as a result 160 million american workers will continue to receive a payroll tax cut, about $1,000 in the pockets of the average family. gregg: meanwhile house speaker john boehner is taking a lot of heat right now essentially giving in to democrats and president obama in this fight. speaker boehner still pushing for a one-year plan. >> it is not always easy to do the right thing but we believe that we came here to change the way this town does business and no more gimmicks. no more short term this, short term that. time to do solid policy and do it the right way. gregg: mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. should we expect any drama today in unanimous votes in the house and senate? >> reporter: definitely not in the senate. the had 89 votes in the senate to pass the payroll tax holiday. that should be easy. the wildcard is the house floor. there we might see some problems. the house blew up the idea of two months extension last saturday. all it takes one member to show up and object. then you have big problems. the house floor was scene of drama wednesday when steny hoyer tried to reintroduce the senate bill in the house t was shut down pretty quickly. all eyes will be on the house floor. as for the way ahead, here is more from speaker boehner. >> we expect that there will, these members will work expeditiously to complete the one-year extension all of us want. we will ask the house and senate to the approve this agreement by unanimous consent before christmas. >> reporter: leaders are hoping to wrap it up this morning. i've asked republican leaders in the house, do you expect any drama? they say they don't anticipate any but we'll see. i have reached out to several tea party members who have been thought to possibly want to object to this deal. they say they will fight harder in january but again we'll be watching. gregg? gregg: mike, what about the fallout from all of this? is there a political price to be paid? >> reporter: well, we have heard from some angry house republicans saying they don't think the speaker should have taken this deal. they were angry last night at 5:00 when the speaker laid out the deal for the house republican caucus he did not allow feedback, did not take any questions. you may remember a conference call last saturday blew up the deal the first time. so he didn't take any feedback this time. didn't allow it to become a feeding frenzy. there are others who say some of the other republican leaders should have had the speakers back. you saw in the news conference he was standing by himself. where were the other house republican leaders. some say the boehner loyalists may have pay back for those who left him hanging on this one. gregg: mike, in probably a fairly empty capitol. thanks so much. julie: why did it congress to take so long to include a deal? chris van hollen says there is no reason why house republicans should turn down a deal passed by a majority of their senate colleagues. in fact the congressman told greta van susteren last night, the house's one year plan needed a lot of work. >> they included in that a lot of poison pills, things unrelated to payroll tax cut which is one of the reasons it is going to require a little more time to work out a one-year tax cut and which is why it is important to make sure that for the next two months we do not have an increase in the payroll tax. julie: coming up later, congressman van hollen will join us live to talk about today's house meeting and what exactly we can expect. we can expect to be talking to tea party backed congressman jeff landry of louisiana, who agrees with many of his colleagues they have been hung out to dry by house leadership. gregg: let's, julie, recap what we can expect today on capitol hill. 9:30 a.m. the u.s. senate meets. the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. eastern. both houses are supposed to pass the two-month payroll extension by unanimous consent. it is expected to pass easily in the u.s. senate as mike emanuel said. a single objection in the house of representatives could wipe the issue off the board today. then the house would have to come back for a full session next week and hold a formal roll call vote. julie: if the deal doesn't pass on january 1st, paychecks will shrink for about 160 million americans to be exact. the social security tax will actually increase from 4.2 to 6.2%. that is almost $20 a week for someone making $50,000 a year. two million americans would face losing their unemployment benefits. with medicare, doctors, could see big cuts in payments as well. we've got developing news for you on what could be a very big christmas gift for the economy. the "wall street journal" reporting that the federal reserve may signal it will keep interest rates near zero through 2014 and beyond. fox business network stuart varney joins me now. he is the anchor of fbn's "varney & company". low interest rates, varney? sounds like a christmas gift from the fed. >> it is a christmas gift that will stretch into next year and year after. the federal reserve according to "the wall street journal" keeps interest rates way down. that means mortgage rates close to record lows for some time to come. car loan rates also, very, very low. low interest rates. low loan rates for next couple years. how about that? julie: that's amazing is it all good news? >> no. it is not all good news, to do this means that the federal reserve is saying our economy stays sluggish for at least a couple of years. that means we're going to look more like europe, more like japan, slow growth, high unemployment, big debt. not all good news. julie: all right. i don't want you to sound like the grinch do you have any cheer on the financial front? >> yes i do. i really do. this is way out of my ballpark but i bring you the real housewives of spain. i bring you sheer joy. this, these are the lottery winners in spain. this is sheer joy, ladies and gentlemen. this is the biggest lottery in the world. there's a little town in northeastern spain, called granon. there are only 2,000 people in the town. they just won $940 million. julie: oh, my goodness. >> it is el-gordo biggest lottery in the world. they just had the drawing. housewives, real winners. real housewives of spain. how about that. >> el-gordo. wasn't that your nickname at one point? >> that is the