i rise to join my colleagues in hong chairman emanuel cleaver. i have never had to wait so long to say something nice about our colleague of ours, and that gives you a sense of how wonderful chairman cleaver has been as the chairman of the c.b.c., as a member of congress and as a human being. this is a place of hard elbows and harsh tongues, and chairman cleaver has always worked to make us better, a better congress and better as individuals. he and i found common ground very early on in our tenure together. i created the house central aisle caucus and he reached out to me and we tried to figure out ways of injecting respect and tolerance and sensitivity into our discourse on the floor of the house. we share the value that listening is better than shouting and that bringing people together is a more valid tradition than driving them aparticipate. his leadership in the c.b.c. has inspired so many of us. his ability to drive the c.b.c. forward and at the same time to reach even higher. and i know that the incoming chairperson, chairwoman fudge, will

joining me tonight is congressman emanuel cleaver from missouri. congressman, great to have you with us. >> good to be with you. >> you bet. i would like to talk about the congressional black caucus if i could. they have been very, very strong about do not touch the entitlements, we're not going to move on this. so you have the president not moving on rates. you have your caucus not moving at all on entitlements. although you said the democratic leadership -- you said you could support means testing for medicare. what does that mean and how far are you willing to go. >> first of all, social security is off the table. there are not only 42 members in the congressional black caucus who would not vote for a deal that included social security, but i think the majority of our democratic caucus. social security has not contributed one penny to the deficit. it's just irresponsible to even put social security in a discussion as we are trying to get some kind of deal. medicare can, i think, be massaged in terms of means testing. with the upper income indivi

. >> let me read you something that emanuel cleaver said on friday morning, i think most rational peoplecluding democrats, think we have to make cuts and deal with medicare, but let's have some means testing. >> governor romney agreed, and if you look at president obama's proposal for medicare cuts, there is means testing in that. i think we need both tax revenue, and we need much more than what tax reform will get us, we also need higher tax rates, and spending cuts. it has to be balanced. i'm optimistic, it feels to me like they're coming to a middle ground. >> i don't see that. right now when i listen to the democrats, i'm hearing no cuts in medicare, medicaid, social security, some are saying it's not even a problem -- >> they kind of don't matter at this point, right? >> they don't matter, but we talk so much about the politics within the republican party, and within the republican caucus of the house, and talk to seen your democrats and they will tell you, rank and file democrats, emanuel cleaver, who is the tom cole of the left, it will be hard for them at the end of the day to sa

. >> we view something that emanuel cleaver said on saturday morning, saying i think most rational people democrats realize that we have got to make some cut ors deal with medicare, but you know, let's have some means testing. >> yeah, there's general agreement about this. if you look at a president obama's proposal on spending cuts, there are means cuts on that. i think we need both tax revenue and much more than tax reform will give us, we also need higher tax rates and we also need spending cuts and it has to be balanced. i'm optimistic about this, it seems to me they're coming to common ground here on the tax side and the spending side. >> right now when i'm with the dreath democrats they say no cuts in medicaid, no cuts? social security. >> they kind of don't matter at this point, right? >> they don't matter, but it is going to be, we talked so much about the politics within the republican party and within the republican caucus in the house. but talk to senior democrats and they will tell you, even rank and file democrats, emmanuelle cleaver is important because he's the tom cole of

emanuel cleaver.t is unfortunate and we wish that would not happen, but it is the rights people have. as you pointed out, there were police on the line so they can keep order towards a more civil society. let's hope that we can all get beyond this and all focus on what is in the best interest of america, what is in the best interest of putting the country back to work. how it is that we continue to build and grow middle-class and the constructive things we need to do. i think we have got to get beyond this issue that jobs are a democrat or republican issue. and to understand it is an american issue and we owe it to the people to make these kind of investments to continue cto have the country to grow and allow the people to earn a decent wage and send with clarity and certainty that they will not see their taxes go up because of an artificial bill where congress is planted in with one another as we reach the final deadline. ets --a couple tweak guest: if all the tax cuts and said, if the bush tax cuts

