Thats what i said back on july 25th. The only reason we ever allowed that vote on that proposal is i said at that time was that we knew it didnt pass constitutional muster. And the democrats were really serious, they would proceed to a revenue bill that originated in the house as the constitution requires and as i called on them to do again last week. To repeat, the socalled nate bill is nothing more than a glorified sense of the senate resolution. So lets put that convenient talking point aside from here on out. Last night i told the president wed be happy to look at whatever he proposes but the truth is were coming up against a hard deadline here and, as i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. And republicans arent about to write a blank check or anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. That wouldnt be fair to the American People. That having been said, well see what the president has to propose. Members on both sides of the aisle will review it and then well decide how best to proceed. Hopefully theres still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a wholly, wholly preventible economic crisis. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The majority leader. That, of course, was senator Mitch Mcconnell and here we have the majority leader in the senate, harry reid. Lets listen in for a second. The house has reported by the press and we all know, one of the plans didnt have a name, it wasnt plan b. I dont know which plan it was because theyve had a number over there. But this plan was to show the American People that the 250,000 ceiling on raising taxes wouldnt pass in the house. Why didnt they have that vote . Because it would have passed. They wanted to kill it. The speaker wanted to show everybody that it wouldnt pass the house. But he couldnt bring it up for vote because it wouldnt pass. Republicans a myriad of republicans think its the fair thing to do and of course every democrat would vote for that. The republican leader finds himself frustrated that the president has called on him to help address the fiscal cliff. Hes upset because, quote, the phone never rang. He complains that i have not passed the resolution to pass the fiscal cliff but hes in error. We all know that in july of this year we passed in the senate the relief that would give that would give to middle class americans. That passed the senate. Now, we know that republicans have buried themselves in procedural road blocks, everything we try to do around here. And now they are saying, well, we cant do the 250 because it wasnt blueslipped, because it will be blueslipped. Mr. President , how does the American People react to that . There was a bill introduced by the ways and Means Committee in the house, sandy levin that called for this legislation. The speaker was going to bring it up to kill it but he kobt kill it and then we moved to plan b, the debacle of all debacles. Its the mother of all debacles. That was brought up in an effort to send us something. He couldnt even pass it among the republicans it was so absurd. He meaning the speaker. So its very clear now, mr. President , that the speakers number one goal is to get elected speaker on january 3rd. The house is not even here. Hes told me hell give them two days to get back here, 48 hours, not two days, 48 hours. They dont even have enough of the leadership here to meet to talk about it. Theyve done it with conference calls. People are spread all over this country because the speaker is basically waiting for january 3rd. Now, the president campaigned on raising taxes on people making more than 250 thou,000 a year. The bush tax cut will expire at the end of this year. Obama was elected with a surplus of about three million votes. He won the election. He campaigned on this issue. Again, the speaker cant take yes for an answer. The president has presented to him something that would prevent us from going over the cliff. It was response to something that the speaker gave them himself but i guess with the dysfunctional Republican Caucus in the house, even the speaker cant tell what they are going to do because he backed off even his own proposal. The house, we hear so often, is controlled by the republicans. And we acknowledge that. I would be most happy to move forward on something that senator mcconnell said they wouldnt filibuster over here that he would support and that boehner would support if it were reasonable. But right now we havent heard anything. I dont know and its none of my business, i guess, although i am very curious, if the speaker and the majority leader, the republican leader over here are even talking. I mean, whats going on here . Mr. President , you cant legislate with yourself. We have nobody to work with, to compromise. Thats what legislation is all about, is the ability to compromise. The republicans in the house have left town. The negotiations between the president and the speaker have fallen apart as they have for the last 3 1 2 years. Weve tried mightily to get something done. Ill just go over what the little drill here, mr. President , to remind everyone how unreasonable the republicans have been. Senator conrad and jeb gray came up with a proposal. Commission would be appointed, appoint back to us, no filibusters, no amendments, yes or no. And we did a great job and we closed two bases over two different cycles saving the country hundreds and billions of dollars here. So we brought that up here. I brought that up. We have plenty of votes to do it except republican cosponsors walked away and wouldnt vote for it. Thats where Bowles Simpson came from. Why dont we do Bowles Simpson. One problem. The republicans appointed there wouldnt vote for it, generally speaking. Then we went through the months and months of talks between the president and boehner, both times boehner could not deliver because they refused because of Grover Norquist