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we protected the taxpayer from that. >> thank you very much, john harwood. thank you, savannah guthrie at white house. >>> the late-night comics go after goldman sachs and on "hardball" "sideshow" you're going to hear all the jokes. row to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. in what? imported ice? yeah! i mean, people love imported water. so this is the next logical step. i think i'll stick with following my green line. oh, come on! hey, working with my guy at fidelity could have me retiring in a few years. and besides, couldn't people just freeze their imported water? don't be ridiculous. work with the company that's helping more people reach retirement than anyone else -- because when it comes to investing, you should never settle. fidelity investments. take things as they come? i've got an idea. or improvise? maxwell house custom-roasts each bean... for a full-flavored cup of coffee. so you can be

we protected the fraip that. >> thank you very much, john harwood. thank you savannah guthrie at white house. >>> the late-night comics go after goldman sachs and on "hardball," you'll hear all of the jokes. from the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. absolutely! i have a lot of stuffiness at night. it wakes me up. i have allergies. ♪ you're right. i'm getting more air. -oh, yeah. -oh, wow! [ female announcer ] for two free samples, go to breatheright.com. i was just in town for a few days and i was wondering if i could say hi to the doctor. - is he in? - he's in copenhagen. - oh, well, that's nice. - but you can still see him. - you just said he was in-- - copenhagen. - come on. - that's pretty far. - doc, look who's

we'll talk to cnbc's steve leaseman and john harwood and congressman elijah cummins of the joint economic committee. >>> meanwhile, across town in new york, the vice president with the ladies on "the view." >> do you have any power? i mean, what do you do every day? >> well, it depends on whether you talk to dick cheney. >> right. >> and 40 years later, happy earth day. but just what progress are we celebrating? from the white house, carol browner and activist and actor sam waterston. i'm andrea mitchell reporting from washington. the president just blocks from the new york stock exchange warns that changes are coming whether or not wall street is on board. john harwood is cnbc's chief washington correspondent and is on location there, and cnbc's steve leaseman both joining us. first to you, john. the speech, your impression of it. was he tough on wall street, not tough enough? what do you think of the political tone that came out of the speech today? >> i think the tone, and rhea, reflected the evolution of the political debate in washington. you know, when the president gave his weekly

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john harwood joins us tonight from the white house.epublicans say they're going to try to block a reform measure. is there a chance, though, of salvaging a bipartisan deal? >> reporter: there will be a deal at the end. they're close, as richard shelby told david gregory on "meet the press" this morning, but it's probably not going to occur tomorrow and democrats don't mind that at all. democrats are enjoying this fight, they think they're winning it, they're not easy to close the deal with concessions and if the headlines on tuesday morning say that republicans block consideration of wall street reform, that's not a problem from the standpoint of the democratic leaders. >> republicans said they were hung up on this $50 billion resolution fund. it's something the banks would pay in themselves to cover the cost of closing a failed institution, but they see it, though, as a de facto bailout, don't they? >> reporter: they do. and they have an argument on narrow grounds. the republicans and the treasury department in the past have viewed th

covering the week, john harwood of crime scene crime scene and "the new york times," janet hook of "the los angeles times," david shepardson of the detroit news and jeanne cummings of politico. >> this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. produced in association with washington journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> funding for "washington week" is also provided by exxonmobil, constellation energy, the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. another reform bill, another round of closed-door negotiations, another furious flurry of lobbying and another partisan drama. it stars president barack obama and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. president obama went to new york thursday to claim the stage in the financial regulatory reform debate, but the day before he sat down with john harwood. >> some of the institutions and their lobbyists don't seem to think it would be so good for the

john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times." kind of conflicting headlines.ll street journal" says ceo pay falls again and "the washington post" saying they're not learning the fundamental lesson. >> wall street, of course, the paper of wall street. >> the post is trying to say they haven't learned the lesson the obama administration was hoping they would learn, which is bay-pay on long-term performance, not short-term g e gain. >> what the administration is trying to do is shift the incentives, give shareholders a greater say and not have circumstances where people are rewarded for taking huge leverage and risk in the short term that might pay off in one quarter what caused big problems for the economy in the long run. and, look, people on wall street go to wall street for a reason -- they care about money. they want to make money. they're going to try to get around these things if they can. it's sort of like people get eternally surprised that journalists have a certain set of interests or people going into any sort of field have a certain set of interests.

cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood has the full report. hello, john. >> well, larry, president obama offend a, spent most of the day in bilateral meetings with world leaders, the most important with the president hu jintao of china. -- again iran which has the nuclear program. the most important concrete achievement today was an achieve by utrain to send its highly enriched uranium to the united states for reprocessing. >> the announcement we've made today is what we've been hoping to be able to say. i think the president believes that the commitment that ukraine, chile and other countries have made as a result of these efforts is something that will make the world demonstrably more secure. >> what important, the agreement with the ukraine is the success of this meeting will hinge on the outcome of those talks involves china, russia, and a separate commit issue with china, that is the value of the currency. the readout ways also positive, but said that -- on an equal footing. i think that's code for china being willing to adjust the value

so, john harwood joins us from washington with more on the resignation and a potential impact on business hello, john. >> hey, larry. the question is how much will the president get to reshape the court with this pick. justice stevens, who was appointed by republican president gerald ford turned out to be one of those staunch liberals on the court. people on the left of center part of the political spectrum love him, but the likelihood is that his replacement will not change the makeup of the court not all that much because it will be a liberal for liberal trade whether you're talking about elenaicationen who is the u.s. solicitor general or diane wood or garland. all of those would be justices to replace stevens. i think the real impact on business, larry, could come from the political oxygen that is taken up by the fight to replace justice stevens on the court this summer. that could be the death now for comprehensive energy and climate legislation that cap and trade, you and i discussed many times, that has been a long shot. that long shot got even longer. i was just talking a few minu

president obama spoke with john harwood.ohn joins us now from washington wash with the lee tails and key clips. >> reporter: i talked about all the issues surrounding financial regulation with president obama at the white house this afternoon. but one issue really stands out over the last few days, and that's the question about goldman sachs and the s.e.c.'s case against goldman sachs. some have raised the question about politics. mary schapiro, appointed by president obama, put out a statement saying they acted without regard to politics. let the chips fall where they made. i asked the president if there was something fishy about the

. >> cnbc washington correspondent john harwood at the white house.ocrats really want to risk another big fight with republicans? >> reporter: there's some benefits for a fight. base voters are already fired up about this election. at the end of the day the president wants to win this nomination. the key question on a filibuster, contessa, is whether republicans would have the strength to sustain one. she couldn't against sonia sotomayer. they only had 30 some votes against her and they need 40. candidates they talked about, people it would be difficult to hang all 41 senators together to try to stop it. >> john harwood from the white house. i know you're staying on top of this. i appreciate that. >> today president obama convenes leaders in washington since the conference that joined the united nations in 1945. the nuclear security summit opens with leaders from 46 countries. the two-day conference is the first to focus exclusively on the threat of unsecured nuclear material, which president obama says must be a top priority. >> the single biggest th

cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood is working on the story. john? >> well, president obama has a decision to make, maria, about picking a new supreme court justice now that john paul stevens a 34-member of the court and leader of the liberal bloc has decided to retire. the president addressed the issue when he came back from the trip from europe to sign a new arms treaty with the russians and said just like with the nomination of sonia sotomayor last time, he will first place the interests of average americans. >> while we cannot replace justice stevens' experience or wisdom, i will seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities, independent mind, record of excellence and integrity, and fierce dedication to the rule of law and keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the american people. lit al it will also be someone like justice stevens know that in a democracy, the powerful interests cannot drown out the voices of american voices. >> reporter: so that is popular among solicitor general elena kagan and diane wood, and

cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us tonight with the details. good evening, john. >> larry, president obama's speech matched the mood of the moment of the senate debate in washington as democrats and republicans move closer to a compromise on that legislation. he says there's no clear divide between main street and wall street, that we don't have to choose between unfettered markets and stifling regulation. that, in fact, the financial regulation bill moving on capitol hill would make markets move better. >> our system only works, our markets are only free when there are basic safeguards that prevent abuse, that check excesses, that ensure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than to game the system. that is what the reforms we've been proposing are designed to achieve. no more, no less. >> one subject the president didn't talk about broadly today in new york was taxes. but i asked him in my interview at the white house yesterday about that promise not to raise taxes on people with incomes under $200,000 a year, asked him if that appl

