provide food aid. the announcement from washington and the capitol of north korea pyongyang pointing to an easing of tensions under the leadership of kim jong ilyonge eun. it also points the way for inspectors to head into north korea to determine what's going on in that country. let's begin with jobs and the u.s. economy. the chair of the federal reserve testifying on capitol hill. he does so twice a year saying the fed retains modest expectations for the american economy this year. ben bernanke telling the house committee on financial services the recent rise on oil prices hasn't affected how the fed view it is economy which involves expansion of 2.2 to 2.7% this year, about the same as last year. we'll begin with how the testimony unfolded. congressman ron paul among those with tough questions. up next is nan hayworth

questioning the fed chair about managing debt and economic growth. >> you have many, many times including here today pointed out how important it is to have federal policy that reflects the impending crisis that we face in terms of managing the debt and how that weighs on economic grow growth. do you ever feel as though you are talking past your administration and congress that, you know, we are talking past each other and somehow -- you know, how can we make your message resonate? people like me are sympathetic to it, obviously. >> well, these criticisms are easy for me to make. i don't have to deal with the politics. i know they are very difficult. it's hard to explain to people why you have to tight your belt one way or another. i think on the one hand that

educating the voters is an important thing. making sure people understand what the trade-offs are. if they understand it, they will be more sympathetic to the tough choices we face as a country. i also think that there is scope for parkinging within the congress. you know, we have had very close calls recently in terms of making progress. as i mentioned before this fiscal cliff on january 1 might prove an opportunity to negotiate a better longer-term outcome. we'll see. but i think those are the two directions. one is trying to create a framework in congress for debates. maybe a set of goals, for example. the other is to get the voters on our side by education. >> i sympathize with that point of view and have said so myself as well, that it is about education and awareness.

the fiscal cliff to which are you refer would be the enormous tax increase we face? >> we have a number of measures including tax increases, the expiration of the payroll tax cut. the super committee negotiations. those things all hit on the same day and it's a big impact. >> thank you for emphasizing how important that is, sir, and for your great work. i yield back. >> congressman nan hayworth, republican from new york, with questions to the fed chair testifying before the house financial services committee today. i guess the word would be cautious optimism. benjamin applebaum for the new york times. we'll hear from him. but in the past the fed has overestimated the pace of economic recovery. ben bernanke again today reiterating a familiar list of reasons for his cautious optimism including the

depression dpresed condition of the housing market and economic turbulence in europe. the uncertainty over the future of oil prices putting a big cloud on the future of the economic recovery and expectations somewhat lower today about the long-term jobs outlook. among those posing questions, ron paul in springfield virginia last night with an eye on super tuesday, a republican presidential candidate. he's a member of the house financial services committee with questions to the fed chair who he s often a critic on issues including inflation and rising prices. >> but i do want to make a point about prices because prices go up. that, to me, is not inflation. it is one of the bad consequences of the inflation which comes from the increase in the money supply. it's one of the bad effects. but you took over the fed in 2006. i have a silver ounce here. this ounce of silver back in

2006 would buy over four gallons of gasoline. today it buys almost 11 gallons. that's preservation of value and what the market says should be money which comes in a natural way not by governments declaring it is money. why is it that we can't consider the two of us an option. you love paper money. i think money should be constitutional, still in the books, gold and silver legal tender. why don't we allow currencies to run parallel. they do around the world. one of my options as much as i would like to do something, they say the fed will self-destruct when the money is gone. why not legalize competing

currencies. why can't you put this in a mattress and get the value in a few years. so it would destroy the value of paper money at the same time real money is preserved. a competing currency, we already have a silver eagle. it's legal tender for a dollar. some people say, well, it's legal tender, it's a dollar, it's on the books. they use it and they get into big trouble. the government closes them down. you can get arrested for that. what would be wrong with talking about parallel currency and competing currencies? this is something hyak talked about. we could work along those views. >> first of all, good to see you again, congressman paul. [ laughter ] >> just one word on inflation. of course the numbers are constructed by the bureau of labor statistics, not the fed.

they are done in a serious, thoughtful way. on alternative currencies, nobody prevents you from holding silver or gold if you want to. it's legal to do that. it's also fine to hold other currencies. euro or yen or whatever else. in that respect you can do it. i would be happy to talk to you about -- >> that's not money. when you pay taxes to buy a coin or you have capital gains tax. if you have to settle a lawsuit it's never never settled in the real contract. when it's illegal to use it. but to do it you have to repeal the legal tender laws, legalize this, get over the sales taxes. get rid of the capital gains taxes. even in mexico they are trying to have competing currencies. they have been wiped out many times with inflation wiping out the middle class.

