lew, and he trust jack lew. if you look at all of these cabinet appointments that we've seen and some to come, it is about the president's comfort level in the second term. >> he was just re-elected, he's the president of the united states. he deserves to be comfortable. if you can hold on, we still haven't received that famous two-minute warning. we'll take a quick two-minute break and be right back. where is flo? anybody know where flo is? are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband? well, yeah, yes. the "name your price" tool. you tell us the price you want to pay, and we give you a range of options to choose from. careful, though -- that kind of power can go to your head. that explains a lot. yo, buddy! i got this. gimme one, gimme one, gimme one! the power of the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. >>> we waiting for the president of the united states to walk into the east room of the white house. we'll show you a picture now. he's going to nominate jack lew as white house chief of st

i have the greatest respect for jack lew. i know he is main of exceptional judgment, calm under pressure with an extraordinary record of accomplishment and experience. over decades spent at the center of american economic policy. he is committed to defending the safety net for the elderly and the poor. he understands what it takes to create the conditions for stronger economic growth and broader economic opportunity. he understands that to govern responsibly is to govern with a recognition that we have limited fiscal resources. like jack, have i spent my professional life in this world of public policy and public service, and as all of you know, our families carry a large share of the burdens we assume in public life. i feel incredibly fortunate that my wife, carol, and my family have been willing to allow me to do this. i thank them for their support and their patience and i understand their occasional impatience. [ laughter ] >> i want to express my admiration and my appreciation for the women and the men of the treasury de

>> president obama nominated jack lew as a presidentry secretary. >> jack lew who? >> jack lew. who is jack lew? who is that? >> stephen: yeah, who is that? jack lew. 'cuz i don't know who jack lew is-- and neither do you. that's not a picture of jack lew. this is, and you didn't notice. you racist. [cheers and applause] folks, there's big problems with this guy. >> heard the discussion that republicans really just don't get along with this guy, they don't agree with his philosophy, they think he's really hard to deal with in negotiation. >> stephen: no no, jimmy-- -- no, no, the big problem. >> there's jack lew's signature. >> stephen: folks, once lew's treasury secretary, this pubic hair masquerading as an autograph will appear on all our money, okay? making our currency a laughingstock. our money should have nothing ridiculous on it, just old men in wigs and pyramids with eyes. is this even a signature or did he start drawing charlie brown and give up after the hair? [ laughter ] good grief. and it got no better when lew explained his fiscal philosophy, saying quote "i descri

i have the greatest respect for jack lew. i know him as a man exceptional judgment, calm under pressure, with an extraordinary record of experience over decades spent at the center of american economic policy. he is committed to defending the safety net for the elderly and poor. he understands what it takes to create the conditions for stronger economic growth and broader economic opportunity. and he understands that to govern responsibly, is to govern with the recognition that we have limited fiscal resources. now like jack, i've spent my professional life in this world of public policy and public service, and as all of you know, our families carry a large share of the burdens we assume in public life. and i feel incredibly fortunate that my wife, carol, and my family, have been willing to allow me to do this. and i thank them for their support and their patience and i understand their occasional impatience. i want to express my admiration and my appreciation for the women and men of the treasury department. those who came t

>>> the cabinet reshuffle continues, and next in the hot seat, jack lew. it is wednesday, january 9th, and this is "now." >>> joining me today, "rolling stones" eric bates, heather mcgee, former traveling press secretary for the obama campaign jen psaki, and the effortlessly elegant msnbc contributor jonathan capehart of "the washington post." at a time of great fiscal uncertainty and belt tightening, president obama is poised to nominate as the next treasury secretary a man who brings his lunch to work every day, a cheese sandwich and apple to be precise, president obama will reportedly tap jack lew tomorrow to replace timothy geithner. lew would take over on the eve of another debt ceiling battle. in round one during the summer of 2011, boehner's top staffer called lew's debt ceiling negotiations disrespectful and dismissive. according to david plouffe, that is because jack knows the numbers and republicans couldn't pull a fast one. two names are being floated to replace lew, dennis mcdonagh, currently his deputy national security adviser and ron klain.

