politico's mike allen and cnbc's eamon javers, thank you. >> happy new year. >> i got your name right this time. when we come back, how should investors prepare for the office calf cliff? "business before the bell" with mary thompson next. i'm jennifer hudson. i hate getting up in the morning. i love bread. i love cheese. did i say i love chocolate? i'm human! and the new weight watchers 360 program lets me be. the reason i'm still in this body feelin' so good isn't because i never go out and enjoy the extra large, extra cheese world we live in. it's because i do. and you can too. because when a weight loss program is built for human nature you can expect amazing. introducing the new weight watchers 360 program. join for free and expect amazing. because it works. ♪ >>> live look at times square. happy new year, as we count down to the fiscal cliff here on "morning joe." with us now from the new york stock exchange, we have cnbc's mary thompson. mary, it's good to have you on this morning. first of all, how's wall street? i mean, we're preparing for whatever the reaction might be to

>> mike allen with a look at the "playbook." >> good morning. that strut is on youtube, so check it out. >> oh, wow. we'll have to look that up. all right, mike. you've been speaking a lot lately to senator marco rubio, had a sit-down conversation with him. i guess when you talked to him, you took another crack at that science question. clarify an answer he gave to "gq" when he was asked about the age of the earth. remember, senator rubio took a little grief, saying that he was not qualified to answer the question, calling it, quote, one of life's great mysteries. remember, i'm not a scientist, man, the whole thing. yesterday, mike, i guess you spoke to him as part of the "playbook" breakfast and you gave him a chance to explain that answer. let's listen. >> how old do you think the earth is? >> first of all, the answer i gave was trying to make the same point the president made a few years ago, and that is there is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. i mean, it's established it. pretty definitively. at least 4.5 billion years old. i w

mike allen, great to have you here on set. >> it's a treat. >> we thought we were going to be getting out of town, some of us -- >> speak for yourself. >> the cabinet would be named, but that is not happening, the not the foreign policy team, first susan rice derailed as secretary of state, now john kerry's candidate on track. >> but the president's people had hoped to do what they were calling the big bang, to do all the appointments to the national security cabinet together, to name a new secretary of state, a new secretary of defense, a new head of the cia. we're told because of the fiscal cliff negotiations, also more so because of the newtown tragedy, all that has been put off, so it's possible that on friday we will get an announcement just of senator kerry of secretary of state. that's the soonest that would be. the others certainly will be later, probably in the new year after the president's back from hawaii. >> there are other complications. let's look at the calendar, senator kerry is chairing the public hearings on benghazi, and how we were talking about earlier, how awkwa

. >> mike allen and it jim vandehei wrote a fascinati ece and a liti about this. "the politicians with good jobs and in this town would agree in private at sure, there is a way to do this -- tax reform, entitlement reform." why don't they do it? >> let's give credit to the people who had something on the line and voted for something as tough as of scandals and alan simpson's plan, and that would include -- as erskine bowles and alan simpson's plan, and that would include big durbin, tom coburn, mike crapo from wyoming. there are a handful of people who did. what you are confronted with right now is the reality that not since 1990 has any republican and a house or this and -- the house or the senate voted for any tax increase. what they are terrified of is a primary challenge. they have all of these bedwetters and nervous nellies in the caucus who are terrified ey will be primary ihey vo to incase t taxesf donald trump by a dime. >> when you listen to mark, you think this is a republic governed by the house of representatives. aptly, we have a president. as evan in

. >> no, mike allen. >> rose: mike allen wrote the piece for politico. >> yes. and mike couldn't have been better about it. it was totally stand up. he said do you want to respond to it. you don't want to get on a back and forth on this. i would just say that there were a number of talented writers who contributed to the campaign on an ongoing basis. did tremendous work, tremendous work. we never in the campaign, the same with spots we had different change of people. we all said this is a romney product, not this is by x, this is by y. and there were contributions from a number of writers to the governors. he gave the speech he wanted to give but this was always about the speech that he wanted to give. and in no way did i -- >> rose: i would hope that would be true. i would assume that would be true. i don't think that governor romney got to where he is by not being able to forcefully tell people what he thought he should do. >> particularly when it comes to writers that's never been a problem. >> rose: so he gave a speech he wanted to give and anybody trying to

