that's senate republican from iowa chuck grassley. all speaking on this tax cut compromise, as you know. the senate goes first on this compromise. they hold a key closure vote today. this vote will end debate on the legislation. that needs 60 votes topass. republicans got a break on the estate tax. and democrats got jobless benefits extended for the entire 2011 year. the deal has become a big test of the president's leadership and standing after his party's midterm losses. this vote will be held open for about two and a half hours. now despite all the protests, democrats are in a tight spot. they could fight and get nothing. the new republican majority in the house would probably extend those cuts on their terms.

kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. we're going to begin with kelly on capitol hill. walk me through what we're going to see over the next two and a half hours. and explain why they need two and a half hours. >> they're just finishing up the debate to wrap this up over the vote. we heard the democrat from colorado come out and say he will oppose this because he believes it gives too much to the rich. we've seen john mccain talking about the fact that he'll vote for it. and we saw chuck grassley of iowa saying if they don't act on this it's the biggest increase in tax cut history. it's past 3:00 now. what they are doing is holding it open to allow more members to get back to town. harry reid said he knew they were flying in. at least one senator was stranded in minneapolis. >> we know about the weather. >> exactly. so they'll give them extra time. but they don't suspect suspense.

they believe they have enough votes and they've been checking to see who is around. we may wait for a while. but there's confidence among democrats and republicans who back this strongly, that it will go through, chuck. >> we're starting the official role call on that right now. you described a broad spectrum of united states senators that will support this deal. this could end up getting 65 or 70 votes. >> we talk so often about no one working together and no bipartisanship. we've been told by a number of people they do expect an overwhelming vote, and in the senate, this has been an easier sell, because they've known all along that they were giving bits and pieces that both parties could be happy about. and typically on the senate side, you get a little bit more of an acceptance of that. on the house side, especially among liberal democrats, they were really, really frustrated. also they knew that mitch mcconnell, among republicans

here, was really an architect of this deal. so they have lined up on the senate side. >> mitch mcconnell seems more invested in the deal now, for instance, than john boehner of the house. kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. thank you very much. now let me go to my partner in the morning. savannah guthrie at the white house. savannah, i heard robert gibbs in the briefing. they don't seem that worried about the outcome of today. what does today mean for the rest of the week, not just with the house, but they've got a few other things they would like the senate to deal with. >> absolutely. we heard robert gibbs say the president will stay as long as congress is in town, the president will be in town. as you know, he's planning to take a family vacation after congress goes out, but they very much still hope that something can happen on that new start treaty, the arms control deal with russia. if they could get that through, that would be huge for the

president. there are a couple other items hanging out there. including this budget bill that has to get done. frankly if you just look at the math and the calendar, you know that pretty much takes up the senate's whole week. so unclear if they'll be able to get it done, but they are obviously still hoping that start will happen before if end of the year. and as far as the tax deal, i mean, we see the president out and about today doing a variety of ceremonial duties. he signed the food bill this morning. right now doing a service project. and visiting with the los angeles lakers. so it seem nsz some ways public advocacy has been toned down a bit. as you know he's doing interviews with local stations in key states. key 2012 states. >> it's amazing. it wasn't just swing states. it's amazing. it was the swing markets in those swing states. so we have tampa, st. pete, the i-4 corridor in florida. denver. we also have columbus, ohio, an des moines, iowa.

how do you not read politics into that? >> i don't know. they didn't throw in one to make the argument that this wasn't clearly 2012 states battleground territory. they're obviously trying to sell the deal. they've also been buoyed to some extend. we talked about it at the white house that seemed to show about 60% or more of americans supporting this tax cut compromise. and i noticed some verbiage from press secretary gibbs. they're starting to call it the bipartisan deal. emphasizing this is a compromised bipartisan. that word seems to sound pretty good to most americans right now. >> and quickly, they are still confident. our own reporting, ken strickland very pessimistic about start getting through. white house seems confident. what do they know? >> reporter: yeah, maybe they think if put to the test, if this comes up, that republicans will ultimately get on citing national security. they do, as ken was just

explaining to me this morning that it's different than the typical bill where you need the 60 votes. but reid can bring this up for a vote any time he wants to, but the issue they've got to make sure they've got the republican votes there. i think they feel like they're starting to peel off some folk from the kyl position. he's really been out on a limb saying it's not going to get done in this lame duck session. this is one issue that's probably going to go down to the wire and keep us in suspense. >> there you go. savannah guthrie on the white house north lawn. a windy and cold north lawn. let me get you out of there. thanks very much. >> reporter: sure. take care. >> all right. let's dive a little bit deeper into what's going on on the senate floor right now. one of the unofficial mayors of the press core, on capitol hill, so we're seeing now very few votes have been recorded because very few senators are here.

there's the weather in the midwest. some people wanted to vote earli earlier. this is going to be a slow motion suspenseful vote. >> what i'm interested in is watching the republican whip count here a little bit. last week he said a vast majority of the republican caucus supportd this deal. define vast majority. how many republicans do you expect to sign onto this? >> i mean -- i would be surprised if it's not 30. i think at this point. jim demint is the only person who has come out against it. but there's a new wrinkle going on that will affect the senate and perhaps the house more. some of the tea party groups, some of the conservative activists are startlinging to come out against this bill. it might make some republicans get cold feet. >> i'm curious about that. i notice we see a ramp up in the rhetoric among the interest

groups. have you seen -- have you heard on the ground any reporting that there are a few republicans on the fence getting nervous? >> you have chris van hhaven't. who will introduce a way of fixing the compromise. it's all focused on the estate tax lowering the threshold. my question to you is, will this get voted on in the senate? will the amendment process the way this works, we're going to have a couple of, basically 24

hours worth of votes? >> you know, i'm not sure about that. i think they might allow a vote. the procedure most people are talking about is the house would take that vote back to the senate where it failed. i'm not too sure about the house or the senate in voting on amendments at this point. i think they want to get this done. >> and i want to ask you about -- look, you're a veteran covering the eastern united states senate. do you think they have time to do start? >> that's the big question of the week. what else are they going to do besides the tax bill and the spending bill? senator reid when he opened the senate today said we're going to be here until we get this all done. mitch mcconnell was saying there would be weekend sessions. that sounds to me like they're

going to go ahead with start after they get the tax vote and the spending bill out of the way. it seemed like they were preparing for this to go into next week. unfortunately. >> and so what you're saying is the timing would be this tax vote, start, then funding the government, so they would insert start in between that? >> before or after or even in the middle. but something like that. then they still want to get a vote on the immigration bill. they've got the don't ask, don't tell bill. if they want to stay into next week, they'll have a lot of votes through the weekend and into early next week. >> and i don't want to play with you -- >> yes, you do. >> you're right. but this bill that senator harry reid is is championing, where is that going to get inserted? is that part of the tax bill? >> i don't think he'll put it in the tax bill. me may try to put it in the spending bill. i think he's going to have a difficult time getting that in anyway. however the ban on internet

gambling did occur at the end of the session. got stuck in it the last minute. in some ways it may be appropriate if removing the ban gets done at the last minute. there's a lot of mayors on the capitol hill press group. karl, thank you very much from "the new york times." right now as we go to break, president obama is meeting with the nba champs. the los angeles lakers and instead of just a ceremonial deal at the white house. it's at the boys and girls club of greater washington, d.c. >> i'm glad they took the time to help us during the holiday season here in washington, d.c. we celebrate that spirit of service off the court. because it's very hard to do off the court. now on the court not too many folks can do what the los

angeles lakers can do. this year they won their second title in a row and their 16th championship overall. that's one behind the boston celtics for the most of all time. boston celtics beat. i want to congratulate coach phil jackson on earning his 11th nba championship ring. i should point out that's still one behind the six he won with the chicago bulls. i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. when it comes to investing, no one person has all the answers.

so td ameritrade doesn't give me just one person. questions about retirement? i talk to their retirement account specialists. bonds? grab the phone. fixed-income specialist. td ameritrade knows investors sometimes need real, live help. not just one broker... a whole team there to help... to help me decide what's right for me. people with answers at td ameritrade. get up to $500 when you open an account. [ malhis day starts thwith his arthritis pain.. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills. and when he's finally home... but hang on; just two aleve can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is steven, who chose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

>> we are live on the senate floor where the first votes are being passed. it is on the bush tax cuts

including the payroll tax that would put more in your paycheck, but also extend unemployment benefits for 13 months. then there's the estate tax compromise that a lot are upset about. if this deal does not happen, taxes go up for everybody if the tax rates are not extended by the end of the year. with me now, former democratic senator from louisiana, john breaux. he is somebody that was involved in the initial round of these now as they're known, the so-called bush era tax cuts. any regrets about the vote? looking at all the politics, all the back and forth. any regrets about how the vote went down? >> no, the result was a pretty strong economy where the economy was going. now this compromise is something that should be supported.

i'm reminded of the old adage. if you like hot dog, you don't want to see how they're made. the majority of the members of the house and the senate are going to vote for it. >> you know, i want to read a quote from you back in 2001 during this debate. you weren't happy about the process then. you said this. this is about the bush white house. you can't talk about changing the way we do business in washington and bringing about a spirit of bipartisan cooperation and ram through a tax bill in the house. that's the old way of doing things in washington. that's why we're not getting things done. that was march of 2001. i imagine quite a few senators of either party could utter a vote like that and claim they had the high ground on this dealing with this white house. >> well, you got the process and you got the final product. i think we can always complain about the process. probably the house today i think you would agree is probably not very happy about having to accept what the senate is going

to pass some time today. so the process is not always very pretty. but you have to look at the final product. what's the end result? is it something good for the country? is it something that the majority of people in the center can support? i think the answer is yes. is it perfect? far from it. but you have to take the good with the bad. sometimes that's what a democracy is all about. >> i want to deal and try to unearth the process for viewers. we know the senate is trying to do a whole heck of a lot of things in the next seven days. you hear about this tax bill. we have the ratification on the start treaty. i believe you were in the senate for at least one ratification on something like this. and they also want to do the dream act and immigration bill. also a continuing resolution on the government. is that realistic, or do you see that huge plate and say to yourself, well, i know what's

really going to happen. i know what's not going to happen. what do you say? >> sometimes it takes a deadline to get things done. when you get to the edge of cliff is when thicks will happen. it's like studying for the final exam. now you're seeing the cramming of a legislative schedule into the final couple weeks or a matter of hours now and get everything done. i think they can do a lot of things. you're going to see that bill maybe have a lot of these things in it that you wouldn't expect. but would be in it because it has to get passed. sometimes a deadline is something that can promote things, actually happening. i think you're going to see that happening in the next two weeks. >> you brought up omnibus. if a budget is passed this year through a continuing resolution, i'm told that can really handcuff the federal government going forward, but if a budget

is passed via the quote, omnibus, then that frees up the government to basically have a real budget process for a year or two years down the road. explain the difference. >> well the difference is, i mean, if you have an omnibus bill, you're taking all the bills and all the appropriations committees that have not been completed. you roll them into an ominous package that takes care of every department, every agency and send them the money. you give them another year in spending so they'll know what they can do for the rest of the year. they don't know how to plan. the american public doesn't know what to expect. if you do an omnibus bill for ha year, then the agencies can plan and do their budgets for the entire year. and sometimes that makes a lot more sense than these extensions. >> do continuing resolutions cost the american taxpayer more money? >> well, i think they do.

it's so unsettled as to what agencies can do. they can start projects. they have to stop them in three months, restart them again. if you have an omnibus bill that can last for one or two years. probably one in this case, they don't have to do the start, stop, start, stop. they can plan for the entire year. >> well, it's a lot different than the cartoon of how a bill becomes a law. former senator john breaux from louisiana. thank you for joining us. >> you're more than welcome. thank you, chuck. >> all right. coming up, the president's health care overall dealt a serious blow. just how serious? stay with us.

