kennedy to obama. in a high-turnoverucs@'g" about iran, elizabeth palmer is the only reporter i've seen who was able to stay there past the other one. she's done a perfect job there. on the matter of that, the health care issue in america running down, i've been doing sock market research here in wisconsin where we've been talking to dairy farmers about their health care. a lot of them paying $1,500 a month, a $5,000 deductible, milk prices are down so they're having to survive off a milk check. milk prices are down. these people are so important. healthcare is a very serious issue, yet when you ask them what they think are some solutions, well, they do not

want national health care because they do not want the government involved. i think that is the success of certain conservative talk-show hosts scaring people away from that solution. what we do not know all about is how national health care works overseas in some countries like australia. is it a good program, or not? i think we need to follow up more on that in the media, on television and get the word out. your comments on that? guest: i think you make some very good. and i think you will see stories -- there have been a lot frankly, over the years, but now we are avenue time here where barack obama has said "i want to reform the health-care system once and for all," so i think you will see stories like that. it comes down to what it always has. should it be universal? should every person have health

care? should every person be required by the government to buy insurance? should the government furnish that health care? the bottom-line issues which are totally unresolved and there is no real consensus -- how are you going to pay for it? should there be this government- offered interest to compete with private companies? until those two questions are answered we will wilnot know the shape of health care reform. maybe by the end of summer we will see at least the outlines of that. host: who in american history would you want on the show and what would be the first question of that person?

good morning, georgia. caller: good morning. one month before our presidential election president bush and senator john mccain said the economy was strong, but my husband and i and many americans knew our economy was suffering even a few years ago. doesn't it seem strange that the bush administration and senator john mccain were clueless about the condition of our economy until it was close to election fought day? guest: well, i guess the first thing we should have done was talk to you and your husband because you got this right. i just say this in joking. i think this coddle lot of people by surprise. it was not so much that people were operating outside the law,

but people were operating inside the lock and the government was caught flat-footed by this. we are all paying the price. president bush and john mccain and many others who were calling themselves expert said things were okay. host: good morning, from fredericksburg, virginia. caller: i will mention a couple of things quicker. you said you can get your eggs any way you want them in this age of technology. you cannot get conservative opinion on several channels -- when we talk about the mainstream media we're talking

about these three major networks, not cable news. every sunday i spend all day watching you. but you have george stephanopoulos, a democrat. you have at the round tables. every time there is the round table there is george stephanopoulos who is a democrat, three other democrats, and one conservative. i have never turned on your show weekly where bob schieffer says we're done with our guest now and it is time for the round table. there are three liberals and one conservative. there is no where i can go unless i go on the and annette to some freaky website. let me be clear. as far as a powell goes, colin powell says he voted for carter,

clinton, and obama. people like me who are real conservatives and republicans did not vote for those people. someone with a track record like that who voted for carter, clinton, and obama is not a republican, my friend. guest: well, colin powell says he is republican. so if he says he is republican, you can save you are and people can challenge that or not. he says he is a republican. john mccain says he is republican. tim pawlenty, the republican governor of minnesota says he is a republican. be that as it may you have the debate going on right now for the dousoul of the republican party. it will continue even after someone emerges as the leader of the republican party. the party is in about the same state as in 1964 after lyndon

johnson won a landslide victory over barry goldwater. people said we will never see the republican party again. four years later the people elected richard nixon. you will see these various points of view about what a republican is in for the party is going. eventually republicans will select their leader. if they will be successful as a party bringing in support you will see them coalesced around the leader. but at this time, and it is too soon now, obviously, there is no identifiable leader of the party. as for the round table's, i do not have much to do with george

stephanopoulos. and who he decides to put on his program on sundays. he has the same relationship with me. he has a program, i have a program. we have conservatives on our roundtable. david brooks of "the new york times" is a frequent visitor to the show. he is one of the best columnists today. i simply do not agree with you. i would have to say, there is so much out there right now that you can get it anyway you want to. to be truly informed person has to depend on more than one source of news in getting their information. host: you sat down with a former vice president a couple of weeks ago. guest: several people have asked me how it came about. it was simply because we were sitting around one day wondering

who would have. i suggested calling dick cheney. i said he has made a couple of speeches here. apparently, he has decided he wants to begin staking out positions now which is rare for someone who has just left the vice presidency. i called him and he said sure, he would love to do. it is a good example of what i tell young journalists. never assume someone to swer when you ask. that begins with calling people and is simply asking if they want to be on. i called don rumsfeld the other day and asked him and he said not right now. that is what journalism is all about. stain on the phone, staying in touch with people. when dick cheney came on the broadcast, when i asked him that question that got so much play, when i said colin powell said

