famous home, took part in action. tried to avoid getting tackled. prince harry used to play the sport. note the lack of padding and helmets. >> tough. >> all right. that will do it for us. >> nice to see you. thanks for watching. "cnn newsroom" with wolf blitzer starts right now. thanks very much, guys. right now the partial government shutdown is over. furloughed employees returning to work. and a government default has been averted. president obama says it's time to change the way washington does business. right now white house press secretary jay carney preparing to face questions from reporters. the white house briefing scheduled to begin this hour. we'll go there live, once it starts. right now the stock market is focused on earnings reports with the immediate fiscal crisis here in washington over. we'll have a quick check of the

markets and take a closer look at the economic impact of this 16-day government shutdown. hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. latest fiscal crisis may be over but president obama says washington can't just go back to business as usual. the president says the partial shutdown and the threat of default hurt the u.s. economy, but country, he says, will bounce back. he says it's the politics that need to change. >> and today i want our people and our businesses and the rest of the world to know that the full faith and credit of the united states remains unquestioned. but all of my friends in congress, understand that how business is done in this town has to change.

because we've all got a lot of work to do on behalf of the american people and that includes the hard work of regaining their trust. there's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly. despite our differences. without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. >> president called on lawmakers to take a balanced approach to a responsible budget. he also called for finishing the work on comprehensive immigration reform and passing a farm bill. plenty to chew on today to add a little depth and perspective, our chief congressional correspondent dana bash up on the hill, senior white house correspondent jim acosta over at the white house. jim, a lot of us thought that maybe the president would extend an olive branch to the republicans. did not necessarily completely materialize. he was pretty tough. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. i think what happened was

president obama extended that olive branch and proceeded to beat the tea party with it for several minutes during those remarks at the white house. we were expecting him to sort of talk about bipartisanship, and he did that somewhat. but the expectation was based on what the president said last night, i'm willing to work with anybody. i never believe the democrats have a monopoly on good ideas. there are no winners here, there is no economic rational for all of this. it's encouraged our enemies. it's emboldened our competitors. he talked about the fact that the framers of the constitution and the founders of the country have been building this up for 200 years, his inference there during that speech, wolf, was that the tea party was tearing a lot of that down. here's little bit more of what the president had to say. >> you don't look a particular policy, a particular president,

then argue for your position. go out and win an election. push to change it. don't break it. don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. that's not being faithful to what this country's about. . >> so it's safe to say, wolf, we expect the white house press secretary jay carney to be asked about this during the brief within the hour. he's going to be asked about this change in tone from the president. he sounded like he was trying to aim for bipartisanship last night, but it sounded like more of a lecture earlier this morning, wolf. >> he was, as i said, tough. he had a lot to relay and certainly did. jim, stand by. let's go to capitol hill. chief congressional correspondent, dana bash, is getting reaction to what the

president said. how were they received, dana? >> reporter: well, let's start actually i would like to start with democrats, because republicans have been at least on the record so far silent. it was the president's democratic colleague here, the democratic leader, nancy pelosi who came in, just had a press conference. she took what jim described as a lecture and took it many steps farther. very pithy and pretty biting with regard how she talked about the republicans. listen to one example of what she said. >> standard & poor's says to date the shutdown shaved .6% off annualized fourth quarter 2013 gdp growth, or taken, in other words, $24 billion out of the economy. was there temper tantrum worth $24 billion? i don't think so. perhaps they didn't know.