wac back. welcome back. as we were preparing for this, about two hours ago, a major blow to president obama's landmark health care law. potentially. this afternoon a federal judge in virginia declared that part

os it have law are unconstitutional. the attorney general filed the lawsuit because he believe the reforms require people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. he believed that was unconstitutional. pete williams is here to break it down. now pete, first of all, this is one federal judge, but explain what happened in this ruling, and explain the one part this judge said was unconstitutional. >> the one part was where everybody had to buy health insurance. the judge said congress had to power to require that. it's one thing that congress has broad powers to regulate economic activity. so-called commerce cost power. that doesn't extend to someone who is inactive. they can't regulate inactivity. they can't require, he said, someone who is not doing something to get into the stream of commerce and be regulated. now, there was a fallback provision here. the obama administration said,

well, this is also part of congress' broad taxing authority. because you have to pay a tax if you don't buy insurance. but it's not a tax. it's a penalty. it said so in the law. that's the word they used. two others in virginia looked at the law and said it is constitutional. this is what happened when a case gets teamed up for the supreme court. what's important here is number one this is the first ruling against the health care plan. secondly, it's one that was challenged by a state, not just by grieved individuals. virginia had a law that said people couldn't be required to buy health insurance. so there's a little more backing behind this. >> now the white house believes that any appeal will not be heard until the end of next year.

you're you're a veteran of these things. it seems like the supreme court -- all of these folks are waiting for the supreme court to rule. including this judge. it almost seems this judge was saying, look, i want the supreme court to decide this. >> well a couple of things. first of all the judge didn't do one of the things that virginia asked him to do. put a stop to order the government not to enforce the law. he said i'm not going to do this. this doesn't take effect until 2013, 2014. we have time to work this out. a case will get to the supreme court. whether it's this one, whether it's one of the ones that's already in the pipeline from michigan or western virginia. the court will look out and say different judges have come to different conclusions. but the white house is right in the sense that even if they debt get expedited review, a year and a half to two years. >> pete, thanks very much.

who knows. maybe it was a political decision to call it a penalty and not a tax that will end up making the obama administration regret that wording decision. right now we are watching the tax vote on the floor of the united states senate. it is going to be open for two and a half hours as senators make their way back from across the country from the weekend. [ male announcer ] this is lara. her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain.

and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. and fewer pills for a day free of pain. that's why there's crest pro-health clinical gum protection toothpaste. it helps eliminate plaque at the gumline, helping prevent gingivitis. and it's been clinically proven to help reverse it in just four weeks. new crest pro-health clinical toothpaste.

boss: and now i'll turn it over gecko: ah, thank you, sir. as we all knowgeico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance...

gecko: oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? gecko: um...maybe that one. ♪ dance music boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we're on motorcycle insurance. vo: take fifteen minutes to see how much you can save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance. cnbc confirms that bernie madoff will not attend his son's funeral. his lawyers say he will conduct a private service at prison. bernie madoff, we don't know if he was going to rerequest if a judge would let him do it, if the warden would let him do it. no matter what he's made the decision not to attend his son's funeral. the senate is up first on the obama tax bill compromise. and they're holding a key closure vote today to end the debate on the legislation which

needs 60 votes to pass. this is essentially stopping any filibuster. ezra klein is an msnbc contributor and reporter for the "washington post." ezra, let's talk through the policy of this. you had a fascinating interview over the weekend with an economist from the bush era days. glenn hubbard. and he had some interesting takes on what should happen with tax policy going forward. tell me about it. >> sure. so glenn hubbard was the first chairman of the council of economic advisers. he helped write the tax cuts. he said, you know, i wouldn't support a permanent extension at this point. i said why not? they're yours. you should like them. he said, you can't decide what your taxes are going to look like until you decide how big government should be. he said if we're going to have a government like the one barack obama and the democrats prefer, we can't have the bush tax cuts. they don't raise enough money. if we were going to have one like george w. bush had, we also can't have the tax cuts. >> did he say that?

the size that bush had with the medicare prescription drug benefit. for instance. set the costs of the wars aside for a minute. he wasn't around for a lot of that stuff. >> and so in this debate on this, you know, obviously the republican talking point is, hey, this isn't costing -- there isn't deficits in this. this isn't costing government tax cuts don't cost government. what did glenn hubbard said to that? >> i find it to be the most astonishing argument. you can see what a deficit looks like when you don't change your spending and you do change how much you tax, how much you raise. you know, you couldn't make this argument in a household. you couldn't make this argument in a business. there's certain budgetary reality ls. they're not particularly concerned with whose money really belongs to whom, and what

fairness is in the tax bill. they're just sort of concerned on the amount of money coming in is the same amount of money you have going out. if it is you're balanced. if it isn't, you're not. there's not a lot of ways around that. eventually the bond markets will come in and adjudicate that one for themselves. >> i'm going to ask you one more question about the deal itself. we've seen house democrats that have almost given up ongoing after the tax cuts for the wealthiest and instead want to zero in simply on the estate tax. by simply doing that, isn't that their way of winking? we'll concede to this deal, but boy, can we at least get rid of this part of this? >> i think they're looking for something they can get. they can't blow up the whole deal. but there's ha hope they can go back to their constituencies. and at least go back to their people. and at least go back to themselves and say we made this a bit better. we had a seat at this negotiating table and made our views on this one known.

we'll see if we can carry that one through. they really like that estate tax deal. if it gets changed too much down in the lower chamber, it could blow up the deal in the upper chamber. >> then who knows what happens after the first of the year. >> right. >> ezra klein of the "washington post," thank you very much. >> thank you. >> so let's get to the political and practical implication of this vote. let's bring in my boss here, the bureau chief for nbc news here in washington, mark whitaker. this health care thing is a separate piece of breaking news that everybody is anticipating at some point but let's get to this tax vote. the president will get what he wants out of the senate. at what point do they say uncle? >> on the estate tax, clearly that's the thing they've been yelling about partly because they're genuinely offended by it. but i wonder in addition to the fact they think that's where they can get a win, whether when

vice president biden and mitch mcconnell may have thought, you know, we're going to get some protests from the progressives on the hill. maybe we should put something in there we can adjust at the last minute to please them. i've wondered all along whether that is the thing where there may be a little bit of give to give them something -- >> when you say give, do you mean just moving the numbers a little bit? >> yeah, yeah. at the end of the day we're right now at zero. so nobody expects that that will remain. so obviously there has to be some kind of estate tax. >> they need to be dancing around -- everybody knows something very important to jon kyl. jon kyl was standing in the way of start. we know that start is very important to the white house. look, the white house has been inf inf in denial. you see the dots sitting in

front of you. it's hard not to connect them. >> it explains the timing of this. even if we were going to get roughly this deal, why didn't the president fight longer? why weren't we here until new year's eve or the day before christmas? but the fact is the white house felt that they had to back time this in order to basically cut a deal fast enough to give the republicans what they were demanding. so they would still have time to do some of the other things, but most importantly start. as far as the white house is concerned. that's the one where there's a treaty that expires. basically they negotiated with the soviets. they got everybody around the world on board for this thing. and that all goes away. if they don't get it ratified by the end of the year. >> the ruling in that one federal courtroom about health care, about specifically about the constitutionality of the mandate. it seems as if there's sort of two separate tracks here. track number one is on the policy side. and the white house is arguing, you know what, we'll be okay.

if the mandate never becomes legal this bill will still be okay. i'm seeing press release after press relief giddy they can say, see, a court said this bill is unconstitutional. it seems as if the political argument has already been won by the right on this, even if they may not win three years for now. >> what effect does this have on john boehner's strategy about how to go after this once he's the speaker? >> meaning he doesn't have to do it anymore. >> conceivably you can make the argument that now the courts will take care of it. i think he feels he got enough push from his constituencies. it's one thing voters or at least the republican tea party voters were demanding when they wept to the polls in november. but it makes it easier for him perhaps to get a kind of token repeal vote through the house, send it up to the senate where it's likely to die. but then say now we'll take care

of it. >> you have every presidential candidate praising the attorney general. they're all excited. so this is clearly something that motivates the republican base. you think maybe that puts more pressure on boehner to do something, rather than saying, hey, no, no, no. let the court system handle this. >> white house czar in all of this came out today, she was talking about this as the individual responsibility provision. >> that's call ad tax, right? >> well, what was called originally was a mandate. and i always thought, you know, sometimes you talk about how language drives politics. but that was an awful word to have in the middle of this deba debate. >> mandate? >> mandate. when voters and a lot of ordinary americans hear mandate, they hear government is telling us what to do. the tea party anger came partly from the use of that word. >> and this decision to not call it a tax, which was a political decision, now turns out to be --

>> i was talking to somebody from the insurance industry today. they were promandate. that all falls apart, right? now are there other incentives that aren't the tax, not the policy to get everybody to sign onto this? we'll have to see. >> we'll see. mark whitaker, thanks very much. all right. and we'll be right back with more coverage. a few of them talk on the floor. we find more will be talking this hour. we promise you anyway.

if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. yeah. aww...that oj needs alka-seltzer plus. fast powder packs are a taste-free fizz-free way to transform your drink into a powerful cold fighter! there's a cold front moving in, but relief is on the way. into a powerful cold fighter! seven years ago, i had this idea. to make baby food the way moms would. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with the farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. we've gone from being in 5 stores to 7,500.

booming is using points to make connections that grow your business.

short time ago we learned that bernie madoff would not be attending his son mark's funeral. right now we are getting a statement from madoff's attorney about his reason. the statement from madoff attorney reads as follows. he will not be attending the

funeral service out of consideration of his daughters-in-law and grandchildrens' privacy. he will conduct a private service on his own where he is currently residing. of course, he is residing in prison. we learned this morning that mark madoff had not spoken to either his mother or father in the past two years. so perhaps bernie madoff realizing that his attendance may create a media spectacle. even greater than the spectacle we'll see anyway. now back to the vote in the united states senate. joining me now, judd gregg from new hampshire. the ranking member of the budget committee, retiring. so this is one of his last big weeks casting votes. senator gregg, have you already cast a vote on this bill? >> i have. yes, i voted for the bill. i voted for closure. we won't vote for the bill until tomorrow. but i voted to move the bill forward. >> how many amendments do you expect to see? i know the bill is sort of being put together as we speak.

walk us through the process a little bit over the next 24 hours. >> well, there won't be any amendments. the agreement is reached. it's an agreement both sides have signed off on. the president and the leadership of the congress. when you get that sort of agreement, if you start eamdi ag it, the agreements become unraveled. i have reservations about it. some of it gives me serious a angst. as a practical matter, the government is in the business of compromising. you can't govern unless you do compromise. especially in the divided government. as a result, this is an agreement that on balance is a good decision. we do not want to raise taxes in an economic situation like we presently have. it would probably lead to another significant slow down of our economy. >> do you think, you know, one of the arguments that some on the left have made, saying, look, by agreeing to another two-year extension, the reality is, you know, it's going to be impossible to mess with the tax

code. every time you get to the point where you can do something about it, everybody backs off. >> that's ridiculous. the fact is we have a lot of proposals floating around this chamber right now. one from myself. this fundamentally changed the debate on tax reform. what we do is move into an entirely different arena. we say, let's reduce a lot of deductions and exemptions, and therefore take the rates down for everybody, and create a tax law which is fair, simpler, progressive, still progressive, but incentivizes people to go be productive. and in addition, our proposal was put on steroids by allen simpson, under the commission that said let's go to a zero option where you take the rates to 8, 13, and 23 by eliminating all the exemptions. in the next year you'll see this debate of fundament tax reform be the focal point.

i suspect the president will engage in it. i hope he does. i know that house and senate republicans are ready to go forward. and people like senator on the other side of the aisle certainly is. >> i have to say i have cynics, particularly among republicans i talk to that say you know what, in a presidential cycle, as much as tax reform, km is a lot of republicans and democrats want to do this in some reform. go, keep doing it. keep doing it. a lot of cynical aides tell me not in a presidential election cycle. what do you say to that? i say they're cynics, and they're wrong. this country is on an unsustainable fiscal path. we know that. we know we're going to have to control spending. we know we have to address the entitlement spending. if we're going to get the economy going, really going, we have to create a tax law that people believe is fair, simple and oriented towards capitol formation. and progressive. and as a result, fundamental tax reform is really the lynch pen

of getting ahold of long-term economic problems in the country. so i genuinely believe you'll see a development on both sides of the aisle of the congress coming together. >> i want to ask you about the health care law. are you one of those that believes if the mandate is somehow struck down, that it unravels the entire health care law, or that it simply, okay, the mandate will be stuffed aside and congress will have to fill the gap. >> well, most of the health care bill pivoted off the mandate. now the business side mandate was not struck down. the individual side was. i don't know how this is all going to sort out, and i don't think anybody really does. but it's pretty obvious if you read that bill, that most of the policy in that bill pivoted off the individual mandate. and it's going to be difficult to see how this bill, which i think was going to be a disaster anyway, is going to work at all without that element in it,

which was actually at its core. >> right. well, i have to ask you about the mandate in particular, because when it comes to health insurance, at some point, right, that's been part of the problem. can you do that via incentives? whether it's a nan date. whether it's taxation. that's the one part of this bill, the whole bill was not struck down, just this part, but how do you do that? it seemed there were a lot of in white and grey in your health care proposal. white bennett, that idea was a mandate. >> yes, you're right. but the difference was this. it wasn't comprehensive, all intensive health care for the purposes of moving down the road towards a single payer system. there are ways to do this. let me suggest one. there are a lot. but let me suggest one. let's put in this place in the country a requirement of catastrophic coverage and subsidize low-income individuals

so they can get it. people aren't wiped out. but you allow the marketplace to work underneath the catastrophic event by creating an atmosphere where people go out and buy different competitive policies or have health savings accounts in order to do that. there are all sorts of variations, which would have been much more efficient, got you much better health care. got you much better health care practices so we move to quality and quantity versus quantity rather than and quantity. this bill did not because it has its primary goal to move down the road to a single payer system. >> judd gregg, ranking member of the budget committee. seems like you've been a part of all these debates over the last six months. i have a feeling you're coming to a presidential commission soon. you're going to get rope back into this. >> we've got to do something.

thank you. >> thanks very much. next, a check on that masty weather sweeping the nation, even holding up this senate vote. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills. and when he's finally home... but hang on; just two aleve can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is steven, who chose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

that powerful storm that has slammed the midwest is continuing to do damage today as just about everyone atects to recover from rain, fls floods and mudslides in washington. snow, rain and wind won't seem to let up in chicago. heavy gusts and snowfall have grounded more than 1500 flights leaving airlines and passengers frantic. and authorities in inn are racing against the clock to rescue stranded drivers before the next wave of snow. chris warren joins me from atlanta. look, we know this huge storm that has slammed the midwest is

headed east. is something coming behind it as well? >> right now, the main concern is the cold. anything that comes next is not going to be significant as far as the cold temperatures and that storm. behind the storm, we're still dealing with lake effect snow. we have the ray darks the green, the yellows. at times, throughout parts of maine, this is heavy. you see this white, you have the flow coming off the lakes. it picks up that moisture and just dumps a lot of snow in confined areas. over the next couple of days, we're looking at possibly getting still, more than a foot, maybe more than a foot and a half. the snow is one side. the other side is the very cold temperatures. florida, this is your forecast for the overnight lows. even some teens for the south. >> unbelievable.

chris warren with what has been a rough weather weekend turning into a rough weather week just one week before holiday week. that's fit for me. i'm chuck todd here in washington, d.c. 57-6 in favor of cloture. five of the six that have voted against cloture -- and kristen gillibrand of new york. we know bernie sanders is against cloture on this at some point. they are just three votes short. coverage continues next with "the dylan ratigan show." dylan is talking to congressman charlie rangel. it's his first msnbc interview since his censure. i'll see you tomorrow on "the daily rundown". the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa!

>> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. ♪ [ male announcer ] there are billions of people in the world. ♪ but only one dad. ♪ show him how much you care with gillette's family of products. ♪ [ male announcer ] there are billions of people in the world. ♪ but only one dad. ♪ show him how much you care with gillette's family of products. ♪ hey tough guy, that cold needs alka seltzer plus! it has the cold-fighting power of an effervescent packed in a liquid-gel for all over relief! hiyah!

dude! if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge.

it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle. good