the sum total of all the budget agreements we've reached so far proves there is a path forward. it is possible if we focus not only our politics but what's -- but on what's right for the country. and the one thing that i think hopefully in the new year we'll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama a little less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much. >> that was president obama last night following a late house vote passing a fiscal cliff compromise after making his remarks the president who came out a big winner in the deal dropped the mike and literally left the building heading back to hawaii to finish his vacation with the first lady and their daughters. good morning, happy new year. i'm marc halperin, we have a lot to get to including a controversial decision by house

leaders to not take a vote on hurricane sandy relief. some members of congress on both sides of the aisle are speaking out. first the big story on capitol hill and for the country this morning, a bill to avert the fiscal cliff awaits president obama's john hancock. around 11:00 p.m. eastern last night, the republican-led house gave final approval to a deal that will raise taxes on the wealthiest americans, and postponing the automatic spending cuts for two months. the package, which would be signed by the president as early as today preserves the bush era tax cuts for individuals who earn less than $400,000 a year and households earning less than $450,000. it extends unemployment benefits for a year and does not do a bunch of other stuff. it passed by a comfortable margin but only because a majority of yes votes came from democrats. 172 democrats voted in favor. 16 opposed. 151 republicans voted against the bill.

only 85 voted in favor. in recent years, republican speakers of the house refused to bring bills to the floor unless they got a majority support from republicans. speaker john boehner of ohio violated that longstanding rule last night and in the process he became the only member of the leadership of his party who voted in favor of the bill. eric cantor and kevin mccarthy joined the majority of their party in voting no. boehner did find support from one key republican, paul ryan of wisconsin also voted yes. the main sticking point for republicans, a lack of spending cuts. hours before last night's votes, republicans considered trying to amend the bill from the senate and add additional spending cuts in. the senate made it clear they had no intention of revisiting this idea. so if changes were made that would essentially kill it.

before the vote, republicans took to the floor and voiced their concerns. >> there are no spending cuts. we're adding $4 billion a day to the debt. the senate failed in cutting spending. >> i thought we were in a deficit crisis. i thought families were put at risk by this massive debt. what does this do about that? >> it was way past those senators bedtimes, they were blurry eyed when they were reading it we are trying to fill in the gap for where they missed a few things. >> i think it's unreasonable for senator reid to say something they produced on new your's eve, by a bunch of sleep-deprived people is what we should adopt within 40 hours. >> after the bill passed, speaker boehner released a statement saying now the focus turns to spending. the american people re-elected a republican majority in the house and we will use it in 2013 to

hold the president accountable for the balanced approach he promised. with spending cuts pushed back a couple months and the debt limit ceiling on the horizon, the stage is set for more political battles ahead. after last night's vote, president obama attempted to draw a line in the sand on one of the big fights coming up next, a showdown over the debt ceiling. >> while i will negotiate over many things, i will not have another debate with this congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already wracked up through the laws they passed. let me repeat, we can't not pay bills that we've already incurred. if congress refuses to give the united states government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic. far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff. people will remember back in 2011, the last time this course of action was threatened, our

entire recovery was put at risk. consumer confidence plunged, business investment plunged, growth dropped. we can't go down that path again. >> the president draws a line on one of the upcoming fights. joining us now is mike allen to review a little bit about what happened yesterday. mike, we were not sure there would be a vote at some point. obviously the house felt a bit jammed by the senate. did mitch mcconnell jam john boehner and force boehner's hand? >> he didn't force boehner's hand, but he did step up in a way that boehner didn't. people will tell you on capitol hill boehner's nerve never looked weaker, here's why. for most of the day yesterday we were not sure there would be a vote, and if there was a vote it

could include new spending measures. this bill is all tax increases and very little spending cuts. when the republicans got together yesterday afternoon, there was a rebellion among house republicans. they all wanted spending cuts, both boehner and his number two, eric cantor put out a statement saying there was near unanimous concern about spending. the debate for much of the day is what do we tack on to this turkey the senate sent us? do cuts that we know kill it as the poison pill or there was some conversation about attaching cuts that democrats might find acceptable that the president has been for in the past. in the end, mark, republicans decided they couldn't be stuck with the idea of a middle class tax cut that they couldn't have the cliff totally on their hands. they couldn't get enough votes for those spending additions. >> so john boehner votes yes, cant cantor, mccarthy and other

republicans vote no, does this endanger boehner's chances of being speaker again? >> he will be the speaker, but this is a real psychological blow and sets up a divide in the republican party. you point out paul ryan was for this package. the day before when the senate voted for it, fascinatingly, senator marco rubio of florida, rand paul of kentucky, fellow senator with mitch mcconnell, both likely candidates in 2016, they were among the eight senate votes against it. so, republicans here have given up a lot of high ground. they were the anti-tax party. we have a story that just popped up on politico where the lead is read their lips. republicans just voted to raise taxes for the first time in 20 years. that's going to be tough for speaker boehner an others to answer for. >> a phrase, is this a big win for president obama or did republicans get anything out of this? >> it's -- for now, it's all big

