senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler live in honolulu, traveling with the president. hi, wendell. >> reporter: hi, arthel. first item on the president's agenda once he gets home is renewing jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. that was not a part of the budget deal that he signed just before christmas and the benefits expired on new year's day. the senate will vote on an extension monday. mr. obama hopes to pressure the house to follow suit with a speech the following day. here is a part of what he had to say in his internet address earlier today. >> we don't abandon our fellow americans when times get tough. we keep the faith with them until they start that new job. what's more, it actually slows down the economy for all of us. if folks can't pay their bills or buy the basics, local businesses take a hit and hire fewer workers. >> it's a safe bet he'll be closely watching the implementation of obamacare, making sure people who think they've enrolled in the exchanges actually get to see doctors and he'll be pushing for immigration reform, though house repub

bret. >> wendell goler traveling with the president in hawaii. thank you. >>> automakers are reporting strong sales for 1014. ford was up 11%. chrysler 9% and gm and toyota up 7%. the dow rebounded after yesterday's rough start to the year. industrial average gaining 29. the s&p lost two thirds and the nasdaq dropped 11. for the week, the dow was down.500 of a percentage point and the s&p and nasdaq both lost about half a point. >>> one of the most premier companies in the native northwest may be decided tonight. union members at boeing are voting right now on whether to take a new deal from the company or reject it and put their jobs in jeopardy. dan springer has the latest tonight. [ chanting ] >> reporter: there has been anything but union solidarity in everett, washington, since boeing, the world's biggest airplane maker, threatened to move 12,000 high paying jobs out of the area if the machinist didn't vote yes on a contract extension. boeing wants to free pensions and move to a 401(k). members rejected the offer by a two to one objection an

wendell goler is traveling with the president. >> reporter: at his year-end news conference, barack obama faced the tough questions. >> has this been the worst year of your questions. >> have to tell you, julie, that is not how i think about it. >> it is hard not to with the disastrous rollout of his healthcare.gov website and people can't keep their insurance plans as he promised which led to a tumble in the polls and a costly government shutdown that left world war ii veterans struggling to see their honor. but 2014 needs to be a year of action with more job creation and extended reform and a hike in minimum wage. democrats say republicans are hurting themselves as well as the country. >> this has to be done. you cannot -- this isn't even a political, this is common sense, you can't ignore the fastest growing population of this country. >> but house republicans from conservative districts are reluctant to compromise. >> he wants to ignore the fact that the same american people that re-elected him also re-elected a republican house to serve as a check and a balance on this runaway admini

wendell goler is live from honolulu where he is traveling with the president. wendell?eporter: gregg, first up was the long-term benefits extension, which was not on the bipartisan deal before he left. on tuesday, they will call on what they need to do before the job numbers were much lower. >> instead of punishing families, republicans should make it their new year's resolution to restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now. >> reporter: mr. obama will also push for an immigration reform bill, although house republicans continue to object to the path to citizenship he says is necessary to draw 13 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows. and he will focus a good deal of effort on implementing the affordable care act, trying to make sure people who enrolled in the exchanges actually find they have insurance the first time they go to see a doctor. the last thing he wants is a repeat of the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.gov website. the republicans are determined not to help him and feel the law is fatally flawed and should be repeale

wendell goler getting push back from the white house this morning there. what else, first of all, wendell, does gates say in this book. >> reporter: bill, gates served the last couple of years of the george w. bush administration, the first couple of years of president obama's and he was critical of both of them. he also says vice president biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue. the book is called, "duty, memoirs after secretary of war. it really takes no prisoners. gates says all too early in the obama administration suspicion and distrust of senior military officers by senior white house officials including the vice president became a big problem for me. gates never doubted his commitment to the troops but he did doubt the support for the miss, even though mr. obama approved so-called surge of 30,000 additional troops to afghanistan. he says the president and former secretary of state hillary clinton indicated politics played a part in their opposition of the surge of troops in iraq during the bush administration.

