Transcripts For FOXNEWS FOX And Friends 20101206

ticking towards the end of the year plus the lawmakers are both sides are figuring out what to do with this tax cut. no deal over the weekend although it does sound like we could have some sort of monte hall moment by mid week when they do come together. the republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everybody, democrats want to extend unemployment insurance past two years. >> i hope i'm not going to get that bad door that used to get behind "let's make a deal." what was that? >> or the cow, you know, the nice little milk maid next to him or something like that. >> they usually give you parting gifts from the home game. we don't have a "fox & friends" home game yet. we're not sure what's going to happen. >> let's listen to republican mitch mcconnell from kentucky and dick durbin from illinois as they face off on taxes. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. we're discussing how long we should maintain current tax rates and there are other issues that many people feel are important to address. >> i could tell you that without unemployment benefits being extended personally, this is a nonstarter. >> that's what we alluded to on friday, that was going to be part of the deal that both parties could save face sort of by getting what they wanted within this deal. >> they're already at 99 weeks for unemployment benefits. they extend it another year which is unprecedented but the republicans said all along is if you want to do that, find another place to cut. i guess they're not going to find another place to cut. other place to work out behind closed doors, a year. is it going to be one year where the bush tax cuts are continuing or two years? that's going to be something interesting. a lot of people feel when this does go to the house even if they work out a deal, it's not going to pass. the lame duck congress is the lame duck democrat dominated congress, house, excuse me. >> on saturday, after the senate killed the two house versions that they voted -- the two senate bills, one two extend the tax cuts up to people making $250,000 and the other, schumer's up to a million, a whole bunch of house members were really steamed, went up to joe biden's place, observatory circle in northwest washington, d.c. and apparently, they vented. and they vented a lot and also in attendance was jack lu and also tim geitner, the guys who were heading up this fantastic four. the white house's little negotiating monte hall outfit. >> in the meantime, you know how long people's memory is from time to time? the politicians, sometimes they think they can get away with stuff and the american public won't remember. apparently, 22 democrats who at one point before the midterm elections had changed their mind about extending the tax cuts to everyone. they said we should extend the tax cuts to everyone and when the vote came down, they actually followed nancy pelosi. we'll talk about that a little bit more with dana perino as she -- >> i watched "60 minutes" and i wanted to scramble to make sure we watch it. why don't they make that adjustable? ben bernanke sat down with "60 minutes" unprecedented for the fed chairman to sit down and do a second television interview. i guess he feels pressure, international and domestic to explain why he went out and put $600 billion into the system. good news is housing is so bad, double dip recession more than likely not going to happen. listen. >> doesn't seem likely we'll have a double dip recession that's because among other things, some of the most cyclical part of the economy like housing is already very weak and they can't get any weaker. a relative decline is not likely. a high unemployment rate for a protracted period of time that makes consumers' households less confident and more worried about the future, that's the primary source of risk that we might have another slowdown of the economy. >> how great does that sound? the reason things won't get worse is because they can't get worse in the housing department. >> house can't burn down again. >> you cannot fall off the floor. the risk of double dip recession -- >> do you have a metaphor? >> unlikely. >> i hear one. >> i'm waiting my turn. >> go ahead. >> the other thing, it was pretty early in this interview and the interview took place at ohio state university just last week, the thing that really kind of scared me was the fact he said unemployment will not get down to regular levels for four or five years. >> yep. >> that was the headline. a lot of economists say it will never go back down to the 5% we once enjoyed a few years ago so when you're waking up and having to talk about that this morning, i'm not sure that's so great. other part of the interview is also that the government is buying $600 billion worth of bonds to try to stimulate the economy and bernanke said they could go ahead and do more of that. there was one other headline. that was that he talked about the tax code and whether or not he feels that that should be adjusted and here's what they said. >> the tax code is very efficient in both the personal tax code and the corporate tax code by closing loopholes and lowering rates, you could increase the efficiency of the tax code and create more incentives for people to invest. >> so everybody sees they'll be saying the same thing. if we get that done, perhaps, here's what worries me more than anything else. talk about the disparity between the upper income and lower income and why it's so great these days and he says -- this is to me goes down to information. if you have a college degree, you have a company with 5% of the american public. if you have a high school degree and that's it, it's over 10%. so it really pays to go to school. i wish it didn't sound so nervous. i wish he would have sounded a little more confident. >> he did. it was an eye opener. when it comes to closing loopholes, it sounds like he was essentially reading out of the same hymnal as the debt committee. the deficit commission that voted over the weekend -- >> that was a success. >> yeah, well, they brought up the whole idea of whether or not to get rid of the home mortgage deduction and said they said -- alan simpson says if it doesn't matter, we've injected the idea into america's bloodstream. >> so frustrated with the debt commission. how many months did they work on that thing? eight months. now they're going to be able to say we couldn't solve the deficit because they couldn't get enough votes. they needed 14 of the 18 committee members to say yes to move it forward to congress. how, will we just forget about that and say we don't have to worry about cutting spending. >> i hope not. >> well, i don't know. what will be next? there is another politician who is saying we should form yet another committee to look into this. how many committees do we need to figure out we're spending too much money. >> you got to cut into n nondiscretionary spending. you have to cut into social security and tell people they're not going to have this, this and this. >> europe, what's happening? >> which is heavily socialized but 11 votes, yes. you know what ken conrad said amongst the people, if we do another commission, the president has to sit on it and take stock of it. you have to be one of the guys. >> politically that's why he didn't seat in on those meetings so he wouldn't have to be associated. >> have cover. >> now everybody has cover. nobody came up with any decision. wonderful, we're back to ground zero again. >> ok. let's talk a little bit about wikileaks. >> no good story. >> this is pretty scary. julian assange fella apparently was detected in one of the files there's a file that is labelled simply "insurance" and then it's got a little code after it. and apparently, what they -- what they surmise is that if he is taken out of circulation, you know, arrested, goes to prison, something like that. or if the government tries to shut down his web site, he will give somebody the key to unlock this gigantic catch of all sorts of stuff, it could be about b.p., bank of america or anything. >> talk about a threat. talk about really putting the noose around somebody's neck. if you come and arrest me, by the way, not just the wikileaks stuff, he's threatening to do this if the swedish authorities come after him. which they're trying to do on a daily basis. all they do is press this button and he's calling it a thermal nuclear device, unfiltered government documents. >> names of spies. everything about them. our soldiers and addresses. it will be problematic. he sent it out to 100,000 encrypted. he will unencrypt them to 100,000 people and supporters, i would imagine, they're on his list -- on his e-mail list and they'll quickly -- so when he's arrested or taken into custody, that will all be exposed. >> to me, this says whether or not they shut down wikileaks as a site, it doesn't really matter. i mean, it doesn't really matter, does it? because he's already sent this information out now. and all he would have to do is press the button with the code. >> right, even after this, i assume he has even more stuff. and i will say this, it's more bad news because he's also sent out his other missive was a bunch of cables that talk about key international locations and factories that are key to our national security and critical to our foreign policy. and now these are -- they're considered a treasure trove, a wish list for would be terror attacks. >> so -- >> it's out there. >> this is all in this encrypted file if you've downloaded all the stuff, it's actually on your computer right now. it's got this 256 digit key. experts say it is virtually unhackable. the department of defense has known about it since july. they can't get into it. nobody can unless you've got the password. >> i don't think he's got the password. >> secretary of state was kidding about it yesterday saying hey, i wrote a cable this morning. i'm sure you're going to hear about it later. is it time to start kidding about this? i don't know. >> you want to start crying about it or laughing about it? >> somewhere between laughing and angry. somewhere between there. >> figure out the emotions while i do the headlines. two american balloonists locked over the adriatic sea found dead by the crew of an italian fishing boat. document found in the balloon confirming the identities of richard abruzzo of albuquerque, new mexico and carol davis of denver, colorado. the two were participating in a balloon race around the world when they lost contact on september 29th. terrorists are reportedly eyeing the next way to sneak back security by sewing bombs into people's body. a doctor was looking for advice on an al-qaida web site about what surgeries would actually work. a bomb made of plastic or liquid explosives into someone's abdomen was judged as the best method. overnight, a small plane crashes into a neighborhood just north of salt lake city causing an explosion. it set trees and homes on fire. plane was flying through heavy fog and the wings clipped the power lines and crashed. the pilot was injured but is expected to live. 2/3 of the country is locked in a deep freeze. video out of buffalo, new york where the city was slammed with over a foot of snow. blustery weather extending all the way down to florida. get this, it's going to feel like it's in the 20's in miami tonight. forecasters say the cold spell is expected to last throughout most of the week. and congratulations to our own bri brian kilmeade. brian along with andrew napolitano honored at the charity awards dinner in washington. he was given the award for a lifetime of work on behalf of charity. >> i got a chance to make -- >> i saw that. >> you cleaned up really nice. >> thank you very much. congratulations. it was first time i wore a tux i didn't have to return. i actually made the purchase last time. nobody has asked me out. >> really? >> i can hear the judges laugh. >> i can hear it now. >> when i first walked in, gave me a big kiss. i don't know if we have that. >> that will be next hour. >> coming up on the show, beaches in a resort town shut down after a series of shark attacks. the predators actually preying on the swimmers. >> and democrats saying we have to spend our way out of the economic hole but our next guest says cutting spending may actually be the answer. and he knows because he was there when it happened back in the 1990's. ♪ [ d ] for years, i was just a brewer. until one of the guys brought in some fresh bread that he'd made from our pale ale. and from that first bite, i knew my business would never be the same. 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[ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. ♪my country, tis of thee, @ sweet land of liberty, [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses of thee i sing;@ ohhhhh, land where my fathers died,@ land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring! ♪ - sure, cake or pie? - pie. - apple or cherry? - cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. no one ever wished for a smaller holiday gift. it's the lexus december to remember sales event, and for a limited time, we're celebrating some of our. see your lexus dealer. >> become back on this chilly monday in new york city. president obama is thinking about how much money he wants to spend in 2011. >> in fact, the proposed $3.83 trillion budget for next year, the deficit is expected to remain over $1 trillion. so is all that spending really the way to jump-start the economy? joining us now is senior editorial writer "washington times" and former press secretary for the house appropriations committee. good morning to you. >> good morning, how you doing? >> federal domestic spending increased 16% in the fiscal year of 2009. is that the way to go ahead and stimulate the economy? >> no. it's just taking money out of one pocket and putting it into the next. in the mid 1990's, we cut taxes a little. cut spending a lot. and balanced the budget -- actually balanced the budget for the first time in 30 years and the economy boomed. the economy didn't boom by government spending. it boomed when government became a smaller part of the economy. and we've had one of the best economies we've ever had after that. obama is doing the exact wrong thing. >> well, quinn, you know why this is going on because the president and his party are now in power at least with the house for another couple of weeks. in all branches of the government, they want to spend on a bunch of stuff that they've been shut out on for years and this is their big chance so they're going to spend, spend, spend. >> spend, spend, spend but it's counterproductive. again, it just takes money out of the economy. makes government like a big wet blanket on the economy. let me tell you in 1990's. we cut just in domestic discretionary spending nearly $50 billion in just two years. that's about $140 billion today. and -- and again, it worked. you don't -- you don't spend your way to prosperity. >> let me ask you this, what do you make of the debt commission not having a vote on friday and just sort of saying we have a lot of those great ideas and not going to vote on anything. >> well, the problem is that some of their ideas involved tax hikes. and again, tax hikes like bigger spending is a wet blanket on the economy. >> quinn, before you go, you were with us back in october and you were talking about military battles out in cooke county, illinois. >> yes and, when i was talking about the problem with getting ballots overseas and military, i mentioned cooke county in the same sentence and the fact is 34 illinois counties were late getting their ballots out. cooke county was not one of those 34. so i apologize for the confusion. >> all right. thank you very much for setting the record straight. all right. quinn hillyer from "the washington times" thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. democrats and republicans both being accused of playing politics when it comes to these tax cuts. is it all fun and games until someone shuts the government down on january 1st? our washington insiders weigh in next. >> imagine seeing this during your christmas shopping spree. the group that's filling the mall with god. [ male announcer ] when you eat kashi golean, you don't get 100% daily value of any vitamins. unless you do this. but total is the cereal that gives you 100% daily value of 11 essential vitamins and minerals and crunchy oat clusters. total. are you getting 100%? >> fox news alert right now, a french court has just found continental airlines and one its mechanics criminally responsible for the 2000 crash of the airfrance concord. 