sndwden and we'll talk about a new documentary on president nixon. host: we think today is the way for the united states senate, not just for the week but for the month of august. we expect the house to follow suit tomorrow after one more vote on health care. summer break is upon us here in washington, d.c. one headline says lawmakers are leaving capitol hill pretty empty-handed. both sides are pointing fingers at each other. want to get your thoughts this thursday morning on the congressional session thus far,

what is being done and perhaps not being done. here are the numbers. if not by sound, you can send aus a tweet. you can post your comment on facebook and you can send us an e-mail. we look forward to hearing from you. here is one of the headlines this morning in "the huffington post" -- they're talking about congressman harold rogers, the republican of kentucky who chairs the appropriations committee. writes about this as well.

russell permanent shares the byline and joins us by phone. burman shares the by line. guest: pretty interesting day in the house yesterday. they were considering a house appropriations bill to fund the department of transportation and housing and urban development. this has been a key bill implementing deep cuts offered by congressman paul ryan. they effectively pulled the bill from the floor, saying they did not have enough time in the week left before the august recess to complete it because of amendments. said they hope to bring it back

after the recess. then we solve what is a really rare in blistering statement from the republican chairman of the appropriations committee. he said he was extremely disappointed and basically said that was not the real reason. the real reason was they did not have the votes to the bill. he essentially accused the party of being unwilling and unable to implement the cuts that they directed him as chairman of the appropriations committee to write. basically, that they did not follow through with the rhine and the budget. he ryan budget. if you are a democrat, what are you thinking? guest: the end of the fiscal year will be faster processing

-- approaching at the end of the recess. republicans were hoping to pass as many of the 12 appropriations bill as they could to get the process as far as they could. ultimately they will have to negotiate a continuing resolution with the senate. the senate has not passed any of the appropriations bills. init is as much symbolic about leverage and the fact that they were unable to pass this bill. this would not have become law, although some were hoping it would become a legislative vehicle for conference committee. side, they areic saying that they told themselves so -- that they told them so. they rode a budget that had such deep cuts that they were not

able to implement them. they said it is time to come to the table and negotiate a broader budget deal. the democratic side. president obama was on the hill yesterday. here is a look at the present riding. what was the significance? >> he was trying to get everyone on the same page with his message and economic plan that he is going around the country to promote. the biggest news that came out of this probably was the topic of the chairman of the federal reserve that will be deciding on that and a couple of months. betweenreports that larry summers the former top economic adviser and former treasury secretary and janet yellen, the governor on the federal reserve board in now,

and he got a question from many liberal democrats and especially women democrats that are not big fans of. obama defended larry summers, suggesting he is very much still in the running for that post. other headlines that is out there comes this morning " and"the new york times said in the senate there was arm-twisting yesterday. talking about head of the of atf. atf. can you tell us more about this? guest: the senate was born to approve the director of atf for the first time in several years. what happened was they needed 60 votes to get the cloture.

rakowski from alaska originally voted no. from alaska are richly boded no. she switched her vote to yes, which allowed them to get 60 votes, although it had to be held open for about five hours because the democrat from north dakota was traveling in from north dakota, which as you know, it does not happen quickly. voted ford and cloture and voted for the final vote on nominations and was confirmed. we do have a director for the first time and i believe seven years. >> just a short amount of time before they head out are you looking for anything in particular in the next day or two? ofthey have completed most

the major business. it will be an interesting both in the senate today. a cloture vote on their own appropriations bill for the department of transportation and housing and urban development. it is expected to be a close vote. if republicans hold together, they will not be able to get cloture on that and will not able to pass that before the recess. in the house, because they have pulled their own bill from the floor they are working on messaging bills designed to respond to the irs and other scandals of the past couple of months. one bill on health care that will be voted on tomorrow would prevent the irs from enforcing the 2010 health care law as it is designed to do in the law. russell berman,wrestl

lawmakers are leaving capitol hill empty-handed. talking largely about fiscal policy, but other items as well. what is your perspective? what should we be thinking when we see headlines like this about how things really work? has become thet norm. we see in the house and senate unable to come to agreement on many major issues. we see that now with emigration were the senate passed a bill in the house and would leave without doing anything so far. certainly on the fiscal issues and budget issues. we often see a lot of action right before the august recess, but this year seems they have pushed the deadlines until after the summer so we will have a very busy september from october, november where they will have to decide how to keep

the government opened by the end of september. how to raise the debt ceiling sometime after that, and whether they will be able to come to a final piece of legislation reform. russell berman, reporter for the help. thank you for joining us. they point out this year's congress on one of the lowest productivity records in history. both sides pointing fingers at each other. that is in "washington times" today. --m mason writes

first call this morning, sherry from fort walton, pennsylvania. democrats. thank you for waiting. good morning. denver,i have a son in and we discuss this regularly. i feel the reason congress cannot get anything done is because old, white, republicans will not work with the black president. they never will. it will have to take a lot of change on the republican side as far as getting other men and women in their to do things. this congress will never work with the black president. that is why he is going around the country trying to afford -- explained affordable care to people because republicans have made it sound horrible and not what it is. they better get it together,

because the next person they have to work with might be a woman. now on theia democratic line. am disgusted with congress. they should not be paid workers because they did not do anything. host: is there one thing you want to see happen that is not happening? see them would like to passed the jobs bill. do something good for the country. host: what is a jobs bill? manufacturing, taxes? what is it, do you think? theer: i think lowering corporate tax rate would be great. i think bringing jobs back from overseas would be beneficial. every job here is nearly minimum-wage. there are no good, living wage jobs.

increasing the minimum wage would be amazing. it is really hard to find a job. i am a college student. i am working three jobs to make ends meet. lost a $32,000 job in 2008 and 2009. i have been struggling ever since, and i am a college educated. i have been working as a waitress and other low-paying jobs, cleaning houses. it is really hard out here, and i cannot imagine what the younger generation will go through. not have houses they will be able to afford, living with their parents. i am 48. i do not have any retirement left. think you for sharing

your thoughts this morning. deaux.s a call from john doe -- thank you. the most immediate battle will be the housing bill. also living this year is another death fight. the federal government using extraordinary means to avoid bumping into the legal limit for how much they can borrow. analysts predict the treasury department will run out of room and november. republicans said it will not accept another debt increased. house democrats are calling for cancellation of annual recess, but colleagues and the senate where they hold a majority are just as eager as house republicans to flee town. nancy pelosi, a democratic

leader in the house yesterday spoke a little bit following the meeting by the president. here's what she had to say. very enthusiastic meeting with the president of the united states. he reiterated some of the message that has gone out across the country about jobs, jobs, jobs. everything we can do through the rigid through the way we can responsibly and reduce the deficit to create jobs and build a better future for the country. it was a very masterful presentation that he made on the subject of jobs and the future. ist: at the same time, there one significant item the congress did pass. an unusual feat in congress. the student loan built breezes on it. republicanere of the congress woman wednesday when the house passed a student loan bill.

392-41. there is a ride up as well this morning in -- write up as well in "the washington post" -- that is in "the washington post" -- republican from florida.

good morning. caller: i wanted to say earlier, as far as what congress is doing, what they have gotten done, i am glad they have not gotten anything done because i voted in republicans to stop the rubber stamp spending of democrats. that is all. from donald in ohio. independent. i with i have a comment like to make. when these people work 23 weeks out of the year, i do not they did not stay there at least 50 weeks of the year because they never get anything done and we have not seen anything done that since 1980 really. we got immigration that was supposed to be taken care of in 1986. the same old thing they're

trying to do again. they did not learn from history. they did not learn nothing from history. how peoplews my mind can read -- can pick a republican or democrat. i think what we need is a third party. this thing is out of hand. we should call a third party, we the people of the united states. a third partyuld bring to the table? caller: i think people would get behind a third party because nothing is getting done on both sides as far as i can see. i have been a republican and democrat, and i am so frustrated that now i believe we need a third party. host: think you for calling. a facebook posting by danny hanson --

here is the republican leader in the and i did state senate, mcconnell, from the floor yesterday. >> it really would be nice to see the president work with congress for a change to get some important things done for the american people. republicans have been eager to do this all along. is almost like there is a gone campaigning sign outside the oval office. gone at campaigning signed outside the oval office. it out -- on their wrist of occasions when he does come, you find out it is basically another

internal campaign rally with democrats. facebook --o ethan is on the line from lynchburg, virginia. republican calller. hello. fewer: i wanted to make a comments. one comment i wanted to make was that first off, congress cannot create jobs with the current situation we're in right now. obama care, i can let you know from personal experience, i just lost my job because my business getting ready for obama care. they had to make cuts. that does not help me, that hurts me. time at cannot get full- her job. so this is not helping. this is hurting us.

the other comment i wanted to a calller from pennsylvania that made the comment old, white republicans will not work with republicans. very racistff towards white people. i find it offensive. i am from the south. i know there is a lot of animosity in this area, but i have no problem with different race, gender, different six quality. i do not appreciate those comments is all i wanted to say. host: back to twittered. twitter.

to parkville, md.. democratic calller. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to say about these people leave in washington with nothing being done, i was a nurse for many years. let me tell you, we did not leave the floor while we had a patient in crisis. we stayed on the floors and did our job until work was done. i worked at a hospital that was going down the river because funds were pulled from it. we went back to work off the clock. we were pretty loyal to what we did. i will tell you that these people in washington, it is not that they cannot get the job, it is that they will not. i with like to add a new category to the next group of guys that want to go to washington.

you missed it yesterday, the senate took a vote on whether to continue aid to egypt. here is the headline. in "the washington times" -- what the money is spent on? tanks. tanks roll over people and protest. i have no love lost for the muslim brotherhood but they disappeared them. we will give the money to the military that is disappearing people. no one has heard from president morsi. i do not think he would be a good president or any country. but we will give money to people who make people disappear?

