harry reid says there's not. more of the same ping-pong we've had over the last few days. >> were no closer to steering away from the cliff. we are much closer to the cliff. the president made a round of calls last night to talk to congressional leaders about the need to get something done. no one has that produced in the form of a bill. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is saying this is the first contact he's had from a democrat since thanksgiving. you need unanimous continue sent for a lot of things to happen. >> and we're now hearing that the white house is denying there's a new plan from the president. so the white house and harry reid are both denying scott brown and gopas about this new physical cliff plan which puts us back to square one. you tackled this issue of john boehner's control over his conference. in a really interesting way. you basically said he's a substitute teacher in the sense that even when he disciplines folks like holtzcamp who were insubordinate and ripped them of committee assign

harry reid and the president. where's boehner? >> that's a good question, because if these sides, if president obama digs in his heels and john boehner did that to a certain extent, although he did leave the door open to working with democrats on a deal, we could see much more market reaction on monday in terms of risk to the downside at this point. >> monday is going to be a holiday shortened day. trading starts at 1:00 p.m. eastern. i wouldn't expect a whole heck of a lot of fireworks. next week remember there's less than six trading days left on the year. to me there's a lot of people with the s&p up 13.5% who are well vested in this thing not falling apart in the last few days because of shenanigans going on in washington. so you may see some window dressing. i do not expect things to fall apart. but i will tell you this, if there's any positive rhetoric and the thing moves higher, we get the s&p over 1450. the higher we go, very likely the lower we go in early january. >> how do you think we're setting up? dan makes a good po

(laughter) so you've been warned, harry reid! mitch mcconnell's filibuster and he will strike back by obstructing everything you do! or let him keep the filibuster so he can obstruct everything you do! (laughter) i think the choice is clear. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) (cheers and applause) >> stephen: welcome back, everybody. my guest tonight is the original voice of both yoda and cookie monster. i'll ask him if four cookie cs. please welcome frank oz. (cheers and applause) thank you, hey, nice to meet you frank oz. can i call you frank oz. >> you can. >> stephen: frank oz -- >> can i just say something? >> stephen: yes. >> my favorite part of your show bar none is when you introduce the guest and you come here and take a bow. (laughter) i love that. >> stephen: well, i've got to give these people what they want. >> it's great. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: well, that's great to hear. >> i mean it, i think it's hysterical, and you deserve it. >> stephen: thank you, i put the most thought into it. >> of course.

harry reid, before his closed door luncheon, said he was still cautiously optimistic. hard to see from our perspective why he would say this because things seem pretty bleak at this point, though you never know what's going on behind closed doors. melissa. >> thank you very much. keeping an eye on that podium because senator harry reid is apparently going to come out and speak in a few minutes so we'll watch for that. let's go to the white house correspondent kristen welker. we know the senate majority leader has talked to the president. has there been any reaction from the white house today. >> reporter: the white house is not commenting on these negotiations that are going on over on the hill. they do not want to derail them by speaking out, by agitating the situation, but i tell you that there is a lot of investment here going on behind the scenes. in addition to mitch mcconnell speaking to vice president biden, the president sent his top negotiator, one of his top negotiators, rob nabors over to the hill. he's meeting with senate democrats as well this afternoon. a

harry reid says they're headed over the cliff. it is really about senator harry reid and mitch mcconnell? >> to develop the political staring contest democrats say republicans need to move and around rego. the president arrived this morning from hawaii and so with the top democrats and republicans but still no update to report. senate majority leader harry reid said it looks like we're going over a cliff and it is up to the house. >> speaker boner shed call people back to washington today and should not have let them go. they are not here. john boner cared more about his speakership than the financial footing. >> they're now working on a fiscal clear solutions they say the majority leader should talk less and legislate more. also mitch mcconnell says the leader is happy to review with the president what he has in mind but that a majority has not put forward a plan. when they do members will review legislation to make decisions on how fast -- best to proceed. >> it takes time for the house and senate to get something done. if there

