to a year earlier. an associate professor at columbia university. we'll see what we can get those two to agree on. i want to start with assistant managing editor for "time" and co-wrote "the wimpy recovery." in the piece you asked people to honk if you feel the recovery. the signs are there but no honking. >> you don't hear honking in the streets. we're in recovery. in fact, weaver been in recovery for two years. it really says something, a lot of us aren't feeling it. the numbers are there as you mentioned it. this is bifurcated. the fact stocks are up, people who own stocks are wealthy. they are wealthy. a lot at the top, fast growing at the bottom but not enough in the middle. we've got a two-speed recovery. >> a lot of people saying that. another thing people with money feeling this recovery, people without aren't. i think that's something we can agree on. let's talk about mitt romney, the front-runner for the presidential nomination. he acknowledges a recovery is under way. he says he would be doing a lot better if he was in charge. >> i'm somewhat experienced in the economy. i'm not an economic lightweight. president obama is. we're not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight with another economic lightweight. we have to replace him with someone that can run the recovery. >> he's saying if there's a recovery under way he has to say amidst the economic recovery, i'm the guy to really know how to make it better. >> it's interesting you see the shift. you have to recognize reality. we're seeing economic indicators point northward, up. his message shifted to, look, we could have done better. somebody like me could have done better. he points to the 1981 reagan recession, shorter, more robust. he says if you have somebody like me in charge, i can make this better. whether or not that's a fair comparison is beside the point. i'm not going to sit through that and tell you 25 years and two different types of recessions is a fair comparison. what i am going to tell you that's his argument and the one he's trying to sell. >> he's trying to change his tone, his supporters say it's a great line. we live in the country where we built the hoover down and interstate system this president can't build a pipeline. he's trying to say if things get better he will leverage it. the president has to be careful about crowing about an economy that people aren't feeling. >> since the beginning, the economy is broken, president obama is responsible, has no idea to fix it, all things pointing downward unless he gets out of office. because it's pointing upward he has to celebrate it. the obama administration has done a terrible celebrating its successes and showing how it prevented the disaster from being worse. he can't flaunt that as people don't have work, living wages, has he to strike that balance and i think he's doing a decent jobs. >> jobs are part of this scenario. 200,000 jobs created three months in a row. we know this week you saw jobless claims the lowest in four years, fewer people heading to the unemployment line. i say these things on television and get hate mail from people who say my brother can't get a job, out of work 14 months. don't overstate the strength in the labor market. a lot of people coming back and getting jobs for much less pay. >> going back to what happened in the '80s, '90s versus now. here is an important fact. every recovery since 1990 has been weaker and taken longer since the last one. this is the weakest and longest recovery in history. so there are just a lot of people out there either not coming back into work, or when they do having jobs much less than what they settled for before. >> inversely proportional to the speed of the economy. >> i agree 100% it's a physical fact that every recession has been longer and more painful starting in the '70s we've had this technological and industrial shift in the united states. that being said. you want a fair criticism of how obama handled this recovery you can make the argument very strongly he got distracted early on in his presidency. >> by health care. >> considering cap and trade. talked about things and put attention on things that had nothing to do with the recovery thus prolonging it. >> i don't agree with that. i don't think they are competing agendas. it may have the political perception but i think he can walk and chew gum at the same time. >> whether or not the massive business sector across the economy not knowing future taxes, not knowing future regulatory scheme would be felt good investing in this economy. >> if i can jump in on taxes. warren buffett one of the greatest investors in the country if not the world said there was more investment in the '50s when taxes are higher than they are now. it's investing in education that will help us complete globally. that's what we have to do. >> i didn't make an argument about taxes, higher or lower. i made the argument in 2009 when faced with a massive recession, largest economy in the world you're going to restructure 20% of it in health care, impossibly more with cap and trade injects a massive amount of uncertainty into what you hope will ab recovery economy. >> first of all, the mass anxiety the uber risen have that when there's a proposed bill. >> not just wealthy, business. >> the mass anxiety was not because of health care reform even though many didn't like it, the mass anxiety is their business went off a cliff. one of the real problems this administration and a lot of people underestimated how hard it was going to be to get out of this mess and at the same time was pushing, you know, the president's signature legislative agenda which will vastly remake the health care system. >> 50% of the american economy. that's what health care, energy on top that, cap and trade. >> i