuts. They have to deal with it because we have to reduce the deficit. Bill i dont know. Im more and more pessimistic particularly when you hear boehners rhetoric. Well get to your calls. Igor volsky from think progress here on the tuesday edition of the full court press. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. vo from the underworld, to the world of privilege. Everyone in Michael Jacksons life was out to use him. vo no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. 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This show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. In reality its not like they actually care. This is purely about political grandstanding. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill all right. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. The full court press with igor volsky from think progress. Thinkprogress. Org. In studio with us. Were talking about a lot of stuff including of course, warnings yesterday by secretary Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano that the security of this country is not safe if the sequester jumps in pops in as it is scheduled to do so on friday. Back to your calls on that at 186655press. Well you think if youre talking about Identity Theft some of the people you could trust you wouldnt have to worry about members of your family. A woman charged with Identity Theft after police discovered she had used a relatives name, date of birth and Social Security number to open a credit card for herself online. She was caught. But you just a reminder how you have to make sure youre protected against Identity Theft. I am with whats called lifelock ultimate. The most comprehensive i. D. Theft protection ever made. Encourage you to look into it because, of course, lifelock cant protect you or your bank account if youre not a member. If you call now mention press60, youll get 60 riskfree days of lifelock ultimate Identity Theft protection. If youre not happy, call lifelock and cancel within another 60 days. See lifelock. Com for details and give them a call at 18003565967 for lifelock ultimate. Peter, whats happening on the social media front . Twitter at bpshow, jenna says the only good thing about having insomnia is bill press. So she gets to stay up and watch you. As weve said many times you never know there are a lot of ladies out there with nothing on but the full court press. Bill but bill press. Sure. On sequestration ripa says sequestration bill west coast err. Military cuts dont make us less safe. Drones killing innocent women and children does. Honey bear kelly reminds us even after the sequestration mess is over, whichever way it goes, theres another debt ceiling mess coming up. Bill thats the end of the month. We go from crisis to crisis. Thats how we roll these days bill wait around. By doing this, not only are they trying to push their agendas but they get to roadblock his second term agenda. The longer he spends on this, the less time he has for anything else. Bill get this done once and for all and get on to Climate Control and Immigration Reform and gun safety. Don, igor, lets say hello to don from nashua, new hampshire. Caller how is it going . Bill pretty good. Thanks for checking in. Whats your point . Caller it is getting pretty sickening with boehner and his band of idiots what theyre doing to this country. It seems like they wont be happy until they have a war on us. Bill boehner, in terms of digging in his heels and totally refusing to compromise so president obama is going down to newport news virginia, today to talk about the impact on our ship building, shipping and on the military. And boehner says hes just campaigning. Right . You know, i dont get this strategy of if you accuse him of campaigning, the American People will turn against him and will support i dont understand. He has skyhigh approval ratings. Hes talking to the American People and they think thats a bad thing. Bill don, thanks for the call. Remember the white house put out if you go to white house. Gov, they put out a paper that you can just click on your state. Ive looked at several states. Theyll document exactly whats going to happen in your state across the board in education in military, in law enforcement. Whatever field. It will show you just exactly the impact in state by state by state. Out in the state of oregon, hello, don. Good morning. Caller good morning, bill. How are you doing . Bill good. Caller from having to listen to the other sides talk shows the republicans honestly believe sequester is their ticket back in 2014 and 2016 although i we both know it will blow up in their faces. Bill i think it could be their ticket out of existence. If and i totally believe if this thing goes through and if the cuts are and the impact and the pain is as severe as ray lahood and Janet Napolitano and the president and the others are saying, theyre not exaggerating. Theyre not crying wolf. Theyre telling you heres whats going to happen. Janet napolitano asked that question yesterday. Are you trying to scare people . No. Were going to have to cut the number of agents at the border. Theyre going to have to cut them. It is so idiotic. It is amazing to me the idea that they believe that cuts have no consequences. That spending reduction has no consequences. You have to live in a world where you think that government is just overflowing with waste that you can cut billions and billions and billions and not hit programs that help actual people. I mean for you to believe that, your view of what government does and what government is has to be so skewed, it is a different world youre living in really. Bill well which they are apparently. Bill it is fueled by tea partiers who hate government, period. They come up with a plan, programs that work and programs that dont work and here are the ones we can cut out and here are the ones we can preserve. Sensible governing. Bill all for it. This approach, bad news. We are joined by igor. We always take a good stab at it. Thanks for coming in this morning. Thanks, guys. Bill thinkprogress. Org. Check it out. Announcer this is the bill press show. Try mach3 sensitive, with three highdefinition blades. A closer shave in a single stroke for less irritation, even on sensitive skin. Get closer to the one you love. Gillette mach3 sensitive. Gillette. The best a man can get. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer taking your emails on any topic at any time. This is the bill press show. Live on your radio and current tv. Bill all right. Here we go. In the next hour, were going to hear from the National Journal correspondent Jill Lawrence about the real story behind argo and carrie eleveld will join us to talk about big news this morning. A group of leading republicans has come out and said the Republican Party should be supporting samesex marriage. On the sequester Richard Maxwell says bill, when are we ever going to learn . Consensus in error doesnt make a wrong right. Vietnam and iraq should have taught us that. Wayne b. Says the sequester is closer and so is social unrest. Elaine adds in enough stop complaining. If you dont have enough money to pay your expenses, blame yourself. Im not sure whom that is aimed at. Ill take it aimed at john boehner. Announcer this is the bill press show. [ theme ] bill hello everybody. What do you say . Good morning too this Tuesday Morning february 26th. This is the full court press. Welcome to the program coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours. On current tv. Were going to bring you up to date on the news of the day and give you a chance to express your comments about it. Give you a chance to tell us what it means to you at 186655press. That is our toll free number. Now the sequester is really getting serious. Were closer and closer to it. And we now know it is a matter of National Security. Homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano coming in the White House Briefing room and telling us reporters she said flat out if the sequester goes through, it will be impossible to keep this country as safe as it is today. So do we really do we really want to risk our National Security to give the Oil Companies another tax break . Thats the question. Which well explore and a whole lot more here. First, we get the latest, todays current news update, Lisa Ferguson joining us from los angeles. Hi lisa. Good morning. Hey bill. Good morning everyone. The president is headed to newport news, virginia, today to talk about how the sequester will impact jobs. While hes in virginia, obama will visit newport ship building. Thats a division of Huntington Ingalls which designs and builds ships for the navy and the coast guard. Virginia stands to lose 90,000 department of defense jobs if the sequester hits this friday. The president is urging republicans to come to the table and find a compromise. Congressman bobby scott and scott rigell will travel with the president today as will u. S. Secretary of the navy ray mavis. House Speaker Boehner is not budging on negotiations. Congress is back on the hill today after nine days of break and boehner says a deal is not up to him. It is up to the senate. Last session the house passed legislation offering up alternate savings not tax increases though, toward the sequester but the proposals died in the senate. Boehner is saying the house has already done its part. It will not vote on another measure until the Senate Passes its own proposal. Most democrats are agreeing a deal must include new revenue in addition to savings but boehner says the president got his tax increase and hes not willing to give in on another. This means yet again congress is down to the 11th hour. Lawmakers have just three days to reach a compromise or else 85 billion in cuts will go into effect on friday. More bill up next. Stay with us. Look like new, longer. Can become major victories. Im phil mickelson, pro golfer. When i was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections tuberculosis lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. Before starting enbrel your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether youve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. You should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Tell your doctor if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores have had hepatitis b have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever bruising, bleeding or paleness. Since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, its the Little Things that mean the most. Ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. Announcer broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill hey its getting serious, folks. Janet napolitano says our National Security is at risk if the sequester kicks in. Do republicans care about our National Security . Thats the question. Hello, hello hello welcome to the full court press here on current tv this Tuesday Morning february 26th. Great to see you today. Appreciate your being part of the program. And look forward to hearing from you. On all of the issues of the day. Well tell you whats going on. You tell us what it means to you. 186655press. Thats our toll free number. Army of operators as we say standing by to take your calls. His name is phil backert. And then weve got you can join us by on twitter too at bpshow, our twitter handle at bpshow or on facebook. Facebook. Com billpressshow. On this Tuesday Morning, lots going on. Weve got the whole team here in place. Peter ogborn and dan henning. Yes sir. Good morning. Bill together with phil backert on phones and cyprian bowlding on the video cam our videographer extraordinaire. And on our web site, billpressshow. Com. Check out my latest column that republicans the headline, g. O. P. Cant escape the blame for the sequester. The g. O. P. Republicans cant really get away with blaming president obama for it. We are waiting looking forward to, anticipating rather tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary committee, the first hearing on senator feinsteins assault weapons ban. Thats going to be pretty powerful hearing tomorrow. And the campaigning about it has already started. The Progressive Change Campaign committee which does a really good job supporting progressive and liberals at every level around the country led by adam green who is in studio us with a couple of weeks ago they have launched a campaign against Mitch Mcconnell who was up for reelection next year in the state of kentucky. On this very issue of the assault weapons ban. Pretty effective ad, i think. It started running yesterday. Here it is. Im a vietnam vet and a hunter. I only shot my rifle one time this last season. [ gunfire ] one shot, one deer. I would be a pretty bad hunter if i needed an Assault Rifle to shoot that buck. I support the plan to ban assault weapons and keep them out of the wrong hands because i know these guns. I know what they can do. The nra and the gun manufacturers have given a ton of money to senator Mitch Mcconnell and now hes blocking reform. Senator, whose side are you on . Bill i like that. One shot, one deer. Thats great. Bill you know. Thats all you need. Yeah. Thats the argument of hunters during this whole debate, this whole time. Why would you want to go hunting with an automatic weapon . Bill nothing left to eat. Exactly. Bill shred it. If youre hunting presumably youre hunting to eat some of the animal that youre shooting. So theres no point in tearing it up. Bill very powerful spot. Were kicking off this hour with Jill Lawrence from National Journal about the real story. You saw argo but what about the other guys that didnt make it to the canadian embassy. Congressman adam schiff from new jersey joins us in the next hour. Evan morris santoro with talking points memo will be here as a friend of bill. But first this is the full court press. Other headlines making news, it is not off than the onion apologizes for satire. But the comedy web site did yesterday for a tweet during the oscars that called 9yearold best actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis an offensive slur. They said the tweet was crude and inconsistent with the sites commitment to parody and satire. Theyre reviewing their twitter policy so Something Like that does not happen again. Bill they should have had some control there should be some Quality Control check before something goes out over the air right . I have no problem with the tweet. Either get offended by everything or be offended by nothing. Bill even for the onion i think there are some lines. Ill say this. The same people that quoteunquote offend you today will be the same people that will make you die laughing tomorrow. So you might want to be careful about censoring. Bill ill die laughing tomorrow. An iranian newspaper reporting on the oscars used the picture of Michelle Obama presenting the award for argo except they photo shopped the first ladys dress to make it more modest. The first lady was wearing a thin strapped metallic dress which according to buzzfeed added sleeves to and raised her neckline to completely cover her chest. Bill why didnt they put her in a burka . Hey shes got better, more defined arms than a lot of guys i know. Bill absolutely am foodies are upset with the bear foot contessa. Ina garten who has a huge following on the food network has entered the frozen dinners business, something she stayed away from until now. You can find Barefoot Contessa saute dinners for two in walmart. The big departure for the tv chef who many thought was a cut above the rest are not doing something as commercialized as that. It should be said, by the way, that she the reason she became a chef is because she was making takehome dinners. So this is not that much of a departure. She had a store where she prepared food and people went and bought but that was one store right . Yeah. Fresh versus frozen. It is the same point. Shes not always said you have to make your own stuff. Maybe she upped the game in this. Bill im a huge ina garten fan. I have her new book. I forget the name of it. The latest cookbook. And ive been cooking im doing the julia child thing julie and julia thing. Im cooking my way through ina gartens latest book. Every one of the recipes is fantastic. Well laid out. Very easy to prepare. Add some preservatives and freeze it, too. I think shes great. I wont buy her frozen dinners. Im not trying to say i support the idea. But it is not like this is a departure. Bill contessa and me. You should write a book about that. Maybe get a movie. Get meryl streep to play you. Worked out before. Bill yes. Argo certainly raised our brought back, lets say to us in a very dramatic way the whole story of the hostage crisis in iran. I didnt even remember if i ever had known about those six people that were lucky enough to get out the back door and get into the canadian embassy. But what happened to the rest of those who got stuck . Where are they today . Jill lawrence, one of washingtons most respected reporters, has been writing on that for the National Journal. She joins us on our news line this morning. How are you . Im good. Thank you for having me. Glad that youre there. There were six who got out right . Right. Bill 52 stuck there. For how long . There were several dozen that were there for various amounts of time. 52 of them were there for 444 days, the longest period. And you know, people dont really remember much about this because they came home. There was a big tickertape parade. Nobody wanted to talk about the details. And there have been so many incidents of terrorism since then. That was really the first or one of the first. So theyve spent literally decades, you know, not talking that much about what happened. Some of them havent talked at all about what happened. Bill were they tortured or abused while they were there . They were definitely abused. I dont know what what definition of torture might fit what happened to them. But as one of them kept saying to me, they raped us of our freedom. They also did beat them and you know they stripped them and put them in freezers. They did all of the kinds of things that you would associate with torture. Bill so what has happened to them since . They came back to this country . Did they keep were they state Department Employees . I gather, right . There were state department c. I. A. And military. And they all you know, most of them kept their jobs or decided some of the state Department People were not career, you know, spies or military or anything like that. They were just functionaries basically and some of them left the state department but some stayed. The circumstances of their release were very unusual. It was something called the algiers algier court. They would not sue iran for damages. That was barred. So consequently thor three decades, theyve been the only group of people thats been you know, abducted or victimized by terrorism and havent been able to get any kind of damages or any kind of judgment against the country that was involved. Bill how could they sue wonder why he would sign that. But to get them out obviously is a quick answer. How could they sue iran anyhow . They would have to do it in an Iranian Court wouldnt they . They would do it in an American Court and that was specifically what was precluded. And this is not unusual actually. Lots of victims have sued in American Courts. What they do is theyve gotten damages from frozen iranian assets held in institutions in this country. Bill i see. Which we have frozen their assets so they would tap those. And now has that accord dropped . So i guess what youve written and what youve reported on is that these people are still active, trying to get justice right and trying to get some way to get some compensation, is that whats going on . For a long time, they mostly cared, it seemed about holding iran accountable. So they kept trying to sue and congress kept trying to help them sue so they could get a judgment against the country on and at this point theyve been cut off largely from that avenue and theyre aging and of some them have already died. Theyre trying to a different strategy this year which theyre about to launch in the spring. Whether it is going theyre going to try to get a surcharge put on the fines and penalties that companies paid for breaking the sanctions against iran when they do business with iran and get some money out of