fears being expressed and to establish the factual basis upon which these have been founded. >> democratic senator sam ervin in 1973, 39 years ago, marking the start of the historic watergate hearings and network television breaking away from the soap operas and game shows to provide coverage of the historic hearings that led ultimately a year later to the resignation of richard nixon and the atension of gerald tax reform ford as our only appointed vice president and later president. 39 years ago today the watergate hearings began. this is washington today on c-span radio. >> jane is our guest this friday on afterward on c-span radio and discusses his book, peace, they say, a history of the nobel peace prize, the most famous and controversial prize in the world. >> to honor the u.n. and there were also saying they were admonishing the american administration in this new war against terror, don't you dare go it alone, everything must go

through the u.n. that was a message of that peace prize, and i think the chairman -- >> do you know that? i mean, that's -- >> the chairman was explicit in his so-called presentation speech he gave at the prize ceremony, yes. he was very explicit the next year when the prize goes to jimmy carter and when the chairman announces the prize to carter, he says this prize is intended not just as a personal award for mr. carter but as a kick in the leg to the american administration and all that follow that line. >> jay nordingler discusses his book with matt murphy of the wall street journal friday on 7 p.m. eastern on c-span radio. >> c-span radio is wcps fm washington and around the country on 119 and washington today continues. >> so to toss this into the mix

right now saying we have to have cuts that exceed even the lifting of the extent to which we lift the debt ceiling is really in the tour irresponsible. let's get serious. >> president and i had a productive talk. never got to where we wanted to get, but we all know this is coming. >> remember the debate over raising the debt limit last summer? it is back in earnest here in washington again today as the speaker of the house reflecting on his meeting yesterday some calling it the hoagie summit as the president bringing sandwiches from a sub shop a few blocks from the white house as he met yesterday with congressional leaders for the first time on camera we heard from the speaker of the house and the democratic leader nancy pelosi and we'll have more on 24ir comments in just a moment. this is hour two of washington today. i am steve scully. thanks for being with us. both receiving the support of at

least 70 senators and the nominations of jeremy stein of harvard university, a professor there and jerome powell who served in the george herbert walker bush administration as the under secretary for the treasury department getting the support of the senators and now for the first time since 2006 the fed will have a full complement of governors. the postal service saying it is moving ahead with plans to close dozens of processing center the. earlier this month they had written letters to the postmaster general urging the post office to hold off on closing these facilities but postal officials saying they can't wait any longer, congress remains deadlocked on exactly how to help. and when facebook shares go on the market tomorrow, they will start at $38 a share. washington keeping a close eye on all of this, and jamie dimon of j.p. morgan chase confirming he will testify before the senate banking committee. the date is to be determined. he will talk about the company's $2 billion loss earlier this month and as he announced the loss from that hedge fund

investment. let's begin with this story as republican senator bob corker is calling on the speaker to do what the senate will not do on the debt, a story from russell burm burman. he says he is calling on john boehner to do what the democratic controlled senate will not do and honor last august debt ceiling accord by rejecting a senate passed highway bill and postal reform legislation. recommendations from a senate republican as speaker of the house john boehner following up on his comments yesterday telling the president that he will not go along with raising the debt limit unless there are significant spending cuts and reforms to the debt issue. the speaker of the house talking to reporters today following the meeting yesterday at the white house and here is the ohio republican john boehner. >> back together with the president talking about the deficit. do you think there is a dynamic change. do you see renewed hope to talk

about with the president? >> i live for hope. i said it this morning. i am an optimist i was born with the glass half full and get up every morning thinking it is possible. if i didn't, i sure couldn't do this job. i don't under estimate the difficulty in coming to an agreement but let's be honest. we know the end of the year is coming. we know what's going to happen. if we don't use this opportunity to increase the debt limit and make real changes in how we spend the american people's money, we're missing a golden opportunity. >> realistically do you see a scenario where you could possibly vote on this and get in front of the game before the election and making your members take a cuff vote on the debt ceiling regardless of cuts to go

