Colleague, richard quest, who will join me live from london. Just such an incredibly sad development to that story. We also have big news developing here on this continent. The new report out surprising one on the jobs. Wow. Check out the growth of the jobs in the United States in november. Look at that number. Triple digits. We werent even sure if it dwoubl digits. 146,000 new jobs. It is more than twice what the economists were expecting. Certainly this has got to be a good surprise. 25 days before those tax hikes and spending cuts and the white house and congress trying to avoid and the speaker of house about to address perhaps this and other things. Our economy and threatening jobs and the white house has wasted another week. You know, eight days ago secretary of state geithner came here to offer a plan that had twice the tax hikes the president campaigned on. And they had more stimulus spending than it had in cuts. And indefinite, infinite, increase of the debt limit like forever. Four days ago we offer ad serious proposal based on testimony of president clintons former chief of staff. Since then, there has been no counteroffer from the white house. Instead, reports indicate that the president has adopted deliberate strategy the slow walk our economy right to the edge of the fiscal cliff. Instead of reforming the tax code, cutting spending, the president wants to raise tax rates. Even if the president got the tax rate hike that he wanted, understand that we would continue to see trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. Washington has a spending problem. Not a receive knew problem. The president doesnt agree with our proposal, i believe that hes got an obligation to families and Small Businesses to offer a plan of his own. A plan that can pass both chambers of the congress. We are ready and eager to talk to the president about such a plan. Mr. Speaker, you did speak with the president earlier this week. Can you characterize that call . Did he have any kind of counteroffer . Also, we understand that he just is making clear that it is got to be increase in rates for the wealthy or no deal. Are you willing to give a little bit, maybe just not all the way to 39. 6 . It was the the phone call was pleasant. But it was just more of the same. The conversations the staff had yesterday just more of the same. It is time for the president , if he is serious to come back to us with a counteroffer. Mr. Speaker, the jobs report indicated unemployment is down roughly a palm point from this time last year. Lot of folks in business communities say no deal is going to happen, it could obviously burn american jobs prospects. Where are a the jobs . They seem to be coming along. Why take such a risk when the jobs number is improving . Well, because the risk the president wants us to take increasing tax rates will hit many Small Businesses that produce 60 to 70 of the new jobs in our country. Thats the whole issue here. What would it whoa, whoa, whoa. Violating the rules. Mr. Speaker, the president was absolutely ready for the economy to go off the cliff if he doesnt get higher income tax rates. Whats your reaction . I think thats reckless talk. You said before the election you would be able to prevent tax hikes on all americans said flatly taxes are not going up. Do you still believe that to be the case . Listen, raising tax owes Small Businesses is not going to help our economy and it is not going to help those seeking work. There i came out the day after the election to put revenues on the table, take a step towards the president , to try to resolve this. When is he going to take a step towards us . Do you see some way you can agree to tax rate increase and protect Small Businesses at the same time . Going with the 37 or some middle ground there are a lot of things that are possible to put the revenue of the president seeks on the table. None of sit going to be possible. The president insists on his position. Insist on my way or the highway. Thats not the way to get to an agreement that i think is portauprince the American People and very important for our economy. Thanks. There you go. Speaker always short and sweet and had that intention of coming out at 11 00. And hit his mark. Four minutes later, done with that. So the meantime, Christine Romans is there. She has been breaking down the jobs number. You heard him. He said that president the call with the president was more of the same. And that the pleasant. More of the same. Such a holiday spirit. Look, this is critical because we are starting to see really hardened numbers when it comes to the taxation of the top 2 . Let me tell you what the smart money on wall street is saying. One of the reasons why still have the dow above 13,000, they think that the president and democrats have held the line here and they have the upper hand and have the leverage. And the question now is what will the top tax rate be . Right now 35 . It is going to go up to 39. 5 . Thats the wish list of the democrats. Goes all the way 39. 5 . Prebush tax cut levels. So what will will you heard dan ask that question, ask is there room to negotiate on what the top rate will be . Lot of people he didnt plans he didnt. A lot of people are saying thats where the where they are right now in negotiations. They are talking. Not people in the negotiation. People who are watching and literally placing their money on their expectations and in the stock market are thinking thats what the discussion will be. Maybe even hoping i will tell you what, rhetoric does not lead to any discussion that they might even be hashing numbers. Im not talking about that clause. And Speaker Boehner said that we need a counterproposal from the white house. The white house said no, this is our offer. We are sticking to it. I wish i could name the reporter. It was so low audio i couldnt hear who it was asking about the jobs numbers and whether this whether this stance at a time when the jobs numbers are looking lot of people said extraordinary. Starting to improve. Look at the mums. 146,000 jobs created. Right to point out thats twice what the economists were expecting. You didnt see a real pullback because of sandy in the numbers. Maybe that will come in next month. Look at the Unemployment Rate on the right there. 