Senator john hobin of north dakota delivered this weeks republican address. House republicans have already passed two bills to replace the president s sequester. So the question is, why wont he work with us . And the answer quite simply is because he wants higher taxes. Lets go to the white house and nbcs kristen welker. Another good saturday to you, kristen. Lets talk about the president , what hes doing this weekend to help broker some sort of a deal to avoid the sequester taking effect on friday. Reporter alex, good afternoon. The president says hes going to have conversations with members of congress and throughout the week. But so far the limited conversations they have had have yielded no results. Both sides are dug in it seems increasingly likely the sequester will kick in. On friday president obama met with the Prime Minister of japan, and he answered some questions from journalists as you can imagine, many of them about the sequester. One person asking him, is it inevitable the sequester will go into effect . Heres what he had to say. Take a listen. I never think that anythings inevitable. We always have the opportunity to make the right decisions. I hope is that we can see a different course taken by congress. This should be a nobrainer. Reporter now in order to Pressure Congress to act, the Obama Administration has really been painting a dire picture of what would happen if the sequester did in fact kick in. On friday out going transportation secretary lahood spoke to reporters. He warned that the faa would have to furlough 47,000 employees. La hood said that could mean that air travel would be slowed. Heres what la hood had to say. Travelers should expect delays. Flights to major cities, like new york, chicago and San Francisco and others, could experience delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because we have fewer controllers on staff. Reporter now the administration has also warned that 800,000 civilian Defense Department workers would be fur loued, 10,000 teachers and educators could be laid off. Some Border Patrol agents would see a decrease in hours. Now on friday, House SpeakerJohn Boehners office responded to our inquiries for a reaction to all of this. And they responded by saying the president is far more interested in holding campaignstyle rallies than urging his party in the senate to find a solution. Alex, the sticking points are very familiar. Theyre the same sticking points that weve been talking about in a lot of these budget battles. President obama is demanding more revenue from taxes. Republicans say they want to deal with this issue through entitlement reform and through spending cuts. Theyre also accusing the white house of using scare tactics to try to get something accomplished here. The white house denies those claims, but i can tell you theres a lot of finger pointing going back and forth and very little action. Six days out and no resolution in sight. Alex . Okay, kristen welker, thank you for that rather dismal update there from the white house, appreciate that. Joining me now, democratic congressman Matt Cartwright of depends. Representative cartwright, thank you for being here. Alex, my pleasure, how are you today . Im well, thank you. But weve got to get to this business of the sequester. I know that youve described lawmakers as being on vacation when they dealing with the the sequester. Its hanging over the economy. And you say like the airplane we are flying is going down and were taking a break to watch the inflight movie. So what are you talking about . Is this sort of a lack of urgency from both sides . Because theres no incentive for democrats nor republicans to cut a deal here . I am not saying that at all, alex. Im saying that the house leadership on the republican side, which controls the schedule, controls the calendar, they have every power to bring us back to d. C. , to go back to our desks on the floor of the house and work out the problem. With ten days to go before the ridiculous sequester takes place, we dont get called back to washington. Instead, we have what we call a district work week scheduled. In other words, people are working on things other than averting this sequester. I think its ridiculous. I think that even to see the Republican House leadership working hardest on blaming president obama for the sequester is foolish. What we have is Speaker Boehner making posters about president obama trying to call it the obamaquester, sort of the way they did with obama care, making all the blame the president s. Well, heres the problem. When two sides agree to a deal, to a stopgap measure like the sequester, if they both agreed to it how is it the fault of one more than the other . What we have going on right now cant you even look look youre a freshman congressman. There was a lot of hope, a lot of sense of change, things might be different. I know a lot of you came in saying, were going to make a difference now. Do you get any sense that both sides want to Work Together to try to resolve this problem . Oh, alex, i get a sense that not only is there a feeling among all of the freshman democrats and republicans that we want to come together and find a way out of this ridiculous sequester situation, i get that sense from republicans who are senior in the ranks, higherup republicans, higherup democrats. I believe that there are a lot of people in the house who do want to get together and work on this. We need to be in washington rolling up our sleeves and tackling this problem, but House Republican leadership is not inviting us back to work on it. Its ridiculous. But you are back in on monday. So you have what, four days before it kicks in whats going to get done . If youre correct, if youre saying there are a lot of people, what is it the majority that you