plus we're going to welcome former senator bob kerrey.om fiscal reform to geopolitical fears when "squawk box" returns. the cadillac summer collection is here. ♪ ♪ during the cadillac summer's best event, lease this all new 2014 cts for around $459 a month or purchase with 0% apr and make this the summer of style. and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive and they're them. -yes. -but they're here. -yes. -are you... -there? -yes. -no. -are you them? i'm me. but the lowest rate is from them. -yes. -so them's best rate is... here. so where are them? -aren't them here? -i already asked you that. -when? -feels like a while ago. want to take it from the top? rates for us and them. now that's progressive. call or click today. >>> welcome back to "squawk box." dow 17,000 is now a reality. and new highs are being set every day. is there still value out there? let the bargain hunting begin. six years ago legendary oil tycoon boone pickens rolled out his plan for energy independence. so how close is the nation to achieving this

. >> we ha bob kerrey on yesterday and you should listen -- i said to him, he's so close to being fiscallyat you know he's from nebraska. so that's one thing. the other thing i told you, your top five states all went for romney. every one of them. >> what does that -- >> my point is that -- >> two years ago. >> and in 2008 one of your states went for obama, north carolina. by 0.3%. >> okay. >> well that was my only -- >> and you can't -- >> and the top ten we've got minnesota. >> can't give the governors credit for the fact that harvard is in massachusetts and stanford is in california. education is sort of a funny thing. i look at mass education. i look at the graduation rates from high school which is probably not what you do. >> let me tell you what we look at in education. we look at across the board the number of higher education institutions. we look at test scores. we look across the board, test scores so performance k-12. we do look at spending. class size. things like that. so we try and take a very broad approach. so if you're a company that wants to go to a state where you can p

bob, thank you very much. >>> secretary of state, john kerrey, remains in the middle east this morning, trying to work out details after cease-fire between israel and main the more. >>> palestinians clash with israeli soldiers in the west bank this morning. after thousands gathered for a demonstration to protest the violence in gaza. overnight, israeli forces continued to bombard the strip following the deadliest day yet in more than two weeks of fighting. yesterday, at least 119 palestinians died, more than dozen of them at a gaza school being used as united nations shelter. most were children, and women, taking refuge thereto escape the violence. un officials had feared palestinians there were in danger and were about to evacuate the school when the building was hit by shells. >> why are you continuing to kill people? >> the un secretary general and secretary of state, john kerrey, are in the mideast to try to broke area cease-fire. >> tragic incident today and every day, just underscores the work we're trying to do and what we're trying to achieve. so we'll keep at that time. >> according to israeli media, neg