would suggest that there might be a problem with government being too big to fail, the entire issue of that. is the country too big to manage? that is the contest. is the government and the country too big to manage? host: let's get a final thought from our guest. guest: the final point of the poll is that young people are committed to public service. to helping this country. right now young republicans seem more engaged. unless government institutions can find ways to inspire the younger generation, a lot of talent could be left on the

sidelines. host: john della volpe is the polling director of the harvard institute politics. thank you for your time. guest: my pleasure. thank you. host: this is a special time of year for us, the time that we get to announce the winners of our c-span student competition. lots of hard work, this year we had more entries than ever before. over 1000 young people sent us their videos on issues of the day. our grand prize winners, we have a video of them receiving the great news. >> maddison, laura, samantha? >> yes? >> i am glad that you are together. my entire education team is here this morning. we have good news for you girls. you have entered our studentcam competition and you are winners. congratulations to you. even bigger news, you are our national grand prize winners.

>> [giggling] >> they were so quiet for a second, i think you have gotten a reaction out of them. >> we are very proud of you. as you might remember from last year, we had manner -- winners in the middle school category and high-school category. you girls are all eighth grade winners, competed throughout most of our judging process for the middle school category. but for the grand prize you look at everyone. you even beat out the high school documentary. >> did you not say that there were like a thousand folks that entered? >> there were over 1000 videos. >> this video, "i have got the power," is terrific. madison, how did you pick the topic? >> like uncle works at a nuclear

power plant. i was thinking about that, we were interested and we wanted to know more. >> what did you learn, lauren? >> we learned a ton. when we went to visit the current -- company where her uncle worked, we learned how it actually is and how it works. everything has so much precaution. >> samantha, what was your favorite part of the process? >> when we got to go to the nuclear power plant, it is hard to get in there. you cannot just have a school id. there was a lot of cool stuff in there. students have not been allowed in since 9/11, so that was my favorite part. >> we enjoyed the photograph of

the three of you in the plan with your hard hats on. your student population for the nuclear fission reaction, were they adults or students to participate on the playground? >> they were all students. in our school we had our four core teachers. >> it was very effective. this is quite a topic. you had access to a lot of people to be interviewed. your video was just so well done. do you want to hear what you want? >> sure. >> you will split the grand prize of $5,000. your teacher has won $1,000 in digital equipment for the school. pretty great news. did your minds change about

nuclear energy? you did a great job showing multiple sides of this issue. what did you learn? what surprised you? >> it was surprising the amount of security that it took to get into the power plant, actually. all of the precautions that they took. we also did a survey that showed how people really perceive it, it was so different from how it is perceived. >> you just did an incredible job in presenting this complicated topic. i learned from it, all of our viewers did. your video is available on our website. we thank our time warner cable affiliate in milwaukee for getting this on camera for you girls. we want to see you. just a huge congratulations from

us and a big win in beating out all the other winners to bec the toam prize -- to be the 2010 studentcam prize winners. congratulations. >> thank you. host: meredith, tell us more about those young ladies, who they are, and studentcam. guest: as you saw, we were calling the grand prize winner of our annual c-span documentary competition for students. in the clip that you saw, those are eighth graders from racine, wisconsin. this year we had over 1000 entries and only 75 winners. what we would like to do right now is give some context to our

viewers to show us the grand prize video. >> we have identified a significant lack of knowledge in the general public with relation to nuclear energy. when we asked 100 adults and 100 students how many nuclear power plants are presently operational in the united states, responses were all over. >> i have no idea. >> two? >> many understood the concept of a nuclear fission reaction, where neutrons are absorbent by the nucleus of the uranium 235 adam, splitting and giving off more elements in each neutron. these ones strike other atoms, causing a chain reaction. this energy is used to turn

water into steam, spinning turbine into electricity. is this challenge worth the benefit? >host: quite a wide range of videos. what are we asking students to do this year, and what were the issues? guest: they could choose between two topics. a strength of the country or a challenge that the country is facing. our grand prize winners focused on nuclear energy as a challenge to overcome energy consumption. in the challenge category, our top five, the highest number were entries on the economy -- sorry, health care. second was the economy. third was education. fourth was the war on terrorism. the fifth was homelessness and poverty. students could also focus on the

strength, we got videos looking at strengths that america had. our first fries high-school winner focused on a strength, their documentary was on diversity in america. we want to show you a clip from that one. >> my background is kind of a different one. i am chinese, jewish, greek and russian. majority chinese, then jewish in terms of religion and ethnicity. >> using the term culture, i do not think that color or religious a necessity -- i like to think about social structure. we are going to get those people, the tired, the hungry, the poor. >> people from asia, europe, south america, all of these

