Decides to give up his senate seat. A lot o of my role has been saying no to bad things, but we need to do more than that and tell americans what we are for. In syria, concerns about the possible use of weapons of mass destruction. We remain concerned that the regime may consider the use of chemical weapons. Believe it or not the chattering classes are already talking about 2016. Look, i am flattered, i am honored. That is not in the future for mamaye. Captioned by the National Captioning Institute wwncicap. Org for the record, the nations Unemployment Rate dropped to 7. 7 . We might want to keep inind as we head f the fiscal cliff. According to recent pololl, only 4 in 10 americans expect the white house and congress to reach a deal before the first of the year, and ondthis does goes out,t, 5 53 of the American People are apparely prepared to blame republicans t president s job Approval Rating is over 50 congress is under 20 . Why y would the president back down . It is safe to say that the prident is n interested in a balanced agreement, he is not particularly intererted in avoiding the fiscal cliff, and he is not interested at all in cutting spending. The Senate Minority leader adds that what the president is interested in is getting as s much taayer money a as he can said that he can spend to his hearts contntent. Wiwith hispproval ratings going up and congress at historic lows, why would t president back down, charles . To some extent he is underestimating the dama he woduffer if we e go over the cliff. For suret will hurt republicans in congress, and that is why democrats in congressss are relishing going over theliff. But obama is not running again unlike democrats in the congress. If we go over the cliff and into the recession that cbo has predicted withth a 9 unemployment, that will wreck his second term. I am not sure he has all the cards. Republicicans have their backs against the wall, but he may be overplaying his hand. He is pushing for unconditional surrender, and ii am not sure e by republicans will go along unless there is some give from obama. Unconditional surrerender rk . I am not sure what the exact policy is. The president has the advantage. The e factors are a on the republican side. And the democrats ranknks have been totally unied. I think i. T. Is important when the president does prevail which i think he will, ththat it be done in a way that john boehner, republican speaker of the house, leaves with it his dignity intact and with a sense that he has achieved something. If it is humiliation cannot be a byproduct of the final resolution. Colby . It would not be a defeat for president obama in any w way. If we go over the cli, it iss because the republicans send us over the cliff because they refud to do what 55 of the American People want them to do, remove those rates s for the rich, the tax rates that went up under the bush plan. That is all he wants. He thinks we ought to pay more. The American People think ought to payore. There is a principle there. They give on that, the presisident has to do something on entitlements and put something on the t table that is tangible, and i think we have a dl. If they dont rely on those rates, wwill go over the cliff and will be their f fall. Nina . Everybody can see the outlines of the deal. The numbers are thehere. The reason that president obama wont, i think just be totally recalcitrant about this is if we get this deal done, according to a number of f top financial people i talked to this week the economy is likely to take off and save a l of grief and make everybody feel a lot better. Congre will benefit from that as well as the president. That is why he needs to get it done. In the senate, who is likely to move on this . Olympia snowe . Lugar . Scott brown . You have identified some of the usual sususpects. The problemsproblem republicans have iss this you have people like scott brown in massachusetts, linda lingle in hawaii Heather Wilson in new mexico who were good statewide candidates with good credentials who lost for one reason they had r next to their name. It did not hurt Heidi Heidkamp or jon tester. This is an albatross for the republicans to deal with. The president knows he has the advantage, and the republicans have to get beyond this if they become combative as a party. Any wiggle room in the house charles . I dont understandnd when colby says that for the president raisising rates is s a matter of principle. There is no principle here. The president himself said at the july 2011 press conference that if you raise the 1. 20 trillion that he wanted at the time without raising rates, by eliminating deductions and exclusions, which is t the more rational way. Obamas on a Debt ReductionCommission Recommended that you raise tens of revenue with the fedel govovernment, you do tax reform and you actually lower rates while you e expand the base, and if you raisise rates, you e going to injure e economic expansion. If you lower them, youou accelerate it. By eliminating deductions, you make the tax system more fair one. It is the rich who have the lawyers who rk around the rates and have the lobbyis who create loopholes. No principle involved . Mayay i explain i head the jujuly 2011 argument first from rush limbaugh. I think i also hea fro drudge did you see it on tape . I know when it comes from, and you r repted it quite well. On the question of rights the reason i came to this principle principle who did the first thing on rates . Bill clinton . Who changed the rates again . George bush. They try to change the conversation by talking about revenue, you poor unwatched people dont understand the difference between rates and revenues. Nina, bring us altogether please with a number of lobobbyists and the super pacs morphing into lobbyists, it will take quite some time, if it ever happens. We have to make that deal now and everybody understands that there is not some magic bullet. You have to d all. You have to raise revenue and you have to that is simply not true. It is troupe. It is if youou believeve at t this point. The simpsonbowles comommission said that every year you have 1. 