dr. akitomi often goes to visit junko and her family, even though he now works three hours away in tokyo. junko's life changed forever the day train # 5418 went off the rails. but she hasn't lost her artistic dreams. i've got good eyesight and i've got capable hands, so i would like to find some kind of job using my hands. i want to be an illustrator or something like that. she was my daughter but for 30 years we'd never really been that close. i've been given the chance to raise my daughter again, we can actually start again, i feel

that. i've started to notice what love really means. [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> bill: hey, good morning everybody. it is thursday, february 14. here we are on the "full court press" on current tv. coming to you all the way across this great land of ours and thursday, february 14. you know what that means. it is valentine's day. you have to admit republicans sure have strange ways of showing their love. they're showing their love for chuck hagel by filibustering his nomination. now they're showing their love for america's children by refusing to endorse universal preschool. their showing their love for workers by refusing to raise the minimum wage. they're showing their love for all americans by refusing to accept a reasonable compromise to avoid the sequester. in other words they don't love any of us. they hate us all! that's their valentine's day message. all right. we'll expand on that and a whole lot more on today's full court

press. but today, we get the latest, the current news update from lisa ferguson out in los angeles. good morning to you. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. the president is on his way to georgia this morning to talk about universal pre. doesn't is a proposal he unveiled in his state of the union address on tuesday saying he wants to ensure high-quality schooling for every 4-year-old in the country. today, obama is visiting a prekindergarten classroom at an early childhood learning center and then he's speaking at a community recreation center in georgia. later this afternoon the president has another google fireside plus hangout. it is a modern day spin-off of roosevelt's fireside chat. the president will talk more about his state of the union address and you can join him at the white house.gov the white house's youtube page. >> the proposed increase would take place over the next two years and would take the minimum

wage from $7.25 an hour up to $9. speaker boehner is saying that would cause more problem for the nation's unemployment and the reason why people have minimum wage jobs is because they come into the labor force with no skills. someone working a full time minimum wage job is only making $15,000 a year. that's barely above the poverty line and that's before paying taxes, before paying into medicare and social security. white house officials say raising the minimum wage would have no negative effect on the nation's unemployment and would give some 20 million americans a better income. more bill's up after the break. stay with us. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision.

the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. stop looking at car interiors. get inspired by other stuff. yep. yep. ok. sure. why not? woah. touchscreens. put that in your dash. now, luxury stuff. make your seats like that. that thing has wifi, why doesn't your car? you can't do that. ignore that guy. give it wifi. yes! make it fit 5 people. no, 5 actual sized people. give them leg room, good. destroy boring car interiors forever. and that's how you do it. easy. ♪ ♪

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: i love you i love you, i love you i love you i love you. okay. i'm done. the day's over. got that out of way. good morning everybody. great to see you today. on this valentine's day. thursday, february 14. and welcome to a special edition of the "full court press" here. we're going to spend the next three hours asking you what's the nicest thing you ever did to anybody on valentine's day and what's the nicest thing anybody has ever done to you. oh yeah? >> shoot me now. >> bill: you call with that, you'll never get on the air. good to see you this morning. it is a busy day here in our nation's capital. still wrapping up, the president's on the road. still selling now the -- his ideas from the state of the union to the american people. and congress here is trying to start to deal with them and they're still trying to handle

the chuck hagel nomination and the john brennan nomination and the jack lew nomination so there is a lot going on. a lot we have to cover. look forward to doing so over the next three hours with all of you. thanks for being part of the program. you can really be part of the program if you give us a call at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. and follow us on twitter. talk to us on twitter. comment. send us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook.com/billpressshow. also, the chat room is underway all across this -- everywhere in the country. people, "full court pressers," you'll want to be debating the issues, talking about the issues we're talking about on the air with your fellow listeners and your fellow viewers. go to, it is a lot of fun. go to current.com click on the chat room and you're in. happy valentine's day to team press here.

peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey there. >> bill: i had to put all of the flowers over to the side today. >> a lot of people. >> there's candy. >> bill: so many flowers when i walked in this morning and boxes of candy. from the team. phil backert's got the phones. it is a surprise for later in the show, is that it? >> yeah, of course. >> yeah, that's it. >> bill: okay. cyprian bowlding on the video cam. he always celebrates valentine's day. it was a story yesterday when cyprian got on the microphone for his rant. >> first time ever. >> bill: did we take it away from him? >> we should. >> bill: he can't call anymore so it's a beautiful day but it's also a scary day. there is another asteroid heading our way. this one is only 17,000 miles

away. >> it's close. >> bill: that is close. >> in space miles that's pretty close. >> bill: it's closer than the gps satellites are toate. this asteroid bearing down on us. scott hubbard -- >> actually, it is freaky if you think about it. >> bill: scott hubbard from stanford says fear not. >> the asteroid is not a threat to the earth. >> oh, good. thank you. >> bill: so what should we do about it? he says we should not do the bruce willis number. >> there have been lots of movies, of course, that say oh, yeah we'll send bruce willis and we'll blow it up with an atomic bomb. that's the wrong answer. >> armageddon is real. >> bill: armageddon is not the answer but what is the answer? hard hat.

>> look up. walk around looking up all day. >> bill: duck and cover. >> yeah. shield yourself. >> bill: pardon me. where is it supposed to hit? >> it's going to fly right past us. >> bill: oh, it is? 17,000 miles away. >> but you know, if the space wind just kicks up and it kicks it in the wrong direction boom! australia can could be gone. >> bill: can you steer it toward iran? what a line-up we've got for you today. david jackson from "usa today" will be joining us later already at work at the white house. sheldon whitehouse, new senator from rhode island just re-elected, will be here in studio with us. and we're very excited. we have a lot of, you know, top flight politicians and analysts and political commentators. we've never had a sports celebrity in studio today.

but he's here today. he is here today from the ravens. now wait a minute, i want to get my cheat sheet here. here it is. my cheat sheet. brendan ayanbadejo. >> you got it right! >> you got it, boss. >> bill: linebacker for the ravens going to be in. he raised a little dust last week when he said what we need is a gay jackie robinson in professional football so everybody can get over it. >> he's a super bowl champion. >> bill: absolutely. looking forward to that. he will be in with us in the studio as well. president obama says it is time to raise the minimum wage. guess what john boehner says. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> other stuff you need to know as you head out the door this morning, a big protest against the keystone xl pipeline in front of the white house yesterday resulted in 48 people

getting arrested. politico reports that robert f. kennedy jr. actress daryl hannah bill mcgibbon and leaders of the sierra club were among those locked up for attaching themselves to the white house gate. this was the first officially sanctioned act of civil disobedience that the sierra club has ever participated in. they've been around 120 years. >> bill: they had that all organized yesterday. remember the last time, i was there for the last one. i wasn't there yesterday. they had that sort of fake pipeline that they surrounded the entire white house grounds to make the point about the keystone pipeline. it is still out there being reviewed. still a bad idea. they're still opposing it. good for them. >> you didn't get arrested. >> bill: did not. >> floyd landis, a former professional cyclist who admitted to doping is getting back on his bike but in an amateur fashion only. he's telling "usa today" that pro cycling is "an organized crime and he wants no part of

it." he hasn't raced professionally in years and never wants to again. he just wants to ride for the fun of it. he's organizing an amateur bike race in new york where no pro cyclists will be allowed to participate. >> bill: i think organized crime is a little heavy but we do know that these bikers now they're all doping. >> i love this story. a disgraced reporter who resigned from the "new yorker" magazine for plagiarizing work -- >> this is insane. >> he resigned for plagiarizing. he was paid $20,000 this week to give a speech about plagiarism. politico reports jonah lehrer gave a look at the knight foundation in miami. he reportedly did apologize for lying in a book he wrote about bob dylan and in a blog post. he's working to restore his name and teach others about it. >> bill: they pay him $20,000. who says crime doesn't pay? >> there are reporters out there today who work their asses off

and are crushing it. they don't get paid $20,000 a year. >> bill: exactly. >> he gets to make stuff up and go and talk about it. >> bill: get rewarded for it. the knight foundation. they should be shut down. for paying that money. outrageous. all right. yes, you know, the state of the union, great speech. great job. laid out a very bold agenda in great specificity and coving the entire waterfront. but you know, one problem with having so much in there is that it's hard to focus on any particular part, right? so we wanted -- folks had two particularly good ideas that the president had. the first one is just something that is long, long overdue on this country and that is raising the minimum wage here tuesday night, president obama. >> obama: tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full

time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. [ applause ] >> bill: democrats applauding. of course, republicans did not. the minimum wage is stuck where it was in 2009. at $7.25 an hour. that's insane! by the way i just want to point out, it went up to $7.25 in 2009 because of legislation -- they always do it in phases whenever they raise the minimum wage. boom, boom boom. but that legislation was signed by george w. bush. so republicans raised it when they were in charge. when they had their guy in the white house. at $7.25 an hour, if you figure two weeks unpaid vacation, a person working full time on the minimum wage is making $14,500 a year which is below the poverty level. i mean that's crazy trying to raise a family, trying to

survive on $14,500 a year, it is impossible. the president wants to raise it to $9. by the way earlier he had proposed i think during the campaign, raising it to $9.50. i don't know why he went down to $9. tom harkin, senator from iowa told us yesterday on our show that he has legislation which would raise it to $10.10 an hour. i saw a poll yesterday 73% of the american people support raising the minimum wage up to $10 an hour. so i think the president is under -- undercutting it here a little bit. we could go hire. at least we ought to go to $9 and raise the minimum wage. you would think this is a no-brainer. how can you possibly expect people, again, to make it or to ever reach the middle class right, at $7.25 an hour? and yet they're already at it and john boehner leading the

