And now for the moment we have all been waiting for and the oscar goes to argo. Congratulations. Well, good morning. Its monday, february 25th, welcome to morning joe. Everyones a little tired here for some reason. With us on set, we have msnbc contributor Mike Barnicle. Wake up, mike. And the president of the council on Foreign Relations you were not up. Richard was. It was so good. How many times have you been now . You havent been. 13th time. Willie, have you been . I have not been to the opera. Its really good. Lincoln center. I walked past the fountain at the lincoln center. You have to go. Im going to force you. On the way to p. J. Clarks. Right across. Obviously, we have a lot to talk about. Coming up, the sequester, of course, is going down to the wire. Robert gibbs had some interesting comments on drones which well talk about. But, of course, it was the big night at the oscars that everyone is probably still talking about this morning. Complete with some redemption for ben affleck. Affleck and the crew of argo beat out films like lincoln and Silver Linings playbook to win best picture. But lincoln had its day in the sun as daniel daylewis earned his Third Academy award for best actor. The most ever in that category. Jennifer lawrence took home the best actress oscar for her performance in Silver Linings playbook. She stumbled a bit on her way to the stage. I hate it when that happens. But shes doing just fine. Absolutely. Oh, dont. Dont loop it. What are you doing . Stop it come on who would do that . T. J. No, hes not here today. No, hes on remote. Some sickos in the booth. Who is it . Its an infection. Alex, whos there . No, come on. Lets keep going. Its t. J. T. J. , you look different. Im going to follow him around with a camera. How exciting for her to win . I loved that movie. And she was fantastic. I kind of had hoped that bradley would win, but at the same time, there were it was a tough crowd. Wow, tough crowd. Go ahead, tell us who else wins and then im going to talk about Seth Macfarlane who got absolutely destroyed on twitter online. Unfairly. Unfairly. Hes a talented guy. Rounding out the Award Winners were Anne Hathaway who won best supporting actress. Also christopher waltz who took home best supporting actor, also life of pi director. Before we get to all the speeches, very exciting, poor Seth Macfarlane who i dont really know. I understand he does family guy. Either you love family guy or i absolutely hate family guy. He did ted. He did ted. You like that. I saw the bear. Was he really that bad . No. I hate the shmaltzy stuff where they get up and play hollywood. Tremendously talented. Very funny jokes. Song and dance, tremendously talented. He reminded me of you. Not the singing, dancing and other talents. You have to remember, everyone hates everything on twitter. Of course. Let me throw that out. I think he was just different. And he was also hes not one of them, do you know what i mean . So he comes into that room, and theyre going, wait a minute. Who is this guy making fun of us . American dud. Come on. Theres the washington post. Hes an oscar guy. We have a lot of news to get to still. Hes from connecticut. Is he really . What part . Kent, connecticut. I love kent. Rhode Island School of design and most interesting, missed because he had a hangover, had a hangover, missed one of the flights leaving boston on september 11th. Youre kidding me. Seth macfarlane . Youre making this stuff up. I dont know why you know all that. Thats pretty good. I dont know. Highlights from last night. Argo tells the previously classified story about an american hostage rescue in postrevolutionary iran. The story was so top secret that the films director is unknown to the academy. Jennifer lawrence has a great attitude about this whole thing. This is a charming, talented woman. I was talking to her backstage. She told me whether she wins or loses, its just an honor that meryl streep wasnt nominated. Django unchanged. Now, that was an intense film. This is the story of a man fighting to get back his woman whos been subjected to unthinkable violence. Or as chris brown and rihanna call it, a date movie. Oh. This is interesting. Daniel daylewis, not the first actor to be nominated for playing lincoln. Raymond massy portrayed him in 1940s abe lincoln in illinois. This is true. I would yeah. I would argue, however, that the actor who really got inside lincolns head was john wilkes booth. Really, 150 years and its still too soon. Yeah, it is. So jimmy kimmel had done a jfk joke at one time, that was the same punch line. Oh, 50 years later. The second he started telling okay, this is all about the too soon . Too soon . Too soon. You still think its too soon. Absolutely. Okay. Whatever. I think most people agree with you, by the way. So he wasnt so horrible, was he . He was just unconventional. Theyre used to more song and dance and its hollywood i told you. I told you. Seth can sing and dance, but he didnt do all that. He didnt give them what theyre used to seeing. It will settle in and theyll like it today. I bet youd be adorable. That shatner stuff was something. Oh, the shatner stuff. I missed that. I was walking out of the room dealing with kids. Okay. All right. Should we do news, please . Begging you. Daniel daylewis was fantastic. And funny in his acceptance speech. Jennifer lawrence. We talk about argo getting best picture rather than lincoln. That was interesting. I thought that was going to be happening. In 10, 20 years people are going to be thinking about argo and not lincoln. This is not being disrespectful of anybody associated with the movie or ben affleck, but i will tell you, town was far superior to argo. Argo was a good movie, but you want to give ben affleck an oscar . All im saying is, it was a really good movie, but i think youre right. I think they felt really bad about snubbing him. So they gave it to him in the end. But lincoln, i think, is a movie thats going to stand the test of time. The argo thing is interesting. If you went back a month, two months ago, it wasnt even mentioned as best picture candidate. He doesnt get nominated for director, so he wins all these other awards and this momentum builds. So in a weird, perverse way, the snub probably helped argo get the best picture. Who knows . Lets not take anything away from him. That was a great movie. You loved the movie. The only point is, its not even the best hes done. But then again, john lennon didnt get a grammy for anything. I swear to god, i thought i just saw louis in that video. Its too soon to make any jokes. Id kill anybody that would make a joke about john lennon. More on the oscars coming up. A couple more stories this morning. Its already nine past the hour. Did you see this . Im very happy about this. I stumbled outside the orphanage and picked up the New York Times and i saw this on the cover of New York Times magazine. Were in for a long day. No, youre in for a long spring. Is that mesquite barbecue chip . You know, i cant just eat one. Seriously, i had two bags yesterday. Because i saw it. And something flew into my head. I had two of those bags. Thank god for this article. Thats all im going to say. Thank god. Stop. By the way, look at this. Is that impressive or not . Minding mika. Thank god for this article. Okay. Be careful. My youngest daughter. Thats norah odonnell. That wasnt you. Looks good, really good. No, really, thats fine. So this article theres got to be one more picture of you. Very excited about it. Im writing a book that comes out in may that i thought you all would think is crazy, but you cant anymore. They basically say the same thing you say. Yeah. I just say it in more of a personal way. Lets go now with news. Well get to that later. Hold on. Were going to talk about the sequester. Stop. Hold on a second. Huh . Sass. There we go. The medium. First communion outfit. Look at this. The first communion outfit. And look at this. Or i could go scrub the floor. For work and play. Thats enough now. Stop it. I think thats a great, great picture. The book. Thats the book about food right there. And the family. Were going to get to the news now. Officials on the state level are trying to prepare for those acrosstheboard cuts set to kick in on friday. Automatic funding reductions known as sequestration that would slash 85 billion in spending. President obama will meet with the nations governors at the white house today after the administration rolled out new details over the weekend describing what impact the cuts will have across the country. According to the report, the effects include tens of thousands of lost jobs as well as fewer resources for education and the environment, but some republicans say the white house is more interested in scaring people than finding a solution. Senator coburn, is the president exaggerating the impact of these cuts . Absolutely. Its a terrible way to cut spending. I dont disagree with that. But to not cut 2. 5 out of the total budget over a year when its twice the size it was ten years ago, give me a break. In politico, by the way, there were tons of Opinion Pieces over the weekend on this. We pulled out a few here that really captured the conversation about this. Rich lowrie writes about the panic. When you have a brzezinski circling one of your columns, you might be making some good points. That doesnt mean i agree with it. He made some great points. You said i cant say this on tv, but this is a really great oped that i agree with 100 . I really didnt say that. Prepare for the end of food safety as we have known it. For a breakdown in public order. For little children languishing in ignorance. If only Edward Gibbon were here to chronicle the devastation. On march 1st, the fabric of our civilization begins to unwind. Thats when the economy begins to stall and we turn back on our values all because the federal government will have to begin to cut a few tens of billions of dollars from the largest budget the world has ever known over the next ten years. The sequester amounts to a 1. 16 trillion cut, or roughly 3 cents on every federal dollar. If we cant squeeze a couple of pennies out of every dollar, we might as well begin our Great National bankruptcy proceedings right now. Its hard to see how a cut of a little more than 40 billion this year can possibly tank a 16 trillion economy. What i do agree with is how can you not cut 85 billion responsibly . How can they not come together and figure this out . And by the way, take what rich said, combine that with what tom coburnsaid, talking about how the budget has doubled over the past decade. So really what were talking about is we cant take 3 cents out of a dollar today, but putting it in historical perspective, thats 3 cents out of a hyper inflated dollar, if that dollar were talking about is federal spending, which has exploded at obscene rates under barack obama and george w. Bush. You can at the macro sense, and its not going to sink again, were talking over ten years. Its a trillion dollars roughly over ten years, 80, 90 billion, this year is will be 45 trillion. Its only on Discretionary Spending. Youre putting off to the side most of the budget, as you know, entitlements and everything else. And even within Discretionary Spending, its quite limited. So depending on, for example, you cant touch personnel accounts and all that. So it will have more impact than it should. Will it sink the economy . No. Is it a smart way to run this airline of the United States . Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Peggy noonan writes also i thought in the wall street journal, i thought it was fascinating. Government by freakout. Republicans on the hill, of course, are being cast as the nihilists in the drama, as the ones who want to blow things up. But is that even remotely fair . They just lost a battle on taxes. They fought and accepted an increase in rates. What they are saying now to the president is okay, we gave you tax increases, dont demand more right now. Work with us on spending cuts and a broad and coherent tax reform plan. Dont do the kind of targeted loopholeclosing thats just meant to torment the dead rich. Do something more solid and comprehensive. And yes, lets move to do what we can on entitlement spending. Willie, as long as the democrats and the National Media had Grover Norquist as their strawman, it is this one man. It is this one terrible, terrible, small, evil man who is stopping goodness and justice from prevailing in americas budgetary wars. When they had him, this worked. Hes no longer on the stage. And this whole tax cuts for the rich boogeyman has also been taken off the stage because we had this battle in december, and republicans, as peggy said, got their hat handed to them. Now the president comes back and says if we could only tax the rich. But these republicans dont want to and by the way, they want to slash and burn the budget. See, democrats are on thin ice, i think personally on this argument to say the worlds Everybody Knows that bush spent way too much. Everybody knows barack obama spent way too much. I dont think they buy this argument. On a gut level. Yeah. I think youre right on most counts on that part of it. Its not going to tank the economy. Its just not. But there are realworld impacts immediately. Some people will be furloughed. Some people will work four days instead of five. There will be things in the short term. Absolutely. In the larger question, its not going to tank the economy. The bigger thing to me is we put this in as something so draconi draconian, something so terrible that theres no way we could ever go there, and it would force the hand of our elected officials to do something about the deficit. Again, if this doesnt do it, and its not, sequester is going to go in some form by the theme we hit friday. What will . If they put in poison pills that wont kill them, what will change anything . How fascinating over the weekend, sort of a subplot going on here was the battle between bob woodward and the white house. Willie just talked about how the draconian cuts were set up. The white house said it wasnt our idea. Bob woodward said, yes, it was. Ive got you guys on the record telling me before that it was jack lews idea aproved by the president. The president came out directly earlier, and woodward wrote this all down this weekend where the president said the debate, oh, the sequester wasnt my idea. It was the republicans idea. This past week woodward coming out, made them back down. This actually was hatched at the white house. But then youve got the white house lobbying rhetorical bombs back at woodward saying hes not telling the truth. A fascinating back and forth there. I think the argument over who came up with it is silly because everyone voted for it, number one. Except for the fact that the president s not telling the truth when he says it wasnt his idea. And thats not is that not is that silly when a president intentionally misleads the American People about who came up with this idea at a president ial debate . I think republicans looking at im just curious. Can you answer that . If george bush didnt tell the truth to the American People on Something Like this, even a small matter, would that be silly . I think the whole thing is silly, yes. The president not telling the truth. I need to talk. Hold on one second. Id like you to answer the question, though. Yes, its silly. Im answering. Now im moving on. The president not telling the truth is silly . Will you let me talk for a second, please . Im just curious. When did we get to a stage that its silly . I said yes. It is silly. The president is not misleading the American People in this important debate, if this is an important debate . I think the republicans yammering away with who came up with it is is a fantastic ploy if you want to be a House Republican forever. So the next time a republican doesnt tell the truth in the middle of what were told is an important debate and i just want this for the record were going to come back to this tape where you say it doesnt matter whether the president tells the truth or not. I didnt say that. Yes, did you. I said its silly if hes arguing that he didnt come up with this. The bottom line is, the white house came up with the idea. Everyone supported it. The point was to come up with a better plan, and they didnt. And everyone should be ashamed of themselves, and quite frankly, arguing over who came up with it is not where were at right now. We are four days away from cuts that will hurt people, cuts that are maybe not the right cuts, cuts that may impact our national security, and both sides ought to figure out how to cut 85 billion without doing such drastic damage to some peoples lives immediately on friday. And quite frankly, the president does have a plan on the table that involves chain cpi and about, i think, 400 billion in medicare cuts. Thats better than the sequester. It is. So the republicans ought to stop bickering over who came up with this because everyone did, to avoid it. To come up with something better. Its silly. I think those that was my answer. Richard house are very cogent points that i think the American People should consider and listen to and consider. And stop interrupting. What you have here in their minds. Are you two done . Yeah, were good. Everythings fine now. Just having fun. A little fun in the morning. The white house is focusing on who came up with it. The real question here is where we go from here. People want to see when the polls come out. Whichever side gets the preponderance of the blame. Republicans always get the blame. But mikas on to something. Whats so discouraging about this, were talking about a small amount of money in the larger scheme of things. You always have threats to cut fire engines first. Were not going to do that. The society will survive. The u. S. Military will survive. And at the end of the day, were no closer to anything serious on the budget. Were no closer to anything remotely serious on getting this economy growing again. This is such an enormous distraction from what really matters when facing the United States. That is whats truly depressing. Ill tell you, people always get tired of me telling stories about