john boehner canceled the vote. then he put out a statement saying it's now up to democrats to figure it out. and then the house went into recess and house republicans started going home for christmas. >> mr. chairman, you're close to the speaker. you serve with him on the education committee. does this feel like defeat tonight, when he could not cajole enough votes out of his caucus? >> well, yeah. that's exactly what it is. and he understood it, and he said have a merry christmas, we'll see you after christmas. >> we'll see you after christmas. yes, this was a defeat. this was not how it was supposed to go, but that is what happened in just the past hour. joining us is luke russert, nbc news congressional correspondent. luke, thanks for being here on short notice. appreciate your time. >> what a story, rachel. happy to be here. i've never seen anything like this in my 3 1/2 year on capitol hill. very rare moment. and talking to people whief been here for a while, this doesn't happen very much. >> what are your sou

speaker john boehner didn't have the votes for his own plan b this evening. boehner was desperately trying to save face with his caucus after rejecting an offer by president obama he should have taken. here's what eric cantor had to say just moments ago leaving. >> is there going to be a vote tonight? >> no. >> no vote tonight? >> no. >> will there be a vote tomorrow? >> no. >> are you ditching plan b? will there be a vote today? this is flo. i need you. i feel so alone. but you're not alone. i knew you'd come. like i could stay away. you know i can't do this without you. you'll never have to. you're always there for me. shh! i'll get you a rental car. i could also use an umbrella. fall in love with progressive's claims service. who helped make slea difference last yearose for thousands of california foster kids. thank you for helping foster kids. thank you for the school supplies. thank you for the new shoes. thank you, secret santa. and thank you for donating money. your generosity proves that while not everyone can be a foster parent, anyone can help a fost

will somebody tell john boehner? e did not have an election like the american people haven't spoken. he completely ignores the fact that the american people voted "yes: taxes should go up on the wealthiest of americans." instead of listening to the american people, john boehner spouts the same crap he was before the election, the same crap we heard from mitt romney. it proves what we have known all along. john boehner doesn't care about the middle class. he has no backbone and no balls. he is the worst speaker of the house of representatives in our lifetime and it may be ever. look. we are facing the fiscal cliff. now is the time for leadership and if john boehner is not willing to show leadership, then he should get out of the way and resign. see you tomorrow. >> this is "the bill press show."

the john boehner is bad at his job hypothesis is by now a pretty well-founded hypothesis. that was the case even before mr. boehner's republican caucus just imploded last night and gave up and went home and asked the democrats to instead see if there is something maybe they instead can do at the end of year negotiations that the cbo says will put the country back in recession if they are not successful. john boehner is in fact bad at his job. i think the hypothesis has been proven. but now the most important question is why. why is he so bad at his job? is it just a matter of him not being up to the job as a person, as a individual? does he not have the capacity and somebody else could do it? or is his job in fact impossible? what if the fractious ideological argument commitments of congress are incompatible with governing. if you need to, say, compromise in order to govern, and one side for political reasons cannot compromise, then they cannot govern. it's like if you have a peanut allergy, okay. you can't get a job making reece's piece's. or if you have a religious prohib

only 19% trust john boehner.s developments i would imagine those numbers would get a little worse for the speaker of the house. joining me tonight, former governor howard dean of vermont and cnbc political analyst. mr. dean, good to have you with us, governor. >> thanks, ed. >> give us in short order your commentary without question, what do you think has happened here this evening? >> well, the inside baseball of this is really a problem for the speaker. you can't -- this is something you can't do. you can't have your budget overridden, as governors know, and you can't have a major initiative like this go down when you think you have the votes and you don't. it would not entirely surprise me to see eric cantor or kevin mccarthy, who've been waiting in the wings, kind of gently stack the speaker in the back for a couple years, to make their move after the new session starts. the fiscal cliff, as you know, i believe the country would be better off if we went over the fiscal cliff. we would get enough revenues to b

john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> boehner's office's response? we've done our part. it's the senate democrats fall. but will the speaker call his members back before time runs out? >> at the last moment is the way these things normally happen. i think that can happen again. it just depends on putting egos aside a little bit and putting the best interests of the american people first. >> plus, keeping our kids safe, is arming educators the symptom or adding to the problem. >>> and can anyone beat sko brown? >>> good day. we're live in washington this afternoon. the lines of communication between the president, leaders of congress are open. whether those lines are used repeatedly over the next few days to reach a fiscal cliff deal is anybody's guess. joining me now for our daily fix, nbc's kelly o'donnell is live on capitol hill. kelly, i want to start with you. senator scott brown just tweeted out to all his followers that he was getting on a plane heading to washington. the president has apparently sent ov