he joins mike allen at a breakfast discussion on the so- called fiscal cliff discussions. this is about 25 minutes. [applause] >> good morning, sunshine. welcome to the political breakfast. thank you for getting up so early. we are pleased to have an amazing double-header. if we will speak to senator rubio who last night give a big speech -- one of the first formal speeches looking ahead at the future of the republican party. we will talk about that. the amazing bob woodward who has a fantastic book out on the last grand bargain negotiations is going to be joining us in just one second. first, welcome all of the people in a live-stream planned. we'll be taking your questions. tweet us. and to c-span. welcome to the others were watching. we appreciate bank of america for making these conversations possible. we are very, very excited to bring these substantive conversations about the most important issues around washington to do things to bank of america. thank you, john. so, you may have gotten cards. the thinking about what you're going to ask. without further ado, the spr

mike allen, the chief white house correspondent for politico. margaret brennan, our state department correspondent. and our chief white house correspondent, major garrett. so, gentlemen, isn't it a shame we don't have anything really to talk about? nothing much-- >> what a slow news week. >> schieffer: yeah, slow news week here as we head into christmas. mike, i have to ask you, what about this ben affleck for the senate? do you think he might do that? >> i don't upon i think there's a reason senator al franken is one of the few celebrities that actually get into congress but your conversation with him made it clear someone else who wanted to be talked about is ted kennedy jr. cthe senator's son, who we are told will announce today or tomorrow whether or not he'll go for senator kerr's seat. >> schieffer: do you think if he doesn't decide to seek that senate seat, do you think he'll try for something else? >> i think so bob. it's a little awkward for him. he lives in connecticut. he summers at hyannis port, actually in president kennedy's old ho

mike allen, thank you so much. >> thank you, mike. >> we appreciate it. we talked about ben bernanke beforehand in a news article. explain something to me, because you know i'm a simple man, got simple tastes. i just love running through the fields barefooted, you know. >> eating doughnuts. >> eating doughnuts. eating munchkins after a cool spring rain. but anyway, i don't understand -- you like that, harold? i don't know where this comes from. i think it's a sugar rush from the munchkins. but anyway. i don't understand how the entire chattering class, the elites, all the economists, the entire world decided they were going to beat the hell out of alan greenspan for providing cheap money over a decade. how could he do that? how could he do that after the long-term capital collapse? how could he do that after the collapse in asia? how could you do that after the dotcom bust? but alan greenspan never did what this fed chairman is doing. i mean, he's taken greenspan's belief that cheap money will help americans through tough times to an absurd new level. >>

mike allen, thanks so much. >> thank you, mike. >> never too early. have a great week. >> actually, if i can just correct him, willie, i think it's a little early. >> it's way too early. >> i think we need to get out of the calendar year. let's get through advent. >> opening day. >> opening day. >> put another way. >> how about opening day 2015. >> i'll go for that. >> i love -- go back and look at polls two years before any election. go back and look at the 1978 democratic poll which i always like to do, willie. it's one of my favorites. ted kennedy was going to beat jimmy carter by 20 points in the primary and was going to be, what, howard baker or somebody. ronald reagan was just a glint in right-wing californians' eyes in '78. and ted kennedy was going to be the president. >> absolutely. >> everybody knew it. everybody knew it. >> and by the way, five years ago, hillary/giuliani was a lock. >> it was a lock. if i can just say, that's how "morning joe" started its first six months, by declaring that a lock. >> that was so long ago. just like psy. >

mike allen with a look at the "playbook." thanks so much. >> have a great week. >>> coming up next on "morning joe" -- >> here we go. final seconds. luck steps. luck, a little flip, donnie avery, he's in! touchdown! indianapolis has done it! >> that is the rookie, andrew luck, engineering a last-second comeback against the lions. the indianapolis colts continue their let's call it miraculous march toward the playoffs given where they were last season. mike florio, our buddy, takes us through all the nfl action including the quarterback controversy here in new york. that's next. [ male announcer ] we began serving handcrafted coffees in seattle, and people seemed to like it. so we wondered -- where else could we take this? ♪ for over 40 years, we've brought our passion for fine coffee and espresso to people everywhere. but one place was impossible, until now. our lattes, espresso and brewed coffee, now in your home. the verismo™ system by starbucks. at legalzoom, we've created a better place to handle your legal needs. may

