Transcripts For MSNBC Morning Joe 20130222

Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. Its friday, february 22nd. With us on set, as we take a live look at times square, we have msnbc contributor Mike Barnicle. With the former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst ed rendell and the host of politics nation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton. Hi, reverend al. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Its friday, huh . It is friday, right . Is it . I think it is. The oscars this weekend, Academy Awards. And of course, hollywood is very excited about this. Yes. Louis bergdorf is going to be storming on the big parties. Hes going to be going all to the fast food joints and stuffing food in his mouth on videotape. Look at that. See, hes a very healthy boy. So anyway. Isnt he supposed to be working for us . No. No. Hes hes having fun. But, you know did you say he could do that . I think anybody in the control room, theyll tell you, working for us is fun. Its the same thing. Just joyous, happy people. See, look how happy they are. Party time. Its party time. Its always party time. So lets go through the news. Theres a lot going on. Yes, there is. Some of the countrys largest retailers and manufacturers are lowering their forecasts, concerned over the Economic Impact of the payroll tax. The wall street journal reports companies ranging from walmart to kraft foods to burger king are changing their strategies for an anticipated downturn in sales. According to citigroup, the 2 tax increase will take out approximately 1,300 of a Household Income of 65,000. In total, its expected to take 110 billion away from consumers. Walmart is responding by stocking shelves with smaller packages of staple products from diapers to toilet paper. Burger king is dropping prices on the whopper jr. And shifting advertising away from higher priced items to its value menu. What is the value menu . I dont know. The value menu is one of the most important inventions since the polio vaccine, but well talk about that in a little bit. Okay. Mike, youve got both parties that are so blinded to the realities. Their ideology blinds them to the realities of what impacts middleclass, workingclass americans. Youve got republicans that are saying were going to cut everything right now, sequestration. Its going to slow down the economy. Youve got democrats youve got the president running around because he only knows how to do one thing, ask for higher taxes. Hes leading with the taxes. Weve got to raise more taxes. Its the rich, its the corporations, tax, tax, tax. I thought we had this debate before. Democrats dont seem to understand that taxing americans dampens the economy, hurts Small Businesses, hurts a lot of americans. Republicans dont seem to understand that massive unfocused cuts right now are going to slow down the economy and hurt americans, too. You seriously have to wonder whether anyone in washington, in the house, in the senate, in the white house, in the administration, republican, democrat, do they ever go outdoors . Do they ever see what happens every day to ordinary americans . People who have been getting crushed economically for the past 10 or 15 years are now getting crushed again, doubly so. The payroll tax has been eliminated. Have you checked out the price of gasoline over the past couple of weeks . Have you checked out the residual effect on the price of food over the past couple of weeks . This is a killer for people who work hard every day just to stay even. Never mind get ahead. Never mindset something aside for the future. You know, for the weekend to go to the movies. They get crushed. You know why washington doesnt get that . Because they live in this bubble where theyre constantly fighting a Permanent Campaign. They look at their laptops. They read their ideological bloggers. This is true. They are focused here, and they live in this world instead of understanding, reverend al, that when gas prices go up, when the payroll tax cuts go away, when spending from washington is cut like that in an unfocused way, when taxes go up, all of this works together in collusion against them being able to take care of their families. I think the reality is that they are in this Ongoing Campaign from one campaign to the next. The thing that is so stunning to me is that when we have elections, they just go right to the next campaign. They act as though we didnt just vote about this in november. Yeah. And america rejected some things and accepted others. And i think there needs to be a balance. But everybody starts from so far in extreme camps. That its hard to get this together. I think thats whats going on. You talked to the president yesterday . He did my radio show yesterday. I think the president , his position, which i happen to agree with, no surprise to you, is that he did do some cuts, but that they do not want on the other side to deal with more revenue from the higher echelon or the higher income earners in the country. And when youve got the head of the house, saying were not putting revenue on the table, where do you even get started with this conversation . And were seven days away from sequester. Well, lets take a look. We can take a listen to part of your interview with president obama yesterday. My sense is that their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. And thats the thing that binds their Party Together at this point. This is a major argument, obviously, weve been having for the last three years. Unfortunately, i think republicans right now have been so dug in on this notion of never raising taxes, that it becomes difficult for them to see an obvious answer right in front of them. Can i be frustrated here for a second . Is that okay with a smile on my face . Mmhmm. Wheres he been . Where has the has the president been vacationing for three months . Four months . Where has he been . He was on the phone with Speaker Boehner and Mitch Mcconnell. Thats what i dont understand. You know, when republicans folded and raised taxes for the first time in 25 years, i asked on this program, what are democrats going to do now . Because theyve been saying we need to raise taxes on the rich for a quarter century. So they did. Republicans folded. The president got what he wanted. He won. And so i said, okay. So now we get to go to cuts. Now were going to figure out, because the president s never told us where hes going to cut over five years. Now were going to figure out how were going to actually get some real cuts. And ed rendell, hes talking about tax increases again. Tax increases. Thats all hes got. Paul simon had a song called one trick pony. Thats all hes got. Republicans have been one trick ponies for a quarter century. Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. This guy right now sounds out of touch, talking about tax increases. Or hes trying to restore some balance. There are two things at play. Number one, the sad part is theres been a plan for a while that would get us out of this as a country in a fair and balanced way, and thats simpsonbowles. And alan and erskine came out with a scaleddown plan, 4. 6, 4. 7 trillion. You support that, right . Yes. And our chair supports it very strongly. Remember, joe, in fairness to the president , he called for a package to include 1. 2 trillion in revenue and about 2. 6 trillion in cuts. Almost 2. 51 in cuts. He got 650 in revenue. His position would be, if he were here, i still need to get up to that 1. 2 trillion. Sure. Ize rhetorical advice is always its the rich people. You know, those rich people by the way, i say on the show all the time, i support closing tax loopholes. Everyone should. Im also talking about sacrifices that all americans are going to have to make as far as spending cuts go. But he goes on the campaign trail, and he says oh, its the rich. Its the big, fat corporates, the fat cats in the corporations. He was for change cpi. He still says hes for change cpi. And change cpi hits our people. Hes going to get a lot of grief. In a meeting yesterday, he came up and said to those of us that lead civil rights organizations, there are things were not going to like. Its not like hes just playing to one side here. But i think the Governors Point is important. He did not get all that he wanted from the rich. Were talking about the republicans say lets maintain loopholes for yachts and private jets. This is not hard. As opposed i mean, james brown had a song, too, called the big payback oic. Its time they pay back their fair share, all of it. Did he refer to entitlements yesterday . All of that is on the table. But he said youve got to deal with those loopholes. See, im not hearing that. And i suppose if i heard him talking about the serious decisions we had to make on longterm debt, on medicare, on medicaid, on social security, on national defense, you know, hes running around sounding like Donald Rumsfeld trying to defend the pentagon. Like dont cut a single thing, but im going to go out, im going to keep talking about rich americans. Im going to keep talking about corporations. Im going to play to my base instead of talking telling middleclass americans theyre going to have to make some sacrifices. Along with the rich. Its that mika, its a Permanent Campaign. And i guess if this is how he wants to run things, hes president of the United States, good luck over the next 3 1 2 years. I dont understand why loopholes are even an argument, first of all, why he has to go this far. Why he has to keep talking about it. Hold on a second. I know. We all agree that these loopholes need to be closed. Well, lets do it. Why is it so hard . Ive been talking about supporting Warren Buffetts idea. Why are we still talking about it . Because the president only uses it to demagogue in a Permanent Campaign. He never talks about the other side of it. He always says oh, its the rich. That would be loopholes. Dont tax you, dont tax me, tax the rich guy behind the tree. Steny hoyer stepped up yesterday. He did. He was amazing. He was great. He talked about entitlement programs, about getting to the point where you have to address the issue of entitlement programs and cutting entitlement programs. Youre not serious about reducing the deficit and the debt unless you talk about that. And Thomas Friedman, New York Times, also had a column this weekend saying we have got to stop stealing from the next generation. We have got to stop robbing Nursery Schools, for nursing homes. Its what weve been doing. Thats what were going to continue to do. Allen binder, i go back to the princeton economist, who say democrats are wrong on this. We cannot tax our way out of the entitlement crisis. Well, i dont think thats what the president s saying. Thats all hes talking about, mika. Thats all hes talking about. Lets tax the rich. Thats going to make everything better. Hey, is your back a little sore . You know what . Its the rich folks fault. Lets tax the rich. Lets tax the big corporations. Is closing loopholes taxing the rich . I mean, i just want to put this out on the table really quickly. My position on taxing the rich probably is far more, lets say, progressive than most of the democrats that are going to be running for senate in 2014. I doubt they will embrace my idea of a 30 minimum tax rate. So its not that, mika. Yeah. Its that hes in a Permanent Campaign. Hes playing to the lowest common denominator, using class resentment instead of getting serious like a president should. Im not sure i agree with that. Im sure you dont. David brooks writes this in the New York Times. Under the Permanent Campaign shimmy, the president identifies a problem, then he declines to come up with a proposal to address the problem. Then he comes up with a vague but politically convenient concept that doesnt address the problem, lets raise taxes on the rich. Then he goes around the country blasting the opposition for not having as politically popular a concept. Then he returns to washington and congratulates himself for being the only serious and sub standive person in town. Sequestration allows the white house to do this all over again. So what are i mean, we saw steny on the set yesterday, bringing up some really good ideas. What are some of the republicans substantive ideas in terms of cuts that they have put on the table, that they have gone to the white house and presented to the president and said, you know what . Well negotiate. We dont really want to talk about taxes anymore, but closing loopholes makes sense. But here are the things we need out of this. Well, i mean, paul ryan put it on the table, and democrats killed him for two years. No, no, what are they talking about now to avoid sequestration . You know, both sides both sides both sides are standing on the lawn of a burning house, and theyre arguing about who started the fire instead of trying to put the fire out. We tried to get change cpi, and harry reid took it off the table. And the president claims he wants change cpi, but is harry reid more powerful than barack obama . Thats a good question. No, its not. No, harry reid is not a more powerful guy. But i do agree in the end, if the president will stop demagoguing, and if hell stop running a president ial campaign, a Permanent Campaign that david brooks is talking about, al, i think youre right. I think the president , at the end, may actually make some decisions that will upset his own base, change cpi, on hopefully hopefully he wont take Paul Krugmans position and say well worry about medicare in 2025 when it starts to melt down. Hopefully hell be a little more responsible than that. I think he will. Yes. But the problem, i think, goes back to mikas point. In all of the attacking the president , he has a plan on the table. You can say is demagoguing. The revenues that hes putting on the table from the taxes add up. The republicans have just come back saying, were not putting revenue on the table, but they have not come up with a counterproposal. They havent even shown up. The problem with the david brooks problem is the sequence of events. We set up sequestration to stop this so that saying this is so drastic, well never do this. Were seven days away from doing it. And i think that weve got to deal with the reality that the republicans are going where no one thought they would ever go including at the risk of national security. We need to get to hagel, but joe, isnt a negotiation where nobody gets exactly what they want . And are you all saying not you are the republicans saying, well, because we didnt like the last negotiation, were not going to play fair on this one . We refuse . Come on. Come on. Close some loopholes and then lets get some spending cuts. Again, the republicans did something they havent done in a quarter century. Whats that . They agreed to raise taxes. That aint nothing. So they make this huge step no, its been the center of the debate for four years. And liberals have been talking about raising taxes for 25 years. You asked. Im going to answer. Okay. And so for the first time in a quarter century, republicans agreed to raise taxes. And what the president proves is what a lot of conservatives have long suspected. That he was going to raise taxes, and then hed never come forward with cuts. Hed ask for more tax increases. And then youd have people like paul krugman saying you know what . We need to raise more taxes, and we dont have to worry about entitlement programs. And any sane, rational human being knows are going to melt down ten years from now, 15 years from now. Nancy pelosi follows up by saying a country thats 16. 