i'm john harwood sitting in tonight for gwen ifill on "washington week." >> i will priorityites efforts that strenten legal immigration and make it easier. we may not always agree but when i make a promise to you, i will keep it. >> your speaker from yesterday has a different view. in a speech he said that when he makes a promise to you, he'll keep it. well, he has promised to veto the dream act and we should take him at his word and i believe that would be a tragic mistake. john: dueling philosophies and dueling pitches to latino voters. did president obama's bold move settle the fight or convince hispanics that romney has a better plan m the ayes have it and a contempt order is ordered to the house. joongs a -- john: a showdown between house republicans and eric holder. and the countries of the euro zonal keep struggling to resolve their debt crisis. >> because of the crisis in europe and the softness you're seeing in growth outside europe that means that in the u.s. we're not growing as fast as we need to grow. john: can a new greek government and bigger bail oits -- bailouts keep eu

cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us with all the details. good evening, john. >> this was a jobs report that hit the obama white house hard because it affirmed a spring slowdown, the third in a row at a critical point in the election cycle and it had president obama acknowledging this is not the recovery that he's looking for. >> the economy is growing again, but it's not growing as fast as we want it to grow. our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but as we learned in today's jobs report, we're still not creating them as fast as we want. >> now, gallup affirmed that this is going to be a neck and neck race. their three-week average, 46% obama, 46% romney. mitt romney hustled on to cnbc to try to move the needle on those numbers to point the finger directly at president obama. >> the president's policies with regards to taxation, regulation, as well as trade policies, labor policies, all of them have made it less likely for businesses small and large to want to hire more people. and when you add to t

john harwood, you were listening in. what do you think sparked what people are calling unpresidential outbursts from the president? >> reporter: well, the president was trying to deflect the person who was attempting to interrupt the statement, but the genesis of the action is pretty clear. the worse thing, mandy, for a president facing difficult circumstances economically and politically is to appear powerless and the president's been at a stalemate with republicans in congress over a range of issues so he's been trying to take the approach of using his executive authority where he can, being very forward-leaning and aggressive about that, pressing the edge of the envelopes and the republicans say he's done today and so here to the benefit of a con stin general sy, 9% of the vote in 2008, they'll be a larger percentage in 2012. this is a group that he dominated in 2008. but they've been underwhelmed by the economic policies and now trying to leap ahead of republicans and court them this time. >> bottom line, john, you t

let me bring in john harwood here. the president i guess understandably not mentioning specifically this morning's jobs report. certainly didn't mention any of those numbers there in any kind of pointed way. but he did concede that the economy is not functioning as well as he would like. and we have a long way to go to get it back to where he'd like to see it. >> that's right. he did, tyler, refer to the jobs report when he said that the jobs report is more confirmation that we've got more work to do and that things aren't going as smoothly as we want. growth isn't as robust as we want. as expected, he cited the headwinds in europe as one of the things that's a barrier to growth. he criticized republicans in congress without necessarily referring to the party for not passing some elements of his to-do list for not passing more money for infrastructure and other elements that the president wants. but, look, this is a tough time. and i think the president was trying very hard to express a buoyant tone. he opened with a j

it happened shortly before 1:13 on harwood and richardson roads in harwood. the driver identified as 25-year-old kevin alan oh royian of edge water was pronounced dead at the scene. passengers hodges and matthew miller were taken to the hospital with minorinries. >> and those violent storms are also being blame for the deaths of six people in va are a, one in washington, d.c., it could be a week before power is restored in the washington region. pepco says the storms left a total of 443,000 customers in the region without power. >> the search is continuing for one person off the coast of southern maryland after fishing boat capsized during last night's storm. the coast guard rescued two people who had been onboard while the crew of a fishing boat rescued two others near prezzie point. state police maryland natural resources police in calvert county fire and rescue crews are using boats and helicopters to search to the missing slick victims. also a result of the storms. baltimore fire crews are on the scene of several collapsed buildings in the city including

i'm john harwood. have a good night. and here's gwen ifill on tape with an announcement. gwen: with -- can we talk? really. i'd love to talk about -- with you in any next online chafment mark your calendars and join me on thursday, june 28, between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. eastern time and if you can't make it you can submit questions ahead of time. either way i hope you will enjoy the discussion. >> funding for "washington week" swoosh provided by -- >> one line helps communities turn plans into reality. helps shippers forge a path to prosperity. helps workers get back to work. one line is an engine for the economy ant the future. nor -- norfolk southern. one line, infinity possibilities. >> corporate funding is also provided by prudential financial, boeing, at&t, rethink possible. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributingtutions -- contribute oogses to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. station from viewers like you. thank you. >> trusted, in

