this is "washington journal." . .

she writes that years of budget cuts and the vast majority of school districts have already taken their toll --

let's take a look at a "new york times" article, from the front page -- teachers facing a weak job market for jobs in years. the story says the recession seems to have penetrated a profession long seen as recession-proof. let's go to our first caller, clay calling from florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: we need a forensic audit -- 1913-1914, the audited the federal reserve slashed irs. it has never been audited.

estimated 700 trillion bailout for aig for the credit defaults what guarantees -- 700 trillion estimated, 100 cents on the --lar to the company's, of the crime family's, and deutsche bank, nazi war criminals -- host: does this lead to the idea that public schools need a bailout as well? caller: there has never been an audit. aids, is go to arlington, virginia. tom is on the republican line. caller: i would be interested to find out on the school's how many of the pupils in the schools are from families of the

illegal aliens. the problem is that our tax dollars and a school tax dollars are spent on the influx of these individuals who come in and are not paying back into the system to help support these school systems. particularly in the southwestern united states, these schools are inundated by children of illegals in this country that are putting the drain not only on the school system's but the only -- other services they provide such as after-school tutoring and special education classes. host: can i ask you -- i understand your point. do you think that given the current economic situation for next year, should there be some kind of bailout in the immediate future? caller: no, i do not. i think they need to reevaluate the situation is that i mentioned. and like any other business in

the united states, it may come where the salaries may need to be cut. men's issues look back. but, no, i do not. i think the american tax payers are already taxed to the hilt. host: let us look at the "the new york times" article that says charter schools are practically the only ones hiring.

let's go to alexandria, virginia, where claudia is on our democrats line. turn down your tv and go right ahead. caller: i was just listening to the last caller, and i just want to say, if i hear any more rhetoric as far as undocumented people coming in and ruining our system and the government, i think it is really sad to hear that american people mill longer -- that the united states no longer is a welcoming place for -- i guess i could say. when the issue of this should the u.s. give the school system bailout, i think they should. we have people going into the education system and that will build a core foundation for the future. people will be able to learn. here are giving them a well-

rounded education. i truly believe the government should look at the possibility of using a bailout to the school system. host: looking at some other examples in the "the new york times" shtick from michigan state, university. jumping next door -- teach for america. it has seen application increase by nearly a third this year to 46,000, for 4500 slots. alabama, our next caller -- actually, let's go to florida, james, republican line. good morning.

welcome to the program. caller: unless the schools reconstruct themselves and go to the european model where every student is not able to learn calculus, they are not able to learn algebra. they should train them -- take a vocational course. and those students can be identified at an early age. we spend the way to much money on education in this country now. we need to redo the whole school system. host: do you see any movement in that area in florida, vocational training for those who have aptitude in technical skills or mechanics? caller: yes, but we need to identify students at about the fourth and fifth grade. and the ones that are not able to go on to higher education should do like they do in

germany, they should give them a vocational course and train them to do some kind of work. host: in the op-ed piece in "the wall street journal" calls the situation an emergency. she says the federal government did not let wall street failed, why do less for public schools? she is advocating for federal legislation to provide $23 billion to states to help pay for educational issues, that is $23 billion. let us go to the next caller, cincinnati, ohio, juanita, democrats line. caller: we here in cincinnati, our school system is essentially black. we did something eight years ago, in that we upon ourselves,

$1.2 billion construction program here. with property tax. i think we need a bailout not only for the teachers but for the whole educational system because right now we are in a battle. i will not say a battle, but right now we have to get crazy with our board of education to make sure that the work at the construction sites in cincinnati goes to residents of this state and city because this is what we want and is in our law. so, i think the entire educational system needs a bailout. because you have certain parts of the country who seem to be able to take care of themselves. and as i said, we hear, along with the help of our local naacp, have had to put our foot down and prioritize what is

going to be spent, how it is going to be spent, who is going to spend it and who will be the benefit of it. while everyone is taking on the anti-immigration aspects, you also must look at construction, you have to look at the output and what it is doing to the community, and frankly my mother and i are both retired so we cannot afford more taxes. so i figure if we can bail out gm -- and you cannot do less for the children. host: gabriel from winston- salem, north carolina. caller: how are you? host: what do you think? the public schools need a bailout? caller: the biggest problem for students that i see is there will be a mismanagement of the money in the first place. for example, four months and months i have been going to

school, taking online courses, where i realize that the cost of my textbook is hundreds and hundreds of times the cost of day and with that it is actually taking me to take this class, so the bandwidth cost $5 and my textbook costs $50, there is an obvious problem of how the money is being spent. let's say the public schools get billions of dollars of textbooks bought for them, instantly we are already making a mistake. the problem might not be with bailout money, but where is the money going to go to? host: do you see any solutions, and the ideas? caller: personally i'm working on a collaboration platform one line. there are lots of options for people to collaborate and solve the problem of society that we have today but calling in -- no

offense, but this is wonderful, first-time caller, this is great -- but we will need as a society and c-span viewers need to start to work together. and coming up with answers that you would think would come from the top but they really don't have to any more. host: let us take a look at how some states are dealing with paying for things like education, from "the new york times."

it goes on to say arizona joins about half of other states that have raised taxes to soften the blow of deep cuts. let us go to linda, republican blind, sherman oaks, california. caller: hi. host: do you think public schools need a bailout? caller: i don't think the taxpayer should be bailing out the schools anymore, especially since some of the money it wants to give them is for teacher benefits -- pensions and benefits. and i think people like myself who did not have pensions and dale -- benefits to not -- should not have to pay these books will benefits. living in california, these costs are causing our teachers to be fired and our libraries to close. i think it has to stop and i

think we have to reevaluate pensions and benefits and take some cuts. host: looking at other states. oregon successfully placed a general tax increase before voters who in january approved levy on corporations and wealthy. claudette, democrats line, oklahoma. good morning. caller: first of all, i think that many of these school districts should have possibly manage to their budgets a little bit better and they should have gone a little bit planning on their own. but many of these schools were caught up in their unfunded mandates from all the past eight

for 10 years, and especially the "no child left behind." it was pretty costly legislation. but no money for it. and the schools had to pay for it themselves. but do i think that -- yes, the public-school will probably need some type of bailout as a direct result of the overall recession. but a wholesale bailout, know. the schools will have to manage their money just like everybody else does. but your priorities would just go like everything else. you're lower income areas, they will probably need more than the better funded school districts. host: let us take a look a comment from twitter.

the proposalng to to get legislation of $23 billion to states to help with education funding. let's change gears and talk about the white house state dinner last night. we are joined by patrick gavin from politico. good morning, thank you for joining us. we are eager to hear from you. tell us about the guest list and who attended and why were they there. guest: you get a pretty good mix of political types and celebrity types. yet everybody from virginia governor tim kane, bill richardson on the political side, to either of -- eva longoria, george lopez, beyonce, jay-z. they work for months on the guest list and they tried to call a lot of folks, both in the political and celebrity

community that have ties or links to the visiting country, and in this case, mexico. host: the first lady had a special guest. "the new york times" say they work in the other washington, the city that does not transform every four years. they work for social service organizations and nonprofits. guest: one thing they also tried to do is use these events as an opportunity to obviously -- a lot of glitz and glamour, but they also tried to invite folks from the community, which is what michelle obama did, bringing in a lot of volunteers and individuals who are working on issues on a nonprofit level, related to the country. that is not only nicaean sweep and a good way -- nice and sweet and a good way to reward people but also a way to project an image that is not all glitz and glamour, but that there is serious work being done, and

that is the case. and i think by bringing in a lot of volunteers and people working within the community, it is a great way to say that there is some serious work that takes place. host: how does the invitation process work and how do you rsvp? guest: it is fairly simple. if you get an invite from the white house social secretary, juliana smoot, longtime democratic fund raiser, used to work with ray lahood in the department of transportation, and this was her first one. a lot of eyeballs focused on her obviously because of the party crasher incident at the last state dinner. all the names get fairly vetted and checked receive the service. you get invited, you respond. you have to bring the invitation to the white house. there is always a lot of security. obviously bit more this time around because of the incident in november with the indian

state dinner. so there were three security checkpoints getting into the white house. your ability. to bring a forged invite is almost nil. it worked out well. as far as we know right now there were no attempted party crashers at last night's event. host: your colleagues at politico start off a story saying -- let us get this out of the way. there were no crashers. guest: there were not. although it is interesting, the people who grew to infamy after the november incident, they actually were spotted dining just a few blocks away from the white house. they are sort of known for their ability to attract attention and publicity and i have no doubt it was a purposeful move to try to get as close to the white house on the next day dinner as possible. so, you are right, there were no

party crashers but the original party crashers were certainly out and about and perhaps looking to be spotted. host: let us talk about who was not invited. members of congress, some prominent members, members of the hispanic caucus not on the guest list. guest: it is always a struggle because a lot of these events -- last night's event had 200 people and an additional 100 invited for dessert. you cannot invite everybody. you not only need to the right sort of a broad of re from the supreme court, congress, cabinet, hollywood, the nonprofit world, etcetera, so you cannot obviously bring everybody. that will inevitably lead to some people feeling snubbed but most people realize the white house is generally do not use state dinners to snub people. if you were not invited, it was potentially an oversight but more than likely the harsh reality of the fact that they

only have so many tickets. and some people amazingly actually turn it down senator harry reid had to decline. he had a good reason. he was busy working on the financial regulation efforts on capitol hill. but more than likely everybody gets invited pretty much says yes. host: a couple of members of congress to put pressure on the present on immigration reform were not invited. did immigration reform, up last night? was the top political? guest: it was a little bit. especially the arizona law is a big deal and it came up. president calderon of mexico mention it in his remarks. president obama then did it about yesterday. the two are in agreement on the particular area of the law, and that they are not over the moon about it. but i think one of the reports coming out of last night was that -- the second most asked

question decide what you are wearing was the immigration bill. this dinner more than most in recent memory, truly was given a timely nature of the issue, an opportunity for people in the diplomatic and political community to talk about what is a really serious issue between the two countries and how they can work together on it. host: any surprises? guest: one's surprise, i think -- not so much a surprise, perhaps a group. the chief of protocol at one of the hollywood moments where he managed to slip and fall down and that sort of struck people as perhaps involvement -- emblematic of how hollywood d.c. is, that that is a big goof. hollywood -- slim, one of the richest man was there. and beyonce performed, and looks like they -- the president let

his daughter stay up late last night to watch that. host: thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you. host: our topic is public schools, they need a bailout. we have been looking at the financial issues. our inspiration came from randy weingarten -- "public schools need a bailout." we want to hear what you think. lexington, ky. chad, independent color. what do you think? caller: i personally feel we should do anything to help the young minds of america to promote free thinking and in the end great team in being americans. and i like the idea of giving the money to the parents. i think one of your twitter users said letting the schools compete for it. host: are you concerned about raising the debt and how to pay

for it in the end? caller: i think in the end if we really took the time to make better, smarter children, the future leaders will be able to control such things. host: looking at other financial news from "the wall street journal." the disabled face tough choices as states slash medicaid costs.

