understood by a lot of others. >> understanding is not necessarily liking. [laughter] what it really meant was you can count the difference between 59 and 60. that is where we got the 3% and we got to the exception on the question of risk retention and where we got the one thing where i think the bill went further -- that was the lincoln amendment which said the banks cannot do any kind of derivatives even if it was for themselves. the banko any kind of derivatives even if it was for themselves. if you got connectivity that is necessary, why is a good idea to move it from the more regulated to the less regulated? those were all things that happened because we needed -- th

other thing about the senatee. the senate is a very democratic place. everybody has a chance to be number 60. enabled by the fact we had a couple of democrats who voted no. but, yeah. every other day some senator decided to be number 60 and we had to do something. >> the numbers changed during that as well. >> it was constantly a moving target. let me mention something else as well to this audience since many of you are involved in the business today. we have left the congress but as ve greatver -- i ha reverence for the institutions i have served in. it is going through a terrible time. something different from those of you who come from the perspective the financial services sector. the days where you have people

like howard baker and bob dole are gone. me, theyrowd, believe look at these issues in a very different way. populism in aof a way that is worrisome to me in terms of how they look at the financial services sector. one of the classic examples we when you had rand paul guam the language of the federal reserve to require an audit from the federal reserve. >> on the open market. on the voting process by which the open market sets the rates. >> had that amendment been adopted, i don't think barney and knight could've gone forward with the bill. -- and i could've gone forward with a bill. oftroying the independence the federal reserve could've easily brought the whole bill down. as a result, they came very close.

the amendment was about to be offered by bernie sanders who joined with the most conservative members of the senate. they join together on that proposal. bernie sanders, i talk to him a great lengths and he decided to i and change that. as a result, the amendment was not offered. we dropped the house provision. had that exact language would've have been adopted, and you cannot get rid of it and that would've brought the whole bill down. that is an indication of what we're looking at today in terms of how congress looks at the financial services sector. when people start talking about repealing all of this and going back to the fall of 2008 as if somehow you can create out of the system a reflection of what used to be, i would caution you to be careful of what you wish for. >> there was this problem of the increasing conservatism of the

republican party. the ukraine bill passed only after every other country in the world had agreed to rearrange the voting structurae. try to get ans amendment through to tell the imf if they participate in the rescue of europe they had to stay out of dealing with the european crisis. we have the attack on the fed. this woulde that work with some of their republican allies that they support. you, i thought it was a pain in the ass dude to be defending the federal reserve. i have business people telling me you had to protect the

federal reserve and then they gave money to the people trying to destroy it. >> we have time for one question. no pressure on that one question. if someone wants to ask the one. really? not one brave soul? much fun to pick on former members of congress. >> we can repeat the question. [laughter] >> i think everyone here respects your efforts to try and make the financial sector much safer. you are fabulous or

visitors of the country. there are a lot of people that think financial status -- sector may be at better risk today. thes not just the size of shadow banking sector and the leverage, but because the government is less able to flexibility.less you say under dodd frank we have better foresight. tose committees will meet look at these indicators. was --earns the ability to for see a panic and a run on the bank is difficult. ways, i knowome you have made things safer.

have you made things riskier in some ways? have you done enough to make the thing less opaque and have less average? that as agestion result of the bill the system is riskier is nonsensical. that i haveticisms heard but rarely from the same person. [laughter] is is that the institution too much bank concentration, which more often comes from the left. then the other is we haven't enough bailout authority. the bill didrst nothing to advance concentration. one factor that led to increase concentration was something, bank of america got bigger when it took over merrill lynch.

have provided a mechanism so that we no longer have to be the federal reserve and the treasury . leverage, the leverage is substantially reduced by much higher capital standards. as to the nobel authority, there isn't ability to set up a facility that can lend to institutions, not just a one off, but consecutively so they can advance funds which are solvent. beyond that, the notion that we would have a situation where the offayers would be paying the debts of these large financial institutions with no penalties, that is not possible.