this is harwood and more pictures of the harwood and the patients inside. public hygiene became very important during the course of the war. and these were members of the sanitary commission, i could spend a lecture talking about the sanitary commission, other than to tell you it orange natured in new york city, it was a civilian relief agency, they took the red cross and the uso and whatever it might be in today's world. it's a quasi-governmental agency and there's been great books written about it. they themselves are not necessarily doctors, but they enter deuce thtd concept of cleanliness. and finally the sanitary commission, and i put this slide up because of the home lodge for invalid soldiers they began to understand that you need to take care of the veteran, this is the big bang theory for the veterans for this period, starting back in the civil war. well, s.st wei mitchell talking about hiss remembrance of the civil war. the general influence on the war was amiss in other ways of great service. in other words men who were very well-educated got to

let's go right to cnbc's john harwood.he president saying it's a victory for people all over the country, but make no mistake, this is a big victory for president obama as well. >> reporter: it certainly is in substantive terms. you heard the president say that it wasn't about the politics. he said he supported the mandate after having opposed it during the campaign, knowing that it wouldn't be politically popular, and it hasn't been politically popular. but the president did try to use this moment of peak attention as a teachable moment to remind americans in ways that he hopes is more effective than the case so far, of all the things that they're going to benefit from in this law. remember when you get down to the substance, the president believes, politics aside, that this law is going to help the economy, help millions of people afford health care, bring down health costs over the long run. republicans dispute all those points. he was trying to do that. mitt romney was very aggressive. he believes he can take political

john harwood, thank you. >>> to housing now, ty. the desperate search for signs of recovery. we may be seeing it in higher home prices in some areas of the country. diana olick is live in washington for us. hi, diana. >> hey, sue. two months isn't exactly a trend yet. but it's a start. especially for tad's housing market. home prices in the positive. take a look. including distressed sales. that's foreclosures and short sales. home prices rose 1.1% in april from a year ago according to core logic. take out the distress and prices were up an even stronger 2.6%. those are national number. you know how much i love those. important to see where we're getting the gains locally. it's in the disstressed markets like arizona. prices up 8.8%. florida, 5.5%. michigan, up 5.1%. don't forget, though, these states are where prices fell the hardest. also note that these numbers are looking back at spring. so what's ahead? well, the asking price report portends the future about two months. after rising for three months, asking prices flattened in may. that may be the seasonal slowdown or it

john harwood? conspiracy theory part two. >> well, look, that's the republican argument, but serious issue, serious investigation, the oversight responsibility of congress is important but the ratio of politics to substance has gotten so high that as michael was just saying, it's become counterproductive. all the republican leadership is today now having to sort of fall in line on the republican side of the argument. john boehner put out a statement criticizing what the administration had done, suggesting the administration had been lying earlier by saying the white house was not involved in some of the key decisions, but i think one of the interesting questions is going to be after this plays out in the next 24 hours, what sort of pressure will leadership, will the romney campaign, put, which is increasingly taking a role of defining the republican party in this election year. you notice what mitch mcconnell said the other day. we're waiting for mitt romney to tell us what our position's going to

john harwood with the latest there, contempt for eric holder, we will watch that develop. the larger they are, the more worried they are. proctor and gamble cut confidence today. mcdonalds earlier this month raiding a red flag. and ed says there are storm clouds brewing. >> there's no question about it, none of this news should be surprising to anybody. we all know the world economy is slowing and that will hurt corporate earnings because the majority of the companies drive most of their growth outside of our border. when you're looking for growth companies, even if they're value companies, they're driving outside of our borders. don't be surprised if you keep hearing this headline, it will be a different company every day. >> is it because the emerging markets are slowing at a time when unemployment is worsening here in the u.s.? >> it's everything, you have china slowing, india is in stagnation. all of the other engines in the world are slowing. the economies are what come out of the emerging markets so when you see china, india, north america, europe, you will see the m

