bring me flowers." chuck, go ahead, sing it. ahh, an age-old problems. actually, the age-old problem. a nonpartisan forecast shows good news for the remanlder of the president's term but it hinges on whether the president, the next one, and the leaders can stop the baby boomers from busting the budget. plus, a major move by drugstore giant cvs. they're choosing to stop selling tobacco products, even though it means they'll lose billions of dollars. we'll get a reaction from the american heart association. also this morning, a winter blast is hitting tens of millions of americans from missouri to maine. we'll go live to the roadways in the northeast to see how morning travelers are handling the slick and messy conditions. good morning from washington. it's wednesday, february 5th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. let's get to my "first reads" of the morning. let's start with the economy.

america has seen its economic future and the forecast is partly cloudy. on tuesday, the nonpartisan congressional budget office released its 10-year forecast for the american economy as it relates to the federal government. the bottom line, according to the cbo, there is no economic boom in our near future. according to the report, the u.s. is expected to post solid economic growth over the next three years. 3.1% this year. 3.4% in 2015 and '16. about by 2017, growth will start to fall to 2.7%, and perhaps stagnate, and it will continue to slow to a pace that's, quote, well below the average we've seen over the past several decades. as an aging population means slower growth of the labor force. more on the boomers in just a minute. budget deficits are projected to drop to $514 billion this year, down from $1.4 trillion five years ago, but by the end of the decade, deficits will be back over $1 trillion again unless congress acts. and that's largely because of spending in two areas -- social security and health care.

these are the biggest headlines out of the cbo. it's been one sentence that's dominated the coverage of the report in the last 24 hours, which republicans immediately seized on and will put in tv ads this fall, and it's this. on the effect of the health care law on the economy, from the cbo, quote, the reduction in cbo's projections of hours worked represents a decline in the number of full-time equivalent workers of 2 million in 2017 rising to about 2.5 million in 2024. cutting through the washington-speak, the cbo says the decline in the number of americans working is largely about people's desire to remain in the workforce, not about whether employers think the law is too costly to hire people. quote, workers will choose to supply less labor given the new taxes and incentives they will face and the financial benefits some will receive. for example, under the health care law, 62-year-old worker might decide to retire from his job because he can obtain health insurance on the exchanges or

expanded medicaid rather than through his employer. the cbo make it is clear, by saying this way, quote, it will appear almost entirely as a reduction in labor force participation and in hours worked relative to what would have occurred otherwise, rather than an increase in employment, more worker seeking but not finding jobs, or underemployment, such as part-time workers who would prefer to work more hours per week. the cbo isn't saying the health care law is cutting or killing 2.5 million jobs. but in the world of sound bites and 30-second tv ads, it will be tougher for them to argue. republicans immediately seized on the report and spun it the way they want to spin it. john boehner said, the middle class is getting squeezed in this economy and this cbo report confirms obamacare is making it worse. and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, obamacare to print more pink slips ignoring the fact that it was focused on supply, not demand.

>> the cbo report is certainly not pretty if you're interested in creating jobs in america. as we all know, they estimate up to $2 million -- 2 million fewer jobs will be created as a result of obamacare. >> no matter how you calculate this number, or how the administration tries to explain it away, it's about two and a halftimes as big as the anticipated number was when it was looked at the first time. they can say anything they want to about, well, this is -- this is people who stayed -- who stay at work, because now they can get insurance when they don't work anymore, because they had the exchange, they can say anything they want, but this number is a lot worse than anybody thought. >> now, the white house and congressional democrats fired back, arguing it's a good thing that with affordable health care a worker may be able to cut back a few hours each week and still be able to afford the same quality of life. >> their word itself is choose.

this is a choice on the part of workers. this is not businesses cutting back on jobs. this is people having new choices they didn't used to have. those are two completely different things. >> we have a cbo report which rightfully says that people shouldn't have job lock. we live in a country where you should be free agency, people can do what they want. republicans talk about moving millions of jobs and the cbo report is far better for us than it's not. >> of course, already republican opponents of democrats running in 2014, especially in states where the health care law is not popular, are also seizing on the report. congressman bill cassidy challenging louisiana mary landrieu tweeted out the jobs headline. the republican party of north carolina said, obamacare will destroy millions of jobs, increase the deficit, and destroy hard working families, and kay hagan said she would still vote for it again. alaska's treadwell challenging

