we asked you at the top of the show what you were doing up this early. >> i have an erin. erin writes i'm usually up at 6:00 a.m. watching "morning joe." crippling pain has me up at this thanks for making the pain bearable. >> that is so common. people have shooting pains in their body and they have nothing else to do but watch this show. >> jack in massachusetts. fell asleep during a marathon of "lockup" of msnbc over the weekend, and i'm wide awake. >> those are good. my favorite one, "lockup san quinton conjugal visits." "morning joe" starts right now. >> some have said i blame too many problems on my predecessor, but let's not forget that was a practice initiated by george w. bush. anyway, it's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent hilton ballroom.

or what mitt romney would call a little fixer upper. latch laugh [ laughter ] >> he told when i was a kid that i would be sitting on the same dais with president barack obama, i would have said, the president's name is barack obama? remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. >> good morning. it is monday, april 30. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin, and national affair editor for "new york" magazine john heilemann. probably still hungover from the white house correspondents dinner. >> did you go? >> yeah. >> how was it? >> i don't remember. >> see, i told you. >> how is willie doing this morning? >> he was my date all weekend. >> that's why he doesn't remember. >> he's blocking it out.

>> that is the reason. willie geist, man -- >> amthese yak. >> did you have fun? >> yeah. the president was good. he was very funny. the dog eating came up more than i expected it to. he went there a couple of times, jimmy kimmel went there. and he's funny. >> i just saw the highlights, and the only laugh out loud moment is when he said do you know what the difference is between a hockey mom and a pit bull? the pit bull tastes delicious. that was the joke of the night. >> that's good. >> the entire room, it took them a second. people did not laugh immediately. oh, yes. >> i didn't either. i was sitting there for half a second, and then i started going, my god did, he go there? >> if you what up it on tape, it's almost silent, and it grows. and he's gone to his next joke and then there's a wave of laughter. >> michelle has the same reaction. did he just do that? yeah, he did.

>> delicious. it was delivered well. and you know what i love about this is, i don't know if he never got to do this before he was president of the united states. he enjoys doing it so much. and the fact that he enjoys it so much makes it a lot more fun to watch. >> i like it when he laughs at his own jokes. >> he has that thing where he telegraphs it and starts laughing at the punchline before he delivers it. >> very funny. >> he's going to run for the election on the dog thing. joking aside, that's a platform of his campaign. i eat dogs. >> the dog thing is not going go away. >> how was jimmy kimmel? and i asked this question because we have had ups and downs. colbert didn't work. others did. and how did he do? >> i thought he was good. i think the standard -- seth myers was so good last year, the standard was really high. his delivery is such that he is rapid fire. he must have gotten off 100

jokes in his short set. >> it was very fast. and he talks very fast to begin with. and i thought like about halfway through it, there were moments when it felt like he was just trying to get the jokes done and not always hitting the laugh lines as well as you might. >> it's funny you say that because you have guys who are really funny in their own sort of realm that just collapse here. stephen colbert had a terrible night. didn't this clorowd at all. jay leno was terrible. people were groaning. the same sort of jokes that worked well for him every night didn't work for him there. and i love jimmy kimmel. but it was sort of in the middle. you laughed at some, but other times it was out of the element. >> there was a lot of inside humor. the president really -- they frame -- they think about those jokes really with the sense of youtube because they know millions of people are going to watch the speech.

they don't do inside humor. they are playing for a broader audience. and a lot of the comedians write very inside jokes for the beltway, about the boehner-cantor rivalry, which kind of works in the room but doesn't necessarily translate outside because they are trying to get to the inside. there was a bit of that. >> to your point, the joke about peter orzag. there is a leak in the room. i think he left his mouth on. >> can i just say, that was so inside? i just got it three days later after you -- i said, oh, he's talking about him leaking. i was like, what does that mean? did he have a drooling problem at a press conference? so i hear jake tapper -- obviously, you're watching. we weren't there. jake tapper won award. what did he win? >> his third year in a row i think it is. >> broadcast coverage of the white house. >> and every time one of

kimmel's jokes fell flat, he blamed it on tapper. >> so who else? any other big awards there? >> scott wilson of "the washington post" won. >> great. and politico won something? >> yeah. politico did win. >> you guys weren't conscious. >> i was still at the bar, i think, during the awards part of the ceremony. >> the after party. did "vanity fair" have an after party this year? >> they did. it's just -- you know, i will be really honest. i have been going to these things long enough they make me really tired. but we have missed because we have had things scheduled every year for the past four years. we have missed three great "vanity fair" parties and probably another one this year. >> they have it at the french ambassador's home, and i don't know that i have seen a more impressive residence in

washington, d.c. >> i heard it's amazing. >> it is an amazing house. it was relatively small this year. they tried to keep the numbers lower than -- they had a fire marshal problem last year. the mayor was there. chris christie and the mayor talking it up. a lot of people look at that as the 2016 ticket, jokingly of course. a lot of hollywood people. >> the "vanity fair" party, because a lot of these things are cattle calls and they just shove so many people in. but the "vanity fair" party, i have always heard, is small and they have actually got a list stars there. i'm sure they did this year. the stars came out this year. >> the a list of the a list. i'm a company man, so i was at the msnbc party at the italian embassy. phil did it big this year. >> was it a bunga bunga party? >> it was close. >> what did he do? >> it was close to a bunga bunga party. >> really? >> we got the whole embassy. we had the run of the place.

>> what? >> wait a minute. what did phil do? >> i don't know. but i would have liked maybe one additional way too early staffer instead of the vip cigar rolling bar, for example. no. it was a great party. >> it was huge. >> laser cats. in fact, i think the word spread, because a lot of the people at "vanity fair" kind of rolled over to the msnbc -- >> phil had a big party? >> it was a great party. >> does that surprise you that he didn't give us the heads up? >> i'm surprised they weren't all in towels. >> it was an incredible party. i won't say the hour. i left extraordinarily late, and there were still a couple hundred people there. >> what? >> willie is still there actually. >> was it a berlusconi party? was phil america's answer to berlusconi? >> let's call him silvio from now on. >> sad to say, i did not make it over to that party. because i'm -- i'm early to bed, early to rise kind of person.

>> let's talk and then get on to the news. >> there was something that happened since that party. >> george clooney was -- in the realm of holding court, at least at the "vanity fair" party, no one attracted more attention, held court longer, and was more sucked up to than george clooney. >> that makes me tired. >> you know, i think i saw him at one of these things five years ago, and he was a very down to earth kind of guy. >> charlize theron, a lot of beautiful actresses at the party. a lot of guys. the jokesters, the beautiful women. >> as long as we're on the topic, tammie hadad had her brunch on sad for the cure epilepsy group. they were honored and steve case was honored, which gives me the opportunity not to humble brag but to brag brag. that's rosario dawson. me and elle mcpherson. >> good lord. >> that was a nice moment, i

think, for me as a young american. >> except for the fact that willie did manage to embarrass one of the hosts. >> well, hilary rosen, out of love. >> known this weekend as the three amigos. >> you walk in, try to get a bloody mary, and she says, i need you. get on the stage. but i brought that up because -- >> because elle mcpherson was there. >> but lindsay lohan was there. >> don't be confused by the story willie just told. he made it sound like he didn't get the bloody mary. he got the bloody mary before he went onstage. >> i was surprised to see lindsay lohan. >> she was there. >> and kim kardashian. the kardashian mom was there too. incredible. >> ok. all right. now can we do some news at like 10 past the hour? >> sure. >> alex, we just won't go to break until we do the paycheck fairness act story as well. >> good lord. go to sleep right now. appearing at a fundraiser with the president last night,

former president bill clinton attacked mitt romney's economic strategy as a throwback to the failed strategies of the past. he railed against a republican opponent who basically wants to do what they did before, on steroids, which will get you the same consequences you got before, on steroids. the joint appearance was the first of three fundraisers that obama and clinton will headline together. the obama team is hoping to tap into clinton's wide network of donors, while the former president helps fine tune the party's message. it is a relationship put on display last week when clinton was featured in a web video touting obama's leadership in the raid that killed osama bin laden one year ago this week. but ed gillespie says the fight against terrorism should not be a partisan issue. >> this is one of the reasons president obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in american history. he took something that was a unifying event for all americans, an event that governor romney congratulated

him and the military and the intelligence analysts in our government for competing the mission in terms of killing osama bin laden. and he's managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack that former defense secretary frank carlucci called sad, john mccain called shameful. i think most americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> obama adviser robert gibbs argues that bin laden's death is fair game in the election and questions if there would have been a different outcome if romney was sitting in the oval office. >> just a few years ago, president obama, then a candidate, said in a speech that if we had actionable intelligence of a high value target in pakistan, we would go in and get that high value target. mitt romney said that was foolish. he wouldn't do such a thing. that he wouldn't move heaven and earth to get osama bin laden. >> you're saying that president obama believes that a president romney, if he was working with

the same nonpartisan professionals in the counterterror realms of the government, who came to him with intelligence, saying we have an opportunity to capture and kill osama bin laden, you're saying president romney wouldn't take that shot? >> i don't think it's clear that he would. again, he criticized barack obama a few years ago when barack obama said if we have actionable intelligence about a high value target -- let's be clear. nobody was bigger, nobody was a more high value target than osama bin laden. >> mark halperin, is it fair game, the use of the killing of osama bin laden? >> i think discussing it is part of the president's record is totally fair game. i will say i believe that the media, if george bush did a video about some asset getting saddam hussein or something in an election year, would go crazy. >> i can't imagine. >> it would be shut down. it would be the lead story on the news every night. >> talk about demagoguing this. and then they would show the -- they would find the wife of a navy s.e.a.l. who would say, you know it just hurts me that my

husband went in and, you know, now george w. bush is exploiting his heroics. come on. >> i do think it's fair game as part of the record for them to talk about. >> i do think it's fair game. i think it's -- i mean, i think the standard i go to on this is george hw bush, who was there when the wall came down, and he refused to use it in his campaign. he refused to let political advisers even bring it up. now that said, on the other side of the ledger, if this had failed, if this mission had failed, do we think mitt romney would be exploiting that for political gain? of course. the question answers itself, right? >> i think it is fair game. but i'm surprised that there is not more questions raised about it, even though i do think it's fair game. >> and there is. they have this video about it. and i understand there are going to be shows about it.

