>> it is campaign season. seven weeks to good. seven state also go to the polls today. asking all of you would you vote for your current legislator. are you looking at an established candidate or tea party candidate.

start dialling in now. . >> let's look at the "new york times" headline today.

that's the headline this morning on that race. more is written here.

host: port arthur, texas. how will you vote? caller: i'll vote for the current leader, he is very conservative. if not, we'll get the democratic machine here which is very corrupt. host: good morning. caller: i will vote for my curre current. he's been the attorney general and always fought for the state of connecticut. as far as the republican

candidate, there are a lot of things about her that have not been brought out as far as her dealings with her company. host: you are talking about linda mcmann? caller: right. richard has always been for the middle class. this lady is definitely for the upper people of connecticut. host: to con row, texas craig on the legislative line. caller: representative brady and no. host: why not? caller: firstly, everything has gotten corrupted.

i have already informed them i will not support them, nor will the community i am in. we are all senior citizens. we do our own research and a lot of internet. host: does that mean you are voting for a democrat? caller: no, if there was a viable strong third party, i think they would both be out. host: do you see the tea party as a viable third party movement caller: to me, the tea party express is an extension of the republican movement. the tea party itself was

extended in honest faith. i respect some of their presentations, some i disagree with. that goes with anybody. host: back to the primaries today. the outcome of the senate primary in new hampshire.

host: caller on the democratic line from california. are you a long-term democrat? caller: yes. host: what do you do for a living? caller: i'm disabled. host: you tell us how old you are this morning? caller: i'm 50. host: ok.

great. let's move on. caller: in high school, i was taught in reference to mexico that a government that uses its power to oppress option option can't fall under the definition of democracy. host: we'll go on. will you be voting for your current legislature? caller: i am. voting for incumbants. host: did you vote for president obama? caller: i absolutely did. host: how do you think he's doing? caller: he has stopped job losses and got us back on the economy where it is going. getting more private sector jobs back instead of losing almost

800,000 a month. host: did you get out and help president obama in 2008? will you do so this time around? caller: i did and i will be doing it again. when kinds of things are you doing in colorado? host: what type of things are you doing there? caller: going outdoor to door, showing people where they can vote. host: what are you hearing from voters about this anti-establishment mood. are you hearing that when you go door to door? caller: yes, i am. they are not sure what to expect

from the tea party. host: greg, that sounds like a talking point put out by the democratic party caller: that's door to door. if you want to take a video camera out with me. host: are you saying that or voters saying that? caller: voters. i'll take a camera and record it and send it to you. host: ok. georgia on the republican line. go ahead. caller: thank you. our congressman was just elected. i think he's the best in the country. i have always voted republican but this time i'm voting

libtarian. host: houston, texas. caller: i'm voting democratic. we are in a republican district in the house. the state legislature and governor, we'll be voting for the democrats. host: you can send us a message on twitter to c c-span wj or send us an email at c-span.org. next call from the democratic line. are you going to vote for your current legislate your?

caller: if it is castle, no. i'm voting for whoever the democrat. and then i have a complaint. you ask these people questions. just let us talk. host: all right. just trying to ifs ill tate a conference here caller: you act like if we call in, we are crazy. we wouldn't be calling in if we weren't crazy. host: all right. we'll leave it there.

host: this morning, about the delaware primary this morning. campaign 2010 wall street section says -- vexed in the nor'easter. on the democratic line, go ahead. good morning. are you going to be voting for

in your current in office? caller: no. host: to being to the democratic line caller: i'll hope that the tea party candidate wins today. host: this is the front page of the wall street journal about campaign.

that's the front page. their headline on that. democrats expressing alarm on the disparity. they have been set up on the size of corporations without having to disclose them. host: there are new ads out this morning put out by the democrats against minority leader john boehner and against nancy pelosi as well.

go ahead. flu >> to china, india and mexico, boehner has a message, you are welcome. host: that was an ad put out by democrats. you may have seen him squaring off against president obama about the bush tax cuts. as well as the tea party representative going against nancy pelosi. >> i wish -- i don't care about

politic cat cal parties. >> i'll put you in debt for generations. >> i will save you from those evil republicans. here are my monkeys to make you pay for it all. >> thank you for saving us. it is time to throw a little water on politicians on leaders that say one thing and do anoth another. paid for by john dennis for

congress. host: we are talking about whether or not you would vote for your current legislature. joining us on the line. thank you. i'm not voting for anyone not in office right now. i'm voting against already in office. they donl care about themselves. all they are concern abouted is their careers and benefits. the middle class right now is really suffering because of it. thank you. we'll keep talking about whether or not you'd vote for your current legislate your. joining us on the phone with the hill newspaper. joining us to talk about the debate. if you could, talk us through today and this week. what wo will happen on just the small business side. this is some amendments they need to get through.

what is in this bill? they have an 11 a.m. vote man. they'll start to try to end debate. if they do not vote and debate, they'll vote to a democratic alternative on that. they are hoping finally vote on final passage on this bill this week that includes a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses and $12 billion in tax incentives. it has been in the senate for a while now. they do have one republican who has said he will support the bill. the senator, a republican there was bragging that he was able to

secure this $30 billion fund for small businesses. has he indicated how he would vote? >> his biggest issue has been the entire time that he wanted some republican amendments to be considered in debate on the floor. he went ahead and set up two votes on republican and one democrat amendment. they are going back and forth and trying to keep them evened out. the number kept going. finally, they knock it had down to one amendment on the 1099 requirement which would require

businesses to report pumps to the i.r.s. that's the main focus an amendment. they are not going to allow any other amendments at the moment. >> coming up in about 20 minutes or so, is this 11 a.m. vote this morning going to be a test vote for the legislation, the whole package. i think on this amendment and senator bill nelson told florida is part of the healthcare law. that's where that 1099 requirement is to raise or expected to raise about $17 million. it is used as a pay for the healthcare bill. i'm not expecting either to gain

the 60 votes to move forward. i think that the senate will continue to work on a possible repeal of the 1099 provision as we go along. this is probably pretty small at this point. does that mean this might not have the 60 votes it needs bit end of the week? >> it should have those votes. they'll consider this amendment as long as he is happy with the procedure and process this week, i think they will get the 60. he has said he is just tired of the block that his party has put on the bill and this need that they used to create jobs. thank you for joining us this

morning. >> thank you. the senator will be our guest coming up. we'll talk about this small business loan. tune in to c-span 2 to watch the vote and debate all this week. new york on the democratic line. good morning. are you going to vote for your current legislature? caller: i'm attorney between rangle and clayton powell. host: why is that? caller: i don't need to divulge my reasons on public tv. i want to say something to you.

you slant more to republicans and the tea party. host: i disagree. the stories i read that all of us hosts read are from the journal, times we are not endorsing. we are putting them out there to let you know what people in d.c. are reading. indiana talking about whether oour you'll vote for your current legislate your. how are you? caller: doing well. my representatives here like mike pence has gone way, way right. the guy is insane. he doesn't need to be legislating anymore.

evan by is out of there. he's done. he was a total waste too. i opened my mouth for months watching everything going on. i used to be a conservative until i voted for president obama. i think he's absolutely wonderful. i have total trust in him. this insane stuff going on for a year or more, it is getting old already. ok. it's way old. those republican cooks and sister sarah, i challenge sister sarah to go on, are you smarter than a fifth grader. this is insane.

people have to sit back and worry about what is really going on. it's time everybody wake up and pay attention. host: we got your point. you can see a picture hereof u.s. district judge as he listens to testimony. if two-thirds of the votes will impeach him, he will be stripped of his job and his pension. in washington, democratic line. will you vote for your current legislate your? caller: our congressman retired. i'll probably be voting for the democrat. even though i'd like to support

somebody else. the same old story, the lesser of two evils. host: why is that? is it a particular person or policies? what is it? caller: i don't know, they are a democrat. i don't understand what you are understanding. host: what turns you off of the republican party? caller: well they are the greater evil. if you look at what's happened in our country in the past few years, they are basically all in the pockets and the corporates. host: all right. moving on to pat in arizona, pat

go ahead. are going to vote for your current legislature. caller: we just had our primary here. i voted for hayworth. i don't like mccain. i have a question for you. host: yep. caller: how come it goes almost a half hour into the program and i haven't heard anything but democrats every one of them. host: the phone calls are slow to coming in. it depends on who is coming in. caller: it happens all the time. lately, it's just the way it is. host: listen up, we are going to

jerome on the republican line on the phone. caller: i'm a conservative before i am a republican. i don't have a problem voting for democrats. i will not be serving for our congressman. the last thing was the healthcare bill, he said he would not vote for it and he did. he says he will not do the things but keeps voting with nancy pelosi, harry reid. that's my take. host: let me ask you about this provision of the small business bill. it is part of the editorial for the wall street journal this morning. the 1099 insurrection.

are you watching this debate? caller: i do. i watch c-span, talk radio, rush limbaugh. the whole bit. we are leaving the healthcare bill, doing a lot to help small business. just like everybody expensive thing that comes down on the market, you got to let the rich people have their money too because they are the one that's drive the business and create the jobs. the government cannot create the jobs. that takes money out of people's pocket. the small businessman, the private sector, we have to make a prophet. they do not. repealing some of the healthcare

bill is great. it's a start. >> about the 1099 provision. tune in to c-span 2, calling for the repeal of that provision this morning. below that this morning, the headline this morning

host: mcconnell, the republican leader came to the floor yesterday and said he does not agree with minority leader on the expiring tax cuts for the wealthy. here's what he had to say about a proposal he offered. >> that's why i'm introducing the legislation today to ensure no one pays higher income taxes this year. we can't let the people hit the hardest by the recession we can't let them expand anymore than we have for the greed of

wall street. republicans want to extend all the tax cuts.

