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was just reporting. president obama says either a deal is reached or you vote on the short-term stop gap measure. if republicans fail to pass it i'm summarizing it's their fault. so the president kind of tossing the ball into the republican's camp, placing blame on them. in your opinion s that presidential leadership? >> the republicans have gone after the president that he has deferred to congress on this is that he was unable to strike a deal between -- with speaker boehner and now it is to reid and mcconnell. on one hand, obama is criticizing the congress but also giving them the responsibility to come up with a deal. this is on his watch. obama does not want this going into next year. he wants to move quickly on immigration and energy and maybe gun control. so, but he has not been able to strike a deal with the speaker and that is -- you know, takes two to tango, both have to compromise. both have failed repeatedly on getting a debt deal both in the summer of 2011 and now. how to it is up to the senate which up until recently has been shoved to the side. can they come to the rescue.

for a deal, president obama stated his terms face-to-face to top republicans and democrats. >> congressional leaders arrive ted white house this afternoon for their first group meeting with the president since november 16th. vice president biden and treasury secretary timothy geithner also attend. but there was little to suggest the makings of an 11th hour bargain. a source familiar with the meeting told the newshour its president is sticking with his offer from last friday. it included keeping the bush era tax break force the middle class but raising tax rates on incomes over 250,000 dollars a year. president also wants to extend unemployment benefits for some 2 million americans who will lose them in the new year. and a proposal would delay any spending cuts. the president asked for an up or down vote on his plan unless there is a counter proposal that will pass both the house and senate. a little more than an hour after the meeting began, several participants were seen leaving. >> and back at the capital the senate's democratic majority leader harry reid and republican minority leader mit

. >> arthel: if negotiations fail or lawmakers don't like a final deal, president obama wants to move forward with a plan c. what's in that? >> it would focus on three key areas. keeping the tax cuts for those making $250,000 a year or less, extending unemployment benefits and delayed dramatic spending cuts until later next year. president obama says the u.s. cannot afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. >> fortunately congress can prevent it from happening if they act right now. i just had a good and constructive discussion with senate and house leadership about how to prevent this tax hike on the middle class. i'm optimistic we may still be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time. >> the wild card is figuring out what it will take to get a final deal to pass in the house of representatives. they return tomorrow, probably around when we find out if the top two senators reached an agreement. >> gregg: mike emmanuel live in washington. thanks very much. be sure to watch fox news sunday tomorrow. chris wallace talks fiscal cliff with u.s. senators lindsey



to have to deal with, in terms of the debt. so i agree, i think president obama may have won the short-term battle. but i don't think he's going to win on this -- on the debt situation because that is when there is going to be absolute no negotiation on how much -- on what spending we do. it is going to be how much spending cuts that we are going to make because we are really at the point of no return, with respect to our debt. >> when you break out some of the individual leader who is are playing a part in this fiscal cliff negotiation, this is the latest gallup polling around christmas time. none of them faired too well. the president does the best. but we have house speaker john boehner, approval is 26% and harry reid, 34%. doug, who steps up and shows some leadership at this moment? >> well, the president's overall approval rating is pretty high, i think, he is in the mid-50s, about the highest he has been in some time. i think it's going to be, in the short term, it's mcconnell and reid. can it pass the house? that will be up to john boehner's leadership. i think that john boehner

gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. >>> happening now, president obama says he's still optimistic a deal can be reached to avoid that fiscal cliff. just four days until the deadline. the president just spoke about his last-ditch talks with congressional leaders. >>> plus, police are searching for this woman after another person was pushed in front of a new york train and crushed to death. >>> and a huge piece of american history is under wraps. we'll tell you why. wolf blitzer is off. i'm i'm candy crowley. you're in "the situation room." >>> so president obama says the time for action on the fiscal cliff is here. he has a calendar, too. he just laid out his position after talks with top members of congress. everyone seems to agree it's up to senate leaders to make the next move and that the next 24 hours or so are crucial. we want to bring in our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. jessica? >> reporter: hi, candy. the president made it clear that he believes that this still can get done. he said he has a little bit of confidence, optimism that it would get done. but he expr