to allow any taxes for revenues whatsoever. We had meetings with the Vice President biden and cantor. He walked out of it. Hes the majority leader in the house. We had this supercommittee and they were doing good things. Good things. Dealing with entitlements and revenues and a week before they were to report, by virtue of a statute, i get a letter signed by virtually every republican, too bad about the supercommittee. Were not going to do anything with revenues. Okay. I think thats a good place to end this. What youre hearing is the history of what has happened to bring us to this point. I want to bring in our Congressional Correspondent dana bash. Dana, i was just sitting here imagining someone turning on their tv thinking, what a these people talking about . And i think i would sort of boil it down to this. When they are talking on the floor, thats never a good sign. They should be talking in a back room. They have gotten nowhere. We are where we are and nobody has agreed on to come up with something. Reporter that is right, candy. This is the kind of stuff that we watch and people who watch cspan watch but people who are really tuning in to find out what matters to them, which is are their taxes going to go up in five days got a pretty good idea of why they are so deadlocked. Blue slip, which is a question of process, tax bills, can can they start in the house or the senate, and as you said, talking about the history of where things went wrong. But thats not what people want to know. People want to know whats going to happen Going Forward and they really got their answer, which is, it is tied up in knots. What has been talked about behind the scenes and the president actually talked about this publicly last week, whether or not with the few days left the senate can pass at least a scaled back, scaled down plan, which is effectively the president s tax plans to keep tax cuts in place for 98 of americans. But the question is whether they can get enough republicans to sign on. And whats happening right now is a back and forth between the Senate Democratic leader and the republican leader. You heard it there. The republican leader saying i cant do anything until i see the details and he says he expects to see them soon. Thats where we are right now. Let me bring in ryan lizza to our conversation. Ryan, when youre watching this, i get the sense the only movement weve had, the house is m kog back from their president and its the optics that problem bothered them more than anything . Its better that the house will be back rather than dispersed at their districts. The president is going to have a meeting with the congressional leaders. We have boehner calling back republicans to the house to potentially vote on something. So theres some nonzero possibility that something gets passed between now and the end of the year. But for all of the attention on the senate, the Sticking Point is still the house of representatives. Its still the one republicancontrolled institution in the town and john boehner having control of his republican conference and squeezing something through the house of representatives. And so far i dont think theres been any movement there. Theres been nothing public that can suggest that boehner can suddenly magically pass something that he and the white house agree on. Ryan, youre a correspondent for the new yorker and join us often. Dana, let me bring you back in and ask you, it seems to me that anything that this congress has gotten done and by this congress i mean when its been divided between republicans in the house and democrats in the senate. It has been that both parties, that is, the left of the Democratic Party and the right of the Republican Party are kind of left to vote yay or nay by themselves and they form a consensus in the middle. Does john boehner need nancy pelosi in order to get anything passed . Reporter yes, absolutely. No question about it. That became incredibly obvious when he couldnt even get his own republicans to effectively save them from themselves and at least have some political cover by voting to keep tax cuts in place for everybody except millionaires because they said they wouldnt help him with what they call a political ploy. I think thats true but actually talking to people on both sides of the aisle here, because the ball is now in the senate the senates court, the feeling is that if they can kind of break the dam in the senate and if something actually passes, youve already seen over the past two days House Republicans saying that they hadnt said before, if the Senate Passes something, well take it up. And if thats the case, the sort of betting is that with the help of the majority of the democrats, probably most of the democrats and maybe, you know, a few dozen or more republicans, thats how it would get passed. But, candy, its still a big if, as we just witnessed, whether they can even get to that point to break the dam in the senate first. Dana, i want to ask both you and ryan this. We have heard from republicans. Its the president here thats driving this. He doesnt want it to yield. He wants it to go over the cliff. He thinks it will enhance his bargaining powers because people blame republicans. Weve heard harry reid say several times today, we know what this is about. Boehner is gone because hes waiting until he he gets reelected as speaker on the 3rd. But truth tell both of those for me. Are those justifiable concerns on either side . Reporter yes, they are actually justifiable political concerns on both sides. Approximate both of those men are truth telling to a certain extent. Not so much about boehner wanting to be reelected but as we talked about before, the fact that after december 31st, what happens is everybodys taxes go up so House Republicans when they take a vote if they take a vote after january 1st, that vote will be to cut taxes which is a very different