joining us now is john harwood, cnbc's washington correspondent.own for us. >> reporter: look, 162,000 in march, revisions to the january and february numbers. so january was in positive territory as well by 14,000. that's a 40,000 improvement from what we thought earlier. february numbers, negative at 14,000 jobs were also better. you're beginning to see signs of a trend unemployment -- the jobs picture is beginning to match growth in a positive story for the administration. the question is when you have more people entering the labor market, the rate stays high, can the administration sell that and convince people the economy is getting better? this is a start. >> underemployment rate. what exactly does that mean? >> well, it means people don't have the number of hours they want. they are not getting the wage growth they want. look, it's a weak unemployment picture, weak employment picture, rather, and it will be for some time. tim geithner and economic advisers to the president have said that over and over. the question is, is it getting better

he'll be in new york speaking about financial regulation and he will speak to john harwood exclusively. we will have that here on "street signs" tomorrow. i wonder if there's any psychological importance that john harwood's face is bigger on that screen than barack obama's? next on the show, get ready to stop trading. we will get cramer's take on citi and lloyd blankfein's leadership. we'll be right back. >> when, who, how, where, how much? we've heard the promises for years. decades in fact. solar power, wind energy, algae, batteries, shale, seaweed, alternative energy. so where do we stand? find out thursday, april 27th. beyond the barrel, the race to fuel the future. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's why, at schwab, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 every online equity trade is now $8.95 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no matter your account balance, how often you trade tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or how many shares... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you pay what they pay what everyone pays: $8.95. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and you still get all the help tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and support you expect from schwab tdd# 1-800-345-2550 millions of

john harwood, tell us -- help us reconcile this split. >> what's really going on?ith the republican leadership this morning and it seems what's happening is democrats don't want this party to end too quickly -- >>ist a good party. >> so they want to hit the pinata one more time. so, while they're negotiating, they're making progress. they have this cloture vote. then they come out and say, well, look, republicans are filibustering and then the deal gets made later. if they wait a little longer they might have a deal without having to go to that step. but this is a great issue for democrats, a great issue for president obama. once they know that -- you know, once you get to the part of the negotiation where you know the other guy wants to buy your house, then you take a tougher line on what the price is. >> pat, were you the one that said on our show a couple weeks ago that lyndon johnson never wanted to win by 75 votes? he wanted to win by two or three. >> we said, we got 90 votes. what have you guys done wrong? you didn't get enough. you didn't get enough. >> do y

later on "street signs," a big get by john harwood. he's talking with president obama about everything impacting your money -- financial reform, goldman sachs, who knew what when, what calls were made. i am sure it will all be on the table. we'll be back in two minutes. >>> in asia overnight, a mixed set of trade. higher in china, higher in japan and lower by 0.5% in hong kong. obviously the gains in magnitude bigger than the loss. in europe, slightly lower across the board, part of that due to concern over the greek situation, which is still, you know, may not be on the front burner right now, but it is there and it may re-emerge again. let's check on tech ahead of the open. bertha coombs at the nasdaq. which, bertha, as mark pointed out, that's our one green arrow here. >> tech is the apple of our eye. apple the stock of the day, blowing away the street yesterday with its fiscal second quarter. $3 billion in profits, nearly double from last year. and way more iphone sales, nearly 9 million iphones sold. we're talking mcdonald's numbe

dan balz of "the washington post," john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times," martha rad ditz of nbc news and michael duffy of time magazine. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> i've been growing algae for 35 years. most people try and get rid of algae. we're trying to grow it. the algae are very beautiful. they come in blue or red, golden, green. it can be converted into biofuels that we could someday run our cars on. using energy with biofuels are not competing with the food supply, and they help solve the greenhouse problem as well. >> we're making a big commitment to finding out just how much algae can help to meet the fuel demands of the world. >> additional funding for "washington week" is provided by boeing, pepsi, the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. h

. >> john harwood is at the white house. so, john, how big of a battle are the democrats up for this summer or are they? >> well, i think they would prefer to get this done quickly and smoothly. the president has lot on his agenda, but it's not easy for republicans to filibuster a supreme court nomination. we saw with sonia sotomayor, they mustered 31 votes against her, but that's not the 40 you need. i think given some of the names that have been talked about, the likelihood is the democrats and the president will get their way. a republican senator told me the other day when talking about what's the attitude or mood going to be like on capitol hill once the president sends up a nominee and he said, well, i think i'll go to the middle east for a vacation at that point. >> john, let me ask you. we heard it a bit when sonia sotomayor was nominated prior to the announcement of her name and we're hearing it again this time, this notion of nominating someone who has other experience. more real world experience. what exactly are

. >> well, scott, i was talking to john harwood who is going to join us in a little while here, and he said that the president is dialing it back a little. and the speech perhaps today showed a little more measured in terms of us versus them, and business being bad and the wall street being the evil doers. >> well, maria, the president was in the wall street backyard today and that is maybe why the tone was more measured, but this is clearly a president making the closing arguments more than anything to the american people, and using words to talk about his regulation saying it was common sense and reasonable, and also something else that we will maybe hear in a sound bite if we have that, but in talking about unless the business is built on bilking people, you should be for this. so, it was pretty strong words as well. >> scott, can i start a little argument here just for fun. >> oh, why not? >> perhaps for profit. how much does this bill really matter to the street? when i have -- you know, watched this bill go up and down in the fortunes rise and fall, i have seen little correlation

and then it was interesting what john harwood said, they will be able to change minds on some of the benefits that go into affect, for example, kids under 26 now being able to stay on their parents' insurance, but the main concern people have it seems from the poll something the huge costs of health insurance reform, and, look, that's something that they cannot get away from. they discuss almost a trillion-dollar price tag. they can persuade voters more than they have up to this moment, that there is a reduction, they can try and make that argument, but the key concern is the costs and nothing they can say will change the bottom line price tag of all of this. >> i would say, savannah, and andrea, on the pivot point, the administration has been on the defensive about the bailouts, why did you approve this and why didn't we get help, but now they can fight against republicans that can seem to be opposing them, and they love that argument and they think it's a clear winner for them in public opinion unlike health care. >> yeah, a much better argument to be making to an angry public. >>>

here's chief washington correspondent john harwood with the latest. is it true?hink they are making progress, larry. it is almost certainly going to get done. for a time today, the backstage negotiations over financial regulation moved out of the spotlight. instead you had a house financial services committee reviewing what happened in the lehman brothers case trying to figure out how to keep it from happening again. s.e.c. chair mary shapiro was there. the s.e.c. is now looking at how to do things differently. >> we are considered whether under the s.e.c. rules that we need new rules to prevent the masking of debt or liquidity at quarter end like we saw lehman brothers do. >> of course tim geithner who was at the hearing used this to frame the broader argument for financial regulation reform. he said, you can't stop

>> well, i think that john harwood got it right, the white house officials diving under the desk when he brought it up with them. it is enormously difficult. there are some republicans that like the idea of a consumption tax. that is the idea of a vat tax, a value-added tax, but what the question is, is it a supplement to the current income tax system or is it a total replacement? if it is a total replacement, whether it is a total replacement or supplement, there are political challenges to doing so. also, then, you have question, it is good economic policy, does it foster more saving, more investment, but on the other side, you have the government side. is it just another method to feed the beast? you brought up a good question about dealing with spending there. is no legitimate, and no realistic plan going around on capitol hill on how to deal with spending. d was the creation of a vat which is a stealthy-type tax, does that make it easier for the government to increase taxes over time, and bring in more revenue, and you just wind up with a cycle of increasing the size of governmen

. >> cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us now. what happened in the democrats scheduled this vote knowing well it would fail. now what happens? >> part of the point was to get that statement from harry reid and the headlines we see in the newspapers this morning, republicans block wall street reform. democrats love that. that's why they're not eager to make compromises. here's why i think there is going to be a deal. there will be another test vote. i don't know if the first next test vote will succeed or the one after that or the one after that. but the reason is, there are three big issues outstanding. one is how you pay for this winddown fund. do you raise the money before or after a firm fails. do you make big banks give up their derivatives deck, some of these complicated instruments kelly o'donnell was talking about and the senate bill would require them to give up those debts, sell off those items. the third thing is consumer protection. on two of those, the administration agrees with industry and republicans. they're not i

