the chairman of the committee is dave kemp. did he urge leaders of both partieser to "back off and let the panel try to strike an agreement." congressman camp is also the head of the house ways and means committee. he met with reporters saying the comments from the leadership on both sides, both the republican and democratic leadership is unhelpful in trying to work out some sort of agreement. again, the big issue is how to pay for this, a bill that would cost upwards of 150 to $160 billion. some are calling for means testing for social security and medicare recipients, just one of a number of proposals being put forth on the table. so far, no agreement. here's more everywhere senator mitch mcconnell as he took reporters' questions also on capitol hill. >> democrats and republicans are dragging their feet on this payroll issue. you are -- you say the democrats are dragging their feet for political purposes on this payroll issue. it appears we're back where we were in december where both sides are pointing the finger at each oth

close to a deal but due to some final obstacles, it took till early this morning before congressman dave kemp, republican of michigan and senator max baucus, democrat of montana headed to the cameras to announce a final agreement. 17 of the 20 conferrees signed on the deal but there are still signs of partisan discontent. rank and file members sayi s sa they will not support the measure. the same message from nancy pelosi. >> it appears we may be shortly voting on this legislation to give a payroll tax cut to 160 million americans without having it be offset. that was one of the pillars of the legislation that we had hoped to see. we insisted on three things. one, that we had the payroll tax cut preferably unpaid for. that's in the bill. secondly, is that we have unemployment compensation extended for a number of weeks respectful of the needs of our workers who their own. that is in the bill. it does not have the strange like you have to have a high school diploma in order to get unemployment benefits for workers who have been in the workforce a very long time, that would be an unfair barrier

conference committee chairman dave kemp is calling for civility as the war of words is heating up again. luke russert joins us live from capitol hill. as i said, you wonder anymoreful people know what the word civility means. here we are again. >> indeed, tamron. and about a few minutes ago, jay carney, the president's press secretary when asked about this contention issue going on capitol hill said look, both sides should be able to come together. these are easily resolvable issues. with conversations i had with aides from both sides, these issues are anything but easily resolvable. there are real differences between how democrats and republicans want to pay for the tax cut that affects 160 million americans. democrats would like to see a is your tax on the wealthy. republicans a federal pay freeze. older americans receiving medicare pay a higher premium because of their circumstances. there's a lot of issues dividing both parties in terms of unemployment. republicans want to see reforms getting a ged. democrats say that's not fair. you have both parties going back to the same fights t