but first, here's cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood. john, good morning. >> good morning, carl. velma hart burst into the nation's consciousness by telling president obama directly her frustrations about the economy. now we know that she was under more pressure then than any of us knew. this is the life that velma hart told president obama about this fall at a cnbc town hall. >> i'm one of your middle class americans and quite frankly, i'm exhausted. i'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that i voted for. >> reporter: hart became the face of the president's problem. >> a black lady financial analyst veteran. we have found obama's crypt knight. >> the gap between the promise of his campaign and the reality of his presidency. the self-described finance geek was even signed up as a cnbc contributor. but she wasn't just exhausted, privately she was scared.

john harwood is cnbc's chief white house correspondent. john, i know the white house views this as a twofer. when they go to kokomo, indiana, they can view this. >> the president is making the point stimulus and chrysler paid off big time despite the charges he attracted by those steps that he expanded government and spending and deficits. of course the president has gotten in the last 24 hours an uncomfortable reminders of the depth of the economic pain. velma hart, the woman who became the face for disappointed americans when she told the president she was exhausted at our cnbc town hall meeting in september has now lost her job. she was laid off last week. she told me she now has more of an appreciation than what she ever did before of what millions of people have been going through. >> could it take me two years to find a job? that's a scary proposition for my family. right now i want to focus on the positive and be optimistic and assume somehow things will work out. >> savannah, velma hart told me she's a data driven person. the data t

thank you, john harwood. we appreciate it.ow, is time running out for president obama to satisfy his progressive base? right now there are signs coming from big time democratic donors like billionaire george soros that their patience is running out. he told a group of progressive donors that it's time to move on from obama. those are strong words, but what does that mean? and how would progressives proceed without the president? and there are reports the president may move on from larry summers for his top economic adviser. he may be one of the few democrats in the country who are more pro wall street than summers. is there any hope that the president will do something progressive? bill press is all a radio ta tatal talk show host. they both join us now. bill, i know you think the president has done things that are progressive. educate me. why am i being too tough on him. >> all three of us are members of the professional left. i've been accused of that at the white house. i don't think as lefties we can be too tough on him. i

john harwood joins me live from washington. john, i want to ask you about the white house reaction. it looks like they've already said they're going to do a compromise of at least one or two years in extending the tax cut for the rich. was that the only option on the table at the white house? do your sources say if they considered other options? did they consider fighting at all? >> well, i think their approach was to try to fight during the campaign season. it didn't go well. they weren't able to unite democrats behind a strategy and really put the republicans on the defensive. they tried to make the argument that we can get rid of the ones in the names of deficit reduction for the top earners. and they couldn't get that moved in the senate. the house probably could have passed it had the senate been able to move it. that's not the way it worked out. post election the president is trying to make sure above all that something gets done by the end o the year. as you just mentioned. that new year's eve deadline is the dividing line between when taxes would go up on everyone if congres

john harwood. where do you think this compromise is moving?> i think it is moves exactly in the direction that you just suggested, andrea, toward a temporary extension of all the tax cuts. there are two issues. one is duration, whether temporary or permanent. the other is whether you have separation between the middle class tax cuts as the president wanted and top end tax cuts. he's likely to lose that fight and compromise and link the two together so you have them both on the same time frame. and temporary extension that's either one, two, or three years. interestingly because of what the deficit commission is doing, andrea, that could end up worksing in the direction of where the administration wants to go. >> when you look at the overall numbers, maybe this is an accident or maybe not. $4 trillion tax cut if you extend it fully, make it permanent and $4 trillion deficit solution coming from this commission. coincidence? >> not a coincidence at all. remember, that's why the temporary extension could work in their favor. peter orszag, the for

john harwood, cnbc's chief washington correspondent on capitol hill. thanks very much. >> reporter: you bet. >>> staying on the tax front, the tax adviser to president obama signaling the white house may bend on the bush tax rates saying that extending the rates for the wealthy may be the only way to ensure the middle class keeps their tax relief from the last ten years too. here's what david axelrod told the "huffington post." we have to deal with the world as we find it. i don't want to trade away security for the middle class in order to make that point. john boehner's spokesman this morning says he's happy that the white house agrees with the republicans course of action. what's interesting here is the timing, by the way, of the deficit commission's co-chairs report which has a huge centerpiece of it is massive tax reform at the same time that this debate is just about to begin on what to do with these bush tax rates/bush tax cuts. anyway, we'll see if it has any influence on the debate itself, be it one year versus three years. a lot more on the d

so i kind of agree with the cop collusion john harwood had that really it's a communication battle to make that clear to the public, that they're out of step with both the people and the military in the private sector on this one. >> jane, is the handwriting on the wall eventually for this? i mean, the report will come out from the pentagon as we've already seen from some of the earlier reporting on it, it's going to say that it's not going tomorale, almost all the top commanders saying they're in favor of the repeal. is there any chance that eventually it does not get repealed, that the are nots somehsom republicans somehow win? >> i wish i thought it was going to end through conscience gress action, but i don't think the votes are in the senate. so they may try to bring it up, go through some came bookie, but i think people could rather that the president use his authority that he does have to put an end to this. the country is ready for it. let's have some real action instead of theatrics. >> the report gets released on december 1st telling us what the military thought of repealing

