two years old. have we lost our minds? you can say yes. >> we have 10 seconds so i'm going to say yes. >> look at the statistics. we have lost our mind. thank you. we have ice cream. and we have solutions. and we thank you. that will do it for us. i'm dylan ratigan. "hardball" is up right now. obama draws the line. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, a man saying i'm not going to take it anymore. he sdnt say those words when he released his 2013 budget, but he may well have said them after trying to meet republicans half way and getting met with the back of their hands, the president produced a document

that aligns his priorities. spend now to keep the economic recovery going and worry later about the deficit. also look for the church and birth control issue to show a new divide. both parties think they are playing a winning hand here. that goes double for rick santorum, who says insurance simply shouldn't cover birth control under any circumstance. so what was last week an issue dividing some democrats is now a wedge issue separating out right-leading republicans. plus when mitt romney called himself severely conservative, he said it like e.t. trying to phone home. or romney sounds like he's impersonating a conservative republican. "that persona, angry, simple minded, is exactly what romney imagines the average gop voter to be." wait until you see the polls tonight. and tragically we have added whitney houston's name to a list

including michael jackson and amy winehouse. so what's it all about? finally, the politics of two parties clearly at odds with each other. we begin with president obama drawing a line with republicans. he wants to create jobs and they want to keep arguing over debt reduction. eugene robinson is a political analyst and john fury. it looks like the president laid it out today. a political document and a budget. he's making clear he wants to create jobs. down the road, he'll get the debt are yreduction. he wants to lower taxes on payroll taxes. down the road, deficit reduction. >> also to put down a marker saying this is what i believe. this is what i think we should do, which is by the way, what most economists say. stimulate the economy now and do the deficit reduction a couple years out. but clearly he's done with

trying to engineer a budget and spending proposal in order to take into account republican priorities. because he's tried it before and he never gets anywhere. >> it seems to me, john, that starting around august when the republican candidates rejected even in concept a ten for one deal, $10 of spending cuts for $1 of revenue increase, he realized he wasn't going to make a deal with your side. he said why don't i do what i do best? let's create jobs. he started with the american jobs bill. laugh at it, he has a bill and you don't. let the republicans talk about debt reduction. that's his politics. >> his philosophy is what he did in the middle east which is what he did is lead from behind. >> it worked didn't it? what's gadhafi doing now? >> let's see what happens with iraq and iran. it's a mess in the middle east.

>> your guy did a good job over there. >> the senate and democrats are not going to do the budget. the only ones who are going to lead is the house republicans. at the end of this budget cycle, ten years, because of the obama budget, it was put in place, which it won't be put in place. my son is going to inherit a $26 trillion debt. >> you should work harder. >> it's a political document. i think it's an irresponsible budget. and i think the problem with the president is people don't think he's leading right now. >> a lot of that debt we know comes about from what he inherited. today the president defended his budget saying we need to keep the economy growing right now. let's watch him. >> the main idea in the budget is this. at a time when our economy is growing and creating jobs at a faster clip, we have to do everything in our power to keep this recovery on track. by reducing our deficit in the long-term, what that allows us

to do is to invest in the things that will help grow our economy right now. we can't cut back on those things that are important for us to grow. we can't just cut our way into growth. we can cut back on the things we don't need, but we also have to make sure that everyone is paying their fair share for the things that we do need. >> there you have it. no budget cuts in the short-term and make the richer pay more taxes. part of the budget spent to jump start the economy. he's proposing a half a trillion dollars in transportation projects. $14 billion in research and development projects for new technologies. and $8 billion for community colleges for job training. no spending cuts now. trying to get the rich to pay their share. >> the question is not just how big the debt is that our children will inherit. it's how big the economy is our

children will inherit as well? and the percentage of gdp. in fact, if you let the recovery stall, if you let us go into a vicious cycle of no growth or low growth, then you end up as a percentage terms of having a bigger debt problem than you would if you managed to stimulate growth. >> do you think the republicans if they were in power would be cutting spending? would they be doing that at a time we're barely getting out of the recession? >> they would reform entitlements, which are killing the long-term. >> that's not going to help us get out of the recession. >> you have to think about the long-term, chris. s&p said we lost our aaa rating because of lack of leadership. >> he offered your guys a deal. they wouldn't take a deal. john, you're out of date here. you know the president was -- gene, you take this fight up. he was ready to cut the worst