5 trillion in debt doesnt have a spending program. Weve run spending problem. A spending problem. Weve run deficits of over a trillion dollars for four years running, consecutive. And so suddenly democrats have decided, you know what . Weve got the republicans on the run. We dont have to be responsible. Well continue to run this Permanent Campaign. And we wont come forward in good faith with substantial cuts. And i agree with the president s balanced approach. I agree with the republicans balanced approach. Thats where americans are. Close the loopholes, but give us the cuts. The president and democrats refuse to do change cpi and a lot of other things that would be responsible. And danger number one is sequestration goes terrible for the economy. Danger number two is they do a tiny little thing to avoid sequestration, kick the can down the road again. Every time we kick the can down the road, were not doing anything about the 3 billion a day that gets added to the defic deficit, number one. Number two, we havent seriously considered the second ten years. Everything is the first ten years. Its the second ten years, and the only way you get money in the second ten years is to do serious entitlement reform. And what i dont understand about the president s position is lets put up what happens with sequestration again. We lose 750,000 jobs, lower Economic Growth by over half a percentage point. We have the last quarter, the economy was upside down. And the economics of this is terrible as well, mika, because lets say the economy continues to slow down. Right. Well, that just increases the deficit and the debt. Deficit in the short run. The debt in the long run. The projections in the long run. So why doesnt the president step forward and do more than just conduct what david brooks says, a Permanent Campaign . By the way, mika, theres one president , theres one i would love for him to show some leadership on this instead of just taking cheap political shots. I think hes running i think this is about 2014. I really do. I think hes decided it could be. Hes going to destroy the Republican Party, and thats his decision. Well, theyre doing a good job destroying themselves. You know what . If the president were interested in doing something other than destroying the Republican Party, hed be sitting down, and we wouldnt be in yet another crisis. Thats like looking at a burning building and saying im going to light a match and burn that building down. The Republican Party is definitely responsible for their problems at this point. And let me answer your question with a question. The republicans lose either way. If sequestration goes into effect, this is going to be on them. At this point no, its not. Why dont they go to the table and get something from him . I dont think its going to be on the republicans anymore. He will give. No. Well the history books are going to show this president david brooks who, by the way, was one republican that the president read all the time because brooks was a moderate, reasonable republican. David brooks is writing right now what historians are going to be writing when president obama leaves the office. Steny hoyer hes in a Permanent Campaign showing absolutely no responsibility on this issue. To put cuts on the table. Lets hear from a republican. What about the president . Youre saying stenys doing a great job. You know, if the president had said that yesterday on als show, i would be throwing confetti this morning. But he cant do it. He cant be responsible. He cant be himself. But where are the republicans . Where are they . I have not heard one republican say lets put loop sho loopholes on the table. Change cpi. Thats fine. And republicans have said that. Joe scarborough is the republican that that is brave enough. Saying something rational. I would hope that those republicans watching you this morning would come forward and say, we agree with joe scarborough. Were not saying listen. So lets do a little experiment. Everybody in the senate gym exercises watching this show, and they say that. Oh, yeah, looking good. You guys could do me a favor and look me more powerful than i actually am. Actually, thats hard to do. But if you could just put out a press release saying we support chain cpi. Before the fiscal cliff, you say harry took chain cpi off the table. But Mitch Mcconnell was quoted as saying its okay to take chain cpi off the table. I would have held in there on the fiscal cliff and not kicked the can down the road again. So i think als point. John boehner has 60 to 70 people in his party who are holding this whole thing hostage. Theres one president. Its true. We can keep blaming him. Okay. Thats correct. And by the way, you can as ed knows, you can take a big old truck and run over 70 70 congressmen . Thats like one ant. If youre president of the United States i dont think they like that in the gym. No. I was one of those people. And i saw, when bill clinton and a republican leader decided they were going to stomp on 70 of us you just get out of the way. And there were usually about 70 conservatives that usually got rolled. But well see. Im sure this is all still ahead on morning joe, the moderator of meet the press i like it when alex gets rough in the control room in my ear. He just yelled at me. Im going drive him crazy. All right. Moderator of meet the press paul simon. That didnt sound like alex, david gregory, secretary of housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan with the latest on the Housing Market. That will be good. Also historian Douglas Brinkley. And later, New York Times film critic tony scott will be here with his oscar picks. That will be cool. And up next, inside this mornings politico playbook including how some republican governors are providing a lift for president obamaS Health Care law. Rick scott out of florida. Yeah, thats big news. Who would have ever seen that coming . Well, makes kind of sense, actually. Hospitals. Hospitals, connection with the hospitals. Well talk about later, al. These republican governors that are opting out of it are leaving a lot of really poor americans outside the hospital doors. Thats true. Give me that. First heres bill karins tracking the major winter storm. Bill. This friday is a very busy morning. Roads are a mess from areas of wisconsin all the way back down to north carolina. And this is just storm one. Storm two will hit new england saturday night and sunday. As far as the worst of it goes, i think minnesota, northern wisconsin around green bay and also michigan. Watch out for that freezing rain right now in indiana and ohio and a little icy weather, too, in virginia. That will be trying to arrive in d. C. Shortly. As far as the snow goes, its ended in chicago. Milwaukee, looks like you are done. A little snow starting now in detroit. And minneapolis, were going to continue to give you a couple more inches of snow. So thats the snow portion of the storm. The east coast today, not looking too bad. Clouds will be on the increase. Rain in the southeast. That will be the story as we go through the next 48 hours. Heavy amounts of rain, too, especially down in georgia, in atlanta. Looks like the worst of it will be just south of the atlanta area. And then as far as saturdays forecast goes, thats when well start to watch some of that snow breaking out further to north. As of now its not looking like a big, huge snowstorm for southern new england. But if youre north of the mass pike into northern New Hampshire, thats where we could be dealing with issues. Again, well have updates on that weekend forecast including the snow coming. The snow that was in chicago looks like its about to end. Just flurries left. You did pick up around three or four inches. Youre watching morning joe brewed by starbucks. With the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. Take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorns Small Business earns double miles on every purchase every day. Produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less . Ahh, oh [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. Heres your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark Business Card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. Choose double miles or 2 cash back on every purchase every day. Whats in your wallet . [ crows ] now wheres the Snooze Button . But at xerox weve embraced a new role. Working behind the scenes to provide companies with services. Like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. Reducing document costs by up to 30 . And processing 421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. Helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. Hows that for an encore . With xerox, youre ready for real business. Time to take a look at the morning papers. New york times, lawmakers in at least six states have proposed requiring additional insurance for gun owners. States like california, maryland, new york and pennsylvania may require people who purchase firearms to also purchase liability insurance. Similar to the requirement for car owners. Legislators hope it would be a financial incentive for safe gun behavior. Great idea. The dallas morning news, the flu shot is only 9 effective when it comes to protecting older americans. It has been a brutal flu season. A higher number than usual for hospitalization of seniors. Still researchers say some protection is better than none. The reno gazette journal, giant goldfish are starting to show up in waterways across the u. S. University of nevadareno oh, my goodness researchers started finding these fourpounders in lake tahoe beginning in 2006. And since then, their populations have grown. Where do they come from . Theres no explanation, but researchers believe aquarium dumping may be to blame. Thats terrible. I kept feeding them in n out burger. And on the cover of this weeks parade magazine, funny man seth mcfarlane. Hes going to be hosting Sundays Academy awards. I dont really get that, mike. Do you get that . Hes a funny guy. Is he . Thats a tough job, but hes a funny guy. I dont know whether the taste level will be acceptable. He might be is he punching above his weight there . I dont think so. I dont think so. Who would you say, joe, is the best host ever . Oh, thats easy. James franco. You think james franco . Im joking. He was stoned the entire time i thought no one could compete with Johnny Carson. Letterman was good. I think he only did it one or two years before they yanked him. Letterman was fantastic. No, Johnny Carson was the best by far. James franco, just to see a runaway beer truck careen wildly off the road. That was who shows up to the Academy Awards stoned . James franco. James franco. You are correct, sir. Lets go to politico. Stoned. Im a little worried to even check. Patrick gavin with us with the playbook. Hes a wreck. Its not 4 20 yet. A couple more hours. More republican governors are moving to expand medicaid, a major component of the president S Health Care plan. This is big news. It is. Why are they doing it . Well, if you am when the Supreme Court passed obamacare, they gave states the option but not requirement to expand medicaid in their states. And a lot of republicans or i guess folks who didnt agree with obamacare were hoping that through the states thats sort of how they would chip away at obamacare and kill it. That does not seem to be happening. Especially when you hear news of rick scott from florida agreeing to expand medicaid. Why is that important . Not only is he a republican, not only is in the important state of florida, hes been one of the biggest critics. Rick scott is realizing what a lot of other republican governors are seeing in states like north dakota and ohio are realizing which is that the politics are really hard to not do it. You not only have a lot of groups representing lowincome republicans, you have a lot of religious groups to expand access for lowincome americans, when the economy is the way it is. And the reality is even if you dont expand it in your state, that doesnt exempt your state from paying these federal taxes. So it is very much a collective action issue where if you dont just because youre not going to do it in your state doesnt mean youre not going to help subsidize other states. The politics for republican governors around the country to not expand medicaid is very difficult. If you saw rick scott do it yesterday, i think youll be not surprised to see other republican governors do it as well. Obviously, al sharpton, a lot of pressure on a conservative like rick scott, just say no to all that money. You offend just about everybody. You offend the hospitals, but you also offend a lot of swing voters and say, wait a second. The federal government is going to give us all of this money to take care of the poor . And you said no to it while were paying for the other 49 states to do the same thing . No, and it didnt make sense when scott was saying he wasnt going to do it. And brewer and others. And i think that theyve just come to the reality, you cannot turn down this money. The president , in terms of this package, was right. And theyve had to make 180degree turn. I think theyre doing the right thing now, but it was right when they were saying they were not going to do it. Theyre just catching up to the needs of their constituents. Thats what theyre supposed to do. Patrick gavin, thank you. Have a good weekend. Coming up, we dispatched louis. Which i think it inaccurate. I think he just took off on a bender to the Academy Awards. As you can see, a total waste of money. Louis bergdorf in l. A. The kids a mess. Well get a look at sweet lous preview of the oscars as he looks in every mirror he can find at himself. Were going to be talking about lincoln, i think an oddson favorite and also talking to tony scott of the New York Times. [ kitt ] you know whats impressive . A talking car. But ill tell you what impresses me. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . If you dont have something important to say . A hybrid . Most are just no fun to drive. Now, heres one that will make you feel alive. Meet the fivepassenger ford cmax hybrid. Cmax says ha. Cmax says wheeee. Which is what you get, dont you see . Cause cmax has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that cmax also bests in mpg. Say hi to the allnew 47 combined mpg cmax hybrid. How did i know . Well, i didnt really. See, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive. But when i started losing energy and became moody. Thats when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. We discussed all the symptoms. Then he gave me some blood tests. Showed it was low t. Thats it. It was a number not just me. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1. 