10 trillion, every year, in tax expditures and you get rid of the mortgage on the charity, right no, you cap it. You tell me that you cannot get 1rillion out of that . You wont take my life. You wont take our future. Aids affects us all. Even babies. Chevron is working to stop mothertochild transmission. Our employees and their families are part of the fight. And ere winning. At chevron nigeria, we havent had a reported case in 12 years. Aids is strong. Aids is strong. But we are stronger. And aids. Aids is going to lose. Aids is going to lose. One of the mistakes the republan party made the last two years is trying to make obama the issue without shaharing with america bold reform i ideas that get people inspired. South Carolina Republican jim demint, who has decided to leave the senate to head the heritage fofoundation the conservative think tank. Why is seen leaving mar is he leaving mark . Im demint is a movement guy, not a legislator l like Fritz Hollings or Strom Thurmond who comes for generations and work his will through the legislative process. He has been a movement guy. Y. You can see the movement in primaries repubcans lost where they could have one of the general election, orn, supporting marco rubio early against charlie crist. The other hd written story is that you have two majo conservative figures leaving this week. You had dick armey leaving freedomworks, a very conservative outfit aligned with the tea party, and getting an 8 million buyouout. Jim demint has gone fr the fourth poorest man in the senates an institution, the heritage foundation, and more than 1 million. Armeydemint they are like the congregationalist in hawaii. They came to do good, and theyre doing very well. [laughter] with him leaving the senate and going to the hetage foundation, i think the intellectual level both places lifts up. Now you got it. Yeah, i got it. Remember, heritage was the originator of the idea of the federal mandate for health insurance. He said we spend too much time concentrating on o obama and not our positions. Dont forget that it was jim demint in 2009 who said that if we stop him on health care, this will be his waterloo. We will break him. He faid to do that. He has been a very partisan guy his whole time in the senate. He was one of the senators to vote against the International Treaty for disabilities, with bob worldwide on the floor of the senate i dont understand that. With bob dole might on th floor of the senates. I dont understand that. It was a un thing. Nina is right. The totally fabricated specter of u. N. Helicopters coming to home schooling parents and takiking their children away from themem. Thesguys live in absolute terror of a primary challenge to eight republicans supported the equivalent of a bill supppported by y it george bush and backed by mr. Republican himself, bob dole, who for 67 years has walked around with one arm 2. 5 inches shorter and limb from his injuries from wod war ii. I dont think ive ever seen a larger ratio of enthusiasm and passion to substance in an issue in my life. These u. N. Treaties are not worth the paper theyre written onon. We have a u. N. Treaty on chemical weapons, we have a u. N. Treaty on a new, we have the un at trading on the environment. This makes no difference why not throw a bone to bob dole . Why throw a bone to the un . Oh. Is run byy dictatotors, it has a Human Rights Committee with the worst violators in the world. Why should we give any legitimacy at all . Give me an answer on that. The chamber of commerce supports the street, along with the veterans organizations and religis groups. They suprt it because the United States has been the leader in this area and they would like other countries to comply, make it is modeled on the americans with disabilities act. I know that, but it has no effect the point of the treaty is get other countries to become signatories and i got to the language and the intent of the treaty, to look out for people with disabilities. You accept the arguments. Yeah, exactly the way the u. N. Human r Rights Commission has spread human rights to countries around the world. It does nothing. You used to call people who thought like this nativist. It s notng to do with it nativism. The u. N. Is a pernicious institutn and we ought not to give it legitimacy. [ male announcer ] this commercial is not about getting fios; its about getting fios. That moment after you finally got it that you actually get it. When you c see blades of Artificial Grass in their full glory you get it. Or the first time you download a twohour movie in two minutes, you get it. Because once youve got it, you get it. Now you can get fios for an amazing price online just 79. 