i'm john harwood in for gwen ifill. we'll explore those questions tonight on "washington week." more than anyone else in washington, the president hopes the new year will be better than the lousy old one. >> i firmly believe that 2014 can be a breakthrough year for america. >> there's some optimism in congress too. >> i think the pendulum is starting to swing back towards the center. john: one early test will be whether congress can raise the debt ceiling without a congress. >> i doubt if the house or for that matter the senate is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase. >> the debt ceiling is raised simply to pay bills that we have already accrued. the responsibility of congress is part of doing their job. john: lawmakers from both participants face the ballot in november.n >> the president won't be on the ballot but his allies will be. john: republicans square off against each other. >> we all know if we took on the washington establishment, the establishment would fight back and it's going to take time to change washington to turn this country around. >> i

. >> harwood tells a story in this column about bill bradley sitting down with al simpson, senator alormer senator bill bradley of new jersey, and he had a list of 22 questions. and he went down and he asked simpson the questions. and they agreed on 16 of 22 whereupon bradley says okay, you have my vote because 16 of 22 is enough. now, i am unaware of any cooperative bipartisan personal relationships like that today. >> you know the other thing about ronald reagan, he'd been a governor for many years, he probably negotiated dozens of agreements. he'd been a union president. how many agreements did he have to negotiate? you now have a president who's never been a manager and has never been in a negotiation in his life. all he knows how to do is plug in the teleprompter and lash out against something. he's never negotiated anything. >> i just think that that is not, you know, on its face a realistic position to take. i mean, barack obama may not be the best negotiator. he may not be the most cordial, friendly person to republicans in the congress. but the main stumbling block in washing

sheet fell to the ground and witnesses report the suspect running away towards harwood.nvestigators say this sounds similar to a phenomenon happening across the country where assailants are doing this purely for amusement. sometimes it's videotaped. >> the police are looking to see if this fits some of the motive. but current -- we don't have a motive for this. this was an unprovoked attack as far as we can tell so far. >> reporter: police say no words were exchanged between the victim or the suspect. they searched the area for surveillance video but couldn't find any. they've increased a controls and admit -- patrols and admit this attack is unusual for los gatos because this is a safe community. >> it's scary. we're women. we're injured women, actually. we're going through this therapy and to find something out like that makes you not want to cross the street or come to this side because you don't know what's gonna happen. >> reporter: police describe the suspect as an african- american man in his early to mid-20s, 5'9" to 6 feet tall with a slender build. he has short

no. >> john harwood tonight, thank you. our coverage of the president's state of the union address will begin tuesday evening at 9:00 eastern, 6:00 pacific time on nbc. >>> when "nbc nightly news" continues on this sunday, all the food that goes to waste in this country. why not sell it cheap? >>> later, we'll take you to a fighting constipation by eating healthier, drinking plenty of water, but still not getting relief? try dulcolax laxative tablets. dulcolax is comfort-coated for gentle, over-night relief. dulcolax. predictable over-night relief you can count on. >> we're become now with some food for thought. consider the fact that our country throws out an estimated $165 billion worth of food every year. much of it still perfectly good, according to a recent study. that's the idea behind a new grocery store that will open in june. it's called the daily table. it will sell deeply discounted foods that have recently reached their expiration date. nbc's miguel almaguer has our report. >> reporter: shopping for a healthy me

john harwood joins us now from washington with more on all of this. you know, john, one democratic senator said that this deal shows american people that we can compromise. so in the spirit of this compromise, what did the democrats get out of this in terms of sweeping changes and what did the republicans like? >> reporter: well, nobody got sweeping changes in this legislation. what we got is a return to normal governance. the benefits that democrats can point to the most are the relief of some of those sequester cuts that they found so harmful to some of their domestic pry other tis as well as some defense priorities. what republicans can claim is while giving some relief, the spending revenues are lower than what democrats and president obama wanted. it is a middle result that stops the drip toward deeper and deeper cuts within the budget at a time when the economy is recovering. but it hardly returns to the spending, the free spending ways that many republicans have been concerned about. >> but there's still always something to complain about. what

