Aspect of American Life are downsized. Good morning, everyone. Im kristine romans. America cant afford itself. A longterm debt and deficit problems, and these are the folks who have to fix it. How close are they . I think were going over the cliff. We cant sit here and try to figure out what works for them. We look forward to the time when they are specific. They need to be more specific. They have to be willing to come to the table with specifics. Weve not had any discussion and specifics with this president about the real problem. We need a response from the white house. We cant sit here and negotiate with ourselves. I will not play that game. Further apart than ever. Youve heard endless arguing about higher taxes on the rich. Lets set that aside and talk about the sequester the budget wonk word for a thing that will touch every american. 1. 2 trillion in automatic budget cuts over the next decade, 100 billion next year alone, half in defense and half in nondefense, defense programs cut by 9. 4 across the board and nondefense programs 8. 2 . Agencies are being told to identify the cuts. How will you feel them . Fewer food inspections are likely. Cdc budget cuts could make it harder to track food borne illness and cuts to the cancer institute, National Science foundation and National Cancer institute means 2,500 fewer research grants. Worried about clean air and water, budget cuts will degrade the ability to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe. Next, your safety. We could see fewer air traffic controllers, federal air marshalls, fbi agents, bothered security patrols. All those budgets would be cut. Disaster relief funding also on the chopping block. The white house says that will undermine federal Emergency Management agencys ability to respond to terrorism and other catastrophes. And education could be cut by more than 4 billion. 100,000 children could lose their place in headstart. The white house says more than 25,000 teachers and aides could lose their jobs. The National Education association, it puts that number even higher, closer 2080,000 jobs lost. Mark moriel is the president of the National Urban league and will cain is a cnn contributor and jane zahadi is a writer at cnn money. Mark, all of this, all of this, is if they go over the fiscal cliff and they dont fix it, and they never fix it, right, the worst case scenario. My question for you. So much talk about taxes for the rich but isnt it true if the sequester goes into effect and isnt fix this will d disproportionately hurt the poor . It would because it would be tax increases on middle and working class americans and hard cuts across the board in defense and domestic programs, including education and job training so theres 700,000 mothers and children will lose nutrition assistance and 80,000 fewer child care subsidies and 14,000 fewer homeless would receive assistance. This is what agencies are preparing for as they do these cuts. Remember, congress set this up. They set the cliff up in an effort to be responsive, to quote, the need for deficit reduction. They set this deadline. They have the option of pushing the deadline back and continuing to negotiate, but they ought to get together and flex their positions a little bit, and i think they can find common ground, but heres the most important thing. You know, many, many programs have already been cut before the fiscal cliff. Many americans have already paid the ultmalmat sacrifice with the loss of their jobs and the loss of their homes. Thats why theres so much of a focus i think on looking at those americans who have done the best in the recovery and asking them to do a little more. Austerity, is the fiscal cliff sort of like austerity . Absolutely. And europe havent done so severely. Thats the point. Maybe we can put this off, but you cant put off reality. Youre going to pay the piper. The question is the creation of washington of the fiscal cliff or a creation of your investors and bondholders across the world that look at you in the same light as europe some day. We all know that day isnt here. This is a lesson for the republican party, and i think its a lesson we should all take. Instead of when we look at all these programs, mark, where are we going to make cuts and how terrible is this going to be, we need to judge our concern and empat empathy, not by the money, something marco rubio and paul ryan talked about, by the outcomes, not how much we spend but what we get out of it. Look at something how much money we throw at it well august suggest more, more, more. Government does such a good job tracking outcomes. Lets track the outcomes of tax loopholes so if were going to evaluate outcomes its important to evaluate the outcomes of tax loopholes. How quickly will all this felt . Say they have a deal three weeks into the new year, that doesnt help you if youre trying to run an Agency Budget because youve got to make plans for january 2nd. Agencies were told to plan for the cuts, still dont think it should happen but well have plans in place in case they do. The omb and even federal agencies themselves can sort of postpone the impact of these cuts for at least a few weeks into the new year if we go over the cliff and if legislators are going to promise they are going to get a deal. So you may not feel these cuts at all. I should also say we dont know where the cuts are really going to come from because all we have