covering the weerks yogi treason, doyle mcmanus of the "los angeles times" and john harwood of cnbc and the new york times. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens, live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill produced in association with national journal. corporate funding is pro you vided by -- >> we know whoa we're here -- funding is provided by -- >> we know why we're here -- to develop technologies that anticipate the future today. >> and help protect america everywhere from the battle space to cyberspace. >> around the globe the people of boing are working together to give our best. >> that's why we're here. >> my client gloria has a lot going on in her life, wife, mother marathoner. but one day it's just going be james and her. so as their financial advisor i'm helping them look at their complete financial picture, to create a plan that can help weather all kinds of markets, because that's how they're getting ready for all the things they want to do with you when you need a financial advisor, fully invested in you. well

. >>> let's drill down a bit further with john harwood, chief washington correspondent for cnbc. john, mike really asked the question, how long might an extension we see for the higher earners, and what would keep this from not being a done deal at this point? >> there's still haggling to go and democrats have to make sure their base is comfortable with the concessions president obama has made. but it appears that they're headed toward a perhaps two-year extension of all of those tax rates, three years would get it past the 2012 presidential election but it ace costlier in terms of the deficit. one year would put congress right back here on the next year. the smart betting i think is on the two years. >> a middle class tax cut was essential of course. obama's campaign promise. does he pay a political price with his base for extending it to the wealthy? >> yes, he does. he's getting his middle class tax cut but conceded on that point. they don't have a lot of leverage given what happened in the election, given the fact that even before the election democratic lawmakers were not wil

. >> john harwood is chief washington correspondent for cnbc. what do you make of this? a tax deal and a repeal of don't ask don't tell and clearly a break in the gridlock. what does it mean? >> some of the credit goes to the calendar because that deadline spurred action on the tax cuts. some goes to the voters who told congress and the president they wanted action on the economy and they wanted the two parties to work together. some of it goes to both the president and republican leader who is agreed on that tax cut package to give in on some things that they wanted in order to get a larger. on don't ask don't tell you had republicans as well as democrats who felt the urgency of doing this before the democratic strength is diminished in congress and odds of approval would be less likely then. >> still maybe more on the plate republicans and democrats have been at odds over a 9/11 bill to help those sickened by the toxic dust at ground zero. there is a renewed sense that bill could be worked out in this session? >> more difficult but still possible. we seen in the collap

john harwood joins us from the bureau there. morning to you, john. >> good morning, alex. >> is everyone a winner here this week? >> i think they are. i think after this election, very contentious campaign season, a lot of predictions that washington was headed for absolute gridlock for a couple of years, both president obama and mitch mcconnell and john boehner, the republican leaders have proven on some really big things, they can govern together. that's a positive for both sides. the republican leaders held their troops in line behind that deal even though some conservatives grossed about it. the democratic leaders delivered enough to make it a reality. that doesn't mean they are going to agree on a whole range of issues in the next two years. there are going to be some big fights. in this tick moment, they have shown that it doesn't have to be only partisan warfare. >> don't you think this shows. this gives us a look at to how things might get accomplished and avoid gridlock that everyone is concerned about? >> yes. >> it is

. >>> we'll talk more about this with john harwood. he joins us coming up from washington, d.c.as we're saying, it's been a very, very interesting lame-duck session. it's kind of funny that we talk about this being lame duck with so much activity taking place within washington, d.c. as we said, just today alone with so much activity going on with the s.t.a.r.t. treaty and also with the fact that don't ask, don't tell might be coming back. so, john, explain to all of us why this is not a typical lame duck session. we shouldn't even call it that anymore. >> i -- >> hey, john, can you hear me? i was saying we shouldn't even call this a lame duck session anymore. they've got a lot on their plates. >> slooabsolutely, they do. we've got to see how quickly they can digest not just this tax cut deal, which has proven to be the easier lift. now we've got the spending bill. the senate has come out with this bill that's got all of these earmarks in it, which are going to be difficult to defend and get through this process. and that has suddenly kind of lengthened the time horizon, which, y

john harwood has perspective.ood morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. >> we talk a lot about the success this is week. once republicans take the hill, what challenges does the president face when he gets back to work? >> reporter: well, really carl, you know, the president made this bipartisan deal with republicans in the lame duck session on cutting taxes. but it gets much tougher when you talk about cutting spending. easier to give money away than to take money away from people. and the agenda in washington is going to shift to deficit reduction in the medium and long term. and that's when the fights over priorities are going to get really tough. >> you talk about bipartisanship and the possibility of it returning in the next session. what is the first thing he can do to get that cooperation going with republicans on the hill? >> well, the citizens deficit reduction commission that reported in december with a bunch of controversial ideas for reducing the deficit set the table for the president's statest st

cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us from washington. resident obama. he signed health care reform into law. he wanted tax cuts but he took what he called a shellacking in the polls and on the international front he fired general stanley mcchrystal and he was dealing with the fallout from the wikileaks scandal. how would you sum up the president's year? >> well, legislatively, he got a lot done this year, and put that together with 2009, but politically, he took an awful lot of lumps this year. of course, you can point to the state of the economy, unemployment near 10%, what's interesting, though, is that the president has closed this year on a very strong note, despite that shellacking in the election. you get the tax cut deal with republicans. each side gave something. but each side also showed to the country that they were prepared to govern and not just fight and bicker, which is one of the things that americans said in the results of the 2000 election they wanted. >> all right, let's turn to republicans and democrats in congress who,

joining us for more on today's senate vote is cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood. good morning. >> good morning, amy. >> let's begin with the big news story in washington, of course, "don't ask, don't tell." if it's repealed, obviously this will be an historic moment. but perhaps even more importantly, does this show that republicans and democrats can compromise and can actually work together? >> absolutely. and we saw that on the tax cut deal. i think the white house is hoping that that is a credibility-building event with the american people, and also with republicans. you had a difficult deal struck, and republicans held their members, and you got a significant chunk of democrats on "don't ask, don't tell," this is a case where you're only going to get a minority of republicans, a small minority, supporting this. but it does appear, as joe lieberman suggested in mike viqueira's piece, that they do have enough to get over the bar. and when you think about how difficult, amy, 2010 was for president obama in many respects, the month since the election has gone pret