113 people were killed in that crash. continental and the mechanic will now face fines. mechanic was also given a 15 month suspended prison sentence. protesters clashing with police in haiti over last week's presidential election. the results aren't due out until tomorrow. most candidates say there's been widespread fraud. brian? >> all right, gretch. lawmakers are reportedly closing in on a deal to extend all the bush era tax rates/cuts but why did it take so long to get to this point? senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says enough of the political games. >> time to get serious. it's time to put the needs of the middle class americans above the needs of the liberal base that's demanding a show here in congress and that's all that this is. a show. >> so which party is the one playing political politics and putting on the show? our washington insiders join us right now with his perspective. david is ceo of blueline communications and we have gretchen hamill who is the executive director of public notice and former bush administration spokesperson. david do you not think the democratic party was playing games when at the came out and said let's vote for the middle class only and lower class only tax cuts? knowing they didn't have the votes in the senate. >> good morning, brian and merry christmas to you and everybody watching. no. the answer to your question, no, it wasn't games. it's congress. they're supposed to vote on things and these tax proposals have been around for a long time. and just to be clear, what congress voted on was tax cuts for everybody. tax cuts from the lowest bracket to the highest bracket. what the republicans are opposed to is forcing people in the highest brackets to have the same tax cut as everybody else. what they want is a bonus tax cut. they want to go above and beyond what we give everybody else and give the highest income earners more tax cuts than everybody else we get. >> just extending the rates they will put in place in 2001, do you find it to be a game and are we getting down to business next week? >> it is a game. what they did last week was a political stunt. we have negotiations going on, the white house has people. the congress has people that are meeting to talk and to kind of take away from those negotiations and pull these stunts on the floor, yeah, it's playing political chess with our economy and it's not the right thing to do. >> and david, i think people are blurring the line, don't you agree, that the bush tax cuts had anything to do with what happened in 2008. that was a housing meltdown and that was a wall street meltdown. that nothing to do with what the tax rates were. >> well, i mean, yeah, sure. tax rates didn't have anything to do with the housing meltdown. certainly you can pinpoint the turning point in this economy when we went to a $270 billion surplus to a $1.3 trillion deficit to the day the bush tax increases passed. i call them the bush tax increases because the law requires these taxes to go up and he signed them into law. >> i'm not clear at all why they're bush tax increases. when you have -- >> because he signed the law that bush were -- the tax cuts that were signed into law in 2001 had a provision that expired in 2010. that's a law he signed. he gets credit for bush tax cuts. >> he didn't have the votes it make it permanent so he put them in for 10 years. your reaction? >> i mean, let's go back to what david first said. we don't have a revenue problem. we have a spending problem. we are undertaxing. we are overspending. and yes, we need to encourage economic growth. and it's economic suicide not to extend the current tax rates and yes, we should -- we should extend them and consider even making them permanent. >> the american people need to know president obama is putting forward extending all of the bush era tax rates. what he's opposing is giving a bonus tax cut to the richest people in the country. why can't they have the same -- >> small business owners. >> come on, that's another -- >> the conversation -- >> if that was true, brian, if what gretchen just said was true, then the tax cuts that have been put in place for the last 10 years, the so-called job creator tax cuts, we wouldn't have 9.8% unemployment, would we? >> it's because of debates like this. >> i have to end it there. thanks for getting us to a good start. >> thank you. >> let's change gears when we come back, forget driving while chair impaired. a man sentenced to five years in the slammer for driving with a hangover. a traveler so outraged about baggage fees, wait until you hear what he did. another city snubing christmas in the annual parade. organizers say it's for the best. here live to defend the change. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle. if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. my doctor put me on an aspin regimen to help protect my life. 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[ male announcer ] if you can't afford yr medication, astzeneca may be able to help. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x >> imagine going to the mall, grabbing some lunch and all of a sudden the shoppers around you start singing a musical selection from "messiah". that's what happened to one group. >> ♪ halleleujah halleleujah halleleujah ♪ >> it happened last month in canada. over 11 million people had watched the video on you tube. >> the way it happened is you were sitting there and you see a food court. everybody just sitting there and one person pops up and next thing you know it's a full blown top of the line chorus. >> that would be illegal here though probably. >> i think it might be one of the flash mob things where they alert their friends on twitter. >> there's like five cameras there. >> next thing you know, everybody is there and that's why they're singing it. >> as you see right there, people must really like christmas. why are so many towns removing the word and the name christmas? coming up, the man behind changing tulsa's christmas parade of lights to holiday parade of lights and senator jim imhoff of oklahoma that's refusing to participate even though he was the mayor of tulsa for many, many years. >> 27 minutes before the top of the hour. more headlines coming your way. >> that's right. dozens of people, brian, holding out hope in michigan overnight during a prayer vigil for three missing brothers. police have called off the volunteer search for andrew, alexander and taylor skelton but these folks aren't giving up. >> hoping to have a good outcome. hopefully they have them in some house somewhere, we're hoping for the best. >> just touches your heart and makes you realize how thankful you are for simple things like the children. >> the missing boys were last season with their father on thanksgiving. he is being held in an ohio jail and declined to waive extradition to michigan on parental kidnapping charges. >> here's something scary about your on-line privacy. security experts now say dozens of web sites have been secretly making lists of places that you visited, everything from news articles to pornography. it's being called history sniffing. although your passwords aren't at risk, the information is valuable for con artists to learn more about their targets and then send them personalized attacks. most modern web browsers have been patched but older versions remain vulnerable. brian? auto you've a stream of extremely rare shark attacks. a source on the edge, some of the beaches are being shut down. one woman has been killed and several others hurt. the attacks are based on a maco and white tip sharks that are not usually human predators. hence, i was right. egyptian government believes it's caught and killed two of the sharks. one woman had her arm bit off and died a few minutes later. >> biggest country music stars in america are gearing up for the american country music awards. >> rascal flatts up for four of the awards. it's the only country awards show that lets voters pick the newcomers. trace adkins is hosting the show from the mgm grand in las vegas. it airs tonight on fox. >> meanwhile, take a look weathertime. snow hammering the midwest as much of the country is now in a deep freeze. east of the rockies. you're looking at video out of fort wayne, indiana where heavy snow and ice caused a couple of accidents. these happened on interstate 69 near fort wayne where as you can see the traffic really backed up. downright cold temperatures could extend as far south as miami tonight. start with the satellite and radar, a little lingering snow activity in portions of maine and out west. wait until we add the numbers. brrr, it's cold in chicago. right now, it's only 9. 27 in raleigh. 17 in kansas city. it's currently 39 degrees, 39 in tampa. the same for all the spots along the gulf coast but later on today, things are going to warm up. it wills be 40 in raleigh and 39 in atlanta. 50's along the gulf coast. for the most part, temperatures across the eastern half of the united states from the rockies east are 10 to 20 degrees below what they should be for this time in december. >> football action yesterday, who came out on top? >> if you're watching us, you probably didn't watch this game because it was on late. steelers and ravens most physical rivalry in the nfl by far. they play tackle and they're big and strong and angry. last night was so different. baltimore led most of the way and the ravens led throughout the game. on great defense. but then ben roethlisberger, another fourth quarter comeback. you're seeing it. the go ahead score. steelers would go up three. last chance for the ravens. flacco, fourth down. they don't like to count it if it bounces. they are now in first place in the nfc north. one of my favorite directions. next to indianapolis where peyton manning without a running game is passing all the time and becoming an interception machine. four int's in all. two returned for scores. that's how 11 hits in the last three weeks. that's incredible alone, since he threw that one in the super bowl, hasn't been the same. dallas would go on to win in overtime. 38-year-old chip shot and steve liked it so much, we have shown it twice. colts fall to second place. jacksonville in first. tigers big comeback. three days under 70. one day at 73 and blow the final round. that putt doesn't go. wins the chevron challenge in southern california. tiger hasn't won a tournament since the australian open back in november. for the golfing experts, they see the old tiger back this week. coming up on "kilmeade & friends" no talk about tiger. reviewing the sunday shows. gener general keane is now on the payroll and tracy burns from the business network. coming up between 9:00 a.m. >> it was exactly two years ago this week that a guy driving a 15,000 pound tow truck across the george washington bridge, he rear ended a honda right there at the toll plaza. on the george washington bridge. they did a blood test, he had zero alcohol in him. he had cocaine residue. turns out he had a cocaine hangover. >> yep. now he's being charged with dwi, dui depending on which state you live in. he's potentially going to go to prison for up to five years on this. do you think this is right or wrong? your first impression might be different than after you think it through for a while. then you wonder, i wonder if they can get me on not having enough sleep from the night before or what other things like a sugar high maybe or what other things could possibly this move into if you're going to be prosecuted for a hangover if you're not under the influence when the accident happened. >> i have no idea. we have to debate that, this could change a lot of cases immediately. >> they say a cocaine hangover leaves the user depressed, drowsy, fatigued, when it wears off. so even though the the impact of the cocaine is in your system, you're shot from having used the cocaine. >> i think cocaine is illegal. i give credit to the person trying to sleep it off but bottom line is you broke the law in doing it. >> right, what i'm saying is this could move into things that aren't illegal like sugar, like not enough sleep, things like that. you got to wonder where you draw the line on that. in the meantime, are you upset and outraged about when you go to fly at the airport, you pay a lot for your ticket or maybe you thought you got a pretty doed deal but then you bring some bags along like you usually have to when you travel and now most airlines, almost all of them except southwest and jet blue are charging those fees. one guy got so outraged now that he decided to start a web site called luggage limits.com where he logs more than 175 airlines and tells you exactly how much you should expect to pay if you choose to fly with them regarding your checked baggage. >> we saw a picture of luke dudley. the reason he started this, he was over in australia and had flown there on an american carrier and had to pay $0 for his checked bags. on the way back, he flew on an asian airline and they charged him $500 for his bags. this is crazy. there has to be some sort of calculator to figure out which airlines have the best deal. he's created it. that's it. it's called luggagelimits.com. >> exactly right. >> if you'd like more information, go to our web site and we'll help you out. >> i'll tell you what, luke as much as i salute you, it's not an original idea. that's exactly the southwest angle. because they arrest you and pretend -- >> here's a piece of trivia for you, brian. do you know how much the airlines have made in the last year by -- when they started to charge baggage fees? >> a lot? >> a lot. >> $27 billion. >> you're good. >> ok. >> insider knowledge. it's a lot of dough. so anyway, let us know what you think about that. coming up on the show, think the federal government is in bad financial shape? that's nothing compared to what's happening in individual states. we want to tell you how this is going to affect you and that's next. >> you have a high speed chase involving a dump truck. it ends like you've never seen before. ever wish vegetables didn't taste so vegetably? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number? my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomi have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae a amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the wor's energy demands. [ heather ] businesses need a reliable financial partner. one who can stay in sync with their moves. my job at ge capital is to get bobcat all the financial and business support they need. we provide financing for every bobcat dealer in north america. together, wee rolled out over 100,000 machines to small businesses all over the country so they too can grow. ♪ ge capital. we're there for bobcat every step of the way. ♪ stella: hmmm. we're getting new medicare benefits from the new healthcare law. jane: yea. most people will get free cancer screenings. and 50 percent off of brand name prescription drugs if you're in the donut hole. stella: you read my paper. jane: i went to medicare.gov. it's open enrollment, you know. so i checked out all the options and found a better plan to fit my budget. stella: well, you know what they say...knowledge... jane: knowledge is power. >> quick monday morning headlines for you. facebook getting a facelift. the site's redesign is launching today. your profile now will tell a story of who you are. more pictures and arrange your friends and family the way you want instead of randomly. a ohio teenager is accused of stealing a dump truck and leading cops on a chase. the teen smacked into a couple of cars and at one point started going down a street in reverse. several people were hurt and the driver -- look at that mess, the driver was busted with a flat tire smashing into a guard rail. >> taxpayers have to bail out the banks. now they may be on the hook for state pensions. >> stu varney back from vacation. we've missed you! >> thank you very much. >> the payne was good but good to see you. >> thank you very much. good to be back. >> i love that phrase. i could listen to that all day long. instead, we have to talk about this, the house g.o.p. moves to pre-empt state pension bailouts. what does that mean? >> you can see the next financial crisis coming right at you. because states cannot pay their bills and they cannot borrow money. they can borrow it but at a high price. along comes three house g.o.p. members. they say how much do you need, how much are you in the hole for because we don't know and we want to know precisely. we've heard figures of 3 1/2 trillion dollars that the states are in the hole for for pensions for their retired workers. we want to know exactly how much you owe. so if you don't tell us, we won't let you borrow. the lines are being drawn here for the next financial crisis. should we bail out the states, obama and the unions say yes. should we not? republicans say no, we should not. history of the republicans laying out the groundwork, how much do you owe and unless you tell us, you don't get to borrow anything. >> it seems like a small price to pay. if you need money and you want to sell the bonds all you got to do is report your liability for the pension. give them the numbers. >> this reminds me of europe and it reminds me of the subprime crisis. lots of this debt was off the books. so we didn't know how much various banks and people owed. we didn't know. >> do the states know? >> no, they do not know. and we want a precise figure. as i said, a couple of academics have come up with a number of $3 1/2 trillion. that's for all states combined. but it's concentrated in four big states, california, illinois, new york, new jersey. and it's a pension liability and the money is not there, they need to get it there somehow or another. >> could they as a prerequisite renegotiate those pension deals. you have to get something that's workable in the future. >> that's the huge fight. in many cases, state law says those pensions must be paid. they've been agreed to. you can't renege on that deal. you've got to pay. we can't afford it. the money isn't there. huge battle. >> new deals could be a new deal. >> new hires are hired on a different basis. the problem is with the older people who have already retired or about to retire under old contracts. you can't go into those contracts and fix them unless you go through bankruptcy court. and that's another story entirely. >> that's very interesting. >> it's the next financial crisis, here it comes. >> what's coming up on your show because you're back to it. it's at 9:20 on the fox business network. >> ben bernanke saying we'll have lousy unemployment for four or five years. the impending financial crisis in europe. impending financial crisis in the united states. all that good stuff on "varney & company." >> and defending the $600 billion infusion. >> did you bring us any souvenirs from new zealand? >> couple of sheeps. >> what's the bank charge on that? wool for everybody. >> yeah. >> the christmas parade in tulsa renamed the holiday parade of lights. organizers say that's a good thing. but not everyone agrees. we have a fair and balanced debate. the chairman is here next. and then oklahoma senator at the top of the hour and he's not happy about it. >> but you'll be happy to hear from him. >> the tulsa christmas parade of lights has been a tradition in oklahoma for nearly 70 years but parade organizers have now stripped the word christmas from the event's title and changed it to the tulsa holiday parade of lights despite outrage from the community. why? well, let's ask the chair of the parade, larry fox. good morning to you, larry. >> good morning. >> now, i understand that you changed the name actually right before the christmas parade last year so this is officially the second year that it's been the holiday parade of lights. but why? why change the name? >> well, there were a lot of reasons. something that we had talked about for quite sometime and then finally last year -- >> what reasons? >> like what? >> well, part of it was in consultation with our presenting sponsor at the time. but the fact is, you know, it's not on christmas. it's between thanksgiving and christmas. it's -- in our view, it's part of that whole holiday season. you know, we're not a religious or christian organization. we're like -- we're like the chamber of commerce. this is a -- you know, this is a community event. >> but for 70 years, it was ok to call it christmas. i think that's what people are upset about. so this was -- what it sounds like to me since you're being somewhat vague, it sounds like it was a business decision like a sponsor was going to pull supporting it unless you changed it to holiday? >> i think that's an overstatement. >> then what is it? >> well, like i said, it's exactly what i -- what i described. >> most importantly -- >> was it a complaint from people who live there? i guess i'm trying to get a sense of why after 70 years you would change the name. >> well, again, i think it was to be more reflective of what we actually were. in fact, if you looked at our rules, to apply to be in the parade, all it required was that your entry have a holiday theme not a christmas theme. so, you know, it was a christmas parade in name but in practice, it was, you know, it was a number of things, you know, including christmas and as it is this year, again, you know, people i think make way too much of the name. >> really? i think a lot of people feel the opposite. they say if you really didn't have any complaints at all, then why would you change it? just because society is moving in that direction. that's the way we're going to go now is take away the name of christmas. anyway, your own mayor said this. dewy bartlet jr. said if it's up to me, i'd call it a christmas parade. i know we have a diverse community and i'm sensitive to the cultures and traditions that make up our city. some people won't participate in the parade as a result of not being called the christmas parade. the acres are love alpaca farmers will not participate and senator jim imhoff has decided he will not participate. what would be your message to them? >> well, my message to them would be if -- if they don't want to participate, that's certainly their prerogative. we don't force anyone, you know, i think not participating because we've changed the name is kind of a silly reason but if -- that's their choice. and we have no qualms about that. i will tell you that, you know, for every person who has dropped out as -- in response to this, we've probably had twice that many calling us wanting to be in. the parade -- fortunately, the parade will not suffer, you know, in terms of the quality or quantity of entries. >> right. people argue christmas will suffer. larry fox, chair of tulsa's holiday parade of lights. thanks very much. city council will take it up tomorrow and actually vote on whether or not it will continue to be called the holiday parade of lights. thanks for your time today, larry. unemployment benefits will run out for millions of americans. should they be extended for a third time? will that create a welfare state? dana perino here to set the record straight. don't touch my muffins! a new bill would give the government the power to limit the school bake sales? is that any of the government's business? fair and balanced debate. i don't know. call me crazy this morning, folks. hot under the collar about a couple of issues. venture card we get double miles on everyurchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! 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[ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. i wonder what it coulbe?! what's in your wallet? and then there's most complete. like what you get from centrum silver ultra women's, the most complete multivitamin for women over 50. it has vitamin d, which emerging science suggests supports breast health, centrum silver ultra women's. >> good morning, everyone. hope you had a great weekend. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time. extending the bush tax cuts, putting democrats and congress at odds. some calling it a tax time bomb sent by the bush administration. dana perino, former white house press secretary here, she says to set the record straight. >> ok. the christmas parade in tulsa being renamed the holiday parade of lights. you just heard from the chairman of the parade. he thinks it was a good thing. senator jim imhoff doesn't agree. he's mad and he's live. >> your tax dollars used to train government workers in diversity. how diverse are their lessons? thousands of dollars being spent on yodelers and belly dancers. >> fantastic. >> oh, boy, you can't make it up. "fox & friends" hour two for monday starting right now. e >> where do you find a good yodeler today? >> it's really hard. even with the internett it's had to find a good one. >> those lozenge -- ricolla? >> that was great. >> playing a big horn. >> all right. while we ponder that, let's get to our headlines. we have a fox news alert. new video in from pakistan where an attack by two suicide bombers have killed 50 people and injured more than 100 others. it happened in the tribal area known as moman in northwestern pakistan near the border with afghanistan. officials say the bombers attacked a government compound, the victims reportedly include political officials, police officers and tribal elders. another fox news alert, continental airlines and one of its mechanics have been found criminally responsible now for the 2000 airfrance concord crash. that ruling coming earlier today from the french courts. they blamed continental for a piece of debris that flew off the plane and punctured the concord's tire. 113 people killed in that crash. continental have been ordered to pay a $260,000 fine. the mechanic, john taylor ordered to pay more than $2600. he was also given a 15 year suspended prison sentence. two american balloonists who were lost over the adriatic sea found dead now by the crew of an italian fishing boat. documents found in the balloon confirming the identities of richard abruzzo of albuquerque, new mexico and carol reimer-davis of denver, colorado. the two had been participating in a balloon race around the world when they lost contact on september 29th. right now, 2/3 of the country locked in a deep freeze. you can't get away from it, folks. looking at video out of raleigh, north carolina. fort wayne, indiana, buffalo, new york and chicago, illinois, all socked by snow and ice can make driving in those areas very hazardous. blustery weather extending even all the way down to florida is going to feel like it's in the 20's. and that's in miami tomorrow. forecasters say the cold spell is expected to last throughout most of the week. no bikinis down there. country music legend merle haggard talk show host queen oprah winfrey and rock superstar paul mccartney were among the honorees last night at the kennedy center awards. >> just an amazing feeling. look up! and see the most powerful person in the world and right next to her, barack obama. he didn't get her a job. she got him a job. >> comedian chris rock delivering the line of the night saying the president was sitting next to the ultimate world leader, of course, oprah. >> let me start that over. to many people, the superfluous. it's this list. it's hard to say. superfluous. you try it when you've had 12 stitches. the president still feeling the effects of the fat lip that he suffered playing basketball thanksgiving weekend. all right. and those are your headlines. i was waiting for something else. anyway, let's go and bring in dana perino. no waiting for her. she has a lot to discuss this morning. >> good morning, dana. >> good morning. down on washington on capitol hill, it's like the howie mandel show, deal, no deal when it comes to the tax thing. >> there's going to be a deal. it will happen pretty soon. it's interesting the past week led by senator schumer, the democrats basically walked off a cliff. they're going to -- they took votes where they got embarrassed and now they're going to -- most of them will turn around and vote for what they originally called tax cuts for billionaires but there will be a deal at the