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tv   Parker Spitzer  CNN  November 10, 2010 8:00pm-9:00pm EST

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it even less healthy, you could put in an amex card, what child doesn't love a dollar, throw that in, maybe they could throw in a picture of my daughter and maybe a wrapped cd, whatever they want. >> pete, that box is like the circus, how many clowns can you fit in a volkswagen. that's all from us, we hope you're here tomorrow, parker spitzer starts right now. >> welcome to the program. another outstanding show tonight. among the stories we're covering, a moving one about the medal of honor. the military's highest award and kathleen for the first time since the vietnam war, a living soldier will receive it, tonight we meat him in person. also growing anger between america and israel, a sharp exchange between president obama and prime minister net tanyahne.
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>> every night in this show we have been challenging our guests to name your cuts. help us find solutions to the county tries greatest threat. president obama's debt plan -- it does provide us with insight into their thinking. >> i'm excited, but guess what, this has been your obsession since the show began, so at a great personal sacrifice, i'm going to toss this to you. >> kathleen, obsession is a strong word, but this is in fact what matters for our fiscal future. so let's get a couple things straight, yes, they're going to raise the retirement age for social security and slow the increase in the rate of payments, do some things with medicaid and medicare. but they're also going to raise taxes. let's bring in jeb hence ssarli.
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i want to start with a constitutional amendment that you're proposing that would limit the federal budget to 20% of the gdp. the current economy is about $14.5 trillion so you do the simple past, 20% of that would be about $2.9 trillion and then you look at the size of our federal budget which is about 3$3.8 trillion, so we have got o cut about $900 billion out of that $3.8 trillion about 24% or 25% to come down where you my we should be. is my mathematics right here? >> i have no idea because i don't have the benefit of seeing your screen. but the federal government since world war ii has spent 20% of our economy, that's the post war
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average. but right over current law, over the next course of the generati generation, my children are going to see government double to 40% of our economy. >> so what we need to figure out is how we're going to cut about $900 billion to a trillion dollars out of this buchlgt adgi want to ask you some questions. >> let's get started if i could. >> i want to go through category by category so the public can understand where we are. $2.3 trillion of this 3.8 is in a couple of areas, social security, medicare, medicaid, interest on the debt and defense spending, we can agree on that, i presume, that's straight out of the federal budget. are you willing to cut social security 25% this year? >> oh, absolutely not. and, again, eliot, you know that you don't have to cut one penny out of these programs, what you do have to do is make sure they don't grow faster than the
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economy's ability to pay for them. we can't have social security, medicare and medicaid grow at 5%, 6% and 7% and the economy grow at 1.5%. you just can't do it. >> congressman, i'm just trying to -- >> when you say cut, cut is misleading, you have to bend the growth curve so they don't grow as fast. not one penny of these programs is cut. >> congressman, i'm trying to apply your constitutional amendment which set a firm cap on spending and i'm trying to apply it to this year's budget so the public can understand it. you have just said you're not cutting social security, if i heard you right. >> right, i have put -- >> did i hear you right? >> i have co-sponsored a plan along with paul wright, you can read it on the internet, road map for america's future. what i'm trying to do here and i wish we would adopt this constitutional amendment because
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it would hasten the opportunity to reform programs that have been important to my parents and grand parents but will bankrupt my children. >> i want to ask you a simple question, sir, you said you would not cut a penny from social security, did i hear you light? >> yes, you don't have to. you don't have to cut to save the programs. >> will you cut defense by 25% this year? >> i will look for savings in the defense department, i'm willing to look at savings everywhere. the program i put on the table though does not quote unquote cut. but what it does do is it saves our children having from to have their taxes almost bubbled where we know that they will look at a future of living in smaller tomes, competing for fewer jobs and shrinking paychecks and losing the american dream. eliot, you've got to own the other side of this equation, and that is own up to the tax increases that are necessary. if we don't contain spending to
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its historic norms. and congress is more than doubling taxes on our children and grandchildren. >> i agree with you both about how you articulate extend telling bush tax cuts, i'm just trying to understand why your constitutional amendment requires cutting a trillion dollars and i have just gone through the programs that are a majority of the budget and you're not willing to cut anything. so where will you cut $1 trillion out of this year's budget? >> i put out a plan in may along with paul ryan that frankly cuts a trillion and a half, we start out by rolling back -- it's on the internet, you can find it. we want to roll back our discretionary spending to the prebailout levels, the prestimulus levels. we freeze government hiring, we put out an entire plan. >> with all do respect, that doesn't come with an anything close to the trillion dollars. you know that as well as i do.
