landing and moon walk. governors of mostly sunny and maryland will join us from the nga conference. "washington journal" begins now. .. .

host: we want to ask you whether or not you think the president is taking on too much. for democrats, 202-737-0002. for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. let's look at some of the other headlines this morning. dominating many of the newspapers, including "the houston chronicle, the story is a local story, the quest for them making houston the center of the universe. we will talk with buzz aldrin about his experiences in the next hour. inside of "the washington post" the have penned "what is next"? "barely six months into his presidency, barack obama seems

to be driving south into the political speed trap known as carter country, where every initiative meets with failure and scorn from political allies and foes alike. according to cbs news, is once unassailable approval rating stands at 57%. half of americans think that the recession will last an additional two years or more. 52% think that the president is trying to accomplish too much, 57% think that the country is on the wrong track." we will read more about what people think on this issue, including the pivot point issue of health care. first, your phone calls. this first one is from cape coral, fla.. is the president taking on too much? caller: if he was not addressing this issue, that would be an issue.

i think that he is doing as much as he can, given the situations we are in. one of the things that concerns me, his recent trips, during that i heard a lot of pundits say that he took too long to talk about personal responsibility. i happened to be watching television that evening. kids were on television talking about how upset they were because their parents were obsessed with the prom. when they address these things, and there really is racism going on. when the president takes time to

talk about these issues and address these issues, they are cast off. if we do not talk about them, someone will be upset. host: the naacp speech will be focused on here on this network on friday. if you would like, it is online now, c-span.org. mark, republican line, fla. caller: i think that obama has to do what he is doing. the one thing that i do not like is i do not know why he is not going for single payer health issue. he has the majority in congress and the senate. he is a democratic president. now is the time to do it meant he is not. host: thank you for the call. virginia beach, independent

line. caller: i do not think of the president is doing too much. personally, i feel that congress overall has been doing mostly nothing, wasting money and time. i think that the president is trying to arrest these people to be adults, working on problems that we need done. for the conference to say -- congress to say that we cannot figure out how to pay for health care, and they have had 15 to 20 years? we should have figured that out before they walk through the door. they show a lack of enthusiasm and support. first, we need to get it done. host: thank you for the call. "the key to understanding the

president's predicament is to realize that while he ran convincingly as a repudiation of bush, he is in fact doubling down on his predecessors big government policies and crisis mongering. from the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists to gays in the military to bailing out industries, obama has been little more than the keeper of the bush flame. it took the two of them to create the disaster that is the 2009 budget, racking up a deficit that has already crossed the historic $1 trillion mark with almost three months left in the fiscal year. independent line, louisiana. caller: this president is doing way too much. look at what is going on in the house and senate. democrats, nancy pelosi, she is basically writing the bills. you can see why the bill is in

such a disaster. the bottom line is that we do not even have people in congress reading the bills right now. that blows me away. is there anything out there that the government does that works? think about it, except the military. medicare has gone bankrupt, the government gets their hands in everything and it does not work. i promise you. host: in "the new york times" this morning, "barack obama has a complicated and eclectic agenda." we will read more from that in a moment. scott, indiana. good morning. caller: i think that there is a lot being made about president obama, but i think that he is doing a great job. we forget about the problem of more spending and the other side for eight years, we forget that the mast was caused by private

industry. -- we forget that the mess was caused by private industry. i have not seen soup lines lately. i think that there are a lot of bad problems with unemployment that need to be solved, but he is doing the best of the can with a bad hand. host: "president obama promised a more open government, but it is not clear that he will deliver. " this is on our c-span.org web site. . the next call is bill, independent line, new york city. good morning. caller: i can see that some

people have already touched on it. nicholas gillespie, the last caller. he has to take on these things because of the last administration leaving such a big mess for whoever would become president. the historical things that brought him are also responsible for him having so much to deal with. not just president obama that has to deal with it, it is america. stop putting the onus on him, stop putting the onus on the congress, this is a country by the people, for the people. take responsibility. host: this story from "the national journal," brought to us by marilyn werber serafini, she will be us -- with us at the bottom of the hour. issues that she thinks that obama and congress need to look at.

tomorrow we will talk more about the issue of health care as congress comes back to work. with a markup out of the way on the house committee, the issue is going to focus on the legislation as it moves to the senate. next, say louis, missouri. good morning. caller: i need to talk about obama and his plans. in a chronic illness patient. -- i am a chronic illness patient. i have a major insurance company, united healthcare. i had to have a tube placed in my stomach because i weighed 93 pounds. they paid for the surgery, they played for the connection, but they did not pay for the bag. they did not pay for the liquid that i needed.

it was like $5,000 every six months. every time that i turn around, these insurance companies are dropping something. dropping off my medication, handling my medical treatment. i am sick of them. yes, we need health care. as far as obama, he said what he is doing. people need to slow down and stop blaming him, working with him. host: we appreciate the call. this morning, david router talked about health care, "sooner than anyone anticipated, the drive for health care reached a crucial decision point. some are pushing to scrap the current health care bill and start over again, including mike leavitt. this president must choose

between pushing ahead with a badly flawed and overly expensive health care plans for seeking structural changes." cal, tennessee, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. you do a fantastic job. the other day they had an the address -- they had an address on a book they were trying to sell, june 27. they pointed out a lot of things that this administration is trying to do. the most important part is our freedoms. but coming up with this registration, everything that you do is going to be interfered with as far as that go. this national health care program is not going to work for us.

it is going to bust the country wide open. this is a massive amount of debt that we look 03. cap and trade will go up for each family. host: thank you for the call. from "the washington times," "read our lips, new taxes are on the way. business groups could back user fees to provide revenues that infrastructure badly needs, including significant reform. this point, givinen the sorry state of the economy, we should not raise taxes and set the economy back even more." bob woodward talked about the president and began a conversation about whether or not this president is doing too much.

here is an absurd. >> it is a shakespearean dilemma. is the king good or flawed? people on both sides are just not sure. here is a very young, inexperienced president who has put so much on the table. someone counted it up, 131 major initiatives, legislations, major ideas. the day that this came to me, 131 on the front page of my own newspaper, president obama issued an executive order saying that he would clean up the chesapeake bay. he is undertaking just about everything. all of those things are like planes landing at the airport. they are circling and we do none

know what order they will land in or if they will land at all. interesting about obama is that he is very decisive. he has a process of having a problem, hearing everyone out, looking at it, then he decides and, in most cases, announces it. people, i think, are waiting to see what happens. will some of these just disappear from the radar? quite likely. host: that is bob woodward on "charlie rose" last week. below the fold in "the new york times," jimmy diamon, "he will hold a meeting for the first time on monday with his board,

including the appearance of rohm emmanuel. amid the disgrace of the industry, he has emerged as the favorite banker of obama and the envy of his wall street rivals. it reflects a good return on what he labeled his country's seventh line of business, government relations. the business of better influence in washington began in late 2007, jumped started as the financial crisis hit. mr. obama postelection brought democrats well known to mr. diamond, of one of them being mr. emanuel, who has accepted the invitation to speak to the board." a rather lengthy story this morning from "the new york times." phil, winter garden, fla.