does anybody remember the soviet union? people stand up and say how bad it is the soviet union may people disappear. i am with them. i support that. that is what the military in egypt is doing, making people disappear. writes it upco" this way -- >> it is a question about whether or not we will continue to pursue our own national

interest and the national security in egypt in the middle east. about democracy. it is about the 30 million protesting in egypt that senator paul referred to, but there call is not for us to leave. their call is for us to engage with them. as the testimony before the committee by experts in the field said the one uniting thing about all elements of egyptian society is cut off all aid. that would unite them against us. wes is about making it sure have a stable middle east. deeper intog a bit this boat. mitch mcconnell but it was senator rand paul, as did a small group of gop senators that included mike lee and chuck

grassley. down 86-13. and on the line from ohio. and good morning. -- ann. caller: you have a calller who made a statement a couple of minutes ago about racism and white people being the recipients of racism. i feel that people who talk like that are mad about being confronted about things they are hearing. we have to deal with it. a long timee -- ago white people owned by people and understand there are good and bad things that came out of that. on the question of whether they are leaving empty-handed, i am glad they did not get very much done, because let's be honest, the one thing president obama is wanting most of all, the grand bargain, and that means cutting

social security benefits? who wants that out there? we need to be careful what we ask for and what we wish for. that immigration laws, that transportation bills -- we do not need that. i think what we need is a better class of congressmen and senators and congress so we can get some good policy and legislation coming out of washington for a change and the what the people actually want. we do not need rushed legislation, social security cut. fred in texas. republican calller. federal lot from my understanding is based on public law passed by congress, rules and regulations written by the agencies, case law from the federal courts and then the executive orders written by the

president. four being done, democrats are blocking everything congress does. www.regulations.gov you'll find out we a pass 6000 regulations in the past month. the attorney general in the state of oklahoma has filed suit the epathe epa because gets sued in federal court by an environmental agency, environmental group. the epa walks in and says you caught us, we capitulate. so they are making case law and the oklahoma attorney general is saying that is not legal. then you have the executive order written by the president who decides not to enforce immigration or anything else. empty-they are leaving

handed is not true. we will hear from two members of the house, the first one coming up in 15 minutes. scott garrett, republican of new jersey. we will also talk with congressman alan grayson who is from florida and on the committee of public affairs. back to facebook. kathy ward writes -- twitter -- "theis the front page of

washington post" -- thet is the lead in " washington post" -- "the new york times has a

" has a similar headline -- the judiciaryh committee hearings at our website any time, c-span.org. gary from ohio. good morning. i think this is a totally disastrous republican congress we have as far as the house is concerned. back in 1948, president harry truman had to actually literally run against the do nothing, good for nothing republican 80th congress because they basically did the same thing they are doing now, they sat on their hands. we have a good president trying to do a lot of good for the country. these people are mired in the past. they did not want to move forward. they do not like the fact that

we have a black man as president. it is a sad fact. the president can and should use some of his presidential powers to call congress back into special session and make them stay there until they get a major public works bill passed. that would certainly put a lot of people who are out of work back to work, and it would also fixed a lot of our problems structurally in the country with regard to decaying bridges, bad roads, airports that the expanded and so forth. than could do a lot worse what -- than the present we have. we have a very good president. that is pretty much what i have

to say. these republicans are deliberately doing this. they do not want him to succeed. all we need to do is watch what mitch mcconnell says every day and you can see that. now inearing from rick pennsylvania. independent calller. caller: i wanted to point out yesterday that obama surprise visits on capitol hill with the head of the nsa said it canceled the committee meeting with obama and would probably never will get that investigated. thank you. albuquerque, new mexico. . weler: we do not, president, have an entertainer. he is on the airplane all the time.

when he was first elected he told the country then the republican sen -- can sit on the back of the bus, we won. i would like to see him work with not only the democrats but republicans. person,am a hispanic and they better be careful, because all they're doing is using us. want us to vote for him, and then he takes us and the behind. behind. us in the i am so disgusted. i am 75-years-old. i have never seen my country being run up like this. kids cannot find jobs. people -- men cannot support their wives and children any more. he is advocating food stamps and welfare. instead of doing that, why

doesn't he put on his boots, tighten his pants, and work with everyone, not just the democrats, but everybody, black, white, hispanic -- whatever. what difference does it make what your race is? we are all americans and helped to build this country. about time he stayed home and take care of the problems we have in the country instead of hopping on the airplane every time he turns around, entertaining. we have had more entertaining with what he is on that anything else. i am tired of him blaming someone else. whatin your heart and see you were doing. you are separating this country. host: thinker calling. some other news as well. post" --the washington

to "usa today" -- fire.scipline under

back to the phones. headlineton times" today -- what do you think about congress accomplishing and maybe not accomplishing? been on the line from virginia. democrats. -- dean. caller: think you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. theh mcconnell mentioned president has gone campaigning. someone could say old which has gone fishing for five weeks. the work force i am used to in the real world, if you are

falling behind on the job, you do what you need to do. you cannot go on vacation. i think the president has bent over backwards to do what he can do to work with republicans. but mcconnell is the foreman on the largest construction project ever built doing everything he can to prevent the president from succeeding. on that, i think you for c-span. host: jason on the line. undergradam an student. maybe i can shed some light on why lawmakers did not get anything done. host: we will let the calller go. pats on the line from us serious comment. i would like to make a is the senate has

passed nothing, and they are democrats. talks about the house, likehe president, he acts his team of experts do not work with the house of representatives. when they had democrats, they said -- dinner with the democrats, they said that was their first meeting. the president did not work with them. remember the president's jobs bill in 2012. jobsked 19 times that his bill be passed. republicans were in

committee and sent over 30 bills that were dead on arrival in the senate. reid weeks later on the up or down bill, 51 democrats is all it would take to pass. 47 republicans. plus democrats. they voted 53 times to defeat it. all we hear from the president is evil, evil republican spirit and -- all we hear from the media is evil, evil republicans. i have something to say about how hateful sepal -- c-span has

become since he went up and started talking. is asking, where you get your news? c-span is neutral or should be neutral. they are so hateful now that the protests reached a president has gone out. host: think you for sharing your thoughts. back to facebook -- -- thank you. back to usa today. a couple of military stories to point out. they are nearing a deadline on

the post 2014 presence in afghanistan. they are nearing completion of an agreement for an american military presence. back to the wall street journal this morning. they have a rather large story. of the military are battling over the shrinking war chest. they write the fights have erupted over responsibility from everything to drones to clocks. they battle to keep the share of the shrinking defense budget. the emerging debate will be the most intense in two decades as the branches of the military seek to retool missions to mask the needs of future conflict. they add that secretary hickel hagel recommended cuts

are made to its smallest size before world war ii. daniel hanging on. host: think that we have a think we of a great president. we are divided by race. white present was a president and set of a black president, we would not have these problems. it shows everything we are doing and going on around the , and not doing anything

because our president is not a good man or has the wrong political agenda, they're absolutely wrong. this is a good president. if he had half a chance, he could do great things. that is why he is being stopped. want a black man to have a legacy of being a great president. please take a look at yourself. are divided among race. that is a shame. host: a couple more calls. harry and georgia. -- in georgia. caller: good morning. a couple of things if i could. it amazes me congress is taking five weeks off with the condition of our country and the

things that need attention. is unbelievable. the second point i would like to make if you will allow me, i cannot understand people opposed to an id card to vote. everything you buy in the country you have to have an id card. i do not see how anyone can make a case against it. with identifying yourself when you go to vote? one of the most important things you can do in the world, you can whichwos, cash a check -- can be concentrating on more important things. i think you very much. much.nk you very

that was harry. the last call. my apologies. the house is in today. they're leaving tomorrow after one more vote on health care. we thank you for calling. we have two more members of congress coming up. if you did not give in in the first 45 minutes, stay on the line or call again. scott garrett, a republican calller from new jersey. at the increase and from florida up next. -- alan grayson.

>> one, i think they serve as a window on the past to what was going on with american women at any given time in our past history. if you look at the first lady's life, you get a view of what is going on with whitman. the other thing i find very interesting from a women's history standpoint is that it is the conjunction of the public and private lives of women, which is a topic many scholars are very interested in. i think first lady's epitomize the coming together of the public and private life. >> our original series "first looks at the public and private life of first ladies. watch this starting next week at

8:00 on c-span. >> when the first electronic computer was planned, it was estimated there could never be a market for more than two or three. today there are more than 5000 computers. >> this is a replica of the machine. dos is designed in 1890 to the census. the 1880 census took almost two years to complete, so the government knew it was in big trouble because it would run out of time before the 1900 senses was due. a way around the problem was to automate the problem. the way they solve this was to ask a bunch of questions, the usual questions that census takers ask, and punched the responses into small pieces of cardboard. >> on american artifacts, the first 2000 years of computing sunday at 10:00 part of american

history tv every weekend on c- span tv. now, scott garrett is here republican congressman from new jersey and member of the budget committee and financial services committee. thank you for being here. the callers have been knocking congress. who knows? " has ashington post cartoon that speaks to this matter. they have a picture of congress and greece -- recess and in session in the pictures look exactly alike. what do you make of the bashing of congress heading into a brick? host: not a good sign. never good for the public not to have a degree of confidence in the elected representatives, but certainly understandable when squabblingd so much over the issues. when you cannot get things done.

that is what i hear when i get back home, new jersey, why did not come together and solve these issues? i usually explain it this way. i say it is hard to reach an agreement if i write down here is my proposal income to the table like this and waiting for the other person on the other side of the aisle to come to the table with his proposal. if he does not come with something we can compromise on or reach the middle ground, we will not reach a compromise. had our document. they had nothing. there was no meeting of the minds. that being said, take as deeper into your party split. talking about harold rogers futures the appropriation committee. not enough support. a lot of the write ups say this does not bode well for the rest

of the budget process and republicans are basically fighting with each other and may be abandoning paul ryan's budget. guest: no, maybe, and sort of. no, we're not abandoning the budget. we are in support of at this time and in the past as well. i do not think we are abandoning it at all. i saw chairman rogers's comments in the paper. i think they were the comments of a frustrated chairman because he has to be frustrated having done all the work based on the ryan budget, and at some point in time leadership knew there were too close on the votes. that happens. the republican party is not a monolithic party in some ways that the democrat party is. the work off of one set of

talking points and can get things done and that's matter. we do have disagreements and disputes. we are a conservative caucus, probably more so than any time in the past. that is a good thing because it leads us in the right direction with regard to fiscal sanity instability, but there will be some disagreements. on that bill there were some that made the case they wanted more money for this or that. is that sooner rather than later we will work out the differences and be able to go back to the floor with it. host: we invite your questions and comments for the congressman. represents the fifth district of new jersey. a town called glen rock and newton. what part of the state is that? guest: the nicest part of the state. the very top of new jersey. hudson river to the delaware river. about ar guest spent dozen years in new year jersey