end of the day and mitch mcconnell is the one who has basically led this effort on the senate side. john boehner on the house side so people can kind of start to relax now. >> rhetoric is still thick. you saw what senator menendez said, if you want to deal with the tax cuts, it's like this question, never negotiate with terrorists. senator mccaskel should call for pitchforks for the republicans pushing the extended tax cuts and you have what dan bartlett said over the weekend, he said the bush tax cuts, 10 year plan was like a trap. what does he mean by that do you think? >> i think the people are overplaying his words. let's go back in time. in 2001, president bush wanted to pass the lower tax rates for all americans. and that would -- that meant that lots of people who were lower income, didn't pay any taxes at all and then there would be lower rates across the board. president bush couldn't get congress to agree to a permanent tax cut and so he could only get the democrats to agree to a 10-year tax cut. so that's what was passed. if the democrats think that this was a trap, it's one that they set and fell for of their own making. they've known that it was happening for a long time and in fact, i know that john boehner went to the democrats last spring in march and said, this tax cut fight is coming up. why don't we try to work on this now before we get into the summer months and they turned them down and so now, i think if there's any trap, it's the one that they made for themselves. >> that's interesting because, of course, they had the chance before the midterms to get this out of the way as well. they did not do that. here's a little fact that you have pulled up which is very important. and that is this list of democrats who sent a letter to nancy pelosi before the midterm elections saying that they were on the side of the republicans, that we should extend the tax cuts to everyone. every american. but then how did they vote when the vote came around last week? >> well, i think about half of them voted with nancy pelosi which is bizarre. they send this -- they make a big show out of sending a message to nancy pelosi and the rest of the voters and to the voters in their districts saying that they would not support any -- well, cutting back on taxes for anyone, you know, making sure that they have the extensions that were for everybody. and then when nancy pelosi called the vote last week that would have been only for $250,000 or less, then they voted with her. >> right. >> and so, you know, a lot of these members when you're a freshman or if you lose a lot of people like to come back to congress later like to run again a little bit later. they're not going to win because what voter could trust them? i mean, what was the -- what was real? the letter that they sent or the vote that they cast in november? >> right. well, what seemed real yesterday on "meet the press" was mitch mcconnell seemed to really be telegraphing stand by, folks. we got a deal. it's coming. >> watch this. stand by. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. we're discussing how long we should maintain current tax rates. and there are other issues that many people feel are important to address. >> no kidding. and if no tax cut deal goes down by the end of the year, we have some graphics. the lowest tax bracket will rise from 10% to 15%. highest would go from 35 to almost 40% and nobody is talking about the fact that the death tax would go back to 55%. >> right, "wall street journal" has a good editorial about that today. so i look at senator mitch mcconnell and i think there's the grown-up in the room. he's trying to calm everybody down but he's the strongest leader saying this will not happen on our watch. and i think if you look at all of the votes from last week, the show vote that senator mcconnell called them and then you hear the rumors out of the negotiations, the tax cuts will be extended. the question is for how long and also will we include unemployment benefits, an extension of those? i think that's true. i think that's never really been a question for the republicans. they've only wanted to know how are we going to pay for it if we do it? >> yeah. the bigger picture which is now popular is how many weeks can we possibly afford unemployment checks. it's been 99 weeks. that's two complete years. >> can't make that argument when extending the tax cuts to everyone else will cost money. >> it doesn't really cost money. it's a matter of you keeping more of your money. >> exactly. spend less. >> and that's the fundamental philosophical question going on underneath all this. i think, gretchen, it's a good point to think about. what do we do for people that are long term unemployed and eventually, perhaps, become unemployable. how are we going to help them? and i think you're going to start to see some creativity so that we don't have to do every three months this patch to try to help people but maybe some incentives programs, president bush proposed one during the bush administration where if you were -- got on unemployment benefits, if you found a job early, then you could, you know, get a bonus payment and that money went down every week after that. but there's some sort of -- there has to be some sort of long-term policy that the administration needs to set forth. >> i was saying what the democrats are asking for and you would think in any negotiation, some people are -- the republicans are going to get some things and the democrats are going to get some things. i want to move on wikileaks. last week on this show, robert gibbs made it seem just trite that americans shouldn't be afraid of julian assange. what's your take on wikileaks? >> well, i think the administration has in some ways done the right thing in that they're not commenting on the specifics of the cables. theorizing aboe they're rising above it and moving on. i think the underlying tension in other countries are stronger. if you're a middle eastern diplomat, do you trust that your communications with your american counterparts are going to be kept secret? and you could see why they would think no -- and also for their people, it feeds conspiracies and the other thing these cables have shown that i think is interesting is americans play it pretty straight with its public. that is not true in other countries. and they have been severely embarrassed and they've got, you know, some cleanup to do. cleanup on aisle 3. >> how about this? the chief of staff in germany, the chief of staff of the foreign minister is fired, told he might as well quit now. his name was mentioned specifically and there's a real fear inside china those officials that are listed in the documents are going to get -- >> taken care of. >> in a way which we don't understand. >> right. and let me take concern a step further. the way we in our country, one of the best ways to prevent terrorist attacks on our country and in other countries especially for our allies is by getting information and intelligence from other sources. it's not always easy for them to give it to us and so my biggest concern is are they going to be unwilling or slightly afraid or even hesitant to give us that information? >> right. also, we should point out assange apparently has attached an encrypted file that's already been out there, nobody can crack it but apparently, it's got a whole bunch of unredacted really sensitive stuff that he would make public if he is detained or they take down the site. meanwhile, speaking of the site, you go over to "elle" magazine and you can read all about dana, you've been mentioned on d.c.'s women in power list. what's interesting -- by the way, it's a lovely article. but they call you the relevant republican. what does that mean? the other republicans are not relevant. what's that about? >> you could also call me the only republican on that list. the writer for that piece would have seen more bipartisanship shown in the piece. i was honored to be included and i was able to talk about two issues that are close to my heart, pets to vets and my mentoring program. but i do -- when i saw that relevant republican, i thought they probably think that's a compliment. i don't know if i take it that way. thanks. >> great picture. >> real good article. hey, dana, i saw you at the christmas party. are you going this year? we're going at the white house christmas party. >> no, i think, you know, when i was press secretary, i used to love those christmas parties in some ways. all the reporters together and then we used to invite all the former press secretaries as well. but i think the past two years, my invitation must have gotten lost in mail. >> oh, well! >> that's all right. i'm going to be in new york anyway. >> yeah, you got to -- >> all right. >> always great to see you on a monday. have a great weekend. >> see you next week in studio. >> oh, look forward to that. >> meantime, he's taking christmas out of the christmas parade in tulsa, oklahoma, parade chair defended the decision moments ago here on "fox & friends" but the oklahoma senator not happy about that and he's going to join us next. >> then the story behind this latest viral video. talking cats. playing patty cake. don't want to deal with a lot of flibbity-flab or mumbo-jumbo. sounds like you need to name your price. no gobbledy-gook? never. do i still get all the dagnabbit coverage i need? sure. we give you a quote and you can adjust your price up and down to find something that works for you. ♪ this things okey-mcsmokey skiddly-doo. great! i think. diggity. oh! still not sure. the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. call or click today. oklahoma senator jim inhofe buy c boycotting a parade after the name was changed. we spoke to someone about his choice not to participate. >> if they don't want to participate, that's their choice. the parade will not suffer in terms of the quality or quantity of entries because of this. >> oklahoma senator jim inhofe joins me now. good morning to you, senator. >> good morning, gretchen. >> so i know you had a chance to hear that interview and you've made the decision that without the word christmas in a tradition of a parade that's been around for 70 years, you are not going to participate. >> gretchen, you know, i rode my horse in that parade for 30 years. i never missed one until they changed the name and when he said it's a silly reason, i don't see that as a silly reason at all. by the way, on saturday, i rode in the broken arrow, that's a big city right next to tulsa. it was a real christmas parade. everything was positive. and again, when you asked him the question as to why, i can't answer that question. >> right. he didn't answer it really to me why change the name after 70 years? it appeared to be working. he would not admit whether or not there were any complaints from constituents in tulsa. he did allude to the fact it might have been a sponsor. do you know anything about that? >> no, the sponsor claims that he or she, whoever the sponsor is, they had nothing to do with it. you know, this is a bigger picture. you look around the country and see the atheist billboards and u.s. school boards saying you can't have a nativity scene but have a muslim star. the inconorth carolina school b taking christmas off the calendar. i would expect that other places but not here in tulsa, oklahoma, i want n am not really boycotting it. just not going to be there. christmas meant the birth of jesus christ. that's what i'm celebrating. that's what my 20 kids and granld kids are celebrating. >> what you're saying is it's not like you're not tolerant of other religions like hanukkah and kwanzaa and, you know, whatever else may be celebrated in december, what you're saying is what a lot of people are saying in our society right now is if we're supposed to be tolerant of all the other religions which every person pretty much accepts, why does it always seem that christianity is the one to take the boot? >> they're the ones that get the hit. your good friend who has been on your program many times, lenny davis. i was on a program with him last week and, you know, he's jewish. he's very liberal. he's from the clinton white house and he agrees with me. so i don't know why that is. i think there are a lot of people in other states who wonder also why do they always pick on the christians. anyway, one thing that he did say that fox said was he said we have wars in iraq and afghanistan and this is what our senator is choosing to spend his time on. well, on new year's eve, i'll bet you that larry fox is at the country club but i'll be in afghanistan with our troops and i bet you that 90% of them agree with me and maybe 10% agree with him. >> all right. i'll leave it at that. senator jim inhofe. merry christmas to you. >> have a safe trip when you go overseas. see you soon. veteran journalist helen thomas under fire for her latest comments about jews and her alma mater is making a stunning decision. lay off my cupcakes! a new bill headed to president obama's desk gives them the power to limit bake sales. is that any of the government's business? clear and balanced debate straight ahead. >> all right. welcome back. time for some news by the numbers. first, three bucks. that's what americans will likely be paying at the pump come christmastime. $3 a gallon. latest survey say that's up $0.28 from last year. next, $21.5 million. that's how much the disney animated film "tangled" took in at the box office this weekend ousting harry potter for the number one slot. >> and finally, eight days. that's how long seven people were stranded inside a british pub, eight days because of a blizzard. fortunately, the pub was also a bed and breakfast so they didn't have to sleep on the bar. and they had plenty of beer. mr. kilmeade, over to you. >> thank you very much. say good-bye to the homemade brownies and rice krispie treats. there's new legislation to the way to the president's desk that could ban bake sales at schools across the country. is this going too far? joining us right now is david harrington and lucy getman from the national school boards association. david, first off, ban bake sales? we know we want our kids to eat healthier. is this going too far? >> let's not trivialize this debate. what the bill does is authorize the secretary of agriculture to set new regulations that provide them healthy choices for school, for children, excuse me, during their lunches. now, the bill also says that these bake sales can happen outside the school hours so at basketball games, football games, clubs, these regulations do not extend to that. >> you're saying they can do it after but not during school. >> they can do it during school. the secretary of agriculture now is authorizing and the president signs the bill which i think he will to then look at this, look at bake sales. >> right. >> not exclude them. not exclude -- >> we'll see. >> you understand it? >> well, first of all, let me say that