let's start on the failure of the coburn amendment.hey are proposing these amendments is it a delaying tactic? >> senator coburn is conscientious and wants these tax cuts paid for. the deal has been cut between the president of the united states, mitch mcconnell and that is the deal that is going to stick. there are grievances in the house. in the last analysis it is going through exactly how the president and mitch mcconnell agreed. if the democrats don't put it through the republicans will come back in january and write one that will be more offensive to their ideology. >> they're talking about these senators who previously said they couldn't support it, the fact that on january 1st they don't want to go back to middle class folks and say i'm sorry your taxes are going to go up because we couldn't compromise against tax cuts for the rich and couldn't say to unemployed people we can't extend the benefits. >> i do not believe taking the heat on denying 2 million unemployment benefits can give $700 billion to the richest americans. what

coburn, medical doctor. senator, doctor, thank you for joining us this christmas weekend and happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you. >> chris: up next, religious and politics. we discuss both with cardinal donald wuerl, the archbishop of washington. into revolutionary performance. one word makes the difference between defining the mission and accomplishing the mission. one word makes the difference in defending our nation and the cause of freedom. how... is the word that makes all the difference. and word is people really love got our claims service.ffice gecko: 'specially the auto repair xpress. repairs are fast and they're guaranteed for as long as you own your car. boss: hey, that's great! is this your phone? gecko: yeah, 'course. boss: but...where do you put...i mean how do you...carry... waitress: here you go. boss: thanks! gecko: no, no i got it, sir. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. >> chris: it's always an honor to talk with our next guest, especially at

coburn, sessions, demint and senator voinovich.he other 10 are liberal democrats the usual suspects like bernie sanders and patrick leahy of vermont. the opposition comes of course from the far left. and with yet another crushing defeat, the question is, can george soros, aryana huffington, the "new york times" and nbc even survive much longer as

coburn dropped his objections after the bill's cost was reduced. the victory capped what may be the most productive lame duck congress ever. passing the extension of the bush tax cuts, the repeal of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, a major overhaul of the way the government protects the food supply, and the ratification of the s.t.a.r.t. nuclear arms treaty with russia. don't expect the flurry of activity to continue. after the holidays, a new congress will be sworn in. republicans will control the house. a narrower democratic majority in the senate. the forecast ahead, conflict and gridlock. jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >>> before he left town, mr. obama, of course, signed that bill allowing gays to serve openly in the military. the new law ends the 17-year-old don't ask, don't tell policy, which forced gay, military members to hide their sexual orientation or face dismissal. the historic change fulfilled one of the president's campaign promises. >> for we are not a nation that says, don't ask, don't tell. we are a nation that

coburn our -- mr. coburn: our plan was i would have 15 minutes. i ask unanimous consent that i have that and share stphaf time with senator sham -- and share some of that time with senator chambliss? the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coburn: if you look at the vote we're going to have today it's an interesting perspective if you're outside in america and looking at t. here's what people are saying: you're going to stimulate the economy with a 2% reduction in payroll taxes, you're not going to raise income tax rates, and then you're going to spend another $136 billion. with all this, you're going to borrow the money. we spent eight months on a deficit commission addressing the very real problems that are about to become acute for our country. and i have no disregard for those that bring this bill to the floor, but to bring this bill to the floor without the opportunity to cut wasteful washington spending to at least pay for the outflows that are going to pay, that are going to come as a result of this bill, which will be the

for days, oklahoma's tom coburn stood in the way. he was concerned about cost and he was vilified. >> he shouldn't be a senator and he shouldn't be a doctor if he's going to go out there and attack this bill. >> reporter: the way you've been hammered on this -- >> i'm used to being hammered. >> reporter: you're standing up against the heroes of 9/11. how could you stand in the way? >> i'm not standing against them at all. i'm standing for us as america, the realization that we have to do things efficiently and economically. >> reporter: just hours ago, the bill appeared to be on the verge of dying. that's when we found majority leader harry reid coming out of coburn's office. so, mr. leader, do we have a deal on the 9/11 bill? >> i don't do deals. >> reporter: but the deal was struck. coburn dropped his objections after the bill's cost was reduced. the victory capped what may be the most productive lame duck congress ever. passing the extension of the bush tax cuts, the repeal of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, a major o

