Ifill thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill neither side showed signs of budging today as the nation edged closer toward a so called fiscal cliff that could raise taxes by years end. We begin with a report from newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman. Were going to have to see the rates on the top two percent go up. Were not going to be able to get a deal without it. Reporter in his first interview since the election, president obama rejected a proposal from House Speaker john boehner. He spoke on bloomberg television. Unfortunately the speakers proposal right now is still out of balance. Im happy to entertain other ideas that the republicans may present. But we are not going to simply cut our way to prosperity or to cut our way out of this deficit problem that we have. Were going to need more revenues. In order to do that, that starts with higher rates for the folks at the top. Reporter the president did say today he would consider lowering rates again for the top two percent next year as part of a broader tax overhaul. The House Republican plan envisions 2. 2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade. 800 billion would come from new revenues but with no hike in tax rates for top earners. Instead the plan relies on 1. 2 trillion in reduced spending including 600 billion from changes in medicare and medicaid. At the white house today, the president met with a Bipartisan Group of governors pressing his own plan for deficit reduction. That proposal, 1. 6 trillion in revenue from tax increases on the wealthy and 600 billion in spending cuts mostly from reductions in medicare. He also wants authority to raise the debt ceiling without congressional intervention. But governors emerged afterwards treading a line between the two sides. Delaware governor jack markel, a democrat, is chairman of the National Governors association. We came not to embrace one plan or the other. We came to make it very clear, a, why its so important that something happen both on the economic and on the fiscal issue and, b. , to make sure that the president , the white house, the administration and members of congress realize that we are willing partners. Reporter republican scott walker of wisconsin and other leaders also urged the burden of medicaid spending for the poor not be shifted to the states. We hope theres going to be something that happens here in this nations capital. In the end we hope its something that is positive for our states both for our finances but also for our states economies. Reporter according to the governors the president reiterated his commitment to try to get an agreement with republicans here at the capital. But in a statement Speaker Boehner said the president s plan doesnt have the votes to pass the house. Mr. Boehner said his plan represents a middle ground. Hes ready and eager to talk to the president about it. Congresswoman Kathy Mcmorris rogers of Washington State is the partys conference chair in the house. Were going to either succeed together or were going to fail together. The president is calling for higher taxes as well as more spending. Hes calling for another stimulus. At a time when we need tax reform. We need to be looking at. And the republicans have put forward tax reform that includes closing the loopholes, eliminating some of those tax credits, that will actually impact the wealthiest. Reporter some republicans said the boehner plan goes too far in taxing the welloff. South carolina senator jim demint, a staunch fiscal conservative, blasted the plan on twitter today. He said Speaker Boehners offer of an 800 billion tax hike will destroy jobs and allow politicians in washington to spend even more. But the senates democratic majority leader harry reid warned republicans against listening to such voices. You cant let these negotiations be dictated by the tea party. Our guiding principle should be the views of the vast majority of the American People. The math is clear. The only way to accomplish these things is to allow the rates to go up on the top two percent of tax payers. Were not going to twist ourselves into contortions to apiece a vocal minority of the tea party. Reporter in turn, Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell said president obama needs to ride herd on democrats if theres any hope of agreement. Only one person in the country can deliver the members of his party to support a deal that he makes. And thats the president. There have been no deals of this magnitude made in modern times in congress and forced on a reluctant president. I would hope the president would turn off the campaign. Congratulations you had a great victory. And lets get serious about dealing with this deficit and debt here at the end of the year. Reporter the partisan back and forth was briefly on hold this evening for the lighting of the capital Christmas Tree but there was little else in the days developments to suggest happy holidays. Woodruff still to come on the newshour, natos decision to deploy an antimissile system to turkey; the massive protest against the government in cairo; paul krugman on the stalemate over taxes and spending; the ongoing cholera epidemic in haiti; and American Military leadership. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan iran claimed today it has captured a u. S. Surveillance drone. The scaneagle is used to collect photographic and video images. Iranian state Television Broadcast video of two military commanders examining the aircraft. They said it was seized in the past few days, but they did not specify where or how. In response, the u. S. Navy said none of its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles u. A. V. s are missing. And in washington, white house spokesman jay carney raised doubts about tehrans statements. We have no evidence that the iranian claims you cite are true. Id refer you to the pentagons comments this morning for details about this particular type of u. A. V. , but again we have no evidence that the iranian claims are true. Sreenivasan a year ago, iran did manage to down a c. I. A. Drone that apparently crossed the border from afghanistan. And last month, the u. S. Military said another drone came under fire by iran over the persian gulf. It was undamaged. In afghanistan, a bomb blast has killed two nato troops in the countrys south. The Alliance Says the attack happened yesterday. It did not provide the nationalities of those killed. So far this year at least 384 International Troops have been killed in afghanistan. Most of them have been americans. In economic news, the u. S. Housing market showed more signs of recovery in a new report by the real estate data firm, core logic. It said home prices in october were up more than 6 compared with last year. Thats the largest gain in more than six years. Still, the housing news was not enough to boost wall streets spirits. Stocks edged lower again as budget talks in washington showed no signs of progress. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost more than 13 points to close at 12,951. The nasdaq fell five points to close at 2996. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to judy. Woodruff we turn now to the conflict in syria. The countrys neighbor, turkey, received longsoughtafter defense help from nato today. The military coalition also expressed growing concerns about the assad regimes chemical weapons supply. In an all too familiar scenes of civil war, rockets blasted and fires flared overseer i cant today. Far from the fighting in brussels, nato members approved turkeys request for patriot antimissile systems. They will defend against syrian shelling and rocket fire that land on the turkish side. The issue has taken on greater urgency. Amid u. S. Warnings that syria could be preparing to use chemical weapons against the rebels. The syrian stock piles of chemical weapons are a matter of great concerns. We know that syria possesses. We know they have the chemical weapons. It is a matter of urgency to ensure effective defense and protection of our ally turkey. Woodruff nato chief also warned of Even Stronger action if the Syrian Government crosses the chemical line. Echoing mondays statements by president obama. If anybody resorts to these terrible weapons, i would expect an Immediate Reaction from the international community. Woodruff syria has denied any intention of using chemical weapons. Russia, a key syrian ally, dismissed the intelligence reports as rumors. Yesterday in istanbul, russian president Vladimir Putin said he understands turkeys concerns about border security, but he warned that deploying patriot missiles could raise fears of a wider conflict. Meanwhile, inside syria intense fighting flared again near damascus today. Amateur video showed government warplanes carrying out new arrayeds. The syrian capital has seen escalating violence in the last week as rebels try to close the noose on president Bashar Al Assads regime and the military tries to recapture lost ground. Amid the fighting, the state news agency reported that rebel more tar fire killed nine students and a teacher at a school outside damascus today. The opposition also reported the incident but did not say who fired the mortar. Meanwhile, there are meanwhile, there are indications that russias position on syria may be changing. The New York Times reports that the russians had agreed to a new strategy to persuade president assad to step down. For more on all of this, we turn to dimitri simes, president of the center for the national interest, a Foreign Policy think tank. And steven heydemann, a Senior Adviser for middle east initiatives at the United States institute of peace. Hes worked with the Syrian Opposition on the challenges ahead once the assad regime falls. Steve, to you first. What do you understand the situation on the ground to be right now in syria . We have seen in the past month a significant shift in the momentum of events on the ground. We have seen the opposition increase the effectiveness of its tactics. It has acquired weapons that have permitted it to challenge the regime much more effectively across a broad range of fronts ranging from the south of syria to damascus to the north, and were seeing this reflected in the regimes response to the opposition including some of the activities surrounding movement of chemical weapons. We dont know exactly whats at stake but part of the speculation is that theyre putting themselves into a position in which they could create a defensive zone if it turns out to theyre unable to defend damascus in the long run. Woodruff what is known about the evidence that this is a serious threat that they may turn to chemical weapons . The intentions of the regime are uncertain. I dont think anybody knows what Bashar Al Assad has in mind but there is a very detailed satellite imagery available that provides very clear evidence that a number of sites in which these weapons have been stored from been. Have had activity that is seen as very troubling by western military analysts because it suggests that they may be positioning themselves for some possible use of those weapons at some point in the future. Woodruff youre saying this is taking place at a time when the opposition seems to be gaining the upper hand. And when the regime i think is feeling increasingly insecure about its survival. Thats a very dangerous combination. Woodruff dmitri simes youve been talking to people close to russian president Vladimir Putin. They would agree with what steve said. The situation on the ground is changing. The assad regime is losing. Theyre not yet at a point of collapse. But its next to impossible to imagine how assad can win. Nobody knows for sure whether assad will be able to stay away for months or weeks because if a regime like that collapses, it may happen very quickly. What the russians do not want to do is to be on the side of a tyrant and to be excluded from a future peaceful settlement. Woodruff this is a new posture on the part of the russians. Is that fair to say . It is not entirely new. I think the russians were dealing to deal with syria for quite some time. I think that they