i think that affect the sooner we can find a way to recognize that t problems are dramatically different and harder, the problems may well be with us our entire lifetime. trying to root out and defeat a ligiously upheld terrorist operation that is very widespread requires think a totally new strategy. this is why we need american energy policy. the saudi's are the largest nders of wahhabism across the planet. they have more schools teaching more people to hate us than any other group even though -- and i guarantee you i will never bow to a saudi king or walk arm in arm with one. [applause] the iranis currently have a dictatorship dedicated to a religious system in which causing a nuclear war is seen as a positive event, because it would lead to the coming of the 12th imam.

the pakistanis have been lying to us. i mean, when you learn that bin laden was in the military city about a mile away from the national war college, the one thing you know is the pakistani government was protecting him. there had to be some element to the pakistani government to protect him. what was the reaction of the pakistanis t our killing him? it wasn'to be angry about the people who were hiding him but the angry the people who helped us find them. that to me. that to me is a symptom of how bad the situation is so i think we have to rethink. this is not a military go shoot people problem. this is a fundamental strategy of thinking through how we are going to change those cultures and that is going to be a long, hard process that involves diplomacy, information campaigns, education, lots of things but it is not going to be compress by the military and i think it's tragic the young men and women get lost in the campaign which in the end justice in iraq is going to turn out not to change the country. one last thing. by the way how old are you?

you are 12. a very good question. one of my two leading debate coaches is 12. [laughter] maggie is my older, she is my granddaughter and she is 12 and she is one of my -- and my grandson robert is the other one. he is0 and i will report to them that you're doing a good job here. i will tell all of you i wrote a paper in august of 2002 for the bush administration. it was called operation switch and i said in that paper we should go in and defeat saddam hussein. it should take about 21 days and it actually took 23. we should immediately hired the iraqi regular army. and we should pull out of the cities immediately. we should be the reinforcers, but should never be the enforcers because we don't know enough to police countries like that. unfortunately we did exactly the right thing for the first days. ambassador bremer made a huge

mistake and decided to try to reshape iraq. in december 2003 i went on "meet the press"nd i talked to "newsweek" and i said we have gone off the cliff. we are now trying to do something we cannot do. i mean if we have put and a half million troops in the beginning and if we had been prepared to kill a lot of people, we might have done it. you look at germany and you look at japanthose were total war. we were prepared to engage in total war a when you're dealing with a society which repels you, you either crushing or you get dfeated. we were not prepared to crush it. we could not sustain crushing it. it would have sickened us to try to do that so we need a longer, more indirect strategy that modernizes the region and defeat our enemies but does so with the recognition of how hard it is. somebody's going to bring you a microphone i think. then you need to come to her.

otherwise she is going to get real upset. i'm easily intimidated by these things. >> thank you are. at the best ways out of poverty as you know is to enlist in the military. are you aware that the department of defense regulations prohibit anyone with hiv from enlisting in any branch of the armed forces? with south carolina arts been the top 10 of newivcases, what will a gingrich administration do to preserve our litary for the future? >> well i won't insist that the military except people who have a communicable disease that in combat might well lead to the transmission to other people. [applause] i will on the other hand be happy to collaborate with a public health department to try to eliminate the transmission of hiv in south carolina would talk to be our goal. >> show everybody your sign. you have been waiting it. [laughter] go ahead.

>> what is your opinion about bringing prayer back into the schools? congress opens up with a devotion and has a pastor prayer before they go into session. what is your position? >> i personally believe that prayer would be a useful thing to re-enter in school even if a was only a moment of silence. you start down the road of saying to people, there is a supreme being. we are subordinated to that supreme being. the people around us are part of that same fabric and therefore, you change the way people think of themselves. i think you go back to 1963 and the school prayer decision and you say what were the problems in schools in 1963? what are the problems in schools in 2011? it's pretty hard to argue that the modern secular situation ethics, undisciplined, totally -- let me give you self-esteem as opposed to earnin self-esteem model has been a success. but look, i'm very bold about this that. not only do i think it would be

