>> absolutely. we do not want to be egypt, nor do we -- when you talk about cyber security, it goes to what can be done to harm the function of the internet itself. we do not want to give government so much power somethg like that. narrowing that down, we have to be careful seoul due process is properly followed. again, there has been criticism of senate legislation. we're not going to start with that. we will start by taking a careful look at this and making sure that we can utilize a judicial system or adapt the judicial system to deal with these issues. we will also hold a hearing on some of the other proposals, -- it is more than a proposal.

it is a process their implementing to dramatically expand the number of end-domains that are available, which could complicate immensely the ability of people to protect their intellectual property rights. we want to ask them some relief. it and tough questions about that. we will also hear their ideas about why they think that is important to do. >> one other note on that, president obama met with the chinese president when he was here recently. they discussed intellectual property enforcement. the president received a small concession, which was that the chinese government would take care to avoid purchasing pirated software -- software. what can be done to convey the importance of this issue? >> that is -- it time actually does that, we will wait and see, it would be a good first step. if you are imposing that ethic on the people who are charged

with enforcing the laws in china, then they might have a greater appreciation for the rampant amount of piracy taking place in china, far worse than any other country in the world. recently, the ceo of microsoft came and talked to me and a few others, and said that comparing china to russia, which has a bad reputation itself, they believe that the rate -- china is much more populous -- the rate of internet that based upon the number of computers in china is six times as great in china as in russia. worldwide, the piracy that is taking place is costing up to 60,000 american jobs. this from a company that has only 80,000 jobs total in the u.s. if they could increase by 50%

that one company goes employment by handling this problem -- and we will never completely handle it -- getting a better handle on it will create a lot of jobs. >> finally, net neutrality. energy and commerce committee is holding hearings on the issue of net neutrality. fcc is active on this. what is your view of the government's role in net neutrality? >> i think the judiciary committee has a very important role here. i and a former congressmen were the cochairs of the internet caucus. we introduce legislation almost a decade ago. we did not call it that neutrality. we called it open access. it was the same thing, assuring that people getting access to the internet, doing business on the internet, have the opportunity to fairly compete, and that the people who compare -- control that access, internet service providers, do so in a

fair way. that is the essence of antitrust laws. my concern about what the fcc has done is to fold. first of all, i do not believe that they have the legislative authority, the existing authority under the law, to essentially view the internet from a common carrier status point of u.s. step in to regulate this area. secondly and more importantly, for many of my friends, who believe in open access and support this regulatory approach, with what the fcc is doing with net neutrality, i say to them, be careful what you ask for. this is a massive new intrusion that could lead to far greater tentacles of regulation of the internet than currently exist. one of the most dynamic things about the internet, one of the most phenomenal things about how it has grown has been its lack of regulation, its lack of

excessive taxation. that freedom has caused the internet to become the dominant force in people's lives, the dominant force in the growth of the economy. we don't want to lose that by turning over to a bureaucracy a regulatory process. antitrust laws relate to enforcing laws that are on the books to make sure things are fair. do we need to tweak our laws to adapt to new situations? do we need to make sure our antitrust system is accessible to smaller businesses and individuals, because it can be very expensive to go through that process? that kind of approach of throwing the book at the bad guy as opposed to the government writing massive rules of the road for the internet that the fcc want to undertake is be far better way to go to ensure open access. >> bob goodlatte is the chairman of the house subcommittee on intellectual property.

thank you for being on "the communicator's." >> thank you, peter. >> coming up, a look at state spending. after that, former president jimmy carter talks about his presidency and the situation in the middle east. governor chris christie talks about reducing spending in order to restore fiscal health. later, president obama's remarks on recipients at the -- with the medal of freedom. tomorrow on "washington journal ," gave a look at the piece on the fiscal 2012 budget with michael tanner. also, a discussion on the e- verify system, determining the eligibility of a worker to work in the united states. later, a look at the two political impact from the continuing anti-government protests in the middle east and north africa with ellen laipson

of the simpson center. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> korean-americans to save medicare, to save social security, to make systems work better, we have to change. >> ohio republican and head of the republican study committee jim jordan on spending issues, the tea parties, and president obama's proposed budget. "newsmakers." sunday on c-span, white house budget director jacob -- the white house budget director's report on the 2012 budget policy. here's a portion of the testimony. >> thank you. thank you for being here and your good work. i do appreciate it. what i have a problem with is the budget. it was suggested earlier that

