center on the states details a new report on how states are impacted by the cost of pensions and other benefits. and later, author michelle alexander talks about her book, "the new jim crow," which looks at how difficult it is for young african-americans to rebuild their lives while on parole or probation. "washington journal" is next. host: former secretary of state alexander haig is in critical condition. no explanation was gevb as to the cause. u.s. officials met with their cuban counter parts to seek the release of an american held in the maximum security jail for three months. cuba alleges the man is a spy. and officials with the pennsylvania school district are saying sorry after it's revealed that laptop computers leased to students had the

capability to record them via web cam without their knowledge. the school system says the feature is only used when the computer is listed as lost or stolen. this is the "washington journal" for february 20. in 45 minutes, we will talk about politics, especially relations between the white house and the senate, but in our first 45 minutes, we want to hear from you specificly about your legislator, and specifically to that, does your member of congress deserve re-election? here are the numbers. 202-737-0001 for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. and 202-628-0205 for independents. again, does your member of congress deserve re-election? if you're willing to tell us who that is and why or why not, you can go ahead and start dialing now. the "wall street journal" has a story about the tea party and its influence, but within that story, a fact releaseded by the

pugh research center about re-election, especially in midterm elections, and here's what it says -- host: there's an accompanying story to this research, and it says in this piece this morning, you can find it in the "wall street journal" online, democrats, as the ruling party in washington, are worried about the possibility of heavy losses. republican establishment candidates and incumbents are facing primary challenges, especially lawmakers not considered pure enough by tea partiers on their hot-button issues. the g.o.p. has been warily

accommodating the movement, which is showing signs of resisting overtures. a recent pew research center, which you saw the actual numbers, survey found out nearly a third of voters want their own congressional incumbent toss lose their next elections. that dissatisfaction is similar to surveys in 1994 and 2006 when control of congress changed hands amid intense anti-incumbent feelings. so with that in mind, if you would, please tell us about your member and if you would re-elect that person or not. again, the numbers, 202-737-0001 for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. and independents, 202-628-0205. there are a couple other ways you can register your thoughts this morning, as well. if you follow us on twitter, twitter.com/cspanwj is where you can follow with us that. you can also email us, too, and that email is journal@c-span.org. first up is philadelphia on our independent line.

bruce, good morning. what do you think about your own member of congress and if they deserve re-election? caller: well, my member of congress is arlen specter, and absolutely not. host: and why so? caller: because he switched parties, for one thing, so i consider hem a judas, and what really annoyed me was all the money he raised as a republican, he kept it, and it was given to him by republicans, and he kept it, took it to the democratic party. to me, that's a moral issue. that just goes against my grain. host: and so looking ahead, where do you see as far as putting your support as any likelyxd candidate even early o that you would want to see your support go toward? caller: yes, well, i am a member of the tea partyñr now, i'll tell you that. and i'd like to make another point. i think republicans are missing the boat here. they have opportunity to negotiate with the democrats, with this healthcare issue thing. if i were them, i would go to

the table say, ok, we'll work with you on healthcare, you give us tax reform. let's get rid of the i.r.s., give us a flat tax or work with them, we get what we want and they get what they want. it's a win-win for the home country. and why they don't see this just boggles my mind. host: asking folks if their member of congress deserves re-election. from washington, illinois, harold on our republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. i would say no to our local 18th district congressman. the reason for that being is the healthcare issue, the enormous pork belly spending that's going on that's unnecessary. there's been constitutional values, and this does apply to me. i have had to file for pills for social security. i'm disabled with life-threatening illness and disease. and the congressman i have addresseded this with him and the courts, and they have not submitted or filed these

appeals. there is billions of dollars worth of pork belly spending going on that is unnecessary spending. that could be applied to the healthcare issues. there's constitutional rights and values that are not being upheld for the united states citizens. there's also a question about how they're going handle a deficit for pensions and government and state employees, and their pay raises with 2015. there's a lot of concerns here that i see with the way the administration is operating. and i don't believe that they're fixing the problem. host: who's your congressman, by the way? when you said you've responded to him on a number of issues, have you gotten any response from him at all? caller: he's very evasive. host: we appreciate the call. by the way, you mentioned pensions and retirement benefits, and the concerns about your state, you may want to stay with us. at 8:30 today, we're going take

a segment -- there's research from the pew center about states and how they're doing as far as making sure they're shoring up enough money for their retoorment benefits that they've pay out for their employees. thearls a complete analysis, and that will come your way at 8:30 today. new york city, jack on our democrats line. thanks for holding on. go ahead. caller: thank you for c-span. you know, yes and no is my answer to your question. i believe in term limits. you know, these guys, i feel bad for the senator from new jersey, but i remember when i was in high school, there was a teacher that was just so old that he was in his 80's, and he just should have been gone. in his particular case, decades before. i believe in limits for members of congress as well. by the time you guys get up into their 80's and 90's, it's ridiculous already. so i believe in term limits. the democrats talk two quick quick too cerebral.

they need simple, plain talk, it private problem solving. second point very quickly, healthcare should be sold leak at full monthly premiums just like the private healthcare. medicare should be sold to the american public from ages not 55 and up, but ages 25 and up. there are plenty of healthy people that, like myself, that don't use their health insurance that could put money into the system as opposed to all the old senior citizens who are taking money out of medicare. so if you put healthy people into the medicare system who pay full premiums to be a part of this, i think you could shore up medicare by selling it to the american public. again, thank you. host: jack, before you leave, are you supporting key step gillibrand? caller: again, i believe in term limits, so yes, i think she's ok. i like chuck schumer, too.

but i believe in term limits. ross perot brought it to the public's attention. a guy can make a living. scommoip we'll leave it there. the "wall street journal" reporting, via the associated press, alexander haig is in critical condition at johns hopkins hospital in baltimore. the hospital spokesperson said friday that the 85-year-old was admitted january 28 and remains in critical condition. mr. stephenson says he cannot say why mr. haig is hospitalized. four-star general served as a top aid veers he to three presidents and had presidential combation of his own. president richard nixon appointed him white house chief of staff in 1973. st. clare shores, michigan, vir jail our democrats line. we're asking folks if your member of congress deserves re-election. caller: yes, i do. host: who is your member, by the way? caller: my member of congress is senator levin, and my senator is carl levin. host: ok. caller: and they don't always

vote the way -- you know, in my best interests, but most of the time they do. i can't expect to get everything i want. but take, for example, the bankruptcy bill a couple of years ago. it went the way -- you know, we endeded up with a bad bankruptcy bill for people, working people. but in the end, i think they'll fix it. i think democracy is campaign financing in my opinion. and that needs to be fixed. you don't need to have healthcare insurance companies giving a million dollars a candidate to their campaign funds. that isn't doing us any service in this country as working

people. host: someone identifies off of twitter saying that senator webb is in trouble in virginia and started separating from the left, saying start over with healthcare. too little, too late, too much spending. that's patrick off of twitter this morning. kansas city, missouri, anthony on our republican line. good morning. caller: yeah, good morning. my presenter is a democrat, cleveland, but he's from the farm. you see, i've been unemployed for one year. i useded to buy into cobra, and then i don't have enough money to put food on the table. they don't want any of it

around, any of the reforms. so i hope he wins the senate seat so we can move forward with legislation. thank you. host: this is the "detroit free press" this morning. this is about the former general motors boss. it says that while general motors announceded a $9 million pay package for chairman and c.e.o. ed whitache other friday, the surprise news is it was hiring fritz henderson as a consultant. whitaker addeded c.e.o. duty toss his plate in december. the board was unhappy with the pace of the company's restructuring. henderson will consult on international issues where his experience in asia will be valuable, said a g.m. spokesperson. we've got big, big prices in asia pacific with the international groups, where he has the depped of talent and

capability. henderson, who did not receive severance when he left g.m. in december, will be paid $59,000 some month plus expenses for 20 hours of cutting work each month. men dote a, illinois. good morning to don on our independent line. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: fine, thank you. caller: my congress woman, debbie hal vor son, she's a first-term democratic congress woman. and she's very active in our district. and are she's at the senior centers. she helps out a lot, and she's replaced -- she replaced a fellow by the name of jerry westerly, and he was one of jack abramoff's people. and he was in for quite a while, and the district went down, and i highly recommended to people in the 11th district

of illinois keep miss halvorson in office. host: the caller mentioned jack abramoff. this story in the business section deals with another name in the business world, bernie madoff, this is from the legal section -- host: louisiana is next on our democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i don't believe my official should have been re-elected.

he broke laws, and he's not doing any favor to even try to help the president. as far as charles, he's a doctor. he should be at the forefront of healthcare. he's from louisiana. he knows many people in louisiana doesn't have healthcare, and he knows what it's like to want healthcare and need healthcare. i mean, we do have a charity hospital in lafayette, and it's full of capacity. let's just look at the whole congress as a whole, because no matter how one of these elected officials vote, it affects the united states. the tea party, anyone who supported that tea party, one of our elected officials, don't need to be elected. and because the views is within politics, this is why the tea party is trying to build something. a lot of people's not looking at that. i watched the cpac yesterday, and i could not find a black

member, anybody sitting in that audience that was black. it's about white power or black power, and yeah, they might have a few black speakers up there, but you didn't see anybody black in that audience. now, if anybody can prove me wrong, show it on c-span. host: we'll leave it there. yesterday the president was in nevada to support harry reid. this from twitter from judith lynn, whose tag goes by the nevada gramma. i told hear are you reid i'd vote for him if he puts the public option back in the healthcare bill even if it fails. great falls, virginia, is next, as we look at video from the president's appearance yesterday. fred on our republican line. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: good morning. my name is fred. i'm calling from -- use some

experience from those countries. i believe in the united states, they're being honest, and having money to do anything, especial re-elections, i closed the doors -- there's no way in the world you can make somebody be honest if they don't want to be honest. if you're not honest, first of all, they poison themselves and then they poison the children and the rest of society. there's no way to make them clean because they create ways to cheat, and we can see all of it. and so this is money and people have to realize that you cannot