-- the general assembly. a member of the budget committee in financial services committee. the president went to the hill yesterday to visit house and democrats -- the house republicans and democrats separately. what the make of the posturing? says he will not negotiate. what do you make of that? i saw the president. that is a high for a brief, passing moment. guess posture is a pretty good word. just posturing. in other words, we're not hearing anything new. he is going around the country in what some people have described as campaign-type events, and not saying anything different than he has in the past. i gave you an example about wanting to reach an agreement with the other side on these things and having something

specific. we have not got anything more from him than talking points that he remain -- that you may remember last cycle, the cbo said what with regard to the president? they said we cannot score a speech. neither can we. we cannot put a figure on a speech. we need him to actually engage. stay here in washington while we are in washington and engage on these matters. if we do that, we would be a little more optimistic to say things are getting done. host: going into the august break, what can you point to in terms of success? what is a positive in your view and what is your biggest frustration? what: the frustration is we've been talking about, not being able to get more done. the success is we have talked about the preparations bill and moving some of those through the process.

. serve on financial-services removed all whole slew of bills through the subcommittee, for committee, and now off of the floor as well. -- we moved a whole slew of bills. this was to provide certainty to the marketplace. one of the words i always hear is there is not enough certainty in the markets right now. not enough certainty in the regulation. we have done a lot in that area and did it to the point of today's discussion, and a bipartisan matter. we've moved a lot of legislation jointly at of the committee and to the floor and bipartisan. host: read from virginia. independent. good morning. -- mary from virginia. these people are sitting

at home. you have callers before talking about wanting to get back to work. why in the world is present all, talking about jobs, yet not talking about taking out 7 million illegal workers that are doing non-agricultural jobs. no sense that people are pushing for amnesty for the illegals here. all of them will get work permits -- or most of them. that is insane. 11 million or 18 million people when 14 million are looking for work. host: thank you for the call. guest: the calller makes a good point. unemployment in the country is still too high is what i hear in my district. we have passed a number of

pieces of legislation related to jobs to turn the situation around. a lot of the legislation goes to the senate. the senate is where all good bills go to die. the calller makes the point with regard to immigration. that is one of the frustrating aspects as well. reform, we have to look for the focus is at first, and that should be here in the united states and citizens of the country and their concerns. we have to be concerned about people out of work first and foremost. host: will you hold town meetings in august? guest: sure. i will be going out and doing those kinds of things. also the time for county bears. hall a most their own town meetings right there. you walk around. literally tens of thousands of people there. has thisa today"

headline -- there is heaped on immigration? what are the town hall meetings like? guest: people are upset, people are concerned. people of the work themselves are very concerned. people who know people out of work are very concerned. you want to call its heat, people are concerned. whether you were at the county fair or going shopping. it could be an official event or just out with your family. people will approach me. i do not have to be in the district. i could be over in manhattan on business or something else there. people say i know you and see you on tv and know you are a congressman and it will bring up the concerns. the concerns are about the economy, about jobs, uncertainty in the marketplace.

people are concerned about their families. they want to make sure they will continue to be able to pay their bills and have a job. that is what we hear about. "the headline in washington post" -- what does that mean to you? guest: as expected. be arevious article may week ago those rejections were less than expected. overall, the economy continues to be in a sluggish state. unlike any previous recovery time after recession, this is one of the worst recessions we are in it since the great depression. i would show we have a series of other recessions since the great depression. if i have a chart, it would show after each one of the prior recessions you had an uptick in

the marketplace, uptick in economic the relevant. a much greater rate than it is right now. this one little article right now is positive but overall much worse than we ever have in history. next calller, republican. negotiationsbudget will take place by staff during the long break in order to get back on task immediately in september to avoid the crisis, the end of september with the budget, especially with the administration trying to demonize anyone and everyone all around the country every single day guest: even though we are back during a town hall meetings, washington does not shut down and staff is still here so the conversations can't continue.

paul ryan takes the lead on these things with regard to the budget. i cannot speak for him and tell you what his schedule is but i anticipate he will not going to be removed on this in the next six weeks. to happen, wehat need to have a better indication from the administration. they're taking the position now it is their way or the highway but we have failed policies. the president's proposal now is he wants to see taxes go up and spending to go up as well. and negotiation do with tax reform is part of the same failed policies. want toans did not increase taxes and we know that if we're going to have a fiscally same fiscal policy, you cannot keep increasing spending

host: this is from patty murray. [video clip] >> he made it clear that he was not going to negotiate over the debt ceiling grid we've got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis in his words and our words and we are going to fight hard to make sure that we continue to manage our country in a way that makes middle-class families feel secure. -- whatisis to crisis does that mean to you in terms of the stability of the country? guest: the word that i used before and always use is 'uncertainty.' the reason there is uncertainty is because we have a crisis management approach your in washington. washington. i served in the state government before i was here and people often ask me what the difference is between being in the state

government and the federal government and one of the differences i noticed after being here a few years is that in washington, every week to come down here, is another crisis you are dealing with. in the state government, you may have one large issue you do with with months. after much wrangling, you'll come to a resolution. wewashington, every week comes here and is the next big explosion. this past week it was dealing with the preparations and next week it will be something else. that is not a good way to govern for the country if you want to have certainty. what we should be doing is working in a more sustainable pattern where you sit down with a president who was not traveling across the country and campaigning and sit down with senate leadership that are actually in to work and pass bills and then you end of some of the crisis management. you had that little cartoon their of what the congress looks

working and one that is not working. the only thing i would beg to differ on is the difference between the senate and house. you could say the house with all its flaws and problems, the house actually has passed a whole series of legislation whether it is a financial- services which is my area for dealing with health care or otherwise. we passed them over to the senate so maybe the post should have had a cartoon that shows the senate is -- it is hard to figure out if they are in session or not. wonder what they do during these long periods of time when we are working host: let's hear from a democratic column. caller: i want to start with you. i thought you were supposed to

be neutral when your guests come on and you said the president was posturing. what do you think the republicans are doing? it tickles me to hear the republicans. you all go into a room at night. all of you come out and say the same thing. in different ways. if you would work with this president -- i am a citizen of this country and i vote -- if you would work with this president, even though you don't like some of his bills, you all could never come up with a bill yourselves. you are always breaking down the president and saying what he is not doing like you did with health care. you spend -- if you spent as much time working with the press and trying to get the country back like it should or try to repeal a bill that is law, supreme court said it was law, you do stuff 40 tons and that cost us money. appreciate the callers,

but i'm not sure whether she has been watching my program for the to last 10 minutes. i have said repeatedly that i would love to work with the president but the president has not been willing to work with us. let me give you an inside story -- with regard to health care -- when does was first being discussed, the president said over and over that republicans have zero plants with regard to health care reform. he said it so many times. that's why the caller is probably saying republicans have no proposals. the day that the president came to congress to make a speech to say he has his plan for an affordable health care act and republicans have no proposals and he wants to work with us, i went in early to congress that day and got a seat on the aisle so that after the speech was over and the president was done, he walks down the center aisle and i stuck out my hand and

said," mr. president, i appreciate the fact you want to work with us." my hand was a 30-page document with a listing of all the republican proposals and legislation on health care. i said, "he said we have no proposals, and here they are and i would love to hear them back -- hear back from you." he took it and smiled and said thank you very much. that was several years ago. since that time, he has continued to go on the news and what have you saying that republicans have no proposals even though i handed it to him and i have never heard back from the president saying he wants to work with us. i respect the colors of view but the facts speak otherwise that we have proposals and have tried to enter into proposals with him and he has not been willing to do so. he is not in the city all the time like we are but he is out campaigning. in order to get the job done, he has to be here at the table with

this not talking to the democratic conference where he was yesterday. he does not need to talk to those guys. he needs to come over and talk to us. host: lots of headlines on your specific work and one of them comes from "the hill." what do you know about these people? do you have a ticket a choice in mind? guest: not at this point in time but i appreciate he is throwing out some other proposals there. to main street in addition to wall street and talk to folks that deal with this issue all the time and i'd deal they are as well but

little bit concerned of the fact that in washington, it is not based upon a merit system. it is based upon politics. it is not based upon how well you can do the job but how well you know somebody. you look at the very top of the list and it is not an issue of meritocracy. it is the fact that these people are politically connected. we're a country of over 300 million people. maybe we can say we can put politics aside and not take the best friends of the people of the president or any party but look out there to see who can perform this job the best. florida,ura from independent caller. caller: i am from new jersey and i don't hear your accent [laughter] i am retired in florida. i had to get out of there. i was paying $5,000 per year for

texas. i pay $500 here. what i was getting at -- what i wanted to ask you is -- everybody is yelling about these poor kids and senior citizens that are on food stamps and they should not be on food stamps and they need to work. how does a 5-year-old child work? that is a question and number 12 -- if they have the minimum rates waste because if you realize how much it costs to rent an apartment or buy a home, you would raise the minimum wage so that these people could get off welfare. i don't understand that. can you explain that to me? fort: let me give it a shot it on a minimum-wage aspect -- if it is true we live in a world where you say take the current minimum wage and raise it by a certain percentage, and everything else would stay the

same, that person would now make 25-50% more than before. the economics of it does not work that way. in other words, if you are a small business owner, hiring someone currently at minimum look at it youto can afford to keep your employees on if you double their salary? that if you shown make these increases in minimum wage, the employer says by law i have to raise these people who are currently employed by certain percentage but i cannot afford to keep one or two other people on. it is too much money studies have shown and looked at minimum wage increases and say generally what happens especially in the service industry is that when you raise minimum wage, some people see their salaries go up