>> now, as for republicans, as you know, maybe it's hard to talk about republicans now, very hard, as one group, because there are very big differences between republicans on whether this was the right strategy. you're hearing republicans say similar things to what nancy pelosi said, that this was a temper tantrum that cost $24 billion. others, particularly sources who are in the leadership, are telling us that they did not think that the president's remarks were helpful. one source said, what an opportunity the president had to unite the country following a crisis but it was completely willfully squandered. that kind of gives you a sense where they are, just with regard to the president's tonight. on substance, the president did talk about moving forward on three issues, one is the budget. the another is immigration reform. again, getting a lot of skepticism. that's putting it mildly from republican sources saying that they don't see how that's going to happen, especially and

particularly in the house, where this is a very divisive issue. you see a lot of republicans who want to get this done for their party because they believe it's the right thing to do, because they did so poorly with hispanic voters in the last election think that some of them explicitly say they think the president is luring them in to set them up for disaster in the next election so that he can help take the democrats back in to the majority in the house. >> patty murphy, chair of the senate budget committee, paul ryan, chair of the house budget committee, they're getting ready, they've started meeting to work out long-term budget deals. how did that go? >> reporter: you know they had a first meeting. so the fact that they met, you're right, the fact you can see a picture with paul ryan, republican budget chair, patty murray, democratic budget chair in the senate, sitting together with democratic and republican counterparts on other committee it's remarkable.

it's even more remarkable it's unusual for them to be sitting down and having a picture with them. it's a first step. both chairs insist that they are really willing, with goodwill, to sit down and find out a way to come you up with a budget, something the congress hasn't had in years, to avoid the crisis that we've had particularly the one that just shut down the government. >> dana, thanks very much. dana's going to be busy, as she has been all along. moving on to the next round, tea party-backed republicans let their voices be heard. what message are they getting back from the american people? gloria borger, she is here standing by. we'll sort all of that out. i'm a careful investor. when you do what i do, you think about risk. i don't like the ups and downs of the market, but i can't just sit on my cash. i want to be prepared for the long haul. ishares minimum volatility etfs. investments designed for a smoother ride. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors

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nthat's why they deserve... aer anbrake dance. get 50% off new brake pads and shoes. the white house press secretary, jay carney, ready to brief reporters. so far an empty briefing room. supposed to do it at the bottom of hour, 1:30 p.m. eastern. lots of questions to answer after the reopening of the federal government. congress is moving on to the next step right now.

also looking back at the effects of the 16-day shutdown, getting so close to the debt limit deadline. senator john mccain gave his assessment on cnn's "new day". >> look at the -- what the american people's view of this is. i have this line that i use all the time, down to blood relatives and paid staffers. i got a call from my mother who is 101, i just lost one of the blood relatives. >> you even lost your mother. >> i even lost my mother. the president won, but he should have gonegotiated more earlier d prevented some of the pain. >> gloria borger watching all of this. mccain said the president won the battle. jay carney took the high road and said nobody won. a lot of americans -- we know a lot of americans lost and the standard & poor's said the american economy lost $24 billin during the 16-day shutdown.

>> this was a complete exercise in futility. you could have come up with this same agreement with very little on the president's affordable care act except anti-fraud measure 15 days ago. you didn't have to go through the shutdown of the government. people could have had this political discussion with or without it. what wound up occurring is that the republican party dropped to its lowest number in 20 years in the polls. american government got more popular, as did obama care, which wasn't exactly the intended consequence. >> looking through the roll call, in the house of representatives, 285 voted for the bill, 144 voted against it, 144 all republicans, by the way. only 87 republicans voted for it. but the speaker, the top -- eric cantor, leadership, except paul ryan, he didn't vote for it. >> right, the leadership voted for it because they had to, it

was -- it was their sort of compromise. paul ryan was so interesting to me. when we were watching the roll call last night, when saw that ryan was a nay, it was surprising. he had voted on the fiscal cliff with the leadership a year ago the last time around. he's clearly gotten a lot of grief on that, wolf. he's clearly running in 2016. and then congressman peter king, another republican, sort of said to me last night, look, maybe it's because he's actually on this conference committee. you saw -- you used his picture before that he feels like he needs to let the tea party folks know that he's representing them, i think that was kind of a nice way to put it. i think it's probably a lot more political than that. >> probably right. the pew research center, new poll that came out, view of the tea party, it's gone 25% unfavorable view back in 2010. it's up to 49% unfavorable right now. favorable went from 33 to 30.

