Joining us. Anderson cooper 360 starts right now. Thanks, wolf. Were going to pick up right now, it hit the senate and then hit the house, deals mainly with restoring middle class tax cuts. Let listen to nancy pelosi right now. I believe that we will heed the american people, come together with a strong vote. We will increase by voting for this legislation and passing it in a strong bipartisan way, well increase the confidence of consumers, of the markets, of businesses, of employers to hire more. We will extend Unemployment Insurance to people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. This is very, very important. Not only to those individuals but to our economy because this is money that is spent immediately injecting demand into the economy creating jobs. Well extend permanent tax relief for the middle class, for more than 98 of american taxpayers, more than 97 Jessica Yellin and dana bash working their sources to stay ahead. Dana, when do we expect a vote to take place, within this hour . We do now. Its been moved up a little bit according to the republicans who run the show here. They say they do expect it probably within the next half hour to 45 minutes. Perhaps it means that members are as tired as everybody else is, that they want to fin, the debate and go back. But one thing that i just mentioned before and i think its worth saying again and that is the procedural vote that took place to get to us this point was very, very big, a big bipartisan vote, 408 members voted for it and that means almost all of the democrats voted for it. It is significant in that this is the kind of procedural vote that is almost always pretty partisan and it really does signal as youre hearing from the democratic leader, nancy pelosi on the floor, that it is going to be a bipartisan vote. What accounts for that . Earlier in the day there was all sorts of dissension, eric cantor among others, saying they werent going to go for it. He may at the end of the day vote no. Youre going to see a lot of republicans and a fair number of democrats vote no as well. What accounts for that is this is i think a classic compromise that nobody likes, meaning everybody lost things that they want and that is actually the way legislating used to be, that not everybody is happy but you realize you got to do whats best in order to actually get something passed. In terms of the white house, do they view this as a win for the president . Yes. This is something the president campaigned on and whats in this bill is largely largely democratic priorities, anderson. 450,000 as the threshold wasnt what the president wanted but in principle that is the notion that the president wanted, tax increases for the wealthiest americans. It extends Unemployment Benefits for a year and its not paid for. Republicans wanted it paid for. But think about some of the other measures. Theyre doing things like patching this doctor payments but theyre not doing it through medicare retirement age increase, something that the republicans want. Theyre not taking a bite out of entitlements. So the way theyve engineered this bill, its largely formed to win as many democratic votes as possible, precisely because they knew that they would need as many democratic votes as possible because it would go down exactly the way its going down tonight. Theres a lot for republicans theres some things for the republicans to like tonight but its a win for the president tonight. What did it take to get the vot today . As far as the way the republicans in the house go, they have to wind themselves up and then you have to allow themselves to wind themselves back down. That is the way this day went from start to finish. The republicans were not happy with the senate vote, even though 40 out of 45 republican senators voted for this. I mean, it was overwhelming among republicans in the Early Morning hours this morning. But republicans simply are upset about the fact that it does raise taxes on wealthy americans, it doesnt address spending cuts enough and as jessica was saying, it doesnt address entitlements the way that they wanted it to. So what we saw today were a series of meetings where republicans vented and the House Speaker and others listened and they were trying to craft a way to get this result but allow people to basically go through the process of grieving is the way another source put it, to understand theyre not going to get what they want. There was discussion and a move to potentially amend this at 300 billion in spend being cuts but the tactic that the House Republican leadership used was to say well see if we can get the majority votes to do that. If not well put this on the house floor upordown vote and at the end House Republicans behind closed doors relented big time because they stand the politics of this would be so, so bad for House Republicans, who are already basically the bad guys for a lot of what has happened with regard to this dragging out. They did not want to be in a position for this continue, particularly when the markets open tomorrow morning and americans to suffer. The tax piece of this bill for the democrats, what does it accomplish . Well, it raises the rate for the highest income americans, which was a fundamental principle for the president. And it keeps down the rate for 98 of americans, which is another principle for the president. And then it sort of puts it aside. If you think of the dinner plate and you got to deal with the protein, the vegetables and