along to be ahead of the game? >> i am not under estimating the difficulty. all i am suggesting is this the conversations could start. we could get our arms around this problem. it is not like our debt problem is going to go away. when the president told me yesterday that he wanted a clean increase in the debt limit, it almost took my breath away. we had this debate last year. i reminded the president when we put that idea on the floor of the house it got about 20 votes. over 400 members against it. the problem is the debt. the problem is the spending. washington keeping kicking the can down the road, kicking the can down the road, just like our friends and across the atlantic, and look at where they are. we have time to act. why don't we act on our own?

>> i think the sooner we deal with this problem the better off we'll all be. >> the speaker of the house john boehner of course marked the week with a high profile speech on tuesday and again saying that he and fellow republicans will oppose another debt limit hike unless it is accompanied by a spending cut at least as large as any debt hike increase and the democratic leader of the house of representatives is nancy pelosi that joins other leaders today in according to the hill newspaper hammering the speaker for threatening and other down grade to the country's credit rating with another drawn out showdown. here is nancy pelosi. >> here we go again, and i know it came up in the meeting at the white house. i wanted to get your take on speaker boehner drawing the line in the sand once again this week on the debt ceiling. should the american people be preparing for another showdown standoff on the debt ceiling? >> what i believe that the

american people want us to work together to find a balanced approach, similar to what the president and he agreed to last year before he walked away from it. that is that you have -- we know we have to balance the budget. we have to establish our priorities and make the cuts accordingly and we have to have revenue on the table and we have to invest in growth because the creation of jobs is what will bring revenue to the treasury and continue our economic recovery which is important to the american people, so to toss this into the mix right now saying we have to have cuts that exceed even the lifting of the extent to which we lift the debt ceiling is really immature, irresponsible, let's get serious. >> speaker pelosi. >> yes. >> when you talk about balanced approach, you know i followed the debt ceiling so closely.

it sounds like we are in the same position where we were last summer leading up to that august deadline. >> put an end to it. as you know, even eventually with the budget control act which now the republicans are walking away from, even with the budget control act our credit rating was lowered because the debate ever even took place and lowered the confidence that we would address the deficit. this is not a whole some debate. it already can be damaging just the fact that it is brought up. i think we should snuff it out immediately. >> roughly he said today he did not personally believe they need to offset the cost of extending the tax cuts when they take the vote later this year. does that position in your mind under mine the sincere on deficit reduction. >> you have to go a long way to under mine the sin ritie on

deficit reduction. the very fact they would say tax cuts for the wealthy don't have to be offset but investments in the education of our children, medicare for our seniors, any other subject that has to be offset is really a statement of their values. you have to give them credit. they stick with the guy that brought them to the dance and the guy that blout them to the dance is the special interest wealthiest people in our country and willing to deepen the deficit, make us further in debt to china and other countries in order to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in the country and it is not creating jobs. so it is not even a question of sincere we all agree if we have to reduce the deficit, but we don't start by saying let's give a and let's not pay for it and now we're deeper in debt. on another day older and deeper in debt.

you're too young to know what that means. >> the democratic leader in the house of representatives nancy pelosi calling for what she called a quick resolution on this debt limit increase to prevent history from repeating itself and she was referring to what happened last year when following the debt debate here in washington, standard & poor's downgraded the triple a credit rating for the first time in our country's history. russell burman is following this and joining us on the toen in washington and his work available online at the hill.com. russell, thanks for being with us. >> good to be on. >> let's begin with the debate framed earlier this week by the speaker of house john bainer and accented yesterday with what many are calling the hoagie summit, the meeting that took place at the white house between the president and congressional leaders and on the record comments from as we heard a moment ago nancy pelosi and the speaker. >> right. well, the speaker is defending his push today and earlier this week saying i just want to start

