timothy geithner has drawn a line in the sand. he says the white house is prepared to go over the fiscal cliff if republicans don't give in on higher taxes on the wealthy. you can see we're weighted to the up side by a ratio of 8:1 at the moment. finland is not trading today, so you may see some quotes not doing very well. we saw apple stock having the biggest loss in four years. the ftse yesterday slim gains really. up 0.4%, the dax up a quarter of a percent. is this a this is where we stand as we wait for the announcements from the ecb. we're up at a 52 week high for the xetra dax. cac 40 up half a percent and ibex up half a percent, as well. take a look at bond yields. we looked at that auction yesterday from spain. they raised 4.3 billion. years went lower. nevertheless spanish yields today 5.4%, slightly lower from where we closed, but they did move up substantially after a handle of 5.2. we'll keep our eye on gilts, as well. we'll look ahead to the bank of england. nothing expected from them, of course. 1.8%. david miles was

you look divided. >> we had timothy geithner defending the plan to avert the fiscal cliff. let's take a look at grover norquist's view. >> every republican who had impure thoughts about raising taxes a little because the or guys would be reasonably has to go back to the drawing board. there's no real reforms. $1.6 trillion in tax increases and some of the savings are tax increases. >> does that it congressman kohl is having these impure thoughts that he had categorized these thoughts. does that mean that? >> i think what tom cole brought this up in a meeting. you need to talk about a host of ideas. that's a chilling effect on members being able to express within closed doors their own ideas on this. that's the problem with that. there are a lot of strategies in terms of how we get there. i would agree with grover norquist on this. the proposal is a nonstarter with republicans and probably most people who have looked at it. we have to get closer to this. they are both very far apart and holding their ground. that's no way to settle it. >> so all this rang lg about the fiscal

during a broadcast interview yesterday timothy geithner was asked what if republican don't agree to raising taxes? >> is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> oh, absolutely. there's no prospect of an agreement that doesn't involve the tax -- remember, it's 207b8%. remember, all of those americans, too, get a tax cut into that framework on the first $250,000 of their income. >> that said the president and speaker john boehner discussed the budget by phone yesterday. susan mcginnis is in washington with the latest on this game of fiscal chicken. susan, good morning to you. >> right. good morning, terrell. yeah, that phone call does raise the possibility that some serious talks could start soon, but now we learn that a lot of members of congress are heading out on a long weekend, not to return till tuesday, this as the impasse here on capitol hill continues and the nation waits. social security workers marched outside their office in baltimore wednesday. they're protesting the government spending cuts due to kick in at the end of the year as part of the fiscal clear. >>

last week, it was treasury secretary timothy geithner meeting with top republicans. this afternoon, house speaker john boehner sketched out the g.o.p. proposal in a letter to the white house, and the proposal borrows suggestions from the president's own debt reduction commission, whose plan was ignored last year. the republican letter offered $900 billion in spending cuts from program reforms to medicare and social security. the g.o.p. plan would raise $800 billion in revenues by closing loop-holes and reforming the tax code, but stops short of specifics. noticeably missing: the higher taxes on high-wage earners which president obama has insisted on. the white house responded, saying "the g.o.p. proposal does not meet the test of balance. in fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the

in the words of secretary timothy geithner, this is why republicans have no choice but accepting the tax increases on the wealthiest americans. >> why does it make sense for the country to force tax increases on all americans because a small group of republicans want to extend for 2% of americans? why does that make any sense. there's no reason why that should happen. we can't afford those tax rates. we can't afford them. so we're not going to get to the end now without a recognition of republicans of that basic reality. that's going to be the responsible thing to do. my judgment is they are going to do it because there's no alternative to that. >> behind closed doors, republicans know there's no alternative. abc news reports house republicans are preparing to extend the middle class tax cuts and push everything else off into next year. two senior republicans tell abc news this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely e scenario. in public, republicans are pretending the election just never happened. in private, they know the end is very near and their options are limited. this is w

treasury secretary timothy geithner, president obama's point man in these fiscal cliff negotiations, ran the gauntlet this morning. he appeared on all five sunday talk shows, including "meet the press" of course, what else did he say? >> craig, you know if we're in the posturing stage and a lot of people think we're still in the posturing stage with, 29 or 30 days to go. we better hope that they're just posturing, because after the period of optimism, the post-election talk of compromise, you remember john boehner came out the day after the election, the president spoke about compromise as well. they're as far apart as they ever have been and the clock is ticking. what timothy geithner said is as follows, nothing is going to get done unless republicans agree to raise rates on the wealthiest 2% of americans we know the figure by now. those couples filing jointly making more than $250,000. the rates must rise, not a matter of closing loopholes or deductions or simplifying the tax code this is the way it has to be to meet their revenue goals. contrary to what mitch mcconnell and john bo

