years, three years, four years, but it s not an immediate problem. so you agree with the president on that. yes. republican budget author congressman paul ryan was less generous however in his take. to borrow a phrase from my friender skin bowls, we are the healthiest horse in the glue factory. we know it s not happening now, but lit happen. this week president obama will embark for the middle east making his first trip to israel since taking office four plus years ago. with me is peter alexander. the president is on the ground for how long over the next few days? reporter: he doesn t leave here until late tuesday and will be on the ground in israel for barely four hours.
that s the cold truth! welcome back to weekend with alex wit, this is pope francis s first sunday mass. nbc s claudia is joining us with all the details from the vatican and in fact i have that number underestimated, there was even more in that crowd? the vatican office has been telling us that there was more than 150,000 that turned up in st. peter s square to see pope francis appearing at that window for the first time. loads of flags flying from all different countries and there was this huge roar erupted from st. peter s square when he appeared at that window, and that shows you how many people around the world really warmed
tuesday when he gets installed, lot of preparations for that, i presume? on tuesday, we expect a million people to turn up. of course that s the installation mass where he will be holding the first mass from st. peter s square behind me and certainly there s a lot of preparations being made including safety and security measures, but certainly we all look forward to that day, alex. let s go to the economy now and march madness on wall street with a remarkable run. the dow finishing up for 10 of 11 days of this month, at its highest point ever. the annual spike in gas prices noted as well by president obama in the weekly address. we went through another spike in gas prices, just like last year, it s a serious blow do your budget, it s a hit with a new tax coming right out of your own pocket. but the only way we re going to
but the real statement is for the president to go on a trip like this and make statements that do support an american ally without angering some of the parties in this process. didn t he speak out for that pint at a pub last year? i think he did actually, and we re keeping a close eye on the white house door, and so far nothing. thank you very much peter alexander. there they go again, do republicans gain anything with some of the sniping at cpac? [ male announcer ] the lexus command performance sales event has begun. featuring the lexus gs and is performance lines.
st. peter s square, and when the pope appeared at the window for the fist time, there was an enormous show of enthusiasm like a rock star. and that shows us how people have warmed up to this pope even though he was only elected a couple of day ago. he said that he wants to break vatican protocol. he was holding mass at a small chapel in vatican city. he was was shaking hands, one by one, and that s pretty much unseen, it shows you how these people want to be the people s pope. while i was out last night, every single talked about the pope with an air of warmth, really happy, really like willing him. i m wondering what happens on