kevin the asian clod otter, the endangered species version of the boy named sue. he's not like the other otters. it's the best new thing in the world today. happy friday. it's a whole otter thing. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. the check's in the mail. many could be getting money in the mail from president obama. we'll explain. and the politics of the bully saga to same sex marriage. how will those play in political swing states? and the olympic-sized event. a new attraction just opening as they approach the summer games in london. a live report on that. in today's one-minute playback, the mom on the controversial "time" magazine cover talks about her child and parenting methods. good morning, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." first to front page politics.

president obama shifting his focus back to the economy during a visit to a middle-class neighborhood in nevada. the president met privately with a family in reno friday. he also urged congress to expand a government program to help homeowners whose mortgages are now more than the value of their homes. >> i'm calling on congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing their mortgage. it's a simple idea, it makes great sense, and i know it will have an impact. >> also this morning we are getting first pictures from that exclusive fund-raising dinner held in george clooney's los angeles home for president obama. that event raked in $15 million for the obama campaign. in a few hours mitt romney will deliver the commencement speech at the university of virginia. he's expected to focus his speech on the economy. that's what he did friday in charlotte. romney related a personal story

about his niece. she ran into financial hardship when her husband went on national guard duty. >> one morning she comes outside and there are her neighbors all picking up the rocks out of her yard, raking the dirt, they put a sprinkler system in, they laid down sod, they put in landscaping, they even build a swing set for her daughter. this is the america that i love. >> joining me now is national reporter molly ball. molly, good morning, good to see you. >> good morning, alex. >> the presidential campaign was dominated this week by the same sex marriage debate with president obama saying he supports gay marriage. does either side win in this debate? >> i think we are still waiting to see. i think so much is going to depend on this particular issue in the ways that the candidates sort of choose to talk about this issue in the coming months. there's a lot -- we talk a lot about people who are for it, people who are against it, but i think actually in the middle there's a lot of people who are sort of up in the air and

ambivalent about this issue. we talk a lot about, oh, this is going to hurt president obama in certain swing states. we saw just this week in north carolina by a 20-point margin voters are ejecting the ballot there. that's what democrats were hoping to keep in their column, maybe i reach for a lot of reasons, there are swing states where this doesn't play very well. at the same time, we have democrats pushing it pretty aggressively because mitt romney's position is also out of step with most voters when he says he's against civil unions. that's something a lot of people support. so i think we are going to see how much this issue comes up as well because we also see both sides shying away from it a little bit and both of them saying it is a distraction, i want to get back to the economy. >> here's another element of what mitt romney said relative to this topic this week. let's play this. >> i also know many gay couples are able to adopt children, that's fine. but my preference is that we encourage the marriage of a man and a woman and that we continue to define marriage as a

relationship between a man and a woman. >> okay. so saying it's fine that gay couples adopt children, do you think mitt romney, while giving this commencement speech this morning at liberty university founded by reverend jerry calledwell, do you think he'll say he supports gay marriage during his remark there is? >> no, i don't. we heard from his advisers he's going to mention he supports the traditional definition of marriage, but that's as far as he's going into the terms of stepping into this issue. quite some time ago this was part of the ongoing effort to shore up his base and reach out to social conservatives. and it is a bit of a mind field for him. mormonism viewed as a cult officially by this university. and a lot of these social conservatives, which probably wish romney would be more aggressive in his messaging on gay marriage, really platform on being against it. and what we can tell from romney's response this week, he's been very careful about this issue.