now, this may well present a problem for john boehner's caucus, because john boehner sent a letter to the president this week with his own plan, which advocates what just might be the least popular policy in american politics. okay, maybe that's hyperbole. but just be a tiny bit, i mean, mandatory gay marriage, in which every single married straight person had to immediately divorce their spouse, and accept a state-assigned same-gender spouse to replace them would probably be more popular than what john boehner proposed this week. what john boehner is advocating is making medicare available to fewer americans. as it happens, there is brand-new polling out today on how americans feel about the idea of congress using these deficit negotiations to make cuts to medicare. 79% of americans say they do not want congress to touch medicare in these deficit negotiations. 79%. if you want to get specific about john boehner's proposal, what he wants to do to medicare is to raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67. and as it turns out, there is also recent polling on that specific proposal. and it

and i think john boehner knows it. , ron, is that we could end up with somebody worse than boehner believe it or not. boehner doesn't >> caller: that could happen. >> bill: boehner doesn't agree with his tea partyers on everything, but he can't control them. if they dump him, they might get somebody who actually agrees with him. you know what i mean? like eric -- >> a lot worse >> bill: like eric cantor. listen, i know i may be making -- exaggerating to make a point, but i think this is really, really bad for the republican party. there is no doubt they get the blame for this. they deserve the blame. i think this could be the end of the republican party if they just continue down this road. and as of last night, they seem determined to do so. these people do not care about 98% of americans. they do not carry. remember, tom cole conservative cran, head of the finance committee said, as republicans what we ought to do is give 98% of americans a tax cut and then let's fight about what we do with the top 2%. and these tea p

. >> i don't know how john boehner did this. but tonight, john boehner's plan b is being attacked by president obama and rush limbaugh. and in a last word exclusive, the basketball coach who used his post-game press conference to talk about something much more important than the game. mass murder in america. >> the fiscal cliff talks, are they stolen again? >> i hope the president will get serious soon. >> i have met them at least half way. >> john boehner's so-called plan b. >> what is the strategy for plan b? >> make sense of what just happened. >> they're thinking about voting for, raising taxes. >> except for household income above a million. >> but they will reject spending cuts. >> the president will have a decision to make. >> that defies logic. >> this is baffling. >> grover norquist has given his blessing, that defies logic. >> people across america thought we were behaving like adults. >> stay classy, gop. >> if this does nothing, it will give us perspective. >> it is announcing a task force on guns. >> violence that w

john boehner says the you're getting the one, john boehner says you have about $800 billion, he is not including interest payments. we have talked about this a lot on the show, so much of the fiscal cliff is about who has leverage if they don't come to a deal. and so far, the president usually has because either all the tax cuts expire or a lot of republicans have said we'll just pass the senate bill, which allows for all the tax cuts over $250,000 to expire. that is the president's position. john boehner is trying to create a reality, a leverage point a little friendlier to him, by moving it up to a million and hoping it will split the democrats. it doesn't, at this point, appear to be working. >> sam stein, isn't plan b good for the white house? isn't the white house just kind of pretending they're not crazy about john boehner? especially the part where he says he will bring the senate bill to a vote in the house? >> well, yeah, it is good in one sense, that they will have a number of republicans voting for a tax hike. how many republicans they will get is another question entirely.

john boehner cannot negotiate now. if he didn't have the votes for his plan "b" that set that income threshold at $1 million, there's no way in the world he gets anywhere close to the amount of votes he's going to need for the latest negotiating position for the president, which was up to $250,000 to $400,000 for married couples filing jointly. that's where we are right now. the threshold question all along is would john boehner put something on the floor of the house of representatives that required him to pass by majority democratic support and lose the majority of his party -- the republican party. i'm here to tell you, michael, that simply doesn't happen. >> is it good or bad news for the president, mike, in so far as the boehner defeat, the embarrassment last night really leaves the president without someone with whom he can negotiate? in other words, who does the president turn to now? >> reporter: and that is a great question. as a matter of fact, we are told that harry reid, the democratic leader of the senate,

probably the best john boehner can do. difficult for the republicans. 80-plus just ran four years ago with a promise they wouldn't raise taxes. i can understand why he's having trouble getting those votes, but i think he has no choice but to the try to pass snag soomething pushes the ball back into the president's court. the passage of the spending decreases was important. that's really where the emphasis should be. in tan ideal world, shouldn't raise taxes, shouldn't give the government more money because they're wasting money. we're not an an ideal world. i think john boehner, plan b is probably the best he can get. >> ask i ask, the other side of heather's point, republicans are losing the messaging battle. >> no question about it. >> a threat they're losing the messaging battle? >> the point made about tax increases not about the rich, poor, or anybody else. not giving a government wasting way too much money more money to waste. as you were, i was part of the reagan administration. the idea, don't feet the beast. star