62 testosterone gel . The 1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy, increases testosterone when used daily. Women and children should avoid contact with application sites. Discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. Men with Breast Cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are or may become pregnant or are breastfeeding, should not use androgel. Serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. Tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. So. What do men do when a numbers too low . Turn it up [ male announcer ] in a clinical study, over 80 of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. Talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. Get the blood tests. Change your number. Turn it up. Androgel 1. 62 . All right. The Academy Awards are this sunday. And our oscars correspondent, louis bergdorf, what is wrong with him . Who does he think he is . Hes every correspondent. Last week he was our cooking correspondent. A couple years ago, venereal disease correspondent. Theres a different one every week. Now Academy Awards. He sent in this dispatch from hollywood. Mika, i know how difficult it is to get you to go to the movies. This year im going to save you the trouble. I dispatched myself to hollywood to screen every single oscarnominated film. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. The oscars. The glitz and glamour of hollywood on display for all to see. Featuring the entertainment industrys biggest names all sharing a single stage to honor a year in achievement. Its a ceremony known to create a few memorable moments of its own from the halle berry kiss to Marlon Brandos famous no show. Memorable firsts for Martin Scorsese and Kathryn Bigelow and feelgood moments from the good will hunting boys from boston and a director who showed us life is beautiful. This years also sure to make history as hollywood celebrates its best year ever, pulling in more than 10. 8 billion at the box office. Bond. James bond. The belle of the ball is without a doubt Silver Linings playbook. Bradley cooper and russell both picked up nods, coopers first nomination. He hasnt put it on screen yet. You stumble upon certain things in your life that you never expect, and for me this was one from the beginning when i first played this character. Reporter Silver Linings is set up for a big night, becoming the first time in 31 years to grab nods in all four categories joining bonnie and clyde, a streetcar named desire and network. Im as mad as hell, and im not going to take this anymore reporter lincoln leading all films with 12 nominations. Steven spielberg is looking to take home his third golden statue for directing, having previously won for two other historical dramas, saving private ryan and schindlers list. I had always wanted to do something on lincoln. I hope lincoln never stops knocking around in my head. Reporter daniel daylewiss portrayal as the 16th commander in chief. Jessica chastain picked up her second oscar nomination for her role as maya in Kathryn Bigelows controversial film zero dark thirty. Its this 9yearold, the youngest actress ever nominated by the academy, who is ready to steal the night away from her fellow nominees. Who the man . Im the man reporter all eyes will be on the ben affleck sunday night who was snubbed by the academy for his work directing argo. While he wont get a chance to take home best director, argo is the oddson favorite to beat the field for best picture which could make for a true hollywood ending. If i can even execute in a basic way on this, this would be the best thing that ive ever done by far. Reporter mika, screening those films, it really took it out of me. Looks like ill have to take a couple extra days out here to recuperate. Back to you guys in new york. All right. Coming up on morning joe, the editor in chief of buzzfeed, ben smith. Also the National Reviews bob costa. And up next, the man who eats, breathes and sleeps, work smarter, not harder. Oh, i like that. Harvards bob posen is back with us with more musthear tips for any executive on how to work less and accomplish more. Its really like dieting. I like it. A diet fad. The capital one cash rewards card gives you 1 cash back on all purchases, plus a 50 annual bonus. And everyone likes 50 more. [ midwestern chicago accent ] cheddar yeah 50 percent more [yodeling] yodelayeeoo. 50 more flash. [ southern accent ] 50 percent more taters. Thats where tots come from. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1 cash back on every purchase plus a 50 annual bonus on the cash you earn. Its the card for people who like more cash. 50 more spy stuff. Whats in your wallet . This car is too small. Im here to pick up some cacti. It should be under stephens. The verizon share everything plan for Small Business. Get a shareable pool of data. Got enough joshua trees . On up to 25 devices. So you can spend less time. Yea, the golden barrels. Managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. Looks like were going to need to order more agaves. Ah oh ow . And more bandages. Thats powerful. Shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. Now save 50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. Ive always had to keep my eye on her. But, i didnt always watch out for myself. With so much noise about health care. I tuned it all out. With unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters. My individual health profile. Not random statistics. They even reward me for addressing my health risks. So im doing fine. But shes still going to give me a heart attack. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. But thats dinner. We find out that ann hits a deer with her car. And mika asks, is the deer okay . Your mom used to bring home road kill. Thats what im saying. Did you bring the deer home . Thats a waste. Thats a waste. So mikas mom actually ran into a deer. Well, no, she didnt hit it, but she saw it get hit and knew it was fresh. Right. And split it with the farmer. And brought it home. Brought it home. Sandwich . No, she actually saved it for dinner. Pamela harriman over. You dont waste good meat. Road kill. Obviously ann hasnt learned that yet. With us now just left it there . Look who we have. She should have been a lot more productive, mika. I know. Really, youve got time is money. Time is money. Joining us now, senior lecturer at Harvard Business school, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former chairman of Mfs Investment Management of fidelity investments, robert posen. Hes back with more advice for us from his book, extreme productivity. Boost your results, reduce your hours, lessons on High Performance from an executive. Mika said it sounds like one of those diets. Work less, be more productive. For you, its all about ordering, prioritizing. Yes. I think everyone has to figure out what your highpriority stuff is. Just write it down. Write down the three or four things you want to get done this week. The three or four things you want to get done this year. And then youve got to figure out how to get all the small stuff out of the way. And one of my best suggestions is something called ohio. Only handle it once. We all are overwhelmed by email. We get hundreds of emails. And so the key is, when you see that email, discard 80 to 85 of them right away. Really . Right now while were talking . Thats right. Exactly because you can tell that this is just something you get every day. Some solicitation. Something thats really worthless. But the other 15 , answer it right away. Right then and there. Does email make us more productive . Because the thing that i always loved about email ten years ago is, you know, you respond to somebody quickly. Youre like okay, you know what . I can respond to them in five seconds instead of sitting on the phone for five minutes. Thats true. But then a response feeds a response feeds a response. With three people copied on it. Feeds a response. I just wonder its like most technology. Its got potential for great increases in productivity, but if misused, its going to reduce your productivity. One of the things i urge is never hit the reply to all button. Really think about whether you need to reply to someone else. We all get caught on these reply to all. I need to get that straight. She makes that mistake especially when i blind copy. And then i reply all. Another thing is dont send an email that just says thank you. Because thats show your thanks by not sending the email saying thank you. But emails come in, like, 100 times an hour. Thats why youve got to really be tough with yourself and discard most of them. You can tell just from the subject matter, its a hit cal solicitation, something you get every day. But the key thing is, the things that are important, you need to answer right away, not put them into your Holding Pattern because before you know it, youll have 200 or 300. You talk about the problem with perfectionism. Right. Perfectists want to be perfect on all tasks. And sometimes there are tasks that are less important. You sort of spin your wheels. Right. You say, you know what . Dont try to get an a. Get a b plus. Thats right. Lots of us have to file status reports or things that come every week or every month. The people who are reading it, your audience doesnt want a tenpage exegis on this subject. If you spend time to do the tenpager, youve just wasted your time. The key is to figure out what does your audience want . Do they want aplus work or b work . And in things like status work, all they want is b plus work. If youre spending more time, youre wasting it. I think men are better at this. I think women need to learn to be less perfectionists, spend less time being perfect and just get it done. Thats what guys do. They hand in c work and then talk about it. Or just throw away assignments. Exactly. Al, youve got a crazy schedule. You work around the clock, seven days a week. How do you prioritize . I mean, i think hes right. I write out i dont do it weekly. I do it daily. The three or four things that i need to get done, and i try to remain focused on that. So between the television show, the radio show and National Action network, i would go crazy if i tried to do all the minute little things. You have to set priorities and you have to be disciplined enough to stay focused on. And you check off. Did i get this done . Did i get this done . Because youll find yourself, if you dont do that, having achieved a whole lot of nothing, and not achieving the main things you need to get done. And i like your approach of every night, reconsider, which things did you do, and which things didnt you do . And then you move it forward. I think for somebody wanting to be productive, i think the key here is you said something at the very beginning. I almost interrupted you to underline it. But al just did it for me. Write it down. Right. Write it down. Im not an organized guy naturally. And the only i started succeeding when i started writing my goals down. And like you, i was me naniacal. I knew if i didnt have a piece of paper in fact, when i was in congress, the only thing that worked for me again, because im so disorganized in nature, i said, whats my one goal for the year . And then i backed it up. Whats my goal for each quarter . Then i backed it up, whats my goal for the first three months inside that quarter . And thats the only way there was one organizing principle, and it fed into everything. But that would have never happened if i hadnt written it down. Youre right. And heres another exercise that i suggest in extreme productivity. Write down your goals and then take your average week and see what you spend your time on, how much time you spend on meals, sleep, how much time you spend commuting. How much time you how many hours a week are you spending for your four top goals . This is very important for Mike Barnicle because youve got fantasy baseball, right . Sitting in the car in the back seat sleeping. Central park. Central park bench. Walking through central park and finding a bench. Might be overdoing that. Do you have a pie chart that breaks it down . I write down all these goals daily. I write down what time im going to the park, what costume im going to work, whether camouflage will work. What games will be on that particular night and what trades i want to make in fantasy baseball. I write that down every single day. Every single morning. Heres a better life than us, ill tell you what. Heres the interesting thing. Ive done this for a lot of audiences. Ive never found one where they use more than half their time on their toppriority goals. Almost all of them have less than half their time on their priority goals. Wow. And people really struggle with that. They dont realize how hard you have to work to stay on those top goals. Its work. It is work. Its a constant challenge. All right. Thank you so much. Its always great to have you here. Thank you very much. Extreme productivity boost your results, reduce your hours. Bob pozen, thank you so much. Coming up, historian Douglas Brinkley will be here. Well be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Executor of efficiency. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. Now this. Will work. 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Get a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation and much more, 29. 95 after 10. 00 rebate. If you take care of your car your car will take care of you. A year ago this month, more than half a million homeowners settled with the Mortgage Companies to the tune of 45 billion. But was it enough . Coming up, well talk to the secretary of housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan, straight ahead. And up next, moderator of meet the press, david gregory, joins us. Youre watching morning joe brewed by starbucks. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. Its hard to turn off and go back to sleep. Intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night when you cant get back to sleep. Its an effective sleep medicine you dont take before bedtime. Take it in bed only when you need it and have at least four hours left for sleep. 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So if you suffer from middleofthenight insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. The battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaas commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. Begin your legacy. Get an autoinsurance quote. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. They say all youre going to do, biden, you and the president , youre going to deny lawabiding citizens their rights under the second amendment. Not true. They say assault weapons they say assault weapons like the ar15 are needed for selfprotection and recreation. They are not. Theres plenty of ways you can protect yourself. And recreate without an ar15. They say it isnt about guns. Theyre wrong. It is about guns. No lawabiding citizen in the United States of america has any fear that their Constitutional Rights will be infringed in any way. None, zero. Welcome back to morning joe. A live look at the white house on this friday morning. Time to get going, everybody. Mike barnicle, ed rendell and al sharpton are still with us. Sorry about that. I hear it was kind of worse than just bumping the deer. Tell her im sorry. Thats horrible. And joining us from washington, moderator of meet the press, david gregory. Hello, david. Hey, good morning. What a handsome man. He is a goodlooking guy. That was the Vice President in connecticut yesterday. Yep. To our top story now, were just one week away from those automatic cuts that will slash 85 billion from government spending. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the sequester, as its called, will cost 750,000 jobs and lower Economic Growth by 0. 6 . It could mean longer lines at the airport, less funding for teachers, and cuts at the pentagon that Officials Say could hurt national security. Still, the white house and republicans remain locked in a stalemate over how to deal with it. Yesterday president obama called House Speaker john boehner and Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell, but neither republican leader has any appetite for new taxes, something the president says should be a part of the deal. The president spoke with reverend al sharpton yesterday. Take a listen. My sense is that their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down a recovery over closing tax loopholes. And thats the thing that binds their Party Together at this point. This is a major argument, obviously, weve been having for the last three years. Unfortunately, i think republicans right now have been so dug in on this notion of never raising taxes, that it becomes difficult for them to see an obvious answer right in front of them. Im confused. Because the president says republicans cant see obvious answers in front of them. We raised taxes, didnt we . Im confused because he said republicans are so dead set on never raising taxes. The president what was it, a month ago . Two months ago . David gregory, help me out here. We already raised taxes, right . Hold on, david. We did raise taxes, but the republicans walked away from the spending cuts that they were offered. So it was their choice to only raise taxes. No, no. Harry reid specifically said and we all remember regardless of how the white house spends this, harry reid said that chain cpi was dead. The president backed off. Proving that harry reid is more powerful than washington, d. C. , than the president. David, is that how it happened . Look, i think whats remarkable about this process is, as the president said over the last three years, at various points both sides were willing to do more. The president wanted more revenue at various points than hes now asking for. John boehner was willing to offer more in revenue than hes willing to do now. The president offered chain cpi at some point and is not backing it now. I mean, thats the folly. Thats whats absurd about the process is at various other points, they were willing to do more. You played that Vice President biden clip. I think the president s in a position where hes saying i have not only won reelection, i have won this argument over fiscal policy and over the economy, and republicans, if you want to hurt the economy, the blame is going to go on you. When he was with the reverend al yesterday, thats all he was doing, making the political argument about how to blame the republicans for this. I dont see where the break comes from right now, honestly, except get right up to it and find some way to do it, maybe more flexibility to make the cuts but do it in a more flexible way. Thats the only break i see. So you agree, i think, with me, if you dont, tell me. And david brooks this morning is talking about this president is not acting the way president s usually act. You said traditional president s go through a normal set of motions. They identify a problem. They come up with a proposal to address the problem, they try to convince the country its the best approach. But under the permanents Permanent Campaign shimmy, he declines to come up with a proposal to address the problem. Then he comes up with a vague but politically convenient concept that doesnt address a problem. Lets raise taxes on the rich. Then he goes around the country blasting the opposition for not having as politically popular a concept. Then he returns to washington and congratulates himself for being the only serious and substantive person in town. David yeah, so heres what i believe. I believe that what the president has done is sort of incomplete. He wants to take on republicans to do whats very difficult for them when it comes to taxes. But had it comes to entitlements, hes much more limited. Hes not going to push democrats on retirement age, on hes introduced chain cpi, you know, basically a downslope for benefits over time. In the last battle, but hes not doing this here. So right now his feeling is im going to keep up a Permanent Campaign. Im going to go to the American People because i dont trust republicans as partners. Right. In this discussion. And that is maybe in part because, david, the president did put out a plan back in december that involved cuts and 4 trillion in deficit reduction, if you go on the website. That plans still on the table. And it doesnt seem to be taken seriously. In fact, theyre accusing him of having no cuts. And thats just not true. But mika, i think but i think that is also true, mika, that there was a plan out there. Some republicans say there wasnt any plan at all. But this is what, you know, the fact is that the argument kind of keeps shifting. And this is where, i think, the white house has completely lost faith that theyve got somebody to really negotiate with. But david, i think that a political executive, whether it be a mayor, county chairman, county commissioner or a governor or a president , has to sell to his base first. If the president had his base lined up to do chain cpi and some gradual over 30 years increase in the medicare age limit, boy, i think it would be easy to get revenue out of the republicans. Infinitely easier, and i think we could have a big deal which mike and i agree, the big deal if we announced it would cause the economy to explode. Exactly. It would explode. But the president doesnt stand up to his base. He attacks republicans who have been so dumb politically over the past four years that theyre perfect straw men. And thats fine. Its great for him politically, but it doesnt get us any closer to a deal. Let me ask you a question, governor. Before you were governor, you had another executive position, your First Executive position, you were mayor of philadelphia. You came into the mayoralty, and the city was in tough shape as a lot of cities are today. What did you do when you got in there . Was one of your first things not that you didnt tell people the truth about the existing condition . The very first thing i did it, and i did it for a solid year, in fact, six months going back into the campaign is tell people just how bad the situation was, that we had to cut everything, that if we did it right over the course of time, we could replenish those cuts and grow and grow and grow. And fortunately thats exactly what happened. But the first thing youve got to do is convince your supporters to get on board. And i think he could do it. Hes popular now. So are you saying he should be talking about cuts and Different Things that hes offered to the republicans to his base . First he should talk to harry and nancy. He should bring them in and say, you were there come on, guys. You were with me on health care. Youve got to lead on this. Pelosi certainly didnt sound like she agreed with really being realistic. Hes got to get the two of them on board first. I think thats fair. I think its important we, again, lets deal in the context of where we are. The sequester was set up saying that well never well never get here. Well never have to do this. This will never happen. Well do such drastic cuts this would force us to work together. Right. Now were acting like the sequester was some arrangement that the president and the republicans was supposed to negotiate on. Secondly, the president put major cuts on the table. And when we went through this in the beginning of the year, cuts in health care. He put cpi on the table. All of which is still on the table. He cannot negotiate with himself. All the republicans do on their way out the door for vacation or recess is say revenues cannot be discussed. He never got all of the revenues we needed. So i think that weve taken the whole thing out of context. Were acting like the sequester was a negotiation when it was something we were supposed to be avoiding, and they will not in good faith deal with the cuts the president has put on the table. Some his base, including me, disagree with in terms of cpi. And theyre saying oh, dont talk about the rich. The rich never really paid its full share in the first place that he was asking for. Were talking about loopholes. Were talking about yachts and jets here. I mean, whats loopholes, i mean, is that so difficult . Right. And republicans have been for them before. Right. So, you know, whether it was on the campaign trail, paul ryan and mitt romney or whether its boehner. So i dont understand why thats such a big problem. But again, both things are true. If the president s having a hard time negotiating with house republicans, house conservatives over taxes, you know, its because theyre dug in. They dont feel like they can move for a variety of reasons. But hes not trying to negotiate with his own base over raising the retirement age for medicare. I hear all the time, david, the president doesnt trust the republicans. Why should the republicans trust the president . I mean, again and they dont. They absolutely dont. They did something that is so hard to do. A lot of them voted for tax increases for the first time in a quarter century. And they thought by doing that, they would take this taxtherich argument off the table. And youve seen the president barnstorming like hes in the middle of a president ial campaign talking about the rich. Talking about those big old mean corporations. Weve got to get more money out of them. And if youre a republican there was a lot more revenue on the table before. Right. Simpsonbowles had a lot more revenue on the table. It wasnt 600 billion. Ive got absolutely no problem with closing loopholes. In fact, im more aggressive on closing loopholes, i would guess, than a lot of democrats that are running for election in 2014. But if youre president of the United States, as david brooks says, youve got a responsibility to do more than just barnstorm around the country in a permanent president ial campaign. Thats why id say okay, even knowing that i support aggressive closing of loopholes for rich people that are paying 15 rates, which i think is immoral, when their secretaries are paying 28 , even having that position, if im negotiating with the president , i dont move on that until he shows a little good faith. Like you said, to go to nancy pelosi and harry reid and at least let me know that ive got a partner thats going to negotiate in good faith. I just dont see it with this president thats running around, you know, talking more about taxing the rich, taxing the rich. And joe, isnt it the reality that we are not really headed i mean, somehow this is going to be resolved, whether its by next week or, you know, how they fund the government next month. Theres going to be some way to resolve this. But arent we headed on a path where were really not going to make meaningful gains on reducing either the deficit or the debt . Because we cant come to any agreement in washington about the role of government to spur Economic Growth, how much it should spend, or, you know, the balance between taxes and spending. You know, the frustrating the depressing part about this, perhaps the most depressing part about it and david just pointed out part of it is that all of this in the minds of i think a lot of people, its a game. Its a political game. Its part of a Constant Campaign being played in washington. Your base, my base. And at the end of the day, the president of the United States, his base is the country. Its not just the democrats. Its not just nancy pelosi and harry reid. Its the country. And the country has endured pain. The country has endured sacrifice. Middleclass families, they know what it is. I mean, the payroll tax being eliminated. Cost of gasoline, cost of groceries. They know what pain and sacrifice is. And apparently people in washington dont recognize that fact. Accept it. Reverend al, you talked to the president yesterday. Do you get a sense that he is in search of a deal . That he really will meet republicans halfway . I honestly get the sense that he will meet them halfway. And he is in search of a deal. Hes won his reelection. I really dont think this is about, with him, 2014. I think this is about 2012. I think he feels hes obligated to people that voted for a certain way to move forward. But he wants to try and meet halfway with the republicans because were going to see people suffer. Were talking about people losing jobs, being furloughed. National security. I dont think he wants to see that happen, but he cant negotiate with himself. And i think the cuts are on the table, cuts that he told us straight out, a lot of you are not going to like, but im putting them on the table. Where are the republicans . And i think that we dont need them to come in the night before. We need to deal with this and get this off the table of america. Do you realize that if we have meat inspector that are laid off here, joe, that will raise the price of meat. Not the price of republican meat or democratic meat. Everybody will suffer here. And i think that we need responsible leadership on both sides. So, okay. When you spoke with him, did he bring up chain cpi . Because i know he had been for it before, and then he backed off of it, took it off the table when harry reid said that they werent going to support that. He said, when he had put on the table remains on the table. This is his meeting he had with civil rights leaders. Remains on the table. Cpi was among those things that he had put on the table. And he said that some of us were going to be opposed to it. He does not back down when hes meeting with those of us that are considered his base. He was very clear. He said, im for the going to paint a rosy picture for you. But at the same time, when he gets beat up by some of us that say how can you do that, hes beat up on the other side as saying hes not being reasonable. Some of us feel hes being too reasonable. Nothing is enough. Al, sometimes if youre an executive, you know youre doing your job when youre getting beat up by both sides. But the problem is that the other side at least should come to the table and say, lets talk about this. I agree. All right. So i want to find this table that everythings on. Yeah. Id like to see. Because i get the feeling its two different tables. Come next friday your neck will be on that table. David gregory, thank you. Who do you have coming up on meet the press . Well be talking to governor Deval Patrick and bobby jindal and the state of politics in their respective parties. And well offer the latest on where this is headed with just a few days left by sunday. Still ahead on morning joe, it was one of the hardest times in american history. Now a newly unearthed novel gives us a clear picture of the men and women who lived through the dust bowl through the 1930s. Historian Douglas Brinkley joins us in just a few minutes. And up next, secretary of housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan. Plus bill dare inkarins will ha update on the nasty weather bearing down on the east coast. Youre watching morning joe brewed by starbucks. [ jen garner ] what skincare brand is so effective. So trusted. So clinically proven dermatologists recommend it twice as much as any other brand . Neutrogena®. Recommended by dermatologists 2 times more than any other brand. Now thats beautiful. Neutrogena®. Transit fares as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. No . Oh, right. Youre thinking of the 1. 