tornadoes touch down in dallas "the kudlow report" moments away. >> "kudlow" is next. and don't miss my take of price down at the pump. two pieces of disappointing news. one from sandisk, that will sends down the tech complex. the other, really surprising. big truck orders, remember i told you in our playbook? they were very disappointing. that's going to hurt cummins. always a bull market somewhere, i promise to find it on "mad money." hey, larry, what do you have tonight? >> the market didn't like the fed minutes. dow down 65. i thought they were bullish and i'll tell everybody why. good evening. this is "the kudlow report." the president unleashes a vicious attack on paul ryan, mitt romney, and the republican budget. he calls it a trojan horse, a

radical vision and thinly veiled social darwinism. is he trying to make himself the centrist in the race? the man's budget he was referring to wisconsin congressman paul ryan will join us live with response to the president, later on. and the dow dives minutes after the fed cited a stronger economy downgraded more bond buying. dow down 65 points, and nasdaq and s & p down 6 points each. i'll tell you why i think it's bullish. and markets may not have liked obama's speech. i'll tell you why. primary night. maryland, washington, d.c., and wisconsin. 92 delegates up for grabs. is tonight the night mitt romney consolidates this all about the nomination? he could have more than half of the delegates locked up. we begin with some breaking news. multiple severe tornadoes touch down in the dallas-ft. worth area, sending trucks flying through the air, obliterating homes. hundreds of flights canceled. live video of the tornadoes on the path of destruction,

captivated television and online audiences. carl parker of the weather channel joins us with details. good evening, carl. >> good evening to you. things are looking better in the dallas area, that's for sure. drier air working in, will bring down the severe weather threat. let's take a look where watches are severe thunderstorm watch areas, extend to the east. and a tornado watch area in the northeast part of the state. you notice that it bisects dallas. still a threat in the dallas area. southeast side of town, but definitely coming down. tornado threat primarily in the northeast part of texas. farther southward is more of a damaging wind threat along with the line of storms. these are severe thunderstorm warnings, you notice the tornado warnings clustered there across 30, but, again, in dallas, much better. potentially some storms across the southeast part of town, not likely to pack the punch that the storms had earlier. rotating storms now still moving along, either side of 30, and the movement is generally off

toward the northeast at about 25 to 30 miles an hour. much more generic garden variety storms in parts of louisiana and mississippi, and the severe threat area for today, we'll watch that across northeast texas down through the central part of the state. tomorrow, that area will migrate farther eastward, but it will be less of a threat, certainly a tornado possible. but probably will not be what we saw today. larry, back to you. >> many thanks, carl parker, appreciate the update. now, obama set the tone for the general election in today's speech. calling out gop candidates by name and assailing republicans for their "trojan horse" budget plan. >> this congressional republican budget is something differential together. it is a trojan horse. disguised as deficit reduction plans, it's really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our

country. it is thinly veiled social darwinism. >> all right. house budget committee chairman paul ryan will join us later in the broadcast to react and defend president obama's charges. first up this evening, cnbc's own jon harwood joins us with reaction. >> a fascinating attempt by the president to frame the general election while republican voters going to the polls in wisconsin, in maryland, and the district of columbia as mitt romney is trying as you mentioned to wrap up the nomination. the president framed his agenda, what he's trying to accomplish in the context of the rise of conservatism over the past generation, the collapse of the bush administration. financial crisis and recession and now what republicans are proposing to do, which in effect he says is to double down policies which have proven to failed. here is the president. >> you would think after the results of this experiment, in trickle down economics, after

the results were made painfully clear, the pro noents of this theory might show some humaniil. might moderate they're views a bit. instead of moderating their views even slightly, the republicans running congress right now have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right, it makes the contract with america look like the new deal. >> and, larry, that's precisely the argument the president will make. he's going to state this as trying to protect and preserve a vision of the role of government that takes care of the people who need it most. republicans and you'll hear this from paul ryan will say, no, this president wants to expand the scope of government and we, republicans are looking to take trillion-dollar deficits and reduce them and solve in a long-standing, permanent way the problem we have with exploding debt over the long term.

