and daened my sun♪ romney hits the daily double rocking both the maine caucuses and the poll of top conservative activists. and the president tangles with the catholic hierarchy over contraception and health care coverage. jacob lew, rick santorum and senator joe lieberman will join us soon. first, death of singer whitney houston. ♪ and i >> didn't she almost have it

all? whitney houston was beautiful and talented with music in her soul and her blood line. sheep was the daughter of a gospel singer, cousin to dionne warwick, areit na franklin her godmother. she had a voice that could range five octaves cross over from gospel, r&b and rock. career blossomed in the '80s, skyrocketed in the '90s. multimillions of albums sold, leading roles in "the body guard" and multi millions in income. a tumultuous marriage and drug addiction. >> i'm my best friend or worst enemy. >> houston divorced and got clean, she said, and try a comeback releasing an album in 2009, going on tour. but time and trouble had taken an obvious toll ♪ whitney houston never got her comeback but as the news swept over last night, music industry

giants called in to cement the legacy of that voice. >> this is going to be one of these times where you're going to remember where you were when you heard the news, it's that significant. >> she had that voice, that could just turn a story, a melody into just magical, magical notes. >> there will never be another voice like that. >> people should not die young. >> scheduled to attend a pregrammys party thrown by her menner to, clive davis, whitney houston was pronounced dead in her beverly hills hotel room. she was 48. a short life for a huge talent. ♪ didn't we almost have it all ♪ ♪ when love joining me now, cnn's deborah feyerick, outside the new hope baptist church in new jersey where whitney houston sang as a child. and nichelle turner deb, nothing

like a hometown in morning and that sounds like where you are. >> reporter: absolutely. this is where whitney houston found her voice. she said she used to sing for god. a sense of deep grief amongst the parishioners, they're currently in a service. we spoke to the pastor a little while ago. take a listen. >> family shared whitney with the world but whitney was a mother, a daughter, a sister, and that's the focus that we want to keep in front of everyone today to continue to lift the family up and respect -- respect this time of grief. >> reporter: have you spoken with houston? >> yes she needs our prayers of support. >> reporter: no funeral arrangements determined but parishioners here are remembering her today and they are keeping clearly the entire houston family in their prayers, candy. >> thank you, deb feyerick from

new jersey. out to california and l.a. talk to me about last night. i know you were at the hotel. >> reporter: yeah, i was at beverly hilton hotel where clive davis did continue on with his pregamy party. i have to tell you, candy, i've done so many red carpets and the mood is light,over yale, last night was odd. everyone was somber, no talk other than whitney houston on the red carpet. so many people just describing what she meant to them. one of the people that i spoke with, gladys knight, who is very close to dionne warwick, whitney houston's cousin, told me about many occasions where her and dionne warwick actually went to whitney and did sort of what she describes as interventions, telling her we know you're struggling but we need you, we need you to get through this. she said that she thought whitney heard her and thought she was trying to beat her demons, as she called them.

>> thanks to nischelle turner. we do not yet know of the cause of death. we are awaiting that. for more on the story, we're going to turn to a senior writer for "people" magazine and hillary rosen, former chief executive officer of the recording industry association of america. jody, first to you, the natural thing to go to is thinking perhaps drugs had something to do with this but we know from officers on the scene who said there was no obvious sign of anything that might have caused death which to me says no drug paraphernalia, can you tell us anything about the last couple of years for whitney houston and whether she had, in fact, beat. her demons, or had she slipped back, do you think? >> whitney's had her ups and downs over the last several year. last may she checked into an outpatient treatment program, it was clearly something she was

still struggling with. we saw pictures of her from a party on thursday night where it looked like she was having maybe too good of a time there, you know. we don't know if she was drinking or anything else. but you know, it seems like this is something that she continued to struggle with. >> and hillary, let me talk to you, because you bring both the hollywood and washington, you're our nexus today, because we all know whitney houston is a singer. but you also know her as someone who had some political causes. >> well, she did. she was one of the earliest activists anti-apartheid when mandela became president, she travelled there several times. she raised money for his foundation. she was involved in aids and pediatric aids and did benefits and the united negro college fund. i remember when nelson mandela came to washington for the state