good morning. caller: a pleasure to be on this morning. i am from maryland really. but i live in central florida. host: we will be talking to your governor, martin o'malley, at 9:30 eastern time. caller: fantastic. this nation is so complex, even for us. i wanted to say this to the american public, which is that we have serious issues that must be tackled. the point is that if we had a president who was doing any less, we would be complaining, i am sure. these issues have to be dealt with. obama really has to focus on what he can do for the american

people and what they can accomplish together. i really believe that a national lottery program with workers who are unemployed -- and for all of the houses and banking problems, it would be effective in turning the psychological problems around for a rebuilding of the american infrastructure. host: walter cronkite, he died on friday at the age of 92. "the new york times" pointed out that you have a private funeral in thursday, new york city. he will be buried next to his wife of 64 years. dave, on the phone from

baltimore. good morning. caller: how're you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think that obama is doing enough. just like the crime from the 1920's and 1930's, when they had attorney general and special offices, all of these big industry companies have contributed to the debt of this country. then the president is going to help to bail them out? all that we need to do is bail out the fraud and, corruption, and agreed going on in this country. -- and greed going on in this country. he needs to go through there with his attorney general and his people to stop the

corruption of this country. to live and prosper and work, the right of the people of the united states. host: you might want to read the editorial from "the new york times." "the question posed, what does it have to do with john murtha the money trail is far from fully explored, but already features a second to feature of congressional appropriations staff members exiting to the golden door of lobby -- into defense lobbying in scoring big contracts for their old bosses. beyond that the criminal

investigation, ethics inquiry should be pressed for by the house." houston, republican line. is the president taking on too much? caller: i am a black senior citizen grandmother, almost 82 years old. yes, he is taking on too much. he has a good team working for him, but he keeps falling back on it being bush's fault. some of these things started many years ago, and he needs to stop blaming bush and just go on and the president of the united states. 99% of black people voted for this man because we got

emotional, because the media kept saying black president. we are going to elect a black president. i do not care what they say, he is biracial. just because he has a black daddy, true of the black population, just because he has a black daddy his white grandmother took him on. we have bought into because i am black, i have to be a democrat. that is not me. i have seen what they have done for the black race. we wind up voting the same way for 50 years, we are still complaining about the rich white republicans. let's have some pride. go back to the pride of our background. host: how do you think he is doing as an african-american,

and regardless of his race, how is he doing as president? caller: taking on too much. no way can he be effective, not with everything he is doing right now. host: we appreciate the call. this tweet, "he ran on the platform that he would and could clean up the mess, but is he up to the task"? on wednesday the president will have another prime-time news conference from the white house at 9:00 eastern time. "the washington times has a story of a captured soldier, from afghanistan earlier this month, the first time a soldier was seen since he went missing from his base on june 30. we have an excerpt from that exchange that we would like to

share right now. >> to my fellow americans and loved ones, you have the power to make our government bring them home. please bring them home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives, and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. the american people have that power. host: the associated press confirmed that the man in the

meet -- in the video is the missing soldier. we are asking a question, do you think that the president is taking on too much? on the second page of the speech they point out that president obama "is the nation's first shuffle president. he is telling a lot of stories at once and in no particular order. his agenda is fully downloadable. if you care most about health care, you can jump on to that. if global warming gets you going, go over there. it is not especially realistic to imagine that politics could cling to a linear way of rendering stories while the rest of america adapts to a more customized form of consumption. such an approach does, however, invite significant peril. random play may popularizer music in the aggregate, but it does not foster the same kind of investment."

next caller. caller: the president is doing a lot, but he has a lot more to do. it is wonderful that he is our president. i am a 69-year-old white lady, i do not care if he is black or polka dotted. republicans have been against the democrats, against the american people, as long as they make bellies that -- fat and their kids go to harvard. working class people do not have a chance around here to get ahead. people have to go and work two jobs to take care of their children. now there are no jobs. they do not even help. do not give it to the republicans or the rich one. he has already told us that if the taxes the rich, we will be

ok with health care. we need health care for everybody. host: thank you for the call. this tweet, "this country was in disaster when obama to office. thank god someone wants to earn ." if he's this morning related to the likely confirmation from "the washington times" of sonia sotomayor, turning to how she may relate to her peers on the supreme court. scott is on the phone from dallas. good morning. caller: i am most disappointed with the media. walter cronkite was the most trusted man in america because he saw all the lies that the government spavin off and called

them out. this cap and trade, taxing energy, is appropriate, but there are zero tax dollars. did you know that? they are not auctioning the carbon credits, and it will not bring in new tax. it is just another financial instrument to be traded. on the subject of insurance, i wish that someone would look at usaa gse. what have they done right? they have not taken a dime of tarp dollars. they have run on the principle that all of these financial people do not know anyone -- anything, backing up with using true and time tested policies.

they have the best customer service, the best capitalized industry. they are so well run, they will not be compared to. we do not hear stories about that in media. host: where do you get that information? caller: i am a member of usaa, who has military family members as their enrolled. host: thank you for the call. another twitter, "apparently the question would not be asked if he was not." the state newspaper saying that

$290 million is paving the way for road improvements in the midwest part of south carolina. front page of the atlanta journal constitution, ted turner. looking at a washington, d.c. icon, the watergate hotel is up for an option on tuesday. putting a foreclosed property up for auction, closed since 2007, we have time for one more caller. where are you calling from? caller cut taxes. -- caller: texas. he is taking on too much, pandering to the far left. i cannot give proper attribution to this, as i cannot remember which ancient historians said it, but the old saying goes that the reason that all democracies

ultimately fail is that sooner or later the people come to the realization that they can vote themselves benefits from the public coffers. that is where i believe that we are, and you can hear it from the number of callers today that expect the government to make their live satisfying. we are at a point where the marchers are in the majority, they will vote to keep it that way. host: thank you for the call. usa, going from #one income to #two, according to this twitter, the rich are making all the money. maryland is joining us -- marilyn werber serafini will join us in just a moment. in the next hour, buzz aldrin will be here to talk for a

flower. we will be back in a moment. ♪ >> henry paulson was on capitol hill during the week, testifying about the government's role in the bank of america merrill lynch merger last year. you can see that hearing later today at 1:30. later, remarks from president obama to the naacp, marking the 100th anniversary of the group. you can see her speech later -- you can see his speech later today on c-span. this week, on "newsmakers," mike

ross. >> the american people are willing, in a fair and equitable manner, to help pay for a healthcare plan that will insure health care in the future. first, they expect us to squeeze every ounce of savings, waste, fraud, and abuse out of the current system. that is frankly going to mean rethinking how we deliver health care. we now pay providers to treat the sick. we need to rethink how we reimburse providers. it should be based on the value of service and the outcomes of service. a lot of things should be on the table, we believe, for consideration.

my concern in this health care reform debate is that we are not taking the time to make the decisions on the tough choices, some of which may not be topical. it is kind of like we're just throwing more money at the problem to see if we can sugarcoat it. >> mike ross, our guest today on," 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on >> "washington journal" continues. c-span. -- on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: marilyn werber serafini, thank you for joining us. what did you learn while doing this article? guest: that we have a lot to learn from massachusetts. many of the elements in the massachusetts plan are in the

bigger proposal by and the bills under consideration in congress. much of the way we are proceeding is similar to the way that massachusetts went through their health reform. host: are there other states, led washington state and tennessee, that are compatible? trying to take different aspects of the plan? >guest: there are many states, massachusetts was the first big one. since 2006, many states have looked at elements of massachusetts as a model for what they can do in their state. no one has gone quite as far as them. host: we will get to the phone calls as well as getting to the issue of health care. first, you said putting in an all-out once approached is too

much, distribute the benefits before the burdens kick in." explained. guest: massachusetts had a fairly strong memory of what happened when might the caucus push through a big -- michael dukakis push through a big health care reform with a mandate that was almost immediate. there was such a big push back, they never implemented it. eventually it was repealed. massachusetts remember that. when they went through, making the 2006 law, they decided that we have to start covering people, giving them subsidized coverage, making people feel good about themselves -- making

people feel good about the program before instituting individual mandates. for the explicit purpose of not only passing the law, but being able to continue the support so they could implement it. many people would say that that worked beautifully, because not only was there strong public support, but it has actually grown since the law was implemented. host: your second point is that coverage expansion might not be sustainable? and when the 2006 law was passed, the assumption was that the price of insurance premiums would fall of young, healthy, uninsured people joined the ranks of the uninsured and fewer people use emergency rooms.

neither happened." guest: the cost to the state has been much greater than anticipated. the weak economy has not helped one bit. they have had to pull back on services. the legislature passed a cut for legal immigrants. they have been considering other kinds of reductions in benefits in services. so, in fact less than #two seems a bit contradictory to lesson number one, which is that you have to have a good things up front with cost containment. but without cost containment, it is not sustainable. host: in the cover story of "the lessons of massachusetts," #3, the point is that having insurance is not the same as having treatment. covered by a public plan, they experienced greater difficulty in getting an appointment.

