tour of that country. at 9:00 a.m., a discussion about the resignation of mel martinez. washington journal is next. >> this morning, we received additional signs that the worst may be behind us. though we lost 247,000 jobs in july, that was 200,000 fewer than were lost in june. today, we are pointed in the right direction. we are losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when i took office. we pulled the financial system back from the brink. we have enabled families to reduce payments on mortgages

making homes more affordable and reducing the numbers of foreclosures. we have opened up loans for families in small businesses. we passed an unprecedented recovery act and did so without any of the earmarks and pork barrels that are so common in washington. host: unemployment numbers talked about the president. still dominating the headline this is morning. welcome to the program. we want to show you a couple headlines. job less rate dips slightly.

called a good sign. some caution there is still a long way to go. >> we want to begin this morning by looking at this story from market watch he marks that

another sign that the government is easing. fewer jobs were lost in july than in any month in nearly a year. unemployment fell to an unexpected lower percent. good news? bad news? >> generally, it's good news. it's not great news. what we have seen in the last few months before now had been horrible. this is just bad. that's really an improvement a

lot believe that the unemployment will probably hit at least 10% later this year or next year. this is not really the bottom but it is a good sign anyway. host: you also wrote that the average workweek will rise for the first time since 2008 but structure al unemployment will worsen. accounting for more than one-third of all employment for the first time on record.

for those 5 million people out of work, this recession is nowhere near over. host: we want to take your calls for the next 40 minutes. for republicans, 202-737-001. for democrats 202-737-0002. for independents. 202-628-0205. you can email us at c-span.org or stwiter at c-span wj. our first guest from akron, ohio on the republican line. caller: thank you. given that my party has revelled

in the last couple weeks in just wall owing in these town hall meetings, what are we doing in the unemployment market? >> the administration and congress passed a bill with very few republican votes. we know that because democrats

fill the house. >> you wrote yesterday as well. republicans and democrats agree tomb jobs being lost. tomb can't agree on what to do about the economy. one thing they do concur on is one job lost is one tomb. as we move into this recess period in august, is this going to be the topic that drives the discussion for members going home to their districts. >> healthcare is the issue. congressmen and senators are trying to get feedback it's fading a little bit.

of course, people without work, there couldn't be anything more important about that. the economy continues to be the number one issue. virginia on the line. mary, welcome to the program. caller: the government is sitting on a program called e verify. it makes employers verify the people that they have to make sure they have legally authorized to work in this country. we look like idiots. we are paying for our people to

stay at home. we have paid out half a billion in unemployment benefits since january, 2008. in three months in 2009 alone, we have paid out more than half of 2008. can anyone tell me why obama don't have the guts to make e verify mandatory for all jobs? >> i think the immigration issue is really a hot button. a lot of people have blamed immigrants for the lack of work. immigrant populations have suffered. so many of those jobs were concentrated in construction and retail. i think a lot of people have probably gone back to central

america. it remains a huge problem. business would like to have these low paid workers. i don't think there's been a solution proposed. host: back to the phones. eerie, pa for the democrats. caller: nice to have+n you bac as method rater. host: thank you. caller: going back to the mid 1970s. even the 1980s with the reagan

era. we have seen jobs move and now they are evaporating. we have to come up with the new ideas for the 21st century in order to reclaim jobs we once had. those jobs created by our parents and grand pirnts are gone. her almost completely gone. host: what industry do you work in there?

caller: i am injured and unemployed right now. my employer let me work for five years before i had to take a separati separation. i used to work in social service. i watched all of this take place. people fiddle class saw themselves unemployed. the only way they could alleviate some problems was to turn. it has to be the government and business to solve this. host: greg we'll leave it there. thanks for your call.

>> the administration is trying to do something with this. trying to create new industries for tomorrow. there's a lot of people especially in the labor movement that would like the government to do a lot more to say we really need to bring back some of these factories and industries. the devil is in theñí details. host: you break down where some of the job losses are. an item that came out in august. goods producing industries cut 266,000 jobs after a loss of 324,000 in march. manufacturing jobs cut 259,000 jobs. services cut 229,000 jobs in

april after 384,000 were lost in march. it was the first month since october in which goods producing industries cut more jobs than services did. >> this is an unusual recession we are having. typically most of the jobs lost are in factories. this has seen more jobs in the service sector than in manufacturing. that's the first time we have seen that. a lot of it has to do with the overbuilding of the retail industry.

manufacturing, it's easy to see how you get out of it. when you have retail companies going out of business, it's not really easy to see where those people will be reemployed. >> i've been laid off since 2008 of january. i moved down here in march. i live in gulfport, which is really st. petersberg. i've felt this too. i'm in manufacturing. there are no jobs anywhere.

none. i'm 50 years old. i'm a programmer, very qualified. work union, non-union. extremely good money in the great lakes area for a 50-year-old man. i'm on my last $1500. i have no benefits anymore, period. no way i can go to school. i put in for welfare. they told me my truck was worth too much money. i have another month to stay down here. what am i gonna do? you are saying service is hiring, technical jobs are hiring. no, they are not. telemarketing. at 50 years old, people aren't going to look at people like me. how many people do i know from chicago and buffalo, all the way down to pittsburgh and

independent laid off in manufacturing. the same here. all the way across. i've been on line all the way to texas. i'm exhausted. now things are up to $66,000. they are trashing the cars. i have a 2003 ford ranger. what are you going to do about manufacturing. everybody knows manufacturing is down. >> well, it is a long-term

issue. we've seen it happening for 25 years or so. for the manufacturing worker, we've been in recession for 25 years. we've been losing jobs every year. we can do so much more for fewer workers. that might not be a good thing for the economy. it's painful for people with specific skills that are no longer relevant. there aren't any easy answers to this. in the past, you could get a job at home depot. they are not even hiring. this gentleman really paints a vivid picture. right now, we see job openings. there are six people unemployed for every job opening in america right now. i don't know how people can survive if they've been unemployed for so long.

people have to rely on families and social services for unemployment. to the terms of trying to restructure manufacturing. some can help with expanded exporter opportunities. to grow thoughs takes time. i'm not sure anybody really does accept to put a floor under it and make sure people can survive. >> writing about how the cash for clunkeres program. this has created an amazing traffic, the general manager of the auto group. he estimates sales are up 40% in the'zregion.

>> this has reamly boosted auto sales. >> this is boosted to the third quarter. we are accelerating into this year. when this program is over, we won't have any sales. it does create jobs to have people go back to work in the auto industry. if suppliers have a lot of workers who have been really hurt. this has to be seen as a great

thing. we have to have something that creates a sustainable demand for auto and other products. i saw something about the decrease of unemployment rates. my father is a mashist in his factory. if they lay him off, there's no one else to fix the equipment.

is this taking into account the swell in the military. i see a lot of older people coming in. host: when are you up for reen liftment? caller: up for reen lifting in 2011. >> do you like your job. will this cause your decision to reen lift? >> definitely. i will look for a job when i come back. if i can't find one, i will just reen lift. >> people who join the military would drop out of the labor

force. cñ it's not a huge factor. host: sending us a message on twitter writing, it's all well and good fewer jobs are being lost but where is all of the job creation that was supposed to

happen? >> most of these states have to have a balanced budget. in terms of creating jobs, it's really tough. we haven't seen much impact yet. those projects are coming on line at probably the speed we'd

expect. a lot of those won't be ready to go for a few months. welcome to washington journal. thank you, good morning. i work in a restaurant business in miami beach. the trickle down hits the rich. they are hiding good money. they know where to put it. they are not wasting it. they are not having the functions they used to have. then you have obama telling the minorities to shut up. if bush ever told the democrats to shut up, they created this mess. i mean, it's both. you can't tell the opposites to shut up. host: talk to us about the

feeling about the trickle down from the wedgy to the not so wedgy. i think everybody is tightening their belts now. when you talk about the stock market, you are talking about the rich people. if you lost a bunch of your wealth, you don't feel so enthusiastic about holding a party for hundreds of people at the club.

does that mean more of the rich will come back to the restaurants like the you one where danny works? >> it could be. probably it was sold off too much there was a fear that things were really going to be awful. the stock market would go to zero. that panic has subsided there was a little bit of we sold too much and now we are going to level off. based on some optimism about the economy. i think it could be that people are a little too optimistic about the strength of the recovery. somehow, we are going back to

the way it was in 2005-2004. rex is here with us another 12-15 minutes talking to us about unemployment figures. on the phone, west palm beach, florida. go ahead. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: i don't agree with the last caller. president obama has not said or asked for people to shut up. i don't think he said anything at all about healthcare reform. these people are actually stopping an open discussion about what can happen in this

country about healthcare reform. you can tell these people have listened to rush limbaugh. this guy in miami beach is blaming president obama for the state of his job? he should be blaming bush. bush was in office eight years. z no are a result much 12 years of republicans taking jobs to other

countries. >> you talked about folks who have stopped looking for jobs. >> out sources has continued over the years. there's also jobs that are in sourced there is a little bit of a balance. in terms of the stats. you are counted as unemployed if you are actively looking. if you've stopped looking, then you become the discouraged

worker and you drop off the rolls. i think it is best to look at the general trend on the unemployment rate. we are seeing some of the worst unemployment we've had since the depression. host: in the hartford current, they have a map of the u.s. this is not seasonally adjusted. the states in white have unemployment rate below 8%. in light orange social security 8-10%. the states in dark orange, the

unemployment rate is above 15%. can you explain why it seems more people are out of work along the coasts? >> part has to do with the real estate bubble we had. california, florida, nevada were hit hardest. prices went up a lot. a lot of people flocked there for construction and real estate jobs. part has to do with the impact of real estate on the economy.

