senator manchin and i did vote for this because we knew the economy was in free fall, and we were willing to do everything possible to help out, but we were told at the time that this was one year, that the trust fund would take a hit for only one year, and i think it was about $100 billion hit that seniors took. now, under political times, even when the one of claims the economy is growing, they want to have another 250 dollars billion party on the backs of social security. >> economists say this would shave off of gdp one percentage point. gdp is not expected to grow that much next year. >> i would argue actually that it did not. the economy is not in good shape. i would argue that we face a much more cancer risk from europe and a recession, which is breaking out in europe, for affecting the united states, and i do not think temporary gimmicks which undermine the temporary strength of social security our allies. >> cindy anthony then, in order to protect social security, not only to protect today's seniors but future seniors, the answer is to lead the payroll tax -- >> no, you should no

in fact, senator joe manchin of west virginia, which is the big coal state.gave a donkey and an elephant, the symbols of the republican, democratic party to none other than charles schumer, which i didn't have time to research it. i'm kind of interested in just how much charles schumer's been into the whole environmental fresh air thing, which would be something that joe manchin wouldn't like so much. >> yeah. >> so, what else? >> and not to be out done, another senator gives coal to joe manchin, all right? and where is it here? i can't find it here. another senator gives it to joe manchin, and so you have two senators giving coal, and mark udall of colorado. >> wasn't he the one who said, hey, we need to have the republicans and democrats sitting together at the state of the union? >> so he sort of got trumped there. but he's not bitter, it doesn't sound like. >> so gifts for secret santa and jumping jacks for the first lady. >> this was another follow-up. the first lady got together hundreds of thousands of people -- there you go. jumpin

senator joe manchin of west virginia he's breaking away from his party on the payroll tax cut.p next. (applause) cut. that' there he is, poised to discover plum amazins, the amazing alternative to raisins and cranberries with more fiber, less suga and a way better glycemic index. he's clearly enjoying one of the planet's most amazing superfruits. hey, keep it down mate, you'll wake the kids. plum amazins. new, from sunsweet. [ knock on door ] coo you found it. wow. nice place. ye. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postagenline and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally stayinsane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail fla rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. great fall. ugh, it's my sinus congestion, and it's all your fault. naturally blame the mucus. he's funny. instead of blaming me, try this, advil congestion relief.

. >>> also coming up, senator joe manchin joins us, and chuck todd. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning, mika. hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. one of the questions i'm getting asked a lot, where's the snow? two weeks to christmas and a lot of people are wondering, are we going to have a white christmas? there's no snowstorms anywhere in the country. and only 31% of the country's covered with snow on the ground right now. appalachians, northern new england, of course, the mountains in the west and then the rockies, but that's about it. we don't have a lot of snow in areas that typically have a ton of it. michigan, wisconsin, buffalo to rochester don't have much on the ground. a cold morning out there today, enjoyable afternoon, plenty of sunshine, dry weather. there's no wet weather headed for the country. as far as today goes, the only travel troubles down on i-95 through georgia and florida, a little bit of rain for you. overall, though, it's a pretty nice day around the country. a little bit of tr

senators joe manchin of west virgina, a democrat and mark kirk of illinois, a republican.ou both. >> thank you. >> thank you jenna: we take you live to baghdad for the transition of the u.s. military base, camp victory, to the iraqi government today. there is no official handover event but it is happening now. we also want to ask the question about the politics behind this event. if there are any which i'm sure one can find, james rosen can. he is chief washington correspondent for us. james? >> reporter: jenna, good afternoon. by 3:05 eastern time this morning the sprawling grounds officially named victory based complex but better known as camp victory have been officially returned to the control of the iraqi government. at its peak this complex housed 46,000 people. its transfer is part of the complete withdrawal of american forces from iraq by year's end. more than one million americans who served in iraq, camp victory was always special because it was among the first areas secured by u.s. troops nine years ago and it was once a palace ground for the deposed dictator sa

democrat joe manchin says the tax cut hasn't worked. >> we tried the payroll tax cut. i support it. i won't double down on a failed policy. >> in the house, john boehner says he favors extension with one requirement. >> republicans are ready to work with the president and the democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily. but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. >> continuing the growing debt, a year after the bipartisan simpson-bowles plan was revealed it should have been adopted. >> yet, that was rejected out of hand by the white house and others. >> reporter: after both republican and democratic plans failed tonight, perhaps we will be one step closer to compromise. although the christmas holiday, some 3-1/2 weeks away it has to come quickly before the tax holiday expires. bret? >> bret: more on this with the panel. thank you. president obama's performance on the economy may be the determining factor in his quest for re-election next year. chief white house correspondent ed henry reports on what the president is saying now about that.

