The First Time Since 1970, congress is meeting between the christmas and new years holiday. Preparations are underway as lawmakers if lawmakers fail to act. We are 17 hours until the deadline. Midnight is the deadline east coast time. Here are the numbers. Host also, send us an email and jonas on facebook, join us on facebook or you can send us a tweet. Lets take a scan of the headlines and we begin with the atlanta journalconstitution. A lot of talking but still no votes. The deadline has come and gone. One last day for a fiscal deal is the headline from the boston globe. We are also keeping an eye on wall street. The markets are queasy. From the headlines the wall street journal. Host a lot of activity on the house and senate chamber. We will be falling all of that on the cspan networks. We have the Deputy White House editor from politico. Tell us where we stand. Guest we stand in limbo, is the best way to put it. The senate was hoping they could be the ones to reach a deal over the weekend and they could not and that has left things in the house still waiting for the senate to move with the house acting yesterday. They did a procedural change so they could vote quickly on a senate deal if there is a senate deal. It doesnt look like were likely headed to one at this time. Host that leads to lay blame game and this headline from politico. The republicans have had trouble saying yes. What has been going on here . Wanted to president s raise taxes for people making over 250,000 a year and do that with some budget cuts and some and tom reform and that he has not been able to get any kind of action from the republicans. He believes there is a negotiation in which he has been the only person willing to put forward any kind of compromise and the House Republicans have not been able or willing to do. The vote john boehner schedule and had to cancel is evidence of that in the present cost mind in the president s mind. We have part of what Speaker Boehner said. The comments today are ironic as a recurrent theme was his unwillingness to stand up to anything in his own party. From the republican side of the aisle and Speaker Boehner, where are things at the moment . Guest the speaker had been hoping there would be a larger deal. The president was ready to move forward on in the time they had in front of them. This was in vision at one point to be the grand bargain which would incorporate in atomic reform and all sorts of budget cuts. Changes to the tax rates. Unemployment benefit changes. Going all the way through to the debt ceiling being raised as part of it as well. That was not something that was ever really where things were headed by the time the negotiations got started. For Speaker Boehner, he wants to see the spending cuts that would go along with them. He does not feel the president has put forward enough of a plan to where the spending would be cut to compensate for the taxes that would stay down or that would be raised. Host the president s appearing on meet the press was an unusual foray. Heres more from the president. [video clip] the offers i have made to them have been so there that a lot of democrats get mad at me. I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs to reduce the deficit. One trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next 10 years but these changes would result in more savings in the next 10 years and would solve our deficit problems for a decade. They say their biggest priority is dealing with the deficit. They are behaving and protecting the tax breaks for the wealthiest americans. That seems to be their overriding theme. Host a new development yesterday, the Vice President joe biden was called in by Mitch Mcconnell, who said he needed a dance partner in all of this. Guest if you remember on friday, the president said he was going to turn over the lead to senator reid and senator mcconnell to work out a deal that could pass the senate and that he would sign on to whatever deal that was. Senator reid and senator mcconnell were not able to reach that deal. The negotiations between them have turned increasingly bitter and senator mcconnell basically said that he could not work with senator read anymore and reached out to joe biden and ask him to resume the role that he has had in previous negotiations. The arbiter, the deal maker. Joe biden had not been as involved atoll has returned to washington and is now part of the negotiations in a way that he had not been expected to until yesterday. Host what will the house and senate be voting on today . Will there be an agreement on the fiscal cliff or an alternative plan that would continue Unemployment Benefits and keep taxes at the bush era level . Guest im not sure that anybody knows. And that includes president obama, joe biden, senator reid, Speaker Boehner. There are not the many hours left until the new year. The players involved are all aware of that. That has not made enough of a difference to change the negotiations. We will know more as the house and Senate Members return to the hill this morning. Then we will know if were going over the fiscal cliff at midnight. Host edwardisaac dovere, thank you for being with us. Guest thank you. Host the Senate Action getting underway about 11 00 a. M. And we will have live coverage of what happens on each floor of the chamber as lawmakers will meet with reporters. This is from joseph ramirez. The blame game continues is the headline from usa today. Charles is joining us from texas. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I think we are in trouble either way. President obama was known to be the most extravagant senator when he was in office and never had a job as far as i know of. It seems like he has a bottomless bank account. Given money away like in new york and new jersey. 60 billion or 80 billion. Dont they have insurance of the up there . Host thank you for the call. Is this from bill king. This is bob, good morning. Caller happy new year. Host to you, too. Caller all the Republican Party has to do is to allow for what the voters voted on by putting obama back in office, which was the mandate that people earning above 250,000 pay 4. 