french loaf smothered in sauce, cheese, served with home fries or grits. coming in at 27 -- can i hold it up for you? 27,000 calories right here. and i'm going to put that in front of our guest panelist today who is joining us is congressman aaron shock. he's the republican from the state of illinois who i saw your picture on the front of "men's health." >> i'm not eating a whole lot of those. >> that's not how you get abs like the congressman has. i should mention he is joining our panel and women have all been on twitter to have you here today. appreciate you being here. john is joining us as well as a guest panelist. and roland martin is with us as well. he looks a little tired. >> i actually just didn't even go to sleep. >> did you really not? >> anderson cooper to right here. >> we appreciate that. we know you have to run out at 7:15 because you do your hit with tom joyner and the "tom joyner morning show." don't take offense. >> i'm not mad at what you have to say. >> we have a lot to get to today. a guest list is steny hoyer, house democrat whip is going to join us in a moment and the texas representative jeb he hensarling, republican in congress. we're going to talk about the reaction from the state of the union address. house majority leader eric cantor will join was as well. and arizona senator and former presidential candidate john mccain will join us as well. we'll talk to him not only about the state of the union but what things look like as this entire gop race heads to the state of florida. let's get going. let's begin, in fact, with the president's state of the kr the. the speech was about reviving the american dream. he talked on a lot of themes of how he saw the nation could do that. here's what he said. >> right now our most immediate priority is stopping a tax hike on 160 million working americans. no bailouts, no handouts, and no co cop-outs. teachers matter. so instead of bashing them, we're defending the status quo. let's offer schools a day. i believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. i will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for american products. what's the stake on democratic values or republican values? but american values. >> democratic congressman steny hoyer of maryland joins us now live from capitol hill. nice to see you, sir. thank you forgetting up early with us. first and foremost, what did you think -- >> i would like to share your breakfast, soledad. >> i don't know, sir. this is not healthy. but you're welcome to join us for whatever you would like any time. what did you think of the speech? >> i thought it was an excellent speech. i thought it was a serious speech. we have a lot of challenges. the president obviously focused on what i think is critical to the american people, that's jobs, first of all, of course, said, and you quoted, that 160 million. we need to pass that payroll tax cut so we can keep our economy moving. but we've had an agenda we call it make it in america in the congress of the united states for the last two years. we've talked to the president about it. his manufacturing focus we think was absolutely right. we've lost 9 million manufacturing johbs over the lat 20 years. we need to expand our manufacturing sector. we need to make things here in america. we need to provide the kind of middle class jobs paying good wages and having good benefits that the american middle class needs to grow, not shrink. he also focused on obviously the successes we've had over the last four years. we are, in fact, better off than we were in january of 2009 today by the difference in a million jobs, lost 786,000 jobs in january. picked up 200,000 jobs this last month. that's a million shift. that's positive direction. but his point was, there is much yet to be done. not only in terms of growing jobs, making it in america, but also in getting our deficit down. those are the two major challenges. >> those are the highlights. that's some of the highlights. >> yeah. >> and i'll stop you there because i don't want to go through the entire speech. >> i hear ya. >> but, of course, the gop argument, sir, as you well know, is that here's what's also happened since president obama has taken office. 1.9 million fewer jobs. gas prices are close to have doubled at a record 46 million people are on food stamps. this is what the gop will be arguing as all of this moves toward the general election come november. what's your reaction to that? >> well, there's no doubt there was a deep hole, and as the president correctly pointed out, until his program was fully in effect, we continue to hemorrhage jobs. the month he took office otherwise known as the last month of the bush administration, we lost 750,000 plus jobs in one month. last month we gained 200,000 net jobs, 212,000 private sector, lost 12,000. unfortunate in the private sector. there is no doubt that the economy is reviving. the stock market reflects that. jobs reflect that. are we where we need to be? no. that's what the president said. we need to do more. we need to grow the manufacturing sector. we ought -- tax policy that encourages growth of jobs here in america. making things here in america. on the foreign policy front he was absolutely correct. we have our people out of iraq. we're drawing down in afghanistan. we have a savings that we can apply to infrastructure as his suggestion or other needs of the american people. but clearly i think it's -- i was surprised when the republican -- >> i'm smiling here because -- i want to stop you because -- and, you know, with all due respect to you, every political figure we will have on this show today, when you guys have the opportunity, you tend to go on and on on the side of the issues that you're interested in. and i greatly appreciate that. but i do want to get some questions in so let me stop you. >> sure. >> which is also a theme last night. the president said basically we need to end the notion that we're going to be locked in this perpetual battle and eric cantor tweeted a similar thing. so i threw up on the screen a minute ago approval rate for congress at something like 11%, which is really a disastrous figure. no other way to read