Bob, lets begin with opening day at noon. Guest there was controversy couple years ago, a couple members in the house did not realize when they would do the swearing in. They were by a Television Screen and thought they could get sworn in that way. That will not happen again. They will get sworn in. A first vote they will have is for the house speaker. House republicans have chosen john boehner and the the democrats have chosen nancy pelosi. Thats the first order of business. There is some drama expected. Yes. And there had been speculation of republicans going after john boehner. He has been weakened over the past couple months. That is not going to happen. We have been talking to members sandy will be reelected as speaker. Big difference between two years ago when it came in. He was elected unanimously by House Republicans for speaker. This time there will be at least one but we are expecting a few defections. We dont know who they will vote for. They have to vote for a person. They cannot. No. They cannot vote no. Host who should people be watching for today . Guest in the house today the trauma will be the speaker vote. Nancy pelosi, there are some democrats who did not vote for a couple years ago. They will be voting. They have to shout out who are going to vote for. That will be the drum especially when we go to a couple members. One of them i was what forced Tim Huelskamp, many republicans in kansas, John BoehnersRepublican Steering Committee recently bounced him off to a bill committees. Hes not happy about it. He has been going after john boehner on Media Outlets saying john boehner is going after conservatives. John boehner says it is absurd, that Tim Huelskamp and others were not the players. Host in the senate, what happens at noon . Guest the senate is not as dramatic today because theres no leadership battles, but theyre also sworn in. We have a new president pro tem in care of patrick leahy. And with senator daniel in your w a to Daniel Inouye passing away. Host the makeup of this 113 congress and the freshmen coming in, in both chambers, what are we looking at . Guest 90 members. Looking at men, women. Theres a bisexual member for the first time. Gay members. Nancy pelosi has been very proud of the fact that the House Democratic caucus is now a majority minority caucus. She has really emphasize that because republicans have trouble reaching out to minorities. We saw that in the 2012 election. It was hispanic votes big time. Romney getting stomped by president obama. All of them will be sworn in your the 112th congress was just yesterday. Usually does a couple weeks break. So you have freshmen coming into this by of the storm. Its not the kind of optimistic feeling we got maybe two or 4 years ago because the battle over the last couple years have been so bitter and they went right until the end. Guest tell us about the big battles to come. Theres a lot of unfinished business. Host thats right. We thought maybe there would not be that much with the fiscal cliff, but congress kicked the can down the road. They reached a deal on the fiscal cliff but they set up more fiscal cliffs as congressman jim moran said recently, a democrat from virginia. The sequestration battle in a few months and then theres the debt ceiling. Will the president and republicans in congress agree to raise the debt ceiling and exchanged for some spending cuts. We saw that in 2011. The Obama Administration says the not playing that game anymore and they have a plan to raise the debt ceiling and go around congress. Sounds like theyre not revealing the details, but that will be the big fight. A debt ceiling fight in a couple months. Guest we are live from the rotunda on capitol hill. Opening day of the 113 congress. We want to get your questions and comments about the agenda of the new members face. Lets begin with michael in new york, an independent caller. Go ahead. Caller good morning. You have a great show. I am a professor in an m. B. A. Program. I have 38 students from 400 countries. I teach accounting as well. I see very few accountants in the house of representatives. An observation, you are concentrating on cutting the medical care in the United States. The United States is listed 49 th in life expectancy. So that is an area you really do not want to cut. The next biggest china is growing at 10 per year. Even russia growing at 5 per year. Even the 200 students in my section will agree the reason china and russia are growing at 10 and 5 per year is their military budget is 100 billion. The United States as a military budget of 700 billion and 69 intelligence agencies. Host we will leave it there. Defense spending . Guest a big issue, defense versus health care para a democrat saying we need to invest more in health care and dont cut medicare, dont cut and other health care programs. We saw that in 2009 2010. The caller brought up the infant mortality, very high in the United States for. You dont hear many members talking about that much. Democrats say the defense questioning, which has been postponed a couple months, some say if you dont like the cost of acrosstheboard cuts of the sequester, just cut other parts of defense there is some republicans voted against the sequester bill in the house because they believe the pentagon deserves to be cut. Others say this would be a huge threat to National Security . If we let the cuts happen. A huge debate. Members will have to make choices, because the financial policy of this country, it is an unsustainable path. Even senator Chuck Schumer says it might be 50 feet or 500 feet away, but we are walking over another cliff. The we have to have some reforms. Host the next battle, with some of col round 2, will it try raising the debt ceiling to the sequester questioned or spending cuts to medicare and Social Security . Will they be tied together . Is that what these freshmen one of their first big votes . Host absolutely. Republicans are saying, if you