were willing to have assad be in agreement with power as a part of the negotiated settlement for quite some time. What is changing is the pryings they would require, is the price the russian price . The situation on the ground is changing in the rebels favor. Woodruff what does that mean . Well, it means that, for instance, they were saying in the past that they would not be prepared to prejudge who would stay in power in syria once negotiations would start. A senior russian official close to president putin told me recently we consider assad a butcher. He has to go. But it should be decided by the syrian people. Woodruff so if that, Steve Heydemann is the evolving russian position, is the United States prepared to accept that, to deal with that . Well, the changing conditions on the grown have given considerable new urgency to conversations about whether a political solution is possible, whether there is a strategy that would bring about the removal of Bashar Al Assad from power, on what terms and what role the russians can play in that process. One of the Big Questions in washington right now is whether russia could deliver Bashar Al Assad even if they were to accept a process of negotiation that envisioned his removal from power. Woodruff what do you mean deliver him . Because it isnt entirely clear that russia has the kind of flu over assad that would persuade or compel him to accept a negotiation approved by the russians and endorsed by the russians. Woodruff before you go any further, let me turn back to dmitri simes. Whats your sense of how much influence the russians have . I completely agree with steve. The russian influence on assad is real but limited. There is another country which has more influence on assad and it is iran. The real dilemma for the russians would be if we say, okay, lets have this negotiation. Lets have russia disabled but iran should be excluded. Assad says, well, i am willing to be a part of the negotiations but not without iran. To accept the exclusion of iran would be a difficult concession for putin. My impression is that it is not quite there yet. Woodruff given that, again Steve Heydemann, how is the west looking at all this . Its happening very quickly. Its a matter of enormous concern. If the regime were to collapse in the absence of a political settlement, the potential for increased violence, the possibility that the opposition now is taking shape entirely is not yet ready to govern is seen as a very serious consideration in washington. However, the question of whether it would be possible for the u. S. , for example, to accept a negotiated process in which assad himself were permitted to escape accountability is something that i think would be very hard to sell. Its a divide between the u. S. And certainly with the iranians that will hamper efforts to put a political process in place. Woodruff at this point, what are the next steps that are happening at this point with the administration, with nato . We saw president putin in turkey. So what are the next steps . My own sense is that there will be accelerated efforts to explore with russia what the contours of a negotiation might look like. I think there will be an effort to clarify the terms on which iran might be included although there remains very deep reluctance to moving in that direction. I think at the same time efforts to increase pressure on assad and to continue to develop the opposition will all constitute part of the diplomatic package that washington is pursuing. Woodruff meanwhile, let me put the same question to you, dmitri simes, what are the next steps as the russians see it . Youve already brought up iran. There are two different games. One is relatively easy. Not easy but relatively easy. Its how to get rid of assad. Its clear that he will go. The only question is, how are they going to arrange it . It would be better to negotiate a solution not amass on the ground. The second question, do we want to use this crisis to remove iran from syria . More broadly to remove iran at least to reduce or downsize in the region. If we want to do all that, then we would be asking russia for a very major concession. They think that putin is not quite prepared to do it at this point. The relationship remains problematic. They are difficult issues. My impression is that putin would like to accommodate obama but not at any price. If i may at the same time, i think it would be very difficult for the u. S. To accept the framework in which iran was not seen to pay a price for the spoar of the assad regime. Woodruff big Big Questions remaining here. Thank you both. Ifill protests surrounding egyptian president Mohammed Morsis recent power grab and a hastily drafted constitution turned violent again today. Jeffrey brown reports. Brown Police Outside the president ial palace in cairo retreated this evening after a crowd broke through their lines. Officers fired back with tear gas but eventually a loud. Allowed protestors to make their way to the palace gates. Some threw stones toward the billing. Security officials said president Mohammed Morsi left the palace as the demonstrations grew larger, reportedly to more than 100,000. It has become commonplace in the last few weeks. They follow morsis recent decree that expands his powers and hastily drafted constitution put together by an islamist dominated committee. We wont be able to speak. There wont be a court that we can go talk to. He has made himself a force and he said it is a rather force. This is something we cannot believe. Weve been 0 years being betrayed. We wont believe morsi. He will remain seated in the chair and not leave it. Brown on another front several of egypts Independent Newspapers did not publish today. Protesting what they called a lack of press freedoms in the proposed constitution. In the meantime, morsi supporters gathered earlier today outside the Supreme Constitutional Court also in cairo. Just one of a number of demonstrations theyve held. Nationwide referendum on the constitution is set for december 15. A short time ago i spent to nancy yousef in