Starting point begins right now. Well, our starting point, a brutal winter storm battering the northeast and torturing Holiday Travelers all over the country. Here it is on the radar. The system is expected to dump up to two feet of snow on central maine today. Six states are under winter storm warnings, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont, and of course maine. Everyone there could see at least a foot of snow. More than 200,000 customers spanning several states are already without power. More than 1700 flights had to be cancelled yesterday, hundreds more have already been taken off the board this morning and that number is expected to climb. Six deaths are being blamed on this system since tuesday, and the threat hasnt passed yet. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider tracking the storm from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. But first inez is live in syracuse, new york, where shes been theres a great deal of snow behind you, inez, good morning. Reporter good morning, ali, yeah, its still snowing here and Governor Cuomo has asked new yorkers to avoid nonessential travel and heres why. Poor visibility and the possibility of ice on the streets. You can see these are the streets of downtown syracuse. Plows have been coming by here all morning long, but the snow is still accumulating here. Im show you some of the accumulation. A foot is expected from this storm but also in the past four days syracuse has had 13 inches of snow from other snowstorms. Now, city Officials Say that this area is actually used to snow. However, the amount of snow in such a short period of time is a challenge, of course, for cleanup efforts and its been almost two years since syracuse has had a foot of snow all in one shot, ali. Well keep an eye on this with you through the course of the morning. This powerful storm really rocked the nations heart land. Travel conditions so treacherous the Indiana Pacers had to postpone last nights home game against the chicago bulls. Flying and driving today and the rest of the week will continue to be tough. Lets get to meteorologist Bonnie Schneider whos tracking the system in atlanta. Good morning, bonnie. Good morning, ali. Right now were seeing heavy rain across the new york city metropolitan area and that is impacting travel at this hour. This just in. We have onehour delays at la guardia in queens. Even though the rain isnt as strong in that region, were getting fierce wind. Look at the heavy rain hitting providence and boston and to the north its all snow. Check out the snowfall totals from this storm. Almost two feet in illinois. Many cities shattered records. We had a record in little rock, arkansas, on christmas day. Never in 86 years have they seen so much snow on christmas. The temperatures are brutally cold. Ines in syracuse, new york, it was 20 years. The colder air will filter in and temperatures will plummet down across much of the regions you see here. Wind and rain impacting airports. Likely to see more delays in philadelphia and washington, and heavy accumulation, a foot or more, all the way across new england. So this is going to impact vermont, maine, new hampshire, upstate new york, mixing in with sleet as time as the low pulls this energy up to the east. Youll be watching for heavy snow in the burlington area. Many people might be vacationing and enjoying some skiing at this time in vermont so thats good news. But temperature plummetted in the south. Its only 32 in charlotte and 27 in memphis. So ali, unseasonably cold here in the southeast. This is more like what youd be experiencing in new york than we would here in atlanta. Just above freezing in atlanta and in alabama freezing and lower. Bonnie, well check in with you through the course of the morning. This dangerous storm and its devastating winds have several states in the south picking up pieces this morning in the cold after getting torn up by tornados. Look at this incredible Surveillance Video from cameras at a walgreens drugstore in mobile, alabama. Vehicles getting tossed around like match boxes in the parking lot. Ive never been in a war zone but im sure this is what its looks like. Heres a bunch of tin, a bunch of stuff lifted off the buildings in our parking lot. Tornados also ripped up parts of pearl river county, mississippi. Two dozen homes there were damaged or destroyed and the aleast 25 people were hurt. Now, for those of you getting back into your routine this morning, let me bring you up to date on the fiscal cliff. Were now just five days away from going over the fiscal cliff. Happy new year. Heres what you might have missed. President obama left hawaii early to get back to washington today. The senate is also coming back from christmas vacation today to work on a deal. Now, sources tell us majority leader harry reid will push a scaledback version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out on friday, which moved the tax hike needle to 400,000. No word yet on when the house of representatives might come back, but democrats say the only hope we have of something getting through the house, the senate and the white house may be a very lastminute deal. Cnn radios lisa is following developments on capitol hill right now. The ball is in Senate Majority leader harry reids court it would seem right now, lisa. Thats right. Harry reid and the senate seem to be the only game in town right now with the Senate Returning today. We also know from sources, ali, that over this christmas break there were no conversations between the president and toplevel republicans. Sources from both parties are telling us they are watching the senate, especially the democratic leadership in the senate. We also know yesterday House Republicans came out with a statement saying that he will act only after the u. S. Senate acts. Were not sure what the senate will do, as you say, were expecting that smaller deal. What exactly will they vote on . Perhaps something that will erase tax hikes for most but not all americans. There could be some money in there for Unemployment Benefits. Theyre cobbling all of that together today. All eyes again on the senate, as you say. An lets look at whats going to happen today. 