moment for the united states economy, if president obama and the congress can't agree on a deal to keep the country from plunging over that fiscal cliff. here's what both sides are considering in a potential deal right now. an increase in tax rates for families making over $450,000 a year. extending unemployment benefits. and an increase in the estate tax. the president seemed hopeful but cautious when he addressed the american people earlier today. >> today, it appears that an agreement to prevent this new year's tax hike is within sight. but it's not done. there are still issues left to resolve. but we're hopeful that congress can get it done. but it's not done. >> let's get straight to our chief white house correspondent jessi jessica yellin. she's over at the white house with the very latest. the president seems pretty optimistic that it's within a few hours we could have a deal, right? >> reporter: wolf, the people i just spoke to here say they are no more or less optimistic than they were this morning. which is to say they are not cueing the confetti just yet. senator mitch mcconn

: any deal is likely to be limited. guest: we have heard about the talks between president obama and john boehner. a grand deal that would include some changes to social security, medicare, cuts in defense spending potentially as well. talking $4 trillion -- we are talking $4 trillion in 10 years. they have to come back in 2013 and talked about changes to social security, medicare and address the debt ceiling. host: we have some comments from our facebook page. they reflect the frustration we are seeing. guest: after the election, we heard the president and top republicans say the election is behind us and we can get down to do in the country's business. they both pledged by partisanship. that evaporated within days. everyone is back in their corner blaming the other side and not making much progress at all. business is retrenching. families are holding back on spending. host: why is compromise so difficult? guest: the with the primary system works has carved out the bit.e kila little they get blown back much more quickly on ideas. they are both afraid of the outer wings of their

to take simple steps. the deal they are talking about is identical to the deal president obama talked about the day after the election. the time in between has been wasted. guest: maybe they will be voting on a package academical -- the frustration is in your voice. i had a number of wall street clients. i can tell you from talking to them that there was a qualitative change in their tone and in their attitude about what was happening. host: you work as a financial communications and national director. that is with corvis communications. guest: thank you for mentioning that. clients of thought there was something going to happen. that has changed. my only question is, what took them so long? the signs have been there all year that a deal at the end of the year would be more difficult. host: while we're talking about what we do, explain what the concord coalition is. guest: we are nonpartisan coalition educating the public about this responsibility and our fiscal challenges. guest: if we go over the cliff, it is not the end of the discussion. it is important that people not lose hope o

as we reach the edge and you hear a lot of complaints about the tax side of obama's offer. what he's asking for in terms of tax increases is not that radical, it's way less than if we don't reach a deal. contrary to what you may have heard, republicans want to raise taxes too. shocker, right? >> the superficial take on this, the argument between democrats and republicans is between democrats who love taxes, just want to tax everything. and republicans who totally grover norquist taxes, they hate them, that is not true. to a degree that kind of disturbs me, actually, the two parties mostly agree on keeping the bush tax cuts. up to $250,000 in income, which is a lot of income. republicans and democrats want to keep all the bush tax cuts. that's way more than 80% of all the bush tax cuts. they agree on all of that, no argument. where they disagree is democrats want to raise taxes on any income over 250,000. and they'll accept at this point 400,000. and republicans, though, this is what people don't always know, republicans want to raise taxes too, they want to raise them on poor peopl


complain about dealing with obama. they love to do that. not only in complaining about obama but they say that america is losing. america is not losing. all the brains inside this thing which did not exist six years ago is really american brains. the software, the conceptualization. i know it's made in china or korea, but it's american innovation. the pieces are there. it's a matter of putting them together. the reason i'm so disappointed in this administration and the bush administration is because they have been willing to settle for so little. there's no reason this economy cannot grow at 6%. all the pieces are there. the gentleman in massachusetts emt would not. be broke all the not minimum wage is $7.50. i don't believe in the minimum wage, an ocean they can get somebody for $7.50 tells me america is not working the way contraptions like this say it should. -- the notion. guest: well, nobody really wants to go over the cliff when it comes to the military. president obama is in a box. he sees china for what it is from the point of view of a military challenge. he wants to increase ame