. >>> when we come back, other things we'll do is share a conversation with senator coburn.emocrats like to call him dr. no. he just cast a vote on the deficit reduction that might surprise you. and we'll debate what are we supposed to do now? tax more, spend less? a fascinating debate coming up on that point too. and the president, you woke up this morning, thought he was going to deliver a statement on the jobs report here in washington. instead we found out he was in afghanistan. for three hours, a quick trip to say merry christmas to the troops. who else? what else was he talking to? vend hybrid synergy drive. daddy, i'm bored. almost. it converts the car's braking force into electricity, so it's more efficient. so i thought... what if we put that same system onto one of these? [ people screaming ] who knows? we might be able to create the world's first self-sustaining amusement park. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. [ malhis day starts thwith his arthritis pain.. lear

but they say coburn is missing the point. the archive showcases a major institution. >>> a santa monica video game company has running up $1 billion in sales. activision released call of duty black ops and it is the fastest $1 billion has ever been made in the gaming industry. in this game which can be played on-line, they assume the role of a foot soldier in the cold war. >> things are blowing up, yes. speaking of shootouts snatching victories from the jaws of defeat. it is an over time thriller. >>> good evening. right now the warriors will take a win anyway they can get it. as it turned out it was in spectacular fashion. the warrior fans made the trip up i-80. and a nice shake and bake move. dare i say jordan esque? they blow the lead and the kings are taking over. warriors make a late charge fueled by, guess who, monta ellis hanging and hitting. two seconds left and they are down by three. have no fear and vladimir is here. we are going to over time. the warriors are down one. david leigh, three-point play. leigh 15 and 1

senator coburn, known as dr. no said pass the plan, if you pass it by 14 of the 18 votes it would have forced congress to cut spending by $4 trillion. this is what he said. >> the time for action is now. the threat is real. it's urgent. we cannot wait until another election. we can't wait until we get more of what we want. >> chris: congressman, didn't you waste a chance here to back up your rhetoric and force an up-or-down vote that may not have been perfect but would have made progress cutting the deficit this month? >> chris, definite is the symptom. spending is is the disease. there are a number of elements about the plan that i like but at the end of the day it still unfortunately represents $2 trillion tax increase on the american people and does not fundamentally address the key driver of the national fiscal crisis, and that is healthcare. yes, i want to do something soon. i have been working for eight years since i came to congress. i have co-sponsored paul ryan's roadmap for america's future, solutions t

connected and well-heeled gets money. >> reporter: coburn has flaingd 71 pages of examples like the 273,000 education tax dollars congressman sam graves devoted to fight goth culture. after public outrage more than half the money was returned to washington where congress found plenty more ways to spend it. congressman benny thompson ear-marked 478,000 dollars to jackson state to study opening an osteoporosis medicine school. funny because jackson state had no intention of starting such a school. >> that was known at the time. was that a good use of the $7 or $10 an hour wage earners money that goes to the federal government. >> reporter: the same money could have covered tuition for 200 struggling undergrads. while new jersey grapples with laying off thousands of teachers congressman andrews funneled 2.2 million to rutgers law school where the congressman's wife happens to be associate dean. the congressman told us his wife doesn't benefit from the money and some of it goes to students who agree to represent powerless victims. as 13,000 public schoolteachers face furlough in hawaii,

coburn: i hope the american people are watching washington right now. we're really at a defining moment. there's not anybody in this body that doesn't recognize that our country is on an unsustainable course. they know it. we all know it. the world knows it. we can argue about how we are to close -- how close we are to a debt crisis and a liquidity crisis, but no one disputes that one is coming. we just don't know when. yet in the next two weeks, congress is going to make that problem $1 trillion worse. and we can say that a lot of what we're doing is the right thing to do. but what we're not doing is addressing the real issues that need to be accompanied by grown-ups as we look at this. what should the american people make of this? it's kind of like we're on the titanic here in america and everybody says, the bar is open. we'll just have a party the next two weeks. we're going to spend another $900b or we're going to set it up so it can be spent. i don't often agree with the columnist by the name of thomas friedman. but he has a column today that i thi