if they are fortunate to keep their jobs but other people get kicked out of the employment system entirely. they get fired and they end up being on unemployment. the solution is not just having a government system that says you have to pay x per job. the real solution is to have a system where people can get out of the minimum wage job. you don't want to be in a minimum wage job your entire life and moved up the economic runs of the latter. you want a better paying jobs so you are now getting better education. we have many programs out there to get out of that situation fanned into a better situation for you and your family. host: there's a question from twitter - that is still a state aflux. it is under consideration that

there is not a final decision on that. think there will probably be some discussions during the august breaks. the caller probably recognizes that congress did something it has not done in decades with regard to the so-called farm bill. it used to be purely a farm bill. i have some old "life magazine's" from the 1950's talking about the farm bill. the farm bill back in the 1950's dealt with programs dealing with farmers. several decades later, it changed from a farm bill to a welfare bill. it was in the form of food and no food stamps has grown larger than the farm bill. split andngress, we took those two apart again and

passed the bill just dealing with farming issues and made some reforms and that cut back on subsidies and eliminated other subsidies. we're now dealing with the food stamp provision and trying to find some reforms in those programs. host: ohio, republican, good morning. caller: it seems like there are several problems going on. one is the house passed to hold the purse strings for they are the last defense to getting our population and slate in debt and our grandkids in desperate i thank you for that job. the other thing is the speech is the president's make. there is a cost. some are up to $1 trillion when he gives a speech as to what he wants to give away without the approval of congress and comes bill.with a builder o the other thing is student's tuition. do we owe him for college

parties? that through at $1 billion, we have to put $10 billion worth of pork in their from the people who want to add on and that is killing us. guest: that as a whole bunch of issues. the overarching theme of his call is how do we reinstate fiscal sanity into washington, d.c.? he is right, the president has continued on his tour, talking about new programs he would like to have. he does not really say how he would pay for them save for the fact he wants to raise taxes and other people which is easy to do. i would gladly accept new programs if i could get taxes from you but that would not work. we are near record highs as far as percentage of gdp that comes from taxes. need to do is to live

within our means which is what everyone watching this program does. this business cannot spend more than it takes in. but callers at home cannot do that as well but washington has been doing that for wait too long, spending more than they take in. i appreciate the callers accolades. that is what rich -- conservative republicans in the house are trying to do which is to reestablish a solid path of fiscal civility and it is nothing more complemented -- complicated than saying this is our revenue from the various sources and we should not spend more than that. it is not for our benefit that we do these things before our kids benefits and their grandkids benefits. the excess that we spend today is borne by our children who are about $17 trillion in desperate a baby born today has around $52,000 in debt already just because they are born in the

united states. host: thet: as i said before, problem with looking to the minimum wage as the solution of bringing people out of poverty or benefiting their situation -- it is a false analysis of how to do it. wage job is probably going to never be sufficient to support you and yourself and and stay out of poverty. you need to say minimum wage jobs generally should be entry level jobs. opportunity for young people to get into the system or cold -- or older people for retirement purposes -- purposes, it should be entry-level and provide education programs to move up out of that so you eventually get a better lifestyle and

support yourself. raising minimum wage, study after study shows it hurts people who are then fired because the business cannot afford it. host: air is another one -- -- here is another one -- people thought the president was taking one side and republicans the other side on this thing. you are right, in a bill called dodd-frank legislation which was so-called wall street reform which the president supported and the democrats passed, that actually put into statute a bailout system for wall street. some of us opposed that bill strenuously saying, no, we should not bail them out. i voted against the president's

proposal to bail them out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and did not support the idea of bailing out fannie mae and freddie mac. i was opposed to all of that. unfortunately, the president's andiative had barney frank cut off all the spending for wall street and now you have a system in law it will effectively take taxpayers' money and bail them out again. my committee is trying to undo that and ended the bailouts to wall street and big business and not allow them to look to the taxpayers to pay for this again. host: this is new information on a separate matter -- ward snowden has been granted a one-year asylum in russia. from tennessee, a democrat, good morning. caller: i would like to know how

you can republicans sit there and said that obama is on the campaign trail. we all heard from your party that you will do everything you can to bring this man down. you're not going to bring him down. you are bringing the country down. he is going to get paid for the rest of his life. the public.ing it is not hurting obama. it is hurting us. guest: against the facts speak for themselves. all you have to do is look to see where the president has been recently and he has not been seen in washington engaged with the republican leadership. out flying around the country doing speeches. that is not how you negotiate or come to an agreement.

he can have an opinion and i can have another but if he is out someplace else, you are not going to be able to bring the two sides together. as far as the bills that are passed and we are trying to undo, we tried to pass a bill last week that did what he did. affordable health care act also known as obama care. that is currently the law of the land but then he by himself with annette -- without any right, unconstitutional, would argue, decided that he is not going to enforce obama care. it was the same law that he pushed for. he says big business does not have to comply with it. he is by letting the law where he does best of congress passed a bill last week saying mr. president, if you want to help big business and not have them comply with obama care, we want a bill to give you the legal authority to do so.

he said no, i reject that legislation. we try to work with him. i'm not sure whether the caller is familiar with the times we are doing that. as i said, the facts speak for themselves. he is not engaging our working with us. host: here are a couple of other stories in the news -- guest: that was part of the dodd-frank legislation. some of that information was already out prior to the legislation. it really goes to the issue of being an investor in a business, what is important to you as far as what is materially important to you when you make an investment. an investment does that mean you are a big wall street guy, it

mean your money is going for investment for retirement. that is part of the dodd-frank legislation. -- issue there is just out is just how complex to comply with this. if you have a certain amount of employes in one state, is probably not that hard to do. if you are a multinational company with facilities in -- on all the continents and being paid around the world in different ways in different systems, it is probably more complicated to do. -st: "the washington times" guess the bigger issue

in this as far as debit fees and credit card fees is there is no free lunch in life. hopefully, people in washington understand that. people back home do. to runs so much in order and provide the services. the idea was by putting limits on debit fees that you were going to suddenly provide a service to the customer and if people had debit cards, they would apply for credit cards and that would provide a service. it is like any balloon, if you push it in one place, it pops out somewhere else. you put limitations on what they can charge over here for a debit cards or credit cards, that cost to provide the service has to be picked up someplace else. at some financial the institutions, all of a sudden, they are charging for other services used to get for free.

you will see it is harder to get loans in the marketplace. many times, when we say washington solid one problem here, all this setting, it pushes out someplace else. host: from the bronx, n.y., independent -- yes, good morning and thank you for cspan. i have three quick things -- leader takes responsibility whether things are going back or whether things are going good. that is what a leader does. that they arelems rapping obama. boehner has a hard time selling his own agenda. they cannot even come together and agree and pass their own agenda.

how can they really accept what comes from the other side of the aisle? i don't see that happening. number two - a lady just said that obama is not going to be affected financially. his family will get a pension for the rest of their lives. it is the people that voted for you, mr. congressmen, that you are supposed to affect policies that those people that put you there are bands affected. instead, what is happening is that instead of pledging allegiance to help those people that are out of jobs, the people who want to move from one class to the upper class, [indiscernible] those decisions that are made behind doors is not what you say when you come outside to us, the public. that is the problem. callers agree with the

first point that leadership takes responsibility and maybe we have not seen much of that from this president. he always wants to point fingers the other way the second point with regard to speaker john boehner, he has to take responsibility for what happens that does not happen in the house of representatives. you are correct i would disagree with u.s. cars pushing our agenda. our agenda is one of fiscal soundness and stability. we passed budgets every year under speaker john boehner's leadership and cent -- and send them to the senate. we pass a preparations bill and send them to the senate. overudget basically does there and the appropriations bill that we passed dies over there. i do with financial services issues and that is part of our agenda to provide certainty to the financial markets. that is part of our agenda and we passed a number of them. unfortunately, they go to the

senate so we have done a lot as far as what our agenda is. some disagreement along the way but we get a lot done but it goes to the senate. as far as the issue -- if we pass bills, it will probably not personally heard president obama. we have to be concerned about our citizens, our constituents. that is what i did not support to the affordable health care act because we knew that it would cause businesses to lay off people and cause hardship. that's exactly what happened. one day to find full-time employment as 40 hours and you have to provide health care insurance at that level, businesses made a decision that they will lower the hours from 40 down to 30 and now you have many people making lower end of andpeg seeing jobpay si their pay check cut.

it is because of what the president and the affordable health care act and obama cared did. it is telling businesses to lower the number of hours you pay people and you will not have to comply with these things and i am opposed to that. we should do all we can to get people into full-time jobs that are sustainable and are jobs that pay enough that they can support themselves and their families. host: the last caller from this segment, republican from michigan -- to know howuld like the federal reserve can create money out of thin air and use it andurchase stocks mortgages that are backed by the taxpayer. if i do that, i go to jail for counterfeiting. they get away with it. how? guest: that is the perennial

question that comes up when ben bernanke comes to our committee. if he was sitting there next to me, his answer is that he is not printing money. he is buying securities and holding them to maturity and that is not a printing of money. you and i probably would disagree with his definition. he can't do it with the fact that the federal reserve was set up over 80 years ago to give him that power. i asked him if there is any limitation on the powers of what he does. i ask this back in 2010 and he said no, unless congress acts, there are no limitations. i believe we should act and rain in of the fed and i have supported legislation to do just that host: our guest has been scott garrett, the congressman -- the republican congressman from new jersey. thank you for your time. we have about 1.5 hours left.

