Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20100512

industry executives on capitol hill regarding the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. we will be covering that for you. and the climate legislation will be revealed today. a big day on capitol hill and elsewhere, loss of action to tell you about. we are doing big things. and it is costing president obama. floating inside a klaus his historic success. big problems, big achievements, big costs. they say that his legislative record during this crisis-ridden presidency already put him in the league as such consequential president as lyndon johnson and franklin roosevelt. we want to get your thoughts on those headlines. we want to put the phone numbers up on the screen for you. we will get to your calls and responses in just a few minutes. we want to speak in little bit about this a foreign president coming to the white house. the senior national correspondent is on the phone. what is at stake for each side in this meeting today? what they looking to take out of it at the white house? >> just about one month ago, there was a war going on between the white house and president cars ikar carsza -- karzai. the rest was threatening to withdraw the trip altogether. but we are seeing is an attempt by the white house. the president arrived. and we have seen a lot of praise of what he has done no and negative comments about corruption and i think what we will see is president obama trying to reach out to him and reassure him that he has the support of the obama administration. >> take as a little bit deeper into why this is so important. what issues in particular regarding the war effort in conditions in afghanistan? >> if you read anything on the strategy dating back two centuries, the importance of having a domestic partner relied upon. a government that can be put into place once the war ends is important. you have heard from the pentagon and from others, one has been pushing the process to develop a more reasonable relationship with president karzai. without the relationship, he cannot hand over security to the afghans in the timeline that the administration has given him to start wrapping up the war. >> here piece in the wall street journal talks about the secretary of state meeting with that president. you to point out that she only briefly mentioned corruption issues. have you expected that to play out? >> we are not going to give that up. inside afghanistan, use the that the credibility and popularity taking a hit of president karzai. they will try to push him behind closed doors. this may come at a time where they are desperate to repair the damage. i am assured by u.s. officials that throughout this week, the is done with a dozen government ministers. it is bothering officials and will be raised, just not in a public forum. >> it is crucial to a $33 billion vote. walk us through that part of the process. >> there is a war supplemental every year. it helps with the development. the timeliness is gratuitous. we need to gain political support in the u.s.. they have to fund the development. it is essential to what the obama administration is trying to achieve. host: give us the development issue that you mention. how is the country doing right now? guest: it needs work, put together a in the area of the south. tove seen very little effort do the kinds of development work. part of the reason is for security. the u.s. is making an effort to set up government apparatus in the region, and allow them to do the government work, but it is a slow process. host: what is the status for the u.s. and troops in that country? what is the plan for them? guest: they are in the process of working with other forces, which will contribute more troops as part of the search. a sizable european force is still there. we have seen others in the south over the last few months. host: you mentioned a positive public face being put on. what about the rest of congress? those that have the voices on afghanistan. what might we hear from them? guest: you may see another members from congress in their criticism. the individuals who are close has been pushing for this for some time. many of these have died in afghanistan. it has caused anger among many. host: a senior correspondent for the "wall street journal", thank you for your comments. >> the cover story in usa today. will doing big things wind up costing obama? boaters anxiety is clouding his historic successes. is clad inanxiety his historic success. independent scholar. -- clouding his historic success. let's get to our callers. independent line. caller: when i see mr. obama and what he has accomplished, the analogy i can make is the united states is a ship floating out in the ocean. our president has to get this floating again. that is what we are doing right now. there was something that really bothered me. we had something not to go of down in nyc. i think it was a bit of a diversion. it just reminds me that everything we do what this last administration did was the wrong decision. the guys that did it, there was a small amount of people doing it it was their plan to do it all along. i just hope there is some way the people will see in quit listening to their rhetoric that is coming through rush limbaugh and others and the huge talk machine that obama is not doing it. i do not like the fact that we stayed in the war. we have to get out and come home and take care of ourselves. host: thanks. let's move on to west palm beach, fla., democrats line. caller: i think the country is very divided. i do not think the world situation as fully realized, and i do not know if president obama will have a chance to do the things he ought to do and what he is trying to do to bring it together. people can get atomic weapons who feel very disgruntled about the injustice being done to them. we have to do something to make things fair. if we do that, we can stem -- some could brought -- drop an atomic bomb and we all would get radiation poisoning from it. host: let's move on to the republican line from virginia. caller: have like to say the blame game is a political strategy. it is not an economic plan. it is not a sign of true leadership. we are being led down a path towards socialism. that destroys the individual and the individual freedom is what this country was founded upon. host: more from "usa today". as we take a couple of more calls, there is a chart here, achievements for the president as the researchers put together. we will take a look at that while we continue to take calls on the question, will doing big things cost the president? independent line. caller: good morning. my thing is, will doing big things cost him? i do not think they should cost him, because we have big problems. the reason why he got in there is because we had big problems. he has to do big things. if he were doing little things or whatever you want to call them, he would not be doing enough. u.f. people with problems with what he is doing and say he was not born here and all kind of crap -- you have people with problems saying that he was not born here and all kinds of crap. i guarantee you that america, the man will get reelected. have you seen some of the republicans they have up there to try to get the job next? i would not looked for them. i would vote for obama -- i would not vote for them. i would vote for obama. host: rahm emanuel says in this article this. democrats line, houston. good morning. caller: america is in tremendous trouble. they knew that president , karzai was a crook in criminal. then they tried to expose him. obama has to do big things. i doubt he can succeed. if he pulls this off, he would be houdini. the problem we have is, who broke america and got all of the money and then we owe china how much money? host: projects ago, florida, republican line. will doing big things cost president obama? what do you say? caller: thanks for taking my call. i think it will really cost the democrats. they are dropping like flies now. obama ran a campaign saying he would come in on the economy like a laser beam and get it turned around. it is getting worse. he has done nothing but talk and blamed bush. i wish we could go back to those days and have 4.8 unemployment. one person lost their job after 26 years with the school system. her job is being cut along with 80 more this week. it is getting worse out here. these acorn keep calling in saying he is doing a good job. what has obama done good? the country is going broke. we are going in debt. people are losing their jobs. and they are saying he is doing a good job. in to a dozen 8, when the democrats took over, that is when everything turned around and went bad. the democrats controlled the spending. it was not bush. it was the democrats. memphis on hear from the democrat line. caller: i think bush let his friends on wall street still money. there are all kinds of exuberant prices for gas. obama is trying to get us out of this hole than the bush put us in. obama is trying to help the people. and all of these people against obama are racist. obama is trying to help all of the people. the things he is trying to pass, people need these things themselves. these people are nothing but the coup clucks clans. -- kkk. host: here is a twitter message on all of this. back to "usa today." lots of political stories in the papers today. the veteran democrat story. manhattan, n.y., independent line. caller: thanks for c-span. winston churchill had a saying. everybody that calls on the republican line -- given the titanic, and it is sinking, and they handed over to obama and say, do your best. he is doing his best. the republicans are going to stop him every step of the way in fight him. i do not think he is doing too much, he is just trying to get things accomplished. an easy race for the democratic nomination mr. specter is in a tough campaign republican line is next. caller: you may want to change the name of your show from c- span to dumb and dumber network. limited government works best because the government is corrupt. we have a bunch of social purpose running the country now. -- social perverts' running the country now. we have a bunch of socialists running the country. we have someone that is quadrupling the debt that president bush left. we went from bad to worse. the democrats need their government handouts and debt -- government programs. host: us hear from someone on the democrats' line from tampa, florida. what did you make of the last caller? caller: we need to remember that we are all americans and we are on the same ship. we need to listen to and respect each other. i want to remind all those that we need to pray for our leaders, whether republicans or democrats. right now we have a fire in the country. they are always big. we need to help each other, help the government, or get out of the way. the cost of this economy and the problems in our country is going to be had. we are paying for the problems that we have allowed to happen over the last 10 years. it is not going to stop now. we have a lot of work to do. we need to get on board and do it. host: atlantic city, new jersey, independent. will doing big things cost the president? caller: i think the president's -- i want to say this first. i did not vote for him. my father is rolling in his grave for me saying that. now i am ready to change my mind on the whole democratic party. the last caller from florida is right and the caller from connecticut -- geez. president obama, and i did not vote for him, he will go down in history as one of the best presidents ever in the united states, simply because he is for the people. he is doing things for the people. the problem with the big things is that they are big. if he sat around doing nothing, and the independence, the tea party, and they've republicans and some democrats would say, you are not doing enough. you're not putting enough into this. i believe when it is all said and done, after his second term, president obama will go down past bush sr., passed bill clinton, and turn out to be the best president for the people ever in the united states. host: we appreciate your contribution to the program. more of your calls in a second appeared the second editorial. also the washington times touches on this. to ohio on the republican line. caller: i think president obama will be a historic precedent, but not for the reasons that he wants to be historic. his administration will be comparable to the grand administration. the corruption, inadequacies of what he does to help the people in this country. the shift to the left. we are not going to become that. people do not want to become that, that is why so many people are against him that voted for him. tom white is looking to give the democrats what