harry reid saying it is republicans fault and somebody from boehner's office said harry reid has to talk less and legislate more. it is comical. it is simply comical what is going on. does it surprise you? >> sadly it does not surprise me too much. the truth is this. there has to be a bargain struck and not a good way to bargain to demonize the people you'll be sitting at the table with. harry reid called a speaker john boehner a dictator. republicans have fought that, they are not innocent in this. timtime to take down the verbal warfare and cut a deal sparing the fallout of the fiscal cliff. gerri: can we get anything with any meaning before the end of the year? >> not get your hopes up on a big deal on the debt. not too many tax increases, some will be in there. avoiding the sequester, the spending cuts, that is the best thing that could happen at this point and i'm pretty optimistic person, i get up every morning thinking good things will happen but this is causing me to drink every night so i did not know if i will get there or not. gerri: you glass half-full kind of guy. i hope you

harry reid is speaking on the floor. let's take a listen. >> because americans' taxes are approaching the wrong direction come the first of this year, americans will have less income than they have today. if we go over the cliff, the house of representatives, as we speak, with four days left after today before the first of the year aren't here with the speaker having told them they'll give them 48 hours notice. i can't imagine their consciences where they are around the country and we're here trying to get something done. they are not in washington, d.c. the house of representatives are not here. they couldn't even get the leadership together yesterday. they had to do it with a teleconference. republican leadership. if we go over the cliff, we'll be left with the knowledge that could have been about a single vote. mr. speaker, prior to this session starting today, the presiding officer and i had a conversation about how things have changed around here. i served in the house of representatives. there's 435 members of the

i'll have harry reid put that on the floor and you'll have to block it. will have to then take responsibility for not pushing it through. so republicans are a little bit in a corner here, which is why i think mcconnell exercised the biden phone to the white house to see if he can work something out. >> so you guys are ordering in pizza tonight, lots of coffee? >> we're here for the duration. we're watching and waiting and will report it as soon as we know it to you guys. >> thank you, chris. we look forward to that. we'll have much more as we cover the negotiations on capitol hill in an hour. i'll be back with continuing live coverage. right now, we're going to go to david gregory's interview with president obama on "meet the press." i'll see you back here in 60 minutes. share everything. share brotherly love. share one up's. mom ? mom ? the share everything plan. lets your family share a pool of data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. get a spectrum 2 by lg for $49.99

if harry reid and mr. mcconnell can't come up with something, then you have barack obama's proposal and he wants that up or down vote, and one way or another, he is going to try to get people on the record. >> and joy, before it gets to the house republicans, there are plenty of republicans in the senate who could mess this up, right? even if mcconnell and reid have a deal, there is not a guarantee that there is not a single tea party-backed senator who would stand in the way and say it won't pass me. >> are you giving rand paul the side eye? >> i had him in mind, true. >> and at the end of the day, mitch mcconnell is a better leader of the caucus than boehner is, and mcconnell has controlled the levers of the filibuster process, and the tact that he is meeting with harry reid means there won't be a filibuster and i would be surprised if he could not whip the congress. we have not seen a weaker speaker of the house than john boehner who has essentially thrown up the hands and walked away from the process a

a real interesting plan of attack by harry reid. mitch mcconnell came to the senate flor and said we await to hear from the president regarding any plan that he has moving forward but we're not just going to give a blank check over to democrats because we're on the edge of a fiscal cliff. and harry reid coming down and essentially tearing apart mitch mcconnell saying speaker boehner couldn't pass plan bmpld, you guys haven't done anything. show us where your cards are. what's interesting though is, karen, is what we know about who the house republicans are going to do. they're going to come back at 6:30 p.m. on sunday. eric cantor told them to be prepared to be in session through january 2nd. so remember yesterday we talked about optics, how bad it was for them to look like they weren't going to be in washington, d.c. they no longer have that problem. john boehner, one member who is on that conference call earlier today, told me, he said we're going to see what the senate has to do and what they will give us. he also made clear that

senate majority leader harry reid, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. they are trying to come up with something that can pass the house and the senate. the president laid out a proposal earlier this evening. at the beginning of this meeting. $250,000 per year. that income would be shielded from tax increases, and now he wants an extension of unemployment insurance. that is something that essentially a nonstarter in a republican-controlled house. now he is leaving it up to the two leaders in the u.s. senate try to reach a compromise. something perhaps along the line of what is being negotiated between the speaker and the president a couple of weeks ago. perhaps a tax increase for amounts of more than $400,000 or $500,000 per year. also, senate leaders want to include something on the estate tax, according to a white house official. we'll can also be key to this is that the white house officials are also telling fox news and ed henry that it appears as though the debt ceiling is not part of that. this is a huge nonstarter for republicans in the house. the