sense or just a powerful few that seem to be digging in their heels . Give me a sense of that and whether you think this thing will get done by friday. Well, theres no doubt there are some hard liners from the right who actually think it would be a good idea for the sequester to take place. I think thats outrageous. Were talking about a sequester. The last program before the top of the hour you had somebody describing the economy like a cancer patient. Well, you can use that analogy here. The sequester with indiscriminate cuts means that youve got to cut something out. All were giving the surgeon is a meat cleaver instead of a scalpel. Nobody in any kind of responsible position would let that sques fer go through. The fact there are some members of congress who would like to see the sequester go through, i find that absolutely astonishing. And i think that it has to be replaced with something sensible. But even beyond the politicians, lets look at folks in your particular community who are going to hear about all sorts of things, from the fact that there are going to be meat inspectors that are furloughed so were not sure about the quality and availability of our meat, the air Traffic Controllers, lahood transportation secretary saying were going to have delays, not even clear what kind of Security Problems that poses. And toby an hannah army depot looking to close in your district, 1,000 furloughs there. The National Guard is going to send out notices as early as friday. Reaction from your constituents. Hows that going . Im very proud to represent the 5400 families who are supported by the toby hannah army depot. They do incredibly Good Communications refurbishing work for army equipment. And yes, they would be facing stark cuts for no good reason. And heres the problem. It doesnt just hurt our economy, which is in its fragile recovery. It doesnt just hurt jobs, which it would in my district as in many other districts that depend on defense spending. It hurts our nations military preparedness. We dont want to be doing this. We want to be doing something sensible. We need to get back to washington. And were counting on the Republican House leadership to come to its senses, stop blaming each other, and find our way forward out of this mess. All right. Well, well be watching come monday. Democratic congressman from pennsylvania, Matt Cartwright, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Coming up in our next hour well hear from republican congressman Marcia Blackburn of tennessee. Well get her take on all the looming cuts. Northern new england bracing for its third winter storm in three weeks in kansas people are digging out right now after that storm dumped about a foot of snow on them. Look at the snow. It is too much for the roof at this local business. Thats a mess right there. Dillon dryer, good day to you. Good day to you. The problem with the the storms they seem to hit area over and over again new england will get know tonight and tomorrow. Missouri and kansas another storm next week. Boston at 30 degrees right now. Obviously we need things to cool off quite a bit before we start to see accumulating snow. In fact it does look like most of the day will be more or less a cold rain. Same goes for new york city, too. Were not really going to see any accumulation around here. This has a lot of moisture with it streaming in from the gulf of mexico. Weve seen several inches of rain already in portions of the southeast. And we could see an additional, two three inches of rain across southeastern georgia and into northern florida as well. As far as snowfall accumulation is concerned its mostly interior england. Six inches of snow, closer to nine in the higher elevations. But this is going to be more of a news an snowstorm than a big snowstorm. We are going to see our next snowstorm move in through the rockies and into the midwest early next week. And it could end up being another one of those storms that produces 6 to 12 inches of snow in areas like kansas city that are still digging out from the storm we had last week. Alex . Wow. Okay. Well, thanks for the head up on that, dylan. Appreciate it. What can you do, right . Lets go from there to south africa where olympian Oscar Pistorius is free on bail but not exactly a free man. Surrendering his passport is just one of the many conditions pistorius must comply with as he awaits his trial on june 4th. A chief magistrate granted pistorius bail yesterday. Hes accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend reeva steinkamp. Michelle, good evening your time. Lets talk about what life is going to be like for Oscar Pistorius until his trial begins. What do you know about that . Reporter well, he went back to his uncles house after he was released on bail. Now hes not allowed to go to his gated mansion which is also the scene of the alleged crime. So thats just one of many conditions as you said of his bail. Still, he is free. And his coach is even talking about starting to train him again as soon as monday. Oscar pistorius had reason to smile but didnt, heading home with his family out of jail. An International Pack of photographers chased their suv all the way to his uncles secure home. In the twohour ruling was read friday keeping a packed courtroom and the world on the edge of its seat. The accused has made a case to be released on bail. Reporter the emotion flowed. Pistorius sonned, his body shaking, his family overcome with relief, at one Point Holding hands and praying. We are relieved the fact that oscar got bail today. But at the same time, we are in mourning for the death of reeva with her family. Reporter a friend of victim reeva steinkamp was also in court. We prayed that justice will prevail. And were still just very sad that we need to remember that somebodys