good evening. i'm erin burnett and "outfront" tonight, we have breaking news. rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse announces tonight he'll introduce a warren buffett rule bill in the senate. first touted by president obama in his state of the union last week, the bill would require those earns more than a million dollars to pay at least 30% in taxes. that's an effective rate. the marginal rate would be 44%. he comes "outfront" tonight. we appreciate you taking the time, sir. thank you very much. >> it's good to be with you. >> a lot of people say this bill isn't going to go anywhere. you're going to get fights from republicans. millionaire's taxes didn't pass in the senate last year despite the democrats there. is this really a move for a political headline or something you think will actually pass? >> i think there's a good chance that it can pass. if it has difficulty on its own, bear in mind at the end of this year, all of the bush tax cuts expire and that's going to motivate everybody in washington to rethink tax policy. it doesn't make any common sense to have people making say a quarter of a billion dollars a year paying a lower tax rate than their plumber does. >> do you think that, the question about the bush tax cuts, because they are scheduled to go away at the end of the year. that would mean marginal rates go up. did you get the same thing by waiting or do you want to raise those rates ooen higher than they would when bill clinton was president? >> theory, the rates for high income earners are supposed to be 35%. in the booming clinton economy, it was 39%. my legislation would put a minimum 30% floor on for people who have earned more than a million dollars in that particular year. so it basically is a way to make sure that whatever loopholes there is in the tax code, you pay a minimum close to the statutory rate of the 35, 38%. >> one thing i've been curious about, the president sees this as an issue of fairness, but i don't understand where the 30% rate comes from. it's 44% marginal. how did you pick that number as fair? what was the math and intellectual fairness question? >> we were looking at a couple of different numbers, but when the president said 130%, there was no point opening up air space. that was one of the ones we had been looking at. it is close to what in theory really high-end income earner rs supposed to pay. the 35 or 39.6. it allows some room so people giving big donations can still get credit for it without having that rubbed out and allows some wiggle room, but if the intention is to people in this country who earn that kind of money are supposed to pay 35%, 30 is pretty close to that, again, leaving a little room, because it is intended to be a minimum. but it's a lot better than the folks say in the helmsly building, who on average pay 14.7%, which is less than their door man and janitors pay. >> would you let corporations not pay taxes on the dividends then and i ask because it's important. it's not just wealthy people that get dividends. it's retired americans. who also will be hurt by capital gains rates going up as they do urn the president's plan. >> well, they won't be affected by this plan unless they are taking in more than a million dollars a year in capital gains and dividends and in that case, i think they should pay the taxes that everybody intended, which is 35% and this 30% floor will help close up some of the loophol loopholes. >> so, will you fight the president when he wants to increase capital gains so the retirees don't have to have that increase? >> i think we're going to have to do a comprehensive bill that addresses that. it's supposed to go up to i think 23%. >> that's right. >> at the end of the year. and you know, it needs to be balanced overall and i'm not going to fixate on any one part of it, but i believe it's an important part to make sure the people who we have agreed are supposed to be paying 35 or 39%, don't have a lot of loopholes, less than their plumber, secretary, truck driver. >> right. now, just to make the point, the effective rate, experts have told us, would be 44%. not 35 or 39. 44, maybe something people are fine with, but you raised something that made me want to ask this. i've got mitt romney's tax return. take this multiplied by 145 and you get 72,536. isn't the problem not to mess with the rate here or there, but to throw out the whole thing, come up with the fair amount for everyone to pay? >> this would semp fi things a lot because all the gimmicks that blow up people's tax filings into big, fat packages really aren't useful if you have a 30% minimum. i think this is actually a step in favor. >> not just another amt? >> i will say, you know, americans spend 6 billion person hours a year complying with this tax code. and simplification is a very important goal and i think will help make it fairer, but i think most americans are really fed up with how unfair is tax code is and how it gives so much in the way of goodies to people who have the resources to take advantage of its loopholes. >> i think everyone would agree. the system is so broke and in washington, there doesn't seem to be a lot of frankly, courage, to throw the system out. mess around the edges, but leave the 72,000 pages in place. >> i hope we get that and i hope the january 1st, 2013 date provides a motivation. >> thank you very much. and you just heard him give that story. and a billion dollar election. a very small number of people have a lot of influence. they're the donors to the super pacs and tomorrow, we may find out a lot more. john avenlon and ken, let me stt with you. i was looking through the last disclosures, which were since last summer, frankly a little absurd. what are we going to hear tomorrow? >> well, hopefully, what we're going to see are contributions to all these super pacs and all the presidential campaigns through the end of last year. now, that leaves rather a big hole because as you mentioned, there's been a lot of action since we saw the last report and even more of it in this month alone. when many of the major contributors really opened their wallets and checkbooks to write huge