we all want the same thing. we want healthy, happy children that are successful in school and in life. and i agree with the senator that we don't want to trivialize this debate because school board members have to balance the budget as well as provide balanced meals and to the extent that local school districts rely on income from these kinds of fundraisers to provide athletic services, band and other programs, this provision and others in the child nutrition reauthorization could be a real train wreck for local school districts. >> here's what it says essentially. the school must meet requirements for portion sizes and the food must have low fat content and it must meet standards for sugar and the school must meet standards for sodium. as they try to do the traditional bake sale, that could be in a lot of trouble, couldn't it, senator? >> well, it could. but again, this is going to be now at the desk of secretary of agriculture. so i would suggest to the school boards is that they participate with the secretary of agriculture in drafting now these new regulations but let's be very clear, we have a high proportion of children now becoming obese. high incidence of cholesterol. and these -- >> don't you believe -- don't you believe, lucy, it's over the top to tell people they can't use cupcakes like this here to fund raise. we know that's key. >> yeah, but the bill doesn't do that. the bill does not do that. >> it says they look like they could be doing it. lucy? >> the legislation represents an unprecedented expansion of federal regulatory authority over these kinds of local school district's activities and i agree that going forward, it is absolutely imperative that the administration reach out to school board members and others who are going to be involved and responsible for implementing the law to make sure that that local school district's voice is heard. >> yeah and we'll just see if some kids get detention for eating a yodel. we'll find out. but thanks so much. really enjoyed this debate and let's hope we can still use fundamental things to raise funds for schools that need it more than ever. meanwhile, scott, if you have a dollar, this is for you. thank you very much. all right? there are no requirements here for nutrition. >> thank you. >> as we see with you. coming up straight ahead, julian assange is issuing another threat. if anyone tries to shut him down, he will release even more secrets. isn't this a clear example of information warfare? peter johnson jr. here with legal implications. then -- your tax dollars used to train government workers in diversity. how diverse you ask? thousands of dollars spent on yodelers and belly dancers. hope i haven't any. the story behind this latest viral video. cats playing patty cake. the true story coming your way. ♪ oh, my gosh. oh, my gosh. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you know all about her. we know all about diamonds. together we can make this holiday one she'll remember. that's whynly zales is the diamond store. ♪ [ female announcer ] the newest seasonal flavors are here. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] because coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] print t from any mobile vice so your ideas can be there even when you're not. introducing the new web-connected printers with eprint from hp. john: yea, well, there you go. beth: yea, so what else is new? john: well, i just changed my medicare plan. beth: open enrollment? john: yup. i compared plans and found better coverage for me. beth: of course you noticed the new benefits we get under the new healthcare law. john: what? beth: well, like 50 percent off brand name prescription drugs for people who are in the donut hole. john: really? i didn't know that. beth: you have to keep up. john: come on. i'll keep up. anncr: it's open enrollment. time to compare and review plans at medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. >> patty cake, patty cake, baker's man. bake me a cake as fast as you can roll it. that's not roll it. >> dropped it, man. >> that's not roll it. >> roll it. >> i know how to roll it. >> it's probably like no game of patty cake you've ever seen. this you tube video is become a sensation because of these funny cats and the commentary but it's not always fun and games. >> ready? >> are you ready? >> patty cake, patty cake, baker's man. bake me a cake as fast -- hey, you can't quit. >> hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa! >> you're tired. you're quitting like that. i'm done. >> do not quit. no more quitting! patty cake. patty cake. come on. it's over. >> it's not over. >> i can't get enough of that. >> some people believe they have a little too much time on their hands and so do three million other people who watched it on you tube. very cute. >> i think it takes a great skill between the two cats and the voice of the cat, that's like the cats really don't have -- i understand the cats are doing that. what are they supposed to be doing that? licking themselves at that hour? i question the people who are voicing over the cats. all day. >> obviously -- >> behind the scenes magic. >> it look like the kids did this first and then they did the voice-over. >> you just ruined it for me, gretchen. >> if you know, e-mail us. we're fascinated. >> right. >> meantime, headlines for you on this monday morning. overnight, a small plane has crashed into a neighborhood north of salt lake city causing explosions that sent trees and houses on fire as well. plane was flying through heavy fog when the wings clipped power lines and crashed. the pilot was severely injured but expected to survive. no one else was hurt in the crash. violent protests spreading in the streets of haiti over last week's presidential election. results aren't due out until tomorrow. most candidates say there has been a lot of widespread fraud. protesters clashed with police. police responded with tear gas. >> salsa dance instructors, belly dancers and yodelers hired to work a lavish party for the philadelphia housing authority. >> what? >> the cost for one night of fun, more than $17,000. you're looking at the housing authority's director carl green. he says the party was thrown to promote diversity. the department of housing and urban development is now looking into whether public funds were used to pay for the party. >> oh, my! >> former white house reporter helen thomas has just lost an award given in her honor. last week, thomas said "congress, the white house, hollywood and wall street are owned by the zionists." you may remember earlier this year, the 90-year-old journalist lost her job over the same kind of remarks. >> any comments on israel? >> tell them to get the hell out of palestine. >> because of these most recent statements, wayne state university, miss thomas' alma mater is no longer handing out the helen thomas spirit of diversity in the media award. >> probably a good idea. meanwhile, let's take a look and find out where it is raining across the country. we got a lot moving in as you can see through portions of oregon down through california. we got a little snow in portions of new england. the balance of the country on this monday morning is nice and dry. man, is it going to feel cold as you go out the door to go to school or to work? here in the ohio valley, temperatures are below freezing. 27 right now out at the airport in cleveland. it's only 9 at oprah's place in chicago. she'll probably have stedman start the car. 24 right now in memphis. a little later on today as you can see, 42 scramble the numbers for memphis, will be the daytime high. temperatures across the map from the rockies eastward are for the most part about 20 degrees cooler than they should be for this time of december. 58 will be the daytime high in tampa. all right, mr. kilmeade, time to tell us what you like. >> stedman put in the automatic start so oprah can start it herself these days. >> you gave your wife that a few years ago. >> it was very romantic. press this button. you won't believe what's going to happen. >> you're talking about the car. >> exactly. >> let me tell you what's happening. nfl played yesterday. time for the latest installment of brian's best. first up, best catch of the day. the award goes to 55-year-old donald driver. yes. watch this catch. watch this throw. hauling in this pass from aaron rodgers and several tackles later, he would go into the end zone. driver and the packers despite the worst throwback -- should be throwup uniforms in league history, final score is 34-16. congratulations. bad news for the 49ers. time fort biggest upset of the day. how about the oakland raiders? they beat the surging chargers for the second time this season. by the way, they were undefeated in december for the last 10 years. darren mcfadden, seven yard scamper to put the game away late in the fourth. raiders sweep the season series for the first time in nine. final installment of brian's best goes to cincinnati bearcat, this guy started a snowball fight. look at that! before -- this is a dangerous thing. before a home game against pittsburgh. but police felt not only was it wrong to start it, he went too far after they asked him to stop, he wouldn't. from the rooftop. so they arrested him in his outfit for disorderly conduct charges. the team never recovered. he was forced to take off -- the head of the mascot for the mug shot and went full uniform. cincinnati goes on to win 28-10. and special thanks to gretchen carlson for filling in for me on friday. on kilmeade & friends from 9:00 to noon, isn't it fun to talk to people for three hours. >> if only you'd speak to me the way geraldo did. >> must have gotten a different one that he did. >> i did. we had a nice debate. he was very, very nice. thank you very much for that opportunity. talk about this for a minute. remember how the obama administration has said they beat the record this past year, calendar year for -- or not the calendar year but the immigration calendar year for the number of deportations that ice, has done. the number of illegals who have been sent back home. the number was 392,862. that end of the year for them was september 30th. now a new report is coming out saying that some of those numbers may have been fudged right at the end of that year to make it look like they had reached their goal and the number was bigger than it actually is. >> keep in mind, if february, there was a memo that circulated that you need to, hey guys out there, we need to maximize the number of illegals who are leaving the country and so when you look at the almost 400,000, you think wow, they've really been cracking down. then you start to look at it, for instance, included 19,000 who left the previous year. 25,000 here on something. 5,000 left because they apparently extended the program five weeks longer than they ever have before so once you look at the numbers and then you look at the numbers behind the numbers, you realize maybe they are fudging things just a little bit to make them look good. >> the scary thing is that there is apparently now the reports saying there was something known as a quick pass for the illegals to go home. let's say they had a negative mark or they had a criminal offense or something like that. well, in this case, so that they could up the numbers, this report alleges that they took the negative mark off the immigration record if they could quick pass these people through and send them home quicker. so some might say that's a good idea because we sent more home but others might say now that person won't home without a record, so does that matter? >> it doesn't matter the fact that they weren't charged and does it matter in order to get here already and the reprimand was you can go home on us! we'll pay for it. and then come right back. >> and apparently, they still let a lot of people go home without facing the charges and so we -- how many times have we heard from ice. you know, these days, it seems like we're only deporting people who have been brought up on charges, serious violent charges. now, we hear that maybe some guys who could have been brought up on charges were allowed to go that way. let's see, jail, go home. jail, go home. i think you'd make the same decision. >> let's talk about a debate we had a short time ago. >> about the cats? >> should cats be allowed to play patty cake. cupcakes. everybody wants kids to eat healthier. should we get to the point where cupcake sales, bake sales which are a key source of fundraising within these schools that have been cut to the bone should be banned because maybe they're not the healthiest thing to eat? >> oy! >> you weighed in and robert in st. charles, missouri, said this, i just checked the constitution and it doesn't mention school bake sales as part of the government's regulatory powers. but this is all about trying to eat healthier. that's what the federal plan is, apparently. >> meanwhile, lisa down in texas e-mails us. how many of these school districts that are worried about childhood obesity have done away with recess, p.e. classes and intramural sports as well? >> good point. >> good point. deep thinker. >> all right, 19 minutes before the top of the hour. i got to tell you what's coming up straight ahead. is julian assange taking a page out of the james bond playbook? modeling himself after a villian? peter johnson jr. wearing the white hat in this segment. he's here next. >> tired of the war on christmas? they are, too. and they are here live later this hour. merry christmas. >> first, the trivia question of the day. i'm off to the post offic.. ok. uh, a little help... oh! you know shipping is a lot easier with priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. plus, you can print and pay for postage online. and i can pick them up for free with package pickup. perfect! cause i'm gonna need a lot of those. wow! i knew i should have brought my sleigh. priority mal flat rate shipping starts at $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x we get double miles on everyurchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! 