think -- he did not push the bank's hard enough. that is my opinion. host: columbus, ohio on our democrats' line. caller: i have a trivia question for you and of the audience. i have been trying for the last week to find out what "d" in d- day means. host: winchester on our republican time. caller: i would give him an f. the problem i have is that when he went and at the beginning they had an opportunity to buy these at discounted rates, yet they give the banks a dollar for dollar buyout. that is insane. we had a tremendous opportunity if you wanted to control these banks are put them into the

position to have to repay money you should have gone after the good assets, not the bad. then again, you have someone who was in the banking business running it -- and that is geithner. guest: in terms of tim geithner he has been criticized for being a part of the banking industry. he has been a public servant most of his career. he worked as a career professional at the treasury and then at the international monetary fund and then president of the new york fed. so, in terms of his background -- there's a perception since he came from the new york said that he is sympathetic to the banking industry, but his background as not necessarily reflect that. the interesting thing about the calls is that clearly people are not happy with the banking industry. it is never really that popular, but when the economy goes well is not so notice.

the problems that have erupted in the past year have led to intense scrutiny. i think there is a real anger at the banking industry and expect some of it will dissipate as the economy picks up. as credit begins to flow more smoothly at businesses and consumers find it easier to borrow, but still, i am sure the anger expressed in these phone calls is reflective of much concern across the country. host: there is a story this morning in the paper talking about the political action committees of some of the banking associations. the association has some $700,000 in holdings. the credit union national association has $578,000 in holdings. talk about this and how they're

responding currently? guest: it is a powerful interest group. we will have a case study of its power over the next year as congress tries to put together a financial services regulatory regime. they have weighed in heavily on initiatives discussed. consolidating various agencies into one strong begin later. many of the banking groups do not like that. they are comfortable with the current system. it is one of many interest groups who have strength in washington. it is a powerful group. when they come together to fight an initiative they usually have a strong cloud on capitol hill and within the administration. host: how would you gauge their strength in this administration compared to the previous one? guest: probably had a little

more sway with the bush administration. it is a strong force. the banking industry is a force to be reckoned with. host: check out our website if you want more information on this. these are figures on the political action committees of the banking industry. wells fargo has well over $1 million invested in a political action committee. ohio on our democrats' line. caller: thank you. everyone has their mind on the banks. i give the president a b overall, but a d as far as the

economy and oil prices. we started with the low prices -- with those oil prices. i would like to ask your guest about how he feels without oil prices going up again. host: sen diego, calif. on our republican line. caller: right, thank you. ok, i do not know if you can hear me, or not? host: yes, go ahead, please. caller: i think that the guy is a failure and john voight got up yesterday and started talking about what is going wrong with the administration and raised

$18 million just by talking about. everyone is afraid to say anything. the they are for the news media will not reported because of their voting the same way as this guy. all they do is pander, pander, pander. whoever is voting their way that is what it will pander to get going. thank you, c-span. host: in other news this morning, a californian republican has picked to be the ranking republican on armed services committee. he will give up his present position. some conservatives are wary of giving a ranking member slot topetri or castle who are considered a centrist. that is in the newspaper from

this morning. plano, texas on that our democrats' line. caller: thank you. i would give him probably a b-. i know he does not have direct control over the fdic but with regard to issue a bear and a buyback of any mac -- there's a huge risk. you have to give credit for that. but as far as credit card fees, as far as not getting more pressure on him to use the money [unintelligible] he needs to be more forceful.

working with german-born frank in senator baucus, because that is the whole reason we got into this mess in the first place -- working with chairman of barney frank and senator baucus. he is not letting the banks run roughshod interest rates fees. every caller says that their interest rates have gone up on their credit cards to almost 50%. host: washington, on our republican line. caller: i would give him a b. i'm a republican and probably disagree with much of a stuffy nose, but i do not think it is any of the political or government's fall we are in the situation. i think it is mostly just basically the public's fall because -- i am 20 years old and bought a house for $250,000.10

year ago. my payment is probably 40% of what i make and i'm still able to pay for. i have people around me twice my age losing their houses because they do not know how to spend their money. they're using credit cards. they're going over their limits and buying brand new cars they cannot afford. they're blaming it on the banks. for some reason the bank should have the responsibility of telling them they cannot afford it? you should be smart enough at 40 years old to know what you can afford something or not. the administration is doing a good job was something they're really not responsible for. host: as we show you hearings in proceedings, that deal with the auto industry today, looking at federal aid. this is out of the senate banking committee and will feature ron bloom, the senior advisor of the auto industry for the treasury department. that will be live on c-span 3,

and you can listen to it also on c-span radio. a story this morning and "the washington post." the house has approved this bill which would allow $4 billion under the house plan for cars and trucks sold in 1984 to be turned in for a voucher for the purchase of a car that has better fuel economy. to qualify for the $3,500 voucher a passenger car would have to get at least 4 miles per gallon more than the trade-in vehicle, qualify for a $4,500 voucher you have to get at least 10 miles per gallon more. when looking at small trucks to get $3,500 is 2 miles per gallon more. 5 miles per gallon more for $4,500. it goes on to other vehicles classes as well.

