chief of staff of the air force , general mark welch.chief of the national guard bureau, general frank grass. i like to start by thanking all of you for your continued service to our nation. please convey our thanks to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines at home and in harms way around the globe. they and their families deserve our utmost support. some members of congress and commentators in the press have said that we should let sequestration go into effect, that it would be better to severely cut the budget than to work out a deficit reduction agreement that would require compromise. i could not disagree more. sequestration is arbitrary and irrational. it will not only weaken our security, but as secretary panetta said, it is "not just defense. it is education. it is child care. it is food safety. it is airport. it is law enforcement." the impact on the department of defense will be devastating. the army requested $36.6 the army requested $36.6 billion

chief of operations, mark ferguson, and general james amos, chief of staff of the air force general mark welch and chief of the national guard bureau, general frank grabs. i would like to stop by thanking all of you. please convey our thanks to the soldiers, airmen and marines at home and in harms way around the globe. they and their families deserve our utmost support. some members of congress and commentators in the press have said that we should live sequestration or let it go into effect. it would be better to severely cut the budget them to work out a deficit reduction agreement that would require compromise. i could not disagree more. sequestration is arbitrary and irrational. it would not only weaken our security, but as the secretary has said, it is not just defense, its childcare, food safety, law enforcement, airport safety. now, sequestration in the year-long continuing resolution going into effect, the impact on the department of defense will be devastating. for example, the army requested $36.6 billion in its 2013 budget. under a continuing resolution rules, if it's only the fisca

meteorologist mark tamayo is tracking the storm moving through the northeast. but we begin with chris welch now in boston. >> reporter: well, good evening. you already alluded to it, 3 feet of snow in some areas of new england, in connecticut. here in boston, we got just over 2 feet of snow, just a few inches shy of the record here for boston. now, as we stand right now, we actually just got an updated total. now at least nine people have died as a result of this storm, nine people. one of those unfortunately was a very young boy from right here in boston. from pennsylvania to maine, the east coast is digging out, after a massive blast of winter. >> just really no place to put the snow. >> reporter: on long island, people had to be rescued from cars left frozen in place in the middle of the road. one firefighter said it was like nothing he had ever seen. >> for them, it was a very traumatic experience throughout the night. some had no cell phone, no contact, ran out of gas, were very frightened. >> reporter: the storm has resulted in a number of deaths, including that of a 12-year-old bosto

mark, stock prices went up hugely, i think, close to 35, 40%. housing prices started rising. and the unemployment rate started falling inside. and i remember a lot of people, i had jack welchis show, very distinguished man president i love the guy, but he was always saying it was the bureau crass that were fixing the numbers. i think the combination, better stock prices, and improving housing, really helped reelect barack obama. i just doivities are you saying the president did something right then? i'm just saying -- it sure seems like it. >> ben bernanke game him liquidity, but it doesn't matter. the point of that is whoever is president, look, reagan would take -- anybody in their right mind would take credit for a booming stock market. >> of course, everybody feels about it. the why wouldn't you want to take credit for it. whether you did it or not. >> great point. 100% right. is there a large group of investors worried about these budget guts and so-called sequester? >> i would say everybody is worried about it, but nobody seems to be acting on it. everybody is concerned that the sequester is going to come in, you're going to have tremendous gdp drag coming in. us the

mark bertolini will be our special guest. don't miss "squawk box" tomorrow, the master of manage many, jack welch.ou see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. all in one place. i'm meredith stoddard and i helped create the fidelity guided portfolio summary. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. >>> we'll reduce taxpayer subsidies to subscription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors and bring down costs by changing the way our government fires medicare. our medical bills shouldn't be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital. they should be based on the quality of care our seniors receive. >> that's the president talking health care on last night's state of th state of the union address. we are joined by mark better to linne lin -- mark bertolini. he is aetna's chairman. >> good morning. >> you heard what the presi

mark with ink from chase. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide, i'm joe kernen along with beckdy quick and andrew ross sorkin. jack welch us on the set. he's the founder of the jack welch management institute at strayer university. he used to run, what was that? general electric. much more from jack still to come. first we've had two big deals this morning. >> oh, the big one. berkshire hathaway and 3g buying heinz for $72.50 per share. i should say warren buffett will be calling in in just a few moments. let's give you a couple details on what's going on here. this is a transaction that represents frankly a -- 3 a 20% premium, 3g the brazilian investors behind the acquisition of anheuser-busch. also burger king. they're going to be putting in $4.5 billion of equity, as well. then there's $9 billion of preferred total price with debt. $28 billion, and of course, there's been a lot of speculation for many years about what was going to happen to heinz. people talked about whether they were going to merge with campbell's soup. there was talks back i think in the late '90s about a merger with best foods. so heinz, being tak