cairo. Nancy, thanks for joining us again. Youve been at these protests all day. Describe the scene. Well, it started today as a protest that was supposed to only be at the president ial palace by opponents in morsis constitutional kreb giving himself absolute judicial power and his decision to hold a constitutional referendum december 15. Then this morning the protestors decided to expand it to tahrir square. Just a couple of hours ago it moved to the headquarters of the state services. The most interesting protest was at the president ial palace because protestors there were able to take down the bashed wire, protecting the palace, move towards it, commandeer a police truck. It appeared to get some of the Police Officers on their side. The real momentum changer i think for opponents here who had really felt kind of dispirited by some of the events here. Judges who had said they would not hold the referendum announced yesterday that they would. Just on saturday morsi supporters, many of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, came out in the hundreds of thousands all over cairo. I think what happened at the palace today really boosted the confidence and spirits of those who believe that morsis gone too far and that hes not representing all of egypt. Instead just his constituency supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Brown who are they this time . Who are the protestors that are coming out in such numbers . Well, it was a somewhat diverse group. What was notable is the absence of islamists. There were a lot of liberals and secularists, christians, moderates. People who perhaps voted for morsi during the election because they didnt want to vote for his counterpart who had been a member of former president Hosni Mubaraks government. Now they are angry that this man who was supposed to really represent the demands of the revolution instead has really only served his base. Were starting to see a little bit more diversity in the crowd than we saw even a week ago when it was so clearly liberal and so clearly members of the Christian Community and other minority groups were starting to see a little bit more diversity but not enough to suggest that that core base of the Muslim Brotherhood, which makes up such a big part of the population here, has broken in any real way from morsi. Brown you mentioned the police. I wonder about their role and even more about the military. Those were Big Questions, of course, two years ago when the mubarak regime fell. What do we know at this point . Those are two Big Questions now. What i saw were police who in a matter of minutes went from taking the abuse of protestors yelling at them that they were defending a dictator to actually joining and joking along with the protestors which is pretty extraordinary. The key question will be what the military does because they remain the nations arbitrator in this conflict and in this dispute. And in all disputes really in egypt. Who side will they take . Whether they will continue to back morsi or side on the revolution. As you point out, the military was key two years ago while the 18 days of protestors played a big, big role. It wasnt until the military essentially said to mubarak that you have to go that things really changed. I think they continue to play a key role. Its one of the things were wait to go see. Up until now we havent seen any indications from them one way or the other. They denied a report that they were defending the president ial palace. Brown finally nancy, what about the referendum on the 15th . If opposition groups figured out how theyre going to respond, theyre going to vote against it or boycott or try to stop it. Whats the situation . Whats known . Well, you raise a very important point which is that where Mohammed Morsis backers are really unified behind the Muslim Brotherhood which remains the best organized group here in egypt, the opponents arent as organized. They havent even named a leader. What were hearing from the people ha we talked to is those who boycotted the elections are now saying they plan to vote no against the referendum on december 15. They argue that the constitution was written by a Muslim Brotherhooddominated constitutional assembly, that it doesnt represent their interests. In fact when you read the 234article document it leaves a lot of things to the parliament. I think opponents here fear that what theyre doing is passing the constitution that then muslimdominated parliament would act on and actually change. For example, the constitution says that the government cant read your email unless regulated by law. There are 33 instances of this in the constitution. It would be, of course, the parliament that writes the law. Theres a lot of concern that isnt a longstanding clear contract between the people in the government but really another way for the brotherhood to expand its power grab here. Brown nancy yousef of mcclatchy in cairo, thanks so much. Ifill well continue our conversation series in the days to come. We get a very different take on this. Paul krug man is a Nobel Prize Winning economist at Princeton University and a columnist for the New York Times. He joins us now. Ers kin bowles may be one of the people you have written about in the past who you called deficit. Who were touting a phantom menace known as the fiscal cliff. Am i right about that . Fiscal cliff is not a phantom menace. The deficit right now is. The notion that something terrible will happen if we dont deal with the deficit right away. The fiscal cliff is a very different story. Thats about reducing the deficit too fast. Ifill you call it an austerity bomb. Describe what you mean by that. Whats happening is that we are scheduled, unless something is done basically to do to ourselves gratuitously what has been happening to some of the european economies. Were going to have substantial spending cuts, substantial tax increases at a time when the dme is still very weak. Of course thats a recipe for sliding back into recession. We set ourselves up with the land mine and the road in front of our economy which is not based on anything real, its just based on our politicalness. Ifill speaking of political mess, both sides have what they say are opening gambits on the table. President obama at least his last week which calls for 1. 