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and we appealed to senator coburn. but the vote occur. if you want to vote against it but against a pupil at the occur. let not these men and women, these hundreds of thousands of men and women who put their lives on the line suffer further because you don't want to let a vote occur. this vote mustrge our leadershie an house to keep in session as long as necessary. we urge the president to do what he can offend sure he will. , let this vote occurr all [applause] >> president of the uniformed fire officers to believe that when the 343 fire officers and firefighters died on 9/11 and, domestic annoyance, each and every one, but that was the end of it. let's not even getting to the thousands of civilians that were killed that day. and if that were true, then we could move on. we would grieve, as we do, and the fun. but the truth of the matter is we deal with the sick and dying and the grief of that on a daily basis. we were assured by the medical expert that we might find some illnesses to our members, maybe 10 to 20 years time. and what happ

let's begin with this report from senator coburn. he says there's hundreds of billions of dollars of waste. do you buy that? >> well, there's lots of waste in the government, that's true, but senator coburn never mentions the outstanding things we do in the government that senior citizens, soldiers, veterans depend on. you can't just use a meat axe. you have to use a scalpel, and that's what we're trying to do. >> and you are looking like you'll be in until christmas, doing an awful lot of work during this lame duck session of congress. i know you're critical of the president negotiating in this tax compromise but decided to vote for it. you also passed the don't ask, don't tell, food safety bill and seem to have a breakthrough on something you've been fighting for for years, this several-billion dollar bill for health benefits for emergency workers from 9/11. are you confident you have the votes? will the house stay in session to make sure it gets passed? >> well, i believe we have the votes. and speaker pelosi, i spoke to her last

senator coburn, crapo, senator greg. they supported not because they liked every part of it, but because they thought this comprehensive recommendation underscored how deep seated this problem is. this is an enormous problem. i think the message to us is let's see what we can do with the president. you cannot do entitlement reform for your viewers, entitlements mean long-term liabilities set by law. we don't even vote on them every year. so many of them very popular, social security, medicare and the like. you cannot do entitlement reform with just one party. you can only do entitlement reform on a bipartisan basis. the message to us, coming out of this deficit reduction report is that it's time for the president of the united states and people like john boehner and myself and others to sit down and see what we can do to make sure we have the same kind of country for our children and grandchildren that our parents left for us. >> politicians make these promises. the president said there has to be broad sacrifices. why ca

went to manhattan in the fall of 2005 and the big boss of the whole group, nancy shepherd and carlin coburn in publicity. we met in a little room and i stated my case and they said, this is your first book so you need to listen to a few things here. first of all only 12 percent of nonfiction books make a profit and 2/3 are pre chosen by the publisher. we'd like to put our marketing arm behind us but your having to fight tear riz m to this. since i grew up in africa and worked pakistan for many years you never settle a deal without driving a hard bargain so i said if the hard cover doesn't do well, i'd like the subtitle changed later on for the paper back. julia and our other board relently pounded away month after month. i was in pakistan of december of 2006 and there was a new editor on the book and they said they decided to change the title to one man's mission to promote peace. the hard cover didn't do that well. sold 20,000 copies. while the paper back came out on january 30th of this year and since out it's been on the new york times best seller selling over 700,000 copies now. and it'

coburn's view is that it needs to be paid for. they have to find cuts somewhere else. on the house side they are talking this morning, too, some with a bit of resignation and frustration towards their own democratic leadership. the president and leaders in the house about being pushed in their words to vote for some things in this they do not like. others are saying it needs to be done because their constituents are waiting for those unemployment checks or the extension of the current tax rates. there are strong feelings on all sides. a big move forward today when we expect some time after probably 12:30 or so these things always slide a bit. after we get through a few procedural votes, the senate will take a vote on the final conclusion of its view of this tax package. we expect it to pass overwhelmingly. chris, you know, that only puts more pressure on the house side. they may consider it later today, that's also still in flux, but right now they're still saying there is some disappointment, frustration and it seems that leadership on the house side is probably going

