[crowd cheering] host: egypt continues to rejoiced as 18 days of mass protests ends in revolution. you're looking at video taken yesterday as president hosni mubarak announced his resignation and stepping down from power after 30 years of president of egypt. good morning and welcome. today is saturday, february 12. for the first 45 minutes of the program, we will talk about the revolution in egypt and its affect on the rest of the arab world. if we would like for you to get involved in the conversation. the number is (202) 737-0001 for

republicans, democrats on (202) 737-0002. independents and others, (202) 628-0205. for arab americans living in the united states come might give us a call at (202) 628-0184. americans of arab descent, (202) 628-0184, and if you're going to get in touch with us. electronically, the e-mail address is journal@c-span.org. and on twitter, the address is @cspanwj. the headlines -- mubarak surrenders power to on me and flies out of cairo. the military pledges not to get

in the wake of legitimate government. that isn't "the guardian." other papers, bop "boston globe," a question of what is next. in a stunning turnabout, mubarak abruptly resigned and leaves cairo. military commanders take control, promising to meet protestors the man. the "saturday post," mubarak is in. free and honest elections are promised. before we get to your phone calls, we want to talk with dan murphy, he is in cairo and a reporter with the "christian science monitor." he will talk about what is going on for the last 12 hours. there in cairo and throughout egypt, then, welcome to the "washington journal."

what has been going on since the former president hosni mubarak announced that he would leave office? bring this up to speed. guest: last night it was most -- it was the most incredible help foreign of joy and relief and tears that i have ever experienced in my life. i think this morning and across cairo, there is a democracy hang over. hundreds of thousands thronging downtown cairo, filling out the popular tahrir square. i did not have the heart to as many people what comes next because people were enjoying the moment. now people are beginning to ask questions about what comes next, to what extent the military can be trusted to demands -- to fulfill their promises of

democratic reform. many students are vowing to try to keep pressure on until real changes made. many are delighted with what they have accomplished peacefully so far. they want to give the military a chance to deliver. host: given that there is such a longstanding relationship between the presidency and the military, do the people that you're talking to out in the street believe that they can trust the military to keep our just for a little while, until the government can get itself straight and elections can start having -- they can start having elections? guest: many clearly do. in a way, we said yesterday the military to cover. there is an argument that the military has been charged since 1962. the presidents have all been

generals. but they were neutral in the past couple of weeks. clearly they were the ones that finally pulled the trigger on the stubborn will bark. -- mubarak. there are some that in before incredibly skeptical. this guy has had a privileged position in egyptian society, and they do not want to lose that and certainly do not want to have the happened -- what happened to mubarak happen to them. there is more trust of the military than this trust. one of the things i will look for in the coming weeks is whether they live the emergency law in effect for 30 years to make use to arrest and torture people without much judicial oversight. if and when that is done away with, that will be a strong sign of their good intentions. >> there is a hole where --

host: there is a whole array of pictures three of them include field marshal tantawi, the armed forces chief of staff, and telling -- tantawi is the defense minister. how are these three men going to be working together to move egypt forward? >> it is a good question. we have a supreme the military question -- military council. the long-running defense minister stated his post because he was from upper egypt in did not have a good chance of creating his own power base to challenge mubarak. the head of intelligence for many years and became vice

president, he was probably mubarak's most trusted and powerful independent aid for a decade, if not longer. boric credited him from saving his life from an assassination attempt in 1995. all three of these men are going to be working together very closely and the military must remember it is not monolithic. i can say it is not monolithic but it has been a black box. they do not talk to reporters about what is going on internally. at any rate, i don't think anyone who tells you what will be sorted out over the next day or two will be proven right. there is a lot of question about how handle the transition. host: one last question -- one thing talked aloud a lot is

mohammed badie and the muslim brotherhood. what have you heard from him in the last 12 to 24 hours, and what is the feeling among those on the street about the influence of the muslim brotherhood? guest: if you ask me five years ago to imagine an egyptian revolution and who would be a key player, i would have said the muslim brotherhood. given what has happened here, i would say that the overall events -- their overall influence of driving the bar it from power was quite small. he is a niche in solar and cautious figure. -- he is an insular and cautious figure. they provide many services to the egyptian people. they are one of the best organized, non-governmental forces in the society.

there will play our role. if they have free and fair elections. but for the moment, they do not have the scene -- they do not seem to have any real influence over the generals who are running the country. some more hostile and suspicious of the brotherhood. they say they are not interested in seeking the presidency for a major amount of power, and they joined forces with secular figures like mohamed elbaradei in insisting that the most important thing right now is securing the constitutional reforms and electoral reforms and allowed something like a real democracy to flourish there. egypt is a very muslim country. many people are about. the brotherhood are going to be important but they are a piece of the puzzle, maybe 15% for 20%, but they are not driving the bus. host: l maurer died, in your opinion, emerge as the leader for the new emerging egypt, or

will he be the guy that helps them in the transition and the leadership come from another source? guest: i am going to be saying something predictive, but i say no. i don't think he will become president of egypt. he said he did not want to be one. he lived overseas for a long time. he has nothing like a domestic political network. polling shows that he is not particularly popular. he is an internationally known figure, someone who is taken the number of principled stance is recently. he will be useful as this goes forward, but is he the guy they will need -- unite egypt around him? i would be highly doubtful that. host: dan murphy of the "christian science monitor" reporting from cairo this morning, thank you for being on the washington journal. we will continue our discussion

regarding the revolution in egypt and its effects on the arab world. our first call comes from illinois from airline on democrats. randy, you're on the "washington journal." what you think the revolution is cool -- how will it affect the rest of the arab world? caller: it is not just the arab world is going to affect. let me take my hat off to all of the wonderful souls of the people of egypt. what they did was history in the making. the human souls of everybody coming together, christians, muslims, whatever religion, whatever europe that, they came together and they demonstrated that people, the human souls of people can make a huge change when they come together, not a part, they came together. this is what they have done.

all of us that live in america, born in america, we were not born in the revolution. we were born into democracy. caller: tell me about how this will affect their world. caller: the one thing you can take away. it is not just how it will impact the middle east. how is it going to impact america as well. host: date on our line for republicans in the indiana. you are next. caller: i like that at which a caller just said. this goes back to c-span showing a lot over the last week, ronald reagan, george bush, what they set about man wanting to see humanity, wanting to seek freedom. egypt has sought freedom, the muslims, the christians, everybody has work together to

take away what everybody agreed was a tyrant, just like we did in 1776 with george iii. george bush said that if we get democracy in iraq, democracy would take over the middle east. egypt is now the second step, and hopefully much of the rest of the middle east, they will hopefully give the muslim brotherhood their fair part, but they don't need to kill people to get attention. it seems like this is a wonderful next step and what ronald reagan predicted and what george washington and benjamin franklin and all of our founders predicted in 1776. host: massachusetts, talk to us about egypt and its effect on the rest of the arab world.

caller: it was not the people that made them step down. it was our government that made him step down. they called him a tyrant and stuff like that. but he was our buddy for 30 years. and we used him for what we could use some for and then we just throw him out. 04 when iraq was fighting iran, he was our buddy. and the head of al qaeda there that they are looking for now, when he was fighting russia, he was our buddy. when we use these dictators, after we get what we want from them, then we call them tyrants. but this country of ours, we are the ones that are bad, and it is a shame the way this government, not just obama, but the rest of the government -- since this

started, it pretends it is nice but it plays with these big traders, and when they get what they want from them, they throw them out. host: in the "los angeles times," and 18 day revolution is the 30-year rain and shapes the air -- shakes the arab world. the overthrow was a warning to the icons of power across the middle east. egypt has been the heart of the arab world for centuries. friday's trommel was the message to jordan, yemen, sudan, and other nations in turmoil. if the complacent egypt's can do it, anyone can. back to the phones. banbury, connecticut, go ahead please. danbury, connecticut,,, are you there? caller: yes, i am. i am from cairo, egypt. i am 39 now.

host: how you think this will affect the rest of the arab world? caller: i am so proud of the egyptians. i hate to be straightforward, but personally, this may sound terrible, i was expecting to see 1000 egyptians, got rest their poll, lose their life sold. it would've been worth it mubarak was out of power. hopefully it turn the arab world into the united states, where is real and all its surrounding arab countries could all live in peace, like a new europe. it would be so great. they can all live in peace, all to trade in money together. host: the you still have relatives back in cairo? caller: with all the snow here and everything, i have not had a chance.

i do have relatives there and i plan on calling them. it is similar to christmas or new year's eve. because mubarak was taking 20% -- i live in egypt for at least a year after college. he was robbing people. everyone there said that this is going back to under 15 years. everyone there knew it. host: list of all the settlers, zhari. they are all on online for democrats. caller: for 30 years the american government did absolutely nothing. to contain the war. -- to contain mubarak. now you hear them talking about democracy. what hypocrites. i would hope that the next government of all would be the apartheid state of israel.

then we will see what is happening. i hope the american flunkies all over the middle east fall and the people elect people that are true for them and not america's interest. you have a good day. host: peter in florida, go ahead. caller: my concern is about the influx of people coming into the country that are not egyptians, now creating part of the revolutionary atmosphere. i had heard reports out of israel that there are quite a few people speaking without egyptian dialect. it is funny how -- i agree the leader should probably taken down and should have gone through a process all the way through september to help create a new government. but the students came out and

making demands. i understand there is a large influence of other nations flooding in and becoming part of this revolutionary carrying on here. this is why am concerned about this. it becomes an anti-israeli type of government that can put a lot of tension in the area. host: we want to mention that the video that we are showing is coming to us from al jazeera. in the "washington post," on map that allies what we're talking about, a domino effect with a question mark. egypt is the second country in less than a month to forces leader from office. in other parts of the middle east, protests and threats of unrest had centiliters scrambling for ways to remain in power. it shows all sorts of countries

in this area, including lebanon, syria, iraq, iran, jordan, bahrain, and others. it shows their current political situation. if you want to come and you can find that in the "washington post." back to the phones in our discussion regarding the revolution in egypt and its effect on the arab world. i next call comes from scottsboro, alabama. you are on the open " washington journal." caller: i think this is great for the middle east. democracy is great and i think it goes a long way to pushing the israelis to making better choices in the gaza strip. i hope it will open some eyes in that area, and also lead to the downfall of a lot of the other

countries that the u.s. has propped up over the years. for about -- bring about the settlementsnt of that the israelis are building on land that is not theirs. host: in chicago,s illinois on the line for,, you are on the open " washington journal." caller: the should have have been 25 years ago. it is been horribly corrupt for all of that time. host: now that they have had the revolution in egypt, how will it affect the rest of the arab world? caller: nobody knows for sure but i hope it makes it better than it is now. and if it affects the corrupt political forum policy that has been going on from the united states, especially to people in

saudi arabia. they need to keep all of them now. host: in the "wall street journal," in jordan and yemen were protesters against longtime autocratic rulers have also broken out recently, mr. mubarak's departure could add new momentum to demonstrations, but few opposition leaders and other place are calling for immediate change to the top. hezbollah congratulated egypt. mubarak has long bout to curb the influence of hezbollah's key sponsor, for iran. celebratory gunfire broke out in some neighborhoods. bob is on a line for republicans. you are on the of the " washington journal." caller: i am hearing a lot of naive callers this morning. i have been to each of countless times, and it is a lovely country.

