Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20111030

for itself and adding to budget problems. "des moines register" a new poll giving the lead to herman cain and mitt romney. with caucuses taking place in january and "new york times" reporting troops will be repositioned to kuwait. we will begin on this sunday morning with your calls and comments on the issue of the presidential executive orders and the u.s. constitution, the speaker of the house weighing in this. the numbers are on the screen. host: we will also take your tweets and you can sends us an e-mail. we begin with this editorial tame for boehner and -- time for boehner and house republicans to bring obama to heel saying boehner is right congress can limit what presidents can do by denying the funds or limiting how the funds can be spent. it quotes political scientists who wrote in their book the basic symbols of the american political tradition congress has the ultimate weapon in any show down with either of the two branches of the federal government but the question is why are we just now hearing about this warning to obama nearly a year after voters restored boehner's party as majority status. that warning last week on the laura ingram show and the president we can't wait. spending a couple of days in western states, in colorado and nevada and california talking about a number of programs to help homeowners in trouble and student loans of people who may be facing default. the president talking about the executive orders to jump start the economy and help people who need help the most. >> the truth is we can no longer wait for congress to do its job. the middle class families who have been struggling are tired of waiting. they need help now. when congress won't act i will. we announced a new policy to help families whose home evaluation have fallen to refinance. we are making it easier for veterans to get jobs putting skills to work in hospitals and community health centers. we reformed the student loan process. we are going to keep announcing more changes like this on a regular basis. this will make a difference. they won't take place of the bold action to get the economy kphaofg. that is why i need all of you to make your voices heard. tell congress to start taking action on jobs. we want to rebuild the economy where every american has a chance to get ahead and we need every american to get involved. host: the president in his weekly address has been talking about that during the past week as he shared his frustration with the senate's failure to pass one part his jobs bill to help teachers and first responders. there is a related story inside the "washington post" talking about the schedule and week ahe ahead. will congress finish its list on time? it points they head into a 24-day stretch with a chance to reach compromises that could settle the foundation and provide a slight boost to a struggling economy. with both houses in session together the first time in nearly three weeks lawmakers must dig into the final details of the spending bill and consider more of president obama's jobs legislation while others on a special deficit commission facing the november 23 deadline to craft a debt reduction package. further into the story this point from the "washington post" the first order of business is asserting the federal government does not endure another crisis we faced with a potential of a showdown. leaders hope that senate action early in the week on a measure outlining spending through of 2012 for some government agencies may pave the way for a broader deal on the spending plan. the senate is expected to approve a $182 billion measure to funding a u -- cu cultural and other things. it will hear testimony from leaders of the task forces that examined the deficit reduction issue. those co-chairs likely to advocate for higher level of savings than now appears possible given the blow up on the panel referring it a democratic plan that would have raised taxes for some as a way to offset the deficit by up to $3 billion. is congress and the executive branch on the laura ingram show where boehner was asked about the executive orders and he had this response. >> i thought that we were a nation of laws and that our country was governed by our constitution. as i have been around my and the country there is more of an interest in our founding principles than any time in my political career. when you talk about the founding principles, you have realized article one gives the congress of the united states the power of the purse and that the president has powers under article two. and this idea that you will go around the congress is just almost laughable. so, we are keeping a close eye on the administration to make sure they are following the law and following the constitution. host: as we set up the issue we want to hear from you. 202 is the area code. we welcome our viewers on the bbc parliamentary channel and also at c-span org and you can twitter us. one viewer says obama's executive orders without congress are absolutely wrong. he knows it is wrong and we know it is wrong. stop buying sroes -- votes. we have our first call on the line.ndent caller: i enjoyed speaker boehner's comments that we are a nation of laws. i think the first sentence says all legislative powers should be vested in the congress and article two states that the president shall faithfully execute those laws. but mr. boehner is being pretty selective. i remember back in i guess it was after the nixon administration there was a law passed called the presidential act of 1978. one of the first things george w. bush did when he got in office was refuse to obey that law and release ronald reagan's papers. subsequently he signed an executive order making the reagan papers secret and shipping them to his father's presidential library in texas. if boehner wants to artichonor let's support that right and get a look at rake's administration's papers. i would like to know more about iran-contra and i would like to know about our relationship of saddam hussein and of course reagan's freedom fighters. don't forget the freedom fighters of osama bin laden and what became al qaeda and that really means the data base, the c.i.a. payroll data base. mr. boehner is being pretty selective. host: kenny from alexandria, virginia as away talk about congress, the constitution and executive orders. caller: good morning, steve. i wish he had done executive orders almost it seems from the beginning when he came in to office. he was not getting positive feedback even from journalism and the republican party. and whether it is healthcare and that was the main thing, was just getting his point across. he had to go against the term entitlements. it is almost to the point of when you have a guest, if they can sit in a chair are they entitled to a chair when they sit at your desk. it has gotten that simple. the environmental aspects of the smokestacks and water. rachel carson was so prevalent in that about getting d.d.t. and that was jobs back then. the argument against protecting neighborhoods. that is our security as basic as that. host: thank you. a related story about the deficit reduction committee they have had four public -- more private meetings than public but there is another public session tuesday and c-span is committed to covering all of them. they write they are divided over whether a fail safe reduction plan is necessary to avoid a market panic. if the committee fails to reach a deal it reflects differences over whether it is imperative for them to find at least dauer 1.2 trillion cuts by november 23. a third way which is a democratic think tank has given the committee a $1.65 trillion break the glass plan to serve as a fallback if members can't reach a broader agreement. that is more online at the hill.com. next a viewer from chicago randy on the democratic line. caller: this is amazing that you all of a sudden have this topic to discuss. i'm with george w. bush. george bush issued so many executive orders it was pathetic. he was at the rate at one point of close to 60 or 70 a month. now all of a sudden you, because this president is trying to do something, help this economy move forward, you want to bring this up as though there is a constitutional issue. host: let me stop you for a moment. we are bringing it up because the speaker of the house was asked about it over the weekend. president has talked about it in a number of he wants in chicago, los angeles, las vegas, detroit -- or denver -- and it is a topic people are talking about. we have talked about executive orders when bill clinton signed them and when george w. bush signed them. go ahead, randy. he hung up. more phone calls. jay carney was asked about this issue last thursday in his daily briefing. >> the president is operating well within the bounds of his authority and in a way that is consistent with the kinds of executive actions presidents have taken in previous administrations, presidents of both parties. i would respectfully suggest to the speaker that perhaps he should and the house should focus on what the american people are insisting that washington in general focus on, which is the need to grow the economy and create jobs. i think that yesterday the house admits the demand that action be taken passed the bill that would issue commemorative coins for baseball hall of fame, passed overwhelmingly. now i think they are pretty much done for the week in a couple of hor hours. president has put forward a jobs plan with measures that have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, by democrats, independents and republicans everywhere except congress. he, i think, believes congress should act on that. with regard to the executive actions we have made clear that we do not believe for a moment that they are a substitute for legislative action but they represent the president's absolute commitment to doing everything he can within his authority to assist the american people as they deal with this difficult economy. carney when asked specifically about the comments of boehner on the laura ingram show when he was asked about the executive orders and we will get your feedback on all of this. you can join us online at twitter, twitter.com/c-spspanwj. has this. congress is not stalling. they are vetting your bills which they should have done in 2008 with obama care. next is a viewer from texas. good morning on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, please. caller: i think obama, like his voters are full of hypocrisy. all they did is gripe eight years and they are still griping about everything bush did and now obama is ok to do it because an idiot. it is ok because we know he is an idiot. we hear this stuff from obama and his people saying they want the rich to pay more taxes and democratic liberal progressive want to pay more but not a penny goes to the i.r.s. because like obama they are total liars. he is a coward and liar and crook like clinton was a crook and that is where the money went to is the democrat crooks. they ruined housing, banking, wall street now they are protesting it. nothing but crooks. host: from john stanton in roll call a look at the schedule. house and senate both in, eric cantor saying he hoped to focus much of next year's work on jobs and economy and he would use a calendar based on regular prolonged district work periods a follow-up to a letter that was saying he hopes the calendar will create certainty and increase efficiency and productivity in the legislative process. some comparison not counting the pro forma days during recess the house will be in session a total of 109 days compared with this year where they expected to be in -- i'm sorry in the 110th they were in 104 days during the 110th congress. you can read more on line. a caller on the democrat line. caller: good morning. i'm very interested in the executive orders because the congress is not doing anything and i'm interested to know if the president can do something. i have a thought that keeps occurring. on the playground i'm a teacher and if you have a bully, when the bully is stood up to often they just evaporate if they don't get their way or if they do they just kind of evaporate if you stand up to them the bully goes away. i think if mr. boehner thinks they have the president trapped that he can't do anything because the constitution says he can't do anything. when republican presidents or democratic presidents have been in the office they have done things by executive order. so, it is obvious that there is an ability of the president to tdo things by executive order. it just depends on whose ox is being gored whether they will let it go through or stand up and say no, he is not following the rules. there is such thing as a presidential order and the president is using that to try to help little people who are getting squashed in the system we have going on right now. far from being a thief or liar or crook the way the gentleman just previously called our president, the president of the united states, remember the little dixie chicks and one said she was ashamed to be a texan, why, they just absolutely went insane because she said a thing like that about the president of the united states. where is all of the respect for the president of the united states? now that it is their turn. host: the earlier call sylvan and one viewer saying why don't you cut off such insulting disgusting calls as the recent one. you can share your thoughts at twitter.co twitter.com/c-sp twitter.com/cspanwj. asking about executive orders. john boehner weighing in on the laura ingram show, white house responds saying the president is within the letter of the law in executive orders when it comes to assistance for those facing trouble paying loans or homeowners with troubles paying mortgages. we have a call from missouri. caller: as far as the executive orders are concerned, i feel that president obama has failed to exercise them in regard to our sending a billion dollars a day to foreign countries that don't even like us, for their oil. this country is suffering economically because we have lacked the liquidity that we should have because we are sending the money out of the country. $1 billion a day, $365 billion a year goes out of this country for oil. and it is assinine and ridiculous. the president could do something about it. on the good side let me tell you what the mayor of grandview is doing. he just instituted the use of natural gas in all the vehicles for the city of grandview, missouri. grandview is where president truman had his original farm and grew up as a little boy farming in grandview, missouri. we are making it happen. we are going to use natural gas to run the city's vehicles. and when they establish the equipment to put the natural gas in the city cars, if they are smart they will do it so i can go by and put a credit card in and fill my own car with natural gas. host: thank you for the car from missouri. you mentioned the 1948 campaign and at 10:30 eastern, 7:30 for our viewers on the west coast, a rebroadcast of the contenders program when we focused on the 1948 race when president truman was supposed to lose. our focus is on tom dewey, a three-time presidential candidate. it is part of a 14-week series from the roosevelt hotel in new york city. the same suite where dewey was watching the returns in november of 1948 and found out that he had lost to harry truman. that is 10:30 eastern on c-span. speaking of billions of dollars the "washington post" has this headline. social security adding billions to the budget woes. the story with this point. social security is sucking money out of the treasury this year adding a projected $46 billion to the budget problems. according to projections by the system trustees replacing cash lost to a one-year payroll tax holiday will require an additional $105 billion and both parties are ducking the issue wary of agitating older voters and advocates of the social security issue here in washington. a look at how social security is running cash negative for the first time in about 75 years. tyson joins us on the republican line from palm springs, california. the topic is executive orders and the president. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you to c-span. we are going to have executive orders from the administration to administration. that is a fact of the matter. another fact of the matter is that executive orders are so one-sided, so like playing poker. the president knows he can't get this passed. if you compare it to the financial institutions, it is like going to a bank saying i'm tkpgoing to bypass the approval the bank and issue myself a $1 million loan. it is silly. obama is pushing things too far forward. he should stay professional. he is the president of the united states and you are supposed to follow the constitution. most of the country knows that. and carney, carney is great. you can get a big laugh. he is great. host: tyson from palm springs, california. i'm outraged by the rules of law we do not have. where does it say mitch mcconnell and norquist have all the power. he is heading up americans for tax reform. he will be with us in the first hour on the washington journal. some other headlines, "denver post" is occupy denver and demonstrations there. front page clashes result in about 20 arrests. t "pittsburgh post-gazette." a blast killing 12 americans by a suicide bomber in kabul. the"the des moines register" ha new poll. cain and romney lead. ron paul is third. from the "chicago tribune," a story about immigration, across the border, beyond the law. law enforcement breakdowns make it easy for suspects to flee the country and live freely for years. a related story about immigration in houston drug wars leaving a allegiance of orphans as the narcoviolence means life with one parent or none and "boston globe" a habit of judicial leniency. and the richmond times dispatch on this the anniversary of the civil war, 150th and verse have i hollywood enrichment. one of a number of film crews with programs and films on the simple war. june joins us from omaha, nebraska. democrats line. caller: i believe that the president should use his executive order because i don't see any jobs the republicans are doing for us. is like they believe that if they only give obama four years they are going to get in and get jobs going. i don't understand why anybody would believe that the republicans are going to help. republicans can't even go on the tv and say president obama. they always say obama. so they have no respect. i think he should use his executive orders as much as he can to make them do jobs for us. because we are dying out here. host: thank you for the call. we will go to the republican line, frederick, virginia. kim, what is your response to that? caller: i think that respect is something you earn, and the came in saying that he was going to be a uniter, not a divider. and he has been quite the opposite. i think that obama is overstep being his authority with these orders. he has lost so many young naive college kids and he is trying to buy the votes by passing this executive order that will save them approximately on average $4 to $10 each. he's we can, he is pathetic, he is the most divisive president that i can remember. he is ruining our country. host: appreciate the call and comment. one viewer says the house has passedle bills. -- passed the bills. jay carney knows no shame. speaker of the house boehner weighing in on the president's call that we cannot wait. here is his response with regard to the economy and executive orders. >> i have great concerns that he may be and i know our committees of jurisdiction in the area of student loans and when it comes to the home ownership programs probably the financial services committee, those chairmen and staff are looking at these proposals to make sure that the president isn't exceeding his authority. what will you do if you believe that he is exceeding his authority? what recourse do you have? >> well, we've got an proceedingses process that is and we have the ability to limit their use of funds to try to bring this administration to heel. host: that was john boehner on the laura ingram show which is syndicated on radio. we are asking about these. an editorial in the washington examiner and notes from the "washington post" a focus on first lady michelle obama the first lady staying popular a tricky tradeoff and there is a photograph outside the white house last night in which the first family was distributing candy and fruit in those in attendance for the tradition of the obamas. the president spoke to the italian american group here. we will listen to mike from winston-salem, north carolina on the democrat line. good morning. caller: our congress is dysfunctional. it is gridlocked. the wheels are not turning not even in the government. obama should use the executive order to get the wheels turning. can't we get along? host: this is michael from new york city. caller: organgood morning, stev. i would like to talk about executive orders. i teach in the graduate school program.ss, the pm.b.a. host: whether school, mike? caller: i would rather not say because the opinion i might give might affect some of the m.b.a.'s as far as my point of view. but it is an ivy league school and it is ranked in the top three. let me give you what i would do as obama. you want $1 trillion? you take an executive order and order the sale of the $20 billion of oil that bush bought for the strategic oil reserves. the fact is that saudi arabia is only 4% of u.s. oil. canada is 31%. i would issue an executive order selling the $20 billion of oil. oil will fall from about $96 a barrel to $35, which is the correct price. that will put about $1.6 trillion in the -- toward the u.s. budget deficit. bush issued an executive order, after knock being out iraq oil which was six million barrels a day he bought five mechanical barrels a day. the rule of thumb, a canadian formula, if you triple the price of oil unemployment goes to 10% and housing drops by 50%. now, that has occurred since i have been a teacher for 30 years, that was 1974 to 1978 and the first iraq war. when consumers pay under $2 a gallon your electric bills drop by 70%. so i would issue an executive order selling bush's 20 billion barrel oil reserves. host: thanks for the call. front page of the times u.s. plans a build-up in the gulf after the iraq exit. tom shanker is out with a new become writes that the obama administration plans to bells terror the american military presence in the persian gulf after in withdraws the troops from iraq according to officials and diplomats. that repositions could include new combat forces in kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in iraq or iran.ntation with the plan is under discussion for a month gaining new urgency after the president announcing the last american soldiers will be brought home from iraq by the end of december. back it your calls -- back to your calls. you can join the conversation on twitter. boehner and republicans and corporations are stalling the u.s. economy by sitting on capital not loaning or hiring to achieve their gel. we have a call from north tennessee, welcome to the program. caller: yes. obama's jobs bill is not a jobs bill. it is a copy of the first stimulus bill that didn't hire anybody and to say he is saving teachers and firemen, we have teachers that make more money than most of the households in their classroom. they have the best healthcare plan and tenure and they have the best pension. and they evidently can't keep out computers because we had one school broken into and some electronics were stolen and they had to cancel school the next day. they evidently never heard of a book and blackboard that teachers used to use. we have one school with one teacher for 15 kids and the principal was asking for more money. obama is handing out promises like handing out candy out the back door of the white house. these young kids he is trying to trick into voting for him are the same ones that elected him last election. you hate to think they didn't get any wiser in four years. that would be a sad commentary on our education system. as if it was not sad enough already. he needs to quit campaigning on the taxpayer money and do what a president should do and quit handing out executive orders like he's handing out candy. it is ridiculous and childish. and most people here that are adults can see what he is doing. host: thanks for the call. inside "new york times" a story that broke yesterday 12 americans killed in a bomb attack in kabul representing the largest loss of american lives in afghanistan since 30 died in an attack on a helicopter in early august. marian joins us from rochester new york, democrats lien. caller: yes. the president should have used his executive orders a long time ago. 'm a 99-er and have been unemployed over three years and had one temp job during that time. he had a chance to help us and he hasn't. i call washington every day. i call different senators, different republican senators, democratic. you name it, i called them. and they don't listen. if anybody on the republican side thinks that the republicans are going to help this economy with jobs and the people who really need help, you know, the republicans cut back on heat this year. i have been sitting in a cold house a couple of days because i can't afford the oil. thanks to republicans they cut way back on heat and we are not allowed -- only twice during the heating season and they cut it back to where the oil companies won't deliver the memorandum that they allow. so, if anybody thinks the republicans are going to do anything to help the economy and the people who need the help, the 99% of the people, they are crazy. obama needs to do more executive orders and help the people that re protest iing, the people tht are sitting in cold houses, people who have had jobs for years and lost them to other countri countries. as far as i'm concerned, in a lot of cases he is weak but he needs to get on the ball and start helping people that really ned the help. host: from rochester, new york, she mentioned the cold and snow. this photograph from "new york times" an unusual event for late october, the tpeufirst time in t 87 years a significant snowfall in parts of the northeast this. is washington square park in new york city. joe has this comment on our question about the executive orders. the theory, i guess, with a lot of questions is that every single corporation in america hates obama so much they will lose money to make him look bad. question marks. we have a republican from illinois who offered the republican response and followed up on something boehner said on the laura ingram show saying the house is doing its job. it is up to the senate run by the democrats to pass some of the bills. here is the republican response to the president's address this week. >> many of the jobs bills the house has passed are stuck in the senate. they are the forgotten 15. let me tell you a little about them. these bills are common sense bills that are addressing those excessive federal regulations that are hurting small business jobs creation. they were written after listen being to the farmers, manufacturers and small business people from around the country. a number of them have bipartisan support. yet the senate won't give them a vote. and the president hasn't called for action. politics and pessimism won't get back on track. i was disappointed to hear the president say at a campaign fund-raiser this week that americans have lost our ambition, our imagination. i respectfully disagree. the people of my district are making more sacrifices and doing whatever it takes. host: comments of bobby shilling the response and the editorial we used from the washington examiner time for bane are and house republican -- boehner and house republicans to bring obama to heel and boehner is right congress can limit what presidents can do by denying them the funds or by limiting how those funds can be spent. joe is joining us from long benjamin, new york, independent line. caller: i don't have much use for the democrats or republicans. if boehner is so interested in the constitution where was he when they rammed the patriot act through that says my government can spy on me and find out what books i'm taking out of the library and what i'm saying on my telephone or computer without court oversight? where is the constitution in that? as far as obama is concerned, there are 24 million americans out of work or working part-time. he is like the caller from tennessee said he is giving money to teachers and minorities and shoring up his base. he is only interested in creating one job and that is for himself in 2012. he's interested in one job, not us. host: joe, thanks. jim has this point on the twitter page. they are not the forgotten 15. they are the fiscally irresponsible and foolish 15. that is why they languish. we would come back to the phone calls but we want to turn to politics for a moment. today the "des moines register" has this headline. cain and romney lead the republican pact. ron paul is third. the survey out jennifer jacobs is following this and joins us live on the phone. good morning, thanks for being with us. caller: good morning. host: any surprises in the survey? we saw romney had shown strength and herman cain who won a straw poll yesterday in south carolina among those surveyed statistically just about even. cain at 23% and romney 22%. caller: i think some of the surprises were that michelle bachmann who won our straw poll has taken a dive. that was fairly surprising. as well as rick perry. his campaign has invested quite a bit of attention a iowa and his introduction has been a total bust. those are big surprises. but i think that the most obvious position people have taken is they say the two candidates that didn't spend very much time here are in the led. on the surface the message seems to be to the candidates the less you are here the more we like you. but we drilled down deeper into the results