expect and rewards hard work. i don't think the american people expect anything less. what we do in the white house and washington to measure progress only by the number of bills we can pass through congress. we can do that, we can make progress. we saw bipartisan compromise on a budget deal, a very hopeful sign at the end of last year, and bipartisan majorities support the funding bill for the spending going forward for this fiscal year. that's positive progress and that's positive progress in congress, but the president is not going to do anything that's going to prevent him from doing his job. >> a clean shaven press secretary to the president of the united states, jay carney. thanks very much for joining us. was that a tough decision, getting rid of that beard? >> i couldn't compete with you, wolf, and i decided it was time to go clean shaven again. >> all right. you look mighty good. jay carney without the beard. thanks very much. we'll see what happens later tonight. i'll be back in a half an hour as our special coverage continues at the top of the

hour. right now, "crossfire" begins. tonight on "crossfire," the state of the union address. does president obama have the best ideas for getting you a better job or a raise? >> americans are tired of us squabbling. they want us to get things done. >> or do republicans have the stronger case for revving up the economy. >> we are not going to raise taxes. >> how will tonight's big speech affect the 2014 mid term election? the left, on the right s.e. cupp. in the "crossfire" representative of the democratic leadership and tim scott of south carolina along with representative steve israel who's leading the effort to elect more democrats to the house and representative greg walden who's leading the effort to elect more republicans. as we watch the state of the union speech, is there any hope for action tonight on

"crossfire." welcome to "crossfire" i'm dan jones on the left. >> i'm s.e. cupp on the right. in tonight's state of tfof the speech we should expect in a word, defines. he will say i have a pen and a phone, your services are no longer required. but he's been defiant for years blaming republican obstructionists and congressional destruction for getting in his way. remember, i will not negotiate. the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, and considering we recently got a bipartisan deal on a budget, monday's agreement on a farm bill and new movement on immigration reform, shouldn't the president applaud congress for its progress instead of vowing to work around it? >> you might -- he might defy some expectations tonight.

correspondent jim acosta has just gotten a segment from his speech tonight. what's it say, jim? >> reporter: i hope i don't have to respond to everything that s.e. said. >> please do. >> reporter: i'll let do you that, dan, exactly. the white house in the last few minutes has released excerpts of the president's state of the union speech. we obviously don't have the complete speech to read to you. going to what s.e. was saying a few minutes ago, the defines the president was going to use, the president might use the word determination to show action because of potential inaction up on capitol hill. let me read to you a quote from the president's speech tonight. it goes to this promise of more executive authorities -- more executive actions in the coming year. quote, what i offer tonight is a set of concrete practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. some require congressional action and i'm eager to work with all of you, but america, here's the key part, does not

stand still and, quote, neither will i. couple of other items to point out, we've learned in the last several minutes that the president will announce new retirement savings accounts that americans can put their money into out of their paychecks. the president will talk about that. he'll make an expassioned plea for immigration reform. he will not hammer republicans over the inability to pass immigration reform. he wants to keep some space there for republicans to bring something to his desk. >> s.e. and dan? >> great. it sounds like he might be defying some expectations already. >> we'll see. >> we will see. in the "crossfire" tonight we have haxavier bessera. big night for everyone. the town is buzzing. we know that the president is excited about the minimum wage increases. it polls really well. are you willing to support yourself the president tonight when he calls for the minimum wage for hard working americans going up to $10.10.

>> i think what he's decided to do is take a pen and make that decision by himself on federal contractors, which i think is bad because you cannot create an artificial floor for wages without the prices of whatever it's creating going up and technology then taking the place of some of those lower wage -- let me -- let me -- let me share this with you. when i worked at the movie theater i used to sell the tickets. because of technology and the higher minimum wage, technology now takes the place of that job. when you walk into the theater, you buy your own ticket through a computer. we should have a serious conversation about how we can help people re-establish their position. >> come on. are you saying you don't think that americans who work hard every day deserve a raise because of your experience with the ticket machine? >> i know you're a highfalutin fella and everything but the way that we help people get raised is by making sure they have better skills. >> minimum wage doesn't matter.

