talk about the economy and what can get done this year, don't get your hopes up just yet, speaker boehner is setting up another fight over the debt ceiling. >> if a president continues to put politics before principal, or party before -- our economy is going to suffer. and we'll miss our last chance to solve this crisis on our own terms. richard wolf is an msnbc political analyst, and the senior editor for the national review, good morning, gentlemen. >> good morning, chris. >> interesting timing, because just moments ago mitt romney was speaking in st. petersberg, florida and he has a debt clock behind him. >> it's like looking out across the prairie and seeing a fire in the distance. at a stage like that, you don't say, well, i'm going to go to bed and maybe someone else will take care of it. we need a president who will

stop the this spending inferno and i will. >> the president's also been talking about this, it's a big problem and it's one that's right at the heart of the election campaign, along with one that's obviously jobs and the economy and the connection between the two has got to be played out. it's interesting that romney has identified this as being a problem in saying this is a wildfire. but his own policies throe a whole gallon or more of gas on this debt fire. this stuff has got to be played out. it's got to be played out in the lame duck and it's got to be played out in the election too. >> it's really about the strategy here, going back to john boehner, he wants spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. no tax increases, didn't republicans lose that one last time around? >> looks to me actually as

though they won that one, they insisted on spending cuts and no tax increases in return for a debt limit increase and that is exactly what they got last year. given that the democrats, including president obama have already signed off on that general principal being acceptable, i think it's going to be hard for them to resist it again. >> and, you ow, i also think as you rightly say, richard, this is being talked about by everybody, although you got to wonder if this is the issue that polls are interested in. the economy is really driving the conversation on main street. so is this a fight they really want to get into? what point does it serve. >> the challenge i think for republicans if they really believe this is an opening for them, is not only to explain how they would make it better or why they tried to make it better before, but also to explain the connection with jobs. because if you're standing under a banner saying cut the spend,

you've got to acknowledge that cutting the spending, public spending is going to lead to public sector job losses. it's the big drag on employment right now is state's local governments having to share, teachers, firefighters, you name it, how do you meet the main demand of voters, more jobs, better economy, better incomes and also cut spending at the same time. >> there's a big difference on what to cut, barn -- >> the republican budget now says no, we're not cutting the military, and understand he's going to make that up by further cuts in medicare and medicaid. >> we take $30 billion out of the defense baseline, that's not as much as the president, he doesn't take that much. the problem with the president's cuts is that it stretches too

far and he uses those cuts to fuel more domestic spending. >> we have talked a lot about politics but is that the real political policy difference there? >> well, yeah, i mean absolutely, there are serious legitimate debates between the parties about what our spending priorities should b whether we should have tax increases or spending cuts. to just get back to what richard and you were talking about in terms of the connection between jobs and the debt issue, that is absolutely right, that that connection has to be drawn but the thing i point out is that neither of these conversations is particularly helpful to president obama or the democrats because they have got a disappointing jobs record and an exploding debt record. >> let me talk about something else that the congress can't agree on, which is the violence against women act. the house is expected to vote on the republican version of this today. let me bring in congresswoman

jan -- this is a by partisan issue, it was passed and then passed again twice. how did it get to this point? how did it become a political football? >> you know, i think this is illustrative -- the senate did pass a bipartisan -- it got 68 votes. and yet, the house has developed a bill that is -- that leaves out the native americans, college students, the glbt community and most importantly takes away benefits from immigrant women who facing double jeopardy, not only the abuse, but the fear of deportation. the white house has issued a vito memo on it and it's just sad, really. that we can't even offer amendments. >> well, i just got this update

and we are told, and we should point out that the board is meeting at 5:00 this afternoon, but the author of the bill, congressman sandy adams has in fact added something that would cover immigrants and native american s, but they call it a manager's amendment to the bill, reworking the language, so covers immigrants, covers native americans now, but still does not include the lgbt community, is that a compromise that you think the cdemocrats could look at? >> my understanding is that what it does with immigrant women is still create new barriers to help them and encourage them and work with law enforcement. my understanding that the law enforcement community is still opposed because they want to encourage cooperation so that immigrant women who may not have the status to be legal in this

country, will voluntarily come and report the violence and then be eligible for the kind of visa that allows them to legally stay in the united states and even on their own without relying on their abusers status as a citizen to become citizens themselves. without that, and still having the fear of deportation, why are they going to go to law enforcement? i'm glad that they seem to have addressed something with native americans. we're going to have to look carefully at it. but the senate bill is a perfect bill. it is a bipartisan bill and it goes a long way to bringing everybody together. why not go with that? they won't do it. >> i do want to point out that we had booked a republican member of congress to come on who cancelled late so we weren't able to replace. but i do want to play a clip of republican congresswoman kathy mcmorris rogers, she was on

"hardball" last night. here's what she said about it? >> why would you cover people who are not in a traditional marriage? why would you limit it to just traditional marriage folks? >> those are side issues that have been attached to this bill. >> they're not side issues if you're getting beat up by your partner, that's not a side issue, it's your life. >> there's nothing under federal law that currently recognizes same-sex couples. >> that's part of the narrative that we have heard from republicans, congresswoman that these are side issues and in fact it's really a ploy by democrats to continue their narrative of the war on women. how would you respond to that? >> i would say that violence is violence is violence. and that the violence against women act should consider all people who are abused and the truth is that about 85% of organizations that deal with the lgbt community have said that they have not gotten the proper

services so. that's what this bill is about, are grants going to go to help train law enforcement. are grants going to go to help services for people on the lgbt community, really? we want to exclude people because of their sexual orientation and allow them to get beat up without any recourse? that's ridiculous. >> thank you very much, congresswoman. richard, there was a really interesting editorial in the "l.a. times" this morning. i want to read part of it. the political climate in congress is so noxious these days that even a law that originally passed with overwhelming bipartisan support -- how do you get these two sides to work together? >> first of all, let's acknowledge it is shameful, it's ridiculous. it's an election year, we could just dismiss this as the election party nonsense.

what we're now in an atmosphere of, is that every year is an election year. every issue is a campaign issue. that means that politics is no longer the order of the possible, it's just another excuse at victory. i guess people have to decide in washington whether they're going to take 18% of what they want or 50% of what they want and think that they're doing their job or they want to engage in a permanent campaign. when the bush folks came to power, they said they would end the permanent campaign. it just got worse and worse with each new president and each new congress. >> the bill out there is just some kind of poison bill. another example would be the student loan bill. both sides want to stop stafford loans from doubling. but attached to the democratic bill, payroll tax increases that republicans hate. attached to the republican bill was a cut in funding for the

president's health care bill. is this just all posturing on both sides? i mean at some point, can they get something done? >> look, the violence against women act has bipartisan support today as it did ten years ago, the reason it had bipartisan support then and it has bipartisan support now, is not because there's been some detailed look at the -- it's because nobody wants to be on record saying, you know, that they're for violence against women. it's a completely thoughtless instinct against partisans in both parties. so the fact that people are slowing down a little bit and arguing about at least some of the details of this legislation before it's inevitable passage, doesn't strike me as strange or terrible, it strikes me as part of the democratic debate. listen liste listen- -- when the

congresswoman says that the senate bill is a perfect bill? is any bill perfect? which have small differences between these two bills, they've apparently narrowing as we speak. i don't see why this is evidence that the political system is totally dysfunctional. >> barbara boxer was on the daily rundown. >> i have never seen a minority leader say his main objective is to defeat a sitting president. they create a crisis around the debt when there is no crisis. they have waged a war on women, they take the side of the wealthest among us and turn against the 99%. and it's out there. >> isn't this just partisan bickering and things will eventually get done, the student loan bill will get pass, the violence against women act will get passed. >> the problem is that what happens is, a lot of this stuff gets figured out and will get figured out, i think in the lame

duck period, because people are so afraid of facing voters, so afraid of primary challenging that they're wanting to defer this to a point where they can blame someone else or an election had just happened. and the danger is that you've got a budget process that doesn't work, legislation that gets bunched up and rushed through and then they go back to the bickering because that's where they think they can raise money and fend off their opposition. that's where the politics is broken down. it's not that nothing gets done, it just gets done in a rushed way that emphasized the horse trading and the bartering and it's not leading to any kind of considered debate. >> thanks both of you. i don't know if you saw this, but there was a very quick endorsement from former president george w. bush yesterday, he was actually just leaving an event in washington, a reporter caught up with him and he said, quote, i'm for mitt romney as the elevate for doors closed. romney has the support of president george h.w. bush and barbara bush as well.