republicans and the middle class. 700 billion will be lost to the 2% of the top earners. handing out those revenues to the rich would have little set on the economy. >> caller: first i have a request of you guys bringing on maybe the imam from the center. as far as my voting. i wouldn't vote for him, he's a

republican and i'm an independent. luckily i live in a state where independents can voted for independents. i think our senator is great. i would vote for her. host: bob on the republican line. caller: let me try to explain to the caller of arizona the reason why you are not taking republican calls. wrel, they are out working. democrats are at home right now collecting well fare checks. please explain that republicans are out working. host: why do you believe that about democrats. all right bob has hung up. we'll talk about this a little more.

palestinians will push to extend out concepts about how the house will go forward on the debate. that's the "washington post" this morning. the democratic line this morning. go ahead. caller: i woonted to say you do a great job. you are trying to be fair. that guy was just too used to fox news. i agree with the lady from

hammond, indiana. my husband and i will be voting for elsworth this fall. i'm really backing obama. he's doing a great job, the best he can do. i like bernie sanders, an independent. the democrats should look toward vermont and their leadership and programs just wanted to say thank you for everything. host: i'm not voting. richard burr is our current senator.

i am an independent but i'm not voting for any republican because i believe they are too everyone deolgical. >> all right. the headline this morning reads --

caller: everyone doesn't want taxes but you have to pay the bills stabilizing medicare. >> let me stop you there. what does that mean for 2010?

caller: i think people voting on the issue of taxes. people have to understand, you have to pay your bills. aig will begin paying back the government. that is the wall street journal this morning. front page of the "washington post," the caller brought up social security. disability claims are rising sharply. front page of the "washington post" this morning. talking about whether you'd vote for your current legislature. pat is the next phone call.

caller: i'd like to say you do a beautiful job. i keep hearing callers saying it is the upper 3% of the people providing the jobs. then i heard someone say it is the small businesses who provides the jobs. have you had any experts on your stati station, on your program saying who actually provides the jobs for americans? host: i don't think we have. we may have covered a debate or conference. that's a good journal segment. thank you for walling in.

to the republican line in texas. caller: i will vote for lamar smith any day. however, people, let's put god back in our country and school. anybody who is for that, let's vote for them. if you are a republican, democrat or independent, if you don't have enough sense to vote what is good for the people instead of what is good for your party, it is done. if you are over 70 like i am, you need to get out. get a life. thank you. host: one last phone call from the republican. caller: a previous president asked america, are you better

off today than you were four years ago? yes, i'm voting for mike pence because he said no to a lost legislation that's already been passed. they've had some influence on the legislation. host: thank you for the phone calls this morning. that does it for the first opening segment this morning. we are going to talk about calm pin 2010 and primary day. later on around 8:30 a.m. eastern. next, we'll talk with the senator from nebraska about the debate over the small business bill. we'll be right back.

>> follow congress using the c-span video library cronicle.

c-span networks provides coverage of politics and congress. washington your way, the c-span networks now available in more than 100 million homes, provided as a public service. >> washington journal continues. host: senator from nebraska here to talk about the debate over this small business bill. this debate and the sleg slags was brought up. i want to show the viewers what he said and get your reaction. here it is. >> this bill is very important. it has been held up now for a

couple of months. there was an article today that said small businesses were holding off on hiring because they weren't sure whether some of these tax cuts they were going to get would actually be set up. you hear some friends on the republican side complaining that we'd get more business investment if we had more certainty. we can get this right away. pass this bill, i'll sign it into law right way. people will then feel more comfortable about hiring and making investments. host: your response. guest: no disrespect to the president but it is his leg

slags that is stalling the movement. the small business bill is another perfect example. he would free this up this hour if he would get behind appealing the 1099 amendment. he knows that. he's playing around here. we hear the rhetoric. the reality is if he would signal that he was going to ease up on the paperwork requirements on the healthcare bill of small, medium sized even large businesses. >> if there's an alternative

amendment. if both of those fail, are you voting no? guest: it's a tough call for me. i feel strongly that the best thing we can do for small businesses is to back off and give them the opportunity to grow their businesses. instead, this administration has done the opposite. there in lies a serious problem

helping grow and higher. who has the best policies. why not signal your support. guest: i would tell you small businesses today need another loan like they need a kick in the pants. they are struggling. they need people to back off. every state and local government will have to final a 1099 if you

pump more per year from any v d vendor. why would you do that. that really is the right policy. they have only put this there to raise things. now we are in a situation where we will try to get the votes to try to repeal that in tens of thousands of businesses have said, look, back and repeal this. i would say very clearly today if that passes, i intend to vote for the bill. it is a much tougher call.

the white house is all over this. they are demanding a vote. they back an alternative for that. in all due respect for the colleague is really worse. here is why. it picks winners and loosers. if you have 24 employees, you don't have the requirements. if you have 26, you do. a huge disincentive there. it doesn't apply to another area of the economy. services would be covered. property is not. really what it is is a loyalty

vote. he doesn't want anybody messing around on the health bill. it really is more complicated. why would we do that. if you end up voting no on this small business bill, are you concerned at all about the rahm if i indications of arguing if you don't extend the tax cuts, that is really going to

influence businesses. then you turn around and vote against a small business bill. >> they don't sign off on the 1099 provision. you mentioned the tax cuts. when you peel this back, you start to realize that if you don't extend these tax cuts, you have an increase. that is the last thing you want to do. the budget director will say. you pull in small businesses

because many of them file on the tax return. host: the minoritity leader in the house on sunday on one of the tax shows it says he admitted only 3% of small businesses would pay higher taxes under the obama proposal. guest: here is the problem with the boehner approach. i think he's wrong on this stand point. you have to look at the number of employers impacted. on the 1099 provision, there are about 400,000 businesses

impacted. 93 million people are employed in that group. you literally jeopardize the 93 million. this has been our tax policy for a decade. this is how our ee on my has formed itself. you change that. what you've got is the increase during time host: let's go to the phone calls for you and we'll come back and talk more about your amendment on the floor today. on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: thank you greta and thank you c-span. i'd like to ask the senator a couple of questions and make a comment. seeing as they have done such a

great job with the meet packing industry in nebraska, would you represent bringing in all the illegal alians, i wonder if he wants to go into this 1099 business. the reason that's there is so the condition cannot call all these illegals subcontractors. that's what they've been doing. they've been paying them as cash and checks so they don't have to put them on the payroll. that's the reason they are fighting it so hard, the republicans, it will put a stop to a lot of illegal workers. guest: that's a stretch. i haven't heard that one yet. even if that one were adopted, keep in mind that businesses and

25 and under employees and transactions under $5,000 will be exempted. i don't think it's the republican conspiracy that you are claiming. the other thing i would tell you is look, i've taken a hard lying position here. i certainly support legal immigration. most people do, my grandparents came from poland. this isn't about that. when the church you attend on sunday will have to trace all of its pu purchases to sow if theyo

over $600. it simply hurts the job creators. host: michigan on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. johannas just contradicted himself saying the church you belong to will have to do this. if it is under 25 people. i don't know many chimps that are employing 25 people. this tax cut that was supposed to have started what bush had done to create jobs. that never happened. it went to the corporations to save them money and the richest people to save them money and the rest of us suffered. guest: gosh, again, i'll have to

disagree with you. i happened to be in the cabinet with president bush in 2007. that's the-year the united states brought in the largest amount of revenue in the nation's history. what did i just say there? with these tax policies in place. why? i learned lock ago there's two things you look at. one is how many jobs that are being created out there. economy was doing very well. revenue was pouring in. here's what i would say to all these people out there. i think you are wrong. you are wrong from this stand point. grow the economy, expand the base. more people employed pay the taxes that fuel the funding and

then the second thing. very, very important piece here. as a former governor and mayor, tell you i've looked at this budget. it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem. we conned grow this country fast enough to keep up with president oba obama's spending. all i have to tell him is if he is going to impact this budget, he has to pull back on the spending. it's not a revenue problem, it really is a spending problem. . .

that while this tax policy was in place, because, again, it was passed in 2001 and 2003, we got the largest revenues in our nation's history. how did that happen? jobs were being created. people were employed. you're going to have a lot more revenue come in if you have unemployment come in at 5% versus some, which is where this president was at. so what we really need to do is focus in on this deficit as a long-term sort of proposition, and the last thing you want to

do is hammer the job creators at a time when we need economic growth. and again, check out the year 2007. in 2007 we brought in the largest revenue in history with these taxes. host: amy, independent line, you're next. caller: yes. i'm calling mr. johansson with all due respect, i think i heard yesterday president obama has already decreased the deficit by 8%. and as far as jobs being created during the bush years, i believe he created out of eight years, a million jobs or whatever. i think that's approximately how many jobs they ridiculous,

because they weren't hiring during the bush years either. that's not even equal to the amount they had coming in. guest: amy, you're a loyal partisan, i have to say that, but nothing you said is accurate. that's just the reality of it. you compare the unemployment of the bush years to where we are at today, and i have to tell you i don't see anything in the obama administration that's going to change that. we're hovering at about so%. and amy, i was across the state in august. we did 14 town hall meetings. i've done business round tables and had a small business woman tell me i have right under 50 entries. i've studied that health care

bill and i'm not going to expand beyond 50 employees, because i don't want the get tangled up in that health care bill. we're discovering things about this health care bill, like the 1099 provision that are job killers. they hammer the job creators. and unless this president moves away from these policies, this really strong anti-business agenda, it's hard for me to imagine, again, as a former mayor, as a former governor that was responsible for creating the atmosphere that a lot of company -- a lot of companies make jobs, they are having too many requirements and regulations and consequently, businesses are just sitting on their findings, sitting on resources that could otherwise be used to expand, grow the economy, create the

