>> bret: live outside the sioux city convention center, cite of thursday night big debate. now back to the news. crash investigators are expected to arrive tonight at a military base in washington state, where two helicopters went down monday night. four aviators were killed. it's unclear whether the choppers collided or crashed separately. in world headline, a man in belgium attacked holiday shoppers today with grenades and assault rifle. it happened near the german border. two teenage boys and an 18-month-old child and elderly woman were killed. 123 were wounded in the attack. the gunman also died. police have not said whether he killed himself or died by accident. american officials are looking in to claims that yemeni forces captured six members of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. among those is sate to be one high value target. al barbari who executed attack on the airport in 2009. iran will refuse to return the u.s. surveillance drone that went down in his territory. leon panetta talked about the drone issue in a trip to afghanistan. >> the downed american drone now in iranian hands revealed not only that the u.s. was spying on iran, but also that the program was being run from a base in western afghanistan. in an excuseive interview with fox news, leon panetta was asked about the future of the drone campaign to iran. >> will the operations continue since they are flown out of afghanistan? >> absolutely. >> on wednesday, in kabul, panetta meets president hamid karzai who is coming under pressure from tehran to close the base. but the defense secretary says the afghan leader has not asked them to halt the program. panetta would not speculate about whether the u.s. u.s. sentinel drone had been failed by cyber attack or high-tech jamming device. the secretary did not agree with the assessment of nouri al-maliki in monday suggesting irainian interference would disappear once all u.s. troops have gone home. >> i think you have to be cautious about iran that one way or another they will try to influence what happens there. >> he added the u.s. will keep 40,000 u.s. troops in bases across the gulf to counter the iranian threat. >> and was adamant that the u.s. officers would not allow a high-value lebanese prisoner with iranian ties who killed five americans go free when they leave later this month. >> either the united states or iraq has to bring them to justice. >> in kabul, the defense secretary assess how to move forward for border crossing and key supply routes. when u.s. airstrike killed 24 troops. >> the top commander in afghanistan said he placed a call to the army chief to smooth tension. in kabul, jennifer griffin, fox news. >> american officials say surveillance drone crashed this morning on iland nation off the coast of eastern africa and the drone was unarm and crash caused no injury on the ground. the u.s. used similar aircraft, armed aircraft to target militants in somalia. >> back at home, a federal judge in brooklyn heard arguments about whether to keep a controversial birth control drug behind the pharmacy counter. correspondent shannon bream joins me from washington with that story. good evening. >> hello. this case pits the obama administration against the constituency it can usually count on as an ally. the pro-choice community. coalition of group filed suit against the fda in a bush administration due to the agency failure to give wider access to the morning after pill. says the legal fight continued because the current administration hasn't granted their request either. today, a federal judge said he is willing to hear arguments over whether or not the fda should be forced to provide the access. pro-choice advocates say they are still reeling from the decision by health and human services kathleen sebelius to deny over the counter access to the morning after pill to young women under the age of 17. despite opposition, president obama backed the move. >> i think it is important for us to make sure that you know, we apply some common sense. to various rules. when it comes to over the counter medicine. >> what we just saw last week is the obama administration engaged in the same kind of politics we saw with the bush administration. which is not listening to the fda scientists and instead, having politics be ruling over science on a public health issue. >> today, a group of senators sent a letter to sebelius demanding an explanation. "we are writing to express our disappointment. question ask that you share with us your specific rationale and the scientific data you relied on for the decision." pro-life advocates say they were pleasantly surprised by the decision. >> i think it's fascinating, because we're so used to seeing the abortion lobby win on things like this. i think for one time they might have run up against the wall of common sense. >> the morning after pill with some pro-life group maintain can induce abortion is available under age of 17 but only with a prescription. bret? >> bret: shannon, thank you. still ahead. from sioux city, iowa, look at who will be voting in next month's caucuses. first, with america struggling throughout tough economy, we are, why are we rather