Cliff, today was a very bad day. Only duelling press conferences. No progress behind the scenes. Well talk about it a a few minutes. Im hampton pierce earson. And gm shares got a nice pop. Is this the end of government motors. The kudlow report starts right now. First up tonight is president obama and House Speaker john boehner escalate their war of words, new signs the fiscal cliff talks are on the brink of collapse. Chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us from washington with the details. I look away for two seconds, john, and everythings falling astart. It looked a couple of days ago as if the two sides were getting closer. When president obama had a News Conference at the white house today, he came out to talk about gun control measures in the wake of the connecticut tragedy, but the questions were mostly focused on the fiscal cliff. The president said he couldnt understand why john boehner was detouring to plan b because the differences are narrow enough that they can still work it out. Ive said im willing to make some cuts. What separates suss probably a few hundred billion dollars. The idea that we would put our economy at risk because you cant bridge that gap doesnt make a lot of sense. The smackdown from john boehner came shortly afterwards. It was short and sweet. He spoke for less than a minute and he said the onus is going to be on president obama if we go over the fiscal cliff. Tomorrow the house will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every american, 99. 81 of the american people. And then the president will have a decision to make. He can call on Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in american history. Now bainor aides say theyre confident they can pass their plan b, which would raise taxes only on incomes of a Million Dollars or more but president obama said today he would veto it. Democrats say it cant pass the senate. I talked this evening to one senior republican aide close to the budget talks who said we may just have to take these show votes, go home for christmas, come back and cut the deal then but thats going to be cutting it, if hes right, very close to that december 31st deadline, joe. John, well talk tomorrow. A couple of comment, i dont know, maybe i missed i didnt see the president. I was wondering whether he threw down or what happened. Base boehner anyhow, being thanks to you. Will speaker boehners fiscal cliff gambit pay off. Robert, do you like costa or coasta . I like costa, im italian. Anyway, washington editor for the national review. Jimmy, i love you and you come on all the time. Im reading these notes and you, know, youre very slick but you know some of the stuff is not true. What are you talking about that rich people dont pay any National Senior retirement, they pay nothing towards Social Security and nothing towards health care. They pay the maximum but because its a small percentage of what they pay, youre saying they pay nothing, youre just conflating nothing with paying that its cut off at 108,000 or whatever . No, my good friend, joe. Clearly you didnt read all of my notes i sent in to the producer. There are five rates when it comes to earned income. What boehner, the speaker and president are dithering over are what those top rates are going to be, whether its for people who make a million bucks or who cares . At the end of the day if you make 500,000 or higher, paying a little more isnt going to hurt you. Thats not the problem here. Barack obama and mitt romney ran a campaign for the last year. Barack obama talked about one thing jimmy, this isnt about the campaign. This is about boehners plan b. Joe, do you want me to finish . Yeah. Your point about the campaign is great. My point is were really here on capitol hill debating Something Different than the campaign. Its about boehner and plan b. Does this change the debate . I think it does. I think obama is going to have to react to what the House Republicans are doing and try to close this deal. Bob or jimmy, will the house pass it . I think the house will pass it. The whip count is reportedly very close just on capitol hill. I think bainler get it passed and that puts the pressure on the senate and the president to come up with an appropriate response. Its weird, jimmy. They call it farsicle. Nancy pelosi loved the idea for a while. I guess your idea is it doesnt have any spending cuts the president all along has been saying we need to make sure the middle class gets a tax hike. None of the middle class gets a tax hikend plan b. Why is it such a farce . Under what will be passed tomorrow, there is a middle class tax increase. The eic is taken out were talking about marginal rates. Gentlemen, gentlemen, these are facts. What is in that bill that boehner will send to the floor tomorrow, those tax credits are not in it. The point is john boehner is making his entire caucus walk the plank on the issue on whether or not millionaires and below dont have to pay any more taxes than anybody else. You say theyre walking the plank. Theres no eitc. What did he put in there . He put estate tax in there. If you look at what republicans are doing, you say theyre walking the plank. Isnt that a sign theyre trying to compromise with the president . No, they wont cover. Robert, i hate to break the news to you. All theyre doing is taking a cover vote. Thats all this is. Do you remember when geithner told leaseman, i think he showed his hand a little, he said we are so ready to go over the fiscal cliff. Are you absolutely sure in the back of the president s mind he wouldnt mind a little bit. All the things are there, there will be some defense cuts hell never get. How do you know in the back of his mind hes just playing boehner for a fool . First of all, i dont think that the president is playing boehner for a fool. I feel bad for john boehner, i do. Thats nice. Im sure he appreciates that. Im sure he really appreciates your sympathy. I know a lot of boehners people. And john boehner is a really good guy. He just happens to have a rather crappy caucus and i think there a