>> john, i think you laid that out pretty well. i actually read the speech. the question and answer session of this ap conference, did president obama try to jaw the supreme court to pass or okay his obama care? is this some jaw boning there? >> he did, in a somewhat softer way. he got criticized by the way he did this yesterday when he, in essence, warned that if they struck down the mandate, they are doing exactly what has been done in the past. he stated it in a more nuanced way today. he repeated the same argument. based on the background of a constitutional law professor, he doesn't see a basis for this. if it happens, and some are expecting it to happen, the president is ready to take the argument to the country, and this is a reason why the supreme court needs to be reshaped. how would do you that?

re-electing a democratic president. >> john harwood, thank you for the update. much more on obama bashing of ryan and romney later in the show. now let's turn to today's topsy turvy markets. car sales up, factory orders up, but stocks basically down all day and tanked on news that the fed thinks the economy might be stronger and there's no need for qe 3 or more bond buying. the market came up a bit at the end. dollar bond yields stronger. let's go to ron krzyzewski and jared levy, and, ron, we all obsess about every word of the fed. may i ask you, though, what about obama's speech? pretty nasty business bashing. he said businesses, all they want to do is make profits. we should raise taxes on rich people. what do investors? how do investors react when they hear the president come out with thosekins of statements?

did that influence the market today? >> larry, the market i think was influenced primarily by the fed, which i agree with you, was bullish. the rhetoric, the populous tone of the president i don't think is instilling confidence in the market. these problems are universal and to bash business or bash entrepreneurs, and i don't think it's helping the market one bit. >> people see he has a lead. he's leading in the polls, the election not until november, obviously. but he has a lead in the polls and here he is coming out with this. doesn't seem to have a plan of his own. nobody watching him wants to deal with his budget. a lot of tax hikes, bashing oil companies. and that's kind of been an issue to me, ron. we don't -- investor class thinks about the impact of the election on the stashgt holdings. >> i think instead of bashing, we should be looking at solving

problems. people refer to it as the fiscal clip, and not just bashing of business. that won't do any good, larry. >> why is the fed statement so bearish? they basically said the economy is improving, they don't have to buy anymore bonds. i regard that as bullish. >> if you look at the core of what he's saying, yeah, he feels good about the economy. improvement in several areas. i still am not comfortable calling it a trend. remember back in 2010, unemployment dropping, employment on the rise and 2010, added 400,000 jobs in june. getting your question. i think the issue is qe, obviously. you look at what happened to gold, the dollar. everything is banking on quantitative easing. the fed accounted for 60% of treasury bond trades in 2011. if that demand goes away, folks are wondering what's left?

can we survive on our own from here? >> that goes back to the whole question of obama, because that's an interesting point. this chap goodman writes a story in "the wall street journal", the last year, the fed bought 6% of the bonds. you would like to have lower deficits, limited government, but it doesn't look like the president will deliver on that on the other hand, ron, i guess i'm a contrarian today, maybe you are too. i like the fact that the dollar went up and gold went down, that opens up the door to more stock market buying in a decent economy. >> well, speaking of the economy, larry this market is like a hot air balloon, set to go up. but the ballast in this market still is the four things that have been around. housing, europe, oil, and fiscal policy. and i think that the -- impediment to this market going higher is going to be the focus on what happens, a combination

of the expiration of the bush tax cuts, plus mandatory discretionary spending cuts that have to occur in 2013, just shows a lack of leadership and that will weigh on this market. i guarantee you. >> boone pickens, the last word. he told me he thinks oil prices going up about $20. that's a little troubling, is it not? >> it is. it will certainly have an affect on the marketplace. the high price of oil i believe is driving other sales. people looking for more economical cars. the key is housing has not moved. quantitative easing has not helped housing. if we see the strong dollar that will create a problem and an uphill battle from multinational companies. they are now reporting less strong earnings if that dollar gets stronger. i can't get really bullish. >> long term, it's good these things are occurring.

long term, and a little pain. >> are you so right. especially a strong dollar. >> jared, so wrong. a strong dollar will hold down inflation and oil prices and will get people to invest in the united states. we will discuss my ten commandments later in the show. ron, great to see you again. and jared, as always. next up on "kudlow" paul ryan responds to president obama's vicious attack. i'm calling it a vicious attack and don't forget, folks, free market capitalism, the best path to prosperity. even the president seems to agree. take a listen to this hard to believe. >> i believe deeply that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. >> you know, if only i believed that. and the whole rest of his speech did not agree with that. he wants to be all things to all people. who am i to say. i'll just kudlow. back right after this [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now.