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[ man ] thermacare, more effective for back pain than the maximum dose of acetaminophen, the medicine in tylenol. go to thermacare.com today for a $3 off coupon. thermacare. no pills. no pain. just relief. >> couple of quick headlines for you this morning. in kansas city, a department store santa gets grinched. he was out for breakfast when somebody robbed his house. the crook stole thousands of dollars worth of stuff and his santa hat. but that's not stopping him from reporting for duty as a cheerful santa anyway. and move over, anna chapman. britain has its own sexy russian spy. an aide to a member of parliament was seen here and faces deportation. she was with a member of parliament that has access to britain's classified defense files. >> thanks, gretch. wikileaks founder julian assange releasing the equivalent of a ransom note and warning if anybody tries to shut down his pass, he'll release a password to a file already down loaded by people called assurance. newt gingrich going so far as to describe assange as a terrorist. >> information warfare is warfare. and this is leading to terrorism. and julian assange is engaged in terrorism. >> is he holding the government hostage by hiding behind the first amendment? we turn to fox news legal eagle, peter johnson jr. >> blackmail, coercion, extortion, kidnapping, you name it. >> but other than that, he's protected by the first amendment. >> his predecessor is first amendment creating, the 007 character ernst bl ofeld that sold secrets to the nazis. >> james bond, i want to introduce myself, you told me you were assassinated in hong kong. >> yes, this is my second life. >> so you see a connection between that guy and -- >> it's interesting comparison. i'm not doing it to trivialize but make it bigger than life for people to understand. what this fella is now doing, he's masquerading under the first amendment and got all these first amendment do-gooders all over the country, even a couple on this network to say this is the first amendment. we need to protect his rights. well, is he an investigative journalist or extortionist? i'm not aware of real journalists and real organizations that go to a government, any government in the world and say if you arrest me on another criminal charge unrelated to what i've done in terms of wikileaks or even if you attempt to affect my wikileaks life and my business here, then i'm going to download the world on you. and i'm going to call it a nuclear option. >> right. >> i'm going to impose this on you in the event you act in some way. now, in criminal places, that's known as protection money. that's known as extortion. that's known as blackmail. that's known as a bunch of things that are really bad. >> no kidding. >> how does the world act? does the world say oh, he's got a first amendment right. he can do what he wants. this is what "the new york times" has done in the past. the world has to say to mr. assange, if you want to be a man without a country, we're going to leave you without a country. and what's probably going to happen is you're going to see countries around the world pulling his ability to stay in their country or come into the country and he can travel the world looking for netbooks and notebooks and pocket computers and droids and try to put his stuff out. scary. >> it is scary. >> all right. thank you. >> all right. straight ahead, are you sick and tired of all the attacks on christmas? so is pastor joel ostein here live with his wife victoria after the break. they're coming up next. on this date in 2000, the number one song was "independent woman" by destiny's child. can getting enough vegetables make you feel good? oh, yeah. v8 juice gives you 3 of your 5 daily servings of vegetables. v8. what's your number? >> all right. the answer to the trivia question, i'll say it. you sit right there. the winner is paul and congratulations to you in akron, ohio. meanwhile, 7 minutes before the top of the hour. thousands of people fill arenas to hear the sermons. seven million people in 100 countries watch them on tv every sunday and now pastor joel osteen is opening up about his family, about his friends and faith in his first ever christmas book. >> and it is called "the christmas spirit." and pastor joel, i said it wrong before, of course i know it's that. his wife and co-pastor victoria are both here. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you're so busy. you run this mega church and then you're both authors at the same time. victoria, you have a new book coming out at the same time your husband does. a double book signing today, right? >> that's right. >> what's the message of your christmas book? >> my message is that christmas is an important time to spend with families, to make memories and to not get so caught up in the stress of buying the perfect gift and dealing with your relatives that you miss the fact that, you know, we're here to make memories. you may not remember the gift five years from now but remember that memory, make great memories. >> and plus, that's why they have receipts. you don't like the gift, you can take it back, am i right? you have gift receipts and you don't have to know the price. >> you can't bring your in-laws back. doesn't work that way. >> that's joel's point exactly. there's been so much talk in the last couple of years about this so-called war on christmas and the idea that christmas, the name itself is being taken out of so many of these events around the country. we did an interview this morning about tulsa, oklahoma. what's your thoughts about that? >> you know, christmas is the birth of jesus. that's what we celebrate in this country and it's what it's always going to mean to me. i don't mind celebrating other people's holidays. i think it's great. but, you know, christmas is a special time for us in the united states. >> all right. i mean, am i to believe that the osteens in particular don't have a christmas list? do you do some of the same commercial things that maybe we shouldn't be doing? >> you know what? i think we buy gifts, we have a tree and we celebrate christmas there. but we don't get -- we try not to get so caught up in it that it takings the joy out of it. >> right. >> are you finding that when some of your parishioners come to you, is that what they're saying over and over again. >> we just hear it, and just really the feel of the way the country has changed from years back when we grew up where, you know, it seems like today people are so offended at the smallest things where, you know what? we're -- you know, there's a lot of christians in this nation. that's the birth of our savior and to be able to celebrate that and to, you know, it seems like the right thing to do. >> yeah. interesting thing is that it seems like as we've grown to be more tolerant which is wonderful, it seems for some reason christianity is the one religion that somehow gets the hit. and a lot of people don't understand that. >> yeah. i don't know what it is. maybe because there's more christians here than anything else and sometimes other side can be very, very loud but again, you know, i've spent time in other countrys and they celebrate holidays. i'm not offended by that. so my thing is let's, you know, let's be able to celebrate our own holidays and especially the birth of christ. >> exactly. victoria's new book is "gifts from the heart." double book signing here in nobodyinew york city. good to see you. >> where are sign sing? >> signing at fifth avenue barnes & noble. >> my pleasure. merry christmas to you all. is the recession over? ben bernanke says yes but there's another big problem on the horizon. >> cities facing an ultimatum, go broke or cut back on safety? mayors coming up. i ha fallen in love with makg bird houses. caw caw! 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or know someone who is? do you think that quality insurance at an affordable rate is out of your reach? for less than 35 cents a day, you can get guaranteed acceptance life insurance through the colonial penn program. you cannot be turned down because of your health. there are no health questions or medical exam. your rate will never go up, and your benefit will never go down due to age-- guaranteed! these days, the average cost of a funeral is over $7300, and social security pays a death benefit of just $255. don't leave a burden for your loved ones. since 1994, over 6 million people have called about this quality insurance. there's no risk or obligation. call about the colonial penn program now. you'll be glad you did. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it's monday, december 6, hope you had a fantastic weekend. i'm gretchen carlson. thank you for sharing time with us. despite working through the weekend, guess what? congress still has no deal on extending the tax cuts. but with 25 days to go, gop leaders say don't fear. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. >> gretchen: don't breathe a sigh of relief yet because we'll talk to you about a catch. >> steve: oh, great. ben bernanke says the recession is on its way out. did you don't get excited yet. he's also got a much bigger warning about a much bigger problem on the horizon. >> brian: new bill to limit school bake sales headed to president obama's desk. is that really the government's business? we're going to ask the cake boss when he joins us live inasmuch i love that. hey, buddy. >> brian: "fox & friends" starts right now. >> steve: i love the idea of talking about presidential policy with the cake boss. >> brian: fantastic. why not? why not a guy in an apron? >> gretchen: he's going to be cooking up cupcakes for us. i think we'll frost a couple. beware of that. but we talked about cupcakes maybe being axed out of public schools with this new federal food bill. more on that later. gets a boo from me. news alert for you, continental airlines and one of its mechanics found criminally responsible now for the 2000 air france concorde crash. the ruling coming from a french court outside paris. continental blamed for debris that flew off a plane and punctured the tire. 113 people were killed in that crash. fined $250,000. the mechanic, john taylor, will be fined more than $2,600 and given a 15 year suspended prison sentence. two american balloonists who were lost over the adegree i can't tellic sea have been found sea by the crew of an italian fishing boat. the documents found in the balloon confirm the identities. the two were participating in a balloon race around the world when they lost contact on september 29. right now two-thirds of the country locked in a deep freeze. break out the mittens. raleigh, north carolina here where the city was hit with its first snow storm of the season. the chilly condition extending down to the sunshine state, get this, it will feel like it's in the 20s in miami tonight. the cold spell is expected to last throughout most of the week. the biggest stars in country music are gearing up for the first ever american country awards. ♪ >> gretchen: that is rascal flats and they're up for four of the awards. lady antebellum has seven nods. trace adkins is hosting. the only country awards show that will let voters pick the winners. it airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on fox. >> steve: a little exclusive peek behind the scenes. >> gretchen: president obama heads to north carolina today to talk about the economy. back in washington, lawmakers battle it out over the bush era tax cuts and joining us live from the white house is mike emmanuel. are we going to hear about a deal today? >> gretchen, not clear. we know the president will make his case in north carolina. does sound like things are getting close. all the bush tax cut also be extended. the question is whether the ones for the upper income folks will be extended from one to three years. and something the democrats desperately want, which is an extension of unemployment benefits. here is where things stand from two senate leaders. >> i think it's pretty clear now taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession. we're discussing how long we should maintain current tax rates. >> the notion that we would give tax cuts to those making over a million dollars a year, which is the republican position, and then turn our backs on 2 million americans who will lose unemployment benefits before christmas? 127,000 in the state of illinois is unable." >> everything we're hearing is that will not be the case. obviously before the christmas season they will be extended and we expect to hear the president make the case for not only extending the tax cut, but the unemployment benefit, guys. >> gretchen: all right. mike emmanuel live on a chilly day at the white house. >> i can confirm the arctic blast is hitting here as well. >> gretchen: i know, i can tell. your nose is a tiny bit pink. the report was still fantastic. >> the baby sound effect. they pulled out all the stops today. >> brian: go do your next hour in the studio. >> thank you very much. >> steve: you're right next to the white house. just go into the oval office. >> brian: they got a fire in the middle. >> gretchen: let's talk about taxes because there is going to be a tax report that comes out. maybe as you heard from mike, not going to be today, but at some point this week maybe. >> steve: he also talked a little bit about not only will they extend all of them for one, two, three, maybe five, depending on who your sources up on capitol hill is, but they will go ahead and fund unemployment insurance. right now it stands for two years. back in the day, it used to be 26 weeks. then they expanded it. it's now at two years. could be another year. but what about the possibility that there could be one or two gop senators allah jim bunning last time around who said, look, i can't vote for it 'cause where is the money going to come from? not only are they negotiating with the democrat, but the republicans are also negotiating with other republicans. >> brian: jim bunning claims he's done in a couple weeks, but so are the tax cuts. you have to wonder, what is going on here, since the deal has to be done and the democrats are trying to get the best deal they can by getting those unemployment benefit, people wonder, didn't a lot of the democrat, i think over 30, come forward and say, i'm voting for keeping all the tax cuts in place, unlike what my speaker wants me to do? when the vote came up last week, about extending tax cuts for people who make 200,000 and less, they went ahead and voted for it. >> steve: are you saying they said one thing and did another? >> brian: that's it. >> steve: in washington? >> gretchen: that's a definition of politician when the go to p in the dictionary. that's right. i believe 23 of them changed the way they voted. went so far as to write that letter. that's more than just going against her. so of course, now many people are suspicious and saying, they just did that because they wanted to be reelected in november. >> brian: quick mention, i think it's significant what happened in the house. some democrats, senator manchin, people thought he would be conservative and others said i am for extending all of them and voted against their party that. could be a good sign of what's going to happen in the future. >> steve: it was bipartisan opposition, which is something you don't see often. ben bernanke was on 60 minute last night. scott sat down and talked to him at ohio state university. it was very interesting. he said -- listen to his rationale. he said despite what you hear on television, the likelihood of a double dip recession is slim, but listen why. >> it doesn't seem likely that we'll have is a double dip recession and that's because among other things, some of the most cyclical parts of the economy, like housing, for example, are already very weak and they can't get much weaker. so another decline is relatively unlikely. that being said, i think a very high unemployment rate for protracted period of time, which makes consumers households less confident, more worried about the future, i think that's the primary source of risk that we might have another slow down in the economy. >> steve: so no double dip recession because the housing market is stinking up the place. >> brian: he said, i didn't print money, i didn't print $600 billion. what i did is bought securities and i'm going to buy more. probably going to buy more unless things get better. about cutting the deficit, i don't think we should do it for a year. >> gretchen: the big headline out of this was that bernanke believes we could see this high unemployment rate hovering around 10% for the next four or five years. many economists believe it will never go back down to 5%. speaking of that number, look at the disparity based on whether or not you have a college education and whether or not you then are out of work. 5%, only 5% of the unemployment for the unemployed have a college degree. 