week ago. ohio's hospitals are nearing records set at the end of last year. the national guard activated there and in georgia to help manage the surge, and we end 2021 much like we started it, with officials grappling with how to keep the public safe and keep critical institutions like schools open. cnn's senior medical elizabeth cohen joins us now. >> what factors into the decision of sending kids back into the classroom after the holidays? >> absolutely, the reason that the tension is palpable, phil, the reason that this is happening, this is reopening after the holidays and this is opening against the backdrop of hospitalizations for children in this country. unfortunately, this is a record we didn't want to beat but we're on our way of beating it. if you take a look at the week ending september 4th, children's hospitals hit a beak. a new record every day in the u.s. if we look at the week ending december 27th, it's 334, so we're getting very close to that record, and as the omicron numbers get big and bigger that 334 number, unfortunately, is going to get bigger as well, so schools are thinking about all the different strategies they need to be doing, masking, social distancing as well as in some cases due to the tests to stay. in other words, you need to test to stay in school in some circumstances. we see an interview with the d.c. mayor bowser. here's what she had to is a i. >> we want to make sure that our commitment to having in-person learning is honored with our families, and we want to put our families in the best position to reopen our school for winter and keep them open. >> mayor bowser says put the schools in the best position they are distributing that and we'll have them look at the study districts and we'll look at schools where they tried testing and they say that it really does work to keep down covid spikes, but it's not perfect. it needs to be paired with masking and social distancing and even then we will still see covid cases in schools. phil? >> there's never been a spike like this before as your great reporting shows. elizabeth cohen, thanks so much. >> i want to bring in dr. jonathan ryaner to share his expertise, professor of medicine and surgery at george washington university. doctor i kind of want to start there with kids, particularly younger children. the president of the american academy of pediatrics told cnn this morning about half of the kids hospitalized at children's national here in washington round 5, and it's likely going to be several more months until vaccines will be available for that group. what's your message right now to parents, particularly those who are sending their kids back to pre-school or day care in the weeks ahead who want to keep their young children safe as they look at this moment in the pandemic. >> i think the best advice for patients is to make sure that everyone else in the family is fully vaccinated, and -- and boosted. the united states has done a terrible job at vaccinating our population and the biggest block of unvaccinated people in this country are kids. the united states is 25th in the world in vaccinating kids 5 through 16. so if you have kids in your house who are not yet eligible for vaccination, the best thing you can do for them is make sure that their brothers and sisters who are older are vaccinated and are more likely to be protected. it's going to be a challenge, and i think we need to hunker down for the next few weeks. i think that, you know, particularly if you have vulnerable people in your house and kids, you know, you need to limit your contact with crowds. you need to go to the store, you know, once a week, not every single day. you can't eat out. you need to, you know, protect yourself from public and wear a very good mask, an n-59 or kn-95. we'll get through this, but we need to protect our most vulnerable people and right now that's our kids. >> yeah. there's no question about it. to broaden it out a little bit. here in d.c. hospitalizations are up more than five times since the beginning of the month. can you walk through kind of what you're seeing right now on the ground in your hospital. >> yeah. >> well, fortunately, hospitalizations were very low before this surge, and d.c. still has a bit of surge capacity. now, the good news about d.c. where you and i live is that this is a very highly vaccinated area. the maryland, d.c., northern virginia area has vaccinated, you know, about 75% of its population, so significantly higher than the national average, and although cases are surging, massively surging in d.c. there's no place in the united states with a higher positivity rate than d.c. right now, many of these infections are in fully vaccinated people which is why i think our hospitals are going to hold in d.c. where i work at gw, covid hospitalizations are up but we still have capacity. >> that actually brings me right to my next question there. are indications from both public health officials and kind of research that we've seen from overseas that this variant is less severe than past strains in particular, delta. what are you seeing in patients and how do patients who run vaccinated compare with those who are vaccinated? >> well, unvaccinated patients are going to get, you know, full on covid infections. the good news for everyone is that the multiple lab studies now suggest that this particular variant is a bit less avid in terms of