talking because we know this is coming and we might as well get down to it and not wait until the lame duck session at the end of the year. the conventional wisdom with good reason is in the heat of the presidential campaign you're not going to see the kind of grand bargain that will be needed to deal with not only the debt ceiling but these tax cuts that are expiring and the automatic spending cuts set to take effect next year. >> at the top of the hour i was reading an excerpt from your story from the hill republican senator bob corker calling on the speaker to do what the senate will not do on the debt and explain the details. what is under senator corker's plan and what does he want the house to do? >> it is quite interesting. it illustrates that the speaker is facing pressure from both sides relating to the debt deal that was signed in august of last year, and senator corker is calling on the house to stand firm and not pass bills that have passed the senate largely

with corker's opposition and passed the senate on postal reform and the highway bill that corker and some other republicans argue spent more than called for in the august debt deal which set a spending level for 2012. now, on the other hand democrats are accusing boehner and house republicans of violating the debt deal in the opposite direction by moving appropriations bills that spend much less than the spending level agreed to in that, so coming from the right and the democrats are coming at boehner from the left so he is once again in a difficult position. >> any reaction from the house speaker or his staff? >> a very brief one. just said that the house has and will honor the budget control act which of course is the debt ceiling deal, that coming from boehner's spokesman michael steele. >> we're talking with russell burman of the hill newspaper.

we heard from the treasury secretary saying essentially they could hold this off, the vote on air debt limit until after the election. where does that put the debate this summer and maybe more significantly where that puts a potential lame duck session? >> right. so the democrats, they think they hold the cards to the most part whether it comes to all of these expiring provisions in the spending cuts and so they are in no rush to deal with them. one, you know, the election that's going to happen in november is going to have a lot to say about where the political wins are at and where what the voters say, whether president obama is heading into a second term, whether mitt romney is getting ready to be inaugurated, and so harry reid according to democratic aids in this meeting at the white house a couple of days ago or yesterday said that they shouldn't even be discussing the debt ceiling until after they've dealt with the tax cuts that expire at the end of the year and with the spending cuts that are set to take effect, so he basically

said i am not ready to talk about it and let's wait until the end of the year. >> so where does this debate go next? we have had the statement from the house speaker. we know where the president stands on things. we have democratic leader pelosi weighing in saying she wants a quick resolution and moving into the memorial day recess and into the summer months where both parties will hold their conventions, somewhat limited discretion level so when it comes to the debate over this issue, what's going to happen? >> in the short-term it becomes a talking point for speaker boehner and the house republicans to say, look, we are -- we have laid out our position now. it is up to the senate and the white house and to, you know, we're ready to talk, but they're not willing to engage with us, and so that's a talking point for them. the other interesting thing, though, is whether or not speaker boehner and the republican leaders will schedule any votes related to the debt ceiling in the house before the election. he was asked about this today,

and he did not give a direct answer, so it is possible that they could come up with their own plan somewhat similar to what they did last year and try to pass that through the house, but it also could just be a rhetorical strategy where they're urging negotiations and it is up to the president and the senate to respond, you know, in time. >> and russell burman, if i could i want to share with the audience one of the stories that broke later today from your colleagues reporting that jamie dimon will be testifying before the senate banking committee, the "new york times" reporting this morning that the losses have actually climbed to closer to 3 billion rather than 2 billion, and the hearing is yet to be scheduled but we heard from the chair of the senate banking committee tim johnson, democrat of south dakota, that he has invited jamie dimon and the j.p. morgan chairman chase accepted that invitation. this is going to be one of those high profile hearings in which we're going to hear from both sides on the dodd-frank

legislation and the debate moving forward on regulations. >> yes, that's right. as you said it is going to be highly watched and he is on the hook. i think we also saw reports that treasury secretary tim geithner made comments in another interview today regarding jamie dimon to basically suggesting that he is has an image problem and that he has to deal with and so clearly it is also going to impact the implementation of the volcker rule, that dimon has been very much opposing. it will be an interesting two weeks on the hill. >> safe to say the hill newspaper will be there and c-span will be covering the hearing when it happens. the senate banking committee has two scheduled hearings on this issue and again the date is to be determined. thanks very much for being with us, russell burman from the hill newspaper as always. we appreciate your time and perspective. >> thank you. >> this is washington today on c-span radio.