begich says the cost of obamacare, and would he vote for obamacare again? in other not so great news for the white house, 1 million fewer folks will sign up for insurance coverage because of the website problems. 8 million instead of nine will enroll in medicaid and other public programs. democrats also were able to cherry pick findings that are a good political story for them. the risk corridors that the republicans want to repeal in which the government collects money from insurers that end up with healthier customers and reimburses ones who have a sicker population, well, according to the cbo, that reduces the deficit by $8 billion. so if you repeal it, the deficit goes up. an average health insurance premiums this year through the exchanges are 15% lower than expected. but in all of the political back-and-forth, the biggest story here may have been missed and the biggest challenge for lawmakers was ignored. the population is getting older and more expensive to take care of, and it means the u.s. will

be a slower-growing country. just ask japan. in the next decade, a surge of entitlement spending will push federal debt to nearly 80% of gdp. spending on health care programs and social security will grow from 9.7% of gdp to nearly 12%. the cbo also projected that the unemployment rate would end this year at 6.7% and decline only gradually dropping below 6% in 2017. why? the upward pressure of that rate from improvements in the economy will be more than offset by downward pressure from demographic trends, especially the aging of the baby boom generation. so joining me now to look at this in a couple of different ways, dante, at american university, and co-author of "our patchwork nation" and doug, who recently launched a new health care think tank, the center for health and economy, and an advisor to the mccain campaign. hello to both of you. >> good morning. >> i want to focus, get to health care in a minute. i want to focus, to me -- doug,

let me start with you -- the big story seems to be the demographic story, that the large -- what cbo is throwing out there, hello, we have an entitlement problem. not a political fight. >> we're headed straight for a minefield, and no one seems cognizant of this. i thought this was a relatively depressing report. what it says we can teeter along, stable deficits, stable debt relative to gdp, and then everything goes north, then deficits explode, driven by spending. and it's driven by the spending no one is willing to touch. >> because there's a great stat in here -- there's a great stat in here, if you eliminate social security and health care programs from government spending, the less -- we're actually spending less as a percentage than pre-world war ii levels. >> those programs, which are legacies of past, with crushing the places. they're crushing the core functions -- >> you can't do the things government to invest in. >> the national security infrastructure, education

research, they're gone. >> you studied this demographic. you look at it as a demographic trend. this is a problem japan has been going through for two decades and we know why the japan economy -- if you have a labor force that is smaller and old older -- >> right. >> -- then you lose, what, innovation -- all sorts of -- >> yeah. >> you don't, also, have folks contributing to the government programs that you need them to contribute to. >> right, and contributing -- you don't have money coming through taxes that basically fund the government. immigration is one way to handle some of this. you get immigrants in, they tend to be be younger. i'll get -- it helps somewhat. the way we look at this, the american communities project, there's a big swath of this country, this problem isn't evenly spread, there's a big swath of this problem where it's deep. >> it's uneven, right, uneven, the coasts are doing great. >> absolutely. >> right? >> and many of the metro areas. >> the metro areas. this is in sort of the suburbs,

ex-urbs, in the middle of the country, where they have an aging workforce and no innovation. >> and they're bleeding -- look, if you have a young person with talent, skill, education, they leave. >> they're going to cities or coming to the coasts. >> absolutely. >> you know, doug, he brought up immigration. cbo did another report that said the one positive on immigration. and this report, everybody is focusing on the shrinking of the labor force, and it's shrinking, they're saying due to health care, but immigration would offset it. >> this is the key point. the native born population, we don't have enough kids for the population to grow. all of the future population growth is based on immigration choices. we could do serious immigration reform augment the labor force, build our skills and grow a lot more rapidly. that's a key part of the debate and should be front and center. >> it should be more of a jobs -- they projected 9 million jobs in 20 years if the senate version of the immigration law passed, if you netted it out,

then the labor force would be expanding. >> and they said it would lower the projected deficits which are enormous. it's a powerful tool. and we're out of step with the rest of the developed world who use immigration policy as an economic policy. we don't. >> i mean, this is europe -- i go back to europe and japan, the two areas that -- two other economies, aging economies have caused them to slow down. >> i think something to keep in mind with immigration, when i look at the trends, what you're seeing is immigration will have a big effect on the west and southwest, and this nometropolin areas around the country, and then close to the border, and go to detroit even, chicago, philadelphia, but there are the spots where there's no reason for the immigration to come in and change those places. we really have a problem with a huge portion of the country that's aging, and i don't really know how to address the problem. >> on health care, a lot of the republican friends are taking it and calling it -- it is an unfair statement to the nation, they should not be saying this is costing 2 million jobs, is that right? >> not quite.

