Guest, Peter Billingsley from a christmas story, and grinle College Hoops star jack taylor. Remember him . Big game he had the other day. And the one and only tony bennett, monday, november 26th. Welcome, everybody, starting point this morning. Is that a hint of compromise in the air on capitol hill . 35 days left till we reach the fiscal cliff. And a couple of key republicans are now suggesting that theyre willing to forego their no tax pledge to try to get a budget deal done and avoid massive tax hikes, and spending cuts that will come in the new year. Brandnew cnn orc poll shows that is, in fact, affecting the American People. 68 say they believe falling off the fiscal cliff could trigger major problems for the country, maybe even a crisis. Brings us to dan lothian at the white house this morning. Dan, good morning. Senate goes back to work this afternoon. The house will return tomorrow. What could really be done by Lame Duck Congress . Well, look, the hope is that there will be some kind of compromise here, because as you pointed out most americans believe that if there is no agreement there really could be a crisis here. So you are seeing some softening from republicans who took that no tax pledge back to 1986. First it was Saxby Chambliss. Now South Carolina republican senator Lindsey Graham. Take a listen. When youre 16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid the coming grief, and republicans, republicans should put revenue on the table, were this far in debt, we dont generate enough revenue. I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs. But i will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if democrats will do entitlement reform. And i think thats important what he said there. Only if democrats will do entitlements, as some democrats have pushed back on that. They do not think that that should be on the table. As f americans, they believe that there should be a balance between spending cuts and tax increases. About 67 , according to a new cnn orc poll say that 29 say only spending cuts. And who will get the blame if we dont reach some kind of agreement here . Gop clearly gets the brunt of the blame here. 45 say the gop, 34 say president obama, 15 say both. Now as Congress Returns here to washington, the white house coming out with a new report saying that if those bushera tax cuts are not extended to middleclass americans, Consumer Spending over 2013 will drop by nearly 200 billion. This is an ongoing effort by this white house to help the middle class, and to ensure that wealthy americans pay a little bit more. Soledad . Dan lothian at the white house for us. Thank you, dan. A lot happening in the middle east. Overnight we learn that israels defense minister, ehud barak is resigning his post. Thats effective come january. That Development Comes as delegations for both israel and hamas meet in cairo today. Theyre meeting with egyptian officials to try to advance those ceasefire talks. And egypts president Mohamed Morsi will meet today with judges to explain his edict barring them from overturning any decision that he makes or any laws that he imposes until a new parliament is formed. Reza sayah is in cairo this morning. Lets start with Mohamed Morsi, please. Yeah, good morning, soledad. A few thousand protesters still here in south Tahrir Squares, especially those who camped out over the past several days, still seeing some clashes. Most of them triggered by what seem to be teenagers and twenty somethings out here looking for trouble. We also saw our first fatality of the protest last night on sunday in a Northern City where a 15yearold member of the Muslim BrotherhoodYouth Movement was clubbed to death. At this point the brotherhood doesnt seem to be using that fatality as a rallying cry to shore up support. But at the same time, it doesnt seem to be any indication that this conflict is coming to an end any time soon. The leaders of the opposition faction continue to demand mr. Morsi to rescind his decrees. We just spoke to one of his senior advisers a couple of hours ago. He wants dialogue with the leading opposition factions. He didnt say anything about these decrees today. There are talks scheduled with the judges. But at this hour, no talks scheduled with the opposition factions. Tomorrow big protests on both sides. Both the opposing factions and mr. Morsi the Muslim Brotherhood calling for 1 million man protests. Interesting timing, of course, as they try to negotiate some kind of a peace treaty there or at least continuing relation of talks with the peace talks reza sayah for us. Holiday shoppers in full force through black friday. Did you go shopping, christine . Heck no. Have you read my book, soledad . Dont spend money you dont have. 247, thats a record, 247 million . It is a Record Number but its stretched out over four days now. Now the days are thursday through sunday. Let me throw in cyber monday, right, so it all comes together in huge, huge fourday frenzy of buying. Total spending of what was the number, up some then you she 59. 