push that. thank you very much. host: queens, new york, up next. derek on our democrats line. and derek, if you would, turn down the television set so you don't get feedback. caller: ok. thank you. can you hear me? host: yep, go ahead. caller: i'd like to make a statement. i'd like to know -- i'm listening to the tea party, and i would like to know where did they lose this country? i mean, we're talking like we got a foreign president or something. isn't barack obama american? i mean, i'd like to know, where did we lose this country? they talk like foreigners. host: i suspect you might have called in also to talk about your member of congress and if they deserve re-election. is that the case? caller: oh, definitely, definitely. definitely. i vote anything democrat. scommoip who's your representative? caller: thomas white.

scommoip would you vote for him again or not? caller: definitely. definitely will. host: why so? caller: why so? because he's for the little man. i believe we have to have a voice. i mean, we don't have that with all the lobbyists and people lobbying for us, and we have somebody that's going represent the small man, and that's what he does. host: and what does he do specifically that makes you feel that he represents in your words, the small man? caller: well, he starts with education. i mean, there's improvement in my school district and district 27 in the new york area. there's been a lot of improvement in our district. the schools is producing schools, the graduation rate is as high as it's ever been, and he's freeing jobs in the area. i mean, malls and openings of new stores, so he's creating

employment. he's doing for education. he's looking out for the small man. no one wants to look out for the little man anymore. everything's about money. host: this is from the "new york times" about reports from the mortgage brokers group about default rates as far as in the fourth quarter. they report that they defined the broadest delinquency category as those who have misseded at least one payment but are not yet in foreclosure -- host: you can find more in the

"new york times" this morning. does your member of congress deserve re-election? that's the question we're asking for about another 25 minutes or so if you wanted to weigh in on our phone lines via twitter or via email this morning. ocean view, delaware, mickey on our republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i really enjoy your program. host: thank you. caller: basic i don't think our representatives deserve re-election, and i'll tell you, our representatives, let me be specific. we only have one representative. delaware is a small state. his name is castle. for the most part, he is a republican, but for the most part, he is on track with the policies that i believe in, except that he did support cap and trade, which i found to be a problem. i'm just opposed to cap and trade. the other side of the story is

we have two -- every state does -- we have two senators. neither one of which i believe deserves re-election, because in every case that i've been in contact with them constantly, they support the current healthcare bill, which i don't. they support car check, which i don't. they support cap and trade, which i don't. so for the most part, by the way, i should quickly mention that in delaware, it's a very small state, around 800,000 people, but one thing that we do have here that i think many states don't have -- and this is on the positive side -- a local politician that is very responsive to the people. they come and visit you if you have a problem. i'm talking about local, like the cities and townships. host: you mean visit you at your home? caller: well, i say i have called and they've come right down the street from me, and i met with them. this is representative hocker, the state representative. we had a problem with flooding.

we had a problem with different things that affected the neighborhood, and i called, and the next thing i know, within 10 minutes, was down the street and i met him. but this is a very -- this is a small local politician -- not small, but a local politician. the state reps, of course, they can't do that. but i'm proud of delaware for that reason, and knowing it's unique. people like in the washington, d.c., yarkse actually prince george's county, you wouldn't find that there, but you do here. host: ok. mechanicee from delaware, thanks. this is off of twitter talking about maurice hinchey of new york. and deserving re-election, as are my senators. sending republicans to congress just continues the "busch era" problems. allentown, pennsylvania, victor on our independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. my congressman is charlie dent and senator specter.

eight of us filed criminal complaints against both of them for obstruction of justice, dereliction of duty, and conspiracy. this is related mainly to the war, the illegal war, are and the money stolen as a result. and nothing's really been done. we filed these with the f.b.i. and the justice department, about 10 pages in all, and we're really dealing with criminality. i don't believe re-election is the right term. i think they should be joining duke cunningham. host: you said "we." who else is involved in this? caller: well, there were seven others, mainly veterans for peace. one of the people was a reverend who lost at the battle of the bulge, and we're just outraged by the fact that the criminal war, mainly in iraq, wasn't being dealt with.

charges of impeachment, i mean, 35 charges of impeachment brought by congressman introduce initch. they were just given lip service and put away. we have like 85,000 local delegates in this country, and the federal government was designed to operate at a rate of about 50,000 people per representative. we anyway have over 600,000. they can't even answer their mail, much less represent us. host: and that's allentown, pennsylvania. this is the financial times from san francisco --

host: oklahoma city, is next. quinnde lla, gornings on our democrats lines. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say it is really a shame that i don't know my legislators. i have been here over 15 years. i am from arkansas. and these people are not involved. i've been to the state capital, complained about a number of

