This hour. Well talk about his decision and new job. And syrias civil war is in a very dangerous perhaps decisive Tipping Point right now. Can the world prevent Bashar Al Assad from using chemical weapons against his own people . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. We begin with president obama taking his battle to extend tax cuts for the middle class into the heart of the middle class suburb today. He visited a family just outside washington, d. C. , using their story to dramatize what will happen in just 26 days if he and congress cant make a deal on the socalled fiscal cliff. A source of great concern for so many people, everyones taxes will go up, will go up if theres no deal. Lets go live to our White House Correspondent dan lothian. Hes on the scene for us over at the white house. How did it go, dan . Reporter well, wolf, weve seen the president do this before in the past whenever hes locked in negotiations with lawmakers. He heads out on the road, either goes to a back
Further below 8 . We now have the lowest Unemployment Rate in four years at 7. 7 . Were following the markets to see if it has an impact as well. Cnn has now learned that pentagon officials are reworking their plans for possible military action against syria. That is after now confirmed reports emerging from syria that forces loyal to president Bashir Al Assad are preparing bombs with chemical weapons. Syrian soldiers fighting with rebels for control over the outskirts of damascus. Now, witnesses tell cnn that 30 people were killed today in street battles across syria. Were also learning about a car bombing in the city of homs and a horrible, horrible discovery. Dozens of bodies believed to be victims of a massacre. The same time rebel fighters, they are taking on Syrian Forces literally house to house in the countrys largest city. That is aleppo, and that is where we find our arwa damon today. Reporter for two months the streets here have been a war zone. Part of a bigger battle for c
Be escalating the civil war. There are new concerns the assad regime is preparing to use chemical weapons. Lets get to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. Barbara, how does this change the u. S. Militarys syria plan . Are we talking u. S. Troops, boots on the ground . Well, not at this point, clearly, deb. But what we do know is that u. S. Officials tell us that they are updating some of the military options for action against syrias chemical weapons capability, why are they doing this . Of course, we chatted about this in the last several days. Officials say they do have the intelligence now that syria has filled aerial bombs with deadly sarin gas. Havent moved it to airplanes yet, but this is very concerning because that, of course, would be the next step. So once you have the deadly bombs, the u. S. Has to look at what the options could be, what they might want to target to essentially take out that kind of capabilities. So thats the options that are now being worked on. Deb .
Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. We begin with the looming tax hikes. All of us are facing a little over three weeks. Those increases coupled with spending cuts in vital programs including defense, health care and Housing Assistance are being called the fiscal cliff. The only way to i void it is for president obama and congress to make a deal, cutting spending and raising revenue. Adding to the sense of urgency. News that 350,000 people simply gave up looking for work in the month of november. And while that drove the Unemployment Rate down to 7. 7 , the fiscal cuts and tax hikes are expected to dramatically slow job creation and increase unemployment possibly plunging the economy back into a recession. Lets go to dana joining us from capitol hill. The latest negotiations dont seem to be going anywhere. They sure dont. The House Speaker ended the week by calling it a wasted week. He only had one phone call with the president of the United States and he said it was just, mo
Obama a quote, sub human mongrel. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com im wolf blitzer reporting from washington. We start with the worsening situation in ukraine. A situation the white house now calls, and im quoting, completely outrageous. President obama is expected to address the recent killings later today. Hes reacting to clashes yesterday in the ukrainian capital of kiev. 26 people were killed. Hundreds more injured. In the latest crackdown by Government Forces against antigovernment protesters. Those demonstrators have been entrenched in the citys independent square since november. Our phil black is in kiev. First of all, what sparked these latest violent clashes . Reporter wolf, its really something of a surprise, because they came at a time when the general mood was thought to have relaxed just slightly after months of crisis here. But ultimately, what triggered it . It was a group of opposition, a grout opposition protesters marching peacefully to the parliament. They came up a