Was betrayed. Im never going to be a democrat to get in the middle of a gop Bottle Rocket fight. You are not useful to us anymore. I notice the left and little echo chamber is trying to accuse you of plagiarism. I think its a standard no one else is being held to and i think its politically motivated. I didnt have enough money for cab fair. I get offended when people try to cast dispersions on my character. Aside from Chris Christie and Ken Cucinelli, who were winners and losers from this weeks off year election . From new york city to new jersey to virginia and alabama there were a few surprises, a few key lessons that both democrats and republicans should probably Pay Attention to. Among them, the rise of the new electorate growing momentum for raising the minimum wage and a possible comeback story for the establishment gop. Here to help me sort through all the messy details, msnbc contributor maria and my colleague host of up with steve cornaki. It seems possibility of women who will make a big difference in 2014 because theyve been so energized by so many of the sort of crazy measures passed at the state level. I mean, this is a huge warning sign, i think, for the Republican Party. And specifically look at virginia, everything was in line for favor of republicans winning this election. It had been 40 years since the White House Party had won an election, a gubernatorial election, in virginia. This was an off year election. We have been talking nonstop for the last two years about how this Democratic Coalition only shows up in president ial elections. Thats right. Only shows up when obamas on the ballot. And lets be honest about it, the democratic nominee in virginia was not the most inspiring candidate. This was a candidate with dangerously poisonously high unfavorable numbers. So republicans should have won this election. Not only did they fail to win the election, but when you look closer at the numbers youre seeing this pronounced gender gap. And youre seeing its not just, you say the issue of abortion and kens activism on abortion, but i think its a wider range of cultural messages that Ken Cucinelli and that brand that alienates women voters and suburban educated female voters and you saw that as the reason why history was defied in virginia this week. One of the things i thought was interesting i mean, the writing for a lot of us, the writing seemed to be on the wall we expected that women would be energized and women would Pay Attention because its been so ridiculous between vaginal ultrasounds over the last couple of years, just the litany of things and the level of conversation as you point out so disrespectful. And yet it seemed like the cucinelli campaign didnt think it was going to be a problem. Somehow they thought women would step in line and do what they thought they would do and just vote along with them. And yet terry was able to turnout, women in particularly black women i thought was interesting. Lets be honest, what the republicans and what Ken Cucinelli was counting on was this old model, the old cynical model weve been talking about for the last woup l years when president obamas not on the ballot, when its not a president ial election year, women, nonwhite voters, young vote voters, they do not tend to show up. You can run a more conservative campaign and you can run up big numbers like in southwestern virginia, you look at the sort of emerging demographics outside washington, d. C. And Northern Virginia and theyre not going to show up. That is the revelation of this election. President obama is not on the ballot, they shoeded up. Its a huge difference. Do you think it was kind of part of the missology of 2012 talking about the rising electorate, africanamericans, latin latinos, obviously the Republican Party got a big surprise. But i wonder if you look at terrys race like you said and the fact that i actually have two data points i look at. One, terry did the work of reaching out and he knew where those voters were, he reached out to them and had a good ground game. Also in new jersey Chris Christie made an effort and made some inroads with blacks and latinos in a way we havent seen republican candidates necessarily do. So it strikes me that this narrative that somehow they wont show up actually could be dispelled but the point is you got to do the work of showing up and courting those voters and turning those voters out. Yeah, i think thats true. And i think part of the question to what im curious about as well is president obama himself was a draw for this sort of new emerging majority in 2008. One thing we can establish is the threat of Ken Cucinelli, cultural views in particular that was a motivating factor. So if somebody like ken is a nominee and you want to extrapolate that to 2016, if ted cruz right. This is the effect youre going to see. With christie though its a little different. At the statewide level of course having Shaquille O Neil coming in at the last minute doesnt hurt. This is very intentional in his part he has separated himself to the best he can, the national Republican Party brand from the debate in congress about immigration, from all of these issues at the National Level that are driving this emerging coalition away from the Republican Party. Chris christie was basically able to put the message out that, hey, you dont like them, fine. But im different. Chris christie on the National Stage that might change. He spent 24 million separating himself from the cory booker election. You know, its interesting because, you know, one of the issues from their own autopsy, rielgt, that theyve talked about is the need to make inroads with latino voters and yet this week you had kevin mccarthy, the Republican House whip say were not going to get to Immigration Reform this year, we dont have enough time. Which is always their excuse. I feel the rest