fight on capitol hill over the budget? we're going with the budget. so we have to hear about this later in the show. first though, let's get to the news. live at 5:30 a.m. at 30 rock in new york city. president obama's budget proposal will likely never see a vote on capitol hill but it sets the stage for a fight that divided washington for years, including last year. the $3.8 trillion spending plan outlines the president's, including investments on education and infrastructure. we're calling on wealthier americans to share more of the burden. >> right now, we're scheduled to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans. do we want to keep the tax cuts for wealthiest americans or keep investing in everything else? education, clean energy, a strong military, care for our veterans. we can't do both. we can't afford it. some people go around and say, well, president is engaging in class warfare. that's not class warfare. that's common sense. [ applause ] that's common sense. >> the president's plan includes $4 trillion in deficit cuts over the next ten years. most coming by way of new tax revenue and savings from the wars in iraq and afghanistan. the plan includes $350 billion for job creation, $476 billion to upgrade the country's transportation system and $141 billion for research and development, including a 5% increase in nondefense research. the republican critique is that the president's plan does nothing significant to reform entitlement programs and it raises taxes. obama's budget would allow the bush era tax cuts to expire for families making $250,000 or more per year. that's coupled with a proposal to have millionaire households pay 30% of income in taxes, something the white house called the buffett rule after warren buffett. mitch mcconnell went on the offensive saying the plan was not a budget but rather a campaign document. the republican presidential candidates also went after his proposal. >> you know, the president came out with a new budget today, and -- [ boo'ing ] >> yeah. you have reason for that response. >> another trillion dollar budget deficit. another tax the rich scheme. more debt. more government. more control. less freedom, less opportunity. >> the times over the next debt ceiling is not this fall. we've already played this game before. we know what obama is going to do. he's going to go up to the last minute, stand there say, how can you do this, we have no choice. time to stop it is right now. >> i don't want to say i wasn't focused on that. but were the producers of blair witch lighting rick santorum. let work on that. two of the nation's leading newspapers offered different opinions on the plan. you'll be surprised to know the new york times disagrees with the republican assessment. right writing president obama's 2013 budget was greeted with republican catcalls that it's simply a campaign document. but election year budgets are supposed to explain priorities to voters. this one offers a clear and welcome contrast to the slashing austerity. congress were not dysfunctional if it cared more about economic stabilization and scoring political points it would sign on to a budget like this. that's the view from the new york times. from the other side, the wall street journal called obama's federal budget a "brilliant bit of miss direction" titled the amazing obama budget. it reads in part, all voters need to do is spend disbelief for another nine months and ignore the first four years. the political reality of budgeting is that voters should only believe what they can see, which is what politicians are proposing now. promises of cuts are a mirage. mr. obama needs to point to the mirage because his fist record is the worst in modern american history. two sides of the debate. the new york times and wall street journal. according to the administration, next year's deficit would drop below $1 trillion for the first time in five years, but the government would still be borrowing nearly a quarter on every dollar spent. house republicans are abandoning their demand that the cost of extending the payroll tax cut -- republican leaders are introducing a backup plan to extend the payroll tax holiday for the rest of the year. as part of the offer, they're calling for continued negotiations on unemployment insurance and new talks on preventing a fee cut to medicare doctors known as the doc fix. the gop leadership suggested the decision was due to a lack of compromise from the other side of the aisle. their statement reads in part "unfortunately, to date, democrats refused virtually every spending cut proposed insisting on job threatening tax hikes on job creators and with respect to the need for an extension of the payroll tax cut. time is running short. that's the statement from the leadership on the republican side on capitol hill. house republicans are expected to discuss a proposal today and the vote could come as early as the end of the week. passage of the payroll tax cut extension could mean 160 million americans will not see an extra $20 a week taken from their paychecks. on to 2012 politics, new polls suggest the republican presidential race turning into a two-man race. voters in michigan head to the polls two weeks from today on o the 28th of february. rick santorum has the lead. he noses ahead of mitt romney. michigan, of course, the state where romney's father served as governor in the 1960s. newt gingrich is in third place, not terribly far behind at 2%. followed by ron paul at 12% in michigan. according to public policy polls, the lead over romney in michigan is bigger is 39%. santorum, 15 points ahead of romney according to this poll. ron paul and newt gingrich trail the frontrunners by double digits. the ppp tweet notes that santorum is ahead of mitt romney everywhere except michigan in oakland county where romney lived as a child. the pro romney super pac restore our future spending $640,000 on ads in the state of michigan over the next week. when it comes to the race on a national level, a new pugh research poll shows santorum and romney in a statistical tie. that's a look at the bigger picture nationally. as newt gingrich drops to the bottom of the field, the national review is calling on the former house speaker to drop out of the race. in an editorial called santorum's turn. they say when he led in the polls, he urged the pennsylvaniian to leave the race. on his own arguments, the proper course for him now is to endorse santorum and exit. that's from the editors of the national review. fresh off his cpac straw poll win, mitt romney is pushing his conservative. the former massachusetts governor tried to set himself apart from the other republican candidates painting his main rivals again as washington insiders. >> perhaps the greatest distinction is how what we've done during our lives. our life experience. my congressman paul was a doctor and then went into government. but the other guys spent their life entirely in government. and my view, it's helpful to have been involved in two businesses, an olympics and a state and had a chance to run those as an executive. we elected president obama, someone who had never run anything, who was never a leader. we're not going to do that in the republican party. let not nominate somebody who hasn't run anything and not been a leader. that experience counts. >> romney heads to michigan tomorrow where he will kick off a multiday campaign push. the arizona and michigan pry mayors i, as i said, held on february 28th, two weeks from today. the u.s. justice department and european union cleared the way for a $12.5 billion merger between google and motorola. it will grant access to a number of motorola's patents and give google and droid devices an edge in the smartphone marketplace. let's take an early look at the markets. cnbc's steve sedgwick live in london. >> love in the air on the 14th of february for some of the stocks. google closed at over $612. up 1% on the session. this after they got that approval that you mentioned from the e.u. and from the u.s. regulators. 17,000 patents and 7.5 -- that's why they bought the company for $12.5 billion back in august last year. bought regulators in europe and u.s. just warn that google shouldn't abuse the patents and they could relook at this one if they do. >> big news for google in that marketplace. apple yesterday, the stock closing over $500 a share. steve, what's the significance there? >> it's quite extraordinary. people are already talking about $600 a share. this is the first time ever the shares have closed over 500 bucks. they got as high as $504 in session. this means this is the biggest company, not just in the u.s. but in the world by around about $65 billion margin. it's worth $465 billion. the second biggest is exxon-mobil, worth around about $400 billion. it comes after the fact that two weeks ago they had blockbuster numbers with revenues up over 70%. people are expecting more of the same. back to you. >> steve sedgwick, thank you very much. we appreciate it. the fbi is helping local police in the west indys after steven briar was robbed last week by a man with a machete. it happened on a caribbean island where the 73-year-old justice owns a vacation home. the suspect entered his house and took a thousand dollars from the justice, his wife joanna and their house guest. luckily, nobody was hurt. not any arrests yet. briar is not the only justice to see crime up close. in 1996 justice ruth bader ginsburg had her purse snatched just as david suitor was assaulted while jogging. it's not clear what protection briar may have had at his vacation home. according to bloomberg news, often supreme court justices go without security. it's up to them if they want protection from there. still ahead, after a couple days off, the lin sanity resumes. will the magic be the same with new york getting its highly paid superstars back on the court? carmelo anthony has an opinion on this. that's ahead in sports. david letterman reveals the cover of the swimsuit sports illustrated issue with help from his leg i friends. that's coming up when way too early returns. >> we like to have named t american furniture. it's american pottery, which is very rare in the early 19th century. those are two of the nice ones. so uh this is my friend frank and his, uh, retirement plan. one golden crown. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. 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[ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. 5:45 on the button this morning as you look at a live picture of the united states capitol. let's get a check of your weather from nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning. >> good morning. good valentine's day. >> same to you, sir. >> i didn't get anything from you today. >> this is getting a little weird right out of the box. >> thought we would keep it straight. [ laughter ] >> oh, good morning everyone. little bit of light snow this morning in pennsylvania and also areas of maryland. we have a little bit of light rain in georgia. that's about it. there's not a lot of travel concerns this more than. but in chicago included, you want to dust a little bit of light snow off your car. forecastwise for this valentine's day. there could be showers around areas like d.c., baltimore and through much of maryland and delaware. not much. just a little bit. mild temperatures today. 40s up to boston. minneapolis today near the upper 30s. mild down to texas. a pretty nice valentine's day in the pacific northwest a little bit of light rain. tomorrow, we deal with a much bigger storm moving across the country. like all the storms this winter, another rainstorm heading across the country. >> rain and 52 degrees in new york on valentine's day. >> that's tomorrow. 