the first obama administration official testifying before a house committee about the botched obama care rollout has apologized, weakly, but then she maintained the kris acceptable, incredibly, is working. listen to marilyn tavenner construct what is at the very least ahn alternative universe. >> we have a system that's working. we're going to improve the speed of that system. >> excuse me. >> yes? >> you're saying the system right now is working? >> i'm saying it's working. it's just not working at the speed that we want and at the success rate that we want. and those are the things we're working on. >> congressman trey gowdy, member of the house oversight judiciary committees. he chairs the immigration and border security subcommittee. congressman, great to have you with us. let's start with, if we may, obama care.

this president lied. his administration lied. and persisted over a period of more than three years in maintaining the fiction that people could keep their insurance plans if they chose. your reaction? >> well, i hate it for my fellow citizens, but there were lots of voices warning that what he was saying was just not going to be a true or a lie or mendacious or whatever synonym you want to use. and that's not the only mischaracterization. your premiums are going to be higher, and your coverage is going to be worse. you would think at a certain point, politics aside, that people would get tired to by being lied to by people in positions of power whether that's the president, the head of the nas, the attorney general, but we had an election a couple years ago, and the calls in part, he perpetrated this myth, he was re-elected. >> and speaking of myths being perpetrated and this

administration responding in peculiar ways, marilyn tavvenner, the centers for medicaid and medicaid services basically telling the congressmen of the united states to go to hell. she would not respond as to how many people had been enrolled under healthcare.gov. we have no idea because this administration obviously has ordered -- this president has ordered agency heads and to sto congress of the united states. >> yeah, lou. and it is amazing coming from someone who promised to be the most transparent administration since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. and you have fast and furious and benghazi and the nsa and the irs and now the obama care rollout where committees of congress, an equal branch of government that has a constitutional responsibili to provide oversight can't get what all to be available which is how many people have enrolled? >> absolutely.

conforming to the administration's method of operation. it's clear whether any one of the scandals that you mentioned, and others, this administration chooses silence, chooses to stonewall, and will not respond to either congress or the american people. only now in the last, i would say, 48 hours, congressman, we're seeing elements of the national liberal media actually break ranks with a president and an administration with which they've been not compliant but complicit over the course of his years in office. >> i think the infatuation is slowly wearing off. it only took 5 1/2 years, but it's slowly wearing off. look, people are going to be hurt by this law. and there were voices that warned of that back in 2010, and there are being consistent voices since then. and again, politics aside, when it comes to getting a job or having your hours cut or being

told that you're going to be able to keep your coverage if you like it or keep your doctor if you like it, you find out that that's not true. i mean, i heard from my fellow americans -- you can take the approach and say well, that's what you voted, that's what you get. i hate it when people are misled and then they are left to bear the consequences of it. and keep in mind, executive branch that we've been talking about is not covered by obama care. so they're not going to have to go to this website and spend the next two or three weeks trying to log on. >> nor the staffs and the members of congress. >> right. >> y'all are being fully taken care of as well. i know you didn't mean to overlook that. >> well, i only overlook it because i don't get my health insurance through the government. i may be a minority of one, but i get my health insurance differently from the federal government, but you're right. but go back to that for just a second. i mean, that was kind of the final thing that we asked the president during the shutdown is, we'll restart government. will you just make all of us

play by the same set of rules, and we couldn't even get a vote in the senate. >> the republicans had an opportunity, i think, congressman, to see, in fact, the moral high ground. all the republican caucus had to do is say irrespective of the refusal of the democrats that you would not accept your health care subsidies for obama care. i think th would have been a remarkable gesture on your part. also remarkable, a demonstration in washington, d.c., on immigration. lobbyists showing up from the national association of manufacturing, the chamber of commerce, the folks from microsoft and zuckerberg's operation. to demand amnesty. where are we headed with this? >> well, if their demand is amnesty, they're going to be very disappointed. i think where we're headed is kind of where we were back before the fiscal issues knocked everything else off e map. i've spoke to chairman goodlad who i think is doing a fell ol natural job from virginia last

night. we're going to start having hearings again, and the house is going to pursue a step by step, comprehensive, not throw everything in, not hide stuff in a big bill, a step-by-step process where the viewers, the voters, the people we work for who say this is about agriculture. this is about internal enforcement. this is about the border. and we'll either pass it out of the republican conference because the democrat s are not going to left a finger to help us on house bills. they keep thinking the senate bill is going to come to the house floor. that's not going to happen. so the republicans are going to say what they believe in, and we'll see whether we have 218 votes. >> congressman trey gowdy, good to talk with you. >> thank you. the obama care debacle worsens. a foreign contractor's checkered past includes allegations of fraud, insider trading and sexual abuse. and, of course, a billion-dollar contract from the obama administration.

