january, because even if a last-minute deal is reached, we'll likely need another one in a few months and another one after that. why is congress just staggering from crisis to crisis? and as some lawmakers pat themselves on the back for reaching a deal, people out there are still hurting. just ask the thousands of kids in danger of going hungry in one state because of this gridlock. good afternoon, everyone. i'm jake tapper. welcome to the lead. we'll begin with the money lead, live from capitol hill with just eight hours to go until the debt ceiling deadline, the mere promise of a promise has them partying. the dow jumped 200 points in reaction to news that a debt ceiling deal had been reached in the senate, and that's before the ink on the deal was even dry. we'll get to the politics of this all in a moment. but first, cnn's zain asher is live at the new york stock exchange with more on the stock surge. zain? >> reporter: hi, jake. yeah, so much excitement here on wall street, so much optimism.

you know, not even a ratings agency giving us a warning card was enough to deter investors. traders have been trying to block out the noise and focus squarely on the fact that they believe that they know that a deal is going to get done. at one point, the dow surged 206 points. i've been speaking to traders all morning. i said, there's no deal just yet, so why the optimism? they say, look, we know how washington works. we know that no politician wants to pick up the pieces of a possible default. and even if we don't see a deal tonight, we know the treasury has enough money to buy us some time. but the worry among some traders is is that the markets really haven't reacts strongly enough to force washington to really act. and some people are asking me, when we come up against the next deadline, are we going to see the same political brinkmanship. as wall street basically let washington get away with this? jake? >> zain asher, thank you so much. we had braced ourselfed, but it looks like we may forget the

threatened armageddon after all. the senate made it official a deal had been reached to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. >> the eyes of the world have been on washington all this week. and that is a gross understatement. and while they witnessed a great deal of political discord, today they will also see congress reaching historic bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and avert a default on the nation's bills. >> this is far less than many of us had hoped for, frankly, but it's far were the than what some had sought. now's time for republicans to unite behind other crucial goals. >> even if this deal sails through the senate, there is, of course, there still is the question of how house republicans will react. minutes ago, house speaker john boehner made it clear that as frustrated as his republican caucus might be with the outcome of this bipartisan lovefest in the senate, he plans on pushing his caucus to support the deal

and put this battle behind them. >> we fought the good fight. we just didn't win. >> the man who's been called the other leader of the republican party in recent weeks, texas senator ted cruz, also pledged not to stand in the way of a vote, but he also collided his fellow gop members in the senate for not standing strong in a battle to tie obama care defunding the to a budget deal. >> the house of representatives has taken a bold stance, listening to the american people, but unfortunately, the united states senate has refused to do likewise. the united states senate has staid with the traditional approach of the washington establishment of maintaining the status quo and doing nothing to respond to the suffering that obama care is causing millions of americans. >> cruz also declared house republicans victorious for their, quote, profile in courage, although his attaboy may do little for those staring at the grim reality of more than 70% disapproval ratings for the

republican party in congress. we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. it looks as though this sordid ordeal could be nearing its end, at least until it all comes up again in a few months. let's bring in cnn chief congressional correspondent, dana bash. dana, are there any indications yet on what the house might do once the bill makes it to them? >> reporter: well, i just came from standing outside of a house republican meeting where we're told that the speaker did make the case in private that you just described that he made on that radio show, to live to fight another day and to please support this bipartisan deal that's coming out of the senate. yes, he actually did urge republicans to support it. the way that this meeting that just went down was described by several republican congressmen who were in there, it feels like there was a lot of wound licking going on and trying to sort of pick up the pieces from what everybody agrees has been very bruising. not just when it comes to the public perception of republicans, specifically house

republicans, but also the divided nature of the republican party right now. in fact, john boehner, i'm told, by one congressman, told the rank and file, we send the best messages when we are united, meaning, please vote for this. now, there could be several reasons that he's urging them to vote yes. maybe the most important is he doesn't want to have a vote count at the end, where it is a majority of democrats and a minority of republicans. it's not that he's not going to let this on the floor, he will, but it certainly will be better for him when it comes to his leadership, when it comes to the way he can, you know, be perceived as the head of the republican caucus in the house, as somebody who can at least get the majority together. the other interesting note that i was told is that the house majority leader, eric cantor, was very specific and honest about the divisiveness inside the republican caucus. he said, i'm told we have disagreements in this room about