lost their live. Reporter now a relatives home may be where pistorius will have to stay these next weeks, months, possibly more than a year leading up to trial. The judge ruled he will have to vendor his passports, guns, cant use drugs or alcohol. Cant go back home. Needs permission to leave town. Will have to check in with police twice a week starting monday. This past week, pistoriuss agent canceled all his upcoming races. Sponsors including nike suspended their contract with him. Yet his long time coach says he wants him to start training again immediately. I think just to get his mind sort of clear. The sooner he can start the better. Reporter in court the judge said he has difficulties with parts of pistoriuss story. Why he rushed toward where pistorius claimed was terrifying danger, didnt ask who was in that bathroom, he fired into. Never went searching for his girlfriend when he realized she wasnt in bed. But he ruled that a free pistorius is not a danger, and in this case wont run. He doesnt have to be back in court until june. And today an interview was published in the south African Newspaper with the father of reeva steinkamp who said the only ones who really know what happened that morning are Oscar Pistorius and god and no matter how much money he has, how great his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience and will suffer if hes not telling the truth. If he is telling the truth, her father said, he may one day be able to forgive pistorius. Alex . Okay. Thank you so much from south africa. West coast headlines are next with a controversial tuition break and whats behind the startling about face by some republican governors on the president S Health Care law. Al. Boris earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. Can i get the smith contract, please . Thank you. Thats three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase every day. Great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. Read back the chickens testimony, please. Buk, buk, bukka [ male announcer ] get the spark Business Card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. Choose 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. Told you id get half. Whats in your wallet . Told you id get half. A hybrid . Most are just no fun to drive. Now, heres one that will make you feel alive. Meet the fivepassenger ford cmax hybrid. Cmax says ha. Cmax says wheeee. Which is what you get, dont you see . Cause cmax has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that cmax also bests in mpg. Say hi to the allnew 47 combined mpg cmax hybrid. With tasty grilled flavor and goodness to savor Friskies Grillers blend. Feed the senses. [ slap ] [ male announcer ] your Favorite Foods fighting you . Fight back fast with tums. Calciumrich tums starts working so fast youll forget you had heartburn. Tum tum tum tum tums i havent thought about aspirin for years. Aspirin wouldnt really help my headache, i dont think. Aspirin is just old school. People have doubts about taking aspirin for pain. But they havent experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. In fact, in a recent survey, 95 of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. Whats different . It has microparticles. Enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of pain. Visit fastreliefchallenge. Com today for a special trial offer. Headlines making news out on the west coast. The oregonian front page story, controversial tuition break passes. Its about the house passing a bill to grant instate tuition breaks to undocumented Oregon High School graduates. The bill now goes to the senate which approved similar past bills. The governor has promised to sign it. And the Seattle Times has a story on a 1964 poeb mobile which is on display now at a tacoma museum. The stretch limousine carried pope paul vi during a 1995 visit to new york city. It was the first time a reigning pope ever came to the u. S. Congress has six days to avoid the sequester impacts. Evenly split between defense spending and domestic spending. They total 1. 2 trillion over ten years, equal to 500 billion in the Defense Department budget, 1 billion to fema. More than 500 million in Loan Guarantees to Small Businesses would be cut. Joining me now, msnbc contributor and managing editor joann reid and white house Washington Post reporter. Joann well go ladies first here. What is the convention am wisdom on this . Will an agreement be reached . You know what, the irony and the problem is on the republican side there are some republicans i think who kind of favor the sequester in a way. This is a way to get the austerity that theyve long wanted, big sweeping budget cuts. But at the same time, on a lot of local levels you have districts where those defense cuts are really going to bite. So you have some folks that are hoping for carve outs or hoping to sort of avoid it for that reason. Its kind of almost at this point sort of a tossup. Its not clear where the republicans in the house stand. David, what about the political calculation here . As well as a policy calculation . Where does the white house fall on both . You saw, alex, this week the president came out on tuesday and he had an event with First ResponderEmergency Responders saying their budgets are going to be cut. Then the pentagon came out the next day and said were going to have to lay off 800,000 civilian workers or furlough them one day a week. Yesterday you had lahood, the transportation secretary come to the White House Briefing room and say were going to have delays in air traffic, shut down air Traffic Control. This tactic is because the white house recognizes theyre trying to sway Public Opinion and put pressure from the outside on republicans. Its interesting. A poll cam out just this week that said the vast ma