expect in there for that our reserves would equine by that additional amount as well or a total of about $600 million this year. i am very pleased and proud to report to you tonight that we have handled this year's entire additional problem with additional expense reductions this year so that our reserves will end this year at the levels you budgeted despite the revenue shortfalls in fact we will have an additional $100 million to carry forward. in short we are on a track with the plan you approved last year and further adjusted it on the fly with additional spending reductions to match the additional revenue shortfalls that have occurred. second to the budget itself the budget document that you're receiving to mike reflects the four year plan we submitted last

year with further reductions to the further revenue declines we've experienced along with the rest of the country. as you will see this is a very difficult budget and will seem even more difficult as the year unfolds. many budgets that he passed last year were deferred using stimulus money but will hit in the months ahead so there are in essence cuts from two different years becoming effective at the same time. first of all i want you to know that once again our state's basic education program is fully funded. [applause] to achieve that we have to make one common sense adjustment in the growth of the capitol of the component this year.

this relates to the growth component i will underlaid that allocations remain. across the state government we are doing very little capital construction this year and it seems fair to ask public education to do the same in that narrow area. over the past several years i have clearly pursued a strategy of constraining the growth so that we can fund education at acceptable levels. put simply doing a better job of balancing our investments in the two major line items, care and education. we've been very successful the past few years. since its inception in the mid-1960s medicaid for many years had been a target the part of the budget for cade for qualification. 1981 flexible the cost of medicaid was about half of what we spend on k-12. however medicate passed k-12 in

total funding in 1992 and after that it exploded in the 2004 budget it was 34% of the total and k-12 was 15%, the ratio of 2.25 in favor of one. in the budget you have before you, it is 24% of the budget and k-12 education is 19% backed the ratio of now about one point to fight-1. it's my hope in the years ahead we can continue this balance. in addition to the bep we've put an absolute priority on the pension system and we fully funded the increased contribution that was recommended by the actuaries and adopted by the treasury. the soundness of the tennessee pension system is something we can be rightly proud of all side of these areas, where you will

see our budget reductions that average about 6%. this year it wasn't feasible to make these reductions across the board, and there are a number of departments that contribute to the fault line person i asked about and others much less. higher education, mental health and the division of intellectual disability services are at 6%, children services 5%, and the the part of corrections the only plausible way to get to anything approaching six or 9% would be to close one or two prisons. i declined to do that so the reduction is just 1%. in the department of safety the proposed reductions would have meant elimination of 85 troop positions and 56 filled position in the driver's license stations. rather than to this week proposed a revenue measure to prevent an increase in the driver's license fee from $3.90

as it is now to $5.75 annual. this is the first increase since 1928. we also extended the license term from five years to eight and this will have the benefit additional benefit of a partially funding of the very much needed digital agreed to the review system as well. with these reductions, we had a budget that was consistent with the four year plan i presented the last year. to achieve these reductions in their entirety require the elimination of a variety of programs that are of real value. it is not a pleasant list of programs. it will also require additional layoffs of 1,363 people in addition to the elimination of 456 unfilled positions and that brings me to the first aspect of this budget, the use of some reserve funds now to soften its

affect. the problem we were faced with is this. we were looking at some very difficult cuts. at the same time our reserves are very strong and the prospects for the return to growth in the months ahead look far better today than they did a year ago. in this environment the question is should we go all the way with these cuts or should we make some judicious use of reserves to soften the effect? we decided to present a plan that used reserves to fund the continuation of a number of programs for a two year period. the reason for funding for two years instead of one was to give a new governor some breathing room at the beginning of his or her term and to give additional time for the economy to recover and perhaps make the cuts is the 12th. the programs we protected in this manner, there's a number of them but they include things such as in the department of

education, the quarter made the school's health program, the career ladder extended contracts, a family resource centers. in the department of health, the safety net grants to the federally qualified health centers, the diabetes prevention program. in the department of mental health, the community mental health recovery services and the alcohol and drug services. in the department of children services the home visitation bergen and juvenile justice prevention grants. in the division of intellectual disabilities service is the family support services program and in the department of human services the gransta the human resource agencies and the committee action agencies. in addition, we propose to reserve a portion of the fill positions the would be subject to the layoffs to meet budget requirements. of the 1,363 total layoffs, slightly over 1,000 or for what i have called good business

