but i asked sperling, what can we expect if he is re-elected in the future?rly from the republicans, i think of the example of bill clinton in his second term. the republicans did not like him enough to try to impeach him, but you had the budget deal and children's health insurance and you had welfare reform. that was a far cry from their posture in the first term when they thought they could just walk all over him. >> wasn't it the filibuster, and now you need 60 votes to get anything through the senate. it's obvious that the administration has poor hill relations, that they have a very difficult time working with, the senator leadership or house leadership or both on occasion, they were never good at the inside game, they thought the persuasion of the value of his rhetoric could move them, but it was not the case. >> haven't they learned? and of course, you look at what happened on contraception and how they initially fumbled that and sort of were given a gift by the republicans, now it's a issue of women's legitimahealths just luck. they would have learned

sperling interviewed by james bennett, editor in chief of "the atlantic." this is 35 minutes. >> gene, as many of you know, has been at the center of democratic policy-making and politics for more than 20 years now. and served in the same capacity in the second term of the clinton white house. if memory serves was the key negotiator on the bipartisan balanced budget deal of '97. i think that cheryl sandberg of treasury, formerly of treasury, now of facebook -- >> she's kind of doing okay. >> once said of you, she said, i've seen heads of state cower before this man. so maybe you could tell us a couple of those stories. and "the washington post" recently referred to you as obama's jobs creator. which is actually a pretty mighty responsibility. so i thought we might as well start there. there have been signs lately of what seems like a slow and steady recoveriry think that's been the consensus view on this stage today overall. yet we remain in a very deep jobs hole. consumer debt remains very high. where do you think -- what's a realistic range for the unempl

now we have gene sperling here. and we have our editor in chief james bennett. james this morning told you a little bit about our coverage issue. i think the deals we're trying to make is gene said i'm not supposed to be on that cover. so gene sperling and james bennett. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> gene, as many of you know, has been in politics for more than 20 years now and served in the same capacity in the second term of the clinton white house, if memory serves, was the negotiator of the budget deal of '97. i think that cheryl sandberg, formally of treasury, now of facebook, said i've seen heads of state cower before this man. maybe you can tell us a couple of those stories. and "the washington post" referred to you as obama's jobs creator. which is a pretty mighty responsibility. so i thought we might as well start there. there have been signs lately of what seems like a slow and steady recovery. i think that's been the view on this stage today. yet we remain in a very deep jobs hole, consumer debt remains very high. what is a realistic range for the une

. >> we'll get a response from gene sperling.lso, congressman air schock of illinois joins us with eugene robinson. up next, the top stories of the morning. first, bill karens with a check on the forecast. bill? >> the unbelievable warmth continues today from the great lakes through new england. yesterday, can you belief it was 79 degrees in hartford, connecticut. unbelievable. very little snow left in the mountains of northern new engla england. it's unheard of for the middle of march. another day in the oven, 77 in buffalo. mid-70s everywhere. if you get enough sun, someone will have a shot at 80. we are watching rain in texas around san antonio and austin. it's raining hard around dallas. expect airport delays. chicago, today is the sixth day in a chicago. everyone is heading out to vote there. incredible stuff. all our friends on the west coast are finally starting to warm up, too. washington, d.c., 75 and sunny this afternoon. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll

. >> i spoke to one of the president's top economic advisers, gene sperling. >> the president is outoting his views on energy. gas prices have been going steadily up jumping dramatically over the course of the past month. when you meet with the president and give him economic projections through the spring and into the summer and into the fall closer to the presidential election, where do you see the price of gas say around october 30th? >> i am not going to try to make those type of predictions, john. i think people can look at the futures market and get some idea of what right now people in the market see. of course, we see gas prices at least for the next couple of months being too high. they are at $3.86 now. with this, the president is committed to, as he has said repeatedly, is all of the above strategy. obviously, part of the higher gas prices have come from a certain amount of rising premium that people feel in the world concern over iran and israel and other hotspots in the world. one very important thing to remember, john, is that this president fought very hard and would,

one of the people who's coming up is the one that has the key job now, which is jean sperling. jean was profiled in the post the other day and looking at the jobs and infrastructure proposal that they put forward, and as i dug into it, it looked like a lot of those pieces were things that you and austin goolsbee had worked on, thought about sometime earlier. my question is do you think the president is three years too late with his jobs and infrastructure proposal? would you have sequenced some of what the obama administration put forward differently? would you have done more in jobs and infrastructure on the front end and less resuscitation? >> i would like to say if i was president of the united states i would have figured this all out and would have had a sophisticated program. we haven't got that kind of a problem. what we have is the backlash. it's like a tsunami hit us in the financial system. it did a lot of damage. we've now got to recover from that. the tsunami was debt. debt in this economy relative to the size of the economy doubled, increased by 2.5 times i think. j

