>> "washington journal" is next. host: the stories dealing with two suspicious packages put on cargo plane. "philadelphia inquirer" examines the lack of federal laws that specifically deal with cargo planes and them being searched by security folks for suspicious packages like the ones found yesterday. that is one of the stories we will look at as we talk about the incident yesterday, two suspicious packages, al qaeda being suspected in that plot as

well. we want to get your thoughts on it. the numbers are at the bottom of the screen. u.s. targeted by using starring planes. we want your thoughts. we will take those calls in a moment. also, if you want to communicate to us electronically there are two ways you can do so. you can send e-mail comments that are relevant to the conversation this morning about the sur being targeted and attacked using cargo planes. here is the story from the "philadelphia inquirer." the headline is law and security checks exempts cargo phraeupblgs much she writes a few months ago on august 3 a federal law took

effect requiring all cargo loaded on passenger jets be subjected to security screenings but cargo planes were excluded. conducted by customs and border patrol and t.s.a. but it is moran come focused on high risk flights. it goes on to see the g.a.o. issued a report during the summer as the cargo mandate for passenger planes approached. lord's office produced a study on 100% screening requirement as he called it but the issue of screening on parcels on cargo planes has not been examined since 2007, he saeid where freighters were excluded from the law. that is one story from yesterday's incident. here is another one from "new york times." it focuses on yemen. mentioned as the base for al qaeda attacks in the united states. this is robert worth out of

beirut. he writes in the middle of it in recent months american intelligence officials have groan increasingly concerned about yemen despite a renewed cooperation on counterterrorism with the yemeni authorities. al qaeda's regional arm which went quiet several months after a series of american air strikes in yemen has become more active and killed several dozen soldiers and police officers. it says that the united states government's relationship with the yellin has been troubled by mutual suspicion. the country has been along a haven for jihadists that were woke there after -- welcome there in the 1980's. after the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001 the government cracked down on many but maintained relationships with them. cultiva cultivating radical clerics. the officials defended the approach as necessary pragmatism

where hard lane views are common. yemen was the topic among other things by the president of the united states in addressing this issue. here is a bit of what he had to say from yesterday. >> although we are still pursuing all the facts we know the packages originated in yemen. we know that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula a terrorist group based in yemen continues to plan attacks against or homeland, our citizens and friends and allies. john brennen, who you will be hearing from, spoke with the president of yemen today about the seriousness of this threat. the president of yemen pledged the full cooperation of the yemeni government in this investigation. going forward, we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the yemeni government to disrupt plotting about i al qaeda and destroy this al qaeda affiliate. we will also continue our efforts to strengthen a more

stable, secure and prosperous yemen so terrorist groups do not have the time and space they need to plan attacks from within its borders. host: taking a look at this situati situation, several paramedics have headlines. tabloid parenpers go for it thi way. that is cover. "new york post." your calls on this well as e-mail and twitter. the lines are on your screen if you want to participate. greensboro, north carolina, democrat line. chris you are up first. what do you make of what happened yesterday? caller: well, what i would like to say is that i think it is an awful situation, but i wonder about copy cats. so many crazy people in the world today. you really don't know if people will try to doing things within the country and it is an issue.

i don't know what to make of yemen and it seems like yemen just came up. what is your thought? host: when you say copycat, do you mean other people would try this because they saw what happened or at least the exposure it got from yesterday's event? caller: yes. the thing of it is that is kind of scary is that you don't know what they saw and sometimes the media can hurt us because sometimes when performance see these things you wonder if they will actually try these types of things again to try it make sure that they are successful. these things are very critical and that is really my comment. host: los angeles, california, republican line, john. caller: yes, that "philadelphia inquirer" story hit the nail on the head with the notice about how this law exempting the cargo planes was just passed in august. i think that we have been -- we have known the past two or three years that mr. obama has been

more concerned with the rights of terrorists or suspected terrorists getting a fair trial than he is about the safety of americans and i think this is a real clear sign to vote for as many republicans as we can tuesday. host: so the law you think needs to be strengthened? caller: absolutely. host: beltsville, maryland, democrat line. caller: i want to know comment the president for handling this so nicely and people just don't give him credit for everything he does. but he is doing the best that he can. i think it is time to know that he is doing the job the way it is supposed to be done. host: what do you think should go on from here on out as far as the specific situation? caller: well, maybe they should put become the law that -- put back the law to check all the cargo planes. but i don't think he he should

be blamed for everything that happened. host: to read from the "philadelphia inquirer" story it goes on to quote bill lord from -- steven lord from the government accountability office. i think it was perceived to be a higher risk any plane carrying passengers. the focus has been on passenger flights because they were used in the 9/11 attacks but a successful attack on a cargo plane or facility could cause major problems economically at least saved a transportation analyst who follows u.p.s. for the investor company. he said investors were not worried about the terror threat to transportation companies in light of what happened in philadelphia and newark and elsewhere. i'm not concerned he says. terrorist attacks are a possibility in think of the companies that we follow. just one take on the story this morning. bristol, texas, republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning. i think it is a shame we are not taking care of all of this islamic problem. i do believe we have an islam sympathizer in office and i can't wet to get hill voted out. host: bridgeport, connecticut. stuart on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i don't know how this attack by the enemies of this country who do discriminate between republicans and democrats suddenly becomes a problem that only republicans can handle. a republican was in the white house when 9/11 occurred and we haven't had a 9/11 under president obama. i think that is one area of

consideration. t the targeting of cargo planes is something that can't be over come pwby inspections. you are talking about tens of thousands of passenger planes and cargo planes coming into the united states from all over the world every day in all of the major cities of the country. the burden, the cost would be beyond description. i don't think that is an effective way. i don't know what they mean by strengthening the laws. i'm sure anything that is suspicious can be inspected. but you have to eliminate the god from the bad -- the good from the bad. the other comment i wanted to make is last night i heard on the program from eliot spitzer he interviewed an arab who

bragged about the connections that are going on with fellow muslims and the united states. does it occur to anybody that how does some arab in yemen find out the names of synagogues in chicago, illinois? do you know the name and address of any mosques located in yemen? i don't think you do. and my point is that there is a lot of conspiracy going on and i'm afraid natives in this country who want to plot against this country. i think that the last point i want to make is that this is a war against the jewish people. i happen to be jewish myself. it is not recognized adequately by my own people. the targets, including 9/11,

were the jewish people. the reason the target was the world trade center is because the rabid anti-semite convinced themselves that the jews are in control of the finances of the world. host: st. louis, missouri, republican line, sylvia. caller: good morning, c-span. i would like to make a few comments in my short time to speak. firm, i would like to say one -- first of all one of the biggest reasons we are having breaches of national security is because the communication system and the way the news is reported. if you really look and listen to the news, they report on things they have no business talking about. there needs to be editors and publishers who closely go out into the public news that we should be informed and things that are regarding national security and people who run the communication systems should be on top of things that should be

said and not be said. host: off of twitter this morning joe, who identifies himself as american hero adds this. he says the authorities were able to search and find the packages so why would a new law be needed? here to give other context this morning is joining us on the phone is gordon from the politico their defense reporter. what is the latest as far as those behind the delivering of the packages? >> good morning. right now they intercepted the two packages. there are believed to be 13 more that could be out there, 13 suspicious packages that potentially were entered into the shipping system and could surface somewhere in the united states. host: as far as 13 packages across the united states, has anybody formally claimed responsibility for this? >> no, not as of yet.

it serpcertainly is thought to - the packages came from yemen, anded on a tip from officials in saudi arabia we were able to intercept them. it is certainly thought that the cleric in yemen awlaki may be behind this but we don't know that yet. host: as far as the 13 potential give us a scope of what is being done as far as investigation. >> they are doing a forensic investigation on the packages they did find and materials they did find. as far as we know, they are not sure if the others are in the system or not but are scanning cargo and they have had accompanied the jets with fighter planes. they stopped other cargo planes

in firm. they kind of were in a freeze. they seem to be confident of their audit but we don't know where the things could be or if they are in existence. host: talk about the handling of this. the president said he found out about this thursday night as far as when he was first alerted to it. talk about the handling up to yesterday's announcement and what goes on from here as far as if there's been any up dadate. >> the president was notified about 10:30 thursday night about the interception of the packa s packages. they subsequently found them in the two other locations. i think it was really clear bringing him out and having him talk yesterday afternoon, they were keen on making sure that he appears to be the commander and chief on top of this. i think what we would expect to

see is some confirmation that they either know that the other packages are out there or that they have perhaps less suspicion that they are in the system and maybe they never got into -- never left yemen. i don't think they know that yet but potentially today or tomorrow we will have a better sense of whether there are other threats out there or not. it seemed yesterday that they -- nobody is doing high fives but it seemed like they felt they were on top of it. they clearly made a point of saying people shouldn't do anything differently, be vigilant but you had a sense that they felt as if they were on top of it and there were not the these, this imminent threat within the shipping system. host: it has been said two packages made it on planes and

there are 13 more and there were lapses about how they made it in the first place. >> well, that is a debate. and clearly the whole episode will renew the debate about what cargo is shipped and -- excuse me -- scanned and inspected. right now, all cargo on passenger planes is scanned. there is a mandate i think by july 2012 to screen all cargo on cargo planes, which is a different matter but has enormous political and economic implications and i think that the administration is trying to sort out where the balance is. the fact that this comes obviously as you know that this plot against the metro was foiled and there is no sense there is a connection between the plot against the washington

metro and all of this. but i think in some sense they are very confident that they are thwarting these plots. but americans and certainly the administration and government officials need to be vigilant. host: if that mandate is set to kick in by 2012 a caller said the sheer scope of examining it would make it nearly impossible to happen? >> it is not only an impossible task but logistically and practically you have essentially slowed down seriously the ability of shippers to ship in and out of the u.s. and you also -- there are concerns about doing something that will affect other countries' abilities to ship. you don't really necessarily have control of all of this stuff. you can control it at the