it. what literally specifically, sir, happens now to bring that bipartisanship together? how does it happen? >> frankly, i think those people who have disappointment with the congress are absolutely right. the congress is not working. there's no doubt about that. we have seen the partisanship and senator mcconnell said his principle objective was to defeat barack obama. in order to defeat barack obama, he has to oppose policies that will make america better. that, i think, is not helpful. hasn't been helpful. continues not to be helpful. we've seen the same thing in the house. i have worked across the aisle to bring people -- >> what does work? give me one solution. >> sitting down with one another and talking with one another. we had a big thing about who are you going to sit with last night. i responded to a question about who are you going to sit -- i said, it's not so important as who we sit with, it's who we work with. the president said we need to work together. at the tend i thought he was power phil when he said, look, our men and women in the armed forces when we give them a mission, he doesn't care with it's republican or democrat or conservative or liberal or black or white, they work together to accomplish a mission. that's what the president urged us to do to show the patriotism to work to the not for political ends or political objectives but for policy objectives to make america better. i thought that was a powerful ending to his speech, asking for bipartisanship. hopefully we'll adhere to that. >> and kind of how he started the speech as well. steny hoyer was this morning. again, come and join us for breakfast any time you like. we appreciate it. >> okay. thanks a lot. >> let's get right to our panel. >> you get. you bet. my pleasure. boy, you politicians can talk and talked and talk and talk when asked a question. i get it. it's all spin. what did you think of the speech last night? >> you know, i guess thought if the president gives a good speech, it wasn't one of his best speeches but it was a good speech and he delivered it well. you know, i think at the end of the day what the country really wants is results. i think it's why you see both the president and congress' approval ratings at all time lows. >> how old are you? >> 30 years old. >> that's not so, so -- >> i haven't been here all that long. but, you know, i came here to -- >> i'm not taking any of the blame. >> 11% is not my number. >> i'm here to help solve the problems. >> truly, when you see a number like 11%, i'm curious do you say, oh, my god, this is a big, big problem? >> i go home every weekend and i know why they're frustrated. it's because they see the house and the senate not working well together. they see the congress and the president not working well together. i guess from my sense in the house the frustration is i feel we have advanced bipartisan legislation that should move. we passed a budget. the senate has not for over three years. the president in his three years as president has not been able to pass a budget. i don't care what party you're from. that's a failure of leadership for the president not to be able to advance a budget. even when his own party controlled the house and the senate. >> where are the areas that you see, and maybe john can jump in on this. where do you see a possibility of true bipartisanship. >> the president called for payroll tax deduction. the house did that earlier -- last year, as you done. >> that's a check, done. >> also no reason why we can't do that. >> what do you think, john? what else? >> i think that's an important area that has to be done but expires again at the end of february and nodes to be done and president challenged the house in december and got that two-month extension. but i think the one place in that speech where i thought that there was room for real compromise, that long section he did on clean energy and making america now the power house in clean energy around the goal, putting people to work doing that. i think that that's a place where maybe that, you know, you could find some bipartisan agreement. >> interesting, roland, you and i have been on the air together for a long time now because we are both nowhere near the ang of congressman and every year we have done the reprove value for congress and every year it's like, it's the worst ever. the next year, it's the worst ever. where do you see turning around that number of is it just not going to happen? >> i think we are such a divided country you're going to sew that continue. also, the voters out there are always complaining saying i wish you would get something done. i have to remind people, you're the very folks who send them here. it's hard for voters to sit here and play this little game of saying, oh, they're not working together, when in republican primaries, when in democratic primaries, you go to the far left or far right. so what you end up with is two parties with people at the extreme. that's the problem. you don't have enough moderates on both sides. >> we're going to continue our conversation with our panelists this morning. but there are other stories to get to. christine romans has those for us. good morning. >> good morning. start with breaking news of a daring overnight rescue in somalia. u.s. navy s.e.a.ls conducting a helicopter raid to free an american woman and danish man held hostage by suspected pirates over the last three months. are said to be in good condition and safe undisclosed location. president obama releasing a statement a short tape ago. jessica buchanan was selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for her health and well being. last night i spoke with jessica buchanan's father and told him that all americans have jessica in our thoughts and prayers, and give thanks a she will soon be reunite with her family. now, i guess we know why the president said good job to defense secretary leon panetta as he walked into the state of the union. >> good job tonight. good job tonight. >> all right. thousands of egyptians gathers in tahrir square to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the people's uprising. there is concerns about new clashes between