e.j. dionne, great to have you with us tonight.

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e.j. dionne on the political impact of that later. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] think you need to go to a department store counter for a professional cleansing device? join the counter revolution and switch to olay pro-x. get cleansing results as effective as a $200 system. guaranteed or your money back. olay pro-x. ♪ you're wonderful ♪ you have a heart of gold [ male announcer ] vera wang love. the new diamond bridal collection from vera wang. exclusively at zales. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." president obama has put house speaker john boehner and republicans in a box on fiscal cliff negotiations. and the evidence is mounting. president obama stayed on offense today, visiting the santana family in northern virginia whose taxes will go up more than $4,000 in 2013 if middle class tax cuts aren't extended. >> i'm encouraged to see that there's been some discussion on t

with e.j. dionne. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. republicans are continuing their fight against the affordable care act. obama care. governor chris christie of new jersey became the latest republican governor to reject the creation of a state-run health care exchange today. christie vetoed a bill that would have started the process. instead, leaving the implementation up to the federal government. christie says the federal government failed to provide the answers he needed to make a fiscally sound decision. the move came after christie met with the president at the white house to discuss federal disaster relief. the state health insurance exchange is a key component to the obama care. it allows millions of middle class households as well as small businesses to shop for private insurance. states must decide by next friday if they want to set up their own exchange. they will -- they were allowed more time to mull over the decision after many republican governors delayed action. perhaps expecting a different outcome to the presidential

. >> tonight, a story of economic patriotism in an era of bain capital with e.j. dionne. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. the reality of the election is start to set in on members of the republican party. republican senator jim demint of south carolina is leaving capitol hill to become president of the heritage foundation. don't cry for demint. the out-going president of the heritage foundation made $1.1 million according to 2010 tax filings. demint will do just fine. it's not just about the money. the senator realizes he could be more effective for the conservative movement if he's not attached to the dysfunctional party known as the republican party. in a statement, demint said "i'm leaving the senate now but i'm not leaving the fight. i've decided to join the heritage foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas." he was more to the point on cnn earlier today. >> this will give me the opportunity to help take our case to the american people and to translate our policies into real ideas.

dionne of the brookings institution, georgetown university and the washington post. happy new year to all of you. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. there's always much more on our website as well. you can comment on all our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, music from the choir of trinity church wall street, in new york. ♪ additional funding also provided by mutual of america. designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the jane henson foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting.

and so e.j. dionne, senior fellow, friendliest person in the sunday morning circuit, while those guys are standing over the punch bowl, what should president obama be saying to them to get them to focus on what the country needs? >> i think i might say and do a couple things. i would have two really beautiful leather bound volumes and say to them, merry christmas. these are the county by county returns from the last election bound in this beautiful leather. you might want to study these. it's not 2010 anymore so let's figure out what to do. the second thing i'd say is this is a religious season so we think of religious folks. dear lord, give me chastity, but not yet. that's how you guys are with taxes. you sent me this letter. you say $800 million in taxes from tax reform, but we'll figure it out next year. no, we need the money now. tell us what deductions you get rid of and maybe you can give me a specific proposal where you outline those cuts and then we can negotiate is and maybe we'll get th

joining me now, e.j. dionne and thank you both for your time. senator solis, the jobless rate is at a four-year low. that's quite an achievement. >> yes, reverend re. but we still need to do more. in sectors like retail and health care and tourism and hospitality. we need to do more because people are still suffering. we've got to put jobs back in infrastructure and construction and put our teachers. that's why the president is working so hard so we don't go off the fiscal cliff so we keep the most vulnerable people out of harm's way. to pay $2,200. we've got to talk about fairness here and i'm very excited that the public is listening to the message that the president has made very, very clear. >> 146,000 new private sector jobs last month but one of the things that you talk about is the public sector. the president has proposed about $50 billion in infrastructure jobs which would be the public sector which is where a lot of the most hit communities, minorities and others are mostly working in and that's the public sector jobs, not the private

dionne, senior fellow at the brookings institution, professor at georgetown university and columnist for "the washington post." welcome to you all. kim has put together a short video reminder of what happened in 2012. >> a wave of mass shootings renewed age-old theological discussions about evil, suffering and tragedy. especially after the massacre at the connecticut elementary school, many religious leaders repeated calls for stricter gun control measures. some called it a pro-life issue. one of the mass shootings took place in a house of worship. in august, six people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a sikh temple in oak creek, wisconsin. once again, religion played an important role in the presidential election. for the first time ever, there were no white protestants on either ticket. although there wasn't a lot of god talk from president obama or mitt romney, grassroots religious groups were active on both sides. evangelical voters were divided dung t primary season, but in the end, they rallied around romney, despite some concerns about voting for a mormon candidate. st

