in fact, senator joe manchin of west virginia, which is the big coal state.gave a donkey and an elephant, the symbols of the republican, democratic party to none other than charles schumer, which i didn't have time to research it. i'm kind of interested in just how much charles schumer's been into the whole environmental fresh air thing, which would be something that joe manchin wouldn't like so much. >> yeah. >> so, what else? >> and not to be out done, another senator gives coal to joe manchin, all right? and where is it here? i can't find it here. another senator gives it to joe manchin, and so you have two senators giving coal, and mark udall of colorado. >> wasn't he the one who said, hey, we need to have the republicans and democrats sitting together at the state of the union? >> so he sort of got trumped there. but he's not bitter, it doesn't sound like. >> so gifts for secret santa and jumping jacks for the first lady. >> this was another follow-up. the first lady got together hundreds of thousands of people -- there you go. jumpin

senator joe manchin of west virginia he's breaking away from his party on the payroll tax cut.p next. (applause) cut. that' there he is, poised to discover plum amazins, the amazing alternative to raisins and cranberries with more fiber, less suga and a way better glycemic index. he's clearly enjoying one of the planet's most amazing superfruits. hey, keep it down mate, you'll wake the kids. plum amazins. new, from sunsweet. [ knock on door ] coo you found it. wow. nice place. ye. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postagenline and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally stayinsane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail fla rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. great fall. ugh, it's my sinus congestion, and it's all your fault. naturally blame the mucus. he's funny. instead of blaming me, try this, advil congestion relief.

. >> that is why joe manchin and i have teamed up. the democratic senator from west virginia and i as a freshman senator from illinois on the republican side, we both say we should not undermine seniors this way. we should not try to run social security without contributions and that a piece of legislation which increases social security losses by 20 times, causing those losses to replenish with u.s. government debt that does not even have a aaa rating from standard and poor's anymore is irresponsible. >> and then to move on to other topics, but it really is not being removed with the debt. >> you are totally wrong on that. you are factually, completely wrong. >> ok. stimulus cuts elsewhere in the budget. >> know. you are totally and utterly wrong. >> ok. >> part of what you need to do is learn about this more, because if you ask cbo, "how are the losses replenished," you will find under the republican plan to the cuts to make up for this, the cuts do not replenish the trust fund until 2018. you need to know that. you do not know that

democratic senator joe manchin will weigh in on the fight to win the payroll tax cut before this month'sharvard economist jeff miron is here. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. wow. it's a great hd tv... shhh. don't speak. i'll just leave you two alone. [ male announcer ] the big christmas event is here. starting 8 a.m. saturday. with great deals on toys, electronics and more... the only place to go for last minute gifts is walmart. >>> you consider both gingrich and romney unacceptable as consistent conservatives? >> well, i would say they're not consistent. i think they more or less admitted that they've changed their positions on -- it's not that they're in denial, it's just they admit they were on one side of a position here and on the other side a position on another time. i think that's pretty clearly understood. it's just that, you know, that's not considered, you know, a litmus test. >> hey, welcome back to "morning joe." fascinating morning. chris christie, the governor of new jersey sent me a text. well, he said who's next this morning on "morning joe" to talk a

democrat joe manchin says the tax cut hasn't worked. >> we tried the payroll tax cut. i support it. i won't double down on a failed policy. >> in the house, john boehner says he favors extension with one requirement. >> republicans are ready to work with the president and the democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily. but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. >> continuing the growing debt, a year after the bipartisan simpson-bowles plan was revealed it should have been adopted. >> yet, that was rejected out of hand by the white house and others. >> reporter: after both republican and democratic plans failed tonight, perhaps we will be one step closer to compromise. although the christmas holiday, some 3-1/2 weeks away it has to come quickly before the tax holiday expires. bret? >> bret: more on this with the panel. thank you. president obama's performance on the economy may be the determining factor in his quest for re-election next year. chief white house correspondent ed henry reports on what the president is saying now about that.