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it looks like this could be the critical day at the john edwards trial. he could take the stand in his own defense along with his daughter kate and rielle hunter. money given to edwards to keep rielle quiet during the campaign is what led to the -- >> i understand that kate edwards is not around the courthouse now, at least as much as you and the nbc folks have seen. does that necessarily mean that she won't show up today and testify? >> we don't know for certain, she is not in the courtroom right now. and the defense has not rested, so while there was an indication given right at the outset this morning by john edwards lead

attorney abby bowls that will be the last witness on the stand and that we will not see rielle hunter or kate edwards or john edwards. but the defense has indicate they will rest today. >> but that would say if you don't have john edwards to take the stand or kate edwards or rielle hunter, they think they are made their case? >> it's been a bold close to their defense. it's taken just three days to call witnesses when the prosecution took three weeks. it would signal real confidence on edwards part that he was able to make the case that edward young could -- constituted a campaign violation. but when the jury saw the prosecution in with john edwards lying on video, this would be a very different close for the defense. >> and i have read in a couple of the papers that they went

through those witnesses very quickly yesterday and anybody who sat through a trial knows that sometimes it's really hard to pay attention because some witnesses go day after day and long, long testimony. what happened yesterday that was effective that might make the defense think, okay, we got this? >> well, you know, the defense made progress with each of their witnesses, they got almost a character witness from edwards' former attorney, wade smith, they got more from the federal election commission chair than they initially thought. although a lot less than they wanted. in 30-plus years he had never even thought of an issue of money from a mistress being something that you had to report. they were able to destroy andrew young's credibility. they were -- he doesn't want to put kate, a true innocent victimthrouvictim through the trauma of testifying

about the breakdown and breakdown of her family. but it has taken a risk because this jury has seen john edwards on video and heard him on phone messages, and he has not taken the stand. >> obviously we have heard from his defense team, they said ultimately it will be his decision. and the conventional wisdom has been that this was a guy that was a very successful lawyer, he believes in his power to persuade and to charm and is probably champing at the bit to try to redeem himself after all the negative things that have been said about him. ultimately do you think he made the decision if he doesn't take the stand? >> absolutely. he's been so involved in the defense, i think you're absolutely right that he is champing at the bit to take the stand. my guess is his lawyers think there's too great a risk. we have experienced prosecutors ready to cross-examination him. another is he is lifetime and

tiand -- could he really convince the jury that at long last, for once when his liberty depends on it, he's telling them the truth. they have also been able to get into evidence that he told people repeatedly that he thought this money to rielle hunter was not a crime. he did say that he had talked to experts and if he didn't make those calls and make that communication, that would come out on cross-examination. >> do you think in most cases and most of the trials i have sat in on during the duration have been murder trials, so it's not been something like this. but in a case like this, don't jurors really want to hear from the defendant? don't they want to hear him say i didn't do this? >> i they's the risk for john edwards. he has sat in court they have seen in on the video interview lying about being the father of rielle hunter's daughter. and so i think there's going to

be a natural inclination from this jury to think that if edwards truly didn't do it, he should get up there and say it. but they're going to be instructed by the judge they're clearly responding to in a positive way. edwards has the right to remain silent and he's free to exercise it. i am somewhat surprised that he's not going to take the risk. it's something that plays out in front of jury, they thought they were going to see him. >> the person on the stand right now is the last witness. and new developments into the investigation into the death of trayvon martin, a medical report has been compiled shortly after the february 26th shooting and a source familiar with the report says that zimmerman's doctor reported zimmerman with a broken nose, swollen lips, black eyes and lacerations on the back of his head. zimmerman has said the shootings

were in self-defense and a lawyer for trayvon martin's family calls the report suspicious. >> brian finley is -- customers sign up for a subscription and once a month get a surprise package of baby products, instead of hiring someone, she did her own market research. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m. on msnbc. ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™.