so they believe, as senator manchin's staff called it, it's a raid on that fund.blicans had a problem with that, as well. that's why they see this as a band-aid. so while republicans like tax cuts, in this case they don't see it as a true tax cut because they see it as taking away from a fund that should be there. nevertheless, that's one segment of the opposition to this. but a lot of the opposition to this from the republican side is the belief that the payroll tax holiday doesn't work. president obama views it as a central component of his jobs legislation, that it seeps the economy moving, people spend this tax cut. and that's the big argument you have between republicans and democrats. republicans want to have those high-end tax cuts because they say that helps create jobs and spur economic growth. democrats say no, it should be targeted tax cuts on the middle class because those individuals take that money and put it back into the economy. so we're going to continue that debate. but listen, the house gop, they don't want to move on this at all. the senate do

the bill passed 89-10 and i talked to a couple of the no votes, and vest which aring senator joe manchin doesn't like you're messing with money that's supposed to go to the social security trust fund, which is what the payroll tax actually funds. >> i've been open supporting the pipeline, but the bottom line, social security is so important, the lifeline, the bloodline, if you will, to over 60% of the seniors in my state. majority of their income and horror we are playi here we have playing games with it the same time. >> and a conference call two hours from now to get a sense where the rank and file stand and we know the keystone pipeline provision was key with house republicans and they could vote on it as soon as monday. jamie. >> mike emanuel busy morning and thanks for the wrap-up. >> thank you. >> i tell you you can't understate enough it's been a busy morning on capitol hill and the senate may have saved some time, but as we mentioned before only set themselves up for yet another battle sometime in february and after all the fighting that went into today's measure, is this a sign

senator manchin is a democrat from west virginia and he joins us now. with republicans on this measure and how will that help the 55,000 unemployed residents of your state? >> well, we're not sure yet how the bill will come to us. i can tell you it did pass from the house. martin, my biggest concern has been social security. first time, franklin roosevelt, our great president, basically put social security in place as a partnership between employers and employees. when we retire we would have something. he even went so far to say those darn politicians won't be able to touch this. i've put it to where it is a legal responsibility and a legal obligation that we will pay. it is your money. now all of a sudden last year we took 2% discount. most of the people in my state don't even know they received it help or not, but i want to continue to help. i want to look at tax credits or anything else they would like to look at but i'm concerned about social security. the first thing that i've seen in the bill that came over from the how is that said it would be e

senator manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. conway, and if you've gone over this and i missed it before i got here, i'm sorry. the inspector general's report found over half of the antipsychotic claims for the residents did not comply with the medicare reimbursement criteria which is, i think, what mr. levinson was just speaking about. i mean, that's an alarming, an aharming rate. alarming rate. what authority do you need to create incentives or improve data or promote compliance within the rates of noncliens you have now? -- noncompliance you have now? >> i agree that cms should not be paying for medically-inappropriate uses for medications. i think it is an inappropriate payment issue, it's also a quality of care issue that i did allude to on the survey and certification. i do think quality measurement is important which historically we have not. we're working to do that as early as this spring and transparently sharing that information with beneficiaries and their family on nursing home compare. i think in addition with our

starving the social security trust fund which takes revenue from the payroll tax and democrat joe manchin says the tax cut simply hasn't worked. >> we tried the payroll tax cut last year and i supported it, but i will not double down on a failed policy. reporter: in the house speaker john boehner says he favors an extension with one requirement. >> republicans are ready to work with the president and the democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily, but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. reporter: considering the $15 trillion growing debt, some lawmakers said a year after the bipartisan simpson bowles plan was unveiled it should have been adopted. >> yet that was rejected out of hand by the white house and others. reporter: with the failure of the republican and democratic plans tonight perhaps we're one step closer to compromise, although with the christmas holiday 3 1/2 weeks away, they'll have to act quickly before the tax holiday expires. >>> a new development tonight in the plan to change speed limits in d.c. neighborhoods to 15 miles

manchin: mr. president, i want to speak on these very strange days in washington in this congress and this esteemed body's approval rating is at 9%, and i'm having a hard time finding the 9%. but it seems to me that the only thing that we're working hard on is whether we can get the approval rating to zero, and i think we seem to be going in that direction. we fight over political solutions that can't pass and, more importantly, won't solve this nation's great problems. we fight for political points and mistakenly believe that the american people care who is up and down -- up or down, but they really don't. i didn't come to washington for the purpose of playing games, taking names, or keeping score. that's not what i was sent here to do. that's not what the people of west virginia want me to do. i came here to fix things and to be a part of the solution. i did not come here to worry about my next election or whether republican or democrats are up or down. i came they're do what i could to improve