dinner president obama hosted for him, a grand affair and everyone was so excited that he was coming here, not only as a free man but president he requested whitney houston be his state dinner entertainment speaker, performer. and i was in the back of the room. she sang "the greatest love of all" which of course is that anthem to self-love, something that this young woman never really maybe grasped enough of. >> joey, just quickly, can you give me any kind of indication, i mean, can you compare this to other early losses in hollywood? i know larry king talked about others that have died so young, judy garland one of them. does this compare to michael jackson or a judy garland? >> absolutely. i mean, this is someone who was the biggest pop star when she was in her prime. she was unbelievable. and not only as a singer, but also you know in movies. she had hit movies and so you

know, this is definitely one of those cases where you know she will be remembered for her music even if, you know, she did die from perhaps drugs. >> thank you so much for joining us this morning. hillary rosen, as always, thanks. please stay with cnn as we bring latest on breaking news as it happen. but after the break, white house chief of staff, jacob lew joins us talk about the firestorm over the white house's contraception policy.t. but you said it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? exactly. okay... [ female announcer ] yoplait. it is so greek. 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- okay... wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time.

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man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. johning me here in washington, white house chief of staff, jacob lew. let us start out with what has royaled some in the catholic community. i know has really set the white house off in trying to get things situated. and that is this idea that catholic universities, catholic hospitals, should have to pay

for contraception for its employees as part of the health care plan. the president comes back with a compromise, says well the health insurance companies will contact the women in these facilities and offer contraceptive services and the women can accept or not accept, and the health care -- the health care provider, aetna, whatever, will pay for it. is that where we are now? >> let me tell you where we are, can candy. the president has two principles very important. one all women have a right to all forms of health care, including contraception. secondly, in greatest tradition of the we have to respect the religious liberties of people with very different views. where i think where this policy has come out the initial announcement of a policy said it would take some time to work through details because of the concern that arose, we speeded up the process. on friday the president announced we think a very good resolution of the problem.

it's gotten the support of a wide range of organizations, from catholic charities and the catholic health association, to planned parenthood. it respects both core principles and we think it's a good solution. >> it did not win the support of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops, which put out a statement friday and said, today's proposal, being the compromise proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions and threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. you are an on arenbserve aren'ti know, anything made you think twice when it first ewent out. >> the solution puts no religious institution where it has to pay for or facilitate the provision of the benefits they find objectionable. is the issue should women have access to all form of preventive care, including contraception, we believe the answer is yes.

>> can you say with a straight face that the insurance company's going to pick up the cost of this? >> somebody who has done budgets for a lot of years, when people say something doesn't cost money, i ask them how could that be, this is the exception to the rule. if you price two insurance plans one of them with contraception, the other without, the plan without contraception costs more than the one with it. so this will not cost the insurance companies money it will not put religious institutions in a place where they -- >> why is that? >> because the toasttalle cost care is higher than without contraception. >> why don't health insurance companies everywhere offer free contraceptive services? >> i think there won't be as much resist tooance to this fro insurance companies because of what i just said. look to examples in other states where it's worked, it's worked pretty much the way i've describe. there is an issue, the issue, do women have a right to contraception? we think the answer is yes. should religious institutions

have sensibilities protected? the answer's yes. i'm a person of faith i care we're a country that respects faith. this is a challenge to reconcile two important principles and the president found a way to reconcile those. there are others who don't have the same objective and they have to speak for themselves. >> as far as the white house is concerned, is this done? >> we think we've put out a solid plan. >> no more compromising? >> we've put out a plan where the president intended to go. >> there is room or is not? >> this is our plan. >> let me move you on to the payroll tax cut. coming up to the end of the month. how certain are you that congress is going to pass a year-long extension of the payroll tax cuts and the other things that come with it the unemployment insurance? >> i think that it's clear that the economy's doing much better but it needs to have that additional push that comes from the payroll tax. we saw in december that it didn't work out so well to have a big, ugly fight over the payroll tax. we can avoid that.

we have enough time for congress to get its work done. you know, we all care about having economic growth and having unemployment go down and employment go up. this payroll tax is important. this can be solved, congress needs to get its work done. >> will it be solved? >> i believe it should get involved. and i know there are people working hard even this weekend trying to solve it. >> let me show you a recent abc news poll about the president's handling of the federal budget deficit. and we will get to the budget, which we know is coming out tomorrow in a bit. i want to ask you in general, this poll shows that 38% of the americans approve the way the president's handling the deficit and 58% disapprove. why is that, do you think? >> we've come through one of the worst economic periods in modern history. when the president took office we were losing jobs at rate of 750,000 a month. we're now at a point we're gaining jobs at a rate of 250,000 a month. it's a swing of 1 million jobs.