and the white house is -- i think at some point americans are going to stop and say, boy, they're really exploiting this politically. is there a danger here of going too far? >> i think the interesting question is how the media portrays it and whether they portray it as overkill or not. look, it was a big decision. >> it's an incredible story. >> it's an incredible story. mika is right. the tick tock of is an incredible story it. does highlight the president's mode of decision making in a really significant way. and on mitt romney, you know, there is an element of hypocrisy playing out here. you had the statement that the obama campaign is pointing out, romney having made about diminishing the importance of getting bin laden. now you have mccain attacking the white house for doing this. mccain himself attacked romney back in 2007 for that same statement and accused romney of being weak for not emphasizing how important it was to get bin laden. so there is a lot of political

hypocrisy. >> the thing with mccain, though, mccain comes from a military family. you know, when you come back from war, and you do heroic things, here you have a commander in chief, whatever, you know what you don't do? you don't go down to the vfw and hold up your medal and go, guys, let me tell you what i did. there's a code. and not just for mccain but for other military men and women. >> that's true. >> this ununseemseemly of the president to go around and talk about this. >> well, it's also generational. mccain was reticent of having his campaign use his story in any way. he eventually did. there is a generational thing about these kind of things. who knows what mccain would do once he was in the oval office running for re-election? again, it's a big triumph. there's no way they are not going to -- there is just no

world in which this is not going to be -- >> shouldn't it just speak for itself? >> and that code that, is a code among democratic heros that go to war and republican heros that go to work and independents that go to war. so, willie, what mika just said, let it speak for itself because there are enough people that know what happened around that table. who know the president made a really courageous decision. when everybody else around that table was saying, you know what, it's awfully risky, mr. president, he made the decision. >> he did. >> shouldn't you let other people say it? >> probably. but on the list of things this country wanted to do over the last decade, killing osama bin laden was pretty close to the top, and he's the guy who did it. so i don't think we should be surprised it comes up again and again. it is interesting when you think of the context of it. the democratic president and his campaign accusing a republican of being weak kneed, a guy who

probably wouldn't -- or perhaps wouldn't have made this call if he'd had the opportunity. president obama is holding the cards on foreign policy, a democratic president. it's fascinating. let's quickly get to -- did you see this front page article on apple and taxes yesterday? the sunday "new york times" describing how apple along with other companies like it are taking advantage of the nation's tax code to reap millions of dollars in savings. according to the story, the tech giant made over $34 billion in profits last year and paid just over $3 billion in taxes. now that's a tax rate of less than 10%. by comparison, you look at something like walmart, which paid a reported 24% tax rate. corporate filings show 70% of apple's profits are allocated from overseas, and in some cases, the company set up little more than a mailbox in a low tax rate country in order to take advantage. here at home, the company opened an office in reno, nevada, where the -- >> well, reno is not that far from silicon valley, right?

quick bus ride. >> yeah. it helps, because the state's corporate tax rate there is 0%. and in california, the rate is nearly 9%. so without taking advantage of those methods, which are completely legal, apple would have paid an extra $2.4 billion in taxes last year. the company responded to "the new york times" report writing a statement and saying, in part, this. apple pays an enormous amount of taxes which help our local, state, and federal governments. in the first half of fiscal 2012, our u.s. operations have generated almost $5 billion in federal and state income taxes including income taxes withheld on employee stock gains. >> what do you think, mika? >> i think that these large companies, and there are many of them, who are also getting together to try and get a tax repatriation holiday, which was something passed in the bush administration once, so that they can bring their money back from overseas without getting taxed on it. i think they're making out like

bandits, quite frankly, and the little guy hurts ultimately. and i think it's abhorrent. and both sides ought to come together and try and close these loopholes. what do you think? >> i think it's -- i think if i'm running apple, i'm going to go -- >> mitt romney is for the holiday. i'm not surprised. >> i think i'm going to go across the globe and find -- >> a way not to pay your fair share? >> find laws that are the most advantageous to my company and to my workers and also to the shareholders. but this is like the g.e. story. it's like the warren buffett story. this tax fairness issue really does ring a bell for americans. >> it does. and i think that the story -- as much as anything it tells you how important and successful that apple has become. this is the kind of thing that a lot of good companies do. they always shop for foreign tax advantages. apple is a target now because they have become so successful. you know, it is one of the things about living in a federal

system that states compete with each other to try to -- for exactly this reason, on regulatory issues, on tax systems. you know, we've seen that kind of thing happen. and there's almost like a war between the states trying to get businesses in to them for things like this. >> and we definitely see it in the tristate area. chris christie almost goading dana malloy. i mean, they get along well now. but dana malloy feeling like he needed to raise taxes in connecticut, and chris christie saying, hey, come on down to new jersey. you're right. there is a lot of foreign shopping going on. >> if you're based in a state, you should pay that state's taxes to. have a mailbox elsewhere, you think that's a fair way of doing business? please. you don't. >> my primary residence is not in florida right now. i wish it were, because i would like to pay 0% state income taxes. >> exactly. >> i've got to figure out a way to do it. i just can't. >> i know you don't.

>> there's some guys in silicon valley can help you out with that. >> that's what bugs people the most, mika, that you can actually -- i make good money here. you can actually make good money and still not be able to do what the multimillionaires and the billionaires are able to do. you know, you have enough attorneys, you have enough accountants that can figure out a way -- >> to get around everything. >> if i'm not mistaken, like every year, i pay 35%. i mean, i just -- i don't -- i had some guy say, you know, you have to -- you should make it so your income is capital gains instead of salary or whatever. and i'm like, how do you do that? >> there's a word for people like you at apple. >> what's that? >> chump. >> exactly. >> you should talk to mitt romney's people. he has a couple of tax advisers to help you out. >> that's how the rich get richer. once you have all of this money, you just make money off of investments and not by getting up at 4:00 every morning, your tax rate goes down.

it's just -- it's kind of crazy. you know, if you were fortunate enough to live in downton abby, and you inherited all of your money and you just make investments, then you have a 15% tax rate. if you have to wake up in the morning and go to work, then you will have, you know -- >> i think i hear joe scarborough calling for an increase in the capital gains rate right here. that could be the headline this morning. >> mika, what's next? >> we have democrats who are planning to bring new legislation to the senate floor in the coming weeks to protect women from discrimination in the workplace. >> oh, that is -- you know what? that is so courageous of them. >> it will allow women to inquire and discuss the wages of their male colleagues. hmm. >> it's almost like they are on the streets of birmingham in 1964. how did democrats have the courage to bring up all of these issues to protect women in an election year? i am so proud of them. >> it's so smart of them because

a recent study found that women currently make 77 cents for every dollar men made. the legislation was up for a vote in november 2010 but failed in a senate when not a single republican voted for the bill. we'll see how it goes this time. >> what's fascinating to me is that democrats control the house and the senate from 2009 through the end of 2010 and had a democratic president. it's fascinating that they didn't push this more aggressively over the two years that they ran the place. had a monopoly in fact, mika. >> we'll see how it goes. i'm glad they are going for it now. >> had a filibusterproof senate for a while. >> women should feel very confident in asking about their wages and whether or not they are fair. and they should be able to sue the pants off their employers if there's discrimination. >> i agree. they should also ask democrats why when they controlled all of washington, d.c., they didn't push for this. it makes me very sad. up next, politico's top

stories. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good monday morning, everyone. beautiful weekend in much of new england and much of the east coast. but we suffered in the middle of the nation from kentucky all the way to st. louis, a lot of nasty thunderstorms this weekend. so this morning it's kind of the same old story. we're watching cold temperatures in new england. but you're going to have a beautiful afternoon. gorgeous weather today from boston to d.c. we will see some rain, though, from buffalo, detroit, pittsburgh, back into the ohio valley. right now this morning, nu nume stories stilrolling in around the st. louis area. about 3,000 lightning strikes in last hour. as far as the forecast goes today in the areas of yellow, you can expect strong thunderstorms today, cleveland, detroit, indianapolis, louisville, just south of st. louis, including areas of north texas, oklahoma city, and wichita. so the forecast today, if you're traveling at the airports, watch out down in miami too. heavy rain yesterday continues today. the west coast not looking too bad. just a little bit of light rain

up there in the northwest. you're watching "morning joe" on this monday, beautiful, beautiful, sunrise. we're brewed by starbucks. recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers. let's solve this. (female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy.