giving away billions in foreign aid? we will examine it. >> bret: u.s. employers advertised fewer jobs in october, 3.3 million than in september. there are 4.25 million people out of work for every one opening. retail sales were up .2 of a percentage point in november. sixth straight monthly increase. down day on wall street. former democratic senator and governor jon corzine today appeared before his one-time colleagues to testify about the failure of m.f. global. the brokerage firm h headed until a few weeks ago. senator want to know where the missing $1.2 billion of customer money went. corzine said he doesn't know, nor does he take responsibility for authorizing the removal from the accounts. now back to electoral politics. anden issue that has come up in the republican presidential race. foreign aid. senior national correspondent john roberts begins a two-part look at the suspect focusing on the pro and cons of sending your money out of the country. >> the foreign aid budget for my administration in every country starts at zero dollars. >> new target in tough economic times. with so much pain at home, why is america giving billions of taxpayer dollars to nation overseas. >> foreign aid taking money from poor people and gives it to rich people in poor countries. >> president obama is asking for even more. $46 billion in his 2012 budget. $34 billion of that in economic assistance. $11 billion in military aid. >> a tiny apt with a big impact. >> how much impact? in thepass decade, u.s. poured $22 billion in pakistan, where bin laden hit out for years. america's enemies fine safe haven. $3 billion is earmarked for this year. republicans senator lindsey graham demanding tough new conditions on any aid. >> the problem i have with pakistan you can't trust them. you can't abandon them. a complex problem. we are not going to throw good money after bad. >> reporter: foreign aid began as a grand idea when secretary of state george marshall unveiled his plan to rebuild war-ravaged europe. >> our policy is directed not against any country or doctors but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. >> the goal was to keep western europe out of soviet hands. it was a spectacular success. >> even reluctant presidents discovered american dollars can be powerful force in diplomatic relations. >> eisenhower started out saying i will eliminate this stuff. and then ended up justifying it after eight years. >> not all programs lived up to george marshall legacy. libertarian author has written extensively about foreign aid. >> it's a great idea to start the budget at zero and then leave it there. there is simply not evidence for vast majority of country that phonated helped them. >> some assistance seems to defy logic. a month before joining the nato attack on libya. president obama wanted to give gaddafi $1.7 million in military aid. in 2009 he earmarked $400,000 for charities run by the gaddafi children. if you think that is bizarre, how about the $4 million the white house wants to give china to promote clean energy? democratic congressman brad sherman had choice words about that. >> i said it was insult to the american taxpayers to think that we would be paying for things that the chinese government should be paying for. >> foreign aid is a tough sell even in good times. former u.n. ambassador john bolton says if it serves the american strategic interest it can be money well spent. >> our problem has been that too many people view foreign aid as an international welfare. they see poor societies and they want to change them. all of that may be laudable but it's simply not in line with the fundamental interests. >> there have been dismal foreign policy failures. remember somalia? the programs like the effort to rebuild south korea after the war had been wildly successful. georgetown university carol lancaster believe hits outweigh the misses. >> citk say this is never effective, a waste of money and money down a rat hole. tar all of it with that judgment are not only wrong but irresponsible. >> everyone we talk to for the report, whether democrat or republican say that america foreign aid policy is in desperate need of an overhaul. coming up tomorrow in part two, which president presided in one of the greatest increase in foreign aid spending and should it be tied to gay rights? bret? >> bret: we look forward to second part of the series. postal service will delay closing of 4,000 local post offices and 250 mail processing centers until mid-may. the service announced last week it would institute the cut-back as early as april. the agency is on pace to loose more than $14 billion next year. the white house says stopping nearly all production of presidential coins will face $50 million a year. it's nearly $1.5 billion of those around 40% has been returned to the federal reserve. due to lack of demand. straight ahead the grapevine. plus, is this an accident? we tell you about it [ male announcer ] you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity. turning your life upside down in a matter of seconds. hi. hi. you know i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. you just read my mind. 