tactics, but he told them, we republicans have lost ground when people started talking about who's a better republican, who's a more pure republican. he said, those are not the conversations that we should be having. we should not be talking about tactics, we should be talking about principles. so a lot of bucking up and trying to heal the real divisions inside the republican party and particularly among house republicans. >> all right, dana bash, thank you so much. and here to talk more about the deal, senator chuck schumer, democrat of new york, welcome. senator. you see this school here, mccaffrey middle school, from california. they're here, they wanted to go see museums, they wanted to see exhibits, they wanted to see what any middle school kid they wanted to see when they come to washington, d.c. and they're upset. their government is not open for them. >> they should be. this should not be a day of exultation and happiness. we said three things, open the government, pay our debts and

then we'll negotiates. that's exactly what the agreement calls for, but it took millions of people being hurt, some much more than these school kids. families not getting paychecks and so many other things. all because a small group of people thought that they were right to do what -- to hurt anybody they wanted, to get their way. and unfortunately, not in the senate, but in the house, speaker boehner, for too long, went along with them. the hope here. the silver lining in this cloud is that mainstream conservative republicans realize that the politics of confrontation, of reckless brinkmanship doesn't work, and we won't go through this on february 7th or on into the year. >> well, i want to talk about brinkmanship, because it seemed clear to me, when it came to the senate negotiations, last night and this morning between harry reid and mitch mcconnell, that democrats did not think that the republicans had any leverage, that democrats did not think that they had to give anything to republicans. i guess there's this provision to make sure that those who get

stipends from the government are actually deserving of them, because of their income level. but beyond that, there wasn't really a give and take. >> there was not. >> it was, we're not giving you anything. you have no leverage and you're wrong. could this not have ended sooner if democrats had not taken such a hard line? >> well, it was not a hard line on the substantiative issues. it was a hard line saying, unless i get my way, i'm going to shut the government down and risk default for the nation. now, anyone can do that. i believe in immigration reform. what if i persuaded my caucus to say, i'm going to shut the government down, i am going to not pay our bills unless i get my way. it's a politics of idiocy, of conversation of paralysis. and so finally what happened, barack obama and democrats said, we're not going to give in to this kind of brinksmanship, where basically a gun is put to your head -- >> how much did obama and harry reid have to buck up democrats -- >> didn't. we were united. we have seen this brinksmanship over and over again. and we realized, if we didn't stand up now, we'd be playing the same politics of

brinksmanship every quarter. and here is what i believe. i believe that certainly in the senate and even in the house, the hard right tea party group of republicans has been discredited. not only by the poll numbers, but because they really didn't have a strategy. and once everyone has learned that we democrats are no longer going to cave to this kind of brinksmanship, they won't try it again. so we'll have a much, much better next year than we did this year. >> tactically, was president obama seemed to be sitting out, at least publicly talking about this. what was going on behind the scenes? how involved was he, or was harry reid really driving the show? >> president obama, harry reid, democratic leadership, we were all on the same page. we said -- >> but who was in charge of driving -- >> well, it was a consensus. no one had to persuade the other. we both came to the conclusion early on that we could no longer cave to this kind of brinksmanship. i'll hurt everybody else unless you give in to me.

so it was easy. and no one blinked at any one point. we knew that if we stood firm, because these tea party folks were so out of the mainstream, i love when ted cruz says, you know, the american people lost. well, fewer than 20% of the american people advocate his policy, which is, shut the government down, don't pay your debt unless we end obama care. some people want to do that, but not a majority, not even close. and so, what's happened here is that this extreme group has finally been stood up to. and now, maybe, in an ironic way, democrats have given mainstream republicans some of the strength to go forward and negotiate on a reasonable basis, where you get something and not everything. >> the debt is $17 trillion. and i understand that the annual deficit has gone down. but the debt is still a staggeringly high number. and you know if you look at projections for future years, with baby boomers retiring and health care costs continuing to rise, it's going to get worse. is this now a time, for whatever reason, whether it's because the