's turn now to the white house, president obama putting pressure on the lawmakers to make a deal. talking about the fiscal cliff in a television interview. he put much of the blame on the shoulders of republicans if no deal is reached, the g.o.p. firing back saying the president should lead right now not cast blame. chief white house correspondent ed henry is live from the white house, ed? >> you're right, republicans were frustrated by the president going on the sunday talk show today in the middle of all of these negotiations, he's not been on one of these programs since 2009, over years ago. he felt like though it was important to get his message out there and you're right, that he was pounding that same message again and again, if we go off the fiscal cliff, he believes the onus is on the republicans for not meeting him halfway. take a listen. >> not because democrats and congress don't want to go ahead and cooperate, but because i think it's been very hard for speaker boehner and republican leader mcconnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest americans should go up a litt

majority leader mitch mcconnell said there is still time to work out a deal. however, there is no firm evidence of any real plan. here is what we do know tonight. president obama cutting his vacation short arriving back in washington today. house lawmakers announcing late today they are now planning to return on sunday. but listen to the rhetoric. and you have to question whether that will do any good because near early everything that is coming out of d.c. is about blame. not answers. >> speaker boehner should call members of the house back to washington today. he shouldn't have let them go in fact. they are not here. they are not here. john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> harris: a spokesman for john boehner fired back "senator reid should talk less and legislate more." and senate minority leader mcconnell saying we should have worked all this out months ago. >> and republicans aren't about to write a blank check or anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of t

. >>> aloha means good-bye. president obama cuts his hawaiian vacation short to deal with the fiscal cliff. it is already too late? good morning, 7:00 in the east. i'm alina cho. >> and i'm drew griffin. soledad o'brien is off today. "starting point" begins right now. >>> our starting point, a cruel one. a one-two christmas punch from mother nature. tornadoes and blizzards tearing through the south and midwest. >> oh, my god. we need to go. it's right there. >> mobile, alabama, took a real beating. a twister blowing up transformers, leaving more than 25,000 customers without power. reports to damage to homes, a high school, and church. >> it came in behind the church right there, and then all green fluorescent lighting and popping transformers left and right. and we heard the crashing and everything and the power went out. >> i prayed to god as loud as i could, and i was just praying for my safety, and i knew the church was shaking. i just prayed that the church stayed put. >> here is the other half of this story, blizzard conditions blanketing much of the midwest and the northeast will ge


of the talks when president obama and house speaker john boehner failed to cut a deal. when. mcconnell essentially gave up trying to negotiate with senate majority leader harry reid. now said to be reasonably close together on income tax rates though republicans want to use the additional money to cut the deficit and democrats to soften spending cuts. california senator barbara boxer made clear this morning she is not looking for perfection. >> i wanted to add at least a cautiously optimistic note i am hopeful we will get something done and i think if we do, and if it's fair, fair enough, we should get our country off this cliff. >> reporter: boxer says she is willing to move up the income protected from tax hikes but her bottom line is extending unemployment benefits. she says that is good for the economy and fair for the many people who still can't find work. uma? uma: wendell, is it true that some family's taxes will rise whether or not there's a deal. >>reporter: it looks like the only real question is where that income level is. the cuttoff. vice president biden, mcconnell,

cliff 45 minutes from now. president obama will be watching with the rest of country for a deal to be hammered out. he thinks republican leaders need to bend. >> congress has not been able to get this stuff done not because democrats in congress don't want to go ahead and cooperate but because i think it's been very hard for speaker boehner and republican leader mcconnell to accept the fact that taxes on the wealthiest americans should go up a little bit and as part of an overall deficit reduction package. >> i'm joined by congresswoman barbara lee a democrat from california. good to see you. good morning. >> good to see you. glad to be with you. >> let me give you the republican perspective. it is that some indications they are willing to give on taxes whether 400 or 450,000, that yesterday they floated this idea of changing social security. they've backed off on that. they apparently are willing to give on some of these estate taxes. the democrats are willing to give on some of the estate taxes. but what the republicans want is they say that this deal that's being offered look

