ron paul of texas will take your questions about the future of the federal reserve at 9:00 eastern. "washington journal" is next. . .

host: secretary clinton and dates are back on capitol hill for the administration's decision on afghanistan. tommy thompson is holding a hearing and threatening a subpoena for the white house gate crashers. the senate is looking into the reconfirmation of the fed. nbc is expected to announce their deal today. the bank of america is announcing that it is repaying its tarp moaning. -- money. we have the writer of the story

about the confirmation hearing of ben bernanke and the interesting twist bernie sanders from vermont put on the nomination. what does it will if a senator put a hold on a nomination? >> it means that bernie sanders does not want ben bernanke to be fed chairman and he is making it known. what it means is that he will need 60 votes for the confirmation to happen. what is interesting is that some of the objections to ben bernanke come from the right and the left. you suspect that they are doing to be just as eager to not vote for him.

host: congressman ron paul has been a longtime vocal critic of the fed. sounds like more people are ascribing to that? >> that is true, they have done many things over last couple of years, bailing out during the crisis, efforts to prop up wall street, as well as regulatory failings that go a farther away. there are a lot of different concerns going around. all of that and the fact that we are in a big recession is enough to make ben bernanke less popular than he might have been. host: at the same time, should judge greg has announced

support. >> that is right. it looks like ben bernanke is likely to be extended into a second term. it will take 60 votes, but there is a solid middle of the senate who seem to respect the guy, that he has done the best that he could in a difficult situation. some of them think that he has helped us to avoid the abyss. judd gregg, the republican from new hampshire, is one of them. generally supportive. host: how did the bank of america plan set the stage in the hearing room?

>> the truth is that banks have been repaying their money. one thing about bank of america is that day receive the more extraordinary assistance. what they found, apparently, is that having to control from a government that comes with that has made it harder to find a new ceo, so they cannot pay as much as they would ordinarily do. it makes people glad to not have that much more money invested in banks. host: how does the concern over the nation's unemployment rate affect the ben bernanke hearing? >> it hangs over everything.

many questions will be asked about what mr. chairman is doing to help the job situation. there will need to be persuasion. the question with the interest rates is how long they will sustain that. host:neil irwin covers the financial sector and financial regulation for "the washington post." thank you for starting your day with us. >> you got it. host: our question is what should washington do, what tools doesn't have and how can it use them? let's get to your ideas. we have a call from justin in new york city.

caller: 1/6 of the jobs are although related in the united states. a hint that general motors is a way to begin to build up more manufacturing jobs in the united states. there should be some kind of agreement, some kind of legislation whereby general motors could relocate their manufacturing facilities. the parts suppliers in manufacturing, where the taxpayer already owns a big chunk of general motors. they could be offering tax incentives. cash for clunkers for general motors cars. health-care costs for general motors should be taken off of the back of general motors to

make the company more competitive. of course, cracking down on foreign companies that unfairly trade in the united states. host: lots of people with ideas this morning. caller: i believe that the cash for clunkers situation, everyone went out and they bought not american cars. we have dell, aol, whenever you call in for repairs you get someone overseas. we need people in america to take those calls. icñi just personally ordered myf

over $500 worth of material for my home and it came from china. host: property rights, found money, education, all of this we are lacking. caller: should we start using natural resources like petroleum? >> the next comment comes from ed. caller: anything that the government pays for over 50% of should only be american made. the army boots, for example.

this is not protectionism, of but anything that the federal government purchases, including helicopters or things along those lines, they should only be manufactured in this country. by making the federal government purchase only those products that they pay 50% or more for it is not protectionism, but it would create jobs in this country. host: it is clear that the president is getting stronger and conflicting arguments on increasing deficit spending. "the new york times" says that "mr. obama must make the case that the needs trump debt reduction, otherwise we are in for a stretch of joblessness that would cost more in the end.

dole, republican line. caller: i would like to say, three of my family members have been laid off for two years or better. host: what kind of businesses were they in? caller: two were in the manufacturing business, one is a tool and dye worker. general motors has not made a profit in seven years. the ceo just retired because they do not want to work with the czars obama has in place. if we had taken that money that we gave to the banks and foreign countries and given it to the folks here, everybody would have had a merry christmas. you remember when kaiser and studebaker closed? the union mess up this country,

that is who we got to blame. thank you for taking my call. host: in "the washington times" there is an author's suggesting "an immediate rebate program paid for with a cutback in long- term stimulus. it would not increase the deficit and that might jump start holiday spending." today there is a jobs summit at the white house for ideas for how the government can stimulate job creation. next call comes from the independent line in minnesota. caller: i know of some jobs that are available. i do not know how to apply for

them unless you go to government web sites. they are always looking for contractors to go to iraq and afghanistan to do lots of rebuilding and stuff like that. lots of contract in jobs that could be created with that program, and get paid really well for it. something like $100,000 per year. i thought i would let my other -- what you call them? people. knowing that there are jobs out there. thank you. host: this twitters says -- why not use the stimulus money to rebuild crumbling bridges and rework our electrical grids? john, democratic line. caller: how you doing? host: what are your thoughts? caller: i am so proud of c-span,

so glad that we do not have to go to the white house. here is the deal, we need urban areas to be retrofitted, giving each homeowner in urban areas a grant to employ the unemployed. give the suburban homeowners a grant for the urban youth to come out to the suburbs. callehost: employing young peopo retrofit homes, you think they will have that skill set? caller: you are asking me a question? host: by m.

caller: -- i am. caller: the skills? i am a public vocational educator and i could get it running within 10 days and have been knocking out windows and putting in double pane once, not a problem, it is an opportunity, creating jobs for retired educators like myself. host: paul, republican line. you are on the air. caller: good morning, susan. in order to create jobs, this president needs to return to the bush tax cuts, which give middle-class americans a tax cut, also helping to create jobs among small businesses. small businesses is where most

of our jobs are created. this is something that our current president does not understand. host: emma sends this message -- stimulus must go to cities and countries for infrastructure, stop subsidizing businesses who have courted stimulus money. next caller. caller: there are things that we need to stop doing. one, dithering around that the health-care debate. that is creating uncertainty. people are delaying hiring. the second is to stop with the tax breaks for outsourcing. the third is to clear up the confusion. the bush tax cuts are not going

to be renewed. we need to resolve that uncertainty. i forgot what the fourth thing is. i am sorry. host: we are going to continue this discussion with several guests later on. our lineup includes austan goolsbee. later on we will have martin regalia. later, a small-business owner, david ickert of air tractor, one of the companies invited to participate today. alexandria, your next. matt, good morning. caller: president obama has promised a lot of money to the environment. i know that we are trying to do a lot of environmental jobs.

host: we will listen to your thoughts. caller: i am on my way today. if there was a good job in the epa to clean the day or something, if it paid a decent salary, cleaning up the forests of all of this letter, physical jobs that are still good paying jobs for people that really wanted to help. host: what kind of work do you do now? caller: i have a side business under the commerce department. host: how old are you? caller: 32. host: next up is kill devil

hills, north carolina. caller: thank you for taking my call. i feel that the problem is with the wto, putting our country in the position of competing with other nations that basically work on a slave wage. china, for instance, i am told that they average about $40 per month working five days a week. how can we compete with that? a nation like china, last time i checked they were an enemy. how did they achieve most favored nation status? how can we compete with 14 cents per our people?

that is about all i have to say about it. host: thank you for your call. next, queens, new york. caller: good morning. i think that we can create jobs by investing more in our transportation system. a lot of people living in new york would not mind living in pennsylvania, for instance. if there was a high-speed train running from new york to pennsylvania, then we could build more houses over in pennsylvania. a lot of people would not mind working in new york, and living in pennsylvania. that way we would be bringing

goods and services to those people. that is my thought. host: investing in infrastructure. we have the front pages of capitol hill publications right now. "the economy feels democratic rift." moving done, "liberals warned obama, seeing base skipping the 2010 elections because of the war. below that is a special story about the black caucus. "do more for blacks. same-store a from waters. afghanistan off of the hill, mccain smacking to face that democrats are destined to go along with.

the next call is from florida, democratic line. how do we save jobs? caller: the last two callers are doing great jobs with their observations. i will precipitate a question with my answer, i am a power plant carpenter and a union night shift steward for the generator replacement project. i am 52, at age 30 i was a sergeant in desert storm. host: you just got off the night shift? caller: i did. that guy from leesburg, talking about his relatives that have been out of work, his interpretation is absolutely

right. in this area probably 10,000 jobs have been lost. none of them are union. i am a giant fan of the fdr democrats. why are we raising to the bottom for wages? i will cut your hair for $10, then the guy down the other street for $8, let's put the brakes on and regulate the economy. let's put americans to work. this is a $13 trillion per year economy. we are one-quarter of the world's economy. what we are saying on the left is to keep the money in our country, the world will want to

continue to come here. we will teach you the pledge of allegiance, check your citizenship. when i left in 1977 to join the marines, my grandfather was president of the national league. he was also a union coal miner. when i left we had john deere, caterpillar, farm supplies, general motors. i was a hell of a marine. i was a leader, not a lieutenant, but a working-class marine. i did not know what we were fighting for. our middle class jobs were being shipped overseas. we are saying put americans to work and americans will take care of everything and health

care should be afforded to every american. have a great day, put americans first, bring back the middle class. host: that was marked calling from florida, just off of the night shift. we have a twitter -- tax breaks for u.s.-made goods, tax credits for families under $120,000, fast turn infrastructure projects, credit for real small businesses. caller: i wish i was articulate as that guy from florida, he is a good spokesperson. i am 55 and i would gladly do manual labor. host: what are you doing now? caller: home remodeling and repair. i have got to compete with so many latinos. not being racist, but i cannot compete with what they work for.

