Popular. Ted cruz and i have been roundly criticized. Thank you for being here. I wish you would participate in the democratic process through speaking respectfully. We make no apologies. After leaving here, im going to be going to the white house. If im never seen again, please send a search and rescue team. What else should i be all apologies good afternoon. That is a live picture of the White House Briefing room, where press secretary jay carney is about to take the microphone. And well monitor what he has to say about possible negotiations to end the Government Shutdown as he speaks. And as we close out the 11th day of the Government Shutdown, there is now some hope of an 11thhour resolution. To avert the one thing thats even more terrifying, a government default. After a twoweek stalemate, there are signs that the establishment gop is now striking back against the tea Party Insurgents who have sewn anarchy and mayhem within their own party. And most importantly, people are now talking. This afternoon, the president wrapped up a series of meetings with lawmakers, hosting Senate Republicans, including wacko bird, ted cruz, at the white house. Senator Lindsay Graham characterized the meeting just a brief time ago. If we negotiated, if we had done this a couple weeks ago, we wouldnt be where we are today. I think youll see something come out of the house in the next 24 hours to reopen the entire government. That will have changes to obama care, that will not destroy the program, but make it better. I think youll see an effort by the house to raise the debt ceiling, not for a year, but for a period of time. I hope the president will accept these gestures from the house and we get this behind us in the next 48 hours. Yep. 48 hours to hold our breath and the war on weekends continues with the house in session at 9 00 a. M. On saturday. Wow. Today, house budget chairman, congressman paul ryan, struck a reasonable tone addressing the value voter summit in washington. This president , he wont agree to everything we need to do. A budget agreement with this president and this senate, it wont solve all of our problems. But i hope its a start. I hope we can get a down payment on our debt. Mr. Ryan addressing conservatives there from a secret, undisclosed location, and perhaps thats because hes not vowing to call down fire and brim stone on the Affordable Care act. Remarkably, mr. Ryan and his coolerheaded colleagues have now delegated that line of attack to the sole purview of mr. Cruz, who told values voter today that its the democrats who are on the defense. Look, the democrats are feeling the heat. In my view, the house of representatives needs to keep doing what its been doing, which is standing strong yes thats because mr. Cruz has been commissioning his own polls, and listening to his own lunacy instead of reading the surveys that everyone else sees. Like our latest nbc wall street journal poll, the one that nbc news political director chuck todd called an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party. To start, by a 5331 margin, more people blame Congressional Republicans for the shutdown than the president. 70 , including 40 of republicans, believe Congressional Republicans are putting their own political agenda ahead of whats good for the country. Thats doing no favors for the party brand with a 53 having a negative view of the gop, the worst rating for republicans in the polls nearly 25 yearyear history. Oh, and nearly half of those surveyed now want democrats to lead congress. A margin of eight points, the largest lead since 2009. Mr. Cruz, of course, was not buying any of it when nbc news caught up with him just a few moments ago. I think it was a poll if you seek out liberal obama supporters and ask them their views, theyre going to tell you theyre liberal obama supporters. Thats not reflective of where the country is. Yes, just keep skewing, mr. Cruz. After all, it did great for mitt romney, didnt it . Lets go to elijah couplin elij. I wonder if you would mind waiting, because jay carney is currently speaking from the press briefing room. Were going to take a quick listen. Has insisted we cannot allow a situation where one party in one house uses the threat of default to try to extract concession through budget negotiations. And it is his position that the right thing to do is to remove that gun from the table. Extend the debt ceiling in a way that ensures that there is no suggestion or hint that default is an option. Because our economy cant endure that kind of approach to resolving our budget differences. And a proposal that puts a debt ceiling increase at only six weeks tied to budget negotiations would put us right back where we are today, in just six weeks, on the verge of thanksgiving and the obviously important shopping season leading up to the holidays. And that would create, you know, enormous uncertainty for the economy. The president speaking with Small Business owners, heard from them that, you know, the continued threat of default into that season would be very damaging to them. But you said we dont think thats the right way to go. You said yesterday, though, the president would likely sign a shortterm debt ceiling increase. That still stands, is that correct . Yes. Heres but lets be clear about what his position has been and what ive said. It is the very least that congress could do to pass legislation that would raise the debt ceiling for a short term and pass legislation that would fund the government for a short term as the senate has already passed. And the president has believed that, as i think ive stated many times, we should raise the debt ceiling for longer than that, as the senate as proposed and will vote on soon, because we should not link the threat of default to budget negotiations. Hes very eager to engage in budget negotiations. Thats been something hes amply demonstrated all year long and is reflected in the Budget Proposal he made earlier this