this is the flip side of the same coin. if you go to the end of this, 2024, the cbo is saying supply equals demand, back to full employment. so one way to characterize it, well, we've given benefits to workers who get them regardless of whether they work or not, and they choose not to. the other way to say it, employers cannot offer wage high enough to lure them into the job and make money. you're killing a job either way, it's gone. >> but if the job -- it's not if they're eliminating jobs. >> it is an unsurprising result that if you hand out a trillion dollars in benefits to people, whether they work or not, put about $600 billion in taxes, and $100 billion in regulations, you don't create jobs. this shouldn't surprise anyone. cbo just put the numbers on it. >> i do wonder when you look at this over time how much of the structural, however. >> you think this would be happening almost regardless of whether there was health care law or something else? >> some sectors are just gone. and some sectors that really provide employment to people who don't have skills and education

have dried up. and i don't know what to do. so those people can go to the service sector, and there are jobs there still. those jobs don't pay well. and, i mean, i guess what you're talking about, we could bump it up where the service sector pay more, and that's where the people could go and get employment. we've lost whole segments of the economy, whole sectors, where i don't know what you do, how to get the jobs back. >> if you look over 200 years, we moved everyone out of farming and into services. >> right. >> and we've stayed a manufacturing nation. we'll continue to do that. we don't know what the service jobs will be. they're not all bad paying job. go see a lawyer. [ laughter ] >> oh, fair enough. cbo says there will be demand created for more health care, and guess what, the fastest growing sector over the next ten years could be the health care sector. you say it's the only thing keeping the midsized towns alive, education and the growth in health care. >> yeah, they need nurses out in those communities. >> all right. trying to look at a big picture

here, do more health care later in the show. thank you both. >> thanks. >>. >> a quick update on a headline we first reported yesterday. activist sandra fluk announced she's not running for congress, but instead filed to run for the california state senate. when she filed her papers, most assumed she was throwing her hat in the ring for the waxman seat. now we know it wasn't that. it is the state senate. coming up next, we'll take a deep dive into the huge news this morning, that cvs is pulling all tobacco products off its shelves. it's official. cigarettes have been stigmatized. up next, replacing, repeal, richard burr and his alternative to the affordable care act. can he convince his party to unite behind the plan? another wallop for winter-weary residents. travel is treacherous. and it's a mess all the way

around. lucky for us, it's north of baltimore. the politics planner -- president is meeting at central park, maybe hearing from secretary kerry on what he thinks about syria, first public comments. maybe we'll hear it. we'll be right back. in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. when i'm training, i always listen to music. for the gym, it's hip-hop. [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] sfor cross-country, classical.e? and for jumps, i need something...special. so i use my citi thankyou visa card for music downloads and earn two times the points... plus a little extra inspiration. [ ♪ music plays ] the citi thankyou preferred visa card. earn two times the points on entertainment and dining out with no annual fee. citi, with you every step of the way.

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we're attempting to pick up on a conversation we started last week. it's a closer look at the new alternative to the affordable care act introduced by a trio of senate republicans. the patient care act has been proposed. it's not been formally introduced. which means it hasn't been scored by the cbo. we're learning more about how it would work. the republican plan is billed as package of reforms to increase access. it does appear that it would reduce the cost to the government.

but at least some of that would simply be shifted to those trying to buy insurance, so, for example, the republican plan offers tax credits, but only up to those making 300% of the poverty line for the current law it's 400%. for the republicans, the credits replace medicaid eligibility as a way to expand coverage, and while it's unclear if the total number of insured would actually grow, the senior vice president of the kaiser family foundation claims that, quote, because the tax credits in many cases are quite modest, and there are no minimum requirements on insurance, the coverage they get might be very, very skimpy. now, as for savings, the republican proposal claims it can save more than $1 trillion over 10 years. but a big part of that comes from a plan that would force consumers to pay taxes on over a third of employer insurance contributions under the aca. those contributions are tax free. the independent institute found the plan would translate to $47 billion tax hike. ask john mccain how that worked out. the institute said it would hit