a lot more people know about the tea party now than knew about it in 2010. and that's why you saw this big increase from 25 to 49 unfavorable. >> what was important to me about this pew poll if you dig deeper into the numbers, wolf, when you talk -- when they asked republicans about how they viewed the tea party, 51% of republicans say that they viewed the tea party as a separate movement, different from the republican party. and so i think this is what we're seeing in the republican party, which is not just a rift, but i think we're actually seeing a split in the republican party. i don't see where there are differences that these people can really work out. they have different views of government. we're talking to congressmen last night who were saying, moderates saying to us, i'm a member of the same caucus, well would that mean that the tea party is the insane caucus? i think what you're going to see now, among republicans on the hill, is the moderates trying to

assert themselves and kind of put the tea party aside. we'll see -- we'll see where registered republicans go with this because if republicans want to win back the white house, they have to nominate somebody who is popular with independent voters. two-thirds of independent voters don't approve of this government shutdown and what occurred. >> all right. gloria, thanks very, very much. all republican leaders in the house voted with the majority of their own party, minority of republicans in favor of the deal last night. >> right. >> thanks very much. the senate negotiated bill met a lot of resistance in the house but it did pass. up next, i'll speak with tom cole, one of the republican lawmakers who made it possible. [ male announcer ] campbell's angus beef & dumplings.

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after an exhaustive effort legislation to raise the nation's borrowing limit, reopen the federal government has passed signed into law by the

president. a surprising level of republican support in the house. 144 republicans voted nay, no, 87 republicans voted in favor of it. one of those republicans, congressman tom cole, of oklahoma. congressman, thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> tell us why you voted in favor of this legislation. so many of your republican colleagues voted against it. >> you know, my colleagues and i certainly have the same names i never thought shutting down the government was a good tactic. up in one it hurt the american people and too much discussion of who gets the blame instead of who gets hurt. second i didn't think it was going to be successful. as i pointed out at home i consistently voted to keep the government open or reopen as many parts as we could. when an opportunity came up to accomplish that and protect the full faith and credit of the united states, something that both parties agree on, i took

it. i think that's moved us to a better position as a country and certainly as a party. >> you probably could have had that vote early on, even before the government shutdown, certainly within a day or two afterwards the clean continuing resolution, for all practical purposes this was fairly clean, except extraneous measures thrown in. was it a mistake to go 16 days into the shutdown and knowing what we now know? >> i would have preferred dealing with this earlier. i recommended that to my conference. but you know, sometimes a good fight clears the air a little bit. and you know, this hopefully will do that. we're now eight negotiating table. we've got serious negotiators. obviously we have tremendous differences but was it's an opportunity to make things work and find common ground. i hope that's where we'll go. certainly i'll do everything i can to make sure that's the direction we move in. >> that certainly happened after the shutdowns in '95, '96, newt

gingrich was the speaker, and after the shut down in 1996 they did manage to get their act together, they passed significant legislation. are you that confident that this president, this republican leadership, in congress can do the same thing, that bill clinton and newt gingrich did then? >> well, i think the elements for a deal are there, both in the ryan budget and the presidentness budget. i think that we've got pretty good people on both sides of the aisle at the table. real question's whether there the will and skill there to get the job done. but you know, life is about challenges. it's a challenge i hope we can meet. and shame on us if if we don't because the country doesn't need another government shutdown, certainly doesn't need a default. so let's just do what we know we need to do, sit down, and find common ground, negotiate a deal. i actually think from a republican standpoint, we're on very strong ground with the

sequester being something honestly that both sides want to get rid of. with the president having put some entitlement reform in his budget i can see elements for a deal here and hope we can keep working and find that deal. >> i hope you're right. frankly, the paul ryan budget versus the patty murray budget, murray chair of the senate budget committee, they have to find some common ground. paul ryan voted against the legislation last night. you think that's doable? >> i do. actually i think they're both consummate professionals and i think senator murray said it well this morning, she said paul ryan knows i'm not going to vote for his budget and i know he's not going to vote for mine, better find something in between. if that's the attitude both sides come to the table with, we'll have an opportunity to do that. the stakes are too important. we need to begin to deal with the deficit. we're not going to solve it all, the differences are great. but the country needs, i think, a period of quiet and calm, i

