jim rutenberg, thanks for joining us.ght back. ♪ john: after you finish watching the show, go to bloombergpolitics.com and check out our campaign tracker for the latest 2016 updates, along with fantastic story by our friend josh green about ted cruz's donald trump strategy. mark: tomorrow, president obama is headed to hawaii for his christmas vacation. he's going to stop in san bernardino, california and have a private meeting with families of the victims of the terrorist shooting. before he leaves washington, the president is planning to hold his year and press conference. we will keep an eye on all of that and all the other news in the political world. we will be back your tomorrow. john: do think he's going to be jovial? mark: mixed and measured. see you tomorrow. sayonara. ♪ emily: i am emily chang, and you are watching "bloomberg west." the republican-led house voted to approve more than $600 billion in compromise tax breaks. it is part of a bipartisan pack that includes a $1.1 trillion bill finance and government ag

the author of that piece, jim rutenberg, is here with us. y what this series aims to do. jim: what it aims to do is look at the supreme court decision known as shelby and how it changed voting around the country, especially in states that used to get extra coverage under the voting rights act. mark: that decision took away years of a very elaborate series of scrutiny that the justice department put on a lot of states who were freed from that level of scrutiny. what effect do the people most concerned about that decision, what affect do they see it having? jim: i think what they saw our new voting laws that they say a --they say if x voting, voting that , disproportionately impacts minorities, and these are laws that if they had been passed before the decision, they would've been blocked. maybe they would've gone forward. now they go forward, and courts have to catch up. mark: what do those laws do, and is it on purpose that they disenfranchise some groups more than others, or is it not by design? jim: the law didn't care if it was on purpose.