budgets reflect the priorities and values of those that present and. in this case, it is true. this is a case being made by the administration. they want big government, more government. it is -- it doubles the debt in 10 years and it is fiscally irresponsible. the decisions in congress's bond what money we will pull out of pocket to give to somebody else. we continue to talk about investments and other things when we are pulling money from people's pockets to try to give it to somebody else. the most important thing we can do to -- do is allow money to stay in their pocket. it is the american people's money. it is not congress's money. i want to get very specific. this budget is a down payment. it is a downpayment on mortgaging our future. it exacerbates the problem. it does not solve it.

i want to talk about parker testimony on page 6. "to stay on a path toward sustainable deficit," that seems like an oxymoron. we cannot afford anything. we're paying $600 million a day in interest. appreciate it if you could please define for us "sustainable deficit." i think the average american and to me, it does not make sense. we have no sustainable deficit. use a "on the order of 3% of gdp, we make tough choices and across all areas to a dead by more than $1 trillion some savings, 2/3 from savings reductions." where does that other 1/2 come from? i understand it is from tax increases. >> i'm happy to answer all the questions. >> just this last one, please. >> the saving comes from -- a lot of it comes from the provision that would pay for the alternative minimum tax, which would reduce the number of taxes

for household making to and $50,000 and above. >> you have a statement about federal employees' pay freeze. i find that to be disingenuous. when barack obama took office, we have 145,000 additional federal workers. to suggest that pay is being frozen as not an accurate statement. through step increases, for bonuses, through others, we have increased the federal payroll. the budget that is being proposed, when you say "pay freeze," does that mean that expenditures on payroll will go or stay the same >> it meant people will not get a cost-of- living adjustment, a raise from the pay they get right now. >> the line item for going forward, will our total expenditures from the u.s. government, will that go up or will that be the same? >> if we have more people, we will have to pay the people who

we are hiring. for an individual federal worker, they will see their -- >> what i am worried about for the taxpayer is, there expend for federal employees is going to go up, correct? >> i think we want people to work at the airports and check that bombs are not on planes -- >> how many more tsa agent do you need? there are 5000. how many more agents do you need? >> as we put more technology of the reports, we needed to hire people to work that equipment. i can get you in number. >> we have 65,000. how many more people is it going to take? >> it is not worth buying equipment if we don't have people to operate it. >> watch that hearing jacoblew tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this month, visit the public and private basis of america's most recognizable home, the

white house. c-span's documentary provides a look at the history of the presidential residence and takes you through the mansion, the west wing, oval office, and lincoln bedroom, and focuses on the presidents and first families who have most influenced how it looks today. airing in high definition, and updated with interviews with president obama and the first lady, and comments from georgia's laura bush, "the white house," inside america's most famous home, this monday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> do you know why i asked you to come here this evening? we can immediately here from the secretary of state regarding the negotiation that has been going on in europe. >> you can look at this as a historical curiosity or as a forerunner of today's managed news. >> find something you did not know about the 43 men who served as president of the united states in the c-span the

library. thousands of hours of programming all free online. watch what you want when you want. >> now from today "washington journal," a discussion on state spending and dispute with public employees and their unions. this is about 45 minutes. host: for the next 45 men's, we will take a look at what is going on around the united states particularly like to have seen in wisconsin, ohio, and other states when it comes to protesting over concerns about curtailing the bargaining rights communions, and things along that nature. we will have a series of guests joining us on the phone and you can contribute your thoughts as well. let me tell you how you can do so. if you to call in and talk about this topic whether it is wisconsin, ohio, what have you --

journal@cspan.org or @cspanwj on twitter. "state house stalemate." the pictures you see, videos you see as well as concerning this issue going on in the ohio. dennis tashard has been writing about the larger implications -- dennis cauchon has been talking about this. talk about the political undertones of this event. we know the specifics in the debate involved, but water the politics overall and what does this mean in the larger sense for those out here in washington perhaps? caller: politics is driving the whole thing. public employee unions are the largest outside founder of democratic candidates. going after their power as --

