0 guns! >> the idea you shouldn't have laws because laws will be broken is a nutty argument. what is interesting to me about the gun debate in the last few days is this sign that the gun lobby itself is splitting a little bit so they are feeling some heat and i think part of the reason is because we are seeing something we rarely see in washington which is a lot of real citizens in this case citizens who suffered in the newtown tragedy. parents coming to capitol hill and telling their stories and you can't look at joe manchin from west virginia and not think he was personally affected by that encounter. those folks are not going away and not stop bringing their message once the legislation gets to the house. they will be all over the house of representatives too. i see a little bit of change in the tone of this. total inside washington debate, a great powerful lobby. the lobby is splitting a little bit. one part of the gun loby is saying we can xep the background checks provision and then you have all of these folks from connecticut and other places that have had tragedies coming and telling their stories. i still think -- i would guess we would be likely to get some kind of legislation out of this. it won't be perfect, far from it. >> may not. how you don't get background checks when it's a 90/10 issue. >> yeah. >> i fear for people like marco rubio who think they are -- they are playing basically to 7%. i fear for them politically. it seems like the safe thing to do and it's not the safe thing to do. not in the long run, because americans want to be able to stop al qaeda from being able to walk into gun shows and get assault weapons or get semiautomatic weapons or whatever issemantic games peopl 79 to play. they don't want them to get bushmasters on the interpret or at gun shows and make sure that people who have committed violent acts, whether violent acts of rape or manslaughter, 90% of americans think it's a pretty good idea that these people get background checks before they are sold guns. >> people do think that. there is a common sense factor here. and then there is just the basic enough factor. enough of these tragedies without doing something to try to get a better regime in place. the only thing that worries me about the legislation we are talking about now, frankly, people have real mental issues who are also gun owners, let's say, who might not seek that they need to deal with their problems because they are afraid they might not pass a background check in the future. somehow, you got to figure that out so we don't create des incentives for people getting the help that would deal with kind of underlying emotional problem making them so dangerous. >> that is extraordinary important and why we need to talk about mental health challenges more. in new york state, you have gun owners that have mistakenly had their guns seized from them because of mental health problems. we are seeing a real problem with that and that is something that this legislation has to spell out. ed rendell, over the weekend, backers of this legislation picked up support from gun rights groups, citizens committee for the right to keep and bear arms. also richard feldman president of the independent firearms association and on round table last week with us with vice president joe biden and is backing the background bill and the white house continued its own pr offensive keeping parents and relatives of newtown front and center. unfortunately, some democrats talking about not having the courage to face voters next year. democrats running for senate appear to be too cowardly to go out and try to make it harder for members of al qaeda to get bushmasters at gun show. >> so ludicrous as you pointed out because of the polls. you break the polls down in every state -- >> what would you say to democrats that are running away from 90% issue? >> you're dumber than a wuss. >> and you're going to lose? >> and you're going to lose and lose support. look. the whole argument is the reason you're seeing some of the gun groups come over is because as pat toomey said, background checks aren't gun control. >> by the way, pat toomey supported background checks and still got elected to the senate. >> absolutely. he is going to get, i think, he helped himself for re-election by what he did. you know what is disingenuous about the rubio argument? they say background checks don't work, let them vote for banning high capacity magazines because we know that in tucson, loughner fired 33 bullets. >> you know what? he better be hopping straight to a presidential race and primaries in new hampshire and south carolina. i tell you what, that position, 94% of people in florida, 94% of people in florida support background checks. 94% of people in my home state, willie, support background checks to keep bushmasters out of the hands of al qaeda and out of the hands of violent rapists. this is simple. so i hope it worked for marco in des moines because it's not going to work in hillsborough county. >> that's not an argument never to check the background of anyone ever. >> right. >> maybe in this case it wouldn't have done anything and that is probably true. but they have already, as we have said many times, they have already won gun rights advocates on of these issues. not going to be an assault weapons ban and not limit the size of clips. >> shame. >> for something that doesn't do a lot of harm to your cause you would give on this one item. >> and it might do some good. >> something that everybody knows keeps their children and keeps our children safer. >> if they want to stop newtown, limit magazine capacity. take the mass out of mass murder. >> we will see what happens. my bigger concern as a person that supports second amendment and always supported the second amendment but thinks we need a few reasonable regulations on the fringes, my concern is we republicans lose control of this debate. look like extremists during presidential campaigns and we continue to elect democratic presidents who continue to nominate liberal justices who will do more to turnover heller and take away our second amendment rights. that is the real concern and that is where extremism on this issue ends up hurting our cause, our second amendment rights. it's tax day. >> yeah. >> willie, you and i -- we pay zero% taxes but that is another story. on this tax day, new analysis from politico. last year's campaign when the president went after mitt romney for his tax rate. at an event at virginia beach the president said this. quote. my opponent thinks that someone who makes $20 million a year like him should pay a lower tax rate than a cop or teacher who makes 50,000. president obama released his tax return this week showing that he paid an 18% tax rate. so a guy who i hear is worth $14 million, he is paying a tax rate far lower than what a teacher pays. i'm speaking slowly so this sinks in, andy, the hypocrisy is mind boggling. that this president plays class war fare for a year and a half on the campaign trail. let's keep this graphic up. he attacks mitt romney for paying a lower tax rate than school teachers repeatedly! democrats repeatedly attack mitt romney for paying a