the starch, it takes one portion of that and puts it aside. It says we have done our protein and now we have to deal with the star of and vegetables in the next fight. I would say, anderson, as much as this is a win for the president , we should also acknowledge that this is a permanent extension of the bush tax cuts for 98 of americans. Thats something that even president bush couldnt get passed. He only got it done for a decade. So president obama has permanently extended the bush tax cuts. So tonight republicans should be happy about that piece of it. The one piece they didnt get is the continuation of it for a sliver of americans. And some democrats are upset that that has happened today. In terms of revenue, its not a huge amount of revenue. Its not a huge amount of revenue. Well, you know, what is huge. As i recall some 600 billion over ten years. Ten years. And its also this principle that this is now codified into law and its going to be very hard to change if they make an effort to change it. The other piece of this thats a win for republicans is that theyre even having this larger skirmish over deficits and spending, which is a republican priority and the president is arguing on republican turf right now. Right. A lot more to cover, dana, jessica, i appreciate it. Were going to be talking to you throughout this hour, as dan ashe was just reporting. Do expect the vote to occur within this hour. Stay tuned for this. You can follow me on twitter also. Well have more on the vote coming up on the fiscal cliff, on the bill, what americans and the markets think of the mess in the market. Well be right back. You know,that could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. 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Talked to a couple of folks on the hill today, they are extremely frustrated, responsible republicans, moderate republicans, who arent going to vote for this because they feel out of control on the spending. They dont understand how six to eight weeks from now theyll have any more leverage on spending than they did now, a year ago or ever had. Theres a lot of frustration from those who i think a lot of us would call responsible republicans. Though there are lots of liberals who are concerned, the fact the president has moved from his 250,000 position to 450,000. This is the very nature of compromise. Youre not going to get everything that you want. You will have to kick people use this analogy all day, kick the can down the road a bit. You have to come back to it, live to fight another day and say i will deal with what we will deal wican deal with now. If we can do that, they will have a chance to deal with it. Isnt that what governance used to be . Is this governance, ali . No. I think its important to note there are far fewer competitive districts in the country now. Instead of doing something because youre worried that somebody from the other party will take your seat, youre doing something because youre worried somebody will challenge you in the primary. Thats a republican thing. We have that, Public Finance law, come stant campaigning and this idea that if you compromise in any fashion, youre not doing the right thing for the governance of the country, youre giving something up, youre caving. Going from 250,000 to 450,000, it was a sign of were going to have to compromise to get what we want. Youve seen the people who will not compromise. Im talking about marco rubio and rand paul and all these guys who are jockeying for position. Theyre going to run for something. What you have, anderson, is republicans are all over the map. You have the republicans you just mentioned, ali and you have republicans in the house of representatives who want to vote for it who cant. You have the republicans in the senate, the majority voted for this and mcconnell is a huge winner because he was able to deliver most of his republicans to do it. The reason it still happened is because of him and joe biden. So republicans are completely scattered. There is no central messaging from the Republican Party on this. Guess who else is missing in action. Reince priebus, the chairman of the Republican Party. Where is he . Hes got elections coming up in four weeks. What does this mean about the tea party . Didnt boehner try to go around them basically . I think the tea party has been weakened significantly in the last president ial election. Only 21 of americans said they identified as supporters of the tea party. Their kind of control over the Republican Party is substantially weaker. I do think you have hit tonight head, margaret. Theres a centralized feel being among democrats that they can make compromises and they will not pay the ultimate price for that compromise. That is no longer something that is in the kind of dna of the Republican Party. We dont need to make any kind of false equivalencies here, this is a republican problem. They are no longer able to govern as a kind of full fledged party. Charles, theres one economic argument that has come apart here and that is the tea Party Conservative republican argument that we want a government that spends money responsibly, doesnt overtax people. That got divorced from the idea that we ended up with people defend being the rights of people who earn more than 500,000 a year not to pay 4. 