he says it is a sensitive topic, really has been clear that he doesn't want to make an aggressive push. and that's something that has changed in the last few years. even four years ago you had mitt romney pushing social issues like this as part of his social conservative pitch. and now it's much clearer that he just doesn't want to get into it, most republicans don't. >> there's another big story overshadowing the presidential campaign rather this week, "the washington post" article and the accusations of mitt romney being a bully back in prep school. so the public's had a few days to digest this story, how relevant is this? >> well, this is one of the aspects of a candidate's biography voters decide how relevant it is to their image of the candidate. while i think most people would say that they are different people than they were in high school, although maybe we should remember that 18-year-olds can vote, so to them it might be more relevant, but each voter is going to decide how much this contributes to the sort of portrait they are forming of

mitt romney as a person. and the danger is that most people still don't feel like they know him very well. and so this may either confirm or go against the picture that they were forming of what kind of person he is, even as, i think, most people would say consciously that, of course they don't think who someone is in high school should determine whether or not they become president. it contributes to the overall picture. >> okay. molly ball from the "atlantic." thank you, molly. >> thank you. on the heels of what we were just talking about, should high school behavior matter in presidential politics? you can all talk to me on twitter. my handle is @alexwitt. i'll read your tweets throughout the day on msnbc. the head of jpmorgan chase is speaking about his company's $2 billion loss. jamie dimon spoke to david gregory, moderator of nbc news' "meet the press." this resulted in a staggering loss that could grow larger.

the sec is also investigating. gregory asked dimon if any laws were broken. >> we know we were sloppy, we know we were stupid, we know there was bad judgment. we don't know if any of that is true yet. of course regulators should look at something like this, that's their job, so we are totally open to regulators and we intend to fix it, learn from it and be a better company when it is done. >> watch the exclusive interview on "meet the press" tomorrow morning on your local nbc station. now to three of this morning's other big money headlines. ready to shop? spending on mom. and on the way down? joining me now is forbes staff writer morgan brennan. >> thank you for having me on. >> i'm glad you're here. i want to get your take on the jpmorgan chase story, do customers need to worry? and what does this mean for the economy overall? >> going back to the days of lehman several years ago, the idea of the big bank collapse, i don't think we have to worry and go there just yet. $2 billion is a lot more

americans in general, but it is not a lot for this bank, even if the loss get larger. jamie dimon is saying right now the company this quarter will still have a $4 billion profit. so we saw -- that being said, stocks did tumble this week. we saw the s&p 500 at two-month lows on the close. and we saw big bank stocks stop down 9% today. the biggest question is whether financial regulations are actually working, whether they need to be enforced, whether they need to be made tighter. i think there's a lot of questions still out there. >> now to consumer sentiment at a four-year high, how much can we use this as a positive signal for the economy? >> so consumer sentiment, consumer spending in general is 70% of gdp. any time americans are feeling more positive about the economy, about spending, it is good news. one of the things we are seeing with this consumer confidence is that americans making more than

$75,000 per year are the ones that are really bullish. i'm going out and spending right now. they are looking to make big purchases like furniture and electronics. but americans not making as much are not as confident. i think we'll see the number start to tick down over the next six months if only slightly. it is all going to come down to jobs and income. it's going to come down to things like jpmorgan and how that affects the market. >> let's go to mother's day spending. how much are folks going to be spending for tomorrow and what's the take-away from that? >> well, mothers and women, in general, can feel loved, at least financially this weekend. the national retail federation just came out with a recent survey thoughing that about $18.6 billion will be spent this weekend on mothers, wives, daughters, in-laws, women in general. that number is up to about $152

spent per consumer up from $140 last year. so mothers will feel the love this year. >> that's good. how about gas prices, five straight weeks of falling prices, how low do you think that they will go? >> the government is projecting that those numbers, that the number on average this year or for the next six months will be $3.79. that is 16 cents lower than originally projected. i think the number will probably stay there this year depending on the spikes, hurricane season, if tensions in the middle east, which have not subsided, but the furveer sub sigh ferver has subsided. despite consumer confidence, we have seen the economy starting to soften perhaps to keep prices lower. >> morgan brennan, many thanks, as always. >> thank you. >> let's get a look at the dry weather being blamed for a rash of wildfires in california. there have been more than 800 wildfires in the golden state