>> this is about the deficit specifically. >> in order to get to the point where we are, it has required us to do things that you wouldn't have done under other circumstance. the recovery act that did involve some spending, having federal programs that automatically kick in, revenues were down because of economic growth was lower. we -- we share the concerns of the american people we need to focus on the deficit. we'll talk about the president's budget which is $4 trillion of deficit reduction which asks everybody to do their fair share. we have a plan. but it's not surprising to me that the american people are looking at the deficit today and saying they'd like some action. we agree with them. >> let me, before we get to that and it will be after the break, let me ask you about egypt. newt gingrich said in a recent speech that there are americans held hostage in egypt. we do know americans are not being allowed to leave because of the egyptian military government said it may want to prosecute them. they compared it to the iranian hostage crisis. what are you doing?

as far as the administration's concerned, is it all right for the egyptian government to be holding these americans inside the country? >> let's be clear. the situation is in egypt is quite serious. we have made clear, we're having conversations, general dempsey is there this weekend, it important to resolve this country to couldn't trip to compare this to the i rain yan hostage crisis does a disservice to americans in iran truly held hostage. this is a situation that can be resolved. there's time to resolve. our country's working very hard. >> are you close to getting them the of the country? >> i don't want to speak where efforts are going but all efforts are being made. >> more with jacob lew. later, rick santorum got a rousing reception at cpac but lost the straw poll vote to mitt romney. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares on facebook.

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>> we are back with white house chief of staff jacob lew. i want to put up for our views are what we know about some of the things that are coming out of this president's budget plan tomorrow and that is $350 billion in short-term job spending, $476 billion in spend on infrastructure, $60 billion for schools and retaining teachers, first responders. we just got finished talking

about the deficit and saw the low numbers of the approval numbers for the president on dealing with the federal deficit. this looks like another stimulus plan. >> this is a budget that takes both the short and the long-term view. i think that there's broad agreement from all of the commissions that were out doing work on the budget to most budget experts that, over the next period of time, we still need to pay attention to sustaining economic growth and creating jobs. that's why it's so important to pass the payroll tax before the end of february. it's why it's so important that we jump start our investment infrastructure. >> it takes a look at short and long term. long term $4 trillion of deficit reduction, adhering to the rules part of the budget agreement last year $1 trillion of savings in the annual appropriations. and has another $1 trillion of savings part of the august debt bill agreement. and there's $2 trillion of additional savings on top on of that. comes from very tough policies in almost every area, from mandatory programs to revenues. >> also comes from more

spending, some of the funding? >> the savings come from the tough decisions, the savings come from having a policy that's based on the principles the president outlined in kansas and outlined in the state of the union. >> the toughest cut? >> a lot of tough cuts ranging from consolidating field offices and closing them down, places like the agriculture department to consolidating training programs. >> does that sound like a tough consolidating agriculture department? >> i think when you look at $1 trillion of savings over ten years, that's a lot of money. $1 trillion doesn't have to come -- we have to make sure as we make reductions we do it in a smart way. we cut some things and increase other things. for example, while cutting things that we can do without, we're increasing what we put in over the period of time into research and development so we can build the economy of the future and make sure we have an economy that can last. >> do you think it looks like a stimulus plan? >> i think it's -- >> it's the sort of thing you certainly had. >> most americans understand a

