♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. mr. president wants to finish a job. >> he presents a decent speech, but the follow through isn't there. >> the republicans have said, no, and they have been the ones saying my way or the highway. >> that's the problem president obama will run into as he pushes limits on executive orders. >> we have negotiated a small force of americans could remain in as we -- >> reaction to the president's state of the union as he hits the road to talk about the

minimum wage. congressman michael grimm threatens a reporter after the state of the union, what happened there? and the very serious situation in the south, drivers are trapped on the roads in atlanta. the national guard is rescuing people from their cars, while hundreds of kids were forced to spend the night at school stranded and sleeping on floors. atlanta gridlocked after a rare snowstorm, the georgia national guard is rescuing motorists this morning. we'll have much more on that coming up. good morning, i'm chris jansing, and right now the president is on his way in maryland. the first stop on a two-day, four-state swing after his state of the union. he'll highlight two proposals, visiting a costco, which has had great success, and a steel plant where he'll tell workers about a new way they can save for retirement. last week struck a optimistic

tone, the president focusing on real people. he mentioned teachers, auto workers, warmers. he called for opportunities for all and a practical, yet modest agenda. there was no grand proposal, no promise to remake washington. instead, his pledge was to go it alone, to do what he can without congress. >> america does not stand still and neither will i, so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. >> republicans aren't thrilled with the idea the president is going around them. now they are considering challenging all those executive actions in court. and in their responses, official, tea party, and others, they said the president isn't the one -- is the one that isn't doing enough. >> we're facing an inequality crisis, one to which the president has paid lip service, but seems uninterested in truly

confronting or correcting. >> the president talks a lot about income inequality, but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality, and with this administration's policies, that gap has become far too wide. >> mr. president, where are the jobs? >> i want to bring in our company, ruth marcus is a columnist for "the washington post," alex burns is with politico. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> the national journal says good speech, modest agenda, a diminished leader. "the new york times," a study in scaled down ambition. "the washington post," clear position of confrontation." ruth, how did he do? >> i thought he did fine under the circumstances, and the circumstances are pretty much what confronts any second-term president, especially second-term president with a divided congress that doesn't want to do very much, so i think

the adjectives that you used and some of the adjectives in the clips that you read from, modest, is really the right adjective to sum up this speech. >> it's also interesting that i think if you were dropped in from another planet and you listened to the president and the official republican response from cathy mcmorris rodgers, both of them had similar themes focusing on regular americans. >> that's how the daughter of a factory worker is ceo of america's largest auto maker, how the son of a barkeeper is speaker of the house, how the son of a single mom can be president of the greatest nation on earth. >> and a nation, where a girl who worked at the mcdonald's drive-thru to help pay for college can be with you at the united states capitol. >> both talking about the american dream and the white house even sent out a tweet re-enforcing that.

they seem to agree the goal is to help middle class americans. is that at least a start to getting something done, or are the approaches so different it's just going to be more of the same? >> chris, i think what you saw reflected in both speeches last night is a recognition where the destruction approach to politics in 2013 didn't work out particularly well for either side, that the president clearly stepping back a bit from the most confrontational language he has used over the last couple years. the republicans in their various responses really not digging in in the same kind of ultra confrontational way you've heard from folks like ted cruz and rand paul in situations like the government shutdown. the reality is, when everyone in washington is perceived to be failing, everyone in washington suffers, even if the president is convinced the republicans are to blame or vicar have thae ver. >> when the president talked about the health care law and equal pay for women.