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total discretionary spending is several hundred billion dollars, you roll it back to the '08 levels, that's small numbers compared to the trillion dollars your amendment requires us to cut. where will you cut? >> i don't have your numbers at any finger tips. >> you have a degree in economics, correct? >> yeah, i recall that and again i put out a plan that will save a trillion and a half dollars. >> no, sir, it won't, if you're not willing -- >> according to the federal budget office it does. maybe you know something that they don't. >> not in this year's budget, sir. >> i just said -- >> you said the budget window, you're opening a big window. >> what i said was in the ten-year budget -- listen, i'm happy to be invited to your show, but if you would let me speak, i said the 10-year budget window would save a trillion and a half dollars. ultimately members of congress
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have to make painful decisions about how do we restrain the growth of government? and if you're saying today can you give us the plan, i'm not sure i can give you the plan, i can give you a plan, a plan is a road map for america but i'm trying to force congress into making tough decisions. should there be a limit on the size of government and should it be enshrined into the constitution. >> you have said you will save 1 plus trillion over ten years. but let's get into social security. >> are you ready to cut social security 22% for the next generation? because that's what current law says, and if you don't put forth a plan, that's what you're defending. >> what i'm saying is increase the retirement age, and are you for increasing the retirement age for everybody under the age of 55? >> i'm willing to put everything on the table including increasing the retirement age on a gradual basis for those under 55. >> i'm not talking about putting
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it on the table, i'm saying you are for it. >> as part of a plan to save social security for future generations, absolutely the answer is yes. i'm willing to do a whole lot of things, but are you willing to support personal accounts that ultimately uses what albert einstein called the greatest -- compound interest to help grow our way out of this problem. because ultimately you're going to be looking at benefit cuts, you're going to be look at greater taxes or you're going to have to grow our await of this. >> congressman, i have said for years, compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world, but no i do not believe in private advertising social security, it's wrong, it's bad policy and it would increase the deficit. >> as long as you keep the government -- >> congressman, it would increase the deficit in the next
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decade by over a trillion dollars because all that money that would have gone into social security won't be there, and it would increase the deficit by a trillion dollars. is that correct? >> and over the 75-year budget window. for our children and grandchildren, the question is that something we're willing to accept or is this a matter of
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solving a national problem or exploiting it? >> congressman, thank you, we hope you will come back. >> thank you. it's very bittersweet, i mean it's such a huge honor, it's a great thing. by it is a great thing that has come out of personal loss to myself and so many other families. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus. i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas
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conservative congressman and budget director for president reagan, truth teller and to many women in their party a heretic. he has been perhaps the loan conservative republican for the last 25 years to say the theology of tax cuts without spending cuts would lead to exploding deficits. when he said this to the reagan administration, he was take on the the woodshed. today he continues to be outspoken. david, thank you for being here, and thank you for being so outspoken, it's good for the nation and good for tv. the immediate issue facing us the extension of the bush tax cuts. should congress extend them and if it does, does it have to make equal and offsetting cuts in
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spending. >> i think they we cannot afford them, they shouldn't have been enacted in 2001 and 2003. it's $300 billion a year of revenue that we desperately need, $3 trillion over a decade. therefore we have to level with the public and tell them that the revenue that we're going to need to pay for government unfortunately is going to come out of their pockets. for 30 years, both parties have been telling the public that we could have this massive government, 24% of gdp, all these programs, we could be an imperial power policing the world and we don't have to raise the tax revenue. >> even if the tax cuts were permitted to expire, wouldn't we need to cut the federal government somewhere? >> absolutely. >> where would you do that? >> i think we have to cut across the board, but i will start with defense. we have experimented for the last two decades of trying to police the world it's a much different world than we had in the cold war, it's been largely
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a failure and we have built up an $800 billion homeland security and defense establishment for a world that we cannot -- >> you're talking about specifically about afghanistan? >> i'm talking about afghanistan and iraq, i'm talking about the kind of imperialist pretensions that led to pre-emption that led to nation building, that led to us getting involved in the two worst places in the world you could get involved. >> i just want to remind folks who are listening, you're a conservative republican. let's come back to the excitement programs, social security, what would you do with social security? >> unfortunately, it needs to be means tested. in other words it's a $700 billion a year budget. you're going to have to have your benefits means tested. >> explain that what means. >> that means well look at your