medicaid paid doctors less than private insurance and, as a result, urgent care is proliferating in massachusetts, declining in most of the nation ." guest: it would be unfair if i did not point out that many people have great access to health care, but a significant number of people are having a terrible time getting in to see a doctor. part of that problem is something of a temporary problem, it is a manpower problem. there are simply not enough doctors to handle the demand for care. the second problem is a cost issue. people that did not have insurance before now have insurance, but these people, if they are not getting subsidies or much in the way of subsidies, there are many people that simply cannot afford their co- payments. so, they still are not getting the treatment that they feel

that they need. host: your final point, regarding hospitals, "safety net hospitals" -- by the way, what are those? guest: public hospitals that traditionally served most of the poorer people, people on medicaid or with no insurance at all. host: "they may still need help given that these hospitals are treating nearly as many low- income patients as those in health care and medicaid." how could that help? guest: a big key to the plan was that the federal government stopped paying massachusetts this funding for a disproportionate share of hospital payments, or something close to that. this was a subsidy that the federal government was paying to hospitals who had a very large

share of medicaid patients and patients with an insurance -- patients without insurance. what they decided was that if everyone was injured, they would not need extra subsidy. people would not have such a tough time and hospitals would not need the extra money. that has not been exactly true. another thing that they did in massachusetts, taking away from the public hospitals, was a decrease in medicaid payments and payments under the new subsidized insurance program in massachusetts. so, those two changes together really made it difficult for the hospital to keep up. as a result, public hospitals in particular had to decrease services, cut programs, and they feel that it is a real mess.

host: our conversation this morning is with marilyn werber serafini, who has a cover story for "the national journal" this week. utica, n.y., independent line. what is your question? caller: i did not have a question. i just wanted to say that i am not happy with the way that obama has been siding with insurance groups. host: why is that? caller: because his plan for this insurance is socialized medicine. host: thank you for the call. we talked with mike ross, he essentially said that one idea is to scrap the current bill and start all over again. david groder wrote about it this morning, saying that mike leavitt is saying the same thing.

guest: very interesting. if they did that, they could potentially run into some real timing problems. the thinking all along has been that if you do not get health care bills done this year, you run into next year, which is an election year for members of the house and senate. traditionally, that has always been very hard to pass, significant legislation, especially expensive ones like health reform. on the other hand, we are release starting to see the first push back on health reform. until very recently, we have had a lot of people holding hands. stakeholders, members of congress. even republicans had been wanting to be a part of the process, but now there are specific plans on the table, especially with what happened last week when doug elmendorf

came out, expressing his concern over the plans on the table for congress, worried that it would not control costs. he might pay for the bill, but he was concerned that you are not actually controlling costs. that was like dropping the bomb. big complaints coming out of the republican side from john boehner in the house. the question is, at this point can you move forward with what you have? or can you start fresh? host: this question from a viewer, "is something that better than nothing"? "did you look at anything outside of the u.s."? guest: many believe that is exactly the case. that is the approach that

massachusetts tuck. massachusetts said they would not put cost containment in there, but they wanted to get the insurance out there, getting everyone with insurance. that that would lead to the pressures necessary to rein in costs. host: this conclusion from our guest, marilyn werber serafini, "the drive for universal health- care coverage is not an unqualified success." elizabeth, virginia. republican line. good morning. elizabeth? we are going to move on to brandon, richmond, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. hello? host: you are on the air. caller: given all of the health care for dinner -- host: we are moving on to bill, california.

caller: as a libertarian, i am concerned that when the government provides health care we will get the cost of health criminalize. does massachusetts have any plans to tax unhealthy behaviors, like cigarettes or obesity, something like that? host: if i could, i would like to follow up on that. over the weekend i saw some advertisements criticizing taxes on soft drinks. thank you for the call. guest: i am not exactly sure whether massachusetts has those kinds of punishments. i do not remember. i am not sure. that is not to say that it is not being considered elsewhere. it is more considered not as a stick, but a carrot, where you would have incentives for eating well, going to the gym in

working out, having healthy behaviors. as steve mentioned, we have under consideration a sugary beverage tax. this is a new concept, one that has been quite controversial already. there are many people that believe that it is an interesting idea, not terrible, but can you do that politically? guehost: you talk about these clinics that are popping up cv'' a run the country. this tweet deals with that, "do in-store clinics for-and illnesses at walgreen's in my area fit in to the health care plan"? guest: many people that have used these urgent care clinics,

does that help with their costs? of many people believe that they do. and that they would. if you are not going to hang cvs minute clinic on a saturday, what is your other option? the emergency room, which is the highest cost setting for care. host: of palm beach,k florida,eith, -- keith, palm beach, fla. caller: is there a discussion on getting bills from hospitals? i know someone who recently had a $10,000 hernia operation and was overcharged $2,000, $1,000 in medication.

when she was trying to correct the bill, it took money away from the hospital, but her part one of -- went up. why not go for a small, basic plan, tried to get the 14 million people that qualify for these programs on here? host: you are putting a lot on the table. let me go back. her insurance premium went up, what, specifically? caller: not the premium. $2,000 of over-charges was taken away from the insurance company, taken away from the hospital, but her part of the payment went up. guest: that is interesting. that is a problem that has been around for ages. when we talk about moving to electronic records, a lot of the

building at this point is electronic. a lot of that should not happen, but it still does. when we get to the point when we have the electronic records across the board, even a majority of hospitals and physicians have electronic records, but the hope is that it would disappear, that everything would be more efficient and thaaccurate. part of the problem right now is that when things are on paper, there are errors. host: the july 14 edition of "the national journal" has the work of our guest, marilyn werber serafini. joe, holiday, fla. democratic line. caller: good morning. i have a couple of quick things, especially for the woman on now.

on paper, there is a mistake. if you enter information into a computer, you enter it from favor as well. the chance for a mistake is there as well. computerized or not, there will be mistakes. i do appreciate -medical databases. i have a sick mother, we could go right there. but i will say that yesterday i was doing some work for their at the homeless shelter and a doctor happened to be there. i got a quick exam. he took my blood pressure, typing more information into the laptop then he spent with me. one of the things that i asked him was what kind of practice he ran. he said that he was all cash. if someone like me was to go to his door, he would turn them

away. i asked him about his have a credit of. this man was a confessed christian. he said that he had worked for another doctor who was a christian as well, and they saw nothing wrong with turning someone away. guest: interesting. one of the many interesting things i learned from my research on massachusetts was that there was a real problem with public hospitals and public physicians, problems they're having right now. one of the primary care physicians told me that many of the doctors there, in order to make ends meet -- keep in mind, these are the public hospitals. clinics where they see a chorus of patients. in many instances now, there are life-threatening conditions that

they are asking for co-payments on. they are asking for cost sharing up front. host: another twitter, "punishment, a penny on soft drinks for a good payoff to keep people alive"? where is this heading? guest: many people believe that you need to get to the root of our problem. that one of the major problems in our health-care system is that we are not keeping people healthy. we do not have enough in the way wellness programs, and of incentives to really tackle the obesity problem, the smoking problem, the lack of exercise problem. there are many initiatives as part of all of these pieces of legislation to try to promote wellness. whether it goes far enough, we will just have to see. host: we are talking with marilyn werber serafini of "the

national journal." we will continue this conversation of health care later this morning on." mike ross will be -- this morning on "newsmakers." mike ross will be on the program. here is an excerpt. >> this is not just a conservative movement with problems with the bill. i can tell you a problem with a number of more progressive members of congress, people thanking me for trying to slow this down and doing it right. to answer your question, there are seven others on the congress committee. we have been meeting for several hours every day to work through these amendments, trying to get the bill to a place where they can vote for it.

in terms of the democratic caucus as a whole, but significant number of people have fallen short on the house floor right now. host: that last part was part of the news that came from the president, democratic health care in its current form working through energy and commerce committees, as well as labor committees, something that they would not pass. guest: he represents the blue dog democrats, the moderate democrats. there are many of them that are very powerful. they have very strong concerns, especially with the fiscal issues and issues that we talked about earlier, cost curves. can we slow that growth? we really have a real potential

for a real problem. it blue dogs and the moderate democrats are not for legislation -- if the blue dogs and moderate democrats are not for the legislation, there is a good chance it will not pass. host: independent line, good morning. caller: i am an independent from upstate new york. i have a problem with how they are proceeding on this bill. i would think that it would be logical, as a business person, to address the cost system. people cannot afford health insurance right now because the cost is too high. my husband worked in the hospital setting. the salaries paid to hospital employees, they have layers and layers of management. each one of these people get $100,000 or more as a salary. obama's wife was paid $300,000 in her position at a hospital.