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you took your i irish setter on an 11-hour road trip tied to the roof of your car. >> my guess is he would have liked it a lot better in the kennel than he would have liked it in the car. >> finally, the freedom for a dog to feel the wind in his fur. but what about barack obama? under his failed leadership, man's best friend has been forced into government controlled automobiles. just imagine the european style dog socialism obama has planned for the next four years.

america's dogs can't afford four more years of obama. for them, that's 28 years. we need to join mitt romney in sending a message this november. i'm an american, and dog gone it, i ride outside. >> even sarah palin is getting back into the game. guest hosting on "the today show." which reminds me of an old saying. what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? a pit is delicious. [ laughter ] >> i love how he said delicious. >> oh, my goodness. >> just let it sit, marinate a minute. >> a lot of dog talk. >> that was good. >> with us now, really the man of the hour -- you asked about

celebrities, george clooney, lindsay lohan, mike allen. >> mike allen was there? >> i saw him on cspan. that and spanky. >> i feel so stupid for not going now. >> mike allen, always a reporter, always at the big events, with a tape recorder held up to the speaker. always working. mike, good to see you, man. did you have fun this weekend? >> i did. since you were at the bar during the politico award, thank you for mentioning it, politico won for its in depth coverage of how the grand bargain deal fell apart. glenn thrush. so it was the newspaper counterpart to the jake tapper triple count. >> i was going to say that, if you would let me finish. >> but i knew that politico had won something big. and i was actually over in england. >> watching futbol. >> watching futbol. and it came across -- it came across the ticker. politico has just won -- >> everybody was talking about

it. >> you're a world class superstar. >> you are, mike. let's talk some business here. president obama unveiling a new single word slogan for this campaign. >> the word is "forward." >> oh, thank god. >> and this is an effort -- >> i'm sorry. forward. >> and this is a way to try and solve the puzzle of a great bumper sticker is not -- it could be worse. and that was sort of the implicit message of the campaign for a while. so today, to the campaign's 10 million plus list, they are sending this video which is going to be unveiled this weekend. saturday is the public debut of the general election campaign. >> hold on a second. i'm just curious. so forward. really. that's it, huh? so is fox's slogan going to be -- or mitt romney's slogan going to be balanced? i mean, he's taking msnbc's slogan. >> lean forward was taken.

so they are paring it down. this weekend, the president and the first lady will be at rallies in virginia and ohio, and that's the curtain raise or the public campaign, the president going out as a candidate saying re-elect me. >> mike, let me ask you quickly what we were talking about in the last block. >> lindsay lohan? >> no. why is it fair for obama to be using the death of bin laden in this campaign? >> well, they're going to, and it's used a lot again in this seven-minute video out this morning. i think mike halpern is right, what if this was george w. bush? the other way to look at it is there's no way to pull this out of the record of the last three years. a dramatic advantage for president obama. the reason that you said now is that he is not defensive on national security. he is able to go out there and say, i one-upped george w. bush.

>> mike allen, the star of the weekend in washington. congrats on the award. coming up, the washington nationals call up the natural, kind of a lebron like prodigy of major league baseball. looking good with the bat and the glove. sports is next. everyone in america depends on the postal service.

i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. and if our legislators get on the ball, ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah!

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all right. let's do some sports, shall we is this we'll begin with an impossible comeback that happened last night in the nba playoffs. grizzlies and clippers. clippers down 21 to start the fourth quarter. got worse from there. on this jump shot, gilbert arenas puts the grizzlies up 27 points in the fourth quarter. they are up by 27 points. >> oh, wow. >> starting to get ugly. >> it's over. >> no, 26-1 run by the clippers. this 25-footer brings the clippers within three. less than 30 seconds to go, chris paul, limited all game by an injury, gets fouled. he makes two big free-throws to give the clippers a lead. they had been down 27 a couple

of minutes ago. 10 seconds to go. last chance for memphis. rudy gay misses the jump shot, yes, the clippers win coming back from 27 down in the fourth quarter. they steal game one. >> on the road? >> on the road in memphis. yes. opening game, celtics and hawks in atlanta. celtics down a minute to go. a couple of guys tied up on the floor. rajon rondo doesn't like the call. he smacks his hands in the face of the official. then it gets ugly when he goes up and bumps the ref. you can't do that. rondo tossed from the game. another look shows he clearly ran into the back of the referee. thrown out of the game. celtics lose. boston will wait and see what the league has to say about it. he says the bump was not intentional. chicago bulls have lost derrick rose for the rest of the

playoffs, torn acl, suffered laet in the game win over the sixers. he is a kid from chicago. a great kid by all accounts. he's been great for the city, great for the team. so you just hurt for this kid. and he'll be back sometime next year, we're told, the bulls now have to try to go and try to win as the number one seed without their best player. and the league's reigning mvp. a little baseball. the nats called up 19-year-old phenom bryce harper. a little earlier than they wanted to, but they called him up. >> john heilemann, i hear this guy is a total punk. >> there have been various things that have been said about bryce harper, including from baseball prospectus, it's impossible to find any talent evaluator who isn't blown away by his skills on the field, but a lot of people don't like him on the top of the scale of arrogance and sense of

kbeelthmekbeelt entitlement and on field taunting of opponents. >> on saturday, he hit a double off the wall. pretty good start. but the nationals did get swept by the dodgers. dodgers tied for the best record in all of baseball. >> this guy hit a double, and goes around first base and flings -- >> old school. 1970s baseball. >> that's sort of the stuff somebody does that in little league. you walk to second base and punch him in the face. this guy will get punched in the face, and he'll deserve it. >> he's going to get a fastball in his back, i promise you that. >> maybe from someone on his own team. >> and the veterans inside that clubhouse -- >> incredible talent. got his ged after sophomore yaoer yao year in high school. >> somebody needs to take him aside and tell him how many millions of dollars he is losing in endorsements because of his behavior. >> great double overtime hockey game. flyers beat the devils in double ot. >> rangers win too, right? >> yes. rangers win.

she is working on them right now. mika's must read opinion pages. keep it on "morning joe." . work away. work away.

45 past the hour. >> do you guys know three hilary rosens? >> just the one. >> just two. >> just the one good one, hilary rosen. >> ok. "the washington post" -- >> we were talking about this because there was a joke jimmy kimmel made about jay carney suggesting that he knew three hilary rosens, and there's why there were so many hilary rosens visiting the white house. we asked him if he said it. here is the quote. i know three personally women named hilary rosen. >> ok.

[ laughter ] >> that's great. >> what? >> just come on. >> what? >> that's just great. who knows three hilary rosens? that is funny stuff. >> that may have all visited the white house. >> it's a small world we live in. >> that's a stretch. ok. "washington post." here's what washington really does by robert samuelson. the real washington has government paid for by the rich and well-to-do. benefits go mainly to the poor and middle class while politicians of both parties live in fear they might offend the will of the people, voters. political leaders don't lead. they take the path of least rev assistance, which is to do little except find scapegoats, the rich, special interests, liberals, conservatives, that arouse their supporters' angriest antagonisms. it helps explain polarization. would you agree, joe? >> yeah. pretty simple stuff. the cbo put out a big report recently talking about how our

debt is unsustainable. the congressional budget office. a director appointed by democrats, medicare is going bankrupt, social security is going bankrupt, the current law, quote, unsustainable. and yet we don't hear -- we hear none of -- these are our biggest fiscal challenges over the next 10 to 15 years. and neither party talks about it seriously. >> well, there's a lot of talk about it. there's just not a lot of action on it. >> nobody puts any proposals forward. >> based on the conversations i had over the weekend in washington, i think there's reason to be optimistic with one exception. there's a hunger in the senate to get things done of both parties. they are sick of gridlock. whoever wins the presidency, there's going to be a hunger to get things done at the beginning of their term, whether it's the president re-elected or mitt romney. the question is the house of representatives. will the new house of representatives be hungry to get things done? >> but, mark, the senate's performance has been pathetic. >> it has been. >> you have got the republicans

that have pushed a record number of filibusters. you've got harry reid who has been one glorified pocket puppet for the president. anything the house passes, he puts it in his pocket and it never gets to the white house. the democrats have not passed a budget in over 1,000 days. the senate is pathetic. it's the least effective in over 20 years according to studies. it's a joke. >> you're right about what's happened. i'm saying that there's now -- >> and talking about the press really quickly, if mitch mcconnell were majority leader, do you think we might see a few more stories about how this is the most ineffective senate possibly in a quarter century? >> and overly political, yes, we would. but i'm saying, to be optimistic, to try to figure out a path to deal with some of the problems that are written about there and some of the pasturing, there are senators in both parties now who want to get things done, and they recognize it's not going to happen this year, it's not going to happen pre-election, but they really think there's a chance they can be part of breaking gridlock

come either the lame duck session or more likely january. >> i think that one of the keys to that, and i think mark is right, one of the keys is that i think in the senate, among senate republicans, unlike what we have seen from house republicans, senate republicans are willing to talk about revenue and new revenue. and that's critical. because the truth is, in the long-term of this, we have discussed it a million times, you need to make cuts in the programs and you need new revenue. republicans in the house have been unwilling to discuss that. republicans in the senate are open to it. even though they won't say it right now, they are. >> whether or not they believe they need new revenue, we all know, the world knows, there's not going to be a deal without republicans ge giving on revenue and democrats giving on entitlements. >> correct. there's a huge piece on paul ryan. in the first two paragraphs in "the times," you find out that he noodles. >> what does that mean? >> willie's face. >> dancing? is that a -- >> catfish.

>> oh, that kind of noodling. >> exactly. >> we'll be right back with bare hands. it's very good. i want to noodle. one of the one liners from the white house correspondents dinner. we'll have several of them coming up on "morning joe." it's very important to understand

how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies.

is it time? >> it's time. we showed a little bit of president obama doing his stand-up routine. here's some more of him at the white house correspondents dinner on saturday. >> i want to especially thank all of the members who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight. [ applause ] >> four years ago, i was locked in a brutal primary battle with hillary clinton. four years later, she won't stop drunk texting me from cartagana. look at this party. we have men in tuxes, women in gowns, fine wine, first class entertainment. i was just relieved to learn this was not a gsa conference. [ laughter ] >> even sarah palin is getting back into the game. guest hosting on "the today show." which reminds me of an old saying. what's the difference between a

hockey mom and a pit pull? a pit bull is delicious. [ laughter ] >> i know at this point many of you are expecting me to go after my likely opponent, newt gingrich. [ laughter ] >> newt, there's still time, man. take mitt romney. he and i actually have a lot in common. we also both have degrees from harvard. i have one. he has two. what a snob. [ laughter ] >> in my first term, i sang al green. in my second term, i'm going with young jesi. in my first term, we repealed the policy don't ask, don't tell in. my second term, we will replace it with a policy known as it's raining men. in my first term, we passed health care reform.

in my second term, i guess i'll pass it again. i had a lot more material prepared, but i have to get the secret service home in time for their new curfew. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> mr. president, i know you won't be able to laugh at any of my jokes about the secret service, so cover your ears if that's physically possible. remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. [ laughter ] >> you know, there's a term for guys like president obama. probably not two terms, but -- [ laughter ] >> there is. this is the first meal he's had in months. they say diplomacy is a matter of carrots and sticks, and ms. mrs. obama got to the white house, so is dinner. last week we learned that the

president's two favorite steaks are rib eye and seeing eye. you know, you don't have to reveal everything in an autobiography, right? you can leave some things out. when you go to a dog park, is it the same as when we look at a tankful of lobsters? >> that's awful. >> that is awful. >> the president introduced the dog, so it's fair game. >> rib eye and seeing eye. >> he brought it up. >> that is funny stuff. coming up next, gail collins of "the new york times" will join the conversation. we'll dig in deeper as well to that "times sunday" story about apple sidestepping billions in taxes. we'll bring in the co-authors of the front page next on "morning joe." my job is to find the next big sound.