want to raise the debt ceiling, theres a price. As ugly as the fight was in 2011 when john boehner and president obama almost got a grand bargain, they did not get it, but they still had what setup the sequester and the budget control act. Republicans say we got cuts out of that, a lot more cuts than they just got. They feel they are well positioned. We have done the revenue side now. Now we will go after spending in 2013. But republicans and democrats have a habit of saying we will get to spending, just later on. Once again, they have done that. President obama still wants more revenue. Wants to go after tax loopholes. Hes not done going after this. Host darnell is in waldorf, maryland, democratic caller. Caller thank you. I agree with the last caller. We heard Lindsey Graham and john mccain talking about ground to, round 2, trying to stick it to obama, because obama put this man down on him in his little speech. But they need to get out of the way. Let obama lead, because hes doing a great job and hes better at it than they are. We need to look at the problem with american healthcare. We need to work on the problem, which is the stuff we eat. We dont eat right. We need to start working on the problem, fix those things. Thank you. Guest fascinating about who is getting the better of home. In 2011, last congress, done better city got 98 of what he wanted in the debt deal. This time around he certainly did not. Now a reporter has written for us today the john boehner is done with oneonone talks with president obama. Its not getting in the room. They have had a strained relationship. They did go golfing a while backing. But the negotiations to try to set up differently because clearly he lost the negotiations this time around. Host hes telling his caucus and no more oneonone negotiations. Who is going to negotiate . Guest you have to have some type of republican in the room. John boehner said the senate must act. You cannot and does democrats. Republicans are controlling the house and there are no enoughter there are republican senators that they can filibuster. What, are you going to bring in the whole republican conference . A lot of people would like to have those negotiations broadcast on cspan. Host mcconnell and biden, are they betina Going Forward . Guest it could be. It changes all the time. Are they the team now . Guest it could be. We dont know in the new congress who the main principles will be. President obama has shown a distaste for these negotiations. Thats why he got joe biden involved. Host what about these new members, how will they be the same or different than the 112th congress, the tea party freshman that this on a 112th congress . Guest i dont see a lot of similarities. Are some republicans from conservative districts that are coming in. An incoming republican from texas is one of them. He likes john boehner but hes not going to vote for him and especially concerned about his conservative credentials. Democrats picked up eight seats in the house. Cut into the House Republican majority. The tea party influence is not as big as 2010. Also, john boehner has been upset at some tea party lawmakers, some senior members who have not been with him, so hes trying to downplay their influence. Hes trying to foster unity, we can take on the president we cannot take on the president if we are divided. And they are divided over the last couple weeks as we have seen. Gueshost tonya is on the line n west virginia. Caller i was a democrat and i am an africanamerican who donated to obama the first time and volunteered for the Affordable Health care reform. Now i am an independent. I voted for jule stein president santos owen barber against joe manchin. For jule stein for president and against joe manchin. You have to go to joe biden to tell the democrats what is in the bill . And things being done at 2 00 a. M. And midnight. When they say this is corporate us, n, it will night when they say this is going to hurt us hurtno. Hos no. Guest they have a big energy plans and tax plans. They really go nowhere. If you are freshman member, after gains in order. If you have to get at least a subCommittee Chairmanship. So they have big plans a campaign on. When they get to congress it really does not matter. In the senate is a little different because you have a lot more power. Within the house, if you walk into the Leadership Office and use say to john boehner i would like you to move my tax plan, you get some raised eyebrows. Host yesterday we had a freshman from South Carolina, mick mulvaney, he said i ended up doing things i said i would never do when i ran for this seat and one of them is raising the debt ceiling. Guest thats right. A lot of republicans who came in to change the world, and they realized, some of them did not know how washington works, that youre never going to get a perfect bill, after a compromise to get most of what you want. Republicans said, if i dont get a lot of what i want, i am a no vote. There is always tough in the bill thats not popular. You have to make the decision. Host what is it like for them coming in here on opening day and in the days and weeks ahead of the hundred 13 congress, how are they getting adjusted . Guest leadership helped them as our staffing. Most important hiring you can make as an incoming member is your chief of staff. Your teeth of staff will then hired the rest of your team. The very confusing the about the capital is how to get around. We saw that with a lameduck congress with a congressperson from michigan. He was just here and is now gone. He was here just for the lame duck session by a bizarre way that elections work. The city got lost a lot. You have to have someone to show you where the bathrooms are, how to get to the house . You have to make sure you get there to vote. So the Leadership Office, whether its harry reid, Mitch Mcconnell, nancy pelosi, they say this person will guide them. Host and thats before you get to the