dealing with no food. we're live on the ground to find out what's being done. and a state lawmaker accidentally undermining her party and her principles with the press of a button. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." first to a dramatic moment on the campaign trail. the presumptive republican presidential nominee, mitt romney, firmly stating his position on the u.s. supreme court's historic ruling up hodding obama care and directly contradicting what his top campaign advisor said earlier in the week. our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash, is covering romney in new hampshire on this july 4th. she caught up with him earlier in the day. how did that go, dana? >> reporter: very interesting answer. remember, it was a revolt against taxes imposed by the king of england that spurred this day we're celebrating today, independence day. so perhaps it is fitting that whether or not the health care mandate is a tax was the question of the day here on the campaign trail. at first the ever-disciplined mitt romney refused to answer. earlier romney taped an interview with cbs to give a carefully crafted response to a thorny question for him. whether the health insurance mandate is a tax. >> just say yes. >> i told you, take a look at it. >> reporter: but finally he gave cnn the news. >> the supreme court is the final word, right? the highest court in the land? they said it was a tax, didn't they? so it's a tax. that's what they say it is. >> reporter: the main reason the already cautious romney was especially careful here is because the gop message on the mandate is already muddled. earlier this week a top romney advisor said the candidate did not think the insurance mandate is a tax but rather a penalty. what democrats call it. >> the governor believes what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty. and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. >> reporter: that enfuruated republicans in washington for imposing what they call the biggest tax in american history. democrats here shadowing romney's event didn't miss a beat. >> i think people see the president as being a strong leader standing up for his principles and moving forward. we'll let mitt romney argue with himself. >> reporter: romney's news came during a brief bit of independence day action in an otherwise quiet week with his family at their new hampshire vacation home. here comes mitt romney down the parade route. this is the kind of scene you see from politicians all over the country on july 4th. but there's nothing more important than republican presidential candidate on july 4th before election day. it's very clear watching mitt romney working this crowd. >> happy fourth of july, guys. >> reporter: but the large romney family, 30 counting grandchildren, hardly had the parade route to themselves. team obama was there in full force since new hampshire's four electoral votes are critical for the president's prospects for re-election. and barack obama handily won this state four years ago against john mccain. but right now polls show a dead heat between the president and mitt romney. and, wolf, that is in large part because he has one of his adopted homes here. it's one of his adopted states, i should say. and of course he was the governor of the state next door. speaking of massachusetts, we should add that one of the questions following the fact that mitt romney said that he believes the mandate is a tax, is whether or not he believes the health care mandate that he signed in massachusetts is a tax as well. in that cbs interview they released a transcript. he gave an answer, which he said that the supreme court actually says that when it comes to states, they don't need to require them to be called taxes to be constitutional. all i think this really sums up for us is that this is a very complicated issue and it certainly won't fit on a bumper sticker. >> are the romney folks, dana, acknowledging that what the candidate said today is very different than what eric said on monday? >> reporter: they're not, actually. they're not acknowledging that at all. they're trying to, again, explain this ironically kind of a lawyerly way. if you even look on the romney campaign website right now, they still have a quote up from one of their spokeswomen from earlier in the week slamming the president for this tax, but still saying it is a penalty, not a tax. so this is something that they're not admitting as a contradiction. they're trying to explain it, but they're trying to explain it in a very confusing way because, frankly, this is a very confusing issue. and it was a difficult opinion to read. >> dana, on the campaign trail in new hampshire for us. dana bash, thanks very much. let's dig a little deeper right now into all of this with the real clear politics national political reporter, eric mcpike. thanks for coming in on this july 4th. >> thank you. >> i want to play the exact clip of what he told cbs, romney today, because he's very, very precise. as you know, he's a very precise politician. listen to this. >> while i agreed with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it's a tax and therefore it is a tax. they have spoken. there's no way around that. you can try and say you wished they'd decided a different way, but they didn't. they concluded it was a tax. that's what it is. and the american people know that president obama has broken the pledge he made. he said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle income americans. >> the obama folks, obviously the democrats, say they modelled their so-called tax on what romney did in massachusetts. so he now thinks it's a tax in washington, it was a tax in massachusetts presumably as well. >> well, you parse his words and he personally, his personal view is that he agrees with the dissent. i think that's key. >> the four supreme court justices who were in the minority. >> right. and his agreement is essentially deferring to the high court, which as you know, president obama has taken some heat in the past for criticizing the high court. so i think this is more about showing some respect for the supreme court. >> he is precise. it is the law of the land. the supreme court is the third branch of the u.s. government equal to the legislative and the executive branch of the u.s. government. but