>> one of the reasons i have a skills effort that i'm working on, we can help people get the skills necessary so that they get the type of job that pays them more. >> you are way too smart for me. i'm so simple. are you going to support the $10.10 minimum wage for americans? yes or no? simple answer. >> i'm going to make sure that every american has better skills so they don't have to worry about the minimum wage, that they get to set a wage for themselves based on -- >> let me get the congressman in here. even if i agreed with the economics of raising the minimum wage, which i don't, it seems to me like a political gimmick that doesn't really address the gaping, glaring holes in our economic recovery, tax reform, entitlement reform, obama care. these things are costing us in the future billions. why is the president's big idea for economic recovery raising the minimum wage? >> if you're making about $15,000 a year, you've got a family, that's a big idea.

if you're trying to make sure that you don't have to leave an eight-hour job and then go to the food pantry so you can feed your family, that's a big idea. s.e., there are a lot of americans who are working every day very hard, not 16 and 18-year-olds selling tickets at a movie theater, who are trying to live off the minimum wage. it's time we gave people respect. we're rewarding work and say 23 you're going to work 8 hours a day, work a full day's work -- >> i'm glad you brought up young people because there's 16.3% unemployment rate among youth. you are making it harder for people to hire more of those young people by raising the minimum wage. >> s.e., that's the argument the conservatives always make. >> no, that's economics. >> by the way, every year we continue to see more and more people working and 8 million more americans working in the last four years. there are a lot of those folks who are making very small salaries. when we're just saying is let's reward work again. let's do what we did when my father was working. my father had a sixth grade

education, construction worker most of his life. he put four kids through college. >> i bet his boss -- shouldn't employers make the decision? >> no, his boss was working with his employees made the decision. he made a pretty decent salary. >> let me bring this -- >> hold on a second. here's what i don't understand. it seems to me that you guys don't think the minimum wage is a good idea. would you call for repealing the minimum wage? america's listening. are you -- >> here's what we know. here's what i'll tell you. mr. beserra has a stanford education and stanford law degree. when we put people on the path of getting a better education, we know they get a better wage. when they earn the skills necessary, something like the skills act, we know that they earn far more than the minimum wage. the conversation that we're having this year on the minimum wage is an election year conversation for one reason, because 3% of americans earn the minimum wage, half of those folks actually get a tip so they actually earn more than that. >> so they aren't minimum wage.

>> no, they don't need a raise. do you agree with that? >> let me finish. >> senator, $7.25 an hour. >> do you mind? i don't interrupt you. >> all right. go ahead. >> so if we seriously want to have that conversation about increasing people's take home pay, why don't we go to obama care where we see the 40-hour work week decimated. why not restore those 25% of people's pay in pursuit of a better life? >> i can't believe -- >> we can deal. >> obama care. >> let's deal with this. >> do it together? >> let's work on that law which has helped 12 million americans get health security but let's not deny to people a chance to say, i can live instead of having to go to a food pantry to feed the kids after putting in a full day's work. we don't reward work anymore. it's time we respected people who are willing to put in a hard -- >> i rode the buses a couple of weeks ago around my city to have

a serious conversation. what they did not ask for was a handout. >> that's all they wanted. >> let me explain how that works. if i just had access to more skills. if i had a better education. if you can help me find those opportunities to get a -- >> dad, my dad had a sixth grade education. >> okay. we can rival educations and who had less. let me move the conversation forward because i want to talk about what the president's definitely going to do in the state of the union tonight. as i mentioned, congressmen, farm bill, immigration reform, budget. we've seen progress in all of these issues despite the president. don't you feel a little dismissed when the president says essentially, i'm going to go around you guys? i mean, doesn't it seem like he's working around you instead of trying to work with you? >> s.e., you left out about probably 90% of his discourse, which was i want to work with congress, but what he said, which you've blown out of

proportion is, if congress cannot walk and chew gum, then i have to act. >> congress has proved that it can come together. congress has come together. >> i think the president is willing as on immigration. he's been waiting for the house of representatives to match the senate. he hasn't interfered because republicans have said let us do the work in the house so he's let the republicans try to work. so the president is prepared to work with congress, but every time congress falls on its face or as speaker boehner said is going to become a brick wall to the president's ideas, the president is saying i can't wait for republicans to decide they want to move, i'm going to take action. >> let's take a look at the definition of a brick wall. it's called the senate and harry reid's leadership. 200 bills passed the house and they can't find the light of day in the senate. seriously? >> fair enough. i want to give a mini thanks to you two. we will come back after these messages. i'm looking forward to continuing the debate.

