negotiate with. no democrats are going to be joining that discussion at the table. they remain committed to the senate's two-month fix and are blasting republicans for taking this to the brink. >> where's your compassion? where's your heart? where is your soul? >> in a surprise move, president obama jumped into the fray calling on house republicans to get behind the senate's bipartisan measure. >> i need the speaker and house republicans to do the same. put politics aside. put aside issues where there are fundamentals disagreements and come together on something we agree on. >> i need the president to help out. president obama needs to call on senate democrats to go back into session, move to go to conference and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. >> let's go over to luke russert

live on capitol hill. luke, we've been watching the white house countdown clock. down to ten days 13 hours, 59 minutes. the question might be what will happen before that click hits zero, if anything? >> as of right now, richard, the gop conferees that are supposably are having their first meeting with speaker boehner and photo op around 10:00 a.m. that is really to try to show that they are here working. the gop wants to get that message out. this comes against a backdrop a for tough day for house republicans. "the wall street journal" wrote a scathing editorial saying they had botched this. they should pass the senate bill and move on. bob corker has said let's get this two-month extension and move on. against this backdrop a lot of folks in the higher end part of the republican party saying this fight is not worth it because the president is win, they're

here in washington perceiving to work. what's going to happen today is after this meeting they'll sit around in d.c. the conferees waiting for negotiators to come from the democratic senate. democrats chris van hollen and steny hoyer are going to go to the house and ask to pass the bill with unanimous consent. if you want to talk on the house floor you can and try to move something. basically we end up where we've been for this last week. it's a stalemate and 160 million working americans could see $1,000 disappear from their paychecks if nothing is done. who blinks first? we still don't know. >> luke russert with the littest on capitol hill. thanks a lot, luke. we're asking you to weigh in on facebook. who's to blame if the payroll tax cut is not extended? you can vote right now in our unscientific poll. so far 18 people blame

republicans. one blames the democrats. two blame the president and three blame all of the above at this moment. let's bring in congressman charlie rangel who joins us right now. a democratic from new york. a lot of possibilities here. a lot of scenarios. luke russert was explaining some of those. i want to show you this from this is ma major garrett in the national journal. he throw out the possibilities of five different snare yoes. i'll get what your sense is. first, the house gop accepts a two-month deal if the democrats go to conference on a one year deal. that's 50%. it all expires. accounting gimmicks. he mentions senate democrats giving in and the house gop caves. you can see the probabilities here very, very different. what do you think? what's going to happen? >> you ask people to call into your facebook. >> right. >> i'm telling you if people all over the world would call into their members of congress especially in the house of

representatives, this thing would be over before the end of the year. why do i say this? because boehner knows that politically the tea party freshman republicans are driving the party over the cliff. first of all, none of them wanted the tax cut. none of them wanted the benefit extension, but they got caught where the people say hey, there's three million people without work. they had to do something. they deliberately sabotaged the senate. >> what do you think is going to happen? are they going to cave? >> i don't know about this caving. i know one thing, this extension of the tax cut is going to continue, unemployment will continue and we will be coming back after christmas to the capitol and to the congress. >> we're watching live pictures of speaker boehner meeting with leader cantor as well and other members of the conference where he's named eight members.

there have been no democrats named to that conference as of yet. >> what happened is boehner's lost control of the house majority. he can't do anything without the tea party people. and they don't care about the country. they don't care about the majority. they are just concerned about getting re-elected. >> listen to what michele bachmann said about this very issue. >> harry reid essentially threw a grenade over to the house and left and said take it or leave it. so it was very difficult for john boehner this was just a two-month temporary gimmick. >> congressman, i'll get your reaction shortly. let's listen to speaker boehner as he's speaking. >> i think it's important to note that the president, bipartisan leaders in the house and bipartisan leaders in the senate have all really asked for the same thing over the course of the last several months. let's extend the payroll tax credit for a year. and all we're asking for is to

get the senate members over here to work with us to resolve our differences so we can do what everybody wants to do, extend the payroll tax credit for the next year. i'm hoping that they're ready to work because we are. >> good morning. as the speaker said we are here in washington working today because we want to make sure that the middle class and working families of this country have some certainty that their taxes will not go up for the entirety of next year. that's the house positioning. frankly, that's the only issue with which we differ with the senate. and we're asking as the speaker said for the senate majority leader to appoint conferees to come join us to try to finish the work for the american people before the end of the year. if you're thinking about it, people are sitting there scratching their heads wondering what washington is doing.