they are allowing people to save in a silver currency. i hope we move along in that direction. there shouldn't be an overwhelming change all of the sudden that there could be a transition. >> i would be happy to talk about it. >> thank you. >> complete with the silver coin, congressman ron paul to ben bernanke. he asked the fed chairman if he does his own shopping at the grocery store trying to get answers on his sense of inflation and what we can expect in the weeks and months ahead. by the way the fed chairman testifies twice a year for a formal review of the fed's management of the nation's monetary policy. the senate hearing will be taking place tomorrow in washington. the tone of the hearing today was one of caution. reporting of benjamin applebaum

for the new york times. >> they have been burned a couple times in recent years by being overly optimistic about the condition of the economy by predicting things were about to take a turn for the better and then when things flatlined or took a turn for the worse they looked foolish. you are now hearing a greater caution on pronouncing the economy has turned the corner. >> we heard a moment ago about the potential of higher gas prices, oil prices and energy prices overall and the impact on any economic recovery. >> the higher gas prices go, the greater the impact on the economy. there is an estimate that every $10 increase in gas the economy will expend .2 percentage points slower this year. that's obviously if you get to $20 to $50 increase in the price of gas which we have seen, it

could be a significant hit to growth. but the current level of oil prices is not enough in and of itself to derail the economy. >> for those who want to follow you, where can they find you? >> bcappelbaum on b twitter. >> mr. bernanke would you tell me whether you do your own shopping at the grocery store? why did congressman paul ask that? >> he is pointing out that the price of food has been increasing and when the fed talks about the amount of inflation they want in the economy they want prices and wages to increase no more than 2% a year. food has been increasing more quickly. fed does not include food prices in inflation because they fluctuate quite a bit. they don't include gas prices in that measure. what mr. paul is noting is that for ordinary americans buying

gas, buying food and living their daily life inflation feels more significant than the numbers show. he was challenging mr. bernanke and saying isn't inflation much more of a problem than the fed is acknowledging? >> benjamin's work is at nytimes.com. for the fist time in seven months the president is sitting down for a bipartisan luncheon, a private session that took place at the white house. this is the first such meeting since the debt ceiling negotiations last summer that ultimately dissolved. the group limited to top congressional leaders which means mitch mcconnell, harry reid and house speaker john boehner and the house democratic leader nancy pelosi, that left out eric cantor. last summer the president and the republican of the house had a tense encounter. white house staff saying eric

cantor repeatedly interrupted the president. cantor's staff saying the president walked out but they have been working on a number of jobs packages. the jobs issue, the economy and gas prices came up. following the luncheon the speaker of the house and the senate republican leader back on capitol hill meeting with reporters. >> good afternoon, everyone. we had a positive lunch at the white house today. i believe there is common ground between the two parties particularly on jobs and on energy. i'd like to think some of the bipartisan bills we have moved through the house will with taken up soon by democrats over in the senate. you know, during the state of the union address the president said he was for an all of the above national energy policy. the house of republicans has been for an all of the above

national energy policy for about five years. it's the same approach that his jobs council supported as well. we offered to work with the president on some of the bipartisan bills that have been passed in the house. the president believed that there were some areas where we could find common ground and frankly i was encouraged by that. we also discussed the jobs act. the package of bipartisan bills that was introduced yesterday. the president was optimistic about moving the bill through the house. it was a very good lunch. i'm encouraged by the attitude and tone we had during the meeting. >> i share the speaker's view that the lunch was productive. but the bottleneck has been the

united states senate. the speaker indicated a number of proposals on a bipartisan basis. many of them supported by the president of the united states have not been acted upon by the senate. i hope the majority leader is responsible obviously for deciding which bills we turn to. we'll turn to bills which can pass and be signed into law. the house passed a number of bills. the president has indicated he's for them. the bottleneck has been the senate. i think we ought to pass the bills, get them to the president for his signature as soon as we can. >> couple of questions. >> did you talk about the energy policy and on the keystone pipeline did you say what can we do specifically here in a timely fashion? >> we talked about a number of energy policies. we talked about bills that have

come out of the house. president thought we could find common ground. i pressed the president on the pipeline. he said you will get part of it. i wish we'd get the part to deliver oil out of canada and north dakota. >> the part of the pipeline we are getting doesn't require the president's approval to build a pipeline from oklahoma to the gulf. we hope he'll reconsider. we know it was studied for four years already. we know the nebraska issue has been solved. there is no reason not to create jobs now rather than after the president's election. >> mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate joined by house speaker john boehner as they spoke to reporters on capitol hill after a noon luncheon at the white house. it was a private session. the luncheon initiated by the president to sit down with a

bipartisan congressional leader and at the white house briefing today karen bohan had questions to press secretary jay carney. >> can you talk about the timing of the meeting with congressional leaders, why it came about now? both sides are upbeat. isn't it a sign of the partisanship and the fighting between the two parties that there has not been a meeting of this kind since july? >> well, two things about that. one is that there has certainly been communication between the president and the leaders of the house and senate and in the time since they last sat down together? i think last summer and spring were notable for the high number of hours the leaders spent together with the president as they tried to work out, a vovoi

and work out deficit and debt reduction in the summer. as for the meeting it was an opportunity as the president saw it to meet with the leadership at the beginning of this year. it was useful to do it after congress acted on the president's highest priority for the beginning of the year which was ensuring that the payroll tax cut was extended so that 160 million americans didn't see their taxes go up tomorrow. having done that it was an opportunity for the president to meet with the republican and democratic leaders to talk about other areas where we can cooperate and work together to help grow the economy, enhance job creation and in general pursue the american people's agenda. so i think that is a good way of looking at the timinging of this meeting. >> in your answer to ben on energy policy it's clear that

you and the republicans are very far apart on that issue in particular. so what specifically leads to this optimism, you know, is there anything on energy policy where you found common ground other than both agreeing that it's a problem? >> well, again, i think there is keystone and political posturing around that. then there are certainly other areas in the realm of what the president describes as his all of the above approach to energy policy where there should be energy independence. he welcomes the opportunity to look at other --

so i think that the constructive and cordial nature of the meeting today, you know, encompasses an array of issues, not just energy, but certainly energy was discussed. >> jay carney, white house press secretary reacting to the luncheon that took place with president obama, vice president biden and a bipartisan list of congressional leaders. some background for the next story from u.s. today reporting that defensive i can't and samir sharma had just ordered appetizers on the costa concordia when the cruise ship lurched, the lights went out. after emergency lights came on the massachusetts couple celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary climbed six flights of stairs to their room despite a lack of emergency training

since they boarded the ship earlier in the day near rome. they knew life jackets were in the closet because she placed her husband's jacket in the closet but said crew mates would not say why the ship was listing badly to port just off the italian coast. the problem was expanded when the electrical malfunction took place. the couple would later learn the ship struck rocks that gashed a hole on the side of the ship. 25 people killed, seven others remain missing. today on capitol hill a congressional hearing focusing on what happened and less sons for the u.s. cruise line industry. >> at about 9:15 we were at our dinner table on deck three in the process of ordering our food. we had just ordered appetizers. at that moment there was a violent shaking of the ship followed by large crash noises as plates and glasses broke due to the listing of the ship to the starboard side.

lights went out immediately but there was no announcement. it was pitch dark with no visibility. everyone nearby started to scream. a few minutes into the ordeal the emergency lights came on and we observed that the ship is now listing on the port side. this is when the first announcement came on telling us that it was an electrical failure and that everything is under control. crew members urged passengers to remain calm and seated. the staff started to bring out food as if nothing bad had happened. while the ship is still tilted we saw a few crew members in our dining room break down crying and extremely panic. when we glanced outside we saw around five to seven crew members wearing life jackets but still the announcements continued telling us to remain calm and seated and the electrical issue is being worked on. everything is under control. around 10:00 p.m., about 30 minutes into the situation we are still in our dining room when my husband decided it's time for us to go get our life

jackets from the room. at this point we have no idea if we don't have to go back to the room where else can we get the life jackets from. we had no knowledge where to get the life jackets otherwise. i had spotted the life jackets in the closets of the room since i was unpacking and putting our luggage away. as we went out of the dining room we were imbalanced due to the tilt. there was water, wine and broken glass on the dining room floor. it was extremely hard to walk and maintain balance. once outside we were immediately unable to locate the stairs as we had taken the elevators to get to deck three. there were dim emergency lights. we climbed six floors to get to our room in the dark. somehow we managed to get to our room holding the guard rals, exhausted and panicked. as we were getting to the room there were constant announcements of the same message. ladies and gentlemen, everything