checks to some of these super pacs and we're not going to see those contributions because they don't fall within the reporting period. however, what we will see are a number of large contributions to mitt romney's super pac, which has spent upwards of $17 million, mostly on ads attacking newt gingrich and we're going to see a lot of money into that, including a lot from the financial industry i imagine. possibly new names, folks who probably wanted chris christie to run and were disappointed when he didn't. >> it's interesting looking even john avlon through last summer, private equity guys. bob perry behind swift-boats, he was on there. but you were going to get the chris christie guys. >> sure. the the super rich go to the super pacs because they can have maximum impacts. because disclosures lack, there isn't the kind of transparency we were promised to go with these infusions of cash. they have put a finger on the scale that can change momentum very, very quickly. it's very a distorting impact on our democracy. >> and we're not going to see sheldon adelson, the guy giving perhaps the largest political contributions of all time, isn't going to show up, right? >> that's right. because his contributions came in january and came in large part if you talk to people around that super pac and who are familiar with him and his giving, they say they came because he saw his long time friend, newt gingrich, getting absolutely savaged by ads from this pro mitt romney super pac, restore our future, and he felt he had to come off the sidelines and open up his checkback in a big way. we've heard $10 million, 5 million from his wife and that's probably just the start of thiz things because newt gingrich wants to take this campaign through the convention and with the help of wealthy ben factors, name sheldon adelson and his wife, he is able to do. >> and what's significant is this avalanche of negative ads we've seen. certainly in florida, 15 million is going to be spent by romney in this state. we've seen in florida, amazing statistic i just got. i spoke to a guy named rich goldstein who heads up an organization that tracks the spending. he told me that 93% of the ads in florida alone have been negative. >> shocking. >> that is an extraordinary new statistic and the bulk has come from these super pacs. >> i have to say, i chuckled and enjoy hearing some of the campaigns start to complain about those super pacs are not helping them out because you're too nasty. you've got to be careful what you wish for. thanks to both of you. right now, nuclear inspectors on the ground in iran. are they going to find anything? could it lead to a war? tas real question in this election season. and a michigan mother found strangled in her mercedes. was it a random murder or did she know her killer? and facebook rolling out a new timeline. we're going to explain why this has so many people very, very concerned. passport? here you go. driver's license. past five years' tax returns. high school report cards. and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you know, you really should provide us with a checklist of documents we're gonna need up front. who do you think i am? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need up front. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. tonight, u.n. inspectors are in iran to see if the nuclear program is for nuclear weapons or power. but how can the inspectors or anybody in the u.s. military or intelligence services know? it's parking lt of the equation could lead to a dangerous showdown. is the u.s. military even ready though is a fair question because today, we learned the pentagon does not have a bunker buster bomb strong enough to destroy iran's nuclear facilities. they're working on one. it will be a 30,000 pound bomb. with tehran threatening to destroy israel and building up its navy and gulf, it's time to launch a preemptive strike. joining us now, retired air force colonel, good to have you with us. matthew, let me start with you. if based on the position that you believe that iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon and leon panetta saying they could within a year possibly, why would you think a strike might make sense and how would it work? >> i'd be delighted if the current policy could work, but it's unlikely to convince iran to give up its program. that means in the future, the united states is likely to be faced with a difficult choice or conducting a military strike designed to prevent that from happening. a strike is a least bad option. would be costly to deter an deterrence might fail. on the other hand, united states could destroy iran's facilities and the consequences could be managed and be less bad than a nuclear iran. >> could the consequences be managed without the way most of us conceive a war, troops on the ground? >> i'm afraid not. and here's the problem with the idea of going to war at this particular moment in time. we militarily as you mentioned in your earlier set up for this piece, are not ready for it yet. the bunker buster bomb, the 30,000 pound mop, is a very -- >> oh, mop. that's the akronim. >> a very good weapon, but still in a testing phase and not ready t to do the type of damage we need. you need to totally eliminate the nuclear threat, but if you do that, you can't, you have to be assured you've gotten everything and unfortunately, we cannot be assured that we have taken care of the -- that we would be able to take care of every single element of the iranian nuclear system. they've got quite a system of underground bunkers, of tunnels. they have quite a system of command and control facilities and defenses to protect those, so it's a very, very tough job and quite frankly, i would have to say we're not ready yet and it's unfortunate, but we have to live within the reality of that fact. >> matthew, what do you think about that? the facilities are under ground, we're not able to launch a strike. >> that's not right. the department of defense received delivery in november, so they are ready to go and could destroy these facilities, so natons facility as you point out is buried and hardened. under