. issue one, ukraine, peace deal. ukrainian opposition leaders signed an eu mediated peace deal with european union on friday to end the violent stand off that left some 80 dead and scores injured. ukrainian president victor yanukovych promised elections and to bring opposition members into the ukrainian government.

here the short background. ukraine is a strategic cross roads between east and west has been caught in a diplomatic tug of war between russia in the east and europe in the west. sent former soviet republic attained independence in 1991, the u.s. and the eu have tried to woo ukraine westward. while eastward russia under a success of presidents has tried to reincorporate ukraine into its sphere of influence. for much of the country's history western ukraine was a part of poland and is thoroughly european in outlook. while eastern ukrainedom dominated by russian speakers -- at stake in the current stand off is whether the country leans east, west, or splits down the middle.

but as things stand now, president obama's admonition wednesday appears to have been heard. >> the united states consndem in the strongest terms the violence taking place there. we have been deeply engaged with our european nepartrs and both the ukrainian government and the opposition. but weld ho the ukrainian government primarily responsible. there will be consequences if people step over the line. >> question, was president obama's warning to ukrainian president victor yanukovych the big eleven they're moved ukraine away from this crisis, pat buchanan? >> president obama has been absent and president obama has been irrelevant. irrelevant to this entire crisis, john. what happened was when -- wednesday or thursday, the protesters attacked the police who were backing up when the truce of underway. there was gunfire not only from the police but from the other side in the western part of the ukraine, people are moving into

armories, police are defect effecting, soldiers are defecting from the government. the ukraine is the verge of civil war. i think ukrainian president victor yanukovych did the right thing, moving the electrics up, bringing the two leaders of the opposition into it with him, and i think that's the best way to solve this thing, because quite frankly if this thing is not solved diplomatically and peacefully, and some of the problem is with the protesters in the street who don't want it solved, i think they could be headed for a civil war that virtually breaks the country up. >> ukraine is primarily about the as separations of the ukrainian people and they want to go with the european union. the western part of the country is closer to poland. this is the breach that's occurring. but what's happened here is that the foreign ministers of the european union, poland, germany, and france, basically talked to the president and talked to the protesters and they helped broker this union.

the incredible violence that we've seen in recent days, i think have made it clear to president putin that this cause is lost. so what we've seen in the last several hours really is that president putin is backing down. he now seems to be willing to work toward a diplomatic resolution and i think putin has played had his cards very cleverly up to this point. the president has not been irrelevant and the president and the european union appear now to have gotten the upper hand. >> rich. >> i think this president of the united states says consequences in the international context, everyone around the world laughs up their sleeves. pat is absolutely right. he's had no impact on this whatsoever. it's been mortgage facts on the ground where the president of the ukraine has been wavering back and for the since november between the european union and russia and the fact that he seemed on the verge of completely losing control is i think the key factor here. there are two layers to the

conflict. one is a geopolitical one between the west and russia over control of the ukraine. the other is ukrainian reformers pushing for something better than the authorityian rule they've been suck subjecteded to for so long. >> why did russia refuse to sign the agreement? >> russia was not happy about this agreement. what happened it seems to me given the blood shed and violence that was unleashed upon the ukrainian people, the president lost all of his moral credibility and a lot of his political support. a lot of people were no longer prepared to support him. he must have had some real feel for that before he backed down but that to me was the breaking moment for him. it really destroyed his political base. >> john, era real problem here, though. look, whatever you say about ukrainian president victor yanukovych, he was elected democratically. he served 3/4 of his term. he would have been up for elections next year. he is a democratically elects

president. the protesters set up barricade ads started throwing molotov cocktails, engaged police, seized buildings, burned buildings. this is not a march on washington demonstration. this is a coup detat throwing over a democratically elected president. >> you sound like you were in the streets. >> you saw the television? >> i saw it from the beginning. these were peaceful protests and it was the government who cracked down. >> burning buildings in the middle of washington, d.c., would you tolerate that? >> i would not tolerate that. we did not storm the occupy wall street settlement. >> when there is the initial reaction after ukraine pulled back from the deal with the european union in november, at the prodding of putin who offered them $15 billion, then

