Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. We begin with president obama getting into a new fight with republicans and its a fight he may actually lose. This afternoon in detroit, the president blasted a package of antiunion bills. Michigan republicans, governor, is ush pushing through his states legislature. What we shouldnt do, i just got to say this, what we shouldnt be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Even though the cheering went on for nearly half a minute, it looks like those antiunion bills may, in fact, have enough support to pass michigans legislature, despite Union Threats of massive demonstrations. Cnns alison kosik is in the capital, lance, watching whats going on. Explain what the fight is all about, why its so intense. Reporter well, first of all, here at the Michigan State capit capital, its more about the calm before the storm. Those demonstrations of thousands of people descending on the state capitol. Police are gearing up for whats coming up tomorrow when the votes are expected to happen. What this is all about is the right to work law. If this law passes, what it essentially means is that workers would not be required to Pay Union Dues as a condition to hold a job. This is a big deal to michigan. You have to remember, michigan was built on unions. The United Autoworkers Union was born here. Unions are really the backbone to this state. So it would be a huge blow if this law passes. Not only here in michigan but across the country. Because it could really undercut, has the possibility of undercutting the power and influence of unions. Once again, not just here in michigan but across the country. This really goes beyond politics. Andrew potter, talked with him today, hes in a union, hes a republican, and hes against this republicanbacked measure. Its a smoke and mirror attempt to take away the representation that these members and these hard working class citizens are going to receive. Reporter but those in favor of this bill say, you know what, it does give workers the freedom to choose what they want to do. Whether or not they want to join a union and pay those union dues. And they say it also grows jobs. It actually makes unions more accountable and makes them more responsive to their members because now the unions cant take them for granted. Remember, right to work doesnt affect collective bargaining in any other way except for take away the unions ability to fire a worker for not paying them. They can still bargain over hours, wages and working conditions. Reporter so the vote expected to happen tomorrow, starting at 10 00 a. M. The house and the senate will each vote on each others measures. Also, demonstrations expected to begin. The opening salvo happening 9 00 a. M. , down this street right here. Thousands are expected to march, starting here, all the way up to lansing city hall. That would be just the beginning of the day. Wolf. Alison on the scene for us, thank you. The president s taking a Political Risk by getting into michigans union fight at the same time hes locked in a major battle in washington over raising ta spending cuts and more. Lets bring in our chief White House Correspondent jessica yell be. Jessica, is it surprising the president decided to speak today on this right to work issue . Reporter wolf, the white house has come out very strongly against right to work laws. And the unions have been strong supporters of the president. But it is quite surprising the president was so forceful in his, expression of support today, after he had a more muted response during the election, after the scott walker recall effort. Today, the president made his first comments on the michigan law, and it was indeed a forceful show of support for organized labor. Here is the president. You know, these so called right to work laws, they dont have to do with economics. They have everything to do with politics. What theyre really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. You only have to look to michigan, where workers were instrumental in reviving the Auto Industry to see how unions have helped build not just a stronger middle class but a stronger america. Reporter now, i referenced it earlier, wolf, but, remember, back before the president was reelected in november, in wisconsin, unions were fighting to recall their governor, scott walker, after he pushed and passed some antiunion legislation. The president , he took some heat from democrats for not doing more to back that recall effort. And now the president s being reelected in part with some strong support of Union Workers and now hes not holding back. Wolf. So jessica, whats the political impact here for the president and for his Labor Union Supporters . And they were very instrumental in helping him get elected and reelected. Reporter thats right. The Election Results tell the story. President obama won the union vote handily. Nationwide, he won 58 of the union vote. Compared to governor romney who got 40 . And unions also contributed heavily to donations and get out the vote efforts. 143 million they gave overall in the 2012 campaign to general candidates and elections in general. Only 4 went to republicans. The rest went to democrats and outside spending groups. So you can see the impact they had across the board it and, wolf, while michigan wouldnt be the first state to pass right to work laws, in fact, 23 other states already have right to work laws. So tomorrow michigan could become the 24th state to have one. As the birthplace for the organized Labor Movement in the u. S. , passage for this law in michigan would be a body blow to the Labor Movement in the u. S. , wolf. Certainly would be. Thanks very much for that, jessica. The president s due back here in washington just in a little while from michigan. His focus will be back on trying to get a deal with the House Speaker john boehner over taxes and spending cuts. Our chief political analyst Gloria Borger is here to take a closer look at the agreements, the disagreements, i guess theres more disagreements than agreements. Lets step back and see where these two sides stand, gloria. Lets step back from the cliff here for a minute, wolf. And youll see that on tax, which is of course the crux of this matter, theres a huge difference between Congressional Republicans who want to raise 800 billion over ten years from tax increases. And of course the white house that wants to, you know, basically double that. I mean, the white house says, we need to get more revenue from taxes. If you break apart these tax number, take a look, because of course we know, the big issue, the theological issue here, wolf, is raising rates. The white house says lets raise them back to bill clintons days. And the republicans of course say, no way, lets not raise those rates. Heres whats really interesting to me, though. Both sides say in the future they want to do the same thing. They want to cap deductions and close loopholes. On the wealthy. They both want to do that. Now, the democrats want to increase the Capital Gains taxes. Republicans say no Capital Gains changes. So, wolf, the point here is that ironically, if they can get past this problem, you know, and maybe agree to the 37 level or so, and can get past the rate issue, ideologically, then the larger issues would almost be easier for them to tackle as they take care of tax reform. By the way, if they do tax reform, you could raise the rates now and then lower them as part of tax reform, which of course would flatten rates for everybody, as you close those loopholes. Capital gains, they want to increase Capital Gains taxes and republicans say no change. No change. But, again, not that terribly far apart if they can get past this. If theyve got a good meeting here. If theyre bridgeable, these differences. If theres some good will to compromise. Theres some other major differences when it comes to health care spending. There are. Again, look at the difference between the republicans and the democrats. I mean, what the republicans are saying right now is if theyre going to do anything on taxes, and this is some of them, they want to show a little leg from the democrats about what are you going to do on health care savings. That would mean, wolf, doing things which the president has talked about in the past, which is increasing the medicare eligibility age, say, gradually, from the age of 65 to 67, changing the way we compute increases in Social Security benefits. Cost of living adjustments. Thats right. Changing the calculation we use for that. So, again, there are ways that both of these groups can come together. The white house right now sees its savings largely coming from Health Care Providers and not touching entitlements. But in the long term, there can be some agreement on this. We know the president and john boehner have sort of almost been there in the past when they almost did their grand bargain. Is it going to come down to these two men, the president and the House Speaker, working out a deal . Because even if they do, can john boehner deliver . Well, its a question, if he doesnt have a revolt on his hands. So far, outside conservative groups are saying dont touch those rates. But inside the Republican Caucus right now, theyre remaining pretty silent. And the democrats, the president has the same problem in many ways than john boehner has. Because hes going to lose a lot of his base if theres entitlement cuts. If theres entitlement cuts. And john boehner is going to lose a lot of his base if you raise tax increases. So both of these men are in the same political position, if you will. The president clearly has more leverage, won the election. But this is not without Political Risk for both of them. After all, isnt that what leaderships about sometime, taking a Political Risk . But well see, this is a critical week, this week right now. Gloria, thanks very much. Were also getting word of a big move by the National Republican party. Theyre trying to understand why so many of their candidates lost this year. What needs to change in order for the party to stay relevant. One of the people whos leading the effort joins me next. Stand by for that. Later, new details of a Daring Rescue that saved an american from the taliban but cost the life of a u. S. Navy s. E. A. L. [ male announcer ] red lobsters hitting the streets to tell real people about our new 15 under 15 menu. 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One of the cochairs who will lead the effort is the former Bush White House press secretary ari fleisher who is also a cnn contributor. Ari, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you, wolf. The rnc communique or press release, rnc launches new initiative to grow the party and win. All of these were like technical issues though, the eight points. I dont see any effort to rethink policy matters on sensitive issues, some of which clearly hurt republicans, including the president ial nominee this time. Is your mandate also to look at changes in sensitive policy areas . Wolf, i want to say when you look at overall messaging, thats a technical issue. Thats a very important major issue. Its one of the things that either pulls people towards a party or drives people away from a party. In terms of specific policies, you know, congress has the lead on that, the Republican National committee does not. But i think you can assume theres going to be some messaging around the things that conservatives believe in that we need to do better and do stronger. So for example, on the sensitive issue like same sex marriage, gay marriage, will it be your mon date to take a look and see whether or not republicans should rethink their opposition to gay marriage . No, wolf, as i purview, wer going to go down that road. President bush is the one who said this, family values dont stop at the rio grande. That was his approach to hispanic issues. He got 40 of the hispanic vote. In this cycle, we got 27 . I think a lot of republicans do, theres a lot you can do to attract people, to talk with people, to identify with the needs and concerns of people, in a way that grows a party. You dont have to change your ideology. The ideological issues are important because the exit polls found out 35 of americans identify as conservative, just 25 as liberal. We remain a center right country. But republicans are losing elections. I asked i think, wolf i think we have an intellectual and political responsibility to examine ourselves and find out why. Because every four years the Republican Party, like the democratic party, they have a platform in which they do spell out the Republican Partys position on these sensitive issues. One of the most sensitive, you raised it, immigration reform. Should the Republican Party, in order to attract more hispanics, for example, reach out and support comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for 11 million or 12 million Illegal Immigrants here in the United States . Yeah, nothings changed since my last answer. The policy issues are going be to handed through the congress and elected representatives the people. We still have an obligation to look at the party mechanics. And the overall messages. Thats the charge of this group. Ill read to you a line from Maureen Dowds column in the New York Times yesterday. She was talking about the future of the Republican Party. You guys are going to be taking a closemayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. The world of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys. When it came to white guys, the republicans still do well. Thats why i salute chairman wrights pribus for forming this. If you dont change with a country while maintaining your countries and your ideology but making those principles more believable, youre not doing your job. Ronald regular be wasagan was a that. Keep a conservative base and make it attractive to the middle. Theres room to be a conservative party that has ideas thidea s ideas that sell not only with the conservative base but with a group much bigger because the ideas are good ones. We cannot just be a party of white people. When reagan was elected, 88 of the voters were white. Today, its 72 . You do the math. How do you go out and reassure nonwhites out there, whether its hispanics, africanamerican, that the Republican Party is a big tent, allinclusive kind of party . Reagan, you point out what he used to talk about. Yeah, well first of all, you have to have candidates who dont make tragic mistakes. Ill go right to indiana and missouri. We repelled women, our candidates there did, with the statements that they made. About rape . They lost elections that absolutely should have been won. With the statements they made about rape in missouri. So thats a part of this too. The way republicans present their ideas, we have the best ideas. We have the ideas that give people a chance to climb the economic ladder and make it in this country. Thats our message. Thats a message that resonates everywhere. But you have to let people know you care about them. You have to let them know that their life is important to you. The things theyre going through, the suffering, are the things you can identify with, and you have the best solution to them. My issue sometimes is we talk too much like accountants and not enough about people who care about other peoples futures. Thats where the Republican Party has got to keep it