6 trillion in revenues. The republicans came back with their own yesterday. As you looked at each approach, what do you see in that . Well, i think its important. I think the reporting has been a little weak on the republican plan. It isnt really a plan. Theyre claiming 2. 2 trillion in deficit reduction but the specifics theyve actually laid out such as they have are only about 300 billion. The rest of it is all vapor ware. Claims that they will close loopholes. They wont say what. Claims they will cut spending but they dont say how. The republican plan is actually just a smoke screen. Theres nothing real there. The obama plan is a very good, very sensible plan. Which as we know as very little chance of taking place in its current form. At least its a real plan. We know what it is hes proposing to do. Ifill among the critics of his plan are those who say that it doesnt do anything or speak at all to the economy of entitlement reform or at least cutting the costs of entitlement. Thats a very weird thing. It does, in fact, actually cut a substantial amount from medicare spending. It actually. Of course, the Affordable Care act, obama care, does a lot to curb the longrun growth of medicare costs. Theres actually a lot in there. Hes actually done more to bring down the cost curve for medicare than anyone has ever done before. But in washington that is considered not serious if hes not actually taking been anies away from people who need them. Its a really weird they can. You inflict pain on vulnerable people. Obama is very serious in the real sense. The notion he hasnt done anything is totally unfair. Hes done more than anyone has ever done before. Ifill lets talk about one part of the republican, you want to put area quotes around it, plan. Thats the idea of raising the eligibility age for medicare. Why isnt that something that might actually be a big first step . First of all its very small amounts of money. Congressional Budget Office put it at a little over 100 billion over ten years. Thats trivial. It doesnt save very much money. 65 and 66yearolds are young seniors so they dont cost a lot actually. They dont have the health problems. Kicking them off the program doesnt save you very much money. It doesnt bend the cost curve. It makes almost no difference to the Financial Outlook but its cruel. Its taking a lot of people who are counting on, able to have finally guaranteed insurance and kicking them out into we dont know whether obama care, how thoroughly it will be implemented. Its just its its exactly what i was saying. It sounds serious because its hurting vulnerable people. If you actually look at the dollars and cents its not serious at all. Of course it will cost people much more. Youre talking about saving for every dollar that the government says youre imposing 2 of costs on the people who are thrown off the program. Ifill what about inflation ajustments for Social Security . That would certainly save more. It does save but again its surprisingly small. I made my own estimate and said thats 180 billion over the next ten years. Other people think its a bit less than that. Its a really pretty, you know, as far as we can tell the actual inflation rates is, if anything, a bit higher than the official rate. You are inflicting serious hardship for very little money. All of these things that have occupied our attention are not where the big bucks are. The big bucks are in making highincome people pay higher taxes and in actually addressing Health Care Costs which the Affordable Care act does and none of the things were talking about now will actually do. Ifill are you hearing movement that im not hearing about raising taxes on the wealthy . Thats the one thing that john boehner said he will not do is raise rates. Everybody is guessing. I have no more expertise than anyone else. Theyre guessing well go over the cliff. Taxes will go up. Democrats proposes a bill that cuts taxes on the middle class. The republicans dont dare vote it down. Well have gotten the higher taxes on the wealthy through this back door route. Tim geithner is right. You cannot have a seer imrus plan unless those tax rates on the wealthy go up. Ifill the president is. Hassles proposedded something that john boehner calls silliness or secretary geithner actually did which is taking thed why of the debt ceiling off of congress plate. Something which members of congress seem to think at least is a no starter. What is the value in putting that out there . Well again it needs to be said. This is crazy. The way that the debt ceiling works is that congress can actually vote to not tax enough to pay for the spending it proposes and then it can refuse to allow the government to borrow the money to make up the difference between its own spending bills and its own tax bills. This is crazy. This is a license for continual irresponsibility. And of course were heading for. The republicans are attempting to do government by blackmail. If you dont give us what we want, well tank the economy. Nice little economy youve got here. Shame if shg were to happen to it. This needs to be taken off the table. Ifill lets assume we do go over the cliff as you suspect, where do we we land . Where is the balance both sides are looking for . Well, i mean in a way you could say a balanced outcome is that most of the bush tax cuts will survive. The fact of the matter is just a small piece of them is going to be taken away. Theres a lot of things that the democrats want extension of the payroll tax, expansion of unemployment been tits, more stimulus in general. That probably wont happen if we go over the cliff. Its not as if were talking about a situation in which president obama gets everything he wants. Im not sure. What we want is the least bad outcome for the u. S. Economy. And the u. S. Longterm fiscal outlook that we can get. I dont think