good to have a moment of silence every single day but i think would be good to reestablish the idea of discipline a to say if a teacher is a problem with you, your parents ought to have a problem with you because your b is to be there learning from the teacher. [appuse] >> mr. speaker my name is james porter. i'm a young high school student and as i find myself looking forward to a career in the future, i find myself facing immense competition from illegal immigrants and the threat that they pose to our job market. what will be your steps as president to enforce the border? >> well i actually have, go to newt.org and we have a number of steps laid out. the first one is to have absolute control of the border by january 1, 2014. [applause] we are drafting a bill that will post early next year which is very simple. it reestablishes world war ii speed and effectiveness, waives all of the various impact studies and all the other stuff

that slows it down and says, the person in charge of securing the border will get it done by january 1, 2014. just go doit. there is no question my mind that if you're serious about you can get it done. in the world war ii generation would have thought it absurd that 25 years after reagan said we needed to do is we still haven't done it. the second to get favors making english the official language of govement. [applause] the third thing i favor is having a requirement to the an american citizen you have to have a much deeper knowledge of american history than we currently require an candidly i'd also say for american students it would be good before he graduated for you to have a deeper knowledge of american history than we currently require. [applause] before thing i would do is actually modernize the visa program so it's easier. if you want to come to visit the u.s., if you wanto do business in the u.s., if you are legally coming here to visit your family or whatever, it would be easy to

do. takes 174 days in brazil to apply for a visa. i mean the amount we cost ourselves in tourism dollars is astonishing as its just a pain in the neck to come to america now so we have to modernize that. the other thing which modernis their deportation process. if you belong to ms-13 which is now salvadoran gang in our southern cities we should be a will to deport you n three days. if you're not american citizen you should not be protected under american civil law. [applause] i would then establish an american guestworker program so that people could come here to work with a guestworker card but i would outsource the card to american express, visa or mastercard so it's very hard to have fraud and cheating. the federal government is hopeless and running a program like that. finally, and i would -- much deeper economic penalties for any employer who hired someone illegally once therewas a card program and wants you could swipe it and he knew exactly

what you were doing. [applause] i think most people who are here illegally should go home, period. but i do think when you talk to someone who has been here for 25 years, they been working, paying taxes and part of the community. they are not citizens were working and paying taxes than they are part of the community, they have a faly and it might have children and grandchildren, they may belong to your church. i don't think we have to go in and root them out. it's just not going to happen so i think there ought to be a citizen certification program builds on the world war ii draft board model where local citizens would review applicants. the applicant would have to be sponsored by an american family and they would have to have proof that they have been here, proof they been paying their bills, proof they been paying their taxes. those folks i think should get a residency permit. it doesn lead to citizenship but it means they come out from under the illegality. if they want to apply for

citizenship they would have to go back to their home country and applied and be in line like everybody else back there and not become until that point whenever that is finally there but i do think what i just outlined is imperfect but it's actually doable. and i would not do it in a single conference of bill. i think first of all you will never pass it. nobody is going to trust the government until they see real evidence we are going to control the border and i think once we control the border, people will be much more practical about the follow-on steps and the last step is the one of certification. by the way people say well, one of my competitors said that will be a real magnet. you have to be your here 25 years, so that mes instead of going to the guestworker program, said of applying legally today, you're going to try to sneak in so that 25 years from now, and mean it's not much of a magnet. but it is i think a practical solution to a hard problem.

yes maam. >> mr. speaker, first of all you just pointed out to me why -- you have just pointed out to me why i so admired you in the debates. you are lead, follow or get ou of the way with your solutions whereas mitt, and i'm not really sure, but the reason -- south carolina's very obviously very important and this was in the career in charleston about the romney bein connection. areou familiar with that? >> i haven't seen the article. >> okay, anyway. i'm with you. i do not believe in negative campaigning but i will hand this off to your affers. you can look at it but what amounts to is he supported this big conglomerate and what it ended up doing was losing south carolinians a lot of jobs and

the guy that was behind it came out smelling like a rose. >> look if you want to share that with their 6000 closest friends. that is certainly your prerogative. let me just tell you i'm not going to use that. the strongest thing i will say about governor romney is that he is a massachusetts moderate trying to come down and pretend to be conservative that i'm not going to say anything stronger than tha i want to's -- focus on positive things but actually that says it all. i don't want to spend a lot of time being negative. let's go back to being positive. i have one opponent, barack obama. [applause] after him there is a guy way in the very back. >> mr. speaker, i am curious about the medical situation.