10% of the unemployed do not have is a cleg degree. they only have a high school education. so it appears that those are the people -- i guess that makes stones a certain degree, depending on what jobs are available. but the ones not as educated are the ones who are doubly hurt at this point. >> brian: the long-term unemployment really is intimidating to those experts and to everybody else, especially the -- the longer you get out of it, the longer it takes to get back into it. >> steve: and the disparity in america is growing and he was concerned about that. he also said if we need to lower interest rates, we can do it in 15 minutes. if we see the storm clouds, we'll call everybody in, we can do it. >> brian: and fight inflation. >> gretchen: deflation is the problem. he said we can fix inflation based on interest rates and he had an interesting analysis on tax laws. does bernanke think we're just a okay with the way the tax law is written right now, or does it need a change? >> the tax code is very inefficient, both personal and corporate tax code. by closing loopholes and lowering rates, you could increase the efficiency of tax codes and create more incentives for people to invest. >> gretchen: instead, we put more laws on the books that are more complicated. think about health care. 2300 pages and we think we're going to revise the tax code? >> brian: i don't know anybody that -- i only know one person personally that does their own taxes. used to be about 50% of the people. now it's way over my head. >> steve: it's too complicated. i think the tax code right now is 10,000 pages. it's great if you're a cpa or somebody who does that. it would be great if they streamlined. i don't know if he's talking streamlined or flat tax, but he probably is tipping his hat to the suggestion from the debt commission that says we should get rid of things like the home mortgage interest deduction because that punishes people who rent rather than the people who get the benefit and buy a house. >> gretchen: the story that has been huge on the forefront of a lot of people's minds in the last few weeks is the wikileaks. get this, the founder, julian assange, he's now basically threatening the world by saying that if anybody has the audacity to arrest him for the wikileaks document dump or even the rape allegations that he's facing in sweden, that he will then pull the plug on something that's being called the poison pill. this is an insurance document that he calls a therm though nuclear device. he sent it out to about 100 people, but it's not decoated yet. what he would do is he would send out the encription or the key to the encription device if he's arrested and he says if that -- that that would be catastrophic. >> they say things about bank of america, gitmo, personal passwords and secret files of our secret agents, all because of private manning decides i'm going to download this and that's another story of how naked all of our top secrets were and how vulnerable navy they continue to be. >> steve: also it's a little frustrating to know that our u.s. department of defense has been apparently looking into this particular file. they see how big it is. it's 1.4 gigabytes. they tried to crack the code and without the exact password, even the super computers of the pentagon, can't figure it out. it's a little frustrating. >> gretchen: so much for a luxury vacation. tourists running like heck from the beaches because of several shark attacks. we'll tell you where this is happening. >> brian: who is behind it. then big cities are facing a tough decision. go broke or cut back? mayor of newark, mayor of philadelphia, both here next to degate bathe did in detail up close and what they deal with personally. thanks, guys. >> steve: just like the federal government, cities all across the country are facing enormous deficits. mayors are being forced to make layoffs and cut vital public services in order to cover budget gaps. how do mayor, big city mayors keep their cities running safely and what can lawmakers in washington learn from these guy as soon as we got a great panel. philadelphia mayor michael nutter, screen left, and cory booker, mayor of newark, new jersey, he is joining us on the couch today. good morning to you, mayors. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> steve: mayor nutter, let's start with you. there in philadelphia, you've got the unique situation of being mandated by state law, you got to come up with a five-year plan ahead of time. so you know what's coming, don't you? >> yeah. absolutely. you have to plan for it. it's a pretty unique situation of cities across the country. so it really forces fiscal discipline. you really have to try to anticipate not only what you're doing next week, but also for the next few years and you have to show that you can pay for it. you want to add new programs, show where the money is coming from. if you cut something, you show that in your budget as well. it really does force fiscal discipline but forces you to make longer term plans than in some other situations where you might just do something for one year and try to get by. >> steve: sure. mayor cory, he's got the thing that's mandated why he's got to come up with a plan. you don't have that. so one year you might have plenty, the next year, you don't know. >> every city in america is facing it right now. there is 10 million people employed in municipal governments. many are being laid off. people are suffering 68% of cities are facing cut backs in public safety. newark, we have to get creative like every country. we're facing very painful times. all new jersey cities. we're being forced to think creatively and reorganize government, restructure government, try to do more with less and create a partnership with nonprofits, business and foundations. >> steve: that's right. the facebook guy was lucky enough to give you guys $100 million? >> he was lucky enough? i think we were the fortunate ones of that. that's a good idea because if that money went to make up for government cut back, it would be gone in a second. if we use it to leverage innovation to find new ways of doing things that are more efficient and produce better results, that's success. >> steve: sure. mayor nutter, maybe the google guys could give you some money. >> cory wants to share any of what he just got, we'd be glad to accept it. >> steve: sure. how challenging is it, mayor nutter, in dealing with the unions, because we'll talk to cory in a moment about his police unions. they would not accept a small concessions and 167 guys are out of work. >> well, that's a very tough, tough situation. i see what mayor booker had to do in newark, mayor in camden had to do. we just signed a contract not too long ago, we go through arbitration with our public safety employees. on the police side, they're set. they have a c. but we receive some important items for us. we changed the benefit plan in terms of pensions for the first time for police officers. we have a hybrid plan. we're trying to get away from the benefits and go into defined contributions. we stopped making per month contributions for health care. we're self insured. that saved us money and we have the authority to utilize furloughs and we're trying to do the same with all the other unions in the city. everyone has to contribute something here. this is a shared sacrifice. the citizens are sacrificing. public employees have to do the same. >> steve: you have made big changes in philly. wait until you hear what they had to do in newark, new jersey. the conversation continues with mayors booker and nutter after the break. next up, we'll talk to mayor booker with his -- talk about how he battled the union and what they came back with. you're not going to believe it. then, think your car is safe? think again. new study reveals the most dangerous cars on the road are also some of the most popular. back in two minutes. >> gretchen: 23 minutes after the top of the hour. quick headlines. new video shows shark hunters on the lookout for sharks that have been terrorizing tourists in egypt. so far one woman has been killed. the attacks are considered extremely rare, but egypt's government is warning tourists to be extra careful. what's the most dangerous car of all time? it's the ford pinto. the organization comes through engineering and safety records to come up with a brand-new list. some others, corvettes, manufactured in the 1980s, and the popular kiaa rio built in 2009. steve? >> steve: i used to have one of those pintos. taking on unions is tough. the city of newark, new jersey was forced to lay off 164 officers in order to close the budget gap. so are unions impacting a city's budget, destroying them in some case as soon as we're back with philadelphia mayor michael nutter and here on the couch is cory booker, the mayor of newark. you said to -- you're at the table and you said, if you make some minor concession, if we can save money, we don't have to lay off 164 guy. >> we were looking literally at anything. we said, some of your gas allowance, give up $100 each person, we could save jobs. but the union leadership, doesn't reflect our officers, said absolutely not. >> steve: why not? >> i don't know n. light of the fact we're furloughing city workers, pay cuts, four-day work weeks. everybody in the city is suffering. even the officers took concessions. the rank and file police, their union membership said we're not giving a dime back. we're not giving a dime back. 164 families were deeply affected. >> steve: that's tough. mayor nutter, as you look at what happened with the midterm elections, obviously people are upset the governments do in some cases waste a lot of money. so you've got this daunting task of trying to do a lot with not as much. >> there is no question that cities as corey mentioned earlier, all of us are being asked to either keep doing what we've been doing or have minimal damage. people say they want change, they want reform. everyone likes change as long as things stay the same. it's just not sustainable. it's not realistic. >> steve: maybe nutter. >> it's painful hearing what he had to go through in terms of those unions. that's 164 families deeply affected for no reason whatsoever. so we have to be creative. we talk about public-private partnerships. we had a youth hockey foundation step up and help us with our ice ranks. we had a bank help us with swimming pools. so people want the service, but seemingly now, either don't want to pay for it or don't understand that we can't keep doing the same things we've done in the past. we have no money. >> steve: that's exactly right. of course, if you live in that city, we want to know that we are safe. i'm sure you would both say don't worry about safety. >> public safety is one of the essential functions of local government. when something happens, people call mayor booker, people call me, they call mayors all across the country. they generally don't go higher up. the governmental chain. >> steve: i know this is a little above your pay grade, but everybody is talking about the tax debate in washington, d.c so it looks as if they're going to extend all the tax rates at the current stage for one, two, three, four, five years. don't know yet. is that a good thing? >> you have to consider a lot. we have to balance budgets at the city level. we're different than the federal level. we can't print our own money. >> steve: you can try, but would be arrested. >> we could definitely try. so we have to make sure if you are going to cut back on something, you got to find a way to balance that out. that's what i worry about. >> steve: how they pay for it. >> yes. we know that targeted tax cuts in the right area, if you create intersurprise zone, for example, really zones of tax free discounts on taxes, you create and stimulate the economy. i know we have to balance budget, but you have to think constructively about where to make the right investments. i know mayor nutter sees this. we're cutting back on things like our colleges and universities and making it much more difficult there. this is going to fuel our long-term economy. so we've got to be smart. >> steve: mayor nutter, weigh in on this. >> the unemployment insurance, unemployment benefits, literally last friday were starting to run out for upwards of two million americans. caught up in this tax cut debate, many americans were not expecting a tax cut. as mayor booker said, targeted tax cuts can help new terms of creating jobs and economic vitality. but multi-millionaires of the country, i don't think we're asking for a tax cut or expecting a tax cut. at the same time, we have many, millions of americans who are already unemployed whose unemployment was running out. that's the delicate balance that i'm sure the white house and the congress had to figure out. i'm much more excited about lower income americans holding on to their income tax credit and the unemployed being able to maintain their families. they're going to stimulate the economy in small business as opposed to others. but politic social security always a balancing act -- politics is always a balancing ability. >> steve: gentlemen, thank you for joining us live. now go run your city. >> thank you. >> steve: straight ahead, the to the commander in afghanistan now weighing in on the wikileaks documents and new rumors that he wants to quit. then a police chase like you have never seen a. dump truck in reverse. wait until you hear who was behind the wheel. check out this scene at a mall food court. the spirit of christmas moving a crowd to song. >> gretchen: welcome back. hope you had a great weekend, maybe you got some of your christmas shopping done. maybe you put up all your decorations. isn't it fun when you get into the mood? i made a pledge with my kids that we would