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one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know. sthiempt it's great it's great to be here in the vast, magnificent hilton ballroom. or what mitt romney would call a little fixer upper. of course, the white house correspondents dinner is known as the prom of washington, d.c., a term coined by political reporters who clearly never had the chance to go to an actual prom. [ laughter ] welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour, mark halperin and john heilemann still with

us. and joining the table, columnist for "the new york times" gail collins back on the show. >> this is exciting. let it be said, and i am sure game change two will take special note of this -- >> it should. >> gail collins framed the debate around dogs long before anybody else knew that there had once been a dog strapped to the top of -- >> modern day nostradamus. >> she is a modern day nostradamus. >> it's a long campaign. you have to have a little break here and there. >> and you have a little break every week when you write about mitt romney's dog. and now you've got barack obama talking about pit bulls tasting delicious. >> dog eating president. yes. that's true. >> you're a dog person? >> we have a dog, but we didn't when i started. >> but you haven't eaten it. >> she's obsessed with the mitt romney story. let's get to the news. >> delicious. >> really, it's just fine. moving on now. >> can i ask you, gail, are you

in mourning right now? should you be wearing black for a month or two because the republican contest is over? >> well, we're going to miss newt gingrich a lot. >> well, he's still here. don't worry. he still hasn't stepped down. >> herman cain. rick perry. the list goes on and on. seriously, did you just roll out of bed going, have i died and gone to columnist heaven? >> it was a good time. it really was. you guys got six months of barack obama versus mitt romney. that's going to be a long hard fight. >> hopefully it's a good conversation. >> we doubt it. >> i just need to know why he doesn't just end it, and now he has delayed it a day. newt gingrich was going to announce tuesday. now it's wednesday. why? he can't help it? >> he wants to do it on his terms. >> really? >> what does that mean? >> i think he is preparing to give a great speech and frame things the way he wants to frame them. >> yeah. now, there are some republicans, john, that are saying that mitt

romney should punish newt gingrich at the convention for not playing ball. not giving him a speech. all of this is going to be forgotten in a week, right? >> i think so. and i think that he will not be in primetime. and i think neither will santorum be primetime. but they'll both speak. it would be my guess. you know, you have to be a big tent. if you're trying to be the incoming president, there's no reason to alienate anybody within your own party. there are hundreds of thousands if not some millions of people in the party who voted for newt gingrich. why alienate them? >> i would guess, mark halperin, if you had a pool of such things, and you were trying to figure out who was going to get the loudest applause other than possibly the nominee, i would put newt gingrich up there. i think he still does have a following even for people who didn't vote for him. >> maybe marco rubio would get a bigger applause. but i think the primetime in the convention is a different beast than it used to be, because there's no gavel to gavel

coverage. you can let somebody speak between 8:00 and 11:00 and not make it to broadcast tv. i think if santorum and gingrich come to the convention and are vetted and give good speeches, it will be good for mitt romney. if but my hunch is they will give a speech that governor romney will like. certainly the obama campaign officially started with a fundraiser with bill clinton over the weekend. and the obama and romney campaigns are exchanging attacks over whether the killing the osama bin laden is fair game. president clinton was in an ad touting the decision to take out the al qaeda leader, but ed gillespie says the fight against terrorism shouldn't be a partisan issue. >> this is one of the reasons

that president obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in american history. he took something that was a unifying event for all americans, an event that governor romney congratulated him and the military and the intelligence analysts in our government for completing the mission in terms of killing osama bin laden, and he's managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack that former defense secretary frank carlucci for president reagan called sad, john mccain called shameful. i think most americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> just a few years ago, president obama, then a candidate, said in a speech that if we had actionable intelligence of a high value target in pakistan, we'd go in and get that high value target. mitt romney said that was foolish. he wouldn't do such a thing. that he wouldn't move heaven and earth to get osama bin laden. >> you're saying that president obama believes that a president romney, if he was working with the same nonpartisan professionals in the

counterterror realms of the government, who came to him with intelligence saying, we have an opportunity to capture and kill osama bin laden, you're saying president romney wouldn't take that shot? >> i don't think it's clear that he would. again, he criticized barack obama a few years ago when barack obama said, if we have actionable intelligence about a high value target -- and let's be clear, nobody was bigger, nobody was a more high value target than osama bin laden. >> gail collins, i'm not sure how this can be turned against the president. but it may be that i have no way of seeing that. >> i don't understand what they're doing. every time the republicans do this, they remind people that barack obama took out osama bin laden. i mean, the more the conversation goes on. and now the conversation is all about whether barack obama should mention whether he took out osama bin laden. it's wonderful for the president. i don't understand why this is a thing that the republicans are doing. >> i think the president's foreign policy record is not perfect, but the republicans are doing themselves and the country

a disservice by every time there's any foreign policy flap coming out and criticizing him. they are doing it on the situation in china, which is an incredibly tough foreign policy challenge for the united states now. with some activists reportedly in the u.s. against. and the republicans criticized the white house over the weekend. they have to pick their spots politically. >> it's just a losing argument. in gail's paper this weekend, peter bergen, who has a new book about the chase for bin laden, did this thing called the warrior in chief and went through obama's foreign policy record, talked about drone strikes, talked about pakistan, yemen, somalia, and said this guy -- he is one of the most militarily aggressive presidents in decades. >> do you have that piece up right now? >> i do. >> can i see it for a second? >> it's on an apple product. >> i see that. >> mitt romney has a strong card to play on the economy. you know, and that is if he's going to win this election, he's

going to win it on that card. to get into this, i think gail is right, all of these discussions play to an area where the president as i would agree with mark his foreign policy record is not perfect. some on the left think he's too militarily aggressive. but that's not something that the republicans are going to criticize him for. they can't win this argument. they shouldn't waste time with it. >> gail, there are some on the left that think the president has been too aggressive. i'm on the right personally that thinks he's been too aggressive. he tripled the number of troops in afghanistan. i think we should have started moving out of afghanistan. and we said so three years ago. people like george will said so three years ago. he is launching drone attacks in countries where we aren't even at war. in fact, last week, the cia was allowed to actually loosen the standards for launching drone attacks into countries where we don't even have a declared war.

he has adopted a lot of the bush-cheney rules that democrats and the president found so offensive. i have got to say, i agree, i don't understand why republicans think they can pick up any support from a war weary country by suggesting that barack obama should be actually more militant. >> and it's going to be -- we're talking about a great national discussion. you will not have a great national discussion on foreign policy if mitt romney keeps trying to pretend that his argument that we should do exactly the same things that we're doing now is actually a stronger argument. it's going to be very weak. >> here's part of the article you were talking about. the rhetorical shift had dramatic nonrhetorical consequences. compare mr. obama's use of drone strikes with that of his predecessor. during the bush administration, there was an american drone attack in pakistan every 43 days. during the first two years of the obama administration, there was a drone strike there every four days. and two years into his

presidency, the nobel peace prize winning president was engaginged in conflicts in iraq pakistan, afghanistan, yemen, and libya. the man who went to washington as anti-war was more teddy roosevelt than jimmy carter. >> and the president from the beginning decided he wanted his military to launch more drone attacks. and in fact, i can't say where this was, but in a certain agency, in a certain government, they kept a scorecard. drone attacks pre-january 20, 2009. drone attacks post january 20, 2009. >> that nobel peace prize is looking a little strange. >> you think they may want to take it back? >> i think nine months was a little too soon there. >> yeah. >> but -- and they resumed over the weekend in pakistan, gail, the attacks continue. >> yeah. >> and just remember when the president gave his speech as mika just mentioned at the nobel

prize, he took that opportunity to articulate a philosophy of war. >> of why you needed it. >> and now you have romney trying to get to the right of the president on iran, and on syria, to your point, joe about, a war weary nation, who wants right now -- republican or democrat, wants to see boots on the ground in syria? who wants to see that region further militaryized? you can't beat him by saying he is too soft. to try to get to the right of him on the few places where you might get to the right of him goes against the vast weight of the american opinion. it is a no win argument. >> gail, mitt romney and the republicans, if they know how to use it, they are holding a hand maybe not with four aces but with three, with the economy. why do you move away from the economy that's slowing down? they can run against the stimulus for not working. they can run against the auto bailout if they want to. they can run against all of the bailouts. they can run against health care. they can run against cap and

trade. they can run against a lot of these issues that may not -- that play very well at "the new york times" but don't play as well with independents, if you say look at all the things they have tried to do, instead of trying to create jobs. and they are talking about foreign policy. >> well, when mitt romney talks about foreign policy, he sounds strange, like a guy who is not sure what's actually going on or pretending he doesn't know. it's very strange. very, very weird. >> my dad said he was playing with matches with iran. you know, on the economy and on foreign policy, i think barnicle was talking about this last week. i'd rather hear what he stands for, just at this point. to know who mitt romney is. >> all he needs to do on foreign policy is clear the bar that people see him as a acceptable commander in chief in order to win. and just dhcherry-picking to criticize everything, i just don't get it. >> speaker boehner criticized the white house for what he calls campaign theatrics. boehner says both sides agree on

