Governments fiscal disaster. On the hill, a handful of republicans oppose lews confirmation but survived the process twice in four years at omb director and deputy secretary of state. We have jake sherman here. Were hearing yet another white man added to a cabinet with quite a few white men and dwindling number of females s. The president and the team feeling president to add some more diverse faces to the team . They released a photo showing that president obama does, in fact, have female advisers in the inner circle and more opportunities yesterday. Solis said she was stepping down from the Labor Department which she ran since the beginning of the administration. Transportation is a role that theyve been wishywashy on whether ray la hood would say and more opportunities. Susan rice is still around but a pr disaster for the white house. On the front page of new york times, not something you want to do as trying to get your second term rolling and get a head start in to a year full of budget fights. Right. Especially an election and very critical of the other sides lack of diversity. Valerie jarretts leg was in nights photo. Thats important. Are we going to hear pushback on this nomination at all from the left . Lew has less wall street fewer wall street ties than geithner an he was a coo at citigroup. He said during the 2010 crisis he didnt believe financial deregulation was a proximate cause of the crisis. Will we see pushback from the left on this confirmation . We saw Barney Sanders of vermont say hes against the nomination but theres another problem, too. House republicans who are the only republicans in control in town really almost despise jack lew, do not see him as an honest broker and someone to work with and a story on politico tomorrow im working on puts a nail in the coffin on tax reform and republicans trying to jump start for a long time and problems practically with House Republicans and negotiating budget deals, with jack lew. I mean, john boehner doesnt want him in the room negotiating. He will be in the backseat for the next couple of months after this fiscal cliff disaster but hes not going to have a problem getting through the senate and confirmed no. One really thinks this. Let me just ask you about that a little bit more, jake. He managed to rub some folks in the 2011 debt negotiations the wrong way. In the bob woodward book the prince of politics and quotes some as calling lew dismissive, obnoxious, disrespectful. Jeff sessions whos a Ranking Member of the Senate Budget committee put out a statement or will release a statement saying lew must never become the secretary of the treasury. Mike lee released a statement saying that the lew nomination was moving in the wrong direction. Are these outliers or do you expect some of that resistance to lew to build over the next week or so . I think its safe to say that republicans will not be rushing to support jack lews nomination but that doesnt matter a ton it doesnt seem like. As you said in the intro, he will sail through, he sailed through before, but theres resistance to working with jack lew from the right on capitol hill. Thats not an understatement. People do not like negotiating with him. Jack lew worked for citigroup but citibank and not really a banker, not part of the wall street club. Hes very little in the way of like traditional economic background we see in the sort of job. What does that signal to you for the president choosing him this way . I mean, jack lew, if you walk to people on capitol hill and d. C. They see him as somebody who really gets the budget process but youre right. He had the new years at citigroup and i think republicans are trying to hang around his neck at this point but that was kind of a footnote in jack lews career and ill probably be hammered for saying that but this is a guy that worked for one most prolific speakers of the house and i dont think when jack lew when the biography is some point written theyll talk a lot about the work at citigroup but how he is a fix xur of washington. Think of that as what you may but he is a fixture of this town and someone, one of those figures who knows how to get things done. For a second there, jake, i guess from the sort of progressive perspective, the concern of lew beyond any wall street ties or anything might be that if you welcome at the track record in the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations he was open to pretty significant changes involving social security, medicare, the medicare retirement age. A lot of reporting suggests he was in favor of a deal to raise the medicare retirement age. Are we to read anything in to use him as the point man of the negotiations in the upcoming negotiations about where the white house might end up on those questions . Well, i tell you what republicans are saying today on capitol hill and that is that they see this as a step in the wrong direction which for progressives is probably a step in the right direction if you could follow that because they think that every time they tried to float something on entitlements, jack lew shot it down and the president much more than open than jack lew to some of those changes so i think republicans think that this is a step in the wrong direction for them. But listen. Theres definitely always concern from progressives. I think thats natural. And this administration has broadly been open in words, maybe not in deeds, republicans would say, to changes to social security, medicare and medicaid. So i guess he falls in line. He has been resistant according to people involved in the negotiations to major overhauls to the entitlement system. You mentioned that republicans dont like negotiating with him. With is that because hes really good at it . Is it because hes hard to work with . I mean, is this a good choice for the president because hes hard nosed and a good negotiator or is it going to put a bad taste in republicans mouths . What the complaint always is about jack lew is he can never get to