another fact of economic times. indiana, doug, republican line. what do you think? caller: as i am looking these things over and thinking about it, washington, d.c., had a tremendous program where they had under privilege -- underprivileged children were given vouchers to go to private schools. it was successful. the children were learning and gaining and as soon as obama got an office, he stopped that program for these kids, these poor, underprivileged children. now, i agree with your twitter user, if we were to use a voucher system and the parents were given a choice again and control were to go back to the private sector, that we would find our children excelling in areas in which they did not excel right now. host: let's go to annette, democrat line. he is calling from alabama -- emmit. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i do believe we need to begin to divert funds to the school system, but we definitely need to rethink the formula. i have my kid in a voucher program -- i kind of disagree with the guy, because it seems like the school, even the christian academy, they took the money and then just barded building in making the school bigger and the student teacher ratio changed and they began to read the same problems the public school system had. i think we definitely need to steer money into that direction, but the greed factor even gets into the school system. right now and the tp -- pta in huntsville, alabama, and it looks like anytime there is a fund-raiser, a candy bar cost twice as much and equality fundraiser and the passage to parents. you cannot just the money into it. but i agree with your twitter

caller, doing something to get parents involved. host: looking at some other news, and is related to the state dinner we were just talking about with politico's patrick gavin. mexican president called around used a rare visit to the white house to denounce the arizona law as discriminatory. this is from "the wall street journal." but looking at the story from "the new york times." as leaders mulled policy -- looking at the personal side of immigration. how michelle bauman to occur mexican counterpart to in maryland public school and one little girl raised her hand -- my mom -- she said barack obama

is taking away -- taking everybody with the does not help papers. the first lady responded that that is something with the work on, that people have the right kind of papers. among does not help papers, the girl said. the new york times writes -- the encounter brought home a direct and unusually personal with the complicated dynamics of the nation's problems with illegal immigration. that related to the state dinner and the mexican president's visit to washington. edwina is on our independent line. caller: good morning. one thing i would like to say, public schools definitely need a bailout. the reason i say that is that the illinois is in a very bad financial situation. the governor has already indicated that he is going to cut the education budget about

$1.4 billion. alas amount i heard that he would cut, a minimum of the city of chicago would lose something like $326 million, which would encourage class sizes up to 35 students. not interested in going along with the governor in raising the sales tax 1%. but what it will do is the minority schools in the poor neighborhoods, the kids are going to suffer once again. it seems like everything is being done on the back of students. and these kids are our future. so i think it is time for the president, will i love and i have the greatest support for and i voted for him, needs to take and come to a point and make this a priority, that we cannot let the students of the future be dealt shortcomings

because of the budget crisis. it is time for them to take a stand, make sure there is sufficient money, but we did not increase class sizes. host: frederick, maryland. republican mind. anne. caller: i have a little bit of i definitely think schools need some help in this hard time, but at the same time i think everyone thinks that children, education -- can you hear me? host: we can hear you loud and clear. guest: children's education is all based on what they learned in school. if you look at some of the public schools that are supposedly really bad, you have immigrant kids that go to the schools and overachieved. i think the public school system, even though it is broken, a lot of the students under achieve the resources they

have. i am sure in china, like countries where math and science are high up, i think the class size is 50 kids. so it is not all about class sizes and funding. a lot has to do with parents and culture. so, i think maybe to bailout public schools to a degree, but it needs to be done differently. we are already spending about $10,000 per kid in d.c. and what are the outcomes? i do not think it all correlates to money. host: how would you increase parent involvement and getting students more motivated? caller: i really don't have the answers, but i don't think the answer is pumping in more money. i think it is just a cultural thing -- the community is -- the communities. i don't think even if we spend $30,000 per kid in d.c. that the outcomes will be any better. host: tallahassee, florida, democrats line. donald.

caller: can you hear me? host: we have a, thank you. host: i also agree that we've -- we should address -- invest in our future through the public schools. i would like to make a comment. i have not heard -- and i have been watching c-span for quite a while -- what happened to all the money that was supposed to come from but florida -- the florida lotto. i want to know if republicans stole the money along with all the other things? it was supposed of the money from the lotto went to the schools. you never hear nothing about that. that is something i would like you guys to maybe investigate and find out where this money is going to. thank you very much. host: taking a look at other top headlines from "the washington times."

also checking in with the situation in the massive oil spill in the gulf. this from "the new york times." tensions between the obama and ministration and scientific community escalating. but us go to oregon, where we have charlie on our independent line. caller: good morning. i am really tired -- we will never have a good public education system in our country

because it is not in the interest of the people selling the consumer capitalistic have an educated public. we had an educated public people would not be becoming obese because they could read the labels and they would understand health care and their bodies. so it is not in the interest of the ruling and class to have an educated public. it just isn't. education system originally came into existence to train immigrants to a single language, english, and to teach them math so they could be good workers in a factory and they could understand language and understand instructions and know how many parts they were supposed to do and read the simple instructions so we have a whole bunch of immigrants coming in so we have a public education system. right now with a multilingual stuff we have in the country, we are dead in the water. in nature is defined as having a common culture and language. right -- a nation is defined as

having a common culture and language. there is an emergency, at this point because we have some of the languages people could not help each other in an emergency six weeks and because they cannot communicate. host: columbus, georgia. republican line. caller: i wanted to comment on what the guy just said. as far as them not able to read labels and they are obese and all that jazz, i think it is more that we do not feel like reading it. i have been through schools where the children felt as though nobody actually cared -- they look at how the lockers looked in the textbooks and they were not interested because they do not think anybody cares. fully capable of gaining knowledge and applying it to a job that will help run our future, but i don't think their attention is being directed in a way to make learning fun, to

make it important at the same time. i think it is really -- basically they are being taught by the media and friends instead of having the interest in the school where they can look around and appreciate what they're getting rather than look at it and saying, these bathrooms look like -- i'm just going to come here, and tell time until my mom gets off and that will be it. host: how would you fix that? more funding for schools to have better bathrooms, lockers, places for students to be? guest: if you go to a place where you feel they did not care about -- caller: if you go to a place where you feel they did not care about you, you do not care about it. as far as the theory of evolution goes, you to some that, that we were born from amigos and stuff like that. -- amoebas and stuff like that.

far down the line, it may not be perfect but we could have a focus in keeping the youth of today interested in learning rather than something you could choose to do. he did not have a choice. this is what you need to have a life because if you don't, you are going to learn a trade -- which is nothing wrong with that. i have a friend who is a plumber and it's good money doing it. but i know he would probably rather have taken a different route. host: david r. democrats line from north carolina. caller: hello? host: good morning. caller: i don't understand why the schools should be lacking for anything. they are supposed to be getting money from the lottery. they get money from the games. two or three games, and made enough money off of two games to pay for anything the school does, the team needs. where is the money going to? and then they want to lay off

teachers. all these people will call in -- the lottery is supposed to be for the school system. the only let people win in certain spots. they blocked areas out where people can't win. it is supposed be going to the state. host: the next caller is from houston, texas, ontario on the independent line. caller: yes. i'm looking at your topic, and i believe that the subjects jiging bequest -- the question of public school funding, when it gets compromise, i think it just discourages the younger generation. i am 24 years old and i have

always been and of myself when it comes to -- a lot of kids, a lot of my peers, interested in politics and stuff like this. but it is very important for the younger generation to try to understand things like this. the trickle effect, how it affects them. party, party, whatever. but at the same time -- when you take funding out of the public schools, it just discourages kids as far as motivation and the kind of takes the focus off of the motivation part of education. host: jerry, republican line, ohio. caller: good morning.

all the teachers that i had when i was in school that had done a good job teaching were people that did not go from college straight into teaching, they worked at something. they had a job doing something, and these people are the ones that didn't really participate in the politics that are in the schools. that is what is wrong with the schools, the politics, and i know because i went to school in the south. host: you think it is different in the south and other places? caller: yes, because in the rural areas in the south, the controlled -- both

political parties. i am talking like, say, northeastern kentucky. they control both political parties, and it is the same everywhere because that is where the jobs are at and it is going to get more like that, too, because there are less jobs now in these other areas and they are all tied into somebody's cousin, he gets a job, even though he is not as qualified as a guy -- i have seen them -- not the superintendent, but the school board members, run their own kids off of a teacher and job because they cannot tow the line. host: looking at the editorial in "the wall street journal," issue concludes by saying --

that -- thanks for all the calls. we will take a break and madeleine albright will join us next. >> on "after words" ballston radio talk-show host michael gramm defended the tea party movement from accusations from the left while making a few accusations of his own.