we have more to fall in some of those states. is it likely we'll see recovery start earlier in the light states or dark orange states? >> especially in the farm belt states, there's been less vol

tillity. >> there is the situation where they do more with less people to get a higher stock price. a lot of the reason i think the companies move to china, basically is to get a higher stock value. the only other way to trim your company or business is to cut wages. i worked in aerospace 15 years. wentover seas. i went back to tool and die work. that is mostly chinese now.

i was told we would become a service country. they brought an economist in. in 1993, it was discuss that had the united states would be a service country. every company faces competition we have constant demand to cut costs. i think labor is the main cost for business.

when it is profitable, we do move. there are other regulations. there's a. if american workers have the right equipment, they could be competitive. they could produce so much more per hour. if the dollar were cheaper, it would be more competitive.

it might create more of an opportunity. solution to jobs would be to cut hours. stimulus would be 30-32 hour workweeks. the average workweek has fallen. the number of people have worked part-time is at a record high level. i think this happens in most recessions that companies cut hours. they don't want to fire people unless they really have to. it costs a lot to train a new worker. it is better to keep them on at half way and then when sales

come back, you can give them more hours. these out cutting of hours has really been intense. this is nothing new. caller: i want to ask you about the cash for clunkeres program. why ask these people like rush limbaugh and others, why are they not charged with insighting

riots? they are. they really are. host: we'll leave it there. >> in terms of the clunker question. it's true a lot of older people have these cars and can't afford a new or better car. i don't think it is aimed for them. these families can afford a good payment. whether the financing companies are doing their due diligence. credit is fairly tight right

now. caller: good morning. i want to make a statement. that is that it seems to me like since george bush senior has left a sentiment among decision makers that america is doing too well and we need to raise them up. we have done that. that's my opinion. my main question is regarding inraw structure spending. how much of that has been spent. the amount you think has not been spent, can you explain why.

i think that would be the thing best spent that would have the greatest trickle down effect above everything else we could possibly do. i wonder if we could comment on those things. >> i don't know the latest figures. the white house has made announcements everyday about how much money is being spent. there's a website you can go to to look up those figures. host: let me interrupt. in this story in the "new york times," it says only $100 billion has filtered in to the economy so far with many of the remainder to be sent in next year.

a lot is in the form of tax cuts that we have given in our paycheck. that's trickling out. some other money wept to the state. that's being spentover time. the stimulus money in particular, those have a slow ramp up. you have to make sure that is well designed. that's the process right now. some of these processes are the shove wills working right now. more and more of these processes might be found. i suspect we have seen some of the impact in the spending numbers. in june, spending on public works went up. that's a sign some of this money may have gone out the door. are they building things we

really need or are they building highways to nowhere? >> a lot of airports and railroads in the east coast. a lot of dams, roads built that we are still using. there is hope that would be something that would not only give us jobs today. thank you for being on the program. >> great to be here. host: in a few minutes, we'll open up the phones so you and the viewing and listening office can comment on the things you've read or maybe seen on other broadcasts. we'll give you the phone numbers and first let you know on news makers, chairman lamar alex an

dwer reacts to mel martin easy's leaving his seat. >> he has a great story. he came from cuba. he broke so many barriers as a lawyer, senator. he's been a wonderful contributor to public life. he told me his one regret is that he is leaving at a time where he feels like the republicans are making a come back. govern chris will run for mel's saet. he's a strong candidate. i shouldn't presume to guess who the governor will appoint.

>> as a former governor yourself, is it a politically tricky situation is it part of the job? >> it only gets ricky in these things yourself. i'm a big admirer. i think he'll handle this with a lost still and common sense. >> we have more. senator mel's exit kicks off to

cris. he will look for somebody to keep the seat warm. first, i'll let you know about the numbers. go to our phones. you can send us an email by twitter. it says he spent months on the consideration. he says "my priorities have

always been my faith, my family and my country. i will return to florida and my family. our first call on open phones comes from baltimore, maryland. good morning and welcome to the washington journal. listen, mel martinez is like one of those guys that really betrayed his own race. republican party doesn't care anything about hispanics. they are starting to find out with the election of the hispanic supreme court clarence thomas. i think the american people should understand they should be

very patient with this president who has to straighten out the mess of 16 years of reagan and bush. reagan had a $900 billion deficit. when he left, the deficit was $5.5 trillion. then bush doubled it. so have a good day. >> on the line for republicans. go ahead. caller: my comment is, i'm kind of confused with the way the american people seem to be thinking about government

specifically. irdon't understand the logic. >> i would move more and more towards health saveings accounts. moving more and more towards free market solutions. putting patients directly to paying doctors for services. ç having people carry cat strof yik healthcare for the big things. caller: i wanted to speak to

your previous guest there. if you go back to 1992, there was a politician that didn't have a machine behind him. he was a little old billionaire from texas. he call it had all. what we are going through right now. he called it. we have lost all our manufacturing base. we gave it away. you think the government spending was out of control then, you ought to see it now.

>> in the "new york times," a discussion of mr. obama's trip to mexico. you can read more about that in this morningings wall street george on the line for democrats. caller: i'm on the highway. i'm not sure where i am. i was struck by a caller in your earlier segment. he was obviously disstraut.

he's looking for work and he's frustrated. i understand that. i wanted to reach out to that caller and tell him we live in the united states of america. this is the greatest country on the planet. there's more opportunity here than anywhere else. to back that up. i will tell you about one of my suppliers who is from korea. i was in the store the other day. he was doing so much business, it was alarm ago. he's talking on the phone in chinese and to his worker in spanish. i'm not saying it is easy but i wouldn't want to live my where else. one idea he could do is rest

rooms in service stations along secondary roads. if you clean those rest rooms, you have no idea what kind of money you could make. >> the things remembered with the little engravable gifts. host: how is your business doing? caller: i'm doing fairly well. i've had to lay some people off which i don't really like to do. i'm baying my bills. thasz all we can expect. a lost businesses are downright now. i wanted to -- we have a tend answery to feel so badly for ourselves. we are americans all we do is

success. host: one question. do you think you will rehire those people you had to layoff? caller: probably not. probably not. host: good morning. what's on your mind? caller: i've been listening to some of my fellow americans complaining about our government not being able to do anything right. i want to remind everybody that this is no abstract entity. we are the government. the people are the government. the government has great ability. on the local level, you look at

the police department. fire, ems, sanation workers, the people who keep our health infrastructure together. we have a really good system. at the state level, you look at the state infrastructure and commerce. on the federal level, you look at our military. i'm a 121-year retired veteran. i'm proud of the military. and i think the government runs the military. isn't that correct? federal employees get the federal entity. for us to sit up and make the comment that the government can't run anything is not true. there's some improvements that need to be done. i'm pretty sure there are

improvements. i think that we the people who get behind the stuff, we make sure that there is account ability, we can stop saying that. that is really not a true statement. i don't know any other country i want to be in right now with our trusting their government to run things. the american government does a really good job. host: on the line from kansas. you have the word. caller: we have several problems here. my paper this morning is talking about the protesters. i notice most of these protesters look like they are receiving medicare and social security more than likely, they are protesting the one-pay system. i assume.

host: who is your representative? caller: dennis moore. host: has he done any town hall meetings? >> one of the editors is calling him out for a local town hall i'm assuming so they can assault him. he is probably leaning more to the liberal end than a blue dog. since 1980, our gross domestic has fallen 40% until now. it's not illegal immigration. it's a race to the lowest common denominator. over the same period of time, our prison population hasí/ gro from 200,000 to 2 million.

it has been a horrible thing in the last 30 years for manufacturing. anybody in the labor base. 20% of our economy is healthcare. this is not good. you cannot compete. >> in the new york daily news, soni a's supreme day. she is swoern in as america's first hispanic justice. she will boo swoern in twice by chief justice john roberts. she will be given an oath open only to close members of her family followed by an oath taken in front of the media. our last call comes from

florida. on the line for republicans. go ahead. caller: this is my first time calling. i have a question to ask. i don't know the answer to because i hear both sides. for example, i do know there are some municipalities in the area are looking to increase their insurance co-pays from $250 to $500 and with that a reduction in services that the insurance companies are going to be providing. how is that any different, in my opinion, than having to pay more taxes for care? either they are going to give it to big business or either way, you are going to pay. i wanted to say, what is the solution to try to solve this.

the solution is not good on both sides. either way, americans are paying. host: thank you forever your call. u.s. asks south africa to help ease zimbabwe crisis. we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. ms. fraser was in the bush department. we'll have more coming up later in the program. first, this break. . . .