"national review" columnist jillian k.

on capitol hill today, lawmakers took aim at the latest example of over-the-top agency conferences. in the spotlight now, the department of veterans affairs. the wasteful spending there proving this is no longer an administration, it's a national lampoon misadventure in governance. >> reporterfirst we found out the general services administration spent 900,000 taxpayer dollars to throw a lavish las vegas conference. those were the good old days, weren't they, jeff neely? then we learned the irs racked up a $50 million bill for their conferences because nothing helps explain tax fraud better than "star trek" and "gilligan's island." now the department of veterans affairs is embroiled in its own scandal. spending more than $6 million on two conferences in orlando in

2011. and of course, they had to produce a video featuring v.a. employees dancing. but while the irs prefers the cupid shuffle, folks at the v.a. like sister sledge. today on the hill, lawmakers weren't happy. >> veterans affairs is a large agency with deep pockets. yes, it's a large agency with deep pockets. but those pockets were not intended to be picked by either contractors that were likely unnecessary or, in fact, people who we held accountable and paid to be accountable to the taxpayers. >> reporter: and what was the v.a. poduction budget for this video? well, they had $50,000 to make this spoof of patton. that at a time when the v.a. had a backlog of more than 700,000 disability claims, more than 125 days overdue.

another obama care contractor under fire for its questionable track record. the british firm charged with processing paper application serco faces allegations of fraud, wasteful spend rgs, even sexual assault. joining, jillian k. melcher, fellow at the franklin center for public integrity and the author of the report. great to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. >> serco. what in the world is a british firm being -- i mean, why bring in a british firm for a billion-dollar contract? >> that's an excellent question. >> that's why i started to it. >> i don't have an answer to it. it's pretty shocking that they ended up getting the contract with the record they have. they haven't done a particularly good job with it. they're under investigation for several different things including falsifying records, maybe overbilling the british government biy millions and millions of dollars. and in detention centers they

run, there have been allegations. i find their record astonishing. >> and we really have no idea in the world why they chose serco other than the fact that its vast experience wi the national health service in the uk. >> well, there's a cynical explanation for this. and that's that they spent very heavily on lobbying and political contributions leading up to when they got the contract. so they spent, in the last couple years, more than a million dollars. and one of the lobbyists that they hired had actually worked very hard on the health law. switched to the private sector. and then while he was lobbying for serco ended up getting investigated for insider trading. >> i mean, this is mark hayes. >> mark hayes, correct. >> and where is that investigation today? resolved? >> you know, i couldn't find out. i think it might still be pending. i never got a definitive answer on this. but i think it goes to show how much money was involved in the lobbying and an effort to secure this track record or this contract even if they didn't have the best track record for it. >> it's stunning.

and we're seeing this time after time after time. the contracting is out of control in this government. and it seems to -- it doesn't seem to matter much which agency. what are your thoughts? >> well, i think it's a little bit shocking to me because the british press has done a phenomenal job reporting on this company and sort of the troubles that they've managed to get themselves into. you can find out with the click of a mouse. this story didn't take me that long to pull together. and the fact that no one in the obama administration noticed that they were potentially overbilling the government, that they were potentially engaging in fraudulent behavior, i just -- there's a disconnect there. >> there are a lot of disconnects, i'm beginning to notice in washington, d.c. thanks so much. great to have you with us. >> thank you. up next, the brand-new book "days of fire" laying out the relationship between president obama and vice president cheney. upending much of what has become popular in certain ideological,

well, parts of the spectrum,ay over on the left. author peter baker is next. stay with us.

