this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley reporting from washington. >> pelley: good evening, in a short while president obama will leave the white house and make his way up pennsylvania avenue to the capitol to deliver his third state of the union address. the nationally televised speech will, in many ways, be the unofficial kickoff for his campaign for reelection, setting the tone and laying out the themes. chief among those themes, what he calls economic fairness. the same rules top to bottom. tonight the president will call for an america with "no bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts." norah o'donnell has seen more of the president's speech. she's at the white house tonight. norah? >> reporter: scott, the tonight the president will say that economic fairness is "the defining issue of our time" and what the millions of americans who work hard and play by the rules everyday deserve. and that's largely what this speech is all about. that's in part because the president's advisors don't want this election year to be a referendum on the president's record on the economy so instead they are picking a fight on the very issue that they hope dominates this campaign and that is the issue of income inequality. the president wants to build a narrative he hopes convinces americans that he deserves reelection. he's been working on the final touches with his chief speech writer john favreau. tonight's speech is ambitious, say advisors, and almost entirely about the number-one issue with voters: the economy. it builds on a vision the president presented last month in kansas where mr. obama described a make-or-break moment for the middle-class and called for fairness. >> i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same rules. >> reporter: the speech is called "an america built to last" and will build on four pillars: manufacturing, clean energy, education and training and values like fairness. the most controversial element will be comprehensive tax reform and the president will explain what he means by his so-called buffett rule-- that millionaires and billionaires like war ren buffett should not pay lower tax rates than middle-class families. advisors plainly admit that this focus on income inequality is meant to draw a razor-sharp contrast with republican opponents like mitt romney who has accused the president of playing class warfare. scott, i'm also told that the president will have some tough talk for an unpopular and uncorporative congress. he will say "i intend to fight obstruction with action." >> pelley: we understand the president's been working on the speech himself and it's gone through about six drafts. thanks very much, norah. among the members of congress in the house chamber tonight will be gabrielle giffords, wounded last year in an assassination attempt. she's stepping down this week to focus on her rehabilitation. in the days after giffords was shot, there was a new sense of unity in congress. at last year's state of the union address some democrats and republicans broke with tradition and sat side by side instead of across the aisle. but that unity didn't last long and congress couldn't get much done last year. will this year be any different? we sat down today with the house speaker john boehner. you know how frustrated many americans are across the country at what's perceived to be a lack of progress in washington. calibrate for me. how would you characterize the gulf between the white house and the house of representatives right now? >> well, the big problem is this: the president's policies have failed. and i'm afraid based on everything that i'm hearing about tonight's speech that he's going to offer more of the same: higher taxes, more spending, more regulation. these policies have not only not helped the economy, i'd argue they've made it worse. and so there are... we have big ideological differences. but having said that, the american people expect us to find common ground. to do that we've reached out to the president. work with us. >> pelley: the president might say "i'm trying to work with you but, mr. speaker, you don't have control of your entire party. there are factions in your party that won't go along." >> every time the president and i have been able to come to an agreement we have not had any problems passing that agreement here in the house of representatives. but, scott, i think it's important to note that the president checked out last labor day. he spent the last four months doing nothing but campaigning. he hasn't been engaged in the process. and if the president wants us to work together, it takes two to tango. the president needs to be engaged as well. >> pelley: but the president... so much of what the president wants to do in terms of tax policy involves higher taxes on some americans. can you compromise on that. >> i don't believe that raising taxes on the american people in this troubled economy will do anything but make the current situation worse. >> you can't reform the tax code in an election year. >> oh, i don't know about that. >> pelley: do you think you might? >> i believe it's important for the country. it would make america more competitive, it would help create jobs in our country. it's something that... there's no reason we shouldn't try. >> pelley: and your message to the president going forward now is what? >> just extend somewhat of an olive branch. let's find some common ground to work together. >> pelley: you're open for business. >> always. >> pelley: both speaker boehner and the president seemed confident that they will get an agreement on extending the payroll tax cut and extending long-term unemployment