of us have several months left. I dont know how many days youre talking about. But it sprieds o surprise me that now earlier in the year i think we were so hopeful because it was in the political interest of the gop to get Immigration Reform done and now just seems like they just dont care. I mean, i bet there will be time to repeal obama care once or twice more before the end of the year. Of course. But thats an interesting thing. Look at the autopsy that the Republican National committee put out after losing in 2012. What theyre basically offering is a blueprint for the entire party. If collectively the entire party does x, y and z, then the entire party is going to be more appealing to the electorate. The problem is for the entire party to do that every individual member of the party has to go along, has to play the part, has to vote for Immigration Reform. In just about every individual member of the party in the house to vote for Immigration Reform would be doing it in a district where they get no reward in the general election because these are sort of gerrymandered districts, these are safely republican districts where they only have the threat of a republican primary challenge. If somebody coming along and saying, hey, so and so sold out conservatism, gave amnesty to the illegals, all these things. So individually theres no theres a collective incentive, but they have not established an individual incentive. It shows you we are 12 months past mitt romney losing last year the same diagnosis you gave a year ago you could give now but no new individual incentive for these republicans. Whats interesting, well switch gears a little bit because not only is there no new incentive, weve seen the Republican Party fracture even more dramatically and forces on the far right see what happens when we nominate that kind of fake republican. So it was interesting, but, you know, so we come out of the Government Shutdown and we have the chamber of commerce saying theyre thinking about actually supporting moderates. Theres a new group main street partnership, theyre saying theyre going to spend about 8 million to run and support moderate republican candidates. And then a lot of people are looking at alabama one, the special election where you had two republicans, one cast himself as more of the i think the ted cruz of the house and the other one sort of more of the establishment gop kind of got mind. And thats the person who won. So a lot of people are taking that as a sign that, hey, maybe i mean, i take it as a positive that maybe the message is, you know, being coo coo Crazy Tea Party not necessarily winning strategy. I would like to take that message. I take the exact opposite message. Of course you do, steve. So were talking about dean young, was the Tea Party Guy in this republican runoff in alabama. And were saying he was defeated. Hes the guy who said obama was born in kenya and hes the crazy one. Okay, he lost. Thats a great victory. But how did he lose . How did Bradley Byrne, the socalled moderate win this race . With the backing of commerce and the money. What did that money do . All it did was conveyed a message that, hey, Bradley Byrne thinks we should have shut the government down. All of the specific Tea Party Agenda items bradley checked off. He signed off on them and the money amplified that message. He didnt say obama was born in kenya, that may be the big id logical difference between these two, but shows to me the tea party won because the tea party now taken an establishment figure like Bradley Byrne, tea party is so in their heads they have to endorse every Tea Party Vision and i say thats a victory for the tea party. What youre saying though is its the person who has the right talking points, right . I was also in the autopsy we dont change what we believe, we have to change what we say. So to your argument thats maybe the difference between these two less on substance, more on style. And maybe its almost and this is as cynical as it gets, maybe a real long game by the republican establishment where they figure if they can get enough Bradley Byrnes in there in office like this that they can fake their way into office, fake it with the tea party oh, steve, its never good when you try to fake it. To me thats the best case because to me its like the first contentious vote he faces pits him between the tea party and moderates, tea party and democratic party, hes going to side with the tea party. Why . Hes not going to want to give an inch on his right. Maybe in his heart of hearts he doesnt believe this stuff, but for his own political preservation hes going to be voting that way. Those are all the positions he took as a candidate. Basically were going back to candidates who say maybe believe in something called legitimate rape, we just dont talk about legitimate rape or believe the president was born in kenya but you dont say that. Almost the mitt romney model from last year. Well, maybe hes a secret moderate, maybe ten years ago but if you look at the platform mitt romney forced to run its as conservative as anything since the goldwater days. The lesson everybody from my pal steve here is we have to watch out for the moderates in sheeps clothing, not the rhinos. I want to thank you, steve. We had some technical issues with me ris sa. You can watch steve every weekend morning up at 8 00 a. M. I am usually trying to get up at that hour to watch steve, ill be honest. Next, its a fact that Many Insurance Companies should be the ones to apologize for the problems with the aca. I cant tell you how many people across texas i understand. Sure. Im losing my health care, trying to take care of my kids, weve got real challenges but doesnt the state of texas dont want obama care there . We dont want obama care because its taken away health care. But 25 of the state doesnt have health