5 . Eer lousy that is not a hair off their chinnychinchin. Everybody is looking to fight against the tax increase for the wealthiest people. They take a ski vacation in france and a cost 20,000. They spend money like it is garbage. Cheerleading for tax breaks for people who do not need it. They have admitted they do not need it. The republicans and the democrats are not facing the key issue with our budget, which is medical cost. It is insanity we do not hear enough and i wish cspan would have more programs dealing with all of the options that could lessen the burden on the government and the taxpayer for the medical costs. I believe that in medicare buy in i have 10 years left to go until medicare. I pay 620 a month for my health care. That is a lot of money. I would give that to the government and would usnt use t 100 or 200 a year. Host that is an important issue. We will focus more as the Affordable Care act t kicks in. For the suggestion thank you for the suggestion. The deficit is close to 16. 4 trillion. This is part of the debate we will see at the start of the new congress. The socalled fiscal cliff was coined by ben bernanke. The story from roll call. It could be reached over this weekend. Were heard from the House Rules Committee chairman yesterday. They are taking steps in advance to extend these tax cuts. A deal could be on the floor today if there is an agreement. From the Washington Times this morning. Offers fly, but still no agreement is the headline. Mitch mcconnell bypassed senator reid to speak directly to the Vice President. Host mark is joining us. Your thoughts from manassas, a virginia. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. We voters know this country has a lot of issues going forward. If they can take a bite out of these difficult issues one at a time, how will they make sure this country is put on a better footing . This is item number one in a list of hundredsd. In a list of hundreds. They are not willing to raise any taxes. Just rolling back some of the bushera tax cuts. When youre having issues, you have to make tough choices. Host thank you for the call. The damage may be done. Some of the comments yesterday. [video clip] we remain hopeful that there will be a breakthrough. What happened between the leaders in the senate had broken down because there was not a counter offer to the republic proposal that was made last night. Host this is the headline from the washington post. Mitch mcconnell and joe biden in talks. We will move to the jump page on some of the sticking points in this. Democrats oppose it to let the tax cuts expire on incomes over 450,000 a year. Host that from inside the washington post. Ed is on the phone from michigan. Good morning to you. Caller good morning, cspan. I have listened to some of what the democrats have said. The way i look at it if the rich, if they are worried about 3 raise, one of the middle class and the poor or about the same raise . Is it your patriotic duty to pay taxes . If the poor are concerned about their money going down, a lot of Energy Regulations are coming into effect that will cost electric costs to coop which will affect the poor just as badly as it is the rich . Host mark from ohio, good morning. Caller all the power was taken from the epa and given to the nra. There is no fiscal cliff. There was another socalled fiscal cliff in 2008. Give money to the billionaires and banks. When eisenhower took office, he gutted the military. Taxes were 9 on corporations. 10 trillion dollars being horded. The problem lies and propaganda. 90 of all our information from the tv and the radio comes out of the state of texas and new york city. That is wall street. There is an economy based on military bases and nafta and oil. That is Clear Channel radio. Time warner comes out georgia. Up on the east coast, new york city is for the bankers are and Insurance Companies and derivatives and the jews that run the media. Host i will stop you on that point. This is from jan. Some of you sharing your thoughts on our Facebook Page as well. One person writes host join us honor twitter page or on our Facebook Page. Rick from charlotte, north carolina. Caller good morning, america and steve. This is a great time to be an american. I think we are all looking forward to the new year. I am a loyal but nervous. I am a little bit nervous. Mitch mcconnell is the key. He can take the president over into the presidency and a came a great man. We need to make sure we let mr. Mcconnell know that history is there. I know he has a lot of issues. Everyone bacchant email, text everyone can email and text and let mr. Mcconnell n know. The tea party is off the rail. This will make this country take off. I hope mr. Mcconnell sees this. Everyone out there, the game has been played. Host thank you for the call. Harry is joining us from pittsburgh. Caller this whole thing is ridiculous. I started paying Social Security and 14. I have quite a bit of money in there. I have made my own way. Record, the past money they are asking for, that is mostly white people making that money. They should call it what it is. That is still whiteys money. I wish i was as smart as it then people. A lot of people have called then and have not worked hard. Everybody wants their children to be rich. Right now youre evil if youre rich. Host thank you for the call, harry. This is from the new york post. Tomorrow the bush tax cuts expire. The state tax is rising to 55 on 1 million or more. The alternative minimum tax and people will pay a higher rate. Host we heard from senator joe manchin at the top of the program. He was introducing a bill to soften the landing if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff. The calm act. Thit it would allow omb to substitute sequester cuts. More than 100 billion in budget cuts across the board. That is something the new congress will have to deal with. Less than 17 hours before the deadline. Ellen is joining us from washington, d. C. Caller good morning. I did nothing Speaker Boehner wanted to cut a deal with the democrats anyway. All this stuff is around president bush. Its not all on obama. Host ok. Thank you for the call. Harry reid said this yesterday. [video clip] the republicans have taken the benefit cuts off the table. There is still significant distance between the two sides but negotiations continue. There is still time left to reach an agreement. Host those negotiations moved into the evening. The house coming back at 9 00 p. M. Eastern for morning business. Votes would happen sometime after 10 00 a. M. Frontpage of the New York Times. Let me read a few sentences. Host that is the front page of the New York Times. Good morning from maine. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. We have been corralled into involuntary servitude. This has been our history. I do not want to support a military and Industrial Complex that wants to sell arms globally. I do not want to support life ending measures. This is where we of fallen into a trap. They may want to close a door on us. Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation. Host thank you for the call. George monroe has this much of the activity on the hill is happening behind closed doors. This is from the washington post. The talks drag on in a divided congress. Next up from louisiana. Are you with us . Good morning. Caller i have been a registered republican for more than 40 years. I will not vote for republicans because they have changed so much. I believe the Republican Party is now controlled by a few wealthy people at the top and everybody who is elected has to use the same talking points and vote the way they are told to vote rather than allow republicans to use their own brain. The best thing for america to do is to throw the republicans out and demand the democrats govern the way the country should. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on cspan. Host thank you for the call. This is from our twitter page. We are about to reach the debt limit. Lets go back to the cnbc website. Hours from the fiscal cliff, washington awaits deal. Experts foresee a significant drag on the economy. Negotiators keeping the bushera tax cuts in place for all but the wealthiest americans. This is having a huge impact on what the markets want, which is some certainty. Good morning, andy. Caller i was a volunteer rescue worker at the world trade center. I have two cancers. These guys want to mess with Social Security. There was a guy on yesterday. He was willing to pay a little more. He will still have over 200,000 left. Hell have maybe 20,000 last. It is ridiculous. We of the strong people. We are the ones that survive. They call us the little people. We are the strong people. Host it is 7 35 eastern time. The house will gavel and at 9 00 p. M. Eastern time. We will have live coverage. The senate is coming in at 11 00 a. M. More from the senate floor yesterday. [video clip] im sure if president does not want a climate like this happen. I do not want on my watch for this to be the last thing that happens on my watch. I do not think anyone here will benefit from a calamity happening in this countrys economy, even for a few days. It just looks like we cannot govern and it is time to realize that on a bipartisan basis, we can do some things that will not be universally liked 100 , because we are not going to get everything we think is right. But we can move our country forward and we can help everyone in this country, every taxpayer. We are not going to raise taxes to spend more. Should be saying, if there is going to be a threshold that pays more taxes, it will bring down the deficits. That is an important point that we hope will be determined at the end of this road, in 36 to 48 hours. Host we are getting your calls and comments. Maya macguineas will be joining us and what this means for you. This headline im sick of it. Falloff cliff. This is from foxnews. Com. Those elected still appeared to wield considerable power in the negotiations. The 50 members have challenged john boehner since they took office. The of them refusing to support a debt ceiling bill because it did not reduce spending enough. Joe has this on our twitter page. Host andy is joining us from florida. Good morning. You are on the air. We will try one more time. We will go to bonnie. Caller good morning. It is always the republicans. The democrats pushed in a deal on obamacare. They just give themselves a 900 a year raise. Entitlements that obama thinks he is spending 5 million of taxpayer money for a vacation. Everybody is going to have to pay more taxes. Why . What are the entitlements going to the politicians . They get a sixfigure salary and everything is paid for. You try to get into the white house or one of the senators place. They are heavily guarded with rifles. It is the democrats back door. You have to know what is in the bill. Host thank you for the call. This is from the Washington Times. Leaders find agreement on farm bill. Host and from nbc news, moron Hillary Clinton, more on Hillary Clinton who remains hospitalized this morning after it blood clot had formed. The clot stems from a concussion she sustained several weeks ago. She is in new york president obama new york presbyterian hospital. Her doctors will continue to assess her condition and will determine if any further action is required. She has not been seen in public in three weeks. Was supposed to come back to office this week. Next is ron from cincinnati, good morning. Caller i wish mrs. Clinton well. They take Social Security and want to privatize it. They took the money out and that is a debt that we owe to ourselves. You buy their cars and trucks. Whatever you buy from them it would transfer the overhead. They complain about 4 of the taxes. Host thank you for the call. This is from politico. Uck. Senate appears stoc charles is