obstructionism. leadership is also not about caving every time you get pushed. leadership is about nuance and about understanding and communicating to people here is what i stand for and on these issues i will not be moved but then on other issues leaving room for discussion and accomplishing principled compromise where it can be. >> that apparently is easier said than done in washington and we'll talk about that this morning. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, july 10th. getting to the middle of the summer. i know. you, by the way, mike barnicle, are becoming not just bitter but blithering on "way too early." seriously it's time to stop. and you have terrible advice,

it's time to change. >> why? >> for a pervert in the middle of the night maybe. it was just awful. >> are you really getting fashion advice? >> i made a terrible mistake. it was a lapse in judgment. sort of like that guy in high school. >> is there video? >> anyhow, welcome to "morning joe." joining us, msnbc contributor mike barnicle, former policy adviser to the bush administration dan seymour. >> you're back for more? >> stockholm syndrome. >> you did well yesterday. >> it was a feisty discussion. >> i would say you have to keep your volume down. >> there were four people yelling at me. >> well, don't you yell back,

you being elegant. >> and we have "for tune" editor. do you want to show us the headline? >> yes. >> oh, that's a good one. >> and richard haas. >> hi. >> first of all, what chris christie said, it is easier said than done. would anyone at the table like to talk about why? do we really blame both sides? like on this tax issue, is there a deal to be made or is it just going to be more fighting till election day to divide the campaigns? who wants in? >> i thought it was incredibly refreshing what he had to say. >> it's refreshing but it's easy, his point of view, isn't it? >> since when did compromise become a dirty word? and i believe people holding their positions and leaving that as a figure leaf to not able to sit down on the other side.

you're suggesting because he's a governor it's easy to come to washington -- >> he's done it in new jersey. >> a politician who said they can't compromise should be thrown out. you shouldn't vote for someone like that. >> to take governor christie in what he said and the example of other governors and other state legislators, i would submit that it's far easier to reconcile differences in state legislatures than it is in the united states congress because of the importance of money, running for office in washington. these guys and women in the congress and senate, full-time job is raising money to get re-elected. they don't know one another, they don't live in washington. it's a lot more difficult to attack someone when you know them or know their families or have gotten to know them. there are no relationships, very few relationships in washington anymore the way there used to be ten or 15 years ago.

in state legislature, there are relationships. >> that's a good point. there are other things at work here. politics, if you will, is the reflection, not the cause. one is the weakening of party structures. it used to be parties held together broad coalition, now they don't. each candidate is essentially on his or her own. media. in the old days there used to be centralized media. used to be a stronger sense of community and common experience. now with the internet, cable, satellite. >> finds his or her own media outlet that reinforces their views. the larger forces are weakening the center. it shouldn't be a surprise the politics of compromise are more difficult than they were years ago. >> the number of state governments are required under their state constitutions to

actually balance budgets and that's not the case in washington. >> there's the landscape. let's parse it down to one issue dividing the two candidates. president obama and mitt romney head west to pitch competing plans for job growth. romney will go to the city of grand junction where unemployment is at 10%. president obama will host a roundtable in cedar rapids iowa where unemployment is nearly half that rate. yesterday the president continued his calls for middle-class tax cuts. he derided mitt romney and his plans. >> i'm not proposing anything radical here. i believe anybody making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under bill clinton, back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest

surplus in history and plenty of millionaires to boot. and this is not just my opinion. t the american people are with me on all this. we all say we should extend the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. the republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. i don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. so we should all agree to extend the tax cuts for the middle class. let's agree to do what we agree on, right? let's not hold the vast majority of americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. >> okay. we also heard from mitt romney on the issue. obviously with republicans in control of the house, it's unlikely congress will allow one cut kout anothwithout another. in a radio interview, romney

weighs in. >> we just saw a terrible jobs report last week and now to add a higher tax on job creators and on small business is about the worst thing can you do to create jobs. >> some would disagree with that. this is where if we're looking to decide who is not compromising and not cutting a deal, we have to make sure there's honesty in all this. i'm going to read from the "new york times." you tell me if there's anything wrong here. the argument is the tax on those making $250,000 or more is hitting job creators where it hurts and therefore hurting the economy. here's what the "new york times" editorial says. "republicans argue that letting the high end tax cuts expire will hit small businesses and impede hire napg is nonsense and based on an overly broad definition of small business, which counts any taxpayer who reports business income as a business owner, including

lawyers and accountants working in partnerships, and s corporations, business organizations that can employ thousands of workers. only 2.5% of small business owners would face higher taxes of expiration of the bush tax cuts. are republicans dance organize t -- dancing or trying to make it look like they won't be hurt by the tax increase. >> it's not just rooef duesing -- reducing to the bill clinton error. we're talking about 940,000 taxpayer, that's that 2.5%

category. that's not my number. that's according to the congressional joint committee on taxation. and a lot of those taxpayers actually do run small businesses and make hiring decisions based on certainty, regulatory certainty and tax policy certainty. if they're being told we're take caring of one swath of the tax pace, you have to wait, that impacts decision making. >> have those tax cuts in place spurred growth? not really. >> because every year we're saturdaying are they going -- s going to get extended again? >> they've been there for a long time. >> do you think marginal tax rate impact the economic cycle? no. not on the margin. you answer. >> every time there's a tax debate, people say if you just increase this tax by 2%, do you

really think it going to have an impact on behavior? the answer is of course not, it's a cumulative effect. you're a business prn and say i'm about to get whacked, dodd-frank, not sure how it going to affect my business, tax cuts that won't be extended, regulatory uncertainty. the cumulative effects of it say the numbers are there. $2 trillion are holding income on balance sheets. >> it's much morp important you have a good business and good hire being practices than a marginal tax rate. >> if we throw around the 1%, if you look at irs data, the 1% is people who made approximately

$330,000 in a given year. in one year, $330,000 pops you into the 1%. that means someone who owns five laundromat stores, sells their business for north of $300,000 and they're in the 1% and they get whacked by this uncertainty. if you're an owner of those five stores and you're making a decision do i hire, sell my company and take a capital gain? >> i don't think they're hiring right now. richard haas? >> this is singling out one aspect of a whole mosaic. >> exactly. >> so this is about politics, not about economic policy. the president is focusing on this because it reinforces his theme about fairness, about how america is reacting to our economic situation and so forth. but there's a lot of other missing pieces here. there's spending. there's the whole question of entitlements and spending. that is not being discussed. there's the question of corporate tax policy. what would it take to get the 2d trillion on books to be

invested, what would it take to get american corporations to spend here at home rather than abroad? there's trade and immigration policy. we're talking one piece of a much larger fabric thisis really much more about politics at the end of the day -- >> soy where is the deal? if this is politics, mike, it seems to me the deal that the president is putting on the table, just don't extend them for the very rich, middle class gets protected. >> i don't know the deal. that's way above my pay grade. it seems this argument the two of you are having back and forth is a babe ruth version, a fet more call ver -- metaphorical version of what happens in congress. as both of you went back and forth, neither of you measured the larger umbrella, the need to

reform the entire tax code. >> look at this "washington post"/abc news poll. voters are split on who is best to handle the taxes. >> it's very hard to talk about raising taxes in the middle of a recession. it's very tough. it's the middle of a campaign. >> but this came up two years ago. >> but president obama said in 2009 you don't raise taxes in a recession. it is a weak economic period possibly heading into a recession. why doesn't that same theory hold? he said you don't raise taxes in the middle of a recession. >> nothing can stifle high are tax rates during a period of economic growth that were much higher than right now in in country historically. >> 1990s you had a surplus,

internet boom. >> we're sort of arguing what does it mean to be rich in america? is it $250,000 or is it $1 million? i think that's an interesting thing to consider when you're bringing that to the electorate. to me that sounds like a lot of money either way. >> what's interesting is the response from some democrat being senators. >> chuck schumer. >> bob menendes just said you could be a firefighter or a teacher and not be able to -- >> back to what chris christie said, this deal the president puts on the table brings in $850 billion. there is something there. >> but it can't just be about

revenue. it's got to be about spending. you come back to things like simpson-bowles. in 2013, republicans, democrats, congress, they're going to have to sit down. some aspect of a grand bargain is going to be had or my concern is markets are going to react very strongly against the united states. i think the world is giving up a kind of -- >> if we go through a debt sealing-type exercise again -- >> disaster. >> by early 2013, then i think it's katie bar the door time. it's united states has six months, a year to work out these difficulties. we can't go on forever with this kind of partisan divide. >> we look terrible from the outside. >> there would be i thi substantial agreement with what you said. but then you inject two word into the potential agreement. grover norquist.

what happens on the republicans side of the aisle with grover norquist? >> no compromise. never a compromise. >> none. the compromise will run six people against you and beat you in a primary. >> i simply would say the number of the political leaders and their constituencies that are resistant to what president obama has opposed i think would have a completely different perspective if they said, oaks, okay, so this tax rate is going up by the corporate tax rate is going down from 25% to 35%. there's a whole range of factors. obamacare will be revealed. there a whole range of factors that will be the contextual framework for desiding each issue. it's not a rifle shot decision. it got to be comprehensive. and i think grover norquist's

position in the debate would be much different if the debate with were held with a comprehensive context. >> it would be weaker. >> his position would be weaker. it's very easy to campaign one way or the other against this individual change to the tax code. >> with richard and dan here, i want to get to two major foreign policy stories that could shape the election. u.n. envoy kofi annan is expected to meet with top iranian officials to determine what role if any tehran might play in his six-point plan for peace in syria. and in syria, they apparently agreed upon a "new approach" to end tensions there. a russian reporter said russia will stop sell nug arms to the

assad government until the conflict ends. richard, should i start with what you were shaking your head about? >> the idea that you would ge g to tehran in the hope of putting together a diplomatic outcome is wherever preposterous ends, that begins. >> it's like a parity. >> tease an alternative universe. >> the interesting news is not at the ran, it's not covey annan. it's mao could you. you're beginning to see somin signs that the russians understand that ultimately bashar al assad will go. this thing is beginning to take on momentum. one day we will hit the tipping ountd and when these regimes go,

they go quickly. gougts happen. we can do things toin crease the pressure on them. i've been urging that we announce to the syrian leadership, the top 25 people around him, we say you have another three weeks and if those three weeks you distance yourself from the crimes, fine. if not, war crimes indictments against you. this thing is moving toward a resolution but it not going to be kofi annan and it's not going to be anything they do. >> what about egypt? >> they held a brief but controversial session of parliament this morning. newly elected president mohamed morsi called on parliament to reconvene just ten days into his term putting him at odds with the authority of the first freely elected leader.

