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the payroll tax cut. it's set to expire at the end of this year. president obama called john boehner today and the white house has even put a counterdown clock on the home page of its website. it says if the house does not act, taxes on the middle class will increase starting the first of the year. let's go to the white house. our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin, is standing by with the latest on this dramatic political showdown. what is the latest? >> the latest is that the white house believes there is only one way for the nation to avoid an increase in the payroll ...

Republicans from doing the right thing and make the country more divided. that would be an unfortunate effect, but the electoral effect for democrats long term is quite good, because the tea party represents only a minority of the country. >> how does your party square this thing? john, you hang around with these people. are people like michele bachmann and glenn beck, are they deciding who's kosher and who isn't? i'm looking at bachmann who went after chaff chaff its went after -- >> there will always be discussio discussions. i do believe, though, that the republicans are all moving in the r...

Congresswoman from minnesota, all right, that don't have much of a power base at all, why do they care what she says? >> right. we have former sexiest man alive chris matthews taking a shot at bachmann. listen to this. >> this kind of talk from michelle bachmann, i don't know why she's allowed to be an extremist and everybody is coaxing on the right republican saying the president should move to the center and be reasonable and moderate where she's allowed to be out there as a screamer and in many cases, pretty close to a nut case. >> and pretty close to a nut case. >> well, is she allowed? i ...

I could see perhaps jon huntsman once new hampshire comes along give a slightly nuanced answer to that, but i think that signified the whole thing. these candidates are afraid to alienate the most activated, energized set of voters in their party, and that is one thing, perhaps one of the only things, that's a bright spot for this white house, is that they think this field of candidates is veering so far right they won't be able to correct. i'm not so sure that's the case. at the end of the day i think someone would perhaps have a window into becoming slightly more pragmatic here. >> look at u...

Name it. the one thing that keeps them together is taxes. chris, i've told you this before. i've had republican pollsters tell me it would break the republican party apart if they somehow split on taxes. >> let me go to jeff on that same point. this was the bicentennial moment yesterday. jeff, to make it, follow on on has chuck said there. they make backtrack on that, some of them, in three, four months. but none of them asked for a clarification. they immediately, knee jerk response. they all put up their hands afraid not to be with the group. >> no question. i mean, but i think that sort of ...