i'm bill hemmer. welcome. we're in the friendly confines of our studio, we're not down there in florida. but what a great program they have, and happy birthday to the fox news channel. martha: thank you. from all of us. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. the white house is calling this the buffet rule, making thar that millionaires pay the same in taxes as the middle class, named for warren buffet who famously complained that he just doesn't pay enough, wants to pay more. bill: we're asking him to cut a check! paul ryan and other top republicans say this will do more harm than good. >> what it does, it adds further instability to our system, more uncertainty and punishes job creation and those people who create jobs. class warfare, chris, may make for good politics but it makes for rotten economics. >> i will pay for this plan and pay down our debt by following some basic principles, making sure we live within our means and asking everyone to pay their fair share. bill: here now, stu varney,

working all weekend trying to figure this one out. good morning to you. on the politics side, this is campaign season but before we get to the politics, talk about the economics. what proposals are there? >> it raises all kinds of questions. if you want to have a special tax on millionaires, make them pay more to the federal government, it raises all kinds of questions. if you do that, raise taxes on the millionaires, you get more jobs, you fix the housing crisis, consumers spend more, banks lend more, you get more economic growth, those are valid questions to ask when you're proposing to raise taxes on the very wealthy. second, how you do this, are you going raise the rate of tax on capital gains? that's how you could fix a special millionaire's tax, number three, is this an economic policy or is this a reelection policy? and number four, you mentioned it, bill, why doesn't warren buffet exercise true leadership and write the first check? bill: let's get to buffet in

a moment but everything seems to be in the prism of campaign 2012 and now you're going to have a democratic president pushing this with a republican-led house. >> yes. bill: that may not go very far. >> well, it -- >> bill: in the senate, the democrats control t. there are questions about whether or not the democratic senate will pass this idea. >> basically it looks like it's dead on arrival when it reaches congress. maybe the president knows this, and he wants the republicans to reject higher taxes on the rich so that he can then make the republicans the defenders of the rich and make that a key point in his reelection campaign for 2012. it's more -- it seems to me, expressing an opinion here, it seems more of a political strategy than an economic policy. bill: you mentioned warren buffet. what is the distinction between what he is talking about -- he's made this argument for months now -- about the money he makes in income and his secretary? >> the secretary earns income, and is taxed on that income. some very wealthy people make capital gains, that's the source of their income.

capital gains increases are taxed at a different rate from income. warren buffet wants somehow or other to even out the difference between the capital gains tax rate and the income tax rate. how do you that has not been spelled out, certainly not by president obama. bill pill not on paper just yet. stuart varney, see you at 9:20, fbn. thank you. >> mtha: we want to get into this a little bit and see how many in the country qualify for the millionaire status. we did a little research and here's what we found. in 2009, 230,000 americans had a gross adjusted income of a million dollars or more. so those taxpayers were responsible for about 177 1/2 billion dollars in federal income tax, that represents more than 20 percent of all federal income taxes that are paid are paid by this group that's being addressed today, the over a million dollars. bill: so you want to be a millionaire, right martha? a new poll shows that americans are not optimistic

about getting rich any time soon, the associated press survey shows two in ten believes they'll ever reach millionaire status in the next ten years, 61 percent say it is extremely or very difficult to reach that threshold in the country, 29 percent think it is modetely difficult. start saving! we all are. martha: and anger at the ultra rich is inspiring demonstrations on wall street. hundreds gathering in downtown manhattan to protest what they call a culture of greed, occupiing -- occupying the streets near the world famous financial district, here, city police spending much of the weekend secure thank area so that people can get in and out of their jobs this morning. the most militant protestors, tweeting online that they plan to occupy their space on wall street for, quote, as long as it takes to make their point. so this is many individuals, those that don't make a million dollars a year, can get back to work today. there is new evidence that could reveal what led

to that deadly air show crash in reno, nevada over the weekend, that small stunt plane that slammed into the first few rows of spectators, leaving a massive crater, about 3 feet deep, # are dead, at least six others are still in critical condition. casey stegall is live on this story in reno, nevada. casey, what are investigators saying about this, that -- this is very new in terms of what they might be able to find out? >> >> reporter: martha, it's the evidence that is very key here, and two things, really. over the weekend, ntsb investigators located what they believed to be a videocamera with memory cards that may have been on board this particular aircraft. they also found a makeshift recording system. this is similar to a black box on commercial airliners, only those record thousands of variables, this one was recording dozens. however, those items can certainly paint a weather picture in terms of what went terribly wrong here on