households earning as little as $30,000. with me is one of the sponsors, richard burr. he's been working on health care issues for a long time. senator, i appreciate you coming on on this. let's start with a couple -- is this essentially wide and bennett from 2007 that mccain -- and here's what i remember, the portion, taxing health care plans, you know how politically toxic that was for john mccain in 2008. as unpopular as the mandate is to some, taxing a benefit is very unpopular to others. >> in fact, chuck, what we do to correct everybody out there is that we apply a tax for cadillac plans. in other words, for a plan that meets 65% of the highest-priced plan in the marketplace, 35% of it would have tax consequences. that misses the majority of the american people. as a matter of fact, it mirrors the president's own proposal in

the affordable care act, which taxes cadillac plans. so there's very little difference in how the president -- >> well, you're expanding -- you're expanding the number of plans you would tax. >> well, i -- i -- i think if you look at the definition of 65% of the highest-priced plan in the market, what you'd find out is that the president touches about the same number of plans as we anticipate that we would touch. the difference is, we devote the money to pay for the tax credit, which goes to that bottom most vulnerable marketplace -- >> right. >> -- and, chuck, remember, what we're asking them to do is participate in a newly competitive market, not one that government has constructed, but one that the marketplace is driven by. >> well, and that is among the critiques of this plan, because you just heard from the kaiser -- the quote from kaiser there, the concern they have is that what this would then create is substandard plans again, that

you would have -- by expanding, what you just said, having the market control it, you would have the lower plans, in order for them to offer it cheaply, have them be missing some benefits that some people believe they should have. >> well, i would suggest to you that people aren't going to buy plans that don't meet the needs for them individually. >> or they can't afford it in some cases, right? >> listen, chuck, affordability is what we tried to address in this by creating competitive markets. if you look at the health care today, you've had 6 million people dropped from health care under the affordable care act. you've had 2 million people sign up. we're still at a 4 million deficit. and when you ask for the number-one reason that people aren't signing up, they tell you it's unaffordable for them. what we've tried to do is address affordability, and to make it affordable and provide and empower the patient so they can choose. an individual could hopefully choose a plan that meets their age, income, health condition. we certainly don't offer as rich

a tax credit or benefit as the president does, but we think in a competitive market we can offer comparable mix of products and let individuals choose versus government set the rules. >> let me ask you about one potential loophole that some have questioned on this plan. it says your plan would -- you say people can't be denied for pre-existing conditions if they are continuously insured. but if, for some reason, their insurance lapsed, then all of a sudden they could get treated differently and these preconditions could get -- how do you account for that, if someone loses their job and they lose their insurance, and then suddenly the precondition issue is back for them. how do you prevent that from taking -- from impacting folks that, you know, because of life's circumstances, they can't be continuously covered even for, say, a week. >> great question. one we in this enactment, for an enrollment period, anybody could

enter like they had continuous coverage. this doesn't discriminate in any way, shape, or form. for someone who loses their job, they can opt to go under cobra. they can opt for the mandate in the bill that says an insurer has to continue the care. we also go outside of that and we allow small businesses to group together and pool their resources to have power in the marketplace, to negotiate their markets. we also allow insurance commissioners in the states to go across state lines. so there's so many options that come into play that don't exist under the affordable care act. we think that would have a positive impact on the options that individuals have. >> now, let me ask you this, on the -- getting republican -- full republican support, you're asking them to sign onto something that's going to be characterized as a tax increase for some people. you and i both know the republican party and the word taxes, a four-letter word, even if it technically is a

three-letter word. how do you unite your party? >> well, chuck, we haven't asked anybody to sign on, because it's not a bill. it's an outline. and it's a draft outline. what we've done is gone to our colleagues, and across the aisle, if you have suggestions, give us your good suggestions. you know, the president said he had a phone. apparently he doesn't know how to use it, because an hour or two after we introduced this a few weeks ago, jay carney came out and trashed it from first page to last page. so i'm not sure they're interested in any new thoughts. we are interested in new thoughts. we solicited from health care providers, from professionals, from individuals who lost their insurance, and the number-one thing they came back with was make it affordable. that's what we've tried to do. >> all right. we'll leave it there. republican senator richard burr from north carolina. >> inch that is, chuck. >> thank you for your time, sir. >> yes, sir. up next, digging out again. nearly half the country is in the path of another massive storm. we're thankful we don't have it

here. it's the second bout of winter misery this week. by the way, this isn't over. there's another one coming this weekend. but before we go to break, today's trivia question. who was president when the senate banned smoking in its chamber? first person to tweet the correct answer to @chucktodd will get the shoutout. [ female announcer ] who are we? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you are looking for

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the snow clogged the engine. more than 2,000 flights have been cancelled nationwide. the roads, of course, are messy. police report dozens of accidents on i-70 through columbia, missouri. the northeast woke up this morning to this wallop. schools are closed across new york, new jersey, connecticut. and i'm joined by nbc news' ron allen, behind the wheel in northeast new jersey. ron, i'm just petrified of doing this entire segment with you, but tell me what you're seeing on the road, and please be safe while you're doing it. >> reporter: we are, chuck, we're in a four-wheel drive vehicle. it's very safe. we're taking it easy. 20 miles per hour at the most. early this morning, the roads have gotten better. if you look ahead of us done the road, you'll see why things are getting better. there's a brigade of snowplows making their way through the secondary roads in the towns up here. we've seen this everywhere we're going. the other good news is there's very little rain or snow falling. you can see from the windshield it's pretty clear.

earlier this morning, we were getting snow and freezing rain, and temperatures still around 30. but we're just getting rain now. and there's some places, obviously on the sidewalks, where it's very, very icy, very, very treacherous to walk. >> sure. >> reporter: but the roads now seem to be okay. the trick, of course, is trying to get down salt on the roads, and there are a number of communities in new jersey and other states that have been saying they have shortages because winter has been harsh. a lot of towns have gone through the snow-removal budget. we've gotten as much snow here as we got all of last winter in many of the communities. so things are improving. but we have to get through the rest of the day. again, a lot of snow removal -- it's great to have snowplow on your truck, you'll make a lot of money. >> that's for sure. ron allen behind the wheel there. we will let you be. please be safe. but you bring up the most important point of why even a medium-sized snowstorm like this one is having a big impact, because, hello, communities are

running out of salt, running out of sand. running low on these issues. up next, smoke signals. the president and the first lady are already both applauding cvs's startling decision to stop selling cigarettes. we're going to take a "deep dive" into one of the biggest developments in decades in the anti-smoking campaign. meanwhile, sealing their fate once again, the republicans' inability to unite around a plan is probably going to cost them again. this time, it's the divide they have over the debt. you're watchi ining "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. bonus c. rock beats scissors! [ chuckles ] wife beats rock. and with two checks a year, everyone wins. [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-906-8500 now. [ dennis ] zach really loves his new camera. problem is...this isn't zach. it's a friend of a friend who was at zach's party and stole his camera. but zach's got it covered... with allstate renters insurance.

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integrity won out over its bottom line. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: chuck, yeah, this is very big news. cvs is making this decision, it says, because it simply can no longer reconcile the contradiction between trying to improve the health of people's lives while at the same time selling tobacco products. cigarettes and chewing tobacco. so the big question this morning, will other retailers -- pharmacy retailers -- feel compelled to do the same? the news this morning could be the start of something very big. one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country saying no to tobacco. by october 1st, all tobacco products will be off the shelves at cvs. cvs president says it simply make no, sir sense for cvs employees to be selling cigarettes and chewing tobacco. >> they're working with our patients and our customers who have chronic conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol and diabetes, and we know that smoking is extremely

apithetical to helping people with their health care needs. >> reporter: it comes as the company transitions into a health care company, focusing on pharmacy services and minute clinics. the other big question, will other retailers feel pressured to ban tobacco? >> we're not talking about drugstores, but we're talking about some of the big-box retailers who also have pharmacies, as well. >> reporter: for years, pressure has been building on pharmacies to stop selling tobacco, from the american pharmacists, heart, medical lung associations, and the cancer society. the cvs announcement coming just as the fda unveils a new ad campaign aimed at teenage smokers. >> what's a pack of smokes cost? your teeth. >> most adult smokers take it up when they're younger than the age of 18. so we want to reach those kids who might be starting a lifelong

deadly habit. >> reporter: this morning, a fresh attempt to snuff out tobacco. okay, some numbers here. 500,000 people die every year as a result of smoking-related illnesses. 3,300 kids pick up their first cigarette every day. so that's the fda's push. for its part, cvs also announcing it will stop a campaign to help people stop smoking. this morning, the white house, president obama, weighing in and applauding cvs for taking the initiative. chuck, back to you. >> thank you, tom. you heard him mention the president's statement praising cvs's decision. the ama has done that as well, and now the first lady has weigh the in. her office tweeted this out, thanks, cvs. now we can all breathe a little easier and our families can live healthier. as for how others will react. walgreens says this, we've been balancing this for sometime. we will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want. the latest statistics show the rate of cigarette smoking is

actually down compared to recent years according to the cdc. it's been in steady decline for the past 50 years. now down to 19% of american adults. that number adds up to nearly 44 million smokers. but the newest anti-smoking push isn't directed at them. it's directed at kids. many say they started when they were 18 or younger. that's the backdrop for the fda's first national public education campaign specifically targeting teenage smokers. well, rose marie robertson is the chief science officer for the american heart association. she joins me now. good morning to you. >> pleased to be here. >> obviously, you've been among the folks praising and pushing for this further. do you expect that cvs's decision will lead to -- you heard walgreens. it didn't sound like they were saying no, that they were thinking about it. >> we certainly hope so. if, in fact, if you think about it, if all the retailers that have a pharmacy in place would,

in fact, not sell tobacco products, just think of the huge effect that would have. >> this is grocery stores? we know -- the pharmacies are now in grocery stores, walmart, targets, all of the places, that's your target right now. that's your campaign, no pun intended with the target. >> absolutely. no, it's so important to have sneaking not seem like the normal thing, and tobacco products not seem to be the normal thing, particularly to those youth. 5.6 million kids who are smoking today will die prematurely because of tobacco. you know, the tobacco epidemic is -- it is an enormous and absolutely avoidable epidemic. >> should it fought be -- should cigarettes even be legal? >> well, cigarettes are legal. we finally achieved the very big step of having the fda be able to regulate tobacco products, and that's an important step.

but, you know, even with the fda's major ad campaign directed at youth, just think of the funds that come from big tobacco to counter that. marketing, you know, still is a huge effort and big tobacco works very hard to both begin to addict and to continue keep addicted a population. >> let me ask you about e-cigarettes? where are you on that? have you studied what you believe are the health risks of e-cigarettes? >> well, no one can have studied the long-term effect of e-cigarettes, because they just haven't been there long enough. studies are ongoing. we think more studies need to be done. we do think that in places where cigarettes are banned, e-cigarettes should also be banned. they shouldn't be allowed -- >> cvs, by the way, has not ever sold them. because they were waiting on an fda -- essentially waiting for the fda to weigh in, and they still haven't made that decision. >> right. the fda is supporting research in that area. but it's an area that, you know,

it is controversial for a couple of reasons. one is that one concept was that potentially people could use e-cigarettes where they get nicotine vapor but not combusted products to help them quit. i've seen some data that suggests, in fact, when adults are using e-cigarettes, they're often still doing what we call dual use. that is, they use the e-cigarettes in one place, but, in fact, they still smoke cigarettes in the other. so they're not really -- it's not having that kind of effect -- >> we don't know if it's a cessation -- >> that's correct. >> the next logical place to go, we just had a report out that said sugar is directly linked to heart disease, that it does increase your chance of heart disease. you know, should cvs be selling sugar products? is this a slippery slope and sort of -- a retailer saying, okay, if you're going to be a

pharmacy, don't sell anything unhealthy, harmful, alcohol and sugar would be the next two, no? >> well, you know, food is different from tobacco. tobacco is the only product that when used as designed, kills you, or causes erectile dysfunction, or causes lung cancer at greater rates, even though people are smoking less, because of the 70 carcinogens that are in smoke. >> right. >> you know, tobacco really is a whole different thing. and clearly to get the number-one killer of americans, you know, out of pharmacies and, you know, if we could, out of society altogether, it would be better. >> you don't see it as that that's what's coming next for a cvs? >> i wouldn't think so. you know, healthy foods, of course, we, no question, support a healthy diet with the right nutrients and not too many calories for your -- >> no, i was going to say, one more, you talked about the cities -- some of these -- there's probably some people watching, well, they don't sell cigarettes in my cvs. >> right. >> there are cities and towns

that passed ordinances that banned, i guess, pharmacy stores from selling -- >> right. boston, san francisco. >> -- are you still going to continue that campaign? >> well, i think since cvs is the only pharmacy to step up and say that it's going to do this at this point, you know, we have to continue that campaign. we think it's very important that we help those cities that haven't yet done that figure out how to do it. >> all right. >> and many of them are thinking about it. >> we'll leave it today. this is the tipping point, i think, in stigmatize -- fully stigmatizing cigarette culture in ways we haven't seen before. mary, thank you very much for coming in. >> thank you very much. coming up, singing a new tune, an "american idol" runner-up tries to see if he can win a different kind of contest. plus, farming out favors. the president bucking tradition with his pick for where to sign the farm bill. first, white house soup of the day, in case you're wondering, mushroom and leek. we'll see if anything "leaks"