>> today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. that is wrong. and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. women deserve equal pay for equal work. >> and it's interesting to mention, ruth, that a lot of those issues the president brought up all poll well, the minimum wage, health care, fixing unemployment, education. i mean, not a coincidence, ruth. >> and not a surprise. exactly. you know, it's very easy, there's nobody who is going to come out and say, oh, i'm against equal pay for equal work. we've long passed that point, but it really goes back to the question that you asked earlier, there is broad agreement on goals, right, everybody wants america to become and to recapture the notion of itself as the land of opportunity, and the land of equality of

opportunity. but the disagreements about how to achieve that, they are encapsulated in the debate over the equal pay proposal and encapsulated really across the spectrum of domestic policies. the divisions are still really very wide about the means to achieve shared goals. >> so, clearly, alex, the big picture here was the economy, but there are a couple of other things i want to mention. last year, really the heart of the president's state of the union was about guns. it was the focus. it was the emotion of the speech. it got almost a passing, one paragraph mentioned in the middle of the speech this year, but also immigration, and i'm wondering where we are on that. >> well, i think that you see in those two issues really the divergent fates of the various parts of the president's agenda. gun control, he mentioned it, but i think there's no expectation that's going to move in congress, despite the sort of constant reminders we've had over the past couple of weeks that the whole issue of gun violence remains really current.

immigration was subdued for a different reason. there really is a realistic prospect that something moves through congress this year and the calculation, i think on both sides was putting it front and center in a hypercharged setting like the state of the union was not going to increase the odds of success. >> i want to bring in new york congressman steve israel, chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee. good to see you, good morning. >> thanks for having me on. >> i want to talk politics first. clearly, one of the goals of yesterday's speech was lay the groundwork for democrats, this theme about moving forward for the middle class. you were in that chamber and as head of the dccc, what are democrats taking away from the speech as they get ready for their campaigns? >> the president showing the spotlight on the defining issue of this year and maybe the defining issue of the economy, which is who's side are you on? republicans talk about opportunity, but the only real opportunity created is for special interests and big oil companies. house democrats and the president of the united states want to pass legislation to make it easier for middle class

families to send their kids to college. house republicans have rejected that and want to pass legislation to continue subsidizing big oil companies $4 billion a year. those are defining contrasts. that's what this midterm election is going to be about, whose side are you on? >> and the president did take congress, particularly republicans to task on a number of issues last night, including iran. let's listen. >> and this congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, i will veto it. when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the united states, then we are not doing right by the american people. let's not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that's already helping millions of americans. >> of course, he announced plans and we've talked a lot about this over the last 48 hours, the pen and the phone, plans he's going to do what he can do to go it alone, but he can't get immigration done alone. he did what he was going to do on the minimum wage, on gun

reform, so he needs congress. did you hear this speech as some republicans did as an acknowledgment that big things probably won't get done and he's not willing to work together? >> well, on the contrary, the president has said time after time that he wants to find some common ground with republicans. i think immigration is a real opportunity for us to do that, and we have said to speaker boehner, if you want to bring this up in a piecemeal way, one bill, then another bill, then another bill, that's fine. we'll support that process, as long as we get to a comprehensive and balanced reform at the end of the day. if you want to bring it in one bill, we'll work with you on that. we don't care what the process is. we want a good outcome, and the outcome is securing our borders and ensuring there is a path for citizenship for those who are here. >> toward that outcome, as you know, republicans have critic e criticized this pen and phone line, republicans used the executive authority. steve stockman walked out midway

through the speech to protest it and in an op-ed in "the wall street journal," ted cruz wrote this, "none is more dangerous than the president's persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead endorse his own policies via executive theot. is there a debate and could that have a net effect? appropriations bill, farm bill, which they'll probably pass some time in this hour, could the net effect be to make more progress less likely? >> look, you always want checks and balances, that's the way it should be, but when you have a republican tea party congress that's only been willing to act when they can act on behalf of oil companies and insurance companies and special interests, you can't expect the president just to sit still and stand by. i don't think republicans really object to the fact that the president is invoking his presidential authority. i think they object to the fact

that he's invoking his presidential authority but it helps the middle class, it helps the working poor. that's their objection, not the process, but that he's standing by and has the backs of the middle class and the working poor and not their special interest friends. >> congressman steve israel, it's always good to have you on the program, thank you. >> thank you. >> let me switch gears, ruth, i want to talk about this after the response to the state of the union, rand paul was asked about hillary clinton and bill clinton and his comments over the weekend on "meet the press," bringing back up the lewinsky scandal. >> for all these people who stand up for bill clinton and say he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, he was a serial philanderer, but also someone who took advantage of women in the workplace. it's not her fault. she's had to tolerate the same sort of problems from him, i guess, over time, but i would say that it's more a question of the entire democrat party who says there's a war on women and

