chris kofinis, you take this emanuel guy, put him in moth balls, buddy. mike slater, great to see you. and dr. scott gottlieb, as always, terrific stuff. >>> now, we're getting close to a budget deal in washington without a government shutdown. but a very senior republican house source tells me the budget cutting sequester levels don't have enough republican votes in the house. that's why a deal is going to have to be made. many more details for you on the budget deal next up. >>> speaking of washington, remember, "the kudlow report" is going to be live from the nation's capital tomorrow night. we're going to talk to house majority leader eric cantor about his vision for the gop and we also have a once-in-a-lifetime event. former fed chairman alan greenspan has agreed to a debate face to face with undersecretary of the treasury john taylor. the topic? who is really responsible for the great bubble that eventually burst in 2008? this is the first time mr. greenspan and mr. taylor have agreed to bring their longstanding difference of opinion to a real face-

chris co-fi chris kofinis and dr. scott gottlieb. >>> our free market friday panel is about to join us. later on the show, we introduced you last evening to jim hoft, a political writer who suddenly learned that he has a life-threatening disease and has lost his insurance plan because of obamacare. we had a huge response to this story. we're going to talk about what it means later on in the show. for heaven's sake, don't forget free market capitalism. it's the best path to health insurance. look how screwed this up. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. report." i'm seema mody. police say an armed shoot

. >>> joining me is chris kofinis, and kristan hawkins. on the bush-cheney re-election campaign. chris, let's start with you, you heard the points that palin and jindal just made. robertson just stating his opinion as a religious conservative. how would you break this down? how do you respond? >> well, there's a big distinction here. listen, you have the right in this country to say, unfortunately, hateful and offensive things. that is constitutionally protected right. you do not have a right to a tv show and you do not have a right to be paid for those views. i think that's part of the distinction here. that being said, when you have these conservatives like sarah palin and others coming out to defend it, they're obviously playing to their far right base. i think the part that, again, they seem to misunderstand is the country has moved in a more progressive direction on these issues, whether it's on gay marriage or choice or immigration and republicans keep fighting the last war. every time they do it, all they do is alienating the very v