. >> congressman, it's one thing when kay haggan in north carolina doesn't show up for an event withhe president. it's another thing when mary burke, who with the president when truly, she could benefit from some of that attention. what's that about? >> it is true that the president's numbers aren't where he would want them to be. but house republican numbers are a fraction of that. 13% job approval. if i wanted to run for re-election and my pollster told me i was at 13% job approval, i'd probably find something else to do with my time. >> fair enough. listen, let's talk about another issue i don't think we talk about enough. the last election, a million more people voted for democrats than voted for republicans nationwide. a million more. it seems though that you guys are comfortable with that and you've created this old strategy of keeping this kind of gerrymandered grip on the house. don't you think that the politics that you have to now put forward to hold onto the house hurt new the national election on issues like immigration, et cetera? >> i think what americans want is washin

kay haggan, one of the leading democrats in north carolina, decided not to go to the speech today.in a heat the race. i'm sure republicans will hit her on this. i don't know this was the right decision. people know she's a democrat. people know that she's trying to balance this fine line between running for office in a very competitive field but also not being too close to the president. interesting. we're two weeks into the new year. you already see politics pretty heated up. >> i got to tell you, i agree with you on the kay hagan thing. embrace it. argue for it. talk about changes you would make but not run away with it. i think that doesn't work out for any democrats. i got to tell you, the president, he's not going to be able to get much done with this congress policy from a policy perspective unless he gets the house back in 2014. it's a massive uphill battle for democrats. that much is true. i got to tell you, republicans are putting all their eggs in this anti-obamacare basket. i don't think it's a smart strategy. it might have worked in 2009, 2010, when the law was being de

kay haggan is in trouble and i'm not saying the senate is endangered but the president is not going tooll up big wins on the senate side either. chances are good, his opportunities are even more limited if everything stays the same between now and -- >> very little on the horizon he can get done. they will do it in tiny pieces and month-by-month to get to a place where you have comprehensive immigration reform. one bright spot for potentially the country and it's a tyne yif bright spot would be they could do have a one-year budget deal that looks like it's going to get through the senate. the tea party sort of opposed it but john boehner showed he could get something done in a tense moment for once. he will get the majority of the congress to support the bill and we have certainty for a year and there is not going to be a shutdown and i think that might make businesses more likely to invest. one of the things we hear from ceos we are not going to invest because we don't know what congress is going to do. >> enough of doing nothing so there hasn't been a stupid thing they have done. >>