all that is happening course th the settlements or the $100,000 stuff like that. what could be done? >> are you talking that litigati when it comes to health care? well we did a study at the center for health transformation with the gallup poll and with jackson health. we interviewed docrs and we found that the best estimate was that 800 alien dollars a year is defensive medicine. that is, medicine where they are ordering something you on't need in orderto avoid a lawsuit or to be ready if there is a lawsuit. $800 billion. that's about 25% of all costs in health care so obviously if you are serious about health costs, one of the key things has to be litigation reform and here i will say on behalf governor perry who's a good friend of mine, the malpractice reforms in

texas were quite effective. back here, y or. >> mr. speaker, first of all thank you for standing up. we really appreciate it. next, i wnt to thank you for initiating welfare reform. it is was the first time people like herself, who actually i'm the chairman of yourself carolina social conservative coalition, the chance to push back against the liberal policies pushed by the ntion called health and human services and education of the united states. they are indoctrinating the next generation and to give us a chance to push back. as a result pregnancy rates across the nation among teenagers has gone down almost 50%. you don't hear that on the evening news, so thank you for that. but there is a culture war and i wonder, if you given any thought to the effect in education has shown in reducing teen pregnancy

under welfare reform and will you continue to support that? thane. >> the answer is yes i'm aware of it. we help fund it and i would have fact -- though there's a guy in the very back. get his at times -- get his attention some way. somebody way back there. so i would support it. it's something i supported when i was speaker. the welfare reform is a good example of how i operate. because we actually brought in the governors, george allen and george engler and others and their staffs actually helps write the bill. so it was a very practical bill because we have the people who implemented helping right at which frankly offended me of the federal staff who didn't like the idea that we brought in these outsiders. go ahead, yes maam. >> thank you for being here two days before christmas. [applause] we understand how hard you're having to work at this and we

appreciate immenselythat your foe is obama. one thing i would suggest to you, don't call him a target. that gets all of us in trouble. he is your adversary. i agree with you 100%. two things that i wanted to point out is you can have your researchers verify this. 60 gallup, 65% of l the nation are not concerned about big business. we are concerned about big government. i think you are right on with all of your proposals. that is something that should be hammered home along with the fact that you are opposing obama. secondly, i heard and again i don't know if this is true, it was reported from overseas, a publication overseas which a lot of times we can ust more than our own media. it was reported that an obama strategist indicated that he is

not at all concerned about the white working class. he is not going to approach any of us for our votes in the election in 2012. those are two points that i think if true, could be used to our advantage by you. thank you. we appreciate your effort. spiegel for take the last question, let me just say one thing about that last comment. i don't think about the white working class. i think about every american who would like to have a job. [applause] and i reject the racism on both the right and the left. i want to campaign in black communities and i wan to campaign in latino communities and i want to campaign in asian communities. i'm going to campaign among native americans and i'm going

to campaign across this country and i want to ask this simpl question. would you rather your children had food stamps or paychecks? would you rather they beat deep tendon or independent? anybody of any background who would like to have a paycheck and be independent i am going to reach out to and i want to challenge the president. this idea of dividing americs with class warfare and in videos rhetoric and using racism as an excuse for thought i think is absolutelyotally unacceptable the american people and of every background. [applause] >> mr. speaker, john steinberger. without the 2% payroll tax holiday the social security account will still be in the red by 46 billion in 2011 alone and we have got tens of millions of baby boomers retiring. how can we sustain social security forthe 12.4% payroll tax? >> i will say two things. first of all what they should've

