south. 50 million people feeling the deep freeze. and youngest ever gold medalist in the winter olympics tara lipinski will be here talking about sochi. is the security threat changing the spirit of the games? good morning, i'm chris jansing. the anticipation and the pressure on president obama is building for the state of the union tonight. widely talked about as his last best chance to make his second term matter after the dismal 2013. the challenge, of course, is significant. when asked about the state of the union, the american people use words like, uncertain, downhill, on the wrong track. that's from our brand new nbc news/wall street journal poll. 90% of respondents, their first answer was negative. 31% think the country is better off than when the president took office. and his challenge tonight, lay out an agenda that restores confidence, saying he's both in touch with both people want and able to deliver what he's promised. >> 2013 was a lost year for the

president. he was buffeted by crisis after crisis, and i think the test of this speech will be do the american people that do watch, do they feel like this president has a plan to get some of those things done, or is this just another speech out of washington? >> when it comes to getting something done, the president got two bits of good news overnight, a farm bill agreement was reached in congress, a fight that's finally over after two years, and a new republican plan that signals the gop is willing to deal on immigration reform. let me bring in our company, msnbc.com's managing editor dafna linzer. good to see both of you. so, look, the state of the union is what it is, nobody ever expects that it's going to change the world, but, bob, given where the president has been and given where he wants to go, could it change the trajectory of his second term,

or are we overstating? >> this speech? >> yeah. >> i'd be surprised if it changed the trajectory, but he is going to try and make what amounts to a public relations push on the one hand to try and get some kind of control of the agenda, get more control over the agenda, and then, of course, he's going to make an announceme announcement. he's supposed to make an announcement on an executive order that would raise the wages of contract workers for people who work for contractors that do work for the federal government, and that's a big deal, so we'll be looking forward to that. that, by the way, is a big demos initiative, so people at demos are happy about that. >> if you look at the history of these speeches, every recent president has the state of the union as strong in one way or another, but our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll doesn't have a lot of good news, look at that from obama down to george h.w. bush, sound and strong.

but americans are describing the state of the union as divided, troubling, deteriorated, only few believe it is actually strong, but maybe this is where the president has an opening. you talk about things like the minimum wage, you talk about universal pre-k, 59% want to close tax loopholes for cooperations, 54% want to fix or keep obamacare, so how does he take that? the agreement of the american people, they want these things done that he believes in and make them happen. >> right, and i think the poll numbers are a reflection of not just of the president, but really of the division that we've seen. remember, this is the perspective of the american people just a few months after we had a government shutdown, after we had all kinds of stuff happening on the hill, really kind of no movement on the big issues, as you said, that the american people want to see movement on, so i do think it's an opening for the president. i think he has a way in here to do some things that are really important. i think the minimum wage thing, the $10.10 is a great idea, and i think will give the president a real good new start, i think,

with the american people. >> one of the problems that the president and the democrats have had is that there has, in fact, been an economic recovery. there was a question about whether we're better off than we were in president obama took office -- >> i want to interrupt you there, i thought it was interested in "the new york times," "never during his time in office has the state of the economy been better, yet rarely has he gotten such low marks from the public for his handling of it. not only have indicators shown progress towards prerecession help, but many forecasters are calling what one calls a break-out year for growth." >> while there has been, in fact, been a recovery, almost all the benefits of that recovery have gone to what we've come to call the top 1%. so ordinary americans, for the most part, have not felt the benefits of that recovery, and that's why issues like minimum wage or an executive order, raising the wage of low-wage contract workers, is so important.

that gets to the heart and soul of the budgets of ordinary americans, and then that is the kind of thing that if you could get that to move along, that's the kind of thing that would work for the democrats and for obama. >> well, how much of it is a messaging problem? because one of the things we're hearing from the white house is they want to get away from the phrase that is "income inequality" and bring it to kitchen table issues, the middle class, keep talking about the middle class. it doesn't change the message, it's just how it's packaged. >> people forgot what a crisis this country was in when president obama was first elected, we were in a recession, but bob is right, i think talking about things like jobs will make a very, very big difference for the president. and using those kinds of phrases, staying on health care, staying on wages, and, you know, i think that's really where he needs to go tonight. >> and he's going to do it, going out to four other states, this is something we've seen in the past. valerie jarrett talking this morning saying that he is

