Transcripts For MSNBC Meet The Press 20131007

History . Do discuss from the white house, jacob lew, rand paul from kentucky, and from the house, marcia fudge, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Plus my exclusive interview with Samantha Power on syria, iran, and that controversial comment about hillary clinton. Ive regretted it pretty much every day since. And president obama weighs in on the Washington Redskins name controversy. Im Savannah Guthrie filling in for david gregory. All that on this edition of meet the press on sunday, october 6. From nbc news in washington, meet the press with david gregory. Substituting today, Savannah Guthrie. Good evening, everyone. The latest on the shutdown in a moment, but first the leader in bombings in kenya and tanzania. Tanzania is now in u. S. Custody. It ends a 15year manhunt. He was seized in broad daylight near the tripoli capital on saturday. He will be brought to the u. S. To stand trial. An alshabab leader linked to the kenya Shopping Mall attack was linked to a town in southern somalia, but navy seals came up empty handed. No americans were hurt in that operation. Michael lighter is here right now. Hes the director of the Terrorism Center under president s bush and obama. Good to see you. Good morning, savannah. Lets start with this capture in libya. He was historical in the 9 11 bombings, but he was with obama in 1984 in sudan. This is someone who had moved from iran back to libya and his deep ties with the organization, his capture now means its much harder for al qaeda to establish a residence in libya, and thats critical for out nithe united s. Its a place thats lawless at times. The fact he felt safer going from iran to libya is very worrisome for the u. S. Operation incredibly risky. Why would they take that risk, and what do you make of the fact that it wasnt ultimately successful . The u. S. Has targeted alshabab for several years now, but were always nervous about going in. The reason we wanted to go after him is because he is leadership and hes the driver of the alshabab travel agenda, and that was especially after nairobi. Not getting him is bad because hes still in somalia, but we also didnt get the intelligence we hoped to gather from a raid. We turn now to day 6. Government shutdown. No agreement in sight. Senator rand paul will be joining me from kentucky in a moment, but first lets turn to treasury secretary jack lew here in washington. Mr. Secretary, good to see you. Good to be here. Were six days in. Has there been any permanent damage to the economy from this shutdown so far . Savannah, the shutdown is harming people every day. I think were seeing that in the ironic actions of those who chose to shut the government down item by item, trying to reopen the government for things as they discover theres real pain out there. If the shutdown ends quickly, well recover from the damage. If it goes on for a longer period of time, it will do more harm. Given what you know of the terrain, are you looking at a few more days of a shutdown . Are you looking at weeks . Congress could act today. The optimistic view of things is there is a majority in congress right now that would vote to reopen the government. They just need to bring it up for a vote. They could bring it up today. There was a Senior Administration official quoted in the wall street journal this week saying, quote, we are winning. It doesnt really matter to us how long the shutdown lasts, because what matters is the end result. Does that reflect the view of the administration behind closed doors, the shutdown can go on as long as it wants because its politically advantageous. There are no winners here. Every day its shut down, it does real harm to the American People, and you need to step back and look at where we are as a country and kmaen. The United States has been fighting its way out of a recession since the great depression. If youre a parent relying on head start or somebody looking for medical care or a Government Agency that needs intelligence, they need to open the government up. They could do it today. You mentioned republicans have passed a series of bills in the house to fund parts of the government such as fema, such as the va. Why not take them up on that off offer . It just doesnt work. They need to open up the whole government. You cant cherry pick an item here, an item there. There are too many important things the federal government does, and they need to open it up, and they could because a majority is ready to do it. I started out my career in washington working on the hill. I worked for speaker oneal. He said the one thing the American People wont tolerate is obstructionism. The majority needs to be given a chance to work as well. As you know, we are facing a more potentially disastrous deadline, october 17 for the nations Borrowing Limit for the debt ceiling to be raised lest the country default on its obligations. Let me put this to you very, very clearly. Is october 17 also the day the country defaults . Let me be clear. We actually hit the debt limit from may. From may until this week, weve been using what are called extraordinary measures to create a bit of additional headroom. On tuesday i informed congress that i had used the final extraordinary measures, there are no more. We are now limited to the Borrowing Capacity we have today. On october 17, we will exhaust our Borrowing Capacity. And at that point i have nothing else in the drawer. Does that mean default happens that same day . On october 17, were left with cash on hand. I told congress that i believe there will be approximately 30 billion of cash on hand, which is a lot of money, and it sounds like a lot of money to the American People, but you have to put it in the context of the cash flow of the United States. We are a 4 trillion enterprise, and on any individual day, you could be 50 or 60 billion cash flow negative or positive. 