four audio streams of commercial free politics affairs programming. congressional hearings, white house hearings and briefings from national leaders. supreme court oral arguments. book tv, sunday tv and talk shows on the weekends and podcasts of q and a and news makers. the c span radio app free at the ie tunes app store or blackberry app world. >> at the top of the world this is c-span radio. washington today continues. >> will they stand up and uphold freedom? uphold the legacy of this great man and what he did to the country, what a difference he made or will that have been in vain or be the generation that reagan feared and talked about that forgot what america was all about. let's affirm our conviction that

america is a land of opportunity and freedom and usher in a new era of prosperity and leadership. thank you so much and god bless this great land. [ applause ] thank you. >> mitt romney at the university of chicago talking about the issue which has been driving his campaign and his candidacy, rick santorum in the hometown of ronald reagan, dixon, illinois, 54 delegates at stake. welcome to washington today here on c span radio. we'll hear more from both of the republican candidates competing in tomorrow's illinois primary. after illinois it is on to louisiana with a weekend primary. mitt romney winning 20 delegates over the weekend in puerto rico. meanwhile, the lawyer representing the army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 afghans including nine children met with the soldier today at the military's maximum security prison in kansas. attorney john henry brown saying

that his three-hour talk with robert bales included an emotional description of what happened on the ground in afghanistan. bales is yet to be charged. he is being held in an isolated cell. here in washington we're going to hear much more on the debt and deficit as congressman paul ryan the chair of the house budget committee outlines his blueprint for spending. he's expected to get the support of house republicans, but it remains unclear if it will go anywhere in the u.s. senate. the hill newspaper reporting that the leaders of the senate armed services committee are warning the pentagon do not make any sudden moves without consulting us first. that's the message from the chair carl levin and john mccain. they had written a letter to defense secretary leon panetta urging that the pentagon not reduce forces until the congressional committees have authorized the 2013 defense budget. the senators wrote quote, it has become clear that the pentagon plans to start making moves for the 2013 budget in the current fiscal year before the

congressional committees have been able to tackle the 2013 budget request. we request that you not take actions until you meet with us first. you can read more on this story online at thehill.com. let's turn to presidential politics and the campaign for illinois. today at the university of chicago mitt romney again outlining his economic agenda pivoting away from campaigning against rick santorum and focussing his time and energy and political ammunition on barack obama. and then asked questions among those participating including young people whether or not they will vote and if so, whom to vote for. >> second question. many young people have been affected by the recession more than most. given you have delivered this talk at a university, what might you say specifically to young people about your economic policy in how might you address crippling student loans, unand under employment and a lagging economy that would speak to the struggling young adults in particular in america? >> i joke and i don't mean to be

flip with this because i actually see truth in it. i don't see how a young american can vote for -- well, can vote for a democrat. i apologize for being so offensive. i mean that in the humor there's some truth there. i say that for this reason. that party is focused on providing more and more benefits to my generation. and amounting trillion dollar deficit my generation will never pay for. the interest on that debt is going to young people in america. some have called it the greatest inner generational trants for of wealth in the history of human kind. it's going on piece by piece. my party is consumed with the idea of getting federal spending down and creating economic growth and opportunity so we can balance our budget and stop putting these debts on you. these debts are not frighten to people my age because we'll be

gone. they ought to be frightening to death to people your age who are concerned about your future. wonder what your tax rates are going to be. and wonder if social security will be there for you. adding insult to injury is the fact that we have an administration that when they were running for office said that social security and medicare were in deep financial trouble and yet three and a haef years later have offered no proposals to balance social security and medicare and make them sustainable for your generation. i have. you may not like my ideas, but at least i put ideas out there to save those programs for your generation. and i've laid out with my economic plan proposals to preserve economic freedom, create growth, will provide jobs for you as you come out of college and will make sure we don't pass our burdens, our debt on to you. that's what -- that really is at the heart of what my party's about. making sure that we preserve

this extraordinary unique nation in the history of the earth, this exceptional place which is imperilled by debt, by lack of a willingness to deal with the challenges we have. by stagnating growth and by an attack on economic freedom among our other freedoms that are being attacked. that's what it's about. that's why we -- sometimes i shake my head we're not doing as good a job as i want to do connecting with young people across the country. you guys otout be out working like crazy for me and for people like me conservatives who want to keep the cost of government down and give you a brighter future. thank you. [ applause ] >> those comments by mitt romney generating a lot of headlines on this monday evening in advance of tomorrow's illinois primary. he spoke to students at the university of chicago. he also talked about jobs and the economy. you can watch the speech anytime on our website. politico puts it this way, since winning the primaries in alabama and mississippi rick santorum's standard remarks have generally exclude an economic plan.