done is apply the principles of strong america now who believes modernizing the government saves $500 billion a year. obviously i would replace the money with those cost costs with the tax cuts of the tax cut would not increase the deficit. i would cut spending an amount equal to the tax cut. second, waiver program with over 100 college campuses where the young people who want the right to choose a personal social securityavings account on the model of galveston texas and the country of chile. we have 30 years of experience and we know fewer like to have your money go into your own personal account, the built-up compound interest your entire working lifetime you have to do three times as much money. by the way this is all voluntary. if you want to stay in the current system and not have the extra money you are allowed to. the social security actuary is said 95 to 97% of them would voluntarily pickhe new program because the economic return is so massive. you do that, and the other thing

we do is we take -- this number is amazing. we take the 185 different federal programs for the poor and we lock grant them into one grant to the states, eliminate all the federal bureaucrats. at saves enough money that you can afford to allow young people to have their personal accounts and you can take the savings and put them into social security and the whole system works out economically. i think the gentleman comes a very tall gentleman in the very back who was honestly fairly visible because he is slightly taller than the 10. i think you have the last queson. >> yeah chinned in 1980 you came to washington with ronald reagan to help save america. during that same time governor romney was a proclaimed independent and announce h presidency as late as 1994. you created a contract with americaamerican 94 that prove sweeping victories from coast-to-coast. governor romnesaid it was a bad idea. the same ideas got a lot of political calculations wrong over the last six or seven years in telling us he is more

electable. this strikes me as sort of ludicrous considering ronald reagan -- and governor romney lost by 27 points and you have created victories nationwide. my question to you is since governor romney has beenlying to to you in iowa r the lesser aches will you tell the truth about him next week? >> that would be so painful. [laughter] what i've said to meg yesterday and the day before is, sinche is determined to spend like a million, $40,000 in negative ads next week most of them enact red and since he does notwant to, she said i guess part of what got my goat was when he said that i was not a reliable conservative. and i thought to myself, let me get this straight. as you point out the massachusetts moderate who did not support reagan bush and did not support the contract with america wonders if i am a reliable conservative.

how would he know? [laughter] i have a 90% american consvative union voting record for my lifetime and at 98.6% rightto life voting record for my lifetime. i washonored by the national rifle association for lifetime legislative achievement in defense of the second amendment. i've helped balance the budget for four straight years. we were formed welfare and i voted against the two tax increases republican presidents tried to pass one of which led in houston that hit a certain unhappiness with me. i think i'm about as staunch a conservative as you ve seen since ronald reagan but i said to the governor because i think we should be fair that i would be willing to need him anywhere in iowa between now and the third and have a 90 minute debate with a timekeeper, no moderator. i will bring his negative ads and he can explain them. and so far is not seemed as excited by the opportunities that i thought he might. all i can tell u is that i

wish all of you and candidly i wish all of my opponents and i wish the president and his family a very merry christmas and maybe for a few days we can slow down, enjoy life anthen get back on the trail next nday. thank you all very very much. c-spa[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> voters will have to the polls in north carolina on january 21. south carolina can try to get

the voting law approved by a federal court or submit a lula -- a new law. today on "washington journal" a discussion on the accomplishments of the 2012 congress. after that, we will talk about the 2012 presidential campaign and later a look at the role of the u.s. military. that is live starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> i am here arguing in favor of higher taxes on the wealthy. i am one of the wealthiest 1%. >> would you be willing to donate to the department of trust? >> individually? no. >> know i am very philanthropic

league acted. >> i have a donation page, you just putting your credit card and you can donate to the government. >> that will not help anybody. >> you don't want to donate to the government? >> you have heard made. you are being silly. >> i am a video journalist. what we are doing is almost like citizen journalism which is basically when an individual does not have that much training in journalism has the tools of modern technology to capture a live event but does not have a background in journalism. >> michelle feels shares her experiences sunday night on "q &a." >> christmas morning, michelle obama welcomes military families to see the white house military

decorations at 10:30 eastern. later, alberto gonzalez on his experience in the george bush white house at 1:40 eastern and self-proclaimed jack abrams of talks about his new book. monday, the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial at 10:00 a.m. eastern and ronald reagan's use of intelligence in setting soviet policy at 1:10. for the complete we can schedule, go to c-span.org. >> yesterday, the house and senate passed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. after the measure passed, harry reid spoke to reporters on capitol hill announcing the group of senators who will negotiate with the house of a one-year extension. after his remarks, we will hear from house democratic leaders. this is about 24 minutes.

