Good news story for the administration. How does he take it back . I think he has reached a moment that every other president has reached, where he has lost control to shape his own destiny from a Public Policy agenda. So, congresswoman, as we look at this Health Care Debacle as its unfolded in the last couple months, well find out whether its a website problem or a structural problem with the program. I believe its a structural problem with the program, and this is an issue that touches every american, and so i think this will be the dominant political issue, health care, heading into 2014 elections. And i think the president and his team may not want to talk about it, but they have no choice but to deal with it, and its going to supercede all these other debates because its so much more personal to people. Chuck is right, david. What youre saying is right. They have to get health care right. Theyve got to work on it. But at the same time, the argument for doing something about the economy, the argument for addressing inequality is such a compelling argument. I think back to the piece in the New York Times this week. Steve rattner had this rescue piece about what to remember about 2014. It was the year in charts. Look what happened with wall street this year. Up 30 . What happened to average american wages this year . Up 1 . Productivity, way up over the last decade. But american wages barely up. This may be an issue that washington actually do something about it. On health care they seemed to have stepped back. They have to wait for the results. It will still be a fight but maybe the economy can be moved by that. Well be back with all of you. Well talk about that and some of the other big issues like the marijuana fight going on around the country. Ill be back with the roundtable a little bit later. But first i want to move to another economy, the debate with the direction of the economy. On friday the outgoing fed chairman ben bernanke talked about a stronger year for americas finances. But how to continue the growth is being hotly contested in washington. President obama pushing hard for congress to restore those emergency longterm Unemployment Benefits thavt have been cut of to 1. 3 million americans. Heres what he said in his weekly address saturday. We make this promise to one another because it makes a difference to a mother who needs help feeding her kids while she looks for work. It makes a difference to a father while learning skills to get a new and better job. And denying families that security is just plain cruel. Were a better country than that. We dont abandon our fellow americans when times get tough. Im joined now by president obamas economic point man Gene Sperling. He is the director of the economic council, assistant to the economic policy. And also here is the host of cnbcs mad money, jim cramer. Hes got a book out called get rich carefully. Gene sperling, the president s goal is to get the Unemployment Benefits restored for those folks out of work. Republicans are saying, okay, if you can do it fiscally, responsibly. What are the prospects of passage of this . What i would say is tomorrow, tomorrow is the day 1. 3 million americans go to the mailbox and find that the check theyve been relying on to put food on their table, put gas in their cars, to look for a new job will not be there. And tomorrow is also the day where the United States senate will have a chance to vote on the first bipartisan solution, which is a threemonth extension supported by so what are the chances of passage of congress . I would hope it would be quite good. Because i would hope that people went home and realize some things, which is that these are people who are desperately looking for work. The economy is improving. You know, weve had a lot of momentum. But how do you get it done when republicans say, look, whats the offset . How do you do it in a fiscally responsible way . David, lets just be clear. 14 of the last 17 times that emergency unemployment has been extended, there have been no strings attached. All five times that president bush extended Unemployment Benefits, there were no payfors. So look, why dont we do this. Lets pass the hellerreed proposal tomorrow. That will help them for three months. That will help these 1. 3 million families and then we have time to look at what to do to extend it the rest of the year. Because if you dont extend it is it smart, jim cramer, to extend this . Have to do it. Not even an issue. My question is, how does it create highly trained workers . How does it create jobs that are highly skilled that pay a lot . These are the bandaids. You have to put the bandaids on, but it doesnt address the issue. Rand paul says no, you have to stop putting the bandaids on. Heres what he said talking about the Economic Impact on this policy for those who are out of work. When you allow people to be on Unemployment Insurance for 99 weeks, youre causing them to become part of this perpetual Unemployed Group in our economy, and while it seems good, it actually does a disservice to the people youre trying to help. Is that how you view it . No, thats that kind of were way past that. Im surprised it even has come up again. These people need to have food on the table. But the question is, how do we get these people to where the jobs are . Why are we not more focused just on upward mobility but mobility to where the booms are in this country, and there are booms. Lets get to some of the other issues. Look at the unemployment chart. This is a positive stat for the administration as you see unemployment coming down in 2013 at 7. 