On the fiscal cliff talks, now down to the wire. Here are our phone numbers you can join the conversation online. Host here are some of the friday morning headlines. A rare back to work for congress. Cliff talks down to the wi re is the headline in the wall street journal. Host that story from inside usa today. This is from the New York Times. Host there is this from roll call. Pessimistic asstima ever. The president summoning congressional leaders. We expect there will be a stakeout afterward. We may hear from the president and we will be following all of that as the day unfolds. Its begin with David Lightman. He covers capitol hill and the white house. The best sense of what you think the dynamics will be inside the room at the 3 00 p. M. Meeting. Guest for all this talk of pessimism and optimism, the only people that know are the five principles in that room and i think that is important. They are all seasoned negotiators. They went to the debt ceiling stuff a year and a half ago. I think there will make an honest effort to get this thing resolved. I am not as pessimistic as others. We have seen this go to the brink before. Why would you give up anything until you have to is the old saw. You have to be braced for an anything. Host the president is getting higher taxes if we go over the cliff and he can go back and change the tax rate for those making 250,000 or less. The speaker saying it has to be 1 million or above. The president much more in the drivers seat. Guest yes and no. Lets say we go over the cliff and thats the markets are in a panic and people have paychecks that have less money in them. People will not necessarily blame john boehner. They will blame the president. He has Political Capital that could evaporate. Im not sure if he gets what he wants that is not how american politics necessarily works. Host what led to this meeting . Harry reid was sounding pessimistic early in the day. Then john boehner calling the house back sunday evening with a vote scheduled after 6 00 p. M. , setting up a late sunday session or a lot of fireworks on monday. Guest the redskinscowboys game is on sunday night. Each side staked out a public position it had to stake out. Use it at the end theres a sentence saying, but we will talk or negotiate. Nothing unusual here to me. I think right now they are doing what they have to do publicly. We do not know what those people in the room at the white house are going to say and that is the key. Host the speaker will attend this meeting. He said the house has passed legislation to avert the fiscal cliff. Now the senate must act. Senator reid said it is up to the house. Explain what is going on. Guest i cannot read John Boehners mind. Lets say the senate takes up something where you extend all the rates for a year but you increase the rates for people making 500,000. Lets say that passes the senate. 75 votes. They sent it to the house. Are republicans in the house going to be that obstinate if the senate sends that kind of signal . I do not think so. That is what a lot of us watch Mitch Mcconnell very closely. There are people in his caucus who early to vote for what i just said. Can they get it on the floor and overcome the procedural hurdles . Host if nothing happens, what are we looking at . Guest january 3 at noon. There are so many scenarios. If the new congress convenes on the third, negotiations continue. Democrats would have more strength. They have gained 7 or eight seats. I think the key if they go over the cliff will be the Financial Markets. If the market go into a panic and if the dow tumbles into freefall wednesday, thursday, friday, i think well see something quickly. Host David Lightman, thank you for checking in. We will check in with things stand with the fiscal cliff. You can join us honor twitter account at twitter. Com cspanwj. It is down to the wire. Robert on the democrats line. Caller i blame the republicans. I do not think they are being honest. They think the American People are stupid. The American People are not stupid. The American People are not going to forget this. They know who is holding up the process. They may blame the president as well as congress. The American People have spoken. They want the crisis solved. If you want to cut out all social programs, they are getting the benefit of the situation. This is what they wanted. The American People do not want that. Host are you listening on c span radio . Caller yes. Host good morning, jim. Caller im calling from georgetown, texas. Senator schumer proposed a 1 million cut off. Reid and durbin did not go along with that. No entitlement cuts and we have 16 chilean debt and everybody 16 trillion debt and everybody keeps spending. Dont we have to pay this debt down . Host the debt is 16. 3 tr illion. Another looming deadline. The Treasury Department can extend the deadline for the next month or two. Part of the dynamics in the negotiations. Front page of the washington times. Is the brink cutline. Host harry reid had this to say on the senate floor. [video clip] the American People do not understand. The house is operating without the house of representatives. It is being operated with a dictatorship by the speaker. If the 250,000 would be brought would pass. Speed brainer couldve brought legislation to the house and it would have passed. Host gcomments by harry reid. The senate is in session today. Bill has this point from the National Journal the story is available online. The president will have a strong hand to play over what to do about the tax hikes and spending cuts about to hit the economy. To allow the bushera tax cuts to lapse for the wealthiest of americans. Good morning, clyde. Caller good morning. Political capital. Neither harry reid nor the president will be running for election. Everybody else is pretty much locked in whether we go over the cliff or not. Is it thelma and