30 billion is a dangerously low level of cash, and were on the verge of going into a place weve never been and not have cash to pay our bills. I guess the question, then, for you not raising the debt ceiling, is that tantamount to default whether its in a day, a week or a month . The reality is if we run out of cash to pay our bills, there is no option that permits us to pay all our bills on time. Which means a failure for congress to act would, for the first time, put us in a place where were defaulting on our obligations as a government because of Congress Failing to act. If this country were to default on its obligations, what would be the consequence in the economy . Are you talking catastrophe . Weve never crossed this line, so everyone is speculating on what happens if the unthinkable happens. Let me just read to you from what president reagan said when he faced this, and i quote. The full consequences of a default or even the serious prospect of default by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. D denigration of the United States would have a financial effect on the markets. Why would anyone take that risk . It would be calamitous for the economy . It would be awful. Even getting close to the line is dangerous. In 2011, there was no default in 2011. It hurt the economy to get close to the line. We saw it in the stock market, we saw it in confidence, we saw it in investment. If we cross the line, were going a place weve never gone. Its very dangerous. Youve painted a dire consequence. On the one hand you say its terrible for the economy to even threaten default. On the other hand, the president saying, i wont negotiate. I wont have any conversation about this. I wont negotiate to stop that from happening. How do you square those two things . To be clear, the president has been and remains prepared to negotiate on fiscal policy. He has spent much of the last three years trying to find the sensible middle ground. Hes made offer after offer, negotiation after negotiation but they said we dont want to have any negotiation until the government is reopened and the debt ceiling is raised. Were where we are because in 2011, 50 to 100 of the most extreme members of the house changed the rules of the game. They said, we would rather default than have an honorable compromise. Its congress job to fund the government, and its congress job to make sure we can pay our bills. There is nothing here that were asking for from congress for them to do that. We are happy to negotiate on reasonable policies with entitlement reform and tax reform that closes loopholes. Why would they give up their leverage . Youre saying give up everything weve agreed to. Thats the leverage they have. What would it mean in this country if were not able to pay millions of people on Social Security on time . What would it mean if were not able to pay hospitals through medicare and medicaid on time . There would be liquidity crises on homes and businesses and important institutions. Its just not responsible. Its reckless and irresponsible to say well bring all that down if we dont get our way. Congress needs to do its job and then well negotiate. The president wants to negotiate. Is the president ready to watch this country go into default rather than agree with republicans . The republicans know this doesnt have to happen. They could vote today. Will he not come to the table at all even with the risk of default . I know republicans and democrats, i dont believe any of them want to default. They need to look at how do they let the majority in Congress Work their will. Let me ask you about the health carroe rollout. You were chief of staff when it was being implemented. 46 uniq thousands of unique visitors came to the website to check it out, but there is an uncertain number of who enrolled. The site has been down partially all weekend. How do you justify that . If you look at the people of interest trying to figure out how to buy health care for the first time for people, the enormous interest shows how important it is. Fair enough, but why werent we drid for that interest . We always anticipated there was a lot of demand and the demand is being appreciated. People are looking at the web sites. Theyre looking at what their choices are. They have six months to make their decision. People are getting on, getting the information they need and theyll be makiing the decision. I actually think the experience this last week shows how important the care act actually is. Do you think its going well . I wouldnt say im a doctor of technology, but i have a share of apps on my devices, and i usually wait until a few days into them because they make corrections on day one, day two, day three. I think were going through the same kind of process here and its working well. Thank you very much, secretary lew. Always great to have you here. Appreciate it. I want to turn now to republican senator rand paul of kentucky. Senator, good morning. Welcome back to meet the press. Good morning. Glad to be with you. You have a statement on your website saying, quote, you are working tirelessly to end this Government Shutdown. Fact of the matter, there is one way to end the shutdown right