reasons bringing staffing ratios in line for example were closing in on needed facility, and we should go ahead with these under any circumstances. however, there are 340 positions that we would strongly prefer not to lose. we are proposing to carry forward for two years those positions along with some 80 others scheduled for early off this spring. at the end of the two years, the economy may have made the playoffs and necessary and further it's been our experience people in those positions are likely to have found other jobs often within state government making any involuntary move is unnecessary. finally, i know our state employees are glad to be working, but they've been without raises some stills and 70i would like to recognize their vacation in some fashion by using first of all some of our reserves to continue the enhanced 401k match at its current level and also we placed in the budget a 3% bonus for

state employees. [applause] what do that in front of you is a straight forward a budget also putting it together this year was difficult. in its base form, it corresponds closely to the four year plan you were presented last year suitably reduced to reflect further revenue shortfalls. it then proposes to use about $202 million of reserves to preserve some particularly in put and programs and several hundred jobs for two more years in the hope that the economy will render cutting them had not needed. if you adopt all of these suggested enhancements the state's reserves in its rainy day fund will still remain uncomfortably above the 5% target, slightly over 6%. i believe this is a common sense

family budget and in a very difficult time and i hope he will consider it and acted promptly. this is likely my final time to address u.s. governor. we still have a lot of work to do and it is far too early for the farewell remarks or reminiscence. i do want to say, however, and most sincere thanks to you for the way that you treated me and worked with me in my administration these past years. i've never had a job i enjoyed as much or gave me as much satisfaction as serving as governor. it's been a humbling experience. to those of you who helped me my sincere thanks. for those of you who haven't, all is forgiven tonight. [laughter] i know i've learned, and i know how much so many of you care about our state, care about its people. it has been honor to work with you on their behalf.

thank you. god speed. [applause]

taking a look at the 787 billion-dollar economic stimulus program signed into law last february, $333.5 billion has been committed just over 179 billion has been paid out as of february 8th. for more details on the stimulus programs and spending you can go to our website. republican congresswoman and deputy house with marshall blackburn of tennessee gives her faults on the economy, jobs and the relationship congressional republicans have with president obama. from today's washington journal, this is 45 minutes. pascrell john, washington journal this morning from her home state representative marsha blackburn avoiding the snow in washington. how did you get to do that? [laughter] >> guest: thank you so much for being with us this morning. >> guest: i'm happy to be with you.

>> host: we started our program this morning by showing people a brand new "new york times" cbs poll that suggests anchor at phill law makers is at an all-time high. are you and your colleagues and house republicans aware of the public sentiment and what do you propose to do to address it? >> guest: the american public is angry and i think rightfully so. the interesting thing is they are upset with both parties and with the bureaucracy in washington, d.c. and that is not lost on us. one of the things we are doing, indeed i am starting it today sure in west tennessee, we are doing the listening sessions where people can come better in my district and talk about what they think we are doing right and what they think we are doing wrong, where they think our country is on the wrong track and, you know, in august we had the town hall and people showed up in record numbers, and i

think that now what we need to do is hear from the american people and give them the opportunity to have their say and let them know that we are listening to them, that we are going to take action and we are going to focus on solving the problems that exist and number one is jobs. we are one year after the stimulus and people are saying we're all the jobs? and right now they want the economy. they want jobs creation to refocus number-one, and here we have the administration bringing up this budget that is a $3.8 trillion budget and they are talking about having a stimulus ii which some other jobs bill and people are seeing washington just does not get so we are going to make an effort to be certain that our constituents have the opportunity to voice their opinion. >> host: i would like to give the phone number so you can join the conversation with marsha

