Position to win the 2016 president ial nomination . Old things or new . Hear the previews here with a preview of the news well be watching this year, molly bell, from the atlantic, Joan Biskupic from reuters, ed okeefe from the washington post, and Alexis Simendinger White House Correspondent for realclearpolitics. Awardwinning reporting and analysis. Covering history as it happens. Live from our Nations Capital this is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provide by were committed to strong. Were committed to sure. Were committed to smart and light, secure and bold. In a world of enduring needs, the men and women of boeing are proud to build and deliver critical capabilities to those who protect our nation and its allies and thats an enduring commitment. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is privepbleded by prudential. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation. Do night all profits to charity and nourishing the common good. The annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, live from washington moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. Tonight we bring you a handy guide to what to watch for this year in the three branches of government and as we gear up to cover another potential historic president ial campaign. First, from the white house where polling shows the president s job Approval Rating at its highest point in earlier a year but nearly a year but still under 50 . The president says the rebounding economy has helped. What is true is im in a position now where, with the economy relatively strong, with us having lowered the deficit, with us having strong growth and job growth for the first Time Starting to see wages ticking up, with inflation low with Energy Production high, now i have the ability to focus on some longterm projects, including making sure that everybody is benefiting from this growth and not just some. Gwen longterm projects, the president s term. What is he talking about and does he have the leverage to get any of it done . Its a great question. As you could tell from the tone of the president s tone, its a mix of resignation and imbiggs he still has to fill the next two years. Im going to go through my unfinished checklist. Im going through history. Hes talking more about legacy. Trying to finish up the Unfinished Business. What hes going to do is really going to be interesting. He has never been playing with republicanrun house and senate. Hes going to have to be working from a position of somewhat weakness in his own party. Hes not necessarily been that great doing that up to this point. Gwen the juxtaposition of ambition and resignation. I dont know how those two things coexist. In barack obama they exist very naturally, actually. What i mean by that, his resignation he understands the train is different. He understand what is hes not been able to do effectively. But the ambition is, look the economy is getting better. I still have some traction from on some of these issues. You know, tax reform. He thinks that republicans want to work with him on tax reform. He thinks that on the idea of trade that republicans want to work with him on trade. He thinks on the International Terrain that he and the United States still have the indispensable nation, the engagements that he started is what hes going to carry through on. So he is a man with lingering ambition. How will that play out . Lets take trade and taxes for example. What kind of proposals do you think can possibly bring some compromise. Tax reform, were talk about Corporate Tax reform which is very interesting. The president before christmas time did talk to Mitch Mcconnell. The Incoming Senate majority leader. They talked about how they might be able to trade proposals, actual concrete ideas. From all the folks that ive talked to who have also been democratic advisors to president obama this is much harder when you get down to the brass tax than just talking to be idea that republicans and democrats wants to come together. And the president has this idea that he can leverage infrastructure spending, roads and bridges for democratic ideas and find some Business Partners that the Business Community wants to do that. On trade hes ready to defy some of the democrats of his party on this im old enough to have covered the nafta fight occurring the clinton years and i remember how tough that has with your fellow democrats and theyre already laying some tough markers on whether forever he has to negotiate that and then go to the senate to ok that. The president has been burned before when he thought he was getting good signals from the from the republicans on things like entitlement reform, the fiscal bargain strategy. Does he have a new strategy . Is there something that leads him to believe it can be different . Barack obama looks at the landscape and he thinks hes got the idea of whose kids are going to fit in with his. On the tax reform issue, he thinks Mitch Mcconnell for instance has two years and the republicans want to show that they can govern. He thinks thats an incentive for them to work and develop some sort of idea if Mitch Mcconnell wants to show two years of his leadership facing a tougher calendar for republican senators in 2016, wants to hold that majority, he thinks they can use that and work with him across the aisle. It is truly a good question. The devils in the details and we havent seen a whole lot of evidence of it. Are there any other executive orders or memos up his sleeve . Hes dealing with guantanamo this week. On guantanamo Unfinished Business and something the president will want to complete before handing it off to a successor. Hes got 120 detainees left and still moving them out. We saw today the president had executive action on sanctioning north korea. Were going to see the president continue to use his executive power where he can. Gwen ok, next is congress. The leaders there are looking to create an agenda of their own. Lets go back and look at the polls. Cnn asked an interesting question. Do you think the policy is being proposed by Republican Leaders in congress will move the country in the right direction or the wrong direction . 