guest: where would you start? with roosevelt -- you know, how did you have the political field to know you could not move and do it all at once? franklin roosevelt understood that america was not really ready to go to war. he took its step-by-step into the second world war. when did you sense it was the right moment? just the politics of it. i would like to talk with him about some of the stories, these great political stores. lyndon johnson, you know. the stories about lyndon johnson are just remarkable. it is like something mark twain would read. those are the kinds of things i would like to talk about. host: bob schieffer, we appreciate your time in graciousness for appearing on

this network. guest: thank you, steve. host: please come back again. the house and senate are both in session today. two house committees are looking at the cost of health care. it will likely be a driving topic today. the president will go to the brady briefing room at 12:30 at we will have live coverage. we will also have coverage on line and on the radio. see you tomorrow. enjoy the rest of your tuesday. have a good day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]. . .

>> the house takes of homeland security spending on wednesday. reports also indicate climate change legislation is possible later this week, but members will consider a number of bills today dealing with veterans benefits. the time set aside for sport -- for short speeches. the senate will spend much of the morning on general speeches. senators are working on an agreement to bring up legislative branch spending for the new spending year. the house passed itch version last -- the house passed its version last week. as you heard president obama holding his first news conference today. the president will open the afternoon. the event with remarks on

healthcare reform, energy legislation and i ran's disputed elections. all of his news conferences have been during prime time and on international trips. >> july 4 weekend. discover an unfamiliar side of our nation's first president as we are live from george washington's mount vernon estate with a story -- with a historian and author, john ferling. >> the house coming in for morning our speeches at 10:30. until then, discussion on the economy from this morning's "washington journal." host: americans are seeing better times ahead. americans say they are still in a tunnel, but more are beginning

to see a light at the end. meanwhile, from the front page of the"financial times." pessimistic investors cash out of shares. this sent stock and commodity prices tumbling, while new data shows in executives were cashing out of their shareholdings at a rapid pace. charisse sales by company insiders are outstripping the purchases -- share sales by company insiders are outstripping the purchases. global recession to worsen, that is according to the world bank. that is why we are asking whether or not there are mixed signals in the economy. and the front page story in the "new york times" focusing on the situation in iran. i ran's most powerful oversight

committee announcing that the number of votes recorded in all 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters by 3 million. this tarnishes any election that set off the most sustained challenge to iran's leadership and 30 years. even as the powerful guardian council of knowledge to irregularities in the election. he insisted the overall food was valid. we will be talking more about this would john mccain -- he insisted the overall vote was valid. we will be talking with john mccain and bob schieffer. more on the economy as we look at gm, ford and chrysler and the bailout. and this had mine from the " arizona republic" some people are set to survive hard times. the situation in the state's also the budget year will start

with a $384 million hole. first up is daniel on the phone from fort washington, maryland. caller: good morning. i would just say as a long time the work and analysts of politics, there is definitely no light at the end of the tunnel right now. host: why is that? caller: no concrete actions have been taken. the real core issues, the financial systems and the dominance of the economic system, and the federal reserve's secret nature, some of that is being addressed. they're getting even more power to the fed. our government is based on transparency and it is not transparent. host: the fed meeting today and we will be talking with john taylor was served in the bush administration.

we will talk about his views on what the fed needs to be doing and may not be doing quite yet. the story points out the obama administration is set to announce retooling loans. this is going to spur fuel efficient vehicle productions in the u.s.? we're asking the question about the economy and some headlines indicating there are mixed signals. our e-mail address is journal@cspan.org. or you can give us a call with the numbers on the screen. one of the photographs we want to show you is from inside the "new york daily news."

the secretary of state is back to work sporting a cast, as she and the former president leave the hospital. last week she slipped and had undergone surgery. this forced hillary clinton to cancel plans to attend a series of international meetings later this week. meanwhile, inside the "wall street journal" is a piece on independence morning for obama. it says american politics, the canaries and the coal mine are the independent voters telling the leader if the air is safe or filling up with toxic gases. the shift in attitude among independent voters is the most significant change to emerge from a new poll completed last week. mr. obama's job approval rating among americans overall slipped to 56%. that is not much of a drop and

in keeping with the pattern for a new president, but the slide has much more pronounced among self-identified sure the independent voters. that is americans to express no loyalty to either party. among these people, who reside in the middle of the spectrum, the job approval rating is 45%, falling from 60% in april. herman is on the phone from georgia. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on the economy. i am pessimistic about that. it just doesn't look like things are shaping up here in georgia. we are not getting anywhere with jobs. we don't see any new jobs coming and every month it looks like the job market is just going away. so i would hope that something