jack lew is not that man. the original messages that we're now getting from a number of republican senators who will have to consider this nomination, many are saying that they will go through the vetting process. see what jack lew has to say from confirmation hearings as the information comes out. they want a plan to address spending. many are skeptical they're getting it from the treasury nominee or from the administration. back to you. tracy: rich edson, thanks for all that. ashley: jack lew then must face the senate before he takes the helm at treasury department. with the top republican on budget committee already speaking out against lew are we in for a bumpy confirmation process on capitol hill? joining us bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill." it could be interesting, bob. we mentioned senator jeff sessions, top ranking republican on the senate budget committee and he said, quote, in a statement that is now at, out, jack lew must never be treasury secretary. he has critics but do you think he will

and i would say this with respect to jack lew. i am much more concerned by the fact that he presided over the facts of a budget proposal from this president. my friends on the other side of the i love to go back to the president. you know how many votes as budget proposal got the united states house and senate? the same number that my daughter's budget proposal. so i am concerned over the fact that he cannot draft a budget. if he is willing to unveil the most closely guarded national secret that we have, which is president obama's and i will be happy to give him a listen. i am more troubled about mr. mr. lew's ability to garner a single vote on capitol hill of. lou: already reminding us of lew's new seat. >> it didn't take long. lou: congressman, we appreciate you being here. congressman trey gowdy. we will have much more on the gun-control debate throughout this broadcast. president obama was against them before he was for them and now he has made the bush tax cuts permanent. or at least 90% of us. but the white house has gone si

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. there's definitely always concern from progressives. i think that's 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 don't like negotiating with him. with is that because he's really good at it? is it because he's hard to work with? i mean, is this a good choice for the president because he's 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 he's 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 that's

>>> there's jack lew's signature. we could have a pretty ugly signature on our dollar bill. >> i mean, is this even a signature? or did he start drawing charlie brown and give up after the hair? good grief. and it got no better when lew explained his fiscal philosophy saying, quote, i describe budgets as tapestry. nation.s woven together, it >> i tried. still doesn't even look good. good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show that's proudly ranked just ahead of doctors at our penmanship class. we have a lot to talk about, including a white house meeting on gun control between vice president biden and leaders of the national rifle association. i'll tell you why the nra leaders walked away disappointed. plus, the pentagon tightens its belts ahead of possible cuts. >>> first, our top story at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. amid a national debate about guns and violence, a california teacher and a campus supervisor are being credited for heroic actions yesterday during yet another school shooting. i

lew the individual and what jack lew has stood for historically in his career and more about this administration's fiscal policy you can expect to see these confirmation hearings will be a proxy for the looming debt ceiling debate and other debates going forward about the administration's fiscal plan. >> woodruff: jared, whator all does this choice say about what the president's priorities are when it comes to the economy? >> i think it says two things. one is that the president wants jack lew there for these upcoming fiscal deadlines. the sequestration, the debt ceiling, things like that. he knows that jack is not just a tgh negotiator and i think this next point has gotten mixed he's a successful negotiator. i know republicans are complaining because he took a tough line back in 2011 with a lot of tea party folks but in fact he's been closing deals for 30 years the second thing is jack understands what it means, a very important part of the president's second term agenda. he understands what it means to get our debt on a sustainable trajectory. there's a lot that has to happen for that to occur.