blackburn patrician will be with us 45 minutes to read this morning from tennessee. we are going to talk policy and politics. republican phone co for the republicans in the audience, 202-737-0002 for democrats and independent linus 202-628-0205. this survey that i suggested the for "the new york times" and cbs also asks about the tea party movement, the burgeoning tea party movement as one place some of the internet washington is being focalized. i'm wondering if you can explain your relationship and decision not to take part in the last weekend's convention with the tea party and where you think that he party movement goes these be the republican party. >> guest: i think the cheaper the movement in this nation is one of the great grassroots movements, and it is a revitalization of the energy and it is an embodiment of the energy that people are seeing and bringing the public debate. the tea party meetings are taking place all across this

nation. towns large and small and it is energy and focus and one of the things that is interested me is when i have spoken to the tea party groups the crowd, the number of women in the crowd in so many women are looking at what is taking place and they are saying you know what, it is time for washington to get its house in order so they are showing up and placing those opinions. i like the energy that i see. indeed in tennessee we have quite a history with tea parties. when i was in this case and -- state senate in the late nineties and early 2000's's, we had a push in the state, a republican governor who wanted to institute a state income tax which we do not have in the state of tennessee, and we had not a four day, for a week or four month battle, we had a four year battle to defeat that, and indeed we did.

the great people of this state rose up and we had tea parties at the state capitol in national and much of the conservative uprising started as people in our state started looking at the state budget and said with a net, we know government never, ever get enough of the taxpayer money and when we would like a dustin government and say how much is enough? there wasn't an answer for that because we know there never is going to be a top to that as to how much they think is enough for them to take out of the paycheck and i led that fight against the state income tax in the state and working with hand in hand so many wonderful constituents. the people of this state stepped forward, they came to the state capital, we had the t parties and after four years we defeated the state income tax, the implementation of the state

income tax commesso in tennessee we are probably a little bit ahead of the curve on this and we know that there is tremendous energy across the nation with people looking at government, people looking at both parties and saying enough is enough, we've had it. government has first right of refusal on the paycheck. it's time for the government to begin to be good stewards and be accountable for how they spend those dollars. >> host: can you explain large white you were not at the convention in your home state last week? >> guest: absolutely, and i would have loved to have been there because it was a great gathering of conservatives. there was the organizational structure of the event was a for-profit organization cost concerns, and as we send it to the committee on standards they came back with concerns to us and suggested we not go. so in order not to have a violation and stay within the rules of the house we had to

decline the invitation to be a part of the convention. >> host: last question on policy because we also talked about job creation and the deficit as we started the program this morning. is there a consensus among your conference in the house about the best kind of jobs program, the concern of the rising federal debt? >> guest: i will say this the best economic stimulus is a job, and what we are hearing from our small businesses is they would like to see tax reductions, tax credits and incentives and there are ways to do this. we continue to hear from them a couple of things. they would like to see moved forward number one is an elimination of the capitol gains taxes for a couple of years. small businesses would love that. it gives them the opportunity to reinvest in their businesses. number two for many of our small business owners they are saying eliminate withholding for a couple of months, three months,

one quarter, eliminate withholding. let the american worker get their full paycheck for a three month period of time because of that is going to do is put money back on the main street. it will give them money in the pocket to address the needs they have and that is a great way to incentivize the economy at the main street level, at the mainstream of which is where people want to see the focus place. not on wall street on main street. >> host: let's take the first telephone call from oklahoma city. michael on the republican line. good morning, michael. >> good morning. how are you this morning -- >> host: if you have your tv in the background it creates feedback. please hit the mute button. >> caller: i'm sorry. let me turn it off here. real quick here, the republican leadership, one of the things in the atmosphere what's going on in the country today

conservative principles we've lost and 06 and 08 the arrogance and indeed my you take this administration and the avoidance and the administration is a train wreck and boarding on socialism. when are we going to put out talking points to show the rest of the american people in your mind the leadership where we stand. thank you very much. >> guest: right. thank you. it is a great question. i think in 06 and 08 we did lose the majority because much of our republican leadership in the nation was focused on pork and perks and privilege rather than people in problem solving so i agree with the caller on that. a couple of points because i do think that our leadership right now and republicans as a whole republican elected officials realize that the american people