>> the supreme court. all this month, revisit the festival's we have covered this year on "book tv." this weekend we will have the annapolis book festival. go on line for the full schedule. the phenomenon of facebook, the best selling author on the success of this social networking site and how it toward two best friends apart. >> frank rich reflects on 15 years of political columns for the "new york times," including his look at the future of the

internet, the whitewater hearings and his column following 9/11. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us to talk about secretary clinton's trip to africa is the former secretary of state for african affairs in the bush and ministration. what is the administration hoping to get out of this trip? guest: secretary clinton has chosen good countries to go to that are of strategic importance to america, countries like nigeria, kenya, which will help us achieve our goals in terms of economic development, at countering terrorism, and the promotion of good governance sustainability. host: this is the list, and you touched on most of them.

nigeria, liberia and cap verde. today she is in south africa. she is meeting with the south african president and has praised ties between the u.s. and south africa. after talks with jacobsen but, she flies to cape town where she will -- after talks with jacob zuma, she flies to cape town. what is going to be the headline out of the meeting between the president and hillary clinton? guest: she is very skilled as a diplomat, so i believe the key issue they will discuss will be in zimbabwe and how south africa can play a more forceful situation in improving that. she will probably talked about

how cordial the relations are. there is a lot of talk about improving the relationship. it is false to talk about the relationship been frosty under the last it ministration. it was only over zimbabwe -- it has been frosty under the last administration. there is a strong relationship was strictly between the u.s. and south africa. host: if he went to get involved in our conversation about secretary clinton's trip to africa, the numbers are on the screen. you can also send as much as is by e-mail or by twitter. before we go to the phones, give us more details about the crisis between south africa and

zimbabwe, and what each side will be looking for from the u.s. in order to keep this from exploding. guest: south africa was the mediator to bring about the unity government between the prime minister and president mugabe. the u.s. has been putting pressure on south africa to do more to get president mugabe to honor the details of that agreement, which she has not done. i think south africa will try to push back on america because we think they have much more leverage than they have exercised. certainly the president is committed to being a lot more forceful with president mugabe than the previous president had been. host: our first call comes from washington d.c. on our republican line. caller: good morning. i just wanted to ask a guest today, i noticed the secretary

of state went to a lot of countries in africa. unfortunately, she did not go to ethiopia. it is a country of 80 million people with a very important key role in somalia. i did not understand why the secretary decided to skip ethiopia. it obviously would have been a right partner. i just wanted to know if there was any reason for that. guest: i don't think there is any particular reason other than she went to kenya because the growth of opportunity for rahm is being held there. that was made more than one year ago. -- the growth of opportunity for rahm -- forum is being held there. they recognize the importance in -- the importance that ethiopia place in that region. host: william in alabama on our

independent line. caller: i was wondering what -- the aid to the country? with us not having any money at all. it shouldn't we be more focused on american people? host: she is the secretary of state, so is her job to engage the world. for portfolio is not really america, it is the world and how she strengthens our relationship overseas. she went to kenya and talked about somalia. somalia holds a vital threat to u.s. national interests. there are terrorists there who attack our embassies in nairobi and tanzania. they are still there in somalia, and these terrorist groups are

trying to recruit americans to go over to somalia to fight against our interests, so she does have an important global role to protect americans at home. she is also going to angola and nigeria. we guess almost 90% of the trade with africa is in petroleum products. host: this headline on august 7, "clinton offers assurances to somalis." the secretary of state praised its present as the best hope we have had for some time, then strongly warned them to stop supporting in shearson's in the country -- stop supporting insurgents in the country. tell us more about this. guest: the group is a group that has many terrorists associated

with al qaeda in their leadership. that group is receiving financial assistance from the only country in the horn of africa that is actually supporting this terrorist group. all the other countries are all supporting the transition of federal government. the president became the president out of a negotiating process called the djibouti priest process negotiated by the united nations. the international community is backing that transitional federal government and america is trying to support it against this armed group. host: next up is los angeles on our republican line. your name and question and comment. caller: i wanted to let you know

that hillary clinton met with nelson mandela, and he is the hero of south africa. we are trying to put a base into south africa. where the hell do we have the money? you can see it over [unintelligible] he says we are going broke and here we are talking about the -- we are coming up with another crash in regard to jobs. we have to bring it home. this is nelson mandela. guest: the only comment i have on that is we are trying to put a base in south africa. we have a base in djibouti right now and we have ever cut command, which is based out of germany. -- we have africa demand which is based out of germany. host: there is nothing in our

africa policy in the obama administration's that ties directly or indirectly to our relationship with israel, is there? >> no, there is not, but the south africans are very interested in the middle east peace process. they constantly want to become engaged. i think that is because of their own population. they have both arabs and israelis in their country, so this is a big domestic issue for the south africans. they also feel themselves as having been more aligned with the palestinians. i think that the subject will come up in south africa because they always want to engage us on the middle east, but there is not from the u.s. position in interest in reaching out to any african country or south africa

to try to resolve the crisis in,. host: president mandela and subsequent administrations, if they insist on using the zionist label, will the obama administration tried to distance themselves? guest: they would, but i was ambassador to south africa from 2004 to 2005, and i never heard president mandela or any other officials refer to israel in the zionist terms. they tend to be more sympathetic to the palestinians, but i think that is because of their history. i have not heard that terminology used. host: our next call comes from florida. peter on our democratic line. caller: i am 83-years old and

have been retired 21 years. it upsets me that the republicans would not get involved in international affairs, especially going to africa or any nation. you have to go with an open book and find out how we can help these people. that is what is upsetting me. there should be a lot of help and south africa and all of africa. i just saw a program on the side effects, there are 90,000 drug representatives in the u.s. and it is a $25 billion business. host: we will leave it there.

can you frame your answer to his question in terms of this headline talking about secretary clinton hailing president zuma on aids? guest: let me thank the caller. i appreciate your concern about africa. i think that previous republican administrations has been strong in his engagement in africa. he was the architect of the president's emergency plan for aids relief, which was a huge $15 billion program with bipartisan support that helped countries like south africa with high prevalence rates to be able to get anti dutrow -- to be able to get anti-viral drugs. it is a very successful program.

the headline refers to the fact that while president bush was active and supportive of the aids prevention in africa, the african president was known to be very skeptical about the effectiveness of aids drugs, so his health minister was somewhat reluctant to allow anti retro viral drugs. in addition to president bush's legacy, he also went to africa twice and engaged with more african leaders than any other head of state. the clinton team billed her trip as secretary of state to africa, that is not true. secretary powell actually went in his first year in 2001 and secretary rice also went in

2005. i think republicans have a strong record of engaging africa and we all need to do more. host: ken in minnesota on our republican line. caller: good morning. how are you? i want to ask the secretary what is wrong week these people? this situation in somalia, these people are extremists. they're very extremists. they are killing women and children, and they want to destabilize the region. why don't we confront this? why don't we bomb the hell out of them, because they will destabilize the whole region. they have no regard for human life. why don't we just confront them right on? guest: i certainly appreciate that sentiment, and there is

some reluctance for the u.s. to get involved militarily because of the past history in the early 1990's when we went in and came out under the clinton administration. we are trying very much, and this policy started during be bush administration to work with the regional countries supporting the african union. more african countries need to put troops there. i agree that we should put them on the state sponsor of terrorist list. our intelligence shows they are supplying terrorists -- people who have been trained in afghanistan and who are killing women and children. there are extremists and we need to confront them, but we are

trying to do so in the framework of the regional countries rather than directly. host: our guest was secretary of state of the african affairs. she is currently a public- service professor at carnegie- mellon university. what brings you to washington? guest: i am based here and pittsburgh. the university has a program, at their second year ma students come to washington to spend one year here in turning in government and business. -- they spend one year interni ng in government. caller: good morning to the secretary. i want to ask about secretary

clinton's visit the former president she is going to do. [unintelligible] i want to ask the secretary, does she think meeting with this guy is inappropriate move? guest: yes, i do think it is. he moved his party away from me policies of the previous, which were very militaristic. he did receive the nobel peace prize with nelson mandela. it is important for secretary clinton to reach out to all the political parties. that is the reason why she is doing it in south africa. it is part of her effort to strengthen governments in africa by showing different

political parties can actually compromise. she is making that point very much on her trip, saying how she and president obama were political rivals, but now they are serving together. the clerk has played an important role in south africa and it is appropriate for her to reach out to him. host: this headline, at the making of a megacity. the governor is on a mission to transform nigeria paul's commercial capital into africa's mitropoulos. tell us more about his mission and can he achieve this -- commercial capital into africa's metropolis. guest: many are pointing to his administration and his work to try to clean habtu city to end

corruption. -- to try to clean up the city. nigeria has been a partner to us. we get significant oil from nigeria, but they have played a key role in terms of stability in the region. they put the most peacekeepers in ever cut. they play a huge diplomatic relationship. it is the most populous country in sub-saharan africa, so we will engage with nigeria. it is important that secretary clinton has gone to nigeria to show how important it is to our interests there. host: how have you seen the u.s. policy towards africa change between the bush and administration and the obama edmonson should -- and the obama administration?