care any way. So obama care would help them, wouldnt it . There are seniors who have left hundreds of dollars of savings on the table by not choosing the right medicare d plan. No one could have left this much money here. Whoohoohoo yet many seniors who compare medicare d plans realize they can save hundreds of dollars. Cvs pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses. Talk to your cvs pharmacist, call, or go to cvs. Com compare to get your free, personalized plan comparison today. Call, go online, or visit your local store today. Be careful babe. [ doorbell rings ] lets see whats cookin. Look at this. Thats a swiffer. I dont have to climb up. Did you notice how clean it looks . Morty are you listening . Morty . [ morty ] im listening i want you to know. Ugh actually progressos soup has pretty bold flavor. I love bold flavors id love it if youd open the chute [ male announcer ] progresso. Surprisingly bold flavor for a heart healthy soup. As we head towards veterans day, we have a bit of good news for the men and women who served our country. Veterans Affairs Secretary announced this week that vet disability claims have actually dropped by more than a third since march. That is a welcome sign of progress after years of backlog. And tomorrow at noon on msnbc, my colleague, former congressman and iraq war vet Patrick Murphy will host a onehour program dedicated to Veterans Issues live from the National September 11th memorial in lower manhattan. Msnbc will also premiere the first of 12 documentaries called wounded with issues and personal stories of veterans. We hope youll tune in. Ahead, laverne cox of orange is the new black end up being the new no for john boehner and friends. Thats coming up. And force religious Business Owners and workplaces such as christian bookstores to accept as normal transvestites and drag queens. Oh, yeah. It is wellknown that bet didler over here is just doing those cabaret acts until she can land her dream job of selling figu figurines of jesus teaching baseball. Not the limit the cash i earn every month card. Its not the i only earn decent rewards at the gas station card. Its the nogames, nosigning up, everydayrewarding, kungfufighting, silverlightninginabottle, bringinghomethebacon cash back card. This is the quicksilver card from capital one. Unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every singleay. So ask yourself, whats in your wallet . Customer erin swenson ordebut they didnt fit. Line customers not happy, im not happy. Sales go down, im not happy. Merch comes back, im not happy. Use ups. They make returns easy. Unhappy customer becomes happy customer. Then, repeat customer. Easy returns, im happy. Repeat customers, im happy. Sales go up, im happy. I ordered another pair. Im happy. both im happy. Im happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy happy. I love logistics. [ herbie ] no doubt about it brent, a real gate keeper. Heres kevin in the nissan sentra. Lamb to the slaughter. Moms baked cookies but hell be lucky to make it inside. And heres the play. Oh, dad did not see this coming. [ crowd cheering ] now if kevin can just seize the opportunity. Hes seen it. Its all over. Nothing but daylight. Yes id love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. The nissan sentra. Now get one fifty nine per month lease on a twothousand thirteen nissan sentra. Not financially. So we switched to the bargain detergent but i found myself using three times more than they say to and the clothes still werent as clean as with tide. So were back to tide. Theyre cuter in clean clothes. Thats my tide. Whats yours . Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells all seem to say throw care away from everywhere, filling the air [ female announcer ] chex party mix. Easy 15minute homemade recipes you just pop in a microwave. Like caramel chocolate drizzles. Happier holidays. Chex party mix. Oh, efforts to expand and insure equal rights for every american took big steps forward as illinois and hawaii legalized marriage equality. A number of openly gay americans were elected to various offices on tuesday. And in an historic move, the Senate Passed the employment nondiscrimination act which prohibits Workplace Discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender americans. As my beloved gay husband of the Washington Post said its been another big gay week. This equality seems so simple to so many americans. In fact, evangelicals, a majority of republicans and the future of the gop young republicans strongly favor the legislation that passed this week. Now, remember the gop post 2012 autopsy . So in a week where voters rejected the extremism of the gop, youd actually think republicans would come running to show their support. Not so much. One hold up, im going to let old rush bo explain that one to you. You ever notice when democrats get what they want its historic . Historic gay rights bill passes in senate. Somebody tell me what gay rights are denied now . You know what, rush, let me try to make this really simple for you. Lets say you were gay living in your home state of florida and you tried to get married, or you were fired. Yes, a girl can dream. Youd have absolutely no rights. Now, another hold up for some conservatives, the legislation covers transgender people, the very people who are discriminated against the most in the workplace among the lgbt community. Heres Vice President of the conservative Group Liberty council, matt barber, on monday. If a, you know, 64, 250pound former linebacker who now fancies himself a woman comes and applies for a job at a church to be a receptionist or janitor, if theyre not directly in a pastoral role or some kind of role, then it would still apply. This kind of ignorance and fear is exactly the reason we need enda in the first place. Its also why transgender Awareness