things, i have two, three nieces and nephew that is go to the oklahoma city public schools, and it's horrible. i mean, the school grounds look like a penitentiary. i mean, this is the capital of penitentiaries, and most of our legislators own penitentiaries. so it's ridiculous. everything looks like a penitentiary when you look at the -- anything dealing with the children, you don't have anything child-friendly here in oklahoma. everybody wants to open up a club, and our legislators are letting them. you want to open up a drug house, you can get that if our legislators will let you open up a drug house for our club. i don't even know who these people are, you know, i'm a citizen, and, you know, they can arrest me. i just got out the jail for nothing, you know, for 10 days, you know, they locked me in the system, they said i was there for tickets. i wasn't there for anything. you know, how do you just put somebody in jail and just release them, and i go to the

legislator, and they're telling me i need to go to this person. they gave me the whole runaround for three weefpblgs i mean, this is going on a third week. you know, it's just ridiculous. i don't think anybody should be in the following years, and that's just all i have to say. thank you. host: next up is san antonio, texas, on our republican line. caller: good morning, pedro. how you doing today? host: fine, thank you. caller: i don't know if you pay much attention to what people are asking, so i'd like to make a few suggestions and a comment. first suggestion, you should do a program asking people if they would go to their next door neighbor and ask them to pay for their healthcare one way or another. and many would say, oh, no, i wouldn't do that, yet they're willing to tell the government, you go take money from joe blow down the street, give to me for my healthcare, ok? that's the problem i have with that. and also, i'm listening to people call in who don't want their congressman re-elected or

who wants their congressman re-elected, ok? my congressman is charlie gonzalez. he needs to get out of here. at any rate -- host: why do you say that? caller: huh? host: why do you say that? caller: well, he like many other folks in congress, still think slavery is stale live, because they want to live our lives for us. we've got to support them since they do nothing in the creation of wealth. they only create debt. and yet they're in debt for life, and we got to work for them, not they work for us, and yet at the same time folks out there who say, yes, re-elect my man per se, don't understand, we got to take care that have guy for the rest of his life, and we give him a very good healthcare. we give a lot of things very good, and he doesn't do much for us. there's a lot of things he could do, take the healthcare they complain about. if they would take -- everybody wants to use england's healthcare. if you sue and lose in england, up pay.

ok, let's bring that in first before we do anything else. and we'll cut down half the junk that goes on. we'll have a good healthcare system. but unfortunately, we don't have congress who wants to do these things. they want to say we're in bed with this and that, but ask your neighbor to take care of your healthcare, and very few will say, hey, yeah, that's a good idea, but they will tell congress, you go take money from joe blow over here and give it to me so i can have this, just like they do. host: you made that point, so we'll leave it there. massachusetts, good morning, on our independent line, sandra. caller: good morning. anyway, we have -- we have a great congressman. he's done some things for us and he tells the state, which they beautified our city. our city is beautiful.

we have a great mayor who's an account ant, and i have a state representative turned around and brought in registries, small department, because the city -- the fact riis were starting to fall apart. we also got people coming in. like everything good, i would say. it's just good. i mean, they pay attention, and i'm grateful to that. i even talked to brown before. i like him too, but i also would have went for coakley because she's a great woman, too. host: did you vote for brown? caller: no, i went the opposite that one time. and i -- because i leak coakley, but she's up for re-election, and she had so much on her plate it wasn't funny. host: appreciate the input.

chris says -- host: as our terms -- our views of politics in new york, the governor there, david patterson, kkts a four-stop tour at the start of his re-election campaign, and joining outs phone to talk about it is ken lovett with the "new york daily news." he serves as their bureau chief. you have a story this morning -- the headline says "voters may ask, david who"? and why is it phrased that way? >> well, because the governor has this big announcement. he's doing it in three cities over the next two days.

and yet very few, if any, prominent democrats are going to be showing up to back him, from chuck schumer, he appointed to pretty much every prominent state democrat. they will not be at this event. numbers are extremely low. his fund raidsing is weak. and a lot of people expect that attorney general andrew cuomo will eventually be the candidate. host: with that in mind, the governor travels the state today. why is he going and why, in essence, were those locations picked? guest: wrbling he's starting off at hofstra university on long island. the governor grew up on long island, and he went to hofstra law school. so they're going to do an event there. then he goes up to rochester to do a really in a small union hall that was picked, obviously, they want to show support, even though most major

labor groups have not backed him and have been openly critical of him in many cases. and then on sunday he goes to the buffalo area to a small diner where he'll do a meet and greet. that event is expected to have no more than 50 people. and it's interesting, because the democratic county chairman at the two upstate events won't even be in attendance either, and it's very stunning. a sitting governor can't get people to come out to his events. host: there's probably specific reasons that were given to the governor by each of these representatives, but what's the underlying reason? guest: the underlying reason is he's weak, he's alienated a lot of the democratic establishment . he's decided to run against the establishment. even though he served in the state senate for 20 years. he's been a lieutenant governor, and then he became governor when elliott spethser resigned suddenly in 2008.