>> we basically have a new ring of uncertainty from cairo to damascus throughout the middle east. >> cairo is worried about what's going to happen to egypt, civil war in syria, uncertainty in jordan, hezbollah and lebanon. in egypt this is the showdown. it's happening quicker than people thought but this marriage of convenience is not going to last. the muslim brotherhood will force the confrontation, bring people out into tahrir square and into the streets. the think the military will back down. i think we're moving towards the era where the muslim brotherhood has much more control not just over a presidency but over the parliament and over the courts. so i think we're going to find out ultimately what's the nature of muslim brotherhood rule,

sooner than we thought. >> if you look the israel's defens defenses. the centerpiece has been that the egyptians would be a partner in securing that enormous border with israel. they just assume the egyptian army is their partner and for the first time in over 30 years, israeli decision makers and power makers are waiting to learn who is going to be in power. who is this morsi? it's a game changer, if the israelis have to worry about their egyptian border the way they have to worry about syria, it is actually a transformational period in the region. >> a lot to get to. chuck todd and tina brown.

and todd santos has a check on the forecast. >> thanks so much. it look like a beautiful one, cool temperatures from hartford back to boston and albany. they're some of the coolest temperatures sense last late month. enjoy it while you can. 76 in d.c. with a chance for some showers, maybe at least some isolated showers this afternoon. light rain here and there across the mid sense of the 95 corridor. heading done to the southeast,you could see thunderstorms, showers. raleigh, shore lot and southwest florida may be seeing some of the showers also. we'll keep a close eye on the forecast there the next couple of days. more "morning joe" on your way next. i am you

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it's time to take a look at the morning papers. i'll put my home movies away. i know you all want to see my children. "the dallas morning news," a federal trial is under way over a controversial voter i.d. law. they claim it unfairly discriminates against minorities. the state countered it's a way to prevent fraud noting felons, noncitizens and even the dead have voted in past election. >> how do the dead do that? >> well, they use names. the three-judge panel is expected to rule within a month. >> the globe. democratic senate candidate

elizabeth warren earned $8.6 million. >> this is going to be a tough one. >> a poll showed brown leading warren by 2 percentage points, 39 to 37. >> and in the globe, a photo that got buzz. it shows a kayaker on cape cod trying to outpaddle a 14 foot shark. hundreds of beach goers held their breath. >> set the world record in kayaking. put him on the olympic team. >> i'd be really panicked if i were him. >> a small group in new york defended their right to drink supersize drinks yesterday. mayor bloomberg wants to

limit -- >> they are on to something. this is the movement. >> is this the soda pop party? >> bloomberg wants to ban them arguing the city spends billions a year in weight related health problems and get rid of them. >> what is wrong with those people? >> i will tell you. of course you are. >> it's a slippery slope. >> that's what he said about seat belts. >> the old slippery slope. >> i was at the movies over the weekend and was at the line at the concession stand. i will admit i like to get the big jumbo bucket. >> $38. >> and i overheard some talk that the big jumbo popcorns at the movie theaters may be next on the chopping block. i could live with the ban on the big sodas but if it means they're going to take away my popcorn at the theaters, game over. >> i think he's kidding.

i think. >> you go to westchester county. >> schlepp to westchester and then come back to the movie? >> no, you stay out there. >> bloomberg, i didn't sign up -- >> can i just make a point here? can we talk about the practical implications of holding two mediums is not the same as one jumbo. >> and that's $59, not $38. >> so would you give your child a gallon of soda to drink? >> no. >> right. okay. >> but i have the personal responsibility to make the decision about what my children drink and eat. >> how do we solve the problem there isn't personal responsibility being taken across this country and we are obese to where our military is fat and they can't even do sit ups and run a mile. you talk to me about that. you tell me we don't have a

crisis that is epidemic proportions -- >> you're talking to someone with a 14 inch waist. >> i'm telling you mayor bloomberg didn't agree with the third term but he's ground breaking on this. he's getting in there and being brave. >> obesity and health, noncommunicable diseases are the biggest health care problems in the united states. >> and national security implications. i mean, come on now. >> cat man's waiting. >> i think there's a cfr symposium here on the jumbo popcorn on whether or not it impacts our national security. >> don't laugh. it does. do you really want too have this conversation? i've got a picture of emma for patrick. joining us is -- >> i have bad news. i also can't run a mile. >> i remember that. remember we did a piece together and you couldn't get up the

steps in washington, d.c. because you literally could not lift your extra weight up the stairs. >> my extra weight. thanks very much. i don't care about the big gulp sodas but you know those king size candy bars, that's the problem. >> but when you go into a movie theater and say what's next, what do i have to hoard now? >> you have to be able to get the five pound butterfingers bar. >> oh, god. it's not just the size of the portions that's a problem butch it's what's in them and it's all actually strangely in a way that is killing us addictive. there are certain sugars and -- >> that's what people say about the popcorn in the theater. that's why c . >> what's topping the political

play book? >> i promise i'm not bringing this up to raise dan's blood pressure two days in a row. but the obama campaign is doubling down on this whole idea of mitt romney not releasing enough tax returns for their liking. they're having a two-minute video that they're putting out today with a ticking clock. they do think this is a winning message. you saw robert gibbs talking about it yesterday, you see talk about it on the sunday talk shows. they've got a huge ad coming out about it today and obviously the thing that they are kind of banking on, which they've had a little bit of success on are some republicans kind of agree with them. you saw haley barber saying i would probably release some of these tax returns, too. bobby jindal wasn't as supportive of romney as the

romney campaign would have liked, they hedged on that. >> haley barber did say that. why not just release them? there's got so be something in there that's not good. >> the rusher is the argument that governor romney handed over 23 years of tax returns to john mccain when he was being vetted for vice president. >> if he were to release all his tax returns, do you think the obama campaign would stop making this campaign about class and would stop trying to distract from the 41 months of dreadful job numbers by making the whole campaign about stuff that does not impact the future reform debate that we need? >> patrick, thanks. i sent you some pictures. when we come back, fortune

magazine's obituary to cash. is it really over? the postal service is critical to our economy, delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts.

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>> you stayed up late last night to watch the home run derby, didn't you? >> no, no. >> all-star festivities kicked off last night.

usually controversy free. last night marked by hostility, the kansas city crowd was booing robbie cano. he's captain of the home run team and he did not pick kansas city's first baseman and designated hitter. they booed robbie from start to finish every time he came to the plate. he won last year's home run derby with 32 home runs. last night he failed to hit a single home run and royals fans loved it. they loved it every time he failed. not everyone had it so rough. prince fielder hit 28 home runs and outslugged jose bautista in the final round. fielder hit the longest bomb of the competition, 476 feet right into the fountain. he does posited a number of shots into the fountain.

he joins ken griffey, jr. the all-star game is tonight. justin verlander on the hill against matt cain on the mound for the giants. >> robinson cano hits home runs when they count. >> he actually might be the best hitter in baseball. >> i think he is. >> the best pure hitter in baseball. >> what about r.a. dickey? should he be starting? >> he should be. he's a great story, he's a great guy. >> wait a minute. did you prep for that? >> no. >> i think a little bird got her in her ear with that one. >> i got to talk to alex. >> coming up, the new issue of fortune next. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them.

thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.