tea party is so active and they're not going away, but is this now a time for democrats, republicans to actually sit down and say, we really need to take this seriously. okay, we don't approve of the tactics of the tea party, but they're right to shine a light on the serious problem -- >> with all due respect, we've made big progress on the debt. the deficit is about half of what it was several years ago. >> partially because of the sequester, right? >> partially because of the sequester, partially because we raised revenues. but there's another issue that is even more important. and that is that middle class incomes in america are declining. it has never happened, in the last decade it has, and we taught to give as much focus to that as to debt reduction. i am not belittling the importance of debt reduction, i believe in it. but it is not the only issue. and with the peaking of the tea party, i think other issues will come into play. for all we know, we may get a good immigration bill now, because same thing. small group of outliers said, i am not going to go for that.

and in the past, too many republicans in the house went along. >> so, jay carney in the white house have used the word "ransom," we're not going to pay ransom, we're not going to do anything that the tea party wants us to do wants us to do, bcause they're -- >> threatening to hurt innocent people. >> i understand. but this provision, is that not some sort of concession? >> it is not. there's a report from the secretary of hhs to see if it's working, but there was verification, we believed in it, in the bill even before these negotiations began. it is frankly a bit of a fig leaf that we were happy to give, but that was not in negotiation. that was not what ted cruz and the others started to demand at the beginning. >> and why not take the opportunity also to look at some of the problems with obama care that are clearly there and would have been covered a lot more in the last couple of weeks if it were not for this mess?

we have serious problems with the website. there are other issues, there are serious questions about restauranteurs, and whether or not they're going to have to reduce hours for employees. are those not serious concerns? >> the president himself has looked at -- when you pass such a major law, which in my view will do so much good, there are always going to be changes that have to be made. that happened with social security. that happened with medicare. but we didn't repeal them. we didn't try to find ways to thwart them, we tried to improve them. they will certainly be efforts to continue doing that at both ends of pennsylvania avenue, and there's nothing wrong with that. >> final thoughts on the last few weeks? >> well, again, a hope and a prayer. that is when i first got here to the congress and even my first several years in the senate, democrats and republicans sat down and negotiated. and we realized we would have to meet somewhere in the middle. i hope and pray that can be restored. we've had a politics of brinksmanship. two faults. one, obviously, the tea party hard liners. but the real fault lies in too

many mainstream conservatives willing or being frightened, frankly, by them. hopefully those days, they're never going to be over, but those kind of policies are diminished, and we'll see much more productive legislating in the next few years. >> democrat chuck schumer, thank you for being here. coming up, senator ted cruz of texas says he will not hold up a compromise to reopen the government, but i'll talk to a lawmaker who says he's still voting no, no matter what. and he couldn't get the votes from his own caucus last night, but house speaker john boehner just got a standing ovation from house republicans. so where does his leadership go from here? stay with us. ♪ norfolk southern what's your function? ♪ ♪ hooking up the country helping business run ♪ ♪ trains! they haul everything, safely and on time. ♪ tracks! they connect the factories built along the lines. and that means jobs, lots of people, making lots and lots of things. let's get your business rolling now, everybody sing. ♪ norfolk southern what's your function? ♪ ♪ helping this big country move ahead as one ♪ ♪ norfolk southern how's that function? ♪

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welcome back to "the lead." now that we have a tentative deal to reopen the government, the hope is that the senate can, in words of minority leader mitch mcconnell, wrap it up today. mcconnell and senate majority leader harry reid announced the compromise on the senate floor earlier, and the senate is expected to vote on it some time this evening, but do you remember that 21-hour quasi-filibuster from a few weeks ago? remember? ted cruz. ted cruz now says he has no plans to slow things down and he never did. >> i have no objections to the timing of this vote. and the reason is simple. there's nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days. the outcome will be the same. every senator, every member of the house is going to have to make a decision where herb stands. but there's no benefit, i've never had any intention of delaying the timing of this vote. >> joining me now is republican