but when i was there, it was peaceful and everyone was friendly. that could change very quickly. especially with the upcoming elections. we have no idea of has to who will be in power, and if it falls into the wrong hands, it will be really bad. i'm here in callers praising the people of egypt and how it contains the middle east. we do not know what changes are coming. we could get $6 a gallon of gas depending on what happens to the suez canal and how that will be treated. that is something that people need to take into consideration when they're throwing parties for this stuff. host: monica in washington, d.c. on our line for democrats. caller: i want to make a brief comment. what is shocking to me is a lot of americans talking like they

know the exact feeling of the egyptian people. why can we not as americans except the fact that other countries want the same systematic process as we as americans? it reminds me somewhat of the civil rights movement, when people stood up for what they felt. there are a lot of people that do not have the power and the backing of a lot of organizations so that they can come out and say we want to be free. to the republicans and democrats who are giving their ideas, saying, you do not what is going happen and all this other stuff, let them be. that is their country. they know what they want in their country. host: the lead editorial in today's "financial times." it portends uncertainty and opportunity. it is not just that western support for autocracy and

indulgence of the corruption of arab rulers is morally indefensible. such a policy cannot deliver long-term stability. it breeds extremism and failed states. the longer corrupt and dictatorial regimes stay in power, the more likely it is that the most reactionary strains of islamism will come to -- the fore. we're talking about the revolution in egypt and its affect on the rest of the muslim world. caller: this is darlene. the thing i wanted to say, i have not heard anybody say it yet, but it is remarkable how the police agencies, the military actually resisted killing without any thought of

what they were doing to their own brothers and sisters. host: you think that was strictly the thought process of the military there, or were they under the influence from outside people like the other folks in the arab world or the u.s. government? caller: help put it this way. it is very possible that outside influence by the u.s. talk to the heads of the military and said do not do anything. but it is the picture for us here and we need to tell our children who are in these agencies that they need to think twice, no matter who tells them what to do, about killing their own people. when their people are asking for things that they deserve. that is what i saw. i saw a lot of other people

going on the media but i don't hear anybody saying that this is magnificent that the people restrain themselves from hurting their own countrymen and allowed them to protest and get what they needed. host: we have a twitter message from chris in alabama to rights -- the egyptian military dissolve parliament. can you just smell the freedom?! that was from our twitter line. we have another caller -- where you from? caller: i am living in new orleans. i was born in north carolina. i am caravan american. my parents come from egypt. host: tell us about its effect on the rest of the arab world.

caller: i really think it is a wonderful thing. all of my life -- right now i am almost 50 years old, and all of my life this is something my father dreamed of, this is something that i dreamed of, my sons -- we talk about it but i'm sure she had dreamed of it. there are some serious issues and we do have to keep the military in check. actually cut israel, you should be happy is in control right now, -- the military is in control right now. israel should not feel threatened by this. they should get serious about peace. host: when you see things like

the cover of the "new york post," a picture of hosni mubarak, with the headline, " that's a wrap," and they show him wrapped up in what seems to be among the car bore out that. when you see those things in the american media, what do you think? caller: i vacillate with pity for mubarak. he does his own grave. this could of been changed by him a long time ago. it is a shame that a man that spent 60 years of his life, that actually dedicate his life to egypt, and it that way. host: this move on to naething in washington, d.c. on our line for others. caller: a first-time caller. there are a lot of callers on

the democratic and republican lines that say that our american diplomatic relationship with mubarak was bad. they were basically good up until now. i thought that any meaningful revolution would have to come from the people. i do not know much about the political past of each of and its citizens. this is the first time i can recall them making enough of a splash in the international world, and it would be harder to silence them given the situation. i want people to realize that that is what it is all about. our revolution has to come from the people. host: next up on the line for republicans, houston, texas, herman, you're on the "washington journal." caller: you propose an interesting question. i was 32 when mubarak came to

rule. in the beginning of his rol ulership, he did not seem to be a dictator. it did not turn out that way. my problem, my concern, my deepest thoughts of egypt in this present moment -- go to the thought of aligning this new democracy, a wonderful thing and having the dictator removed and expressing, i guess, their cells is a country to decide that they need to be in a democracy. i think gates for opening up the internet. i have been told that if it were

not for facebook for twitter, this would not have happened, and our communications are so grand now that we have the opportunity for the first time in the history of man for people to be able to come together in a country through this format. my question to you and to the people of egypt -- how are we going to set up a democracy? one of the first steps to setting up a democracy -- is there a book written on democracy that they could follow? thank you very much. host: st. louis, missouri, go ahead. caller: i want to congratulate the people of egypt for finally recognizing and standing up for a change in their government. but i m a look concerned as to

-- i am a little concerned as to what we're celebrating here. are we celebrating the seize of rule of a heavy-handed dictator or whether we actually saying? host: what do you think they are celebrating? what do you think this celebration in this revolution, what kind of message does this send to other governments and situations across the arab world pressure mark caller: -- arab world? caller: i think it says to other countries in the arab world that they do not have to settle for the status quo, and that there are people -- their people can rise up and it needs to come from the people, to rise up and make the changes for themselves. but even looking at our

government here in the united states, when it comes to legacy, political holdings. how many times are we going have someone from the bush family in the higher echelon of politics? we're talking about jeb bush now. how many times you see legacy mayoral ships or gillard aldermen who have been in office for 40 or 50 years in state politics? senators who died in office after being elected the young the center in anything? we want to talk about democracy and we want to talk about all this, but let's look at our own politics and hold our own politicians accountable. host: we will leave it there. an op-ed in this morning's "new

york post." though yemen may be the next domino default, leaders in on one, khartoum, an algiers are reaching for the valium. mass protests that are even plant in ontario tomorrow and now that tinderbox their looks particularly try. price rises on staples such as cooking oil and sugar stirred protests last month that spread across half of that huge country. back to the funds. our discussion on the revolution in egypt and its effect on the rest of the arab world. harness call comes from sam in bridgewater, new jersey. good morning. tell us about yourself. where are you from and what is your connection to egypt or the middle east? caller: i am a palestinian, educated and lived in each of for a long time. i live in new jersey -- in egypt for a long time. i live in new jersey.

when obama first address the arab and muslim world, he went to cairo, egypt. that is a very good signal. he has a very good understanding of the region and the politics there. i think this is in an extremely important change in direction and important opportunity. he can bring peace to the world. he can change the dynamics of the process between the arabs and israelis. i think it can continue to play a critical role in the peace process. this is an unrivaled opportunity to do that. thank you.

host: thank you. in the "baltimore sun, this morning, they have been tight- lipped about ties between tantawi and gates. on tuesday, gates said egypt's military and made a contribution to the evolution of democracy. back to the funds. austin, texas, on a line for independents. go ahead. caller: how wanted to make the point on how important egypt was in the muslim world. they are definitely pretty conservative, and they definitely have the biggest, most important institutions in the middle east. and also on the very liberal side, in cinema and sitcom, a

lot of that comes out of egypt's. they all are important to both sides. host: jackson, mississippi, on our line for democrats, bill. caller: they tried to give some credit to george bush and ronald reagan. regardless of what happened in egypt, it has nothing to do with ronald reagan or george bush. remember, we invaded iraq because they were alleged by george bush to have had weapons of mass destruction. they were also alleged to be cooperating with al qaeda. of those were incorrect. when we found out they did not have weapons, we have inspectors over there, the united nations had inspectors telling us they were not finding weapons of mass destruction before the war

started. but once it was clearly determined that they did not have weapons of mass destruction in that they were not cooperating with al qaeda, then george bush started saying that we would bring freedom to those people. we ended up slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people in iraq and that is not what is happening in egypt. the people of the tooth grows up and decided they wanted to be free. the same thing that is happening in this country, too much is being taken from the poor and middle-class and passed up to the rich, something the republicans just love. that is happening right here and now. host: bill in jackson, mississippi. egypt after mubarak is the headline. dictators of long standing rarely lead easily and quickly. at least he left it for more blood was shed. his constantly harry --

he may be left out of the transition. tarnished by the offense of the past three weeks to play an effective leadership role. virginia on our line for republicans. caller: 01 to let your viewers know that -- i want to let your viewers know that i am from ghana, west africa. this is a revolution for all dictatorial governments in africa. there are other african countries [unintelligible] host: on the front page of the

"atlanta journal constitution," all land reborn. mubarak into the despotic reign of 30 years. other nations, other certainties' profound for u.s. and the west, israel and the mideast. houston, texas on online for american arabs. caller: good morning. host: where were you born? caller: africa, but he did now. host: what you think is the future for the arab world based on what happened in egypt? caller: first the me tell you a couple of things. i happen to know a lot -- president obama has a lot of

leverage abroad. he has been in office for two years, and people do not give them credit because these things took decades. president obama, i actually have a lot of respect in this matter through so give him time. the people there do not view democracy as they see it in the u.s., freedom and speech and all that. democracy there is for jobs and not to get tortured. my concern about egypt now is 82 million people, they have a common enemy called mubarak. now he is gone. now what? there's no water. there's no new jobs.

basically my concern is there like someone who drink too much alcohol and woke up. host: to wrap up this analogy can make you have been to the party, you've got the hang over, what kind of lessons you learn from that experience that you carry forward? caller: this is the height or the brainwashed. mubarak is gone. think about it. the jobs are not there. but i want to bring one issue that is going to come up over and over again. host: very quickly. caller: the united states cannot be involved. i think that you're -- how like

to see the arab leaders involved on this issue. with the egypt in the palestinian issue. host: dan online for democrats. caller: calling in that it is a wonderful thing, jimmy carter told these people and they have feminize tim. you should have him on there. host: had jimmy carter on here? he is gone. president carter, if you're listening or watching, we would love to have you as a guest. just give us a call. i think you know where to find us. we will take a break. in 45 minutes, we will talk about the tea party influence in the new congress getting started here in washington. but next, coming up is a continuation of our discussion about what is going on in egypt. and what is next for the future of egypt.

you're watching "washington journal." we will be right back. ♪ >> my concern is to be an agent for change. that is not the issue. the system by which people have the right to choose whoever they think is the right person for that job.