also remarks by white house director gene sperling. from washington, d.c., this is about two hours, thirty minutes. >>> good morning. it is a pleasure to see all of you here and i am so proud and happy to welcome you. on behalf of the entire board of america's promise alliance and more than our 400 national partners, welcome to the grad nation summit. there are attendees here from nearly all 50 states. and you've all come together. i would like to say a special word to our youth leaders who have joined us. you are the reason we are here. and you are a big part of the solution. we cannot do it without you. and before i go any further, i would like to thank the sponsors of this wonderful program, our state farm, which serves as the presenting sponsor of the grad nation campaign. our premier sponsors, at&t, target, and the bill and melinda gates foundation. our signature sponsors, apollo group, casey family programs, the corporation for public broadcasting, ford foundation, ford motor company, intel corporation, the lumina foundation, and

out this plenary section with keynote remarks, please warmly welcome from the white house, gene sperling. >> well, thank you very much. john got most of that right. it is true i went to college in minnesota, but i'm actually from ann arbor, michigan. that's my home. i am a huge michigan fan. and i'm still in my third day of mourning over the tragic loss to the university of ohio. none the less, i will pull myself up for this remarks today. i really do want to thank john bridgeland for his enormous commitment and what he's done through civic enterprises, part of the president's white house counsel for community solutions. he is a personal example that there are people in this town who are committed to get iting done as opposed to worryinging about what party party's in power and who's going to get the credit and i thank him for that. and i want to thank general powell for their profounding, chairing the alliance. it is so important this president stays. i'm inspired that today it is still a force in public policy and obviously, you actually just got to see our commitment in action and see

it's an honor to have gene sperling with us today. now we're going to move to the last two quadrants. i'm interviewing and introducing the next panel. i was just talking to laura tyson. we decided we're going to brief it up. there are a few things i want to prod dr. tyson about, and then we're going to have a bit more time for questions than we've had from some of these panels. i also want to thank our viewers. there was a lot of live programming today on cnbc, bloomberg, c-span all day. we have a lot of people watching on different blogs. i'm steve clemens, and as you can hear in my voice, i can't wait till we get to the and i w moderating this panel. the way i know laura hochberg is that she was president clinton's economic adviser and now on a key adviser on the bord of economy for jobs for president obama and i want to start with your days at brie where we read your book on basically how to manage an economy back then and you were, and i see bernard schwartz here in the front of the room, and you were not i would say, bernard schw

next, we'll hear from gene sperling, the head of president obama's national economic council. then a discussion on policies for reviving the economy with former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. and former congressional budget office director douglas holtz-eakin. after that, a look at u.s. military priorities with congressman buck mckeown, chairman of the armed services committee. and later, time warner ceo jeffrey bewkes. >> our ancestors came across the ocean in sailing ship you wouldn't go across a lake in. when they arrived there was nothing here. they built their tiny little cabins and they did it with neighbors helping one another, not federal grants. [cheers and applause] >> this is also the time to turn away from excessive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. america must be restored to her proper role in the world. but we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves. >> a year ago the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan melted down after an earthquake and tsunami hit northern japan. tomorrow the senate environment and publ

jon: well, and jenna just spoke with gene sperling from the white house who basically said this is aan budget proposal. >> i think it's a nonstarter because it cuts more than the white house would find tolerable, and it does not go far enough to raise, it doesn't raise taxes. and the white house has made, you know, made it very clear that the only way out of this is to continue spending. i mean, president obama, we saw the cbo report last week where president obama has brought, has put upon us $3.5 trillion in new debt over the next ten years, and the only way out -- they've made it very clear -- is to raise taxes to a level that, you know, that can sort of make up for all this. but even if you invoke the so-called buffett rule that would raise taxes on the wealthiest, it's a pittance. it comes up with, like, $31 billion. jon: yeah. >> there's some tough decisions, and they are going to involve cuts, and these guys are not -- with the exception of paul ryan and only of the republicans -- they're just not willing to take that on. jon: we talked about that buffett rule and what it woul

