. >> woodruff: and it's friday, mark shields and ramesh ponnuru analyze a full week of news. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president obama strongly suggested today that russian president vladimir putin was at the heart of the computer hacks on the democratic party. and he defended his administration's restrained response in his year-end news conference. as expected, the issue of alleged russian hacking of the u.s. election dominated president obama's last news conference of the year. it came one day after president elec

ramesh? >> well alex brought up , unemployment insurance, one idea our colleague michael strain has written about is allowing people to take some of their unemployment benefits in a lump sum that helps them to relocate where the jobs are. i think is there a whole range of things that could be done. i think a lot of the welfare state is place-based in a way that tends to limit mobility. medicaid is an example of that. some of the things that conservatives have proposed in terms of taking a lot of that benefit and giving it to low income people so they can buy insurance in the private market themselves is one part of an answer to that. you've got not just the federal welfare state but a lot of local government that are getting in the way here. a lot of the fastest growing parts of the country have very restrictive rules on housing that make the cost of housing that make the cost of housing very high and make it harder for young people or people just getting started to move to those places. rame

ramesh: very often we think about things like how do we help working people advance, how do we make the welfare state work better for people as if it were a substitute for things like entitlement reform, getting the government on a better financial footing. it seems to me, it is very much a complementary thing, that an agenda that is purely about balancing the books and making the government solve in overtime is not going to be politically successful standing on its own. but if it's combined with things that actually help people and are seen to be helping people, it might have a chance. >> maybe you're also sending a signal that society is respecting certain kinds of behavior and certain kinds of action. people raising families, having children, things like that. child tax credit for example, and they are just showing respect, a phrase that perhaps those of us who have been analyzing the election returns think may be relevant to some of the responses of some voters. over time, they did not feel treated with respect by one side of the political spectrum. que, do you have any thoughts whe

all right, ramesh, maria and molly, thank you very much.college vote reveals the depth of the democratic party's division these days. stay tuned. ♪ ♪ ♪ style lets you stand out from the herd. what's inside sets you apart. the cadillac escalade. enjoy our best offers of the year. and i thought, well, you need to go to the doctor. i was told that is was cancer, and i called cancer trereatment centers of america. dr. nader explained that they can pinpoint the treatment. once we identified that there was this genetic abnormality in her tumor, we were able to place her on very specific therapy. our individualized care model gives each lung patient specific treatment options with innovative procedures that are changing the way we fight lung cancer. we have excellent technology that allow us to perform very specialized procedures for patients who have lung disease. to learn more about these targeted therapies and advanced procedures for lung cancer, as well as the experienced physicians who deliver them, go to cancercenter.com when he showed me th

ramesh, did you expect a republican president to be so aggressive against corporate america?ted, now boeing. this is the power of the bully pulpit. >> it's a new power of the bully pulpit. i think if a dominican republicic president we-- democ president were getting involved with these companies, micromanaging them, calling them out on an individual basis, republicans in congress would be apoplectic -- >> what would you be saying? >> i'm saying they ought to be now. this is not the appropriate role for the president or the president-elect to be playing. >> it was interesting that kevin mccarthy to me yesterday, who has been very much kevin mccarthy, who's been very much capitulating to trump on a lot of things, but the number two in the house said, hey, we're not going to be for this tariff business, will this boeing thing stiffen the backbone of other private sector conservative republicans? >> maybe, or maybe it will make some business leaders really nervous about getting cross wise with the president for fear that he could be critical of them in a tweet and cost them stock

ramesh, conform conservatives, art seeming to try and affect behavior. without asking you to accept my baby-boom -- my theory of causation for the baby-boom, isn't that a little hard? in his book the fractured republic, he says we require changes in habit of the new social capital, this is one of the problems we have. charles murray in his book "coming apart" said in 1960, you had the bottom rungs had social , theytedness, churches don't have it today. you lower taxes in the 1960's, it benefit -- the benefits go to people who have civil society. today they don't. he said this cannot be done through a uniform social policy that injects financial incentives into people's lives to nudge them into making different choices. that might change people's decisions about what -- how to consume but it is less likely to change their judgments about whether to marry or whether to turn their lives around for the sake of their children. is he right or wrong? explain. my disposition is always to believe he is right. to --at is the case here who do. this allows me to seg

trucks and buses loaded with people were roadblocked at ramesh crossing, the main bridge crossing.ome of the vehicles were turned around and ordered back to ravaged eastern aleppo. syrian aid groups blame pro-government force, syrian forces in particular, iranian shia militias attacking the aid convoys. the question is these different factions will step back and let the humanitarian aid convoys roll. that said there was progress getting people out of eastern aleppo this morning before everything was halted. turkish foreign officials say at least 7500 people were evacuated. russia's defense ministry puts that number at 9,000. the u.n. and several aid groups saying at least six thousand people have been evacuated so far. still the operation is far from over because an estimated 50,000 people remain strapped in eastern aleppo. so international aid groups and foreign officials from the u.s., russia and turkey are calling on resumption of the evacuation process and even more so a sears fire. -- cease-fire. leland, backs to you. >> the secretary of state here in the u.s. accusing the ass

join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and ramesh ponnuru. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here in aruba. families, couples, and friends can

join us online, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and ramesh ponnuru. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> announcer: this is "nightly business report," with tyler mathisen and sue herera. funded in part by hss. >>> our value principles are patient first. and we want to deliver the highest quality care. >> the goal of creating and sustaining value is all about putting the patient at the center of the equation. >> the purpose of this organization is to help people get back to what they need and love to do. >>> falling short. stocks gained ground but the dow fails to hit the 20,