all of these costs, pharmaceutical costs and what have you, they are all associated with health care. we are simply not paying for the doctor and laboratory bills, we are paying liers of costs. if we did not have the costs, we could afford health care right now. host: you are making the point that many people make, they are concerned about costs. cost issues are difficult to deal with politically. it is not just reducing costs for the consumers, it is reducing the cost for businesses. when you consider it that way, in that you have to reduce costs for everybody to make the system worked, it starts to become painful. someone has got to suffer a little bit. host: linda, republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning. i would like to make a few statements. three years ago my daughter went from texas and massachusetts to work in a laboratory for one year. she is currently in a medical school somewhere. she became very ill and needed to see a doctor. she could not because she had a two to three months waiting. -- bleedinwaiting period. i am worried about her being sick way up there. her apartment bill, if it had not been so expensive, she could have paid insurance. but she cannot even get in to see a doctor. host: how is she doing today?

caller: curly in medical school in texas, they had begged her to stay there but she could not handle it. she could not handle their attitude, the waiting, and she could not pay the expense of payment for her rent every month. guest: the shortage of physicians is not just in massachusetts, although it is more extreme there because they have added so many more people for health insurance and there is this incredible demand. people who had not been getting care because they had no way to pay for it, all of a sudden there's a surge in demand for medical services. but it is not just in massachusetts. there are many areas around the country where there are physician shortages. there is concern that to expand coverage nationally, it will be

a national issue. not only that, but we have certain specialties that primary care could be a problem for in particular. host: our final tweet, "educate parents, too fast for consumption, cause the health care, restore justice, lower taxes, find money." guest: many people think that you cannot fix the economy without taking care of health care. many people believe that there's a real underlying thinking out there, many politicians understand this, that it is very difficult to improve the economy without improving the health care situation. host: marilyn werber serafini, thank you for being with us. please come back again. guest: thank you. .

>> and have angular edges. >> now in the lesser gravity of the moon, armstrong and aldrin, dawn their equipment and prepare to explore this dark, lonely world. >> do you think you with check the pressure of this 1.2 bsi?

>> we are going to try it. >> the hatch is coming open. >> guided by buzz aldrin, neil armstrong and his bulky suit worked its way through the hatch. >> how are we doing? >> you are fine. >> ok, houston, i am on the porch. >> roger, neil. >> and we are getting a picture on the tv. >> i am at the foot of the ladder. the foot beds are depressed in

the surface about one or two inches. and am stepping off the land now. that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. host: we want to welcome buzz aldrin, to the "washington journal," that's beening -- thank you for being with us. >> thank you. host: does it seem like 40 years? guest: yes and my life has changed significantly in 40 years, it was half of my life ago. my birthday was on inauguration

day, i am 79 and when i landed on the moon, i was 39.5. host: you describe your life as magnificent desolation, how so? guest: because it's the words that came to me, and than the words beautiful, it was really not beautiful up there. i didn't think so. and i like to contrast words and you throw in humor and absurdity and treat it as nothing changed. to say magnificent desolation

was referring to the magnificent human achievement, that we have rockets and can send people in that object in the sky that people have been looking at centuries and centuries, and people can be on the surface. what a magnificent testimony to the achievements of humanity. but when looking at what was there when we got there, such a lifeless place. without putting it into words, there was the sense that this hasn't changed in 100,000 years, or something like that. a lot of dust has been accumulated by the small. there are many small objects, few big objects. it follows an arithh'm rule and

the factors and no water or surface for sand and elsewhere. mars has tremendous dust storms. and everything there can be very round, rough and rounded. host: as we look at these very grainy pictures and one satellite that could transfer those pictures back to earth. as we watch and walter cronkite passed away over the weekend. first why was neil armstrong the first to walk on the moon, and you were the second? guest: i think ultimately seniority was clearly the decision. there were probably early plans of fulfilling kennedy's

commitment of landing on the moon. and our early space walks were done with one person going out. there could have been an early plan that didn't have anybody walking out. just for the conservative mature. e -- nature. or just one out, and it might not be the commander, and on the cover of the book, that picture is me outside and jim lovele took the picture. but buddy system just like scuba diving, you want to have mutual protection. there was another factor in there that has to do with the training workload. the commander was in charge of all the critical moments, and

most critical was the power of descent, and it was neil's job for the descent and relocation and the landing. and he executed the maneuvers and they don't use the commander co-pilot but mine was the eagle. host: and those words by neil armstrong, the words for the country, one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. did he come up with that? guest: he said that he did, and

it's so neil to think of things and respond in a professional way. and in a sense, his step for man, is my observation of loneliness and his reference to mankind is magnificent. and his words contrasting, a human being and then mankind. host: you wrote and getting attention, let me share. host: can you explain? guest: yes, we were challenged by sputnik, and further

challenged by the awareness, not only a dog going into orbit, but our monkeys were, and the naming of the craters by russian citizens. clearly this was a challenge to each nation. and it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment, early, 1961 decision. it was a decision that had been looked at quite a while. neil mentioned in the recent lecture, on the 50th anniversary or 40th of apollo viii. and the decision to send people to the moon and what do when

you get there was under analysis for some time. and it was a pioneering reaction to advance as soon as possible, the gathering together of rockets and all of things needed to evolve a response to mutual assured destruction that was the international strategy of pointing nuclear rockets at each other. it was a challenge to the american people to evolve, to develop the technology. and that was carried out several years later by the commitments or the suggestions of president reagan to build a defense against nuclear missiles. trivialized by people calling it star wars. it was not trivial at all.

it was to use the might of aerospace that we demonstrated in the apollo program to further evolve the technical ability to provide defense against the seemingly threat of two guns pointing at each other and no one daring to pull the trigger. the might that we demonstrated in apollo transferred over to an evolving defense that russia couldn't match. they knew that because they couldn't get to the moon ahead of us, and couldn't develop a defense. no one in the 60's, 70's and 80's thought that the cold war

would zqbe terminated in that century, but it was. and that pioneering space ability carried out by the academia and political will and the american people, despite the conflicts going on in southeast asia demonstrated technology to a remarkable and wonderful place. you can't keep that going. we were hopeful that with 20 missions of saturn 5, we would be successful at least one, and landed successfully six out of seven times. and decided to put our resources somewhere else, something we haven't developed.

look into the launch systems and make them reuseable so we don't throw them away. we are still looking at trying to do that. i am certainly. and let's look at laboratories that can make use of zero-gravity or negative microgravity, we will call it. so there were two things we wanted to do after apollo, reuseable rockets delivering elements of space station in orbit. that was two things. and we couldn't do two things, and the president said which do you want. being an engineer, no need for a laboratory if you can't get to it. so we opted for the delivery system. and the delivery system is the second regret i have of being a part of the nasa apollo program. while awaiting for my

assignment which is not what i wanted really wanted to be the first astronaut to return to the military service. i thought the transition would be best done after 11 years away from service and 19 years in the service, could best be done by the air force academy. i was there in 1955 when it opened up and stood three in my class at westpoint. i understood academia than a test pilot. i was in the third group, i was not test-trained as a test pilot. and they couldn't select me in the second group. so i was selected in the third group of astronauts. and my preference would have been to accommodate the cadets at the air force academy.

instead of the test pilot school. while awaiting my assignment analysis of the new reuseable rockets. there was two stage reuseable rockets. the first stage would separate and land. and the upper stage with the crew, where the cargo would go into orbit and that was going to be developed in houston. the booster like the saturn 5 was going to be developed by the marshal space center. when i saw the proposals, there were six for the booster and ñwith two astronauts in it. and i said why, why do you put a crew for it to go up and land. and they said, we have make

sure that it lands properly. and we almost launched our orbiter manned, and the russians launched unmanned. and i said why in the world put a crew. but we did that for several years and spent a lot of money on it. and the readers can come to their conclusions as to why. one center wanted astronauts in their vehicle, and they asked the contractors to do a study, man versus unmanned booster. knowing that what the client wants and the contractors with that study of knowing how much more they would get with a cockpit with a crew, you know the answer of that. host: as some of that outline in the book, our guest is buzz aldrin, and we will show you a cover the book, and photos, and

we have john from springfield, good morning. caller: good morning, buzz it's funny that you talk about the first stage. i worked for boeing and it was my assignment to log the recovery of it. but i think that the main interest here is to how things have changed. you mentioned that at the start of the program. our handheld computing k>n'powe was limited to slide rules, i wondered if you could talk about that. guest: i took a slide rule on my flight in 1966, and because of the rules of unstowing kits

were different just before the apollo fire. jim took a picture of my with a pipe in my mouth and the slide rule floating in front of me. after the apollo fire, we couldn't touch anything in the kits that we carried on board. and i have heard the story that there is more computing power in my cell phone and i can update that in months. but unfortunately you can't build a rocket in that time. the amount of programming capability that was in that small computer, the guidance computer in the lunar module was fantastic, sending back information to houston so they

could monitor the systems, far better than we could. and it had communication with the stars, and we could navigate ourselves around the moon and return. and all the maneuvers and rendezvous was in the computer. i don't like to see people suggest a degradation of the system that was phenomenal. host: john is on the line with buzz aldrin. caller: good morning, how did you feel going against the soviets, the first on the moon? guest: they didn't enter that

picture that much, it was clear that was a race going on. and our one-man mercury program followed the map of the two-man program was ahead of the achievements in the u.s. there were more things we needed to know to proceed apollo. we needed space flight and rendezvous, and we needed those four things, between mercury and apollo. it filled the gap. after apollo what happened? we sat on the ground almost six years using sky-land to put the station up there. we didn't put the second station up there that we could have. we flew to it a couple of times.