representative from south carolina, mick mulvaney. thanks so much for joining me, congressman. first of all, my understanding is that when speaker boehner introduces the senate compromise on the floor of the house, you are going to vote against it? >> there'll be a small group that votes against it. my guess is that it will pass overwhelming out of the house tonight with both republican and democrat support. >> do you think it will have a majority of republican support? >> i do. >> you do? >> i do. >> well, i think there are a lot of people out there, these kids from mccaffrey middle school from california who came here for a field trip and all the museums and parks are closed, they don't understand it, they're frustrated. a lot of people think, i can't speak for them, but i would wonder if i was them, what was this all for? >> it was for equal protection under the law. one of the things that got lost in this, jake, from the very beginning, was that the narrative is that we were trying to get rid of obama care, completely defund it. the last offer that we sent the senate before tonight was simply a one-year delay to the individual mandate. to reach out to people and say,

look, the president has issued 1,100 special exemptions to his friends, most recently, about a month ago, to corporations, we thought our families should get the same treatment under the law as those politically protected entities. that's what the fight was about. that's why i can look these kids in the eye and say, do you want to live in a country where folks who are politically powerful get better treated than those who are not? and i think they'll say no and i think as they get older, they'll realize that this was fought for the right reasons and it was worth to come and see this rather than maybe the smithsoni smithsonian. >> to play devil's advocate, what the white house says when i ask them about the different treatment, the delay in the corporate mandate and not delaying the individual mandate requiring individuals to get insurance, they say -- and this is not what they officially say, but the truth is that obama care depends on more people joining the system, so that more people can have health insurance and that's how it works, and it's not as dependent upon corporations, since 85% of the country already is insured. >> sure enough, and that's what i expect them to say.

but the follow-up question to that, jake, is why do the insurance companies in nevada get treated differently? is it because harry reid is from there? why do the restaurants and bars and nightclubs in san francisco debt treated differently than the ones in south carolina? is it because nancy pelosi is there? that's what we're talking about. that's simply just wrong. so many times my democrat friends have said to me, you know, it's the law of the land, what's your problem with it? and i say, it is the law of the land, but it should be applied equally to everybody, regardless whether you have connections. >> but what republicans have been saying, a lot of senate republicans and some house republicans is, we agree with the plan, and the hope of ending obama care or changing it significantly, we're with you on that. this tactic isn't going to get what you what you want. and ultimately, they were right. there just weren't the votes in the senate. the president was going to veto it. and at the end of the day, the republican party, the congressional disapproval ratings are in the 70s. they're not great for democrats, in the 60s, and they're not great for president obama, 53%, i think, disapprove, but they're really bad for republicans.

was it worth it on a tactical level? >> ultimately, you have to believe, you have to really believe. you're going to be in this business for a living. this is what you're going to choose, if you're going to leave your family and come up and do this in washington, d.c., you have to believe that good policy is good politics. easi o we believe that what we did was right. we did it for the right reasons, we did it for these kids here. they might not recognize that right now, but we really do believe this was worth having the fight. we lost. that's it, you're absolutely right. and the folks who said we were going to lose turned out to be correct, i can't argue with that. but we believe what we did was for the right reasons. not doing it to hurt people. that's no more accurate than me saying he passed obama care to rye to hurt pele. that level of rhetoric doesn't help the discussion. we believe that folks should be treated the fairly and equally under the law and this was the right battle to have. >> but i think -- i'm not going to speak for senator schumer, but in terms of people being hurt by the government shutdown, i think the idea is, john boehner himself said in march, what's going to happen if we tie

obama care defunding to the government spending bill is we'll get a shutdown, we'll be blamed for it, ultimately obama care will not be defunded. you yourself said defunding the affordable care was, quote, never, ever, ever going to happen after the election. and people have been hurt. not just these kids whose field trip to washington, d.c., wubz ruined, but the hundreds of thousands of individuals who weren't paid. the people who run bait and tackle shops near national shops and monuments, the people who are depending on fishing licenses to go crabbing in alaska, the kids in north carolina who depend upon wic money. now, i understand there were efforts to piecemeal fund all of these efforts by house republicans, i hear that. but that wasn't going to work. and ultimately, people were hurt by this. >> keep in mind your premise to that, in your question was to defund obama care, that's not what we did. yes, that was the very earliest part of our negotiation, but the last thing we sent them was the