pack yesterday with the oldest, most tired argument against the minimum wage ever. >> when you've raised the price of employment, guess what happens. you get less of it. at a time when the american people are still asking the question where are the jobs, why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people. >> bill: that is just total b.s. i gotta tell you it just really burns me because they've been making this argument for so long. i remember the very first time i heard it. i was working for governor jerry brown his first time around. i was a very young man working his office in the governor's office. his policy director. and i heard this argument. at first i thought oh, we can't raid the minimum wage because we don't want to put people out of work. i looked into it. we got all kinds of experts up to sacramento. it is just not true. the chambers of commerce always make that argument. big business always makes that argument. people who are making a million

dollars a day make that freakin' argument that somebody else has to work at $7.25 an hour. it is not true. good for media matters. yesterday and thinkprogress too, both were all over this. they put out several papers, refuting that argument. let me just show you these are three recent studies that prove just the opposite. this is from media matters. march 2011, center for economic and policy research. raising minimum wage "no discernible impact on employment". 2010 institute for research on labor and employment. their finding no detectable employment losses from the kind of minimum wage increases we've seen in the united states. and the last one they cite,

economic policy institute. this is just last year. in terms of youth unemployment. raise the minimum wage for teenage workers "warnings of massive teen job loss due to minimum wage increases simply do not comport with the evidence." all of the evidence is on the other side. first of all it's the humane thing to do. it is the decent thing to do. it is the moral thing to do. not to force people to continue to live in poverty. but this idea that doing so is going to cost jobs is simply not true. don't buy it. but republicans just stick to that. it is one more case -- so, i got into this yesterday with a talk show host, keith larson down in charlotte, south carolina, who is a blooming idiot. i didn't realize until i got on the air with him who said this is not true. it's going to cost jobs and i can tell you because i used to work at burger king and one time i was working at burger king and i lost my job and it is because they raised the minimum wage.

you hear idiots like that. you can do an anecdotal thing that somebody flipping burgers might have lost their job but nobody can prove it just isn't so this is because we raised the minimum wage. if we want to condemn people to live in poverty 15 million american workers would be lifted up above the poverty level if we raise the minimum wage at least to $9 an hour. it is right thing to do. and it just shows again that republicans, i hate to use a broad brush but it's true. they don't give a rat's ass about working families in this country. 1-866-55-press. by the way, congress has done this before. i either didn't know it or forgot it. but "new york times" reports this morning back in 1971, congress passed this, walter mondale was the author of it. it passed in congress and richard nixon vetoed that

legislation. so congress can do it in 1971. they sure as hell can do it in 2013 and they should. what do you think. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

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alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know

that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour here. the "full court press," talking about president obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.

just a quick clarification, i had a brain farther or something at the end of the last segment. obviously the last time they raised the minimum wage was 2007. and it went up gradually to where it got to where it is today at $7.25. in 2009. but it hasn't bubbled since. when i mentioned the 1971, i was thinking ahead to the next hour. that's the last time congress passed legislation to provide youthful preschool. which is something we'll talk about later. the minimum wage, it is important to note also, what the president said is that we should not get in this box of having to decide and have this fight and fight these phony arguments year after year after year. what we ought to do is tag it, increase the minimum wage to the cost of inflation. and the cost of cost of living. and mitt romney, in fact, supported the same idea.

it makes total sense. what's happening? >> a lot of comments on twitter. you can find us at bpshow. karen says the sad part is that waitresses and waiters don't even get minimum wage. it varies from state to state but in michigan, they get a little over $2 per hour plus tips. ryan says if they raise the minimum wage, i would get a raise and i know it would go immediately back into the economy. it is a stimulus package! >> bill: and the president made this point. you give more people more money in their pocket to spend they'll spend it. >> sean russell says thinks of all of the money mcdonald's makes and they can't pay $9 an hour while the ceo and board members get millions. >> bill: mel from port st. lucie, florida. >> caller: good morning. love your show. they're republicans, they will never do anything to help bring people up out of poverty. they're on vacation. they will never vote to help -- you can see it, especially if

obama said it, that's the end of it. >> bill: right. those people who are on the lower rungs of the ladder, right, they don't care about. the only ones they care about are the people already at the top of the ladder and they just want to give them more and more and more tax benefits more and more opportunities, more and more advantages and screw the middle class. then screw those who are yearning some day to become members of the middle class. way to start it is to raise the minimum wage. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney.

(vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

>> announcer: chatting with you live at current.com/billpress.

this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: how about it. 33 minutes after the hour. here we go with the "full court press." on this thursday, valentine's day. 2013. good to see you today. good to you have with us. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and brought to you today by the communication workers of america. good men and women of the communication worker's union under president larry cohen. they are the union for the information age. right on top of all of this high tech revolution. you know it. find out more about their good work at cwa-union.org. one concrete idea and important idea in the president's state of the union address. republicans already vying the line repeating the line of the chambers of commerce and the business we've heard for years and years. it is simply not true. they're putting out there if you

raise the minimum wage, it will cost people jobs. your comments at 1-866-55-press. get back to your calls and your online comments in just a second. first a big shout out today to melissa and why? because melissa is one of those listeners who has heard us talk about some -- one option, if you are running out of money at the end of the month and looking to make extra income from home, you're disappointed your job every day takes you away from home and the kids, melissa heard us talk about it. she looked into incomeathome.com. signed up. and today she says she has doubled what she was able to earn in her old job. not only that, she sets her own hours, home for her kids and loves earning money from her own kitchen table. way to go, melissa. who's going to be the next -- get the next shout out? could be you. if you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck, sweating job security and working long hours at a job you don't like,

keeping you away from home, check out incomeathome.com. they want you to. it is incomeathome.com. s they incomeathome.com. phones very busy. so are twitter and facebook. >> lots of stuff going on out there. >> this is breaking news early this morning. you remember the summer olympics. the south african runner, oscar businessorious, they called him the blade runner because he had two prosthetic blades that helped him run. >> bill: incredible speed. >> incredible speed. >> bill: we were pointing out it was not fair to human runners for him to have that advantage. >> a very, very bizarre story coming out of south africa this morning. his girlfriend was shot and killed at his home and police have arrested oscar businesstorious, the blade runner and charged him with murder. there are still a lot of things unclear. it happened early this morning.

but it looks like he thought that there was an intruder in his home and he pulled out a gun and shot his girlfriend who he thought was an intruder. he has been taken into custody arrested, charged with murder. >> bill: so maybe he won't be competing in the olympics. >> i don't think we'll be seeing him in the olympics. no. >> bill: whoa. >> really quickly. we were talking about minimum wage. whether or not bringing it up to $9 an hour is enough. how does that sound to you? on twitter, we're tweeting at bpshow singing says make it $15 an hour. that's an idea. >> bill: i would go as high as you could possibly go. again, tom harkin yesterday criticized the president for not going high enough. >> razor says how about we give boehner and his ilk a maximum wage. >> i would like to see boehner live three months on minimum wage. >> bill: i would like to see him live a day on minimum wage.

they could never do it. that's what's so hypocritical about all of this. all of these people who oppose the minimum wage are making $250,000 $500,000 a year. >> the president did a smart thing in the state of the union where $7.25 an hour is one thing. when you really stretch that out and you say -- if you're making minimum wage and you're working 40 hours a week and you take two weeks vacation, you make -- >> bill: unpaid. >> unpaid vacation. >> bill: $14,500 a year. >> a year. $14,500 a year. >> bill: some people are making that an hour. jodie is out in mesa, arizona. hi jodie. >> caller: hello, bill. i would like to say thank you for this opportunity. basically, my first question is not so much the evil corporate ceos that make millions of dollars so we should punish them. i'm more thinking about these small mom and pop businesses like a restaurant that maybe has

only four waitresses and a couple busboys. if those waitresses -- let's say they've been there and now they make $9 an hour starting from $7.25. then we bring in a busker at $9 an hour, what do we say to the other waitresses? >> bill: well, i think the other waitresses would say welcome and we're glad that you've got it better off than we had. that's what it is all about. i don't begrudge the fact that my kids have opportunity i didn't have when i was growing up. that's what america is all about. we're supposed to make things better and make things fairer. i think if you polled those waitresses, they would not say we want the new employees in here to have to live in poverty and try to raise their families in poverty, jodie. that's not a problem for me. barbara in -- is it goochland

virginia. hi barbara. >> caller: how are you? >> bill: good, how are you? what do you think? >> caller: i'm thinking yes, we should raise the minimum wages. didn't boehner say himself he grew up in poverty? >> bill: boehner talks about the fact he grew up working in his dad's bar and sweeping floors and ya know, right. >> caller: maybe, you know, if some of us -- we poor people are the ones who put the rich people where they at. if it wasn't for us working for them, they wouldn't be up there collecting all of this big bucks. >> bill: you got that right. absolutely. they depend on us, right? they depend on that kind of labor. they depend on people who are doing the menial jobs, if you will and getting -- and getting a very low wage. but at least it ought to be enough of a wage to make a living on, right? a living wage, they call it.

>> caller: that's right. we may as well go ahead and get the elephant out of the room. the reason why the republicans are not agreeing on anything that president obama said, they won't even respect him by calling him president. it is obama. but the reason why they don't do this is because of the color of this man's skin. >> bill: well, that's a lot of it, barbara. i repeat what i said earlier. they weren't opposed to raising the minimum wage when george w. bush was in the white house. they didn't raise it high enough but the reason it is at $7.25 today is because in 2007, george w. bush signed a bill, passed by the congress which raised the minimum wage. so it is okay for george w. bush but for some reason, not for barack obama. stuart's down in st. petersburg, florida. good morning. >> good morning, bill. i don't really see a big issue with the raising of the minimum wage. but i will let you know the bureau of labor statistics.