finding the entire weekend schedule at book tv.org and follow us on twitter. >> it gives you a sense of what the country is thinking at this moment. >> d.c. journalists looks behind institution of the u.s. senate, the upper house, sunday on c-span's "q&a." >> supreme court justice clarence thomas on the confirmation process. >> do not have a front spirits is up there, -- i do not have fun experiences up there and i did not was that on anyone. and also, something justice white said when i first got here has stuck with me, that it doesn't matter how you got here, it matters what you do after you have got here. >> with a new supreme court nominee heading into the confirmation process, learn more

about the nation's highest court in c-span's latest book "the supreme court." pages of candid conversation with all of the justices providing unique insight about the courts. available now in hardcover and also as an e-book. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our guest, secretary madeleine albright, former secretary of state under the clinton administration and she is on the nato strategic. we will talk about nato, but for someone to checking with the about what was going on in south korea. cognizant latest news from "the new york times" about the allegation -- guest: first of all, there have

been instances between north and south korea and the 50 years that have been divided in this way. this is a serious issue. what i find so interesting is the south koreans really took a lot of care in trying to sort out what happened. the ship goes down, they were trying to figure out what it was from something internal, and they knew the seriousness, that they would accuse the north koreans would be part. i think what will have to happen here is an awful lot of diplomatic work to try to be escalate this issue because it could become a very serious. secretary clinton is on her way to china for other reasons, to do an economic dialogue, but i am sure the subject will come up. the chinese do have an influence over the north koreans. and as you pointed out from the article, i think there will be movement toward the united nations in order to look to get

international condemnation of this because we cannot have no. 3 just be a rogue state out there. they have the capability of nuclear weapons, and their behavior in terms of attacking ships or causing problems is something that just cannot be in the international community. host: you will be testifying later today in front of the senate farm relations committee on the nato report that came out earlier this week, nato 2020. the goals for nato, the shifting needs for nato, compared to the last assessment, it get us started on how much has changed. guest: first of all, natal just celebrated its 60th anniversary. -- nato just celebrated its 60th anniversary. it was set up as an alliance against the soviet union. the soviet union disappears and the question is what is nato's relevance. in the 1990's we really did determine it was a very

important tool with dealing -- for dealing with problems out of area, in the balkans, for instance. so, as people were concerned about what was happening to the internal membership of nato, they knew they were affected by ethnic cleansing and killings in the balkans. the last strategic concept was written in 1999, before all of the new country joined nato. there were 12 originally, then 16, and now 28. that is something that has to be taken into the duration. and the other issue is 9/11. so a lot has happened since the last strategic concept. what this one is about is to try to reassure the central membership that an attack on one is an attack on all and also to make clear that if there are evens, such as the balkans and the afghanistan issue or other parts -- global problems like nuclear proliferation, that nato

will also be there for its members on these outside areas. host: what do you see the needs of nato being, the global means that nato can provide when it comes to afghanistan? guest: the global needs of the following. i think what we did in the initial review was to identify the problems of the world. and there are many of them. and 90 -- many are global, in terms of fighting terrorism, cyber security, energy security, nuclear proliferation, drug-trafficking. so, nato does have some responsibilities in those areas, working with the members of nato as well as a host of partners. in afghanistan, we looked at afghanistan quite a lot and we looked at the lessons that really showed that has to be a lot more planning, working together, training, and various nato activities that are very important in afghanistan working

with the civilian component. host: compared to the first decades of natal, in the coming decade it would be less likely in the center stage and rather more a team player. guest: there are a lot of interesting things that came out to of this work of a group of experts, is that nato could not do everything. as i said, in the first meeting, we put all of our problems on the table and then all of a sudden we started thinking that, well, nato could not mean everything to everybody and an interesting image came out, which is that it cannot be like a swiss army knife with all the elements pulled out because you could not even pick up. so, we had to determine what nato would be really good at. in one of the other seminars it was very evident that nato had a lot of partners -- not just members, but partners. and the team player comes from the fact that in any event -- afghanistan, for instance -- you have a lot of partners.

there are 44 countries that are in afghanistan and those partnerships are a way to have sort of a force multiplier and nato could be a team player. host: madeleine albright is the principle of the albright group llc and chairman of albright capital management and also served as secretary of state in the clinton administration. she will take your calls. let us get our first caller on the line in just a moment. but first want to ask, how easy the role of china -- as potentially an ally? guest: china is obviously a rising power and a very important in a whole host of issues dealing with some of the issues that i mentioned -- energy security or nuclear proliferation. so we think china can be a

partner. interestingly enough to have already been very helpful -- for instance, dealing with piracy. they see that as part of their problem because they want to keep the sea lanes open. they participated in some peacekeeping operations with bait " end of -- with the u. n. north dakota, a partner in a variety of ways. what we have done putting this draft together -- and let me make something clear to you. we did not write the strategic concept. we were a group of experts, 12 of us, that in fact were doing a lot of consulting, a lot of work in terms of putting together a document that this kind of the building block for what did secretary general is going to do, which is to reconsult, and then taken to a summit with heads of state in lisbon. we did a lot of work to pull things mixed together to give

recommendations to him. host: can you describe the a little bit more the process the group went through? guest: first of all, how it all began. what happened, after the 60 anniversary of nato, the heads of state got together and said there needed to be a new strategic concept. the secretary general was directed to write it and then they decided to name a group of experts -- there were 12 of us. we were named as individuals for expertise, not necessarily to represent our countries. we then decided we really needed to do something that had not been done in previous strategic concepts, which is to reach out to the public and also have a more transparency in everything that we were doing. we wanted to make sure that our public understood what was going on because this is an alliance of democracies, and what has to happen is our public has to support it. so we had seven bars -- seminars

where we discussed various issues, originally putting problems on the table and lessons that were learned out of afghanistan and the balkans and what we do with the various partnerships, and then what the defense capabilities were. we consulted in all of the lot of's and we spent a time talking to each other and putting the documents together. it has been very interesting third learned of lot. host: our first caller is from oklahoma. lucas is on our democrats line. caller: my question is, if we do find irrefutable proof that north korea was a responsible for the sinking of the south korean ship, what non-military action can and will the u.s. take? guest: i think what is available to be done is, first of all, more diplomatic effort. i think this is where we hope,

for instance, that the chinese might be helpful, other countries in the region might be helpful as a diplomatic effort. also the possibility of taking the issue to the united nations security council, working on additional sanctions and measures against north korea. they already have a quake -- quite a few sanctions on. but there are ways to pressure in diplomatic and economic sticks and carrots, as they are called. i think this is serious. the north koreans are already isolated. they need to understand that what they have done is unacceptable and i do think that there are these ways of getting international pressure. host: we have this news from the associated press. one of three americans jailed in iran said the loneliness of captivity is the hardest part, in the first public comments since their arrest in july. of those were the three american hikers who were along the iraqi border and they were arrested

after about 10 months ago and accused of spying. what is the diplomatic course of action? guest: they have been released, but the tragedy is when someone is captured, a country in which we have no relations, diplomatic relations, it is always -- always harder to move the process forward. but it is in various places -- we have talked about north korea before -- the journalists who crossed over and by accident and all of a sudden they were captured and it took former president clinton to get them out. so, i don't know the background of how these people were released. i heard some of them this morning. it is great that they are out but it is unbelievable that they were sequestered for so long. host: what is the relationship with iran?

how easy it playing out? we saw secretary of state delegate clinton talked and to the far relations committee, talking about an agreement with russia and china to bring new sanctions against iran. this from "the washington times" -- targeting the paramilitary forces that have grown to dominate iran's economy since 2005. guest: first of all, what secretary clinton was really explaining is the real teeth in the security council resolution. we had a number of resolutions on iran. the u.s. has its own sanctions against iran. but the strength of this, the new sanctions resolution, first of all, as you all the describe the elements -- the point is to try to put isolate the leadership and his iranian revolutionary guard which is responsible for some of the

military activities, a lot of control of some of the industrial infrastructure, so targeting them is very important. trying not to target the people. that is always the issue on sanctions, how to make sure that the leadership is targeted and not the people. and a big part of this resolution is they have been working on it in new york for quite some time. ambassador rice, our ambassador in new york, has been the lead on it. they agreed to the language of the permanent members of the security council, which is really important because they can veto something. there are still questions about when the going to bring the resolution up. and as you know, there has been some activity between iran, brazil, and turkey, and brazil and turkey are nonpermanent members of the security council. so, as far as i know, if they are still trying to agitate a little bit and get other

language in but what is really important is the permanent language -- members agreed. host: republican color, gary, joins us. guest: mrs. albright, i have sort of followed your career and i appreciate everything -- nine caller: mrs. albright, i've sort of followed your career and i appreciate everything you've done for the country. but when it comes to nato, i think the usefulness has sort of comes to an end. when it comes to nation building, i sort of feel that the first go to would be the u.n. instead of nato. i just feel that the usefulness of nato -- it is about time to put nation-building into the hands of the u.n. and not nato. guest: thank you very much for your kind words. let me just say, nato is not into nation-building.

nato is the most powerful military alliance in history. what has been interesting about it is that it clearly is an old alliance -- as i mentioned earlier, it was started 60 years ago for a different purpose, to defend western europe basically against the soviet invasion. i was ambassador at the united nations and i know what the u.n. can do and not do, and the question is, if you've got a very serious problem out there in terms of various conflicts, ethnic conflict, war people generally being killed and you need some kind of an armed force, i have to tell you, the united nations does not have it. .

nato has its own communications system and they have to correct -- protect that because they are command structures for how this large force operates. but also, to give security to countries. people were concerned, they heard of what happened in the estonian when there was a sniper attack. it did not bring the country down. -- cyber attack. if there seemed to be something going on, at first, there would be consultations to figure out how the alliance could act together, but also be prepared if it was something that would bring the country down. we mainly put it on the table.

if you coupled it with what admiral blair said, that cyber security is our number one threat, we felt that nato needed to address it. host: night in buffalo. -- mike in buffalo. caller: in the time you have left public service, how have you to find the role of post governmental work? you talk about the role of the people going in between the

private and public sector, benefiting from one or the other. i guess my question to you it is how have you need to find that role of going between the public and private sector and where it is not about filling a corporatocracy? guest: it is interesting to hold high-level office and then leave it. anyone who says that they are glad that the big jobs are over is lying. if you like public-service and you have had the opportunity to represent the country, frankly, i was sorry when it came to an end. i was trying to figure out how

to re-challenge myself. i am part of an organization that supports democracy abroad. i also know that you do not have democracy if you do not have a middle-class. there is no middle class if there is no functioning of economy. you cannot have that if people are not interested in working in the new economy. i have combined in life where i am focused on public-private partnerships. i have a business. we do a lot of work abroad. i tried to help, in terms of getting the economic and political stability in a variety of countries. i give speeches, i write books.

i have taken on this product that i was just asked to do by nato. i was just asked to do something else, in conjunction with president obama's speech in cairo, on how to recount to muslims around the world. secretary clinton had asked me to help in that. some people think that i am overstretched, but i am having a good time. i will never deny my favorite drum was being secretary of state. -- job was being secretary of state. host: next phone call. caller: i was looking through my husband's magazines, and the title was where we are.

it shows that we are present in 16 different countries. what are we there, how much does it cost? are we not leaving all one of footprints around the planet? >>guest: the indicted states is the world's largest economy. -- the united states is the world's largest economy. i have always said that we are indefensible. our role is to serve by the power of example. since the last election, people have been looking up to american leadership. we do have troops in a variety of places where we are helping to provide stability, but we also provide assistance to a number of countries.