this year at three times more this year than last year. you're looking at a brush fire currently burning an hour or so north of santa clara. the forecast is calling for another dry day in the golden state. good saturday morning to you, bill karins. >> good saturday morning to you, alex. once again texas is the cross hairs for thunderstorms this morning. and if you live down in the deep south, they are heading your way. as far as what's going on, thousands of lightning strikes in between victoria, texas, houston, just off the coast of port arthur. a lot of the storms are heading off the shoreline throughout the next hour or two, but down near galveston you have nasty weather ahead. eventually all of the rain is going to push through the deep south this weekend. it does not look like the best of weekends in areas of tennessee, kentucky, mississippi and alabama. it is not going to rain the entire weekend, but we'll see periods of rain. here's what we are predicting for rainfall over the next 48 hours through mother's day. you notice the heavier totals possibly from new orleans to

pensacola, all the way up through the state of alabama into tennessee and portions of southern kentucky. atlanta could see some showers and storms. so here's how the forecast shapes up for your weekend. we have a picture-perfect gorgeous weekend underway on the eastern seaboard. at least your saturday is nearly perfect. the west coast is getting two perfect days on saturday and sunday. the only troublemany weather is down there in louisiana and arkansas, pushing through mississippi and alabama during the day today. then the moisture begins to spread northward as we go through mother's day. we could see heavier rain in areas of southern ohio, showers hit and miss in pennsylvania and west virginia, but the heaviest rains are concentrated over tennessee and areas of alabama. alec, overall, a lot of people are going to see a gorgeous weekend, but the deep south, the mississippi valley, that's where you need the umbrellas for mom. back to you. >> i'm sure the folks appreciate the heads-up. thank you. no office politics david gregory talks to me about how the vice president's statements on his show last week changed

the course of presidential politics. plus his all-time sports hero. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. these two own whitings food. they employ hundreds of high school and college-age employees. and they have learned managing this generation means you have to speak their language. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is your moment. this is zales. the diamond store.

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jack rice. jack, good morning. >> great to be with you. >> this morning michael isikhoff is reporting the u.s. on high alert despite this plot being thwarted. does that mean there are more of these in the works? >> that's always the fear. if you have the capability to do this once, you have the ability to duplicate this and continue the operation on a much broader basis. we just don't know how deep this goes. i think a lot of this is just being careful. >> you have to wonder how this agent was able to get inside al qaeda. wasn't this the man that was supposed to be wearing the underwear bomb? >> that's exactly what we understand. i mean, if you think about this story, in general, in my mind it cuts two directions. on the one side this is an amazing success if all of this is accurate as we have been hearing in the press. the idea that the agency is working with the saudi intelligence service can place an asset this close to the operation, this is an astounding

success. in fact, something you don't see much from the cia. there's the downside to this, though. the fact that is as public as it is can be incredibly disturbing because the ramifications are massive in terms of what could happen. >> yes, absolutely. and that always crosses my mind. every single time i talk about a story like this, is there any chance, though, that there was an intentional leaking of this information? is there anything to come from that to be positive? >> i think there's always the ability to say, see, we are there. the idea that the saudis, the americans are building to reach. we can do this to create instability to force an adversary and an adverse intelligent service and set of al qaeda operations to change what they do, that's the positive. but the negative is the ability to now say, okay, we know that the agency had an asset here. now what we are going to do is track down every single person that that asset that is ever

touching and shake them down. not only that, we are now going to chase down ever single member of their family, any place we can find them, and any asset working for the agency can say, look, if they burned the guy in yemen, they can burn me, too. maybe i am not going to cooperate. there's a lot of down sides instead of up sides. >> can i just ask you, how scary of a guy is he? how much of a threat is he to us? >> the real problem you have is the ability to reach out with the capability and understanding and real smarts. that's the real problem here. i look back to the cold war. and when we could do things like focus on a bunch of soviet tanks and we are looking at columns and a huge capability, but when you're talking about a man, very small operation that is are flexible, very fast, those are much harder to deal with. >> jack rice, as always, many