6 Percentage Points higher in taxes. We went from protecting responsible government and your hardearned money into just defending rich people. That didnt make sense. Republicans had a hard time countering president obamas message, which is the you grow the economy by growing it from the middle class out. Its the one argument the republicans havent come up with a cogent response to. I would say its a Republican House of representatives governing problems. It looked like the senate did okay today. This is the house they control. Correct. You basically have a vacuum in republican leadership, you dont have the presidency, dont have the senate and the house of representatives is controlling these members they have extreme positions. And that goes across the board in congress. As you know and as ali just said, all of these house districts have become more polarized. There are less in the incoming class, only 14 in the one that is going to start on thursday and 50 Tea Party Republicans with a diminishing number of moderates in both parties. Were watching the debate live on the house floor. We anticipate the vote occurring relatively shortly, in the next 20, 30 minutes or so. In terms of this getd decided tonight, whats the next schedule . We still have another vote two months from now. There are three Different Things now. The first is the debt ceiling, which we hit on december 31st, yesterday. The treasury can do what they did last time. Theyve got 200 billion that they can shuffle around and keep us going for maybe another month. So im calling that the valentines day cliff. Thats the republicans have leverage on. Then you got the sequester, those cuts across the board, half in defense and half in nondefense. This agreement postpones that for two months. And then the one we all forget about, it is the governments job to actually come one a budget, something that has not been done in several years which is crazy. Crazy. That is actually not technically due until september except were about three years overdue. Immediately well have a budget debate. Well have three very distinct debates where these same discussions are going to take place. To be fair, it the senate that hasnt passed the budget in three years. For the average american, its the government that hasnt passed the budge. The only constitutional responsibility the United States has and its the one thing toethedont do. Youre right. About bu when youre the average voter, you need to get your act together. But you can give the House Republicans a little credit. I will give them credit when this passes tonight because finally theyll be getting something done. Grover norquist holds no elected offense, no official title. Hes a lobbyist, president of americans for tax reform. Hes been a central figure in this and every tabs debate washington has had for 20 years. For those two decks aid, his position on taxes has been simple dont raise them, no time, ever, never. This time he says the Senate Tax Deal is kind of sort of okay and thats got a lot of people somewhat confused. Grover norquist johns us now. You said the voting for this deal, which increases taxes on households earning more than 450,000 annually would not violate your pledge that lawmakers make to their constituents. Help our viewers understand that. Lawmakers who sign that pledge promised to oppose any effort increase tax rates for individuals, for businesses. Howe does the fiscal cliff deal not violate that pledge. Its technically not a violation of the pledge. But i understand why a lot of republicans have said, look, even though whats happening is the tax cuts disappear and were restoring them for for most people, so were not raising taxes, were actually cutting taxes. You say because the bush tax cuts have expired yesterday. Yes. So technically they are still tax cuts. Correct. I understand and i understand if youre a congressman or senator, youve got to convince not me that you havent violated the pledge, you have to convince your constituents. And they need to be able to say with a straight face they fought to protect those tax cuts for everyone. And the republicans have done that more than once and theyre fighting to oppose any and all tax increases period. I think can you look your voters in the face and say we voters in the face and say we voted to protect them. The president in the white house vetoed the bill, here is the best we can do right now. And we continue to fight for everyone going forward. Is compromise that dirty of a word . For things to work, is this a good system, to constantly have this brinkmanship, these battles that go late into the night . This is just the beginning of it. Its not even the end of it. Critics say your pledge limits the flexibility the members of Congress Congress might otherwise have to make compromises. Define compromise, okay . Richard nixon and ted kennedy could compromise very easily. Richard nixon wanted the government to get birg and ted kennedy wanted it to get much bigger opinion a bigger. Today they are committed to principle. The democrats wanted an expansive view of the role of government. The republicans want lower taxes and spending less money. If somebody wants to go east and somebody wants to go west, what would a compromise be . Im in favor of compromising in favor of we had a come mieds in 2011. The republicans wanted to cut taxes 6 trillion and we agreed to 2. 