i am not saying this facetiously, they have helped me to learn espagnole, but they are here illegally. host: what is the prescription for creating jobs? caller: i kind of agree with that guy who talked about rebuilding inside of the cities. that is good work, it kind of needs to be done. bringing those houses up to speed. cap and trade, the federal government telling you how to sell your house? all of these houses under cap and trade will have to be remodeled or destroyed anyways. if we do not stop the illegal

aliens from coming into this country and taking every job, going home with what you earn, buying homes and investing in this country, how can we compete? host: sebring, florida. how do we create jobs, richard? caller: those previous callers made a lot of good points. they are exactly right. cutting capital gains taxes, cutting income taxes, it works every time. long term we need to take a look at the federal reserve. i think it we need to restructure our political system from career politicians. i also think that we need to get government out of these programs

altogether. we need to take the money from this stimulus package and put the money where it is supposed to be, social security and medicaid. every government program is going broke. we have more scams coming up to take money out of the pockets of the taxpayer, it is called cap and trade. they have bankrupt the system and they are working on ways to pay for this free for all spending. we have a group right now, an administration that does not believe in capitalism over socialism. that is until people get involved and we do something really serious. host: one of the reasons that the washington, d.c. area has been less hit is stimulus is a

boon to d.c. area contractors. here is the story. "to a sizable sum has gone to contractors in the washington area who are helping to implement the initiative. they are being paid a hefty slice of the money to help spend the rest of it. the energy department is paying technology and management services $6.9 million to review applications for renewable energy loan guarantees. the contract represents a relatively small portion of the spending but they understand why the washington area is weathering the issue so well." democratic line, good morning. caller: i have a few things. we need to rein in some of the lobbyists. we should not allow politicians to work for lobbyists in any

fact after their term. we need to disband the wal-mart and other box stores like that from the profits they are taking, splitting it up and giving the tax breaks to the local businesses. and then we need to reform the conservation corps rather than giving contracts to various companies. we need to rein in the profit taking. host: we are going to dogtooth austan goolsbee in a few minutes -- we are going to talk to austan goolsbee in a few minutes. this is from " washington post -- from open quotes the washington post -- from "the washington post," and below that, "the financial times," obama facing a fight on job costs.

a slow recovery is being faced. finally, in "the wall street journal" is a story by neil king. republican line, good morning. caller: how are you doing? i mentioned to this two years ago before barack obama got into office, that the only way to create jobs is to manufacture something. nancy pelosi was supposed to be on the top of this. i am not mad at you, i love chevron. i love chevron. but at the same time we have got businesses that are closed. they need to start drilling for oil. the deposits here in colorado are going to fill those refineries, pushing out the manufacturing towards close, having our own american gas made

by americans, with their own businesses not made by anyone else but the other corporations that are owned by americans with american money. thank you. host: one twitter, -- world trade and trade is the lo most important creator we have. caller: if the question is how we can stimulate jobs, we can do it at two levels. we must consume goods made in the united states by u.s. citizens. that is how we control what comes out of our pocket. we need to be informed consumers and voters. thank you. host: thank you for your call. the lead story from usa today,

states pummeled by the recession and heavy job losses are moving to bar government employees from double dipping, the practice of collecting a paycheck and pension at the same time. it comes at a time when unemployment is at the highest level in 25 years. at the end of the story it talks about specific states. the new mexico proposed changes would save 7 million. elsewhere the bill is bigger. double dipping by employees in utah could be costing the state as much as $900 million over the next decade. job creation, bob. hazelwood, good morning. caller: thank you for your time. host: what are your thoughts and ideas? caller: constantly we hear that

jobs are being shipped overseas and subsidized by the american taxpayer. but i read my newspaper from front to back every day. nowhere have i heard or read one article about what companies, what jobs, what politicians are giving these subsidies. how does this work? we keep hearing that we are subsidizing these jobs out of the country, but so far this so- called liberal left-wing newspaper media that we hear all about have not educated us a darn bit about these job losses. who do we vote for that is voting for these tax breaks for

jobs to be shipped out? not from one news program have i ever heard this, where congress signed a bill where they said they would give a company $100 million to take their jobs and put them in a foreign country. how come we never hear it, exactly? host: itset getting good information on where the jobs are going. rick, republican line, how can we create jobs in this country? host: the lot -- caller: the most important part is making sure that the people that we hired our legal. i am all for immigration, but you have got to be legal immigrant.

i was at my bank the other day and i ask my bank manager about a personal loan and they said they did not give personal loans. i said that they took the tarp money and they said they paid it back. but they did that after they purchased other banks. they are selling out the american middle class. host: we will have another segment of phone calls at the end of the program. if you would like to stay with us until then. as i mentioned, we have three guests coming up. the first is joining us live from the white house this morning. austan goolsbee is a member of the white house advisers. we have been having a little

jobs summit of our own this morning, hearing lots of ideas on how to stimulate jobs. tell us what the white house is doing today? guest: this is a jobs for and that we have planned for to bring in a lot of people from the private sector. people that are academics and experts, having a series of discussions on specific topics like clean energy jobs, exporting jobs, small businesses, and the goal is to try to bring in as many ideas from as many different kinds of people as possible. if you look at the list of people that are coming, they are not shrinking violets by any means, so i assume that they will have pretty candid advice. we have got people in the government that are trying to

produce policy ideas and trying to get as much information from the private sector as we can. it is clear that the private sector cannot simply come from the government. host: so, this suggestion that people that are concerned about the other direction of the white house, wanting more than just talk, wanting action, how does this move from a discussion to actual policy? guest: i agree with those people, i think that the president would agree. the ship of the economy is a big ship and obviously when you have got the biggest recession since 1929 that has been going on since december 2007, we are going to take a lot of policy actions to bring us back from the abyss. we have got the gdp turnaround.

but job growth has a lag in the economy. there will be a little bit of time. the practical way that you translate these ideas into jobs is with that bit of a time break, you enact policies. credit the small businesses and clean energy jobs. i have heard a lot of discussion about what can be done with the infrastructure with roads and bridges. there are real needs around the country. he simply enact the policy as quickly and efficiently as you can. host: there are questions in this kind of economy about whether it is efficient to continue to use federal dollars -- federal dollars -- what is it

in your job that you are expected to offer advice to? what is your perspective on the deficit question? guest: a lot of the public critics have gotten very confused on the issue. in the middle of the deepest recession since 1929, that is not the moment to tighten the belt. almost every economist agrees with that. in the same time we have got to address the issue of getting out of the woods, of this deep recession in getting people back to work. the president is committed to fiscal responsibility, getting the deficit down, but that is a medium-run thing. in the short run you cannot raise taxes and spending less and economic growth at this moment because we are in a tough spot.

i think of the president has a fairly subtle and sophisticated take on this. job should not, on the backs of government spending. the goal in these programs tends to be leveraging private dollars to lay the groundwork for the private sector to do the hiring so that the cost of the job -- government has a larger impact on the economy. host: what are your thoughts on the escalation of the bush tax cuts? -- removal of the bush tax cuts? caller: the president has always said that the rates should go back to where we are in the 1990's. we will be out of the recession by 2011. that is a key focus. host: how do you know? caller: the president has enacted by far the largest economic recovery package in american history.

it has had a major impact in changing the trajectory of the economy. it is a slow turnaround, but there are obvious signs across the board. in a year-and-a-half the economy will be growing. it already started growing in the third quarter of this year. host: you are saying that it is a major impact with a stove trajectory, how can it be both? caller: look at the jobs numbers. 750 jobs lost when the president came into office. we had an ethically bad gdp growth in the last year. since then there has been relatively steady improvement to the numbers, we have been losing relatively fewer jobs. so, that is obviously a change trajectory. you have started to see an upturn in several important

measures, like industrial production, but it takes time to do that. it is clear that the trajectory change from a horrible and getting worse to getting better and better. host: many people want to weigh in. let's take some telephone calls from the public. scott, democratic line. caller: good morning. guest: good morning, scott. caller: one question this morning, why can we not do e- verify? too many people in this country' are taking jobs from us and they do not want here. is that fair? guest: i am not an expert on the immigration debate. if you look at the data right now, the challenge is not illegal immigration, it is the very large recession we are in,

so, the president's focus has been done economic recovery. we are bringing in ceo's to get ideas on how to get the engine of this economy rolling again. there are a lot of areas that they're going to come up with ideas on. i think that that will be the main focus. host: austan goolsbee, with a master's degree from yale and a ph.d. from mit. he had been a member of the economic recovery board before this. republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. i know the problems that we have out here. the one thing that we have is a lot of debt. i think that the only way that this country can recover is

through the engine of small business people. what i suggest it is instead of giving this money to the banks, they should take this $200 billion and if people want to consolidate their debt, they can have additional money and hire new people. the other thing is if you have a low interest rate today, paying it back over 10 years, you might find that people will have more to spend on the business to make it grow. guest: an interesting idea. we have an entire section of the jobs forum that will be about ideas like that on small business credit, which has been a very serious issue. everyone knows that small business tends to be where the

rubber hits the road for job growth. in boom times they tend to grow the most, in recessions they are the hardest hit. the fear now is that with the tight access to credit through the banks, that normal engine of recovery is not going to be able to grow as fast as it should. i appreciate those suggestions and we are absolutely looking at areas like that. i should say, not an of credit has gone to the president. you saw a dramatic expansion of small business programs for blending. use of the president putting in place 75% reduction in capital gains for anyone that starts their own business, and a number of things that were precisely designed for small business. we have got to get that engine

going. host: c-span is going to cover the opening and closing session on the job forum. beginning at 1:20 eastern time today. we are not covering the middle sections, they are closed. can you explain why that decision was made? guest: i do not know anything about it, i am just an economist. host: what will happen during this session? guest: there are so many people from such a diverse group coming, it is hard to have an intimate conversation with the entire group. we are going to break up into subject areas, where they will have cabinet members, ceos, and various experts talking.

so, they are going to dive deep into policy ideas and have a bit more dialogue. host: this question comes from twitter -- with dropping the corporate income tax encourage businesses in the united states? caller: it might, but you tend to lose a lot of revenue by doing that. we have one of the highest corporate rates in the world, but we do not have very high actual collection, making you think that we have a high -- narrow base with a high rates. we have asked to the economic recovery advisory board to look

at ideas for tax reform. we have been thinking a lot about ways that you could broaden the base. that could be helpful. certainly an idea that we are likely be here today. host: a related question from twitter -- almost one-third of the stimulus package was tax cuts. can you quantify the jobs that were created by those cuts to direct spending? guest: the council of economic advisers puts out a quarterly update on what has been the impact of stimulus. normally the impact, if done right, through direct spending, it can have a bigger multiplier than tax cuts. but the key issues have to do with what kinds of things you

can get out the door and what kinds of things are most effective. if you look at the evidence of tax cuts, they had an important impact on consumption. i also think that the tax cuts in the recovery, many people do not realize, but there were substantial tax cuts in this country. people needed a break. it was a tough eight years for the middle class before the recession. to be in the deepest recession since 1929, the middle class needed relief. host: our next question comes from north carolina. caller: i have a question in a comment. to your knowledge, what is the

average price of home heating oil in this country per gallon? host: is -- guest: it is used extensively in new england. caller: what is the average price? my point is, this is an oil based economy. to have a representative from the white house stand there as an economic advisor and not know the price of heating oil when it is the number one thing in the nation, my point is that we need energy. this is an oil based economy. if you people in the democratic party would allow us to drill and have natural gas in those areas where you have stored,

instead you have locked them up and kept it in that environmental lockbox, we would be able to solve the problems during the winter. host: what is the price? caller: $2.79 in the southeast. host: how does that compare with three years ago? caller: back then it was being speculated on by the world speculators, it got up to $147 per barrel. $4 a gallon. host: so, it was hired three years ago? caller: it was actually lower three years ago.