thanks, good to see you. >> thank you. in this morning's one-minute playback, the magazine cover that's been the subject of a lot of talk this week, and if you haven't seen it yet, we are talking about the cover of "time." the chosen mother breast-feeding her 3-year-old child with the title, "are you mom enough"? yesterday she talked about the reaction to the cover. >> i understand some of the breast-feeding advocates are actually upset about this. >> are they? why? >> because i feel like they don't show the nurturing side to attachment parenting, which is more -- this isn't how we breast-feed at home. you know, it is more of a cradling, nurturing situation. and i understand what they are saying, but i do understand why "time" chose this picture. because it is going to be such a -- it did create such a media craze, to get the dialogue

talking. >> you have another child who is 5. how long do you plan to breast-feed aaron, who is almost 4 now? >> we are going to do child-like weaning, but i am hoping our fourth year, just for me, is probably going to be our final. he's self-weaning right now. >> well, she says she herself was breast-fed until she was 6. breast-feeding and attachment parenting is not for everyone, she says. yeah. 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.

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in this week's politics i talked to david gregory to see if joe biden's comments last week on "meet the press" were supporting same sex marriage. >> i think the president wanted, was going to change his view, it was a question of when and whenever he said that he was evolving on the issue, we knew and some people i talked to knew he was going to change.

i was under the impression it may not happen unless he got a second term, but there's no question that the vice president coming out the way he did forced the president's hand. i knew interviewing the vice president, once he said it, that he had gone beyond where he was. i think it is a big issue in terms of motivating his own base. i think the fact that governor romney is opposed to legalizing same sex marriage will create a real contrast on a social issue. that could energize the conservative base as well. one of the issues is that the president wrote in his most recent memoir he wanted to make sure he was not on the wrong side of history. >> how hard is it to be a white house correspondent as we sit in the office looking at pictures of a beautiful family, kids and the like, you had to hit the trail all the time, right? >> i rlt stayed started doing it before my kids were born. and one of my colleagues here, the bureau chief, said you want to do this when your kids are young so you can be done.

so i was married in 2000, our first child was born in 2002. our twins were born in 2005. and i was done covering the white house in 2008. so i was very fortunate in that respect of traveling the world and doing it and traveling the country on campaigns and whatnot. that's something i was able to do when my kids were really young. it is not something i would want to be doing right now. >> what is it you want people to know about you that they don't already, because you're david gregory on "meet the press." there has to be a professionalism and intelligence. it is all good, you deliver, that's cool, but there's also going to be a fun, playful side. >> well, the biggest thing to me is that i'm a parent. and that's a huge deal to me. my wife is incredibly successful and i'm very proud of her. so we both have very involved careers. but, in part, because of that it is really important for me to play a big role with my kids. it's a huge part of my day and

my week that, you know, it is not just drop off to school but it's being a library volunteer, it is organizing their schedules. and we really have a partnership in that way. >> you are driving carpool in the, mo, you are making lunching in the morning. >> yeah. or arranging play dates or arranging babysitters when that's necessary. i'm very insistent on taking them to the dentist. my oldest son had a tooth knocked out when he was younger and that freaked me out. now i like to micromanage the dental hygiene. >> you have great teeth. you have a great smile. >> they are not bad. but that's the biggest thing, that that's a huge part of who i am, is tending to them. >> i'm wearing my dodger blue because as i did when i interviewed our colleague and friend, chuck todd. the whole dodger club thing, there's not a lot of us in washington. do you go to the national games? >> i'm a big nationals fan. i believe that baseball is about

your childhood. and so that's why for me it's about the dodgers. it's hard to follow the dodgers from 3,000 miles and three hours away. >> right now they are doing awesome. >> but the to have three kids into baseball, and i'm just a hometown guy. if you look around the office, i'm a huge steve garby fan. >> i see that. is that because he was the first baseman on that fabulous infield? >> well, for me n the '80s, he was the man. i've got -- i've got his rookie card over there. one of our producers gave that to me as a nice gift, and i have one at home as well. and -- >> have you interviewed him? >> i have not interviewed him but i'm in touch with him now. and i wanted this cover from sports illustrated from 1982 which asked, is he too good to be true? i loved him as a kid with pictures of him all over my

room. and every morning i would check his box score, even when he went to san diego when i was in high school, i'm a big fan of him. there is a picture with me and my oldest son meeting steve garvy, another emotional moment for me. i cry all the imtoo. and having me and my son hanging out with steve garvey was a big deal. >> that's cool. our conversation continues today at 1:00 p.m. we'll talk at how president obama's style stacks up to president bush and clinton. and tomorrow david has an exclusive interview with ceo of jpmorgan chase, jamie dimon. check your local listings for air time. there. kate middleton scores gold in teal at the olympics gala. a live report is coming up here on "weekends with alex witt." ovt