7 . It looks like it will come down further. What gets it to keep coming down . What does it take for companies to go out there and get past their uncertainty and start hiring in 2014 . I think thats the right question. We have economic momentum, as jim has said. What are we going to do with that momentum . I think theres three things. One, we have to provide more economic certainty. The era of threatening defaults has to be over, the era of shutdowns has to be over. Secondly, its time for the republicans to work with the president on the bipartisan opportunities we have for job creation in Housing Finance reform, in immigration, on manufacturing. The president has put forward a grand bargain on jobs. He has said he would be willing to do Corporate Tax reform that lowers rates to 28 , simplifies taxes for Small Businesses, but do it together with a major infrastructure investment. Those are things we can work on together. And then finally, you know, we do want to make sure this recovery leaves no one behind, that we deal with economic inequality, so we have to admit, and we do admit, that the worst legacy of this Great Recession is the crisis of longterm unemployment. And as jim says, we have to hit it on all fronts. Job creation and work with ceos, but we have to give them support. The president also wants to raise the minimum wage. Is that a fight he should win, jim . Yes. Again, its a bit of a distraction. Remember, walmart can pay the minimum wage no matter how high it goes. The smaller business guy, it actually is a factor. You dont want to be able to think, i cant start a business. But i dont want to get too caught in the weeds here. Minimum wage, these jobless benefits, they do not do anything versus getting people in the states that are desperate for workers. Whats being done to get people to louisiana, to texas, to ohio, to north dakota, to pennsylvania, to sunu, mexico, to montana. These are states that need workers, but no one is helping them get there. 90 an hour for a trucker this year. No high school. Where is the uncertainty . You said something in your book that i thought was interesting u. Write in your book, this is about getting rich carefully. Washington is writing a serial novel about bankrupting us slowly. So washington is a factor on whether the economy takes off the way people think it might. The ceos, much maligned in this country, i believe, are trying to figure it out. The problem is the ceos are saying, you know what . Other than boeing with the seattle agreement the other day, lets just do it gnarly. Lets do it in asia. Lets do it in china. Theres no duty. They can import here, the jobs can go over there, because they have a very capitalist government. And we have a government that stands in the way. Im saying government, im not saying democrat, gene, okay . Heres the good news, jim and david. If you look at the boston group, theyre now saying the United States is more competitive for jobs and manufacturing than in decades. Theyre predicting over 50 of companies are thinking about reshoring a job here. A. T. Kearney just estimated that the United States for the First Time Since 2001 is the number one place for location. And we can increase that momentum by supporting the type of job creation the president has suggested. Tell me if we were to pass bipartisan Immigration Reform that would bring in more skilled workers, more stem workers into our economy, if we were to launch a major effort to create jobs and modernize infrastructu infrastructure, of course that would increase the attractiveness of job location in our country. Yes, minimum wage is just one piece of the puzzle. But i tell you, for over 10 million americans, its a big piece. Were a country that believes that if you work fulltime, you should not have to raise your children in poverty. But minimum wage workers with two children, some of them do. We can address that, and by the way, right now the minimum wage is at the same real level it was in 1950. You cant tell me as a country that over 64 years, we cant have a higher minimum wage that allows more people to work with dignity. David, dont you find it interesting that the dogma postclinton is proimmigration at a time when we have a much larger supply of labor than we need, and pro free trade. Even though we are supposed to be green gas oriented, we know where those jobs go. Those jobs leave this country to countries that can pollute all they want. We need to defense against the countries that take our jobs and pollute all over. We dont care about that. What we care about is when workers come from other countries to this country, they get jobs. Why dont we care about our people . Let me turn the page with our remaining time. The stock market. How bullish are you in 2014 . The stock market is about profits and about washington staying out of the way. We have washington off the table for now, we have balanced profits. That is great for the stock market. The Administration Never embraces the stock market because i think the administration think its only for rich people. I think thats wrong. People with 401 k s depend on the stock market. I dont think thats true. I want to talk to an official on the program for a while. 2. 