deal. and your guy said no deal. >> boehner couldn't go with it. >> the republicans said they didn't want job-killing tax increases. the president wanted that. if you want jobs -- >> a ten to one deal and he turned them down. you have a weak argument here. >> don't cut -- >> normally, he comes off with a good offer to you guys. he went to all the candidates. he went to the leadership and said how about a deal that favors you guys? you won the last election in 2010. here's your deal. you guys coughed it back up. >> you and i know the president walked out with not a real deal. it was not a real deal offered. the fact of the matter is all those spending cuts he's had up there were ridiculous. >> you usually don't do this. you're rewriting history. that's not what happened at all. he had a deal with boehner. and boehner couldn't deliver.

>> the president decided since september he's going to get reelected. he's going to do it by creating jobs. the american jobs program lowered taxes and hired people. your party opposed that. they are still arguing about it this spring. why are you against that? >> actually, house republicans offered a full-year extension. they were going to pass that. they are going to see what the senate does with it. >> what are you cutting? >> they are not cut iting anything. they are going to do a full year extension. >> a clean extension. no cuts and nothing else on the bill? >> that's what they offered. >> then you're breaking news here. >> the president explained by whooi the tax cuts should be allowed to expire for the wealthiest americans. >> right now, we're scheduled to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of americans.

do we want to keep the cuts or do we want to keep investing in everything else? a strong military, care for our veterans, we can't do both. we can't afford it. some people go around and say, the president is engaging in class warfare. that's not class warfare, that's common sense. [ applause ] >> that's common sense. >> common sense, john? to tax the rich a more. >> what is common sense is to have real tax reform. >> we had a good system under clinton. we had a booming economy. >> reagan tax cuts. what we need to have is more people paying taxes. we need to have a fair tax rate to get rid of all the loopholes. >> if that would work, george bush cut taxes.

here we go. >> i'm watching your candidates run for president. we watch every debate. i haven't heard one republican say let's go back to george bush's policies. >> except the president is extending. >> they were quick to attack today. the speaker of the house said in a statement "the president's budget is a gloomy reflection of his failed policies of the past. not a bold plan for america's future. our nation needs washington to demonstrate some courage with the budget that addresses the near and long-term challenges we face. instead the president offered a collection of rehashes and tax increases that will make our economy worse." >> boehner is right. >> he could have written that years ago. >> this budget, as we all know, it's dead on arrival. it's not going to make a mark beyond next week.

>> you bring us good news tonight. the fact is the president is going to get what he wanted which is a reduction for the whole year in the payroll tax. >> the republicans said they were going to support that coming out. >> so you have given up? >> we haven't given up. they are going to pay for the spending. >> gene, it's a victory. >> it sounds like some party wants to change the subject. >> that's what i'm hearing. >> let me ask you about the economy. the president is concerned the growth rate will be down by the end of the year. gene, if we have a 3% growth rate, the unemployment rate keeps going down. >> right. >> if the republicans get their way, they will get the growth rate down. that will happen if you get your way. >> i certainly hope that's not what republicans are wishing. is it? >> we want growth. we want a responsible plan. >> you squeezed out spending right now, you reduce this economic growth and increase

jobs. >> it's not going to be a squeeze on spending this year. what the growth rate ends up as, you're right. it's going fof a lot to do with the president's reelection. >> we have to clarity on this discussion. what's going on now is the president of the united states is pushing for what is clearly a political document. it's aimed at creating jobs letting everybody know he's creating jobs, but the focus on job creation because the only issue that's going to matter to your party is the unemployment rate. you're going to score him on what he wants to do. and that's why he's doing it. thank you both. these guys talk about the debt. all they'll talk about next fall is the unemployment rate. coming up, the fight between obama administration and the catholic church over birth control. we'll see where that goes. it's changed directions from last week. catholics are aboard with the president. both sides think it's a winner. it's a battle between the left

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it's morning somewhere. l. not everyone is getting a bump in the polls. check out the score board. in michigan rick santorum has a 15-point lead in the new poll. 15-of point lead over romney. romney's at 24%. santorum is at 39%. in georgia which votes on march 6th, newt gingrich leads by 14 points. it's newt at 43%. santorum in third there. now look at pennsylvania. rick santorum's home state. santorum has a one-point lead over romney. i think that's important though. and gingrich is in third. if he beats him there, that's a big win for santorum. juice dr. because less sugar is a better way to fly.