>> this goes beyond your question and something we haven't talked about. barney knight didn't write something that is -- barney and i did not write something that was biblical. we did the best under the circumstances. i've never seen a bill that didn't overstate something or understate something. the regulatory process is taking a long time to go forward. i mention the costs that rarely get discussed. is people go forward, you get intelligent people stepping up and offering intelligent ideas of how to make this work better. this process of the reviews and so forth that require it. it is not going to shock me to find out that some changes need to be made to cousin unintended consequences.

neither one of us have a problem with that. you don't not pass legislation changesthere may be required down the road. , which is the sec doing an incredible job under the circumstances given the pressure they are under, to make sure that what we are doing, barney and i tried to frame this , they gave all the power to the regulators. they never said anything of the definitions. we try to provide some parameters, leaving flexibility for those who know more about this and have the benefit of more comment to a sure we're making the right decisions. i'm confident that can happen. a slowly, but it will happen. thing.last people who are in the business, who have experience, they play a constructive part in improving it.

not as long as they are still pushing it would drop dead. the price of participation and improving something is a willingness to accept its reality and work with it. that is one of the problems we have encountered so far. >> please join me in thanking the senators. [applause] >> i would like to add my thanks. wherever you come out on dodd frank, the passion they bring to the debate is phenomenal. i hope you caught the senator dodd biblical reference. that was a subliminal message for you to go see noah this >> on news makers, buck mckeon.

he tells about president obama's plan to cut the number of troops in afghanistan. news makers at 10:00 a.m. at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> next, a discussion about the eric shinseki. the future of the department of veterans affairs. for washington journal, this is 55 minutes. targetsof soft to take care of. us to discuss eric shinseki's resignation is leigh munsil and chris carroll. at one point -- at what point do

think he was able to escape being a distraction? guest: there was a deception and scheduling of veteran appointments. it has been known for years and years that veterans had to wait a long time. what came out this week was they had established this system of keeping dual books. some people were heading toward appointments and some people who keepept off the books to the weight. wait period down. guest: it has been building for weeks. president obama was very supportive of eric shinseki. he did not necessarily want to

remove him from his post. he thought secretary shinseki could deal with these issues but then it just builds and builds over the past couple of weeks. we heard from veterans groups. the inspector general report came out on thursday. we had jeff miller of the v.a. committee as well as john mccain on the senate side and buck mckeon of the armed services. very tellingy -- a sign. i think that was the belt whether of this. veterans callse that hurt him more? inst: i think that set it motion. the american legion said he had to go and that is huge. nothing has happen like that in decades. and the final straw was the lawmakers who had been

supporting him, people like john mccain saying he is a distraction. host: we continue discussion on eric shinseki's resignation. our phone lines are open. we are taking your comments and questions as we go about this. a special line continuing for veterans. with to be calling on that line for veterans from albany georgia. caller: thank you for airing this desperate situation for veterans. i am a veteran. i joined the army at 16 years old. as a result of some of my duty, i contracted melanoma cancer service connected. i have been dealing with the v.a. for 12 years trying to get

a rating for this melanoma cancer. they finally gave me 10%. i don't want money, i want my health. to go back to the situation of hospital our veterans in atlanta, where i was a patient at one time, i was from their because they opened up a storefront. it was a community based outpatient clinic. contracted company that akes money off of the v.a. it goes back to win the government started hiring contractors to do government work, which is costly and ineffective. to treat 6000 three lpm's.

you can do the math and see with that is all about. he brings up some staffing issues in terms of contractors. are these issues that the v.a. is in the midst of fixing or is this part of the exploration into the problem that continues to go on here? guest: the v.a.'s going to continue to look into this thing whether it is contractors. health centers across the country are going to do in other more exhaustive -- do another more exhaustive report. hereey thing to remember is the v.a. does hundreds of thousands of these appointments every year. they affect all sorts of people. the quality of care has affects

across the country. it is a massive system. that is bound to happen. the key is finding out what can be fixed and what can be improved. topic president obama fraud up yesterday as he was talking about eric shinseki's work, what he had done for the v.a., and where these waste time problems came from. here is a bit more from the president's statements yesterday. >> where we have seen a problem, where we have been aware of a problem, we have gone after it and fixed it and have been able to make significant progress. what is absolutely clear is this one, this issue of scheduling is one that the reporting systems service --dha do not did not surface to the level

where we will able to see it -- were able to see it. when i was traveling around the country, the particular issue of scheduling. we are going to have to see to make sure how we get the information on how our systems are working. host: explain the scheduling issue for those who may not be as familiar with the story that started coming out earlier about this. when: the issue is veterans: and want an appointment they need to have this appointment within 14 days. that has proven to be an unattainable goal. it could be a result of resources, of management. meeting that goal determines bonuses, determines whether people get promotions.