borders, but when you look at freight trains and airports and look at ports, it is a task that is just beyond anybody to even kind of manu kind of manual. then you -- imagine. then you look at the economic impacts. >> gordon l everyone -- lubold, thank you for your input. again, for the remainder of our time, about 20 minutes, your thoughts on yesterday's attempt especially using cargo planes. you can call us the next 20 minutes. you can also e-mail us or send us something on twitter. twitter tkaur

twitter.com/c-spanwj. next is paris, illinois. donnie on the independent line. caller: my comment is on this situation right now with somewhat is supposed to be coming out of yemen on -- they keep talking about public planes and cargo ships and freighters and trains and all that stuff. apparently they say they found two and there are possibly 13 more and what i don't underst d understand. they keep saying it takes an enormous amount of money to check these situations out. my question is, i wonder how they ever possibly knew that these two were on these planes headed for the united states and possibly 13 more and they keep talking about how much money, the enormous amount of money it

would take to screen the planes. well, it seems apparent to me that if they are aware that they are on there before they ever left the swaeuituation or depar where wherever they departed from, yemen or wherever, it seems that they would check that when they get that was in, not wait until they get where they are going, or until the crap between the president telling them this. why don't they stop it when they get the information instead of waiting and messing with the american people and seeming to think somewhere along the line there is nothing known about this until it is headed to the united states border. host: don on the republican lie line. >> what did we learn from the second world war? how long did it take for america and the league of nations to

react to hitler. and if he was here he would probably do the same thing. it is the same wolf in different clothes. why are we waiting to be so humiliated to the rest of the word? why are we waiting? why don't we go to each of these countries and militarize, get this squared away before it comes into our lap? host: while we continue to tack calls on it topic a couple of political items this morning. this from the "wall street journal," about florida governor charlie crist some announcement came he would caucus with hill democrats. writing that the florida government running as an independent will align with democrats if he wins next week. a clo a close advisor said it brings another twist to a contest with with an intervention by former

president clinton. the crist advisor said the governor's intentions were already set. crist is going to caucus with the democrats he said i don't think there is any if, ands or buts. it would be a very tight year, almost like a democratic pickup in a solid republican state. that is the "wall street journal" this morning. also dealing with florida this morning is "new york times." damian cave taking a look at president clinton's role in the florida race saying it seems to cost democrats some black volts. he says that about a third of florida's likely voters have already cast ballots. kendrick meek has insisted he will stay in the rest and mr. rubio's campaign has emphasized he has a commanding lead in ms. polls. but with some swinging sharply in recent days some democrats believe that the vote of no confidence by mr. clinton may be enough to alter the outcome.

it is closer than we think with crist says watson. he says some republicans may not want to admit they machine to vote against mr. rubio, a favorite of conservatives in the tea party as meek declines and charlie's numbers pick up. caller from ohio. u.s. being targeted by cargo planes. kate on the democrat line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to thank the intelligence community for the incredible job they are doing and president obama for how he is handling this. and no excuses for trying to kill anybody innocent, but i just don't want to look at the root causes of some of the anger and hatred toward the u.s. they don't hate us for our freedoms as you had guests on your program, former head of the c.i.a. and former c. euft a.

analy analysts on. and they have all said as well as bill clinton, you know, until we deal with that israeli-palestinian conflict and continued illegal settlements that are going on as we speak, the anger and hatred continues to grow, evolve and be fueled. so, until we deal with the root cause of the issue, which is the israeli-palestinian conflict and illegal settlements, military bases on their land and support for tier right hand calendar -- tyrannical regimes. i have read the 9/11 commission and in that report they even had the hutzpah to mention the israeli-palestinian conflict and how it is fueling the anger and hatred toward us. we have to deal with the root cause or it will keep coming at

us. host: ellie cot, city -- ellicott city, maryland. caller: i agree with the previous caller supporting on the nazi zionist and palestine issue. but just to get to a point here, if i send a package to china with a wire sticking out and china is rattled by it, then there is an issue with somebody using this box with a wire sticking out in china for chinese politics. the real issue here is that the u.s. itself has to renounce terrorism as a means for military success like in 2004 "new york times" published that bush asked for the salvador option which means he wanted terrorism to -- bombs to be planted in markets and mosques in europe to blame the resistance.

bremer refused and he pushed him to the side and established the blackwater under john negroponte and they went ahead and killed a mechanical iraqi through terrori terrorism. americans did this. all of the bombs in iraq were american planted by blackwater. host: more election news. this is out of the "new york post" this morning. the president travelling to charlottesville yesterday to support the incumbent who is running for office. ben feller covers it and talks about the visit. he said the stop was meant as more than a boost for the incumbent who is in a re-election. he wanted to send a message to fellow democrats that not only would he stand with those who took tough votes but his party shouldn't be embarrassed by the record of the last two years. it is payback for being a loyal

foot soldier for the pelosi-obama agenda sayireferrio pelosi who stands to lose the leadership position should the republicans get 40 seats. the government reported that national output grew slightly faster the hrlast three months t not enough to produce enough jobs to reduce high unemployment. ellicott city, maryland, george, democrat line. sorry, pushed the wrong button. caller: good morning, c-span. i want to make a suggestion about what happened the other day. i would suggest that some of these countries that give money to the ships or planes that leave their countries, there should be a way of having all

the ships and planes go to guantanamo bay and get them checked out before they head to the mainland. they continue to allow these things to happen, that is what should happen. they should be on the schedule even if it is five at a time, 10 at a time or such time when they can seriously check the plane or even passenger planes. all of them should be going to guantanamo bay and be checked out before they head to the mainland, u.s. caller: "new york times" talked to representative democrat from californ california. she was quoted as saying this morning in a story by scott shane on the front page, it says the panels seized contained petn the same explosive in the bombs soerpbed into the underwear of a tphaoeupblen who tried to blow up an airliner over detroit.

that was hatched in yemen a country that is regarded as one of the most significant fronts in the belt with extremists. ms. harmon said that both packages contained computer printer cartridges filled with explosives but the wuone used a cell phone and the other used a timer as a detonator. a call from washington. democratic line. caller: good morning. i'm very shocked at the news and hearing about these packages. i'm a veteran. my son is in the army. and he has been over to iraq three times already. i'm sick of war, you know? but i know that we are not going to deal from a premise of tpafe but we are going to deal from a freshmen of freedom -- from a premise of freedom. and the soon are the arabs that

are warring against us get that message, the better. host: lake wales, florida. go ahead. stpwhrao yes. my comment is that i think that the american people really need to realize that we are dealing with some sort of, you know, military entity. won't we are not really used to dealing with them and they are increasingly becoming intelligent and learning our way of life. so we need to understand that we have to react to this and we need to adjust to what is going on and what is coming at us. host: adjust how? >> our policies need to change obviously. they are piercing our borders obviously. has changed a lot of things and the way we react to them. but i don't think we have changed enough. we need to do more. i think the companies that are facilitating these transfers between different countries

really understand this is the problem and we are their customers and they need to protect us. host: the "wall street journal" dealing with the election coverage talks about swing voters. writing about swing voters going republican according to them. they devote nonpartisan prognosticators who said friday he thought the republicans could pick up as many as 70 house seats, something no party has achieved since 1948. they need 39 to take up the majority and defeating democratic support and that keeps their hope of taking the senate. in "new york times" this morning it looks at those running as republicans in the election cycle and they say in the head lip the new face of the g.o.p. grizzled veterans and says challengers may be getting the headlines in the mid term elections but most of the republicans who are best positioned to snap up senate

seats are veterans and most of them have already served in congress. he says that rob portman who served 12 years in the house and is likely to win a seat from ohio has a well established reputation for working across the oil. roy blood of missouri now contemplating a seventh term has been ahead in polling for the senate. he is chose friends with the democratic -- close friends with the democratic majority leader having worked with him on issues including the 2008 financial bailout and national security. in arkansas, representative john boozman five-term republican has a huge lead over the democratic incumbent and in indiana former senator is enjoying the large advantage over the democrat. he served in the house eight years from 1981 to 1989 and in the senate for a decade from 1989 to 1999. houston, texas, you are next. caller: hello.

host: is this chuck on the republican line? caller: yes. our president keeps concluding that he has only about two years to correct some of the major problems of defense and homeland security. we have the border problems, fort hood, christmas bomber, yet the congress allows our congressmen two years to complete their job. is this showing that our president is incompetent and unqualified to do his job in two years? host: rock island, illinois. roger on the democrat line. caller: i would like to say that all of this terrorism business and everything is just trying to get performance riled up -- get people riled up. if you get in your car and you drove to chicago and somebody got on the radio all the way to chicago telling you how the

possibility of you dying on the way on the road, that it is the same difference, the tactics that they are using. they are using scare tactics trying to get everybody riled up. i just feel as though that is what they are trying to do. thank you. host: starting at noon today on c-span you can see the coverage of the rally to restore sanity and/or fear. this is put on by jon stewart and stephen coal pwertd. that starts -- colbert. that starts at noon. the main partial we will show is scheduled from noon to 3:00 in the afternoon. a writing-up this morning this is from the "washington post" this morning, one take on it says with the capitol backdrop, clo crowd it should look like the political theatre it sends up. at some point do those mocking such hubris exhibit it.

