the numbers, two years it was 446. one year it was 397. this year it's 5 on 1, the same thing is happening. the budget proposals go up in the year that we're really doing the budgeting. >> some comments. here are some numbers for you. courtesy of u.s. debt clock.org. the deficit this year is expected to exceed $1.2 trillion, the overall national debt now at $15.3 trillion. so, turning that into what it means for every american taxpayer to pay off the debt, it would cost $135,000 and it the interest on the debt per citizen is in excess of $12,000. get more information on this by logging on to u.s. debt clock.org and you're listening to "washington today."

on wall street, a late rally allowed the dow to gain 4. closing at 12,878. the maker of the best selling drug avastin is warning doctors and patients about count count counterfeits in the country. it doesn't contain the key ingredient. doctors who suspect that they have received counterfeit, are urged to contact roche he doesn't think that israel has made a decision on iran. washington post columnist wrote recently that panetta sees a high likelihood that israel

will attack. senator roger wicker pressed him on his assessment. you don't have a position whether that israel will make an attack this spring and panetta responded, i do not now. in thailand's capital, authorities an iranian man carrying grenades blew off his legs. these explosions came a day after an israeli diplomatic car was attacked in iran. state department spokeswoman said that the u.s. was awaiting the ults of the investigation. in presidential politics, our politics in general, nearly 2 million dead americans are still in the active voting registers.

according to a new study published today by the pew research center on the states. showing that the country is spending more on voter registration and getting worst results than other nations. tina fey red suit, flag pin, worn for her sarah palin impersonation are going on view here at the museum in washington, the new exhibit is titled every four years, presidential campaigns and the press. it will open on friday. we also got items there from 2008, hillary clinton's beer mug and shot glass. in the same year, senator barack obama running for president, his bowling ball and his shoes from a stop in pennsylvania. back in a minute with more washington today. washington today is now available as a pod cast.

download each program individually at c-span.org. or subscribe using itunes. available weekdays after 6:30 eastern. access it wherever you are on our data-enabled mobile device welcome back. i'm steve scully. extend through the rest of this year the payroll tax cut it would also expand the jobless benefits for those who qualify and the doctors' medicare reimbursements, congressman fred upton saying things are getting closer this coming after yesterday, the house speaker john boehner and other republican leaders offering an agreement that would accept the payroll tax extension. we heard from the president

earlier in the day as he talked about the payroll tax cut, the impact it has on middle-class americans. if you make $50,000 a year, if the payroll tax cut is extended will mean another $80 per month in your paycheck. >> over the past two years, our businesses have added over 3.7 million new jobs. our manufacturers are hiring more new workers to make more new things here in america than any time since the 1990s. so, our economy is growing stronger. in the last thing we need, the last thing we can afford to do is to go back to the same policies that got us in this mess in the first place, the last thing we need is for washington to stay in the way of america's comeback. first and foremost that means washington shouldn't hike taxes on working americans right now.

that's the wrong thing to do but that's exactly what's going to happen at the end of this month, in a couple weeks, if congress doesn't do something about it. the payroll tax cut we put in place last year will expire. the typical american family will shell out nearly $1,000 more in taxes this year. you'll lose about $40 out of every paycheck if congress does not act. and that can't happen. not now. and it doesn't have to. congress needs to extend that tax cut along with vital insurance lifelines for folks who have lost their jobs during this recession. and they need to do it now without drama, and without delay. no ideological side shows to gum up the works. no self-inflict d woubdz. just pass this middle-class tax cut. pass the extension of middle-class insurance.

do it before it's too late and i will sign it right away. now -- [ applause ] >> now, the good news is, over the last couple of days we have seen some hopeful signs in congress that they realize that they got to get this done. how can we make this happen in a timely way on behalf of the american people? that is good news. but as you guys know, you can't take anything for granted here in washington until my signature is actually on it. we got to make sure that the american people's voices keep breaking through until this is absolutely finally completely done. until you see me sign this thing, you got to keep on speaking up. until you see that photograph of me signing it at my desk, you know, make sure it's verified.

certified. if it's not on the white house website, it hasn't happened. and i'm going to need to make sure that your voices are heard. >> the president, again, pushing for this payroll tax cut and the president referring to an agreement but the reality is that the agreement becoming something of a political football back and forth between democrats and republicans. something that we talked about in the last hour. he pointed out speaker boehner, quote, did not want to be held responsible for the tax increase on 160 million workers that would happen if the tax holiday were not extended beginning on march 1st. paul kanne in our last hour discussing what happened last december when speaker boehner paid a political price. >> i think that the they pummelled so badly in december for about two weeks as the republicans looked as if they were obstructing, blocking essentially the tax cut for the

middle class and i think their -- there was a real, a real shift inside their own thinking here and it was a moment where they realized that a chief of staff to a freshman republican, who, over that weekend and right before christmas, on sunday, he had been telling me about how they were ready to fight, fight, fight. and by that friday when they had completely given up and given into the democratic demands he also said to me, well, i think we just learned our limb takita. they don't control the whole place. i think there was a real, you know, they touched the stove right before christmas and they got burnt and they realized that for the first time. >> in fact, you write that it was speaker boehner's worst political crisis of his tenure sf. >> yes, without question. it was because there divisions within the basic ranks of the

house republicans. there was open public division between mcconnell who signed off on doing a short-term deal and certainly eric cantor, boehner's number two who was the most public opponent of a two-month deal and there was boehner sort of sitting in the middle, wobbling back and forth, very unsteady and he eventually made the call, you know what, guys, we're going to punt on this for two months and they're making the call again to sort of punt on the payroll tax cut here, they want to get this behind them and then try to focus the rest of the year on issues that are many in their wheel house. they sort of got outflanked on a tax issue which is a very odd issue for congressional republicans to be considering.

this time around, they fell on the wrong side of it. >> paul kane of the washington post. his work is available online at washingtonpost.com. congressional republicans and democrats moving closer to an agreement that will extend the payroll tax holiday until the end of this year. a number of new polls out, including from cbs news, showing that rick santorum has pulled ahead slightly in a national poll over mitt romney. some polls in michigan showing that santorum is ahead of mitt romney that is significant, because michigan is the home state of mitt romney, he was born and raised there, his dad served as governor there. some new ads from both campaigns will begin with rick santorum, followed that with mitt romney. >> who has the best chance to beat obama? rick santorum. a full spectrum conservative,

he's rock solid on values and issues. more foreign policy credentials than any other candidate. rick santorum, a trusted conservative who gives us the best chance to take back america. >> i'm rick an tourism and i approve this message. >> i grew up in michigan. it was exciting to be here. i remember going to the detroit auto show with my dad. that was a big deal. how in the world did an industries, its leaders and unions get into such a fix that they lost jobs, they lost their future. president obama did all of these things that liberals wanted to do for years, you got millions of americans out of work. i want to michigan stronger and better. michigan has been my home and this is personal. i'm mitt romney and i prove this message. >> the lastest from the romney campaign and the santorum campaign. and clearly from team romney

standpoint michigan is a must-win state. but rick santorum is competitive. on the same michigan voters go to the polls there's a primary in arizona. there's a related story about super tuesday and georgia. georgia is state that newt gingrich should win, he spent ten years representing the atlanta suburbs. newt gingrich has long since moved from georgia, now living in virginia and his now struggling campaign is putting a lot of effort into georgia in early march. he's also campaigning heavily in arizona hoping to pull an upset in that state. and here's the latest from the gingrich campaign. >> 2012, is the most important election in this country since 1860. next year we'll decide whether the disastrous policies of class

warfare, bu cattic socialism, radical judges and bureaucrats who treat as subjects rather than citizens will be continued in office or where we will repudiate an 80-year drift, in our colleges and universities, adrift with judges and adrift american politicians. all of us are going to have to make it happen. thank you. good luck and god bless you. >> one of those web video ads from the newt gingrich campaign. by the way, you can follow the campaign on c-span's site for politics. we want to take a step back and look at one issue that rick santorum is being asked about,