5 trillion in spending cuts. Dhafs that was a compromise. You can have compromise in the direction of liberty but raises taxes and spending more money, which is what obama wants to do is moving away from liberty. But youre painting it in extraordinarily stark terms. Thats two parties are extraordinarily want to go in two different ways. Do you have see any room in the pentagon budget for cuts . Absolutely. Serious conservatives need to make it very clear that taxpayers, republicans, conservatives are looking at the entire budget and saying where can we be more efficient and more effective . We have a rather large pentagon budget, larger than most of the other countries in the world that have armies, navys and air forces all added together combined. And we should have a strong military. We ought to keep the canadians on their side of the border, make sure nobody can throw a punch at us successfully. But to argue we cant reform some of the pension questions and contracting decisions that are made and the good news is the republican caucus, the conservative caucus among republicans, the Republican Study Committee leader jim jordan made the comment that while he was concerned about how the sequester might affect defense, he was more concerned that those cuts might not take place. That was part of a Strong America is not to have this massive spending that weve been having. Ill have you on for another discussion about your concerns for the canadian invasion on another broadcast. We have to keep an eye on it. Im glad you raised the issue. We havent had enough of this. You see . Senator Hillary Clinton spending another night in the hospital as doctors are treating that blood clot in her head. Were going to talk to dr. Sanjay gupta neurosurgeon ahead. Companies like microsoft, American Red Cross and adobe to create options for you. Not only that, were using what we learn from these partners to shape our curriculum, so that when you find the job you want youll be a perfect fit. Lets get to work. Plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day mens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for mens Health Concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day mens 50 . It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. Excuse me, sir im gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. I think your friends will understand. Oh no, its actually my geico app. See . I just uh paid my bill. Did you really . From the plane . Yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24 7. Sounds a little too good to be true sir. Ill believe that when pigs fly. Ok, did she seriously just say that . Geico. Just click away with our free mobile app. Heres the lastminute debate on the house floor. House members having their final say before voting on the fiscal cliff bill. Lets take a quick look at some of the comments. Should be applied to any and all bills that we consider in this house. Compromise is not the art of perfection. By its very definition a compromise contains elements that neither side likes. But it also contains pieces both sides can embrace. What we will do tonight is not only adopt a piece of legislation that will give literally tens of millions of americans the ashaurns that the assurance that their taxes will not be raised, millions of Small Businesses that their taxes will not be raised, millions of people who through no fault of their own are struggling to find a job and try to keep bread on their table, the assurance that we will be there to help. Tonight we will come together and do something else. With 37 1 2 hours left to go in the 112th congress, we will display to all of our constituents that, yes, in the final analysis the vote is expected to take place within the next half hour. We obviously are going to bring all of this to you live. Our coverage of that will continue. We want to take a look at secretary of state Hillary Clintons health. I talked to dr. Sanjay gupta. Lets take a look. A blood clot in the head sounds very serious. The big distinction is this clot inside a blood vessel or it is not . Thats the first question that doctors are going to ask. If its outside the blood vessel meaning the bled vessel has ruptured and youre accumulating blood outside the vessel, thats a bigger problem. On this model, lets say you have a blood clot on top of the brain and putting pressure on the brain, that would obviously be a problem and something maybe that would require surgery. You dont want to give blood thinner. That would make that problem worse and burn a bridge in terms of possibly performing surgery should she need it. In her case, she actually has a blood clot inside one of the blood vessels thats in a vein that drains blood away from the brain. You can see this blue area in here, those are veins. These veins take blood away from the brain. In her case is on the left side, but on this model, right about here, a clot is in this area. Think about this, you have blood going to the brain. That same blood has to leave. If its not leaving, the pressure builds up in the brain and thats what doctors are concerned about. It could lead to a stroke or other problems. I misspoke. I said 88, i believe it was 98 when she had the blood clot before. How are they treating it . Theyre giving her blood thinners now. The blood clot will dissolve and it will open up and allow the blood to drain. That can take some time. The issue you bring up about the blood clot in 98, it gives doctors the idea that she will be this person that is more likely to form clots. Why are some people more likely . Were constantly in state of clotting and not clotting in our body. Youre doing right now, im doing right now. Some people tips toward more clotting. Clotting is forming blood clots. The