that and some accountability, as much as possible out of that. So it could work. It is just kind of unbelievable that, in all these years Terry Anderson got money and a judgment. The people that were killed in lebanon in 1983 got a judgment last year. The 911 victims got a judgment. So theyre the only ones. Theyre just still out there. Bill i read in your piece that one of their attorneys says, in terms of what theyre looking for 18 million per hostage . Well, that was bill a little excessive . That was actually one of the former hostages, their calculation based on what other victims of terrorism have been getting. He said he doesnt expect that much and nobody expects that much but bruce braley, the congressman who is the lead sponsor of the bill in the house, there could be about 420 million in this fund that these surcharges would go into and that people who were held for the 444 days would get a substantial settlement. Bill it would be nice to somebody maybe did a documentary or i mean youve reported on it. But like the companion movie to the six in the canadian embassy. The people who were inside for 444 days. Its true. I would like to see that. Maybe once they get their triumph. If they get it this year. Somebody will come up with that idea. Bill so theyre going to introduce new legislation then for the surcharge this year. Is that the plan . They actually had a house bill last year and they ran out of time on it. Theyre going to reintroduce it and they have some Senate Supporters ready to get on board. And the state department and secretary kerry have shown some interest in trying to close the book on this somehow. Bill i guess the only Silver Lining of the whole thing is that we got nightline out of it, didnt we . Maybe thats a Silver Lining at this point. [ laughter ] during the time that it was happening with this show every night, it was kind of rubbing americas nose in the fact iran had brought it to its knees. Bill that is how nightline started with ted koppel. They were going to cover the story every night until they were released. America held hostage. It was just awful. Bill i know. Once it was over, they said hey this is getting such good ratings, lets call it nightline and keep it going. Exactly. Bill jill, this is great. Nobody is writing about this. Nobody reports on it. I didnt see it anywhere else. We were intrigued, wanted to talk to you about it. Good work. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Bill Jill Lawrence, the National Journal. Nationaljournal. Com. You can follow all of her good work and other good friends at National Journal. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. Of mouthwatering lobster entrees. Like our delicious lobster lovers dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. Or our savory, new grilled Maine Lobster for true stories. With Award Winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. Real, gripping, current. Documentaries. On current tv. The bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobsters lobsterfest. With the years Largest Selection of mouthwatering lobster entrees. Like our delicious lobster lovers dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. Or our savory, new grilled Maine Lobster and lobster tacos. Its back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. My favorite entree is the lobster lovers dream. Whats yours . Come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. John fugelsang if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. Cenk uygur i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. I think the audience gets that i actually mean it. Michael shure this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. Joy behar you can say anything here. Jerry springer i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar your mistake was writing a check Jerry Springer she never cashed it vo the days events. Four very unique points of view. Tonight starting at 6 eastern. Announcer this is the full court press. The bill press show. Live on your radio and on current tv. Bill all right. 25 minutes after the hour. Carrie eleveld joins us in the next segment to talk about growing support among republicans, if you please, for samesex marriage. Meanwhile, here on the full court press this Tuesday Morning, i just finished my gobani peach yogurt today. Talking about food, peter, you had a story. Im sure a lot of people that are watching and listening to the show have been to ikea and if you have, you know bill furniture store. But they are wellknown for their meatballs. You can bill i didnt know that until this morning. Have you ever been to an ikea . No. You can get them hot. They have a little cafeteria. You can buy them frozen and take them home. Turns out, theyre the latest group to be hit with the horse meat scandal. They have found horse meat in ikea meatballs not in america not in america food inspectors from the Czech Republic found traces of horse meat in a batch of ikea meatballs so theyre pulling them off the shelves in several countries. Theyre looking to see if any of them are in americas meatballs. Stay tuned. Bill so dare i ask whats wrong with horse meat . In meatballs . This is the thing i find so interesting. Apparently so many people have been eating horse meat. Bill how many people got sick . How many people complained . How many people died, have complained about the taste . None zero. None. Bill just eat your horse and shut up. Im with you. Bill okay. Now, heres a segue. From greek yogurt to horse meat to this news. I find this fascinating. First of all in terms of fair, in terms of in terms of fare, in terms of menu, i love Mediterranean Food. Tomatoes, olive oil olives, fish whatever, fruits, veggies. Now, new report out today in the new england journal of medicine, the most press prestigious journal mediterranean diet shown 30 less chance of stroke or heart attack. And heres what theyre talking about. The mediterranean diet, okay. The mainstay of the diet consists of three servings a day of fruits, at least two servings of vegetables, fish at least three times a week and legumes which include beans peas and lentils at least three times a week, white meat, not red and if you like wine, you can have at least seven glasses of wine a week. One with every meal. Yeah. Bill now thats a diet, man. I like that. Bill thats a diet i can live on and live longer on. What do you think . Im going to drink my seven glasses of wine this morning and call it a week. Bill get it in all at one time. But you know it makes a lot of sense. It really does. Bill it looks healthier, it tastes healthier. Now we know it is healthier. You may not lose as much weight but youll live longer and happier. Gotta love it. Announcer this is the bill press show. Criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. Are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night . Is this personal or is it political . A lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. Staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. Not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. But we do care about them, right . Vo the war room tonight at 6 eastern bill 33 minutes after the hour on a Tuesday Morning february 26th. Thank you for joining us here for the full court press. Were coming to you live from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d. C. Our Nations Capital. A lot of attention on the congress, of course and attention across the street also in the Supreme Court which has some major, major cases in front of it this year. None more important or has gotten more attention than it is a dual case on samesex marriage, whether or not to overturn the defense of marriage act and to uphold californias proposition 8. Some big news on that front in the last couple of days which is why were so glad that carrie eleveld, freelance writer and used to cover the white house for the advocate joins us again in studio. Youre looking sharp this morning. I do my best. Im trying to class it up over here. I live up to your standards bill. Bill i dont wear a tie. Youve got one on. Peter has one on. They coordinated. Think we have the same glasses on kerry. Pretty close. Bill first of all lets talk about these republicans . Bill yeah, the big news today, i want to talk about the Obama Administration. But the republicans yesterday dozens of republicans signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, saying that proposition 8 in california is invalid or wrong and unconstitutional. And that samesex couples in california should be able to get married and the group the people include jon huntsman. No big surprise there. When he was running for president , of course, he took a different stand. Meg whitman for ran for governor of california. David stockman, president reagans big budget adviser. Congresswoman Ileana Roslehtinen and others. It was a big group. So what does this tell you about the turning of the tide here on this issue maybe . Well, this is among this big civil war thats happening within the Republican Party right . On many different things. This just sort of falls under the same category. There are people that recognize that the the young demographic, the 18 to 29yearolds support samesex marriage for full marital rights for samesex couples at a rate of 65 and growing and people are saying the republicans some sort of like cooler heads are prevailing in the Republican Party saying if we dont get on board this train and if we dont start turning this around, were going to lose were going to not appeal to a whole generation of voters. There was a New York Times article on a study that was done in minnesota a few weeks ago. And several of the people it was all young voters. They were talking about a bigger context of young voters and what they were looking for. One of them was bigger government right. Actually government helping to solve problems. But within the context of that article, there were young people saying you know, if mitt romney had been pro samesex marriage i would have considered voting for him. Others who voted for him saying it was hard for me to vote for him. The economy was in such a shambles. I voted for him but it would have been way easier