he s back in the business he s been in for a year and a half of proving himself to the right in his own house. this has to do with internal politics. we look at the to-do list which is massive in terms of the significance of the legislation and complexity around it. we have the push tax cuts expiring. the payroll tax holiday ends, expanded unemployment insurance benefits and, of course, the triggers go into place. and the debt ceiling. and the debt ceiling. this really means you look at the tenor now, it will only get handled in the lame duck session of congress or they punt to 2013. i think they ll have to punt. they don t have the capacity to do tax reform that quickly. what s going to happen with the debt ceiling is anybody s guess. are they going to need alternative cuts if they do that? there s a big question. i m writing an article now trying to figure out what happens inside the republican party, internal republican party politics if mitt romney loses the election by t
bills. they ve got to pay them off. this president is committed to bringing economic soundness to this country and that takes a big deal. reporter: aides say at least at the start of this evening s session president obama will push for that big deficit reduction deal. but speaker boehner suggests it won t go far. jamie: when vice president biden sat everyone down and they came to a proposal for a smaller deal, why didn t he come up with the bigger grander deal when he had everyone at the table if it s really realistic? reporter: republicans walked out of those talks which were aiming for a deficit reduction deal after the side of the grand deal that the president wanted because democrats insisted on increase taxes as part of it. in fact, they have only agreed to the spending cuts that amount to little more than half of the $2.50 trillion deficit reduction deal. house speaker john boehner actually suggested an idea that would extend the bush administration middle class tax cut and
good morning from washington. it s thursday, december 5th, 2015. i m luke russert for chuck todd. chuck is on the way back from a focus group in ohio. you don t want to miss the daily rundown. it s a political junkie s dream. there may be an early christmas present taking shape on capitol hill. a budget agreement may be done within the week. negotiators are said to be optimistic about their chances. there lots of moving parts. here s what we are hearing about what s taking shape. it would well most likely be a two-year deal covering 2014 and 2015 and would fund the government as well as relieve the sequester cuts. it looks like the budget number is 990 billion, give or take. that s higher than the budget set by the sequester and lower than the 1.50 trillion act in