now, have Speaker Boehner put a clean budget resolution on the floor of the house. It would pass with republicans, it would pass with democrats. Would you call on Speaker Boehner to do that this morning . Weve been putting out clean crs or continuing resolutions all week. Weve been trying to fund government. Weve been trying to reopen government, and at every point harry reid says, no, he doesnt want to open government. Youve been putting on clean crs. No Strings Attached . Well, yeah. Weve been trying to Fund Different parts of government all week. Weve passed bill after bill after bill thats a piecemeal approach, no . Its the same thing. These are clean crs, meaning theres no Strings Attached. Weve been passing nih funding, veteran funding. Heres the thing that people dont realize. Thats historically the way its always been. You pass small appropriation bills so you can look at them individually. Its actually a much better way to run government, because right now youre sticking everything into one bill, and thats why the leverage of shutting the government down occurs. But if you did things appropriately and you passed appropriation bills one at a time, no one would be able to shut down government ever. So if harry reid had done his job, we wouldnt be in this position at all. Senator, you were one of the ones early on who said you didnt think a Government Shutdown was a good idea. However, when House Republicans made the defunding of obama care or even the delay of obama care their Sticking Point at which they would shut the government down if they didnt get it, didnt they basically make this result inevitable by making that what they took a stand on . Well, i think youve kind of got it backwards. The House Republicans said they would fund all of government, and they did. They funded all of government short of one program. So they really were never wanting to shut down government over this, they were wanting to fund government, and then have a debate they were trying to Fund Obama Care more than 40 times. They know what the result will be. They live in the real world, too. They knew this action would lead tie shutdown, and it did. Well, i think that when you look at legislation, when you say the president wants 100 of obama care or he will shut down the government, thats exactly whats happened. If he doesnt get 100 of his way, his way or the highway, then they wont do any spending bills that dont include everything that he wants. Thats him unwilling to negotiate, thats him being unwilling to compromise. But why is it even a matter of negotiation when its passed both houses of congress, its been signed by the president. Its been challenged in the supreme court, its been upheld by the supreme court. It was a central issue in the 2012 Election Campaign and the president won reelection. Why is that a legitimate point of negotiation right now . Because its congress job to oversee spending. The power of the purse resides with congress, and they Fund Programs every year. So its not their obligation once something is law to never change it. For example, in 1983 we changed Social Security. It had been around 50 years and the age of eligibility was 65. We changed it to 67 because Social Security was going bankrupt. We face some of those same problems again, and it isnt that its set in stone that well never revisit medicare or Social Security or obama care, for that matter. So i think its a silly argument for democrats to say, oh, the law has been passed, we can never change it. Of course, but you have to propose something that can get through the house, the senate and be signed by the president. Back in the 80s, they didnt shut down the government to make that happen, did they . Well, how do you know what will pass until you propose something and vote on it . So we proposed several co compromis compromises. Our initial position and still our position is we think obama care is a bad idea and will hurt the people its intended to help. When that didnt pass, when democrats didnt accept that, we said, what about a oneyear delay . Weve been offering compromise after compromise, but you hear from the president and his men and his women, no negotiation. His way or the highway. They were the ones who were unwilling to compromise on any facet of obama care, and i think that in tratransigence has led shutdown of the government. What part of obama care do you like and want to keep . Which half of it . I dont really like any of obama care, but i realize im not going to get my way. We do control a third of the government, people did elect us to fight. 61 of the people in kentucky voted for romney, 70 of the people in kentucky dont like obama care. So the thing is, im supposed to go and fight to make bills either less bad or make them better, if possible, so i think it is my job to stand up and provide oversight for legislation. Its precisely what congress is supposed to be doing. This is congress job. The Health Care Rollout this week by many, many accounts did not go that well. We just talked about it with treasury secretary lew, and yet all the headlines are about the Government Shutdown. Let me show you the front page of the lexington paper and youll see the top headline says, feeling the shutdown. Talks about the Health Care Glitches with the website rollout. Should they have let people really experience it and see if its as bad as you say instead of shutting down the government and now thats the subject . Its always difficult making decisions. Most of us ran for office, i ran for office because i was concerned about the overwhelming debt our country is accruing. A trillion dollars a year, were borrowing a Million Dollars every minute. So im worried about the overall financial picture of the country, and so whether or not it was a good strategic idea, i dont know, but when are we supposed to stand up and say, look, were out of money and were destroying this country by this burden of debt. And so i think youve got to stand up, whether its debt ceiling or whether its continuing resolution, we have to talk about the big picture, and the big picture is not an immediate default, the big picture is this gradual bankruptcy thats occurring of this country. All right, senator paul, i ask you to stand by. Well have more with you in a moment and i will ask senator paul about this open mic moment this week. And later the white house says millions are racing to sign up on line for obama care, but widespread problems with the website have some asking if the administration was ready for them. Plus our political round table. Government by crisis . Well ask the question, is there any way to run a country . And did the Administration Miss its moment on syria . My oneonone conversation with miss its moment on syria . My oneonone conversation with the u. S. A academic performance in the u. S. Is uneven. So 45 states and the District Of Columbia miss its moment on syria . My oneonone conversation with the u. S. A have voluntarily decided to raise the bar with consistent educational standards. Now, students in those states will have a better chance to succeed in college and careers and to compete in the global economy. Which means a Better Future for our students and our nation. Join exxonmobil in supporting the common core state standards. Lets solve this. And we are back with a few more minutes with senator rand paul of kentucky. Senator, earlier this week the wall street journal quoted a senior white house official who said, we dont care how long this shutdown lasts, were winning. That infuriated Speaker Boehner. Take a look. We got the wall street journal out, and it says we dont care how long this lasts because were winning. This isnt some damn game all right, and then here you are caught on an open mic with senator Mitch Mcconnell a little earlier this week. Take a listen. I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now were willing to compromise on this, i think i know we dont want to be here, but were going to win this, i think. Senator, i brought those two things up side by side for a reason. Winning, losing, battle of the talking points, dueling cable appearances. Do you in washington, do all of you have any idea how totally disgusted the American People are with these antics . Yeah, i think these are all legitimate concerns, and i think, really, we should point back to where the root of the problem is. The root of the problem here is that we are not passing appropriation bills like we should. We have 12 different appropriation bills. We should pass them one at a time. Government should never shut down if were doing our job appropriately, so really, what we need to be saying is why are we not passing spending bills the way we should do it. Do you take any responsibility for the tone, for your part in this . Well, i think that in order to have compromise, the other side has to negotiate. Weve been willing to compromise and negotiate. The other thing is, we dont control the spending bills. The house has been putting Forward Spending bills and still continues to do so. Its the democrats in the senate who refuses to pass individual spending bills, and thats what youre supposed to do is pass individual spending bills. Youre someone who is an emerging figure, had you actually winning the preference poll among republicans. Do you think this strategy, shutting down the government, which twothirds of americans dont like as a tactic even if they dont like obama care, do you think thats potentially undercutting the republicans chances of winning something beyond the house of representatives, either the senate or the white house . I think its extremely bad for the president shutting down the government, and hes the one shutting it down because frankly, hes unwilling to compromise. Were willing to negotiate, were willing to compromise. The president says his way or the highway, so ultimately i think it is bad for the president , i think its bad for both parties, but the only way to get tie resolution is to negotiate. Were willing to negotiate. Were every day passing bills to reopen government and every day harry reid is vetoing every bill we send over. Weve sent over six bills this week to reopen government, and he dismisses them out of hand. So were the ones trying to open government and the democrats say keep it closed because they like it being closed. They think they can beat up on us politically. If they like it being closed, why would you fall into that trap . If they think its hurting you more, why are you allowing that to happen . Because theyre important questions. Obama care is going to cost 2. 