70% of people who make minimum wage is 25 years and younger. >> bill: okay. >> caller: now, what i heard someone say why not raise minimum wage. the thing about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, just let's say we're going to make it that much. >> bill: the president is only -- the president is only saying $9 so i think it is a long time before we get to $15 but go ahead. >> caller: i've heard someone -- you said why not make it up to $15. >> bill: who am i. peter said it. i said i would go along with that but the official on the table is $9, stuart. i just want to make sure. >> caller: right. but with the $9, even the fact is that the ones it is going to affect is people 25 and younger. 70% of them. >> bill: let me ask you this, stuart. so what. >> but so what. how much is -- a living wage.

no one could answer what should a living wage be? >> bill: well, it should not be living in poverty. i would start there. >> caller: okay. but if we're going to raise it to the minimum wage of poverty what is the next poverty level going to be at? >> bill: i don't know. i don't know all of the factors that go into determining the policy level. stuart, i've heard that argument before too. i appreciate the call. but look, so these people are under 25, right? that means they're in college. they've got college to pay for. there are a lot of people who are married at that time and already have kids at that time and already starting their families at that time. the fact that they're under 25, so where do you start? you start treating people decently when they're 30? or 35? i mean no. if they're working the job they're doing the job i don't care, as long as they're old enough to have the job, we're not talking about child labor i

think they ought to be paid a decent wage. they should not be forced forced to live in poverty. there are 15 million american workers whose income would go up if we raised the minimum wage. that's according to the paper that the white house put out yesterday. whether those 15 million people are 21 or 41 or 61, i don't care. pay them a decent wage. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." out for us. going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but

i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: how about it. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. busy days for the white house press corps this week with the state of the union. always a lot of activity leading up to the state of the union. the speech itself and then all the aftermath as the president hits the road to sell his program and congress starts dealing with it and the white house puts out position paper after position paper after position paper. fact sheets explaining everything the president was talking about. it is enough to drive somebody like david jackson crazy. he covers the white house for "usa today." good friend of the program. david, early good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. you're right. there is an awful lot of stuff this year. >> bill: the paper flow has been incredible. >> it is by far the biggest i've seen it in quite some time. certainly the biggest of the obama administration. he's got a ton of stuff in here. >> bill: the state of the union contains so many proposals on so many different fronts. what is the word at the white

house? do they consider the speech success? got the message out and -- >> i think they were pleased with it. they feel like it put obama on the side of the middle class and put obama on the side of most -- at least american voters on many of these issues. so whether it's raising the minimum wage or gun control or immigration, i think they're pretty pleased. the question is how is all of this going to play out in congress. there's so much stuff. we've got so many other pressing emergencies coming down on congress, it is hard to see how some of this stuff gets passed. >> bill: in fact, several stories. there are this morning in "the washington post" and "new york times" on some of the key measures, minimum wage, you mentioned one universal preschool, both of those reporters are saying today are doa in the congress. >> it is hard to say. one of the things the president tried to stress is none of the stuff will add to the budget deficit. i don't think anybody believes that especially the republicans.

i think that's part of the problem he's got. his agenda was crowded before the state of the union. got the sequester hitting on march 1st. $85 billion in automatic cuts. the continuing resolution that funds the government expires on march 27th so march is going to be an incredibly busy month anyway. you had immigration gun control and now to put on top of that, a minimum wage increase and universal preschool that's an awl big load for any congress to carry, especially one that's split between the parties. >> bill: the president also talked about jobs and particularly getting jobs started in the manufacturing sector in various ways by these manufacturing hubs he called them by getting rid of tax breaks for taking jobs overseas and giving tax advantages to people who are bringing jobs back into this country. >> some of that stuff he can do on his own. >> bill: i was going to ask you that. >> he already has the money for it. some of that stuff can be called from the current stimulus program. money still being spent off of that. >> bill: so he did at one

point, he used that phrase in the speech. i forget exactly what program he was talking about. maybe climate change. if you don't do it, i will. defiant. >> climate change, he mentioned the speech. didn't mention it maybe as prominently as in the inaugural address. he's planning to use a lot of executive actions on climate change. >> bill: so he's been taking -- he's taking these issues now on the road one at a time. yesterday again was jobs, manufacturing. what is it today? do we know? >> education. he's going to an early childhood learning center in decatur georgia, near atlanta. he's going to talk about his universal preschool program. and i was -- i didn't realize this but reading gayle collins in "the new york times" this morning, david, if you've seen it legislation to provide universal preschool actually passed the congress in 1971. walter mondale was the author of it. richard nixon vetoed it.

so i thought it was a bold, new idea for the president but actually -- >> there's nothing under the sun, bill. >> bill: we're learning that. >> what's old is new again. >> bill: it seems to me again it is a no-brainer. republicans say no no, brainwashing our kids maybe. the federal government should be involved. >> i guess more the money thing bill. there isn't a price tag put on this that i know of. it is part of the problem. people feel like giving the sequester, it will be hard to put something like that online financially. >> bill: is the white house still confident that they can get chuck hagel john brennan and jack lew all confirmed? >> if they can ever avoid the holes. that gets into senate rules which i'm not familiar with. got rand paul saying he was going to put a hold on hagel and brennan. harry reid said he's not going to recognize the hold. i think it has to be worked out behind closed doors on capitol hill. my understanding is they're

hoping for a hagel vote tomorrow. i know brennan has the votes on the floor to win. it is a question of when it comes up for a vote. >> bill: senator feinstein announcing yesterday or this morning that she is scheduling a vote on john brennan in the senate intelligence committee but not until they come back. they're out next week. for whatever reason, right? valentine's day. i don't know. that's presidents' day week, of course. the week after that, when they come back that she will -- she'll schedule a vote. and then tomorrow, the president is going to -- >> chicago. >> bill: and then to florida too, i believe. >> he's taking a little presidents' day get away in florida over the weekend. before then, he's going to chicago. the topic there is what he calls the ladders the middle class the various programs to help get people jobs and better-paying jobs but i think he will also make a big pitch for his gun violence package in chicago as well because i think the place he's going to is not far away

from where that young teenager was killed. >> bill: to go to chicago not talk about the gun violence in chicago, they've got to do that. >> i think that's what most of us are looking for, the white house is downplaying that part of it. but he's certainly going to talk about it. i think that's what's going to get most of the attention. >> bill: i didn't know about -- is the first family going down for the weekend in florida? >> that was my understanding but the announcement only references the president. not clear to me. she and the girls have gone skiing over presidents' day weekend in recent years so maybe that's what they're planning to do. i don't know. >> bill: do we know where he's going? some resort? >> not sure. somewhere in palm beach. i think it's known but it is all off the record. i think it's palm, somewhere in the palm beach area. >> bill: i've been told there are some golf courses in florida. >> do a google map search. >> skeet shooting ranges down there? >> not that we know of. i don't think he's done with the skeet shooting. i do suspect some golf is going

to be involved this weekend. >> bill: you bet. hey, david thanks so much. as always for joining us this morning. >> thank you, bill. appreciate it. >> bill: david jackson covers the white house for "usa today." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right. senator sheldon whitehouse coming up later in the program as well as super bowl champion from the baltimore ravens,

brendon ayanbadejo. marco rubio man our listeners and viewers aren't crazy about him. mary nelson says as he told more huge lies, i could see his ears getting bigger and bigger. just because rubio is hispanic doesn't mean all of us hispanics support him. and adam milken says i thought marco rubio sucked. he sucked his teeth. he sucked his tongue. he was sweating like albert brooks in broadcast news.

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>> bill: good morning everybody. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours. from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c., this is thursday, february 14. it is valentine's day and republicans sure have a strange way of showing their love, don't they? they show their love for chuck hagel by filibustering his nomination. they show their love for american workers by refusing to raise the minimum wage. show their love for america's children by refusing to support universal preschool and show their love for all americans by refusing to compromise in order to avoid the sequester. in other words they don't love us at all. they hate us all. unless you're multi-millionaire of course. hey, we'll talk about that and a

whole lot more here on today's "full court press." but first, we get the latest. today's current news update with lisa ferguson out in los angeles. hi lisa, good morning. >> hey bill, good morning everyone. senate democrats are looking for the 60 votes needed to stop the filibuster over chuck hagel's nomination as secretary of defense. republicans refuse to allow a vote wednesday staging a fill filibuster over the president's cabinet appointment for the first time -- excuse me, only the third time in american history. the first came in 1987 with president reagan's appointment of c. william of secretary of commerce. the only other in 2006 with president bush's nomination of dirk kempthorne for department of the interior. majority leader harry reid is calling the filibuster a shame. he's already filed a motion to end it and said the senate will vote friday to put a stop to the debate. the president is gearing up with another battle with senate republicans over his latest

nomination to the national labor relations board. on congress's holiday break last year obama chose two recess appointees former democratic labor department official sharon block and former democratic union lawyer richard griffin jr. just last month a federal appeals court ruled the appointments violated the constitution. now the senate must confirm the two if they wish to stay in their position. and nielsen has just released its ratings of obama's state of the union. 33.5 million americans tuned in making for the lowest turnout actually since bill clinton's final address in 2000. more bill is up next after the break. stay with us.