the reason we do it is not only because we are altruistic, it is good and in america's interest to have friends on the world. when you look at some of the problems out there, proliferation of nuclear weapons, drug trafficking, energy security, those are food issues, health issues. those are not issues that we can deal with alone. you need a friend. it is good for america. we are much better off when there are friendly, stable countries around us. host: how does the u.s. see nato, europe, in terms of its potential? guest: it is the link between the united states, north

america, and europe, to show our support. back to the last question, the europeans are our best partners in looking out for problems in the world. from the perspective of europe, they are glad to see the united states there in a variety of fashions. not everyone agrees hal, -- how, but i do think that they like it. host: a twitter response -- guest: that is what we were doing in the strategic concept. first of all, we did not have the answers to everything.

this was not the kind of a land where there were troops massed ready to do with troops on the other side. now we are looking at a much more connecticut's approach, understanding what the new threats are, understanding that there has to be a civilian component to the work that takes place, military and civilian. if you look at afghanistan, it is that combination. we talked about some of the energy issues. we said that it had to become agile and versatile to deal with those problems. host: james from texas. republican line. caller: good morning, secretary all right. i just wanted to ask you about

obama's foreign policy. -- secretary all righalbright. i want you to outline your opinion of foreign-policy. i forgot to mention this to the call screener, but have we had a president since nixon who put such great emphasis on foreign policy? guest: first of all, i think most presidents have put a great emphasis on foreign policy. i worked with president carter and president clinton and they both spent some time on foreign policy. i think what president obama has done is to restore america's image abroad. he has worked hard to deal with two hot wars in iraq and afghanistan. he has also reached out for

partners in both of those areas. he also has done something that i think is really spectacular in terms of the nuclear issue. first of all, he made a speech in prague where he called for a world free of nuclear weapons. he signed a start treaty with the russians to limit the number of nuclear weapons. he has now supported the non- proliferation treaty which is keeping us safe, if properly reviewed. he has also done a lot of pushing on climate change, but people believe is difficult but has to be dealt with. he has also been emphasis on dealing with the lack of a peace process in the middle east. i think he has done a lot in foreign policy and has restored america's reputation and image,

which shows you which side of the aisle i am on. host: barre in florida. caller: good morning, secretary. i appreciate your service to our country. i have a comment to and -- comment and question that i would like you to respond to. how effective are sanctions when you have so many different countries that you are putting sanctions on? cuba has sanctions for 37 years. iran, north korea. at what point does sanctions not work? once you have so many countries that are sanctioned, they will start trading with themselves. at some point, sanctions ceases to be an effective tool. guest: i teach at georgetown,

and i teach a course about how you make things happen in foreign policy. i call it the national security toolbox. what we have learned is, as much as any country wants to affect foreign policy, there are not a lot of tools. the basic tool is diplomacy. that is the way that country's talk to each other, resolving problems by making compromise. the tool on the other side is the use of force. one has to be careful when you use force. it always has to be on the table, but you have to be careful. in between are the economic ones, the positive ones like a in trade, and then the negative ones like sanctions and embargoes. how the sanctions are a tool that needs to be used carefully.

we have learned a lot about them, -- and we mentioned this earlier in iran. we do not want to hurt the people but target the leadership. you have asked a hard question because sometimes they work. all bilateral sanctions to bring down apartheid -- multi lateral sanctions helped to bring down apartheid in south africa. the question is, how long do you keep them on, and under what circumstances can you remove them for good behavior, changes in behavior? there are not a lot of tools that any country has to make sure that a proper affect comes out. it is a hard issue, and when you are a policymaker, that is what iwhat makes it so

difficult. caller: let me give you an outline of myself. i fought in the bulge. i fought near cologne. i remember what war is. you said to colin powell once, why do we have such a superb military if we are not going to use it? that is why i am against it because there are always people like you who are quick to send american boys -- i was 19 when i jumped into normandy -- willing to send the young men off to die. that is how we got into iraq, vietnam, and how george bush sr. invaded panama. that kind of military is like letting a can play with matches.

i think it is a disgrace that you have that kind of attitude you and everyone else in washington. guest: thank you for saving my life because i was a little girl in england during world war ii. it was thanks to americans like you that many of us were able to survive. i went to honor people at the battle of the ball, so i am grateful to you. -- bulge, so i am grateful to you. people just like us are being killed somewhere and we have the possibility to help them. that helps us, too. i am sorry that you feel the way that you do, but i appreciate everything that you did to make sure that people who were suffering during world war ii were kept safe. host: laguna west, california.

mike. caller: madam secretary, i differ with you on the effect of sanctions on ending apartheid. a little-known fact it is common in south africa, the most popular television program at the time was the cosby show -- "the cosby show." white south africans own most of the television stations. through the ordereextraordinary behavior of them, and they realized that they were humans, too. finally, and they banned the show. my larger point is trade and tourism, people to people

mixing has a very big effect. they and have your comments please? guest: first of all, about apartheid, i just saw "invictus" and rugby held. -- helped. when i was describing my tool kit, i talked about some of the positive aspects of trade, aid. i think there needs to be a combination. i think there is a certain effectiveness to sanctions that are properly targeted against the leadership. i think they play a role, along

with the use of force, and ending some of the ethnic cleansing among the serbs in the balkans. there are some who would argue that the embargo in cuba have been on too long. there are some who believe sanctions against north korea have been useful. personally, i believe we need to keep sanctions in the toolbox and figure out how to make them as effective as possible, but also to use positive trade and aid, and to go back to bill cosby, show the best of america, in terms of communication and an image of the country that is free. host: recently, "the new york times" --

your group talk about breeding conditions for success in afghanistan. can you take us through your vision of how nato can get us there? guest: first of all, let me mention how we deal at with afghanistan in the report. our building blocks are for next decade, not the next seven months. we look at afghanistan as, what lessons can be learned from it? first of all, if nato is to be involved in a situation such as afghanistan, it is important that we plan together, that we have a proper command structure to make sure that there is a military and civilian component. that is what is really evident. general petraeus and general mcchrystal had made clear that it cannot just be a military

solution. we looked at afghanistan as an important nato mission, more from the side of lessons learned. many of the country that are supporting the troops, they have what are known as national caveats, their own rules. if something happens somewhere else, there needs to be in command structure that does not allow for that. host: ron, republican in new york. caller: thank you for your service, secretary. the caller described do before as a hawk, i would like to know his definition of a tough.

if you were secretary of state right now, what would you accept from iran? what would you like to see some of them? in my opinion, i believe this is an incredibly evil regime. they are behind killing our boys in lebanon. they are behind hezbollah, hamas. russia, china, turkey, brazil are of no help to us. they are all chasing the dollar. nobody wants war, but these people only understand force. guest: first of all, there are several parts to what is going on now. in terms of the nuclear proliferation problem, what has to happen is they have to submit to international inspections to make sure that

they are living up to the non- proliferation treaty. that is the legal aspect of this. frankly, they have a right to a peaceful program, if it is under inspection, but not a nuclear weapons program. i agree about their behavior. the question is, how do you deal with the regime like that? the question also is whether or not force would work. in terms of my previous discussion with the tool box, i would not take force off the table, but based on what i know -- and i have not read it entirely into the intelligence of this -- but it is hard to just use force to get rid of their nuclear program without an awful lot of problems.

first of all, its effectiveness, and then, then supporting more terrorist organizations. this is a problem. i agree. but i do think there is a method in trying to get the sanctions resolution on the table and getting more international pressure against them. host: carla. which talk, kansas. caller: thank you for your service to carpentry. 20-year navy veteran. two questions. how do you think hillary clinton is doing? is there any significance to your beautiful brooch this morning? guest: first of all, i think she is doing a terrific. she has a very hard job. just listening to the president, you know how many issues are out there. i think she is tackling them

very well. she is a terrific team player and a focused person with a great imagination and direction. she is on her way to china. last night, she was here with the mexican president. she is full of energy and great ideas. i am glad that you asked about this. it was given to me by the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and it represents america. there is an eagle in the middle and four perles for liberty, prosperity, equality, and freedom. host: spartanburg, south carolina. caller: good morning, can you hear me ok? good morning, secretary. i am a libertarian by affiliation. my question will dovetail off

of the previous two, given the recent revelations of the deals brokered by brazil and turkey. i am not sure what is in it for turkey except for the status of brokering a deal. i think it undercuts our foreign policy. it appears that we have been out-maneuvered by ahmadinejad. i kind of agree from the recent "wall street journal" article that we had been outmaneuvered i agree with you that the military option is a disgraceful one, but it seems like diplomacy has been undercut by this latest maneuver. guest: first of all, iran is a

terribly difficult problem. let's have that for starters. in many ways, they were the ones that benefited the most from the war in iraq. it gave them more status. what they want is more power in the region. i think we have to pursue the idea of getting international pressure against them. i find the turkey brazil to issue an interesting one. they are not permanent members of the council. what we are seeing is a different world where the united states is a major power, but there are other countries out there that are trying to show that they have a role to play. brazil clearly does. turkey sees itself as a regional hub, a country that wants to play a broker role. secretary clinton talked about this.

there is a sense that the iranians must finally get it, that they are in trouble, and they are trying to sort out some way to find more friends and get a way to get there in rich fuel out of the country. from my own perspective, i believe we need to focus on what is happening at the united nations and see whether the turks and brazilians can be more a part of the u.n. it is a serious issue, i do not think we have been not maneuvered -- not maneuvered -- outmaneuvered. the tool box really shows the diplomacy in the tools.

we are trying diplomacy, economic tools. we are keeping the use of force on the table, but to the rear. it is a difficult issue that ultimately needs to have the international pressure. host: madeleine albright, chair of the nato strategic concept. as well, the 64 secretary of state. thank you for joining us. coming up next, a congressman eric cantor. >> and senate democrats will try again today to advance a sweeping federal regulation bill. appearing within reach of the 60 votes threshold needed. the legislation would set up a mechanism to watch out for risks in the financial system, make it easier to liquidate failing firms, and write new rules for

complex securities helping to precipitate the economic crisis. it would also create a consumer protection agency. republicans argue that the bill has grown worse since on the senate floor and does not address the root causes of the 2008 financial meltdown. the u.s. government is not alone in ceding responsibility to the oil industry for the design of a key safety features on offshore rigs. it is a trend coming under scrutiny worldwide following the blowout in the gulf of mexico critics are calling for a re- examination of the system that puts crucial safety decisions in the hands of corporations motivated by profit. an emotional reunion in iran as the mother of three american the

jailed individuals hugged and kissed their children. they were arrested 10 months ago near the iraqi border accused of spying. finally, in geneva, nation adopted a global strategy to reduce alcohol abuse, wrecking decades of one of the leading causes of death and facing down an industry where a of new taxes and advertising controls in developing markets. the world health organization's 193 member states endorsed a series of optional measures to combat excessive drinking, from lorain blood alcohol levels, to restricting the powers of bars and stores. host: congressman eric cantor, republican of virginia. thank you for being with us this morning. opinion piece in the wall street journal calls into question --