jobs that are necessary to get people back to work. >> i'm going to read a tweet then go to a phone call. host: a tweet from a viewer that says they are challenging you on the increase in revenues during the bush tax era and tax cuts and saying we almost that had largest deficit at the same time. guest: well, that wouldn't be true. the record deficit was set by president obama again, in fact, president obama would have created larger deficits than every president before him in the history of this nation. now that's hard to believe. it's hard that you could spend that kind of torrid pace that you could borrow at that kind of torrid pace, but in fact, that's what the records show. and i checked the numbers recently. if you go back to 2007, and i happen to be in the cabinet at the time the large e revenue in our nation's history came in

during that time and this tax policy was in place. why? grow the economic base. that's really what you want to do. put people back to work. people that are working, pay income taxes. they pay state taxes and a whole mortgage and property taxes and as a former elected official and as the governor, that's the best way to generate economic prosperity. last thing i should mention here. in my state, the state of nebraska, our unemployment has remained at a% or under. that's too -- at 5% or under. that's too high for us. we'd like to have it lower. how did that come about? we said to business, we want you to come to our state and create jobs, expand your employment base and we don't borrow money. literally. we don't owe anybody anything, and we balance our budget every

year. that may be a novel idea to the obama administration, but i tell you, it works. and our state is always ready for economic growth and always ready to welcome businesses to our state to create jobs that keep people employed. host: don on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning senator. >> good morning. caller: i'm watching you on tv. i had to get past the operator. my question is how nebraska is going to do in 2010 and about a billion dollar industry in small business is going to be there, and i think nebraska will do great. welcome aboard cornhuskers from the great state of ohio, buckeye company. guest: well, thank you for that nice welcome. and we look forward to that, and maybe our paths will cross some time when you are watching the football game, and i am

also. host: elmer, democratic line. good morning. caller: yes. good morning. i have one question for the senator. everybody comes up with obama care. i wonder who pays his insurance? and his retirement? i mean, how much money will we save if he paid his own insurance? and how much money would we save if he didn't have so much pension? senator for one term, and they got a lifetime insurance. they got lifetime retirement. now could he answer that question? guest: yes. i sure can. retirement benefits for the president are specified by federal law. and i can't even tell you right now what the president's salary is. it's $400,000 and basically does get lifetime retirement.

i have no idea what the obama family is on relative to an insurance plan. could very well be the plan that is available to all federal employees. and so a that is how that works. the reality is it is in a budget somewhere. and when i tell you it's in the federal budget, that's a signal to you that somewhere, some how, taxpayers are paying for that. whether it's a retirement plan there or whether it's congress or a government employee,. host: go ahead, george. caller: i'm speaking on because i voted for obama, and the thing about it is when i voted for him, he had a lot on his plate, true. but he always talking about the middle class people and the rich people. they do not never mention about

the poor people. and you know, the poor people really mostly put him in there, because people never voted before. they the ones that really put him in there. guest: if you're looking at the statistics, there are more poor people in this administration than previously. but that is characteristic of a bad economy. i know this administration wants to believe, does everything they can to get us to believe well, we inherited all these problems, and this, that and the next thing, and you've heard that trail. all i can tell you is i've taken over administrations as mayor of lincoln for a couple of terms. i was governor of nebraska, became secretary of agriculture. it was no consolation for the people of lincoln for me to say well, i know i've been mayor for about two years, but those potholes or snow removal

problems or budget problems, they are my predecessor's fault. you pay the filing fee. you run for the office. you convince people that you can be better and that you can do better, and i don't think it's any excuse to say well, it can't be my problem, because it was caused by the last guy. i just don't think it's right. i don't think it's fair. like i said, he paid the filing fee. he convinced us he would be better, and his policies are not working. host: let's talk about the cloture your vote on your amendment. you talked about reappealing part of this new health care legislation. and i just want to read a little bit from the "wall street journal" editorial about this. and they say in the same congress, the 1099 provision is only one plank of this new health care law. but revealing the law plank-by- plank might be the right strategy.

sooner or later the whole thing becomes unworkable. is that your strategy to plank-by-plank reappeal the health care issue? guest: what i will tell you is we picked this out, because ial looked at the spall business bill and said there's some good things in this bill, but what can we do to make it better? and this 1099 bill was obvious. plus, businesses all across the nation are just crying out for relief on this. they are in a panic over this that they now would have to trace their gasoline purchases. their gas bill, their internet and electric bill. the payment it's that they make to a florist for an employee's husband's funeral. what's the they will have to do

for this obama bill. i was trying to do something that would really bring relief to our job creators and help them out of a tough spot created by obama care. >> your -- takes away the revenue source. how do you pay for that loss in revenue? >> well, there's a couple ways. we adjust the individual mandate so fewer people could be punished by that mandate. most americans would say we're for that. but that raises revenue to help pay for this. then there's the fund, the prevention fund, but in all fairness money from that fund has already been diverted by the obama administration into other areas, and i believe there will be a slush fund for that. looks like a lot like that already. looks like a tarp fund and you wake up and by galle qui they

bought general motors. use it it in ways it was never intended for. so we delay the implementation of that. many are saying they are annihilateing this, taking it away from this. not at all. we're delaying implementation. my hope is that delay will bring some structure to what this is about. the language is so large that you could buy playgrounds and say it's for government prevention. so those create the revenue source i need, because i had to find pay-fors. that's the dilemma we have with this health care bill. if you even want to change one little section of this bill, now you got to find pay-fors. so now we found pay-fors within the health care bill, and i think pay-fors that would be supported by the american people. host: sharon from the independent line.

go ahead. caller: good morning. i have a couple comments. the bush tax cuts. the republicans there do not stand up for what's actually going on with the bush tax cuts. it is not for the wealthiest of people. i do my own family taxes. and we save $1,500 from the bush tax cuts. we are middle, middle class. you know, not even upper middle class. we save $1,500, so we're going to be paying $1,500 more. then i'd like to know the health care bill that most of congress and the senate didn't read when they passed it. i heard that there's, which my husband, we're close to retirement age, and he has to pretty old age so we can make ends meet in retirement, i

heard there's 3.8% tax when you sell your tax that wasn't there before is in the health care bill. and my last disappoint -- my last point is small businesses. i worked in a small business. and they had around the 5-30 employees. and they were a custom paint shop. and they -- within a year of me being there, and then i left. they had started a new business inside the other business. and actually i actually reported them on this. they then hired illegals. and i never saw 10t 9 forms that are supposed to go out to show hiring sub contractors. they were illegals. they couldn't speak english or anything. we knew they were illegal, because i did the paperwork and payrolls and everything. and the original company that

was there went from around 25-30 employees down to, like, two. host: i think we got your point. guest: the 3.8% tax on the sale of your home would be something that i don't think is the situation. and here's why i don't think that. typically the sale of a personal resident doesn't have tax consequences. i think up to $500,000 of the value of the home if i remember that rule correctly. we could certainly dive into that a little deeper. but i don't see how that would fit with that provision already existing in law. the 1099 issue on illegals. really the problem there would not be so much that they are not doing the 1099. these folks should be treated as employees. treating them as sub contractors. i believe it would be contrary

to the internal revenue code. so trying to slush somebody off as a contractor when in fact, in reality they are an employee and you should do all the with withholding you should do for an employee, therein thries problem on that issue and the 1099 wasn't really designed to protect folks in these circumstances where real employees , are like i said being sluffed off as subcontractors. they are not. they are employees. host: joe, republican line. go ahead. caller: hello, senator. i wanted to mention that you said the bush tatax cut brought in more revenue, but you didn't quantify that as it's my recollection that during each of those years, the taxes

brought in exceeded the congressional budget office by $100 billion -- >> i don't remember the cbo estimates during those years. we could certainly get to that, get to the bottom of that. i will tell you, though, if you just go online, there's many places where you can find gross amount of revenue that is came into the federal government every year dating back to the beginning of the country. i just looked at it recently, because that stuck in my mind when i was a cabinet member, and lo and behold i was right, why? because the economic base was growing and like the woman who just called in, you know? if we can improve the situation for that middle class small business, and they hire an additional employee, that's an employee that's paying taxes. so why would we want to punish them with paperwork requirement ins a health care bill? so that's what my amendment

today is trying to do. it's trying to reappeal that to try to protect those businesses. host: andy, democratic line. caller: good morning. pleased to talk to you this morning. senator, i wish you would not play politics with the truth now. at least i have great republican friends. senator, while you distorted the facts about president obama running up the biggest deficit. would you please one time. let's make some history. would you tell the people at the time the way you're distorting the facts is your party and president obama did not finance. they did not -- and president bush did not -- they did not put the wars on this budget and neither did they put the drug plan on that. they had the drug plan, which ran into the billions and two wars which ran into the

hundreds of billions and when barack obama came in he stopped playing the game y'all like to play called hiding the money. would you give him credit for that? is that right, one final would you give barack obama credit that he put the two wars and drug policy on the plan that you're saying that's why the budget is high center host: he's refering to medicare part d. guest: andy, here's what i would offer you. back in the early 1990's when the country made a commitment to both afghanistan and iraq. it was a very bipartisan decision that the funding for that. because it was an emergency. 9/11 just happened really very, very unexpectedly, and so in a very bipartisan way, rightly or wrongly, the republicans and democrats decided the best way to approach this is through emergency supplementals. and that's the way it's continued.