guest: one of the first president obama met with is the president of tanzania. he came out publicly and said that he hoped the new administration would continue the policies of president bush. they have been slow to start by president bush had met with more presidents at this time than obama has done. i think they're picking up the speed. president obama has gone to africa earlier than any other president, so there has been continuity. now they are showing they're going to be engaged in africa. host: doing in texas on our democratic line. -- dwayne is texas. caller: what are the other african nations doing to address these concerns throughout the continent? are they in any contact with the

secretary of state, or just as nations you mentioned earlier? guest: secretary clinton has been meeting frequently with african foreign ministers at the state department, so she has been engaging widely. african countries are very much involved in trying to assist their neighbors. you gonna has forces in somalia. they're trying to protect this government which is backed by the entire international community itself for eritrea -- except for eritrea. nigeria has played a huge role in peacekeeping. nigeria, rwanda, ghana, south africa, they all have peacekeeping troops and therefore where they are trying to assist the population. -- they have peacekeeping troops

and therefore -- in darfur. i think everything countries are taking responsibility for the fate of the continent. host: how can obama address the drug trade that flows through ever crack corrupting heads of state? guest: -- drug trade that flows through africa corrupting heads of straight -- heads of state? guest: it is about strengthening the judiciary, and strengthening the police forces, giving them the capacity to be able to check any type of corruption that comes out of the drug trafficking. host: next up is ally from georgia.

caller: i just wanted to come back to a question referring to the ties u.s. has with africa. i wanted to draw a paradigm between the situation in senecal. those countries have strong allies to the u.s. we africans see the u.s. government is making a double standard, where as far as the interests guaranteed by the leaders, god knows that the situation is unbearable because the two presidents of those countries, the plan they have is to put their sons in power to replace them. i don't think that would be

exempted if that was done here by bush or obama -- i don't think that would be accepted by bush or obama. we have a very good brand of islam. i don't see the u.s. trying to promote that brand of islam. i wanted the comments of the secretary on those points. guest: i think you are right that it is unfortunate that there are many african heads of state we see today trying to engineer their family members into office as if it is some type of royalty rather than democratic-elected government. it is up to the citizens of the countries to prevent that. the u.s. clearly does not want a situation where someone is being engineered in and not going through an electoral process. we will make that point in

private. i note secretary rice did so and secretary powell did so, but it will be the citizens that will have to hold their leaders in check. the u.s. is not in the habit of promoting any particular religion, so i think senecal is probably 90% muslim. it is a democracy and it is a model for the world, but i don't think you can expect the secretary to promote any particular religion. host: this story, president of niger wins new powers, of voters approve changes that critics say give the president near total control. will this be something the u.s. will have to keep their eye on? guest: yes, it is a fraud.

he did not do much in power while he was there. for him to try to hold on, he dismissed his cabinet and the judiciary to try to hang onto power, so this is the example of where there are major problems. it is outrageous that the president has taken this action. i think the u.s. will continue to work with the economic community of west african state, which is also putting pressure on him to do the right thing. if the former president were still head of state, ultimately he listened to the legislature in nigeria. someone like that could put pressure on him, but it is a fraud. host: our next call comes from frank from maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is, one analyst

[unintelligible] the more you give them come up the more they want. any day -- the more you give them, the more they want. [unintelligible] if they're going to commit to not doing business with government in africa [unintelligible] some of the things that are surrounding it, last year the government documented in nigeria that showed aid they receive is lower and ended up in american banks. guest: i think the u.s. is probably going to take a

pragmatic foreign policy. president obama said he will try to reach out to governments around the world and engage them, so i don't expect the u.s. to make human-rights is sold benchmark of their relationship. we will certainly engaged nigeria and will do so on the basis of multiple interests, including the promotion of human rights, so when it secretary clinton meets with the president, she will talk about the need for changing the independent electoral commission. should the talk about the need for greater anti-corruption measures. this will be part of her talking points, but she will continue to engage. host: our last call comes from delaware. jane our line for independents.

caller: i think you are incredible. you are right about every question. two quick questions. the recent string of aids found in cameroon, why did that not get more press? i hope all lot of students who come to learn english at local university -- we have a government contracts with people from china and the middle east, but very few from african countries. can you explain why that is and how we can help to make that get on obama's agenda? guest: thank you very much. i do think it is important for more african students to come to the u.s.. it is important for more americans to go to africa. i first went there as an undergraduate and i had the opportunity to go to the university of nairobi, which is where secretary clinton

addressed the students. but was concerned because they used to be very rowdy, but she did well. part of the challenge for african students coming here is the financial. with the contraction of the global economy, it may be even more difficult, so we have to look at increasing scholarships, because that type of relationship is the foundation of strong international relations and strong foreign policy. it is unfortunate there is a lot going on in africa that is not reported in the newspapers. i have been concerned about -- as much as i love michael jackson, cnn has spent more time dealing with him than it secretary clinton's trip to africa. i think that africa does not get the coverage, and when it does,

it is all about gloom and doom or some war taking place, and not good things taking place. host: thank you very much for being on our program. we will take a short break. when we come back, we will talk about the student loan industry. you are watching "washington journal." we will be right back. >> this week, senate republican conference chair on healthcare, the economy and his party's

legislative -- >> the democrats are fueling the fire by say if they punch, punch back. they are raising the issue and calling protesters names. everybody needs to settle down. good manners are a good thing for a first amendment rights are important, but if you shoot someone down, you are destroying their first amendment opportunity. town halls are an important part of the american fabric, but we should not a calling these protesters names because they don't like the idea of being dumped in a federal program. they are scared, they are terrified. face of congress tried to ram through a bill they did not like. they want to let their senators know how they feel about it. i think good manners are

important. other than that, we have the right to say how we feel, and most of us are used to vigorous exchanges. >> newsmakers with lamar alexander, this sunday at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: william is the cherry elect of the national council of higher education loan programs. tell us about your organization. guest: it represents a nonprofit constituents that provide the student loan services. we are made up of servicers, lenders and we specialize in in ministering servicing collecting student loans. host: from wednesday's "washington post" we have this

article. student loan measure clears house panel. it would remove private lenders, generating an estimated $86 billion savings over 10 years to find more government grants. explain what this program is. guest: what the bill is referencing is student loan reform. it is actually the elimination of the federal loan program that has been around for 40 years. this is a successful public- private partnership where organizations like ours, credit unions, banks have worked with colleges to make loans for our residents. this bill will actually eliminate this entire program. the government will then take over the student loan program.

we believe this is not a good thing, it eliminates a very successful public-private partnership. it eliminates a choice that students have, it eliminates competition and it could lead to an increase in the federal debt and increase to cost to states. another issue we are concerned with is unintended consequences. the exact segment of the population this administration wants to help, these are at risk students, students who should be going to college but are not, are benefited by the services we provide. this exact segment will not have access to these programs we offer, and they will be less likely to go to college. we are very concerned. host: we're talking about the student loan industry would william shaffner.

if you would like to get involved, the numbers are on the screen. if you have called within the last 30 days, today is your day to send us an e-mail or message through twitter. more from this article talking about the student loan measure. he writes, "democrats say they would use the savings to fund a $40 billion increase in the federal pell grant scholarships over 10 years. $10 billion in community college upgrades and $8 billion in pre- kindergarten changes." your response to that. guest: we support any increase in pell grant funding. this is focused on the neediest students, and that is something we support. we would love to see more money used to fund pell.

our biggest concern has to do with the savings and how they have come up with this. it is not a savings. the federal government will be making student loans now, not the private sector, so you will end up with the government charging -- they will borrow the money and wendy boworers -- when the borrowers -- you have a needy student that takes out a loan and their payments will go towards and other needy student that needs a pell grant. we're not against the increases come up but we are against hal is being funded. host: you talked about an 8% repayment under this plan. what is the current rate for a

private loan? if you were a consumer from a bank? we have the federal student loan program that is backed by the federal government. if a student finds that that loan is not enough, they will look elsewhere to find funding in order to pay for their tuition. there are alternative or private loans out there. these are based solely on the rating agencies, so risk is a big issue. the rates could be as high as 20% because you're dealing with someone without a job or collateral. in order to make that loan, the rates could be high. it depends on the lending institution. host: our first call comes from alabama on our independent line. caller: i think the reason

they're doing that is because the banks have gotten too high with their payments. people want to go to school for eight years, they cannot afford to go because of the payments when they get out. guest: thank-you for the call. there is a specific formula we are required as it relates to establishing a repayment schedule. the traditional loan may have a repayment of 10 years, but the government has just passed a great law called the income borrower repayment program, and that is based on your income, said the department will work with borrowers to manage their payments. there are also other options we offer. you can contact your service provider and looked for extended

repayment programs. there is loan consolidation that will extend this time of the loan, and that would lower your monthly payments. i would encourage scott to work with their services to discuss what those options are. host: bill on our republican lun from ohio. caller: hello, this is my first time calling. host: turn down your radio or television so we do not get that feedback. caller: i'm sorry, this is my first time calling. i any current student in the current school system. the academic program -- i am a current student. the financial situation is horrible. it is -- i really like your beard by the way. back to what i was saying, the financial system is really horrible --