we have been asking you all this week whether or not you think congress will accomplish anything in this election year. our listener feedback line is open at 202-626-7962. here is what some of you are saying. >> hi, gary from maryland, independent who was actually a one time support for romney but when i hear boehner talking about they're not going to this year because they want to make sure the tax increases for the reach don't go up and he this cut back to the social security and medicare program, so it is just the same old thing i hear from the republicans. i have voted republican. i have voted democrat. i can't vote republican this year. i can't see giving tax breaks to the rich and talking about the deficit, the main thing. the only thing they want to do

to fix it is take from social kurt and medicare and which is a paid program. we paid into it for years. i have paid into it for 40 some years now. i just can't fathom this ridiculous, but, no, getting nothing done because unless the rich get their tax breaks nothing will be done. >> my name is lisa from baltimore, maryland, and i don't think congress will get anything done with the bickering back and forth, the one sidedness. i am a single divorced mom of three and i am one of the one that is they're talking about with cutting the food benefit program. i am the working poor. i mean, don't think think it is sad that i even qualify for food stamps and i work 40 hours a week? >> hi. i am calling from maryland, richard. i believe that congress will not

get anything done this year and if the past is prolonged republicans will put a stumbling block in front of any progress. thank you very much. good day. >> i am from virginia. i just don't think they're going to get anything done this year, nothing. i really think we all need to just get together and as far as the tax cuts for the rich and i just think we should do away with all of this and let the money go where it is supposed to go. and take this earned income credit and cut it in half and don't need that no more. getting in the way. we need to start paying our taxes. by the middle class not wanting to pay our taxes and we wanting

the tax breaks, it gives the republicans a way of saying we give them tax breaks and give the rich people tax breaks and let us all pay our fair share, the rich, middle class, you know, and cut this earned income credit in half and too much money every year anyway. and get on with getting the country back in line. that's what we need to do. no, they won't get nothing done, nothing. >> that's what some of are you saying about congress in this election year whether or not you think the house and senate will reach agreement on anything of significance. with he welcome your comments. we'll have more tomorrow in the friday addition of washington today. give us a call. tomorrow marks the start of the g 8 summit originally scheduled to take place in chicago and earlier this year the white house announcing a change of venue. they're hoeding the leaders at

camp david a short distance from washington, d.c. the president will raise specific actions he thinks europe should take with the debt crisis on the g-8 summit and saying the ultimate division would come down to what continental leader in europe want for themselves and it will start tomorrow with the french president, the newly elected french president who will meet with the president at the white house before heading up to camp david and all of these issues coming up in today's briefing with national security advisor tom donlin who spoke to reporters at the white house. the other issue that came up in addition to economic issues was of course the issue that the nato summit will undertake, afghanistan. there have been calls by the french government for an early withdrawal of troops from afghanistan and the white house is expected to call on nato leaders to provide more financial assistance inside afghanistan. here is the briefing today, tom donlin, the national security advisor at the white house.

>> in response to a question asked you said you were defendant confidence that president allan will keep his campaign commitments. how confident are you that the president will be able to persuade him to give up his campaign pledge to withdraw troop from afghanistan by year's end? >> i tell you a couple of things about that. i have said that directly. a lean's question was about iran, and i think that we look forward to having france as a strong ally and we look forward to having france as a strong ally generally. to go to your question with respect to afghanistan, what he said during the course of his campaign is he would withdraw all combat troops from afghanistan by the end of 2012. he will have to make his national decision with respect to that. what we would look to a country to do as they make national decisions and indeed we make national decisions with respect to our withdrawal as well. we decided we would draw down our surge troops to full 33,000 by the end of september of this