it is a tougher line to walk a flight attendant of no relation to the colbert star said in the balance between lampooning the absurdity of american politics and being part of it. she hopes it wouldn't be too political. that is from 12:00 to 3:00 here on c-span. elizabethtown, kentucky, inga on the democrat lien. caller: thank you for letting me -- any which, what i'm against is al-malaki from iraq, he liked to execute tarik aziz and he has done nothing. he came in and out of this country and negotiated when everything was good with iraq and america. i think that the man shouldn't be executed. this is my opinion. host: silver spring, maryland, next. peggy on the independent line. caller: good morning and thank

you for letting me speak on c-span. the reason i'm calling is pause -- because i'm fed up with the fear factor. you turn on the television and it is fear. you turn on the radio and it is fear. we are afraid of the healthcare bill, afraid of equal pay for women, afraid of minimum wage, afraid of gays and lesbian. we are afraid of a half white president and two women on the supreme court. what happened to the great america? what happened to the greatest country in the world? we're just afraid of our neighbors, afraid of everybody. people are calling and complaining about the economy. well, you invaded two countries. you have to pay for it and we are paying for it with unemployment. i think there is a correlation between terrorists attacking us and the fear of them and the republicans going to take over.

the president has been president how many years and we are not successful. i think there is a correlation that there is got to be something. i'm not saying that the republicans will take over but there is going to be something and we should not let fear rule pus america. host: the white house considering a new strategy on tax cuts according to lori montgomery. according to people familiar with the talks at the white house and senior democrats breaking apart the bush administration tax cut is being discussed as a more realistic goal calling for permanent extension of cuts that benefit families earning less than $250,000 and temporary extension of cuts on above that. it would decouple the provisions. democrats said it would focus the debate when tax cuts for the relationship expire next year or year after. republicans will be forced to defend carveouts for tiny majorities and unpopular position that will be difficult to advance without the carve-up

of a broad based tax cut for everyone aides in both parties said. one more story from the "washington post," but first we will take one more call from washington, d.c. on the independent line. caller: i want to say that i heard one of your recent callers discuss the issue of the settlements being the problem in the middle east and the israeli-palestinian conflict. unfortunately, there is an exponential electrical of ignorance when it comes to historical fact in the middle east and that conflict. we can't have individuals reading the news and only listening to one line and not looking any deeper to find out what the roots are, who the people are involved and players, who are the people who are former terrorists who are actually chief negotiators and responsible because they are less harassed than other individuals in the middle east. so to blame israel is a

continuation of anti-semitism that doesn't make sense and is not based on historical fact. we have to go beyond the last headline to understand who is responsible, who is involved and how this impacts our freedom. host: one more story from "new york times", in policy reversal the united states saying genes shouldn't be eligible for patenting. reversing a longstanding policy it said friday human and other genes shouldn't be eligible for patents because they are part of nature. the new position could have a huge impact on medicine and the biotechnology industry. that was declared in a friend of the court brief filed by the department of justice in a case involving two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. that is it for this portion of the program. we now move on to talk about governors as they are running for office this election cycle and what they have to do to create jobs and make their states more economically viable. our guest for that discussion is

bruce katz with the brookings institution metropolitan policy program director. we will have that discussion right after this. >> c-span's local content vehicles are traveling the country visiting congressional districts to look at the most closely contested house races in this year's mid term elections. >> what i would like to talk about is where mark shower is. when he has the commercial you may have seen sitting in a cafe next door to my old office, his office now it jackson. he says 10 times a day i ask the question, what is washington thinking? well, answer is mark, they are thinking what you are thinking. >> i must ask myself 10 times a day what washington thinking. bailouts for wall street, spending your tax dollars on jobs in china. people are fed up and so am i. that is why i voted against billing out wall street and

raising my own pay and spending your tax dollars on creating jobs in china. i'm fighting to help this business create jobs here. i didn't go to congress to work for wall street or my party. i'm working for michigan. >> his staff repeatedly refused to give c-span any information on his public schedule for this program. therefore, all video of him in this segment has been gathered from other sources. >> the candidates in the race we have democrat mark schauer the incumbent in his first term being challenged by a republican who held the seat two years ago. he was defeated and he is trying to get the seat back. they are very familiar with each other and in this race jobs and the economy like every district across the country are the number one issue. so, we will see what they have

divergent views and see how best they plan to solve the issues. the other issue is social security. it seems whoever is talking about the ads they are going across the air wavewaves somebos figured out the way is to scare people so social security has been a big issue and largely negative tone so far in the campaign. >> maybe he is trying to hide his vote to cut $500 billion from medicare. listen to him caught on tape. >> there are medicare cuts. >> did he really vote to cut medicare? let's save medicare and cut schauer. >> you call social security worele woreless -- worthless and say you want to privatize our social security. you are going to have to answer to us. >> i approve this message. >> is that in the advertisement

that you want to privatize social security and you say well, we know how you stand. we don't know how you stand. >> i want to secure social security, not privatize it. it is what it is. my mom is on it, you are on it. i will be on it. i don't have a choice. but let's secure it. i introduced legislation to secure it, put a lock box around it. >> if you were to watch the ads, seniors are very confused about what is going on in this race and who to believe, really. if you were to watch the ads and not have any other information other than what you are seeing on television, you would be led to believe that if one candidate is elected you will be out on the street. these ads are very despicable to the point where they are flat out lying to seniors about their

views on social security and medicare and it is really doing a disservice to these here because they don't know what to believe. in terms of the ad buys we are seeing a tremendous influence from outside groups. in light of the citizens united ruling we are seeing a lot of cash from third parties who are pouring money into it. the nrcc spent more here than any other district. they spent $800,000 on two ad buys in a handful of media markets. the democrats and labor unions, they spent a considerable amount. but interestingly enough, the candidates themselves are only accounting for about 20% of the ads that have been put on television. 80% has come from outside groups much >> i don't vote. because i don't know who to trust. the ads, you hear all the ads on tv and so who is telling a story

and who is lying? who is telling you the truth? so, i just listen to everybody else complain and i don't say a word because don't vote. maybe some day if the right person comes along. >> one of the biggest challenges they face is voter turnout and trying to get both sides. you hear a lot about the enthusiasm tkpwp in this -- gap. republicans are fired up. this is a marginally republican district. it has been represented by republicans for some time. here in jackson, michigan, this is the birthplace of the republican party where the party was founded many years ago. so, they don't take too kindly to having democrats represent them. democrats are trying to get the vote out, organizing for america has some of their operatives here. they are making calls day and night to get people to the polls. republicans, the tea party is very active here in this

district. the tea party express had their bus come through. they have had a considerable impact from the economy. the seventh district is heavily reliant on agriculture and automotive manufacturing. we have a number of shops that supply the auto industry so we were definitely hit by the downturn in the oat motive sector. but we also -- automotive sector. but we also have a burgeoning health sector. we have green jobs here. we are the home to c.m.f. insurance. we have kellogg in battle creek. so, the economy is definitely hit. i think the reason this race is important across the country is because this is one of a number of races in which it is a rematch from 2008. so, a lot of the political observers see that this race, the other races that the

republicans could pick up a number of seats, maybe not enough to get a majority but close enough. so they lack -- they look to these races where they are marginal districts where they feel if they get the conservative base out they can get it back in g.o.p. hands. that is why the nrcc is spending so much more money than any other district in the country trying to get this becoack into republican hands. >> we are trampling the country and -- traveling the country and visiting where some of the most closely contested races are taking place. for more information on what the local content vehicles are up to visit our website c-span.org/lcv. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is bruce katz with the brookings institution director of the

metropolitan policy program. mr. katz, the front page of the financial times this morning talks about the u.s. recovery. calling it sluggish and growth of 2% didn't dent unemployment. you write about those running for governor. does one story on the front page of the time relate to those governors who are running for office currently? guest: absolutely. this has been a recession, jobless recovery. lost 8.4 million jocks, regained only 10%. this are 37 governor races and job creation is job number one. they are talking not just about how to create jobs in the near term, they are also talking about how to retool the economy for the long haul. because they understand the economy that got us into the recession is not the economy we want to return to. so, increasingly what they are talking about is let's move

toward more export oriented economy, talk about taking this energy transformation and capitalizing on it. let's compete again globally. china, brazil, india. the rising nations. so, governors who are more pragmat pragmatic, very practical, are focusing on jobs. host: you call these types of governors, you have a term, pragmatic caucus. what do you mean by that? guest: i say governors, mayors, and their network of business, civic, university allies wake up every day and think about solving problems. they are ideological to an extent but what is interesting compared to washington, d.c. is the common themes you see across democrats and republicans particularly this year. they are just focusing on what works. what is going to get the economy moving again?

particularly, what is going to get the economy in their states moving again? because there is no uniform national economy in the united states. the states are quite different borrows they are major metropolitan engines that drive their economy. pittsburgh versus phoenix, detroit versus denver. what you see coming from the governors is a practical orientation about working with business, creating jobs, but also basing it off of what their states are good at. >> on capitol hill when you talk about recovering economy sometimes your architect is as simple as from one camp we should invest in and on the other tax cuts. yet on the ground level do you see such distinctions as far as block and whit issues -- black and white issues? guest: i think what you see is cut to invest or cut and invest. governors have to balance budgets with their state

legislatures. there are $125 billion short falls in states this year. there is a fiscal recession following the economic recession. so they have to understand they have to tighten their belts but they have to invest in what matters, whether innovation, human capital or infrastructure to get their economies going again. so they have to cut programs that may not be working, may not have as much accountability, might support consumption versus production. but then they have to invest. one of the most interesting things that happened this year was in the state of ohio. voters passed a referendum in may 62-38 to re-up a third frontier fund, $700 million to invest in start-up companies, technology companies, clean energy companies. voters are saying we need to tighten our belts but we understand we need to grow our

economy. host: the "wall street journal" today looks at michigan, and mentions the governor race as part of the initiative for jobs. this is a piece this morning and some of the things he says is the republican running for office argues that the michigan government needs a basic overhaul meaning cutting spending and taxes to make it attractive to businesses. that is different from the politician michigan voters traditionally supported in recessions but it talks about the democratic nominee who has a more typical political pedigree. he was the mayor of lansing, senator, county commissioner and proud ally of the united ougaut workers. they talk about their approaches. that is one of the governors you mentioned as far as their approach to the economy. guest: i think crisis begets innovation particularly like

michigan that has born the brunt of the industrialization. it is brutal there. you may talk about the recession being over, people need to go to michigan to understand what job loss and a fundamental restructuring of the economy looks like. when you are in that situation, platitudes don't work. you need to step back and understand what are the kinds of new interventions, both with shipping resources from one kind of investment to another kind of investment, what is going to work? michigan has enormous resources. university of michigan, michigan state. some of the largest collection of engineers and scientists in the world because of the auto sector. it borders canada, so trade is a natural inclination of that economy. so there is enormous assets to build on. but some of the old style interventions from either party are not going to work.

