United states. Leon panetta signed an order to send two Patriot Missile batteries to turkey along with 400 u. S. Troops to help the country defend against any u. S. Action by syria. The move was expected as the rebellion destabilizes or begins to destabilize the assad regime. Nick paton walsh has the latest for us. Nick, good morning. Reporter good morning. 400 u. S. Troops expected to be on the ground, but this contribution of three total member nations, germany expected to begin ratifying its deployment of two patriot batteries, the netherlands as well. Let me give you the back story. The past two months we have seen exchanges, syrian army accused of firing into turkey. Turkey returning fire. That sense of host tillity and volatility on the border leading them to ask nato for help and patriots coming here at this point. Expected to be used mostly in the event of missiles being fired and have the ability to take down aircraft as well. We heard from u. S. Secretary of defense leon panetta, that the u. S. Does have a plan in the event that they see the assad regime use or prepare to use chemical weapons. Not clear if patriots will be involved in that. But right now, in the very volatile part of the world, we have u. S. Troops potentially on the ground. Nick paton walsh, thank you for the update. Frank discussions, open lines of communication, but no deal. 18 days until the fiscal cliff. President obama and john boehner met just under an hour. After coordinated press releases, both sides assured the American People that communication lines remain open. Dana bash is live in washington, d. C. This morning. 50 minutes and sort of a very milquetoasty kind of statement at the end of it, sounds not good. No, not good, considering where we are in the calendacale. Im told by sources in both parties, a meeting that did not produce any new ideas, more of Touching Base meeting, the president wanted to talk to the speaker before he went home to ohio, which he still planned to do this weekend, the sources say that the basic problem still is, soledad, after all of the weeks, is democrats still believe republicans have the problem. They need to deal with the debt crisis by raising more revenue, meaning raising more taxes and republicans still think democrats are the problem. They are not offering enough in spending cuts. The issue is, reality, democrats, the president has the most leverage. Has had the most leverage, republicans know that. Everybody see where is this will probably go. Republicans have to give some on the rate increases for the most wealthy. And the question, when is it most politically advantageous for both sides to agree to that. Let me ask a question. You have had a chance to talk to two former majority leaders from opposite sides of the aisle what are they saying about where we are and the fact that there will be a deal somewhere soon . Trent lott and tom daschle, republican and democratic leader, opposite sides of the table four years, working together on tough issues and they pointed out it is certainly possible, of course it is possible. They have to have the political will in to the political leaders and they pointed out that timing on a deal is really key. Take a listen. Very true. The speaker is going to have to make a decision on that, and the president is going to have to make a decision on what he will do in return on spending, and they need to do it on concert. You have to have the winds and the brass come together. Maybe hold hands and jump off the cliff together . It would be more fun on the way down. At least have you company. Whether or not that is all going to happen before the ends of the year, really still is an open question. But, soledad, outside a meeting of republicans yesterday, and all of them said that the speaker told them, dont make Christmas Plans. Yeah, not a shock either. And i think jumping off a cliff, whether you have hands to hold or no hands to hold is all bad, all the way down. Dana bash this morning, appreciate it. Diplomatic shocker to update you on after the republican firestorm on the attack in benghazi, susan rice has taken herself out of the running, wont try to succeed secretary of state Hillary Clinton for that role. President obama talked about ambassador rices decision last night. I hadnt made a decision about who would be my next secretary of state. No doubt, susan is qualified. Other people are qualified as well. Her interest is in serving me, but more importantly, in serving the country. Could not be prouder of her. She is one of the top members of my National Security team. Shell meet with the president today, our Foreign Affairs reporter, elise labott in washington, d. C. Break this down whats happening behind the scenes. She said in her resignation note that shes decided to do this for the good of the American People, so there is not this contentious, partisan debate. Whats really happening here . Well, ive talked to some of our aides. She was ready for a fight. She doesnt give up on a fight. Tweeted this morning with an oped in the Washington Post, but over the last couple of days and weeks, her aides and she started to do the math. Wasnt just about benghazi anymore, morphed into Something Else, on other issues back when she was in the clinton administration, increasingly politicized and wasnt going to stop. So she made the tough decision and also i think, soledad, her