are percentages per agentsy. It will affect a lot of things we talked about probably, but to the extent we cant say. This is something ive heard from conservatives, that the only way to get efficiency and innovation from some of these agencies who have seen just budgets go up, up, up, up, up, is to cut back, make them do more with less. Is that fair . Is it right . Well, first philosophy i do believe. Theres some conservatives and liberals and democrats who believe this is all a contest about getting the right guy in place, the guy who knows how to run something efficient. I dont believe in the concept of efficient bureaucracy. The only way youre going to make something smaller or better is to cut it. I dont believe in efficient government. What ive got a problem with the selective cuts. Yeah, okay, if youre going to have and suggest cuts here, why not look at every aspect of government. Absolutely. That includes tax loopholes and the Defense Budget also and thats really been the debate inside of the debate, inside the room. Its a conversation about where you cut. Lets talk about the elephant in the room and the middle class. When we talk about Government Spending the vast majority is on the middle class through medicare and Social Security and cant dance around and say we dont want to touch these because its politically unfeasible. Thats the biggest portion of spending. And there are inefficiencies there that can be yielded. Nothing should be done thats going to retard economic growth. Nothing should be done that should cost us more jobs. Can you fix the fiscal cliff and send the economy downward. The fiscal cliff, isnt it having real impact in the economy now . Its having real impact and name pact will growth longer we take to come to a deal, some deal, any deal. What everybody wants, individuals who are going to be paid in january, they dont know how much and businesses, so whats the deal . What are what do we have to plan on . The best down payment would be to continue tax rates at the middle class for the rates they are, the best down payment. Thats the best easy first step and i Hope Congress will realize take a step and take it now and give the president something he can sign. That has to be the last word. Thanks, guys. From the downward slope of the cliff to the upward climb on jobs, a big surprise in the november jobs numbers. Its a step in the right direction, but ali velshi will join me with a look at why we need to do much more. Americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. How theyll live tomorrow. For more than 116 years, Ameriprise Financial has worked for their clients futures. Helping millions of americans retire on their terms. When they want. Where they want. Doing what they want. Ameriprise. 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You should see november oh, yeah . Giving you more. Now thats progressive. Call or click today. Hiring picked up last month despite the wrath of superstorm sandy. Lets dig inside these numbers. Can you see that 40 of the unploimd employed have within out of work for six months or longer, something we need to fix and Something Else we need to fix, the underemployment rate, 14. 4 . Those are people who are out of work or working part time and would like to be working full time. Again, another number we have to fix. I want to show you where the jobs, are pretty important to look at. 53 retail jobs added, likely holiday hiring, no question, but some of these will be temporary jobs and not all of them are paying benefits or fulltime. Looking further, can you see professional and business services, 43,000 jobs created there. The government pointing out Computer System analyst and related industries very, very strong job growth there. Another reason why stem pays. This is the trend because we always look at these numbers in, you know, context for where weve been. The recession, millions of jobs lost and here is what weve been doing month after month, putting together two full years now of job growth. I want to bring in ali velshi. Since the beginning of the year job growth has averaged 151,000 a month. Yeah. Economists say we need that and more to keep up with the growth in population. We need at least 150 to 200,000. How do we do better . Look, weve got to fix the things that got broken in the recession, so we do need the construction jobs back and do need manufacturing jobs back and if Congress Gets past the fiscal cliff what youre going to start to see is theres been a groundwork laid for an economic renaissance in the United States, gas prices, Natural Gas Prices have come down because were finding so much of it and producing more oil. Know theres a housing boom and theres been a resurgence in manufacturing. Now the problem with manufacturing is not creating as many jobs. More manufacturing output but those are the areas we can concentrate on, energy, manufacturing and housing to create more jobs, and thats already kind of happening. Government can only stand in the way of this right now by not getting the fiscal house in order. Thats whats so important here because you want to see things looking forward, grow better than we have this year, the fiscal cliff in the way. Republicans say if you raise taxes on the top 2 that will hurt Small Business and will kill jobs. Talked to the ceo of fedex and he says, shall we say, theres mythology around that assumption. Listen. The reality is the