somehow the other party's committing this, yet they support and defend a guy who really in the workplace was doing something that was inexcusable, should not be tolerated. >> ruth, he says he keeps responding because he's asked about it, but it does seem like he's going a little farther each time. >> yes, and it's very interesting. he does wait until he's asked about it, but he certainly hasn't been shy about using bill clinton's behavior, and let's just be clear, bill clinton's behavior was inexcusable and he paid a very heavy price for it, that price was being impeached by the house of representatives and tried by the senate, and it goes on his permanent record, as my kids would say. but to tar the totality of bill clinton to his obvious indiscretions is not strong enough a word, and to say that doesn't make the argument about treatment of women and rights of women legitimate, that the democrats can't stand up and say

that, that's just going a little too far, but it's awfully convenient for him. and it's convenient for him that he says, well, hillary clinton is not really responsible for him, but it's hard to tell them apart. >> ruth marcus, alex burns, good to see both of you, thanks so much for being with us. we're looking at this live picture of the president. he's running ten minutes ahead of time in maryland at a costco to talk about his economic proposals, selling his ideas from the state of the union. let's listen. >> i love getting on this side of the beltway, even if it is only a few hundred feet away. well, first of all, give theresa a great big round of applause for the great job she did. it is good to be here with all of you. i want to acknowledge a champion for working families right here in maryland, governor martin o'malley.

some folks who go to bat for working people every single day, senator ben cardin is here, congresswoman donna edwards is here. and all of you are here. you know, theresa's story proves that treating workers well is not just the right thing to do, it is an investment. and theresa's 27 years of hard work at costco proves that investment pays off. you know, i talked a little bit about this last night in my state of the union address, now i only finished 12 hours ago, so these remarks will be quicker. and i need some time to pick up a snow shovel, and one of those 50-pound bags of dog food for bo

and sunny. i was told i'd get a big-screen tv, too, for the super bowl coming up. the 80-inch. 60's not enough, huh? got to go 80. it is funny, though, i was looking, you know, you can buy a sofa, a chocolate chip cookies, and a snorkel set all in the same -- the sofa didn't surprise me, but the snorkel set, now that was impressive. although i do want to ask, who's snorkeling right now? how many of those you guys selling? you never know. but what i talked about last night was a simple, but profound idea, and it's an idea that's at the heart of who we are as

americans. opportunity for everybody. giving everybody a fair chance. if they are willing to work hard, take responsibility, give them a shot. the idea that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, what your last name is, if you work hard, you live up to your responsibilities, you can succeed, you can support a family. that's -- that's what america should be about. nobody's looking for a free lunch. but give people a chance. if they are working hard, make sure they can support a family. now, we're at a moment where businesses all across the country, businesses like costco, have created 8 million new jobs over the last four years. our unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in more than five years, our deficits have been cut in half, housing is rebounding, manufacturing's adding jobs for the first time

since the '90s, we sell more of what we make here in america in over places than ever before, business leaders are deciding that china's not the best place to invest and create jobs, america is. so this could be a breakthrough year for america. after five years of hard work, overcoming the worst recession in our lifetimes, we're in a better position for this young century than anybody else. but the question for folks in washington is whether they are going to help that progress or hinder that progress. whether they are going to waste time creating new crises for people and new uncertainty like the shutdown, or are we going to spend time creating new jobs and new opportunities? and i know what i'm choosing to do, because it's what you do. i'm choosing this to be a year of action. because too many americans are

working harder than ever just to get by, much less get ahead. the scars of the recession are real. the middle class has been taking it on the chin since before the recession. the economy's been growing for four years now, corporate profits, stock prices have all soared, but the wages and incomes of ordinary people haven't gone up in over a decade. so that's why last night i laid out some steps that we can take, concrete, common sense proposals to speed up economic growth, strengthen the middle class, build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. and this opportunity agenda has four parts. number one, we need more new jobs. number two, we need to train more americans with the skills that they need to fill those jobs. number three, we should guarantee every child access to a world-class education. [ applause ]