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"daily flashback," this day in 1937 when fdr made what some consider the biggest political misstep of his presidency when he pushed to increase the number of supreme court justices. the president said a larger court would be more efficient, and about trying to get his new deal constitutional. the controversial plan could have expanded the high court to as many as 15 members. critics charged him with trying to pack the court and limit the judiciary's influence. ultimately, the judicial procedures reform bill died. time for for the wednesday databank, and a record-breaking trek, a mayor refusing to march, and a candidate's crying baby commercial. we start with a first. clay aiken is now the first "american idol" runner-up to run for congress. he announced his candidacy online. >> i'm not a politician. i don't ever want to be one.

but i do want to help bring back at least to my corner of north carolina the idea that someone can go to washington to represent all the people. >> aiken's republican opponent is representative renee elmers, and she's already taking shots at the new candidate. elmers said, as we know, he doesn't fare that well. he was runner-up it's a pretty republican district, but not overwhelmingly republican. mccain and romney won it, less than 60%. and we'll have clay aiken on the show tomorrow live on "the daily rundown." tweet me your questions that you want to ask clay aiken. i will, at least, look at the tweets. speaking of critical candidates, next number is 5, as in five minutes, the length of georgia senate candidate george purdue's new bio-ad, and in it, he calls his opponents crybabies. >> the decision in this election is very simple. if you like the results coming

out of washington right now, then pick one of the four professional politicians. it really won't matter. >> as you can see, he has the name of his primary opponents there. by the way, the latest poll shows the latest poll shows perdue is trailing behind all of those babies, including paul broun, phil gingrich, and former vz secretary of state, karen handle. the next number, 949. that's how many pages make up the bipartisan farm bill. the president plans to sign it friday at michigan state university. and according to unofficial white house historian mark noeler, this will be the president's second out of town bill signing. that's it. the first one, i remember it, 2009 in denver when he signed the american recovery act, which by the way, fifth anniversary is coming up. next up, 20, how many years it's been since a new york city mayor refused to march in the st. patrick's day parade.

boycotted it for similar reasons in 1993. finally, a record breaking distance, 65,000 kilometers. that's how far the torch has traveled in the run up to the games, the torch arrived in sochi early this morning. we still don't know who will be the final runner during the opening ceremony on friday. i'm guessing it's not going to be gary casperoff. trivia time, woodrow wilson was the president when the senate unanimously agreed to ban smoking in its chamber and that's when the smoke-filled rooms began in the back. congratulations to today's winner. send your trivia.

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deal of the debt limit, no decisions have been made. >> well, looks like republicans are going to end up punting. take away time, treasury secretary jack lew says congress has until the end of the month to raise the debt ceiling. it looks increasingly clear the president and democrats have the upper hand. as usual, house republicans are unable to get on the same page. strong republican support to avoid a standoff, but some republicans like idaho's raul abrodor have said forget it, just let the democrats pass the clean debt bill and be done with it. other members want something in return. there's no consensus on what they want. politically, it seems the republicans are missing a potential opportunity for them if you're looking at it in true crass politics. at last week's gop retreat, there were two bargaining chips, first, risk corridors, which republicans see as bailouts for insurance industry, but i just

told you about those, that would be a spike, would actually add to the deficit. the second is approval of the keystone pipeline, the irony, one of these small asks is a viable tradeoff if republicans can agree on the keystone issue. when it comes to that whole issue of keystone, they actually could split senate democrats, but they can't get on the same page. shocker. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next, chris jansing. bye-bye. this was the hardest decision i've ever had to make.

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>> capitol hill is buzzing over a new nonpartisan report and the headline is, jobs will be lost because of obamacare, but it is quite a bit more complicated. meanwhile, cvs is pulling cigarettes off its shelves and won't sell tobacco products at all anymore. president obama supports the move. >> so the big question this morning, will other pharmacy retailers feel pressured to do the same? and congressman henry waxman in his first television interview since announcing his retirement. we'll talk to that veteran coming up. good morning. this morning, there is a new obamacare fight on the hill. right now, democrats, including congressman chris van hollen are pushing hard over what they call misinformation over a new report from the congressional budget office. that hearing that you're looking at right there is getting started shortly. the report does project that obamacare