good morning, on the madrid independent line. caller: good morning. i was going to give him a c, but i will probably go down to a d. while they are paying back money we still have the same systemic problems in banks beforas before crisis. nothing has changed. the burden of the bad loans in the transactions have been shifted to the taxpayers. we have eaten those bad debts, but nothing has changed to regulate these folks. we will end up in the same mess again. host: louisiana on at our democrats' line. caller: good morning, i give president and his administration an a +.

they have been doing a tremendous job. just think where will it was when he went in. you could see the economy getting better. i am so happy for them and i hope they continue to do a good job. thank you. host: john, as part of this process of dealing with banks, talk about republicans have reacted. have they worked with the administration or not? what is the general feeling toward the banking industry. guest: they have been convicted. there was a lot of skepticism on the creation of the tarp program. republicans thought it was going quite a distance from their basic philosophy. the bush administration pushed it. the republicans supported it. the tarp program has not been popular with republicans anymore than with democrats. in terms of the banking

industry, they have been surprised at the problems that have been made apparent. the they are fairly active in putting together the reform packages. their general view is still that there should be less regulation then maybe the democrats want, but the notion that a stronger de-regulatory focus is not even popular among republicans. there has been a shift in the bankers view. they will be active in this debate unfolding of a the lisvet half of the year. host: do you expect because of this current policy attitude that you will see an increase as far as those who lobby on

capitol hill? guest: it is true that they give to both parties and they are shrewd in giving to the majority party. they know who will have a predominance say in putting together the final packages. these lobby groups are skillful in allocating funds to serve their interests. even though there may illogically support more one- party then another they are pragmatic with giving funds to a advance their agenda. host: tennessee on that our republican line. caller: good morning, i think oil is down to just pure greed. greed for power, for many, personal gain, personal agenda. it is not going to change until people have a re-awakening as to

personal responsibility and get these things under the right kind of control. i cannot go into more depth than that right now as i am on the sofa. i have been on disability for about four years. i am now giving my finances -- getting them under control. a little less than what i make. that is what it takes. i have been doing the david ramsey total money makeover. it has helped me tremendously and i highly recommend people to get on this financial program. host: our republican line from tennessee? sorry, pat from green bay on our democrats' line. caller: i think you're asking

the wrong question, but what i would like to say is that these same banks laundered three- quarters of a billion dollars through the barack obama campaign. if you recall, in october when obama voted for this tarp program to funnel more money back to these things, that he received $300 million in pre- paid, untraceable credit cards through his campaign. that put him over the top. it made him president. the quid pro quo was when he took tim geithner and made him treasury secretary and literally turned over the united states treasury to the federal reserve bank which is not a bank, nor federal. it is private banking companies. i would like to know from your guess why he is not reporting on those things? this is the real question.

host: before we go, you said that we are asking the wrong question. what is the question? caller: how come the federal reserve has now taken over the united states treasury? it is not back bygold or anything. when you look back in history when john f. kennedy -- he quit the federal reserve and it issued silver certificates. then he was assassinated. i think it has a lot to do with the federal reserve. guest: maybe two points. one on the tarp in support of mr. obama, senator mccain also supported the tarp program as did the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, the house republican leader, john boehner. the bush administration was the

one who came up with the tarp program. it was supported strongly by the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke and bipartisan leadership. the rank and file never liked the program much. to the caller's other point, with the federal reserve -- one of the interesting questions is just how powerful the fed is. it has been very aggressively getting the financial system stabilized. most people think they have done a good job, but will have a difficult time removing programs to return to more normal operations. there are a lot of questions on the separation between the fed and treasury. mr. bernanke is asked that a lot when he testifies. he responds that it must be independent but during a serious financial crisis id must work with the treasury and government in power to keep the economy

stabilized. host: our guest is with market news international ,john shaw has joined us to give us insights and answer your questions. florida, scott on our independent line. caller: good morning to you both. the big picture seems the reason why we needed this tarp which, yes, republicans and democrats -- whoever would have been president would have had to do something. president bush wanted to past tarp and nancy pelosi said nick, thanks, we will take your time and do right. meanwhile lots of companies lost businesses. lost olots of companies lost jobs. taking their time seems to be the problem. but there did need to be the tarp, no matter whether with