yes. And maybe that means hes a good negotiator for the president because the president might not have wanted to get to yes and not the guy to deliver that but thats been the talk in circles, people that have negotiated with jack lew over the last two, three years is that he can never get to yes. So whether hes reflecting the bosss view or a stubborn negotiator i guess is open to interpretation. Republicans certainly are up in arms today. Well, when we start to project out the negotiations, of course, up against several deadlines and one is particularly serious and thats the debt ceiling and a default is catastrophic economic ramifications for that. One of the thing this iss been generating some discussion this week is the idea that the president could take advantage of a loophole in the law and order the Treasury Department to mint and a platinum coin. Thats the loophole and worth like a trillion dollars and that could then be deposited in the federal reserve, would not go in general circulation and wouldnt affect inflation and continue to pay the bills without, you know, the consent of congress. This is a way around the debt ceiling if everything reaches a dead end there. Is there an indication some people are saying carney in the briefing did not, you know, rule this out all the way. Is there any indication this is on the white houses radar . Doesnt seem to be. I mean, the white house isnt even open to the 14th amendment saying the president could raise the debt ceiling and indicates the president could raise the debt ceiling without the consent of congress. Doesnt seem like theyd be open to Something Like this but covering it for three years, i really i guess i wouldnt be surprised if anything happened but this is not gaining real traction on capitol hill. And its tough to say what kind of what this kind of what people are calling a gimmick means for the negotiations. Republicans across the board blasted this idea and doesnt seem realistic especially as you said theres issues and not only debt ceiling, sequester and government funtding so if the president wants a deal on any of those, making a new coin to raise the debt ceiling probably wouldnt bode well for the totality of those negotiations. I would say minting a coin, it definitely is sort of gimmicky or silly and so is using the debt ceiling as a hostage taking technique so glad that they havent totally ruled that out yet and use it maybe as leverage in this upcoming fight. Jake, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, guys. Up next, the white house calling in the big guns to get on its message on gun control. A busy thursday at 1600 pennsylvania avenue and we have it covers here. [ female announcer ] Research Suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day womens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for Womens Health concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day 50 . Humans. Even when we cross our ts and dot our is, we still run into problems. Namely, other humans. At Liberty Mutual insurance, we understand. Thats why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates wont go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where, if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. Call. To talk to an Insurance Expert about Everything Else that comes standard with our base auto policy. And if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. Call. To switch, and you could save hundreds. Born to make mistakes Liberty Mutual insurance. Responsibility. Whats your policy . This reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work . You just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. Step 1. Eat the soup. All those veggies and beans, thats what may help lower your cholesterol and well thats easy [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. We learned today that Vice President joe biden will present his gun violence recommendations to the president next tuesday. This afternoon, biden sat down with the National Rifle association, a first for the obama administration. The nra says its membership increased by more than 100,000 since the sandy hook shooting. Attorney general holder is meeting with Dicks Sporting Goods and walmart. White house is calling in heavy hitters to change Public Opinion including bill clinton who denounced the use of assault weapons and the administration has the strongest ally in Gabby Giffords, herself a victim of gun violence but the president has work cut out for him. Nearly half of all americans oppose a ban or semiautomatic weapons including those in the federal assault weapons ban that expired near lay decade ago. So lets spin on all of this. I guess what this is building towards at least politically is the white house and allies want to try to isolate the nra, even on the right and within the Republican Party and so you have a meeting today with walmart, Dicks Sporting Goods. They want to take, you know, groups like that, businesses like that, interests like that and sort of pit everyone, this sort of wide array against the nra and dare House Republicans to side with this unpopular group. Im a little skeptical that anything is actually going to come out of this legislateively. We have talked about this before. I just think that the most if you look at 1968, 1993, 1994, three times with real gun control, and then half century, basically, democratic president , Democratic House and senate. The numbers are there for the party to move things. They just arent there not running the house right now and reminded that in 1994 with the assault weapons ban you can read the newspaper headlines may 1994 when Chuck Schumer of new york, this was his ticket to fame sort of got the assault weapons ban through the house. Overwhelming democratic control of the house. The headlines were, turning point in the war against the nra. The nras now in retreat. The dynamics have changed and we remember what happened after that. Paid a price. Democrats kind of backed off guns in clinton