1 billion. Nearly 13 growth. But, from the another before you had about 16 growth. The industry telling us that this was a really good weekend. Black friday used to just be friday after thanksgiving when you would try to spend all this money. Now, its on thanksgiving, after, you know, after your turkey you can go online or go out and go shopping. Now theyre hoping that today people will spend even more money online. What people buy over the weekend. We know they spent on average 423 soledad. Last year they spent 398. They spent a little more on average over the weekend. They both clothing and accessories. That was the number one destination. Toys. And then books, cds, dvds, video games, electronics another big category. That rose almost every year. Jewelry was 15. 2 . As we know this is the worst time of the year, only valentines day second for buying jewelry. But people did it anyway. And 32. 6 our a romance killer. If youre going to get engaged you got to act now. Thats what they say, right . Online sales, whats really interesting. For the First Time Ever on friday online sales topped a billion. This has been this big shift. Were shopping longer over the thanksgiving holiday but were also shopping online. Even on thursday, you saw huge growth on actual thanksgiving, so between stirring the gravy and mashing the potatoes you could score some deals. In part because were using Technology Much more to do our shopping now. There was like 70 off and then 25 off of the 70 off. And the deals were good. Especially for certain kinds of electronics and the normal door busters if you get there. But remember that were going to be seeing deals throughout the rest of the year, too. Now that the online factor is in there, youre going to be hearing a lot more about these sales. Another question is, now through four days of buying, is this it for the Holiday Shopping . Are people done . And have we seen the big boost, and the retailerszpsh i havent started. You havent . Auction wednesday and whats next . All the sort of madeup branded name days. I like it. Because of technology. Im giving you my half cold cup of coffee if youll read the news stories coming up. Sounds like a good deal. Fire broke out at a garment factory in Dhaka Bangladesh is now under control with no deaths reported. It happened just two days after another fire killed at least 120 workers. Authorities still do not know what caused the eightstory blaze saturday night. The factory is owned by a company which manufactures products for walmart and other companies in the u. S. And europe. Police in georgia say a suspected walmart shoplifter is dead after getting in a physical altercation with two employees and a Security Guard. Investigators say the man left the store with two dvd players. Employees and the Security Guard detained him, when police got there they say the employees were on top of the man, who was unresponsive, and bleeding from the nose and mouth. Walmart is investigating. Human error is to blame for a gas explosion that destroyed a strip club in springfield, massachusetts, last week. See the explosion right there. At least 21 people were injured by the blast, including 12 firefighters and 2 police officers. According to the fire marshals office, the utility workers inadvertently punctured a hole in a High Pressure gas line while responding to reports of a gas smell nearby. Another sign life is slowly returning to normal in new jersey. Path trains are back in service this morning after Superstorm Sandy swamped the system. Youre seeing pictures there of the floodwater just gushing in. Millions of gallons of floodwater from the hurricane left the World Trade Center station submerged. It took nearly a month to pump it all out and fix the damage. So if you like to play the lottery, you may want to stock up on tickets for wednesdays Record Powerball jackpot. With no grand prize winner, the jackpot is now up to 425 million. That may not be it. The number could go even higher depending on ticket sales over the next few days. The previous high for powerball was 365 million, that was a ticket sold in 2006. Youre just dreaming right now. Soledad is lost in her dreams. Im trying to decide would i call in and tell people im not coming in to work or would i just stay in bed and not bother. What would you buy . I wouldnt buy a thing. Actually, id fund a lot of programs. Id send a lot of people to college. I dont need stuff. Shes better than me. You have everything. What do you mean . I got a few things i could think of. Please, please. All right moving ahead this morning. And still ahead on starting point, congress, will Congress Come to a compromise, and avoid the fiscal cliff . Or will we just go right over . Were going to talk to congressman Bill Pascrell who sits on the house budget committee. And emergency contraception for teenagers. The controversial new recommendation from doctors this morning. Pizza palace gets the most rewards of any Small Business credit card pizza [ garth ] olafs Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase, every day helium delivery. Put it on my spark card [ pop ] [ garth ] why settle for less . Great businesses deserve the most rewards awesome [ male announcer ] the spark Business Card from capital one. Choose unlimited rewards with 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day whats in your wallet . [ male announcer ] youve been years in the making. And there are many years ahead. 