lew. >> unlike most treasury secretaries, jack lew earn his stripes and a washington and not wall street. he worked for tip o'neill in the 1970's and 1980's, and was clinton's: the director in the 1990's. evan, what does this tell us about the physical fights ahead? >> the good news is that he knows washington bit bad news is that he will do exactly what obama tells him, and from all indications, obama will not do much about fiscal restraint. >> nina, your sense of jack lew and what lies ahead? >> i think i agree with evan, but lew really does know the budget numbers. he did this in the clinton administration when we had a surplus, as the white house points out over and over again. jeff sessions in the senate is saying no way, and one senator can make a lot of trouble, but i cannot tell whether it is a lot of bluster or not at this point. >> colby, aren't most of the battle's going to be between the white house and capitol hill? dozens, with deep congressional experience bring a certain strength -- doesn't somebody would seek congressional expense bring a certain strength? >> yeah. i wor

the official jack lew signature generator. if you type your name, you can generate your own jack lew. wow. >> what's mine look like? that's a fascinating "b" at the start. >> i like that. mine is going to be much more elegant. >> that's not bad, actually. at least everything is on the same line. >> that's a good one. >> as treasury of secretary, jack lew's signature will be on every official u.s. dollar. so why don't we see what it will look like? i take a little crack at it here. >> let's see what yours would look like. your scribbles are not good. >> king of the world. >> can anyone out there read that? what is that? >> this thing doesn't work. >> you don't even fit in the lines. >> this thing is garbage. let's move on. oh, he's throwing paper balls over here. >> spring training is only about a month away. he gets a little excited. >> can't take that guy anywhere. all right. now, it's just another day in new york city. this is my final story. a manhattan subway rider uploaded a video to youtube chronicling here subway ride.

lew the individual and what jack lew has stood for historically in his career and more about this administration's fiscal policy you can expect to see these confirmation hearings will be a proxy for the looming debt ceiling debate and other debates going forward about the administration's fiscal plan. >> woodruff: jared, whator all does this choice say about what the president's priorities are when it comes to the economy? >> i think it says two things. one is that the president wants jack lew there for these upcoming fiscal deadlines. the sequestration the debt ceiling, things like that. he knows that jack is not just a tough negotiator and i think this next point has gotten mixed he's a successful negotiator. i know republicans are complaining because he took a tough line back in 2011 with a lot of tea party folks but in fact he's been closing deals for 30 years the second thing is jack understands what it means a very important part of the president's second term agenda. he understands what it means to get our debt on a sustainable trajectory. there's a lot that has to happen for that to occur.

see appears on all federal reserve notes dollar bills issued during his tenure here is jack lew whose signature it really is and here is what jack lew's signature would look like on a dollar bill new york magazine says it has been called the worst autograph in washington president obama ribbed lew about it this afternoon i considered rescinding. my offer to appoint him. jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible. in order not to debase our currency hahaha yeah according to corporate media the biggest dirt on mr lewis is you the signature apparently the most interesting thing they can dredge up is that his handwriting sucks but of course this is all just one giant distraction from who he is really so who is jack lew well during the height of the financial crisis in america between two thousand and six and two thousand and eight jack lew was an executive for citigroup bank all right so he's a banker not surprising considering that wall street pretty much funded obama's entire presidency but that's not all for years he's been a vocal proponent of deregul

professor black, your assessment of jack lew? >> on financial matters, jack lew has been a failure of pretty epic proportions. he gets promoted precisely because he is willing to be a failure, and is a useful to wall street interests. so you have mentioned two of the things in terms of most important and most destructive deregulation under president clinton by statute. but he was also there for much of the regulation by rule and strong proponent of it, and he was there for much of the cutting of staff, for example, the fdic lost three-quarters of its staff and a huge loss began under clinton. and the whole reinventing government, lou was a strong supporter of that. we were taught, instructed by washington that we were to refer to banks as our clients and our role as regulators, and to think of them as clients. he goes from there to wall street where he was a complete failure. you noted that part of what citicorp did was a bet that housing would fall. that is one of their winning bets. the action made a bunch of losing bets as wel