that balance is what were seeking. What were seeking is is lets try not to mess up this situation even more than it already is mess up. Ifill do you agree with Erskine Bowles who told us where we are right now resembles theater . I think its a little bit more than that. I think that there is a much deeper partisan divide. I think Erskine Bowles, bless his mart heart, still wants to believe we live in the washington of 20 or 30 years ago where reasonable men could ghettoing and make sensible deals. I dont think were in that washington anymore. I think this is going to be. I dont think theres going to be much of a deal. I think theres going to be a kind of. There will be an outcome which hopefully wont be too bad. But the idea that were actually going to have a guy shaking his hands and everybody feeling good about the outcome. Thats not necker in the year 202 or 2013. Ifill paul krugman of Princeton University and the New York Times. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Ifill well continue our conversation series in the days to come. That will include an interview with one of the most vocal conservative opponents of higher taxes, grover norquist. Woodruff now, as part of our agents for change series, we have an update from earthquake and floodravaged haiti. Special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports on the fight against an ongoing cholera epidemic. Reporter the 2010 earthquake that devastated haiti may still loom large in americans memory but in haiti itself, that was at least three disasters ago. Before hurricanes thomas last year, isaac in august and recently sandy. Each storm brought a grim reminder of yet one more everpresent disaster the deadly cholera epidemic that started ten months after the quake. At the cholera ward of Saint Lukes Hospital just outside the capital portauprince, this doctor says since Hurricane Sandy admissions have doubled from 20 to 40 patients each day. Most of the new cases are coming from further up the hill in places where we had not seen them before. Im not positive but perhaps the wells there have been contaminated. Reporter experts believe cholera was brought here by u. N. Peacekeepers. Untreated sewage from this base flowed into a tributary of the river, the major source of water for both washing and drinking. Cholera is spread by fecaloral contact. Two years on 200,000 patients have been sickened, 750 d 7,500 have died from diarrhea and fluid loss. Each flood brings more contaminated water, more cases. The epidemic prompted massive relief efforts and public campaigns. On the streets and in classrooms promoting hygiene and sanitation. Fatalities have dropped from 10 of cases early on to about 1 . Still, 600 people have died from cholera this year. Many in remote areas even those unaffected by floods. Theres now plenty of awareness of cholera in haiti. The biggest challenge for people today is distance. As the epidemic subsided over the last few months many Treatment Centers have been closed in the remote areas. Getting to plays that remain open is a huge challenge that can take hours. And that delay can be fatal. This man, a 27yearold mother of three, will likely recover having made it in time to get prompt antibiotics and rehydration therapy. Her husband wasnt so lucky. He died a week earlier in their home less than an hour away by motorcycle. He took ill around midnight. There was no one to care for the children. No means to bring him in. We didnt have the money to hire a motorcycle. Reporter across this spartan Treatment Center run by the bostonbased Charity Partners in health other challenges were apparent from patients stories. We dont have hygienic facilities. We treat our water but dont have a formal latrine. I was staying in my sisters home and im not sure she treated the water. There are 14 People Living in our house. Its very expensive to treat the water for so many people. Our own latrine was kes troyed in a roadbuilding project. We dont have that. Reporter cholera not seen in haiti for almost a century since 2010 is likely to remain for some time says this physician. Cholera endemic to the region to the country is the last thing they need. Permanent solutions need to be put in play to be able to really stem the tide of this epidemic that is still ongoing. Reporter he says choleras persistence is a proxy for a much larger rebilling effort thats fallen short, one that should have provided far more access to clean water and sanitation. Reporter at least 360,000 people remain in crowded tent camps, he notes. Other people have rebuilt in poor neighborhoods destroyed in the quake like this one in a suburb. Water had to be carried in. There are few toil hes so theres a threat of cholera. James lives in the u. S. But was visiting family here. There is no way for them to get water down here because theres no water down here. Reporter kevin is one of many small providers who try to make relief. Hes a georgia physician who started a charity to provide safe drinking water. His group installed clean water facilities into six schools before running out of donated funds. He says theyd like to put in many more but have had no luck applying for funds the u. N. Has for water projects. Theyre trying to come up wore Water Solutions for an entire country. Were working in a very small region. Theyre looking for bigger Global Solutions. My problem with that thinking is that three years later somebody is still thinking about Global Solutions when we have real problems right here. And nothing is being done. Reporter thats a complaint thats widely heard in water and sanitation projects or anything else theres little to show for the billions in aid that came in or was pledged to haiti as human rights activists. I talk to people in the tent camps if you look here, you can see that the situation is actually worse. Theres no change with education, with infrastructure or health care. Corruption, poverty and hunger havent decreased. Lehrer head of the u. N. s large Haiti Mission here acknowledges the slow pace but says there has been some progress on the massive