"the wall street journal" calls into question the effectiveness of republicans in the election from tuesday. it says -- guest: i think what we saw in the primary fights the other day is an extreme frustration on the part of the american people. first of all, washington is not listening. second of all, the priority is being set by the obama administration and policy majority does not reflect what people want done. it is about the economy, having people find their economic security once again. while washington continue to spend, and incur more debt, people are afraid about the prospects of higher taxes and

interest rates. a permanent state of recession. there is no question, republicans do, and we are about promoting more and better ideas. i am confident that when the election occurs, the people of the country will look to republicans to once again bring the addenda -- agenda back to the center to reflect the content conservative ideas that our party is about. the anti-government, low taxes, free markets. host: in pennsylvania, the democrat was able to win. it says that republicans were out-smarted. guest: as a republican, i am disappointed, but you win some, you lose some. no question, that district has

been in democratic district for some time. but if you look around the country, the collection that occurred in new jersey, virginia, massachusetts, the country is ready for reinstituting real change. once they elected as president in the door to congress, they felt that they would have a government that would fix washington. unfortunately, washington has not gotten the message. we have introduced a program called youcut. if you go on-line and google youcut -- or bing it -- and then you can contribute your ideas on the best way to cut the deficit. the people of this country want to see washington listening to

them. that is not occurring. we are giving people a direct opportunity to pass their vote. each week, the winning proposal will come to the floor for a vote. today is the day for the winning item to be voted on in the house. we will be bringing it to the floor. host: tell us about it. guest: this will save taxpayers $2.4 billion this year. it is a program put in place under the stimulus bill. it had good intentions, was meant to help people that were above work. what was discovered is that the money had gone to people who used it to buy personal and electronics. i think most of people would disagree with that use of their taxpayer dollars. that is why this program received the most votes.

almost 280,000 votes. this program got 180,000 votes. this was a bipartisan program. cutting the deficit is a bipartisan issue. each week, we are going to do it. we have five new proposals online right now. i would encourage your listeners and viewers to go to youcut and cast their vote. this is our opportunity to come together and get washington to tighten its belt, like every american family. host: cq talking about your program. even if the house passed it, the senate would be unwilling to go along with it. is this a gesture or do you think that it can result in something concrete? guest: we are asking the other

side of the aisle to join us. cutting the deficit is not a partisan issue. it is something that all americans agree on. we need to get this culture in washington away from spending and back to saving american tax dollars. this is the way to do it. the reason this program has been so successful is because it puts people first. it says, we are going to listen to you. congress has not been listening to the american people, and this is their opportunity to take a vote, in accord with the public. host: morristown, new jersey. kevin on the democratic line. caller: i was calling in to get your opinion on the last election. everyone is always looking forward to the next election.

what is your view of the last election, as a republican. i am a democrat-independent -- maybe more of a libertarian these days. ron paul was fantastic in his debate, and being demeaned by fox news. i think he represents the true represent -- republican party. what we have seen in the past 15 years is the emergence of the neocons, starting with the bush era. i wanted to know about what you thought about his chances? as a democrat, i would even vote for him. guest: as far as ron paul is concerned, i guess you are talking about his prospects for

2012. we had midterm elections in six months. that will be in a tactful to what happens in 2012. number one come it is about who in the party will be responsive to the people. which party cares about the opinions of the people? which party will pursue an agenda that will get the economy going again? republicans have been focused over the past year and a half, on trying to work with this administration and majority in congress. unfortunately, speaker pelosi in her majority have been unwilling to work in a bipartisan fashion to fix the problems that people are facing. we have got to cut the deficit, we have to change the culture in washington. again, this is why we are talking about this very successful yooucut program on

line. how can democrats or republicans turned their back on people who have opined online on monday by to see in budget cutting? republicans have said, we know the way that america is successful. we have to rely on creativity, innovation in the private sector. what we have seen over the past year and a half is an agenda that has gone in the other direction. america has seen a washington that has taken over the auto industry, health insurance industry, student loan industry, killing tens of thousands of jobs. some people accuse the administration of taking over the internet. there is a bill in the senate that would take over the banking industry. in my view, america is at a critical crossroads.

we have to make a decision as to what kind of country we want to be. our agenda is to make sure america is the place that we know, that is built on the hard work and efforts of people, not what happened in washington. host: you and others have predicted that you are going to win the upcoming elections. if you do not come is it a failure? guest: first of all, because it is a critical crossroads, a time when aamerican are concerned about the agenda, republicans will serve as a check and balance on this unfettered power. what we have run down is -- what we have right now is hen our majority. if we do not change this,

unfortunately, we are going to see ourselves going to a destination very much like greece. there are two options here. one is the direction like a country of greece. a public model heavy on onerous regulations, higher taxes, and political obligations in this town. in turn, weekend return back to that land of opportunity and freedom that most people in america can say that their ancestors came here for. that is what we should be about. host: linda. minneapolis. caller: i hope you can answer my question without any talking points. i have two questions. does your wife worked for bank of america? guest: no, she does not.

caller: did you vote for the -- against financial reform when it came through the house? guest: yes, i did. caller: my final question is, ron paul, he was the republican candidate in kentucky. he is against the civil rights act, he is against education. guest: i am not familiar with his position on those issues. host: he said last night that he supports many aspects of the civil-rights act when it comes to the government, but has concerns about business is being able to set their own rules and standards. guest: not being familiar with his position, i cannot comment. host: ok, we are moving on.

ralph. chicago, illinois. caller: i believe the drug on moors is bankrupting us physically, morally, financially. half of americans want medical marijuana. many past presidents have called to end the war on drugs. maybe you could call an immediate end to the 100-year war on drugs? guest: i disagree with your assertion that we should stop the war on drugs. we need to focus on global mobile population in the country that can fall prey to the kind of individuals pushing these drugs onto our streets and neighborhoods. i disagree with a sense that we should have an open season as far as illegal drugs. i think we should do everything we can to keep illegal drugs out of our neighborhoods and

schools. host: year bond. laurel, maryland. caller: i have a comment and question. i think the republican party has come up with every trick in the book to get back into the white house. i must admit, you have played a very good game this year. my comment is from the commentary on fox news, rush limbaugh, and other right- wingers, tea party. what do you think of the way they have behaved? guest: right now, we have a situation in this country where most people who are independent -- independence-minded, trying to discern what is working, in terms of politics -- and very,

very frustrated. they want to see accountability in washington folks associated with the tea party movement are no different than most independents in the country that are fed up with a lack of leadership in washington. they are tired of the partisanship and bickering. they want washington to deliver results. they want to see results that will restore america to the notion that we know america is. america has always been the place of freedom and opportunity. to me, it is like the statue of liberty. that is why people come here. no other place in the world does it matter so little where you come from and not -- and more about where you are going. the more we see washington expand, the more involvement we see our government, the less

freedom we are going to have. i agree with what you say about people's ire and frustration. we have to admit, washington has failed. people are looking for balance in this town. they are looking for responsiveness to their needs. first and foremost, it is about getting the economy going again. people connect washington and the spending sprees as an inhibitor to their jobs, growth, opportunity. if you want to participate, i think where we all should come together, we have to produce the size of washington and the deficit, or we will turn into greece. host: is that what you attribute

to the victory of dr. paul in kentucky? guest: yes, they want to see accountability in politicians, no doubt. host: randy. virginia. caller: good morning. i am from williamsburg, virginia. i consider myself a republican. operate a business that has a mobile to this facility. i often find myself challenged at school board meetings and board of supervisors -- it does not make a difference what party everyone is affiliated with. they just focus on the owners who have been there so long. my program goes from the school to the corner. i recently worked the aqueduct apartment in newport news, where people were murdered this past month. there are 150 children that live

in that area and there are few options for them to change their environment. that is what i do. i have a 75havearig with stationary bikes, flat screen tvs, music. we can change the environment from a challenge corner to a health and wellness corner. host: it sounds like you have an innovative concept in your business. certainly, health and wellness should be an emphasis for most families. it sound like you are providing a great service to kids who may not otherwise get that influence. host: carl on the independent line. west palm beach, florida. caller: good morning. i have been looking at the

political situation since i have been here in 1991. when i look at the financial situation, it was your administration that brought us down. now we are trying to get out, but you are trying to strike fear in us, like greece. host: we are losing you a little bit, so i m going to leave it there. guest: republicans care about the future of this country. what we are seeing here, you mentioned the financial reform bill in the senate. we have an attempt to overhaul

our system of finance that one and test small businesses and families across the country and will provide them with more obstacles to reestablish their economic future. republicans do care about the future of the country. we do not want to become priests. i do not think it is a scare tactic when you look at all levels of debt that we have assumed in the country. next year we will be at 60% debt to gdp. most economists say that we are fast approaching the point where an economy like ours will certainly frightened. we will see standard of living decline in the country. america has always been the place where there is more opportunity. we have to make sure we are taking care of those who really need the help, and that we are compassionate people, because we care about americans.

what we care about most, no matter where you come from, who you are, that you have an equal opportunity to succeed. host: marcy from virginia. caller: good morning. i had a question. you say you care about the future of this country, deficit, the economy. i see children go to sleep with no food all the time. could you be a model in congress? there are a lot of children who need more attention. we do not need to be sending millions of dollars to israel. i hope that you can think about the children of this country more.