they have been seeking, a winner in that district. here is a headline. the nomination hearings for her kagan are weeks away. can it is in both parties are trying to exploit certain aspects. "new york times" peace here. thanks for waiting on the democrats' line. caller: i live in texas. i have been listening to all of the dialogue. it is amazing how many people call in, and they should be running for office and getting some of those people out of their that are spending our money like it is theirs. i do not know what my views are on politics, but i do know what my views are. i am a 76 year-old veteran. i was in korea. i wanted to be a hero at 17 years old. i was in the first cavalry division. i plan to have an audience with mr. obama. i put in a comment yesterday or the day before. i caught your show this morning, because i am somewhat of a celebrity. i do record out of nashville. i have some very good use on how to stop these. i have a picture that i said at the local cemetery of a veterans grave. it is deplorable. i wanted to bring it to him, and i hope i still can't. i hope he listens to your show. the thing about it is, we need to let the terrorists know [unintelligible] most people in america and many other countries have no idea what war is all about. host: henry is in arkansas, independent line. caller: i want to make some comments. first, i am ashamed to have called myself a democrat all my life. i am 86 years old. i am a veteran from the second world war. i have listened to the people calling in. i have never seen the country as bad as it is. i went through the depression. it has never been as bad as it is. 25 million people out of work. host: at your age that you mentioned, what is your perspective on the idea that doing big things might cost obama. caller: i think he will be dumped very soon. [unintelligible] we are sitting on the edge of niagara falls. host: that was hot springs, arkansas. here is the well-known shot. david cameron taking over in the u.k. he is with his wife. david cameron is now the leader of the conservatives. he is the prime minister. he promised to lead a strong and stable government. he spoke after five days of tense negotiations. he pledged to put tackling the $244 billion deficit at the center of a long-term program. it was announced the next election will be held in may 2015. what does it mean for the u.s.? here is what the "wall street journal" writes. a louisiana, back to our question about the president and what he is doing. good morning. caller: it looks to me like the people are finally waking up to this guy. if they would have listened during his campaign, he is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. i do not know where everybody was looking. even c-span, they never said anything bad about him or what ever, never looked into his background. if people would have looked into his background, they would see why we have some anti-communist in the white house and why the country is going the way it is. he is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. the people are finally waking up i think. he will find out in 2012 that the people are tired of it. they are tired of him spending all of our money, and they are tired of all of his back door shenanigans. the democrats -- people are just tired of it. host: a call from sacramento on the democrats' line. what do you think about this idea this morning? caller: one of the things a lot of people are not realizing is that we forget george bush during his presidency, there is something called the do-nothing congress. he headed the veto pen, and we really cannot do anything before obama got into office. what makes me mad is that there are some in the crisis is with the oil crisis, health care crisis, mortgage crisis, financial crisis, health care crisis, you name it. obama was dealt a plate of garbage. is he doing big things? somebody has to. if he does not do something, i do not know where we would be today. host: there is a lot more in the papers. we will try to get to as much as we can. the u.s. is probing morgan stanley now. one of the lead items in the "washington post with >> as the offshore drilling agency is to be carved into two. a couple of more calls on our question about whether doing big things will cost the president. that is the question that "usa today" is asking in its cover story. independent line. caller: i am from a mississippi. i have been listening to your caller's comments. i agree with the last few. i agree that obama was not handed over happy go lucky stuff that was easy for him to do. i am sure it is hard for him to deal with what he was handed. the way he deals with it is causing a lot of problems. they should not speak and when things in congress the way are, trying to get things through so much the way they are. i and the stand he wants to make a lot of big changes. if we were listening, we would know what he was going to do. i think he is trying to move us into socialism, but i think he is doing it because he thinks it is necessary because of the way everything is today. i know why bush made the decisions he made. i followed that closely and i follow what president obama is doing now. i do not think he should be handling it the way he is and the way he is allowing things to go through congress. what scares the people the most is that we cannot afford all of these development programs. i know he thinks it will help fix the economy in the long run, but in the short term, it is really going to hurt badly. host: that was police on the independent line. one more call from the republican side. south carolina. caller: i think the last caller was very interesting. what i would like to say to the democrats of the there is that they have been in charge since 2006. i keep hearing about eight years of bush, but really we are talking about five years of democrats being in charge. nothing but problems since then. i think it would have been a big thing if barack obama did what he said he was going to do and bring people together, but that is not what he has done. it is extremely troubling for all of us. it is not right to shove things down our throat. that is not appealing. i think this will be four years and out for him. host: we will continue this conversation by talking about federal spending, the economy, health care. we will have a representative with us, a republican from the state of washington. we will be right back. ♪ >> a couple of live events to tell you about on our companion network c-span3. bp and transocean returned to capitol hill to testify about offshore drilling. the house energy subcommittee will ask questions about the oil spill in the gulf of mexico at 10:00 a.m. eastern. and the federal emergency management agency will speak at 2:30 p.m. eastern. >> you see l 8 professor -- ucla professor emeritus will speak on "q and a" sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> my long standing appreciation for the supreme court's a role in our constitutional democracy has become ever deeper and richer. >> she will appear before the senate judiciary committee. find out more about her online at our c-span video library. every program since 1987. watch what you want when you want. >> "washington journal" continues. representativesdge rodgers. we have been asking this question. what do you think? guest: there are big challenges facing our country. i think the real question is how does a president go about addressing these issues? there are difficult challenges for every president. when president bush was first elected, he was inaugurated in two dozen one, and we had the 9/11 terrorist attacks. it changed his agenda as far as president of the country. every president faces challenges and how they approach it is very important. as a republican, i believe we need to be working more on a bipartisan fashion show on some many issues. that is what the country is asking. if they that bieber focusing on the right priorities, they would want -- if they thought we were focusing on the right issues, they would want to follow up or leadership. the debt that we are accumulating it is one big issue. this is my third term in congress. i have been blown away with the amount of money we spent and continued to drive up deficits and debt. we have been spending at a record level. we continue to add more to cover debt and what that means for our future -- at more and more to our debt, and what that means for our future and albert grandchildren. america is not far behind where greece finds itself right now. they have a 130% debt to gdp. -- 113% debt to gdp. the money coming in, it would be like your monthly paycheck is not even cover your credit card bill. when you find yourself in that situation as a government, it is alarming. host: she is a republican from washington and a vice chair of the gop conference. how long have you had that slot? guest: i was elected last year after the 2008 elections. host: why were you elected in the first place, do you think? what did your colleagues see in you? guest: hopefully someone that is hardworking, honest, and willing to work across the aisle and take on some of these difficult issues. i wanted to bring the republicans into the 21st century when it comes to using technology and new media. it was clear that we needed to do more work in that regard after the 2008 election. i have been educating my colleagues on facebook, a twister, youtube. we are leading the charge on capitol hill when it comes to using those new media tools to communicate with people back home and get our message to america. that is where so many people get their information. as republicans, we need to make sure our message is heard. host: let's talk about money. the debt and deficit in this country. what is the answer to put things in a place that is better? guest: i served in the state legislature for 10 years. 49 states in the country, we need a balanced budget. that was a constitutional requirement. there is such a lack of any kind of fiscal restraint, spending caps. at some point, we need to take action on behalf of the american people to have some kind of budget reform that will result in congress setting priorities, balancing budgets, getting our debt under control. it includes spending caps, entitlement reform, and pro- economic growth policies in get our economy going, which is key. host: let's talk more about degrees. you have been outspoken on the imf loan that has gone to them. what are your thoughts about why that was done, whether it should have been done? guest: for the united states taxpayer, i believe we are suffering from bailout of fatigue. we have bailed out wall street, gm, chrysler, fannie mae, freddie mac, and now we are being asked to help bail out of greece, a relatively wealthy country. a member of the european union, that has had a generous benefits for their people. they have run up a deficit that is unsustainable. i believe the european union should be deciding how they will deal with that situation. it was organized to be a competitor for the 90 states. that is an interesting comparison between the united states and european the union. we have states in america, calif., the york, that has been facing difficult budgets and making difficult decisions, but we have not gone over to europe asking for bailouts. host: is the u.s. so difference between what has been happening with greece and its debt and what is happening here? guest: we on a very similar path. we have been borrowing and spending beyond our means. greece is a country of about 11 million people. the average retirement age is 53 years. generous retirement, health benefits. at some point of, you have to pay for those benefits. you cannot continue to put it off. our deficit right now of $1.40 trillion and the projections for the next 10 years is a minimum of $1 trillion dollars. we are headed down the same path. host: breaking news from the rnc. they are expected to name tampa, fla. as the 2012 convention. it looks like they will pick tampa. guest: i want them to come to washington state. host: it looks like they are picking tampa. we will give you more information later. virginia, democratic caller, thanks for being patient. caller: he talk about bipartisanship. -- you talk about bipartisanship. but you have not worked with everything the president has done. what about corporate welfare and the situation in the gulf where all of the companies are in switzerland. nobody is paying taxes. how do you feel about that? the war in iraq. how about the wars? wake up, lady. guest: i recognize there are very difficult issues, the war in iraq, the tragedy taking place right now in the gulf, the oil spill. what i believe that these to happen, for those elected to congress, whether you are republican or democrat, when