>> i am certain that most of you would rather be anyplace than here. i am glad you're here today. i will be relatively brief. the conferees i am going to appoint will be max baucus chairman of the finance committee, ben cardin, a member of the finance committee, no one in the senate has been more protective of federal employees then senator carden and when we were doing the negotiations, one of the places that people were looking to do some real difficult things for federal employees, ben will be fair but not punitive. nevada has had an unemployment very high for a long time. a state that has been hit really hard by unemployment has also been rhode island.

no one in the senate has been more protective of the unemployed than jack grade. the fourth will be bob casey. he is chairman of the joint economic committee and this is his bill, the payroll tax holiday extension is bob casey's legislation. i have talked to each of them and they will work expeditiously to come up with a long-term arrangement on the payroll tax, unemployment of course, and the doc fix. i have great confidence in them and i also want to say that most everything we do around here is based on trust. that is how we get things done. i want everyone to understand how much i appreciate mitch mcconnell sticking by the arrangement, the agreement we made. i have told that personally and i say that to all of you.

when we come back next month, we will have important things to do. i have already talked about the payroll tax package. have to do that and we can pay for it in many different ways. we have to be somewhat invented. during the past few days i have had many calls from my congressmember's about ideas they have that would protect the people that need the extra few bucks each month but also save money in the long run unemployment, we have to figure out a way to extend that period this is the first time that we have paid for unemployment tax extension which i do not favor but a significant number of my own caucus did so that is something we had to do and we'll continue to fight for the long-term unemployed. i would hope that we can do something final to get rid of this sgr, this doc fix so doctors to take care of senior

citizens did not have to worry every few months that they are going to get paid the following month. those are some of the things we certainly have to do. a couple of other things that are paramount in my mind --the fa reauthorization -- we have to get this done. we have a short-term extension. this involves the employment of a couple of hundred thousand new people. we have made many offers in the house and we have to get this done and forget about all the extraneous stuff and deal with faa. the same applies to the very good deal that was reported out of the environment and public works committee. very conservative, quite progressive, barbara boxer, have come up with an arrangement to extend this for two-years.

i would hope that my colleagues do not play any games with this bill. it is important. the short-term extension save the jobs of more than 1 million people doing highway construction. a two-year bill will create new jobs, not just save jobs of those are few things we have to do. i hope this congress has had a very good learning experience, especially those who are newer to this body. everything we do around here does not have to wind up in a fight. that is not the way things need to be. people wonder why the approval rating of congress is so low. i don't wonder. it seems that everything we have done this last year has been a knock down drag out fight. there is no reason to do that. if there were a message received from this last thing we have

been through, i would hope especially the new members of the hosts -- house will understand that legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building, not trying to push your way through on issues that you don't have the support of the american people. i repeat what i said earlier -- this institution relies on trust and goodwill to get work done. the american people need this institution to work effectively. we have enormous challenges facing our great country. i indicated earlier that is certainly true. we have a new year coming very quickly. the working families we have held for a couple of months, that is not enough. they sent us to washington to find ways to make their life a little bit easier and give them the tools they need to try to get ahead. they did not send us here to wage a partisan battles or settle ideological scores.