harry reid can talk about mr. boehner. he sat over there for three years and has not passed a bill on his side of the aisle. i feel there is an imbalance in the thinking of the people of this country. if we do not get her mind straits, we're in for some deep problems. i am a conservative by nature. the culture and liberal left wing is running this country -- the ulta and liberal and left- wing is running this country. host: thank you for the call. 44% of voters think congressional republicans are to blame. 15% blame both sides equally. a lot of focus in new york. funding for hurricane sandy relief efforts totaling $60 billion. it is unlikely to be in the house. many are saying it is too expensive. "lock them up until they deal." we will continue our conversation on the fiscal cliff. damian paletta will be joining us from "the wall street journal" as negotiations resumed at 3:00 p.m. today at the white house. later, randal o'toole with the cato institute. he has a new book and will be joining us at 8:30. "washington journal

so if harry reid and mr.ll can't come up with something, then you've got barack obama's proposal and the up or down vote and one way oar the over, he's going to get them on the record. >> joy, even before he gets to the house, there are plenty of republicans in the senate who can mess this up, right? even if they have a deal, there's no guarantee that there isn't a deal, tea-party backed senator. >> are you giving rand paul the side eye here? >> i had him in mind. that's true. >> at the end of the day, mitch mcconnell is a much better leader of his caucus than john boehner is and he's really controlled the levers of the filibuster process. i would find that very surprising if he couldn't win his caucus. the problem is here never have we seen, not in my lifetime, a weaker speaker of the house of representatives than john boehner. john boehner has essentially thrown up his hands and walked away from the congress and the main da mandate and he's essentially said, you guys pass something. it's the house that's th

you sound like you agree with harry reid, that we're not going to get a deal before christmas. >> it resting that harry would say that. the fact of the matter is i think that they really want to go over the cliff because if they do the president gets what he wants. in other words, he's putting the country at a tremendous risk, and have you noticed how many times the president has been willing to sit down in the white house with the speaker? look, the speaker is ready every day. the president just is out there campaigning, as he always does. very effective at that. >> yeah. >> on the other hand, without great presidential leadership, there's no way you are going to put this together the way you ought to put it together. >> senator, thank you very much for joining us. >> nice to be with boast you. >> when we come back, the closing countdown. >> that was scary, i'll tell you. >> they are talking past each other, aren't they? >> amazing. >> up next, former federal reserve chairman alan greenspan will weigh in. he says there's no paperless solution to the fiscal cliff. what he thinks is th

us from going over the cliff and if the president actually wanted to get it done, he would tell harry reid and others this is what we had to do and he would make the arrangement to make sure we didn't go over the cliff. so i think he's just -- senator reid is just playing the role for president obama. >> you said he's eager to go over the cliff because he gets his revenue, he gets his cut. >> blame republicans. >> and he can blame republicans but the problem is many economists say if we do go over the cliff, i don't know if it's true or not, but many economists are saying we will go back into recession. >> the president seems so fixated on increasing tax rates. it's confusing him to all the other issues that are out there, which is spending. the problem is we spend too much. the only way to get out of this, the only way to get out of this $16 trillion debt that we have, is to grow the economy and do reforms to the entitlement programs, to medicare, to social security, to medicaid. those are the title waves coming at us. we have to make sure we safe and protect those programs for future gen

harry reid will not negotiate. harry reid and barack obama are nowhere to be found. speaker boehner has been doing the best he can to try to find a solution. when harry reid and barack obama will not come to the table, how will we find a solution? host: our last call comes from south carolina. guest: who knows how big that is? that is huge. no one can get their mind around $16.50 trillion. let me tell you what that means. every single citizen in this country, even babies just been born, they are part of that federal debt. over $50,000 per citizen in this country. it is not sustainable. we have to start dealing with that debt. it is going to take all of our taxes. instead of talking about 2%, next time we're going to be talking about 50%. we're going to be just like greece because we are not going to be able to provide the services that we need to provide. host: good morning, the republican line. caller: i am just so frustrated as a republican because this whole fight in congress is doing nothing but driving the republicans off the cliff because what is happening is t