you are elected, you take on the response ability to lead. you have to be willing to work across the aisle to address difficult issues, rather than ignoring them or pushing them off. both parties have their long list of complaints. we need to move beyond that and say, this is a new day. we will start figuring out how to solve problems to move this country forward, rather than continue to point fingers. host: york, republican. caller: good morning, america. i called a couple of times before. this is about the economic stimulus package. with all of the money -- i live in new york. my county is 5 million in debt. s for the congresswoman, there is a way of thinking with the government. the stimulus package, they spent over $20 million to renovate the house of fdr. you can use that. think about what other projects that were passed under the new package -- we had $11 million spent for the walkway over the hudson. look at the metal underneath, it is quite rested. you ask people, did this $20 million help you? prevailing wage. do you know what it is? guest: yes. host: $79 an hour. is that supposed to help us? guest: i think the stimulus is a great example. that was passed in the early part of 2009 as an effort to get our economy back on track. the republicans had their proposals. we had our economic solutions that outlined what we believed would be steps the federal government could take. it included targeted tax breaks to small businesses that are our economic engine as well as investments in infrastructure that we believed would have get our economy back on track. unfortunately, the stimulus is an example where there was a lack of bipartisanship. instead, we ended up with this gigantic slush fund that has been used in some anyways that has not haps -- helped grow the economy, create jobs. he made some examples. i am disappointed that only one- third of the stimulus package has been spent to date. is still sitting there rather than injecting it into the economy. i was largely disappointed that there was not more investment in infrastructure, roads, sewer, other projects. regarding prevailing wage, there has been an expansion, which is oftentimes an inflated wage that is put on government projects that inflates the overall cost of the project. i have been a longtime proponent to get a prevailing wage that really reflects the market in a certain region. the fit the district in washington is a more stable region of the country. and thet have the highess lows. it is an agricultural, some military and technology, health care -- it has been a difficult time. unemployment is higher than we would like it to be. we felt looking for those job creators, policies that will help with job opportunities. host: how much did the district use the money for the stimulus bill? guest: we got one project for transportation. that was an important one. i supported -- that was an important project. i really believed there could have been more money. there are huge needs across the country. only 15% of the stimulus went to infrastructure, i do not think that was correct. there was money put into youth programs in my district. energy efficiency, that was a big part. . more money than they are paid in the year. they overspend. because of that, what ever we have now. she should not tell me that the problems are being treated by president obama. host: you and your colleagues are responsible? guest: i think we all need to take this possibility for what is happening in congress. and we need to be advocating for fiscal responsibility. when i first campaign for congress, i was in support of a balanced budget amendment. i believe we need some kind of restraint on spending in congress, whether it is a balanced budget, spending caps that would force congress to prioritize. both parties are guilty of having spent too much money. it is easy to spend the money come easy to drive up the debt. the difficult part is when you have to start making cuts and a belgian -- balancing budgets. states are having to do that. even across the world, we have overspent. i do not think we can borrow and spend our way into prosperity. our economic engine cannot be the government. too many solution's right now are driven from the federal government come down. host: what items would top your list to cut or cap? guest: the first step is to put some spending caps in place, so that it forces us to start prioritizing. then we need to focus on ways to get our economy going. we spend the last -- spent the last couple of years wondering how we are going to get the economy going, but instead we are focusing on other issues other than tax reform, small business help. that is where the debate needs to come back to. tax cuts are going to expire. i hear concerns about 2010, 2011, we will be facing some significant tax increases, whether it is a marriage tax that is reinstated, whether or not a death tax comes back in full force. that is a damper on the economy, so we need to start talking about what it take to get our economy going -- what it will take to get our economy going. host: our guest has served in the washington state house. you've owned a family-owned business prior to that. north carolina, democratic caller. go ahead, please. caller: i was watching the news of bell, our water bill is going up. there are people who are a of of work -- out of work. the water bill is sky high. they are cutting so many things that the children need for schools. you are talking about a tax rate. what about those of us who are unemployed? the more you try to look for jobs, the more you are turned down. guest: i recognize these are difficult times across the country. unfortunately, too many of the policies being debated and passed through congress right now are having a negative impact on our economy, on job growth. when the stimulus bill was passed one year ago, we were told the unemployment would not go above 8%. we were told it would create the million jobs. -- 3 million jobs. instead, unemployment is 10%, we have lost jobs, and the stimulus was not targeted. it was not a bill that helped the job-creators in the country. health care, that is legislation that will cost us jobs. it will result in more people losing their jobs. that is where we, as a country and as a congress, need to we prioritize -- reprioritize. we need to encourage investment, small businesses across the country, who are facing uncertainty, additional costs placed on them, we need to give them some certainty so that they can start creating more opportunities for you and your families, and others in your community. host: bob is calling from wisconsin. republican caller. caller: i was going to address one issue with this lady, but i have come to a different situation. i have watched c-span for a long time. i see a problem. people should not be calling in to complain about c-span, they should be calling their representatives. she has no control over anything. people bash these guests all the time, but it is not their fault. it is the american people's fault. it is incredible for people to be reporting that mr. obama is going to get us drums. he was not here when my grandfather was working. somebody else got him the job, the investor, the guy with the product, there was a need for the product. it is such a simple formula. to put all of this on bush or obama, come on. pay attention. guest: you make a good point. c-span plays a an important role in helping to increase awareness as to what issues are before congress, trying to educate average citizen across the country. i find that people are more engaged today than ever. the number of phone calls, e- mails that i get in the congressional office is more today than ever. i think that is positive. i would encourage more people to get involved. that is our form of government. of the people, by the people, and for the people. that means people need to be involved. people are walking the hallways, talking with their representatives. it is an important dialogue that takes place, hearing from people back home and across the country. as i think about our future, i believe, as americans, we need to be aware of america's competitiveness. you talk about 50 years ago, investors, people who had an idea and turned it into a reality, we want america to continue to be that country. we are the country where, if someone has an idea, they can turn into a reality. that is tell you create jobs. in order to make that happen, you need an environment that encourages job growth and job creation. right now, we have the highest tax burden of any country in the world when it comes to our business is, for regulatory climate. we are very litigious. we are quick to slap lawsuit on whoever. that makes it difficult. in the global economy, as americans, we need to look at what policies will help us as a country. we need to create the jobs and opportunities for that next generation. host: what are you hearing from your constituents on the health care law that is now in place? guest: first of all, there are questions of what is actually in the bill. there are concerns that it will increase costs. the number one concern going into the debate was the rising cost of health care. we spoke to a lot of people and they were concerned about skyrocketing costs. instead of addressing the cost drivers in the health-care system, this bill did not go to the root of the problem. now we see where it added more requirements, mandates, without addressing cost drivers. that is a concern. i have heard from small businesses and large businesses. we have seen nationally, whether it is caterpillar who estimated a $150 million hit on their bottom line, at&t, $1 billion. luckily, i have had some business owners who have said this will make it impossible for us to continue to operate. that concerns me. i really believe we can do better. i believe we need to repeal that law and start again with something that will address cost drivers, make health care more affordable, more accessible, without being such a top-down approach. host: a couple of health care headlines. cdo? the price, saying that they could add $115 billion more. -- cdo looks at the price, saying -- cbo looks at the price, saying that they could add $115 billion more. that is in "the post." russ from washington, d.c. caller: i can go back to when ronald reagan cut taxes. we had a depression, he raised taxes and then we had an economic -- hello? we had economic growth. clinton came in. bob dole said that we would destroy the industry. my question to you is, what programs are you prepared to cut? social security, defense spending, medicare? my next question to you is, what would have happened if we had let gm and chrysler go under? a lot of people would have gone unemployed, including the suppliers. host: there are several folks on twitter who want to hear some specificity from you on those cuts. guest: house republicans have started an effort called youcut. we are going to go to america to help us identify the waste in government. we often talk about waste in government, but it is always difficult to pinpoint. even within medicare, it is estimated that a third of medicare is waste, fraud, and abuse. every president of up to president obama has talked about eliminating the waste in medicare. but it is harder when you actually start to identify that waste. government is not an efficient delivery of services. part of what needs to happen is, instead of continuing to add to the goatgovernment -- last yeare had an increase in federal government employment by 120,000 people when the private sector is having to cut people. we lost 3 million jobs in the last year but the government is continuing to hire. the federal government employee on average right now makes $72,000, plus $40,000 in benefits, compared to in the private sector, the average employer makes $43,000.10000 dollars in benefits. -- $43,000 and $10,000 in benefits. we need to have policies that will make the government operate more efficiently, more effectively, and really start prioritizing rather than just spending. it seems to be to spend money right now. host: they also touched on auto companies. what would have happened if the government did not step in? guest: they would have had to come up with a way where they could possibly restructure, get the loan to elsewhere to accomplish their goals. even just this week, we are having to put more money into fannie mae, freddie mac. it just seems like bailout are becoming to commenon. america is broke, whether or not we want to admit it. we do not have an endless amount of money. i do not believe any company is too big to fail. when we start picking the winners and losers, that is a dangerous path. host: wallingford, connecticut. democratic caller. caller: i just wanted to ask if you