friday. look at these pictures. the twisted metal and debris, spread out over more than an acre, and now, we are starting to hear from a handful of the injured, people right in the middle of it all. >> a second later, the thing crashes, right behind me, and i get -- all i remember is i'm trying to run, is i see stuff corporation and that's the last thing i remember. i don't remember anything else, and evidently, i was hit on the back of the head by something, and then i mitoo all the stuff that i have wrong with me is really on the back side. >> reporter: can you imagine? that man, clearly speaking from his hospital bed here in reno. nearly 70 people were transported to area hospitals, following this accident, 36 have been treated and released, and six people remain in critical condition this morning, martha. martha: what a terrible

story this is. so we're trying to figure out, casey, exactly what happened. a lot of attention being focused now on the plane's tail, and what we can pick up from the photographs and video there. what is that leading to? >> >> reporter: well, there were a number of pilots on the ground, obviously, at this event, and they know plane inside and out, and some of them reported seeing problems with the plane's elevator on the tail, the elevator is a flat surface that moves up and down and allows the pilot to ascend and descend. well, ntsb investigators have not confirmed whether that was possibly playing a role in this accident, but it is certainly something that they are going to be looking at, taking awfully those images, all of those eyewitnesses' accounts into effect as they now begin the second stage of this investigation, all of the materials and debris sent to washington, d.c. for annual -- for analysis. martha: what a sad tragedy that was over the weekend of the casey, thank you very much. a little later today, we're going to talk to a witness

who was standing a few feet away from where that plane came crashing down. we'll hear his story coming u bill: says he's lucky to be alive, with family and friends, and the plane just went right into the ground, just disappear and pulverized. martha: that man had so much experience and a lifetime with that plane. bill: fox news alert, a new round of arrests in the u.k., police rounding up several suspects overnight in what's being called a major operation. greg palkot on that story live in london. greg, what triggered this? >> reporter: authorities here, bill, are treating it pretty serious lu, all told, seven arrested, six men, one woman. it happened overnight in birmingham, u.k., that's the second biggest city in this country, about 120 miles northwest of where we are now in london. police, bill, are describing it as a. quote, large, pre-planned, intelligence-led, counter terror operation and those

held, being suspected of an -- i'm quoting police again -- commissioning, preparing, instigating an act of terror. we don't know exactly what triggered it but apparently they were close to enacting this terror plot, police finally saying they felt it was necessary to act, to ensure public safety. again, they're not talking about the backgrounds of those arrested but some are saying this is all linked to al-qaeda-inspired terrorism. bill: in the u.k., do they have terror threats and if so, what is that level now, greg? >> reporter: the level right now, bill, is the at third highest, called substantial, that means, quoting the terror rule books here, that an attack is a strong possibility. those arrested, we are told, are british passport holders, as in the united states, bill, home-grown terror, a reality here. the biggest attack here,, 2005, 52 killed in attacks against the london transport system, all involved locals, but in our research around the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we have found that the u.k. security officials here

veg very good at their game, at least half a dozen plots have been disrupted since 9/11, perhaps what we're seeing, yet another plot broken up, but we're expecting more details in the next 20 minutes or so. bill: when there are more headlines, come on back. martha: those are just a few of the stories we're watching so far. we've got a lot more coming up on a busy morning of "america's newsroom" on this manhattan -- monday, republican candidates say the federal reserve has to stop stepping in to fix the economy which they've done a whole lot of. they don't have a whole lot more ground to go. but now they're saying there's something else they could do. we'll talk about that. bill: a lot of talk about hillary clinton in 2012. could we see her jump into this race and if so, how would that change things? martha: this is unbelievable. these are billionaires, punching each other on

television! bill: my wallet is bigger than your wallet!

>> bill: some leading economists over the weekend, saying that the fed has run out of arrow necessary its quiver, arguing it's near the end of any economic options. >> well, the fed has a big problem right now as to whether there's anything else they can do to help the economy along. >> we really need an entitlement reform, we're going toward a debt cry circumstances we do need a better tax code. those are permanent changes to the environment. that's what i think they should focus on. there was a time and place for a one-time target, it's not now. bill: art laffer out of nashville, tennessee, good morning to you art! >> good morning, bill, how are you doing? >> bill: doing fine, thank you for your time. are they right? does the fed have any options? >> well, the fed really didn't have any options to

begin with, bill, and they've done a lot of damage, i think, and they'd be far better off trying not to do more. they've just been hurting the economy and i don't think they should continue doing that. bill: what holz-ekin just argued in that interview, if you heard that, this tp* there are issues in europe that the fed is still well positioned is the phrase he used. that sounds like a contradiction. >> well, i don't understand it. we've had the weakest currency in age, the price of gold, through the ceiling, commodity prices are way up, there's been no improvement coming about because of fed action, we've had the largest increase in the monetary base in the history of the u.s., times ten. so i don't think they've done any good for the economy, and i think they should stop trying. i think what we need to do is what douglas just said is we need to reform, we need to get rid of omabacare, we need to get rid of the entitlement problems, otherwise, we are heading

towards the crisis lal greece. it's not eminent, it's not tomorrow, but it is ten, 15 years down the road. we've got to get our house in order right away. bill: rasmussen did a survey. apologize for the interruption. i just want you to react to the question, 11 percent of the of the economy is getting better, 65 percent say it's getting worse. why do people feel that way? >> because they're right, it's getting worse. we are not seeing any improvement in this economy whatsoever and the reason is simple, bill, we're doing the wrong policy. this is not going to be solved by increased government spending. and what obama is proposing today, from what i understand, is the buffet rule, which is raising tax rates on the rich. he's not raising them on the rich. he's raising them on people who earn income. warren buffet has $60 billion worth of wealth. no one is suggesting that his wealth be taxed. that's what he should have proposed. but he didn't. bill: do you think that goes anywhere? >> no, i don't. no, i don't think it goes

anywhere. it's the wrong thing to do. you don't raise taxes in the worst economy ever. that's just silly. when you tax people who work, bill, you don't get more people working. it's really very simple. we've got to stop the spending programs now. that's the critical thing in the entitlement programs. and i don't see how this president pulls it off to be honest with you. bill: about a week ago, we are told the big concern is the white house -- at the white house is the strong possibility of a double-dip recession. are we there? are we headed there? >> how do you see it? >> we aren't there and i don't think we're really going to be headed there. but the point that they're making is correct, is that there is no growth coming in this economy. at this stage in the recession, following ronald reagan, we were having growth rates of between 5 1/2% and 9 percent. that was the first quarter and the second quarter of 1983. this president is seeing a continuation of the problems going on, and he doesn't know what to do. he really doesn't know what to do. and he's not taking advice

from any of the republicans. bill: if you go back to the fall 2008, it's been three years of bad news on the economy. >> it's terrifying. bill: art, listen, thanks for coming in, we'll talk again real soon, out of nashville, martha's new favorite town. enjoy it. >> my favorite, too! thank you bill. martha: spent the weekend in nashville, what a fun place that is to see. thanks to everybody there, very nice people there. in chicago, there are people who are not being very nice to president obama and this comes out of the chicago tribune of all place, a member of the editorial board saying they think the president should consider dropping out of consideration for the 2012 race. we hear that a lot from some corners but certainly not from the chicago tribune. >> are we seeing crony capitalism play out in the white house? new fallout from that solyndra scandal, and the light squared situation. that's a separate company. are political favorites turning into bad investment? >> this is an incredible organization you work forbes no one in the federal

government is responsible for half a trillion dollars -- half a billion dollars of taxpayers' money? this is phenomenal. what do you do for a living?

bill: some news now on election 2012, republicans in some states, changing voting rules ahead of that election, swing states like florida, ohio, wisconsin, trimming the number of early voting days. other states are beefing up voter i.d. rules and putting restrictions on groups that register voters. looser rules, some argue, are believed to benefit democrats. we'll see whether or not that plays out. martha: and it's going to be a big week. there will be a critical showdown unfolding at the united nations, palestinian president mahmoud abbas says he will seek membership for the palestinian state and that sets up a shedown

between the palestinians, israel and her supporters on both sides. reena ninan joins us live from the united nations. she's here in the states right now and she sat down for an exclusive interview with the palestinian president. good morning, reena. >> reporter: hi martha, good morning. it is expected to be the main event at the united nations, diplomatic efforts are still underway to try and prevent palestinian president from going to the security council, but he says after 20 years of negotiations, this is the only way forward. >> you are the first world leader that president called on when he took office, why embarrass the president of the united states by going to turkey now? >> i don't know why he doesn't want me to go but what i decided to -- when i decided to go to the security council, what i felt, that there is no way for the negotiations, because americans, including president obama, use their

