soap opera. neil: thank you very much. no one seems at all worried about the government spending. this from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell a short time ago. we think it was the best possible deal under the circumstances. when you have a divided government, both sides have a seat at the table and both sides have the ability to take an agreement and we all rose above that. neil: that s not the only thing rising. $320 billion beyond what is already in place, so should we be concerned about that? we have rob smith, democratic strategist kristin hawn. you could go on all day and blame both parties for the excess. usually, and he keeps that government lights on for a couple of years. but it gets to be to be a lot of
in the tense dpoesh ynegotia between the president and republicans both sides appear to be moving to a compromise that could stop taxes from rising on everyone january 1st. there s no hard deal on the table yet. joining me now, kristin hawn and david winston, a veteran republican pollster. the thing i m struck by in the context here, every poll i ve seen suggests that you have republicans likely to get more blame. should we put any stock in that kind of polling about the fiscal cliff or do people not know b. enough about it and that s not influencing what s go on between john boehner, president obama, mitch mcconnell and the other folk on the hill? they probably have more awareness than some can imagine. but having said that, it not where it is now, it s when you get to the end when people saw what the options were and the choices were, and then they decide who they think either helped or didn t help. that s sort of the critical moment. at this point, i the public
0 america is in the south carolina republican party. nikki haley up for re-election in 2014, lindsay gray laey grah. nikki haley has to make a decision. she may make conservatives mad if she doesn t do tim scott but if she doesn t do him and do a caretaker, chris, all the conservative action can be in that primary and maybe she doesn t get a conservative primary challenge. a lot of moving parts here. maybe lindsay gray lamb doesn t either. kelly, i don t want to leave the fiscal cliff out here. talk about a former senator who is making a lot of noise on it alan simpson, from wyoming. here what happens he had to say on the today show about who knows what about the fiscal cliff and the budget negotiations. these guys if you gave half of them gave 90% of them a profit and loss statement in one hand and a balance sheet in the other they wouldn t know how to read it. so, alan simpson not making himself the most popular among former colleagues. what is your sense? how well do the m