about 75 feet of dirt and concrete, where as the pen trart can penetrate up to 200 feet. so there's a lot of confusion ond what israel can do. the united states has greater capabilities and we could destroy even these buried and hardened facilities. >> colonel, we remember when colin powell had the quote, unquote evidence of iraqis moving things around, right? that was supposed to be evidence, but turned out to be inaccurate and untrue. so, what -- how are we really going to know what iran is doing? because you don't want to be too late and be wrong, but certainly, america doesn't seem to have a the will to take a leap of faith. >> we have to be right. that's the precise issue we're dealing with here. intelligence by its very nature is an improvised science and art and because of that fact, there are a lot of things that come out in these types of deliberations. when we look at going to war, we have to be very certain about that commitment. because quite frankly, we have to be careful that the iranian don't draw us into something they want. they have a much more really th theocratic way of looking at things. it's an approach we don't share. and because of that, it would be very, very dangerous to be drawn into a struggle with iran before we're ready for it. in the massive ordnance penetrator has been delivered to the department of defense, but they probably will need even better bombs besides the massive ordnance penetrator to do the job and that is going to be the key element that we have to work with in this particular case. >> thanks very much to both of you. got to be one of the worst ever. mop is hardly what comes to mind when you think of what that thing is capable of. but everyone, tweet me and let me know if preemptive strike would make sense. the winner take all sunshine state primary is away. and there's another big event around the super corner. the super bowl. we're going to tell you a number of things that you probably don't know about it. me what i . our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ you know, typical alarm clock. i am so glad to get rid of it. just to be able to wake up in the morning on your own. that's a big accomplishment to me. i don't know how much money i need. but i know that whatever i have that's what i'm going to live within. ♪ ♪ nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingredients you can see. like whole roasted nuts, chewy granola, and real fruit. nature valley trail mix bars. 100% natural. 100% delicious. the super bowl less than a week away. point spreads, cost of commercials, total viewers. we decided the crunch the numbers on something we enjoy at super bowl parties. food. last year, the official pizza sponsor was papa john's and they sold more than 1 million pizzas on super bowl sunday. this year, they're going to give that many pizzas away for free as part of their con toss promotion. but that's only about half the number of pizzas that pizza hut expected to sell. they plan to use 1200 tons of dough, 900 gallons of sauce to create more than 2 million pizzas. during the game, americans are expected to consume about 4,000 tons of popcorn. starts to make you feel sick, doesn't it? 14 thousand tons of chips and get ready, just think about the other end. one billion chicken wings. you know, chickening, they were f flying around. tonight's number. 20. according to 7-11 sales, sales of tums go up 50% before super bowl. still "outfront," the "outfront 5." tracked down. >> out there is how we ended up catching him. >> a focus on the husband. >> he is an innocent man. has a wonderful family. >> all this "outfront" in our second half. [ thunder crashes ] the first and most important step toward accomplishing something is showing up. [ thunder crashes ] and with the most advanced all-wheel-drive system in its class that adapts to conditions as they change, now all you have to worry about is what you accomplish when you get there. ♪ if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ male announcer ] enbrel. the #1 biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. we start the second half of the show with stories we care about, do the reporting and find the "outfront 5." sheldon whitehouse announces he'll introduce a warren buffett bill which would require those earning more than $1 million to pay 40% marginal. >> i think there's a good chance it can pass. if it has difficulty passing on its own, you know, bear in mind that at the end of this year, all tax cuts expire and that's going to motivate everybody in washington to rethink tax policy. >> the senator also said he believes the bill would help simplify the tax code, which is hold on, 72,000 something pages long. it's all just rounding right? two, the u.s. senate e voted to discuss legislature to prevent insider trading. the vote, 93-2. both republicans and democrats in congress have expressed support. the house said today it would consider the bill in coming weeks. three americans have taken ref fuji unlg in cairo. however, officials tell cnn they don't believe they're in danger. u.s. citizens can seek refuge in an embassy if they feel their lives are in danger. one of the americans has been prevented from leaving and is in fear he may be arrested. the son of ray lahood. four, facebook has started switching over its users to a new layout called timeline. the feature shows your facebook experience since you joined the site. one tells users that they should use the period to preview their timeline and take that opportunity, young people, to remove the picture of you doing a keg stand or something else, rig right? get rid of it while you can. the other option would be not join facebook. it is been 178 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. new data shows spending was flat in december, but incomes rose by the most in nine months. the savings rate rose to 4%. less than 24 hours from now, we could be learning which candidate won the florida primary. 7:32 eastern, we might be able to give you an indication. more than 632,000 people in florida have already voted. that's more than the total number of people who voted in south carolina's primary