i say to my colleagues, it is new year's. let's put those games aside and make it our top priority. our top priority is not for political advantage but to get things done. if we are able to get things done, there is lots of credit to go around to everybody. but conversely, if we don't get things done, there is criticism that spills off on everyone. let's show the american people that despite our differences we can tackle the big challenges that stand before us. the stakes are too high for us to do anything else. do you have any questions? >> yes? >> looking forward to 2012, there are 21 democratic seats in the senate up for election. how will this tax cut extension communicated to voters in those seats that are up for reelection? >> that has done by you all of you agree well the last 10 days. >> you want to battle house

republicans on taxes. how will this set you up for a battle that will probably be in february when you talk about extending this for a full year? how did such a love for the battle over bush tax cuts? >> rather than worry about the bush tax cuts being and stem the which i'm not worried at this stage, i have gone over some of the things that are on my mind spareribs. . we want to get these things done in a reasonable time rather than worry about this on the bus. -- this on the bus. i would hope the experience everyone has had will make them better legislators. >> will you start working late now? >> yes, i've spoken to my staff to get together with them sometime next week.

the senate democrats will get together and there will be a schedule and we will work together to come up with a schedule so that during the time we're out of session, their worst of the work to do. -- there will still be work to do. >> [unintelligible] >> people have spoken loudly about cutting this back. this is something that we could not get it done otherwise. we will come back and revisit that. that is the reason i have jack reed on this. i want someone who works every day and understands the plight of people who don't have jobs and have not had jobs for a long time. i have not seen anyone who is more in tune with that then jack reed. >> one of the concessions that

democrats made was the elimination of the millionaire tax. will you bring that back? >> i have instructed in my telephone calls with my four senators that there is nothing off the table. everything is on the table. i have talked to senate republicans, plural, who thinks there should be a fair tax on rich people. you have seen the stories. i am going to make sure that my conferees understand that that could be part of what we try to do. we will see what happens. >> you are appointing senator baucus and the house has appointed congressman upton and camp, we will see a number of people who have already been through these discussions as

part of the super committee. is there any reason to expect that they will -- different conclusion this time? >> of course it is a totally different program than the super committee. the reason i went to some length to describe who might conferees are is i want to make sure that everyone understands that this is a new day. i am very disappointed that the conferees that the house has appointed, five of the eight have already spoken out prior to being appointed and they spoke at the against extending the payroll tax cut for . i have spent a lot of time this morning indicating this is a new day and i would hope that prior statements saying that the want to extend it will not prevent us from getting something that is good for the american people. >> a few days before the senate voted on this bill, you have a meeting with john boehner and

mitch mcconnell. was there room for whether there would be a proxy to negotiate the house and senate bill? >> i understand everyone's curiosity. i am better off saying that senator mcconnell and i did what was right for the country and he stuck by it and i appreciate that. thank you, everybody. have a good christmas, hanukkah, .ew year's, [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> good morning, we are very pleased today that the anxiety and fear that americans had has been resolved. we are pleased that this agreement. i have talked to leader nancy pelosi and she already has appointed conferees. senator harry reid is doing the same. we're looking forward to assuring in the 01-year extension that everybody said they wanted. we're looking for to make sure the unemployed are not put at risk by falling off the rolls and we are very pleased that 48

million seniors will have the confidence that their medicare will continue to compensate their doctors said they will be available for them. this is a good day for the american people the american people's voice was heard their concerns were heard and we have responded i also want to congratulate president obama who showed great leadership in this effort. they articulated to the american the people and what was at issue. i am pleased that we have come together to make this agreement. this is a good present -- this is a good christmas present, a good kwanzaa present, a good hanukkah present for america. we will go for understanding our

work is not yet done and we intend to do it in a constructive, bipartisan fashion. i will now yield to mr. hottie airbus there, the vice chairman of our caucus -- mr. javier becerra, vice chairman of our caucus. >> i know i speak for each and every one of the members of the democratic caucus when i say that this will be a much better christmas, much better holiday season for all americans but certainly 160 million working americans. most people were concentrating on other things and what the congress was doing,in this case, we can tell those folks that they can continue to focus on buying those last-minute presence cause we did our work and we can now move forward. a big cheer up to a guy named barack obama, the president of the united states.

he started this campaign a long time ago to really press the urgency of middle-class americans and it took months to make clear how important this issue was. >> can go on and solve the we want to say to all americans shared our stories, thank you for letting us and 2011 on a good nose. i will defer to senator levin. >> this is really a victory for the american people and i want to thank all the people who spoke up. we received people for calling on us to do make sure we extend a payroll the president called for.