blood is constantly clotting. Like if you cut yourself like a grouping of hardened blood or something . If you cut yourself, you notice a clot that forms around the cut. Same kind of thing except that its happening inside the blood vessel. She may be someone who is more likely to clot. She may need to be on the blood thinners. If that doesnt work . Thats a very interesting question, anderson. They do want to open up this particular blood vessel. What you may need to do if the blood thinners arent working, put a little catheter, literally thread it up in the brain. An extraordinary procedure. You go in an area from the leg. From the leg through to the head. Threading it up. Why do you have to go so far . This is a blood vessel that you can access easily. You have to find a place to get into the body easily and safely. You can thread it up and put some medication right on the clot directly. Thats crazy that they can do that. Thats amazing. If that doesnt work, sometimes theyll literally take this corkscrew type device, put it into the clot and then pull the clot out of the body. A pretty extraordinary thing. Thankfully you dont have to do it very often. This problem were describing in general is a pretty rare thing. Is that a risky thing, though . Putting that thing in it is risky. A challenging procedure and its risky because this vein that im describing, its a thinwalled structure. How much room are we talking about . Thousand how thin are these . The blood vessel itself is really tiny but the wall is like a piece of cheese. You dont want to cut it or open it up in some way because that would cause more bleeding. When youre threading, how do you not poke through the wall . Youre literally threading this and watching this monitor simultaneously and guiding it by watching the monitor. Thats incredible. People train for years to do that kind of thing. We obviously wish her the best. Sanjay, thank you very much. Amazing. A look at the other stories were following. Isha is here. A new years eve celebration turning to tragedy in the ivory coast. A stampede following a Fireworks Show killed 60 people, many women and children. The countrys president calling for three days of mourning and a speedy investigation. North Korean Leader kim jong un talking about ending confrontation with south korea. He spoke about the importance of reuniting the two countries and criticized the hostile policies of what he called antireunification forces in the south. A flight struck another plane after landing at ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International airport. The plane carrying 162 passengers was taxiing when its wing hit the tail of an empty plane parked overnight. Spirit Airlines Says no one was hurt. Anderson, look at this. A wild scene caught on tape in new zealand. A fisherman reeling in a small shark when his cash suddenly becomes bait for an even larger shark. It attacked, chomping down and triggering a tug of war with the fisherman. I would have said, you can have it. Amazing stuff. Up next, were going to go back to washington where the house is getty ready to vote on the fiscal cliff bill. Even when we cross our ts and dot our is, we still run into problems. Namely, other humans. Which is why at Liberty Mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. See what else comes standard at libertymutual. Com. Liberty mutual insurance. Responsibility. Whats your policy . Were continuing our breaking News Coverage as the house gets ready to vote on a tax bill to haul the country back up the fiscal cliff, at least part way back up the cliff for now. It makes the bush tax cuts permanent for 98 of americans and raises taxes for the rest. By days end the house leadership steered things back to a straight upordown vote on the senate version, which could come at any moment. Dana bash and Jessica Yellin have been following this if feels like for years now. Dana, what is the latest on capitol hill . The vote is, what, minutes away . Probably minutes away. If you look at the house floor right now, dave camp, the chairman of the house ways and Means Committee is speaking. He is supposed to be the final speaker before we see this vote. Hopefully its not too far away. It has been sort of something that we dont see very much on the floor of us house, which is you have been hearing democrats and republican speaking in support of something and something that is not just passing a post office, its something that has real consequence and it really has to do with very different positions when it comes to their philosophies on the economy. And, jessica, in terms of from the white house, what are you hearing . Well, theyve been watching this all night as closely as we have, anderson, and waiting for final passage. Theyve been optimistic all day that this would happen but they just want that last vote so they can breathe a sigh of relief. We are waiting to see whether the president will come out and make a statement. It would be our expectation that something that he would be inclined to do. This would be seen as a victory by him. If not, i would expect something on paper from the president. Both the president and Vice President biden were involved in these negotiations the last few days. Vice President Biden directly on the phone with Senate Minority leader mitch mcconnell, 12 45 a. M. One night and powwowing with the president in the oval office until 2 a. M. With his team and up again at 7 a. M. This has been a white house to capitol