armies have already done this. i think we ought to study how it should be done in the most reasonable way but i think it is a good idea to get it underway and get it started. bret: there are many in the military, many on the political right who think this is the wrong idea and it would be bad for the military and bad for command and control. what about that argument and how it is playing on capitol hill? i think what is interesting in speaking to people in the mill terry, i get the sense that there are people who personally support it as charles does but feel institutionally as a whole they are not ready. they are in two wars, they don t need the distraction. what is interesting is senator mccain s questioning is a little misleading. they haven t made the decision to do it. the military brass is saying we are going to relax enforcement. they want to reduce the number of discharges so they will make sure that third-party
because i m gay and the superior says no, i m doing this because you performed poorly. do we just burden the military justice system with those kinds of cases? bret: charles? i respect the opposition of john mccain today and the opposition of colin powell 16 years guy on this question and i understand the years ago on this question and i understand the military about issues of cohesion. i do think that the president has made a commitment on an issue of principle and i think it is a political decision in the end. there is the issue of doing it in the middle of wars. you don t want disruption in the middle of wars but unfortunately we may be involved in these wars for a long time and i don t think you want to suspend this issue indefinitely as a result. bret: ten seconds, a.b. for the folks on the left pushing for this to happen now, what they heard today at this hearing they can t be happy about.
flexed their muscles. they have large invest in the the two mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac which were taken over from the federal government after trillions of losses chiechltna and japan made it clear they expected the u.s. to guarantee every last dollar. most americans don t know it. the fact of the matter is the reason the taxpayers are now on the hook for $5 trillion in con stin gent liabilities for contingent liabilities for fannie mae and freddie is the chinese and japanese demanded it. reporter: if we said no they might have been less willing to loan us more money, especially at reasonable rates. we re so desperate for money, so addicted it makes us vulnerable to pressure. if china decides to exercise it. bret? bret: staggering numbers. part three tomorrow. thank you, jim. pending sales of previously-owned homes edged up in december by 1 percentage point. the index has has rizzen in ni of ten months. the stocks gained 111 1/2. s&p finished ahead 14 and
it is groundbreaking, the fact that they are trying to dismiss discharges and the fact that a third-party can t get you expelled from the military. bret: some folks thought it would happen immediately. they wanted everything in the first year and they will not get it and they are not going to get it before the congressional mid terms. congressional mid terms. bret: that t t t in 1977, an 8-year-old boy picked up the game of golf from his father. the odds of that same boy then making it to the u.s. and european pro-golf tours?
information can t just come in and ruin your military career and also the decision goes up now to generals and admirals instead of lower chains of command. this will continue to reduce, the numbers go down every year, the number of discharges. will this be opposed? certainly but it is as charles points out a year long review. we are talking about a decision congress would make only after a study is done and then opponents can cry foul then. it hasn t been made now. bret: despite the fact that vice president biden said it would be repealed by the end of the year. it won t be politically we know before the election. the pentagon is asking to are a year to study it and they haven t taken an institutional temperature reading and they will tell the congress what they know and what they have about this transition that will be very powerful and very important and have to take place slowly. it is not going to be a year. i don t think it will be two or three. bret: the last big study was