434 said the right 43 said the right direction. 49 say the wrong direction. Who are those pollsters talking to, ed . Theyre going to start with an easy one with the authorization of the keystone x. L. Pipeline this lingering issue which really isnt a big deal policywise but it has become quite a big concern. Theres a lot of democratic support for this and republicans eager to get it done in both chambers quickly. And send it to the president and say dozens of democrats agree with this. Why would you stand in the way . They expect him to do so. From there theyre going to move to stronger sanctions on iraq. This is something that the white house asked Senate Democrats as the talks with teheran continued. Now republicans and democrats want to move on it. Bottom line, they want to do something and they want to make americans like the Republican Party ahead of the 2016 president ial elections. Gwen dont democrats want to do something too . Some of them do. You have to look at the guys in the middle who will become instant power brokers, guys like joe mansion and kemp of north dakota who have said for year who are very eager to make deals that the whole reason they dime the senate in the first place, well, nows their chance. Bob corker. He said, ive told you now you will become relevant. Now you are in a position to help cut deals and get things to 60 votes that can prevail. Theyll turn to people like mark warner and tim kaine of virginia and other moderates who are probably willing and essential certainly able to cut deals with them. You know, that sounds like something for the senate in terms of bipartisanship. But what about the house . Dont we have a record numbers of republicans . 247, which is the most since the 1928 election. So theyre so can republicans work with other republicans . Thats thats a big question. And thats partly why the first few months of the house calendar at least are going to look like a lot like the last few years because theyre going to push some of the bills that sat on harry reids desk. Now theyll clear Mitch Mcconnells desk and send it to the president who will veto them or perhaps sign them and find ways to cut some deals. I was listening to the president on how hes going to use his veto pen much more than he has. We know hes done it twice before in the years hes been president. He is expecting to use it for forcefully. In the early rush of the Republican Leadership sending bills for the president to veto, how is that going to be perceived to the public . Is that for their base only or is that a demonstration of governing . I think its both. The first test will come by february 27th. Remember they passed 11 of the 12 spending bills to the end of the fiscal year back up funding for Homeland Security expires at the end of february. Republicans salivating to take a legislative response to what the president did. There, already youve seen the white house, you know, talk about the fact that they think its weird that republicans want to hold up funding for Airport Security and Port Security and other elements of Homeland Security over some executive actions that the president took. So that will be an early test. Later on it will be issues with the budget and appropriations bill. An ability for them to draw contrasts. Youre right. It will be a question of do we really want to hold the government so significant in the grand scheme or do we want to make a political assistant republicans just won a big election, they arguably have a mandate but after the republicans have been blocking so much for so long, dont the democrats want some of them to give republicans a taste of their own medicine given that theyre going to need it and you didnt give us what we wanted back then . Thats the big question the democrats havent answered. You talk to them what about they want to do. They talk about income inequality. Relieving student loan debt, womens rights. Things theyve been running on and prioritizing the last several yearsand you wonder if thats going to work given the new environment. I think because so many are going to side with republicans on a lot o this, it could be very difficult for harry reid but inevitably there will be differences. Well seal whether or not theyre willing to block them. Gwen can i ask you about scalise who 12 year ago unwittingly spoke in front of a group of racists in loufpblets he survived . For now. If theres more evidence of this speech or perhaps video surfaces or theres evidence of him consorting with david duke and the White Supremacists that will be a problem. Top Republican Leadership aides admit that. They moved very quickly and decisively and theyve gone to Great Lengths to point out when it comes to scandal john boehner moves fast. Michael grimm the tax cheating Staten Island republicans got caught. Chris lee a republican from new