99 a month with a two year agreement. Act now and youll also o get 300 back. Hurry. This holiday deal ends soon. Call the Verizon Center for customers with disabilities go to got2getfios. Com. At 8009746006 tty v. Once youve got it, you get it. If true these reports may mean that the United States and our allies are facing the prospect of usef weapons of mass destruction in syria and this may be the last warning we get. The time for talking about what to do it may be coming to a close e anande may be left with an awful and difficult decision. Senator mccain is talking about the possibility of military intervention if they use chemical weapons. What form would military intervention take . I dont know if it would be american boots on the ground. I dont know. This is one of those terrible international tragedies, and except for getting rid of assad he is looking for a new address. You would get a civil war that is just as bad between the faions that are there. This i is like a bottle of something very fizzy that you shake up for years and ddenly the top has come off. Are we behind the curve on thisis . The u. N. And nato and others tell them explicitly that there will be consequencnces. It is not a typical thing to imagine also responding to take out their capacity to anything witith those weapons. International that they have po, anand the International Community will take them out on at. What youou do with assad comes second. But those weapons cannot be used. Oh, yes so we have a treaty that says you cannot use chemical weapons. Ohh. It was assigned in the 1990s, and a big advocate . Joe biden, who said it would have moral suasion. Treaties are useless. What matters is force. The United States president says that something w will happen if they use them to do you think he cares if i. T. Is written on a treaty . Who said treaty . I am making a retroactive point. Making a red line this is important. I am not sure what the red line is. And i am not sure how you bomb chemical weapons. You cannot. It comes down to what form will that intervention take . There is no use of a drone. If this ppens, you have to seize the weapons. What of the weapons fall at the hands i think the real issue is not that assad will l usehem, because he hangs if he does that. The world will t give them refuge in russia orlsewhere. The problem is if he is losing antril air bases, military bases, losing control on the ground. If this is tough ends up in the hands of jihadists we really have an issue, and that is where the u. S. And turkey and others are worried about seizing it before it happens. Otherwise we have al qaeda with chemical i dont disagree. I think tre will be International Action taken, no question aboutut. On thione, we cannot lead from behind. Wewe have to lead from a head. You wont take my life. You wont take our future. Aids affects us all. Evenbabies. Chevron isorking to stop mothertochild transmission. Our employees and their families are part of the fight. And were winning. At chevron nigeria, we havent had a reported case i in 12 years. Aids is strong. Aids is strong. But we are stronger. Nd aids. Aids is going to lose. Aids is goining to lose. The overwhelminmajority of our people just want what my parents have, a chance. T that is senator marco rubio of florida, one of the leading contenders, among the chattering classes anyway, for the 2016 republican p presidtial nomination, along with paul ryan among the democrats, a lot of talk about hillary clinton. Is rubio trying to redefine e the Republican Party . Ty are both trying to put distance between themselves and their standard bearer with the 47 , being a plutocrat, showing he was completely unable e to make any impact on people who were different from himself because he did not understand them. They are trying tshow there is another side. It is early, and the answer will be not charisma or the ability to have rhetoric. It is policies. The only thing in their behavior that suggest they y pursue policies substantially different from what we have seen from the Republican Party rubio gave a speech to the Jack Kemp Foundation where he tked about people in ourr kitchens landscaping crews, all that, and these are the promise of tomorrow, their journey is our nations destiny. Sounded lilike a democrat. Thihis was an obamaesque and reaganesque speech, speech about the best of us, and aspirational speech. The kitchen workekers in the room stopped to listen because he referred to them but they were not in a visible to him. It was a terrific speech. I suspect he will be a terrific candidate. What he extend d health care to those workers in the room . It was not just an obama or reagans speech. It was a jacack kemp speech. That is what a jacket or presented. Jack kemp believe and practice that republicans had to campaign in the ghettos in every ethnic neighborhood, and it is the difference between a five minutes until dawn conservative like jack kemp or reagan as opposed to 5 minutes ununtil midnightonservative, people being bought off by gifts, like mitt romney. The big tent is what were talking about, right, charles . I think he has that kemp appeal to all classes, always thought republicans should not bebe the party of big business and the rich. That unfortunately is the image mitt romney dave could we have a new generation rising. I just got news that assad is holed up in the palace reading the chememicaleapons treaty andd looking for loopholes. I guess you made your poi about treaties that is the last word. See you next week. Inside washington is brought to you in part by the American Federation of government employees, proud to make america work. For more information about afge and membership, visit afge. Org