actually, when he thinks about going out and talking to the american people, optimistic and motivated. >> you just don't give up. you just keep coming back at it again and again and you do what you can to take action on your own so you aren't simply waiting for congress, because certainly the american people are frustrated by the gridlock here in washington, and sometimes what they'll do is listen to what's going on at the local level and maybe that puts pressure on them to take action. >> so, it's kind of an interesting problem for the president, because on one hand he's going to issue these executive orders and something the progressives love, on the other hand, you're seeing movement potentially on immigration, you're seeing something done on the farm bill, and so you also want to preserve the right to work with congress. and frankly, the republicans aren't so crazy about these executive orders. >> no, i agree, the thing to keep in mind is that it's so important if you're talking about the public response to what's going on, it's so important to make a distinction between the messaging and

between something actually happening, so if you're raising wages for anyone, then that's something that people can feel or even with health care when people get health insurance, that actually, you know, lifts the quality of their lives. as opposed to just talk, talk, talk. >> i want to talk about one more specific, which is we're going to listen to what he has to say about immigration, something we've talked about for a very long time, and we said that house republicans are going to release this framework today that will offer citizenship to dreamers, but only legal status for everybody else. and i want to play what joaquin castro had to say this morning. >> i'm also heartened to see republicans finally seem to be getting down to business in terms of proposing principles. i'm optimistic, but not holding my breath either. i think we will do it either this summer, and if it doesn't happen this summer, it won't happen until the next term. >> sound about right, dafna? >> yeah, i think so. it's a very, very important step that the republicans are going this way, and i hope this is not

messaging and p.r., that this is really where they are headed here. >> dafna linzer, bob herbert, always great to have both of you here. thanks so much. of course, msnbc will have complete coverage of tonight's state of the union address beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. checking the news feed this morning, bruce springsteen called him the father of american folk music, pete seager passed away last night at age 94. he was best known for songs like "this land is your land" and "turn, turn, turn," as well as for activism. seager performed at president obama's inaugural concert in 2009, just before he turned 90. in order to stop violent protesters in ukraine, lawmakers today voted to repeal sweeping antiprotest laws. this came just hours after the prime minister resigned in order to encourage what he called social political compromise. it's not clear yet whether these steps will satisfy protesters, who have been in the midst of violent protests for two months, calling for constitutional reform and a political shakeup.

senator john mccain firing back at the arizona republican party. two days after being censured for being, quote, too liberal. he called the vote regrettable and said it just fired him up for a possible re-election. mccain said polling data in his state shows he has the majority of support and isn't bothered by the censure. the senator is currently serving his fifth term and is considering re-election in 2016. apps like angry birds might leaf you vulnerable for the nsa data collection. new documents leaked reveal the this, sa and british intelligence agencies used various apps to gain personal information, including gps location, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. the nsa has not commented on this latest leak. a moment of bipartisanship, walking us through their first year in washington, what surprised them and what they are going to do to narrow the divide. we'll hear from them coming up. and unlimited talk and text for as low as $45 a month?

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in the fight over what he views as one of the defining issues of our time, income inequality, tonight president obama will use the state of the union to announce that he's issuing an executive order, raising the minimum wage for government contract workers. it will go from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and kitchen and laundry workers on military bases. i'm joined now by the leaders of the freshman class in the house, congressman john delaney and congressman luke messer, republican from indiana and president of the freshman class. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> congressman messer, you're one of the rare republicans that support an increase in the minimum wage nationwide and said you would support a two-tier

increase, that separates college students and teenagers from people supporting a family, and if you look at our new poll, it finds 51% view raising the minimum wage as a priority. i guess the big question is, can you convince your fellow republicans? >> well, i mean, the details will matter here. i think we can all agree that no one should work a full-time job and play by the rules in america and live in poverty, you know, i suggested a two-tier approach. i would like to look at efforts that expanded the earned income tax credit and maybe adjusted the minimum wage to inflation from where it was just a few years ago. i think there's a path here forward that it deals with the core challenge, we also, though, need to make sure we aren't hurting more people than we're helping with the change. >> congressman delaney, this is the question, how do we get people together, the devil's always in the details and we know the 113th congress passed just 65 bills in its first year, the fewest in any single session