sick and tired of out-of-control spending in washington, d.c.. they are sick and tired of the out of control growth of government not only at the federal level but we are seeing this and many of the state governments also and in many of our cities across the nation and it's the desire for accountability which is a very good thing. and the american taxpayer is demanding transparency. a couple of points i would like to make to the caller is all i am one of those republicans that always felt like that even with president bush and republican leadership in the house we spent too much money. and one of the disappointments i think not only for us but for the american people has been the obama administration spends too much more and speaker pelosi and her team spent much more and here is a great point that came from some of our budget

committee members. when you look at the 12 years of the republican control, the average annual deficit when a huge pile the annual deficits was about $104 billion each year. that is the annual average deficit. i think you had surplus and then the largest deficit was maybe $530 billion deficit. when you look at the three years of democratic control, their average annual deficit is $1.1 trillion per year. so the average annual deficit for republicans has become the average monthly deficit for democrats when you look at spending and when you take into account there is a $3.8 trillion budget on the table this year that is going to double the national debt in five years and

triple the national debt in ten years the american people are joining fiscal conservatives and saying we have got to stop this because the spending is out of control, the taxpayers are not going to put up with it. >> host: can you name one thing he would cut to get the budget deficit in order? >> guest: absolutely. let me give a great example and i would direct people to my website, blackburn.house.gov and they can get more information. the best way to approach this the same way some of the states have and it is across-the-board spending cuts and every year when i was in the state senate in tennessee and again in congress i proposed three bills calling for one, too, 5% across-the-board tax cuts and the reason this is important is because it resets the baseline and the federal government as we know does not work from performance base or zeroth base

budgeting. the work from baseline budgeting which means they start with what he got last year and build on top of that and when you make those cuts the spending reductions, the actual reductions then what you're doing is resetting and loading that baseline. now, for the 2006 budget that was the deficit reduction act and we were able to get the 1% across-the-board cut as part of that bill. it was on the discretionary nondefense mom homeland security. it was authority billion dollars savings to the american tax payer but think what happened at 03 period of five years or ten years we were to do 1% or 2% or 5% hair cut. think of the way we could reduce the bureaucracy and achieve efficiency and get rid of redundant programs. a couple of years ago i was checking on economic development programs and i think there's

like 118 different economic development programs available over the federal government. what if those were to be consolidated and you were to bring those in a blind and simplify that? get rid of some of that bureaucracy, put the money into programs and savings rather than in to building a bureaucracy. was to elizabethtown tennessee, jack on the independent line. >> you're on the air. would you turn down your tv volume and go ahead? >> caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. it's nice to talk with you. i've been following you since the late nineties and the legislature in tennessee. we need more people who like you. i hope you can be a presidential candidate. maybe you can get a seat which i know you could speak to [inaudible] i'm concerned about social security. lubber when i'm 55-years-old and i am unemployed right now and i

am just trying to figure out -- i made more money five years ago in gross pay and i make today and i think americans should wake up, marsha. i think one of the problems is in the east tennessee where they have six or seven government housing people they're drawn to section 8 paying for food stamps. i think this is one of the programs that has been abused over the years as one area of the country i think we need to put some of these people who are healthy back to work. i do you realize some of these people do need assistance but i think it is being abused. >> host: thank you >> guest: let me talk about two separate areas in the question that he has. one is waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government system and the other is concern over the solvency of the social security system. and there are some of us who

tried to work on the solvency issues for medicare and social security at of looking at that it is important to remember the federal government has a first lead of refusal on your paycheck. they've taken that money out of your paycheck to put into social security. that should be your money. they've taken money out of your paycheck to set aside for medicare. our seniors have medicare coming out of their pay check and when we go through this health care debate that is something that needs to be remembered. that is not subtle government money, that is the taxpayers' money. it's been extracted from their paycheck. when it comes to social security, one of the items that i have sought to do is to make certain that the federal government has to put a wall. right now what is happening is this the take the money out of

your paycheck, then they put it over into a line item for the social security trust fund but in that spending that money in the general fund. basically the federal government is borrowing the money back and in the bright and iou every year to the federal government -- the social security trust fund. the social security trust fund stacks up the iou. well, by the time we get to somewhere between late 2017 to 2019, we are going to start running out of the surplus, which means social security's not going to be having more money coming in than going out. so, at that point we are going to start drawing down those ious to the estimation as we will run out in 2042. the federal government should be blocked from borrowing and spending that money that is your