and number four, let's make sure hard work pays off. now some of my ideas i'll need congress. but america can't just stand still if congress isn't doing anything. i'm not going to stand still either. wherever i can take steps to expand opportunity for more families, i'm going to do it, with or without congress. [ applause ] because the defining project of our time, of our generation, is to restore opportunity for everybody, so i'm here at costco today to talk about the fourth part of the opportunity agenda, and that is making hard work pay off for every single american. five years ago i signed my first bill into law. i didn't have any gray hair.

and you think it's distinguished. okay. says the guy with a gray beard. so this first bill that i signed is called the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. lilly was in my speech last night, and it's a law to help a woman's right to fair pay, but at a time when women make up about half of the workforce, but still make 77 cents for every zlar a man earns, we have to give women the tools they need for equal pay. women deserve equal pay for equal work. if they are having a baby, they shouldn't have to sacrifice their job. a mom deserves a day off to care for a sick child or a sick parent. and a father does, too.

as i said last night, we've got to get rid of some of these workplace policies that long in a "madmen" episode, belong in the '50s. we have to give women opportunity she deserves, because when women succeed, america succeeds. now, women happen to hold a majority of lower-wage jobs in america, but they are not the only ones who are stifled when wages aren't going up. you know, as americans we understand some people are going to earn more than other people, and we don't resent those who because they work hard, because they come up with a new idea, they achieve incredible success. we want our kids to be successful. and it's funny, michelle and i sometimes talk and michelle's dad was a blue collar worker, her mom was a secretary, i was raised by a single mom.

we didn't go around when we were growing up being jealous about folks who made a lot of money. as long as if we were working hard we could have enough. so americans overwhelmingly agree, nobody who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. [ applause ] and that is why i firmly believe it's time to give america a raise. 100 years ago, henry ford, started ford motor company, model-t, you remember all that. henry ford realized he could sell more cars if his workers made enough money to buy the cars. you know, he had started these

factories and mass production and all that, but then he realized, you know, if my workers aren't getting paid, they won't be able to buy the cars, then i can't make a profit and reinvest to hire more workers, but if i pay my workers a good wage, they can buy my product, i make more cars, ultimately, i'll make more money, they've got more money in their pockets, so it's a win-win for everybody. and leaders today, business leaders today, some of them understand this same concept. costco's ceo, he understands this. he feels the same way. he knows that costco is going to do better, all our businesses do better, when customers have more money to spend. and listen, craig is a wonderful guy, but he's not in this for i

philanthro philanthropy, he's in for the bottom line, but he sees if he's doing right by costco's workers, then they can buy that 80-inch tv, too. right? profitable corporations like costco see higher wages as a smart way to boost productivity and reduce turnover. so entry-level employees here, stock associates, cashiers, start at $11.50 an hour. start at $11.50 an hour. thank you. the average hourly wage is more than $20, not including overtime or benefits, and costco's commitment to fairness doesn't stop at the checkout counter, it extends down the supply chain, including to many of the farm workers who grow the produce that you sell.

now what, this means is that costco has some of the lowest employee turnover in your industry, so you're not constantly retraining folks because they quit. you got people like theresa who's been here 27 years, because it's a company that's looking out for workers. and i got to tell you, when i walk around, just had a little tour of the produce section, the bakery, you can just tell people feel good about their job and they feel good about the company, and you have a good atmosphere and, you know, the managers and people all take pride in what you do. now, folks who work at costco understand that, but there are a lot of americans who don't work

somewhere like costco, and they are working for wages that don't go as far as they once did. today the minimum wage, the federal minimum wage doesn't even go as far as it did back in the 1950s, and as the cost of living goes up, the value of the minimum wage goes down over time. just last year alone, workers earning the minimum wage basically got the equivalent of a $200 pay cut, because the minimum wage stayed the same, but costs of everything else are going up. i don't need to tell you this. you go shopping. uh-huh. uh-huh. for a typical minimum wage worker, that's a month worth of groceries. it's two months of electricity. it's a big deal to a lot of families.