it's a good time to take a look at the new issue of "fortune" magazine, "the death of cash." so many different casualties or implications because of this. it reads in part -- "the mobile-payments revolution has arrived. cash will find itself on the endangered species list. paying by phone will be as transformative as the advent of the credit card in the 1950s. it will reshape the relationship between buyer and seller and i think also between consumer and his or her own money because there won't be any. it will just be in the air. >> the problem actually is, we were just talking about it, it's so easy to spend. we all know about credit cards. but when you start paying by phone, it gets easier and easier and you have to watch it because it seems like you're not

spending any money. >> what happened? what did do you? >> you know what relationship it really changes? the relationship between parent and child. kids think things are free. >> my daughter was ordering takeout food on this thank called the seamless web on her iphone, boom, boom, boom, boom and food comes to our web. >> what is it? >> it's an app where you can order food by hitting three buttons. it's paid for, the tip is automatic, you preprogram all of it. it comes from any restaurant in the city and it's all taken care of. and it's free according to my daughter. >> 85% of all transactions 20 years ago were cash and that includes credit cards but $8 trillion of transactions, already $1 trillion is mobile payments and it is growing very,

very fast. it's going to be a brave new world. it has all these implications we don't fully understand. >> we just need an app that gives you your balance any time do you anything. i want to get to the global 500 and get to richard's piece in "usa today." give us the list. >> it's the 500 biggest companies in the world, that includes u.s. and overseas. so counting down from ten to one, the number ten company is toyota. a lot of auto companies but huge energy presence. toyota is the biggest auto company in the world. that's by dollar sales, number 12 by the way is vw by units. conoco phillips, chevron, state grid is the biggest power california in china and those chinese companies are called soes, stayed-owned enterprises.

competing against soes is a difficult proposition. >> the playing fields are not level. they're shielded from the market. >> and the other oil companies at the top. >> why are we cutting tax breaks to these companies? what is the deal here? >> what is the deal? seriously they make so much money! >> it's in context of a broader compromise that deals with the soda ban and popcorn. >> it's reprehensible. >> it's interesting how those big oil companies dominate the list. banks were way up but big banks are very problematic. apparently the global economy big oil companies are okay, right? every once in a while they spill oil all over the ocean. >> what would we do without that? >> it's the era of giant oil companies right now. >> and they get a lot of breaks

because they're in bed with most republicans. >> you know who would give this country a break? if we reform immigration to let some of the high scale -- >> okay. because you are alone here -- >> a lot of people are going to school to stay here. >> so that was the segue to richard's piece in "usa today." >> or a deflection. >> and in "usa today," even amidst today's high unemployment levels some 300,000 jobs are going unfilled often because employers are unable to find men and women with the advanced math, science and technology skills they need.

>> this is a piece i did with the chairman and ceo of alcoa. we're talking about corporations have increasingly taken matters into their own hand, teaming with community colleges to work with young people. so they graduate with the skill sets the companies need to fill these jobs. it's crazy that we've got hundreds of thousands of jobs going unfilled in america given our employment. we've got a mismatch between what is needed and the skill set that americans are coming into the workforce with. we need to do such things as having science be a much more part of the common core. you have national standards. for example, if you're a welder in pennsylvania and someone wants to hire you in california, they ought to know what standards you have. labor mobility is one of the real strengths of the united states stay compared to europe but in order for labor to be mobile we shall have to know that the skills that are needed reach a certain level. we need to have databases so players can look on and say, hey, there's joe in florida,

he's got that skill set, i need him in oklahoma and joe should be able to go on the database and find out where the jobs are. what's so interesting about this, government is not necessarily the answer. it's the private sector working with the educational sector. this is where increasingly companies like caterpillar, alcoa and the rest are doing it themselves. this is very excite persian gulf. >> you hear anecdotally from various people in various businesses that there is a real need to attract, you know, high talented individuals. and one of the problems they have is that many of them have immigrated here to go to college and then they have to leave here. my question is is the congress of the united states so limited at that they can't see that this would mean real progress for our economy, to reform immigration laws? >> the short answer is yes. this was part of the road kill, if you will, a casualty of 9/11. we reduced the level of people

with these high educational, technical skills. they all went home to india and china afterwards. of course we couldn't agree on comprehensive immigration form and couldn't agree on targeted immigration reform. we've got to find a way to make it possible for people to come here, get higher education and then stay and have careers here. this is the great source of innovation in america. immigration is part of the earlier conversation. this is part of of theans to growth. one of the things we've got to do is make it possible for the most talented people in the world to come and stay here, trade, immigration policy, economic policy, growth at the end of the day won't simply come from taxes and entitlements and the rest. we've got to create a context and immigration reform is one of the most important tools we could do four ourselves to restore economic growth. >> i've heard president obama pointing fingers at republicans, same thing back and forth, they can't make progress. if you talk about that,

identifying internal candidate, domestic candidates across the country. linked in is doing some very interesting things as far as identifying and helping employers find people all around the country. just wanted to point that out. >> i would just add this is especially important in the context of the global opportunities that talent from around the world has today. it used to be when i was graduating business school everyone in my class just wand to go to new york city or silicon valley. suddenly a third of the students are saying i'm going to go to singapore, to hong kong, to dubai. the world is so different that if we don't make these changes, people have more opportunities everywhere in the world. >> it's crazy that we train people and send them arm. doesn't make sense. >> thank you for learning here and taking it home. still ahead, the ledgery life of

marie colvin.

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. the new cover of "fortune" magazine. you wanted to make one final point. >> ten years ago 197 of the

biggest 500 companies were in the world today, 116 them based in china today. 73. >> coming up, tom brokaw and tina brown joins next. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible.

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they say they agree we shouldn't let middle-class taxes go up.

why don't we take action on the 98% now. if mr. romney wins they can go ahead and provide more tax cuts to the wealthy. if i win, i won't. >> welcome back to "morning joe." joining the table, nbc news's tom brokaw and editor in chief, tina brown. >> that's me. >> is your naval plugged into the internet? >> it's our brains. we're being chopped into pieces and we've don't make sense anymore. it's an incredible cover. >> it's an amazing study. around the time of the facebook ipo, something critical has happened, which is we have gone from controlling our devices to being completely controlled by them. and it's really, really beginning to afflict the lives

of kids actually. they are so hooked up, so utterly consumed so many hours a day, it's actually affecting brain. there's a new -- >> horrifying. >> there's a new chinese study which shows that the actual brain is changed and that the brains are now looking like the brains of junkies and alcoholics. and it's been really seen to be a real problem in japan, in south korea and china. they're starting to legislate about late-night turnoff times where kids can't get on leen. >> y -- online. >> we're going to end up with a generation of children becoming young adults who have no idea what eye contact means. >> that's correct. >> because they're looking at this instead of looking at you, a no-eye contact generation. >> how many times at this table

have people woken up in the middle of the night and checked their blackberries? >> i've never done that. >> i don't believe that. >> you don't believe that? >> i don't believe dan when he says he's never checked. >> that's his version of sarcasm. i think it's frightening what's happening, especially with children on the social level because the eye contact thing is important and they don't have it. they don't think before they speak. in our lifetime children have learned to talk through these devices and they don't understand how to look through the pages of something, to research, to search for information. >> looking up something in the dictionary. >> wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. they no longer have to look through the pages. that's the point. and they know that. they'll say what are you talking about? why should i look through the pages? i saw a real run of "all president's men" and redford and dustin hoffman were going through phone books to try to

get the number of the guy in minneapolis and i thought that doesn't seem so long ago. now they just would type in. what is important i think is to have a dialogue about all of this and we need to hear from the bottom up as well as from the top down about why it works for them and how it expands on their life and then to ask questions of one another. i do think we've all become too confined to it. you see couples at dinner grown, middle aged, elderly and they're texting and not talking to each other. >> if do you stop to think about it and if you do stop to have this discussion, as we're having a mini discussion of it now based on this cover of "newsweek," it becomes so frightening because -- take one issue that's been in the news, school bullying. you want to reduce school bullying? take these things away from kids. >> they shouldn't be allowed in schools actually. >> they bully during school. >> this piece also talks about how there's been a tremendous

rise in adhd and ocd, which is beginning to be thought to have linkages to excesses internet addiction. and you can be bullied by being in constant contact, not even aggressive contact. i know kids who say they just want to get away from their kids' friends asking them what they're doing. >> nervous children because they can't turn their brains off. when you text, you expect something back. and then you text again. your brain never turns off of e-mails and text and information. >> the balance we have to strike is some of what this very same technology is doing in the classroom is amazing, transformative. so the notion that the classroom historically everyone has to learn is he tame pace no, matter what their levels are, no matter what their analytical capabilities are and suddenly you hear more educators talking about ipads in the classroom that can track each student's progress and advance the

exercises based on their own individual performance. you may have 20 kids in the classroom operating on 20 different levels and each one of those students is able to be challenged and advantaged at their own pace because of technology. >> if they have a brain left. >> it's the quick dopamine fix of that instant gratification thing that i think is very disorientating. >> it gets back to the point that tom raised looking at the clip from "all the president's m men" when they're looking through phone books. we have to have a discuss -- i don't know what the answer is -- does the ease of work made easier by all of these instruments, does it mean you just don't know how to work? you don't know how to knock on the door and talk to someone because you can google the person and you feel no need to

talk to someone? >> and you also never travel because you travel in a virtual world. >> we've learned the children have no value of money, no eye contact, no ability to connect concepts. let's see how washington is doing on all this. president obama and mitt romney head west to pitch competing plans for spurring job growth. romney heads to grand junction in colorado and president obama will host a roundtable in cedar rapids, iowa. yesterday the president continued calls for middle-class tax cuts. >> i'm not proposing anything radical here. i just believe that anybody making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under bill clinton, back when our economy

created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history and plenty of millionaires to boot. and this is not just my opinion. the american people are with me on this. we all say we agree that we should extend the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. everybody says that. the republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the middle class, i don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. so we should all agree to extend the tax cuts for the middle class. let's agree to do what we agree on. right? let's not hold the vast majority of americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. >> president obama is urging the extense of middle-class tax cuts now and delaying the decision on cuts for the wealthy until later but with republicans in control of the house, it's unlikely