>> a year later, president mubarak has stepped down as egypt undergoes a major change in government. see how happen on the c-span video library, all searchable on your computer. >> george friedman offers his predictions for u.s. farm policy over the next decade. also this weekend, double rooms filled sits down with a historian to talk about his memoir. and the director of the iranian study program at harvard on the shah of iraq. get our schedule e-mailed to you. signup for our book tv alert. >> that is not only no major challenge facing higher in this country but our country -- how

we maintain a healthy lifestyle and get kids to have the strength in the judgment to say no. >> is the president of southern methodist university in dallas. sunday night he will discuss today's college student, his school is the site of the george bush presidential library, and his own road to smu. >> "washington journal" continues. the headline in this morning's "houston chronicle," emblematic of a lot of headlines this morning, a new date for egypt. they show people celebrating on the streets of cairo. under their analysis, they have,

the end is just the beginning. what are your thoughts about that? guest: the egyptians that lived under the mubarak regime, they have lost hope. there is the beginning here of having hope, and hopefully this can be brought into real action. host: for the next few days, weeks, months, until the government gets up and running again and again to actually get the election's going, who is in charge? guest: the military are now in charge and there are rumors that they will get some legal advice from civilians. host: and your thoughts about the military running things? guest: absolutely comfortable. they learned a lesson that they cannot do the same as mubarak. they could not treat the people

as slaves. i believe that anyone in power now learn the lesson that the people can have a say and absolute power cannot happen anymore. host: on the front page of the "baltimore sun," they show three folks. the defense minister, tantawi, hosni mubarak, who is no longer run in the country, and reaction from president obama. tickets through your perception of how each of these three -- take us through your perception of how each of these three men worked together or separately to move egypt forward into this transition. tantawi, the head of the military council. guest: it is a difficult situation after three weeks of complete interruption of industry.

he is facing a major challenge. but heavily the would do the best in my view. he learned the lesson. it will be different and i trust that they will try to protect democracy in the future of the country. they will try to keep their power as military and let the affairs of other people in the country be free. host: president mubarak fled to his rescue palace and told that he had asked the military council to administer the affairs of the country, ending his 30-year presidency. have we seen the last of hosni mubarak? or will there be turmoil? guest: i do not think he will try to do much. i think he realizes this is the will of the world, not just egypt. it is the will of the world that he cannot do this anymore. even his vice-president does not

have any power. the vice president is now really have power. he is more interested now in internal security and this is where the united states can play a major role, showing the a pitcher -- the egyptian people that we're with them come up with the money in the banks, they can win the hearts and minds of millions of egyptians by standing with them to get this money back to the people. host: the third person on the front page this morning, president barack obama, who says the world has had "the privilege to witness history taking place," and called a funny jew

to continue his transition peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity. what is the best thing the president can do to help with the transition? guest: number one, as i just mentioned, the very frank with the jewish and people that the united states will help them to -- the egyptian people that the intent is this will help them to get that money back. the billions of dollars of money, the united states will help you to get this money back as they should. number two, immediate support to the country now in the form of food for the people, if there are areas where there is under in the post operative stage, you may lose the operative -- that operation. this is a critical time after the operation, after the revolution. some support to stabilize the economy, help people find food,

more and people do crime, the more the tourism industry will collapse, and so it is important that the u.s. do things that will help them to get mubarak lost money back, so if the u.s. can do this, it will send a great message to the egyptian people. host: we're talking to tawfik hamid our guest for the next 40 minutes or so. if you would like to get involved in our conversation, give us a call. (202) 737-00024 rap democrats -- and we want to remind our viewers, our arab-american viewers and viewers of arab descent to give us a call, (202)

628-0184 the special line. our first call for tawfik hamid comes from bocor raton, florida on a line for democrats. caller: i have written three fictional history is on the middle east and have researched a great deal. i am sure as you are aware that the difference between structural and functional democracy, and it occurs to me that we see and have heard today and islamist program who has taken a secular democracy and has turned it into what is about to come and islamic radical country. we see the same situation in iran, where president carter

awaited this wonderful democratic revolution, and refuse to support the shah. we see a tremendous storm and strife which has taken place in most islamic countries who have tried to become democratic. i am reminded of wiemar republic, where we created a constitution now was considered the most sophisticated constitution at that point in history. it contained the rights of man, the american constitution. host: what is the question? caller: i would love to be optimistic, but every time we turn around, we see the muslim brotherhood or islamic -- the islamist agenda santal corrupting these democratic programs. i am concerned that that is what

is when happen. host: we will leave it there. guest: you might be correct in several things. but the muslim brotherhood has been weakened significantly in egypt over the last few years. the exposure of the radical islamic elements on the internet and the teachings of radicalism, they heard demerol -- a lot. number two, the media was working and you can see the debate in the egyptian media that never happened before. now we see the opposite. you see the debates, you see the discussion that is unique. number three, the muslim brotherhood refused to share in these demonstrations at the beginning. they actually have been exposed

has political fortunes. otherwise they would have shared from the beginning. the political experiment in iran, in the how moss organization, -- hamas organization, and the collapse of the economy overseas, many egyptians feel that the islamic experiment from the muslim brotherhood is just theological. many egyptians are aware now that this experiment of using islam to lead the country is not very successful. i am hopeful to some extent. host: from st. louis, missouri, on our line for others. caller: from an independent voter, two things. not only should those brave egyptians stay in that's where

until their military gives them back the thousand innocent souls that were arrested during the protests, but we should let their median -- military know we will cut of their over $1 billion in aid per year if they do not make sure they have open and fair elections. anyone in this country who has any faith in god should pray that they end up -- they will not get it. guest: they certainly need the support that the united states give them of $1 billion or more. but they have to do it in a way that does not create hatred to the government or to the american people has been too much intervening with the process. the process will go naturally now, the military, i do not think they will keep these people in prison for long. i am hopeful that they have learned the lesson.

it can be used that you have to be careful how you use it. otherwise you can create an obstacle for future relations with the country. host: florida, welcome to the "washington journal." caller: i am from palestine. i have a question about the $3 billion of three natural gas that they get out of egypt. guest: i know about the natural gas, but it is very important that the new government in egypt should respect. they must respect the previous agreements of the country. and as you know, it stated that the people should respect the old agreements. even with who they consider enemies.

you have to respect the commitment, so i believe the new government of egypt should be wise enough to respect all the previous agreements with israel, maybe to improve the future relationship to be more beneficial, but the previous agreements, in my view, must be -- otherwise would drag the country to unnecessary confrontations they can weaken the economy of the country more and in the revolution will be ineffective. .

i haven't seen this spirit before. egyptian christians surrounding muslims while they were praying to protect them from police. and after that christians went inside to do their religious ceremony while the muslims were surrounding them. i cannot say that there is no friction that will disappear completely but i can say there is a new spirit that is being born in the country now. and using this momentum in a positive manner can really bring a new egypt and this is the hope here. if you use the momentum effectively, then you win. otherwise, it can end in real trouble. host: in terms of democracy, what might we expect to see the egyptians use as their example

for setting up their new government or new democracy? guest: the sims now does not allow anything but election and just the ballot and the number games. so you will see a ballot, for example you have the muslim brotherhood, and say they'll get 20%. i don't think they'll dominate. although many egyptians are conservative in their views and many of them are ritual level of muslims. but to support this islamic experiment is another issue. and my prediction is that someone else is likely to be elected. host: let's go back to the phones. cleveland, ohio. on our line for democrats. you're on with dr. hamid. caller: thank you. i'm a member for 221 years and we have an example of the mad

adhi as being someone of excellent character, who is given to high moral values and i wonder if this is going to be instrumental in the style of democracy that i think is what other people of egypt are expressing that they want. and so i'm interested to hear what the doctor thinks would be the model for the egyptian democracy, and whether or not it will be a model for all islamic people and states while mainly islamic states in the middle east. guest: you mean what model of democracy they will choose. i think the american style of democracy is something that many egyptians feel that is a very powerful system, especially with the anticorruption measures that you have here.

i believe the egyptian people will be interested to have a powerful anti-corruption system like what you have here in the united states and the american model of democracy can really be perceived in a very positive way by many egyptians. even though many of them are a bit anti-america because of many several things that have happened. however, the reality is that deeply they look up to america. host: dr. hamid is the study of islamic radicalism and is here talking to us about what could be next for egypt. he is originally from egypt. and we continue our discussion. caller: yes. my question is we have that our military over there to help these people, and we spend all

this money trying to help them. i would just like to know the objective of what are you going to do for america if we go over and spend all of our money to help you and we take our military and all of our intelligence. what are we promised from egypt if we do this for you? we have starving people in america, we have homeless in america that we can't help right now. i just don't understand exactly how egypt would think that we should go and spend all of our money and everything that we have to go and help you all when that country is what it is. it it is what it is. guest: you certainly don't need to spend all your money. there is some foreign aid from the united states that is needed for strategic relations with the world that's important at the end to the united states in several respects, including, for example, the suez canal,

for example. including the stability in the area against iran, for example. iran can be a threat to the united states. so you need the middle east where you have the balance of power. otherwise, the iranian regime, for example, can develop nukes and attack america. there's a big picture here. and the limited source of support that is given correctly can be much better than a large amount of source given incorrectly. at the end, the reality people were hating america. i think what you need to do is to spend not necessarily the same amount of money. it could be less. but you spend it effectively to win the hearts and minds of people especially in an area very volatile, where you have people like iran that have nukes that may reach you one day or others.

