himself has been able to figure out ways to regain the trust of the american people and he got reelected. gretchen while it s true, is there a lot of things the president will have to work with congress on to get things done. if you read that document from 2010 there is an awful lot he can do just within the confines of his administration. are you concerned there will be too much of that in the next year? i ve been concerned that there s already been too much of it. this president has used executive privilege more than any other president, executive orders and his ability to put in place regulations and go around congress has grown in numbers. it s been more than any president we ve scene in modern times. i think a big challenge for congress this year is to bring back the power and challenge needed that our constitution laid out. and i think republicans are going to have to stand up, challenge this president. and despite his numbers being low, i mean this is the lowest they have be
comes to favorability numbers and approval numbers. they had a tough year as well, shutting down the government over repealing obamacare. you re right, the president had a tough year. i think washington had a tough year overall. the perspective most people have of washington has diminished. people don t think the city is working. i think what the president needs to do and democrats need to do is get back on talking about issues, first of all, keep the focus keep talking about the affordable care act. but they are also talking about extending unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, investing in infrastructure, talking about economic and job-related issues. i think that will help kind of get back on track. it was a tough year all around for washington. i don t think there are any victors here. you look at congressional approval, a fox news poll shows 17%, up from 10. gretchen, bringing in john podesta, an old hand from the clinton administration to be the chief counselor
a new era for the boy scouts will begin on wednesday. that is when the youth group will start allowing openly gay scouts to enroll. the boy scouts are still banning openly gay adults from holding leadership positions. those are the top stories right now, john. back to you. between the i.r.s. scandal, the n.s.a. leaks, the government shutdown, the failed rollout of the health care website, 2013 was a bit bumpy for president obama and his administration. the question is, can his administration move past all of that in 2014? joining us for a fair and balanced debate, doug thornell and gretchen hamlin. doug, let me put the question to you first, how would you sum up this past year for president obama? it was pretty bumpy, i think you re right. i think it was pretty bumpy for all of washington. the republican numbers are actually below the numbers of the president when it
0 deficient is they didn t have the same access to people who were not aware that they were being listened to. they were heavily reliant obviously on people they interviewed who had a reason to provide the story that they did. u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed in the attack which came on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks of 2001, a day when security should have been heightened. congressman sheuf says the report doesn t exonerate the obama administration from that. he says the u.s. plays a bigger role and bases that on what he says is extensive investigation. we have gone through some 4,000 different classified cables leading up to the event, talked to people on the ground during the event, done the post mortem on the event during the committee investigation. they didn t talk to the people on the ground doing the fighting, shooting and you re seeing it on both sides of the aisle where the democrats and republicans are coming out on that. i think t
i have to address what gretchen just said. it s not true the president didn t have spending cuts and plan. he signed the budget control act and offered a five year that he is trying to undue. excuse me. he offered a five-year freeze on discretionary nonsecurity spending. he does have plans on the table to. say he only wants tax cuts as the only way of solving the deficit problem is just not true. bill: if you don t cut, now where we ll be in four years. let s look at president s record. bill: 20 trillion is where we go. alan do you believe like gretchen believes that they are nowhere close. i have no idea. i don t know why john boehner is negotiating this in public. he had a private meeting with the president last week, they spoke by phone sunday night. today he gets out and says he s slow walk it, why is he doing it in public rather than dealing directly with the president and bad-mouthing the white house and saying the president is not really negotiating in good faith bas