Week, which kicks off this monday, provides an important opportunity to break down these barriers. Joining me now is laverne cox, star of the Netflix Series orange is the new black and first transwoman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show. Im so glad to have you here. So excited to be here. So exciting. It was a big week. A lot happened that i thought was really positive. I want to start with enda because obviously we know it passed in the senate. And the belief is it could pass in the house except john boehner is going to play a little trick like he did with the continuing resolution and just not bring it to the floor. And the thing that strikes me is the gop just does not get they are on the wrong side of history on this one. Its a shame. You know, i get to live my dream out by having my dream job basically. So many transpeople are denied that opportunity. I just met a young transwoman in kansas city, missouri, this week who got up and told us a story about how she lost her job when she decided to transition on her job. She has no legal recourse. And that is really fundamentally unamerican. And the pain really that she expressed of not only being, you know, fired but then just feeling who she is is not really accepted in this culture. And i think the big piece that so often its still socially acceptable to make fun of, to ridicule transgender people. We need to begin to make a culture where thats not acceptable, where thats not okay. Transgender people, we just want dignity. One of the things i find interesting is if you ask someone, if you say do you think somebody should be fired because theyre gay, lesbian, transsexual, bigender, theyd cias sa no. One of the things that i think is so important and i want to talk about your role on orange is the new black because one of the things that weve seen my familys biracial, that used to be illegal. And its like the more you meet people who are different than yourself and know gay people and know gay people who are married and have good marriages and know transgender people, you sort of take the boog giman out of it. Your role is important in putting that out there for people to see a character they can laugh with, cry with, relate to. Talk to us about your character. Whats been great is shes a character whos in prison and shes faced a lot of issues transgender people face. Helps with health care when they deny her hormones and so many transgender people in prison experience that. Whats amazing is people a woman wrote a blog saying she used to have these misconceptions about who transpeople are and after watching the show and experiencing my character those ideas changed. Thats really exciting to me. If we can sort of humanize transpeople, transpeople just want the same things that everyone else does. All the stigmatizing and sort of criminalizing of our identities, we want to be able to work and live our dreams and be happy. Do you have input on the scripts to make sure they accurately reflect . Or do you feel the writers do a good job of making sure reflects that your character reflects the transjentder experience . The writers have done an amazing job. I get asked this a lot. Folks assume ive had a lot of role in telling them whats real. But sean who wrote episode three, she just did a lot of research. And the writers are interested in telling human stories. So we are interested in like creating walking, talking, multidimensional human beings a lot of the ideas and stereotypes we have about them are going for a joke which is traditionally seen when transfolks are represented on tv that goes away. Thats sort of the key to all of this is that when you, again, the human stories, when you see somebody as a human being not just as a lambeau or stereotype, then its a very different conversation. I know that actually one of the things you also do is you give speeches. I would imagine particularly for young people it must be incredible because i cant remember i mean, when i was a kid, there werent really many gay characters on television, certainly not transgender. That must be huge for young people. I think the big piece that a transperson is being played by a transperson. Thats a great point. Apparently revolutionary. And im having a ball going around its like a black person playing a black person. How about that . Finally. And im having a ball going around the country talking to kids, college kids, theyre so enthusiastic and they want to learn. What excites me about this is these are the kids who can make policy in the future. They can hire someone whos tra transgender. Everyone out there listening saying what can i do, maybe i can give them a job, maybe if someone is making fun, i can call them out and say thats not acceptable. Everyone out there can do something for transequality and transrights. I dont have a lot of faith in john boehner and our congress, but i have faith in the people of america. You know, and to that point actually having faith in people, i mean one of the things that was interesting in the passage of enda this week and i think i have it here somewhere and im going to read it, was, you know, some of the senators made the point that it was actually one of the witnesses who was a transgender person listening to that story, that human story, actually changed some of their minds. And i think theyre playing this sound bite. Okay. So theyre not. So ill just read it. And i cant read it because i dont have it in front of me. Anyway, you remember it. Whats exciting is that the person who testified, his name was kyler, hes a wonderful advocate and activist for transequality in this country. Ive gotten a chance to work with him and hes amazing. Its a really great example of, again, if we get to know transpeople, its like all of the boogeyman and the fear monogoring that happens sort of melts away when we see the