harry reid has not been able to produce a budget and the budget president obama recommended last year or two years ago when to the democratic senate and went down in flames 99-1. his own party can't agree on a simple budget. >> what is reed's role? >> i think reid's role is to protect the president, which i think is foolish. when boehner was trying to get the votes for the compromise bill last week, and we saw that strange business where harry reid was coming out and we knew president obama said he wasn't going to support it, then harry reid saying we're not going to take this bill up. it wasn't even going to get president obama. the only thing i can see is that harry reid is trying to protect the president, which if you look through history, parties protecting their president in a second term usually pay a very heavy price in second admit terms. i don't think -- midterms. i don't think this is be different harry reid protects him from hard decisions. >> got leave it there. take care. >> chris wallace will be here for more on the fiscal cliff and we'll hear from two key senators. >> a

harry reid is addressing the senate. this is days before the fall off of the fiscal cliff.enate democrats are telling republicans get out of the way of a last-minute deal, accept tax increases for people making $250,000 a year. get out of the way. accept that. joining us is the founder of the media research center. blame if problem is spending and neither side is being serious about spending. neither side is. stuart: when you put your finger on it. they are politicians, are they not? they have to have in the back of their mind, they are politicians. they have to bear in mind the next election can they get reelected? can any politician get reelected by saying i am going to cut entitlements, cut spending? you are going to lose something? >> do you realize we have been doing this for 25 years? do you understand why we are in the mess we're in now? for 25 years both sides kicked the ball down and that is why we have not had a budget in three years. nobody wants to take a stand. every single republican, republican ran for office on the pledge to hold the line on taxes and cut sp

we understand that harry reid is huddled with president obama.entally, john boehner we're told is still in town, but you're right. i'm also told that he has not spoken with the president today. unclear where we go from here. you've got to believe, michael, that the only plausible scenario left at this point is to go over the cliff, rates rise on everybody very temporarily. the congress comes back, it's then a vote to cut rates for 98% of americans instead of allow them to rise for 2% as plan "b" would have been 1% actually, and that makes it a lot easier for everybody to palate, but nothing is guaranteed right now. it's one big hot mess at this point, michael. >> look, mike, if speaker boehner isn't keeping in touch with the white house, are democratic leaders pelosi at least involved as well? you have mentioned harry reid is there. what about pelosi coordinating with those two guys? >> nancy pelosi to a certain extent, her role is minimized in this thing. if there is a deal, the president will call the democratic leadership in the house and sena

harry reid just ate mcconnell's chess pieces.urns out reed had the 51 votes to pass mcconnell's sarcastic bill and said, fine, let's do this, mo-ho. really if it weren't for the part where harry reid said very serious offer that i haven't personally read, the whole thing almost sounded professional. now, mcconnell better have a pretty strong counterattack here. if he wants to stay in the game. >> matters of this level of controversy always require 60 votes. i would ask my friend the majority leader if he would modify his consent agreement to set the threshold for this vote at 60 >> jon: that's the bull [bleep] right there. passing a law in the senate requires 51 votes. there is no extra controversy rule that turns it into 60. parliamentarian will be like force transvaginal ultrasounds. we're going to need 75 on that one. that's crazy. that's controversy. i mean, anything that the ladies from the view can make a meal of, we've got to have 80. i'm sorry. oh, three nacho tuesday? let's just have three people. mitch mcconnell should

they are on harry reid's desk. some of them have been there since may, some since august, some since september. all harry reid had to do was to have the fortitude to pick them up, off his desk and put them on the senate floor and call for cloture. >> sean: let me say the republicans, as one conservative, i am not a republican, but i want the republican party to be the conservative party in america, as one conservative, i wanted from the beginning this to be the party that stands up and says, we have a spenning problem. we are borrowing 46 cents of every dollar that we spend. social security and medicare's going bankrupt. i upon applauding all of you. i think this is a victory for the american people. >> agreed. >> sean: where do we go from here, congressman allen west? i only wish you were there? >> well, you won't be losing my voice. as i told my colleagues, i will be continuing to press the attack from the right flank. but the most important thing is we take this message, as you said, limited government, fiscal r

