." >>> i'm ari melber in for alex wagner, and joining me today, jonathan chait, joy reid, new york times political reporter nicolas and catherine crier. christmas break is already over for president obama. he's flying back to washington tonight and aides say he's ready for a deal. it's not clear whether this trip is a sign of compromises to come or another display of theater showing the president is willing to work even as his opponents skip town. meanwhile, though, americans are growing skeptical. in the last week alone, gallup found a 15-point drop in the number of americans who think congress will negotiate a deal on the fiscal cliff. that's not all, holiday spending also hit its lowest rate since the 2008 recession, which retailers are blaming on the uncertainty in washington. so where do we go from here? well, since the house failed to get a vote on the tax package last week, all eyes are on the senate. a temporary deal that would basically extend all the tax cuts for those making under a quarter million. the deal would also rescue long-term unemployment benefits and instead of addr

with the new york times john harwood along with joy reid, catherine crier and new york mag's jonathan chaitwe're going to suggest the new debate over gun regulation could be different this time. >>> and what about chuck? the former nebraska senator is too conservative for some democrats and now we're finding he's too obama-fied for some republicans. >>> also, and you don't want to miss this one, a special look back at the best moments on 2012 on "now." all that when the show starts in three minutes. it's simple physi. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your

." >> joining me today making television history together, jonathan chait of new york making sfwleen, and editor of the new republic franklin ford together for the first time. margaret carlson, of bloomberg news is here, and msnbc contributor and former rnc chairman the notorious michael steele. in a few minutes president obama will land in michigan where he will begin touring and delivering a speemp at an engine manufacturing plant. it is the next stop on the great reasonableness tour of 2012 calling for tax hikes on the rich and meeting with working class, ordinary americans rather than beltway politicians. behind closed doors the occasionally unreasonable fiscal negotiations continue. the president met with house speaker john boehner at the white house on sunday, though aides from both sides kept mum on the details of their discussions. a new poll by politico and george washington university shows that three in five americans back raising taxes on the wealthy, which echos the results from election day and a washington post-abc news poll released recently. in the meantime, some on t

. >> but you will hear it said by some democratically-inclined columnists like jonathan chait who writes that "democrats should throw a bone to the right by raising the medicare age." he actually wrote that this week. "medicare has symbolic value. and raising the age qualification would send the message that democrats take this fiscal crisis seriously." >> all that results in is more old people getting sick, winding up with more costly care. it's one of these sort of penny wise and pound foolish measures. you know, again, the big problem with medicare is that we have a health care cost problem in this country. and the health cost problem, whether they're in the medicare system or whether they're out of the medicare system. i mean, we have our health care costs are twice per capita -- more than twice what most countries are in the advanced world. and we have generally speaking worse outcomes. so if we would fix health care, we would fix this problem. but there's just no will to fix health care, particularly after obama did a big health care reform and it didn't fix the problem. >> i don't

jonathan chait in new york magazines republicans are considering having their members vote present on an extension of the middle class tax cuts --. you've talked about not having fingerprints on the murder weapon. is voting present better than voting yes to your mind? >> it strikes me as an odd -- i have not heard anybody suggest this as a strategy other than democrats. it seems a way for the democrats to get what they want. there are a lot of people suggesting to the republicans that they give the democrats what they want, and i guess i would like to suggest the democrats should give the republicans what they want and then we can be even. but again, it's got to pass the laugh test not just for the next 24 hours after a deal is agreed to, but for two years. the bush agreement in 1990 didn't necessarily stink to high heaven in the first four days. it's when you are trying to run for election two years later that people look at it, you know, after the iraq war for crying out loud, they went back and revisited and said, kind of like t.a.r.p., we were told it was an emergency, we voted fo

." >> joining me today making television history together, jonathan chait of new york making sfwleen,tor of the new republic