1 Million People have signed up, the goal is 7 million by march for obamacare. How do you think that will happen . The key is to have an exchange thats working 7 Million People by march. I think success is having an ongoing, strong market, and i want to disagree with chuck todd. I am anxious to talk, and we are anxious to talk about what health care means. You know, for all the criticism, how about some focus on 6 million americans who now have coverage, 3 million young people who are on their parents coverage because of obamacare, and today is the first week ever where women cannot be discriminated against on their Health Care Just because theyre women. Its the first time 129 million americans cant be discriminated against because of preexisting conditions. Im proud of it and its worth it for the people. Gene sperling, thank you very much. Jim cramer, continued success for the book. Thank you all for being here. Up next, who is right about it . This is going to destroy the best Health Care System in the world. Millions of americans, despite problems with the website, are not poised to be covered by Quality Health insurance. The insight of obamacare. Ill get insight from the mayo clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. Plus, the marijuana debate. Is legalization the start of a National Trend or just a temporary experiment . The roundtable will break it down this morning. Olympic danger. Terror attacks in russia. Are our athletes safe . My exclusive interview with former Homeland Security chief, janet we know why were here. To connect our forces to what they need, when they need it. To help troops see danger, before it sees them. To answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together, to support and protect all who serve. Thats why were here. The reason i visited the Cleveland Clinic is because, along with the mayo clinic, they have been able to drive down costs more than any other Health Care System out there while maintaining some of the highest quality. That was president obama back in 2009, and this morning i want to get beyond some of these political arguments over obamacare in washington, and thats why ive asked two top leaders in the medical field by the hospitals mentioned by the president to give their oversights on the future of obamacare. Joining me from the mayo clinic is dr. John noseworthy and from the Cleveland Clinic, dr. Delos cosgrove. Dr. Cosgrove, let me start with you. What is the impact of obamacare in 2014 . This started out to be three things. It started out to increase access. I think when its fully developed, we will see increased access. It started out to improve quality of care, which is very available across the country, and i think with the transparency that it brings around quality, well see quality going up across the country. The real question is cost. And we really dont have the answer to that yet. Were going to have to see how this plays out over time. I see it the same way. I think what it basically has done is expand insurance coverage, and what we need to do now is modernize the Health Care System to deliver care at cost. And sustainability of medical care in the long term is something the nation hasnt wanted to touch, but we have to have the courage to stand up to it. And you see doctors deal with the fact that medicare rates and reimbursement rates are going down. It affects hospitals. Medicare drives Health Care Costs in this country, right . In a large sense. About 50 of the costs are medicare costs. And what kind of reform has got to happen beyond the Health Care Reform that has to do with insurance, which is the Affordable Care act . What needs to happen now is we need to modernize the Payment System to drive Better Outcomes to pay for results, not just activity. And we also need to take advantage of technology. Right now we can provide great information knowledge, patient care across state borders using mental health, mobile and digital technology, and thats tied up in state laws for how health care is delivered and how its paid for. And we have to fund the nih. Well get back to that in a second because that gets to research and what makes our Health Care System great. Do you understand all the parts of obamacare, and will you be out promoting it . We dont understand it all yet and we dont understand the implications, how its going to affect hospitals and physicians, et cetera, who is going to get what sort of insurance and who is going to be covered with what sort of policy. So we really dont understand this. We do know, however, that were going to be paid less for what we do hospitals will be paid less. Everybody is going to get paid less. There will be less money in the organization. And weve got to learn to be more efficient. And the Health Care System in the United States is not really a system. Its a whole bunch of cottage industries, and were coming together as a system, and to drive more and more efficiency across our organization. So heres a question about costs. One of the big issues is not you just get enough people insured so they can get insurance in an affordable way, but what do consumers of health care now do . The number of people going into hospitals is far down. A lot of people now have insurance. We saw this week theyre still going to the er to get health care, which is very expensive. Or maybe theyre not spending their Health Dollars in the way they should for their overall wellness, which could still drive costs in the future. Theres no question that having insurance is a good step forward for everyone. But folks dont necessarily know what theyve got when they go on the exchange is buy something until they get ill. Preventative services may be covered but these Narrow Networks that likely will develop and can you keep your doctor, all of that will play out in the coming months. I think its very important that we stay very close to this, but david, the Affordable Care act will take its own path. What we really need to do is the next series of steps. There are things the country needs to do, the government must do and health care providers. Such as . First of all, they have to modernize the Payment System, modernize medical care, they have to find a way to Bring Technology across state borders. We have to fund the nih, and ultimately the