fight waste and fraud. i think this conversation will be a very important part of what we debate. jenna: you ve been in office since 2006, is that right, senator. elected in 2006, correct. jenna: do you feel responsible for some of the wasteful spending that is happening in government? you know what i think everyone bears some responsibility, and sometimes it s not until you reach a point where you re debating in a more intensive way, spending and deficit reduction. i think there is a lot of folks in ar washington who can bear se of the responsibility. i do believe that we are arriving now at a consensus not only about what to do about this year but to focus on next year s budget and focus very hard on cutting spending but not injuring the job creation that creates the growth. jenna: that is important for our viewers, just really quick here a final question about the gao report. they are estimating around $200 billion of wasteful
lawmakers talking about funding the government and a blockbuster report is exposing hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, it includes a scathing and frightening assessment of our ability to prevent and respond to a bio terrorist attack. according to the gao, government accountability office, not only is there no national game plan and not one individual or group responsible for biodefense, but washington has no central tracking system for how much money is being spent on this. colonel randy larson headed up the commission that gave our government a failing grade on this exact issue last year, he s joining us now. so colonel, why is this? how is this happening? number one reason, jenna, it goes back to president eisenhower. he said the right organization will not guarantee success, but the wrong organization will guarantee failure. when it comes to biodefense in this country we have the wrong organization, and before you went to commercial you talked about food security, which is
even more misgivings on the senate side among democrats where the bill will go after it passes. jon: that s the big question, isn t it, what happens in the senate. well that, is the difficulty here. the democratic leadership was at first skeptical when house republicans came up with this plan last week, then they realized it would be hard, if not odd, to turn down only $4 billion in cuts, which were also proposed by president obama but they haven t moved an inch on bigger cuts over the longer term. there is however a bipartisan group of decifit hawks working on a compromise package, but for the next ten years, not the next two weeks or even the next six months. listen: you know, if you think about it, the conversation here in washington is almost bizarre. we have 1 1/2 trillion dollars decifit, we have a $14 trillion debt. and the focus is on $4 billion spending cut or a
[ male announcer ] when you orbitz, you know. jon: how the u.s. should deal with libya, a wealthy country where civil war has broken out. right now secretary of state hillary clinton is speaking in front of congress about the options on the table. this is the house committee on foreign affairs you re watching live. james rosen is also keeping an ear on it. he s live in washington with more. reporter: secretary of state hillary clinton defending this morning against criticism that the obama administration s response to the libyan crisis has been tepid. the secretary saying the u.s. didn t want to give credence to claims by islamist web sites that america plans to invade libya ran take over its oil. quote, we are not going to do that, clinton said. her remarks came in testimony
fiscal year. jim angle is keeping an eye on all of this, live from washington. where are we in the process now, jim? reporter jon, the house will pass a 2-week extension spending authority today called a continuing resolution or c.r., that will happen this after that and they ll send it to the senate. this particular bill would only cut $4 billion. that s two weeks worth of the 61 billion house republicans want to cut between now and october. some democrats are critical even of that amount, even though all of the cuts in there are things president obama has proposed. now, cutting putting that cutting that puts house democrats in a tricky position. listen: i would probably vote in favor of it, even though i have severe questions about t nobody wants to shut down government. but in the at the same token, i don t want to see this death by a thousand splashes. reporter: so there you have it. there are some misgivings on the house side, there are