haven't heard the words cap and trade. >> you did in 2009. >> it wunt at the top of the agenda, very quickly pushed off the table. democrats pushed off the table more than anyone else. >> three things to focus on they figured out two. stimulus, health care, cap and trade. cap and trade but we know the three things they focused on. >> it's something that quickly ended the conversation. >> i'll jump in and just say on health care because i think it is something worth bringing up, it was a huge issue, a huge thing to bite off. you can make the argument you just made but i think that it wouldn't have mattered because ultimately president obama did try and get through infrastructure change. he tried to make investment there and in education which any company will tell you -- i'm out talking to companies all the time they say we've got three or four joshs in high-tech airs they can't fill. >> the nauseous feeling you get when you go to fill up your car with gas. the biggest threats to recovery next on "your $$$$$." 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>> no. in fact, you can make an argument it would be worse. can you make an argument republicans would take a more hawkish stance against iran, more fear and speculation on global prices. that is fair and true. >> i don't think there's a more hawkish policy than president obama is taking. i do think you're right there's nothing to do with what we do domestically, which is why i'm frustrated when people on the right, sometimes left, mass drilling, oil production, ramp it up, it won't change anything. >> you went way too far. >> i'm surprised you guys agree in the first place. you're right gas is high because oil is high. not just the middle east but china -- >> the rest of the world, we don't move the needle anymore, folks. it's not about us. >> the rest of the world is growing like gang busters. >> there's nothing we can do about it. >> not a lot. the other thing worth mentioning, we're more energy efficient than we have been in a long while, exporting more oil products -- >> when people make the argument what we drill locally won't have an effect on price they carry too far. >> sometimes, put up the keystone map, blockages in the midwest. you are having increased production in the midwest. >> not just increased production. this is a revolution. the state of north dakota has just moved to the second largest oil producing state in the nation ahead of california, or they are about to. >> let me explain this while will is waxes poetic. down at the bottom the orange, that is the keystone extension the president fast tracked, you heard this week, fast tracked. the blue part is the part that crosses the border -- i almost said with china, with canada. that part goes through the nebraska sandhills and there's environmental concerns there. the president didn't fasttrack it. they are already starting to build it there. he doesn't have the approval to fasttrack it. the administration wants the pipeline but has to be careful how it's done. >> over the long-term they have put in place hurdles, made it hard for domestic oil production to move forward, drilling on federal lands off the continental shelf is down, not approving keystone pipeline, important to long-term energy future. what it has to do with current gas prices, nothing. >> what is more important to the future is green technology. you look over the last 100 years there's been a lot of oil spikes. every time there's been some new technology, some new shift, be it from oil to gas or coal to oil. now we need to make the shift from oil to green technologies. the more we can push that -- >> how about we have the department of energy give a blank check to a bunch of solar companies. oh, wait. >> i'm not saying that. a lot smarter like china, denmark, germany have public-private partnerships with universities, companies. people want though. >> he's shaking his head. >> teaming up. >> you know why, you want to talk about having a smarter energy policy, i think it has a complete lack of humility to suggest you know what energy future of tomorrow is when we have energy future of the past for the past 200 years pulled more people out of poverty, warmed more homs, put more people on the roads than any energy source in the history of mankind but you suggest you know what tomorrow's is. i'm going to stick with what's working. >> the big bufl buffett buy of northern, santa fe, look at how much -- i was in nebraska a couple years ago. the amount of coal coming out, they are making a bet we're going to be burning stuff, stuff like oil and coal for 200 years. >> nobody is saying fossil fuels are going away. what i'm saying is we have access to about 12% of the world's entirely fossil fuels, the rest in the hands of -- >> let me ask this question. people think in this country they have a right to very low gas prices. do you have a right in this country to low gas prices. gas prices go up, people go crazy, will. >> no, you don't have a right. >> it's like -- gas prices go up, it becomes more important than any poll out there. it becomes blame president, republicans, congress. >> i don't think it's about a right. the american people have been duped to think this is something manageable or changed to a legislative policy. it's not that they have right they feel it can be fixed. >> how long in the future will you argue it is a right. we're arguing health care is a right, why not gas. >> since we're talking about gradual recovery i want to talk about rifbs. are gas prices the biggest risk to recovery? european debt, american debt? >> european debt. >> european debt. you don't see a euro sign over the pump every day when you go in to fill your car, which is why we think so much about gas but europe can blow up. solutions have