last year it was higher. host: let's get a common and more callers. guest: in my house we use natural gas, so i would not know the price of home heating oil. i think it is important, when you look at the energy, the economy is based on energy. the president has identified a lot of the business leaders coming here today, we know that we are about to shift to a cleaner energy economy. as we do so, it does not have to be a disadvantage for our economy. we can generate millions of jobs while we do that.

driving up the price of oil is a bit misleading. host: in our earlier segment we heard a number of suggestions. mobilize community based labor crews to combat urban blight. clean housing, etc.. is there any sympathy in the white house for a national jobs program like this? guest: i would say, public sector employment, we have seen and other proposals for how many people come forward with these ideas. the questions that people need to ask, what would you have people do? in for whenever it might be, is the money better spent directly

in coming from the government? orion something that could leverage the private sector? it has tended to be the president's view that except on very specific programs, the primary thrust of the recovery package are to stand up private sector industries, because that is sustainable job creation that potentially costs less to the budget. host: austan goolsbee of the council mechanize it -- economic advisers, thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. host: we will continue our discussion. we have two more guests ahead. later on he will meet one of the businessmen who has been invited

to participate today. right now we are giving an update on what is happening in the news from c-span radio. >> more on the couple that crashed the state dinner last week. they will not be appearing today at the hearing. their decision brought an immediate threat from a lawmaker to force their appearance using a subpoena. a key adviser from the obama white house spoke on a nationally broadcast interview saying that the social secretary did not need to appear because they think they have answered the questions fully. even watch the hearings on our web site, c-span.org the

government accountability report says the only some of the money allocated to help mexico fight crime has been spent. bureaucracy. vladimir whom said that he will think about running for the presidency again in 2012, saying that his decision would depend on the economy. he had to shift into the premier seat in 2008. since then the presidential term has been extended and he is eligible to run again in 2012. those of the latest headlines on c-span radio. bob host: the senate -- >> the senate has started debate on the

health care bill. you can see it all live on our companion network, c-span 2. to read the senate bill and the house version and to watch video on demand, go to our health care of. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our next guest, as we talk about how the country can produce jobs, martin regalia. he is now the chief economist at the cotton u.s. chamber of commerce -- at the u.s. chamber of commerce. guest: the chamber sent an open letter to the president's this week that outlined our approach. no one will be there in person. host: is that because you were not invited? guest: not at all.

the major point is that the private sector has to be the primary engine of job creation and that going forward we have a daunting task ahead of us. we support the president's efforts to get job growth moving again. that is where most of the americans feel the recession. economists look at things like gdp growth, but people feel it where they do not have a job. we have probably 8 million people that have been displaced in this economic downturn, lost their jobs. another 6 million or so have been put on reduced shifts, feeling and income pinch. putting those people back to work should be the president's primary goal. we are happy to see that he is focusing on that with this job summit. host: what is the trick?

guest: it is as simple and easy as creating economic growth. coming out of the 1970's and the early 1980's, our economy grew at almost 7% for one year after those downturns. .

>> we've got to get the credit market settled down. lot has been done by the federal reserve to set it will markets down and that has to be pushed and continued. we have under pinned they're existence but now we have to have them lending again and we have to have suitable financial regulation but it can't be overly handed or it will stall what is just in it's problem today. these are the type of things. educational programs to keep our workers educated and skilled in

the work place. vitally to sustain jobs. >> the trade agreements. we have some sector when we talk about trade agreements that means american jobs shipped overseas? guest: 99 percent are a broad. the key to our growth is how effectively we penetrate the markets and sell into those markets. it's not a question of sending jobs but sure is a question of shipping products. we'd like to sell into those markets and we'd like to be able to create a bilateral trade with those markets because trade benefit people in the u.s.. they get good products at relatively inexpensive prices and this is a plus for the consumer. what we would like to see is good healthy trade in both directions. we don't see trade as shipping jobs overseas. there's not much in the way of stats that verifies that fear. host: a number of callers think

the job creation to be successful has to be twind with immigration policy as well. guest: that's always tough win for everybody. the administration and like. we believe that an effective immigration policy will help to integrate the people that are here and already working in this economy because we need them. about 7 million immigrants right now are working in this country and contributing to, g.d.p growth and doing jobs other people in this job or country haven't wanted to do. by the same token we think an appropriate immigration policy that allows people to come in that gets the workers in that we need and incorporates the people that are currently here is something we ought to strive for. host: saw press report that is that the chinese government expressed it's concern over the

u.s. debt level and whether or not this administration would take steps to help reduce it. on the counter there's many people argue together the president don't worry about that right now. the situation is such that stimulation of the economy is more important and deficit spending is okay right now. what's your position? guest: i think it's always matter of degree. chronic deficit structural cause a miss allocation of resources. excessive deficit that give rise to increasing demand to borrow in world capital markets have a tendency to drive the dollar down and interest rates down and can overtime lead to inflationary policy. fiscal responsibility is going to be one of the main challenges of this administration and of this congress. they've got to get the budget deficit under control. but in the short run, budget deficits automatically go up

because revenues drop when the economy softens and transfer payments and like go up. automatic stabilizers so in the short run, in the very near term i don't think we need to be overly concerned about the deficit in the immediate term, but when you get to a year or two or three or certainly five or six down the road, then absolutely you have to control. the spends has to go down. ho host what product does you think we can exsport now and to what markets to target. guest: korean colombia trade agreements would be great to get past. when you look at the very hi-tech products we produce in this country that seems to be where we have an advantage and i think that's where we would see the most immediate impact.

host: sasha is writing. free trade colombia what jobs are created for imported. exsports specifically? guest: well, the products that we exsport that we produce in this country create jobs in this country. the products that we exsport, the people that do the exporting, the people that a came and ship the goods, their jobs are dependent on exports and these are the people we're talking about. host: jim on the democrat line. go ahead please? caller: yes, sir. yeah, i wanted to know why we have so many illegal aliens working here. i used to work on an apple orchard and because of the large corporations hire illegal aliens so they don't have to pay, that americans adopt want to work, they just don't make enough money to be the able to support

a family or themselves so it's not that they have the money, it's because illegals are making less money and that's why americans don't want to do those jobs. >> thanks. jim? guest: interesting in this economic downturn we've lost almost 8 million dollars and another 5 million people have been moved from full-time to part time and a million and a half that have stopped looking. these jobs were not displaced by imcongratulations and to focus on that in an economic downturn is to miss the point. the point is how to get the economy growing again so we create jobs for the people that have been displaced in this economic downturn and those people clearly were not displaced by immigration. host: kevin from republican line. michigan. caller: guess i would like to ask a couple of questions

regarding cap and trade. maybe mr. martin regalia can comment after i'm done. i'm curious to what his opinion regarding cap and trade would be as far as creating jobs and i'm also - i wanted to ask the presidential advisor if he would have advised the president to acknowledge the recent exposed hoax on man made global warming with the fudging of the scientific numbers by so many scientists. if you were the president'sed a voi sore would you advise him to put a hold on the cap and trade. president's advisor mentioned production has increased, but we know that employers are doing that with less employees and i think many are concerned about what the obama administration may impose through the cap and trade bow low knee. please comment. >> think you've hit on an

important issue and that's energy cost. one of the things that we need going forward in the economy to function, especially in one like ours in the united states which is very energy dependent is a consistent sustainable supply of relatively cheap energy. we need a policy that will focus on getting that. unfortunately, i think the cap and trade bill that's come out of the house is a bill that isn't going to achieve those goals. so it's really a missed opportunity. it's likely to increase costs substantially. and not necessarily increasing our energy supply or making it more sustainable and in the current environment it's causing heightened uncertainty and concern and when you have smaller and mid sized and large businesses concerned about energy availability and they're energy costs, and are made lesser time and more concerned

by the presence of this type of legislation, it doesn't help with investment. it doesn't spur job creation and it does retard economic growth. host: guest next is sylvia. college park, maryland. independent line. caller: good morning. 30 minutes ago you had a caller say can someone give specific examples of how jobs are shapeed a broad and while i appreciate that you represent, business owners in america, i'd like to challenge you to de the nigh what i'm at to say now and i'm giving two specific examples. i know this because i'm a consultant in the it field we offer indians and now the move is towards hiring chinese, i.t. workers to come to america. give them visas. come here for work for one or two years and go back, we pay

them $$80,000 or 100,000 dollars a year and they go back and we contract that job out to them in that country and i have two specific countries that have been doing it and one of them is freddie mac in virginia. now the second one is at&t and they have customer service call center in canada and they - the excuse they gave is doing that because of healthcare. they said the cost of healthcare was killing them so they shipped 8,000 jobs to canada. they ran an an ad saying we're bringing 5,000 jobs back. it's know about bringing them back but why did they go in the first thing. spring has a call center in bear knew dachlt they moved it to bermuda. comcast also has a call center outside of the u.s. so if you can, please don't tell us moving job as broad is really not a

problem. it is a problem wi. guest: first of all freddie mac is a government run company. there are companies that have accomplished call centers a broad and done this for cost reasons and in the dynamic world economy you try to make the best use of your labor that you can. the claim is that mult-nation companies shift job as broad and that's to say they take jobs in the united states and transfer them a broad and don't do them in the united states anymore. what we're finding is mult-nation companies that operate across the international borders shift some jobs a broad and move some jobs in house. the ability to penetrate foreign markets actually gives rise to job creation both here in the united states and a broad. there's been an interesting

study done at harvard university. this man has done a number of papers on this and he points out the mult-nation companies, the relationship between the workforce as broad and the workforces in the united states are sinner gistic. there's compliment and not substitute. they don't do away with the job here if you have an armored car company here it doesn't close a route here to open up one in germany. it doesn't close a fast company food stand here to open up one in beijing. the point is you have a worldwide global economy that you have to function in. we have to remain cost effective in that economy and in order to do that we do some job as broad and some here. the jobs we want to do here, the higher paying jobs. management jobs. research and development and in many cases those jobs are coming back to the united states. while you can name a few

companies that have shift they're call center as broad. many of those are being shipped back because they found it wasn't the most efficient way to do it. host: with reference of the jobs going to canada the chamber has been quite publically in the discussions with the white house for debating healthcare. do you see healthcare reform as a way to stimulate job growth? guest: think i think what all small businesses want, i don't do the health chamber but i do tax chamber. it's an issue they raise again and again and again. rising cost of healthcare. everybody in the business wants to see a healthcare plan that will work. a healthcare plan that will provide the coverages needed but do so in a way that bends the cost curve and reduces the cost to the business community and to the individuals so they can get the healthcare they need. the problem is that the house