and then had a gap of six years, and what were the russians doing? getting ahead and catching up, we shouldn't have a gap of launching in space. unfortunately we do. host: more of the moments as buzz aldrin stepped on the moon. >> then the first man on the moon, read a plaque on the wings of an eagle, that was thought of earlier as

impractible. >> this has the signature of the president of the united states. host: your thoughts about neil's words and your words? guest: very appropriate, i think the entire apollo-11 mission unfolded in an incredibly accurate way. it's a tribute, i think, to our reaction to the tragedy of apollo-1 fire so soon after my flight in gemini-12. this was with ed white, and he was a close friend of mine. we were together at westpoint

on the track team and the squadron training, and when he told me he was applying for astronaut program. and i thought, ed, i can do that, and i wasn't selected and he was. he was my role model, and without that tragedy he would have been one of the first people on the surface of the moon. host: and in near tragedy averted on apollo-13, and the movie with tom hanks. and where it was said that failure is not an option. guest: yeah, i know, that's a beautiful phrase from gene grant. and once you have a mission in work, failure on that mission is not an option. that's a wonderful phrase. but if failure is not an option

in anything you do, you sit on the ground and don't take risks. we are a very risk adverse society because of the high visibility of anything that might go wrong. whether it's an airplane tragedy accident it gets headlines. and it should do that, but the space station is on the launch until the rocket break, and then to the station commercial for a product. and if this fails, they plunk into the ocean, and so it's very crucial as you get in orbit. and that was critical but that was the thing that was not done. but the lander after the apollo fire and after circling around the moon on the second space

craft launch, and the first time we put on a crew on that giant, we went to the moon. why? because it was in response of the russians going around the moon and back. and then the mission to test the lander, and in earth orbit and then to take vg=the lander apollo-10 to the moon, and exercise it and put it in a position to do all the rendezvous maneuvers up again. outstanding mission, we need do that again, but perhaps not with the destination being americans on the surface of the moon. host: we show the photographs of this on "the washington post", with a younger buzz aldrin. next caller is stewart. good morning. caller: mr. aldrin, it's an

honor to talk to you. in 1969 i was a 12-year-old in alabama, and i remember hearing the rockets from the nasa space center. and i remember watching walter cronkite and that landing on the moon. and it did start me as a 12-year-old to be a space engineer. and 12 years later i was an engineer for the rockwell company and i had a great career in the space industry, and i worked on space missions. it was a tremendous experience of hearing the stories of the nation, when people come together they can achieve the impossible. my question to you is can we

move this anniversary to inspire our kids k-12 that there are hopes they can achieve and we can get them there. guest: that's why i have written two children's books and why i did rap music with snoop dog, and why i am twittering at the real buzz, to try to reach a new generation, a y-generation, to help them on understand that not just a great generation came along that they don't know about. and to save the world from tierance, but another generation came along and propelled to heights that the world had not seen before. and yes, we can do that again by =çchanging the pathways that

we are apparently implementing now. it's a good pathway but it's methods of implementing fall a little short of doing what you would like to see to inspire the new generation into greater heights than what is in it for me, right now. what is in it for our country later. that's service that i have dedicated my life to. and we can do that again by altering slightly the pathway we are on, and taking advantage of what we have developed in the last years, but helping other countries that have not landed on the moon. help them explore. and keep our eyes on development of the moon that could justify human habitation on the moon. we will send robe -- robots

there and explore there and the moon will be the major resource, a stepping stone and pathway for american greatness. host: back to the washington post, you write that a race to the moon is a dead end. it's a poor location to homesteading. i am not suggesting that america abandon exploration of moon entirely. and there are clues of what was once a water-soaked planet. guest: absolutely, mars is more earth-like than the moon. it's lonely and has surface flares closer. mars, the moon of mars is so

strategic, focused, human intelligence there can control robots on the surface in real-time. that means directly, back and forth and can do more ambitious things, control from the earth and then can stop, don't do anything. what the spirit and opportunity has been able to do in five years, we could have done in four months or less by having humans on the moon of mars, focus and bring xthem back and supply them and they are stepping stones. host: in the washington post, a number of pieces and looking at events and asking the question, where do we go from here? our guest is buzz adrin, we

have jerry. caller: hi, it's an honor to be talking to you. i was working for nasa on the day that the lunar landing occurred. i am 70 years old now, at the time i was looking at the nasa research center in cambridge, massachusetts, right beside m.i.t. and i was working on laser applications for studying the atmosphere. and we were all gathered in the lunch room at the center watching the lunar landing. i am so disappointed we don't ;like t. and one other thing has to do with my concern about how politics gets into science and kind of has in my destroyed

initiatives at the time. but this new center was put there in massachusetts by the hard work of teddy kennedy. he was getting a lot of credit for that, during the nixon era, two nights before that landing was the incident and all subsequent incident that arose after that. we had that center closed after christmas and all the credibility for scientific initiatives that kennedy had been pushing were just blown out the window. what i wanted to say, the big issue for me was that since

that time we could do more things, and i wish that politics would stay out of basic science. host: thank you for the call. guest: no way, politics is where we reflect the will of the people through our electoral process and appoint our leaders in congress to allocate the funds where we are going. we must appeal to the leaders of our country to find what the direction is going to be. and well advise people and i would like to promote issues, change, i would like to see well reasoned change and

enlightened cooperation and can we change and have better implementation of u.s. global leadership? yes we can. yes, we can. host: this comment from joe, why didn't someone make a back-up copy of the slow cam prints from the moon, this story getting a lot of attention. guest: i am not sure, we were busy doing other things at the time. i am sensitive to the tracking network in australia. the movie, "the dish" was a wonderful, informative movie. and it was true, according to the flight plan they were not scheduled to take the moon walk. but we advanced that because we were not going to go to sleep

after we landed on the moon. but prepare methodically to go outside and that sort of alarmed them. and don't know if that has anything to do that there were no back-up tapes. but i am so proud prior to the anniversary that we have enhanced video, high-definition, sort of, of the moon walk of the 40th anniversary. like my timing, being in the right place at the right time. host: the story of what is called the buzz plan that would get us to mars by 2035, how so? guest: it's ways, not necessarily a plan. it needs a lot of refinement before it's a plan. it's a pathway. why 2035? well, from tranquillity base,

from kitty hawk to tranquillity was 60 sqhyears and add that an you get 2035. we think we should progress from footsteps on the moon, to footsteps on another planet by 2031. my buzz ways gets there -- i meant 2035. my buzz ways gets us there in progressive achievements. just like in apollo, we had achievements that could cycle back and forth from the moon. that could deposit these modules for fueling and communication relays. and that i can one and in 2017 or so and fly by a comet approaching earth. and people can put their

binoculars on the comet and see it go by. and than rendezvous with asteroids and look for minerals and have a redundant two crews looking at it and they can reforce each other on the way back. we need that redundancy, and another near earth object in 2021, it will swing by the earth in 2029 inside of our communication satellites. and if it goes through in the wrong place, it will really threaten the earth in 2036. i know for politicians, 2036 is a long way off. we should be on the surface of mars by then. and then can journey to the moon of mars, a fascinating

location. host: quick follow up, the people may know buzz lightyear, did that come from you? guest: i read it in u.s.a. today, and i went and talked to the people about any likelihood of business arrangement, there wasn't yet. host: this from ann in maine, it's an honor seeing you, i remember calling the children to the television and saying this is history. and we watched the moon walk and i remember saying, thank god. guest: yes, in a sense where i was at that time, i chose to do when we landed successfully. i chose to thank god by serving myself communion. not publicly, i just asked everyone else to do that.