rush limbaugh is hurting the republican party, but rush limbaugh says the powell ought to get out of the party, how do you come down, mr. vice president? in all honesty my guess was that he was not going to answer that question. i thought he might give it an amusing dodge, might be artfully side-stepping. without blinking an eye he said, when it comes to republicans i have to go with rush limbaugh. i said really? i was taken aback. people wrote about that and be interviewed for a couple of weeks. they are still writing about. that is journalism. do not assume you will note the answer when you ask someone a question. just ask the question. host: this question comes from oklahoma. caller: good morning, my question is, with the medicare

question -- health care for everyone, is there any way they could extend down the medicare to people from 65 to 60 and then every year ago down to cover everyone. those who want to stay on private plans and those who want to be on medicare plans could be. guest: i will give you an artful side-stepping of that question. i simply do not have the technical expertise to give you an answer to that question. that is part of what is discussed in this great debate on health care. but i am not the one to answer that question. host: here is a message from twitter. guest: i think we need to do

some stories about how these programs run and work. i'm not sure everyone would agree they have failed. having said that, it is worthwhile for us to begin doing stories on how these other countries handle host: health care steve from illinois, good morning. caller: yes, i would like to ask if and when bob plans to retire. guest: i did not bring my guitar this morning. host: we have that on our website. it is available on a space line and also on view to. -- it is available online.

guest: i announced i would retire a couple of years ago and then did not. my boss said to me, don't you want to watch one more political campaign, one more presidential campaign? the more that i thought about it, i really did. that is the best advice i got. i would not have missed this last campaign for anything. i will hang around cbs for a while and keep doing "face the nation" for a while. i do not know. i have no plans to retire. i hope that when i start drooling someone will get a big hook and excuse me. my wife is in charge of that. when she thinks i'm not up to it anymore she will be the one to say it is time to move on. so far my health is good. i am having a lot of fun.

this is not like work to me. this is what i wanted to do when i was a little boy. i grew up and had the chance to do it. so i think will keep doing it for a while. host: a few more minutes with our guest, bob schieffer. caller: a quick answer to the woman calling and saying that bush said the economy was strong. he said the fundamentals of the economy are strong. everyone made jokes. obama made jokes. two months ago obama it came out and said the fundamentals of the economy are strong. that was just to counter the woman who called. guest: well, i think you are right. i think that is what he said. the fact is that the economy was -- the fundamentals were not as strong as even he may have "suggested." caller: and then two months ago

obama said the fundamentals of the economy are shown. how do you feel about the coverage of health plan and not one minute even went to the republicans and abc just flatly refused. guest: i will let others make that judgment. have discovered over the years when i comment on what my competitors are doing it always comes off as self-serving. people will make up their minds about that and a lot of other issues. i will let others make that judgment. host: we are getting a lot of it e-mails from one fell. he says you are his favorite texan, hands down. guest: i get that a lot. i have a close association with the journalism department attcu where i went to school. -- at tcu.

it is the most meaningful thing anyone has ever done is when they named the journalism school there after me. i get down to texas at least once or twice a semester to work with those kids. i go down to four with probably six times per year. i will not begin inot -- i willo back their full-time when i retire. but i have a lot of friends there. i still call for worth home. washington is where i live. caller: good morning, i would like to ask mr. bob schieffer what he and others of the journalistic community can do to help establish a better quality of discourse on these sunday morning programs where one can get away from the shallow cliches and argument for the sake of argument.

a conservative commentator having the same stale, generic commentator as a liberal, democratic commentator. secondly, how can we get more voices of authority, actual experts to have comments on the issue at hand instead of the same pundit commenting on this wide swath of issues no one can really fully grasp. guest: i think, melissa, that we do a pretty good job. i think is in the morning is different from any other time on television. i would take issue with the premise of your question. i do not think we are shallow. i think we do a pretty good job building into issues. we are not perfect and never will be, but i am proud of the job we do. host: in the the course of history is there one individual you would want to interview? guest: the people i would like

to interview or the founders. i would love to go back and talk to those who founded this country, washington, and jefferson. this remarkable group who came together. these great minds that all happened to be in one place at one time. the great advances in humanity have come about when a group of very talented people wind up in one place at the same time. the greeks on the hillsides of athens, and then our own founders. i mean, the more you find out about them the more fascinating they become. stop and think about this. we take the american revolution for granted these days. think what was bound to happen. i think a was thomas paine who said it will happen -- and island cannot rule a continent. but that was not necessarily the case. when america broke away from

england which in that time was the most powerful country in the world it was the first time that a colony had ever broken away from another country. the first time. we forget that. no one thought it was a done deal. no one thought it would just happen, that it was bound to happen. it was a very difficult thing to do and had never been done before. yet it happened. i would like to talk to john adams and thomas jefferson and ask, did you really think it would happen? because they did not. they thought there was a good chance that they would all behanged and they made jokes about the one guy who signed the declaration of independence who was very heavy. they said he was lucky to be so fat. those are the ones i would like to talk to, and also of course, abraham lincoln and franklin