places. we are all coming to gather here in america. >> there is no one american culture, it is a big melting pot of lots of different cultures. if it were just one culture, america will lose something. >host: great individual stories out there. what was the criteria for judging? guest: we were looking for five things. first, we were looking for inclusion of c-span programming, one thing this students needed to do. adherence to the time limit. quality of expression. showing multiple or various sides of their topic. the last thing is also focusing on the thoughtfulness of the actual theme. in the documentary be just what

from our high school winner, that was from a student in oklahoma. she is an 11th grader. it was a very intimate look through the eyes of four students and one teacher about the influence of diversity and culture in america. we would like to show you a clip from our first prize middle school winner, focusing on a challenge. a great example of the incorporation of c-span from ramming. >> six years ago the kids played outside after school and on weekends -- 46 years ago, the kids play outside after school and on weekends. mom stayed at home. they do a dinner. now kids have about five hours of screen time per day, including the computer, television. kids no longer play outside

after school. they take the bus to school or their parents drive them, they do not walk. we have become a fast-food nation. as a consequence, childhood obesity has more than doubled since 1980. one out of seven children are now obese. this is a challenge that affects us all. host: anything else about that video? talk about production value and how this has evolved. guest: that video was created by matthew from hawaii, a seventh grader. what he did very effectively was intertwining seized and programming so well that he shot his own b-roll.

we noticed that middle school documentary's this year in particular, the technical components of their documentaries and the narration of the documentary's rose to the challenge, which is why our grand prize winners overtook the winner from high school. our grand prize winner grandskype technology -- grand prize winner use thd skype technology for all of their interviews. we noticed that the technology that students are using is fascinating when it comes to putting them together, as well as teaching themselves about the issues they are facing. host: it is so great to look through these videos. where can we watch them? guest: i encourage all of videos -- all viewers to go to

studentcam.org. we have a list of all 75 winners. we will be airing all of them and having a short interview starting april 1 through april 27. tune in to seize and starting on april 1, or you can watch them on our website, to watch all the top entries. as well as a short interview with the student winners. host: thank you for joining us, meredith rapp. guest: thank you, paul. guest: -- host: we have about 15 minutes left before the u.s. house gavels in. on the senate floor today they are taking up jobs, lots of hearings we will tell you about. 15 minutes, open phones, you can talk about any topic you like.

here are the phone numbers in case you are just tuning in. for democrats, 202-737-0002. for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. we will also go through the papers, get some information, including this story in "usa today." "the irs is going easier on tax settlements, being more flexible with taxpayers who have seen their income drop. the commissioner says that the agency is loosening its rules for negotiating settlements for less than the amount owed. they plan to open about 1000 offices on various saturdays starting on march 27 to give taxpayers more opportunities to work with employees to resolve their tax debts. the irs expects to process 138 million, shedding jobs since the start of the recession, many

taxpayers will not be able to make timely payments. akron, ohio. welcome to the program. caller: how are you? host: doing fine. caller: i want to say something and then i will hang up, i do not want to take up too much time. in my lifetime i have seen our society and culture become morally insolvent in every way, shape, or form. no one can be trusted. no institution of government, from the highest level down to the common person. i have watched the news and traveled around the country, i have been among people. i can tell you, some of the concerns, like childhood obesity, smoking, are pointless.

we are looking at a very bleak future. no future. really, the most responsible thing to do would be a form of armageddon. host: john, michigan. what do you have to say this morning? are you there? caller: hello? guest -- host: is this john? collett, yes. host: go ahead -- caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: to think that private insurance is a misnomer. is really public assistance insurance. the public is taking over all of the high-cost health situations. as soon as it gets into a high cost situation, when people get old or something like that, you

get into a government assistance situation where the government is directing 60% of the money already. private insurance would not be very popular if they carried all the costs of everyone's health, but the high-cost ones are just covered by the government. host: a couple of health care stories here, something that might happen in the next couple of days, congressional leaders are bracing for a procedural ruling that could complicate their effort to approve major legislation by requiring the president to sign a bill into law before congress puts it through an expedited budget process. official word could come within days, presenting another hurdle for the president and democrats.