benefits for another year. both are due to expire next month. joining me now, as always, is our chief washington correspondent and anchor of "face the nation" bob schieffer. bob, speaker boehner said that he can control the members of his party. can he? >> schieffer: well, i don't know if he can or not. i think he'd have a really hard time. but it goes beyond that, scott. you talk to republicans on the hill. i mean, this gap is so wide. they will tell you... i mean, i was told today when they were trying to negotiate this summer over the budget and all of that they said it was like trying to negotiate with people who'd never negotiated over at the white house. so this gap is so wide i don't think we're going to see much of anything happen this year. >> pelley: bob, thank you very much. bob will be joining us right here tonight as cbs news brings us live coverage of the president's state of the union address and the republican response. that's later this evening at 9:00 eastern time and 6:00 in the west. first thing tomorrow, charlie rose will interview vice president joe biden on "cbs evening news" "this morning." mitt romney, running for the presidential nomination of the republican party, released his tax returns today. they show he makes tens of millions but pays about 14% in federal income taxes. the tax rate for investors is one of the things the president's going to talk about tonight and we asked jan crawford to have a look at romney's returns. jan? >> reporter: well, scott, the returns confirm what everybody knows-- mitt romney is rich and federal taxes are complicated. >> i pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. >> reporter: romney's returns for 2010 and estimates for 2011 total more than 500 pages. they show he made $42.5 million over that time. almost all of it from investments. he paid $6.2 million in federal taxes with an effective tax rate averaging 14.6%. because of their complexity, we asked new york tax attorney alan dlugash to examine them. he found no surprises. >> it absolutely looks like everything he's done is absolutely standard. while his reporting is above and beyond the call of duty. >> reporter: democrats have criticized romney's relatively low tax rate, but he pays that rate because his income is mostly profits and dividends which are taxed at 15%. lanhee chen, romney's policy director, says that's because much of that income is also subject to corporate taxes. >> what you've got to realize is that income is effectively double taxed in the system we have today. >> reporter: romney gave a high amount of his income to charity. over the two-year period he gave $7 million to charity, or 16% of his income. 4.1 million of that, or 10% of his income, went to the mormon church. the average charitable contributions for wealthy americans is 3% to 6%. but already his critics are saying this isn't enough. they want romney to release his returns before he decided to run for president and, scott, democrats are citing romney's father as an example. when he ran for president he released 12 years of returns. president obama released eight years. >> pelley: jan, thanks very much. newt and a calista gingrich returned their tax returns last week. they reported an adjusted gross income of more than $3 million and paid $994,000 in taxes. a tax rate of 31.5%. they reported giving more than $81,000 to charity. today gingrich released other paper on a controversy in his campaign. it was his former consulting contract with the federal home loan mortgage corporation known as freddie mac. what did he earn and how did he earn it? we asked dean reynolds to have a look. dean? >> reporter: scott, there's no question that newt gingrich got rich in the private sector after leaving congress. he made $3 million last year alone but it's how he made the money that is at issue. a considerable sum of money estimated at $1.6 million went to gingrich's consulting firm from his work for the federal mortgage lending giant freddie mac. work gingrich has said did not include lobbying. gingrich never registered as a lobbyist, but the contract released last night showed he was hired by the lender's lobbying wing which expected gingrich to "provide consulting and related services as required by freddie mac's director of public policy." in other words, he reported to its chief lobbyist. he worked for freddie mac on and off from 1999 to 2008 and has said he has no problem with a public airing of what he did for the compensation he received just as the mortgage crisis was dragging down homeowners across the country. he says he warned the lender of trouble ahead. >> my advice as a historian when they walked in and said to me "we are now making loans to people who have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything but that's what the government wants us to do" i said at the time "this is a double. this is insane. this is impossible." >> reporter: but the release of the contract by his consulting firm contained few details and dealt only with 2006. there was nothing on the advice he gave or who he gave it to. the contract specified that gingrich was supposed to describe his duties every month but the invoices he was to submit were not released last night. his rivals have scoffed at gingrich's claim that he was not acting as a lobbyist. >> if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. >> reporter: now, the gingrich campaign has said it's up to the gingrich consulting firm to release more details and that firm has now apparently located more contract information, scott, and says it will be releasing it possibly as early as tonight. >> pelley: florida primary a week from today. dean, thanks very much. eavesdropping on history. the new kennedy white house tapes. a rare look inside the italian cruise ship as divers search for bodies. and a spectacular light show direct from the sun when the "cbs evening news" continues. 