the heart and soul of the message of his chief republican rival has been the economy, mitt romney repeats it as you heard just a moment ago after event after event day after day. and focussing much more on barack obama. today rick santorum did revive talk about jobs and renewing the manufacturing sector, but added my campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates or growth rates. politico indicating that is a clear shot at mitt romney. in dixon, illinois, the former senator from pennsylvania talking about other issues including social issues and health care. here's more from that event earlier today. >> ronald reagan stood for free markets, for a free economy. he would be appalled at looking what is happening today with the government takeover of health care. margaret thatcher after she left the prime ministership of england looked back at what she had accomplished in england at the same time that she served as reagan did.

she said she never was able to accomplish what reagan accomplished in america. she said the reason the british national health care system. she said once government has their hooks into you, once government makes you dependent upon it for your very health and your lives and that of your children and your loved ones, it got you. [ applause ] they got you. and there is no amount of tributes you will not pay to get what you think you need to preserve your health and more importantly the health of those that you love. that's why obama care is the number one issue in this race. it is a race -- it's an issue about fundamental freedom. it's about whether you will be a generation that will be the generation that reagan talked

about. he said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. we didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. but must be fought for, protected and handed on to them to do is same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was like in the united states when men were free. [ applause ] do not be that generation that reagan warned about. there's only one way to stop it from being that way. and that is to make sure that we nominate somebody who can take on barack obama on the issue of health care on the issue of freedom, on the issue of liberty

in this country. [ applause ] someone who's not been for mandated government health care. but someone who understands how critical -- how critical government control of health care is in our society. and is able to go after barack obama. make this is central issue. there's a poll out today in four states -- excuse me, first in the country that showed that 2/3 of americans oppose obama care and the individual mandate. 2/3 of americans. [ applause ] why would the republican party put up a nominee who takes that issue off the table?

who takes the health care issue and government mandates both at the state and federal level which he has supported. why would the republican party nominate someone on the most important issue of the day, freedom, reagan's freedom. why would we take that off the table? that's why you have to help me here in illinois and help me get elected here in the state of illinois. [ applause ] >> rick santorum on the campaign trail in dixon, illinois. he has been in the southern part of the sit making his way to the northern part of the state campaigning in tee yore ra, rockford and dickson, the boyhood home of president ronald reagan. the headline from the "chicago tribune" is candidates making final push with illinois now in the spotlight. and the santorum campaign out with a new national ad taking aim at mitt romney's record. >> okay. a liberal, a moderate and a

conservative walk into a bar. and the bartender says, hello, mitt. funny, but true. you see mitt romney doesn't seem to have any core values. just says what he thinks people want to hear like telling liberals in massachusetts he's pro-choice and always will be. then telling conservatives he's pro-life. now romney's latest pandering after telling us he supports making english our official language seems old mitt got caught in puerto rico telling voters there he opposes them having to learn english to become a u.s. state. rick santorum he stuck to his convictions and told them you want to become a state, start teaching english in your schools. where does romney stand on the issues? it all depends on who he's standing in front of. paid for my rick santorum for president. >> this is rick santorum candidate for president, and i approve this message. >> the latest from the santorum

campaign. that radio ad airing nationwide on xm sirius radio and also on the air today in illinois with 54 delegates at stake tomorrow. a programming reminder tomorrow evening the polls close at 8:00 eastern time. we'll have the results including another simulcast of politico's coverage. rick peerson is keeping track of all of this for the "chicago tribune." polls in the stake indicating that mitt romney has some momentum as he indicated in our last hour, these polls are all over the place. >> go back to mississippi and alabama where the polling numbers were all over the place, too. we're starting to see a little bit of separation between romney and santorum. but again, traditionally

santorum seems to underpoll. sometimes romney overpolls. a lot depends on the turnout. the big question has always been up in the chicago metropolitan area where suburban republicans tend to be more moderate just as we've seen many the past support romney. but there is a high level of apathy out here, which is somewhat surprising given illinois's rare role for republicans to have a say. >> let me ask you about the party establishment, bob edgar -- said he's going to stand on the sidelines. politico has a story that there's a lack of enthusiasm for mitt romney. yet a lot of questions if rick santorum has already peaked. >> indeed as we heard in the clip from santorum about the choice of the establishment republicans, truly if there are such a thing in illinois as establishment republicans and making the minority party for a decade, the establishment republicans are with mitt romney.