rebuilding task, a much smaller number of tent dwellings since last year, for example. If haiti were a glass and its gone from being 10 full to 15 full, lets recognize that without in anyway diminishing the fact that youve still got 85 of the glass full. Reporter but fisher says many of the problems were endemic to haiti long before the earthquake. What weve seen is people who are in camps because of entrenched poverty. Many of these people were hidden before in slums. Theyre now in the open in camp. That is a function of underdevelopment . Its a function of weak governance. Its a function of lack of alternative. Reporter he says one of the biggest problems is that haitis government crippled by the quake in a corrupt reputation hasnt been able to lay out National Priorities for the rebuilding. Thats largely been led by foreign nongovernment organizations. At least 10,000 of them, everything from small Church Groups to the Large International agencies. N. G. O. S have received more than 90 of all aid dollars. The amount of redundancy with the more than 10,000 n. G. O. S at the u. N. Special Envoys Office is estimated just in haiti. Just leaves one wondering where all the money has gone. Frankly if you look at as they have done where all the money has gone, hardly any has gone to strengthen the government. Reporter partners in health which has been in haiti for 5 years is trying to restore what it says is the appropriate role for the government. 60 of our beds have medica medical. Electrical receptacles and data capacity. Reporter the group raised 22 million to build a 300bed stateoftheart Teaching Hospital in central haiti. However, it then partnered with haitis ministry of health to design and run it. It will turn over the hospital to the government in 10 years. This doctor says haiti can never be rebuilt unless it has a strong, accountable government. It would be so much easier for us to run it and not coordinate with anybody but ourselves because were really smart or at least we think we are. Reporter and you are the guys with the money. We are the guys with the money. Again n. G. O. S dont guarantee the right of health to citizens of any country. But the government does. We see ourselves as supporting the government. Reporter the president cut the ribbon on the new hospital vowing his administration will do better. International donors who have with held half the 5 billion they pledged to rebuild haiti will closely watch how projects like this hospital fare. For many ordinary haitians the goal as one Health Worker put it is to make it to the end of each day alive. Woodruff freds reporting is a partnership with the undertold stories project at st. Marys university in minnesota. Ifill over the past couple of weeks, generals, past and present, have found themselves in an uncomfortable spotlight. Retired army general David Petraeus resigned as director of the c. I. A. When he admitted to having an extramarital affair. The commander of u. S. And Coalition Forces in afghanistan, general john allen, is also under investigation for sending inappropriate emails to a women in tampa. The former commander of africa command, general william ward, was demoted one rank after being accused of lavish spending. And Brigadier General jeffrey sinclair, who was Deputy Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in afghanistan, is facing Sexual Misconduct charges, including sodomy and wrongful sexual conduct. A new book looks at american generals over the last century. The author is veteran journalist tom ricks. The book is the generals American Military commanders from world war ii to today. Ray suarez spoke to him recently. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Suarez i think reading as a nonmilitary expert but an interested party, the most surprising thing was that so many men who were not really up to the task became generals in the first place. How did that happen . George marshals when he was chief of staff of the army was that generalship is one of the hardest things there is in the world to do. You have to be intellectually and physically engaged and theres enormous stress. It burns people out. His attitude was a good number of people are simply going to fail at it. During world war ii, 155 men commanded Army Divisions in combat. Of those 155, 16 were relieved for combat ineffectiveness. Suarez thats about 10 . Compare it to today. Nobody gets fired for anything. Mediocrity is an accepted core value in the performance of generals. Suarez is being a general something that we dont really know how good youre going to be at until you have to lead combat troops in the field and win a war . Partly. Because every war is different. People need to adjust and understand it. They were better in world war ii in adjusting than they are now. Also in world war ii, everybody knew that the road home was through berlin. Which is to say you all had incentive to take a risk because they would get the war over. Nowadays you mindlessly rotate generals through. Nobody has a strong incentive to take risks and succeed. You do your oneyear rotation. You go home. Hence weve had 11 commanders in afghanistan in 11 years. You concentrate on the arm ear. Its the Largest Service that. Only makes sense. Has the army been tough and honest with itself about what it takes to train and teach a general . I dont think it has. After vietnam we get this mag niffent rebuilding of the army. The army was really destroyed by the vietnam war. You comes out in the 1980s and 90s with a force that has been reequipped, retrained in new and different and better ways and as real. Has recruited differently because they didnt have a draft anymore. They to get an allvolunteer force. One thing they didnt do in repairing the army was change the approach to generalship which is a tragedy because in vietnam we nearly saw the collapse of generalship, morally and strategically. They really didnt understand the war they were fighting. They didnt fight it very well. Nowadays you have a bunch of generals who are really not very well preched. Not very well