host: good morning. the senate health committee continues to mark up its version of the health care bill -- preventative care. and on the house side, two committees looking at a cost of any proposed changes. at the other end of pennsylvania avenue, president obama meets the president of chile and told a news conference in the rose garden. live coverage at 12:30 p.m. eastern time. at the national archives and the new material, including audio tapes from the nixon presidency will be released today. it is tuesday, june 23. the focus for the first half hour on the economy, some headlines and stories pointed to mixed signals.

we are asking the question because these and other headlines -- first, from page of "usa today" showing americans see better times ahead. the deadline is mexico, missouri. americans say they are still in a tunnel but more are beginning to see a light at its end. meanwhile from the front page of "the financial times," pessimistic executives cashed out of shares regarding stock shares. it's a growing pessimism about any prospects of global economic recovery shan't stock and commodity prices tumbling yesterday, while new data showed leading u.s. corporate executives were cashing out at a record pace. further in the story, share sales by so-called company insiders are outstripping the purchases so far this month by more than 22 times. another headline this morning

from inside "the washington times," the economy section, global recession to worsen, that according to the world by. we are asking whether or not there are mixed signals. we will get to your calls just a moment. meantime " the new york times" focusing on the situation in iran as they admit there were some errors and that the crackdown beard the deadline is cairo -- it says iran's most powerful oversight council announced monday the number of votes recorded in all 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by 3 million. further tarnishing a presidential election that has set up the most sustained challenge to iran's leadership in 30 years. meanwhile the government continued with a two-track approach, even as the powerful guardian council of knowledge some irregularities in the genes of the election, it insisted that the overall vote was valid. we will be talking more about this with senator john mccain, who is the ranking republican on the senate armed services committee and also with bob

schieffer who will join us in the last hour. more on the economy from inside "the washington times." looking at gm, ford, and chrysler. some headlines courtesy of the newseum -- the arizona republican -- republic, some people set to survive. and from "the denver post." the budget year to start with a $384 million hole. first stop is daniel on the phone from fort washington, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. as a long time viewer and analyst of u.s. politics, we have to definitely -- no light at the end of the tunnel as of right now. no concrete action has been taken to correct the real core issues -- the financial system and its dominance of our

economic system and the federal reserve sacredness, the secret nature. some of that is being addressed, and in fact i giving more power to the federal reserve which is not transparent. host: of the federal reserve meeting today and tomorrow, and we will talk to john taylor served in the budget ministration and now with the hoover institution out of stanford university, calif., to talk about his views about what the fed needs to be doing or may not be doing it. for it to get retooling aid. the story points out the obama administration is set to announce retooling loans for ford motor co., nissan motor co. nissantesla, the first under a $25 billion program to spur fuel efficient vehicle production in the u.s., according to people familiar with the decision beard we are asking questions about the economy and some indication that the mixed signals. give us a call or send an e- mail, journal@c-span.org, you

can give us a sweet or give us a call. one of the photographs we want to show you is from inside "the n.y. daily news." secretary of state hillary clinton is back to work sporting what they call a big cast and a slang, following surgery or a broken arrow -- elbow. last week she slipped and had undergone surgery. the injury suffered last wednesday forcing hillary clinton to cancel plans to attend a series of international meetings in italy and greece later this week. meanwhile, inside " the wall street -- the "the wall street journal" is a piece about independence warming -- warning for obama. the canaries in the coal mine are independent voters, telling

the leader whether the air is safe or starting to fill up with toxic gases. in the peace he points out the shifting attitude among independent voters in fact is the most significant change to emerge from a new wall street journal/nbc inebriating poll. in that survey mr. obama's job rating slipped a notch to 56% from 61% in april. that is not much of the drop, and is in keeping with the pattern for a new president at this point in his turn. but the slide was much more pronounced among self- identified purely independent voters, that is, americans who expressed no loyalty to either party. among these people would tend to reside in the middle of the ideological spectrum, the president's job approval rating is 45%, falling from a high of 60% back in april. herman is on the phone from clayton county, georgia. the economy. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on the economy.

i am a bit pessimistic about that. it just does not look like things are shaping any here in clinton. we are not getting anywhere with jobs. we don't see any new jobs coming and every new month it looks like the job market is just going away. so i would hope that something will be coming down the pike, particularly for georgia, pretty soon. but i am just not feeling good with the unemployment. host: what do you do right now? caller: well, i'm unemployed -- well, i retired, but still trying to find a part-time job. but i do have three children that i am really looking out for. host: before you got laid off, what did you do? caller: i worked for the government. host: thank you for the call.

of the economy and whether not you think it is heading in the right direction. the headlines this morning indicating mixed signals for the economy. and in terms of the poll ratings, the story from inside politico. eroding confidence in president barack obama's handling of the economy and ability to control spending has caused his approval ratings to walk to the lowest level since it took office according to is that of recent polls, just as it needs the most leverage on capitol hill. but the good news for the president is that the approval ratings, at 57%, remain comfortably high by historical standards for president. richard is joining us from dayton, ohio. the republican line. host: -- caller: good morning. it is interesting to me is when this economy became involved in the crisis, the words we will -- we were hearing is 5% of the

people unemployed, instead of saying, well, 95 percent of working for a living and a 95% are those who needed to be saved. we did not need to thrash around and spend money and throw things at the economy and ignore the people who had jobs. i have heard people on c-span come on and say, gee, i know a lot of my people in detroit used all be working and now all of the seven nobody is working. the reason nobody is working is that the businesses are losing money, and they are losing money because the 95% are terrified and now we have it down to 9.5% are not working and the other 91% are not spending our money. we need to allow business to operate in our country. newt gingrich and some of his friends have some great ideas like decrease in the taxes on businesses down to where ireland did, 12.5%, things that encourage them to stay in business, keep in plain people, instead of thrashing around and

whirling about the low percentage of people who are not working. as half of them by statistics are usually unemployable people. so i think that is one of the major democratic problems right now, is they are trying to worry about spending money instead of solving the issues that are causing the economic -- lack of economic growth. host: let me ask you. you are in central ohio. what is it like where you lived in dayton? on the come i work in the health-care industry -- caller: well, i look in health care industry. a good point -- people say two parts of the economy doing fine -- the health-care industry. that is a bogus statement. because what is occurring in our health care. is hospitals are cutting employees hours, hospitals are not being reimbursed reasonable amounts of money for the caregiving, the hospital where i specifically work calculated they are getting a dollar from

the government for every dollar's worth of care. it is not working because they are not being paid a reasonable cost for their care. host: thank you very much for the call. we will talk about the economy and health care and foreign policy with senator john mccain, with up -- with us and 8:00 hour and bob schieffer will join us at 9:00, and linda douglass, the director of the white house health-care task force, communications director, will join us at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. tomorrow and be seen it -- abc news will have a one-hour town hall meeting about health care at the white house and the president will talk about it at a noontime news conference. this story -- despite everything, americans are seeing better times ahead. are you? good morning, independent line. caller: good morning.

i enjoy your show quite a bit. the reason i am calling. i'm an independent. i come from a family of democrats. i am in favor of revamping the health system -- that is just one problem that i do not think obama can overcome because of the costs generating such a system. in canada it is not working, in britain it is not working. in france, it is working. but to compare it to the united states, you are talking about possibly a $2 trillion situation. now, keeping in mind what obama wants to do, what about the

construction of highways, construction of bridges, -- host: isn't he doing that with the billions of dollars in the stimulus funds? caller: to be quite honest, we just keep printing money up. here it will pay people, but we have to give the unemployed -- first of all, the numbers are only the people who are collecting unemployment. the actual unemployment rate -- don't forget, probably 20 million to 30 million people who are not collecting and not listed in the index. host: i did not know if that number is exactly right, but you are right that the number does not reflect the total number of people out of work. caller: president obama has some and a pick -- things on his plate. he is a young man with a good education, but he learned his

economics 101 as a result of what roosevelt had done after world war ii, and so on and so forth. things have changed. we are now and international conglomerate. we are not just the united states. host: appreciate your call. you are up early from los angeles. political news out of l.a., we will get to that in a moment. but one of our tweets -- things feel like they are getting better, but are they really getting better or have i got used to last, and is that so bad? the story inside the politics section of "the washington times." top money, one of the key components by president bush and obama to help salvage some of the troubled financial institutions. this story pointing out a quote from senator blanche lincoln, a democrat from arkansas, who said tarp was never meant to be permanent but an emergency initiatives it designed to stabilize the financial markets