10 00 a. M. , thats when the senate comes into session, 10 00 a. M. 11 30 is when president obama returns from hawaii. So we expect many conversations after the president returns. Then we have those five days, ali, as you say, until we go over the fiscal cliff. Ali, one other number, six days until the markets open after the fiscal cliff and ill throw a second number, one week until the new congress begins, so they are hard up against some big deadlines. The market implication is important because markets have done very, very well this year, lisa, and theres some suggestion if congress doesnt get it together before the new year, markets may force them to do so. Well be talking more about that later in the show. Lisa, thanks so much. Well check in with you later. Piling on the concerns, treasury secretary tim geithner has warned congress hat u. S. Will reach its debt ceiling on monday. That is when the government reaches its legal Borrowing Limit. Now, this could pose a bigger threat to the nations Credit Rating than the fiscal cliff. Treasury can keep the government operating for a few weeks using emergency measures, but Congress Needs to act on this too to avoid a fullblown debt crisis. Alina cho. Joins us with the ret of the top stories. Former president george h. W. Bush remains in intensive care in a houston hospital with an elevated fever. He is on a liquid diet an his condition is listed as guarded. His spokesman quotes him as saying im determined not to be dprumpy with all of this. Toyota has agreed to pay up in a major way, 1. 1 billion to settle a class action suit over sudden acceleration issues. Under the deal toyota will install a brake override system in effective cars. It will also set up a fund of 250 million for former toyota owners who sold their cars from september of 2009 through all of 2010. That money would compensate owners for their cars reduced value because of bad publicity. Also toyotas attorneys say a separate fund of 250 million will be set up to compensate current owners whose cars arent eligible for the brake override system. Late senator Daniel Inouyes successor will be sworn in later today. Hawaii governor kneel abercrombie appointed his Lieutenant Governor, brian schatz to fill the seat. A white house official says hes actually flying to d. C. With president obama. Abercrombie wa widely expected to appoint a congresswoman to take over before he died. Inouye named her as his preferred successor. Supreme Court JusticeSonia Sotomayor refusing to block the contraceptives mandate in president obamas health care law. Let me explain this. Two companies, hobby lobby arts and crafts stoerds and Mardell Christian bookstores argue that requiring their Groups Health care plans to cover contraception violates their religious beliefs. Sotomayor who hears emergency appeals said the companies didnt qualify for an injunction while they challenged the requirement in court. She did not rule on the merits of the companys religiousbased claims just yet. Weve told you about those long delays at the airports thanks to this monumental winter storm. Well, in dallas get a load of this. Cnn affiliate wfaa reports that one American Airlines flight sat stranded at the gate for nearly five hours. One passenger reportedly said the airline told them they could get off, but at the same time warned them they could be leaving at any minute so nobody knew what to do. Now listen to the pilots apology to his passengers. Its beyond reproach. I have no words to tell you how sorry i am for all of this. Decisions are being made way above our heads by people that obviously in my humble opinion dont have a clue what theyre doing. American airlines said operating safely was their focus but after five hours on the tarmac, i probably would have gotten up and started cheering when that pilot said that. Good for him. I think it makes all the difference in the world when the crew and the pilot feel like theyre on your side and stuck in the same thing. Theres no excuse for five hours on the tarmac. I get the weather, i get it. Its ridiculous. Great to see you, as always. Coming up ahead on starting point the senate is back to work in washington today to figure out an 11thhour deal on the fiscal cliff, but what about the house, which punted on boehners plan b. House congressman Steve Latourette, by the way someone who has repudiated Grover Norquists pledge joins us next. And Mark Zuckerbergs sister confused about facebooks privacy settings. Well have the details of that ahead. People really love snapshot from progressive, but dont just listen to me. Listen to these happy progressive customers. I plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. With snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. The better i drive, the more i save. I wish our company had something this cool. Youre not filming this, are you . Aw camera shy. Snapshot from progressive. Testdrive snapshot before you switch. Visit progressive. Com today. Time for citi price rewind. Because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. And if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. Just use your citi card and register your purchase online. Have a super sparkly day ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. Citi price rewind. Start saving at citi. Com pricerewind. Aww man. [ male announcer ] returns are easy with free pickup from the u. S. Postal service. Well even drop off boxes if you need them. Visit usps. Com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. Any time of year. Nice sweater. Thank you. President obama and the Senate Return to washington today after vacation. They only have five days to act to avoid the fiscal cliff. Heres what happens if we go over the fiscal cliff. All the bush tax cuts, all of them will expire with taxes going up an average of 1600 per household. The payroll tax holiday also expires. That means the tax burden will go up an average z700 per household extra. Extended Unemployment Benefits expire so collection shrinks from 93 weeks to 26 weeks. The medicare doc fix expires, that means a 27 cut in physician payments. The alternative minimum tax expands to 27 million more americans and obama care taxes hit, meaning a 0. 9 jump in the medicare payroll tax for those earning 200,000 or more. But what about the house of representatives . They left town after republicans failed to bring a vote on their own plan b last week. Ohio republican congressman Steve Latourette seems kpas rat kpas rated about all of this. Youre on your way out and you repudiated the norquist pledge which you signed back in 1994. Tell me why . Well, i repudiated it because, listen, its not 1994 anymore. The world has moved on. We have the euro, weve had september 11th, a lot of things have happened. And quite frankly, this calls for a big solution. It calls for a solution that nobody yet has proposed seriously and that is everything needs to be on the table. That means revenues, it means spending cuts, it means entitlement reform. Until somebody actually acts on what everybody in this town knows what needs to be done, this is going to be a huge problem. We are dangerously close to the fiscal cliff. Now, in all fairness, not all of it hits on new years day but some of it does. The white house, we have a white house source who has said this. Let me just read this to you. It says we believe very strongly a reasonable package can get majorities in both houses. The only thing that would prevent it is if senator mcconnell and Speaker Boehner dont cooperate. This is from the white house yesterday. Do you believe that to be the case . No, i dont believe that to be the case. Listen, a year ago august when the president was negotiating with the speaker, they were very close to the big deal that needs to be struck. And this isnt a one party or a one house problem. This is leaders of both parties and all branches of the government are not willing to make the deal that they know they have to make, and everybody wants their stuff but doesnt want to give up, you know, what they dont want to give up. You know, were showing pictures right now of john boehner and president obama. John boehner from your state of ohio. There are a lot of people that say if the deal were between these two guys, it would be made. The problem is john boehner cant agree to something with president obama and then take it back to his own party. Well, and vice versa. A year ago august the president couldnt agree to the deal he needed another 400 billion in revenue. Look, if the president and senator reid and john boehner all said to me today its written, lets put simpsonbowles on the floor, i guarantee you given the urgency we could cobble together something to solve this problem but nobody is willing to pull the trigger. Everybody wants to play the blame game. This blame game is about to put us over the edge. The problem, of course, which you dont personally face because you didnt run for this new congress is a poll that we have that was taken very recently that says we asked who would be more responsible if the fiscal cliff occurs. 48 of respondents say the gop in congress. 37 blame would blame president obama and 11 blame both. So theres a political reality to the fact that the gop is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Theyll get blamed if it happens and theyll get blamed if they vote for anything that looks like a tax increase. Listen, the Republican Party gets blamed if its sunny outside. So im not really worried about that and neither should people be. But you bring up the point, this should not be above who suffers in the polls. This should be about fixing the United States of america and, you know what, people need to be willing to take a vote even if it means they dont come back. Yeah, well thats the problem, right . You and i talked about this before. Were in Constant Campaign mode. A compromise would require that both parties, all parties involved actually pay some price, that it costs somebody something. What is the specific problem, though, on the republican side in terms of the lack of compromise . Again, i want to show you the same poll that we did on december 17th and 18th asking about whether the Republican Party is too extreme. 53 say the Republican Party is too extreme. Excuse me, 53 say theyre too extreme. Weve done this poll before. In 2012 it was 36 . In 2004 it was 34 . Back in 2000 only 33 . So whats happened . Is the Republican Party too extreme and governed by its Tea Party Members or is there some other problem thats making americans think thats the case . I think its a combination of all factors. But heres the deal. Republicans and the very conservative republicans that i serve with i think correctly point to the fact that the taxes always go up and the spending reductions never occur. Now thats why this package needs to be put together. I will tell you that if you did the three to one balanced approach that the president of the United States is talking about, you could get 120 republicans in the house to support it, but the president sadly has never put those three to one spending reductions in written form that im aware of. Details are missing on all sides in this one. Congressman latourette, thanks for talking to us again. Ahead on starting point do facebooks privacy settings have you confused . It turns out not even Mark Zuckerbergs sister und