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the obama administration said today it will cut the time it takes to get drilling permits on public land by up to 80%. american petroleum institute says you sounds promising, but

additional reforms are needed. this as boone pickens says we might see a $20 rise by summer. will we see high taxes, more regulation? may the president should take a page from governor romney's energy playbook if he wants to get it right. >> if we going to have energy policy in america that keeps us beholden to the cartel in the oil world, we will have to have our own resources and if i'm president of the united states, rather than saying no to oil and gas, and coal. and also no to the pipeline from canada, i had say yes to those and get america's energy secure. >> joining me now, legendary oil man boone pickens, welcome back to "the kudlow report," sir. >> thanks, larry. >> regarding world oil prices and so forth, do you think the saudis have enough spare capacity to cover the shortfall from the iranian oil embargo and

sanctions? can the saudis do it? >> it's tight now and that's why you have brandt nocy, $126. global supply is tight. i don't think they can cover if they do, they'll cover it out of storage. >> what will we do if the embargo goes into place fully? what happens to oil prices? >> they go up. the only way you can control demand is supply is capped is by raising the price. the price of oil will go this up summer. >> how much is up, boone? >> i don't know how much is up, but i think you can very well see the old high, $148. >> wow, that is going to raise gasoline prices quite a bit? >> i'm not saying wti, our price here in the united states will go up to $148. it's been very stable around

$100, but, larry, the united states has the cheapest energy in the world. we had the cheapest oil by 20%s. and we have the cheapest natural gas by 80%. and we have gasoline at $4, europe at $9. i don't know. i don't understand why people are complaining. >> i had say this. i am baffled by president obama out there on the campaign trail, beating up on oil and gas companies. he wants to tax them by some accounts, $80 billion over the next ten years. he won't sign off on keystone. what do you make of that, boone? i don't think this will be helpful. >> bill gates made a great speech at the "wall street journal" ecoconference. and he was talking about five miracles, any two of them would save us. he left one out. that our oil gas industry has

developed horizontal drilling and fracking in the horizontal hole. we have gone on page two in natural gas drilling to number one. all of that because of our industry. i can't believe the president is jumping on the industry and keeps talking about all of these subsidies. her in identifies what they are. >> boone, in the paper today, there is another story. the department of the interior is putting a five-year moratorium on offshore drilling off virginia, and the atlantic coast. they were promised leases in virginia last year, didn't happen. now off the table for five years. that's another example of putting the handcuffs on our development. >> absolutely. and you know we had the natural gas act was ready to go on that transportation bill. the amendment, the natural gas act, and we wanted 51.47, but we had to have 60 votes and we

couldn't get the two senators from texas and one of the senators from oklahoma to vote for it, and it's a bill that is absolutely in favor of the united states, and especially texas and oklahoma. good for them. >> last question. will we get natural gas into the 18-wheelers as you put it? >> it's going to it now. nevada i star, a leader, cummings, a leader. they are all looking at it, and it's simple. you save $1.50 to $2 a gallon for fuel. they are going to go to it. fred smith had a great speech with fedex. looking at it closely. at&t. been into it for two years. when you have those kind of leaders, telling you that's what they are going to do. considering it seriously. it's going to happen. i promise you it will happen. >> boone pickens, thank you for sharing views. we appreciate it as always. >> thank you, larry. all right. now my pal jimmy cramer been

thinking about energy and the president and the republicans today, and he says both sides are totally wrong for different reasons. really? he has a solution, so let's hear him out. >> hey, larry. it's not drill, baby, drill. it's use, baby, use. we've got a phenomenal disconnect between what the political parties are saying about oil and gas reserves and what the reality may be. when i hear president obama talking about energy, he always mentioned we can't solve the problem of high gasoline prices by drilling for oil in the country. he is saying we can only hope long term, through conservation, solar, win and other renewables we can bring down the cost of energy. when i hear republicans talk, they put it squarely on the unwillingness for drilling on federal lands. we would somehow induce pricing to come down enough, well, let's just say they believe there is enough oil there to affect pricing, both sides are totally wrong. the president's wrong when he says we can't bring down the price of oil short-term, because we could we just need to use