looking at "of the washington post" to have a piece about -- looking at "the washington post" they have a piece about "what if obama -- about "what obama has lost." "whenever the legislative fate of health reform now in the hands of a few besieged house democrats the reformers have failed in their argument. their proposal as a by the democrats while uniting republicans, returned american politics to well-worn ideological ruts, employed legislative tactics that smack of corruption, squander the president's public standing, lowered public regard for congress to french revolutionary levels, sucked the oxygen from other agenda items, greengage the abortion battle, produced freaks and prodigies of nature such as a republican senator from massachusetts, raised questions about the continued

governability of america." tom, good morning. caller: the man you had on this morning? host: john shaddeg. caller: right. healthcare is easy to demonize, it is very complicated. when this gentleman gets up and says things that the average person has difficulty understanding, it makes it difficult. the high-risk pools? the president answers that. he told the rest of the republicans that it would be for people in certain groups, but more expensive to put a high risk people in one group, which is why you put more people in their, because of these people with major illnesses. this gentleman who keeps

repeating over again that there are going to be death chambers and all of that foolishness, people do not have enough sense to understand that they're being used. host: honolulu, independent line. caller: good morning, when is someone going to start investigating all of these criminal financial crisis deals that have been going on for the last year or two? when will they start bringing these people to justice, investigating them and putting them in jail? two big to fail as a bunch of bull. if they are so big, they cannot be made smaller, they will not miss the people that they put in jail. host: jacksonville, florida. mike, republican line. caller: sorry i could not come in when you had the harvard

gentleman on talking about the young and the older. i think that the youngsters today are learning a stark lesson in economics from the perspective of they are realizing that no matter what government tries to do, government cannot, thomas it takes over, create jobs in a free enterprise system. they are coming to realize that while a lot of words sound good, they do not look good when they're actually put into practicality. a good issue coming up for these kids as this health care bill goes through, for this thing to work most of them do not realize they will be paying 3500 to $4,000 every year into that school if they are forced to pay for health care, which is coming

as quite a shock to them. my son in college right now realizes that if this goes through and he is getting ready to graduate, he will have no money, having to pay a $4,500 -- forced to pay a $4,400 health care bill is a hard thing to face a kid, even if he can find a job. host: "the new york times" lead story today, "bypassing the needy. half of the food aid sent to somalia is diverted to a web of corrupt contractors, radical islamists, and u.n. staff members. mr. ford was shown to "the new york times" by diplomats, out lightning a host of problems so grave that they are recommending opening and independent

investigation. suggesting that a rebuild the food distribution system, the aid of which was worth 2.5 million -- $485 million in 2009, rebuilding it from scratch." you are looking at "usa today" and one of their main items is "a black eye for embassy in kabul. train police in afghanistan, building up the infrastructure, $2 billion in contracts are needed." the next call comes from ellen in north dakota. hello. caller: i would like to talk about global warming. a huge part of global warming is caused by the manufacturing and usage of plastics and plastic goods, which is everywhere

around us. but around, there is tons of it. it is not biodegradable. it gives off noxious fumes when burned. the fumes go into the air. i urge everyone to please just use only the most very necessary plastics and give up the usage of unnecessary plastics. host: jacksonville, florida. independent line. caller: thank you for having me on the program. you have a lot of guests that, on the program to discuss these various issues, but in every single one of them if we examine the reality and fact of the matter, every area where we have a problem today is a direct result of government and the biggest problem that people do

not realize is that we are united, we started based upon the basis of liberty. the government's is restricting our liberties, stopping us from doing what we want to do in an open society. for example, we have a $3.60 trillion budget. we spent almost $980 billion on health care. we need the government more involved? there is not one government program that has ever reduced costs. give me one government program where the costs have been lowered. none of them will tell you one, no such program exists. host: couple of images from the papers to show you, this is from "the new york daily news." she donated her ball down to the smithsonian yesterday.

if you look at the front page of "the wall street journal" today, "philadelphia woman accused of recruiting jihadists, using the internet to recruit violent fighters, especially women." couple of images there. from "the new york times" on the israeli visit, "visit and a pickuhiccup. he condemned plans for new housing in east jerusalem." a couple of other photographs here, from "the washington times," "secretary gates, telling troops that their units have been losses in pushing

against the taliban, with another photograph here -- taliban," with another photo here as he arrives. west palm beach, florida. chauck. caller: good morning. there is an issue affecting every american, it is called greed. it has moved on to the pharmaceutical manufacturers and the fda. fda is one of the most inadequate agencies of american government. basically killing people because of their decisions, they are owned by the pharmaceutical

companies. there is research out there that proves that that drugs are ineffective and can cause harm they had hearings -- cause harm a furious they had hearing the other day. it is just a big joke. the simplistic reasoning of the fda and the american public that perpetuates the greed is the reason our economy is in such a bad shape. host: we are going to wrap up the program now. thank you to everyone who called in today. we hope to hear from more of you tomorrow. "washington journal" starts at 7:00 every morning, eastern time. we will go to the house in a moment. enjoy