at it to illustrate the economic state of the nation. "washington journal" is next. host: good morning. it's friday, august 3, 2012. you're watching washington journal. congress is adjourned, sort of. a host of unfinished business. talking to you about it and often used phrase about congress kicking the can down the road. we want to talk to you about why you think this happens. is this particular to this congress or something congress has been doing for awhile? and what have been the consequences of this? the phone lines are open for

republicans, democrats, and independents. as always, you can tweet, e- mail, or post on facebook. why does congress kicked the can down the road? good friday morning. harry truman 60 years ago coined the phrase "the do nothing congress" as he was campaigning for his bid to the white house. this year a favorite metaphor seems to be "kicking the can down the road." both sides are using it. [video clip] >> the house is going to pass a one-year extension of current policies. they want to buy some time, kicked the can down the road. now it's time for the house to do its job. >> let's start actually paying for things in the years in which we are going to spend the money

and let's not kick the can down the road. >> what's happening today is that this kicked the can down the road initiative bill is costing jobs. >> the national debt now tops $15.30 trillion. where is his vision for how to repair all of this? he could of outlined in his budget commission, yet the president did nothing more than kick the can down the road again. host: there you have it. both houses and both parties accusing the other of kicking the can down the road. our question, why do you think this happens and what is your view as we get closer to making a decision awho to vote for in the november election? stephen sloan is on the line with us. he is new to "politico."

thanks for being with us. guest: thank you. host: congress could not quite decide on taking a break this month. tell us what happened about the recess resolution. guest: they do this often when they technically have a pro- forma session to make sure that they cannot have recess appointments. host: >> that was because of a house resolution yesterday, the resolution to take a recess. they cannot even quite agree on a. process for the house will be back in pro- forma session beginning this morning. they put forward a schedule yesterday of their several several days meetings throughout september and after the convention. "punting" was the headline

yesterday, mostly dealing with tax reform. give us a recap of major pieces of legislation that congress has decided for an interim solution because they cannot take on the big picture. guest: house speaker john boehner and senate leader harry reid decided to do a short-term spending bill that keeps the government funded through march. that does not set up house spending policy will go for the country long term. the top democrat and the top republican on the senate planning committee agreed on an extension to halt temporary tax breaks. [fuzzy audio line to guest]

the senate voted last week to extend tax cuts for people making less than $200,000 or married couples making $250,000, through 2013. temporary measures. measures. host-- temporary measures all floating around. they cannot come together on what the long-term solution is and how to pay for it or whether to pay for it. the idea especially among house republicans is we cannot continue what we have, so let's continue the current rates for the bush tax cuts through 2013, give us your breathing room, then we will come together and

do a tax reform package and then we will not have to deal with this at the end of every year. host: is there a concern among some people about putting major pieces of legislation before lame-duck congress? guest: that's always a concern, but the bigger issues are figuring out the most controversial aspects of the policies, how to pay for them, and the big issues surrounding tax reform. host: an inability to find a solution on both sides. thanks for joining us this morning. let's get to our phone calls from viewers about this. we begin with pennsylvania, john, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. i believe both paies kicked

the can down the road. right before or after the election we will have the debt ceiling debate again. how much money can the u.s. spend and how much is it taking in. the democrats have kicked the can down the road for decades. voters need to hold congressmen responsible for this and replace many of them. there's a 2% turnover in congress. we need a 50% turnover so they can -- the can does not continue to get kicked down the road. this has been going on for decades, including in my own party. i hope they replaced the people that are taking it down the road. host: banks. we posted this on facebook as well so you can be part of the conversation. here is the flavor of some of the early posts -- och

next is silver spring, maryland, ann is a democrat. caller: thank you for c-span. i want to give an example. two minutes ago on c-span i heard john boehner say that the congress can work and get done things everybody agrees on. everybody does agree on that the tax cuts for the majority of americans should be extended. the richest will get tax cuts in that. really it's all americans. the first $250,000 will get tax cuts. but the spirit of refusing to compromise somehow the refusal

of compromise has gotten equated with integrity. the founders intended for people to argue things out. if you go back to the constitutional convention, people felt passionately about things and they had to compromise. we can compromise, but it's not happening. i don't think it's a question of the voters. i think it is so many people have gotten turned off by all of this that they are not voting at all. i would like to make a pitch for voter registration. i don't care who you are going to vote for, but every eligible american, if they voted, we would have a better system. host: thank you. on twitter --

congress has an approval rate of 12%, an historical low. what is an independent, you are on the air. .- laura is o an is caller: i started as a democrat and then republican and now i am independent, because it does not feel like they are representing the people. it is like a husband and wife that keep fighting and the kids are in the middle. that is how i feel. maybe we really do need a third party so that there can be some middle of the road. either that or maybe the politicians need to go to school once they are elected and learn the art of compromise. host: thank you. next is a trenton, michigan, arlne, a democrat.

caller: thanks for taking my call. the problem we have in congress is that they made up their mind on the night of the inauguration that everything was going to be completely against anything obama presented, anything the democrats wanted was going to be taken out of context, twisted, turned. they added all kinds of stupidity to every bill they presented to the president, even after he said he would not sign them. congress has taken 15 or 20 vacations already this year. they are never where they are supposed to be. they spent -- i don't know how many hours john boehner spent on the house floor demanding that we put statues of whomever in there that did not even have anything to do with the united states. there were englishmen.

we are a way past world war ii. i have a problem with all the republican governors creating roadblocks to voters. when they start eliminating democrats in order to take over the country, there's something wrong with the voters. in this voters they need to understand that it's not working when they are too worried about who is dancing with what star, yet they don't have any concern over the government's taking money out of their pockets or putting them out of their homes. we have women and children in metropolitan detroit living under bridges in cardboard boxes. that is not america. that is not what we voted these people into office to do. , total uselesse

congress. that means voters have to get out and vote. i don't know about anybody else's area, but in my area, anybody that does not a proper id, i am more than willing to get them where they need to go, if i can afford to put up the money to get their voter registration, i will put up the money. host: banks. -- thanks. the new york times lead headline -- house john in north carolina has this

to say, "far better this being kicked down the road than taxes be picked up the road." next is a call from new jersey, bill, a republican. caller: good morning. the reason there's the concept of kicking the can down the road is we have a bunch of career politicians interested in their own political fortunes more so than the fortunes of the

american public that they should be serving. the solution at is to amend the constitution via constitutional convention to limit all the senators and representatives and perhaps even the president and even theto one-term -- even the president and vice-president to one term. we would replace these career politicians with citizen legislators. host: thank you. rob on facebook, "all congress has to do is what it excels at -- nothing."