humanity of people. You watched the testimony. What did he talk about that really you think maybe was the part that really struck people . I think its the piece of i mean, so a lot of the work kyler is doing is around people of color, transpeople of color because so often the intersectionalty of race and class disproportionately affect people of color. So talking about that and speaking to that and putting a human face on it i think is really the biggest gain. I sure wish they would let him go and speak on the house side. Maybe he could help change a few minds over there. They should have you come up there and talk to them. That would change a few minds. I would love to. Tell me last question, transgender Awareness Week next week, are you doing anything specific . Im at four different colleges next week, so im talking. Im telling my story. Talking about issues of intersectionalty, issues of race, class and gender and telling my story at four different universities next week. Super excited about that. Wonderful. Thank you so much for doing that. And thank you for joining me today. I really preeshtd it. From another rubio hypocrisy to women with big thighs. A few big stories you may have missed this week. My asthmas under control. I dont miss out. You sat out most of our game yesterday asthma doesnt affect my job. You were out sick last week. My asthma doesnt bother my family. You coughed all through our date night i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. What did you say . How about every day . Coping with asthma isnt controlling it. Test your level of control at asthma. Com, then talk to your doctor. There may be more you could do for your asthma. But it sure feels that way. Because with power ports. And wifi. And inseat entertainment, for everyone on board, now when you fly, time flies too. Flight Attendant sir, were about to land. vo were adding a brand new plane, with all this, every week. Its just one way were building the new american. You see the gray. Try root touchup by nice n easy. Just brush our permanent color matching creme right where you need it. Then rinse. In ten minutes zap those grays and get on with your day. Nice n easy root touchup. [ ding ] losing your chex mix too easily . Time to deploy the boringpopcorn decoy bucket. Then no one will want to steal the deliciousness. With a variety of tastes and textures only chex mix is a bag of interesting. Now its time for fyi. Some of the news that you may have missed this week. First n a stunning break with his party, marco rubio has come out in support of background checks. Oh, wait, were not talking about background checks for gun buyers. The legislation rubio introduced thursday would require a criminal check, Credit Report and fingerprinting for potential obama care navigators. You know, the Friendly Faces meant to lead you through the insurance enrollment process. The good senator from florida says his bills meant to cut down on fraud and minimize the risk to enrollees personal information. He said it is unacceptable that president obama suggests that the American People simply trust the federal government and its network of obama care navigators. You know what, marco, youre right. Why would we trust you . I mean, youre an elected part of government, arent you . Next, in news that makes a little bit more sense, sweden introduced a new system that rates movies based on their level of gender bias. To earn an a grade, a movie must pass the bekhtel test, its got to have two named female characters who at some point in the film talk to each other about something other than men. Now, that sounds easy, right . Think again. Most of the biggest blockbusters cant even pass the test including im sad to say star wars, avatar, the dark knight and all but one of the harry potter movies. Walmart had a glitch of its own when listing a big ticket item for a fraction of those price. Anticipating extra holiday pounds, you can buy a walmart treadmill for 33. How about a projector . Originally 600, yours for the low price of 8. 85. Now, walmart has said it wont honor the purchases. Instead it will offer customers a refund and a 10 gift card. For the customer who is thought they were getting the deal of the century, that brings a whole new meaning to the term black friday. And finally, remember all that controversy over lululemons see through yoga pants . The founder now says its not the pants thats the problem, no, ladies, its our bodies. Put frankly, some womens bodies actually dont work for it. And i cant be they dont work for the pant sns. No, they dont work for certain some womens bodies. This isnt the first time the yoga wear retailers come under fire for weight discrimination. Many former employees have admitted that larger sizes are regularly shoved to the back of the stores and rarely restocked. They cant have all us size 12 and 14 gals scaring off the zeros. Come on. Next, its a fact that Many Insurance Companies should be the ones to apologize for the problems with the Affordable Care act. Ing the moon in 1971. Afghanistan in 2009. On the u. S. S. Saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once its earned, usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaas commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy. Get an Auto Insurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. This is the creamy chicken corn chowder. I mean, look at it. So indulgent. Did i tell you i am on the. [ both ] Chicken Pot Pie diet me too [ male announcer ] so indulgent, youll never believe theyre light. 