to get around that they have created this dual books system where some people are kept off the books so it is not clear that there are so many on the waiting list. thehoenix more than half of veterans waiting for appointments were off the list. more than 1700 were off the books. how many actual investigations are going on about the v.a. right now? by their members of congress and specific committees looking into this as well -- are there members of congress and specific committees looking into this as well? guest: absolutely the v.a. panel is going to be looking into this. the white house is doing its own inquiry. president obama sent one of his aides to phoenix to get to the bottom of what is going on there. doing itsve the v.a.

own audit of almost all of its health centers across the country. some veterans have been waiting an average of 115 days for their appointment, which is much much more than the 14 days they are supposed to be waiting. problem is much bigger than it had been originally. obama waspresident asked if the justice department can get involved. what that he say? guest: he said that is absolutely on the table. in the phoenix report there are allegations of harassment. many on the hill call for those things to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. form ofuld be a criminal response. host: we will go to richard waiting in pennsylvania on our line for better's -- for veterans. caller: fortunately for me

everything ended quickly. with 25 years experience. i have been to every v.a. in pennsylvania and delaware. call people to let them know that walt's for all -- that -- v.a. is ok. the secretary definitely had to go. haveext secretary has to power to fire people because if you are not doing something properly you have to be fired. a doesn't matter if you are good guy or not a good guy, you should be fired for not doing your job right. if you do that in the private sector you are going to be fired. going to have whistleblowers and then everybody will go to jail and the whistleblower will keep their job. overall nobody tends to believe what they have to say when they

come out and say this is what is going on. my cousin was in albuquerque, new mexico. is albuquerque issue personal to me. not just because of my family members but all veterans are my family members. host: the color brings up whistleblowers. with reports of this, where there whistleblowers before the cnn story from earlier this year ? that was the one that gained a lot of headlines. guest: if there were they did not get blown up nationwide like this one to give -- this one did. there are reports that this wait time issue -- the whistleblowers who said there are cheating -- there is cheating and deception, that is elevating this to the level it has been act now. level it is now.

it says in this piece -- that is in today's paper. theontinued talking about

resignation yesterday of eric shinseki. john is up from camden town, missouri on our line for veterans. caller: i think blaming shinseki for this is ridiculous. the fault belongs with congress. i will give you a good example of how congress works. -- yesterday you had a republican on there from texas, i cannot remember his name, discussing this same problem. the moderator read a report stating that each representative -- each doctor in the v.a. had a list of 2000 patients he was responsible for. this congressman said, that is not too many. there are doctors with 10,000 patients. of silly to me.

i got out a pencil and paper and in 30 seconds i figured out that if a doctor had 10,000 patients, he works 365 days a year, 10 hours a day, each one of those patients would get 30 minutes of his time a year. notproblem is congress does know what the heck is going on. care and they politicize everything. our: if you want to see interview yesterday with jeff miller, you can check that out .n c-span.org we also interviewed sheila jackson-lee. in terms of other members of theirss tweeting out reactions to eric shinseki's resignation yesterday --

also senator harry reid, majority leader -- conch cement cory gardner out of colorado -- congressman cory gardner out of colorado -- congressman armey bera -- congressman ami we are taking your calls and comments. bill is waiting on the line for veterans. he is calling in from new jersey. good morning. caller: the thing that gets me is we either have people that are in charge and have no sense and have the reason for making

the decisions that they make. as far as the veterans problems are concerned, there are too many veterans going to the facilities to be treated. they cannot handle them all. the of use thing to do would be close to 50% of veterans are over 65, they already have medicare. why doesn't the government supply them with a supplemental insurance and tell those people they can go to whatever facility they want if they cannot get a at the veterans facility he echoed that would put the pressure on the facility appointment at the veterans facility. that would put the pressure on the facility. any of the solutions work into these proposals? guest come this is at its heart a health care issue. it is a question of what is going to be the best system to deal with as many people who have to go through the v.a.