upcoming guests include congressman alan grayson, a democrat from florida, to talk about the nsa data collection program and other issues and later in the program, cnn films tonight will debut an item uses 500our nixon" reals a previously unseen home movies. we will talk with the producer of that film coming up later. first an update from cspan radio. edwardnsa leaker, snowden will be part of compositions at the white house when the president is scheduled to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss data collection programs under the farms -- foreign intelligence surveillance act. after that, he will meet with the president of yemen and they will discuss counter-terrorism at its and the return of yemeni detainees at guantanamo bay. this meeting comes as yemeni

security officials say that a suspected u.s. drawn has killed three alleged al qaeda members in that country. on another note, earlier today, the president has issued an executive order telling agencies to look for new ways to safely store and secure the ammonium nitrate. this is in response to the deadly explosion at a texas fertilizer plants. agencies are being told to determine whether or chemical should be covered by federal regulations. the massive explosion and april in west texas killed 15 people and leveled hundreds of structures including three of the town's four schools. there's a house hearing this morning on this explosion. you can watch it live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on our website, c- span.org, here it later on cspan radio. those are some of the latest headlines. there should just be a

flow of communication available to anyone in the country. we turn on lights and don't think about it. it is an input into everything we do as a country. communication should be the same thing. because we have been a little confused -- there is a lot therefog around this issue -- people have this sense that internet access is a luxury. electricity was treated as a luxury in the early 20th century. everybody needs water but electricity is only for the rich and took decades to change the perception of electricity from one thing to the other. noware in this middle piont where internet access is viewed as something slightly magical or expense of but talk to someone trying to run a business from his home. for him, internet access is necessary. he cannot get going without having that reasonably priced connection and now there is no

option. >> out of america's economic future is being impacted by companies controlling access to the internet. susan crawford, sunday night at 9:00 on "afterwards." continues."journal" host: our guest is congressman alan crazy, a democrat from florida, a member of the foreign affairs committee. -- alan grayson. talk about the news from russia that says edward snowden has been granted a one-your temporary asylum in russia. -- one year temporary asylum in russia. any reaction? guest: it is irrelevant. there should be a debate about whether the government should be receiving a record of every one of our phone calls for that's what we should be talking about, not about the leaker but the leaks. host: this is the headline from

" the new york times." i want to get your take on a piece of tape from the committee would senator chuck grassley. [video clip] >> what information does the government collect under this program and specifically is anyone's name, address, social security number, or location collected? >> to answer the second part -- name, address, location, social security number is not collected under the 215 program at all. never has been and never will be. secondly, the nature of the collection is really very dependent on this reasonable particulates suspicion. a lot of metadata excess and a data base, it cannot be

accessed unless you go through the procedures of documenting that there is reasonable articular of all suspicion that the phone number you want to ask about is associated with terrorists. host: reaction? guest: it is irrelevant. it is misleading as well. every time you make a phone call, every time i make a phone call, every time your listeners call into this show, the nsa gets a record of that call. that is what people are concerned about host: what is the answer? >> guest: the answer is to stop it because it is a violation of the u.s. constitution. host: our guest will be with us for the next 40 minutes and we have a democrat from florida, the ninth district. guest: we are located in south orlando. host: you previously served earlier in the eighth district from 2009-2011 and was defeated

for reelection and came back camewon different district. guest: the biggest comeback in house history. i was in a district that had been republican for 34 years -- was elected in 2008. democrats lost their seats and i came back two years later and won by 25 points. the 43-point swing is the biggest in the history of the u.s. house of representatives. host: we will get to your calls in a moment but we want to ask about the fisa order. explain what it is and what kind of changes you'd like to see. guest: it is a secret star tribunal that has been set up to pretend to provide some oversight to the n s a r regarding its surveillance which is illegal and being conducted court rubber- fisa

stamp requests from the state department to conduct domestic surveillance. in one recent year, they have roughly 1000 requests and they allowed every single one of them. it is a court that has been appointed entirely by our right wing chief justice and virtually all the people who serve on that court are people who were appointed by george w. bush to the courts. host: tell us about changes you'd like to make guest: the system certainly is not working very well have a court to that simply uses a rubber stamp and allows for every single request, there is no genuine oversight being conducted. the deeper problem here is that the wrong judgments are being made concerning what is relevant. the statute is clear that in order to collect any information under any circumstances, domestically, that information has to be relevant to the investigation of terrorism by a foreign person. that is why we have the defense

department to protect us from actions by foreigners, not actions by americans. there has been a clear line drawn since the 1870's. that the fence department is supposed to defend us from foreign enemies. domestically, we rely upon the fbi and the department justice. notwithstanding, for the past few years, the nsa has gone wild and conducted domestic surveillance on literally every single american, all 320 million people who have a telephone. that is wrong and unconstitutional. our founding fathers were quite clear on this point. the nsa has made a mockery of that. host: the first call from our guest to as a law degree from harvard and has worked as an attorney and is now a member of the u.s. house. allen and grayson is a democrat from florida. texas is up first on the democratic line. caller: i don't know if you

remember me but i'm a lady down in texas that you took the time to make a phone call to a few years ago and bank be on your health care comments. i have followed you and we appreciate what you do. i am down here on the southern border and i am very concerned about the drones on the domestic surveillance down here. i don't think people have any idea how widespread it is. saw has concerned me when i a story a few years ago about the war blimps they were using. everything we take out of the mideast is being brought here. i worry about that and i think the drone program is something that really needs to be investigated and put a halt to. guest: in fact, i have taken a step to do that. i passed an amendment -- it is typical for any democrat to pass an amendment -- and a man and a republican-controlled house bypassed an amendment a few weeks ago to to forbid the department, as occurred from

acquiring any weapon is drones. there is a second generation of drones coming up. the department of defense wants to recycle the old drones used against americans. and the department, security, we inc. -- we incorporated a patrician bill that would retreat would prevent the use of weapon last drones. i think we have to get our priorities straight there has not been any doubt about this since the 1870's. department of defense is supposed to direct its effort beyond our borders. that is a very clear line that has to be maintained. thank you very much for your encouragement, i remember the call. host: on our line for independents - caller: i wanted to know -- i am in the military and i am a student. when we are deployed, is the nsa

watching our phone calls? are they monitoring our to been occasions with their family members back home? cost to does it investigate or to have a rubber- stamp for the green light to go ahead and monitor this or that person? we are in a recession and a means we are spending so much money on monitoring all these different things. we could be investing money elsewhere. guest: yes, there was a shocking report a few years ago that the nsc was listening to phone calls of a very personal nature between deployed servicemen overseas and their wives. it was found sex actually an nsa agents were literally passing around the tapes of phone sex that had been made by servicemen to their wives. apparently, none of the nsa gens conducting that so-called investigation or ever punished.

that is an illustration of the kind of abuse you can expect in a program that watches everyone all the time like a big brother. it cost a lot of money but few members of congress know how much it costs. as part of the so-called black budget, the budget that is kept secret even from members of congress, it is safe to say that it cost billions of dollars for us to be watching us. that's an activity that the constitution forbids because there is no probable cause and it needs to stop. host: there is something on the house floor last week known as the amash amendment. theresue is better out remind us what that amendment was and how you voted. guest: the amendment was a pipe part -- bipartisan effort to rein in the nsa stuff domestic surveillance in violation of the constitution. i voted for and lobbied my colleagues heavily for it.

i was responsible for the drafting of the letter that i personally circulated to literally a couple of hundred of my colleagues on the floor of the house. i made the argument in favor of respecting the constitution and respecting the rights of americans to their privacy. the amendment just barely failed. i think we will see it again. it simply would have inserted an order into each fisa , a single sentence, that the court issues reminding people that domestic surveillance is unconstitutional without probable cause. -st: a tweet the evidence is in who he selected. there are roughly as many democratic appointed judges as there are appointed by george w. bush and other republicans. he has singled out the george w.

bush appointees. call is from east point, mich., republican -- i am just curious - what was the nsa gathering up all of our personal records and what the irs as been doing? i guess it's for our protection. why is it then that when americans truly needed help in benghazi, the administration sat there and did nothing? guest: those things are not at all commensurate. let me try to address that. in fact, it is tragic and unconstitutional and not in any way necessary to keep us safe for our defense department to be spying on us. think about it in terms of common sense. when you call your pizzeria and

order a deep dish pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni on top, does the defense department need to know that? does that make you safer in any respect whatsoever? i think the answer is obvious. it does not. with regard to benghazi, i have had the benefit of reading all the classified material including the cables. bravebassador took a very but, in the end, an unfortunate chance when he went to an area that was not protected in the with embassies are normally protected. he knew what he has -- he knew what he was doing and have been posted there for many months. there was a rebellion against the dictator, khaddafi. he took a chance for the benefit of further u.s. foreign policy. did not expect that he would see an attack by roughly 50 armed men. we all know the results. the idea that anybody could have rescued him is really far- fetched.

air is no evidence of that in the classified information. but it is an unfortunate incident and it happens. we have servicemen who are serving in the military who died on force in almost every day. almostdie unfortunately every day for our freedom. host: burlington, vt., a democrat. appreciate this on a personal level that it bothers you that every time we make a phone call, the number from which you are calling and the number to which you are calling is being stored somewhere. to claim that a program they have already documented has prevented 50 possible terrorist attacks, is it relevant? it seems like a bit of a stretch. guest: your question is a bed of a stretch. nobody is claiming it is -- it has prevented 50 possible terrorist attacks. what the nsa has done is it has trumped up the claim that it has

some have disrupted roughly 40 or so attacks, almost all of which were going to take place abroad. even members of congress don't know. claim thatcumented this program and anything to do with interfering in any way with anything involving terrorism is a single case where a cabdriver was making contributions to a mosque and the government claimed those contributions later on ended up financing terrorism and as a result of that, they claim they can spy on every american and record every phone call. if they had more than that, you can be sure that we would know about it and they don't in those cases you're talking about, they are saying that sometimes during the course of the investigation some of this unconstitutional data was consulted.