supported the stimulus package. how many people got jobs in your district? host: did you vote for the stimulus bill? guest: no, i did not vote for the stimulus package. i believed there was a better way to stimulate the economy and create jobs. caller: you are dragginbraggingt jobs that people got in your district. guest: over all, we have seen additional jobs lost across the country. we were told the stimulus would create three, 4 million jobs in america, but instead, we continue to have job loss. the jobs that have been created or saved, and many of them already existed and labor propped -- they were propped up by stimulus money, helping those states who were in the difficult situation. i do not think you can point to many new, long-term jobs created by the stimulus package. it was more -- jobs that people point to was taking jobs that already existed. caller: how about teachers, firemen, police? and did it help them? guest: i do believe some of that stimulus money was used to fill holes at the state level. much of that would go to benefit teachers, police, firefighters. host: a question from twitter -- guest: that has not been voted on in the house. it was in the senate. we need a deficit reduction commission. as republicans and democrats sit down, we need to start thinking, debating the best way to address the deficit. republicans had some concerns that the deficit reduction commission, as proposed by the president, would focus too much on how we get additional revenue to the government rather than looking at policies that would drive spending reform and actually start reducing the overall federal budget. we believe they need to be both spending cuts -- as a part of reducing the deficit. host: you talked about entitlements, reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. what else would you put on the table to get the deficit under control? guest: i think we need to start with the big picture. there was a proposal recently that our debt to gdp ratio would have to be limited to a certain amount, so that we and would not continue to just add to our me ans. i think that is happening around the world, in greece. you look at our debt and deficit, compared to gdp, it is a larger and larger percentage. our gross domestic product is really our economy. we need to, you know -- be focused on how to get that economy going again. i think that would -- that is number one. then agree on some policies that will force congress to start prioritizing. host: texas, republican line. caller: i am a republican and i am a self-employed. i have had my own business for the past 10 years, i pay taxes. how is it fair when companies like exxon mobile are paying $15 billion to other countries in taxes but they do not pay us anything? the most i have grossed in one year is 27 -- $20,000 or so. how can you say that it is fair to start cutting taxes on people when the big businesses are the ones making billions in profits? they are not paying anything, but the irs is down on me for my $20,000. why do republicans want to talk about cutting? they talk about cutting services to the people but they never talked about cutting the gifts that they give to the big companies, contracts, making them pay more money. guest: first, i applaud all of the hard-working taxpayers across the country. these are hard-earned dollars that you send to the government. i want to have a debate over tax reform. let us come up with a fairer, simpler, streamlined tax code. the fact that the tax code is so complicated today, it allows individuals and companies to hire attorneys, accountants, to figure out how to avoid taxes. it has created an industry around paying your taxes, rather than being a fair, simple system. that is a debate that i would love to have to. how can we come up with a better system? let's make it easier to pay your taxes. then there would be more transparency and it would be harder for some to figure of how they can avoid taxes, as you point to helout. as far as cutting services to the people, the republicans -- when we talk about talking about reducing the size of government, it is trying to get more money to local states, governments, so that they can spend that money, rather than being used at the federal level. we believe there would be more transparency, more money available to individuals and communities, if the federal government was not as involved. we would send more money directly to local communities, states, fire districts, and there is more accountability at that local level than ever happens at the federal level. we were talking about the stimulus package. the inspector general estimated 10% of the stimulus will be lost to waste, fraud, and abuse. $787 billion total. 10% of that is waste, fraud, and abuse. that is to come in when it comes to how the government delivers -- too common when it comes to how the government delivers services. we can do better with local level. they decide the best use for those dollars instead of all the hoops that you have to go through in washington, d.c. host: jackie, independent. good morning. caller: you talk a good game, however, let us go back to the tax cuts that president bush put in place. they did not produce any jobs. 7 million jobs went out of this country from 2001 to 2007. mr. bush did not produce jobs. he did that give the country the balance -- and not give the country the balance it needed. we got two wars and killed kids. you were in washington, you sat on your hands. you did not make the tough decisions. you are part of the problem. now you tell us that we have to make all of the sacrifices? we were ready to make sacrifices, we have always been ready, but you people have not. guest: wow. well, i was elected in 2004, at the tail end of the republican majority. certainly, there were some disappointments as a new member. since then, democrats have had the majority. i do not want to point fingers. i do want to say that the tax cuts from 2001 to 2003 -- i believe -- you can see where it helped to get the economy going in america. we had the tech bubble, 9/11, terrorist attacks on our country, our country was going through a difficult time. i believe you can point to those tax cuts as helping the economy, creating jobs. actually, we had record revenue in the government. we had revenue increases between 14% and 17% each year, paying taxes to the government because they were paying more money -- making more money. we had record low unemployment. it was actually turned -- termed full employment. i think those tax cuts were hopeful in getting the economy going and had an impact on getting things going. host: our guest is a representative from the fifth district of washington. we appreciate your taking some time with us. we will get another perspective on financial matters again from the northwest, but from the other side. democratic senator jeff merkley, a member of the banking committee. >> at least 96 people, most of them in touch, have been killed in the crash of a libyan airliner. a 10-year-old boy is at this time the only known survivor. libyan fficials say that there were 100 people on board. no word on the cause of the crash. meanwhile, airport officials in cairo say that officials have obtained an american man with several weapons in his luggage. he was taken into custody as he tried to pass through customs with a metal box containing hand guns, bullets, swards, daggers, and knives. bp says that they want to make sure that they have everything correctly before they try to use that second containment box in the gulf of mexico. they also plan to pump heated water into it to prevent icing. european union officials are pressing their member countries to crack down on debt to help deal with the country's financial crisis. they are demanding coordination on budget policies. the eu is also promising faster action against countries that consistently break the rules. and new prime minister of britain david cameron is beginning to hand out positions in the government. mr. cable has been appointed as business secretary while david law has been appointed as chief secretary to the treasury. nick clegg is also announcing kenneth clark as his secretary and to resell may reselltheresa may as the assistant to the secretary. those are some of the latest headlines. >> while we cannot presume to replace justice stevens' wisdom or experience, i have selected a nominee who i believe embodies that excellence, integrity, and passion for the law, and to can ultimately provide that same sort of leadership in the court. our solicitor general, and my friend, the land taken -- elena kagan. >> learn more about those who have served on the highest bench. "the supreme court." providing unique insight about the supreme court. host: joining us now is senator jeff merkley, a senator from oregon. first term, member of the sun and then in committee. -- senate banking committee. guest: this amendment is all about sound underwriting standards. many of the things that have gone wrong in our economy started with retail mortgages. liar loans. and then it goes through a series of underwriting standards that has to be followed. you can trust that when mortgages are written and securitized on wall street, that they actually have real substance behind them. the second thing this amendment does is puts the incentives for mortgage brokers in line with their customers. what happened in the past few years -- when lenders make a lot of money from a loan, family and to not do so well. lenders were paying big bonuses to big brokers, said it was good for the lender, bad for the family. these yield spread premiums but brokers in a terrible position where their personal profit was out of synch with their customers. this will put the growtboth brod customers back in line. host: will this past today in amended? guest: we are going to find out. i do not have a good chance of food is lobbying behind the scenes. -- of seeing who is lobbying behind the scenes. host: they were trying to finish it up this week, but we are hearing it could be next week. phone number are on the bottom of the screen. a member of the banking committee, here to talk about legislation in congress. also, the merkley-levin amendment, what does it do? guest: essentially, we have two ways to aggregate capital. one is to have high-risk investing. the other is our lending. take deposits and make loans. those were separated after the great depression. folks saw the two as incompatible. unfortunately, we allow those things to be recombined, and it really injured our economy. the volcker amendment separates these two functions. high-risk activities belong outside a bank holding companies. then when that function occurs -- so when hedge funds, high risk investment firms -- if they become large enough to become systemically significant in the economy, and then regulators can apply higher capital standards. sort of a safety. the third is the conflicts that we have seen in the goldman sachs hearings. essentially, if you are selling the car, you are not selling it with a bad breaks and then taking a life insurance policy of on the occupancy. host: when will they vote on that amendment? guest: maybe in the next few days. this is a messy enough where there are all kinds of detailed ramifications -- we have the support of the banking committee now, support of the treasury department. we are gaining momentum. let me describe it this way because this part is confusing. this is like saying, buying fireworks is fine but you do not store them in your living room, or do not hold them in your bedroom. you store them outside, the bank holding company, in the shed. then you say that the people who designed these fireworks cannot be in the business of making faulty products and then voted against the safety of their product. host: first phone call. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wish the government could hold the sec and the gao more responsible for the situation we are in. instead of creating new agencies, i am looking at a statement from the sec -- protect investors and maintain orderly markets. they are not doing that. instead, the obama administration wants to create more agencies, more jobs. the same with the gao. and they have to make sure that congress meet its constitutional responsibilities. in is a little disheartening when we reject it is a little disheartening when we just want to expand -- it is a little disheartening when we just want to expand, expand. guest: regulators implementing the spirit of all law, if you do not have good implementation, that process breaks down. i cannot agree with you necessarily that we do not need agencies that focus on consumer protection. consumer protection was vested in the std. we are creating a new agency to say that the consumer has to get a fair deal. -- in the fed. the problem is you have the federal reserve with monetary policy in the penthouse, safety and soundness in the upper floors, and then they took their responsibility for consumer protection, and locked it in the basement. consumer protection will never be talked about even though we have this responsibility. and they did absolutely nothing to protect the consumer. it is important to have an agency not being run by wall street that says we are not going to make sure that there are tricks and traps in the fine print. host: one of the many headlines -- this was a 96-0 vote. how significant is this senate action from yesterdays? guest: citizens have a right to know the role of the fed the decision that may make can make -- the fed. the decisions that they make can make or break a company. citizens have a right to understand how much money is going out to what types of institutions. as a certain amount of time has passed, understand how those decisions were made. i supported an amendment along with bob corker to provide emergency windows. and this amendment expand that to other sections of the fed but still provide protection for the direct monetary policies. i think it was a well done thing. host: next phone call. yvonne, what would you like to ask? caller: this money he is talking about going to congress -- is this for small business or big business? guest: i am not sure i understand the question. caller: is this going to help small business or big business? here in indiana, whirlpool went over to mexico. guest: this will benefit small and large individuals. you will get their underwriting and will not be steered into bad loans. "the wall street journal" did a study and found that 60% of families who got subprime loans qualified for prime loans. how did they get into that product? their mortgage originator said that i will serve as your adviser. this loan process is good, there are a lot of choices. what the customer did not know is that originator was getting bigger bonuses if they sign up for a subprime loans that had an exploding interest rate. the volcker amendment, this amendment is all about the integrity of the system of aggregating and allocating capital. instead of money ending up in wall street, it goes to the businesses of america. if you have a lender that is supposed to use their access to the fed discount window and to ensure deposits, make loans, instead, they are going to risk in some sexy investment. that destroys access to small capital for small businesses. so what is good for wall street is also good for our families and small businesses. host: our guest is educated at stanford and princeton. a former speaker of the morgan house of representatives before coming to the senate. he is also a member of the banking committee. stone lake, wisconsin. thomas, independent. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, senator. i applaud your insight. i wish we had more like you. my question was more for the previous guest, but not going to ask you, too. there was a lot of rhetoric about limiting budgets. i wanted to let her know that she could back up her words by having her colleagues' support centesenator feingold's efforts. we want to know if you are on board with our wisconsin representatives as well. guest: thank you. you do have a great person and represented in rosslyn gold -- russ feingold. one of the issues we are working on right now is the slilent hol. they do not have the guts to tell the public that they are holding up the process, holding up amendments. i can tell you, this is not the way that democracy was meant to function, where you do things without taking responsibility. the system has been so abused this past year, it has really a broader sense that it is time to get rid of that practice. there are a lot of other functions that i think we need to wrestle with in the senate. we did not have a supermajority requirement until 1917. then there was a contract that said that that power would be invoked rarely, but it has been invoked on virtually every single bill since i became a senator. that routine does two things. every time you request a supermajority, it ties up the senate for weeks under the rules because of the amount of time it takes to hold the vote. in addition to telling of the senate, it sets a standard that was never constitutionally- intended, which is working people. the interest of ordinary the deep pockets of lobbying can push all day and night for that, but it is much harder for working people. it is bad for the democratic process, that for good policy, and that is something that we need to take on. host: jeff on the republican line. caller: the american people do not trust the democrats right now because of how they did the health care bill. it was behind closed doors. c-span is our witness. sweetheart deals. this is the way the democrats did health care. now, finances. every democrat on senator mccain's bill, freddie mac, fannie mae, they are driving us into bankruptcy. every democrat, including your desk, voted not to reign them in. that man right there and voted not to reign in fannie mae and freddie mac. christopher dodd and barney frank. it is doing good, we can roll the dice. host: this was an amendment to the finance regulations build. "finance regulationswrites about it -- "politico" writes about i- guest: last week we had an amendment to create smaller groups. this is something that i supported for large banks. i was one of the democrats that voted for it, but we had very few republicans and democrats. i agree with that notion that fannie and freddie need to be dramatically reformed. the vote yesterday basically was aatmospherics. we want to do something, but we have nothing in place to do so. we need to have a plan to replace fannie and freddie. otherwise, if we take the major underwriter of home mortgages and take them out of the picture, and we do that without a plan of how we are going to repair it, a substitute way to create mortgages, then essentially you are torpedoing the mortgage market that folks depend on to buy a home. amendments i am working on this morning says that you have to get rid of liar loans and you need to have fair underwriting. if we have had something like that in place, we would have never had the bad securities written on these subprime mortgages and we would not have blown up the economy. we need to be responsible about having a plan to replace fannie and freddie. as a member of the banking committee, we will be immersed in generating such a plan, and i hope it will be a bipartisan plan. host: "the wall street journal" the editorial touches on the amendment -- before we get back to phone calls, one of the stories of this financial issue -- again, it is in the "wall street journal" showing sheila bair -- is this something that could be part of the bill before it is over? guest: yes, the other term for this is a funeral plans, not to be confused that the panels from the health-care debate. a living will says that when we are a systemically large company, if we get in trouble and go under, here is how we will dismantle the company. this is what will happen with bondholders, stockholders, this is what will happen to bonuses that were handed out that may have to be clawed back. having the authority in place ahead of time to unwind that is important to diminish the impact of a business going out. host: do you think the amendment will pass or fail? some say that it would cause a clash with big banks. guest: i do not know why it would do that. this is the responsible thing to do. this is part of the safety of our system. lehman brothers went out of business. that fire sale and then undermined the value of merrill lynch, bear stearns, and there was pretty much full contagion. we have seen the result. millions of american families lost the value in their home. having held responsible framework for how wall street operates is essential to having an economy that works. host: gary is on the democratic line. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you for your help on financial regulations. my question is, we put bernie madoff in jail for fraud. ceo's of wamu, others. why have we not brought charges against the other people? guest: the question of legal culpability will be decided by the courts. my impression now is that it is not a question of individuals committing individual acts but it is whether or not the company has broken the law. i have not heard any discussions about that, but given the investigation, if the courts find that criminal and action were taken, we need to look into a biit. if it had an impact on american families, that is important. this is where the responsibility shifts to make sure that this does not happen again. in my life, we had the savings and loan debacle. now we have had the great recession of 2008. we need to have rules for wall street to give us decades of steady prosperity. not something that tries to create a false prosperity in the short term, a house of cards. that is what we had in the latter part of the last decade. getting consumers to spend a faster, creating products to create short profits. we need to look at working families. that is what a great america is all about. host: dan in ohio. independent line. caller: hello. i do not really know where to start. i am one of those people that has been of work -- out of work. i hear about all these guns that are supposed to be put into place but that never transpired. the only thing i hear about our federal counts being utilized. i guess where i am going is, we have too many people in that fancy house up on the hill making all the decisions. i wonder how they would feel if somehow, someway, they lost their jobs and had to stand with the rest of us down here at the bottom of the barrel. guest: thank you. i can tell you, there are probably a fair number of politicians who will be losing their jobs in november. you talked about the number of jobs created. the size of the stimulus package was about $800 billion. that was one third of the size of the consumer spending hole created by the recession. of that, one-third went to tax breaks, so you did not see that in jobs. one third winter supporting teachers and state programs, so you may not have seen people lose their jobs, but there were not many new jobs. there were jobs made to improve the the forest in oregon. when we passed this one year ago, we were going up 1% per month, and that is dramatic. over the past four decades, there is not a time when there is just a sudden increase in unemployment. the concern was with foreclosures, the freezing of lending, the drops in jobs. . >> because having a good system of aggregating and allocating capital is essential for the businesses to thrive and for our families to thrive. >> host: senator jeff americaley, first term and member of the banking committee. we appreciate your time this wednesday morning. guest: great to be with you, paul. >> host: we'll take a break. we have another hour, but in a few minutes we'll statalk about new report from the brookings institution. our guest will be william frye. in the meantime, an update from washington radio. >> the u.s. trade deficit rose to a 15-month high as rising oil prices president bushed the crude import to the highest level since the fall of 2008, offsetting another strong gain in exports. the trade deficit rose 2.5% to $40.4 billion in march. that's basically what economists had expected. it's the biggest monthly trade deficit since december of 2008. the antiestablishment political tie that ousted three-term republican senator bob bennett in utah has toppled long-time democratic congressman alan mullihan in west virginia. and many are unmoved by president obama's embrace of arlen specter in next tuesday's senate democratic primary. arizona governor jan brewer has signed a bill prohibiting classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, are designed for students of a particular race, or that promote resentment of other groups. the bill targets the tucson's school district mexican-american studies program which had been criticized by the state school and the united nations panel is condemning the new bill. and finally, vice president joe biden's older son has been transferred to a hospital in philadelphia after suffering a mild stroke yesterday. and the doctors for 41-year-old bo biden say he is fully alert, in stable condition, and has full motor and speech skills. after visiting his son last night, the vice president gave a thumb's up to reporters. bo biden returned last year from a yearlong deployment to iraq with his army national guard unit. and those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> a couple of live events to tell you about today on the companion network c-span 3. the heads of b.p. america and rig operator trans ocean return to capitol hill to testify about offshore drilling. the house energy subcommittee questions them about the oil spill in the gulf of mexico live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. and senator wills examine the role of the federal emergency management agency in disaster recovery when they hear from fema straighter to at 2:30 p.m. eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. >> host: our guest, william frey of the brookings institution and here is a look at the state of metropolitan america on the front lines of demographic transformation. mr. frey, what were you looking for and what did you find out? guest: this is the output of a very large project at the brookings institution funneleded by the rockefeller foundation. and the idea of this is to try to sketch out for people interested in urban america, in metropolitan america the underlying demographic forces -- and they're substantial -- going on in the united states right now. we talk about five major realities, i guess, is the term, and we're growing much differently than a lot of the european countries and japan and especially in many of the large metropolitan areas. we're becoming more diverse. some people are aware of this, but this report really paints the picture of the sharp diversity that we have in the united states. 