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to politics now where president obama is making a lot of money from his investments and his two books. his assets could reach $8 million. interesting to know he has between $500,000 and a million in an account with jpmorgan chase. the president's congratulating the american soccer team and its famous player david beckham. >> a man that can be that tough on the field and also have his own line of underwear. david beckham is that man. >> sarah palin picked a winner in nebraska. huge upset as deb fischer won the democratic primary. and this is the must-see video of the day. governor chris christie and new

york mayor corrie booker. >> governor. >> you guys have any problems you want me to head, like a fire anywhere? people trap. >> no. >> a bad automobile accident where you need me to help some folks? >> no, nothing like that. >> even a cat in a tree? >> no, think we're all set here. >> what have we got. >> mayor thank you for coming. there's a fire and a cat in a tree. >> as you were governor, i got this. >> booker. >> you can watch the whole thing on our facebook page. and if you read just one thing this morning, check out a day in the life, people always ask me what a typical day or week is like. this will give you a glimpse of it. complete with pictures from iowa

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apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ former president bill clinton has some advice for president obama on the buffett rule. hiking taxes on the rich alone is not going to solve the country's economic problems. >> i think you could tax me at 100% and you wouldn't balance the budget. we are all going to have to contribute to this and if middle class people's wages were growing up again, and we had some growth in the economy, i don't think they would object to going back to the tax rates that were obtained when i was president. >> gentlemen, good to see you, good morning. so jared, the former president's

doing fund-raisers for the president. he is supporting him on a lot of issues. what do you make of his comments on the buffett rule? >> i thought president clinton made a ton of sense and i commend his comments to anyone who can hear our voices right now. i think there's something in there, whether you're a red state, blue state, purple. there's a lot of common sense there. his point on the buffett rule is well taken. he of all people remembers that during the clinton years there was a tax structure in place that was more progressive than today, higher rates for folks at the top of the income scale and not only was the economy much more favorable to middle and lower income people, but we achieved a budget surplus, imagine that. so i think the voice of wisdom is speaking there. >> doug, are we missing a little common sense when it comes to economic policy? >> i want to echo jared's call for people to read the president's remarks. it was a remarkable performance, i think there was a lot of

common sense in there, i would hope that his democratic colleagues would listen to his call to be serious about deficits this year and not as they're probably going to do today in the democratically controlled senate. but i'm nervous because last year the president -- president clinton same to the same location and called on people not to do -- >> bill clinton also had some advice for mitt romney on the budget. so let me play that for you. >> the budget he put out in the primary, according to a lot of independent sources would actually increase the debt over and above what's going to happen by a trillion dollars or more. maybe romney can just come out with a new plan based on i would say is the constitutional budget office says these numbers don't add up. i don't agree with them because i think you always hit more revenues when you cut taxes.

notwithstanding 30 years of evidence to the contrary. so here's my new plan. >> doug, that advice for mitt romney is that more of what you think made a lot of sense, what he had to say. >> the president's right that you cannot automatically cut taxes and generate more revenue. i think mr. romney's budget plan is incomplete, but it does look to me that it's right in the sweet spot that was identified by the bowls-simpson committee. you have to do fundamental tax breaks, you need serious entitlement reforms on social security, medicare and medicaid and that social spending is the key to getting this done. and that wisdom has been ignored by this administration and i hope it is not ignored going forward. >> is that what's happening here jared? >> in that quote that was played, what president clinton said is that if you actually look at what president obama has

put forth, it does sustain a stable debt to gdp ratio is a complicated way of saying that it controls costs, that doug suggested we need to do. and it does bring in my revenue. president clinton and doug and i may agree on this idea. president clinton said, yes, we absolutely need to plot a course towards a stable fiscal path, but that course should be triggered by an improving economy. so you say deficit reduction doesn't kick in until the economy is generally back on its feet, generating better growth. to put an economic trigger so we don't pre-emptively start cutting and end up with the austerity kinds of problems you see in europe. >> the president has invited the leadership of the congress, both republican and democrat to come to the white house for lunch. do you expect any conversation about the economy to be productive today?