crumbling infrastructure is not the way to build an economy that can last. we need to make sure we have a manufacturing base in the country. we need to make sure we have american workers with skills for the jobs. we need to make sure that we have an energy policy that will leave us in a place where we can generate our own energy and not dependent. need to have a policy true to american values and everyone needs to pay their fair share and have a fair shot. >> i want to read for viewers something harry reid, the democratic and majority lead, in the u.s. senate said, we do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year. it's done. we don't need to do it. talking about last year's two-year agreement and saying it's already done. this budget, i can assure you, you know, because you've been in this town for a long time, is going to be attacked as a political document. this is a budget that promises 2 million more jobs if it's passed. so that come september the president can go out there and say, if they'd only pass my

budget we'd have 2 million more job but was the darn republicans are standing in my way when in fact the democratic leader in the senate says we don't need a budge. let's be clear. what senator reid is talking about is a narrow point. in order for the senate to do its only work on appropriation bills they need to pass a certain piece of legislation which sets a limit. they did that last year. that's what he's talking about. he's not saying that they shouldn't pass a budget. but we also need to be honest. you can't pass a budget in the senate of the united states without 60 votes and you can't get 60 votes without the bipartisan support. unless willing to work with democrats in the senate harry reid is not able to get a budget passed. i think he was reflecting the reality of that that could be a challenge. but let's be chelear, there's te and desire to work together. we put a lot of things out there, ranging from authority to reorganize the government so we have a government for the 21st century, not 19th and 20th century, home financing proposal so americans, republicans, democrats alike can refinance

homes under water. there's a lot that we can and should do together on a bipartisan basis this year. >> last question, what's the economy going to look like in september? what will the unemployment rate be? >> we have been heartened by the economic news of last two, three months. >> falling? >> unemployment has been falling, job growth is strong. >> do you think it will continue to fall and be lower in september than now? >> i can't predict each month will be as good as last few but we're headed in the right direction. we need to make sure we don't do anything to get in the way. washington needs to get its work done. that's why the payroll tax needs to be extended on time without a lot of drama. we need to do our business in a way that doesn't create the uncertainty that did harm to the economy over the sum. >> white house chief of staff, jacob lew, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. after the break, the pot boils over. thousands of civilian deaths as the violence in syria escalate. disturbing images make clear the syrian regime is digging in.

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the government of syria is severely limiting foreign journalists access into the country. so it's impossible to verify details of what the u.n. secretary general calls the appalling brutality of the syrian government. what we know, we see through the eyes of syrians via the internet, through stepped up u.s. intelligence efforts. this reconnaissance satellite image dated february 6th, posted by robert ford on the embassy's facebook page. labels point to burning buildings, smoke, impact craters, syrian military and armored vehicles in the city of hop homs. other imagery declassified shows military movements towards homs, a city under siege. >> you see these images coming from homs, syria's third largest city, a city that i visited last

year, it was very prosperous. economic hub. and now you're looking at apartment buildings being blown up by artillery shells, bodies in the streets, people can't go out of their homes even to collect the bodies. children, women, killed. it's just horrific. it's repulsive. >> diplomatic efforts stalled at the u.n., sanctions have had no noticeable effect on the regime of al assad and cnn's barbara starr learns the pentagon's drawing up military options the president did not request, nor is he expected to. now what? senator joe lieberman is next. lemon burst, hm, cherry orchard, blackberry harvest... my daughter's grabbing some yoplait. pina colada, orange creme. i can't imagine where she is... strawberry cheesecake. [ grocery store pa ] clean up in aisle eight. found her! [ female announcer ] yoplait original. 25 flavors for you to love.

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splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. joining me now, senate homeland security and governmental affairs chairman, joe lieberman. thank you, senator. want to talk syria. the arab ministers are meeting in cairo now, saudi foreign minister according to one of our reporters there, has accused the syrian government of a campaign of mass cleansing to enforce its own authority and he has called on the arab league on arab ministers, to tighten sanctions and i want to quote this carefully, and opening up channels of communication with the opposition to offer, quote,

all kinds of help needed. is that a good sign? >> yeah, a good sign. it's a beginning. but there really needs to be more. before leaving that, let me say that the activity, the pro-activity of the arab league in this case, nas las in libya something significant. >> we have to have it, that's cover for anybody to do anything. >> and in previous situations, the arab league was much more restrained and self-protective. here, they're putting themselves on the side of freedom and against dictatorship. and it does, as you say, give us the credibility that it's not just the west coming in it's the arab league, gulf countries, et cetera. but we've got to do more than just begin to talk to the opposition in syria because the reality on the ground is, since the u.n. resolution was vetoed by russia and iran, the assad government has begun to kill its own people at -- with increasing frequency. hundreds since then.

