state to block a vote on this plan. it's meant to ease the state's budget crisis. a tea party member confronting lawmakers as they got into a car, telling them they have a responsibility to show up. >> we found out these guys had fled the state of wisconsin so they wouldn't have to do their job in wisconsin. it's a constitutional duty to at least be on the floor of the senate in wisconsin to vote on some very controversial legislation in wisconsin. i mean, at the very least, they should honor their commitment to their oath of office and they should honor their commitment to doing their job in wisconsin. so at least be on the floor to allow a vote. jenna: well now we're hearing the assembly speaker will schedule a vote for later today. listen to this. the senate leader says state patrol officers have been sent to the minority leader's home to return him for the vote. jon: could it get any stranger? mike tobin is live in madison. this issue seems to be no longer just a wisconsin issue, huh? >> reporter: it really isn't. you have a lot of people from all over the country. i'm going to look at some of the people marching outside the cap to. these appear to be mostly wisconsin state workers but because wisconsin set a precedent for union clout, you have organizations like the afl-cio, richard trumka expected here today, you have the organization that helped put president obama in the spotlight in the early days of his campaign, organizing the protests. now, to counter that, you have conservative organizations like the tea party, like the americans for prosperity, like the american majority, all organizing buses and getting demonstrators here for saturday to demonstrate in favor of governor walker. jon: so what are the protestors saying about the fight? >> reporter: you know, the demonstrators that we have talked with, they say they get t. tough times are all around and if they have to ante up for their pension and their retirement benefits or health benefits, that's something they will do, but when you start talking about collective bargaining, and the strengthth of collective bargaining, that threatens their long term. >> i'm still willing to take the pay cuts. what i'm scared about is the fact that we don't know where it will end. we have no idea how bad it will get because all of our protection will be gone. >> reporter: you know, i asked governor walker point blank if he is using this crisis to try to break the unions or decrease the strength of the unions. he flatly denied that, he said at the end of the day, you've got a budget that needs to be balanced and this is the only way he can do it without raising taxes. jon. jon: mike tobin reporting live from wisconsin, where there's all kinds of action going on. thanks mike. jenna: there's concern now that the drama in wisconsin is a sign of what's to come really all across this country, and states unlike the federal government must balance their budget every year and that's forcing local lawmakers from california to new york to make tough choices, in fact, so many of us are having to make tough choices. steve more, senior economic writer of the "wall street journal", let's pick off of an example that mike was talking about in wisconsin. it seems that both sides, the unions and the lawmakers, are willing to take a look at the pension payments and health care cost, but they're really divided over collective bargaining. >> that's right. jenna: why include collective bargaining now in wisconsin, and is that a model for what we're going to see across the country? >> great question, jenna. and let me explain to your viewers, because this is a really important point that's been overlooked. what they're talking about doing in wisconsin is not getting rid of collective bargaining for salaries, and wages. but the benefits. and those are what really are out of control, and bankrupting states like wisconsin. and so many other states and school districts like the school district in milwaukee. and so just to be clear, we're only talking about taking away the collective bargaining for the health care and the pension benefits, and by the way, what governor walker was talking about is -- it would still allow teachers and firefighters and others to have much more generous pensions and medical benefits than most private sector workers get. but jenna, to your point, i do think you're going to see these kind of flare-ups really occur in many state capitols over the course of the next couple of months, as these new republican governors like scott walker in wisconsin take on -- take this issue by the horns of what to do about these public pensions. jenna: some tai if you take away collective bargaining from the benefits side of unions, steve, it really is union busting, you have taken away the power of organized labor in this country. do you agree with that? >> no, i don't. and wisconsin is a perfect example. let me just give folks a case study in what the wages and benefits are like in some of these places in wisconsin. in the milwaukee public school systems, one of the worst public school systems in the nation, the average teacher's salary is about $60,000, but they get about $40,000 a year in health care and pension benefits, and that's something that simply isn't affordable. and the problem, jenna, for a state like wisconsin is with all of that money going into the pensions and medical benefits, not enough of the dollars are going into the classroom to actually teach kids and improve the schools. and that's the real issue, is the money going to go to the classroom or is the money going to go to the muff innocent benefits. jenna: and 8-10 states don't have collective bargain, that's determined by the state governments. something to keep in mind. >> one other point, jenna, because this is really important. >> go ahead. >> the other points that people aren't focusing on, and i agree with governor walker on this one, what he's saying is look, if we don't do something about these pensions and medical benefits and put them more in line with private sector benefits, if they don't do that, then says they're going to have to lay off 5500 workers, so the idea that this is bad for the public employee workers is wrong. in fact, this is a way to avert layoffs that could affect the families of thousands of public sector workers in wisconsin. jenna: that is such an interesting point. a quick final thought from you on this, is there a way to make unions work in the time that we're looking to restructure our economy, and looking at a time to make these cuts? because it seems the conversation, steve, gets extremist saying