now, the bill passed 89-10 and i talked to a couple of the no votes, and vest which aring senator joe manchin doesn't like you're messing with money that's supposed to go to the social security trust fund, which is what the payroll tax actually funds. >> i've been open supporting the pipeline, but the bottom line, social security is so important, the lifeline, the bloodline, if you will, to over 60% of the seniors in my state. majority of their income and horror we are playi here we have playing games with it the same time. >> and a conference call two hours from now to get a sense where the rank and file stand and we know the keystone pipeline provision was key with house republicans and they could vote on it as soon as monday. jamie. >> mike emanuel busy morning and thanks for the wrap-up. >> thank you. >> i tell you you can't understate enough it's been a busy morning on capitol hill and the senate may have saved some time, but as we mentioned before only set themselves up for yet another battle sometime in february and after all the fighting that went into today's measure, is this a sign

about starving the social security trust fund which takes revenue from the payroll tax and democrat joe manchin says the tax cut simply hasn't worked. >> we tried the payroll tax cut last year and i supported it, but i will not double down on a failed policy. reporter: in the house speaker john boehner says he favors an extension with one requirement. >> republicans are ready to work with the president and the democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily, but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. reporter: considering the $15 trillion growing debt, some lawmakers said a year after the bipartisan simpson bowles plan was unveiled it should have been adopted. >> yet that was rejected out of hand by the white house and others. reporter: with the failure of the republican and democratic plans tonight perhaps we're one step closer to compromise, although with the christmas holiday 3 1/2 weeks away, they'll have to act quickly before the tax holiday expires. >>> a new development tonight in the plan to change speed limits in d.c. neighborhoods to 15 miles

senators joe manchin of west virgina, a democrat and mark kirk of illinois, a republican.ou both. >> thank you. >> thank you jenna: we take you live to baghdad for the transition of the u.s. military base, camp victory, to the iraqi government today. there is no official handover event but it is happening now. we also want to ask the question about the politics behind this event. if there are any which i'm sure one can find, james rosen can. he is chief washington correspondent for us. james? >> reporter: jenna, good afternoon. by 3:05 eastern time this morning the sprawling grounds officially named victory based complex but better known as camp victory have been officially returned to the control of the iraqi government. at its peak this complex housed 46,000 people. its transfer is part of the complete withdrawal of american forces from iraq by year's end. more than one million americans who served in iraq, camp victory was always special because it was among the first areas secured by u.s. troops nine years ago and it was once a palace ground for the deposed dictator sa

. >> joe manchin was the governor of west virginia when the explosion happened.tive has been convicted and charged of lying to prosecutors. i think a lot of the families, from what i've read, would like to see some of these executives go to jail. do you think justice has been served here? >> not at all. not yet. i think it will be and i agree with the families. all of the thing cannot bring that i have loved ones back. in west virginia, our families mean everything to us. when you lose a member of your family and the bread winner of your family, you don't replace that. we are after res institution. we want justice to be done. i think justice will be done. i think now that we have reports that concur that basically said this is preventible, it should have been prevented and never should have happened. i believe justice will be done. i hope it will be done as quickly as possible now to really give some relief to the families. >> especially when you hear that they had promoted a culture of fear and intimidation here. it's been over a year and a half since the explos

. >>> joining us now is west virginia democratic senator joe manchin, the state's governor at the timethis morning. how are you? >> thank you, chris. good to be with you. >> since the explosion, only one massey executive has been charged and convicted of lying to prosecutors. i think a lot of the families from what i've read would like to see some of these executives go to jail. do you think that justice has been served here? >> not at all. not yet. i think it will be. and i agree with the families. you know, all the money in the world won't bring your loved one back. we can't replace the pain or relieve the pain that they're still feeling. and west virginia, our families mean everything to us. and when you lose a member of your family and the breadwinner of your family, you just don't replace that. so we're after restitution, we are. we want justice to be done. i think justice will be done. i think that now that we have reports that concur that basically said this is preventable, it should have been prevented, should have never happened, to allow that to go on and to find out now that

an inquiry launched by west virginia's then governor joe manchin found a pattern of negligence including coal dust build-up and malfunctioning equipment. today the u.s. mine safety and health administration issued its final report. the agency issued 12 citations for violations of federal law that contributed directly to the mine explosion. it designated nine of the violations as flagrant. those included illegally giving advanced notice to minors when inspectors were coming and failing to conduct proper safety examinations. massey energy was acquired by alpha natural resources in june of this year. under the settle. the new owner will not be charged with any crimes but individual employees who were there when the disaster occurred can be prosecuted. and victims' families retain the rights to file civil lawsuits. >> sreenivasan: there was also news in the legal fight over last year's gulf oil spill. in a federal court filing, b.p. accused halliburton of destroying evidence that could prove it shared responsibility for the spill. the oil company said halliburton employees destroyed test res

beer to michael bennett of colorado as a little nod to ohio's beer and maybe the best of all is joe manchinf west virginia gave fellow democrat chuck schumer coal, carved coal in the shape of a donkey and an elephant. and both seem quite pleased with that. >> chuck schumer, coal in his stocking. i'm not sure i like rob portman who explained ohio's beer to me. i think a lot of people in colorado would pick colorado's beer. >> i know where you're going to stand on that. >> you guys also drink verners which i don't get. >> so cheerful around here, chuck. all cheerful. >>> with europe's debt crisis still looming hour, will the fed react today? the market rundown is next. and vladimir putin facing a surprising challenger in his bid to become president of russia again. the latest on the billionaire from new jersey giving putin a run for his money. >>> first, today's trivia question. who is currently the most senior junior senator? tweet me the answer. >>> time for the entrepreneur of the week. former rockette amy burnett opened the next step broadway dance studio in jersey city with children's da

. >> senator joe manchin from west virginia. but thank you for trying. >> i'm trying, martin. thank you so much. >> and a final note. republican front-runner newt gingrich had only been on stage in iowa a bu brief minutes when protesters interrupted his speech slated to be on the topic of quote, brain science. the scene continued for several minutes with the former speaker standing at podium. gingrich finally proceeded with his remarks calling the opposition that confronted him, quote, irrational. take a listen. >> first, i know -- >> mr. gingrich, we are here to protest your speech today. >> mr. gingrich, were here to protest your speech today. >> we object to your callous an arrogant attitude towards poverty and poor people. the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small busine

santa, senator schumer got a carved donkey, and then clean coal, does this look mineral to you for joe manchind then a buffalo wings bar from the anchor bar courtesy of chuck schumer. >>> stop the politics. stop the games. stand up for the people. >> where is the shared sacrifice? where is the shared responsibility? >> fired up democrats on the floor of the house before lawmakers voteded to extend the payroll tax cut at least on the house side, but that bill also requires the obama administration to approve the keystone pipeline within 60 days. i'm joined now by congresswoman gwen moore who is a democrat from wisconsin. good rn mong. -- good morning. you were fired up, because you called the bill a sham piece of legislation and accused the republicans of talking out of both sides of their neck. what does that neen? >> it is an old expression when you talk out of both sides of your mouth. so for example they named the bill the tax cut for middle-class americansers and the job creation act of 2011. well, yeah. they do cut the payroll tax for 60 million americans, but at a tremendous cost. and th

host: one of your democratic colleagues in the senate, joe manchin from west virginia, was quoted as saying i cannot find any people who even know they are getting it. then he went on to say, why would we double down on a policy that did not work? guest: a policy that -- host: saying that they will tax holiday have not stimulated the economy. guest: i think we solve the unemployment rate now come down to the lowest since the recession. i think that we did not get into this problem overnight. we need time for us to work our way through. but i think if you offer a payroll tax holiday to not only employees, but to employers, you will see -- the engine, i think some of the economy is small-business. it created about 65% of the jobs in the private sector. and certainly in the last couple of years -- it is the engine i see working. when i talked about the hub of comeback in my district, where we are perched on the top in many of the measurements out there in terms of job creation and clustering and high-tech and clean energy, that came about through small business. putting together innovat

senator joe manchin gifted fellow democrat chuck schumer of new york with two pieces of west virginia coal carved in the shapes of a donkey and an elephant. manchin also received three lumps of colorado coal from democrat mark udall and those are your headlines. if they don't come to some sort of payroll tax decision, everyone might get coal in their stocking today if you're a member of congress. >> yeah, but what animal would it look like? >> i'm not going to go there. >> i got to tell you yesterday at 6:00, eastern time, "special report", the house passed the payroll extension tax bill allowing the tax holiday to go on so i guess they can go home, it will sail through the senate and the president will sign it, am i correct? am i right? >> warning, warning, brian kilmeade. absolutely not. the president has said his top priority is passing it. and the house did pass it. by the way, we should point out 10 democrats voted with 224 republicans to do that. but because the president has insisted that any tax cut extension must be paid for by jacking up taxes on certain successful americans

