Here is how you can respond different lines this morning. If you think the u. S. Will be better off. You can also reach out to us on twitter. If you want to make your thoughts known on facebook, and if you want to give us an email. The Associated Press did a survey taking a look at folks and asking about 2015. When it comes to those sayings 48 or so saying the u. S. Will be better. 11 of those responding said next year will be worse and 39 said not much different in 2015 then 2014. That is how we parsed the lines. Be sure to tell us why when you give us a call. Gallup did a poll as well as asking about the new year and their optimism, here is how they responded saying americans are now slightly more positive than negative of the economy cost direction with 49 saying the economy is Getting Better and 45 saying it is getting worse for the week of december 2228. This is a relatively good rating and aside from two weeks in may 2013 when the measure was in the net positive territory, last week marks the only time since january 2008 that it has been above water. A lot of people look at this in terms of economics but you may look at it in terms of other things. The numbers will be on the screen and we will start on the first call of the new year donald from oklahoma says the u. S. Will be better off. How are you . Caller im doing good, thank you to cspan and your programming. I think the United States will be better off. The main reason i say that is because people are Getting Better jobs and the minimum rate is going up for a lot of states and even in oklahoma, the rates are going up. I think everybody could have a little bit more money and can save a little bit more money and invest as well. That is the main thing, the investment, if we can all get into that stock market right now, we will all do better. Host you take a look at all of those, economically you say better off . Jamie also says the u. S. Will be better off in indiana. Caller i am pretty optimistic about this next year because for myself and the country in general because with the Republican Party controlling the house and the senate they will be more apt to get things done constructively as opposed to their abstract of behavior toward the president simply because they are in controllable houses and they dont want to be blamed for reversing the cycle that we are on and the direction the country has been heading. I think they will try to get some things done so they can try to change total credit take total credit which is fine with me as long as the American People can benefit. If the Republican Party would have worked with resident since he was elected we would be far better off now even in what we are, but at least he reversed the trend and we are going in the right direction and hopefully we can have a trickledown because the stock market is at record levels and we have minimum wage going up like the last caller said and oil prices are down so i am optimistic about the future. Have a happy new year. Host will move on to tom. He says we believe better off, from iowa. Caller i think the u. S. Will be better off and looking at congress i think they will get some laws passed and hopefully rain in some unneeded regulations. I think the lower fuel prices will be a good thing to get the new year started off because of people having more dollars to spend. Host what would you like to see them get done . Caller the border has to be secured. They do have to pass immigration. They have more important things to accomplish other than building an embassy in cuba or iran. I think they will be reluctant to let the president go off on his own and to do that. Several of our collars this morning had mentioned the minimum wage going into effect across United States. This one saying it will go up in several states including massachusetts and rhode island and a state troopers in oklahoma will see their first pay rise in seven years. You may look at the terms of the economy and the u. S. Will be better if you were to go into the world of politics or other fronts if you think the u. S. Will be better off. Host deborah, hello. Caller happy new year. This is what im looking at, i love to watch cspan and documentaries. Please dont cut me off, but i am a baby boomer and i happen to be closely in raising the gen x generation and my daughter and grand daughter this kid this kid watches seasons with me and i would see how passionate he is as well as his mother and there is an upcoming justice situation between Michael Brown ok, but what we think is we can put the things back in order and if we can take the Supreme Court and we got all this technology and all the stuff and we can see exactly what happens with eric garner we can put a lot of things in place here and allow the Supreme Court to make the decision. That is louise in chicago there is a story in the New York Times. Changes were, soon as 2016, the chief justice wrote in his annual report. Chief Justice Roberts explain the courts approach to technological change in the balance of the report saying that judges had his esha obligation to move more slowly than the rest of society though he did not say so direct the some of his reasoning seem to apply to other areas in which the court has been resistant to change. Justice is mostly communicate in writing on paper rather by email. Louise, texas, that is where mike is, he says the u. S. Will be worse off. Caller the biggest problem i think i see on the horizon is the republicans effectively in a couple days will take over both sides of congress and i think what will end up happening is what the u. S. House has an trying to do, passing various bills and roadblocks by harry reid and the senate in fact the president set himself recently that a lot of bills did not reach his desk because harry reid had road blocked it in the senate. With that gone i think we will have a situation where Congress Puts bills on the desk intentionally that he does not like forcing the issue