in history. you supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill that, in fact, 25 other republicans are supporting, but i'm wondering what you've learned in your first year in congress that might help you get this legislation through, that might help congressman messer move forward on things like the minimum wage. what's going on in congress? >> so what i've learned is if you're reasonable with people and focus on the facts, you can actually get things done. luke and i have worked on several things together, including the infrastructure bill and all the great things that have happened in this country have been done at this terrific intersection of interview and compromise. and you have to be reasonable, and you have to craft something that is consistent with people's principles, but also has the spirit of compromise. >> congressman messer, you were nodding when he said you have to be reasonable, but things aren't getting done, who's not being reasonable? is it intransigence in veterans, longstanding members of

congress? what's -- why can't more people, not just talk the talk, but walk the walk? >> listen, there are differences and disagreements of principle. there's several things i've learned in my first year here. one, out in the real world when people are trying to solve a problem, you start where you agree and work from there. too often in washington, we seem to start where we disagree and stop there. secondly, i think part of the problem is people are in and out of here so quickly, come in, fly in on tuesdays, leave on thursdays, they don't even know each other and we all know in real life it's easier to work with people that you know. it's one of the reasons why john and i are working with our class. we've had other colleagues, as well, five or six, seven different meetings where we've gotten together. john and i are sitting tonight at the state of the union we need to focus where we agree and move forward. >> i hope you consider this to be a compliment. i've heard you referred to as kind of the social director on a cruise ship, because you've been getting both sides together for

these social gatherings, and i'm wondering, congressman delaney, if you're seeing that is reaping benefits. >> of course that reaps benefits. if you spend time with people and really get to know them, it makes it really hard to say bad things about them, and then you can actually start working with them. one of the problems we have here in congress, as luke said, people don't spend enough time together, they don't develop personal relationships, so they feel very comfortable being hyperpartisan and it's really unfortunate. if you actually get to know people, you can work with them. as luke said, just like we see in the real world. >> go ahead, congressman. >> i was going to say, the real test of this now is if we can move from that to policy. john's got a great infrastructure bill, we've talked about education opportunities, programs around school choice. i think the minimum wage may be another area we can work together, and the key is, once you know each other, it's amazing what can start to happen. >> i wonder, and i'd like a quick comment from both of you.

of course, you run for office because you think you can make a difference, then you get there and realize what the reality is, and i realize in the last couple of years it's been tougher. i'll start with you, congressman messer, is it frustrating, are you still hopeful? what do you think about the state of being able to get things done? >> i was taught by my mom if people ask what you're doing in life, just say great, i've had to change my answer. i feel challenged but hopeful. listen, this country's come through a lot of big challenges before. working together, we can get there. we won't leave our principles mind, but there's a lot more that can get done. >> congressman delaney, is it different than you thought or hoped it would be? >> i would say it's similar. i came to congress with a view our government is designed so if we don't agree as a country, it's hard to get things done, and if we agree, it's easy to get things done. that's the way our founding fathers designed it.

i share luke's hopefulness, we can fix all of these problems, and compared to the challenges we faced historically, these in many ways are relatively modest challenges, but we have to find common ground and i think politically the parties that will be successful will be the ones that start speaking to the other side and actually start building common ground. i think if we can get the country together, then congress will reflect that and actually start doing things. and i think on economic policy in particular, on domestic economic policy, there's a huge opportunity for common ground. luke and i are working together on infrastructure, i share his framing of how we should think about the minimum wage, we're working on education initiatives, so there's a lot of opportunities for all of us to work together. >> congressman john delaney and luke messer, it's great having you both on. come back again. >> thanks. >> thank you. nine days until the winter olympic games, but are security fears dampening the spirit of the games? nbc olympic analyst and gold medalist tara lipinski takes us inside the road to sochi. ♪

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the northeast sure has had its share of winter weather this season, but now a rare winter storm will bring snow and ice from southern texas to virginia, and parts of the midwest are still dealing with temperatures at or below zero. here's a live look, yes, it does look cold, bill karins. you know the high today, minus 4. i said the high. minus 4. meteorologist bill karins injecting his news on that photo. it does look cold. >> hard for a photo to look cold, but that's it. in austin, texas, this morning, the snow and ice is already causing problems. already a pileup on the roads out there at day break, and now the scene is playing out across alabama and mississippi. the snow has begun. winter storm warnings go from texas to southern portions of maryland. a very rare winter event. this widespread and the white is the snow, pink is freezing rain and sleet. it's on. now is the time for people to stay off the roads in the south.