and that was half the age i am now, and my concept of spiritiality has been modified a bit, from going to the moon? no, from recovery and my mother unfortunately committed suicide a year before i went to the moon. and her father committed suicide before i was born. i inherited those genes and this book. the long journey home from the moon. a personal story of magnificent reaching athe moon, desolation and then recovery from desolation back up to a very, active experience sharing with young people and with movers and shakers. what i think my experience tells us is good for america.

and mars is good for america. host: and the book as you outlined indicates your own battle with alcoholism, and with your wife. we have joe. caller: good morning, i have one question, do you feel that the area's vehicle is the most cost effective in terms of dollars per human? guest: you only have to look back 10 years or earlier and you find a biased person. werner von braun is quoted as saying we should not put human beings on solid rocket boosters. because they can blowup at any time. you can't shut them off and

abort from them. my early efforts, 10 years ago, 15 years ago has been to replace the solid rockets on the shuttle in an evolutionary way with liquid fly-back boosters. that build to reusability. the nation and world that has two stage fully reuseable heavy, lift rockets that are years in the future. we need to develop the high-flight rate that justifies the investment in reusability that gives us reliability and economy. but reliability first. what gives us high flight rate? adventure travel, a lot of people in the orbit. and what else? solar powered and

internationals at the moon and americans touring international at mars. host: we have catherine this morning. caller: hi, what a thrill to be able to talk to you. i am a retired teacher and space was a big part of my curriculum. and i did different projects and sent them to nasa through the teacher's magazine. any how, i made my students aware of the space programs and brought them to useable people. and there were some invented for heart surgery. when you go into the hospital, all the computerized stuff you are hooked up to is because of the space program. my question is how do we make people in america aware of this? with my 25 students, and

america needs to realize for every dollar on the space program we reap probably hundreds of dollars worth of benefits. guest: you are in a key position, you are a teacher of the next generation. the older generations don't twitter. they don't tweet. the new generations do. the education in the united states, primarily in stem, science, technology, engineering and math is not what it should be. we need, my share space foundation is going to move towards developing lotteries for more people to get into space. and also education policies, where we have science, education ambassadors to represent people and ensure that education policies are

carried out to the best of our ability. that's where we plant the seeds. we get the rappers into the rap music like the rocket experience, snoop dog, we get these people to pay attention to space so the young people will. it's where you are that we are trying to motivate people. the teachers of america are the greatest resource for the future that our country has. host: ""time magazine" with the anniversary edition. what is neil armstrong doing these days and why so quiet? guest: he's chosen a different way of responding to public attention.

i was not into giving talks and speeches anywhere. it frightened me tremendously to go around the world and have competitive comparisons. i didn't want to do that at all. i understand wanting to withdraw somewhat. neil is present and was available for nasa and apollo-7 and now apollo-11. he's dayton, ohio, he's doing a lot of things. i have a message for the future and i want to reach people, i choose to face the public in a different fashion. and that's the big thing about the 24 people that went to the

moon. they are not all the same version of the right stuff. we are humans and do things different ways. and should be reported for that. host: the book includes past presidents, and we will show you that. host: we have charles on the phone from tampa, florida. caller: good morning, it was a pleasure g'1ñto be able to talk buzz aldrin. i have a couple of questions, i am from columbia, and i grew up in new york city. i remember when i was just six years old when i saw the moon landing. i thought it was amazing and awe inspiring. but as an immigrant and child growing up, i felt like this

huge disconnect. and only because i was an immigrant. not because i was dumb, but i felt i was dumb because other people talked to me about that. with that, that's one point. how would you in your perspective, as i see you on tv smiling at me, how can you bridge that gap for immigrants coming into america, people like me who love america, who serve in the united states? host: we will get a response, thanks charles. guest: yes, we have a statute of liberty out there, america is the most sought out place. why? because we invite people to come in and join our country and way of living. and to do things the way we do in this

country, speak our language, that's very important. other countries, very few are like that in the world. that's why people want to come to america. and this is still the land of opportunity. the land and home of the free and the brave. that's what america is. and we have had many influxes with famines in different parts of europe. people came here. the pilgrims on the mayflower came here, did not hang around plymouth rock, they came here and endured the hardships. that's what i want to do, to have settlers and opportunists, people who join together with like people. but they become assimilated by the nation. i think the greatest nation in

the world. they have come here, they should be proud of what this nation has built up over 200 years, and what we are proud of. host: the tweet, i don't think that mankind would be without computers or velcro, someone would have thought of it. guest: someone will always think of it. usually the security people who are challenging themselves with high-technology, to defend you and me from those who come in here from invaders. most of our high-technology comes from research that supports the defense of our country and the freedoms we have here. i am a military guy and i believe in strength and i believe that has helped us

preserve peace throughout the world. that's our obligation since the end of the cold war. host: good morning to charlie. caller: hey, so nice to talk to you. i am a technology educator and got pumped on space in the 70's. and it's so good to see you out and talk. and i really like how you came out and after you clocked that guy and you guys had gone to the moon. i will give you one for that. i can't imagine the people that came up and talked to you, enough to make you drink. i bet in things you do to talk to people is quite important. i wanted to ask you about global warming, what do you think of climate change, not just global warming but the change in climate. guest: it's a hot-button issue.

i wish that leadership in space, internationally, was such a hot-button issue. i am not sure that my advancing where we i think should be in leadership is going to settle all that well with people that establish points of view regarding what we humans are doing in change. i think that the earth has been here a long time and has gone through a lot of cycles and will continue. and there is observation why do we think now what exists in the world that we should preserve that exactly the way it is. we know it will change up and

down. we expend a lot of money trying to make it just the way it is now and preserve that. i am probably i even said that. but i believe we need evaluated opinions on many things. should we race back to the moon to allow other nations to maybe beat us in a minor way? that's fruitless to do that. should we go to some place we have been 50 years ago by the time we get there to -- what justifies the expenditure, the great expenditure for u.s. habitation on the moon? we can visit other habitations. and if there is more to be developed from the moon, i am not sure what it is now. we should identify what w0xit i

for america to make gross expenditures for human habitation on the moon. we can help and explore the moon and develop the moon. we should go boldly where man has not gone before. fly by the comets, visit the asteroids, visit the moon of mars. there a monolith, a structure on this potato-shaped object that goes around mars. when people find out about that, they will say, who put that there? well, the universe put it there. if you choose, god put it there. host: is there photographs to indicate? guest: no, it's the other one on the other page. host: let's go back to july, 1969, i want to share the conversation you had then with

president richard nixon. >> hello neil, and buzz, i am talking with you by telephone from the white house. and this is the most historic telephone call made. because of what you have done, the heavens are a part of man's world. as you talk to us from the sea of tranquillity, it inspires us to double our efforts to bring peace and tranquillity to earth. for one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this earth are truly one. one in their pride in which you have done. and one in our prayers you will return safely to earth. >> thank you, mr. president. it's a great honor and privilege for us to be here in

presenting not only the united states but the nations and with interest in their curiosity and a vision for the future. it's an honor for us to be able to participate here today. host: that's july 20, 1969, dave is on the phone from utah. caller: good morning, buzz that last clip was longhaul. i am calling as a retired police officer, i finished up my active duty on aerospace and worked on a master's thesis outer space, and some off line work on sl-33, three quick questions, and you may want to

copy or ask steve to copy. host: actually dave, why don't we take them one at a time. caller: sure, buzz, your documentation on rendezvous was a major precursor, could you elaborate? guest: yes, i felt my air force career would be best by combining what i knew how to do, was to intercept airplanes and with mitigation of guidance and regarding satellites and i modeled after 1961 or 1962 and when glenn flew. it was wise information and

