♪ host: today is sunday, may 1, and welcome to "washington journal." congress comes back to work tomorrow. they have been working at home in their various states and districts for the past few weeks. merely at the top of everyone's list is fixing the budget. we want to talk about that for the first 45 minutes of the program. we will be looking at a poll released by "usa today." id is in this morning's "baltimore sun." first, we want to let you know what the numbers are. who is best suited to deal with the federal budget? republicans or democrats? the numbers, for democrats, 202- 737-0002. for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. if you are calling from outside the u.s. this morning, 202-628- 0184. if you have called within the last 30 days, but down the phone and send us a message electronically. our e-mail, [email protected], or if you are on twitter, twitter.com/c-spanwj. this is the story the way that it appears this morning in "the baltimore sun." we are going to talk about the budget to begin with and get to the other areas later on in the program. host: that is in this morning's open quote baltimore -- "baltimore sun." we want to find out from you who is more capable of fixing the budget in congress. we want to take a look at the way it was reported on got through. "americans favor republicans handling the budget" according to the poll. host: for the first 40 minutes or so in the program, we will talk about the budget fix. republicans or democrats, who is better equipped to fix the budget crisis? first up, a democrat, illinois, go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i would like to say that i am 78 years old. i have seen many administrations. and honestly, i know that the democrats are better, from my experience. host: why do you say that to know that they are better? caller: because of my experience. when we have democratic administrations, we do not like to admit it, but we know that they are more for the average american, which is more than the rich. that is, we number more they make better laws and allow better things to happen for us. we who are working, actually, that is one of the reasons the middle class is disappearing from our country, because we have worked so hard to have a middle-class. i remember when there was no middle class, in that old. all of the problems that we had with unions that people went through, people died, that has been done away with. host: bill, california, who is better equipped to fix the federal budget? republicans or democrats? caller: i do not think that it really matters anymore. they all get funds from lobbyists and are beholden to the corporate autocracy and plutocracy of major industries that are finding them and basically running the countries. just a back-and-forth of bickering between the two. host: if you had a choice, but would you like to see from your representative or senator coming back this week? caller: i wish that i had that sort of power at my hands. there is a lot i would like to see but it will not happen that way, because the system is rigged. host: phillis, an independent line, north carolina. caller: good morning. host: who is better equipped, republicans or democrats? caller: i would certainly like to see them work together. i do not know, from the last administration it seems that they are not willing to work together. host: what kinds of concessions or compromise do you think it will take from each side? caller: recently i saw congressman going back home to see their constituents, finding out that they are unhappy with what they are trying to do. i think they need to listen to the people back home a little bit more instead of so much hiding amongst themselves. it seems to me that a major thing they might be doing well and is constantly threatening to cut everything from the middle class and not taking away anything from the upper class or corporations done, such as giving money to the oil companies and corporate farmers, tax breaks. if you are going to take some much away from the middle class , show us that she will be giving us something from the other side as well. that puts a bad light on at all of the time. host: phillis was talking about the reaction that house and senate members got when they went back home. we would like to show you some footage of an angry constituents regarding the vote on representative brian's budget. we will take a look at what happened in pennsylvania. >> [unintelligible] [angry voices] host: we are talking about the federal budget and getting it fixed. republicans or democrats? st. louis, you are on "washington journal." caller: by a lifelong democrat, but i will tell you right now -- i am a lifelong democrat, but i will tell you right now that the way the democrats are going after small businesses -- we are right on the threshold of $250,000, but 33% of our money goes to federal, 10% goes to the state, not to mention what we have to pay for employees. i am with republicans on this. you cannot demonize businesses and expect to have a prosperous country. these people need to watch the business channels. president obama took most of the money from the biggest corporations in this country, and wall street. you cannot just label republicans evil for taking money from corporations, they all do it. i will tell you, if this budget does not like it under control, we will all face major problems. thank you and please use common sense when talking about the budget. host: we are talking about the federal budget into is better equipped to fix it, republicans or democrats. according to a poll just released, americans favor republicans to fix the budget by a margin of 48%. tennessee, on the line for republicans. dave, you are on "washington journal." >> i can echo the comments that your last caller made. we have got something in the neighborhood of 35% of our net income don, i literally have to go to the federal government to beg for an extension. it becomes a line-item expense for me. it gets passed to the consumers. i could have taken that 35% and hired another employee. instead i am paying the government. they are borrowing 40 cents on every dollar. i cannot do that as a business and i know the federal government cannot by there. in five years the democrats have run up a $14 trillion debt. 100% of the gdp. our currency is losing value and that is where we are going. host: who is your daschle rep? dave is gone. let's go to round rock, texas, on the independent line. caller: good morning. i am not a democrat or republican. never have been either. i have been looking at the federal budget for years. i have been a