6 million daily Customer Care interactions xerox handles. Or the 900 Million Health insurance claims we process. So, its no surprise to you that companies depend on todays xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. Which is. Pretty much what weve always stood for. With xerox, youre ready for real business. Here with us now from chicago, housing and urban development secretary, Shaun Donovan. And cnbcs Brian Shactman also joins the table. Good to have you both, brian, to have you back. So first of all, lets get a sense of the state of the Housing Market as its going right now. There is some movement, right . Absolutely. Just about all the things you care about in the Housing Market have done well over the past year. Home sales, home prices up between 5 and 8 in different places around the country. Housing construction has been leading the recovery. Lots more construction jobs coming back on. And in some ways most importantly what got us into the crisis, the number of families fallen into foreclosure losing their homes is down to the lowest level since weve seen before the crisis began. So all of that is good, but theres more we can do to accelerate that. And thats why the president called for universal refinancing, for example, in the state of the union where the average family could save about 3,000 a year if congress can move a bipartisan bill on this. Front page of business section of the New York Times, despite aid borrowers fill face foreclosure. Despite the banner numbers released on thursday, thousands of homeowners are still not getting the help they need to save their homes from foreclosure. And it goes on and on to name some pretty large numbers of people who are desperate for help. Yeah, look. The good news here is that weve cut the number of families falling in foreclosure by half more than half. And you know, i was on the show a year ago announcing this historic Mortgage Servicing settlement that we reached 49 bipartisan attorneys genest year ago. Yesterday we announced that we had reached 46 billion in help. We thought we might reach, like, 35 billion for the entire country for the whole settlement. This is just in the first nine months, over 550,000 people. And the good news there is for the first time were really cutting peoples the balance of their loans permanently. On average reducing them by over 80,000. So that is real progress. Thats been part of whats moved us forward. But we can accelerate this. We can do more. And its unfortunate about these discussions about sequestration is while were focusing on this battle, we could be doing more. The president laid out plans in the state of the union to help the hardesthit communities. We could excaccelerate and do m principal reduction. But we need to focus on those things and get those done this year. Mr. Secretary, in terms of the foreclosure crisis and renegotiating mortgages for people, how much, if at all, of an impediment are fannie and freddie in this process . Well, look. There is no question that the president and i disagree with the position theyve taken. We think that if you cut somebodys balance on their loan to a level that they can afford, not only is that good for the homeowner, its good for the Housing Market and their neighborhood. Its actually good for the people who own the loan because what its shown and weve proved this with what we released yesterday that folks stay in the homes. They keep paying. And youre actually more likely to recover if youre an investor in that loan. So were going to keep making that argument and keep pushing for fannie and freddie to do that. Brian . Two questions, really. The New York Times really focuses on this relationship between the First Mortgage and the second mortgage, and it basically comes out and says theyre trying to funnel more money, the banks are, toward the second mortgage because it benefits themselves and they can still be in trouble with their First Mortgage. I guess id want you to explain that a little bit. And do you see that happening . And the second one is do you still have this moral hazard issue where youre helping people, and to what degree do they also need to be accountable for some of their decisions, and how does that balance itself out . Well, first of all, on this issue of first and second mortgages, you know, its funny. A year ago when i was on the program, the criticism was that these banks were going to cut the First Mortgages that belonged to somebody else and not cut their own second mortgages. Now some people are saying well, theyre doing too much cutting of the second mortgage. Look, heres the fact. Those second mortgages are real debt for people that are struggling. We set rules that said, look. If this is a mortgage thats unlikely to be repaid, were only going to give you 10 cents on the dollar credit for those mortgages. These banks arent getting away with anything by cutting delinquent mortgages. And in fact, we have requirements that say, you only get credit for cutting these balances if you can show that that homeowner is still in the home 90 days later paying and making being able to make a go of it in that home. So im very comfortable that were getting a good balance of second liens and first liens because, look. The truth is, when you look at whos under water, over half of what is putting people in america under water today is these second liens. So if were not getting to that problem and thats directly on these banks balance sheet, its real pain to them to cut these second mortgages, if were not dealing with that problem, were putting our head in the sand. With those second liens, isnt that where you get into some personal debt maybe and home equity lines . Thats where it gets a little fuzzy, i guess, for us. What we are looking at is only second liens on the homes. These arent personal lines of credit or other things. And again, we have a strict requirement, and weve been monitoring this closely, that when you do these principal reductions, it has to help that family stay in the home. Right. For at least 90 days to be able to get any credit for it. So we know that this is making a real difference in peoples lives. All right. Secretary Shaun Donovan, thank you very much. And thank you, brian. My pleasure to be with you. Up next, a major winter storm is barrelling across the midwest right now, dropping near record amounts of snow in some parts of the country. Bill karins has an update on the storms path next on morning joe. Joo [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. Protect your family. And launch your dreams. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. Washington, d. C. , union station. A little bit of a breeze out there. You may even see a little sleet or rain throughout the afternoon in d. C. Nothing that will cause you any trouble on the roads. All that problems are out in the midwest. Good news, kansas city airport is officially reopened finally after the big storm yesterday. They had their most snow theyve seen in 20 years. This was an historic storm for kansas especially. That snow this morning is up there in wisconsin. And michigans getting it pretty good. Careful driving around lansing, flint and detroit and also around grand rapids. Theyve had freezing rain from cleveland to columbus, ohio, too. Not exactly enjoyable there. Heres what well deal with. That storm leaves. A new storm forms and heads north into new england saturday night into sunday. Especially sunday morning would be the heaviest snow. The pink shading, 6 to 12 inches possible. Mostly talking from the mass pike northwards, southern vermont, southern portions of connecticut. Once you go further to northern new england, the amounts are a little less. Let me give you specifics on the cities. Not really thinking new york citys going to get much, if anything. Maybe a tiny bit of snow on the tail end, but no accumulations. Hartford, minor ordeal at one to three. Same for providence, albany to boston, looks like you should be remaining snow at the backside of this storm. Three to six. Temperatures are not as cold as the last two weekend storms. This will be a heavier, wet snow. Were a little concerned with Power Outages especially southern portions of maine, New Hampshire and right there in northern massachusetts. So again, not as big as the last two storms that we had, but again, impacting you in new england sunday morning especially. And as we go throughout the forecast for the weekend, mika, all eyes also on california. For the oscar forecast. And that on sunday calls for sunshine and 68 degrees. So no problems out there in la la land. Good, louis will have a very good time, then. Thank god. I was so worried. Bill, thank you very much. Lets get some other stories in here. Oh, yeah. Going around in circles on taxes. Despite growing calls for his nomination to be withdrawn, the math is Getting Better for chuck hagel to be confirmed as defense secretary, perhaps as early as next week. Although some lawmakers are softening their criticism. Tough opposition continues on capitol hill. Yeah. In a letter, 15 republican senators urged for hagel to withdraw his nomination including marco rubio and ted cruz. The letters read, in part, while we respect senator hagels Honorable Military Service in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination. It would be unprecedented for a secretary of defense to take Office Without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position. Ted cruz at it again, with respect, with respect, with respect. In the last 50 years, no other secretary of defense has been confirmed with more than three members voting against him and in the entire history of the position, no one has been confirmed with more than 11 no votes. Thats sort of circular logic. You could make that argument. Democrats could do that to any republican. If we just get 20 or 30 against a guy or a woman, then we can say, well, i dont know. You know whats more interesting, mika . Lets put up the list again. Can we get the list of those republicans that said theyre not going to support him . You mentioned, too, younger republicans. The one that stands out to me is actually dan coats who served with dan coats served with chuck hagel, i believe he did. Or maybe he was ambassador to germany. Im just surprised that dan coats is on that list. Outside political circles, people are wondering is this just taking the usual resistance a step further, or is this real legitimate resistance that could actually put this in jeopardy . Listen, i think its legitimate to have real concerns about chuck hagel with his performance on the hill. I agree. I think thats fair. I agree with that. I support him. I hope hes a good sec def. He definitely has the resume. I just generally believe you defer to president s. I just generally whether its a democratic president or whether its a republican president. I was really deeply offended by what democrats did to john tower back in what was it 1989 . Yeah. I thought that was a witch hunt. I thought it was disgusting. I thought it was sickening. And as a republican, as a conservative, i was outraged by how democrats treated john tower. And absolutely delighted that instead of john tower, they got dick cheney. But this is it lends, though, that is a great lesson in washington where democrats thought they were hurting the republican cause by stopping john tower. Right. Because he had too much of a good time. Of course, bill clinton was elected president three years later by these same democrats. But they got, because they were so harshly partisan, they got dick cheney instead. Well, but and history was forever changed. Dont you think this is bad timing for the republicans . Yes. I think its terrible. It adds to this narrative that theyre difficult . Dont you need to pick your battles at some point . Just stop. And thats my point. Republicans should defer to the president. And look respectful. Chuck hagel is a bad secretary of defense, if he what many people are predicting, the republican version of les aspen. Given the nature of politics, the way its going to go is 80 years from now when the republicans finally win the presidency, they are going to the democrats are going to extract revenge for the way the republicans behaved to a chuck hagel. Thats what i dont understand, ed rendell. These parties act as if the status quo is always going to exist. These republicans and again, im not going to mention the guys name anymore because he doesnt deserve it. Lets just say certain young senators that just got elected act as if history began the day they got elected. Right. And they dont realize a republican is going to be president one day again. And democrats are going to hold the republican to the same standard that certain young republicans are holding this democratic president to, and thats not good for america. And in that vein, i think our guys blew a big opportunity, joe, to do filibuster reform. Oh, i know. They had a chance. If we had done filibuster reform, chuck hagel would be secretary of defense right now. Why didnt harry reid pick that up . I wish he would have been aggressive and done there will be a day when. Yeah. The shoe is always on the other foot. So what do you think . What do you think, mika . About chuck hagel . I think theyre being ridiculous lly obstinent and pu things on the table that really matter right now. This is going to happen. So its just silly. Thank you, marco rubio and ted cruz, lindsey. Right. Okay. Up next, american folk singer Woody Guthrie best known for his song this land is your land composed music that defined a generation. Now a new book by guthrie that was previously believed to have been lost has been unearthed. Historian Douglas Brinkley and Woody Guthries daughter, nora, are here with the novel house of earth. Thats when we come back. Hi. Hi. Im here to pick up some cacti. It should be under stephens. The verizon share everything plan for Small Business. Get a shareable pool of data. Got enough joshua trees . On up to 25 devices. So you can spend less time. Yea, the golden barrels. Managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. Looks like were going to need to order more agaves. Ah oh ow . And more bandages. Thats powerful. Shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. Now save 50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. We asked total strangers to watch it for us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Ill be right back. They didnt take a dime. How much in fees does your bank take to watch your money . If your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. California to the New York Island well welcome back. With us now, the daughter of folk singer Woody Guthrie and head of Woody Guthrie publications and archives, nora guthrie. Also, historian Douglas Brinkley. Hi, douglas. Who cowrote the introduction to noras fathers novel, house of earth, written 66 years ago but just being published now. And douglas, we came in with, of course, that iconic song that some people believe that this novel is a companion piece to that. Yeah, in many ways, the story of house of earth, woody wrote it after experiencing the dust bowl. And John Steinbeck wrote about the okies trying to find a living after the crops were destroyed and livestock was dead after the dust bowl. Woody stayed in texas panhandle and said what about the people that stayed . And thats what house of earth is about, people that want to stay on their land. And he recognized that big timber was in cahoots with the banks and that you could actually build an adobe house like in new mexico and live much cheaper and not have to be owned by the banks. So he started promoting adobe living to texans. And this books about a couple that raises a family and just wants to own their own piece of land, the land should belong to you. Here in new york, he wrote this land is your land that we just heard, right here in the city. So nora, this book has been called the authoritative statement about the plight of the rural poor. Really . Yeah. He understood it. Talk about how this was unearthed and also about the cover art, which is absolutely fascinating. It was written 66 years ago . Yeah. And why did no one know about it, or what happened . Whats the story . My excuse for myself is that he wrote so many things in his lifetime, over 3,000 songs that weve been working with for the last 20 years, really. So theres just an abundance of material. And its just hard to get your arms around all of it all at once. So luckily, douglas actually is the one who tipped us off about this novel. My father wrote novels, poetry, prose. He did a lot of artwork in addition to all the lyrics. My head was kind of focused on lyrics for the last couple years. And douglas kind of called one day and said, i heard theres a novel out there. And actually, i had never heard of it. I was kind of surprised. So talk about the novel, why its so important, douglas. Well, you know, the dust bowl, we might be heading into a drought time now. You know, look at with Climate Change and the forests burning every summer, temperatures going up. What happened what fdr had to do to confront it with just the dying of the great plains and just how people suffered. I mean, its unbelievable when you really read about it. And people were getting dust pneumonia. Woody guthrie was in a shack in the panhandle putting a rag on his mouth to breathe. And he documented it in his songs. Hes our nations great balladeer. This is the dust bowl novel, experiencing what it was like in realtime. He wasnt someone who heard about it or read about it. He was the dust bowl. His ballads live on and continue to influence everybody. How did you discover its this novel that his own daughter didnt even know about it . Thats a good question. Historians are detectives. And i had interviewed bob dylan in europe. And dylan loved almost worshipped Woody Guthrie. And doing some research he emulated him. At the beginning of his career. Absolutely. He pretended. The first album he wrote a song called song for woody, which is a classic piece. I ended up finding a letter from allen loemax that said im going to drop everything im doing because ive read a couple h couple chapters and its going to change things. Then a kind of hunt went around looking for it. Ended up finding it. And i should add theyre building a museum for Woody Guthrie this april, theyre opening, in oklahoma. Really . Woody guthrie museum. Where in oklahoma . Tulsa. Tulsa. Fantastic. When you first read this, what did you think . Im just noticing theres a lot of sex in it. You warned me about that. Its like he went for it. Oh, my gosh actually, thats exactly what i did. I went, oh, my god dad dad . Dad i mean, i cant i would read this except i cant. Out loud. You mean on the air, right. Oh, my goodness. Well, you know, woody was very free in his writing. He was probably the most unselfcensored writer in his lyrics and in his novels. So here you go. This is what they did out there in the dust bowl. Yes. There was nothing else to do. Nora, let me ask you. You know, unfortunately our culture today, people learn about things, history, historical sector from television. Ken burns great, great documentary on the dust bowl is just a vivid reminder of what happened during that period of time. Your dad wrote this land is your land, about six blocks from here. He also wrote this. Okay, mika, put it down. If you read the book oh be still my heart. One of the reasons, joe, the novel never got published in that climate of the 40s, you could not have published this. The guys writing this in the 40s. Sorry, go ahead. Ignore her. Let him go. If you read the book, once you get past the first 30 pages, the book is about what happened when big farms, corporate farming, takes over peoples lands. Its what happens when big banks, even then, you know, screw people out of their lands. What was when did you get a sense, or did you, your dad being, like, way ahead of his time in recognizing social cultural political dilemmas that affect us today . Well, its funny because i grew up with everything you just said. Its kind of part of its in my genes, you know. So i was kind of educated by my fathers friends who were always around. We had led belly and brown mcgee, jack elliott, tons and tons of musicians. And all of these songs, folk music tends to be about whats going on in your life. At the bottom of the lyric, this land is your land, my dad wrote all you can write is what you see. And thats kind of his m. O. So i kind of grew up with all of this education. But in song form. So i knew about the dust bowl before i was in high school. You know, where they didnt even teach it. So there was that kind of, you know, education. It wasnt really until i was grown up when i kind of went out into the world and realized that not a lot of people knew the stories that i had learned. But i learned it through music. Not through its interesting, though, is it not, that songs, woodys songs, segers songs, dylans songs, springsteens songs, are history . Absolutely. And i think my father was one half journalist. That was really his style of writing. And we got such an education just from the songs that were around us. Like the dust bowl daal lballad. You mentioned ken burns documentary. When i saw that, i couldnt believe how accurate my fathers songs were. Yeah. I went back and i went, thats not poetry. That really happened. When he sings dust pneumonia blues pneumonia blues, what douglas was talking about. And then ken really illuminates what hes talking about in dust bowl blues and i was stunned at how accurate my fathers songs were. He wrote for newspapers a lot, woody, and so hed go see those camps in california. Did you know she passed out . You got to fan her now and cool her down a little, joe. Its unbelievable. Nora, nora. Talk about the cover. Its a fascinating story. Woody would paint, and when he went to new mexico, and when we hesitant to santa fe, he fell in love with the adobe structures. A gentleman in colorado owns this. He actually wanted to be an artist when he was a young man. He did a lot of Oil Paintings and things like that and then it got too expensive. He couldnt afford the brush or canvas, and he realized that you could go into a saloon for five cents, someone would throw you a nickel and feed you, and if you sang a song, that was the way he could make a living. But this one, it was kind of how the stars all come together. This painting happened to be one of two Oil Paintings that still exist. He did one of lincoln that still exists. Its down in the smithsonian, and he did this one of adobe paintings. So when it whole project came to fruition, i said to the publisher, i said theres one existing oil painting my father did, happens to be of an adobe house. The book is house of earth, nora guthrie, and Douglas Brinkley. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was fun. Coming up next, we got bob costa. They join us. Youre watching morning joe, brewed by starbucks. Were going to keep talking, mika, about how we avoid the sequestration. Alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone. Right. But the most important feature of all is. The capital one purchase eraser. I can redeem the double miles i earned with my venture card to erase recent travel purchases. And with a few clicks, this Mission Never happened. Uh, whats this button do . [ electricity zaps ] you requested backup . Yes. Yes i did. Whats in your wallet . They hatin patrolling they tryin to catch me ridin dirty tryin to catch me ridin dirty tryin to [ woman ] hi there. Why do we always have to take your moms car . [ male announcer ] the security of an iihs top safety pick, the 2013 volkswagen tiguan. Thats the power of german engineering. Right now lease a 2013 tiguan for 219 a month. The battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. 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Helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. Hows that for an encore . With xerox, youre ready for real business. Good morning. Its 8 00 on the east coast, 5 a. M. On the west coast, as you take a live look at new york city. It is friday, but it is time you have to get out of bed. Its time to wake up. Not gonna to do it. Back with us on set, former governor ed rendell and the reverend al sharpton. Lets go through news. Theres a lot going on. Yes. Some of the countrys largest retailers and manufacturers are lowering their forecast, concerned over the Economic Impact of the payroll tax. The wall street journal reports that they are participating a downturn in sales. Sister citygroup, the 2 tax increase will take out approximately 1,300 of a Household Income of 65,000. Its expected to take 110 billion away from consumers. Walmart is responding by stocking shelves with lower amounts of products. Burger king is dropping prices on the whopper jr. And shifting advertising to the value menu. It is one of the most important inventions since the polio vaccine. Okay. Mike, youve got both parties that are so blinded to the realities. Their ideology blinds them. Youve got republicans saying were going to cut everything right now, sequestration, its going to slow down the economy. The president is running around because he only knows to ask for higher taxes. Weve got to raise more taxes. Its the rich, its the corporations, tax, tax, tax. Democrats dont seem to understand that taxing americans dampens the economy, hurts Small Businesses, hurts a lot of americans. Republicans dont seem to understand that massive unfocused cuts right now are going to slow down the economy and hurt americans too. You seriously have to wonder whether anyone in washington, in the house, in the senate, in the white house, administration, republican, democrat, do they ever go outdoors. Do they ever see what happens to everyday ordinary americans. People who have been getting crushed economically for the past 10 or 15 years are getting crushed again. The payroll tax has been eliminated. Have you checked out the price of gasoline over the past couple of weeks. This is a killer for people who work hard every day just to stay even, never mind get ahead, never mindset something aside for the future, for the weekend to go to the movies. They get crushed. You know why washington doesnt get that . Because they live in this bubble where theyre constantly fighting a Permanent Campaign. They look at their laptops, they read their ideological bloggers. This is true. They are focused here, and they live in this world instead of understanding, reverend al, that when gas prices go up, when the payroll tax cuts go away, when spending from washington is cut like that in an unfocused way, when taxes go up, all of this works together against them being able to take care of their families. No, i think the reality is that they are in this Ongoing Campaign from one campaign to the next. The thing that is so stunning to me is that when we have elections, they just go right to the next campaign. They act as though we didnt just vote about this in november. Yeah. And america rejected some things and accepted others. And i think there needs to be a balance. But everybody starts from so far in extreme camps that its hard to get this together. You talked to the president yesterday, right . The president civil rights leaders met with him and he did my radio show yesterday. And i think the president , his position, which i happen to agree with, no surprise to you, is that he did do some cuts, but that they do not want on the other side to deal with more revenue from the higher echelon or the higher income earners in the country. And when youve got the head of the house, the speaker saying were not putting revenue on the table, where do you even get started with this conversation . And were seven days away from sequester. Lets take a look at, we can take a listen to part of your interview with president obama yesterday. My sense is that their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. And thats the thing that binds their Party Together at this point. This is a major argument obviously weve been having for the last three years. Unfortunately, i think republicans right now have been so dug in on this notion of never raising taxes that it becomes difficult for them to see an obvious answer right in front of them. Can i be frustrated here for a second . Is that okay with a smile on my face . Mmhmm. Wheres he been . Has the president been vacations for three months, four months . Where has he been . He was on the phone with Speaker Boehner. I dont understand. When republicans folded and raised taxes for the first time in 25 years, i asked on this program, so what are democrats going to do now . Because theyve been saying we need to raise taxes on the rich for a quarter century. So they did. Republicans folded. The president got what he wanted. He won. And so now we get to go to cuts. Now were going to figure out because the president s never told us where hes going to cut over five years. Now were going to figure out how were actually going to get some real cuts. And ed rendell, hes talking about tax increases again. Tax increases, thats all hes got. Simon had a song called one trick pony. Thats all hes got. Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. This guy right now sounds out of touch. Or else hes trying to restore some balance. Number one, the sad part about all this is theres been a plan for a while that will get us out the of this in a fair and balance way, and thats simpsonbowles. And alan and erskine came out with simpsonbowles 2 on tuesday. You support that right . Sure. We support it very strongly. Remember, joe, this fairness to the president , he called for a package to include 1. 2 trillion in revenue and about 2. 