they are not saying it prevented the terrorist attacks at all. they are not saying they would not have otherwise been able to disrupt them with the information they had. that is exactly what is wrong with this. the so-called intelligence community is making these rabbit, hysterical claims that in order to keep us safe, we have to spy on ourselves. there are some people who find that convincing. i think it defies common sense and i don't buy it. host: we have about 25 minutes left with our guests, congressman alan grayson florida. here is a twett- \ honestly, i have been asked whether the democrats have a secret plan to rule the world. all i can say is that if we do, it is so secret that i don't know about it and i am a member of congress. host: from fair lawn, new

jersey, independent caller -- caller: thank you for the program and welcome, mr. grayson. i am a true independent. i am leaning toward republican. my beef with the republicans is in the militarism and national security. courts offeredsa 30,000 dispensations to fbi to investigate phone calls which muius the fit000 whoiscovered, are people called their neighbors, their relatives -- all their private records were turned out and they found nothing. however, six or seven months down the road, if they google

their own name, i bet they will find themselves investigated for terrorism. the effort should be extended to in order to control the program. don't think we need this program at all, thank you. host: any reaction? guest: i don't think we should wait until we see mass of widespread violations of a very personal nature regarding people's privacy. debated butcan be the ability of this program really cannot be debated for the constitution says in the fourth amendment that we will be secure in our papers and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause and all warrants issued shall be issued with particularity. it is ridiculous to pretend that there is probable cause to get the phone records of every

american. it is absurd to pretend there's any particularity that says give us all your phone records to every major telephone company in the entire country. it is just wrong whatever the consequences and it needs to end. host: here is a headline from " the hill." dick durbin will be there and mike rogers will be there who chairs a house intelligence among others. what do you make of this kind of gathering? what might come out of it? why is it happening? guest: air have been constant gatherings like this and they all repeat the same five talking

points again and again. they are missing impact -- input from the critics of the program. in order to fill the gap, they scheduled the hearing this week on a bipartisan cheering that would have been attended by democrats and republicans to invite both left and right wing critics of the program, everyone from the cato institute on the right to the american civil liberties union on the left. we invited them in for a hearing but the president decided to come to capitol hill for only the second time this entire year at the exact same time as we had scheduled for this hearing and therefore, we had to post bond. we don't need more meetings and hearings from the apologists to the program for it went to hear both sides of the story and let congress and the american people decide. host: texas, republican, good morning.

are you there? curious -- canam you tell me why the department of, to charity needs 3700 armored vehicles within the united states? who are they going to use those vehicles against inside the united states? 1.6 billionneed rounds of ammunition? some of those are 308 sniper rounds. >> guest: i am a component of the militarization of a homeland security department. i passed the grease an amendment which prohibits the department, security from acquiring weapon is drones. in general, we have no difficulty in dealing with the threats that occur within our borders when we have proper information about them. for instance, we have the police to do with them, the fbi, the department of justice. i don't believe the u.s. department of defense or

similarly capable forces employing military-type weapons are necessary within our borders to use against us. host: you have mentioned your amendments a couple of times. but there isgazines this recent peace --

tell us more -- how have you become the most effective member of the house? guest: it as less and less on heralded as time goes by although we do the work for the sake of work, it is nice to get the recognition i think we have earned. it is true we have passed more amendments this year than any other member of the house. we passed 13 on the floor of the house already and past 31 in our committee. on one of the two committees, have passed half of all the amendments that have been passed it on the other, past 1/3 . we attach the bills as they are released to us with only maybe 24 hours those and we

figure out how to make them better for america, for the common good. a lot of times, we can accomplish that. i am a democrat. in any contested vote along party lines, i will not do too well. consistently, we come up with ways to produce amendments that appealed to both democrats and republicans and sometimes not for the same reasons. i did that during my first term as well for the only bipartisan accomplishment of the 111th with ronwas our bill paul to what the federal reserve. accomplish that because ron paul light of the republicans and i like that the democrats and that is a recipe for success. that was a good government bill. we are doing that over and over again in the 130 congress and i am proud of that. n.c.,greensboro,

democratic column. caller: hello. since you are fully aware that the government institutions don't always give the full story, why don't you stand by the nearly 2000 building experts in the investigation of building seven. now that osama bin laden is dead and 911 is a decade behind us and more, i think a good argument can be made that the documents that the federal government has regarding the 911 attacks should be declassified and the truth will come out. host: you have to distinguish between those two things. bradley manning did leave an awful lot of classified information. evidently, it went to wikileaks

and i think the court was correct in deciding it was not guilty of aiding the enemy because he had not directed that information to the enemy and that is what the statute says. that is how military justice rules agreed. with regard to the rest of it, i think it is clear that he did, in fact, leaked confidential information that was classified and therefore, he got punished. many people do great things sometimes get punished for them. i think back to the civil-rights era and help congressman john lewis was punished over and over again for acts of courage. this countryrs because the security system, the intelligence community and the military defense complex, military-industrial complex have created a system where we have 1 million people who receive classified information and 320 million who don't. a staggering amount of information is generated by the

government had wrongly classified as classified. in a system like that, we can see everything from secret wars against cambodia all the way up to unconstitutional surveillance of every single american and of so sometimes a snowden has to step forward and let us know about the government keeping things from us. wikileaks and brought forth unethical and illegal actions by various government officials. sometimes the missed it, sometimes for an investment as a useful purpose. caller: good morning. i want to say you are truly a patriot and our republic is better for it. as a former intelligence

officer, i am deeply concerned with using u.s. forces against u.s. persons. i am shocked. this has been going on for a long time. i made the joke that back in the 1980's we fought a war and now and it isting a war very true. you can go back to when bill we look atnged how people entering the country with drugs or changes to the u.s. -- intelligence directed a team that as declassified in shown under the website that we have a went down this path. paul for you and ran standing up to the constitution. please carry on. guest: thank you.

is exactly what osama bin laden was trying to bring about. he did not he believed -- believe he could destroy buildings in order to do real damage. what he thought is we could turn on each other. passed itng the house shouldn't. the houses approving tougher sanctions. the toughest sanctions yet on iran. brush aside calls for restraint by critics that said the election should first be given a chance to negotiate. how did you vote? what you think about iran these days? guest: voted in favor of it and introduce five amendments and did not think it is enough. i am not one of the people who bring we should water these things down.

" we're doing is not working. to have awant iran nuclear weapon. it is not an experiment and one to ever run. i do not think every country deserves nuclear-weapons. i did not believe that at all. question, are we willing to take the risk? there is a great debate whether we should allow the soviet union to have nuclear weapons? the same debate occurred with china. saying publicly they want to destroy america, i do not know why we should take the chance. in that light i am pleased we have cut back on the income but i do not see any evidence of the pain that is real, substantial having any impact on the decision making of people in

charge with report cards to the nuclear program. regards to the nuclear program. host: about the situation in syria? guest: it is tragic. i understand there are many people that have reservations about parts of the operation. if we help them we are more likely to influence them than if we do not help them. in general, i am hesitant to do that because i am not sure there are any real u.s. interest involved. i feel pain for the people that have suffered. more people died in the syrian civil war last year than any other armed conflict in the world, except for possibly the mexican drug war. close. many people died in both locations. despite the suffering, we are not the world's policeman.

tweet on iran -- florida republican calller named paul. good morning. and of a like to congratulate you on your fine work for the united states. the fact that the mba laws have been accepted. realize the freedoms they take away from us with what billion on with these calls per day, the same freedoms the take from us they also take from you guys?

they take from the infrastructure are of -- of our government. you correlate that with what is going on in business, the fact that wall street is big have an a -- heavily manipulated. the fact that we have trillions of dollars in national debt, along with the five major banks. america,go, bank of goldman sachs, j.p. morgan chase with 289 trillion dollars in debt load derivative positions. a look at all of this and astounded america is even surviving financially, let alone freedoms being drawn off. your comments. to thefirst, with regard nsa, although some of what you said is true, i am no where near fatalistic as that. democracy,ve in a

and i think we can make a difference. been just ase have many republicans as there are democrats standing up for our rights. look at the vote on the amendment, it was close. i think if the democrats want freedom, all those that vote against it will be held accountable. i think we will see real change. in theot destroy freedom name of saving them. i think back to the massacre. i remember the commander who said we destroy the village in order to save it. we cannot do that with democracy. the thing that makes america's special is our freedom, constitutional rights, and we cannot bargain them away with an illusory freedom that we're getting a a freedom.

host: tweet from you once again. do not hear this term as much as we used to. the you consider yourself a blue dog democrats? yourself aconsideru blue dog democrat? guest: no, no. consider yourself a blue dog democrat? we had a private meeting with the nsa recently. in that meeting one of us said, one of the members said i took an oath to protect americans. the oath is to uphold the constitution of the united states. that is my oath. that is what i do all the time. does not matter if you are a democrat or republican, you take the oath. >> what are you expecting to

hear next month? guest: we have 7.5% unemployment. something has gone awry when these people work 40 hours a week, sometimes 80 at two jobs, and still end up in the party level. i think we need to do better by the people in this country to work. as for the work force, they should work really hard and apply themselves they have very little pay. that if you were, you should be raised above the poverty level. host: you will be asked to take another vote on health care

tomorrow before you go. it has to do with the irs enforcement of the health-care law and withholding the money. what did you make of this issue overall? guest: i think we're wasting an awful lot of time. i think honestly the republican leadership in washington, d.c. has been flailing around and effectively. the fact that the use those numbers to repeal obama care is indicative of the fact of the need to concentrate on more constructive things. host: sam, georgia. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. my biggest comment first is the american people need to understand that after the 9/11 attacks, how soon was the patriot act ready to be signed, sealed, and delivered?

it really bothers me. themy next comment is picture act, is this not a witht of the patriot act this snooping you might call it? the interesting thing is many of the people that supported the patriot act are literally appalled by pervasive domestic spying by the department of defense and an essay on americans. on americans. he said that he wrote it. he knows what it means. he knows what was intended, and this is not it. it is clear to any fair reading of the law that this is not it.

