michelle bernard and public policy is back with us at the table now. the one and only, one of the finest writers you can find on the internet and michael bell is rejoining us. he's been here before, principal at visible weather architecture. gentlemen, great to have you here. >> thank you. >> the thing i find fascinating about the process of what we call, i think we should get into what that looks like and the complexities of it because you've written some interesting stuff about how we oversimplify it. you know, the question to me is, if you look at what are diverse neighborhoods, oft aen diverse neighborhoods are neighborhoods that simply are in the process of changing. so, in the, you know, the bronx, in the neighborhood of the bronx my mom grew up in, that was a diverse neighborhood in a period because a tremendous amount of white flight and imigration and neighborhood in brooklyn now are diverse because white folks are moving in and in many case displacing black and latino residents. is there a stabilization? can we produce a system, can we produc

. >> michelle bernard speaking.stion for you, what has been the response of democrats in the state of wisconsin when people i think rightfully ask the question which is what's wrong with asking public employees to contribute to their health care, to contribute to their vision coverage, to contribute to their dental coverage, so that state budget deficit can be reduced? >> i think there's been two responses. first, state employees and remember, this is not just about state employees, it's also about county and municipal employees, everybody who is in a public-sector job, teacher, nurse, snowplow driver. the first response is that the unions have taken concessions over many, many years. taken furlough days, cooperating in all kinds of efforts to balance budgets. remember, wisconsin has a balanced budget law, we cannot have an unbalanced budget. and so for the last more than 50 years, we've had public-sector collective bargaining, in hard times and good, recessions and upturns and the budget has always balanced. >> in

joining me now is the funder and president of the bernard center, michelle bernard.is what romney would normally take in on a given day. is this some kind of proof for republicans? >> it's an astounding figure if you figure that the ruling was just issued yesterday. it's an enormous sum of money. i think it's a galvanizing force for many republicans who see thisç as a way to defeat the president. not so much talking about the individual mandate but the language that will be used accusing the president of imposing a tax on all americans for the sake of making sure that americans have health care coverage. >> chris, are you surprised by the number? >> it's a pretty significant number but in terms of galvanizing the base, at the end of the day, the republicans were going to come home and vote for mitt romney. i'm not so sure that that is a surprise. i think it depends on how independents look at it. if democrats, in particular, continue to make the argument about the positives in terms of pre-existing conditions, in terms of expanding coverage, et cetera, et cetera, i

michelle bernard of the center for women, politics and public policy.gressional reporter for politico. welcome, all. interesting day on the marco rubio front yesterday. we wake up, jon karl, our colleague on the hill, says he's not being vetted. a little dismay from donors. and then about the time the night falls, he is being vetted! what happened, michelle? >> let's say that was a big oops moment yesterday. i mean, most -- i would say most of the american public probably was absolutely stunned to arhea the statement he was not being vetted, made no sense whatsoever, he's well-liked, personal, given the republican party's image problem with the hispanic community at this point in time, you had to scratch your head and say, why wouldn't you consider marco rubio? and i think mitt romney woke up by the end of the day, and said, man, we've created a huge problem here. >> and on the hill, jake, rubio has got a lot of popularity. that's right. and you saw rubio's supporters come out and say why isn't he being vetted, this is a mistake. now if romney doesn't c