mike allen moderates the discussion. see it live at 8:10 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> today, influence in the south caucasian region, the border region between southeast europe and asia. live coverage starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> the economist mark azande from moody's says that going back gone tax cuts on the rich would do less damage than the other options. this is 90 minutes. >> chairman, you're welcome to stick around if you have any ideas, but i suspect you have to get back to the hill. >> thank you. i will turn the stage back to peter cook from bloomberg. he will moderate the discussion. >> chairman, you are welcome to sit around, but i have a funny feeling you will get back to the hill. we hope to come up with some ideas from this esteemed panel. [indiscernbile] we will write them down and send them out. i will hand them to your staffer. all right, you hear the mission here, folks -- something that can pass congress and meet with everyone's approval. no small task. >> thank you. >> thank you, chairman baucus. there are new

mike allen, thank you very much. >> thank you, mike. >> happy weekend. >>> peyton manning and the denver broncos looked like super bowl contenders last night. >> they are looking good. >> their eighth straight win. highlights from thursday night football ahead in sports. rhonda's christmas shopping and she was looking for a laptop at best buy. let's see if walmart has a similar laptop for less. let's go. dell 14" ultrabook. over $250 less than best buy. $250??!! with 2 gigs more memory! oh my gosh! and -- you get a $100 gift card. wow! chaching. see for yourself if you could save on the laptops you want. [ earl ] get this season's hottest brands -- like the dell ultrabook and receive a $100 gift card and when you make an electronics purchase of $599 or more on your walmart credit card, get no interest if paid in full within 24 months. america's gift headquarters. walmart. military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and t

when mike allen and i wrote "a patriot's history of the united states" in 2004, we identified three major elements that made up americanism. nevertheless, we never really provided a definition of american exceptionalism, and doing our revisions over time we kind of corrective that for the next addition that we hope will be out next year. even in 2004, it seemed a natural progression to move toward a history of the world, especially the modern world. it's the modern world that we see the truthfulness of american liberty and prosperity on display. and under attack. through an amazon book review of "a patriot's history of the united states" i met dave doherty, an arkansas businessman historian, computer expert from evening shade, yes, there is an evening shade, arkansas. we first begin a top to bottom review of any -- and then over time i discovered he's a wonderful co-author and so asked him to help me with "a patriot's history of the modern world." he proved especially good in areas where i was week or and as a former intelligence officer in the army, he brought a new perspective to the co

mike allen with a look at the "playbook." mike, thanks so much. >> happy weekend. >> we'll see you. >>> coming up, with an afc wild card spot in their sights, the cincinnati bengals' defense trying to come up big against the eagles. also big baseball news. the los angeles angels' lineup just got a little more scary. josh hamilton now joining albert pujols and mike trout. >> if i'm josh hamilton, i'm thinking what city would be best for me to lay low, go through my rehab, ongoing rehab battles, had problems last year. you know what i'm thinking? >> stay out of the media spotlight. >> stay out of the media spotlight. there's not a lot of flash, not a lot of coke, not a lot of smack, not a lot of crazy living, i'm thinking l.a. i'm going to l.a. >> right to hollywood. >> right to hollywood, yeah. >> sports is next. >> wow. of washington about the future of medicare and social security. anncr: but you deserve straight talk about the options on the... table and what they mean for you and your family. ancr: aarp is cutting through

mike allen, thank you so much. it's always great talking to you. >>> and coming up next, rg3 makes a courtside cameo at last nights wizards game and gets a well-deserved standing ovation. that's coming up next. and andrea's about to give him a standing ovation now. we're talking sports next. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve great rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? if you're a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. the only underarm treatment for low t. that's right, the one you apply to the underarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others