6 trillion. We have a 17 trillion debt. We think these things are important and worth fighting over because theyre not inconsequential. Some economists say were losing a million jobs a year just because of the burden of our debt. Is it worth standing up and saying the emperor has no clothes, were out of money and that we should start to balance our budget and not spend money we dont have . Yeah, its absolutely important. So sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in. Very quickly before i let you go. As you well know, there is a debt ceiling vote on the horizon. Will republicans let this country go into default . I think its irresponsible of the president and his men to even talk about default. There is no reason for us to default. We bring in 250 billion in taxes every month, our Interest Payment is 20 billion. Tell me why we would ever default. We have legislation called the full faith and credit act and it tells the president , you must pay the interest on the debt. So this is a game. This is kind of like closing the world war ii memorial. They all get out on tv and they say, were going to default. Theyre the ones scaring the marketplace. We should never default. Lets say you pay the interest on the debt and you dont have a technical default. Wouldnt be there mathere be dr consequences on the economy, anyway, the spirit of it . In 2011, our credit was do downrated, but the reason they said was we had too much debt so they downgraded us. Its about the debt were accumulating. Its not so much these deadlines the market is worrying about, the market is also worried about our 17 trillion debt and were not acting fiscally responsible and were spending more money than were bringing in. Senator rand paul. Always interesting talking to you. Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you. Coming up, has the roar of the Government Shutdown fight overshadowed the rocky rollout of obama care . Joining us, republican strategist mike murphy, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus marcia fudge, rich lowry and nprs steve insky. Were back in just a moment. Last week david debutted a new way to follow the program and weve gotten a lot of great feedback. Our meet the press magazine. Its on flipboard, and if youve never used it, its an app that allows you to display all your favorite content from across the web in an easy to read view. You can get it on your tablet, smartphone or on the web. Our magazine will provide you with a meet the press experience all day long. The same stuff with which we used to make the magazines, articles and videos. Download the flipboard app on your smartphone or tablet, and once there search for meet the press in the bar on the top right. We have also post aed a link on our website, n meet the press is back with our political roundtable. Here this morning, rich lowry, steve inskeep, marcia fudge and mike murphy. Now, Savannah Guthrie. Well get to our roundtable in a moment, but first the latest at the issue of the american shutdown, the president s health care. There is growing interest in people signing up for coverage. It has been a frustrating week for Many Americans who want to take advantage of the Affordable Care act. But it seems the website has not been able to keep up with the workload. The big rollout came tuesday, many uninsured americans encouraged to go on line and sign up for low cost insurance. People were staffed to help navigate the site, but within minutes, the system crashed. There are too many people accessing it right now. It seemed no one was getting through. Were going to get in, it just may not be right now. We have until march. On tuesday, we were with the Schultz Family in phoenix as they tried to enroll. We wanted to know the priorities, the options, and suddenly we couldnt get in, so we were disappointed. By the end of the week, they still were not able to log on. Republicans said its a sign obama care is not ready for prime time. From reports around the country, it seems obama care is off to a very rocky start. But the president insisted the system was simply overloaded with unexpected demand. Well be speeding things up in the next few hours to handle all this demand that exceeds anything that we had expected. By friday evening the government reported more than 8. 6 million visitors had logged on to healthcare. Gov. Call centers had taken more than 600,000 calls. But they wont say how many people nav gaigated the website without getting kicked off or how many had been able to complete an application. They have more people working on it, adding Service Hours and capacity. We dont yet know if dozens of people, or millions, savannah, have succeeded in getting through the website, and for that matter, finished the application process. Thank you so much. Well get to the rollout of obama care in a moment, but lets start with the Government Shutdown. Nbc news put a tweet out this week, let Congress Know how it feels. Lets take a look at the response. Dear congress, i would like you to go without pay for one month. Stop acting in your own selfinterest. Get your act together and do whats right for the country. I hope to god in next years election, all of you are booted out. Congresswoman fudge, arent you the lucky one to be the city member at this table. No matter who gets the blame here ultimately, whether people blame the republicans or the democrats, in the end is it just bad for the institution . Is it on awful yoll of your hou . Yes, it is. There are no winners here. When you talk about shutting down the government and all the stuff that goes around about who is at fault and who is not, and how we should have a clean cr, let me say it is our responsibility to fund the government of the United States and we should not let anyone to extract a ransom for any of us to do our jobs. Lets turn to mike murphy, republican strategist. Twothirds of the country dont like the tactic of shutting down the government. Even if they dont like obama care, they dont like this tactic. Thats the problem. I think we should go back to the problem of the