several important issues, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the president. >> the president and i have a very good relationship. as a result, you know, i try to avoid personal attacks on the president. but let me say something. the president is getting some very bad advice from his campaign team, because he's diminishing the presidency by picking fake fights, going after straw men every day. the presidency is important. america has big challenges. big fiscal challenges, and we've got big challenges with our economy, and the president ought to be working with democrats and republicans on capital hill to address the big issues that affect the american people. >> boehner also made the case for mitt romney, pushing back against the suggestion that romney's wealth will be an obstacle in november. >> american people don't want to vote for a loser. they don't want to vote for someone that hasn't been successful. i think mitt romney has an

opportunity to show the american people that they too can succeed. >> so, mark halperin, is that fair that the president is overly politicizing his office this election year? and john boehner ticked off the buffett rule, which even the white house admits was a political move. and now democrats are pushing these bills for equal pay among women, which is great, but they certainly didn't push them as hard the first two years when they controlled washington. it seems like everything is politicized, but that happens in election years, right? >> well, particularly when you decide, as both parties have since the end of last year, that nothing is going to get done this year. if you're not going to move any serious legislation, of course all you're going to into is posture for the election. both sides are doing it. republicans would like to drive this message that the president is overly political. democrats want to drive the mean that the republicans are funded by super pacs and billionaires and special interests. i'm not sure the public cares much about either argument.

but both sides will spend a lot of time on those things. >> get us back to work. >> i never like to criticize the president personally, except that he's really pathetic about this. >> well, let me say this. he is diminishing the office. so you had a column about education reform, which was fascinating. you claim that a lot of private companies are making a lot of money on education. >> that's what no child left behind gave us. this great cosmic improvement, you know, we're going to be accountable, we're going to do this and that. it's become a law about how we can bring the private sector in and give them all the money for public schools. it's very weird. but the amount of money that these people are making on testing. texas pays close to half a billion dollars for a five-year contract. to do its tests right now. and the amount of money the charter schools are now being taken over by private corporations. you've got online schools. these kids sit at home with their computers, and the company that's got the computer program then gets all the money.

>> so this is what you write. this is the part of education reform nobody told you about. you heard about accountability and choice. and innovation. but when no child left behind was passed 11 years ago, do you recall anybody mentioning that it would provide monster profits for the private business sector? me neither. the pushback against privatization isn't easy. we're now in a world in which decisions about public education involve not just parents and children and teachers, but also big profits or losses for the private sector. change the tests or the textbooks or the charters or even the rules for teacher certification, and you change somebody's bottom line. and i guess my question to you, gail, out of that would be, aren't some of these forces in place to try and improve it? how do you not have companies creating the tests and creating some of these things? how else would it get done? >> actually, the obama administration is trying to work this out, but the problem now is you have 50 tests because each

state wants to have their own test. the administration is trying to get everybody together and maybe one or two groups who have their own standards to figure out then what a test for these 20 states would look like. so you have a test that's been developed through the government, and you don't have -- it's not efficient to have 50 different states competing and 50 -- not 50 different companies, but two or three different companies raking in massive profits. >> it seems to me, and i understand when you get into the humanities and history, then that's going to be controversial. what are the standards and the subjects taught. but for math and science, why can't we have one or two national tests for math and science? it's hard to politicize a math equation, isn't it? >> well, science, you have evolution. so it's not that hard to do. >> well, you know, we can have a carveout for that. teach the other 99.9999% of high school. >> well, the states are enjoying

it. texas won't do it. but most states are working together to try to work this thing out. but now every time you make a decision about education, you have to take this other thing into consideration. there are all of these guys out there who have a ton of money invested, who are expecting tons of profits, and nobody bargained for that. this was not in the plan. >> your column is in "the new york times," a very pricey pineapple. gail collins, stay with us. up next, the authors of a surprising report in the "new york times" explains how apple is banking billions off a tax code that's fallen way behind the digital economy. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer.

same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores.

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23 past the hour. joining us now, "new york times"

reporter charles dighig and charles kocienheski. >> you spit out your coffee when you said that thing about profits and taxes. you said it looked like some of those buildings in abu dhabi. >> i couldn't believe my eyes. but this really delves into what's going on here and why perhaps some of these digital companies are able to do this. these gentlemen are the co-writers of the front page piece in "the sunday times," how apple sidesteps billions in taxes. in it they write, one downside for companies using such strategies is that when money is sent overseas it cannot be returned to the united states without incurring a new tax bill.

however, that might change. last year apple aligned itself with more than four dozen companies and organizations urging congress for a repatriation holiday to permit american businesses to bring money home without owing large taxes. the coalition, which includes google, microsoft, and pfizer have pushed the measure. the tax break would cost the federal government $79 billion over the next decade, according to a congressional report. and i think before we look into why this is happening with some of these companies, i guess my question to you, joe, would be isn't that the effort to get a tax repatriation holiday an example of how corporations run washington? and get what they want? >> well, sure. but that story is as old as washington itself. >> it sure is. but at some point, the conversation has to lead to something. >> the bigger story, i think, is the fact that the government, and we saw this on september 15, 2008, when we saw a meltdown,

the government still hasn't picked up on the i.t. revolution and how quickly money moves across borders yet. they just haven't figured out how to get their arms around that, right? >> it's true. i think in the tax area, you -- where the big gains are now for companies is where they take intellectual property, patents, trademarks, move them offshore, and with the click of a button you can put it out to ireland, and the cayman islands. >> the netherlands. >> some play where it's tax free and the government chases after it. the irs has people trying to look after it. i was the a conference last year where a person who handles the program where they try to chase this, he said they are complaining it takes three years to get their pricing agreements approved. and he is saying, you know, we have a hard time to get around

the country. we don't have airfares to keep up with these companies. >> whether it's the irs or the s.e.c. trying to keep up with the banks and how quickly they move, the government is fighting a losing battle. >> it's true. they are outmanned and underguned. and the other side has almost infinite resources to find every loophole they can. and the nature of the economy has changed. we now live in a world where some of the most valuable things you sell are things you can't touch. it's lines of code in a computer or software. >> it's not like the industrial revolution, where you're like, ok, we're going to get lots of brick and mortar and build a factory in detroit. you can't move that to a p.o. box in the netherlands. >> that's exactly right. and it's hard to hide a car. >> right. look, i understand -- by the way, everything that's been done here is perfectly legal. we can say that again and again for the case of balance. but this repatriation holiday, i mean, how is that not big

companies who make massive profits trying to get around having to pay their fair share? can somebody explain to me how i sound trill here, that what i'm saying is absolutely not true? >> the argument is here is all of this money offshore, over $1 trillion. if they bring it back, they can invest and hire people. last year during the debate about trying to spur hiring in the u.s., that was a big argument. but if you look at what happened in 2004, the last time there was a repatriation holiday, i think 98 cents on every dollar went to shareholders, went to ceos, went for stock buybacks. you know, that's their think mow, they should do what they want. but to argue it will lead to investment in the u.s. just isn't what happened. >> it isn't what happened in 2004. and why shouldn't they pay their taxes? i don't understand. >> obviously, and i understand the fairness argument, but if you give money to shareholders -- what are you smirking about? >> because it's so obvious. it's so political. this is such a case of massive profits, big corporations,

basically ruling washington. >> they do rule washington, mika. but if you get the money back in the country, and it does go to shareholders, it's not like the shareholders are going to throw the cash on the bed and roll around on it naked. they are going to spend it in the economy. >> a couple of them i know are going to roll around in it. >> i know someone who takes a bath in money. >> obviously, this money is not repatriated in a vacuum that is $1 trillion. we have heard $2 trillion does come back into the economy. it seems to me what would be offensive to americans, and you have a lot of conservatives talking about this on illegal immigration. reagan granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants, thinking this is going to take care of it. and it only increases the problem. here, you think, ok, we let them repatriate the money. aren't they just going to do it again five, 10 years from now? >> yeah. >> and i think there's a basic disagreement here.

on one side of the equation are people who say, look, apple can spend money for efficiently than the u.s. government can. we should entrust apple with this $100 billion -- >> by the way, true. go ahead. >> they are really smart. and we have trust that they are going to use it in a way to create jobs. and then on the other side of that equation are people that i sa, look, apple is apple is going to serve apple's interests. and there's a lot of things in america that we care about, people who are in need, dispossessed, that need things from the government that apple will not care about. >> roads, schools. >> so we need to give that money to the government and let them use it for what's right. >> but putting the money offshore to avoid taxes? >> well, last time it was taxed at 4%. so in a way it's helping to reward the tax avoidance. and companies that pay their taxes and bring it back are getting a disincentive. >> is there any evidence that if this money comes back to the

united states that the federal government will be able to follow it more effectively so they don't just pay 4% tax? >> no one has made that argument, no. in fact, the one argument they made is look, if you let us bring this back even at 5%, you're going to get $50 billion and at least that's something. you and use that as your infrastructure bank. it's better than nothing. >> but this whole thing about how the government can't track these people, it's not because the government is inept. it's because there is a distinct decision made politically by people who run congress that you're not going to put any money into enforcing these laws into keeping track of these people. it's not like this happened by accident, because people just didn't know what they were doing. that's a strategy as much as the tax holiday is a strategy on the part of corporations. >> robert samuelson of "the washington post" today talked about how washington is run by the rich. this obviously just underlines that. >> yeah. >> in a big way. >> all right.

charles, your book by the way is "the power of habit." david, thank you as well. what's the power of habit? >> that's too compelling. i'm not going to let that go. and look at the cute little graphs. what is the power of habit? >> i'll have to come back and tell you. the science of habit formation, how habits work in lives and companies and what we have learned. >> i love it. >> does it teach us how to adopt good habits? >> not only that, but also organizations. >> will it teach companies to pay their fair share? >> i'm not sure about that. that's a high bar. >> i'm an extraordinarily disciplined guy, and i think mika will tell you that. i work 15, 16, 17 hours a day. i cannot get into the good habit of eating the way that i should. will your book help me? >> i'll come back. i promise we'll solve that one. >> really? >> if you solve that one, we'll sell lots of books. >> you'll issbe eating like micl

phelps. >> i love it. >> i am buying this book today, and we will have you book. coming up, the end of illness. a leading cancer specialist joining us with his new approach to modern medicine, and the simple tips to living a longer, healthier life. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

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35 past the hour. let's take a quick look at some of the morning papers. in "the financial times," secretary of state hillary clinton heads to china today as the two countries are on the verge of a political standoff. at issue, the fate of cheng cheng. he apparently scale a wall and slipped past dozens of security guards. >> and we're worried about china taking us over? >> he had been detained in his home for months after speaking out against forced abortions and the sterilization of women by the chinese government >> and "the new york times," a milestone at one world trade center. construction expected -- they are building the tallest building in the manhattan, passing the empire state building. from "the los angeles

times," a major study released yesterday finds that children and teens who develop type ii diabetes have a very difficult time controlling it despite a variety of methods to treat it. the study found that half of those diagnosed failed to get their blood sugar under control within a few years, and that one in five suffered serious complications. researchers say that changes in puberty might play a role in that. gail collins, great to have you today. >> thank you. >> always great to see you. up next, a new yorker on which she calls a tragic force in iran. her first-hand look at that country's recent elections and the impact of international sanctions on the economy there. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

41 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now, free lance journalist laura secor. last month, laura travelled to iran during the country's parliamentary election, and writes about that trip in the latest issue of "the new yorker." she writes in part, israran was holding an election and seemed truly afraid that nobody would come. and so the government had organized a get out the vote campaign that equated domestic submission with international defiance. vote, the supreme leader urged irani, but because it would be a slap in the face of the enemy. although the emphasis on foreign threats was surely heightened, the underlying message that voting was a show of the people's submission to the iranian state and not vice verse was not new.

>> laura, the front page of "the new york times" this morning says after a season of hand wringing it looks like sanctions may be working. talk about what you saw and how that lines up with what you learned. >> well, it's hard in some ways to discuss the impact of sanctions even at this moment because they haven't actually taken full effect. when i was there, there was a lot of anticipation of what that effect might be. but because the oil embargo, the european oil embargo goes into effect july 1, we haven't really seen the extent of what that's going to mean for iran and the regime while i was there was scrambling to make arrangements that would make up for that shortfall. so to some extent, we're sort of some ways out from that reality. on the other hand, the apprehension was very real. and some of the young economists and journalists that i spoke with there were quite convinced that by late fall, if the sanctions were to take full hold, that there would be some

serious repercussions. >> so there's a question that i ask dr. brzezinski and others, and it's tough to get an answer. but in your time in iran, what was the feeling on who actually ran the country? because you hear ahmadinejad is a figurehead for the ayatollahs. you hear the ayatollahs are actually figureheads for the revolutionary guard. it just goes around in circles. who is running iran right now? >> well, one thing you can be certain of is that the man who is known as the supreme leader, the ayatollah, is surely at the center of power in that country. the question of the revolutionary guard is a little bit more complex because they do have their hands on various different levers, military and economic. they have pretty big stake in the country's economy. >> does the supreme leader have the power to cross the revolutionary guard? >> according to the constitution, he does. >> but i'm not asking about the constitution, though. if he steps out of line, do they come after him? >> no. i don't think we've seen that to happen.

there is some debate about this among iran experts there. are people who say now there is a coterie of revolutionary guard leaders that are more powerful. there is less hard evidence for that than we would need to make that determination. because constitutionally the supreme leader has the ability to replace the revolutionary guard and vice versa, the clerics are still at the top. there are people who would debate, and i'm not in a position to verify, that there are sort of coteries of revolutionary guard that have power behind the scenes that extends beyond those borders. and that may or may not be true. but i think that if it is true, that the leader has aligned himself with those factions. >> so, mika, obviously, one thing we do know, it's far different from 1979 when you had the ayatollah comainy who was without a doubt the supreme leader. now i think we are moving more to a system of checks and

balances. >> i would disagree with that. i think in some ways, this leader is -- he has a more autocrattic hand that comainy had. but he did tolerate a balance of political factions that he would kind of in a sort of -- he would counterbalance the factions against each other, and encourage some factions that maybe had a weaker hand in the political institutions. he would throw a hand on the scale for them. >> right. >> this ayatollah doesn't do that. he is aligned with a faction of iranian political life, and he weighs heavily on its behalf. >> so you completely dismiss those that say the revolutionary guard -- >> i don't completely dismiss it. but i don't see myself exactly what the evidence is that they have independent power that sits outside of the sort of funnels of clerical influence. >> so why are the elections a tragic farce? what did you see?

>> this election for parliament was the first election in iran since the 2009 presidential election. there was a city council election that was scheduled but it was postponed to coincide with the next presidential, which is not until next year. so this election was important for iran for that reason. this was the first time since people came into the streets as you remember in 2009 and were rather aggressively crushed by militias, this was the first time that the iranian state had invited the country to talk about politics and come out and vote. but the election, the faspace o the election was pretty heavily circumscribed. the conformists that used to run for office who were slightly more liberal minded and talking about democratizing the system from within, they have been pushed out. a lot of them are in prison, including former officials. the spectrum of debate now is as narrow as it has ever been under the islamic republic. >> at one point during your work there you were detained and interrogated.

tell us about that. and how was that carried out! i w ? >> someone accosted my translator and me on the street and pulled us aside, led us into a car. we were taken to an office in central tehran. i was told it was an intelligence office. i'm not sure whether that means it was connected to the ministry of intelligence or to some other sort of subagency of the revolutionary guard, which i suspect. but my offense was that on the day of the election, they had confined the foreign media to buses. they were taking us on a bus tour of polling stations. this had never been done before. at about 2:00 in the afternoon, when most of the foreign reporters were saying we can't do this anymore, they were taking us to polling stations packed with iranian state media, and that was really the entire dynamic of the day. they said, ok, you can go back to your hotels but you're not allowed to leave. so they confined us to our

hotels. i took that to mean they could leave after the bus tour would be over, which was at 7:00. so i went out that evening, and that's why they picked me up the next day. they had me in a room with three people. there were two interrogators and a translator and asking me questions about where i had been the night before, where i had been the night before that. and about the kinds of questions i was think the thing they were most sensitive about was the economy. it was something that was sort of open for political discussion. this time it was quite different, and that is clearly because of the sanctions regime, which has tied the economic situation in iran to its more sensitive international situation. not that the problems in the economy were actually new. but that was what got me in some difficulty. >> wow. >> thank you so much. >> look for more of this in "the new yorker."

laura secor, thank you so much. >> what if bloomberg's people asked you where you were like last night, the night before? that would be bad news for you. actually in any country. >> i would be incarcerated for probably perpetually. infinite incarceration. up next, "the morning news" futbol report with roger bennett. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. losing weight clicked for us when we realized we could eat whatever we wanted and still lose weight. weight watchers online was so easy. you look up a food, you eat the food, you track the food. weight -- comes right off. you have lipstick on your teeth. ok. got it. using the recipe builder, i'm making 2 point enchiladas that will blow your mind. together, we lost 71 pounds with weight watchers online.

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with us now is bennett roger, espn analyst. what a weekend. >> it was a great weekend for goals and terrible weekend for those who believe in karma. this premier season has seen many men do terrible things. louis suarez. >> i was there. the north wind kind of cold. >> went with ed. >> the number two guys. >> the man who makes

unfortunate. >> here he is. the crowds hate him. they say he cheats and dives and hates the jackson five. >> from 55 yards. >> oh! >> how did that not go in? >> look at this. >> this is a goal. unbelievable. >> how does that happen. >> 55 yards. >> look at this thing. oh! the keeper might have been a little out of position there. >> this is what the daily mail says. suarez bends it like beckham. 18-year-old david beckham is the last time anybody scored this kind of goal. beckham was 18. when he kicked it we had no idea

what was going on. steven gerard said he was going to kill suarez and then had to applaud him. >> this is the team president. she is england's martha stewart. >> i got an e-mail right before half time that said you have to get a picture with delia smith. >> why are you wearing a tie at a soccer game? >> that's how you dress when you're in certain sections. >> all the coaches wear coat and ties. you just do that on the pitch. >> so delia smith, she is a legend. >> england's martha stewart. >> she is famous for getting on the field some would say incredibly drunk.

>> they love her. >> could you do the rest of the segment in that voice? >> next week's fa cup final. john terry, here they are playing them again. this man compartmentalizes like no other. the $18 million. he has been marked. he has come alive. this is a hat trick. the final score chelsea fa cup next weekend against liverpool. very unpredictable. >> very excited because roman paid a lot of money for this guy. you knew. he obviously had the deciding

goal. >> indeed still the winner against barcelona. that was a game a little like watching god kill the devil. >> espn is going to be playing it. >> 3:00 against manchester united. number one against number two. it is easier to pick a rooting interest in the iran/iraq war. >> president obama did a little standup on saturday night. the top jokes next on "morning joe." i love cash back. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically.

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some have said i blame too many problems on my predecessor. let's not forget that is a practice that was initiated by george w. bush. it's great to be here in the ball room or what mitt romney would call an old fixer upper. >> if you told me i would be on the stage with president obama i would say the president's name is barack obama.