year and that's what we're doing, but we would look to an ally to make those decisions in the context of the overall lisbon framework and that framework allows for different kinds of contributions to be made by countries, contributions including combat troops, right, and i would point out that the province with the fresh are most prominent is a province scheduled to transition during the course of this year, capisa. we would look to allies to make their national decisions in the context of the overall alliance approach which has us in as i saf until the end of 2014. you can make all kinds of contributions. you can make combat contributions, train and assist contributions, other kinds of contributions and we'll have a discussion with the french about where they to want go on this. the key concept here, though, is again despite the specific nature of the contributions, and despite the national decision you might make about withdrawal or timing withdrawal that you are a member of the alliance and

all in together and out together as an alliance and a general fashion. >> along the lines of what the u.s. has already donor the u.s. is maybe they might withdraw the combat troops and training mission. >> i think those would be the kinds of discussions we look forward to having. i am being direct with you. the kinds of discussions that we look forward to having is what exactly will not french contribution going forward. taking into account that president a lan ran for president of france and ran on a platform and i am sure he intends to keep his campaign commitments but also france is a member of the alliance and a member of isaf, an ally of the united states, so i think it is appropriate for us to have a discussion about this. >> a preview of the g-8 and the nature owe summit getting under way this weekend at camp david in chicago respectively and you can watch the entire briefing as

with all of our programming any time at c-span.org. news from the pentagon today that the u.s. will provide an additional $70 million to support israel's short range missile defense system, that announcement from leon panetta issuing a statement saying that he was directed by the president to fill israel's request for the cash needed to run what is known as the iron dome system. the u.s. already has provided israel with more than $200 million for this system in addition to the roughly $3 billion given to israel annually for security assistance and the defense department plans to request additional funding for the iron dome over the next three years and an exact figure on the additional assistance has not been given and it was one of the question that is came up earlier with spokesperson george little. >> spencer. >> is the department looking for any applications that iron dome might have to the united states for either protecting or site installations, perhaps navy

ships, et cetera? >> the focus of iron dome is the course on israel and at this stage and if there are applications elsewhere and can't rule out the possibility we would be looking to transfer that knowledge elsewhere and this really is about israel and our commitment to that system. as you know in march that system was responsible for taking down 300 or excuse me 80% of several hundred rockets directed towards israel, so it is a proven system that works and that's why you saw today's announcement. it is a proven system. missile defense is important to israel. we're committed to supporting the israelis. >> let me ask a little bit more on this. $70 million in fiscal '12, is that what you're providing? >> that's what we're proposing a a reprogramming effort. >> congress for the fiscal '13 budget has budgeted $680 million

versus $70 million. does seem like a david and goliath mismatch financially. why so little money and are you going to be supportive of the $680 million? >> well, we're supportive of a very structured approach with the israelis and they agree with us and as we saw from minister barack's statement today. 70 million this year, and then at the end of the year we'll assess where we are. this is about assessing new technical challenges that may come our way and threats in the future and so we may need to make adjustments going forward. i think it is safe to say that we have ann enduring commitment to israeli missile defense and what the number will be in the out years, i don't know for the moment, but we expect to have a continued commitment to missile defense in the future. this is about preserving a structured approach. it is prudent and measured. >> last week secretary panetta

complained about the ads from congress that they will take from other needed programs, 680 million was not requested by the pentagon. are you going to oppose that money to israel or is that pretty much off the table in terms of opposition because it is israel? >> we're talking about proposed reprogramming here and that is 70 million is not a small sum, and it is certainly not as large as 680 million. this is again about a prudent measured approach towards supporting israeli missile defense and i don't see this having a major impact on our budget proposals. this is perfectly consistent with our defense strategy and our commitment to the alliance with israel. >> i am talking about -- >> that never happens. >> it does occasionally. the '13 budget, nothing to do with your budget proposal. i am asking, it is well above anything you have requested for iron dome in '13 which was zero. >> we have been authorized