do you justify voting for those? it seems to me that this is not a product that the american people are happy with or think that will work. host: tim, what do you say? caller: i know that we need to fix the health care, but can we not get some money in the system to do it? host: from where? caller: social security, i started when i was earlier -- if we did social security from where you were born, by the time that you did to 18 or 25, would that not make more sense? host: how to pay for it, congressman. . .

because our employer has paid for it, and we think it is paid for. doctors think it is paid for, quite frankly. i wish people needed to get it -- i just got a test from cardiologists. i never said to him, how much will it cost, my injured company will pay for it. -- how much will it cost?

my insurance company will pay for it. we did not discuss options. how many people discuss cost? they do not because they think it is already free. that is the result of this third-party payer system. your employer pays for it, but you consume it. if people understand, look, i pay my own health care bill, i'm spending my money. they might say, i better get in shape, take my medicines. safeway has done tremendous things getting their employees to be more healthy. i have always tried to be direct. my dad managed all of barry goldwater's campaigns.

people think he was so popular because he was the conservative, but he just pulled it how it was. this is a good idea, this is a bad idea. that is the model that i have tried to follow. it helps me sleep well at night. host: evan thomas write ts in "newsweek" -- the can get to kick down the road, that is the premise there. what do you think of that? guest: that is not completely fair. that means that we are not holding, elected officials accountable. i might agree with that. yes, the american people want more from their government and

there are willing to pay for, and that is a problem, but that is always going to exist. i think you have public officials not living up to their promises. republicans got in trouble with the electorate because we made a bunch of promises and did not keep them. the president is in trouble because he made promises and -- for example, he said that we would not see any backroom deals. we have seen a stunning number of backroom deals. we know of about 11 deals right now in the bill. i am betting there are deals being cut yesterday and today to get that bill through the house. that is not how the people's government is supposed to be run. i think the people need to go to their elected officials and say, look, i am going to keep you accountable.

host: frank is on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, i think we are a problem. i am a republican and a capitalist health insurance has become obese along with the unions. they have created a situation -- let's take another overseas. we are not going to pay this insurance. unless we get health insurance out of the payment problem, i do have the minister is making half a million dollars a year. two assistants making more than the doctors. unless we can rectify that, the economy is shop. guest: i think he is making the point that i am making. in many sectors of the delivery

system, you do not seem real competition. i think that is right. real competition would bring those costs down because somebody would come in to bring those services for less. if a doctor is not justify what he is earning, then get rid of him the only place in the american economy where you and i cannot fire the product and cannot hold it accountable is in the health industry, and that is where the costs are going up faster. host: al on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. with all due respect, i have a solution. we are playing games with health care. why did the united states have more gold medals in the olympics?

why is nasa the best? why is nih the best? this is what moves this nation. you want to think like a democrat, like a republican, instead of solving the problems of the world. [unintelligible] this is what causes the problem. guest: i agree -- i think -- in part, but i do not really understand the rest of what he was saying. you talk about competition. that makes us the best. for example, in the olympics, hollywood. in other aspects of the economy, competition brings out the best

of us. i think what he was saying with the rest of his comments is we should have a single payer system. i am not convinced that single payer systems serve the people particularly well. you can look at outcomes where we do dramatically better than other countries. i think americans want more control of their life. that has been the culture of the history of this nation. i want to give the power back to the individuals and not to the government. host: here is a quitter message that i want to show. -- twitter message that i want to show. it makes me wonder about the broarepublican party.

guest: people want the republican party to put forward one plan. that would be good if we could do that. i think it is not normal for the minority party to offer a single plan. we cannot pass anything. we do not control floor in the house. nancy pelosi will not allow that to happen. i think republicans would give americans a tax credit to buy the health care plan they want. they would love all the tax code so that you and i could buy the same insurance that we can. cross-state purchase of insurance so that there would be more competition high risk pools to take care of people in pre- existing conditions. if you cannot get health insurance where you live, you

are entitled to be a member of the pool if you have been told that your costs would be more. once he or in, you get insurance at a cost is spread out among everyone in the state. we have passed legislation to do that. unfortunately, only 33 states have created such pools. we should have made it mandatory. republicans, i think, would bring a more focused plan forward that would give individuals more control over their health care and put incentives back into the health care system for doctors and plans to spend money. host: phyllis from illinois. caller: good morning.

