Deep divide within the House

>>> your twin brother is now a member of congress. what -- it's not a popular body. what advice to do you have for him now that he's headed to washington , d.c.?

>> the first thing i told him was that he could have it.

>> san antonio mayor and dnc keynote speaker , happy it's his twin brother taking a trip to capitol hill walking into a divided house of representatives . congressman-elect what keen castro joins me now. you didn't take your brother's advice. you're not avoiding washington .

>> no.

>> and as a new freshman congressman, coming to a place that has been know for ynotoriously unpopular how do you approach the fiscal cliff?

>> this election was a clear signal from the american people that they want both parties to cooperate, to go up there, to sit down at the table and work in earnest to try to reach agreement on the major things confronting the nation, including the fiscal cliff. for me, it's the same approach that i've taken in the texas legislature where we have a bipartisan committee chairman head, for example, and so for me it's going to be being able to work with republicans in an earnest way. and i think you can do that without compromising principles in what you stand for and in what you believe.

>> what do you do knowing the needs of your district when it comes down to hard choices about cuts in domestic spending?

>> sure. look, there's no question that these are very difficult questions and that's why there's a lot of wrangling about them. we know that in the long term we're going to have to things to reform entitlements. but we also know we shouldn't have self-inflicted wounds the way we did over the fight with the debt ceiling. we've got some time to figure this stuff out. so we shouldn't do anything in a haste or something that hurts our nation unnecessarily.

>> congressman, congressman-elect, what about the new challenge for the republican party ? i know you're coming at it from the democratic perspective. but what advice do you think that republicans should be heeding, including those in your own state on the whole question of immigration reform ? your governor, rick perry in early debates, was trying to be forward leaning about giving kids who had come here from families who were lehere without access to documentation he got clobbered on that and mitt romney won the nomination on taking a hard right position on it.

>> i think the republican party , as my brother said is, going to have to do a gut check and figure out if they're the party of pete wilson and joe arpaio and others who are hard-liners on this issue. the fact is, latinos are part of the american family . and oftentimes these policies make latinos feel as though they're not accepted by many folks in the republican party . i think the election numbers bear out the latino electorate continues to grow it will continue to grow, and so you know, i hope that they find a solution to it and they're able to be more accommodating, not only in tone and that's been mentioned several times, but actually in substance. it's not just what you say but actually the kinds of laws that you pass. it's also not just who you elect. they've elected several folks now, brian sandy val, marco cruz, a real effect on the party and moderate them with respect to the issues.

>> thank you very much. thanks. and look forward to meeting you in person as you come to washington . lots of luck to you.