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." today the president will honor police officers at the white house and mitt romney will deliver the liberty university commencement speech. meanwhile, both are trying to get back on message following unexpected news. joining me live is mike have a caro baquero. let's talk about what the president talked about this week. >> this week didn't go for president obama or mitt romney. we have big news about the president's change in position on support for same sex marriage. mitt romney had a conversation about a bullying incident from 1965. but after all that, both candidates spent yesterday trying to get back on message. after a week of unexpected detours, friday it was back to the campaign's pivotal issue, the economy. the president was in nevada, ground central of the home mortgage crisis, where he

visited a reno couple and touted his plan to help homeowners who own more on their home thank it's worth. >> i'm calling on congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing their mortgage. >> reporter: mr. obama began his day in los angeles after thursday night's record-shattering $15 million fund-raising haul at the home of george clooney. friday morning the team paired up again joined by toby maguire for a game of to basketball. >> reporter: who won the basketball game? >> as you might expect, george and i won, but we are all winners because nobody got hurt. >> reporter: mitt romney was also on the trail. >> what a north carolina welcome. >> reporter: campaigning in north carolina two days after reports surfaced of a 1965 high school bullying incident where romney allegedly pinned another boy to the ground and forcibly cut his hair. romney says he doesn't recall the incident but apologized if

anyone were hurt by what he calls the stupid things he did in high school. friday romney became emotional as he told the story of his niece, while caring for a deaf child and a husband deployed in iraq got much-needed and unexpected help keeping up her home. >> one morning she comes outside and there are her neighbors all picking up the rocks out of her yard, raking the dirt, they put a sprinkler system, they put in sod, they put down landscaping and even built a swingset for her daughter. this is the america that i love. >> reporter: alex, as you mentioned, mitt romney gives the commencement speech at liberty university founded by the late reverend jerry falwell. a lot of people are skeptical on mitt romney's stance on social issues. we have a bit of controversy when it was announced that mitt romney would give the address. he's mormon and many evangelicals have doubts about that faith. mitt romney is expected to reaffirm his opposition to same

sex marriage before the crowd but won't address his personal beliefs, alex. >> thank you for that. we'll be following that story. a new poll out this week found president obama and mitt romney neck and neck across 12 swing states. potentially complicating matters, the president now supporting gay marriage rights. the a stance increasingly popular in polls nationally over the last several years, but how will it play in the be the battleground states in november? joining me is fred yang with the yang research group. fred, good to see you. >> good morning, alex, good to see you. >> i'm throwing up a graphic to gather the latest numbers we have. 49% of americans favor gay marriage versus 41% against it. if you go back to 2009, 49% opposed it. and then in 2004, 62% opposed it. so talk about what's behind this apparent trend. >> well, i think three years is a long time. and i think there's clearly been some kind of cultural and

societyshift. the opinions are evolving. one of the things is people are feeling more comfortable with the idea of it. and that is having some impact on opinion. >> okay. how much of a factor do you think the polls were in president obama making this week's announcement? >> not being part of the obama white house or the campaign, i can just speculate, but i think on issues like this i would wager none. i would think, especially the timing of this, how it was rolled out or not rolled out. no, look, i think on big issues like this political campaigns think about it and they strategize on it. but i don't think on this particular issue, on this particular time, it was a poll-driven decision. >> we'll go to vp-related fin