finding food for children and finding a job for people like me. i have not had a job for a long time. guest: no question, there is no higher priority than making sure our children have food. there are programs that work right now that to try to provide proper nutrition to the children of america. i certainly agree with that. we should always look to increase efficiencies and that program, reduce administrative bureaucracies, so that we can get the relief that we need. beyond that, you mentioned my desire to continue to fund the effort to, support efforts of our allies. one of the most straight for the obligations of the congress, asset for the and the constitution, that the federal department -- government must provide for the security of our

citizens. israel is in the front lines of a difficult war, fighting the same fight that we are fighting in this country. fighting against the spread of radical islam and the terrorism that has resulted from it, and frankly, support of the terrorism from state sponsors. we have to make sure we are safe. we were reminded of this on christmas day. we saw a couple of weeks ago in times square, another attempt from terrorist organizations, the spread of radical islam, trying to kill thousands of americans. we are at war. we have to remember that. our investment, providing troops, or whether it is standing by our allies, it is something that should be a priority. host: are you concerned that the

youcut vote for reducing welfare programs could hinder feeding children? guest: what i have found out about this program is, this welfare program that is on the chopping block was a program in the stimulus bill. it was intended to help folks in the left that elements of reform that were put in place by congress in the 1990's. that welfare reform program was extraordinarily successful in helping people get back to work because it put a priority back on initiative. folks could get the help that they needed, but like the rest of us, they needed to dedicate themselves to productivity. that reform element is lacking. reports have indicated that states have access to the money if they want to match.

many states say that they do not have the money and there is no guarantee that you will have the money spent in the way that miller put people back to work. many reports have indicated that the money is being used to purchase flat screen televisions. how is that a priority right now? again, google or bing youcut. one of the items that will be on their next week has to do with reducing the size of the government by eliminating a pay raise for federal employees. right now people in the private sector are lucky to have a job, and certainly have taken a pay cut. some might question why we are increasing the amount of the day when the level of pay in the public sector has been falling behind. host: would you consider programs that you and your members are trying to vote on?

guest: yes, we have a place at ethe youcut site to opine their suggestions. we would invite them to go to our website. you can provide your own digestions, and we will consider them. host: bryan on the republican line. michigan. caller: i appreciate your intellect and background. i have listened to you for a couple of years. concerning nafta, most of us believe that if we are not manufacturing break things, -- great things, we cannot be successful.

what is going to stop that manufacturing base from developing here? you are talking about wages that we will never be able to compete with overseas. the reason i bring it up is because at first, nobody was paying attention -- host: let's get to the answer before the guest pass to leave. guest: you are right, there have been too many closings of the factories and plants from around america. what we need to be focusing on his maintaining the manufacturing base. how do we promote an environment for investment? that goes to tax policy, regulatory policy. how do we make sure that we are as competitive as possible, when

you have investors seeking to put capital to work? i believe the agenda being promoted in washington goes in the opposite direction. there are many to continue to say that we need to put in place a cap and trade bill, which would put a national energy tax on our companies. why would somebody come here if they have to pay more for manufacturing? . .

>> the number of those filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week on it the largest amount in three months. it is a setback to hopes that layoffs were declining the labor department says that the applications rose to 471,000 last week, up 25,000 from the previous week, the first increase in five weeks and the biggest jump since february. tensions deepened today on the

korean peninsula as south korea accused north korea of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship, killing 46 sailors, and the countries worst military disasters since the korean war. president lee myung-bak promised a " stern action." north korea called the result of fabrication, and warned that any retaliation would trigger war. mexico's president felipe calderon is taking his case for a fair and orderly overhaul of u.s. immigration policy to the people who can do something about it, members of congress. one day after meetings with president obama, he addresses a joint meeting of congress, where he is expected to push for immigration changes and tied to economic priorities linking the u.s. and mexico. the speech will be live around

11:00 a.m. on c-span radio and television. finally, for the second time in two days, pakistan is blocking access to a social networking site. after dropping the hammer on facebook yesterday, it is doing the same to youtube to the pakistani government accuses youtube of "sacrilegious contents." its complaint about facebook was "derogatory material." >> this weekend on booktv, on "after words," austin radio talk show host michael graham -- defends the graham boston radio talk-show host michael graham defends the tea party movement. he talks to abc news reporter jonathan karl. >> in some ways, every send a class to see a sense of what the country is thinking at that moment.

>> d.c. journalist terence samuel looks beyond the institution of the u.s. senate -- behind the institution of the was senate, sunday on c-span's "q&a." >> we are joined by dan mccrum, "financial for the times." thank you for joining us this morning. guest: thanks for having me on. host: let's start by talking about the euro bridgette could you give us a primer on which countries use the euro? guest: the row is just over a decade old. -- the euro is just over a decade old in 16 countries have joined the currency grid it is considered the crowning achievement of european integration.

it is to bind the countries ever closer together. the corps members are france and germany, but two big economies in the middle. and you have periphery countries are round -- around. the countries at a crisis are on the southern edge. portugal, spain, greece -- of course, we all heard about that now -- and italy in the north. people have become nervous about the sustainability of his finances. >> in "financial times" today, " common bond could help stabilize the euros zone." there are two options -- outcomes, break up or greater with the school integration -- greater fiscal integration.

guest: one option is definitely break up. they announced a rescue package, 600 billion euros from the european countries and another to cut of 50 billion from the imf. -- another 250 billion from the imf. that has stabilized the currency for now. greece will be taken care of for the next two or three years but can they adjust their economies at a time so that when the bailout runs out, there will be able to continue borrowing from the eurocurrency? if they cannot, what will happen is that perhaps agrees first off to withdraw from the -- greece first will have to withdraw from the euro is owned. when that happens, it will get very sticky. a lot of banks have exposures to greece way across europe. that might precipitate a real

falling apart of the currency itself. on the other hand, it might be enough to stabilize it, and one of the ideas that is being floated is that the government could perhaps start cooling their debts, 7.3 trillion euros worth of euro zone country get out there. at the moment it is issued in euros, but it is backed by individual countries. they get all get together and pool their debts of at a certain portion of it might have common credit, as it were, of the countries. you would not be looking at treated that anymore. it would just be euro zone debt. host: we have heard so much about race, but how did this crisis really originate? -- we have heard so much about greece, but how did this crisis really originate? guest: some of these structural problems were pushed under the carpet to get the currency

going. there were two big problems. one is that all of the economies did not necessarily work well together. you have northern countries that are very productive strong exporters. then you have some of the southern countries where productivity is not quite so why, and economies are not perhaps as well integrated and as liberalized as some of the northern counterparts. you have two speeds, as it were. then there was fudging of finances. there are rules taken place when the euro was set up, with how much government borrowing it was allowed to have good they tried something with this, the european stability package but but the rules were not really enforced. for a lot of years there were is plunging of numbers. there -- was fudging of numbers. we have had as much in the u.s.

a slow but steady building up of government debt, at some point in the last year, the bond market started to notice this had to treat governments separately rather than ju eightst treating it all as -- rather than just treating it all aspects euro zone debt. which countries -- host: which countries are not on the euro? guest: the main country not on the euro is the u.k., a very euro-stepped a country for quite some time. the u.k. is the major one. -- a very euro-skeptic country for quite some time. the u.k. is the major one. it is starting to come under the same pressures. the feeling is that now that the european crisis has been calmed

somewhat, the u.k. economy is going to come under some pressure. host: dan mccrum is our guest. he is a columnist for "the financial times." we are talking about the crisis in greece and we will also be talking about germany in a moment. headline in "the financial times "the financial times" today -- "german curbs raise tension in europe." take us through to make it short selling, and what is the significance of the decision by german chancellor angela merkel.

guest: naked in is when you don't want the stock or bond -- naked or selling is when you don't own the stock or bond in the first place. you're basically putting downward pressure on that instrument. and then -- excuse me one second -- the government has been worried about this, because there is criticism of hedge funds and naked short sellers who have been attacking the banks and currencies. this is nonsense. the numbe and -- the amount of naked short selling out there is nowhere near enough to affect the bond market, the three- trillion euro market i was talking about. this is not to nerves jangled a bit for a few recent -- this has gotten it nerves jangled a bid for a few reasons.

it appears that the german regulator did not even talk to his fellow ministry which runs the bought option, which happened yesterday morning, after the government came out with these unexpected proposals. the government also acted unilaterally. on one hand, we had this big effort to show that all the european governments are acting together to stand behind euro. then in germany comes out with this unilateral action, deciding it is going to bash short- sellers pretty much for political reasons, because angela merkel, the chancellor, is struggling at home. that gives the lie to the idea that all the european governments are united. and the regulatory action coordinated across althe whole euro zone -- and this is really a mess. host: "the financial times" calls the decision "a bullet out of the blue, it ill conceived."

it sounds like it could drive business, but people are having this enormous reaction. guest: the details are very wonky and complicated. the german government decided it was going to come out with a solution without talking to any of the other regulators across europe, any of the effort of finance ministers did the french finance minister seemed quite shocked, and there was strong language from her about what she thought about the proposal. what that means is that the proposals themselves really don't carry much. much but itvery adds to the nerves that the governments are doing this -- making this up as they go along. it seems that officials were reacting to events as they happen what markets what is a clear idea of what is going to happen, and when did the things happen, knowing in advance how

governments might react. host: vivian is calling us from the independent line in indianapolis. welcome, we can hear you. caller: after this bailout, so to speak, of the euro -- of greece with the euros, i read numerous articles that said this was basically too little, too late, that angela merkel had delayed too long because the move was unpopular in germany. i want you to tie this in to the u.s. and what we have done to bail ourselves out. are we just really delaying the inevitable? i mean, are these currencies going to crash? come on, tell me the truth. i'm tired of all this -- guest: well, vivian, i think it is a little much to talk about

currencies going to crash. as we saw with the u.s. last year, there was enormous feeling and commentary and pressure on the u.s. dollar, and then suddenly, attention moves elsewhere and the dollar gets much stronger. this good will happen here. as you mentioned, the u.s. fiscal situation is actually a little worse in aggregate in europe. the imf is predicting an 8- percentage-point gap in proportion of gdp between spending and tax revenue for the u.s., which is bigger than whole euro zone is going to be suffering. but to come back to your question of as this actually solve the problem, was this too little too late, in the end it was actually large enough. it got the euro zone to the three years of breathing space. greece and spain and portugal will find themselves for the next three years. -- fund themselves that the next

three years. but what will happen in the meantime? it brings us back to the u.s. the u.s. is a pretty much in denial about the state of its finances. host: republican caller. good morning, dalton. caller: i will try to make this as fast as i can. if you remember, when they had the inflation a long time ago, as -- your guest -- i was wondering, the country, from germany, is where you are from, am i correct? guest: no, i am actually british. caller: i apologize. guest: a little bit tricky