computer sites, because what we have is a perfect storm here. You have the cynics who run the Democratic Party and you take the stupid wing of the gop. Instead somehow a Monkey Wrench got thrown into the system, and now everybody hates congress and republicans are taking the bigger political hit. I saw a poll where the Approval Rating of the u. S. Congress was 5 and the margin barrier was 6. Mitch, do you think it was a miscalculation for people to take a stand in this way with a shutdown . Everybody knew we were going to have a confrontation in the fall over the continuing resolution over the debt limit. Its true the hand of the house of the gop was forced in this rank and file. This is not how they would set up this fight. They would have gone to the debt limit right away. Now theyre in this fight. Its going to segue into the debt limit, and the caucus is united, and they wanted to hold firm until harry reid and president obama are actually willing to negotiate, which is how these kinds of disputes are always settled. Is the house conference united, steve . No, no, when i talk to republicans, there is incredible diversity of opinion, and i think when you try to decide who is to blame for this shutdown, you can say the republicans wanted it. I think thats unfair. I think its fair to say some of the republicans misjudged their opponents. They assumed the democrats would cave. They were wrong. When i talk to republicans, the republican who, to me, seems to have the best notion of what is on the democrats mind, believe it or not, is grover norquist, gave a fascinating interview to the Washington Post in which he said, the way to deal with this is get past, in some shortterm way, perhaps, however you have to, both the budget ceiling and this debt problem in the shutdown, and push the democrats instead on the sequestration, the really deep budget cuts, and theyre youre touching something the democrats are really bothered by, that they might be willing to give something to the republicans to get out of this. But the republicans stance is, i wont negotiate. Even if there is a host of reasons why that is a responsible position, as a bumper sticker, its not the greatest, is it . Were about to have calamity, but im not negotiating . It is our job to fund the government. I would say to those people who believe it is appropriate to say, oh, were not going to pass a continuing resolution, a clean bill, because we want the president to negotiate. The president has already offered to negotiate on obama care. He has said, if you bring me ideas, im willing to accept them. This is not the point at which we then take hostages and say, oh, you know, if you dont change obama care, were not going forward. We pass continuing resolutions eight times. It is the job of the president of the United States to rise above petty politics. The shutdown is politics. The debt ceiling is a catastrophe. The last time we had this, we solved it by painful bipartisan negotiations. That is the way to get out of this debt ceiling. I think its the president s job to knock heads. Republicans wont get much, but theyll get something. Theyll give up a lot. But the democrats cant be in a we wont negotiate harry reid kind of way. But they passed the health and credit act to ensure that if we go over the debt limits, the debts would be paid, and the democrats uniformly oppose that because they want to make everything as frightening and painful as possible. They complain about the nih not having furnding. Republicans want to fund the nih but the democrats oppose it. Its the cynicism and intransigence show. Lets be clear. They pillaried the senate for not having a budget. We passed a budget, the Senate Passed a budget six months ago. They ignored it. We would not be where we are today had they gone to conference and had a budget. No, no, the house has passed a bill to fund the nih. Why wont you support it . It was passed. I dont support it because every single function of the government is important, and we need to open all of the government. But why wont you support it until there is an end actually negotiated . Im going to jump in here so people dont think i went out for a cocktail or something. Lets talk about obama care. Obviously the rollout did not go as smoothly as hoped. And saturday night live was there having fun with it. Take a look. The obama website had too much web traffic. You cant campaign the fact that millions dont have health care and then be surprised that millions dont have health care. How could you not be ready . Thats like 1800flowers getting caught off guard on valentines day . How about it, steve, if you interviewed the president on this very subject . He acknowledged there will be glitches. He said, expect problems it sounds like something more than glitches, though. Yeah, and this is huge because we now have the reality of obama care, the Affordable Health care act thats here. We had republicans saying be afraid, be afraid be terrified of this. We have democrats who havent supported it much but they say its going to be fine. Now we have the possibility of millions of americans dealing with the reality of it for better or worse, and i think thats the potential of transforming this over time. I think its still possible for reality to have a bearing. But is this a good tactic on the part of republicans . On the policy, im so sympathetic to my side on this. I think theyre right about a lot of it. But thats why we have midterm elections, so you can throw democrats out of office over obama care. When your opponent is in