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welcome back. our guests in the "crossfire" are in charge of guaranteeing their parties win the house this year. first we'll bring in john king. he's going to look at some of the stakes in the house races coming up in 2014. >> van, s.e., let me set the table. let's look at the house. one of the key dynamics as the president speaks tonight, can the democrats win back the house. are the republicans guaranteed keeping the house. democrats did quite well. i want you to pay attention to some of the circles i'm drawing. not drawing any particular districts. look at all the blue inside the yellow circles. this is 2009. this is what the house looked like. look what happened in the mid term in 2010. look at all that red. that's right after the president's election. that was the republican victory in 2010 which turned so many districts to the red and gave

the republicans the majority. let's blank that out. as we head into the election season, the mid term season and the president gives the state of the union, the republicans obviously in the majority, 234 seats. democrats in the minority, 201. democrats were optimistic the tide was turning. perhaps nancy pelosi could win the gavel back. people viewed this as a nonpresidential party meaning a republican year. let's look at 2014. most house seats and house districts are safe. we've assigned the seats to the parties. the 50 most competitive districts you see on the map. the blue are democratic, red are republican. if you take them out, john boehner needs only 8 of 50. look how easy it would be. just winning 8 of those 50 and john boehner keeps the speaker's gavel. republicans think they'll do better. here is why the hill is so steep for the democrats and nancy pelosi. of the 50 districts, she would

need to win 43. a lot of those districts are red republican districts in what shapes up to be a republican year. the wisdom now in washington is forget about the government shutdown, it is a republican year at the moment. democrats will tell you privately they expect democrats to make single digit gangs. van and s.e.? >> i like that map. >> thanks to john king or should i say, no thanks. >> don't blame the messenger. >> exactly. here's my view. i think to win big in 2014 obama has to go bik tonight. i've got a couple ideas. here's one. after bush crashed the economy millions of american homeowners were stuck with sky high mortgages. now we bailed out the big banks. we forgot about the homeowners. with one stroke of a pen the president could reset those housing bills to a fair rate. one stroke of the pen. lifting that burden would instantly boost the economy. here's a couple more owe dies. obama should lead a bipartisan charge to reform our massive out of control prison system.

we're locking up way too many people and wasting too much money. the other thing he should do is fight for a real fair trade bill and not this terrible, awful, desicable, disgusting trans pacific partnership which is going to shaft us worse than nafta. >> so do you like it or no? >> i don't like it at all. there's bold stuff he can do which would energize the economy and base. he has to do both for 2014. that's my view. you should be happy i'm frustrated with john's map. i'm going to get paint and change it. you, i think have probably more problems than you know. one of the big issues that will come up tonight is immigration. john boehner is finally willing to follow the president's leadership, he wants to give undocumented immigrants a legal pathway to stay here. how is that going to play with your party and your base? isn't immigration going to sink you guys? >> no, i don't think so at all because it's a federal problem that needs a federal solution. john boehner said we will move at the appropriate time, bill by

bill, issue by issue, transparent, a accountable. you have a chance to read the bill. it won't be a big bill. >> the big back breaker is can the millions of people who are here working hard every day get legal status to say? most americans say yes. your base says no. how will you deal with that? isn't that going to sink you? >> i'm always optimistic about these things, come on now. first thing you have to do is not repeat the mistakes of the simpson mezzoli bill. you never had security at the border. the second thing, never fixed the visa system. up to 40% of the people here undocumented overstayed their visas. that's why the president of ireland was raises the issue in march. >> we have to fix those? >> the support. >> if it's done right, absolutely. >> let me take this opportunity in case viewers missed it welcome congressman steve walden and greg israel. my question is for democrats

running in 2014, i imagine they will be watching tonight wondering what agenda items they will have to own and disown as they run on the campaign trail. we already know that vulnerable democrats in red states are not too keen on running alongside obama on every agenda item. are you coaching your democratic candidates in those red states to stand with the president on every issue? >> we're coaching them to be problem solvers. >> okay. >> we're coaching them to talk about solutions. we're talking -- we're talking to them about rejecting government shutdowns, rejecting big subsidies for oil companies and to embrace solutions that strengthen the middle class and create an economy -- >> like obama care? >> -- where everybody does well. let me talk about that. most americans do not want to repeal obama care and go back to insurance companies having free rein over your health care. they want it fixed and approved. i to not want it repealed. >> congressman, it's one thing