has political implications to weaken the entire democratic party and this has escalated to a national competition. host: we have statements by the president, nancy pelosi on this issue, how does it contribute to what is going on at the state level? caller: the political -- guest: the political class has the ability to support larger democratic candidates and it has a larger berber region beyond pension benefits. the implications have environmental issues, abortion issues, because it is about the ability of one political side to compete especially after the citizens united ruling which allows corporate donations and other donations to increase. the plain field has shifted. host: as far as the playing field is concerned and driving

people out to protest at the state capital, how much would you say and that this is a pure grass-roots effort? adding to what we have been hearing about the organization, organizing for america? guest: msnbc and fox news are escalating this to a battle of good versus evil, go out and do your part. grass roots as blurred into the top down control so it is hard to categorize. guest: you wrote about wisconsin. what is happening in ohio? there are protests there as well. guest: the new republican governor is pitching new bills than they have republican control of both houses, so theoretically they could pass this. the reason things are focused on wisconsin is they had the honor of going first. that is now the battle is set.

what is on board about wisconsin is that in the politics, you tend to follow the winner. wisconsin matters for iowa and a whole series of states that may consider various changes. host: people look at wisconsin and they decide the influence on other states and we have a new series about a grant states to consider and the political front? guest: a lot of these are battleground or swing states the republicans stuck in november 2010 -- republicans took in 2010 so this is adding to the conflict. host: what is the likelihood, especially in the wisconsin, as far as this continuing on for a series of weeks as the democratic legislature lets this way? guest: politics is unpredictable. if you look at the dispute, two people could get in the room and

settle this in five minutes. there are other outside implications that have huge unintended consequences the nra difficult to settle. it comes down to a who lost, who won in these various things. it is very important in the next two days that polling will start coming out and we will start to get a sense of how the public is perceiving this. that could be decisive. host: as far as the public is concerned, do you have advice on how the public is taking this in? guest: especially with wisconsin politics, every state has a unique personality. there are dynamics going in different directions. ibis curious to see with the act -- with the public is actually thinking. host: dennis cauchon of "usa

today." pam from new york. we're talking about state budgets and the protests by employee unions. what would you like to add? caller: i support the people in wisconsin and i think this will definitely coming to new york state. of the problem is that we do not have investigative reporters anyone the report, these people are doing. here in my area we do have one. i would to give you a quick example of the largess that is going on. we just found out that for six months last year, the tab for bottled water for our legislators was $200,000. we recently discovered that six new beautiful suvs were purchased for supervisors of prisons to ride around in. eight huge budget deficit, one

old building in downtown albany was rehabed it to the tune of $23 million, seven apartments treated, marble floors, everything else for circuit court judges who spent 66 days in albany. the citizenry has just had enough. the board of directors of our local school once a month as a catered dinner. we keep being asked to sacrifice but we never hear a word about what they are right to sacrifice. host: hard as governor cuomo respond? caller: he is not talking yet. he was surprised about the new vehicles for the prison superintendents. where that goes remains to be seen. we have to apply constant pressure. teachers who are making a chromium 40,000 or $50,000 per year are asked to stand aside

while our legislators ride around like kings. host: do you think you will see the same kind of protests whether it will be in the national news or youtube or something like that? caller: i do and i will be in support of that. host: richmond, calif., on our republican line. caller: i feel for the people in wisconsin. hopefully they keep the unions together. i really, really wish that they would cut their own pay and that the working middle class and the working for have a -- working poor have a fair chance of eating at night. host: dennis, what do they have to do to come out on top for this? guest: they have to get a handful of republican legislators to soften the bill.

the underlying thing that people do not pick up on is a lot of these republican legislators are in the pension system themselves because they made a career in politics, as legislators, district attorneys, or teachers, so there is personal interest. in the bigger picture, more than half of what the state and local government spends is on labor costs. people talk about entitlements that the federal level, but at the state and local level, if you do not control or to -- to draw your labor costs, you cannot control your overall costs are the tax rates which is what makes it tough. host: for those who say that public employees have been seen protesting, what is the scale of what they receive in cash and benefits? how does it compare to the average private industry workers out there?

guest: it is a very controversial issue. for a comparable job, state workers earn a little less and school workers earn a little more in cash pay. effectively, they earned the same as the private sector. the differences in the benefits, pension, health benefits or the average state and local government employee gets about $16,000 in benefits which is about $7,000 more than the private sector. if you look at the governor is really going after, he is going after benefits. host: is this similar to other states we would be seeing like in ohio, possibly new jersey, and other areas? is that is where the action is as far as benefits? guest: yes.