we can go on and solve the larger issues that relate to a full one-year extension. i also want to say to the president, you spoke very clearly. said enough was enough and what we did today was to come here and say enough was enough and now we are ready to move on. now to the very distinguished ranking member of the budget committee, chris van hollen. >> thank you, sandy people. . i wish the country a very happy holiday but it is time for congress to get right back to

work. i like to introduce the dean of the congressional delegation, john dingell. >> congratulations to you and our leader mr. a lawyer and a sandy and you, chris. merry christmas, to the american people. this is a small when but it is a big one. statue of will rogers. what has happened today in the last few days would be something that would give him some wonderful opportunities for some rather funny but acerbic comments about the congress of the united states. this is something which i am hoping is a sign of good things to come. i hope we can expect that my republican colleagues will learn to work together in a bipartisan fashion in the best tradition of the house of representatives. i am hoping that they will also learn to follow their leader, mr. boehner, who established

the beginnings of some good working relationships and i am hopeful this will lead to the congress now proceeding to deal with the nation's business in a proper way in which we have the necessary and proper respect and cooperation and bipartisanship. congratulations to all, merry christmas to all, and at this time, a very good night. >> thank you very much. we're also joined by steve cohen. did you want to say a few words? >> i appreciate the opportunity with all this leadership, i feel like tiny tim. it is a special time. i did not stay here for this purpose. i stayed here to watch the university of memphis played georgetown last night by sore a more experienced team beat a younger team. hopefully my team will improve and hopefully the tea party will learn from that so we will not be in march madness, a

comeback. they will learn from their mistakes and get better. that was a game and this is real life and this was a great day for america. >> thank you very much and i want to say in closing that we had much work to do. there is no more important job which faces the congress of the united states and growing our economy and creating the jobs that people meet which frankly bras to this -- brought us to this point. we'll come back from our break in january focused on doing that and we hope that we will be able to do so in a bipartisan way so that the economy will have the certainty and the success that we want it to have. are there any questions? >> mr. dingell? what are you looking for two or the next two months?

will you address the millionaire surtax? and also the pipeline? >> now was not the time to get into the specifics of the negotiations. as chris van hollen was very clear about yesterday when he said there are differences between the two parties which is why this extension was necessary we will obviously have to deal with those details. the conference committee will be convened i believe after the holidays and will be working on those issues. >> their republican colleagues are talking about reforms to unemployment insurance and things like urine tests and shortening the duration of unemployment benefits. toagain, there'll be time get to the specifics. those specifics and the others that mr. van hollen mentioned yesterday are differences

between the two parties and i will have to be addressed. this agreement we have reached today gives us the opportunity to do that which was the intention of the senate and why we were so supportive of adopting the senate bill and why i am pleased we did that. >> can i briefly comment? you mentioned many of these issues are within the ways and means committee. we will sit down at a conference table to try to work out differences. those differences have been expressed before they are some bigger ones that need to be worked out. >> the three of you were appointed as conferees. when will you be starting negotiations? >> right away. >> senator harry reid and leader nancy pelosi have indicated they are prepared to move forward immediately following the holidays which means the first week in january.

>> you have been here an awful long time, >> i don't like the way you say that. [laughter] >> i have been here a productive period of time. [laughter] >> john dingell said that i hope the tea party and the members will follow john boehner. rarely have we heard such a firestorm like this. your said it was critical of what was going on and factions within the republican party. what is your observation on what that means for what is ahead in the new year for the republicans? >> i will end with this -- as we have had a good day -- 160 million people are confident they will get their tax cut, the first paycheck in january. 48 million seniors are

confident they will be able to see their doctors and 2.2 million americans are pleased they will not lose their unemployment insurance. there will be time to talk about the other matters as we go forward i think the american people's voice was heard very loudly. they want us to work together in a productive, positive, constructive way. i am hopeful that we will do that. thank you very much. have a great holiday. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> before going to hawaii from the holidays, president obama spoke to reporters after signing the payroll tax cut bill. he commands lawmakers for coming to an agreement. >> good afternoon, everybody. i know you are looking forward to spending your time with your family over the holidays. i said it was critical for congress not to go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working americans and i am pleased to say they got it done.