host: how do voters respond to this idea of pragmatic caucus, those who deal specifically with job creation and how do politics not get in the which of that as far as what happens on election day? guest: obviously people represent parties and to some extent they represent ideology. but when are in a state like michigan or nevada or where you have seen the real estate collapse, i think that a good portion of the electorate is saying we want someone who is going to promote ideas that w k work. because the job loss has been substantial, the recovery, as you said before has been sluggish, and so they are looking for those few ideas to massive us forward -- move us forward. they understand government perhaps has to be restrained and clearly put under accountability measures. but if we look abroad to what we are facing from established

nations like germany or rising nations like china, india and brazil, it clear we are going to have to make some investments, whether in education or skills, innovation, whether it is in infrastructure. we are not going to just cut our way to growth or cut our way to compete. we can try that, but that is not a playbook that our competitors are using. host: we are looking at governors and according to our guest's perception this are emerging pragmatic caucuses and we will get your thoughts on his writing, his thinking and maybe tell the tale of your state as far as what your governor is doing, whether he is a sitting governor or running for office as far as job creation efforts. here is how you can do so. if you consider yourself republican call the republican number on the screen. and for democrats the same and independents 202-628-0205. for e-mail, and twitter.

we talked about the michigan race, what other races are important in the sense of those running in their being pragmatic caucus or job creation? guest: when you look at tennessee, the candidates there are also talking very practically on the strength of that state. and i will not say just general but what is memphis good at. bill haslem is the former mayor of knoxville. when you see candidates coming up from the local level, they are almost patrickactragmatic a natural order. but what is memphis good at. nashville, chattanooga. what university relations does business have in the state that

you can broker? that is the way economies function today. it is not just someone in their garage invent being the next great thing. it is these intricate networks of big firms, small firms, research institutions, government, philanthropy, labor. these are the clusters or ecosystems that drive economies. the smart governors know that and they understand that they have got to build from that with these investments. host: how do they work with the representatives and elected to make it happen? guest: we are seeing almost a bottom-up innovation. we talk in washington about what the federal government needs to do to cascade down programs and policies. the most effective thing frankly is for places, cities, metropolitan areas, ultimately stat states, to understand who they are in the global market, what they trade, who they trade with, and to build from that. that could be more substantially

investment in university advanced research. that could be venture capital working with the private sector for start-ups or some of the companies that have the potential for growth. that absolutely is about infrastructure. whether it is traditional transport or smart grid or some of the broad band interventions. some of it is more public, some more private. it is that combination of the two that ultimately creates the growth we need in the near term and long term. but when you cut across this what you find with the pragmatic leaders is they know what their economies do. it is not a general conversation about the economy. it is very specific and deliberate conversation about here is what we are good at. we are either in an advanced manufacturing or info tech, clean tech. and they talk about where they can take their economies with

business leaders. public-private, it is about a participate. it is not public versus private. again, our competitors understand the need for these tight smart relationships. host: is there a governor that captures all of that and has done what you have said? guest: i think that governor rendell in pennsylvania. governor schwarzenegger in california. they were two governors who fundamentally focused on the basics.

the governor can pull all of that together. they are on the ground. they are not here. they can really act as almost the coordinator in chief pushing

export promotions but specific to the kinds of things their state is good at and relating it country they do trade with. host: next call is hrufl, kentucky. republican line. caller: hello. bruce. how are you? guest: how are you? caller: i'm fine. i had a comment on the statement the u.s. is essentially competing with other countries. i think that the pragmatic viewpoint now is that you have to change that more to collaborate ra active -- krabtive because we are pretty much limited in an economy where we have to blend into each other. host: i'm sorry, you are breaking up. we will let mr. katz answer the question. guest: i think that is a very

accurate point. we need to understand the potential of these markets. china, india and brazil are now a larger portion of global g.d.p. than the united states. they are urbanizing and industrializing rapidly. they fundamentally need the kinds of goods and services we produce. so we have to understand that there is opportunity out there. if we don't take advantage of it, frankly, the germans will, the japanese will, other european nations will. they already are. this is the potential of this moment. it is a different world out the there. the u.s. has the potential to pl play. only 28% of americans have passports. culturally we tend to be a fairly insular nation even though we are so diverse. i'm making an argument that with this global demand the u.s. can be prosperous going forward.

host: selma, alabama. thanks for waiting. francis on the the independent line. caller: good morning. mr. katz, i would like to have you inform us about our alabama race. we have a won sparks who has serviced us through the agricultural secretary democrat r department and the other candidate is a man who served on the -- a legislature who is a medical doctor. i feel that the more progressive person will be ron sparks, who has done some innovative things within the agricultural department as well as having been giving more public service in our area. and besides he is a friend of the rock group alabama. and my reason with contacting you, it is a pleasure to talk with you because i have always followed the brookings institute's material and i feel

that why our nation does not practice what it preaches from people such as you. guest: thank you for that comment. i work for a nonpartisan think tank so i can't offer my recommendations in the particular race. i will build on one of your thoughts though, which is that one of the candidates is the agricultural commissioner. we tend to think in the united states that there is this stark urb urban-rural and metropolitan-rural divide. increasing what i see is a connection between them. the role of the governor -- and i said this with regard to exports but

>> i see, i watched nancy pelosi. the things she was quoting as facts would never be facts in portland, oregon. i want to talk about the states. right in portland. we have clean water.

we have the measure for giving money to the libraries, neither is to raise taxes. i would like you to comment on these things. >> as our guests talked about is exporting part of the economy? >> from are what i said, when you were talking about that. i listen yesterday and i listen every day. they were talking about the biggest things of bringing the the economy back. host: we'll leave it at that. >> i don't want to minimize the partisan conflict out there. i have been travelling the country. wake up in the hotel room. you watch the ads. it's a tough race out there. what i'm saying, as you look

behind the platforms of many of the candidates running for governors in critical states, you see a willingness to go beyond the ideological areas. governors are closer to the grounds and are at the forefront of the economy. they are expected to put forward practical solutions. it's a tough election cycle right now. once the election is over, and we start move to go the transitions, governors will take office in january. what i'm hopeful. not everywhere in the united states, but a growing part of the united states, governors that bring forward interventions

that work. whether they come from one party or one faction. particularly focus on what their state brings to the table, their assets, their advantages. not a fansful but deliberate platform. host: you mention franklin roosevelt. can you talk about that? >> this is why states are so important. just as frank -- franklin said. that's what fdr did in the late 20s in new york prior to the new

deal. what's what north carolina and california did as they built up these world class university systems. that's what they did around welfare reform and a range of other innovations. governors and mayors invanovate. that's what's going to happen in the next 3, 5 years. it's also guaranteed. the recovery is sluggish. host: programs that work on the state level, we're going to see? guest: absolutely and particularly these efforts to invest in fundamentally what matters. innovation. education, skills,

infrastructure, if we invest smartly in those things in deliberate ways so they align with what estates are good at, this country is going to move forward. it's that basic focus that get lost in the noise host: philadelphia, joe on our republican line. caller: hi. i wanted to mention, we have been sluggish since the 1950 'and things that burden this country. the companies that mr. katz mentioned, their gdp's are highest. king george in history taxed to

pay for the french and indian war and we got the tea party. now we have another tea party. what we need to do is throw the yolk off our backs that the elitist put on us. the entrepreneurial power to freedom grants. i would like to hear somebody that doesn't tell, i want somebody on your program, may be there katz can turn around and talk about how freedom is the answer and have our hands untied without being burdened for paying for other people that don't need our tax money. guest: all i want to say, i know

the question was about can we collaborate. i would say, there's a brutal competition which will be the country that cracks the code for sustainable infrastructure and products. i think the front of the financial times had the opening of a high speed rail in china. they are investing in leaps and bounds in the next generation of infrastructure and low carbon transformati transformation. this is about public and private together with smart, deliberate investments to move the countiy forward. i appreciate the caller's perspective. i think we're in a different

global order. host: robert on our republican line. caller: before we can have p at our local government. they are more corrupt and crooked you can imagine. i will give you an example. we have a county where the city of cleveland is in. in you look in the news and on the internet and read about the corruption, the massive corruption going on there among the county and city officials being you will see that you really can't trust any of them. there's a county executive that

plead guilty on massive corruption. he's not in prison and the cost of the investigation cost him to be "depressed" and take disability from the state and county he stole money from. before we can be a part of solution, we have to shore up these states and cities. there's no way to make problem as long as you have these crooks in the state county. this is just a horrible example of what's going on in the place. look into it. read about ohio. it will make your head spin how disgusting it is. host: we'll leave it there.

i want to bring this back to the governor's races. i am familiar and there are examples of corruption. there's all a structural portion of the country where we have too much local government. particularly a proliferation of school districts, a proliferation of units of general purpose local government. i think given the fiscal crisis in some of the states. what you're going to see for the first time are governors and state legislatures beginning to re-consider of structure of government at the local and count and he metropolitan scale. it undermines to compete

globally. in europe, where we have taken this model from what you see, other metropolitan areas, putting on top of that, one unified focus that can help them compete in the new global market. host: is there a philosophy on regulations? gues guest: this is the genius of the u.s.. the states share regulatory roles of the government. as we think about a move towards smart regulations, this is the

opportunity of the movement. we're coming off of technological revolution and making its way into government so we have more transparency of government. it's more like the private sector and the regulatory functions are more appropriate, responsible, market. so, the governors are talking a lot about this. there's always talk about stream lini lining. our tools are so much more sophistication. >> georgia, john on our

democrats line. caller: yeah, i want to talk about the role of investment since the 1950s. it's been trying to get the goods out of hands of the american worker. so investing in this country is going to be resisted. i know your speaker here would like to see they. they don't want america to be a player because it's more expensive. it's beyond computers and cell phones. there's been no real innovation. they like to chase that cheap labor. i just wanted your guest to comment on that. guest: i think this is really the nub of the issue, frankly, the u.s. is obviously at the far end of the continuum in terms of generating ideas. but over time.

we have begun to lose our ability to deploy. frankly. if we don't invest more. to stay at the vanguard of innovation will decrease over time. i don't think it's just about cost or a race to the bottom. boeing tried to outsource some of the components to foreign countries for their new line. controlling quality and being best in class means a good portion of the work needs to stay here in the united states. so if the u.s. is going to be a productive country going forward, we need to make things and sort of excel at the advanced state of manufacturing if we're going to be able to compete with the germans and japanese. this requires a much more

substantial reform than we probably have time to talk about frankly. i regard this secession as a wake-up call for the country. if you look at the two parts of countries that have been hit. the auto zone and the parts industry, the consequence have put housingst steroids. i think the governors are going to be likely to help us make a shift back to economic sanity. host: are we too far down the road? guest: we have way too much assets. a network of the most advanced

private sectors, open dynamic society, immigration which is enormous in economic growth going forward. we have enormous assets. we haven't deployed those. we went for the sugar high. leveraged ourselves up individually. this is getting back to a more sensible growth model. let's make choices about what really, really matters for ourselves and our children. we can get back on track. host: wisconsin, luann, republican line. caller: hi. beginner. all this gobbely gook. trains to nowhere.

lower taxes. we have the, almost the second highest corporation taxes. corporations pay for taxes, people do. we are getting a senator that does export all over the world. these fees and taxes, it isn't just about taxes. about it's fees and licenses. every time a small government, big government. we don't have much money. as a people. where is the fraud? where is the waste? all this crap, another thing. the overregulation as far as businesses go. i like the ten commandments. stop picking losers because this is what these socialists are

like. guest: these states have to balance their budgets. they can't wiggle around and maneuver around. there's $125 billion shortfall. states had to make tough decisions next year. at the end of the day, we have to have a tax code that's fair and transparent. we are a first-class economy. we have deferred investments. we have universities being cut dramatically back. if we lose that first in class, globally-advantaged university network, the future isn't going to look bright. we have to make hard choices and

targeted interventions on investment and the combination of the two are going to help us move forward. host: one more call from dearen in rockford, illinois >> caller: i want to keep this on topic. they are going too far to promote the sales with face time and being on television. if we made it more simplistic. they can devote their time in what their running for. it would be easier to take some of these funds and try to go to the depth of the place you're running for i don't know a

problem for voting for someone that does the job with their own money. they don't need to drive themselves into poverty. but they need to take a little bit of emotion out of the race thing. ov ov ov ov host: how is your governor now taking care of things now? caller: not very well. i am the political state of poverty. we don't have very much funds as far as things working out. i think it goes beyond party lines. the synergy that you were speaking about earlier, mr. katz, it you want things to work. you have to look a bit past what you're comfortable with.

i appreciate the time. guest: i will take it back to the beginning. we have one in seven in poverty. the number of people in poverty went up to 4 million. it's a brutal, brutal period. a lot of people are hurting out there. i do think over the next 3 to 5 years, what we're going to see, not everywhere. but in a handful of states and growing cities and metropolitan areas and rural areas, this pragmatic group of leaders need to focus on problem solving. i talk about cut to invest. it's the combination of these perspectives that i think we need to bring and pull together >> bruce katz of brookings institution.

thank for your time. >> thanks for having me. host: coming up. abolishing the education department. we will take up that discussion once we look at the week's news through political cartoons.

>> "washington journal" continues. >> our guest is jennifer marshall. she's with the heritage foundation. a domestic policies professional.

they include such as the and paul. john racy and mike lee. were they to be successful? >> i think it's interesting the department of education is coming up at this point in the campaign. it's symbolic of one of the themes we see in this campaign. do americans want to solve problems with a distant, expensive bureaucracy. they are getting at a fundamential point? the strategies that have been talked about in the conservatives in washington. advancing parental choice in education. those are themes we're hearing here. you will see legislative of the and over sight effort.

restoring state leadership in education. which parents and voters really want. they want their states to take the lead when it comes to spending, accountability in education. they want more choice this education. they want their children to attend safe and affective schools. >> if the education department was abolished, how would that be achiefed? >> federalism. let me take that. for the last decade. there's been discussion over no child left behind. that allows a state to take its federal money and consolidate and spend on state priorities. if they have a non-english work force preparation.

they can advanced funding. let me give you one example. the no child left behind act gave 7 million extra man hours to fill out paper. $141 million calculated on that price tag. that is significant. that's what this question is about. what we come to the federal role in education. host: are states up to the role of taking on this effort? guest: the state of florida, they had systemic state level reform. ending social promotion. rewarding teachers and allowing choice for their parents to grade the teachers. they are closing the achievement

gap in a way federal policy has failed to do. that's what the federal role was supposed to do. florida is delivering. black students in the state of florida are out performing or tying the statewide average in state states. hispanic students are outperforming in 31 states. this is remarkable. we have to quit look to go washington. host: >> our guest is with us to talk about abolishing the education department. call us on any of our lines, republicans, democrats or independent lines.

isn't most states providing their own money for schools and the federal money only a small percentage? guest: it's important that americans know that less than ten percent of funding for education comes from washington. most americans, when we pole. don't know how much is spent. when they found out we are spending $11,000 per year per student and in areas like washington d.c., we're spending $15,000 per student per year on a failed system. americans say, wait a minute, spending is not the problem. we have to deal with other things. teacher quality. deal with making sure all children can attend safe and affective schools. host: teacher quality was a big

part of that. guest: you don't do it from washington. but it's calling probably like 40% of the shot necessary bureaucracy are. so how do you reward good teachers? >> you deal with it at the state and local level. you make sure their pay is in line with their performance. all of us are in those situations. we don't have that in the teacher realm. those teachers who aren't making the cut in terms of student's futures. >> it was an effort at the federal level. to sit by the original things.

to give more flexibility to the states. make sure they were accountable for results. to their taxpayers and parents. whenever we heard the word "accountability" in education. we want accountability to parents and taxpayers. because they have the most vested in education. we don't want accountability up the chain of commend in burro bureaucra bureaucracy. host: you brought to papers. guest: big government isn't green. it takes a lot of rules and paper to run government. the other stack is 1965

elementary education act. it's only 30 pages. this is lyndon johnson's no child left behind act. he wanted to make sure that poor children had the opportunity to keep up with their peers in education. compensatory spending of federal dollars through federal programs could make up for the achievement gap. he started this program that has grown into that 600 page that's red tape that schools have to jump through. we have seen stagnant achievement. we haven't close the the grap. graduation rates are still 75% since the 1970s. we have probably spent,

cumulatively almost nothing to show for it. host: the statement then, the states have also failed on their own efforts? guest: i would say this , it has done is create an accountability chain that's misdirected. the students and primary customers of parents and taxpayers, brings down the only accountability chain. host: our guest here. jennifer marshall. caller: good morning. i would very happy to hear the system of grading. hello? host: go ahead. you're on sir.

caller: okay. one other thing i would like to add though, is that the lotteries hit every state that i have heard them come out. they were having them passed by the people and stressing that all this money from state lottery systems would go to schools. and saving schools from closing. and rather than having the mileage tax go up so that -- and in michigan where i used to live, five years after it started, more than 12 schools closed. now here in florida, when i look around, these kids are getting educated in double-wide trailers. no brick schools made that shows

a side of authority. what i went to school, i'm 60 years old. i went to schools that were brick building. you have respect, you just have an air of respect walking into those buildings. host: thank you, caller. guest: i think we have spent so many years, how do we get enough education spending. that's a broken system. the schools you look at today in many inner cities look worse than jails. it's not for lack of money. why aren't we getting the money to the front line to best educate students in respectable buildings? we are spending enough money to do this . we have to look at where the power lies.

we have to ask questions of the teachers. where their intensives are not always lined up with students. they are about negotiating contracts and protecting the pay and jobs of their members. host: this is vivian. she said. states want to get rid of unions and not teachers. guest: the pay we see among union leaders, we don't see teacher pay keeping up with that or what the department of education officials are paid. the average teacher salary is $50,000. at the department of education. it's $130,000. it's the average salary over there. we're not getting the money to the teachers to the classroom.

host: shreveport, louisiana. caller: any time they get on there, they have to qualify the state by what they're -- what the achievements among the minorities group, black and hispanics, why don't the teachers teach the kids and let them sink or swim on their own? a lot of what you're talking about, the inner-city school that is look like jails. you have a heavy incarceration rate down there. part of mind set and culture. they see that. they are trying to teach white kids to be like that now. with what's in inundated on tv. mtv. host: i don't see the correlation, caller, what's

that? caller: what i'm saying -- host: why don't we leave it at that ms. marshall. go ahead. guest: are we going to settle in when we see in our suburbs. in the district the columbia, one out of eight children has been threatened with a weapon. graduation rate is less than 50%. test scores among the worst in the nation. that's why we, the congress passed the dc opportunity scholarship program seven years ago. that has allowed several thousand kids to escape the failing schools. we need to see the extension of this program. rather than trying to close it. we have seen president obama

absolutely ignore this. the dc program. the president himself is the primary success story of how scholarships work. he attended an elite university in hawaii. we are looking for the thing for students here. host: $49 billion is the budget of the department of education. in 1980. springfield, indiana. on our democrats line. go ahead, please. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. my, i guess i got kind of a comment here. if you want to abolish the education department, that's fine. but and then you want to send

all responsibility to the states. that's fine too. i can agree with that. but let the states pay for it. don't ask money from the federal government. you're not really abolishing anything but the responsibility. that's all you're wanting to do. let the states pay for it. let ms. daniels taxes. don't ask the federal government to pay it. take the responsibility and pay the bill yourself. host: thank you. caller. guest: there's no money tree in local government. what happens, the dollar that leaves washington is not a dollar that arrives in the classroom undiminished.