foe info here. look at two swing state polls showing president obama and mitt romney effectively tied in the state of ohio. if romney were to choose senator rob portman as his hundreding meat, he adds one percentage point. checking out florida, president obama and mitt romney are tied virtually, so a senate marco rubio gives the republicans a slight advantage. what is this telling you? >> i think it is telling me that the vice presidential pick is very important because the vice president could be president. i think beyond that there are few examples of vp candidates carrying a swing state. i mean, lyndon johnson in 1960 is probably the most famous example. look, you pick a vice president because, number one, he or she can be president, and number two, hopefully he or she helps you electorally. i think for the number one criteria to be can the person bring the estate, that's a heavy

lift for any person. >> you don't think the vice president will be much of a game-changer? >> no. i think it can be a game-changer, but i'm not sure if you pick rubio it's a game-changer in florida. a rubio pick could be a game changer in the rest of the southwest or in other swing states like nevada and colorado with the heavy latino population. but i think if you look at it from the narrow to the broad, can portman or rubio be a game-changer in the respective states? i'm not sure, but in terms of being a game-changer overall, that could be the case. >> fred yang, good to see you, thank you so much. >> thank you. no doubt what the new yorker thinks about the president's same sex marriage endorsement. gracing the cover of the monday edition of the magazine is a picture of the white house with the pillars rainbow colored. it is entitled "sprek tim of light." he wants to celebrate the bravery of the president's statement. we are 2 1/2 months from the

london olympic games and kate middleton is going for the gold in this teal gown she wore at a posh gala dinner on friday to the countdown to the big games. annabelle roberts is here with more. what about kate stealing the show in gown? >> reporter: she took gold for the style in the amazing dress. they are quite the elegant couple. the dress was designed by a british designer. but her hair was up, that is very unusual. it was in a braid, which allowed her elegantly to show off the lacy back of her dress. that was one for the cat watchers. as for the shoes, just this week she wore them to a dinner, but we all know kate likes to recycle. this was a gala fund-raising event for british olympic team. kate, william and prince harry

are ambassador s . they like to raise money for the olympic hopefuls. many there have not even been selected yet. >> tell me about the new olympic tower. what is that all about? >> reporter: the big steel thing behind me is an amazing construction that was opened just yesterday designed by a very famous sculptor and sponsored by a huge industrial base in this country. and it is one of the monuments that we hope will stand for a decade, as a memorial of the olympics, a bit like the identical tower in paris, but that was not built for the olympic event. we are hoping that the structure will remain as a kind of legacy landmark point of the olympic games to start in just 76 days. it is not very long, just behind me. >> that's where they will start.

that's where all the action will be. thank you, annabel roberts. the summer games begin on july 27. you can watch all the action on the networks of nbc universal, including right here on msnbc. thanks to the health care overall overhaul, many people could be getting a check in the mail. we'll tell you hoch. "time" magazine's mark halperin is here to talk about it. corporate caterers, miami, florida. in here, great food demands a great presentation. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution, in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, they can create and maintain high standards, from kitchen to table. this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪

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bunks. as a matter of fact, 15.8 million americans can expect rebates bs that's going to total $1.3 billion. mark halperin is here from "time" magazine to talk about this. let's talk timing here. is this a calculated timing? i mean, we have this just ahead of the supreme court making its announcement and ruling on this. you have this in an election year that's highly charged. what do you think about the timing? >> some of the checks have gone out. they have to go out by august as part of the original health care law. something that health care bureaucrats have been paying attention to. i didn't focus on it until i was in chicago talking to officials of the obama campaign about the health care law. the republicans are on the offense on that. excuse me while i take this. >> oh, please. >> and this is something where democrats know they can go on the offense. not just for the checks. the checks are not thousands of dollars. the average check will be a little below $100 to above $100 and in the form of a premium decrease rather than the actual

check the individual gets. but the point is bigger. this is the insurance company sort of being brought to heel by the law and saying, you can't just spend the premiums however you want on advertising and other things. it has to go 80/20 to benefit things and the patient. for americans they may not like the health care law, but a lot of americans don't like the insurance companies so they get a letter from their insurance company saying, you know what? under the health care law, we got to watch our books and how we spend our money. the democrats at least are hoping to make it more popular. that was the original attention in some way to put it in the election year? i don't know. but a lot of parts of the law phase in over time and this is phasing in now. >> let's say you work for a large company, here with nbc universal, we get health care. will a health care rebate come to the company or individual? >> well, if you work for a company, a large or small company rather than having your own insurance, it will go to the company. you still get a letter, though, and the letter says because your