accent. caller: i was wondering if you all have had the same kind of credit crunch as the u.s. has had, and how that has affected you guys. guest: yes. the credit crunch was definitely a worldwide phenomenon. we saw was banks in germany and the u.k. suddenly discovering they had the same level of toxic securities that many of the american banks had they actually bought these toxic securities from the u.s. investment banks. the u.k. in particular had bank runs for the first time in, i think, over a century. many of the banks have been nationalized in the u.k. and in several european countries. ireland has had to nationalize parts of its own banking system there has been a very similar experience in europe as there has been in the u.s. host: charles on the democrats'

line in jacksonville, florida. caller: good morning. i am curious about something. i hear some it different things about the aerial trade center. what effect did the aerial trade center crash caused the national debt to go like it is now? what problems as a cause all over the world? what is this? host: do you mean the world trade center? caller: yes, people working from various parts of the world when it is crash occurred, and was involved with the financial structure of the world? guest: there was a lot of financed but run out the world trade center. but i don't think we can draw a direct line here. i think what you are thinking about is the big buildup of debt over decades in all the big western economies. beforehand, we have had a periods were governments had to

adjust their finances. since 1980, there have been at -- there has been nine occasions where governments had to make real adjustments to the amounts they were spending. because we have had such long poems and such long period -- long booms and such a long periods where governments are spending more than they were taking in, and then we had a crisis and we had to bail out a lot of banks in the u.s. and many other countries around the world, that caused a big rise in government debt and a big drop in what they are taking in. we are reaching this point where we are not quite sure if all of these governments are going to be able to be pay all of the debt, and what happens when all of them try to make this adjustment at the same time? host: the german chancellor had strong words and talking about the situation with the euro

right now, saying that if t he euro fails, you're essentially fails and the consequences are incalculable -- europe essentially fails and the consequences are incalculable. two other leaders shared her concerns? -- do other leaders to share her concerns? guest: i think they all share her concerns, because if the euro falls apart, it is a disaster for everyone concerned. you might be able to possibly negotiate a withdrawal of one small country, and greece perhaps, and limit the danger, but to have the whole euro zone fall apart would be a disaster but this goes back to the approach of european integration and the extent to which the governments will be able to share power is within the european union bridge

germany, for instance, seems to have a strong feeling that austerity is needed, that government should be a sensible. it has a law where it needs to have balanced budgets through this decade, and it wants to put this prescription on the rest of europe. it sees itself as a sober nation, and its finances are pretty solid and it has not had the biggest consumption boom is we have seen elsewhere. france has a slightly different take on it. it wants to see more integration. you will see more taxing and spending and fall from the central level. -- more taxing and spending control from the central level. although leaders differ on -- the leaders -- other leaders differ on what is needed to control the economy. host: dan on the independents'

line from arlington, virginia. caller: good morning. i'm wondering what the role of goldman sachs was in covering up the european get -- the greek debt early on, and if that is caused animosity towards the united states about our financial system. guest: i think the thing to understand with goldman sachs is that they perhaps as did the greek government in what it wanted to achieve in presenting its -- perhaps assisted the government in what it wanted to achieve in preserving its system. i think there is a degree of anti-american sentiment, which is present in a lot of european countries, but that is probably -- but that probably has more to do with the legacy of the iraq war, a subject which probably avoid, -- a subject we should probably avoid, and the financial crisis. this financial crisis was born to an extent in subprime lending in america, and there is a level of resentment about

that. but there is an understanding among european leaders of government is that there needs to be a resolution of the crisis and is not a question of a beggar thy neighbor or blaming the u.s. host: we hear about the dollar getting stronger against the euro and many think that is positive for the united states, but talk about the disadvantages. guest: that is a big disadvantage for american companies. the u.s. economy tends to be pretty much domestically focused only about 12% of american output comes from exports. but the stock market is more cosmopolitan than the economy as a whole. half of the profits of the company's debt from the s& 500 -- half of the profits from the companies on the s&p five. come from abroad. -- on the s&p 500 come from

abroad if we see eight peak period of weakness on the dollar, that is -- of euro week is on the dollar, that is going to hurt profits. host: next caller. caller: good morning. i am an old bond guy come i have been in the bond business for a long time. obviously, you are a writer, never a bond trader, is that correct? guest: no, i worked in european equities. caller: ok, not a blond guy, but an equity diverted -- not a bond guy, but it equity diaper it what you said about short- selling have no useful -- but an equity guy. what you said about short-

selling as no purpose -- guest: no one has purpose if you are -- caller: no, it has no value. you are selling paper you do not own hoping that a boat go lower -- hoping that it will go lower, and you cover your position. it has no value added in the market at all. you are betting that the stock or bond will decrease in value. that is a pure gambles. -- a pure gamble. guest: well, that gets us into interesting territory why is it not gambling when you are buying a share on a margin, but it is when you are betting against it? short-selling often gets blamed for woes, stock market crashes, putting pressure on greek bonds, for instance. but really, this is all about price discovery.

if you want to market -- having lots of liquid trading, you can get a price that is very cheap is a bigand short-ting piece of that. when you have not managed to borrow it before you sell it, back in place undue pressure -- that can place an undue pressure. host: democratic caller in concord, massachusetts. caller: nice to be here. i had a question about the euro and the unilateral initiative of germany. isn't that a symptom of trying to band short-selling unilaterally, of the breakdown of the european union and the breakdown of that euro system

and a sign of other things to come? guest: i don't think it is a symptom of the breakdown of the european union. i think it is a sign of tensions that have always been that there. it is the collective project of countries that all tend to jostle a little bit, and they are all trying to go their own way with in t yard -- within this larger group. until now, that is in fine, has never really been tested. they are really testing how far countries can operate individually and how much they have to get together and have to act in unison, as it were. one of the key things for the future of the euro is for countries not to go off like germany has just done, but to act together. but i don't think it is a breakdown, it is just a difference in how to deal with problems, and reflects different political tensions and home. all of these governments have to face election.

angela merkel just lost one of the regional elections. part of the response was this measure, a way of trying to shore up support for bailing out some other countries in the euro zone. host: next caller is john on the independents' line. caller: on the existence of the primary currencies that existed in europe -- how they play with the euro and the currenc ies. they could potentially help itself would devaluing the currency -- which he devaluing the currency -- guest: i think you have to get on with it problems for greece there. -- have hit on one of the big problems for greece.

the swiss franc remains steadfastly neutral, refusing to join with the european project. zone.en you have upsethe euro we no longer have the french franc or the deutsche mark. but valuation is one of the big problems for greece. it has to adjust the economy to the economic circumstances it finds itself in. normally what happened is that the imf would come in and lend the government a whole lot of money and say that you have to do things to liberalize their economy, cut government spending, and wages in greece after follows it to the rest of the company -- the rest of the countries is competing with. but if the currency's don't change, you have to cut people's pay package.

host: democrats' line in new york state. caller: regarding the interest rates, i cannot believe they have been sol low. we have a debt of 13 trillion -- i saw on "morning joe" today. how is it that interest rates are so low? i will take the answer off the air. guest: the reason the u.s. interest rates in particular are so low is because the west is the default currency of choice if you are worried about economic growth. there are not really any other major currencies or currency areas where you get the best interest rates on offer. interest rates are low in europe and incredibly low in

japan. japan has enormous amounts of debt as well. but because the economy has been growing very slowly for the last decade, investors have not really had a choice of where else to put their money. also, there is excess of the saving in the the u.s. deficit is primarily financed by chinese saving. the interest rate on the 10-year yield is between 3% and 4%. it is not quite as low as interest rates are from the federal reserve. kevinlet's check in with from new jersey, independent caller. caller: good morning. i was wondering if europe was having a problem with unemployment. i know that the u.s. has had a problem with it.

and nafta -- does europe have agreements like this that allow companies to move to places that have less restrictive laws, how much workers it can -- guest: europe is the model of integration that was probably the inspiration for nafta. within the entire european union, you are able to move to any country like had worked there -- any country you like and worked there, but that means they tend to harmonize labor rules about who can work where. but it is a bit strong to blame nafta for the current u.s. unemployment rates. it is really a reflection of the global realities, the fact that in some sectors, textile manufacturing and other forms of making cheap goods, u.s. labor just is not really competitive anymore. they would jump the gun to go

overseas anyway. on top of that, you have the big economic shock of the financial crisis and the sharp and deep recession. unemployment here is about 10%, not as bad as in some countries in the euro zone. spain is one of the worst examples. their unemployment rate is at about 20%. it is similar in ireland. both of those countries had spectacular booms in property and construction, and now that those sectors have practically disappeared for the meantime, there is an enormous amount of unemployed in those countries as well. host: david from alabama. caller: i was calling about pretty much the same thing, the industrial situation in the u.k. how can they keep on reducing went, as you say, it is not competitive? i think it would be competitive if we had something like your opinion -- like the european

union p-- guest: the issue of competitiveness is an interesting one, because the u.s. has a sizable manufacturing base, but it does not attempt to compete in commodity manufacturing, things that to be easily replicated much more cheaply in places like china. it is moving towards higher- value engineering, things that require a lot of design. one of the u.k.'s biggest manufacturers is a rolls-royce, which makes complicated engine turbines. that follows the model of germany and the scandinavian countries, which maintain their proficiency in engineering and industry and exporting by just being a lot more productive and a lot more advanced, and having a higher skill base compared to the emerging countries. host: we have talked about what

countries are facing in europe, but let's talk about the politics more. this from "the financial times," your newspaper, about germany's plan to go it alone and find their own solution. "berlin's decision to go it alone appears to have been driven by political considerations rather than regulatory zeal, with a move aimed at calling disquiet in the christian democratic party led by angela merkel." guest: as i was saying, the problem they are fighting now is that -- finding out is that there is discontent among populists. angela merkel operates in germany, where there is a delicate coalition between several different parties. that was upset recently by an election in the rhineland, germany's most populous region, where her party lost in the election.

they have to keep one eye on local politics. germany,rly ain there has been a lot of grumbling among the germans who have been very sensible and not spent beyond their means over the last decade, so what exactly should they bailout lady -- why it sector should state bail out lady -- why exactly should state bail out lady greece? in the french government, and nicolas sarkozy is not quite as popular as he used to be. in the u.k., you had an extremely unusual election, which has delivered the first hung parliament, and no clear winner, and we have a coalition government for the first time since the 1970's.