83% of the growth since 2000 in the united states is due to minorities and half due to hispanics on the way to a majority-minority population. third, we're getting older. us baby boomers are getting up in years and starting next january, the first baby boomer will turn age 65. and this is the reality. people may have it in the back of their minds, but when they see it painted out for individual metropolitan areas how old and much more aged some of the cities and suburbs are in the united states, this is something that has an important impact on private sector and public sector policies in the u.s. third, we're becoming more educated. 1/3 of adults have an associate or bachelor's degree or higher in the united states. 28% or more have college degrees up from only 20% in 1990. and that being said, there's a sharp divide between asians and whites, on the one hand and their college attainment, and latinos and blacks and their college attainment. and since the latino and black population is going to be a bigger part of the growth, it's something we need to be concerned about more in some metropolitan areas than others. and the fifth reality has to do with the decline in median household income in the last decade. we hope that can turn around if the future, but it is a reality we have to deal with right now. >> host: let's put the numbers on the screen about the state of metropolitan america. we'll have a separate line for democrats and republicans and independents and if you want to read the report that brookings has put out, our website. c-span.org and we have it there for you. and mr. frey, one of the takeaways recently in the "new york times" is population study finds change in the suburbs. talk specifically about the suburbs for a moment. guest: well, this is not your father's suburbs anymore. and if you look at the data and the census bureau was kind enough to give us special access through an agreement we have with them, we see that blacks, hispanics, asians, and whites are now primarily in the suburbs rather than in the city. this is a new point for blacks, new since the 2000 census. more immigrants are in the suburbs and in the cities. more poor people are in the suburbs and in the cities. and probably the big one is this aging baby boomer population. the baby boomers, after all, are the first suburban generation. they were born in the suburbs. they might have spent a little time in the city, went to college and such when they were young, but they started having kids and moved back to the suburbs, and now they're aging in the suburbs. you might think, well, what's the big deal about that? well, all the needs for transportation, for all kinds of access to health services, community services that holder people are going to be needing are not there in a lot of suburbs. and i think this is a big wow factor we're going to appreciate even more in the next decade as more baby boomers pass at age 65 and over. >> host: so before we get to calls,s plain what this means or should mean for the public policy makers or the lawmakers in town. guest: aging in general is viewed as a national issue in terms of social security and medicare, but individual metropolitan areas, the leaders in suburban communities and in cities have to start dealing with the needs of a population that is not able to get around as well on the highways, is going to have particular health care needs that are provided by local services, continuing education for some of the younger seniors who want to be able to stay in the labor force and be more productive should be provided. so that's the kind of thing. immigrants in the suburbs, gee, there's tons of opportunities to help us improve our labor force capabilities in the next 10 years. a large part of the labor force growth in the next 10 year, 80 or 90 percent, is going to be coming from la tee knows. it is not just immigrants but children of immigrants as well. and the education gap that's occurring between, as i said before, african-americans and la tee knows on the one hand and whites and asians on the other hand is widening, and as a result, we need to spend more local efforts, more state effort, and more federal efforts into our education system giving folks access to english language instruction as well as more formal education opportunities. host: let me read the number especially for democrats listening. 202-737-0002 for democrats. republicans, 202-737-0001. and independents 202-628-0205. and we are talking about the state of metropolitan america. lots of changes in the cities, the suburbs. we'll walk through it further. jacksonville, florida, you are up, first-it's nick on the line for democrats. go ahead, jacksonville. caller: yes, sir. how you doing, mr. frey? guest: i'm doing fine. caller: i'm a lifetime caller on the democratic line, but i want to let you know your report is spot on because i live in a 50-year-old suburban neighborhood to jacksonville. and this neighborhood is starting to look like a third world country. and this is the number one problem facing this country is we have too many people here now and we do not have the resources to take care of them. and something has got to be done about this. host: too many people he's saying. guest: well, i don't know. there's debate that we have too many people in the united states and contrasting our population with japan and some have a decline in the labor force population, we're not going to have to worry about that. i think what the caller is talking about, though, perhaps is the local situation. to what degree are people able, especially older people, largely u.s., native born, white folks, able to accommodate or somehow deal with this very churning, changing population shift and largely among perhaps new minorities coming to the u.s. i think it's always been a backlash, there's always been in any immigration wave some push back on the part of the resident population, but i think it's a broader view that needs to be taken by the federal government, by local leaders, by community leaders to be able to articulate the really importance of having the immigrant population. and also providing the opportunities for these folks to be able to get their pathway into the middle class through education and so forth. host: laura is calling from austin, texas, now. independent. caller: yes, sir. thank you for taking my call. i wanted a point of clarification from the guest. he mentioned that the immigration population was increasing. and generally when people use the word immigrant, they are not distinguishing between those who are welcomed into this country via legal pathways and those who are illegal. and i would like for him to aggress that with respect to the research done that you guys are talking about this morning. thank you. guest: sure. well, specifically, the census bureau pneunumbers do not make distinction. people who fill out the american community survey and the people who filled out the 2010 census, everybody should be filling it out and i think the census bureau has done studies that they don't identify undocumented immigrants, they are a part of the study. and as a result, we're talking about the real population. we're not trying to make that legal distinction there. i know some people are concerned about that, but we're really trying to talk about the overall change that's o curing. host: let's here from abilene, texas, where shirley is on the line for the republicans for william frey of brookings. are you there in caller: yes, i'm here. i find this program very interesting. we are in a mess in this country. in the 60's, teddy kennedy started this diverse immigration, and now we have this mass ive lottery immigratin and we have this immigrant resettlement program and they have all proved to be a real drag on our country, the different languages spoken, the things that they need to survive, they're supposed to be self-supporting. it's nothing like that. they remain on the welfare rolls and dependent for a long, long time. it will take generations for them to assimilate into this country. we are destroying ourselves. and the tsunami from south of the border is destroying our country. we are sinking from the expensive costs that we have to take care of because we just can't do it anymore. and not only that, they do not appreciate being in america. they are here for the handout. they are here for what they can take from us. they don't want to be good americans. we should have one flag and one language. we need a moratorium on all immigrations for all of these people to assimilate. host: william frey. guest: i'm not here to talk about immigration policy. we have lots of people in washington that can talk about all angles and all dimensions, but we do use the term tsunami in our report not to refer to immigrants but to the bulging increase in the senior population that we're going to have over the next 20 years. people who are going to be leaving the labor force, people who are going to need help, assistance in terms of health care assistance and young age that might need to help in an assisted living facility and things like that. and from that perspective, we need all the people we can get to come into our labor force and it is our job, i guess, to figure out if our immigration policy is allowing us to do that in a way that's going to be able to fulfill the kinds of jobs we need in our labor force. and i'll leave the immigration experts to discuss how that's going to get done. host: to the details on immigration as part of the report, 16% is the share of population that is foreign born, the 100 largest metro areas in 2008. 