years and then gore losing the rural states and now again saying can they beat the nra . Im reminded all last year we talked a lot about republicans living in a bubble. Right . Sort of refusing to believe the reality of the election and how it was going for mitt romney and president obama. I think republicans truly believed that most of america hated the president. And that that would solve the election. Well, most of the country actually really liked obama. Whatever they thought of his policies and i think refusing to work in the realm of the real really hurt republicans. I would offer the same advice to some gun control advocates who often refuse to work in the realm of the real. I think they truly believe most of the country is antigun and despises the nra and that just isnt the case. Theres a great piece in Bloomberg Business week saying what explains the effectiveness of blocking gun control, the nra wins because its popular with a broad swath of americans. He says dan gross, the Brady Campaign president , promotes a common misconception that the nra bamboozled lawmakers in to thinking that the lobby is more powerful than it is like some kind of real world wizard of oz. And doesnt square with the facts. 45 of americans live in a home with one gun or more. 54 feel favorably about the nra so theres some reality that i think needs to be injected into these debates and if advocates deal with that reality, they might be better positioned to have some of their arguments. The reality is why the nra wins and represent gun manufacturers and bullet manufacturers and theres a ton of money in that and they have more money to play with. I dont think theres any illusion that many people, most people are gun rights people. And the gun control people are the minority. I think thats quite clear. Im happy to see people like Gabby Giffords come in to the debate and lorraine jobs, steve jobs widow. Come in to the debate helping giffords with her pac and saying to have an equal amount of money, perhaps more money to play with than the nra has. Happy to see the explainer in chief bill clinton come in to the debate and important to have somebody like that who is a gun control i mean a gun safety and gun culture person like the debate you had with howard on the show yesterday. Outlined the sort of cultural difference. You are a gun person. Youre a hunter. You know all about guns. Howard doesnt. I dont know everything about guns but that doesnt mean we cant have a part in the discussion. Yeah. Gun safety, reasonable gun laws. I mean, one study you cited and you cited but universal background checks polls well. Doesnt change your ability to have the guns you want to have. And we have talked about executive action from the white house. I think its almost certain that well see some executive action and the right not all of the right but some of the right using that as a boogieman. Here he comes to take away your guns. Obama is a friend to the nra. I would not say hes friend to the nra. Expanded gun rights. Only done that. Not trying to take away guns. What well see is not taking away anyones guns or banning anything but doing things legal, setting up a database and money for police and mental health. Things we can do. To your point about the nra, this is not unique to the nra, a lot of Interest Groups do, theyre good at convincing the members that any gun restrictions is a slippery slope and so when you look at the polling, it reminds of the Health Care Debate in reverse in a weird way looking at the polling asking broadly about gun rights, people are supportive of the 2nd amendment, of gun rights in general, of the nra in general because thats what they associate the nra with. As youre pointing out, when you ask about some of the specifics like background checks in particular, people are very supportive of tightening up background checks so i think as democrats, as people who are wanting to have this conversation, it is so important to be really, really specific at all times about exactly what you are talking about and what youre advocating for and, steve, to your point, i share your skepticism anything meaningful other than the president could do with an executive action will happen with this congress but i do think that the strategy theyre pursuing of basically pointing the painting the nra and the republicans in to a corner saying this is one more issue, one more example where the republicans are extreme, out of touch and totally unwilling to bend on the ideology, i think that can be a useful tool in order to take back the house in 2014 and i know it looks like a long shot right now but depending on how the debt ceiling negotiations go, depending on what how much of a disaster the republicans look like, i think theres a real possibility that in 2014 that could happen. And then we could have then we could have change as you were saying once democrats are in control of everything. Yeah, yeah. Toure gets that disconnect there. The only action of obama in the first term to make it easier to bring them in to National Parks but i think in the nras mind, you know that scene from the american president. Michael douglas says, im going to get the guns. And its the nra. Obamas just waiting to do that. Its like the Clint Eastwood thing. Talking to a chair, an imagined obama. Not talking to the real obama. Not criticizing a real obama and possible and theyre criticizing an imaginary obama. Hees a what i was saying not intentionally. What i think the what i would say politically the nra would say is they have to do this to restrain him from saying im going to get the guns. There are liberals that would like him to channel Michael Douglas more. Well see what happens with haul of this debate. Odds are youll hear president obama mention gun violence in his inaugural address on january 21st taking the oath of office twice, once at the white house on january 20th at mandated by the constitution and then at a public swearing in ceremony at the capitol. On the 20th, using the