decision if he had been pro samesex marriage. People are realizing theyre actually losing this is now not just about gay issues. It is a test of modernity. Are you sort of and an at the quited person or you up to speed and this is a litmus test for it now for young people. Bill first of all i must say, it is great that this is happening on this issue. It is sad that this is not happening on more issues. There are other issues where you need republicans like this to stand up and say, for example on Global Warming hey, wait a minute. This party is just looks terrible on this issue. Right. Bill some of them are starting to say that on Immigration Reform. They have to say that on Immigration Reform. Bill but at any rate, lets stick to this issue. When you have again Christine Todd whitman former governor of new jersey, Ileana Roslehtinen is one of the most conservative members of congress. On cuba, for example she is to the right of atilla the hun. Whats interesting, if you look at her district, she has a lot of gays in her district in florida, number one. But number two she just happens to be on you know, one of the more sort of pro gay members of the republican congress. And she is one of the first people to sign on to pro gay piece of legislation on the republican side. Bill good for her. So on this issue shes conservative on other issues but on this issue shes moving forward. Bill weve got in front of the Supreme Court doma and theyve combined them i guess but theyre going to rule separately on them because theyre two different cases. Yes. Bill on prop 8 sticking with that, these republicans now have filed an amicus brief in support of overturning proposition 8. Right. Bill where is the Obama Administration . Well, the Obama Administration is still silent. Unless, did we get anything in the last last week, right they filed their brief on doma. Question of doma, right . Bill i want to stick to prop 8. On prop 8 they havent filed an automatic an amicus brief. I think he was asked about it on kgo. He said were not a party to that. So we havent weighed in. You dont have to be a party to a case to file an amicus brief. These people arent a party to the case. They just filed an amicus brief. It is a friend of court brief. It says this is how we feel about this thing even though were not a party to it. So you know, they have until thursday, i think, is when to do it. And the doma briefs that the government filed last week was so sweeping in nature and in its argument and it actually said used proposition 8 as one of the reasons, one of the demonstrations of the discrimination that gays and lesbians face, samesex couples face as a reason to talk about you know this is why this is a discriminated against group right. But they still havent so some people thought that particular brief was so sweeping, it gave them hope that the government would also weigh in and do an amicus brief on proposition 8. I keep waking up and thinking i hope i havent missed anything. I havent seen anything on it yet. Theyve only got until thursday. If it is going to happen, it has to happen soon. Bill can they do one and not do the other . Sure. They can. What people have been hoping, of course is that the government would weigh in. Because you know, the republicans that youre talking about here have made an argument saying that gays have a right to samesex marriage rights, right . Im pretty sure they argued there is a constitutional right to samesex marriage. Sometimes theyre splitting hairs there. There is a constitutional right. Bill youre absolutely right. Signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marriage. Right. Bill by the way a direct challenge, of course to the current leadership of the Republican Party. Absolutely. Bill john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell who argue just the opposite. Who also argued in their doma brief, paul clement arguing on behalf of the house of representatives and john boehner, argued that gays actually are discriminated against so why do they need protections . Why do they need heightened scrutiny . I mean their argument in that brief was that were such a powerful were such a powerful group of people politically that we dont need gays and lesbians are one of the most influential bestconnected bestfund and best organized Interest Groups in modern politics and have attained more legislative victories. Bill not to mention the best looking why, thank you. Anyway, but you know, this is what not the government. Not the u. S. Government. This is what paul clement is arguing. Bill what john boehner argues. You dont need any special rights. You dont need any help or you dont need any particular support. Listen, ive been called special since i was a small child. Im not going to tell you what that meant. But ill take the special rights. [ laughter ] bill i love your comments on this, 186655press. You know, on Public Policy issues, weve learned it always takes a long time, you know, to get to the right place. But i must it has taken a long time on samesex marriage. But in the last 12 months, maybe, right it has moved so fast. I think it just has my head spinning. In the right direction. I think it is great. For the president of the United States last year to come out in support of samesex marriage. Now for this big group of republicans to do so. And it was only ten years ago or less that republicans were using this as a against every liberal, every democrat in the country. Absolutely. If you need any evidence of discrimination right, it was those it is now i think 38 39 states have bans against samesex marriage, right . Bill right. Now we have seven states, is it . There are nine states it is legal. Bill plus the district of columbia. Yes. Bill in the last couple of years. Remember this. In 2008, so theres politically whats possible, too right. And so you know, not just in terms of the courts but whats politically palatable. In 2008, when president obama was running against Hillary Clinton and john edwards was part of that mix too the democratic primary, even lgbt activists were more or less content to say you know what . We cant push the democrats to be pro marriage. It will be a disaster for them. And then less than four years later, it was basically a political necessity like i said for barack obama to feel to not feel like he was becoming an antiquited candidate. With young folks. A large part of the base. Very dramatic movie with a group of leading republicans. Some of the most wellknown republicans in the country signing this brief in the Supreme Court saying yes on samesex marriage. 186655press. Your comments around the country, lets get into it. Want to come back here again with Kerry Eleveld here on the full court press. Announcer this is the bill press show. Democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. vo shes joy behar. Current will let me say anything. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. Bill it is 12 minutes before the top of the hour here on the full court press. This tuesday. February 26th. Congressman adam schiff from california, Southern California, joins us here in studio in the next hour. By the way i just have to mention this for those of you who had joined us earlier. I could not remember the name of ina gartens latest cookbook which im cooking my way through recipe by recipe by recipe. Great stuff i gotta tell you. Foolproof is the name of it. Perfect cookbook for you. Bill thats why i like it. It is foolproof. Why i havent been over to your place for dinner yet. Where is the invite . Bill the first time through is just for me to make sure i know how to make them all. It is second time through once you perfect it. Ive never been to your house. Ive never eaten anything youve cooked. He says hes not much of a cook. I can attest i have been at chateau press several times for meals. Bill wait a minute. Several times . My feelings are hurt. During our snowmageddon broadcasts and you know, when were stuck down here. I have been served many a fine meal. Bill all i wanted to do foolproof out. The name of it in case youre look for it. Great cookbook, even an idiot can follow it. [ laughter ] living proof. Bill so what do you think the court is going to do before we go to the calls. Youre going to ask me to make a prediction . Call your shot. Bill i think it will be hard for this court talk about modernity, talk about legacy, john roberts knows it. I think the court has to go the same heres what i will say. I think whatever they do, it is going to be surprising. This court has had the capacity to surprise on many different rulings from the healthcare to sb1070. People thought they were going a certain way and then they went another way. So were going to hear the arguments and everybodys going to say based on the arguments of it clear that blah, blah, blah. Guess what. The prognosticators have been wrong over and over and over again. So thats what i will say. Bill sometime in march that theyve got the arguments will be heard. 26, 27 i think . 