aides felt that this detracted from some of the more successful work that she did as u. S. Ambassador to the united nations. If you remember, she was instrumental in passing the toughest sanctions ever on iran. Pushed for military action in libya and other things. Take a listen to what she told nbc news about why she withdraw h her name. I didnt want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting and very disruptive. Because there are so many things we need to get done as a country. And, soledad, she has a lot of work to do at the u. N. Right now, the u. S. Is trying to get a resolution imposing sanctions on north korea the syria crisis, and right now, the short list for secretary clintons replacement, down to one man, senator john kerry, who is seen as someone who has a locality of world stature, a lot of relationships with World Leaders and certainly as chairman of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee has a lot of Foreign Policy chops and most attractive to the administration, soledad, hes hes i will confirmable. Elise labott, thank you. Thats a very short list. One name on it. Short list of one. Live pictures of a pro president Mohamed Morsi rally in cairo. She a members of the opposition say the constitution is too islamist and infringes on minority rights. Protesting outside the president ial palace right now. New this morning, a 6. 4 magnitude earthquake off the coast of baja. So far, no tsunami warnings. Clackamas town center will reopen to shoppers in six hours. Thats the mall where a gunman killed two people on tuesday and critically wounded a third before killing himself. A candlelight vigil will be held outside the mall. A funeral for fallen Dallas Cowboys player jerry brown. Brown was killed in a suspected drunk driving accident on saturday. His teammate and friend josh brent was behind the wheel. You are looking at new dashcam video of the wreck released by police along with 911 calls they received in moments after the accident. Is anybody injured . I dont know. I just drove past it. Looks like it just happened. A car upside down. Josh brent is free on half a Million Dollars bail. Hes charged with intoxication manslaughter. So today is the deadline for states to declare whether they will set up their own Health Insurance exchanges. 22 states will not do it. In those cases, the Affordable Care act dictates the federal government comes in and will do it for them. The exchanges will offer consumers an internet based marketplace for purchasing private Health Insurance plans. So it hasnt come to this in washington, d. C. , yet. This brawl broke out on the floor of ukraines parliament. Lots of pushing, shoving, collar grabbing, and the scuffle apparently started after members of ukraines Opposition Party accused two of their own members of planning to defect to the ruling party. I guess the good news, its not partisanship, its fighting within the party. You know, looking for a silver lining. They are talking. Not just saying we had frank discussions. Those are more than frank discussions right there. Can you imagine if we had video fiscal cliff come to this and people going at each other. No women at this shot. I looked very closely. What does that say . Sorry berman. Ahead on starting point this morning, black in america will reair on saturday. And an espn host is questioning the blackness of a star Football PlayerRobert Griffin iii, rg3 on air, what was said and the fallout from that, straight ahead. Plus, business news. One more way the fiscal cliff could cost you. What happens to your paycheck immediately if there is no deal in washington . Thats next. Bring it down, please . Better. Thats what happens to background noise, when youre making a call on this. This microphone here, picks up the sounds around you and helps turn them down. So when the world gets noisy calls sound better. So as you can see, geicos Customer Satisfaction is at 97 . Mmmm tasty. And cut very good. People are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. So were taking you behind the scenes. 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Though all Energy Development comes with some risk, were committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. Its not a dream. Americas natural gas. Putting us in control of our Energy Future, now. Welcome back to starting point. Im christine romans, minding your business. The s p 500 snapped a sixday winning streak, despite modelly upbeat economic data. Call it the payroll tax cliff. Of all the tax issues being negotiated in washington, there is one that many middle class families would certainly feel immediately. The payroll tax holiday that comes directly from your paycheck. Payroll taxes fund social security. Workers have been getting a break. Paying a rate of 4. 2 . In 2013, the rate is said to go back up to 6. 