so it's not simply looking internally. you have to look, i think america is big enough to be in a situation where they have to look globally as well. host: in the "new york times" this morning, they showed what they're calling leading figures in the transition. one of them was a gentleman that you mentioned of the arab league. he's a former foreign minister of egypt. and also mr. mubarak's opponent. tell us each one of those gentleman and what influence they may have in the transition and whether either one of them will rise to become the new president. guest: mr. nour stood in the formal election. and irrespective of the views of the man, but he dared to stand against mubarak. and because of this he went to prison for nearly five years and he suffered a lot. so i believe he is one of the people who have significant

support in the country. but i don't think he will get the percentage that will make him a president. the other guy, moussa is bebeloved by many egyptians. he has an advantage in this. his advantage is that he was trained in politics. he was the foreign minister and he can sit at the table and it's likely he will respect the previous agreements of the country. so he is not an emotional radical style of people. but this advantage is that, as i said, he is a relatively anti-israel. you don't hear it clearly from him, but you can feel it in there. and i think maybe in the new position he will have to settle exactly his relation with the neighboring countries including israel. host: we're going back to the phones and continue our conversation. washington, d.c., you're on the

worl "washington journal." go ahead. caller: i have two questions. one is for the professor. in my view, i agree with the clip that was real earlier from the financial times about how western support for governments in the middle east over the long term actually leads to more extremism and the development of extremist views that don't serve those populations or our interests. and i wanted the professor to address that. in my view, i think of it as a revolt rather than a revolution. but this revolt in egypt, popular revolt including all aspects of the population of the poor, middle class, et cetera, men, women, christian, muslim, i see it as a really positive example that allows an opportunity for development of a secular democracy that

actually allows every aspect of the population to express its legitimate opinions including the muslims and very legitimate element if egyptian society. and i don't think we as americans should be afraid of that. just like the religious parties in the united states and elsewhere around the world. so i would like the professor to address that. i see this as an opportunity to avoid a more extreme response later on had we continued to support the mubarak regime and keep it in power as i believe many of the western support has done for the last ast least 25 years, 30 years he been in power. 25 years ago this should have happened. guest: thank you for the question. and this is the last point, to try to support mubarak's regime. i believe the situation of supporting mubarak in the last few weeks hoping that he will survive it or can continue as a president was like france doing

the resuscitation for a man after his death. so i believe the power was that mubarak was going to go out anyway. so it's good that the united states has a clear position with the people. number two, the point that you mentioned that the support of the authoritarian regime can aggravate razz cal islam. unfortunately you are correct here. they should cooperate by supporting raise cal islam in their countries. but what was happening is that at the end this allowed it to flourish. i have not seen anything like this but during mubarak's time. during is a dat, he was working with america and for american interests and at the same time he was fighting antisemtism, he was fighting it to some extent

compared to mubarak. mubarak allowed it with women in the history of level may be the head cover. the media during mubarak changed significantly to include the islamists in its it and also above that the relationship with israel, he never visited with israel, for example. he allowed anti-sem itism to reach unprecedented levels in the country and i believe some of these allow it to flourish so they have a reason to remain in power, to convince you. so i believe sometimes that removing these regimes like mubarak will allow reality and truth to come on the table and now we can deal with it in a more effective way. host: doctor, according to your biography calls himself an

islamic thinker. tell us about that past and being an islamic extremist and how you made this transition. guest: my father was secular and my mother was very liberal and i just started to think about god when i was studying in biology and i loved him and i wanted to serve for him. i became interested in religion. i was invited by a radical group in our medical school where i met with is a warie a few times in my life. i met with him occasionally. and i was indocket nated to a level. i wanted to do jihad in afghanistan. i wanted to explode myself or to do anything against what i considered infide els. so i started to think in this direction and they invited me to the radical group to contribute practically to their evil doings or acts.

they wanted to kidnap a police officer, burn him alive. and i just couldn't take it. it was an awakening of my conscience. and this was 30 years ago. i started to take a completely different path to develop new systems for the muslim children to develop new interpretations for the violent acts which are necessary to establish -- -- against the vilents. host: do you believe this can serve as a way of sort of quelling the radicalism in groups like perhaps the muslim brotherhood and al qaeda and other young men, young women who felt like you as a young person and maybe now what they've seen in egypt will make them think less as radicals? guest: i believe this will happen but it's conditioned by the immediate and post

operatives situation here, what will happen in the next three months. if poverty went down dramatically because tourism collapsed and the shortage of food, poverty can be used by radicals in a very destructive manner. so it all depends on this immint stage that's going to happen. host: new york new york. go ahead, please. caller: good morning, sir. i would like to address three points, very important to president obama. number one, he has to have an egyptian-american in his cabinet to advise him to lead the next step in the egyptian change to the democracy. number two, i ask mr. obama to freeze all the egyptian assets

out of egypt because mubarak's family uses different names to transfer the money out of egypt. number three, ejipt -- egypt, that's not the end, this is the beginning. and other countries in africa, and obama's administration must be prepared to deal with those. host: gro ahead. guest: some of what he said was reasonable to have some egyptian advice or for him what to do next in egypt, because mistakes can be irreversible here. and the other point is to freeze the money here. i'm not so sure if this is something practical. i think they should focus on mubarak's family. and today i hear they're not

even allowed in egypt to travel. and i believe many of them have bank accounts in their names maybe in america in london in switzerland. if these countries cooperated with the egyptian people at this stage, i trust this will create a very positive relationship between them. host: greg sent us this e-mail. guest: this is certainly correct. but the outcome of these protests will all depend on the reaction of the leaders. if the leaders insisted on the previous system of corruption, i believe this will be the ultimate, the fate of many of these regimes will be like mubarak. if they deal with it like a

wise manner to limit their corruption or preferably stop it and try to absorb some of their opponents in their system to give them an opportunity to work with them for the benefit of the country or other than just sending against them, i believe if they treated this situation wisely, and above all giving people real hope for a change. when people lose hope, they can do anything. that is what egyptians lost with, especially with murek prepared a place for his son to become vice president. so he said i waited 30 years with one only hope that mubarak can go out of power and i, something can change for me at the end. and then you end this hope by bringing your son to continue another 30 years, no, i can't take it any more. so i believe this was the whole meaning here is egyptians lost hope and now there's again hope. maybe the economic situation may not improve immediately,

but i believe you can wait for some economic stress if you have hope. but if you lost hope, then that is the most crucial moment that can end in revolution. host: we're talking about what's next with egypt. our next call comes from ben in california on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, congratulations to the egyptian people. the protesters, and you, for this movement and successful revolution. as well also, i find the actions of the egyptian army, the obama administration, and the rest of the international community were quite commendable. this whole movement here seems to be secular motivated and you made mention of some of the

front runners who might lead the country after the dust has settled from this revolution. and they all seem to be older than what i would envision is needed in terms of country leadership. i think that perhaps there needs to be an antitsdzsiss of mubarak of about the same age to lead the nation into the rest of the 21st century and beyond. thank you. host: i believe we need a hybrid system. we need the wisdom of the elders and we need the youth. but you cannot exclude any of them. and just today i have seen of a photo of the one who started and sparked this revolution via twitter and internet and facebook. and some people are saying, oh, he should be the president.

i believe he is too young to be a president. he is still a symbol. but i feel that the system at the end will reach a situation ike libbrum where you have people, elder people in the image and also the young who started this revolution will be certainly in the picture. so i believe we will have the hybrid system in the end or mixed. host: back to the phones. texas on our line for independents. go ahead. guest: hello, doctor. i have a question and or i'll make a statement and a couple of questions associated with it. i've always believed that mubarak had something to do with the assassination of sad dat. when you review the film, it's obvious that he could have been assassinated at the same time

where the army could climb the wall in order to shoot him. was there ever any formal investigation? was there any prosecution? and was it radical islam part of it? guest: there were investigations after that assassination. however, obviously they did not show any involvement of mubarak if this was true. but coming to your point. i don't have a concrete evidence, i don't like to judge people without having concrete evidence to be honest. so if there is no concrete evidence of this, it will be unfair to assume that this happened, especially let us see the difference. mubarak was younger than sadat so his responses were faster so

he can avoid it when he realizes that there is a threat. number two, he plays squash, which is a very fast game and this can give him exceptional fast responses in this situation. so that might save him or his life. so i'm not taking the other option off the table, but i'm saying i don't have concrete evidence for it. so it's unfair to either confirm or just say it didn't happen. it may mean need further research. host: you were saying earlier that the next leader needs to be a little bit older, someone with some experience. might the people who are involved in putting together the next coalition or the next government be looking for a sadat type to lead egypt? guest: i believe many of them have the experience of not those -- not just ease

thuseyafplt, and this destroyed the economy and really ruined it. and they have the experience of mubarak who was extremely tyrant and was really not like suppressing even radical islams. so they have this. so i think it will appeal. and i feel at the beginning if the power is not just in the hands of the president, but in the presidential cabinet, the president should be surrounded with a cabinet who should rule together. not one single man again. this is how i see things can go forward. host: nasar, sadat, and mubarak all rose through the military. guest: now the military realizes that the -- he may, but not necessarily because the military are probably a bit afraid now of getting too much

involved in dealing with the normal politics. otherwise, they may lose power at the end themselves in another revolution. and this happened actually after president -- former president mubarak said he will stay in power and he will just give some power to his vice president. he refused to step out. there was some movement within the military at the young generation because there were strikes everywhere in the country. doctors had strikes. so if you are a young military officer, your wife, your daughter can be affected by these strikes. there will be internal revolt and this made the military afraid to continue mubarak. first they will lose the power, they will lose the whole country. that's why one of the reasons they interveend yesterday to move him out. host: dr. hamid has a degree in

psychology, author of the book, "inside jihad." welcome to the "washington journal" caller: i have a question and also a statement, please. i'm very happy and jifle to hear joyful to hear what's happening in egypt and god bless the egyptian people. my question is i think you alluded to it in response to another caller and that is i think that there has been a radicalization of ordinary revolutionary people. and the example that i give is the doctor who is bin laden's number two man. you alluded to him. guest: yes. caller: that he was radicalized by his brutal torture while in egyptian jail. and my statement is, it seems

to me that egypt is an example of a country that is backed by the united states like saudi arabia, like yemen, where al qaeda not only gets its leaders but also its followoers. i feel there's a certain irony here in that the united states is backing these countries and yet is becoming a safety valve so that people that have been brute liesed like -- i can't pronouns his name, that he does not -- he does not fight against egyptian government but he fights against what he feels is the people backing the egyptian government. and that is the united states. and for egypt, almost let's him do that because there's kind of a safety valve.

and we see that also in saudi arabia. and there's a tremendous irony here because we see what happens. since anyone 11, with al qaeda, and we're still fighting in afghanistan because we're helping these dictators. guest: certainly some people can become more radicalized when they are treated in a ruthless manner in prison. but we cannot ignore there are other mechanisms. like london, they don't treat people badly in prisons, yet there is a very measured trouble in the u.k.. even here in the united states. he was not brute liesed or tortured in any prison. so it's fair to say this is one of the mechanisms of radicalization, this sort of treating people badly. yes. that's correct. however, poverty can be another contributing factor.

but there is an ideology here that teaches people to think in a radical way. and certain interpretations exist and the radicals are using these interpretations, and unfortunately they are not counter balanced sufficiently with peaceful interpretations. and i agree with you to treat people badly can turn them into radicals. but we cannot say this is the only mechanism of the process. this is just one of them. host: egypt's new dawn is the headline in this morning's issue of "the guardian." they write, mubarak surrenders power. back to the phones. oklahoma city, oklahoma on our line for folks of arab-american descent. welcome to the "washington journal." caller: thank you, sir. and good morning to your guest.