think it would be good for the economy, for the political system and the political process. you know, all i can 15 is i'm going to give it my best shot. i know my colleagues on my side of the aisle feel the same way and i trust senator murray does as well. >> you're close to the speaker, john boehner, how's he dealing with what happened over the past 16 days? >> i think john boehner is a big winner in this, in terms of the conference. people always see him as a skillful negotiator and legislative leader. some folks that haven't been around very long didn't know what a fighter he was. even people that might have disagreed with the fight, admired qualifies he showed and kept his conference together, pushed to the end for things the conference wanted to accomplish. frankly, i see him as more popular today within his own ranks and much more able to influence than perhaps was the case two, three weeks ago.

he's a very tough guy, very resilient guy, very upbeat guy. i'm proud of him. i'm very proud of the way he conducted himself. i think it's probably going to pay dividends not only for him but the conference and more importantly for the country, which is what he wants to do going forward. >> representative tom cole of oklahoma, thanks for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. >> obama care website problems have not yet been resolved. one of the problems involves passwords. new information that could help you finally log on. [ male announcer ] this is pam. her busy saturday begins with back pain, when... hey pam, you should take advil. why? you can take four advil for all day relief. so i should give up my two aleve for more pills with advil? you're joking right? for my back pain, i want my aleve. to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too.

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the debate over the budget all began with republicans demands to gut obama care. it ended though with obama care

unscathed. one very, very tiny concession, the federal government will issue two reports how they verify customers' income when they figure out who gets health insurance subsidies and who doesn't. the president was able to fend off that challenge to his signature health care law. other challenge remain, technical challenges, communications problems with the administration, of these new health care exchanges, what are you learning about potential problems with people's passwords on health care.gov? >> i learned of this because of my own experience. i signed up october 9th. i've been trying every day, all sorts of hours and it's never worked. i went online and saw other people were also having this problem. i called the 800 number that you're supposed to call and i chatted online with agents. and all of the five of the

agents that i talked to said the same thing. they said if you created a user name and a password relatively early on in the process, meaning about the first week, those passwords have been deleted. your user name will not work. so it's just you can try it as often as you like and it's not going to work. you know, there's sort of an interesting twist to this. i talked to a senior administration official, i said, the call centers, people that you hired to take phone calls, they're telling me this. they said those people are getting it wrong. so the people who are supposed to help you are getting it wrong. and they say that passwords, the administration official said passwords were not delated. she said if you have trouble logging in, we know some are, create a new account. so the bottom line of my experience is that i just got frustrated, created a new account and that is working. the user name and password system seems to be working. but if you did it-year-old on in the first week to ten days of

process, october 1st through october 10th, you may be having problems, it's not just you. >> any explanation who early on had a password in order to shop around for potential health insurance, why those passwords no longer are working? is there an explanation that you received from the administration? >> the five call center reps said it's because of the upgrade. they say the upgrade is the reason why. the administration official that i talked to just said, look, we're constantly trying to improve it and now it's not a problem. it might have been a problem before. but now it's not a problem. so people who are creating accounts now are not encountering the same difficulties. >> well into week three of the new website. how it's doing, based on everything you're seeing and hearing? >> you know, it does seem to be working better. i managed to create an account that worked. other people have said the same thing. they are working on it 24/7.