. >> covering a complicated week, john harwood of the cnbc and the "new york times." janet hook of "the wall street journal." david sanger of the "new york times." and pete williams of nbc news. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capitol, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for washington week is provided by -- >> we know why we're here, to give our war fighters every advantage. >> to deliver technologies that anticipate the future today. >> and help protect america everywhere from the battle space to cyberspace. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to give our best for america's best. >> that's why we're here. >> there have been a lot of markets up and down lately, but anne and mike made it through. they stuck through their plan. now they're thicking about what's next. as their financial advisor i reviewed their complete financial picture. they're reallocating some of those assets so they don't have to rethin

she talked to the moderator of that september town hall meeting, krrvesnbc's john harwood about whated today. >> for me, what's in my heart now, i appreciate what millions of people who are in my opinion now have been experiencing for the last two, three, four years. >> by the way, you can hear more from her on power lunch tomorrow on cnbc. >>> for more than one american generation, november 22nd will always be the day president kennedy was shot. a new book just out is full of the imagery of those years. it's called "portrait of camelot" full of family photos by the white house photographer back then. they include jfk's christmas eve in palm beach, making sure the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. incredibly john jr. on a boat in august of '63. jacqueline kennedy on a boat off cape cod while caroline naps on a summer day. video released includes first family dip in the fountain, the backyard of the white house on the south lawn. and for the first family, of course, it all came to an end on this day, 1963 in dallas, texas. >>> when we come back here tonight, tom brokaw tak

let's talk more about this with john harwood. you heard the president say he needs some help. from the reaction, it's going to be tough to find support there, john. >> reporter: extremely tough. although in some ways the semi-hysterical action you heard from the left and right shows the committee is doing what it intended to do, that's to prevent really difficult choices. once everybody has skin in the game, there's a possible that if people accept the severity of the problem itself. that is our stint of deficits over the long run. only by having everyone with a stake in the outcome, a sacrifice being laid on the table will you get a solution. i suspected you will not get one in the next two years when the president will be running for re-election. republicans are asserting themselves in congress. but this is a step -- i believe, towards a longer l term krvgs that may reach fruition. >> it's interesting. a congresswoman from illinois was on with lawrence o'donnell. she's a part of the commission. she's one of the 18 i mentioned, and says at this point it's very unlikely she wou

john harwood is live in washington with the facts. so what happened inside there, john? who is on what side? who is urging him to fight? who is urging him to compromise? >> well, there was two different meetings. there was a meeting with the leadership of the house and senate. nancy pelosi, harry reid, dick durbin, steny hoyer. and the meeting where bill nelson went off was just of democratic senators. the president wasn't there. one thing that happens with an unsuccessful election and a scary political climate, they're trying to figure out what is the right way forward? how much do you fight? how much do you compromise? and they are vastly different views for the right of the democratic caucus like bill nelson of florida and to the left of the democratic caucus with bernie sanders of vermont. very different strategies urged by both of those sides. >> so obviously the key thing here is where is the president? the progressives are saying fight the republicans. the conservative democrats are saying, let's compromise. where does the president stand? >> well, we're going to

cnbc's john harwood joins me live from washington. john, what rules did he break? >> cenk, these 11 counts that they found him guilty of all relate to things like improper fund raising to benefit a scepter that would bear his name, failure to disclose income. failure to pay taxes. an assortment of things called sloppiness, but not outright corruption. i have to tell you, i don't hear anybody talking about the possibility that charlie rangel will be expelled from the house. this is more about a reprimand. >> they just say you've been a bad boy. they're calling it sloppy instead of corruption. then leaves it up to the voters if they want to reelect him next time. is that right? >> absolutely. the fact that it doesn't kick somebody out of the house and it's only a piece of paper, doesn't mean that it's not highly embarrassing and painful for the lawmaker to go through. but ultimately it is up to the voters to decide unless the ethics committee and the full house take the rather extreme step of kicking somebody out, it goes back to the voters in two years. >> yesterday