plan we do not see as achieving that goal and senate plan, while moving in the right direction in some areas still doesn't fully get there. we'll work with the house and senate administration to try and encourage them to move a healthcare bill that will achieve the goalsness providing the healthcare people in this country want and need, not hurting the people that already have healthcare they're comfortable with and doing so to bend the cost curve now. host: senate is expected to hold it's first votes on healthcare today. watch live coverage on c-span two and we have a healthcare hub filled resources from all different perspectives on the healthcare debate in this country. this is track on the democrat line. you're on for martin regalia of the chamber. caller: good morning. listen here. these large companies, do they receive a minority tax credit? now that's first part of that

question and on the send copart. if they do receive tax credit for hiring in minorities and stuff like that, how do they get monitored for what they do, how they do it and wouldn't that be the part where they hire in people that might be, illegally and that would cause problems because these companies don't identify this then they need to be monitored. things that don't work need to be exed out. i'm waiting for that question and thank you. guest: thank you very much. i think you're absolutely right. big companies that are using federal programs absolutely need to be monitord to make sure they're achieving what they're suppose to achieve. i'm not aware of any specific companies that are violating the appropriate provisions of the law so i really can't speak to that's spebt of the question. if you're going to take

advantage of federal programs and incentives then, yes. you should be held accountable for performing to the standards that are laid out in the programs. ho host next question from mary, tampa florida. republican line. caller: we really need help out here. i l live in tampa and our schoo received 80 million dollars in stimulus money in august there was a local news report they only hired less than 24 people with that 80 million. the school board member on the news said that they used the remainder of the money for training the people they have now. and i'm like, she said that um... they didn't feel it was proper to hire people and then have to lay them off in two years because the stimulus money was only temporary but if i

could get a job for two years, it would be a god-send. the only job i've been offered since may of 2008 when i lost my job is for six hours a week at minimum wage. and i went from 2,500 a month to making $200 a month. what are you supposed to do with that? you guys are pushing people out of their homes. the government should have put some kind of rules on that stimulus money that for every million dollars the school boards got, they have to hire so many people, the people are really, really hurting. we really need jobs. what are we suppose to do? unemployment is not enough. it just barely, it doesn't even really pay my bills and i'm losing my home. host: what kind of work were you doing before you lost your job. caller: i was a credit reporter

for a concrete mixing company. for 10-years. every person construction is down. not one single person, everyone of us in two years has gotten a full-time job. host: how many people in the company lost their job? caller: 80 percent were let go. in my department alone it was about 35 but when you're talking about the truck drivers because the concrete ready mix company, there was 90 trucks in tampa and now there's nine. host: good luck to you. thanks for calling in. guest: that brings home exactly what the pain of recession is. you know i don't know what to say to somebody like that. the only way that we can get people like that back to work is to unleash the power of the private sector. creating government job isn't going to do it and what we want to do is to make sure that the programs and we supported the

stimulus package. we felt at the time it wasness because the economy was in such dire straights and much of the stimulus money was spread out. we hoped it would be more focused and that it would be more quickly spent and much of the infrastructure projects have been delayed because of buy america provisions and stuff like that, that sound good but don't work in practice so we hope the president will go back and relook at packages especially in infrastructure or draw. people in construction are r feeling the pain to a much bigger degree because of housing and commercial construction. we think that getting those moneys more focused and more quickly spent would be a very important adjunct to the program initiated so far. host: what was your reaction

when she said even if the job was two years. guest: absolutely, but i mean the point is, with the real goal to create good permanent stable jobs. to do that as quickly as possible. and in the interim, yes i think the programs and we have supported programs to extend unemployment insurance and things like that. other than that i think that there's only a limited a amount you can do. we cannot nationalize the entire u.s. economy. it's just not a feasible alternative so. you do the best you can and you do what the economy can do best which is kind of get out of it's way to reduce the overly restrictive regulation to perhaps take a little bit slower view on some of the bigger projects and down the road

projects and reintensify the focus on the immediate concern which is the economy and jobs. host: gene from chicago, independent line. caller: yes, what i'm going to say is the american social economic system is the root of the problem. when you have a relatively small percentage of the people who are making humongous amounts of money. more than they could ever need or ever use. what they need to do is these top people continue doing the same job they're doing now but making much less money. nobody make more than $too thousand an a year and then that money they're made could be distributed throughout the socioeconomic system. money for financing medium or small business and have a lot of money to hire people that don't have their own jobs right now. some people might call it socialism but if you study

history, after world war ii in germany and japan we gave them money to get rolling again but it was a very relative, small amount of money, but the thing is, there was no huge humongous people making millions or billions of dollars. host: thank you, gene. >> it's an interesting proposal. as a firm believer in the free enterprize system i take extreme objection to the statement that these more socialist economies generate a better wealth distribution or better opportunity. they certainly don't and haven't. and in the current environment in today's world we've seen the more socialist approaches have not worked so i don't agree with the caller in that regard. however, i do think that there are places where we have seen

egregious pay scale reports. i don't believe that we should be providing public policies to redirect those. i think what we should be doing is working from the other end up and trying to continue our education to continue your skills set development so that the people that are in the lower and middle part of the distribution have much more mobility and therefore have the opportunity to move up the distribution. the american dream has always been to succeed and to prosper and i think we should foster that idea and foster that dream and one of the things we have to do is work with our educational systems and training and retraining systems to bring booker t. washington into the workforce to provide skill sets allowing them to move up. host: few more minutes. next call from phoenix. steve, democrats line.

caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. martin regalia here's my question. years ago, a guy told me that where our country wants to go to a global economy but with a global economy you have to have global wages. plumbers and truck drivers make the same and et cetera. my question to you mr. martin regalia is to get the jobs back we have to be willing to works a little as they're done wherever they're done now. what do you propose and how little do you think the wagers should be for people that get their hands dirty? guest: interesting question but your premise is entirely wrong. you don't compete to the bottom you compete to the top. we want to create jobs in is this country the higher paying scaled jobs. our truck drivers should make more than truck drivers do in

third world countries and that's great and they should. and economy will still function but you have to be cognizant of the fact that the world economy does provide competitive pressure and one of the things we have to do is reduce unnecessary costs foisted on our companies causing them to be less competition. we have o s.h.a. and other requirements and some of those we need and some we don't. we have tort cost, lawyer costs. it costs american businesses over $250 billion a year. that's money not paid out in salaries and isn't used to create jobs so. we have the ability to compete to the top and i think that's what we should try to do. host: someone on twitter says the chamber is antilabor and will always support profit and

not labor. labor is the highest cost. guest: sit the highest cost and fact of the matter is you can't have businesses without labor. there's always people on twitter and elsewhere that want to put antagonistic approach on business and labor. it doesn't have to be and really shouldn't be. businesses are nowhere without the people that work in those businesses and they are nowhere without the jobs they get from those businesss so there's a synergy relationship. it shouldn't be antagonistic all the time. people always think they should be paid more and there's natural tendency for business to try and retain cost. there's give and take but it has to be positive and synergistic. businesses were nowhere without workers and like wise. host: last call.

michigan. tony republican line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i was recently saw a c span and you were talking to somebody about the pilot change and she was talking about green jobs and said they'll be ready for millions of jobs which is why we're not - people to keep their job. why keep somebody's job or help them keep their job and create jobs when they know they have a green job coming up. she now said there will be millions of green jobs. how do you feel those, some people are unemployed? guest: i think the whole idea of focusing on one type of job requires a degree of understanding among the people picking which job they want to have created out there that doesn't exist. i think the best thing to do is provide the type of policies

that foster development in the areas that offer the greatest productivity. we're going to see more green jobs as we move in the direction of alternative sources of energy. there will be a natural movement and should be. but to try and artificially direct the process, implies you know more than the markets and that generally doesn't work. we've seen that again and again. on the basic concept of which jobs ought to be created i fall back on market principals and say we want to do the jobs that have the greatest productivity that make the biggest bank for the bucharest and the market will determine which those jobs are and if we amend it to work we'll see those jobs created. host: if your interested to see the letter they sent to the white house about job's creation. the chamber has it posted at u.s. chamber.com.

martin regalia thanks for being part of our jobs discussion this morning. we're going to take a break and then you'll meet our last guest. david ikerd is the vice president for air traffic incorporated in texas. ♪ >> secretary of state hillary clinton and robert gates and mike mu len return to capitol hill today to testify again about u.s. troop levels and strategy in afghanistan. the testimony before the senate foreign relations committee will be live on-line at 9:00 eastern.

after senator clinton leaves for meetings in europe. others will testify before the house armed services committee. live on c-span 3 and c-span radio at 1:00 eastern. the senate banking committee hold as hearing on the nomination of ben bernanke to continue as chairman of the federal reserve. live on c-span 3. c-span.org and c-span radio. >> this weekend on c-span two book t.v. we'll tour arlington national cemetery including section 60 where the soldiers are buried. it's part of the history of the cemetery with robert poole. see the comparisons and seemingly unrelated cultural similarities with the authors of

super freakn o mics. and join us with multi value works on science. for the entire schedule go to book t.v. dot org. >> "washington journal" continues. >> very pleased to introduce you to the vice president of finance of air tractor of all right. my texas. one of the 130 people ib invited to participate in white house summit. how did you find yourself after that the white house jobs summit? guest: i don't know. i got a call wednesday before thanksgiving and asked some questions and later i got an invitation. i'm not for sure how all that worked. it would be interesting to note? host: any speculation of a list that brought you to their attention? guest: we do a lot of exsporting so i have to assume

maybe something through our work there. but it's only an assumption. host: after the opening session we heard there will be break-out groups. have you been assigned to a group? guest: tentatively the export group. the message i would like to bring the fact that small businesss in this country can do a lot more example importanting. not monitor help as much as policy help. e exsports mean jobs. all exports. especially small business involved in exporting i think translates directly into jobs. host: tell us about air tractor. ge guest we manufacture fire fighting and agriculture. we're a small business in a rural town. we have 200 employees.

host: how long have you been in business. guest: since 1992. host: where do parts and supply come from. guest: nearly everything from the united states. ho ho what kind of skill sets do those people have? guest: engineering. financial. welders. painters. metal fabricators and a large variety of jobs. host: with regard to trade policy what would you want specifically, if you think exsporting is the key to success, where to and what kinds of sale does you see? guest: from our standpoint? we sell all over the world. 45 percent of our production goes outside the united states. ho host to what regions. guest: brazil, argentina, australia. spain. a wide variety. host: what is not happening in trade that you think would change and make it more profit frbl you?