in an interview with cnbc's john harwood, president obama said stronger financial regulations would be good for everyone, including, especially for wall street itself. >> we have gotten into one of those places where we need to update those rules of the road. and if we do so, not only is that good for the economy, not only does it protect consumers and investors, it's also good for the financial sector. because it will rebuild trust, and people will have confidence that when they're dealing with banks, when they're dealing with these institutions, that they, in fact, are playing it straight, above board, and they're competing on the basis of who's providing the best services and the best products as opposed to who's got the most creative accounting rules or who's able to concoct the wildest derivatives that may serve no economic function whatsoever. >> wall street firms have been hiring big guns to lobby on capitol hill. goldman sachs just brought on former white house counsel greg craig to help fight those civil fraud charges. and the former democratic leader in the house, kick gephar

paul harwood out in portland, oregon found it and we're going to call him right now.ou -- larry, sing some sinatra for us. >> larry: he is building up the tension. >> 35. there we go. >> larry: and where does he live? >> portland, oregon. what time is it there? >> larry: our time here. >> hello, this is paul. >> paul, this is michael moore. you're live on the "larry king". >> larry: why you laughing? that's not funny. it's a serious show. >> that was a laugh of joy. >> it was. >> you are the winner. you found the $100 penalty. >> well, thank you. >> and i just explained the first part of it. so tell them exactly after you. >> larry: did you did you find it. >> where did you finally find it? >> well, i am segregated from the television. so i didn't see your explanation. but what i found was that the $100 fine is not actually in the health care reform bill. in fact, what the health care reform bill does is to modify some existing code, u.s. code 42. and there is a very obscure amendment in the hcr bill. >> i read all those subparts. >> okay. so it just -- i had to go lo

the administration now, as you heard president obama telling john harwood, there was no coordination. now mary schapiro in a very forceful and unusual statement, the s.e.c. is an independent law enforcement agency. "we do not coordinate our enforcement actions with the white house." this of course in response to timing that the -- or criticism i should say that the goldman sachs suit was politically timed. "we do not time our cases around political events or the legislative calendar. on a personal level," she says, "i'm disappointed by the rhetoric. in all my years as a commissioner and chair at the s.e.c. and cftc, having been nominated in this post by presidents of both political parties, i cannot think of any instance where politics was a consideration in bringing an enforcement action, nor should it ever be." she notes that regulatory reform has been on the agenda for a year and they brought a lot of enforcement cases since then and suggesting here that the timing is purely coincidental. very interesting, guys. >> all right. scott cohn, thank you very much. of course we'll remain

in an interview with cnbc's john harwood on wednesday, the president says the u.s. needs a private financial sector and guards against excess on wall street. >> we need to update those rules of the road. not only is that good for the economy, but it's also good for the financial sector because it will rebuild trust and people will have confidence that when they're dealing with banks, when they're dealing with these institutions, that they, in fact, are playing it straight, above board, and they're competing on the basis of who is providing the best services and the best products. >> president obama says the white house had no role in the s.e.c.'s fraud charges against goldman. mary schapiro echos that statement on wednesday. >> so you can say categorically, no wipgs, no heads up in advance, no signal from anyone -- >> categorically. we found out about it on cnbc. >> he watches the show. lloyd blankfein, meanwhile, goes on attack. the s.e.c.'s charges against the bank and phone calls to clients. one person tells the s.e.c. that blankfein is out to kill them and the s

. >> we haveing to to john harwood with breaking news on the massey mining tragedy. john. >> reporter: july julia this places front and certain lob ying, campaign, revolving door that surrounds regulatory issues in the united states the among the things that have come out in the last 24 hours. physical of all, massey energy was fined at this particular mine cited for 495 violations in 2009 amounting to almost a million dollars in fines. massey has taken an aggressive stance towards contesting those violations. they have contested two-thirds of those in 2009. that's one of their strategies. another has been to work the political process very hard in terms of campaign donations. don blankenship, the head of massey energy, very involved in supreme court election in state of west virginia. also the federal mining agency head during the latter part of the bush add manage was a massey executive. he did fine massey for some violations. you can't say he was entirely looking the other way. people, particularly democrats, union officials who are looking for a more aggressive s

john harwood and i have been listening outside here. we wondered where the laughter and applause was coming from and along with bob dimon there were some big union leaders inside, as well. >> fascinating the way he turned the end of that speech to a different version of the speech in which he broke into the national consciousness in 2004. there is no white america, red america there is one america. we're all rising and falling together. he talked about how it's a false choice to say it's a choice between unfettered markets and stifling regulation. we can do something in. between. that's what he's pussing and hi lobbyists and it reflects the conversation in washington where republicans and democrats are starting to come up with the outline. >> it is not the scolding that we were predicting ahead of time, would you say he's asking for anything specifically? did it zero down to the half dozen issues or so that we mentioned earlier? >> it wasn't a transactional speech, it was more exhorting the audience and the rest of the country to pull t