one-year employer delay mandate -- >> individual mandate. >> individual mandate, i misspoke. were people hurt by this? sure. 85% of the government was open, but that's not much consolation to you if you were in the 15% -- if you needed the 15% of the government that was closed. but you hit the nail on the head. we actually tried to fix that. we passed, i think, 20 bills in the house thabt said, look, if you're a veteran, we want to help you. the house passed a bill that would have had these museums open today. the senate took one recorded vote in the last 17 days. they did not take up a single one of those bills. and that's -- people say, how did you get here? i don't think we ever would have been here if we'd have had a dialogue before now. the president is saying, now he's willing to talk to us. the reason we're here is he's not been willing to talk to us for the last three years. the only time he's willing to talk to us is when we get in these crisis. the reason we're here, no one would talk to us until we get

here. it's a shame that's what you have to do to get the other side to speak to you. >> last question, boehner, stronger now? >> 100% stronger. i supported the compromise that the speaker offered yesterday, so did really good conservatives, myself, joe jordan. we supported that compromise. we could not get him the votes. that was our failure. we did not deliver the votes in the house. it wasn't the speaker's fault. >> congressman, thank you so much for your time. we appreciate you answering our questions. coming up next, he couldn't the close a deal in the house, so the senate had to take the lead instead. so what is speaker john boehner's next move and how does the republican come back from this? and one state cuts off welfare benefits to low-income families, even though critics say it has the money to cover the costs. so why won't state officials dip into emergency funds? coming up next.

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welcome back to "the lead," le live from capitol hill. i'm jake tapper. it was a war of attrition, and even while speaker boehner admits that the house republicans lost this round, both sides of the aisle lost a

lot of blood in this debt crisis. here to talk about losers and if there are any possible winners in this whole thing is our political panel, republican analyst and former bush campaign spokesperson, jennifer miller weiss dike and washington bureau chief for "usa today," susan paige. jennifer, i want to start with you. a lot of people, including the federalist.com are wondering, wither john boehner, the federalist says, is it time for john boehner to resign as speaker. mcclinton reportedly says, i would give him an a, i think he's done a good job. he got a standing ovation at the caucus meeting. you heard the congressman say a second ago, very strong, his position is secure. is that the end of the story? >> i'm not sure anyone else wants the job or could get the job. i think it's tough to say he's much of a winner through this. i think that the gop brand has certainly been tarnished more than it ever has been before, and i think it's really hard to

say that he's someone who's been a real winner through all of this. having said that, i don't think there's anyone else who wants the job or could get it at this point. >> i'm sure that eric cantor would take the job. >> probably, probably accepted. >> or kevin mccarthy. but, i take your point. susan, did boehner have any choice at the end of the day, but to just take the senate compromise and put it on the floor? and now we hear from the congressman, it might even get a majority of republican votes. >> i don't think he had any choice at this point. he had played out for the members of his caucus who support the tea party, he had played out a lot of string for them, right? we really got right to the edge of the cliff before he agreed to take this deal to the floor. but i think at that point, he didn't have a choice. i agree that his brand is damaged. he's weakened. the next time around, can that's on going to be months away, right? he's going to be in a less powerful position when it comes to dealing with barack obama. this has not been a win for him. >> and i wonder about the administration and how the white house is going to treat this. and paul, our friend olivier

knox tweeted earlier today something i found very funny. "there are no winners, says white house, as anonymous obama aides compare him to jfk in the cuban missile crisis." so i think there is a risk here. i already saw a piece in "the hill" about dan pfeiffer, that brilliant strategist, and how he was the one behind president obama. he was the ramrod that joe biden refers to in the president's spine. is there a risk on how the white house plays this? >> sure, sure. and having worked there, jennifer worked there, arrogance is like an epidemic in the building, and it certainly is when i work there had and i had it. so i feel theira arrogance, but they still have a world of problem. but the president does win. the president emerges stronger because in part his coalition was fracturing before all of this began. the nsa spy incident, the drone attacks, the seeking to bomb

