Also pat houston, Whitney Houstons sisterinlaw and manager and jeopardy champion ken jennings written a new book. Its tuesday, december 4th, starting point begins right now. Welcome everybody, youre watching starting point. Were honored this morning to have the former british Prime Minister tony blair with us as our guest. Hes going to be weighing in as a number of topics. Were going to talk about the fiscal cliff, were going to talk about the global economy. Were going to talk about the civil war in syria. Well talk about the royal baby coming soon. First we want to get right to Zoraida Sambolin for an update on the days top stories. Soledad, the fiscal cliff debacle, with 28 days remaining before drastic tax hikes and spending cuts take effect, a republican spending plan has been rejected by the white house. Brianna keilar is live from washington. What now, brianna . Well, right now its about the pressure building and the clock kicking, zoraida. As House Republicans in the white house try to ultimately broker a deal between two very different plans. House speaker John Boehners counteroffer, if you take a look at the headlines from this 800 billion in what would be savings from tax reform. So that is new tax revenue. But not done by increasing income tax rate on the wealthiest. But instead by closing tax loopholes, eliminating tax credits. And also 600 billion in health savings. Thats what youd get from entitlement reform. From reforming medicare, and doing some cuts there under this plan. But compare it to the white house plan, very different than whats on the table there. 1. 6 trillion in new taxes. That is two times the amount in the boehner plan, and also, of course, includes increasing those income tax rates for the wealthy. 400 billion to medicare and other entitlements, thats 00 billion less than in the speakers counteroffer and this would force congress to give up its debt limit vote which is a nonstarter for House Republicans. The white house saying that boehner counteroffer is nothing new, that it lacks specifics. But i will tell you, zoraida, that one House Democratic aid telling cnn that it passed the laugh test. So certainly i guess it could have been worse in some estimations by democrats. I suspect some people were laughing. Brianna keilar live at the white house for us, thank you. In the next half hour, well talk about the prospect for a fiscal cliff deal with californias democratic congressman Xavier Becerra. The rain and flooding are relentless in Northern California. Four storms in less than a week left at least one death now attributed to those storms. And more rain is expected today. Lets get right to meteorologist rob marciano. He is following it all from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. Good morning. Good morning, zoraida. This is the worst stretch of storms that Northern California has seen really in about two years. Another punch today then well set up for a dry trend. The good news is that it has been dry so the ground, even though weve seen a lot of major flooding, the ground has absorbed a fair amount of it. Seattle to portland, rain right now. Snow at the highest elevations, and the rain will eventually push down into San Francisco and sacramento later on today. This system is actually messing up the atmosphere and creating a lot of warmth across much of the country. If you live anywhere east of the rockies, actually anywhere east of the cascades and sierras, youre feeling it. Temperatures, record breaking yesterday, into the 60s and 70s across parts of the midwest. 20 and 30 degrees above average. That would be the case again today, and then a little bit of a cooldown as we go through time. But watching the rain closely across San Francisco as mentioned, somewhat drier for at least california, not so much the pacific northwest. But california will be drier as we get towards the beginning of next week. Zoraida . All right, rob marciano live in atlanta for us. Iran has made a bold claim this morning that it has captured an unmanned u. S. Drone. Iranian state Television Broadcast what it claims is the drone, and says the aircraft was collecting data in iranian air space. But, a u. S. Defense official tells cnn that the navy has accounted for all of its drones, and that whatever iran claims to have, it is not an actively operating american drone. The head of the cdc warns that all the signs are pointing to a bad flu season this year. Cdc director dr. Thomas friedan is advising all americans over the age of 6 months to get vac continuated. He says the flu arrived early this year but the vaccine is an excellent tool to fight it. Soledad, i did not, and i never do. But i may this year. Really . I dont. Why not . Because i get sick every year. So i dont bother. Think about that for a moment. Its so easy. I got it one year and i got sick and so i thought, well its very scientific. I think everybody in my little world, get a flu shot. Listen to them. Lets talk about Prince William. Hes back at a London Hospital this morning with his wife catherine. They are expecting their first child, and catherine is being treated for symptoms of very severe morning sickness. Britain all abuzz with news of the pregnancy. Richard quest is live in london this morning. Hey, richard. Good morning to you. Indeed, the prince is now back at the hospital. The duchess is being treated for this very severe form of morning sickness. Depending on the number, this affects 1 in 50 or 2 in 50 women. But when it does hit apparently its very bad. Although it doesnt