6 trillion in cuts, almost 2 1 2 to 1 in cuts. He got 650 in revenues. So his position would be i still need to get up to that 1. 2 trillion. Im just saying he leads though. His advice is always its the rich people. Those rich people. Really . By the way, i say on this show all the time, i support closing tax loopholes. Everyone should. But im also talking about sacrifices that all americans are going to have to make as far as spending cuts go. But he goes on the campaign trail and he says, oh, its the rich. Its the corporations. He was for chain cpi. He still says hes for chain cpi, and chain cpi hits our people. Theres going to be a lot of grief there. In the meeting yesterday, he came up to us and said to us civil rights leaders that things were not going to right. So its not like hes just playing one side here. But i think the governors side is important. He did not get all he wanted from the rich. Were talking be the the republicans saying lets maintain loopholes for yachts and private jets as opposed to i mean, james brawn had a song too called the big payback. Its time they paid back their share. Did he refer to entitlement programs . All of that is on the table. But he says youve got to start with revenue. Im not hearing that. And i suppose if i heard him talking about the serious decisions we had to make on longterm debt, on medicare, on medicaid, on social security, on national defense, hes running around sounding like Donald Rumsfeld trying to defend the pentagon. Its like dont cut a single thing but im going to go out, im going to keep talking about rich americans, im going to keep talking about corporations, im going to play to my base instead of talking, telling middle class americans theyre going to have to make some sacrifices along with the rich. Mika, its a Permanent Campaign. And i guess if this is how he wants to run things, hes president of the United States, good luck over the next 3 1 2 years. I dont understand why loopholes are even on argument, first of all, why he has to go this far, why he has to keep talking about it. Hold on a second. I know. We all agree that these loopholes need to be closed. Lets do it. Why is it so hard . Ive been talking about supporting Warren Buffetts idea of having a 30 minimum tax. Why are we still talking about it . Because the president only uses it to demagogue, in a Permanent Campaign, he never talks about the other side of it. He always says its the rich. That would be loopholes. Dont tax you, dont tax me. Tax the guy behind the tree. Steny hoyer stepped up yesterday. He did. He talked about entitlement programs, about getting to the point where you have to address the issue of cutting entitlement programs. Youre not serious about reducing the deficit and the debt unless you talk about that. And Thomas Friedman in New York Times also had a column in weekend that said we have got to stop stealing from the next generation. We have got to stop robbing Nursery Schools for nursing homes. Its what weve been doing, its what were going to continue to do. Alan blinder, i go back to the princeton economist who said democrats are wrong on this. We cannot tax our way out of the entitlement crisis. Well, i dont think thats what the president s saying. Thats all hes talking about, meek. Thats all hes talking about. Lets tax the rich. Thats going to make everything better. Hey, is your back a little sore . Its the rich folks fault. I just want to put this out on the table really quickly. Mmhmm. My position on taxing the rich probably is far more, lets say, progressive than most of the democrats that are going to be running for senate in 2014. I doubt they will embrace my idea of a 30 minimum tax rate. So its not that, mika. Its that he is in a Permanent Campaign. Hes playing to the lowest common dominator, using class resentment instead of getting serious like a president should. Im not sure i agree with that. Im going to read from david brooks in the New York Times. Under the Permanent Campaign shimmy, the president identifies a problem, then declines to come up with a proposal, then he comes up with a vague concept that doesnt address the problem, lets raise taxes on the rich. Then he goes around blasting the opposition. Then he returns to washington and congratulates himself for being the only serious and substantive person in town. Sequestration allows the white house to do this all over again. So what are i mean, we saw steny on the set yesterday bringing up some really good ideas. What are some of the republicans substantive ideas in terms of cuts that they have put on the table, that they have gone to the white house and presented to the president and said, you know what, well negotiate. We dont really want to talk about taxes anymore, but closing loopholes makes sense. But here are the things we need out of this. I mean, paul ryan put it on the table and democrats killed him for two years. No, no, no. What are they talking about now to avoid sequestration . You know, both sides, both sides, its as if both sides are standing on the lawn of a burning house, and they are arguing about who started the fire instead of trying to put the fire out. We tried to get chain cpi and harry reid took it off the table, and the president claims he wants chain cpi, but is harry reid more powerful than broadcast obama . Thats a good yes. No, its not, no, harry reid is not a more powerful guy. Coming up on morning joe, well preview the biggest night in hollywood. Tony scott will be here with his oscar picks. Also his understudy. Our own louis bergler. Louis is back from hollywood. Up next behind the scenes video of because people like watching stupid reality tv and we will see that. And coming up next, the New York Times has dubbed him the boy wonder of buzzfeed. Ben smith. Editorinchief of buzz feed joins us. Also robert costa. First heres bill karins. Has anybody ever accused bill karins of being a wonder boy . No. Never wonder boy. Other things. Good morning, everyone. The big winter storm that dumped one of the top storms in wichita history is exiting. Minneapolis, also in areas of green bay, northward up to michigan. Back towards detroit, this is a little worse than we thought. Already a couple inches in a few stops. Cleveland, dealing with freezing rain and sleet. Other story going on is heavy rain the next 24 to 48 hours. Around pensacola, panama city. Thats going to extend up into georgia. This areas pretty wet so were going to see some flooding concerns. That will turn into a storm that will head up into new england. The worst of it more or less northern new england. Southern new england, more of a rainy mess for you. Hartford, youll have to shovel. Heres my snowfall total. Manchester, New Hampshire, possibility 6 to 12. Albany, new york, 3 to 6, boston, 3 to 6, and a lot less from hartford to new haven, new york city. The other thing going on this weekend, southern california, the oscars, it looks like a really nice forecast, and by the time we get to sunday, 68 degrees and sunny. I think the ladies in 68 and sunny, youll take that. The other nice spot, our friends on the today show, struggling down there in the shun shine and beauty of what is miami beach. Enjoy a great weekend. [ woman ] ring. Ring. Progresso. Your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i cant stop eating em whats. That. On your head . Can curlers tomato basil, potato with bacon. Weve got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Woman what do you mean, Homeowners Insurance doesnt cover floods . [ heart rate increases ] man a few inches of water caused all this . [ heart rate increases ] woman 2 but i dont even live near the water. What you dont know about Flood Insurance may shock you including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as 129 a year. For an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. Live look at the white house on this friday morning. 20 past the hour. Joining us now, editorinchief of buzzfeed, ben smith is back and writer for the National Review online, robert costa as well. A lot to talk about. Just to follow up to the last conversation, the white house says theyve done everything they can. They put out specific budget cuts, sequestration cuts. Yeah. Republicans of course, i guess, bob, republicans also passed a couple of bills. Back in may they passed a bill and in december they passed a similar sequester replacement bill. But the white house says its not balanced. Republicans say at least we put something on the table. What are Senate Democrats doing . The problem republicans have is in the cloak room. Republicans are nervous. Theyre telling me they dont want the sequester to happen. They represent the defense industry, military people. So what are they going to do . The president has talked at chain cpi, and you get the sense he talked to al sharpton and some others saying hes going to put that back on the table. If the president puts chain cpi on the table, thats significant. I think the time frame is so short. If you want to have a real discussion about entitlement reform, clugood luck trying to it in a week. So we have a deadline again where theres nothing able to get done because theres nothing substantive . Thats the story . January, february, march. So at what point do they sit down and look at both sides . Both sides say nothing happened. This is washington today. Both sides dont really want to budget. I think obama, i think basically the republicans have a set of internal politics where they think for their internal purposes, Mitch Mcconnells purposes in kentucky doesnt make sense for them to make a deal and president obama is looking at the broader politics. He thinks he can win again. You look at the numbers. The polls are on the president s side. The president understands if he doesnt get a deal and you have these massive cuts, youve got an economy thats upside down right now, i dont think he wants to take that risk, does he . Mika was talking about fake deadlines. The economys not going to collapse on march 2nd. We went over the fiscal cliff and nothing happened. Certainly the American People dont buy the idea that some massive catastrophe will strike. If youve been ignoring the entire fiscal cliff conversation, you kind of won because you didnt miss anything. And i think the public thinks thats whats going on too. And bob, the white house doesnt want sequestration. Both sides. Ive been talking to them and they want to avoid it. They think its terrible for the economy. Youre saying republicans in the cloakroom dont want it. The problem for republicans is this. They felt like they got burned during that fiscal cliff. They let some of the bush tax cuts expire and they thought they cant go to conservatives now and entertain the idea of resin or tax hikes. So theyre saying, what does the president expect us to do . Were in a corner with conservatives and republicans. Theres no chance of a deal that includes revenue, and thats all the white house wants. But the white house so you would say they didnt get burned, they walked away from the spending side of the deal and just took the tax part. Good luck making that argument in a republican tax meeting. Thats a fair argument if youre looking at the big pictures. But republicans look at the politics in the party. They already felt like they did too much on taxes during the fiscal cliff. I think the sequester happens and somehow in the appropriations process down the line they try to fund some of the defense funding again. But beyond that, i dont know what happens. What do you think, ben . I think thats likely. I think obama hears republicans complaining about whats going on inside their caucus, and says thats your problem, not mine. I think the big problem for the president was, look, hes been fairly consistent, he started out wanting 1. 6 trillion in revenue. He got 650 billion. So he still has almost 6 billion in revenue that he wants and i think the country needs. If hes willing to make another 2 trillion in cuts, then he gives the republicans something to use as an excuse for doing the next level of revenue increases. How much do you pick up if you just do the buffet t rule . About 150 million. Not the buffet rule but buffets plan of the 30 . Thats about 150 billion . About 150 billion. Thats a step in the right direction. Is there any american who makes under 1 million against that . Nobody. So its easy for the president if the president gives them real cuts. I think theres such distrust on the both sides. The republicans dont believe the president s going to step forward with cuts, and of course the president feels hes been burned time and time again. Im really looking for, you guys have both gone before voters before. When i talk to democrats on capitol hill, theyre counting on it. When the sequester happens and theyre a headline in your local paper about a three or fourhour wait in an airport. Its going to be like a Government Shutdown, the hysteria over the sequester. I dont know why we always lose these battles going back to the Government Shutdown in 1995, bill clinton vetoed one bill after another. One of the reasons he vetoed the bill, he just wanted to send a statement. I think the media and most americans, sort of their default position is anybody thats cutting must be harsh, must be on the wrong side. So were in a terrible position, mika, we republicans, because if we meet the president on tax increases and closing loopholes, the base turns on us. If we dont, we lose swing voters. Michael gersons talking about the partys bigger problems in the post today. We can go there. He says the end of a gop foreign policy, advantage during the cold war, a serious gap in candidate quality, the declining relevance of economic policies better suited to the 1980s, and an occasionally deserved reputation for being judgmental and censorious, republicans leaders have a choice to make, ruthlessly clarified by recent events, they can take the path of democrats in 19 88, or they can follow the model of democrats in 1992 and their own party in 2000, giving their nominee the leeway needed to produce an agenda relevant to our time. Very well said. Bob, thats obviously michael gerson, george w. Bush former speaker. Speechwriter. Republicans are going to have to get out of the box theyre in, and theyre in the box on this budget. And this week is a tough time to get all your soul searching done. Sorting out your partys identity. So they were in the midst of that. Their message is were the hostage of these crazy people inside our party. Thats a tough message to turn around next week and defend the sequester. Somehow Newt Gingrich always used people like me as the crazy people in his party to leverage bill clinton to get deals done. Im saying this as somebody called a crazy person repeatedly. Republicans called us, i mean, they called us jihadists. And Newt Gingrich and bill clinton used that to get a more center, middle deal. I think a lot of people look at the Republican Party and think theres all these extremists. Im on capitol hill day in and day out. I think they feel boxed in by these fiscal fights. You look at eric cantors speech, didnt talk about fiscal battles. It was about education, reaching out to families. Republicans feel theyre in this horrible situation where every week its another budget fight. And they want to move on. Its not just about cleaning the party of certain elements. Its about getting to a new message. Quickly, a couple of housecleaning things. Ben, how old are you . 