host: so much for that. larry on our democratic line caller: -- caller: i currently have a son in private school and i think this is a good idea what they are trying to do with making the repayment based on your income, but i think the answer is a total change in this system compare to what they have in europe. no one should come out of college with $100,000 in debt. if you are in europe, going to college is guaranteed. it is not only something the rich are entitled to. what we will have in this country is we are headed towards a system where there is one standard for the rich and the public education that is being eviscerated by no taxes

and no money being able to find it. my answer, rather than is stopgap band-aid programs is to try to come up with a program like they have in europe where you can get into college and the government pays for it. they will make up through the years with increased tax revenues. host: how long has your son been in school? caller: his in his second year of college. host: how much have you taken out in student loans? caller: i don't even want to go there, but the tuition is almost $40,000 a year. it is a private school. guest: banks, and this is an issue that organizations like ours take seriously. one of the services we provide which is important surrounds financial literacy. it is not just about interest

rates or what happens when you take out a loan that is variable, financial literacy encompasses all of the issues surrounding what i can afford and what makes good sense for me in my situation. we do see cases of what we term as over borrowing, and we want to try to protect against that. we want to make sure students are aware that if they choose to attend an institution that might have a higher cost of tuition, that they understand their obligations and don't take out too much in loans. when it does come time for repayment, they are aware of their options. host: ken from new jersey on our independent line. caller: this is a great conversation. i am very much in line with the gentleman who spoke about the

situation in general, where we have a different system than other democracies. my son's mother -- my son is 17 and entering his senior year in high school and will be determining his college, but we saved about $200,000. we know that if he goes to one of the top schools, he will still have $100,000 in loans. it just strikes me as horribly unfair that people who have the class advantage to save of this money are those who get to send their kids to school with the expectation that their kids will not enter young adulthood burdened by a set of -- burdened by a debt of most people's mortgages. i wonder if you could talk about how our system is different. the gentleman before talked about european democracies or

education is considered a human right. it is largely subsidized. i feel like we have a society where basic human rights, education and health care, we have a society in which won six of the people do not have access to health care. -- in which 1/6 of the people do not have access to health care. host: we're getting a little bit off track. you say you have $200,000 for your son's college education? that comes out to about $50,000 a year, and yet you feel that you will need to take loans in addition? caller: absolutely. we are trying to go to a place like boston college, yale, other top schools. you will need about $400,000, and that is insane. we should not have a society

without the possibility. host: what about a what aboutrutgers? caller: that is a possibility as well, and there are all these class distinctions ru. distinctions rtgers is a great school. -- i think rutgers is a great school. in order to have the biggest range of options you have to have a war chest of almost $500,000. what kind of a society are we were that is the case? guest: that is a little bit of what my skills that might entail, although i can speak to the fact that i have worked at an education institution in the financial aid office. i have also worked at non-profit organizations that specialize on the funding of the federal loan program. we can get into whether it needs

to be a national priority, and if so, does everyone get a free education to any institution of their choice, or do you go where you can afford to go? the student loan programs allow me to retain my education and a fine institution. if it was not for the program i would not have been able to megyn work -- i would not have been able to make it work. he is way ahead of the families i have spoken to and the fact that they were able to save to order thousand dollars. they can still get a find at the kitchen with that amount of money -- they can get a fine amount of education with that money. if you are out estate or gift it academically, there are scholarships. -- if you are al of state for -- out of state or gifted.

host: what you tell parents who are still trying to put their financial situations together and they have students who are trying to go to school in september? guest: my advice has always been if a child is born -- the day they're born in new start saving. if you show up on the steps on the college and you are not setting any money aside, that is difficult. do you walk into a car dealership with no money down or buying a home with no money down? we are seeing some of the results of that now with the housing. it is important that families safe. host: next up is maryland -- next up is michigan on our line for republicans.

caller: good morning. i am so glad i was able to get through because suze orman devoted a segment on one of her shows related to this. she said that parents should get the loans from the federal government because the loans from private institutions, he rates are enormously high, they are subject to change. -- the rates are enormously high. in some cases, 20% is charged. that is unconscionable. it is like being ripped off by the mafia or whoever it was that charged these enormous rates. i would encourage students to blow exclusively to the federal government -- encourage students

to go to the federal government. the different institutions that do offer these loans charge rates that are much higher. guest: that is an excellent point. it is one of the tenants that we present to the people we speak with. students and families planning for a college education should exhaust all federal sources first. there is the federal application for student aid and that needs to be completed every year. in most cases, it applies for state aid and federal aid. they are usually available in december. the family can mail them in as soon as january 1 before the academic year of college. this is critical and the cornerstone of federal financial aid. we encourage them to exhaust

free money and if there is still a need, go to the private market. host: robert on-air democratic line. -- robert on our democratic line. caller: i am a student pulling myself up by the bootstraps. a few years ago bush said jobs of the future will be related to math and science. i took that to heart. there are a lot of things not talked about. you were only given help for a certain percent of credits based on your degree. i mechanical engineering student. i started at pre algebra and not an at differential equations. i am paying for my way. i go from walmart to working as a chemist. i just want to address a couple of things. i understand it is true that

colleges receive kickbacks from places pushing loans on their campuses. the loans have helped me tremendously. without this type of help, someone like me would not have been able to go to school. there are so many more people like me. we need to help bring these people up. i am kind of embarrassed at how much i know, but i feel we need to do things differently. i have to pay my tuition in full in order to have my college sign off. i just had a little girl and this is why students quit. i would like to address some of these issues. if i could hold on to respond to what he said. host: how much are you carrying

with loans? caller: the pell has helped me because i have to -- i am willing to pay that. without this, i have raised myself up mentally and there is no way to put a dollar amount on what this has meant to me. host: less get a response from williams. guest: one thing i would like to address is about kickbacks. there are a few instances that did happen, but it was less than 1% of issues. there are thousands of administrators that worked tirelessly to find sources of funding to pay for schools. there were o -- there were a handful of places that made a

few bad decisions and lenders that did the same thing. the government has stepped in and corrected the problem, said the issue of the kickback thing is getting overblown. we believe that is a dead issue, so we feel comfortable with it. one of the things that is concerned timmy is paying your tuition in full in order to proceed deferments. every institution has various policies into considering you a full-time student. one definition or tuition may have to be paid in full. get with your financial aid office to talk to them about your issues. they can find a way to work around it to make life easier for you. a lot of institutions have a payment plan.

if you agree to certain terms he can put your tuition on a payment plan. you would be considered in good standing because you agreed to this plan. i don't know if that exists at your institution, but i would investigate this. host: what about when he talked about money based on his major? guest: dead does not apply. to any student who applies for aid regardless of the -- that does not apply. they need to be pursuing an academic program. what he may be referring to is there are scholarships and other types of internships that may be available. i consider this soft money you would look at on an institutional basis. it might be that this school does not have a lot of money from their perspective, but on a

federal level, all of these programs are awarded regardless of the decree. host: our next call comes from virginia on the republican line. caller: i hope you can give me a chance to make four quick points. i graduate of high-school in 1970 and i was very poor. i went to public institutions and finished at a private college. there was a much better system on getting an education during that time. now i am a mother of five kids. our plan, we decided to work as our schedules so that our children would not end up in day care, so my income was very low. the plan was once my youngest was in full-time school i was going to go back to work full

time and paid for my oldest child college education. unfortunately i suffered a catastrophic illness and was not able to do that. we were not able to save because we were trying to keep our kids out of day care. as a result, we are now with our youngest entering college over $100,000 in debt. we have refinanced your house several times. we fill out the fafsa form and because my husband's income is decent, we never get any support. there is no accounting for how much debt you're carrying as far as student loans. as far as the processing companies, i can think of asc as one in particular. we received documentation with all of our kids social security numbers and envelopes that are unsealed.

i think that there are so many flaws in having this outside industry managing the student loans. it should go back to the department of education. my youngest son who is going to a state school where the tuition is over $16,000 a year, there is not enough loan money to pay for that. we have to go outside of that and get private unsubsidized loans. .

>> this goes to the point we are making. when you move from a public/private partnership and are motivated to do good job in our communities to a federal contract program where the federal government pays a contractor on a bid basis to perform certain services, this is the kind of service you could get. we're very concerned. the government is saying they want to do away with this. they want to handle one of the% of the loan business. -- they want to handle 100% of the loan business. this just exacerbates the situation that the federal government may not be in a position to actually handle managing the program of this size. the bar were talks about the fact that they cannot get -- the bar were talks about the fact

that they cannot get funds. host: our last call comes from new jersey. this is our ally for independence. caller: for a couple of years i had a good time with my two children until i started this process. i got a middle-level interest rate from the private bank. i noticed the financial aid counsel for the school. i had to have a discussion with him to find out that i was getting no advice and counsel. they said it was a personal interaction between the bank and myself. anyone else in the country, when you were given some entity,

$100,000 or two to thousand dollars, you would think you'd get more help in that process. they know they have it coming. that is difficult to bear. i thought i would get a lower rate. the lending institution said it was because of my son's credit rating. he doesn't have a credit rating. they said it was because he had no credit. they wanted my son to have a credit card that he may very well mismanage to get a credit history so that would lower the rate for the loan. to shop around to different lending institutions to find the lowest rate takes a toll on my credit. it is a hard hit.

you cannot find the right until you complete the entire process. that goes against your credit rating. that is just warm. guest: i wasn't able to discern whether they got a loan through the federal program or one in a public/private program. that makes a huge difference. he talked about working with the financial aid counselor and not getting information. one of the areas we specialize in is working with our borrowers. we help them address the concerns they have concerning the program. i would encourage this caller, even if it is the federal program, to go ahead and call their local service provider and ask questions. in missouri, we have calls from people who are not even our customers. we have a responsibility to help them, regardless of which program they are borrowing through. on the credit rating and items like that -- it sounds like

you're talking about a private loan program that is beyond the federal program. when you have to borrow at that level in order to pay for the cost of education, you are dealing with a private loan program for it would be no different than going out to find a line of credit or a mortgage or a car loan. you could shop around and look for the best deal possible. host: thank you very much for talking to us today about the student loan industry. we will take a short break and when we come back, we will talk about the week on capitol hill, especially in the senate. we will be right back.

