Starting point begins right now. Welcome, everybody. Starting point this morning, angry, united. Bracing for protests in michigan as the state is poised to become the most unionized right to work state. As many as 10,000 unionized workers expected at the State Capitol to voice their disapproval of the measure. Some of them teachers, two Detroit Area School districts shut down for the day as hundreds of teachers plan to join the protest. President obama brought it up during a trip to a daimler truck factory in redford, michigan. This is what he said. This socalled right to work law, they dont have to do with economics, everything to do with politics. What they are really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. Alison kosik. Whats the latest on the protests . Protestsers starting to gather behind me. Signs in hand, even the inflatable, a common theme when you see unions protest, the rats. Thousands are hoping their voices will be heard. Final votes taken on legislation, that right to work legislation, if its passed would mean that workers would not be required to Pay Union Dues. Wouldnt be required to join a union which would be a huge hit to not only unions here in michigan, but also across the country. Because michigan really has been the birthplace of the organized Labor Movement and would be a hit to the movement. Whats happening today inside the chambers . The state and house approvaling, finalizing their votes if those measures pass, that bill will go to governor rick snyders desk and he is expected to sign it. Alison kosik. Thank you. Big story in washington, d. C. , no news at all. Silence about the fiscal cliff. The president and the House Speaker john boehner holding closed door meetings to work out a deal or try to. 21 days and counting away from tax hikes and spending cuts going into affect. And congress breaks for christmas on friday. Here is where things stand. The president hitting the road to sell his tax plan to at a truck plant to workers in michigan. And there are fiscal cliff talks and on capitol hill for a single day, all was quiet. Thats always bad news if you are a political reporter, Shannon Travis live in washington, d. C. There are some people who say well, lets read into the silence, because thats all were getting and its good news. Do you feel that way . Could be potentially good news. There is this notion of not negotiating through the media. The stakes are high, puts pressure on both sides. So on . That sense, as much as we would love to know whats going on in these discussions, it might be good to take some of the pressure off. I will read a statement from House SpeakerJohn Boehners press secretary. Discussions with the white house are taking place, but we have no detail to share about the substances of those conversations. The republican offer made last week remains the republican offer and we continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts hes willing to make as part of the balanced approach he promised the American People. Obviously, the president is saying he is waiting as well, soledad. Waiting for republicans to identify how exactly they plan to specifically make up the 8 80 billion in revenue they are offering. And the president yesterday took to michigan, basically Standing Firm on his commitment that no deal for him could pass muster unless it raises tax rates on the wealthiest. Soledad. Were reading into the silence this morning. The tea leaves. Thank you. Appreciate it. In a few minutes, talking about all of this, congressman steve israel, our guest, straight ahead . And john berman with a look at other stories making news. A deafening silence. Overnight, three crew members killed in the crash of a medica chopper in North Central illinois. On the way to a hospital when their chopper went down. Pilot andy olson and Flight Nurses jim dillow and karen hollis were on board. And petty officer first klasnic lass checque was the navy s. E. A. L. Killed. He entered the s. E. A. L. S program after graduating high school. He received a bronze star and several other awards during his tenyear career. Clearly a hero. A Government Official reports nine people were wounded when bird shot pellets were shot into tahrir square. And rallies being held today leading to saturdays vote on a new constitution. And hawaii democrat Daniel Inouye is in the hospital, he has recently been seen using oxygen on the floor of the senate. He served in world war ii and won the medal of honor and witnessed the japanese bombing of pearl harbor and will mark 50 years in the senate on january 3rd. We hope he is recovering nicely. Parts of the country could see more rough weather. This one in volusia county, florida. Two others in louisiana and alabama. Reports as many as a dozen total. Most of the south saw bad weather from rain to heavy winds. Alexandra steele tracking weather for us this morning. Good morning. Good morning to you. 13 reports of tornadoes thus far. Over 47 damage reports and you can see here, this was the line of a storm that moved through with the arctic front. The warm, moist air ahead of it. Colder drier air behind it, and these are showing where you the tornado reports were. We have had two confirmed thus far, though. Let me take you, and show you where one was. In baker, louisiana, an ef1 tornado. Winds, 90 miles per hour. Roofs off homes, even commercial buildings for some of you. Car wash destroyed. Widespread damage to trees and power lines, but also again, tornadoes reported from louisiana, mississippi, east of florida. To volusia county, where this funnel cloud, which john showed you earlier, reported. And you can see, inskredible pictures from florida as well. But how uncommon to see this kin of thing in florida, louisiana, mississippi . Believe it or not, we have a cool weather tornado season in dixie alley and its been quiet thus far. Only seven tornadoes touched down from november until now. The tenyear average is 70. So a tenth of what we normally see. Today, the only threat for tornadoes in south and central florida. Isolated tornadoes. Damaging wind gusts, but that is it around the country. And you can see hail possible. But florida, everyone on the eastern seaboard will clear out with cooler, drier air moving in. John. Alexandra steele, thank you very much this morning. If you havent seen this video, take a look right now. A man in birmingham, alabama, being interviewed by a local tv reporter talking about the dangerous weather when this happened. We had dog, she was in the cage. Ah oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my god you all okay . You all okay . You all all right . The roof of clinton thorntons home collapsed due to the soaking rain. We should tell you, no one was hurt luckily when that roof collapsed. I talked to local News Reporters who filmed this video they say as they were walking through the neighborhood before they shot it, they could hear the creaking sounds from the ceilings and roofs from around the neighborhood, so much rain, a lot of ceilings were sagging. How awful and interesting for a photographer to just be quick thinking. Really quick thicking. Still ahead, democrats and republicanss accusing each othe of not offering up enough you cuts. Well speak with steve israel coming up next. Does the nfl have a gun culture . And business news. Hsbc, what they are accused of. In moments. Youre watching starting point. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesnt treat that. Really . [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ breathes deeply ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. Thats the cold truth good morning. Welcome back. Im Christine Romans. Minding your business. Three british nationals arrested in connection with the libor rate fixing scandal. Libor rate is used to set rates on loans. Three arrests out of the uk right now. U. S. Stock futures higher. Fiscal cliff talks, Federal Reserve meeting in washington, two drivers for investments over the next couple of days. Futures holding in there for now. Federal and state authorities have reached a recordsetting settlement with british banking giant hsbc. Europes largest lender has agreed to a staggering settlement. This is a big fine. Hsbc is accused of helping transfer billions formations like iran doing business with firms linked to terrorism and also enabling mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through u. S. Subsidiaries. Considering that, that sounds low, 2 mibillion for helping mexican drug cartels and terrorists out of iran . And asia asending, the west in decline. 300 years of the west rising is reversing. American intelligence agencies are preparing this report that they do every four years for incoming administration. The world undergoing tectonic shifts, comparable to the french revolution and industrial revolution, but happening much faster. By 203 0shgs asia will see the power it last had in the middle ages and the report says the uni polar moment is over and pa x americana, the era of american ascendcy is fast winding down. The squabbling over trying to close just a part of our deficit and in the lock view, taken by National Intelligence agencies, is that the big trends are happening so quickly, and in such a big basis, it makes politics small. All going down anyway. No. Its interesting for me, because technology is going to be a big driver. Middle class will rise. By 2030 according to the report for the first time ever, most people in the world wont be poor. A majority of people will be out of poverty. Seeing kind of a rising tide, but very big changes. For those of us in pa x americana, kind of a disturbing report. Pressure on american middle class and western middle classes. Technological advances means people in other parts of the world can do the work much less expensively. Negotiators have become very quiet on the fiscal cliff. Odd for them. Not much known specifically about whats happening behind closed doors. We want to get to steve israel. A democrat from new york. Chair of the Democratic Congressional campaign committee. Nice to have you with us again. Im always worried when there is not a lot of noise out of washington, d. C. Everything quiet. To the point where speaker and the president releasing press releases almost identical. Is this good . The talks are moving in a positive turn . Yeah, look, nothing is certain, but in this case, i think whispering in the white house is better than finger pointing in the media. It suggests, like in any negotiation, the parties serious, trying to work out acceptable compromise. Speaker boehner has received pressure from own members looking at polls. Including a poll that 60 of the American People want a balanced deal that does ask the wealthiest to do more. They want fundamental debt reduction, spending cuts, which democrats are prepared to do. No news may be good news. The tax issue has been debated a lot and expected that the bush tax cuts in some way, shape, or form will expire for the wealthiest 2 of the country. I want to talk about savings and this is where often very hard to dig into facts and details. Here is what the Washington Post is reporting. Savings for health and retirement programs, necessary to sell tax hikes to gop lawmakers, obamas proposed 350 billion in health of savings and boehner has suggested a 600 billion from health programs, and an additional 200 billion from using a stingier measure of inflation, reducing cost of living increases for Social Security recipients. How do you think this is going it go over . First of all, remember, we already passed nearly 1 trillion in savings in the budget last year. That ought to count toward this deal. That is a done deal. We passed it last year in the budget control act. Moving forward, the president has put nearly 350 billion in savings in entitlement reform on the table. What i fundamentally disagree with in terms of the republican proposal. They want to do it out of benefits side. What you are talking about is it called chain cpi. An immediate and drastic hit to Social Security benefits for seniors, now, today. We have always said we will negotiate strengthening medicare and Social Security. Improving it, reforming it. We will not negotiate the end of medicare and Social Security. We will talk with the republicans to see if we can find the kinds of reforms that will keep these programs solvent and structurally healthy, but not ask seniors the first to sacrifice the most, which is the republican playbook up to now. As weeks of pain go by, and i feel like weve been in the middle of the pain a little bit now political pressure might grow so heavy, that whatever mix of tax increases and tax cuts and spending that he wishes, headline is obama must learn to negotiate. Do you think thats true . That basically if you get closer and closer to the deadline, that the president can do whatever he wants . He holds the cards. I dont think thats true. The president has never waivered from what he said from when the republicans first brought us to the cliff. The first debate for the debt ceiling. He wants a plan big, bold, balanced. We were ready to sign on the dotted line a year ago. The problem was, it was a mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy and the republicans wouldnt gettive us a nickel of tax increases on the wealthy. The president in a much stronger position. He campaigned relentlessly on the notion to ask the wealthiest to pay more. Is he in a better place. At the end of the day, we understand there has to be a compromise. I think the 250,000 figure is too low. Im not willing to tell all of my constituents that earn below 250,000 that their taxes are going to go up, because i held out for a deal for those that make 400,000. Going back to wawashington toda. Everybody gets a tax cut up to 250,000. But thats not going to happen today. You know actually, theres a discharge petition. Yeah. A discharge petition on the floor. We all agree taxes should go up on people up to 250. I wouldnt bet on it, fair enough. Timothy geithner, when he was listed details of the 600 billion, a couple of examples, limit farm subsidies, which he says could save a significant amount of money. Farm subsidies would limit payments, and Crop Insurance would be cut. Do you support all of that . Yes. I personally do support it. We need to reform the crop subsidy program. In too many cases, the mega agricultural firms are quieting subsidized to not grow crops. We have to reform medicare and cut benefits, and yet Oil Companies, for example, are getting 40 billion in subsidies. Were about to replace saudi arabia as the Worlds Largest producer of oil. These Oil Companies are doing exceedingly well. Why do we have to give them 40 billion in subsidies and at the same time telling seniors well have a more stingy calculation of benefits . All subsidies ought to be on the table. Subsidies, we ought to make investments in growing the middle class, not rewarding special interests. Nice to have you, sir. Appreciate it. Still ahead on starting point is the nfl at a crossroads. What sportscaster bob costas says about the leagues gun and con krugs problem. And starting point team heading in to join us. Its lots of things. All waking up. Connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Cisco. Alriwoah did you get that . And. Flip yep, look at this. It takes like 20 pictures at a time. I never miss anything. Isnt that awesome . Uh thats really cool. You should upload these. I know, right . That is really amazing. The pictures are so clear. Kevins a Handsome Devil that phone does everything search dog tricks. Okay, see if we can teach him something cool. Look at how lazy kevin is. Kevin, get it together dude cmon, kevin take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3. Good morning. Welcome back. Our team this morning, bob shrum is back. You must have had a good time. You asked me back. And nan hayworth, and bob iza is back as well. T bob costas, he admits his remarks may have been imperfect in the aftermath of the terrible suicide murder jovan belcher. He thinks the nfl has a crisis on its hands. Its at a crossroads. The issue of the fundamental nature of the game. So popular and profitable. It takes a tremendous toll on those who play it, not just body, but mind and emotions. According to a report on nbcs football night in america, seven nfl players have turned in their weapons since the belcher murder suicide. He said he didnt trust himself with his own firearm. Its interesting, the backlash. His real point was about the gun culture. His real point about nfl players and a culture of violence. Thats what i got out of the interview with piers. He was initially attacked by people who were concerned about gun control and the second amendment. But he was really commenting on players not being careful with guns. And 75 of nfl players have guns. Theres a number of reasons for that. The players that have guns at home i guess costas said seven or eight times more likely to hurt themselves or somebody else than to protect themselves. There is a deeper problem with the nfl and roger godel, the nfl commissioner, tried to address it at harvard in a speech a couple of weeks ago. It goes to the question of how the game is played, concussions, things like that. He even talked and this would be a stunning development, about eliminating kickoffs. Thats where the greatest injuries occurred to these guys. That itself was very controversial. We have to take a short break. Still ahead, secrets surrounding the fiscal cliff negotiations in washington. No one is talking secrets. Many say its a sign of progress. Others say it should be out in the open. Jeff sessions will weigh in, that next. This is not your typical shopper. 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