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not much, many times before. how is this not that same kind of kicken, game of chicken we have seen before? >> it's exactly like that. the democrats led by the white house want to hold the budget process and fund the government and threatening a shutdown hostage. precisely because the president and the white house trying to shape it for re-election effort. it's cynical politics. this goes to august where we had bus tours and the rest. talk about how obama want to run on the economy. the numbers have not moved. it was all predicated trying to make the republicans say no to a tax, middle class tax cut. so they could blame the economy. bad economy. blame the incoming inquality on the republicans going in to a sour economy in election year. republicans have played along. one interesting things today the white house formal statement saying they were going to veto this, didn't mention the pipeline. it didn't mention it at all. rather it mentioned stuff about the education funding and the rest. something debunked by the "washington post" own fact checker today. this is all about positioning for re-election and it doesn't have to do with the substance. shockingly hypocritical given standards of this day and age. >> charles, your thoughts? >> a threat i'm not sure that the administration could carry out. how would it be able to explain shutting down the government at a time like this over issues that are obscure. major issues that they insist on as a pipeline that was popular that would create as they say the shovel ready jobs that union support. i think the republicans hold the upper hand here. it began by cynical stroke by obama. payroll tax extension. to have the republicans protect against the middle class. thin they have payroll tax and give us the pipeline. now obama, his stroke, not a strong one is to threat on the shut dun the government. i'm not sure it will work. >> take a live look at the house floor that started to vote on the payroll tax extension. this is actually the vote for, that ties the keystone xl pipeline to the payroll tax extension. there you see 169 yea, 138 nee. that is open still. 252:57 on the clock. the republicans managed to defeat an effort by the democrat to vote instead on the stock act. this is inside baseball but it has to do with the insider trader, trading charges about congress. an act with big bipartisan support to defeat that, that would have replaced this. we are looking at the vote happening now. how important is this? where does it go from here if it passes? >> where it goes from here is the senate. where there isn't support for paying for payroll tax cut extension with the pipeline. there is not support for linking it in the senate. we have come up against the deadline in the past. i don't think the government will shut down. the congress could pass temporary c.r. again and again as they have in the past. we are not talking about debt ceiling crisis something terrible will happen. the government technically runs out of money on friday but they can fund it for a week or through holidays if that is what they need to negotiate. >> bret: right. but key here, republicans are saying that they had a deal. they had a conference report and a shake and a smile. and then game changed. >> right. at the end of the day what puts fear in harry reid is the idea of the house passing something, anything, and then leaving the responsibility for harry reid and the democrats the do something. to point is back out of a deal they shoot hands on to continue to make the, i, the republicans or the only people who are putting forward plans with vote behind them that pass anything to muddy the waters and keep narrative going that the republicans are the problem. this is the senate that hasn't passed a budget for as lon as the kennedy administration existed. you have a situation where the white house simply is trying to force reality to conform to messaging, rather than govern or lead. >> bret: okay. as we leave here, put up the live shot of vote ongoing. as we head to break. next up, we talk about the 2012 campaign in iowa. the vote right now is 207-174. we will keep monitoring it here on fox. when i talk about cuts i talk about real cuts and i get applause talking in this language because the american people are sick and tired of what they're getting right now. >> the determination to run a positive campaign and also indicate should any super pac that is doing so in my name attack any of my friends who are running that i would publicly disown them and urge people not to donate to them. >> we are not running negative ads at that point but we may. this is after all politics. there is no whining in politics. >> bret: sights and sound from the campaign trail as the new polls surface today. one of them is a democratic polling unit but we have used the polling before. there you see iowa, newt gingrich 22%. ron paul, 1 point back, 21%. mitt romney at 16%. a new poll arg, the american research group, again, gingrich, 22%ment ron paul, 17%. romney 17%. rick perry inching up from 13% that other polls have him in single dilts in iowa. what about the state of the race here ahead of the big