27th 28th is when well hear doma. They hear doma on one day and then the proposition 8 one on the next day. Bill robert is calling from the great city of asheville, north carolina. Hey, robert. Caller good morning, everyone. Bill my question is once the court makes their ruling or the rulings, what does that mean . Does that mean that Marriage Equality would be the law of the land across the whole United States . Bill thats a good question because as kerry mentions 30 some states have a constitutional provision against it. So kerry ill ask you. What would that mean . Those states so this is the big question, right. This is the number one question. Youve got these two different cases. Doma just strikes down Section Three of the defense of marriage act. If they struck it down, right. If they struck down that section, what that would mean is the federal government is no longer prohibited from recognizing legal marriages in states that do it. So if you strike that down, the nine states that perform legal marriages, the federal government would then be able to recognize the marriages performed in those states, right . Bill right. But the proposition 8 case could be decided in sort of three different fashions. Theres any number of fashions but basically the court could either go really big and say there is a constitutional right. A u. S. Constitutional right for samesex marriage bill in which case, the state constitutions would be invalidated. Would be invalidate and more or less overturned, i dont know if thats the technical term or whatever but basically, that would grant samesex marriage rights nationwide. They could also do a very narrow ruling. They could say on that proposition 8 case and say well, this still just applies were going to uphold what they found in the ninth circuit and this just applies in california. And so its more narrow or they could actually they could actually overturn that ruling, too. And then say you know, proposition 8 was actually a legal bill and the people of california have a right to take away rights. I have a hard time im no lawyer but i have a hard time believing they would find that. But a lot of people think that they might try to thread this needle where they you know, go sort of narrow on proposition 8. It leaves california marriages are legal. But they then on in the realm of doma, they overturn doma. Look ten different federal courts, at least ten i think at this point have found doma to be unconstitutional. So and you know, a lot of people think thats a reasonable thing for the court to do. Bill im going to go out on a limb. Even the conservatives on this court are strict constructionists. I really dont believe that anybody can look at the constitution and defend part me discrimination in any form. It is not in the constitution. This is of course, more or less this is more or less what ted olson argues is that i can go in there and get all nine of the justices because im arguing a conservative case. Not getting into peoples personal lives. Bill im going to predict 81 or orb odd man out. Or 72 losing scalia. I dont think we can get scalia. But maybe roberts. Bill ill take 81. Kerry eleveld great seeing you. Thanks for coming in. Thank you for having me. Bill getting all dressed up for us. Nothing but the best. Bill ill be back and tell what you the president is up to today. Announcer this is the bill press show. vo current tv gets the converstion started next. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill all right. President obama on the road today talking about sequester. After he and the Vice President get the Daily Briefing at 10 00 this morning, the president goes out to Andrews Air Force base for a quick jump down to newport news, virginia where he will be delivering remarks at 1 00 this afternoon on the devastating impact the sequester will have on jobs and middleclass families if Congressional Republicans fail to compromise to avert the sequester by march 1. He will be making those remarks at the newport news ship building. Then he comes back up here to back to the white house at 3 00 p. M. This afternoon. That newport news base has it is it has a Supplier Base in all 50 states. Across the country the impacts will be felt. [ theme ] bill good morning friends and neighbors and welcome to the full court press here on current tv this Tuesday Morning february 26th. Great to see you this morning. Thank you for joining us. Weve got lots and lots to talk about. We will bring you up to date on whats happening in the world today and then take your calls at 186655press. Well its really getting serious talking about sequester. Now were talking about National Security on the line. Janet napolitano coming into the Briefing Room yesterday and telling us reporters that there is no way she can and her many departments and agencies can keep this country as safe after the sequester as theyve been able to keep it without the sequester. So now our National Security is on the line. The question really is what do republicans want to keep the country safe or to give the Oil Companies another tax break . Thats their choice. Well dissect that and a whole lot more here. Lets get the latest from Lisa Ferguson out in los angeles. Hi lisa. Take if away. Thanks, bill. Good morning everyone. Lawmakers are back on capitol hill today and the senate is gearing up for its first hearing tomorrow on a renewed assault weapons ban. Now, the only caveat is this bill has almost no chance of becoming law this year. The new ban would outlaw 157 different kinds of militarystyle assault weapons. But it is already facing oppositions from most republicans and even some democrats, meaning it has little chance in the senate and even less in the house. A parent whose son was murdered during the newtown connecticut shooting is set to testify in front of the senator. Senator Dianne Feinstein will preside over the hearing. Senator feinstein has proposed this bill and has been pushing an assault weapons ban for years. She also opposed big filibuster reform meaning shes helped pave the way for republicans to block her own bill. Even background checks could be doomed even though that doesnt have some does have some bipartisan support. Democrat senators schumer and manchin did manage to come to an agreement with republicans tom coburn and mark kirk. But now theyre at a breaking point because so far the measure does nothing to address the records of private sales. Without tracking those receipts, background checks will function on little more than just the honor system. And so far republicans are not willing to negotiate on allowing the government to keep records on private sales. More bill press is coming up after the break. Stay with us. vo this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. Jack, how old are you . Nine. 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Little did i know that one week later i wasnt smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. It reduces the urge to smoke. Some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood hostility, agitation depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. If you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. Tell your doctor about any history of depression or other Mental Health problems which could get worse while taking chantix. Dont take chantix if youve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. If you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be lifethreatening. If you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. Get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. Common side effects include nausea trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. It helps to have people around you. They say youre much bigger than this. And you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. Announcer broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill Janet Napolitano says well simply not be as safe if the sequester goes through as we are today without the sequester. Republicans dont care. They would rather coddle the Oil Companies and the millionaires. Good morning everybody. What do you say . Happy tuesday. Tuesday, february 26th. Good to see you today. And welcome to the full court press here on current tv and on your local progressive talk Radio Station all across this great land of ours. Well let you know whats happening today as you wake up or get in the car on your way to work. Tell you whats happening and give you a chance to sound off about it. You can do so by giving us a call of course, thats the oldfashioned way at 186655press. Or on the social media on twitter at bpshow at bpshow. Thats our handle and on facebook at facebook. Com billpressshow. On the hill, at the white house a lot of activity, house and the senate back in town this week. Which is certainly generating a lot more activity. Evan Mcmorris Santoro covers all of that both ends of pennsylvania avenue for talking points memo. Joining us this morning. In studio. As a friend of bill. The whole hour. Oh my god. Im excited. Bill good morning. Can we stand it . Nice to see you this morning. Also dressed up. I did. Bill everybodys coming in with a tie this morning and making me feel somewhat guilty. Anyhow hell, it is my show. Your name is on the door. You can wear what you want. Bill who am i wearing . Im wearing Brooks Brothers today. Very nice. Im wearing joseph a. Bank. Im wearing lane bryant. [ laughter ] it is very comfortable. It fits me. Bill his wifes sweater. Peter ogborn and dan henning. Bill phil backert on the phones and cyprian bowlding who we never see we see him. We dont hear him. Bill okay. And yesterday, before we get into all of the news of the day a sad note, he had a great life, made a great contribution to this country. Im talking about former Surgeon General c. Everett koop passed away yesterday at the age of 96. He is a man we can thank for raising the warnings about cigarettes and getting in the face of the Tobacco Companies and saying you are lying when saying they dont cause lung cancer. They do. C. Everett koop, in the last few years of his life, maybe five years ago or so, he sat down with ali g. He actually agreed to an interview. Ali g. Raises the most important well, the final issue we all have to face. Here is a little bit of that. Lets talk about a big thing. Death. Im talking about the thing that happens to you you know, a few weeks after you was alive. Thats bad isnt it . You dont spell it that way. It is death. Bill no sense of humor. No. Bill thats a bad thing. It happens to you a couple of weeks after youre alive. So what are the chances i can escape this, he wants to know. So what are the chances that me will eventually die . That you will die . 