it is the same in ohio. the florida governor wants them to pay 5% of their pension where they pay nothing now. the iowa gov. wants them to pay up to 30% of their health-care costs. ohio wants 20%. it is relatively low in wisconsin. he is asking for cough 0.6%. host: new jersey. we're talking about state unions and the employee union budgets. on caller: this country is a union. if you're going to ruin a union, the first need to do is as a country to do with they did in the egypt, march on washington, sure the idiot republicans that we are tired of them taking over the country and giving the money to the rich. any time the republicans run anything in its take from the poor, give to the rich. now they're taking from social security, medicaid, medicare, the working poor.

unions? where is it going to stop? they should work for minimum wage. they do not do anything. they never helped this country. we end up getting something else stupid in another country. host: ohio on our republican line. caller: i just wanted to say that i dislike very much that our president, who was supposed to be the president of all people, is stepping in on different issues that he should not be stepping into as far as saying and keeping his political issues. to me, i think he is trying to reaffirm his army for his political views. host: dennis cauchon, any read on the president's willingness to step on -- step in on this issue? guest: he talked about it in a

very gentle fashion. it seems like it may have been an assault on unions. speaker of the house has stepped in. he is from ohio. this is engaged in at the national level because of the political overtones we spoke about earlier. host: to get a quorum, you only need one democrat to be willing to take a vote on this thing. guest: that is right. host: any indication that will happen? guest: it is a standoff at the moment. the legislatures of expected back until tuesday. host: dennis caucon writes for "usa today" and is based in ohio. we will continue with our calls as we hear more from the state level on these issues. california on the independent line. go ahead. caller: thank you for c-span.

this is our union. all i can say is, thank you for being there. host: gilbert, ariz., on the republican line. caller: yes, if you look at the in the country as a whole, audio, a teacher unions, etc., a lot of them have almost broken their industries. take the automobile industry as an example. they have crippled the industry so bad that they cannot make a competitive product in this country. the unions in general have a great concept to help the employees, but it has gotten so

out of hand that it takes an act of congress to get rid of someone not doing their job, okay? that is what i have to say about unions. the other part of this, and i do not think anyone is saying anything about this, but if you look back in history, the obama administration has spent so much money, more than its predecessors of combined. this is just the beginning because the money has to come from somewhere. what you're seeing is the ramifications of people having to come up with the body -- with the money to get states back in the black. that is really what i have to say about that. host: the "usa today" talks about the statistics about four private industries and as to get hourly wages. these are for full-time workers.

as far as wages are concerned, the private industry makes $19.68 an hour. the retirement benefits, but cover 74% of workers for private. almost 90% for the public. 99% of workers in state and local governors -- governments get medical benefits. 20% is paid by the employees and 11% only paid for state and local government workers. 90 percent signs of workers get the paid sick leave. four paid holidays come eight days compared to 11 days. for paid holidays, 8 days versus 11. dan simmons is a reporter for "washington state journal." we should be the headline before.

"the state house stalemate. mr. simmons, where are we as of today on this issue? guest: about where we have been. the senate democrats are still on the lam, out of state. there cannot be a vote until they return and the him threaten to set out as long as it takes, even weeks. it is still in limbo. host: the republicans in the legislature have no recourse on these actions and the votes to have to take until democrats come back? guest: exactly. host: we read about the influence of jesse jackson. guest: he was here. he led a rally last night. a couple of national labor leaders came in as well. the basic movement has been

since monday and now the national leaders are coming in, but it is still pretty local. host: your paper reports that they're willing to make some concessions. can you expand on that? guest: the governor asked for three things. to end the union's right to collectively bargain and to increase contributions to health-care and pension. the unions, yesterday and said that they would agree to the second and third of those demands, and to contribute more to their pensions and health care, but they will not give up the right to collectively bargain. the governor responded by saying he is not a budget of the collective and it -- collective bargaining issue. host: talk about the long-term issues. we see teachers at these. is school expected to be out of session after the holidays?

