0 even with underground power lines, they are connected to the areas with the above-ground power lines. people need to be repaired to go without power for several days without power. bill: leading our coverage in downtown atlanta. martha: to give you an idea how large this storm is. check out the map. it's a huge band that goes all the way across the south and the lower portion of the northeast from texas to the carolinas and it's expected to arrive in the northeast late tonight into the overnight hours. some areas could see up to a foot of snow. so some context on this storm. governors in 7 states declared a state of emergency. 300,000 homes in georgia are expected to lose power. nearly 2,700 flights already have. martha: i think storm number 5 we have dealt with in this kind of stuff that makes people stay home and miss school and for those of us who work here. just so you can get back and forth. bill: and dream about spring. martha: fox news alert as we get ready to spend some more money in washington. the house passed the debt ceiling hike. the senate is expected to pass it today before it land on the president's desk. our nation's debt stand at $17.3 trillion. but what's a trillion here or there. it grows of second. why do so many republican leaders jump on board after promising they would not keep kicking the debt can down the road. >> he's the one driving up the debt. the question they are asking is why should i deal with his debt limit. the fact is we'll let the democrats put the votes up, the president driving up the debt and the president wanting to do nothing about the debt that's occurring will not engage in our long-term spending problem. so let his party give him the debt ceiling increase he wants. martha: it's your problem, you deal with it, basically. stuart varney joins us. this is surprising to a lot of people. republicans all along said no way we won't sign debt ceiling limits. now they are singing a different tune on this. >> reporter: a lot of republicans put conditions on the debt ceiling deal. but there weren't enough votes to get it passed. so john boehner went with a clean bill. this means no confrontation in congress been the democrats, the republicans and the white house. the government has a blank check to spend whatever congress authorizes him to spend all the way through 2015. wall street loved it. the dow industrials went up close to 200 points and will be over 16,000 points this morning. martha: when you look at this it takes the debt ceiling issue off the table. you are wondering if the democrats are look at the ease with which some this passed. >> reporter: some democrats are unhappy with what happened, they were hoping the republicans would be obstructionists and that would give them a nice issue in the next election. many republicans are happy, they wanted to cut spending. now they have an open field. no confrontations. that means the elections will be focused on obamacare, that's a negative for democrats and a positive for republicans. bill: president obama defending another delay in the employer mandate. there have been so many changes. nearly 30 delays and extensions and critics argue the president is abusing his power. >> how can a president that puts his hand on the bible and takes an oath to uphold the laws of the united states do this? what authority does he have to do that. the truth is he has no such authority. >> the president says he has a pen and cell phone. but the american people have a constitution, and the constitution doesn't give hip the authority to unilaterally change the law. he has to come to the congress to do that. >> reporter: republican scepticism grows by the day over whether the administration will fully enforce of any law. martha: this is very important this morning as well. the statement is al qaeda who we were told was on the run during the presidential elections appears to no longer be on the run. that's according to national intelligence director james clapper. he testified al qaeda is be >> is al qaeda on the run? >> it's morphing itself here and other parts of the world. martha: he said in africa there is a perfect storm of conditions for these groups to thrive and develop. there is always this tendency to separate the word al qaeda from other extremist groups around the world. and clapper clearly linked them. and that's a different narrative than what we heard from the white house. bill: he was asked point blank if died p -- if al qaeda was on the run and he said no it is morphing. we'll explore that. is there a new assault on political speech in new acue sayings the government is d new acue sayings the' government is going after conservative groups. >> you can no longer engage in voter registration and voter education. that's just wrong. martha: it takes more than a bike to get away from a cop. the entire takedown caught on tape. bill: a father being called a hero for saving his daughter. you can hear all of this in this frantic 911 call. >> he just broke my window. he's trying to kill us. ♪