"the washington post" columnist e.j. dionne says that may be the silver lining, writing, quote -- now at least we know something important. the current rep majority cannot govern, only a coalition across party lines can get the public's business done. e.j. joins us now, a senior fellow with the brookings institution and an msnbc contributor. e.j., great to see you, as always. john boehner sits to the left of center of his caucus. can he work out a deal without inciting a full-scale revolt? >> well, we don't know that, but i think he'll have to test it. that really tells you something about how conservative the republican caucus has done. john boehner is a good conservative. what we have learned from last week is that if you give the 30 to 60, whatever the actual number was, we can't know for issue, but 30 to 60 of the most conservative republicans veto power, you will never get a reasonable solution. president obama made a lot of concessions to john boehner. a lot of liberals didn't like all the concessions he made. he l

e.j. dionne, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. ezra klein filling in for rachel tonight. >>> good evening, i'm ezra klein. rachel maddow has the night off. well deserved. we appreciate you sticking around for the next hour on a very, very big night in the news. there is an enormous story about the rights of workers tonight in the state of michigan. it's seriously astonishing stuff. we'll get very deep into it. but there is another equally if not more seismic political story tonight out of washington. and that is where we begin. today will be seen, remembered, as a huge day in the republican party's continuance of war. something really big happened. south carolina senator jim demint announced today he'll be leaving the senate. he'll not be there anymore. he's leaving to head a think tank called the heritage foundation where he stands to make something like ten times his current salary. yay for jim demint, good money. kind of. it's good for him, but it's really good for his

washington post columnist e.j. dionne and also senior at the brookings institution joins us. good to see you. >> it is good to come together against false balance. >> i actually want sku something, e.j.-b the business community on this. you've had this big group of ceos, fix the debt, which schultz is a part of. early on it seemed they were going to exert a lot of influence and they've not actually seemed that powerful and certainly not that powerful in moving the republican party. why do you think that is? >> you know, i think that the business community never acts as a unified block. there are lots of pieces of it. secondly, the business community over the last 20, 25 years has moved to the right of where the business community used to be. in some ways you can see that in the political views of george romney versus the political views of mitt romney. and third, i think that in the republican house conference john boehner is far more worried about 35 to 70 of his most right-wing members for now anyway, especially going up to the vote on january 3rd for speaker than he is abo

let's read e.j. dionne columns. i think republicans should read e.j. dionne columns from the floor of the senate, that institution talking about how evil the republican party is for filibustering. let's get rid of it. and i'm deadly serious. get rid of the filibuster. >> i think americans want republicans to act a little less like republicans and democrats act, and getting rid of the filibuster is the middle ground for both. >> would you support getting rid of the filibuster? >> duh. >> will you write your two democratic senators and tell them to vote against the filibuster? >> chuck schumer, a good friend of mine. to me, i keep going back to the same thing. stop acting as you used to do by definition, you're going to win. this is an example. reach across. act differently. it's a different moment in time. >> mm-hmm. yes, it is. >> richard haass, should we get rid of the filibuster? >> absolutely. and it's one of the many things we should do. >> will you write your two democratic senators and ask them to get rid of the filibuster in january? >> i am hap

i am e.j. dionne come to senior your bookings. i moderated a panel spirit i would say the greatest insult ever directed to meet this from david brooks who said my eyes light up at the word panel discussion. it's not a powerful insight? the normally calm even when i have strong views, try to be fair and valid about things. i just want to confess up front i am not fair and balanced here because of my feelings about norm and calm. norm in time of my two favorite people in the world and i cannot tell you how excited i am that they have become celebrities. but it is a great thing for them, a great thing for the republic and i'm honored to be here susan amici who have agreed to join this great discussion. what to begin by saying this event is being live webcast. attendees are encouraged to treat. even worse is where he should send your comments. books will be available for purchase an autographed at the conclusion of the event. is there any other announcements and intimate, we can go to straighten to the main event. tom mann is a senior