this, as treasury secretary timothy geithner says the obama administration is willing to go over the fiscal cliff. nbc's tracie potts joins us live from washington with app update on all of this. tracie, good morning to you. >> reporter: lynn, not quite empty. a lot of lawmakers on a long weekend break. take a look at some of the frustrated constituents they'll face. a protest in baltimore over social security, not the check but the jobs. the people who work in the offices who fear there could be super long lines for taxpayers if, in fact, their jobs are cut in all of this. so where do we stand today? there's a hearing today on capitol hill. the joint economic committee hearing on what can be done for the fiscal cliff. treasury secretary timothy geithner says the administration is willing to go over the cliff, let taxes go up, let these taxes happen if republicans press the idea of no tax increases for the wealthy. the latest we've learned, president obama and house speaker john boehner have spoken by phone. no word on what they discussed or whether there are any meetings planned, bu

i would think that timothy geithner s not the man we met i would agree with you.s is actually shocking. i'm going to say that the president won, no contest there. can we get past the campaigning? are really just shows a lack of seriousness. gerri: all right. i would like you to hear eric cantor today. everyone is reacting to the president's plan. here's what he had to say. remap when he won his reelection, we won our reelection. this is not a game. gei: it was only a matter of time beore somebody said rope a dope. you have to bring out all the hyperboles come all the sints. you know, i'm thinking that it's very possible. if you look at the media coverage that republicans are going to get blamed for any mistakes that happen, any deal that is not stuck. when you think? >> here's the thing. you have to remember, for this to happen, you have to have two opponents. so far, we only have one guy in the rain. republicans have come to the table and said let's discuss at we can do moving forward. what we have from the president of him blaming republicans after he laid out a

timothy geithner was a witness before it. she could've pulled punches, she could've taken it easy on him, but she didn't. she went after him. she's a gifted questioner. you cross-examine him and make him answer questions. really masterful in her performance. it was clearly not in her self-interest. her interest would've been to pull her punches and get the job, but she was in that person. she was a person i was going to do the right thing or what would be the easier thing is the best thing for her. so i'm thrilled that she is going to do a job as a senator and senator and i think she will do a great job. she will hold both political parties accountable and be a force for the middle class. >> host: what was your relationship with a 111 congress in 2009 and 2010 you smack they were our best friends in many respects. congress has a terrible reputation. a lot of it is well preserved. but for us, because we weren't oversight agency, we need to find allies. strong allies with a certain members of the house of representatives and th

you just heard from timothy geithner.id the exclusive interview you just saw move the needle in terms of the fiscal cliff being any closer to a deal? chief washington correspondent john harwood watching this event closely. john. >> reporter: i think what we saw in that interview that steve had was further confirmation of the fundamental outlines in the administration's strategy. one, rates have to go up. they're trying to break republicans on the issues of rates. although, they're not insisting that rates go all the way up to 39.6. you could see something in between. the second thing is they're taking a very hard line on the debt limit. the president said in remarks today to the business round table he has some cover from business on that because they don't want to see that limit that could be damaging to the u.s. credit raiting. the combination of those two things are the fundamental levers the administration is going to try to use to force republicans to compromise. then the compromising from the administration will com

treasury secretary timothy geithner says that just won't work. >> there's no point to an agreement that wealthy. it's only 2%. >> geithner went on to say that he's fully prepared. the obama administration is fully prepared to go off that fiscal cliff if republicans don't agree to tax hikes on the wealthiest americans. let's bring in congressional correspondent kate bolduan. the white house won't budge on taxes. the republican led house takes a break. can you make sense of this for us? >> i think that's a little above any of our pay grade trying to make sense of it all other than it seems that it's one more fight that we've seen over and over again and we are seeing once again it play out almost as it appears slow motion, carol. you mention the call between speaker boehner and president obama. they may have talked. no read out of the call per se. we are still a long way away from a deal that is for sure. why? because at its most basic neither side is giving on their primary position. president obama continues to insist over and over again any deal must include a tax rate increase on the

timothy geithner puts the ball in the court of the republicans.uarantee we will not go over the fiscal cliff. >> no, i cannot promise that. that is a decision that lies in the hands of the republicans that are now imposing increasing tax rates. stuart: okay. if the republicans do not agree to higher taxes on the rich, it is all there fault if we go over the cliff. got that. this is what john boehner had to say. >> the day after the election, i found the results. i went to the cameras and made it clear. the republicans were willing to put revenue on the table if there were serious spending cuts and reforms put in place. we have talked about it. the president and white house have three weeks. this is the best we've got? stuart: as of this monday morning, the white house wants the republicans, forces the republicans to agree to raise taxes. the republicans thus far seem to be saying we will cut deductions, but not raise tax rates. >> what is so flabbergasting to me is that geithner, you just heard him, he basically said if the republicans do not do w

