joining me now is congressman adam smith and sebastian junger. thanks to both of you for being with us. congressman, let me start with you, because obviously the country is in a different place than 2001. after spending $338 billion on this war alone, americans are asking can we afford it, where do you think we are right now? >> i think the focus always needs to be on our national security interest. when we started the war in afghanistan, it was in direct response to 9/11. this is where the plotters were, and we went in there to make sure they could not carry out further attacks. the issue was once they were driven out, how do we make sure they don't come back, have a stable government in afghanistan, not just in afghanistan, but pakistan as well. >> that's one of the places where a lot of people see the problem is the stability of the government, and obviously the corruption there. we spent what, $57 billion on rebuilding, and by everybody's accounts, we're not sure where a lot of that money has gone. >> right, which where i was going, which is

i read a lot of what comes out, so i think sebastian junger is a phenomenal writer. and he's hard core. that guy will go to afghanistan and embed himself. while i'm embedded in vegas, he's embedded in afghanistan. good for him. [laughter] who else am i reading? i read it all that comes out pretty much, i loved the hunger games trilogy which is odd that i would like it, but the really good. >> right, right. and do you see yourself, are you more comfortable now with screen writers as opposed to other authors? >> my friends? my friend aren't, i mean, i have a lot of writing friends, but overall, you know, i don't know that many screen writers because i don't live in l.a., and they're all there. but, yeah, you know, i don't have a lot of close friends who are writers. i have a couple. a guy named matthew pearl is a good friend of mine, and a guy named joe fippedder who has a book out -- fender who has a book out. we don't sit around in turtle necks and drink coffee. >> right, right. [laughter] >> yeah. but, yeah. >> we're starting to come up on the time, as we say ben is

. >>> coming up, sebastian junger will be here. [ wind howling ] [ technician ] are you busy?se new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> hey, welcome back to "morning joe." with us now, professor of economics at the university of chicago's school of business, and former chairman to the white house council of economic advisers, austan goolsbee. i want you to be as tough with the professor as you are with kevin mccarthy. ready, set -- oh, he's good. so that's it. so i'm going to have to play bad cop on this one? >> yeah, i'm a little -- kevin lost me on herman cain. i gave him a by. >> i love you, austan. and as you know, i'm a uniter, not a divider. i'm just not. let me ask you this, obviously you heard a shocking number. $278,000 to create each job in the stimulus package. first of all, have you heard a number like that before? secondly, even if that's