in a battle with the white house over birth control. health care lawman dates employers provide it. catholics, some say it's against their fundamental beliefs. all that and much more ahead as "starting point" gets under way right now. ♪ can you come in and fix russell's audio? welcome, everybody. unbelievable, that's kathy's play list. she's a contributing editor for "the washington post" and founding publisher which i have been in a time or two. nice to have you. co-author of "grand new party" and russell simmons, mogul, founder of def jam and ceo of communications is with us. good morning. welcome. let's get under way. talking about the new investigation coming to us from "the washington post." nearly 50 lawmakers who helped direct earmarks to projects that potentially helped their own property or immediate family members. they say it benefits the public, not private interests. one of those who is on that list is the republican congressman joe barton, he is a republican from the great state of texas. he joins us now. it's nice to -- i think he is standing by. can you hear me, sir? okay. it looks like they're getting him ready. we'll stand by for congressman barton in a moment. the other thing congressman barton is going to discuss with us, he is a newt gingrich surrogate. as we head into the various contests, which no delegates will be awarded today, he is saying that his candidate is still in the race. russell joked this morn that none of the gingrich surrogates would talk to him, which is not the case, but we'll be chatting with him. it's interesting to see the big question there is, does he have the money to stay in the race, of course. >> no, he doesn't? >> can we comment on that? >> of course you can. jump on? >> all american politics is adding up to be. does he have the money? i spent a lot of time on this for years. more recently occupy wall street has brought this to america's attention. and then the greatest example of it is this republican primary. >> it's all money. our democracy is for sale. i've been work for a very long time. and now the constitutional amendment that's being discussed. a lot of religious leaders, african-american religious leaders have joined forces with i don't kn union leaders, ok ccupy the dre. >> catch-22. you're not in the game you get out spent and then you lose. >> 96% of the money have the money with. so instead of working for the people who elect you you ends up working for the special interests that paid you. and so the question is does gingrich have the money and does he have the relationships and does he owe the favors. therefore, if he does, maybe he could win. you notice what just happened, romney spent five times what he spent in florida and he won. >> you have president obama said -- >> if it was not for that money he wouldn't have won. >> president obama criticized the super pac money and now he has his on super pac. >> there's a wonderful new book called "rule and rue i" the history of the republican party since the 1950s through the 2000s. a big part of the story is moderate republicans tended to be supported by wealthy backers. and then as you regulated the campaign finance system as parties depended more on small dollar donations you saw an increase in ideological polarization and decrease in them working together to solve various problems. the story here is not so much that money is good or money is bad, it's that money ploes in the system in different ways and a lot of the regulations meant to put the little guy in the driver's seat actually backfired because back then you had a lot of backers who was like, we want to kind of have a broad-minded big tent party and so we're going to support people. candidates spend all their time chasing after donations. that dynamic has dramatically changed. similarly on the democratic side you see that labor organizations after restricting soft money donations to the parties, they have much less influence whereas now upper middle class, social liberals who make small dollar donations maybe influence. i wouldn't say that money is good or bad. i would say are the regulations actually serving their initial purpose or have they proved counterproductive? >> it's bad. i mean, ben is a person, jerry is a person, but ben and jerry is not a person. corporations are not people. it's ridiculous. the discussion that we should have public funding. we should have a democracy where each person has a vote and a vote matters. >> what do we do now? >> each person's vote matters. >> i love how the panel takes off without me. hi, i'm here. what do we do about it now, right? we followed newt gingrich as he was campaigning through iowa and then into new hampshire and so forth, one of his issues was, i would like to not have to run ads. i would like to be positive but i'm being hammered on the other side. >> the same amount of money should be public funding. >> eugene mcor think ran for president against lbj. nobody thought he had a hope. he ran a small campaign. they said he's dragging us through a war and we don't like it. when you have a public financing system the incumbents, the people all right in office, the the party that already exist are able to game the system to work to their advantage because they set the laws. they set the regulations. >> except they're in lord in office and except they already made the deals and already have money flowing. 94% of the time they win and they have the money and that's what incumbents do. the idea that there is a fair election now when it's all up to money is unrealistic. >> let me turn to our -- >> kathy and i are just going to start -- i can see how this morning is going to go. wow. no coffee for you, sir. all right. let's get to congressman joe barton of texas. good morning, sir. thanks for being so patient. we were all audioilogical difficulties. thank you. i want to talk to you about "the washington post" investigation. it's all into earmarks. they identified 50 members of congress who directed money to projects that were either very close to properties that they owned or connected to their families. and you were on that list of 50 lawmakers. talking about $3 million deal to widen a part of u.s. 287, i believe. it's near where you own a couple of homes. was there a correlation between the fact that your home was there and the fact that this deal was done? >> well, 50i've been in congres since 1985 and i have been working on u.s. 287 from course can that texas up to ft. worth, texas, that entire time. i live