john harwood, chief washington correspondent and political right for "the new york times." spending if everything you propose to cut people don't like. >> i guess governing is harder than campaigning. republicans are going to find that as they take over the house. if you look at the subgroups. whose most uncomfortable? core republicans. it's going to be a challenge for the newly elected to reconcile the general desire for spending cuts with the reality if you're going to cut deeply, you've got to go after popular things like medicare and social security and defense. and you may have to go after revenues, that means tax increases too. >> when we look at the other information from the pollsç he, we see 32% of americans think we're on the right track. that's pretty abysmally low. if you look at the approval ratings, 47% think of him favorably, 47% think unfavorably. what changes? what does the election really change? >> reporter: it hasn't changed a whole lot yet and people will be watching and waiting how the new leaders perform and how the new republican house gets along wi

. >>> john harwood is cnbc's chief washington correspondent. is that what we've come up, to the grown ups have to say we can't afford designer sneakers and video games that you get riots in the street? >> this is why it's so difficult, why it hasn't gotten done for so long. why it's been so long since we had a deal on tax reform and on social security. but in an odd way, contessa, you're putting me in a good mood with all that bad news you were putting on the screen. with these two chairmen of the commission, bowles and simpson, throwing the hand grenade in the middle of the room watching everybody scatter it underscores how difficult the choices are and maybe prepare the ground for some day, probably not the next two years, but some day within, maybe within the term of the next president, why we may get a deal because people will recognize that everybody has to give something, everybody has to have skin in the game. >> do they have to do that? we've gotten into a political system where what people are most concerned about is the next election.

let's bring in john harwood who

it's a delight to have john harwood here and when you talk about people in journalism, john has got everythingthat you would think. he was started with the washington star, graduated magna consume lad di, and i graduated thank the lordy. [laughter] he's been on nsnbc and meet the press and everything you think of when you think of being established. you are a given a really, really warm welcome from the people, john harwood and the father of an incoming freshman. [applause] and, giving you a waive on your tuition for being here. [laughter] >> exactly. i'm going to get micked up and thank james for that introduction and say if all the things he said aren't enough to make you dislike me, i'll add one more thing. i'm a duke guy and duke basketball fan and i know that's pretty popular most places, so bring it on. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> can you hear me now? okay. okay, guys, we have a fantastic panel. everybody's in the room. i'm going to

it's a delight to have john harwood here and when you talk about people in journalism, john has got everything that you would think. he was started with the washington star, graduated magna consume lad di, and i graduated thank the lordy. [laughter] he's been on nsnbc and meet the press and everything you think of when you think of being established. you are a given a really, really warm welcome from the people, john harwood and the father of an incoming freshman. [applause] and, giving you a waive on your tuition for being here. [laughter] >> exactly. i'm going to get micked up and thank james for that introduction and say if all the things he said aren't enough to make you dislike me, i'll add one more thing. i'm a duke guy and duke basketball fan and i know that's pretty popular most places, so bring it on. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> can you hear me now? okay. okay, guys, we have a fantastic panel. everybody's in the room. i'm going to

john harwood. and -- you'll get a waiver on tuititioon for being here. [applause] >> thank you for that nice introduction. if the -- if what he said is not enough to make you dislike me, i will say one more thing. i am a duke guy ended duke basketball -- and a duke basketball fan. i know duke is pretty popular universally, so bring it on. [laughter] >> can you guys hear me? can you hear me now? ok. ok, guys. we have a fantastic panel. everybody is in the room. i will introduce each one. i will have a question for each one, just to start us off. it is want to be relatively short answers so that we can get into the broad subject of the panel. is there any prospect for bipartisan project on the country's problems in the next two years? first, i will introduce matthew dowd who works for abc news as a political contributor. he is probably best known as lead strategist for president bush in his two campaigns in 2000 and 2004. he told karl rove what to do. [laughter] >> but do not tell karl rove. >> that was highly successful. >> the has also worked for arnold

john harwood is the byline the looming victories for republican candidates is not a validation of the republican party at all. he argued they would reflect a repudiation of the massive overreach by mr. obama and democrats and disgust with the political class for its failure to cooperate and deliver results. it could create a middle ground he concluded or it could create a dismemberment of our political parties. any thoughts? guest: i think he is right on target. the democrats got elected and overreached and we are seeing a massive reaction. to me, the question about the gains republicans will make is how far back you have to go to see a larger loss of seats by the president's party during a mid term. and it may be something you would have to go back over 70 years. on the other hand, there is a risk for republicans. if they go back to the way they were before they lost the majority, then the american people are going to be looking for new alternatives. if there is ever a time for an independent party to spring up now might be the time if the republicans don't deliver. host: an opinion