manchin received lumps of coal from democrat mark udoll. that's nice. gretch?bers show president obama is not only trailing in those areas, but could be losing some of his supporters as democrat voter enthusiasm drops to a low of 47%. we're back with our panel. good to see you all back. you decided to stick around for another discussion. >> i was waiting for the coffee. >> gretchen: well, i guess we can get you some after this commercial break here. tara, the democratic enthusiasm, 47%, the republican enthusiasm for the upcoming election, 61%. are you worried? >> certainly there is no secret, i don't want to be cast in obvious here, but president obama is going to have a very challenging, hard-fought election cycle. there is no question about that. i think the bigger issue for the president, though, that not a lot of people are talking about and i'm sure my colleagues tonight want to talk about this, is that these voter suppression law, these laws that disenfranchise many of his key supporters, things like closing polling places earlier in urban centers, all of

. >> joe manchin was the governor of west virginia when the explosion happened.tive has been convicted and charged of lying to prosecutors. i think a lot of the families, from what i've read, would like to see some of these executives go to jail. do you think justice has been served here? >> not at all. not yet. i think it will be and i agree with the families. all of the thing cannot bring that i have loved ones back. in west virginia, our families mean everything to us. when you lose a member of your family and the bread winner of your family, you don't replace that. we are after res institution. we want justice to be done. i think justice will be done. i think now that we have reports that concur that basically said this is preventible, it should have been prevented and never should have happened. i believe justice will be done. i hope it will be done as quickly as possible now to really give some relief to the families. >> especially when you hear that they had promoted a culture of fear and intimidation here. it's been over a year and a half since the explos

. >>> joining us now is west virginia democratic senator joe manchin, the state's governor at the timethis morning. how are you? >> thank you, chris. good to be with you. >> since the explosion, only one massey executive has been charged and convicted of lying to prosecutors. i think a lot of the families from what i've read would like to see some of these executives go to jail. do you think that justice has been served here? >> not at all. not yet. i think it will be. and i agree with the families. you know, all the money in the world won't bring your loved one back. we can't replace the pain or relieve the pain that they're still feeling. and west virginia, our families mean everything to us. and when you lose a member of your family and the breadwinner of your family, you just don't replace that. so we're after restitution, we are. we want justice to be done. i think justice will be done. i think that now that we have reports that concur that basically said this is preventable, it should have been prevented, should have never happened, to allow that to go on and to find out now that

senator manchin and i, one democrat, one republican senator, both freshmen, we meet every thursday forch, and at our thursday lunch last week, senator manchin initially said well, i'm having difficulty, i don't think i'm going to be able to vote for the democratic bill to cut social security contributions, and i said well, i join you in that because i'm not going to be able to vote for the republican bill that cuts social security contributions. and so the two of us both voted pro-social security and against the legislation before us. i'm very worried that we are forgetting the lessons that are currently playing out in europe on this subject. the collapse of european socialism, as margaret thatcher says, eventually socialists run out of other people's money. the collapse of european socialism underscores a lesson that you cannot run a retirement security system without contributions. that we know already that the social security system is running slightly in the red. contributions into the system are going to run $10 billion behind the cost of honoring benefits to seniors, but under th

an inquiry launched by west virginia's then governor joe manchin found a pattern of negligence including coal dust build-up and malfunctioning equipment. today the u.s. mine safety and health administration issued its final report. the agency issued 12 citations for violations of federal law that contributed directly to the mine explosion. it designated nine of the violations as flagrant. those included illegally giving advanced notice to minors when inspectors were coming and failing to conduct proper safety examinations. massey energy was acquired by alpha natural resources in june of this year. under the settle. the new owner will not be charged with any crimes but individual employees who were there when the disaster occurred can be prosecuted. and victims' families retain the rights to file civil lawsuits. >> sreenivasan: there was also news in the legal fight over last year's gulf oil spill. in a federal court filing, b.p. accused halliburton of destroying evidence that could prove it shared responsibility for the spill. the oil company said halliburton employees destroyed test res