when kay haggan in north carolina doesn't show up for an event with the president. it's another thing when mary burke, who with the president when truly, she could benefit from some of that attention. what's that about? >> it is true that the president's numbers aren't where he would want them to be. but house republican numbers are a fraction of that. 13% job approval. if i wanted to run for re-election and my pollster told me i was at 13% job approval, i'd probably find something else to do with my time. >> fair enough. listen, let's talk about another issue i don't think we talk about enough. the last election, a million more people voted for democrats than voted for republicans nationwide. a million more. it seems though that you guys are comfortable with that and you've created this old strategy of keeping this kind of gerrymandered grip on the house. don't you think that the politics that you have to now put forward to hold onto the

house hurt new the national election on issues like immigration, et cetera? >> i think what americans want is washington to work. i think they want a more efficient government that the doesn't waste their money. i think they want to see a private sector economy that grows. i think they want things like the keystone pipeline. the president get it out and sign is the keystone pipeline and put 20,000 people to work in our trade unions building that pipeline. you don't want jobs? come on, 20,000 jobs. >> first of all, those numbers are quite inflated 37 it's actually 4,000. >> so you think 4,000 jobs isn't enough? >> i can give you 4,000 jobs without risking america's waterways. >> we need good paying jobs. that's the issue in obamacare. >> i've got a question. >> let me finish. if obamacare is the issue and the president is the issue, i hope my cloeg will have his candidates do what the chairman confident party ought to do and that is they all ought to run on obamacare. the old system was broken. we never had the opportunity to

offer a single amendment. >> go back to the beginning or go with obamacare. >> you had the opportunity for five years to offer an alternative. but the you have not. >> no, we have. >> the senate republicans offer add alternative and national journal's headline was you pay more. >> exactly. >> do you superior that? >> what i don't superior is the lie of the year that said if you like your insurance, you can keep it. >> the american public was misled. that's why the democrats in these districts will lose and they are running from obamacare. the biggest outside pac that steve gets help from tried to run an ad saying kirk patrick blew the whistle on obamacare. she didn't blow the whistle. >> what's so interesting about this whole obamacare discussion, now that you've got republican senators coming forward, their fixes are worse. there's is if you have a health care plan, we'll tax it. tax the plans that have never been taxed before. >> there's a tax on premiums. >> not on employers and worse

than that, and worse than that, they're going to say that women have to go back to being, what do you call it, a pre-existing women that women can be charged more. what are you going to do about that? >> it's not my fix. that's the senate plan. >> we're waiting for your fix. >> and we're waiting for your vision on how you grow a middle class. we're waiting for your vision on jobs. america used to be about big and bold. eisenhower, federal interstate highway system. man on the moon program. now the republican prescription for our economy, a pipeline. >> no, no. >> can't we do better than that? >> don't support the big government solutions. they don't trust obama on the economy and don't trust democrats. it's not us. it's the american people. they're not with you. >> congressman steve israel. i want to thank our guests steve israel and greg wal done.

>> on the ite, i'm s.e. cupp. stay tuned. more state of the union coverage with wolf blitzer coming up next. >> official kick off of cnn's state of the union begins at the top of the hour. our senior white house correspondent brianna keilar has exclusive behind the scenes details how the president is preparing john king will take a close look at which promises the president made last year, which ones were kept, which ones weren't. also will anderson cooper, jake tapper, the full resources of cnn, that's coming up next. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long. eat the 100% goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it.

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to the future," where we're going, we don't need roads. >> if anyone tells you that america's best days are behind her, they're looking the wrong way. >> the era of big government is over. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil. >> let's seize this moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more. union once more. >> this is cnn. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> we are counting down to one of president obama's most important speeches of the year. >> he is ready to make new props to the american people and he may provoke a new confrontation with republicans in congress. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> he's about to make his big

entrance. and the pressure is on. with control of congress up for grabs and the race for the white house around the corner, the president's time in the spotlight is the running out. >> this has to be a year of action. >> tonight is, barack obama faces the american people with the next two elections on his mind. >> my main message today is we're not going back. >> he's vowing to move forward on his own and side step republicans who stand in his way. >> it's time for the president to admit his policies are not working. >> after a year of showdowns and the obamacare backlash, an can america's leader get out of his second term rut. >> i am not a perfect man and i will not be a perfect president. >> this is cnn's coverage of the state of the union address. the republican response. and the issue shaping the battle for congress. his vision. their challenge. your future. the 2014 campaign is under way right now. >> we can say with