. >> i heard harwood and liesman saying that they've got them right where they want them and maybe they'll even take another day and let them stew. no fannie and freddie clus included in the whole reform bill. it's almost like congress is like, fannie who? i'm not familiar with who fannie or freddie is. >> you know, a lot of these same politicians were blocking any type of control on fannie and freddie at the same time. we'll see what happens. you may be right, the pause that refreshes so we get an even tougher bill or you may -- you know, the republicans may realize there's only 59 of you and we got one of you. you didn't get one of us. >> and then one, including nelson. >> who didn't vote? who are the two that were out? >> who are the two that were out? >> yeah. it was only 57 to 41 vote. >> i don't know. >> i don't know who didn't vote. >> you better put that picture up there, too. an arm in today's "new york times" outlines concern among other sectors, more than 130 retail manufacturing and service companies have retained lobbyists on the issue. mars wants to be able to play derivative

john harwood joins us from d.c. a lot of speculation about new orleans, although people pointing out that neither romney nor ppolenti will be there, right? >> that's right. and you've had newt gingerich giving some red meat to the office. he talked about the socialist machine of barack obama, firing up conservatives who are the ones that have the energy in this election season. and that's one of the challenges for democrats and president obama to try to fire up their base. health care helped a little bit with that to counter that energy on the right. >> so what carries the momentum for a prospective candidate going into -- let's say this fall. is it going to be continued opposition to health care? will it surround protectionism in china? what? >> i think it's likely to gravitate away from the health care issue and more toward spending deficits in the role of government. the thing that has moved a lot of the independents away from democrats is concern about spending in deficit and the contradiction that many people s

john harwood is our chief washington correspondent. john, i saw romney won a straw poll, barely. >> by one vote of more than 1800 cast. >> and ron paul is still in there. that's a little bit bizarre. supreme court, they -- it's amazing how we know so much already. they're just ready. i guess people wait. they knew stevens was old so they got these lists already ready, john? is that it? i mean they rolled them out immediately. >> not only is he old. he's been signaling for some time that he was planning to do this. so yes, they are ready. they went through it for sotomayor and i don't know how quickly the president's going to name his choice. but i think he wants to get this going fairly rapidly. if he follows something like the time line for sotomayor, he could hope to have confirmation sometime in late august, early september, and that would clear the decks for the start of the court term, and then you, of course, have the midterm elections. they don't want to be fighting about this in the middle of that. >> would you say that he's go

. >> we'll get to it, because "new york times" john harwood yesterday reporting the white house consideringrge will has an opinion about this that he wrote recently. >> as a republican, i'm scared to death they'll pass it because the back tax is going to be popular. the democrats, 50, 60, maybe 70 seats. raise taxes more. we're just ribbing you here. but we will actually let you respond in a second after mika does the news. it's good to have you here. >> it's great to see you guys. >> are you telling me the truth? >> yeah, i've never been in the studio before. this is nice. >> did you meet kenneth dupage? >> i don't think i'm going to answer that question. >> okay. >>> all right. let's get to our top stories. and we'll start with the major partisan showdown over financial reform. debate begins on legislation to revamp industry, and both sides are eager to ex-plort a lingering resentment toward wall street. renewed last week by the announcement of fraud charges against powerhouse goldman sachs. >> either we let the people who know this legislation best get back to the negotiating table and w

cnbc's john harwood joins us now. that expectations or worse and that expectation z- >> well, it's about what expectations were. the word on the street was maybe 200,000 jobs. this is really the month that the white house has been waiting for because when they get into positive territory on jobs, even with the unemployment rate stuck at 9.7, which we expect it to be stuck in that range for the rest of the year all the way through to november, they want to begin to try to get on a roll and show that the economy is, in fact, turning around. that's a difficult argument to make with the high unemployment rate but at least the positive job growth gives them some talking points, some way to make that case. >> john, break it down a little bit for us. we have the private sector numbers and the census workers which we heard republicans were prespinning yesterday. the rnc put out a release saying don't buy any of this, it's all census workers. break it down. >> look, the details here are that the administration is