hill the martin on facebook -- hilda -- next is a call from wisconsin, ron is a democrat. caller: i agree. our government is dysfunctional and does not answer to the populace any longer permitted only answer to big business and the military complex, which, unfortunately, puts them into office with their huge contributions that we don't even know where it's coming from many more. i think for them to leave

washington on a vacation that was more out of tradition than anything else with all the work that has been done, they should be fired. they should all be fired. it just seems like congress, the last congress was elected to bring jobs to this country. what have they done? they try to establish more of their social right-wing agenda. we need a new declaration of independence. thank you. host: thanks for watching. jonesboro, arkansas, byron is an independent, good morning. caller: good morning and welcome to arkansas. we recently had a debate here, one of our new young congress people and arguing over a defending bill and the farm bill. congress, the whole government,

we have to have spending cuts across the board. it does not matter whether you are getting hud, food stamps, farm subsidies, corporate welfare benefits, it has to stop. the only reason congress and will not do anything is because we are selfish. you can cut anybody's checks but mine. we are going to reach the tipping point where every check is going to be cut to zero. but we have to start cutting across the board. we can say absolutely no increases in spending. next year we go to 2%, and 3%, 5%. tax increases are not the answer. the problem is too many of us are taking money. host: the that include cutting defense spending?

caller: yes, everything across the board. there is waste in every area. host: are you a fan of the sequestration process, the automatic spending cuts that would kick in if congress does not act? caller: i would be a fan if it included cutting congress' salary to zero. if they are not doing their job, they should not be getting paid. their job is not to is not-- it is against the law for me to say i will give you $100 to vote for me. but it is legal that says if you vote for me i will give you $100 of government money. host:mike posted this on twitter -- next is albany, new york, jim, a republican. caller: good morning, c-span.

i think this kicking of the cans started when john boehner and the other fellow said that they would take the president down no matter what. i think that it is just -- i just feel that this started when they came out with this. all they are doing is stonewalling and just try to disrupt the government. i am very disappointed in my party. it was mitch mcconnell that started this whole mess. i wish that somehow they could come up with a list of all the people who signed on to do this. i think the reason is they just cannot stand to have a man of color as president that is smarter than they are.

that is what i think. thank you very much. host: thank you. albany. bud on twitter -- on the phone with us is a senate historian. don richey, we referenced that six years ago harry truman coined the phrase the do nothing congress. -- 60 years ago. can you tell us how this congress might be fairing with the amount of legislative work it's doing and the whole issue of compromise to move legislation forward? guest: it's not unusual when one house of congress is controlled by one party and the other half is controlled by the other party that it's not particularly productive.

individually, the house and senate have passed a lot of bills. the only trouble is the constitution requires a half to be passed by both houses in exactly the same formica. the parties disagree with each other strongly on these issues, so there has not been any consensus or compromise. when we have had a productive congresses, there's usually been one party in control of both houses and the same in the presidency. exception is when there's a real crisis, a perceived crisis by everybody. then you get a consensus born of extreme necessity. a good example is 2001 when the democrats control the senate, republicans controlled the house, and they came together after september 11 to pass legislation to support the president. host: is there any chance that you find popular metaphors and are able to trace the source?

such as kicking the can? guest: a lot of kicking the can congressgo going on in for quite awhile. they have had a lot of lame-duck sessions to deal with the things they did not want to deal with before the election. i don't know when that particular expression began. in the last generation it has been very popular for describing. punting is another way they have talked about the issue. and gridlock. things being boggled up. our system was never designed to be efficient. we have a peculiar congressional system in which one house, everybody stands for election every three years. they very much reflect whatever the current thinking is. but the authors of the constitution had wide swings back and forth, so they

cushioned the senate's only one- third of the senators run. that means today two thirds of the senate were elected in 2006, 2008, when third elected in 2010. you always have resistance to sudden changes coming up from the house of representatives. host: as to the lame-duck session, how often has it happened in the modern era? guest: quite a few. people have to monaghan's from time to time and said no more. when tip o'neill was speaker, if it was a very unproductive lame- duck session in 1982. he said as long as i'm speaker there will never be another one. we have had a number of lame duck sessions since then. sometimes they are not very productive, but sometimes they are. in 1980 after ronald reagan had been elected and defeated jimmy carter, there was a coming together on the alaska lands

bill. that was passed during a lame- duck session in part because the election suggested that this was the best they were going to get on the issue. sometimes elections forced one side to adjust its positions. host: some critics of the senate point to what has become essentially an automatic filibuster and a 60 vote threshold needed for any legislation to move forward. there's been discussion about filibuster reform. bring us up to speed on when the current system became currency? guest: 1975 the filibuster was changed from two thirds to three fifth with the idea it would make it easier to stop a filibuster. what it did was to make it more likely majority leaders would file cloture motions stand minority leaders would look for 41 votes to stop them.

that tactic has been increasing steadily, particularly starting in the late-1980s. it has increased to the point where there's a cloture vote on every motion to proceed. 60 votes, started out as a reform, has now become seen as an obstruction. the interesting fact is it's not a republican position or democratic position. it is a majority party decision and a minority party position. both parties have argued on both sides of this issue, depending on whether they were in the majority or the minority. for the majority, it's frustrating, because they have 51 votes, but they can never get to cast those votes. for the minority, they say this is the opportunity to stop us from being steamrolled and to make sure our voice is heard in the process as well. two different sides. the question is whether or not they will be able to reach

consensus and common ground on any reforms. host: don adding historical perspective to our contemporary kicking then about pic can down the road. thanks for joining us. guest: my pleasure. host: we will go back to your comments, your thoughts about the politics of the expression and whether it will affect your votes in november and what you think the outcome of it might be for legislation that matters to you. a couple things on the front page of the washington post, three stories of interest --

next up is abilene, texas. diane is on the air. caller: good morning. i think they kicked the can down the road because they are too concerned with having all the power. they keep trying to have the presidency, the house, and a filibuster-proof senate so one side can have their whole agenda. then they think if they could

just do that, the public would love them and support them. are afraid of giving praise to the other side, so they will not support anything no matter how reasonable or how good it is. it just seems like a no-brainer, but they will not support it if it gives praise to the party that's in power. the democrats have two thirds, the presidency and the senate. of course, there really don't have power in the senate because of the filibuster. i just think they do not want to take any blame for anything and they don't want to give praise to the other side, so they think if they could just get all that power and run their agenda and that everybody would see the error of their ways and come to the other side. they don't want to cooperate in any way with each other no

matter how reasonable the needs of the country are. i do support the president. i think he has done a wonderful job. i will support him again. it's a wonderful man and he has done many good things that i wished he and the people speaking for him would get out into the public. a lot of people forget what he has done. so many tax breaks for the average person, but they don't even know about it. not even aware. they kick the can down the road because they don't -- they just keep seeking full power. that's all they want and they don't want anything to get in the way of that as far as cooperating with the other side. host: this from our twitter

community -- two campaign finance stories this morning -- also in the new york times --

next is a call from lancaster, pennsylvania, and don, an independent. caller: i was born when truman was in office and i have never seen anything that even approaches this amount of dysfunction in the congress. it gives credence to the idea that we must get a 28 amendment that takes the money out of elections, because these guys are all just bag men for the folks that have the money. the folks that have the money are the corporations, the independently wealthy that make them sing their tune.

i heard a great phrase the other day, "representation without taxation." that's where we are right now. amendment is the only way. host: next is another call from lancaster, charlene, a republican. caller: good morning, c-span. kicking the can is more than an ocean. -- a notion. the republican party has been absolutely disgraceful. they are willing to sabotages the united states, the economy, the reputation, and the stability of its citizens, because of an african american as president. that is all it is.