on that subject, this is very interesting. and also, i congratulate you, i congratulate all the egyptian people for the freedom they have enjoyed today. i have a few comments and a question, if i may. you know, the political tsunami that came actually from tunisia and spread to egypt and it's actually continuing to the rest of the arab world. i think we have seen a sign that people finally realize that dictatorship no longer will be existing in our modern world, particularly in the middle east. however, we have seen like just recently the king has just

given $1,000 for each family. kuwait has given $3,000 for each individual. yemen, he said he's no longer going to be run forg the presidency. even the palestinian said also he is not going to be running. so we see a very positive thing coming out of this egyptian revolution. and that's great. now, my other question. would this actually impact, what is the relationship, egyptian new government will be toward the other arab countries now since mubarak is no longer in power? guest: i feel that the

egyptians will focus more on their internal affairs and their sectors as a cabinetry because i don't think they will try to repeat the experiment of nassar who just tried to give care to the surrounding countries and forget his nation. i believe the egyptians could get this revolution and focus more internally. they will try to keep good relations with the arab world but i don't think this will be their primary interest here. and it's vital, you mentioned that this is the prost process of changing the dictators to democracy. and this should lead us to think, what can we do in the west and what the world can do to prevent this revolutions, like to be revolutions or bloody revolutions. this is how we should look to this process now. how to prevent these revolution

that starts on the internet to be hi jacked by radicals. like in yemen if it happened this can bring a very radical system in the discountry. but in other areas like egypt, i believe the situation must be different. and i would be happy to see a new revolution happening back in iran to, because iranian people are strong and they feel that if the egyptian made it, we failed it once, we'll make it the second time. this will be a great step. and i recently heard there is is revolt against hamas. people are not happy with hamas and their leadership. so the change is happening and we have to be very intelligent to do our best, to stop this revolution from becoming bloody and bar barack. -- bar baric. host: the "new york times," hope for egypt.

let's take another call. caller: good morning. i have a couple comments here for the doctor. one, my first comment and foremost is like so many other americans, i would like to say congratulations. egypt needs the world and the world needs egypt. guest: thank you, sir. caller: you had mentioned earlier that you were, i'm not exactly sure how to quote it but you said you were a reformed extremist. caller: guest: yes. caller: to be honest, i think that's the type of person that egypt really needs to be in power. somebody who has had the radical ideas before but now they've gotten over and started to realize that you don't solve

everything through guns and through fighting and all the rest of these things. and i just hope and i pray, and i'm sure many americans out here do, that we can find somebody that's just like, that's kind of expressing the same views that you are that will get into power and pull the middle east together and make it a good place to come and for us to come and spend and visit and to be tourists again. so i will hang up and listen to you. and thank you very much. guest: thank you for your command. i will certainly do my best to give my best advice to whoever will ask me for advice to help the country in this situation and help bring more stability to the area. i will do my best. i really never seek power, so i am not one of the things that comes to my mind to seek power. but i will do my best in the

level of advice at least. host: doctor, one of the editorial cartoons in the "washington post" this morning shows the pyramid and you can see how it says, autocracy but they're taking the aut off and there are two groups that are carrying new tops. one of them is d.e.m. that would make it a democracy or t.h.e. that would make it a theocracy. which do you think we'll see in the new egypt? guest: the democracy. after the exposure of the radical teaching on the internet, and after the start of debate within the egyptian media and discussions about some essential thing that is was in the theology and now they are debating some of the thing that is are used to considered undebatable. when i stopped this formation

30 years ago. the islamic experiment, islam, the slogan of the muslim brotherhood, islam is the solution simply failed. it's not appealing any more. during my time when i was young it was very appealing, like i can say revolution, but revival of islam in the 70s and 80s was very appealing because we dreamed about the concept that islam is the solution. will solve all our problems. but the experiments, if you come to the egyptian people there will be shar ea, they will not support this. so the nature of the people will dominate. and it fits with the fairest option, i hope so. host: thank you very much for being on this program. guest: my pleasure. host: we want to remind our viewers that throughout the

viewers we've been showing video that comes to us that's been showing some of the excitement over the revolution in egypt. and some of the aftermath. and we'll continue to use that as long as we continue talking about the revolution in egypt. in just a few minutes we're going to be talking about the tea party's influence in congress. but before we go to the break we want to show you some of this week's news through the eyes of political cartoonists. you're watching the "washington journal."

host: andy cramer, chairman of

the tea party express joins us here to talk about the influence on congress. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. i'm happy to be here. host: sage the performance of house republicans -- gauge the performance of house republicans so far. guest: well, i think they're moving in the right direction. cutting $100 billion is a good first step. but we need to cut a lot more and there's going to be tough decisions to be made. but these people are the ones to sit here and make those tough decisions. host: and when you say that cutting the 100 billion is a good start, what would be the next step, in your opinion? guest: i don't know. you've got to lay it all out there and look at everything, and the bottom line is that we need to get our economy back on a sound economic footing. we need to balance our budget, pay down our deficit, put people back to work. so we need to take steps that are going to do those things.

host: and how much have you been able to meet with these new members of congress and make sure that they understand that this is what the tea party supporters sent them here to do? guest: i've met with some of them. a good number of them. and i think that they know that this is what we want. but it's not just me meeting with them. it's local organizers from across the country that have met with them as well. some of them have come here and washington and met with them, and some have been meeting at their districts in the states. host: throughout the week, c-span has been covering the gathering known as cpac here in washington, d.c., and this week they were addressed by representative michelle balkman who talked about the zsh acknowledged the influence of the tea party and the tea party express but also reminded conservatives about the issue of social issues. we'll take a look at what she had to say. >> we would be wise to recall

and not forget that for our conservative coalition to be vick tors in 2012, it will take every one of us and then some pulling together to bring the three legs of this conservative stool together. the fiscal conservative leg, the national security leg, and the social conservative leg, to work together. we cannot shun each other for 2012. [applause] the structural integrity and the political appeal is not only rooted in this fiscal discipline but the social values and the philosophy of peace through strength. and i believe this is as valid today as it has been for the last 35 years. some would have you believe, however, that the rise of the tea party and the outcome of last fall's election means that conservatives stand for only

one thing and nothing more, and that's reducing our deficit and shrinking government. and while that is absolutely vital and important, i strongly disagree that that's all there is. host: amy cramer of the tea party express. tell me what you think about what representative balk man has to say. guest: she has been a good leader for this movement. she's been out there on the front lines. and what she's saying resonates with a lot of people. she's concerned about paying down our deficit as well, balancing our budget, getting families back to work. that's what she is concerned about and we agree with her. host: we're talking about the tea party's influence on congress with amy cramer, chairman of the tea party express and we'd like for you to get involved with the conversation. give us a call.

we'd especially like to hear from folks who identify themselves with members of the tea party movement. earlier this week, there was an article in the "washington examiner," tea party express targets anti-obama care republicans. and they say so far has announced their intentions to get republicans dick lugar of indiana and olympia snow unelected, thus forcing republicans to have to win one extra state, perhaps california, to make up for maine. tell us about this strategy. guest: well, actually several weeks ago i was contacted fwi hoosiers for conservative senate out of indiana and they had had a summit tover weekend where 70 or 80 groups came together. and the purpose of them coming together to was to let senator lugar know that they want him to retire, that they appreciate his service. he's an honorable man, he's done a lot for his country but it's time for his to move on.

and they clacl tacted me and i went and delivered a letter to his office saying those same things. so if that's what the people want in the state of indiana, then tea party express is going to work with him. that's what people are looking at. our thing is that just because you're republican does not mean you're conservative. and that's our issue. is we want conservatives, fiscal conservatives in washington. he's one of the worst offenders and the people of the state want him out. host: give me an example. when you say one of the worst eavenders. what's one of the worst offenses that he has commited? guest: well, you know, the dream act. that's something that has, that concerns people across the country and he has been a supporter of that. the thing is, these senators and commean come here and they are republicans. they identify themselves as republicans, but they don't act as republicans.

and a lot of the time they vote more with democrats than they do with the republicans. so that's what people are against. we want fiscal conservatives. even some democrats. everybody is for fiscal responsibility. when you're talking about left and right, most of the people are talking about the social issues. our thing is the fiscal issues. we don't dwell on the social issues. host: our first call for amy cramer of the tea party express comes from new york. melissa on our line for republicans. caller: good morning. i just have to say that first of all i was a tea party supporter but i am no locker partly because of the situation -- longer partly because of the situation of the naacp that i was surprised that the tea party express didn't say more to reprimand him for it. and also lately because of michelle balkman's behavior with white washing history as far as slavery goes and talking about how slaste came over here

with the same purpose that our columnist did which is not the case at all. but i have to say also that i haven't seen the tea party candidates or tea party supported candidates do much to move jobs forward. i've been seeing a lot more talk about abortion and a lot more talk about repealing health care reform. my boyfriend has been without a job since december and i've been looking for employment myself. right now, we're doe pending on government programs that we don't want to depend ofpblet we want to work. and unfortunately there's no market for that. but our politicians in washington aren't doing anything to help that. host: melissa in buffalo. go ahead. guest: well, i understand because my better half is out of work, too, so i completely know where you're coming from. and that's what these people need to be focused on is getting people back to work. the thing is, and it's one of the challenges of this movement is managing expectations.

look, we can't bring all these new people to washington and expect them to do all these things within a short time period of just three months. we didn't get here overnight. beer not going to change things overnight. it's going to take a while for things to change and turn around. so i don't want people to get disillusioned. and if these people that we brought here don't do what we want them to do and they're not accountable, then we will send them out just like the ones that we just sent home and we will bring some other ones in. host: there are those who would say that that phrase, we didn't get here overnight and we're not going to remedy this overnight, is what has been said not only by president obama and democrats on capitol hill, but also republicans as well. so where does, where does that philosophy divert from where your philosophy is? and how long does the tea party express think that it would

take to right the economy? guest: well, the thing is, and i get the question all the time, where were you during the bush administration? well, because this spending started under president bush. and it's continued at an accelerated pace under president obama. the one common that they have is congress. they can't do what they do without congress. so we are at a point now where it is out of control. i mean, we cannot continue to go down this road. you and i have to balance our family budget. people have to balance their family budgets across the country. why is it that the federal government doesn't have to balance the budget? the bottom line is we do not have a revenue problem. we have a spending problem. and we need to get it under control. you cannot spend your way into prosperity. host: our next call from oklahoma on our line for democrats. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm calling in because i'm

sitting here year after year and watch republicans and some democrats, they never talk about anything but cutting taxes. cutting spending. cutting taxes for the rich, cutting jobs out of the economy for the poor. and you never hear anybody mention the poor in this country, which i think it takes poor people to make rich people. so that's one thing we've forgotten. i haven't heard any ideas from anybody. democrats or republicans. if someone comes up with an idea, there's never anybody that will add to that idea. it's always a, we can't do that. guest: well, we do need to create jobs so that people can get back to work, and that is something that both the democrats and the republicans should be working on. that's one of the things, i have to say this, everybody talks about the political parties, democrat and

republican, and you know what? that's what we need to get away from. party politics is what's gten gotten us into this mess. we want to get our economy back under control. host: you're on the "washington journal." guest: i just want to call as a tea party affiliate, i feel like the tea party express is nothing but a fraud and it's used as a tool to divide and conquer the population. you saw it with the health care debate and you guys are nothing but entrenched interests against the people of the world for the very entrenched money interest that are paying your salary. you lady are a fraud. thank you very much. host: before you go, you say that you're associated or affiliated with the tea party. but then you have these negative things to say about amy and the tea party express.

so what's the difference between your tea party and her tea party? caller: well, my tea party is absolutely for getting to the heart of the corruption and the lies behind ninen 11 and all the other lies that we've been told starting with jfk, martin luther king, robert f. kennedy, all of those people across the board. these were started by people who are mostly ron paul supporters and people who are sitting back watching this thing go down. host: we'll leave it there. guest: i was going to ask him what tea party he is from but i would like to respond to that. tea party express is actually the only true grass roots national tea party organization out there. and i say that because we are a federal pac. and all of our money comes from individuals across the country. we cannot accept any corporate money, any big donations. it comes from individuals.