would be coming down the pike, particularly for georgia pretty soon, but i am not feeling good it will be soon. host: what you do right now? caller: i am unemployed. i retired but i am still trying to find a part-time job. but i do have three children that i am really looking out for. host: before you get laid off what did you do? caller: i worked for the government. host: give us a call. this is on the economy and whether or not you think the economy is heading in the right direction or the wrong direction. in terms of the poll raiting, eroding confidence in prison obama's ability to control spending has caused his --

eroding confidence in president obama's ability to control spending. this is a sign of political weakness just as he needs most leverage on capitol hill, but his approval ratings remain comfortably high by historical standards. richard is joining us from ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. it is interesting to me that when our economy became involved in this crisis the words we were all hearing was 5% of people are unemployed. instead of saying one -- instead of saying 95% of the people are working for a living. we needed to save, we did not need to spend money and build things. or ignore the people who had jobs. i have heard people on c-span say i know a lot of my people in detroit used to be working and now nobody is working.

the reason nobody is working is the businesses are losing money. they are losing money because the 95% are terrified and now we are at 9.5% not working. the other 91% are not spending their money. we need to allow business to operate in our country. newt gingrich and his friends have some great ideas like decrease texas's -- decrease taxes on businesses, things that encourage them to stay in business instead of worrying about the low percentage of people who are not working. half of them are usually unemployable people. so that is one of the major problems now, they are trying to worry about spending money instead of solving the issues that are causing a lack of our economic growth. host: you are in central ohio.

what is it like for you live? caller: i work in the health- care industry. that is another good point, because i have heard several people say two factions of the economy are doing fine, the health-care industry. that is a bogus statement because what is occurring in our area is hospitals are cutting employees hours. hospitals are not getting reinforced -- they are not getting reimbursed. the hospital where i work is calculating that we are getting $1 for the government for every $1.25 of care they are giving. this is not working because people are not being paid a reasonable cost for their care. host: thank you for the call. we will be talking about the health care and the economy would senator john mccain. bob schieffer will be joining us

at 9:00. and the director of the white house health-care task force will be joining us at 8:30 to talk about health care. abc news is conducting a full town hall meeting tomorrow inside the white house on that. the present today talking about health care at his noontime news conference. and this story says despite everything, americans are seeing better times ahead. are you? we're joined from los angeles. caller: good morning. i enjoy your show quite a bit. the reason i am calling, and an independent and formerly a republican. i come from a family of democrats -- i am an independent. i am in favor of revamping the health system. that is just one problem that i do not think obama can ever come

because of the cost -- i do not think obama can overcome because of the cost. in canada is not working. in britain is not working. in france is working. to compare it to the united states, you are talking about possibly a $@ -- a 2 trillion dollar situation. keeping in mind what obama wants to do, what about the construction of highways, bridges, -- host: isn't he doing that with the billions of dollars in the stimulus fund? caller: know, we just keep printing money up. -- no, we just keep printing money. here it will pay people but we have to get the unemployed.

the numbers are only the people that are collecting unemployment. the actual unemployment rate come and don't forget there are probably 20 million people who are not collecting that are not listed in that index. host: you are absolutely right, the numbers do not reflect the total number of people out of work. caller: president obama has so many 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 and after world war ii. things have changed. we are now an international conglomerate. we're not just the united states. host: i appreciate the call. you are up early from los angeles. some political news out of l.a.

things feel like they are getting better but are they really getting better or have i gotten used to last? is that so bad? meanwhile, we have a story inside politics section of the "washington times." the tarp money, this story pointing out a quote from a senator from arkansas who says tarp was never meant to be a permanent program but an initiative meant to stabilize our financial markets and bring greater confidence to investors and businesses. it is only appropriate for that program to be phased out as expeditiously as possible. the first paragraph pointing out this detail that a bipartisan trio of senators will introduce legislation to make sure wall street bailout money paid to the government cannot be recycled to keep the program continuing.

next is marlin from illinois. good morning. caller: here in illinois and employment is up to 10.1%. i disagree with the collar. -- unemployment is up to 10.1%. i disagree with the caller people are unemployable. i am finding a hard side job in information technology. -- i am finding a hard time finding a job in information technology. i take offense to the caller saying people who are unemployed cannot find jobs. host: some political stories this morning. the mayor of los angeles saying

he will not run for governor. the decision may help jerry brown more than gavin newsom, who is the mayor of san francisco. he served as the governor of california in the 1970's and is now the attorney general. also, a story that has been getting a lot of attention in south carolina. it says sanford awol, who is in charge? the south carolina staff saying the governor is hiking, ending four days in which officials say they had not heard from him. neither his office nor the state law enforcement staff had been able to reach him since he left thursday in a black suburban s tv -- a black suburban suv. that is according to one staff

official. he would not reveal whether he was hiking alone. his last known location was near a lanham late last week. -- he was near atlanta late last week. more details on available from the state newspaper. scott is on the phone from long island. are there mixed signals in the economy? if so, where are we heading? caller: i don't know where we are heading. thanks for c-span. i am baffled sometimes that the american people, how long has it taken us to get into this position and people are talking like it should be fixed in six months. this will take years to fix. people talk about private companies, they are the ones that should make all the jobs and the government should not be spending money. it is the private companies laying off everyone. two-thirds of the economy is consumer spending. people don't have the money to spend now.