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private assets, your private income and if they're above $50,000 a year of private income, we're going to have a ratcheting back of your social security check as a contribution to solving this problem. >> what would you do to medicare to control spending? >> there's two things, the means test needs to be extended to the medicare side in terms of the premiums they pay for part be. n we need to take on the sick care cartel, the doctors, the hospitals, the pharmaceutical companies, the scooter chair manufacturers all of whom live off this program and control it and reimbursements are not efficient and there's an enormous amount that needs to be done to cut that back. it would be very tough politically because these organizations more or less own the program and have made massive contributions to both republicans and democrats. >> now let's drill down for a
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moment on what has been proposed, if anything by the tea party and some of the newly elected republicans. have they arctticulated with specificity these types of cuts? >> no, i don't believe they have. i think there's good intention, but they're naive. the two things they're naive about is they don't understand the terrible legacy of 30 years of the republican party waiving the white flag of surrender on spending. as a result of that, there's too many people in both houses, committed to farm subsidies or -- as a result of that they're going to be surprised about how little there is left on the table that they can go after. the second thing is they have a wrong view of the fraud waste and abuse issue. they keep talking about earmarks. i believe that's a very bad practice, but, you know, if $8 billion a year, it is basically 15 hours of federal spending
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annually. if we got rid of all the earmarks. >> earmarks don't even show up on the balance sheet. >> that's right. >> let's switch gears for a moment, you have written that really only what will bring us back is an economy that begins to churn and know the dine missile of the fact. >> this is the most dangerous, reckless policy that we have had in the last 50 years. what the fed is doing with the qe2 and bond buying is really borderline lunacy and it's true from both that progressive and a conservative point of view. as a conservative, i'm opposed to money printing, i'm opposed to mon advertising the death. i'm opposed to the idea that we can simply inject this monetary
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heroism into the economy and expect to it grow. >> fiscal policy is not on the table cause congress won't spend anymore and they shouldn't. what do you do in that case to begin to drive this engine of our economy? >> the first thing, we have to recognize the 30-year debt bing and it's going to be a long slog and haul to work our way out from under it. second we have to let markets clear, all this this meddling in the housing and financial market is helping no one. third we have to recognize that this is a $14.5 trillion economy in an open world and it can't be macromanaged by the fed or by the budget. and we need to basically step back, let the economy heal itself and get our own financial house in order, which means the fed's job is to stabilize the value of the dollar and avoid this dissent, where we're going and the government needs to get his budget in balance or we're going to end up having china own
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the country. >> which they may already do. >> let's circle back then to two years ago. because if i hear you properly, you do not believe that the bailouts of the banks was handled properly? >> i think that was the waterloo, i think that was almost the point of no return. it was a terrible policy. >> what would you have done differently? we should have basically allowed whatever banks we have allowed to go down, if goldman-sachs had gone down, it will go down. i don't think the country would be worse off today if several of the banks had to go into receivership, we could have done that because that's why the fdic was set up and the taxpayer -- it was an urban legend that was fostered by panicky people on wall street including the bush and paulson in particular who said the next day the atm machines aren't going to open. that was never remotely possible and we ended up doing something,
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bailing out wall street that will make fiscal governance almost impossible for a decade to come. >> david we will have to continue this some other time. i think everybody now can see why you were viewed by some as a heretic and also by many more as the truth teller. david stockton, thank you for joining us. is israel going to ask permission to launch a military strike against iran? >> at the permission of the government of israel is that all options should remain on the table and we hope that those options will be made credible in the eyes of iranian leaders that they know that we're serious. hi really save you 15% or more car insurance?
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israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has dismissed a warning by president obama regarding more settlements in east jerusalem. earlier we sat down with israel's ambassador to washington michael orren. >> there's been settlements that
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have been inopportunely announced and moved forward designed to destroy the peace process. when vice president biden was in israel, the 60-day settlement freeze was permitted to expire and then third right at the moment when people and the secretary of state is trying to bring things back together, another 1,000 settlements in east jerusalem are announced. why does the federal government not recognize that the timing of these announcements has been horrendous and it's nothing more than an effort to throw a monkey wrench into these peace talks. >> jerusalem has no settlements, it has arab neighborhoods and -- we're talking about jewish neighborhoods in jerusalem where there are various houses or units being built.