the law provides the collection of any information regarding any american citizen on u.s. soil must be based upon relevance to a specific investigation of terrorism. istead what they're doing looking at all the phone records and playing around with them. the boys are playing with their toys. dhost: we touched on iran an syria. now a question on egypt on twitter -- guest: the lot is the law. the law of the land and we need to respect it. sometimes lawmakers themselves need to be reminded of that. thatssed a number of laws element i found to be unconstitutional. ametimes i feel like i waging a one-man war in washington. theave to show respect for

wall. under any reasonable definition of the word coup, that is what happens. the law is clear on that point. you can say this particular case serves american interests, but the law is the wall. it must be a nation of laws, not a nation of people. >> one last call for our guest. mike from laguna words, california. am a libertarian, but i respect all men and women of principle and conscious. i certainly respect you, sir. james madison wrote no nation could preserve freedom in the midst of continual warfare and strikes me as this strikes the military obama military abroad with the police stayed at home. with respect to the global war on terror, after decades of war,

hundreds of thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars and despite the misuse of the greatest military in the history of the world against a ragtag gang of psychopaths, the global war on terror is not abating, expanding throughout asia and africa. there is so much common card with ricard to love of peace and regard to the respect of civil liberties and question of current economic arrangements in

the country, in terms of the government involvement in money supply and so on. i think it is sad. everyone must recognize it is that we are perpetually at war. that was the excuse in 1984 the for the domestic surveillance that was depicted in the book. the fact that the countries were constantly at war gave an excuse for the leaders of the country to get in pervasive domestic surveillance. the same thing could become true in america. i have a 12-year-old son. he is my middle child. he is the third one. remember ay cannot time when america was not at war. has been alant cranston, democrat from florida. serving second conservative term. -- alan grayson. member of the foreign affairs

committee. thank you for coming by. guest: thank you very much. great show. host: another short timeout, and then our final segment. it is about a cnn so much that will debut tonight. they use previously unseen home movies from his closest advisers. richard nixon's closest advisers. we will talk about that. >> jobless numbers and as our show the number of americans applying for unemployment benefits fell 19,000 last week to a seasonally-adjusted 326,000. that is the fewest since january of 2008. the decline at settling more strength for the job market. -- signaling more strength for the job market. it is the most for the survey since december. the report considered a hopeful sign ahead for friday's labor

department report on the july unemployment figures. turning to the new health-care law, bloomberg reports that supporters and opponents of the affordable care act have targeted mothers in new advertising campaigns as a major piece of the law as getting ready to roll out on october 1. the $500 million worth of advertising focusing on it because they knew it was the health-care decision for the family. they also utilize more health care than men. steady collier in prepared remarks for morning news conference says house republicans are wasting time on the 40th vote to repeal health care reform. thee he is addressing media, senior government officials will testify before the house, ways, and means committee about implementing the health-care law. appearing will be gary cohen, head of the centers for medicare and medicaid services. you could hear live coverage of

the hearing at 10:00 eastern on c-span radio or watch it on c- span3. those are the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> i think they serve as a window on the past to what was going on with american women at any given time in the past history. the other thing i find interesting from american history standpoint it is the conjunction of the public and private lives of women, which is a topic that many scholars are very interested in. i think first ladies just epitomize the coming together of the public and private life of an individual. >> our original series examines the public and private lives and

their influence on the presidency. watched encore presentation week nights starting next week at 9:00 eastern. frye.our guest now, brian good morning, thank you for being with us. there is any number of movies out there about richard nixon, even recently. what makes this one different? guest: really distinctive thing about this is the vast bulk of the movie consists of home closestilmed by nixon's aides. these are home movies they made while make -- while working for the president that pretty much no one has ever seen before. host: how did this come about? moviesand initially the

were and john ehrlichman of office and were confiscated during the watergate investigation and the other material that was in his office. those home movies that in the national archives for very long time. it was not like there were suppressed, just forgotten. unlike the secret tapes or the other types of documentary material, they did not relate to abuse of power issues. there were ignored. eventually in the early 2000, the national archives pursuit of preservation effort where they took the home movies and blew them up to 16 millimeter so they would be available for a longer about of time, a preservation as it were. i learned about that from a friend of mine as a person who was making the reservation copy and really interested in the

movie and was thinking about it for a long time and the possibilities. and we, i met penny lane discussed the existence of these and decided we would collaborate on making a movie out of them. we had never seen the movies before because they had been preserved but not made available to the public. we actually invested about $20,000, a little less, in paying for the national archives to make the first of video transfers just so we could see the materials and see whether there was a movie in there, and thankfully, there was. host: see a clip. iran's one minute 15 seconds about his trip to china. i found out i was gone to china from bob holtz. i was the acting chief political figure.

about the flight to china was -- one of the things was it was just a real. the plane is taking off to go to china and we have a television set watching us take off. everything about that trip was televised. from startoduction to finish. and take of the president will journey in the dead of winter, a season especially severe in the chinese capital. reemphasizee house the purpose to become the first american president to visit mainland china. >> as president nixon has pointed out on a number of locations, he will try in the meeting to seek a new direction in the relationship between our countries.

in the isolation of our great peoples from each other. host: tell us more. guest: the scene at that you see there is from richard nixon's trip to china. bulk of nixon's presidency. his aides were filming throughout the time they worked for nixon, up until that time they resigned before the watergate investigation began. you see the nixon presidency through their eyes, but also through the lens of network news. host: we have a response from the deputy assistant. i think the character rescission -- characterization is very stereotyped. layne viewed it

projected exactly what people are sick of seeing. what do you think? guest: well, i guess he is entitled to his opinion. we tried to be fair and represent nixon. i think it would be dishonest not to include the negative things as well as the positive things. guest: i am a law professor as well as a filmmaker. andell as his story and and academic. i have an interest in american history, but not specifically and richard nixon. we made this more based on the fact that we realized there was

an incredible treasure trove of visual material that has not been explored today -- have not been explored and we're interested to see what it had to offer for documentary material. host: our guest is co-owner of the phone company that made this product. ands called "our nixon" debuts tonight. as our guest mentioned, assistant professor of law at the university of kentucky, college of law. before we get to calls, a little bit more about the process of making the movie. he paid $20,000 to get the material. how did you decide to put it together the way you did? guest: as i said, when we pay to get the material, we have no idea what was behind it. i had seen 10 minutes worth of those 35 hours of great material that my friend, bill brandt, who

did the preservation show to me in the process. other than that, no idea, other than the prescription provided to us. we really just sat down. and art this registry. we spent two weeks looking at the material and asking ourselves what kind of movie does this one to be? does this want to be? assisted by the assistant producer. he helped us. he helped us to realize the movie to make. host: is it all the material that the aids shot or did you work in any other archival? roughly 60-70% of the movie. theealized pretty quickly

problem was it is so personal and opaque in a lot of ways that you could not make a movie out of just that material. of network news footage to situate the audience in particular time and explain the context in which the movies were being made. we also used retrospective footage respecting on experiences to provide their own perspective on what it was they were experiencing. host: we will see another clip later in damages depicting life in the richard nixon era. in the meantime, our calller. caller: good morning, c-span.

i was a republican back in those days. i respect the presidency and am very disappointed on how the presidency has suffered since nixon. it was not an overwhelming kingdom or nothing like that, it is just the disrespect of the presidency, as president obama has suffered with respect and decency. nixon had it, even though he was a vital person in some eyes. i am asking you to comment on two points. one, that affirmative action presentation came from richard nixon, a republican. you can comment on the actual economic price freezes that nixon instituted during his term. today we have president's who

lack the guts to perform as he did. i think the china trip was a huge success. if you could please comment on the fact that republicans today reject affirmative action and economic price freezes and the fact that the presidency has lost the respect of the congressional come -- connection. the film quite about but the presidency as he sees it. guest: i will do my best. i will not claim to be a policy expert, but i think a lot of people feel the way you do. i know not chomsky preferred to the last liberal president. is a fair point. you say you are a republican during the nixon administration. i think that is true of a lot of people. one thing we interested in while making the movie was the way in which the conventional wisdom

looking back at history tends to track the people who are the winners, as it were. nixon, as a lot of people forget, was the overwhelming winner of the 1972 presidential election. we were interested in how that came to be and what the world that nixon was living in, the america. host: tom and wellington. caller: what is the source for your funding, and is there any way to contribute? was founded inm

many different ways. the initial funding came out of my pocket. we did a kickstart campaign, which was the source of the additional seed money. also, really got the word out about the movie. the kickstart was the termination of the movie. subsequently we got a lot of grant money from the private and public sources. sitter reach, a great foundation. r reach. was providedding by a number of additional organizations, including private and york, which is a foam

advertising production company and impact partners. host: do you know the overall price? guest: i can't say. we premiered the foam internationally in the netherlands and the u.s. premiere at self by southwest in austin, texas. cnn and a lot of other people saw it at self by southwest. fault bywas closed at southwest by our sales agent, joshed braun. host: one more clear. one minute, 30 seconds long. it is all of richard nixon's aides talking about their roles. olderypical day for me, men would pick me up around 7:15. the car would get bob and then his aid. then it would swing by my house and then to the white house. i eam responsible for the

scheduling and the president's daily activities. i knew my place. really reflected a lot about richard nixon, the degree to which he wanted things controlled. it literally was from 6:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night every day of the week, saturdays and sundays, too. that pace was unremitting. total consuming for someone like me. >> you have to operate as close to zero defect as you can.

i was only concerned with the result the president wanted that was carried out. a little morerye perspective on how that got put together and to the men were. right. holderman was a long-time employee of richard nixon. the story goes. many of his staffers came from the advertising industry, including white tape in. he was the chief of staff throughout most of his presidency until he resigned.

during the watergate investigation. john ehrlichman was a college friend who first came on as the white house counsel, and then adviser for chief domestic policy. force seen as a driving for the clean air act, clean water act, earth day, any number of modern and in our urban policies. wenty interesting guy who on to become a best-selling .ovelist and commentator he got out of prison after watergate. cheap bid was a special assistant to the president. basically the person who handled the president's calendar. also implicated not specifically in the watergate scandal, but another 30 scandal laid out in this.

host: we of a call coming in from louisiana. independent calller. good morning, david. caller: who did nixon convince to take us off the gold standard? the film does not get into the specifics of his economic policies. so i really could not comment. democratic calller. caller: i of a question concerning the campaign in 18 --