>> mike allen. he's right now in washington, chief white house correspondent for "politico" here with the "playbook." i was looking at the morning "playbook." there's no need to join a newspaper. >> we love newspapers. buy newspapers. >> i know. no one loves newspapers more than i do. there's so much information packed into this thing, each and every day, give us some. come on. >> and i'm going to start every day by saying come together at the top. >> all right. we like that. >> so a top story today, one of the ledges of the fiscal cliff, those automatic spending cuts that almost certainly are going to kick in. we don't see that being part of some last-second deal. hit the defense department. but the pentagon's real problem is not those cuts, but the ones that are going to be coming over the next decade. we talked to military contractors, top officials at the pentagon. they see a long period of downward decline. that after the war in afghanistan, there's going to be a period of austerity. they're ca

mike allen, we know what we're getting you for christmas, a lozenge. >> merry christmas. thanks for a great year, "morning joe." congratulations on a great run. >> thanks so much. >>> coming up next, he is one of the most decorated coaches in all of college basketball, geno auriemma, the head coach at uconn, joins us next, telling us what he and the university are doing to help the victims of the sandy hook tragedy. keep it on "morning joe." have a good night. here you go. you, too. i'm going to dream about that steak. i'm going to dream about that tiramisu. what a night, huh? but, um, can the test drive be over now? head back to the dealership? [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a passat. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. yeah. and you can get it with virgin mobile's plan. $35 a month with unlimited data and messaging included. with al

joining me now is politico's mike allen, chief white house correspondent. we are stalemated. there is a personal relationship between the president and boehner, but the sense that i'm getting from the white house in the last 24 hours is they were very surprised by plan b, very disappointed, and you hear both sides saying that the other hasn't given -- the white house feels that the president has put a lot on the table. >> he has, and the white house yesterday brought the top business leaders in the country into the white house. secretary geithner and others to warn them, basically to scare them that the cliff is coming. to tell them that things have gone backwards in the last 24 hours. what we see here is speaker boehner saying this isn't on us. we're trying. both sides are going to say that they're trying because you talk to people up there. they're increasingly convinced on both sides there's going to be no deal. i can tell you -- excuse me -- in the white house they're extremely concerned about what the economic and market reaction to that. it may be that a deal is close e

after watching on tv, mike allen wrote he received an immediate e-mail from an astute republican official saying, pass the jam, he's toast. so is it game over for hagel? the white house certainly seemed to be backtracking this weekend. a senior official told the national journal on sunday it was fair to say obama's considering candidates other than hagel for defense secretary, so will republicans get their way again? as democrats are left scratching their heads about the possibility of the president getting rolled on a second nomination, the question for them is if hagel is really toast, is obama milk toast? i'm going right to joy reid, you don't like milk toast leadership, i don't know where you stand on toast. >> it's carbohydrate-laden, so i'm against it. >> it's the holidays. >> that's true. >> people are royally upset. hagel said objectionable things, no one, not even his people, are defending that. on the other hand, as i said, he would be, by the standards of pentagon leadership, which is its own metric, he would be a more liberal, more reformist voice for a more multilateral and c

. >> let me play for you an interview that norquist did with politico's mike allen. >> this president is not going to extend. he knows that he loses his leverage that way. >> okay, well, the republicans also have other leverage: continuing resolutions on spending and the debt ceiling increase. they can give him debt ceiling increases once a month. they can have him on a rather short leash, on a small, you know, "here's your allowance, come back next month if you've behaved"-- >> okay, okay, wait. you're proposing that the debt ceiling be increased month-- >> month -- >> -- by month? >> -- monthly. monthly, if he's good. weekly, if he's not. >> it does seem apparent that norquist is prepared to bring the government down if he has to, if he doesn't get his way. >> yeah, i don't know why anybody's paying any attention to him. you know, he doesn't hold any public office, he's a self-declared leader who goes around saying, you know, "this is what i want you to do." but where does he get his strength? where does he get the force that makes people pay attention to him? >> good question. >> i