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there's no compromise here. they are forcing to pay for something they find is a deeply immorally wrong thing. and this is not what the government should be doing. >> he's wrong there. welcome back to "hardball." rick santorum making clear he opposes the proposal for contraception. could rick santorum ride this to the nomination? is this the perfect political outcome for the obama administration. john glue said they didn't expect to win over the bishops, but has obama won over the middle? >> we didn't expect to get the universal support of the bishops or all catholics. i think that what we have here is a policy that reflects bringing together of two important principles in a way that's true to the american tradition. >> david corn is an mississipsn

analyst. david, i think the principles there respect the first amendment, but also respect women's rights and what is now seen as full health coverage. >> the interesting thing about this was the obama administration made this decision after much deliberation and internal discussion. they got caught up in the fire storm that they didn't see coming. it's obvious, they should have seen it coming. and our friends like melinda hen berger were saying what went wrong here? >> i appreciate what they say. >> they got to a good point for them policy wise and politically. they got all this response. they said we're going to take another look at this. we don't like getting clobbered. they came out with a compromise that has the exact same outcome. women will still get contraception without co-pay but the church isn't pay.

so the issues now are those making the claim that obama wants the war on religion. >> well, i thought the people who liked the fight were the bad guys. i think santorum wants this issue. >> of course, he does. >> you tell me why. >> on friday at cpac after the compromised was announced, you had mitt romney and rick santorum all saying that obama has a war on religious liberty. they are trying to appeal to the religious rights voters. you have three guys doing this. two of them are catholic. one is a long-time catholic. that's rick santorum. newt was a convert. and mitt romney was a mormon, who some evangelical christians still have problems with. so the three there, rick santorum has the longest pedigree as someone to talk on these issues. he's making the the most effective run. >> let's look at some numbers

here. this was taken before the new agreement. employers should provide plans that cover birth control. among all americans, 55% support. 40% disagree. catholics, 58% agree. this is a weird political poll. there you have the strength of the position before i would say after the compromise on friday when the president came out forcefully and said, okay, we didn't get it it right the first time. we're going to make sure it's the insurance companies that handle the matter. we are not going to make the religious organizations to do it. so he fixed it. you know what i like about what you said. a willingness to listen and to tweak and fix when you're not right the first time. >> people who don't like politicians that say they are right all the time, unless you're talking about the extremes. for someone to say i made a good

faith effort, we kind of screwed the pooch and didn't take into account what some people said. and we're going to be flexible in and change and come up with a come p compromise that that poll show is likely to be highly popular with people. i think it's telling. it's a good quality to have. >> i don't speak for anybody on this show but myself, but there are a lot of people who are catholics who are democrats. who are progressives by the new term. liberals by the old term, who believe in women'sights these days, but also recognize that their church shouldn't be abused. they shouldn't be asked to do something they don't believe. i think they handled it well. i think the president understood exactly this. late friday afternoon, after he heard the president's remarks on his compromise, the archbishop said the u.s. conference of bishops says "sees initial opportunities in preserving the

principle of religious freedom. the bishops across the country took a harder line. the only complete solution to this problem is for them to resend the mandate of those services." alex wegner joins us. you have been covering this thing as well as i have. your sense as to the way the president handled this wp. >> last week, i thought it was a massive fumble. but the reaction from the bishops and both from the gop over the weekend is going to help the white house in the long-term. if we're looking at this 2012 race, the idea that they are willing to reconsider birth control among all private employers works incredibly well for the president. looking at the independent and swing vote, these are women he appeals to. 60% are under the age of 49. this is an issue that resinates with every woman in america. >> and you went over it quickly. the issue is no longer the

exemption for religious organizations. the issue now is whether the national health care plan passed by the president and signed by the congress should include health care, which includes birth control and the right is opposing that. >> exactly. the right is miscalculated. they think they can waive the religious liberties banner and they are going to have a big tent underneath it. i think it's a gross miscalculation. again, especially when you look at the demographics. this is an issue of birth control and contraception. every woman in america over a certain age has made a decision about it. the right is on the wrong side here. >> still the fact of the matter is, it does reduce the amounts of abortions dramatically. it's the number-one way other than abstinence. >> and the numbers are

staggering. 99% of catholic women who engage in sex use some form of birth control. so the church doesn't have a lot to stand on here. >> the church knows that. i know something you don't know. there are few families of eight anymore. >> something is going on there. but to alex's point. >> it's not rhythm either. >> if the republican party is going to fuse itself to the catholic church on these issues, it's going to end up in a minority position. >> i have always accepted the right of the church and what it believes. in terms of law and public policy, alex, a different question. right? >> there's a huge difference. the one thing it does do is this is a great moment for rick santorum. a terrible moment for mitt romney. and a very bad moment for the republican party. we look at the polls being shifted in this race. they go more right with these issues being on top of the list. and rick santorum being a

surging candidate now pushes mitt romney into a corner that he's not comfortable being in. his record does not evidence someone that believes in this. >> alex, i have to cut you off. he does he's not fluent in this language. he doesn't know the one about birth control. thank you, alex. please come back as often as you can. come a little earlier. >> it is a true pleasure, sir. >> up next, mitt romney's campaign rigged the cpac straw poll. it wasn't electronic, but did he pack the room? that's the charge from a rival campaign. next in the sideshow.

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back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. game over. we know e when it comes to super bowl sunday, the commercials can

sometimes draw as much attention as the game itself. this year was no exception especially with chrysler's ad. it was halftime a reference to president obama's time in the white house? "saturday night live" had their own followup. let's watch. >> during the super bowl, i said it was halftime for america. and tried to make an inspiring ad to rally our country. guess what? halftime is over. we're in the third quarter now, america. we're way behind. so i don't care if obama runs the ball or romney throws a touchdown or ron paul kicks a field goal. but i ain't putting rick santorum in the game. this is nor chrysler. get a chrysler. and get off my damn lawn. >> the jury is still out on how the ad will influence presidential politics, but it

had us thinking about more than just buying a chrysler. finally, last week we found out that cpac organizers were taking steps to avoid the embarrassing outcome of ron paul winning their straw poll again this year. was it their strategy that did the strik? rick santorum was the man of the hour. so why did mitt romney come out on top of the vote? >> for years, ron paul has won those because he chucks in a lot of people and pays for their ticket. i don't try to rig straw polls. you have to ask the romney campaign. >> a speech noted that the romney campaign was stacking the poll. when asked later, a spokesman for romney sidestepped the question choosing to take a

general swipe at rick santorum's credibility. up next, mitt romney says he was severely conservative as governor of massachusetts. and a lot of people can't figure out what he meant by that phrase. one thing is for sure. . this guy has big problems connecting with conservatives or anyone actually. that's giving rick santorum his opening. look at the polls. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro. oh!

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now worth half a trillion dollars. the big mover though is greece. the approval of the austerity measures allowing it to secure a bailout and hopefully avoid default despite widespread protests. apple is looking ahead to the ipad 3. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball." what a weekend. welcome back to "hardball." mitt romney was able to survive this weekend pulling out wins here in washington and the maine caucuses. but it's his line from his appearance at cpac on friday which is really causing quite a stir. >> i fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but i was a severely conservative republican governor.

>> well, what exactly is a severely conservative mean? there's more trouble for romney. a new poll out this afternoon has rick santorum two points ahead of him in a national poll. over romney with newt gingrich behind. romney was leading rick santorum two to one. add to that this afternoon, the editors of the national review are calling on gingrich to get out of the race. when gingrich led in the poll, he urged him to leave the race. the proper course for him to endorse santorum and exit. joining me now is an expert to talk about this. charlie black, a fellow washington member. thank you. foster, do you think it's time for romney or santorum to quit the race? who are you for? you're for santorum?

who do you want to quit the race? they want gingrich to get out because they are going to prevent santorum for the shot he needs. >> i think it would be great if newt stayed in. i love newt. i love mitt. they are wonderful people. i think the more we get to know them, it will also hone rick's debating skills and you'll get to know rick santorum better as they challenge him and go after him and you can see the real rick santorum. i think that will be a blessing for everybody. >> so you can beat -- i assume you're saying you have enough surge going right now that you can beat romney even with gingrich in the race? >> well, you maybe saw the michigan poll where they show 39% for santorum and 24% for romney. >> we announced it earlier. that's before the bombing. >> i want to go to charlie black. when does the bombing commence? don't debate if you don't have