>> this is not about leadership. 1,337 days, harry reid hasn't pass add a budget. they have been in control the whole time. this fiscal cliff was predictable. we knew this was going to happen two years ago. and don't forget, these are the bush-obama tax cuts. all the president needs to do is actually propose some spending cuts. i think with geithner's admission that the debt ceiling will be burst through on december 31st clearly shows it's a problem. it's time to cut spending, not for now but future generations that have to pay this off. >> it seems to me, congressman gohmert, the bush tax cuts have been law since 2001-2003. it seems if the president doesn't want to go over the fiscal cliff, you guys pass the bill, harry reid could do something he hasn't done in over three years, pass it in the senate, give it to the president, and nobody's taxes are going to go up, crisis averred and then they can spend team after the new year negotiating tax reform, entitlement reform, living within our means. why don't they just do that? >> well, they could, but they want to dem

that stokes investor hopes for a fiscal cliff deal and this coming just a few hours after harry reid's comments sent the dow into a tailspin. we have complete coverage in this developing story which is happening tonight as we speak. also, as supplies from the obama team, ep achieve lisa jackson stepping down. can the coal companies finally breathe a sigh of relief? guess what happened in britain when the uk banned handguns. the surprising result that could change the gun control debate. "the kudlow report" start ises right now. >>> the big news tonight, still the developments in washington on the fiscal cliff, eamon javers joins us with the details. >> good evening, meshel. capitol hill sources tell cnbc that congressional leaders are planning to go to the white house tomorrow to meet with president barack obama and it is not entirely clear at this point when that meeting will take place and details are still being hammered out and we saw today a blistering series of rhetorical jabs from one side to the other and it's not clear as a result of all that whether a deal can, in fact, get h

anything in the last couple of hours that suggests to you that somehow by monday mitch mcconnell and harry reid will sing kumbaya, pass something in the senate that also passes the house? >> i'm not so sure they'll be sing kumbaya, but the real story today is that there's movement on capitol hill. reid and mcconnell come out of that white house meeting and they're ready to haggle over some differences. what i expect to come to the floor is what president obama's talking about a 250 threshold for rates, maybe an amt attached to it and maybe have unemployment attached to it, but that's it. that's what the president wants at the end of the day. the question for mccon cell this, can he raise that threshold now at the 11th hour from president obama's $250,000 perhaps to $300,000 or $400,000. >> and just concede on spending cuts. >> at this point the republicans are like a prizefighter on the ropes and they're not in a great negotiating position and the caucus walked away from john boehner and they're not in a position to say i want a, b and c. >> so the senate comes up with something. can it pass th

grover, we just heard you are the target of those comments, but did harry reid get it wrong, because i thought that your organization actually gave its blessing to boehner's plan "b." >> reid has it wrong on a number of levels. the first, of course, is that the pledge that many congressmen and senators have made to oppose tax increases is made to the people of their state, not to me. in fact, harry reid now has the republican senator joining him from nevada who won because he made that commitment. he took the pledge, and the democrat that harry reid supported attacked him for taking the pledge, and the people of nevada said we want a senator who will stand with us against harry reid's tax increases, so -- and, of course, the issue that came up with plan "b" which was mr. boehner's recommendation that we pass something out of the house which would stop all the tax increases on anyone who earned less than $1 million permanently, was something that didn't violate the pledge, and we said so and endorsed the message. >> why did thn't that violate t pledge? it raises taxes. >> there's an au

that's not going to change, but what harry reid is saying it's their fault. we already heard from mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, it's their fault, it's the democrats. finger-pointing in washing,ton, but what i heard from speaker bain e. he said we's expecting a new proposal by the president. swu the communication is off on the capitol hill switchboard but mcconnell sounds an awful like a guy that the president will make him a new proposal based on what he and the president discuss the laughed night. the real condition here is will president obama make a new deal for any deal that could be gotten done. >> i just tweeted that out, you nailed, it eamon. lots of finger-pointing an complaining and sour grapes going on and very little in the way of compromise talk. thanks very much. continue to monitor the situation and get back to you, if we need to. >> in the meantime, what does all this wringling. >> and harry reid going at it with senator mcmcconnell. we'll talk to outgoing kay bailey hutchison and get her take. what is she hearing? will we get a deal