so, i brought a guy here today who knows a little bit about this, todd perez is america's secretary of labor, works for working families every day. i stole him from governor o'malley. he came here from maryland. but when he was governor o'malley's labor secretary here in maryland, he helped implement the country's first statewide living wage law, and that helped a lot of maryland families. but there are more families in maryland and across the country who put in long days, they've got hard jobs, they deserve higher wages. in the year since i first asked congress to raise the federal minimum wage, five states have already passed laws to raise theirs. governor o'malley's trying to do it here in maryland and lift the minimum wage from $10.10. he says we all do better when we're all doing better. he's right.

prince george's county, montgomery county are banding together with d.c. to raise the regional minimum wage, and i'm here to support your efforts. [ applause ] i'm here to support your efforts. and as i said last night to every governor, mayor, state legislator out there, if you want to take the initiative to raise your minimum wage laws to help more hard-working americans make ends meet, then i'm going to be right there at your side. while congress decides whether it's going to raise the minimum wage or not, people outside of washington are not waiting for congress, and i'm not either. so, as a chief executive, i'm going to lead by example. in the coming weeks, i will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees on new contracts a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. [ applause ]

because if you cook our troops' meals, wash their dishes, you shouldn't have to live in poverty, so there's some steps businesses are taking on their own, there's steps that certain states and counties and cities are taking on their own. there's steps i'm going to take as president, but ultimately, congress does have to do its part to catch up to the rest of the country on this. and there's a reason why a wide majority of americans support increasing the minimum wage. look, most americans make more than the minimum wage, so it's interesting that the overwhelming number of americans support raising the minimum wage. it's not that it's going to necessarily affect them personally right now, it's that they know, they understand, the value behind the minimum wage. if you work hard, you should be able to pay your rent, buy your

groceries, look after your kids. [ applause ] if you put in a hard day's work, you deserve decent pay for it. that's a principle everybody understands, everybody believes. so right now in congress there's a bill that would live the federal minimum wage to $10.10. $10.10. $10.10, that's easy. it will give more businesses more customers with more money to spend. i guarantee you, if workers have a little more money in their pocket, they'll spend more at costco. and if costco's seeing more customers, they'll hire some more folk. everybody does better. and the thing about it is, raising the minimum wage doesn't require new spending by the federal government, it doesn't require a big bureaucratic program. it would help a lot of americans

make ends meet, so i need everybody here and everybody who's going to be watching, tell congress to make this happen. give america a raise. making work pay means doing more to help americans all across this country, but it also means improving the economy, because one of the things that's been holding our economy back is wages and incomes being flat, means consumers aren't spending as much, which means businesses don't have as many customers, which means they don't hire as much and they don't invest as much and we don't get that lift-off on the economy that we could. if we want to make work pay, we also have to help americans save for retirement, and i'm going to be flying up to pittsburgh this afternoon to talk about that. making work pay means access to health care that's there when you get sick, and the affordable care act means nobody can ever be dropped or denied coverage

for a pre-existing condition like asthma or cancer. you can't be charged more if you're a woman. you can't be charged just because your job makes your back hurt sometimes. those days are over. more americans are signing up for new private health insurance plans every day. already 3 million people have signed up. so if you know somebody who isn't covered or doesn't have health insurance, call them up, sit them down, help them get covered at healthcare.gov by march 31st. so, this is the opportunity agenda that i'm going to be talking about this year. i hope congress will be talking about it, too. but i'm not going to wait. because we've got to restore some economic security in a 21st century economy, and that means jobs that are more plentiful, skills that are more employable, savings that are more portable. health care that's yours and can't be cancelled if you get sick. i just focused on one piece of

that opportunity agenda today, raising the minimum wage. but these are all real, practical, achievable solutions that can help shift the odds back in favor of working and middle class americans who haven't been seeing some of the benefits and growth that we've seen over the last four years. and before i grab a ten-pound barrel of pretzels and 500 golf balls, let me just leave you with something i heard from costco's founder, jim senegal, who's been a great friend of mine and somebody who i greatly admire. and jim's rightly proud of everything he's accomplished, but he said, here's the thing about the costco store, we did not build our company in a vacuum, we built it in the greatest country on earth. we built our company in a place where anyone can make it with hard work, a little luck, and a little help from their neighbors and their country.