the question is, where is the best place to affectively and efficiently spend education dollars? at the state and local level, it's better to keep it there. host: greensburg, pennsylvania. frank. independent line. caller: yes, i am looking at a study in the 1950s. the graduation rate in poor state were under 60%. it's grown now to the mid-70s. since the 50s. the public education function in the united states has increased remarkably by almost any definition you want to provide there and everything. as we have become more

centralized. why has c-span become a place for the republicans guest: i would quibble that public education is a success story. we have seen cultural gains as desegregation of schools. we have seen the ethic that said all children should be expected to learn. that's great for george bush. that was the theory on which no child left behind was built. he used his bully pulpit. but the mechanism is what we quibble with. host: as you know, we offer a wide variety the viewpoints. i advise you to go to our

website, c-span.org. if you type in education, you see every segment on this program. every article we shared. all sorts of shows we have aired on education policy and there's a wide variety of the viewpoints there. sunny isle, florida. caller: i just want to say a few words. the commerce department, labor department, agricultural department. they are just lobbying groups for these organizations. the agricultural department is very important in that we want small farmers. there are no small farmers anymore. they are all big. so commerce. labor, and agriculture.

what do you say about that >> >> i am going to ask my colleagues to speak about that. it's time to re-think the size ask scope of the federal government in our daily lives. we will see that with an effort to return to constitutional government. where the founders, especially if education saw that as something that local people would meet their own creativity. we need to re discover the possibilities in how we review greatness in education. host: if you eliminate the department, what do you do with pell grants? >> specific program specific program can be administered in federal government.

some of these are personal in judicial rule but have become bureaucratic. that's what we need to deal with, with the federal role in education. how do we drive dollars and decisionmaking closer to the child? and cut down on the bureaucratic center of gravity. we're not going to find them there. we are going to find them around those closest to those to know the individual names of students. host: tallahassee, florida. democratic line. good morning. can you hear me? host: yes, sir. go ahead. caller: this is a comment. please let me make my full comment before you cut me off. this is a coming event. this is for those that have eyes to see. this is not political.

it talks about this in genesis. the kinnites, they will try to get into. host: caller, what's the point? caller: if the four hidden dynasty which they are trying to wreck -- host: and it relates to the education department how? caller: politics and now education. the kinnites is trying to wreck and destroy it. >> georgia, shelby on our republican line. caller: yes the program with education is the break down in the family. i am a nurse in a small state charter school with 125

students. we don't have trouble teaching our students. we have teachers with innovative ideas. my mother was a teacher. there was a divorce so i grew up in a one-parent home. she always encouraged us. she told the teacher, which i don't advocate, when i was eight year old old. if she misbehaves at school. you spank her and when i get home, i'm spank her. i'm not advocating spanking, but parental involvement. guest: great point. i'm glad you brought this up. parental involvement is certainly key. we have heard so much lip service. even out the department of education. about the parents being the first and most important teachers. we don't see that when it comes

down the programs and their abilitiy to participate. we see them relegated to bake sales. we see a system that doesn't benefit through their participation. what we see through schools of choice. parents, teachers and students are all aligned in their interest and ability to innovate to meet the needs the students. host: the federalizing of schools is a nightmare. should say. this is from a public school teacher. districts have been forceed to hire people to deal with federal regulations. dare i bring up special education requirements. that last part. guest: yes, this is very heavy-handed. there is lots of bureaucracy

that comes down. how do we reform in a way to give parents the best opportunities. special education is going to require focused attention on how to reform that. host: would that mean on the law side or money too? guest: funding wise, we need to bring the amount of money and the amount of mandates into some sort of balance. right now, the mandates are exceeding the amount of money. let's reduce the red tape and allow the portability of special education of funding, so parents can take those dollars and go to the best source for their child. jennifer marshall for remainder of our time. with us until 9:15 a.m.

karen white will john us monday. on our independent line. brian. go ahead. caller: hi, i was looking into your statistic about $11,000 a student. if you really think about it, my friends teach and i taught in public high school. if you think about that. you take $16,000. if you have to put your child in child care. public education is a good deal. not only are they being taken care of, but they are getting an education. the $11,000 i don't think is too much for what they're getting. secondly. what has happened to public education. it's not that it's failed. the top students can compete.

the economy has failed and for the last 20 years. students that used to be able to go to machine shops and occupations, are no longer available. when they get out of the school, there's no jobs for them. the problem for the heritage foundation advocating schools is to break the teachers union and because charter school teachers are $25,000 a year. if they want alternative schools, they could deal with these special issues. i could go on and on with her. :

this will pass. we will see a reinvigoration of our economy and our education system needs to be ready to keep up with that. host: off of twitter, do you think each district should be able to teach their beliefs or are you from the basic courses?

guest: there should certainly be a core curriculum. we certainly see all the private schools that they need to do well in the reading, math, science, basics. they attract and did do better jobs than public-school often in private schools. they care about the culture and the character of their school and their students. that particularly attracts parents. i think every school needs to be free to establish their character, cultivate a positive learning however they see fit. that is what parents will be drawn to in choosing schools. i think we will see a great flourishing for charter schools and other opportunities outside of the public system that allow so little creativity. host: so you would allow them to set their own standards? guest: yes, that is right.

again, and accountability is it to whom and for what. what is the for a national measuring stick it is for keeping card consistent across the country? it is necessary to try and distribute the funds on their behalf. that is different than the needs of parents who need to know how does my child's performance compared to his seatmate and the state next door? we need students gaining ground with proficiency. we'll honor that with the downside test. each state has a criterion-based test and each state administers the natural -- national assessment of education process. it compares digits across the country state-by-state so that parents can receive if their state is being honest with their scoring in result. that is what parents need.

we need it transparency about it. host: from green castle, pa., on our republic . go ahead. caller: i am a former teacher and i am now a professional historian. this is a project near and dear to my heart. our education system was the envy of the world prior to the establishment of the department of education. she is right. it is just a bloated and bureaucracy. there is no correlation between having a department of education and the quality of our education. she has aptly pointed out. someone called in about busting up the teacher's unions. that is probably a good idea.

when i was teaching high school, i refused to join the teachers union because i could never understand some of their causes, such as nuclear freeze, had to do with education. these all tended to the left- wing causes. the republicans have been talking good game about what they will do when they get in. i do think this should be a high priority. look at the billions of dollars that could be saved by abolishing the department. one gentleman called in earlier about getting rid of some of the other departments. this is part of the problem with our finances in this country of with billions of dollars being put out in these departments and agencies in the government. host: the head.

guest: the caller brings up a good point about the agenda. every summer they meet at a conference and reaffirmed their resolutions and sometimes pass new ones. it is a very liberal extreme agenda which include advancing abortion rights, liberal ideas about how to monitor pm varmus for washington. and includes the nuclear freeze, the idea we should do away with warfare. these a the kinds of things to see the national association for educators convention. these are far ranging and they are massive campaign contributors which is 95% democratic. that is the character of the largest teachers' union and the director. host: we will have the political director on our program on monday. on our democratic line.

go ahead. caller: i am almost speechless listening to the conservative rhetoric coming out of this woman's mouth. it takes away from the legitimacy of the discussion. my one point is this. and $11,000 is too expensive or for our children? [signal lost] host: if she wants to try to call back, we will see if we can get your man. conroe, texas. caller: thank you. i listen to this woman talk about bureaucracy. we have seven independent school districts. talk about layers and layers of bureaucracy. what a waste of money. texas just rejected thomas jefferson from our textbooks.

they are always mischaracterized. school systems are highly political systems. school principals change, superintended change, they bring in their friends and family. one other thing. my algebra teacher in junior high was the track coach. their math teachers were athletic coaches who were just killing time. but they need overside. we need a better policy to standardize all education across all still districts everywhere. -- all school districts everywhere. ims electrician. everyone has to take math texts -- math tests. texas is lousy at teaching math. this lady is just preaching

propaganda and not talking about the education of children. host: we will leave it there. guest: texas social studies standards that were much debated, i have read them and they are impressive. they're very solid with regards to economic understanding, government, political history, and so on. it is a very serious and well- argued document. that kind of local and state engagement in the contents of curriculum is exactly what we want to see. good products emerge from that. instead what we see the federal government is the watering down to, what we think will be, a pressure toward mediocrity. but the last guest referred to states as the laboratories of democracy. we need positive competition between states on their standards.

that has driven educational quality higher. now we see a federal standard, as being proposed and encouraged by the obama administration, national standardized tests and teacher development, but not only are we seeing a massive project by states to develop their own standards and tests but strong state standards will be undercut and the pressure for other states to excel in their content will be taken away in this "standardizing." host: how does that deal with teacher quality at the end of the day? >guest: it will be sold by allowing leadership to innovate for their specific needs. in some cases it is the training and retraining. you cannot have a cookie cutter approach to teaching and teacher

quality. you need leadership that is empowered to make decisions. host: baltimore, md., on our democratic line caller:. i think we should just abolish the whole thing. we spend a lot of money. it just needs to be completely gone. let the states handle all of this. this is why our economy is so bad now with some money being wasted. they need to close an all-out and let the states handle that. i am very conservative and hopefully our guys will just take over and a string this out. guest: your perspective scores with pollen from this year that suggests that americans want states to take the lead when it comes to education decision

making versus the federal government. certainly if we're going to talk about education, we are talking about ensuring our children's future and leaving them in a legacy of debt will undercut all of our good intentions and efforts on education. if we want to ensure their future, we have to deal with the budget, restore authority and decision making to the states, then send dollars and decision making to those closest to the child -- the parents, teachers, and principal. host: last call from michigan on our line for independencts. caller: i am for abolishing the department of education. when my money is spent, there

is $1 or $2 that have to give her so many different channels. the people in the neighborhoods and know-how to run their schools better than the people in washington. the school district here in new york have the worst rate in the state. they are rewarded with $700 million and to give results in five or six years. i've seen this in the past. the worst they do, the more money the federal government will spend on them. guest: great comment. we have to get to a place where we are making education policy in the interest of children and not based on the demand of adults. host: jennifer marshall with the heritage foundation. thank you for your time this morning. turning to the pages of a "the washington post closed " -- "the

washington post" and there is the rally to restore the mall starting at noon until three. crowds are already gathering. a little bit about this editorial today, the significance of this weekend's rally to restore sanity iand/or fear. the mall hosting the event are in sad shape. jon stewart has been urging people to donate for the mall's upkeep. ms. cunningham, what happens today as far as the trust is concerned after today's rally?

caller: the parks service will have a their work cut out for them. like the 3000 events that have to cover every single day, they are well-equipped. host: as far as their rally is concerned, part of this is a direct benefit to your a -- your organization. caller: in late september, they call the national mall and said we have chosen you to be our charity for the rally. we were thrilled. we thought it was a prank call because it went to a junior staffer. we reached talk to them and they had chosen us because they feel like they need to give back. host: what does the trust to do as far as the mall? caller: it is a public-private partnership and we are a partner of the national parks service. we want to raise funds to restore the national mall.

is a national park and it is not seen -- it is a national park and it has not seen a restoration since the bicentennial. it has $400 million in deferred maintenance. host: such as? caller: the scene: around the basin is a -- the are aroudn the sinkhole basin is sinking. about one-quarter of the tidal basin is affecting the sidewalk where pedestrians walk, but they are killing the cherry trees at a rate of about 8% which is unprecedented. host: as far as other work is concerned, tell us about the other kinds of work that needs to be down on the mall that people may not know about. how much is that a result of

people just visiting it on a daily basis? caller: it was built over a course of hundreds of years. in the 1920's until the 1940's when most of the reflecting pools were put in and the pond at the constitution guarded in the 1970's and the reflection pool and for the capital, all those were filled with washington, d.c., drinking water. they are filled up twice per year and it is full of algae. it means dead ducks in the reflecting pool. the day-to-day maintenance, we have 30 million people who, every single year to the national mall to experience their country's history. when they see the cracks in the sidewalks and curbs, and there

are certainly not enough food facilities or bathrooms. host: if you got enough money, how would you change things? caller: the national parks service is going to be unavailing their vision for the national park. it looks at visitor's needs, how to protect the first amendment demonstration, the primary function as a forum for people to speak their minds, and they are recommending five major areas of redesign including the constitution gardens that i mentioned. the washington monument grounds, as a part, were affected by the security redesign run after 9/11. also right in front of the capital and how we use that space in a more effective way and to meet the visitor's needs and pole lot of the wear and tear off of the grass. host: people can use their cell

phones to donate. how can they do that? caller: text "mall" to 25383. it is a onetime $10 contribution. that will be put to great use in terms of running a national campaign to raise the three had a $50 million, which is half of what we think we will need, for the entire restoration and maintenance. host: you have already received about $80,000 in donation or has that changed it? caller: i think we are up to $120,000. host: caroline cunningham, the president of the trust for the national park mall. thank you for your time, ms. cunningham. caller: think you for having us in helping us to raise awareness for the mall restoration. host: coverage for the rally to

restore sanity and/or fear starts at noon today. you can go to our facebook page and continue the conversation about the rally and what you have learned about the national mall on our facebook page. you can also access that there are c-span website as well. we will take a look retirement issues and how well the united states is saving for retirement. we will take about a conversation right after this. >> presidents do not manage crises, they use them and exploit them to build this emotional bomb. think of lincoln or churchill. i am not sure we have seen that from recent presidents. >> this week, the historians on the obama presidency, the midterm election, and politics in america. sunday night at 8:00 p.m.

eastern and pacific on c-span. this weekend on c-span3, a democratic president facing economic challenges during midterm elections. we compare this to a similar situation under fdr. we will look at the 1957 -- 1857 dried scott case. -- dred scott case. american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. what is ahead for the tea party movement? political pollster scott rasmussen and a dog show one talk about a viable third political party. -- and doug shoen. that is on "afterwords." for the complete schedule or to watch previous programs, booktv.org.

host: in this last segment, we are looking at retirement. joining us is anthony webb, boston college center for research. you are looking for a figure for how well americans are doing. there is a deficit. what is this deficit? guest: with calculated the dollar amounts that households are short right now. this would be to be on track to maintain the pre-retirement standard of living in retirement. the number we have come up with is $6.40 trillion. host: that is an average of every one? that is the deficit between what we have and what they need? how did you come up with that number?

guest: we is that from the base of the server front -- from the whole of consumer finances. it is a nationally recognized survey of american households administered by the federal reserve bank. we focus on households age 32-64 years old. we followed the methodology that we used to calculate the national retirement risk index. the methodology [unintelligible] -- the methodology has 3 steps. we take the household and calculate their projected retirement rate assuming the retirement age is 65. the replacement rate is the household's forecasted come in retirement as a percentage of earnings. host: you are saying you take

the average person with an average salary and how much of their contributing but after the salary stops whether they retire or not, then you are figuring out the finance they need to replace that? what: we're forecasting income each household will need. we're forecasting it will have a $30,000 from all sources in retirement. s household will have a replacement rate of 60%. -- that household will have replacement rate. that will have a replacement rate as a target. we calculate a target replacement rate that will enable the household to maintain a current standard of living in retirement. we identify those households. the third step involves having

first identified those households that are coming up short. we calculate how much extra money we would have to give them right now so that the money with accumulated interest would have grown to enough to give them enough additional income to enable the household to hit their target. we then some that over all households and get to our $6.40 trillion. host: what does that mean as far as security for the american people as a whole if they have that much shortfall with what should be in their retirement town? guest: i would like to put the $6.40 trillion in context as a small number or a large number. as of 2007, this is pre-crash,

the household age 32-64 had a total of $6.20 trillion in their 401k's. it is roughly equal to the total amount of working age households had already saved. host: talk a little bit about the causes. is this because of the economic condition where people are losing jobs and having a hard time finding jobs that have a salary they want? guest: this goes back a long time. if you have a look at numbers back in 2007, the situation was still pretty bad then. a lot of the problem is one half of working age workers, people working full-time in the

private sector aged 25-64, are not currently contributing to any type of a pension. one half of the population has not even got to the starting gate. if you have it again households approaching retirement, one- third of those households have never, ever contributed to a pension. a lot of households are simply not even getting started. host: when you say pension, that could be a 401k or something along that line? guest: a traditional final salary pension or a 401k. host: talk about the mentality of the statement you just made. why are not -- why are people not putting in money? guest: doing the right thing is really hard.

there was a survey carried out by an insurance company that said 92% of the population said the retirement income deficit is a really important problem, but everyone knows what the right thing to do is but actually implementing it when you are having trouble paying the mortgage or the rent is just really hard. host: are these people strictly relying on social security to meet their needs? are they conscious of that tax? guest: i am sure people are conscious of the fact that roughly 33%-50% of all households in retirement get 90% or more of their income from social security.

this is where these households are heading. host: our guest is anthony webb from the boston college center for retirement researchers serves as an economist. we are talking about figures he has drawn up as far as retirement income deficit in the united states of about $6.40 trillion. we will talk about that for the remainder of our time. the numbers are on your screen. email us at journal@cspan.org or send us a tweet. what was the driving force to start your research? what led you to start this? guest: i was approached by retirement usa and they asked me to calculate this number.

i thought it was a really important audience research question and it was worthy of my attention. -- a really important unanswered research question. host: how long did it take you to call this information together and what types of resources did you use? guest: the methodology is based on the national retirement risk and? -- and risk index. a lot of that was worked out in advance. the data i used was the survey of the consumer finances which is a nationally representative data set that contains a wealth of information on the finances of a representative sample of

american households. when we abrogate that, we get a good picture of the finances -- when we aggregate that, we have a good picture the finances on a whole. host: from twitter, with the interest rate capped below inflation levels, why bother? guest: why bother to save? i think the answer is if you choose not to say you are heading for a very poor old age. host: there was aroused about the interest rates the seven programs are offered are traditionally low. with that in mind, why would someone choose to save? guest: it is certainly true that the interest rates in the short term for deposits are currently extremely low.

a person who is investing for retirement ought to be investing in longer-term investments, stocks, bonds, things of that kind. while stocks have been performing poorly over the last couple of years, there is no reason to think that a balanced portfolio of such investments would not produce a respectful return over a long-term retirement horizon. my advice is to stick at it. in the best in a balanced portfolio of long-term investment. host: our first call from coventry, rhode island. good morning. caller: given our economy when wages are not only stagnating but being lowered, working for people, sometimes it can take three weeks to earn enough to pay their rent and then there is robbing peter to pay paul for

your utility bills, keep food on the table, transportation to and from work if you are lucky to have worked. there is now and come to save yet americans are regularly taken to task for not sitting when the cost of living is exceeding their rages. excess of population growth through illegal immigration and the exploitation of our visa programs increases the skyrocketing cost of rent. pensions have been destroyed by investments. a lot of people do not have access to pensions. 50% of the population is unemployed. these things the to be addressed. thank you. host: how would you chime in on that? guest: it is certainly true that it is very, very hard for people on modest incomes to save. the caller has correctly identified that when you have a

choice of saving or paying the rent than paying the rent will obviously winnow. -- win out. really the important thing to learn is be cannot leave a saving for retirement just to individuals. it needs to be a partnership of individuals, their employers, and the government. host: can you elaborate on how that would work? guest: for example, there are things that have been proven to work. there have been experiments with automatic enrollment in 401k's and automatic enrollment has been shown to greatly increase the 401k participation rate.

