Reid should call the senate back in today. We have a bill in front of us, there is a Government Shutdown in 48 hours. Listen, i would love to be in houston with my two little girls playing with them this afternoon, but as you know im here in washington, d. C. , as you know the senate should not be on vacation you know, the senate has acted, the majority leader would say, passed a bill to keep the government open. And then weve gone back to delaying or defunding obama care. Should they take a part of it . Would you filibuster this bill . Lets be clear what the senate has done so far. So far, majority leader harry reid has essentially told the house of representatives and the American People go jump in the lake, he said i am not willing to compromise or talk. His position is obama care must be funded 100 in all instances or he will shut the government down. I hope he doesnt do that, david, i hope he backs away from the ledge he is pushing us towards. But that is his position. But senator, even republicans that i have spoken to, your colleagues say senator cruz cant blame harry reid for shutting down the government. Senator reid acted. He passed a bill to keep the government open. But lets be clear, the house has twice now voted to keep the government open. And if we have a shutdown, it will only be because when the senate comes back harry reid says i refuse to talk. Also, lets be clear, president obama has granted a delay for Big Corporations, every Big Corporation has gotten a delay. If harry reid shuts the government down he will be saying if American Families dont get a delay like the corporations, hard working American Families, he is going to insist they suffer. It is interesting, democrats say you know the promise with senator cruz position is it is a purist position. There are problems with obama care. We have had some polls saying there is great dissatisfaction at the town halls, but you havent debated on how to change the law, what you have gone out and said lets kill the law, lets defund it. Actually, with respect , david, i think it is wrong, i voted to repeal the law, but that was not my position in this fight. My position is defund it, which is different than repeal. And even now what the house of representatives has done is a step removed from defunding. It is delaying it. Now that is the essence of a compromise, delaying, simply on the same terms that has been done for the Big Corporations, that is a compromise. And at the same time, david, on the other side, what have the democrats compromised on . Zero, their position is absolutely no, no matter what. You make this argument as if there is no broader context here. Obama care has been has been adjudicated and it has been tested to the political system. And so lets go through that. We had an election where i heard the standard bearer for the Republican Party, mitt romney, saying that obama care should be repealed. All the republicans already voted against this thing when it was ultimately passed, the Supreme Court upheld it. And then your colleagues said lets have a strategy defunding obama care and the letter, and they joined you in that fight. Well, here now you dont even have the same number of folks who signed the letter who voted for this effort. There are not protests in the streets arguing to do away with the law the way that you would like. Again, 51 of the poll this week, lets uphold the law. So im focusing on results. Your goal and results. Where have you moved anything . Okay look, the facts are becoming more and more clear that obama care is not working. Every day that is more clear, there is a reason the unions are jumping ship. One union after another is saying let me out. There is a reason why the president of the team, james hoffa, used millions, saying obama care was destroying their health care. Destroying is his word. Now, why is it that harry reid and the Senate Democrats are not willing to listen to the millions of men and women but youre a terrific lawyer, youre making an argument, i asked you a specific argument based on the facts on the ground. You made these arguments for 21 hours, my goodness, you havent moved anyone. Look, the American People rejected obama care, they understand it is not working. The only people making the argument are the career politicians in washington, harry reid who wants to use brute force, the great thing about the constitution, the checks and balances, the ability to check one another, president obama has over and over again disregarded the law. When he granted an exemption for giant corporations, that was contrary to law. Right now we have a system where the rich and powerful, those with connections to the obama administration, they get spared some of the burdens of obama care. But those who were struggling, single moms and young people and people who are just trying to make it. Youre a proponent of the law, millions are getting access to health care they couldnt otherwise afford. Parents with children, others with conditions getting in the way of insurance. I spoke to a Hospital Administrator this week in illinois saying utilization is down, you cant know what the effect of five years from now is on this law. And nor can proponents of the law. But here is one argument, youve made yours, and the president , when he spoke this week, referred to your words. I want to play a portion, suggesting what you really dont want is the law to go forward because people may start to like it, is what he said. He said it is going to prove almost impossible to undo obama care, nrright . So in other words, weve got to shut this thing down before people find out that they like it. You dont think americans will like it . You dont think that 25 of the state of texas that is uninsured will actually like the expanded access