that's what jim said. a place where anyone can make it. that's who we are. that's our store. if we pull together, work together, put our shoulder to the wheel, keep moving forward, that's going to be our future, as well. and the future for our kids and our grandkids. thanks so much, everybody. god bless you. god bless america. [ applause ] >> 20 minutes before the costco workers in maryland and the president pushing the same messages he had in last night's state of the union in a very personal way. he'd gotten a tour a little bit earlier, looking at everything from the big-screen tvs to the scuba gear at costco, but when the republicans push back at the ideas the president is putting forth, costco is often where the democrats point. because in a country where the minimum wage is $7.25 and republicans say $10.10 is too much, costco, an incredibly

successful company not only pays its workers an average of $21 an hour, but provides something like 88% of them with company-sponsored health care. i want to bring in nbc news senior political editor mark murray and nbc news political producer casey hunt. let me ask you specifics first, casey. last night in the state of the union he pointed to the harkin/miller bill, which would raise the minimum wage, what's likely to happen with that? >> republican leaders here in congress were asked yesterday about whether this minimum wage bill is something they could support, and they referred to it as potentially job destroying legislation. the upshot being that as far as republicans are concerned, it doesn't really have very far to go. this is something that business would likely oppose. that could make it run into some serious problems in the gop-held house. it's also possible it could encounter a filibuster here in the senate, although at this point we're not sure what that threat might look like. it is something democrats have

said they want to aggressively push forward with, and for congressional democrats who are looking to hold on to the senate, it's a message they feel they can potentially carry through to the midterm elections this fall as they are defending seats, so if republicans were to block this, it would give democrats a way to shape their message of being the party that's most interested in combatting income inequality. one thing i noticed on the minimum wage in his speech there, he talked about how women are often holders of low-income jobs and the gender gap is something we're going to see a lot of over the course of the next couple of months. and this message from the president is clearly oriented in making sure the democrats maintain their edge with women voters. >> one other thing we spoke about earlier in program that polls very, very well with american voters. mark, this has become a tradition, you give the state of the union and then take it on the road. the president mentioned later today he's going to pennsylvania, wisconsin,

tennessee, as well. what does he hope to accomplish realistically by taking his message on the road? >> this is about having the message from last night resinate into today, tomorrow, into next week. the state of the union address is really only going to be as successful as long as it ends up resinating. this is standard operating procedure for all presidents. i remember when george w. bush hit the road after his state of the union addresses, it would be malpractice if he didn't do something like this. you could see this would be mission accomplished for the administration if somehow we were still talking about raising the minimum wage and highlighting stories like across costco in the next week and beyond. you have to deal with so many external events, things beyond your control, but they often haven't been able to have messages rez that beyond a day or two, a week or two, so this is important for them as they see this is their playbook going forward to the midterms to keep pushing on. >> mark murray, kasie hunt, good

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traffic is still a mess in atlanta. almost 24 hours after it started snowing there. the atlanta newspaper headline calls it "a horrible, horrible, horrible situation," with some people sitting in traffic for 12 hours. transportation officials say there were more than 900 accidents in georgia due to the massive southern storm. mayor reid says the state is using 120 pieces of equipment to ease traffic, with more than 30 on loan from the national guard. a baby was even born in a car during the traffic jam, and school buses facing that long gridlock didn't move. instead, 800 students spent the night at schools in alabama and georgia. and classes throughout the south are off this morning. this rare southern snowstorm dumped up to three inches in areas that are not used to seeing even a few flakes. president obama just moments ago following up on his state of