guest: madison schools have been closed the longest of any district in the state. teachers have a plan to be back in the skull by tuesday. -- back in school by tuesday. things may cool down on the protest fraud. host: talk about were the unions are and where meetings there have been amongst each other, meetings with republican government, and talk about the interactions that have been going on. have they been cordial? guest: they have been. these protests have been entirely peaceful. there have not been any real flareups of violence and there is allowed a goal of -- there is not a lot of dialogue. they are issuing statements and

counter statements without any face to face dialogue. host: hang on the line and we will get a few more callers. no carolina on our independent line. go ahead. caller: yes. thank you for c-span. i think they should speak out. most people do have jobs as it is. the government needs to do the budget and the only have five on each side. they should not give the 5% the people's money. we have worked all of our lives in dangerous jobs but we did it to feed our families. all of those jobs are gone and

they talk about when to pull rights to have been done the table and stuff? yes, i do not work for a union, but i think they should speak up for themselves because-- host: tucson, ariz., on our democrat line. caller: we just went for all of this with gabby giffords. one bill she was offering before she got shot was to introduce a bill for all politicians to take a 10% pay cut to show the people they were willing to take a cut as well. i have been asking and asking our republican governor and several leaders here if they would be willing to take pay cuts. i have made numerous phone

calls to our republican governor and have never gotten a reply until i flooded the line. i got a call back yesterday and what their response was that the governor does not and has not taken a pay cut, however personally she donates 2.75% to a charity each year. the employees take demanded furlough day off each year. i truly think that maybe if they had to take a pay cut when we you are having our services taken away, maybe they would use a little different understanding of where they have to cut. i am on social security disability.

i do not have a lot of money. i am terminally ill. do these people not realize that if i collapse and i have to call 911 and go to a hospital that i cannot pay that bill? the american people pay that bill anyways. host: mr. simmons, we have a comment on twitter that the governor has gone to court already and filed the put the teachers go back to work or be fired. any truth to that? guest: not that i have heard of. host: one of the headlines says, "does wisconsin will have a budget crisis?" in give is a sense of the real crisis where the budget is concerned? guest: is a little fuzzy in the details. the two-year budget, clearly they are running a deficit of $3.60 billion.

for the current year budget, which the governor said is the reason for these cuts, it is unclear. it is a projected $121 million surplus for the budget year that ends june 30th of this year. the state has something like to order $58 million in outstanding bills to pay which are not necessarily do this fiscal year but are there for us. that is how the governor is getting this figure of $136 million deficit. is just how you enter the numbers. host: what should we expect the next couple of days from governor scott walker? guest: the story of a counter protests. the same tens of thousands of protesters who have been here all week will continue. today, for the first time, one group standing in support of

gov. walker is staging their own rally at noon. there will be these dueling rallies. on the political front, not much movement is expected. the senate is still in a stalemate and the assembly has adjourned until tuesday. that looks like the focus will shift to the protests. host: is the counterpurchase a true grass-roots effort or are there other efforts at work organizing that? guest: it is being organized by a national conservative groups called americans for prosperity and they are being joined by local tea party groups and other conservative supporters from wisconsin and beyond. host: dan simmons with "the wisconsin state journal."

madison.com is the website. thank you for your time. robert bonner republican line from new york. go ahead. caller: i thought this was supposed to be a separation of church and state. then how come the c.c. church of brooklyn is talking down the unions. i thought this was supposed to be a separation. they choose because the governor and the mayor must have their own way with the people. host: illinois. on our democratic line. go ahead. caller: i belong to uaw.

our company is doing really good. we attend a record profit of $500 million for this quarter. mr. walker came in and cut taxes. that is the real crux of this. we have nothing but a bunch of corporate loans-- loyalists. my father is in hospice. the 16 ounce laxative, the company wants to charge us so much money. if we do not stop these loyalists, they have been systematically chipped in at the union since 1980. our readers have stagnated the last 30 years -- our wages have stagnated while corporate raiders have gone up almost

500%. we need to rally and take up our country back from the corporate loyalists, republicans, and the sarah palin death panels. how many senior citizens are going to die when they do not get their blood thinning medicine? host: chapel hill, tennessee. caller: good morning, pedro, and thank you for c-span. i watch "democracy now!" every day. what i wanted to say about the union's is that the mismanagement of the companies making promises to the union that they cannot keep and on top of that the democrats -- the republicans, i am sorry, actually change the law to read

did not have to have on hand a certain amount of your retirement investment so something did happen you would have that to cover percentage. i think he used to be around 30%. that means that our government is going to destroy something that we absolutely needed years ago when they were abusing children and murderers. wal-mart is forcing the people work off of the clock and nothing is being done. they're trying to organize, but they just threaten them with their job. we have such a bad economy like we do, of course they will not try to unionize. americans, wake up. do not be foolish like some of these people i have heard on here. host: nashville, tennessee. go ahead. caller: morning. my comment is i was in the private sector and it worked for a non-profit hospital.