and that is what we're all doing under the tutelage of the governor and senator manchin's wife, gail. i'm honored the aft is leading this group with other groups in terms of trying to help give mcdowell county and the kids there a new chapter so they cannot simply dream their dreams but achieve them. >> we're going to do a whole piece with you on it. people can go to reconnecti reconnectingmcdowell.com. randi, thanks for being here tonight. >> thank you so much. >>> ahead, don king, the legendary boxing promoter and activist, joins me to talk about why he's giving away so many turkeys during the holiday season and the burden on the poor. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. ♪ this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. all day pain relief ♪ when the things that you need come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when y

beer to michael bennett of colorado as a little nod to ohio's beer and maybe the best of all is joe manchinf west virginia gave fellow democrat chuck schumer coal, carved coal in the shape of a donkey and an elephant. and both seem quite pleased with that. >> chuck schumer, coal in his stocking. i'm not sure i like rob portman who explained ohio's beer to me. i think a lot of people in colorado would pick colorado's beer. >> i know where you're going to stand on that. >> you guys also drink verners which i don't get. >> so cheerful around here, chuck. all cheerful. >>> with europe's debt crisis still looming hour, will the fed react today? the market rundown is next. and vladimir putin facing a surprising challenger in his bid to become president of russia again. the latest on the billionaire from new jersey giving putin a run for his money. >>> first, today's trivia question. who is currently the most senior junior senator? tweet me the answer. >>> time for the entrepreneur of the week. former rockette amy burnett opened the next step broadway dance studio in jersey city with children's da

, senator schumer got a carved donkey, and then clean coal, does this look mineral to you for joe manchind then a buffalo wings bar from the anchor bar courtesy of chuck schumer. >>> stop the politics. stop the games. stand up for the people. >> where is the shared sacrifice? where is the shared responsibility? >> fired up democrats on the floor of the house before lawmakers voteded to extend the payroll tax cut at least on the house side, but that bill also requires the obama administration to approve the keystone pipeline within 60 days. i'm joined now by congresswoman gwen moore who is a democrat from wisconsin. good rn mong. -- good morning. you were fired up, because you called the bill a sham piece of legislation and accused the republicans of talking out of both sides of their neck. what does that neen? >> it is an old expression when you talk out of both sides of your mouth. so for example they named the bill the tax cut for middle-class americansers and the job creation act of 2011. well, yeah. they do cut the payroll tax for 60 million americans, but at a tremendous cost. and th

senator manchin? >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. conway, if you've gone over this, i missed it before i got here, i'm sorry. the inspector general's report found over half of antipsychotic claims, about 723,000 out of a million four, for the residents did not comply with the medicare reimbursement criteria, which is, i think, what mr. levinson is speaking about. and -- i mean, i mean, that's an alarming -- an alarming rate. what authority do you need to create incentives to promote within the rates of noncompliance you have now? >> i agree that cms should not be paying for medically inappropriate uses of medications. i think it is an inappropriate payment issue and it's also a quality of care issue as i did allude to on the survey and certification and that we're measuring quality in just area and historically we're not. we'll be able to do that this spring and transportly sharing that information with beneficiaries on benefits with nursing home care. i think in addition, with our part d colleagues, you know, we continue to work wit

host: one of your democratic colleagues in the senate, joe manchin from west virginia, was quoted as saying i cannot find any people who even know they are getting it. then he went on to say, why would we double down on a policy that did not work? guest: a policy that -- host: saying that they will tax holiday have not stimulated the economy. guest: i think we solve the unemployment rate now come down to the lowest since the recession. i think that we did not get into this problem overnight. we need time for us to work our way through. but i think if you offer a payroll tax holiday to not only employees, but to employers, you will see -- the engine, i think some of the economy is small-business. it created about 65% of the jobs in the private sector. and certainly in the last couple of years -- it is the engine i see working. when i talked about the hub of comeback in my district, where we are perched on the top in many of the measurements out there in terms of job creation and clustering and high-tech and clean energy, that came about through small business. putting together innovat

and vice president of west virginia's state board of education, gail manchin. >> when joe is here, we as the husband. >> exactly. >> thank you. thank you. >> it happens that way. and now the husband of gail manchin. >> they're here to talk about the reconnecting mcdowell initiative. it's a five-year public/private partnership to help struggling schools at mcdowell county, west virginia, in the face of extreme poverty. i love this project. >> i do too. and i see a statistic here. i want to ask you about, gail. vocabulary list for the average 3-year-old across the united states, 12,000 words. mcdowell county, 5,000 words. talk about some of the challenges. >> well, i think the challenges there are certainly the rate of illiteracy across some of our -- and you know, it's mcdowell county, but it's rural america where educational opportunities are not as forthcoming. and it's not a level playing field. and so children in the home don't have books. they don't have parents with the vocabulary to hear every day. they're not out into a lot of public interaction and socialization, and so that's