>> remember when the country rallied around you in the hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. >> welcome back to "morning joe." we have mark and john on set. did you all have fun? >> it was fun. the president was good. i think he was very funny. the dog eating came up more than i expected it to. he went there a couple of times and jimmy kimmal went there. >> the only laugh out loud moment was when he said the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull, the pit bull tastes delicious. that was the joke of the night. >> there was a moment -- people did not laugh immediately. >> i was sitting there for a half a second and then was like did he go there? >> it is almost silent and then

it grows. >> you see michelle, she has the same reaction. >> i don't know if he never got to do this before he was president of the united states. he enjoyed doing it so much. the fact that he enjoys it so much -- >> he telegraphs it and starts laughing. joking aside that's like a plank of his platform. i eat dog. >> they like talking about dogs. the dog thing is not going to go away. >> how is jimmy kimmal? we have ups and downs. remember colbert didn't work. >> i think the standard seth

myers was so good. his delivery is such that he rapid fires. he must have gotten off 100 jokes on this short set. >> it was very fast. he talks very fast. i thought about half way through i felt there were moments he was trying to get the jokes done. >> it's funny you say that because you have guys who are really funny in their own sort of realm that just collapse here. colbert had a terrible night. he didn't have his crowd at all. jay leno was terrible. people were groaning, the same sort of jokes that would have worked very well every night for him didn't work there. i love jimmy kimmal. you laughed at some of them but other times he felt out of the element. >> there was a lot of inside humor. the president really, they think

about those jokes really in terms of youtube because they know there are millions of people to watch the speech. they are playing for a big broad audience. a lot of comedians come and have joke writers that write inside jokes. >> can we do something? appearing at a fundraiser with the president last night, former president bill clinton attacked mitt romney's economic strategies without mentioning romney by name clinton railed against a republican opponent who wants to do what they did before on steroids which will get you the same consequences you got before on steroids. the obama team is hoping to tap into clinton's wide network of donors. it is a relationship that was put on display last week when clinton was featured in a

campaign web video touting president obama's leadership in the raid that killed osama bin laden one year ago this week. >> this is one of the reasons president obama has become one of the most divisive, took something that was a unifying event, an event that governor romney congratulated him for completing the mission in terms of killing osama bin laden. and he has managed to turn it into a divisive political attack that former defense secretary called sad, john mccain called shameful. i think most will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> obama adviser gibbs says his death was a key moment.

>> just a few years ago president obama then a candidate said in a speech if we had intelligence we would go in and get that high value target. mitt romney said that was foolish. he wouldn't do such a thing. they wouldn't move heaven and earth to get osama bin laden. >> you are saying that president obama believes that a president romney if he was working in the counter terror realms of the government who came to him with intelligence saying we have the opportunity to kill osama bin laden you are saying president romney would not take that shot? >> i don't think he would. he criticized barack obama. nobody was a more high value target than osama bin laden. >> is it fair game the use of the killing of osama bin laden? >> i think discussing it is part

of the president's records is totally fair game. i believe the media if george bush did a video in an election year would go crazy. it would be the lead story every night. >> talked about this and they would find a wife of a navy seal who would say it hurts me that my husband went in and now george w. bush is exploiting. come on. >> i think it is fair game. >> i do think it's fair game. i think the standard i go to on this is george h.w. bush who was there when the wall came down and refused to let political advisors even bring it up. that said on the other side of the ledger if this had failed, if this mission had failed do we

think mitt romney would be exploiting that for political gain? of course. the question answers itself. >> i think it is fair game but i'm surprised that there are not more questions raised about it even though i think it is fair game. >> they have this video about it and i understand there are going to be shows about it. they are going to have a tick talk. and the white house is i think at some point americans are going to stop and say they are really exploiting this politicly. is there a danger of going too far? >> an interesting question is how the media portrays it. it's a big decision. >> it's an incredible story. >> it's an incredible. the ticktock of it is an incredible story. mitt romney there is an element

of hypocrisy. the statements that the obama campaign is pointing out romney having made about diminishing the importance of getting osama bin laden. mccain attacked romney back in 2007 for that same statement and accused romney of being weak for not emphasizing how important it was to get bin laden. there is a lot. >> there is a lot of hypocrisy. mccain comes from a military family. when you come back from war and you do heroic things you know what you don't do? you don't go down to the vfw and hold up your medal and say let me tell you what i did. there is a code. this is unseamly the president going around talking about this.

>> mccain was we remember well he was very -- he eventually conisnco consented to do it. who knows what mccain would do once he was in the oval office. there is just no world in which this is not going to be -- >> and by the way that code, that is a code among democratic heroes that go to war and republican heroes that go to war. anyway so let it speak for itself because there are enough people that know what happened around that table, who know the president made a really courageous decision when everybody else around that table was saying it is awfully risky,

mr. president. he made the decision. shouldn't you let other people say it? >> probably but on the list of things this country wanted to do killing osama bin laden was pretty close to the top and he is the guy who did it. it is interesting when you think of the context of it, democratic president accusing a republican of being weak kneed. president obama is holding the cards on foreign policy. it's fascinating. did you see this front page article on apple and taxes. sunday new york times describing how amalong with other companies are taking advantage of the country's tax code. according toor the story the tech giant made over $34 billion in profits and paid just over $3 billion in paxes. that is a tax rate at under 10%.

wal-mart paid 24% tax rate. 70% are allocated from overseas and in some cases the company set up a little more than a mail box in order to take advantage. here at home the company opened an office in nevada. >> it's not that far from silicon valley. quick bus ride. >> it helps because the corporate tax rate there is zero. in california the rate is nearly 9%. without taking advantage of those methods which are completely legal apple would have paid an extra $2.4 billion in taxes last year. the company responded to the report writing a statement saying apple pays an enormous amount of taxes which help our local, state and federal governments. in the first half of fiscal 2012 our u.s. operations have

generated almost $5 billion in federal and state -- >> what do you think? >> i think that these large companies and there are many of them who are also getting together to try to get a tax repatriotings holidays i making out like band said and the little guy hurts ultimately. both sides ought to come together and try to close the loopholes. what do you think? >> i think if i'm running apple -- >> mitt romney is for the holiday. i'm not surprised. >> i think i'm going to go across the globe and find laws that are most advantageous to my company and to my workers and also to the share holders. but it's like the g.e. story.

this tax fairness issue really does ring a bell for americans. >> it does. i think the story tells you how successful and important apple has become. they are always shopping for tax advantage. this is a testament to apple being -- they are a targett now because they have become so successful. it's one thing about living in a federal system that states compete with each other on regulatory issues and on tax systems. we have seen that kind of thing happen in the states. there is almost a war within the states. >> we definitely see it here in the tristate area. chris christy almost goating. we saw it more. they get along well now. malloy feeling like he needed to raise taxes in connecticut. christy saying come down to new jersey. there is a lot of forums.

>> you should pay that state's taxes. to have a mailbox elsewhere you think that's fair? you don't. >> i don't. my primary residence is not in florida right now. i wish it were because i would like to pay 0% state income taxes. i have to figure out a way to do it. i just can't. >> there are guys in silicon valley that can help you with that. >> i think that is what bugs people the most is that i make good money here. you can make good money and still not be able to do what the multimillionaires and billionaires are able to do. you have enough attorneys and account that can figure out a way. if i'm not mistaken every year i pay like 35%. i had some guy say you should make it so your income is

capital gains instead of salary. how do you do that? >> there is a word for people like you at apple. >> what's that? >> chump. >> mitt romney's people could help you out. >> once you have this money you just make money off investments and not by getting up at 4:00 every morning and your tax rate goes down. it's kind of crazy. if you were fortunate enough to live in abby and you inherited your money and just make investments then you have a 15% tax rate. if you have to wake up in the morning and go to work -- >> i think i hear calling for an increase in the capital gains rate. a new theory on why women in the workforce makes less money

than men. also ahead we'll talk to one of the world's leading cancer doctors about his advice for disease prevention. first, bill karens with a check on the forecast. we are now in the peak of our tornado season. so far this april been relatively tame. now as we head into may who knows what the cards hold? right now we have had 63 tornado deaths in this country. at this time last year we had 365. last year those numbers soared after the tuscaloosa tornado and the joplin one. the peak of the tornado season is may. today if we are going to see tornado they are going to be in north texas, western portions of oklahoma, the areas of level in the ohio valley. mostly large hail and damaging

wind. not many tornadoes today. strong thunderstorms the story today. northern and central plains. in florida especially south florida a lot of heavy rain today. that will continue tomorrow. a sneak peek of tomorrow's forecast shows warmer air heading towards d.c. near 80. i don't think we will see many tornadoes tomorrow either. enjoy your last day of april. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance,

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one of the jobs is to keep track of all the hilary rosen's. hilary rosen is the one who said ann romney never worked a day in her life. her name appeared on the white house visitor log 35 times. when reporters asked why her name showed up 35 times he said he wasn't sure it was the same hilary rosen. he said i personally know three hilary rosen's. where do all of these hilary rosens come from? did you pick them in the hilary rosen garden. i bet you $10,000 you don't know three hilary rosens but i'm not running for president. >> the author of the book,

"manning up" how the rise of women has turned men into boys. she wrote a piece on why women make less than men. are we really in the midst of what pew calls a gender reversal. close cousin of the gender-wage gap, the main reason that women spend less time at work than men and that women are unlikely to be the richer sex. 20% of women earn more but most are likely to cut back hours after kids giving men the hours and income advantage. that you think is the bottom line? >> that's an important component but it's not the whole story. there are other issues like

occupational choices. women tend to go into lower paying fields. >> it's interesting. i think sanburg talked about how women tend to mentally dial back. when i have kids i'll dial back. what i question is with black berries and iphones and computers i think women are more productive because men come home and flop and can't focus. >> men just flop and can't focus at all. you need to talk to susan. >> big leather chair, beer gut and a television. >> i have seen those ads. i know how productive you are. >> i think a lot of women in the workforce who have children are so concerned and they

overcompensate for having children and work harder and work off hours. >> that could be. there is no way to measure some of what you are describing there. what we can measure is the hours that you are being paid for and those hours are less than what men work? >> why is that? >> i think because of the kids. as you read in the piece women in their 20s are now single childless women in their 20s are earning more than single childless men. that says they have the education and experience to do it. >> absolutely. >> once the kids come they tend to cut back. >> 70% of the valedictorians were women. they have the talent and education. >> i was thinking about being the valedictorian. >> this is really serious because this is something that hasn't been rectified.

