you know, bright-eyed bushy tailed tea partiers coming into party, some guy putting an arm around youngman, young lady this is the way we do things here and sucking the life out of it. >> this is dove tailing what dagen said, it's called corruption, the word. they have been corrupted by power and would like to corrupt the younger guys and gals by the same power. and that power is so seductive. even though we're talking about a small amount of money we're still talking about the same center of power and not give it up. you can argue whether it's old school, unconstitutional. it doesn't matter. by the way, yeah, we sent representative elect and spent team to congress to spend money, but not to spend all the money and not to spend money we don't have and that was-- >> you know, ben, what worries me the most here clearly, was we send very aggressive, you know, got to do it or die cabinet to washington and something happens, it's like a st stepford wife thing the spark and sizzle is sucked out of them. they look great at a party, but what happens? >> well, imagine you took somebody who is a sho

sam youngman is the white house correspondents joining us on the phone.thank you for being with us. let's begin first with the meeting that will take place today at the white house. the first with john boehner, senator mcconnell and his counterparts on the democratic side. what is on the agenda with regards to the pay freeze in the debt? >> robert gibbs made it clear that the top priority is talking about the economy and taxes. all lot of people are speculating that the paper used was away for the president to get the jump on the way -- the pay freeze was a way for the president to get a jump proving he is serious about the budget. >> let's look at the numbers in terms of federal employees. and 2009 the average salary is just over 74,000 for a federal worker compared to close to 62,000 in 2005. there are 4.4 million government employees. the pay freeze would include 2.2 million employees. >> of the white house is saying you have to start somewhere. you have to show you are serious about reining in spending if you want to cut down the deficit. what this ha

. >> hazel youngman, from murraysville, 100 years old. sponsored by the aarp group. happy birthday.ets along in life. and robert and mary prosser, 78 years they've been heard, always being humble about love. that's it. that's all. back to new york where they are, always humbly in love. >> willard, thanks so much. just ahead, jake >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. let's get a check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. >> a very busy ride all of a sudden on the north side outer loop. two accidents, 1 approaching harford road blocking all feet left lane. five miles per hour. traffic inching along. speeds are down there as well as the j.f.x. watch for lane closures. on the inner loop, you are looking at delays. once again i j.f.x. southbound, who bought at a crawl all the way towards 28. -- are at a crawl all the way towards 28. we have this one clearing pass by-a 70 good look at the delays all the way towards marriottsville. on the north side, that is the heaviest spot. 30 minutes to

sam youngman is white house correspondent for the hill and douglas holtz-eakin was policy directer fora question for you from fred rodmocker in southerland, oregon. would it be possible to ask the cbo if they plan to start first with subsidies in this country. what do you think? >> it's, obviously, a question of priority. america spends little on foreign aid, so we're not going to save a ton of money there. we've got much bigger problems that be that. you know, if we want to move forward, we're going to have to see compromises on both sides. the right's going to have to give up on taxes, the left's going to have to give in on into entitlements. jon: doug, here's a question from susie in texas. she writes, can someone please explain to me how raising the social security or retirement age one year to 68 over a period of 40 years will help our current crisis? >> it will do very little for our current crisis. it's part of a social security reform that delays the receipt of benefits, so it slows the growth of social security spending, but it take an awful long time. the crisis happens betwe

joining me now, sam youngman who is white house correspondent for the hill. sam, good to see you.e suggested they might agree to extending all the bush tax cuts for everybody, then, you know, 24 hours later they're trying to tamp that down because party liberals are in a snit over it. is this big issue for the lame duck? >> oh, absolutely. we've been talking about this all year now, wondering what's going to happen when they expire. the white house dug in throughout the campaign in saying that we just can't afford $700 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy. that being said, i feel like the president started telegraphing the day after the election that he was ready to negotiate. i think perhaps david axlerod went a little further negotiating ahead of the lame duck session than maybe the white house would have liked. but clearly, i think the president feels like he's going to have to move on this. the question becomes, you know, how serious are republicans in be congress and the white house about cutting the deficit? so, i mean, you're talking about adding billions in spending for tax

. >> hazel youngman, from murraysville, 100 years old. sponsored by the aarp group. happy birthday.ets along in life. anrobert and mary prosser, 78 years they've been heard, always being humble about love. that's it. that's all. back to new york where they are, always humbly in love. >> willard, thanks so much. just ahead, j >>> 8:26 is your time now. 46 degrees. a nice day, a chilly start. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning. i'm eun yang. in the news this morning the transit station is telling us ey're having troubleith its communication system. their website is down and the signs and public address system is not working. they're working onhe issue but it's not clear when things will be fixed. meanwhile the other station will be open. it was closed last night after part of the ceiling collapsed onto the platform. none was hurt. >>> it's a cold oovember morning. we've got the sunshine but temperatures are still in the 30s the most locations. 46 at the national airport. that's the warm spot. later today climb oing into the mid-50s. there's a small chance of an i

. >> hazel youngman, from murraysville, 100 years old. sponsored by the aarp group. happy birthday.. and robert and mary prosser, 78 years they've been heard, always being humble about love. that's it. that's all. back to new york where they are, always humbly in love. >> willard, thanks so much. just ahea >>> time is 8:26. i'm brent cannon. a look at the bay bridge. >> if you're going to the bay bridge, we'll see what takes you there. the freeway, you have pretty good speed, about 35-minute drive. no incidents. 5-a looking nice through oakland as well. closer to 40 than to 30 there and 880 is what boggs down. through downtown oakland, look at this off 230 and out in hayward is very slow and in the 20s there. southbound also approaching the san mateo bridge and a disabled vehicle will slow things. once you get on the bridge, smooth drive. we can just barely make out the hills, rob. >> we're not seeing much in the way of sunshine. partly cloudy skies. some radar scans not picking up any rain just yet but it's not all that far away. on the north coast it will drop into lake port this