the part d. plan i believe could have been funded within the budget. a decision was made at that time, and again, part d., i remember being passed in a very bipartisan way, that that actually turned out to be less expensive than what was anticipated. why? because the bush proposal worked. i'm not remaking history. and then the final piece, gosh, just look at the final budget numbers from the president's own office, the office of management budget. trillion-dollar-plus deficits during the first two years. and like i said, as a mayor, if i would have come out with my first or second budget and said yeah, i know i'm running huge deficits for this city, but the last person who as mayor made me do it, i think the people would have looked at their mayor and said, we made the wrong choice here.

you know, the president, as far as the eye can see, under his plan, will run trillion-dollar deficits. nobody, nobody believes that's sustainable. it's not. it's a mess. so what we've got to get back to is growing our economy, putting our policy ins place not only from a fiscal stand point but an economic stand point, which is why i feel so strongly to reappeal the punishing paperwork on the job creators large and small. host: darla on the republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to discuss a couple different issues. number one, my husband and hi -- and i were small business owners. he passed away a few years ago but a small business owner will not employee people when we cannot anticipate expenses in

the future. so with this health care bill and taxes it makes common sense that you're not going to hire more employees. and in this country we are doing class warfare. against people. we punish people that have been successful. and it's a mentality in this country that we think it's wrong for people to be successful, and therefore they should pay more in taxes, because they have been successful. and -- host: let's get a response from the senator. guest: darla, your last point is just so true. one of the beautiful things about my life, and i grew up on a small dairy farm in northern iowa. we, i guess were lower middle class. it never seemed like we had enough money, and in 1964 we lost our crop, and i can go on and on. but you know my father always believed in this country and tried to instill that in us.

get good grades in school. don't get in trouble and look, thing are going to turn out for you. that's what he preached to us. so i just want to say class warfare doesn't get us anywhere. we need everybody to employee. -- we need everybody to employ. your observation about the health care bill is correct. how many times were you told, well, this is going to cut health care costs. this bill won't. and it's not because mike johanns reach that had conclusion. this bill won't cut health care costs because the actuary, the employee for medicare and made medicaid look ked at this and saped it won't bend the health care cost down. actually health care costs are going to go up. that translates into higher prices for businesses. but here's the problem.

how much high center can you plan on what's going to happen next? >> does it make small business feel better because the president vilified industry? rates are going up. why? because of the health care bill. you don't get something for nothing. so when the president said we're going to do this and we require them to do that and this and that and the next thing, all i can tell you is that this punishing, punishing, job-killing 1099 provision buried in health care isn't good for any business. i don't care if it's general motors that the president bought or the smallest business in america. why would we want them to trace their 1099's? and the i.r.s. has looked through this and said this information won't be of any value to us and what it's likely to do is create more penalties for people that will be erroneous.

see, those are just wrong, wrong policies, and it's hurting our country. host: george on our democratic line in new york. caller: good morning. guest: george. how are you? caller: good. thank you. listen, i have a couple of questions. a couple of questions for you. and then i have a you know, we'll say a sluge. -- a solution. first of all, this bill that came out with medical, it was 2,000 pages, which right off the bat, i would have rejected. because how are you going to read 2,000 pages? even though a book doesn't have 2,000 pages. and you got to naught in

through congress and the senate impossible. but did you ever figure out how many engineers and draftsmen are out of work? when we are in an energy crisis ? and the federal government could give grants to these people and start our own wind projects and our other projects for energy? host: senator? guest: george, two really good observations, and this health care bill ended up being about 2700 pages. and nancy pelosi famously said we're going to have to pass it and understand it. and i think that's the wrong approach to policy making. we should understand it thoroughly before we pass it. but her observation is turning

out to be more true than wrong, and we're finding out this is not good policy. the 1099 provision is a perfect example. you know, i support wind, and in our state we're trying to grow more wind opportunities. i kind of stupt all of the above strategy i had an would argue your thinking on this is on the right course from this stand point. i do think if you're really going to set this country on a course towards success, you have to solve the energy problems. you have to solve the economic problems and deal with the budget problems and solve those. and a whole host of really core issues. but i believe in this country, and i believe you can solve those problems. and you were brought to the program as a democrat, but these aren't democrat and republican can issues. these are american issues, and

some how, some way we got to figure out how to get on a course to get on these issues and move forward. >> that american hiker that was held in an iranian prison for more than a year has been released. this is coming from iran's english language television station, and finally, senator, before you go. just want the get your reaction to this headline in "the new york times" this morning about two sources within the white house saying that president obama could put elizabeth warren, if harvard professor, in charge of the consumer protection agency during the recess, put her in that position as a resource avoiding a senate confirmation and possibly a filibuster. where do you stand on her or someone like her to head this agent zphri >> you don't know because she hasn't faced the scrutiny of a senate committee. i went through the process to become secretary of

agriculture. i'm thankful i did and even though it's enormously stressful and there's endless background checks and all that. elizabeth warren should go through that. if she doesn't, she will be very weakened in her position. and it just those president is so worried about her that he can't get a confirmation on this pen. >> if she were to go through the confirmation process, would you vote for her? >> i don't know anything about her other than what i read but i do have confidence in the confirmation process. i voted with the president on some and against him on others. but that's the progress givetive of the senate. and it's prerogative granted by the united states constitution under advice and consent clause. the president should transport constitution and the role here and should submit that name for confirmation.

host: senator, thank you for your time. appreciate it. guest: thank you. host: we're going to speak with senator henry cuellar about u.s. border trade and security. first a little campaign 2010 update. jessica taylor with politico is joining us from their newsroom this morning talking about the primary, seven states go to the poll today. let's start with congressman charlie rangel who is running for his 24th term. >> they've colored this race. his primary opponents are saying he's having to defend himself from that. 40 years in congress, 20 terms, this is really the first tough primary challenge he's faced, but he is still favored going into today partly because he does face several primary challengeers that are expected to split the anti-rangel vote. the most prominent is clayton powell iv and a little bit of history there when rangel won

his term originally he actually beat powell's father for that. so he's sort of aiming at a little revenge there, too, but rangel has been out there vigorously campaigning and seen bill clinton do a robocall for him and so he's definitely one we're watching and could be a closer margin of victory than charlie rang is expected or used to seeing on election night. >> christine o'donnell and mike castle. yesterday politico reported mike castle thinks that outside groups are trying to push him out of this race. >> this was definitely, this one came on our radar after the alaska senate upset after joe miller defeated mar cows can i and mar cows can i played placed a call to castle afterwards and said look out, they are coming after you next. he's been one of the most

moderate members of congress saying he's not conservative and o'donnell was the republican nominee in 2008, but she's never actually ended up winning a race. so they are sort of throwing that back. we've seen the republican establishment really come out in favor of castle because they do not believe they can win this seat without the nominee and the polling shows definitely castle is the strongest republican in the state. that he's been a longtime political player in the state and is their longtime congressman, but these are people from delaware saying i'm not conservative enough, but i represented the state for years. and they've elected me to that. host: in new hampshire there's a republican primary for senator jud greg's seat. he is retiring there. how's it shaping up?

who is likely to come out ahead? >> on the democratic side, paul has been unopposed for his nomination. on the republican side, former state attorney kelly ayotte has been the frontrunner for a long time but polling has tightened up in the last couple of days. bill bennie hoped the see a late surge. he used his own money and but the more moderate so people were running attacks ads saying he is not conservative enough. but mon tanya who is an attorney there and also had been a previous fom knee for governor, he's seeing the late surge. he's trying to corral tea party support. and we're also seeing ayotte has the backing often sarah palin but lemanstagne got the

backing of -- lamontagne got the backing of one. host: senator russ fine bold -- feingold could be in trouble, why? >> people frustrated with the economy not growing and wisconsin has high unemployment, and he's sort of facing that backlash. look back to many of feingold's contests. he's had close races there in the past so we consider that traditionally a democratic state but a republican primary there. ron johnson, a wealthy businessman has sort of jumped to the front pack and coalesced establishment and conservative side on his -- support on his side. so he's expected to have an fairly easy night against his

opponent. host: and milwaukee mayor tom barrett, but there is a republican primary and it is competitive today, so who is likely to come out ahead in that? >> walker there is sort of the favorite. newman has been -- he's a former representative of martin newman. but scott walker is expected to win. he's been runing a lot of ads and trying to hit his opponent as a political insider which doesn't play well this year. so we are expecting walker to come away with that nomination. host: thank you for the campaign update this morning. >> thank you. host: for our coverage of the seven states and district of columbia heading to the polls for primary day, go to our website at c-span.org. joining us is the democratic representative of texas, member

of the hispanic caucus, henry cuellar. tell us about the speeches about cross border trade with mexico, and why is it that you're speaking about that issue, and its exact on your district. >> well, first of all, we got to keep in mind every day the quhithes united states and mexico have about a billion dollars of trade every day. that means our economy and their economy has great impact. if you look at creating jobs, the exporting -- texas is the number one exporting state in the country and we get 13,00018-wheelers of trade a day. host: so why give this speech today? and what are you hoping comes out of it? are you pushing the president on this? >> well, one of the things we

want to emphasize is trade is important. we want to see fair trade. nafta, even though it's been controversial, i'm a supporter of nafta. certainly we have other agreements out there still pending. we have panama, columbia, south korea. we have other pending agreements. but we need to make sure that we work out those trade agreements where it's fair to the united states but trade is not going to stop. if the united states doesn't get into those trade agreements, other countries will. host: how has your cross border trade been exacted? >> well, our economy is doing better. texas is doing better overall than other states. our local economy is doing better because we have the energy industry. but trade is important to us. even though some of the scrls across the river has slowed, the tourism -- our economy is