the only thing i asked is that as long as people keep on making excuses, one thing or the other, the excuse. he said that it's also because he is smarter than most of them. sometimes ego gets in the way of people's productivity. i want to say thank you to that caller. he's the only person i have ever heard from the caucasian community to be upfront, especially from the republican party. host: thank you.

next is steve, a democrat in ithaca. caller: hi. i really think that the american electorate has to realize that what is happening is people from the 1930's had children and kept their ideologies, the fascists. this is a slow attacked out of uniform from the fascist who wanted to take the country down in the 1930's and have been planning this over 40 years and are moving on america now. my favorite example, when arnold

schwarzenegger, a child of austrian nazis got elected as the governor of california, orrin hatch came out and said we have to change the constitution so foreigners can be elected. that is the most ridiculous -- it is a non sequitur to politics. these guys -- why would he do that? that was immediately out of the news and everybody forgot. these guys are exactly who they were in the 1930's and they are moving on america. host: thanks. you have probably heard that the war words continues to escalate between the senate majority leader and the romney campaign over the release of mr. romney's tax records. ronnie tells harry reid it's time to put up or shut up. romney on thursday directly addressed harry reid's insinuation that the former massachusetts governor did not pay taxes 10 years --

clearwater, florida, kicking the can down the road is our topic. gasoline is an independent. caller: i would like to comment on the woman that said nothing can get done because of the gridlock. it is. it's about giving the other side kudos. it's like they don't want to abolish anybody can do anything right on the other side.

they just cannot cooperate with one another on each other's issues. it's like it's all or nothing. they are like children in high school. it is pathetic. it is sad that they cannot come to terms and give a little on both sides. i am curious why we even have a democrat and republican anyway. we should all be independent and vote on issues and stop being so conservative and liberal and all this other stuff. it's like, be independent and we would get more stuff done. it's crazy. host: thank you. we learned yesterday kofi annan was going to resign his role as a special envoy to syria for the united nations. there's an op-ed piece in the financial times this morning --

next is a call from granger, indiana, bob is a republican. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. the only way congress can give anybody anything is by taking it away from somebody else or putting it on the tab. where does it say we have to pass a bunch of laws every year? don't we have enough laws? hang on just a second, i lost my train of thought. harry reid is just a little weasel. it's disgusting. host: another famous author has passed away. john keegan, a historian of war and warriors died in the age of 78. here is his obituary in the new

york times -- on our c-span video library we have posted video of john keegan in his own words, noted military historian, died at the age of 78 this week. a couple minutes left. next is brando, virginia, a

democrat. absolutely kicking the can down the road. the end result is still the same. in my opinion, we have probably one of the longest lame-duck sessions of congress. seems like the entire time this congress has been in session, they have not really done anything. a couple kings they have done and may be passed something on one side and passed something in the senate or the other side. in end, the people don't get anything. i would like to say one thing before closing. whenever i think of kicking the can down the road, i think back to the beginning of the andy griffith show when he is with his son and they are walking to

go fishing. kicking the can down the road, the moment for older americans who will be in the voting populace. the party who associates more with the younger folks who are more into football and all that. i don't know if that is the reason they use those terms, but it is interesting that they do. i think they use it based on who they are talking to. host: thanks for that call from bristow.

next is a call from chicago, andrew, an independent. caller: i am just calling to talk a little about the corruption and why they are kicking the can down the road. i heard another woman talk about how everybody is tabled by the people with the money. the gdp goes up when we have more sick and dying people in our hospitals every year. there are proven statistics to show ts. our of elected officials don't do anything to affect this number. they don't care that we have to pay out of pocket for our own health care at the same time when we are sick and dying their pockets get lined with money. it is a catch-22.

i have been affiliated with the medical system on time and i have been sick 12 years. it is a big runaround. they don't really try to heal you. it's just a big scam. all of it is to line the pockets of elected officials. we need a big change in the system, in the way things are run. i like amanda said we need another amendment fo rno money in elections -- for no money in the elections. -- i like the man who said that. host: thanks, andrew. washington post has an article about three new jersey teenagers who started a petition for the presidential debates commission, wanted a woman to run a presidential debate.

they collected 170,000 signatures. it says the high school juniors think it's wrong but no woman has moderated a presidential debate since carol simpson in the 1992 exchange between bill clinton and george h. w. bush and ross perot. last call is from franklin, indiana, nathan has the last word. caller: our system is set up so that you cannot fundamentally change america at with one president, which is what barack obama said he wanted to do. what happens is when you try to fundamentally change america, we have another group of congress that comes in that says people are not happy with that change and a group will come in and put the brakes on that fundamental change. that is what has happened. it is the fact that we made such

extreme changes in the first term of barack obama that it switched to the balance of power in the house and they put the brakes on that change. that is the brilliance of our system. we may not like it, but it is for our own good. host: thank you, nathan. the conversation will continue on facebook, if you are interested, and on twitter. we are done on the air with our phone calls. we will take a break and you'll meet our first breast, congressman bobby scott, democrat of virginia. there's a heavy military population down there. we will talk about sequestration and the effect of defense cuts. -- -- our first guest, congressman bobby scott. we will be right back.

>> this weekend, the turning point of the civil war, was in gettysburg or the seven days battle for richmond? >> george,:'s failure and robert e. lee's emergence as a successful field commander marked a decisive moment in the eastern theater that profoundly shaped the larger direction of the conflict. >> the university of virginia professor of a week-long june 1862 battle that drove the union army away from the confederate capital. saturday night at 10:00 eastern.

sunday, key political figures who ran for president and lost, but changed political history. >> i would remind you that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. >> barry goldwater, who lost to lbj at 7:30 eastern and pacific, this weekend on c-span 3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: bobby scott, a member of the jewish year raid committee -- member of the judiciary committee. one of the hardest-hit states in the country regarding automatic spending cuts. what is your view on where this

will all end up? guest: my district includes parts of norfolk, portsmouth, richmond. southeast virginia has a heavy military presence. lots of naval shipyards, langley air force base, and others in the area. and heavy shipbuilding with a new shipyard. it's the only place you can build an aircraft carrier. any cutbacks in defense will heavily impact our economy. one economist estimates one half of the economy of hampton roads is the. department of the we are very concerned. there has not really been any discussion. it has not been serious. we need a trillion dollars over 10 years to offset the cost of a sequester. if we come up with $1 trillion

in debt as a production, that would be sufficient. there's no serious. serious from some members of congress they are saying how bad a sequester would be and how we have to find $1 trillion in deficit reduction. this week they suspended the discussion for a day in the house and senate to discuss whether we would extend $3 trillion of tax cuts or $4 trillion at. i think the first thing we are going to do is get our priorities straight. we ought to cancel the sequestered. we should cancel defense cuts and some nondefense cuts. faa would have to close over 100 airports to accommodate the cuts. we can do better than that.