hill negotiation and then back and for the. So everybody here will be very relieved when this is done for the nation and for their own to move on to the next agenda. Well see whether the president goes on to hawaii from here, anderson. Dana, is the vote about to start now . Thats exactly what im looking at. I can see it but not hear it to be honest with you. Im right off the house floor and looking at a monitor here. Looks like its going to start potentially at any minute. This is a 15minute vote. Yup, thats answer to your question is questiyes. This is the big vote on the bill the senate passed. We should remind people that by a hugh amongous humongous margi margin voted. And weve already seen reactions in markets in asia. Yes, the Hong Kong Market is up right now. Number one, while we were fighting about whether people who earn more than 400,000 should see a 4. 6 increase in their income, everybody loses 2 on your next paycheck. There was the payroll tax holiday. I dont hear anybody i didnt hear anybody, republicans or democrats, fighting for the average american who is going to see 2 less in their check. Number two, the s p 500, many of you will have a 401 k that looks like the s p 500, particularly if youre lazy and dont mix it up, it was up 15 . It closed the year up 13. 4 because of this nonsense. So they cost you. If you have 100,000 saved up, it cost you a few thousand bucks that now wont multiply over the next 15, 20 years you work. This has cost americans a lot of money because of this. Lets go to dana bash. What are you hearing . You can probably see people walking by. Just a second ago the House Speaker walked from his office, which is right down the hall here to the house floor. I asked how he was feeling and he just sort of looked down, was sort of a half smile, have smirk saying good. Dont think he had the best day but hes certainly going to have a relief tonight after this vote it done. What is the number. We should be looking for in terms of vote tally to get this passed . We believe the number we should be looking for and if you see the bottom of the screen, the total is 80. The number we should be looking for is 217. Generally if there are no vacancies, the majority of the house is 218 but there are vacancies. Were looking at 217 for the magic number for this to pass. There had been some talk of voting, adding amendments to the senate bill but they didnt have the votes for that, the republicans. Correct. Thats not happening. They say that they didnt have the votes for that. The way that they their strategy in order to make this happen, were talking about boehner and his fellow House Republican leaders, was to say they were going to go around and ask republicans in their caucus whether or not they would be for voting for this amendment, knowing it could throw this whole thing into turmoil because the senate probably wouldnt take it up and then they came back pretty quickly saying we dont think that there is the support so were just going to ga g ahead and vote for the senate bill straight up or down. It was an intentional and very interesting strategy that they decided do that, allowing everybody to say their piece, to have a potential bill to answer some of their concerns, the biggest of which is that there arent enough spending cuts in here but in the end they shoved it aside and decided to tight again another day. Were joined by charles blow and margaret hoover. Does anybody come out of this looking good on capitol hill in. I dont think so. I think this confirms what the public thinks about congress, which is that it is broken. And, you know, its even vord for us extraordinary for us to be sitting here as if its a suspensisus suspenseful thing this is not a natural disaster. This is a manmade cliff. They made it to force themselves to do something that they ended up not doing and then they wait until the very last minute and somebody is going to come out of this and say we won and people are going to try to pat them on the back. Its like patting your teenager on the back for taking a shower. No, youre supposed to do that actually. We dont actually have to celebrate that. Its governance. Its what youre sent to washington to do. Theyre failing at that basic fundamental part of their job. Its interesting, listening to Grover Norquist, margaret, he paints this as a situation where you have diametrically opposed sides and theres no way any kind of compromise is possible because you have people of strong principle on both sides who are just tugging in different directions. Is that how you see it . Hasnt washington always been like that . Zel well, look, the one thing were ignoring is the unsung heros are joe biden and mitch mcconnell, who were able to collaborate and get a deal done. They werent even called in until the 11th hour. They got us across the finish line. They deserve a lot of credit here. I think they are the people who come out smelling pretty good and frankly should be called in tomorrow to start working on the next deal six weeks from now and i think, frankly, that was the secret sauce. They were the magic thing that was different in this. What was the strategy of not having some sort of a grand bargain . Just couldnt do it . When you take this to the world i normally operate in, the world of business, you put a poison pill in to avoid a bad thing from happening and most thinking people april void the poison pill. Congress, its like its candy, its like lets take the poison pill. What grover