a lot of schools already cancelled today. later tonight, biggest story, historic snow in areas of eastern carolina, up to six to 12 inches. virginia beach could see a foot of snow. that would shut the city down for a day or two. raleigh, three to six. atlanta, one or two for you, but even mobile, alabama, and new orleans, mixture of snow and sleet up to about an inch. how rare is that? the worst of this, though, the historic part of this storm will be savannah, charleston, myrtle beach. there's a chance of a half inch, three-quarters of an inch of ice on the palm trees. we could end up with power outages widespread in the area, maybe even lasting to the weekend. i'll show you wind chill values, minus 29. it is cold in the picture i showed you there of minneapolis and minus 28 in chicago, no school for the kids today. finally i'll show you our friend at the nbc affiliate traverse city, michigan, sent this video yesterday. those aren't pillows, that is snow. >> what? >> snow drifts have now covered the windows of the newsroom in traverse city, michigan.

no matter how bad your winter is or what you're dealing with today, it's not worse than that. >> that reminds me of all the years i worked in local news in albany, new york. yeah. >> fun times. >> thanks very much. nbc meteorologist bill karins, who has had a busy winter. if you read one thing this morning, you know something big is going on in rome when rolling stone puts the pope on its cover. as the headline says, the times, they are achanging and it's my must read. it's on our facebook page. let us know what you think.

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not work around us, to make this country the great country that it can be. >> as we've been talking about president obama has said he will take executive actions. meantime today, he's spending a large part of his day making last-minute edits to the state of the union address. advisers tell nbc news he is in the tweaking phase. will there be an enduring phrase like we've heard in some past speeches? >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world. >> the era of big government is over. [ applause ] >> let's bring in two people who have been on the inside of this process, hendrick was jimmy carter's chief speech writer from 1971 through '81. jonathan horn, former speech writer for george w. bush, who

contributed to the 2008 state of the union address. good morning, guys. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> i think those examples show you how difficult it is to come up with something that endures beyond a state of the union, so when you're writing it, do you say, okay, this is the line, or all right, guys, we have to sit down and find that magic moment? >> well, usually the process is so chaotic that you rarely have time to think about putting a decent line in. the state of the union is always known as a laundry list, and working on one, writing one, is like you own a laundromat and everybody in town is suddenly bringing all their dirty laundry to you and you're stuffing it in the machines, washing it, then it goes into the dryer. it's different from any other speech a president makes because of that. >> what is the vetting process like then, jonathan, because we do hear all the stories about the special interest group trying to get their lines in. i'm sure michelle obama wants a few things in there.

who sort of prioritizes and how does that all come together from this chaotic process? >> well, you do get a lot of people pushing things to get them into the state of the union. ultimately, it's a test of the president's discipline, because a speech writer needs to be able to pick up the phone and tell someone who usually outranks them that what they want to be in the speech isn't going to make it into the speech and you have to have faith your boss, the president, is going to respect that judgment and also you're going to represent that judgment accurately. the best state of the unions do keep discipline and are able to make tough choices because, obviously, every possible policy issue you would like to include, but it would make for a terrible speech. so you do have to have discipline. >> if you take these things, the laundry list, but try to have one overarching theme? >> that's what every writer of a state of the union tries to do, yeah, you want a theme. >> and how many of them achieve it? >> well, not many. not many. but you try. you try.

that's where phrases describing the administration's philosophy are sometimes introduced. we tried that a couple of times with jimmy carter. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. more often, it doesn't. >> and this is a speech, obviously, that we've been talking about that is very important at this particular point in his second term. it's going to sort of set the tone for what he wants to do moving forward, and we also know that this is a man, jonathan, of massive oratorical skills, so why not go for broke, get all the speech writers together and say let's just blow the doors off this place? >> that would certainly be a speech writer's fantasy, but the american people do have certain expectations for the speech. if you don't say the state of the union is strong, the headline tomorrow will be that the state of the union wasn't strong, for example, so it is hard to break away from that

format. i do think, despite all the president's oratorical talents that if you expect it to change the course of the presidency, it is asking a little too much of him and the speech writers and probably isn't fair to what's going to happen tonight. it's just, in the end, another speech. >> i was asking you in the break if it gave you palpitations back to the time you were in this pressure cooker trying to put the speech together, but not only that, you have all the social media stuff going on simultaneously, and, in fact, the white house actually has this plan encouraging the people to go to whitehouse.gov for charts, graphs, other information, to be looking at it on several different levels. look, if you're a writer, you want people listening to your words, you don't want them doing ten other things, but that's kind of what we expect these days. >> yeah, everybody multitasks. thank god we didn't have social media when this was my problem. that just adds to the crazy difficulty of it and how it can

