luke russert always is with us. welcome to the show. >> always a pressure. >> david axlerod is a fan of the phrase kabuki theater as a description for the political maneuverings in washington. is this something we can use to describe what's been happening on the super committee for the last two weeks? was anybody serious about cutting a deal? >> when the whole process started, i spoke to members on both sides of the aisle, there

. >>> nbc's capitol hill correspondent luke russert joins us now. that sounded -- >> aye-yi-yi, huh? oh, my goodness. >> it sounded a lot like politics and not a lot like policy. is that where we're headed? >> reporter: chris, it is really quite striking. in the last few days a group that's really been nonpartisan that's tried to say each side is very honorable has gotten into the partisan snipg which has gripped washington. really we're at an impasse based on the issue which has plagued this committee and congress -- taxes verse entitlements. republicans don't want to see taxes raised in any capacity. jeb hensarling said two days ago $250 billion in new revenue was the last offer he'd give. yesterday he said he was waiting for a democratic plan. democrats countered saying we would be happy to do $400 billion in revenue with $876 billion and other types of savings but you can't touch anything in regards to social security or medicare or any of the entitlement programs. same issue, entitlements versus taxes, still not able to be figured out toward th

might be part of the plan which her republicans is a big big deal so that's what i said we see luke russert after the tax increases boehner was seeming to put on the table but it violate grover norquist new taxes pledge a pledge that almost every republican in congress has signed. our focus here is our jobs we're doing we care about you get our economy moving and get people back to work. for them after about some random person in america you know what i said come on john your group grover norquist is he's just a random guy that is total b.s. for a few years ago might not know who grover norquist is he's the president of americans for tax reform on his web site there's a pledge about not raising taxes and it reads a.t.r. organizes the taxpayer protection pledge which asks all candidates for better and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases and one hundred twelfth congress two hundred thirty eight house members and forty one senators have taken the pledge on the state level thirteen governors and one thousand two hundred and forty nine state legislators of ta

luke russert joining me now from washington, d.c.ouse speaker john boehner issued a statement in response to the president's remarks today. what did speaker boehner have to say? >> good afternoon. what you are seeing now is due to the failure of the super committee, you will see a pivot on capitol hill to very important legislation that needs to be figured out by the end of the year. that is an extension of the payroll tax holiday that you heard president obama talking about and an extension of unemployment benefits. all things that are essential of keeping theç economy afloat an moving forward. on the issue of the payroll tax, speaker boehner had this to say. we told the president in september we stand rate to have an honest and fruitful discussion with him regarding the invitevation and that stands. the american people continue to await action on the jobs bills passed that are stuck in the democratic-controlled senate with one statement he could dislodge the jobs bills and make sure they are brut to a vote. i hope he will put the

luke russert is following developments. mike viquiera at the white house.nd on the hill. i guess your buffalo bills have a better chance of beating the dolphins. >> yes. indeed that is correct. i will make the point that the dolphin are not a good team this year. >> that's what i'm saying. >> if you are saying this, from right here, right now, this looks like the super committee can reach $1.2 trillion in cuts is next to impossible as one aide told me. this divisiveness over taxes and democrats will not see entitlements unless taxes are raised and republicans will not go there and they want to create new cuts. that will increase the deficit. the latest news to report, a lot of them feel this will not work out. republicans have created a backed up plan about $643 billion worth of savings that nothing touches entitlements would be more acceptable to democrats. the one thing that they see with this new plan is it is too much cuts only. not enough revenue and not a plan that should take the place that goes after defense that the super committee would fail. >> y

luke russert is live on capitol hill and kristin welker from the white house. these candidates are critical of the president for being absent in the run up to the super committee deadline. what reaction has there been from the president on this lack of progress? >> the white house first of all pushing back against the notion that the president hasn't been involved. the press secretary jay carney making the point that the president did put forth his own plan for deficit reduction. he has been in contact with some of the members of the super committee, albeit not as frequently as this summer in the debt ceiling debate. they point to the fact that congress came up with it so it really is the responsibility of congress go get something done here. interestingly and not surprisingly, the white house said it's really republicans who should shoulder most of the blame for this for not budging on tax increases. having said all of that, if the super committee can't come up with a deal which it doesn't look like they are going to, there will be plenty of blame to go around