lot of republicans that would admit that that sit in my position. But its simple, john boehner and barack obama are going to come up with a deal. Its going to be in the last week of the year. This is not the first time that a member of congress and a president have waited until the last me lastment to do something. But the idea that were going to jimmy isnt what is most important is republicans are signaling theyre trying to move to the center here, theyre letting the tax rates expire on those making 1 million or more. Its between now and the end of the year does that threshold move . The republicans want a Million Dollars threshold on tax rates to expire, obama wants 400,000. Where does that needle go in this final week . Thats the question to me. Fine, then let the needle move. I think its going to be anywhere from 500,000 to 700,000 a year. I agree with you. If they do that is correct its still dead in the senate. There its nothing more than an insurance vote. Dont you think harry reid will be under immense pressure . No, last time i read, harry reid increased his members by two members. Most people who wear bow ties dont yell. Youre very aggressive today. Its very frustrating to for me. You asked me my thoughts on why i think the rate debate is a farce. Its a farce. It is the central debate right now. Its all about race. Thats why they call this plan b. Man. Okay, we got to go. This is good, though. Ive never seen george will do that or jimmy rogers, mr. Rogers, anyone. Gentlemen, thank you. We really didnt rise above that well there but were going to try later in the show. Switching gears on top of talking fiscal cliff, president obama used the new Conference Today to get his Gun Control Task force team together. Cnbcs hampton pierceon joins us now with the details of that. How you doing, joe . Concrete proposals to curb gun violence no later than january. Thats the charge to president obama to a special task force to be led by Vice President joe biden in the aftermath of the School Children massacre in newtown, connecticut. Biden, a longtime gun control advocate will lead a team of top administrative officials and representatives from outside groups. Sensible gun rules, including an assault weapons bans, as well as examining Mental Health issues will be on the table zbp were going to have to work on making access to Mental Health care at least as easy as access to a gun and look at a culture that all too often glorifies guns and violence and any actions we must take must begin inside the home and inside our hearts. And last night the nra broke its silence on the newtown tragedy saying it is prepared to take steps so that nothing like this ever happens again. No comment today from republican congressional leaders on the president s announcement. Joe . Okay, hampton. Thank you very much. So our new gun control measures the solution. Our next guest says not so fast. The rush to reduce the number of guns throughout could be very misguided. And dont forget larrys credo, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. The kudlow report is coming right back. Ck. To the best vacation sp all the gulf it doesnt matter which of our great states folks visit. Mississippi, alabama, louisiana or florida, theyre gonna love it. Shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. Thanks, karen. Love your mississippi outdoors. I vote for your florida beaches, dawn. Bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. Were having such a great year on the gulf, weve decided to put aside our rivalry. Now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. The beaches and waters couldnt be more beautiful. Take a boat ride, go fishing or just lay in the sun. Weve got coastline to explore and wildlife to photograph. And theres world class dining with our world famous seafood. So for a great vacation this year, come to the gulf. Its all fabulous but i give florida the edge. Right after mississippi. You mean alabama. Say louisiana or theres no dessert. This invitation is brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. Welcome back to the kudlow report. Im joe kernen in for larry kudlow. President obama called for a new Gun Task Force today but the rush to reduce the number of guns out there could be very misguided. Thats according to john lott, author of the book more guns less crime, understanding crime and gun control laws. John, i welcome you on tonight. Its something ive been grappling with. I hear everyone saying its all got to be on the table but when i broach the subject with a lot of different people about having someone at a school that could counter or protect the school, liberals sync at the idea that we could introduce gun noose a School Setting as if a gun has never seen a policeman with a gun in his holster. How do you make this something that were able to talk about without having people think were gun mongers . I understand. Its very emotional topic. One thing i point out because often when people get into this, its these hypothetical concerns about what might go wrong. It seems to me an easy way to address that is to look at what happened in the past. People seem to think whatever the laws are right now, its the way theyve always been. Its only been since 1995 that weve had these gun free zones around school, during the Clinton Administration that was passed. Prior to that, if you had concealed carry, virtually all the schools would allow you to carry concealed guns on to school property. When people try to get on a plane to do harm, theyre all banned, the liquid,s plastic explosives. That doesnt man we dont check people for them. If we banned all guns, it doesnt mean that someones going to get to the school that it can prevent an illegal a person with an illegal gun getting into the school. It seems like if this had been god forbid a terrorist attack, whether its domestic or if there were to be a terrorist attack, we wouldnt be asking where the terrorists got the gun or what kind of guns did the terrorists have in wed want to make sure someone was there to protect the children