money. and i have had legislation around for a few years that would do that. i've also had legislation that would deal with the medicare issue and allow individuals that turns 65 that are still working that like private health insurance to be able to get their voucher for medicare for what they have paid. this is their money and use that to stay any health savings account or private option that they have available to them through the job. that he mentioned, waste, fraud and abuse. i bet you if i were to go around a room with my constituents and say, tell me where you think the federal government is wasting money. everyone in the room would be able to çógive me a solid, concrete example of some area of waste. or fraud or abuse. that they see taking place on an ongoing basis or regular basis çor something that they have heard or seen çon tv or

been a part of. and they want to see this end. they are looking for the transparency and accountability and certainly as they are looking for the transparency and for the accountability. and certainly, as we work through the appropriations process, i'm going to continue with my across-the-board spending cuts. we're going to continue to fight earmarks, which need to be revisited or done away with and from transparency brought to that issue because it is important to our constituents. it is important to the house of this nation. and it is important to our children and our grandchildren, to their future. about the fiscal house of the united states of america be brought into order. >> host: my next question is from columbus, georgia. david, good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> host: david -- with your

question? >> caller: my biggest concern is when you look at the deficit, a lot of people look at down here is president obama is like a woman that is on a spending spree. it kind of makes people wonder where it ties altogether. i mean, i personally think you straight to bankrupt the nation. >> host: collar? why would he want to do that? why would he want to bankrupt the nation? >> caller: i really don't want to mention it because the next thing you know i have people coming down here infix begetting me like they did joe the plumber. postal all right, thanks.

ms. blackburn. gastonia, i think out-of-control spending is something that i hear in my district, when i'm in my colleagues districts with them. we will hear the same thing and it is really interesting to me that all across this country people are going, wait a minute, government doesn't have sources of revenue other than what they get from the taxpayer. in the taxpayer is saying, we are overtaxed and government. if you are overspend. and it is time for you to do -- this is a great example. yesterday afternoon, i was visiting with a small business and they said look, we have gone through every single area of this company. we are doing everything we can possibly do to save money and make certain that we are not laying people off. we are working diligently on

this. why don't bureaucrats in washington d.c. do this? why don't they sit down at a table? why don't members of congress require these federal agencies to do with last? they were astounded that there was a $3.8 trillion budget, $3.8 trillion. and all of that is going to be piled onto the data. you know, we have the interagency debt, public debt. you add all those together. our debt total is now, you know, right over $13 trillion. we put another $1.4 trillion in this year's annual deficit on to that debt. and people are saying look, i don't have any more money i can send to washington. they at first right of refusal on my paychecks. i rdf two months left at the end of my money.

government can't take any more out of this. if i have to pay more in taxes and increase, that i'm going to have fewer people that i can higher. if they go implement this cap-and-trade bill, i'm going to see my fees go up. if they implement health care, i'm going to include the cost of that health care go out. what is happening in washington d.c. because this seems like, and rightfully so, to a lot of our constituents, do what we are seeing right now is more emphasis on growing government and stimulating big government. and we're not seeing the emphasis on creating jobs and making certain that the environment is right for creating jobs in the american people one year after the stimulus, they're still saying where are the jobs? and they know that they are looking at this budget that is

going to spend too much. it is going to tax too much. it is going to borrow too much and had that honor the heads of our children and grandchildren and they are standing up and say no more. enough is enough. time has come to get your spending under control in your fiscal house in order. >> host: vivian is a democrat calling us from atlanta. >> caller: good morning to you both. first is like to start off by saying for the fact i've heard bx vice president say, deficits don't matter. now all of a sudden they matter. i'll be 70 years old march 1. you said nothing that i haven't heard for the last 40 years. it's the same old same old. i have a good suggestion i think, based on the two party