we are getting word from the nation's capital that harry reid will soon be coming out and address the fiscal cliff at the microphones any moment now. congressional leaders are holding marathon negotiations behind closed doors. we're only getting drips of what is going on racing against the clock as the final countdown to the fiscal cliff deadline begins. unless a deal is reached by january 1st, more than $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts are set to kick in affecting nearly every american. hello, i'm gregg jarrett. >> arthel: i'm arthel nevil. welcome to a brand-new hour. as gregg just said the ball is in the senate's court. the republicans submitted a proposal to the senate democrats last night and are still waiting for a response. who is up at the podium right now. >> gregg: let's take a look at the shot. >> they are continuing to discuss this. we think there could be a path forward. one thing there is democrats have come out and made a change on cpi and republicans are concerned if that is not used as an offset to replace some of the spending cuts that would occur unde

>> well, what the president is putting you through, adam, what harry reid is putting you through, harry reid thinks the next 20 four hours are important? you're supposed to as investor be thinking long term. to leave this down to the last minute like this is cruel and is a distic to investors. one of the reasons you saw the tremendous drop today. you mentioned monday night being volatile. that is holiday day. it is thinly traded. with the fiscal cliff literally occurring you can bet it will be extremely volatile sunday and monday night. adam: spencer, if i were in individual stocks seems not it the time to sell them or will we see that. >> the important thing to keep in mind with stocks, one part we have to worry about is the fiscal cliff. we have taxes and spending to worry about there. but what the real issue is, in my opinion is the debt ceiling debate that is just around the corner. adam: oh, joy of joy. >> if we get some deal with the fiscal cliff which i think we will and our politicians are the worst even a blind squirrel will occasionally find a nut. they will get this done some

harry reid's comments that you played earlier. it does not look like the democrats are going to budge on the chain cpi. they've publicly taken a stand against it. ironically on the same day where barack obama noted that he was in favor of perhaps agreeing to chain cpi as part of a bigger deal. so from what i can tell, the chain cpi is off the table for democrats. if that's not enough for the -- if that's a must-have for the republicans, then we're not going to have a deal. >> i'm going to interrupt you, we're going to keep tracking this story together. >>> coming up next, a man you're not seeing on tv, he's playing in the background. he may be the most feared man in washington and he doesn't even hold office. >> if i went and became a tibetan monk on the top of some mountain somewhere, the american people would still, they were against tax increases long before i was born. the whole tea party thing predates me. >>> grover norquist on the fiscal cliff showdown and why politicians won't back down from signing his anti-tax pledge. so

send it again to harry reid and say take it up. you want to change it's the process working, send it back we'll look at that issue. >> would that -- let me understand. would that bill extend all the tax rates? >> yeah. larry, we passed that bill august of 2012. >> in the summer. >> took that same bill, put it in amendment form, went to the rules committee last night, askedal the rules committee to make an order to offer on the floor tonight on a plan-of-vote on plan b, it was not made in order, even though every republican voted for it and 19 democrats voted for a and we know what we're sending over there is not going to be sent back in the same form. why not send what we're for? >> could have forced a vote in the senate. possibly. >> just as likely as what's we're sending there now harry reid says he's not for. that's the stra teae strategic don't get. >> from john harwood, spending cuts, $10 billion over ten years. kweisi sequester, i'm not sure what it is. came at the last minute to get votes from your conservative colleagues. d

harry reid says time is running hout. he doesn't know if they could go through the legislative hurdles. if they have the votes around here, they can legislate the sky is green and the grass is blue. that's not an issue. what harry reid is really saying is mitch mcconnell, get on board, don't try to filibuster. of course they're talking about a bill that had raise capital on couples making more than $250,000 a year, and do a few other nuts and bolts that are deemed the bare minimum that the president wants to see done before we hit january 1st. i've got to tell you, though, getting back to the votes, the votes simply aren't there in the house of representatives for that. they're likely not even there in the senate, so we're back at square one, amazing as it is to say at this point, thomas. >> when we talk about what we know about the president, as we expect him to return to washington landing at andrews air force base, but what more do we know about this phone calls or the phone calls that went out to the four congressiona