14. 4 . The real unemployment. People that are working part time, want to be working full time, people out of work. By the way, that unemployment number, real unemployment number, is the same one we have low unemployment, too. When we low unemployment, it is actually high when you get the real numbers. These are the sectors we are flipping through. 43,000 jobs created. Anyone trying to get your kid in college, government pointed out Computer Systems analysts and related fields very strong demand. That fits in that professional business services. Good pay in that field. Lets talk about the breakdown of race. Africanamerican unemployment went down a little bit. 13. 2 . Still way too high. Notice the disparities between the worker groups are still a problem. Structural problems there. But the africanamerican Unemployment Rate went down and thats the trend. We have two years and change now of month after month of solid jobs creation. March of 2010. That was march of 2010, that was census hiring. And stimulus. Quick question. This is a bit of a i read this report this morning that there were 600,000 jobs that could not be filled more than half a million jobs that couldnt be filled across this country last year, i believe, because we just didnt have skilled enough workers. And the first thing i thought was because we are not teaching them sciences or computer or technology. Much of it had to do with up cant even answer a phone. You dont have social skills. You cant say please and thank you and do as you are told. What . I would like to see that report. I was just talking to someone that does manufacturing who works so many Manufacturing Policy in the government that said some of the numbers are overblown. Some of those numbers, in fact are. I think you had someone from the Consulting Group saying . Of those numbers are because you know, employers are not training and are not paying up for the skills. Some of the argument has been that our education is so dismal we are not teaching people hold the phone for a minute here. Dana bash from capitol hill is joining me. I heard your question. It was right on point. It was, i believe, question number one for the speaker. Which was are you willing to start negotiating on the numbers of that top taxation issue between 35 and 39. 5. You didnt get your answer. Reporter i didnt get my answer. But certainly other people were asking similar questions. Im not sure if could you hear the questions from other reporters. Finally, there was one question that asked about whether there is some middle ground on the republican position on the tax rates. The speaker speaker didnt say no. That was one of the most significant moments of this press conference. He didnt say no. His answer was basically thats you know, hes willing to talk about a lot of things if the president moves off his my way or the highway attitude. So that was again, thats pretty write significant. The other thing that, again, not sure if you could hear the question, somebody asked about the fact that timothy geithner, treasury secretary, said hes willing to go off the cliff if if it means giving in on those tax rates for the wealthy. The speaker called that reckless. What we saw here, big picture, is the speaker trying to do what he did all week long. Which is to change the narrative and from where it is right now, republicans admit that republicans are being unreasonable. Republicans wont give in on raising tax owes the wealthy. To the president it is beis bei wont come back with a proposal. Pegs. I wonder if he will get his wash to have congressional leaders to step aside and let the president and me do the business that we need to do. Dana bash, i have to jump. Thanks. If you could continue working that for us because i know there will be further developments hope reply today. One thing thats critical with what the speaker just said, whether that will have a bearing on the stock market, certainly what happened this morning with the jobs numbers, thats got a bearing on the market. 146,000 new jobs for november. It is good news for investors, believe it or not. 25 days away from the fiscal cliff, those new jobs number could also be good for president obama and might end up giving him some of the leverage dana was talking about. Listen to this. President obamas argument has been that the economy is doing well enough it could handle a tax hike. If the economy were in recession as we saw last time, then he would be reluctant to lift that top rate. If the economy is growing sharply, then if the some damage from lifting the top rate then maybe the economy can afford it. Now the gdp growth number is not as strong as the jobs report. But if we a weak jobs report, then i think the president would have a really, really hard time getting people, even moderate democrats, to increase the marginal rate. The fact it is a strong report, i think, puts wind in the sails. Wind in his sails. Thats not necessarily what the speaker was saying. Lets get straight total son kosik live at the new york stock exchange. Raw numbers. What is the dow doing . We are not seeing the wind go in a strong direction towards the positive direction. You are seeing a mixed bag with stocks now. Thats because, you know, despite the huge shocker of this report that was a surprise to the upside, investors see it is they are going to be cautious about this because the reality is you look at that jobs report and a lot of those jobs that were added were seasonal ones. Retail, travel and leisure. Guess what. The real question here is how many of those jobs are going to go away putting people back on on the unemployment line after the holidays are over. Plus, you look at that drop in the Unemployment Rate. Yeah, looks good for a headline. But 350,000 people dropped out of the work force and in november. So with fewer people looking for work that pushes the rate down. Truly yeah, there are some bright spots in