wendell goler live at the white house with who are on this. wendell, can you explain more about this latest accommodation? >> reporter: the preexisting condition insurance plan was supposed to be a bridge for people's medical conditions that kept them from getting insurance or getting it affordably before the insurance companies had to cover everybody starting a couple weeks ago. there are still less than 30,000 people on the plan. at one point it was 135,000 people. a spokeswoman said hhs decided to extend it through march, quote, to insure that pcip enrollees do not experience a lapse in coverage because many are currently receiving regular treatments for such diseases as cancer, diabetes and hard disease. hhs already extended the plan through january because of the website problems and republicans say the latest extension is another sign that obamacare is not meeting expectations on a number of levels. >> people finding out now that disproportionately older and sick. the result next year premiums will go through the roof. in the interim, all

wendell goler thank you. jenna: down the way from the white house not one, but three different hearings on obamacare are under way on capitol hill but they all have a single focus. the ongoing security problems with healthcare.gov. congressional investigators are looking into changes made to the exchange website since it went live october 1st. the administration claims that the information is more secure but that is not the assessment of today's star witness, so-called white hat hacker, david kennedy who testified at hearings back in november. >> healthcare.gov is not secure today. nothing's really changed since the november 19th testimony. in fact from november 19th testimony it is even worse. additional security researchers come into play providing additional research, additional findings that we can definitely tell that the website is not getting any better. jenna: chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel joins us live from capitol hill where the hearings are happening. mike, what have you heard so f

senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler is traveling with the president on vacationonolulu. where it is very early new year's eve morning. wendell what does the president have on his agenda in 2014? >> reporter: leland in his end of the year press conference the president wants to create more jobs and extend unemployment benefits for people who can't find work out of job six months or so. he wants to raise rates for folks at low end of the scale and as you point out he is also pushing for immigration reform to lure the country's 13 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows. republican divisions over the path to citizenship many see as amnesty make that a tough sell in the house and democrats are well aware the issue is hammering republicans politically. >> they can't find a plan that they within their own party agree upon. how are they going to work with and agree with democrats? this has to be done. you can not, this isn't even a political, this is common sense. you can't ignore the fastest-growing population of this country. >> reporter: leslie marshall and oth

. >> wendell goler is live with us there, good to see you. chris wallace, host of "fox news sunday" with us now. i had lunch with the president this afternoon, invited the anchors of tonight's coverage in, seemed upbeat on one hand and concerned on another about this inequality and the fact that so many people don't seem to have much of a chance anymore and he seemed determined to either with executive action or cooperation change that. >> there's a policy aspect to that and a political aspect to that as well. policy aspect certainly something the president's been concerned about, one of the plain planks of his platform when he ran for re-election in 012. interestingly enough they've done. testing and found inequality does not poll test well because it sounds like you're talking about class welfare, rich versus poor. i think you'll hear less talk about inequality and more talk about opportunity because who could be against opportunity. there's another point and this is the political point. the president's poll numbers are terrible. there was

senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler is traveling with the president who's n hawaii, much nicer than the east coast. wendell, how are you? >> reporter: well, jenna, i'm just fine, and so is the weather here. the government argues for-period of time company -- profit companies cannot claim -- essentially, the nonprofits exempt themselves and the government pays for the coverage, but a catholic group based in baltimore and denver says that's not a solution at all since they still wind up enabling contraceptive services to the women that work for them. here's a lawyer for the group. >> they say, listen, we've been a catholic organization for 175 years. we're nuns. everybody who sees us knows that we're nuns, and we can't turn around and start disrespecting life at its earliest phases for participating in the provision of drugs and devices that can take innocent human rife. life. >> reporter: supreme court justice sotomayor has granted the sisters a temporary stay, now she or the full court must decide to issue an injunction while the case works to eventually the

wendell goler is live at the white house with more on this. wendell, gates says politics continues to influence the president and his decision making after he took office. how so? how does he describe it? >> reporter: well it did, jenna, to be fair gates was critical of former president george w. bush as well, though he never felt mr. bush, never felt politics played a role in mr. bush's foreign policy decision-making. when he served in the two administrations gates says, was a factor in that. gates says he was, mr. obama's first defense secretary and he writes, quote, i joined a new, inexperienced president, determined to change course and equally determined from day one to win re-election. domestic political considerations would there for be a factor though i never believe a decisive one. gates said mr. obama was more committed to the troops than the mission in afghanistan. he praised mr. obama's decision to approve the bin laden raid. by contrast he writes of time in the bush administration, quote, i worked for him in the last two years of h