the union push to raise the minimum wage. he is traveling to four states in two days focusing on the economy, and vice president biden will be in rochester, new york, this afternoon to sell the president's job training efforts. in the past hour, we heard the presidential pitch to raise the minimum wage at that costco wholesale club in maryland just outside the beltway. >> costco's ceo, he understands this. he feels the same way. he knows that costco is going to do better, all our businesses do better, when customers have more money to spend. >> now, critics on the right see it as more of the same from the president, proposals, they argue, have not worked. check out this vine video response from speaker john boehner. >> appreciate what the president has said tonight, but i'm with those americans that are asking the question, where are the jobs? >> i want to bring in msnbc political analyst michael steele and former obama deputy press

secretary joe burton. good morning, gentlemen. co costco's done it and the ceo there supports the minimum wage hike. are republicans either going to need to get onboard or have more of an argument for why not? >> i think it's going to be a combination of both, and that's going to be the trick that we're going to see unfold over the next few weeks. it's going to start with the idea of making the argument ultimately of how this impacts business. costco has the advantage of being a big box company. it's got a lot of employees, so it can average out, it can leverage out those costs in a way that a small business owner of 50 or 100 employees cannot. and so that's going to be the real sweet spot for this conversation. it's not the costcos of the world going, yeah, let's raise the minimum wage, because they have the ability to pass that cost off on to its consumers in

a way that they don't necessarily feel it, whereas a small business owner, that impact is much more real, much more up close to their customers, so that conversation is going to have to get itself worked out, and ultimately if it does, you'll see the party moving in a way in which you can have this conversation about raising the minimum wage, because you'll have that small business, the nfib world, behind that movement. you do not have that right now, so the president is saying one thing, and the business community is not on that page and the party's not there, either. >> one of the things, bill, the president said he wanted to do is set this example, which is the executive order on the minimum wage. but john boehner says, look, this only affects future contracts, it's going to do little for current workers. so, is this more window dressing? >> no, absolutely not. just because the minimum wage increase doesn't affect every worker in america doesn't mean it's not very important, both

symbolically and in reality for the people who it affects. everybody -- the american people overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage, and you don't have to be an expert in economics to know capitalism works when businesses have consumers, and raising the minimum wage allows people to have a livable wage, help them pay their energy and health care costs and all those other things, but also go out and participate in the america economy, spurring it into action. what the president did last night, he made an important sfirs step in getting the minimum wage raised for all americans. >> when the president says things about raising the minimum wage or treating workers isn't just the right thing to do, it's really making an investment in the future, it's a hard argument to go against, and we saw what happened with republicans when they pushed back against a lot of things over the last year, what happened to their poll numbers. let me play what vice president biden said about the president's proposals on the "today" show

today. >> from minimum wage, to getting rid of tax loopholes that are useless for big corporations and others, the american people are with us. they are with us on pay equity, they are with us on immigration, they are with us on early education. >> michael, steve israel, head of the dccc was on earlier, and he talked about going out and making that case to the american people in many of these elections. is it advantage democrat when you make that argument? >> well, you would have to think, chris, after six years that case would have been made. it's not like the recession ended yesterday. it's not like, you know, the american people have not been sitting in this economic squalor or wasteland for the last three or four years. you still have 5 million americans who have just given up. they are not on the rolls. that's why the unemployment number is lower than it is. it's not that all of a sudden all these jobs have been created, and jobs have been created, but you still have 5

million americans that need to be accounted for, so this rhetoric is nice on the one hand, it's why the president is still selling it, still selling the idea of job creation, you know, six years into his administration, so that's going to be the challenge the white house has. it's not as neat a package as they like. they are going to have a congress that's going to be resistant, the senate's in play, so the politics of that's going to drive a lot of this, as well, for a lot of those democrats in red states, so this has much more dynamic to it than the president is ready to admit, which is why he's getting out and testing this conversation. this was a poll-tested speech last night. the administration admitted to that, so, yeah, there's a lot of these feel-good buzz words. now the harsh reality for a lot of americans remains, when do i go back to work? >> and that is the mantra we're hearing. we heard it in that video vine we heard from speaker boehner, bill, and rand paul criticizing the president's job creation record. let me play that.