big votes on the debt ceiling. What else is on the table, Immigration Reform . Guest and guncontrol. Joe biden is working on recommendations on gun control. That can be an uphill climb. You have to move very quickly. There are some democrats who do not want guncontrol. The tragedy in connecticut is pushing the thing. President obama pushed for a plan on assault weapons in his first term, but he has changed his tune a little after getting an f a couple years ago from a group in support of guns. He also wants to get the energy legislation. We saw the debate poisoned by Climate Control because thats a nonstarter for republicans. No i think theres more ground. There are senators with good working relationships that might be able to get something done on the energy committee. Host as the continued on capitol hill, those are the issues on the table for all of you to call in on. Immigration reform, and control, the big budget battles that are to come for this new 113 congress. Nearly 90 freshmen that are coming in, in the house and senate. We will have a few of them here in washington journal coming up. First, frederick in pontiac, michigan. Democratic caller. Goahead. Caller i was listening earlier when you spoke about them kicking the can down the road. Thats a lot of what is happening in our politics now. We dont handle government. We kick decisions down the road. I find frustrating is that creates a lot of animosity in the voters. It creates partisanship and were not getting things done. We dont get things done, we just pushed it down the road. And then theres another cliff and another cliff. Pretty soon were just taking things and not getting anything done. That is what is the frustrating part about this whole fiasco. We need to come together and work on this, our country, and get people back to work. Stop trying to take money out of peoples hands and put money into peoples hands. Host a lot of people caught in the elections, the old 100th of congress was not very popular, maybe the most unpopular, a lot of people thought these guys will get ousted. As usual, over 90 of incumbents won. You have democrats controlling this senate and republicans in the house and president obama controlling the white house. As far as the hopes for a big deal or something that does not kick the can down the road, ive been here since 1995, only way you get big deals through other than dell terraform is it has to be bipartisan. Thats what Mitch Mcconnell has said. If you are going to move the balanced budget act of 1997, that was divided government. Obamacare was different because democrats had control of everything. When we talk about tax reform or entitlements, things on the table, theres zero little hope. But the way negotiations went over the last month on the fiscal cliff. , i am not cliff. Host dan is a republican in youngstown, ohio. Caller past generations have suffered through the bad times and so did the good times, but they did not pass massive amounts of debt down to the next generation. That is what we are doing. Democrats, especially the ones in the senate that have gone even more democratic, because they are firmly entrenched with obama that they are going to increase revenue and not cut spending. They dont even recognize spending is a problem. For us to continue the path to pass this data on to our children or grandchildren, if theres any decent person in washington that will just look at the spending, theres plenty of people in this country, theres a lot of fat in government. I know they keep talking about this, but theres no money, but they needenty therefat to cut. Theres lazy people collecting money along with the needy people. How about all the money we spend on these Foreign Countries . Nobody is addressing that. Host lets talk about foreign aid versus Unemployment Benefits. Guest foreign aid, not much of the budget. Its overstated. Its a very small percentage of the overall budget. The Unemployment Benefits cost tens of billions of dollars every time its renewed. Republicans say we need to stop that at some point. But they are popular and they get calls from their constituents about people looking for job, to continue benefits, so that was included in the fiscal cliff deal. As far as the flavor of washington, is it cutting right now . The flavor was in 2011 after the tea party congress, but the flavor not so much. You of the Credit Ratings agency is really pushing congress. Theres a threat of a downgrade of congress does not act. That pushes congress and pushes the stock market. And Congress Cares about the stock market very rushed. Host rick is an independent caller in texas. Caller yes, my comment is this stuff about get all the money from the rich, and im one of the people in the top 30 and i dont mind paying a fair share. But i think a fair share should be paid across the board. Over 50 of this country does not pay a dollar. And some people getting a refund and they dont even pay anything pretend dollars from somebody would do a great amount when you look at the mathematics. Go back to the reagan era when you talk about enlarging the tax base and not shrinking it. This is a redistribution of wealth and that is socialism. Host what about spending . Are you willing to put Social Security and medicare on the table . Caller it has to go on the table, thats the bottom line. You cannot continue to do this. Guest as far as the tax rate, one of the things that was not discussed a lot was regional differences. We spoke with steve israel, a democrat from new york who represents a district on long island, it is an affluent mr. Perry asked him if he agrees with the threshold obama supports, he said no, he would like more than 400,000. He said if you make 250,000 in long island compared with the same in louisiana, its different. There was no talk of changing it based on regional differences. Maybe there will be something discussed in 2013. Host in missouri, democratic caller, randy. Caller hi.