trouble, when theyre drowning politically, you throw them a fire hose. We throw them a lifeboat and a machine gun and now we debate this excuse me, im all choked up. Instead of 13 months away, getting control of the senate which means we can have the powerful fight. Its an incredibly stupid move. Do you agree with that, rich . I think mike is a little too panicked over here, can barely get his words out. Look, its a shortterm thing whether the obama care glitches get enough coverage the first week. The key question is whether there are really, over time, enough people signed up to make the exchanges work. Theyre very dubious about that. This law has a legitimacy problem. It was never popular when it was proposed, its even less popular now. It was unprecedented in that it was a major change passed over partisan lines, and i think its going to exacerbate problems in our health care system. Let our congresswoman have the first and last word. What do you think about this rollout of obama care . Are you disappointed . Certainly, but let me different about enrollment and the plan itself. There have been problems with the enrollment, and yes, we should have been better prepared. But it does not negate the fact that the plan itself is going to work. Were going to reduce the cost of insurance. Were going to do away with things that have been creating problems with our deficit, like Medicare Part d. Were going to reduce the cost of health care. Roundtable, stand by. Were not done with you next. Coming up, my exclusive interview with u. N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Interview with u. N. Ambassador sama[ lane ] do you ever feel like youre growing old waiting for your wrinkle cream to work . Clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. It targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. Youll see younger looking skin in just one week. One week . Thats just my speed. Rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots rapid tone repair. From neutrogena®. Samantha power is the new and youngest ever ambassador to the United Nations, and shes facing her first big test as the u. S. Looks to eliminate syrias chemical weapons. I sat down with ms. Power this week for an exclusive interview inside the United Nations Security Council room. You got the deal on syria. It does not have an automatic enforcement, so can you really say its a resolution that has teeth that will bite . This is the first resolution that has ever required syria to do anything. Russia has been taking it by the hand, you know, putting it under its wing and shielding it from any International Pressure of any kind. We think it is very significant that syria is now legally required by the world, by russia and the United States to give up its chemical weapons. There was a time about a year ago when there were people inside the administration who were urging the president to do more to arm the moderate opposition. This was a time when assad was weaker, when he was more on the ropes. Did the Administration Miss its moment . And is it fair to say that you could draw a direct line between that and the slowness of the world and what happened on august 21st . Well, i think the United States has employed just about every tool in the tool box short of invading syria. We have put in place the most crippling economic sanctions that exist just about anywhere in the world. We supported again these accountability mechanisms so that at some point justice will be done, and we hope for some kind of deterrent effect day to day in terms of perpetrators. Hard to go back in time, but had there been action to arm that opposition earlier, might they have been able to gain more of a foothold . Again, from the beginning, the president has urged us to take every tool out of the tool box to scrub it to see that the benefits outweigh the costs. We had very serious vetting issues and very serious vetting concerns, and some of those concerns are more pronounced even today. On iran, you heard the israeli Prime Minister say irans new leader rouhani is a wolf in sheeps clothing, almost suggesting that the u. S. May be getting hoodwinked by him. Whats your take . The president has made very clear that our engagement with iran will be on the basis of substantive progress. Given the new rhetoric and the Charm Offensive that some people refer to it, including the israelis, they thought it was very important to protest and listen and see if there was something being substantively offered here. There is skepticism but a willingness to test t. There hi. There is a diplomatic window, but it wont remain open forever. You made a rough and tumble comment about hillary clinton. Was that a searing experience . Yes. It was beyond searing. What i found so upsetting was the idea that somebody like secretary clintons icon to young women, then young women like me, you know, this person who cared so much about women and children, who had given her whole life to Public Service could think for a second that i could think anything like that about her. I have regretted it pretty much every day since. I know you apologized to her. I heard there were tears. Certainly it was very emotional for me. And i was so grateful to have the chance just to say in person what i had said to everybody. Could you tell hillary that i think shes a total rock star . Shes changed the world in a thousand ways. But to be able to say that in person is something that im immensely grateful to her to have given me that opportunity. You wrote a book called a problem from hell and