and bring greater confidence to investors and business. senator lincoln saying it is only appropriate that program to be phased out as expeditiously as possible. the first paragraph pointing out the detail that the bipartisan trio of senators say they will introduce legislation to make sure that wall street bailout money repaid to the federal government cannot be recycled to keep the program continue perpetually. next, on the phone from illinois. good morning. democrats line. caller: thank you appeared here in eleanor, unemployment is up to 10.1%, and i disagree with one of the callers that the people who are unemployed are not qualified or not looking for a job. i hold a master's degree in computer science and i have a very hard time finding -- so i simply don't agree with

people who are saying that. people who are out of work are not not qualified. and i think barack obama should have concentrated more on job creation rather than just giving money to banks. host: some political stories, from page of "the los angeles times, " the mayor saying he will not run for governor. the decision may help possible democratic candidate jerry brown, more than gavin newsome, mayor of san francisco. jerry brown served as governor in the 1970's and 1980's. and a story in a lot of attention, the headline from the state newspaper in south carolina. it says sanford a wall -- who is in charge? john o'connor said south carolina gov. staff said the governor is taking on appellation trout, ending four

days in which the staff and state officials say they have not heard from him. night in his office or the state law enforcement division that provides security had been able to reach him since he left the mansion thursday in a black suburban as uv assigned to his security detail, according to three people according to the -- familiar with the situation. the government spokesman did not disclose the trailer was hiking nor revealed whether he was hiking alone. his last known location was near atlanta late last week. a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his own, according to a source familiar with the situation. again, more details available at the state newspaper from south carolina. stock is on the phone from long island. the economy, are the mixed signals? if so, where are we heading? caller: i don't know where we are heading. but thank you for c-span. i am baffled sometimes at the american people that -- how long has it taken us to get into this position and people are out

there talking like to be fixed in six months. this will take years to fix. people talking about private companies, they are the ones who should make all of the jobs and the government should not be spending money. private companies are laying off everybody right now. two-thirds of the economy is consumer spending. people don't have the money to spend. it is a race to the bottom. first it was landscapers and restaurant workers who were making less money and no one cared, and now what this thing with health care. you know what? the doctors on the make less now. the car workers -- no one cared, it was the unions. all the car manufacturers will make less money and now the doctors did you know what? it is your job next. the republican who was talking about hospitals were laying off people, health care is not the place to go. home care is going to be the next big thing. it is not going to be hospitals.

people may home care. host: this view or e-mail this saying, i was able to get approved for a loan of $50,000 for grad school. look forward to government loan forgiveness and public health. this you were saying crime and optimist. this had learned from the money section of "usa today," anxiety surges as stocks and relax. fear of a correction and wall street, a drop of 10 percent more, magnified by the fact that the market has gone virtually straight up since early march. simon on the phone from wichita falls, texas. missed the signals on the economy. what is your reaction -- mixed signals on the economy. what is your reaction? caller: this is simon pratte. white american has put us in this position. all america except white america had been in a financial crunch. when bush was in there, someone who knew they were not qualified

for the position, and yet he was put in there and he stole buffers the election and then a republican marvel -- marvel at him, he was not doing anything, but they agreed with everything he was doing. why not give obama a chance. god put obama in there. young, white america -- young white america was touched by the of blood. they put a bomb in there. they want a change. host: the president outlined a new plan for lowering drug prices. a photograph from the diplomatic reception room. the picture of senator max baucus, also the head of aarp and senator christopher dodd who is taking over for senator ted kennedy in supervising as chairman of the house committee hearings continue this week. it points out the lobby for drug companies, pharmaceutical research manufacturing

organization said it pledged $80 billion of 10 years to help reform are troubled health-care system. the commitment came in a deal with the white house and senator max baucus, democrat of montana and chairman of the finance committee. but further in the story, senate aides and drug company lobbyists say the $80 billion reflected total projected savings to the health care system and included unspecified future concessions, besides the drug discounts and the coverage gap. some reflects savings to the government, some reflects savings to older americans, but all the savings from closing the so-called bill mudhole would go to beneficiaries, and not to the government. flint, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. host: we will be in your town next week. what is the situation like? caller: i would like to talk about the banks. we have a citizens bank -- standard and poor's lowered the credit rating. they just received money to back

them up. i was there yesterday and all they could offer you of 1.5% side on cds -- 1.5% on cds. demand had been there -- a man had been there, since 2002, with a $5 million bonus and i can't understand, people living off their investments, get 1.5% on their investments. and this man to take the money after money was put into the citizens bank to bail out, that they take the bailout and then can't give the people something on their investments. i think it is ridiculous what citizens bank merge with federal bank, there were three ceo's who