been piecemeal. if that happens we could find ourselves in another slowdown. >> leave it there. so wait, does the recovery last? >> of course. of course the recovery will last. things will be great. jobs will be created. >> i'm the only one with humility, tell you the right answers. i don't know. >> we'll keep that under will's name. thanks so much. the health care debate goes before supreme court this coming week. this is an issue that affects every single one of you washing now. how can it shake out? jeff toobin and will cain work through it for you next on "your $$$$$." definitely the ecoboost option. what's pretty amazing is that you can get the fuel economy of a car in an suv. that basically did it for us. and the technology... oh, my goodness, the technology is amazing. everything is touch. you can actually talk to the car and it talks back to you. what have your friends said about your explorer? can we drive it? can we borrow it? what's your answer? no. no way. uh uh. (laugh) [ laughing ] ...is the crackle of the campfire. it can be a million years old... cool. ...or a few weeks young. ♪ [ laughs ] away beckons from orion's belt. away...is a place that's closer than you think. find your away. for a dealer and the rv that's right for you, visit gorving.com. president obama likely considers it his signature achievement the health care reform signed into law two years ago. this week it's headed to the supreme court. six hours have been set aside to hearing argument. most supreme court cases get just one. will cain back with us, jeffrey t tubin on all things. the mandate stating all americans must buy health insurance or face penalties. if that's unconstitutional is the entire law dead? >> that's up to the supreme court. of the judges that declared the law unconstitutional and there have been a handful of them, most of them, except for one, have said only the mandate is unconstitutional. one june, a trial court judge in pensacola said as a result of the mandate being unconstitutional, the whole law is unconstitutional. >> the mandate is the glue for the whole reform. >> there are many other decisions not legally controversial. >> pre-existing, not allowing insurance companies to deny you coverage if you have a pre-exists condition. >> or requiring children to be allowed to stay on their parents' health care until age 26. that is not constitutionally controversial. there is one judge that threw out everything. if they throw out anything it will be -- >> how deep are the divisions in the court. >> there are four judges appointed by democrats, who are virtually certain to uphold the law. there is one judge thomas who will strike it down. can they get one more out of roberts, scalia, kennedy, alito. i think the odds are it will be upheld. those four justices are really going to hold the outcoin their hands. kennedy as usual the swing justice. >> i've been hearing so much about the commerce clause. what is it they are fighting the legality of this? >> what's important to remember about the federal government you don't usually think about this. the federal government has limited powers. it's limited by the constitution. article one says congress may regulate commerce among several states. that's a key provision. most of what congress does with regard to the economy is use of that power. >> is that like fuel economy, standards in cars. >> minimum wage, medicare, medicaid, all financial regulation. >> why isn't requiring someone to have health care face a penalty, why is that different? >> the obama administration says it's not different. it's just the same. the argument against it, and will will certainly give this, but the argument against it is that it's okay for congress to regulate economic activity like paying someone the minimum wage but congress cannot regulate economic inactivity. it can't force you to enter into a commercial transaction with a private party, an insurance company, or pay a penalty. that's the argument against. >> that's correct. jeff said that really well. congress has an enumerated list of powers. one is the congress clause which has a simple one-sentence line congress has the ability to regulate trade among states. originally the intention or how it played out was to avoid trade wars between the states. that all changed in 1942. this will be the precedent based on where a farmer in ohio was growing wheat on its land. there was a law where congress was trying to boost the price of wheat. thought it would be good if we had a higher price. they said it would not be good if you had more wheat, you cannot grow more and he did. activity and inactivity. they didn't tell that farmer to boost wheat you buy more wheat, they put a limit. it comes to inactivity to activity from those on the conservative side looking at the law. >> a new poll, 26% of americans want the supreme court to uphold the heck law, 25% want to get rid of the individual mandate and 42% want the entire law thrown out. you're not only a resident conservative. you're an attorney. what's your take on this? what does the public want and will the public be satisfied if it's thrown out? things will change for them. things under way health care reform implemented. >> as most things in the political arena, the public wants its cake and eat it, too. they want to not buy health care but also want insurance companies can't deny you for pre-existing. they are intricately linked. if you tell insurance companies they can't deny people with pre-existing conditions it falls apart. they can't just accept sick peop people. >> every time he says insurance -- >> it's true. the public will have to realize if you want that condition you have to have the mandate. if you don't have the mandate you get that condition as well. >> it's already implement