this report. It does show the economy is holding relatively stable. But we really need to wait a couple of months and look back at the trend to get an idea of how healthy or unhealthy the labor market really is. You know, the obvious is down is bad and is up good. What do these numbers not telling us . They dont show that consumers and dont show the businesses are still really, really worried about how strong or not strong the economy is. Look, you are talking about the fiscal cliff, 25 days away until these tax hikes and federal spending cuts go into effect. You are looking at wall street. It is not making any big moves because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen with this. How long are politicians going to continue dragging their feet. And it is not just wall street. You know, it is beginning to eat into Consumer Confidence. We just got this index, university of Michigan Consumer confidence index. Just a short time ago, this morning. It showed that Consumer Confidence plunged and in the first week of its month because americans dont know what to expect taxwise. Thats a bad sign for retailers at the most important time of the year. The holidays. Because guess what, if consumers arent feeling confident, they are no going to spend. That domino effect that hit retailers, many of these retailers depend on the holiday sales to push them into a profit important the year. This is whats weighing out there in you know, for consumers, yes. Fiscal cliff definitely weighing on things. Despite the fact that the jobs number came in strong today. Sure. Uncertainty can hit us at all different levels. Thank you. I just want to do one thing before we go to break. Check the market again. I think as we went to alison, around 13. 8. Somewhere around there. We just jumped a point. How about that. We are not in exact realtime but pretty close. A regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. The usual, bob . Not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib Atrial Fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. I dont think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. But not anymore. Bobs doctor recommended a different option onceaday xarelto®. Xarelto® is the first and only onceaday prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesnt require routine blood monitoring. Like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce the risk of an afibrelated stroke. There is limited data on how these drugs compare when warfarin is well managed. No routine blood monitoring means bob can spend his extra time however he likes. New zealand xarelto® is just one pill a day, taken with the evening meal. And with no dietary restrictions, bob can eat the Healthy Foods he likes. Do not stop taking xarelto® rivaroxaban without talking to the doctor who prescribes it for you. Stopping may increase your risk of having a stroke. Get medical help right away if you develop any signs or symptoms of bleeding, like unusual bruising or tingling. You may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto® with aspirin products, nsaids or blood thinners. Talk to your doctor before taking xarelto® if you currently have abnormal bleeding. Xarelto® can cause bleeding, which can be serious, and rarely may lead to death. You are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto®, and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. Tell your doctors you are taking xarelto® before any planned medical or dental procedures. Before starting xarelto®, tell your doctor about any conditions, such as kidney, liver or bleeding problems. Ready to change your routine . Ask your doctor about onceaday xarelto®. For more information including cost support options, call 1888xarelto or visit goxarelto. Com. [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. This season, discover aleve. All day pain relief with just two pills. With odor free aspercreme. Powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. So all you notice is relief. Aspercreme. It is a historic day in the u. S. Yeah. As of today, Washington State has legalized, legalized, both marijuana and gay marriage. Thats a true story. Yeah. Yes. So today men all over washington have would Different Reasons to say i love you, man. You dont know which one it is, though. I know. It could be both. Are you high or proposing to me . The very funny and talented conan obrien weighing in on a very serious issue. Yesterdays news. While samesex marriage isnt a new thing because several other states legalized it within the last decade. Washingtons Marijuana Law makes it the only state that allows recreational pot use. By the way, colorado is just a couple of months away from enacting the very same freedoms. While it seems legal, is it really . Those two states voted to make it so but the federal government still says it isnt so. Quite frankly, nobody really knows who trumps who here in the political debate. The governors of both of those states say that the feds havent even started talking to them yet. But how to reconcile these two laws that are diametrically opposed. The feds may be tipping their hands when and making plans for a bit after crackdown on these brandnew state freedoms. What the feds do could ultimately reverse what those states did. More likely what the state voters did which means that the Supreme Court may end up the ultimate referee in all of this. Joining me now is the former u. S. Attorney general in the bush administration, Alberto Gonzalez. Probably one of the better voices to ask about whats happening. Thank you so much for being on the program. Did you see this coming, first of all . Did you see these momentous shifts in the last election coming . No. No. I didnt. Obviously, as you indicated, in your opening remarks, it is still against federal law to smoke, to possess, to sell marijuana. It is still a schedule one controlled substance and so even though under state law it may be lawful and in Washington State and in colorado, i believe, january 5, it will become lawful. Nonetheless, the u. S. Attorney in washington has been very clear in say