of a veto knowing there is not a veto proof margin in either chamber i think ultimately what well have is the next two years and very ugly political situation and i think economically the country is going to see this in a manner in which unfortunately makes them very pessimistic and that is why i believe we will be worse off. Host that off, worse off or the same . Those are the choices you have we call us about your optimism for the u. S. On twitter, i Hope Congress will finally jump baseline budgeting. Nancy from california, you are next. Caller i am very positive about the coming year, i am in california so we have a lot of environmental stuff coming with clean energy and i think ultimately jerry brown will put stuff forward even with the republicans in congress. At your state level your optimistic. I think california is about whether and i think once we start to see the economy and jobs tipped toward clean energy will be an avalanche, i got solar today turned on and im thrilled. How much of an investment did you have to make ended hats credits cover them . We have not got there yet but solar city has paid the finders fees for each cottage in my bmb. So i havent pay them anything yet. Alex is up next. What you think about 2015. Caller i am looking more toward the pessimistic side because you brought up the point of raising the minimum wage and i actually believe that really hampers the economy here in smalltown nebraska. What you believe about that . Host when it comes amid own wage whitey think increasing it is a pessimistic thing . Caller you look at it, there are struggling businesses that barely get by paying 7. 25 or 7. 50 an hour and by raising that and all the new benefits, they will have to sorry i am nervous, they will have to pay more to their employees am i making sense . Host as far as the employment situation, you make more than minimum wage or how does that work for you . Caller do why, yes about 15 an hour. Host what kind of work do you do . Caller i am a gynecologist. Host that is alex in nebraska asking about the optimism they feel. The New York Times this morning writing that the effort to write the taliban has by some estimates cost 1 trillion as of december the 16th the total is 2242 troops have died in afghanistan and 19,945 have been wounded. Operation enduring freedom as the pentagon called the war will now become Operation Resolute support. A scaledback mission involving about 12,000 troops who will definitely advise forces in the fight against insurgents. Sean in missouri. Caller Social Security has not gone up but 2 this year and minimum wage is going up i dont see how we will get ahead if they keep treating us on Social Security and disability like this and the same with minority people and the way they are being treated right now and the people who have an incarcerated and i would say 50 years ago they were treated like they are incarcerated yesterday. So i dont know. Host the first color of 2015 to say the year should be the same, this is willy. Caller happy new year to everybody in america and throughout the world. My name is willy and i think things are going to be the same they could be better if people would allow it to be better. People are tired and what we need is the truth to come out we need to let god be god and we need to Work Together and everybody talking about the republicans need to get with obama and obama with the republicans they need to meet each other halfway. The republicans and the democrats need to drop everything and make this thing work and make america what it is supposed to be. I am a vietnam veteran and i fought for this country and everything and i am a black man so, white people and black people need to Work Together. It could be better but we need to think positive and make positive moves in the right direction. Republicans, democrats libertarians, we need to come together and forget about the past and what happened in yesteryear, this is a brandnew year. Host willy in florida, minimum wage going up thanks to state laws and other laws coming into effect as well today. When it comes to crime this is a story of the Washington Times. In california, a yes means yes standard for sex takes effect requiring a affirmative conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in Sexual Activity meeting silence can no longer be gauged as consent. In new york becomes illegal to pose with a lion, tiger or other big cat the measure which specifically run of its contact with the members of the public and big cats at animal shows past after self orchards of animals online became more Popular Online particularly with young men on dating sites. And weapons on january 5, a law takes effect giving the National RifleAssociation Giving a better chance of challenging local firearms ordinances in court. In general pennsylvania bars municipalities from enforcing ordinances that are stronger than state law but the nra has complained that dozens of local ordinances go unchallenged. From North Carolina he says country we better off, tell us why. I think it is good because of the things president obama has done. I think he or his team has not run a good job on telling the country what he has done. I think really the republicans wanted chambers and they have it now and they are pretty much well boxed in because if they want to have a chance it 2016 they will have to show they can govern. I want to disagree with the devious caller saying that harry reid let bills come to the floor, he let ills come to the floor by the republicans presented him with bills they knew the president wasnt going to pass so the republicans have to show they can govern because they cannot sit back there and say, obama this and obama that. They have to show they can govern. Host what is that mean specifically . Caller they havent had to in the past the only thing they fought for was big business and corporations. I would like for one republican to tell me that they voted for republicans