a last-minute deal is even possible or whether this is now all about shifting blame. president obama and vice president biden are sitting down with house leaders. the guest list includes harry reid, who this time yesterday said he didn't see any way the fiscal cliff could be avoided. whatever the case, our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin will be watching. what can we really expect to come out of this meeting this afternoon? >> well, alina, we're not sure what really will come out of it. the ideal scenario would be if all sides agree to a scaled-down version of the fiscal cliff agreement that the president and spe speaker boehner had been discussing weeks ago and then senator mcconnell would agree that no republicans would block it in any way if he can promise that. he argues that he can't really make that promise but if e he could then speaker boehner would promise to bring it to a vote on the floor. all sides would shake hands and we'd have a deal before new year's. that seems highly unlikely. but that's what all sides are pushing for today. >> i think we can all agre



. president obama said it is part of a deal that i want to make, those benefits should continue. the public has to take a firm stand. we have seen in the past that obama had to cut a deal in order to get those extensions. host: what specific benefits to these programs provide? guest: the usual weekly cash payout is about $300 a week. sometimes it can vary. in mississippi i want to say it is closer to do hundred dollars. host: how are the programs usually bonded? guest: there funded by payroll taxes. the state administers the programs and the money goes to the unemployed. host: talk about what qualifications people have to meet in order to apply. guest: generally you have to have basically a year of earnings. the earnings have to be a certain threshold. you have to have been let go from a job. it is not like you can just wore mauve and a cloud of anger and qualify for benefits. if you have been working at the mill 14 years, and lose your job and a layoff, it is pretty easy to get benefits. host: we have some of those qualifications a person must meet on the screen there. for people who have

to michelle obama." what a great idea. i wish you the best of luck with this book and merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> thanks so much. >>> ahead on "starting point," eight days left to make a deal. does president the obama want to go off the cliff? why some say that's been the plan all along. we will talk to grover nor kwift, president of americans for tax reform top of the hour. this holiday, share everything. share "not even close." share "you owe me..." share "just right." the share everything plan. shareable data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. hurry in for a droid razr m by motorola for $49.99. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. this season, discover aleve. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geic

president reagan and deal with the spending? >> it depends if he turns into bill clinton or remains barack obama. clinton understood his legacy, was what was important and he would be remembered as somebody who was good on the economy, as a democrat. guess what? he wasn't a typical democrat. he was forced to change. a lot of it had to do with the fact that the congress changed. we have divided government. if the president wants the same old, same old, he will get t. the republicans won't cave. it's equal branchings of government. they control two-thirds and it takes three to tango, the senate, white hussein. >> eric: terrific debate. >> heather: who is leading in the tango, that's what we don't know. congressional leaders are trying to come up with that deal, with less than two days before massive tax hikes and spending cuts kick in and small businesses are already being affected. companies have no idea how much more they are going to owe uncle sam next year. that is affecting how they are doing business right now. we have those details from the new york city newsroom. >> reporter: many sm

remain to get a deal done. lawmakers are home for the holidays. house speaker boehner is in ohio. president obama as reported is in his native hawaii. before leaving washington, president obama urged congress to pass a mini plan that would preserve middle class tax rates. brianna keilar joins us live from hawaii. what do we think will happen as the holiday week rolls out? >> reporter: well, and don, we should probably say where our senate majority leader harry reid and senator mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, because now all eyes turn to the senate. they're set to come back to town on the 27th. that is thursday. and at this point there are a number of options for some sort of bill that senate majority leader harry reid could put on the floor, but right now it appears democrats in the white house are pushing for something that still concentrates on making sure that income tax rates for those making a quarter million dollars or less don't go up. that said, it's really hard to see how at that rate senator mcconnell might allow some republican senators to support it or


