complete their primaries. dan fields in illinois finished a tough primary race. he's ready for that red to blue program getting we will help out with communications and support. it is a really strong thing in this program. not every candidate makes a cut. host: what about fund raising? guest: we have a did the five candidates that we can help the most and we will use our network and their network for fund raising. it helps democrats across the country to identify ways in which they can support the democratic campaign committee. i think we raised $26 million.

$26 million for these red to blue candidates. we had more because we were trying to pick up more seats in congress. healthcare is expected to be one of the issues for the 2010 election. we covered one of your town hall meetings. how did what you learned from those town halls affect your vote? >> it affected it tremendously. some of whom didn't have health insurance. others had young people who just graduated college. their children aren't able to get healthcare anymore. i use all of that information and the tone of the debate also

about supporting the healthcare bill. host: regular watchers of the house saw you as the speaker protemps. how was that? guest: it was quite extraordinary. one of my mentors john lewis spoke. and the dean of the congress who had interduced healthcare reform before i was born into the congress had spoke. i'm grateful to have the opportunity. host: what do you hear from your republican colleagues in terms of your use of the gave el? guest: i'm really grateful for that. when you are in the charge, you are a special moment. not a democrat or a republican. you are a speaker of the house. your job is to make sure people

get the time they are entitled to. you cut people off whether democrat ors republicans when they are exceeding their time. host: with us until 9:15 eastern. first up on the line, go ahead. caller: i wonder what you are going to have to offer any democrats considering you have be trayed your base? you gave the money and the bank bail out to the crook when's your constituents called and said don't give it to the crooks without conditions. people in ure district even as of this weekend who have been swindled by the banks you gave the money to are losing their homes. obama has per pet ue waited some of the strongest policies in terms of the bush

administration in terms of the patriot act and insurance, going after people who actually should be permitted to stay here. the last issue is healthcare, health insurance and forcing workers to subsidize companies with obscence salaries like $3.5 million to the united healthcare ceo and on the backs of poor women to have abortions. real access to a single fayer systems. this is nothing less for you to offer the democrats. you've betrayed the very principles of the platform. guest: i appreciate the caller's sent iment. this has been a tough year for democrats and our president. we started out recognizing, especially with the situation with the panchings and the

financial sector. i was not supportive of this bank bail out when it first came to the vote when i first came into the congress. realizing ordinary people might have to go to their atm machines and not be able to withdraw money because of the severe crunch on credit. much of that money is being paid back by these institutions. it is messed up for us when we come back from our break. i look forward to work with the white house and with democrats in congress to make sure that we have regulation on financial institutions to make sure that this never happens to taxpayers again.

we have to come together and get something to the president for a signature. it's really unacceptible to continue this long without a regular torry structure that's going to protect taxpayers. that's what i'm interested in doing, protecting the hard working people in my district so we never have to see this happen again. host: going to the phone. caller: i feel like we ought to fire every one of them. they've done basic economic treason. we have no jobs left. they've shipped everything overseas. the problem is when they are in there, 30, 40, 50 years, it's the problem. i think fire them all and start

over. guest: jim. thank you. i'm relatively new to the congress. i was elected? june 2008. i bring real life experience of being a worker and a mother and living in our communities. the frustration jim expresses is real and valid. we do have to begin to recreate a manufacturing sector in our country. this is a real task. considering president obama took office in january, 2009. the job loss was about 740,000. we just got a job report that we have created thousands of jobs. we are on our way. until we get to the point everyone who wants a job has found a job, we haven't finished our job. host: what's the biggest things

congress can do for job growth? guest: one thing we can do is plant construction. getting people to work and really seriously rebuilding. we have done some of that with the stimulus package. our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. it has to be competitive. i like the small business credit we have just done. small businesses really do generate and create jobs in this country and developing a job -- a sector of this economy about the new energy future. we can't have all the solar panels off our shores. those are job creators for the 21st century? the headline and cover story on

both sides talking about a lot of things focusing on this particular industry. this is a viable area that the federal government can get involved in. i think for my home state of maryland, we have made a tremendous investment. expanding what we are doing now across this country laying it like we lay our highway. these are all about creating