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who will replace timothy geithner? the president may have his mind made up already.asparino has the latest. stay with us. ♪ lori: quick market check for you, stocks drifting lower into the close, we're close to session lows. the dow is down 53 points. >>> has president obama already made up his mind on who will replace treasury secretary timothy geithner? wall street executives say he has. charlie gasparino has the latest. and the winner is? >> jack lew. lori: sure. >> he was the guy coming out of the gates, and for all intelligents and purposes based on the -- intents and purposes based on the word coming out of wall street, they say that the president is leaning heavily towards lew. the big tests, obviously, are these negotiations being led by geithner, and that begins on january 20th when president obama's reinaugurated or inaugurated for a second term, he steps down, he has to appoint someone else, and most people say it's lew's to lose, so to speak. [laughter] like i said, geithner's leading these negotiations, lew is a key component. and depending how they turn

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. >> cantor was speaking antd the deal presented by treasury secretary timothy geithner. today the white house released details about that deal. in spite of republican claims of $400 billion in cuts, the deal proposed $600 billion in cuts. $350 billion in medicare savings and $350 billion to other programings next year. john boehner basically lied yesterday when he said the white house had not offered specifics. today he complained about those specifics. >> the white house spent three weeks trying to develop a proposal and they send one up here that calls for $1.6 trillion in new taxes, calls for a little -- not even $400 billion in cuts and they want to have this extra spending that's actually greater than the amount they are willing to cut. i mean, it's -- it was not a serious proposal. and so right now, we're almost nowhere. . >> boehner offered the republican counter to the white house plan. >> our original framework still stands. instead of raising tax rates, we can produce a similar amount of revenue reforming the tax code to close loopholes and lower tax rates. >>

here is the treasury secretary timothy geithner. >> there's no agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2%. >> not necessarily going up to the clinton era rates. just going up. today at a press conference at the capital, bain got a question about this. listen carefully to how he responded or didn't respond. >> you did speak with the president earlier this week. can you characterize this call? and also we understand that he just is making clear that it's got to be increasing rates for the wealthy or no deal. are you willing to give a little bit? maybe just not all the way to 39.6? >> the phone call was pleasant, but just more of the same. the conversations that the staff had yesterday, just more of the same. it's time for the president, if east serious, to come back to us with a counteroffer. >> not a no on the rates going. up thing. john boehner didn't answer the tax part of the question at all. he talked about the phone call. it was pleasant. he didn't say we did not allow tax rates to go up at all. you see the deal that's taking place. a lot of the players i talked

is this politics by timothy geithner, secretary geithner? >> it is politics on every side. what is so frustrate sing this letter clearly underscores what many americans already know. we have a budget crisis because we have a spending crisis. while the talking heads on tv go on about tax cuts for the rich and we get them, will we not get them, had is about spending and have to address spending now. >> when you read his moats, the -- outline that he sends to harry reid, he says the government is spending $100 billion more per month than what it brings in. i mean, it is really incredible. what does this mean for the fiscal cliff discussions? >> well, i don't think it really means a whole lot. i think it is -- sort of the white house's way, treasurer's way, of putting extra pressure on the people in the building behind us. by the way, none of them are there. i'm not sure that's really going to work, frankly. and -- i -- john, our colleague john harwood is exactly right. this is not a surprise. we knew this was coming. the question that it is, you know, three days -- thee busine

that's what treasury secretary timothy geithner told steve lease son. joins us from the white house with more on this. >> melissa, thanks very much. interesting comments from the treasury secretary who laid out the negotiating position of the administration in ways that it hadn't before, at least not explicitly as they had. what i want to play here is the sound from the interview and i'm going to put my question in there too just so you understand exactly what the treasury secretary was responding to when it comes to the position of the administration on walking away or letting the country go over the fiscal cliff without tax hikes for the wealthy. here it is. >> i want to understand the administration's position when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy and those making more than $250,000. if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> oh, absolutely. there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthiest. remember, it's only 2%. >> what the