prepared. Theyre trained but not really educated. You train for the knowing. How to shoot a machine gun, how to prepare a tank attack. You educate for the unknown, for the critical, ambiguous, complex battlefields you find. You have to figure out whats going on here, whats important about it. Whats trivial. How do you device a response . Whats the solution . How do i implement it through the actions of thousands of subordinates . Thats what generalship is all about. Todays generals frequently arent very good at it. Tommy franks being exhibita, didnt understand the war he was fighting, thought that taking the enemys capital meant the war was over when in fact in both iraq and afghanistan is when the war really began. Suarez you give us chapter and verse of examples of people who truly needed to be fired and eventually they were. It really turned things around. I mean, some theaters it was really essential. Give us some examples. One of the great examples that i like is ridgeway in korea. Its a small unpopular largely forgotten war now. Ridgeway goes in late in 1950. In three or four months really turns the war around. Reinvigorates the american operation, gets a bunch of new commanders in. Suarez you tell a story of an army that transitions from a time when generals can and do get fired. I mean, Abraham Lincoln went through a lot of them. To an army thats very, very reluctant to do so. Will look for almost any other option well sides doing so. What about the future . Are we reexamining now . Are the young intellectuals, the Lieutenant Colonels and colonels who will be tomorrow generals saying we have to fix this . I think a lot of them leave the military because they dont see it being fixed. They dont see a merit october arrest. They dont see success being rewarded and failure being punished. They see a rather mediocre institution that is very comfortable with mediocre performances. In todays army being a general is like being a university professor. You have tenure. You can do a lousy job as long as you keep. If you embarrass the institution theyll bounce you. But you can do a lousy job and just meander on with no criticism. Suarez so where in your story and the way we make generals in the modern army does David Petraeus fit . Hes come under all this scrutiny in the past two weeks. About his behavior in and out of uniform. Whats the system that created him and how will he be treated now . I think the most important thing to know about David Petraeus is he was not well liked inside the u. S. Army. He was kind of twice cursed. He was seen as an intellectual with a ph. D. From princeton. He was seen as liking washington, enjoyed talking to reporters and politicians and he had a successful first tour in iraq that made everybody else kind of look bad. In the army thats three strikes. I really worry that the lessons that other Army Generals will take away from the petraeus downfall is, see, he was too smart for his own good. He should have just kept his mouth shut, kept the media at arms slent length. Hed be like the rest of us. Petraeus has been criticized a lottery sently, all these critics have been coming out of the woodwork. He understood that one job as and senior general is to engage the media, to use that megaphone to explain to the American People what is going on in the war because they should be responsible to the American People. George marshal understand this in world war ii. I dont think todays generals do. They seem to be more concerned about their peer group than, you know, other generals, than they are about their responsibility to the nation or to the enlisted men. I think what happens is weve confused supporting the troops with not criticizing generals. In fact you want to support the troops, give them good leadership. One way to do that is to ask tough questions of generals. But we have a media, a public and a congress that really arent capable of this anymore. So we have politicians just sort of mindlessly saying ill do whatever the generals tell me to do. We have generals who are not educated to do that, unable to think critically and develop strategic solutions. Suarez the book is the generals. American military command from world war ii to today. Thank you very much. Youre welcome. Woodruff again, the major developments of the day. President obama said there would be no deal to avert an economic plunge unless republicans agree to increase taxes on the wealthiest americans. And nato agreed to deploy patriot missiles in turkey to defend against syrian shells and rockets that cross the border. Online, historian Michael Beschloss offers a snapshot of an ailing lyndon johnson, days before the former president s death. Hari sreenivasan has the story. Sreenivasan 40 years ago this month, the man who would be remembered as an architect of the vietnam war agonized over his legacy. We have a glimpse into l. B. J. s final months with a recording of a phone conversation he had with thenpresident richard nixon. You can listen to it on the rundown. And on the business desk, we answer the most frequently asked question from our ask the headhunter series how do you get noticed by your dream employer . All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. Gwen . Ifill and thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, well examine how Rising Carbon Dioxide levels are affecting floridas coral reefs. Im gwen ifill. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Well see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. Thank you, and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf railway. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. 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 Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org this is nbr. Captioning sponsored by wpbt tom good evening. Im tom hudson. The nations governors met with president obama today about what they need to see in a fiscal cliff deal. We talk with delaware governor jack markell. Susie im susie gharib. A coalition of the nations top c. E. O. S is feeling pessimistic about getting a fiscal cliff deal