one of the better in texas. host: are you seeing violence in your area or people not coming into your area because of the reports of violence? guest: well, if you look at the local, state and federal officials have pretty much prevented that. but one of the things i've seen when i talk to people from mcalan to loredo, mexicans are afraid to come over, because they are afraid to get caught in the crossfire. so if they don't come over to shop and spend time in our holes, it's going to have an impact on us. it has. but we're hoping that the plan and mexico wins the war that they are in right now with the bad guys, and eventually we'll get that trade back. host: however, have you seen that there's been an impact

with the tighter immigration laws, the one passed in arizona. there's about 20 other states looking at tougher immigration laws. is that also having an impact? >> well, one of the things we're seeing. i have friends that live in mexico and certainly know what's happening in arizona and other states and look at states that are friendly like texas where you enforce the border but don't go to a certain extent. i'm one of those that believe in full comprehensive immigration -- you have to have a guest worker plan. then the third part, which is the most controversial is what do you do about the is 1 million undocumented aliens we have. i'd rather have one national plan than 50 different types of immigration plans. host: so on the immigration bill, if there is one, your committee would have 1/3 of

that legislation. what do you want to do on border security? >> well, first of all, we have to have smart border security. by that, i mean, you have to have the right balance of personnel, technology and operation to make sure we do this. one of the things i've seen on the border, for example, i've been one of the strong proponents of making sure we have the predators, the drones. in fact,, we were down there to launch the first one from texas. so therefore you've got to have the right technology an personnel and at the same time the operations. but one thing i am a big blover in, you've got to get the mexicans involved where they do their sheraton other side. >> what does that sflolve >> control northern border. their northern border which is our southern border. host: how? guest: help set up an immigration patrol for their side where we work with them so

we can control the border on both sides. we on one side and the mexicans on the other side. host: mid terms in perle. immigration bill, says the republican route would rush in amateurs -- a changing of the guard that could can doom president barack obama's already faint chance of passing immigration reform in his first term. guest: well, you've got to look at history. in 1986 democratic republican president reagan who passed immigration. in 2006 the senate, controlled by republicans did pass a bill over to the house. the house didn't do it. but the senate did did. it was senate controlled so i still think when it comes to immigration reform, we can find a bipartisan way. might not be the way the democrats or republicans want it, but i think we can pass an immigration bill in a bipartisan way.

it will be difficult. i understand that. but i think it's possible. host: where can democrats compromise? guest: well, the $600 million we just added is one of the largest institutions for border security we've seen. guest worker plan, i think we can agree on a guest-worker plan. the third part is what do we do with the millions undocumented? i don't believe in amnesty like president obama. but we got to find a way to take those folks out of the shadows and the ones that are criminals, i'll be the first one to say get them out of here. but the most controversial is address the 11 million or 12 million. that's not going away. host: congress henry cuellar is speaking today at the congressional hispanic caucus

institute which we are covering. for more information on that go to c-span.org. the president is also expected to speak before the institute. what do you want to hear him say specifically, when it comes to push ang immigration bill? >> we want to see a concrete plan on when he intends to really push for this, because we've been talking about immigration reform. in fact, we met with them in april of 2009. when he said he was going to help us on this, and he said that certain things had to be addressed. the financial bill. the other bills and so there's been a couple things that have popped up, but eventually we have to address immigration reform. i understand there's windows. as we get too close to elections. i understand it's too hard. as we get close is to elections in 2012 the windows are going to close. if we don't take advantage, --

host: where do you see the windows? lame duck session? guest: yes. but also 2011. once you get to the beginning of 2012, it's gone. host: what do you hear about the possibilities of a lame duck session? guest: i think what happens on the november elexes, and what the moods are. i remember in 2006 when the republicans lost they said eh, we'll wait until the democrats take over. we don't know what will happen but state power, by small majority, we will. so a lot depends on what happens in november. but it's not going to go away. immigration reform we have to address. but let's get the emotions out of it. let's do it in a very stable way. host: if the republicans take the house, do you think it's appropriate for democrats to try to push through legislation the voters voted against during

the lame duck session? >> you're in session until the time somebody else is sworn in. so it depends son what the leadership wants to do here. but i've seen this both on republicans and democrats. it's not an democratic issue. it's an issue. you're in power until somebody else is sworn in. host: william? you're up first new york on the republican line. caller: yes. congressman, according to the d.e.a., 60% of the cartel's profits, for that reason, don't you feel we should foster a debate on the legalization of marion to cut out the cartel's profit ins that regard? >> again, i'm one of those strong law and order where i don't believe in legalizing any drugs. i know california and other states are doing that, but i think there's other ways we can address this. not only law enforcement, but the education, the rehab of it.

states are debating this. california certainly one of them. host: we'll go on to manhattan. travis on the republican line. caller: c-span guest: c-span caller: i just got back. they told me on good authority the mayor of juarez spends every night in el paso for safety. do you know anything about that? is guest: i can tell you exactly what he does, but i do tell you they have killed some mayors. the mayor that is have not cooperated with the drug cartels. i've said mexico is where columbia wars in the 1980's, at first it was bad guys killing bad guys. now they are moving into areas where they are killing mayors. they killed cantu, the person who was about to become the governor. so they are going to another extent and using the car bombs

as we've seen recently. so i'm concerned about what's happening there in mexico. we have to keep in mind we have a 2,000-mile border in mexico and we have to makes sure it's to our interest and the united states that we help mexico win the war they are in right now. host: california, howard on the republican line. caller: good morning commoonks. guest: good morning. caller: your president and party has politicized this to a point where it is not going to happen. when you talk about redoing the immigration bill, the fact of the matter is there's nothing wrong with the immigration bill we have now. after ronald reagan's sorry mess of creating amnesty, the people of this country, and many hispanics say no mas.

that is political fair to cracker. you can wait until 2018. it's not going to change. what we need to do is enforce the immigration bill we have now. for the president to sue arizona because arizona wants to protect its own citizens is crazy. now i know your argument is that the immigration bill, though the immigration policy is a federal policy. but, the fact of the matter is the people of this country do not believe the president when it comes to immigration and many other. host: ok. congressman? guest: well, i do agree with you the amnesty the president had in 1986 is something we should not repeat. but when you look at immigration, all across the

world, you know, we've had movement of people from one part of the world to another part because of war, because of economics, because of famine and different reasons. we're seeing the same thing in the united states where people are coming in mainly for jobs although that has slowed down right now. but we have to look at immigration reform. yoo looked at one good part. no matter whether we do it or it's now or two years from now or a lame duck session, it's going to be emotional. if you look at debates, they have always been emotional in the germans, chinese, hispanics, it's always been emotional. we just got to make sure that if we have immigration reform, we do the border security, guest-worker plan and what do we do about the millions of undocumented aliens? you hit one part i agree with. we got to enforce the laws.

not all of the people here crossed the river. in fact, some of them, i think 40% of them got here legally through a permit or visa but overstayed their time and nobody told them to leave. so enforcing the law is correct. host: on the democratic line. good morning. caller: kudos to c-span. my question/concern is about the -- i think you're saying about 9 million to 11 million immigrants and the speaker you had on before was talking about the 1099 law that's probably going to kick it in or something like that. but i have a question if there's been any thought of implementing or do you think the implementation of a flat tax would help the immediate problem, as far as the economics, with having that

many illegals in the country yet not feeding into the system? since we're in such dynamic times in trying to keep up with the numbers and what not, wouldn't that be a clean approach to at least get the economic infrastructure back into some sort of a balance, and then we can relax and deal with the problem in a very diplomatic way? >> congressman? >> well, you're letting two issues that would bring debate. taxation and immigration reform. but as to i guess your qui is going to be dig a little deeper as are they paying their taxes and whether a taxing system would work better. we've got to keep in mind that first of all, if -- beyond the t documented aliens, there's part of a trust fund that aren't going to be paid by them

but -- those are numbers we see, but i guess the part is if you have 11 million or 12 million undocumented aliens, are they paying their fair share? this is why not going to an amnesty but we need to get them where they start paying taxes and learn english so they follow the rules and laws of the united states of america and there's certain things we have to look at. i understand the issue you're addressing, but first we got to address the issue of immigration rem and like the gentleman said before, no matter how we address it. it's an emotional she. if you think health care is emotional, wait until you start talking about immigration reform. host: on the republican line, james? are you there? one last call for james? moving on. new orleans. caller: i thank you first. host: ok. caller: yes, ma'am, i am. you're on the air, jails.

please go ahead. host: i'm going to put you on hold. new orleans, katherine on the independent line, go ahead. caller: hi. i need find -- i saw you from the 28th district. but i need to know what towns does that cover? host: and katherine, if you look at the screen while the congressman is talking. caller: my eyes aren't that good, hon. just tell me. guest: we got loredo, mcal in, san antonio. caller: i live there by edinburg, i built a house eend property there for a while. i sold it a while back. so let me tell you something, darling, i am a blond-haired, you know, green-eyed person.

i was -- so many times with people cursing me out from mess cans, ok? but there was a program -- i don't know if it was a program or whatever. they walked across the bridge. but you know what? they went back that night. but the people that were -- that came to me with complaints, because i was a directorate a hospital. and the people that came to me with complaints were mexicans -americans whose parents came over 40-50 years ago but became americans. and these people came over and say kathy, we are so upset, because these people coming over, they don't have to fill out any papers. they don't have to abide by any laws. they just come over, and you know how much the hospital was paying those people? maybe $2 an hour.