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this is the "bill press show." >> bill: happy valentine's day, everybody. and welcome to this special valentine's day edition of the "full court press." thursday february 14. great to see you today. thank you for joining us. we love you we love you we love you we love you so there you go. that's your valentine's day gift. >> spare me. >> bill: where are my pro flowers? where are my shari's berries? >> i'm sure they're on their way. >> bill: great to see you. thanks for joining us again. we look forward to hearing from you about the issues of the day. the republicans putting a hold, trying to put a hold on chuck hagel's nomination. harry reid says uh-huh, you're not going to get away with that. we're going to have a vote on friday. so much for jim inhoff and lindsey graham. president obama on the road yesterday down in asheville talking about jobs, talking

about increasing and rebuilding america's manufacturing base. and more and more people talking about his proposal to provide universal preschool for all american kids and that's how we'll start off this second hour together this morning. and get your comments on that. we've got lots to talk about and lots that you are going to want to weigh in on and sound off on. you can do so by giving us a call again at 1-866-55-press. we tell you at the top of each hour how to join us. also on twitter love hearing from you. our twitter followers base keeps growing every day. it is at bpshow. on facebook, follow us on facebook. sign up as a friend on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. peter ogborn and dan henning heading up the show. we're from the elizabeth warren wing. phil backert's got the phones.

cyprian boldting, our videographer on the video cam this morning. president obama is on the road -- was on the road yesterday. he will be on the road again today to decatur georgia. then on friday, he will go to chicago and then down to west palm beach florida where he's going to spend the weekend. but yesterday in asheville north carolina, one of our favorite spots on the entire planet. >> one of his favorite spots too. >> bill: yes indeed. he was there talking about manufacturing, visiting a plant a canadian company which located a manufacturing plant here in the united states. and the president saying, you know, this is what we need to bring jobs back to this country. >> obama: i believe we attract new jobs to america by investing in new sources of energy and new infrastructure and the next generation of high wage high tech american manufacturing. i believe in manufacturing. i think it makes our country

stronger. >> bill: we've got to get our manufacturing base back. right now, the only thing we make i think in this country really are cars. we have wind turbines and solar panels and bringing some of the manufacturing back. the president said we also should reward companies that bring jobs here and penalize companies under the tax code to companies that take jobs overseas. >> what i'm proposing is we reform our tax code, stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas. reward companies that are creating jobs right here in the united states of america. >> bill: makes all kinds of sense to me. so coming up today senator sheldon whitehouse from rhode island will be in the studio with us. as will salon's political reporter alex sykes wald. i'm excited for the first time today, we have a major sports celebrity, a super bowl champion from the baltimore ravens,

brendon ayanbadejo -- >> ayanbadejo. >> bill: ayanbadejo. >> by the time he gets here, you'll have it. >> bill: brendon ayanbadejo will be here. very exciting. what's wrong? why should there be any controversy at all about every 4-year-old in this country having access to preschool? why not? but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this thursday. the video of senator marco rubio's water bottle moment in his state of the union response went viral yesterday and the folks at poland springs water company are very happy about it. the hill reports the company's ceo said everyone gets thirsty and we're glad poland spring was close at hand. it is not the first time poland spring has been involved in a state of the union speech. fdr drank out of a poland spring

bottle in one of his state of the union speeches. >> bill: a plastic bottle? i doubt it, at the time. >> i don't know if it was plastic or not but it was a poland spring water bottle. >> bill: the way marco rubio did it -- >> a lot of people give speeches. on camera. >> bill: yeah. >> politicians. they often have to stop and take a drink of water. you're right. it was so weird. >> bill: i had this big debate with a friend of mine. what was wrong with what he did? it looked amateur hour. all of our guests here, you'll see, you've got your tea. i've got my tea. guests will have their -- coffee or their tea. you have it right in front of you. president obama always has a glass of water on the podium. if you need it, sip. you stop but you don't -- do i have to do my marco rubio imitation again? no. >> and just another day another

celebrity at the white house yesterday. but this one was a very young one. 9-year-old wallace, star of the movie -- was i anywhere close? she was the star of the movie "beast of the southern wild" joined first lady michelle obama for a black history month student workshop yesterday. wallace is the youngest actress to ever get an oscar nomination. she's up this year for best actress. mrs. obama called the movie one of the most important and most powerful films put out in a long time. >> bill: 9 years old. she gets an oscar at 9. what do you do for an encore? >> another day another lawsuit against facebook. this one for the social network's like and share buttons. abc reporting a company that holds the patents of a deceased dutch programmer says this man created way back in the 1990s is what the basis is for the technology that the like and share buttons utilize on facebook.

mark zuckerberg started what would eventually become facebook in 2003 well after that technology was developed. no word on what the company is seeking. no response from facebook yet. >> bill: everybody who is accusing mark zuckerberg of stealing their ideas -- >> i will use a line from the social network the movie if he didn't invent the facebook like button then he would have invented the facebook like button. >> bill: looking at the state of the union, you know, it was -- i thought superb job. it was a very bold and aggressive agenda that the president set forth. with tons of great ideas in it. and part of the problem with having so many good ideas in one speech is that some of them -- some of the good ideas get lost, you know. you can't see the forest through the trees or you can't see the trees through the forest is what i'm trying to say.

some of those things the president proposed are going to be controversial, not easy. but some of them it seems to me ought to be automatic. you know like no-brainers. we talked about one in the last hour. raising the minimum wage. i mean come on. why do we have to have this battle every two or three years. it is just outrageous the minimum wage is stick at $7.25 an hour forcing people who work at the minimum wage to live in poverty. because as we pointed out that means that they get a total of -- a grand total of $14,500 a year. yeah you try raising a family on that little money. well, here's another one. that i think ought to be just automatic. why even debate this. the president talking tuesday night about preschool education. >> obama: i propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in america.

[ applause ] >> bill: universal preschool education. i don't think there is any investment that we can make that would be a wiser investment in terms of the future of this country, in terms of our ability to compete economically in the global market than making sure that every one of our kids has -- the best possible education and if you really want that, you've got to start them as early as you can. at preschool at the age of 4. there are more and more states that are doing that but there are millions and millions of kids who just don't have access to it because they either don't qualify or head start's not available. or that they can't afford a private preschool. look, our grandkids go to preschool up in bend, oregon, down in inverness california, a

great little school called huckleberry in inverness california. that's great. they get a lot out of it, right? but a lot of kids don't have those opportunities. i saw peter your kids. >> both of my kids, one in preschool right now. and my older son who turns 8 this weekend he had a lot of -- he was a little slow with his development. and we said we want to put him in preschool and start interacting with other kids and skyrocketed! just really took to it. it is an important thing. it really sets the scene for what you have coming up for that next big step of school. >> bill: so nationally, here's where we are today. nationally 28% this is new york times this morning. 28% of 4-year-olds are enrolled. only 28% are enrolled in state-financed preschools. but availability of these programs varies significantly state by state. so here are the states with the

top enrollment of kids in preschool. it is interesting. florida, 76%. vermont, 74% of kids. oklahoma 73.5%. georgia, 59%. west virginia, 58. wisconsin, 55. iowa 52. texas, 51. new york 45. texas ahead of new york. arkansas 44. but the average again is 28%. and interestingly enough, we make a lot of fun of alabama right, on this program. >> we do. >> bill: the republican governor of alabama is a huge proponent of universal preschool. he's called for a $12.5 million increase more than 60% in the state's preschool budget but they're starting way low. today only 6% of kids in alabama are in preschool. so they have a -- they have a

long, long way to go. >> that's stunning. >> bill: we had dennis van roekel, head of the nea in the studio yesterday. as he pointed out if you really want to talk about a bang for your buck, right you invest a dollar in preschool education and you're probably making $20 or $25 by the time these kids are high school age. it's shown to have such great advantages across the board in all kinds of ways. reduced crime rates loyer dropout rates and higher incomes among those teenagers who have attended preschool classes. but again republicans are dumping on this and saying we can't afford it. it's going to cost too much money. it's -- you know, they would rather give a tax break. here we go again. they would rather give a tax break to the wealthiest of americans than spend money for

preschool for our kids. >> you're wasting money on one hand by getting a tax break or investing in our future by making sure that kids get what they need. >> bill: the center for american progress, we have them in here often in the program. igor volsky from think progress is here every tuesday. they estimate that providing preschool for every kid in america for the next ten years would cost $98 billion. sounds like a lot of money in terms of the entire federal budget. it ain't nothing. this is one of those issues i just think ought to be a no-brainer. republicans and democrats of course it's important. there's nothing more important than educating our kids and there's nothing more important than starting as early as you can and make sure that every kid has the same opportunity and they start from the same place so some are not disadvantaged. makes sense to me. why? why?

why is this even an issue? 1-866-55-press. tell us your experience. tell us what you think about it. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. ♪ love and marriage ♪ >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: do we have to? do we have to? >> it has been a running theme all morning. i thought i would point this one out because this one is special to your heart. >> bill: not quite. >> you know this song. >> bill: i'm waiting for the words to start.

>> no words. just the music. >> bill: yes, i know the dumb song. together like a horse and carriage. >> this is the theme song to "married with children," the best show on television. >> bill: oh, i forgot that. oh yes. play it again! bring it back. >> it's valentine's day. >> bill: we know it's valentine's day. april 14. >> february. >> bill: can we start this segment over? >> please don't do it on april 14 because you will be a little late. >> bill: if you don't know this is valentine's day yet you're late for this year, too. >> if you haven't bought chocolates save yourself the embarrassment. go home and just make dinner for your spouse or your loved one because don't go rushing out to get chocolate from a gas station at the last minute. nothing says i love you like gas station chocolate. >> bill: it is valentine's day. february 14, 2013. welcome to the "full court

press." talking about the issues of the day. one that caught my attention president obama particularly president obama's in the state of the union i didn't expect to hear him say that. universal preschool. what i didn't realize until i read this morning gayle collins this is not such a new idea. congress -- get this. congress actually passed this once before. guess what. 1971. the author was then-senator walter mondale. it was called the comprehensive child development act. it was made an entitlement -- preschool, an entitlement for every american kid. it passed the senate 63-17. bipartisan vote. richard nixon. vetoed it. now president obama is bringing it back. peter, quickly on twitter before we go to the calls. >> a couple of comments on

twitter on this. on this particular story. here is story for "60 minutes" says let's transfer the money from afghanistan to preschool when that war is over next year. and phil says it doesn't look good when you're for a group who doesn't care if kids are shot and you're for another that wants to educate them. we're on twitter at bpshow. >> bill: our buddy ike down in charleston south carolina. ike? >> caller: hey, good morning. yeah. appropriate to speak about getting the biggest bang for your buck on valentine's day but i was going to say the fact is you know, i don't want to know where south carolina falls on that list. i'm sure they're probably below alabama. but you know, it is a no-brainer here. whether you're talking about increasing the minimum wage or whether you're talking about early childhood anything that leads to development on an economic level or on the education level you will find that crime rates go down.

we have to spend less on law enforcement and prisons. for your caller last hour, just so you know, it is disingenuous by the numbers he gave you. if they pay you 5 cents over minimum wage, then they don't have to list you as making minimum wage and by the way waiters and waitresses are the most ripped off bunch in this country because they only get $2 and something an hour and that's slave labor. >> bill: absolutely. always good to hear from you. you're always right on point. alex sykes wald from salon coming up next on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege.