of obamas remarks is he still would like to get a deal done. we want to hear what you think. you have the phone numbers on the screen. if you are republican call 202- 585-3885. andocrats, 202-5853886 z independents 202-585-3887. meet your tv. -- mute your tv if you call in. the president is optimistic that the senators will reach an agreement in time. let us hear from curt from akron, ohio on the democrats' line. >> hello. good evening. i called on the democratic line only because i voted democratic but i have some reservation about this president. when it comes down to it, i have a couple of points. everybody across the board needs to have a 15% increase in what they paid for their health care. to help lower the cost of health care from president obama down to the medicaid recipients. that needs to be first. this whole idea of messing around with getting this done, not doing this during the election and waiting days before the fiscal cliff where we go off. the president should have held what i would call a slumber party and have him, the congressional leadership, and the cabinet lock

both bushes and of mr. obama. host: and what does this have to do with the senate negotiating a fiscal of deal? caller: let me tell you something. if you go to the website listed on the left and upper side, united states -- each tax coming out of each state is going towards the or. -- war. i believe all of these politicians, mayors, governors should take a half cut pay to pay down the deficit. host: we are going to move on to darwin on the line for independents. caller: it is like the pentelikon, back in 1968 i was even fighting with the pentagon over budgets. you always had to have everything kept the same. nobody was going to change anything because next year there were going to pop everything by 10%. they told you got to worry because you would get 10% more. that goes all the way back to 1968. they just keep dwelling on one thing over and over again. i would like to know from the boston globe or the herald is asking for pictures of -- host: let's move on to del on the line for democrats. caller: this is an outrage that they cannot tax the wealthy by an additional 4%. this is the low



don't think it's a big deal that we have to work this weekend. >> it's not a big deal and you should all be working this weekend. listen, a few weeks ago it looked like speaker boehner and president obama were pretty close on a grand bargain. maybe not as big as should would hope. it looked like the president was saying, we'll raise that top rate and offer some entitlement reform. social security changes, cpi. some talk of raising the medicare eligibility age. now because of where we're at do you feel that the folks on the far right of your own party by not supporting the speaker have ended up undercutting their position and ultimately will get less of a good deal on issues they care about than they might have gotten otherwise? >> i think the country has missed a huge opportunity to solve the nation's problem and instead whatever comes out of the senate will be small ball, kick the can down the road. that's unfortunate because this is a big problem. i don't think the president and speaker were real close so i don't think my conservative colleagues have screwed anything up because the

against president obama for supposedly cutting medicare in the health care deal. and the ryan budget deferred all of the cuts in social security and medicare way out in the future. >> well, first of all, you're talking about social security and medicare, and the ryan budget was silent on social security. actually thought we should have talked about it. those things are always in the future. you start adjusting eligibility rates over time. >> what are the ten-year entitlement savings right now? >> well, frankly, honestly, if you did lower the age, number one, that would start right at the very end of that window. secondly, you can do -- we want means testing. we've never made any bones about that. that hits mostly upper income people. but we haven't seen it and we haven't been able to get it through. the cpi thing is another one. there's a whole variety of things you can do. they've got to be done in a bipartisan way. they've got to protect current recipients and be phased in. >> do you think that republicans -- entitlement -- >> in fact if you look at the letter speaker boehner sent

the use of drone strikes by the obama administration, look to see companies launching drone war at home for deals to build unmanned aircraft for domestic use. the faa says there could be 30,000 uavs in u.s. skies by 2020. the teal group says domestic drones could be worth $89 billion over ten years, as everyone from homeland security to tmz wants permission to use them. >>> let's get some more insight on the defense skprkt how to play it as the fiscal cliff deadline grows closer. howard rubel is with jeffries. great to speak with you. and i guess key to understanding the impact on these individual stocks, as jane had pointed out in her piece, is to understand which programs might be protected, even with budget cuts that the industry is facing. the f-35, for instance, is one that might be protected. walk us through. which ones had the most protected streams of revenue? >> frankly, many of them do at the moment, because the pentagon has been very busy signing production contracts to get under the wire of the sequester. >> so, for instance, the general dynamics deal that was selling to the