if you see the swirl, that's jack lew. jack lew has a reputation as a tough negotiator. politico reporting by tapping the former key aid for tip o'neal who has worked for two white house administrations, president obama is gearing up to play tough on the debt ceiling. and msnbc contributor, not a handwriting analysis expert, but we're going to ask you about it anyway. a really out john hancock for jack lew. but he's been in and out of washington for the '70s. he's been involved, jared, in balancing the budgets. as the gop is going to push for budget cuts to coincide with three more cliffs over the budget, how critical is jack lew going to be to the president in waging that fight? >> highly critical in precisely the ways you mentioned. by the way, i think it would be cool. we had that at the bottom of our currency. although i suspect he could change his signature for that. one of the things we know about jack lew is that he's been a tireless fighter to protect key areas of the budget, particularly where they affect economically vulnerable people. he's been a staunch defen

jack lew was also the architect of this sequester mechanism. a lot of people are worried if that kicks in, the automatic spending cuts, that, you know, that would really be a bad thing for the economy. some democrats are surprisingly saying maybe that's a good way to handle this whole budget cuts. where do you think jack lew stands on that? and, unfortunately, we just have half a minute left. what do you think? >> well, i think jack recognizes that if the sequester kicks in, it does two things. one, it makes deficit savings a lot more pronounced. that's $85 billion in one year. but, two thurts an economic recovery that's already too fragile. we certainly don't want to see that $85 billion extracted from the economy in 2013 all at once. >> susie: all right, jared, thanks a lot for your analysis, really appreciate it. thanks for coming on the program. jared bernstein for the center on budget and policy priorities. >> my pleasure. next week on n.b.r., we'll find out what the federal reserve policymakers are thinking. ben bernanke and the open mark

what about now with jack lew? brian jacobson chief portfolio strategist at wells fargo joining us now from milwaukee wisconsin. at first look, what do you think? >> well, i think this is an example where we will probably see history not necessarily repeat but it will most likely rhyme with what happened when geithner made his first speech. i'm not all that confident that lew is going to be a good replacement for geithner. i think he's not a very unifying individual. he's more of a polarizing figure. and it makes it more likely that the next two years until the midterm elections that we could see more battles and skirmishes in washington, d.c. as opposed to fewer. dagen: what would you like to see as a stock investor? >> a treasury secretary who is more focused on building compromise. but think the lesson we learned in the debate last year when there was discussion about debt ceiling is that lew is one of these types of individuals who very politically savvy but that doesn't necessarily equate to being a statesman

so, kim, tell us about jack lew, who is he? what does he believe? >> well, he's mostly, i think, this is important, a creature of washington. he had a brief interlude out at citigroup, but a lot of time working in a political capacity and does in fact make him a much different creature for a position like the treasury secretary than we have in the past, folks who have come from that often out of the business world, established economists, might come from the fed. this is a person viewed by congress and many, by many people here in washington a more of an ideologue. >> and with the clinton administration, i know republicans thought he was an honest liberal, anybody he's emerged under this president as much more implacable. and mr. lew makes a lot of appearances, almost always in the role, when you see mr. obama and boehner making progress. he throws the monkey wrench and pretty much tanking the negotiations and makes him poison for republicans and a problem in his capacity as treasury secretary which sometimes does need to work with congress. >> paul

first, new treasury secretary jack lew -- a veteran of the clinton and obama white houses - who will succeed timothy geithner. >> jack has my complete trust. i know i'm not alone in that. in the words of one former senator, "having lew on your team is the equivalent as a coach of having the luxury of putting somebody at almost any position and knowing he will do well." gwen: so what does lew's appointment tell the senators who must confirm him about what comes next in our epic budget fights? david? >> i think it tells us that the president anticipates that this year will be a year dealing with taxes and spending and deficits. it will be the fifth year in which we have a trillion dollar deficit and jack lew has been budget director in two administrations. unlike timothy geithner, he has very little experience in finance. that was geithner's strong point. he has very little experience in international. that was geithner's background. this is a guy who knows budget and knows congress. it sort of marks a punctuation point in the financial rescue. geithner was part of the rescue at the ne