1:13 the ratio of immigrants to those with college degrees without those with high school diplomas in the new york area. 60% of children with at least one immigrant parent, this is in l.a., in 2008. and 63 metro areas out of 95 looked at in which a majority of foreign born live in the suburbs from 2008. there's one other point as we look at the economy, mr. frey, from the report, the steep downturn in late 2007 has had an impact on immigration worldwide and immigration from the u.s. appeared to have slowed in 2008, so the economy keeping folks from coming in. guest: yes, it's true. i mean, some people have looked at immigration over the years as unlimited supply of immigrant who is will come to the united states under any conditions, and i think to some extent that's true, but they also react to the economy. and those places that were growing very rapidly in the midpart of the decade, places in the intermountain west, las vegas, phoenix, interior california, were attracting lots of immigrants to work on housing, construction, services. that petered out in the last two years. and so there is a push and pull economic thing going on with imgranlts as well. host: we go to idaho. ted, a democratic caller. hi, ted. caller: hi. host: good morning. you are on with william frey. caller: me being a black person in the united states, i was wondering how come the black population isn't going to increase within 20 years. i think they may have said we're like 14% of the population and in 20 years we would stay the same. i was wondering how come us as blacks have not increase d when we're not really talking about the immigrant, but the mexicans are like supposed to move up and be the number one minority of which they will be, but if they do, then america will have to do something about that because it will be an educated america because none of those guys have been schooled in the united states schools. host: thanks. let's hear from our guest william frey. guest: the black population is growing. it's just not growing as rapidly as other parts of the population. the black population brew by 8% and the white population only grew 2% since 2000, but hispanics grew about 25-30%, the same for asians. and i think it's an issue, again, these demographic trends kind of creep up on you, and we have a lot of these folks already here. so it's not a matter of even deporting illegal imgranmigrant not going to solve the issue. we need to deal with the young people in the way that the future really depends on them being able to contribute. even if we stopped immigration tomorrow, the latino population would grow and the asian population would grow. host: brooklyn, new york, on the line. jacqueline from the independent on the line with william frey from brookings. what do you say from brooklyn? caller: good morning. i would like mr. frey to address the issue of the h1b visa. people don't seem to realize or understand that we have a program here in the united states where we actually bring people in from other countries to take the high-tech positions. so i hear a lot of people complaining about we have no jobs and no one really has addressed the issue of the h1b visa. would he please speak to that, please. host: can you speak to that? guest: it is not an area that have a broad knowledge about. i know it is a hotly debated issue especially during bad economic times. there are other times when the economy is just roaring and the employers are saying we need more h1b visas and that is a constant issue. i think this is something that is going to be addressed eventually and i cross my fingers when we do have some kind of immigration legislation go through congress, it's sorely needed. there are lots of things that need to be fixed, and i think one of them is how to deal with the people that come in on the h1b visas. host: back to the issue of age and the report as it relates to age in washington, 49% growth and 55 to 64-year-old population in the u.s. between 2000 and 2010. you basically made the point we're getting older as a country. speak, if you could, to what that means for the lawmakers here as they look at the relevant issues. guest: well, unlike a lot of economic phenomenon, demoinggra is easy to predict for the future. if you are 55 now n 10 years you will be 65, and the lawmakers have known this is coming and yet they are drug kicking and screaming with health care costs and at the last minute making changes to social security, but i think they understand the reality. what we're doing in this report, though, is trying to focus on how different metro areas are coping with this. and i think we make a distinction between what are the fast-growing metropolitan areas in the west and the south which for the first time are going to see huge growth in their senior population. whereas in the older part of the country, where younger people have been leaving for a long time, they're used to having a population that is more heavily weighted towards seniors. so i think both the older part of the country will have more of them, and the newer part of the country is going to have to get used to something new. what do you do with growing suburbs that were created for families with children and you now have single people living alone? how do you deal with their needs? part of it's a federal issue that the lawmakers have to deal with like they're trying to struggle with social security and medicare, but also local kinds of programs that are on the plate of mayors and county commissioners and people like that. host: hendersonville, north carolina, sandra, republican. hi there. caller: hi. good morning, c-span. i have a question and also a statement to make. i've heard recently that mothers that -- well, they're not mothers yet, but pregnant women that come to the country and once the baby is here, they become an american citizen. i think part of the problem is that law should change. i believe other countries have it that way and like us visiting france or something and if i would be pregnant and have a baby, that baby would not be a french citizen. it would be a united states citizen. i believe whatever the nationality of the mother is, that baby should become that nationality, otherwise it makes it hard to deport a mother that has a baby here that also becomes a united states citizen and she is not. host: the view there from north carolina. speak to education if you could. there are worrying signs that younger americans are not making the same level of progress in educational attainment as older generations. first speak to different parts of the country with that issue, but then explain what it means. guest: well, one of the findings of the report is that the places that have the highest level of education attainment are actually getting smarter, and the places with the lowest levels of education attainment aren't moving as rapidly in that direction. so there's actually kind of a divide being created between places of all things, washington, d.c., which actually has the highest percentage of college graduates -- a lot of people don't believe people are that smart here, but, in fact, they are. and places on the interior part of california like bakersfield that have a low percentage of college graduates. and so it has a lot to do with the labor force capacity of the areas and the kinds of jobs that can be create there had. but i think the division is partially a result of these kind of race and ethnic divides that i have t guest: i think when we move ahead and see lots of people retiring, especially the baby boomers, there will be ample opportunities, but only in certain niches and we need to make sure the new immigrants and their children and also the people who aren't imgranlts are ready for the jobs that are coming up and moving into their 20's and 30's. host: you have a whole section on work and write that the great sums of income that the american labor force generates are distributed unevenly among its workers. there's the passage from the report. speak more to that. guest: yes. i think we found in this chapter that the people in the upper levels of the income distribution are finding their wages increased, but those in the lower decile and the middle are showing declines over the course of this decade. some of it is related to the skill gap, and we do know that people with higher skills get rewarded more in their wages. some of it is due to the general downturn in the economy, which took a big hit in the last two or three years. host: you also have a section on commuting to work and elsewhere. what did you find? guest: there are more people that are not driving alone to work than -- or more people taking public transportation in the last couple of years and earlier, but still, that is not the case for most of america. and i think the main thing we find there is there's great variation among metropolitan areas and places like new york and washington and boston and san francisco, that transit system is all set up pretty well. other parts of the country, there is a lot of single riders in cars. and many of my colleagues at brookings deal more with commuting issues and transportation issues than i do and have written extensively on this, and they feel that there are opportunities for these new fast-growing areas to really do a little bit more with public transportation and with developers to do more highly dense development in communities to help deal with the long-term issues of energy in this country, and the carbon and carbon issues and so forth. host: couple more call. tucson, arizona, is it amelia? caller: emalita. host: thank you for correcting me. independent caller. go ahead, please. caller: actually, in a lot of situations i'm sort of, i guess, a myriad of things is sort of coming to my mind. i immigrated here and like others, i am legal with a job, educated, spoke english. i'm in tucson, and i see a lot of the things going on here as far as illegal immigration and this cooling is another issue. as far as where i came from, school was part of everybody's lifestyle where it started at 7:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon monday through friday and was taken seriously in comparison to here. i do have a child that went to school here and what a big difference. so of course, there's a lot of things definitely the united states could probably change in order to compete with the world in general and so i just kind of want to put my two cents in on that. host: thanks. any thoughts? guest: well, all i can say is one of the issues about the new immigrant and the second generation of population is they are highly clustered in certain parts of the united states. about just a little less than half of all hispanics are just in 10 metropolitan areas, about half of all asians are in 10 metropolitan areas. so that the areas and the places that are dealing with this, you know, trying to have the new generations move into the labor force and to give them schooling are separate from a large part of the northeast and the midwest. and there needs to be ways and one of the things we do in this report is regroup metropolitan areas based on their race profiles, based on their growth, and based on their education. we think the groupings, i won't go through them all now. there's seven of them and we have maps and so forth in the report, will give policy makers an idea of where the issues are most important, where the issues of aging are most important, where the issues of general sort of household growth in the suburbs and there are places that's happening are important. so it's 163-page report , so there's lots of stuff in there. host: and our last call from georgia with melly. caller: hello there. i would like to say that these illegals are being -- are coming into our country and they're being welcome d. i'm sure it that's not going to be too long until all of those illegals are going to get amnesty. and of course, for the democratic party, they need some new blood in there. they need some new votes. host: thanks. final thought, william frey, on this report, about 163 or so pages and the state of metropolitan america. what else should we take away from this and why is that important? guest: one of the thing that i failed to mention is we have a wonderful website where you can get the latest demographic and economic information and you will be able to download the report. but i think you'll have lots of fun playing with the website and maps and lists and all that kind of stuff. host: william frey, a senior fellow and demographer and you can again, you can read the report at our website, c-span.org. one more short break and a half hour left. we'll do some open phone. you can talk about any topic and we'll take that to the top of the hour when the house of representatives comes in. stick around. we'll be right back. host: we have a good chance for you in these 25 minutes to respond to anything you have heard this morning or read or introduce a new topic. just an open phone segment, so we look forward to heari in the summary, they have included options to appease several coastal democrats who ramped up the opposition in the wake of last month's spill allowing states to veto drilling plans and the unveiling is today by the two senators and certainly we'll be talking about this more on this program and follow the path of this bill and see where it goes. wendy is our first call on open phones from nova scotia, canada. democratic caller. caller: i have been trying to get through for three years. host: three yearses. long wait. thank you. caller: i wanted to share a few of my opinions and thoughts. host: sure. caller: first of all, i am a pro life, anti death penalty democrat and am tired of being lumped in as a democrat and you're pro abortion, that's not true. okay. second of all, let's see here. if i happen to leave the christian faith because england, france, canada are not communist countries and they all have health care. and i find that most of the anti-obama callers not only lack empathy but have recently shown themselves to be racist, anti-immigrant, hypocrites, and bullies. i think god made us all, every color, every race, and so forth. host: wendy, you left a lot out there for people to respond to. caller: please finish. it's been three years. you won the point. go ahead. they are consistently eager to spend money on wars, weapons, and tax breaks for the rich while opposing the ways and means to promote and take care the stimulus