. >> the coburn family, which we know a lot of in the united states, what's your relationship to them? >> my sister and i both had a grandfather who was a coburn who was a quite lefty, but journalistic family, two generations of journalists. alexander, i know will be familiar to people. and there are two other brothers, patrick and andrew. patrick's a very distinguished international and war correspondent for u.k. newspapers. he's also worked in washington. and he and his brother andrew have written a lot about saddam hussein and many other issues in the middle east. they are a distinguished family. i knew about them growing up. in a sense my half uncles because we don't have the same -- grandmother was different. their mother was not my grandmother. certainly part of the vibe that we had this heritage. and yeah, we're all quite a crew. i know some people have said in the states they were a bit nervous that so much of left wing journalism was depending on one family. i know christopher hitchens used to worry about that. that we were responsible for too much. >> everybody that has aske

i called up coburn and enzi and asked for one more shot.sed our strategy and then we went over to senator coburn's office. harry asked if he thought it would help it became. we thought it would. he came with us. we sell the center cobourg was being reasonable and we knew we had gotten it done. -- we salt that senator coburn was being reasonable and we knew we had gotten it done. all the changes that we may does not betray a single worker that got sick rushing to the towers. you could be sure we will be here fighting to extend this when the time expires. people will see what a good program it is. i do not think it will have the controversy that it had this time. that is the basic story. do you want to add anything? >> this is something so many of us here have been working on so long. senator schumer and i have been working with our republican colleagues. we knew we had the support from the republican colleagues. what this final compromise represents is the hard work we have done for weeks and months. some of the changes will be very good for

i called up coburn and enzi and asked for one more shot.rategy and then we went over to senat coburn's ofce. harry asked if he thought it would help it became. we thought it would. he came with us. we sell the center cobourg was being reasonable and we knew we had gotten it done. -- we salt that senator coburn was being reasonable and we knew we had gotten it done. all the changes that we may does not betray a single worker that got sick rushing to the towers. you could be sure we will be here fighting to extend this when the time expires. people will see what a good program it is. i do not think it will have the controversy that it had this time. that is the basic story. do you want to add anything? >> this is something so many of us here have been working on so lo. senator schumer and i have bn working with our republican colleagues. we knew we had the support from the republican colleagues. what this nal compromise represents is the hard work we have done for weeks and months. some of the changes will be very good for the program. i thin

even in public if you looked at the deficit commission you had dick durbin and tom coburn both embracing that commission. and that is reflective of a lot of stuff that is happening below the surface. in the last couple of days on npr and elsewhere, the president has talked about doing some tax reform. well, that, those conversations i think are pretty serious, maybe more serious than he let on. and i'm not sure they made any decisions. i take them at his word at that. but i think there have been pretty serious decisions about exactly how to do some big tax reform among republicans and democrats. there have been some other really big conversations that are going on. about really fundamental welfare state reform. no big decisions but the atmosphere has totally changed for your basic public policy if are you sitting out there in the brookings institution this is like a superexciting time. because things are being fundamentally talked about, the question will be can the president force these private bipartisan conversations beyond the crust of partisanship so it actually comes out in public

senator tom coburn today released a report on the top 100 examples of wasteful government spending in 2010. it's quite a list. $28 million spent to print the congressional record. the record of everything said in congress that's already available online. about the only thing the congressional record is used for these days is filling up recycling bins on capitol hill. also, $1.8 million for a museum about neon signs in las vegas and $436,000 spent by the census bureau on a totem pole in alaska to encourage alaskans to take part in the census. we could have a final vote on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty as early as tomorrow. this is the top remaining priority for the white house. and despite the fact the republican leadership is against this, democrats are increasingly confident, diane, that they will get the 67 votes they need to ratify the treaty. >> why that increased confidence, john? >> reporter: well, it's one vote at a time, diane. in fact, we just heard a little while ago, scott brown told us that he will vote yes. that's another republican yes vote. even with just the declared votes, th