system. this administration has been dealing with health care issues for it while. the possibility that those sorts of proposals could be used with the v.a. problems. we are not seeing a lot of concrete proposals just yet. yes a lot of federal population at this point are 65 or older. we have a ton of veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan and all of the issues going on in the fee a -- in the v.a. will only be compounded if you have an influx of veterans coming back from recent wars. certainly an issue that won't be going away. they have to get to the heart of proposals about specifics of health care in the best way to provide health care. host: a question specifically twitter --

guest come i think the v.a. is saying yes we need more money to do our job. -- guest: i think the v.a. is saying yes i'm a we do need more money to do our job. the cause of the ability to meet the 14 day requirement is they do not have enough providers. there has been a lot of debate about this in the past. coming around. people are saying yes, the v.a. needs more funding. host: question -- guest: it is part of the benefit and payroll system that exists right now. that is one of the first steps that secretary shinseki took before he left, removing some of those bonuses. some people have been getting bonuses and are not living up to what they are supposed to

accomplish. that is something we may see go future to diminished in v.a. systems. host: the white house -- here's more from him on remedial actions he was taking in response to the v.a. crisis. [video clip] >> i will issue the process for the removal of the senior leaders. [applause] we will use all of authority at our disposal to enforce accountability among senior leaders who are found to have instigated, tolerated dishonorable scheduling practices at the v.a. health care facilities. i have also directed that no dh a senior executive will receive any type of award for 2014. [applause]

i have directed that a patient wait times be deleted from tha -- from dha reports as a measure of their success. there contacting each of 1700 veterans in phoenix waiting for appointments to bring them the care they need and deserve. we will continue to accelerate access care for veterans nationwide, utilizing care both in and outside the v.a.. [applause] we will announce the results of our nationwide audits of all the v.a. health care facilities in the coming days. congress to support senator bernie sanders's bill, giving greater authority to remove senior leaders.

announcements -- do those announcements continue despite his resignation? guest: they do. the president announced they will be put in place. what really struck me was when he said, i was surprised this was happening. this has never happened in all my years in the army. people talk about the need for cultural change. perhaps the secretary just didn't understand the culture of the v.a.. host: taking your calls and comments. let's go to doris waiting in chicago, illinois on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: i am really sad that general shinseki has been vilified in this way.

i think it's a pretty good human being and he dedicated his life to this country and the military. my husband was a vietnam vet. he enlisted to the one 73rd airborne brigade. problems, wee any were happy with the care. i think the one thing missing is that republicans do not take any responsibility for their actions in these debacles. -- isdia is come complicit. host: which actions are you talking about? caller: hold on a second. the problems of the v.a. was compounded by these two wars, afghanistan and iraq. we had more wounded veterans. but we had tax cuts.

and we had no increase. we did have an increase in vets meeting care. v.a. saw were cuts to in 2008 bush proposed cuts to v.a. a $612 paul ryan proposed billion cut to the v.a. that would have taken 1.3 million that's -- million vets out of v.a. do you hear that in the media? nope. host: your thoughts on the history doris was talking about. guest: the funding question is a difficult one because there are reasons to say there is not enough funding at the v.a., that there are issues with funding, but in a lot of ways to budget has grown. it has not necessarily been declining. or notstion is whether it has been growing enough to

keep up with this continued continued demand. and whether or not the money is being used advantageously and being used well, actually helping veterans as opposed to just building a bureaucracy that doesn't get anything done or help those veterans. it is a matter of funding but it thatso a matter of using funding well. host: off of twitter -- whose loan tips in the echo guest: -- who is sloan gibson? infantry is a former officer who was a banker for a couple of decades and then he way he uso, which is the put in the veterans community know him.

that is the organization that puts on two wars in war zones of entertainers and past set cookies and coffee at airports around the world for troops. has now been handed the job of running the v.a. in the wake of eric shinseki's resignation. how long has he been on the job? guest: three months. it is going to be a steep learning curve as the president acknowledged yesterday. there is a lot to be addressed. host: haslam gibson made any comments that you have seen? i have not interviewed him or seen any substantive comments. we're talking with chris carroll and leigh munsil. we're taking your calls and comments. up next on the line for republicans from brooklyn, new york. caller: good morning. i finally get a chance to talk.

president bush was a republican president. we had some scandal. this time, with president obama -- there is a high number of scandals. solution.aising this they didny situations, not solve anything, but doubled my number of scandals. i think this resignation is a catastrophe for the community and the u.s. obamaa negative point for as a democratic president, with his policy to military staff. president bush, as a republican president, he had some good points.

war in different countries started fighting each other. the persons in scandal were much lower than with presidneent obama. host: he brings up the politics of this. can you talk about it from that perspective? what will this mean heading into an election year? a midterm election year, which compounds the sort of thing. a lot of democrats who were in the districts that were in danger were quick to jump on the bandwagon of calling for his resignation, calling for answers. obviously, politics plays into this issue. it is difficult to politicize veterans issues. that is the sort of thing that can backfire on you if you want to use it as a political point.