clout, the town halls and the faces that i see. i would suggest that we discharged everybody from the military that doesn't look like you and you can be the recruiter in tennessee, my home state, memphis, exactly, to recruit an all-white military. based on the basis that i see in these ridiculous protests. thanks for listening. >> host: anything for the viewer? >> guest: do know, she is like many people. she feels as if what she hears out of washington is a lot of rhetoric and doesn't see a lot of action. i think that's why people want to see legislators take action and filed a spending problem and

address many of the problems that our nation has, jobs come in the economy being the number one issue that is on the table. >> host: health care continues to be an important topic for the president and i'm wondering if there's a consensus on how the republican conference will handle his invitation to the health care meeting at the white house. >> guest: well, you know, it's very interesting incident that we have been asking the president for a meeting since last year. and then he was gracious in accepting our invitation to come to baltimore and to visit with us. and i asked him the question in baltimore dealing with health care. and when he planned to bring our ideas to the table. and when he also planned to bring the lessons learned to the table because we got a couple of experiences in the public option health care. one being here in tennessee which was the time care program put in place in 1994.

and that was the original test case for public option health care. the other one in massachusetts. and we know from the scott brown raised that in massachusetts there was an only 32% approval rating for that massachusetts health care plan. and they have seen their costs rise over 20% in the past 18 months and they've got a $5 billion state budget deficit that they're trying to deal with in large part because of their health care plan. in tennessee, which is a plan that has about 15 years of experience, we have a governor who is a democrat, who was then a very good job trying to bring this program and had to make certain it was something the state could afford. i mentioned at the top of our show the state income tax battle that we had was a four-year battle in this state and is primarily due to the fact that this health care plan, ten care had been put in place and all of

a sudden it had quadrupled what the original estimates were that it was going to cost us. it was about to bankrupt the state. it was an executive order program. the legislature couldn't deal with it, but you have to pay for it and figure out a way to pay for it. so people are very concerned and rightfully so about the implications and the problems that would exist if you implemented this kind of health care plan. and as the president has invited us to discuss on february 25, i think there's a couple of things that would be very important before those discussions again. number one, the american people want to know that the health care bill that went through the house in the senate is going to be thrown away and not on the table. what they want to see on the

table is a clean sheet of paper. and they want to know that this is going to be starting from scratch. because we as republicans have ideas, that would address the issue of portability of insurance, that would also address insurance accountability and according to cbo, would reduce insurance premiums about 10% per year, per individual, per family. that is significant and those ideas deserve to be heard. we also have called for addressing liability and toward reform. and i think we need to remember too that many of these plants passed the house in 06 on a bipartisan basis with bipartisan support. they were sent to the senate. republicans in the senate that the majority, but they didn't have 60 votes. so they never got closer. they never took up the tour

reform and liability reform issues. they were never able to pick up small business health plans. and association health plans and insurance accountability and buying insurance across state lines, addressing those purchasing models. so while of these issues have received bipartisan help in the past you do deserve to be on the table. they deserve to be done with a blank sheet of paper, starting from scratch and coming up with a bill that is going to lower the cost of health care and lower the cost of health insurance. and make available to more people lower health insurance those with preexisting and chronic health conditions. make sure they have access to affordable health insurance. the other component of this is we need to have state legislatures and governors at the table. certainly are covered in tennessee, governor phil brought

the same needs to be invited to a summit. he is probably the most knowledgeable governor in this country when it comes to public option health care and what the pitfalls are, what the lessons learned are and what we should be wary of. indeed, he said that this would be the mother of all unfunded mandates to our states because much of the burden would be shifted to the states for pain for the implementation and expansion of services and these programs. postcard ilex call is room kentucky. good morning, bill. you are on for congressman marsha blackburn. >> caller: i am an avid viewer but i've never called them before and i've really appreciate the "washington journal" especially in some of the other programs you do. you do a great job. the concerns i have as i listened to the program this morning is that, you know, both

parties seem to be wedded to corporate and just. and i think it is probably more on the republican side of things. i think that there's a little bit more of an affiliation with corporate interest on that side than the democratic side. but nevertheless, i think both parties are sort of wedded to corporate interest. and at least in the legislature, the people are not seeing the legislature really do the business of the people. we're not seeing seeing the legislature get it done. so i think that's a problem and i think that representatives blackburn would agree with that, that we are not seeing things get done for the people. so my question is, i think that we have -- there are two things i have a concern about. one is that we have a president,