to get Health Insurance . I dont, and here is why, because it is not working. What happens, if you want people to get Health Insurance, the best way to get Health Insurance is to get a job, and obama care is the biggest job killer in the country. If you look at the mandate, half of the Business Managers are reducing or hiring parttime workers. Another 24 said they were not growing to keep their size under 50 workers. If youre a young person out of school unable to find a job, a big part of the reason you cant find a job is because Small Businesses are not growing because of obama care. And there is nothing that can give you better Health Insurance than having a vibrant economy where you can get a job. Lets take the thousands of workers at ups who just received notice from their employers that spousal insurance was being dropped. Lets look at the workers of sea world who were told were reducing your hours because of obama care, people are hurting. There are also researchers on my side who say there is no reason Health Insurers would stop giving insurance to their employees, it is a major tool to get employees. And health care, perhaps these problems that youre identifying could be solved short of complete defunding. I want to start for just a moment to get you clear. A Government Shutdown, that is an acceptable outcome to you . Look, i dont want a Government Shutdown. I dont think that harry reid should shut down the government. The house of representatives did something significant, which is they passed a bill to make clear that regardless of what happens the men and women of our military they should be paid. That passed unanimously in the house. And listen, right now, harry reid and president obama had been essentially holding the military hostage, threatening their paychecks over this potential shutdown. They might force. I think regardless of what happened we should pass the bill. We should not have a shutdown, which means harry reid has to move off his absolutist position. You have been multiple compromises from the republicans, and can you tell me what the democrats have done to compromise but what has he done as i outlined before, you have lost ground from even the summer on the position of getting people to vote with you. You lost ground from that position and you havent persuaded one democrat. You have got to be democrats if youre going to overturn this thing. Well, actually, joe manchin came out saying he supported the delay in the original mandate. Listen, last time this was in the senate, there was division among the republicans. I had hoped the republicans would be united. That didnt happen, ill tell you this, this next time around, this is an opportunity you have raised money on this, taken to the floor for 21 hours, you havent moved anything legislatively, do you concede that point . David, i dont, and the establishment has been exempted from some of the harms. Members of congress, how can you possibly justify to the American People that members of congress are exempted from the law . Are not put on the exchanges like millions of americans. Well, theyre part of the exchanges, they dont get a portion by the employers but anyone on the exchange doesnt. But hundreds of thousands with their employers do but people with the exchange dont, you want people frustrated with washington . The simplest reason is you have politicians in both parties who are not listening to the people. They get a different set of rules. Harry reid said to president obama, we dont want the obama care. I had an exchange with dick durbin, who argued we should stick the American People in coach. I think his own analogy shows what is wrong with this system, at a minimum, members of congress shouldnt be treated better than the American People, and should he be willing to compromise he would agree what the house has done to delay all of this saying it is not ready for prime time. It is not working, and well treat the American People at least as well as the others. You are talking about democrats, it is hard for them to get a word in edge wise, because there are members of your party who are so critical of what you have done and how you have done it. You have colleagues who accused you of putting on a show. Congressman peter king said youre a fraud, lying to the base. George will, who has been a conservative columnist for the washington post, who has been great, supportive of you in the past. But he wrote this past week, and i want you to respond. Those people who deceive others first deceive themselves, allowing their wishes to be fodders of their thoughts by beginning to wish everything has changed. They should remember Everett Dirksen of illinois, the leader of Senate Republicans during passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act recalled, 40 preachers caught me one afternoon there in the lobby im not a moralist. Are you more legislative than others . Im just trying to fight for 26 million texans, and for the American People. And im pretty sure what he argued is we should be delaying obama care, which is exactly what the house of representatives just voted to do. And one important thing to remember, you and all the voices of washington keep saying we need compromise. Twice now, the republicans have compromised. And a twice, harry reid says we wont even have a compromise, i want to fund it all. We want to stick it on the American People and wont budge, that is not a reason, if we have a shutdown, the American People will be held hostage. Who did you most admire . I most admired phil graham, there are voice whose say this is not possible. And if you remember back in 1993 when hillary care was being debated. And there were a lot of people that came forward that said well partially fund hillary light. Phil graham said, i