congress will allow one cut without the other. in a radio interview, mitt romney framed the choice in stark terms for the economy. >> we just saw a terrible jobs report just last week. and now to add a higher tax on job creators and on small business is about the worst thing i could imagine to do if you want to create jobs. >> the white house says the president will veto any legislation that includes a continuation of the tax cut for the wealthy. tom brokaw, the tax cut's been in place for those so-called job creators. how's it done for them? >> well, i mean, it goes beyond taxes frankly. there's a really systemic problem with the economy and both sides know that. this is what i call the olympic trial period of the presidential campaign. they're trying out various ideas as they head into august, see

how the constituencies respond to that. taxes are going to be front and center in this campaign. we'll know a lot more by august about how they're going to be sharpened. the fact is, dan, i do talk to a lot of people at the upper level who say, look, i could take -- i don't need the tax cuts that i'm getting right now. there a lot of very senior people in the upper reaches of the financial community who are saying we got to get the thing back in balance. i don't think it's going to happen between now and november because taxes have become so radio active in both parties. >> i think that it is true the number of the folks you're talking to feel that way at the level they're at but i think what we're focused on are the people between $250,000 and a million or north of a million, some of these small business owners that -- tens of thousands of them running small businesses, make deeg signatureses about whether to hire, to sell their company or whether to expand and that group would be left out of president obama's proposed tax extensions.

>> i think the $250,000 level is not the right level. >> under a million. >> i think it should be a million. if they put that out there, i think it has in terms archfiscal impact and motional impact. we're talking about millionaires here. >> schumer says the same thing. chuck schumer says the same thing. >> i really don't know why. because if you go into almost any urban area in america, not just in new york city but in chicago, in dallas, in miami and so on, you talk to family where both people are working and they have a joint income of $250,000 and the housing costs and the cost of sending kids to school, it eats that you $250,000 pretty quickly. >> but isn't the president putting that off? doesn't that leave number as to whether the bar is openly.

it made sense to me when he said let's agree on what we agree on. can we even do that? >> this is not all about the election and throwing the down the cards. it's a terrific employ to box the republicans into position where they're campaigning for tax cuts. it really is very, very good politics. the sad thing is is that the conversation has to be so much bigger because all of this tinkering around does nothing whatever, fixes nothing actually. it's simply a employ. the bigger conversation in th i

eskines bowles -- >> he chose not to do certain things. he choose not to do erskines bowles. if this was so important, why didn't he do it? one of the reasons he didn't do it is because back then he said to raise taxes during a recession or during an economic downturn is the wrong thing to do. the same holds true today as it did then. >> of course this $250,000 is the first 250,000 you learn. he's slightly misrepresented his own tax measure. >> tom sp. >> objectively some things have changed between the first year and now. europe, for example. and it turns out that the housing economy in this country was in much worse shape than anyone anticipated. i was at a meeting of very senior corporate leaders in late '09. they thought that the stimulus

program would right the economy by late '10. there are a lot of people who bought into that. i've described this economy as bait and switch. of first quarter for the last through years it looks very promising. by the second quarter the numbers are going south again. one of the reasons these small businesses aren't expanding is because they don't have any confidence what they're seeing, not even their own government but what they're seeing in china and especially in europe. >> i agree with pup the one thing in the president and congress's control is to actually promote certainty on the tax and regulatory side. they can't control what's happening in you're, they can't control a range of external events that could occur around the world. they one thing they can control is telling business owners, job creators, they going to stand for the foreseeable future? >> 12 month isn't long.

>> it's a flach in the pan. >> new polls show president obama and mitt romney in a dead heat. in the wake of disappointing job numbers, mitt romney has a slight edge. when it comes to who could best handle the economy. when it comes to who would best handle taxes, the candidates were even at 46 percent. despite having radically different visions. what do you make of that? >> i make that we're now in july, the election is not until november. that might as well be a millennium between now and then, all all this plays out at the conventions, for example. the debates this time hud should be rock 'n' roll. what we have as we've all known for tom time is a very close race under very difficult circumstances, a lot of money

being we're going to have the political equivalent of a major war when the fall comes because it's not just for the tax policy in this country or righting the economy. it's kind of for the political soul of the country at this point. >> it's interesting how romney seems to be going whole hog with the rich guy image now now. you see him casting off any attempting to a regular guy. last week it was just lobster business being sides. barack obama goes to clooney's house, raises $67 million, $7 million. the idea that romney's the one who is out of touch with middle america is a bit of a double standard. >> i don't think eight double standard. it's almost that he's just getting in with it. it's totally working for him.

>> the big change in this fund-raising quarter comes from donors who donated less than 250. that says two things. one it says energy. the high powered donors, the campaign has to find them. those small donor donations are people getting moved and hopping on the web and nobody is asking them to do it. it also tells you to you can get back to them. >> dan has a good piece in the issue, too, but how he just doesn't like doing it. bill clinton, whenever he played golf, he would either have always a donut with him or swun who would tell sim something with the skmi. i understand but this poll shows

that 59% of romney supporters say they are more against president obama than they are for romney. by comparison, just 23% of obama supporters said they are more against romney than they are for the president. >> mike said something yesterday off camera. am i allowed to talk about anything we talk about off camera? >> sure, whatever. >> he said the democrats have a big problem, mitt romney is hard to hate. >> he's going to be hard to portray as someone who deserves contem contempt. >> i think there's one weak spot. >> what? >> the tax returns. >> he's going to have to release mountains of tax returns. >> and the whole disconnect issue. >> you keep wondering whether both sides, the president's reelection campaign and governor romney's election campaign, you wonder if they really get what's

going on in this country. i would submit whether you go to montana or california or massachusetts, wherever you go, this country is so filled with anxiety that the response to the questions that pollsters ask is really, geez, i don't know. it's a geez, i don't know. everybody is right on the edge in terms of anxiety. >> the two questions where i go and i've gone all over the country, one is i don't think my kids will have the life that i've had. they feel that's coming to annd. i've been trying to get that recalibrated, we can only have a house that is so large or so many cars or travel so much. we've marksed oxed out on consu. that's how we got into some of the other troubles and also

economic justice and how we are better global citizens for example. these are the issues that ought to be discussed. and then, too, for the first time in the 21st century people are saying i'm not so sure we are the greatest country in the world anymore. and i haven't heard that in 50 years in journalism. so how does that play in the campaign? the idea that obama can be reduced to this at this stage, i kind of liked the guy and i've given him a shot. here's an incumbent who is scrapping every day, ah, three years of an incumbent presidency.

and romney -- >> they don't hate him. >> yeah. >> backing off everything he ever believes in, you could portray that has fairly contemptible. >> we need a national service. tom brokaw and tina brown stay with us. out next, the obama campaign is hammering mitt romney for shipping jobs overseas but are there cracks in the president's own record on the issue? wreer going to talk abo-- we'reo talk about it with chuck todd and "the washington post's" eugene robinson. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover.

25 past the hour. a beautiful shot of the white house on this -- is it tuesday morning? >> tuesday morning. >> it's only tuesday. really? okay. we're joined now by pulitzer prize columnist and associate editor of "the washington post"

and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. >> she's complaining it's only tuesday. weren't you away all last week? >> i was. but i've been with you two days. and mike barnicle. you wouldn't believe what he almost had me wearing on the show. >> are you interfering with wardrobe? >> looked good to me. >> he was. >> and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd. >> they're all very mean, i will tell you. i think my mother tweets. president obama has accused mitt romney of outsourcing jobs during his time at bain capital. we have an ad, this one claims romney shipped jobs to china and mexico but president obama is facing disappointment from his

on party he hasn't done more to stem the flow of jobs around around the country to overseas and it report says obama has yet to live up to his 2008 campaign promise. and u.s. jobs lost to china was 450,000 between 2008 and 2010 because of the growth. >> it brings up an issue tied to talk yesterday. there's some talking points we heard from the president when he was a candidate, rolling back the bush tax cuts, this issue about penalizing companies that ship jobs overseas, figuring out how to do that. it's been sort of democratic

talking points for years and nothing's been done about it. they haven't rolled back any part of the bush tax cut or haven't dealt with this. this also give another weird aspect to the president. while he gets attacked on the right for being a socialist and being anti-business, he's actually tiptoed on some of these issues when it comes to business and trade and international trade. much more of a free trader than i think the perception that's out there. a little more lenient on this stuff, isn't sort of a big union guy. he gets associated with the unions but he never was a big union guy. he's not anti-union but he doesn't go out there and say what's the union agenda, oh, i'm going to grab it and run with it. that's why he didn't have much union support early on in 2008. it was all with edwards and some of it with clinton. on that particular case it's a double-edge sword. "the washington post" is

becoming the source for outsourcing stories, huh, eugene? >> we're the outsourcing source. it seems to me the potential political gain for the president in this is limited by the fact that, as you said, he's talked about punishing companies that outsource or at least that offshore rather or at least not helping them with tax breaks but in fact hasn't done anything. and so it's the difference between the republicans pointing at him and saying, well, he hasn't done anything about it and him pointing at romney and saying but he's the outsourcer, he's the offshorer. so there is a difference there. there is probably a net benefit. but i think a small one to the president there because, as you said, he ain't done nothing. >> tom brokaw, there is some sign along the way that the bain attacks have had some impact. >> it's had some traction in the