it is a race to the bottom. first it was landscapers and restaurant workers who are making less money. hear how this thing with health care. the doctors are going to make less now. -- now is that thing with health care. now all the car manufacturers are going to make less money now. now is the doctors, and is your job next. -- it is your job next. home care is going to be the next big thing. it will not be hospitals. host: this viewer from -- saying i was able to get approved for a loan for graduate school. i look forward to the government loan forgiveness and public health. this viewer saying i am an optimist but this headline says anxiety surges as stocks relapse. fear of a correction on wall street, which would be considered a drop of 10% is

magnified by the fact that the market has gone straight up since early march. simon on the phone from texas. the question is mixed signals from the economy. what is your reaction? caller: yes. [unintelligible] private america has put us in this position. when bush was in their, someone who knew they would not qualify for the position, but yet he was put in there. he stole the first election and republicans marvel at him. he was i doing anything but they agreed with everything he was doing. why not give obama a chance? god put obama in their, young

white america. young, white america was touched by the blood. they put obama in there. they want change. host: the president outlined a plan for lower drug prices yesterday. the photograph that included a picture of senator max baucus and the head of a arpey and chris dodd who is taking -- and the head of the aarp. robert points out that the lobby for drug companies, the thomas senecal research at manufacturers association had pledged $80 billion -- the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers association pledged $60 billion. further into the story of drug company lobbyists say that the $80 billion reflected a total savings to the health care system and included unspecified future concessions.

some of the money reflects savings to the government, summer flex savings to older americans, but all of the savings would go to beneficiaries. -- some of the savings reflects savings to older americans. we're going to be in your town next week. caller: good. host: what is the situation like? caller: i would like to talk about the banks. we have citizens bank here, at standard and poor lowered their credit rating. they just received money to back them up, and i went there yesterday and all i could offer you was 1.5% of cd's. i think it is ridiculous. a man had retired there who had been there from 2002 with a $5 million bonus. i cannot understand people that

are living off of their investments can only guess 1.5% on their investments. -- they can only get 1.5% on their investments. and this man can take money after the money was put into the bank to bail it out [unintelligible] then they cannot give the people anything on their investments. it is ridiculous what citizens bank merged with the federal bank. there were a free co's that had taken millions of dollars and taken their money and went to florida and start another business. that is why the banks are failing. host: thanks very much. the nationwide unemployment rate averaging from 7% to 9%, but in michigan the unemployment rate is hovering between 12% and 14%.

next week we will travel to michigan to look at the economy there. and all next week we will focus on the economy. one economist will be joining us next sunday to give us his overview on where the economy is heading. and a couple minutes john taylor will be joining us if you want to send us a message. you can to sell. we will get your comments. -- you can do so. the headline shows questions on his affair landry. and also they had mine about ensign to face the music. he is expected to address his colleagues at the weekly luncheon. no one knows exactly what he will say to his fellow senators, but the move is becoming increasingly familiar for

embattled republicans including ted stevens and larry craig. they're going before the conference to discuss their situations. also, related to the shakeup in the republican leadership, we have been talking about shannon there john finan -- we will be talking about senator john thune. and the alaska senator is seeking to be the vice chair as john will move up to the policy chair in the senate and leadership. next is greg from virginia. good morning. caller: yes, i think it is a little -- i am disgruntled. it seems like we are putting all the money into the financial institutions or the stimulus package has focused on financial institutions when their product is money. so we are giving them their

product. they were not good at managing their product. the money would have been better used had it been given to citizens to stimulate the economy. people don't have money to spend. if it would have given some of that money back to the people, then the people could use it. but it seems like this a administration is in support of big business when that was not what the people voted for. people voted for change but nothing seems to have changed because big business is still the one reaping the benefit. host: the headline in the washington paper, the situation on the metro system which took place just a few miles from where we are on capitol hill. nine deaths in the train systems deadliest accident as it took place yesterday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. eastern time.

adrian fenty saying 70 others were taken to d.c. hospitals. next is bill from kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. i was just going to make an observation. i inness wondering if you were aware in the last three years -- i was worried if you were aware mr. obama has been running for office, the coverage has been only about him. and george bush had never put anything together. [inaudible] even while it was happening under his watch it was not questioned about it, because all the questioning was about what mr. obama was doing. i just wonder, do you think the coverageha