yes, it was useful, but there were many ideas that allow that approach, for a human operator to be onboard and to allow what was happening and to fulfill when he could. host: dave, your follow-up. caller: could you comment on the surface and would you testify on augustine commission? guest: yes, i have testified to the augustine commission and i hope to elaborate the pathway of the launch dilemma we are in. commercial space should play an active role. we have been landing people on

a runway successfully. we should continue that, we should be able to afford to do that with an international, common spacecraft for people to go to and from. we have the technology to be the leader in this.4v: and then we can use that as a building block for the other future things where we should help other people land on the moon. and we should have pathways to mars. host: in that you outline for your proposal in the washington post for a vision for this. host: mark has the last call

from grand rapids, michigan. caller: hi, president nixon i am sure was relieved to talk to you. but on the issue of aborting the mission, what would you have done in that situation if stranded on the moon? guest: we had an interesting breakfast before launch day with the administrator of nasa at that time, who in his subsequent years before he died was a strong supporter of humans for america to mars. but as a crew, he said, don't do anything unusual. be prudent about what you do, be safe. if necessary, abort, and come back. and i will see to it you are on the next flight to the moon. that was a bold statement and helped us as a crew. he could not implemented that,

there were people waiting in line that didn't want to give us a second chance, i am sure. but it was the gesture, the perception of confidence that was given to us by the leader of nasa on that crucial gathering together of thoughts before we got in that rocket to go to the moon. in that wonderous ego, lunar lander. host: here is a tweet. guest: that's ingenuity of americans to do that. the moon's gravity is one-sixth. mar's gravity is one-third. will be easier on mars. but on the moon, the soil made

it difficult, with no air, and our ingenuity snapped up the flag, the best looking flag of the six on the moon. host: this is from the front page of the atlanta constitution, and that's you. guest: the proudest moment as a military servant was to salute the flag, the american flag on the surface of the moon. host: buzz aldrin, we thank you, and here is your website, and we appreciate your time. guest: twitter at the "realbuzz" i will be busy but will be help. host: thank you. we have governor, bri ance)>an

schweitzer will be with us, it's sunday morning, july 19th. be back in a moment. >> this week on "news makers," we have mike ross from arkansas. >> i think the american people are willing in a fair and equitable manner to help pay for a health care plan to ensure they have health care now and in the future. but they first shave us squeeze the waste out of the current

system. and quite frankly that will mean rethinking how we pay health care. we now pay providers to treat sick. we need to rethink how we reimburse providers. it should be based on the value of service. and the outcomes. there is a lot of things that we believe should at least be on the table for consideration. and my concern is that in this health care reform debate we are not taking the time to debate and make decisions on the tough choices. some of which may not be politically popular. but it's kind of like we are throwing some more money at the problem, to see if we can sugarcoat it and get on down the road a ways. >> arkansas congressman, mike

ross, our guest on newsmakers today on c-span. "washington journal" continuous. host: as a tradition for this network, we cover the governor's summer and winter meetings, they they are gathering in biloxi, mississippi. one of the governors there is democratic, brian schweitzer, montana. guest: great to be back. host: let me talk about this s-program, a program in montana that will allow families of four to have expanded coverage, can you explain what this means? guest: in montana we provided coverage that was 175% of

federal poverty. we were one of the few states at that low level. we have recently increased to 250%. that doesn't provide for the parents, just the children. it allows for those families to have health insurance for their children until age 18. host: as you know this debate heats up in washington, and a debate between a former governor, of what the overall health care plan should and shouldn't include. what concerns do you have about what is before the house and kwhat the president may sign? guest: i have a lot of concerns as a governor. let me lay this out, there is only a few states with a budget surplus, we are one, we have cold, hard cash in the bank. we got there through good

fiscal management. you can't put more things on your plate than you can pay for. what we are concerned with in congress, first is the proposal of the way to pay for a portion of w

>> we work in america on the wind hour benu=e÷"==udand sola. we can -- these will be made in america. if every car had a battery that drove the first 40 miles before it switched to gasoline, we could reduce that consumption by 90%. we could eliminate the need for sun and wind, why don't we move quickly? people say it out to be like

the moon shot, we didn't know how to get to the moon. we already have these electric cars and wind power and solar power, we need to build the lines and give this to the americans, and the innovators will changed world. host: let me get back to health care, it's estimated that an expansion of medicaid could cost $60 billion, how could the states make up jlwha is required for the expansion? guest: that dog ain't going to hunt in montana, they proposing that montana will have to pay for that match. medicaid is a sister to this health care, and they are proposing to increase 20% up to

25 to 30% under medicaid, and force the states to pay the match. look, if the federal government is going to create a universal health care system, they have to figure out how that pay for it. you can't just switch to the states. we have to balance budgets here, if we have for example, in montana if it cost $115 million, i have to cut a program someplace else. no more shifting of the liability to the states. congress you have a job to do, get it done. you pay for it and design it. but don't design and make states pay for it. host: governor, we are pleased to have you on c-span, thanks for joining us. guest: good to be back. host: and you can watch the

live coverage in biloxi, mississippi, an area was damaged by the hurricane. and tomorrow we have a conversation with two governors, including mike rounds, and the incoming chair from vermont, here is an excerpt from governor douglas, and we will have governor o'malley when we come back. >> we have a lot on our plates in the next days, and as my colleagues have suggested, no critical time than now. with states facing short falls and constituents out of work and facing losses of income, and families struggling to put food to the table and meet the needs of america.

no more important time for them to come together and face the challenges. i look forward to the next couple of days with my friends and colleagues, and we know we will do what we can to help each other. >> projects we talked about, i hope you will see that activity and the employment that will come from that. and yet the assistance from the federal government, we are projecting short falls of $200 billion we will face even with the assistance we receive. with that said, there will have to be a correction among each state. we have to find adjustments in the benefits and packages and how we operate our states. to live in our means, we

understand that and this is where the rubber hits the road. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we have joining us is governor martin o'malley. guest: thank you, steve. host: maryland is facing a shortfall, a state faced with budget devastation, how do you face that? guest: this is not easy and all will be painful. we have reduced and cut spending by 3.3 billion over the last years, as a state budget that was once $15 billion. it will not be easy, we will

put maryland first and we will protect the public education that has made maryland the number one school system in america, according to american-state magazine. and we will push to the state weather the other side of this recession. we are in this together. and steve, i am glad that the people of maryland two years ago did some tough things to restore fiscal responsibility. otherwise this gap would be something similar to what california is facing. but we will be able to make it in maryland and continue to move forward. host: governor, you know that california gets a lot of attention because of its

devastation, are there lessons that other states can learn from what governor schwarzenegger is doing out there? guest: i believe that progress is possible if we have the guts to raise taxes. sometimes that involves more often in these days making very unpopular cuts. but everything we hope to achieve as a nation and on the state level, for growing middle class, and public education and expanded opportunity and cleaner environment. all of those things require at the center for our governments to be fiscally responsible. in california we became our own worse enemy, locking in measures that made it

impossible for the elected representatives. and it's understandable that all want to see services and lower costs, but that's not the way it works. host: my question is that as congress looks at the issue of health care and agree for mandate states for health care, will maryland agree to that? guest: that's a challenge to all the states, i think that all the governors and agreed that president obama is doing the right thing to force us as a country to deal with health care. these increases are things that we can't sustain it. ñb' it and our government can't. and president obama is doing the right thing to force us to look at this issue. the house has a version that's

controversial and the senate is looking at a version. and the governors hope that we join with president obama, and take the lessons from the states, and at the end of the day come up with something that works. that the president's style is defining, i believe, the big goal that is better, more effective, more accessible health care for all americans. and congress is taking their best shot of coming up with the plans. but i think we have a long way to go, and the president wants to get there in a short period of time. and the governors are anxious to learn this and to share the best practices. and to shove the cost of health care to the governors, is something that i don't believe that president obama wants. but for us to tackle this together .

host: we have governor o'malley in maryland, we have a separate line for those in maryland to call. governor, half of your colleagues are not in mississippi for a variety of reasons, what impact does that on on this meeting? guest: we like to have as large of attendance, and governor rendald is what we want governors to do, stay at table and restore fiscal responsibility so the people of pennsylvania are making it in these tough times. we are not blaming those governors who are not. we had a good conversation about health care and will create a special committee on

homeland security. and that's something long overdue and that had bipartisan support. we have a critical mass and have governors and look forward to our parties who are running services, and homeland security. host: pennsylvania is having their first payless pay day for workers in pennsylvania. will that happen in maryland as well? guest: no, i don't believe that will happen in maryland. we will have to do some painful things. last year in the mid-year budget cuts, all employees were asked to absorb some furlough days. these things are not easy, we will be taking more cuts, but we will not be sending i.o.