i do not have a pension. i am now on social security. i have not worked for the last year. host: just keep going. caller: with the teachers do not realize is how well off and have had it in terms of -- they say they only make $40,000 per year or whenever, but they chose a degree where they have summers off, after holidays, etc. i do not begrudge them their benefits, but it is time to step back. the people in the private sector are being ravaged to support these benefits and the states are too broke to provide them anymore.

from a person who is in the private sector with than a pension -- without a pension and living on social security for the last 12 years i did not even have a job that had a pension plan or even an option. host: we have jim siegel from the "columbus dispatch." what has been the latest on negotiations in collective bargaining? guest: we are not as far along yet as wisconsin is, but we are quickly getting there. right now, the bill is in the ohio senate. there are holding hearings on a weekly basis. this bill goes further than with the wisconsin bill would do. it eliminates collective bargaining but would affect all public workers including police,

fire, highway patrol, troopers, and others. there is some negotiating going on between some of the police and fire unions and some of the republican leaders who are pushing this. we're still in a stage where there is a lot of protests and there are growing with each bill hearing. we're not quite to the 25,000 level you saw in wisconsin, but the numbers are doubling without ever hearing. we had 3500 at the state passed this week and it is only expected to get more intense as this continues to move and there is the expectation that the senate will move on this within the next two or three weeks. host: as far as protesting, do you expect anything today? guest: there was some talk about maybe a rally on monday, presidents day. i do not think there is anything happening today and there will be another hearing scheduled

next week. when that happens, the unions say they will be out in force again. the first hearing, there is 800 people. the second hearing, over a thousand. -- over 1000. this past week, 3500. host: why are you seeing some progress from the two sides that we have not made be seen in other states like wisconsin? guest: i'm not sure how much progress is being made. there are talks going on. the teachers have not yet been engaged. i'm not sure, but i will say there has been some signs from a number of erpublican -- republican senators. they have problems getting rid

of binding arbitration. there are pieces that would affect the teacher's ability to strike. they have a majority. we counted 7 or 8 sentaors who -- senators who have varying degrees of concern. host: the influence of ted strickland making statem ents. has that influenced anyone at all." guest: i do not think of as much effect on the process.

i do not think the governor puts a lot of stock in the statements made by the man he defeated in november. gov. strickland had a hard time getting sway with republican senate when he was governor. host: for people not falling close enough, what is the fiscal condition of ohio and gov. kasich's reasoning? guest: our budget ends june 30th. we are fine. we are running a bit of a surplus. the problem is the next two-year budget. there is an estimated $800 million deficit. we will see how the governor deals with that two-year budget, but the governor and senate leaders reporting this bill have made it clear that collective bargaining is not an issue that they are trying to use to deal

with the two-year budget problem. they admit that it would have little effect on the short term. there pushing this as more of a long-term issue to stop the ramp up of salaries, benefits that we have seen that there are you are unsustainable. the unions argue that they have made a lot of concessions in the last few years that the economy turned down and that they show this is not necessary. host: ohio. republican line. caller: one thing jim siegel has not mentioned is the backdrop the governor has done. when he was sworn in, he wanted to have a private swearing in as his house. that sounds bizarre, but he did. it was only the outcry and the press and public that stopped it. when he announced his cabinet, 17 members, there was not one african-american in the group.

an outcry came from that and then he pointed the child and family protection services program. he spoke before the environmental protection agency group and called the policeman who stopped him for a traffic ticket "an idiot." he had been state comptroller come in and apologize. host: when is the relevance to what is going on currently? caller: it puts a bad taste in the working class's mouth to see him disrespecting working people. he is paying is chief of staff more than the president of the united states, more than the chief of staff in washington. host: a lot of claims there, mr. siegel. how would you respond? guest: gov. kasich has had some self inflicted wounds

it has added fuel to the raging debate. i would argue that the extent they are trying to go to probably did not need much fuel. this is an epic battle. there is no doubt. the gov. has said regardless of what the senate does, that he may end up putting it into his budget next month which will not make democrats here in the state happy. host: jim siegel from "the columbus dispatch." thank you for your time. a few more callers. georgia on our democratic line.

