to veterans benefits? we're also watching the stock market right now after yesterday's huge rally and record highs. we'll tell you what the fed decision manies for your mortgage, bank account and your retirement coming up. good morning, i'm chris jansing. this morning the president is weighing just how much to reshape the nsa and the way intelligence is gathered in this country. a report the president ordered was unequivocal in its conclusion that the u.s. should scale back the information swept up by the spying program. the 300-plus page report recommends ending government storage of data and turning over the logs of every american's phone calls to the phone companies to hold on to. it also suggests the president sign off on any spying of foreign leaders and while -- now known as fisa, green lights much of the spying the commission recommends that a public advocate push for privacy rights and in other words, that the secret courts hear both sides of the argument.

the president is open to the changes according to senior administration officials and depending on this decision expected in january it could represent a radical change in the fight against terror. >> i'm not going to say that this is now going to make us vulnerable avul n vuler inable and there will be another 9/11, but i think it will slow us down and that is not good. lynn sweet is the chicago sun-times washington bureau chief and ms. cornbluth from the washington post. >> just because we can, doesn't mean we should. how far do you think the president is going to go to curb the nsa's powers? how much pressure is he under right now? >> this gives him breathing room right now because nothing has to be done individually, he ordered the commission. one of the things he'll do is appoint that advocate to be in court to argue the other side. after all, this court is secret and no one really knows what it does, how it does, it's

one-sided so i think that would be one of the recommendations that seemed one of the most possible out of the 46 that the five memberses of the panels put out there. >> of course, sam you heard michael leiter and there is resistance from the intelligence committee and listen from the select committee on it and this is saxby chambliss on "morning joe" today. >> we had public the fact that there are 64 instances that we interrupted and disrupted from a potential attack standpoint. does the death of another 2,000 americans have to happen before we step in and say, well, you know, hey? >> but in the conclusion of this report was this isn't making us significantly safer, but is there still the fear of a terror attack that could trump these privacy concerns? >> well, yeah. it's interesting because it's not as if the panel will which is packed with civil libertarians and these are

members of the intelligence community and think you're absolutely right as this debate goes forward as the president spends the next few weeks trying to read the report and trying to decide which of the recommendations he'll adopt from the national security community that they could risk another attack. i think it would be surprising if the president took all of the recommendation, and i agree with lynn that an advocate is one that might seem like low-hanging fruit for him and he's got a few weeks and he'll try to figure out which he'll adopt. >> in the meantime, the debate will continue and saxby chambliss on one side and here is the other side. >> the message is very clear. the message from nsa is now coming from every branch of government and every corner of our nation, nsa, you've gone too far. the bulk collection of americans' data by the u.s. government has to end. >> do you think, lynn, that at least in terms of timing the

momentum seems to be with people on pat leahy's side of the argument and you have the panel recommending changes and you had the federal judge this week and calling the changes unconstitutional and the meeting at the whois with tech executives and that meeting went twice as long as it was supposed to. so does that change the equation? >> slightly. i think a lot of the pressure from congress for the moment is diverted to some other matters under the year and one of the reasons that i say this is that congress is out and out in a few weeks and the immediacy of action isn't there and the only thing that could trigger something putting this into the top priority list is another revelation, and that brings up edward snowden and the guy that started this whole thing. right now is he looking more like a whistle-blower than a

villain? >> i think it certainly depends on people's perspectives. there are people when see both sides and it provoked an incredibly important debate. >> let's switch gears and talk about homecare. as you mentioned there are a few other things going in washington. politi politico's headlines said this. michelle obama steps into health care spotlight. she and the president met with a group of moms and she sat down with three different radio interviews including the reverend al sharpton. she has generally, lynn, steered clear of policy, so why this? why now? >> i think that i need her. this blitz of mrs. obama who as you rightly mentioned she rarely does anything policy related this directly. the deadline for signing up is coming up monday. it's the 23rd to be eligible for health insurance on january 1. by the way, if you don't sign up by monday, you can sign up next

week or whatever, you would get coverage the month after that. so there's emphasis on it, and i think she hasn't been doing a lot lately and i don't know if it will signal more involvement, and each assignment that she's requested to do can, request one by one so i wouldn't read into this as new activism on policy for the obama administration and her worries may have a significant impact of the quarters of the uninsured universe. she may be the perfect person to counter a very successful republican letters that they get from constituents or emails and the prize got personal and taking about a meningitis scare. hay had to rush her to the hospital and had to do a spinal

tap. take a listen. >> as the story end, she's fine. she's healthy and she's a beautiful young lady, but if we hadn't had insurance and access to a pediatrician and access to a hospital where we didn't have to worry about the cost of care, if we had waited evernight, if we had postponed acting there's no telling what the outcome would have been. >> and valerie jaret said the first laid set best spokesperson for health care, is she right? >> to the earlier question with about whether she's an advocate here. she's promoting what is the law of the land. she's not taking a stance on something that is up for debate although it is controversial. she's promoting something that was supposed to be implemented and she's been an effective spokesperson over time for a variety of causes and i don't think it's all that surprising that she would be doing something that's this important to her husband and she's obviously very eloquent on the subject.

>> i have to ask you on the subject of health care because everyone on twitter was going crazy about this, lynn, this tweet that came out. barack obama's account. how do you plan to spend the cold days of december and a guy in his pa jachl as, chris christie tweeted a parody, spend the cold days of december volunteering. why? >> i think sometimes it's okay to have fun. you have to be careful and things sometimes take a life of their own and i wouldn't have guessed that would have been one of them. >> anything you want to weigh in on that? >> the family had the viral christmas card and the christmas jammehs video to any of this. 'tis the season. >> it's only just begun. lynn sweet and ann cornblut, if i don't see you, happy holidays to you. >> happy holidays to you. listen up if you shop at

target. $40 million customers credit and debit card accounts may have been stolen. you should double check your statement if you shopped at target between november 27th and the day before thanksgiving and december 15th. this past sunday and we'll have more on the threat and what target is doing to address it later in the hour. hillary clinton closing out barbara walters' list of the most fascinating people. she did explain why it's so important to have a woman in the white house. >> it matters because we have half the population that has given so much to building this country, to making it work and of course, i want to see a woman in the white house because, you know, if i look at my friends and former colleagues who are now in the senate, it was the women senators on both sides of the aisle who finally broke the fever over the government shutdown and the debt limit debate. they have been working across party lines and we need more of

that. >> hillary clinton said she will decide if she's running some time next year and she actually led the first, most fascinating list back in 1993 and this is barbara's last list. she does retire next year. mixed reaction to news that senator max baucus will be the new ambassador to china. he's said he's not running next year. he has dealt with international trade issues. opponents like john mccain has mocked news of his possible appointment. >> there's no such thing as a free lunch and according to jack kingston, if poor students want one they should have to sweep the cafeteria's floors. he was criticizing the federal lunch program for students who qualify financially. his comments were meant to instill a stronger work ethic in the next generation. >> concerning the number of

homeless veterans on their streets and their mayor will break that news here on "jansing & company" in just a few minutes. sometimes i think my family off the field... is sweatier and messier than my family on the field. so like the nfl i use tide... ...because i'm the equipment manager in this house.

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less than 24 hours, lawmakers are promising to make fixes including reversing cuts to veterans' pension. thought cut $6 billion over the deficit by decreasing cost of living increases in military pensions by 1% for early retirees and that includes a lot of disabled vets. joining me now, republican senator johnny isaacson of georgia. good morning. good to see you, senator. >> good morning. good to be here. >> you called it a mistake and nobody wants to see cuts like this, but the question from a lot of your fellow republicans

is where are you going to get the money if we don't do this? >> the good news is that this opens up something that we need to look at for a long time and that is the continuing pension liability of all government guarantees, entitlements and pensions. as you well know, we talked about going to change cpis and index of coal as in terms of social security and that is the more conservative index for coalas and now that the issue has been brought forward we need to make sure that all of the programs are measured and we find the $6.3 billion by making everyone share in the responsibility and not just putting it on the backs of the soldiers. >> but for people who are in congress or who don't have economic degrees and don't really understand cpis in coalas and so on, they do understand the bottom line because they have to balance their own budgets. so if you decide that these military pensions should not be hurt, where does that money come from? >> it should be a shared responsibility out of the budget and probably out of the

liabilities of pensions all over the budget and not just on the back of one group of people being our soldiers. $6.3 billion in is a lot of money in the scheme of things and in the $3.7 trillion budget it's not a lot of money and we can find a lot of money to do that. >> are you suggesting it would come from other people's pensions besides? >> you're indexing the index and what the resolution yesterday that passed the senate after the budget passed, said that we should put everything on the table and not just the pensions of soldiers and all benefit programs and all ways to find savings and find savings that are shared and not just target on one american citizen. >> we saw patty murray who negotiated the deal. senate arms services, chairman carl levine would have hearings and consider alternatives. what do you think the chances are that these military pension cuts can be reversed? >> this morning as we are

speaking, patty murray is introducing the technical fix for the disabled veterans and the survivor benefit and that will be done on january 6th and all of the retirees in the military and this is a triggered benefit that is only affected in 2015. we have two years if carl levin are committed to find the money before it ever takes place. >> you have a record of compromise. you were one of nine republican senators who voted with 55 members of the democratic caucus in favor of the budget bill. you also refuse to endorse the effort block funding for obamacare back in august and almost immediately then, a conservative group spent tens of thousands of radio ads. are you concerned about a backlash by the tea party? >> i'm concerned of not getting the job done that people elected me to do. it's give and take and if you

will live together and make things work and we have to find common ground that benefits all americans and we can have all of the political fight weise want to and in the end doing what's right for the american people especially at christmas is precisely what congress should be doing. >> since it is the season. i wanted to ask you about senator al flashing ranken's gi it was a lump of coal from joe manchin who wanted to highlight that his state is a coal-producing state. you gave ben carden, a georgia plate bread warmer. are the gifts better this year? >> the gift was good and it was tasty. i got a six-pack of lagger beer from the state of virginia and tim cain is now one of my colleagues in the senate. >> are you suggesting the entire six-pack is gone already? >> oh, no, no, no. i shared with everybody. >> you heard it first here.

senator johnny isakson, thank you. >> merry christmas to you. >> the fed is scaling back the massive stimulus program and what it will mean for mortgage and credit card rates and what about your retirement? we'll get some answers coming up. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone.

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tell us the economy is improving, but its street level, the pain of the recession is still very real. a new report from the mayors of the nation's 25 largest cities shows more people are asking for help to get the food they need to live, but because of a lack of funding for programs, one in five of them can't get that help. okay. so who are we talking about? 58% of them are people with families and 43% are the working poor. they have jobs. 21% are elderly, and 9% homeless. this new report also shows that the number of families without a home has climbed by an average of 4%. there is one bright spot to tell

you about, though. most of the cities in the report said they've made a significant strides in getting homeless veterans off of the streets. >> one of those is phoenix, arizona. mr. mayor, good to see you. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> i do want to start with the subject of homelessness among veterans because you've made it a priority and you've done something that's never been done before. you will break some news here and tell us what happened in your city. >> phoenix is one of the cities that has made ending homelessness a high priority. i as mayor made ending homelessness to all of the population and one of the highest priority, we've worked incredibly hard not only as a city and working with the business community and working with the non-profit community and working with the local united way and project vets and we are today, just yesterday, just yesterday, we were able to get our final, chronically homeless veteran off the street and into shelter. so right now in the city of

phoenix, we have zero chronically homeless veterans on the street. it is a major accomplishment and i just owe a debt of gratitude to so many people that work their tails off. it's the right thing to do for those who served our country with honor that serve to protect us. it's a real tragedy in america that so many veterans are homeless and it's the right thing to do to do all we can to end homelessness. i'm glad phoenix was able to take the lead in that regard. >> first of all, congratulations. second of all, tell us more about how you did it and what lessons there might be for other major cities because all of us, whether it's here or new york or any of the large cities around america have failed to see one of those signs that i just saw, i'm a homeless veteran. can you help? >> it is all about partnerships, working as a team. so you have to make as a leader of the city, as mayor, you have to make it a priority, you have to ask the community to step up

