PRESIDENT OBAMA: My sense is that their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. That's the thing that binds their party together at this point. This is a major argument, obvious

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: First of all, Medicare is today looking after the poor. What Obamacare is doing is a huge expansion of it as a way to absorb people who aren't poor but above the line as a way to essentially have national coverage, almost universal coverage. You can argue yes or no on that, but that is what is being done. I think as a Republica

Chris Matthews: "It's a down and dirty world when you decide chopping down the government and hurting the economy is the smart move. But bring it all down is now the hard right battle cry. Slash spending, short the pentagon, screw up traffic control, whatever raises the noise level, bashes Democrats and lowers hope. Is this the tea party dream?

QUESTION: Did the White House or the administration make the Department of Defense wait to release the specific cuts on the sequestration until the last two weeks? It seems like we're just hearing about this. And General Odierno had said last week that they didn’t prepare for it very well because they didn’t think it was going to happen. J

QUESTION: And what’s the White House’s response to a letter from 15 Republican senators calling for the President to withdraw the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be his Defense Secretary? MR. CARNEY: There is so much I have to say about that. First, I would point you to Senator Shelby's comments this morning that he will support Senator Hagel

Former President Jimmy Carter says the infamous "47 percent" video is the reason why President Obama won a second term. Carter tells CNN's Piers Morgan that Obama thanked his grandson for uncovering the video. "When James went to meet President Obama, President Obama ran across the room, embraced him and thanked him profusely for his time," Cart

CNN reports there are growing questions and grumbling among Democrats and inside the Pentagon about Chuck Hagel.

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country. To be watching all of this, to be treated like this, to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it's being insulted? It just makes me ashamed. Seriously, man. Here we get worked up over $44 billion. That's the total amount of money that will not b

Daily Caller: In a video blog post headlined “Happy Birthday, President Mugabe,” CNN International’s Christiane Amanpour took time to commemorate the 89th birthday of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the internationally reviled dictator who has led the once-prosperous country into near-total economic and humanitarian ruin. (via

OBAMA: The other thing is, obviously, to reflect on where we've made progress and where we are still falling short. And you know, I think these are both the best of times and the worst of times for large portions of the African American community. I think if you work hard and you have opportunity, and you're able to take advantage of it, the sky is

"You have to pay for what you buy. In the tease that came on, I said that there wasn't a spending problem. There is a spending problem. What I meant by that was that you don't have a problem if you pay for what you buy," House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today.

The Morning Joe panel – including Mike Barnicle, former DLC Chair Harold Ford Jr. and Democratic strategist James Carville – discusses the polls results and the looming sequester cuts. "The sequester, not many people know what it is, but it sounds stupid and cruel. Therefore people think it’s a Republican thing," Carville said.

"I'd like to get as much stuff done as quickly as possible," President Obama said about his second term in an interview with Dan Ashley of KGO-TV, a local affiliate of ABC News in San Francisco. "Even though I'm just starting my second term, I know that, you know, once we get through this year, then people start looking at the midterms. And afte

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The fundamental issues is we have a president, who has created the largest deficits in the history of the Milky Way and he doesn't think that deficits are a problem. He's not interested in cutting a penny. He thinks that we need more stimulus now. He has this idea, 'Oh, yes, in the long run we'll cut down our deficit.' He s

Daily Show: Republican filibustering of Chuck Hagel's Secretary of Defense confirmation vote is tinged with a hint of junior high school-level pettiness.

British MP accused of racism after walking out of West Bank debate at university, saying: "I don't debate with Israelis"

"He cannot help himself, it is an addiction he has and he thinks that building up government and expanding programs is his mandate. And no matter what he does, it is going to be designed around raising taxes," former Gov. John Sununu (R-NH) said on the Wednesday broadcast of "Hannity." "The tragedy of what’s going on is that one of the constit

O'Reilly continues his discussion of what he sees as major problems in America. He criticizes a recent decision by a New Jersey court, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's support for abortion.

Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, and David Corn discuss the Republican Party's handling of immigration. They focus their discussion on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his exchanges with constituents at a townhall meeting.

Ed Schultz talks about North Carolina Governor Jim McCrory's tenure in office. Schultz criticizes McCrory for cutting unemployment insurance.

Former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to talk about the president’s political strategy to avoid the sequester.