>> no, i don't. and in part, i think it's because too much of the debate is framed the way jared just framed it, which is anything that reforms our spending programs is so-called austerity. if we were to fix austerity right now, it would have no impact on current spending, it would be exactly the right thing to do for social safety net, it would be the right thing to do for workers who are relying on their retirement. i would love to see that be the heart of the conversation, sensible reforms to drive economic growth, we do need growth, but not austerity. >> my point is that it needs to be key to the economy so that we don't start going there before the economy is back on its feet. but i fundamentally agree with move your points. >> thanks to both of you gentlemen. and it is time to check the stakes and issues that are driving the presidential campaign.

let i wish i was in florida, it's raining here today. but florida is the state that's going to crucial for mitt romney, he was there this morning, tell us about where we are there. >> first it's beautiful in d.c., so you can come on down here. >> well, mitt romney -- florida is a crucial state, romney is going to be today in tampa, miami, st. petersberg, he's going to raise some money, he's going to be talking about debt, and that is the new message we're starting to see from romney that the death and deficit, the biggest vulnerability for this president. >> and another battleground state, my home state of ohio where the vice president is going to be this afternoon. looks like he's going to continue to hit mitt romney over his time at bain? >> bain capital is going to be the thing that joe biden is going to push. joe biden is somebody who's known to have strong ties to unions t whole point of him being picked as a vice president in the first place, is because of his scrappy scranton roots

and he can appeal to middle class voters, romney wants to talk about obama and the economy. vice president biden is going to be the chief attack dog when it comes to bain. he's going tuke about -- about lost jobs after bain took over, of course romney wasn't there during day to day operations at that exact time. but that is the message we're going to hear from joe biden. we're going to talk about biancabain and romney is having to talk about that about a company that went under in dade county. >> probably not now, after what you said about immigration. >> well, the governor there, susanna martinez, she's a mexican-american, she speaks fluent spanish, another person pointed to as marco rubio talked about as someone who's cuban american. but i don't think suzanna

martinez would have actually been the pick because she sort of ruled it out. i know a lot of them say it's not going to be me, but she is a guardian of a disabled sister and so she couldn't move. i think she felt free to speak about immigration issues. she said self-support, she said what does that even mean. she wanted to appeal to latinos that -- of course that's the biggest problem, you can't sell it in a republican primary. >> real quickly, new jersey, not a swing state, but i got a big chance to talk about chris christie. >> chris christie as got that great new ad out with the video with cory booker. he is somebody who's breaking maybe the first rule of vice president speculation. >> also making news this

morning, franciscan university will no longer offer health insurance plans to students. all that comes after catholic bishops say they will sue -- birth control to women without a co-pay. jpmorgan chase now facing a justice department investigation. ceo jamey dimon survived that shareholder vote yet to keep his job and to keep a $23 million pay package. arizona wildfires have been raging since last weekend. ra firefighter residents are under an evacuation order, although about 350 of them have chose on the stay. movie producers think they found the right guy to write the new ashton kutcher steve jobs

biopick. we'll tell you who it is when we go down to the wire in 15 minutes. just days before going public, cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. >> now facebook is going to offer $421 million that's up from 337 million obviously to take -- yesterday they raised the expected price range for the stock as well. and if all the shares being offered are sold at the high end of the expected price range, the ipo could raise more than $18.4 billion which would value facebook overall at more than $100 billion. however, here's a troubling sign for you, major advertiser, gm, general motors is going to stop advertising on facebook because it says that paid ads on the site have little influence on consumers confidence. you have to consider that executives are out there and have spent the last two weeks

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a stomach flu and the cause was traced right back to reusable grocery bags. scientists say the bags can be perfect places for disease and germs to fester and advise washing them often. the u.s. postal service admits it's hemorrhaging money losing $25 million a day. the usps lost $3.2 billion. the agency has called for legislative change to stop the bleeding and has proposed a bipartisan reform bill at the end of april. i'm joined by democratic senator job carper. you want the house to pass this postal reform immediately, in fact you have launched a website, and it's got a very eye-catching ticker that actually tracks the postal service's losses to the dollar, since the senate passed it's bill in april, what do you think that might accomplish?