and i think there is more there. and they want somebody who will fix the economy. so, it seems to make sense to them they picked romney and cain because those two portrayed themselves as the most business sense. our poll found, and this was striking and surprising, we asked do you believe that experience in business is more important or experience in elected office more important. and 71% said business experience is what they want to see on the candidate's resume. only 22% time in elected office is more critical. so they are going for the candidates who have expressed that business sense. let me go through some other numbers. michelle pwbachmann fourth, ron paul third. rick perry and newt gingrich 7% and rick san form 5%. john huntsman at 1%. i mention the numbers because there is a story inside the washington examiner the cain train hopes to follow the obama path in iowa indicating that barack obama was able to begin to resonate in november and december in iowa and beat hillary clinton four years ago 10 weeks before the iowa caucuses. is this a similar strategy that would work for herman cain? >> i think it definitely could. these voters are not decided yet. 59% said they are willing to pick a different first choice. and quite a few, 15%, have no first choice at this point. so, the argument could be made that the support for herman kraeufpb is pretty -- cain is pretty soft but iowans think if a candidate comes to the state and lets them ask questions they tend to be willing to look them over and get behind them. for cain to pull to of that obama-like strategy he would have to invest time here. think that people are willing to look at herman cain, but they are not locked in behind him yet. he would really have to be here for them to rally behind him in a concrete way. host: we are talking with jennifer jacobs who we've been check becoing with. she writes for t"the des moines register." another headline i want you to react to from the "washington post." a resurgent gingrich saying it s is stretching it to say he is making a compaq from the time when most of his operatives abandoned him but after a tough summer he is now beginning to make some strong showings. are you seeing that in iowa? >> he has been getting a lot of applause for his speeches. when he talks to iowans they rave about him. efficient seen that in several forums. we had one last week before a christian conservative and they absolutely adore newt gingrich when he speaks. they like the details that he offers. he is very believable. they have a lot of confidence in him. but this is definitely not a surge for him. we polled in june and he was at 7% and he remains at 7%. host: jennifer jacobs, the headline herman cain and mitt romney leading there. ron paul is third. the poll is available on line at the des moines website. calls on the issue of the executive orders that the president has been signing. he has been talking about them in appearances out west. in the weekly address the republicans responded joseph ramirez has this point saying the president is within his power to execute the laws, the court not the speaker determines whether the order is constitutional. next is karl from chicago, democrat line. host: hello. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i hope you give me a minute. i'm not really being critical of c-span. i think what is missing here is that you don't understand that the republicans know that the media is like the echo chamber. they can make statements or whatever and the rest of the media echos whatever the statement is. you being on washington journal is based on stories in the media, which i can understand that. but that makes you part of the echo chamber. i don't think that they wanted c-span to be used in that way. there is a way of correcting that by this topic here. if you had had someone on to counter or give something the opposite of this, this is a way of balancing this out. i don't know if you know, but the president, for the three years basically wasn't using any executive orders because he understood that as soon as he did this is what they were going to do. they would say he is bypassing the congress and doing somethingen constitutional. i think that we would be better served i would like to suggest to you and other people tom hart m man. bring him on. or other voices who could kind of comment on this stuff coming out of the echo chamber. the president basically hasn't had a bill for the republicans to sign. they have written pweupls but you can -- bills but you have to write something that you can get enough support to get passed to be put on the president's desk. that is how this works. if you don't have a guest on, maybe you have to do a little more homework and provide the audience with this information so that we don't have this one-sided them out of this echo chamber. ok, i will stop you there. let me say for a moment what this program is really a reflection of what you are talking about, what is being talked about in the media and what we attempt to do every morning is to show you what the speaker of the house was saying last week on the laura ingram show and hear his words, the president talking about the executive order undand a chance hear his words. the house was asked about this and the republican response and we open up the phone lines and allow to you share comments on twitter and send an e-mail and have a discussion. we try to do it in a formed that is conducive, a three-hour program and that is our attempt. it is not a perfect system but we really do try to provide all aspects of a point of view. speaking of politics this morning, george will has this in his column and from the "new york post." it has come to this. in romney republicans have a dynamic and various candidates and romney is about 29% support. it is peculiar because conservatives correctly believe it is important to defeat barack obama but unimportant that romney be president. this is the piece from george will. you can read it online. steve is the last call from ocala, florida. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i almost choked on my coffee just looking at -- well, listening to some of these strident comments. i'm a registered republican here in florida and i enjoy your programming and i have to say that you guys really, really, really do try to be balanced and bring up issues as they present themselves. and you are right, nothing is perfect or anything like that. but i almost had to spit out my coffee on some of the strident messages and reactions to president obama's executive orders. every president in the world -- or every president of the united states has done executive ord s orders, and i find it a little bit disingenuous to pick on this president vis-a-vis his efforts to do what george w. bush has done, what clinton has done, what george w. bush i did. every president has done these kinds of things and it is a to tell you, listening to some of this vitriolic reaction on both si s sides. with this president or any other president, i think it is a shame and it damages us and showses to the world like we are so biased. and you guys are in a tough position at c-span when you are darned if you do and darned if you don't. thank god for you because you do a good job. but i wanted to call laugh listening to some of the stuff. as a republican in florida, i'm very dismayed by this kind of thing and it is a shame. the president can issue these executive orders, boehner can't do that much about it other than the purse strings. it would be a court matter. and he certainly is not doing anything that is just off the charts. and to couch it as that is not true. host: thank you very much for the call. later ome r will join us and we will talk about the upcoming g-20 meeting in france. the president departing thursday and wall street loved the agreement what does it mean for european banks and the u.s. economy. up next from new york is the nations magazine's editor the i believe in. we continue for sun october 30. we are back. >> she enconvictions a few -- envisions a few changes. ill is a certain lack of discipline. a point is repeated too many times or three quotes make the point where one would do. and i would like to see a variety of story lines. >> she will discuss her career, new book and future of the times tonight on "q&a >> spend this weekend in knoxville with book tv and american history tv, a look behind the scenes at the history and literary life of the marble city. on c-span 2 the university of tennessee body farm is four acres of decomposing human remains. on a real life c.s.i. and a look at alex haley. how haley fell in love with the city during a 1982 visit. and on american history tv on c-span 3 a visit to the sequoia birthplace museum. the director explains how an indian silver smith created a system of writing for the cherokee language. a visit to secret city, oak ridge and the development of the atomic bomb. that is 6:00 p.m. eastern. watch throughout the weekend on book tv and american history tv in knoxville, tennessee. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to c-span. editor and publisher of the nation magazine and author of this book the change i believe in fighting for the progress in the age of obama katrina vanden heuvel, thanks for being with us. i want to take you back to november of 2008 as barack obama was elected to president. you said after years of playing defense it is time to unshackle our imagination, build coalitions and craft creative sh ategies that will pur president-elect obama and the new congress to seize the mandate they have been offered. three years later have they achieved your goal? guest: three years later the change i believe in it still in process because as i write, steve, the change i believe in comes from people organizing, sustained movements over time in our turbulent history pushing people inside, trying to find political leaders of principle and conviction and trying to move them. i believe in many ways our system is risked against progressive reform. it is warped by corporate money, by intrench ed disaster quo powr take more than one election cycle. so perhaps i spoke with more exhilaration and hope than was warranted at that moment. it will take more than within election cycle to change the paradigm of our politics. i'm more hopeful at this moment. i tend to go back and forth because i think people are in motion now. it is not just occupy wall street but a sense of that movement super charging the groups who have been toiling and laboring the last many years for issues i care about. and at long last the mainstream media is giving attention to those movements. because i believe until now the mainstream media has done a disservice by focusing solely on one movement, the tea party movement when there is a wide array of movements and groups that reflect the great diversity in this country. host: in the primary against hillary clinton many would arc the president ran to the left of her on a number of issues including the war in iraq. would you describe president obama as progressive or liberal? guest: i continue to believe that he is a progressive pragmati pragmatist. i think that in many ways he's committed to reform, which in my view is improving the conditions of people's lives, speaking of domestic reforms because i believe the national security state and war in afghanistan threatens to unravel too many of those domestic reforms. the scale of the reforms he has passed -- i think of the health care bill and financial reform -- not adequate, not bold enough for the problems they confronted. and much of that is his leadership style, much of that is the system we live in where those reforms were diluted, in fact gut bid lobbyists and -- gutted by lobbyists and money. but i think he is a progressive pragmatist and i think it is up to those outside the system to push. there is the story you have heard of whether it was a. phillip randolph or the first lab head who goes t to franklin roosevelt and says do that, do that, reform this, reform that and he says to them make me do it. i think that remains the way we need to think about it because there is a disconnect. too many inside the beltway are not listening to the people. and now i think there is a shift in the country's dialogue and debate whether there is energy that is being listened to, super committee is trailing here and they should be listen being to the 99ers who are speaking about the need to rein in and hold accountable those who created the economic mess. host: another point from the pwaoboo book, you say nothing is more corrosive to democracy than use of violence to terrorize the public square. it has led to a broad indictment of the vitriole and venom that characterizes too much of our political dialogue. that was shortly after the shooting that resulted in the deaths and wounding of gabby giffords. guest: i believe in political debate. in fact, i believe that there is a virtue in being passionate a person of conviction and for your views. but the line can be thin. i also write in my become about going -- in my become about going on "hardball" and first encountering michelle bachmann and never heard of her and she began it talk about the need to look into the obama an anti-americ anti-american views and i think whoa, what went off is a retro feeling of living in the mccarthy era in the 1950's when people were hunted down for their views. i think that is a very dangerous stance. people need to have a range of views and respect it. but too often as we have seen particularly on the right with the attacks on obama, the vitriole directed at him, it goes -- it begins to cross a line from a useful passionate engagement to one that is destructive and corrosive. host: when you talk about the venom and vitriole from the right i won't mention names but many liberal activists just as critical from the left. guest: you know, what we have seen and i go back to the media, those who level led real venom and vitriole at the president have been given a much more visible perch on mainstream tv to level such attacks. the left you describe is often marginalized. the main problem i have at the moment is the mainstream media is no longer mainstream because the mainstream views if you look at a vast majority of americans in surveys who support jobs over deficit reduction or protection of social security and medicare, who support ending or trying to reverse inequality, those are often treated, until recently, as marginal or fringe. i think that is a great disconnect that is part of the occupy wall street sense of what is in the air. we are hearing more about inequality as a central issue and not marginal. so, i think the rights venom has been given a far more respectful perch and the left is often marginalized. and i'm not saying that i'm for vitriole. do i think some level of tough our politics is important but too often it descends to food fights. too often it is a slogan politics. argue with real passion and conviction. host: our guest is katrina vanden heuvel a graduate of