guest: from a small business perspective a deeper committee comment from the government to help small business overcome barriers that exist. such as financing that's key to us. export, import bank of the united states has done a good job but a lot of people don't know about the export, import bank and what they do and how they can help. also, the u.s. trade representative represents all businesses in this country as far as negotiating and opening markets. i think it would be a statement well received by the small business community to see an assistant u.s. trade representative for small business. there's not such a position at this point in time. host: many people don't understand how the import and export bank can help. guest: provides our end use

customers. say our customers in brazil. they provide the credit guarantee. we bring the packages and it's under written and fits accepted they put a for br credit guarane and then we make a note and sale and take that note and sell it to our commercial bank and cash out as an a small business in a small manufacture her we're not in a position to provide the financeing for our customers overseas but financing for those customers oversees is a necessary step to make a sale. host: you have an idea what the default rate is on those loans. guest: can only speak for ourselves. we've been doing this for 12 years and have 60-70 million credit exchanges and no defaults. host: so they're taking on the risk but it's a risk you haven't

had to tap funds for? guest: in fact there's a premium paid every time that there is a credit guarantee granted so there's a revenue stream to the bank. host: want to connect you with the viewer here's but right now before we do that. i'd like to have you talk about healthcare. we've been hearing so much about the necessity for healthcare reform especially for small businesses because of the double digit increases each year. guest: again we provide healthcare for our employees. it's a very expensive proposition for us. the biggest thing i would like to see and to see what would come out of the proposals in washington right now are cost containments and quality. so those are the things that i'm more interested in. host: have you a position on public option?

guest: not really. we provide private insurance for our employees and so i'm more concerned with cost containment. host: going to phone calls and twitter. david is the vice president of finance for air tractor. texas with 200 employees and will be at the table for the white house job summit. virginia. jim? caller: good morning. first of all congratulations on building and just a terrific company. i tried myself at one point to build a small business and frankly, i failed and i have great respect for people like yourself that have done that successfully and congratulations to you. host: jim in what area did you try to build a business. caller: in the consulting area. two insurance companies. i have questions. that is going to the healthcare issue, something that, you know

i've been thinking about. if i were you, and i had the option of paying an 8% payroll tax penalty to put my workers in the public option and eliminate the expense of private healthcare, i can't believe that is about huge opportunity for you to save because i've got to believe with a payroll like yours with a lot of people that probably make decent wagers but not huge, it would be incredible savings for a business like yours to switch people over to a government plan. thanks very much. guest: thank you. that is hard to answer at this point in time because there's so many - so much speculation as to what the plans would be. so, it's hard to just make a definite answer on that right now. i would say we provide health insurance and through a private

option and we're more concerned with cost containment and quality. host: we've had a lot of calls about illegal aliens in the united states. what is your company's policy? check everybody's status before hiring? have you turned people away? guest: yes we do. we haven't had a problem. host: even though you're in a border state? guest: yes. host: you're on. caller: i was wondering about also the unemployment and the illegal aliens. i'm a carpenter and have been for 30-years and i just got laid off. can't find work. we need help. i mean this is america. thank you. host: thank you. guest: the only thing i'll say it goes back to what earlier

discussions. i believe if this country engages more in exporting and selling our products throughout the world then it creates more jobs for our people in the united states. host: have you participated in an event like the one today? what are your expectations? guest: um... no, i have not. i expect commitment. it's a solid attempt to try and bring resolutions to the table. it'll be help full for this country. host: other than the president who are you most interested in shaking hands with. lots of people represented around the table. guest: when your from my town, everybody in the room. host: there's real titans of business and like anybody there that said i'll come up to them at the coffee break. guest: everybody in that room. host: wish we could talk to you afterwards. might have to do that.

democrats line? caller: well, i recently called ask him a question about healthcare, but the previous caller actually covered that. but i guess you had earlier the gentleman from the u.s. chamber of commerce arguing about the colombia and korea free trade agreements and having those move forward. how would those free trade agreements effect a company like air tractor in texas? would it be an advantage or disadvantage to have those free trade agreements move forward? guest: in our particular situation, we do not do business or that much business in those two countries but in general increasing the exports in the united states, free trade agreements are beneficial and open energying up more markets

and that's whole issue of exsporting is having world market. 95 percent of the world's population lives outside of the united states, so the ability to access those markets are important free trade agreements help that and it goes back to what i said, it would be helpful to have an assistant to address those issues for small business. host: here is a twitter comment. why should the government subsidize the risk of u.s. companies doing business overseas. but government isn't good enough to subsidize healthcare for people? guest: that's an interesting question and when - when we use the word subsidize, that can take a lot of defining but i go back to our particular case. it's not subsidizing, it's the ability to do business. we have not had a single default

from with our bank loans from which we provided a lot of revenue so i feel we're a revenue stream and are able to provide jobs for the united states. host: how did you become aware at first of the,x m banking program. guest: that's an interesting question. we decided to open our markets beyond the domestic borders of this country. which is our primary source at that point in time. so really it was just knocking on doors and trying ask questions. that goes back to part of my passion as small business exsporting. it was difficult to navigate in that case, the proceduresness to have a successful outcome. there was a lot of help from our commercial bank. once we found the commercial bank interested in exsporting

that's another area i think we can work on is the fact that there's 8,000 plus commercial banks in this country but not a lot of them are - do export financing or interface there. that really is the infrastructure to get out to small business there ands a lot of work needing to be done in that. host lost company revenues now? guest: under 50 million. 45 percent of our production this year will go or went outside the united states. host: the decision is to seek outside of customers made a difference in building your business? guest: by all means. host: did you more jobs when you did this? guest: yes, we have. host: steward in kentucky. good morning. you're on our republican line. what's your question? caller: i'm confused the gentleman said that great

majority is from inside the united states, where does he buy his engines which i believe sara there large percentage of material costs? host: why do you ask, sir? caller: i believe they were canadian engines and i just wondered, i don't see anything wrong with them but i wondered how he could say that the majority of his materials are came from this country? host: okay. thank you. guest: your correct. we buy canadian engines but a large part of those or portion of those also have united states components so everything else, every other piece of material we put in that airplane is sourced in the united states. but that engine is from canada but it has a large amount of united states components. host: alicia. democrats line. good morning. caller: i have more less a

statement. that's that if you know, we have all of our jobs being out-sourced to foreign countries and as long as that keeps happening, our economy will stay where it's at and the other statement is, you know all this stimulus money allocated should have been a stipulations on that like to, gm when they got all this money, i felt like it should have been a stipulation this there. you don't get this money if you outsourcing the jobs to foreign countries because that's hurting the united states citizens right now and that's it. have a good day. guest: thank you. i would like to comment on that from the standpoint that my views are expressed on increasing our markets of exsport from small business standpoint. all of our jobs are in texas. i think the majority of small business that are exsporting that would enter exsporting would create jobs in the united

states. i just want to make the point that i don't see an outsourcing of job. more jobs created in the united states. host: jason asks, are there any chance there will be sole proprietors. big business are too close to government. what do you think about the comment. big business won't get us out of the economy because they're too close to government? guest: i think we're all going to have to pull together to get out of this. we have a crisis in jobs and in the economy and it's going to take small, medium and big business. again, in our case, we're a - 200 employees in a town of 3,000 so i find that beneficial. host: how has the economic downturn effects air tractor? guest: in our case, because of

agriculture prices and also very much because of export markets and the fact that 45 percent of our products go outside the united states, it has not been as drastic effect on us as it has for a lot of countries or companies in this country. it's hard to tell but our demand seems really good at this point in time. host: your insulated from all this? guest: so some extent. host: feel good about that? guess guess yes. host: grand rapids. michigan. your question, please? caller: i was curious if the gentlemen there has to give his employees cuts in pays and most americans have to take a cut in pay. why wouldn't it be a good idea for the legislators to take a cut in pay and then when they

get done with their term they're done with it and we know longer give them benefits after that other than maybe going for their health plan to the, v.a. just like our soldiers. let them have a reality to the wake up? host: anything for that caller? let me pass this question or comment really from a viewer who layable on twitter ise 3. air tractor will be copied by china soon but it was nice to see an american company that tried. guest: we're willing to compete. we've sold planes to china recently and other markets so i guess everybody can be copied possibly but we think we can build a better product with our employees in texas and we're willing to compete. host: how can you compete against china? guest: quality.

host: michael, republican line? caller: thank you very much. my question is secretary gates admiral mullens will testify today about the afghanistan strategy. air tractor makes the 8 truck 802. the guest can talk a little bit about the air trucks and a little bit about the abilities and how it might help emerging partners like afghan air corporation and the counter surgency fight? guest: he is correct. that is a new model we're trying develop. it's an experimental model we're working on so at this point in time i have no comment. we're still in research and development. host: how did he find out about it? guest: there's m been news for military purposes about that.

host: ken from houston. caller: i was concerned with the housing here in houston with the right to work law. the unions are so weak here in the neighborhood i'm in, i've seen these big housing corporations come in and they have built thousands of thousands of homes and it's all been done by illegals from over the border and - every home and i don't understand, you know, and the unions really are not capable of doing anything because of the right to work law here in texas. i don't know, is there anything the government can do to help with that? thank you. guest: thank you. i really don't have comments on that. not my area. no ma'am. host: have you been a texan all your life? how did you find your way to the

company. guest: all my life. when born and raised in austin texas. company been there since the late 1950's. host: how many people in town are employed by air traffic. guest: we have 200 employees from the towns and surrounding towns. host: biggest company in town? guest: no ma'am it's not. host: that surprising me. what's the largest. guest: i believe aluminum extracting plant there. host: is it difficult to get parts and supplies 100 miles from the nearest airport. guest: no. host: steward town pennsylvania. steward in steward's town. how about that? caller: i'm just wondering where levi's are made? where wranglers are made. where the little old ladies that used to sing you should wear the

union label sign is made. where are all the jobs and the furniture is made. home depot. tractor supply, on and on there's 99 percent made in china by slaves. we all complain and talk about restitution because of our slave actions 200 years ago, but yet now all you people are promoting that it gives jobs to americans to buy slave made products and in one and you say the unemployment is horrible but the next and you say, exporting our jobs is wonderful. free trade should be fair trade. you buy 50 of our products and we'll buy 50 of your products. you people are selling us down the road. you're a big business. you only care - you couldn't even say when the one person said have the congress people