100calorie progresso light soups. A man who doesnt stand still. But jim has afib, Atrial Fibrillation an irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. That puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. For years, jims medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. But now, with onceaday xarelto®, jims on the move. Jims doctor recommended xarelto®. Like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce afibrelated stroke risk. But xarelto® is the first and only onceaday prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. That doesnt require routine blood monitoring. So jims not tied to that monitoring routine. [ gps ] proceed to the designated route. Not today. [ male announcer ] for patients currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. Xarelto® is just one pill a day taken with the evening meal. Plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the Healthy Foods he likes. Do not stop taking xarelto®, rivaroxaban, without talking to the doctor who prescribes it as this may increase the risk of having a stroke. Get help right away if you develop any symptoms like bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. You may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto® with aspirin products, nsaids or blood thinners. Talk to your doctor before taking xarelto® if you have abnormal bleeding. Xarelto® can cause bleeding, which can be serious, and rarely may lead to death. You are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto® and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. Tell your doctors you are taking xarelto® before any planned medical or dental procedures. Before starting xarelto®, tell your doctor about any conditions such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. Xarelto® is not for patients with artificial heart valves. Jim changed his routine. Ask your doctor about xarelto®. Once a day xarelto® means no regular blood monitoring no known dietary restrictions. For more information and savings options, call 1888xarelto or visit goxarelto. Com. I want it fixed so the Affordable Care act will succeed. Will succeed. Not be torn down. As the president has said, the promise of the Affordable Care act is far more than just a website. The promise the Affordable Care act is a benefit to 105 million americans who have been protected against lifetime limits since 2010. That was senator tom harkin this week listing one of the many reasons to be thankful for the Affordable Care act chlgt its a fact theres plenty of blame to go around when it comes to troubles with the Affordable Care rollout, from companies denying to leaders. Only one person has stepped up to take responsibility, and that would be president obama. This week he made an apology in an interview with nbcs chuck todd. I regret very much that what we intended to do, which is to make sure that everybody is moving into better plans because they want them as opposed to because theyre forced into it, that you know we werent as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taken place. And i am sorry that they are, you know, finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me. Weve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and that were going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this. Now, as i said, it is a fact that multiple forces have been shall we say less than honest, even misleading about Coverage Options for americans. Its a fact that some Insurance Companies pushed customers to sign expensive new policies instead of providing information about the options offered by obama care. With potentially cheaper and better coverage. A talking points memo investigation looked at complaints raised in four states. And one woman in seattle named donna. She was told by her Insurance Company that a new plan would cost 1,000 a month with a more than 6,000 deductible. She did her homework and went to the marketplace and found herself a plan with a subsidy costing her just 80 a month with a 250 deductible. Now, thats a big difference. Especially for a Family Living on a 40,000 a year income. And if you thought you could get help in person with a navigator, well, tough luck. While the government spent nearly 70 million to hire men and women to provide inperson assistance with the navigators and the new law signing up, its a fact 17 states have made it harder or impossible for navigators to meet with people who need their help. According to the commonwealth fund. Now, im honored to be joined by someone who knows the facts better than anyone, its iowa senator tom harkin, who is chairman of the Senate Health committee. Nice to be with you, karen, thank you. So i want to start, you had quite a moment this week where, senator, you pointed out and helped to dispel one of the biggest complaints that we hear from conservatives or from those forces opposing the Affordable Care act with the excuse that they dont want to have to pay for Maternity Care costs. Can you tell us a little about that . Well, yeah. We heard, you know, some of the republicans were complaining they got one person who said, well, ive got to pay maternity coverage, but my husband and i, were too old, were not having anymore children. Why should i pay for Maternity Care . I said, you know, thats like my wife and i, our kids are grown, they no longer go to Public Schools in our neighborhood, so why should we have to pay our property taxes to pay for the schools . Maybe the only parents with kids in school should pay those taxes for the schools. You see, thats what theyre missing, that were all in this together. And were a Better Society when we do these things all together. And you know, senator, the other thing as i was talking about it and i know you have talked about this a bit, when you sort of dig down past the rhetoric, i mean, were learning a lot more about the nature of the letters that were sent to people, sometimes giving them misinformation. But also a lot of people dont realize that its not in terms of figuring out your cost its not actually just your deductible. Theres your out of pocket cost, theres, you know, prescription drugs and all