52 on the day after valentine's day. >> very good. >> sorry, i was caught up in our lovers quarrel. >> we'll work it out. counseling. bill, thanks. time for sports. college basketball, a game that had the makings of an upset. syracuse visiting the 18th ranked louisville. the 25-1 orangemen trying to snap a seven-game losing streak against the cardinals. game tied with 4:40 left. louisville's chris smith drains the three from the corner. louisville is up 49-46. a minute later, down one. syracuse responds. a dish underneath for the bucket. orangemen take a 52-51 lead. same score, ten second left on the clock. one shot for louisville. they turn the ball over under the basket. syracuse runs out the clock. 52-51 win. they're now 26-1. only four games left on the regular season schedule. the orange number 2. the rankings out yesterday. kentucky another one loss team. missouri, kansas and duke round out the top five. in the nba, the lin-sanity resumes. with a twist. the back page of the new york papers. let's see, we have new york post. val-lynn tien's day. get it. then your daily news. i heart jeremy. carmelo anthony. they've fallen in love with jeremy lin since he won the starting point guard job for the knicks. over the games, lin averaged almost 27 points, eight assists and four rebounds. shooting 51% from the floor. on top of that, new york has been without its superstars, amari stoudemire and anthony for four games. amari to return tonight. he was mourning the death of his brother. will they be able to coexist with lin on the court? there's a new star in the big apple. carmelo says yeah, we can do this. i know there are questions about can i fit in and stuff like that, but this is a dream come true for me. it takes pressure off me. i don't have to try to get amari 20 points, this guy 20 points. i'm going to go out there and get 25, 23 point a night, play defense, rebound, do the whole thing. it is true the knicks haven't had a point guard in oh, i don't know, 35 years. it's good. carmelo to have one. carmelo not the only one excited. stephen colbert revealed that he also caught some of the lin-sanity. >> lin-sanity continues. >> essentially becomes lin an sanity. >> the basketball fans have a raging case of lin-sanity. >> yes, i have a raging case of lin san at any i. my symptom, lin-somnia. restless lin syndrome and lin te test nal blockage. fans have not come down with a basketball borne disease this intense since the mid '70s. >> the new york nick knicks play raptors tonight in toronto. sports illustrated out with the annual swimsuit edition. as a news organization, it's our duty to bring it to you now. david letterman had the honor of revealing the cover model, kate upton. named the magazine's 2011 rookie of the year. she happens to be the niece of republican congressman fred upton of michigan. see, we made a political tie-in. last night, kate and nine other models stopped by the late show in new york city to deliver the top ten reasons why this year's swimsuit edition is the best ever. >> number 9, jessica gomes. >> where else can you see nearly naked women except everywhere on the internet? >> good point. alyssa miller, number 7. >> forget number 7. i just want to stand here and look hot. >> number 5. genevieve martin. >> like the late show, sports illustrated is made from 99% recycled material. >> number 2, kate upton. >> the art department was able to airbrush my mustache. >> the number one reason this year's sports illustrated issue with the best one ever. irene a shake. >> it's not -- but it looks like. >> coming up at the top of the hour on morning joe, president obama hit the road telling the country we must raise taxes on the rich. republicans tend to disagree. we'll get to the truth with the morning joe crew. when we come back, we'll watch jimmy fallon's latest installment of celebrity whispers. these are good. "way too early" is come right back. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. [ sighs ] i can't wait till morning. wait! it's morning in china! ♪ [ male announcer ] it's sweet, it's nutty... it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. well before president obama's budget hit capitol hill, both parties acknowledge there's next to no chance the plan would actually pass congress. that's not just the case. but it's an election year. if you want to sound smart, tell your friends congress has not approved a budget resolution since april of 2009. coming up on three years. three months after president obama was inaugurated. instead the government is running off stopgap res liegss keeping the lights on in washington but without a long-term fiscal plan. enough of the real news. let's head will up around the water cooler to talk about what whitney houston did for the grammys. 39.9 million viewers tuned in to the awards show. the second largest aud wrens in grammy histories. topped by the 1984 show featuring michael jackson's live performance of thriller. the total number watching the grammys up 50% from last year's 26.6 million. sunday night's grammys were the most watched nonsports program of the television season. the grammys, whitney houston, to thank for that. last night on late night, it was the return of jimmy fallon's entertainment correspondent alter ego, peggy hess who narrates celebrity conversations. here's the latest segment of celebrity whispers. >> did you read the eat the last of my totino's pizza rolls. >> you can smell my breath. celebrity. what's new nancy? >> i just got mario party 9 for the wii. >> can you do your mario impression? >> here we go. >> dead on. >> whisper. >> you having a good time? >> this is great. fun to be here with you again. what was your name again? >> brad pitt. >> that's right. >> how are you? >> good. i have a coupon for you. two for one appetizers at the olive garden. >> cool. i love going there. went up there. >>. >> did you grab my cd. my jim jams exact disk. yes, sir, it's in the steer yoe. >> in that car back there, not this car here. >> okay. let's go. ♪ >> oh, my god. it's so stupid, it's so good. still ahead why are you awake? morning joe as we go out to lil kim just moments away. 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