it does open him up now to some practical consequences in what's a complicated process called reconciliation. if he now says it's a tax, and if he's elected president of the united states, he has promised that on day one of taking office, he would move to repeal what's called obama care. and whether it's a tax or not a tax has very practical ramifications. >> it does because republicans in congress want to repeal this via that reconciliation process, as you said. but the important point to know -- >> the reason is because reconciliation requires 51 votes to repeal a bare majority as opposed to a filibuster, if it's not a tax, then you have to deal with a filibuster which would require 60 votes. >> but here's what hasn't been reported yet. in order to go about doing this via reconciliation, they must first pass a budget. and congress hasn't passed a budget since 2009. so what that means is republicans will need to win four senate seats in order to get 51 votes to first pass a budget before they can even start this reconciliation process to repeal health care. >> he says he's going to start that process on day one if he takes office. it's obviously going to be a difficult process to repeal it. and if president obama's re-elected, he of course could veto whatever congress imposes. then you need a two-thirds majority. >> so override it. >> to override it. >> exactly. >> the house keeps passing a budget, the senate has a democratic majority, doesn't pass a budget. the whole reconciliation process to begin this is what you're being told they first need to pass a budget. >> absolutely right. >> you've been on the hill. >> i was actually talking to one of mitch mcconnell's top aides yesterday and he said we are going to do this or die trying. the first thing they have to do is flip four senate seats. >> were you surprised by what romney said today? it does on the surface seem to be way different than what his senior advisor said on monday. >> i was a little surprised. but this is something mitt romney has struggled with for years. i covered him five years ago in his first run for the presidency. and i remember asking him in the fall of 2007, he said that under his health care plan, he could get every american insured within four years. i said, governor, how are you going to do that without a mandate? and he said he would implement a system of incentives and sticks so that states could deregulate their health insurance markets and then force all of their citizens in each of those states to get insurance. but sticks to me sounds like penalty. >> certainly does. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> erin mcpike coming in from real clear politics. appreciate it. to west virginia now. a situation so dire it's almost unimaginable in a country with as many resources as the united states. it's been five days now since those devastating storms hit, yet hundreds of thousands of people still without power. and now the food supply is starting to dwindle. here in the united states of america in the state of west virginia 3,000 people in one housing complex alone reportedly had no food for two days. brian todd is on the ground for us in the middle of all of this. brian, give us the very latest. how bad is that situation in west virginia? >> reporter: the food shortage, wolf, is continuing. and officials here are scrambling to deal with it. we just visited a shelter where they're distributing food to people, some nonperishable food to people who are in there who lost their power. we're going to have more on that later. we can also update you on the power outages. the latest numbers we have this afternoon are that roughly one-quarter of the customers in this state, about 270,000 of them, still without power today. it's really miserable out here. it's about 100 degrees and very humid. not typical weather in west virginia this time of year. usually it's significantly cooler. that's really a calamitous turn of events as far as nature is concerned for the people here. and, you know, a lot of complaints about the power crews just not getting to places fast enough. and not moving fast enough for the customers. well, this is what they're up against. take a look at this. our photo journalist and i are going to walk you through this downed power line situation. these cables -- obviously the oak tree snapped in half, came on to the cables, knocked out a pole, disabled it across the road. one power company official warned us when these cables are still kind of suspended like this, when they haven't hit the ground, they could still be energized and that's a real hazard for crews. we talked to the chairman and ceo of appalachian power. he also talked about some of the obstacles his crews are fighting against. >> our employees and contractors are out on 16-hour days in this sweltering heat. and we have to wear insulated protection. so think about it. they're in rubber suits, half of their bodies are in rubber suits for a significant part of the day in 100-degree weather. >> reporter: another obstacle they have is that in a lot of areas especially in west virginia, it's not like this. the power poles are not on roads. they're in the middle of valleys in the middle of mountains. these crews have to park somewhere, walk a long way, maybe up a steep incline, climb a tree or something to get to a downed pole, something like that. it's really tough work for them especially in the more remote areas, wolf. >> brian, i hope those lines behind you aren't live. i'm sure a lot of viewers seeing how close you are to those lines and they're beginning to get a little worried. >> reporter: i can tell you what we're told is -- i haven't touched any yet and i won't. but what we're told is if they're hitting the ground -- i won't touch it. we're told if they're hitting the ground, they're de-energized because they trip themselves off. but if they're suspended, there's a chance they could still be energized and you have the tree just hanging on this thing. it could snap, a pole could come down. this is what the crews are up against when they approach these areas. you have to be very, very careful. plenty of people driving and walking around here. it's pretty treacherous. and this is a scene repeated throughout the state, wolf. >> we want folks to be really, really careful out there. don't get too close