take a cut in pay and not give all benefits like none of us do, you couldn't acknowledge that's good idea because you don't want to step on their toes to get subsidies from the congress. host: steward? guess guess i have talked about exporting products to create jobs in this country. host: think of this comment. the right to work law is the reason the company is located in texas instead of michigan? guest: i really don't know. i've not studied that's comparison between states so i could not tell you. host: any labors unionized? guest: no. they are not. host: a viewer said i know this everyone is shocked there's all this manufacturing in your town. there's a lot made in the united states of america. guest: i agree. i think there can be a lot more if we open ourselves up to selling more products on a

worldwide basis. host: republican line. john? caller: john in shreveport. david commend you on your business. what would you do for a small business tax cut to get the economy going? and then my next point is, i'm disabled and i have lung cancer and i watch c-span 24/7 and any time this imcongratulations debate is brought up, 99 percent out of 100% of people that call in are against immigration. they're for legal immigrants that come into this country. these illegals are sending billions of dollars back to mexico to democratic party does not want this. the democratic party does not want verify and i'm so upset with that. they're taking this country

over. there's 20 million of them in here. c-span needs to wake up and quit cutting these people off that talk about this because they're all wanting people to come to this country legally. and god bless america and merry christmas to everybody. host: sir, we're not cutting off people that have comments about immigrants. so your seeing something that just isn't there. anything for him? guest: again, we usually verify in our employment. host: program has worked you? guest: yes. host: before the,e-verify system how did you go about it? guest: as law requires. proper documents. host: but the system in the wake of 9/11 has worked you? guess guess yes, ma'am. host: marsha. philadelphia. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my calls

and my comment about job situation in the united states today, i think one of the problems is education. people are not educated. i listen to c-span, talk to people. lot of people don't even - 20 million, almost 400,000,000 people in here. that's drop in the bucket. a lot of people, it's greedy think has taken over. we're seeing a lot offal out from the wall street debacle. i think if people become more educated and change what they used to do and try something else. return to school, research and look at other ways of doing things instead of the same old way. we're not going to have the little old lady singing look at the union label anymore. that was years ago. this is a new time and a new day and i think americans, we have

to stop being depressed and sad, stop talking about the negativety of it and get with something new, try to get educated and stop being greedy and save your money and that will work. thank you. everybody have a good holiday. host: thank you. education? guess guess brings up a good point. i'm on the local school board and i believe in public education and it goes back to the premise that we started with. we're competing in a world market. and we better be educated and be able to compete on an educational level. not in a local way but on a world way. so - her emphasis on education i believe is right on-target. host: you survived the calling program. thank you so much for taking our callers questions and comments. we're glad to have you. good luck at your first white house summit job event today. guest: thank you. host: we'll take a break and

here the latest update and ron paul will be our next guest. the commerce department reports productivity rose at just over 8% in july to september period. biggest jump since 2003. this as labor costs fell and labor department says first time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by the lowest total since september of last year. wall street economist expected an increase. today the president host as job summit. one of the events happening at the white house and oprah takes her interview with the president to air a special. and an anita done's last day as dan fiver takes over her position. she remains as a consultant as her husband transitions in as white house counsel taking over for greg crane in january. roundtable discussion hosted by

house republicans will be held with economists and minority leader john banner will talk about what needs to be done to get jobs moving in america. and then in an hour ben bernanke goes before the banking committee for the senate as he seeks another term. he's expected to get questions on government aid and the housing market. here live coverage on c-span radio at 10:00 am eastern. those are some of the headlines on c-span radio. . .

host: ron paul is our guest for this next program. one thing i wanted to start with is that when bernanke is going to be acute on the hill to date for the renomination of the position. you have been speaking out about the fed for a while now and it seems as though the chorus has gotten louder. guest: there is no doubt about it. it seems with the recession/depression people are worried and they are sending strong messages to washington. people are very concerned and i think rightfully. they're looking more closely about the agenda -- at the federal reserve. generally, people do not look to

see the source of problems when things are going wrong, but now they're looking at how the fed participate in the crisis that we have. host: give us an example of some questions but you would ask if you were on the panel today. guest: why do you think we need a federal reserve at all? why will you not tell us how to spend the money? who do you buy the assets from and at what price? what kind of deals do you make with foreign governments and foreign central banks? what are the agreements? have you ever been involved in the gold market? have you ever bought and sold the gold in order to keep the price lower? we have asked those questions over the years and you never get answers. host: is the information to any of those questions available? guest:, not really. to be sure, there are a lot of assumptions and people postulate, and we know how many

bad assets of approximately they've bought up in the mortgage security market, over $800 billion. we know they created money out of thin air to do that. we do not know how much they paid, with a bill out, they refused to buildup -- to bail out. -- who they bailed out, who they refused to bail out. they probably paid these companies, may be a goldman sachs or somebody like that, the nominal value, a face value. they might have even been worthless or worth 10 cents on the dollar. it is very important, especially when you finally come to the conclusion that this is the source of the problem, this mischief of the fed creates a business cycle, causes inflation, causes unemployment. they say they do not want transparency. they want independence. independent means the secrecy.

at the american people are waking up and realizing that congress has a responsibility. they created the central bank and they are to act more responsibly in what they're doing. host: how with the american economy function if there were not k-fed? guest: better -- if there were not the fed? guest: a lot better. in 1913 when the fed came into existence, it was not to in the years later they gave us the depression. starting in 1913 day and created an excess of credit, have interest rates too low. that was full world for i. but they still understand -- understood they could not keep doing this. it kept inflating and they had a pretty bad the depression in

1921. then there with vekton and flooding in the '20s, ghana, a a -- then they went back into inflating in the 20s, you know, stimulating credit and bring on the depression. that perpetuated the depression by continuing to do the same thing, continuing to prop up bad debt and to not allowing the correction to occur like they did in 1921. it goes on and on. you have had recessions since then that have been numerous, but because they were able to cover over them out rather quickly and put them aside, all they did was build a much bigger in bubble which was destined to burst, and that is what happened in 2008. that bubble has burst and we are in the midst of a correction that has a long way to go because they're doing exactly what they did during the

depression, trying to prop of all the bad debt. instead of eliminating the debt, eliminating the mistakes and getting back to work, they're buying up the bad debt. instead of buying up all of the house in securities -- uc, the housing crisis triggered arab have sharply, more than they have -- you see, the housing prices should go down sharply, more than they have. there are 18 billion houses out there waiting to be bought. the last thing they need a stimulus. they need a correction. they need a pause. it would be painful for about a year, but this way, there or drag it out for a decade or two by prolonging the agony. host: all morning we have been talking about jobs creation. and what is your prescription for it? guest: way to get -- one way would be to get rid of the

federal reserve because they create the bubble. when the bubble is being inflated everybody feels good. people can buy houses. impressive? -- impressive houses go up and they think they are rich. it is all an illusion. when the correction comes inevitably, if you have unemployment. you need to have central economic planning a a -- you need to get rid of this idea that you need to have central economic planning behind closed doors by a secret group of men and women. it is a total, rejection of free market capitalism. it is keynesian economy. it has been -- a totally predictable. they do not have a timetable. they cannot say when the bus will come or what the price of inflation will be next year or what -- i cannot say when the

bust it will, or what the president's pledge will be born of one of, but the devaluation of the -- or what the price of inflation will be, but the devaluation of the dollar always occurs, and implement always occurs. host: let's take a call from pennsylvania, good morning, rich. caller: congressman paul, i know your a follower of austrian economics, but not all austrians are the same. which do you follow? guest: i think all three, they have slight disagreement. there is one that is the best known that i looked to for the intellectual guidance. another talks about competing currencies. raw board studied under --

rothbart studied under the first one i mentioned. what is going on today is a contest between austrian economics and cannes. the austrian was a well-known economist during the '20s and '30s, during the depression, but he was rejected because people did not want to hear it. they did not want to hear that you could not regulate the money supply. people love td caines. but what has happened is that central baking has failed. we are in the midst of this crisis. austrian, the -- austrian economists, all of them are winning right now. host: mrs. david from ohio, independent line. -- this is the david from ohio,

independent line. caller: i am running for congress here in ohio's 15th district and we have a question and answer session, and i am a supporter of a non interventionist foreign policy and my opponent accused me of being an isolationist. [laughter] it kind of reminded me the address of the incident with you and john mccain there. -- it reminded me of the incident with you and john mccain there. if you were elected president in 2008, would you have kept them? could you explain why you would disband the group? if so, what we have seen more transparency and what would their function have been? guest: is another secret group and it was created by the executive order. we do not need another group of people, even though they are part of the government like the federal reserve and the treasury and the a a cftc and sec people.

to get involved and have this asano 40 to prop up markets. broadway know they've bought -- they get involved and have this subtle authority to prop up markets. for all we know they buy and sell. even if they get in the market and they sort of slow up a bad day, they get in and start buying, they cannot change the market. it is kind of like interfering in the gold market, keeping the price of gold artificially low and the dollar artificially high, eventually, the market went up. we should not have these economic planners. in a way, they are an extension of the federal reserve and the federal reserve is a key member of the president's working group on financial markets. we should get rid of it. we should believe in the marketplace, believe in a free- market economy, and that is when

people make the decision. austrian economics teaches that business does not run the show and labor does not run the show. the consumer runs the show. the consumer votes every single day. and every single thing they buy when the market is working. when the businessman is not doing well or paying too much for labor, they go out of business and they have to be left to go out of business. today, people got of business and then we prop them up, you know, all the people that make mistakes. it does not serve the high cost of labor or businesses, but it does serve the consumer. host: talk more of your velocity on wages. people complain that they cannot compete and that -- talk more about your philosophy on wages. people complain that they cannot compete. guest: real wages are going down, but that is again back to the fed.

if someone is making $25 an hour, $30 per car, it never keeps up with the cost of living. taxes are higher and sellers are going up, so that hurts labor. on the other side of the coin, if you have a free market, you would not have the fed destroying the value of the currency. but he would have the power of the labor union to push the car automobile employees, a labor in automobile industries for the steel industry or the railroad industry pushing way above the market to be paying some of these people $80 per hour when the market should be $40, but they get it because the power and influence of unions. they put them out of business. this is so dramatic. look at what has happened in michigan were the unions are strongest. they destroyed general motors, not by themselves, but in combination with what the fed does and over regulations and a lot of other things. but companies in the south might

have less regulations and they have more of a market level for labor and they survive. but you can introduce this globally. labor, once again, the businessman has to make profits to exist. he has to keep costs down to give the control of the best deal. but our whole country has interfered with the marketplace and pushed costs so high with over regulations and inflation, and all these problems. if we are pushing labor overseas. and that, of course, export jobs and everybody gets hysterical about this. they say we have to stop it, we have to try and do not permit this to happen. but they have to -- we have to draw a line and not permit this to happen. but they have to change the policies. you have to talk about the policies that prompted this to happen. host: carl, democrats line, lebanon, oregon. caller: i would like to us can