libya. this was upsetting the left and peeling them away from president obama. now the left is united. and they've seen the power of unity. yes, the president, when your biggest problem is, i might overplay my newfound strength, that's a high-class problem. >> jennifer, he has a point. because you saw even as obama care, the launch of the website was, shall we say, less than stellar, or you can put it another way, if you want, it was not hiccup free, ratings for obama care went up during this crisis. i can't believe that that's because it was so swimmingly succe successful. >> no, i think the republicans gave him an incredible gift. had ted cruz not led republicans in the direction that they went, we would have been talking about what a disaster the obama care launch was, and we would have been able to go through and maybe fix some of the problems that exist right now. we gave him an incredible gift, because instead of talking about that, we were talking about how dysfunctional the republican party is. so i think he should say thank you, ted cruz. >> you heard the congressman say that the individual mandate delaying that was really the final thing that house republicans wanted before the

government shutdown. it wasn't defunding, it was delaying the individual mandate. paul and susan, do you think if this hadn't happened with this problematic rollout of the obama website, would people who want to log in and join, having trouble doing so, do you think that would have even been on the table? >> certainly it distracted from -- you would not have seen what we saw, which is the popularity of obama care going up, even as the rollout was troubled. and that is because of this distraction that we had here. so it's an enormous opportunity cost that the republicans have paid, but it's a real-world cost. their brand is at an all-time low, and this is the best obama care has been in a year or two. >> what do you think, susan? >> i think one of the winners we should talk about are women in the senate. it was the women in the senate who started the bipartisan negotiations that built a framework for the eventually deal. women chairman of the two key committees, appropriations and budget. women just make up -- there's 20 women senators, only 20 out of

100, but they were the drivers behind getting over this negotiating deal moving on. >> i've heard people say democrats is and republicans, susan collins of maine in particular, the republican senator, who was trying to broker a deal, in particular, is a -- i don't know that there are any winners, really, but at least she comes out a little bit better, her reputation, enhanced. senator ted cruz, he had some very critical words thrown at him by the houston chronicle today, the paper that endorsed him. and in fact, the newspaper said, does anybody else miss senator kay bailey hutchison? jennifer, he dinged in his own state, in a newspaper that endorsed him for election, is he -- i can't tell where he is right now. he seems more popular than ever with the tea partyers and serious conservatives, but he doesn't seem to be more popular here in this building. >> i don't think he was ever popular here with his colleagues. that certainly seems to be the buzz.

i do think that when people have a chance to step back, they're going to look at this and say, he had no strategy. there was no strategy here. this was never something he was going to be able to win. so he really drug a couple of people along with him, made this three weeks of just a complete disaster, has destroyed the gop brand, and for what? i hope that's what people realize at the end of the day, that he took us down this path for absolutely no reason whatsoever, on something he was never going to win. had he kept his powder dry for a few days, he maybe could have made arguments about obama care. >> isn't that the last thing. house republicans, and ted cruz showed that there's actually a group less competent than the people behind the obama care website. >> i agree with that, except this, ted cruz is a big winner. the republican brand is weighed down, but the cruz brand is way up. i'm from texas and i grew up there and i talked to friends today. and the business community is furious. business republicans are furious. but the grassroots loves this. and we'll know soon. we'll see.

i bet you you'll see invitations rolling in to senator cruz to come to the reagan day dinner in one state and the lincoln day dinner in another state, and whatever republican -- he's going to be a huge draw. i think this is a big win. so the lesson that he takes from this, i suspect is, i'm bigger than the party. the democrats take the opposite lesson, which is, when we all stick together, it works out well for all of us. but i think the fracturing may continue and i think cruz is going to be inflated by this. >> there's going to be a 2016 candidate for the tea party movement. there's been a battle among any number of republicans who would like to have that. ted cruz has taken a big step towards becoming the standard-bearer for the tea party in 2016. >> and there were thoughts that it might be marco rubio at one point, might be rand paul. >> and it still might be. there's still a little time in 2016. >> but still, he's done well with that crowd. >> in the middle of this disaster, he won the straw poll, the values voter summit, very conservative and more christian than libertarian meeting right here in washington, at the worst of the shutdown. that tells me something. >> indeed. jennifer, paul, susan, thank you so much. coming up next on "the lead,"