i want to thank all the members of congress for ending the stalemate and making this happen. because of this agreement, every working american will keep their tax cut, about $1,000 for a typical family and that translates into an extra $40 or so in every paycheck. vital unemployment insurance will continue for millions of americans who are looking for work. when congress returns, i urge them to keep working without drama and without delay to reach an agreement that extends this tax cut as well as unemployment insurance through all of 2012. last week, i said this should be a formality and that is still the case. let's make sure that we extend this tax break and unemployment insurance for a full year for families but also for our economy. it is the right thing to do because more money spent by more

americans means more business as hiring more workers. that goes for everybody and it is a boost that we very much need right now. finally, want to take a moment to thank my fellow americans for bringing their voices to this debate. i met with several here at the white house yesterday. i really think it takes courage to believe that your voice can make a difference and i promise you that the american people have made a difference on this debate whether you tweeted or called or wrote, you're reminded people and this town of what all our debates should be about in this town. it is about you, your lives, your family's, you did not send us to this town to play partisan games and see who is up and who is down. you sent us here to serve and make your lives a little bit better. , to do what is right. fortunately that is how this week ended. this is some good news just in

the nick of time for the holidays. i want to be clear -- we have a lot more work to do. this continues to be a make or break moment for the middle class in this country and we will have to roll back our sleeves together, democrats and republicans, to make sure that the economy is growing and to make sure that more jobs are created. we've got an economy that is showing some positive signs. we have seen many consecutive months of private sector job growth but it is not happening as fast as it needs to. that means that we have to redouble our efforts working together and it means we have to make sure we are rebuilding the economy were if you work hard but that work will be rewarded, the kind of a comet or everyone is doing their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules, everybody has a fair chance and everybody is acting responsibly including those of

us here in washington. there'll be some important debates next year, some tough fights in the years to come, but that is the kind of country i am fighting for, one where everybody has a fair chance and everybody is doing their fair share. that is the kind of country i think the american people deserve and the kind of country that american people want to. i want to wish everybody a merry christmas, happy holidays, a happy new year to you and your family and that includes everyone in the press corps. you guys have been working very hard and your families will be happy to spend more time with you if over the next few days. i want to make sure to send the warmest holiday wishes to all the men and women in uniform who are serving overseas right now may not have a chance to see their families during this holiday season. we're grateful for everything you do. thank you, guys, aloha. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2011] >> shortly after briefing reporters at the white house, present obama board marine one headed to hawaii where he will join his family on the island of oahu. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio]

[no audio] >> i am here arguing in favor of higher taxes on the wealthy. i am one of the wealthiest 1%. >> would you guys be willing to donate to the department of treasury. >> individually? no. >> i am very philanthropic

league acted. >> i have the nation pays. all you need to do was put in your credit card number and you can donate to the government. >> that is not going to help anybody better you don't want to donate to the government? >> i want -- you have heard made. you are being silly. >> i am a video journalist. i would say that what we are doing is almost like citizen journalism which is basically when an individual does not have that much training in journalism has the tools of modern technology to capture a live event, but does not have a background in journalism. >> video journalist michelle fields talks about her online new site sunday night on "q &a." >> this weekend -- christmas morning, first lady michelle obama welcomes military families to see the white house holiday decorations at 10:30 eastern.

later, former attorney general, alberto gonzales, on his experiences in the bush white house and self-proclaimed notorious law -- lobbyist jack abramoff talks about his new book at 6:30 eastern. monday, the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial at 10:00 a.m. eastern and ronald reagan was use of intelligence in setting uss soviet policy at 1:10 and the google executive chairman of mobile communications. for the complete weekend schedule, go to c-span.org. >> this morning, a discussion about the accomplishments of the 2012 congress with sam goldfarb. after that, juan williams on the presidential campaign and a look at the role of u.s. military around the world. "washington journal"