you expect it to be getting beter. the question is, give us numbers. you know, how many people have managed to log in, how many have managed to apply, look at sites and buy insurance. the federal -- the administration is not telling us. but we did get numbers from one state. so the state of wisconsin told us that in the first week of obama care, in the first week of using the site that you see right there fewer than 50 people in the state of wisconsin signed up. now, the person we talked to said, look, some of that is it takes a while to buy policies, you're not going to do it quickly, it's not like buying a book on amazon, it's a serious decision. some of the problems with healthcare.gov slowed things down. we might have had more if we didn't have the glitches. >> you keep asking for kathleen sebelius to provide numbers. they'll do it at the end of november? >> they're now telling us that they want a month's worth of data before they report

anything. and so what they did tell me earlier this week, they said, look, we'll give you some metrics. we're not going to give you enrollment numbers but we'll give you some numbers that will give an idea how the site is performing. i was expecting numbers on tuesday. i was told they'd be given out tuesday. today's thursday. they still haven't been given out. >> elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. there are some winners in the debt deal that congress passed last night and the president signed into law among them. a surveillance oversight board, privacy and civil liberties board will receive $3.1 million. this is the group meant to guard americans' right to privacy against overreach by government cyber intelligence. it game fully functional this year for the first time since 2007. it ramped up activities following revelations about the nsa spig program. as far as politicians, no winners in the showdown. how did all of this impact the president, the presidency, his

legacy? i'll pose that question to the historian doug brinkley, he'll join us live when we come back. [ coughs, sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose.

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taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. the white house press secretary jay carney getting ready for his briefing. we'll go there live once he starts answering questions. furloughed employees in the federal government, they're heading back to work today. a government default has been averted. but how had this fiscal showdown affected the president, the presidency, the president's legacy, what about president obama's second term agenda now in the remaining three years?

in remarks a little while ago the president mentioned one of his top priorities, comprehensive immigration reform. >> we should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system. there's already a broad coalition across america that's behind this effort of comprehensive immigration reform from business leaders to faith leaders to law enforcement. >> senator marco rubio says the latest stalemate will make it more difficult, more difficult to pass immigration wry form. >> i think there are areas where a vast majority of americans agree on, the need to have a legal immigration system that works, the need to enforce existing immigration laws. other areas are more difficult to find consensus on, more difficult now given the lack of trust in government and the way the white house and democrats behaved over the last three weeks. we cannot ignore that's going to be a factor moving forward on

all of this. >> douglas brinkley's joining us now. thanks for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. >> let's talk about the president, his remaining three years or so in office. he came out today, he was very forceful, very tough, some say he was lecturing the republican on the 16-day government shutdown. is that a way to reach out and score legislative achievements? >> no, but the president's exhausted. he's been feeling that the hard right is trying to hold the u.s. government hostage. i think this is a president who's going to have to build a second term domestically on obama care. you have 50 million uninsured americans 500,000 supposed to be part of the obama care system. numbers are sluggish. this is huge. he has to make it become part of the fabric of american life the way social security was with fdr or medicaid or medicare with lyndon johnson.

i would go on an all-out offensive if i were president obama and make sure obama care is real that it doesn't kind of fritter away or die on the vine or get wrapped into politics in the next two years. i think that's his main goal. immigration reform's great but it's not clear he's going to be able to pull that off in this kind of hostile climate. >> what about a budget deal? long-term entitlement reform, social security, medicare, tax reform, comprehensive tax reform, dealing with the national debt, dealing with the annual budget deficit, do you think that's realistic? they've tried it several times, it didn't work out the way they would have liked. >> not realistic at all when you're having a midterm election coming up. so we're talking about what's the president going to do between now and next november. i think push obama care through, and then i think he has to make more of a mark in foreign affairs. he is fighting hard on the war on terror, getting us out of afghanistan and iraq.