more natural gas as an alternative for cars, sur vase fulds. for trucks, the most natural gas in the world. cheap. it can offset pricey diesel, currently preferred fuel for trucks, a quarter of all oil inputs. any incentives would bring down the price of oil within a year or two. the republicans are totally wrong about how much oil is in the country. federal lands are not bountiful reserbs. not even the arctic national wild life reserve. the biggest finds on private land anyway. th they can make us less depend on the oil from companies we count on, but nobody believes federal land drilling is even important to the equation. that's politics. what is important, a straight-out endorsement by either party of natural gas as our preferred bridge fuel. its abundance is unkwenl as we frn the rock-bottom price of the fuel. we have the technology to use

it. if we don't, we will use it to other countries, we will export it. it is cleaner and cheaper than oil. yet both parties set up oil at the fulcrum of the debate. u.s. a completely false dichotomy, larry. embraced in diametrically exposed camps and skews our main chance for energy independence. i think the party that gets it right could win the white house, especially when job creation are invowing. it's lost in a tidal wave of obfuscation and ignorance on either side of the aisle. back to you. general electric, game up. does obama's vicious attack on the gop set off a clear battle of entitlement state versus free enterprise. up next, robert rice and senator ron johnson, republican of wisconsin.

i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event.

i just want to confirm a few things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savings how would you sum it up? big in your own words, with respect to selection, what would you say? big okay, let's talk rebates mike, they're big they're big get $100 rebate, plus the low price tire guarantee during the big tire event. so, in other words, we can agree that ford's tire event is a good size? big big for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years.

are. welcome back to "the kudlow report" the president's astack begs the question whether this november's election is being set up as a big government entitlement state versus a free market opportunity society. it may be that simple. joining us now is cnbc contributor robert rice. author of "aftershock" and

republican senator budget committee member ron johnson. obama sounds like the new deal great society xwiltsment guy and mitt romney, on the other hand, private market, free enterprise opportunity guy is in the way it will work in the full? >> i think so. i think it's a very clear choice in terms of the path that president obama has taken this country on, which really is about government control, growing government which has been growing, and our deficits growing at unsustainable level and the path we would take. the path of prosperity, lower government, more reliance on the private sector. get debt and deficit under control. a clear and stark choice. and by the way, president obama will dig his heels in, try and salvage obama care. we want to make sure it's repealed or defunded and the implementation of obama care stock. >> you think president obama is making a mistake, laying this

out the way he is. don't you think people know it's not the 30s, not the 60s, the government is not working. in fact, the government is going bankrupt. don't you think people know that? >> a lot of people also worry that big corporations and wall street are not constrained any longer, and that if there is not a government interceding for average working people that people are going to see their wages continually decline, their benefits shrink, and also find themes without jobs. i think what the president is doing is framing the issue, not so much as big government versus small government, but really the question is do you want a government that is on your side, or do you want a government that is controlled by some forces, you know, big business and wall street, that are beyond your control otherwise? >> interesting what bob rice is saying. i think people don't really believe that government has the solutions anymore, and i don't think they believe this 99%

versus 1%. which is what president obama is really selling. do they? >> well, larry, secretary rice says that business is unrestrained. the cost of regulation is 1.$1. trillion and that was in 2008. and since that point in time, we've add 11,000 new rules and regulations. let's face it. the reason obama care so unpopular, american public simply doesn't believe you can add 25 million americans onto government shurinsurance and nod one dime to our deficit. they don't have any capability of taking over one-sixth of our economy. and secretary rice is simply wrong. let's face it. business is overregulated, not underregulated. >> do you have it wrong? >> do i? is that the question? do i have it wrong? let me say, larry. i don't think i have it wrong. but the speech today was interesting in that the

president anticipating the results of the republican primaries today actually did kick off the 2012 campaign, and he linked mitt romney to the republican budget, to paul ryan's budget which according to the president, the most radical, right-wing budget we've seen that embodies the doctrine of trickle down economics when we see that doesn't work. >> senator johnson, this -- do you agree with what rice said? i'm interested in this debate. will we debate supply side tax cuts? the 1980s and 19 # 99 # 990s, p clinton cut the capital gains. the '80s and '90s were so prosperous, obama would die for it. he seems to be attacking the very model of the economy with incentives galore that worked so well. this could be a trap for obama. >> larry, even bill clinton said