. >> john harwood joins us now from washington.n, what are the odds this bill passes the senate? what's next? >> i still think they're not great, tyler. one hurdle cleared but there's big other hurdles to clear both in the senate as well as the house. republicans even some of those who voted for cloture today to move the bill along are insisting on paying for the extension of unemployment benefits. that's $6 billion for three months, $25 billion for a year. and it's not easy for the two sides to agree on how to do that. we could remain in a stalemate long term throughout this election year. >> and still, john, this was a surprise, wasn't it? the way the vote turned out? >> reporter: it was. there had been a lot of talk about the fact that republicans had dug, in democrats would not be abe to get the votes they needed to end this filibuster. what we don't know yet is whether that reflects a long-term erosion in the republican position and they're going to come to democrats and extend or whether they were simply falling back to a dif

john harwood, we have been here before. how much time do we really really really have this time? >> reporter: well, you can never be exactly sure because of the extraordinary measures the treasury can take. also their revenues depend on the strength of the economy. the stronger the economy is, the better the chances are that it could go a little bit later than the late february that jack lew has talked about. harry reid the senate leader has talked about much later in the spring, in fact. but i think that everyone knows that sometime in the next couple of months, congress is going to have to do this. and as jack lew said, congress knows going to have to raise the debt limit. the only question is how we get there. >> and that is a good point, john. and speaker boehner made some comments today, is he signalling he wants a fight on this issue? we've seen over the years that this drama over the debt ceiling has led to a government shutdown, a downgraded u.s. debt and market selloffs. so should investors be nervous? >> reporter: john boehner does not want a fight over this issue but s

i'm co-hosting along with carl quintanilla and john harwood. we'll be back in just a moment. can take you in many directions. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 you read this. watch that. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 you look for what's next. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 at schwab, we can help turn inspiration into action tdd# 1-888-628-2419 boost your trading iq with the help of tdd# 1-888-628-2419 our live online workshops tdd# 1-888-628-2419 like identifying market trends. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 now, earn 300 commission-free online trades. call 1-888-628-2419 or go to schwab.com/trading to learn how. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 sharpen your instincts with market insight from schwab tdd# 1-888-628-2419 experts like liz ann sonders and randy frederick. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 get support and talk through your ideas with our tdd# 1-888-628-2419 trading specialists. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 all with no trade minimum. and only $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 open an account and earn 300 commission-free online trades. call 1-888-628-2419 to learn more. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 so you can take charge of your trading. tte or au lait?

i want to bring in jonathan harwood.up on this discussion of poverty and unemployment, the new numbers that came out, the $74,000 employment figure for december, did appear to some to be an outliar, are you in the camp of the mark zandy's to say it's not to be believed. >> i wouldn't say it's not to be believed at all. we've seen revisions going up in jobs numbers over the last couple of years but i do think it's something that will likely influence the debate somewhat on unemployment insurance. i think in the end the chances are that unemployment insurance will not be extended, but i think the chances improve slightly because of that number. i also think it influences the debate on minimum wage and the idea that minimum wage increase, which i think has a better chance than extended unemployment benefits, i think that has got a little juice from those poor numbers. >> talk about the economic consequences of not extending unemployment insurance. as you say it is unlikely for that to happen, what is the ripple effect on th

to find out the whole story, let's check in with cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood who joins us with all the details. good evening, john. >> good evening. one of the things the president has been laboring under is the idea that he simply can't get anything done given republican control of the house, even though democrats control the senate. what he said in his first cabinet meeting of 2014 is that he's still got some tools and he's going to use them. >> i've got a pen and i've got a phone, and i can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions, administrative actions that move the ball forward in helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating. >> he's still got a chance, larry, to get some initiatives through congress. i think integration reform remains a possibility. minimum wage is also a possibility. i wouldn'

she fell to the ground and witnesses reported seeing the suspect running away towards harwood. investigators say the assault was unprovoked and appeared to be random. police know the incident sounds similar to a criminal phenomenon happening across the country, where assailants try to punch unsuspecting people hoping to knock them out, purely for amusement. people we spoke to are wondering if that's the case here and if he are shocked. >> hit me in the gut and i got a chill. >> reporter: had you heard of this if he none none? police -- phenomenon? police are not sure if it's related? >> no. itch don't know if -- i don't know if it's something that has come up online or if it's gang- related. it's disgusting. >> reporter: police are investigating. they've not ruled out this part of the knockout game but don't have enough information to substantiate. they've increased patrols in the area. they are describing the suspect as an african-american man in his early to mid-20s, 5'9" to 6 feet taught with a slender build. he has short brown hair and was wearing a white t-shirt, plu jeans