from another terrorist attack. And we dont seem to be able to face that reality. On the first point that you just brought up, the country up till friday had two of tleet Worst Public School shootings in world history. In fact, they both occurred over the last decade was in germany. Germany has extremely strict begun control laws. People talk about bans on semiautomatic weapons. You have to undergo two psychological screening tests. Both the examples given i understand. I think everything should be on the table. I dont have a gun, i dont have a bushmaster, i dont know why someone needs 30 rounds necessarily in a magazine, if youre gougt and hunting deer. You make the point these are hunting guns made to look like military guns but they dont have the features of military guns, is that your point . Thats right. They ban guns based upon how they look, rather than how they function. Semiautomatics, one pull of the trig, one bullet comes out. Semiautomatics do lots of harm. But the problem is we have to realize that has both costs and benefits. We see the costs here but the benefits are lets say you were attacked by two criminals. Would you want to have a gun where you had to manually load the bullets in . If you had a rifle had the pull the bolt back, you may not have time to do that. If you fire and miss, being able to fire a second shot may make the difference whether someones safe or not. I hope one thing thats one thing i hope is on the table is address these gunfree zones. At some point people have to talk about the fact that essentially all these attacks in both the u. S. And europe are currently where guns are banned. We appreciate your perspective tonight. In the wake of fridays shooting in newtown, will the gun history face legal troubles like the Tobacco Companies did one time . Mary thompson tackles that area. Good evening, mary. Good evening, joe. Given the Ongoing Investigation into the rampage that killed 20 children and 6 adults, its premature to say what legal action might be taken. When and if it is, it wont be an easy task. The 2005 protection of lawful commerce and arms acts pro secretaries manufacturerss are distributors and dealers from liability if others their probably. This makes it virtually impossible to seek damages from the gun history. Another option is suing if the dealer was founding to negligent in selling the gun and if there are signs of negligence in the gunies design. You could argue that added safety features are needed. A feature like say an authorization technology in a would prevent someone from being used by someone other than the owner. And Michael Krause says in Product Liability law the rule of thumb is the product has to be defective or reasonably dangerous. The dangers are already unknown and calling them unreasonable may not be deemed reasonable in a court of law. It doesnt stop lawyers. Thats for sure. Is there any reason to believe theyre worried about liability or its more of an optics thing with them, isnt it . Its a great business for them and at this point i think they just want to exit that business it wasnt necessarily great business. Freedom group actually didnt perform all that well. But they made money on the investment . They did because they paid themselves a dividend as private equity was going to do. It doesnt necessarily mean the business did well itself. That being said im sure theyre concerned of some kind of legal issues. Theyve had some issues with some of those gun makers being like remington, which was well documented by cnbc. In this case it could be very difficult because unless they go back and find that the dealer sold it to mr. Lanzas mother in a negligent matter, the prok doesnt appear to be. The fingerprint. Howry brought one case that said there have been inventors that had an automatic identification that would prevent that. Some people argue it would mean you have to pay 600 more than a gun and that isnt reasonable. But at the same time, if it can save a life, maybe it is reasonable. Or certainly keep guns from getting in the wrong hands in nothing else. It would vee prevented this theoretically. Yes. I got to read this. What will you look like when youre 100 years old . More importantly theyre taking a shot at me what will your finances look like when you hit 100 in Kayla Tausche is about to show us a very alarming way to find out pup got to see this. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Executor of efficiency. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. Now this. Will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. Just like you. Go national. Go like a pro. With fewer americans ready for the Financial Reality of retirement, one brokerage is going to startling visual lengths to scare the heck out of us. Kayla tausche joins us with the details, kind of a continuation of what you did for us this morning with sorkin, right, kayla . Exactly, joe. A study at stanford last year found people who were introduced to a future version of themselves saved more money. Bank of america took that research pretty literally, creating a tool called face retirement, which we were able to check out this week. Its a digital aging app that envisions retirement age for you and its costs. You can see it aint pretty. It is not a sight that you want to see but foreseeing those costs has been problematic. In twice two third of early boomers came up short with their retirement funds. We know brokers always go to press one of two buttons, fear or greed and some critic say this is clearly fear mongering. Many young people say it would encourage them to save, if for nothing else plastic surgery. Joe, we wanted to show you the real probablies. We had to start from the young cahuna back on squawk box. This is 107, in 2063. You just dont look very happy. I look like im on the walking dead. You know what you did . You did sort of a benjamin button. I went backwards. You started where i am now i will say your ties have gotten much better. If nothing else, your ties is gotten great, joe. Thats the nicest thing you can say, something im