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>> bill: here we go. 33 minutes after the hour on thursday. valentine's day. february 14. good to see you today. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital the "full court press" bringing you up to date on the news of the day brought to you today by ullico incorporated. good men and women of ullico under president ed smith proudly serving the union workplace for more than 85 years now, providing specialty insurance, risk solutions investment products and services. find out more about their good work. go to their web site at ullico.com. providing solutions again for the union workplace. busy time here in washington d.c. all of the speculation leading up to the state of the union then the state of the union address itself. great pageantry here in washington, d.c. and now the aftermath when republicans dump on the president's proposal and the president is out on the road trying to sell them.

democrats figuring how they can provide him and round up the votes he needs in congress. alex sykes wald covers what's happening here in washington d.c. white house or the congress for salon. salon.com. good morning alex. nice to see you. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> bill: thanks for coming in. one thing the president did not directly talk about in the state of the union were -- was his drones policy. you've written recently for salon that lincoln used drones. >> it is an interesting question. lincoln loved military innovation and technology. >> bill: he used to go down to the navy yard at the end of our street here to see the new guns and watch the firing. >> yeah. he would personally watch the demonstration of the new technology. he kind of invented the precursor to the air force with

the balloon corps meant to surveil enemy lines. he probably would have liked the surveillance ability but whether he liked the killing. he did suspend habeas corpus. so i talked to a couple of experts. the kind of consensus if we can call it that is he might have been okay with it legally or morally but strategically, you know,s a nateing robert e. lee or jefferson davis or head of the confed racy may not have been the most strategic choice. >> bill: well, there's a report this morning secretary of defense leon panetta in one of his farewell acts again as defense secretary yesterday announced a new medal for the pentagon. and this is a medal for people who are piloting drones. it is a new combat medal for those who are not actually engaged in combat.

i should have done this before you came in. it is called the most -- no, the distinguished warfare medal. which will provide recognition for those who have a direct impact on combat operations but are not involved in combat. so the people sit down like at c.i.a. headquarters or in the pentagon with the joystick, killing targets overseas, qualify for a medal of honor. >> really surreal world. >> bill: it is isn't it? >> the air force has these bases in colorado are like a field of trailers or container -- boxes. and these guys, they have normal lives with wives and kids at home and they drive in the office and get in one of the bunkers, sit behind a computer and spy on them and sometimes kill people in the tribal areas of pakistan or afghanistan. it is a really bizarre situation. >> bill: then go home and

barbecue chicken for the kids. >> there is a situation comedy brewing in there somewhere. a tv show. >> bill: how did it go at the office today hon? well, i killed five. no. it really troubles me. so many aspects of it. we've talked a lot about president obama's state of the union. i want to get to that with you. and about marco rubio's response, particularly the water bottle. nobody is talking about poor rand paul. there was a third state of the union, right? it was given on behalf of the tea party. michele bachmann i think did it last year. >> she did it three years ago. the first tea party. herman cain did it last year and somehow it did not attract as much attention as rand paul. >> bill: i don't know that i knew that until just now. rand paul, nobody gave him the time of day this year. did he say anything worthwhile? >> it is interesting. >> bill: does he ever say anything worthwhile? >> he basically said almost the exact same thing as rubio.

there were lines that could almost be plagiarized. big government is not the answer. ronald reagan. the kind of typical stuff obama is a tax and spend liberal. there are two areas he departed from rubio. one on defense spending where rand paul has been completely at odds with the republican party in saying the sequester that's looming should go through -- and if anything, we should cut the pentagon more and he was a little bit more liberal. that's really -- i think what -- >> bill: a libertarian position. >> right. i think he's trying to pick up this. he is the younger you know, in some ways, more appealing to the mainstream candidate than his father. i think he's trying to run in 2016 and raise his profile. this was an opportunity for him to do that. >> bill: right. not surprising there is very little difference between marco rubio and rand paul. white house pointed out marco rubio's speech could have been given by mitt romney. there was nothing new in it in

terms of -- if he's the future of the republican party, it is going to look just like the past. >> it could have been given by any republican for the past 30 years. and there was nothing new. the part i was most surprised about, his whole -- his savior status in the republican party is based on immigration and him being latino. there were three sentences about immigration. no specifics. it was just kind of a wave of the hand. >> bill: hardly touched on it at all. every state of the union is sort of -- encyclopedic. a lot of ideas. pushed out in 30 minutes 40 minutes, half an hour. i mean an hour. in case of the president. this was no exception. except maybe there was more to this hour -- i was busy trying to keep up with the new proposals the president was throwing out there. historically, how much of what's proposed in the state of the union by any president actually ends up becoming law?

>> very little. i mean, you know, we build these things up. it says in the constitution that the president has to do the state of the union. it is kind of an opportunity for the president to talk about what they've done in the past year and list a whole bunch of proposals. it is an expectation that they're going to come with the laundry list, the longer the better. it kind of incentivizes repackaging programs that have been out there. or proposing these kind of commissions and initiatives and task force that will never really go anywhere or do anything. or throwing out pipe dream ideas that the president won't put any political capital behind. it is throwing out there as a benchmark. i think they're a little bit overblown. >> bill: if you took a score list right probably it would be right about 1/3 actually. actually come to reality? most of those even probably not right away. >> exactly. somewhere in there. if you go back and you look at president obama's first state of the union, a lot of the things that he put out there are just

now getting accomplished. so he talked about ending the bush tax cuts which we sort of did. we got rid of some of them. and you know, in the first state of the union, he had things like eliminating oil subsidies and corporate tax loopholes. maybe he'll get to this year. immigration reform maybe get to this year. a lot of that is republican's fault but a lot of it is just the nature of these speeches. >> bill: and the nature of washington, d.c., of course. so let's talk specifically about some of his ideas and what the chances might be. 34,000 troops home from afghanistan by this time next year. >> i mean, i hope so. knock on wood, there's been a lot of -- >> bill: he's commander in chief. he doesn't need an act of congress to do that. >> that's right. but he does need to take into account what congress says and what the generals think probably most importantly and there's been a lot of noise that you know, maybe we should leave some special forces bases or some training forces or what not. whether we get a clean withdrawal like we had in iraq

or something a little bit more muddled in afghanistan remains to be seen. >> bill: now is the time, the president said for immigration reform. is it? >> i think it is. i'm optimistic. we already have a bipartisan group of senators working on it. i think the republican party realizes they have to do something. the question is how good, how liberal the ultimate bill will be. >> bill: yeah. and how comprehensive. there's already some grumblings on the part of some republicans that this path to citizenship no matter how tough it is, and it's not an automatic path to citizenship the president proposed that that's -- they're against it, right? >> yeah. >> bill: in any shape. >> amnesty shamnesty. the leadership, everybody in washington for the most part realizes they have to do it. it is whether they can keep the base quiet. that nativist element and let them have them bite their tongues until you get something passed. that will be the big challenge. >> bill: we talked this

morning a good deal about a specific proposal of the president. raising the minimum wage from where it is today. stuck since 2007. president has backed off his $9.50 for minimum wage. just $9. that isn't going to be easy either. >> this is one of those issues where it is a question of whether he's throwing it out there or if he's actually going to put weight and push on this. i think it could be you know, he's learning a lesson of the first term and realizes he needs to put goals throughout beyond what he thinks we'll get to. this is something he can negotiate with republicans on. >> bill: their opposition as john boehner indicated yesterday remains -- as it has always been, except to point out that the last raise of minimum wage was signed into law by george w. bush and readily passed by congress. >> broad bipartisan consensus. >> bill: right. lots more issues in the state of the union and things going on here in washington.

talk to alex sietz-wald about it. we invite your comments at 1-866-55-press or questions for this reporter who covers congress and capitol hill and knows washington inside and out. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. here we go. 12 minutes before the top of the hour. in the next hour, very exciting. senator sheldon whitehouse from

state of rhode island is going to be here in studio with us as well as brendon ayanbadejo from the baltimore -- the super bowl championship baltimore ravens. we have a couple of ravens fans around here. >> yes, we do. >> bill: might get a good reception. >> phil is wearing his ravens super bowl t-shirt. super bowl champ t-shirt. >> bill: i forgot about it or i would have worn mine, too. all right. alex sietz-wald from salon magazine here in studio with us. peter, what you got? >> the nra continues its spiral into obscurity. yesterday "the daily caller" seems to be the only place that would accept an outer loop ed from wayne lapierrre. he wrote an outer op-ed starting out by saying i read the whole thing, talking points memo added

a couple of great quotes d starts out by saying latin-american drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the united states. phoenix is one of the kidnapping capitals of the world. states on the u.s./mexico border may be the first places to suffer from cartel violence. by no means are they the last. all of the latin-american drug gangs to fight on through on your way to work, he says guns would help that. >> bill: this is why you need an ar-15 in every house in columbus ohio. >> after hurricane sandy we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitions see. looters ran wild. there was no food, water or electricity. if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark or you might not get home at all. it is the most paranoid thing i have ever read. it is crazy! >> bill: he is certifiably insane. >> we'll tweet out a link. >> bill: i can't believe the nra doesn't recognize that.

every time they put him out in front, they lose ground. >> he's not helping. >> bill: alex, that gets back to the issue of ticking through some of the things -- the main ideas in the president's state of the union address very, very passionate ending talking about gun violence and gun safety and his proposal saying gun violence -- hard to argue with that. >> that was the one place where it is diverse from the laundry list. i thought it was incredibly powerful. one of the most powerful moments of any speech i've seen. we talk about the president and the bully pulpit. i think in that instance, he may have moved the needle a little bit. there are a lot of people watching the state of the union and to put that human -- i looked at some of the tests and it just shot up when he pointed out to the family of the girl who performed at the inauguration who was in the audience you know, democrats independents and republicans just absolutely shot up.