businessman. historically history tells a story, and c-span has the resources to look this up, republicans have never been good with the budget. it started with reagan, when he would cut taxes and close hospitals, blowing holes in the budget. historically, when you look at the record, democrats have a better track record for budget constraint. yes, they are liberal on social programs, but on the budget they have done a very good job. or at least a better job, let's put it that way. we have cut taxes and cut taxes and expected to run a country without revenues ended just love happen. host: bling, sunrise, florida, do you think that the republicans or democrats will do a better job in congress? caller: democrats. host: how have they proven that? caller: republicans have run up the deficit for 10 years. eight years. six years. republicans were charged with running up the budget and have done a good job of convincing the american people that democrats of done that, which is outrageous. president bill clinton proved that democrats can put the budget in order, put a surplus of us. republicans just spent it all up. it is outrageous what i am hearing from people in america. republicans of the worst on the budget. thank you. host: thank you. this is from gallup.com. "neither party has the edge on major issues." it goes into a bill but more detail. -- a little bit more detail. host: back to the phones. oklahoma, on the republican line. steven, you are on "the washington journal." stephen, one out turndown your television and it will make this process work smoother. all right, we are going to put you on hold and go to the atlanta, georgia. sarah, independent line. caller: good morning. host: who is better equipped to fix the budget? caller: the democrats. my reason for this, the last administration did not put the wars on the tab, prescription drugs on the tab. just like a woman who knows she is under water with her house, she buys stuff and hides it in the closet from our husband. finally the bill comes due. this is what obama had. the bill came due. everything was put on the budget and now we know where we stand. america cannot stand it. as far as small business people, i agree, they have taxes. instead of fighting for the republicans to maintain these subsidies for corporations, you want to be fighting for them to get rid of input so that we can close those tax loopholes that allow this to happen so that everyone's taxes can go down. especially small business. host: stephen, good morning. keep the audio down on your television. caller: i do not know what they are drinking in illinois, but in a truck driver. -- i am a truck driver. i had to buy something and it cost me more by an illinois because of the taxes. i think the republicans are better. republican states run by republican governors and senators have but -- balanced budgets. -california, illinois, new york, 80% run by the democrats. host: we are going to take a break on this discussion to check in with simon, a "washington post" correspondent, reporting from libya this morning to talk to us about the lead story from "the washington post." "nato airstrike kills son of gaddafi." what is the latest? caller -- caller: we were taken back to the house that was struck, people filing, members of the public filing through the ruins. we just had a crowd of women chanting pro-gaddafi slogans. all kinds of things. we were just in the kitchen. meals that were being prepared last night. pasta, rice, fish. the clock stopped at 8:09 p.m. it appeared to be a residential house. if there was a duel usage, we do not know. dare is no evidence of that host: was there any evidence that gaddafi himself was there? caller: there was none. i have to say that that is something you have to take in. he was supposed to have been there and supposed to have escaped completely unscathed. one of the buildings is completely destroyed. two buildings are a jason leigh damaged. something that definitely remains -- adjacently damaged. something that definitely remains. host: you reported that u.s. intelligence agencies had not been able to confirm the report, while nato said that it had carried out a precision strike against unknown command and control building. is there any kind of update from nato? did they know that this was a civilian domiciled? closely monitoring all of the communications coming out. i would imagine that they would have intersected some kind of signal coming from the building. . the government says they must have had intelligence that gaddafi was there. whether or not it was satellite tracking. clearly, that is a mystery, why they chose this house. nato perhaps picked up some radio signals -- signals. host: what kind of neighborhood is the home in? have you had a chance to talk to the people lived close by? caller: not yet. to be are just literally being taken back. it is a residential neighborhood. clearly, there are the houses of rich people. this is not a military neighborhood. everything that we have seen suggests that this is a residential property. host: are there any neighbors or anything walking around the streets today? caller: we are walking around to see if we can find some neighbors. there are 3 e missiles that apparently struck that may have been unexploded or designed not to cause shrapnel. there were explosions from the hotel that we felt, as well as heard. host: i understand that he is the youngest son of muammar gaddafi. caller: that has been corrected by the government, he is the second youngest. he is not very high profile. he was caught up in a scandal in germany when he got into a fight outside of a nightclub, the bouncer tried to throw out the woman he was dancing with. the libyan embassy tried to cover that up and became a wrangle between libya and germany. probably a bigger story than it actually was. other than that, a bit of a party here. but not someone who has had a high-profile regime, as his older brothers have. host: has anything been seen or heard from muammar gaddafi in the past 24 hours? caller: there has not. we are expecting that he may make some kind of public appearance. whether or not it will be something in state television remains to be seeing. -- remains to be seen. his names have not yet been released by the family. hopefully they will release them later today. host: simon denyer, correspondent for "the washington post," co writing the headline this morning, thank you for being on the phone with us. caller: pleasure. host: the bill go back to our topic this morning, -- we will go back to our topic this morning, fixing the federal budget, republicans or democrats, who