ashley: looks like both sides were close to a deal but now that the white house has respected john boehner's lawmakers come together to get a deal done in time? as we know it is so close but here to discuss it is congressman from california john -- we were supposed to be joined by republican congresswoman marcia blackburn. she couldn't make it and all sorts of things going on behind closed doors when it comes to get something done. thanks for being with us. you have said that you are willing to make sacrifices. does that include reforms to entitlement programs? >> there is room for reforms but you don't need to throw seniors of of the fiscal cliff to achieve those. there are very significant savings available in medicare from the drug prescription issues, the issues of how you pay for medical services, fraud and abuse, on and on, all of which the president put on the table and we ought to take those but you don't throw seniors off of the cliff by changing the age to 67. that is bad public policy, bad for seniors and doesn't save money. tracy: we don't have to do for our existing seniors. for

ashley: house speaker john boehner meeting with president obama at the white house in the latest roundthe meeting comes with speaker boehner open the door to tax hikes. what will it take to get a deal done? tracy: republican congressman is a democratic counter spin of vermont will join us in just minutes. ashley: an early christmas present for drivers, we will explain why you're still working out more than ever before. tracy: and the greek god of yogurt. big business in a big factory in the u.s. the ceo expansion plan. telling us all about it next. ashley: i love some cheese. there you go, feta. stocks now, nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: talking about greek yogurt, greek cheese. dow jones industrials up a half of a percent right now. talking about the fact you mentioned john boehner and president obama speaking trying to come to terms in some sort of an agreement on the fiscal cliff. the market telling you something is going to happen, it will be done and that is something willis mentioned last week. it is believed that washington d get something

sort of dance. >> these are gyrations i've never seen before. >> a bunch of members called up john boehner and said we don't like this. >> house republicans have refused to govern. >> every time this guy takes a step forward he gets slammed. >> boehner takes a step forward. >> joe biden spoke today for the first time. >> the president is sab luteally committed to keeping this promise. >> he was not chosen by accident. >> he has such a long history with these issues. >> we are five percent of the world's population and we have 50% of the guns. >> you have to deal with that glaring statistic. >> only six more days until the cliff now. after house republicans revolted tonight and john boehner had to send them away on their christmas recess. there are now only six days left starting the day after christmas for him to figure out a way to avoid going over the fiscal curb. tonight the house of representatives was supposed to vote on the plan b bill but when he realized he did not have the republican votes to pass that bill, something he could have learned last night if he had been watching this p

who came out against john boehner's plan.ee negative to get? dennis: a man who could be the next governor of california pushing to legalize recreational use of pot. cheryl: as we go to break with it today's s&p winners and you have a nike, big lots, we will be right back. cheryl: 30 past the hour and stocks every 15 minutes with nicole petallides. volume of the of the surprise today, billion shares traded by noon. nicole: what we see in volume, you have a rebalancing at the end of the day of the s&p so some of those types of things that are really just right here on wall street don't bother the investors at home. that is why you see heavy volume and there is heavy volume but what we are seeing is a trend and the trend, market today is worried about washington. as you are seeing all the major averages are lower,-1/3%, a ticketing nasdaq 1-1/2% people flocking to the save haven of u.s. dollar and save haven of gold. gold is up $10 today. let's look at walgreen's which is down 4% at the moment so walgreen's continues to struggle

nancy pelosi offers john boehner a course in speakership 101 and while the republican caucus continuests rowdy spirit, can boehner add his party's maim to the nice list or will he become the grinch who steals capitol hill's christmas? we'll discuss with joan walsh, nicolas, rona, and luke russert. plus, we'll ask the president of the sciu what michigan's right to work fight means for labor in the new year. white house watchers turn weight watchers. how critical should size be when judging governor chris christie's oval office bona fitis. all that in three minutes. eatme. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

let's talk about whatted exac y exactly happened to john boehner last night. this morning, "obama's dilemma." what is it? >> first an exclusive for "morning joe," the speaker's office telling us speaker boehner will go before cameras at 10:00 a.m. to talk about the road ahead. his message is going to be that president obama and the senate democratic leader, harry reid, now have a responsibility for what they've sought to avoid, and that is their own responsibility to put forward a plan that can pass. so boehner's going to wash his hands of this and say it's now on the democrats. the senate leader and the president to avoid the cliff. >> and mark halperin, i want to bring you into this conversation. does the president put forward something that includes cuts now, that he's got a little bit of leverage here? >> look, i thought before the president was on track to give republicans a lot more than some democrats wanted him to give. i don't think he has to give quite as much now, but he's going to have to give some. there's going to have to be cuts. it's not going