said i dont believe to be true. He said liberals believe in bigger government and high taxes. Im not sure that there are really sure there are people who believe in higher taxes. The issue is weve drawn those lines and have to become an either or. We have very few competitive districts left in this country and too many elections, too much money going into elections beep have citizens united, which has spoiled margaret is not agreeing with me on this but i think its damaged the ability to have fair campaign. Boehner just voted yes. He actually comes out looking better. Every other country has this major industrialized nation has the same degree of good and bad governance and they do a lot less complication and a lot less money than we do. The money is really poisoning the system here. Grover norquist is a lobbyist. For as much as the money may be influencing the system, it didnt influence the outcomes. The side that spent the most money didnt win this election. Just for the record. Just for the record, though. Thats my point. But theyve mess thundershower up. Theyve cost them the 2. 5 in their 401 k s, the 2 in their payroll tax. Peop to save people who earn more than a Million Dollars a year not to pay higher taxes. Just because they didnt win the president ial election, its not really the barometer we should be using on this. Weep should be using whether or not, you know that, kind of money can swoop into a local race or a Congressional District where people do not have millions and millions of dollars and they can dump a few million and completely alter the contours with absolutely full transparency. So voters take that knowledge to the voting booth. They decide do they want Sheldon Addelson picking their candidate or not . Honestly, we can debate any time but this is put aside citizens united. Look at Grover Norquist who likes to is a pledge to constituents. My constituents dont have 10 million to drop on a campaign when something goes wrong. Grover norquist does provided by karl rove and his pac and the Koch Brothers and their pacs. Its like the nra saying theyre a membership organization. Thats what Grover Norquist is doing. No, its not. Its a lobby group with a lot of money mant to preserve special interests for people. That has a lot of influence on what going on with these congressmen. Youre right, it does have an influence also its the house where theyre running every two years so theyre in a constant state of running, in constant fear of a primary battle. In the senate they have six years, theyre able to look a little bit more long term. A few thousand bucks means a lot in a haus race. When grover has 10 million, thats a lot of influence. Hes not just a regular guy. I love the way he paints himself as just another guy who doesnt want tax increases. Thats just not true. In terms of the next battle the debt crisis. That will be within a month. Thats a big problem because unlike this where i can give you abstracts as to how it affects the economy, if we dont extend the debt limit, the government shuts down. Thats going to be feel much more urgent. This has a much bigger influence on the United States and the global economy. How do you think markets will react tomorrow, u. S. Markets . At the moment if this passes in the next five minutes, well be fine. Asian markets are doing quite well on this news. But the markets will freak out, right . At some point it cost the u. S. 1. 7 to borrow for ten years, better than any mortgage than anyone can get. Thats because europe is in such bad shape. But europe is starting to get its act together. And people will shift their money away. Its not going to be overnight, not going to be massive, not going to be terrible burr everything will become more expensive, including our debt, our mortgages and our car loans. I know you have to go down to another set. Well say goodbye to you and well see ali ten minutes from now. Even though we expect the vote to occur within ten minutes, our coverage will continue. Theres a lot more to talk about in the next hour. I want to bring you dana bash. Hough does john boehner come out of all of this . Something interesting just happened. Dierdre walsh is telling us shes watching how members are voting, she reports that john boehner, the House Speaker, voted yes. Thats significant for two reasons. One is it is the tradition that speakers do not usually vote and they only vote when they want to make a point. They want to make a point whether it is nancy pelosi voting on health care or in this particular case, when hopefully we can talk to john boehner and ask him himself, but it seems to be that he wants to make the point that he understands what these democrats were talking about on the floor, that compromise isnt easy and you dont always get what you want and you have to vote for the best deal that you can, particularly when youre talking about something that really affects americans pocketbooks. I think it was really significant that the House Speaker voted and voted yes for this deal. I also just want to give our viewers an update of where we are in this vote tally. So far 153, as you said. We believe 217, it depends on how many people are voting. That would be the high threshold. The other thing i want to point out is the split among the parties, that you can see there on the screen. So far 99 democrats have voted yes and 57 republicans have voted yes. So definitely is the kind of bipartisan split we anticipated to happen. But we still see there