. >> known as a fiscal conservative, pat mccrory was fairly moderate for a republican.vernor markell ray, in one of the debate before the election, was asked by someone on the panel, would you sign any measures to further restrict abortion in north carolina? he said no. >> what further restrictions on abortion would you agree to sign? >> none. >> all right. [laughter] he swungce in office, hard to the right, beginning with the casual announcement of a key appointment. >> art pope has agreed to serve deputyudget director. >> an innocuous title, masking a startling reality. the man who for years had poured money into those right wing think tanks, the republican party, and into republican campaigns, including pat mccrory's, would be the governor's man overseeing the state budget. >> his power is tremendous and frightening to me that people can buy their way into that kind of power in what is supposed to be a people's democracy. she sings in a group called the raging grannies. several years ago, she moved from new york to north carolina. husband and i retired, we were looki

here we have north carolina republican governor pat mccrory. welcome to the kudlow report. we appreciate it, sir. >> thank you, larry. it's great to be on your show. >> as i understand it, you took down the unemployment benefits or you gradually reduced them and you actually met with greater success. i guess if you provide an incentive to work, more people will work. tell us about your plan, because i don't think president obama understands it. >> well, my first goal was to pay off our debt. when i came into office about a year ago last week, north carolina businesses owed the federal government $2.5 billion for unemployment compensation. i mean, we were living off of a credit card and, in fact, we were only paying the interest on the debt with no principle whatsoever. we were having to increase taxes just to pay that interest on this $2.5 billion that we owed the federal government. one decision i had to make is we got to cut up the credit card that we owed to the federal government. the other thing was we had the 10th highest unemployment compensation in the country. that

let's ask the governor of north carolina joining us from raleigh, pat mccrory.r. >> thank you very much for having me. stuart: as i understand it, you cut jobless benefits when the unemployment rate was 8.9%. and the unemployment rate has now dropped to 6.9%. are you saying you had that whopping great, big drop in the jobless rate because you cut benefits? >> it's about the only variable that's different from other states, and north carolina since that time has had the largest drop in unemployment in the nation. and i don't know of many different variables in addition to the tax cuts we also initiated this year. but i think the decision not to have the ninth highest unemployment benefits in the nation and lowering them to what our neighboring states in south carolina and tennessee and virginia pay and then us lowering our debt that our businesses owed the federal government has had a major impact. we owed the federal government $2.5 billion in debt, and we were having to increase taxes for businesses to pay not the principal on that debt, but the interest on tha

carolina tomorrow to talk up his so-called economic agenda, but does he know that republican governor pat mccrory down there lowered unemployment benefits and get this, unemployment rates plunged. check out that chart. lot of us have been saying this, incentives matter. but back to obama, looks like a triumph of inequality over growth. here now is ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico. steve, before we get down to the nitty-gritty, i just want to know, obama had a point in his little presser today, he says we're not leaving anybody behind and everybody's getting a fair shot. okay? we're not leaving anybody behind and everybody's getting a fair shot. is obama going to go bill de blasio, mayor de blasio? is he going to go senator elizabeth warren? is obama going to go sandanista on us in this next session? what do you think? >> i was really kind of shocked by the president's words today because my kind of attitude, is this all you got, mr. president? we've heard a lot of talk about unemployment insurance and have extended that now for four or five years. there has been all sorts of t

but as they waited for the worst, north carolina governor pat mccrory conceded the region is never ready such weather. >> we've got to be honest that we don't have these storms very often, so, um, the equipment needed or the equipment level of capacity isn't as great as comparison to new york or connecticut or new hampshire. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the midwest endured another day of wind chills that reached as far down as 50 below. the huge storm also forced airlines to cancel about 3,000 commercial flights nationwide. in egypt, ousted president mohammed morsi went on trial on charges of organizing mass prison breaks during the 2011 revolution. state t.v. showed morsi pacing inside of a soundproof, glass- encased cage, visibly angry and shouting at the judge. after five hours, the trial adjourned until february 22. >> woodruff: the fifth day of the syrian peace talks negotiations broke off, with little to show for the effort. syria's foreign minister charged the u.s. has sabotaged the geneva conference by resuming deliveries of non- lethal supplies to rebels. the state department said th

moral monday's movement which is protesting among other things north carolina and sent a letter to pat mccrory>> thank you so much, melissa. the utterly ridiculous thing is they say we can get together and actually comply with the law, you know. butterfield actually wrote the government and said we can do better than this. 700,000 people, republicans, democrats, black, white, will be left without a district representative. it's just wrong. 300 days in a time the congress will be dealing with the vra bills, farm bills and all that impacts that particular district. it took us 90 years, melissa, from 1900 to 1990 to get representation it's a crazy little district. worth looking at again. congress ellis was sitting here when we looked at how gerrymandering it was. it is legal and constitutional, but that said, you know, i guess i'm wondering reverend barber if i went down today to a barbershop in greensboro and asked people, you know, dow you know that you live in district 12 and do you know you do not have a representative, what do people say about it? >> people are livid about it, they really ar

your governor, pat mccrory is here. the mayor of raleigh, nancy mcfarland. e mayor of chapel hill, mark klein submit. the mayor of durham, bill bell. and we've got congressman mike mcintyre doing great work. your senator, kay hagan, couldn't be here but i want to thank her publicly for the great work she's doing. i want to thank all the students for coming out, we're doing this event nice and early against n't run up the game. i've learned a few things as president and one of them is to not compete with college basketball down here on tobacco road. you don't do that. this is actually my second stop in raleigh-durham. i just took a tour of a company called vicon where workers design the drives that power everything from elevators to the giant fans that help cool buildings like this one, although i think we're kind of saving money on this one. which is a smart thing to do. so this company's making these engines and systems more efficient, saving businesses big bucks on energy costs, improving the environment, those savings get passed on to customers, puts mone

touted rising unemployment benefits, but republican governor pat mccreery has cut jobless benefits and unemployment has nose dived. governor mccroryive to give us the real story. >>> also guess what? the markets seem to finally be getting it. good news is good news, damn it. yesterday's retail sales, today's bank of america and apple stories, plus a positive fed. as i said, good news is good news. we are joined by chris lawford and patrickne