t.a.r.p.-3 was $30 billion for small banks. and, there were homeowner bailouts you voted for as well. i don t see those as bailouts. you know, what a bailout is, is, you know, saying you are too big to fail. reporter: now according to roll call, she is one of the ten most vulnerable democrats in the house, arthel and is down now by as many as 7 points in the polls. arthel: like everybody is saying, it is hard to predict what will happen in three weeks. reporter: you bet. arthel: william lajeunesse. bill: 20 minutes before the hour, we re standing by in a moment to ask the question is america ready for more government spending? the president expected to call for billions more to shore up the nation s infrastructure, helping to strengthen the economy, and that will be the argument. will it help? is more spending the answer? arthel: all right, bill, a mass overdose at a weekend college party, 12 students, taken to the hospital and what they may have
votes, believe me. reporter: kirkpatrick campaigns like a fiscal conservative. this is not the time to raise taxes. i ve always been an independent voice. reporter: the washington post says she votes with nancy pelosi 84% of the time. aoeufp opposed all the bail outs. reporter: she claims to have stood up to the democratic party and voted against bank and auto bailouts when this fact she wasn t elected then and couldn t have voted. do you think those were factually inaccurate statements or misleading at this time. no, i have voted against every bail out since i ve been in congress. reporter: many would maintain that the $26 billion bill to help out the states with us a bail out bill. tarp 3 was 30 billion for small banks and there were homeowner bail outs that you voted for as well. i don t see those as bail outs. what a bail out is, is saying you re too big to fail. reporter: she says her party unity score is better than it
accounts to other types of retirement accounts, and there may be a tax savings now, but there is a an additional taxes down the line. so, in some ways, it is the same sort of thing. we re not facing what we need to do now, pushing it off to the future. i mean, look, we have to get rid of our regulations, and if we want to do something, why not suspend the payroll tax for six months or a year or two. gregg: congressman engel, your response. we have to do something. obviously, unemployment is up, and the jobs market is difficult. and, we have to do something. the problem is really not in the house, it s snant, where a minority of 41 republicans block these bills from even coming up and the bottom line is that the republicans seem to have made a decision, they want to block any kind of bill that would improve the economy, because they think it will be better for them, politically, in november. i think that is a shame and i think the bill, this jobs bill, which is supported by the ch
business groups, is a bill that can help stimulate the economy and we ought to be working to do it. it is fully paid for and we ought to be using it to gets the economy going again. gregg: the centerpiece of the president s solution was the stimulus bill and he promised, unemployment will not get above 8%, and it is almost 10% now and when he stands in front of the white house as he did on thursday and said now i want you to pass this jobs bill, doesn t he lack credibility among the american people? well, the question is this: not a matter of credibility. it is what kind of credibility do republicans have. this is a mess created during the bush years by republicans. and, barack obama cannot be expected in a year-and-a-half to clean up the mess george bush and the republicans took 8 years to make. this is something that can only be done if we put politics aside and put our heads together and we figure out a way to get the economy rolling again. gregg: congressman lundgren.
joining us to talk about it, fair and balanced debate, a democrat from new york eliot engel and republican from california, dan lundgren, let me start with you, congressman lundgren, will the job cut taxes for small businesses as the president claims or will the larger bill actually increase taxes? i ve read up to $19 billion. well, of course, we don t know what the bill will be, until the senate finishes its product and presents it. what we know is what they talked about before we went on our break, and one of the things it includes is what we call the in the house bill, t.a.r.p.-3. $32 billion of taxpayer dollars, being injected into a banks once again with no requirement that any lending take place for two years. and that is one of the big issues. secondly, you ve got a transformation of taxes by the way they try and pay for at least in the original bill in the sentence, where you transfer certain types of retirement