usually $.50 an hour, and they worked 18-20 hours a day. guest: first of all, i'm very familiar with the area you're talking about since i represent part of that. but let me first stai say this. a guest-worker plan. i think that's what you were talking about. some of them are not supposed to be working over here. but nevertheless, it -- a guest-worker plan as a friend of mine said, it would help us control the border, because if you know who comes in, who works? who goes back at the end of the day, then you can focus on the bad guys trying to come across. so a guest-worker plan like copsman blake has said would help us control the border, and i totally agrow with him on that part. so we got to have a guest-worker plan so we know

who works and then you bring up reports. it's interesting what you said about hispanics. do hispanics support immigration reform? some do and some don't. this is why i don't believe in amnesty. because my father was born in mexico, became a legalized citizen and followed rules to get here and what folks don't like is when somebody comes in, go in, get the amnesty and therefore jump ahead of the line and that's one of the strong reasons why i don't support amnesty, but to have them follow, get at the end of the line and then fall some way where they can get out of the shadows. host: kokomo, indiana? caller: yes, ma'am. host: go ahead. caller: congressman, i have only one simple question. do the american taxpayer have to pay for all these illegal mexicans that come here and get

pregnant. that's the reality. that's the truth. they come here, that's the only thing. get pregnant, and they have kids, and the u.s. american taxpayers have to pay for it. are you in favor of this? guest: ha ha, of course, the answer is no to that. but thank you for your question. look, let me say this, and i don't know if you were trying to go into the argument of the anchor baby. but if we enforce the law in a smart way, then we can go ahead and prevent the situations you're talking about. we certainly want to make sure we prevent the situations you're talking about, but the only way we can do that is if we enforce the border security laws we have. two, the changes we fight need to address or give our border security folks powers to do what they need to do and that's support the border.

host: dallas? are you with us? leon, i don't know which line you were on. i'm moving to north carolina. clyde? republican line. go ahead. caller: yeah. congressman i'm not from where you're from but where i live there's no citizens or aliens here, my neighbors are both kinds of people and good folks and that's all they can be and if you're going to tell them folks just can't be folks then i'm going to tell you it's damn -- get down over there, people are trying to sleep in here! host: susan, pass dina, texas. susan? you're on the air with the congressman. caller: yes. i wanted to -- the other guy was talking about the people that come across the border, as far as i'm concerned, i don't mind that. i just wish they would get the rights like i have them, like

we need to -- i would like for them to learn english like we did when we were young and i would like for them to get their drivers license in english instead of spanish because half the time when they are driving they don't know thousand read the signs and when i was very young, i had to learn how to do that. if we learn thousand use our english and spanish language, they need to do the same thing, and i think we would avoid all this confusing. and another thing, there's a lot of peel that go to the food stamps and get a lot of money, and they do have three or four or five kids. sometimes more than that. and they often say they get money, and that's why they get money, because they get so much money, and they don't have to work as hard as we do. host: congressman? guest: i would address some of

the points you make. i'm one of those people who are able to go out and work and not just get the benefits just because they can, so i believe in welfare reform. i did that in the stocks. -- in the state of texas. secondly, it should be english-plus. when they say english-only, i have a problem with that. but if you're an hispanic, learn english not to forget the spanish. don't forget the spanish, because it's good to know over languages. but as people become -- some how they come into the system, we got to make sure they learn english and fall follow the rules and laws of the united states of america. host: rarkse lawrence, independent line? caller: yes. i think the whole problem with this is you've got a lot of

people, they just don't like hispanics. hatred toward hispanics. like hatred toward african-americans. the way to solve the problem is to get all the illegal hispanics and vote democratic. host: congressman, what about campaign 2010 and 20 12 and the impact of laws like the arizona immigration law on the elections? guest: well, without a doubt, i think for hispanics that will determine mostly for a lot of them which way they are going to be voting whether it's democrat or republican. . .

because of where the future lies ahead. host: the hispanic vote, motivated to go to the polls in november when the president and this democratic leadership has not pushed and immigration reform bill? guest: certainly, for some immigration is the number one issue. for the hispanics the directors and, immigration is important but what is important to them right now is are we getting the trade in tourism that is important to our particular

area? right now the economy is the particular concern. polls that we have done, economy is at the top. host: even for hispanic voters? guest: that is right. and i represent a hispanic district. over 73% hispanic. host: wade, republican line, go ahead. guest: i am trying to figure out why mexico and their president don't do something for their people rather than putting the burden on us in the united states. guest: one of the things that mexico has been doing under president calderon is pushing hard to make sure that they win this war that they have against the drug cartels. it is a very difficult situation, where columbia was in the 1980's and 1990's.

we see two things here. there are not sufficient jobs in mexico. when there are jobs here, people will come here like a magnet. when you look at the process over the last couple of years, there has been a reduction. two reasons, the first is the economy, the second is the stronger security that we provided on the border. host: woodstock, georgia. go ahead. caller: this is something you do not hear a lot about, but when it comes to illegals using state -- fake social security cards and numbers, when they have withholding, they never get that back. i am wondering if there has been a study as to how much money the government collects from these people that they never even asked for back. thank you.

guest: i think the last time i saw some numbers it was over $4 billion in the social security trust fund that they will not be asked for. that is why a few minutes ago i said that they are helping us out with social security, adding money into the social security trust fund that they will not be asking for. but the best way is no amnesty towards undocumented aliens, but somehow we need to take another shot at the legalization process, getting them out of the shadows is important. host: richard is a republican in miami, ariz., go ahead. caller: how are you? as far as what is happening in arizona, my question would be, what is your view on possibly recruiting federal funding for

those that violate and do not enforce the laws? not amnesty, but bringing them into compliance. are you going to penalize employers? guest: comprehensive immigration reform should penalize employers that hire large numbers of undocumented aliens. sanctuary areas? i do not believe in them. as the chairman of the border security, i do not think that we should have sanctuary cities. how will we penalize them for what we do to gain compliance is something that we have to debate about, but i do not believe in sanctuaries. host: alexandria, virginia.

oscar, democratic line. caller: i just came to the united states. i am a legal resident now. before people talk about the eagles not paying taxes -- talk about illegals not paying taxes , we do not steal the numbers, we just invent them. in my case i work for seven years with a fake number that they took. for seven years i have worked, i will never get the money with my

three jobs and we do pay taxes. inform yourself. you will understand that most undocumented people do pay taxes. make sure that the criminals do not get any identification in your passage of this law. the people that have worked really hard to put food on the table for their families, but they wanted an opportunity. forgive them. those k -- host: ok. congressman? guest: becoming a naturalized citizen, i understand what he is saying. but what you are saying validates what i have been saying.

looking as social security, the last numbers i saw were over $4 billion there, people like yourselves that i put money in and probably will love be able to use the dollars, they will be used by other folks. on the other side, if someone has a criminal record, those of the first vogue's we should go to. we have been working with the assistant secretary of ice where they have been supporting more and more criminals. so, that is one thing we have to look at, going after those undocumented aliens that have criminal records that should be moved from here. host: atlanta, georgia, republican line, good morning. caller: hello, i would like to -- i am not hearing anything. host: we can hear you, bill, can

you hear us? caller: across the border, why not put a bar code on that in a number that will identify them, we can check where they go in and out. also, make the report -- make the employer report to the border and use that number to identify the employer. host: an idea like that is something we would have to look at. look, we have got to keep in mind that the guest worker plan has worked. after world war ii, when many people went out to fight, there were not enough people to work in agriculture. the united states turned to mexico for a guest worker plan

where they would come in, work, and return. how we identify them and the responsibilities that we put on the individual is something that we can do. just let the congressman said, it will help us to control the border, because we know who is coming in to do legitimate work and we can then focus on the bad guys and put the priority on the bad guys. host: before we wrap up, we should talk politics. we have seen some advertisements being run against nancy pelosi out there. if democrats lose the house, republicans take over. do you think that there should be a change of leadership at the top, including nancy pelosi? guest: certainly i do not think that we will lose the house. once you look at the individual members, we will win the house.

it might be by a small majority. but i am hoping that -- one of the things i have always said is that we have got to govern more from the center. i said this in 2006 when we took over. we can lose the house if we go too far to the left. we saw the republicans getting kicked out when they went to the extreme. we could keep his majority as long as we do not go too far to the left. i hope that we do not get to that point, but i hope that as we enter this new year to restore power, that we govern more from the center. the american people has a way of purging out the extreme right and left and i hope that we can use this to have more governing from the middle. host: 73% or more of your district is hispanic. are hispanics in general moderate? centrist?

guest: some people think that if you are hispanic, you are liberal, but hispanics are pretty conservatives in a lot of areas. therefore my district, even though it is hispanic, is a moderate centrist district. this is why was listed as the second most centrist member in congress, simply because of the members of my district. host: rosa, go ahead. caller: i would like to let you know that i was married to a homeland security officer. what happened is that a lot of people -- i become a u.s. citizen. i went to school. i see a lot of young people, they come over and they just work the system. not only that, what they should do is the importation, get them to come over to work, pay taxes

-- what they should do is deportation, then get them to come over to work, pay taxes. we need some money in the taxes system. in social security. if we do not think about it, they are working. that way we can develop social security systems in the united states. i am very proud to be become a u.s. citizen and am proud of this country. what people has to do is to think about it, they are working to pay social security. i applied for disability, i went to our supervisor, i worked all my years since i was 16. in 57. they did not want to give me my disability. for heaven's sake. host: last phone call, go ahead.

guest: certainly the people that want to come in for legitimate purposes, they want to work, i know emigrants that want to work hard. that is why a good guest worker plan for the federal program, one that was set up years ago and expanded upon, i think we need to do that. it is important to address the issues we have. if americans do not want to do it, the guest workers want to do it, but we have got to know who comes in and who goes out. keep in mind that over 40% of the people here legally got here through a visa, and they should have been told to leave when it expired. host: thank you for being on. we appreciate your time this morning. guest: thank you very much.