. >> nbc's luke russert has been following the story since the buffalo bills were hot.that's a long time ago. >> it was a long time ago. there is a widespread sense of disappointment, but isn't this just political posturing? everyone knew it would reach gridlock and fail to make an agreement. >> there two camps at the beginning of this discussion. the people who were very much optimists and the peasimists. at the beginning, both sides were at 50-50. after two week when is it came to the realization that a lot of time was spent on the rules and both sides postured around september or october really came to fruition that there was a high likelihood that this would not succeed. that being said, they tried to work hard until the end. senator kerry tried to have a tax reform after television interviews, but nevertheless is just goes to show you that here is a committee that was given something that i would consider to be one of the most valuable golden nugget. that is say filibuster-proof vote. so valuable you can't put a price on it. they were not able to do that and they w

i'm luke russert in for chuck todd. how will the markets open after yesterday's plunge and chris matthews joins us for a look back. in the midst of the collapse, why the group was unable to bridge the ideological gap. they couldn't agree on why it failed. >>> democrats believe that the government having made a lot of commitments and promises that we really can't keep with, you know, the current revenue. >> america is stuck with the absolute rigidity of people who want to protection the wealthiest people in the country instead of providing $1.2 trillion of deficit reduction. >> we have an nbc news political reporter from politico how are you? >> thanks, luke how are you? >> congress' approval rating is 13%. from here on out, how does it resinate with the public heading into the election? >> congress has been unpopular. it's going to continue to be unpopular. a lot of people sit and shake their heads. it's another example of washington gridlock. the president didn't get involved. we look at reasons why this morning. if he

luke russert joins us from capitol hill.and there have been some new developments on the super committee. what has happened? what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, democrats on the super committee came out of their meeting and they told the media that both sides were very far apart. that republican not made an offer that they view as fair and balanced. the reason being that there is not enough revenue to make a real impact in the national debt going forward. last night republicans introduced a plan spearheaded by republican senator from pennsylvania, pat toomey. it would bring the tax rate to 28%. through getting rid of itemized deductions, as well as trying to bring more people into the tax code, the idea was to bring $300 billion words of revenue. democrats have been quick to hit that by hit that saying it would not do that, it would hurt middle class families by putting them in a higher tax bracket -- >> but look, isn't this consistent with their position? they don't want to raise revenues, now they're cutting taxes. th

. >> nbc's luke russert is live in washington. thanks for joining us, luke.py thanksgiving. >> right back at you, gene. >> will there be any appetite for taking another whack at some sort of overall deal, maybe using simpson boles as a rt at aing point? will they want to get back into this? >> there will be as much appetite for that as you have for your mother-in-law's overcooked dry turkey. look. this super committee failure has really punted the issue of deficit reduction to the election. there is no real framework which they can really work on. now, some members of the super committee said they can take all the work that we've done and programs come up with an idea for tax reform. something of that nature. but some idea that congress is suddenly going to figure out a way to get a deficit reduction plan in action that is taking this serious from both sides doesn't look very promising. the republicans of the super committee did not want to move away from the bush tax cuts. they want to keep those even though they added $3.8 trillion. democrats do not want to

nbc's luke russert on capitol hill. let's talk about the key players and whether this is just an attempt to avoid the blame or is this a real attempt to try to put something together? >> that's the million dollar question. we can report what you mentioned before, that senator kerry, kyl, bachus, portman, chris van hollen are meeting in senator kerry's office which is on the second floor right below where i am. we were told by an aide that this meeting was not planned at all that senator kerry saw senator kyl today. they started talking. they decided to go back to his office see if there is any deal they can come to at the 11th hour, maybe get that 1$1.2 trillion in cuts. a lot of people think this is purely for aesthetics, to show the country that this group was working to the end it came out today that they have not met as an entire group since october 26th. a lot of folks believed that was detrimental to not only their cause but the appearance of them being a bipartisan working group. in reality, if they could come fo