is better equipped for the problem? you can read more about the pole from gallup in "the baltimore sun." host: we will get to more of that in a few seconds. back to the phones. thank you to c-span. -- caller: thank-you to c-span. i think that democrats would do a better job. the lady from georgia had a good point. there were bills and now they are concerned about the deficit. it looks like republicans will be in charge of the budget. they do not want to close the polls or nothing, cut defense or anything. host: who is your representative in sarasota? caller: [unintelligible] host: ok. will the performance of congress affect whether or not he is reelected in november? caller that -- caller: a stronger presence there, i do not know if more people pay attention to the news, and do they know what these people are trying to do? they would see that the income deficits of the average citizen benefits the rich corporations. host: john, asheboro, go ahead. caller: my family has always been republican. predominantly republican. i have to say, over the last several years, since we have received internet, i have received neighbors and co- workers that have encouraged me to do research. i find out that the people that we voted for have run up terrible deficits. where does host: some one. and out to me -- someone -- caller: someone pointed out to me, vice president cheney, it looks like bill clinton was the last person to get the budget under control. in rethinking this whole thing. -- i am rethinking this whole thing. the very, very wealthy people need to be paying their fair share. it is a shame that the oil companies are raking in this money. i know that times are tough for me. host: we will leave it there. . process on the union battle but still the media are the ones that control the strings and the republicans caveed on how they got elected in november with the budget in february and all because of the media they're worried about what people think and for future reference in the last 10-years you can claim to ten or 20 things from the war in libya and all the wars in the middle east and everything the media controls it. host: we'll leave it there. andy in chicago you're on the line for democrats. go ahead. who do you think is better e kwifted to fix the budget. democrats or the republicans. caller: i think nobody can do it on their own. it's a process and you have to have a process from the house of representatives to the senate and again the president has to sign it and god forbid if your judges. supreme court judges get a hold of it seeing that they're extreme right wing these days but i would like to give comfort from the woman from missouri and i don't know if i can endorse any tom hartmann type of characters of line. but that from missouri. her small business. they only text them after they make $250,000 profit if you're making that to $350,000 a year and you have to pay all the bills you wayned up with what? $37,000 or $70 something thousand. no. you're not going to be touched. it's your profit. >> andy, chicago. off lead in the chicago post. on the way to a surplus a $12 trillion dollar detour. in 2001 the nation looked to be debt three and in 2011 it's anything but. it's by laurie montgomery and the "washington post". next up in houston texas. erik on the line for republicans. you're on the "washington journal". >> good morning. and thanks for c-span. >> hose to reform the budget situation. republicans or democrat? >> republicans. and by very thin margin i should say. i think congressman's budget is moving in the right direction. i must be frank saying some of the comments said this morning about the crisis are in fur rating. very emotional. talking about the talking points by the last, look at facts. the first thing is, when it comes to our unfunded liabilities. mandated liabilities. thinking about entitlements. we have a liability of $100 trillion. dollars. the economy is only $17 trillion. you can't pay for what's coming down the pipe in entitlements and you have those screaming at the top of the lungs don't touch my social security and medicare and medicaid. folks from it's inception. it was a false premise. it doesn't work. >> so erik with all of that on the line who is in the best position to mix and fix this? >> i think congressman ryan's budget is a step in the right direction. i don't think it goes far enough and i think the crisis is deeper than that. but the congressional house is at least trying to take the steps. look. you have to be realistic. the democrats and especially african-american democrats and i'm a dressing my community of color. that can speak to president bush all the time and blame him and blame him. will they come to the reality since the inauguration of mr. obama with the reid and pelosi in tow they're exacerbateing the problem and president obama would have racked up more debt than all the other presidents in american history combined. host: we'll leave it there. national tennessee. independent. gregory? caller: good morning. i would say more so than being democrat or republican or independent i'm a citizen of the united states of america and looking at it from a citizen's point of view. it just seems to me, republicans have started world wars and have the belief that's the way to fund constituents. they're getting in other people's business. republicans getting in other people's business and that's what started all of this. we're going overseas and trying to do that and we're still trying to do that. they want the churches. republicans feel like the churches should be able to fix things which is why i guess president bush took so long when katrina took place. look how long it took them to respond to katrina. some people including myself, say probably that area down there with katrina, that because it had a predominance of minorities. even though we're not really minorities anymore. listen to old money which is really what republicans are and they're afraid to lose that money. entitlements? we're on the edge in the first place before the wars. then, republicans started wars and did not fund them. so now president obama has got to pick up the pieces of everything that took place in the past and the majority of all the problems were created by republicans going overseas and getting in everybodies business. >> we're going to take another break from our discussion regarding the federal budget and who's best to fix it to talk about the big party that was held here in washington d.c. last night. the white house correspondent's dinner. association dinner. it's a fundraiser but also a chance for the politic