year. But we should not have a situation a dynamic that has led to where we are now that led to what we saw in the summer of 2011 and that would be recreated in six weeks if we had to, once again, go through a process where one party was trying to extract concessions and budget negotiations in return for lifting the debt ceiling. One more time. There was a proposal that the House Republicans came to the white house listening there to jay carney, responding, saying that the president is unwilling to agree to any kind of continuing resolution or debt ceiling raise that is of an insufficient period or oh length of time. Lets go back to congressman elijah cummings. Congressman, what is this republican addiction to bimonthly chaos and fraught circumstances for the economy of the United States . I think its basically to hold congress and the nation hostage. And to create these socalled emergency situations, so as to extract the things that they want, things they could not accomplish through the regular legislative process. They want to do it through the back door. So what are we going to do . Are we going to deny Veterans Benefits again in six weeks . Are we going to deny meals on wheels . Are we going to throw children off head start every six weeks . Is that where we are . Unfortunately, that is the concern of the democrats. Keep in mind, martin. We now have 30 republicans who have come out and said they would vote with all of the democrats to have a continuing resolution, a clean continuing resolution, which would, of course, open up government immediately. And, again, we and i agree with the president. You cannot function with regard to a continuing resolution, with regard to raising the debt ceiling, with a gun at your head. You just cant do it. And so and i think what it does, is that if you do it that way, youll be in a few months going through the same thing. And if you give them concessions, then what they consider to be concessions yes. Theyll want more and more and more. And theyre never satisfied, ever. All you do is, you introduce a pattern of behavior, and you affirm the rightness of this kind of practice. But republicans, as you know, sir, have done everything to oppose every single thing this president has tried. It doesnt matter if its the americans jobs act, the Affordable Care act, they oppose it. Now you yourself had a similar experience, indeed its ongoing, with the House Oversight committee and its idiotic chairman. What is it going to take for these people to realize that venting their personal bitterness is actually harming the people of this country . I dont know what its going to take. I can tell you, martin, theres a lot of pain out there. A lot of pain. Of course, i represent a district that is close to washington. I have Social Security administration in the middle of my district. Weve got over 16,000 employees who have been furloughed. And then there are others that are being asked to come to work with no pay. And ive had people calling me and saying, cummings, what am i supposed to do, im note not getting any pay, how do i pay my mortgage . And then, of course, all the Services People are being denied. And i think one of the things that this is showing is that government is very important. People here republican friends quite often bashing government employees. But let me tell you, they play some very, very significant roles. Yeah. In case our viewers walk away thinking a great wave of reason has suddenly swept the gop with their willingness to engage in conversations and maybe even consider opening up the government again, id like you to take a listen to the famed dr. Ben carson today at the value voter summit. Listen to this, sir. And i have to tell you, you know, obama care is really, i think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. And it is slavery in a way. There you go, sir. The Affordable Care act is the worst thing since slavery. I mean, every aspect of the Affordable Care act is apparently a manifestation of slavery. We had the fugitive slave act as an analogy last week. Now you have this individual saying it is slavery. What are you talking about . I dont have a clue. And i know ben carson. Of course, hes from baltimore. And ive known him for over 30 years, and im really saddened by those comments. Because dr. Carson works in a hospital johns hopkins, one of the greatest hospitals in the country. No doubt. And within a half mile radius of johns hopkins, there are so many people that are sick and dying, because they dont have insurance. The cure is in within the walls of johns hopkins, but they dont have the insurance to get in. And my friend, dr. Carson, knows that well. I dont know what this is about. Im concerned that he made those statements. And i think its very, very unfortunate. I dont know who he is talking to. But he needs to come back to baltimore. And ill take him a tour give him a tour of my neighborhood, where we can sit and talk to some of these people who are going to benefit greatly from the Affordable Care act, those many people who have preexisting conditions, the young people who need to stay on their parents insurance policies until theyre 26, the children and who need all kinds of care, 17 million of them, who are now able to have insurance and not be thrown off because of preexisting conditions. Yeah. Those are the folks that, you know that hear him and some of my republican friends, they talk a lot about other folks, but they dont talk about the people that actually the Affordable Care act was put in place to assist in getting insurance. Indeed. And so thats very unfortunate. Yeah. Well, congressman, elijah cummings, maybe when you take him back, you could introduce him to departmental members of the psychiatrist department. It sounds like he needs help. Thank you, sir, for joining us. Thank you. Coming up, chris hayes and john walsh will join us. But first, its republican open mic night. Why not test out some new tgif