. >> joe manchin is one of them. >> joe manchin is the key point man here. you're messing around with the financing of social security and you are robbing eventually seniors. don't do it at all. so -- but look, and my guess is that this sooner or later, they'll have an agreement and the payroll tax holiday will be extended and taxes won't go up. >> in the break, that's your guarantee. now it's your guess. what's going on? >> what's coming up on your show? >> we have a huge unemployment report at 8:30 this morning. that's going to rule the roost as far as the markets are concerned and the economy. and president obama is watching this real carefully. 8:30, the number comes out. >> and i'm on at 9:20, ok? >> you are. great. the post-game show. >> all right. stuart, we'll see you a little later on. >> that's great. >> straight ahead, country star mindy mccreedy in trouble with the law accused of kidnapping her own son. what? details straight ahead. >> and it's a story we've been covering all week, the governor who is refusing to call a christmas tree a christmas

republicans must be encouraged by the fact that some democrats, senator joe manchin talked to us lastvor of the pipeline project moving forward. >> the politics are fascinating. you've got a key constituency of president obama, the unions in favor of the pipeline, feeling like it would be instant jobs, so you see democrats, along the expected pipeline route, saying this is a good thing, congressman dan born in oklahoma saying this, at a time when many are without work it's time to come together in a bipartisan way to pass this legislation which will create tens of thousands of new jobs. i commend the speaker for including the construction of the pipeline that is supported by business and labor, and so bottom line, a democrat coming forward saying he's in favor of this provision. question is exactly how many votes there will be when it comes up for a vote, when it's expected to get to the united states senate, john. john: republicans say deal is going to get done on the payroll tax holiday, but some of them aren't sure the pipeline is going to northbound the final package, right? >> re

. >> you really think santa monica is better than -- >>> senator joe manchin will be on the show. >>>my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. [ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles! i want a mace, a sword, a... oww! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it could be?! what's in your wallet? ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond

is what has changed over the years and that is what we're trying to fix for the other thing that joe manchin, campaigning against each other, 15 seconds, my father was in the senate before me. for his first reelection, standing on the floor of the senate, the republican leader comes up, puts his arm around my father's shoulder, a democrat, and asked what he can do to help with his re-election. you would never find that today. but back in the day, it was those friendships matter in more than parties, common purpose more than ideology of a party for that is what we have to get back to make this thing -- back to to get this to function appeared we have a lot of great people here who are kept from getting done what they wanted to buy a system that is dysfunctional. i'm here to address two parts of it. first, regrettably, the congressional dysfunction is infecting the executive branch occurred earlier this year we had 200 presidential appointees they were open and vacant. we could not get a vote in the senate. it is not just as president. my party was doing it to the previous president as well. t

yesterday passed an appropriation measure that funds the government, all year long and, senator joe manchinought not to undermine finances or social security. remember, the white house detailed -- american people need to look at details, health care bills cut medicare, $550 billion. the president has redefined contributions to social security, he calls its the payroll tax and 50 years after franklin roosevelt we called it contributions to social security and we need to maintain the retirement security system for 40 million americans. >> dave: don't get too comfortable in chicago. i think you are heading back to washington, d.c. this week. merry christmas to you, nonetheless. >> merry christmas. >> dave: who can forget the classic impression of dr. phil, mean and actor, darrell hammond with his new impressions, tell us how you feel about the payroll tax cut extension. dave briggs. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. th

joe." joining us now, the president of the american federation of teachers randi weingarten. and vice president of west virginia's state board of education, gail manchinis here, we introduce him as the husband. >> exactly. >> thank you. thank you. >> it happens that way. and now the husband of gail manchin. >> they're here to talk about the reconnecting mcdowell initiative. it's a five-year public/private partnership to help struggling schools at mcdowell county, west virginia, in the face of extreme poverty. i love this project. >> i do too. and i see a statistic here. i want to ask you about, gail. vocabulary list for the average 3-year-old across the united states, 12,000 words. mcdowell county, 5,000 words. talk about some of the challenges. >> well, i think the challenges there are certainly the rate of illiteracy across some of our -- and you know, it's mcdowell county, but it's rural america where educational opportunities are not as forthcoming. and it's not a level playing field. and so children in the home don't have books. they don't have parents with the vocabulary to hear every day. they're not out into a lot of public interaction and soc