princeton and this is book number what for you? guest: this is the first i have -- i have edited many books. i edited a book on voices of reformers, a collection of the nation from 1 1865 to 1990. this is the first book. it is a collection of my columns from the "washington post" where i write a weekly web column and have been doing since february of 2009, a under from the nation and nation.com. and a few small reflections. one of my favorites is a tribute i gave at memorial for studs terkel that sort of bard of american radio and oral historian who was a great figure, i think, in our political and social cultural landscape. host: we welcome mike to the conversation from longview, washington. democrat lane. good morning, mike. caller: hi. i'm just wondering about people who are not working right now and there is union people that are working and people are saying that the union people are making too much money, maybe we should bring their benefits and money down, you know, to where everybody else is. instead of the thought of all the jobs and money and benefits back up to those. what do you feel about that? guest: mike, i feel that you get it right. there shouldn't be a race to the bottom. i think in this country working people have been shafted the last 30 to 40 years. look at the congressional budget office report of a few days ago nonpartisan report showing the top earners the last quarter century have received double the share of the national income, the acceleration of inequality and working people's wages have remained stagnant. i think the underlying problem is the demonization and assault on labor is very dangerous for the stability of our country and for building a middle class that is at the core of a country's greatness. as you probably know, in two or three days in november there is a big fight in ohio, a referendum to repeal the governor a governor's sb-35 -- sb-5 to gut collective bargaining rights. i hope that is overturned because working people need at least a fair playing field that. is part of what is going on with the 99ers. power has shifted where labor doesn't have the possibility of confronting the growing corporate power. and again, i'm not against business, but i think what has happened in this country is wall street and corporate power has become so disconnected from the real economy that it no longer serves the people's needs. it is really about serving a different class and shuffling speculative paper around and not serving the real needs of the economy of main street. host: you can find our guest at twitter at katrina nation and join our conversation at twitter.com/cspanwj. one viewer has this. you have every network except fox cheering president obama on and yet you complain. this is amazing. guest: you know, i'm not complaining about the coverage of president obama. i was talking about the venom and vitriole in our politics which has often been directed at -- it is silly. i think the one issue was given too much attention and moved on and out of fox to other media platforms. i'm talking about how the issues which majorities of americans support -- and here i begin again -- the majority show they support job creation over deficit reduction. that is not reflected in our mainstream media coverage. my colleague had a cover story how the austerity class rules washington. there is a group -- there is pundits and think tanks, there are politicians, there is money flowing into this idea that austerity is what we need at this moment when in fact a real jobs creation program is to find recession and is that would mean really using government money, private-public partnerships, investment banks, infrastructure banks, job creati creation, to really find a way to rebuild this country. and i see job creation as the best deficit reduction plan, not spending cuts. host: a call from baton rouge, louisiana. republican line. host: good morning. host: good morning. go ahead, please. i see katrina on there and i tonight ask her what her motives are. i'm a korean veteran, and i went to korea to get rid of all of this stuff that she is talking about. and she ought to be thankful to be a citizen -- i guess she is a citizen -- of the united states. and with all of this vitriole that she's talking about reminds ism, communism and social is which we don't want. host: thanks for the call. we will get a response. guest: i don't have my birth certificate with me but i'm an american citizen. motives? to build an america that is true to its ideals. that means a more just, fair and peaceful country and one that gives people the opportunity to rise. at this moment in my view it is the collision of inequality and downward mobility that has led to occupy wall street and led to the condition in this country. all these labels, communism, socialism, you know, my motive, my ideas, are rooted in an america that has been fighting for justice and fairness many decades. my belief is that fundamental change has come about, for labor and en unemployed councils pushed roosevelt to really build a stronger new deal, when the civil rights movement pushed kennedy and johnson to pass the voting rights act. and there are other movements. environmental movement, women's movement and quality and justice, fair globalization. these are the deep roots of what we see and have contributed to the civilizing advances of this country, whether it was ending child labor, giving workers rights, ending slavery, giving women the right to vote. those are my motives. host: the front page of the "denver post" 20 arrested in the occupy denver movement. we are seeing what is happening in new york and lower manhattan and elsewhere around the country. is this movement pushing the president into a different direction? guest: well, i think we are going to see -- we will see more confrontati confrontation. the hope -- and the vast 99% of the occupy wall street is determinedly nonviolent, people. it is about the free association of people. we will see more conflicts as mayors in different cities try to clean up spaces, et cetera. but i think we need to keep ourize on the -- keep our eyes on the prize which are the issues. glad you mentioned denver because a lot of attention has been paid it downtown new york city. i was at occupy bloomington. there are occupy encampments in about 2,000 places around the country today. rural villages, big cities from alaska it maine -- from alaska it maine and they will acquire the character in the heartland for example where there will be more attention paid to labor. in iowa there may be more electoral insurance. it will face some tough exams as all movements have. go back to an earlier point. donna has this on the twitter page. ok, let the rush talking point begin. let me ask you specifically about rush him but, sean hannity and others. do they contribute or hurt political discourse in this country? guest: i'm for free speech. do they elevate our discourse? no. i think often it is a bumper sticker. find the attack of the day rant as opposed to an intelligent conversation or debate. i wish there were morven knews -- more media venues where an intelligent left liberal could meet community with a kevin of it right community -- with a conservative right community. i will confess in my book i have a chapter on the new republican party. i never thought i would see the day where i would wish to see what is now an extinct brand sort of the rockefeller northeast republicans who are true conservatives. the philosopher edmond burke would flinch if he saw the current brand of g.o.p., they are extremist around reactionary and not conservative in the best sense of that term. i think there is an attempt that has been the project of the right the last 40 to 50 years, 70 years, to repeal the core elements of the new deal. and i think that now and i wrote a column in the "washington post" two weeks ago there is even an intent to reject the core principles of the enlightenment, to reject the idea of reason of fact based evidence. we see it on the debate about climate science. we see it in michelle bachman's treatment of vaccine contributing to mental instability among children to receive vaccine. i think there's been a degradation of our political debate and discorpse and i think hannity and limbaugh contribute to that. that is not to say there is not on the left there are people who like to make noise and be more sensation it is most stic but often tethered to facts whereas i would arc there is a -- i would argue there is a lot of untethering from facts on the right. and people have a right to their opinion but not to their own facts. host: but rush him but would say he is dealing with the facts and conveying that to his audience. guest: of course he would. i think the -- rick perry has revived it. the berther, you know, that iss issue, i think, was a measure of the degradation of our politics. that that received the attention it did and kept on going is worth someone looking at the anatomy of degradation of discourse in media in the united states. and, by the way, when you think what is going on around the world and the enormous crises, people look at this country and see the problems, the legitimate, serious problems we face and they go what? spending time on this? i think it goes to the heart -- the republicans came to power in their first d declared intent, mitch mcconnell and jim demint of south carolina, said was to bring down president obama. .e saw that host: a comment from a viewer. you can join at twitter.com/c-sp twitter.com/cspanwj. is from columbus, ohio. on the independent line. caller: thank you c-span. i think you do a great job. i like the things you do with the call-ins and maybe in the future maybe something like a town hall meeting via online or through video about the current situation. just a possibility. for the guest that you have, i have seen you on book tv. i think she speaks very well. i like her ideas. i think they are universal in many ways. and helpful to anybody that is interested in america or international as far as governments are concerned. host: thanks for the call. it is titled "the change i believe in, fighting for progress in the age of obama." katrina vanden heuvel, your response? guest: i want to thank your caller. i aspire to be on book tv but i'm happy to be here this morning. i do respect what he said about sort of universal ideas. the idea that it is controversial, we can argue on how you get there but the idea that it is controversial as one said communist or socialists and believe in the importance of jobs for all. by the way one rallying cry that may emerge from occupy wall street and others will in alliance have a set of demands, but jobs for all. someone might say that is communist. but franklin dell left hand know jobs oosevelt talked about for all. i sometimes think if franklin roosevelt came back to washington and gave system of the speeches he gave he would be driven out as a radical. instead, we need to retrieve the best parts of our history. this is not about communism or socialism. it is about an alternative history of this country which in many ways hasn't been fairly reflected. it is not in our textbooks as much as it should be. it is kind of a people's hist y history. it is a sense of people making history. and here sometimes i difficult with my friends in the progressive left community. i believe in change from below from movements but i think you need those inside the system. people of conviction and principle who will see the importance and drive those ideas. i think of the late senator paul wellstone who was one of my heroes who retained a connection to movements around the country as he represented the state of minnesota and many others as the senator. host: i will go back to the e-mail and refer to the book. one viewer says i agree with katrina that the president is a progressive pragmatist. i understand the reasons that things are not moving as fast as we may like it. it is because corporate influence upon congress. many republicans in the past including eisenhower warned of the corporate control of government but no one heeded the warning. your become you point out it was -- book you point out it was teddy roosevelt who told congress all contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbided by law. he was so worried about the power of the trust he called for public financing of elections. guest: absolutely. that was 1907 the tillman act was passed. what we are seeing the citizens united decision by the supreme court unprecedented has up leashed corporate money no our politics in unprecedented ways at a moment when corporate money and power was at a high level. i think that we are at a moment in that regard. and we need to, in the long run rb, craft an amendment to overturn that decision and short run we need clean money financing. that is, small donors matched by public financing so there is a level playing field and ordinary people can run for office and not just people of means and not just those that will amass contributions from lobbyists from people who will want favors. senator dick durbin of illinois said a few years ago in an honest remark the banks own this place. he was talking about congress. the fact that i believe there used to be seven lobbyists to every member of congress, now it may be 20. and millions have been spent to gut major pieces of legislation shows the need to raein in corporate money. and there are salukises but every campaign cycle is an arms race of money and president obama and his team are in it. in his election of 2008 it was hopeful that he got so many small donations. he also got a lot of big donations. he has spoken out about the need for campaign reform. republicans have not. so, sure, there is hypocrisy, both sides are doing it. but at least the democrats particularly progressive democrats are speaking about the node for reform -- need for reform. and when the citizens united decision came down there was a tra transpartisan revulsion against i like that you have calls of independents, republicans, democrats. because people don't break down along some linear line in terms of political views but republicans and independents were also appalled by the decision because they, too, feel an anxiety about too much corporate domination or power in our society. host: we welcome our listeners coast to coast on c-span radio heard on xm sirius channel 119. curt is joining us from nudge with katrina vanden heuvel. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. i guess the house or representatives and congress, in if you were to close your eyes and imagining them sitting in stands they would be wearing their sponsors. but the truth is i was very dedicated to politics until i saw somebody on c-span the other day and it was the end of the world debt ceiling and they were reading off post office names. show that and you will see the young performance come out of the woodwork. even they can understand how stupid that is. host: we will get a pulling point of view from port richard, washington. reed is on the phone. caller: thank you for coming on. i watch c-span every morning and i have seen you a number of times and we are opposed. i'm for freedom and small government and rule of law. the left has trespasseded on t aid of law. i want to call you on one thing, katrina and then ask you to answer one question. the first thing when you talk about violence, the press shows the pictures of police officers almost like a war scene. i feel mobs around them. i don't see an american flag in their hands. could you manual the tea party -- imagine the tea party being violent against police? you can note anybody who ever assassinated an american president was a leftist. we can say that over the last 120 years there's been approximately 1.2 billion deaths -- i'm sorry, 120 million deaths attributed to leftist governments. every tire rapt leader like gaddafi is the leftest pyramid power. all the deaths, 120 million, on the other side 1.2 billion people lift out of poverty from free markets. while not perfect, they are not dead. host: thanks for the call. we will get a response. guest: the idea that i'm opposed to freedom, freedom is a term that shouldn't belong to one party or side. instaconstant struggle. first of all, the idea that all instance were leftist is ridiculous. we can go back in history. you want to do lincoln, do others. there are un stabstable, sick p. violence is to be a horde. real change comes through nonviolent struggle and direct action. that is not what we are seeing. you sound like eric cantor who backed down from calling them mobs as he began it talk about disparity of income. and to talk about people being lifted through free market talk to people in latin america where you have governments who are either social democratic or leftest where in brazil millions have been lifted out of poverty, or argentina. those are not right wing governments. i read and obituary yesterday of an extraordinary religious figure a jesuit, who taught here at fordham and he went down to el salvador in the 1980's when the wars raged between leftist and paramilitary supported by the reagan government. he went down there to replace six jesuit priest who were murder bed by paramilitary who were murder bid the. he fought for universal writes of freedom and human rights. so, i would not be too easy and too quick to speak in such broad and difficult ways as you do. host: scott wagner has this question. guest: i have gone as a journalist. i went down to d.c. to one of and i went to one outside of penn station a few years ago. i have to say the progressive left is not monolithic in their views of the tea party. there are people who see it as having a strong racist strain and see the evolution of the john birch society. that strain in our history. there are others who see the possibility of making common cause around the great anxiet s anxieties, rival rightful anxiety about crony capitalism and corruption. i think the tea party is a movement that has played an important role, i would argue in many ways a destructive role because it is trying to unraffle and undo some of the civilizing, medicare, social security. and there is a contradiction. i saw an interesting poster at an occupy wall street encampment the other day which was keep your hands off my medicare and social security, talking about the super committee and what is going on inside d.c. you would see that as you know, you saw it at town hall meetings in the summer of 2009. so, where the disconnect is in the tea party mind about hating government yet wanting to keep a benefit that is so much the d.n.a. of a government that is abo about, i would argue, redistribution in a fair way. we are dealing with a lot of politics where people are ralei railing against redistribution but i think of paul ryan and it is redistribution upwards. >> host: our audience sees the headline by laurie montgomery the last 75 years social security has paid its own way but now the cost of benefits has outstripped tax collection for the first time since the 1980. that is on online at washingtonpost.com. i want to go back to your book. you referred to a moment ago to eric cantor. you say he may be a republican rising star but he sure is a hypocrite. how else to describe someone who is a leading critic of the president's recover ray act and joins colleagues to urge the virginia department of transportation to a i my for the influences money for high speed rail. if that is not two-faced what is? guest: i think we see a lot of this like you see a congressman drive to a town hall meeting, rail against government and go become home but as he does he is on an interstate highway built with government funds and his family -- i don't know for sure but someone in his family, a grand parent -- is probably a good recipient of social medicare.nd i wonder how people like eric cantor rail against government with such passion and vigor yet want to be part of government. it doesn't square. now, they have a right, everyone has a right to their own views and they have a first believe that the tax system is out of whack. but there doesn't seem to be any ream program to get -- real program to get performance back to work or think how you prepare a deteriorating infrastructure, which all of these congress people have to deal with. senator mcconnell has bridges collapsing. watch and hope for private enterprise to come in? at least start thinking in strong ways about public-private partnerships. or how do you get businesses to stop sitting on or the big banks on the $2 trillion and invest? all this talk about uncertainty is often a fig leaf for not oning to do anything. host: steve on the phone independent line with katrina van haven't her new book. caller: yes. there are some silly things that make a lot of sense. they were showing this thing about the protest in denver. they didn't say anything about they rallied up 2,000 people that were at at demonstration in day. all they show is the cops throwing a young girl down and, you know, over the internet you heard it but they didn't say anything about the protest in oakland where they shot an iraqi vet in the head and he is still in a coma. that is the right wing. guest: well, that is a tragedy where you have somebody who served his country and he comes back and in his way of serving his country by protesting for rights and values, principles he believes in and is caught up and shot. i think there needs to be a lot of hard thinking about policing. we have seen in this city, new york city and new york staete, some practices which are going to lead to more violations of rights. but the need to biological the ability -- balance the ability of people to freely protest. that is one of the great freedoms to go back to what one caller said. freedom is the right to associate freely with others in protesting and seeking redress for grievances and to fight for a different kind of world and economy that i think this country deserves. host: katrina vanden heuvel the editor of the nation magazine. her book a collection of essays she has written called the change i believe in joining us from new york. thanks for being with us. back again. guest: thank you, steve. host: in a couple of minutes a with presidential kid buddy roemer. at the top of the our our sunday focusing on the european debt crisis. represents from the "wall street journal" and financial times will be here to take your calls and explain what is happening. the president leaves thursday for the g-20 summit in france. first a look at other issues and guests making up the sunday morning programs that can be heard on c-span radio. good morning, nancy. >> good morning, steve. we begin at noon with the five network tv talk shoals. tongs today include the economy, and 2012 presidential campaign. we begin with "meet the press" at noon welcoming president obama's 2008 campaign manager and walter isaacson on his biography of steve jobs and jennifer granholm. at 1:00 p.m. this week has ammanpour and bill gates. 2:00 p.m. fox sunday chris wallace and the first sun show appearance by republican presidential candidate rick perry. at 3:00 p.m. state of the union with an interview with ron paul. finally at 4:00 p.m. eastern "face the nation" from cbs another presidential candidate herman cain. those re-air at the five shows begin at noon eastern with meet the presides. this week, then state of the union and finally at 4:00 it is "face the nation" from cbs. listen to them all on c-span radio on 90.1 f.m. in washington and iphone and blackberry, channel 119 or c-span radio.org. >> spend this weekend in knoxville with book tv and american history tv and look scenes at the history and literary life of the marble city. on book tv on c-span 2 the body farm is four akers of decomposing human remains on a real life c.s.i. a look at roots author alex haley and his life in knoxville. how haley fell in love with the city during a 1982 visit. on american history tv on c-span 3 a visit to the sequoia birthplace museum. the director explains how an indian silver smith created a system of writing for the cherokee language. also a visit to secret city. ok ridge national laboratory hitch on the lab's part in the development of the atomic bond. and is knoxville a true certain citi. bruce wheeler on its future. today at 6:00 p.m. eastern. watch on book tv and american history tv in knoxville, tennessee. host: we want to wac back to c-span 2012 republican presidential candidate buddy roemer. another debate next week this one sponsored by cnbc in detroit focus on the economy and corporations. you are not part of the debate. you have not been part of any of these debates. why? guest: the only common thread on all nine debates so far is my absence. i don't know. at first the rules were -- and the rules are set by each debate sponsor. and they change over time. the first three debates you had to be a formally announced candidate. i was not so i understood my lack of inclusion. the next they debates you had to have -- the next three debates you had to have 1% in five national polls. i had just announced, i had been out of politics 16 years and i was not well known. i didn't make the 1% cut. in the last that debates, or the next two, you had to be at 2%. i hit 1% and you had to be at 2%. now that i'm at 2% the last debate had a new rule. here it is. you had to have raised $500,000 in the last 90 days. i had raised half that. i don't take big checks. money. take pac money is my somewhat. and that rule sprung up at the last second and i was excluded again. look, the debates can be a character tour. they are convoluted. sometimes they are not very good. but when you are running with small contributions and you are trying to get known in america, these debates are critical to a candidate like me. to be excluded time after time when you are the only person who has been a congressman and governor, when you challenge corruption in your home state and helped clean it up, which is the same problem in washington now, i'm very frustrated by it. host: we will get to calls quickly and you can send us an e-mail or join us online at twitter.com/c-sp twitter.com/cspanwj. if you are on the stage with herman cain or rick perry or mitt romney, what is the biggest issue that divides you and the other candidates who are in the top they -- three positions? guest: money and politics. having ban -- having been a former congressman and governor it can't be done if the political leadership is owned by special interests. and my question and the reason i got in this race is the fact that i will not accept the special interest checks. i think that they own washington, d.c. four years ago in the presidential election, lobbyists and pacs in washington, d.c. gave more money to the two presidential candidates than 32 states combined. no matter what issue you look at, steve, in america -- jobs, tprpl policy -- farm policy, addiction to oil, lack of energy independence -- you can look at the connection 2010 special interest money and lack of action in washington. so, if i were on the stage i ask, where do you get your money? what are your limits? and do you fully disclose everything you receive? they don't want to hear that question. host: let me ask you to react to two things. george will a conservative writes it has come to this. in romney republicans have a michael dukakis. guest: you are a dangerous man. george always has a good opinion. well, i'm different. i would stand up to china. i think unfair trade is killing us. if jobs are in a big bucket and we need 10 million more, how are we going to do that if there is a hole in the bucket and china is stealing the jobs? mitt romney, i want to defend him, more than all the other candidates at least talks about trying to do something. it is not enough and he is weak and he is late. he seems like a decent guy but i don't think that is the best candidate. we can do better. host: why is he not the best candidate? guest: two reasons. one, he is hooked on the money. he's had two super pacs formed on his behalf run by former chief of staff or people that worked for him or were partners in his business. he has received checks of up to $1 million undisclosed. we need a leader free to lead. we need somebody to stand up for the working people of this country. we need somebody who understands small business. i have seen no evidence that the candidates do that in any specificity. you need to be specific on where you get your money. it is my belief that the next president has a tremendously daunting task to rebuild america, not afghanistan, america. and that the way you do it is with several million small donations from plain and decent people. theodore roosevelt said it 100 years ago this month. party d the republican are you going to be the party of privilege and wall street, or the party of plain people? and today that measurement is the contributions. these guys, all of them, get their money from super pac's and special interests and big checks. i say no. host: how many people have contributed to your campaign thus far? guest: thousands. we have raised about a quarter million dollars from across america. all 50 states. louisiana is my best state. that is where i'm known. california is second, texas third, florida fourth. i'm in new hampshire now and that is building nicely. $100 is my limit. no pacs. i fully disclose all of my contributio contributions. for 50 years, since i was in politics as a young man, for 50 years the debate on contributions has been between the left and right. the left wanted limits. the right -- and i'm a conservative on the right -- the right wanted full disclosure. that has been the battle. we now live in a country where there are neither. there are neither limits nor full disclosure. we have the worst of both worlds. if you look at banking reform, health care reform, jobs formation, they are owned by the large special interests and corporations. barack obama's jobs advisor is the president of g.e. who give $4.3 million to the democrats and republicans last time. he doesn't want fair trade. pay no taxes on $14 