who was the chief proponent of the eitc in the congress?maine republican senator olympia snowe. are they going to extend it? the point 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 t

if that's something that could help a bit and you layer in vocational training and you layer in eitc do you what i think michael is interested in doing which is focusing on the bottom 1% in way that is increase opportunity to those -- to that class of people then i think that's -- >> gentlemen, maybe i'm misunderstanding, but correct me if i'm wrong on this, i thought the earned income tax credit which everybody seems to agree is a very helpful tool is a refundable tax credit which means money goes out through it. if you expand it that money, if you're going to maintain the budget the way it is has to come from somewhere. where does it come from? >> i tell you one place, we spend a lot of money on rich people through the mortgage interest deduction and state and local interest deduction. if we take some of that money and we pump that into a more generous eitc, we're taking money from wealthy people and giving it to poorer people we're making the tax code more efficient by broadening the base. >> you know it's the third rail to do anything to the deduction on mortgages. is the tide sh

eitc gives workers a boost without hurting their prospects. yeah i.t. see increases employment among low skilled workers. ite the universal credit, gives families credit. it helps them take ownership of their lives. there is certainly room for improvement. just last week my friend senator marco rubio propose that workers get assistance once a month instead of once a year so it's easier for them to plan ahead. that is an idea in my opinion it makes a lot of sense. but whatever form it takes place, we have to encourage work. there should be standards. concept.a novel in 1996, congress began to require people on welfare to work. and welfare rolls dropped dramatically. child poverty fell by double digits. the problem is, we have not applied this sensible far enough. we need to do more. man whoikes to say, a is involved at that moment, what works his work. way we to change the think about work. it is not a penalty. it is the shortest, surest route back into society. if you are working, you are meeting people. you are learning new skills. you are contributing

now, once we added in the government programs, things like eitc, s.n.a.p., and we found that we'd actually done a lot to reduce poverty, so poverty over the last 50 years had fallen by nearly 40%. >> betsey, i think the big question, today, is that people are saying this is not the job of big government. you know, government shouldn't play a role. what do you think the president, because he's talking a lot about income inequality and economic mobility. what can he do today that would bring government to the right place, that would enlist business and individuals, themselves? >> well, that's obviously an important part of the things that we want to do to fight poverty. you know, the first stop on that is to raise the minimum wage, if you're working full time, full year, you can lift your family out of poverty. that's why the president endorsed raising the minimum wage. he's also endorsed pushing people to get more education, get more skills and asking businesses to do more to make sure there are rungs on the ladder for employees to climb, get the skills at work, learning more, getting the p

and yes, some things like the eitc that support people in the workforce. >> brown: angela blackwell, dow want to come back in. >> i agree with everything that was just said. and we need to focus on this problem of inequality. we have had growth in america. it only benefits one part of the population, we need to really focus on how to grow good jobs, increase the minimum wage, bring greater voice to workers. we need stronger unions. and we need to dot thins that glen just talked about in terms of preparing young people for 21st century work, for the economy of the 2 1s century. and let's not forget that the shifting demographics and people of color quickly becoming the majority in this country, we need to remove racial barriers, make sure people who have been incarcerate kd get work. we need to deal with low income communities that are holding people back. so many people are poor because they live in communities that aren't connecting them to work and opportunity. we need a big agenda that actually focuses on building an economy for the 21st century that includes everybody. >> let me

so things like food stamps, eitc which evolved through -- >> earned income tax credit. >> have done quite a bit to actually reduce the level of poverty. i want to distinguish between things like poverty and old age, social security, you are talking about 60% rates before the war on poverty, now it's down to 10%. so there are real substantial victories. a lot of things people found problematic, things like community action, like aid to family and children, what we call welfare, has largely disappeared or been wound down or been removed to the states. the core stuff that remains is a really efficient way to deliver money to poor people to keep their standards of living up. >> you think, mike, you think democrats should take a victory lap around newark, new jersey? >> well, i mean, i actually do think that there are things here -- >> enough? >> things like earned income tax credit, like food stamps, are doing quite a bit to help people. i think that should be acknowledged and embraced. ultimately we want to see things like better job growth, better growth overall, we want to see things like