caller: these people in wisconsin are hard-working people. i am a senior citizen. i worked all my life. i have no teachers in my family, but i think it is terrible that he is trying to take their rights of these hard-working people. they have college educations. what did they expect them to work for? i did not know, but i do not think walker even has a college education. host: next call from ohio. caller: i know when a formation the guy from cleveland and the guy from the "columbus dispatch" was coming from but he does not pay his chief of staff ordered thousand dollars per year. that is a lie. we have teacher -- does not pay his chief of staff $400,000 per year.

we have teacher union to make 40% of their pay after they retire. that came directly from the state department of education. we have a small town here that has maybe 16,000 people. if the unions were to have their way about the upcoming this town would have been almost $300 million in debt. we cannot afford this. we had state workers that make $25-$35 per air our -- per hour. from let's get the input one more person on the ground. during renshaw, reporter for "the state ledger." mr. renshaw, can you paint the picture of what is going on in your state economically and the

topics of collective bargaining in have the two merged together? guest: new jersey has seen at weak revenues. the have seen a lot of controversy over public pensions, health benefits, and christie has made reform the top of his agenda. you have seen him pushing real hard on pension reform, health benefit reform. you have a democratic legislature here who does not agree with his pension reform, but there has been common ground on the health benefit reform, particularly in the areas of having public employees taking more and to cover their benefits. there is momentum to do something on that end, less on the pension side, and a budget deficit that he has to close.

host: what is the governor seen being done in terms of the pension side? caller: he would like to change the way they are calculated to broaden, for instance, you'd like to see the three-year move go to five-year and he thinks it would reduce the annual pension employees will receive and he wants to increase the retirement age. he believes those things will decrease their unfunded liability which stands among the highest in the country. host: what has been the response from the unions? guest: as you can imagine, they are not happy. other questions about whether to be done at the bargaining table or at trenton through legislation. christie is prepared to go either way. he is currently negotiating with

all state workers. he has the a vintage -- he has the advantage of perhaps getting in at the bargaining table. he has a second avenue rather could be some legislation or he could do the reforms. unions here think that these types of issues are best left to collective bargaining. host: as far as the influence of other states, do the state's stake in was going on in other states as far as this is concerned? does it make any sway in the decision that has to remain by your governor? guest: very much so in the sense that every lawmaker is up for reelection this year. 120 in the assembly, for the in the senate, so they will be running on something. there is a lot of momentum for these types of reforms. he is 9 the public argument and

is widely popular in new jersey and across the country. presumably, there is a link between his poll ratings in this tough talk on reform. how that plays out this summer and during the campaign and across the country, i think everyone is aware of the national debate in the debate statewide. they will be watching him. host: jarretttt >> a look at the national review magazine piece on the fiscal 2012 budget with michael tanner. also, a discussion on the e- verify system that determines

the eligibility of an employee to work in the u.s.. later, a look at the two political impact from the continuing and ago amid protests in the little -- natalie -- middle east and north africa. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. donald rums felt was the youngest and oldest person to serve as u.s. defense secretary. >> if you have proximity to a president, you have an obligation to tell them the truth and what you really believe. proximity don't have and see him occasionally simply don't want to do it. >> sunday, he will discuss this philosophy of presidential staff leadership, the process of writing his memoirs, and address some of the book "a critical and positive reviews. on c-span's "q&a." >> it is all presidents during

this holiday weekend on "american history -- >> " on c-span3. there's more live programming monday as journalists, friends, and associates of jfk talk about his place in history, lessons he learned, and his applet -- and their application to a. we will show talks with president jimmy carter and george h. w. bush. american history tv on c-span3. for a complete schedule, go to c-span.org/history. you are watching c-span, bringing politics and public affairs. every morning, "washington journal," about the news of the day, connecting new with officials, policymakers, and journalists. watch live coverage of the u.s. house. weeknights, policy forms. supreme court's oral arguments. on the weekend, see our signature interview programs. on saturdays, "the communicator's." communicator's."