lower tax rate than teachers, than warren buffett secretary, god help her, god bless her, and, yet, this president, after demagoguing this issue for a year and a half, pays an 18% tax rate which, by the way, is half of the tax rate that i pay. i would guess it's half of the tax rate you spay. >> yeah. >> and we don't know. he's got the cayman island accounts. i guarantee you it's halftime of the tax rate that willie geist pays. why? why? why? politically, why? why would he do that? >> i can't believe it. that number just screamed at me. 18.4%. >> can we put that up again? how much? 18%. >> i was figuring yesterday and watching all of my money. gets toward 50% if you live -- >> this is a problem with liberals that come forward and talk about raising taxes on the rest of us! and raising taxes on small business owners and having these rich guys come on tv going, let's raise taxes. i don't need tax cuts. those guys that are saying it are paying 16%, 17%, 18%! barack obama has been championing raising taxes on small business owners for years! and he is paying 18% in taxes because raising those taxes don't affect him! and he talks about fairness? this guy, this guy talks about fairness? and he is paying 18%? he wants to jack tax rates up to 39% and if you live in connecticut or new york or illinois or california, you're paying over 50% in taxes after you take the local, the state, and the national! and barack obama, class warrior, is playing 18% in taxes. >> can you imagine the conversation he had with his accountant? because he has one, unlike you two guys. and just saying, listen. 18.4, can you get it up a little bit, right? why does he pay so little? shouldn't he have sent more to the treasury to make himself get out of this hole? but i don't know why. >> david, does limousine liberal ply in this case? i see these billionaires get on tv, why don't we we just raise taxes? i don't need these bush tax cuts. yet, it's a small business owner making 400, 450, that has 10, 15 employees and lives in new york city and plays ungodly rent of 17,000 a month and barely breaking the -- the business breaking ahead and you got guys paying 18% in taxes saying let's jack their taxes up 5% this year. >> if president obama is watching this show, he is whispering to michelle, sweetie, can we write a little check this morning and get joe scarborough off our back? i have no idea what accounts for that low rate. often, it's very substantial charitable contributions that ended up loring the tax rate and you need to look at his return. i have to say even if he did just pay a low rate, to me, that doesn't really undermine the arguments for changes in the tax code to tax cuts for the most wealthy. i think those were good for the economy. i don't think they will have a harmful effect on growth. so like you, i look at that graphic and athink, geez, what kind of a chump am i to be paying so much money? but it doesn't really change the -- >> the thing is, yes, he gave a lot of charitable contributetions. >> 150,000. >> mitt romney gave a lot of charitable contributions. does anybody at this table have the luxury of giving so much charitable contributions to get our rate down to 18%? the guy is making money on books and a lot of different things. 18% is 18%. i don't care. everybody is going to come out and try to spin this. 18% is 18%. >> i agree with that, joe. the only thing you can say to defend the president is he was in favor of the buffett rule which would have meant he would have paid, what, 30%? >> 30%. >> the buffett rule would cure exactly what you're talking about. look. i hear corporations all the time, business leaders say we pay the heiss corporate taxes in the world, 35%. "fortune" had an article where it showed what the 2,000 cop corporations paid in effective rate, 17%, right, andy? >> that's right. >> we don't have the heiss tax rate in the world because of the tax expenditures. >> i support the buffett rule. >> and so does the president. >> the president should have paid 30%. i support the buffett rule but i pay more than 30% every year. you pay more than 30% every year and most of the people i know pay more than 30% every year. >> i got no problem with somebody saying i paid 18% and i aggressively used every loophole i could use, all right? but don't lecture me a year and a half how you want to raise my taxes 5% more. if you're paying tax rates in the teens. and i hear it from billionaires and hedge fund guys all the time. let's just raise taxes. yeah, that's really easy for you. it's not so easy for small business owners. >> sure, because the guy, hedge fund guys say let's raise taxes. he is paying 11%! >> yeah, with carried interest and the other garbage on there. i tell you what, and i think there are a lot of republicans that would agree with me. we need the buffett rule. we need a 30% minimum. it's not fair that these guys that are making 20 billion a year, you know, and with carried interest, it's just not fair that they are paying so little in taxes. and it's a bad example for the president of the u.s. to be paying 18% in taxes appear he demagogued this issue and specifically the politico article, specifically attacked mitt romney for paying taxes in the teens. >> and what were he and his accountant happy about that? they didn't think this would come out and bite them? >> coming up, senator chris murphy will be with us and representative marsha blackburn and ken burns and then steven van zandt, a member bruce springsteen's e. street band. first, here is bill karins. spring is trying to break out. >> today is patriots day. boston marathon is today and the red sox game. a big deal up there and get to the forecast in a second. one place in the country it doesn't feel like spring or even early spring. north dakota. unfortunately, they got nailed last night with more heavy snow. windchills are currently 17-degree range and rapid city a windchill of 5 and not much better in minneapolis. still snowing very hard right now from grand forks to fargo. interstate 94 is actually closed across the state of north dakota because it snowed so hard. this is the most snow bismarck, north dakota, ever had in one storm in april and their records go back to the late 18 hundreds and this is unheard of heavy snow event. what is behind it? another snowstorm. it is going to snow today in colorado and snow will break out in wyoming. cheyenne, whimg, could pick up a foot of snow. this is a new storm. the white coloring there is 3 to 6 inches expected possibly from omaha north wards to the canadian border and upper peninsula of michigan reports of three feet of snow on the ground. the poor northern plains. on the east coast light rain left from the soaker yesterday. i mentioned the boston marathon today. it is going to be chilly. last year too hot to run and 51 degrees which is perfect for the runners but sitting in the stands at the baseball game, probably a little chilly. northeast you're looking better than fargo. i'm sure it's a snow day for everyone there. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. ♪ watching the young girls dance and messing with his frozen stone ♪ ♪ to remind him of the feeling of romance ♪ ♪