fat one in spanish. julie: see him prediet days. gregg: a little chubby back then. >> stuart varney, always great to see you. thank you. gregg: moving to el-gordo. it has been a brutal and nasty fight on television and the campaign trail for that matter for the republican candidates but they're getting a bit of a breather now with the holidays and so does our own chief political correspondent carl cameron who has been covering the candidates out on the campaign trail for several weeks, months now. carl's back in washington today and carl, how are the holidays going to impact the races as we inch a lot closer to the iowa caucuses. >> reporter: good morning, gregg. everybody gets a little bit of time off t really impact the candidates rather dramatically. when you look at calendar, i think we have one we can show you on the screen. you realize with the january caucuses on the 3rd because of two upcoming holiday weekends this campaign goes into something of suspended animation and there are only five, six campaign days left for the candidates. means this weekend with christmas and next weekend with new year's there is bit of a respite particularly on the air. a lot of candidates take down negative attack ads and replace them with warm and fuzzy bio commercials. in case of the pro-romney super pac doing tough attack ads on newt gingrich will come of the air this weekend as well. it makes it more tense for the candidates because they recognize the holidays cost them valuable campaign time in iowa. gregg: all the iowa voters have seen the negative ads about 1,000 times anyway. what do we see going into the final stretch, carl? >> reporter: because of how little time is left and because of the holidays basically things get frozen. you look at the polls, pretty clear, mitt mitt, newt gingrich and ron paul are in a battle three ways for iowa and gingrich has been slipping. the ex-speaker this week has been openlydown playing expectations and essentially for the last week and a half been suggesting that his slide in the polls is a consequence of the attack ads that will lighten up a little bit in the last couple weekends. gingrich is downplaying expectations saying he could come in third and fourth in iowa, perhaps first or second in new hampshire which follows by a week and then the speaker is saying in south carolina and florida he can come back because he's a southern conservative and running against what he calls a massachusetts moderate in mitt romney when things get down to the palmetto state. so we're at crunch time now. the holidays are a real different piece of calculus for the candidates because their messages have to relax a little bit and be more festive and have to get out on the campaign trail to make up the time in the final sprint. gregg: carl cameron back in washington. i'm sure your neighbors don't know who you are. >> i fly back in christmas. julie: hardest working man here. mitt romney getting the backing of an elder statesman of the republican party. former president george h.w. bush, bush 41, telling "the houston chronicle" he thinks romney is the best person for president because of his stability and experience and he is not a quote, bomb thrower. romney thanked the former president for his support in a phone call. >> another endorsement today. president george herbert walker bush said he supported me today. [applause] and he didn't use the word endorsement. he used the word support and he is supporting my effort and i appreciate that. actually more on a personal basis perhaps even than a political basis. i respect him enormously as an american hero. for his service and in the world war but losses as an american patriot. gregg: so what does the bush, sort of endorsement mean for the race? our political panel will weigh in on that. julie: just months after an either cake destroyed the city of christchurch, new zealand, another quake rattles the area and more nerves on that. gregg: major windstorm toppling trees, damaging homes just ahead of the holiday weekend. we'll tell you where these dramatic pictures and events occurred. >> the door got blown in and there's some glass flying around and, but, everybody was okay in there and nobody was hurt. [ male announcer ] the more you lose, the more you lose, because for every two pounds you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ julie: the city of christchurch, new zealand, rocked by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake. [screaming] julie: you can hear the people screaming in that video. no reports, miraculously of serious injuries and widespread damage but did shake things off store shelves here and sent people running from buildings. the epicenter was about 16 miles offshore but did not trigger a tsunami warning. in february, 6.3 magnitude quake destroyed much of christchurch and killed more than 180 people. gregg: well, house lawmakers are set to meet in less than an hour from now. we're awaiting an end to the bitter battle over the payroll tax extension bill. house republicans wanted a year-long fix but will have to settle for a two-month extension for now at least. louisiana congressman jeff landry is on the republican study committee. he joins us live and congressman, thanks for taking a few minutes. you're a freshman republican. you're a member of the tea party caucus. you voted on tuesday against the two-month extension, the senate bill. i assume you're reversing course right now because you're not in washington to be ob project in 45 minutes. why are you reversing yourself? >> well, i'm not reversing i'm not able to get back to washington in time to make that objection. this is bad policy and good politics. of course we've had a lot of bad policy and good politics. that's why we're $15 trillion in debt. that is why we have scandals like solyndra and to inject the kind of uncertainty --. gregg: congressman, i got to stop you there. if you felt so strongly about it, why didn't you stick around in washington? i mean we've been talking about this possibility all week. surely you had to know? >> well, no, one of the reasons i didn't stick around base he had the trust in the leadership that we were going to take this fight all the way to the end. it was our understanding that when we left town that we may be coming back for some votes, hoping that we would have a deal reached between the senate and the house which extended this payroll tax for one year. so it was our trust in the deal when we left town that this would not happen. gregg: yeah. >> but you're right, it --. gregg: i read the statement that you issued. i got it here in front of me. you rip into the senate and the president for rushing deals, quote, to go on vacation. but you're on vacation aren't you? you're back in louisiana. you left washington. >> no. if i was on vacation i wouldn't be here in front. camera. i can tell you we had an opportunity to come back into the district where we could visit with our constituents and hear from them. i wanted to come back into louisiana and talk to the people who i represent and find out if what i was believing they're believing. that this is a bad deal. gregg: your party has already won a couple of victories in this thing. your vote against it, notwithstanding. after all you got rid of the millionaires tax and president and democrats wanted. you inserted the keystone provision, which forces the president's hand on the oil pipeline. wasn't, why wasn't that good enough? >> well, i mean think about it. we're basically, there are a lot of things that are not in here. the bonus depreciation for business, for businesses is not in this. we're going to pay for this by increasing the fees on homeowners. and then we're going to come in, have this exact same fight again in two months. and it's ridiculous. we're injecting uncertainty into the american families budget. how do they know, so basically going to get this holiday for two months. we don't know what will happen after that. gregg: congressman, ever since your vote on tuesday against the two months extension your party, especially conservatives and tea party caucus, you're a member of that, you've been getting hammered in columns and editorials all over the country especially in the "wall street journal", the conservative editorial page. i want to quote them. here is what they said. they called your vote of a fiasco. a after a year of tea party house, obama and senate democrats had to make no major policy extensions, of extending tax rates for two years. mr. obama was in stronger reelection position than he was a year ago and chances of mr. mcconnell becoming majority leader are declining. given the politics of this thing, wasn't your vote damaging? >> i don't believe that because you know, our vote was the right vote. when is this going to end? again, this is good politics, sure. i will admit that but good politics has gotten into the condition we're in country. at end of the day i didn't come to washington to worry about elections. i came out here to worry about generations right. >> i mean when is this madness going to stop. we have to take a stand at some point. gregg: i took time to watch your remarks on the floor of the house of representatives. you were demanding a one-year extension to provide, in your words, certainty. you kept using that word over and over again, certainty and certainty. how does 10 more months provide any greater certainty? >> well, 10 more months at least, why? because normally people develop their budgets based on 12 months. and so at least they know going into the new year, that for the next 12 months their paychecks are not going to shrink. gregg: do you really think employers are going to make employment decisions to hire somebody based on such a small and temporary decrease as another ten months on top of the two months? >> no, absolutely not. this was never designed to have employers increase employment. this was designed to give americans more of their hard-earned money. we've had saying two months is unworkable. even media, the times said this two-month extension is unworkable for businesses. businesses pay their payroll taxes on a quarterly basis. so what we're voting on, doesn't even work for the american, for the american business out there. it is hard for them to calculate it. that's why if we're going to do it, we need to do it for one year. gregg: the vote is in 40 minutes. clearly you're not going to be there to object. so we'll wait and see if anybody else will. thanks very much, congressman jeff landry, of louisiana. julie: we'll be hearing from the democrats next. the congressman chris van hollen of maryland, who has been very vocal in this fight will join us live to talk about today's house meeting and what we can expect. we'll stay tuned to that. gregg: john edwards asking a judge to delay his trial on campaign corruption charges. his excuse for asking for more time. julie: plus the attorney general making a controversial claim about the uproar over "fast and furious". we'll get reaction from juan williams what could be politically thorny issue for the president grilled combinatios all under $20. like maine lobster with peppercorn sirloin, or new bacon-wrapped shrimp with blue cheese sirloin for $14.99. offer ends soon. i'm john mazany and i sea food differently. 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- offer ends soon. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that miissippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. gregg: and developing right now in "america's newsroom", former presidential candidate john edwards asking a judge to delay his trial for using donor money to hide his affair with a campaign worker. edwards claims to have a medical condition that would make attending the proceedings difficult. he is not disclosing the nature of that problem. well the famous santa anna winds sweeping through southern california. they are pulling down trees, causing tower outages even toppling over trucks. someone in arizona got into the christmas spirit. take a look at this. the question is who. a fully decorated christmas tree appearing at the top of camelback mountain near phoenix. julie: car bombings rocking syria's capitol. more than 30 people killed, more than 100 people hurt. leland vittert from jerusalem joins us live. leland, do we know really who was responsible for these attacks? >> reporter: hi, julie. we know who the syrian government has blapd and that is quote, al qaeda but in this kind of situation you really have to look beyond what the syrian government propaganda machine is putting out here. there are three possibilities and keep in mind as we go through these for eight months now the syrian