last six weeks or so obviously. they'll continue to try to define him as the rich guy that plays by a different set of rules from the rest of us. i don't know how much of a connection the average voter is going to make in terms of how they're going to make a decision come november. it seems to me a lot of work verse been living with the outsourcing issue for some time. i think most people understand that we live in a global economy. what strikes me about both campaigns when it comes to employment is that they're not getting at some of the really fundamental issues. you were talking earlier about job skills, for example. there are some very -- there are a fair number of jobs out there in high tech manufacturing in which the owners are saying we don't have the skill set and the people who are coming through the door, and there are jobs that are coming back here. general electric, which used to be our parent company, brought

back jobs. caterpillar has big plans to expand in the southwest and the southeast. but in every case they say we need workers who no longer just have a strong pair of hands and good work boots and a strong back. they've got to have real computer skills and be analytical and problem solvers. >> chuck, maybe you can lend insight into this. given how sophisticated the president's reelection campaign is with all the focus groups, we all know a tremendous positive being president of the united states, campaigning around the country. could it also be a negative in the minds of voters that, as tom is just describing, he's the president. he's the guy we put in charge of driving the bus, running the nation, leading us, taking us to where we want to go. could it be that's his biggest negative?

>> they know it. watch what the obama campaign is doing, right? why are they running this attack strategy on romney to try to do everything they can to -- because it's a two-step process to replace -- if you're going to replace a president. number one, you have to make the decision you'll consider doing it. that decision's been made. there's a majority of the country that's thinking about it, that's clear. but part two of that is you consider the alternative. it is a much more of a personal vote. a vote for senate, for house. those can be referendums on the party in power. but at the end of the day, that last group of voters, the voters that provide the 50% plus one, they make a personal decision and that is why you're seeing

this unloading, if you will, and i think at some point the romney campaign has to do more than say, hey, look, that guy is desperate, that's why they're doing this. okay, that's true. that is true. that is why they're doing this. they're planting seeds of doubt because they know the climate makes it where you have swing voters that are considering the alternative. romney has to answer these questions or he's going to come up short. >> the first rule in politics, whether you're running for alderman or running for president of of the united states, do not let the opposition define who you are. >> exactly. >> that's the game that's in play right now. >> the supreme court, for instance, in terms of the republicans, that is very energizing. in some way it was that obama has won but it's less energizing. they now have a new energy coming from the romney side. >> eugene rob enson.

>> it seems it to me that the thing -- these are things people can understand. you have an ira worth 20 to 100 million. house of representatives does that happen hap? he's going to have to release more tax returns and going to have to talk about this stuff, lest he be defined as not just an outsourcer but this sort of exotic rich guy who doesn't have anything in common with the people he expects to vote for him. >> i have to let dan respond. >> i'd just say to both of you there is this new conventional wisdom of the bain attacks is

having some resonance. the amount of money obama is putting behind the ads is amazing. the obama campaign has been spending 3-1 against the romney attack ads. how much of it is a question of this huge disparity right now? >> yes. but that's my point. that is absolutely what's happened. in may and in june -- it was more june than may. in may the obama campaign ran more positives, a few negatives. june was i'd say about 75% of their ads negative versus 25% positive. and, by the way, it's fine you bring up on the disparity between obama and romney because that numbers are true. throw in the super packs and it's been 1-1. but it actually brings up an issue that i think the republican apparatus. while financially they're at par

i ity, having three different people launching a television message that isn't necessarily on the same perfect message versus obama, which is controlling say 90% of the democratic message that's in the swing states, is proving to be more effective with his dollar. that's another thing that's out there. romney in a weird way -- yes, he's got all of his air cover from the super pacs but it's not effective money yet. >> eugene robinson, what's your column about today in the "washington post"? >> well, the column is about one of my favorite issues, voter i.g., these voter i.d. laws are which are think are an abomination. they're a solution still in search of a problem and you look in pennsylvania, the numbers out last week, something like 9.2% of pennsylvania registered voters don't have a state driver's license, are going to

have trouble voting it's a scandal. >> look for the art call by eugene robinson in "the washington post." >> and coming up, waging war on obesity. we'll talk to james barnett and david kirchoff. keep it here on "morning joe." [ buzz ] off to work! did you know honey nut cheerios is america's favorite cereal? oh, you're good! hey, did you know that honey nut cheerios is... oh you too! ooh, hey america's favorite cereal is... honey nut cheerios ok then off to iceland! i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings,

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. tina brown, before you go, the new issue of "newsweek" also has a piece on syria. >> it's a fantastic piece. she went to damascus and reported on their assad side, the elite supporting him particularly. it's a fascinating portrait about how the rich and the elite are still going on as if nothing is happening. they're going to party, they're having champagne receptions. they're going to the concerts, they're going to see the damascus opera. the damascus opera continues to give tease concerts.

it's almost like having in the german siege of leningrad with orchestra playing on. it's like they'll give it up to the islamists and they'll have a country completely dominated by the islamic element. >> we'll be looking for that in "newsweek." up next, remembering marie colvin and richard engel on the war correspondent who lost her life in syria. "morning joe" back in a moment. brave knights!

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. i'm on a street, half the houses on this street have been hit, including the one i'm in. the syrians are not allowing civilians to leave. anyone who gets on the street, if they're not hit by a shell, they're sniped. there are snipers all around. i think the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. they are hitting civilian buildings mercilessly without caring and the scale of it is shocking. >> that was marie colvin of "the london times" filing her last report out of syria. the following day she lost her life during the syrian assault in the city of homs. with us is marie brenner, who writes about marie colvin. in the article, her photographer

recalls her final moments. "it sounded like the battle of stalin grad. we were directly taerrgeted. then another shell landed on the building, everyone started screaming we have to get the hell out. the next blast blew through the door. it hit our translator and snapped his arm. i felt the hot steel in my leg. i shouted i'm hit. it went in one side and out another. i could see the hole through my leg. i knew hi to get out and as i did, i fell over. i was next to her and could i see her black jacket and her jeans in the rubble. i listened to her chest. she was gone. marie, give us the sense of the drive and resolve of a real reporter because i would think it would be from knowing some in my life that you have to be there to tell the story, you have to actually be there. no matter what.

>> that's so right. and that's so much what she believed. she was the best, the sort of last of the breed of extraordinarily dedicated present reporters who would go anywhere and do anything to get the truth out of the story. even if she knew he was going to be in absolute danger, she would say to her friends and colleagues "i must go in" and her phrase was "i must bear witness." >> and that is what she did every day and until the last moment. also joining us, nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel, who know as little bit about doing what marie colvin did so well. >> i just got back from syria and i was supposed to go to homs, the same place where marie was. we'd been hearing these reports

homs was being badly shelled. we were on our way in to the country with rebels and we're about to go to the same media center where she'd been hold up and where she ultimately lost her life. as we were about to cross the border, the people with us said something happened, we can't go, let's hold for a minute. and the report came out the place where they were in had been badly damaged, destroyed and she was dead. we held back, it was a chilling home and people are just starting to figure out if they can make their way back into syria. >> bear witness. >> from your piece in "vanity fair" writing about marie colvin, as they left for the second trip, they knew there would be no space for them to carry flak jackets. they clocked 45 explosions ament. every bone in my body is telling me not do this.

colvin listened to him carefully, her head cocked to one side "those are your concerns, i'm going in no matter wh what. i'm the reporter, you're the photographer." you can't gotogle a war. >> that's right. it's an entirely new arena for the war tribal and village to village. it isn't like the way it was in other wars where there were clear lines of demarcation, clear fronts. you don't know where the enemies are coming from. it makes it more dangerous now for war reporters on the front. do you feel that? >> if you look at baba amr and what it looks like now it's hard to imagine anyone could have survived the area. it's totally destroyed. the buildings are collapsed. the cliche is an earthquake

zone. this looks much worse. if you're in that and trying to tell the story of human suffering in there. >> i actually helped get her out of -- it was indonesia when she got in trouble before. her family got in touch with me and i got in touch with people at the state department. i met her briefly in new york one time and she said thank you. this was systemic with her. >> i have known her for years. we were always running into places. the last time was with in libya. qaddafi was falling and nobody had power or water. we found a little hotel we managed to force open. we had plenty of food. word got out that nbc had set up a great safehouse with food, water. we were actually quite in a good position. then all these other reporters came with tin cups saying, hey, can can we have a little bit? she was one of them.

>> shared. >> yes, we did. >> she was so optimistic. everyone says she would get into a place like where you were and she would be the one who would bring the fun, the granola bars, the scotch. she would have on the la perla underwear under her flak jacket. she had such aliveness in the field. it was clear to everyone who knew her how much she adored the work. >> she would move fast. i remember in lebanon during the war between israel and hezbollah we were moving around and we showed up in this village. i was sure i was the only person who made it to this village. it was a hospital that had been cut off. and the people inside were without food, without water. the patients were on the floor. i'm in this hospital doing interviews and i think i have a great exclusive. i hear her voice. she's been there two days. i said, what are you doing here?

>> with this great catherine hepburn delivery. >> you beat us here. >> this is an incredible piece. thank you for writing it. the real deal. the issue in vanity fair. marie brenner who wrote it, thank you very much. richard engel, thank you. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.

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♪ tonight major league baseball's annual mid-summer classic all-star game. i don't know if he'll be there or not but there is a guy called lou brissy who symbolizes so much. >> he went into the war instead of baseball. his legs were shattered in battle. every surgeon wanted to amputate. he said, no, i'm a baseball player. he found a surgeon to do it. his legs were so frail he had to wear shin guards. he was in the all-star game. had two great games for the a's. big salute. an all-star for all time.

>> tom brokaw, thank you. up next, chris christie's tough words for washington. we'll be right back. ♪ stronger. believe. happier. healthier. i believe weight watchers made me more powerful. it's time to believe again. stand up and take charge. i believe if you want to change your life, you can. ♪ believe in yourself [ female announcer ] weight watchers -- rated number one best plan for weight loss by u.s. news and world report, again. [ jennifer ] join for $1. weight watchers. believe. because it works. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today

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according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works.

t there. - one serving of cheese is the size of four dice. one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know. ♪ i would not ask anybody to compromise their principles. there's too much of that in politics today to begin with. i have to get everyone to acknowledge you won't get everything you want. once you get acknowledgment on both sides of that equation you can find and force compromise as an executive. i can walk and chew gum at the

same time. okay? i can fight with democrats, publically and privately over issues of principle where we can't find compromise. at the same time hold conversations with them on issues where we can find common ground and force that. this illusion you see in this town that somehow that can't happen, it's not possible is just an excuse. it's an excuse of failed leadership by both parties. >> good morning. 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. it's time to wake up as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." we have msnbc contributor mike br knackle. the managing editor of fortune magazine and president of the council on foreign relations, richard hotz. first of all, what chris christie said, it is easier said

than done. would anyone at the table like to talk about why? do we blame both sides? like on this tax issue, is there a deal to be made or is it going to be more fighting before election day to divide the campaigns? who wants in? >> it's refreshing what he had to say. >> but easy. >> when did compromise become a dirty word. i agree what he said about people holding their convictions and using it as a fig leaf for not sitting down with the other side. you suggest because he's a governor it's easy to say -- >> he's done it in new jersey. >> he has. we have a politician who says he can't compromise should be thrown out. you shouldn't vote for that. >> who would we throw out in washington? >> to take chris christie and other governors i would submit it's far easier to reconcile

differences in state legislatures than it is in the united states congress because of the importance of money running for office from washington. these guys and women in the congress and the senate, their full-time job is raising money to get re-elected. they don't know one another. they don't live in washington. it's a lot more difficult to attack someone when you know them or know their families or have gotten to know them. there are very few relationships in washington anymore, the way there used to be 10 or 15 years ago. in state legislatures there are relationships. >> that's true. >> good point. there are other things at work here, too. politics is the e reflection, not the cause. one is the weakening of party structures. used to be parties held together broad coalitions. now each candidate is essentially on his or her own. media, in the old days there was centralized media bringing people together. there was a stronger sense of

community, common experience. now with the internet, cable, satellite, everyone finds his or her own media outlet to reinforce their views. it works against the sense of community. the larger forces in american society are centrifugal. they are weakening the center, allowing people not just to survive but to thrive at this or that extreme. it shouldn't be a surprise the politics of compromise are more difficult than it was a generation ago. >> really quick. >> in a number of state governments are required under their state constitution to balance budgets every year. it's not the case in washington. >> there's the landscape. now let's parse it down to one issue dividing the two candidates. president obama and mitt romney both head west today to pitch competing plans for spurring job growth. romney will be in colorado including in grand junction where unemployment is at 10%. president obama, meanwhile, will host a roundtable in cedar

rapids, iowa, where unemployment is nearly half that rate. the president continued calls for a middle class tax cuts. he derided mitt romney and the congressional republicans plans to renew cuts to the wealthiest americans. >> i'm not proposing anything radical here. i believe anybody making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under bill clinton, back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history and plenty of millionaires to boot. this is not just my opinion. the american people are with me on this. we all say we agree that we should extend the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. everybody says that. the republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. i don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. so we should all agree to

ex-tepid tax cuts for the middle class. let's agree to do what we agree on. [ applause ] let's not hold the vast majority of americans and the economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. >> okay. we also heard from mitt romney on the issue. obviously with republicans in control of the house it's unlikely congress will allow one cut without another. in a radio interview mitt romney framed the choice in stark terms for the economy. take a listen. >> we just saw a terrible jobs report just last week. and now to add a higher tax on job creators and on small business is about the worst thing i could imagine to do if you want to create jobs. >> all right. some would disagree with that. this is where if we are looking to decide who's not compromising, who's not cutting a deal.

we also have to make sure there is honesty in this. i will read from the new york times. you tell me if there is anything wrong here. the argument is the tax on those making $250,000 or more is hitting job creators where it hurts and therefore hurting the economy. here's what the new york times editorial says. the need to agree. republicans argue that letting the high end tax cuts expire will hit small businesses and impede hiring. that is nonsense. based on an overly broad definition of small business which counts any taxpayer who reports business income as a business owner including lawyers and accountants working in partnerships, corporate executives who sit on other firm boards and shareholders in s-corporations. business organizations that can employ thousands of workers. only 2.5% of small business owners would face higher taxes from the expiration of the bush tax cuts. of those who would be affected most are unlikely to reduce hiring or investment because of

ample deductions for business expenses. are republicans trying to make it look like the tax cuts would hurt people who would not actually be hurt? >> president obama is in the clip you showed said he wants to reduce the tax rates to what they were under bill clinton. that's not accurate. other taxes have increased since then. obamacare, investment tax increases. it's not just increasing to the bill clinton amount. you're talking about 940,000 taxpayers. that's not my number or a conservative think tank's number. that's according to the congressional joint committee on taxati taxation. a lot of those taxpayers do run small businesses and make hiring decisions based on certainty, regulatory certainty and tax policy certainty. if they are being told, we are taking care of one swath of taxpayers, we'll give them an extension. you, we're not sure and about uh

you have to wait. it affects decision making. >> have the tax cuts spurred growth? not really. >> every year we're waiting saying are they going to extend again? >> well, they have been there for a long time. >> the economic cycle is a lot more important than marginal tax rates. >> sure. it's cumulative. >> do you think the marginal tax rates impact the economic cycle? >> they don't. not on the margin. >> you answer. it's cumulative. every time there is a tax debate people say, if you just increase this by 2% do you think it will impact behavior? the answer is, of course not. it's the cumulative effect. you're a business person saying, i'm about to get whacked with the obamacare mandate. dodd frank is being implemented. thousands of now regulators and regulations. i'm not sure how it will affect my business. i have tax cuts at the end of the year that won't be extended. i have tremendous regulatory

uncertainty. the cumulative effect means -- look, the numbers are there. the fed reported almost $2 trillion of cash on the balance sheets of companies. they are not deploying cash. >> you have a yogurt stand, a hardware company, it's more important the economic cycle is good, you have a good business, good hiring practices than a marginal tax rate. >> we throw around the term 1%. if you look at recent irs data the 1% is actually people who made approximately $330,000 in a given year. in one year that pops you into the 1%. someone who owns five laundromat stores. sells and they get whacked by this uncertainty. if you were the owner of the five stores making a decision to hire, sell the company and take a capital gain, this affects

your decision. >> i don't think they are hiring now. richard? >> this is singling out one aspect of a whole mosaic. >> exactly. >> this is about politics, not economic policy. the president is obviously focusing on this reinforcing fairness, about how america is reacting to our economic situation and so forth. there are a lot of missing pieces here. there's spending. you can't just talk taxes. there's the question of entitlements and spending. there is the question of corporate tax policy. what would it take to get $2 trillion on books to bin vested? what would it take to get american corporations to spend here. there is trade policy, immigration policy. we are having a conversation about a piece of a much larger fabric. that's why this is much more about politics at the end of the day than economics. >> where is the deal, mike. it seems to me the deal might be or the deal the democrats or

president is putting on the table is saying just don't extend them for the very rich and middle class get protected. let's cut a deal. >> i don't know where the deal is. that's way above my pay grade trying to figure that out. what we see here with this argument that the two of uh you are having back and forth is sort of a babe ruth league, metaphorical version of what happens in the united states congress. we have two distinctly different views on tax policy. both of you went back and forth. neither of you mentioned the larger umbrella, the need to reform the entire tax code to bring fairness and equity in. >> look at the washington post, answer news poll. voters are split on who's best to handle the taxes. amazing. >> it will be hard to talk about raising taxes in a recession. it's very tough. it's the middle of the campaign, the middle of a recession.