that the era of big government is over. ronald reagan dedicated to reducing government's intrusion into your lives. president obama complaining about the house budget. his budget last year lost in the united states senate 0 to 97 and last week, his new budget lost 0 to 414. that is a stunning repudiation of his leadership. what it really shows is an utter lack of leadership. he hasn't been running this country since november 2010, the day he started his re-election efforts. america hungers for leadership. this country is not provided with leadership. >> we heard a lot of slogans in the speech. thank you. food luck in wisconsin tonight. coming up, yes, the president viciously attacked paul ryan's budget, and paul ryan live, coming up later in the show. please stay with us. he'll respond to all of these

charges. social darwinism. i'm not even sure what that means. we'll break it down for you. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ so why exactly should that be of any interest to you? well, in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. like the transatlantic cable that connected continents. and the panama canal that made our world a smaller place.

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all this week, we're exploring my ten commandments

for economic growth. last night, we tackled thou shall not regulate and thou shall seek lower taxes. and now bolster king dollar. let's get to that. joining me now, great friend of the show, dean baker, codirector of the center of economic and policy research. dean, i know you don't agree, but the u.s. experience, we had a collapse of the dollar in 1970s, the inflation roared and the economy sunk. we had a collapse of the dollar in 2007. housing bubble occurred. keep king dollar strong. >> i take issue with your history. back to the mid '80s, a rubup of king dollar, the trade deficit went soaring. trade deficit down. the basic story. you want a big trade deficit, the two will go together. you want king dollar.

not good policy, larry. >> i never bought into that trade deficit. >> it's divisional. >> i never bought into the divisional. it dropped for about 15 years under regan and clinton. by the way, the most prosperous. >> come on, larry. the budget deficit went through the roof on reagan. >> as a share of gdp, once he got through the recession. the budget deficit. >> once he put it through the roof, it went down. >> i want to make the case, the king dollar under reagan continued under bill clinton. >> larry, if you have the king dollar, that means it affects borrowing from tabroad to get cheaper imports. at some point you run up your credit card, you get in trouble. we all have the same arithmetic. >> the purchasing power of the dollar goes up. you don't want to emulate countries like zimbabwe or

argentina. >> but you are, larry. >> let me make my case. every time we depreciate the dollar, inflation ensues, interest rates go sky high. >> that's because we stop borrowing. >> and that wrecks the economy. u.s. a basic fundamental monetary value. foreigners, talk about trade flows. investment flows will leave the country with the weakest currency. >> the investment flows are not building our economy. look at it through history. when did we have -- a strong dollar in the late '90s, led to a stock bubble. the dollar didn't start to come down to '01, '02. didn't come down far enough. the trade deficit is very directly related to the dollar. simple arithmetic. all imports 20% cheaper. exports 20% more expensive. >> the best part of the story, when the dollar goes up, gold price goes down. the stock market goes up, and very healthy for mechanic growth and investment. i think you have the whole story

wrong. this trade deficit stuff, dean baker, not wor the paper it's printed on. >> that's arithmetic. i don't know how you get around that. we're selling less than we are buying. >> people investing the dollars back into the united states. come in and invest here, because they have confidence in our currency. so we actually -- we get the best of both worlds. >> taking advantage of higher interest rates. we had very high interest rates -- >> i don't want to us be argentina or the myanmar republic, mexico or brazil. >> argentina is a great rogue. they have low currency. >> we will agree to disagree. sorry, buddy. coming up, the president viciously attacks paul ryan's budget. paul ryan here to respond. and then we have the wisconsin

primary. steve forbes, robert kosta, and i wonder if he's auditioning to be vice president for mitt romney. ♪ ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. we have two car insurances that we're going to have you taste. the first one we're going to call x. go ahead and take a sip, and then let me know what the baby thinks of it.