. >> mike crapo and tom coburn announced they will vote in favor of the report released wednesday by the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform. the plan cuts the deficit by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. 14 of the 18 commission members need to vote in favor of the vote for it to be especially -- officially endorsed by the group. >> everybody ready? all right. tom and i have put out a statement which i think you all should have now, and we are both going make brief remarks. our purpose are being had to do is to announce that we are going to support the debt commission report and encourage its adoption by congress. as we stayed in our announcement, our debt crisis is a threat not to our way of life, but to our national survival. and the threat we face is so real and so close that we do not have further time for gridlock or inaction. if necessary that we take strong, aggressive action now. in the near future if we take no action we can see it collapse and the value of the dollar, hyperinflation or other consequences that would force congress in this country t

you have people as diverse as senator dick durbin and senator coburn agreeing that we have to move forward to do something about our debt. we're not going to all agree at this table right now, but i will say i think that's got to be in the mix looking at, say, even if he said it people making over a million dollars, if you bring their taxes to the clinton levels, when we were amazingly prosperous, you save in ten years nearly $400 billion on the deficit. you add that in with some of the things that senator sessions just spoke about with some spending limits and caps, you keep social security solvent. i don't agree with everything in that report. but there are some very good ideas about tax reform and other things. if we could move forward together, and there is some leverage for this, and that would be the debt-ceiling vote that we'll be taking in a few months that is going to force people to have to come together. >> schieffer: senator graham, you did not give the glowing report on the lame duck congress so what do you think is going to happen? >> i think getting the tax cuts extended was

it includes people like paul ryan, judge gray, tom coburn. it also features some allies of congressional leaders like javier burris sarah and labor leaders, like the former chairman of the seiu. host: it seems that a few of the numbers are accounted for. everyone else is either formally or informally moving in a direction. what do you know? guest: we know that at least five members have said they will vote against it. what that means is this will not pass. it will not advance. it will fall at least one vote short of the 14 that it would need to go to congress to get an up or down vote. that said, some of the proponents of the plan, kent conrad and others. -- and others, have said that a majority vote is a strong show. indeed, it may be even stronger than some conservatives have expected. and host: what seems to be interested -- host: what seems to be interesting is when you look at the breakdown of the members id seems to be house conservatives and senate conservatives. house conservatives saying a no vote, but the senate conservatives saying

i believe the easiest place to go would be senator coburn's website.has tried to take all of these attachments and put them into one spreadsheet. again, this was last night probably are around 7:00 p.m. i do not know what the status is now, but my understanding is that they have the spreadsheet on the center coburn's web site and it will let you run through the whole 6000 of them. but again, god love the appropriators. they do these things. i know they have them in a spreadsheet that they could make public, but they do not do it that way. they produce a bunch of .pdf gardens that smart technical people have to go and removed and put them in a spreadsheet. it is a technical nightmare. host: when this bill was introduced on tuesday, paul singer, were you taken by surprise? guest: yes. host: and you added money for will call. guest: yes. -- and you get it money for a roll-call -- you edit money for roll-call. guest: yes. host: next call from washington d.c.. caller: we know that as senators and house members are sent to congress to get money for their dis

coburn. >> always like to thank you for your efforts. i would also like to recognize a might staff who have gone a lot of slick -- who have gone a lot of sleepless nights trying to develop a product. as a physician, i am frame to find the real problem. at what is the real problem? not the symptoms. what is the real disease? the real disease is a we have abandoned the concept of our founders. we have created reliance instead of depending on self-reliance. we have created government programs that are unaffordable. we have abandoned limited government. we have abandoned enumerated powers. now we are in trouble. nobody is looking at what the real problem is. the real problem is us. alexander tyler said, "all republics fail." the average length is 200 years. they all fail over fiscal issues. they rocked from within. we are wrrotting. in 2004, i had the privilege of reading a book by peter peterson. he talked about where we are today long before anybody was talking about it. he wrote the book in 2002. it is called "running on empty." it is not

oklahoma republican coburn want to pay for unemployment insurance with spending cuts. south carolina jim demint tried to make the current 0% estate tax and tax cut permanent and bernie sanders wanted to raise income taxes and estate taxes on wealthiest americans. all three measures were killed to protect the president's delicate compromise with the republicans. mr. obama again called on angry democrats who oppose the deal to get with the program. >> we heard to negotiate an agreement a win for middle class families and a win for the economy. we have can't afford to let it fall victim to delay or defeat. >> reporter: 27 centrist democrats you remembered pelosi to hurry up and pass the bill. "act to send it directly to the president's bill without delay." some house liberal want changes to estate tax provision and worry the 2% payroll tax holiday hurts security. pelosi postponed debate until thursday and instead focussed on repealing "don't ask, don't tell." >> let's make america safer. >> reporter: as they juggled host of issues, senate democrats hit accelerator. >> ewe

but we worked closely with senator collins, senator coburn who added an amendment, the amendment that creates this mechanism to penalize agencies that don't meet this goal, and we at the last minute we also spoke to senator jeff session abouts this particular bill and this bill got the support. as you know it was u.c., passed unanimously from the senate yesterday with the input of our republican colleagues on the senate side. . the amendment that they added would penalize agencies. if they have not met the performance goals for fiscal year this bill will require action and this will ensure the goals that are met -- are met and actively pursued throughout the year. bottom line is this will allow us to provide legislative oversight over the executive branch, whether it's a democratic or republican president, this is something that we need to do. the american taxpayers deserves a government that's transparent, efficient and accountable. i ask members to support h.r. 2142. one more thing. we do have republican colleagues on the -- on the congress here on this side that when we pass this b

. >> concerns like that brought two more yes votes with the commission plan as senators tom coburn and mike cray poe announced their support, not because they like the details, but to avoid a disaster. >> i am scared to death at the potential that could unwind this country far greater than anything we've ever seen before and far sooner than anybody imagines. >> because we depend on other nations to loan us money, almost 40 cents of every dollar we spend is now borrowed. so by 2020, the u.s. will be spending $1 trillion a year just in interest on the debt. by 2025, every single tax dollar will be consumerred by interest, medicare, medicaid and social security, leaving nothing for anything else. >> building roads, educating our kids, national defense and securing the borders, there is no money for that. >> and being that far in debt sends us down a dark economic road. >> we do face a future that looks like stagnation, high unemployment, low wage growth, real problem with inflation and high interest rates. >> if you ask people if they're willing to give up benefits or tax breaks or not, n

and tim coburn has jumped an average of 8% each year. some lawmakers say they are simply going a long with budget analysis they set each year. >>> government spending is authorized through tomorrow but in agreement to keep it going longer has to be reached to avoid a shutdown. nicole collins is standing by in washington right now with the details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, dave. that resolution you are talking about is on top of the list of the main priorities the senate needs to get to. this flood of action on capitol hill started when the combat tax was signed by the president. over the weekend, the senate passed a repeal of don't ask don't tell which will allow gays and lesbians to serve openingly in the military. president obama scheduled to sign that sometime today. this senate did not pass the dream act which would have created a pass to citizenship for some illegal immigrants but then the senate hit another snag. this time on the orals reduction. his party needs more time to with russia. democrats anded m say -- adm

and employees costs for tim coburn has gone up 8% every year. they are simply going along with the budget allowances that congress sets each year. >>> the lame duck session of congress continues to push full steam hay head this morning. government is authorized. nicole collins is in our washington, d.c. area with more on the story. good morning, nickel. >> reporter: good morning pam. senate leaders say they are working on a deal that would extend government funding until march. that is a top priority on capitol hill. over the weekend there was a flurry of activity. the senate passed an ameal of don't ask don't tell. they did not pass the dream act. the senate then hit a snag when it moved on to debate a nuclear arms reduction committee. the top republican in the senate says his party needs more time to consider the treaty. democrats and the administration say they have given republics ample time and have addressed their concerns. >> rushing it right before christmas strikes me of jamming us. i know the members of the foreign relations committee

