heritage foundation center for media and public policy nicole williams democratic strategist and brian darling senior fellow for government studies at the heritage foundation a columnist for the daily caller and townhall dot com thank you all for joining me thank you great to have you all with us earlier today in his first speech since being reelected president obama outlined his plans to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff take a look. we can't just cut our way to prosperity if we're serious about reducing the deficit we have to combine spending cuts with revenue and that means asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little more in taxes i refuse to accept any approach that isn't balanced. i'm not going to ask students and see yours and middle class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me making over two hundred fifty thousand dollars aren't asked to pay a dime more in taxes obviously republicans are unhappy about obama still wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy just hours before the president's speech speaker boehner gave a press conference where he said he had a plan to

the fourth and final speaker will be brian darling, who is here at heritage afor the time being.e is a senior fellow at government studies. he mahler -- monitors political events and assess this impact on policy decisions on things in general. he is a prolific media presence in talk radio, cable tv, and he has columns in other publications. he is one of the most widely quoted analysts here at heritage. he served previously in the senate for senators martinez, and two other senators. we will start off with james and move on down. thank you. >> good afternoon. please bear with me. i am slowly getting my voice back. first, thank you to heritage, to mike, and my fellow panelists. i thought i would start off with two quotations which might help us free and the discretion that we will have and at least my comments, and then i will lay out what i think is a way to view this issue we're discussing today, a question of obstruction and in the contemporary senate. the first quotation is from a book, from william riechart. you can convince other people to persuade you and then you vote and y

>>ahí están >>mire, vamos a darle las mañanita a gabriela y daniela, dos años >>josé de indiana dos años >>dafne de connecticut un añito >>brian que enviar un saludo especial a gianmarco diez años, y es hijo de nuestro camarografo >>y si usted quiere felicitar a a un familiar, amigo, solo envíe su foto y lo felicitamos aquí, envíe a la dirección en pantalla >>o si es cibernetico puede hacerlo al despierta améric.com. >>se lo aviente otra vez, >>si, vamos a bailar ♪. ♪. ♪. ♪. (aplausos) >>bravo!! >>felicidades a todos >>muchas gracias por acompañarnos. >>vamos a una pausa, olvidese de las supersticiones, este martes 13 en despierta américa vamos a acabar con ellas. nada de supersticiones, cero. >>y se acerca latin grammy, maiti interiano nos trae los ensayos desde las vegas. >>la diva de la banda habla sin pelos en la lengua sobre el conflicto familiar entre ella y su hija chiquis >>ya volvemos con más despierta américa, su mejor manera de comenzar las mañans ♪.. deja que te cuente ♪.. ♪.. >>ana patricia está en las vegas preparándose para latin grammy, pero nosotros tenemos nuestro deja que te cuente >>y vamos a hablar lo que

brian: i would draw it out and you know the name i would come up with? geraldo. he'll say give me suction cups. >> gretchen: geraldo, if do you it, i'll do it with you. >> darling,ld do that i would prefer -- >> steve: okay! it's the christmas season. he doesn't even need the -- >> i mean like christmas shopping. >> steve: exactly right. caroling. >> gretchen: okay. just a minute. now i have to gather my senses and make sense of some headlines for you now. we begin with a fox news alert because there is a terrifying situation playing out right now. a desperate search underway for an 11-year-old girl with leukemia. her mother removed the i.v. from her catheter and left the hospital with the catheter still in the girl's heart. police are releasing these surveillance pictures somebody hoping will spot them. the doctor high school to amputate her arms due to infection and could die if the catheter is not properly removed. no word why this mom took off with her child. >>> listen up if you take the pill lipitor because the drug maker stopping production now. this is the generic version of this pill. they found glass particles that ended up in some of the bottles. the

brian: this is what you tweeted. you said, thanks for being the kind of person i always hoped. so he didn't let you down when you met him? >> no. and he called me darlingely, lovely man. think about also, there was "i dream of jeannie." he was so wonderful and kind on the inside. >> steve: we want to continue the conversation with you on the other side of the brief timeout. >> okay. >> steve: right back ef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. let's fix dinner. then i read an article about a study that looked at the long term health benefits of taking multivitamins. they used centrum silver for the study... so i guess my wife was right. [ male announcer ] centrum. always your most complete. for their annual football trip. that's double miles you can actually use. tragically, their ddy got sacked by blackouts. but it's our tradition! that's roughing the card holder. but with the capital one venture card you get double miles you can actually use. [ cheering ] any flight, anytime. the scoreboard doesn't lie. what'