there was a reaction in the streets. then you had had the government passing anti-protest laws. that was really fuel on the fire for these demonstrations. there's no excuse for firing on these people in the middle of that square. >> it's not about -- it's not about -- it's not about the democratically elected president. it's about president putin trying to exert his sphere of influence. now he sees that he'sing a losing horse and he's ready to negotiate. >> excuse me. excuse me. let me in here. question, what are the odds that this accord will stand, pat buchanan? >> i think they're pretty good. because if it's not for this accord, the army will be called in to clean these guys out and sweep them out of the square which they should do. secondly, i think ukrainian president victor yanukovych realizes the end is near and he ought to get out with the best deal that he can. >> when you start talking about cleaning these guys out and

they're your citizens, you're in trouble. if anything this accord will get tougher on the president. >> i think it's a 50-50 thing. you have hothead induce the protest movement who don't want to take it even though they should. it's not clear if putin really wants to accept this deal. >> i think putin will not interfere the way he might have interfered before all of this viefnlts i think that's something putin cannot associate with himself. with whatever pat says, my impression, the overwhelming amount of violence came from the armed forces of this president. i'm told the protesters, give up and take this deal or you will all be dead. >> that's a statement about the nature of this government to go in and mow these people down. that's what he's saying. this is -- . >> i double packrd recently and got the hell beaten out of me by the police.

no. that happened in poland. >> they're shooting police also. >> that's how they knew it was your car. the odds are low. don't forget "the mclaughlin group" has its own website. you can watch this program or earlier programs on the web at anytime from anywhere in the world at mclock license.com. is the prevailing zeitgeist in america today best described as neoisolationism

. issue two, neoisolationism. >> we have allies around the world who are beginning it to question america's commitment to the principles upon which this nation is founded and they look to america for. >> in a major address on monday, house republican majority leader eric cantor called for an assert i have u.s. foreign policy to take the place of what he terms president obama's quote isolationisecretaryment, unquote. majority leader cantor cited his visit to a nazi death camp, auschwitz, on the 69th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. cantor warned of the effects of neoisolationism. >> standing there as the frigid wind swept through the eerily quiet ruins of the camps, i could not help but regret that american action in world war ii

came too late to save countless millions ofen in lives. hitler's rise and conquest of europe did not come as a surprise. we must not repeat the same mistake. we must not reduce our preparedness or accept the notion that this nation is one of many. we must not see cede global leadership to others. >> the contemporary parallel to nazi germany is north korea, subject of a scathing critique by the united nations human rights council this week. the 400 page report is compiled by a commission of inquiry chaired by an australian jurist. the commission charges north korea with quote, crimes against humanity, unquote. the report documents the systemic starvation, torture, sexual abuse, and death of

prisoners. according to the united nations, quote, hundreds of thousands of inmates have been exterminated in political prison camps, unquote. the commission calls for the international criminal court at the haig to prosecute north korea's leaders. also the commission cautions that china's current policy of aiding and abetting north korea could expose beijing to charges at the hague. the 193 member united nations in new york will take up the commission's findings next month and vote on its recommendations on march 28. question, how should president obama respond to this united nations horror report on north korea? >> well, i mean, his options are fairly limited if i may say so. we absolutely have to take some stronger position in terms of what north korea is doing. i'm not quite sure what we can

really do about it because it's a very ruthless country. they are very, very strong militarily in troalings their region, and i think they'll be very, very difficult to handle. they're not going to listen to any kind of rhetoric on our part. we have very little levers of influence. >> john, the country with the real influence in north korea is china. north korea is the worst stalinist situation i think in the world for the last 50 or # 0 years. it's a total horror show. we've known about it. >> we have not known it to the extent this report describes. >> wcialtion everybody i knew knew about it. the chinese have got total control of north korea. the chinese could bring down that regime. with the united states, however, stand up and say, look, china furks don't do something about this horror show, we're going to impose economic sanctions on you, no more comien ease goods sold in the united states? is the u.s. going to do that? no. is obama going to do that?

>> no. it's all it talk. >> talking about all talk, what mr. cantor presented there was not a thoughtful road map for foreign policy. that was loading up the how itser for am mission for the 2014 election. all these people are saying obama is weak, he's cedeed global leadership. how many troops would they be sending to those various places? none. >> the double barreled speech did not just take on the president. impolice itsly and often times explicit italy took on the rand paul wing of the republican party. this is really the battle for the sowflt party on foreign policy that you will see going forward. i think it's very likely whoever the eventual republican presidential nominee will sound much more like george h.w. bush circa 1999, 2000, than george h.w. bush circa 2004 when he was talking about democracy. >> hold on, please. should the united states restrict its humanitarian aid to