what about china? i look at richard nixon's historic visit and i've been listening to the nixon tapes and how much nixon and kissinger were obsessed with china. right now in this crisis we just had we saw how much debt we owed china. can the president go to beijing and have chinese leaders come to washington and create a new economic dialogue with china? i think that would be large. foreign affairs, he has an open reign and he's going to find that a better way to garnish his reputation and legacy than trying to extract to much more out of the congress. >> you studied second term presidents for your whole academic life, if you will. how important in a second term is that notion of a legacy for the president? you say health care reform, obama care is his major legacy. he must be so angry, so frustrated that the original -- the first three weeks, there have been so many glitches, serious problems with the

affordable care act website. >> i think so. i think that's where the rub goes down, wolf. this is his big accomplishment. make no bones about it, and the republican party understands it, if obama care becomes the law of the land, they originally, the right, tried to tact to the health care act as being obama care. he decided to own obama care. now he has to make it work. the glitches, some are understandable but it's not running as smoothly as it can be. i would be making all pistons go on the front. fight for obama care. it has to disappointing when they passed at fordable care act, many more progressive programs but barack obama's a fire wall president. it's amazing he got the affordable care act through by a hair and he's trying to defend the progressive achievements of fdr and john fe kennedy, lyndon

johnson. the steel backbone of barack obama, that's what history's seeing him as, the fire wall progressive. >> by the way, showing viewers pictures of the president outside the west wing of the white house. saying good-bye to the prime minister of italy visiting washington and ready to go back to italy. you'll appreciate it doug, italy, a year ago, two years ago, had so many economic issues facing that country, so worried, and now the prime minister of italy comes hire to the united states and i can tell you, i had dinner with him last night he was amazed, so many foreign leaders seeing the economic situation in the united states, worry about potential default, partial government shutdown, they never thought this kind of stuff happens in the united states. they think it happens in europe and asia, but for the united states for this kind of stuff to happen, it's always, always so shocking to them. but wrap this up with a little

perspective on the global view of the u.s., specifically think president. >> well, he's beloved around the world to a degree. he won the nobel peace prize. he's trying to be a peace pros though he's the drone president, too. he's extracting us from iraq and afghanistan and handled the syria crisis, a weird roller coaster ride but we avoided war. he has global respect. it's time to cash in on it now. china's terrified what's going on, not just italy. we assured the world it a time for barack obama to be hugely optimistic, talk about we aren't a third ranked country. take to the campaign trail, gel out of the white house, travel around america and the world, being a cheerleader for the american economy. >> doug brinkley, thanks for your perspective. >> thanks, wolf, as always. >> when we come back, we'll go to the white house, jay carney

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once again, monitoring the white house right now. once that briefing with jay carney begins, we'll go there. even though the government is running again there are deep concerns at the pentagon, that's because if no deal gets done by january, forced spending cuts could have a bigger impact on

active duty u.s. military personnel as we as civilian workers. we heard from the defense secretary, chuck hagel. >> people have to have some confidence that they have a job, that they can rely on. i know there are no guarantees in life, but we can't continue to do this to our people. having them live under this cloud of uncertainty. our allies are asking questions, can we rely on our partnership with america? will america fulfill its commitments and its promises? these are huge issues for all of us. and they do impact our national security. >> those forced budget cuts would cut the pentagon's budge it by $21 billion. i think it's $600 billion budge the all around. meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are back on the job, after being furloughed for 16 days. some worker at environmental

protection agency got a personal greeting from the vice president, joe biden. while the portion shutdown means busy days with lot of backed up work for federal employees it means vacationing americans are getting much needed time-off at the country's national parks, monuments and museums. cnn's rene marsh is joining us the national air and space museums, one of my favorites. big crowds? what's go on? >> reporter: well, i can tell you, wolf, the crowd's about what you would see on a typical thursday. the doors, all of the smithsonian museums have been sealed shut for the past 16 days. now under four hours ago, they opened the doors for the first time. take a look, this is what the crowd looks like inside of the air and space museum. we can tell you that the visitors themselves, they lined up at the doors wanting to get in. a line formed before the doors officially

>> take a listen. >> good for us because we came from france to make a tour from boston to washington. and we have been in new york, but they were scared not to see the museum in washington, so hapfulha happi happily, it happens just in time. >> all right, wolf, some 3500 workers all at the smithsonian museums were furloughed, but you saw it, they're back to work. that's just a slice of the more than 400,000 federal workers who were furloughed. we can also tell you, wolf, many of those workers, they did go ahead and file for unemployment, but because congress agreed to pay them back pay, most states will come back looking for repayment. beyond the federal workers, we also have the monuments which have reopened. we saw this morning the barricades being taken away from the world war ii memorial.

things slowly but surely getting back to normal in washington, d.c. >> key words, slowly but surely. let's hope it's quickly because the tourism industry is so important to the nationcapital, to the entire economy here. thanks very much. we'll take a quick break. see if the briefing with jay carney over the white house starts when we come back.

welcome back. jay carney now talking about the budget negotiations launched this morning between house and senate coniferees. >> what we hope as the president made clear earlier, that it is a success. obviously, this is tough business. it always has been, but there is an opportunity here to find common ground, and the president sincerely hopes that members of both parties seize that opportunity. >> the president at the beginning of the year in his state of the union address laid out a progressive, aggressive, and progressive agenda for things he wanted to see this year from gun control to expanded pre-k, and urging congress to act on climate change. today we heard him outline his goals for the rest of the year as getting a budget. has the president had to scale back some of his expectations or

lower his sights for what can be accomplished this year? >> i appreciate the question. let me say two things in response. first, i think no one in washington could possibly suggest that getting a bipartisan budget deal, getting comprehensive immigration reform passed on a bipartisan basis and getting a farm bill passed on a bipartisan basis would be small or inconsequential in terms of the achievement. the president laid those out because he made clear those are things that congress can do, working together in a bipartisan fashion this year, in what remains of this year because there are budgets passed by the house and there is a bipartisan comprehensive bill passed in the senate and waiting in the hill and there was a comprehensive farm bill passed by the senate that the house could act on as

opposed to pursuing the purely partisan effort that they worked on in the past. but that's not the limit of what this administration will be working on or what can be achieved in the months and years ahead. other issues that are obviously a focus for the president are his belief that a program that insures that there is pre-k available to all in this country would be enormously beneficial to our nation. he believes we can continue to take action on energy and climate issues, and he will do that. he's committed to pursuing common-sense measures to reduce gun violence, as has been demonstrated throughout the year. and of course, college affordability is a subject that he has highlighted and believes we can, the administration, and also congress, can act on. he identified those three

objectives because those are three that already have some momentum in congress. they require congressional action, and he was urging members of both parties to act on them before the end of the year. >> even the items you held up as being really big accomplishments if we can get them done have already -- are going to be real uphill battles and have already shown where there's a lot of disagreement in congress to be able to get that through. are you operating under the assumption that following the resolution of the crisis in the past nub of weeks that the dynamic is changed or the atmosphere is better for making progress on those issues? >> we hope it is. we have to hope for the best and assume the best here because what we saw was that a lot of time and effort was spent because of a sort of an idealogical pursuit that led to the shutdown of government and

the threat of default. and it achieved nothing except for the harmful consequences to our economy that the president outlined. so rather than continue down that path, there's an opportunity for congress, including those lawmakers both democratic and republican, who helped forge the solution to the shutdown and the threat of default. in a way that moves the ball forward on all of these issues. there's no question they're all difficult. given the current environment. and some of these, especially the comprehensive immigration reform bill and a budget bill, these are big items and they require bipartisan support. but we've seen that already in the senate when it comes to immigration reform. we've seen it at least in conversations that the president has had with republicans on budget issues. when it comes to immigration reform, which is a big item, to be sure, we're confident that if

that bill that passed the senate were put on the floor of the house today, it would win a majority of the house. and i think that it would win significant republican votes because i think there are many republicans who agree that comprehensive immigration reform would help our economy. would make our middle class more secure. would make us more competitive around the globe when it comes to entrepreneurship and harnessing the talents of immigrants who come here and study and should be able to stastay here to start businesses if we properly reform our immigration business and who are interested in enhanced security parts of the senate bill. there's an enormous opportunity on big issues and the president is not at all convinced by the skeptics who say that we can't get things done. he refuses to believe that. >> so you got jay carney saying the president is ready to work. trying