-- to ask him what we're going to do about this but that we got, and if he is talking about keeping labor down, and i can we not come to a happy medium -- why can't we come to a happy medium where we have a fair wage? a worker has got to be able to live. guest: he is absolutely right. we have to have a fair wage, but as i explained, the wage is not fair and is going down because the money is being depreciated. his question about the debt, that is important. what are we going to do? we are not one to pay it off, we know that. when a country gets so deeply in debt that it cannot in -- cannot get paid, they liquidate it by default. when you have $10,000 in the treasury bill you are always going to get your money, but the government and the federal

reserve -- of money supply last year, so if you have a treasury bill -- doubled the money supply last year, so if you average rodrigo -- have a treasury bill, you may not get as much back. the dollar is worth less right now. but the debt is liquidated. if we go $10 trillion and we inflate or destroyed the dollar value at 20% per year, that is $200 billion that was wiped off the slate. so, governments always the fault, but not like an individual or company does by refusing to pay. governments are always powerful enough to create new money and deceive the people. but nevertheless, it is every bit as immoral and deceitful and some that should be prohibited and has to do with the nature of money. that is why paper money is so dangerous to us.

host: someone writes in about your political philosophy. this year is trying to square your independence with the fact that he appreciates the fact that a public-sector brings us things like schools, roads, bridges. what would you say to that? the cause guest: attrition does not give us any of that. when eisenhower guest: the constitution does not give us any of that. when eisenhower could build the highways for defense purposes, they realized it was not constitutional to do that. but that does not mean we cannot do that. all the states could coordinate their efforts. schools could still be local and public. we could probably do a lot better job than we have in the last 30 years or so with the federal government getting involved. but there is no authority for the federal government to get

involved. there's no benefit from that. some of those functions would exist, but some of them would be picked up by private sources. you do have a lot of roads and private developments that are paid for by the development and they are protected and they have security. there are other ways it could be done. but the fact that you do not do it at the federal level in order to run of debt, because once you consumassume that you can give l these things to people, medicine, education to all of these things that are not in article one, section 8, then this becomes a political football. the politicians to say, we have got to do it, we have got to get reelected. then they vote for all of this. then there is no money. they try to raise taxes and there is a limit. they try to borrow and there is a limit. then it comes, the fed will take care of this. the fed is this magical machine. they just crank out, they crank out new money, which is the tax

because the devalued the currency. host: next question is from georgia, south, republican line. caller: the day requirement for next year is figured to about $350 billion per month, and that does not include any future bailouts we are looking straight at into the trillions. how can foreigners possibly be buying up all of this debt now, much less in the future, especially when japan and britain are pretty much doing the same thing with their horrendous debt requirements? their money printing? right now, there is [unintelligible] guest: some of the countries, say, china for instance, they fit into this. there were glad for us to buy products from them and they were sabres and they ended up with a lot of dollars -- and they were

savers can they ended up with more than $1 trillion and they did not know what to do with it, so they would feed it back and boost our housing and economy, but there is a limit to that. they would talk about it, you guys in the u.s. better be careful record they have to sort of protect the dollar and they're going to ease out now. and therefore to ease out by easing into gold, just like india. -- and they are going to ease out by easing into gold, just like india. we suspect given our government may have flown to the gold, which we would like to know for sure if we could get an audit. but the price of -- the shifting in the price of gold is not telling us that the value is going up, but that the value of the dollar is going down. historically, the value of money has always been measured by

gold, and that is just an economic law that just exists. you cannot repeal it by saying that we have a smart a group of people who know how to make money act like gold. host: this question by tourism is -- by tweitter is, i would like to know how ron paul would explain the economic crisis before the fed. they cannot all be the fed's fault. guest: there were certainly booms and busts, but a lot of times inflation by fractional reserve banking there was not prohibited. we certainly have a lot of inflation during wartime, whether it was 1812, or especially during the civil war timeframe. it was always excessive credit. that means we did not have a perfect system before. but if you took a long term, say, from the beginning of our

country until 1913, because they usually would go back to restrain the effort to inflate, prices remain relatively stable, you know, long-term growth is only since 1913, especially since 1971 when the last link of gold has been removed. those sidips in prices were usually short-lived because they got out of wet with the market, but they knew to leave it in -- and leave it alone. they did not try to prop up the bad investments. it was over rather quickly. but this argument has been over for a long time. jefferson got rid of one and jackson got rid of the other. it is the sacredness and the power that exists with the central bank that finally

usually arouses the people to the point of saying, this is a bad deal. we need to know more of what is going on. host: we have about 15 more minutes with ron paul. this is a port charlotte, fla.. caller: i think it was january or february of this year, there was a story that broke about a couple of guys trying to smuggle -- i think it was $135 billion worth of government securities into italy and there were rumors that the federal reserve was involved. but that story was dropped as quickly as it came on the scene. do you have any information about that? guest: no, i'm sorry i do not. i remember reading about that, but i do not know exactly what was going on. it reminds me of the stories of shipping carloads of cash over to iraq to be distributed, literally billions of dollars of

cash. and there was no audit exactly of where this cash went into iraq. a lot of those things happen. maybe something like that would come out in an audit, but i'm afraid that even with an audit, they would be able to cover their trails and cover of most of that kind of stuff. host: 50 bill that is coming out of committee becomes law, will we be in better or worse shape? guest: it is a tremendous amount of regulation. and chairman frank has been sympathetic to having more transparency in the fed. he did not vote for my amendment, but he did nothing to try to prohibit it. he has been very fair and said it will be in the final bill and he knows that i will vote against the final bill. that will be helpful, but overall, -- and chairman frank has heard me say this so many times -- you cannot compensate for the mistakes of the fed by

regulators, thinking that we create all of these mistakes and prices going up an artificial interest rates and you just say, well, if we have regulation there we will cancel out the mistakes. this is an impossible task. i want a free market regulation and i want bankruptcy's to occur at a one transparency with the fed so we can see what they're doing. host: 12 were to away from what you just a this comment -- what you just said this comment. guest: of course, if it is a true artist it will do a lot of good. -- if it is a true, it it will do a lot of good. but the real question is, will it cancel out the regulations

that? the answer is, no. it really is not meant to solve the problems, and audit, but to get to the seat of a problem. my bill purposely got away from managing the money supply. it would have been too controversial. we have 313 co-sponsors, but they never would have co- sponsored if it was to interfere and regulate the money supply. that is what would have happened. things do not get better with an audit, but it is a stepping stone to a fighter who are the beneficiaries and what kind of mischief they aren't. hopefully, that would lead to more commonsensical -- what kind of mischief they are in. hopefully that will lead to more common sense " approach. host: kansas city, go ahead. caller: could these corporations be tried as treason in dealing with china, being that they are

building missiles with their profits in does it? -- aimed at us? and we are in such bad shape in our country. why do we keep giving billions to other countries, you know, like israel and saudi arabia? isn't that hurting us, too? guest: it is, but a a businessman doing business with china is not treason. 1ñbut us being in the arms business and selling weapons around the world, whether it is to israel or the arabs -- i mean, we are on both sides of the conflict and a lot of times weapons and of being used against us. i think that is very bad. but not doing business with china would be like saying, let's not do business with japan, let's not do business with germany. china has changed. they do not believe in

individual liberty like we do, but i tell you what, in some areas they believe in economic freedom. it is easy to start businesses over there. they are prosperous. people save and they do some things that we used to be known for. they have become our banker. i would say that, yes, those kinds of things happened in the korean war, but i do not think we should have been involved in the korean war. it was a tragedy. will redoing there? what we're doing in vietnam? -- what were we doing there? what were we doing in vietnam? to come down hard on china and say is their fault, a if they were -- i think we should be honest about this because they killed a lot more vietnamese than the americans did. host: next call from

pennsylvania. caller: would like to read a quote from harper's magazine in 1922, titled "industrial activities and improving conditions despite various factors in that situation, general motors is better at this writing early in june that it was at the beginning of the year and the of look is more promising than it has been over the last two years. in consequence of the severity of the depression and the necessity for drastic liquidation continued over many months, the improvement that has developed thus far has been more pronounced in the conditions surrounding money and credit and elsewhere -- a than elsewhere. but it has been found in the numerous departments of commercial air activity. and limon has gathered such momentum as it has progressed as to lead to the conclusion that the betterment is something more

than a near seasonal recovery. i would also like to take very quickly that i once bought a house down in custody in a texas in 1990 -- down in texas and debose due to re -- and about was due to a depression that was happening in texas. people were laid off and nothing was ever done. people lost their momentum in their lives, you know. i know after i left texas, nothing was ever right in my life because i was no longer a texican and if it was not from texas it was not right. you see everything happening today with giving everybody extended unemployment and like that, i did not have anything down in texas. host: how are you doing today? caller: not too good. all i have is about eight dozen books and vibrant.

thank you. -- and i rent. guest: you quoted what was -- what it was like coming out of the depression in the early 1920's. unfortunately, they began inflating again in the 1920's. but they got out of the depression of 1921 rather quickly. trebek they did not do that your or so ago troop we would have been talking about true liquidation -- recovery, not liquidation. host: you are asked by a viewer, will ron paul run for president in 2012? guest: i do not have any plans to do that. host: miami, the go-ahead for mr. paul. caller: [unintelligible]

could you please comment what would be the economic result if they only in force that and nothing else? i think it could be done easily and will have the largest effect on the economy. guest: i would say that all labor costs be dictated by the market. let not the government have any interference in what the price of labour should be, whether it is minimum wages or artificially high wages by a force of government. the market should set labor and you would have full employment. host: next is michigan, good morning to dole, democrats line. caller: congressman paul, i'm afraid i lay the blame at the door of the legislature. host: why is that, sir?

caller: particularly in times like this, we need to help our suffering neighbors, but the legislature refuses to tax and instead, accomplishes its goals by letting the flat -- letting the fed inflate the currency. i wonder if you will comment on this. guest: whom are you going to tax? people are paying too many taxes already. that is not going to work. i agree with your statement, look to the legislature. they are the source of the problem, yes. there and collaboration with the federal reserve. -- they are in collaboration with the federal reserve. but if your core to start bailing out and you do not want the fed involved, that is right you have to raise taxes. but raising taxes at any time just destroys capital. and what is in the banks is true savings and then you do not have anyone to invest in businesses and create jobs.