host: temple, texas, your next on our democratic line. grace? caller: good morning. i would just like to say during the time i had worked and we have to pay taxes, social security, and everything else so we did not have money to save. we were trying to take care of our families. host: how are you doing as far as saving for retirement? are you behind? caller: yes, i am behind. host: are you currently working? caller: i am already retired. host: did you invest early in the a 401k or a pension? caller: i did not have that when i was working. host: how you survive?

caller: i rely on social security. host: thank you very much. mr. webb? guest: grace makes a point that she was not even eligible for a 401k. if someone is not eligible, then they do not even have the option of choosing whether or not to participate. one important thing we need to do is increase savings opportunities. host: tennessee on our democratic line. martha, are you contributing to a 401k on a regular basis? caller: no, i worked all of my life. i went back to work after my husband got killed.

i went back to school and everything that i did not get to work a very long. i have a degenerative disc disease so i had to retire. i draw social security and ssi. i was only married for five years so i do not -- i do not get his money. the work i did before my last job, so -- host: what is your question? caller: i would like to know why they just talk about the middle class and no one ever mentions the people on disability and we are having a really rough. host: go ahead, mr. webb. guest: i think the caller has made a really important point

which is that social security provides a really, really important foundation for retirement. ssdi provides a very important safety net. when we think about the closing the 75-year deficit on social security, we have to be careful not to hurt people such as the caller. host: off of twitter, this is what one person has to say. "there's no way an average working person can save enough on their own to ever retire. that is the truth." would you agree or disagree, mr. webb? guest: i think that if you

contribute about 9% of your salary and it did so systematically over a working wife of a 40 years that will get to a respectable replacement rate. for a lot of households, even contributing 9% is pretty hard. host: it also depends on the way you contribute and the way you diversify your investment for those factors. guest: it is important not to make mistakes. one mistake that a lot of households make is cashing out their 401k when they change jobs. a second mistake that households make is not investing appropriately. they over-invest in their

employer's stock and we have an enron situation or go to the a other end of the spectrum and invest in short-term products that do not produce over the long term. luck plays a part, as we know from the last couple of years. you can tilt the playing field in your favor by investing appropriately and not cashing out. host: bruce on our independent line from north dakota. go ahead of caller:. thank you for taking my call. i am a firm believer that what you just said earlier that it is the responsibility of each individual to put money to the side. my grandmother gave me words of wisdom, always pay yourself first. it is increasingly more difficult.

it is so difficult with the two largest things taken out of our paycheck is the federal tax dollar and social security. it is a huge percentage been taking down -- taken out. so many people rely on social security. i believe it needs to be cut down. the government is supposed to protect our borders and not retirement. how do we do that with so many tax dollars being taken out? host: mr. webb. guest: i agree that it is hard? -- it is hard. i cannot give the caller advice on personal budgeting. he is managing to make it work. households have to work with what they have.

host: nashville, tennessee. good morning on our republican line. caller: i have comments and a question. i have been retired for the last year and i was a single woman for the last 30 years of my life. i invested in a very modest a $71,000 condo. i had to move away from friends and family to go somewhere i could make enough money to save a little bit in the last 10 years before i retired. now i am stock with a condo that is unsellable, away from everyone. i guess i was very ignorant. i did not think medicare was going to be this expensive and

out of my social security income. the little bet i did save in has diminished, along with everyone else in the country lost money, who tried to save for their old age. there has been talk of a value- added taxes and all of these things would increase the cost of living for seniors and i just feel dismayed. what effect does the experts think, if any, that having these increased taxes, flat taxes, or all of these things discussed? to mean they all look like-- to

me this looks like increases in expenses for people who are desperate already. thank you. host: go ahead. guest: i am sorry to hear a run your experiences in the housing market. unfortunately -- to hear about your experiences in the housing market. unfortunately your experiences to carmen. -- too common. the unfortunate truth is that taxes are likely to increase in the coming years. the unfortunate reality is that part of the increase is likely to fall upon seniors. i feel that this is an unavoidable factor. i cannot offer any solutions. host: last call from ohio on our democratic line.

caller: i am now disabled and i have been on social security. the company i work for had a profit sharing. when i got fired they took damn near everything. i have nothing now. can you help on something like that? host: mr. webb? guest: i'm sorry to hear about the caller's situation. i think the caller has illustrated a few important facts. the first is the importance of ssdi as a safety net. the second is a lot of households canoot -- cannot work until 65.

their savings plans are cut short. the advice we give at the center is that households want to postpone retirement because it gives them an opportunity to save additional years. for a sizable minority of households, these plans do not work out. the household and some -- and up retiring prematurely with less savings and less money than anticipated. it is a very real problem and a very real risk. host: anthony webb with the boston college center for retirement research. thank you for your time today.

for the last 15 minutes of the program, we want to get your thoughts on today's rally featuring jon stewart and stephen colbert. we will go live from 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. we want to get your thoughts on the rally and your thoughts on what you think it does overall to have rallies and events like this in washington. the crowds are already gathering by this stage. we will see some of those shots. we want your thoughts. here are the phone numbers. twitter @cspanwj and email at journal@cspan.org.

here is a write up from "the washington post." "the real rally is built as a correction. fort smith, ark., on our line for democrats. what do you think about today's events? caller: i think it will be fantastic and i am proud of them. my governor, i think he will be

president one of these days. hope we vote him back in. thank you. host: detroit, michigan, on our line for democrats. caller: hello? i have no problem with public rallies. i think the right to free speech is absolutely necessary for a liberal republic. some of these people, particularly mr. beck, i believe are dangerous. they call for or suggested that we damage or kill other people. host: when did mr. beck suggest that? caller: if you look at his television shows which he refers

to in his speaking engagements, oh, who was it? i was watching it last night. he said "these types of people should be subject to some type of restraint. i understand the first amendment says that unless you do it or call it to be done that you are not liable. when you urge people on. glenn beck, " these people need to be stopped. they need to be silenced." caller: i would engage the

previous caller to go back and look. mr. beck, nor anyone else, has encouraged anyone to go out and commit violence. it is the antithesis of everything in the two-party movement, the republican side, and she talks about free speech. we should suppress them. we should have them stopped. they should be stopped completely. this rally down there, it is great, but these people are taking it seriously. what is it called restore sanity? these two comedians have gotten thousands of people live there which, by the way, the journalists were not supposed to be able to cover this. i guess it is your first amendment right to cover it. there were not issuing credentials to conservative media.

people are out there thinking that this is real -- look at that guy in the banana sued. -- suit. this cannot be serious. host: houston, texas. caller: i do not want to deviate too far, but i really enjoyed your show and the topics you had on today. what i would like to see from the rally today -- host: go ahead. caller: i would like to see everything come back to the american people. a lot of the problems in my eyes today --

host: stop listening to the television. caller: i'm sorry. i help with a touch on the day will come back to what we talk about with the 401k's, trying to invest and do the best we can. host: from virginia on our line for democrats. caller: the importance of this rally is the fact that the country sees that there are many real people who support reasonableness and not just fringe groups to take this to extremes and exercise their right to assemble land free speech. to see the numbers of the people who are out there supporting reasonableness and civility, the

more common person's viewpoint rather than the extremists in our citizenry. there is not enough of this centrist position being shown in the media. i hope that this will begin to show that the people are not just the politeg -- people like glenn beck. the centrists our people also. they have voted and expressed their opinions at the polls. they should not be overridden by the parties. host: "the christian science monitor" had a list of some people expected to appear during the events that will kick off at noon with a performance by the roots. there will be a comedian to warm

up the audience. there will be appearances by don novello, sam waterson, jeff tweedy, mavis staples. they will go to a pre-taped sequence there are labeling "the sanity and fear awards." that is a partial listing from the national parks service. there has not been an official list. for the next few minutes we are talking about the rally. albany, new york. go ahead. caller: think you for taking my call. i certainly support the freedom of speech and the rights for these people to meet today. i would like to observe that what really concerns me as this. whenever a conservative speaks,

it is known by a left side of the country ithat it is very powerful. they label them and they mocked them and they forced people to shut down thinking and to stay in the category of labeling- labor -- labeling negatively. i feel the tea party groups have been mislabeled. i watched glenn beck cspan. i thought what he did would be very helpful to america. there was nothing hurtful or hateful. he had relatives from dr. martin luther king's family there. it was an all-inclusive group. that picture does not get painted. i think the liberals on the left show fascist leanings of

shutting down thinking that is independent of their own. host: on our independent line from florida. what do you think about today's rally? caller: i think it is about time somebody got together and did something about this. i was an ultra-conservatives for quite a long time. i notice that the republican party and the gop in general have used malicious attacks to intentionally mislead the public. i decided to drift away from the republican party. i am leaning more toward the democratic party nowadays because of their policies are much more honest. i have to say that this kind of rally is the kind of thing that

will put a few people's eyes to the situation. host: on twitter this morning, this will mark the day that stewart and colbert stop being funny. caller: how are you all doing up there? i just want to say i am a -- host: indianapolis, indiana on our republican line. caller: i have a sense of humor and i am all for free speech. right now, i do not think what is going on in the country is funny. i think it is sad that our young men and women are serving overseas may not get to vote or get their votes counted and yet in places like chicago they are letting inmates vote.

people that are not even a living are getting ballots. we need to concentrate more on having people demonstrate -- all people, our soldiers should be allowed to vote. it makes me want to cry. i think that america needs to get rid of this silliness and side ofk to the serious electing leaders. whether you are democrat or republican, know what is going on and get down to the reality of what america stands for. host: lorenzo, calif.. caller: yes, i just want to say that colbert and stewart are just trying to make a point. it is just entertainment. it is just entertainment.