>> president obama himself said in 2009 you don't raise taxes in the middle of a recession. so we have technically not a recession. 1.9% growth in the first quarter. second quarter, somewhere in that neighborhood. it is a weak economic period possibly heading into a recession. why doesn't the same theory hold? nothing could -- >> higher tax rates during periods of economic growth that were much higher than now as well in this country historically. >> this is true. >> there are a number of factors. >> that's right. >> in the '90s you had a surplus, internet boom. >> also, what does it mean to be reach in america? $250,000 or a million? that's an interesting thing to consider when you are bringing it to the electorate. to me it sounds like a lot of money either way. >> what's interesting is the -- >> chuck schumer. >> bob menendez said for

$250,000 you could be a fireman and a teacher. >> schumer changed his position. >> after enormous pressure. >> i can't imagine how that happened. >> menendez said it should go to a million. >> middle class is a million dollars a year? >> would republicans take that? >> i don't speak for the caucus. >> back to what chris christie said, the deal the president brings to the table brings in 850 billion. there is something there. >> it has to be broader. it can't be about revenue. it has to be about spending. you come back to simpson bowles. at the end of the day, it's not going to happen before the election. i think it will happen in 2013. that's when republicans, democrats, congress, the white house, no matter what the configuration is, they have to sit down. some aspect of a grand bargain will be hatched. or my concern is markets will react very strongly against the united states. i think the world is giving us a

respite to get the house in order. if we go through a debt ceiling exercise. >> disaster. >> we'll be downgraded by 2013. then it's bar the door time. we can't go on forever with this kind of partisan divide. >> we look terrible from the outside. >> there would be substantial agreement on both sides of the aisle with what you said. there has to be some sort of agreement that is arrived at. then you inject two words into the potential agreement -- grover norquist. what happens on the republican side of the aisle with grover norquist? >> no compromise. never. >> sign it. >> we'll run six people against you and beat you in a primary. >> the number of political leaders and their constituencies resistent to what president obama proposed, to richard's

point would have a different perspective if they said, oh, okay. this tax rate is going up but the corporate tax rate is going from 35 to 25%. or this tax rate is going up. these loopholes are being modified so i'm not at a competitive disadvantage. there is a range of factors. obamacare would be repealed. the range of factors that would be the framework for deciding each one of these issues. out's not a rifle shot decision. no one will get around it based on rifle shot proposals. it's got to be comprehensive. grover nor quist's position in the debate would be different if the debate were held with a comprehensive context. >> it would be weaker. the context would be dramatically different. >> up next, obesity as a national security issue? yes. our next guest says too many americans are unfit to fight posing new challenges for military recruiting.

the ceo of weight watchers david kirchhoff and retired admiral james barnett joins us. first a check on the forecast. todd? >> a beautiful day for traveling across the country. smooth sailing across the skies, at least across the lower 48. we have showers here and there. a lot of activity has shifted off the coastline. boston to new york city. quiet conditions. cool temperatures this morning. albany has warmed to 63 from the mid 50s earlier this morning. 72 in boston. there is a look at what to expect by later this afternoon. buffalo up to the lower 80s through western new york. we'll see a chance for an isolated thunderstorm around d.c. but better chances down to raleigh, charlotte and columbia, south carolina. there is a look at the last 12 hours. you can see the left over activity from yesterday afternoon. will it be daytime heating that can kick off a few thunderstorms? that's on the way to dallas around 75 degrees.

we could see thunderstorms around dfw later this afternoon as well. something to keep in mind. as you head out the door, a number of areas into tomorrow looking good out there in denver. 90 degrees, sunshine. 89 in kansas city. still across the southeast a front in place could trigger more showers and thunderstorms even towards atlanta as well as orlando. want to leave you with a beautiful shot of the washington monument. some work still has to be done on that from the earthquake. we'll find out more in the coming days. for now, out to a quick break. "morning joe" coming your way after this.

according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works.

22 past the hour. look at that beautiful shot of washington, d.c. it's tuesday. >> i'm being personally attacked here. >> you are. do you know what this is about? >> i do. i'm under personal assault. >> you should be. >> dave's assaulting me for eating the roof of a muffin. >> they're the best. >> the u.s. faces many threats abu there is one that doesn't involve weapons. according to mission readiness made up of retired military leaders 27% of all young adults are too fat to serve in the military. here to discuss how the obesity rate is threatening the future strength of the military the ceo of weight watchers international david kirchhoff and retired

admiral jamie barnett who will be in my book which i'm writing about obesity and food and this issue is part of it. too fat to fight. we have a real issue here. this is really happening. people laugh at me when i say -- i think i was laughed off the set this morning when i talked about our national security being at risk. it is? >> it's a national security problem. mission readiness is 300 retired generals and admirals, a national security organization. really just want kids in america to get a good education, grow up healthy and be contributing citizens. 75% of young americans from age 17 to 24 are ineligible to serve in the u.s. military. part of it is because they don't have a high school diploma. part of it is criminal problems, but physical fitness is another major problem. one in four young americans is overweight. so overweight they can't join the military. >> unbelievable.

in the military is there an effort to try to make our men and women stronger? are they coming in a little heavy? >> they're showing up at the recruiting stations heavy. actually, our military is in tremendous shape. we do draw from the general population. and there are people who lived a life up to age 18 or when they come in not as healthy. so they don't do as well in boot camp. it's a problem. about 1200 first term enlistees had to be discharged because they can't keep up with the weight standards. that costs between $50 million and $100 million a year. >> unbelievable. i must say for the record, david, i'm not a person that necessarily agrees with the concept of diet plans. having said that, i know more men in my life who have used weight watchers online and have lost a lot of weight. here's the key -- kept it off. >> the first thing i would say is it's really not a diet plan.

it's helping people establish new habits, behaviors, routines that allows them to navigate -- >> the food that's out there. >> it's crazy. there are 500 more calories available per capita per day mostly in the form of junk food today. people need to navigate that environment. that's our focus as an organization. getting back to the issue, it's interesting the issue of childhood obesity and the military. there was a study out recently estimating 25% of teenagers are either diabetic or prediabetic. >> right. >> crazy. >> 25%? >> yeah. >> it's a real epidemic and it's growing. >> it is amazing we debated health care for two years. i'm telling you if we approached it from this vantage point we wouldn't have as much of a debate. this is the core of our problems to an extent.

how can you, when you look at the military say we will be ready 20, 30 years from now if we continue down the path we are in terms of obesity. >> what's happening in our elementary and middle schools now will affect our national security 15, 20 years from now. it's a longitudinal problem. there are things we can do. the major thing is we've got to get the junk food out of our schools and stem the tide. up to 50% of calories children take in is at school. the department of agriculture is coming out with new standards about junk foods and what they call competitive foods. foods sold during school hours. it's not just vending machines.

it's a la cart items on the cafeteria line. i visited a ship one time when i was still active duty. the senior chief who was the chief culinary chef showed me the baked fish, broccoli and salad. there was a lot of it. then there was the line with hot dogs, hamburgers and french fried onion rings and that was almost gone. it is a problem. parents don't even know. they might be doing the right thing at home. once they go to school they may realize there are vending machines and other foods they are getting maybe hundreds more calories than they thought they were getting. >> the other side is that if kids are getting anywhere from 30% to 50% of calories at school they get the rest at home. this is one of the things on childhood obesity people don't want to talk about. the biggest influencing factor on childhood obesity is parents. parents have to be role models. parents have to take ahold of

this issue. it is an issue of personal responsibility. people want to shy away because it's a sensitive subject. we can't keep doing that. >> and how to talk to our children. >> it raises the issue of health care costs. health care costs in this country, a huge percentage of rising health care cost has to do with issues caused by eating like fat pigs all day every day. >> there's $25 million diabetics in the u.s. today. $200 billion a year. millions of prediabetics. imagine a day in which one out of every three walking americans is diabetic. >> once young people are in the military, doesn't the military regimen, the training, the dietary restrictions, the physical training -- doesn't that, you know, break whatever bad habits you guys are describing and identifying

pretty quickly? >> it does. i don't want anybody to worry. the current military is fit, very capable of doing what we need it to do. we have to discharge about 1200 first-term recruits before they finish enlistment at a cost between $50 million and $100 million to replace them and retrain folks. >> because of weight issues? >> had that been happening 10, # 20 years ago? >> it was not. >> absolutely not. >> the military spends about $1.1 billion on obesity related diseases including dependence, too. the fact of the matter -- dependents, too. the baby boom is giving way to the baby fat boom. diabetes will get worse. the amount of money the military has to spend will increase. not like congress gives you extra money to do this. it comes out of the defense budget. so it starts eating into the

defense programs and weapons programs. >> how do we combat the culture around us. if you take nearly every military base in the country, the one mile leading to the entrance to the base, on both sides of the road you find every fast food imaginable. >> it's worse than that. the bases abroad where they recreate an american base. >> yes. >> taco bell, baskin-robbins. >> little food courts. that's the way americans eat. that's what we eat. >> the culture of eating. >> it's unbelievable. >> it represents home. >> out's killing us. >> part of the issue is it's like the story of the ex-athlete. while you're in the military you're working out, exercising. at least you have that going for you. what's a little disturbing is if you look at obesity rates and

diabetes incidence with retired personnel it's extremely high. if you are being trained to be around fast food and then you get exposed to an environment where you no longer have to do the physical exertion you are having to do lo and behold you blow up which is why guys get heavy in their 30s. >> we'll find out more about this and it will become probably a huge legal issues like cigarett cigarettes. you can say i'm crazy, but it's going to happen. >> what's an addictive? >> sugar. it's a toxin. >> it creates dopamine. it's a problem. i don't want to focus on bases. really, the answer to the problem comes way before that. >> we have to go to the department of agriculture, sorry. go food lobby. >> last year congress retrenched things the department of

agriculture did and all of the sudden pizza is a vegetable? we can't do that. there has to be a trade space for getting -- >> you just broke barnacle's heart. >> i love pizza, too. but we can't call it a vegetable. >> literally, it's ingrained in the system. excuse the pun. it's going to be a massive overhaul. the biggest reset this country face ifs we get our arms around it. >> there is a lot of burden onle schools. we have to get physical education back in school. 80% of high school seniors don't have physical education. >> can you imagine? they don't move. they do not move. >> and the recommendation is an hour a day. >> let's keep talking about it. thank you very much. retired rear admiral jamie barnett and david kirchhoff. we appreciate it. we'll see you soon and see you in the book. >> thank you. >> coming up, kitty pilgrim is here with the latest