treasury secretary timothy geithner says republicans should say how much they are willing to raise taxesy. house speaker john boehner has dismissed president obama's plan as not serious. >>> stock futures indicate there will be modest gains when the stock market opens up this morning. >> yeah. this follows a week when all the key averages posted gains. ashley morrison of cbsmoneywatch.com has the latest on monday in new york. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frank and michelle. well, asian markets were mostly high they are morning on improved manufacturing data from china. tokyo's nikkei edged up a fraction to a seven month closing high while hong kong's hang seng lost a percent. >>> on wall street there was little movement as investors were cautious with all eyes on the "fiscal cliff." the dow rose 3, nasdaq down 2. >>> so far there's no resolution of the strike by clerical work at the ports of los angeles and long beach. the strike enters its 7th day today dramatically slowing traffic at the nation's busiest cargo complex. dock workers refuse to cross the picket lines. the cler

in addition to the "fiscal cliff," treasury secretary timothy geithner warned congress that the u.s. is close to hitting its debt limit of $16.4 trillion. geithner saved the government will take steps to allow more burrough after december 31. danielle nottingham, cbs news, washington. >>> let's look now at the markets. stocks fell sharply by 55 and change. the drop is attributed to consumer confidence falling to the lowest level since august. >>> the storm that moved across the country pushing northeast through new england after plowing through 30 states dumping snow, sleet and spawning dozens of tornadoes. edward lawrence has the latest. >> reporter: the northeast is dig out from a giant storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in some places. >> it's the heaviest snow i can remember. it's shutting the machine down every time of you give it a little push. the ice just clogs it up. >> reporter: the storm started in california last weekend and crossed the country creating blizzards in the midwest and south. several people died in traffic accidents. and the roads remain dangerous for

and timothy geithner headed up negotiations for the obama administration says the deal will be hard to come by without tax hikes for higher income americans and republican leaders led by house speaker john boehner calling the president's proposal essentially a waste of time. >> i was flabbergasted. >> we've the got seven weeks between election day and the end of the year, and three of those weeks have been wasted. >> steve centanni kicks off our college tonight from washington d.c. steve, where exactly do we stand tonight? >> well, harris, democrats are hoping republicans to raise taxes on the wealthy and the republicans are accusing the white house of wasting time. and saying that he didn't have a serious proposal when he reintroduced a plan to reduce 4 trillion dollars. >> the president asking for 1.6 trillion dollars worth of new revenue over ten years, twice as much as he's been asking for in public. his system spending in here that exceeded the amount of new cuts that he was willing to consider. it was not a serious offer. >> but so far it's the only white house offer on the table

. >> reporter: a week closer to the december 31st deadline, treasury secretary timothy geithner told bob schieffer any potential deal will have to include a tax hike on the upper 2% of income earners. >> there is no way to raise a meaningful amount of revenue relative to the size of our fiscal challenge by just limiting the value of deductions for the wealthiest americans. >> reporter: he said the biggest obstacle is republicans who refuse to acknowledge that fact. >> there's nothing that stands in the way of that agreement. except for the potential risk that a group of republicans decide, they hold up an agreement because they want to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest that we can't afford. >> reporter: on fox news 2 sunday speaker john boehner was not optimistic. >> i would say we're nowhere. period. we're nowhere. >> reporter: earlier this week house gop members rejected a proposal from the white house that included tax hikes, spending cuts and $50 billion in new stimulus. >> we've put a serious offer on the table by putting revenues up there to try to get this question resolved.

timothy geithner at the top of the hour.find out what's changed since the sunday shows he was doing interviews on. anton, ben, see you soon. i'll see you at the top of the hour. >> capital gains rates are probably going to go up. does that hurt the market as well? >> we've seen a lot of companies sell themselves. it's been a problem in the banking industry because loans have been paid off. they want to grow loans. people are taking control and repaying their loans. i think it's already been anticipated. >> you've had a hot hand trading this market lately. what are you doing, especially bearing in mind we have a jobs number on friday. >> i'm a little concerned on the adp numbers. this is generally the weakest of the year. that's probably baked in a little bit. i think we're at the beginning of an end of the year rally.