they will have to find something they can pass through the senate and send it to john boehner and john boehner will be able to sell that saying, these guys past it. we have to do this. until there is a deal, this is going to be a blame game of who is at fault for not finding an agreement. the house republicans cannot be stuck with it, which is what i think the statement was indicative of a. host: thank you very much for being with us here on "washington journal." let's take a look at some of your comments. first on the facebook page. let's get to your calls and comments with the fiscal cliff and sequestration. the deadline looming one week and a half away. what happens next? we will go to larry from mississippi. caller: good morning. the republicans are for big business and the rich. the president and the democrats are for the middle class. oil and water do not mix. we know where the republicans stand. when all of the -- when oil and water does not mix, you have to scrape the oil off of the top. host: next is patrick from florida on the independent line. caller: good morning. first off

a spirit of the compromise and sense of goodwill toward men in which republican house speaker john boehner is approaching this meeting here is a statement we were e-mailed by brendan bock. "tomorrow speaker boehner will attend a meeting where he will continue to stress that the house has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the senate must act." so that's helpful. senator schatz, i know you probably just checked into the marriott capitol hill or something, but i don't know, you got any ideas? joining us is someone who i hope will have ideas. democratic senator debbie stabenow. senator stabenow, thank you for being with us tonight. >> absolutely, ezra. and i wanted to thank you for what is a very good summary of where we are. and it is the most frustrating thing i've ever gone through in my entire life, i think. >> i appreciate that. and covering it, what has been striking to me is the level of not just substantive disagreement on things like tax and spending but the procedural breakdown. every procedural effort that gets begun to solve this, either negotiatio

john boehner as we heard from kelly o'donnell is going to have to face meeting democrats if we have a going to have to go back to his caucus and say re-elect me as speaker. how does he do that? >> i think it's two separate questions, richard. on the first point he's going to have a difficult time to corral votes. if the president bring his 250 plan to the house floor, you're not going to see many republicans go after it. but at the same time i think boehner is pretty safe when it comes to his speakership. if gentlemen were making noise against the speaker, there would be huge trouble. i think boehner's pretty safe because there's not a challenger. >> sam, if boehner's safe in his job, it doesn't mean to say he's at all relevant here. he's just not a factor at this point, is that right? >> i think it's right but it's because boehner expressed he couldn't get his plan throw the court. i can only imagine how angry mcconnell and his staff are because they put him in a bind. all the while mitch mcconnell's got an eye on 2014 when he's up for re-election but the house speaker has shown he's

were so smart we're so sorry we're not smart enough we know has been going around with a knife to john boehner his kidney for the last couple of years could it be that he's encouraging boehner to do this so that boehner will you know here put you know step off this cliff sir and can or will be the last man standing i don't see him anywhere around these negotiations i would definitely be guessing if i said that to talk to members of congress members of the senate and rooms at them when they're asking what's going on in the senate is saying we don't know in the house of representatives saying well if you don't know we don't know maison chris every shot or richard thank you both for being with us thanks for having me thank you. it's time to get active and push obama in a progressive direction tell him no cuts to social security insurance call the white house comment line at two o two four five six eleven eleven. and while you're calling the white house tell the president it's time to give wal-mart the corporate death penalty the world's biggest employer is developing a reputation as the most corr

so i wouldn't want to be in john boehner's shoes right now. >> either way, if it is the first scenariot mark marked out for us, if not speaker boehner, then who might replace them should there be a revolt here? eric cantor, just a year ago we were watching 2011 and it seemed like he was waiting in the wings. when you look at that, what might be the situation here? >> well, i think the situation is, i agree with mark that speaker boehner is in a tough position and you can't beat someone with no one. eric cantor could not, as i see it right now couldn't get the support to be speaker and there's no one else out there right now that could make a move because there's no one out there who could necessarily do a better job than john boehner and john boehner is somebody who could bridge the various factions in the republican family. >> who is better for the democrats here. when you look at speaker boehner, they say he's the more moderate of the possibilities that are out there, but if he's unable to whip his caucus, then who might they be able to negotiate with? who is better for the democrats

than it being john boehner and president obama. ten days away with a whole new game plan. >> john kerry's foreign policy, jeff goldberg, getting back to that, we're going to have this nomination this hour. is his foreign policy going to be obama boem's foreign policy? will his advice to the president be appreciatably different than hillary clinton's? >> well, in point of fact it will have to be barack obama's foreign policy. he is going to -- it's very difficult for senators to make this transition. he elizabeth be an employee. an employee with -- still an employee of the president. that said, i think sde have -- my impression is he does have a more active stance on i couple of key issues on reaching out to iran, on middle east peace process. i know that the president is not that interested in pursuing middle east peace process right now. he doesn't see a high chance of success. as a new secretary of state, of course, he wants to make his mark, and so you are going to see some conversation in the administration about what to make a

john boehner is weakened. were to try to do something like that, that might be the thing that would be the coup de grace for john boehner. don't expect him to do that. there are very few options. the smat is leaving town in a matter of minutes. the house of representatives says they're going to return next thursday but it's unclear what, if anything, they can do, largely waiting for the senate to act. we may be headed over that cliff at least temporarily, michael. >> nbc's mike viqueira. thank you so much. >> reporter: okay. >> nbc will bring us that statement by the president in just a moment. stay with us. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. ♪ you're wonderful ♪ you have a heart of gold [ male announcer ] vera wang love. the new diamond bridal collection from vera wang. exclusively at zales. >>> than

so unlike harry reid, i actually feel genuine sympathy for john boehner. so kudos, speaker, for showing deserters or dissenters who is boss. boehner stripped house members who opposed key committee assignments today. and earlier i spoke with one republican leader in the house who himself has been out of step with boehner in recent days. deputy whip congressman tom cole of oklahoma. he said the gop should agree to obama's proposal to extend bush tax rates for households that make less than $250,000. and they should do that deal right now, deal with the rest later. boehner said no way. and then tom cole said boehner should not offer a counterproposal to the fiscal cliff deal the president presented. boehner offered a proposal yesterday. i asked cole if he's frustrated with john boehner. >> no, not in the least. look, i support the speaker. and we're actually not very far apart on anything. and, you know, at the end of the day, he's going to negotiate a deal. it will probably be a challenging vote for a lot of people. i always support him. i would expect i wil

the democrats have made it so that this is impossible to do and they put john boehner into a corner andtrying to get something out but there is nothing to get out. there is no give on the democratic side at all and they've got to take ownership of this tax situation. martha: so then what happens, do you think? >> it's already happened much of it. a lot of people have shifted income out of 2013 into 2012. we are going to have a very bad couple of quarters in 2013, that is already baked into the cake. and, you know, i think there will be some negotiations somewhere, but making this drag along like this is just absolutely pure washington politics. and it's sad that we can't get together. martha: the market sort of reads the economy, tries to figure out -- a lot of the market increases that we've seen over the past several months have been because companies have been operating in such a lean manner. they are not hiring, they are managing to turn out their products and services in a much more kind of efficient way. there is not much inclination for them to hire more people especially if they

earlier reports of this story had it john boehner would be on hand, but john boehner is not even in washington, d.c., and a spokesperson told us they haven't been invited. so figure that out. who will follow as it continues to break but right now a meettng with congressional leaders on the fiscal cliff with the president on hand tomorrow, friday, and we will shirk over that. i put different topic. even if you aren't a frequent flyer, my next guest says you can enjoy the perks of being one. like being upgraded to first class and it is not as hard as you think. now, rick, have waited for this segment for the whole show because i wanted that elite status but i don't fly enough to really earn it. so tell me, how can i get that elite status without doing all the work were spending all the money? >> typically the one bad problem with elite status if you have to fly. you don't have to fly very much. we'll give you an example of how my wife achieved elite status in one trip but typically a big difference between the miles you get on your credit card and bonuses and vendors to those you can use to rede

that is exactly the john boehner plan. nancy pelosi already agreed a.other] sandra: who says we are bearing the lead? that is the primary reason most traders, nancy pelosi agreed to this. that is why their saying markets are point that deal will get done. >> even to accept higher rates of earnings over $1 million and this would make the economy go to shambles if we raise taxes on the ridge. dave: the concession john boehner made and a lot of people, tea party republicans would not go for the $1 million threshold because they say any way you keep feeding the beast, government apatite is bad. he will have trouble with tea party republicans, and they may get hat million dollar threshold dawn so there will be democrat and republican than a majority of them will agree to this plan. cheryl: many market analysts have said taxes will go up. end and they are expecting this to happen. they are advising people to ptructure their portfolio. charles: dividends are 44%, bond market ten year yield is up big time and gold free-fall in. maybe the only place to go but th