abolish all unions everywhere, they're not good for the economy right now, but is that accurate? is that an accurate statement? >> well, i think if you look at where the union movement is most powerful right now, there's no question, jenna, that all the growth is in the public sector employee unions and for the first time, there are more public sector employee members than there are private sector, so i think you've got to do something to reign in the public employee unions, because for one thing, the politicians don't often gar banoo bargain with them because they're only going to be on two or four years, that's what created this long term pension and health care crisis in the first place, but it is interesting, isn't it, that almost every industry dominated by unions, whether it's the postal service, the car industry, manufacturing, and now public sector, those are the ones that have gone broke. jenna: it's interesting to take a look at that and whether it's the system or the people doing the bargaining on both sides, responsible for this situation we're in. steve, good to see stkpwhraou politicians deserve a lot of blame here, because they're the ones who negotiated these wages, pensions, in the first place. jenna: certainly responsibility lies on both sides. steve, thank you very much. >> i agree. jenna: great to see stkpwhraou great to be with you, jenna. jon: a high profile investigation into a controversial mortgage program is now expanding. the new chairman of the house oversight committee, republican congressman darrell issa issuing his very first subpoena, targeting countrywide mortgage, the now-defunct firm, and its controversial vip loan program that might have given sweetheart deals to some lawmakers in washington. the program came under scrutiny after reports surfaced that then-senator christopher dodd and senator conrad got sweetheart mortgages from the company. while congressman issa targets the loans a liberal group, the third lan turn, is going after issa launching paid media advertisements. also a website, the issa files, all aimed at undermining and investigating the california congressman. congressman darrell issa, chairman of the house committee on oversight and government reform joins us now. congressman, thank you for being with us. >> jon, thank you and thanks for pointing out there now is a website that covers me all the time, and i don't even have to pay for it! >> jon: all right. you have a number of investigations going on in your committee, as i understand it, but you chose this cun countrywide case as the issuer of your first subpoena. why? >> well, probably because the dollar is at -- dollars at stake are so high. the american people have suffered in the trillions as a result of the financial meltdown, virtually every american that owns a home owns it for less than they paid for it or at least less than it was worth and you ask why. well, the sweetheart deals that went on, the absence of oversight, the absence of laws that would have stemmed the tide of the subprime loans really were affected by the angelo mozilla program at countrywide. it didn't just go to lawmakers, it went to members of the staff in both nine house and senate, it went to people at freddie and fannie, the agencies that took this bad debt on that you and i have now paid over $150 billion for the bad debt and it's still counting. all of these things, if you will, represent the core of the problem. now, people can say freddie and fannie, they can say failure of regulators, they can say lots of things. what we see is a corrupting influence that went on, that began by, if you will, the sweetheart deals that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases to each of the people who received these discounted loans. so we want to find out not who received the loans, as much as we want to find out the scope of what we think was somewhat of a criminal enterprise. jon: well, we mentioned former senator christopher dodd of connecticut, and sitting senator kent conrad of north dakota, they received those loans, the senate investigated them and said they didn't do anything wrong. do you expect to find differently? >> no, i don't. i expect that the senate ethics committee has spoken and it's the final word on what's ethical for senators. the house committee might very well do the same. i don't represent the ethics committees, it's not about the members. and there were republican staffers who were key to legislation in the senate who received similar loans. what i'm looking for is if you try to influence government and you give discounts behind essentially closed doors, none of these were ever declared, are you a criminal, and if you're not, should you be. and i think that's where the american people have a right, and i have an obligation, to investigate and to change this, because i know that the american people, because they constantly are contacting us, they want us to make sure this doesn't happen again, following the evidence where it leads should cause us to either have department of justice take criminal action if it's appropriate and if it's not, then we should act to make sure that this can never happen again with impunity to the people who give the bribes or, for that matter, those who, if they knowingly accept it, and that's just doing the job the american people object gate us to do. jon: congressman, there's another burning issue ahead in congress we want to ask you about. stick with us for a moment. jenna: congressman issa is going to talk about that huge budget battle, congress fighting it out on the house floor, pointing fingers, assigning blame, even signing buttons, but that's another story! the threat of the government shutdown looms. it's coming closer. we'll bring you up to date on that. by day he's an ordinary housecat. but what the sun goes down, he's a thief in the night. you've seen the video. now meet dusty, the clepto kitty, coming up live on "happening now". jenna: a fox news alert, we take a live look now at what's happening in tahiri square in -- tahrir square in central cairo, hundreds of thousands gathering to celebrate really what happened over the last several weeks in egypt, the the ousting of the president there. we're hearing they're a celebratory mood, the first day of the celebration in cairo. you can hear them behind us as we're talking. across egypt we're hearing estimates of well over a million people taking to the streets in that country celebrating a new start to their government there. jon: well, the budget battle rages on, the house floor, as we speak, and there are some new concerns today that congress might not reach a deal with the white house, which could mean a government shutdown. house speaker john boehner, pledging to cut spending, but angered house democrats, when he seemed to dismiss potential job losses from some of the huge cuts, resulting. his democrat chris van hollen: >> another day on a bill that will not create one single job in the united states of america. in fact, a bill that will cost thousands of americans their jobs. the response just the other day from our republican colleagues, quote, so be it. jon: back with us, congressman darrell issa of california, the chairman of the house committee on oversight and government reform. so be it. that's the phrase that so many democrats are wearing on those buttons that jenna referred to just a little bit ago. some are describing this as game of legislative chicken, except obviously it's not a game, it's a very serious business here. you've got two weeks to get a budget passed and the house isn't even in session next week, right? >> absolutely. the important thing to remember about speaker boehner's comment, he was talking about if by cutting government some people in government lose their jobs, so be it. but we understand, 85 percentor so -- # 5 percent or so of what government spends money on is people so of course if you cut back on government you're going to stop having government jobs but john boehner like so many people here on capitol hill realize that if you have less government workers and more private sector workers, the economy will recover. if it doesn't, this $1.6 trillion debt will, in fact, bankrupt this country, destroy the future for our children, and that's what speaker boehner cares about is jobs for our children in the private sec to, not current very generous jobs for federal workers or for that matter, lobbyists here in washington. jon: the appetite for cutting seems to lie mostly among republicans, if you alone to that sound bite from democratic congressman chris van hollen moments ago. so if republicans want to cut this $60 billion from the budget and don'tgate any agreement from democrats in the senate, where does that leave you? >> well, we were elected on exactly that, on making the kinds of hard decisions the american people want us to make. you know, getting rid of the study on marijuana and malt liquor in combination seems like a small thing, but there are thousands of those. but more importantly, even the president's disingenuous statement that he's freezing federal pay while allowing these automatic step increases, you know, in the private sector you don't get generous pay increases just because another year went by and then cost of living on top of it. guess what? they do. and it represents half a billion dollars per year, plus obviously retirement benefits. you mentioned earlier, when you were talking to stephen moore about the private sector versus the public, well, what they're dealing with in washington, we have to deal with. 8 1/2 billion dollars in loss by the postoffice was all in those deferred benefits, the retirement health care and other plans. we've got to make sure that we put spending on the books and not simply kick the can down the road with huge promises, that down the road, we're going to give with somebody else's money. that's what politicians have to pay it now, not owe it forward. jon: well, the politics is going to be interesting over the next couple of weeks and we're going to be watching it. congressman darrell issa, republican out of california, thank you. skwr*pb jen then there's this. a massive eruption, creating serious consequences here on earth. the biggest solar flare in years. how this affects everything from the computers that we're using on set to airplane navigation potentially. a big story just ahead. also, libya, one of the hottest spots in the volatile middle east, calls for the leader there to step down. could he be the next arab leader to fall? and what does that mean for our national security? )%)%)%)%)% jon: violent protests again today across the middle east, in bahrain, security forces firing live ammunition on protestors today, hospital officials reporting at least 20 people were injured. the crowds again are demanding the ouster of the mon --- monarchy that rules this persian gulf nation, bahrain a key u.s. ally, home to the u.s. navy's fifth fleet. more violence rocking the eastern cities of libya, increasing pressure there on libyan leader mommar gadavi to step down, tens of thousands clashing in yemen as well, both pro and antigovernment demonstrators are fighting for the eighth straight day. as we reported, in egypt, hundreds of thousands of people filled tahir -- tahrir square in kay re. but here, they are celebrating. david lee miller joins us live from cairo with an update. >> reporter: jon, it is a massive celebration that began early today and continues at this hour, past sunset. off in the distance, perhaps you can see it on the video, there are fireworks, an estimated quarter million people are now in a -- tahrir square and to give that context and perspective, consider this, there are more people in tahrir square than at any time during the 18 days of protest. today, though, it's billed as a victory celebration, the thousands and thousands and thousands came here today to actually have the biggest party in the country they also listened to a cleric that is supposedly linked to the islamic brotherhood, a man described as a father figure, ideologically speaking to the muslim brotherhood, yuset al cardari, he said the new government should open the government with gaza, calls for the release of political prisoners and says he hopes to have the opportunity to one day deliver a sermon in jerusalem at the al aqsa mosque. for the past three decades, he has been effectively banned from speaking here in egypt. also in egypt, at least three former members of the government were not at this rally, the interior minister, housing minister and the tourist minister, they are now all in custody in connection -- they are high profile businessmen, they are arrested in connection with ongoing throes into the corruption of the mubarek administration. let's talk about bahrain, there were also fireworks taking place there but of a different variety. at least four people have been killed in the bahrain capitol of manama, troops fired on protestors. according to one report, the military fired an antiaircraft run over the demonstrators trying to contain the crowd. many are wounded, at least 20, by some accounts, as many as 30. one witness said that in bahrain, the demonstrators today were atte