are still 172 members that have not yet voted. We had trent lott on the program recently and george mitchell. They were dekraaiing the state of capitol hill today where compromise is a dirty word and, you know, they were saying, looking we had tough battles back then but both sides talked to each other. You dont see that happening now. When did that change . Why did that occur . I think part what we were talking about before, which is that the republicans get primaried more, part of it is the Neverending Campaign cycles where you have a tremendous amount of money. Part it have is also what were doing here, 24hour news, it is social media, it is people tracking every minute of everything that everybody says to point where if you are out of line, you get called on it immediately. When you are able to when you are able to have conversations and go back and forth and change your mind a little bit from day to day and no one was tracking that every minute that you were doing that, i think it was a little easier to govern. It does seem like politicians are playing to those cameras a lot who are than they had the ability to back then or playing to twitter because theyre out in front of cameras. And whos on twitter . Whos on twitter thats their constituent . If they have votes only four days a week, they go home on thursday. They spend just as much time almost in washington as they do with their constituents and with their families, which on the one hand is quite good, representing the will of their constituents. On the flip side, theyre not spending time with each over, not getting to know each other as people, their kids arent going to soccer games together, wives and spouses arent social sizing and the camaraderie has really disintegrated in many ways. Jessica yellin is also joining us from the white house. From the white house perspective, jessica, what happens tomorrow . Margaret was saying joe biden should be down there on capitol hill working on the next one. Does he continue to be involved or was that a lastminute hail mary maneuver . No, the Vice President has longstanding relationships that are always in use up here. But i think the white house is prepared to pivot very quickly into the next battle and thats both the battle over the debt ceiling and over the post pointment of these guaranteed deficit cuts, called a sequester. Theres 1 trillion left on that and that will come due march 2nd, two months from the day this passes. So that will happen right around the same time as the debt ceiling. So we turn around and head into another huge titanic battle over although issues. I think it will take all the power and mite that the Vice President has and the president s popularity and his second term mandate, if he has one at this point, to do that. I do think he has a mandate and some capital right now to spend but hes going to have to spend it in this fight. To jessicas point, i mean, he has actually a very full plate of things he wants to get done. He wants to do immigration, he wants to do gun control. These are huge issues that take a lot of Political Capital to get over the finish line and instead he has to be haggling over the next debt ceiling crisis and the budget and fiscal issues. Jessica raises a very strong conundrum the president is facing. How is he going to handing its not just him, though. This is going forward, not just obama, but the next president and the next congress. This is kind of the way were kind of stuck mired in this this is the way its working now. This is is not just about what obamas mandate or agenda might be but what is the next pred going to do when you run pen that is able to exert so much influence and just basically stop everything from working, which is what has happened and that means that the next group in the minority will also do the same thing. Theyve kind of demonstrated that it works. Maybe. Maybe. But there is this alternative perspective that this is a very bad alchemy of negotiating table right now. Thousand the combination and i just have to interrupt. The bill just passed. Dana, its passed for sure . Reporter thats right. If were looking at the screen now,as itted with some wiggle room, 223 and there are still 56 members who still havent voted. I think thats noteworthy. But also noteworthy again is to look at the party split of how this vote is so far. Republicans 76, yes; democrats 149, yes. We were told earlier in the day that the democrats thought they would deliver the majority of these votes and it looks like thats the way its going. 144 republican so far have said were not going to sign on to that. Very different proportionally than what we saw in the senate in the Early Morning hours this morning where only five republicans voted against this deal. It is certainly noteworthy. This is done, its passed and the next stop is the president s desk to sign it . How quickly does that occur . Depends. There are technical, procedural issues tone role it. Sometimes it might take a day. They can do it faster since we are talking about just hours until the markets open, particularly even before that internationalally but particularly in the United States. So there might be pressure that the president feels to do that but since markets move on sort of psychological issues, this is certainly a psych large call plus for them. They see that its going to happen and it will pass overwhelmingly partisan. How quickly are we talking about in terms of pivoting to the next battle and on capitol