it is a point treasure secretary timothy geithner made clear over and over and over again. >> we've laid out a very detailed plan of spending cuts, $600 billion in spending in mandatory programs over ten years. if they would like to go beyond that or do it differently they need to tell us what they propose and then tell us what makes sense to them. but what we can't do is try to figure out what makes sense for them. tell us what they like as a complement to that. we can't react to anything until we see doots he tails of a proposal. we can't figure out what they need. they have to tell us. >> house speaker john boehner isn't playing ball claiming the white house proposal is a joke. >> it's flabbergasted. you can't be serious. i've never seen anything like it. >> boehner insists that talks have broken down. >> right now i would say we're nowhere. period. we're nowhere. we've put a serious offer on the table by putting revenues up there to try to get this question resolved. but the white house has responded with virtually nothing. >> there are now 29 days until the country reaches the so-ca

timothy geithner said there's no deal unless republicans agree to raise taxes on the wealthy.rious. they don't like democrats drawing a red line in the sand. president obama and the gop leaders have only held one face-to-face meeting on the fis calgary cliff since the election. that meeting took place more than two weeks ago. >>> the military trial of private bradley manning will stop fou now and resume in a month. that's what a military judge decided today. the delay is to give time for more of what the court calls pretrial proceedings. manning is accused of releasing u.s. military secrets through the website wikileaks. if convicted in a court-martial, he could get life in prison. >>> pope benedict is joining twitter officially. he launches his own internet account tomorrow. that's according to the vatican. a church official tells cnn that the pope will compose all of his tweets himself. no word yet on what he's chosen for his twitter account name. >>> it is a sight no one has ever seen before,en image few expected they ever would see. a same-sex couple getting married inseed

timothy geithner says the white house is ready to go over the cliff. republicans might stucmble, though, into having some leverage if they end up backing the tax rate plan now and kick the rest of the can to february. one top republican governor has some stinging sarcasm for his own party's position. in the middle east the situation in syria turns from serious to scary. concerns over chemical weapons has secretary clinton conferring with her russian counterpart today to try to avoid deadly developments. >>> an nbc news exclusive, afghanistan's president hamid karzai talks about his country's future and ongoing insecurity and blames the taliban of course. guess who else? nato and the united states. good morning from washington. it's thursday, december 6th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. today's fiscal cliff photo op of the day is going to be in suburban northern virginia when the president will remind the public yet again that without a budget deal taxes will go up on 100% of american

treasury secretary timothy geithner has warned that his department will need to take extraordinary measures to postpone the upcoming government defaults. he plans adjustments to the national budget that would give the u.s. two months of grace. president barack obama has said he is still hopeful that a resolution can be reached this year. he cut short his vacation in hawaii to restart negotiations with republicans in congress. before christmas, the president called for bipartisan cooperation. >> now is not the time for more self-inflicted wounds, certainly not those coming from washington. >> analysts say failure to reach a deal with poison u.s. consumer spending. the fiscal cliff would trigger tax increases and government spending cuts in january, leaving far less money in the economy. the international monetary fund warrants of knock on effects for the global economy. -- warns of knock on effects for the global economy. the pressure is on in washington to agree on a plan. only then might the applause on wall street be a little more genuine. >> with the clock ticking ever more loudly in was

in a letter to congress yesterday, treasury secretary timothy geithner warned the government would hit its legal borrowing limit by monday. without the okay to borrow more, geithner says the treasury will be forced to take "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the bills. so, that makes the government like the rest of us. he also referenced the impending fiscal cliff, which threatens to derail the economy if a compromise isn't be reached by next week on those big, unanswered issues. with both sides locked in a standoff, house republicans are calling on senate democrats to act first. democrats aren't budging much on their demands. they want to extend tax cuts on incomes below $250,000, prolong unemployment benefits and delay those sweeping spending cuts. while many republicans oppose new taxes for anyone, senator kay bailey hutchison says she's looking for compromise, alluding to house speaker john boehner's plan "b" that was met with stiff opposition from his own party. >> i think $250,000 is too low a threshold. a lot of working people who are couples would exceed that, and i don't t

we heard from timothy geithner and he was asked, if you.n don' get higher tax rates on the rich and doing away with loopholes, exemptions, are you peepd repar go off the cliff? he said absolutely. the republicans with the counter proposals this week. how do you read all of this? >> please, you know as well as i do maria, what happens in the public when you have these intense negotiations going on is really -- is no reflection of what's going on in the negotiations at all. i think it's important that president and the white house and tim geithner and others obviously think it's important to keep up the possibility of going over the physical cliff to put maximum pressure on the republicans and the republicans are starting to talk about the possibility of holding up the debt ceiling come january or february. >> it's interesting you say this. you're focused on taxes and much of the conversation has been on taxes and raising rates and revenue. we're not seeing any of the same elaborate conversation when it comes to sizable spending cuts. >> i think maria, what the president has said and this i