let's listen to what the president had to say about expanding the eitc. >> there are other steps we can take, and few more effective at reducing inequality and helping families to pull themselves up through hard work than the earned income tax credit. right now, it helps about half of all parents at some point. think about that. it helps about half of all parents in america at some point in their lives. i agree with republicans like senator rubio, it doesn't do enough for single workers who don't have kids. so let's work together to strengthen the credit, reward work, help more americans get ahead. >> what would strengthening the earned income tax credit look like? and this is an idea that republicans could potentially get onboard with? >> well, back in the 1970s when this program was being started, it was one that conservatives were onboard with. and you see support for ideas like this in conservative think tanks. even on the extreme end, charles murray at the american enterprise institute that advocates a lot of ideas that liberals don't like at all supports a basic income, which is a

the minimum wage make some more expensive for employers to hire low-skilled workers at the eitc on the other hand gives workers a boost without hurting their prospects. many in congress have found the eitc increases employment among low-skilled workers and like a universal credit it gives families more flexibility. it helps them take ownership of their lives. now there's certainly room for improvement. just last week my friend senator marco rubio proposed work is good assistance once a month instead of once a year so it's easier for them to plan ahead. that's an idea in my opinion that makes a lot of sense but whatever form assistance takes place, we have to encourage work in other words, there should be standards. it's not a novel concept. in 1996 congress began to require people on welfare to work and welfare rolls, they dropped dramatically. child poverty fell by double digits. the problem is we have not applied this principle far enough. we need to do more. as ron likes to say what works is work and we need to change the way we think about work. it is not a penalty. it is the short

there's a set of parameters for the child list eitc in terms of where the plateau starts and what the phase-out is. there are different parameters that characterize it. you can change any one of those without a more thorough review of the tax code. but i certainly think when we get to the tax reform i look at tax reform and judge the success more by what it does for the middle class and people looking hard to get into the middle class. and that is precisely when you're looking at the tax code the first place in terms of the lowest hanging fruit not just achieving an objective in terms of fairness. but enormous amount of evidence and what this does for economic efficiency to the labour force. >> they see this as an alternative to -- can you foresee this strategy where you could have some trading over with the minimum wage would be exchanged for. >> i don't foresee that. i think it is not either or but you are going to see the president vigorously pushing the minimum wage in exchange for something like this. >> i guess we have to wait and see what congress -- is their something they had

eitc, they're together on education they're together on, strikes me if we focused on the areas whereeement something could -- >> the theagreement on growth. >> right. >> thank you. >>> much more from our guest host when we come back, dick parsons. he's our guest host and the former citi chairman. >>> and in the next hour, where is the world is mark mobius? we'll ask him what argentina and other countries want to hear from the fed. >>> first, martin marietta materials is buying texas industries for $1.2 billion in stock. shares up on the news. more about this. "squawk box" will be right back. i always say be the man with the plan but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact

eitc gives workers a boost without hurting their prospects. yeah i.t. see increases employment among low skilled workers. ite the universal credit, gives families credit. it helps them take ownership of their lives. there is certainly room for improvement. just last week my friend senator marco rubio propose that workers get assistance once a month instead of once a year so it's easier for them to plan ahead. that is an idea in my opinion it makes a lot of sense. but whatever form it takes place, we have to encourage work. there should be standards. concept.a novel in 1996, congress began to require people on welfare to work. and welfare rolls dropped dramatically. child poverty fell by double digits. the problem is, we have not applied this sensible far enough. we need to do more. man whoikes to say, a is involved at that moment, what works his work. way we to change the think about work. it is not a penalty. it is the shortest, surest route back into society. if you are working, you are meeting people. you are learning new skills. you are contributing

but the way to get at that is through strengthening the eitc and direct supports for work.y by the prices consumers pay. that seems like a crazy way to do a social policy. >> back to the unemployment, though, i mean, couldn't you do both? couldn't you pay for the unemployment while you're doing this? isn't job creation efforts, isn't that something that should have been taking place the whole time? >> yes, for years. >> not instead of but maybe the two together. >> for example, you could imagine actually rethinking our labor market policies, really having things that target in a more personal way how to get people reemployed and really supporting skill development. one thing republicans could do is advocate for that kind of policy in tandem with extension if that's going to happen. but i think both sides are just whistling past the graveyard that jobs are not being created fast enough. >> were you watching peter talk about medicare? he says the overall slowdown in health care spending, which is a real thing that began in 2005, i guess. he says that you can argue that that w