his poll numbers are very low. democrats, by 65% or more, would like swnls to run for governor in the fall. he's got $3 million in the bank as opposed to the $16 million andrew cuomo has raised. so, you know, people don't want to stand next to someone who is unpopular. host: and as far as a response from him or his camp, how do they respond to all this? guest: their response is everyone knows we're rung, it's no surprise the establishment isn't going to be with us because we're running against them. and they say they want to do retail politics. they say this is about doing the retail politics. but even at the hofstra event, which, when he first became governor about, 1,000 people showed up nearby at a rally for him in hempstead, long island,, and you know, it was a great moment for the governor. but now, even at the hofstra event, we're expecting protesters, because the day before the event, he announced

thing about the crisis was so bad, they might have to close, i think, 51 parks statewide, including 12 on long island, either close them or cut back services, including the very popular july 4 show on jones beach on long island. host: as far as andrew cuomo, what's his polling look like these zphace guest: oh, he's the most popular democrat, and actually by the numbers, the most popular political figure in the state right now. his polls are over 60%. he's getting a lot of money. he's get ago loft money from unions. right now he hasn't said he's going to run, but people close to him say it should be late march or shortly after that where he'll make the announcement. he's basically sitting back right now and hoping that david paterson stepts aside. scommoip mayor bloomberg? guest: mayor bloomberg has not tan a position. he says until he see who is the candidates are -- and even then, the city has to work with

new york state. a lot of the funding and a lot of the decisions for the city are made at the state level. so he'll likely not endorse is my guess. host: ken lovett is from "the new york daily news" talking about david paterson's re-election. you can read his writing on their website, nydailynews.com. they have a story on this very thing today. mr. lo very tt, thanks for your time this morning. back to your calls for a very few more minutes on if your member of congress deserves re-election. dallas, gary, democrats line, thank you for waiting. gary, are you there? caller: yes, i am. c-span, great. thank you for your allowing us to call in today. thank you very much. host: go ahead, sir. you're on. caller: well, first of all, i want to say that stan johnson is my representative, and kay bailey hutchinson, and no, they do not deserve re-election, and i'll give you specific reasons why. but i first off want to make a

quick comment on one of the other callers. yes, i do believe that the tea partiers and the cpac convention, they are a group of racist people, i believe, and i think most of americans, black or white, or recognize would determine that also later on this year. now, i do to want get to this point. me and my wife are starting our own business. we open up in about two weeks. we had a specific problem with j.p. morgan chase, and he want you to hear this. and we called stan johnson's office, talked to a guy named carter in his office. told him that we were being overcharged by didn'ts on our account from j.p. morgan chase. they gave us the o.c.c. we called the o.c.c. they don't do anything, told us they get 60,000 calls a year, complaints, and there was nothing they could do. so i called stan johnson's office back, and they said, well, there's really nothing we can do because the o.c.c., the chase morgan, they have to make

-- they have to make money, too. now, my point is, these people do nothing. we finally called chase, and they endededed up giving us a credit on the account after numerous calls to them. but this is what your representatives do for you. they do absolutely nothing. evan bayh put it plain and simple. there's no bipartisanship in washington. he's leaving the senate. i think he was going to be re-elected very easily. he's leaving. there's no working relationship with the republicans or democrats in congress. this has nothing to do with the president. we need to vote these people out of office. am a democrat. i think people, you know, evan bayh, he voted for the bailout, but yet he's still complaining about, you know, people not being able to work together and do certain things. i think there's a point there, but we need to vote out these

people who are not working together as a group that is from every state that we send together to represent the people. this is pathetic. host: what kind of business are you starting? caller: well, we have a combination salon. it employs 12 people. we interviewed our first 12 people the other day. and c-span, i got to tell you this, you guys have -- texas has the lowest rate of insurance coverage as far as people in the country. me and my wife both work in the medical field. i'm going to give some information. my wife works for a company of 600. they give them no insurance. doctors are typically very stingy to their staffs, and this is where -- i've been in the medical field for 20 years doing billing and coding just like my wife. this is where c-span and the news media have failed on this story. my wife has been in the medical field since she's 10 years.

you guys are failing. you're not talking to the people that work in the practice, the billing people, the coding people, the people who work at the front desk. if you guys would start going to the physician's office where we work, you will see how stingy the doctors are. they don't provide health insurance to their own employees. this is what the story is. and this is -- as a matter of fact, we called msnbc, nbc in new york, and asked them to do a story on it. of course, they wanted me and my wife to come on tv. we didn't want to do that. but i tell you, this is what you guys are missing the story. the doctors themselves don't provide coverage to their own employees. host: ok. we'll take it that. but to talk about the insurance industry and coverage and things like that, we've done several, several segments dealing with that, looking at it from a wide variety of issues. in fact, check out our c-span -- on our c-span site, if you

go there, if you go to our healthcare hub, it's called, you will see a listing of everything we've done in relation to healthcare and within that, you will find segments and interviews and other information specifically looking at the health industry, specifically looking at insurance as well. again, it's c-span.org. at least until regardser to the insurance industry, it's there as well. buffalo, new york, good morning. rick on our republican line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: it's interesting that that guy was just talking about with the doctors. health insurance for their employees, it's ironic. as for the congress person, i have louise slaughter who, in my opinion, has been around way too long. most politicians are in washington, and in my case, new york state.