that. Part of it is just the challenge this is a complicated issue. It is. And you were right to cite that case in washington. I read that letter. I personally looked at it and read the letter that was sent out by the blue cross subsidiary in washington state. It was very misleading. Very misleading. I dont know if you know this, karen, but in kentucky the insurance commissioner fined humana 65,000 because they had sent out misleading letters to people. True in colorado also. They didnt fine them but had offered an apology and sent letters out to their customers correcting a situation. This is happening all over the country. The other thing that republicans and others are forgetting is that a couple years ago when insurers and the individual and small marketplace, when they read through the obama care and what it was going to do, they then started selling junk policies. Right. Junk policies. They knew darn well those pol y policies couldnt exist beyond this year. And then what happened is they send these letters out to people saying, guess what, your policys going to have to be canceled and youre going to have to pay a lot more money because of obama care. Right. But in fact they had policies that were worthless. I have one a lot of cases of this. Im reminded of one in florida where a woman had a policy that only cost her 650 a year. A year. Right. And she was mad because now shes going to have to pay more for a different policy. You know what that 650 covered . It covered the first 50 of hospitalization. Oh, my goodness. Whats that ten minutes in the hospital . I was going to say can you even get in the door with that. It was worthless. In effect she was paying 650 a year to be uninsured. So i want to switch gears because i do think theres another issue that youve been a leader on that i think had a good week. And that is an increase in the minimum wage. We saw seatac in new jersey, people overwhelmingly supporting an increase in minimum wage to help get the ball rolling. The president had talked about this earlier this year. And from what ive been reading, you seem very hopeful that this is going to get done. Well, i am hopeful. Weve done this in the past. You know, the last time we raised the minimum wage we did it with a bipartisan vote of over 80 senators, republicans and democrats supported it. Its time to raise it again. The raise we are asking for to go to 10. 10 is about the same percentage raise as we had the last time we raised it under george bush, who was a republican president. Its sort of in line with what weve done in the past. Although, senator, i feel like we hear from republicans that if we we just cant afford doing Something Like that. Its going to be a job killer, it will hurt businesses if we do it. Instead of thinking about how it might actually put money into the economy because it puts more money in peoples pockets. Absolutely. I mean, there is not one scintilla of evidence to show that raising the minimum wage in the past has cost jobs. But there is a lot of evidence to show that when people get paid higher minimum wage youre talking low income people. They tend to spend every buck they make. And when they do that and theyre buying locally, theyre shopping locally. It helps the local economy a great deal when you raise the minimum wage. Senator harkin, i hope youre successful in that effort and thank you for your work in the senator. Thanks, karen. Next, randitis. Its a medical condition most known for the thinning of ones skin. Im paging you, dr. Paul. Many cereals say theyre good for your heart, but did you know theres a cereal thats recommended by doctors . Its post shredded wheat. Recommended by nine out of ten doctors to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Post shredded wheat is made with only one ingredient one hundred percent whole grain wheat, with no added sugar or salt. Try adding fruit for more Health Benefits and more taste in your bowl. Its the ideal way to start your heart healthy day. Try post shredded wheat. This has been medifacts for post shredded wheat. Doing it with a cold, just not going to happen. Vicks dayquil powerful nondrowsy 6symptom cold flu relief. No matter what city youre playing tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ]. You cant let a cold keep you up tonight. Vicks nyquil powerful nighttime 6symptom cold flu relief. It annoys the hell out of me, im being unfairly targeted by a bunch of hacks and haters. Im going to put footnotes on everything if it will just make people leave me alone. Ill go back to being a doctor and ill be perfectly content. No, those arent my words. I dont want to be accused of using someone elses material without atri bugs. Senator rand paul gave those excuses this week to the national review, abcs this week and the New York Times all in response to his plagiarism scandal. Turns out the senator is kind of thin skinned and that can be a liability when you play as fast and loose with sources as paul does. Now, this time his sourcing problem is that he used other peoples material without giving them credit, stolen passages in speeches, columns and books have been turning up all week, right up to yesterday. His sourcing problem earlier this year was a little bit different because the source of his information was just garbage. You may remember the benghazi hearings last january. Shortly after telling Hillary Clinton he would have fired her, senator paul mentioned reports which turned out to be crazy conspiracy theories out of the right wing blogosphere about a gun running scheme. It turned up on outlets such as glenn becks show and that is what rand paul called news. Now, dr. Paul may still have another sourcing problem. The source of his medical certification. According to the Washington Post, not only does his credential not come from the american board of optimal gist. Not only from something called the National Board of apt mall ji but that National Board of apthamology, it actually went out of business in 2011. So considering his free use of the truth, senator paul better learn to be more graceful when he gets caught. Remember hes always first in line to pass judgment on others. If rand paul thinks hes going to be president and call president obama a liar and fire Hillary Clinton, he should probably hold himself to the same standard and apologize sincerely for stealing. Now, speaking of steal, what do rand paul and contestant from big brother have in common . They both plagiarized my guest. Dan stewart is reporter of the week and author of rethinking mandatory sentencing and the article from which rand paul used several passages verbatim for his own column in the Washington Post called the devastating Collateral Damage of an insidious drug war. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I love this i was plagiarized by rand paul and i dont care. Thats right. When i found out, i got a call from the buzz feed reporter who got the story. When i found out i said i thought to myself how should i feel about this . Should i be angry that the senator has used my work, this guy whos several rungs up the social ladder from me . But i really didnt. I felt kind of indifferent towards it. Thats my own experience. I dont want to be apologizing on senator rands behalf. And you did mention that more people actually ended up seeing your article. Thats right. Something about having a u. S. Senator cramp from your stuff. Right. That brings you a lot of attention. So thats great. But it made me think about, you know, as writers when you put things on the internet, you lose some of the expectation of ownership. Its very easy. Plagiarizing is so easy these days. But let us think it is easy, but i think we have the Merriam Webster definition of plagiarism, but it is made easier on the internet. Plagiarism, the act of using another persons words or ideas without giving credit to that person. I actually last week did a little bit of checking and its pretty easy to figure out whether youre giving a speech or writing something to still give people credit for their work. Right. Its the easiest thing in the world. But in todays online world, sometimes you see your work being taken out of context or being quoted at length verdict. And, you know, theres just a single line saying dan stewart wrote this in the week. That would be the Gopcontrolled Congress seem taken out of context. Right, of course. And it makes you think about how it is to have those words of difference between that and Something Like senator pauls done. If in his article he said and dan stewart says, i wouldnt be here right now. I wouldnt be talking to you. Its such an easy thing to do. Or maybe we would have come to you saying, oh, dan stewart is the brilliant man who wrote that. You never know. The other thing is citing wikipedia ya, ive worked with younger people and tell them you can go to wikipedia to start, but thats not original source material. Theres a Wikipedia Page out on me that says i was born in virginia, which i was not and i cant even change it. As a journalist you dont use wikipedia as a source. No, you dont. And publications have a responsibility to making sure what we write is well sourced and we credit the right people. But i do think that if youre a College Student and youve grown up with free television, free movies, free music, you might think, well, this whole idea of owning intellectual property is a little old fashioned. It does strike me if you think youre going to run for president this level of scrutiny is nothing compare today what happens in a president ial campaign. Absolutely. You know, most College Students do know that its not right. And so, yeah, youd hope that someone with aspirations to be a leader within their party will have an idea about that. Just sayin. And if not i think hes probably learned his lesson now that even the Washington Post has dropped him. Thanks so much, dan stewart, for joining me. Youre welcome. That does it for me. Thanks so much for joining us. Please dont forget to share your thoughts. Find us on facebook and tweet us. I will see you right back here tomorrow afternoon. If youve got copd like me, hey breathings hard. Know the feeling . Copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Spiriva is a oncedaily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. Spiriva helps me breathe easier. Spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fastacting inhalers for sudden symptoms. Tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. These may worsen with spiriva. Discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. Stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. Other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. Nothing can reverse copd. Spiriva helps me breathe better. Does breathing with copd weigh you down . Dont wait to ask your doctor about spiriva. To share with family. [ woman 2 ] to carry on traditions. [ woman 3 ] to come together even when were apart. [ male announcer ] in stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and more, swanson makes holiday dishes delicious. [ male announcer ] not all toralb prohealth toothbrushes have crisscross bristles that remove up to 90 of hard to reach plaque. Feel the difference. Oralb, trust the brand more dentists and hygienists use. Oralb. On the table by not choosing the right medicare d plan. No one could have left this much money here. Whoohoohoo yet many seniors who compare medicare d plans realize they can save hundreds of dollars. Cvs pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses. Talk to your cvs pharmacist, call, or go to cvs. Com compare to get your free, personalized plan comparison today. Call, go online, or visit your local store today