36. Youre a little old to be called a boy wonder. Oldest living boy wonder. Teenage sensation. Ill take it. That was a pretty good article. My mom loved it. I bet she did. Suitable for framing. Look at this picture, he looks like a boy wonder. He is a boy wonder. And of course, bob, you broke the story, that there are second acts in american life. Yes. Mitt romney coming back to cpac. Hes just been hanging out in his beach front mansion. Did they finish the work on it . I think its getting there. One thing about romney, he wants to engage in the national scene. Hes a business guy. Cpac, thats where he ended his campaign in 2008. Gave a great speech. It was humble, it was real, and i think that actually catapulted him to the nomination in 12. His speech in february 2012 of course severely conservative, not a great moment. 08 moment hes remembers. I hope theyve a great time. Ann romney, i think she was terribly misunderstood. Shes great. Thank you very much. Next, open up the checkbook, red sox fans. The bloody sock being auctioned online. Thats disgusting. How much would someone pay for a piece of history . Shactmans with us next. For tapping into a wealth of experience. For access to one of the top Wealth Management firms in the country. For a team of Financial Professionals who provide customized solutions. For all of your Wealth Management and retirement goals, discover how pnc Wealth Management can help you achieve. Visit pnc. Com wealthsolutions to find out more. Try email marketing from constantcontact. Its the fastest, easiest way to create greatlooking custom emails that bring customers through your door. Sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact. Com try. Picasso painted one of his master works at 56. Doris taerbaum finished her first marathon at 50. Not everyone peaks in their twenties. Throughout their lives. Passion keeps them realizing possibilities. An ally for real possibilities. Aarp. Find tools and support at aarp. Org possibilities. All right. Its business before the bell. Cnbcs Brian Shactman. Weve got a bunch of red sox fans here. We do. Apple, by the way, we love our apple. Hows the phone doing . Well how about the watch . Would you by an i watch . No. People are looking at the patents to see what apples next move it. Hey, brian. Catch. Oh, dont worry. It wont break. Im not going to throw it to you. Go ahead. Across the studio. The worse thing is the battery would fall out. They think theyll have one of those snapon bracelets. Searching through the patents. Might be kind of cool. Why . I dont know. Lets go to the bloody sock. Curt schillings video came went belly up. Hes got to sell the bloody sock from the 2004 World Series Game 2. I actually touched it yesterday, two days ago. I didnt touch the bloody part. Ew. Its bidding it 60,000. If shilling werent such a jerk, thered be a lot more money going out there, right, mike . Im not so sure if it has to do with jerkdom. But he has alienated his fan base. Hes ail nailed every sports writer, but i dont think the fan base. I think they still appreciate the fact he tries to be honest. Hes pretty good on espn. The curse is over, they won the world series, and one three years later. I dont think its going to get as harsh. Coming up next derek low, if you ever go abrupt, give me a call. Coming up next, film critic extraordinaire, joins us for the morning joe oscar preview. Well be right back. But we can still help you see your big picture. With the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelitys analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. All in one place. Im Meredith Stoddard and i helped create the fidelity guided portfolio summary. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Its delicious. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. Theres a lot i had to do. Watch my diet. Stay active. Start insulin. Today, i learned theres something i dont have to do anymore. My doctor said that with novolog® flexpen, i dont have to use a syringe and a vial or carry a cooler. Flexpen® comes prefilled with fastacting insulin used to help control high blood sugar when you eat. Dial the exact dose. Inject by pushing a button. No drawing from a vial. You should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes after injecting novolog® insulin aspart [rdna origin] injection . 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And louis sent in this dispatch. You went pretty boy to l. A. Dispatch from hollywood. Mika, i know how difficult is it to get you to go to the movies. This year im going to save you the trouble. I dispatched myself to hollywood, california, to screen every single oscarnominated film. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Reporter the oscars. The glitz and glamor of hollywood on display for all to see, featuring the biggest names all sharing a single stage. Its a ceremony known to create a few moments of its own from the halle berry kiss. Moments for Martin Scorsese, and the good moment for those good will hunting boys from austin. This years also sure to make history as hollywood celebrates its best year ever pulling in more than 10. 8 billion at the box office. James. James bond. The belle of the ball without a doubt is Silver Linings playbook. Russell and star Bradley Cooper both picked up nominations, coopers first nomination. I stumble upon things that you never expect and this was one from the beginning when i first played this character. Silver linings playbook is set up for a big night, becoming the first film that grab nominations in all four categories, joining the ranks of a streetcar named desire. Im as mad as hell. Reporter lincoln is poised to stake home many. Steven spielberg previously won for two other historical dramas. Saving private ryan and schindlers list. Daniel daylewis is also in prosecute of his third oscar for his portrayal of americas 16th commander in chief. She picked up her second nomination for role as maya in the film zero dark thirty. But its the 9yearold actress ready to steal the night away from her fellow nominees. Im the man reporter all eyes will be on ben affleck, who was snubbed for his work on argo. Argo is the in the field for best picture, which could make for a true hollywood ending. I thought if i could even execute in a basic way on this, this would be the best thing ive done by far. You know what, mika, screening those films, it really took it out of me. Looks like im going to have to take a couple extra days to recuperate. Back to you guys in new york. With us tony scott. Tony, im shocked louis said something in his package that was actually intelligent and illuminating. Which thing . This is a record year for hollywood. We talk about every day on this show, all the great writings go to tv, but the movie industrys doing okay. The movies this year were pretty good. One of the reasons they sold so many tickets is they actually put out a lot of movies that people wanted to see, including movies that grownup people wanted to see, not just superhero movies or fantasy movies. Thats a great trend. Do you have a favorite of the year . Again, forget about what the academys looking at, but just a movie that when you left, you say, wow, that one moved me. I think there were a few of them. One of them is bests of the southern wild. I had heard a little bit about its reception at sundance. And the writer, whats her name again. Lucy alibar. North florida, came out of nowhere. And the director, a group of these film makers were down in normalcy working on short films and documentaries and put together in extraordinary movie. For me, that was the real discovery, the real rush. Lets start with our picks for best picture. Brian, who do you have . I mean, i hate to go to the house, i think argos going to win. I dont know. Mike . I selected argo. You did too. Tony scott. Ive been wrong too many times in the past so i picked argo. I picked argo if Silver Linings playbook isnt in the running. It is. Im torn. I think bradleys going to win best actor. You think hes going to upset daniel daylewis . I do. Youd win a lot of money if you won that bet. If she wins. I know what youre saying but i think he spoke to people in that roll. Incredible, incredible acting. Finally, after all those other movies. If ben affleck had been nominated, would he have won . Often they go together, best director. Why wasnt he nominated . Because the field of best pictures is bigger now. Its as many as ten. So mathematically theres always going to be people left out. Whats joes pick . Lincoln. Lincoln . Daniel daylewis was extraordinary. He was. The other ones out though, of course, Les Miserables, and amour. Les miserables, great movie, huh . Some people thought so. Good movie . Its a movie that for people who love that show. Nbc universal, just play along. He picked anne hathaway, right . I thought that Les Miserables was very effective. I have to say, for me i could not get past how much i hate that music. Looking down those peoples throats while they were singing it at me, i was weeping at the end, but for different reasons. Just dont say it. I havent seen that one. Give us some other highlights from the year. Zero dark thirty, obviously very controversial, and i have a lot of my republican friends that went to see it, and i said, so, has it been excluded because its a great film but it has they go, no, its just not as good as your last movie. Its just not that great of a movie. I think its a very good movie. I think the hurt locker is tremendous. And i hope more people have discovered that. That was the lowest grossing best picture winner ever because nobody at that time wanted to see a picture about the iraq war. I think zero dark thirty is a very strong piece of filmmaking. I think the performances are very good. I think it has been hurt a little bit by the controversy, and its always a little messy when you make a claim that well, were making this claim, weve reported it, its the truth, its as accurate as we could get it, and then it turns out, people come out and say, well, no. In the middle of a political debate. Yeah. And certainly a lot of progressives right. Reacted reflexively to it, and hollywood, some would suggest is a centerleft town. But its also a very politically cautious town. I think one of the reasons that the academy may have backed off of Kathryn Bigelow and this movie is that too much controversy, too much bad feeling, too much ambiguity makes them very uncomfortable. All right. Best actor . I think daniel daylewis. I think you know, it was a really good year. Denzel washington was terrific. Oh, that was a great movie. Great performance. Flight may have been my Favorite Movie of the year. Of course like every redblooded american male, i see the trailer and its like, yeah, man, give me shelter, hes flying upside down, and i go in expecting this action movie. Its just the opposite and im so glad it was. When that thing ended, i thought theres so many good movies out there. I dont want to blow it, but it was a surprise. It really was, because it starts out as one thing and then it turns into this character study about a guy battling with his addiction, which is the kind of movie weve seen a lot of times before, but Denzel Washington brings so much intelligence, and hes so good at being charismatic but not entirely likable. I think if daniel daylewis wasnt there being the guy on the 5 bill tough. Best actress, the choices . Who do you like . Im looking for a little of an upset here. I think its going to be Emmanuel Riva for amour. Sunday is her birthday. Shell be 86. Ive heard naomi watts is great. Jennifer lawrence. Wow, this is going to be interesting, tony scott. Thank you very, very much. Morning joe in just a moment. With the spark cash card from capital one. Boris earns unlimited rewards for his Small Business. Can i get the smith contract, please . Thank you. Thats three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put em on my spark card. 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On mondays show, Legendary Music producer, clive davis will be here for his new memoir. Up next, what, if anything, did we learn today . Today is gonna be an important day for us. You ready . We wanna be our brothers keeper. Whats number two we wanna do . Bring it up to 90 decatherms. How bout ya, joe . Lets go ahead and bring it online. Attention on site, attention on site. Now starting unit nine. Some of the worlds cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of americas biggest cities. Siemens. Answers. But at xerox weve embraced a new role. Working behind the scenes to provide companies with services. Like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. Reducing document costs by up to 30 . And processing 421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. Helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. Hows that for an encore . With xerox, youre ready for real business. The people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. , . And every day since, weve worked hard to keep it. Today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. Weve shared what weve learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. Bps also committed to america. We support nearly twohundredfifty thousand jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. Were working to fuel america for generations to come. Our commitment has never been stronger. A hairline fracture to the mandible and contusions to the metacarpus. What do you see . Um, i see a duck. Be more specific. I see the aflac duck. I see the aflac duck out of work and not making any money. I see him moving in with his parents and selling bootleg dvds out of the back of a van. Dude, thats your life. Remember, aflac will give him cash to help cover his rent, car payments and keep everything as normal as possible. I see lunch. [ monitor beeping ] lets move on. [ male announcer ] find out what a hospital stay could really cost you at aflac. Com. Are you ready to go home, mike . I am so annoyed. All right. Welcome back to morning joe. Its time to talk about what we learned today. Lets start with the annoyed Mike Barnicle. I learned that i should leave when i say im going to leave rather than having everybody in the control room tell me you cant leave. Ive learned that youre a pain in the ass for making me stay. Look at them. I learned that mika doesnt think that dried blood on a sock is worth a lot of money. Ew. Ew. The thing i learned most importantly is when louis, when hollywood had a 10. 8 billion profit and made some really great movies. For such a long time weve learned that the movie industry is dying and theres not a really Good Business model for it, 10. 8 billion. Plus again, hollywood will be the first to tell you, thats where we talking about soft power, our entertainment industry, hollywood. We spread the message across the globe just how crazy we are. What did you learn . I learned that there were a million things that didnt get done here on morning joe this week and now i know why. Why . Because lou