>> bill: i was talking to a staff member who shall go as an unnamed democratic senator. who is not from a very blue state. up for re-election. and this is a thorny issue right? but the way the president did it, they said, was just great with them because he wasn't saying you must pass an assault weapons ban. you must do this. always saying you must just give them a vote. he said if you want to vote against it vote against it but at least they deserve a vote. so it even gave democrats some breathing room, i think. again, a hard to argue against. i think it is also hard to argue against this. chuck hagel deserves an up-or-down vote. james inhofe and lindsey graham are both saying they want a filibuster without calling it a filibuster. harry reid yesterday we'll get your comments but first majority leader harry reid said they won't get away with this game. >> first time in the history of our country that a presidential nominee or secretary of defense has been filibustered.

what a shame. >> bill: so he's saying they're going to have a vote tomorrow. it is a hold technically. technically not a filibuster. and it looks like though hagel is going to get to 60 votes to break the hold or the filibuster. do you agree? >> i saw something this morning that said they're at 58 right now. i think if reid moved ahead with the closer motion, he has to be pretty confident. he doesn't take these kinds of votes unless he knows he's going to win. maybe there are two people on the fence. but i think what you'll see is you'll get more votes for the cloture. people like john mccain and others who are uncomfortable with the precedent of filibuster ing but who will vote no on the final nomination. >> bill: one of the reasons he ought to be uncomfortable is because if, some day, there were ever a republican back in the white house right, they would be setting a precedent that for cabinet appointees, especially defense secretary that the

senate would not just advise and consent but could actually veto. i don't think they want that. i don't think they want to set that precedent. >> they don't think they have a chance of winning at the white house any time soon. because they're really shooting themselves in the foot. or god forbid, you have a case where you don't have an -- in either party, you don't have the president controlling the senate. how are you ever going to get a cabinet filled out and get the federal government working at all in any kinds of functional means when this is the precedent that's set. >> bill: it has always been in this country since the beginning, the guy who wins gets to appoint the people he wants to work with him in the cabinet. he may not like them. he might give them a hard time but it is the president's pick. wow. so much to talk about. we barely got to all of the issues. alex, nice to see you again. you can follow alex's work at salon.com and follow him on twitter asietzwald. we'll have a link up on our web site to make it easy for you.

>> thanks so much. >> bill: all right. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> bill: in the next hour, sheldon whitehouse from rhode island here in studio with us as well as super bowl champion baltimore ravens linebacker brendon ayanbadejo. the president leaves the white house at 9:35 this morning out to andrews air force base and then down to decatur georgia. he will be talking about universal preschool today. what we've been talking about in this hour.

visiting a prekindergarten classroom at college heights early childhood learning center. talking about the importance of universal preschool. leaving georgia decatur georgia, at 2:40 this afternoon. back at the white house at 4:25. and then the president this afternoon will be participating in a -- they're calling a fireside hangout with google from the roosevelt room of the white house to talk about his state of the union. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> bill: good morning everybody. happy valentine's day. what do you say? it is thursday, february 14. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" this thursday morning. and you know, on valentine's day, boy republicans have strange ways of showing their love, don't they? they show that they don't really love chuck hagel because they're filibustering him. they show their love for american workers by refusing to raise the minimum wage. and they show their love for america's children by refusing to accept universal preschool. and they show their love to all americans, i guess by refusing to accept even comments and proposals on gun safety. kind of weird isn't it? you know what it proves? they don't love us at all. they hate us all unless you're a multi-millionaire, of course. all right, that and a whole lot more here in our last hour together this morning. but first, the latest, today's current news update, who else?

but lisa ferguson out in los angeles. hi lisa. good morning. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. the obama administration is hitting back against the latest ad from the nra. just before the president's state of the union tuesday, the gun lobbying group released this online video saying president obama gives a good speech on guns and he may sound reasonable until you look at the details of his plan. >> let's look at what obama's own experts have to say. this internal justice department memo says "an assault weapons ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence." the ad goes on to cite several other statements from the memo and claims the federal government will confiscate firearms from lawful gun owners. now the justice department is hitting back saying yes the medal does exist but the conclusions are factually inaccurate and taken out of context. the president is not out to create a national registry or use it to take away everyone's guns. you might have also caught

wayne lapierrre's bizarre op-ed in the national -- in "the daily caller" yesterday. if you didn't think progress is summing up his nine most insane quotes. in the article lapierrre claims violent latino gangs are out to get you. the border is open to al-qaeda and other terrorists and that, thanks to obama we will soon be living without police. obviously all fear tactics trying to convince americans to buy more guns. if you have anything to say about the nra's new ad or the administration's response, we're live in our chat room. you can join us there at current.com/billpress and we'll have more bill for you on the other side of the break. see you there. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy.

just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. this is the "bill press show."

>> bill: well, the dow ended up above 14,000 yesterday. one point short of its highest level ever. you won't hear about that anywhere else on the news today. nobody talks about the dow when it is going up, up, up except us here on the "full court press." that's your valentine's day gift this morning. hello, everybody. happy valentine's day this thursday, february 14, 2013. great to see you today. thank you so much for joining us. very exciting show today for valentine's, talking a lot about the president's strong proposals in the state of the union particularly two of them on raising the minimum wage and on universal preschool for every 4-year-old in america. and this hour, we'll be talking football and we're going to be talking more minimum wage and

gun safety with senator sheldon whitehouse from rhode island. very excited about that. and good to have you with us as we cover the news of the day. yes, here from our nation's capital but not just from here, around the country and around the globe bring you up to date on what's going on and taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. accepting and looking forward to your comments on twitter at bpshow. and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. here we go. peter ogborn and dan henning. cyprian. dan on the phone with our first guest. >> happy thursday. >> bill: thank you. happy valentine's day. >> you, too. >> bill: i look forward to getting home and finding the pro flowers on my front door and the shari's berries on my kitchen table. yes. >> i didn't send you anything this year. i'm sorry. i normally do. >> bill: why spoil it now?

>> bill: phil backert has the phones and cyprian bowlding on the video cam as always. and the president yesterday down in one of our favorite spots on the planet, down in asheville, north carolina. i don't think i've been there as many times as the president has. our good friends gave him a great welcome. they made him feel so much at home at asheville yesterday that the president thought, you know, maybe -- every time i go down, people are always saying bill, you've gotta get a little condo here, a little vacation spot in asheville. the president is thinking about that. yesterday he made it clear he might want to -- after white house, maybe the next stop, asheville. >> obama: after this whole presidency thing -- [ cheering ] looking for a little spot to -- come on down. playing a little golf. do a little hiking, fishing.

barbecue. >> bill: speaking of the barbecue, we were wondering yesterday if he would get off the plane and go right to 12 bones as did he before, peter and i have been to 12 bones. it is worth a flight on air force i just to get there. well, he did not. i was disappointed. on the way into the factory he didn't stop. on the way back, he didn't stop but we learned later that they sent the advance team out to 12 bones to get takeout for air force i so they flew back to washington enjoying their 12 bones ribs. yes indeed. not bad. >> we got a tweet from our friend in asheville mccray hilliard who said i got to see p.o.t.u.s. in the factory today. even got a hand shake. he gave a big shout out to 12 bones. it was a great experience. >> bill: is that right? we give a shout out to asheville senator sheldon whitehouse will be with us this hour and we hope to be talking to brendon

ayanbadejo sensational linebacker for the baltimore ravens. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> we've got other headlines making news on this thursday. floyd landis, the former professional cyclist who admitted to doping is getting back on his bike in an amateur way only. he's telling "usa today" that pro cycling is "an organized crime" and he wants no part of it. so he's not racing professionally anymore also because he's not allowed to. he's organizing an amateur race this summer in upstate new york to get together with a bunch of his friends hopefully raise money for charity. no pro cyclists will be allowed to participate. >> bill: this is a drug-free amateur race, is that it? >> cars are becoming more dependable than ever before. according to the latest j.d. power rankings out yesterday cbs news telling us that reports of problems for 3-year-old vehicles fell to the lowest

level since they started tracking this in 1989. the most dependable cars out on the road after three years according to the new study are lexus, porsche lincolns and toyotas. while the most problematic vehicles after three years jeeps, mitsubishis dodges and landrovers. >> bill: wow. that's interesting. >> but more dependable than ever before. >> bill: used to be you have a car two or three years and they start falling apart. lasting longer. >> and a new survey finds that brits want to become members of a mile high club more than anyone else. a survey of airline -- >> bill: brits? not italians? >> survey of airline cabin crew members by sky scanner finds british fliers are the friskiest with each other on airplanes more than any other nationality ahead of australians germans french and brazilians so americans and italians not in the top five of the mile high

club members. >> you know -- i got a couple of things to say about this. >> bill: i think we had better just move on. so tempting though. indeed. yeah. we'll devote an entire hour to the mile high club some other day here. but first one important thing to talk about. as i said earlier talking about universal preschool. the president had so many great ideas in his state of the union. it really is hard to keep track of them. with so many ideas the attention kind of is diffused among all of them and we sort of skirt over some that should -- that are most important and should be the easiest really to bring about right? and the one that pops in my mind as should be a no-brainer is raising the minimum wage. it is a disgrace that, in this country today, as the president

pointed out in the state of the union, the minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 per hour. it has been there since 2009. the last increase in the minimum wage was approved, signed into law by president george w. bush. so this is not a democrat or a republican thing. it ought to be something that both parties readily agree to. president obama made it front and center in the state of the union tuesday night if we can hear that quick clip. >> obama: tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty. and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. [ applause ] >> bill: so the president is saying let's at least raise it to $9 an hour. he used to say $9.50. but at $7.25 right that means somebody working full time at minimum wage is making $14 -- if they take two weeks vacation, not paid, of course, but for 50

weeks, $14,500 a year. that's insane. you cannot live on that. there's no way. no way you can raise a family on that. so this is something that just seems to me republicans democrats ought to do. republicans are quickly jumping in saying no. if you raise the minimum wage, it means they'll fire people. more and more people will lose their jobs. that is categorically not true. they've been making the argument for the last 100 years. it has never proven true. every economic study shows just the opposite. all right. this is something they ought to do. they ought to do it right away in a bipartisan way. we'll take a break. when we come back, super bowl champion baltimore ravens linebacker brandon ayanbadejo here in studio on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv.