u.'s like california has done. and i believe that we can remain fiscally responsible to continue to have a strong state and with higher education. we have gone four years in a row with zero increase for college tuitition for kids in maryland. that's for maintaining fiscal responsibility in these times.v; but i wish governor rendell the best, and he's a great leader and the people of pennsylvania are glad to have him. host: we have david joining us this morning with governor o'malley. caller: how are you doing governor o'malley? guest: where you are calling from?

caller: baltimore, maryland. guest: at in baltimore? caller: baltimore city. and i reading about an article on insurance fraud, and they brought it against the state and against the victims of the state of maryland. and i would like to know what office of the state of maryland government will oversee this and correct this and resolve the matter of the insurance fraud that was committed against the state of maryland transit and the citizens and insurance companies and affiliates that failed to provide the service to the citizen of maryland who were injured or hurt by the state of maryland system. which the court systems have

failed to resolve or failed to get involve of stopping these accidents here in the state of maryland transit administration? guest: david, you are catching me off-guard on details and facts. i think what i hear is that ó÷ there are allegations that our transit officials didn't operate properly in an accident. david, there are two people that oversee this, number one is our attorney general, that oversees the state entitys and court matters. if you would call me on monday, my secretary's name is linda, and at her number call her and we will track that down and give you an answer. host: and linda appreciates

you gave that number to the nation. we go to steve. caller: good morning governor, as a former assistance vice president to a major insurance company in maryland, dealing specifically with medicare. i have been watching the debates regarding the health care plans. and they are not discussing a primary issue of fraud and abuse. and i dealt closely with it. and what exists there is no incentive to look at the bills from the hospitals for medicare from the finance situation. there is so w%oñdouble billing that exists. and yet the congress is not addressing that. and i would like your comments to see, can we get some politicians to come down to the health care administration. social security jsçon security

boulevard, and look at the fraud and abuse that exists? guest: that's a good point, we have invested even the tough military times, we invested more dollars on the medicaid side. and we have seen what dollars we invested and help us recover and the same is true of medicare. we are big programs, and i have been meeting with people with solutions and innovations that could be put in play, that would allow us to harnest new technology and what new computers and what they can do over a broader range of volume than human beings can do. i think you are absolutely right. if there is going to be savings here, it will come from one the main things that president

obama is pushing, and that is health care i.t. once we share our information on the same gauge of information railroad if you will, i think we will see that we can do a lot better job of stopping that double billing and the things that drive up the cost. you will never absolutely total eliminates it. but there are things we can do to recover the dollars, and i agree, that's a place where we haven't heard a lot about. and it's a place that governors have been doing some good things. and i believe that at the end the day, president obama will address those attacks of abuse and fraud. host: do you feel that they will address john hopkins that does a lot in research and

development? guest: sure when there is a change, like in health insurance and coverage in the united states of america, there will be ripples throughout john hopkins located in baltimore, maryland, once again as far as i remember has been named the number one hospital in the united states. the sort of innovation and talent and skills in maryland rank no. 2 are not things that will go away, because we cover more people with affordable and decent health care. on the contrary, those will be benefited in the long-term by the fact we are able to bring greater sanity and bring down the longer term where health insurance is concerned. i much rather would be

spending, and most americans would, i would rather be spending more dollars cures for cancer and aids, and other than in paperwork. and administration and duplicative sort of things in our system in this country. and those things benefit in o b hopkins. host: we have david on the phone. caller: good morning, governor. medicaid is i think is crushing state budgets, social security and medicare are $55 trillion in the hole. congress is busting through the bills without a view of transparency. when are the governors going to rally together and stop the

government from growing beyond what the constitution was intended to do? guest: that's what conversations are about, and today bee will meet with the governor of kansas, and a capable and able governor. the governors spent yesterday talking about for an hour the things you underscored. if we shift the cost of health care to state budgets, that's not a help to anybody. we will be talking about these things with secretary sebilious today, and you are right, it's been a ping-pong match initially with the house taking a cut at meeting that goal of expanded health care. and now the senate taking a cut.

we need the governors in this conversation. in maryland we were able within our budget to extend health care benefits to an additional 70,000 people that didn't have it a year ago. and created a dental benefit for poor children. and were able to close so-called donut holes of those on medicare don't have to choose between groceries and prescription costs. there is lots of things that governors can bring to the table. you call it a bully-pit, but there are good things happening in a number of states, we need to get these in the act and come up with a solution for america. host: we have celest joining us on the phone. caller: good morning o'malley,

i am a nurse and i live in maryland and my husband is stationed here. and i went back to work two years ago, and i renewed my i got a not that my license would not be renewed because i owed back taxes to the state. i concern is that we have an overly aggressive tax system in maryland, they are telling me that i owed taxes for a year that i didn't work in the state. they were difficult to work with on the phone, that my husband had to take time off of work and go to the comptroller and get it resolved. and they are not sure they can get it totally resolved and not have a problem this year. and we have to take in our tax statements that we don't owe taxes in that year. and i want to know as a

military spouse, and those who live in maryland that the system can be easier for us. we enjoy being stationed in maryland, and find when it comes to things like this, it's very difficult. guest: celest, i gave out my secretary's number before, and if you can give us a call on monday, you can look the number up in the blue pages, there is only one governor. but we have a comptroller in the state and he's in charge of those things. and all of us strive to have a higher level when our citizens call us. and i apologize that you are not treated better in the state of maryland. you deserve a prompt and courteous answer. and you are right, we need all the nurses we can get. in our state there is a nursing

shortage, and we have made investments to train more nurses. but to keep you from working by denying your license by some bogus reason doesn't help that cause. if you will give us a call we will go to bat at the comptroller's office and bump that up at a higher level and you get the response that everyone deserves. host: and governor we have a link to your website, if folks want to go there. we have martin on the phone with governor o'malley. caller: good morning steve and governor, and first, i would like to say to steve, a prompt and courteous answer to an e-mail, my god. host: thank you, we try to be as efficient as linda will be

tomorrow. guest: martin, what time is it there? caller: it's 6:54 and it's too darn hot already. i heard there in the meeting that half the governors showed up. i am concerned about how many insurance lobbyists and how many from the e.m. a. and how many medical company lobbyists and how many pharmaceutical lobbyists are at your conference to talk with kathleen sebilius that i am iffy about because of her relationship to the insurance.

and i am concerned with the lobbyists to spend billions of dollars in advertising. how many other lobbyists are there is my main question. host: martin thank you for your question, and a related e-mail from deren, what would happen if we didn't do anything on health care? guest: that's a discussion, and we had a staff talking about this is the cost of this approach and here. and i pointed out that very same thing, we need a table that shows our cost in three years if we sit and do nothing. and that's why i think that president obama is doing the right thing, these 15-17% increases in health care are unsustainable for the people.

sebilius i believe was the insurance commissioner in the state of kansas. this is not necessarily the people that insurance companies look going before. i know in our state, our insurance commissioner is an advocate, and i believe that kathleen is seen that way. i haven't seen anyone from the a.m.a. out here, i have seen a few companies that help states to better administer their medicaid and help in waste, fraud and abuse. i haven't seen anyone here from the pharmaceutical industry, though they come to these meetings from time to time. i haven't seen what martin would suspect as a full-court press or lobby against those groups against the health care

proposal. on the controversy most discussions involve staff and cost -- costs that would roll to the state. there are a lot of people here and a lot that do business with the states. most people that come to the conference are those folks that help us administer those programs rather than the a.m.a. and other folks. host: this issue is talked about on "meet the press." that the president is calling for a complete government take over. we have mike on the phone can governor o'malley. caller: good morning governor and steve. governor, i spent four years suing an insurance company, i wouldn't give 10 cents to an

insurance company. i am against taking money and handing to the insurance companies. and i have seen the movie "sicko" and why don't we have companies that we can buy into it and insure the people at $150 a head. the government would make money. why are we trying to fund an insurance program from the government dole? why don't people like me who are employed and making money, put a chip in. and if you figure it at 100 bucks a head at 100 million people, you do the math. .