. >> joe manchin is one of them. >> joe manchin is the key point man here. you're messing around with the financing of social security and you are robbing eventually seniors. don't do it at all. so -- but look, and my guess is that this sooner or later, they'll have an agreement and the payroll tax holiday will be extended and taxes won't go up. >> in the break, that's your guarantee. now it's your guess. what's going on? >> what's coming up on your show? >> we have a huge unemployment report at 8:30 this morning. that's going to rule the roost as far as the markets are concerned and the economy. and president obama is watching this real carefully. 8:30, the number comes out. >> and i'm on at 9:20, ok? >> you are. great. the post-game show. >> all right. stuart, we'll see you a little later on. >> that's great. >> straight ahead, country star mindy mccreedy in trouble with the law accused of kidnapping her own son. what? details straight ahead. >> and it's a story we've been covering all week, the governor who is refusing to call a christmas tree a christmas

and the provisions that are being offered -- that were being offered in a bill that senator manchin, a democrat from west virginia, and i offered together on a bipartisan basis do not turn back or unwind the progress that we've made. and in fact they don't deny further progress. all they do is simply extend the compliance date for a three-year period of time and coordinate that compliance date so that utilities can accomplish both of these goals as set out by the e.p.a., accomplish both of those goals but in a reasonable time frame, without having a damn moc--without having a damocles d over them. so we're asking for a little more time. we had a vote here which i supported which was to deny these rules. and i supported that because of the substantial progress we've made and the tremendous economic cost it would be to impose these directly on the timetable e.p.a. has set forth. that vote, which was led by senator rand paul, was defeated. and so we've moved now to the next stage, the fallback, which is simply an opportunity to reach the goal but give us a little more time to reach it.

lieberman, reed of rhode island, akaka, nelson of nebraska, webb, mccaskill, udall, hagan, begich, manchin, shaheen, blumenthal, mccain, inhofe, chambliss, wicker, brown of massachusetts, portman, ayotte, collins, graham, cornyn and vitter. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there are two minutes equally divided prior to a vote on the motion to proceed to s. 1917. mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, could we have order of th order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in orderment mr. casey: mr. president, this middle class tax cut act is very simple. it does two things for employers and also helps employees. last year the senate came together on a bipartisan bill. we passed a tax bill that, among other things, reduced payroll taxes for employees. this legislation expands that. instead of just saying we're going to have a reduction of 2% of the payroll tax, it was going to be -- this legislation has it as a -- a cut in half. so you're cutting the payroll tax in half. that's take-home pay, 1,500 bucks i

senator manchin here, he was a governor. he had to answer to his people and manage a state and the leadership. so what is it this executive, our president, is proposing that we do? well, it's -- it is pretty clear that it appears that he is proposing that we spend next year, $324 billion more than we plan to spend. he calls it a tax cut or maintaining a tax cut. in truth, it's a holiday from paying in to our social security fund, our social security pension that all americans pay into as they work. it's a holiday on that. well, where does the money come from? so you have got a trust fund, the social security is -- we pay into it and we have got to promise a benefit when we retire and we want to honor that and make sure the social security trust fund is able to honor that. how do we not pay into it without hurting, damaging severely the social security trust fund? well, they say don't worry, we'll put the money in. who is we? well, we is the united states treasury, the united states treasury will put the money in. but the uni

republicans must be encouraged by the fact that some democrats, senator joe manchin talked to us lastvor of the pipeline project moving forward. >> the politics are fascinating. you've got a key constituency of president obama, the unions in favor of the pipeline, feeling like it would be instant jobs, so you see democrats, along the expected pipeline route, saying this is a good thing, congressman dan born in oklahoma saying this, at a time when many are without work it's time to come together in a bipartisan way to pass this legislation which will create tens of thousands of new jobs. i commend the speaker for including the construction of the pipeline that is supported by business and labor, and so bottom line, a democrat coming forward saying he's in favor of this provision. question is exactly how many votes there will be when it comes up for a vote, when it's expected to get to the united states senate, john. john: republicans say deal is going to get done on the payroll tax holiday, but some of them aren't sure the pipeline is going to northbound the final package, right? >> re

. >> you really think santa monica is better than -- >>> senator joe manchin will be on the show. >>>my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. [ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles! i want a mace, a sword, a... oww! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it could be?! what's in your wallet? ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond