even in massachusetts. he's not just pulling up the ladder behind him, it's pulling it up in massachusetts as well, potentially. >> it puts it at risk potentially. it's a question of whether the taxpayers in massachusetts are ultimately willing to bear the cost of this plan. they may or may not be but it puts it at risk. >> we talk a lot in this election about what romney's plan will do to medicare beneficiaries, but what happens to medicaid beneficiaries? you cut medicaid by 600 or 700 billion, what happens to the people who rely on medicaid, the poor or children or elderly disabled across the country. >> i just put together some numbers on this in a report and i find that in the year 2022 while the affordable care act will lead to 33 million more americans having health care coverage, romney's plan would leave to roughly 18 to 20 million not having coverage. so this is a huge hit to the possibilities for insurance coverage in america. >> 50 million americans. jonathan gruber, thank you very much as always

these days if you went by massachusetts politics, if you only had massachusetts media fed into your home, you'd have no idea that the same guy was running for president. today was the second debate between scott brown and elizabeth warren. two things you'll remember in the first debate. the first the vee mans he attacked elizabeth warren on the basis of race in the first debate saying he could tell by looking at the law professor that she wasn't really native american. that was followed up by two scott brown tv ads attacking elizabeth warren on the basis of race. it was also followed by a bunch of scott brown staffers mocking native americans with fake war whoops and tomahawk chops. tonight he addressed the same controversy and kept arguing that race is relevant and a decision the voters have to make. he still did not apologize for staffers making fun of native americans even though the cherokee tribe chief asked him to. you know, other than just by looking at her. the other surprising thing from the first debate was that the name mitt romney was never mentioned in that first debate. mit

just 31,000 jobs in massachusetts in four years. that's less than 1%, and to compare it to the national average, the national average at that time was 5%. he had it atlas than 1%. that's a terrible record. in fact, it was such a mess that people were leaving the state literally, 233,000 people left the state while mitt rom was in charge. you know how people say i'm moving to canada, i'm getting the hell out of here. 3.5% of the population left during romney's reign. these were economic good times. remember that, ok? now he brags about i balanced the budget. he did cut 15% of spending in aid to cities and towns. he did cut 4% of the budget for local schools. congratulations, you cut local education. winner! but here's what he doesn't tell you, so all those local cities and towns had to make up the money somehow. what do they do? they raise property taxes. on average they went up 24% under romney's just his four year reign. why? they had to get the money from somewhere. that's $700 a year out of the packet of all the people in massach

met his democratic challenger, elizabeth warren, at the university of massachusetts in lowell. it was the second of four scheduled debates as a new poll from "the boston globe" shows 18% of massachusetts voters still undecided and with warren holding a lead. right out of the gate, moderator david gregory asked about the controversy around elizabeth warren's claim to native american heritage. >> i never used the information about our native american heritage to get any advantage, not to apply to college, not to apply to law school, and not to get hired for any job. i was listed in a directory as -- i listed myself as native american. i was listed there. it's part of who i am. >> do you consider yourself a minority? >> i consider myself as having a native american background. that's what i said. that's what i am. >> no one is questioning what her parents told her when she was younger or all the way through that time frame. but when she was asked by "the boston herald" why is harvard touting her as a woman of color, a minority, a woman of color, she said she didn't know. and then

in massachusetts, he made it more expensive to be a baby. he increased the cost of berth certificates. so people need to understand, you can say anything when you're running, and he does, and he will. but how did he govern? in massachusetts he has less than a 30% favorability rating. and president obama is winning by over 20 people. the people in massachusetts have seen how he will govern, are not happy with their former govern. >> interesting. you went after romney in a debate over when exactly he left his position at bain capital, which has been an enormous part of this election. take a listen. >> the fact is you were still signing documents as ceo of the company while you were away. and as a matter of fact, in the summer of 2001, when you were leaving the olympics, you actually made a statement in the paper that in the summer of 2001, you were finally relinquishing 100% control of your position within bain. >> i was out in utah, full-time. i had no responsibility for management at bain capital. i was not running bain capital, and therefor

let's talk about our different vision for massachusetts. that's what the people of massachusetts want to talk about. and that's what i think they ought to hear about. >> i think about 10 or 15 minutes in, romney began to realize this was not the easy exercise he thought it was going to be. >> narrator: then romney faltered. the issue was health care. >> i have a plan. i have a position paper on health care. i'm happy to show it to you, senator, any time you'd like. >> mr. romney, it isn't a question of showing me your paper. it's a question of showing all of the people in here that are watching this program the paper. they ought to have an opportunity to know. what is the cost of your program? >> i don't have a cost of my program. >> you don't have a cost? >> no, i'm sorry, i don't have... >> what would be the impact of that on the budget? >> well, the impact, i do not know the specific number. >> so you don't have a cost. >> the impact of that on the budget, senator kennedy. and i think it's a wonderful idea to take it through, piece by pi

the massachusetts that i know from growing up, i knew five sullys in lowell, massachusetts who would use the word professor to insult someone. this is the mentality outside of a very small, privileged community in massachusetts that scott brown is trying to appeal to. i think you saw a minute of that at his opening -- closing statement. let's play that. >> listen, i'm from here. i grew up here. i married a girl and went to school here. aside from my marriage to gail in 26 years and the birth of my two kids, being your united states senator has been the greatest honor i've had in my life. >> i'm from here. that's the message of the scott brown campaign. he's trying to make the nativist argument, which which is i know massachusetts in a wau don't. >> i grew up a few miles from lowell. i know those people, too. >> where is your accent? maybe when you run for senate -- >> the dirty secret is my parents are from connecticut, but i grew up there. i know those people and i know what scott brown is going after with that. he's spent a lot of advertising money on sports radio in massachusetts

the swing voters in massachusetts were ready to vote for him. they didn't want to have all democratic control in massachusetts. they had reservations about him on abortion, because he had already -- he thought he was running for office in utah a year before. he had said to a utah paper, don't call me pro-choice. he came back to massachusetts and said, now call he pro-choice, or said, i will now support the pro-choice laws. so he had to win over the benefit of the doubt from those swing voters in massachusetts. he was able to do that then, and it seems like the same decision he's making now. i want to give these voters reassurance so they can vote for me on another issue. >> what strikes me, though, we've seen this pattern -- i get the romney campaign's motivation on this issue, for all those issues you just described. but what strikes me is they have tried to do this type of walkback on so many other issues they have succeeded at. the obama campaign seems determined to not them not walk back this one. is there anything you can see in terms of ro

you think she solidified her position tonight with massachusetts voters? >> i think she had another strong debate performance and i think scott brown has been replaying the same tired play book. bring up false native american issues, check. run away from mitt romney, check. run away from my record, check. i'm not sure that's a winner in massachusetts, but at least he let everybody know who his favorite justice was. >> i want to play more tape. there was a portion where brown, the senator lost his cool on warren. let's take a look at it. >> if you're going to comment on my record, i would at least have you refer to it -- excuse me. i'm not a student in your classroom. please let me respond. thank you. >> some observers said that brown seemed angry at the last debate. is this a big image problem for him? and i also notice that the native american issue is not polling very well in massachusetts. not that many people really care about this. and he just seems to be taking out ads, billboards, and all of this stuff subpoena does he have an image problem in his c

coming up independence day or night in massachusetts. elizabeth warren and scott brown tried to dodge partisanship at every turn yet somehow the candidates got chippy. we will dissect and discuss round two ahead on "now." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applau

in massachusetts. up 50% to 44%. it took her -- it took massachusetts awhile to warm to elizabeth warren. she isn't a fuzzy candidate. she's fuzzier to democrats in massachusetts than she was. she wasn't a perfect debater. scott brown is an affable guy and a likable candidate. very tough for anybody to be running from the same party against someone from the same party as the president. he's up 20 in massachusetts. >> cenk: the president is. brown is a gigantic fraud if you ask me. the pickup truck, he used to carry his daughter's horse in that pickup truck. what's with the dressage horses and the republicans? i don't know if it was a dressage horse. >> and the bayonets. >> cenk: connecticut. again, shouldn't be a close race. it is. >> it is a close race. chris murphy is a congressman. he beat nancy johnson six years ago. nancy johnson was a popular. they thought it was in the bag. linda mcmahon ran against blumenthal. she lost. she's the wife of vince mcmahon, the founder of wwe. she was a candidate despised by a lot

i think that massachusetts is sinking in. governor romney tried to be a tiny bit more specific on the deductions by saying that he would give everyone in the country up to $25,000 in deductions and no more but that in and of itself, he didn't talk about any corporate loopholes to close or any other loopholes. that doesn't come close to $5 trillion, the cost of the rate cuts that he talked about buzz, policemen, folks, governor romney advocated $2 trillion of increased military spending and has to meet a $7 trillion gap, a $7 trillion gap. and that's just to break even. then he has to tell us how to cut the deficit after that. so it doesn't add up. it doesn't come close. >> how remarkable is this? we have 20 days left here and we're still asking the campaign for specifics including an interview just this morning, congressman paul ryan made the rounds and vice president biden. let's play a little bit of the interview with congressman ryan pushing him on specifics of this budget. let's play it. >> sure. >> you don't go to congre

senate in massachusetts. and joining us now from lowell is nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell who was there last night, watched the whole thing unfold. kelly, what are your take aways from the debate? >> reporter: well, good morning, mika, if you are a debate lover like i am, this was really something to watch. in part because you heard that ground swell from the audience. there were about 4,500 people inside the arena here. there were thousands more outside who had been supporting their candidate and protesting the other. so there was a bit of that feel of the room that you don't often get with debates even though our friend david gregory said, please don't get the audience involved and take away time from the candidates. but moments like that gave a real feel for what was happening. it was tense. scott brown, of course, is the republican who was elected two years ago to fill out the term of ted kennedy. now he is a republican in massachusetts trying to run on a year when president obama's o

he talked about his record as governor in massachusetts. of course, that is a neighboring state to new hampshire. this crowd quite familiar with mitt romney's record. one of the things president obama focusing on today and really throughout his campaign speeches recently is the fact that mitt romney says he is not going to increase taxes for middle class families and that he did that while he was governor of massachusetts. the romney campaign pushing back saying president obama is in attack mode because he doesn't have his own record to run on. both candidates really going after independent voters here in new hampshire. this race is essentially tied up. president obama has a narrow lead here, but certainly not a significant one. four electoral votes here. in a race this tight, every single electoral vote is key. president obama carried this state in 2008. unemployment rate far below the national average, but mitt romney has a strong presence here. not only was he governor of neighboring massachusetts, but he owns a house here in new hampshi

went back to massachusetts because the governorship opened, got to run as pro choice there, that's the clip, then decides he's going to run for president in the republican primaries, got to be pro life for that, all the clips from that and now a month before the election and, you know, we say it's a shift to the middle, to me it's just a rhetorical shift. i have no idea what mitt romney personally thinks about abortion. i don't think any of us will know what mitt romney thinks about abortion. if you want to know what kind of president mitt romney will be on abortion look at where the republican party is, republicans are congress are, platform is they call for a human life amendment, litmus test for judges. this what is he would be as -- >> constitutional ban on abortion we would be delighted to sign. it's one thing when talking about tax policy where americans maybe get confused and the wall of obfuscation is particularly thick, but on something like this. >> yeah. >> and talking about women voters who romney needs and has made up ground with in recent days this i think is much more de

we know governor romney from our time here in massachusetts, his time here in massachusetts. we know him to be a very effective salesman and he was selling. the problem is what he was selling won't actually do what he says it will do. it will not grow opportunity from the middle out. >> tell me this, though. i remember when we spoke at the dnc convention, you said, you made a big speech, we talked about it afterwards, time for the party to show some backbone. by party, obviously including the president. last night he didn't seem to have any backbone whatsoever. what was the whole strategy of just staring down at his notes, not engaging, not competing, not really doing anything. i watched it, having been an admirer of the president for a long time, completely baffled by what i was watching. >> well, as you know, i'm a big admirer and great supporter of the president, not just personally but politically. i think his strategy of investing in education, in research, in energy independence, in infrastructure, is a winning strategy. i think that's the reason why we've added five mi

he would be a pragmatic moderate massachusetts governor. that would be a dangerous candidate for them to have to run against. we haven't seen that in mitt romney. on a succession of issues all night tonight, that was the mitt romney that he was trying to portray. it's come very late in this campaign but, and i think the obama campaign thought well if we haven't seen it so far we're not going to get to see it. he's not going to try to revive that image tonight. that's what he tried to do and that's one of the reasons president obama was off his game. the other reason you'll here this a lot over the next 12 or 24 hours but goes back to the kerry-bush example. incumbent presidents, they come out for this first debate it's been a long time since barack obama had a debate, it's been four years. and the last four years since he last left the stage with john mccain in october of 2008, there's almost no one whose argued with him almost under any circumstance. he's had four years of yes men, nodding their head and agreeing with everything he says. y

we saw the massachusetts senate debate. new hampshire, folks in new england expect this kind of stuff. romney coming from massachusetts, do you expect this to be some heavy verbal combat between the two of them? >> i expect the tone to be a little bit less aggressive than people might be expecting, but i expect the content to be pointed and sharp and specific. and i think you can go into combat without having to raise the decibels too much. but i do think that the two candidates will be right on target with substance. >> want to talk to you about some of the polling we're seeing. national polls, it seems as if the dip that romney experienced last week is gone. that's the good news for you guys. the bad news is, president obama's number hasn't moved. so the bounce that he got into the 49, 50% range has held where it's governor romney's number that is fluid. are you one of those that believe that 49, 50% is the winning range? so that your next job, you're in the race, then the next job is you have to figure out how to peel vo

all of them received steroid shots that came from the same manufacturer in massachusetts. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is following developments closely. he joins me now. there are different types of meningitis, sanjay. which type is this? >> this is something known as fungal meningitis. it's a type of mold, actually. that's what's causing the illness here. bacterial meningitis is a different form caused by bacteria, obviously. it can be treated with antibiotics. the most common form of meningitis, the type you hear for example on college campuses, that's typically viral meningitis. viral meningitis and bacterial meningitis more common but typically more contagious. that's why viral meningitis is found on these campuses. if there's any good news about the fungal meningitis, it's typically not contagious. very hard to spread from person to person. >> they traced the source of this infection to a bad batch of steroids distributed by the new england compounding center. what is compounded, what is that? >> this is a real medical investigation, i have to tell yo