roosevelt who had a remarkable sense of politics. host: what would you ask them? 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 t thingsi would like to talk about

host: please come back again. >> the house came in today, debated five bills and has recessed until 6:30 eastern for votes on those bills debated this afternoon. tomorrow mens -- members consider nearly $46 billion for the homeland security department next budget year. a $7% increase over this year. also this week, defense department programs and policy. on friday, speaker pelosi may bring climate change legislation to the floor. live coverage when the house returns here on c-span. on thursday, "washington journal" talks to the original head of the homeland security department. former pennsylvania governor tom ridge. live coverage at 9:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> july fourth weekend on book tv, discover an unfamiliar side of our nation's first president as we're live from george

washington's mount vernon estate. on george washington. join our three-hour conversation, sunday, july 5, live on in depth d on c-span's book tv. >> now to the white house where earlier today president obama held his fourth news conference since taking office. he makes remarks about the protests in iran before taking questions from reporters. it's just under an hour. >> hello, everybody. good afternoon, everybody. today i want to start by addressing three issues and then i'll take your questions. first i'd like to say a few words about the situation in iran. the united states and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days.

i strongly condemn these unjust actions and i join with the american people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost. i've made it clear that the united states respects the sovereignty of the islamic republic of iran and is not interfering with iran's affairs. but we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the iranian people and their remarkbleble opening within iranian society. we deplor the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place. the iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future. some in iran -- some in the iranian government in particular are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the united states and others in the west of instigating protests over the election. these accusations are patently false. they're an obvious attempt to distract people from what is truly taking place within

iran's borders. this tired strategy of using old tensions to escape goat other countries won't work anymore in iran. this is not about the united states or the west, this is about the people of iran. and the future that they and only they will choose. the iranian people can speak for themselves. that's precisely what's happened in the last few days. in 2009 no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice. despite the iranian government's efforts to expel journalists and isolate itself, powerful images and poignant words have made their way to us through cell phones and computers and so we've watched what the iranian people are doing. this is what we've witnessed. we've seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands of iranians marching in silence. we've seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard.

above all we've seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats and we've experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. while this loss is raw and extraordinarilyly painful, we also know this, those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history. as i said, cairo suppressing ideas never succeeding in making them go away. the iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech. if thean lanan government speak -- seek -- if the iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must heed the will of its own people. it must govern through consent and not coercion. that's what iran's own people are calling for and the iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. the second issue i want to address is our ongoing effort to build a clean energy economy. this week the house of representatives is moving ahead on historic legislation that

will transform the way we produce and use energy in america. this legislation will spark a clean energy transform that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet. this energy bill will create a set of incentives that will spur the development of new sources of energy, including wind, solar and geothermal power. it will also spur the new energy savings like efficient windows and other materials that reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer. these incentives will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy. and that will lead to the development of new technologies that lead to new industries that could create millions of new jobs in america. jobs that can't be shipped overseas. at a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink

and pollute the air that we breathe. it also provides assistance to businesses and communities as they make the gradual transition to clean energy technologies. so i believe that this legislation is extraordinarilyly important for our country, it's taken great effort on the part of many over the course of the past several months. i want to thank the chair of the energy and commerce committee, henry waxman, his colleagues on that committee, including congressman dingell, ed markey and rich boucher. i also want to thank charlie rangel, the chair of the ways and means committee and collin peterson, the chair of the agricultural committee, for their many and ongoing contributions to this process. and i want to express my appreciation to nancy pelosi and steny hoyer for their leadership. we all know why this is so important. the nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century's global economy. that's what this legislation seeks to achieve. it's a bill that will open the door -- door door to a better

future for this nation and that's why i urge members of congress to come together and pass it. the last issue i'd like to address is health care. right now congress is debating various health care reform proposals. this is obviously a complicated issue but i am very optimistic about the progress that they're making. like energy, this is legislation that must and will be paid for. it will not add to our deficits over the next decade. we will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system. some of which we've already announced. we will also ensure that the reform we pass brings down the crushing cost of health care. we simply can't have a system where we throw good money after bad habits. we need to control the skyrocketing costs that are driving families, businesses and our government into greater and greater debt. there's no doubt that we must preserve what's best about our health care system and that means allowing americans who like their doctor and their

health care plans to keep them. but unless we fix what's broken in our current system, everyone's health care will be in jeopardy. unless we act, premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further and the rolls of the uninsured will swell to include millions of more americans. unless we act, $1 out of every $5 we earn will be spent on health care within a decade and the amount our government spends on medicare and medicaid will eventually grow larger than what our government spends on everything else today. when it comes to health care, the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. so reform's not a luxury. it's a necessity. and i hope that congress will continue to make some progress on this issue in the weeks ahead. so, let me open it up for questions and i'll start with you. >> thank you, mr. president. your administration has said that the offer to talk to iran's leaders remains open. iran's leaders remains open. can you say if that's still so