>> so i think it was a genuine enthusiasm by tom coburn and mike crapo, the idea scrubbing the deck, broadening the base, dramatically slowing the rates, and generating economic growth, that overtime would allow us to stave off future rate increases and maybe eventually cut taxes further. >> donald, is it your sense that we can sort of productively look at tax expenditures and address them in this same way? >> i think in general, yes. i think we need at some point to draw distinctions come as rudy was saying, people have different reactions. this is one of these topics were depending on the audience and the mood of the speaker, you can characterize it in different ways. when i want to be a little more risky about i call them tax breaks. and i want to be risky i called him loopholes and special interest positions. when i want to be honest i refer to them as the mortgage interest deduction come and charitable deduction and the state and local tax deduction. [laughter] >> then there are a set of issues about some of these things do look like spending programs run through the tax code. t

tom coburn gets it. jim demint gets it. voipvich gets it. who am i leaving off? gets it. this isn't that difficult. we've got examples of greece, ireland, closer to home, california. what don't they get on the hill that awe keyou can't keep borro trillion dollars? >> what should have been done? what was a better option? >> well, there's no question we should not be raising taxes on anybody. i think we can all agree on that now during an economic downturn. but there's new taxes in this bill, there's spending in this bill that should have been offset. we should have at least said to the world, we're serious about deficit reduction. well the's do a couple hundred billion dollars in offsets, spending cuts. go back to the 2008 levels. tom wcoburn and i have co-parre legislation, we're hoping -- co-sponsored legislation, we're hoping to get an amendment, programs at the bush administration and the obama administration, waste programs. there's literally over $100 billion in cuts that we can make. wasting government spending. you all hear about wasteful government spendi

i do think a very significant tipping point happened last week when both tom coburn and dick durbin signed up to the report of the president's bipartisan commission on the deficit and the debt. that, i think, is going to represent a very significant inflection point in the political conversation going on in this senate of ours? >> senator, a treaty, as you know, is the highest vote threshold you have to clear. it requires 2/3, a vote of 67 to be approved in the senate. if you can get it to a vote, do you think 67 votes are there? >> i think 67 votes are there. i had a chance to hear dick luger, the republican from indiana on the floor yesterday going through the arguments against the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. he was pointing out again the soviets line of negotiation were never our negotiating position. the soviet position was being held out as reasons why we shouldn't approve this treaty. there's no question in my mind there's 67 votes to pass this. >> senator michael bennett, democrat of colorado, thank you for your time tonight. . >> thanks for having me. i appreciate it. happy holidays. >> tha

tom coburn is one that at least had the courage to say i don't want to raise taxes but if it's a way mind. >> russ feingold was largely thought having an open mind and one of the more bipartisan. that didn't help this election cycle. >> reporter: it did not. worked with john mccain on campaign finance legislation in the past. also a fierce and proud liberal opposing the war in afghanistan and iraq. a very interesting guy who lost his election. a young guy. we'll see what happens. >> good to see you as always. have a good show tonight. >>> cnn is committed to keeping you informed on all the political news. the next update an hour away. >>> we've heard plenty bihybrid and electric cars. s why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries in an accident and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world?

and here is oklahoma senator coburn not a fan of this thing. here we go again, senator. what are you going to do? >>guest: well, it should not be called an omnibus but an omni terrible, i don't know who wasn't listening in washington the last election. this is exactly the kind of mischief the american people are sick of. >>neil: did anyone know this was coming, going through the earmarks, and extenders and special breaks, whatever they are called that are tucked inside the 2,000-page monster but they are front loading this, the democrats, who are in the majority in the lame duck session and they can say vote on this first, before anything else, can they? >>guest: they can. if they get the votes to proceed they will get it with some republican votes. but the point is, it denies the real problems that are in front of our nation. and there are $12 billion in gimmicks to make it look better than what it is loaded with thousands of earmarks that have not seen the light of day. we have not seen the report language and that is part that is important where we find out what is in

coburn is missing the point.y it's a major cultural institution and advances the whole science of archiving. >> basketball fans want to know will anyone ever beat the university of connecticut basketball team. they beat florida state in hartford 92-72 last night. the longest ever winning streak in division 1 collect basketball breaking the record of john wooden between 1971 and '74. wooden died early this year at age 99. his grandson witnessed the victory last night. >> local basketball icon will try to join an elite group of coaches in san francisco. stanford will try to win her 800th game this evening. coached stanford to two national championships and led the u.s.a. to gold at the 1996 olympics in atlanta. she'll face off tonight against one of her former greatest former players, general far aze who coaches usf. only four other women's coaches have won 800 games. >> that's wonderful. brakes on a plan to permit huge marijuana farms. >> a person trapped under a train in oakland has just been rescued. we'll have