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back to our top story. president obama's vicious attack of paul ryan's budget proposal. joining us from milwaukee is paul ryan. this is great stuff. thank you. let me begin with this. i'm not sure i even understand what social darwinism is. i remember the trojan horse from my greek mythology. but somehow he was pretty nais nasty to you and what is your first reaction to the attack? >> well, it's kind of like groundhog day, larry, only april. we've heard this before. he did this to us last year, virtually non of the claims he makes about the budget are actually true. unfortunately, larry, we've come to expect this from the president. fairly common for him these days. he's dissorting the truth. dividing the country and becoming more bitter and partisan by the day. frankly, it's kind of sad to see. i think his office is bigger than this. if you look at the tone of his

speech, the substance of his budget, beneath the office he occupies. what we're getting here is not solutions, we're getting demagoguery, desperation, partisan attacks from a campaigner in chief. not solutions from a leader who sees a debt crisis coming, we're the one who's are actually proposing a fix to prevent the debt crisis. he's not and therefore, he's attacking us. and that's not leadership. >> let me go through. he got pretty specific in the speech and is saying the ryan budget, okay, going to end research and development. going to end infrastructure. prescription drugs will going to decline. you won't be able to forecast the weather any more. you won't be able to know about hurricanes, won't have education, training. he didn't throw you off the cliff. last year, he had you pushing the granny off the cliff. i want to get to health care. education, training, research and development, infrastructure, weather, hurricanes, everything but the washington monument.

what's your response to that? >> he threw parks in there as well, actually. so you could say the washington monument is in there. this is surreal. really bizarre. he has to put this saujs to make all those claims not an assumption in our budget. they are literally making this up. what he's trying to do, he's not offering solutions, so he has to distract the country, divide the country, and attack those offering solutions. his only chance left to try and win re-election, and he's resorting to very sophomore tactics, and it's very unbecoming, the presidency of the united states if you ask me. >> on top of all that you destroy medicare with what he calls vouchers, you call it premium supports. you will destroy medicaid. you are going to prevent people from getting emergency care. people are going to die. college students won't get to go to school. in other words, at what what point does this stuff become so ridiculous, or do you think the public actually buys into this,

and his label of you as an extremist will stick? >> you know, i think now is where it's beyond the pale of ridiculousness. we're keeping programming levels where they are we're having this massive funding increase. we saved medicare. we don't have a board that is unaccountable that he puts in charge of rationing the program. along the lines, democrats and republicans have been talking about since the early 1990s. we have solutions in a bipartisan origin. not part of that consensus, so i think what we're getting is a desperate political attack. so beyond the pale, it doesn't even make sense going through point by point. go read our budget yourself, and go to budget.house.gov. read it yourself, we wrote it in an easy to read, digestible format, and judge for yourself if our budget does these crazy things that he's saying. i get out of this, a desperate

move. if you go with the republicans, they'll feed to you the wolves, it will be dog eat dog society. it's a false choice. it's for a lack of leadership that it's taking place. and i don't think people will buy it. >> and he says basically all you want to do, you and your pal mitt romney, all you want to do is cut taxes for rich people. but he praises the simpson-bowles. doesn't this put in moderate tax rates across the board? and isn't obama fabricating this case? >> correct. more importantly, he's right he did create simpson-bowles, but then he disavowed it. our tax reform plan goes in the same exact direction which is broaden the base, lower the rates. get rid of loopholes and tax shelters so you can lower

everybody's tax rates. our tax is 25%, simpson-bowles had the individual tax rate as low as 23% in one of their proposals. we are actually including the simpson-bowles kind of structure in our plan, the very one he's using to divide based on class. playing class politics. so disjounted. i don't even know how to describe all of this stuff. he's getting desperate and demagoguic. and i think it's what we can expect from the campaign this fall. >> do you believe the president understand the magnitude of the fiscal crisis you call it the debt bond, the entitlement bond. any clue of that? any evidence of that? >> i just don't know the answer to that question, larry. i would like to think he does. but he's not doing anything to fix it. he's given us four budgets, $4 trillion deficits. budgets that do nothing to

address the ticking time bombs, the fiscal crisis. by his actions, he's telling us he doesn't see this coming, he doesn't understand this. i talked to treasury secretary and his own people. they seem to understand there is a cliff coming, but not willing to do anything about it. which is just strange to me. that's why we need a leader. i'm here campaigning with mitt romney. we need somebody in the house that will actually see the problem for what it is and get this debt under control before it gets out of our control and that's why i'm saying we need a new president. >> all right. we'll leave it there. paul ryan, budget chair, defendant in today's trial. spoke well for himself. thank you very much. at romney head quarters in milwaukee, wisconsin, and up next, primary night in wisconsin. primaries in maryland, washington, d.c., 92 delegates are at stake. just minutes to go. will this be a tipping point for romney to wrap up the race tonight? maybe not, but he'll be well on his way. your money, your vote, coming up next. need any help?