it is veterans lives hanging in the balance. so, politics always pleasant to this. it has always been a disappointment, on the forefront of people's minds, for the administration. they have been trying to push a bench of foreign policy related issues. the president came out and made and aouncement foreign-policy speech at west point, which laid out his doctrine for less intervention a summer on the world. now he is going on a two or of normandy for the d-day anniversary this next week. so, he has a lot of things he is trying to do. the scandal is just the split-screen. that is what they call when you talk about the media. you have the president on one side and the a issues -- v.a.

issues. in the next week or so, he cannot get away from this issue. it will make it difficult for them to do what he wants to the leading up to the midterms, and make the points he is strong on foreign-policy. there are issues at home. host: let's go to that line for veterans, daniel is calling for maryland. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good. go ahead. caller: i have been listening to general shinseki talk. the people in phoenix were about to be rescheduled. what is happening to the rest? i am a three-time combat veteran from new combat, not the vietnam stuff. what is being done for all of hospitals across

the nation? are they all getting recalled? guest: there has been more attention on phoenix, naturally. that is where the story came out of. all of them are being reviewed now. there was just a quick review done. not that this is happening at most v.a. hospitals. i can only assume, i i do not know for sure -- these people who have not had appointment scheduled will have them. host: this is one of the challenges that sloan gibson will be taking on. guest: absolutely. that will be his first rollout of the gate, to re-instill confidence in the v.a. to appear strong and able to deal with these issues. to get to the bottom of it, rather than brush it under the rug. that has been a frustration in the past. the question will be how much he

will be dedicated to finding out what is going on. pusheems that there is a from congress and the president to get to the bottom of this. he will be able to have the backing he needs to find out what is going on. host: go ahead. guest: the way i see it, this will be an easy thing to fix. a practice.topping what is not going to happen is problem of long wait times being fixed. host: i should note that sloan gibson was taking over the v.a. -- he was on this program back in 2009, when he was the uso ceo and president. the united services organization. he was talking about, at that

point, the 60th anniversary of the usl. o. you can see that on c-span.org. we are talking with leigh munsil and chris carroll. there are 25 minutes left in the segment. we will go to frank in new jersey on the line for independents. caller: how are you doing? host: good, go ahead. caller: i am a combat veteran from vietnam era. v.a., i am call the 100% connected. a lot of times, they will say to me, can't you see one of your outside doctors? we are on medicare, you know. it is a constant thing with them trying to ship me off to medicare. there was one instance where i had an ailment in 2010.

it lasted for almost two years. i kept going back to the v.a. and they kept trying to shove me off to an outside doctor. i ended up getting a colonoscopy, and oscar the, everything. i family the got to the bottom of things. it took two years. there are not enough doctors on the gp side. you have theck, stomach flu or something, and you call them up, they will try to make an appointment for you for two weeks away. you are sick that day. they tell you to go to the emergency room. the emergency room is 60 miles away. they just do not have enough doctors. this sort ofunsil, complaint is what members of congress are hearing as well. guest: absolutely. these are the things they want

to try to fix. and also, keep in mind within dod and pentagon, personnel is a huge part of their budget. it ballooned over the last few years. it has become one third of the base budget. payroll compensation, those sorts of things, for veterans. there is a good chance that we will see you reform of that as well. there will perhaps be less money spent or money spent more strategically. so, all of these things will be looked at in depth. host: one question from gene in ohio. what is the difference between active duty and veterans health care? guest: that actually was talked about this week. secretary hegel came out and said that the pentagon health service for active-duty service members -- and some retirees, would be audited as well.

