scott rasmussen joining us now with a look at his latest polls on these issues. scott, good to see you. in general, i imagine the move in favor of gun control is increasing, correct? >> it has. in fact. 47% say they want stricter gun control laws at the highest level of support we've ever seen. 55% want to see a ban on assault weapons or semi automatic weapons. david, people want something to be done. they know there are no simple solutions and the world can't be made perfectly safe, but they're looking at gun control and limits on violent video games and movies and concerned about mental illness. david: we're looking at the favor assault weapons ban number. the 55% you've mentioned. we've been there before. we had a federal assault weapons ban and we've debated the governor of new jersey how effective that was. and were the numbers about the same leading into that assault ban? >> you know, there's enough difference, you can't compare numbers precisely and i think it's more an attitude, right now, the people are saying they want something done. there is a-- and a

joining me now is ace pollster scott rasmussen. i just did a little tv gig with scott, who's in about 60 cities across the country. all right, scott. you heard timothy geithner. he said if they don't raise taxes on the rich, they were going to go over the fiscal cliff. but at the end of the day, if we do fall over the fiscal cliff, if taxes go december 31st, will the republican party be blamed? >> absolutely. right now, people aren't convinced that either the president or congressional republicans are serious about negotiating. but they're a lot more willing to believe that the president is negotiating in good faith. >> and let me ask you. is the republican party therefore becoming the party of the rich, defending the top tax brackets, and is obama becoming the party of the middle class? >> absolutely. and larry, the reason the republicans are in this fix right now is because they think these discussions and negotiations are about deficit reduction. president obama thinks they're about fairness. most americans, solid majority, want

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stuart: scott rasmussen, very interesting and glad you brought it to us. >> happy to do it stuart. stuart: and now to something really different. mayan doomsday watchers say that the end of the world is coming, coming tomorrow. not so fast. and we'll go to the mayans themselves-- according to the mayans themselves the world will continue. and steve austin, a best selling author and wrote a book on the end of the world. we'll challenge him. if the end of the world is ending tomorrow, if the world is ending tomorrow why is he coming on this show and selling a book. i want to ask him. how many books have you sold and ever heard of pt barnum. that's at the top of this coming hour. can't wait for that. now, this is serious, too, there's a big snowstorm and it's hammering the midwest. it's slowing travelers, it's causing flight delays. the storm dumped about a foot on the rocky mountains, a foot of snow. it continues to spread across the midwest and winter storm warnings from colorado to wisconsin and this will affect package delivery and christmas travel and could be millions of people

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reports, scott rasmussen. scott, we certainly have been getting a lot of e-mails over the course of the last couple of weeks and arrest they will has a -- arthel has a great one. >> arthel: this is from a friend of mine who lives in san diego. she sent a text, she says, fiscal cliff issues drive me crazy! they should not get paid until it's resolved and we have a meaningful budget. none of us could run our household the way washington runs things. what do you say to that? >> you know, that's the real story here. people are looking at these kids in washington who are just messing up and can't do the basics. they're disgusted with both political parties and i think all of our political leaders are going to have a hard time regaining any legitimacy or credibility after this is done one way or the other. it is true congressional republicans are faring a little worse than the president. but people are pretty fed up with the entire process. >> gregg: the president keeps saying he wants to raise taxes on the rich. bu

david: that was scott rasmussen with the latest poll on gun control and don't forget to tune into varney 9:20 sharp. and nicole-- okay, we'll go back to nicole, as soon as we find her, she's wandering the floor of the nyse. and stuart may be out this christmas eve, that doesn't mean he isn't spreading holiday cheer. liston what he has to say at 10:45, a christmas message from stuart. meanwhile, we are headed towards the fiscal cliff and if congress doesn't act soon the the u.s. economy could take a nosedive right off it. all this have comes as capitol hill, could a value-added tax be in the pipeline? are we slowly turning to europe. david, good to see you. and we already see us moving in terms of spending to the european model. will we move in terms of tax policy to the european model, specifically to a value-added tax like they have in most of europe? >> personally i think we should. >> on top of what we have, on top of an income tax. >> we need to cut back and what i would cut back is replacement for the medicare tax, but also, corporate tax rates should be part of the deal, too. >> wh

according to the latest rasmussen poll you say, oh, no, scott rasmussen joins us now. all right, scott, i've seen the numbers, 5% think that congress is doing a good or excellent job. that's it? >> that's it. 69% say they're doing a poor job and stuart, i know this is going to be hard to believe, i think those numbers are going to get worse. stuart: really? >> yeah, the reason i say that is we have all of this talk about the fiscal cliff negotiations, that are going to eliminate this middle class tax hike, but the fact is, payroll taxes are going up. if you make $50,000 a year, you're going to pay a thousand more in taxes so when the president and congressional leaders stand up and say we saved the world, we avoided middle class tax hikes and look at your paycheck, you're going to realize they talk in a different language in washington and people get burned. stuart: i know you've got a poll on the blame game. i'm going to put it up on the screen now. i think it sails 44% will blame the republicans if we go over the cliff and 36% blame the president, scott, i think that