. >> you can find bob cusack's work at dell.com and on twitter at bob cusack. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. .. >> welcome to the event. i am jonathan yardley the book critic of the "washington post." the "washington post" has been a charter sponsor of the national book festival since the inception 13 years ago. they play an active role in many of the planning and promotion. i am instructed to remind you this presentation is being taped. and you should stay off the camera rises in the back of the pavilion. at the national book event, the final day of the one-day festival was a presentation by scott berg about this book about charles wilson. he is back now. he was promoting his book of maxwell perkins. we have had a great friendship every since. he is the author of many books and now this biography of woodrow wilson. he has placed great emphasis on a man whose personal life was interesting and important. scott? [ applause ] >> thank you very much for being here this afternoon. thank you jonathan. that was a very welcoming welcome coming from someone i cons

bob cusack is managing editor of "the hill." the senate returns monday for a procedural vote.how long is the extension, and what is the likelihood it will get passed? bill, a a bipartisan republican from nevada and a democrat from rhode island. they join forces to extend benefits that expired on december 28. the big question is, does it have the votes to pass? there has not been any additional republican support that has come out yet. harry reid strongly supports this and is hoping to put pressure on the republican-led house to pass this. but he first has to get the vote. toghly, democrats are going need at least a handful of republican votes. we are seeing if they are going to get those votes. >> a vote monday on the nomination of janet yellen. where is her support coming from in the senate? how did the recent rules changes under the so-called nuclear option support this vote? >> yellen does have the support. no doubt about it. for they went on break, a procedural vote, she got 59 votes. that has cleared the way for this final vote. way the nuclear option played into effect.

work at dell.com and on twitter at bob cusack.thanks for joining us. >> thank you. ..

>> richard cusack chairs the welfare to work where lee lives. local governments face greater burdens in the face of federal budget cuts and the winding down of stimulus funds. >> suffolk county in the last couple of years has faced $500 million deficit. >> even though suffolk county has one of the highest median household incomes in the country and multimillion dollar homes in the hamptons, the food stamp caseload is up. that's the case throughout much of american. food stamp use up dramatically coast to coast. >> it can be difficult to try and scale up to meet the level of need that they're seeing. >> in suffolk county, charities have stepped up as the local governments have had a hard time meeting the demand. food pantry organizers have seen the numbers double in recent years. carol yardmisch leads this one in dix hills. >> you're one of many food pantries and it's multiplying on the level that it's hard to comprehend. >> advocates say they're not just serving people out of work. they see many with jobs who can't make ends meet. just like lee.

joining us at political panel, amy walter, and bob cusack jim gerity.overall crisis management by the two, compare and contrast. >> you have two very different people, of course. the issue for chris christie, he had very little choice. he had to come out yesterday and show that he was doing something about these people who wrote e-mails that all of us could see that said, i actually was responsible for shutting this down. that was understandable that he did that. but the other thing it shows too, is look, at the end of the day, they're going to be held accountable for the ultimate actions, not just for the press conference. so how is chris christie going to be perceived two months from now, versus how is he perceived in the immediate after the press conference? same thing with president obama. he's gone through a series of difficult times during his presidency. this, the one thing that really has dented his popularity, more than anyone else was obamacare, and it was dented for the first time because what voters saw was which was somebody that they felt

joining us political panel hill's managing editor bill cusack. national journal sam baker.o you, karen. the benghazi attack, is this potentially serious issue for the former secretary? >> i think earlier you put your finger on the most powerful word in the report which is preventable. it is absolutely scathing about the state department. interestingly, the secretary of state's name only appears in that report once. and that is in the republican's comments on the report. there is never anything that has a document or anything that gets collectly to her about the danger that was there. so, i don't know that there is anything in this report that is going to change somebody's mind about hillary clinton. >> bob, there is a cable august 16th that my colleague, catherine herridge has reported on. it's classified. so i haven't seen it but it has a list of people that supposed live -- it was supposed to go to. now, there is no indication anybody whose name is on it actually saw it apparently it has secretary clinton's name on it. it doesn't say that she saw it that is classified tho

. >> bob cusack is managing editor of "the hill." a couple of questions for you. who is sponsoring this bill? how long is the extension and what is the likelihood it will get passed? >> dean heller, bipartisan bill, republican from nevada as well as jack reed, democrat from rhode island, joined forces to extend these benefits for three months that expired december 28. big question does it have the votes to pass? there has not been any additional republican support that's come out just yet. harry reid, majority leader, strongly supports this and is hoping to put pressure on the republican-led house to pass it but he first has to get the votes. roughly democrats will need at least a handful of republican votes. remains to be seen if they will get the vote. >> senate also has a vote coming up monday 5:30 on the nomination of janet yellen to be the next chairman of the frv. where is her support coming senate and how are the changes under the so-called nuclear option affect the vote? >> she does have the vote. before the break, there was a procedural vote on her and sh

joining us our political panel tonight amy walter the hill's manager editor bob cusack and bill garetyetween the two. >> two very different people, of course. the issue, i think, for chris christie is he had very little choice. he had to come out yesterday and show that he was doing something about these people who wrote emails that all of us could see that said i actually was responsible for shutting this down. that was understandable that he did that the other thing it shows too, look. at the end of the day, they are going to be held accountable for the ultimate actions, not just for the press conference. right? so, how is chris christie going to be perceived two months from now versus how was he perceived in the immediate after the press conference. same thing with president obama. he has gone through a series much difficult times during his presidency. the one thing that really has dented his popularity more than anything else was obamacare. and that was -- it was dented because for the very first time what voters saw was this was somebody that they felt like they could no longer t

bob cusack the washington examiner fuzzy math or what? >> definite there seems that way.r six million cancellations. what we don't know is how many of those cancellations actually have their plans expire on december 31st. if you think the majority. so right now what i have heard at least from some healthcare industry sources that they were expecting a deficit of people on their plan january 1st. again, they are still shuffling threw, sorting out who is actually enrolled and who is not. so we don't really know for sure. if you do the math it, seems they have not had what their goals are. kathleen sebelius said their goal was 2.3 million; they are at 2 million. don't even know if they signed up. not even at 60% of their goal. by anyone's book i think that would be a failing grade. >> something about being forced off your policy you might have liked so then you are forced to sign up and they say ha ha it's good you signed up. >> that was the goal. that's the reason for the 10 essential benefits in the healthcare law. it was to make sure that the old plans were no longer vali

. >> bob cusack is managing editor of "the hill." the senate returns monday for procedural vote on unemployment insurance. who is sponsoring this bill, how long is extension and what is the likelihood it will get past? >> dean heller of the bipartisan bill as well as jack lee a democrat from rod island -- from rhode island brought the forces together. does it have the votes to pass? there hasn't been any additional republican support that is come out just yet. harry reid strongly supports this and is hoping to put pressure on the republican-led house to pass this. pretty first test to get the votes. democrats are going to need at least a handful of republican votes. it remains to be seen if he will get those votes. how to the recent rule changes under the so-called nuclear option affect this vote? does have the votes. before they went on break there was a procedural vote on her and she got 59 votes and that has cleared the way for this final vote. that is where the nuclear option played into effect. 60ically she didn't need the , but