2 , of everything you make. Take a look at this someone making 50,000 a year will see 19 less in their take home pay per week, starting at the beginning of the year. The payroll tax cut, a piece of the whole tax mess, tax puzzle, could have a direct affect on your paycheck. Ill tell up the stock market up 13 this year. Until now, everybody says theyll get it sorted out. Im starting to get emails from strategies who are starting to get nervous again. The stock market, going up based on that this is all bluster, but now you think it will start going down . I dont know. Greg valier, does a note to clients, the Financial Markets think this will get solved, but the word and mood in washington is it wont. Lets bring in a former democratic governor of tennessee. A member of the campaign to fix the debt. He joins us this morning. Nice to have you with us, sir. Great to see you again. A documentary a couple years ago. I remember. Nice to have you with us today. I want to talk christine, stick around. I want to talk about finance 101. The deficit is the gap between the spending and revenue that the government has every single year. The cbo is reporting that the deficit in 2012 is a 1 1. 1 trillion which sounds terrible, but its also gone down over the years, if you look at 2009, 1. 4 trillion, 2010, it dropped, 2011 it dropped and 2012 it dropped. Why are you focused on fixing the debt at a time when we veal have a low borrowing rate . Why focus on fixing the debt instead of the deficit . The two of them are really the same thing. You have to fix the deficit in order to get to a more sensible place with the debt. The difference now, we have these high levels of deficit in the past. And they cant the war the depression was over. The separation were in now, with the deficit being driven by an unwillingness no tax and to cut entitlements, no end in site. Something that, you know, threatens to undermine the Financial Stability of the country. A silly place for to us be. Its crazy. Three pillars of fix the debt. Walk us through. I think we were talking about first of all doing something doing Something Real about it. Making sure that at least 4 trillion in reduction over the course of the next ten years and doing it in a smart way, not walking off the cliff, and causing us really to quite likely move back into recession. Plan it out over a period of time like intelligent adults ought to do. It has to be fair, there has to be entitlement reforms and revenue increases. We need to stop this political wrangling that just looks so silly out here in the country. This is a selfinflected wound. The fiscal cliff were looking at. We need to get beyond that and get to the real problem, showing the world we know how to run the government of the united states. Paul krugman in the New York Times has an interesting oped and starts off by saying we are not having a debt crisis and says this is really a political crisis. Let me read a bit of it. Americans may nod their heads when you attack Big Government in the abstract, but they strongly support social security, medicare and even medicaid. And hes talking about his framing of the gop. Part of the problem, americans have a sense against Big Government, but when it comes to Big Government, people dont want to cut those things of what they think are part of what americans deserve to have. I put the blame on that squarely on the Political Leadership in washington. I think the country is hungry and would response to someone how you fix the whole problem. These are the pieces that you need to put together to get us out of this mess. Instead, focused on aspects of the thing, and about whether marginal tax rates should go up or not, and what ought to be done about entitlements in the short term. People respond and will respond in this country, always have responded to someone who honestly tells them what the situation is and has a real proposal, not political in nature. Shared sacrifice that solves the problem. We ought to try that. Dave wels of the wall street journal writes about the risk of cutting the deficit, too much too soon. If you just focused on jobs and could really solve the problem, bring your deficit to zero. If you had a robust job market. Bring unemployment down low enough in the budget geeks their vana critically adjusted deficit should be close to zero when the economy fires on all cylinders. He is like dont worry about debt, dont worry about the deficit, worry about jobs. I didnt read that piece, but i dont think anyone believes you can simply grow your way out of this. Would you have to have growth rates in the economy that are beyond anything weve experienced over a sustained period of time for long period of time to grow our way out of it. Thats an easy way out. This requires taking some hard actions, and i think everyone also agrees we shouldnt go off the cliff. We are in the throes of a very sort of fragile recovery right now. Lets do the stuff it takes, space it in over time like a wellrun organization would do and give the world some confidence. I would make the point if we really solved this problem, it would be a stimulus package to the economy greater than anything we tried to do before. 2 trillion sitting in Corporate America sitting on the sidelines. A lot of jobs, a lot of investment. If we can present them and the rest of the world with a stable situation and an understandable situation where there is not big things in the road down the road, you will start to see money come in, and a huge stimulus to the economy. Former governor, fill bresenen, thank you. Thanks, enjoyed. Still ahead, well talk about blackness. Comments from an espn host talking about Washington Redskins quarterback rg3. Its its so crazy that i cant even summarize it in a line. But it it is a very interesting, and well talk about it on the other side of the short break. Were back in just a moment. 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