police say so far everyone is being cooperative. family and friends gather here in new york today to say good-bye to philip seymour hoffman. co-stars and fans paid their respects at a wake last night. hoffman s death, from an paerpt overdoergs has helped put national attention on the heroin epidemic. health officials in vermont confirmed three people died last month with the potent painkiller fentanyl was sold as heroin. looks like more than a million out of work americans won t have their long-term unemployment benefits restored. democrats in the senate fell one vote short of ending a republican filibuster on the bill. oklahoma republicans said that the benefit extension is being turned into another welfare program. it s fair to say that pope francis has achieved something of rock star status. he s even been on the cover of rolling stone. while that s cool, this is sweet. this is a life-size replica of pope francis made of dark
police say so far everyone is being cooperative. family and friends gather here in new york today to say good-bye to philip seymour hoffman. co-stars and fans paid their respects at a wake last night. hoffman s death, from an apparent overdose, helped put national attention on a heroin epidemic. health officials in vermont confirmed three people died last month with the potent painkiller fentanyl was sold as heroin. looks like more than a million out of work americans won t have their long-term unemployment benefits restored. democrats in the senate fell one vote short of ending a republican filibuster on the bill. oklahoma republicans said that the benefit extension is being turned into another welfare program. it s fair to say that pope francis has achieved something of rock star status. he s even been on the cover of rolling stone. while that s cool, this is sweet.
a spokesperson for the democrat says she s too busy with her day job in washington. and who says lawmakers can t have a sense of humor? our new partner here at nbc, now this is news, has gotten some members of congress to read tweets directed at them, and as you can expect, most of them were not so nice. you really suck a pig s [ bleep ]. paul ryan has such pretty blue eyes. sometimes it s easy to forget he s satan incarnate. you are proof that this country has gone to hell in a hand basket. @senschumer, yep, you re about as original as an old pair of shoes. ouch! tweets can be tough. that s your morning dish of scrambled politics. time now for our first look at politics, and for that, i m joined by washington post reporter david nakamura. good morning, david. hi, betty. let s talk unemployment benefits, shall we? why does this benefit extension keep getting stalled? you know, it seems like first it
that would more than pay for this benefit extension for people very hard up. the republicans won t even consider doing that. the whole thing is so utterly hypocrite call. representative welch, chuck schumer warned on the senate floor that looking for these pay-fors is a much trickier business than people think and it s very, very difficult to find one that both sides would agree on using. are there any that you ve heard of that you think might be able to get bipartisan agreement? the bipartisan part is the elusive quality. professor reich just mentioned one i would support. but it s like emergency assistance after hurricane sandy. if you start having a debate among 535 representatives and senators about their favorite pay-for while the water is rising and the barn is burning you re not going to make any progress. ultimately, these things do have to be paid for, we know that. but that becomes an excuse to not have a commitment to policies that can build the
benefit extension, something he says can send a bipartisan message and help struggling americans. in less than an hour, we ll find out if the votes are, in fact, there. let s bring in our tuesday gaggle daniela from the center of american progress, politico s senior washington correspondent. welcome to the show, ladies, thank you so much for being here. i want to get to you to put this into context. even if there are 60 votes in the united states senate for unemployment benefits, it faces a very, very difficult path in the house of representatives, because they don t like anything that s not paid for. absolutely. i think it s a big if whether or not this gets across the finish line today, but certainly as far as going to the house, there s virtually no possibility that you re going to see senate republicans want to take this up, have any appetite to take this up. daniela, how much is this a move by democrats to try and right the playing field right