who from the very beginning from his overture to the republican party saying, you know, we want judd gregg to be involved as i think it was secretary of commerce or something. and so it extended that from the very beginning and has routinely taken a conciliatory stance, you know, reaching across the isle. but he's been met with such vitriol, even i think joe wilson thing, you lied, which is really unheard of in very bad to koran. and so, maureen dowd's article when she heard, you lied, she said well, you have to the boy on the end of that. the second concern i have is there a sort of an undercurrent of racism it seems to me. and while it's unfashionable to express our racism, so we sort

of sublimated into tea parties and so on and so forth. klesko in the interest of time, you think we understand your direction and will give the congresswoman a chance to respond. >> guest: yeah, a couple of things there. here again, expressing what we hear continually. the american people are tired of talk. they want to see action and they want to see problem solved. and they want the laid out clearly. give a timeline of how we're going to move forward to address some of these problems. now, when it comes to being the party of no, which is something the mainstream media many times likes to say while the republicans are the party of no, we're the party of no. nobody is in in these bills. and we are against these

policies that are being brought forward. increasing taxes is not a good part of policy. that is not something that needs to happen right now. indeed, when you have an economy that is in the situation that we're in right now, increasing taxes is not which you want to do. you want to move back and reduce taxes, increasing spending is not the right move to make. that sends the wrong message. it sends the wrong message to other nations that own the data of the united states. it sends the wrong message to the market. most importantly, it sends the wrong message to the taxpayers of this great nation because this is the federal government isn't going to get that spending under control. they have not kept their appetite for the money that is in your paycheck. and the american people want to see less spending. they want their taxes lowered. they want their government to be

more accountable, more transparent. and they would like to see trust restored in some of these foundational and additions that exist in our nation. and all across this land we are hearing that. and people are showing up from every walk of life to express their discontent with the path that our country is on break now, with some of the policies that are being moved forward. they are not in favor of what they hear speaker pelosi, leader reid or the administration bringing forward when it is a policy that is going to increase the size of government, grow the bureaucracy and show more money is coming out of the paycheck. >> host: retail sales closely better than expected increase in january. a welcome development that could be stronger development.

cover said friday that retail sales increased by .5% last month, the best show since november in higher than a 3% increase economists had expected here at excluding auto sales, posted a .6% increase, also better than expected as strength in consumer spending is important to put 70% of economic activity, economists are worried that the spending game since last summer could falter given the tough times they seemed in a u.s. households. this collector calls for congressman marsha blackburn. this is clyde. >> caller: good morning, suzanne and marcia. i just want to let you know i'm one of those old mississippi state alumni and i appreciate what you're doing in washington and were getting some of the snow down here. so i guess i sold a lady on the phone i'm sick of those snow,

too. but in the interest of state in 1975 high body farm, 600-acre farm and farm for 30 years, but at the federal bureaucracy ran me off from the farm. and what i'm thinking, we need to give back to our constitutional republic. and you know, our foundation, our country wasn't socialism. it was people getting out of working. and i know that today there's about 30 million government workers and since i had to sell the farm i had to become one of them because you can't make any money farming and there's 25 million manufacturing jobs in the united states and 30 million government jobs. what i'm asking you is when are they going to realize that it's the physical economy that's going down the tubes and quit worrying about the financial

economy? that's my question. >> guest: well, thank you so much. and go bulldogs, right? one of the things that we hear from so many people is that this stimulus bill, and as i said, if you're 17 will be the one year marker on that stimulus bill. what it did was to stimulate the government. and it stimulated growth in government. and what the caller is talking about is when you look at all of the jobs creation in the country and where jobs growth has been. did you see the manufacturing? no. did you see it in retail? no. what you saw it and was in government sec or jobs. and the public sector jobs is where the growth is. now, it takes all those jobs,

getting that paycheck, making that money, spending that money and in order for there to be those government jobs. and many people are beginning to look at these numbers. and i think this is one of the great things that comes from having so much of this information available online. because when reports come out, suzanne, like you're talking about, so many of our constituents go. they log on and read those reports on than they have that information. and the growth of affairs in the public sector jobs is of concern. i had a constituent last week that said book i read that over the next ten years, with the implementation of expanded government programs, they are talking about employing several hundred thousand new federal workers over the next ten years. and the concern was the estimation was most of those employments would be in the washington d.c. area.