just make sure they don't have the same sorts of problems going on. there is a bit of confusion about what that wasn't how it was different. the v.a. is more for veterans. and the pentagon health services for active-duty. there is a little bit of overlap. i would be interested to hear the specifics of that. it is very consultative process. it is difficult to get the nuances correct. host: chris carroll, do you want to jump in? host: -- guest: the active-duty service is called tri-care. it is a very good health system. no co-pay for service members. there are not a lot of issues like with the v.a. it is not perfect, obviously. military retirees are also eligible for tricare. although, there is some overlap. with tricare, you can go to a va

hospital. it is a very complicated relationship. host: let's go to mike in bonita springs, florida. caller: yes, this is mike. i was an instructor at a community college back in the 80's and 90's. i had a class with veterans. one of the subjects that was brought up was the exposure to agent orange. instructor, i took it upon myself to do some investigation. what i found was what the veterans were saying. they were not allowed to continue. there were no results and not downside to exposure. we all know what was happening

in vietnam. it was used as a herbicide. the forces could detect the other indigenous people who had high cancer busters. -- clusters. those were reported. when the veterans came back, they could not be seen for that. what i did, as i did my research, and found out that it is a contaminant chemical that was put into the -- you just can't control it. long story short. therehe cdc was doing, was a company that produced this. they were in charge of also producing the results on the humans. that is mike talking about his own research. chris carroll, have you done any

work on agent orange? guest: not exactly. he does bring up an interesting point. one of the -- came in,etary shinseki one of his orders was to reduce the wait time for processing orders. he has attended to that diligently. ago, they maders the decision to accept people with agent orange claims. that expanded the weight time -- wait time for benefits processing greatly. this did not look good for shinseki. a lot of people said it was the right thing. is except that the claim. host: for folks who are not familiar, tell them about stars & stripes. guest: this is a paper that

covers the military. it is an independent paper within dod. under some federal legislation, it gives us editorial independence. we have no influence by the pentagon or military structures. we operate all of the world. carroll was previously a staff writer at national geographic magazine. we're also joined by leigh munsil out of politico pro. also, a former staff writer at dallas morning news. we are taking your comments and questions for the next 15 minutes or so on the resignation of eric shinseki. leigh munsil, i want to ask you a question posed in the washington post. in the longshinseki term create who might be a more permanent replacement at the v.a.? gibson may stay for a while, even to the end of president obama's term.

there are names being floated as possible replacements. one thing to keep in mind is that you may have to have any eventual replacement go through a senate confirmation process. given that this has become so political and so frustrating to members of congress, this has turned into such a big issue. that will be a very difficult process, no matter who you name. anyone who is not palatable to the senate will not be a good choice at this point. a lot of times, you want someone who will fly through the senate fairly quickly. perhaps some names that have been brought up were military generals. asy perhaps would be seen positives. some other -- another side of this is the v.a. health care summit. it needs to be run with someone with health care experience. haveill see candidates who more of a background in those

sorts of specifics. maybe the typical v.a. a situation of bringing in a veteran, some one who served a long time and is well respected but maybe does not have the organizational skills. host: talk about the rigors of a nomination process. does sloan gibson have to go through nomination before he took the job? guest: i believe so, yes. he did go through a nomination process. he has already been approved by the senate at least to serve at v.a. host: chris carroll, your thoughts? nuest: it is always a interesting parlor game. i have seen a lot of former military members and generals mentioned. mike mullen has been mentioned. peter curley, the former vice chief. choice. interesting

he focused heavily on the problems of ptsd and health care for soldiers. i think that appeals to veterans as well. some politicians have been brought up as well. ist: the wall street journal taking up this question of who might be a permanent replacement. here is a chart of some possible picks for the next veterans affairs secretary. one of the possible picks noted in that chart is a republican. the wall street journal noted that the confirmation hearing for whoever replaces mr. shinseki has a prime opportunity for republicans to score points against the obama administration. a republican could ease the process to something that is not terribly political to begin with. just some thoughts on a possible placement. let's go to jerrold on the line from indiana. caller: good morning.

my name is gerald. i am a past commander, retired. i also am married to a vietnam girl. i brought her back here to the united states. an honorable veteran. i received in 1997 -- no one is talking about this, but i received full compensation of 100%, disabled. they reclassified me as 60%. now they want me to pay them back $253,000. i talked to the american legion representative in indiana. they told me i would be punished because i married a vietnam girl and brought her back. i should have never married her. i should have married somebody in the united states. this is what i was told and i am

very upset about it. d talking about his situation in indiana. it's good to roger in des moine s. caller: good morning. i have been listening to everybody say more money, more money. the last four years, there has been $1 million each year carried over. millionr, there is 500 that is being carried over. $4.5 billionears, that has not been spent. also, do you realize -- i just heard this. obama just met with

shinseki for the first time in two years, and that is when he accepted his resignation. 08, wasnt obama, 2007-20 given reports on these. deal forhis a prime his reelection. and nothing is happening. it has gotten worse. host: chris carroll, a couple of points. one on the unspent funds. was this the first meeting in several years? believe he met within him the week before, possibly the week before that. i do not know what the schedule history has been. he met with him once before the resignation. funds, i am just not familiar with whether there possiblynt funds or some statutory reasons they have to be directed in certain ways.

