lanes are open, southbound, again, ahead to northbound roadwork, also there was a lot of construction, itc related along the 95 corridor around 190. we're also keeping an eye out for that. joe, eun? >> thanks. time right now is 4:42. and we have 23 degrees out there. still to come, surprising findings this morning about children and caffeine. >> plus holiday crackdown. what police in northern virginia are doing to nab shoplifters. >> and why police say >>> time right now is 4:45. time to eck the morning's top stories. v-dot says it's ready for today's impending storm. it has more than 200 plows ready to clear the streets in northern rginia. crews were not able, though, to pretreat most roads yesterday because the temperatures did not get above freezing in many areas. >>> it is up to the house to pass the tax cut compromise brokered by the president. the senate passed the $858 billion package. it renews the so-called bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the month. it extends unemployment benefits and cuts the social security tax. it also allows estates as large $10 million to be pa

that that people would be paying 30% of their income, even very modest earnings supplemented by the itc, would mean the cost would be very low. i estimate that we could finance approximately 1 million housing vouchers. i even have an offset. the offset is to lower the low income housing tax credit, which is a supply oriented subsidy, which is just the opposite of what we need today. we need more demand for owner occupied housing, not subsidies to increase the supply this program -- increase the supply. this program would would increase housing affordability. it would reduce the waiting for the current program and it would increase sustainable ownership for a long time. one of the things that people talk about is "haven't we tried that before?' first of all, there would be very little risk. they would hit some home ownership training and they would get a very good mortgage. so, that is the first idea. the second idea is to expand apprenticeship training. this is a great way to subsidize human capital, which we are trying to do through the school an approach, and expand jobs. there are ve

guest: the itc is the independent government agency that analyzes all u.s. trade agreements. their analysis on the tariff cuts and in tariffs going to zero [unintelligible] i think what the itc said it will increase the u.s. trade deficit. they think it would cost 100 to 9000 u.s. dollars, mainly in manufacturing but not -- 150,000 u.s. dollars mainly in manufacturing. host: here are the phone numbers that you can call. our guest is director of the public citizen's global trade watch. we will dig into some of the details. how big is the u.s. and south korea trade? many do not know this. the trade in 2009, $67.8 billion. $39.2 billion u.s. exports. what is your take on that number? -- $39.2 billion in u.s. imports. what is your take on the number? guest: we have done a series of trade agreements. those relatively speaking have been smaller countries. this is a huge manufacturing country. we have an $11 billion trade deficit to there in manufacturing goods creating a huge player. for u.s. jobs in competitiveness -- this is in the debate about this particular agreement. host: wh

guest: the itc is the independent government agency that analyzes all u.s. trade agreements. think their analysis on the tariff cuts and in tariffs going to zero [unintelligible] i think what the itc said it will increase the u.s. trade deficit. they think it would cost 100 to 9000 u.s. dollars, mainly in manufacturing but not -- 150,000 u.s. dollars mainly in manufacturing. host: here are the phone numbers that you can call. our guest is director of the public citizen's global trade watc. we will dig into some of the details. how big is the u.s. and south korea trade? many do not know this. the trade in 2009, $67.8 billion. $39.2 billion u.s. exports. what is your take on that number? -- $39.2 billion in u.s. imports. what is your takon the number? guest: we have done a series of trade agreements. those relatively speaking have been smaller countries. this is a huge manufacturing country. we have an $11 billion trade deficit to there in manufacturing goods creating a huge player. for u.s. jobs in competitiveness -- this is in the debate about this particular agreement. host:

guest: from the itc and others. we will see. there is 20 years of data from numerous places that suggest that companies that engage internationally, hire more people, pay them better wages, pay them better benefits, they go broke less often. i think that it is incontrovertible. host: the numbers are on the screen if you would like to call in and participate in our discussion about the u.s.-south korea free trade agreement. i guarantee a lot of our callers nafta.ring up naphth what has nafta done for our country? guest: i think it has increased trade between the u.s. and canada and mexico. it has created jobs, but certainly less than what was promised. it is always less than what was promised. it produced fewer jobs than was promised, but was not as bad as ross perot said it was going to be. i would say it is a necessity in a globalized world. the political dilemma is that the people, who get the creative jobs are not the ones who lost the old ones. -- who get the created jobs are not the ones who lost the old ones. you have thes

there were some tax cuts targeted at the working people, the itc, some of those things that are in thereressive. so, look. i'll take a moment to defend the president. there are some things if he could have his way he would not have supported. in a way we were talking unemployment. at a time when ben bernanke was working about the fragile state of the economy and resulting to extraordinary measures and trying to get it going, practically begging for more stimulus, we really need to focus on what does it take to get the economy moving. there are some very stimulative things in this. the payroll tax cut for example that's more progressive in nature. we can come back once the economy is growing and have this robust debate about this fair ps. >> we're going to be talking about hyperpartisanship. what are we talking? >> joe manchin, senator bayh and gergen. >> what do you think -- is it media-driven. >> no question they're complicit. they like to encourage conflict, and it's about ratings, but it's also, as i mentioned before, it's about redistributing. we're going to see more of that because

that that people would be paying 30% of their income, even very modest earnings supplemented by the itcwould mean the cost would be very low. i estimate that we could finance approximately 1 million housing vouchers. i even have an offset. the offset is to lower the low income housing tax cdit, which is a supply oriented subsidy, which is just the opposite of what we need today. we need more demand for owner occupied housing, not subsidies to increase the supply this program -- increase the supply. this program would would increase housing affordability. it would reduce the waiting for the current program and it would increase sustainable ownership for a long time. one of the things that people talk about is "haven't we tried that before?' first of all, there would be very little risk. they would hit some home ownership training and they would get a very good mortgage. so, that is the first idea. the second idea is to expand apprenticeship training. this is a great way to subsidize human capital, which we are trying to do thrgh the school an approach, and expand jobs. there are very lar

that that people would be paying 30% of their income, even very modest earnings supplemented by the itc, would mean the cost would be very low. i estimate that we could finance approximately 1 million housing vouchers. i even have an offset. the offset is to lower the low income housing tax credit, which is a supply oriented subsidy, which is just the opposite of what we need today. we need more demand for owner occupied housing, not subsidies to increase the supply this program -- increase the supply. this program would would increase housing affordability. it would reduce the waiting for the current program and it would increase sustainable ownership for a long time. one of the things that people talk about is "haven't we tried that before?' first of all, there would be very little risk. they would hit some home ownership training and they would get a very good mortgage. so, that is the first idea. the second idea is to expand apprenticeship training. this is a great way to subsidize human capital, which we are trying to do through the school an approach, and expand jobs. there are ve

fact that people will be paying 30% of their income, even very modest earnings, supplemented by the itc, when in the cost could be very low. i estimate that we could finance approximately 1 million housing vouchers for about $2 billion per year. i even have an offset. the offset is to lower the low- income housing tax credit, which is a supply-oriented subsidy, which is just the opposite of what we need today. we need more demand for owner- occupied housing, not subsidies to increase supply. so this program would not only explant demand for owner- occupied housing, but it would lead to significant increases in low-income housing affordability. it would reduce the waiting list for the current program. and it would increase sustainable ownership for a long time. one of the things that people talked about is, well, what about -- haven't we tried that before? but in this case, there many reasons why low-income housing ownership would work. first of all, there would be very little risk. because if their income falls, the voucher value goes up. second, they would get some homeownership tradin