binding to lung tissue, so it appears to cause more of an upper respiratory tract infection, more like a cold than a lower respiratory tract infection which is pneumonia so that's good news, but this virus will kill unvaccinated people, particularly people who have other co-morbidities that put them at risk for the infection, so the unvaccinated should not look at this as basically just a cold or the bad flu, and when you look at icus all over the country, the sickest people right now with omicron, the people on ventilators or on heart-lung machines to support them are unvaccinated people. so, again, that's the message. if you are unvaccinated, okay, now it's time to wise up and start the process. >> yeah. it's -- it's -- it's just been this fascinating dichotomy of the last several months, full year obviously. tomorrow is new year's eve. you've warned -- i was watching yesterday. you were on air warning about big indoor gatherings about new year's eve. here's what "morning business report" bill de blasio said about his city's iconic celebration in times square. >> it's going to be outdoors, vaccination only, masks required, socially distanced, but we want to show that we're moving forward, and we want to show the world that new york city is fighting our way through this. >> now, there's a difference between kind of what you were framing in terms of indoor gatherings versus outdoor gatherings, masks, vaccinated, all of that, but how should americans right now approach tomorrow in terms of assessing the risk of activities. you're talking about hunkering down in this moment for the next couple of weeks. what should they be thinking in terms of having dinner out, hanging out with friends and bring people over. how has the dynamic shifted right now in your view? >> yeah. i would get taken. i would not eat in a restaurant now without a mask. i would absolutely not go into a bar. if you go into a bar now you are very likely to get covid whether you're vaccinated or not. if you're unvaccinated and you go into a bar, you will come out of it infected. and, look, this is all -- everyone needs to make their own risk benefit analysis. i think that right now we're in the public health cries of our lifetimes, and although i love a big celebration and it's good for the nation's spirit to celebrate new year's eve, you know, all these people have to get to times square via some way. they are all going to be on the public transportation. they are going to be on the subways. they are going to pack the subways, and i think it's -- i think, frankly, it should have been cancelled the way most european cities have done. they have cancelled their -- their big new year's eve celebrations. it's optional, and if we run out of hospital capacity, then were in a different world of hurt, so i -- i think that we can all celebrate at home, and we'll get taken, we'll support our restaurants about buying their food but eating it in our own homes, staying safe for the next few weeks and this surge is going toned, and we're going to come out on the other side, and we're going to learn our lessons and we will go on with our lives, but my message for everyone is stay safe right now. >> yeah. it's -- i don't think anybody expected to be here this holiday season this new year's, but we're here. doctor, thanks for sharing your expertise as always, sir. >> my pleasure, sir. >> in just a few hours russian president vladimir putin will speak with president biden over tensions over ukraine. we'll break down the critical conversation coming up next. watch this. that was in these clothes... ugh. but the clothes washed in tide- so much cleaner. if it's got to be clean it's got to be tide hygienic clean. it's epiq here. it's epiq here. it's epiq out here, too. introducing the epson epiq vision mini projector. so epic, so mini. the top-rated epson epic vision mini is the new immersive way to enjoy your favorite content. like streaming movies, tv shows, sports, workout classes, and even gaming, wherever you like. the picture is so big. up to 150 inches. that's 4x bigger than a 75-inch flat panel. go online or call to get over $200 in added value. stream your favorite shows from services like hulu, hbomax, and youtube, right out of the box. its 3 chip, 3lcd laser technology produces outstanding color and brightness. order an epiq vision mini and get this exclusive tv offer. a free travel case, free 3-year limited warranty, free shipping, and a moneyback guarantee. that's over $200 in added value. it's epic. it's mini. it's the epson epiq vision mini. the epson epiq vision mini. visit buyepiqvision.com, or call today. bigger and better, baby! i would've called yesterday. but... i could've called yesterday. but... i should've called yesterday, but... would've, could've, should've. we hear that a lot. hi. i'm jonathan, an insurance professional and manager here at colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes, people put off calling about life insurance. before you know it, another year has passed. and when they do call, they say, "i wish i'd called sooner." call right now for free information on the $9.95 plan. are you between age 50 and 85? 