if we have as our priority to cancel the sequestered, then there's money left over we can talk about tax cuts. when you have the same people running around with their hair on fire about how bad $1 trillion in cuts in the sequester would be, for them to vote for $4 billion in tax cuts and then get back to discussing how bad the sequester will be, that's absurd. host: the sequester uses a hatchet to defense spending. what is your overall view? are we spending at about the right level? guest: we are about the right level. but the problem with the across- the-board cuts is it does not discriminate against good programs or bad programs. some could be cut without as much pain as others.

if you want to know what $1 trillion in cuts looks like, when people say you reduce the size of government and try to do $4 trillion in cuts, when you put $4 trillion in cuts on the table it is something they cannot tolerate. if you do if surgically and say we are not calling to cut this because it is so important and then have to double up on the , maybe 200 airports would have to close instead of 100 airports in order to keep federal prisons open. everybody pretty much agrees the deficit reduction goal, to reestablish fiscal sanity, is $4 trillion in deficit-reduction over 10 years. you can get that by letting all the bush-era tax cuts expire. that gives. $4 gives if you start right there, if you want tax cuts, this will pay for them. name what you are going to cut.

not having a conversation when you discuss the budget without numbers. reduce the size of government is not a budget. i don't like the sequestered because it's not a budget. you have to put numbers on line items. someone said you have to cut entitlements, cut social security and medicare. you have to put that in context. let's make a choice. would you like -- if you get your tax cut coming after cut social security and medicare. simpson-bowles commission had some cuts in social security. and medicare. let's have an amendment. but the money back in social security and medicare and cancel a few of the tax cuts and then voted up or down. but at least you know what choices you are making. you're not extending $4 trillion in tax cuts and say now we have

to cut this and that. go and make the decision. we are not having a serious discussion. people still talking about weekend cut the budget with unspecified cuts and reducing the size of government. the numbers on line items and we can have a discussion. people say they don't like the sequester. no numbers on line items and then they vote for $4 trillion in tax cuts as they are looking for $1 trillion to cancel the sequestered. it's not a discussion. host: the president campaigned in virginia yesterday in loudoun county. here's one line in his address. [video clip] >> you've got to make some phone calls with me, not on some doors, reprove your friends and neighbors with me. we won loudoun county last time. if we win loudoun county this time, we will been virginia. if we win virginia, we will win

this election. host: the president on how important virginia is for his reelection. guest: it is hard to imagine 270 electoral votes that governor romney can get without virginia. karl rove, republican, announced a 3,2,1 plan as romney's path to victory. winning florida and ohio. and then they have to win one more. that's their route to victory. they don't even carry virginia. if it's hard for them to find 270 a look for votes. they said that four years ago. when cnn announced president obama had carried virginia, that

was at 10:58 p.m. and two minutes later they announced he was president-elect. if he can hold virginia, if we are confident the president will be reelected. if we work hard,. we,. if we work hard, we are confident we can win. host: what will tip it? guest: the get-out-the-vote effort. we expect it. one were fun to watch are slightly ahead rather than slightly behind. we have been consistently ahead in virginia for the last several months. but it's going to be close. the polls will go back and

forth. i expect some to show governor romney ahead. the margin of error for most of the polls, he's within the margin of error. so they will go back and forth. tim kaine running for u.s. senate, former governor running against george allen, former governor, that will be extremely close. governor tim kaine has been consistently ahead. we are confident we can win if we do the work. the get-out-the-vote effort is extremely important. it will be decided by a couple points in a close election. host: let's get to some viewer calls, beginning with indiana or rather tennessee, vivian is a democrat. caller: good morning. i was calling to ask two questions. why are the democrats not getting out there to tell the people what the president is doing? i don't see a lot of them. but i see a lot of republicans

backing romney with allies. let them know the stimulus package did help your state. second, they don't want him in there. i am a 61 year old black woman. they don't want him because he's a black man. telling themnt him what to do. karl rove and dick cheney should be in jail for the trouble they cause to this country. democrats, please get out there and speak up for our presidents. guest: you are right about the stimulus. when the president was inaugurated, we will losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. from the time he thein and could enact a first of his policies, the job losses got less and less just about every month. now we have had many months of

consistent job growth in stark contrast to what was going on when he came in. the job growth has been not fast enough. the problem, of course, is, if governor romney is elected, his policies are exactly the same policies that put us in this position to begin with. governor romney has been very articulate criticizing the president. he has not been articulate at all as to what you would do if elected. if you look at his policies, they are remarkably the same as the policies that got us into trouble in the beginning. interestingly enough, the architect of those problems, former president george w. bush is not expected to be at the republican convention. i wonder why. governor romney's policies are the same policies as president bush. those are the ones that got us

in the ditch. we are making the case. the other is health care. i think we were politically negligent at not pushing the health care bill. the supreme court has found it constitutional now and people are getting benefits just this week. people have been notified in new policies, prevention, and screening, mammograms and things like that are provided without a co-pay. people can discover problems when they are curable. breast cancer when discovered early is 85% curable. if you discover it late, its 85% fatal. getting a mammogram without having to worry about whether you can afford it this time will save a lot of lives.

young people can stay on their parents policies. senior citizens getting help with the doughnut hole. in 2014, every american will be able to get affordable health care. if you make less than $88,000 per year, you will get tax credits to help you purchase that health care. that will go a long way in making sure everybody -- we have been trying for 100 years since the first president roosevelt tried to get universal health care. we have been trying ever since. finally have a plan. it needs improvement. there are things i would like to seen in it. public option -- frankly, i would have rather have seen a single-payer plan. and we have affordable health care. i think that will make a difference. as more people the benefits under the plan and the idea

that people can get prevention without the co pay -- insurance abuses -- they cannot do that anymore. they cannot cancel your policy. there are a lot of good aspects to this. as people learn the details, it will become more and more popular. as a becomes popular, it will be more and more difficult for republicans to try to repeal it. they try to repeal it over 30 times without any coherent plan to replace. i think people will discover they rather have a sure thing, affordable health care, starting in 2014. host: he represents virginia as a third district. he is a graduate of harvard college and boston college law school. he practiced law from 1973 to

1991. he also served in the national guard and army reserve. in congress, he serves on the education committee and on the judiciary committee. he is the ranking most senior democrat on the subcommittee on crime, terrorism, and homeland security. he is the first african- american elected to congress since reconstruction and only the second in virginia's history and the first voting member with filipino heritage. with you on your tax comments earlier, jim tweets -- if tax rates go back to clinton era, only $700 billion from the rich. guest: under $240,000 is exactly right. in round numbers, about $1

trillion. approximately $3proximately.. trillion. some of us feel that if you just let them all expire and start their at the base -- let people know how you're going to pay for them. the reason that is so difficult, we cannot even get the buffet rule -- that portion of your income over $1 million. at least pay the same percentage of income tax that everybody else pays and not give a preferential rate. we cannot even get that passed. we could not pass legislation that will let the taxes over $250,000 -- that the gentleman

referred to -- we cannot even get that. it is extremely difficult legislatively to deal with this. one thing that helps the situation, if we do nothing, they all expire. if anything is going to be extended, there has to be an agreement to do that. otherwise, they all expire. frankly, that puts us economically and the right place. now, we are still in an economic recession. maybe not technically a recession, but it's not a good time. if you take that money out of the economy, the first year, you ought to spend it building roads and bridges and other investments creating jobs that do not hurt the economy. it actually help the economy.

