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Entrepreneurship, it may go down, not up, and we'll be in even a more difficult situation. so we have to recognize the reason we had the leading economy in the world, it's not an accident. it's because we've been the most entrepreneurial nation. and we need to take steps now as other nations figure that out to really double down on what has been the secret sauce powering our economy. so yes, we need to focus on spending. yes, we need to focus on tax reform simplification, revenues, but we also need to focus on growth, and the best place to focus is entrepreneurship which is access to capital i...

His confirmation hearing took a little bit of -- what's the word -- the ballast, if you will, out of those who were inclined to support him. plus you've got, if you will, typical washington dysfunctionality and the idea of holds and filibusters and all of that slowing down the workings of government. but i actually think that john mccain's -- >> you know, though, richard that in the end, we're hearing in the end most likely he's going to pass and be secretary of defense. so why hold him up over a recess when the pentagon desperately needs somebody at the helm? >> because in a funny sort of way...

It is friday and one hell of a good friday for those thousands of passengers who are now back on land and off that cruise ship. it's february 15th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have the former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst, ed rendell. the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. good lord, what's going on in washington? and in washington, nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell. >> good morning. >> joe, you know, i always had a thing about cruises. i just -- i'm not -- >> same...

Haass. >> the new leader of china, and what he's essentially saying is we're not going to go the way of the old soviet union. i'm not going to be gorbachev. all you people pressuring us to open up to reform, we're not going to go down that path. chinese leaders wake up every morning. they worry about internal disarray. they look at the size of their country. 1.3 billion people. the dialects, the ethnic range and so forth. and they say, we have got to keep a lid on. that's why you need a communist party. they don't take their country's future for granted. and it's just to me a warning. we in th...

Republicans using what leverage they have but not wanting to go all the way to the mattresses. i don't think they want to do that on hagel. it's still a question of how strong hagel comes out when he's confirmed. >> joe, before i go to carl and let him chomp on this disagreeable comment, i do want to ask you about it because on a serious level, because isn't washington about an exchange of ideas, about sometimes disagreeing? and isn't there a problem with a leading republican saying if you don't fall in line on every issue and if you disagree, you are not a republican? >> well, let me now defe...