package, from my understanding, it was designed to help create jobs and all this, but, you know, she's saying that there was no jobs or nothing that was really created from this. and i think that's a misconception. i think construction is going on all the time. police officers have kept their jobs. firefighters have kept their jobs. factory workers have kept their jobs. factories in general, so i think that she was really not speaking correctly. and then you have another call er when she was talking about freddie mac and fannie mae and she was talking about what the democrats have taken and the millions of dollars the democrats have taken. i find that hard to believe that there was no republicans that have taken any money from freddie mac or fannie mae. if you're going to get your facts done, do it correctly. don't just do it from one standpoint. host: thanks, david, for your comments from maryland outside washington, d.c. and here is a shot of elena kagan in the "new york post" today pointing out she was an advisor to president clinton and republicans are eyeing the bubba factor as they put it on kagan. they are vowing to dig up documents from bill clinton's presidential library to closely examine the white house policy role played by kagan. and the video shot of her there. and she will be on capitol hill today. the first of a series of visits to senators land begin at 10:00 a.m. in the office of the majority leader harry reid and visit mitch mcconnell later and the chair and ranking member on judiciary, senator patrick leahy and senator jeff sessions. these are all separate visits as we typically see from the new nominee. and we will have one of our own cameras i have asked my comcast server to provide c-span 1, 2, and 3 on every channel they service. is there anything you guys can go at c-span to get that done? i think you're the only truly independent output we have. host: we are listening and thanks for that idea and suggestion. any public policy items on your mind here? lots on the table this morning. caller: well, i am tired of the constant bickering between congress, among the members of congress. i wish we could get some campaign financing laws or some laws in effect that would reduce the length of the primary. we're at it for a couple of months and it's a lot more pleasant and palatable. she voted against the stimulus and voted against the tarp, i wonder what kind of recession we would be in in we hadn't done those things. it's so easy to always say the other guy did it caller: i want to make a statement. we all responsible for what's going on because we were doing the spending. we didn't put any money away. it's not a democratic problem or republican problem. it's a people problem. if we watch what we spend, we wouldn't be in the problems and when we had the money, we got the money, we spent it. and we went and got more money. we used the welfare system. we did everything. and we have to look in the mirror at ourselves and take responsibility for what we do. host: joseph, thank you. caller: we can't keep blaming. host: jimmie johnson fref bingh binghamton, thank you for weighing, joseph. and here is a headline from a washington paper and here is the headline. vandals overrule supreme court. they seized the mojave cross memorial was allowed to stay and two weeks after the supreme court said it could stay, the mojave has been ripped out and stolen from the rocky embankment in the desert. thieves sawed through the bolts securing it to the platform atop sun rise rock late sunday or early monday. and park employees discovered the cross missing monday morning said linda slater a swoekswoman for the park service. authorities made no arrest in this case, at least not yet, but attorneys have spent years fighting to keep the memorial within the preserve say they think the culprits were motivated by the supreme court's decision on april 28, which allowed the cross to remain for now within the federal preserve. "washington times" piece there just below t know >> i don't understand why we bother this morning with the way this country is going. host: hershey, pennsylvania. matthew, independent caller, what do you say this morning? caller: yes. how you all doing this morning? host: fine. caller: a lot of interesting stuff this morning. and one thing i wanted to comment is generally people are out of south with what's going on in government. and i give kudos to c-span. i think c-span 1, 2, and 3 are great. i'm addicted to it, but what's happening with the united states being out of touch with the government, we're slowly allowing the sovereignty to be transferred away. and it's being obstructed by a lot of declassifications and deregulations and not saying i'm for more regulations, but i'm thinking what's happening is even with immigration right now, i don't think the immigration is the problem if it's appli in a way it's like seeing if we don't get on boat, we're going to be problems here, which i an i degree with, but it's funny in how this is being forecasted and if you look at rockefeller from speeches back, he is always talking about a de-population and i am not against, but -- i'm almost done here, but the issue we have is we are having trouble with growth and change and we can't necessarily handle it because the system can't handle it. we can handle it and the system can't. host: voice from matthew from her sheeshe hershey, pennsylvania. to grace from california. welcome, grace. caller: hey, how you doing? host: fine. caller: since it is open phones, i wanted to call in about a policy that i really don't agree with right now. i believe that ken salazar and the department of interior, i would like them to strip the b.l.m. from management of our wild horses and burrows because they're doing a terrible job. and because they're harming our wildlife. they don't recognize our wild horses as indigent as wildlife. and they're really stripping our land of our wild horses right now. and i would like that to stop. host: okay, grace. and sue now from middletown, maryland. what do you say, sue? caller: yes, hi. thank you for c-span. host: you bet. caller: immaterialed to talk about the previous guest. i don't know where he got his statistics about the asian population growth comparing that to the hispanic growth. i can't imagine that -- i mean, i just don't see that opening my own two eyes. also, i want to just say that i felt that the conversation was definitely steered away from immigration and maybe that's just what needed to happen, but i'm going to speak for it right now. and kudos to the person and the governor in arizona. i think she did a great thing. she stood up for the people of arizona with over 60% of the people supporting what she did. thank god she did it. and i also want to say i am a republican. and guess what? that is in "u.s.a. today" on this wednesday morning. and we have this photo in the "new york post" today. mike joins london underground. what you see here is mayor bloomberg, mike bloomberg of new york city in london hoping to approve subway security and is checking out the security operation at westminister station yesterday with the mayor of london. this, of course, follows the failed bombing attempt in times square two weekends ago. hellfire from above is the headline in the "new york daily news." c.i.a. drones kill 14, they write, in an attack on times square bombers teachers. they hammered the cragy havens of faisal shahzad's mentors and killing 14 in the heaviest attacks since the botched bombing. they fired 18 hellfire missiles that hit a nearby compound for terrorists in a remote area near the north afghan border. that is in "the daily news." staten island, new york, open phones continue. steve, independent, what is on your mind today? caller: hello. yes, i agree with the president. every so often i start to get -- start to agree with the president and then he goes back to the same thing. host: what issue, is there one issue in particular you can point to? caller: my main issue is the voting coming up in november. you had previous callers and it was the democrats and they talk about racist this, racist that. and they're the only ones that bring up race. you never have the republicans come up on the phone and bring up race. and you don't have independents come up and call everybody racist. it's always the democrats. they're the ones that breed race. and we're all average people and i have been born and raised in this country, okay, and i'm an american citizen. i get along great. i live in an ethnic neighborhood of mexicans up the block, i have a black neighborhood right up the corner from me, black projects, and i'm right in between everybody. i have indian deli down the block, korean deli next to my house. and everybody gets along fine until this man was elected. and the race is pervasive and it's becoming per vasive to the policies now. everything is race, race, race. and ever since he's been elected. now, the first black man in office, you think this country would be celebrating. everybody would be like, watch, this is great. and the second thing or the main thing about the voting is the voter -- the voter -- the voting, whoever is taking care of the voting needs to really be scrupulous. i'm talking about the republican side. and also democrats, but especially republican side needs to start getting ready for voter fraud now. host: thank you, steve, from staten island, new york. house coming in in four or five minutes. we'll have it live, of course. we'll continue to take calls now. this from bellevue, texas. democratic call they are. hi. caller: yes. i'm calling today about the immigration thing. we have been taken over in texas. they have invaded us and they are taking our jobs. this talk about everybody saying they take jobs nobody wants, that's not true. they're taking the jobs and they're taking the food stamps. they're taking the doctors. they're going to the doctors free. and i want the patriate act done away with. i don't like my picture being taken every time i walk out my door. i'm tired of the republicans using religion when they're a bunch of hypocrites. but anyway, i voted for president obama. he is my president. but if something isn't done very seriously about immigration, i will be changing my vote. host: all right. let's hear from eric in never sink, new york. what part is never sink? caller: in sullivan county. north of new york city. host: great. caller: i would like to comment on the good job you do, number one, and appreciate your coverage of the tea party march last september. i was there, and most networks didn't cover it or covered it very poorly. but my focus today, i would like to say, is people have to wake up in this country because we have been invaded. and we've been invaded not just by illegal immigrants and those who want to destroy our country, and i think the president is being controlled by some people who want our country to fail so that we have to be under a one world entity. and i think the people he's appointed to advise him with proof of that. and they're mostly marxists and socialists with no business experience or ever worked for a company. so medical care thing is one more grab of power from us by the politicians. it's going to be a negative thing, i think, and people will be sorry about it. host: all right, eric. lead editorial in the "new york times", industry doesn't step up. they ask who is to blame for last month's catastrophic oil spill. the other guy, at least that's what three oil executives predictably and cynically told the senate hearing on tuesday. the administration and congress will have to press a lot harder to figure out what went wrong and what must be changed, including how the industry needs to be regulated to ensure this never happens again. we're covering another hearing this time on the house side on the gulf oil spill. president and chairman of b.p. america again and also the head of trans ocean limited and timothy probert of global business lines with halliburton and jack moore, president and c.e.o. of cameron who has been involved in this process. that hearing at 10:00, starting up just about now on c-span 3. houghton lake, michigan. bruce, independent, hi. caller: hi. i just like to make a comment this morning on the representative you had on from washington. host: yes. kathy mcmorris rodgers. caller: it was unbelievable to me the things that were coming out of her mouth. i just couldn't understand these people have a vocabulary of about 12 words that they keep repeating. and iel this you, i'm not losing any sleep over at&t losing money. have a good day. host: squeeze in one last call from davenport, iowa. democrat, lawrence. welcome. caller: hi. thank you for talking my

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