many thanks, john harwood. who better to ask than aural own summit.lcome back anki ball, and president of the nyu college republicans. first of all is college worth it? nyu is a great school, probably 50, 60 grand a year, i don't know the numbers. a new york fed study just showed that 44% -- 44% of the college graduates are in jobs that don't require a degree. now. that kind of undermines the whole story. >> it really does. i'd like to tell you a little story. about a month ago i was in a bookstore, 86th street. i overheard two female employees, one in her late 20s, one in mid 40s, talking about how they had graduate degrees, yet they were still working the same minimum wage job at the bookstore. >> so what's your reaction to that? >> you know, it depends. there's a lot of utility to a college degree nowadays. a college degree is still the surest pathway to middle-class economic security. there are a lot of jobs, and it depends on the kind of college and the mix of liberal articles as well as vocational. both parts are really important in making sure

john harwood can recap for us. swron. john. >> i think you heard from a president who has lost his illusions about changing washington, about changing republicans idealogically. he spoke directly to the american people from the beginning of this speech trying to build support for his proposals where there is not much chance that they'll go along with him. on the issues where he does have some chance of making headway, immigration, he had a lighter touch. he doesn't want to mess up the prospects that republicans for their own political reasons may come along and compromise with him, but on other issues, he was confrontational at times. he defended his health care plan, and he tried again to rally american support behind the small proposals that he is going to take on his own even if he is stalled in congress, and at the end of the speech, as he noted at the end, he tried to borrow a little of that hero luster from cory remsburg with a very touching moment when remsburg stood up, despite his terrific injuries that he suffer

john harwood, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >>> now folks, one senator who voted against the jobless bill is senator ron johnson. welcome back to the show, as always. let me just ask you -- >> hello, larry. >> -- right away. the national -- nber, national bureau of economic research. highfalutin blue chip think tank of economists. they just did a study that said the reason unemployment is so high is because we keep extending these unemployment jobless benefits. the president says no. what say you? >> president obama's former economic advisor, larry summers, issued a study before he became his advisor that basically said the same thing. larry, i was talking to a painting contractor in wisconsin. he said, do not extend unemployment. he finally got two big jobs, went back to his laidoff workers. to a person he would not take the job. until our unemployment benefits run out, it doesn't pay for us to do it. to add insult to injury, he lost those jobs, guess to who? those same workers did those jobs for cash. listen

i'm john harwood in for gwen ifill. we'll explore those questions tonight on "washington week." more than anyone else in washington, the president hopes the new year will be better than the lousy old one. >> i firmly believe that 2014 can be a breakthrough year for america. >> there's some optimism in congress too. >> i think the pendulum is starting to swing back towards the center. john: one early test will be whether congress can raise the debt ceiling without a congress. >> i doubt if the house or for that matter the senate is willing to give the president a clean de

la policia, el sospechoso sorprendi a la victima en el cruce de las calles "blossom hill road" y "harwoodn un golpe fuerte en la cabeza ---las autoridades afirman que la mujer fue una victima mas del juego de noqueo o "knockout game" que consiste en agredir a una persona en plena calle hasta dejarla sin sentido blanca ---una famosa actriz de telenovelas que usted ha visto actuar aqui en telemundo fue victima de la inseguridad que se vive en un pais sudamericano. pitch - cesar ---nos referimos a la actriz y ex miss venezuela monica spear... take vo ....quien de acuerdo a las autoridades fue asesinada junto son su ex esposo cuando fueron asaltados en una carretera cerca de puerto cabello, la principal ciudad portuaria de ese pais. ---segun la fiscalia, el auto en el que viajaban se descompuso y los ladrones aprovecharon la oportunidad para robarlos. ---la hija de la actriz, de 5 aÑos, tambien sufrio heridas de bala. ---daniella zambrano, desde venezuela nos tiene lo mas reciente sobre esta tragedia. take pkg ;01 0:36 01:28 01:37 01:55 02:18 pkg daniella zambrano / arv caracas, venezuela ban