1968. how did you handle the coverage of those campaigns, which were extremely close? guest: the film does not cover the campaigns at all. it begins with his inauguration, which is the initial material available to us. they did not begin until the administration begins. the basis for the films being available to us, the basis being public domain is they were confiscated as materials created by employees of the white house while they were working for the president. so there is nothing in the collection that we obtained and made the foam out of that predated the inauguration. campaign, the 1972 campaign is very much a part of the movie because they were period.during that perit debut inth the film

tonight, there are any number of reps in the papers. " -- is "the washington post "the new york times" art section -- they go on to write these are private affairs. only at work, be it on the great wall of china, pacing outside the vatican or conferring on air force one.

what do you think? little puzzled by it. there are several shots of parties on the white house lawn and a man dressed in a bunny suit running around. them sitting around with their shirts off by the pools. i am a little bit confused by the comment, but entitled to your opinion. what seemed you think is most significant? think is mostou significant? guest: there is a really disturbing and humorous but unfortunate conversation between nixon and his aides about the television that show, about archie bunker in which nixon is concerned that homosexuals are ruining america.

that aristotles and socrates were homosexuals and ehrlichman times and that they did not have the influence that television has. find amusing. i think there is a lot of really moving sequences as well. the film closes with a with all the men and the president immediately after he announced the resignation on national television. i think it is a really telling that really makes you feel for the kind of pain that he was feeling. we really wanted to convey that these people, even though they committed criminal acts and did

really bad things, they are still people. and it is worth understanding them as people to try to get a feel for why they did what they did, what brought them to the point. host: mark calling from twin falls, idaho. good morning. i wondered, watergate, i did not have any recall of that era, but was that just before an election? they need atthink the edge of information? that is a really good question, that i think pretty much everyone is puzzled by. indid a panel discussion lexington, kentucky, where i teach.

a republican who used to work for the governor, the best he could think of when you are in office and a politician you are always in campaign mode, always looking for an edge, and maybe that was it, because in retrospect it does not make sense. byon won the 1972 election such a massive amount. he won 49 of the 50 states. carried state that he was massachusetts. almost 10ular vote million votes different. crazy. really hard to understand why they thought that was necessary. immediately after the watergate investigation or watergate break-in where the head of the democratic party, lawrence o'brien, is on tv complaining that i thought this was a law and order

administration. you can almost see the grin on his face. host: dennis now from san diego. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to tell you i served in the u.s. marines from august 1974-1976. the week of the marine birthday, november 1975, i was art of a group of marines had birthday off the base, and after the ceremony, richard nixon, the former president, came in side -- inside to greet us, and he said what is the last corporal drink? i was 19 at the time. we were allowed to drink on base, but not off base. the last corporal does not drink. he looked at me real hard and

said what did you say? i said sir, the last corporal will have a budweiser, sir. he slapped the bar with his hand and set to but weiser's. he and i sat together and we talked. he talked and i listened. he told me his views about china and vietnam. i was very honored for that contact with him. remember it -- always. guest: that is very cool. i think you will enjoy the movie. there are several scenes in san clemente. there is also a scene in the film in which richard nixon has a visit to vietnam and talked to soldiers there as well. au are lucky to have had budweiser with the president. from what i understand, he was more partial to martinis. a pretty great experience.

thing you wanted to portray, they are human beings, despite what they were dealing with at the time. what else do what books to learn from the movie? learn from theo movie? it is an experienced a movie. , it is hard toe convey factual information in a short them. hopefully we get that in there. if you are not familiar with the nixon presidency, you will get a pretty good overview of what happened. some of, not all of, but the key

accomplishments and problems that happened during the presidency. what we're learning more about is the personalities, the relationship between that nixon's staff members and nixon himself. we wanted to really capture their experience to the best we could understand of what it was like to work for the president and what it felt like to work for the president, not from the perspective of anti-war but the perspective of square america? host: what was the biggest challenge in watching in piecing together the pieces? guest: right. the movie is made 100% of archival material. we did not script anything. everything we used in the movie was historical, primary source material. frankly the biggest challenge

was making it make sense. that is really hard to do. really hard to use the material. very rich material, but not material that it's easy to work into the foam. it is incredibly personal information and revealing. -- and into the film. you do not ever your president's talking to each other that would normally. providing the context so they make sense and can understand what they're talking about was really a challenge. we were super fortunate to have our fantastic editor who helped a film that does a good job of pulling together these different strains. host: duncan, you are on with brian frye, co-producer of "our

nixon." a secret society that richard nixon was a member of. i have considered moving to california for a lot of reasons, especially for ones like it exposing the growth. was there any mention of nixon being a member of the bohemian grove? guest: no. the super eight domes are silent. they are ones that was made wherever they went with nixon. was any believe there actual footage taken in the bohemian grove, although in the collection, there is a sequence visits california orgive an award to lbj ladybird.

we were only able to conclude that the minutes of the third five hours of footage, all of which is really interesting. we were able to give that to the general public. we thought the american people should have access to it. clarksburg,in virginia. independent calller. good morning. caller: i am from alexandria, virginia. wonderful. first of all, i cannot wait to see this. i think it will be a great documentary.

this is a gift that keeps on giving. i wanted to adjust by comment to what he said earlier when the call in asking about the 1972 election and the democratic headquarters. biography they pointed this out very clearly and thought it was a good reason. by 19 at 71 the nixon campaign that had begun was not sure they were going to be reelected. it was looking fairly bad because the vietnam war strategy was not viewed as a success of pulling people out, but not being able to get the north vietnamese to seize activities. the economy was starting to go down word. was doing very well in some polls. if it were not able to do that, then there was always ted

kennedy waiting in the wings. i think nixon felt concerned that a kennedy candidacy would be very difficult to overcome, a particularly with all of the division in the country, and also because of the domestic things that have happened and the first term. i think that is a very important reason for people to understand that in hindsight it looks as though it is a crazy thing to do, but at the time, and for anyone who has worked in government, you know that sometimes initiatives take a life of their own and sometimes get forgotten about, and yet, they still move forward. i think that may have been something that played into the administration. guest: that is totally a fair point. i think it is hard to know how people were thinking. at that point i would say it is always hard for politicians to

play hard but should also play fair. host: one viewer asked for more information. nn.0 tonight on c midnight tonight on cnn. they will do that all over again on sunday. this will go into a broader release. film will openne theatrically. it will open in san francisco in september. l.a., portland and the broader, the better so people are interested in seeing it their home town, they shall let people know there want it. host: what are you expecting?

guest: i am pinching myself that it has done so well. when we started making this avie, we expected it at museum somewhere. ruth it just exploded, which is really exciting. i am really happy we are able to share this with some of the people. how large are the films and what else have you worked on? movie. this period. penny lane is working on a new "nuts" aboutd john r. brinkley who gained -- gained fame in the 1920's by transplanting go testicles into men. border radio and provided

entryway for rock and roll into a mayor, and ultimately went down in the investigation from the united states government. hilarious story. it is really great. i will be working on this pretty soon. republican call. thank you for waiting. you are on with bryan frye. caller: i just wanted to point out, i just joined the conversation a few minutes ago. as a student of history, a lot of things to not get told, so thank you for the film. hughes" ok "citizens the reason richard nixon wanted to do the break-in was larry o'brien, the head of the democratic party and kennedy man was secretly on the pay roll like of -- other politicians

were. it was pretty well documented. thank you very much. guest: that is very interesting. i will definitely check out the book. sound like an interesting read. host: conway, missouri on the line. caller: i work for the nixon family in california. we hope to tear down the old market. a new dawn nixon went to work for the same company i went to work for. a family that i really respected. i sat there were a great family. they have really been taking down the road. i wanted to say something else. the three people that ran for president from california or the west coast, hoover was blamed for the economy in 1929.

gotard nixon, they finally rid of him. he did some great things in my opinion. he was in office six weeks after he got shot by hinckley. that is just my own personal theory that no one from the west coast can ever be president of the united states. thank you very much. guest: guess i will not be president, because i was born in san francisco. oh well. an interesting theory. could very well be the case. host: what else should people know about the project? >> i would like to let people know the end of the movie is really intended to be an open- ended look at the presidency. we really did try to be as fair and as a generous to nixon and his staff members as we felt was warranted by the material

available to us. it is really intended to have something to appeal to people whether they're coming from the left, right, center, where ever. it is not also just a serious movie. there is a lot that is funny. using, interesting moments. people should not come to it thinking they are getting a history lesson. it is intended to be fun. host: jack from tennessee. republican. caller: hello. glad to be on with you. if you- i was wondering are familiar with the book, of very well-documented book that was largely ignored by the media that advance the premise that the real person who initiated the watergate break-in was really john dean and his motivation was to clear out evidence that the democrats were

operating a prostitute ring out of their headquarters. this book had a lot of copies of reports from employees and a lot of other information. i cannot recall the name of the book unfortunately. it was written quite a while ago. the book?miliar with i am not familiar with the book%, but i have heard that rumor -- per say, but i have heard that rumor circulated. i honestly do not have an opinion on who orchestrated the watergate break-in. i think a lot of people have come up with interesting stories and whoever knows is not talking apparently. i do not know anything anyone else does to be honest with you. host: that was our last call.

final thoughts. guest: i hope people will watch the film on cnn tonight. ournixon.com.t at or facebook. make sure to see it on tv or go to theaters when it opens later in august. host: the premiere tonight at cnn with an air at midnight and this again at midnight. our guest has been bryan frye, an assistant professor of law at the university of kentucky college of law. thank you for your time and explaining the projects to us. thank you. time, calls. your we will be back here tomorrow at 7:00 for another edition of " washington journal." we will take you to the floor of

the u.s. house of representatives when they come in for what is known as morning hour. that is now, 10:00 eastern. legislative business at noon with bills involving energy matters, government, raining in the government. they are also going to take a vote on health care tomorrow, specifically withholding money from the irs, enforcement of the new health-care law. we will see you back here tomorrow. but coverage of the house. -- live coverage of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., august 1, 2013. hereby appoint the honorable bill huizenga to act as speaker pro tempore on this day.