at $40,000 each, that's 10 million jobs that you could create with $400 billion. that would end the recession overnight. you could eliminate the recession and then gradually, as the economy improves, let the money go to the bottom line and we will achieve our $4 trillion over 10 years old. the gentleman is right. it will be difficult just doing it with the portion of income just over $250,000. host: this to say on twitter -- guest: she is absolutely right and you can see that in the sequester. they say do not put any numbers on line items. they put $1 trillion on line items under the sequester and you get the same people running

around the country complaining. if you put numbers on line items so you know what the choices are, my view is the public will say -- all the tax cut expire, don't cut anything. explain with numbers on line items. see what you are willing to cut. see what you can get through. >> host: new jersey, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning, representative. obama's green energy policy and stuff like that, how, we are taking u.s. tax dollars and transferring those interest over to the chinese at the american people's expense? host: you said you had a couple questions. want to ask one more? caller: how do we not consider this reason to transfer u.s. infrastructure over to foreign interests?

it is treason. it is agenda 21. the same reason they will not enforce the immigration laws. they want to collapse the american society. you people have sold our country out through nafta and everything else. when is this going to be addressed? guest: if you're talking about the foreign jobs that were created under the stimulus act, that is just not true. the jobs created within the united states -- the allegations to the contrary are not true. host: what about free energy? guest: it is i it important -- i think it's important to promote clean energy. we need to get away from our dependence on foreign oil. alternative forms of energy are extremely important. you're not going to do it unless we make the investments. it will cost some.

solar energy industry depends on tax credits. when there were tax credits back in the 1970's, the amount of people putting solar panels on their homes and a tax credits expired, the entire industry just evaporated. the arithmetic just did not work without the tax credits. you were not saving more money than you were spending. we need to invest in it until you can get the cost down. we have tax incentives to oil companies that do not need it. billions of dollars. i think those tax credits would be more productive if they were put into green energy. host: how should people view the solyndra case? guest: that was a bad situation. as governor romney pointed out, invested in a lot of things that. did. host: florida, jerry, independent. caller: yes, i have just one question.

it concerns the budget cuts. specifically, the military. my question is, maybe the congressman can answer this. what are we doing with 6000 generals in the military? i will hang up and listen to you. guest: i do not know how many generals would be the number. you said 6000. maybe we could do four thousand. maybe we could do 8,000. i do not know the answer to that. the fact of the matter is, the defense cuts are across the board without any indication of what is needed and what is not needed and where the money will be most productive and what things can in fact be cut without any impact -- adverse impact on our military. the across-the-board cuts do not do this. having said that, the size of the cuts are such that the secretary of defense, mr. panetta, has indicated there will be missions that we are trying to reform now that cannot

be performed if the additional cut goes through. there are significant cuts to the department of defense already in the budget that we already passed. these additional $500 billion over 10 years would get into programs where we will not be able to do everything we are able to do. that may be a good thing. that may be a bad thing. we need to have that discussion in what we are trying to do, not trying to fit the defense of our nation into the money that is there after across-the-board cuts. host: petersburg, virginia. good morning. caller: i was wondering why the welfare system has not been reformed. i am a 28-year-old male. i have been recently diagnosed with cancer. i was told my cancer was not high enough state to receive any kind of medical benefits to help

oft fpay for the cost chemo. guest: unfortunately, health care reform does not fully kick in until 2014. there is health insurance available for those with pre- existing conditions. that is one of the provisions that has kicked in already. it is not as affordable as we would like, but it is there. in 2014, you will be able to get affordable health care insurance without caps in annual payments in without caps in lifetime payments. whatever your treatments cost, you will be able to get them with insurance. this is exactly the kind of policy -- republicans have signed -- your situation is not

unusual. people get diagnosed with diseases. very few people -- there are very few people in america that can pay for their health care after a diagnosis of a serious illness like yours. there are very few americans that can actually afford to pay their health care costs on their own without insurance. that insurance will be available to everyone, not withstanding pre-existing conditions, and based on affordability. anybody making less than $88 ,000 will pay from 0 to less than 10% of their income toward insurance. after the tax credits are considered. your situation is exactly what we're aiming at. unfortunately, it's taking a few years to get into effect. in the meanwhile, you have access to affordable health care insurance notwithstanding your pre-existing conditions. that is available today. host: next is a call from phoenix. anne is a republican. good morning.

what is on your mind? caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. representative, you keep speaking to numbers on line items. of a like to know for the past four years, and where have the congressional members been in reference to having their own budgets? i do not think you can speak to members on line items if you have not yet put numbers on line items yourself. in reference to your comments about governor romney, he does speak to five points in turning the united states around and bringing us back to our economy. i currently work in emergency department. the four will carry out -- the affordable care act has been repeatedly representative of people who believe in the affordable care at -- the consistently state that moneys will be taken out of hospitals. i can absolutely state that is true. money is leaving hospitals. they are facing their bully for

their one or their desire for the american public to do the right thing. there are a number of people in the american public who do not do the right thing. they do not go and make the proper decisions about their health care and then they rely on us. especially in dramatic situations, a car accident, a plane crash -- if you do not have the resources in a hospital, a clinic, an urgent care cannot assist those people. guest: in terms of legislative branch corporations, they have been cut just like everything else. we have not gotten a raise in the last couple of years. members have not got raises. there have been cuts in the member's representation allowance. we have suffered along with everyone else. in terms of hospitals getting less money, one of the things -- if you are trying to save money in the health-care system, you've got to get people out of

the emergency room and into the physician's office. it's much more expensive to wait for a situation to get to the point where you need emergency care -- it is a lot more productive to get the care in a doctor's office. you do not have a family doctor, then you have a serious cold or flu, then you are in the emergency room. we need to squeeze as much as we can in cost efficiencies. that's not going to be easy. when you start talking about saving money in health care, that means somebody is not going to get the kind of money we got before. one of the things in the health- care reform that we did not do as much as we wanted to do was cost control. there are two aspects of health care reform we are aiming at. one is access. make sure everyone has access to insurance. the second is to make sure we cut the cost.

we did not do as much in cost. that is the next cep. that's where we need to work cooperatively to make sure the money we're spending in health care is spent as effectively as possible. the united states spends more as a nation, more of a percentage of gdp, and more per person than any country on earth by far. by far, we spend a lot more. as a nation, we get a lot worse results in terms of infant mortality rates, that the due to preventable diseases, life expectancy -- we are at or near the bottom in industrialized nations. we need to spend it better. host: oversight of gop on twitter writes -- let's replace them with cuts from a troop drawdown saving $1 trillion. guest: i did not support the war in iraq to begin with. i've had serious questions about the level of troops in afghanistan. i thought we were and

afghanistan to chase after al- qaeda. a couple years ago, we ascertain if there were less than 100 al- qaeda left in afghanistan. it is hard to justify 100,000 troops chasing after less than 100 people. host: southampton, new york for congressman scott. michael is an independent there. guest: good morning, representative scott. do you ever talk to president obama? guest: yes. caller: my mother was 86 years of age. only voted twice. she voted all democratic, except twice, because her last name was sarah jane reagan. she had to vote for reagan. i am a professor.