they have dysfunctional state government, the whole land as far as i'm concerned. y been pushing for term limits. people are supposeded to be in and out of office, but the people get comfortable. guys are coming home with billions of dollars of pork, buying their boats, and it's just time for -- i mean, there's 300 some odd million people in this country. don't tell me there's only a few thousand that can serve us. they at least tried for a while, term limits, just keep it. that's how the government was supposed to be set up. host: a couple of stories to point you to. this is from the "new york times," other stories on the papers as well --

host: there's also a story in the "new york times," some others as well, looking at the former head of the iaea, the agency that is responsible for inspecting nuclear facilities in the international atomic energy agency as it's called, its former leader, mohammed al baradei, rrning to egypt, getting a welcome. in fact, there's a photo there showing supporters of el baradei gathered at the airport as he returns to egypt, and this is in light of talk at least of a possible run for its leader, its president.

they write -- host: it was not clear that mr. baradei would run for president, and if he did, whether he would be able to do so. amendments limit who has the right to run, and at the moment, the doctor does not appear to meet the cry year at that. he has said he will consider running if the election is free, fair, and under the supervision of the judiciary and in the presences of the international observers. criteria the leadership here has rejected in the past. springfield, georgia, good morning. mike on our independent line. host: good morning. -- caller: good morning. as far as professional politicians, i don't think that any of them deserve to be

re-elected, and i think the federal government's really the problem. i think if we're going to get some kind of resolution to what's going on, people go to taxfree15.com and look at that website with regards to the national strike and boycotting. these people just don't represent us. you know, i don't remember my representative now, but i knew his name when they were doing the bailout, because i called him every day. they went right ahead with that. these illegal wars, that's not representing us. you know, one guy called in, was talking about do people think obama is a foreigner or whatever? well, he's representing foreign interests, our foreign policy is an aggressive war in the middle east. and that's basically the clean break doctrine that led to the doctrine in this country. host: one more call is baton

rouge, louisiana, steven on our democrats line. caller: hi, yep. i have representatives in the senate as every state does. representative david bitter who i'll talk about, and representative mary landrieu. i met her at a luncheon when she last campaigned, and she took questions, and i got to talk to her afterwards. and i asked her if she would pass healthcare, and she said, as soon as we get barack obama elected, that will be the first thing we do. i'm she did was instruct healthcare, thride my face, so i will not vote for her again. i won't vote for the republicans, but i won't vote for either of them. and as far as moving -- she's trying to keep those republicans in her column. louisiana has a lot of republicans, but they're not going vote for her anyway, and she's losing her corps digit base by doing what she did.

by saying no so many times to the bill. they caught up in the madoff scandal where his phone log is linked to a prostitute, but he's supposeded to be for family values. give me a break. we need to put all these people in congress out if it takes pitch forks and fire, we need to do it. and we need to repeal don't ask, don't tell. thank you for c-span. host: we will be able to talk more politics in our next segment. two guests will join us. one covers the white house and one covers congress. christina bell toni from talking points memo and susan ferrechio of the "washington examiner" will be our guest. first of all, we want to talk a little bits about our news makers program with republican tom price of georgia. join us at two times tomorrow. one will be at 10:00, right after this program. the other is at 6:00 in the

evening. he serves as the republican study chairman. in this clip you're going see, representative price talks with two reporters specifically on what republicans did on healthcare when they were in charge and what they may do if they win back the majority in this year's elections. >> why, when republicans were in charge, was there not a greater effort made to advance these things if, in fact, they would work? and then to also ask, if the people were to put your party back in control of congress or maybe even the white house in three years, why should they expect that you will make this a priority next time when you didn't before? >> great question. a couple of things on healthcare that were accomplished, and i'm only in my third term, so i wasn't sure during majority that have time period, but significant reform in the area of health savings account and medical savings account, which was real health insurance reform, allowing individuals to select the kind of insurance that they want,

not that the government wants for them. and that was a huge move. whether you agree with medicare part d, the prescription coverage for seniors, it was a huge change to the medicare program. so there were some financed mental things that actually were changed when republicans were in control. i would suggest that the desire to have a bipartisan bill during the time that we were -- that the republicans were in charge, and the lack of desire to do this kind of thing in a way that was jamming things through the house or the senate actually worked against coming up with a positive work product in the end. why will it be different when we're giving the privilege of leading once again? i believe it will be different for a couple of reasons. one is that the majority of members of our conference will have been in congress three terms or fewer, so it's a different mind september it's a mindset that says that washington hasn't worked well and we need to get it working well. and then the challenge is that

much closer to us. medicare, medicaid, the spending trajectory on those two programs is staring us right in the face, and you cannot continue the current programs. host: again, that's representative tom price of georgia. you can watch "news makers" tomorrow, 10:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the evening on c-span. joining us now to talk politics, two guests who have long-time experience in reporting about things of washington. christina bell toni is with talking points memo, covers the white house and also blogs for that website. also joining us, susan ferrechio of "the washington examiner" and covers congress. to both of you, congress comes back next week. there's relations within the senate and the house that are a question of point and also relations within both of those bodies and the white house. how would you characterize all those relationships going on and what it means for an agenda as far as this president is concerned? guest: well, i personally think