100 . I can guarantee that 100 . You will die. Youre being a bit of a pessimist there. Im being a realist. I would like to get a Second Opinion on that. Theres nobody that i know who has a mind and a brain who doesnt know that everybody will die. [ laughter ] bill like to get a Second Opinion. I will say bill hes the straight man, ali g. I dont know if he knew what he was getting into or not. He should go on to youtube and play the clips of ali g. And pat buchanan, Newt GingrichSam Donaldson some great stuff. Ron paul. Bill you always wonder how he sucked people into that. The famous ron paul same guy. Okay. Bill Mcmorris Santoro here for the entire hour as a friend of bill. Adam schiff, senator from california joining us at the half hour to talk about sequester. Weve got lots more to talk about. But first, big headlines here. Another sign that Actress Ashley Judd may be running for senate against Mitch Mcconnell in kentucky, congressman john yarmuth telling abc he would not be surprised if she runs saying it is clear it is something she wants to do and shes taking the time to get the fundraising process rolling. Also, ashley judd is giving a speech on womens Reproductive Health at George Washington university this friday. Bill well, shes in washington and shes serious about running for the United States senate, ill tell you where she better show up. Right here. That seat right where you are. Mantei teo has some work to do if he wants to get a shot at a good nfl team. He ran the 40yard dash in 4. 82 seconds at the nfl combine yesterday where scouts are really only looking for players who can run it in 4. 80 or better. Espn reports the hoaxed notre dame player was 20th out of the 26 linebackers who ran yesterday. Bill he was thinking about his girlfriend. The guy has a lot on his mind. Whenever you travel overseas, you may seek out a copy of the International Herald tribune. That publication owned by the New York Times is changing its name to better reflect a brand that will now be called the international New York Times. The paper says it has become one of the worlds leading news providers thanks to the New York Times brand and it wants to reflect that by having the same name. Bill have you ever bought that paper overseas . I read it back bill it is a damn good paper. It was very cool. Wish we could have gotten it here. Bill it is not that thick. Maybe ten pages or so but it is really good. It has the best columnists. You can follow everything thats happening. Shorter articles perhaps. It is really a good paper. I always buy it when im overseas. The new name is the international New York Times of america. It is a lot of names, a lot of places in one name. Also, whats a newspaper . Oh, thats right. Bill there is that question. [ laughter ] sorry. Bill you know what . Your sons are going to be asking you that question for sure. Absolutely. Evan, we havent talked about this yet today but the senate is gearing up for a big hearing tomorrow. The first hearing the Senate Judiciary committee on senator feinsteins ban on assault weapons. Most people feel that we may get some things done on gun safety this year but no way no how assault weapons ban. Are you as equally as pessimistic . I think it is a tough road for the assault weapons ban. Even if you ask senator fine feinstein, she said it is an uphill climb. Before people who are interested in gun control start calling that a huge loss, the reality we talked to the gun control leadership people, people who run bloombergs group, for example and other groups like that. Bill the brady campaign. Theyve been focused this time since newtown mostly on background checks. Assault weapons ban, i think it is something the president wants and a lot of the groups support it. But the background checks which appears to have a bit more of a bipartisan backing behind it is really what the main goal has been. From all of the reporting ive done on this whole topic they only talk about background checks and then sort of ban stuff later on. So i think that the priorities as i understand, background checks. Magazine capacity and then if you can get assault weapons ban youll get it. That will be great. So i dont think that, in this republicancontrolled house theres much of a chance of an assault weapons ban. In the senate, it is a tougher sell too. A lot of these guys, these conservative democrats who have come around to talking about background checks and other issues after newtown sort of hold the line on assault weapons ban. Actually taking certain guns off the market. They dont think thats a good idea. Bill as a sign of the support for the background checks, senator Chuck Grassley from iowa who has always been 100 nra person, always pro gun in the past has voted against universal background check. Told a town meeting in iowa a couple of days ago that hes now open to supporting it. Because he sees the importance of it. It looks like theres a growing bipartisan feel that this is the way to do something about gun safety which is politically viable to and they could do this because the nra even once supported it as recently as 2009, supported it. The think is tom coburn from oklahoma, another conservative guy, hes talking about background checks as well. Hes in the process of helping to work out a bill. It is unclear as to how close they are to a deal on that bill. Some democrats and some republicans working together on it. You know, the most interesting thing i think for me is to see that were going to have an hearing on an assault weapons ban. Thats a whole new type of discussion. So you have a hearing about it now. You know, maybe in five years or two years three years whatever, you do something about that. If you want that. It is not clear if its the best way to go. Even joe biden who is out there selling the president s plan has spoken more about background checks than about an assault weapons ban. Bill by the way dont undercut senator Dianne Feinstein. Shes a very powerful and a very effective legislator. And you know, shes been working to shape this bill to answer possible objections to it, right . So shell tailor this bill. I believe that it is still possible for her to get a piece of legislation. She learned a lot from the last time where the way they wrote the bill, there were too many loopholes in it. On that issue of gun safety, we are either at or approaching the oneyear anniversary of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Yes. Bill will that have the stand your ground laws and the availabilities . I think i think thats led to a certain a larger discussion about crime and about you know, protections how people handle their guns. Im not sure things like stand your ground laws are really up for much debate these days. I think that the Trayvon Martin case has resulted a lot in discussing this idea sort of vigilante justice and how people are how people are dealing with situations like that. The Neighborhood Watch kind of thing. The case is hot to unfold. We dont know what happened down there. There will be a trial. I think that in terms of the gun debate itself, you know, newtown and talking about background checks and stuff like that is much more to focus. I think the trayvon case is a bit of a piece of all of that. I think for the people who talk a lot about that case, they view it as a call to action. I know i heard Trayvon Martins mother, i guess on npr speaking about how she thought that her sons death should be a call to talk about gun violence. Bill were talking with Evan Mcmorris santoro political reporter for talking points memo. Talking points memo. Com. Are we allowed to mention yeah . Bill where youre going . All right. Bill soon to be White House Reporter for buzzfeed. Buzzfeed. Com. Were big buzzfeed fans here. Were part of the buzzfeed community. Yeah. Bill or theyre part of the full court press community. Congratulations thank you very much. I couldnt be any more excited. Ive had a great time at tpn. I was there since they opened that bureau in 2009. Bill really . Going from there to the white house is just it is a great testament to those guys. Bill i got a deal for you. At the white house. I got a deal for you. If you got 500,000, i can get you a meeting with the president. Ive heard of that. What about this . Are we selling access to the Obama White House . This is one of those situations that if you saw that, buzzfeed actually, my new colleagues at buzzfeed, this clip of jay carney trying to answer a question about that. Of course, were talking about the new ofa the organizing for action remnants of the Obama Campaign now being used to sell the president s policies and they said if you give a certain amount of money 500,000 in this case, youll get to go to these quarterly meetings with the president. Quarterly updates with the president. And if you saw jay carney yesterday trying to answer the question about whether or not this was access to the president , play pay for play access, it was like he didnt know how to get an answer to the question. This is one of the things, if youre going my view is if youre going to make that kind of policy, you really should have all the kind of spin i guess or whatever you have already ready to go. It seems like people arent completely on the same page with this thing. I dont think it looks great if youre obama. Carneys big defense is that, you know, organizing for america, sort of a separate thing. But its kind of not. They do run the barack obama twitter account. Which obama does tweet from still. So there is a relationship there for sure. Bill the truth of it is every white house every president gives special favors to major donors. They get investorships. They get invited to state dinners. They get invited to white house receptions. But theres a way of handling it that works and a way of not handling it that works. This is not the lincoln bedroom right . Theyre not getting to spend the night lets make it a two for one deal. Bill thats a 600,000 one. Well be right back. Announcer this is the bill press show. Everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. In reality its not like they actually care. This is purely about political grandstanding. Date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. In reality its not like they actually care. This is purely about political grandstanding. Alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. Announcer this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. Bill here we are. 25 minutes after the hour now on the full court press on this tuesday, february 26th. Congressman adam schiff from Southern California will be here in studio with us. With us meaning me and Evan Mcmorris santoro from talking points memo, soon to be with buzzfeed at the white house. Peter, before we get back to some of the issues of the day you have another one. Bill, weve talked about whos going to be speaking at cpac. Bill yes. Which is coming up. We know that sarah palin is speaking. We know that mitt romney is speaking. We know that rick perry is going to be speaking. Bill marco rubio. We found out who wont be speaking. Chris christie was not invited to cpac. Bill hes a republican. But hes not a republican that will be speaking at cpac. Bill because he did such a good job with Hurricane Sandy . I doubt thats why. Bill do you think it was because he was hanging out with president obama . Thats probably why. I mean this could either be a good thing or bad thing for Chris Christie. If people really realize that cpac is sort of the wacko way of the Republican Party. Bill actually, were going to be talking sequester with congressman adam schiff in the next half hour. But evan, youve been reporting about Chris Christie. A lot of people think hes got what . 