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(announcer) call now and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. ready to turn your dreams into plans and your actions into achievements? explore over 75 programs and four-week classes at national university. your future starts today at nu.edu. just a couple of hours a diplomatic test for the president. president biden will jump on a call with russia's president vladimir putin and it will be their second conversation this month, but that they are talking again is not necessarily a sign of progress. western intelligence officials have seen no significant reduction of russian troops on ukraine's border and global fears of a russian military incursion remain sky high. joining us conversation now is david sanger of the "new york times." david, we were talking about this during the break. you really covered it well this morning in your story. no one seems to know exactly what president putin wants with this call that he requested. what are your sources and theories at this moment? >> phil, you're absolutely right. at this point all theories about what it is that putin has in mind. there's sort of three main lines of speculation. the first is that he's finally looking to de-escalate. that's possible, but it seems too early for it. he hasn't gotten any of the things that he requested, and what he really wants mostly at this point is to make sure that ukraine does not move further into the orbit of the west and that nato doesn't seep its forces and mostly its weapons in countries that he considers part of the russian sphere of influence. it's most lit former soviet state, some of which now, of course, are members of nato. the second theory is that they really just wants to push and test president biden, figure out whether or not the sanctions that president biden is threatening to impose if he invades would really that be crushing and whether or not he could sort of push back and say to president biden, you know, you've sanctioned me before, and it hasn't made as big a difference to my life as you think. the third is that he's simply trying to set the president up and create a pre-text by saying we tried diplomacy, it didn't work and then we'll go ahead with some kind of military action or cyber action, and so this is a tricky call for president biden at a big moment because the crisis, as you point out, is really unabated. >> and i think, look, this is all leading into the january 10th security talks between the u.s. and russia in geneva. i think one of the interesting elements here you is don't get a sense from u.s. officials that they had any sense what have president putin is going to do, right? they know what he wants. in fact, he said it himself. take a listen. >> translator: we have made it clear that nato's further eastward movement is unacceptable. well, what's not clear here, are we deploying missiles near the u.s. border? no, it was no. it was the usa who came with missiles to our house. they are already at the doorstep of our house is this a redundant requirement not to install anymore missile systems near our home? >> so eastward expansion of nato, nato weapons systems in kind of eastern-flanked countries. the russians have laid out a draft treaty, i think most of which would be considered a non-starter by the u.s. and nato allies. how does president biden thread this needle given the guidelines that putin has already laid out in. >> first of all what we note is that not all what have president putin said there is necessarily true. big shock there. the russians had been placing intermediate range missiles closer and closer to european borders. that's the reason that president trump uses for pulling out of the intermediate forces agreement a few years ago, so the russians also have missiles pointed towards europe. they do suddenly seem to be focused on the american capabilities in europe. the second interesting question for biden and more to your good question is how does biden do this without saying that nato would withdraw its weapons from the region. first of all, that's not completely within president biden's authority to give. nato is a multi-nation alliance and the president is -- is wanting the largest and not the only member of the nato alliance, and thirdly, there really hasn't been much change of the nato posture very much other than to respond to russian provocations, so president biden doesn't want to be seen giving in here simply because putin created or manufactured a crisis. >> yeah. you've seen the words appeasement pop up every once in a while. it's clear the administration wants to avoid that. can i ask you in the short time that we have left which isn't enough time to answer the question. this administration has made it very clear that they are focused in terms of the national security focus is china and they have made no bones about that. when president biden and putin met back in geneva it was a way to put a marker down and put russia on the back burner and focus on china for the months ahead. we're now heading into an extraordinarily important q1 in the china and u.s. relationship and the u.s. is still grappling with president putin and provocations. where does that leave the biden foreign policy? >> you're absolutely right. president biden has made it clear that one of the reasons he wanted to pull out of afghanistan, reduce american forces in the middle east is to focus on china. this whole incident has been a reminder of that great phrase that russian is a hurricane and china is climate change, right, so they are creating a hurricane, and we've go to go respond to that right away to