if you were in this area yesterday, 4:30 in the afternoon, if you were in this area near harwood road and blossom hill road and saw a man run, police would like you to give them a call. george kiriyama, nbc bay area news. >>> another pedestrian has been killed in san francisco. the third person to die in a week. it happened just after 6:00 this evening near the corner of van ness grove not far from city hall. police say the person killed had just gotten into an argument and then got hit running across busy van ness. officers blamed the driver in the case. a girl was killed last tuesday night and her mom and brother injured. an 86-year-old man was also killed in san francisco last tuesday. >>> enough money convince someone to come forward and talk. that is the mother of a murder victim from emeryville. seven months after the death of aya nakano, no one has been arrested with you there may be a break in the case. live from police headquarters, what's new? >> reporter: detectives believe they have a picture of the actual car the suspects were driving the night they killed this 22-year-ol

john harwood joining us from washington with some details. john?tentially very damaging to chris christie but we don't know enough about the details yet. it is the release of a letter that was broken by "the new york times" from a lawyer for david wildstein who is the former high school classmate of chris christie who is the port authority official who oversaw the lane closures. he says that governor christie did not tell the truth at his press conference that he could prove it about not knowing about those lane closures. now, i do think we've got to see what the proof is because while he said that governor christie knew of the lane closures he did not say that governor christie knew of why the lane closures had taken place. that's the key fact because it goes to the motivation and to whether or not the governor actually consciously was aware that his administration was trying to create a traffic problem to punish a political opponent. we're going to have to wait and see what the proof is, but this story is moving. >> it certainly is. john harwood,

john harwood in washington. thanks.stfost forced the cancelation of 12,000 flights over the past few days. minnesota suffered minus 40 degree windchill, ten degrees colder than nasa mars rover experienced yesterday. how dangerous is the polar vortex and why is it grinding many business toes a halt? we're going to look at the science behind it. bill nye, executive director of the planetary society and all around science guy joins us. so, bill nye, enlighten us. what does negative 40, negative 30 degree weather mean for human kind? >> it's very difficult for a human to be out there exposed as the saying goes. for me, the engineer, member of tech logically advanced society, means we're going to use a lot of electricity to keep warm, to move around, to thaw things out. i don't know that our electrical power groid is up to it right now. we're going to have to enhance it in the future. and we're getting to a point where it's so cold, how cold is it? even jet fuel is becoming slushy. that's really unusual. so this sort of thin

the attack happened monday night at a shopping center near harwood road. witnesses say he came up to a woman and punched her in the face knocking her to the ground. the woman is expected to recover from her injuries. >>> the bay area's last slaughter house is at the center of a major investigation. authorities certained a search warrant yesterday at the slauth ir house and we were there. >> this is video can from the u.s. department of agriculture on the property. very little is known about why boxes were being carried into cars. usda agents were serving a search warrant on the bay area's last remaining slaughter house at the request of the attorney's office. no one was talking including employees leaving the property. kpix went to the home of the owner and she claims she didn't know anything. >> do you know why it was raided by the usda today? >> i have no idea and if that's a tv you can turn it off. >> there have been several protests orbing straited by peta. what exactly happened will remain a question through the weekend. the usda has told us they will

kevin o'leary will be joining carl quintanilla and john harwood to discuss the state of the union. >>e biggest winners in today's trading next. there are some. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors suc

john harwood and scott cohn have been following the s.e.c.'s technology initiatives.hn. what did the s.e.c. want to use the money for, and why did they lose it? >> the reason they want the money is because they know that they are undermanned, undergunning for the job that they've got in front of them which has gotten bigger since dodd-frank, so technology was designed to streamline some of their operations as they oversee american companies and that runs squarely into the idealogical divide in washington and the practical divide over how big or small government should be. republicans have been pushing to limit the size of government. they don't like regulation as much as democrats do and therefore, you ended up with a compromise where democrats managed to get republicans to drop some idealogical provisions that would have prevented the s.e.c. from doing certain things in regulation, and in return, republicans agreed or insisted on some cut in the funding for that modernization program. >> so it was basically a horse trading over what can be regulated, what can't, and