took large millions of dollars and picked up the money and went to florida and start another business and that is why the banks are failing. host: nationwide, unemployment rate averaging between 7% up to 9.5%, depending on where you live, but in michigan according to the most recent numbers, hovering between 12% and 14%. next week we will travel to flint, mich. to look at the economy there and all next week we will focus on the economy. university of maryland economist peter morici will join us next sunday at 9:00 to give us a broad overview. in a couple of minutes john taylor will join us. if you want to send a tweet to talk about the federal reserve you can do so at c-spanwj. some political stories here in washington, senator john ensign, republican of nevada, returning to washington but the headline,

questions on the affair linder. also this morning of "roll call, " mensign to face the music. pointing out he is expected to address his gop colleagues at a weekly luncheon today to try to turn the page on a high-profile sex scandal that is the real is rising political career -- career. while no one knows exactly what he will say to its fellow senators the move is increasingly familiar one for about of republicans, including senator david vitter and former senator ted stevens and larry craig, while facing scandals of their own, going before the conference to discuss their respective situations. it also this morning, related to the shakeup of the republican leadership, talking about senator john thune wants to replace ensign in the hierarchy, and alaska senator lisa morehouse state seeking to be the vice chair of the senate republican conference as a senator john thune click to move up to the policy chair in the senate leadership. >> is greg from franklin,

virginia. independent line. caller: i think it is a little disgruntled -- or it seems that we are putting all the money into the financial institutions for the stimulus package, focusing so much money on financial institutions, when their product is money. so we are giving them their products. apparently there were not good at managing the products. i think the money would have been much better used had it been given to the citizens to stimulate the economy. people don't have money to spend. it sent it is taxpayers' money. if they would have given more of the stimulus money back to the people, then the people could perhaps by -- the scenes like this and the station is in support of big business when that was not with the people voted for. the people know that -- voted for change but nothing seems to

change because big business is still one reaping the benefits. host: thank you for the caller. he commands in the headlines in the washington, d.c., newspapers, the situation on the metro system that took place just a few miles of where we are on capitol hill. nine deaths in that train systems deadliest accident as the collision took place yesterday afternoon at about 5:00 eastern time. mayor adrian fende saying 70 others were taken to d.c. area hospitals -- mayor adrian fenty. louisville, ky. democrats line. >> as much an observation as anything else. i am wondering if you all are aware and the last three and half years, including the two years that mr. obama was running for office, republicans have gone on about him and some of his opponents and george bush --

he has never been questioned as to whether he has done a good job, responsible for things happening. happening under his watch. he was not even question about it. all of the coverage is about what mr. obama was doing and what mr. clinton was doing and mr. mccain. i'm wondering do you think the coverage that you all -- is it fair as far as mr. obama is concerned with you think it is a time that mr. bush's policies should be discussed? host: i would venture to say that if you took our coverage from the same period in 2001 or in the spring and summer of 1993, we would have heard different sentiments depending on your political party. it will be no difference whether it is a democrat or republican on the white house. audit of -- caller: i am not necessarily

speaking on a partisan stand point, but observation. mr. bush, even while all of the economy was going down, i remember specifically two years ago or 2 1/2 years ago, it was reported that -- there was a debate at one time whether or not we were in a recession because we have not had two consecutive quarters of being in the downturn and all the way up until the time it crashed -- and one point, if i could. because andrea mitchell -- i'm a fan of hers -- but because, i think, andrea mitchell is though related by marriage to mr. greenspan, he is not being covered. not only on msnbc but fox are

anybody, they are showing the courtesy because he was married to her, but this gentleman was a big reason, in my opinion, why the economy full of the way it did. host: i will ask a question to john taylor for served in the bush administration is here to talk about the fed. thank you for your call and your observations. two other headlines from another tweet your phone call. the newspaper -- dams ignore obama cut. congressional democrats are largely ignoring president obama's $19.8 billion in budget cuts. the present proposed axing dozens of programs that is said or inefficient or ineffective. but members of the house appropriations committee are including more money for them. according to "the washington times" is the story but senator patrick leahy courting a challenge. as chair of that senate judiciary committee. at one point, of the 19 men and women who sit on the committee, six are prosecutors come a dynamic