alan mulally. >> tom: that and more tonight on "n.b.r."! after a weekend of trading accusations over the lack of progress on avoiding the fiscal cliff, both sides now have put their opening offers on the table. last week, it was treasury secretary timothy geithner meeting with top republicans. this afternoon, house speaker john boehner sketched out the g.o.p. proposal in a letter to the white house, and the proposal borrows suggestions from the president's own debt reduction commission, whose plan was ignored last year. the republican letter offered $900 billion in spending cuts from program reforms to medicare and social security. the g.o.p. plan would raise $800 billion in revenues by closing loop-holes and reforming the tax code, but stops short of specifics. noticeably missing: the higher taxes on high-wage earners which president obama has insisted on. the white house responded, saying "the g.o.p. proposal does not meet the test of balance. in fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with th

for cbs "this morning," ben tracey, los angeles. >> ford ceo alan mulally along with jim farley. want to know what did you tell him, what was at risk here and what he had to do in order to take an old name and give it new life? >> well, clearly, neat to be here with jim because jim is known around the world for his experience on the luxury brands. to have jim lead the reinvention of lincoln is very exciting and, you know, all good companies have a tremendous luxury premium brand associated with them also. this is our chance to really bring -- >> a lot of money on the line. >> very important. as you can see from that new mkz we have a right product. >> what choices did you make, jim? >> we have to surprise people with the product. new mkz. a hybrid version, 45 miles per gallon. most fuel-efficient sedan in america. we have to innovate the experience. people expect to be treated differently especially after the great version. >> you talk about luxury is important. you mentioned fuel efficiency. where does that rate when people are buying cars that they look at fuel efficiency. >> f

alan mulally. and later next week, ever wonder what goes into making those cardboard store displays. a look at how one box company is reinventing itself. >> susie: with all the slings and arrows on capitol hill this week about the fiscal cliff, americans are finding little to laugh at. and tonight that's got lou thinking about having a sense of humor. here's author and educator lou heckler. >> because i use a lot of humorous stories in the speeches i give, i am often asked: what if you don't have much of a sense of humor? i think we all have the capability to enjoy humor. i also know lots of things get in the way: stressful and exacting jobs, maybe health problems you have or someone close to you has. those are real and they can be barriers. that said, i can't think of anything that keeps life in perspective more than cultivating and using a sense of humor. i remember my mother and dad saying this about someone they admired: he's cool, calm, and collected. i think those three apply to well-placed h

we can ask alan mulally what he thinks. i'd be very curious to hear. one question i have with all this, you know, remember in the days right after the election? there was all this talk, the end of the dysfunction, the only mandate here is to work together. it wasn't that long ago, but everyone was saying, it was the day after, what happened to that? was that just sort of -- >> they lied. >> -- tail between the legs kind of -- >> can i offer a literary answer? tom sawyer says -- tom sawyer says, we once had an evangelist come through town who was so good that huck finn stayed saved until tuesday. you stay saved until tuesday. and i think the bipartisanship is like that. >> and the reality, two things that are true about the election. the president won a really convincing victory. and it's more convincing by the day. his margin gets bigger every day. people are starting to notice that there have only been five presidents in history who have won 51% or more of the vote on two consecutive elections. he's in pretty good company in terms of the historical pr

i thought one of the most significant quotes was from alan mulally at ford, because anything anybody with been taught in their macro- or microeconomic class would have been that if you have three main competitors, and two of them went out of business, the one standing would have been stronger. they would be taking more market share, would be more powerful and broader. it is striking and that ford motor co. ceo alan mulally said at the time, "we believe that if gm and chrysler would have gone into free-fall bankruptcy, they would have taken the supply base down and the industry down and turn the u.s. recession into a depression." that is the teaching moment about the power of the overall innovative skill said, the supply chain, and what that means for our capacity to compete when the company that would have been left standing thought they might have gone down as well. there is so much to say. i wanted to make these viewpoints, overall perspective, talk about manufacturing and research and skills, and i'm very happy to take your questions going forward. [applause] >> i think we have ti

we had alan mulally on earlier this morning talking about the reinvigoration of the lincoln brand.ry to bring it back. they will have a big suuer bowl ad to go to twitter and people to brainstorm and come up with a good ad to go. they will spend money this time on the promotion of the lincoln brand. look for that as well. good month for auto sales. they don't care about the fiscal cliff in detroit. they have been over that cliff. they have been there they did that. tracy: good luck with that though. unfortunately the lincoln is associated with your grandfather's car. they will need a lot of advertising. >> i'm ready to be a grandfather. i'm fine with that. tracy: ah. thanks, jeff. >> thanks. dennis: here with more on today's auto sales numbers we have jessica caldwell, senior analyst for edmunds.com. jessica, my gosh, we've got volkswagen up almost 30%, chrysler up 14%. even gm up 3.4%. this is a pretty good month, right? >> it's a pretty good month. we're looking at a really high start for the month of november. looks like it will be highest since we saw back in 2008 before we saw

and alan mu llally is among the leaders here, the president and ceo of ford. so welcome, mr. mulallye'll talk about the new lincoln, the lincoln 2.0 in a second. i don't know if you could hear our correspondent on little, we now have this sort of counterproposal from the republicans. i know you have, you know, met with the president. what do you make of the sticking point when it comes to the bush era tax cuts and the fiscal cliff? who should be pay be taxes. >> i wasn't able to hear your previous report, but i sure can tell you from, you know, being with the president recently, that i'm very encouraged by how comprehensive everybody is and how they're trying to work together to address both the revenue side, but also in addition to the spending side. >> how do you mean, if i may, how you to mean comprehensive? >> meaning that it has got to cover all the different pieces on both the revenue and on the spending side. and the other piece about comprehensive to me is the fact it is not just about the make now, but everything in that package needs to address the further development of th

i thought one of the most significant quotes was from alan mulally at ford, because anything anybody with been taught in their macro- or microeconomic class would have been that if you have three main competitors, and two of them went out of business, the one standing would have been stronger. they would be taking more market share, would be more powerful and broader. it is striking and that ford motor co. ceo alan mulally said at the time, "we believe that if gm and chrysler would have gone into free-fall bankruptcy, they would have taken the supply base down and the industry down and turn the u.s. recession into a depression." that is the teaching moment about the power of the overall innovative skill said, the supply chain, and what that means for our capacity to compete when the company that would have been left standing thought they might have gone down as well. there is so much to say. i wanted to make these viewpoints, overall perspective, talk about manufacturing and research and skills, and i'm very happy to take your questions going forward. [applause] >> i think we have ti