joining us now, john harwood.riter, thanks for being here, appreciate your time. >> hey, rachel. >> the polling ahead of the election showed scott walker ahead. tom barrett never led in any polls leading into this. especially in the exit polling today, it looked like it was going to be very, very close. in the end, it was not very close. do we know yet what happened? >> i've been trying to figure it out myself. we were expecting a long night. maybe not even a call tonight. not until the morning. and you know, you kept watching the returning come in and the pile got bigger and bigger and walker was up double digits and now, the latest numbers seen show about ten points maybe a little bit less, which is larger than his margin in 2010. so i'm quite surprised and don't know exactly what was often the measurement. whether there was a participation problem with people supporting walker not responding to the exit pollsters. that's always a possibility but i haven't heard it explained yet. >> in terms of the other unexpla

first, we go to the aftermath of this election, cnbc's own john harwood joins us for a wisconsin recall roundup. good evening, john. >> a tremendous night for scott walker for republican allies in wisconsin and across the country and for those like scott walker who want to cut down on entitlements and public employee unions. that bad for democrats, including the democrat in the white house, jay carney at a gaggle this morning said don't read anything into this beyond who is going to occupy the governor's seat in wisconsin, but everybody is looking at signs for november, and richard trumka, the labor leader, was forced to come out and say we're not done fighting in wisconsin or around the country. >> the nurses, teachers, firefighters, snow plow drivers and other wisconsin citizens that make the state great will continue to fight for an economy that works over a partisan agenda. >> a sense of disarray on the democratic side exacerbated when larry summers came out and said something similar to what bill clinton said to maria bart yiro yesterday. he later backtracked in a subsequent e-mail

thank you to john harwood.conomy is in the pits the unemployment rate is nowhere near coming down. the market is down sharply. why is immigration reform part of the race? henry cisneros under secretary clinton. welcome. mr. secretary, would you at least concede that when you do something short term like this it opens up the criticism that it was electioneering? and we need to do this long term. >> we do. everything the president does will be called electioneering this year. it is short run, but it is important. uh live in a part of the country where we have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people who came here as children who have only known america. i'm dealing with a young man with 4.0 in engineering and he lives in the shadows. it is one piece of the spectrum. there is a lot more that needs to be done in addition to workers with higher skills and the border and the rest of it. but i wouldn't denigrate what it means to human lives what the president did last week. it touches lives in meaningf

john harwood is at the white house with a brand new nbc news poll. he will be joining us shortly from the white house north lawn with that news of the nbc poll. let's go out now to julia boorstin with more news that directly and indirectly affects facebook. it is an expected announcement within the hour or so on zynga. what it says could have an impact on facebook. it's already moving, the shares are, ahead of that announcement. julia boorstin joins us live from san francisco. >> that's right. i'm here at zynga's headquarters. in just a half hour, they will start an event called "unleash" and they will unleash the strategy for the nedays of its growth. with it down after the ipo, investors want assurance they can keep zynga's attention with new hits and how to diversify away from facebook and get more of its gamers to pay to play. right now, all of zynga's transaction revenue comes from less than 5% of its gamers. we can expect noumts in three areas. new social game, new mobile apps as it makes for a push under its hadn't company and then investors l

john harwood joins us with the details. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, the political economy of the 21st century isn't like the one we grew up with because it used to be the presidential elections in the united states were decided by people like this -- mitt romney, barack obama, the voters they were campaigning among around the country. but in 2012 the election could be decided by people like this, david cameron, francew fran -- francois holland. they could even push the united states into recession which is why president obama opened his news conference friday with a discussion of how our economy and europe's are interconnected. >> obviously this matters to us because europe is our largest economic trading partner. if there is less demand in places like paris or madrid it could mean less business for manufacturers in places like pittsburgh or milwaukee. the good news is there is a path. these decisions are fundamentally in the hands of europe's leaders and fortunately they understand the seriousness of the situa

john harwood will help us out with the decision. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry.a tremendous sense of anticipation across washington for what the court is going to tell us at 10:00 or shortly thereafter tomorrow. nowhere more so than in the building right behind me. the democratic parties sought national health care for decades. the democrats wanted it upheld. so does president obama for his legacy and a senior obama aide told me they believe the law will be upheld by the court. what will the justice effect be politically on campaign 2012? political strategists tell me the best outcome for mitt romney politically is if the law is upheld. he can go around the country and continue hammering obamacare which is unhpopular. the best outcome for president obama is if it's struck down by relican-appointed justices on the court. the president will say this is partisan judicial activism. it makes sense when you look at who likes the law. we can see in your poll almost two to one, white voters think the law is a bad idea. african-americans favor it 15 to 1. his panics more