now i was thinking these are your problems from hell. No longer are you a writer or observer, but youre in a position of power. When i was a writer or a loudmouth pundit, it was very easy at the end of the day to say, ive spoken my piece. Now the discussions we have are internal, youre getting to have these discussions with the president of the United States, with the secretary of state. Do you almost feel people are holding up that past life and saying, Samantha Power cant compromise. Shes the one who wrote this book on genocide. I think theyre very entitled to do that. They bring things to me that constantly sometimes in the bubble of government one doesnt always get exposure to. I read an article that said, after five years of being a bureaucr bureaucrat, power has learned to bite her tongue. I thought, she would hate that if she read that. I hope ive learned to bite my tongue. I have the opposite reaction. I think im making some progress. But it does take practice when youre a loudmouth like me and youre irish. Thank you so much. Thank you, savannah. Our interview with u. N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Our interview with u. N. Revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow, but at xerox weve embraced a new role. Working behind the scenes to provide companies with services. Like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. Reducing document costs by up to 30 . And processing 421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. Helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. Hows that for an encore . With xerox, youre ready for real business. Are you flo . Yes. Is this the thing you gave my husband . Well, yeah, yes. The name your price tool. You tell us the price you want to pay, and we give you a range of options to choose from. Careful, though that kind of power can go to your head. That explains a lot. Yo, buddy i got this. Gimme one, gimme one, gimme one the power of the name your price tool. Only from progressive. Since 1937, the nfls Washington Redskins has been d. C. s football team, but theres been a growing move to change the teams name on the grounds it mayo fend some native americans. As correspondent reports, president obama has now been drawn into the debate. Reporter on the field they are fierce competitors with a faithful fan base. But off the gridiron, a different battle over the teams controversial name, redskins. In an interview released saturday, president obama weighed in for the first time. Ive got to say if i were the owner of the team, and i knew that there was a name of my team, even if it had a storied history that was offending a sizeable group of people, i would think about changing it. Reporter nfl commissioner Robert Goodell made similar comments in september. We have to listen. If one person is offended, we have to listen. Reporter but like all fights in this town, both sides are dug in. The residents think they should keep their name. We have to change it because we have a diverse, multicultural nation. Owner dan snider recently said he would never change the name. Lannie davis says he appreciates the president s opinion, but the moniker is staying. The redskins name has been here for 80 years. The original coach was a native american. Its not about disrespecting or disparaging anyone. Reporter that explanation isnt good enough for some native americans, like those in the United Nation who have launched a campaign against the mascot. In any other group or other ethnic group would not tolerate this kind of language being used about them thats so denigrating and dehumanizing. Reporter the latest poll says 4 out of 5 americans dont think the team should change their name. Supporters argue there are other native american namesakes like the braves, indians and blackhawks. Still, pressure is mounting with protests sprouting up outside games. And some Media Outlets refusing to use the term. A group of lawmakers, including d. C. s Eleanor Holmes norton, has introduced legislation aimed at forcing change. I certainly think its a Tipping Point and the handwriting is on the wall. But for jeff bostic, its about holding onto a winning tradition. I think its a sense of pride. When we were fortunate enough to wear the burgundy and gold, we were proud to be called redskins, we were proud to represent our nations capitol. Reporter now, the redskins name is also facing a legal challenge and there is an effort under way to get broadcasters to stop using the term. On monday the United Nation will hold a conference right here in washington, d. C. They say they are determined. Savannah . Kristin welker at the white house, thank you so much. I turn to the roundtable for the lightning round. Steve, change the name or keep it . I think you want something scary, so the washington debt limits would be a much better thing to do. Mike murphy . Whats next, the minnesota nonviolent viking . Rich . I think if you change it, you ruin the parallelism of the tigersred skin here now, some images to remember from two Government Shutdowns nearly two decades apart. Ah, the bad old days, the Government Shutdown then and now. Thanks to all of you on the roundtable for a great conversation this morning. We have one quick programming note before we go. This years education nation summit is in full swing on air and on line. It continues tomorrow at the new york public library. You can watch live and get a full schedule of events at educationnation. Com. That is all for today. David gregory will be back next week. If its sunday, its meet the press