>> i think it might help the senate get off its duff. it formed a committee about six months ago. during that period of time we have introduced bipartisan legislation, voted on it, debated on it, passed it in the senate and now we're waiting for the house. every day to delay, the postal service loses about $25 million, they already owe about $13 billion to the treasury. and this situation can be fixed. this is not an insolvable problem. this can be fixed. the situation is serious, but it can be fixed. rather than just complaining and criticizing what we have done in the senate, pass your bill. >> congressman darrell issa proposed a bill that would end saturday delivery within six months which president obama supports for $3 billion in annual savings. so why keep saturday service going? what's the idea behind that? >> well, as it turns out, there's really only one enterprise in the country that services every community and

goes to every door in the country, five, six, times a week, and potentially it's a very successful lucrative business enterprise. and we don't -- we don't see continued to maintain six-day delivery forever. we have all these ways to save money that we have included in our bill, hopefully the house will have a lot of good ideas as well and allow the postal service to reduce spending a and -- >> reform the postal service's collective bargaining process. current union contracts include, no layoff clauseses. does your bill address these kinds of practices and should it? >> it certainly does. the postal services find themselves in a little bit the same place as the auto industry was here in this country a couple of years ago. the u.s. auto industry had more

employees than they needed and more plans and supplies. they wanted an investment by the u.s. taxpayers. the postal service is not asking for a bailout here, they would like to reimbursed the $11 billion they have overpaid in the federal retirement system. they would like to use some of that money to encourage some 100,000 postal employees that are eligible to retire to retire. they want to save about 13 out of the 33,000 post offices across the country, they would like to say about for 13,000 of them, we're going to change the business model, not close your post office, but in the future we'll not have a postmaster making 50,000, $60,000 a year. the postal service wants to reduce by a third their mail processing centers, that will save a lot of money as well. we changed the arbitration guidelines so that arbitrators

who are working in the benefit negotiations between the unions and the post office have to consider among the factors the financial condition of the post office. they don't have to do that now. >> delaware senator tom carper, thank you very much. the postal service is having problems, the obama administration continues to take in donations to the tune of $43.6 million. over 437,000 people donated in april and over 169,000 of those were giving for the first time. also, 98% of the donations the campaign received were less than $250 and the average donation was $50. are so amazingly good,

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on the menu, what to do with the national debt problem in an election year. and mitt romney is on the trail

taking aim. and a dire warning for drivers down south. the hunt is on for this fake cop pulling over people on a mississippi highway and then killing them. how police are tracking the alleged killer. and forbes out with the list of the 100 most powerful celebrities. who skyrocketed to the top? you may be surprised by this. that and more in the next hour. steve jobs biopick, sea crest's new home and a billion dollar diamond. first they had the actor and now they have the writer on the biopick. aaron sorkin will write the film's screen play. the manage behind "the social network" and "the west wing." ryan sechrest is the new owner of ellen degeneres's $49 million

estate. degeneres and portia de rossi were married there. a 14 caret diamond sold for almost $10 million at auction. not a cat, but a two-month old puppy has one of its nine lives used up. it fell 30 feet after a hawk swooped down and picked it up and dropped in a yard where a 7-year-old boy was playing. you know what he named it? t.j. heavenly. aw. never heard of it. well, that's what we're doing today. car insurance x has been perfected over the past 75 years. it's tasty. our second car insurance... they've not been around very long. mmmm... no good! no good? no good!

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this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. hi there, everybody, and good morning, i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today president obama and house speaker john boehner are headed for a rematch. president obama will host this bipartisan meeting at the white

house. they will be talking about the economy. specifically, which economic proposals the president wants congress to act on this year. just moments ago, house speaker boehner used criticism of the president to reignite the debate that consumed washington last year. >> where's the president's plan to tackle our looming debt crisis? the president has you well know, we get along fine. but he has issues with what i believe in and frankly i have had some issues about what he believes in. this debt crisis is standing in the way of a lot employers hiring new people. >> nbc's kristen welker joins us live from the white house. give us a rundown of what we can expect, the issues that are going to take precedence at this meeting and is really breaking bread going to solve some things today? >> reporter: hey there, thomas, president obama would like to focus on his to-do list, that's that five