louuisuise or laverne and shirley . They all place their bets a yearandahalf ago. The election decided it. Host thank you for the call. Bill has this point. We are down to the wire in terms of negotiations. Jackie is joining us from georgia. Caller good morning. I cannot believe i got through. I have been trying for so long. Host thank you for being persistent. Caller the guy from the newspaper is wrong. We are not stupid. We know what is going on. I am 71 years old. Im so worried about going down and being a thirdworld country. John boehner has to get his act together. He is not worried about anything. And the tea party give me a break. They are not worried about anything but taking us down. I still cannot believe i got to talk to you guys. Thank you for listening. If obama could run again, i would vote for him again. He wants to do something. The republicans do not. If a republican was in the white house, there would not be any worry about paying for sandy, unemployment, paying for three wars. There would not be anything to worry about if the republican was in office. They want to spend every dime they can. Host jackie from georgia, thank you for the call. This is from our twitter page. Ts go to the jump page lets go to the jump page for a story in the Washington Post. Point. Nd one othoer poier heres more from mcconnell. [video clip] we took that vote back on july 25. It did not originate in the house. It has no chance of becoming law. That is what i said back on july 25. We allow that vote and i said we knew it did not pass constitutional muster and that democrats would proceed to a revenue bill that originated in the house as the constitution requires if they were serious and as i called on them to do last week. The socalled senate bill is no more than a glorified sense of the senate revolution. Lets put that talking point aside. Host Mitch Mcconnell or is a story from politico. Com, why they will not go over the cliff. They see an advantage in negotiating with republicans that will feel free not to raise taxes once the rates have gone out. The president is pulling in the mid 50s. There is still time for the dynamic to shift. Speed banner will stress the house has passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff. There is an ad we want to point out in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Together rds come as a way to send a message to congress. The struggle of today is for a vast future also. The words of abraham lincoln. Jim from georgia on the republican line. Caller thank you. The senate has not passed a budget bill in the past three years. Does that affect the fiscal cliff . Host more than four years . Caller does that affect our physical cliff . Host that is a larger issue of taxes and spending cuts. Caller thank you. Host bob on the independent line from florida. Caller nobody should worry about the fiscal cliff. Asey have everybodys iras hostage. Ira will have to buy ies. Sur they are not worried about the budget. Everybody that has an ira basically it will have nothing because Interest Rates will go up so high on the treasury bills in the coming decade. Be heldys ira will hostage. I took money and i put it into gold. I did not pay any taxes on it. Possession is 9 10 of the law. Let them come and find it. Every politician should not take a paycheck. They do not deserve it. They have been bringing our country down. Host in look at what happened 1st. Ing jan. Uary host that will happen in january 1 if Congress Fails to reach a compromise, even a shortterm compromise. Dan on the phone from massachusetts. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to know how many millionaires there are in this country versus the number of people who make 250,000 and less. I think thats where the argument can bw won e won. John boehner is making a calculation and i think that is a poor population. We should roll back the reagan tax cuts. Tax cuts do not work. The bush tax cuts have been designed to be temporary. We have had no job growth due to the tax cuts. Forbusinesses on the hook reinvesting their profits back into the businesses. Thank you for taking my call. Host the story from the washington times. Host other candidates that have been mentioned include the attorney general in massachusetts. He ran against scott brown and loss. Congressman stephen lynch. Name out of contention is ted kennedy, jr. He will not seek the seat. He was speculated to seek the seat of his late father. The decision to buck the dying inouye. Senator daniel in a the swearingin took place yesterday with joe biden. Brian schatz becomes the senior senator with the new congress being formed on january the third. On the independent line jack on the independent line. Caller good morning. I bet a coworker that we are going over the fiscal cliff. It is more of a slope than a cliff. It would be a year of complete in activity before we would see the real bite of everything, all of the doom that is being forecasted. I am reminded of Erskine Bowles and alan simpson. About three weeks ago or four weeks ago, they met with the president and members of congress and discuss their feelings afterwards with the press. Erskine bowles said he felt there was a third of a chance that there would be a deal and a third of a chance no deal and a third there would be no deal until after we went past the january 1 deadline. I bet my coworker the 5 that we were going over because i am thinking if you cannot get a deal for to the house on 1 million and above, to the Tax Policy Center released a report about that about three weeks ago. They said this was something that the president could perhaps give the republicans to save face on. The real big money is between 1 million and 10 million and above. If they cannot get that through, i have a feeling we are going over. I could win the first that i ever made. Or could win for the first time. Host