$5,000 or less. that's all we can accept. and we return money every day. so when you talk about grass roots, the money that we have raised in this organization has come from our supporters across the country. there are no political organizations behind us. we're not an arm of the republican party. we don't accept money except from individuals. host: new hampshire on our line for independents. go ahead. caller: greetings. i just am happy to be here, c-span, and thanks for everybody involved. tea party is great. they've got their extremists like the other parties. so anyway, go tea party. i've just got one idea. i'd like to share with the tea party something they could work on that i think would really accomplish a lot and wouldn't cost much.

as soon as you get a social security number in this country, why don't you automatically be registered to vote as well. and, you know, host: we're here. caller: ok. you know, it may not increase the number of people participating but there's a good chance that it would. it would definitely make it easier for those folks that are sitting back and not getting involved. host: we'll leave it there. guest: he brings up a good point about people getting involved. we've been attacked, i've been attacked personally. but the greatest thing about this is never before in american history have so many people been engaged in the political process. that's what our count vi about. it's great that we're all engaged on both side of the aisle. we need to be engaged. we are the reason that we are in this economic spiral downward right now because we have allowed these people to come here to washington, not

pay attention to what they're doing, and just gone about living our lives, working, taking care of our families. so we are responsible for it. and now people are awake on both side of the aisle and we're engaging and we want to hold them accountable. so it's great that we've gotten this movement together. host: next up, baltimore, maryland. mike on our line for democrats. you're on with amy cramer of the tea party express. caller: good morning. our attention has been focused on the events in egypt. and i'm wondering what does the tea party express think about u.s. foreign policy and the role we should play in an ever connected world? guest: honestly, foreign policy is not something that the tea party movement is focused on. and that is because that's an issue that you're not going to get everybody to agree on. the same with social issues. that's why we stick to those core principles and values of fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets. and we don't focus on foreign

policy or any of the social issues. host: there are some though that say that one of the ways that we could cut the federal budget is to tighten up and cut back a little bit on foreign aid. guest: yes. and i think, as i said earlier, everything needs to be laid out on the table. we need to be taking care of ourselves first. if we don't take care of this country, we're not going to be here to take care of anybody else. host: pennsylvania, terry on our line for republicans. you're on the "washington journal." caller: thank you, c-span, for taking my call. i've been a republican my whole time since i've been voting now for about ten years now. the reason i've become a republican was because the conservative movement. and there's 14 trillion in debt right now and they said by 2020 looking at maybe 26 trillion as

the way everything is goin right now. and that just scares the heck out of me. i'm sure it scares the whole united states. and i'm just wondering, i know the tea party, they're really conservative, that's awesome. i support them 100%. and also, what i'm scared of is there's still too many old republicans like boehner and some of the top officials down in the house, especially, and in the senate that still don't get the picture that we are in desperate need of a fiscal responsibility. you know, to take care of this major debt. because we're never going to get ahead if they just keep jacking it up 1 trillion, 2 trillion every year. and another thing i want to comment real quick was and get a response was during the lame duck session whenever they knew that the republicans were coming in strong, was like an extra 80 seats, between the

house and the senate, you would think that they would have got the message and no matter what said, you know, the older republicans would have said, hey, you know, we've got america's, we know what they want. host: we'll leave it there. thanks for your call. guest: we've talked about it, the deficit, our debt. that's what we're concerned about and it's a valid point. during the lame duck session senator reid was bringing this huge omnibus bill to the floor, i can't even remember how much it was now. but we started hounding them. i went to senator's office and we were going to read that entire bill. it was like 2,000 pages. and then he realized he didn't have the votes and he didn't bring it to the floor. so that was a victory for us. but of course they were going to do that because they knew that was their last opportunity and they had been voted out. so there was nothing to make them toe the line. but, look, we have to hold these people accountable.

and, yeah, i mean there is some old guard here. and you can't go in and remove them all at the same time. if they start moving to the right and are more fiscal conservatives, that's what we want them to do. that doesn't mean we're going to give them a free pass. as i said, if they don't do what they want them to do, we're going to vote them out too. host: the house is going to be looking at the continuing resolution starting tuesday. your thoughts on the amount of money that's going to be spent in order to keep the government running. and should they maybe cut back or eliminate that resolution and shut down the government and rework with budget from there? guest: this is a very stricky situation. but the bottom line is, you know, it goes back to we can't spend our way out of debt. and senator jim demint said let's have a showdown on the debt ceiling. no, i don't think we should

shut down the government. i don't think we should default on our debt. but at the same time if you're going to go in and raise this debt ceiling then you need to make some significant cuts. we cannot allow them. what is the point of having a debt ceiling if you just keep raising it? by raising the debt ceiling you're providing them cover for not having to make the tough decisions. we have to get this in line. host: dave on our line for independents. . .

a lot of the problems we are experiencing are coming from the fed and i would like to hear your comments on that. guest: that is an issue we have seen come up over and over again. there is a movement out there of people and ron paul has headed that up, to audit the fed. i believe some legislation has been introduced to do just that. whether the legislation will be passed, i am not sure, but there are are large number of people that support that. host: ron on our line for tea

partiers at a pontiac, ill.. caller: alan like to make a broad historical note -- i would like to make a broad historical or philosophic gone now. the french game in the 1820's. historians love to quote his book, "democracy in america o." one observation he made was that democracy in america would survive until the american people figured that if they wanted the american government to give them something, they needed to vote for it. we are there. we have some money handouts and bonuses given to the people by the government that we are

really close to bankruptcy. c-span had someone on, i think, from the american enterprise group and he said countries that are getting into as bad of shape that we are and the only ones that succeeded in solving their fiscal problems did 85% spending cuts and 15% tax increases. host: we will leave it there. guest: we are on the verge of bankruptcy. who would ever think that america could not pay their debt? that is where we are. that is why this movement has bubbled of the way that it has. it started with the bush and administration. there were rumblings on twitter, blogging, and facebook for a while that it was time for another american revolution because spending was out of control.

that is why this movement has grown at leaps and bounds in two years. there are democrats and independents to and did file with this move and as well -- who identify with this movement as well. host: this week asks, what i did to the tea party representatives have a for helping american citizens get jobs?" guest: there has been legislation put through to cut corporate taxes of that these businesses -- because businesses create jobs. small businesses and companies create jobs. just with health care, businesses are making decisions saying that they cannot afford to pay the cost of health care so they will have to let people go where they will have to not hire people. we cannot allow that to happen.

we have to get this back in check somehow so that the companies have the money to reinvest in their organization, their companies, and hire people to put them back to work. host: on "newsmakers" representative steve israel is the guest. he is the head of the committee to elect more democrats. he talked about the status of the democrats as house minority party. we will look at what he has to say and then get a response from amy kremer of the tea party express. >> from a political standpoint and it institutional standpoint when you have $90 million in debt. your committee alone. >> thank you for reminding me. there's no question that it is an uphill battle. i am a student of military history. one, i love uphill battles.

two, there are a lot that can be done. we need 25 seats to take the house back. we have a rich environment, 61 seats currently represented by republicans. 14 of them voted for senator kerrey and obama. there are 54 seats that that 55% of the vote or less. quite honestly, republicans have made my job much easier since they took the gavel. they made commitments to the american people and flip-flop. the have not created jobs. they said they would took health-care, a ticket for themselves, and it took it away from their constituents. host: your response? guest: 0 i am so tired of party politics. it is democrats versus republicans. let's look at the issues. these people have been here for not even three months yet. really, what can you do in that

amount of time? you know what it is like to get legislation through washington. it does not happen like that. it does not take time to turn this stuff back around. host: dayton, ohio, on our line for democrats. you are on with amy kremer. caller: i agree that we need to cut to the party lines and focus on the people. you mentioned that you get asked a lot where the party was during the bush administration but you did not really ask -- answer that question. there were six years the republicans were in there giving tax cuts that did not create jobs. right now i am in representative district business -- and i am down the street from a delphi plant being closed down. why not cut down corporate tax

loopholes? why not fuel the economy through those means? back to the original question, where were you guys win bush and cheney were taking us into iraq unnecessarily? there were spending billions of dollars. i also want to ask you what the t party feels about now that we are heading towards iran? on the mainstream news, everyone was pounding on them. much of what they are repeating about iran is based on unsubstantiated claims perpetuated by the same war mongers. if you did answer any of those questions i would appreciate it. guest: like a setup, we did not delve into foreign policy because that is not something we will all agree on. where we were during the bush administration backs i think people think someone clicked their heels together and it

happened. there were rumblings of another boston tea party which started during the bush administration. on februarypened 19th about the mortgage meltdown and he had the platform no one else had. it is not like people all of this together. there was an undercurrent. people were upset with the bush and administration did with congress. spending was already getting out of control. host: you mentioned at the beginning of this interview and reported in "the washington post" this morning about how house republicans will trim at $10 billion more. write --ight -- they

assuming those cuts go into programs that look at things like clean air and clean water, how do you go out and justify those kinds of cuts when in the long term it may mean turning back programs that were correct -- protecting is a clean air and clean water? guest: do you know what? there are businesses out there, good free market competition that are more capable of doing these things than our government. i believe the private sector should do some of those things. if you allow them and allow this free-market to flourish then we will have those things come into play. our country, that is when we are about. and is why america is so great. the competition pushes people to strive harder for that.

we need to get the government out of our lives. host: tom in massachusetts sends us this e-mail. "does the tea party express have an opinion on improving public education in the united states?" guest: there has been talk lately about getting rid of the department of education. do we specifically have a platform or opinion about it? no. when you are hearing from people across the country is that it should go back to the states. that the states determine what is best for the education in their state. every state is different. the state government should be the one making those decisions, not washington, d.c. host: arlington, va., on our line for republicans. you are on "washington journal." caller: good morning, c-span and mrs. kremer.