john harwood, thanks so much. guys, enjoy the weekend.arket that obviously has not started june the way many had hoped. disappointing jobs report, market sitting at its lows below its 200-day moving average on the s&p 500 and "power lunch" takes it over now. what makes the sleep number store different? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. wow, that feels really good! once you experience it, there's no going back. during the final days of the sleep number memorial day sale, save 50% on our innovative sleep number silver edition bed. sale ends sunday. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses star just $699. at merrill lynch, we understand the importance of your goals. today, our financial advisors lead from a new position of strength. together with bank of america, they have access to more resources than ever before. a steadfast commitment to help you achieve you

in the meantime get to john harwood. john, we heard from president obama earlier on. we also heard from mitt romney. what was the chief takeaway here? >> the takeaways, mandy, were exactly what you would expect for an incumbent democratic president and republican challenger. disappointing in an election year, president obama just a few minutes ago at a honeywell plant in minnesota making the case that, well, yes, the private sector continues adding jobs. but it's simply not enough. not what we need. >> the economy's growing again, but it's not growing as fast as we want it to grow. our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but as we learned in today's jobs report, we're still not creating them as fast as we want. >> and of course mitt romney had new energy to criticize the president's policies as he's been doing all yearlong. he came on cnbc, talked to our carl quintanilla and made the case that the slowdown we're seeing is not because of headwinds in europe, it's because of what this president has done. >> the president's polici

john harwood with his slice now of cnbc's exclusive all america survey. what'd you find, john? >> tyler, it's an interesting survey which sheds light on the emerging economic debate that took on a new dimension today in that news conference when the president also said the private sector's doing fine. republicans jumping on that as evidence that he's out of touch on the economy. but let's look at the all american split that reveals itself in the survey of americans. first of all, where is it advantage obama? helping the middle class. barack obama's got a 17% advantage over mitt romney. look at who can best prevent another financial crisis? barack obama has the edge. who can do better regulating wall street? obama also has the edge. but where is advantage romney? better ideas for helping the economy. that is a slight edge for mitt romney. and preventing the deficit double digit edge for romney on taming the deficit. then if you ask about which side is pro-business or too anti-business, 44% say president obama's policies toward business are just right. we've got about a third say

john harwood, thank you very much. we'll see you at the cbo encounters all of the myriad facets of the new decision. let's get to our legal panel to talk about this stuff. we have former obama health policy adviser dr. zeke emmanuel and texas attorney general greg abbott. thank you. mr. emmanuel, thank you for coming on. >> nice to be here. >> greg abbott, i read your notes. i'm not as thrilled about this as you are. they had s slight of hand and the tax power has been expanded substantially. why are you enthused about this? >> what happened was this is a devastating blow for america. two of the arguments with made were upheld by the court today. the individual mandate was an unconstitutional overreach by congress trying to cram it through the commerce claus. second the state won the argument with regard to the medicaid coercion principle. this is a loss for america because the court did today what congress and the president refused to do. they called obamacare a tax. now we have an obamacare tax that, as justice kenne

many thanks to john harwood. we appreciate it. so if, a big if, if scott walker wins, i say don't blame obama on this one, folks. this is all about the battle for america, about the tea party and taxpayers versus government unions. if scott walker wins, it's because he cut property taxes, balanced the budget, grew the economy and curbed public union arrogance and excess. today's votes could have major implications on november's presidential race and the future republican or democratic control of congress. all right. joining us now from milwaukee, democratic state senator chris larson and with us from washington is wisconsin republican congressman, sean duffy. mr. larson, let me begin with you. i'm already hearing the blame game, that if, if tom barrett, the milwaukee mayor, loses, it's obama's fault for not coming into the state. i don't believe that for one second, state senator chris larson. i think it's because if scott walker wins, it's a grassroots movement and walker's done a good job running the state, balancing the budget,