keep ukraine from being invaded. this is all good news for the chinese who would rather have us not focus on the climate change portion of this which is that they are a competitor with the u.s. mill tarlt, technologically, things that russia couldn't even dream of doing right now, and i think within the white house there's some frustration because they really want to go focus on the bigger long-term existential threat, and yet russia is still has the great capacity to be a disrupter. >> best raid plans, and all that. david sanger, i look forward to trying to match your reporting in a couple of hours based on this phone call. thanks so much, my friend. >> thank you, phil. new numbers show the u.s. at a 52-year low with unemployment claims, but americans remain skeptical about the economy. we'll try and break down that disconnect coming up next. bloo. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®. it won't raise blood pressure the way that advil® aleve® or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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(gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season. initial jobless claims fell again last week. the four-week average hitting a 50-year low. president biden trois to play up such encouraging data amid lower approval ratings overall and on the economy, but persistent supply chain issues, inflation, stubbornly high gas prices have been overshadowing some of the other economic bright spots and i want to break down exactly why. cnn's business reporter matt egan joins us. i want to pull up a chart of the unemployment claims over the course of this year where you see just a straight line down in particular over the course of the last three or four months. you add that in with robust job gains, roughly about 500,000 a month on average over the course of the last 11 months. overall economic growth is outpacing every other country in the world in the wake of an economic crisis. wage gains that are pretty much consistently ticking higher right now, and yet, i want to pull up another chart on consumer confidence which has been steadily dropping to some degree, maybe ebbing up and down a little bit but it's lower than it was just five or six months ago despite that data. explain to me the dissonance between every major indicator seeming to be positive except for maybe one or two and the u.s. consumer view right now. >> well, phil, i do think the jobs market is a slam dunk positive right now. 198,000, the jobless claims in the latest week. that's holding near 52 near low, the last time we saw something like this. richard nixon was in the white house, but there is this disconnect because normally when you see jobs numbers like think would expect consumer confidence would be higher and you also wouldn't expect the nearly two-thirds of americans in the latest cnn poll to say the economy is in poor shape, and i think there's two big factors here and they are related. covid and inflation. on the covid front, it makes sense. a lot of people feel very anxious right now because this virus continues to disrupt way we live and kill countless people every day, and the shortage of testing is not helping the matter at all, and then on inflation, i mean, look the cost of living is very high right now. consumer prices are going up at the fastest pace we've seen in nearly 40 years. that means paychecks are not going as far and clearly, phil, people are not happy about it. >> yeah. eating into and overcoming some of the wage gains. i want to dig in on inflation with you. if you bring up nearly four decades high year over year, you know, you've got new cars and trucks, furniture and bedding, portion, steak, used cars and cars have been a driver. gas lean, eggs, these are everyday items that americans are use and noticing when the prices go up. you cover the federal reserve very, very closely. transitory has been thrown into the trash can. tell me what you're seeing when you talk to your sources, when you talk to people about what the kind of next couple of months, next couple of quarters even mean for inflation. >> right. i think there is a lot of apprehension around what the next couple of quarters mean for inflation. i think the most important thing to know is that pretty much everyone expects inflation to slow down. that's definitely the general direction of travel. there are really big questions around how quickly that's going to happen and to what extent it's going happen. you know, we are above 6% right now on the consumer price index inflation measures so getting below that is not necessarily a victory if we're still at 3%, 4%, something consider police higher than the price of gold which is 2% so i think there's a big question there. up things that are so wore egis we've seen a broadening of inflation measures and we're getting into things like represent the and when you start seeing inflation in rent it tend to be a little bit stickier and last a lot longer so folks are very concerned about that. >> that's been the biggest concern on net who expects it to accelerate in the months ahead. you had a great piece in terms of social trends -- yesterday, sorry, that there's a cream cheese shortage. many began to question the professional of slacks and heels known as hard pants. qr codes that have become dominant and physical menus everywhere but the crux of the piece is kind of the fundamental change in the economy that we think we might be seeing post-pandemic. look at jolt stage and quits coming up. everybody has their own theory as to why that's the case. talk about what you're seeing in terms of what this post-pandemic economy is and what it's going to be going forward. >> right. so i think we all know that the economy is weird right now. he can see that every day locking around it, but my question is is it the economy weird in a permanent play? will this last forever or will we get back to some of sort of example of normal we knew before the pandemic and the job market is a place where there's real questions about that. people were questioning the work they were doing ahead of the pandemic, seen this big resignation as people give up on the jobs that they have and many older folks reroyer. if those people don't come because the labor mark would be much dietinger than we thought it would be and maybe where innation continues heading up. all of this is going to make 2022 one of the more fascinating years of our careers when it comes to being a journalist. >> matt, we have 30 seconds left. you're an expert on gas. gas prize obviously have an acute impact on everyday people. it's what they see. we've seen a deceleration in gas prices the last couple of weeks, down ten, 11 cents in the last couple of months. what are you sewing in the weeks and months ahead on this very critical issue? >> phil, even though gas prices have come down, and that is a relief, they are still high. they are still up by about $1 from a year ago, and there's so much debate on where they go next. gasbuddy put out this forecast where they are saying, listen, we think that gas prices are going to be flirting with $4 a gallon come memorial day weekend. that would be a very big deal. they think prices are going to come down. the energy department's research arm think that prices would be much lower next yore. that will be a relief but gas prices play such a outside role. we see and feel those when we fill up our tanks. >> something that the federal government an white house don't have a lot of control over. thank you guys so much. love this story. can't wait to keep talking about it in 2022. come up, just income the fda is expected to announce a big decision about boosters for kids ages 12 to 15. the breaking developments coming up next. ♪ ♪ do your eyes bother you? because after all these emails, my eyes feel like a combo of stressed, dry and sandpaper. strypaper? why do we all put up with this? when there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients like an electrolyte, antioxidant, even your tears' own moisturizer. and no preservatives. these ingredients are true to your eyes' biology. see? bio.true. some breaking pandemic news just into cnn. a source confirming to cnn that the fda plans to green light pfizer booster shots for 12 to 15-year-olds in the coming days. the news was first reported by the "new york times." roughly 4 million kids in that age group would be eligible for a booster immediately. but a coming fda decision is just the latest example of the urgency and shifts that the biden administration covid response. follow the science has been president biden's mantra since the campaign, but experts have questions about how some new tweaks to cdc guidance mesh with the medical reality and there is now a distinctive gulf between the president's summer message that the virus was on its heels and now. >> so today while the virus hasn't been vanquished we know this. it no longer controls our lives. it no longer paralyzes our nation, and it's within our power to make sure it never does again. >> look. there is no federal conclusion. this gets solved at a state level and ultimately gets down to where the rubber meets the road, and that's where the patient is in need of help or preventing the need for help. >> here to share their reporting and their insights, are our guests from the no, and politico. kind of extraordinary to watch the shift which has been driven by the different variants over the course of the last several months but take a listen to how anthony fauci, the president's top medical adviser, explained the newest cdc guidance. >> so you either shut down the -- the society which no one wants to do, or you try and get a situation where you can safely get people back particularly to critical jobs without having them be out for a full ten days so long as they are without symptoms. >> so what's so interesting about this, we've seen some particularly on the labor side push back that this wasn't necessarily entirely science-based but it's the bshlg right, of the reality of a virus that's spreading like this with the science combined, and how do you make something workable. what are you hearing from the white house sources about how the last couple of weeks have played out? >> well, look, it's an attempt to achieve this balance from the white house right now, right? as we said, phil, this is now another variant that at this point is threatening to undermine really a central principle of the biden presidency which is trying to get this pandemic under control. for the white house right now you are seeing an attempt to have a more aggressive strategy now focusing on the dispersement of testing and bissau a couple other days ago a shorter duration for quarantine. of course this, comes amid concerns from some public health experts as well. while the biden administration is hoping that this aggressive strategy will achieve that balance of trying to contain the pandemic while also not disrupting people's lives too much. you'll remember all those alerts that we got during the holidays of flight cancellations, concerns from officials as well about a potential shortage of hospital workers, while they are trying to achieve that balance, there are concerns that without an adequate level of testing that this strategy could not achieve everything that they want to, right, and really you go back to this past year. the administration at first, the president came in campaigning on being different than the previous administration in hog available testing and a consistent availability of testing. as we went into the summer you saw some of those drive-through testing sites start to close down as the administration focused almost exclusively on the availability of vaccines. now with another variant rights once again and concerns around an inconsistent level of testing, you're seeing the administration just the other day announce a potential purchase of half a billion tests, but now the question is when will those become available and when will americans have a accident level of tests so that the administration can make good on this balancing act that you just described? >> nick larks one of the most fascinating things to me having been in congress where you are now last year, testing was such a huge component of all of the different covid relief proposals that they put together, republican and democrat. across of criticism of former president trump over testing. what are you hearing from lawmakers right now that the u.s. has entered this moment without the adequate number of tests that they need? there's been huge concern, we saw senator blumenthal, a democrat, call on the president to ramp up testing even more and invoke the defense production act. we've seen talk among some democratic lawmakers of wanting another covid relief package in the event that more funding ends up being necessary to produce more tests, to respond to the latest surge. i mean, it's even -- the reality of this has come home to congress. even though they are out of session now, and if you go to the test side of the cap toll, longs are as long as they have ever been, and you've this quite a few lawmakers test positive, too, in the past few week, even the number three house democrat jim clyburn announced a positive test, and most of these have been among democrats, but, you know, republicans have been curiously silent about the number of positive tests among lawmakers there, and so, you know this, will certainly be a -- a concern for lawmakers heading into next year. >> yeah. it's fascinating that we're back here again, both on the policy side and political side and public health side. hang with me. we'll be back here in a few. president biden's first year in office may be started better than esending a look at all that coming up next. starting with your first course. explore your opportunities at phoenix.edu my name is douglas. i'm a writer/director and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you. i had to get help somewhere along the line to stay competitive. i discovered prevagen. i started taking it and after a period of time, my memory improved. it was a game-changer for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know 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we'll get some historical context from the cnn presidential historian tim nestle. tim, thanks so much for your time. i find this to be so fascinating because there's major legislative achievements. there's a robust economic recovery, and yet when you look back over history, including the last three presidents, i'll pull them up right now, only former president trump had a lower approval rating at the end of his first year. why? >> well, first of all, let's keep in mind the challenges that this president faces because they are unprecedented for this moment in a first term. he came into office as -- as president biden came into office with the pandemic, that's one crisis. he was coming in on the heels of a manufactured political cries by his predecessor, the stop the steal movement by led to the insurrection on january 6, and the country had been through a traumatic series of grass roots, important grass roots demonstrations showing the anger and impatience with the structural racism that remains in the country so those are three major shocks to the system, all of which this new president had to handle. he comes in projecting calm, project maturity and his natural optimism. the problem is that we still face the pandemic and the morphing of the pandemic has undermined some of the optimism that he understandably wanted to -- wanted to share with us. i mean, our best presidents, our most successful presidents have been the optimists. ronald reagan, very optimistic, franklin roosevelt, beaming with optimism about our future, and that's why joe biden's legacy will be determined next year or the year after. if we move through this pandemic as -- as is inevitable, he, being our leader, that's the way it works in this country, if you're president, you get the good and the bad. as our president he will get the -- he will get the credit for the recovery that will ensue, but it hasn't happened yet, and, in fact, we're all impatient, our mood is sour and he at the moment is the target for all of that. >> yeah. it's -- it's a great point, and you hear that from white house officials and people are just upset, tired, exhausted and they take it out to some degree on the president. presidents ragean and clinic ended their second year at a lower point where biden is now and went on to crush their re-election campaigns. there's a theory of the case, you find a way to pass build back better in the next year, inflation decelerates and handle the pandemic the president ends up in 202 in a very cooed place. is that how you see things, if biden turns it around that that's the way it happens? >> oh, yes. by the way, biden is the one who remembers all of this. joe biden knows that the great communicator, ronald reagan, in 1983 had lower -- had lower public approval ratings than joe biden does. ronald reagan's were in the 30s and he crushes walter mondale in his re-election bid. how is that? what happened in the economy turned around. ch the recession ended. inflation came down, interest rates came down. well, right now we have high inflation, but we don't have a stagnation. we don't have the same kind of economic trouble that we in the '70s that brought down the carter administration. our economy is actually growing. it will grow about 5.5% this year. wages are growing faster than inflation, and unemployment is going down, so our economy is poised to recover very nicely, and so biden should be the recipient of all of the credit and praise that will come when he sees the bounce, the bounce that kept reagan in the white house and the bounce, by the way, that kept clinton in the white house. >> yeah. look, you talk to administration officials. the building blocks are there. they just need to get it over the hump. one year does not an administration make. tim nestle, thank you so much for your perspective. >> thank you, phil. happy new year. >> i want to bring our panel back on that issue specifically. nick larks i want to start with you. the president's agenda. that has been a driver of a lot of the consternation because of the infighting despite major legislation victories. how do you see build back better playing out in the next four to five weeks? >> well, the senate will get back soon, and that will really be telling as to where things could go. senator joe manchin, the key senate moderate, has made clear he's a no on the current iteration of build back better, but it seems the door has been cracked open a little bit to negotiating things a little further, perhaps some kind of build back better, you know as some democrats have proposed will do fewer things for longer rather than having child care last for only a few years, could you have programs that will last a decade. however, that means that some things will have to go by the wayside. so over the coming few months or weeks, we -- we can expect to see some of the potentially painful negotiating and haggling among democrats as they try it pear down build back better into something that can apiece joe manchin and other centrists in the house and senate. >> that haggling has been a nightmare for the last 12 months. i want to close with you on the idea of hearing from white house officials that people are just too exhausted, like nothing is resonating with them message-wise. how do they turn that around in the next couple of months? >> that's going to be the real test, you know, going in the next couple of weeks. you've even seen for one step of how you turn it around. you've seen the president, phil, you andry in the room, you can start to acknowledge it more in some of his addresses, not just talking about what his social spending package and the benefits that it would bring for americans, but also acknowledging their frustrations and inflation and higher prize for certain things when you go to the store, acknowledging some of the exhaustion that they may have from a pandemic as well that's now, you know, going on for more than a year and a half at this point, so he -- they are just starting to acknowledge it. the challenge here in the weeks ahead is going to be describing a package that many americans are associating with legislative gridlock and trying to highlight the benefits and the solutions to some of the sources for those frustrations, the jobs that it can create as well as the sweeping proposals against climate change, combating climate change that it could bring and the importance of those, but it will be interesting to see just how -- what the strategy is for selling this, how often, especially with covid and the rise of this new variant, how often the administration officials are going to go out and get into the country, who they dispatch as well to sell those plans while they continue to negotiate this package, and if i could just have one point as well when it comes to speaking to some of the frustrations -- >> we've -- we're running into a break. we're running into a break. i'm going to text you about that. we'll keep talking about it. appreciate, it guys. always appreciate it. a quick program note. the boys are back. join anderson cooper and andy cohen for cnn "new year's ear live" starting at 8:00 eastern right here on cnn. thanks for joining "inside politics." moy guy ryan nobles picks up our coverage right after the break. did you just turn us into subway® ads? 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