you do not want to tax and you do not want the government further in debt and you do not want the fed to print. but i would not think for a minute that any good could come from raising taxes in order to prop up a system that we created in the legislature. i agree with probably half of what you are saying the source of the problem is in the legislature allowing this to go by. for instance, the housing bubble occurred by the fed allowing easy credit. but also, the congress passed laws that actually dictated that banks make these subprime loans, give loans to people who do not qualify. it is like a christmas tree. you buy a house for $100,000 and it goes up to $150,000 and ibarra against it. that was inflation that was -- and they borrow against it. that was inflation that was like drugs. it looks good and they do not want this in terms of removing the drugs.

the drug should be removed or we're going to kill the patient. host: what about specifically the taxes to fund the war in afghanistan? guest: my answer is the same. we should not be in the war. we are in a crisis now, if financial crisis, -- a financial crisis, and we have a foreign policy that is a major reason we are in the financial crisis. we spend over $1 trillion per year maintaining our empire or on the world. we're still in korea, japan, germany, all over the middle east. the speech by the president the other day was conditioning as for the next war in pakistan. -- conditioning costs for the next war in pakistan. what you do is bring the troops home, save the money, defend this country. it is our presence, especially in the middle east, that

motivates people to become a radical extremists and potential terrorists that will commit suicide. it is because they detest occupation of their land. we get into trouble and we think, oh, we need to occupy more countries, only compounding our problems both internationally and for safety, but also compounds are financial problem. i think the worst thing we could do is to raise taxes for the war. host: last call on the republican line. caller: i saw that twitter message about your running in trade -- in 2012. i am one of those college students that was awakened by your message. i look at what the republican party is right now and i cannot see the sarah palin or one of these other republicans.

these guys say what suits them politically at the moment. i think you should just run until there is another champion for liberty and then you can quietly back away. guest: but me ask you a question. how can i compete with the popularity of sarah palin? she has a lot of people interested. she has a lot of popular appeal. but i did not say no. i just have no plans to do it. in a way, -- that is a long time off. a couple of years is a long time when you think of this crisis. one thing that i did say that i have said in the past is, it is readily apparent that we are in a severe dollar crisis. it is going to be hard for me not to speak out. host: matthew, is that your

answer? caller: i guess for now. host: what is your answer to the question about competing with governor palin? caller: i was at the nevada state convention and we would have had more delegates than john mccain, but that is a separate issue. host: thank you so much for your call. and representative ron paul, thank you for being here. we appreciate your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: we have 20 more minutes for c-span and we will use it for open phones and newspaper articles. we will get to your calls and twitchell messages on anything you would like to talk about in just a moment. but first, we want to tell you about a special person that we said goodbye to this week. he is pictured on your screen right now. mr. president spent 51 years in the cable television -- mr. bresnin spent 50 years in the

cable television industry and died yesterday. he has been very special to many people in the industry and particularly to this network. he was the chairman of our executive committee and served on our boards. he was a great supporter of c- span in many ways. he created a cable company called a a bresnin communications. they bought cable systems in colorado, utah, and wyoming and montana. they added to all three c-span networks to those systems, committed to carrying them. he was also an enormous supporter of the c-span bus. you see many pictures of their a of the to work. -- using many pictures there of the tour. he was a person of believe in running a good company, and

also have a responsibility to give back to the public. mr. bresnin, thank you for your support to c-span. if we will miss you. muskeo to indiana on the independent line. caller: it has been so long since i have gotten to talk to you. before i say anything, i want to say how proud i am of what you and karen have done with c-span over the years -- you and brian have done with c-span over the years. i wonder if you could do me a favor. after vietnam -- since d.c., was one of those kids there. i was just a 20-year-old kid and i was one of these assassins from vietnam, according to the local marxist newspapers down there.

[unintelligible] i had a confrontation three times with an individual back then, he would have been in his '30's. [unintelligible] host: jaret, thank you for your long-term watching. we appreciate it. next is greg on the republican line. caller: i am a republican, but i switched to obama because he said a change. but we are getting no change. we are getting continuous wars. he gave all this money to bernanke and his friends. i think mr. paul could get 40%. i think there are enough people are fed up in this country that it is time for him to run and he would get elected. host: there are two pieces i will share with you about ben bernanke and the fed.

stephen ratner is the counselor to the treasury secretary and lead auto adviser. he was involved with the auto bailout program. the headline on this piece is "be fair to the bernanke." all of the lenders should have been responsive to the irresponsible lending practices. a different view from the lead editorial in the wall "wall

open phones, atlanta, democrats line. caller: i wanted to talk to the last guess you had on. host: you will have to do it rhetorically, because he is gone now. caller: i know, but what troubles me is that we have people like him that come on -- i do not fault him for what he

was saying, but it is not true. the statements that he made were true, but for the wrong reasons. i will recommend to the boat people. one, a talk-show host by the name off tom hartman. i have an mba in -- i have a law degree and an mba. the second is kevin phillips. his conservative, but he has been writing about these economic issues for years. i read his book and i literally paid my house of an update on my deck off, my cars and everything and that is why i am not hurting right now. when you have conservative talk- show hosts the come on like bill bennett, you need someone to balance it out like mike molloy or someone like that. host: thanks, steve, for watching. we should restore about earlier, "liberals warned obama."

and also roll-call, which suggests that the on -- the economy fuels democratic riffed. there is more detail about that, about what is happening with the black caucus, which is boycotting the financial services committee. this is an aircraft and stored. -- eric lipton story.

next phone caller is from georgia, john, independent line. caller: number one, i agree with ron paul to a certain extent, but the credit defaults what is what has gotten us into this. -- the credit defaults swapps kfar what have got us into this. number two, talk about industry. if we do not start bringing our steel back and our manufacturing, we will not be able to build the machinery for war.

do you understand that half of the electronic equipment that is in our military equipment today is from foreign countries? the steel that goes into those tanks and that equipment is not manufactured here. putting steel into this country from japan, now from china, and from other countries -- i guarantee you that if we ever get hit, we will not have the industry of world war ii after pearl harbor. in for five months we build our navy back up. we are in trouble, people and we'd better pay attention. and i mean this. i am so afraid. our budget for this war, we do this every time for every war. this budget would not be anything if we put this into the budget. host: this is -- tony is next in

connecticut, republican line. caller: i was crawling with regard to the fact battle -- i was calling with regard to the fact that the average individual, when they run into difficulty, they have a tendency to look for small items to eliminate from their budgets. that is the approach most people take. and mccain are of the issue of poor care legislation. that is one of the things -- the issue of pork barrel legislation. i think that is important to look at. it is easier to look at the the issues around large items. if we take a penny and of our to be rounded up or rounded down in the united states, this would be eliminating a lot of the minting that goes on for the penny, along with the cost of transportation, labor, and all

the rest of the things that go along with it. again, i would like to say that most people look to small line items. that is where you should start. not the big ones. host: thank you, tony. paris, henrietta, okla., democrats line. caller: i am 88 years old and i want to tell you something, i can remember in the '60s and '70s, a long time ago, we were sitting at home watching television and the ladies in el paso, texas or making -- were making [unintelligible] they ship them across the river can'and they ship them back acrs server for the same price. that is what has happened here.

we used to be able to make a living. but they should all of our jobs overseas. it would be wonderful if they could bring our jobs back. it would be wonderful if the ladies today could make our clothing here to where they fit and you did not have to go to wal-mart to try to buy something. it would make a lot of difference if we could put our people back to work, with the ladies back to work to where they did not have to be on welfare. thank you, i will never call in again. host: why is that? caller: well, i am 88 and i have cancer and i'm not going to make it. host: well, you do not know about that, and we hope to hear from you again. caller: thank you.

host: next call is from kentucky, co-head. caller: -- from kentucky, go ahead. caller: i think there's a great possibility in the near future of taking your people's gold, by the government. and never to come on -- and number two, there looked to be serious research works [unintelligible] the altered the skull x-rays of president kennedy. host: the "washington times" announced this week that it was

cutting its staff 40% and shifting to freda's to region. -- to free distribution. next phone caller is from washington d.c., and na, the democrats line. -- anna, democrats line. caller: i would like to commend ron paul. i think he is one of the few in our congress that is actually an

honest, decent man. he really wants what is best for this country. i think that we, the american citizens, need to stand up and start running for office so that we can get the corrupt politicians out and so that we can't affect change. we need more people like ron paul to step up to the plate. -- and so that we can affect change. we need more people like rabon to step up to the plate. i was actually considering running. i live in the suburbs of the washington d.c. area. i think there is corruption and the government. there are literally selling us out. we have to realize the enemy is not at the gate. the enemy is in the house. we need to get the corrupt politician, whose agenda is not that of the american people or the constitution. it really is the agenda of the global list. we need to stop these people before they literally destroy this country.

that is all i have to say. host: senate campaigns are expensive. running statewide, how would you finance that? caller: that is another issue i have thought about for some time. the playing field is not level. people like me that are just an honest, good citizen that want to do right by this country, you know, we have got to level the playing field. it is a matter of getting people -- the time has come. people are so frustrated with our contracongress and they feet they are our master's as opposed to our servants. i think people are going to have to step up and is going to be a matter of getting people to donate to your campaign. but i think once we get enough people in congress, we can affect a change by leveling the playing field and putting caps

on how much money people can utilize for these campaigns. it is absolutely ridiculous, and millions of dollars to run your campaign? that money could be going to such better causes. it is almost like lunacy. host: thank you for your call. there are many hearings this morning, including hillary clinton and michael vick moylan -- and robert gates and michael mullen had a hearing. that has begun on c-span3. we will also have it available on the c-span video library later today. it is also on line. bennie thompson is the house -- is the homeland security chair and he is calling the security director mike sullivan, and he also invited the salahis.

it has been said that they are not coming. he is considering a subpoena. that also begins live at 10:00 a.m. and will be c-span.org. and ben bernanke before the senate banking committee today at 3:00 p.m. next is cocoa, fla., republican line. caller: i wanted to call in and mention a couple of things, especially when it comes to the constitution and as far as how it is interpreted, nowadays, it seems that every time there is a law that is passed, the people the past these laws do not really pay attention to the logic of it and the philosophy of it as to what is actually going to accomplish -- it is

actually going to accomplish. and the group's are looking 40 -- and the groups are looking for their own incentives and how it is going to benefit their next campaign as opposed to what is really going to accomplish. -- what it is really going to accomplish. that is because people are not setting the constitution. that is what has brought us to a place we are in today. host: the republican national committee will not be able to use the election tactics that won't -- this is from the "new york times" --

and a federal judge yesterday said that they will not be rolled back. next is a call from annapolis, independent line. just a couple of minutes left. hello? we're going to have to move on. western kenya, alan, i think your the last person on the "washington journal" this morning. -- west virginia, alan. caller: i just want to state that the federal reserve needs to be returned to the federal government, to the state treasury in congress so they can regulate our interest rates so that we do not