it is an unusual political situation in russia, which is complicating matters to work together. -- an unusual \ / political situation in europe, which is complicating matters to work together. caller: this our economy work on the principle of unlimited wealth? we are always making profits, but this debt has to be paid. someone owes this debt. how long can this question of false assets be perpetuated? guest: the thing to remember is that it is not like we owe anything to mars. all of the debt is owned by someone somewhere on the planet. if you add it all up, it would somehow balance itself out. some of the confusion which arises is that what we're talking about economics and growth, we tended to talk about

the movements in the economy. we say that is going up by a few percent or it has shrunk in the recession. there is still a sizable economy. businesses are going on and people are getting paid and live continues, even if it is a little slower or faster than before. what we have is that some countries who are saving more than they are spending, producing services. china is the example. it has lots of the savings that have to go somewhere. germany as well. it has a lot of savings that have to go somewhere that goes to countries like the u.s., which spends more than it is taking any tax revenues. line.independent-mi caller: we have some countries, especially the former french

colonies, and those countries are tied to the french franc, which is no longer in use. i would like your guest to comment on how the current economic situation will affect the african economy. guest: i am not sure i'm necessarily the right person to talk about africa and economics, but certainly the frenches tied to the franc, that is tied to the euro. if that it's cheaper, the rest zone will be happy. some of the economies seem to be getting better, although you cannot lump them together the way you can in europe. nigeria is interesting at the moment because it has a new president who was taken after the previous president was

suffering illness. nigeria, for instance, appears to be on the up but as far as general view of africa, i am not sure we can really do that grip. host: dan mccrum writes a daily column in "the financial times" on finance and business. he started with "the financial times" in 2001 in london. thanks for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: let's look at the latest news on this bill in the gulf. "usa today" -- "hurricane season may make spell word -- may make spill worse, but storms could also help clean up the oil. a hurricane or a succession of

them may bring oil up from the depths of the gulf of mexico and pushed it a short perio -- pusht ashore." another story looking at the situation, from "the wall street journal," looking at the company bp, which came under fire from congress. louisiana officials announced that have the oil has washed up on the coast of their state give us a call on any topic. one of the next areas of focus, when we talk about offshore drilling, will be alaska and the arctic. this from "the new york times" -- "arctic drilling proposal

advanced ed made concern c- span.or -- amid concern. details came after many of the agency's most experienced scientists have left, frustrated that their concerns over the environmental concerns of a drilling had been ignored." frank, good morning. caller: i see all these people coming on television, all these hired guns and stuff. what is the use of having these monday morning economists who cannot warn us about these -- and sustainability of an upside- down logic -- unsustainability of an upside-down logic, running these ridiculous deficits? regulators -- it is always after the fact that they come out and said that there are regulatory gaps. regulation is just enforcement

of laws. if we just enforce the laws that protect everybody from utter fraud and corruption -- people have to realize that we are being lied to but what is the good of these people who show up on monday morning and tell us what happened already? host: arlington, virginia. billy, republicans' line. caller: hi, how are you? host: fine, thanks. caller: i want to talk about the trustee's report that usually comes out around april but was summarily postponed until june 30. the administration has not appointed the two public trustees -- normally they are one of each party. the remaining trustees of the secretary of the treasury, secretary of hhs, secretary of labor, and the social security commissioner. the actuarial report of the

economists of the trust fund came out with the report saying that the health care costs were going to be more excessive then the congress had said, and then immediately, this report got postponed. i was wondering what was up with the trustee report, and why were the appointees not appointed? host: what is your concern about that? caller: well, i think they are trying to not make public what the actual costs of the health care program are, and they did not want to have their own secretary -- the heads of agencies signing on to something that says, quite frankly, the numbers that were given out earlier are not right. the report has been coming out since 1945. it is normally the ministerial function. something is up with this postponement. the word out of the administration from someone

named -- from some unnamed sources that the report was obsolete. really, it is just a full accounting of the two trust funds. host: minneapolis, michael on the independent caller line. caller: basically, discussing what is going on in minneapolis, we have a high hiv rate among teenagers, skyrocketing, out of control. i'm wondering if anybody can come to our state and please do something to help our teenagers with this hiv great. they don't want to put them on at the national database, they don't want to discuss it openly, it is rising. i am scared to let my son outside. he is a teenager. i have teenage kids. if he goes outside and gets with somebody who has hiv, what am i going to do? i have to deal with it. we don't have adequate health care. it is skyrocketing, out of

control. we need somebody to take a bigger to look at about what is going on in minneapolis. host: this is from "the new york times." "u.s. science body urges action on climate. in its most comprehensive study so far, the nation's leading scientific body declared on wednesday that climate change is a reality and driven mostly by human activity, chiefly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. the national research council issued three reports describing the case or harmful to human influence on global climate as overwhelming and are calling for immediate action." "the wall street journal" -- open but that oil tanker chartered but world dutch shell left the port on march 17 and revealed it was going to another uae port, then on to saudi

arabia. but the tracking information reveals that it made a reported stop to the coast of iran, where it loaded iranian oil. it is an example of how some companies these days are hiding business dealings with iran." tom, democrats' line. caller: i wanted to make a comment, because the last couple of weeks, ever since this spill, when the wind has been blowing in the west, it smells like oil, a lot. to the people who believe we should be doing offshore drilling, all i can say is that the bomb did not drop on your street, it dropped on mine. i am thinking is going to smell like this for a long time r. i think that people should be responsible for cleaning up this entire -- thin k tha -- i think that bp should be responsible

for cleaning up this entire mess. when i hear people talking about there should be a cap, it is ridiculous. host: next up, a republican appo. caller: what i see the republicans and these hearings -- i am a republican -- host: which it hearings? caller: yesterday, john mica, calling this "an obama spill." i am a republican and i did not vote for obama, but bp is the problem. they caused this. the republicans have to stop blaming government and pointing fingers at president obama and what we did wrong as far as government. yes, we have to get things in

line with the oil companies, but we need to stop just pointing fingers at our president. i did not vote for him, but he is my president, and it just needs to stop. this is why the republican party is in the dilemma it is in, because they are putting fingers at everybody except the problems. that is what i would like to say. host: tallahassee, independent line. caller: i would like to chastise c-span a bit. there is, in every major poll that has been done -- i can go down them -- cnn had 73%, at cbs, 79%, on and on and on, but if you average it out, all the major polls -- pardon me -- it

averages out to about -- the vast majority, an average of about 65%, believe that we were lied to about 9/11. there are tons, literally thousands of reputable people with letters, military, scholars, 9/11 truth scholars, fire meant for truth -- firemen for truth -- that all believe that we were lied to about 9/11. for you at c-span to go out of your way to keep a lid on this topic is tantamount to treason. you are not allowing the majority of the people's views to come to light, and if he could people like alex jones on -- if you could get people like alex jones on, that have to view

it that we were lied to about 9/11 on, he would be doing yourselves at us a favor. but as long as you keep this censorship up on what you are part of the problem. -- go to's go to get connecticut. caller: i hear a lot of discussion about drilling for oil and so forth. in the early 1970's, american oil was going out to the high seas, transfer to a vessel with a form flag and coming in and sold at a higher price. this was proved by import-export papers, where they had the excess profits tax. but now today, you notice -- i will say this -- oil controls everything. they want to drill on the 50- mile zone area out there, and

that is considered the high seas from what i have heard. therefore, the oil is supposed to be used here will probably be put into foreign ships and coming back and sold to us at a higher price, as we can see that it is going up now. my social security last year was $1,029. they come through with the formula. i was knocked down to $905 but the difference of the two, about $24, is transferred to the medicare account. that covers some of the shortage. this is going to be reviewed every two years taxes. how many people are involved, i don't know. we are taking care of too many people on the outside and forgetting about the people on the inside of this country.

host: in "the financial times," "bangkok burns and thai protests spread around crackdown in the city. protests spread to other parts of the capitol and into the provinces. there is a situation where protesters set fire to 20 prominent buildings in the city, including the thai stock exchange, a government-run television station, and southeast asia's second-biggest shopping mall." the u.k., "the new york times," "britain's new coalition government of conservatives and liberal democrats on wednesday unveiled the most ambitious plan in

decades for a pending the highly centralized and often interests of way the country is governed. the plan, as laid out by deputy prime minister nick clegg, what will back a proliferation of -- what will back a proliferation of -- would roll back the proliferation of 'nanny state' laws." jennifer, republican. caller: the caller three calls back who said he is a republican but we have to stop blaming president obama -- he is definitely not a republican. the obama administration seems to be the king of pointing the finger is at any when they tend to divert the mess -- to anyone they can to divert the mass they

are creating bridge and the guy wants to land-based c-span on 9/11 -- who wants to lambaste c- span on 9/11 -- they are just a fringe, they are the troops. -- kooks. i think you are doing a fabulous job. i watched c-span every single day. people say that it was republicans under bush who cost the economic crash -- i wish they would realize that nancy pelosi and the democrats have been in charge since january 2007, and economic collapse happened under their watch. sure, the president is the president, but they cannot write a bill -- nancy pelosi has been in charge. the democrats have been writing

the bills, and they keep try to blame republicans for evidence, when it is actually there fault. host: independent line. caller: i wanted to apologize to all of america for what is going on in austin, texas. we have allowed a bunch of -- i will just say bible belt beaters to get in charge of our school books. given the opportunity, i am sure that the majority of them will tell you that the earth was created in six days, and forget about the rest of it. unfortunately, in texas, we swing hard to the right had a hard to the left. -- and hard to the left. right now we are in one of our deals andhe right

they are setting textbooks for the next 10 years and we will have to live with it. host: charles in california. caller: it is amazing to me that the citizens of the united states don't really understand what is going on. all they have to do is at hand local political functions and see where -- is attend local political functions and see where representatives of code that they elect to office, and they would know the truth. the truth is something they probably don't want to know, but the truth is what will let them see what is really going on. if the date at the time, too, instead of complaining, -- if they had the time, too, instead of complaining, the vote would be correct. the people are the government.

with all the work that needs to be done, why aren't they standing up and doing s something about it, instead of complaining? host: "the l.a. times" looks at the governor's race there. "whitman's lead drops to single digits. meg whitman, the billionaire republican candidate for governor, has plunged in polls as quickly as she wants to send -- as she once ascended." "the globe and mail" -- the headline is "bangkok's de of bloodshed -- day of bloodshed." "the denver post" -- ken salazar

it plans to divide the del drilling agency into three parts due to the situation in the gulf of mexico. glen is on our republicans' line cal. caller: hello, we already done this thing at once and california -- i mean, in the united states. host: go ahead. turn down your tv and talk to us. caller: when is everybody going to wake up? host: ok, massachusetts. independent-mi -- independent lines. caller: i one to make two comments. comments. i'm