and jack lew is in the middle of it. because democratic economic policies have not been well received by republicans in congress, and because jack lew once irked mitch mcconnell, he is, we're supposed to believe, not going to get the top tier cabinet position. we scoff in your general direction. if those do not sound like reasons substantive enough to block a presidential cabinet nomination, that is because those are not reasons substantive enough to block a presidential cabinet nomination. at least historically speaking, those are not the kind of things that keep a person out of a top tier job like that. as "the new york times" calculated today, in the history of the u.s. senate, the senate has confirmed over 500 cabinet nominations. over 500. it has denied nine out of more than 500 in gnat senate history. the last time a cabinet nomination was denied was almost 25 years ago when the senate voted down poppy bush's nominee for defense john tower after what would later be described in his obituary of public allegations of

man like jack lew. what do you think? >> i think it is. i think one of the key aspects of the second-term agenda regarding the economy and fiscal policy is to achieve a stable debt situation by the time the administration is heading out of town. and interestingly based on some spending cuts and tax increases that have been implemented so far, we're pretty close. and jack lew intimately knows what it takes to get from here to there. now, i think you, also, to, about other issues of the treasury's beat, international currency, financial markets implementing the dodd-frank issue. as i mentioned, financial reform is still incomplete. so jack lew is going to have to oversee those as well. >> susie: let me get back to the budget issue. jack lew was also the architect of this sequester mechanism. a lot of people are worried if that kicks in, the automatic spending cuts, that, you know, that would really be a bad thing for the economy. some democrats are surprisingly saying maybe that's a good way to handle this whole budget cuts. where do you thi

let me say more about jack lew, we call this one, you don't know jack. >> of course you do. >> this is a financial education. beginning with harvard and georgetown. but that never disqualified anybody. tip o'neill 93 and '94, special to president clinton. and that's what john harwood was talking about. incredible expertise with the budget. moving on in 2006, new york university as executive advice president. then a stint at citigroup. first at global wealth management and next in a controversy by the way that comes up with a large bonus he got while citigroup was getting tart money. finally reenter the administration. i'm sure the administration will make a cot of, as secretary in charge of of resource management. and second stint of omb. then white house chief of staff to the present. let's look at positive. some private sector banking experience. that ends up being a negative. close to the president, you have treasury secretaries with more or less connections to the white house. . finally ton negatives, is this the guy you want in office during financial crisis like you had with geit

but jack lew is opposite of that. he thinks he las the set of skills he needs among candidates to replace jack lew as chous chief of staff. one source tells me set leading candidate. we will see if that announcement is made tomorrow as is jack lew for treasury. >> if jack lew is secretary treasury, it'll look something like this, whatever that is. accidentally, tim geithner had a different signature but changed it for the green back. ma maybe jack lew will do the same. >> the power the new treasury hassle have the power to shape. but is this is real risk? fresh off a multiyear run at tcw, first off, congratulations of being a self-employed business man. >> thank you, very much. >> now all of the bills fall to you. >> yes. >> but it is always ladies first. >> glad to hear it. first off, jack lew, no doubt his commitment to dc. my problem is his commitment to dc. he only served out of d.c. one year in the hedge fund department. is he the right man for the job? >> listen, i think you raise an important point. i think wha

continue tim's work at treasury than jack lew. >> jack lew is very partisan, he's very political. >> he already has some strong opposition especially from the top lawmaker on the senate budget committee jeff sessions. you can't have somebody-- >> i trust his judgment, value his friendship, i know very few people get greater integrity than the man to my left. >> jack lew and the president don't think that spending is the problem. wasteful government spending is the problem. >> prosecutors say arias had one last tryst with travis alexander, killed him in a ferocious gun and knife attack. it's not a case of whodunit. it's a case of kill or be killed. if i didn't kill him, i myself would be killed. >> it's hard to play the victim of terrorism, when you've shot the guy in the head and slashed him or slashed him and then shot him in the head. >> and junior saey, doctors reveal-- >> junior suffered from chronic brain damage. severe brain damage, all the concussions, he suffered damage to his very brain cells. >> the latest on the disappearance of luxury fashion mogul vittorio missoni. >> an

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