by the fact that the president sits probably a mile away from here down pennsylvania avenue, we're sitting here people wondering why can't they get together and talk and work this out. that's exactly what we're asking to do. the differences between us are not very great. all of us as the speaker indicated want to make sure that people have a tax relief certainly for the year. we can do this. we've got time, let's get to work. >> we just want to ask -- americans need and deserve for the next full year -- >> you can hear there speaker leader -- boehner and leader cantor. congressman rangel as we look at the point made by speaker boehner saying let's do the

one-year deal. michele bachmann saying that's what they should focus on. >> of course we should do the one-year deal. it was 39 republicans in the senate and 89 of the senators said let's do the one-year deal. since we can't work it out now, don't let the people lose their checks and don't let them get a tax increase. this is the season for spiritual direction, all they have to do is to tell the people don't let the congress do this to you. those two people that you had there speaker and cantor are hostages held by the party -- the tea party people. they were two hostages mumbling an excuse that nobody can buy. make sure we don't have a christmas where the poor and vulnerable are the ones that suffer. >> what's your assessment when you saw the conference there when they were speaking to the cameras? what was the sense about their

energy? any nervousness there? >> they're scared to death. they're embarrassed as hell. they're embrarsing the republicans, the house of representatives, the congress and the country. nobody looking at that believes that the united states of america takes care of its vulnerable the way they have done to the taxpayers. >> stay with me. i'm to bring in senator alan simpson on the phone right now. he's a co-chair of president obama's national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform. senator, just a year ago you and erskine bowles presented your plan. what do you think could have been done more here? >> first let me say hello to charlie rangel. he worked together on a lot of stuff. that's the way it used to be. >> he's a straight shooting senator. >> i'm sitting out here in the wild of codey, wisconsin, on a beautiful winter day just shaking my old bald dome.

this cannot be the way to run the nation's business. and then just have press conference after press conference whether it's the president or the democrats or the republicans, this is bs and mush. the people are sick and tired of it. here's one for you. wait until they do the payroll tax cut and that's fine. they've done that or maybe take it to 3.1. wait until you try to put it back on so you can sustain the solvency of the social security system and that will be called a tax increase. hang on to your shorts. this baby's going to last for a whole year. >> do you think it's going to last a full year? >> it's always going to be an issue. as long as people are getting the checks now, we expect that the economy would grow and that it would not be the pain in terms of what you're taking out in taxes. we lose hundreds of thousands of jobs if these people are not able to consume. >> charlie, on our commission we had witnesses from all over the

united states and every forum and not one of them said we could grow our way out of this with double digit growth for 20 to 30 years. not one. >> you're eluding senator, to your plan of course which was more aggressive in terms of cuts as well as more aggressive in terms of revenue. >> let me agree and say, i didn't mean that we could do this thing by taxes and cuts alone. it was a great job that the senator and bowles have down saying you need both. the only point i was trying to make is failure to give the people the revenue, to give them the disposable income is going to have a severe increase in unemployment. >> are we seeing the same forces that sidelined your plan, senator, behind what we're seeing today in the payroll tax cut troubles? >> no, i don't -- you have to take the whole thing. everybody has to have skin in the game. everybody has to pay attention. we're going broke. we owe $15 trillion.

what's a trillion? nobody knows what it is. i'm just saying to you you can't go forward here. you can't, we're not talking about a tax increase in our proposal, we're saying getting rid of the tax expenditures what are tax earmarks spending by another name. all you have to do is remember that this is an unsustainable situation. and the horrible part of it is when the tipping point comes, and the guys who love money and play with money, let me tell you the money guys don't care about the democrats or the republicans or the president. when the tipping point comes and they decide, wait a minute this is an absolutely dysfunctional government, the little guy gets hit the worse. the little guy when interest rates go up and inflation goes up. this is bizarre. >> and senator and congressman, the arch family will lose about $40 every paycheck. that's the submission if the tax cut expires. the white house has received a tremendous twitter response to

the question, this is what they asked on their website, what does $40 mean to you? these are some of the teets that they have posted on their website. one person saying with $40 i can buy food or pay for gas. i can save it for my daughter's prescription deductibles. to some people $40 is nothing. but $40 is big money for the united states. congressman, this is the reality that is senator was talking about. >> there's no question. it doesn't have to be that way. if a smaller guy had america really not just doing facebook, but getting in touch with their member of congress and tell them to do the right thing, then you can bet your life these people that are holding back the resources that are so badly needed, they would change. it's all political and it's sad and it's a disgrace to republicans, to the house of representatives and to the congress as a whole. we're letting the people down

because of a handful of people. >> the clock is ticking. we're going to continue to watch it. we've got ten days to go. congressman rangel thank you so much. senator simpson as well. >> you bet. merry christmas to all the troops somewhere. >> nice hearing you. >> you, too, charlie. >> we're watching speaker boehner still in this meeting. we have our cameras on it. we'll be following that. we'll have all the latest for you in what's happening on you in what's happening on capitol hill.. of course, children don't really think about which battery makes their toy run, but, still, you'd never want to disappoint. duracell. trusted everywhere.