. >> reporter:the victim was not seriously south on harwood avenue, the suspect is described as an africanan man in his 20's, six feet tall, with a slender build. >> pam: this is the second report of an alleged knock out game attack. the first happened back in november while the victim was riding a bus in san francisco. >> pam: catherine? >> catherine: white house insiders - especially the vice-president - have to be furious about a new book by former secretary of defense robert gates. >> catherine: it includes some scathing criticism of his former boss and colleagues. the preview copies are out -- and it's considered a washington d.c. bombshell. >> catherine: today this show of support. rare access to this lunch, allowed by the white house -- sorely needed for biden after a scathing critique called him "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." >> catherine: former defense secretary gates was a republican holdover -- appointed by the bush administration. but has a reputation for being bi-partisian. >> catherine: his new tell-all bo

let's get you to cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood with the details. you guys know that it was coming today, too, same day as the state of the union. that's weird timing, isn't it? >> well, that was our plan. i wanted to figure out where the president stood and it's not a very pretty picture from his point of view. when you look az at his job approval rating, 43%. near an all-time low. 51% disapprove. that makes him the third year president to be under water in the third year of polling. one of the reasons is that there is so much dissatisfaction over the economy. if you ask people, how do you feel about the nation's economy? 28% say they're satisfied. 711% say they're not. that is driving a lot of bad mood, even as the signs that the economy is strengthening or all around us. and the one bit of encouraging news for the president is that on the issue of income inequality, this is something the president has been emphasizing. there is some recent activity to that agenda on the part of the american people. when you ask should the government do more on th

suspect, described as an african- american male in his 20's, was last seen running southbound on harwood avenue. police are now checking area businesses for possible surveillance video of the assault. ever since the 2011 fukushima nuclear accident in japan, there has been concern that radioactive contamination could reach the west coast. according to the description of you to this video was taken on december 23rd read it shows a man who is referred to as david walking their pacifica state beach in the pacifica carrying a geiger counter which is a device used to detect radiation. away from the beach the counter appears to show normal levels of radiation but as he gets closer to the water the numbers go up. but according to the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission a geiger counter like this one can detect radiation but it can't determine the exact source or type. in response to the video that san mateo county health department and the california department of health conducted tests along the coast last week. they say they did detect a that radiation levels near the bay. but they also said hi

our john harwood in washington this morning.it was a bad weekend for the airlines. nasty weather forced cancellations from chicago to new york. and things don't look too much better today. our phil lebeau is live at o'hare airport in chicago. phil, someone just tweeted a picture of the chicago river frozen over. it doesn't happen very often. >> it doesn't. it's minus 15 outside right now, carl. and for the people who are in line here and believe me we're going to show you some video of these people waiting in line, they're in line 45 minutes, maybe an hour, only to be told that they're not going to be rebooked for a couple of days. they can't even go outside to smoke a cigarette. you're out there for maybe a minute or two, you really start to feel how cold it is here. as i mentioned long lines at o'hare. and we're seeing this at a number of airports in the upper midwest and east coast. thousands are trying to rebook travel plans after flights being canceled. most of the impact is in the upper midwest and east coast. they're gett

john harwood has the very latest for that on us.ter the big state of the union address last night. >> this is, simon, part of the president's attempt to move around the country. he's going to go to pennsylvania, to tennessee. other parts of the country to try to sell this economic message that he tried to connect with the american people on last night in the speech, and i think he's feeling a sense of liberation on a couple of grounds. one, he has the opening to make some headway in congress on immigration. this looks promising. he kept the temperature low on that issue in the speech last night. on the other hand, he's got some things that he can try to do on his own. they're on the margins when he uses executive authority trying to leverage small amounts of federal money. but he also has issues if the congress doesn't go along with him that are very popular like the minimum wage and he can go around as he did this morning and say, it's time to give america a raise and this is something, of course, that can be done without any feder

john harwood with that story when we come back. >>> welcome back.ppening? >> liberty media announced a proposal to make sirius/xm holdings a wholly owned subsidiary of liberty media. there are already two different classes of liberty media stock. this would create a third class of stock. now, this exchange which is effectively acquiring sirius/xm as a part of liberty media, values sirius shares at $3.56. sirius shares are halted right now but last trade were $3.56 a share. it's a slight premium to that. kelly? >> julia, stick around if you will. i would like to get thoughts from our panel here. to go back to what you just said because it's interesting we're not seeing more of a reaction to the upside in sirius shares right now but it sounds like it has a lot to do with the valuation that liberty's potentially placing on them. >> yes. i mean, it's just a really tiny premium. $3.68 versus $3.56. i mean this really is just changing the ownership structure. in the release here jon meloan liberty chairman, says this will be an important step in the growt