host: when we come back, we will talk about math and science when the president gives his annual back-to-school speech this morning, look for coverage on c- span.org. >> here is a look at the latest headlines. numbers from the commerce department show that retail sales rose in august by the largest amount in five months. an update on middle east peace talks, president obama's envoy, george mitchell, says that the new round of talks is moving in the right direction. mediated by secretary of state hillary clinton. more meetings coming up next week, the chinese premier will meet with president obama at the un general assembly.

the two will discuss a range of international issues. the meetings, midst disagreements over a number of issues, including trade policy and arms sales to taiwan. the iranian english-language state television says that sarah short has been released after more than one year in prison. she and two american men were arrested last year along the border with iraq, accused of spying. those are the latest headlines with c-span radio. >> follow congress using the c- span video library congressional comical, you can access the complete index of speakers, remarks in videos, with midterm elections ahead. a great resource for anyone that follows congress, it is all free any time. watch what you want, when you want. >> "washington journal" continues. host: american students bring

21st in science, 25th in math compared to other students around the world. here to talk about that this morning, math and science, why such a mediocre ranking for american students? guest: we have not come to grips with the fact that the economy is changing so rapidly that our students must aspire to math and science. we have got to kind of bought and happy in terms of students taking more liberal arts education, but they need a foundation of math and science for the country to prosper. host: there is a headline this morning that echoes what you are talking about in "the wall street journal." "student s.a.t. scores stay in a rut."

it goes on to say this -- "scores increased when two/thirds too-- guest: is those choices that we are trying to address. we need our students to aspire to higher standards. basically we feel strongly, and our programs are showing, if we set the barlow, that is the

level that kids will jump to. but the basic changes in the economy are that we do not have jobs and more than just require a strong back. you need a strong mind as well. a lot of people tell me well, johnny is good with his hands, he is not needed algebra or calculus. but that is not right. if you want to be an automobile mechanic today, you have to be computer literate, have a master of algebra, think critically. the rest of the world has seized on what we used to rely on, education. 1983, we were number one in the world in terms of graduation rates. number one. today we are 14th. so, our education system is not declining, of the rest of the world is passing us by. we have got to ratchet up our game. at math and science were olympic

sports, we would not put up with the performance we are getting in the united states. host: how do you make that happen? guest: we have to have more people speaking out about it. the former secretary of education used to say that she could go to a cocktail party and someone, ultimately, would write to her -- would brag that they could not balance their checkbook. but no one would brag that they could not read. we need people to understand the basis of our economy in the 21st century, which is technology. math, science, those are the foundation skills that we need. we need a cultural change. we have to push students to perform at higher levels. host: president obama is giving a back-to-school speech today. the text was released last night. this is part of it.

"i know that some of you might be skeptical about pursuing things you are not good at, you might wonder if some things are simply better -- some people are simply better in certain things. it is true, we have natural talents, but just because you are not good at something today does not mean that you cannot do it tomorrow. you can still excel if you are willing to make the effort. -- evridge." why is he signaling a math and science? guest: cultural attitudes are that johnny or sally is not good at science, but we cannot permit that anymore. students have to be well rounded. the new term that i like to use, we have to have students that are math and science literate to exist and be that citizens in a democracy. you need more understanding of math, science, and technology. we face a lot of issues going

forward that people are going have to understand the math and science implications of these issues. host: the president and his secretary of education started an initiative called the educate to innovate campaign. what is it? this is a story that we fell from 2009. where does this program stand? is it getting enough attention? guest: i know that they are planning a white house event later this week and they are recruiting companies and foundations as well as organizations like ours to start promoting more action to change what is happening. for instance, what we are doing across the country is implementing a program that encourages students and teachers to get prepared to take and pass advanced placement math and science courses. we produced a 150% increase in

six states in just two years. it can be done. every day we are producing students the chief at a higher level but in the dictation we have a saying about pilot programs wherever one wants to start one. what we are about is taking proven programs on the national scale. since we have 55 million students in public schools, we have to make sure that every student in every high school has the opportunity to be challenged with higher level courses that prepare them for college. if a student takes an passes, for instance, one advanced placement courses in high school, the african-american college graduation rate goes from 15% to 60%. that changes lives. this is not just about statistics and where we are in the world.

the unemployment rate is different the earnings power is different. we live in a society where we are running out of jobs. host: tom luce is the ceo of the math and science initiative. where you get your funding? guest: private sector as well as state and federal sources. people like the bill and melinda gates foundation, lockheed martin bolling, large corporations across the country. we have also been implementing a program in 23 universities to improve the next generation of teacher court, launching a program this week in the university of colorado. we have had impact in 15 states already host: how does your program work?

guest: -- host: -- 15 states already. host: how does your program work? guest: instead of enrolling in colleges of education, their role in the college of natural science and math, graduating with the same degree as any other student, but also a teaching certificate. that is preparing teachers that have real content knowledge. those other types of students -- features that can make a students' eyes light up. in public high-school we are at about 230 high schools around the country and we are taking the existing teacher corps and giving them better training to be better math and science teachers. the key to any programs success is the teacher in the classroom. host: we will talk more about that with tom luce until around

10:00 a.m. this morning. the labor department projects that by 2014 there will be more than 2 million job openings in science, technology, engineering, while the number of americans graduating with those degrees are plummeting. vermont, go ahead diane. caller: thank you for c-span, the best reality show on television. [laughter] the education thing is a big deal around here, vermont has a certain amount of choice depending on where you live. public education is the most concerning thing to me as a parent. i have rescued two sons from his public school systems and have had to teach them myself because of the ever present 70-30 split. as an educator you know that it does not matter how much money you throw at it, you will still

have 70% of kids that will adapt well and 30% of kids that absolutely need their parents to have a choice when they are young. why does the department of education insist on putting all children into one category? as i listen to you talk by your children this, we need this and that, we are all individuals with individual talents and of it -- abilities and i do not say the department of education celebrating that, more they are trying to shove us into one place. guest: what i want every youngster to do is to have the educational opportunity to maximize their talents. i am saying that to be well- educated citizens in the 21st century, we must have a more

deep understanding of man and science to be good 21st century citizens. whether you are going to be a mathematician or not, just to live in the 21st century requires more math and science skills. we want every youngster to deal with those subjects. let's not talk about what johnnie can or cannot do. we have proven over and over again that our kids are capable of meeting challenges if we challenge them. host: that caller said she had to rescue her children from the public school system. you said that the key is better teachers. how you get them? guest: there are lot of things. this is part of what we are doing, giving the existing teachers better professional

development opportunities. giving them professional training and skill upgrades. we take teachers and in the summer they go through advanced placement training, where they get better qualified. then we are training the next generation of teachers in a new way. we cannot just drop a teacher in a classroom and say good luck, you will be great. we have to help teachers, which is an obligation that we all have, giving them the training and skills they need. i have never met a teacher who goes to school in the morning in hopes that students cannot learn. they're teaching because they want to help children. we need to give them better skills to do that. host: perry, ohio.

guest: why are advanced placement class is preferred advancedpseo classes? -- preferred over pseo glasses? my daughter is a pseo student currently. it seems as though those glasses are looked upon better through the school. host: can you explain pseo for those that do nano? guest: i was about to less the same question. host: we lost her. guest: i do know that there are courses that are college level courses. we are about making sure that every student has the opportunity. we are not about mandating

having to take this or that. we are about challenging youngsters to take advantage of opportunities. host: north carolina, republican line. caller: what we do about the teachers? he is talking about improving the teachers. what if they have tenure? a lot of them do not seem to care. how do you address that? host: what would you like to see done on that issue? i do not know if you have been following politics of education, but the leader here in washington, d.c. put forth an idea of a compensation package with starting salaries of $65,000, topping out at 150,000, plus spending for teacher training, the cost being about

$30 billion each year as an investment for government, but it would mean that teachers would have to agree to not have tenure. they could be fired if they are not meeting certain performance measures. caller: i agree that they need to be held to a higher standard. many of these tenured teachers go to class, know that they cannot be torched, so they just barely get by. american history, world history, math, science. guest: we are showing to the contrary by offering programs that offer better training and incentives, going to existing public high-school, to wonder and 50 across the country, taking the existing teacher corps, rewarding them for better performance, rewarding them for giving students challenging courses, tripling the output in one year. i just do not buy that it cannot be done.

we have proven in actual schools in real world environments that it is possible today to produce qualifiable, measurable increases in student achievement. is it easy? nope. and we offer incentives, bonuses, and opportunities to teachers and students, which makes the difference. we need to challenge the teachers and students. host: incentives, are they rewarded with more pay? guest: they are rewarded with more pay, we give them a bonus to attend summer training, enhancing their teaching skill. scores that were three or above on the advanced placement calculus exam, for instance, why reward three? it means the student its college credit for the course. we reward student achievement. we have teachers that make $10,000 more each year.