cnbc's own john harwood joins us with the details. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry. as you know, mitt romney has been getting help from prominent democrats like bill clinton in making the argument that president obama doesn't understand free enterprise. so he pressed that argument today by going to missouri and making the case that president obama simply doesn't understand the market and he, mitt romney, does. here's mitt romney. >> from the stimulus bill that brought us solyndra but left us with record high unemployment, to the job crushing regulations of the epa and other regulators, to the smothering economic effects of obama-care, this president's misguided policies have seemed muddled, confused and simply ineffective. it's painfully obvious that this inexperienced president with no experience as a leader was simply not up to the task of solving a great economic crisis. >> now, mitt romney clearly understands the free market and campaign donations because look at these figures from may. mitt romney and the republican national committee outraised president obama $

john harwood said something that i hear is a big topic. today he framed it as follows.inks there's less loathing toward roberts by the democrats based on his decision today. that embodies every single thing in my opinion ts wrong with government and the type of government in terms of the individuals in congress that we have now. the supreme court did what it does best. whether we agree with it or not. the thing with the outcome is what makes people like or dislike the supremes, i think it's a horrible dynamic. i just hope and i challenge the conservatives in congress to take this decision with respect. with respect. because in the end, i think there's a big analogy here with what's going on in europe. you can try to have the mighty above tell the people below how they should live their lives, what they should get, and the government big enough to give you everything you want. in the words of thomas jefferson, big enough to take away everything you have. what are we left with really? we are left with an issue that should, by all indications be voted on by the american pu

and just some pictures of the hospitals, this harwood, more pictures and the patients inside. our recent military experience have done more for the public hygiene in this country than any other agency. this is john shaw billings, he designed the hospital. public hygienes became very important during the course of the war. and these were members of the sanitary commission. other than to tell you it originated in new york city, they took -- it's sort of like the red cross and the uso and whatever it might be in today's world, they're all rolled into one. it was a quasi governmental agency. but these men took care of the soldiers, they themselves are not necessarily doctors, but they introduced the concept of cleanliness. and then finally the sanitary commission -- and i put this slide up because of the home lodge of invalid soldiers. they began to understand you need to take care of the veterans. this is the big bang theory for the veterans administration starting back in the civil war. well, s.weir mitchell talking about his recollections of the civil war, 1905. the constant mi

the final opinion for which byron white is most popularly or unpopularly known is bowers versus harwood in 1986. speaking for a bare majority, he declined to read into the new process clause a constitutional right for adults to engage in homosexual activity in private. after reviewing the history of state regulation of sexual conduct and the case law said to be relevant, white concluded bluntly, "against this background, the claim that a right to engage in such conduct is deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition or implicit in the concept of order liberty is, at best, facetious." scholars left and right criticized the opinion as much as for its concluding tone as for its terse analysis and result. the decision was overruled in 2003. another passage in the opinion which many critics elect to ignore contains justice white's deep-seeded anxiety over the breadth of the court's role, first expressed in his dissent in robinson and california. now, almost a quarter century later, he was still sounding the alarm. "nor are we inclined to take a more expansive view of our authority to

john harwood, our thanks to you.n now from richmond, virginia, bob mcconnell, president of the republican governors association. governor, you have the platform. what is the message of governor walker's win last night? >> well, good morning, mika. thank you for having me on. i think it was the fact that it was really not about the reforms themselves. it was about whether the reforms were working. and to me the message is that a politician that stands up and says, this is what we need to do, this is what we can afford, and if you do these things we'll get results and bring in jobs and reduce our budget deficits. and then it works. the voters will reward them for it. and i think that's why he was so successful last night. and why the unions failed. >> so for those who say it was money that was poured into this race, rather than a blow to labor, and to reform there, what do you say? >> well, mika, that's laughable. i never heard that argument back in 2008 when president obama had twice as much money as the republicans t

john harwood with us at the white house today. thank kayla coming here, as well and walking through issues. >> happy weekend. >> yes, thanks. simon, you will be here for the next hour, as well, helping us through the european close in little less than half an hour. let's get to the cme group and rick santelli. good morning, rick. >> good morning, carl. you know, we're going to do something different today. we're going to do a segment periodically. i used to love technical analysis when i was a trader and the reason i liked it, even though there's so many that aren't respectful of technical analysis is an aggregate behavior model. you know, alan greenspan said if you have 12 bright people in china making bright decisions, it is the decision process that works the best. why does that work the best? well, if people's behavior is somewhat consistent, technical analysis should work. indeed, it does. there's a couple of thing that is are very important. whether you look at a two-minute, five-minute chart, ten-year chart, the patterns do