insurance company didn't hit the 80/20 mark your premiums are going down. so you don't get the money directly but are told the premiums will go down. again, not everybody is going to get this, but if your insurance company isn't hitting the mark you do. what the administration also says is that some insurance companies made the adjustment and didn't want to give out the rebates so they adjusted how they spent their money. that's better for the consumer as well. >> absolutely. i think if we have over a billion dollars being handeded out to folks from health care companies, you know they are going to try to get the money back one way or another. is there a worry premiums may go up? >> for some people the premiums have gone up. conservatives say this is not in the scheme of things that much money. a lot of people have seen premium increases, but this is not about what the overall premiums are. it is about whether they are spending the law as the law mandates 80% of the money on things that affect patient care rather than on things like promotion and marketing. >> ultimately, even though

people may get a check back from their insurance company, that this is an admission by the insurance company like, we have not been spending your money on trying to make you healthier and treat you better with your health care coverage. we are actually spending it on getting bonuses to the ceos or putting out advertisement. i mean, this could happen, negative backlash. >> it could, but in the scheme of things, one of the things the law attempted to do for people who support it is create a different balance in the power of the insurance policy companies in terms of what you can spend money on. if they are telling you, here's the money, we did it wrong. most people will like that. it doesn't affect the overall popularity of this in the short-term, but it does show some people who think about the law, they don't like it or think it benefits them, this is a tangible benefit for them. from the pure political point of view, people in the obama campaign say this shows people that the law actually affects their law in a real tangible way and for a lot of americans the

healthy check in the mail is a nice check. that's actually the car picking me up. >> we are not ready to go. >> well, i will be in >> up next, the election in france. you're watching weekends with alex. >> i got distracted because mark is leaving the set right now. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies

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with the election, france will have its first socialist president in nearly 20 years at a time when france struggles through a major economic crisis. what can president obama learn from the french election? >> joining me now, welcome, good morning. i'm glad you're here. can you talk about how the economic policy is different? >> well, as you say, it's really about the economic crisis going on right now in europe. and, of course, he's a

socialist, but really only nominally. he's not going to nationalize means of production or anything like that. i mean, he is more of a social democrat. and he really believes in growth rather than austerity. the out going president was very aligned with germany. and germany, of course, has been all about austerity and the french, i think, said enough. >> so i said in introing this, the president needs to look at this to see if there are any lessons to be learned. what are the lessons to be learned from this in your mind? >> id think really, to misuse the phrase the politics are always personal. it's always about the candidate himself and, in this case, he came in when he won the presidency the last time around, he was seen as a fresh start. he had a certain brashness. it suddenly changed.

and i think all of those things got really old and i think the french said okay, enough. we're sick of it. >> do you think that that election turned on the economy? was that category number one? his personality aside, that can be sort of an undercurrent. and if so, how much do we, in our politicians, need to look to france as that as an example? >> it's always about the economy. it is really a question of where does europe go? and this is really where obama needs to take -- pay attention because where does europe go? i mean, if the euro falls or if there's more split within euro about the future fiscal policies, well that bodes really not that well for the american economy. >> i know within the white house, they referred to the president of france as the american sarcose. is there any question about how francois will relate just to knowing whoa he is and the

general policies that there will be a friendly alliance? >> i think it will be friendly. it was really about more he was sort of disparaging him in that way. i think orland, he's an interesting character. he's much more sort of laid back and much less flashy. but i think we'll see relesions with the white house. in certain ways, he's more al n aligned with economic policy because he's more about growth. and we see that even the secretary has talked about growth as a way forward and not about cutting or austerity. in that way, he might be closer to america than you might think. >> thank you for your insight, from news week and daily beast. that's a wrap of this hour. be sure to join me for a two hour i digs of the show.

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