congress is, you know, more partisan than it's ever been in years. and i don't think this bodes well for them getting a lot done in the next year, especially because we're coming up on the 2010 elections, the mid-term elections, the critical elections for obama. and i think republicans want to make sure that, you know, they are in the best position possible to pick up seats, and they're not going to be wanting to help democrats get anything done, because that's not going help their cause of wanting to pick up sexeets perhaps even take back the majority in the house. and democrats, on the other hand, you know, they're playing defense at this point. they've got low approval ratings. the president's got low approval ratings. their agenda's got low approval ratings. but yet they feel they need to appease their base and try to get some things accomplished. it's just going to be really hard, because republicans are probably not going to go along with anything. guest: yeah, she's very right. i mean, this is part of the problem. to describe the relationship is like an awkward family function. i think you've got, you know,

democrats have all of these different factions right now, and they're not very comfortable with the way the white house has gone about pushing its agenda. certainly president obama has been forthcoming on what he wants on some things, but then less forthcoming on things like healthcare, so this has dragged on. you had the interparty war and now the question of the actual bill passing is very much in doubt. it's a little awkward right now, and then republicans, again, have no incentive to help. host: so with that background, i apply it to two specifics then. next week we'll see two things happen. apparently lake sunday or early monday, you'll see details from the white house concerning healthcare. we talked about that. but let's start with the jobs bill. because apparently there will be a vote test on whether they can go forward with it on monday. guest: yeah, and it's really interesting, because harry reid, are you know, basically rejected the bipartisan legislation because some progressive democrats didn't like, it he wasn't that comfortable that he could get the votes with that, so he put forth this very basic, broad, very specific outline of four

things that he wanted from the jobs bill, and that's what they're going to have this test vote o. they're not sure they have the 60 on that. guest: reid was really stuck here with the jobs bill. if you look at polling and i know they're aware of this, one of the reasons voters are angry is, you know, the economy is not doing well right now. people don't have jobs, their mortgages are underwater, and there's a sense that congress isn't getting anything done. they want to see congress get something done, and i think reid felt that that if he just takes this big, bipartisan jobs plan and cuts out a few pieces, that he thinks he can move quickly, then he can show the public, look, we've passed something that will help create jobs, the four elements of this bill that he thinks will help create jobs. and then they can work on some of these larger issues that the rest of the caucus and the democratsment to work on and just get this jobs issue, a small piece out of the way, and then maybe they can also work on healthcare at the same time. it's a strategy of doing

something to tell the public, look, here's something tang thablee we've done for you. guest: yeah. and it goes to show they can move quick when will they want to. some things have to take nine moss and some things have to take two weeks. but also, they can't put a nobody how many jobs this would create, and that's a problem that the white house came up with with the stimulus bill. that he wants another problem that republicans about r going to exploit. host: let me give you folks at home the numbers if you have questions about the healthcare bill, what's left in the agenda. 202-737-0001 for republicans 206782-737-0002 for democrats. and 202-628-0205 for independents. you can follow us on twitter and submit a question there, or send us an email as well at journal@c-span.org. one more bit about the jobs bill. yesterday the senator did an interview with a local pollster and analyst in nevada. this was on his show. he talked about the jobs bill, specifically where he's looking for support. here's what he had to say.

>> we're having real good luck with the new senator from massachusetts. >> scott brown is your new best friend? >> he has a difficult decision to make. understand, this bill doesn't raise tax one penny t. lowers tax for small business. it's paid for with some loopholes that are offshore scams, quite frankly. it's a good bill, and it will create jobs. i can't imagine why anyone would vote against it. it would be somewhat foolish, it would seem to me. and that's my conversation cans with scott brown. host: and what's the likelihood scott brown is going to come to the party on that? guest: this is going to be a big deal for scott brown whether he supports. this inalt sure he will or not. it has some of the elements he might like, but there are also some things in there, such as spending on the highway fund and other issues, you know, more money for state aid, where he might say we're just throwing more money and not creating jobs. because when he was on the campaign trail and i was with him up in boston when he was campaigning, he talked a lot

about the wasteful spenged, and that was a really big part of his campaign platform, stopping wasteful spending. so the stimulus plan was not popular because everyone was questioning whether it created jobs or not. no one could really quantify it, and he talked about wasting billions of dollars without any jobs to show for it. one of the first things he did say when he got to congress, he felt stimulus created no jobs, which is controversial, i know so. now, will he vote for something that, again, no one knows how many jobs it will create. are we just throwing billions of dollars at a plan with questionable outcome? so it's going to be a really kind of test for scott brown, i think. guest: yeah, i absolute al gree with that. he spoke yesterday at the conservative political action conference, and, you know, had huge reception, actually it was thursday, and this guy is a hero to the right right now, and i think he's the guy that makes a deal, it might harm him a little bit. what's also interesting, does harry reid make him some kind of a deal to be able to win his vote over? that may anger democrats, who aren't going to get that same

deal that, again, majority leader is catering to the right. guest: i think harry reid, majority leader, he's in a really tough position right now, because his poll numbers, he's up for election in 2010, and his poll numbers are really bad. you know, he's trailing various hypothetical opponents. and so he really has to show, as majority leader, he's doing something, you know, for nevadans. and if he can't even pass a jobs bill, so he's really, really, you know, desperate to try to get this bill passed, so it's no wrned he's negotiating with republicans at this point. but it does say something if he can't get this one simple package passed, so the steaks are really high for him. host: christina bell atoni, yesterday the president appeared with harry reid in nevada. as political theater, what happened during that event? guest: well, you know, it was very much very much harry's the guy fighting for you, nevada, fight for the country, and president obama had nothing but nice things to say about them. they've had a spat. they've been at odds with the agenda. they've been at odds with specifically healthcare.

the obama administration put out a very favorable plan on this bipartisan jobs bill that had been put out there and that harry reid ended up dropping. there's definitely some factions there. but it was very warm, and president obama helped him raise some money for his re-election campaign, which is in trouble right now. this is also the first time they've appeared together since the book came out, "game change," which detailed some things that harry reid said about him during the campaign that were less than favorable. host: some of the opinion and it's like describe these kind of likes as state of as far as the president's efforts are concerned. guest: well, he needs to make sure they maintain the majority. they may lose a few seats. them may not. i think the senate looks a lot safer for the democrats right now than some other parts of the congress in the house. in the house, i think they're going lose seats. but yeah, that's definitely what president obama is up to. guest: but you have to really wonder, though, how valuable obama is right now on the campaign trail, because his approval ratings aren't very good, either. so his value depends on his own

approval ratings. so reid and obama together, you know, reid is doing so poorly that he really needs all the help he can get from any corner of the democratic party. but reid himself -- i mean, obama himself is not someone who's necessarily popular enough to help, and we saw that in virginia. we saw that certainly in massachusetts and in new jersey as well. .

let's take jobs and taxes. under clinton, we had cut taxes and not enough revenue. you cannot talk to republicans about taxes. even the conservative economists agree we will have to raise taxes. the republican party has taken a pledge to never raise taxes.

host: we will have to leave it there. >> right now, the republicans are in a position to oppose everything and do they want to offer ideas? they have offered fairy broad outlines, very specific -- not very specific legislation. then you have some republicans who could afford a plan that cuts social security, medicare. some republicans are jumping on board. but there is some division between those who want to see numbers placed to things and people that was like this town for politics. as far as the media is concerned, there can be more fact checking.

host: those kinds of facts and figures, will this be a detail or part of what happens on thursday? guest: that is something that the president ask for. the republicans have not said that they will be there. a few of them said that they will be there. i think that there will be some exciting moments. host: there's some chance that they can come midway on some things. guest: i don't think that there will be a lot of time to get into the details like the caller wanted. they will talk broad outlines. there will be a lot of people on both sides of the aisle. if this sounds like it will be

more the big picture and maybe coming with the things that democrats are willing to go along with. it will mostly be a democratic health care bill and they might try to incorporate some smaller ideas from the gop. this will bumbling not be enough to persuade. -- this will probably not be enough to persuade the gop. -- the thing that concerns her most, any bill that raises taxes. collins and snowe feel that the public health option that they created in maine is a mess. the public option has been off the table for months. it sounds like there are s20 or

so democrats who are trying to push the leader on this. he has said that he will consider it. he will need cooperation from many in his caucus to do this. they only need 51 votes and not 60 in the process of reconciliation. he will not get a republican vote with a public option. host: will the white house push for public option? guest: you have sent some retirements after the election. i think that there are some

possibilities. and i'm not sure that they can get 50 senators. host: we have a question from a caller. caller: i would hate to see that public option put back in. i would not vote for barbara boxer again because the democrats spend too much money, too much on funded programs. we need insurance reform and health care reform. i have been familiar with how this has worked in canada and england. the people i know that have been there or lived there feel that it is bad care.

here in california, we have a terrible problem with illegals. we cover them as it is. now the census -- we are asking that question last night, they are counting everyone. people will be entitled to health care whether they are citizens or not. everyone seems to think that this is free. we will have to pay for it years in advance before we get any service. host: 01 to go back to the very first point. would you collect your member of congress? we were interested in the gamesmanship as far as the future makeup.

what is the white house doing as far as managing what is going on in the senate? guest: they have really stepped up their political operation. they have brought in the campaign manager who was the person in charge of obama for america. the democratic committee is looking sure to make sure that all of their candidates are on message and will not run into the same problems that were in massachusetts. you have a lot of republican divisions pinned dows. in california, you have a fairly

divisive primary. how that shakes out. i think that barbara boxer will prevail because she has been a senator for a long time. guest: s h