different job opportunities and sectors around the country and diversify different opportunities for investment host: another caller from montazeri. thank you. caller: first of all, they should have open debates the biggest donors to the democrat party is the american israeli public affairs committee. boy, they keep you in check. you are the fwiggest traitors of america. host: is apac a big contributor? guest: it's not to mine. part that have is because of positions i've taken i will

say, we have a campaign finance system that encourages us to raise money to go out and campaign. i've supported the legislation to change our campaign finance system. having to raise so much money narrows the types of can't dats you v can have. i'd like to see public financed elections the supreme court came out with a decision. a citizens united decision saying that a corporate can send direct directly on

campaigns. this undermines the years of law. the amendment says it will give congress the authority to regulate the way corporates can act in elections. that's one leg in on the stool. the bottom line is is that we have to, i believe, divorce policy from fundraising. if you look at this resenlt healthcare debate. you see the large amounts of money in terms of trying to in flunes. i think it is outrageous. we were able to get over that hurdle and separate ourselves. that is in response over time

for the american people. caller: good morning. it seems to me that the republicans are going to exploit the conservative option to obama's healthcare reform. when they do, they will be largely running against many of their own ideas. 159 republican amendments were included in the final piece of legislation. in the stimulus package, 40% included tax cuts which seem to be the only ideas republicans have for stimulating the economy other than doing nothing. ? 2012, the smart money is on mitt romney. romney care has a lot of similar things to some of the most criticized aspects. you see this trend time and

time again. the caller: they will have the ability to run on a smart objective. let's take healthcare. who is going to go out in the coirnt and say it's a bad idea to keep their young people up to age 26 on their healthcare. who is going to run against saying if their child has proo existing conditions, they can't have healthcare the american public is going to find that this is a strong agenda for the

middle class. middle class. the republicans will be hard >> have you had a chance to hold a town hall meeting? >> starting tomorrow, and all through this week, i have held coffee conversations and electronic town hall meetings. we had about 7000 or 8000 people talking about health care reform. i look forward to continuing to do that. we also talk about job creation. now, we can focus specifically on creating jobs, knowing that this huge segment of our economy is doing something about that. host: tell us about the congressional district. it runs through hillcrest and up to montgomery county which this country will.

-- which is kind of rural. guest: 56% of the district is african-american. spans the gamut of people that are doing very well. these are some of the highest incomes across the country for african-americans. we have a significant part of our district that is part of the federal work force. strong vibrant working community. people who commute to work. and some very rural areas with our district up to the north and in maryland at the frederick county line is extremely rural.

host: michigan. an independent caller. go ahead. caller: go morning. on this healthcare -- that bill, i wasn't to go through everything. i'm afraid without a public option, this really isn't going to work. you couldn't force for anything. the president was saying he'd like to have competition. there's none at all. host: let's hear what congresswoman edwards might say. guest: i was a proponent in the house of representatives up until the end. we take the examples of medicare and social security,

today, those programs are more expansive. they don't look like anything. i believe this is a framework we'll be able to develop for the future that really works for the system. i will say on competition. one of the provisions i've been able to commamon is for a company to publish rate increases you see rate increases of 40% and sometimes even higher percentage. if that's excessive, they be prohibited. i think this is going to be a real check on insurance companies.

unfortunately, i was able -- fortunately, i was able to work to champion that bill. host: a republican caller. go ahead. caller: one of my reasons against your health bill is the fact that i think most american people just don't trust their elected officials anymore. too many examples i can give you. president obama said if you were making less than $200,000 a year, you wouldn't pay a dime extra in taxes. that doesn't happen to be true f. you make $100,000 and your company provides you with health insurance and the value of that health insurance is $10,000, you will pay taxes on $110,000. it's added as income to your w 2 form.