. >> nbc's capitol hill correspondent luke russert joins us from washington. rning to you. what's the point of today's hearing? >> good morning, chris. the point of today's hearing before the supercommittee really is to hear this message from bowl bowles/simpson. fail surnure is not an option. they are going to say there could be a credit rating downgrade for the united states. it could be harmful to the economy. they'll also make the point here, which is an underreported story on capitol hill if they don't reach this trillion-dollar deficit reduction and they don't allow for the automatic cuts to happen because there's a lot of people that don't like those automatic cuts, that could even be worse. this comes on the heels of speaker boehner saying he'd like to see the big deal, but the big problem before the supercommittee is what's been the big problem for this congress. republicans do not want to see any taxes being raised. and democrats will not cut entitlements unless those taxes are raised. that's the issue. expect bowles and simpson to throw their hat in

. >> luke russert joins us now. you've got your ear to the ground. don't have a deal, why? >> it's the issue that has plagued this committee since the beginning and plagued this congress. entitlement and taxes. republicans do not want to see taxes raised at all. democrats do not want to see it intome intoment entitlements cut. we've heard the possibility of an escape hatch mean that this super committee could decide about how much new revenue would be generated from tax reform, meaning say, hey, perhaps it could be something like $500 billion in new revenue, $650 billion in new revenue from a new tax structure. delegate that responsibility to committees here on the capitol hill, house, house and means committee. the senate, the finance committee. number one is if you do that you open up the process of rewriting the tax code to lobbying, the possibility that it could be filibustered in the senate. remember the reason why the super commuittee is so super because it's on expedited path on the united states senate. what they suggest cannot be filibustere

luke russert always is with us. welcome to the show. >> always a pressure. >> david axlerod is a fan of the phrase kabuki theater as a description for the political maneuverings in washington. is this something we can use to describe what's been happening on the super committee for the last two weeks? was anybody serious about cutting a deal? >> when the whole process started, i spoke to members on both sides of the aisle, there was sort of a tempered excitement for the idea of a super committee, mainly because of the ability, if they agreed on anybody to have an up or down vote in the united states senate, the filibuster process has been so difficult to get by in the united states senate without any legislation with this divided government. we saw a few weeks ago that both sides were not anywhere near the same playing field. the last time they met privately, this group, was october 26th that last month. there was a private meeting with all 12 of them in the room together. the real issue was a lack of trust, and, b,

i'm luke russert. newt gingrich goes off script backing a kinder, gentler immigration policy and gets slammed by his rivals in return. >> the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter of a century and i'm prepared to take the heat for saying let's be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship, but by finding a way to create legality. >> mark hurry is nbc's deputy political director. thanks for being on. interesting debate last night. gingrich seemed to take this stance of we won't have amnesty, does newt's ability to be a good debater kind of help him in this helm that he can maybe explain his position or is this very toxic? >> we're going to see and probably have an answer the next week or so on this. this was something that really tripped up rick perry. looked like his nomination to lose and he crashed along the some other poor debate performances. so we'll see on whether this newt gingri

luke russert, ladies and gentlemen. check him out -- well, he's pretty much everywhere. >>> the markets are reacting to the latest washington gridlock that luke was so eloquently describing to us. the s&p 500, one of our major financial indices, hitting its lowest level since december. the dow lost 2% today. remember, the markets went nuts back in august, when the super committee was created, but then the dow dropped nearly 7% over an eight-day slide. anyway, the financial markets expressing appropriately an enhanced degree, of not only skepticism, but pessimism about immediate economic prospects by virtue of the day's news. as you can see, peter morici is with us, along with gene baker, the cough h director for the center for economic and policy research. and professor morici, there has to be a ton of upside here, if when things are this screwed up, there has to be a tremendous a lot of upside for growth in political improvement, in energy independence, in job creation. there's no way that you could look at this situati

