gretchen: 45 minutes after the top of the hour. if you re just joining us, quick headlines. sticker shock at the pump, gas prices jumped 12 cents in the past week. national average $3.67 this morning. triple a says increased summer demand and unrest in egypt are part of the reason for the spike. a fisherman in hawaii had to be rescued after a massive fish capsized his boat. he pulled in a 200 pound tuna but his boat couldn t handle the weight. the boat flipped over. he held on to the bottom until the coast guard arrived. his boat was later thrown back with the tuna still attached. didn t want to give up the catch. look at that rescue. brian: wow. first it was combat pay now clinics for our nation s heroes are slashing their hours thanks to the defense department budget cuts which is due to sequester. shouldn t our heroes come first? pete hegseth of concerned
s to john kerry have qualifications to be the next secretary of defense. howie carr, nice to see you this morning. good to see you. there is boston guy and a massachusetts guy. is he qualified? certainly a lot of years in the military certainly a lot of years in the senate. is he he qualified. i suppose he is. all the old stories. the testimony from 1971 when he he said that some of his fellow soldiers were vietnam from war criminals. i really don t think that he really wants to be secretary of defense. i think i would be the secretary of state. being the secretary of defense, you know, even if he had to go through a bruising confirmation process it s going to be a thankless job in the next few years. there are going to be defense department budget cuts. you have this mess in afghanistan. and these generals are
d, the end result of what the tea party engineered by way of confrontation in the name of democracy and grassroots power was to create something opposite of grassroots and as close to monarchy in the hot congress as we ve seen. norm, when i look at the actual workings of the committee, i hope you are as unsurprised as i am that the chairman of the finance committee is on there and the chairman of the ways and means is on there, they have jurisdiction over virtually everything that s being discussed other than the defense department budget cuts, and they also bring their staffs with them, who are the only professional snafs in the congress who are actually capable of working on legislation involving all of these main streets, so although murray has the title of chairman, it s real de facto going to be chairman of ways and means, chairman of finance, those are the people sitting there with the real answers to what s possible, aren t they? there s a lot of truths to
d, the end result of what the tea party engineered by way of confrontation in the name of democracy and grassroots power was to create something opposite of grassroots and as close to monarchy in the hot congress as we ve seen. norm, when i look at the actual workings of the committee, i hope you are as unsurprised as i am that the chairman of the finance committee is on there and the chairman of the ways and means is on there, they have jurisdiction over virtually everything that s being discussed other than the defense department budget cuts, and they also bring their staffs with them, who are the only professional staffs in the congress who are actually capable of working on legislation involving all of these matters, so although patty murray has the title of chairman, it s real de facto going to be chairman of ways and means, chairman of finance,
about grassroots power, democratic power with a small d, the end result of what the tea party engineered by way of confrontation in the name of democracy and grassroots power was to create something opposite of grassroots and as close to monarchy in the hot congress as we ve seen. norm, when i look at the actual workings of the committee, i hope you are as unsurprised as i am that the chairman of the finance committee is on there and the chairman of the ways and means is on there, they have jurisdiction over virtually everything that s being discussed other than the defense department budget cuts, and they also bring their staffs with them, who are the only professional snafs in the congress who are actually capable of working on legislation involving all of these main stretters, so althouy murray has the title of chairman, it s real de facto