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these are part of the united capital of the city of jerusalem and a cap set at the state of israel and these are neighborhood that have long been understood both by the united states and by israel and by the palestinians that will remain part of israel. in any peace settlement. regarding the settlements in the west bank, the israeli government committed to a one-time 10-month moratorium to get the palestinians back to the negotiables table. and they didn't come to the negotiating table. they squandered that 10-month period, it's like a football game, the players are on the clock down to until the last minute and then they ask for overtime. they didn't utilize that period. and even then, the israeli government has committed not to build any new settlements, not to expand the settlements in a way that would impact any peace map, not to even incentivize israelis to move to these set e
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settleme settlements. >> let me ask one follow-up, because as somebody who has been aloud and fervent supporter and justified settlements when it was tough to do so, there gets to be a point in the negotiating process where the israeli government has to show the world we will do anything and everything not to be the ones who can be blamed for foiling the next step. why could the israeli government and prime minister netanyahu say we will not announce this and put it on ice for the next few months. >> it would be the equivalent of millions of americans saying they cannot build an extra room into their house if they have children born, they can't build a nursery school or a hospital. you can't do that in a state, it's not fair to nib. and we don't say to the plains, listen, you have to prove to us that you're willing to do peace, we don't say to them that you
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have hamas ruling half of the palestinian people, why don't you get your house in order first before you sit down and negotiate with us. we don't say to them that you have to stop naming squares in downtown ramallah after terrorists. and praising him as a graeat martyr, we don't say you have to stop all that or we won't talk to you. everything's on the table, but come and talk to us. >> ambassador you are correct in all those points but what we all know is that when you then announce settlements, that becomes the entire conversation, so why not just say stop zplit or why not change the nature of the conversation, if palestinians understand that they can't end unthe peace process, that there is no alternative to sit down and talk with us and reach a negotiation
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with us bilaterally face to face, and now another low them -- not a peace process but an excuse for an exit. then we can move forward, i believe. >> i just want to ask, can't you see how it looks to americans that knowing how important these settlements were to obama, to president obama in this process and at this particular moment, that it looks like there's more -- more loyalty to radicals within israel than to the peace process and it seems to sort of undermine president obama's place in this process, no? >> primary netanyahu made this moratorium for ten months. also out of respect to president obama's position. and once again, the palestinians did not avail themselves of that opportunity. the prime minister has
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undertaken also to inform the administration about building protects in jerusalem and we have undertaken to do that and we're trying to uphold that. this is a living city of close to a million people. and there are many, many building projects at any given time. but jerusalem was never part of the moratorium and that was understood by the palestinians, it was understood by the administration. and again we're waiting for the palestinians to join us at the table. >> and there's so many issues that are equally important. it has been said that the prime minister's office was not aware of the announcements that were forth copping either when vice president biden was in israel or the announcements today. had his off been aware of it, would he have asked them to stop? >> no. first of all the current announcement was made on october 20th, more than two weeks ago. it was published in the israeli papers. it was fully transparent and fully known. and the answer to your question is, there's no moratorium, no
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freeze in the city of jerusalem. jerusalem is the undivided capital of the state of israel, that is a policy that existed not under the current israeli government, but in every israeli government going back 43 years. and it hasn't changed. what has changed and this i think will be interesting for you to hear, what has changed under the current government is that the palestinians also have a -- palestinians are going to bring that position to the negotiates table, again, if the palestinian also come to the table. >> did the issue of iran, and this is an existential issue seems to be deterioratindeterio seem to be getting closer and closer to some decision point and with hillary clinton and prime minister netanyahu that is scheduled to take place very shortly, is israel going to ask
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permission to launch a military strike against iran should they move forward with their capacity to create a nuclear weapon? >> as a position of the government of israel as is the position of the government of the united states is that all options will be on the table and those options will be made credible. >> lets parse that word, those options will be made credible, what do you mean? >> we would like thor rainian regime to understand that these options are real and that the sanctions, you know, there's no getting around the resolution of the united states and of the like minded countries in the world to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. >> thank you ambassador michael orrin for joining us. >> seriously, regardless of whether we disagree with her or agree with her, the reality is if you're the leader and you
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end of world war i which ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918. >> an exclusive report on the firefight that resulted in the first medal of honor recipient since the vietnam war. >> the whole time frame maybe lasted anywhere between like two minutes, three minutes and five or six lifetimes. >> reporter: but in those two or three minutes, he went from a self described mediocre soldier to a hero. we have come to afghanistan to find the men that he naught with. many of them are here on this remote combat outpost. but their thoughts and memories are with sal and what happened that night. that october night, guinta was walking along the ridge line with several other members of his unit. >> we opened up into a small clearing.