i teach at the business school. my first student was george bush, jr.. both the same age. i was the instructor teaching market accounting. for president obama -- the joke we had at business school was, never let your lawyer run your company. otherwise, it is going bankrupt. obama is a special person. let me give him a formula that is used in canada. profits.as booming pro you could always tell the unemployment rate -- ready? you do not even have to pick up a newspaper. all you do is take the first price of oil -- if it says $90 per barrel, 9% unemployment.

if it says $80 per barrel, it is 8% unemployment. the mistake obama is making -- and he is a great man -- when he counts the inventory of oil in the united states, but if he counts the inventory of oil in the ports -- in other words, when they say 3 million barrels up and down per week, what you do is have them count the oil at the docks. like trump said, it will show something like 300 million barrels of oil extra. host: michael, this is pretty complicated for us. what is the bottom line? caller: tell president obama he can always tell unemployment. take the first number of the price of oil and that is more unemployment. host: thank you so much. we are waiting for the monthly

job numbers. how important is access to expensive oil to the economy? guest: we need to get the price of oil down. there's a limit to what the president can do. the price of oil is set at the international market. one of the things we can do is reduce the dependence on foreign oil to do that, we have to reduce our dependence on oil. the alternative energy sources become extremely important. that is one of the strategies we are using. host: about seven minutes until we get the monthly jobs report. the anticipation is it will be unchanged at the current level. what do you see and what is the consensus among members of congress and your side of the aisle about the job growth in the united states? guest: we need to make the appropriate investments. host: government investments? guest: that's one thing we can do. roads and bridges. you create jobs and new build roads and bridges. replace and repair schools.

invest in education. one of the things that we have noticed is those with a good education are not the ones who are unemployed. you invest in education, you have a stronger workforce. host: our company's hiring? guest: some are. those without a college education, they are suffering. that's why the construction jobs, roads, bridges, and repairing schools are so important if you're investing in education, one thing that happens is you create jobs in the field of education. you have to have teachers. a lack of food service at the college. you have to have bookstores. you have a lot of economic activity when you put money in education. not unlike many areas, when you invest in education, nobody is making a lot of money. you have a lot of people

working. at a community college, for example, you put more money in there. more people can take classes. you have a higher staff. you have to hire an adjunct professors. everyone is helped. short-term, when you invest in education, and long term, because we have a much better educated work force making us more competitive on international markets. there are things we can do, if you make those investments. the tax structure is also important. there's no question in my mind that when you have -- if we can get back to the clinton tax rates where the dow jones industrial average almost quadrupled under the eight years of the bush administration, the dow jones was essentially flat. it is up about 50% under president obama. when you look at just the

economic activity as measured by the stock market, the clinton rates are much better. that is what we really need to get back to. it is going to be difficult to make a lot of change at the rate we're going unless we can do something about a tax structure. host: two items here. one from twitter and one from the newspaper suggesting tax evasion's. i am going to ask. without changing anything about the current tax structure, how effective would be to go after tax evaders in helping to reduce the deficit? here is one. kathleen on twitter asked -- can

we tax those tax evaders? wondering i am about changing nothing and just going after some people who are evading the system? guest: you are not going to tax it at 100%, so you will not get it all back. they are right. you put more money into the internal revenue service and have more audits, you will get more money for the nation. a multiple of 5, 6, 7-to-one. host: why is that not done? guest: the budget that i produced for the black caucus has that. in terms of offshore accounts, there is a tax incentive now to make money off shore. we need to remove those tax

incentives so the money comes back. there's no question about that. we can do a lot better. host: just a couple minutes left with you. next call in indianapolis. freddie, you are on the air. caller: congressman scott, i am what i consider to be a moderate democrat. i believe the deficit should be reduced. we all believe things should be done to bring the employment rate down. i understand how difficult it is to do that. my question to you is this. why is it not that the democratic party is not swinging more toward moderate? my feelings are that we as

democrats are not the moderates. i see all these republican congressmen that they kicked out of office and they are being replaced by those from the tea party, the extreme right. why is it we are not doing more to go after those people, the moderate republicans? i feelings are, in order to go after the moderate republicans, we as democrats must become a bit more moderate and not appear to be to the far right. guest: as you look at congress, you will see that there are fewer and fewer republican moderates. the few that are left are the ones that are retiring host:. . by any objective standard, the two democratic supreme court appointments that replaced republicans are more moderate

than the ones they replace. by any measure, we are more moderate. when you look at our crime policy, the youth promise act takes an evidence-based approach to investing young people before they get in trouble. the investments have been shown to save more money than the cost. you can reduce prison costs, teen pregnancy cost, and other costs. by investing nine young people before they get in trouble. you can save more money than you spend and significantly reduce juvenile crime. we have a hearing in los angeles where they went from the total lock them up approach to get young people on the right track approach. they have significantly reduced crime taking an evidence-based, moderate approach. i think that if you look at the policies, democrats have been

much more moderate in terms of policies. if you look at the republicans, some of the policies that would have been extreme and not even considered -- some of the immigration policies, for example, would not have been taken seriously. they are now really mainstream. if you look get some of the extremes -- they are holding hearings on some of those bills that never would have been taken seriously in the past. host: the congressman is a champion of legislation called the youth promise act. he has lots of information on his website. you can find him very easily on the internet by searching his name and that will connect you to the house of representatives system. arkansas. charles is a republican. hello, charles. caller: good morning.

do anything and say anything for a vote. you talked about having to get off foreign oil, but yet you stop the drilling of a here. stopped the pipeline. you have stopped anything that would increase the employment. look at the dakotas, where they are drilling in the private land. they are -- they do not even have enough houses up there. they do not have enough people to fill the jobs that are necessary. you have had two years. you have the presidency, the house, and the senate and you did nothing. you spent two years passing one bill. you did not do anything else. yet, you sit there and you tell people that we are going to have to get off foreign oil. we have more oil in this country than they do in the far east. those statements are true and you know it. guest: when you talk about

drilling, drilling near the chesapeake bay, which is a very delicate, environmental area. when you see what happened in the gulf coast when human error ruined the entire economy for many months -- i hope we would be somewhat cautious about drilling anywhere close to the chesapeake bay. we have a lot of tourism and industry and recreation in that area. i would not put that in jeopardy with the drilling that would by all estimates made 0 difference in the cost of gasoline at the pump. host: we have been waiting for the unemployment numbers. they are in, congressman. 163,000 jobs added, but the unemployment rate rises from 8.2% to 8.3%.