capitol hill correspondent luke russert is on the hill and watching the super committee or not so super committee. i know you talked to people on both sides. and what you're hearing from both sides is a lot of blame game. is there any movement at all on the key issue of taxes or issue of entitlements? >> reporter: at this moment while i'm on your show the answer is no. there is no movement from where we were yesterday last week or the argument from where we were a year ago in terms of taxes versus entitlements. from the start of the connecticut republicans do not want to see the taxes go up at all and democrats say we will not touch entitlement unless there's a significant tax increase to garner more revenue. this is still the issue plaguing this committee. since the last few weeks, it's come out that republicans under a plan offered by pat toomey from pennsylvania, as much as $250 billion or $300 billion of new revenue could come from corporate tax reform, andrea, today a letter was circulated among the house of representatives that garnered 72 signatures from house republicans that sa

luke russert, i'm most disappointed about what happened, this is what happens when you play college football on friday. nothing good happened. congrats. >> thank you very much, i appreciate it. >> thank you, luke. >>> let's turn to the other big story around the world. thousands of egyptians are opting for the polls over protests today turning out in huge numbers. lines everywhere to vote for a new parliament. the question, will it do anything to loosen military script on power? aman is live for us in cairo. seems to be more excitement today than tension. is that fair to say? >> absolutely, good morning, chuck. that's a very good question about what's at stake here, not about the outcome, but the process and more importantly, legitimacy. that's what's at stake for the millions of egyptians that are voting. no one is holding their breath to expect an outcome today or in the next few days because this is only the first day of a six-part voting process for both the lower house and the upper house. that will last well into 2012. but, really, it does test the legitimacy in egypt. if there is good

stick around for "the daily rundown" hosted today by -- luke russert. >> get out! whoa. >>> it turns out failure is an option. after ten weeks, the congressional super committee is unable to cut a deficit deal. attention now turns to what comes next in the inevitable blame game. republican candidates get weepy at a family leader forum in iowa where talk turned to faith and morality. not attending? mitt romney who is busy picking up some key endorsements and jon huntsman who is busy poking a little fun at himself on "snl." >>> was he a lone wolf? a new york man is accused of plotting to bomb post offices, police officers and returning american troops. the latest on the investigation just ahead. >>> it's monday, november 21st, 2011 and this is "the daily rundown." i'm luke russert filling in for chuck todd. >>> let's get right to the first read of the morning, the big story -- super bust. despite 2 1/2 months of talks, the panel empowered to trim more than $11 trillion in red ink has failed to strike a deal. nobody blinked. >> now we're down to just trying to get the

. >> luke russert, obviously, luke, the republican support bush tax cuts and here is an opportunity toe american families. why can't they meet here. >> what we are seeing is a fight over how to pay for these extended payroll tax cuts. democrats are saying they should have a sur tax on millionaires and those who are fortunate and wealthy. that's a tax increase on businesses and job providers. it would not be viable for them to support. what's interesting is a lot of democrats will say you are worried about adding to the deficit and these could cost about $240 billion and you were not worried when you extended the tax cuts last year and for extending them this year and adding them to the deficit. that's the issue going on. all this being said, this is an area the extension with republicans and democrats thought they could reach common ground. what you are seeing on the senate floor, harry reid doing this for political purposes. they chose republicans extending the tax cut. it will appear democratic ads in 2012. what you are going to see is a compromise with a lot of folks where they feel