republicans or democrats holding the reins. however, these toxic assets were given -- started in the clinton administration. were it managed by the house and senate, both of them seem to be -- seemed to be democrats at the time. even though bush was president he did not seem to know what was going on. some of these democrats were making money in the house by lobbying. a synopsis of the holding -- it was needed, but it seems much too late and may have damaged the economy. host: in some international news of a story concerning the iraqi parliament, planning on voting and national referendum as far as the u.s. security

agreement is concerned. under the security plan agreed to buy the two governments last year, american combat troops must withdraw from the cities by the end of this month. passage was contingent on approval of several other measures including legislation requiring a referendum on the agreement. if the iraqi people vote down a secret pact, the american military would have to withdraw as early as this summer. good morning to our caller. caller: i agree that bush and obama have freak out and pushed through the terminal. have they used 5% of it so far? it does not make sense to me. they say that the sky is falling but have only used 5% of the tarp money.

obama will say that we have saved or created 600,000 jobs in the last month. saving and creating jobs is two different things to. you cannot predict how many jobs you have saved. it is a house of cards. the bias on this program is obvious. if bush were still in office the question would be, how would you grade the bush administration? there is no alluding to obama and this at all. i would give him an f-. host: the next call is from maryland on our democrats' line. caller: i would give president obama a b-.

it could be better, but he has the taxd dogs. they're just attacking him with everything he tries to do. these guys are not worried about getting the country back on the line. they are worried about getting back in power more than anything else. new gingrich gave a disgusting speech, just attacking this president. i have never heard him even call president obama president obama. host: in the marketplace section this morning from "the wall street journal" a story retain to 2004 concerning digitally- produced books. this is addressed by the justice department. the escalation of its books

search inquiry is the latest in a series of antitrust probes of google's business launched by the department and the federal trade commission. in response, the will appears to be stepping up efforts to press its case with lawmakers and regulators. the company's chief legal officer travels to washington today to defend the book search deal in meetings. there is a box looking at the various departments of the evil that the government is checking out. one is the book search, the other is hiring practices. the board overlap which would examine two directors serving on both apple and googled boards. and a behavioral at, whether the industry does enough to protect consumers. -- behavioral ads and whether

the industry does enough to protect consumers. good morning ,caller. caller: yes, i am an independent from buffalo, new york. in my household we will give the president and incomplete. here is why. both parties will get anything they want. those guys want to make their hundreds of millions of dollars. they will get to. let's hope the president has not miscalculated this whole thing in a political sense and pays for this down the road. i am for the president and for this country, but let's face it. the banks, whatever they want they will get. trillion dollars have been put into this thing and i think

we're missing the point -- there's a lot of stuff on the balance sheets which is not being talked about. we're guaranteeing all the deals. this whole thing -- let's hope that it works out. host: one more call from tacoma, washington on our independent line. sorry, wrong button. caller: yes, hello. i just want to say this -- the whole banking industry is based on the rothschilds and there's a famous quote from them and it goes like this "give me control of the money and i care not what laws your lawmakers make." that is the root of this poison

tree. host: we will leave it there. john, wrap it up for us. guest: 1 caller asked about the tarp and its timing. as i recall, secretary paulson and mr. bernanke came up to congress on september 18 saying that they needed to pass a tour package very quickly. the $700 billion number was arrived at relatively soon. the bill passed on of to over three. many lawmakers wonder if they moved too quickly. but they asked too few questions and did not look at the consequences closely enough. i know that the caller but they moved too slowly. there was general agreement that there was a crisis and the congress had to do something to stabilize the system. in terms of the whole thrust of the calls, obviously the banking

system is not popular. i think if the economy improves soon in the system starts to work more normally some of the anger m beatuted, but throughout american history financial leaders have been helped in skepticism by the american public. host: what is next on your agenda as far as stories are concerned? guest: 1 caller mentioned the budget. he mentioned the budget has risen to $1.80 trillion. barack obama it administration will try to move the deficit down. it is linked closely to health care reform. the most intriguing inconsequential question for the next couple of months will be whether health care reform can pass. suddenly, if it can pass and a way to help the nation's long-

term fiscal situation. if it does, the obama administration will look good in the eyes of history. if not, it worsens the budget outlook. president obama will have a difficult legacy. host: johnshaw is an international reporter. thank you for your time. on the front page of "the washington post," looking at the virginia primary for democrats from yesterday's for the governor's race. the candidate from charlottesville has won and will compete this fall. to give us more context, this guest reported on this for the paper. could you tell us what happened and the importance of it? guest: sure, i would be happy