guest: the number of jobs created is better than expected. and of the things consistently pointed out is when the economy starts improving, the unemployment rate actually goes up. the fact that we have 163,000 additional jobs in the unemployment rate goes up, that is going to be temporary. by any stretch, it is not enough. it is in the right direction. compared to what? governor romney's plans would put us right back in the ditch that we are digging ourselves out of. these numbers are actually better than we have expected. they're much better than expected. again, we're going in the right direction for an additional

month. the republicans are kicking and screaming every time we make some progress. their policies will put us back in the ditch. let them articulate what the policies are. will find they are remarkably similar to the policies that george bush enacted that got us in trouble to begin with. host: that is it for time. how are you spending this august break? guest: i will be in the district's most of the time. i may take a convention or two. host: thank you for starting off the break with us on c-span. appreciate it. we will turn our attention to the economy and chad moutray will be our guest. he is an economist based at the national association of manufacturing. manufacturing has been seen as one of the bright spots in the economy. recent concerns in the last month about orders from europe. we will talk to him about jobs

and unemployment and the economy overall in just a few minutes. ♪ >> did not begin as a city in kentucky. there was only a ewe the native american region and later, a county in another state called kentucky. we began in 1778 as -- >> this weekend, join c-span from louisville, ky. literary life with a book tv on

c-span2. sunday at 5:00 p.m. eastern, three weeks at farmington plantation in 1841 would keep key in shaping abraham lincoln's view on slavery. also, the heyday of the steamboat on the ohio river. >> we have to be very clear about the very many ways that we own our selves and that we own our history and that we make decisions about our history is phenomenal, vital, and special. >> the former president of bennett college comments on

politics, education, an african- american economic history. this sunday, your questions, calls, emails, and tweetes for the author. >> "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen is chad moutray, chief economist at the national association of manufacturers. reaction to the job numbers? guest: i think they are slightly better than we expected to the overall consensus was about 100,000. it was 163,000. the challenge is the participation rate continues to edge a little higher and lower. we have some adjusting. host: can i stop you and have you explain to people how the federal government collects statistics explain how people fall off of the unemployment

rolls even when they are not employed. guest: they actually asked, are you working or not. the second question is, are you actively looking for work or not? a number of people are dropping out as a result of seeing the bad jobs numbers and the weakness overseas. maybe they have been looking for a while and have given up. you assume the preservation rate drops dramatically over the last couple of months and is starting to edge up a little bit now more recently. hence, you are having that 8.2% to 8.3% number that we see now. 1630,000 is better than expected -- 163,000 is better than expected, but it's not good. we are not generating enough jobs to be able to bring down the unemployment rate in a substantial way, as well as to be able to help our overall economy. host:.

host: the headline in "the washington post" business page captures that. job growth moving sideways. what are the fundamentals going into the current status in the job market right now? guest: there's a lot of uncertainty out there. when i talked to manufacturers and businesses, they're worried about a fiscal cliff coming up on january 1. they're worried about the budget cuts that will be happening as a result of sequestration. they're looking at what's happening in europe. they're looking at the political stalemate in washington. there's a little bit of sitting on the hands. everyone is on neutral waiting to see what happens on election day. everyone was expecting 25,000 jobs created in manufacturing -- very good. yet, the same time, we could be

doing a lot better. that's the message that is really playing on people's minds right now. host: i have a statistic from the bureau of economic analysis. this is one of the charts they brought. this is 2009 to 2011. manufacturing leads the way in real gdp growth among the sectors. 12% to 1515% growth over that time period. guest: manufacturers have taken advantage of trade opportunities overseas. relatively strong growth. the consumer continues to spend. we've also seen an improvement in overall residential housing and overall investment in terms of construction. each of those elements has helped manufacturers. you have seen the manufacturing sector do a little better. manufacturers have become a lot

more competitive. if you look at productivity numbers, we're getting the productivity numbers next week. manufacturing productivity has been really high. as a result, there's been an increased competitiveness on the part of u.s. manufacturers. there's an enormous amount of evidence that u.s. manufacturing has become more competitive. as a result, it has become a bright spot in the economy, generating about 180,000 over the last seven months. probably 17% of all the net new jobs really coming from manufacturing. therein lies why so many people are talking about manufacturing now. it is kind of that bright spot. guest: it seems to be almost oxymoron it if you increase productivity that there would be more jobs. you would think that increased productivity means fewer people with the same output. guest: you are getting increased

productivity because of increased technology and innovation. you can only increase that so far. productivity in the first quarter was 5.2%. that means you're getting 5% more out of your work force on any given year. you cannot do that forever. you cannot work your work force with overtime forever more. at the same time, you also have new opportunities three output is up substantially. they are letting a little bit of the steam out by bringing on additional workers. i am not shocked to see when you see such strong productivity gains in manufacturing that they need to bring in additional workers to make up the difference. host: sounds like this story. clouds on the horizon. this is "financial times" this morning.

this goes on to suggest that europe, the major customer of the united states, is part of the reason for the slowdowns. guest: i agree with that. manufacturers are very worried about where the economy is headed. they're very concerned about what's happening in europe. europe accounts for about 20% of our exports. it is major competitor for us, second only to north america. as you continue to have this overall -- europe is frankly in a recession right now. as europe continues to go down that path, it leads to an enormous amount of anxiety. i think the other anxiety that is really getting a lot more attention now is also what's happening in washington. again, when i talk to manufacturers, they're very much focused on the fact that their taxes will be going up on january 1. those in the defense industry, as well as in the supply chain, are worried about budget cuts that are coming their way. they're also worried about what is going to happen after the

election in terms of not only just taxes, but also the regulatory environment. there are so many questions with regard to what will happen on election day and after that you are really seeing holding back on the part of businesses. host: the supreme court decision on the health care act, did that take some of the uncertainty out of the lines of business people? guest: it took some of the uncertainty, but we still do not know what's going to happen. as with everything, things are waiting until the election. romney said he would repeal it on day one. you continue to have an enormous amount of doubt as far as implementation. some states will be participating in the medicare parts of it. some states are not. you still have eight certain degree of uncertainty in terms of the overall implementation and what's going to happen, depending on what happens with the election. host: let's get to calls. scmichigan. brian is a republican there. you are on.

caller: good morning. the part i do not understand c- -- it was years back talkgeorge bush's fartther about this new world order and the global economy and they had written nafta. this was bipartisan. president clinton signed this into law in the 1990's. both sides of the aisle not only led the way for nafta, both sides signed onto it. this is from the 1990's. that is the game plan. why do i have to listen to today when we say "buy american"? i am totally confused. you are trying to move the goalposts and have it both ways. you are trying to have your cake and eat it, too. if we are in the new world

order and the global economy, that's the game we're in. as a hostile, a business older, -- as a household or a business owner, anyone should die for value regardless of where it's made. you cannot have it both ways. we need to get fully into the game of new world order and the global economy. we have been in it for over 20 years now. guest: that's a good point to 95% of our customers are overseas. we need to make sure we need to take advantage of as many opportunities as we can. trade is an enormous boost for manufacturers in terms of growth opportunities. what i talked to a lot of the businesses, they are very aggressively going after markets overseas. they are also very aggressive going after this market, as well. we have seen increased competitiveness in the u.s. manufacturers.factur

the caller has a point. this is a global market. have to take advantage of the opportunities that are out of there. we actually have a trade surplus with those countries we have a free-trade agreement with. we need more free trade agreements moving forward. host: andy is a democrat. go ahead. caller: the way i see it is everyone -- they're sending jobs overseas. i am 69 years old. a lot of people are not at all in this country. they do not realize, years ago, hollywood here is to not buy anything from japan, anything overseas all -- you would hear is to not buy anything from japan or overseas. they are a bunch of traders sending their jobs over to china so they can pay somebody 50 cents per hour, send it back here, and sell it for $40, $50. these are not patriotic people. it is horrible what's going on to you cannot keep sending jobs

overseas. the president's infrastructure plan -- that should be already going. when you have more people working, more people paying taxes, the government does better. if you have no government here, i think people would be running around the streets with no clothes on. guest: we agree with you on the infrastructure bill. i think the other thing that is the key here is we need to do everything we can to make sure the u.s. is as competitive as it can be. we need to make sure our taxes are as competitive as possible to we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. we have a regulatory environment -- 20% higher than they are elsewhere among city of our major competitors. there are a number of things we can do to increase the overall competitiveness of u.s. manufacturing. until we do that, you are at risk of sending jobs overseas.

we need to do as much as we can for a pro-growth policy. . host: manufacturing jobs have been on the minds of the presidential candidates. we will start with governor romney and the theme on manufacturing jobs. >> started in 1970 to selling cars. >> in 2009 under the obama administration's bailout of general motors, ohio dealerships were forced to close. >> they were spending my credit line. we had 30-some employees out of work. my wife and i were the last ones out of work. it was the dreamwork for and we worked so hard for. >> i am mitt romney and i approve this message. host: president obama and a theme of manufacturing in this ad. >> over the last three and a half years, we have worked to make progress. 4.5 million jobs created.

half a million new manufacturing jobs. they counted the auto industry out and now it's coming back stronger than ever, right here in ohio and all across the country. host: my apologies. the second is obviously not an ad, but the president in akron, ohio recently. what do you think about the level of dialogue on the presidential campaign trail about jobs and manufacturing jobs? guest: it is very encouraging that both parties are talking about manufacturing. we have been trying to work with both campaigns to make sure they are both talking about the issues that are important to manufacturers. i think that will continue. the president mentioned the resurgence in manufacturing. we've seen about 500,000 jobs generated in manufacturing since the end of the recession. it's also clear that there's a lot we need to do. we have the highest corporate tax rates in the world.

we desperately need overall comprehensive tax reform. there's a lot more we can do on the regulatory front and on the skills front, etc. there's a lot more we can do in the next administration to continue to make sure we see these gains moving forward. guest: could you -- host: could you be more specific about the corporate tax rates? what is the closest major competitor? guest: up until march, we had the second-highest corporate tax rate. japan was higher. we have 35% corporate tax rate. but a tiny ad in all the other taxes, state, local, etc., i think the average tax rate is around 39. something -- 39 point something. japan is number two. in canada, they just lower the corporate tax rate to 15% through a lot of others are much lower. we would like to see the overall marginal tax rates for corporations go down to 35% to

25%, as well as being able to have more of a territorial tax system. having said all that, 2/3 of all manufacturers are not corporations. we also need to make sure we are doing something about the overall marginal tax rates for those businesses, as well. assuming that the fiscal cliff goes through, on january 1, they're going to go up to over 40%. this puts them at a huge disadvantage competing around the world. host: 4 people who do not know, small businesses. guest: that is correct. . host: james asked on twitter -- guest: energy is one of our real strengths right now. that's an excellent question preleasing a resurgence on the overall exploration theshale -- exploration of shale and fraacking. the job gains would generate

about 1 million manufacturing jobs over the next decade. that comes in two forms. one, lower energy costs on the part of manufacturers. in addition, you're also getting all those jobs which are being generated by the overall exploration of shale. whatever we can do to be able to bring down energy costs, that will help our overall competitiveness and something we have been trying to push for an all of the above approach. host: the next call comes from new york. allen is an independent there. good morning, sir. caller: good morning. i was wondering, you know, the bush tax cuts and everything has been lately in the news -- whether it should be extended or not. it seems to me that it has been

about 12 years almost that it has been in effect. it never really worked. you know, the jobs were not created table say the top 1% and stuff our job creators. if they create jobs anywhere, they're overseas. they are not in the state. , asreally think that american companies, they ought to do their part and hire americans. host: thank you. guest: is certainly did work between 2002 and 2007. we saw several months of expansion in the overall economy. things have been a lot more downhill since then after the recession that began in 2007. the other thing to keep in mind, one, we need to make sure we can do everything we can to be as competitive as possible.

many of our trading partners have taxes that are a lot lower than in the united states. if you raise taxes on small businesses, you are going to obviously hurt the overall competitiveness. economists of all stripes have said this, if we continue on our current path and we go over the fiscal cliff on general one, we very much risk a recession in the first half of next year -- on january 1, we very much risk a recession in the first of the next year. there's an overall consensus that is where we're headed, that we will go over the cliff. host: on twitter -- with high unemployment, why are h1b visas still allowed? guest: when we talk to manufacturers, almost everyone is looking for skilled workers. we do not have enough people to

fill the jobs that manufacturers need. we're trying to increase the number of skills domestically. the manufacturing institute is really working to try to instill these skills at the community college level. we have a skills certification program endorsed by president obama. it is really trying to take off. at the same time, we need to make sure we have some very high skilled engineers and high-tech folks that will be filling some of these jobs. until we can do more to increase the moreh1b situation -- the h1b situation, they will be putting facilities overseas, where the situation is a little easier. host: the next call is from vermont. don is a republican there. caller: good morning. chad, i've been a member of the institute of supply management treats each month, --

management. each month, ism produces the pmi. it covers a lot of the topics that your organization speaks about, too. one of the article's last month was the european ripple effect as europe's economy struggles -- takes steps to mitigate supply chain risk. can you speak a little bit about the purchasing management index that we put out. a question for you, susan, i've never seen anybody on c-span from the institute for supply management. they have a wealth of data that i think folks would like to hear. host: thank you for the tip. guest: the institute for supply management puts out the

purchasing managers' index. we've now had two months in a row where that number has been below 50. that suggests the manufacturing sector is contracting. that's the first time in three years it has been contracting. it goes back to the point we made earlier. the manufacturing sector, in many ways, is stuck in neutral. uncertainty is heavy. as you mentioned, slowing global growth. one of the real drivers for manufacturers right now are exports. as you have seen a slowing around the world, exports have slowed pretty dramatically. europe accounts for our second largest trading group out there. other countries, as well, depend heavily on europe. china is europe's largest trading partner. as you have seen europe go into a recession -- their pmi was 44, much lower. that is slow growth elsewhere in europe, not just year, but also china and south america.

that has hurt u.s. manufacturers. host: digging in more deeply to the unemployment numbers, here is this statistic. in july, the number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks and more, was little changed at 5.2 million people. those individuals account for 40% of the unemployed. "usa today" has the story --