is under control at this point. it seems to be a generator failure. please stay calm and wait for further instructions and be cooperative. what caught our attention was all the announcements were made on behalf of the captain. never once did we hear the captain speak. however there was a sense of panic in the announcer's voice that kept making the announcement. we did manage to get the door unlocked using the card key after several failed attempt. the room had no light and it was dark. i stumbled on things that had fallen on the floor. at that time my husband decided to stay in the middle of the door to keep it open and pushing the furniture back to make room to get our life jackets. the ship felt a little more tilted and the room's furniture had shifted significantly. i knew where the life jackets were because i had just unpacked the luggage in the closets. once we got the life jackets we got out of the room and spotted our state room attendant nearby.

i asked where are we supposed to go and she replied in an irritated tone saying, madam, there is no emergency. you do not need to go anywhere. stay here and wait for further instructions and for the emergency alarm to sound which we had no idea how it would sound like. as she started walking away and we asked her again, in an emergency where are we supposed to meet. she said on deck four. we were unaware the root cause of the ordeal. there were no emergency alarms going off. the same announcement kept repeating telling passengers to remain calm and the electrical issue is under control. while we are going to deck four we saw crew members running around, panicked, frustrated and clueless. no one seemed to have a clear idea as to what they had to do in this situation or where they were supposed to send us. people seemed to direct themselves to deck four and

stood near any available lifeboat. as we were making our way to deck four we located and saw a lot of people just sitting outside of their rooms waiting. people were sitting on the stairs closer to deck four. we went ahead and stood closer to a lifeboat. at this point there were three or four crew members trying to keep the crowd away from the boats. there is no communication as to when they would allow us to get on the lifeboat or what we are supposed to do. the time now is 10:30 p.m. and one of the crew members came and practically gave us the same instructions urging us to go back to our rooms and wait for further instructions and everything is under control. >> divya sharma, accident survivor. this is c-span radio's "washington today." >> with more on the hearing before the house transportation and infrastructure committee we are joined by keith lang. he's following the newspaper for the hill newspaper.

thank you very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> this hearing on the heels of the accident off the coast of italy on the costa concordia. what about the u.s. cruise line industry. any safety concerns overall? >> there were a lot of assurances given in today's hearing from the industry and lawmakers that the u.s. cruise lines are safe. they stressed the costa conco concordia is an italian ship. >> there was a lot of testimony including those on the ship. >> there was a couple who testified today who said they were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary on the ship. they just described their experience. they said they were sitting down to dinner at 9:15 when the ship hit the reef, they described the violent shaking.

a graphic description of the day. that stood out. >> what about the procedures that cruise lines need to take into account when passengers get on the boat preparing them for a potential disaster and also the emergency drills that are required mandatory on most cruise ships? >> congress passed legislation dealing with cruise ship safety in 2010. it was signed by the president. that dealt mostly be with passenger behavior. they wanted to streamline the process for crimes to be investigated and reported while ships were at sea. there is an effort to require that emergency preparation training be given to passengers before the ship leaves. right now there is a limit that can be given after the ship has set sail. so they are kind of looking at the legislation in examining whether there needs to be more

done legislatively to address the issues. the coast guard has said they feel pretty secure about the precautions on ships. >> the cruise line industry does have a lobbyist that represents them. what questions came up to christine duffy, president of the cruise line association. >> she thought the stress the industry overall was safe. she mentioned since 2002 there have been only 28 fatalities on cruise ships which was about the number involved in the accident in italy. she said even one is too many. safety is their number one priority. she said if people don't feel it's safe they won't take them.

>> what was the tone? >> not confrontational at all. rick young from alaska said there is a good ship. the problem was we had a captain who forgot he was a captain. the take away i had is that no one was blaming the industry. they were blaming that particular accident. >> do you think there will be legislative action. whether congress will take it up beyond today's hearing? >> the senate is holding a similar hearing tomorrow. we haven't seen legislation emerge. but the sponsor of the cruise ship of last year said more legislation, they should be offering some. >> the headline from the hill.com.