revenue than that, if not all the way up to the level in president obama's budget. finally, that an agreement would include a significant extension of unemployment benefits. remember, there are 2 million people who would lose about $300 a week if this fiscal cliff passes and there's no deal whatsoever. guys, back to you in d.c. >> all right. john harward, thanks for keeping us posted. we're about six minutes before the bell rings in the final session of 2012. let's bring in matt. good to have you with us. the futures are not too bad. we're coming off five straight losing streaks. on friday we saw the vix post the low of the session. what do you think it will happen today? >> i'm not going to put a lot of credence in the futures this morning. i think that's out of the picture for a lot of people. they didn't really notice it because it happened after the close. we're really not going to put any credence in it downstairs today. obviously everything has to do with what they're going to negotiate starting at 10:00. funny thing is, why 10:00? why are we waiting so long? this is

think a grand bargain is impossible at this point. but president obama coming back from vacation in hawaii. that's an indication that some kind of deal -- however small -- is definitely coming. i want to point out, and i know you've been negative on this mastercard data on retail sales, and everybody thinks it's going to be a mess for the holiday season. i want to point out that the stocks are not acting that way. that this is a disaster for the season. the s&p retail index hit an historic high on december 3rd. historic high. since then, it has only been down about 3%. these stocks are not acting like there's a disaster. i can give you several reasons why they're not down so far. number one, we are going to see eps growth in the fourth quarter from some of them because of the extra week that there is. number two, we've had much lower cotton costs this year. their overall costs are lower. that's helping their earnings. number three, inventory levels are much lower. and that's going to help their gross margins. number four, we had pretty good gdp numbers in q-3. number five, home p

institute] by the way, merry christmas and happy new year. >> they debate the status of reaching a deal on the fiscal cliff. senator mcconnell mountains a phone call received from president obama while he was in hawaii. this is 15 minutes. >> you will excuse me if i am frustrated in the situation i find myself in. president obama, self and others and asked if there was something we could do to avoid in the fiscal clef. we have been asking the president and the democrats to work with us on a bipartisan agreement for months. a plan that would simplify the tax code, st. the deficit, protect the tax payers, and put the economy. democrats consistently rejecting the offer is. the president chose instead to spend time on the campaign trail. this was after he got reelected. a congressional democrats said on their hands. we have stepped away out of our comfort zone. we wanted an agreement. we had no takers. the phone never rang it. here we are five days after the new year and we might finally start talking. democrats have had a year to put forward a balanced bipartisan proposal. if they had some




be a messy 2013. >> any deal is likely to be limited. explain what that means. >> we've been hearing about the talks with president obama and speaker boehner athat they were looking at the grand bargain that would include tax increases and changes to social security, changes to medicare, cuts in defense spending potentially as well. we're talking $3 to $4 trillion in changes over years. now it's going to be modest and that may include changes to the tax code. but they're going to have to come back in 2013 no matter what and talk about changes in med sare and social security and address the debt ceiling as well. host: these are two comments and they reflect the frustration in the country. how is the bickering back and forth solving anything fplgt all government spending should be on the table for spending reform. and the other viewer says obama and the other i had yots until the white house are doing what they do best, talk. guest: right after the election we heard them say the election is behind us, we can put down our swords and get down to doing the country's business. that evaporated wi

. >> now senate majority leader harry reid and mitch mcconnell talk about working on a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. they spoke on the senate floor after a meeting with the white house with president obama and leaders from the house. >> what the plan is that everyone knows we have been to the white house, we have had a constructive meeting. we certainly hope that something positive will come from that. the republican leader and i and our staffs are working to see what we can come up with. we should not take a long time to do that. i think it would be to everybody's interest if we were not in session tomorrow. my plan to comment at 1:00, we have an hour on our previous agreement that we have. there is an hour of debate on that, we have a vote. we have another vote that has been set up, that is a simple majority. that you are talking about sunday? >> yes. >> we will probably start those votes a little after 2:00. and then for us, we will have another caucus. hopefully by that time, we will have made a determination whether we can do something on the floor in addition to what we ha

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