the director of the national economic council, gene sperling, will join us live, next on cnbc. ♪ >>>s&p 500 down 6 and the nasdaq down 17 at 3061. >>> caterpillar says global sales are up 27% for the three months ending in february. machine sales are up. glencore looks to acquire viterra for $6.2 billion. canada is the third largest wheat exporter. and crude falls more than 1%, pressured by the stronger dollar as well as word that saudi arabia will ship a bunch of crude to the u.s. crude trading down about 1.5%, pairing some of its losses. >> two hours into trade, let's bring in bob pisani for more on how the markets are looking. >> ian ashby from bhp billiton must be scratching his head right now thinking, my heavens, what did i do, this global earthquake i set off because i'm at a conference in perth, australia, with the iron ore executives and i said, by the way, imports into china will go into single digits this year, something everybody in that conference knew about, yet somehow is picked up on the press to indicate china is slowing down. but we knew about all of these numbers.

one of the people coming up as the one that has the key job now which is gene sperling, the economic adviser to president obama. he was profiled the other day. as i dug into it, it looked like a lot of the pieces were things that you and austan goolsbee had worked on and thought about earlier. do you think the president is three years too late with his jobs and infrastructure proposal? would you have sequenced what the obama administration put forward different light? would you put more on jobs and infrastructure on the front end? >> if i was president of united states, i would have figured this all out and would have had a sophisticated program. we have not got the kind of problem. we have the backwash. a tsunami had as in the financial system. -- kept us in the financial system. the tsunami was debt. dent in this economy relative to the size of the economy doubled. it increased by 2.5 times. over 50 or 20 years. at the end of the day, it's strangled us. for a while it financed a great boom in home building but as soon as the prices went up, we could not handle the debt. people had

jenna: gene sperling, one of the main guys that helped develop the economic policy of the president said in an interview this morning when it came to the medicare part of paul ryan's plan, he said this process risks creating an actual death spiral for basic guaranty of medicare as more people are forced out of the system and those who remain face higher and higher costs. we remember the comercial, grandma in the wheelchair gets pushed off a cliff. will we see a repeat of that? >> you better believe you are, jenna. that is one of the things make a lot of hand-wringing republicans very nervous. they don't want to face the assault of democratic ads saying republicans are trying to destroy medicare. nothing could be further from the truth by the way. the thing that destroys medicare if we don't do something about the program. it is scheduled to go bankrupt within the next 10 years. that is just around the corner because the finances of the system are so unstable, jenna. so i actually, i mean as i said, i think this is a pretty gutsy budget to say, look, we've got to get serious about these p

summers and sperling to get out on the court often to try to -- so it was a deep honor to introduce our speaker, dr. alan krueger. [applause] >> thanks jay very much for that kind and detailed introduction. kind of a walk down memory lane for me. i forgot livingston high school. i should point out the class ahead of me was jason alexander who starred in "seinfeld" and the class on the other side is chris christie, now the governor. as for tennis, i tried but did not succeed so much in getting my colleagues out to play although it was very nice to be able to take a break with people who you work with and do something athletic, or we thought it was athletic. i want to begin by commenting on the importance of business economists for us economists who work in the policy arena. compared with academic economists, which is the group i know most well, business economists are much more in tuned to current developments in the economy and puzzled about economic performance. business economists and see the economy up close from their companies were or industries perspective and they are aware of th

on gene sperling. when people say the word speculation like -- everybody is like 50 points.market right now speculators are dropping the price of the natural gas way down. and nobody is all that upset about that. i think that -- is it fwar to say you have been an oil speculator? >> i have this -- no doubt. i guess you can -- i hate that term speculation in the book i tried very hard to get away from that permanent the there isn't a better one. when you say speculation you have a certain nefarious image of snidely whiplashes. sitting in the corner. figuring out how to gain or to man up late the energy markets in order to drive it higher. if you are, in fact the owner of a pension fund or if you are the -- manager of a college endowment, chances are you have been part of the problem contributing to a higher energy prices. if you have any kind of money manager or private wealth management firm or involved with pimco you have been involved part of the problem in driving energy prices higher. in many ways, the villain that we are looking for is in the mirror. >> i think -- i wish