and tell the one thing the Republican Party has fought for that would make their life better. They would go to and nail for corporations but i havent seen anything or they would actually fight for republicans and show how they would make their life ettore. Better. Host from florida, sean is next. Caller happy new year. I say it will be the same because there is a dress trend in the 2000s i call it the four these, people in positions of power making poor decisions. There is no accountability for a think anyone does all the way down the line from the police to congress to the president and im talking about military people no one is held accountable for the decisions that they make. If we the average person did have half the stuff we would have been in jail along time ago but these people do things in there is no calls or public is this a lot of these people are still in office. There is no accountability for any and until someone is held accountable things will never be better. Host tell me what would improve accountability. Caller they to stop letting the people that make the offensive police them. If someone in the executive office does something bad if someone in the executive ranch or in that district will decide what happens to them. If the police do something bad it is the police who decide what happens, you know what im saying . Where is the outside independents to be like you messed up and you have to be accountable for that. There was a lot of that in Civil Society and with regular people but when you get up people in positions of power, people with money a talker about people who make decisions and decide how the world is run those people have no accountability. Host because they are self governed and police themselves . Caller pretty much, it is been that way forever and until that changes i dont think anything will change. It will be back and forth but at the end of the day nothing will change because they have no responsibility. Host if youre just joining us were asking you to give us your thoughts on what you think about 2015 when it comes to optimism, the poll from the Associated Press asking do you think we will be better off in the new year . We divided our lines into three categories, if you think that are off, worse off or the same. This is based in part on findings we found from a recent poll in the Associated Press. When it comes to didi fredericks from twitter she asked if the border was still an issue. In her estimation, it would make things worse. As far as facebook you can post on there as well. As of today when it comes to employers, companies with 100 workers or more have to provide affordable insurance to at least 70 of their employees or pay heavy fines under the mandate which was supposed to take effect at the start of this year. Employers with 50 workers to 100 will have start and 26 at which point all employee ors must ensure at least 95 of their employees. With fewer than 50 workers they are exempt from the mandate of implementation that should pass without much notice. For most companies it will not be a major problem. Most Companies Offer comply meant compliance insurance anyway. And arizona lawmakers considering medicare saying that arizonas legal battle will be allowed to continue. Meaning that continued uncertainty for low income arizona citizens, a high Court Considered a challenge from 34 republican lawmakers to return to court for the decision on whether or not it was legally enact it. A republican had asked the court to reject the challenge citing that leaves it . Of one of their hardest. Policies and also poses an immediate or political decision. That is in the pages of the arizona republic. Better off, that is what tom says from michigan. Even right now we are doing better, and will be better next year. When you see what the president has done without the help of the Republican Party, look at gas rices and the stock market and you look at the automobile industry, it has roared back. With you look at the housing the percentages to buy a house is better now. Houses are going to take a trend upward and if you look at what we need to do to make it even better, the republicans have been structuring when it comes to building bridges, Highways Infrastructure and may have obstructed the president because they dont want him to get credit for it. Even now the republicans are trying to take credit for what is going on in the country but when things were bad they blamed the president and now everything is going good and they want to take credit for it and they have done nothing but struck. Looking at relationships all around the world, in russia they say canada was weak when he has a chokehold on the economy. Host tell us a little what you think about detroit, weve heard a lot of stories about them economically, where you think it is going . Detroit has visits is coming in and a lot of the rich people in the city are coming in to detroit and helping to rebuild. What detroit needs to do is the same things in other cities, the infrastructure, the bridges and the highways, those put people to work and at the republican stop obstructing the president and work with the president on that, why cant the two of them agree on that because they dont what the president to have any credit. Host that is tom in detroit, michigan. My question this morning as far as up ms. Him in the u. S. , lets hear from cornell in jersey. He created a new category called all. Caller im glad there is a lot of dialogue about the issues. One of the things i heard this morning was a gentleman making 15 an hour as a problem with someone making more than 7. 25 an hour, that is part of the problem and i think he is underpaid. A gynecologist making 15 an hour but he has a problem with someone making 7. 25 an hour, the problem is we are a divided country and it seems like we are getting divided even more. But now as far as optimism, i wish the president would have used his executive orders 350 filibu