they saw mike allen wrote a piece about it in politico's playbook and. >> a young captain which set up the outpost, he wanted me to write about, staff sergeant jerod monty who had been killed, won the medal of honor posthumously and write about his brothers and lieutenant dave roller, he wanted me to write about his commander who had been killed and the fact they had some success there is in that valley, but the outpost wasn't all meaningless and for nought, they had actually done some things, so it became, as these troops became invested in the projects, it became a much larger and much more comprehensive study and i think, hopefully a better book because it is a narrative. >> and what is the role of stan crystal, of stan mcchrystal, the former commander of troops in afghanistan who later had to leave? >> stan mcchrystal makes a decision to lay the closure of the outpost. the men who come in, colonel randy george and lieutenant colonel brad brown they come in to take control of this area of operations which includes combat outpost keating in may, june, 2009 and they present mcchrystal

. >>> up next, mike allen is here with us in new york. with the top stories in the "politico playbook." >>> but first, is it phil cabins? i like that. >> phil. >> bill karins. he is the best with a check on the forecast. bill. >> good wednesday morning, everyone. not a lot of big weather headlines out there going to cause you problems today. just a few interesting side notes. let's get to the new england area first. a little colder this morning than yesterday. so definitely warmer clothes and the winter gear, especially north of i-95. it's going to be a beautiful winter afternoon, though. temperatures are going to be in the mid to upper 40s in the big cities. upper 30s in the burbs with no snow on the ground, pretty nice for this time of year. d.c., what a nice period to get all your errands done for the holidays. temperatures into the low 50s by the weekend. no complaints anywhere. northeast or mid-atlantic the next five days. the southeast, a little different story. we got some rain this morning. i-95 south of south carolina into charle

mike allen also interviews marco rubio. they discuss the budget and taxes in the future of the republican party. this is just over an hour. [applause] >> good morning. welcome to playbook breakfast. thank you for coming out so early. we are excited to have an amazing doubleheader today. we are going to talk to senator rubio last night gave one of the first formal speeches to the head to the future of the republican party. we'll talk to senator rubio about that. next we have bob woodward who has a fantastic book out on the last grand bargain negotiations is going to be in just a second. first, welcome to people in lifestream land. will be taking your questions on hash tag political practice. welcome c-span, welcome others who are watching. we're appreciative to the bank of america for making these conversations possible. we had a great partnership this year including the conventions so we're very excited to bring the sensitive conversations about the issues driving washington thanks to the bank of america. thank you to your

bringing us together again up next, mike allen with the political playbook. here's dylan dryer with a check on the forecast. >> we're talking about more snow in the northeast. this time around this is not a big storm, maybe a few inches. winter storm advisories are posted from northern arkansas right through tennessee and up into the mid-atlantic region. where is the storm right now? through louisiana and arkansas bringing mostly rain to the area. as it moves eastward it will wrap into colder air. the bulk of the storm is it staying offshore. it looks like rain along the immediate coastline from cape cod, massachusetts down into southern new jersey. that dark shade of purple is where we could see 3 to 5 inches. you you go inland further away from the storm and it looks like 1 to 3 inch. just enough to make it slippery for the weekend. today looks real nice across the northeast. we'll dry it out and look for sunshine and a little chilly but it's the end sdechl after all. that's your latest forecast. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. this famil

here he is talking to mike allen about how he sees the strategy of this playing out. >> this president is not going to extend. he loses his leverage that way. >> republicans have other leverage. they can give him debt ceiling increases once a month, have them on a rather short leash, here's your allowance, come back if you have behaved. >> wait. you are proposing the debt ceiling be increased -- >> monthly. monthly if he's good. weekly, if he's not. >> it's no -- note that in the opening offer, getting rid of essentially this debt ceiling procedure was part of that. i think probably because of precisely that. i want to bring in bruce bartlett. he's an analyst from the reagan and bush administration. bruce, you were there at the beginning of the supply side revolution, the tax revolt. i guess, what is your sense of how it's evolved and what the poll -- how the politics have changed over time. >> first of all, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, taxes were, in fact, at a historical high. more importantly, they were rising rapidly. we had high inflation. the tax system was not index for infla