0 it's happening because republicans in congress chose this outcome over closing a single wasteful tax loophole that helped reduce the deficit. >> the gop brought out kathy mcmorris rojers to respond. >> in the house, we've done the work and shown that these choices can be made in a responsible, thoughtful way. so we urge president obama and the senate democrats to put country ahead of party and pass a responsible plan to replace the sequester. and also this afternoon, four former senators, tom daschle, bill bradley, christopher dodd and allen simpson are all now saying thap wrong when they supported the defense of marriage act in 1996. and in a historic move this week the obama administration filed a friend of the court brief with the supreme court arguing that california's proposition 8 which limits marriage to a man and a woman violates the u.s. constitution's guarantee of equal protection. in a press conference yesterday, responsibilities of marriage, but withhold only the world marriage and those states have to tip over into allowing marriage because it's irrational to protect the brand of marriage in that way. if you're worried allowing gay couples in would tarnish the brand. >> what can we glean from past cases and past writings from the justices and what can that tell us about the decision we might see this summer. >> it's a great question. justice kennedy is often seen as a swing vote in the court and he's seen as a swing justice. we've had these two major gay rights cases of the court has decided, the two major ones in 1996 the romer case and in 2003 the lawrence case and he was e theth thea author of both of those opinions and you can draw a straight line between those two points and thank you so much for your insight. we'll be seeing and hearing a lot of you. >> let's get to the other story. the deadline to stop $85 billion worth of automatic budget cuts has come and it's gone. washington has more on its to-do list, though. the president says, quote, we can't keep lurching from one manufactured crisis to another, but now he has to get a budget passed and there's also a debt ceiling fight that could be looming. here's what he had to say about the latesto in d.c. >> we will get through this. this is not going to be an apocalypse as some people have said. it's just dumb, and it's going to hurt. it's going to hurt individual people and it will hurt the economy overall. >> but are dumb politics actually working out for some folks? >> joining me now from washington, ed o'keefe "washington post" manyou raju. >> there are no winners in this. listen to what hey had to say friday. >> this is not a win for mcconnell and rank and file republicans will agree with his approach for more taxes in order to deal with the sequester and it's a very risky proposition because the economy could begin to slow and the president could end up getting the blame for that at the end of the day. >> do we think the gop was ever serious at all about negotiating here over the sequester? >> not on this round of negotiations, no. i think they dug in after that fiscal cliff and made it clear if the president got his tax increase we want the spending cuts and the speaker went through and you cited in "the new york times" story, they were very pleased with how the speaker performed and manu and i have talked to house and senate republicans who were pretty pleased with how they went because they've got this. we'll probably see modifications with the continued resolution that expires at the end of the month, but otherwise, republicans expect that the cuts will continue for the rest of the fiscal year. >> speaker boehner gave an exclusive interview on "meet the press" that will air tomorrow. here's the clip. >> i would ask the president and senator reid to come with a plan to replace the requester. listen, we've known about this for 16 months. each today, there's no plan from senate democrats or the white house to replace the sequester and over the last ten months house republicans have acted twice to replace the sequester. >> how powerful is john boehner right now? >> he has an unruly conference to deal with. so he knows he's being very cautious, actually, when they keep talking about the bills they passed. it's bills they passed in the last congress and they have not wanted to bring that up again in this congress. >> senate democrats do have a plan. they just have no chance of passing so right now both sides are nowhere near the point where they need to be to resolve this issue. >> take a look at some of the tweets we picked up yesterday when all of this was going down. this is rnc spokesman sean spiteser quoting, almost no traffic on 395 a.m. joe pounder, another rnc official saying i was surprised today when coming into work that that sequester hadn't turned washington into some scene out of mad max. it did not end when the budgets went through. how much hyperbole did the white house describe with the sequester? >> everyone has been using hyperbole. >> present company excluded, of course. >> of course, craig, of course. >> you've driven the stree stre washington and you know how bad it could be. the aaa reported there could be a 30% cut in congestion because of furloughs so you wonder if some locals might not be all right with that. they acknowledge that republicans have pulled back. i hate to burst david gregory's bubble but if you've had -- we could probably pay for the sequester. it's an incredible message discipline over the course of this making it clear that the house wasn't going do anything, it was all up to the senate and the white house and he held firm and we'll see what happens. >> you say message discipline, but you also seem to have a number of republicans -- you have some republicans saying, yes, the sequester. it's awful. blah, blah, blah, and you have a significant group of republicans saying, you know what? $85 billion at the end of the day is not going to take that big of a chunk out of the economy. >> the republicans are primarily concerned with the defense cuts and you look at john mccain and lindsay graham and a lot of house republicans who live in and around newport news and will deal with defense contractors so they're concerned about that aspect, certainly. and look, i think as this plays out over the next month because we're not going to feel the effects of this for about another month. we'll see lawmakers in different parts of the country for different reasons start to express concern and maybe find a way to fix them. >> manu raju, we'll do it again in a few minutes. come back later. >> sounds good. >> all eyes are on florida. that sink hole that swallowed a man in his bedroom. as the sink hole expands authorities are warning neighbors to stay back. we'll go live to the sunshine state in just a moment. >> day one of the sequester cuts now in effect. so what does it really mean for our national security? >> pentagon officials say be afraid. a member of the house foreign affairs committee next. ♪ ♪ [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. 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