his loss in 2006 when he was running for a third term in a u.s. senate. his background, he's from western pennsylvania, he served two terms in the house of representatives and then went on to serve two terms in the u.s. senate, losing by 18 percentage points in 2006, terry is writing about this. we'll hear from him in just a moment. let's go back to november of 2006 as rick santorum conceding the race to bob casey. >> we also stood up in this campaign and we didn't back away from any of those principals or the most important one that we talked about. and that is -- and that is we didn't -- we didn't back away from the great threat that confronts this country from overseas. we stood up. and all of the political pundits

maybe correctly now saying, why did you go out and talk about those unpopular things like the war, future threats like venezuela, north korea and iran? why did you talk about that those are things in the past. and what senators and leaders are supposed to do is talk about things that our country confronts in the future and i did. and i'm very proud. i don't rescind a word, because those words are words that this country wasn't receptive to hear tonight. that threat becomes more clear and hopefully our country is called to action to stop that threat before it becomes too serious a threat to the future of our country. >> the comments of senator rick santorum conceding defeat in 2006. joining us from lancaster,

pennsylvania, is terry madonna. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. as you look at that race, what are the lessons? >> well, i think there are several. number one it's obvious that, you know, santorum ran in a horrific year for, you know, for republicans, it was the iraq war election. democrats were much more enthusiastic than republicans. that's probably the overriding reason. it was as we call a wave election. the democrats in pennsylvania picked up four new congressional seats. they won control of the state house. something that they had not done since 1992 in pennsylvania. so it was a remarkably good year for democrats. the second reason, rick santorum ran into a buzz saw, he ran into an iconic brand new in

pennsylvania politics, bob casey jr., bob casey's father was a very popular two-term governor who left office with a very high approval rating and the respect of pennsylvanians by the millions and then young bob casey went on to be elected auditor general twice. and elected in 2004 to the treasury office. he was the largest vote getter in the history of the state. he ran against a brand name. iconic figure, his dad, that was tough for senator santorum. the third, i think, has to do with how santorum in the late '90s and early part of the new century began to emphasize social and cultural issues. when santorum was elected to congress in 2000 he was collected primarily because he

beat a largely incumbent democrat, arguing that democrat had become a washington insider who didn't maintain a residence in the state. voted for seven tax raises. in 1994 he ran as a reformer. most emphasizing physical matters and reform. he was a member of the gang of seven that took on the bank scandal. and the republicans sweeping into both houses of congress. santorum, you know, elected to the senate, emphasizing government reform and fiscal matters by the late '90s and early in the 21st century, he had really started to emphasize social issues, abortion, later on as we moved toward the middle of the first decade, gay rights and that hurt him among

independent voters in pennsylvania particularly those voters who lived in the philadelphia in the philadelphia suburbs and lehigh valley. many of these are college educated women. santorum continues this thrust toward the social issues that turned voters off. and lastly, he got trapped in a series of problems that appeared to make him be a hypocrite. he had taken up residence in virginia, maintaining a home in alleghany county in the north hills. but when reporters checked on it, it didn't look like anyone was living there. then he had a residency problem similar to the walgren program which the casey campaign used

effectively. the second problem was his kids were going to a pennsylvania cyber school collecting tuition as they were pennsylvania residents. that became part of the controversy. in conclusion, he ran into about four of these areas that i just articulated that simply were overwhelming. his lost in 18 percentage points to bob casey, that was the biggest single loss for an incumbent in history of the state since the civil war. >> as you look at what happened in 2006 and what the romney c campaign has been saying thus far and moving into michigan, what political ammunition do his opponents have in 2012? >> they can hope that one of the things santorum has done. he is a very bright guy. he is articulate. he is savvy. he understands politics. he is ambitious. he has done extraordinarily well

in the debates which independent analysts ranked him among the best of the debaters in the year which debates have mattered. he does have a tendency to get unplugged. to say things recently about women and emotions and whether they should be in the frontlines of combat. there is always the possibility that he will go unplugged and say something that creates a controversy for him. but he has been remarkably disciplined today. maybe the best line of attack for the romney campaign and i expect to see this is he is a big government conservative. while he was a senator, he certainly was not reluctant to bring home millions of dollars of government large-esque to the state. i think they will sift through the congressional record and look at the projects to find out if the money was spent that maybe could be considered

wasteful or not in the public interest. so i think we could well see that aspect emphasized in the course of the campaign. that may be the best line of attack, which is to argue he is a big government conservative. the other aspect is he did endorse arlen spector. arlen spector switched parties when he ran for re-election in 2010. he went from being a republican to a democrat because, in my polls and others, it was clear he would not win the republican primary against the ultimate u.s. senate victor in pennsylvania, pat toomey. they may make something of that endorseme endorsement, but i don't think that has legs, so to speak. i think it will be largely the government spending and the pork and ear marks. they will go down that road and

see what they can locate. >> professor terry madonna, thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> this is c-span radio's "washington today." here is a trivia question. what was the 48th state? it is arizona. today, arizona celebrating its 100th anniversary on this date. arizona shed its five-decade status as a u.s. territory. it became the last state in the contiguous united states. jan brewer who is the governor of arizona commemorating the anniversary. >> good morning to all of you on this beautiful, glorious day that we're celebrating. the day we celebrate arizona's 100th year of statehood. i would like to begin by reading from a proclamation i signed officially designating this day

the 14th day of february, 2012, as arizona centennial day, which says in part, whereas, 100 years ago today, on february 14th, 1912, after nearly 49 years as a united states territory and thousands of years as a sacred home to native people, arizona became the 48th and last of the contiguous states to enter the union of the united states of america. whereas, arizona continues to be recognized for its cultural and natural beauty. a high quality of life and innovation in all fields, including agriculture, science and technology, optics, aerospace and defense, renewable

alternative and solar energy, bio science and vibrant small business. whereas, the beginning of the second century of statehood offers an opportunity for all arizonans to envision the future and strive toward new achievements in education, innovation, economic development and social well being for the people of arizona. now, therefore, i, janice k. brewer, governor of the state of arizona, by the virtue of the authority vested in me by the constitution and the laws of the state, hereby proclaim the 14th day of february, 2012, as arizona centennial day. [ applause ]

>> governor jan brewer in phoenix early near the day and the u.s. postal service offering a commemorative stamp of arizona becoming the 48th state in the union. ed mel depicting cathedral rock. well, it's not only arizona's birthday, but valentine's day. the president, as the ap points out, popular and blue states had a red message at the white house. >> good morning. let me start with a quick public service announcement for all of the gentlemen out there today. today is valentine's day. do not forget. i speak from experience here.

it is important that you remember this and go big. that's my advice. >> so, you still have a couple of hours to get the flowers on the valentine's day or the box of chocolate. the president, did by the way, tweet out, hey, happy valentine's day. happy valentine's day. we'll continue the conversation tomorrow morning on the washington journal. rick larson is a democrat from washington state. part of the china working group. we will talk about the chinese visit in washington. what it means for trade. your calls and comments tomorrow morning. kelly field will join us. the white house announcing a plan to forge a partnership with community colleges and businesses to train up to 2 million workers for higher paying jobs in the u.s.

more politics tomorrow morning. a look ahead at the primaries in arizona and michigan which will come up at the end of the month. tune in at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. 4:00 in the west coast. thanks for joining us on this tuesday. i hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. president obama's acting budget director was asked today on capitol hill if the new white house budget spends more money over the next ten years, then what would have been spend under current law. that senate budget committee hearing is next on c-span 3. in case you just missed, we'll show you washington today from c-span radio in two hours. and a settlement with the banks over their role as lenders he