vast majority of jobs in the United States are produced by Capital Investment and equipment and software thats not done by Small Business. Right. Its done by big business, and the socalled gazelles, the emerging Companies Like the new fracing oil and gas operations. Weve talked about this so many times. Yeah. Its demand that creates jobs. Thats exactly right, and im glad fraud smith says that. Gone from understanding that Small Business creates most of the new jobs generally in the United States, not all jobs. Now that doesnt mean we shouldnt do all we can for Small Business because they are going to be on the margins where the new jobs come, from but we have got to have an environment that creates jobs for everyone and youve done the studies yourself to show that increasing taxes on the top 2 , the portion of that that falls into Small Business owners who actually pass that through their personal income, is small and the portion of those that actually employs several workers is small, so im not arguing that taxes should go up for the rich. Thats somebody elses argument to have. My point is its not going to crush the economy to do so. So much heat of the conversation is just around the taxes for the rich. The jobs numbers, rear view mirror. Absolutely. Talking about how to fix it and how were going to buttress the recovery. Now we look at the future. Ali velshi, thanks. Up next, americas oldest dictionary has announced the words of the year. Can you tell it was an election year. Which one was the most popular search in 2012. The answer after the break. Health care system i wae spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. Information on my phone. Connection to doctors who get where im from. And tools to estimate what my care may cost. So i never missed a beat. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Youll also care about our new offer. You get access to nurses who can help with your questions. And your loved one can get exelon patch free for 30 days. If the doctor feels its right for them. It cannot change how the disease progresses. Hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. The most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. Patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. Patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. People at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. Patients may experience slow heart rate. Thirty days of exelon patch free for your loved one. Access to trained nurses for you. Call 18559991399 or visit exelonpatchoffer2. Com. Miriam webster has announced its word of the year, and this year, well, its actually two years, socialism and capitalism. Got to wonder if those lookups were attempts to end some fierce family debates. Socialism and capitalism. Other top searched words of 2012, touche, bigot, marriage and democracy. Also on the top ten list, malarkey. That word could be used to describe a lot of whats going on in washington right now. Were 24 days away from beginning to go over the edge of a fiscal cliff, and seemingly no real talk. Just, well, malarkey. Theres one solution, of course, called compromise, a dirty word in washington, sure, but most americans, believe it or not, are in favor of it. According to a new gallup poll 62 of americans would like to see lawmakers compromise on an agreement to avoid the cliff. Just 25 want leaders to stick to their partys principles on the issues of spending cuts and tax increases, and its a sentiment both parties share. A majority of both parties favor compromise. 71 of democrats and 55 of republicans. So whats is going to take to get lawmakers to grow up and come to a compromise . Cnns kyung law went outside the beltway to find out. We cannot afford to extend the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. 700,000 jobs would be destroyed. Two sides. Ground into their positions. But they can meet in the middle. Just ask tough negotiators outside the beltway. I am the negotiator who knows how to deal with bad guys. Reporter hes not talking about politicians, but crooks. Literally. He was the fbis negotiator in multiple high profile bank hostage standoffs. He says he peacefully freed dozens of hostages over his 20 years with the agency. He negotiated seemingly impossible deals and says he never lost a life. You have to plan for everything going wrong as a negotiator. Yeah. Youve got to be ready for it and to deal with it. And youve got to be flexible. Reporter but not too flexible. The lawyer for hollywood heavyweights like Harvey Weinstei james cameron, and tom cruise knows about ugly divorces, public fights with studios, and yes, fair deals. At what point is it better to have no deal than the deal thats being offered . Reporter do you have an appreciation for what obama and boehner are looking at . Oh, absolutely. I sympathize with both of them. Its not fun for these guys because theres too much at stake. Its fun for me because the worst that happens is my client gets less money, not the end of the world. It may seem that way for the client. Reporter even children know you have to cooperate. Maybe you can Work Together, build together. Maybe you can connect it. What do you think . Oh yeah. Reporter a daily lesson on the playground. Working together sprouts even better solutions. You want to see my great idea . Reporter do you think that these lessons on the playground really need to be transferred to