>> the full senate confirmed judge sonia sotomayor 68-31 as the newest supreme court justice. the next term officially begins monday, october 5. watch highlights today on the senate floor debate. at 7:00 p.m. eastern on america in the courts. coming this fall, entered the home to america's highest court. the supreme court. all this month, revisit the pears and vegetables we covered this year on c-span 2's book tv. this weekend, the key west literary seminar. go to book tv.org. the phenomenon of facebook. the author of this book on the social networking site and held it toward friends apart. afterwards, it is part of our book to be weakened. >> frank which reflects on 15 years of political columns for "

the new york times." that is sunday night on c-span. >> book tv sunday, the future of the american conservative movement with direct mail fund- raiser. >> washington journal continues. >>manu rajoo, is here to talk about all kinds of things that happened in the senate this week. let's start off with an item you wrote about yesterday, the sergeant at arms tells the senators to be aware of their tempers going into some of these town hall meetings. tell us about that. guest: they are responding to these news reports of the town hall meetings getting quite disrupted.

the sergeant at arms, now that the senate is on recess for one month, they have been going around their states and talking about the controversial issues like health care. there is concern that the town hall meetings could become quite violent. the sergeant at arms put out an e-mail warning all senate staff, urging them to be very cautious, saying that if people -- if tempers start flaring, to call law enforcement and calm things them. they are quite nervous about something turning into an ugly situation in the next couple of weeks. host: unusual that this warning would come from the sergeant at arms as opposed to the senate majority leader or the senate majority leader? guest: it shows there's a law enforcement concern. thursday in missouri, the congressman was back home and six people were arrested at a

town hall event. there have been other situations. in another situation, someone brought in a fake tombstone to a town hall meeting. a congressman from north carolina said he got a death threat. these are serious concerns. people are very passionate about these issues. both sides are questioning the motivations behind some of these attacks and outbursts. at the very least, it could cause concerns with senators. host: there is a story this morning house in new york politicians are trying to avoid this situation. they talk about representative steve israel, a democrat from long island, who held an event thursday night but made the event invitation-only. another representative did not send out and invitation until

the evening before. another result from the syracuse area had to move an event near rochester outdoors after 500 people showed up at a facility that only holds 100. now that the senate will get involved and the senators will be out there, do you see it is getting more creative in how they will try to avoid these confrontations? guest: i think so. if something were to happen in terms of a big outburst, it would generate a lot more news, especially a higher-profile center. -- senate floor. i think you'll see many protect -- senator. i think you'll see more protests and creative ways to avoid the situation. host: with regard to health care -- you wrote on august 6, on thursday, that senator reid is downplaying talks of reconciliation. he is trying to downplay any

talk of using fast-track budget rules to force the health care bill through the senate but he is leaving open the option of reconciliation out there just in case. explain. guest: this is a big deal in congress in terms of how to get legislation it use the budget reconciliation process, essentially, you could kill a filibuster in the senate. you could pass by a simple majority and you do not need 60 votes. you don't even need moderate democrats. democrats are leaving the option on the table and the white house was very clear that this is an option that if they don't get republican or a moderate democratic support, they could pass this sprawling piece of legislation for the budget process for the reason they can do that is the added language in the budget resolution that passed earlier this spring that allowed them to do this.

they say this is not their preferred method. they want to do this in a bipartisan way. the finance committee is continuing negotiations. max baucus, the chairman of the committee, has a september 15 deadline to produce a bipartisan deal for the question is, what happens if they don't get that deal? harry reid is downplaying the talk but charles schumer, another democratic leader, suggested earlier this week that this is clearly on the table. i think it is something we will be talking about a lot when congress gets back. host: congressional update for the next 25 minutes or so with manu raju of the "political." the numbers are on the screen.

our first call comes from souter -- citrus heights, california. randy online for republicans. caller: good morning, great job as usual. my comment this morning -- i am reading from paul krug in today in my local newspaper and i heard from bill mahr last night that the only reason that americans are angry right now that these well-pressed white americans that showed that these meetings are angry is because they are racist. that seems to be the default position for this administration. if someone does not agree with the policies, they are obviously racist. people have legitimate concerns about this. they are spending way too much

money, they don't know how they will pay for anything that they already promised. now, they want to expand the process. -- to expand the promises. people are frustrated right now. democrats ignore that at their peril. thank you, cspan. guest: i think the caller represents, generally, what republicans in washington have been talking about in that this is not necessarily manufactured out rich as the white house is suggesting. this is not an astroturf campaign. this is organic. this is something that is the result of major issues that congress is dealing with. the democrats point to things and conservative web sites that are direct directing their followers to certain town hall bounce.

they are pointed to comments made by conservative talk-show hosts. i am not sure if everything they are seeing is manufactured. some of it may be but the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between both of these sites that are arguing about these events. host: peggy noonan writes about it and says that the leftist spear and the liberal commentary it say that the town hall meetings were not authentic. they say the insurance companies sponsored these events. she says you cannot lead people to leave their homes and go to these meetings with a congressman unless they are engaged to the point passion. what tends to educate people the most is the idea of loss, loss of money, carter and loss of autonomy, loss of the few things that work and a great, sweeping away of those ideals.

guest: it is an interesting point. congress usually acts or does not act based on the way of what they are hearing from back home. it will be interesting to see how lawmakers, when they come back in the fall, whether they are skittish about doing something about health care or they are eager to embrace this major challenge. it will be interesting to see the elkridge that some of these members will bring back -- it will be interesting to see the outrage of these numbers will bring back. caller: good morning. i lived in monroe county and they talked about the trouble at a town hall meeting here. we don't even have a republican party here. it is average people who want to know what is going on. they are tired of the politics.

as for the first gentleman from california, by african-american wife tells me i am crazy about once a week. have a good day. host: have you been to any of these meetings in monroe county? caller: i had a nasty part by pests so i cannot drive right now. -- i had a nasty heart bypass, so i cannot drive right now. host: what do your friend said? caller: there are two ladies that live together next door and they are about as little as a guest. they are concerned about what is going on. there is no information coming out. host: thank you for your call. is there a possibility that the true information about what it is that congress is trying to do and the information that is in the bill is not going to get out because of the yelling and screaming? guest: that is the concern among

democrats. senators that i talked to, leading up to the recess, were saying that they were losing on the message board because we are not talking about what is in the bill. it is the bill that passed the senate health committee and the energy and commerce committee. they're concerned about talking about no prohibition on pre- existing conditions and reducing costs, things they want to talk about in the bill. they are worried that the washington focus is on the process and the politics but not as much on the policy. they thought that august could be a time where they could sell policy. august so far is turning into who can screamed aloud as. there is concern about not getting the message out host: host: dorothy in flint township, michigan.

caller: good morning, gentlemen. all over the news, they are reporting that concerned senior citizens are going out one questions answered and the representatives cannot enter them. people are frustrated. what they are not reporting on is the rest that are taking place for the only breasts that have been taking place are ciu members beating of average citizens out there. they are harassing people. the senior citizens and the concerned citizens who want information, like the gentleman said, there are so many bills out there and nobody knows what is in them. they cannot enter questions. they are going around everywhere. host: have you been to a town hall meeting? caller: i went to one tea party on the fourth of july.