i think it's time to try to help the brave syrian freedom fighters to carry out a fair fight. and i think it's time to give them help. medical help first, and then i'd give them training, i'd give them communications equipment, and then ultimately i'd give them weapons because -- >> from the u.s., are you talking? in what -- >> part of an international coalition since russian -- >> libya? >> since the russians and the chinese have vetoed u.n. action, we've got to form a coalition of the willing. and that will now include the arab league and the gulf countries and turkey. >> but for people did listen if you look at polling now about what the u.s. did in libya, which was not to commit a single ground force and take a backseat in the flyovers, even almost half of americans still didn't want us do that. >> yeah. >> so we're talking about an environment where people just don't see a need for the u.s. to get involved.

so, describe to me what is the strategic interest of the u.s. in getting involved enough to arm a friend, arm the enemy of a friend of russia and china. >> it's a very important question. look, go back to libya quickly. we got involved in libya to stop the humanitarian disaster and thanks to the courage of the freedom fighters in libya on the ground and the help we gave them and the air cover we gave them, they succeeded in overthrowing gadhafi. the truth is, our strategic interest in syria is even greater. if we can help the syrian -- >> so is the risk, is it not? the risk of involvement? >> i think we can limit the risk. i would never put american troops on the ground i don't think any other countries want troops on the ground about the people are forming the same militias that libyan people formed that ultimately with our help brought down gadhafi. if assad falls in syria, it is a

great moral and democratic victory for the people of syria, but it it is also a tremendous, strategic defeat for iran which is our enemy. >> is iran going to allow that? it seems like libya, everybody was against libya. he was, you know, just a sort of a live wire in the middle east. here now you have syria which has power in the middle east, friends in the middle east. don't you just light the fuse if the u.s. in any way gets involved in this? >> i think that our strategic interest in assisting people of syria overthrow assad is actually greater than our interest in what we did in libya. we went into libya for humanitarian, moral reasons. we did the right thing. we're always better when we do that. we did it with a lot of assistance from the arab world and from our allies in europe. but iran is the greatest threat to security in the middle east and in the world today. the biggest state sponsor of

terrorism. its only ally, iran's only ally, is syria. if assad is thrown over by his own people, it will be a tremendous strategic setback for iran. and a great victory for the rest of the people in the middle east and for us as well because obviously iran is our sworn enemy. >> any expectation at all because i've seen nothing from the administration that says they seem eager, willing, or even considering helping to arm under any umbrella, helping to arm syrian rebels? >> well, the encouraging news that is the pentagon is putting together plans to make that happen if the president decides to order it. but you know, we always use the phrase in regard to iran every option is on the table. in this case i would say, with regard to syria, america ought to take the position that every option is on the table except doing nothing because doing nothing means hundreds of more syrians are killed and it means that iran, which continues to

give assad the weapons with which he's killing his own people will achieve a strategic victory over us and all of the rest of the countries in the middle east who are their enemies. so i think it's time for the administration to act. good news is we're going to have allies with us, turkey, the arab league, and the gulf countries, and i think a lot of european as well. >> i've got 15 seconds, yes or no. you voted republican in the last presidential election for your friend john mccain. could you see your way clear to vote for a republican this time? >> it's possible but what i'm most likely to do, since i'm not running for re-election, enjoying not being an elected politics, is stay out of this one and vote like most people, privately. >> privately. i'll collect in with you later. thanks so much, senator joe lieberman. more on death of whitney houston. we have a haunting rendition of one of her top hits. but first, rick santorum joins us to talk about his battle with mitt romney over conservative credentials and and front-runner