just get kind of locked into itself. some day a president will actually follow through on the idea of throwing out the playbook, but i think if you are that president, it will have to be your first state of the union where you do it. >> really, why? >> well, because of what my bush colleague just said, because of the expectations, which are overpowering those expectations. and it's certainly true that the state of the union is a recipe for a bad speech, because a good speech, you know, has a theme, it has a point, it makes that point, it supports that point. it's not a list of things. so if you're going to throw it out, start early. start early. >> hendrick hersburg, jonathan horn, we'll all be watching tonight, thank you so much. >> thank you. checking the news this morning. >> what is congress afraid of? nine out of ten americans

support background checks. >> former congresswoman gabby giffords appearing in a new ad appearing before and after president obama's speech tonight. giffords says congress is afraid of the gun lobby and urges america to tell congress it's too dangerous to wait. an oklahoma state lawmaker is proposing to ban all marriages in the state to stop sa same-sex couples from tying the not. republican senator turner put the idea forward. critics call it a political stunt, turner says it's what oklahomans want. >> since olympic skier lindsey vonn won't compete in sochi, she'll be announcing some of the games. this morning she talked to nbc's matt lauer about what it's going to be like to watch. >> it's going to be so hard.

it's already hard enough, you know, you guys run commercials about sochi about every two minutes and it's killing me. >> you're welcome. >> yeah. so, you know, i'm trying not to watch, you know, as much as i can. it's going to be really, really hard to watch the alpine events. >> vonn told matt she'll compete next year in colorado but will take her time preparing. there are now 19 new cases of the highly infectious virus that's made people sick aboard a royal caribbean cruise ship. 645 people have come down with a bug suspected to be the norovirus. as you might expect, this is making an unpleasant atmosphere, even for passengers who didn't catch the virus. >> everywhere you go, you see people cleaning, it's like unbelievable. you go to sit down on a chair and it's sticky. >> cnbc's mandy drury is here

with what's moving your money. what does royal caribbean have to say about all this. >> the ceo came out and defended his company's business practices. let's take a listen to what he had to say, chris. >> we're lucky that it's so rare and our people responded very quickly, very aggressively, and so now the issue is waning. it is coming back early, so we have a chance to really do a thorough cleaning. obviously, we will be compensating the passengers. >> so talking of compensation, apparently passengers will get 50% of another cruise and credit for the two days their cruise is being cut short and $400 to spend onboard, so we'll just wait and see what kind of impact this has in terms of the stock and financial impact going forward. >> speaking of stock, we know how hard it can be to figure out wall street, especially for the casual observer. apple just reported record sales on the ipad and iphone, what's

that about? >> problem is apple's iphone sales in the holiday shopping season, the most important shopping season missed expectations and the company forecasted weak revenue for the current quarter. apple sold 51 million iphones but that was shy of the 55 million or so that analysts were expecting. then you've also got arch nemesis samsung electronics. they sold a record 86 million smartphones in the same quarter. they are widening their market cher lead over apple. this is globally speaking, as well. all that data is from research from strategy analytics. as a result what we're seeing this morning, chris, at least 11 brokerages cutting their price tag down to around a low of about $500. there was even capital research which says the shares could see a near 40% fall based on the headwinds that they see. >> cnbc's mandy drury, thank

you. >> thank you. you can bet on practically anything these days. a huge list of bets about the super bowl, here's some we thought were a little crazy. known for shedding a tear, will denver broncos' player knowshon moreno cry during the national anthem? you can bet on that. how many times will peyton manning say "omaha"? will seahawks player richard sherman receive a taunting penalty? will the red hot chili peppers go shirtless in the cold for their performance? and what color will the gatorade be that's dumped on the winning coach? we do not encourage gambling on "jansing and co." this is just for your entertainment. ings. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life.