there was only about 75 people there. i got a ticket on the way. host: who was sponsoring the tea party gathering and how did you find out about it? caller: i don't know who sponsored it. i went on the internet and was trying to find out if there was one in my area. i had to drive about 50 miles to get there. when i got there, i was surprised that there was not that many people. i have been scrolling the internet -- i am a stay at home mom because my daughter has ask workers syndrome. -- aspergers syndrome. i am informed person and i see a bunch of frustrated, angry people like nancy pelosi calling them astroturf. they are?÷s not carrying swasti. they are concerned citizens. you have the eugenics people on the obama team who won all the

people and who can contribute to society. guest: as i was alluding to earlier, some of the concerns that are being raised are legitimate. there are people who are genuinely frustrated and nervous and concerned about what congress is doing. this is a massive, massive undertaking, this health care overhaul. we're not even talking about climate change or restructuring the economy. they also are talking about a major financial regulatory overhaul. we have major issues that most members of congress and most people who follow what is happening have not seen these in their time on capitol hill. there is a scope that people are dealing with. back home, there are legitimate

concerns. there is no doubt about it. in washington, it turns into whether these concerns are legitimate for voters or this is something the republican party is pushing. i think there are definite people who have legitimate concerns. the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between what the democrats are saying and what exactly happened. host: the senate confirmed judge soto sonya might or -- judge sonia sotomayor. you'll be able to watch it on c- span. what does this bode say about the breakdown in the senate between republicans and democrats and how much work will be able to get done a long bipartisan lines, especially in regard to seating judges? there will be more judges on various levels that have to go through the senate and get their

confirmatio done to the senate. > guest: even though none republican support this nomination, it shows that judicial nominations are no longer about qualifications. this started years ago and some people say it started during the robert bork hearings. he was rejected in the 1980's. this goes all the way to samuel alito, when he was confirmed in 2006. people see it getting progressively worse, that it is not just about qualifications anymore. you don't just look at the resume and see if they are neutral or biters of law. it is more than that. this nomination clearly showed that. republicans were opposed and conceded that she was a well- qualified judge. you had people like warrenorrinh and he has voted for every

nominee he as face. chuck grassley has voted for every nominee, as well. this is the first one that people went up against. they canallers the qualifications were good but they said was more than qualifications. host: when president barack obama was a senator, he voted against the confirmation of judge s. -- justice samuel alito. he voted against justice roberts, as well. is this being seen as payback? guest: to some extent, yes. no republican said they voted against her because he voted against them. when republicans were articulating their opposition, they were saying that the obama standard for voting against nominees was wrong. they said he looked beyond qualifications. he looked at everything from

empathy and the republicans tried to tear that down. the truck used tear down his reasons for opposing them. people on the other side would say that they are criticizing him which is the same thing. next time there is a supreme court nominee, especially one that will change the ideological balance, you will see very partisan battle. it will be difficult to see another 90 votes for other justice. host: jerry, from atlanta, georgia, you were on c-span. -- you are on c-span. turn down your television, would you? caller: here is what i like to say -- if you look at what is

going on, this is north against south. they want to split the country. if you look at these rallies, this has a racial undertone to it. they are still bringing in these foreign car companies and giving them tax breaks and getting kickbacks. the southern states have no union. the small businesses in the south don't want health care insurance because they hire illegals. when you look a construction jobs, they don't want health care because they do not provide for them. they are like slaves again. the north and the self is totally different.

that are white caucasian people. if you look at these rallies, -- guest: one of the concerns articulate by republican leaders in washington, mitch mcconnell is worried about the party becoming a regional party. there are no more members from the northeast, the new england states in the house. you have olympia snowe and susan collins as the lone remaining senators from the northeast. you have won the bet is retiring at the end of next year. -- you have one that is retiring at the end of next year. there is legitimate concern in washington among party leaders that the party is becoming more regionalized and they need to expand their base.

i think that is a debate that is going on with the party. host: next up is plainview, n.y., on our line for republicans. caller: i had several comments to make. host: go ahead. caller: i listen to you most weekends when i can. i get up at 6:00 a.m. i have been following the health-care debate, mostly. you mentioned before that we cannot have a debate. most of the new channels that i watch, there are no facts and figures regarding what the bills are. we generally herar platitudes ad general information about what will be changed but where are the facts and figures? anxiety is created when people

fear an unpleasant event that they cannot control. one of the reasons they have this anxiety is because they do not know what is coming. they fear the future. if the democrats or republicans want to alleviate the fears, they should really come out with the facts and figures of with the bills are. host: have you had a chance to read the bill, yourself? caller: i try to go on line. it is very complex, over 1000 pages. i would like to see it distilled so that we can get to the ker nels of what is actually there. i do not see any evaluation because i do not see the facts, even when you go on the internet. guest: i think that is a concern that democrats have when

they are trying to sell this package. they are trying to speak about specific provisions in the bill. you read the bill and you will not learn much because it is a complex piece of legislation. they will have to have interpreted as to the why and how from how medicare is being reimbursed to help and wellness and things like health insurance companies would operate with a potential public option, the so- called government option for insurance. you have many various aspects and the problem the democrats have and why they are losing support is because they have not been able to communicate effectively with the american people what is in this legislation which they say will cover most americans. host: this story was in "the

miami herald." it is talking about senator mel martinez to cut his term short by 17 months. they said it was an unfulfilled career for a cuban american senator. what do you make of senator martinez' decision to leave office early? guest: that is a complete surprise. his friends and allies were surprised. he was going to resign and of next year. there were rumors that he would resign early and he squashed those rumors. he is a very well-liked guy. he is not a combat a person. he is not a partisan, through our. -- bomb-forward.

it -- thrower. unlike other politicians who resigned amid scandal, it appears there's nothing there. it appears this is a guy wants to legitimately go home, so far. he says he wants to work in the private sector and he seems tired of the ways of washington. it was a surprise but on the political level, this is a loss for democrats. he is say gettable vote on many issues like immigration reform. democrats want to push that belong this year and he would have been a good ally. he is gone. you will see a more conservative replacement for him and someone democrats may not be able to count on. host: our last call comes from manchester, new england, on airline for independence.

caller: i want to clarify some things about the manufactured anchored crass. i have never done anything like go to a protest. i started going to the steep parties on the fourth of july. the reason you are seeing the numbers grow and become bigger and bigger is not only because of the health care legislation. all these massive bills, thousands of pages long, that are passed with almost no debate, no time for us to see what is in a in direct controversial to what was promised about transparency and a new era of knowing what we're doing in advance, i see politicians admit on tv that they cannot read or understand it because of its complexity. lawyers were writing these bills and they say they need lawyers ill. when i watch the news people stand here and tell me that all right and the member of a hired mob and i have been called up by

the republican party, they only wish they could of done something like this. i have never been contacted by any organized group. this is an organic movement. when people spend their and lie to me about what i know is going on, how can i trust them when they tell me that it will save money when the congressional budget office says it will not? they say will cover everybody. they say it will let me keep my health care. common sense tells you that that will not be the end result when the government ends up providing all the health care which the man who wrote the bill in the beginning says. jacob hacker wrote this and he says that in time, we will all be swallowed up in this government plan. when people lie to us. , will don't trust them. host: are there any town hall

meetings planned in your area? caller: know, my congressmen are afraid. they do not want to meet his face to face. they wanted to a telephone think so we cannot judge their facial expressions. yes, people are getting angry. that does not mean it is fake. it means it is real. by the way, about the caller that says this is racial, the only person that i have seen that has been attacked is a black man who was attacked by fdiu and he says they were black. i am getting tired of the race card, i am getting tired of the media. i don't care. host: thank you for your call. guest: there is a lot of passion out there. i think that is what people are hearing back home pierr. z6xit points to the article you pointed out earlier we're

talking about members looking for creative ways to avoid these confrontations. many members are concerned about these town hall meetings become a youtube sensation. they are doing conference calls instead of confronting people face to face. there is concern about them becoming the next sensation on youtube where is played over and over and cable news. there are lot of legitimate concerns out there in terms of what these bills do and what they mean for individuals. host: one last question before you go. members will be off for four weeks and a comeback the first week in september. what will be the first order of business in both chambers? guest: democrats in the senate are looking at a tourism bill. that is one of the first things that is on the docket. the intense focus will be on the

senate finance committee in terms of it produced -- yet producing their version of the health care legislation. they will get back in september and september 15 is when they are supposed to produce a deal. there's a lot of work happen between now and then to come to an agreement between three democrats on the panel and three republicans on the panel. they are looking for ways to pay for this legislation. there will be a lot of attention on that because that will have a huge impact on what will happen to this bill and what will happen president barack obama's agenda host: thank you very much for being on the program. we will take a short break and when we come back, we will open up the telephones and we will talk about signs of economic stabilization. what do you see out there? are there things that are signaling the economy has bottomed out or is getting ready

to reach bottom and is starting to head back toward the top? we'll give you a chance to give you a call after this break. [no audio] >> the full senate confirm judge sonia sotomayor 68-31 as the newest supreme court justice. the next term officially begins october 5. what tile is today from the senate floor debate at 7:00 p.m., eastern. coming this fall, the supreme court. all this month, rivas of affairs and puzzles we have covered this year on c-span 2's book tv. panels from the key west literary seminar and the annapolis book festival. go to booktv.org for the full

schedule. >> sunday, frank rich reflect some 15 years of articles board " the new york times." that is sunday night on c-span. v(>> booktv, sunday, with a dirt mail fund-raiser and a panel from this year's freedomfest. >> "washington journal" and continues. host: we will talk abouti signs of economic stabilization are there or not. give us a call. the numbers are on your screen. if you have called in last 30

days, today is your day. send us an e-mail at journal@cspan.org. one of the stories we are looking at has to do with laos started to decline. is the clearest sign yet the recession is finally ending. employers laid off or fewer workers in july. the jobless rate dipped for the first time in 50 months. workers' hours and pay edged upwards propose a the kind of figures that could give americans the psychological boost necessary for recovery to take root after the worst recession since world war two. in the total of 247,000 jobs lost last month, it was the fewest in one year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in june. the lead story, the bottom is

here. the 9.4% rate is down. 247,000 more jobs are lost. we will be back to more articles from the newspaper. i thought we had a call but let's go back to the newspaper. let's go to "the new york -- the los angeles times. " analysts warned that it would still take months for the economy to climb out of its people. -- its deep hole. the job figures beat expectations and the unemployment rate dropped for the first time in 50 months. employers laid off are fewer workers in july for the first in 15 months. it is a sign that the country may be coming out of the longest

recession since the great depression for it out for a call comes from providence, north carolina, on a republican line. you are on the washington journal. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have not read any newspapers yet this morning. i am counting on you. my question is -- are they breaking down how many new jobs and fewer layoffs that are currently happening into the private sector or the government sector or how much of this is because of the stimulus money that was supposed to offer jobs. host: have you gotten any stimulus money in your job or directly? caller: no, i am a nurse.