i have been voting conservative for about 20 years and i wanted to make a few comments and make a question. first, about this farce about slavery. i would ask mullis of from buffalo to look up irish slavery -- melissa from buffalo. i do not know 80 party around -- a tea partier that supports 9/11 truthers. i do have a question about social verses fiscal conservatism. i think the two are directly linked. you see this time and time again with the welfare or pro-life issue is being funded and how much it is costing america. i would be very impressed if the

tea party would join members like rand paul and supporting the -- the department of education back to the states along with focusing on fannie mae and freddie mac. they have an unfunded liability of to $1 trillion. it is time to privatize them and get away from these social policies. they are directly linked. guest: we need to get the government out of our lives. some of these things need to go back to the states and allow the state governments to function on that level with education in the states. it needs to go back to the private sector. that is where businesses flourish. that is when people go back to work. when the government takes over and starts doing all of this stuff, it is not working.

host: from northern virginia, "amy, taxes have never been so low. you have to go back to the 1950 proxy to find it that love. on funded wars in iraq and afghanistan class tax cuts for the richer the problem the go -- problem." guest: we do not have a revenue problem. we have a spending problem. we cannot spend our way out of debt. host: our last call comes from scranton, pa., on our line for tea partiers. caller: thank you for all of you do and thank you to c-span. there are so many things that we have to fix and it has been overwhelming for most. in my county, we have two judges under indictment and the fbi is

looking into our court systems and our political system. we have some under home charter. my main goal here is education, not just in the public education system, which is a mess, but also in the fiscal responsibility. i would like to thank you, but i want to make sure the people understand that education is the key and we need as many of the public have -- of the public involved. this did not just starred but has been going on for crofter or five years now. we really need as many people involved as we can and we encourage everyone to please just at least get involved because things are worse than you think. host: we will leave it there. guest: it is about education. these people across the country involved in this movement are everyday, average americans and

they are educating themselves on the issues and learning how all of this works. they are awake now and saying "no more." no more will you be able to come to washington, d.c., live in the bubble and not into to your constituents. we are here to hold them accountable and make them do the jobs they were sent here to do. host: amy kremer from the tea party express. thank you for being on the program. in a recent article in "politico" gop targets family- planning programs. that was the title of the article and day -- they write -- some 5,000,002 women and men receive services

when we come back from our break, we will be talking from erin matson, the action vice president for the national organization of women about title x and his movement for congress. -- it's movement. >> you are watching c-span britney politics and public affairs every morning. it is "washington journal," our live call in the program collecting with elected officials, policy makers, and journalists. weekdays watch live coverage of the u.s. house. also, supreme court or arguments. on the weekends, our signature interview programs. on saturday, the communicators

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voting discrimination in the south in the kennedy administration's struggle to overcome that. and that the beliefs of our founding fathers in the role of christianity in establishing our nation. also met his military service in world war ii with the japanese american regiment to combat team. experience american history television on c-span3 all weekend, every weekend. for a complete schedule, c- span.org/history. you can have the schedule email that to you. -- emailed. host: aaron matson from the national organization for women joins us to talk about title x, family planning, and republican support to end the program. why is title x so critical? guest: the proposed bill is a

public health disaster. telex family planning funding -- title x provides hiv screening, birth control, counseling, and it helps a number of people. it would be dangerous to get this funding and really cut off millions of people from funding. host: how many people? guest: millions of people are served every year. host: in terms of finding? guest: cutting people off entirely. host: they say title x is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. the title x program is designed to provide access to contraceptive services, supplies, an affirmation to all who want or need them.

this does not cover federal funding for, say, abortions? guest: it does not. there is not really any federal funding for abortion services except for in cases of rape. host: title x was started under the nixon administration. tell us about the history and by president nixon thought it was important. guest: the reason why it was important then is the same it is today. for every $1 spent on family planning we save over $3 in other medical costs. host: we are speaking with erin matson, the action vice president for the national organization of women. if you would like to get involved in the discussion, the numbers are on your screen.

if you have had any experience with title x programs in your area, give us a call and let us now a little bit more about your experience. more from the article in "politico" which came out this week. it says that the house appropriations committee said in a wednesday press release that it would cut $327 million from the family planning program.

karen had of their title x funding. what are some other programs covered? guest: whether we are talking about hiv screening, community health centers, counseling. and the public programs. host: our first call comes from annapolis, md., on our line for republicans. you are on with erin matson. caller: i would like to ask a particular question. her organization, as far as i and stand the concept, only supports democrats, liberal causes, does not support women in general. if they happened to have a conservative town to their voice and because of her bias is that

i perceive directly, i do not trust anything that say says because she does not admit that organization will not support any woman that has conservative tendencies, conservative views, and i believe her statements concerning planned parenthood are absolutely 100% totally false. host: we will give erin matson a chance to respond. guest: we are in non-partisan organization and we're not affiliated with any political party. when a woman in power is not advocating policies that would help all women we do not support her politics. host: reaching out to members of congress to try and defeat this legislation, who have you spoken to? guest: what we do is mobilized chapters around country to

basically indicate in their communities. we are seeing some grass-roots work where people will start getting out and marching in the streets. i know something is planned in chicago. something is coming together in new york. that is our focus. host: baltimore, md., on the line for democrats. you are on "washington journal." caller: i think this is an attack on the poor. i am a health educator. i deal with mainly teenagers. if you did not know, baltimore city has a very high rate of hiv. if there are no resources for people to get tested, especially the poor, how will they find out if they have a disease or have struggled cancer? to me, it is imperative that these programs are safe in place. it is not just for contraception but for std and

hiv testing. you will literally have people walking around with hiv and having no way to find out if they have it and they just spread it around to other people. host: you say you work with young people in baltimore? can he give us an age range of the people you work with and what kind of questions and problems did they come in with the? caller: our work with around 12 years old and up to 17. a lot of the times, a lot of parents are in denial that their children are sexually active. the kids will walk around with an aristide -- with an std. i will give them the information and refer them to a clinic. if these free clinics were not

available, especially for the people who are low-income, live in housing projects, under the poverty line and if there were not these clinics for them to go to they would have no way to find out if they have the sexually transmitted diseases or hiv. host: we will leave it there. is this typical of the kinds of programs that now and title x covers? guest: absolutely. it is not just women but men. we're talking about education and a screening. the caller brought up pap smears. oftentimes because the recommendation that a woman gets a test yearly, a gynecologist is really the only doctor that they will visit. this could cut out those medical

visit completely. host: durum, north carolina, susan on airline for republicans. -- on our line for republicans. caller: listening to these discussions, i just have to say that i used to support now and they used to be very active in the chapter. as i have grown older, i have really changed my mind. i kind of a wonder if i made a mistake about that with seeing what has happened with now and planned parenthood. i know we are talking about funding, but they can raise that money privately, so it is not like they will all shut down. what really breaks my heart as a mother and a woman is that not

only one but three videos have come to light and it points out that the theme of these videos are people coming in and we are talking about the sexual trafficking of children and the fact that now would stand behind planned parenthood wind it is apparent that this is going on in more than one of their locations. how can you be an organization that stands up for women at any cause and yet you sit here and turn a blind guy? it breaks my heart to see something like this happening. host: we will let erin respond. guest: it is the furthest thing from a blind eye. unequivocally, we stand with planned parenthood.

this is a vicious smear campaign. planned parenthood does more to help women and girls than any other provider in the country. host: getting back to title x, why are republicans trying to defund title x? guest: we are seeing a malicious attack coming out of congress. this is one of a number of bills that are attacking one man's fundamental right to choose and going far beyond that into what could be considered an anti-sex agenda. host: title x has no funding that goes towards abortions. this is just contraception and informational type things. guest: counseling, birth control, and beyond. host: is the kind of counseling that they are particularly opposed to? guest: again, this is a radical

anti-woman agenda and there's really no excuse. host: we're talking about title x, family planning programs. our next caller is from hershey, pa., ted on our line for independents. caller: other than title x, does your organization have any other political agenda in d.c.? how do you see yourself getting there? guest: now supports equality for women and we have a number freddie issues, one of them is reproductive rights. another is lesbian rights, ending violence against women. we are a multi-issue organizations and our purpose is to stand up and take action for women's rights. host: erin matson is the action vice president and was elected

in 2009. she oversees the grass roots efforts for the national organization for women. we will continue our discussion regarding title x family funding programming with allison from florida on our line for republicans. go ahead. caller: my question has to do with the the beginning of your interview. she refused to give a dollar no. as to the amount that is required to run planned parenthood. she talks about millions of people but not dollars. unfortunately, our economy is dealing with dollars. i would like her to answer the question with a number and not a people lumber, a dollar number. host: the figures we were talking about had to be with the money that had been appropriated for title x according to this article in "politico."

last year it was $327 million authorized and $317 million appropriated. caller: at the beginning of the interview he requested a dollar amount-to what is required to run the program and she could not answer. she either could not or refuse to. host: we found that number in the article by "political." caller: all right. thank you. host: utah on our line for democrats. bob, go ahead. caller: i believe in women's rights and i believe in abortion. the people who are against it, most of them are taking birth control pills and have been taking them for 40 years. abortion is just a tiny drop compared to the, that life

begins at conception. thank you. host: your thoughts? guest: i attended the hearing for house resolution 3. testifying in favor for the council of catholic bishops refused to answer a question as to whether his organization would like to ban all funding for the pill. these things are absolutely interconnected. we are seeing an anti-abortion rights agenda going horribly wrong. host: queens, n.y., on our line for independences -- independents. you're on with erin matson. caller: i am a feminist, politically speaking, and i am

glad that erin is on the air showing a strong contrast to the last speaker who was on the show. i want to disagree with the last caller that we should be in the people economy always as a country. dollars are not people and people are much more important than figures or statistics. to focus just on fiscal responsibility is kind of ridiculous in a much more complicated world. thanks. host: erin? guest: absolutely. i could not agree more. as a country, we need to focus on people first. you can have fiscal responsibility was also caring about people first. host: joseph from utah on our line for republicans. you are on the "washington journal." caller: i encourage the

continuation of the work. two questions. where in the constitution do we find that the federal government should be involved in such welfare work as this? the second question is how well we cut spending if we do not eliminate some programs that people themselves can it take care of without depending on the government? host: erin matson? guest: the constitution has allowed us to find all sorts of things throughout this country's history. in terms of how to cut spending, it is very strange to focus on programs that, as shown with medicaid, says $3 with every $1 spent instead of looking in other areas such as the war. host: more from the article from last week's "politico."

the article quotes cecille richards. that is a point that you made earlier in this discussion. guest: that is corrected. as a younger woman, planned parenthood has been that there will for me. even when i was 11, the affirmation my mother gave me growing up was material from planned parenthood. they have helped countless women who may or may not have jobs, may or may not have insurance

oftentimes get the only health care access to have all year. host: what the the state to people who think that this family planning information should be left up to the parents in the family members and not necessarily a government- sponsored entity like title x and planned parenthood? guest: we are talking about two different issues here. there are people -- excuse me. let me back up. in a family, those conversations are certainly something that others do not need to control. where do people go to get reliable information and medical screening, testing, and care? that is a number of things that title x funding provides. is not something a family can provide. you cannot screen in your home. host: i would like to show you the now website, now.org, where you can get more information about the national organization

for women. our next caller chicago, ill., on our line for democrats. you are on the "washington journal." caller: i have three points, please. i would like this young lady to comment on the amendment that allows hospitals to let women die rather than have an abortion especially if they are zeroing in on these catholic hospitals. also, conservatives are supposed to be small government but they want the government to come manley and take over a woman's body for nine months -- to come in and take over a woman's body to cover which canning cannot do. really, conservatives are anti- women and they think the had three purposes -- incubation, pleasure, and housekeeping. thank you. host: doris in chicago. guest: you brought up the h.r.