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joining me now, republican presidential candidate, rick santorum, who is out in california where my best guess is you're collecting some money out there. so thank you for joining us at this very early hour, i know. >> you bet. >> you had a great first of the week with the sweep of three states. not such a great saturday. i found it surprising that in cpac, this collection of basically your base that has fueled your campaign, a collection of conservative groups, had a straw poll and they voted for mitt romney, 38-31%. what happened? >> well, you know, those straw polls, cpac, as you know, for years, ron paul's won those because he just trucks in a lot of people, pays for their ticket, they vote and they leave. we didn't do that. we don't do that. i don't try to rig straw polls. >> do you think -- >> i know there were -- >> do you think governor romney

rigged it? >> you have to talk to the romney campaign, how many tickets they buy. we've heard all sorts of things. but those straw polls, in my mind, you know, they were important last year when we weren't voting but states are voting right now. we had a great week where you had thousands of people vote, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousand vote, and we defeated governor romney by 30 points in state of missouri, almost 30 points in minnesota, and in the state where no one, the most recent poll the day before the election had us down 14 in colorado and our people turned out. we didn't pay them to turn out. they turns out because they were excited about our campaign. we defeated them in colorado. we feel very good going into michigan and arizona. we'll compete heavily in michigan and compete in arizona. we think this is a two-person race and we're focused on making sure that folks know we're the best al deterntive to barack obama.

>> we should first note mitt romney won the main caucuses where i know you didn't compete heavily or at all. but you mentioned twice that you didn't pay for votes in these caucuses. so i have to go back to, do you have any -- someone clearly tell you that they think mitt romney's team at least paid for folks to go and vote for him at the straw poll, and that's what you're saying? >> that's -- that's -- that's standard procedure at all straw polls campaign who want to win go out, provide free tickets for them to come and vote. there's nothing wrong with that. that's a strategy. we don't think that's good use of our resources and governor romney obviously, you know, may have a different idea. look, the best use of our resources is to go to michigan -- well, we're going to be in washington state monday, that's a super tuesday state. we're going to be in idaho tuesday. we're going to be in north dakota talking about energy and the importance of the keystone

pipeline, the importance of the oil in the balkans there, what we can do to reduce price of domestic fuels in the country to be more energy independent and speak to michigan, how we're going to get manufacturing and energy going in the economy so we can create opportunities for everybody from the bottom up, from the very poor to those who are already enjoying success in america. we want everybody to enjoy success. >> let me take a trip down memory lane with you and play a 2006 ad that you ran in ultimately a losing battle to keep your senate seat. let me play it. >> to get things done you've got to work together. i teamed up with joe lieberman to make college more affordable for low income families, barbara boxer and i wrote a low protecting open space. i'm working with hillary clinton to limit inappropriate material in children's video games. >> i want to pair that up with a statement with someone present at a meeting with you at cpac

where you assured them that you would not move back to the center were you you to become president of the united states. so, where is the rick santorum that paired up with joe lieberman, barbara boxer and hillary clinton? just won't be there if he becomes president? >> well, a lot of the things i was just talking about, i mean protecting kid on the internet is a conversation thing to do. hillary clinton came on our side on that. and the things i worked with joe lieberman. the same thing. these are things that we worked on that we could find bipartisan accommodations, open space was a very, very important issue in suburban philadelphia, as it is out here in california. and this was an opportunity for to really work with local communities who wanted to preserve that space particularly in urban areas. so again, this is -- these are not big government programs. this is actually working with local communities, working with libraries, working with parents'

groups, to make sure children aren't exposed to inappropriate material on the internet and schools. this is -- this is, again, consistent with values that i hold. >> okay. let me tell you another that came from the same era, 2006, this campaign. >> this paper, they say the real problem with rick santorum, he's too liberal. they didn't like my legislation calling for a raise in minimum wage. and the white house probably called me a lot of things but i fought their efforts to caught amtrak funding. >> if you should get to the white house, would you entertain raising minimum wage? would you continue to protect and raise funds for amtrak? >> well, on the issue of the minimum wage, if you go back and look at my record, i voted against the minimum wage increase many times but when the minimum wage gets to point where it true knea needs to be raisedo

