0 homeowners back on their feet. and guess what, the banks hate it. we begin tonight with vacation! as of tonight, everyone's favorite congress is officially on lerecess. and there is nothing better than taking some well-deserved time off after you spent months and months working really hard. here's what congress has done this year. they've passed and sent the president 22 bills. that sounds like a lot of progress for seven months? let me assure you it is not. here's how much congress had gotten done by the august recess going back to 2006 when democrats first took over. it used to be they were getting somewhere around three times as many bills passed in the same amount of time. but not anymore. now, of course, to be fair, john boehner famously told us all last week not to judge congress' productivity based on how many bills they passed. that's crazy talk. >> should not be judged on how many new laws we create. we ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. >> okay, speaker, let's give that a try. how many laws has congress legislation but that was largely republicans, particularly in the senate. the other thing on the horizon is the idea that cruz, lee and paul have, senators, to essentially precipitate a government shut-down of some sort unless obama care is defunded. a lot of people are saying that's a bonkers idea, what do you think of that? >> i have to agree with the republican leaders who feel that this is not the message we want to send to the country that is still trying to deal with this economy. and, you know, the idea that the way you're going to do is basically hold it hostage, to hold the economy hostage, hold families and communities hostage, those who are federal employees, it doesn't make sense to me. look, i'm all for, you know, taking care of obama care, getting it right. we know it's a problem. max baucus on the left, others on the the right, have said this needs to be fixed. i don't think this is the way to get it done. again, if they're a problem, put your solutions on the table. >> that's the issue. the solutions. the solutions are missing. bill, it becomes law, it can either be repealing something, it can be changing something, it can be protecting and preserving something. but we're doing very darn little of any of the above. >> you and i have spoken before about some of the big differences between when you were in congress the first time and in congress now that are deeper necessarily than john boehner's having a hard time controlling his caucus and speak to just how much members of congress are actually working right now. how much time they're spending doing the people's business, how much time they're spending fund raising. what has changed in those three decades since the last time you were in the capitol? >> well, chris, there are a lot of little changes and big changes. the two big changes, the flip side of the same coin. my last election contest added up to like over $20 million. my previous one was only a couple hundred thousand dollars. the pros up here on the hill tell members that they should be spending 30 hours a week in the republican and democratic call centers across the street dialling for dollars. one level it's understandable. the political scientists tell us the ones with the most money generally get the most votes. the flip side of that coin is that we're not spending our time governing. i had my staff do a little research on the number of subcommittee and committee meetings that we had when i served in the past. and the three terms that i served, we spent between 7,000 and 8,000 subcommittee meetings. this congress has had somewhere between 400 and 500. >> wow. >> so people are spending all their time raising money instead of governing which is what we're expected to do here. >> here's the other question i have. there's a troep that we have in the progressive press and on this network about, these republicans are the worst republicans ever, and they're just so extreme. and i believe that. i don't say it because i don't believe it. but i also wonder what your perspective, having served with an earlier cohort of republicans, are these republicans, particularly house. house republicans, are they more extreme, are they more willing to ascent to norms in place? >> i was surprised to see the extent they subscribe to the grover norquist philosophy, which norquist has said time and time again, let's squeeze the federal government down to a size so small we can get it into a bathtub and drown it. and that seems to be the philosophy of the extreme right, which is making governance virtually impossible for boehner. can't put together a majority for anything. there's only been like 22 bills that have been passed that have become law. a bunch of those are naming post offices. >> a bunch of the other big ones had the votes supplied by nancy pelosi, the democrats, to actually get -- >> exactly. hurricane sandy, the debt ceiling, violence against women. >> when you take away those and you take away the post office namings you're basically left with the obama repeal votes and that's what you have. congress man rick nolan of minnesota, thank you so much, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. after years without any substantial progress across the country, one city has a bold plan to help struggling homeowners. the city's mayor joins me next. take these bags to room 12 please. 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