democratic representative from missouri and chairman of the congressional black caucus, congressman emanuel cleavere missed an opportunity. we had a guy sitting in the green room with a mustache whose last name is cleaver. >> oh, my goodness, you're right. >> we could have added him. they suggested perhaps we could get haley barbour to come in and do it. alex corson said? >> stephanie cutter. >> stephanie cutter. you have quite an insight about whether you would ever have your mustache slashed. >> never trust a black man unless he's born in hawaii without a mustache. >> gene robinson, do you concur? >> is any mustache safe in the world these days? i'm scared. i'm scared. >> i don't think it is. well, congressman, how are we doing in this effort to avoid the fiscal cliff? do you think it may -- we're encouraged around here at least that the president and john boehner are going to be talking face to face. >> are we naive? >> a little bit. >> sad without a second's hesitation. >> wow! >> look, it's a simple deal, but the circumstances are not simple. and i think we're going to get a deal, on my optimi

. >> kelly: i know emanuel cleaver chairman. she would be missed because of the contributions she made to the africa-american community. how does that wash with the resignation. >> i don't think that is any part of it whatsoever. >> kelly: okay. >> she is sayingly she is leaving to spend more time with family and has been there four years. not that she's had enough. but want to pursue other interest. >> kelly: thank you for joining us and we'll get into the e-mails. see you on the business network. that is an old picture by the way. >> kelly: coming up . what we saw from iran and egent 2012 could be nothing as what could be unfolding in 2013. >> julia: check this out. this guy was paralyze not supposed to walk again. your first look at new technology. dr. seigel is in to tell us about a medical miracle. ♪ ♪ it's tt time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you realldon't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lo

i thank also my friend, emanuel cleaver, also of missouri, rob bishop of utah, raul grijalva of arizona for working with me to preserve the district of columbia world war i memorial. earlier this year in search for a suitable memorial for world war i, representative ted poe introduced h.r. 938, which would have nationalized the d.c. memorial by redesignating it as the district of columbia and national world war i memorial. . he made clear, however, that he wasn't focused on the d.c. memorial but his goal was a world war i memorial here. while i very much believe in commemorating all world war i veterans, i had to oppose altering the integrity of the d.c. memorial. the d.c. memorial was built with the blood and treasure of d.c. residents only, including funds from schoolchildren. more than 26,000 d.c. residents who served in world war i, the 491 who died, more than the number from three states, have their names enfwraved on the memorial. our memorial is deeply symbolic of historic and continuing concerns of this -- of district veterans, particularly our veterans who continue to serve wit

i also want to thank my friend, emanuel cleaver, from missouri, for his help on this legislation and the gentlelady from d.c., ms. norton, also subcommittee chairman mr. bishop and the committee chairman doc hastings as well. it is important that we pass this legislation, get this legislation passed that will to three things. build a memorial on the mall, it will also set up a commission to honor world war i as this nation is approaching the 100th year and it will also recognize which my friend, mr. cleaver, will talk about, the work of the museum and the national work of the world war i memorial in kansas city. it's time we passed this to honor those great world war i veterans and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. chaffetz: reclaiming my time i'd like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from michigan, mr. huizenga. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. huizenga: i appreciate the gentleman from utah for doing that, i'm glad we can keep this photograph up. here's how i got involved and eng

emanuel and jane walsh and an msnbc analyst. thanks to both of you for being here tonight. >> good to be with you. >> thanks, reverend. >> congressman cleaver, what is going on here. did speaker boehner not know we just had an election over this and that they lost? >> no. reverend, this is amazing: it's one of these situations where the quarterback calls for a pass, the lineman are blocking for a run, the wide outs are covering a punt and the coach is going up in the stands to sell popcorn. this is absolutely crazy. and i can tell you because i'm walking about talking with some of my republican friends and they're saying it is crazy. i've never seen anything like it. it's embarrassing because this is the united states of america. >> it's chaos, joe. you're seeing this out right bedlam, as the congress is saying americans have talked about dysfunction. this is dysfunction with steroids. and they're acting as if we can't count. the only way you can bring the taxes to the millionaires, really, basically, saying 900 people -- people that make $900,000 a year can keep their tax deductions or their tax breaks, you're going to have to take that fr