>>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

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>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: it is 19 minutes after the hour now here on the "full court press" coming to you live across this great land of ours on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. it is a big day for us here at the "full court press." we have had many important politicians in the studio with us. united states senators, members of congress. members of the president's cabinet. members of the president's team at the white house. never have we had a super bowl champion here in the "full court press" studios. we're so pleased to welcome to the studio today brandon% ayanbadejo, the great linebacker for the super bowl champs, baltimore ravens. brandon, good to see you.

>> good morning. thanks for having me. >> congratulations. >> thank you. i don't think the luster ever wears off. i'm still on cloud nine. >> bill: well, you ought to be. you guys work so hard and particularly post-season, what's it feel like to bring that home for the people of baltimore for your team? >> it is quite amazing because you grow up and you see it. i actually lived in chicago in 1985 and saw the bears team win the championship. i moved into northern california. i saw the 49ers bring several championships home. to be able to be in that same company to be a part of the organization that actually gets the super bowl done and having failed earlier in my career, it kind of made amends for every loss i ever had. it feels amazing. the city came out and celebrated with us. the most exciting part of it was doing the parade in baltimore when we got. >> bill: that was huge in baltimore. filled the stadium. filled the downtown streets. >> it was on the verge of pandemonium. fans were so excited and so -- just so over the top.

but still respected our space and our distance but wanted to share every moment with us. it was definitely a moment. >> bill: do you feel guilty about taking the game away from -- you're from northern california. taking it away from the 49ers? >> absolutely not. to the victor goes the spoils. i've been to a super bowl in 2006 with the chicago bears first the patriots and peyton manning and the indianapolis and peyton manning. you walk around every day with a little bit of hurt inside you from that. some people never recover from that loss. >> bill: give us a little scoop. what happens to joe flacco now? >> oh, man. he's going to have to get a new bank account because there won't be enough zeros in the one he has now. >> bill: he deserves whatever he gets. >> absolutely. he played lights out. i knew from his rookie year, he would be the greatest quarterback in baltimore history. now he's going on to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in the nfl. >> bill: he's open -- i forget the phrase. free agent.

do you expect him to stay? >> absolutely. he's not going anywhere. with one great player going out and now you have this other great player there, you have the season. >> they'll find a way. >> they will get it done. >> is major league football a violent sport? >> absolutely. the game -- >> bill: does that worry you? >> no, it doesn't. you know what you're signing up for but definitely i think my parents did the right thing but not letting me play full contact football until i was in high school. >> that's interesting. >> being a father and having a son, i'm going to do the same thing. lie let my son play in pop warner. if he will be a professional player or whatever he wants to do but especially with football, i don't want him to have all of the traumatic compacts over and over again. >> bill: you think the president might have been right on when he said recently and got a little flak for it, if he had a son, he would think twice about letting him play football. >> absolutely. i've always preached the same thing. i've seen what happens after

you've had repeated blows to the head. i was a teammate of junior's so what happens with you when you have the compacts over and over again and not just concussions but the impacts and you also see some long-term effects in soccer players as well from heading the ball throughout the course of a soccer career. you know with technology and information, we're learning new things but i think with the helmet being so blunt i think it put a foam over the helmet. something similar to how this binder right here is -- cardboard around it but imagine if they had a thin layer of foam. so the helmet wouldn't be so blunt and hard. i'm not a scientist. when you have two hard objects hitting each other. >> bill: is the nfl working on that at all? >> i know there's companies work on new kinds of helmets and different kind of protection but i'm not sure if they have type of thing going on. >> bill: is the nfl ready for an openly gay football player?

>> well, i think we're setting the precedence with the baltimore ravens and the san francisco 49ers doing what they do and speaking out against discrimination. i think those two organizations have set the precedence but i would like to see the nfl as a whole, step up and as a whole somewhat similar to how hockey and how the nba has done it. go out there and make a statement. say it is okay. instead of teams coming out on their own. when i was attacked earlier this year, the team backed me up and supported me and said they don't believe in discrimination. you have a precedence for two teams doing it. you don't have a precedence for the entire nfl doing it. when they do that, we'll go light-years ahead. >> that's a really good point. nobody's been louder about it and stronger than you have in the nfl. and especially leading up to the super bowl and i'll say it, when chris culver made his comments about how he wouldn't play with a gay teammate. >> bill: from the 49ers. >> i was hoping to seat nfl

really sort of come down strong on him and say look, we accept everybody but they were pretty quiet on it. >> yeah, surprisingly quiet. you're alienating a whole demographic of football fans and people in general that would jump on board and start watching the nfl and you would think for the most popular sport in america, it would be more accepted. >> bill: what kind of response did you get from your teammates you used the phrase jackie robinson the analogies. >> a lot of guys, you know, based on where they were raised, they don't see it as a civil rights movement as an equal rights movement. so we're just trying to make them aware of what really is going on. it really is a civil rights issue. it is not just gay rights. it is everybody's rights in general. so guys are kind of -- as weed kate and as we talk about this, guys are starting to really open up their minds and hearts to the situation. >> bill: it was interesting in the inaugural address president

obama put selma and stonewall in the same sentence, right making the point you've made. it is all part -- continuation, if you will, of the same movement. so it is like there's no rest for the weary. you come right off the football field and you jump into getting your mba at george washington university. a special program there. tell us about it. >> it is the star mba program. i'm in the inaugural class. we started in 2011. now we're going to be wrapping up in 2013. but you know with all of the customized educations and being a professional athlete we have to have a really customized schedule. if you want to go to school and you want to have a hire education and a personal learning experience, then you have to find a place that's going to have a customized -- education for you and where you can really benefit. so the schedule is tailored around our nfl schedule so we do all of our classes during the off-season and there are also some online courses during the season but it is such a huge

difference to be able to sit in the classroom and get this real time learning experience with the teachers. >> bill: that's great. how big is the program? is it all just sports? >> no, it's not. it is young professionals. the inaugural class has maybe 40 students and maybe another 30 or 40 behind us. pretty impressive for a program that's only two years old. it has been a major learning experience. i've come light-years in my business acumen. whether it is accounting or marketing or financial markets global markets i've come a long way. >> bill: what do you want to do with it? >> i want to be an athletic director. the reason i want to be an athletic director is not just so i can watch a lot of free sports. >> bill: there is that. >> there is that part but also when student athletes, when they finish, when they graduate from school there's not really a place for them to go because they give so much of their time and effort to playing that sport that they're not really job ready and ready for corporate america. so i want to build in a

secondary education and masters degree and internships with relationships that the school has and really further on our student athletes for corporate america. >> bill: i want you to know you've been here now in the studio, the lights did not go out. we made sure that we had -- >> don't steal my thunder baby! [ laughter ] >> bill: are you as impressive off the field as you are on the field. thank you so much for coming in today. >> thank you for having me. >> bill: brandon ayanbadejo from the baltimore ravens. super bowl champion here on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. it is the "full court press" on this thursday morning. valentine's day. the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital. brought to you today by the laborer's international union under president terry o'sullivan helping us build a better america. that's their web site. check it out. liuna builds america.org. very busy week here, very news worthy week in the nation's capital this week. all of the excitement leading up to the state of the union. the state of the union address and now consideration of the ideas that the president put forward. chuck hagel it looks like a vote on his nomination tomorrow in the full senate. senator leader harry reid saying he's not going to let republicans delay it longer than that. we still have brennan and jack

lew. it is enough to keep the senators working overtime but still, they find time to come in and say hello to you and to us, senator sheldon whitehouse from the good state of rhode island joining us this morning. hey, senator, good to see you. >> good to see you bill. >> bill: a lot going on. >> a lot going on. >> bill: didn't even mention the sequester still to come, the continuing resolution and -- but the senate did vote overwhelmingly to renew the violence against women act which was long overdue. >> long, long overdue. >> bill: a big bipartisan vote right? >> big bipartisan vote once we actually forced the question. as usual there is a lot of static along the way. but i think there was a sense that this was not the time to be filibustering and blockading a bill like the violence against women act. it has been bipartisan in the past. >> bill: every woman in the senate voted for it including every republican woman senator. >> it was a good moment. >> it was. >> bill: hopefully that

message will resonate in the house of representatives. you know what? senator, i remember when the senate used to be -- things have passed the house and then they could never get through the senate. it looks like the senate is really getting things done body and it is the house particularly the republican caucus, graveyard of good ideas. >> america has focused a lot on the filibuster. and on the abuse of the procedures in the senate and as a result, we've changed some of those rules. but also as a result, with the spotlight, i think the republicans have kind of had to adjust their behavior a little bit. you go over to the house and you've got this thing called the hastert rule that most americans don't know about. right now, it is the biggest source of dysfunction in washington. the hastert rule isn't really a rule. it is a principle named after a previous republican speaker that they won't bring anything to the floor unless the majority of republicans will support it.