and it is an expansive growth of government. and they were quite concerned about the impact that that would have on their federal income tax rates. and how much they are question to me, was how much did i think those rates were going to have to escalate in order to pay for that big of an expansion of government. in more and more workers are looking at this and they're saying how much is enough? what percentage of my paycheck is enough to send and and pay for your expanded growth of government? when are you going to say, we're going to cap it? well, what the taxpayers are saved his look, i decided taxpayers are saying they have decided that it's already too high and it needs to be the word. and government needs to learn how to do more with less. >> host: we have just a minute

or two left with you mr. entry through the thicker next call from louisiana. this is ken on the democratic line. >> caller: my name is can. >> host: can, you have your tv volume up. he said mute then ask the question. >> caller: i'm a vietnam vet and i'm what you call the reagan democrat. i'm getting sick of all this bipartisan, nonpartisan, whatever it is. i'm sick of the rfc. all you will do with it there and say what can we do today? how can we get to obama? you know, we got into the vietnam war, which was a stupid war. now we're into doors, which we got paid for when you all was in office. you are supplemented these orders on during wars. your talking points all day or how much do you want, yeah, yeah, yeah.

but you all didn't pay for these wars and now we've got to pay for them. that's why the $1.2 trillion budget -- why don't you get the facts right, lady. >> host: banks. will get a response from the congresswoman. i've been getting a lot of twitter messages asking you to talk about the war's been on budget in the obama administration budget compared to the bishop menstruation. >> guest: i'll be happy to talk about that. and i want to thank ken for his service to our country. and when you look at the new budgeting process that are going to be put in place and bringing those new costs on budget, rather than running them as supplementals. that is something that as you look at the budget process needs to be done so that there is a regular order to the budget process. unfortunately, as they were approaching this, they were looking at making tremendous cut to some of our military post.

one of our concerns was with fort campbell, which actually fits in my district in tennessee, where there was -- they were seeking to realize 40% reductions. and we had troops that were getting ready to deploy, families that were going to have names and were very fortunate to be able to work with general blanche and general stanton and work closely with their leadership team at fort campbell to address this. you know, more people want to see a regular order project process. this is one of the reasons they want to move away from earmarks. and it is also the reason that they too have greater transparent the two that budget and if individuals want to look through what has been proposed and that budget they go to the government printing office, it gpo.gov and can logon and get pulled in. this year's document of the budget to 194 page summary that goes with a think about a 600

page budget. and then there's about 1400 pages of historical data. and for those who want to do the bit of research, to go back and look at how the spending have been put in order over the years and then balance that against what they are seen in the budget this year, that's a great place to do it. >> host: last call for you is from delta, colorado. this is joshua on the independent line. good morning, joshua. >> caller: hi i found more than $525 billion in a tax bubble. if we discontinue federal annual income tax or all tax money paid to federal employees, all subcontractors, the services and the goods and lower their competition levels by the current 35% income tax rate, we would be saving $525 billion the government would be buying everything, at 35% less than the

public, saving money and getting more. isn't that true? >> host: >> guest: joshua, i know what formulary or exactly where you're going there, but i'll tell you this. i love it when i hear from constituents who are trying to find solutions. and that is what more and more people want to see. and that's what more and more people are doing and why it's so important to go and look at these documents that are online, whether you go to the agencies, whether you go to my website which is blackburn.health.gov. and people are finding and figuring out ways to say things are great ideas and then they are bringing them to us at our meetings. as one of the reasons i'm looking forward to having listening sessions to be wealthier for my constituents, the best ideas, some of the best ideas i've ever had have been ideas that have come from these town halls. and then we take us