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risk for developing cataracts. swedish researchers recently showed that middle-aged men who smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day were more than 40% more likely to develop cataracts, which causes blurred vision. the white house has been making it clear the president will use tonight's speech as a call to action. >> i think that those proposals are going to call for action. >> they are going to see their president talking about the issues that they care about and taking action on them. >> making sure the american people see publicly what i see privately every day, which is a president focused very much on opportunity, action, and on optimism. >> i'm joined now by amy klobuchar, democrat from minnesota, good morning. >> good morning, chris, it's great to be on. >> well, you have to know that the democrats are on message with this call to action, but the question that is posed this morning by politico is whether the president will test the

limits of political powers or be content in using them as a threat. how far should he go? >> well, i think you've already seen a president who has used his executive powers when necessary, when appointments were sitting out there and no action was being taken. you see him now talking about what he's going to do with minimum wage for federal contracts. he is focused on a number of things that people don't even know about, like when my drug shortage bill, we were having a huge problem with kids not getting cancer drugs, the president had to do something by executive order because it took awhile to get a bill through congress. he has used that power and will use that power, but there is something else going on here. after the shutdown, after the american people had just about had it, i think you saw something of a seat change in congress. you saw patty murray and congressman ryan negotiating us out of another shutdown. you saw barbara mikulski working with her counterpart to get an actual budget done, and now we're seeing speaker boehner

opening the door on immigration when we already have a very strong bipartisan comprehensive bill in the senate. so in part because of the anger of the american and in part because the president is out there mupushing, i think we are going to see movement to get some things done, so i think this is a combination of the president showing leadership and also congress finally getting that message that the american people want congress to move and move forward. >> the pushback from critics, as you well known, this is badly timed because things do seem to be happening, just the laundry list that you said, yet he keeps talking about the pen and the phone. senator coburn accused the government of devisiveness this morning. let me play that for you. >> what we need is real leadership and my friend has used the politics of division more than any president i know in my lifetime, and what you have today is tremendous anxiety

in our country. >> do you understand the concern about the number of executive orders and the threat of more, even independent angus king expressed concern on this program yesterday morning. >> well, what i can tell you is that you have a president that simply wants to move forward for the people, and people can call it whatever it wants, but i call it moving forward, and tonight he's going to be talking about economic opportunity. some might say that's divisive, but i always remember the words of the late paul wellstone of minnesota, we all do better when we all do better. we have a situation right now where the top 400 people have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of this country and the fact that the president is willing to take on this issue and talk about economic opportunity for all in an economy that's already 70% consumer driven, we have to make sure people are able to buy stuff in this country, that they are able to make a living. i know some of my colleagues might call some of the work he does divisive or some of the issues divisive.

i think they are the necessary defining issues of our time. >> let me ask you about one of those issues, house and senate negotiators agreed on the new five-year farm bill yesterday. it also cuts about $8 billion from the food stamp program over the next decade. twice as much from food stamps as senators approved in may, and as i understand could trim as much as $90 a month from families getting food stamps. you remember the agriculture committee, you worked on this deal, so what do you say to those potential 850,000 food stamp recipients? >> i think people need to look at how those cuts were done. those cuts were done in a smart and humane way, because the issue here is the house was acting for $40 billion in food stamp cuts, but the senate as you know and pointed out was $4 billion. we did a different way. we went to economists and said how can we fix this program without hurting the bulk of the american people, they said there's a loophole, certain

states, 12 of them, that's taking a program, we'll match it with federal foot stamp money and were giving minimal amount of federal heating money and then taking food stamp money. we closed that loophole, raised the minimum up to $15 and now to $20 and simply did it that way. we didn't take those draconian methods that the house suggested that would have really cut it across the board. it does involve a few states, but the bulk of the states are not affected. it's important to look how the changes were made and why most of the nutrition groups are saying, look, are we totally happy with this, no, but it is more important for us to have a strong five-year bill so people don't keep attacking food stamps and poor people every single year. >> minnesota senator amy klobuchar, great to have you on the program, thank you. >> great to be on, look forward to the president tonight. as you know, he always rises to the occasion. we think it will be a good speech. >> they can watch it on msnbc. thank you, senator. >> thank you. will security concerns in

sochi change the mood of these winter games? we have an insider, gold medalist tara lipinski here to weigh in on what to expect. it's likely your detergent. cascade platinum's triple cleaning formula delivers brilliant shine finish gel can't beat. it even helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. cascade platinum is cascade's best. i nethat's my geico digital your dishwasinsurance id card - gots all my pertinents on it and such. works for me. turn to the camera. ah, actually i think my eyes might ha... next! digital insurance id cards. just a tap away on the geico app. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, it does make a sound? ohhh...ugh. geico. little help here.