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all right. primary night. could be a tipping point for gop race for president. all told, nearly 100 winner take all delegates up for grabs. three states, wisconsin, maryland, and washington, d.c., paul ryan campaigning alongside mitt romney in recent days. we just had paul on, defending himself against obama's budget charges. i want to know if this is a vice presidential preview, not on our show. campaigning with mitt romney.

let's talk. veteran democratic strategist bob strum, robert costas a quickie, bob costas, too delicious not to ask. romney and ryan campaigning. is this a vice presidential preview? >> looks like a pretty good pair on the trail. sounded like a vice presidential contender right there. brings the upper midwest. catholic, youthful. connections in washington. budget chair would be smart pick for mitt romney, if he's worried about rob portman's bush connectionses. >> steve forbes, don't know if you heard any of the paul ryan interview. surely you know the obama attack today. i want to ask you, do you believe mitt romney is the right guy to stand up to the obama attack? you're radical this, radical that, throw people out of work and kill the economy and cutting taxes for rich people. is romney the right guy to make

the free enterprise case against obama? >> well, we'll see. plenty of practice in the primaries, and he's had hints of it in defending capitalism, but the key thing, larry, is consistency. hammering home tax cuts that he's proposing, getting the real proposal on free markets and health care, especially if you should be prepared, the supreme court throws this thing out in june, what do you replace it with? and the spending side he's got right. the key thing is he portrays confidence, has those specific proposals. >> he's on the trail with paul ryan. what more do you need to know? >> the fact of the matter is, he's with paul ryan now. will he do it when paul ryan is not around him. the primaries have made romney a better candidate. he has to show he can stand up and meet these attacks and go the way reagan did with optimistic proposal. >> let me bring in, strummy, i want to ask this. you won't like this and certainly you won't agree. i think obama is stepping into a big trap.

he becomes the great society liberal entitlement state guy. he wants to raise taxes in order to support bigger government. he says to people, republicans will close down the washington monument. that argument might have worked 30, 40 years ago. i don't think it will work at all, strummy. >> it worked in the 1990s, and if you listen to paul ryan, i won't refute the president point by point. he has to refute the president point by point. the president will keep after this. the budget does end medicare as we know it. it replaces medicare way vouchir. one thing i'll tell you for sure. romney is not picking ryan as vice president. because as mr. etch-a-sketch begins to change himself, he tries to get above one-fifth hispanic, and he won't pick someone as a poison pill politically that a lot of republicans wish he never

introduced. >> i keep looking at these speeches, not only election night speeches he just gave a speech at lawrence university in appleton, wisconsin. it is so free enterprise, so moral defense of success, so opposed to obama. i can't believe he is going to etch-a-sketch away from that. and etch-a-sketch, he won't oblige strummy or the democrats. it's still -- >> i wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. >> democrats are still the party of entitlements and tax expense. >> no fairness. we're the party of fairness. >> i love fairness. fair science a code word for tax and spend for you. >> fairness in the real world is the opportunity to get ahead. and clearly president obama's policies have failed that and coming across as someone who is angry, lashing out, not the kind of reaganesque optimistic vision or clintonesque vision that people like in a president. that tone will hurt him. and if romney can keep an optimistic tone with the substance on things like

simplifying the tax code. cutting tax rates across the board, people will say why not? take a chance with him. this other guy hasn't done it. >> what else -- bob, hang on have you this ed lazear article. worst recovery in history. there is so much truth in that. the reality is unemployment is still high and real incomes not doing well. there is an xwimt for oindictme obama. but can romney be the prosecutor, bob? >> the question, not taking obama's bait. can't box into the corner, he has to continue with those themes he's been articulating in speech. talk about the growth agenda and not be put in the box of responding to obama's speeches. >> growth is inadequate. growth. growth. growth. bill clinton, closest democrats have had to a growth guy. bill strum, are you part of the entitlement wing of the democratic party. >> part of the wing of the

democratic party. agree with steve, fairness means opportunity. it also means a safety net. you guys are whistling in the wind. >> robert kosta and steve forbes, won't be the first time i've whistled in the wind. polls in maryland and columbia. in a minute, we'll bring you live coverage when we come right back. i'm whistling in the wind for free enterprise economic growth. that's the winner for investors. what the world wants to know and share is here.

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