this president has the power of sanctions. i wonder if he would raise the import fees, the tax, to equalize 20 american dollars. take that money and put it into medicare for all. they raise the prices on their goods, then we raise it to equalize us at a higher standard of income. put it into medicare for all. i cannot understand why he does not do it. he does not need the vote of congress. he could do it on his own. guest: i do not think that the president can raise tariffs on his own. the caller indicated one of the problems there. you begin a trade war where you just read to each other i think allowing goods into the united states with the lowest tariffs

brings americans products at an affordable price. that is not my perspective. host: next phone call. caller: i would like to ask you why we are departing from the constitution so much. my understanding is you are elected to represent the people of your stay and the senate is meant to represent state rights. why is this getting intermixed? where in the constitution does it say that you, the government, are supposed to provide services to the people instead of providing the environment where everyone is treated equally? callerguest: i think you make at

point. we have worked to erode the limits placed on congress and on the federal government by constitution. i have introduced a bill every year that i have been in congress that would require members of congress to cite what provision of the constitution gives the federal government the power to do what ever the bill proposes to do. i think he raises a good question. under what provision do we have the right to deliver health care to every single american? that is an open debate. i think i would disagree on at least one point. senators do represent the people in the state as well as house members. host: you came in with the class of 1995 with newt gingrich. you mentioned the party did not live up to the promises they made. is that your biggest critique of the republicans?

guest: we made a series of promises in 1994 and we did not live up to them. we also promised to reestablish the bonds of trust between the american people and congress would have jack abramoff and others. i think we were held accountable for that, and should have been. i think the party is now trying to be articulate what it would do if it was in the majority, and on the flip side, democrats are now making promises. nancy pelosi said that she would offer the most open congress in history. clearly, it has not been that. president obama said he would bring us change that we can believe in. bills would be negotiated on c- span. maybe that was idealistic, but there are all kinds of back room deals being cut, special

provisions for christopher dodd. i had a list and people can contact my office. i think when politicians break their word war make promises and do not live up to it, they need to be held accountable. that is the biggest problem for republicans and now we are trying to win back the confidence of the american people. host: we are going to take another call, but first, what are the implications for your party if the bill passes, or if it does not? what is the impact? guest: if it passes, we will see what needs to happen to implement it. it is a massive bill, well over 2000 pages long. that is why i do not believe the cost numbers. we will have to much of that and see what happens. if it does not pass in its

current form, then the challenge is, how do we start solving these problems? i think republicans should be introducing individual bills -- and i plan to do this -- to tackle these problems. the problems of health care in america are not going away if the bill passes. if the bill does not pass, they will not go away either. host: next phone call. caller: congressman, i find it ironic that you are talking about procedure with the democrats. you bring in the congress when they voted for part d. also, i am tired of hearing about the louisiana purchase. the first thing the governor did when he found the deficit in the budget was to cut $150 million

for medicare. the $300 million we are getting -- we have five hospitals here that are closed. five years after katrina, we have still not recovered. there are two things in this country that really upset me. you can get the best health care in the world if you can afford it. the same thing with our judicial system. there are a lot of people in jail who did not have enough money to defend themselves and they are serving time that they should not be. guest: i am the one taking the louisiana purchase of of the bill. i am not certain it is appropriate for the people of the nation, taxpayers in arizona, to be paying for unique problems in the louisiana that

also occur for people in arizona and elsewhere. on his basic point, i think we are in agreement. i have written a bill that would provide health care for every american. if his concern is we are not taking care of people who cannot afford to pay for health care, all of the republican proposals that i am aware of, all of them provide coverage for every american. i do not see how that is a fair criticism. host: john shadegg of arizona. thank you for your time. we are going to take a brief timeout and then talk about congressional ethics and earmarks our guest will be melanie sloan. in the meantime, some news from c-span radio. >> president obama meets with

the president of haiti this morning. later he flies to missouri promoting health care reform. tonight, he speaks in st. louis with clear mccaskill. secretary of defense robert gates is in the saudi capital after three days in afghanistan where he knew the crossed that with the iranian president ahmadinejad. mr. gates accuses iran of playing a double game in afghanistan and working to undermine the security u.s. forces are trying to help build. the secretary is in saudi arabia to meet with king abdallah and senior leaders on how to respond to in grandpa's nuclear program. a woman who has been in u.s. custody since october, a convert to islam, said that she was willing to be a modern. she called herself jihad jane online and is accused of

