where iran stands in the process of developing nuclear weapons that will be a step forward. that being said this is probably more a similar pwoeublg than a substantive trip. any time a president goes to is raoerblgs regardless of the economy conditions in this country i think that s a good thing for america. martha: it seals like at this point that the discussion about iran and where the red line is is much more front and center than a meaningful peace process discussion at this point. it feels that is sort of on the back bryne. this clearly becomes the focus of these conversations. myra, if you re at the white house, you would say, look, this is what it takes. we re going to sit down, have discussions, spend to time face-to-face. they have had a complicated relationship, this president and benjamin netanyahu by all accounts. isn t this a good first step in the right direction. i think it could be a good first step. one of the major complaints from republicans because is there s been
the 1st. the talk about raising revenue is over. time to deal with the spending problem. why don t both men come out and say the debt is an issue? you have to handle it right now. that is what they were implying but seems almost as if they were backing away from it. and either of these two men talk like that before. what was your take on that? i think in part because, you know, the house leadership i think bought into this ten-year balance idea. which a lot of conservative activists, a lot of rank-and-file of the party like the idea. they think it is a reasonable thing. in the abstract it is purely reasonable thing to say, why can t the federal government start spending only as much as it takes in within ten years from now? on the other hand the way washington actually works, that is a pretty sharp departure from the path we ll been on. i think what they re saying, look, this 10-year, 10-year window is really sort of aspirational. we re willing to come down on that a little bit. af
dollars. you would still be left with a deficit and you would wreck the economy. martha: interesting lesson. stuart, thanks very much. we ll be watching it throughout the day as i know you will. let s look at bigger picture of europe s debt crisis. five countries needed bailouts from the european central bank and imf. greece, spain, ireland, portugal as stuart mentioned. germany the fifth biggest. great britain at number eight. france with the 9th largest. italy at number ten. they all shrunk in the last quarter of last year. europe is basically contracting. the eurozone is losing huge numbers of jobs. a record 19 million people are unemployed. it is a tough picture and one we need to watch closely here at home. bill: sure do. no telling when that thing will get straightened out. more rough water for carnival cruise lines. another disabled ship of vacationers, limping back to port. legend arriving yesterday. a leading senator calling
question from senator rubio, a written question. here is another one of our points. the state department has never taken a proactive step. everything has been a reaction to a reporter s question, a senator s question. let s issue a statement from the secretary of state. martha: you played down this deadline here today of friday. what do you want by friday. we hope it comes before so we can work with the state department a clear statement from john kerry, secretary of state calling for eye saeed abedini s release and calling for iran to release this american citizen today. martha: i will leave everyone with this thought. you remember the hikers and all of the outrage in this country and all of the tears and welcoming home of the three hikers which was a great thing, you wonder why your husband isn t getting same sort of attention as american citizen. naghmeh, thank you. jordan, thank you. thank you. martha: we re on top of it as well and we look forward to what comes next. appreci