to and bring in the bombing patrol and bomb the heck out of the state and kill the other guy in negative advertising? >> after 18 debates, we love the debates. >> you have one left i think. >> two debates before the florida primary contributed greatly to mitt romney's victory there. >> so you want more debates? you're going to ask for more debates? >> so far, they have worked well for mitt romney. there's another one next week. but listen. the great majority of negative ads in this campaign have been run by the super pacs. the candidates can do nothing about it. if you look at the gingrich super pac, you'll find negative ads. >> we did a study in florida. 62% of the ads were negative on gingrich. 1% was positive for your candidate. even your own candidate wasn't running positives on himself. he was trashing gingrich with his own ads. it's not true to say he's

running a positive campaign. >> i didn't say that. >> i thought you did. i thought you were blaming everything on the super pacs. >> go back and check and see what percentage was run by super pacs. a lot of material on newt gingrich that voters either did not remember or never knew about his record and about his baggage and about the fact he could not win a general election against president obama. so that is fair game in politics. >> you're going to do the same thing in michigan? >> i'm just eager to see santorum more known by the voters. i think he was going out of iowa with press people saying he could be the first time a blue collar candidate was proposed by the republicans. he spoke to the need of getting these fellows hired back on the small towns where employment has gone away because it's gone to china. so rick's idea to take the tax

rate down to zero to these workers, he's won before. we had a disadvantage. and at his speech when he talked about his grandfather digging coal until he was 72 and also dug rick santorum's freedom to run for president, i think it was a moving speech. i think people are being captivated by the charisma of rick santorum. >> let's look at what sarah palin said over the weekend. i thought it was fascinating how she went after romney denying that he makes the grade with her. >> do you trust that mitt romney as an instinctive conservative? >> i trust that his idea of conservatism is evolving. and i base this on a pretty moderate past that he has had. even in some cases, a liberal past. i'm not convinced, and i don't think the majority of

independent voters are convinced. that's why you don't see romney get over that hump. >> let's listen to foster. your knee slapper that you delivered this weekend. i think it's one of the funny jokes i've heard in awhile. here you are saying what you think about mitt romney at cpac. >> there's a little bar a couple doors down. recently a conservative, a liberal, and a moderate walked into the bar. the bartender says, hi mitt. >> what do you think of that, charlie? >> mitt romney's record as governor of massachusetts was conservative. >> severely? >> strictly, which means the same thing as severely. strictly conservative. he inherited a $3 billion deficit and turned it into a $2 billion surplus without increasing taxes, by vetoing and eliminating a lot of programs,

exactly what needs to be done in washington. his record was pro-life and he stood up for traditional marriage when the supreme court came out against it. that's a better record than rick santorum had in the senate or that newt gingrich had as speaker. >> foster, how do you like that? charlie is describing mitt romney as a conservative governor. that's not the way you guys describe him, is it? >> i don't want to go too much into mitt romney's varying policies, but i thought it was humorous when huntsman says the guy has no core convictions. and then in two days, endorses him. that's the humor we get in politics. but when mr. black says santorum's record is less than mr. romney's, we have to remind people as a 42-year-old senator, he managed the welfare reform and was elected third most responsible republican in the

leadership. he championshiped the balanced budget amendment and also had the leadership to take the national security issues to the foreground, when he championed the security act and also the syrian accountability act. so the nice thing about rick santorum -- >> i respect santorum and i expect mr. frieze, but rick santorum is an insider. he voted for earmarks. he did not bring reforms to the federal government like mitt romney brought to massachusetts. the turn around of the salt lake city olympics, what mitt romney has done his whole adult life outside of washington is take over big organizations with big problems and fix them and reform them. that's what the voters want. not another washington. >> i'm afraid the campaign coming up on the 28th of this month is going to be another bombing. i think what your candidate is going to do, charlie, is not

make that sophisticated case. he's going to use advertising to destroy rick santorum with a heavy bombing raid. >> wait a minute. mr. frieze has a super pac too. >> nothing matches the romney campaign. thank you, charlie black. and foster frieze, very intellect. next we're going to look back on the life of whitney houston. this is "hardball" on msnbc. whoa!