>> a thriving middle class doesn't come from shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. prosperity comes when more money's left in the private marketplace. families across america are worried. good jobs are hard to find. mr. president, where are the jobs? >> that's the mantra, bill, where are the jobs? unemployment has fallen below 7%, but a lot of that has to do with discouraged people giving up on their job search, so how do democrats win the argument that they have a better plan? >> well, i want to start by saying that i actually agree with a lot of what chairman steele had to say about the president's speech in that it's one thing to give a speech, and it's another to actually see all those things come into reality, so there's a lot of work that still needs to be done, and winning the argument is a big part of that, which is why the president's going around the country today, but if you look back to 2008 and again in 2012, there was a very vociferous argument made over the tax cuts,

over how do you drive economic growth in this country, and president obama won that argument going away, and it was one of the first times in a long time the democrats were able to win an economic argument by saying what we need is the middle class to be lifted up and not just taxes cut for the wealthy. so this is something that has been argued and decided by the american people, and it's up to congress to follow the lead of the american people and actually do what they really want, which is things that will help the middle class grow. raising the minimum wage, cutting taxes for the middle class, ending corporate tax breaks, ending some of the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. those are things the american people believe and, in reality, help drive the economy forward, you know, not some of the rhetoric that you heard from republicans in any of their several dozen responses to the president's speech last night. >> bill burton, michael steele, great to see both of you. i know it was a long night for everybody. i want to show you the most memorable part of the state of

the union address. >> on his tenth deployment, cory was nearly killed by a massive roadside bomb in afghanistan. his comrades found him in a canal face down, under water, shrapnel in his brain. for months, he lay in a coma. the next time i met him in the hospital, he couldn't speak. could barely move. over the years, he's endured dozens of surgeries and procedures, hours of grueling rehab every day. even now, cory's still blind in one eye, still struggles on his left side. but slowly, steadily, with the support of caregivers like his dad, craig, and the community around him, cory has grown stronger.

day by day he's learned to speak again and stand again and walk again. he's working toward the day when he can serve his country again. cory is here tonight. and like the army he loves, like the america he serves, sergeant first class cory remsburg never gives up and he does not quit. [ applause ] uys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. 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. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ with limited availability in select markets. that it's given me time toabout reflect on some of life'seen biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call,

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wow, an intense exchange caught on camera after the state of the union last night. it was between republican congressman michael grimm and a local new york tv reporter. grimm physically threatened him about asking about the investigation into grimm's fundraising. >> since we have you hear -- >> i'm not speaking about anything off topic. this is only about the president's speech. thank you. >> all right, so congressman michael grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances. we wanted to get him on camera

on that, but he, as you saw, refused to talk about that. back to you. >> let me be clear to you. if you ever do that again to me -- >> why, why, i just wanted to ask you. >> if you ever do that to me again -- >> why, why? it's a valid question. >> no, no, you're not man enough. you're not man enough. i'll break you in half like a boy. >> and grimm didn't back down afterwards, saying he was annoyed because he rushed to do the interview as a favor and called the question a cheap shot, adding, i verbally took the reporter to task and told him off, because i expect a certain level of professionalism and respect, especially when i go out of my way to do that reporter a favor. i doubt i'm the first member of congress to tell off a reporter, and i'm sure i won't be the last. that wraps up this hour of

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hello, breaking news this hour, a rare deep south snowstorm has crippled parts of the area and up to 50 million people feeling the winter blast, including atlanta itself. the ninth largest city in the country is currently shut down because of the storm. georgia's national guard is sending military humvees into atlanta to help thousands of people still stranded in their cars. state troopers are going to schools giving food and water to the 2,000 students stuck at school since yesterday. students trapped on a school bus since yesterday, as well, have just been rescued. >> our buses just struggled to get here, then the weather got worse. >> i hit black ice. these roads are horrible, absolutely horrible. black ice, you can't even see. i come over that hill and it just pulled me down the hill. >>