in a small town in dallas which is a community of approximately 15,000 people. every home in ennis, texas, is within two or three miles from 287 or the bypass that goes around it. and i have been successful over time in making 287 a four-lane highway from corsicana to ft. worth. that's totally on the up and up process. i would invite you and any of your cnn viewers that want to come down to texas and look at the u.s. 287 in my congressional district. i think you will see that it's a straight-up project. in my homes that you referred to are in residential parts of ennis, texas. i own no commercial property nor do i have options on any commercial property anywhere, not just in ennis, texas, but anywhere along the len of that highway. >> one of the complaints about the earmarks is they're not transparent. do you push for them to be more transpare transparent? >> of course, we're not doing earmarks in the house of representatives right now. but when we did do them, we had to sign a sheet, and i posted it on my website, and we also sent copies down to the local press. so we've been transparent for, i think, for almost the entire time that i've been in congress when we were doing them. >> let's turn around talk about politics in terms of the caucuses that are today. newt gingrich surrogate is what your role is on that front. how do you think it's going to go? you know, some people are backing away from predict that mitt romney is going to have a clean sweep of the contest today. do you agree with that? >> i think governor romney with his cash advantage, which y'all were talking about in the earlier segment, is going to do well. i think former speaker congressman gingrich is going to be competitive. i think he's really gearing towards super tuesday, which is the first tuesday in march. newt is the clear conservative change agent. his entire career has been about changing america in a conservative way. i think ultimately the republican primary and caucus voters are going to pick him over governor romney because newt is more conservative and he's been dedicated to doing that for a longer period of time. >> congressman joe barton of texas. thanks for talking with us. apologies for the audio problems earlier this morning. appreciate your time. >> no problem. turning now to syria. slaughter in nearly 100 more killed in homs. antiactivists are growing more desperate though. here's what they're saying. >> the entire world should be ashamed of what's happening here. everybody is just silent and looking at us being slaughtered every moment for no reason. just for wanting our freedom. it's too much, for god's sake. >> that is a terrible clip to listen to. jill doherty is live at the state department. jill, first of all, talking about that clip. there are many people suggest that syria is spiraling into civil war. is that the expectation at this point? >> i think you would have to say that, soledad, because you look at the situation right now. both sides are arming. and that is one of the problems. diplomacy hasn't been able to stop that. so you have to look at the options. could you do military action? well, president obama already said at least at this point that that is not an option. and many people who look at the situation say, look, this is a very different deal from libya where they did have military action. it's much more complicated. so what's the u.s. going to do? they're going for, of course, more sanctions, talking with the international community outside of the united nations to put on the pressure. they're also going to put pressure on russia by calling them out on the fact that they are providing their weapons and other countries providing their funds. >> and yet the foreign minister has arrived now in damascus which means, what exactly? russia obviously scuttled the security council's efforts to support the opposition. >> right. >> what's that meeting about? >> well, the meeting, you know, is essentially to do something, to try to get resolution of this. but one of the problems is, i was just reading a comment by the turkish prime minister who said, if you look at what happened at the u.n. and the action there where russia and china blocked things, he calls it a fiasco. and what he is saying is it's being interpreted in syria as a green light to do essentially what assad wants. so the prospects of something coming out of that are not very great. >> jill dougherty for us this morning. thank you, jill, for the update. look at the head loilines. good morning. >> good morning. dozen of mourners, many strangers, gathered in last night in washington state for a candlelight vigil honoring the memory of charlie and braid ddew we well. they say their father, josh powell well, hacked their two young sons with a hatchet before blowing up their home sunday, killing both boys and himself. more than 40 states have now signed on to a settlement plan that would help millions of homeowners whose mortgage is underwater. america's top banks would pay $25 billion to settle all the government lawsuits. the money would then be used to bring relief to struggling homeowners by lowering the principle they owe on the mortgage. several states, including new york, florida, california, still not on board. they're worried about their own investigations into the banks and giving immunity to bad actors. that's all holding things up right nounchts greece teetering on the edge of default this morning. leaders of greek's political parties met through the night trying to reach agreement on austerity measures in order to get a $170 billion bailout from the eu. three hours ago a nationwide 24-hour strike began with demonstrators vowing to close greece's ports, close the fo tourest sites and disrupt transportation. new york stogrowing concern greece, fixing the debt problems and avoiding default, those concerns and a deadline for the qualified for bailout weighing on markets this week. a source close to m.i.a. tells cnn the entertainer messed up. she feels awful about flashing the finger during her super bowl appearance. halftime appearance with madonna. the source, who is not authorized to peek speak to the mediation m.i.a. was amped up, adrenaline rush. she was not trying to send a message. she was just in the zone, soledad. >> that makes no sense. russell, you know her. you're our music moek gull. she gave the finger during the half time performance and now the source was saying she was amped up? >> maybe it's her normal performance. >> she gives the finger to