recruiting fighters in moving to europe to kill a swedish artist. intelligence officials say the number of names on the no-fly list has doubled to about 6000 people, the increase coming after the christmas day bombing incident. the names included the al qaeda in yemen. more on the resignation of new york congressman eric massa. steny hoyer spoke earlier and said, some people are trying to politicize the situation surrounding the representative who resigned after accusations of sexual harassment. meanwhile, eric cantor declined to directly address the statement, saying he was taken aback by all of this, adding he believes the american people

are sickened by it all. >> this weekend, "book tv"is heading west at the tucson book festival. sunday, panels on writing about history, the war in afghanistan, world war ii, and the military and leadership. the tucson festival of books. this weekend. for more information, go to booktv.org. host: at the table now is melanie sloan, executive director for citizens for responsibility and ethics. i wanted to talk about congressional ethics in the earmarks. i wanted to first get an update on something that was created a

couple of years ago. it is the office of congressional ethics. how was it first formed and how has it been operating? guest: it was formed as a campaign promise that nancy pelosi made when the democrats were campaigning on the culture of corruption. the house ethics committee was considered broken at the time the office of congressional ethics was greeted as a new body that would be more independent and investigate members of congress. right now they have no subpoena power. all they can do is to the investigation and forward it over to the ethics committee. the ethics committee has been flapping them back lately, so the office of congressional ethics is making an effort to hold them accountable, while the ethics committee is more interested in covering up.

host: so what does this mean for health care they are conducted here in washington? guest: it is a mess. the ethics committee gives cover to members of congress. we saw this in the pma investigation. the office of congressional ethics have forwarded information to the ethics committee for further action, and they did not really take action. they only took action against charlie rangel, letting four members off the hook. even then, charlie rangel was likely admonish. on the pma matter, even though they recommended that two individuals should be investigated, the ethics committee said that they should be able to come back, and that was really the end. host: phone number is on the

bottom of the screen. this office of congressional ethics is separate from that at the committee in the house. here is the board members. former congressman david skaggs. former cia director porter goss. tell us about the makeup of this office as we look at the other names. guest: the board is a distinguished panel. it also includes a former white house counsel. everyone on the board is very distinguished and they have a staff director who is a former justice department prosecutor. host: how would you change things with his office and ethics committee, moving forward?

guest: there needs to be a change in congress. members of both parties need to care about ethics in their party and not just using it as a weapon against the other party. i think the office of congressional ethics needs subpoena power. the ethics committee needs to take what the office of congressional ethics does it can go forward with it. they do not need to be reviewing all of that work. host: does the office have a term of life? guest: no, but i think there will be reauthorization for its funding in next congress. rules could change on when it can and cannot do. there is controversy over the office and there are some members who do not like the office of congressional ethics. they believe the ethics committee can handle matters. i think what they are really

saying is that the congressional office of ethics is much tougher than the ethics committee. as much as i would like to see them get subpoena power, i do not think they will get it. i do not think congress but wants to give them that much power. host: several stores in the paper, including this one -- this is the second page of the "washington post" -- what does that mean to you? guest: they are talking about a moratorium on earmarks because they believed it could be in major issue in the campaign and

the elections. host: let's start with the first phone call. caller: i was a substance abuse counselor in a prison system for a number of years. we took the ethics courses cup of late because that is what you need to do. if congress cannot set an example for the american people to follow regarding ethics, how are the citizens of both to do it? guest: i agree completely. i think we have a right to hold members of congress to high ethical standards. they are supposed to be role models for our children. often, their behavior is embarrassing and shameful. host: roll call this morning talked about members and staff. chris attended a meeting on earmarked projects --

talking about that mr. between lobbying and contract in interest. guest: that is something the congressional office committee was considering when they looked at the pma group who lobbies for defense contracts. the office of congressional ethics found retain the companies who were lobbying thought the campaign contributions they made did influence their ability to good

earmarks. the house ethics committee that the members of congress of the hook on this and said there is not necessarily a connection between campaign contributions and earmarks, but members are aware that lobbyists, trade associations believe there is in connection. at the very least, they are creating an appearance problem, if not an actual problem. but i would argue that there is an actual problem. you only have to look at who is getting campaign contributions from whom. all the defense appropriators are getting campaign dollars from defense contractors. you are not see them give money to people on the agriculture. host: cumberland, maryland. caller: