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tv   [untitled]    August 2, 2011 7:54am-8:24am EDT

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how concerned are you if this super committee does not come up with a deal? the pentagon has said they were struggling to find 400 billion from their budget to cut under the president's guidelines. what do you make of this? guest: we have to be careful in the way that this gets done. i think because of the wars, people needed to spend a lot of money to make sure our troops were safe and make sure we were providing the best weapons systems. i also think that when you do not have constraints, sometimes you engage in contracts in the end that is not the best. we need to make the best decisions possible.
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those that work to procure those contracts have to be very careful. they need to be certain that no money is being spent inappropriately. there is some fat that can be cut. what happened with the personnel budget? i am on one committee. the men and women in this country that sacrifice, i included their families with that of the time, needed to know the country is behind them when hundred 50%. it is really important. it is really important. in that area, -- there were afraid that they might not get paid over the next few weeks. that is not acceptable. we can work with the budget. we have to be careful and may
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find it is better not to make all of those cuts. that we can do things that will not create the kinds of problems that it might. we are the largest and the best military in the world. we have tremendous people that lead our country in that regard. host: republican, louisiana. caller: i think the debt deal is great. it is a small step, however. if we are spending more than we make in, congress will have to be included.
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i am a republican. i do not believe in taxes, but they will have to be included. guest: we have well-to-do people of around the country that have done extremely well with the american economy. they are willing to do more of their part, and yet we are protecting them from doing that. we need to have a really open discussion about tax reform in this country. how can we close of these loopholes that benefit very wealthy individuals? it is on a whole range of issues. qassam enjoy the benefits of tax loopholes. it needs to change for companies in the people and be done in a fair way for them so they can
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still prosper and to those that are most vulnerable in this country should not carry the burden on this. it means slashing programs -- it should not mean slashing programs that we all depend on in this country. we have to look at our state and local governments as well. if we cut back tremendously, and they have to cut back, -- you have many people working in the public sector that need to make the contributions that they make to our economy as well. they want to do that and are performing into doing a great job. our law enforcement, teachers. we need to take another look at what is involved and make sure we are not harming the people throughout this country.
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host: secretary geithner nemade a statement and fears there will be some damage by this spectacle. last phone call for the congresswoman here. california. caller: this is a case on the wars on health care, the debt ceiling. [unintelligible] guest: i think the president has some priorities. he has been talking about it. as a democrat, i would hope he would support. we have a long history of supporting social safety net for people. nobody wants to see medicare dismantled. i do not want to do that.
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if we go to a whole different way of spending the program, it can hurt seniors in this country and heard their families as well. we have to be very cognizant of that and make adjustments down the line. we have to make sure we preserve that. host: thanks forthe conversatioh congressman. up next is louie gohmert of texas. first a news update from c-span radio. >> more about timothy geithner's remarks on abc news. when asked if he thought the credit rating of the country would be lowered, he said, it is not my judgment to make. mike mullen speaking to reporters in baghdad said that american troops must be given protection from legal prosecution as part of any agreement to keep them in iraq
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beyond the end of the year. iraq's president and prime minister had agreed to consider that are -- that, but the parliament is leery of extending u.s. troop presence past the current deadline. the federal government wants to keep track of who has ammonium nitrate. that is the chemical used in a fertilizer bomb that blew up the federal city of oklahoma city building and used in the bombed in norway. under this proposal, anyone selling or transferring at least 25 pounds of chemicals would have to register with the government and be screened against u.s. terror of watchless. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> every weekend it is american history tv on c-span3. telling the americans corporatewatch personal interviews about historic events on "oral history." some of the best known history
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writers. revisit key figures, battles, and events during the 150th anniversary of the civil war. as a college classrooms across the country during lectures in history. go behind the scenes at museums and historic sites on "american artifacts." "the presidency" looks at past american presidents. they are complete schedule at c- span.org/history and it e-mailed overtime you. >> you are watching c-span, bringing you politics and public affairs. every morning it is "washington journal," our live call-in program about the news of the day, connecting you with elected officials, policymakers, and journalists. weekdays, watch live coverage of the u.s. house, and on weeknights, congressional hearings and policy forums. also supreme court oral arguments. on the weekends, you can see our signature interview programs. on saturdays, "the communicators," and on sundays, "newsmakers," "q&a," and prime minister's questions from the british house of commons. you can also watch our programming any time at
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c-span.org, and it is all searchable at our c-span video library. c-span -- washington your way, a public service created by america's cable companies. america's cable companies. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we're back with congressman louie gohmert, republican of texas, who voted no last night. guest: because i read the bill. in reading the bill, i found a number things i had problems with. you can see that i have highlighted and notes in the margins. i like pell grants but i was surprised that we added $10 billion to pell grants. cost cutting, i guess someone had not heard of that. you go through on page 14 and page 15 here, you see that there
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are no cost cuttings. there are increases every year. you look over at page 44-46, and there is no cost cutting. " we pay increases. that is not really savings. host: why did the cbo market as savings? guest: good savings. we have automatic increases. our baseline moves every year. it is one of the dirty little secrets in washington. when we say we are making a cut, we can actually decrease the amount of increase. host: that was originally on the table. guest: is automatic. 1974, and we did some research on when the automatic increases start? 1974. that was the year that cbo was created and that the cbo's rules were put in place so that they could say it decreased to an
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increase was a decrease. nobody else words like that, greta. there is not up family or a charity evening that does a decrease from the increase even though it is still increasing as a decrease. nobody does that but we do. this is too serious problem not to deal with the problem realistically. and also if legislation would cap spending by a congress, gramm-rudman would have worked. it did not. there are other places. if you want to get around caps in this bill, there is one way that does that -- emergency. and 2010, we even had some massive spending that was called emergency even though it was for
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census. we of known every 10 years since the country was created we would have a census. we call that emergency. so the balanced budget amendment, it was the only way that we would ever be able to restrain a congress, they could not restrain itself. so on friday, when speaker boehner changed his bill from thursday, made it a whole new bill on friday, added a requirement that a balanced budget amendment passed both house and senate, then that was a game changer. that would change the future and ensure that there would be a future for other generations. it was obvious. i would of thought before 2001 republicans would restrain spending. we do not need a balanced budget
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amendment. but when we went from have a democratic president and republican congress, that was the only way we got a balanced budget. to the friction between those two actually allowed us to get the balanced budget. in 2001, republicans showed they had the same problem that democrats did, when they had the white house, and the house, and the senate. there is a giddiness. i am not a fan of stalin but he had won why is line. with power, in this. -- dizziness. there was some dizziness and republicans started over spending. in 2006, our last year in the majority, the democrats rightfully be up on republicans because we were overspending. we overspent $160 billion. and they were beating up on us
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on the floor and they were right in doing so. we had no business overspending the amount we were bringing of by hundred $60 billion. who knew that five years later we would doing 10 times that much in deficit spending? i got here in 2005 and became very apparent we need a balanced budget amendment, whether republicans or democrats in power at the time. that is a game changer, but even that, that was not enough to cause me to vote for the bill on friday. host: boehner's plan. guest: he had been telling us all week that this was the bill that he would negotiate on friday and saturday night and through the week before with harry reid. harry reid was saying they do not have that but boehner said he had negotiated over the weekend with him.
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and it turned out it was not much difference in the bill thursday, monday through thursday, and the one yesterday. it look like the one harry reid really had. host: when did you get the opportunity to read this final debt deal pew project approved last night? guest: that would of been a 1:45 a.m. that when online. host: monday morning. guest: we are voting on monday. that was disappointing because we had assured a year ago we're going to be reading the bills that you give us, we will take three days, and give america a chance to read the bill. it will be up online. our leadership said, this is not much difference in the bill on thursday. people needed a chance to see that. we had already been hearing last week that august 2nd really was not the drop dead date.
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it did move beyond that. i knew that it would and i knew that even when it was not moved, that august 2nd could come and unless 10 geithner wanted to make clear that he was the worst secretary of the treasury in history, he was going to pay the bills as they came to you. there was money to pay them. $20 billion, and we had 10 times that much coming anin. and also assets from tarp, on hundred billion dollars left from the stimulus. there was no reason not to pay the bills. host: but democratic caller from long beach, california. thank you for waiting, gloria. caller: a few callers back, you had someone who had a list of the things that he wanted to see. he sent them in an e-mail. i'll look for it and try to get to it because it came tamed a lot of things that is congressman and all the rest of
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the congressmen should think. we the people are awake and we are watching. i am blind, i am 66 years old, and my social security is one of the things that was on the line. it had me so stressed out the last two months. i'm really much worse off than not what i was. it amazes me that congress people can think about cutting and the people they cannot afford -- i cannot afford -- i would be in the street in september if i did not get my check, august 3. guest: and there was no thought of cutting, no chance. i understand how the situation you're in, and i have tremendous admiration for you, just hearing you on the phone. but that was one of the things that absolutely infuriated me.
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social security has $2.6 trillion in treasury notes and by law that has to be separate. you're going to get your check no matter what. that is what was so infuriating to me, to try to scare people into getting congress -- we need to make cuts, very serious cuts, but it sure was not to you. it was not to anyone on social security. if we have a commitment to you and i believe with all my heart in making and keeping commitments. there are a lot of things that we could have cut. the department of energy has been reducing our dependence on foreign energy gamma and every year of its existence, we become more and more dependent. cut the department of energy. there are a number are things we could have entered we do not have to pay people in other countries to hate us. they will do it for free. i have a bill that would say anyone who votes against the
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u.s. in the un more than half of the time is no financial assistance. why should we pay people to hate us when we have people like you, gloria, who have been promised their social security? we have made our commitment and we need to keep it. there was $2.6 trillion in the social security trust fund in treasury notes. that money would have come to you. there have been two other times, 1989 and 1986, when did -- when we did not have enough cash on hand to write all the checks. on both of those occasions, they made sure that we kept our commitment to social security and all they had to do a sell- off some of the treasury notes, and by law that cash can only go for social security. so there was never a chance that the social security checks were not going to go out. never a chance they would be caput. i thought it was reprehensible
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and i am so sorry, gloria, i mean it for all my heart. you should never have had the fear for a second. the money is there any could not be used for anything else. to have people like you scared about getting your checks, i thought was reprehensible. you should never have had the word. and please do not worry for the future. host: here is a tweet. guest: i guess i mentioned a couple already buried the department of energy, giving up. the department of interior used to do the leases. we had a mammoth bureaucracy appear that is help us become more energy dependent on foreign oil and foreign energy every year. it is time to get rid of things like that. no one is going to suffer. if you eliminated the department of energy, there would be a lot more jobs created in the private
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sector. that is a great place to start. this bill does have a committee in here of 12 people who are going to be appointed by the two leaders in the senate and the two in the house. they are supposed to come back with proposals for cuts or raising taxes, what ever they said. if we do not adopt what they say, one of my concerns, we put this nation security on the line. we're going to cut our defense by hundreds of billions of dollars. in other words, we are gambling with our own security in this bill. and our leadership, i know what they've mean, but i do not think they can guarantee. even though we promised to decimate our military -- our security in this bill, if we do not vote for what the committee says are we do not rain are spending again, we're not going
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to let that happen. it is in the bill. there is nobody that can guarantee that. i just think it would be like a city stayed back in the ancient days saying, we are in a bind and so we're going to put out here on the poker table that we will tear down half of our wall around the city, making us completely vulnerable if we do not do what we said. you do not do that. host: let me ask you about the joint committee. they have to come up with recommendations by december 3. they vote with no amendments and no delays. if speaker boehner does not appoint somebody like yourself who is out for a balanced a bunch of amendments -- guest: that chance, for me? i had one committee chairman of laughing at me. i'm going to try to get them to
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recreate the merchant marine -- an archaic subcommittee, because we have no merchant marines and more -- that is the only change you will ever have of being a committee chairman. i am not going to be on their, i am a troublemaker. host: someone like yourself who wanted a balanced budget amendment or t party caucus member. what tool do you have to get your argument heard? guest: the american people. will have to educate the american people on what is going on. because of the internet and the ability to travel, i will have to try to keep the american people informed. to have them and not -- them put enough pressure on the congress that they either do the right thing or they are out of office, november. host: when the speaker talked to the gop conchas, did he indicate
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to the might put on the joint committee? guest: no, he said it would be people -- he said this publicly. we don't talk about what was said in conference, but he said publicly that it would be people that will be -- we will be proud have on there. so i do not know. guest: a republican in seattle, washington. caller: a quick question about the pensions and the unfunded liabilities. but i wanted to mention gloria is truly disabled. maybe if the whistleblower at could be extended so that americans could turn in their neighbors or fraudulent on disability? i live in a small rv park. there are fraudulent disability people here. one person says that he has heart problems, but he keeps every day.
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another girl has a back problem and is bipolar. she sells marijuana part-time and buys new cars. our government needs to clamp down on disability. there's so many vampires in the social security system. guest: he makes a good point. one of the things that is about to put social security where there is more money going out and coming in, but we are good -- even if congress did nothing for three years, if what time did not come in, for three years every social security recipient is good. one problem, it is not going out just for the social security pension payments as it is supposed to. we have added on to social security so many different payments like glenn is talking about. that is overwhelming social security. i pushed back in 2005 for a bill
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that for the first time in the 1930's, every time a but it comes into social security payroll tax would go in as cash to draw interest or dividends in the social security trust fund. never had has come in. and go spendiou it. in texas, you get four times more than you do on social security. we could cut out people that are cutting social security checks where it is really not social security. then we could deal with that issue. a number people have proposed this. heritage is done tremendous work. we hide so much in the whale welfare and disability payments, all through the budget. people do not realize -- 7% of
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one budget is food stamps. if we could take every bit of welfare and put it in a welfare committee, then you would see that there are 85 different groups that will buy a 20-seat vanity's town and carry three people to take care of their issues. we could consolidate that and save hundreds of billions. until we bring that together -- at heritage, they had a chart that showed all the welfare, when you pull it from all the different budgets and put it together, and that chart went through 2008. and ask for a copy of the chart to bring it through 2010. he said, to you not understand? you hide all the redundancies' through some many budgets, it takes me two years to find it all. if we get it all out in the open, we could do what he was
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proposing, cut out the redundancy, find the fraud so that people like gloria to should never have to worry a second, never have to worry again. caller: i have three quick points i am glad that you brought up the food stamp issues. here in cleveland, they caught me by surprise a couple of weeks ago when a lady was paying for groceries and when she handed the card to the cashier, she said, is that george bush credit card. i think that you should be very happy. it is the one thing that we could see that george bush did. the republicans coming to talk about cut and spending. how much did you spend, and the billions did you give the big oil last month? guest: i appreciate you saying that. the answer to your question, loretta, despite all their rhetoric in washington, the
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answer, the billions did we give last month the big oil? the answer is $0. not one dime. we're big oil is their money is from the sale of gasoline, diesel, and oil products. it is one of the big fallacy's people talk about, all the money we are giving to them, all the subsidies. they do not get subsidies. they get tax deductions. they get to deduct the cost of doing business from their profits for tax purposes. so they do not get subsidies. we do not give them one dime. in fact, they pay more in income tax than most any other industry areas. but it is a deduction. every other industry that exists gets to deduct the cost of their doing business, the

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