we bring in keith boykin and w.o.r. radio host mark simone.want to play with this story a little bit. what they've done -- i'm going to start with you, mark simone. what the new regs have done is they've expanded the definition of religious institution that's are supposedly exempt. from churches to religious schools, hospitals, and charities. doesn't have to be catholic. could be anybody. but they have expanded the definition. but as i understand it, employees can go and get contraception, including the pill after, by going to the insurance company that is used by the institution. and the institution, which is self-insured through the insurance company, they've got to pay for it. somehow. so i don't see what's changed. they've expanded the definition, but what's changed? >> it's simple. they've made it much more complicated than it already was. >> right. >> it wasn't complicated enough and they've figured out away to make it cost even more and make it harder to keep track of. this is your government in action. >> it's true. the whole idea here

keith boykin do you have any problem with my sermon on the mound?o you have any problems with life in general? >> i like bob costa. he's a good guy. it's a helpful sign if boehner's people are saying they are willing to close some loopholes that's what obama is talking about. >> he's got you at the achilles heel. >> you're talking about two sides that haven't talked to each other. i'm glad they talked to each other today. they need to get together and work out some kind of an agreement. the president is looking for a compromise. he's willing to have some spending cuts. republicans don't want any revenue they only want spending cuts there's no way to compromise if one side doesn't give somewhere and that's the perfect place to start. >> because keith boykin is such a smart guy he picked up on my quote from boehner's press secretary. i'll read it again. republicans are open to closing loopholes as long as the savings are not used to finance deficit spending. i don't know what that means. any loophole closing should be accompanied my marginal tax rate

. >>> let's bring in molly ball, democratic strategist and contributor keith boykin. i'm sure you were listening in to the interview with senator manchin and talked about people being concerned with the next election and that should not drive the debate and not only drives the debate with the gun control legislation that may or may not emerge at this point but also driving the debate with the sequester. >> well, absolutely. but, you know, i think when we look forward to the state of the union we see the president feeling like his strategy so far has been working. this strategy of the inaugural and some of the touring -- >> how do you define the strategy? what is the strategy? >> the strategy is sort of talking over the heads of the pundits and the commentary and trying to reach the people directly. when's been called the outside game, this campaign style sort of touring that the president has been doing, i don't think there's any inclination on the part of the white house to back down on that approach given they feel like it's successful in especially in putting the r

cnbc contributor and democratic strategist keith boykin and msnbc contributor susan del persio. let's where we left off with barrasso and talking about the nra and the fact that barrasso thinks harry reid will likely try to drag his feet to bring something to the floor. let's talk directly about wayne lapierre and the op-ed, he says the 4 million of us belong to every community in the united states. we are the largest civil rights organization in the world. and we have been part of the fabric of america ever since 1871. okay. so we belong to every community in the united states and there are second amendment supporters on both sides of the aisle that truly believe in the argument of people being able to buy a gun. just in the same vein of we have freedom of religion, we also have freedom from religion. we have freedom to buy a gun, shouldn't we have freedom from people who have guns? >> absolutely. background checks should be put in place immediately. there's no reason, even harry reid shouldn't be afraid to put that up for a vote. and i think they would get the support out of a

joining me now is keith boykin and lois romano.nk you both for joining us. >> hey, tamron. >> 92% support this as far as ban on high capacity magazines, 56 pst, ban on assault weapons, 56%. how does the nra stand in opposition to let's just single out universal background check? >> they can't. i mean -- >> they have. >> they are but they can't continue. 89% of republicans actually support this idea of universal background checks and wayne lapierre himself when he was testifying about this on behalf of the nra years ago said he was in favor of universal background checks so at least have some consistency about this. clearly, the american people are standing in favor of this. how can 435 people in the house of representatives stand in the way of what the overwhelming majority of the american people want? >> with that said, looking again at legislation, we have talked a lot about what this does to this country, how it makes us feel. we know this but it has to move along to some kind of legislation in your opinion from what we have see

joining me now, zacharykarabel and cnbc contributor keith bo boykin. zachary, first, some of them jobs, many i believe over 100,000 in construction and due to the housing market rebounding. >> and if retail gains holdover of christmas. personally i don't want to go too far in the direction of, wow, this is great. this is where -- >> i don't want to use the word great but saying -- when you say more people confident. >> confident. >> yeah. >> this is still very, very slow job recovery. still fewer than five years ago and fewer americans employed than ten years ago and some retirement but i think the fact is we know we're stable now and don't quite know how we get to that point where we're more than stable. >> right. and we know to keep everything in perspective, the unemployment rate has ticked up 7.9 so that keeps anyone from, you know, being too confident. >> that's because more people looking for jobs and not more -- yeah. >> the number goes up there. keith, the headline, i think "the huffington post" said here we are within a tick up of the employme