it s a dangerous, tumultuous time in the roman empire. nowhere more so than in the province of judea on the far edge of the mediterranean. its capital, the holy city of jerusalem, is teeming with pilgrims for the springtime feast of passover. many of them looking for an earthly key, a messiah who will deliver them from the yoke of roman oppression. into this powder keg walks jesus of nazareth. his protests against the romans make him a popular hero. to some, he is the messiah. but to the romans, he s political trouble, so they crucify him. the followers of jesus believed that he has risen from the dead and will soon usher in the kingdom of heaven, but when and how will this new faith survive after jesus? today, more than 2 billion people call themselves christians, people who believe jesus rose from the dead. but perhaps it s a miracle that christianity did not disappear when the romans crucified jesus on a lonely hill outside jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. this region
back down, to agree to a two-month extension or risk ruining the brand. tonight looking pretty grim he did. doing the right thing for the right reasons is always the right thing to do. while everyone asked for a full year extension of these programs, a lot of people weren t willing to put the effort in as the holidays were approaching to get it done. our members were. so i m proud of the efforts that they put into this. dana is going to join us to explain the mechanics of the deal, the spaks. president obama was quick to praise the outcome. the statement read thg is the real money that will make a real difference in people s lives and i want to thank every american who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. and to give you an idea of some of the pressure, intense pressure lawmakers were feeling, take a look at these two entries from rick crawford s web page. the first one is december 20th. the headline reads, quote, crawford rejects
let s go outfront. good evening everyone. i m erin burnett. we re in countdown, counting down to a tax hike. congress has ten days to reach a deal that will keep american taxes from going up on january 1st. if they fail to agree, the average american worker will lose $40 a week. under fire today, republican house members who rejected a deal that would have extended the payroll tax cut by two months. past the two-month extension, return to work on the year-long extension or explain to the american people, 160 million of them, why congress would not listen to them. the speaker in turn went before the cameras to make his point. we re here. we re ready to work, looking for our counterparts to sit down with us so we can do what the president, bipartisan leaders in the house and senate all want. that s to extend the payroll tax cut for one year. deja deal. why don t we have a deal? let s asking republican jeb hensarling from texas, co-chair of the deficit super committe
bill, if you can get this fixed, why not why not do the right thing for the american people even though it s not exactly what we want. full details of the deal, the compromise and reaction. president obama said, for the past several weeks i ve stated consistently it was critical congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 mill americans. an agreement meet that s test. more reaction coming as well. latest on the details and the political fallout. dana bash is with us and jessica yellin. let s go to the hill first. house republicans are saying we have a tweak in the language here to help small businesses, but this is cave with a capital c, no. reporter: tweak with a little t, barely you can see the tweak. house republicans gave in here. you could see it in the house speaker s demeanor. you could hear it in his voice. he all be gave a concession speech. both on the politics and on the policy of this. policy meeting as he said we fought the good fight.
are going to be making some statements i suspect as well. at least the president will talk about what s at stake for them. john, you and i have covered these games of chicken for a long time. president will be walking out in a moment. can t believe personally that they won t work out a deal between now and december 31st, because the stakes are too enormous. the stakes are enormous. i think you re right they ll try to work out a deal. if republicans this morning didn t think they d wake up and make a deal, the president of the united states is winning the optics of the political war right now. now he s going to add some rhetoric to it as well. let s listen in. thank you, everybody. please, please have a seat. good afternoon to all of you. merry christmas. happy holidays. we ve been doing everything we can over the last few weeks to make sure that 160 million working americans aren t hit with a holiday tax increase on january 1st. we ve also been doing everything we can t