billion. host: shelly joins us from minnesota on the line for republicans. go ahead, please. caller: thank you for c-span. i agree with you, buddy. however, to be realistic, as respectable and honorable what you are doing for campaigning it is an impossibility to win the presidency without that -- in the current way it is now. look at president obama, expected to raise a billion dollars. cannot run a successful campaign against a billion dollars. guest: let me respond. that is a good point. host: and jody has this point, the biggest thing that separates buddy is the truth. he is willing to tell the truth. that is why he doesn't have a chance. answer both of those, money and the truth. i'm not this cynical. i love america. but i'm afraid. we have permanent unemployment. we don't have fair trade. we let the big boys run the country. i'm asking a different question. i'm asking decent middle class americans and working people to stand up for your country. there is a head lane in the "new york times" that says middle class in india stand up to corruption. we need no do the same thing. we are a nation in trouble and it will take bold action and a to lead.ee can i win this way? you bet. in the primary i need a million people to give me $100 each. not 1,000, not 10,000, not a pac. $100. i need them to invest like they take a family of four to a movie with a meal. if i get that, that is $100 million in the primary. we will win new hampshire and tear it up from there. number two, against president obama, who is raising a billion and more from special interests, i phaoemean who regular litted banks -- who regulated the banks? glass stegall is still dead. the size of the bank doesn't increase their capital needs? what did he do, he goes to wall street, has a fund-raiser, $35,000 a ticket and is hosted by goldman sachs. we are a nation in trouble. we need to be free. we need to treat people fairly, but we need to get the country moving again. i cannot win with $100 million in the primary. that is more than mitt romney john mccain spent four years ago. it can be done. when i turn to face president obama, i will challenge him to give debates across america and we will have them that hours a time. we will have them in different regions of the country and we will talk about jobs and energy independence and we will talk about many segregation and we will talk -- we will talk about immigration and turning the around. most of all we will ask if he has a commitment to campaign reform. that is my number one issue. can i win like that? i need five million americans against president obama. giving $100. he will have a billion, i will have a half billion and we can win. one last story. i ran for governor of louisiana. i had no chance. i was one of six or seven people running. i was a lonely congressman. they laughed at me. i wouldn't take the big money, didn't take big oil money, didn't take big chemical money. i reported everything that i got. i took no pac money. and edwards used to laugh at me in the debate. he would point his finger at me and say that roemer is smart, he went to harvard when he was 16 and studied economics. but he can't win. we beat him. 16 million and we raised $1 billion and we beat him. it can be done. it is not about me. it can be done. if middle class america says enough already. let's stand up. host: sarah joins us from sterling, illinois. independent line. caller: good morning. hi, mr. roemer. i was wondering what are your views on occupy wall street? and i also wonder why is congress not listening to the majority of the people just as in occupy wall street or all the polls they take? it is like they will say 80% of the people want to increase taxes on the rich. but nothing is getting done. why are they not listening to everybody and all the people that are calling in? it is like we are being ignored. guest: they don't have time to listen. how can you listen if you have a fund-raiser every night? how can you listen if the big boys run the show? did you see health care reform? it was about insurance companies. it was about tort lawyers. it was about pharmaceutical companies. and they were all protected. there were no patients in the ro room. there were no nurses in the room. there were no doctors in the room. you can't buy medical insurance across the estate lien. pharmaceutical companies are protect interested giving praise discounts. in fact, they are protected from legitimate, fair competition from canada. this is all about money and power. and that is why occupy wall street is so interesting to me. plus, i'm an old guy, i'm 68, i lived through the civil rights marches in the deep south where i grew up in louisiana and i'm proud of what young people did. we changed america. i remember the vietnam marches when i was in college and i'm proud of what young people did. we got out of that war. we lost 59,000 brave men and thank god we didn't lose another 40,000 young americans. so, when young americans gather on wall street, they are a scruffy looking group. i don't agree with all of the agenda and don't endorse anything about them except this. i like their spirit. and they smell something, they see something, they know something that the average american who is working for a link and afraid -- working for a living and afraid of his job doesn't have time to think about. but occupy wall street is calling it to our attention. they are saying something is wrong in america. and it could being the bankers on wall street who gave themselves millions of bonuses and got bailed out by the taxpayer not one of them went to jail. maybe it is washington, d.c., where the politicians are lined with their lands out including the president of the united states to take their slick ill-gotten money in big checks. it is not right. i went to occupy wall street. i didn't give a speech. i spent they -- three hours and 15 minutes listening, walking, shaking hands, encouraging them to be involved. i was here yesterday at the meeting on the mall. it was raining and snowing, but i spoke for just a few minutes. i'm trying to get america to stand up. it doesn't have to be about me. my accent might be wrong. i'm a republican. maybe you don't like republicans. i actually have experience as a congressman and governor, and maybe you don't like that. maybe you want somebody that has never held office before. i don't know. what i am asking is that you get involv involved. i'm asking that away change america. i'm asking that we have a constitutional approach to reform. and the only way for that to happen is for the president of the united states to lead. and our current president is doing nothing but talking about it. host: a comment from one viewer and then to jeff in boca raton, florida. jeff on the phone from boca raton, florida with governor buddy roemer. caller: thank you for taking my cull and if you could bear with me for just a moment, mr. roemer led with a quote from teddy roosevelt. let me lead if i may, mr. roemer. teddy roosevelt said the measure government is how well the government treats its poor, now how well it treats its reach. and he was a republican in the days when republicans could hold their head up high when we had javits republicans and hugh scott republics and dirksen republicans. i will quote to you one other quote and that was mr. rockefeller when he ran for the gubernatorial race in election against goldberg and he was being criticized because he was paying for ads 24 hours a day, 24-7, and he was questioned at the ti he saeid time, well, television is now the village green and if i'm correct i think it was the times said i think mr. rockefeller cop r confuses the village green for the rock term green. the condition is republicans have for many years had more money than the democrats and raised -- i can remember mr. bush in the campaign for president when he was doing badly in new york and called upon his texas pioneers for $25 million in a day. what i'm concerned about, sir, is the fact that these republicans who belong to what i understand is a program called the family, they decide with impunity what our policies are going to be on some sort of judeo-christian ethose and they have filibustered more bills. you just talked about mitt romney. he is quoted and it has been on the tv shows when asked about foreclosure in nevada where performance are losing homes, i think 14.5% of them are losing homes to foreclosure mr. romney says let the free market do its business. host: i will stop through because we are short on time and give him a chance to respond. guest: as a conservative i always laugh when people talk about the free market. you quoted mr. romney. let the free market work. where was mitt romney when fannie and freddie was taking directions from the united states congress about making loans to people who couldn't afford to pay it back? this country is up side down. i'm of a conservative and i like market principles. i think the market works best when you let it work. it does need broad regulation. you have a speed limit on a highway. it is there to save lives. i'm a smalltown main street banker. my bank that i built with the help of a lot of friends and business associates is about two-thirds of a billion dollars. is successful. it didn't take any bailout money t. is profitable. and we restructured our loans without coming down hard on customers. that is what the market allows you to do. but the reason these others don't do it is they are not market people. they are government sponsored enterprises. i mean the wall street banks, what are they? they are an ol gone my, a handful of people who take moral hazard. they attack risks with their loans. you know why? the government has guaranteed them a bailout. think about it. if you were guaranteed a living no matter what you did, you might do wild and crazy things because there would be no consequence. that is what our banks are doing on wall street. they are wild and crazy and taking risks. they are wanting to be as big as they can so their salary will go from a modest $200,000 each to each.llion that is what size means to the bank. size hurts the rest of america. new to the point on what we can do in terms of the republican party, i'm produced -- i'm proud to be a republican. i'm the only governor in america that changed from conservative democrat to republican. i like what the republicans have stood for for years in terms of a strong military defense. i like what they stand for in small business and trying to deregulate them. these are important things. but our party has become a lot like the democrats. money, money, money, money, money, money, money. and there is no room for plain people and small pwebusiness. follow me, jeff. it can change. host: jim has this point on the twitter page. guest: well, who would write them? you need leadership. i'm very practical. in louisiana we beat a governor who eventually went to prison. he was a great politician. but he had trouble with other things. we had campaign reform. hat is what i ran on in louisiana. we passed some of the toughest laws in america and they are still on the books. they can't get them off. we had a series of decent governors now led by bobby jindal who was just re-elected, a reform governor, very strong for louisiana. we turned our unemployment rate from 12.8% to it can be done, but you must clean out the top. here is what we need. leta president dedicated not to live service -- barack obama talked-about hope that change. it never came. we need a leader free to leave that puts campaign reform has the first priority. he honors the constitution, the supreme court said monday in a speech, fine. the supreme court allowed a broader definition, full disclosure, that is what we need. if we can't look at what a politician takes, we ought to know where he gets his money from. there ought to be criminal penalties, 48 our reporting requirements. so before the election, we will roemer and buddy mitt romney get their money. host: our last call is from waterloo, iowa. caller: i would love to donate $100, it is nice to hear the truth that and corporations by these politicians. they speak acting like they care about the people. we know that weather is a big oil, israel pays billions of dollars for these politicians to speak at great about israel. i want to donate $100 for you. nothing the least corrupt out of all of these bonds is -- bums is ron paul. i wanted you to comment on that. guest: ron paul is a very decent guy. how he has been very consistent in his issue of of the federal reserve is a valuable one. i would go for needing a full public audit. we need the federal reserve not to do two things. it should protect the value of our currency. that is a. i noted with sorrow that ron paul allowed a super pac to be formed on his behalf. they all have them. barack obama, the romney, -- mitt romney, herman cain. a candidacy like mine is wide open. i asked my fellow republicans, who denied the super -- my fellowe republicans to deny the super pacs. let's do it the old-fashioned way. let's do it from small contributions from millions of americans. it is not the money. what we are missing is the participation of the people. they take these big checks, they of special interest requirements. what we are missing in america are people that care, people that vote, people they give $50. 98% of our home beckons don't -- of our americans don't give a dime to a president. it is run by the 1%. i would like to see a young woman that graduates from college have 15 job offers. i would like to see a young kid that graduates from high school and is not sure about a further education have 58 job offers. we are the most industrious, innovative, creative people on earth. but government regulation -- but we're looking to the government for answers. i start in a presidential campaign where i have not had a single fund-raiser. i go straight to the people. that is what i am asking you to do, iowa. let's change this country. host: buddy roemer, thank you very much for being with us. when we come back, robyn harding of the financial times to explain the bailout of the greek banks and to the summit that will take place on starting this thursday and friday in france. coming up in just a moment as "washington journal" this sunday continues. and here is what you can listen to on c-span radio. >> here replays of five network tv talk programs. today, david and gregory -- avid geregory and a biogrpahy on steve jobs. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, the first sunday show appearance by republican presidential candidate rick perry. here the state of the union and the republican presidential candidate ron paul. again, the five network tv talk shows begin a noon eastern with meet the press, this week, fox this sunday, state of the union, and face the nation from cbs. listen to them all on c-span radio in washington d.c. area. satellite radio channel 119 or cspanradio.org. >> i don't want every story to be eaten hundred words. >> she became the first woman to hold the post of executive editor at the new york times. she believes the times is more irreplaceable but envisions a few changes. >> sometimes a point is repeated too many times in a story or there are three " making the same point where one would do. >> she will discuss her career, her book, and the future of the titans. watch more video of the candidates. track the latest campaign contributions with the website for campaign 2012. that helps you navigate the political landscape. plus links to c-span media partners. "washington journal" continues. host: adjoining as the table is robin harding from the financial times, will come back from the wall street journal. what was worked out the will help the greek government and the european banks, many of whom are holding the bag for greece. >> the as a new plan that replaces the one that came up with three months ago. it is designed to deal with the major elements of the crisis. the first is dealing with greece. there is a fear of their problems spilling over to the rest of the eurozone. they basically take a hair cut on the value of three to bond investors. they presumably will take a 50% loss, and that is to prevent them from seeing a full the vault and losing 100% of their money. the second is to deal with the problems in the banking sector. and if reeves goes down, not willie -- and not well at only spread to other countries, but they will face problems with banks in general facing all sorts of concerns in financial markets. it is a little more than 100 billion to add capital into the bank's to protect them from a further downturn. the third element is a plan to leverage the size of the bailout fund. is close to $600 billion and there are hoping that they can use some part of that can borrow against it in financial markets, create a financial instrument that it can use s capitol to borrow against and create something on the order of 1.4 trillion dollars of money that is available to backstop the rest of the country. that means if italy or spain start facing problems, perhaps this vehicle can come in and provide an insurance for people buying those bonds or buy the bonds themselves. in the least allow italy that has two trillion euros of debt not to start a financial collapse host: many of the european banks did not want the 50% loss, and the new york times were counting that angela merkel pushed banks to the brink and bankers blinked. guest: none of the details of this have been negotiated. we have to wait and see if the banks will sign up to a loss as big as that. this is the big problem of the whole agreement at the moment and the reason why the markets have started to level again, and because the details are not pinned down. people are not sure if this is going to work as designed. host: and italy spoils the mood, what is happening there? guest: italian bond yields went up. they should say that they're willing to lend and not charge that much interest again. instead, they are charging more. markets are not confident this deal is going to work for this is going to be the final deal that solves the crisis that has been going on for two years. host: you can join the conversation on our twitter page. the president a part in on thursday set the stage for what the negotiations will look like. guest: they came up with a very large package and there is a lot of backslapping when they concluded this agreement, but the bottom line is that they still don't have a lot of the specific details worked out. they probably left a lot more out in the minds of financial markets about whether this is going to be the definitive solution. president obama and his colleagues are going to be putting a lot of pressure on the members of the g-20. there are only three or ford and about how you count it that will be there this summer. it is a chance for people around the world to put more pressure on europe to deal with this. the big discussion is going to be how you generate growth and economies around the world. one thing we're seeing is a big austerity movement. at a moment like this, austerity on top of a weak economy is likely to make it weaker in the short term. that is a fundamental problem that will cause more difficulties. guest: we welcome -- host: welcome our listeners are listening in england. in the afternoon. callerhost: turn the volume dowe can hear you. we will come back to you. renee? caller: what will bernanke's things that he is going to swap currencies have on our economy? when are we going to get an autograph from the fed to see how much he had actually given already to foreign banks? guest: the currency swaps are to help european banks, which need it that financing to support the loan. the fed lends to these european banks after the european central bank. he is in no risk at all in doing this. what affect it will have on the u.s. economy, it is only going to be good for the u.s.. in terms of the audit, it can mean different things. the books have been checked pretty thoroughly by quite a lot of auditors. we can be confident that the books are right at this point. they wanted an audit of the policy decisions, as a much more fundamental thing and i doubt we see that any time soon. caller: this european bailout is actually being funded by the taxpayers. frankly, and they can get stuff. what has not been mentioned in this deal, the european government is required to give up any kind of holdings in public companies, [unintelligible] at the end of the day, is but working people of europe or people like yourself? taxpayers are funding this bailout, the last group standing behind the economy's under pressure and the banks under pressure. taxpayers of the ones on the hook if something goes wrong in this package, and as one of the reasons why this has been so difficult for europe to resolve. there are all sorts of political complications. if you look at some of the smaller ones, they have all gone through an incredible political negotiations and just to get a deal on this side is passed. it is not clear if something like this will be enough. in each country, some effort to stop the process or change the process that is going to be under way to backstop some of the -- some of the bigger countries under pressure, they of course of a very large problems that are going to need help from the european neighbors. host: what is the inflation rate in the eu? will it have a beneficial effect if it is high in italy? guest: i don't know precisely what the inflation rate is at this moment. in general, inflation erodes the value of that. you could say it might help you get out of the debt crisis, but it only works if people believe you're not going to trade more inflation in the future. i would say not trying to generate inflation, but if it comes along, it wouldn't hurt. you have to think about cutting interest rates to support growth. host: financial times, ft.com, and the economics correspondent for the wall street journal, wsj.com. caller: i would like to voice my opinion and the like to know your opinion. what i would like to express is the core of the economy failing. my opinion without being cut off, hopefully, is that it stems from where they have the ceos and the big corporations. jobs were being lost. and jobs were drastically being lost. obama has taken a lot of criticism, but if you look between the republican party in the democratic party, who is in the interest of the people, it has always been in the interests of the people. even as far as going back into aosevelt, hasn't been republican the was thriving well. as far as obama, he has taken us from the depths of the recession and he has created jobs. >> let me ask q. why what is happening in europe has such an impact in the u.s. and to the specific point about the economic performance when it comes to jobs? guest: 1 is the general economic connection between the arrest in europe, they're the largest trading partner as a group. it is important. the bigger fear is that ties in the financial market. what we have become a much more interconnected global financial system and it is much more likely these days that it is going to spill over through financial markets whether they are bond markets or equity markets, even some of the newer markets for credit defocus what derivatives. once you have the wave of financial panic and contention, does very little chance he could keep it from u.s. investors. that includes companies that are particularly worried about whether growth is going to pick up. if you have the economic and financial constraints in europe, it will depress companies that need to do a lot more hiring. there is obviously a great difference in opinion here of what affect president obama has had on the economy. he did commit a particularly terrible. and the recession did in the six months after he came on. in that effect, he has not done enough to create jobs, whether there is something he can do is the big question right out. it is not completely clear what credit presidents deserve for creating jobs. president clinton had the best job creation record we have seen since we have had data. his presidency coincided with a great boom in productivity, and president bush had one of the worst records. if you look at president reagan, it was a very good because he inherited a very bad situation and in the second term, the economy turned out much better. >> one of our viewers says that if the debt deal is finalized, what are the chances you'll see the bank failures as we saw in 2008? guest: thsi is -- this is euro talk. they learned from what the u.s. withdrew in 2008. policymakers is where there'll be no lehman brothers in europe. i think that scenario is quite unlikely. having seen what happens when you let a bank blow up, they are determined not to do it. capital injection into the banks, i think he could count on european government to make sure their own banks don't go under. >> is there a scenario where great britain would join the euro? guest: it is going in the opposite direction in terms of european politics. host: and what about prime minister david cameron? guest: i think there is a tense relationship it with all of the leaders right now. the interests and in the country's clashes so much. host: sarkozy had some harsh things to say about the prime minister. we go back to tom, from indianapolis. guest: can you hear me? what i am concerned about is military defense. i was on the internet and looked at how huge the military is. our military budget for overseas is about $700 billion a year. this is a matter of public record. another $700 billion a year leave this country does not come back. how can we keep doing this? i know we need a military defense, but my understanding is in the 70's that is what brokered asia. host: troops are moving into kuwait. guest: there is more tension about dealing with problems from the u.s.. there are still plenty of troops in afghanistan, small numbers in parts of africa. the caller's question is really about budgets and about how we are allocating part of the budget dollars. what we're seeing is a very interesting convergence between some democratic views and republican views about what to do on defense. if you look at rona paul, one of the most libertarian members, and if you look at barney frank, one of the most liberal members, both seem to agree that the u.s. has too many troops in to many countries. in some cases, like germany, doing better than the u.s.. germany has an unemployment rate of around 6% or 7%. there's a big question about why the u.s. still has troops in these places. there are statements about maintaining a military presence around the world had a confers some economic supremacy, but in a tight budget times like this, it is an interesting discussion that will probably lead to more pressure on the defense budget. host: he began his career at the dallas morning news. and starting in cambridge, his belly u.s. economics editor. caller: my opinion is that in no way, the united states more less conspired with great britain to vilify and victimize the eurozone by loading it up with these debt instruments including mortgage-backed and other types of derivatives. now that the situation has come to light, they are more or less in arguing about who is responsible for it. and if you're willing to take 50% of the loss, so should the united states. guest: and for the u.s. or the u.k., we did plenty of bad stuff with our own banks, but the greeks had a massive budget deficit like there was no tomorrow. it doesn't mean we should not do everything we can to contribute to the solution, but i don't think you can blame the u.s. for the u.k. for this one. caller: before i talk about the subject, can you adult to be in a request? could you please have a comprehensive discussion about the humans in 21. host: people have called us on that,than thank you. caller: know why -- i will keep a mercifully short. let me read this one short paragraph. what is needed urgency is a claim, transparent grid default. allowing this failing to lead to the eurozone. portugal should leave, too. the same currency blocked as germany. there will be for the market turmoil, but a few more months leading to and ultimately more stable outcome is surely better than the current situation where they live in fear of a massive quake. guest: it is clear that it is far from a definitive and comprehensive solution. one reason that they are moving so slowly is because they can't let something like greece and agree to a default occurred before they put some of the other pieces in place. there are banks and not just in greece, but france, germany, spain and italy that are holding pre debt. if you allow a default to occur immediately, the banks will face more pressure and more stress. we need to have the other pieces in place before you allow for something definitive. and an assumption or assertion that cutting the value of greek bonds by 21% would be enough to deal with this crisis. it is a good question about whether they will have to go higher than that. breaking apart the eurozone is not an option because you have not said the pieces in place to protect the country's. host: does it apply to banks ordered her to individual bondholders also lose? >> it is for private bondholders, and is technically voluntary. they have to step up and agreed to take that cut in the interest of the longer-term solution here. it is not clear whether they will step up or if they offer up all of the bonds, part of the bonds, and we don't know the extent to which pension funds in greece might face some of these cuts as well. there are a lot of places where you will see additional stress as a result of this. in one place are the official holders like the international monetary fund. they're the ones that will not be taking a hair cut. host: can you summarize what led the greek government to this point? >> if you really want to go back to square one, it began when we joined the euro. interest rates fell drastically. once we joined, it started paying, so the greeks borrowed a lot of money and they spent. the statistical agency fiddled the numbers, so the actual that was hidden. when it came to light, that is when the crisis happened. there is no way they can generate enough revenue to pay this down. to have to default. host: if you put this in an analogy were someone who spends a lot of money, and the banks have to come in and save them, is that what is happening? guest: essentially. if you hold an italian death in b.c. greece the full, what are you going to do? you'll probably sell the debt. that is why it is a broader financial crisis. caller: i am seeing that the people are going to be punished in the end. greece retirement funds were invested in wall street. but the retirement funds with them. i think wall street should be responsible for taking back part of these retirements. guest: there is no doubt that there are plenty of foreign funds invested in wall street. until recently, the stock market was actually doing much better. you can't tie that directly to presuppose the problems. reese had some very fundamental and underlying problems. it is trying to be competitive with its neighbors, a currency tied to stronger currencies like germany and france. when greece would normally do is to devalue its currency dramatically and that would bring some pain to some parts of the country, but at least two would give them a path out, and right now they don't have a path out of this crisis. host: focusing on the economy, the european situation specifically. caller: i was reading an article about in 2010, the european president wanted the economic crisis -- if you don't mind me reading a few sentences, he said it was not supposed to turn out this way. the european union is 50 years in the making and intended to set a new standard for transnational government and an experiment in empire building and a precursor for a political merger. there replaced the layer [unintelligible] i think the u.s. is following that path. he met with the president from mexico and canada, it was called the security for present prosperity. it would connect mexico and canada and the united states to become the north american union. i believe we can take sovereignty away from individual companies. host: i will stop you on that point. guest: it is an interesting question about how far you need to go to create a union. if you talk about the purpose of the year of -- eurozone, there has been an effort to keep the country's in europe closer together so that they have common interests had don't go to war again. that is the fundamental reason for the creation of the european union. they are neighbors, they have fought a lot, and you want to make sure they have shared interests. they obviously have very different cultures and very different traditions to tie these countries together and keep them in a cohesive system. i don't think that you will see anything beyond where we are now beyond north america, u.s., canada. it is useful to create ties between them so that you could have a stronger trade. more flow economically without creating something that would force them to be together in more difficult times. canada doesn't want any part of the u.s. financial problems that they were able to avoid a lot of, there are very proud of that and don't want to necessarily be affected by some of the financial engineering we conduct in the united states. >> hugh you see an economic crisis coming? guest: we have something close to an economic crisis already, the question is if it spirals into something really bad. if europe and didn't manage to come to an orderly solution, and that it could be a serious-a crisis and recession. i think that is unlikely. europe has the capacity to deal with this if it has the will to deal with this. host: please ask what caused all of these problems? how did this survey? -- originate? guest: policymakers have struggled to deal with long-term problems before they become a crisis. in greece, they were living for the moment by borrowing at very low interest rates, and they are paying for it now. and once you get to this moment of crisis, it is difficult to address it. people are always looking for lessons in the united states. the issues to deal with of the long-term problems right now before they become things that require more painful cuts and painful decisions. that can mean coming up with something short-term while baking longer-term budget decisions over the long run while giving yourself latitude now. the problem as the politicians are living for the moment and it is usually not in their interests politically. guest: is there a system to make sure that this doesn't happen again in greece? guest: you have a single central bank, no federal reserve and no federal government. there is no one coordinating spending in each state. the solution will be some kind of greater coordination of the spending decisions of the european states. one of them can't get into a situation where they have to bail us out. host: if you are listening, this is the u.s. economic editor. and it will street journal economics reporter both here to take your calls and questions. caller: of like to comment on the u.s. and european debt crisis. the troubled bus the relief program was sold as a purchase of troubled assets. the u.s. debt crisis is still ongoing. the cash injection, the strange attacked for the biggest banks. they paid it back with 0% money from the fetid, lending over $1 trillion to each of the banks. it did not solve the problem because according to the representative from california, he said the finance reform bill is a permanent executive bailout. in a set budget banking committee, it was on the u.s. economy. the former chief economist of the international monetary fund testified and said that it did not solve the too big to fail problem. they are liable for over $5.60 chilean of contingent liabilities. host: let's stop you there to get a chance to respond, thank you for bringing that issue to the table. guest: the money they borrowed from the fed is not their capital. most of the repayments have come from the banks either raising capital privately or from their earnings. on the point about dodd-frank, it has not solved the problem of too big to fail. i was laid pretty much any money that the government will end up bailing them out. host: lived in talking about what states are facing. are some of the u.s. states potentially facing similar difficulties due to the bloated government pension systems that will exceed in come? guest: your seeing that across many u.s. states and they're not generating enough economic growth or tax revenue to deal with some of these obligations that they have created. the current solution is to ensure this process -- inch through this process. if you look at the overall burden on states, what we are seeing is that they are cutting jobs and hemorrhaging jobs at a huge rate. if you look at the places with the highest unemployment rates, it is creating more short-term problems for them and it will extend for many years how long it takes to deal with the crisis like this. caller: yes, do yo ulike -- -- do you like -- host: we will go to the next caller. caller: i enjoy the editorial page immensely. our liberal friends should spend five minutes reading the editorial page as opposed to the funny papers. i wish we had the ability in a committee meeting where a member with a volunteer his time to another speaker. as far as the bailout with tarp, the fact the banks raise capital to pay back tarp funds -- my 10- year-old grandson could make money if you give him zero interest and let it invest. he called it a ponzi scheme, i must agree. ofm the people's republic california, if you've looked -- you will have to get done in the weeds. you'll have to get to the week of portugal, spain, greece, ireland. those countries are cradle to grave socialist setups that promise you the moon and guess what? there is no free lunch. guest: well, on the tarp point, undeniably it was a bailout. the banks have a government capital injected into them. going tonment isn't generate a lot of profit on this. but what is to stop the financial crisis that would have done more damage to the u.s. economy than we have seen. it is reasonable to criticize the fact that it was never necessary, but that was the nature of the game. on european financial systems, they are increasingly unaffordable and the countries will have to think very carefully about what they can afford to pay for. on the other hand, germany, scandinavia, the equivalent systems. the government is sticking to what they can afford inherently saying that this crisis demonstrates the and sustainability of the european state. host: he writes that capitalism and free markets are the best engine for generating growth and relieving property -- poverty of their balanced with transparency, regulation, and oversight. guest: it goes to the earlier concern, and banks are obviously getting favorable terms in terms of loans from the federal reserve. we have integrated and banks and credit into our economy that we rely on it entirely for basic functioning. when we see banks go down, we will see the rest of the economy go down. what we need is more transparency and a more faith in the banking system. i don't think we're getting that at the moment. we have a base of the largest level trying to muddle through the crisis and of the bill of either make more money off of trading or that the economy is going to miraculously have improved. there are legacy issues weighing them down. we haven't come to the moment yet where we demanded to see full transparency in the banking system. host: what is the u.s. government doing about the banking system that ruin your country? guest: it is a question whether her if that has really fundamentally changed anything. the thing that makes people so angry about this is the way the bankers, through irresponsible decisions, or able to cause a crisis for everyone else and walk away from a seemingly of harm. how you solve that, one important question is whether some of the biggest bakes actually need to be broken up and made smaller. caller: goodm orning -- good morning, gentlemen. number one, the war overseas, if we brought them home, it would be $10 billion a year we are saving. i am against the printing of money since we have been taken off of the gold standard and we have $4.20 trillion at the time. we definitely need to stop printing money when we don't have it. an import tax that sell goods to us. the president has the power to take care of all three things. the baloney about the banks and everything else, they're doing wrong, but the major things of getting these jobs back from the foreign countries and our troops home. for security, just load of the navy, submarine aircraft carrying ships with nuclear weapons and of take care of that. i would like a nice, honest reply because that is why our country is in trouble. the $13.70 trillion from social security as of 2009. and the $22 trillion of medicare, the 14% bond sold by carter. [unintelligible] grown to $408 trillion -- guest: i have to stop there. guest: i would only question what you think can be done by the president. he can obviously bring troops home. on some of the other points, " we're talking about is a fundamental transportation -- the transformation to stop printing money. it would be a very large change for the federal government. the federal reserve has the power to manage currency and deal with it. you don't really see enough of a movement at this point to fundamentally change that mandate. as far as import taxes and closing the borders, it would be a very big change in the entire world is moving in the opposite direction at the moment. host: open up competition, let the banks fail. guest: i think trade barriers, a gold standard sounds like the early 1930's and it did not work out very well. you have a point about the sustainability about what the u.s. government is trying to do, military spending abroad, there clearly have to be changes, ambition has to be reined in a bid. what you were alluding to, you have to be very cautious about the kind of economic program. host: in cq weekly, a fate worse than the deficit. what is happening in europe in 2011, trying to draw parallels. congress is preoccupied with the budget, but a european crisis could cripple the u.s.. guest: the european crisis is probably more of an immediate concern than the budget. but there is very little the u.s. congress can do on the european front. the left of the largest share of the european hub, essentially a global organization designed to deal with occurrences. many people in congress are pushing back some of the money used to help europe, or withdrawing entirely. it is a move that will hurt the u.s. spending to deal with the largest issue here a over the global economy. that is one area where there is one more roll. in terms of the funding solution, europe has plenty of money. if you look at the scope of the large and relatively wealthy needs tos, the u.s. put pressure on them. guest: i think the next thing that happens is we get a bout of market turbulence as we figure out the details of this. then we get another round of the verge of negotiations. >> host: thank you for being with us. it of the men, appreciate your time and perspective. we will continue the conversation tomorrow morning her, taking your calls and females. americans for tax reform will be joining us about 7:45 eastern time. eric schmitt and thom shanker, the secret war against al qaeda. and the advancement of science. thank you for joining us on this sunday, a enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead. ♪ >> next, newsmakers with ed demarco. and key figures that have run for president at a loss. after that, a house foreign affairs committee meeting with secretary of state hillary clinton. >> this is the first time i have seen the horror the real heat -- with these guys can't come up with something, and they won't want to go home. >> at the deficit reduction committee will hear from alan simpson and former clinton administration official. you can watch a video of those meetings along with the deficit committees for public meetings on live at the c-span video library. what would you want, when you want. >> our guest this week, ed demarco. welcom. e. reporters will be joining to ask questions. and joining me is margaret chadborn and nick timerouse from the wall street journal. >> thanks for having me. >> you can have the first question. >> your agency announced changes to a federal program. what prompted you to make those changes? and what do you expect to see from those under water? >> this has been an important program in place since 2009. in conjunction with the obama administration, which is a package of efforts to assist the housing market. the program was designed to help borrowers that were remaining current on their mortgages. because of declining house prices and problems with obtaining private mortgage >> when people get a mortgage they are paying for the right to repay that mortgage early and refinance into a lower rate. refinance into a lower rate.

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