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[ male announcer ] cyber monday is back. Shop now for great savings with free shipping. The first and only place to go for cyber monday. Walmart. Com. Starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. What makes stouffers meatloaf best of all . That moment you enjoy it at home. Stouffers. Lets fix dinner. Cool, you found it. Wow. Nice place. Yeah. [ chuckles ] the family thinks im out shipping these. Smooth move. You used Priority Mail flatrate boxes. If it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. Paid for postage online and arranged a free pickup. And im gonna track them online, too. Nice. Between those boxes and this place, im totally staying sane this year. Do i smell snickerdoodles . Maybe. [ timer dings ] gotta go. [ male announcer ] Priority Mail flat rate boxes. Online pricing starts at 5. 15. Only from the postal service. Welcome back. Minding your business. U. S. Stock futures pointing to a lower open. The stocks had a pretty good day friday. The dow, nasdaq and s p 500 all gained more than 1 . The dow closing above 13,000 for the First Time Since the election. This week, the focus turns back to the u. S. Economy now the fiscal cliff talks are looking more promising and the election is behind us. New reports this week on the Housing Market, Manufacturing Sector and consumer data. Also the second estimate for Third Quarter gdp comes out on thursday. The broadest gauge of the health of the economy and economists think that number is going to show better growth than we saw, 2. 8 down from 2. 2 that they had thought earlier. The fiscal cliff being, you know, something that really helped the stock market last week. I would imagine. Dont screw up. Please, congress, dont mess this up. Lets take a live look this morning at the capitol dome where congress is back to work this week. S fiscal cliff staring them in the face. 35 days, we go right over that cliff or right down that slide or whatever the metaphor is were using today. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are now signaling that theyre willing to compromise. That includes republicans whove been softening their stance on raising taxes. Senator dick durbin, democrat from illinois, weighed in on abcs this week. From my side of the table, bring entitlement reform into the conversation. Social security sed aside. Doesnt add to the deficit. But when it comes to medicare and medicaid, protect the integrity of the program but give it solvency for more and more years. Congressman Bill Pascrell is a democrat from new jersey. Thank you for talking with us. Soledad, how are you this morning . Im really well, thank you. Ive had many, many days off. What are the democrats willing to give . You heard dick durbin there. Tick off for me and be specific, what are democrats willing to give on in this negotiation . Well, i think the senators absolutely correct, we need to compromise. Theres no question about that. And we will not, however, in any way, shape or form, jeopardize the planned benefits for Social Security. I mean thats kind of installed in the American People. We changed Social Security over the years in order to meet the demands that the program insists upon. We will do that. But well do that in a bipartisan fashion. Okay, so compromise. Social security is off the table. Medicare, walk me through what are the changes here . Weve already we have already cut benefits. We have already cut dollars for medicare. But not benefits. And we will not compromise on the question of guaranteed benefits of medicare. What do you compromise on . We can change medicare. As you well know, we save medicare 750 billion Million Dollars and that was because of the Medicare Advantage program. Which was unfair for the rest of those of us who do not have Medicare Advantage. But there were no cutting. In fact theres more benefits now in medicare. We want to stay with a general budget. The math doesnt add up if you simply say were going to do away with some of the deductions. In order to get the cuts that are necessary, in order to get the revenue thats necessary, we will have to raise some rates. Or else the math doesnt work at all. Are you i think the president s direction was absolutely correct, during the campaign, and after the campaign, you know politicians have a knack of changing things when the election is over, actually, and i think he stayed on course, to about 3 of cuts and a dollar for increase in revenue. And while ill not say general protocol i think thats the direction we should be going. So are you open to limiting deductions versus raising taxes . Well, we may look, limit the deductions for those making over 250,000. We may limit those deductions for those making over 1 million. What the figure is, what the dollar figure is, is one thing. What the principle is, is another. And i think wed be working to a compromise on the very question that you asked. So let me ask you a question about the unions. Of course unions, big democratic supporters, the aflcio spokesperson jeff houser said not a single day more of the bush tax cuts for the 2 , protect Social Security and medicare and medicaid other unions have said listen were going to put pressure on congress to raise taxes on the wealthy, keep entitlements off the table. That sounds like a very noncompromising position, and with democrats kind of caught in the middle. How do you do both of those things . Well, look, this is a starting point. When you