robert wolf has been our guest host this morning. ght back. >>> tomorrow on "squawk box," boone pickens. he'll join us for an hour to talk about the recent burst of m & a activity and the future for his natural gas plan. "squawk box" starts tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. eastern. how do you keep an older car running like new? you ask a ford customer. when they tell you that you need your oil changed you got to bring it in. if your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. jackie, tell me why somebody should bring they're car here to the ford dealership for service instead of any one of those other places out there. they are going to take care of my car because this is where it came from. price is right no problem, they make you feel like you're a family. get a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation and much more, $29.95 after $10.00 rebate. if you take care of your car your car will take care of you. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you

>> robert wolfe, what's your end? the gdp in 2012, 1.4%.ink the president's going to call for higher taxes? and doesn't he get that the republicans don't want to go there. >> first of all, let me respond to mr. steele. one, i think b things like immigration is bipartisan. it's not partisan. so tomorrow night when he talks about gun control and immigration, some of those issues are more bipartisan. secondly with respect to sequestration, no one's for that blunt object. >> i'm for it. a lot of republicans are for it. >> it's too blunt. >> they don't want to raise taxes anymore. >> i think we should differentiate between raising the tax and cutting spending. >> are we ever going to cut spending? i gather mr. obama wants light, light spending cuts and more taxes. >> i don't think that's accurate. when he was negotiating with speaker boehner, he put on the table would have been total including the budget control act $4.3 trillion of spending and revenue cuts. that would have been 2.3 to 1. that was actually more spending cuts than where simpson

robert wolf is here. charles: millions out of work and more asking where the jobs. roberts wolf served on the job's council, he is here right now, thank you for joining us, bob. >> thank you. charles: the jobs council. what happened? listen, you know this cynical side, you know you about the fact of the matter is, it felt like 5 official big meetings, not a lot came out of it, no meeting in the last year, was this just a mirage? >> i disagree, thank you for having me oit was a two yore a year charter, let's talk about what was done, first year was a lot of work together to figgre out ideas ts to the u.s. more of whn , we came up with better ideas with better building, and small, usa initiative. travel and tourism initiative. the second year was about execution, which we're executing, the proof is working there are wins from this. charles: but, okay okay, now. realistically as a businessman, a lot of things you tick off seems they came from obama wish book. was this council put together to rubber-stamp his ideas? do you bring any fresh ideas to this? >> one, you had

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robert wolf has been our guest host. thank you for being here. it's been a lot of fun today. we'll see all of you tomorrow. join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. >>> good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm melissa lee, with carl quintanilla, jim cramer and david faber at post 9 here at the new york stock exchange. the day after we broke a lot of records for the u.s. markets, we're looking at an update for the dow. the s&p looking to give back just a little bit, along with the nasdaq. as for the picture over in europe, some comments from germans chancellor angela merkel about the euro saying between 130 and 140 for the u.s. dollar is normal. those are the comments being focused on this morning. a mixed bag in terms of europe and take a look at the picture in asia. the nikkei, the one to focus on, closing at a 4 1/2-year high in yesterday's session. >> fresh five-years for the s&p and dow, fresh 12 years for the nasdaq, helped in part by a renewed appetite for deal making. >> cracks in the housing picture this morning, january starts

national correspondent jim ak acosta has more on the brewing scandal surrounding new jersey's robert menendez. >> wolf it comes to the free flights that the senator accepted. he did not report them on the financial disclosure form and the question is what if anything the ethics committee will do about it. >> reporter: it was another day of a very public senator keeping a very low profile. outside at dinner thursday night featuring new jersey's top leaders bob menendez offered a few words in response to questions flood iing the office >> i have comments from my office. >> and the name is faceless and anonymous allegations. >> reporter: just as menendez is becoming chairman of the foreign relations committee, a key member of the ethics committee is indicating that the panel is looking into a raid by federal offices of his friend solomon melgin, and johnny issacson said we are aware of the raid on dr. melgen's office. the ethics committee will follow its established procedures in this matter. one of the issues is a flight he took to in 2010 because on the financial form that year, he said no, he did not

. >> robert, let me ask you about what -- and play the exchange between bob woodward and wolf blitzeris a pretty amazing thing that bob woodward says the white house did to him. here it is. >> i mean -- >> you're used to this kind of stuff, but share with our viewers what's going on between you and the white house? >> well, they're not happy at all and some people kind of, you know, said, look, we don't see eye to eye on this. they never really said, though, afterwards, they've said that this is factually wrong, and it was said to me, in an e-mail, by a top -- >> what was said? >> it was said very clearly, you will regret doing this. >> who sent that e-mail to you? >> well, i'm not going to say. >> that's impressive. "you will regret doing this," from someone in the white house? >> well, i think that's pretty outrageous if that came from someone in the white house. but erin, let's stop playing the blame game. stephen moore wants to blame the president and a lot of democrats want to blame republicans, but the whole idea is this whole sequester came out of the summer of 2011, when the r

wolf. >> we just saw the justices come n n in, not all. several of the republican named justices did not come in. they're not present. john roberts is there, kennedy, the justices nominate by democratic presidents are there as well. we're waiting for the cabinet to be introduced. jake tapper is up on the hill. interesting who is there, who isn't there. we're watching this unfold. >> one justice that was guaranteed -- oh, here is first lady michelle obama walking in right now. she's guaranteed to get applause from everybody. a bipartisan warm welcome for the first lady of the united states. there she is. she's greeting dr. jill biden, the vice president's wife. dana bash, our chief congressional correspondent, is there. tell us what it's like in the room right now. >> as you said, there is definitely a warm welcome. i'm sitting right over where the republican side is. and not only are the republicans clapping for michelle obama. i can see several of the republican lawmakerses with their cell phones out taking photographs. and they're smiling and clapping. she's definitely somebody who has bipartisan adoration. that's a fair thing

reporter: and tom roberts points out that pope benedict will be remembered as well for doing more to actually address the abuse scandal than his predecessor john paul ii ever did. wolfs you know, pope benedict was also involved in a controversy in the united states over the actions of some american nuns. remind our viewers about this. >> reporter: that's right, not long ago, some american nuns challenged the church's teachings on home sexuality, on the male only priesthood. they supported obama's health care plan when the church spoke out against it. these nuns ended up being reprimanded. the nuns got a lot of support within the united states for their actions. it was controversial for the pope. he was also prompted to do that by some pressure from conservative religious figures in the united states. so that ended up being one of the more controversial moments of his papacy and it had to do of course with quite a few popular american nuns here in the united states. >> brian todd, thanks very much. and later here in "the situation room," i'll speak with cardinal theodore mccarrick. he is in rome right now and he's got some unique perspectives on what's going on. also