north korea bearing in mind that humanitarian aid is what keeps their government going? >> if i could make sure two million north korea anxiety were fed by sending them food and it would get to them, i would agree with you. i would do it. i think rich is correct, though. we have a tremendous battle coming in the republican party between those who would like to intervene in syria go, after iran, intervene in ukraine. the rand paul and the pail owe conservative wing, i'm not so sure -- >> this is eeferl we're seeing in north korea thanks to this report. a different level that far out stripped anything we -- we have been covering this issue for years. >> mort is right. there are only a limited number of ways you can tighten the screws. i would not tightant screws further on the people by withholding humanitarian aid. >> did the people get the food? they get some of it. >> issue three, cbo smackdown. >> today the federal minimum

wage is worth about 20% less than it was when reagan first stood here. there is a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. it's easy to remember. this will help families. it will give businesses customers with more money to spend. it does not involve any new bureaucratic programs. join the rest of the country. say yes. give america a raise. >> a hike in the federal minimum wage from the current level of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour was the centerpiece of president obama's january state of the union address. this week the eminent and nonpartisan congressional budget office regularly invoked by democrats blew that centerpiece into a million pieces. it told the law make theart

economic impact of the raise in the minimum wage from the existing $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour amounts to a 40% add- on. 39.31% exactly. the winners would be 16.5 million workers who would welcome the hike including 900,000 who would be lifted above the poverty line. the losers would be 500,000 workers who get pink slips and the employers who must cope with their new burden by letting some workers go or canceling prospect active new hires, or canceling or modifying raises for present employees. jason furman is an obama factotum. he is chair of the white house council of economic advisors. he disputed the cbo report saying the agency relied on outdated economic research to estimate the job losses due to

a higher minimum wage. he did not dispute the aspects of the cbo's estimates that were favorable to the obama administration's minimum wage proposal. question, what impact will the cbo report have on the congressional debate over raising the minimum wage? >> i think it is going to be serious because we have a huge number of people who are not only unemployed but one of the phenomenon of last year was the number of people who left the labor force. you will be in a position here where because of gain in increasing amount of unemployment, last year we had 3.9 million people leaving the labor force compared to 1.4 million jobs. this isn't time found cut job market. >> the cbo did not do any original research to determine how many people would lose their jobs. they collateed all the research that's been done by academic institutions, think tanks, etc. we raised the minimum wage last

time when george w. bush was in office. i don't remember any big outcry over lost jobs. it was not a growing economy when bush was in office. excuse me. i have another thing to say. that is there is a moral force behind this. the gap is voluntarily raising their wages for their 65,000 employees to $10.10. i think walmart will be next. over three years this is relatively modest increase. >> you ask -- >> this argument of hers is based on discredit the messenger. the messenger is the cbo. the cbo you know and i know, whatever they put forth is practically irrefutable, carefully done. >> it's not original research. >> john, you asked what the political i am pact would be. i'll tell you what it would be. the minimum wage thing will be dead because the republicans have very powerful forces against it. now they have argument from this neutral group which says it

will cost 500,000 jobs on top of the obama report on obamacare will cost 2 million jobs. they'll say these guys are job killing liberals and that will kill it. >> and they'll be right. john, the cbo attempts to go down the middle here. 500,000 jobs lost. the other thing it points out is only about 19% of the people that would be helped by this are actually in poor households. it has a huge downside. it's poorly targeted. if juan to do something create i have to get a by par san consensus, help low income workers. don't destroy jobs at the same time. >> by keeping the had minimum wage low we're subsidizing the big employers, mcdonalds and walmarts. they encourage their people to call and find out how they can get government assistance is. >> the fist running on the economic ladder, you are

pulling that away from people in an economy where wave jobs crisis already. >> every small marginal group, their profit margins are tiny. this will dump them right out of business. >> we have raised the minimum wage for years periodically. it's less now than it would be if it had kept up with inflation. 800,000 people off the government rolls. >> let me get this in. exit question, who will win the numbers crunch credibility war, the white house or congressional budget office? >> white house can't beat the cbo anymore. >> the white house will beat the cbo and the republicans on this issue. >> are you sure? can obama do it? >> there are plenty of fact there is that support president. >> not even close. the cbo will win. >> that means there's no raise the minimum wage? >> age lot of economists will support the cbo in terms of job

losses. this is not a time when we can afford additional job losses. >> the cbo knows that. we'll be right back with predictions.

. predictions, pat. >> ukrainian protest movement will break into pieces. some of them will be unattractive to american