we'll ask olympia snow, she is next.t we're told about immigration reform, his big state of the union address, a big theme, republicans and democrats must seize the moment to fix it now or kiss the opportunity good-bye forever. but seeeng how divisive the issues have become. tea partiers,. does grand old party proceed on this issue to its grand old detriment, limbia snow , limp olympia snow? >> i think that democrats would like to make hey on this issue with regards to republicans. testimony is important -- it is important for republicans to address this issue. i think it is in the mutual interest of bothides to grapple with this issue, once and fore all, it is not going to go away, there is division within the republican party to besure. it in a you be prove to be a path forward in working through a consensus with the president with the democrats. neil: what if it is a path forward, 80 something odd tea party congressmen want no party of, and sene message any attempt is a blanket amnesty, they will have no part of it. >

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always good to see you, senator olympia snowe. thanks for being with us. more on the state of the union in a moment. stay with us. i have the flu, i took medicine but i still have symptoms. [ sneeze ] [ male announcer ] truth is not all flu products treat all your symptoms. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus severe cold and flu speeds relief to these eight symptoms. [ breath of relief ] thanks. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. ready? go. this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. she'd just grab the bounty select-a-size. one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with bounty select-a-size. >>> and the president's speech last night had a lot of memorable moments. so how did he do according to the experts? joining me now, two professionals, both former white house speech

susan collins, christy -- olympia snowe. >> you naming one bill on abortion that democrats have proposedevery bill on abortion is coming out of the republican party. >> because you're scared to death to say fetal pain. you're scare to death to say that -- >> republican party is scared to death of this issue. >> we're talking about governor huckabee said to governor cuomo, a sitting governor told 45% of his state you're not welcome here. >> can we move on from that because be have some other ground to carry. republicans don't want to just talk about abortion. i'll prove it right now. democrats most reliable voting blocker, one of them has typically been millennials and now they are going to be the biggest generation in history and they are leaving obama for the center. they are not impressed with big government. nair not into obama care. they're not into the nsa spying program. shouldn't democrats be worried about bleeding this very important voting bloc, and what are they going to do about it? >> it's exaggeration to say that millennials are desserting obama. they polls on this show with

republicans and democrats in the list goes on and maybe the last one to leave because of frustration was olympia snowe. so you have this large number of people, most of whom could have been reelected forever who left in disgust because they couldn't get anything done. i think that is the new phenomenon over the last couple of decades that is especially worrying. now the other theme though in this book and i think this is an important point to make, despite my frustrations and even my anger at the congress, the reality is i got a lot of things done with the congress. most of my predecessors, it you are lucky, could get two or three or four big military procurement programs canceled that were over cost, overdue are no longer relevant. i cut nearly three dozen and ended up getting congressional approval or acquiescence in all of them. i cut almost 200 lien dollars out of the pentagon's overhead, and even eliminated a combatant command. i got the congress to support me on that. partly it was because i had an enormously strong supporter president obama and a veto threat behind me but it was also working ac

i want to say a few things to you, as well as your collie, former senator olympia snowe, or some wording our program. daschle introduced us to the folks at the policy center when we had this idea for this academic seminar. thank you for your leadership there and thank you for your friendship. thank you very much. [app >> the unemployment sale. , sheew head of bureau spoke about the report during the meeting of the joint economic committee. here is a look. >> thank you, commissioner. the unemployment rate fell. would you describe it as an encouraging sign of a sustainable recovery? >> this is 1 -- one among a number. -- one month number. most of the change in the unemployment rate, two thirds of it probably was due to follow and labor force participation. >> people giving up on the market? >> the interesting thing is it looked like most of the slow was from employment rather than from unemployment. speaking, it is not as robust a sign. it came from creation of a lot of jobs. >> do you think that drop had a troubling indicator or concerning indicator? --well, i guess it depends on the ques

even by moderate republicans like olympia snow. >> but it goes way yebeyond tha. this is his political and ideological self righteousness, he says in the interview, this is pragmatic, all he wants to do is help the folks. and of course, anybody who is on the other side. anybody who sees say the biggest stimulus in american history or the takeover of the u.s. economy with a scheme that is completely irrational and collapsing around him, anybody who says this is not working can only either be working against the national interest or being suspicious of him without any reason. he simply can't accept the fact or at least in public he has not accepted the fact that one can actually have a view that contradicts his, that is in good faith, that is patriotic, and that also seeks the good of the country. so if you think as he does that there is no way to oppose him and be honestly patriotic and sympathetic to the american people, then of course you have to attribute all of these evil motives to the other side who are preventing the people from receiving the message. and i

i want to say and publicly thank you, as well as your colleague, former senator olympia snowe, for supporting our program. it was senator daschle who folks atd us to the the bipartisan policy center when we had the idea for this academic seminar and they have been such a wonderful partner and thank you for your leadership and thank you for your friendship to the washington center area thank you very much. [applause] senator kirsten gillibrand talks about her proposal to help families. is paul ryan -- she will be followed by her representative paul ryan. >> with government funding expiring on wednesday. rayhalltative neck talks about a chemical leak in his state of west virginia. doctors are needed to implement the health care law? your e-mails, phone calls and tweets on "washington journal." >> as a president first stated in march and reemphasize tuesday night, the goal in afghanistan and pakistan was to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda and its extremist allies. return to both countries. the international military effort to stabilize afghanistan is necessary to achieve this overarching

former maine republican senator olympia snowe. are they going to extend it?nt here is he was clear on every single one of those issues, every one of them. he had policy proposals for every single one of those issues. six more high-tech manufacturing hubs across the country. >> was the speech too wide ranging? did he focus on too much? >> i don't think so. you have a lot of people today saying this was a very modest speech, but if you look at -- well, one, the frame. the frame is a year of action. and that's a good contrast with republicans in the house who have literally shut down the government. so that's a clear contrast. it's not just about a laundry list of proposals. and also, if we're able to get some movement on some of the things we talked about, that we talked about last night, whether it's immigration or infrastructure or preschool, income inequality, women's equality, those are some major -- >> in fact, it was passed this morning. it was a populous speech without sounding too progressive. >> it was interesting. i saw the speech as kind of an invita

designed to elicit republican votes but did not because of polarization in the senate chasing olympia snowe's vote. does that change? let's not dispute that. regardless of whether the and easy as him is because some feel they did not go far enough, does it change thedoes basic dynamic? republicans are going to go through freezing rain on obamacare.y against the data today would suggest even some liberal democrats are less passionate. you guys are dealing in the realities of what we have now to persuade voters. you are not going to see lower democratic enthusiasm from 2010 where you had a record share of the electorate that self identified as conservative. you also have continuing demographic changes that lead to an electorate where, even if it looks more like 2010 than it does 2012, still does not look as bad as 2010. in a state like florida, the number of new hispanics since 2006 is higher than the number of jewish voters. if you look at nevada in 2010 where harry reid got elected, the percentage of hispanic voters was as high as it was in 2008. even if you have an electorate more conservati

i want to say a few things to you, as well as your collie, former senator olympia snowe, or some wording our program. daschle introduced us to the folks at the policy center when we had this idea for this academic seminar. thank you for your leadership there and thank you for your friendship. thank you very much. [applause] >> the bureau of labor statistics released the december 2013 jobs report today. the unemployment rate fell to 6.7%. the economy added 74,000 jobs. the new head of the bureau of labor statistics spoke about the report during today's meeting at the joint economic committee. here is a look. >> thank you commissioner. as you know, the unemployment rate fell pretty dramatically. would you describe this as an encouraging sign of a sustainable recovery? number,month's of course you do not want to hang too much on one particular number. most of the change in the due toyment rate was falling labor force participation. >> people simply giving up on the market and the workforce? >> the interesting thing is that when we looked at it, it look like most of these flows in nonpartici

i want to say publicly thank you as well as your colleague, the former senator olympia snowe, for supporting the program and was senator daschle that introduced us to the folks at the bipartisan policy center when we had the idea for this academic seminar and they've been a wonderful partner. thank you for your leadership there and your friendship. [applause] with that we will go ahead and move into some closing business as we wrap up the seminar but let's go ahead and take a two minute break really quick. >>> it's disappointing to all loveless to see the deterioration of the security inside iraq. i spent a lot of my life over there. from 2006 into september, 2010, i was their house we continued to reduce the level of violence in the sectarian violence that has been going on. i believe we left it in a place that was capable to move forward. we've now seen at because several political issues internal to iraq, that security situation has found evolved into something that is in my mind concerning. but this is not just about iraq. in my mind it is something we've to be cognizant of what's going

the republicans have -- what is interesting is that olympia snowe in maine, susan collins, maine, both moderate, mainstream republicans, or george rate image from ohio, leaving the senate, when they told the line, it was amazing, they often did not agree with the policies but they were convinced that they had to show party loyalty. the parties of their have become almost tribal in their differences and the chasm that divides them. it is very difficult to get legislation through. there are so many different wickets to get through. bob dole was talking about -- if he knows he can control the wicket, i am the majority leader in the senate, we can get business done. bob dole was a very pragmatic, very effective senate leader. host: baton rouge, louisiana, robert. caller: i had a question for mr. smith. how will government policy be changed with big money from both parties? will it take more supreme court appointments to overturn citizens united and the money to speech decisions? another quick comment, that's scary statistic that the top 400 people in the world have more than the bottom bil

to elicit republican votes, didn't because of polarization in the senate, spent a year chasing olympia snowe's vote and then were accused of ramming the law down everyone's throats anyway. >> i know dan would dispute it but let's not dispute that. does that change, regardless of whether the democratic enthusiasm has dipped to do some people felt the law didn't go far enough, does it not -- how does that still change the basic dynamic of switches, republicans are going to go through freezing rain on election day or anything on election day to send the message against obamacare. at least the data today, granted, would suggest even some liberal democrats who think it didn't go far enough are less passionate. you guys are getting in the realities of what we have now to persuade voters. >> you are not going to see lower democratic enthusiasm than you did in 2010 which is the year were you at the wreckage of of the electorate self-identified as conservative. i think that you've also got continuing demographic changes that lead to an electorate where, even if it looked more like 2010 than it does lik

olympia snowe had a great piece in there, john mccain had a great piece in there, judd gregg had a great piece, john warner had a great piece in there and others. and it was -- it made me so proud. and at that hearing, we had all these experts talk about the fact that over time, temperatures would go up, but inbetween -- as you say, it's not a matter of the weather that day, it's the pattern over time, what happens over time. you have these extremes. but over time, the warmth kicks in. and we see it happening. the american people are smart and they get it. and we're just not going to let up. and as calm as we sound now, that belies what we feel inside and the obligation that we feel to act. and so i guess this is as good a time as any to tell the american people they'll see more of us and more colleagues will work on this. i want to thank senator reid because senator reid has elevated this issue in our caucus and is devoting more time to this issue. he cares about this. he's -- he's a wonderful family man with a lot of grandchildren and -- and he wants to give them what so many of us hav

we spent a year chasing olympia snowe's vote and then were accused of ramming the law down people's throats anyway. >> but does that change -- let's not dispute that, although i know dan would dispute that. does that change regardless of whether the democratic enthusiasm dipped because some people felt the law didn't go far enough, does it not -- how does that still change the basic dynamic which is republicans are going to go through freezing rain on election day or anything on election day to send a message against obamacare, and at least the data today, granted, would suggest even some liberal democrats who think it didn't go far enough are less passion mate? where right. >> because you guys are dealing in the reality of what we have now to persuade voters. >> you're not going to see lower democratic enthuse yam than you did in -- enthusiasm than you did in 2010. i think that you've also got continuing demographic changes that lead to an electorate where even if it looks more like 2010 than it does like 2012, still doesn't look as bad as 2010. in a state like florida, for example, the nu

credit that apparently the coke brothers got $2 billion per year but the aca took it away and olympia snower credittwice that or subsidies for the oil companies. you cananted to know if expand or tell us as much as you know about the black liquor tax credit that the oil companies get and how much do we actually get? at the end of the day, at the end of the year, are we in a deficit? -$5 billion because after subsidies they get that much? is a very good question. the amount of revenue that the government collects is not restricted to the 10 billion a gets through royalties, but, and rents. in addition, they take corporate taxes in the united states. on the profits they will pay the corporate profit tax. we have not done work to look at oil and gas industry records to see exactly how much revenue they do pay. in addition, you raise the issue of tax cut its. the oil and gas industry do get tax credits, as do many industries. when the department of interior is considering how much to collect, they have to consider all of those issues. and how much is net is being collected and oil and gas. host