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security fears in sochi has the nfl reevaluating whether its players should compete in the winter olympics, while expressing confidence in what's being done by the organizing committee, the nhl's deputy commissioner says they will reevaluate sending players if something significant happens before february 9th. joining me now to talk all things olympics, tara lipinski. good to see you. >> thank you. >> we were both at the national figure skating championships. you've been traveling around the country. what are you hearing from athletes about these security concerns? >> i actually haven't been hearing much from the athletes. i think, you know, looking back when i was skating, obviously, i was a bit younger, but this month before the olympic, you were so focused on your training, you're doing your same routine every single day, and

i'm sure everyone is aware of it, but i don't think that's the first thing on their minds. >> obviously, you go there and you still want to win and represent your country, but i thought about all the athletes who i've met this past year, when i heard that once they go off site they shouldn't be wearing things that identify them as usa, you spend your whole life, you did this, you know, wanting to represent the united states. what did you think when you heard that? >> well, i think i have to follow the rules, and secondly, i'm disappointed, just because i look back to my experience and that was one of the things i enjoyed most. every day wearing my team usa jacket, feeling proud. i loved that. i loved getting on the ice. my coach would be like, you have to take it off now. so that is a little bit sad for the athletes, but i think once we get there, i think it's going to be okay. >> yeah, i read a story today about one of the athletes who had spent the last year raising money so his mother could come and finally decided now at the last minute that it's probably not a great idea for her to go. are you nervous a little bit?

>> i mean, i'd be crazy to say that it's not scary when you hear these things. my mom and dad are definitely making sure that i know what i'm doing there and i'm aware of everything, but at the same time i've been to so many olympics and the security is so intense, you walk through how many detectors and you're wanded and it's just, you do feel safe, so i hope that that happens here in sochi. >> real quick, because we don't have that big marquee name in men's or women's individual figure skating, who should we be watching for in this olympics? >> well, for the americans, i really think it's going to be interesting to see ashley wagner and gracie gould. things changed a lot at our nationals. ashley wagner, defending champ, was supposed to go in, win, came in fourth. big controversy how she was going to make the team. she made the team. i feel there's a good competition between both of them. >> can i say so i get home on saturday -- maybe sunday morning, i was out saturday night. i dvr-ed "saturday night live."

here's a skit about heterosexual figure skaters. >> tara, malcolm asked me if he could wear, quote, regular shoes. >> he's going to weave through these three cones. >> looks like he's decided to go right through them. oh, and he is down. >> okay, i can't believe they cut that and didn't show her playing you. >> right. >> having said that -- >> the best part. >> was your twitter going crazy? >> yeah, it was a lot of fun. i'm honored. it was just really fun. >> you know you've hit icon status when you're on "saturday night live." tara, i will see you in sochi. we'll be working together and safe travels. >> thank you, you, too. >> that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co." brian shactman is up next. brian? >> the agenda the next hour, the president's pessimism problem, calling the nation divide, troubled, detear rating, so what

can the president say in tonight's state of the union to turn things around? we'll ask one of the president's former speech writers. plus, fast food workers shaping the 2014 agenda. how the minimum wage protests are impacting what we will hear tonight. plus, since 1989, congressman elliot engle has grabbed an aisle seat to shake hands with the president. you want to know why? we want to know why. coming up in three minutes we'll be right back. s from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪

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[ screaming ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the bold, all-new nissan rogue with intuitive all-wheel drive because winter needs a hero. ♪ good morning, everybody, i'm brian shactman. president obama delivers his state of our union just ten hours from now, and he'll speak to a nation not that confident about how our country is fairing right now. the president and his staff put the final touches on tonight's speech, they are also seeing new numbers from nbc news and "the wall street journal" showing more than 40% of american people see our state as divided. some other popular words there, troubled, deteriorating, just 3% answered with the word "strong."

the president will walk into the congressional chamber tonight with a lower approval rating than a year ago. a new poll shows he's below that all-important 50% marker. >> as it relates to this question of the polls, i don't spend a lot of time worrying about. here's what i spend a lot of time worrying about, making sure the american people see publicly what i see every day, a president focused very much on opportunity, on action, and on optimism. >> with the american people more pessimistic than ever and his approval rating dropping, the question tonight, how far will president obama be willing to go it alone? >> we will continue to call on congress, both sides of the aisle, to come up with new and fresh ideas for how we can grow our economy and create opportunities for the american people, but we aren't going to stop at that. we're going to do what we can within the president's own executive power and working throughout the country with those who want to move our country forward. >> we're going to watch ver