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newt gingrich keeps asking mitt rom know to stop the negative attacks. mitt romney will not tell the superpacs to stop. >> i know the speaker would like to say we shouldn't have any negativity. look if you can't handle the

heat in this little kitchen, the heat that's going to come from obama's hell's kitchen is going to be hotter. we have to show that we can stand up to the barrage from the obama world. >> newt gingrich spent some time on campaign trail talking up his wife saying she's just perfect. >> look, she is a very disciplined professional person. she's a classical pianoist by training, she plays the french horn in the city of fairfax band. she sings in the professional choir in the basilica and has helped made seven movies and she's helped produced. she's good a best-selling children's book. she works very, very hard. >> here's something to keep the speculation going about hillary clinton for president. >> america would be better off today if hillary clinton was our president. the wall street robber barons would be jail. young people could afford college and find jobs and six

million homeowners wouldn't face foreclosure. >> who's behind that call remains a mystery. highly unlikely hillary clinton gets into the race, someone who could play spoiler ron paul. besides mitt romney and newt gingrich he is the only other candidate pulling double digits in three of the most recent polls mchl the last week he spent $600,000 on attack ads targeting newt gingrich and right now ron paul's concentrating his efforts in new hampshire and iowa where his organization is strongest. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> reed, let's start with you. there's a new iowa poll, you saw some of the data there showing that paul is leading. do we need to take ron paul seriously now or have we already? >> absolutely. not only does the new iowa state university poll show ron paul at 27%, 27.5%, you can't get into

the fractions in a poll, but around 27%. newt gingrich at 25%. mitt romney at 17%. not only is that showing ron paul actually ahead. his support is a lot firmer than the rest of the candidates. more than half of his voters say they're definitely going to vote for them. that's the story about ron paul. he's got the highest floor in this race. meaning he's got the most supporters who are firmly committed to. more so than romney or anybody else in the field. it's going to be an interesting fight. it's not one that i think is going to go well for iowa because if ron paul wins iowa that sort of dilutes the influence it has on the primary at large. >> we were talking about that yesterday as well. now, ruth, if ron paul does win iowa, does that throw things into a frenzy or does that favor mitt romney? >> i thought things were already in a frenzy. >> exactly. >> one thing about ron paul's strengths in addition to what reed said is he's got very good

organization in iowa. i think he very well could win it. i think there's two questions about the impact of ron paul if that were to happen. first of all, what's the impact for mitt romney? i would argue that it's probably pretty good for mitt romney in the shorter term he's sort of waves aside or diminishes the gingrich bubble. you have these two sort of energizer bunny candidates who can battle it out. if the ron paul phenomenon gets out of control that's problematic for romney. and then you have to worry in a general election what are the possible implications of a ron paul third party candidacy which he has not ruled out. >> that rules a wrinkle to all of this. you both mentioned organization. reed, the headline in politico read newt gingrich races for iowa organization. and he admits it.

listen to this. >> he's been running for president for six years. he's running with millions of dollars and $20 million in a superpac alone. of course, he has a huge organizational benefit. yet i tie him in every poll. >> what do you think here, reed? could this be gingrich's doom? >> it absolutely is going to play a major role here. first of all newt gingrich's poll numbers have been slipping for the better part of two weeks now. internal polls slippage started a lot earlier than in national polls. now we're seeing mitt romney tied again in these national polls even though gingrich led last week in. the longer term gingrich's problem with organization is going to have an impact on him in terms of the race for actual delegates. today he's spending the day at a rally in roslyn, virginia, he's got to get enough signatures to get on the ballot in virginia. yesterday mitt romney turned in 16,000 when he had to turn to 10,000. that shows you the disparity

between the campaign that's scrambling to catch up. >> i have to go. i thank you both for joining us. reed and ruth, have a very good day. >> thanks, richard. the payroll tax cut we're asking you to weigh in on facebook. we're getting a huge response. hundreds of you are voting right now on facebook. we'll bring you more results throughout the show. throughout the show. stick with us for that. so you t more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i'll take it. i'll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain. sorry i'll clean this up. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana...

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change a life. >> for these two little sisters, life has always been heartbreakingly hard. like almost all their friends in the empoverrished village in malawi, these dresses are the only thing they own. when rachel o'neill arrives there is a welcome for their new friend from america. it was here in malawi five years ago that o'neill fell in love with the sweeping beauty of the country side, but especially with the children. >> when i'm here i realize that every single one is different. and every single child matters. >> yet she also realized they had no way of knowing that life could be better. so she made a plan. >> i'd like to see if a woman's group would like to begin to sew little dresses to bring back next year when i come. >> so they did. first in her church group, then word spread. and people from all 50 states

sent in so many dresses, it took teams of people to iron, sort and pack them all. >> it kind of makes me want to cry to tell you the truth. that's how i feel. i really do feel connected to these women. >> and that was just the beginning. in the year since our story aired, 400,000 dresses have been donated. bringing the total to half a million. it's hard to imagine how many hours went into making each and every one of those dresses by hand. now every year rachel returns to bring not just clothing, but hope. >> there's a real personal touch to it. and they really do make a difference. each child feels special. >> at first they seem puzzled. they've never been given anything in their lives. but then when they realize this belongs to me, their smiles are warmer than the african sun. >> all of it comes down to putting that dress on that little girl and seeing her little eyes light up. >> little dresses with a

message. you matter. and soe very far away made this dress just for you with love. chris jansing, nbc news, malawi. >> today's headlines and a disturbing story developing out of the pentagon right now. [ record scratches ] discover neosporin® lip health™. shown to restore visibly healthier lips in just 3 days. neosporin® lip health™. rethink your lip care.

live to capitol hill. we're watching the developing story on the payroll tax cut. minority whip steny hoyer saying it was the gop that walked away from the negotiating table. let's listen to representative chris van hollen. >> we can take up the republican compromise bill. the identical version is right here. if we can vote on this today, we would get the same bipartisan result that they received in the senate the other day. and by the end of today, we could have a bill on the president's desk that would make sure that 160 million americans

received a tax cut -- continuation of the tax cut beginning january 1st. we can make sure that millions of americans looking for a job have unemployment insurance. and we can make sure that millions of americans will still be assured that their doctors will be paid. these are medicare patients that they will make sure that their doctors will be available because they will be receiving payment under the medicare system. full payment. so it's a real tragedy that the house republican leadership did not show up today on the floor of the house of representatives because had they been there they could have entered into this unanimous consent agreement that mr. hoyer mentioned. by the end of the day it would be on the president's desk. they may be somewhere in the capitol, but they're not on the floor of the house of representatives which is where the people's house transacts its

business. we'll be here every day waiting for them to come to the floor of the house to actually take up this legislation so that we can get it done. >> you heard representative chris van hollen alluding to there was no vote on the senate bipartisan bill from the payroll tax cut issue. we will be speaking with one of the representatives that was named by speaker boehner to the conference that is supposed to hammer out a deal. many say it will just be a technical ba ras that will never lead to a solution. just 13 days to go before the iowa caucus. a new poll has ron paul surging ahead of the gop presidential contenders in iowa. here are the numbers. the new iowa state university gazette poll has the texas congressman leading the field with 28% of the vote right there followed by newt gingrich and then mitt romney. now university of virginia center for politics director

larry sabado joins me right now. a very good day to you. >> a good day to you, richard. >> this is a well timed surge for ron paul. say 2008 he got about 10% of the vote. some say he needs to double that to win this time around. what happens if he does take iowa? >> if he takes iowa, it's just tremendous news for mitt romney. if ron paul is second in iowa, it means he sucks a lot of the oxygen out of the room for all of the others. each one of them wants to become the anti-mitt romney. some of them are going to be left gasping for breath. some of them have to drop out because their money will dry up and they'll lose any explanation of how they could end up being the nominee. it's great news for romney. it's perfect it divides up the conservative vote. there's no way that ron paul is going to end up having a ceiling

that is much higher than 20% to 25% except in caucus states. >> you talk about mitt romney there. he has not put a lot of energy into iowa focussing on new hampshire. what happens if he does, though, win iowa? >> it would be a shock i think even to him. if he wins iowa, i think at that point he would have a very good chance not just to win new hampshire, to win new hampshire going away at that point even with this long drawn out process, i think it would be a matter of marching to the nomination. >> let's move to newt gingrich here. he may have peaked a little bit too early at least in the polls for him to be able to cash in in iowa. talking about cash, i want to show you the numbers that you and i have been following. in terms of spending he's been clearly outspent. as of friday perry with $4 million, paul with $1 million. gingrich with a quarter of a million. all that money being spent here

for attack ads. what does he need to do to win in iowa? second or third place? >> i think he'd be thrilled a t this point with second place. he may get third or fourth. he's really on the downslide. that's the hold of some of those remaining candidates we may talk about who are hoping to slip into third place and give themselves a boost for if not new hampshire then south carolina, the third contest. >> he'd be happy if he hit third place. you were mentions some of the other candidates. let me show you some of them and how they are doing at the moment in polls. the likelily gop iowa caucus goers saying this, the bottom four rick perry 11%, down to rick santorum 5%. can't decide at 5%. what do you think about these candidates, are they pretty much done? >> look, i think one of them might get a ticket out of iowa even though it will be manufactured by their own campaign. if they can finish third or

fourth, only one of them will. it's either going to be perry or bachmann or santorum. one of those three can say i'm on the upswing, i've got the momentum. they're not going to be able to do well in new hampshire. i think they'll go right to south carolina and try to capitalize on the same kind of evangelical christian electorate that existed in the iowa caucuses. >> thank you so much. if they were to win iowa and what they might do next, larry sabato thank you so much. >> thank you, richard. americans are spending a record amount of money online this holiday gift giving season. last week marked the busiest week in online shopping ever with consumer spending more than $6 billion. online retailers have been trying to edge out their brick and mortar counterparts with big deals and free shipping. cnbc jane wells joins me from a target distribution center in tucson, arizona. are online retailers making a huge dent in store sales?

>> they are making a dent, but the real goal of retail is to have them leveraging. i'm at a target.com fulfillment center in tucson. it's the first time they've ever let a camera in here. these are boxes that machines are making as orders come in. an hour after you order something on target.com they start making the box. they start through this huge facility in here which they can fit like 16 football fields, they say. this where i'm standing is where it all starts. >> 15 football fields. look at all of those packages running by. have you taken a count to see how many have gone by you? >> i'm sorry, one more time, richard? it's a little noisy in here. >> we're looking at the packages processed by you. have you take and look to see how many have you been going by? what's popular in these boxes? >> believe me, i've been working. the hubby had better have

something nice coming from target.com. they have five of these around the country. between black friday and cyber monday they processed in this facility alone over 300,000 orders. that's five times what they would get on a normal weekend. it is growth from a year ago. here's the thing, what analysts are finding is that retailers who are able to get you to buy both in the store and online find that those consumers generally spend more. so they're not shopping at one oor the other. they're spending more at both this is one advantage that retailers like target and walmart have over amazon. amazon doesn't have any brick and mortar. when it comes to online, amazon is the 800 pound online package in the room. it really does dominate in terms of visit and sales. it is undercutting the prices still considerably. walmart's getting closer, but it is undercutting prices more. again, amazon doesn't have choice for people like target or walmart do. >> janes wells amongst all that deafening noise in the target

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hour of msnbc, the political game of chicken over the payroll tax extension. more drama on the hill today as house republicans and the president refuse to budge. how's any of this going to get resolved in we're going to talk with congressman chris van hollen coming up. are republicans handing president obama a second term on a silver platter. governor howard dean joins us live to talk about that one. a new poll putting ron paul ahead of the gop pack. >> looks like a good one, thanks thomas. here's a look at other stories people are talking about. thousands of mourners have poured into the streets of the north korean capitol to pay thinker respects to kim jong il. according to reports the nation will be governed by a group of people. king jong-un, his brother-in-law and military will hold collective leadership in that country. investigators are combing through the wreckage of a small

plane that crashed on a new jersey highway killing all five people son board. the plane spiralled out of control before exploding and the interstate. the pilot was warned of icing conditions. but the actual cause is still under investigation. transportation secretary and faa administrators have just released new rules for scheduling pilots. among those new guidelines flight time limits of 8 to nine hours followed by ten hours of rest. this comes three years after a 2009 airliner flown by fatigued pilots crashed killing 50 people. eight american soldiers are being charged in the october death of a fellow soldier. he was found shot to death in a guard tower in afghanistan. investigators first thought he may have committed suicide. now they believe he was the target of ethnic slaurns attacks by fellow soldiers. there will be a news conference at 11:00 a.m. with his parents.

the fda has approved human testing of a new aids vaccine developed by researchers in canada. three previous human trials of other vaccines have failed. and we can tell you the payroll tax cut debate is one you certainly care about. we're getting an overwhelming response on facebook we asked who's to blame if the payroll tax cut was not extended? 502 say it's republicans in congress. eight blame democrats. 13 blame the president. and 20 blame all of the above. thanks for weighing in on all of this. we appreciate that from you. it's also today's tweet of the day comes from roll call political reporter david drugger saying quote, watching house gop handle a payroll tax extension reminds of the movie "tin cup." all they had to do was lay it all they had to do was lay it up. yes.

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let's extend the payroll tax credit for a year. all we're asking for is to get the staff members over here to work with us to resolve our differences so we can do what everybody wants to do, extend the payroll tax benefit for the next year. >> you saw it live on msnbc just moments ago. house speaker john boehner urging democrats to return to the bargaining table and hammer out a one-year payroll tax extension. the clock keeps ticking. right now i'm joined by congressman greg welden republican from oregon. one of the eight negotiators trying to hammer out a one-year deal. congressman, thanks for taking time out of your day today. a lot of folks are asking here at the moment, how do you negotiate if there's no one sitting across the table from

you because the democrats are not assigning representatives. >> isn't that unfortunate. can't we just sit down and see if we can't find common ground. both sides know it's not going to be exactly what the house passed or exactly what the senate passed. that's part of the legislative process. we know that. they should know that. we've got ten days here. 11 days to work this out. we should be able to do it. we're ready to go to work. that's what the speaker wants. we want to solve this problem for a year. if you only do what the senate does, then you end up in exactly this same sort of drama and crisis in 60 days when all these things expire again. we don't think that makes sense. we think we should stretch it out longer. give middle class working americans a longer tax break, let's do it a year for $1,000. >> we were listening to steny hoyer earlier.

>> very frankly what has happened is the republicans have taken hostage those 160 million people. they've taken hostage those 48 million people. and they've taken hostage those three million people so that it would be done their way or the highway. >> okay. so you saw the hostage illusion that he made. >> two thins i'm probably speaking about what republicans are for than the democrat whip to have house. the house on a bipartisan vote passed a one-year tax cut for million dollar class working americans of $1,000. we passed a proposal to make sure the physicians are properly reimbursed so they can see senior citizens on medicare and solve that problem for two years not 60 days. we extended unemployment with reforms so those that are unfortunate enough not to have a job right now have the certainty of unemployment coverage going forward. so we've done those things in the house not for 60 days, but

for one to two years, which i think is the kind of predicability and certainty that americans are looking for out of their congress. the second thing is mr. hoyer and miss pelosi could appoint their own conferees. they haven't even namedconferee. we asked majority leader reid to appoint some senators to come to town and discuss these issues. >> it seems like the debate is how to pay for that. both sides agreeing it is a good thing to have over a one-year time. it's how to pay for it. in the middle i know this is tough for both sides here, there are people that will be losing some $40 dollars per paycheck. there was a tweet that i want to share with you on the white house website. this coming from an individual in rozwell says i have to pick

between my insulin and water bill. what do you say to folks like that? >> they should have the guarantee of a tax cut. that $40 a week for a year not for 60 days. the republicans in the house are saying threatts do this for a fuel year and $1,000. not two months. it's the $833 question at stake. somewhere there's a middle ground that can work for all americans and the house and senate. at least don't you think have the chance to sit down and talk about it. that's what we did when we passed the proerks bills that fund the government for the rest of the year. it's what the house and the senate just did on the act. they had a conference committee. they worked out their differences. it's on the way to becoming law. this is the process that works every day. it shouldn't be my way or the highway. we want to sit down and work this out. >> we've got ten seconds. do we have a deal before the new year? >> i hope so. we should. >> yes or no. >> yes. >> thank you so much. i wish we could talk longer. congressman walden have a very

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over the payroll tax cut. who will brink first? with 160 million americans facing a $1,000 tax hike. the stakes couldn't be higher. turns out there's real reason for the republican establishment panic attacks over ron paul. the dark horse candidate leads the pack in iowa. and mitt romney sitting down with our own chuck todd on his closing arguments in the race for the gop nomination and his dust up with newt gingrich over superpacs. hi, everybody. great to have you with me this morning. i'm thomas roberts. we begin with a test of wills between president obama and house republicans over the payroll tax cut extension.