to the plate as housing opportunities become available to allow veterans to be the highest priority to find permanent, supportive housing and what i mean by that is not only do we need to get the veterans off the streets and we need to have the support services, so they can stay in housing. don't end up back on the street and break the cycle of homelessness and that may be health care and that may be mental health training and/or treatment. maybe it's substance abuse treatment and whatever is ailing that person that is causing the homelessne homelessness, in addition to permanent supportive housing they may have support services and what's wonderful, when we go to a team meeting in phoenix, arizona, you don't know who is a government official. you don't know who is a business official and we don't know who is a profit official and we're all on the same team focussed in on the goal of ending homelessness. leadership and team work and that's what we're able to do in phoenix. >> let me ask you about this

report, this serious issue of hunger in america. you've seen a lot of support from washington, senator john mccain in particular and we do see the federal unemployment and food stamp assistances take a hit. what do you think will happen there and how worried are you about where the federal government is going in this regard. we're one of the fastest improving economies in the entire country, but the reality is that there are too many people and too many families still suffering. so i see it among not only people living below the poverty line and among the working poor, there's too much food insecurity and people are not sure where the next few meals may be coming from. that food stamp program and the snap program is a lifeline for literally hundreds of thousands of families in the region of which i am a leader. i would suggest to my friend in congress that now is the wrong time to be cutting snap benefits. we need to be writing people as much food security during these difficult economic times as

possible. there will be a time to do that, but now is not the time as we're just now beginning to recover, but there are still hundreds of thousands of families suffering in a city like phoenix. a child cannot go to school if there is housing instability in their home life and those are issues we have to take care of first and i urge congress not to cut snap during the difficult times. >> congratulations. no homeless veterans on the streets of your city. thank you and happy holidays. >> thank you so much. merry christmas and happy holidays. >> we'll be right back. commendec that helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align. the energy in one gallon of gas is also enough to keep your smartphone running for how long? 30 days? 300 days? 3,000 days? the answer is... 3,000 days. because of gasoline's high energy density,

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♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] own your obsession with the exceptional values during the season of audi. visit audioffers.com today. ♪ wall street is still buzzing this morning after the fed decision that will let you keep paying historically low interest rates for mortgages, credit cards, car ask studend student . ben bernanke in one of the last acts of his eight-year term, announced that the fed will start easing up on the stimulus program next month by $10 billion, but he also emphasized record low interest rates are here to stay at least for the foreseeable future.

>> the committee now anticipates it will likely be appropriate to maintain the current federal funds rate target well past the time that the unemployment rate declines to below 6.5%. especially if projected inflation continues to run below its 2% goal. >> that announcement sent stocks soaring with both the dow and cent 500 reaching all-time highs. here with what that means for you is zanny betows, from "the economist." good morning. >> good morning. >> the stock market is down, almost 300 points ending the day yesterday. what gave wall street so many reasons to cheer? >> it's interesting wall street cheered for two reasons, first because the economy has strengthened quit a lot and we've seen signs of strengthening in the last two weeks and the fed's decision was taken as strengthening and secondly as ben bernanke said, they made clear that tapering

which is printing money to buy bonds is not the same as tightening and tightening meaning higher interest rates and when ben bernanke tried to do the same thing in june, the opposite happened. bond yields soared. the stock market tanked, and for the last few months they've been laying the groundwork to try to convince people that yes, they want to slow the bond-buying program, but they do not want to tighten. interest rates will stay low and that's what they successfully did yesterday. >> very good news if you have a student loan or if you buy a car or a house and not so good if you're a saver. >> if you want to borrow money and good news if you're in the market. the combination of the strength of the recovery means that the fed is still very, very focused on growth. they are much more concerned about that. they are not going to tighten too fast and they went to pains yesterday to lay that out. >> bernanke pointed out that since this massive stimulus program began, unemployment has dropped more than 1%, nearly 3 million jobs have been added.

can that be attributed to the stimulus or is it mostly other things that are going? >> there are a lot of things going on in this economy, and it has been the fed and it's been the fed's expansionary policy and the economy hasn't -- the recovery hasn't been that strong. >> recently, we started to see things improving and that's because there have been a lot of headwinds and fiscal policy has been dragging down the economy. the fed has been trying to prop it up and now i think we're finally seeing underlying strength in the economy and 2014 could be the sweet spot of strong growth and low interest rates. >> janet yellen is coming in. what's the anticipation there? are we going see much of a change with the fed? >> i don't think so. i think she was a very pivotal part of the decision making. she's the number two and the vice chairman right now. she's fully onboard with all of this. i think she'll continue the approach that has been laid out now, slowing gradually the pace at which tapering the bond

purchases, but keeping monetary policy very loose. she's very focused on employment and that's a really big concern of hers and the interesting thing will be the optics and it will be the first female chairman of the fed and how will she perform in front of congress and how will she explain this policy? so far so very good. she's been not only surprising everybody, but she's been extremely effective and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. this was an amazing reaction the last 24 hours and exactly what happened in june, but over the next year if growth is very good then people say maybe they'll raise rates faster than it is now and if growth is weak people will wonder will they change their mind? >> zanny beddoes, great to have you on the program. >> thank you. the sign language interpreter accused of making up gestures at nelson mandela's memorial. his wife took him in for a check-up and doctors admitted

him immediately. he was admitted for the psychiatric -- >> phil robertson who was suspended from his show because of vulgar comments he made about homosexuals in a gq magazine interview. governor jindal released in a statement in part the politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints except those they disagree with. i don't agree with quite a bit of stuff i read interviews or tv. i find a quite bit of it offensive and this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. in fact, i remember when tv networks believed in the first amendment. it's a messed up thing when miley cyrus gets a laugh and he gets suspended.

the comments that were made are too graphic to be said on this television program. we have a new inside look at mitt romney's private moments on the campaign trail and netflix releasing the trailer for net. a documentary about his run for the presidency and it's a wide-ranging look at romney with his staff, his family and even details of the moment he found out he lost the 2012 election. >> i just can't believe you're going to lose. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> so what do you think you say in a concession speech? ♪ >> does someone have the number for the president? >> mitt will premiere on netflix january 24th. double check your credit and debit card statements. target says up to 40 million customers may have been affected by a security breach. cnbc's brian sullivan is here with what's moving your money.

wow! huge, huge problem. what can you tell us? >> it's not the kind of news you want to hear, chris, and good morning. between november betweenth and december 15th, if you shopped at target using a debit or credit card, go back and check those accounts for any unauthorized usage. that's what target is saying. they're not giving a lot of details and know exactly who might have done this, some kind of a breach, basically not only just your number which is bad enough and also things like the security code on the back, your expiration date, chris. pretty much everything would take somebody to use your card. if you shopped in those periods of time or listen, any time around that time, probably be smart to go through your accounts carefully and make sure you don't have any unauthorized charges. so far we have not heard of any. target basically saying listen, check your cards or work with authorities to get this fixed and not the kind of news you want to hear in this busy shopping season. >> no, but do keep an eye on the accounts. meantime, because it's all about

me and i'm flying across the country today. >> oh! >> one of the things we talk about is the proposal for the sec to allow cell phone conversations on flights. now some airlines saying they're not going to allow it. >> you know, i think back to how we met, chris, stranded in that december -- >> we actually were. it was on your birthday, we were stranded in an airport. >> detroit, true story, folks. on my birthday, july 19th in detroit, never met chris. we were in detroit covering the bankruptcy story, we met, the flight was delayed and we had great conversation, and i think to myself, if we'd both been yapping into the phones we would have never established the tight bond that we have today. that said, a number of airlines thankfully have said even if the fcc does allow planes to -- phones to be used while flying that they will not allow it. in other words, it will be legal, but it will be prevented by the airlines' policy. the airlines don't do a lot of smart stuff. this is one of those smart things. can you imagine having to sit

next to me and i'm yapping into the phone in my annoying voice. >> better you talking to someone else -- >> i'm sorry. what did you say? >> exactly. >> yeah. >> brian sullivan, my great and good friend. merry christmas to you and yours. >> merry christmas, happy new year. i'm off as of next week. >> take care. >> bye. >> maybe i'll see you at the airport. >> sending a message, this is one of the two openly gay athletes in the white house delegation to the winter olympics and in the face of rausch's anti-gay laws and hockey silver medalist kaelin cahall joins me next. ♪

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temperature as low as 3 degrees fahrenheit for at least 80 hours. russian president vladimir putin says all athletes will be treated equally in his country at the olympics. the comments came two days after the white house named two openly gay athletes billie jean king and caitlin cahow to the u.s. olympic delegation in the face of russia's strict anti-gay laws. >> putin said, quote, the main thing for us is the good organization of these competitions. the creation of equal terms for all athletes. neither president obama nor the first lady will attend the games. the official reason is it doesn't fit into their schedules. joining me now, olympic hockey silver medalist caitlin cahow. actually a silver and a bronze. two o liclympicolympics, two me bad. >> what was your thought when you were named to the delegation. >> i couldn't wait to tell anyone and i couldn't tell

anyone for a couple of days. >> and you kept the secret. >> i did. i kept the secret as best i could. >> let me play for you what white house spokesman jay carney said yesterday. >> this delegation represents the diversity that is the united states, all our delegation members are distinguished by their accomplishments in government service, in civic activism and in sports. and we are proud of each and every one of them and think they will serve as great ambassadors to the games. >> it's a diplomatic word, diversity, but what do you think it sends? >> the united states is fully behind all of our athletes and we want to have a poor'sfeacefu successful olympic games. >> to the people who said the appropriate response to these anti-gay laws would be for us to boycott the games. >> see, i just don't feel that way about it at all. as an olympian, i know what joy and power the olympics can bring

to the world, and i want to see athletes in russia competing and having that experience, but i also think the olympics is a really great time to get, mobile and to get enthusiastic and also to take a look at ourselves and put the mirror up to our own faces and examine now can we be better as a nation and as the world and let's take that energy and come back to work. >> members of the delegation, you just explained to me, will be going in and out and you're going to the end of the games, but are you concerned at all for the gay athletes? obviously, the openly gay athletes on the u.s. team who will be going over there? >> i think being an openly gay athletes going into the olympics is difficult no matter what. there is media pressure around the clock and the athletes are doing their best to bring honor to the united states. i am fully behind all of the athletes. i am hoping they'll be safe and i'm hoping to be peaceful olympic games. >> have you spoken to them? >> the general mental sit we're going to compete and work hard

and this is no different than any other olympic games and that sounds silly to say and it's the crowning achievement of any athletes life. >> and you do feel that way. it doesn't seem like you have a lot of angst or anxiety about what might happen as a result of this? >> i think there are always times in life when you need to be courageous going into situations that may not be that comfortable and sure, this is one of those times for me, but i do, i have faith that people rally around the olympic spirit and we'll have a successful olympic games. since you learned about this before the rest of us did, have you talked to billie jean king and about the role that you play as role models. >> for me, billie jean king growing up wasn't about lgbt rights and she was about the woman who made laws like title 9 possible for me. >> equal pay. >> exactly. and i got go to college and play ice hockey because of people like billie jean king. i'll be grateful will to spend

time with her as the role model she's been to me. >> you rushed here from taking a law school exam, right? >> i did. >> good luck. i hope you get an a. >> caitlin cahow, i'll look for you in sochi. >> thank you very much. forbes.com ranked the best and worst airlines based on holiday arrival times. here they are. hawaiian has led the industry for the last three years followed by alaska, airtran. u.s. airways which recently merged with american and mesa airlines. the worst, it starts with skywest. nearly a quarter of its holiday flight arrived late. then expressjet which operates flights for delta followed by southwest, jetblue and denver-based frontier which has topped the late holiday arrival list for the past three years. [ male announcer ] more than a security system.

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russian president vladimir putin is describing nsa whistle-blower edward snowden as

noble and interesting. snowden is living in russia under temporary asylum. at a news conference today putin said he hadn't met snowden yet, and said, quote, thanks to mr. snowden a lot has changed in the minds of people around the world. >> time now for the reputation report. jansing's weekly report of who's hot and who's not. here with an exclusive analysis is the chairman of 15 minutes' public relations. hey, howard. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> let's start with edwardsn snowden. tell the white house he deserves immunity. is that the general feeling on social media? >> yeah, by almost three to one people are on his side. they're seeing him as a whistleblower, but the president and the u.s. government and the security services think this guy's guilty of espionage and treason and i don't expect him to get a hero's parade very

soon. >> 71%. that's a turnaround. initially, was there skepticism about this guy. >> absolutely, but i'll tell you, the court ruling really helped him in the social media, but i think putin made a very interesting statement which is what snowden was truly a game changer in ways that i don't think the average american has the ability to understand, not just what he leaked, but the access and the kind of thing that other countries see the u.s. is looking for, and we didn't want to open our kimono like this, and he did it and we're a little embarrassed. >> snowden turned this around and what does it is a about the nsa? >> they're in the gutter, chris. they're in the gutter. people do not like big brother watching us. by every report they have overstepped their boundaries, even the president is acknowledging that they'll relook at what they do and how they do it and it's not

surprising. we value our privacy. we think when we make a phone call or send an email it's something personal and private and we're finding out it's not and we're frankly a little surprised and a lot angry and we're taking it out on social media. >> let's shift gears and talk about the story that dominated a lot of conversations. i heard this week, beyonce, her new album setting itunes sales records, more than a million downloads and the album is topping the billboard charts and for people who have been living under a rock, she released this album just as a big surprise. here's what one billboard editor said. i think the trend that this beyonce sneak release points to is that there's no one sort of way to do this anymore in the music business because of all these platforms that connect artists directly to fans. you can do this, 100 different ways. how's beyonce doing in social media? >> well, not surprisingly, she's way up. any time you launch an album that's number one in 104

countries, people love you and there are two filters that give us interesting information, though. one, the business filter and there's angst among traditional retailers that because it's so successful online, people aren't going to buy the cd, and the second filter is a lot of parents and this is the ethical filter that we see so often, a lot of parents are not happy with some of the messages, some of the video. they think it's vulgar and vile and that has her trending fairly even on that scale, but by any measure, beyonce is the winner of the week. >> yeah. my executive producer was saying she was watching the videos with her daughter and having to click, jump to the next one and click, jump to the next one. >> she's not alone, trust me. parents beware. not you, howard. you've seen it all. thank you, howard and thank you always for getting up early in los angeles. appreciate that. >> thanks, chris. if you read only one thing this morning and if you have any money at all in the stock market chances are you did very well yesterday, just not as well as warren buffett who makes an

unbelievable $37 million a day. that's the average this year. think, since he's pledged to give away almost all of his fortune, that's good news for a lot of charities, but where do those numbers put him among the richest people. maureen commented i clearly do not have a knack for making money like warren. i admire him for having the talent. facebook.com/jansingco. >> thomas roberts is up next. >> are you here tomorrow? >> no. >> happy merry christmas, happy new year. >> merry christmas. we're not going get a flashback friday? >> hmmm? >> we're not going get a flashback friday? >> my christmas press tonight myself is i won't have to hear you mocking my hairdos. >> the president commissions an

independent report, the snooping won't stop. spying makes for strange bedfellows as vladimir putin agrees the nsa is needed to fight terror. speak of rush a the u.s. delegation is assembled and ready to head to sochi to represent the u.s. in the games. bonnie blair will talk about her mission. and what the duck? a duck dynasty star is in hot water, after ruffling the feathers of the gay and lesbian communities. who is standing up for phil roberts? you used the oven? boom. [ male announcer ] pillsbury crescents. make the holidays pop. ♪ a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation -- an irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested.

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reaction today. >> nsa, you've gone too far. the bulk collection of americans' data by the u.s. government has to end. >> does the death of another 2,000 americans have to happen before we step in and say, hey, that probably is a good -- >> i do think what our government is doing is unconstitutional, and i really think that in order to restore confidence in our intelligence community, i think james clapper should resign. >> i think this will slow things down and that's probably not good. >> but the big question is, will the president actually implement any of the changes the panel recommends? he's already shot down one involving who leads the nsa and if the president is looking for an ally in his defense of the nsa program, he's got one in russia. that man, right there, vladimir putin calling the surveillance program necessary to fight terrorism. >> joining me right now is florida democraticen