now having said that, though, yeah, there is a as we've heard elsewhere in other places, the enthusiasm gap exists for romney. now down state which tends to be more conservative that's the 96 counties outside the chicago metropolitan area that's the more rural, more conservative areas and that's frankly where santorum, the bulk of his support comes from. the bulk of the votes cast many the chicago metropolitan area, if you've got low turnout there, some enthusiasm down state, it could be a long night. >> rick peer soon, his work is available online. as we said at the top of the hour, we'll hear much more from the budget from republicans, house republicans. paul ryan is the chair of the house budget committee. he's expected to release his plan later this week. democrats are angling to reclaim the house of representatives and they have launched a offensive tying 41 house lawmakers to the

proposal which is expected to include changes to entitlement programs for senior citizens. we'll have specifics tomorrow from congressman paul ryan and have more tomorrow afternoon. the democratic congressional campaign committee with its medicare march campaign. it began today with ro bo calls that connect voters to their representative and encouraging the constituents to demand that the plan be defeated. the house is expected to vote on the marked up plan next week. the robo calls assert that supporters of the ryan plan are demanding quote, the seniors who earned their medicare benefits spend thousands more, but refuse to end tax loopholes and give aways for millionaires. it's not fair, it's not right. that's the message from the democratic national campaign committee. here's what it sounds like. >> they just recently voted yes

on paul ryan's budget that will totally dismantle and destroy medicare as we know it today. >> my congressman from the seventh district in pennsylvania has voted to strike down medicare. >> the congressman voted for the ryan budget. a budget which destroys the medicare system that we know. >> mary bono mack recently voted to support the paul ryan budget plan which ends medicare as we know it. >> my name is linda mitchell. i'm a long-term cancer survivor. if it weren't for medicare, i don't think it would be alive today. >> i'm congressman steve israel i've been paying for medicare all my working life. i voted to protect medicare not end it. join our fight at don'tendmedicare.com. >> that website, web video part of the campaign with a simple goal to reclaim the house of representatives for the

democrats. reuters is reporting at this hour that republicans in the house of representatives trying to seize control of the election year spending debate by rolling out a plan that will slash trillion dollar deficits also revival controversial reforms to the medicare health care program as you heard just a moment ago. the effort from paul ryan aiming to portray the republicans as unafraid to face the tough decisions needed to avoid what they warn is a looming debt crisis. in advance of tomorrow's release the chair of the house budget committee with this web video. >> in congress in 2008 we had the economic crisis. it was a terrible time. millions of people lost their jobs. trillions of dollars of wealth gone. that crisis caught us by surprise. let me ask you a question, what if your president, your senator and your congressman knew it was coming. what if you knew when it was going to happen, why it was going to happen, and more

importantly what if they knew what they needed to do to stop it from happening and they had the time to stop it, but they chose to do nothing about it because it wasn't good politics. what would you think of that person? it would be immoral. this coming debt crisis is the most predictable crisis we've ever had in this country and look what's happening. this is why we're acting. this is why we're leading. this is why we're proposing and passing of the house a budget to fix this problem so we can save our country for ourselves and for our children's future. >> the held in today's "the washington post" congressman paul ryan to unveil a new budget as the republicans gird for a fight. it's also available online. roslyn helderman is congressional reporter for the post joining us here today. thanks for being with us.

>> thanks for having me. >> what is in the plan specifically. what can we expect? >> what we've been hearing so far is that on the most important issue, which is the top line for how much is budget is going to say that the government should spend in discretionary spending next year the number that chan ryan is going to propose is $is.028 trillion. that is the same number that was in his budget last year for the fiscal 2013 year. but it's an interesting number. >> what about the time line for reducing the overall debt. that's been one of the issues some say ten years the ryan plan could take up to 30 years. >> that's right. that number will have to wait for it to be scored and get some experts to take a look at it once it's actually on paper. but that number would be much more in line with what he

proposed last year which would eliminate the deficits over something like 30 years. conservatives have been displeased with that last year and one interesting question is going to be whether they're once again displeased this year and whether or not they vote for it even if they think it doesn't reduce deficits quickly enough. >> the rollout actually began last week among congressman ryan's staff, but we'll get details this week. what can we expect from house republicans? what kind of reaction do you think that the gop will give to this plan? >> one of the things that's interesting about the way they're doing it this year versus last year, i think everyone recognizes based on the experience of last year that this is going to be a big symbolic fight between democrats and republicans. no one's going to be taken aback by that as they were a little bit last year. last week what we saw was a very highly produced web video unveiled of congressman ryan. he didn't give any details of the plan.

but he was walking down a hallway on capitol hill and talking about generally the need to reduce debt and how this is a moral problem that needs to be addressed. >> as you pointed out in today's story, rejection of the house budget by the senate is almost assured so where does this go? >> this is pretty much a symbolic statement of republican priority in the house. if this budget gets out of the house it's not picked up by the senate, the real conversation over spending is going to take place amongst aproper raters. the congressmen and woman senators responsible for translating budget into line by line spending items. we're not going to have a real conversation about spending broadly until probably after the november election. some time between november and inauguration day is when people who look at this think that we might have a real chance to have a bipartisan conversation about entitlement reform and tax

reform. there will be some pretty big swords hanging over their heads that are going to start january 1. >> let me follow up on that point. we're talking to rosalind helderman the konl, reporter for "the washington post." your calling is led by lori montgomery, a front page story yesterday with some background on the details of this grand bargain that fell flat last july between the white house and members of congress. can we reach that point again when you talk about about an overall plan to reduce long-term spending and the deficit? >> that's the real question, isn't it? i think the story they wrote that ran yesterday really was an eye opening in explaining how close we came over the summer but how difficult it has been for both parties even when they want to reach that deal to get it. the thing that will change after the election besides we'll be out of the hot caldron of

election politics. the bush tax cuts are set to expire on january 1, the wl thi and the middle class. and the spending cuts that were a consequence for the supercommittee, the big debt reduction supercommittee from the fall failing to come up with a plan. the consequence for that were huge spending cuts which take effect on january 1st. those are some pretty big incentives to come up with some kind of big deal that would reform entitlements and reform tax code and as part of that they would agree to do away with huge spending cuts that take place january 1st and the tax reform would take place of the bush era tax cuts and solve everything. can they really get there? we'll see. >> let me follow up on one point. you've already indicated where congressional democrats will fall in line on in issue. in the piece together you fired a warning shot late last week on the ryan plan. what kind of criticism could he face among conservatives? >> that's going to be one of the

interesting questions. the call for growth said basically that any budget that doesn't call for spending cuts that would eliminate deficits in ten years would be an exercise in futility. it's going to be very interesting to see where some of these tea party conservatives come down on the ryan plan. they voted for it last year. it's basically going to be the same plan as they saw last year. but there might be some pressure to say they want to go faster -- farther faster. the problem for the house leadership is going to be theb railing on democrats in the senate for not coming up with a budget. the senate democrats have just -- they know they kbt get anything past they don't put anything on paper that can't be attacked. they haven't had a budget in three hours. one of the house republicans biggest talking points against the democrats their inability to come one a budget. there's going to be a lot of pressure on the tea party conservatives to vote for this. the worst thing that could happen for republicans is to put

out the plan and have it be scuttled by conservatives. >> her piece is available online. thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks so much for having me. >> this is washington today on c span radio. we want to go back to another issue that is tied in directly to what congress paul ryan will be outlining this week as he talks about his new budget plan and the impact potentially on overhauling medicare. democrats and their allies today beginning a week long celebration of the health care reform law and also a coordinated push to defend its benefits for senior citizens as a way to take aim at the ryan budget plan. the white house and house democrats touting the latest figures according to the hill newspaper on how many medicare beneficiaries have already benefit from the law. the democratic konl shl campaign committee launching robo calls in 41 republicans districts attacking medicare cuts that could result from congressman ryan's budget proposal. here's more on how this issue is playing out with regard to the health care anniversary and the

impact on the debate here in washington specifically medicare. you're going to hear from congress basera a democrat from california on a teleconference call today he was joined by a senator from illinois. >> first question is from daniel your line is open. >> caller: thank you. i wanted to ask about the gop budget that's supposed to be released tomorrow. it's supposed to include a provision that paul ryan authored and this is something that the republicans are going to say has some level of bipartisan support. do you think that the ryan-widen part of this gop budget means that it's bipartisan? >> we'd like to think that. >> go ahead, javier. >> first let's recognize that the democrats have united behind the affordable care act and we believe that not only is the savings debt, the affordable care act which it will bring

over the years not just to medicare and medicaid, but to health care generally in this country something that's good, but something that should be built upon. the ryan budget has you're aware has called for the end of medicare as we know it. it would end the medicare guarantee. it would shift the cost of health care over to seniors. some estimates are that it would cost seniors out of pocket as an additional $6,000. congressman ryan has worked with senator widen on a proposal. it's certainly not something that many those of us who have supported medicare and its protection would be supporting if it indeed would call for the end of medicare as we know it. >> this is jan sha kous ki. the key feature is the lack of the medicare guarantee. what the ryan budget initially

and now that this proposal does is create a voucher which they say the difference is it can also be used for what they call traditional medicare. you can still use that to buy in medicare. the problem is the voucher does not keep up and in the proposal would not keep up with the rising costs of health care. it would fall behind in its ability to cover the cost. and therefore would shift the cost as the original ryan plan did to the older, older person. it also could create an adverse selection opportunity for -- that would put the sicker people into medicare where the private insurance companies would select