he may replace timothy geithner in treasury department. the amex executive is a long-time ally of the president and already serves on his jobs council. >>> to business news, after an extensive investigation by regulators, ubs will pay a $1.5 billion fine admitting to fraud. for more on that, we go to caroline ross. i like the name, it's good. congratulations. thank you very much. >> you talked about that ubs story. that's a massive, massive fine. one of the biggest banks here in europe. yes, there have been a lot of press speculation about the side of the fine, but it's three times bigger than the fine ba barclay's was fined. ubs also admitting to criminal wro wrongdoing in japan. >> how are global markets doing at this hour? >> well, actually global markets are up. they're cheering, you know, the fact that there could be a fiscal cliff deal between democrats and republicans. look, we've got european markets close to year highs, the cac and dax at 52-week highs. this is more related to the expected aggressive monetary easing by the boj, bu

more tough talk today from washington on the fiscal cliff: treasury secretary timothy geithner said he's willing to go over it if republicans don't agree to tax hikes for the wealthiest americans. president obama said basically the same thing but added one more hard line to the negotiations. >> if congress in any way suggests that they're going to tie negotiations to a debt ceiling vote and take us to the brink of default once again, as part of a budget negotiation-- which, by the way, we have never done in our history until we did it last year-- i will not play that game. >> late today the president spoke by telephone with house speaker john boehner. no specifics on what they said to each other, but it was their first conversation in a week. eventually the two sides will get down to bargaining over specifics, including entitlements. one idea may be to change the way the government measures inflation. that may sound like a small change, but, as darren gersh reports, it could have a big impact. >> reporter: if the price of oranges goes up, consumers will buy apples and other cheaper foods

timothy geithner was on the hill last week to present the president's plan to congress. >> i was flabbergasted. >> reporter: president obama wants $1.6 trillion in new taxes on the rich. $400 billion in cuts to entitlement programs such as medicare and $50 billion in stimulus spending. >> the president and white house have three weeks and this is the best we got? >> reporter: the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell laughed at geithner. geithner said if republicans don't like the president's plan it's up to them to present their own ideas. >> what we can't do is figure out what works for them. they have to come tell us what works for them. >> reporter: secretary geithner made it clear there will be no deal that does not include a tax hike on the wealthiest americans. >> there's not going to be an agreement without rates going up. >> reporter: no formal negotiating sessions are on the schedule here and many believe it will take about a week for the real work towards a solution to get under way. now, so much of the talk right now is about taxes, but another aspect of this fiscal cliff is massi

. >>> treasury secretary timothy geithner said the obama administration will reject a budget deal thatoesn't include higher taxes for the wealthiest 2% of americans. >> and the "fiscal cliff" deadline is now a day closer and still no deal between the president and republicans. political reporter grace lee is live in the newsroom with what this gridlock could cost californians. grace. >> reporter: well, liz, now we have some very real numbers that's what's at stake if we go over the "fiscal cliff." the daily democrat predicts that our state could lose $4.5 billion and lose about 200,000 jobs and with 26 days until that deadline, the painful reality is just becoming more clear. >> at 3:00, they want to start us closing on wednesday at noon. >> reporter: a social security employee for 30 years he is joining fellow federal workers across the u.s. to spread the word that the "fiscal cliff" is looming and at stake, social security benefits for millions. >> they seem to go for the people who had the least political pull, poor, disabled, people in east oakland. >> reporter: people like a socia

adding to the urgency, treasury secretary timothy geithner warned congress that the nation's debt limit will be reached by december 31st and extraordinary measures would have to be taken to avoid default on the government's loans. danielle nottingham, cbs 5, washington. >> tomorrow's meeting with the president will be the first time president obama sat down with all four leaders since november 16th. and tonight, senator mitch mcconnell said that he was interested in hearing what the president proposes, elizabeth. >> sounds like right now there's a lot of finger- pointing but not a lot of problem-solving. >> reporter: exactly. and both sides again today, house speaker john boehner, he was saying that to his house republicans on the conference call he said, look, the house has already acted on this problem. it's passed two bills. it's up to the senate to actually present some legislation and move on it. he said the house is more than willing to act on anything the senate passes. they just have to do it now. >>> all that "fiscal cliff" talk gave wall street a wild ride today. the dow erase