activists tend to offer two solutions. first is that fathers should take equal responsibility. women still put in more hours on the domestic front. >> can't legislate that and not going to happen. >> if you have 40% of all babies born to unmarried mothers who is going to be sharing? >> let's talk about a couple of solutions. there are a couple of things you bring up. first of all, the black berry which is the bane of my children's existence. i would say i could go into my office and take my phone calls there. that's true for women, too. there are so many high paying jobs now where women a forward thinking company can say why can't a woman do this at home? number two, look what our friend, joe, does where you have

child care. it's amazing companies can be a lot more aggressive with flex time and taking care of moms. >> there is no question that businesses have had to adapt to the influx of women into the work place and they are doing it. they have to have more flexibility and they have to have what some people refer to as offramps to allow women to leave and come back to work. i don't think there is ever a time where it is absolutely equal. for various reasons, one of them, as i mentioned, 40% of children are born to single mothers that's 40% right there and a lot of women don't want to work these hours. about 30% of all married mothers are out of the workforce completely. that's 30%. >> and i think, also, when they

step out to have children it is hard. you talked about the on and off ramps. it is very hard. one of my closest friends is trying to deal with this seven or eight years after having children it is almost impossible to get back in. >> that's one of the issues that a lot of management people are concerned about, how they can create an easier way for women to move out of work for a year or two or maybe less and then come back where they were. i don't know. i think it depends on the business and thou they can structure it. it's going to vary from business to business. >> what do you tell women because i have had this conversation at my house. my wife had a great job, great career, worked for a decade her whole life and we had conversations. we said one of us probably is going to have to leave the workforce at least for a while.

what do you tell a woman like that? giving it away am i losing it all? >> i think i would tell them to be pretty confident that they would be able to make use of it again. these are very, very painful choices for families for women and men. and we want to make sure that the work place is as flexible ozpossible. there is a lot of pressure on businesses to adapt and they are doing their job. this is an issue in every developed country in the world even the place like sweden where it is supposedly kpeet complet. even in gender utopia it's not working out so well. >> thank you so much. >> i would love to have you come back and tell us about your

book. >> at least the cover. i didn't know it was us that caused that. coming up survival tips from a leading cancer specialist, an interview you won't want to miss next on "morning joe." thank you very much. people with a machine.

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welcome back to "morning joe." here with us from the for of medicine is, david agus. he is the recipient of the 2009 gq magazine rock star of science award. >> i was up for that. >> no idea what it means. >> sometimes truth comes and it sounds like wisdom of the child. i once heard the best way to not get old is never allow yourself to start getting old, stay young and prevent disease. talk aboutt some of the ways you write about preventing diseases? >> i'm a cancer doctor. i know i can't treat or cure advanced cancer well. we can prevent most of them.

the baby aspirin a day, 81 mg if you take it for three or more years you would reduce the death of cancer. >> we hear you take one aspirin a day it helps you in the case of massive heart attack. >> 36% reduction in death of cancer. if everyone over the age of 40 took an aspirin a day we would save over $100 billion in health care costs. >> why is that? talk about the physiological effect on aspirin. >> we presume it is inflammation. at the same time we are not sure of its mechanism. when i look at things like the budget and say what percent is spent on optimizing aspirin. we have to change here. we have to say we have these

drugs that work. $2 a year would reduce your death of cancer by 36%. >> what about on the topic of cancer over there certain things that people eat that you say completely repeating itself among your patients? >> there is good and bad. the key to diet is a couple of things. one is regularity in schedule. the other side it's eat real food. america is about having pills and vitamins and juices all of which are bad. if a man takes vitamin e for three or four years his chance of cancer is elevated. >> you see that top issue wear

comfortable shoes. people watch my show oknow i had a back injury. i had surgery and these different things. after six or seven years of pain and suffering and being slouched over one of the best spine doctors told me to put on comfortable shoes. stop wearing your flip-flops. and i found with my back pain it was the basics, do the small things they add up over time. >> that pain is inflammation and it increases heart disease and cancer and other things. you wear high heeled shoes and your feet hurt that's inflammation. >> a lot of people my age and in the 20s feel invincible. what should those people in their 20s think about right

away. >> they have to start to look at their health inventory. look at what is going on, family history and genetics. and at the same time focus on prevention. if you start on preventing in your 30s the outcome is better. we want to go to our 90s or 100. in the last three months the data came out that alzheimer's will probably be a disease of the past in a decade. i want to be in prevention mode so that they can benefit from that. >> let's hope that is true. a lot of us are impacted by that. let's talk about foods. we hear tomatoes, spinach, blueberries. these are the foods you should eat an awful lot of. >> there are a couple of ways to look at food. anytime you put things in a bucket. some tomatoes are good and some

aren't good. if you let it sit on the shelf for a day or two. someone designed fruits and vegetables so that when they are picked they start degrading. >> let me ask you about something that matters to us here. sleep or lack thereof. i have noticed we have -- we are very fortunate to have some of the nation's leaders and world's leaders come here and a lot of them seem to have the same thing in common, they sleep four or five hours a night. we all wake up early. should we be concerned about the fact even if we love what we are doing and not hard dragging ourselves out of bed every day that we are getting five and sometimes six hours of sleep. >> sometimes three.

>> as long as it is regular your body rill regulate r.e.m. sleep. as long as it is regular the data shows it's healthy. when it is irregular diabetes goes way up. >> let's say we get five hours of sleep. if we have a set schedule that's not going to shorten or life span? >> no. that's healthy. if you take a nap on saturday and sunday that hurts you. every day they close the stores at 4:00. doing it every once in a while the next three days your body says i'm ready for my nap and it didn't happen. >> or just don't nap. >> or nap the same time every day. >> it's not going to happen. how about sleeping pills? >> if you go to a crazy schedule once in a while it's okay.

>> what about every night? >> not a good thing. >> i need to read the book now. this is great. thank you so much. >> do you ever get sick? >> everybody gets sick sometimes. focus on prevention is the key. >> the book is "the end of illness." thank you very much. more "morning joe" in a moment. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller.

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fire bobby valentine which we say was absolutely stupid. >> they lost last night. where i live i don't have mlb package. i'm still with my disaster shoes ready for the season. >> where you live you don't have mlb. you get it online. do you live on the north pole. >> i haven't bought the package where i can watch the games everywhere. >> he is a little busy. >> we are all a little busy. that's why you get mlb. >> you get to watch it on your ipad and your iphone. the images are awesome. it's on my to-do list with the wife to get it going. we are psyched with the red sox. a couple of things i want to

talk about, though. jobs. today is the last day of april. last month we had a bit of a disappointment. economists saying 125,000 will be job growth. that will be a big disappointment. the consensus is 170. really strong pattern. maybe we are seeing a bit of a slow down. the positive impact is wearing off. you have had a lot of apple and tax talk. barrens which i like to read the synopsis talked about how the dow needs to have a change in the next year and they maybe need to get rid of alcoa and maybe bank of america. people say why not put apple or google in the dow jones industrial average? one of the reasons is it is too

expensive. ibm is the biggest part of the dow and it is 12%. if apple came in at this price it would be 26% of the dow. i know you have a lot of talk about the taxes. it's a debate we have here all the time. you guys really got to the heart of it. if you do nothing the money stays out of the country or gets used in another country to grow their economy. do you want to have them do something that you think is unfair? >> why are they putting it there in the first place? >> to make money. >> listen, if you work in your apartment for a half an hour a week and you take the home office deduction they are going within the rules of the law. it's not their fault. >> that's what i'm saying, too. >> it makes me sad that she hates people who play by the rules. >> the greatest moments from the

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." a little more on the white house correspondents dinner for you. >> four years ago i was locked in a brutal primary battle with hillary clinton.

four years later she won't stop drunk texting me. many of you are expecting me to go after my likely opponent, newt gingrich. newt, there's still time, man. in my first time we repealed the policy known as don't ask don't tell. in my second term we will replace it with a policy known as it's raining men. i had a lot more material prepared but i have to get the secret service home in time for their new curfew. even sarah palin is getting back into the game guest hosting on "the today show" which reminds oaf me of an old saying. what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? a pit bull is delicious. >> mr. president, i know you won't be able to laugh at my

jokes about the secret service so cover your ears if that is physically possible. remember when the country rallied around you in the hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. there is a term for guys like president obama, probably not two terms but there is. this is the first meal he has had in months. they say diplomacy is a matter of carrots and sticks and since mrs. obama got to the white house so is dinner. we learned the president's two favorite steaks are rib eye and seeing eye. you know you don't have to reveal everything in an autobiography biograp autobiography. when you go to a dog park stois the same as when we look at a tank full of lobsters?

here is your business travel forecast. traveling today especially late this afternoon airport delays possible. a lot of the big cities here in the ohio valley from louisville to indianapolis a chance of strong storms. the other area of concerns is heavy rain in south florida. [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. devry university, proud to support the education an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today.

responsibility. what's your policy?

. what did you learn today? >> mark doing research about past comedians. 1988 yakov smirnoff was the

headliner. how things have changed. >> we have the same sensibility. we are mired in the past. >> more proof that the commies were taking over washington in 1988. >> i love this country. >> what did you learn? >> i learned if only everybody could have a repatriuation holiday we would be happy. massive profits. >> said president obama should not have said that kanye west