and they volunteer for that program. host: compare the profession of teaching in the united states to teaching in other countries that are leading the world in education. a field that does not pay a high salary in the united states, where you get to take three months off each year. some teachers to other training. what kind of person does that attracted the field compared to the teaching profession in other countries? guest: in other countries they have succeeded in providing more recognition, more reward for their teachers. that is what we are about. recognition and reward. we are about rewarding teachers that are making a difference. and it pays off. i think that the teaching profession is like many professions. my profession was a lawyer. in the early 1960's we were

compensated on seniority basis, the day there is no law firm that does that. my feeling is that a great teacher deserves a great salary. there are two rates in there, we must reward the top of the profession. host: lyons, illinois. democratic line, al, thank you for waiting. guest: i have been teaching algebra for about 30 years. i noticed in the class is especially, a lot of people cannot handle abstract thinking. going from regular math to elder brother, they just cannot handle it. the way that i figure it, when you look at the elementary grades, even up through eighth grade, the reason especially,

everything is based on entertainment, not learning. learning and reading the subject at the same time without learning about little animals running around, that is my question. guest: to me, algebra is a critical gateway course for every student. it is where you transferred a critical thinking. algebra is the key to successful student in college. no matter what they won a be -- want to be. yes, we need to challenge our kids with more and part of what we are sharing about what we have done, when we provide rewards for students we give them an opportunity to take more challenging courses. they will do it. so often in our schools, be it counselors or environments in the school, we have low

expectations of students. when you have low expectations of students, you will get low standards. host: from our producers, pseo, an academic opportunity open to students at the college level offered in a few states like ohio, getting an associate's degree at the same time. guest: that probably sounds to me what i would call dual credit courses, which are often offered by community colleges. my concern about that, do we know that the student that passes that course is capable of college level work? if they take that course and they wind up in college in have to take remediation, we have not accomplished what we want. we want students to be prepared to go to college.

i would save roughly 80% of the jobs created in this country today reflect 14 years of education. so, we have to graduate kids that are ready to go to college with that option. people say that not every child will graduate from college. that is right. however, if you want that well- paid job, a living family wage, you have to have the skills that are equivalent. when our soldiers in the army have that technology on the battlefield, math and science, that is the real way we are living. host: independent line, texas. caller: thank you for taking my call. sir, my question, our financial plans -- do you realize that by not separating out the students

that have a difficulty learning with math, it slows the students that learn at a faster pace? waiting causes them to lose interest because of what the teacher is going over and over for those that do not understand. i have problems when i was in high school. i personally attended [unintelligible] during the summer and graduated as a professional engineer program -- through a professional engineering program. had i not had held out of my school, i would not have excelled. guest: i do think that that happens in some classrooms, but that is not what we want. we want every student to go as rapidly and as far as they possibly can. we can create clustered

environments where that is possible. we want to challenge every student to a maximum of their ability. but if they're not challenging students to do more host: one of your e-mail us this morning saying that contrary to a previous caller, teachers at the complete graduate courses or workshops every two years in order to receive scheduled pay raises. guest: the rules of tenure change from state to state. that is just the system. we need to grapple with the education for teachers.

host: what about that and science in this country as opposed to other countries? guest: to me, one of the things we have to consider is whether we need math and science specialists in elementary school. we produce elementary school teachers that basically do not get math and science training in their college preparation. we have got to -- but it is interesting, national tests show youngsters that do very well in hand -- elementary school. they fall off in fourth grade and ninth grade. part of that is that if we do not take them further, challenging them between fourth and eighth grade, we need to do that. host: what is the early preparation for math and science before fourth grade? guest: we are learning a lot about cognitive development and

it is more about how you inspire youngsters and explain how math and science relate to their world. it is more about how you present the subject. we have to challenge youngsters to grapple with madeleine. -- grapple with math. part of it is the attitude. people saying -- jim is not good with math, but that is ok. we need to be sure of that before we write him off. host: washington, d.c., good morning. caller: i have been teaching for about 12 years. i know that when i enter the classroom i did not receive any classroom training in the late 1980's. i know that if america wants to follow a certain rubric or

model, the international baccalaureate program, which is followed by the elite private schools, we can implement that model across all jurisdictions and states. can you comment? guest of the international baccalaureate program is a good alternative. -- guest: the international baccalaureate program is a good alternative. advanced placement tests are pursued because there is a national test at high levels accepted for college credit and we know that a student at scores a three in cambridge, massachusets, took the same test as a student in texas and we know what they learned.

there is nothing magic about advanced placement. it is a national test and that is why we chose to push that curium -- push that. we must push the bar higher because of the world we live in. host: melvin, democratic line. caller: i am calling because i am a foster parent of two elementary school kids. at this time i am worried about them because they are in special education, what about special education when it comes to men and science? guest: this has to do with the teacher corps. we feel strongly that teachers need more content knowledge to be better math and science teachers. we are not producing, and it does vary from state to state, but roughly two-thirds of the

teachers by a high school and middle school, let alone elementary school, do not have content degrees in teaching certificates in math and science. our teachers need content knowledge. it sounds simplistic, but you cannot teach what you do not know. if you are trying to stay ahead of the students, it is very difficult. we need teachers, more teachers to have content degrees in math and science to be good teachers. host: princeton, new jersey, susan. caller: i wanted to let you know that i am a teacher myself. i have friends with content degrees in math. they dropped out because they were so burned out. nowadays, teachers get no support from the administration or parents.

at the lower levels they do not even have to memorize multiplication tables. as they get higher up, the kids consider it a waste of time because they of calculators, but in the higher grades they do not know what to do. i had a ph.d. in chemistry, i plan on going into teaching. i took some courses and i went into the schools. after i visited five schools i decided i would not do it, because kids in the 12th grade did not know what a decimal point was. parents that are not motivated, students that are not motivated, they come to the classroom and every teacher expects them to be entertained. guest: but that is what we are really about, changing the culture of a school.

i was in a school in arkansas last week. 800 of the 1400 students are in pre-ap classes. this is not for certain types of students. with the mindset of the school and community, the idea is that our kids can achieve. we have too much of an attitude that certain students will not, cannot achieve at high levels. we have proven to the contrary in 250 schools that represent the demographics of our country, all over the country. this can be done. if we are not doing it in every school, if there is enough demand an outcry for people, demanding more of our students,

teachers, and parents, it can be achieved. guest: i agree. but teachers need support as well. the only things that i ever hear in the media is the attracting teachers. host: -- guest: and that is what we are about, recognizing teachers. we need parental involvement but we cannot allow that to be an excuse as saying that without parental involvement, kids can achieve with 20% of our children being raised by grandparents now. you and i know that there are children that achieve every day in our schools without parental involvement. too often we want to say -- well, we do not have good teachers, parental involvement,

all in the schools that we have put in this country, despite all of those factors we are producing extraordinary results. it can be done. host: ben, republican line, you are on the air with tom luce, ceo of the national math and science initiative. caller: when bill clinton was running for governor here in arkansas the first time, we raised taxes on everything and everybody. the second time that he ran he promised that there would be no new taxes. the second week he was in office he went on television in arkansas, his wife standing right behind him, saying folks, my wife has made a study of what the education system needs in arkansas. we are right now third to last. if you give me an extra 15 cents

on a gallon of gasoline, i will earmark that and we will put arkansas in the top 20. here it is, all these years later, ark. is still way down on a list as far as education is concerned. what we need to do is fire all of the teachers we have now, starting over with features that have the basic knowledge of arithmetic, math, english, history. host: we get the point. chris, texas, independent line. the morning. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. biden of think we have lost our science and math identity. during the space race -- part of

it was due to globalization and the commodity of the math profession. i would like you to comment on how you think that has damaged our identity and culture. the same as when kids are in college and they look at the degrees they are pursuing, they do not see people like them. they see people at the university from india and other countries. as a matter of fact, the u.s. and u.k. held to establish the pre-eminence of indian science and engineering. guest: globalization is definitely a factor. but all that globalization says to us is that we have more competition today.

we used to be the innovators throughout economic history. in being an innovator you are creating the jobs. we are losing the innovating edge. i get a lot of people telling me that you are right in terms of creating enthusiasm for math and science, we have lost that. we need a sputnik moment. i hope that we do not have to have a sputnik moment, but the fact of the matter is that r&d in this country is declining, math and engineering students in this country are declining, and we must understand that if we are really going to change our economy, we have to become the innovators again. we are losing that innovation edge, and it is important with economics and other respects in life. host: scott, republican line, you are on the air. guest: i just had a quick point.

historically -- caller: i just had a quick point. historically i come from a long line of teachers. i think that an important point that we are missing is not just a lack of math and science, which is important and has been ignored greatly for the last 30 years, but i think of what we have is an influx in the 1970's and early 1980's of bureaucracy and cost expenditures that are a good portion, much more so than used to be spent, spent on overhead. supervisors in the school board, ph.d.'s this set on board to stop the radical ideas, -- that sit on board, setting up theoretical ideas, and what has been lost is critical thinking. they give students an information set and it is simply

regurgitated back. host: have do you teach critical thinking? guest: -- host: how do you teach critical thinking? guest: that has to do with teachers understanding critical content and being able to communicate the full ramifications of this subject. that is what we have to do. in his right, we are losing a lot of that. but here is the point that i hope that listeners will take away. we have discussed parental involvement, bureaucracy, then you're, cultural issues. all of these problems, -- tenure, cultural issues. all of these problems exist, and we are still able to triple the number of students achieving college-age ready status in one year with minority, female, anglo, all types of students. the issue is not to focus on all of the problems that we have, but focus on the programs that work. if we have the public will to

scale them across the country and demand results in all of our schools with out -- with all of our children. host: how much money with that take? guest of the cost of our program is roughly $120,000. we are not talking about millions of dollars, we are talking about what you emphasize and reward. i would urge people to go to our website, seeing and demanding that their schools adopt these well-rounded programs to encourage more children to succeed. host: how do you get into a school? where in the country are you located? guest: we started in six states. we now have 22 states, in a few we just need more funding, so forth, and demand. this can be done. we were able to go to six states

in just two years. in a relatively short period of time we could take this program across the country. host: one last phone call, arlington, virginia, republican line, go ahead. caller: thank you very much. polish american from arlington. you mentioned before that we are falling behind the rest of the industrialized world. but we have got to go to the root of the situation, we are lacking the correct education, modeled after math and science. so, we have to go to the basics. our children have to spend more time, instead of just watching just football and becoming slaves for the large companies for used goods. without logical thinking. a long time a i