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welcome back to "the lead," live from capitol hill. i'm jake tapper. what do the titans of wall street think about a last-minute deal from congress? they're pretty bullish over it. but that doesn't mean that the oracle of omaha, warren buffett, didn't have a bone to pick. >> people play brinksmanship games sometimes, but it is totally asinine to have a debt ceiling at all. and to use it as a means to try and get your way out of anything else. whether it's abortion, gun control, obama care, you name it. it's a political weapon of mass destruction that shouldn't be used. >> the host of cnn's "your money" and our newly minted chief business correspondent, christine romans joins us now. thanks for being here. congratulations on the minting. so how many other business leaders does warren buffett speak for? >> just about all of them. i've never really in my career seen so much business speak with

the same voice, sing the same song on something. basically, look, congratulations, washington. you've narrowly averted a fiscal crisis of your own making again. if there's one thing you should be buying, it's stock in the countdown clocks. because by the time we put this one away, we'll have to turn it on again in february. we still have this problem with this short-term decision making and not really addressing the long-term problems. that's what warren buffett, what so many business leaders are so worried about. today, talking about so many business leaders, no one is saying congratulations. they're saying, okay, kick the can, thoughfulhopefully kick thd we'll be talking about it again in february. >> and also a lot of business leaders are also republicans and support a lot of house republicans. and a lot of them are very concerned about what house republicans are worried about, which is the debt, the national debt. which is almost $17 trillion. >> but a lot of these business leaders know that you don't solve that at the credit card, you solve that at the spending and the front end. they say that we need a budget and we need priorities in this country. if you look at half a dozen debt commissions over how many of the past 15 years, all of this work

has been done. we know that there are tough choices to be made, but in washington, people aren't making tough choices, right? they're just thinking from election to election or shutdown to shutdown. >> you don't think forming ingi blue ribbon commission is a tough choice? >> not when it's not binding. >> picking that shade of blue for the ribbon, that's going to be tough. >> all of the work has been done. now people have to give something up and think about how to fix these problems. >> we are here in washington, not me, but they are kicking the can down the road again, because the government will open until january, the debt ceiling will be extended until february. and i'm wondering if that uncertainty, the fact that it's baked in. we know where we could have another crisis like this again, in a few months, we won't be outside of it, of course, when we do the show. >> brr. >> is wall street worried about that? >> they're worried about it. it is baked in and they know that the federal reserve is really the only functioning body in washington. the federal reserve isn't pumping $85 billion a month into

the system. so you've seen stocks go up. even as these budget woes have been going on for more than two years now, stocks have gone up, we have had job creation, but not as much as we should have. so the fed has been really propping up the economy. but ben bernanke, janet yellen, who is the nominee to secede him, they've all said, they can't going on like this forever. the fed can't keep propping up the economy, because washington can't get its act together, can't have sane fiscal policy and really focus on job creation instead of these squabbles. >> the two sticking points when it comes to a long-term debt deal are republicans want major reform to safety net programs. >> yep. >> entitlement programs, if you will. >> and democrats want to raise taxes. >> yep. >> is wall street willing to go along with a morphing of the two in order to have more stability, because my impression is wall street is very anti-tax. >> look, wall street wants comprehensive tax reform. wall street wants lower corporate taxes. that might mean taking away some loopholes the from some industries. wall street wants to know what

the rules of the road are, right? now, and let's remember, too, only have of americans are invested in stocks. so for right now, most people don't care at all about wall street. they only care about the fact that they've gone to a payday lender because they just didn't get their federal check. or they're very concerned about, you know, a contract or a license they need and the federal government is shut down. so this has hurt. it really has hurt real families and real people right now. and i'm not sure these people get that. i think they think they averted something here, but they didn't avert anything. they already have hurt the economy, and these squabbles the last couple of years, like mark zandi from moody's analytics and a couple of other places have said at least 800,000 to a million jobs have been lost over the past three years because of the uncertainty in the budget squabbles here. >> let the record reflect, you're pointing to members of congress, not to these young men and women -- >> not to you. >> they're good, they're sweet. >> christine romans, thank you so much. we appreciate and it congratulations on the new gig. >> thanks. coming up next on "the

lead," welfare checks stopped in one state and the government shutdown is blamed. are state officials playing politics with vulnerable kids or is it the shutdown? plus, a story we've heard before. a night in underage drinking ends in accusations of rape. a victim shunned for speaking up and charges dropped against two football charges. but now nearly two years later, could the case get a second look? mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. thnot at the rings.looking. i can feel them looking at my thick, flaky red skin. do i tell them it's psoriasis? do i speak up and say

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welcome back to "the lead," live from capitol hill. now, we knew the shutdown was bad thnews, but the nurmbers pa a picture of just how bad. the stalemate in washington has taken $24 billion, yes, billion, with a "b," out of the economy. the senate deal is coming just in time for thousands of children in one state who cut off welfare checks. our renee marsh is looking into that part of the story. >> a deal may be in the works, but for thousands of people in the state of north carolina, this has really been a nail b e biting, tense wait. it turns out that north carolina is the only state in the nation that has chosen to suspend some welfare benefits because of the

shutdown. in north carolina, more than 20,000 needy families received their last welfare check this month. governor pat mcquarie, a republican, temporarily halted the state's work first program, which provides short-term assistance to low-income families. concern from people who call the program a lifeline, like james murphy's sister. >> she don't know how she's going to be able to take care of her baby, the third one. >> reporter: the checks are about $215 per month for each family. other states are using their own money to plug the gap after the obama administration sent this letter, saying states could qualify for federal reimbursement post shutdown. but north carolina doesn't trust that the government will repay them. >> why is north carolina the only one of all these states that is victimizing its most vulnerable citizens in this way? it is not acceptable. >> north carolina's democratic congressman, david price, says it could be politics.

>> the state has found $75,000, $80,000 to keep the blue ridge parkway open, and that's a good thing, but it does raise the question, why would we be the only state out of 50 that can't find the money for these families with these acute needs? >> reporter: the north carolina budget and tax center, an advocacy group for low-income families, agrees. >> we have a rainy day fund that has more than $600 million in it. this is certainly a rainy day for families in north carolina. there's no reason that state policymakers can't tap into those dollars to provide stopgap support to families today. >> reporter: all right. well, it is worth noting that we did reach out to the governor of north carolina for an explanation as to why he found it was necessary to suspend new applications for some of these welfare benefits. we have yet to hear back from him. but the big question is, so what happens when this shutdown is

over? we asked that question to the state, and they said that if the shutdown and a deal does come through tonight, then they should start processing those new applications. emphasis on the "should," because they still don't know when that federal money will be available to them, once again. >> and it still hasn't passed the house. rene marsh, thank you so much. we'll tell you who made the list for the newest rock and roll hall of fame, coming up next. help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger.

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welcome back to "the lead," live from capitol hill, where we are waiting on a vote that could lead to the end of this long government shutdown and the debt crisis, debt ceiling crisis, i should say. the debt crisis continues. some other headlines now. louisiana's attorney general is urging the governor to revisit a rape case. it has brought out the ugly side of some in the community. felony charges were dropped last year against two 17-year-old football players from maryville

high school. one who was accused of raping a 14-year-old freshman cheerleader, the other accused of recording the assault. the family claims they were forced to move out of town last year because of backlash from a community that blamed the girl. her mother says daisy tried to commit suicide twice. their former home also mysteriously burned down six months ago. the hacking group anonymous has also demanded a new investigation and vowed justice for daisy and her family. a much lighter note now, in our pop culture lead. here we are now, getting nostalgic. they were the gods of grunge. and now prepare yourselves, gen xers. nirvana is among 16 new nominees to the 2014 rock 'n' roll hall of fame. but if you're more into spandex and face paint than the whole flannel thing, the glam rockers kiss, they're also on the list this year. good times. as are ll cool j, pat stevens, peter gabriel, and