want to figure out why republicans refuse to raise taxes and put revenues on the table and so luke russert who is filling in for chuck todd on m s n b c this morning went for the hard hitting question with senator pat toomey and listen to his response and you know if that's the vision we're going to have of a european style really very large government then you need bigger taxes to fund that i don't think that's the right solution for america i know it will reduce the size of our economy over time it will inhibit innovation it'll reduce opportunity to lower our standard of living so i want to government the lives within its means and we don't need a giant tax increase to fund them. all right so he claims that innovation quality of life all of that's going to suffer or does luke do does he follow up with a question asking for proof of those statistics when of course not he just lets the fly and then moves on to the next one b.c. this is part of the problem is the politicians are being allowed to get away with these complete b.s. arguments and get to shape public opinion by pointing the fing

. >> way to go, luke russert. is afraid to tell the truth about grover norquist. he's still afraid to admit grover norquist has a terrible destructive influence on republicans, on our government and on our country. but this week, a group of brave republicans -- remember, the threshold for bravery in the republican party could not be lower, so bear with me on this. this is brave. a group of brave republicans joined arms and took a stand against grover norquist. 40 house republicans, 37 of whom have signed grover norquist's anti-tax pledge, signed a letter to the deficit reduction supercommittee saying that all options for deficit reduction must be considered, including tax increases. politically, this is, by far the biggest thing that's happened in the house of representatives this year. it is a devastating setback for grover norquist. grover norquist didn't get to be the most powerful republican in america without knowing how to handle setbacks. he issued this threat to those house republicans who signed that lett

luke russert, thanks very much indeed. that is a live picture.nt any minute from the attorney of one of herman cain's accusers. stay with us. we will bring it to you live. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. ♪ ♪ ♪ walk, little walk ♪ small talk, big thoughts ♪ gonna tell them all just what i want ♪ ♪ i said don't stop, don't stop ♪ ♪ don't stop talking to me [ male announcer ] the most legroom per dollar of any car in america. the all-new nissan versa sedan. from $10,990. innovation upsized. innovation for all. ♪ to the flu. an accident... to asthma. a new heartbeat... to a heart condition. when you see your doctor, you don't face any medical issue alone. you do it together. at the american medical association, we're committed to preserving that essential partnership between patients and their doctors. because when it comes to

luke russert, thank you. >> good to see you. >>> zuccotti park, gone now are the tarps and some of the people. nbc 7's jonathan bigliotti has more. >> good morning, chris. about 75 protesters spent the night here at zuccotti park despite not having those tens and sleeping bags. the nypd has set up a barricade making sure any new protesters do not bring tens or sleeping bags. many protesters have decided not to stick it out here. instead they went to local shelters and a church that opened up their doors and served food we even saw one protester sleeping in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk. all this unfolding after the mayor decided last night with little notice to tear down this tent city for what he sited safety concerns. the judge later sited with the city saying protesters have the right to protest but that doesn't necessarily include tents and sleeping bags. protesters say they are planning for their two month anniversary tomorrow to take to the streets at 7:00 o'clock. they hope to shut down wall street. they will then head into the subways. chris, back to you. >> thanks, jonathan.

luke russert is on capitol hill.boil this fight down between republicans and democrats, revenues and entitlements, isn't this all about republicans trying to preserve the bush era tax cuts? >> that's personal part of it. >> part of it? >> all the gop plans do preserve the tax cuts. >> thank you. that's not part of it. >> it's an important part because that is what the mo has been. they don't want to see taxes raised. you saw the 72 house republicans, that is a very sizable group within the house that shows if there is a small amount of revenue such as the plan by pennsylvania senator they would run into the chain saw. they don't top the see that. the issue of taxes and entitlements is the issues that plagued this committee and congress and democrats do not want to see them touched unless the taxes are raised. republicans won't do that. that's why the idea of big balanced plans i can guarantee that's not going to happen. $1.2 trillion, the minimum, that is most likely not going to happen. yesterday was the critical da