win for president obama. republicans hope that in the next couple months when they're negotiating the debt ceiling, the other deals ahead, that's when they will get their pound of flesh. hard to see. the place this hurts the president is in his second term agenda now there's all this fiscal overhang. the president last night saying get rest, we have a lot to of work do in 2013, this overhang will make it difficult to do guns, all the things he was outlining on sunday with david gregory, now the system is full, and it will be hard to do those. >> we'll see you a bit on "morning joe". >> have a lucky 2013. the markets have been keeping close tabs on the action in washington. the last-minute deal on the fiscal chief, is it enough to calm concerns on wall street and beyond around the world? the man with the answer, steve sedgwick is live with us now in

london. steve? >> very good day to you. these markets had been on the back foot. we had fallen for five straight sessions before hopes for a deal. on the 31st we saw substantial gains for the dow, nasdaq and the s&p 500. the s&p had a terrific year, up over 13%. leading the way was the high beater sect, it moves the most in line with the market, that was the financials which had a big over 25% rally. we had a bit of a rally on the back of it. the question remains were the markets going follow through on today's trading. the asian markets have been up. european markets are going great guns to the upside. the u.s. markets, they look like they might be opening around the flat line, but people are not betting against a further rally, a strong rally now that we had this fiscal deal.

the indicators at the moment are for a flatter open for u.s. indices. >> steve sedgwick, thank you very much. with so much time an energy devoted to the fiscal cliff, there were other big issues on capitol hill that got put off until the new congress arrives tomorrow. that includes a bill to help those effected by superstorm sandy. a package was passed last week by the senate, now lawmaker also have to start the process from scratch because legislation does not carry over from the last congress to this new one. for those hit hardest by the storm, the frustration was bipartisan. >> this congress is apparently leaving town without responding to that emergency. there's not one of us, not one of us in this congress that could not be in the same position. and i'm deeply disappointed, mr.

speaker. and the people who have been damaged by sandy, including governor christie, a republican, and governor cuomo, a democrat, should be deeply disappointed and, yes, angry. >> we have a moral obligation to hold this vote. the people are out of their homes. the people who are cold. the people without food. the people who lost their jobs. they don't have time to wait. >> to ignore it, to ignore the plight of millions of american citizens, unprecedented, they should reconsider or hang their heads in shame. >> for us in the northeast to be treated this way is unconscionable. i would ask the speaker to reconsider. i have never been angrier than i am right now. i'm usually proud of this house. tonight i am ashamed. shame on you, mr. speaker. >> a spokesman for john boehner

said he is committed to seeing the bill passed this month. it's not just washington where new policies are going into effect, in states across the land new laws are on the books and in effect impacting everything from social media to the minimum wage and more. in maryland, there are big changes when it comes to same-sex marriage which is now legal in that state. pete williams has more on the new laws for the new year. >> reporter: in california and illinois, it's against the law for an employer to ask anyone applying for a job to reveal user names or passwords for social media sites like facebook. johnny velo says it happened to him. >> it's rue and disrespectful. someone has privacy, you expect them to respect that. >> reporter: though job placement experts advise leaving embarrassing photos off social media sites, employers also

don don't have the right to rum paj through a prospective employer's past. >> it's like having the keys to a house and looking through diaries. >> reporter: indoor use of generators or charcoal fires can create a build up of co2 gas. >> a lot of people felt they had no alternative but to bring something in their home. >> reporter: in florida it's now legal to flash your headlights to warn of a speed trap ahead. the minimum wage goes up in ten states, where it's more than the federal rate of $7.75 an hour. washington has the highest of those states at 9.19 an hour. as always, you can let us know why you're awake and watching. shoot us an e-mail at

waytooearly@msnbc or tweet me @markhalperin. it was a frantic day of college bowl games as we count down to the big match-up next monday between alabama and notre dame. plus -- >> this bestseller about problems on the mccain/palin ticket became an hbo movie with julianne moore. >> i have no idea, but i'll google that at the break. we'll show you the rest of that clip and the weather when "way too early" comes right back. a life and death drama is taking place in a coal mine in west virginia, 13 minor uter mi

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this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

you're looking live at new york's times square where the ball dropped a couple days ago. now a check of your weather from nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> were you down there partying with the kids? >> no, if i were there, it would have been 1 million and one. >> you didn't want to break the fire code. >> exactly. >> last year will go down in the history books as the warmest year recorded, and we also had an $11 billion disaster. usually it's not until we get to the severe weather season or tornados that we start talking about possible billion dollar weather disasters. we are looking very quiet. it's very cold, dry air. that doesn't allow for a lot of

rain or snow. we have a bit exiting areas of north carolina. showing a bit of snow possibly in the southern portions of maryland. if you're looking out near ocean city, maryland, you may see a coating of white. otherwise just a very cold morning. boston, windchill of 5, boston, 2. at least it's sunny in most locations across the board. happy to say for anyone doing post new years travel, there are no big storms headed across the country. no big snowstorms in sight, so we get a bit of break. to sports, we go to the vid videotape. wisconsin made his third consecutive rose bowl appearance, this time facing off against stanford. stanford's kelsey young takes the handoff, 16 yards for the touchdown. the cardinals stake that to an early lead. the badgers would pull within three points before the half, with this four-yard touchdown pass to jordan frederick. to the fourth quarter, two

minutes left to go wisconsin trying to make a comeback, but kurt phillips gets picked off. stanford wins 20-14. wisconsin now, three straight rose bowls, three straight losses. to orlando georgia and nebraska square off in the capital one bowl. nebraska up by five. adam murray steps up and throws this bomb to young. 75 yards for the touchdown. now back to the fourth quarter. bulldogs lead by seven. murray dumps a short pass across the middle. chris connelly off to the races. 87 yards for the touchdown. that was murray's fifth touchdown pass of the day. he set a georgia bowl game record. georgia wins the shootout 45-31. love that bulldog. now to south carolina and michigan in the outback bowl. fourth quarter, michigan tries handing off, but clowney is there, he knocks the runner's helmet off and forces the fumble. south carolina recovers and

would eventually score the touchdown on the next drive. end of the game, 16 seconds left, dillon thompson finds bruce ellington, 32-yard score. south carolina wins it the at end 33-28. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," more on speaker boehner. he becomes public enemy number one for some conservatives after he sends the fiscal cliff bill to the house floor for an up or down vote where it passed with democratic support. we will break don't winners and losers. joe, mika and the "morning joe" crew. when we come back, we'll huddle up around the water cooler and preview the most ridiculous laws taking effected in 2013. let's say it will not be a good year if you're a bobcat hunter or a swamp buggy owner. "way too early" coming right back. ♪

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53 minutes is more than enough of regular real news, let gather around the water cooler with lewis. what do you have for us today? >> happy new year. >> happy new year to you, man. >> did it treat you well? >> everything's gone well so far in 2013. >> you strike me as a guy who would do well on jeopardy, you're smart, whitey -- >> i'm a more wheel of fortune man, but jeopardy is not bad. >> guess this one. >> last night a familiar "morning joe" title made it into one of questions.

a contestant selected a category called notes from the campaign trail. >> campaign trail, 1,000. >> this bestseller about problems on the mccain/palin ticket became an hbo movie with julianne moore. that was called "game change." >> oh, trebek. >> that's a zinger. a tough one. >> that's not a $1,000 question. >> you won all these awards, i guess there's still some room to grow. >> america's cultural literacy, rock bottom as we begin 2013. we have some laws to tell you about. we told you about the laws taking effect in the new year. here are some you might have missed in california f you're going out hunting for bears or bobcats, leave your dog at home. packs of dogs have been scaring bears up trees, and animal rights activists say it's cruel and inhumane. in kentucky, if you own a wild

hog, it's illegal to let it back into the wild. mark, please keep your wild hog locked up. now, cat ladies in wellington, kansas are out of luck. authorities are limiting the number of cats you can own -- you can own just four cats in an effort to cut down on a growing number of strays in the community. we have cat sounds from the control room here. in florida, good luck commuting to work through the swamps. i don't know anyone who commutes through the swamps, in florida i guess it's a reality. you are no longer drive your swamp buggy through the marshy terrain and take it on state roads. if you drive a motorcycle in illinois, there's no fun for you either. you have to keep both wheels on the ground. popping a wheelie will get you $100 fine for the first offense and possible jail time if you do it twice. if there's any takeaway from all these new laws, let it be this one, if you fine yourself in

concord, massachusetts, bring your own water bottle. the community is one of the first in the country to outlaw single-serve water bottles in cases case of h 20. and hugh hefner is ringing in the year with wedding bills. he wed 26-year-old crystal harris at the playboy mansion this new year's eve. he tweeted a photo of the couple, but he wasn't in the tux for long. he was in his captain's hat and silk pajamas not long after the ceremony. crystal harris ran from the altar during their first attempt at marriage. they are back, united and it feels so good. >> tomorrow, you will explain how they enforce that four-cat limit. still ahead on "way too

early," why you are awake? your texts, tweets, e-mails and more are next. "morning joe" is just moments away. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.