74 approval rating. You cant beat him. But emilys list thinks that they can. Right . They do. I think that it has been an uphill climb but they think that theres room to go after him. I think that bill on what grounds . Theyre talking about his record some of the things actually funny were talking about him not going to cpac. He was the keynote speaker at the Republican NationalConvention Last year and was known as sort of a really good, conservative that conservatives really liked. It is those kind of issues that emilys list is using now to recast him if you want to say it that way or take us back to how people viewed him i think before sandy which is back in those days before sandy came around, democrats really didnt like him very much. Republicans liked him quite a bit. And now a lot of republicans dont like him at all. They think they kind of turned on their man romney. And you know, democrats like him a bit because they think hes still with the president whatever. Emilys list is talking about stuff like that. Theyre talking about womens issues. Chris christie is antiabortion. Theyre talking about samesex marriage. Chris christie vetoed the samesex marriage bill. Bill it is not going to be an unchallenged reelection. Not for Chris Christie i guess is the bottom line. Congressman adam schiff on the sequester joining us in studio in the next segment. Announcer this is the bill press show. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . They think this world isnt big enough for the both of them. But we assure you it is. Bites. Little greatness. When shes sad she writes about goblins. [ balloon pops goblin growling ] she wrote a lot about goblins after getting burned in the market. But she found someone to talk to and gained the confidence to start investing again. And thats what you call a storybook ending. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. Announcer chatting with you live at current. Com billpress. This is the bill press show. Live on your radio and current tv. Bill all right. It is 33 minutes now after the hour. This Tuesday Morning. February 26th. This is the full court press. And were booming out to you from our Nations Capital on your local progressive talk Radio Station. And on current tv. This Tuesday Morning. Were joined in studio by congressman adam schiff, democrat from Southern California. District 28 which includes West Hollywood where carol and i enjoyed many good years there. Great part of town. Nice to see you congressman. Good to see you. Bill welcome back to town. Nice to know not that you make these decisions, that there is enough going on that you have to come back. There is a Little Something happening at the end of the week apparently. Bill Evan Mcmorris santoro is in studio with us as a friend of bill this hour. Still with talking points memo and joining buzzfeed as buzzfeeds White House Reporter just a few days from now. So, i want to start out by yesterday i was at the white house. The president of course, his message has been we dont have to have the sequester. We can compromise and im willing to compromise and im right here, ready to go. I saw several of the governors yesterday starting with the chairman of the National Governors conference, jack markell from delaware and mary fallin the republican governor of oklahoma, both came out and said we think that congress has to compromise on this. Were not telling them how to do it but the sequester doesnt have to happen. Republicans and democrats are really going to hurt our states. So were calling on congress to work this out with the president. Then we heard this yesterday from speaker john boehner. The president proposed this sequester, yet hes far more interested in holding Campaign Rallies than he is in urging his Senate Democrats actually pass the plan. Bill doesnt sound like hes much interested in compromise congressman. Unfortunately, i dont think he is. He has decided that to manage his own members in the house he really needs the sequester to go into effect. Maybe not for good but he needs to show the Tea Party Wing of his caucus, hes serious hes with them. He will inflict this pain on the country. And it is interesting, after saying earlier, he had gotten 98 of what he wanted, that now it is somebody elses idea. Neither party thought this would go into effect because they thought more rational minds would prevail that we would come up with some mixture of new revenues and spending cuts that would avert the sequester. Little did we know that the politics in the house at least among the g. O. P. Would be such that that would be an attractive option for them to pull the sequester trigger but that seems to be where they are. Bill if this had been instead of 1. 2 trillion so the idea was, were going to have something so ugly, so painful that nobody in their right mind could agree to it. 1. 2 trillion in cuts, half of it in the pentagon. Acrosstheboard cuts, right . Indiscriminate cuts. Absolutely. Bill if it had been 10 trillion, half in the pentagon and half in the programs, the tea parties would have still said bring it on. Right . Thats their attitude. It is entirely possible. This is a group like many throughout the history of congress campaigned against government. Ran against the congress. But unlike most in history never found that they had to make the transformation into governing. At some point, you have to be for something. You have to govern. Even if youre for decreasing the size of government, you have to find a responsible way to do it. This is not responsible in any way. It cuts the good with the bad the efficient with the inefficient. It is going to cost us more money. When we breach the contracts in defense. So it is not the least bit rational. Those that are saying that well, this is not a big deal, it is a small amount. It is a big amount and when you compound the fact that its taking place now not over full year but over much less than a full year, it is going to really have teeth. Bill even this year, evan, one more question for the congressman. I was at the briefing yesterday after we talked to the governors, went into the briefing and Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano came out. She said flat out she talked about the furloughs and the cuts they would have to make at the border, in our ports in sea patrols with the coast guard across the board. She said theres no way that they can keep the country as secure as it is today if the sequester goes through. So now were talking about National Security. And not even the threat of weakening our National Security is enough to get the republicans to budge. Right . No, thats right. Weve seen, i think a real evolution within the g. O. P. Which used to be about you know, sort of the central glue was what was good for big business was good for america. And particularly what was good for defense was good for america. But that has now been superseded at least in terms of the majority in the house and maybe not in the senate but in the house, with the cut the government under any circumstance. Tear the government down. And that is the governing philosophy, the overriding majority of house members and until that changes reaching any kind of responsible compromise will be very tough. My question is whats the longterm impact of all of these kinds of crises . If you look every week, were having another crisis. Do you feel like its impeding your ability to govern beyond things like fiscal issues . Were talking about other stuff in this congress, right . Immigration reform and gun control, things like that. Hopefully. I feel like the public seems to be as reporters, it is hard to get them really engaged on this sequester issue. I know that democrats are trying to get to engage on it too partially because of how much crisis mentality there is. Do you think thats had an impact on what youre able to do . Absolutely. In several ways. Probably the most damaging consequence is that those that are ready to invest and ready to make new hires in our economy cant do so with the periodic crises. I think our economic economy would recovery but we keep getting in the way with the manufactured crises but it shreds confidence in the federal governments ability to get anything done. I think some of the g. O. P. Have built this plank that theyve walked out on now where they have so much dislike of the president. That anything hes for they have to be against. Even things they were for. If hes now for they have to be against. I remember talking to one of the republican members of the gang of six. And complimenting him on his work and having him tell me, you know what killed us was when the president said something nice about what we were doing that just killed us. You can see it happening in the immigration rebate now. Anything leaked from the white house about what they would like to see in the Immigration Reform, even if is what they were proceeding it, with it has to be terrible. It has issues on anything the president is for, these folks have painted themselves in such a dislike corner that they cant embrace anything even though things they wanted before. Bill when ray lahood, transportation secretary, came to the Briefing Room friday and said this is going to cause major disruptionses in air travel and inconvenience millions of americans when Janet Napolitano says this is going to have a real impact and weaken our National Security, do