Washington Says Goodbye to 2013
COSTELLO: McDonald's tells employees, get this: don't eat fast food. That's the advice posted on an employee Web site. I'm not kidding. It promotes raw vegetables and says things like, pass on the pickles, less salt. The McDonald's site has been in the headlines before. Alison Kosik --</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know it's a head scratcher. It's a bit of a head scratcher. So, this is all emanating from its internal Web site called McResources. It basically provides resources to its own employees. Yes, it kinds of shows me they are mcclueless because telling McDonald's employees stay away from fast food, the very thing that they are selling. In fact they say fast food is typically high in calorie, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt and puts people at risk for becoming overweight. Now, I agree, saying its own food is the unhealthy choice versus the healthy choice out there. We can understand that because fast food isn't the healthiest. It's a little odd they are telling their own employees this, especially when you think of business 101, you don't really want to push people away from the very staples that you sell. Now, McDonald's is defending the posting, putting a statement saying that portions of this website continue to be taken entirely out of context. This Web site, McDonald's goes on to say, it provides useful information from third parties. McDonald's agrees with this advice. One thing to keep in mind it's not McDonald's running this site. That it's an outside company that seems to be running it. The company is also noting it has added healthier menu options in recent years, including oatmeal, egg whites and real fruit smoothies -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So, McDonald's hired an outside company to write to its employees and the --</s>KOSIK: Yes. I just -- it doesn't seem like the right hand is talking to the left. I mean, this isn't the first time this internal Web site has come under fire. It's one stunning problem after another. This Web site had a financial planning guide, allotting only $20 for health insurance and no money for food, kind of making the company seem out of touch with its employees especially with McDonald's advice on how to get out of holiday debt, telling its employee if you want to get out of holiday debt, get a second job. Here's a cherry on top. It even put out one installment in this Web site, put out an etiquette guide to employees on what to tip pool boys and masseuse, and if you got an au pair, how to tip them. But these are people who are on minimum wage, $9 employees at best. So, it kind of -- it's a real head scratcher as to if they are really thinking about who their audience is in reading this.</s>COSTELLO: Maybe they should hire their own PR person and have their own employees -- no that would make too much sense. Alison Kosik --</s>KOSIK: Maybe, maybe they are listening.</s>COSTELLO: I don't know. All right. Take a dysfunctional Congress, the line derailed presidential agenda and never ending battle over Obamacare and what do you have? A year in politics of course. CNN chief political analyst Candy Crowley has a recap.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPODENT (voice-over): It was the year of living angrily.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down and shut up!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand up for your country or do you want to take it down!</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: This place is a mess.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I resoundingly reject that allegation.</s>CROWLEY: White hot rhetoric, icy cold relationships.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Barack Hussein Obama --</s>CROWLEY: That said, 2013 started as inaugural years often do --</s>OBAMA: So help me God.</s>CROWLEY: -- nicely enough.</s>OBAMA: My fellow Americans we are made for this moment and we ill seize it.</s>CROWLEY: And he was popular president with an ambitious agenda, revamping the tax code, reforming schools, better job training, a new energy policy, improved voting process, immigration reform and gun control. None of it has happened. Turns out January was the kindest month. The president ends the year with an approval rating that has gone south and focused on saving the health care reform he won in the first term.</s>OBAMA: There was a time when I was a young invincible. After five years in this office, people don't call me that any more.</s>CROWLEY: Another year like this and they will call him lame duck. Paul, Cruz and Rubio, sons of the Tea Party, newbies in the block, 2016 rising. This son of Cuban immigrants catapulted to star status, pushing his reluctant party for immigration reform.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: And I simply wasn't going to leave to it Democrats alone to figure out how to fix it.</s>CROWLEY: Libertarian at heart, Republican by party, Rand Paul blocked a presidential nominee to get clarity on the use of drones.</s>SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I'll speak can I can no longer speak.</s>CROWLEY: A politician from the Lone Star State.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep up the good fight.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Thank you very much.</s>CROWLEY: Ted Cruz staged an overnight filibuster to make the case against filibuster, filling time with a bedtime story for his kids.</s>CRUZ: I do I not like green eggs and ham I do not like them Sam I am.</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Welcome to New Jersey.</s>CROWLEY: In a moment all his own, another of the 2016's rising, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wins a landslide re-election and sounds like he's opening a presidential campaign.</s>CHRISTIE: I know that if we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey, maybe the folks in Washington, D.C. should tune in their TVs right now, see how it's done.</s>CROWLEY: Also in a league all her own, the former first lady, former senator, former secretary of state, left Washington for something else, but not without a few choice words.</s>CLINTON: The fact is, we have four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is --</s>CROWLEY: Hillary Clinton's Benghazi moment. If she runs for president, expect Republicans to make it a TV-ad moment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I now declare you spouses for life.</s>CROWLEY: Number five brought to you by the U.S. Supreme Court. Less a 2013 moment than a page in history for gay rights. Under the cover of boring, Senate Democrats blew up the status quo with the first major rules change in more than three decades, banning filibusters for all presidential nominees except the Supreme Court, and sending Republicans into orbit.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: And let's not forget about the raw power, the raw power at play here.</s>CROWLEY: The change will essentially give any president with a Senate majority the power to reshape the lean of federal courts. This 2013 moment, another one for the ages. Coming in at number three --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.</s>CROWLEY: -- the moments that didn't happen, work left undone, mega problems unaddressed. Gridlock, it's not just about traffic anymore.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senate stands adjourned.</s>CROWLEY: The first government shutdown in 17 years, and people -- read that "voters" -- largely blamed Republicans, producing the Democratic talking point of the 2014 election, Republicans as obstructionists.</s>PELOSI: If we don't have our own way, we are going to shut government down. You and that attitude are a luxury this country cannot afford.</s>CROWLEY: By year's end, Republicans had a counterpoint, the president's Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare got off to a troubled start with the Web site from hell.</s>OBAMA: If you like your health care plan --</s>CROWLEY: And his broken "you can keep your insurance" promise.</s>REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), MAJORITY LEADER: When we get to January 1st, it will be clear that more Americans will have lost their health insurance than will sign up under the new ObamaCare policies.</s>CROWLEY (on camera): As it happens, the final moments of 2013 are the tee-up for the politics of 2014, shutdown versus meltdown. Let the midterm elections begin. Oh, and happy New Year. Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.</s>COSTELLO: Whoo-hoo! You can vote on what you think 2013 top sports top stories. Go to CNN.com/yir. Voting open until this Friday. We'll have the results December 30th, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. This just in to</s>CNN: Hamas security sources say Israeli air strike killed a 4-year-old girl in al Qassam brigade's camp in Gaza. Three other people living in that same house were wounded. The airstrike follow as shooting earlier today of an Israeli citizen. That incident success blamed on a sniper in Gaza. More information in the hours to come on CNN. We'll be right back.