debate if sioux city on thursday? back with the panel. charles, your thoughts? >> i think what is remarkable and if you are a romney fan alarming that one consistency in the two polls is romney at 17. that is a drop from where he was through most of the year. around 25%. this is a significant erosion. it shows how the vote is getting split. every which way. perhaps, might be early, not sure. a response to some negativity from attacking gingrich. we remember when gephardt and dean attacked each other on democratic side in iowa, the iowas aren't accommodating to the negative campaigns. you could be something of that. the other thing is slight decline in gingrich number. it could be artifacts. these are small samples and people are taking polls every night. nonetheless, it could be that some of the conservative electorate is getting more knowledge about his past and some of the business affairs like with freaks freak freddie e sheen might wear off. >> bret: this just in. house passed cut of payroll extension. this is the payroll tax cut extension that includes the construction of the keystone xl pipeline, which they said is nonstarter. the administration said this won't fly either. now standoff of the omnibus legislation, spending for the government. with government shutdown looming friday night. all of that said. mara, back to 2012. >> back to 2012. >> bret: thought on iowa and ron paul gaining support here. we have seen these organizationally strong in this state. >> organization counts for a lot in iowa. anything can stop newt gingrich consolidating the anti-romney vote is good for romney. at this point, newt surged so far and so fast that he is expected to win iowa or place a close second. i think that if paul could win, that gives romney a new lease on life. newt has to look to south carolina where he is polling strong. the trick for romney he was stuck at 25 and now he dropped a couple points below that is count on the rest of the candidates splitting the rest of the vote. >> bret: i have only been in sioux city for a few hours. but i have noticed the local cable provide they're has fox news channel, the local ads are nonstop. they are one after another. candidate ads. and ron paul has a really brutal ad against newt gingrich that is out. as his negatives perhaps get effected by the negative ads how do you think that changes the race for the rest of the candidates? you have rick perry trying to make a surge. rick santorum has been to 99 counties. michele bachmann trying to make a stand as well. >> the nightmare all along for mitt romney was to actually be baited in to committing to compete in iowa. to promising to do well in iowa. and then ending up doing badly. that is deadly for him. it's deadly for newt gingrich. most front-runners have an enormous amount to lose in iway. 's possible that romney could come out of this in fourth in iowa, which would be devastating. but at least he would have the strategy for coming through new hampshire with a win to sort of fix his storyline. if gingrich doesn't do really well in iowa, he has to wait a long time in political terms before he can put a win up on the board. iowa is fluid. things could change and upset predictions. >> bret: that makes that debate thursday the last time the candidates stand on the stage together. that much more important. you know, you talk about the positive newt gingrich. you know, for newt gingrich. you and built hume both mentioned he needed to get back to the positive after that bain capital comment. >> he said he would disown anybody attacking another candidate. the question is does it mean he will disown himself over what he said yesterday? i think newt under it was a mistake, off the cuff. he has to discipline himself. and stay positive which will help him. it's interesting. mentioned earlier how ron paul has a relentless attack on gingrich. we saw it in the previous debate. this is a visceral and principled opposition by the libertarian ron paul about gingrich. he does become romney's best asset. although it's obviously accidental. i think what is interesting is i think romney comes out of this, he even -- even if he ends up in fourth. he comes out of it with a ticket to new hampshire. gingrich will, ron president obama will. we'll probably see the three remaining candidate, perry, bachmann and santorum, one ticket. that sets up the frame for new hampshire setting up jon huntsman putting his egg in the new hampshire basket. >> bret: thank you very much went got through the brady bunch panel. thank you. that is it for the panel. but next, look ahead to a big week in iowa. >> bret: we're going to skip the funny stuff tonight, the kicker to tell you what we have on tap this week in iowa. tomorrow, we will bring you the fox all stars. bring them to sioux city what the candidates are doing throughout the state. special panel featuring chris wallace, americans newsroom host megyn kelly and chris. and 9:00 that night must see tv final debate with all the candidates on stage before the voting on january 3rd in iowa. you will not want to miss that if you have any suggested questions, you can tweet me at bret baier. we'll take a look. and we may use one