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[ male announcer ] and to fight your allergy symptoms fast, try new alka-seltzer plus allergy. state of this old but youthful union is good. >> pelley: that was john f. kennedy delivering his final state of the union address in january of 1963. today the kennedy library gave us fascinating new insights into his presidency when it released white house audiotapes recorded later that year, in the last three months of his administration. here is senior white house correspondent bill plante. >> reporter: the recordings show an oval office meeting with the soviet foreign minister could be interrupted by the president's children. >> pelley: in a meeting with political advisors about the 1964 campaign, kennedy muses about a problem familiar to democrats today-- how to get the support of younger voters in a tough economy. >> pelley:>> reporter: toward tf 1963, there were 16,000 american military advisors in south vietnam. in the oval office, a marine general and a state department official had just given the president completely opposite views of the vietnam situation. >> reporter: then, on november 19, 1963, three days before he went to dallas, the president refers to a meeting the following monday which instead became the day of his funeral. >> reporter: a dark day for the nation. but a life illuminated by these tapes. bill plante, cbs news, washington. >> pelley: a marine staff sergeant who led a squad that killed 24 unarmed civilians in the iraqi town of haditha in 2005 will spend no time behind bars. frank wuterich was on trial for manslaughter but yesterday he pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty. today a military judge said the terms of the deal with prosecutors allowed for no jail time. charges against seven other marines were dropped. the marines in haditha had been attacked with a roadside bomb in their search for the bomber. the marines killed several unarmed bystanders and the families who lived in nearby houses. no bomber was found. the earth is being bombarded by more than the usual amount of radiation from space. what it means for us when we come back. medication continuously the exelon patch -- s for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. 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[ woman ] it's my right to breathe right. isn't it your right, too? >> pelley: back now from washington where we've giving you some idea of what the president will say tonight. but what do americans really want to hear in the state of the union address? we sent jim axelrod to union, ohio, to find out. >> reporter: in union, ohio, tonight, an anxious paul and kristy forrest will watch the president. how are you feeling about the direction of the country? >> not real good. >> reporter: paul forrest is a finance manager for a buick dealer. he makes $50,000 a year less than four years ago. >> you know, when things started falling apart about four years ago, reality really smacked us. >> reporter: their home on spring house drive could be on just about any block in america. i'm looking right down maybe a quarter mile down the road here and you've seen three or four foreclosures just on that stretch? >> yes, at least. >> at least. >> reporter: neighbors out of work, health care out of reach, homes underwater. why don't you have the sense that this is just a bad cycle and that things will get better? >> it just always seems through the years like thing were always getting better and that's the american way. that's the way you're brought up. and tomorrow is a better day, you know? and it's... i don't know that it is. >> reporter: this family finds answers in church, not washington. they're frustrated with the gridlock. >> there's just no compromise. there's no mediation. i mean, it's the republicans' way or no way. it's the democrats' way or no way. >> the president of the united states! (cheers and applause). >> reporter: what can president obama say in the state of the union address that would make you feel more optimistic? >> wow. i don't know. >> i want them to say "we're going to fix this. we're not going to fix in the ten years, it needs to be fixed." >> i want to see a statesman. i want to see somebody who says what's out there and doesn't worry about what's going to happen to him for it. >> reporter: like so many americans, the forrests aren't asking for a more perfect union, they just want one with more promise. jim axelrod, cbs news, union, ohio. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. bob schieffer and i will be back at 9:00 eastern time with the president's state of the union address. with thanks to the jones day law firm for this view of the capitol and for all of us at cbs news all around the world, i'm scoapt, see you again soon this is 9news now. just two hours from now kicks off an event for some politic success, washingtonens is as big as the super bowl. president obama delivers his state of the union address. it's his last chance to address millions of americans before the general election kicks off. bruce leshan is on capitol hill. what's he going to say? >> president is going to focus on economic fairness, inequality, and how to grow america's struggling middle class. that is likely as well the way that he is going to frame the general election. here is an expert. we can settle for a country where americans barely get by or we can restore an economy where everyone get