to those power lines. i know you're going to have a full report in the next hour, but the food situation, this is something that troubles me deeply, as you can imagine. a lot of people hungry right now in west virginia, food apparently's having a tough time reaching these folks? >> reporter: well, it has, wolf. a lot of people live in very remote areas. when they got knocked out of power, they were trying to get to their local food store. those were without power too. and after maybe a day those stores had to throw out all their perishable foods. so they ran out of food quickly. a state official told me that two food banks in this state, two food banks that serve the entire state of nonperishable food, they're depleted. they're starting a food drive. trying to get people into the shelters and get food into those shelters. it's slow-going. they're mobilizing as fast as they can. it's a crisis with food and water right now. >> we'll see what the federal government is doing in the next hour. fema, the department of health and human services, brian will have a full report on that. i know folks are deeply, deeply worried. thanks very much, brian, for that report. there's one thing everybody expects on the fourth of july, but this year towns and cities all across the country are going without fireworks. but it may not be for the reason you think. we'll also meet a california family that rebuilt after losing everything to a wildfire. now they're worried about losing everything again. and pakistan's ambassador to the united states is in "the situation room." she's getting ready to explain what the secretary of state, hillary clinton, accomplished simply by saying one word, sorry. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? 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[ engine revving ] it's bringing the future forward. nothing says fourth of july like fireworks, but this year they may be noticeably absent from celebrations all across the country due to a number of states desperately strapped for cash. let's bring in lisa sylvester. she's been looking into this story. you have details. what are you learning? >> hi, wolf. some fireworks shows have been canceled because of the recent storms, some because of wildfires out west. but in other towns the sky will not be lit up tonight because of the weak economy. we look at two cities facing the same problem. the red, white and blue bunting is out, the door of the broadway diner in red bank, new jersey, wishes patrons a happy fourth of july. but this year something is missing. >> i mean, the whole county would come here. and everyone would get together. it was like a norman rockwell picture. that's really what it was. >> reporter: val says this would have been the diner's busiest day of the year. >> it's early, but it's very, very quiet. it hurts a lot of businesses. >> reporter: red bank canceled its annual fireworks show for the first time in 53 years. officials could no longer pay for police overtime. and organizers couldn't raise enough private donations. it means children having to watch fireworks on television. >> they like stand out more. they're small on tv. but they're big like in like life. >> reporter: it's a sad reality for several towns in the united states. red, white and blue might run deep, but it doesn't matter if you don't have green. >> when you are faced with difficult budget choices, you have to sort out the desirable from the essential. and the city council felt that this was an appropriate cut to make. >> reporter: 65 miles away in new rochelle, new york, they also cancel their display. but they sent out to the community a request and a woman donated $50,000. >> it felt good. from the moment i called to do it, i have felt nothing but joy. and i knew it was right. i still know it's right. i saw the energy shift in the people and excitement. and you have to have that. >> this box right here is 36-shot box. there's 36 small tubes in there. as soon as we hit the ignition switch, the tubes will start firing one after the other. >> reporter: boxes and boxes of fireworks now being unloaded in time for the show. and in new rochelle, new york, that kicks off after sunset tonight. more and more people heard about what a great show it was, but that meant more crowds, more rowdiness and the need for more security. and the bureau in the end couldn't pay for it, wolf. >> a lot of these cities are strapped right now. that's obviously one of the things that goes. >> it's one of the first things, unfortunately, that goes. it's sad. for many celebrations like the one in red bank, that's been going on for 53 years. for the first time it's been cancel canceled. they're hoping this means the community will come together and they may get more donations for next year, wolf. >> hope so. a lot of kids will be disappointed. >> yeah. >> thank you. in california the fireworks are likely to come with mixed emotions for one family still recovering almost four years since devastating wildfires destroyed their home. having a child with autism makes the struggle all the more challenging. cnn's casey wian joining us now. he's got more on this story. what's going on, casey? >> reporter: well, wolf, back in 2008 this community that you can see behind me was burnt to the ground by a wildfire. as you can see by all the empty lots, a lot of folks never came back. those who did have mostly recovered, but they still struggle with the fire's legacy. for the reyes family, fourth of july fireworks -- some 600 others were burnt to the ground by a wildfire. >> flames were coming over the ridge. it literally just took over. and this is all that's left of my house. all this was burning. >> reporter: their son then 7-year-old jonathan, has autism. >> he doesn't do well with change. so this is going to be very hard to explain to him. >> reporter: in 2008 cnn accompanied the reyes' as they picked through the burnt rubble of their home. jonathan searched for his beloved hot wheels collection. >> he's trying to find a car. >> reporter: this fragment was all that remained. >> one of my cars. >> reporter: the harsh reality of rebuilding their lives began to sink in. >> there was a lot of happy memories in this house. and we just had to come here and say good-bye. >> jonathan, we're leaving. we're not coming back. >> why? >> that is wha