thank you for the call. Check in on monday. Jack was alluding that it was more of a slope than a cliff. Host David Lightman was saying if the market tumbles even further, that could prompt some action by congress. This is from the New York Times. There was a sharper than expected dip. Host back to your calls. Fred from miami, democrats line as the fiscal cliff talks head down to the wire. Caller good morning, sir, and good morning to everybody. I do not think is going to work for the less fortunate. By doing so, i think it will be more pronounced, the line between rich and for. You are the beneficiary of the system and do not care about the program. The social program [indiscernible] i have time. Everybody has to come to an argument if we love america, we have to make sure everybody is [indiscernible] in the system where everybody has the certain wellbeing. I think this is a time host fred from miami. Some editorials from the Washington Post. Avoid the cliff. Host added to oil from the Washington Post. An editorial from the Washington Post. This from one of our viewers. One other editorial, this from the wall street journal. Americas boomtown. Host jay from florida on the independent line. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I think it is all political. I think they will come up with a deal. We had two wars. We have never seen tax breaks like this. We have to increase tax to pay off the war. We had Hurricane Sandy and now people want guards in school. They will have a deal. If it goes over the fiscal cliff, it will hurt the republicans more. Host thank you for the call. A photograph of the president , cutting short his vacation. Leaders were blaming each other for the stalled negotiations just days before tax increases lock in. More from the floor of the senate yesterday, harry reid. [video clip] Speaker Boehner should not have that members go back. They are not here. They are not here. John bennett seems to keep more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on Firm Financial footing. He is waiting until january 3 to get reelected as speaker. He has so many people over there that will not follow what he wants. That is obvious from the debacle that took place last week. Host back to your calls and comments. Negotiations resumed at 3 00 p. M. This afternoon at the white house. North carolina on the republican line, good morning. Caller how are you im doing well how are you . The budget as far as the epa, i wonder if that would help cutting the budget, plus cutting entitlement spending. Instead of raising taxes and lower deduction, i think we should cut the budgets of some of these offices and stuff. I think that might help also. Host ok. Thank you for the call. This is the wall street journal. Big deals of the past have not worked out very well, especially for them, he points out. Host we are asking you to respond what happens next and how the fiscal cliff may impact you personally. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have heard people talk about the fiscal cliff. I knew the day after the election we have to go over the cliff. Republicans forget one thing. Democrats won the election. Aint this kind of backwards . What the republicans are proposing is not acceptable. Host this comes from our twitter page. The conversation, twitter. Com cspanwj. The headline in the Washington Post. wayne from alabama. Caller good morning. Were here because the democrats. The democrats signed the bill that put this into action a year ago. It sounds like a twothirds majority vote of democrats and republicans. Everybody wants to point the finger at republicans. Do not want to change. It is kind of strange. I think the democrats are getting what they want. They are getting tax increases. The questions are posed here. Cspan files in line with what the democrats want. You are asking what we would give up. You are asking the givers. This is all politics. The democrats wanted this. They pass the bushera tax cuts. If we go over the physical cliff, it is because democrats want us to. They do not care whether we go over the cliff. So live with it, guys. Host waye, thank you for the wayne. Wa the obituary of Norman Schwarzkopf. The obituary from the Washington Post. He became a familiar figure addressing reporters in his desert fatigues. He spoke in plain english. Host he wrote a book, it doesnt take a hero. He said there were resources that wanted to end the war early. He did not mention any specific individuals. General Norman Schwarzkopf passed away yesterday. He was 78 years old. Lou is joining us from connecticut. Conversation about the fiscal cliff. Now down to the wire. Caller washington, d. C. , the belly of the beast. We have a 16 trillion deficit right now. We have the deficit because of Social Security, medicaid, medicare, welfare, food stamps all policies put into effect by the democratic party. Everything is socialism. Thomas jefferson said it best the republic is doomed. People sacrifice im a libertarian. I am more objective. Im not a republican or democrats. I have to wonder if i want to live in this country. 29 of americans got some kind of assistance when Ronald Reagan was president. I have to consider and im considering moving to a Tropical Island and watching america go down the drain. We need to abolish Social Security, medicare, and medicaid. Host i will stop you there. We appreciate your thoughts. Joseph says will go back to stay but by the president on the passing of Norman Schwarzkopf. Host his legacy will e ndure. Back to your calls. Caller good morning. God bless us. [indiscernible] where is the love . Ere at a church when the president and everybody was running. The church was all over the program. Were in the church. Do you know what happened . When we fall, china rise. Open your eyes. Let god come in to our life. We cannot live by the gun, money, and power. Thank yo