democrat votes don't count. democrat votes don't matter. it won't come to the floor for a vote at all unless a majority of the republicans support it. this hastert role is a real menace. if you look at the fiscal cliff bill, which we got passed, if we looked at the disaster relief bill which we got passed, both times, the speak her to waive the hastert rule. both times by 2-1 and 3-1 majorities, the republicans would have voted those things down. they would have put america off the fiscal cliff and they would have never had the thing come up for a vote depend that he waived the hastert role. he hasn't waived the hastert rule trying to create a farm bill or highway bill. it is, it is the death location for legislation and good ideas. we really have to pay attention to the hastert rule. that should be as well-known to progressives and to americans who are interested in good government as the filibuster. >> bill: i saw you in the chamber for the state of the

union. didn't have a chance to talk. overall, the president a very ambitious, very bold program. your reaction to -- copy of your press release. >> i thought it was really terrific. he focused right on the economy which i think remains our number one issue. he focused right on the middle class. consequences of the economy that has to be our laser focus. he's dead right about that. he focused on things like infrastructure which are so sensible but have been -- you know constant republican obstruction against even basic infrastructure. they stalled the highway bill through the last highway construction season so the president wouldn't have highway jobs during the summer before the election to improve the economy. it is that kind of misbehavior going on. so i think now that the president's been re-elected, he's in for his second term. he's never coming back again. the constitution says so. so there's no real joy for the

republicans and penalizing him. i think things like infrastructure, we can start to move on and lord knows we need it. >> bill: quick comment on some of his specific proposals. we've been talking about this morning. minimum wage. stuck at $7.25. been there since 2009. why is this even an issue? >> you know, when you've got people who are earning the lawful minimum wage but are still below the poverty level that seems to me to be an incongruity that's worth fixing. i don't think what we're going to do is lower the poverty level. that means you have to look to the minimum wage and when you look at the larger picture you see corporations with almost unprecedented profits. you see ceo pay having gone up enormously. and you look at what regular middle class working wages have done and they've virtually gone no place. in some cases they haven't kept up with inflation. there is a huge gap between the

corporate economy and the ceo economy which are booming and the regular working family's economy which has been flat lined. i think trying to jump start that a little bit with an increase in the minimum wage and see how that affects the economy is certainly a worth while endeavor. >> bill: worth pointing out the last time the minimum wage was passed, it was with republican president, george w. bush. so this is not necessarily a left wing, democratic idea. how about universal preschool? the president talking about that in decatur georgia, today. some republicans already saying this is dead in the water you know. again, why is this even an issue it seems? how can you argue against it? >> the two states that he called out were georgia and oklahoma. they're pretty red states. these are states with two republican senators and when you actually go and look at the results, it appears that the results are very, very favorable. it is good for the kids.

it is good for lower -- better high graduation rates lower juvenile arrest rates all sorts of -- pregnancy rates. you know it is all good stuff. and -- but there's something about a good idea having come from this president that creates a lot of drama for the republicans. even when it is their idea from red states. >> bill: right. just another historic note. i didn't realize senator until i read in "the new york times," congress once passed this in 1971 walter mondale was the author of the legislation. universal preschool. making it an entitlement and it was vetoed. passed the senate 63-17. was vetoed by richard nixon. so there you go. >> the ghost of richard nixon once again in the republican party. >> bill: the president also said now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform. it seems that the planets may be

lined up for this with a bipartisan show of support. >> i think they are. i think that it would be surprising if the planets came out of alignment between now and when it is time to pass the bill. before the august recess with any luck, sooner than that. >> bill: do you think that will hold? >> i think it will. the force that tore it apart last time when there was a bipartisan center that was trying to build an immigration bill was right wing talk radio. you've been a great voice on the pernicious effects of wild right wing talk radio. >> bill: thank you. >> the way that i think particularly marco rubio has gone out and he's met with the people at fox. he sat down with rush limbaugh. he's done his best to try to inoculate against that reaction and i think to the extent that there is a strategic quality to

right wing talk radio and it is not just frantic anger then the strategic quality has to be thinking well, wait a minute, we really got creamed in the last election among these rising young demographics. if our party is ever going to win national elections again we're going to have to rethink some of this stuff. >> bill: right. >> so that gives motivation to back off a little bit this time and let their republican negotiators have the room to actually bring forth a bipartisan bill. >> bill: someone very succinctly summed it up a week or so here go on the show. i forget who it was. i would give them credit. it is going to happen because democrats want it and republicans need it. >> probably chuck schumer. he's the font of statements about this but it is absolutely true. >> bill: it could have been. most passionate moment of the president's state of the union when he said the proposals out there on sensible measures on gun safety deserve a vote.

i want to talk about that when we come back. senator sheldon whitehouse, our guest out with a new book, just hot off the press if i may borrow that phrase, too "on virtues." quotations and incites to live a full honorable and truly american life. you don't often get a chance to throw a question to a united states senator. this is your chance. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern.

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i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. senator sheldon whitehouse from rhode island in studio with us. back to our conversation about the big issues of the day. and your calls in just a second. but question of identity theft popping up all the time. this story i saw out of illinois. the owner of an illinois used car dealership charged with seven counts of identity theft for using his customer's information to take out phony car loans for himself. identity theft it is everywhere. i've been a victim of it. don't want it to happen to you and suggest that you do what i've done to get the protection from lifelock ultimate, the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection out there. even monitors your bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. call now and mention press 60, you'll get 60 risk-free days of

ultimate lifelock protection. if you're not happy with what you see call lifelock again within 60 days and cancel and you'll get a full refund. give them a call at 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. the president in his state of the union, senator, as he did in his inaugural address made it clear that climate change is one of his big priorities. he's going to push for it. this has been a big priority for you. again, like immigration reform. do you think now the time is finally right to see some action? >> i think the time is right. it has been a long wait. for the president to find his voice on this issue. and now he truly has -- he's given, in his two major speeches very good sections in both on climate change. he's 2-2. and i think they're really

committed. it is absolutely necessary the executive branch be committed on this because the polluters and the deniers are going to stone wall and fiddle around in the legislature for as long as they can. but when they're faced with real regulation, when they're faced with a serious executive branch, then they're going to think uh-oh, we better go and start you know, trying to get our best deal from congress. so it is absolutely essential that the president and his administration move as forcefully as they can in the administrative area in order to put the polluters in the frame of mind where they're willing to negotiate and look at what to do about our carbon pollution. >> bill: there is a lot that e.p.a. can do, absent congressional legislation. correct? >> yes. the two big tell tales about how serious this administration is going to be about this in reality, rhetoric has been terrific. now it is time to move into the reality. one is going to be whether they allow the keystone pipeline to

go forward. a lot of climate scientists say you let those tar sands start to be burned and it is game over on climate change. that would be tough thing to explain. the second, of course, is whether they go after the existing polluting carbon power plants. >> bill: that would be an e.p.a. -- >> that would be -- former would be the state department, john kerry. >> bill: on this issue of climate change, say hello to david calling from chicago. welcome to the program. >> caller: thank you, bill. i just wanted to ask senator whitehouse with all of the conservative democrats in the senate and the republican house what chance do you think that the climate bill will pass? >> bill: okay, thanks, david for your question. >> i think the passage of the climate bill depends on, as the old saying goes, compared to what? and if compared to what is relative inaction from the executive branch of government, then they'll get away with it. they'll stall.

but if they are look at serious across the board carbon regulation, future plants, if they're look at new purchasing requirements from the federal government that require various standards, if the president really goes all in on this through all of his different administrative capabilities, then compared to what? a bill in the congress looks pretty good. if they've gotta clean up or shut down the power plants or they can support a bill that gets revenue back to them to make them do that, the choice becomes obvious. >> bill: the president called out senator john mccain and a little nod to senator joe lieberman, former senator in the state of the union by saying they have the carbon tax bill, republican and democrat coming together on it. independent at the end for joe lieberman. that's legislation he said he would support. >> this has been bipartisan before. it was senator john warner, republican of virginia. who was the lead cosponsor of the cap and trade bill as it came through the environment and public works committee.

>> bill: before the state of the union, the last time i saw you was at the senate judiciary hearing on guns where there was a witness gun safety, gayle trotter from the independent forum who said every woman needs an ar-15 and let me tell you this story about this one woman in her house and somebody broke in. she had her gun and shot them dead. that's why every woman needs an ar-15. you pointed out there's something wrong with her story. >> she was using a regular shotgun that none of the laws that we were considering would have made illegal. so to the extent she was trying to make a point that the legislation that we were considering would impede a woman's right to defend herself her example didn't prove that point. to the extent she was making a larger rhetorical point that it is a women's rights issue and a women's issue to defend yourself with exotic weaponry, she was able to make that point. >> bill:er are he hadert to to you was you don't understand,

you're not a woman. >> she's right about that. >> bill: are we going to see any action on gun safety? >> i'm sure we will. i think that it's going to be very hard for people to continue to defend why background checks aren't universal. and even in that very hearing we had the republican pro gun sort of professional witnesses that they turn up admitting that high-capacity magazines 50, 100-round magazines aren't part of the standard weaponry that are protected by the constitution under the heller decision. they've got no constitutional argument against it and now the question is do you really want to vote down a ban on hundred round or 50-round magazines and then have the next event happen and it be clear it could have been prevented. >> bill: senator sheldon

whitehouse has been our guest. on virtues is his latest book. just out. check it out. we'll have a link up to this on our web site here at the billpressshow.com. thank you, senator. >> thank you for yours. >> bill: i'll be right back with the parting shot. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." people with sore throats have something new to say. ahh ! mmm ! ahh ! finally, there's cepacol sensations. serious sore throat medicine seriously great taste. plus the medicine lasts long after the lozenge is gone. ahh ! mmm ! cepacol sensations.

(vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. barely time for a parting shot today. i just gotta say best idea in the president's state of the union was to raise the minimum wage. it is an outrage it has been stuck at