know you will remember this, he said this will pass over my cold, dead political body. And a whole lot of republicans who were scared, they looked over, he was not killed. They ran behind him and they said yeah, yeah, what he said. Look, the power of leadership can change debates. We saw that just a month ago with syria. When president obama said he was going to launch attacks on syria, you had leaders of both house support him. And then the American People spoke up in overwhelming numbers saying we dont want to get involved in a sectarian war in syria, where there is no clear reason for the United States to do so and what happened, the federal government turned. We didnt get involved. We didnt launch the attacks, and just weeks earlier conventional wisdom in washington said it is impossible. Do you regret comparing the future of obama care to the rise of hitler in nazi germany . Well, the premise of your question is not true. What i said is there are many voices in washington who said we cant do this, we cant do this. And i went through the centuries over and over again when americans were faced with big challenges, on big occasions, whether it was the civil war, going to the moon or winning the cold war, at every stage there were voices of conventional wisdom who say this cant be done, and at every stage, the American People rose to the occasion. And what i said is we should do the same here. We should look to, if we empower the American People to get washington to listen to the people, that is how we get this changed. Do you ride this to the president ial nomination . It is easy for washington to focus on politics. I understand, that is the business of this town. What i am trying to do every day is focus on making a difference in the lives of the American People. Every survey that is done in this country, the top priority of the American People is jobs and the economy. Under harry reids senate, we dont even talk about jobs and the economy. Obama care is the biggest job killer in this country. And millions of americans are hurting. You know, i would like to see a democrat respond to james hoffas letter who said this is right now destroying the health care of millions of americans. That is not me, that is a Democrat Union leader who has supported president obama and harry reid, we need to listen to people. Thank you, senator. Thank you, david. Coming up, were going to switch gears, one of the biggest threats is Irans Nuclear program. Joining me, msnbcs chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, as well as one of president obamas former advisers on arms control. Well be right back here in just a moment. Meet the press is brought to you by the boeing company. Here i we know why were here. To chart a greener path in the air and in our factories. To find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. And harness our technology for new energy solutions. [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together, to build a better tomorrow. Thats why were here. Help the gulf when we made recover and learn the gulf, bp from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. I can tell you safety is at the heart of everything we do. Weve added cuttingedge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a stateoftheart monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twentyfourseven. And were sharing what weve learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. Our commitment has never been stronger. I reiterated to president rowhani what i said in new york, while there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, i believe we can reach a comprehensive solution. So what is behind the recent actions of the iranian president . Joining me now, our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, and former adviser to president obama on arms control and wmd, one of the few who met with rowhani while he was in new york, welcome to both of you, what i am fascinated by, what brought you to this moment . I think the answer is very simple, it is pressure, the economic sanctions imposed, started by president bush and strengthened by president obama has been sufficient to force the iranians to seek a deal so they can get relief from sanctions. But how do we get from there to here . That is a big question, i was at a small gathering with rowhani, it is very clear theyre concerned about the bank situation. He is a politician, he was elected with the mandate to be moderate. He got 51 of the vote. His closest competitor got 16 , he was greeted back in tehran with crowds of demonstrators, supporters but also protesters. The fact that the mullahs allowed them to go to the airport, they even threw a shoe, but he has explained very ably, will they give up the real stuff . And that is a very heavy price for them. They have spent billions on it. And right now, israel is complaining, and netanyahu is coming tomorrow, israel is concerned they are building a heavy water reactor, which can create plutonium just to be really they have three facilities that can produce the stuff to build the bomb. That we know of. That we know of. Now, you only need a certain percentage to have energy use. Theyre above that. And the fear is they can what is called break out, they can get to that Nuclear Weapon real fast. So how do you prevent that from happening and believe in a deal . Well, as a condition for lifting sanctions, i think the u. S. And its allies will demand that iran accept physical limits on the nuclear capacity, in terms of size and strength and the enrichment program. But havent we had requirements in place before . Rigorous inspections . This goes beyond inspections, monitoring is very important to be sure the iranians dont cheat, especially given their history of cheating. I think th