that is a possibility, though. host: leigh munsil, any thoughts? anst: the funding issue is interesting one. especially when you talk about whether there needs to be more funding. one thing that i have talked about with todd harrison -- he tends to be a good person to talk to with budgetary stuff. that the v.a. budget has grown over the past several years. there is a chart that goes up in the past 10 or so years. there are a lot of veterans compensations. those funds have gone up. it could be a matter of funding, but it is a matter of using funding well. throwing more money at a system that does not work does not fix anything. neither does taking out the official at the top of the system. these issues are systemic.

that is what the report found out. they are across the country. there is a lot more to it than just more funding. i think that is too simple an answer. host: use of that term systemic from the report -- members have been using that in their statement of concern about the v.a. and their comments this week. you keep hearing systemic. one question for leigh munsil -- one caller had this question. is there any data on veterans complaints? particularly in arizona facility? is there any data tracking over the years for not getting appointments on time? she want it to know if there's anything like that before these reports came out earlier this year. guest: i imagine we would find out any longer audit situation. we might find out more that stuff by august. one of the issues in phoenix was

that there were 1700 people who were not on any electronic waiting list. aba official testified before the committee on the house side this week and pushed back on this idea of the seeker waiting list. he said that those documents were not able to provide the documentation of wait times, because he said they were intermediate work documents. they were not kept. they did not keep all of those records. the question of whether they kept records of debate, where they are, whether those we made public, is an audit situation he for the end of the summer. host: we will try to get in as many calls as we can before the end of this segment. we're talking about eric shinseki's resignation, announced yesterday. let's go to johnny waiting in georgia. caller: good morning. it seems to me that it is ridiculous. removing general shinseki -- mccain is a senator from

arizona. he is closer to the situation. he should have been able to solve that. i am sure someone could call him and tell him what was going on. should be fired. thank you. host: chris carroll of stars and stripes, have you heard some of these complaints before? that member should have been more on top of these issues? guest: sure. i have heard complaints about mccain and congress in general. you can't really fire a senator. , how much managerial oversight a senator should have is an open question. i don't know how many complaints the senator received at his office about the v.a. topic,ow, on the same the v.a. is in the -- right

now. it is not a system that is seen as bad. there are a lot of veterans that are satisfied. in these moments, to have a clear view of what the picture really is. it is a mixed picture. the systemic problem is kind of a narrow system problem. whether that means there are other systemic problems, they could. -- it could. as of now, i think we have an incomplete deal. host: let's go to alan in new jersey on the line for veterans. caller: good morning. i am a veteran from iraq. i am 100% disabled. i went to the v.a. with a formal complaint about the way that the doctors were handling my claims. not my claims, but my service. those complaints were told to me

that the doctors are untouchable. there are not enough of them to do anything about. i wrote to congress and never received any answer back. then i went to washington and had them take me to the hill. i spoke to numerous congressmen up there in washington. nothing was ever done about it. hadso found out that they passed a bill for veterans who blindness, and spinal injuries. there was money granted to the veterans. the v.a. got that money and misappropriated it. when i talk to these people on the hill, they did not have a clue where this money was or where went. host: leigh munsil, more concerned about members not having their hand on the brains of some of this funding.

guest: some members of congress have a better sense than others. this sort of issue is obviously highly geographical. like senator mccain was mentioned -- phoenix has a lot of v.a. facilities, as does the rest of arizona. senator mccain has paid fairly close attention to veterans issues. bernie sanders has been an advocate for veterans. most people in congress want to be seen as advocates for veterans. what they know about their ters in theirth cen district is less clear, depending on their floor speeches and stuff. it obviously is something that lawmakers pay attention to. if you go to town hall meetings, when election season comes around, there are hearings for veterans. a lot of constituents are veterans. a lot of voters are veterans. a lot of people are getting very

deeply into the political process and have that background. a lot of lawmakers hear from veterans all the time and hear these sorts of things that we are hearing on the calls. specific instances of frustration, whether in clinics or funding. congress has to at some point be tuned into this issue. i think a lot more has come to light recently that makes it bubble up. we will see more hearings and more specific attempts to get to the bottom of this system as a whole. host: you bring up bernie sanders, the chair of the veterans affairs committee here. he made a statement after the resignation. to unequivocal goal must be provide the highest quality health care to our veterans in a timely manner -- we must transform the culture of the v.a., establish accountability, and punish those responsible for the manipulation of wait times. i look forward to working with president obama and the new leadership to make that happen.