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for years including cocaine, marijuana, and pills. they took a poll on her voice and she was largely off the culture radar in recent years. the grammy's artists paid tribute to the singer. let's listen. >> there's no way around this. we have had a death in our family. >> when the truly great artists leave us, their legacy lives on. we love whitney houston. >> i just want to say to whitney up in heaven, we all love you whitney houston. >> the assistant manager of people and david wilson is managing editor of thegro.com. i don't know where to start here. let me go to david about this. you have a personal history. tell us what your reaction was and how you think this tragedy fits in or doesn't fit in with her life. >> i grew up in newark. like so many people in newark, my family had some acquaintance

with members of her family. she was the pride of newark. i grew up in newark in the '80s. it was infested with drugs and violence. here beautiful young sister who had a voice that was made of crystal. and she represented the city. and for a young kid growing up in newark, it was symbolic. it meant that something beautiful can come from the city. and that you can make it out of the city and you can be great. so that's what she represented to us. she was, you know, just a bigger than life star for us. >> how old was she when she became sort of a celebrity, a star as a singer. >> she was pretty young. when she, you know, her big video that everyone remembers, you know, the greatest love of all. she was relatively young at that particular age. but one thing significant about her is the fact that she came during the beginning of the mtv era. and the -- why she was so big was because her voice was only

matched by her beauty. her physical beauty. >> i agree. that is so much the truth about the music industry which is once it went visual, you really got to know the people. i grew up in the '60s. i didn't know what anyone looked like. you knew it from the album covers. looks weren't important but they became important. let me go over to kate here. we all knew her problems with bobby brown. we didn't know it all, but dying, you know it just blew us away this weekend that she's dead. >> absolutely. i mean, no matter what people knew of the problems she'd had over the years, the struggles, both with bobby brown and struggles she had that had nothing to do with bobby brown and existed long after that marriage ended. you just did not expect this. you didn't see this coming. there was perpetual hope where whitney was concerned. >> i agree. >> she was always going to be able to turn it around. you always felt that at some point, the real comeback would occur. that the prime whitney everybody loved from that decade from '85

to '95, roughly, would once again be back. and it hadn't happened yet but there was always that hope that it was going to happen. >> i love the movies "the bodyguard" with costner and denzel, "the preacher's wife." fabulous movies. and this thing about the way these guys go, and i was thinking of janis joplin and jimmy hendrix. it's only when they die we realize how badly they lived. >> how badly they lived but also a more recent phenomenon. it's only when these people die that we're coming to understand how serious prescription drugs are, not saying they necessarily played a role in whitney's actual death but the sort of epic drug abuse stories we're used to from, you know, years past. these are -- >> judy garland. it goes all the way back. >> exactly. these are now the stories with heelth ledger, brittany murphy, amy winehouse. the toxicology reports showed not haeroin, not cocaine but

zanex, ambien. >> vip drugs. i was watching the assistant chief coroner today. he's not ready to say anything yet as of tonight. but it does seem like this story of joplin and hendrix and morrison, what a pattern. >> and it's very important. it's very tough to talk about especially right after someone just passes, but i think we have to remember. in as much as her voice was an inspiration to so many people, her life and the way she led her life should be a cautionary tale to so many folks who want to get into this business and who just want to -- drug addiction, if it doesn't kill you, it can kill your talent. and so i think that's very important for us to reflect. it's uncomfortable to talk about. it's also a very teachable moment for so many people who looked up to her. >> i think the rule is take the fantasy as it comes. don't try to create it. kate coyne and david wilson.

i don't like having you on for this reason, but thanks for coming on. here's one of whitney houston's most iconix moments when she sang the national anthem at the super bowl in 1991. ♪ oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave? ♪ [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

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let me finish tonight with this. president obama has two jobs on his hands right now. lucky for him and historically he tends to be lucky. the two work in tandem. job one, get people back to work. he can do this in three ways. use the government. he's doing that with his american jobss bill which he's been pushing since last september. he can do it by encouraging business to hire people. he's been doing that by pushing for a continuing cut in the payroll tax rate.

increase consumer confidence. he's getting that job done by cutting the jobless rate. good economic news leads to good economic news. the more people read about the jobless rate coming down as they have the more lucky they tor take chances on buying decisions. the more they do that, the better it is for the economy. so today he put out a budget that continues doing what he's doing. creating jobs. it spends $500 billion on highways and rail. real good investments in our country's future. investments that get people where they have to get to do business and spend money. it creates lots of good high-paying jobs getting those roads built and fixed and those rails laid. the republican opposition has its own goals. does the republican philosophy of lower deficits coincide with its ambition to keep obama from a second term? as sarah palin might put it, you betcha. if mitch mcconnell and john boehner can crunch government spending they can cut off the growth in jobs. if they do that, they can help bring about the defeat of their political obonent barack obama. the