john harwood and andrew ross sorkin of "squawk box" on cnbc. what's worse, the fact that stuff got out or that it might be used for political gain? >> i think ultimately is the greater danger if anyone with show compromised national security or adverse effects of these disclosures. it's certainly not what the president wanted. it's certainly a very serious charge and the republicans are making it with strong conviction, but i think the president has got to count on the in fact this investigation is not going to show an actual compromise of what u.s. national security efforts are attempting to accomplish. >> let's turn the conversation back to the economic questions. the comments that the economy is doing fine got him into hot water, as we noted. but to some extent, is that partially true. are companies sitting on cash and not hiring? >> to put it in context, the president is says when you look at private sector jobs, there has been growth. last month, for example, 82,000 jobs in the private sector. where was it lost? in the public sector. since

john harwood joins us live from wisconsin on scott walker's big win last night. stick around. >> tomorrow on "squawk box," global risk and your portfolio. our guest host will be larry fink, blackrock chairman and ceo. plus cftc chairman larry gensler. don't miss "squawk box" tomorrow. >>> welcome back, everybody. if you're just waking up, look out. there's a surprise this morning. we're actually looking at the dow futures up by triple digits. those dow futures up by 107 points. s&p futures up by almost 1%. in our headlines home depot is out with news. the company says it expects its 2012 share buy back to be about $4 billion, up $500 million from its prior guidance. >> today's national forecast, alex wallace is joining us from the weather channel. >> we got more in the way of rain this morning in the eastern part of the country, this morning stretching across parts of northeast some light showers moving across new york state. heavier rains, those carolinas, back down through georgia and even into florida where we're tracking stronger storms there. active weather

john harwood has it covered in washington. >> remember, four key planks of the arizona law were ruled upon. three were struck down, one was preserved, the one that allows police to stop and check the immigration status of people they suspect being here illegally. what you saw from mitt romney, was trying to take the focus, after taking a tough line on immigration in the primaries, now he said today's ruling underscores the need to have a president who will work in a bipartisan fashion. that's a softer tone. president obama interestingly spot lighted the part of the law which was preserved by the court, because that is offense i have been to hispanics. he's saying nobody should have to live under a cloud of suspicion because of the way they look first of all, arizona itself, which the obama campaign didn't really contest four years ago, but also colorado, nevada and florida, this is a key constituency, 9% of the electoral in 2008, probably more now, and you can expect this argument to go all the way through with mitt romney trying to soften his position without alienating his space, an

we have john harwood all over that from washington. john? >> reporter: by a vote of 17-19, the senate joined the house in passing a bipartisan compromise that extends $100 billion in federal transportation programs, also prevents the interest rate on federal student loans from doubling to 67.8% in 3.4%. this is good news for a couplew not see an absence of funding and students not seeing the loans go up this weekend and also definitive proof, brian and mandy, that this highly polarized congress is capable of doing something. not a lot but something. >> something's better than nothing. >> how much good news could we possibly get on one friday? >> this is another case exactly like the eu summit f. the expectations are low enough and expect nothing then even something is good impact. >> sounds like the high school dates. >>> before the break, session highs. only one name by itself in the red. can we throw up first solar, please? you heard gordon johnson basically saying business first solar says it's winning or doing in germany, he found no evi

i'm john harwood in washington.partment just came out with their may estimates for spending outlays and government deficits. it shows a government deficit of $124 billion in the month of may. that is about what analysts had expected. tax receipts are stronger, up since before the recession. we continue to run a deficit. the deficit is on track to be 1$1.3 trillion this year, although slightly less than it was a year ago. some signs that the economy has turned in a positive direction although not nearly as fast as anybody wants. >> john, thank you for that breaking news. in the meantime, i believe you've done pretty great reporting on one particular scott you have been watching and its name is ubiquity networks. >> you are so correct on that. i have talked about the controversy of yubiquity severa times but now this. the ceo buying the memphis basketball game for $350 million. when i first heard this yesterday afternoon, all i could think, why would he do a thing like that? think about it. ubiquity went public at 15,

john harwood and manuel franziac, see you again. >>> the president is doubling down on congress today. why lawmakers need to share some of the blame on the economy. that's coming up in 20 minutes or so from now. >>> global markets including the u.s. are bracing for this weekend's crucial greek election which could see the country ditching the euro. tomorrow voters will cast their ballots in pivotal apartmentmently elections. if voters back the party in favor of rejecting the economic bailout plan, the debt-ridden nation may be forced to abandon the euro and change its currency back to the drachma. >>> the president's immigration decision. to the benefits of president obama's plan outweigh the risks? we'll see you back here on "weekends with alex witt. ed" [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud

john harwood joins us with the details. good evening, john. >> reporter: good evening, larry. as you said it's been a difficult week for president obama. he came out, had a news conference, tried to change the narrative by calling attention to the problems in europe and urging leaders to act on their problems, both long-term fiscal restructuring and growth, but unfortunately for the president, all of the attention was gen rated by a few words he wishes now he could take back. >> created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone the private sector is doing fine. >> is he really out of touch? i think he's. >> flpt, i used to run a small business. take it from me, the private sector is not doing well. >> my question to the president would be, are you kidding? did he see the job numbers that came out last week? the private sector is not doing fine. >> of course the president after, all of that pounding, which continues throughout the day took the advantage of a photo op with the philippine leader to make some comments clarifying and walking back t

our own cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us with all the details. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry. in a race this close you've got a serious cat and mouse game being played by the candidates. president obama schedules a speech in cleveland. mitt romney in cincinnati. accelerates the timing so he speaks before president obama, a prebuttal, if you will. he said to voters it's easy to judge this president. think about the last three years and look at the record. >> now you may have heard that president obama is on the other side of the state and he's going to be delivering a speech on the economy. he's doing that because he hasn't delivered a recovery for the economy. and he's going to be a person of eloquence as he describes his plans for making the economy better. but don't forget. he's been president for three and a half years. talk is cheap. >> mitt romney had a clear motive for going to ohio. the president has a lead of just a little bit over 1 percentage point. his argument to voters he made in cleveland was in favor of the tax increas

let's bring in jim henchman and our very own john harwood. joe, you first of all. you say that this is a penalty and not a tax and strangest things of all is president obama has been absolutely insisting that the health care law is not a tax. >> right. we at the tax found dais one of the few to submit a brief on the argument and stressed that it was a -- it's a penalty. not a tax but it's important to keep the difference. a tax raises revenue. a penalty changes behavior. instead of following the lower court decisions we have on this and the supreme court's past decisions, today's decision says that a tax is -- or a penalty is a tax when the amount is low. which is completely unprecedented and we're very surprised by the decision. it has the potential for doing a lot of damage to local governments, to state governments because a lot of these could now be construed as taxes. >> all right. i want to dig in to that second point in a second but right at the beginning of the answer you said it's a penalty and not a tax because it's trying to basically encourage not penal

cnbc's john harwood joins us with the details. good evening. >> good evening, larry. the supreme court decision was the most important thing that happened in the presidential campaign today. a mixed blessing. the court struck down parts of the arizona law, upheld the most controversial part. that's the one that allows police to check the immigration status of people they stop. you could see it in the reaction of the candidates. mitt romney said today he thought the court should have allowed more latitude for states but he trade gingerly on the arizona law. focused on the president for lack of leadership. he didn't want to offend hispanics. president obama's statement emphasized the part of the law allowed to stand. he said no one should have to live under a cloud of suspicion because of who they are and how they look. he's hoping to maximize his advantage among hispanics. in an appearance in new hampshire he hit mitt romney on a weekend report about bain capital's record of outsourcing and made fun of the romney adviser's distinction they attempted to draw between off

joining me is cnbc washington correspondent john harwood. >> let's get to a look at the map, one of the biggest changes is pennsylvania, that go from a toss-up to liening towards president obama's corner. what's happening there in the keystone state. >> pennsylvania's a state that democrats have done well in recent elections. it's structurally very close. i don't think anybody would regard it as put away for the president. headway since last october. we've got to watch as the economic news, the slowdown we've experienced that we awe affirmed by the jobs report could have an impact as well. you mentioned gas prices, that's a piece of good news for the president, but unfortunately it's been overshadowed by the slowing of the economy overall. >> absolutely. in terms of the unemployment numbers, john you've heard the president he's put the onus on the congress and their do-nothingness. how is that going to play out for voters? does, do they buy that? >> that's his challenge. he'll try to deflect some of the blame for the economy on to republicans, on to europe and events overseas. and some