one more call from harrisburg, pennsylvania, on the line for veterans. matt, good morning. caller: i currently live in harrisburg, pennsylvania. for two years. previously, i received treatment in brooklyn. i received excellent treatment in new york. i am an independent, but i agree with the republicans. there ought to be an investigation of every single were presented at. they have all received complaints. they have had time to hobnob with their financiers and lobbyists. they should be under oath to give a detailed account of that. host: who do you think should be conducting those investigations? counsel orcial someone outside of the justice department. host: the executive branch? department of justice? caller: yes.

host: chris carroll, your thoughts on whether something like that should happen? guest: that sounds somewhat unlikely. members of congress would be investigated to see how they responded to constituents. i do think that the caller is right. thingskely, a lot of the result in no action or just a short letter to the v.a. packets a pro forma response. the way this works is that as it as it builds its reach -- as it builds it reaches a critical mass. sometimes it is a random thing. host: that is all the time we have in this segment. i want to thank our guests area

in -- our guests. >> doris fuller, the executive director of the treatment advocacy center talks about the recent calls for an overhaul to the nation's mental health system in the wake of last weeks california shooting spree. amy harder looks at the new climate change initiative. and youtake your calls can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. about 40% of the european union's imports come from russia, much of which comes through ukraine.

the brookings institution analyzed implications of growing russian influence in european and asian energy markets. this is an hour and a half. influence on natural gas supp supplies for europe and asia. >> good morning and thank you for coming out. i think this is one of the most exciting programs we have had. i happen charles ebinger and we are delighted to have everybody. i would like to thank edward chow and our own cliff gaddy and i would like to say it is a particular honor for me to

sponsor this event because there are very few people professionally you can say in the jace of jonathan stern that we have known each other for 40 years and met each other when we was working on soviet gas. it is a delight to have him and james henderson here. without further ado, let me introduce jonathan stern and he will kick us off. jonathan? >> thank you very much, charlie and thank you all for coming. we appreciate the opportunity to launch our book here. i want to say in terms of

protocol as far as the press is concerned the first launch is in london next tuesday so in a sense we are not here. this is actually the first time we have presented the book in public in this way. we come from a small institute part of oxford university and we are some of few people doing research on the unfashionably subject of oil and gas. you can see the title of the book. we are going to give you a snapshot of had issues. some of issues. we will not talk about the ukraine crisis in the presentation but would be happy to talk about it in the q and a.

this is the first book i have win since 2005 and the subtext of that book was would the russian's be able to develop enough supply for all of the markets they could deliver do. and now the question is no longer that. the question is can they deliver gas to rapidally changing markets where the pricing conditions and they are facing much more competition than was ever the case in the past? and the idea is not to go through all of the numbers. it is just to give you an idea of the complexity of the situation.

the russian government faces a very, very complex mixture of supply sources and markets which have to be managed on an ongoing basis as those markets have -- are -- changing rapidly. i am still listening to people who keep saying things like what are they doing in europe? is this due to political or commercial issues? these are the kind of compl complexities we'll be addressing in the presentation and addressed in the book. let me locate you in terms of the importance of gas in the macroeconomic picture.

people and particularly journalist tend to talk about oil and gas in the russian economy not realizing the two are not comperable. this shows you and i hope you can see, the three charts share the gdp and gas is significant and they share in export where gas is 12.5% compared with oil at 54% and the share of budget revenue. gas is very, very important in the russian energy balance but it isn't important in the big financial picture of the russian economy. this is another way of look at it where the top two light blue and dark blue bars are the money

the russian government earns from the gas taxes as opposed to the green bars which is the money from oil. those people that keep saying we must try and impact on the financial aspects of gas because this will punish the russian economy haven't got the picture remotely right. let me rush on and show you the big issue with gas problems on long take programs. the reason this is really important is that americans, some of you i can see i recognize, will remember an era before the 1980s when there were long term take home contracts in the country but that hasn't been for a long time. they are s