to close out this plenary session, please warmly welcome from the white house gene sperling. ♪ >> wellank you very much. john got most of that right. it is true i went to college in minnesota, but i am actually from ann arbor, mich. and a huge michigan's ban, i am still mourning the tragic loss to ohio. nevertheless, i will hold myself up for these remarks today. i really do want to thank john bridgeland for his commitment and what he has done through civic enterprises, part of the president's white house counsel for solutions. there are people in this town that are committed to getting this done as opposed to worrying about what party is in power and who is going to get the credit, and i thank him for that, and i want to thank the powells. for her chair in the alliance. i remember its creation. it is still a force in public policy, and obviously, you got to see our commitment in action, c and arne duncan -- seeing none arne duncan -- seeing arne duncan. i will try to make five points quick and let you move on. number one, a focus on how education and the challenge of preventing dropou

next we hear from gene sperling, assistant to the president on economic policy. his remarks are 15 minutes. >> i went to college in minnesota but i'm actually from ann arbor, michigan, that's my home. i'm a huge michigan fan and i'm still in my third day of mourning over the tragic loss to the university of ohio. nonetheless, i will pull myself up for these remarks today. i really do want to thank john bridgeland for his enormous commitment and what he's done through civic enterprises, part of the president's white house council for community conclusions. they are a personal example to the people in this town are committed to getting it done as opposed to which party is in power and who will get the credit and i thank him for that. and i thank for alma powell for her now chairing america's promised alliance. it's so important this president stays. i remember its creation. i'm inspired today that it is still a force in public policy. and you obviously got to see our commitment in action and see arne duncan and all these done. so i thank them and i thank all of you

. >> brian: as you know, sperling said yesterday your budget reform to medicare is a death spiral.ial term -- if a supreme court strikes down the mandate in june, then the actuary also say obamacare will death spiral. that's a word that the public will become familiar with this summer. if you take away that, obamacare collapses and the word the actuaries use, they're trying to use it now to blame it on us because they know the health care actuaries will use it this summer. >> steve: the democrat also throw everything but the kitchen sink at you. mr. israel also was talking about taxes. talked about -- we've heard it before, the whole fairness thing, millionaires and billionaires need to be paying more. he did say, however, he was for when the some of the bush era tax cuts are set to sunset, some of them should be left in place. >> we're saying change the tax code. make it permanent and clean out all the special -- >> steve: two brackets? >> two brackets. here is the deal, take away the tax shelter for the higher income individual so they can't shelter their income from taxation. yo

presidents and one of the people is coming up is the one that has the key job now which is gene sperlinghe national economic adviser to present on the. when i looked at the jobs and infrastructure proposals that they put forward and as i dug into it look like a lot of those pieces were things that you in austan goolsbee had worked on, thought about sometime earlier and so my question is, do you think the president is three years too late with the jobs infrastructure proposal? would you have sequence, what the obama administration put forward differently? would you have done more on jobs and infrastructure in the front and? >> i have to say with all respect to the united states i would have had a sophisticated program. we haven't got that kind of a problem. what we have is the back wash like a tsunami hit us in the financial system. i did a lot of damage. we now have to recover from that. this tsunami was was dead or good dead in this economy relative to the size of the economy doubled and increase in increase by two and a half times they think. relative to the size of economy over a 15 o

speakers in a cluedrne duncan and gene sperling.bout two hours and 30 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome -- michael powell. [applause] >> good morning. it is such a pleasure to see all of you here, and i am happy to welcome all of you. on behalf of our more than 400 and national partners, welcome to the summit. we are happy you have come here from all parts of the country. you all come together to help solve the most urgent problems of our time. i would like to say a special word to our youth leaders. you are the reasons we are here, and you are a big part of the solution. and we could not do it without you. i would like to thank our partners who made this possible, state farm, and our premier sponsors of the grand nation summit, at&t, target, and the bill and melinda gates foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, ford motor co., intel, lumina foundation, and the telecommunications association. i would like to thank nbc. they continue to do a wonderful job with education nation. and we are so pleased to wor

now, white house national economic director gene sperling. from the park hotel in d.c., this is about 59 cents. >> john got most of that right. is true i went to college in minnesota. i am actually from ann arbor, mich.. that is my home. i am a huge michigan fan. i am might -- i am in my third day of mourning. nevertheless, i will pull myself up for these remarks today. i do want to thank john for his enormous commitment and what he has done to civic enterprise as part of the white house counsel for community solutions. he is an example that there are people in this town that are committed to getting things done as opposed to worrying about what party is in power and who will get the credit. and obviously, general powell of fort sharing the americas non-- profit alliance. i am inspired today. it is still a force in public policy. obviously, you just got to see our commitment in action with arne duncan and all he has done. i thank them. i think all of you. let me -- you are going to hear from a lot of people. i am going to make five points and