so i'm getting the sentence that harry reid and the democrats don't want a deal. they want to go off the cliff. >> well, and that's certainly one opinion that's out there, andrea. the cpi aspect, democrats said, you know, we were willing to do that if you were talking about a huge 4 trillion dollar teal deal where we're going to cut a lot of different things, but as part after smaller deal they're trying to iron out over the course this have weekend, they said that that was a poison pill. so bottom line, they were not happy with this at the last minute. they made it well-known to everybody today to certainly stop it from happening so then we heard from a lot of republicans saying, fine, if it's a deal breaker, we're not going to do it and certainly the republicans would like some other sweeteners that would be appealing to them in the final deal. >> and do people in washington, to they realize how angry a lot of americans are? we're down to the wire on a financial crisis that we haven't seen in a long, long time, and there's no agreement. they're scrabbling like k

do we just wait for harry reid and mitch mcconnell to come up with something? when might we have more of these meetings? reporter: senate leaders will meet tonight. carrie reeder says he is suspendi regular business on the senate floor tomorrow so leadership can work on us. they are working on issues and have been for the last couple of days. at that point, sometime sunday morning, they will have to make a decision as whether they got enough vot for they have come up with something that can actually pass the hous and the senate. if that's the deal and they do reach some kd of skeleton or compromise that they can sell the democrats and republicans in the house and senate, they will begin that process once leadership is signed off. the time from then it's a little bit longer when you consider that the house has a rule that any bill must be posted online, it must be public for three days. the senate has a number of procedural hurdles. the senate is strange. you can get something done in unanimous consent, while, floor, walk off and its past -- or you can deal with

nobody wants to see harry reid's naked power grab. that's for sure. change it. change it! what?oh, how important is it to mitch mcconnell to block this rule change? it emanates from the very core of his principles >> until now you could say that protecting the rights of a political minority have been the defining characteristic of the senate. for the past several years many of us on the republican side have raised loud objections to the diminished rights of the minority. >> jon: yes, yes, you might have heard that wrong. he was saying the diminished rights of the minority. he's fighting for the minority. as in senate republicans. not actual minorities because [bleep] those people. now of course we could show you democrats and republicans taking opposite positions on filibuster reform when their roles were reversed seven years ago. there's something about this i actually don't understand. if the republicans can filibuster anything the democrats propose, then how can the democrats reform the filibuster without being filibustered? >> democrats have said they won't move forward on a

harry reid rules.his way or the highway and he has said that speaker boehner wants to bring up tonight a separate vote on taxes where only nose a million and oversee their rights go higher is going nowhere in the senate. you could be running into a brick wall. >> one of the things i played football early and i got used to run into tackle dummies on the peeled and i look forward to an opportunity to do so in the senate and work hard to make myself available to both sides of the aisle to understand the issues and the challenges and see if we can find common ground on spending reform. what i realize if you hit the ball often enough you wake up and realize that you will take a different direction and this is an opportunity as a country to come together and look at the spending direction of the nation and change it. >> you are a us congressman before you become next year a united states senator so how will you vote tonight? >>guest: you will have to tune in like, on the neil cavuto show and watch it. >>neil

harry reid says the u.s. the fiscal cliff and will speak to reporters about those negotiations. mortgage rates finished out the year near historic lows. freddie mac says the average for a 30 year fixed mortgage east to 3.35%. the empire state building is one step closer to going public. the management of the iconic skyscraper has been given the go-ahead by the securities and exchange commission to allow the building to be included in a proposed real-estate investment funds. empire state realty creates as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering. that is the latest from the fox business network giving you the power to prosper. shibani: thing they're calling down after winter weather wallop. it was messy in new york city, hundreds of flights have been canceled or delayed across the nation leaving travelers stranded. let's check with the latest from maria molina at the fox business center for update. looking pretty good today. >> starting to improve, suspecting across new england, some areas expecting ov