material, hey . Thank you. I am headed to the white house. And does anybody have a message that i can carry to the president . And i am in a toyota prius. So im not sure if i can take all his supporters with me. But if you need a ride back to the white house, we do have a prius, well take you along need to go home can i get a hell no because were gonna go all night [ paper rustles, outdoor sounds ] [ male announcer ] lauras heart attack didnt come with a warning. Today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. If youve had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. If youve ad a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor announcer answer the call of the grill with new friskies grillers, full of meaty tenders and crunchy bites. Mom . Come in here. Come in where . Welcome to my mom cave. Wow. Sit down. You need some campbells chunky soup before todays big game, new chunky cheeseburger. Mmm. I love cheeseburgers. I know you do. When did you get this place . When i negotiated your new contract, it was part of the deal. Cool. [ male announcer ] campbells chunky soup. It fills you up right. It would appear that even republicans are not immune from the ravages of the Government Shutdown, because today it took away the one thing that they care about more than the Affordable Care act, food stamps, Immigration Reform and meals on wheels. Yes, you guessed it. Paul ryan. Mr. Ryan was forced to cancel his inperson appearance at the value voter summit in washington today in order to work on a detail to avert a debt ceiling crisis. Instead, he pretaped a fresh message of, well, the same old lines youve come to expect. We need to apply our principles to the challenges of today. And that means we need to completely rethink governments role in our lives. We need to completely rethink governments role in helping the most vulnerable. We need to completely rethink governments role in health care. That means we can never give up on repealing and replacing obama care. And joining us now is joan walsh, editor at large of salon. Com and chris hayes, my colleague. Chris, were now being told that paul ryan is the savior for the nation. Are we supposed to give him a standing ovation, because he suddenly realized that defaulting is actually a bad thing for the country . Well, i think whats remarkable about it was, there was a real moment for about 24 hours maybe 36 in which it seemed possible that the entire lines of authority in american class politics had completely degraded to the point that wall street could no longer command the Republican Party not to set the entire world on fire. But luckily, both in a perverse way, luckily for all of us, luckily for world financial markets, and for the lords of finance who occupy the great lower district of this city yes. They were able to impose their will on them. Weirdly, it is a relieve. It is a bizarre circumstance to find yourself in, in which you are rooting you are sitting there rooting the kind of american oil garbagy is placing enough calls into the offices of john boehner so that we are all delivered from totally savage destruction. And joan, heres the system works, please, please, god. And joan, i was just reflecting on the fact, we spent a year with paul ryan running away from his budget, frightened to discuss it on the stump when he was running as Vice President ial candidate and yet now his budget is the salvation of the nation. And hes how did that happen . Hes completely delusional, but not enough. Being savaged for not showing up at value voter and this compromise does not immediately destroy and defund obama care is hes a big sellout ill hes thinking hes going to push this horrible budget on the country. Heres what everyone misses, i think, about the paul ryan budget. Now were talking about this entitlement reform, benefit cuts. Hes talking about means testing medicare. Hes talking about cutting federal pensions. Hes cutting taxes. And hes also talking about bringing back the key stone pipeline. The reason that wont happen is because the Republican Base does not want it to happen. This is the most important thing to understand about the whole politics of entitlement reform, is that the old White Conservative people who show up at tea party rallies, outside the capitol, at the value voter summit, would like their Social Security checks, thank you very much and they would like their medicare, thank you very much. And you are not going to be able to go to them, and say remember, guys, we told you we were going to defund obama care. Heres what we came up with instead. Were cutting your Social Security. No way, no way. Even a party as hell bent be on political suicide as this party seems to be is not that stupid. Right. I guess what gets lost in all of this, joan, is that youve got youve got ted cruz who led the fight, and now youve got paul ryan, who saves them at the end of the day. Where does this leave mr. Boehner himself . On the sidelines, completely. He is speaker in nameonly. Nancy pelosi or somebody else to bail him out all along. And i talked to nancy pelosi last night and she was amazingly candid about the dynamic. You spoke to her personally . Yes, i did. Very q a at salon. The dynamic democrats helped create, she said we have been enablers and we cant be anymore. They trust us to be the reasonable ones, responsible ones, so they will be irresponsible and we will bail them out at the end of the day. And i thought that answer was fascinating, because part of what were seeing here is unprecedented unity on the part of the democrats which has gotten us to the point we are in which the republicans own this, as they should own it. Yes. And in the past, republicans could always count on democrats breaking away. And, in fact, there is reporting indicating that Senate Republicans thought were going to gets some of these red state democrats to come with us on some of these votes. No, no, no, no. I couldnt help notice, joan, if its ha