President Obama hits the road for the second day in a row Thursday, selling the policies he outlined in Tuesday's State of the Union Address. He'll talk about universal preschool in front of a pre-K class near Atlanta. But as he pushes his second term agenda, a lingering problem from his first takes center stage on the Hill: Thursday morning, the Senate Appropriations Committee stages a hearing on "The Impacts of Sequestration" with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and and U.S. Controller Danny Werfel. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank and The Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet join us to discuss.
The Washington Post's Jim Tankersley writes in Thursday's paper, "Even as the Obama administration touts the return of economic growth, millions of Americans are not seeing an accompanying revival of better, higher-paying jobs." He'll be on Jansing & Co. to talk about "growth isn't enough to help the middle class."
Strategists Karen Finney and John Brabender will weigh in on NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre's op-ed published on the conservative website The Daily Caller, which msnbc's Joe Scarborough called "laced with racial overtones" on Thursday's Morning Joe.
We'll also have the latest on Pope Benedict XVI's abdication, including an interview with Sister Louise Akers and a special report from Chris Jansing on the pope's last mass.