358 act which would encourage hospitals to let pregnant women die which is correct. it had provisions in theire that would allow any medical provider of health care plan to not only refuse to provide abortion care even when a woman is on her deathbed but also refused to even refer to her to another location. it is extremely dangerous. i could not agree more on the point that the hypocrisy coming out of the people promoting these bills. it is an absolute intrusion into free demand people's private lives. it is big government. in fact, another one of these bills, the h.r. 3 bill, the no funding for abortion act, would expand the role of the irs by having the irs to get involved in abortion policy. host: augusta, ga., dawn on our line for republicans. -- donna you are on.

caller: i was watching when the labor and delivery shows on the discovery channel. she had four boys and wanted a girl so she had her embryos stored. and amaze me that the doctor could pick a female out of the four embryos that she had stored. i am against abortion. i think it is taking a life that god gave us. their lives are just as important as ours are. i have two nieces that went straight to planned parenthood and voila they had abortions. if i find out that they do another hearing, i will make sure that they have their medical records and they will be sent there. you can have all of the abortions that you want, but do

not expect other people to pay for it. the talk about people being mean, yet you slaughter babies every single day by the meilli ons. guest: first of all, people have different religious views and that is something that this country was founded to support. we cannot have religious views determining public policy. i would like to just make it clear that in the last year, when we're talking about a federally funded abortions, there were only 220 and all of them were in cases of rape, incest, or a woman on her deathbed. it is very odd at this time that when people are out looking for work that we're focusing on money being spent that is really minuscule and the circumstances that nearly everyone agrees that abortion should be available. host: has the regular funding of

title x been more or less taken for granted or is this the first time eliminating the funding for this program has been proposed by the republicans? guest: what i would like to say that is that this is the greatest attack on women's rights that its policy has seen in her lifetime. this is -- that nancy pelosi has seen. this is about how one uses their own health care dollars, family planning funding, and even encouraging hospitals to let pregnant women die. host: assuming that the republicans have enough votes in the house in order the pass this legislation that would cut off the funding for title x, what is the plan for try to come and save it when it goes over to the senate? guest: we will rely on our

senators to stop this very quickly. we have seen the press conference that included senators gillibrand, franken, and others. it is something we will all have to be supportive and loud about. this is a very serious threat. host: both of those senators are democrats. any support from republican senators? guest: not yet, but i would be delighted if someone let me know that there are some out there. host: we are talking with erin matson, the action vice president for the national organization for women. we're talking about title x family-planning programming which is under consideration for cuts of their funding by the house appropriations committee controlled by the republicans in the 100 told congress. we would like for you to get involved in the conversation. the numbers are on the screen.

15 minutes left on the program. you are on "washington journal." caller: i just do not understand how republicans think this will create jobs. it does not take a lot to realize that it is a lot cheaper to pay for a few pills than it is to go through an entire birth process. we will just be pain, pain, and paying for these kids and families forever. -- we will be paying, paying, and payin. i just do not see the jobs. host: is this more about saving money and putting it somewhere else or is this is social opposition to the information and the purpose behind title x? guest: this is part of a radical anti-abortion rights agenda that has expanded to include family planning and many other things. that caller made an important point that this does nothing to create jobs. there was a recent poll but showed that abortion barely

registered in the public as something they would like congress to accomplish. john boehner says his highest priority is banning federally funded abortions. host: north carolina on our line for democrats. go ahead. caller: good morning. how is everyone doing this morning? please do not cut me off. i would like to tell ms. erin that i appreciate the job that she is doing. when the republicans got an office, the first thing they did was to get a tax break for the billionaires and millionaires. that was their first priority. the next priority was attacking abortion. and they never, ever got anything done about jobs. the republicans got into office by manipulating the voting

machine. you take a look at each of them right now. all of those people demonstrating that if they cut the programs they plan on cutting coming you talk about each of demonstrating? you have not seen anything yet. look at egypt. you never see a black face demonstrating. host: we believe there. guest: it is very interesting that the republicans are attacking abortion rights so viciously in the same press conference where speaker boehner talk about ending federal funding for abortion, which there is very little like rape, incest, and life endangerment. he was asked by reporters that what about jobs and he said that was in the process. on all sides of the political spectrum, we can all agree to be outraged about. we want are not getting what was

promised. host: shreveport, louisiana. you are on "washington journal." caller: i do not know what she is, but you need to challenge her more. i know you know better than that. obama signed the tax break to build on your last caller. you could have challenged him. the ladies that have been calling on, they challenge and say stuff like that. you have not said one word back to that last caller. here is my comment to her. us.re killing god's gift to planned parenthood has been caught on tape and that is why you are squirming now. planned parenthood is squirming, too, because they are on tape killing the babies.

two, we have to stop this madness because this country is coming apart. you are saying jobs, jobs, jobs. we are going to go under if we do not start cutting. god bless you and america. host: jeff? caller: yes, sir. host: in this article is says that by law the funds must be spent on health care such as contraceptives, pelvic exams, and safer sex counseling and cannot be spent on abortion services. caller: ok. if they did just that the, just what you read, i would be all for it, but they are giving abortions. they have it on tape. do you understand this? they have it on tape. i do not want my money to be

spent on killing babies. i do not want my money spent on that. host: we will leave it there. guest: respectfully, i appreciate everyone's personal views, but under no medical definition is abortion killing babies. i think what we need to focus on is the fact that planned parenthood is providing health care, a wide range of health care, to young women, young men, people of all ages and there is no funding for abortion beyond some very select special circumstances that involved rape, incest, or a woman about to die. i do not seen how this concern is coming forward. again, those videotapes are a distortion and have been used to maliciously attacked planned parenthood and they probably stand behind planned parenthood.

host: be think there may be less opposition to the funding for title x if the fund. when to to an entity other than planned parenthood which gives things like information on family planning and was covered? -- and whatever? if title x funding just went to a program that passed that information and was not doing abortions. guest: we need to consider that women need the full range of reproductive health care when they go to a provider. abortions are a part of that service and it is very dangerous when have locations where women go for health care and they cannot access all services, particularly when their health and life may be at stake. i think it is perfectly normal for planned parenthood to provide the full range of reproductive health services. those of the clinics that will best serve people.

host: erin matson joined the national organization for women in 2002 in her home state of minnesota. she is the longest standing member of the young feminist task force from 2003-2008 and is a free-lance writer, speech writer, and has done work in corporate communications management. she has a degree in women's studies from georgetown and has written a university of michigan press textbook. guest: the nsa was included in the textbook. it was a personal essay about an accident in which my hair that live on fire -- lit on fire. it was used as an example of narrative storytelling. host: we are talking about title x, family planning funding. from georgia, you are on

"washington journal." can you speak out? go ahead. caller: how is it that people want to cut all these programs but these young babies that are born to poor people, teenagers, all this is all paid for medicaid, food stamps, housing. if you cut these, they will have no way to support these babies. thank you. host: erin matson? guest: in terms of cutting funding for family-planning coming relieving people with even more poverty than when they started. a lot of people are struggling. particularly that burden is being borne by women especially women of color. the facts are a disproportionate. what does it mean to be a good and just society? host: we mentioned that the legislation had been introduced

by representative mike pence of indiana. are there any republican women who oppose cutting off the funding from title x? guest: i would like to see some. that is my answer. host: cleveland, ohio, on our line for democrats. caller: good morning and hello. i have a question for you, erin. would it be good if they had a program like you have these young people who get pregnant, would it be good if they showed young woman that could speak out within the program that have had children and what it can do to their lives when they get pregnant at a very young age? erin, i cannot understand.

congress will pay for cialis for men that they did not want to help with birth control for women. i cannot seem to understand why they are like this. as far as the republicans are going to get support from them, i do not think so. if one goes against the other, then they are through with the other one. it is like they turn on each other. host: we will leave it there. guest: every time a woman speaks up and shares her story, whenever it may be, it has the power to help move society away from the discrimination that continues today. absolutely it affects discrimination about medication for men related to sex that is

routinely covered and yet medication for women related to sex is routinely either not covered or is it receiving grandstanding. host: albuquerque, new mexico, on our line for independents. caller: alan to make a couple of comments and start off by saying the national organization for women, they should change their name to the national organization for progressive liberal women because there is no other explanation for why they leave women like sarah palin or michele bachmann out of the picture. it should be the national organization for progress of women. there are a lot of women who do not think the way you think. i wanted to add a quick comment about margaret sanger, the

founder of planned parenthood. she was a racist. she is a promoter of eugenics. even adolf hitler and the nazis and got together with the eugenics people and one of the original intents of the eugenics movement, and margaret sanger, was to control the black population. if you take a look around, you will see that the majority of planned parenthood clinics are in black neighborhoods. guest: i would like to respond to both points. first, you acknowledge that you believe we should be called the national organization a progressive liberal women. we are the national organization for women and we stand up for all women. we are proud of progressives, but that does not mean that we are partisan. we are not affiliated with any

political party, but what we want to see is equality for women. there are women out there who have risen up through the ranks to do not speak up for equality for women. the policies they are promoting what, in fact, create more inequality for women so we do not support those types of views even if they are spoken by women. the second piece is i think it is important to note that planned parenthood is absolutely and social justice- oriented service provider and it is reaching a number of women and men who are in poverty and a number of women and men who are people of color. certainly something that happened with the margaret sanger in the past has nothing to do with planned parenthood today. host: our last call for erin matson comes from cincinnati, ohio, susan on our line for

republicans. caller: yes, i have a question or a comment for this lady who talks about women's rights. no one takes away the right of any individual to go out and have sex or what have you. with that comes the responsibility of what might happen. that just blows me away that this movement indicates that this is like putting a band-aid on a problem of responsibility. being in the medical field, the other issue that amazes me is when she indicated that in medical terminology that abortion is killing a baby. she talks about it as though there is a tumor that we will remove. that is not true. i have seen and i have been in places where people have actually aborted their children. they are alive beings. why is