i remember when the stimulus package came out, there was supposed to beé shoveled-ready jobs for people. i have not read that and i've not heard that any of that has occurred. i was wondering if they are breaking down -- host: there are numbers of that summer. i will try to find those. in the meantime, we will take another call. when i find them, i will get them from the camera for you. for democrats. caller: i think people need to wait zero little bit more on the economy. we are starting to see signs that everything is changing and the economy is no longer in the position of collapse. it is the same thing with health care. there are many people well done these town debates on the stimulus package and look what is happening now.

people are doing the town debates on health care reform and they have to wait. it is the same thing with the economy. we have to hold on a little bit longer and i feel that everything will turn out the right way. host: job growth lacking is the headline in "the new york daily news." it reflected fewer job cuts in manufacturing, construction, professional, and business services and financial activity areas that have been hard hit by the collapse of the housing market and the financial crisis hopefully, that answers all the woman's question from a couple calls ago. chicopee, mass., on our line for republicans. caller: good morning. in chicopee, mass., we have seen

a slow job growth starting to come from the economy. they had a local story here last night that they were talking about where people were actually being able to pay down debt. i think they are paying off their credit cards and that is allowing them to have additional money freed up. i think that is the progress that we are starting to see and why the economy is growing so slowly. job growth i believe job -- dropped 1/10 of 1% this month. it is good to see that happening but in the long term, depending on the recession, it will go beyond 2009. it might be the middle of 2010 before we are fully out of recession. host: next up is portland, ore., on the independent line.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to make a comment that we have been in an economic disaster since the federal reserve was put in place in 1913 it only took 20 years to bankrupt the entire country after it was a prosperous country for hundreds of years. the glass to collect in the '70s was another thing that -- glass -steagal act was another thing that allowed the bankers to go haywire. the bank seems to control the country if you follow the money trail from 9/11 through all the wars we have been in. host: the lead story in " the new york times," they write that the obama administration officials credit the the

stimulus package enacted in february for the continuing improvement from a peak of 741,000 jobs lost in january. some say the july loss would have been closer to 500,000 without the american recovery and reinvestment act. the president'i said his administration had rescued our economy from catastrophe. back to the phones, citrus springs, fla., on our line for republicans. are you there? caller: yes, i am. even though they think the economy was supposed to be recovering, there are so many young people -- i am a retiree and working part time but many young people who have families, they are working less and less hours. they do not lay them off. the give them extra time off and they do that ask for that time

off. they laid him also that don't go to the unemployment office of they don't have to pay for on and won it. there are construction workers going through the same thing. we have a nuclear plant where we have everything ready. we cannot even get that done in florida. there are many begs that are going on. i think all of us would like to have some of the changes improve, including housing and mortgages and stuff like that my god, we are going to fast and we are not answering their questions. they are smoothing over everything. please, what is wrong with barack obama? i voted for him, for god's sake. i want change but explained it to us to explain what we have to win and lose and guarantee it. he is delegating all this to congress and you know the american people do not trust congress with their corruption

and scandals and smooth talking. they are spending our money worse than drunken sailors. host: we are talking about signs of economic stabilization. we will look at other stores that are in the news this morning. the senate ethics panel clears christopher dodd the senate select committee on ethics dismissed a complaint against u.s. senator christopher dodd on friday after determining he did not break the chamber's tools on gets -- the chamber's rules on gifts when he got two mortgages. they found no credible evidence that he knowingly tried to use his status as a u.s. senator to receive loan terms not available to the public. back to the phones, a jury in chicago, illinois, on our line for democrats. caller: there are so many

issues. structurally, our economy has changed and will never get back to how it used to be. we have to accept that. i would caution barack obama to not get ahead of himself. i want him to continue to talk about that we are still in recession that is showing signs of improvement but we have a long way to go. i want him to get ahead of himself in the next month or next quarter, things may go down and the question will be, what is going on? over the last few months, what has happened? you have to keep that message. he has to continue to new to talk about the structural change produced -- structural change. if we leave certain things in the private sector without regulation, this is a slippery slope. host: you talk about some improvements.

what have you personally experienced as an improvement? caller: you do see construction of working -- construction workers, working more. i am not in construction. i work and education. my wife works in social work. when you service people, you really get to see what is going on out there. you see it in the eyes of the kids. you see the depression. any group of people that services others, they will have to be more sensitive about the people they are servicing because they are going through difficult times host: robb of republicans gather to plot strategy for 2010. more than 2000 republican gubernatorial candidates show up at an idaho resort, to lay out a

strategy to rebuild the gop for the 2010 election cycle. the event will feature events posted by newt gingrich. it was the latest sign that the governors association and its chairman, but mississippi governor, were emerging as influential in a comeback bid after disastrous losses in the last two election cycles. fort myers, fla. it is up next. caller: they say that the unemployment rate is at 9.4%. isn't that number of, considering they're not adding in the people who are already unemployed, the people who are no longer able to receive unemployment? if you add those numbers up, isn't that number hired?

host: thank you for your call. next up is nancy of sidney, ohio, on our line for independence. caller: like the last caller, there are many people still unemployed. the prices are still going up, up, up. i am tired of the republicans, the democrats, i am independent. the government is supposed before the people and by the people. what happened? host: what do you think happened? caller: i think they're up there arguing and they are plotting against us. host: who to vote for the last presidential election? caller: that is personal. host: it sure is. caller: i vote for the person i think is trying to tell the truth.

not for just a certain segment. host: thank you for your call. in the business section of this morning's "the washington post," treasury will not be tapped for more aid. after having received $51 billion, freddie mac reported its first quarterly profit in two years on friday. they said they do not need any more government money for now. they are run by a federal regulator and has 8 $149 billion government backstop available if it falters is carrying out elements of the obama administration housing recovery plan, including modifying home loans to reduce foreclosures. tacoma, washington, on airline for democrats. caller: good morning. thank you for cspan.

i believe there is recovery going on. in my state of washington, i see construction work happening all over the state. in eastern washington, there is construction from the stimulus money going on. around my town and in seattle, everywhere you drive, there is construction going on. i do not believe we are out of the recession, get. i think it will take time, like the german said earlier. -- like the gentleman said earlier. it could be into 2011 before we see signs -- host: what do you think will spur this climb out of the recession? the the effort by the government or more effort by the private sector? will be both? caller: i think it will be both. it will need to be both. our government is trying to get

the money out as quickly as they can. that is one of the issues that many states are dealing with individual is getting in and out, the government getting the money out to the states and the state getting the money out to the different projects around their individual states. host: cyber security officials brassards. -- cyber security officials resigned. the readiness team -- the head of the readinesssj÷ team said it was a hard step but one she must take. she is the fourth u.s. certification director. she was frustrated by a lack of authority. back to the poems, frederick, maryland, caller: yee haw, how are you

doing? this stimulus recovery deal we are talking about -- no, we are now recovering. are there 20 signs that is not as bad as it could have been? yes, we did not lose as many jobs as we could have. what is happening is that the government is spending money to slow the economy. that is the demand side economics where money is put into the people's hands and then they go out and spend it and a prop up the economy. george bush was also a demand side economist. he did the same thing but he did a tax cut. hour economy bobblubbled.

once the money stopped from the government, we will be in trouble. host: we will leave it there. swine flu should not close most schools. federal officials said decisions about whether to close the schools should be made locally. it should balance the goals of reducing the number of people who become seriously ill or die from influenza with the goal of minimizing social disruption and safety risks to children which sometimes occurs when schools) next up is arkansas city, kansas. caller: good morning. host: what signs of economic stabilization do you see or not see? caller: i see they are attempting to do something. my main question is -- why are the politicians and the president giving trillions of dollars to these foreign countries like iraq and iran for

them to declare war against us and keep -- instead of keeping that money in this country to save the lives and take care of our senior citizens and our people who need this money in this country? host: what you think that is the case? caller: you hear it on the television all day long. host: really? caller: president barack obama is giving trillions of dollars a way to these foreign countries. why not take care of our country and let those countries worry about themselves? host: in the new york newspapers there are stories about representative carolyn maloney who is withdrawing from the run for the senate. you can read more about that in