americans are very concerned with privacy. if you are being treated with aides or have an abortion, that information is stored. i thought we went through this in late 1980s where we had amnesty for about 3 million people. the congress people promised the american voter, me too, that they were coming here for jobs the congress people were going to give employers a way that they could be able to check that they were employing legal residence. the best they come up with was e verify. then they made it voluntary,

not mandatory. you look at all this money for contracts and stuff. the democratic party refuses to give money to congress. host: all right. lots there. thank you for calls us. guest: thank you. i want to clear up a couple of things. i think there is a confusion about whether or not you have to pay a tax or not with healthcare. let's be clear. when we have done with this healthcare law. if you work for an employer that has an over the top, high end healthcare plan, than you would be faced to pay a premium on that, or a surcharge on that. at $27,000. if your healthcare plan is valued at $27,000, there's not going to be any change to the healthcare coverage that you have. you'd be hard pressed to find a

plan valued at under $27,000. in that, it's tied to inflation. we really try to make sure that we don't penalize companies or people who already have healthcare plans that people like and they can enjoy and keep them. for our small businesses, they provide a tax credit to make sure they request meet their responsibility. if you make under $88,000 for a family of four, it's graduated that you'll receive's ns to help you provide healthcare. the combination of these things make this a really effective plan for insuring that people can keep their healthcare plan if they like it and get coverage that they couldn'tly don't have. host: another 15 minutes. back to the 2010 elections. you've been asked to have this red to blue program for the

dccc. headlines this morning. . .

guest: i think it is a really strong program. and i am looking forward to working with our candidates across the country and helping them with their individual campaigns and also to make sure that the democratic national can peek main committee has the kinds of tools that we -- bu-- e democratic national campaign committee has because the tools of we need in order to do the job of we did in the last election. host: as a member of the democratic caucus, what are you expected to contribute? is a portion of it campaign donations? guest: by a relatively new member of congress and my allegations are not as great as my senior members. i try to meet maidu's quarterly. i write a check -- meet right used quarterly. a write a check quarterly.

in addition to raising money for and own reelection efforts, and i think what we see here is that these midterm elections are always tough coming off the heels of a very successful general election in 2008. our members are making sure that they have shored up their own campaigns. but i agree with the speaker pelosi that this is a a a team effort. part of the effort is making sure that we pay our dues. host: as a member of the house you are basically always fundraising. how difficult is it to balance that part in meeting with constituents? -- end a meeting with constituents? guest: requires time and you have a 24 hour day and you have to figure of which part of that day you can put to a fund- raising in which party can put

to legislating in meeting with clients. i am in a relatively safe democratic district, but by face a primary challenge myself and i have to make sure i have to do both. being run constituents and being internal meetings and been visible in your community and hearing constituents, when you do that, people understand the value of your representation and they will want to support you independent of direct fund- raising. host: here is a call from mississippi, william and our democratic line. caller: i would like to say thank you for accepting my phone call. and also, and with like to say that the democrats are doing an excellent job -- and i would like to say that the democrats are doing an excellent job. but there are three or four

holes, only one that i have thought was in the intelligence. i would like for everybody to just take time note and think what this country would have come to give john mccain had taken over -- if it john mccain had taken over. obama is getting a backlash from the republicans, but nobody talks about that. host: william, thanks for your call this morning. guest: i think william makes a point. the president and the congress started out, really, behind the eightball. losing jobs and the financial industry falling apart, the banking issues and we have had to climb out out of that he.

-- out of that heat. we have put our time in and tackled many issues. health care reform, we will be looking toward a strong job creation, ensuring that women will receive fair pay as men. we have a strong agenda that we have already managed to work on under very difficult for consensus. but i've think democrats feel confident and strong going into this election cycle and talking about what our agenda is and how progressive it is for the american people. i do not want to be defensive about it at all. i know for the candidates in the blue program -- in the red to blue program, they will be talking about that strength and their ability to join that agenda for 2010.

host: next caller comes from texas. caller: i am a true independent know because a of having been a former republican, they were not listening to us and the democrats were not listening to us. and i am just shocked that the health care bill passed because there are lots of bad things in it, as you well know. and this is just a question because president obama promised transparency and i was hopeful that he had it to, but obviously, most people had not seen or known what the final bill had in it because of objectionable things and simple things that cross nothing like having a free market access across state