political vote than voting to effectively raise taxes. So the harry reid is right about that when it comes to House Republicans. And republicans are right that the president doesnt really think that hes going to get much political fault and damage if we go off the fiscal cliff because all the polls show a majority of americans will probably blame republicans for not passing at least tax cuts to extend for 98 of americans. So both have a good point. It begs the question i want to you answer, what are they all doing here . If nobody is interested in getting this deal . As dana pointed out, lots of House Republicans would rather vote on something after the 1st than before. I havent seen any indication from obama or the people around him that they are okay with going over the cliff. They really do seem to want to do something before the deadline. They seem desperate to do that. Plenty of liberals say, go over the cliff. Big cuts in the pentagon and big tax hikes. The white house, from all indications that ive seen, they dont want that to happen. They are scared of what could happen to the markets. Why arent they dalg dealing with boehner . Dana, be go ahead. Jumpb in here. I think they won their negotiating power once boehner last week failed. As dana pushed out, the only thing that can get boehner is to do something. Reporter i think that youre right when i said that democrats dont think that the president will have much political damage. That does seem to be coming more from democrats here in congress than in the white house. Democrats here in congress feel that its a winwin for them politically. The one thing i will tell you very quickly, the pushback on this narrative that i heard from Senate Republican leader in the hallway. He said, do you remember who the speaker was during the Hoover Administration . I said, no. He said, thats my point. Nobody will remember who the speaker was if ge into a recession but its the president who tends to have the fault if something really calamatus happens. Dane na bash and ryan lizza, thank you. Real concerns for president bush. Hes in an intensive care in a houston hospital. Well take you there live. [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevys giving more. Get the best offer of the year 0 apr financing for 60 months plus 1,000 Holiday Bonus cash. Plus trade up for an additional 1,000 tradein allowance. Hurry. Bonus cash ends january 2nd. Its lots of things. All waking up. Becoming part of the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Trees will talk to networks will talk to scientists about climate change. Cars will talk to road sensors will talk to stoplights about traffic efficiency. The ambulance will talk to patient records will talk to doctors about saving lives. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. The next big thing . Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Were following the condition of former president h. W. Bush. Hes in intensive care after being hospitalized for more than a month. What are you hearing about the 41st president . Reporter well, he is doing well but not going to get out at this point. He is still in intensive care and doctors put him there because he had a persistent fever they couldnt quite knock down. He beat a bronchial infection on the 23rd of november and then this fever popped up. It wont go away. Theyve tried several things so theyve put him in intensive care to monitor him across the board. They are going to keep him there, it seems, on a day by basis and hopefully the family says he will be out soon. It sounds like hes in great spirits. Hes had some family members come in here. His spokesman said he can guarantee us that his trademark humor is in tact and the guy sounds like hes just been couped up in the hospital for a long time, really wants to get out. But doctors want to keep him until is he 100 beyond and past whatever he has right now. Miguel, it sounds a lot better today. Thank you so much for keeping us up to date on the condition of george h. W. Bush for us. The president of the nra is opening up to cnn insisting that most americans back his group and why a gun registry would be a bad idea. And shoppers get the surprise of their life at a Shopping Mall when an aquarium unleashes a flood of water and some sharks. [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus presents the cold truth. 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. Oh what a relief it is [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save 1 visit alkaseltzer on facebook. We believe the more you know, the better you trade. So we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, inbranch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our teams have the information you want when you need it. Its another reason more investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Ap controversial proposal to arm principals in arizona schools. Lisa sylvester is monitoring that along with other top stories in the situation room right now. Lisa . Hi there, candy. Arizona principal wants to arm and he says this is the next best solution of arming the schools. He says that the shooting at sandy hook is preventible and it will be introduced in the legislature. A winter storm left thousands of travelers stranded, especially in the northeast. More than 400 flights were canceled on monday. One American Airlines passengers told passengers he blamed his company for flight delays saying, quote, they dont have a clue what they are doing. The airline was focused on everyones safety. And shoppers at a shanghai mall got quite a surprise when water burst threw the tank holding sharks and turtles. Officials think cold weather may have weakened the glass, which is only about two years old, candy. You can see those pictures there. You saw those people running for cover. Get out of the way of the sharks. Wow. Thats pretty amazing. Than