you think theyre exaggerating . No, i dont. This is a crash set of cuts. And unfortunately, the way it was designed because, of course, it was designed to be punitive and not go into effect is it cuts everything across the board. It gives very little flexibility in terms of how these agencies can cope. So they cant move money around wholesale to protect the highest priorities and defer things that maybe time will cure if a sequester goes away. So it is a real problem. I dont think theyre exaggerating. They have to counter this idea that some of the g. O. P. Are putting out there that well, the sequester really wont be so bad. And you know, i think theyre laying out the facts, taking a lot of heat for it. But i would rather have them lay out the facts now than have people rudely surprised by just how punitive this is. Bill if i can indulge your patience here for another sound byte. We heard this message at the white house yesterday from it was interesting to me. Most of the governors republican and democrat, just said look, we may not agree on how to fix it but thats not up to us. It is congresss job. All were saying is please fix it. Please get together and talk and work this out by the end of the week. One exception. Bobby jindal from louisiana. Who gave a campaign speech. Nows the time to cut spending. It can be done without jeopardizing the economy and jeopardizing critical services. President needs to stop campaigning. Stop trying to scare the American People. Stop trying to scare states. Bill there it is. The president has to show some leadership on this issue. But he didnt say it is no big deal. We can cut the spending. No big deal. My first impression, that was probably true of many in america, oh, my god, the president ial campaign has begun. We finished the last one. You can separate the new candidates four years from now by those who are already going on the attack. Im not surprised most of the other republicans didnt want to say how. You know, it is much better for them frankly politically if they dont say how although i would love a few of them to step up to the plate. You know, look, theyre going to have to be new revenues and new cuts. Lets do this in a balanced way. This is a responsible thing to do. It is a bit of a copout in my view to say we wont make any prognostications about how. When you know, the only way to put pressure on the g. O. P. To come to the table is to say look, they need a compromise. Bill congressman adam schiff with us in studio as well as Evan Mcmorris santoro from talking points memo. You can join us in studio, at least electronically. Give us a call at 186655press. Or your comments welcome on twitter at bpshow. Well be right back. Continue our conversation here on todays full court press. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. Iq will go way up. vo current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Current tv is the place for true stories. With Award Winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. Real, gripping, current. Documentaries. On current tv. Announcer on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill so, three, four days, depends on how youre counting from the sequester. Looks like theres no way to stop it from happening. Well, there is a way. Whether or not people take advantage of that opportunity still remains the question. That were exploring with congressman adam schiff from the 20th district of california and with Evan Mcmorris santoro, still from talking points memo until he puts on his buzzfeed outfit. Thats right. Bill special buzzfeed hat. Several running lists. Bill congressman heres my question. Lets say there were a republican president in the white house and we had the major cuts looming and the Homeland Security secretary came in and said just want you to know, were going to have to cut here and here and here and the country wont be as safe from terrorist attacks as we are today. And democrats said eh, we dont believe her. Were still going to vote against it. How do you think the democrats would be maligned or treated or what they would be called . Absolutely. They would get their head handed to them on a platter. But it wouldnt come about with the g. O. P. President because the g. O. P. President would exercise a moderating influence on that Tea Party Wing in the house saying look, if youre determined to jump off this plank, im not jumping with you. You could see even president george w. Bush saying to the republicans, you guys, were a train wreck about to happen here. Bill yeah. You know there would have been ads with some of the democrats with Osama Bin Laden. Theyre on Osama Bin Ladens team. Max cleland. Bill you know we would see those all over the place right now. Beg the question, do you think that we have to see some of the pain of this sequester actually see things shut down before the public really gets engaged on it . I just feel like i know i said this during the last question, maybe it is a broken record but it does feel like the public is not as on the edge of their seats as they were with the debt ceiling and some of the other crises weve gone through. Do we need to see pictures of headstart to shut down before we start to see whats going on here . We may have to. Theres been this sequence of crises that have averted so the public is watching this thinking theyre doing it again. It wont be averted at the last minute. The other part of it, too is you can see in terms of the speakers management of his own members, needing his members to start hearing from people in order to give him the leverage he needs to actually get to yes. I think hes probably waiting for that to happen, too. Bill i was thinking yesterday, if you could fill that mall with americans who are saying you cant do this to us, they might hear. Right now im afraid im with you, i dont think people are that engaged maybe because there has been fiscal crisis after fiscal crisis, theyre getting deaf to it. Lets invite mary to join our conversation. Mary is from congressman acworth, georgia. Hi mary. Caller hi. My question is that ive been hearing a lot of comments that this is going to backfire on the g. O. P. And im wondering what the congressmans take is on that. Bill yeah. Lets say it does happen. Who gets the blame . Thanks, mary for the call. I think the blame is more heavily visited on the g. O. P. Frankly, i think people will blame congress. I think the president will be all right but people are just going to say thats a completely dysfunctional congress. They wont discriminate completely between democrats and republicans but the g. O. P. Will get hit harder. Frankly though, thats a little solace when you consider that the country is really going to get hit. Again, economy back to the fact that i think our economy is really poised to finally recover from this lingering end of recession but it is not being allowed to. And so the fact even if the g. O. P. Gets the lions share of the blame for this, which frankly, they deserve if the American People are going to suffer my constituents are going to suffer, thats really no solace to me. Bill the Congressional Budget Office said we would go from recovery to recession. They used that word in their analysis of the impact of the sequester. You would think that would get peoples attention. I thought Janet Napolitano would get peoples attention. It is remarkable. The other facet and this is a bit into the weeds but i think it gets to the problem that the speaker has and mobilizing his people to deal with this is that a lot of his members come from seriously gerrymandered districts where theyre not really accountable to what the country thinks as a whole. Theyre only account to be what a majority of their constituents think or how they interpret that and right now theyre interpreting their constituents as wanting basically to shut down the government to make massive cuts and thats the only priority and until enough of the mainstream republicans tell their leadership, youre killing us, it may not come out of the height of the ultrarightwing republican districts but it is going to youre going to lose the moderate g. O. P. Ars and youre going to lose the majority. Bill if the sequester does kick in, by the way, congress doesnt have to vote. The sequester will happen unless Congress Acts to stop it, correct . Exactly. Bill by legislation, i guess . Yes. Bill then the president would have to sign it. Well, the sequester was set up during that budget control act of 2011 so the timetable the extent of the cuts, the acrosstheboard nature of those cuts, thats all the status quo. So unless something is passed to avert it and signed by the president , its going to happen. Bill have you been told youre going to stay here through the weekend . No. And you know, the fact that we going to pay to deep the doors open and the lights on. Sequester the lights. The fact that we were sent to our districts last week, told me that the leadership wasnt serious, at least in the house about getting this done. And unless theres a deal thats very close they wont keep us here through the weekend to work on it. Theres no sign there is a deal anywhere. Bill that is grim. That is disappointing. Congressman, thanks so much for coming in. Wish i had better news. Bill thanks for fighting the good fight. Im glad youre there on the front line. Congressman schiff from california. Evan Mcmorris Santoro next time well see you with your buzzfeed hat on. Thats right. Bill ill be back with a quick parting shot. Announcer this is the bill press show. And lobster tacos. Its back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. My favorite entree is the lobster lovers dream. Whats yours . Come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. vo current tv gets the converstion started next. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Announcer the parting shot with bill press. This is the bill press show. Bill friday was secretary of transportation ray lahood telling us about the inconveniences to air travelers if the sequester kicks in. Yesterday, it was Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano warning us about the dangers to our National Security. This is serious friends. She cited, a