start listening to christmas music on thanksgiving day weekend and enjoy it. last year we got to like december 25 and i'm like, i haven't felt like i'm in the spirit. >> brian: this year i've blown 13 different icicle lights. i didn't know you could plug more than six in. i could not figure it out. >> steve: 13 in a row? you're about to melt the igloo. >> the kids are not getting presents. >> gretchen: if you want to get into the mood, maybe you could go inside a mall like these folks did, grab lunch in the food court and all of a sudden the shoppers start singing a musical selection from handel's messiah. that's what happened to one group. watch this. ♪ alleluia, alleluia ♪ alleluia ♪ alleluia, alleluia ♪ king of kings and lord of lords. >> gretchen: it happened last month in canada. since then, over 11 million people have watched the video on youtube. so far this morning, it will probably keep going up and up as we get closer to christmas. >> steve: yeah. christmas. they used to have the christmas parade of lights down in pull is a, but -- tulsa, but then in the last year they called it holiday lights. gretchen, you were talking to the guy, larry fox, a little earlier about why they did it and i didn't really hear much of an answer. >> gretchen: i asked him why change the name. >> the fact is, it's not on christmas, it's between thanksgiving and christmas. in our view, it's just part of that whole holiday season. it was a christmas parade in name, but in practice, it was a number of things, including christmas. so as it is this years again, people i think make way too much of the name. >> gretchen: many of whom actually believe in christmas, that's the problem. it's been around for seven years called the christmas parade, holiday lights or christmas lights without holiday. i don't know why you change the name. didn't fully get an explanation. >> brian: imhoff is one of these plain speaking senators. he did not attend the parade simply because of that so-called name change. >> this look at the bigger picture. you see the atheist billboards and the new york school board saying you can't have a nativity scene but you can have a muslim star. i rode my horse in that parade for 30 years. i never missed one until they changed the name and when he said it's a silly reason, i don't see that as a silly reason at all. >> brian: when his car doesn't start, he grabs his horse. >> gretchen: he did ride in the broken arrow, oklahoma parade over the weekend. he says unless they change the name back to christmas in tulsa, he won't be riding in that. >> brian: steve, you asked the people to e-mail their feelings. >> steve: did they indeed. let's look. tony in florida wrote this, this controversy between christmas and holidays is absurd. i tell everybody merry christmas. if they say happy hanukkah, fine, i have no problem with that and no one should. >> gretchen: another says, if christians did not celebrate christmas, which by the way is birth of jesus, would there be a holiday parade at all? good point. >> brian: shouldn't we change the name of all religious celebrations? why just christmas? that was from somebody named billy. 24 minutes before the top of the hour. now the headlines. >> steve: brian, general david petraeus speaking out, saying he is encouraged by the progress made since president obama's surge in afghanistan. but he is confident the afghan army can take the lead from u.s. forces by nato's 2014 deadline. here is what he said on abc. >> i think no commander ever is going to come out and say i'm confident that we can do this. i think that you say you assess this is, you believe this is reasonable prospect and knowing how important it is that we have to do everything we can to increase the chances of that prospect. >> steve: the general believes the pace of the july 2011 withdrawal will be based on conditions on the ground and denied several rumors that he wants to call it quits. >> brian: overnight a small plane crashd into a neighborhood north of salt lake city causing an explosion that set trees and homes right on fire. the plane was flying through heavy fog when the wings clipped power lines and then crashed. the pilot was severely injured but is expected to survive. no one else was hurt. >> gretchen: country music legend merle haggard, oprah winfrey and paul mccartney were among the honorees at the can be dee center awords. chris rock delivering the line of the night. >> amazing feeling to look up and see the most powerful person in the world and right next to her, barak obama. he didn't get her a job, she got him a job. >> gretchen: the president still feeling the effects of the fat lip that he suffered playing basketball thanksgiving weekend. >> let me start that over. to many people, the -- it's this lip. it's hard to say. you try it when you've had 12 stitches. >> gretchen: and those are your headlines. >> steve: hard to say without stitches. >> brian: he's also funny with paul mccartney as well, the president. >> steve: meanwhile, let's look at the weather right now. almost 70% of the country is locked in a cold spell. you're looking at video out of north carolina, raleigh. fort wayne, indiana, buffalo, new york, and chicago, illinois. all socked by snow and ice to make driving in those areas very hazardous today. blustery weather being felt down in florida. look at that. wind chills in south florida, the wind chills could dip into the 20s. as you can see, we've got a winter storm moving through, continuing the lingering effects through portions of new england, also some wetness out west in northern portions of california, oregon and washington state. as you can see, the current temperature continues to be bitterly cold in the northern plains and central plain. it's freezing in dallas. it's 24 in memphis and raleigh and atlanta have temperatures in the mid- to upper 20s. later today, it's going to continue to be bitterly cold for our friends across the tennessee and the ohio valley. only 29 the high in cleveland. 36 eventually here in new york city. 21 in chicago. kansas city, hang on, folks, should eventually make it to 40 degrees. that's a look at this chilly fox cast on this monday. >> gretchen: coming up on the show, one city is trying to make it easier for immigrants to get i.d.s and now they're thinking about throwing debit cards into the mix as well. is that a good idea? a councilman proposing that idea live right here on our show to defend it. >> brian: then we debated it earlier, banning cake at school bake sales. we're not afraid to eat cake. the cake boss is here. he's not afraid to make cake. that's a dangerous combination. he's good at it. he's in charge. >> steve: he's our buddy. >> steve: i got some headlines on this monday. facebook getting a face lift today. the site's redesign. your profile will tell a story of who you are. highlight more pictures and arrange your family and friends the way you want instead of helter 1998er, or randomly. an ohio teen-ager is accused of steal ago dump truck and leading cops on aild chase. he went out for 52 miles. the teen-ager then smackd into a number of cars and at one point started going reverse down the road. right there. look at that. several people were hurt. the driver busted when a flat tire sent him smashing into a guardrail. mr. kilmeade, over to you. >> brian: there is a plan in place for work force get a new identification. if you are an illegal immigrants, there is a new system in oakland, if you're living there, it's an i.d. card that also doubles as a debit card, giving immigrants access to checking accounts. joining us is the oakland councilman who is spearheading this new system. welcome. >> good morning, brian. >> brian: you're an illegal immigrant, you're in oakland and you want to make it easier for them to stay in oakland by providing them with an i.d. card that could double as an atm card. correct? >> no. actually any citizen can apply for this i.d. card. obviously many immigrants will apply for it. you apply, you prove your identity with an official document from your country of origin and you will get an i.d. card, yes. >> brian: will you ask them, are you here legally or illegally? if they're just here, will you ask them, how did you get here? >> we don't ask them. that's not the local government job. that's the federal government's job and our job is to really serve the people that lives in the city that we represent and make sure that they have access, make sure they are protected and make sure they can participate in all the local government issues that they want to participate in. >> brian: you look what they're doing in arizona. they're so concerned about the illegal immigration system and the federal government has failed so greatly in this margin that they've taken action. your action is making it easier for them, isn't it? >> our action is to be responsive to the people that live in the city. they pay tax, they're residents, they could be witnesses of crime. they are residents that work. i think i agree with you that the federal government has failed miserably with immigration reform and it's about time we do it. and obama hopefully will do that. in the meantime, we are local government. we are -- >> brian: i'm sure word gets out and the illegal immigrant community and hey, you hear about oakland? you got an atm card, they don't ask questions. this is going to be a big magnet. are you okay with that? >> i don't think it's going to be a big magnet. i think the people have to prove they live in the city of oakland. they have to have the documents. >> brian: they don't have to prove they belong there or prove they belong in this country. >> you know, we're in america. i think this country was built by immigrants that came from everywhere. >> brian: but they signed it at the gate. >> again, i think that that's the job of the federal government and the people in washington. maybe if they get off their butts and do something, we won't be facing this and local government don't have to do the job. >> brian: how does it make it yeasayer? how does it make the situation better? >> it's going to make the situation better because our resources that are already strained resources will have to be expanded and trying to -- our police department, for example, will have to spend the time identifying individuals, trying to expand our resources, taking them to jail or arresting them and doing things that i think are counter productive and concentrate on the crime we're facing. >> brian: they'll know for sure they don't belong here. thank you for joining us. they're tackling their illegal immigration problem that way. you make the call. weigh in. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> brian: straight ahead, you can have your cake and you can eat it, too. the cake boss is here in studio. first, let's check in with bill hemmer. he's his own boss. >> how are you doing? >> brian: good. >> we've got a lot going on. tax deal, anyone? senator mark borrow rase sew on that, eric bolling. breaking news on wikileaks, mcfarland says why a cyber attack in the u.s. is the next pearl harbor. join us in ten minutes on "america's newsroom." >> gretchen: "cake boss" begins tonight at 9 p.m but buddy is in search of the next great baker. with us is the cake boss himself, buddy. good to see you. >> you, too. >> brian: look at this layout. >> i am very excited to be here. i brought some nice holiday goodies 'cause it's december. i'm so psychd about this new show. >> steve: what are you looking for help now? >> yeah. i'm wanting to you come help me, steve. but maybe this will be a tryout. but i had ten bakers come from all over the country and they're competing. i put them through the wringer. >> steve: you're looking for your baking apprentice? >> they're going to work for me and they can win $50,000. >> brian: they win $50,000 and real quick what, do you look for in a master baker? >> that's the thing, they can be decorating cake, they can be baking. they can be cleaning the grease trap. >> gretchen: really? >> the next great baker, when you say baker, there is a big perception of what it is to me because i'm a jack of all trades. i do it all. >> gretchen: i know. i love your show. i love to watch all the creations. you are not going to have us at allly bake, but frost. >> we're going to decorate. >> gretchen: we did he have -- i need help on this. >> what i'll do here is we're going to go like this. we're going to make a little wreath. >> steve: i'm telling you right now, we can't do that. >> you can do that. >> gretchen: i thought i was going to do the yellow thing. >> you want to do the yellow thing in the center. >> gretchen: if you're right-handed what should do you? >> if you're right-handed, squeeze with this hand. >> brian: could i top yours? >> you could. i'm going to put a couple sprinkles on there. then you can just do a little bow. you look pretty good. >> brian: what am i looking for? >> the bow. >> brian: you got to be a good drawer, don't you? >> with a pastry bag. i'm not really a good drawer when it comes to doing things, sketching and stuff like that. >> brian: couldn't you come up with a better idea? this is something they were doing in the 18 50s, with the bag. >> i guess there are things out there, but -- >> gretchen: this is authentic. >> brian, you're fired. >> it's coming from the other end. use this one. >> steve: buddy, i turn the turntable. >> yeah. you are helping here. i love it. >> steve: i got a fox news flash. we aren't going to get your 50,000 bucks on your new show. >> i would stick to our day job over here. >> gretchen: let me ask you this, earlier we were doing this debate about the federal food bill may outlaw things like cupcakes from public schools. what will the cake boss do? >> i don't know. they'll put the cake boss out of business. that's actually -- i think that if it's done in moderation, having cupcakes are fine at a school. not daily, but in moderation, anything is good. >> steve: we're always talking about the tax cuts and we're mentioning small businessmen, as brian makes a towering inferno of red. >> brian: i don't want to be judged. >> steve: with the tax cut, your a small business guy. that impact, you right? >> definitely. definitely the tax cut also stimulate the economy. i'm for the tax cuts. >> steve: this cupcake that he made can actually be seen from google earth. >> brian: it already comes with three cavities. >> the best thing about these cupcakes is that they'll taste really good. they may not look it, but they'll taste really good. >> gretchen: thanks for the routing endorsement. >> brian: bakers don't go to a bakery for desserts, 'cause we do? >> steve: i go to -- >> when i need dessert, i'm going to come up with dessert. >> gretchen: we'll see how high this gets. we'll come right back with the cake boss moments away. come on, brian. empire state building height. >> it's going to go. it's going to topple.

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