york also was gone very fast. Thats an interesting contrast with democrats who have allowed several members with lapses to stick around. Gwen it helps to be convicted. Its a lot easier to move around when someones being convicted as om posed to just under a crowd. But with only three or four major rulings, the real key is going to be at the Supreme Court, which could render a lot of priorities moot. Whether its the future of the president s Affordable Care act or the prospect of rolling back laws in dozens of state that permit samesex marriage. This promises to be a consequential year. What tops the docket, joan . In some ways its a sequel to what weve seen before. Our best two cases involve obamacare and same sex marriage , when the justice will say in about a week whether theyll take that up again. Start with the obama sponsored Health Care Law in 2010 back under another challenge. This a much more practical challenge to the core prevision that says that there will be federal tax credits to people who buy Health Insurance and on exchanges. The law itself refers to state exchanges. So the question is can people who buy insurance through federally facilitated exchanges which is the majority, can they also get these tax secrets . The Obama Administration argues they argue should be able to get this. The i. R. S. As interpreted this law as written to stoned all exchanges, whether written by the states or not. The challengers say were looking at the clear language of it and it does not allow these tax credits for exchanges setup set up by the federal government, which was a core part of the whole thing. In fact, if you all remember from 2012 when we had the constitutional challenge, it was a broad based challenge. It went to the heart of the individual mandate but this goes the practicalities and as one dissenting judge in one of the cases below said, it could gut everything if the Supreme Court ends up ruling that it would only allow tax credits for state change. The administration has been really touting a High Percentage like 87 are getting the subsidies. Are they playing to a particular member on the court . Whos likely on the court to have a decisive decisionmaking power here . Last time it was the chief justice to have United States, john roberts casting the deciding vote last year defying conventional wisdom that it would be him to uphold obamacare. This time its a closer call. If one remembers when we pricked that and i actually thought that the chief would switch that time. This time i think its harder. Because its a statutory case and in some ways, the more conservative members can say if we say this only applies to the state we can fix it. Congress is not going to rewrite anything having to do with obamacare. I still think it could fall to the chief. And john roberts is concerned about his legacy. This would be a major, major move if the Roberts Court struck down this key portion of the obama law. What about the samesex marriage . Do we think theres going to be a case that they can take up now . Gwen they were over the hump they thought. They breathed a sigh of relief. This is where we were in october. Five states have there were cases from five states saying come and decide once and for all whether theres a constitutional right to same sex marriage. The Supreme Court surprised many of us saying were not going to come to that right now. There were 19 states that allowed samesex marriage back in october. Now we have 36. We also didnt have a split among lower appeals courts on this the appeals courts had all said there should be a constitutional right. Now we have a ruling from the my west from the sixth circuit covering ohio, michigan, kentucky and tennessee saying those people are not entitled to a right to samesex marriage. It think it really forces the Supreme Courts hand this time. The earliest might be january 9. One thing we always wonder about the court ask how is everyone doing and who might be hanging it up any time soon . There was a lot of pressure on Justice Ruth Bader ginsberg at 81 to step down just in case the republicans took the senate, which they did, and just in case something would happen that would make it harder for president obama to replace her or we have a new president in 2016, a republican. But shes healthy. Shes hanging in there. She gets regular cancer checks. She has survived two serious bouts of cancer. Our next eldest justices are Anthony Kennedy and anthony scalia, both 78. They dont look to be going anywhere soon. Gwen ok. Part of your job is to ghoul watch who might retire. And finally everything that happens or doesnt happen will inevitably play out of the next president ial campaign. Just this week jeb bush resigned from all of the boards he served on presumably clearing the deck for the run. Hillary clinton. Against this backdrop the cnbc survey showing that 53 of americans are pessimistic about the current Economic Situation while only 23 are optimistic. Whos best in position to win that fight . Well, its a really good question. I think what were hearing is as these candidates start to hone their message or a reason for running theyre going to have to answer that question. Theyre going to have to figure out how to speak to those americans who, no matter how much we talk to beta dow going up and the rate of growth and the economy. Obviously a lot of people still a deeply pessimistic. You know, its a very unsettled field right now, as much as people think oh, we just finished an election. Why do we have to hear about this now . Gwen its 2015. Its now ok. Its the most interesting part of the cycle as people try to make their decision and try to gauge elect rate. And a candidate looking at this race someone like a rick perry is going to be taking the temperature as he sees it of what is it that voters are going to be looking for this year and do i have something that speaks to that . On the democratic side its a oneperson race and on the republican race its like a 12way tie. Its just crazy. Ive got my whole list of candidates right here on the republican side, there are so many. But i think the top tier is jeb who you mentioned who its almost like a professional. Its like hes done this before. The way hes making these moves coming out first announcing the Exploratory Committee and disencumbering himself of his professional entanglements but he knows that not being in elected office he doesnt have the same platform that a lot of these guys have. So he has to inject himself into the conversation. Hes doing that very effectively. I think Chris Christie is still in that top tier. I think rand paul. Ted cruz looks like he is going to make a bid for that sort of the talent paul is in, the sort of conservative antiestablishment lane. Youve got a couple of social conservatives. Mike huckabee. Marco rubio, its not clear what lane hes in. And thats become a problem for him and also jeb crowding the florida donor field and a lot of the other guys, a lot of the governors bobby jindal, scott walker, scott kay sick kasich, mike pence. With all thats has happened with jeb bush, have you been able to detect that Hillary Clinton has been acting difpbletly because of his moves . I really think that jeb has sort of thrown down a gauntlet and that hillary is going to start feeling the pressure as well. Shes been scheduling speaking engagements several months down road which has led people shes looking for a late start. But at some point donors are going to get antsy, people on the democratic side especially if they start declaring their intentions. All the republicans are running against hillary already. At some point it becomes incumbent for her to respond and to be an actual presence in the race. Gwen time for one more quick question and answer. If there was someone at the bottom of the pack who you thought had a chance jump up towards the top who might it be . I think the sleeper candidate is ben carson who is not a politician but who is a doctor and really beloved by the conservative base and who has a super pac thats been out there creating space for him that has raced more money than the Hillary Super pac. Theres a lot of the talk radio crowd, the tea party crowd looking for a standardbearer. A lot of the guys are all elected officials. That doesnt count. Someone like ben carson who have some unorthodox bush might surprise him. Gwen got to go. Thank you. We have to put it a little short because wed like to send our condolences to the family of former new york governor mario cuomo. Our remembrance comes by way of a fourth documentary the italian americans. It airs next month. In this excerpt, the story of the speech that vaulted him on to the national stage. At the 1984 Democratic National convention, cuomo delivered a keynote address that catapulted him into the National Spotlight and marked him as the next great hope of the democratic party. Please allow me to skip the stories and the poetry and the temptation to deal with nice but vague rhetoric. I was in the hall when that was read. Usually at the conventions when there are people speaking at the podium people are Walking Around and talking and not paying attention. But they helped lift up generations to the middleclass and higher. Little by little as he continued to speak the crowd got quieter and quieter. And before that to reach heights that our own parents would not have dared dream of. Until all of a sudden everybody was sitting down and listening to the speech. I learned about our obligation from each other from him and my mother. They were able to build a family and live in dignity and see one of their children go from behind their Little Grocery store in south jamaica on the other side of the tracks where he was born to occupy the highest seat in the greatest state in the greatest nation in the only world we know. [applause] it was passionate, pragmatic, took pride in his italianamerican heritage. I think that remains one of the top 10 speeches in history. Gwen he died yesterday at the age of 82. Well talk about cuomo a little bit more on the Washington Week webcast extra. You can find it on pbs. Org washingtonweek. Later zpont all week long. Also keep up with daily developments on the pbs news hour. And well see you here next week on Washington Week. Good night. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by how much money do you have in your pocket right now . 40. 21. Could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement . No. Well, if you start putting that in your retirement and let it grow over time for 20,30 years, that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by boeing. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Next on kqed newsroom a look back at 2014. Plus, after four decades of public service, George Miller reflects on his his career. The passage of the Affordable Care act is key to me. That was a huge milestone. Good evening. And welcome to kqed newsroom. Im thuy vu. Tonight we reflect on the last year. Joining me for the discuss are michelle quinn