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37 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." the book looks good, doesn't it? >> it does. i was just reading -- >> bring it home. you and campbell can read it. >> we will. >> separately. i'm sure she's still mad at you. >> wow. >> kitty pilgrim writes international thrillers. she's out with her latest novel "the stolen chalice" which we'll get to in a moment. nice to meet you. >> nice to watch you in person. i watch you all the time. >> i watch you all the time. >> it's weird when people got to know each other through the television screen and meet in person. >> it's strange. 24 years. you make a huge career change. first of all, what was it like to get out? >> well, i started the book while i was at cnn. i started "the explorers code" while i was at cnn. i gave it to an agent and it

sold. then came the opportunity after 24 years to completely switch careers. i thought, i think i would like to do this. i would like to become a thriller writer. it seems like a dream come true, so i did it. >> how did the transition go? >> it was great. >> a reinvention really. >> a bit. i basically put myself on assignment to do the books. i go to the places in the books still, the way i always reported. so the stolen chalice has edinborough, scotland and venice. it's a nicer way to do assignments. >> you got to enjoy yourself. >> eat the food. it's great. then i do all the traveling and write it in the book which is great. >> that's fantastic. tell us about the book. >> it's a romantic thriller. as a reporter, you run through an airport and grab a paperback off the rack. so you grab either a thriller or a romance. many years of being a news reporter i either had to pick oh a thriller or a romance and i

thought, i want to blend the genres. it's a romantic thriller. it has a lot of female details in it. the food, locations, luxury, clothes. then it has the thriller aspect. >> a romantic thriller with a lot of female details. sounds like it's up mike's alley. >> it is for men, too. >> look at him. >> is it the same, do you think, in your mind as when you would go there working as a journalist without the deadline pressure? >> it's much nicer. i was on a daily deadline for 24 years. now i have lunch, take a couple of notes on what we ate and then i go tour and pick up the atmosphere. in a weird way when you're on assignment, as you know as

journalists you have down time where details are coming into the place where you are, but you never have a chance to put it in the product, in the news report. now i do. >> when you were doing daily stories it's like the story telling but there is never enough time. you're banging something out every day. you never truly breathe and tell the story. >> you know, of course news is evolving. even news stories have to have a narrative, as you know. in a weird way it wasn't hard to put a narrative into a novel. almost every news story now has to have a narrative. the industry has changed over 24 years. it used to be straight tell. now there is a narrative in a lot of news stories. >> in a nutshell, the narrative of the book, to tease it for your potential readers. >> ancient egyptian art stolen, a terrorist plot, an around the world chase that goes to venice, scotland, london. starts in new york at the

metropolitan museum. ends up in egypt where i went just recently. >> is there any sex in it? >> it is romantic, sir. it is highly romantic. let me put it that way. >> i'm sorry for him. >> that's all right. >> wow. >> it's a guy question. >> i thought he would be satisfied at the lunch in venice. >> it's highly romantic. >> it's always barnacle. >> little embarrassing. >> yeah. you should have seen this morning what he said to me. >> oh, i did. fashion advice? >> oh, no. that and then something really perverted. all right. the book is "the stolen chalice." kitty pilgrim, thank you. >> thank you. >> coming up, how should scranton spend its last $5,000. seriously. >> joe biden's hometown.

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this is a great video. a man named roy mitchell. he went into a convenience store in mississippi to get a bag of dorito's. he paid for them but when the clerk turned around he pulled out a gun, demanded the money in the cash register. he's got the gun. this is his mom who comes in, yells at him, takes the gun out of his hand and forces him to leave with her which he did. before he went, he made sure to grab those doritos. you know, you get hungry robbing a store.

[ applause ] >> greatest video ever. >> that was crazy. that's amazing. brian sullivan. is he here? >> brian's right there. oh, is it funeral time? black tie? brian, come on. >> hi, brian. >> it's navy blue, like my eyes. deep, deep blue. >> can't see them relative to your ears. >> the ears. i have been stretching them my whole life. this is a lifetime of hanging upside down by my ears like a bat. >> you need to tape them. >> i played rugby for ten years. i had to tape them because guys would try to bring me down by the ears. >> sounds like he was scarred. >> i'm making it worse. >> mouse keteers.

>> believe me. i have gone a long way to further the dreams of large-eared people like myself. >> can you say mouseketeer? >> oh, yeah. >> sing the song. >> there was a flying elephant. >> dumbo. >> you learn to fight good. >> i'll take a market preview. >> i can't match that jimmy kimmel video. the futures are up slightly. there is accelerated bank bailout talk in spain. it oo it's wonky. it's down for the sixth straight monday. don't invest on monday. and bob diamond, the american forced out of barclays will forego most of his deferred compensation but he'll bring home $3.1 million in pension and one year's salary. so, not a bad deal. >> from that to scranton.

>> yeah. maybe barclays can help scranton. it's a serious story. down to the last $5,000. the mayor cut all public sector workers pay to minimum wage including his own. the unions say he's breaking contracts. he's saying, i don't have any money. the town has $# 5,000 left. harrisburg tried to file bankruptcy last year but was denied because it's hard for towns in pennsylvania to file bankruptcy. scranton, home to the fictional country dunder-mifflin could use help. the mayor is a democrat. he's fighting with a democratic city council. it's not politics. he just said, i don't have the ability to go print money in the basement. >> last week or the week before was it stockton, california, that filed for bankruptcy? >> it's the biggest municipal bankruptcy of all time.

orange county, pennsylvania, had been in 1994. it's likely more municipalities will file. >> this is the beginning of something. >> this is the beginning. >> not the end of the story. >> they raked in money during the housing boom. my uncle lives outside of stockton. then they spent it all. it's a good lesson. >> a few people will say, hey, lend me an ear and he has plenty of left. ♪ m-i-c -- ♪ see you real soon >> that's a different network. >> brian, sullivan. see you soon. the morning papers are next. i am you and you are me if you want it, you just got to believe. weight watchers i believe strength [ jennifer ] confidence beautiful amazing [ emily ] this goes way beyond happiness weight watchers

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[ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. here's a look at some of the morning papers. a new study says americans who spend less than three hours a day sitting can increase life expectancy by two years. there is research that highlights the dangers of leading a sedentary lifestyle, mike. >> i'm going to stand up to read this. >> yes. >> the daily sentinel says mitt romney is taking his trip to grand junction today for a town hall. romney avoided denver in each of the last three visits to the state. some colorado republicans say he needs to spend more time there while others say he's smart to

venture into towns where there are more conservative voters. >> the new york times reports some of disney's stars made an un approapproved appearance in korea. there was footage of mickey, minny and other characters singing and dancing in front of kim jong eun. disney said the use of the characters wasn't authorized. >> what, if anything, did we learn today is next. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family?

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no root. no weed. no problem. it's time to talk about what we learned today. mike, what did you learn? >> well, i learned if you're going to rob a variety store make sure your mom isn't within walking distance to come in and take the gun away. >> that's for sure. dan? >> this totalitarian regime sending us down a slippery slope. first soda. then the popcorn. >> yeah. >> maybe the milk duds are next. i don't want to start. >> yeah. >> it's scary. >> here's what i learned. republicans in congress with equal pay and the disclose act and even taxes now have something in common with my niece aurora. they do. here she is. there she is. [ laughing ] >> that's her.

that's all she does. all day long. >> why do republicans have something in common with her? >> that's them right now. seriously, equal pay? the disclose act? that's them. >> where was that taken? >> at the embassy in stockholm. >> oh, all right. >> that's her life. all right, everybody. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> time for morning joe. now it's time for the morning run down with chuck todd. >> chuck! >> back to the future. president obama kick starts another fight over the bush tax cuts. he hits the road to a couple of swing states. he hits mitt romney with tough charges that he's too rich to know what most americans need for a better economy. meanwhile, the obama campaign tries to rally women voters in key states with a tough new ad. later how the attacks on planned parenthood are driving a counter attack for november. back on capitol hill, republicans press ahead with plans to repeal the president's

health care law. we'll go nowhere after the house vote. does it help or hurt romney with undecided voters on the campaign trail? good morning. it's tuesday, july 10, 2012. i'm chuck todd. first read of the morning. today, president obama and mitt romney stump in important swing states. the topic of the day for both candidates will be taxes. the president will put a face on his effort to extend the bush era tax rates only for americans making less than $250,000 a year. when he holds a roundtable at the home of a couple in cedar rapids iowa as mitt romney has a town hall in grand junction, colorado. george w. bush hasn't been on a national ballot in eight years but his tax cuts are front and center. the president opens up a new attack against mitt romney trying to drive a wedge between the middle class tax cuts and tax breaks for the rich. >> it's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest