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World and joins me now. there we are, it s great to see you, mr. secretary. i wish we were at disney world. let s talk about the visa program, first of all, what was announced today. will it really make a difference in simplifying the applications for tourist visas from foreigners? absolutely, andrea. it is great to be here in disney world and this is exactly the kind of place where jobs are created through tourism and by simplifying the visa process and the other programs that the president announced today. we believe that additional jobs will be created here for the united states. our goal is simple. make it the top destination for tourists around the world and we ll create jobs by so doing. i wanted to ask you about the pipeline decision, as a member of the cabinet, this is the criticism of it from the speaker of the house, john boehner, yesterday. the president won t stand up to his political base, even in the name of creating american jobs. and now a candidate is going to ha ....
The idea of a pipeline running the country has unnervedcrucial all sorts of people in that rt of the country. including farmers, including the very republican nebraska state legislature, and that state s very republican governor. as well as lots of protesters from all over the country who made their concerns about that pipeline known at the white house and elsewhere over the course of this year. the white house last month decided that pipeline decision needed measure time. needed more time for environmental review and other reasons. the white house declared last month the decision on the pipeline would be put off until after the 2012 election. now, when congressional republicans threatened to force the keystone pipeline decision into the payroll tax negotiations somehow, the white house responded by saying, that would not be acceptable. the white house responded by saying they would veto any such extraneous thing being tacked on to the payroll tax question. well tonight, word that incl ....
Nbc s luke russert. where do things stand there? reporter: good morning, alex. the bipartisan vote will extend the payroll tax for two months. the only real opposition was folks who had a concern about the cost of the bill even though it was offset completely and overall we re going to see included in this vote, a pipeline decision for the president within the next 60 days. and really that was put in to garner a lot of republican support and they were able to get that republican support as you saw with that 89-10 margin. now it s going to go over to the ....
Exact new route within six months, house republicans are proposing legislation to take the decision away from the white house and the state department and give it, instead, to a federal agency that deals with pipelines, the ferc, the federal energy regulatory commission, in hopes of removing politics from the decision. listen. this removes any decision making from the state department and the president. they don t have to pick between friends now. [laughter] reporter: republicans argue the president postponed the pipeline decision so he wouldn t have to anger one of two key constituencies, either labor unions or environmentalists. but democrats made clear in the hearing this morning they don t want any new major oil projects. we should be reducing our oil dependence and using cleaner fuels. but keystone is a big step in the opposite direction. reporter: democrats were talking about emphasizing alternative energy, not oil. now, officials from the company building the pipeline, t ....
Gingrich s asen dency? do you think he is going to be the challenger to mit romney, who continues to hold a nice, strong, steady number? quickly on the solyndra thing i think one of the things the white house should have done immediately early on is ask for a complete investigation so that they could point to that. instead now what they complain about is republicans are so-called cherry picking evidence and putting putting ito there. but when you have e-mails the department of energy asking a company they have given a lone to not to lay off people until after the election in order to help them politically, that s disgusting. that s one reason people like herman cain and he took off because he doesn t sound like a politician. solyndra is a huge negative for the presidency but there are others. the pipeline decision, outrageous. canada. and the statement we are lazy. where on earth is this president ....