the military and protesters today who are frustrated by the slow pace of change. looking at live pictures. they are frustrate bid the slow pace of change since hosni mubarak was forced out. the owner of the wrecked costa concordia cruise liner denies offering discounts on future cruises to passengers who are on board the concordia when it ran aground. the statement is in response to news reports that the cruise line was offering 30% off on future travel to some survivors. a massive solar flare triggering the strongest solar storm in years. waves of energy and radiation bombarding earth which can disrupt satellite transmissions and power grids. causing minor disruptions for u.s. airlines. delta altered routes for a handful of flights between detroit and asia. actress demi moore rushed to the hospital. tmz reporting a 911 call placed from her home monday night. they assessed her and took her to the hospital. her rep issued a statement to tmz, quote, because of the stress necessary her life right now, demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. she looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends. minding your business now, u.s. markets closed mixed yesterday. this morning futures on the dow and s&p 500 are down a little bit. s&p are the tech heavy. nasdaq are up. and it's all about tech today. apple shares are up 7 1/2% in premarket trading this morning. apple had another record blockbuster quarter. that the rate at the opening bell, apple will surpass exxonmobil as most valuable public company in the world. this is what the quarter was like. unbelievable. the company sold more than 411,000 iphones every day last quarter. they sold more than $171,000 ipads every day. soledad, these are things that didn't even exist a few years ago. apple's revenue, sales up 73%. >> the moral of that story. >> there is no recession in apple. >> innovation, innovation. that's right, no recession, innovation, innovation, innovation. we're going to continue to talk today about how you put that innovation to help bring the middle class up. conversation from the state of the union address yesterday. thanks, christine. appreciate that update. still ahead on "starting point," more reaction on the state out union, jeb hensarling will join us. secret kennedy tapes have been released. insight in the last three months of his presidency. we'll take a look at what those tapes tell us with a historian. and four police officers have been arrested, charged with profiling, terrorizing clergy and latinos. but it is mayor's stunning reaction that has us saying get real this morning. you're watching "starting point." 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[ male announcer ] apply online or at a bank of america near you. we're talking 3% back on gas. ♪ welcome back, everybody. we are coming to you live from the diner this morning in washington, d.c. we're talking about the president's state of the union address. in it the president pushed for a level playing field for all. calling it if defining issue of our time and called for a 30% tax on million dollar earners. republican congressman jeb hensarling in texas joins us from the hill. >> thanks, soledad. >> thank you. first and foremost, your thoughts on the president's speech last night. >> soledad, i'm usually encouraged by what i hear the president say. i'm just usually discouraged by what he does. to some extent he atted like he parachuted into town last night, he's been here for three years. all of his major policies have been enacted, health care plan, dodd-frank plan. each around every time he told us if we passed these the economy would improve and jobs would agree. instead what has had? almost 2 million more americans have lost their jobs on his watch and we have the highest sustained period of high unemployment since the great depression. unfortunately his policies have failed and we wish that he would try something new. it's a new year. republicans brought to him the keystone pipeline. last night the president said he wanted more jobs. he said he wanted more american energy independence. then it begs the question, why did he just bury 20,000 shovel-ready american jobs? so in that respect, it was disappointing -- >> i'm going to stop you there, sir. i hear you. let me go back to your first point and talk a little bit about the pipeline issue as well because some people have said it's not 20,000 jobs, others have said it's more about 6,000 jobs. 2 million jobs lost, i have a graphic because i want to parse through those numbers. when you look at that number. in 2008 right before the crisis it was down 3.6 million jobs. and then 2009 dropped to 5 million jobs. at that's in the month in fact first year of the crisis. look at this number in 2010, plus 943,000 jobs. right? so 2011, up 1.5 million jobs. this is a graphic exactly sort of symbolic of an improvement in the jobs? that decline was really at the start of the crisis that came from president bush? >> these aren't my figures. these come from the bureau labor of statistics. check it out. here are the facts. since president obama -- >> i think they're accurate but i think look at the time line. >> almost 2 million more people have lost their jobs. that's the fact. listen, we want our economy to improve. and by any historic standard we should have already been in full recovery. in fact, had this recovery followed the trend of all the previous post-war recoveries, americans would be thousands of dollars richer and millions more employed. but the bottom line is the policy of this president where he threatens more taxation, where he's drowning business and n. red tape with his health care program, where he is bankrupting our nation bringing our nation's first trillion dollar deficit second and third, i mean, he's caused small business toes no longer want to create businesses or hire new people. the president cannot escape responsibility for this economy. republicans have a plan for america's job creators and, in fact, we have 27 jobs bills that are stacked up like cord wood in democratic harry reid won't do anything with them. the president won't do anything with them. so, again, when the president speaks