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out of a lightly forested area. and single shot rang out. >> it was what the military calls an l-shaped ambush, spring by the taliban, which means taliban fighters are both in front of the men and to their side. >> there's not just one of them and it's not two of them, it's not ten of them, it's probably more than ten and they're really not that far away. >> actually watching the guy pulling the trigger who was aiming at you. >> it seemed like the world was exploding in bullets and rpgs and everything. just a bad situation. >> we looked and it was along our whole side. it was along our flank. >> reporter: every soldier that night was shot. >> i got shot running backwards. >> they started coming out of the trees and getting closer, i shoved over a berm on my back and got shot.
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>> reporter: he talked to his dad mike only a few days before. >> actually he had volunteer for that mission that day. >> josh brennan was down, severely wounded. sal guinta raced ahead into the taliban fire. >> he got one of the team leaders that was dragging my team leader away. recovered sergeant brennan, brought him back to an area where we could secure him and continue the fight. started the ate on him. according >> six hours later, josh brennan died, also killed that night was the medic, hugo mendoza of el paso, texas. it's that act of bravery that was above and beyond with sal guinta running into enemy fire
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and getting to josh to help save him. >> i think about it and it hurts. but to say it out loud makes it that much more real. and i feel like i have said it enough and i know it's real, but sometimes i can trick myself and just not think about it for a while. it's very bittersweet, i mean it's such a huge honor, it's a great thing, but it is a great thing that has come out of personal loss to myself and so many other families. >> reporter: and that is what you want people to know. >> absolutely. >> reporter: extraordinary and staff sergeant sal guinta would want you to know, parts of an extraordinary group of soldiers. >> thank you so much for that beautiful report, it was so lovely, well done. >> thank you, it's good to see both of you. >> good to see you too and welcome back safely, i wanted to ask you about the fact that this
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is the first living military personnel honored with the medal of honor since vietnam. why is that? >> well, it is just extraordinary and there's not a good answer right now. people will give you different answers, they'll say soldiers really aren't involved in this sort of hand to hand combat that would lead to this. they'll say that soldiers, the war is a little less personal right now, ieds, roadside bombs, but in fact it is all about close combat, as we saw on this ambush, not a good answer, it's something that secretary gates, the defense secretary talk about. >> it talked about the constitutional -- we don't have the conventional warfare anymore. but the rules for the award are unchanged. >> the rules are very strict, there has to be sworn testimony, there has to be eyewitnesses, there has to be very specific evidence that someone acted with
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great valor, courage, character, above and beyond the call. >> when you just hear the descriptions of all those what's coming right at him, every human instinct is to run back, he ran forward. >> this is a young man who just a couple of years ago was working the fast food circuit in the midwest, just out of high school, didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, joined the army, found himself in this place, that was so deadly it did become known as the valley of death on a terrible night, all the cliches are true, he ran to the sound of the guns, and has now stepped into american history next tuesday, president obama will present him with the medal of honor. >> you have been over there, what, nine, ten times, you have visited with the troops and feel for them and understand them as well as anybody can. he is a remarkable individual, but there's so many there who have that same instinct and step into the breach and what about
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them? >> this is it and they are generally men, young men involved in close combat, what makes a young soldier or marine able not to curl up in a c catatonic ball, to be organized, to think, to know what to do, to act appropriately and to do it with such valor, what makes a soldier able to do that? that's what results in a medal of honor. >> we appreciate all of them, happy veterans day. thanks for being with us and sharing the story. we'll be right back. >> he's grown into a power hungry life, who has the power to stop her? there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room, they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead.