support a minimum wage. i do not support what governor romney's suggested which is indexing the minimum wage. that's in a very bad idea that will lead to wage inflation. but when the minimum wage drops as the economy improves and inflation creeps up, to set a basic minimum wage at the federal level i've supported it throughout yes. i don't support anything in the minimum wage that would be an inflator of wages. as far as amtrak funding, i represent pennsylvania. that ad was run in philadelphia. that's an important piece of -- >> important amtrak play. >> economic viability. >> yeah. the economic viability of that very busy and congested corridor. what i have said it that look, we needs to look at all things in government. amtrak would be one within. i'm convinced now that amtrak is something that should not be funded at a federal level. we're in a different time between now and the economy of this country and the budget deficits. amtrak funding would be one of

those things that's just going to have to go. >> it's not a federal thing. i are l repeal -- you all hit him, and he was representing his state at the time. what's the difference here? >> well, i think there's a big difference between funding a program that's been funded like amtrak, which does -- look, to make the argument as i have and amtrak is a passenger rail service and that's in many respects like funding a highway system. that provides interstate transportation between the states and something the federal government does and the constitution to do so. as we've seen this week, when the government creates a right to health insurance, they create the right to be able to tell you how to exercise the provision of

that insurance as we saw with the catholic church. that's a very different thing than a transportation program. there are certainly legitimate arguments as to whether we should fund amtrak or not, but that is a different thing that a fundamental takeover of a sector of the economy. >> okay. senator santorum, i have to leave it there. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you, candy. and now a musical interlude. on this week's campaign trail, a look at the tunes selected by the candidates to accompany their comings and goings on the stage. we have our own theories on what the candidates want you to learn from their picks. in general, republicans go heavy on the country. with the words america, usa, main street, or working man goes to the head of the cue, and if someone could come up with a song about middle income tax payers, candidates would arm wrestle for the rights. first up, mitt romney and his jam kid rock's "born free."

♪ free, like a river raging strong, as the wind i'm facing ♪ >> mitt's musics cal message, kid rock said i could use this song. i am edgier than you think. rick santorum shakes hands to the tune of coby keith's "made in america." ♪ he's got the red, white, blue, flying high on a farm, semper fi tattooed ♪ >> in between those notes read santos message like this. i support american manufacturing, and i want to give a special shout-tout farmland, iowa, and the midwest. i'm looking at you. listening up at a gingrich event, you will hear brooks and dunn's "only in america." ♪ staring at the faces of the -- ♪ ♪ looking at the promise of the promise land ♪ >> this says, well, not much. gingrich really wanted to play "eye of the tiger" but the

author sued him. then there's ron paul. he had a song written just for him, ever the original. ♪ we're not going give up the fight ♪ ♪ ron paul ♪ start a revolution >> this is a song that screams i don't play by the rules, and it doesn't matter what the song says because i don't need a song to keep my crowd pumped. if you liked any of those tunes and you live in arizona, michigan, washington, or one of the super tuesday states, they'll be playing at a town near any the coming weeks. up next, a check of the top stories and the latest on the death of singer whitney houston. [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology

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time for a check of today's top stories. greece's parliament is voting on a package of austerity measures that will pave the way for a $172 billion bailout deal. the measure would mean a 20% cut in the minimum wage as well as higher taxes. greece's prime minister is warning that a rejection of the deal would leave the company bankrupt and out of the euro zone. an israeli air strike in northern gaza killed one person and injured two others. the israeli military said the strike was in response to attacks by hamas against communities in southern israel. tonight's grammy awards will pay tribute to whitney houston. the vice president of the

recording academy tells cnn of the tone of the show is being changed a bit to reflect on the singer's memory. among those participating will be singer and academy award winner jennifer hudson. thank you so much for watching state of the union. i'm candy crowley in washington. up next for our viewers here in the u.s. fareed zakaria "gps" but we will leave you with whitney houston and a haunting rendition of her hit "how will i know." ♪ hey, hey, hey, how will i know if he really loves me ♪ ♪ i say a prayer with every heart beat ♪ ♪ i fall in love whenever we meet ♪ ♪ i'm asking you because you know about these things ♪ ♪ how will i know if he's thinking of me ♪ ♪ i try to phone, but i'm too shy, can't speak ♪ ♪ falling in love is all bittersweet ♪ ♪ this love is strong, why do i