her fans? >> imagine how exhilarating it is to do something a little transgressive in that setting. >> the idea, just the idea of the whole system, to say, you you know, young people, that's what they live for. so maybe it's something she's done in other performances and it was natural. >> natural? >> the whole thing worries me. all right. still to come this morning on "starting point," outrage over obama health care reform. religious hospitals now required to cover birth control. this is going to start august 1st. they say though it's against their beliefs. we're going to have a conversation with both sides coming up next. president obama originally said we should not fund super pacs, the group that can spend endless money but now changing his tunes. a school district with no zeros. fail the test, just take it again. we say get real this morning. you're watching "starting point." [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear. they are but this is important too. [ man ] the receivables. [ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. welcome back, everybody. there's controversy over a portion of president obama's health care law. it requires some religious affiliated organizations, university, hospitals, to cover birth control services under the programs. religious organizations are outraged over the mandate. they say it goes against their fundamental beliefs and the issue has spilled on to the campaign trail as well. listen to mitt romney from last night. >> this is a violation of conscience. we must have a president who is willing to protect america's first right, a right to worship god, according to the dictates of our own conscience. >> to have a conversation about both sides of this argument, republican congressman marsha blackburn joins us from tennessee and lieu ice ming is the deputy legal director for the aclu. congresswoman, let's begin with you. when you hear from mitt romney saying this is about the right to worship god, this is about religious freedom, how is this about religious freedom and a right to worship? >> well, it is about religious freedom because what has happened with the obamacare bill, soledad, is specifically this. that bill is about government force. government forcing their way into what you believe, what you're going to -- what you're going to be able to provide. and that is not what the american people want. what happened to the president saying, if you like what you have, you can keep it. well, we know that that didn't happen. >> let me stop you there. >> that didn't happen. >> let me stop you there for a second. >> sure. >> i want to bring you back to the original question which, is how is that about the right to worship god and how is that about religious freedom, because what it's saying, right, is that these churches have a very narrow -- only narrowly can get out of this requirement. if it comes to catholic universities, et cetera, they have to pay for contraception for their employees. >> for the employees -- >> they want to take them up on that, right? how is that about religious freedom. >> it is about forcing employers to provide things that go against their religious beliefs. and when you have individuals that go to church on sunday and put money in the offering plate, they need to be assured that that money is not going to go and pay for contraception item, for abortion pills. and this mandate covers all fda-approved medications. so what it does is go against what those religious beliefs are. i think that this is color lcle example where the federal government does not know best. and the federal government and the obamacare bill should not be forcing these employers to go against their religious beliefs. what's it going to do? >> let's bring louise in for that. what she's saying is that -- and they are requiring an employee to offer the choice of contraception for the employees. why shouldn't someone like a church who is against contraception say, why can't we opt out of that? >> this respects religious liberty. churches aren't, in fact, churches don't have to provide contraceptive coverage@as part of their package. what this rule says is institutions like hospitals and charities and schools that open their door to the public, serve primarily the public, don't have a primary purpose of religion, have to offer the same insurance everybody else does. 9 8% of american women use contraception. including catholics. this say it is you serve the public, you play by public rules. >> that 98% number and i've seen ranges between high 80s and 99% of women are using contraception. and if you look specifically at catholi catholics, they're actually high 80s that are using contraception. ultimately isn't that giving an option to people who have decided not to follow the church's teaching on this? >> well, what it is doing is forcing the issue of religious freedom, soledad. as you said in your first question, what this is is government coming in and saying to institutions that are founded on these religious beliefs that you are going to have to comply with this federal government mandate and -- >> but a lot of their employees aren't catholic, right? those are for people who -- employees who may not be catholic, who may actually be using contraception if they are catholic. >> it is a catholic employer. you've got 70 million catholics. you've got institutions, colleges. there are already lawsuits filed. the beckett fund has a couple of lawsuits filed fighting this on behalf of catholic institutions. and i hope that they continue to fight it every step of the way. this is a religious liberty issue. these religious organizations are now being forced by the federal government to come in and they're going to be pushed out of the health care arena. then two is going to step in and fill that void? it will be the federal government. >> let me play a little bit -- it's a letter, actually from cardinal o'malley. unless the rule is overturned, we catholics will be compelled and must be prepared to either violate our con shenses or drop health coverage for our employees, and suffer the penalties of doing so. louise, let me give you the final word on this this morning. how do you think this ends? >> first of all, i want to emphasize again the church has not interfered. people can hold to their beliefs and what we're doing here is nothing exceptional. asking employers to provide contraception for their employees. 28 states already do it. new york, california have the same exemption. this is a