[ male announcer ] meet mary. she loves to shop online with her debit card. and so does bill, an identity thief who stole mary's identity, took over her bank accounts and stole her hard earned money. unfortunately, millions of americans just like you learn all it may take is a little misplaced information to wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. if mary had lifelock's bank account alerts, she could have been notified in time to help stop it. lifelock has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available, guarding your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. you even get a $1 million service guarantee. that's security no one can beat. don't wait until you become the next victim!

call the number on your screen and use promo code notme for 60 days of lifelock identity theft protection and get a document shredder free. call the number on your screen or go to lifelock.com/notme.

new jersey governor chris christie scoring a huge endorsement in his bid for re-election. take a listen. >> i don't endorse many politicians, but chris christie is different. he's a good man. excuse me. he's a great man. please join me in supporting chris christie for governor. >> shaquille o'neal and newark native in addition to being, of course, an nba legend. now let's turn to a fascinating new book. which takes an inside look at the white house under president bush and his vice president, dick cheney. the administration my next

guest, joining us now the author, "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker, the author of this brand-new book "days of fire, bush and cheney in the white house." i just want to say, peter, what a terrific read, and i haven't finished it all, but i think -- i can say this with absolute assurance. what a terrific job at giving us an insightful look at two men who are too often painted in cardboard poses. so welcome to the broadcast. congratulations on the book. >> thank you very much. >> i've got to ask you, how did you write such a bookworking for "the new york times"? can i do that? >> well, look. you know, i think it was important to go ba and look at this presidency and try to look at things we didn't see at the time. you know what we discover when we look back is that when we cover things, we get 5% to 15% of what's going on.

this is a chance at peeling back the onion, looking for things that surprise us. i think what surprises us about the bush/cheney white house, it wasn't the cartoonish version that a lot of people have. this book tries to puncture some of the mythology, give a fully realized, three-dimensional review of what those eight years were like. >> this is primarily for the audience. i just want you to know, in this book, which i recommend to you highly, "days of fire," peter, i mean, you portray president bush as a man of intelligence, of considerable concern and honest care for the country, and there is no caricature here at work at all, even as you discuss polarizing figures like dick cheney, without question, donald rumsfeld. every person comes out with their due, whether condoleezza rice, all of the principal figures, and i just want to complement you for doing so. >> thank you. >> i just think it's a terrific, terrific read.

and i love the analysis that you bring to the issue of the war itself, and particularly colin powell's moment of fame, if you will, before the united nations in february of 2003. how was -- give us, if you will, your sense of how much he was used by the administration and how much was his own weakness and vanity to be at the center of the moment? >> no, it's very interesting, right? he obviously was, you know, a square peg in a round hole in that administration. and it's interesting because he worked so closely with dick cheney in the first gulf war, the pentagon, and they obviously had significant differences in the first term of the second bush administration. in fact, at one point richard armitage, the deputy secretary state to colin powell urged him to resign saying look, they're just using you for cover for when they do things that might otherwise be seen as polarizing.

colin powell didn't want to do that. he believed in being a good soldier. he tried to slow the march to war to iraq, but he never actually flat out opposed it. when the president said to him, okay, i'm ready, are you going to be with me? he id, es,sir tnk tt waa scring momnt f hihe u. prestati tha tured o to be fll ointeigen tha didt paout. t, you know, i think for all these people, you mentioned treating them as humans. i think they are human beings who tried to do what they thought was the best. we can all agree or disagree with their points of view. i think they were doing what they thought was the best thing for the country. and we need to look back at why things happen and how they happen, and we can judge from there. >> journalists too often covering of the white house, covering politics in washington have given short thrift to the bushnd altering the course of the events, at least the direction

they were headed before those reinforcements. and the role of hank paulson, the treasury secretary, in moving forward with t.a.r.p. if you listen to some of these journalists and some of this aaministration, most would say this is an idea that president obama thought up just as he walked in the door back in 2009. it's really an amazing time in which the president, president bush, made a real difference. >> well, he did. both of those decisions are critical decisions to his presidency. he goes against the prevailing conventional wisdom. he goes against all political, you know, logic to some extent, sending more troops was opposed at the time. not just by democrats but even by a lot of republicans. even by the secretary of state who he valued a great deal, condoleezza rice. and he decided this was a thing he had to do anyway. it was a very daring decision and similarly with t.a.r.p. even the republicans in the

house very much against it. >> peter baker, he is the author of "days of fire." we recommend it to you. it's available online, in bookstores all over the world. thanks for being with us, peter. >> hey, thanks for having it vy

and the election. >> the focus this week has been on obama care. in case you didn't know it, the fed held a big meeting as well. who better to talk about the future of health care and interest rates than retired doctor and congressman ron paul, right here, right now. >> from the fox business headquarters in new york city, it's the tom sullivan show. here's your host tom sullivan. >> thank you for joining us. here the top of the stack. we will get to the topic of the fed in a moment. but first, beyond all the computer problems, the big issue was the knowledge that the white house knew there would be massive insurance policy cancellations, which would pressure people to sign up for mostly broader