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it is time for fun with politics. listen to these numbers kathleen, more numbers were spent and more commercials were spent by nancy pelosi than any other congressional leader. $65 million, let me repeat that, the gop spent $65 million to terminate the speaker's contract. they really must hate her. let's take a look at one of those ads. >> forged our taxpayer dollars, to find the will of the american people, who has the power to stop her? >> nancy pelosi had her fingerprints all over health
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care, and she was toxic in this election, the gop game was simple, it was to make every evehicleation local and -- in pennsylvania alone, they spent over $8 million to pay for 16,000 anti-pelosi ads. and it worked. when they added up the score in pennsylvania, five democrats in the white house went up to defeat. >> what is amassing is that democrats put a bull's-eye on her too. remember when ed rollins was on our show a cull ouple of weeks before the election, she said she told democrats run from me, i don't care, but just make sure you win the election. >> the long way from san francisco. and jim marshall is a long way from nancy pelosi. jim marshall doesn't support nancy pelosi, he voted the same
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as republican leaders 65% of the time. >> he ran as quick and as far as he could from nancy pelosi. but marshall lost anyway. i think pelosi is one tough cookie, she's picked herself up, dusted herself off and is running for minority leader in the senate. >> even the cartoonists are going after her now. >> all people wanted to say are the republicans. kind of reminds me how you're always building up sarah palin. >> oh, come on, we're not that devious. >> so we all have our favorites on either side. >> we'll be right back with our political party, stay right there. exchange traded funds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them.
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i'm joe johns, more of parker spitzer in a moment. the latest, a third and final day of riveting testimony from elizabeth smart, she described her accused kidnapper as crude, self-serving and a hypocrite. . in another high profile trial, an fbi biologist testified that a former u.s. congressman gary condit's semen
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was found on underwear of chandra levy. the evidence was found in levy's apartment after she disappeared in 2001. condit has admitted he had a close relationship with her but has refused to say whether he they sex. those streaks found -- some people thought it was a rocket launch. that's the latest, parker spitzer is back after this. ♪
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welcome to our political party, a conversation with a diverse group of opinion natured guests, the kind of people you would like to sit next to at any good party. pete dominic is a comedian and political commentator. >> we take a look at the week, we have fun. >> the week. we look at january 1979. we look at everything. >> you're talking to strangers on the street. what do i know? host of give and take of wnbc in new york and a founder of lower
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manhattan advocacy group and steven smith is a sports analyst, a commentator and a nationally syndicated radio host. welcome, everyone. >> okay, gang, a new canadian study who says that kids who interact with babies are less likely to bully their peers. so our question is, to whom would you like to give a baby? >> the obvious thing here, i think we give babies to 8:00 hosts on msnbc and fox, give babies to o'reilly. my fear is that o'reilly might actually eat one of the babies. you have to take that into consideration. >> i give it to michelle bachmann. she said that president obama's trip to india was going to cost
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$200 million a day. she had no factual basis whatsoever for that. she just makes up facts willie nilly. but in the health care debate, he says that people are coming to washington, d.c. armed and dangerous. so i think she needs a baby. >> the main thing that comes to my mind is nancy pelosi. i know she's got about 7,000. i think she's been a bully in the past and still want to be the voice of the democratic party as a minority leader. the fact is, you lost, you need to go away. >> she has babies, she has like eight grandkids. so it doesn't actually work. >> she needs another one. >> eight might be enough. >> you live in new york, charming and nancy pelosi will
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go down in history as one of the most effective speakers. >> effective is what i said. >> we have time for one more question. there's been lots of back and forth lately about american exceptionalism, conservatives claim to believe in it, they think liberals don't have any sense of it. of all the things that are great about this country, what's the coolest thing about america. >> the idea that we can be political pundits, that we can criticize president obama, that we can criticize president bush, we can go to washington and have a rally, and that jon stewart can do the same, that's what makes this country great. >> what stands out in my mind is diversity. you look at immigration reform, a subject that needs to be addressed. obviously you have a lot of hispanics out there that are influencing the political fabric of this country. they can be particularly influential in the upcoming elections. you just look at the country, we
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call it a gorgeous mosaic, that's what we call new york city, but a lot of people will argue that applies to the united states and i agree with that. >> when we formed this nation, we, they, theforefathers, we were the only one in the world. the idea works. >> it's messy, what it works. >> i have to put it on the table, of all the stuff that cnn covers all over the world, crises, one big myth we're running out of chocolate. >> i heard this. ike a snickers guy. this is a very, very bad news. i'm very depressed about it. it needs to be addressed. >> a campaign issue for sarah palin because we saw her in pennsylvania last week reeming the department of ed for taking away sweets from schools.