necessarily pose a threat to the life of the mother or baby, it is considered to be so debilitating that you do go into hospital for this infusion of fluids. Which im told by experts make things a great deal better. This is the way the morning papers in the uk are reporting the story. Just simply a wealth of puns, jokes, and the like. Kate expectations, says the daily sun. The mirror for pregnant kate in hospital for days. And the daily mail has it has a nations joy, a husbands nerves. So, whichever way you cut this, everybody seems to be delighted. I mean theres just theres just tons of tons of papers by the yard. Can i go out on a limb and say its just the beginning. You have nine months, and then the kid is born, and you have years of the same exact thing. Richard quest for us this morning. Thanks, richard, appreciate it. Weve heard from Brianna Keilar just a few moments ago, both the white house and Congressional Republicans have laid their plans on the table to deal with a looming fiscal cliff which is now 28 days away. Both proposals have been flatout rejected by the other side. Former british Prime Minister tony blair is with me this morning to talk a little bit about what the standstill means not just for the United States, but really, the international community, as well. Its nice to have you, sir. Thank you. We know here in the United States as we talk about this step toward the fiscal cliff, unemployment, 9. 1 , millions of people would lose their jobs, the country would go back into a recession. What are the global implications, if, in fact, we do go over the fiscal cliff . Very bad if it happens. Everyone hopes it doesnt. I mean i think right now you would expect people to be flatly rejecting the other sides proposal. I mean, theres going to be 29 days . Its going to be a really tough negotiation. The expectation, by the way, in the world is that you will sort it out. And if you do, i think the American Economy, i would be probably more optimistic about the American Economy right now than certainly any part of the rest of the western world. So if you can get this sorted out, you can really move forward, and therefore, i think now that your elections are out of the way, im just speaking as an outsider, now your election is out of the way, theres going to be all this bargaining and positions, but my expectations, i hope, and the desire of the world, is sorted out, and we can move on, and then sort our own problems out. For those of us in the United States, we see sort of what seems to be two intractable issues. Republicans saying we will not raise taxes on the top 2 of earners. The democrats say were certainly not going to have cuts that hurt spending cuts that hurt the middle class. And as the proposals go on the table they seem intractable on it. They do. But you would expect them, the republicans to be more on the tax side and democrats to be more on the were not cutting spending side. This is pretty routine type of argument. The question is, you know, are they so far apart they cant bridge the gap . I think they could bridge the gap. You know, there have been proposals put forward on a crossparty basis before that very nearly resulted, you know, weve just got to hope that after all the tough bargaining, if everyone just came together and said weve got an agreement, then that would be rather unlikely. So, i mean, i hope it doesnt run on too long. Because the world really is watching. And the single thing that would give the biggest boost to local confidence right now would be to resolve the fiscal cliff position, and then see the American Economy, you know, what a fantastic Natural Advantage is in this huge game change youve got in Energy Policy to see that economy really take its proper place again. And if that happens, i think that will also, by the way, have an impact on say the eurozone, which is still very, very fragile. All the ifs in there. You have written an article, a special to cnn called be bold to escape the economic crisis. Thats the headline there. What is the lesson . I mean i think often the big superpowers dont necessarily look to africa, for example, for good lessons on how to strategize. Many of those countries, those emerging economies are doing, are growing, at a rate faster than the United States, and favser than many others. Yes, theyre moving ahead very fast as economies. But i think for us efficiently, if you take europe theyve got to take some really Big Decisions now, and as it were, sort out the shortterm issues to do with the single currency crisis, and then make the longterm reforms that were all going to have to make. I mean, your fiscal cliff some of the issues there, around entitlements and welfare and reform, theyve got echoes of what were trying to do in europe and in the uk, where frankly a lot of the systems weve built up in the postwar years, as a result of technology, as a result of an aging population, you know, as a result of rising costs in health care and elsewhere, youre going to have to make some quite big fundamental changes. So i think the issue is to sort out the shortterm problem, and then get going on those longterm reforms that will allow us to start being competitive again, and taking our places from the growing economies. Were going to have to ask british Prime Minister blair to stick around for just a few moments. We want to get your take on syria. The president has a very stern warning for president assad about using chemical weapons on his own people. Well discuss the latest on that. Plus, of course, the royal baby. Is a royal baby in the rule womb of the royal soontobe princess one day. Were back in just a moment. [ ding ] losing your chex mix too easily . Time to deploy the boringpopcorn decoy bucket. Then no one will want to steal the deliciousness. With a variety of tastes and textures only chex mix is a bag of interesting. I have a cold, and i took nyquil, but im still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesnt unstuff your nose. What . [ male announcer ] it doesnt have a decongestant. No way. [ male announcer ] sorry. Alkaseltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ sighs ] thanks [ male announcer ] youre welcome. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus. 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Were talking with former british Prime Minister tony blair. Hes also a representative with the quartet on the middle east. Its nice to have you with us. Lets talk a little bit about syria. Hillary clinton had a statement out yesterday. Shes in the czech republic, and she said this. Im not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event theres credible evidence that the assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but suffice it to say we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur. First of all, what do you think that means, specifically . And, and what should it mean . I think it means that its a red line for americans and the world. If that were to happen then i would expect some form of very tough military response. Which would be what . I think it would be unlikely to speculate and specify right now and thats why shes being cautious in what she said. But up to now, what the west has been doing is giving some Political Support to the Syrian Opposition, obviously trying to resolve the situation as far as is possible. Its not been possible so far. And every day 100 people die or more. There are a lot of people dying. Now the death toll probably would be around 40,000 since this began. Thats a large number of people. But if there were any sense at all that assad was going to use chemical weapons or did use chemical weapons against his own people, i would expect a very tough response that would be military. Do you know him . I mean is he the kind of person who, in fact, would, i mean, the Foreign Ministry in syria says we confirmed we would never use under any circumstances chemical weapons against its own people, if such weapons exist. Theres evidence the weapons do exist. Would he, in fact, do you think . Look, i do know him. But i dont know the answer to that question. Except that youve got to take into account that he is content to have a situation which, as i say, almost 40,000 people have died so far. Theyre dying every day. And theyre dying, by the way, this is why large numbers of civilians are dying, essentially the attack forces can no longer really combat Syrian Opposition handtohand on the ground. So what theyre doing is theyre just, you know, using their superior air power and fire power just to, you know, wipe out villages and towns, and that means you have an indifference to the loss of civilian life. That im afraid is not a great character reference for what he might do. Hes got to understand that the consequences of going that step further and using chemical weapons would, as Hillary Clinton has made clear and president obama made clear that would invoke a completely different response from us. I think, though, weve got to be looking for ways to try to bring this ghastly conflict to an end. But what you have said that to piers morgan, you said we need to ramp up pressure on aside and i think there are people in the state department who said weve been trying to do that. What needs to be done . Well, i think we are. But, i think weve also got to look at ways now that we give support to the Syrian Opposition, especially around this notion of how you protect certain parts of the territory for them. And really just send a signal to assad that this will only have one outcome. The important thing here is that is to show that in the end it is a matter of time. Its its when and not if. Now there are also, i think, signs that for russia and china, i think they would be prepared, possibly, to look at a way you could manage an outcome of this, so that you get some form of agreement that provide asylum, were getting him out but for the rest of the world, such are the consequences of this disintegration are happening, most people look at any reason to get him out, get a new form of democratic constitution in, and then try and stabilize the situation. Im going to make a very sharp turn to talk about something much more joyful, which is the news of the oil baby, whose birth is impending. We know that catherine is in the hospital now. What is the whats it like in, in london, in great britain, with this kind of news . People must just be going insane. Well, you know, britain loves the royal family. So, and people are very happy, very joyful. Theyre a very popular young couple and this is great news for them. And you know, also, really actually, when the economy is a little tough, and when times are a little tough, this is news that cheers everyone up. Its nice to be able to talk about the royal bun in the royal oven, as opposed to talking about the fiscal cliff, for example. British Prime Minister tony blair. Its nice to have you with us this morning. We certainly appreciate your time. Thank you. Still ahead on starting point this morning, more fallout over the failed fast and furious operation that cost a