influence in creating terror. >> and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office, we asked him whether or not he would be willing to meet with the palestinian president before the speech, the palestinian president said he was willing to phaeurb the initiative and the prime minister's office said they would, too. we'll see if anything comes of it. martha: reena ninan, thank you very much. reporting from the u.n. today. bill: it's going to be big week in new york with the leaders coming up, we'll see what the iranian president does and all the paulout -- fallout that comes with it. >> a newspaper has a stunning message for the white house. a fair and balanced debate on that message, next.

bill: it is yet another big day for this year's metal honoree ant, dakota meyer on hand to ring the opening bell at the new york stock exchange, this after he went home to kentucky after receiving that medical after of honor. here is part of what he had say. >> it's been a whirlwind of a week, and meeting with the president, meeting with the marines, meeting with the americans, i can tell you right now, nothing is better than meeting with people from my home town in

kentucky. many would call me a hero. the sight thaf word makes me cringe. i'm no hero bill: wow. just last week, the 23-year-old was awarded the medical after of -- medal of honor by president obama and indicted into the -- inducted into the pentagon hall of heroes, he's being honored for saving 36 lives and recovering four bodies during combat in afghanistan. we'll have more on his story and now the honor on wall street for dakota meyer. >> [opening bell ringing] >> almost there in solitude, right? you see to many, crowd on that floor and this is an honor reserved for o'clock, well done, sergeant, thank you for your service, yet again.

martha: all right. let's get to politics now for a moment here. a chicago newspaper has a pretty stark message this morning in their editorial page for president obama. basically, they're sayg just bag the campaign now, and it is coming from the chicago tribune, his home town paper endorsed mr. obama back in 2008, but this time around the editorial board is singing a very different tune. this is a quote from it, quote, i checked the constitution, and he is under no compulsion to run for reelection. he can scrap the campaign, bag it, fundraising calls, an never have to watch another republican debate as long as he's willing to vacate the premiseses by january 2013. that's a pretty harsh message for a sitting president in his home town newspaper. we're joined to talk about this, sally cohen, founder of movement vision.org, karen henretty is communications director for the national republican congressional committee. karen, welcome to you, good

to see you both. >> good to see you. >> good to be here this morning. martha: sally, what's your reaction to that? >> my reaction is shock and disappointment. let's be clear it wasn't the editorial board of the tribune writing this, it was one editorial board member and it's part of a conservative pile-on to try and distract from the fact that republicans have, in fact, lower approval ratings than the president but rather than draw attention to that they want to distract and pile on to the critiques of the president to hurt his rerecollection promises but the fact of the matter is the president needs to continue to focus less on what his republican detractors are saying. martha: it's interesting, i looked back to see, in fact, the chicago tribune typically does not endorse democrats, but they did in this instance, back in 20 08, and they spoke glowingly of then-senator obama in items of his ability to bring people together and saying he was a different kind of democrat, that he was a moderate, and that they really wanted to support him for that reason, they were very hopeful for

his presidency, and now obviously, as you point out, this mr. chapman on the editorial board has changed his tune. karen, how surprising is this editorial, at this stage of the game? >> look, there's a lot of panic going on throughout the country, within the democratic party. i mean, you've got james carville suggesting people should be fired, you know, democrats are wringing their hands, wondering why they didn't nominate hillary instead of obama in 2008. but look, democrats and the people who endorsed him are getting exactly what he promised. he promised the health care bill that voters in 2009 were very vocal about their displeasure of the bill and, you know -- and here he is today, proposing an increase on the capital gains tax, which even democrats within his own party in the senate don't support. so there's a lot of handwritinging going on, despite the fact that obama has really done everything

he promised he would do, so people are getting what they asked for. martha: i want you both to take a look at this piece of sound from the sunday talk shows, this is former president bill clinton, when asked about the possibility that hillary clinton might be reconsidering, perhaps challenging president obama in this primary, here's what he had to say: >> i'm very proud of her, and so i'm always gratified whenever anyone says anything nice about her and i very much agree that she's done a good job, but i also have a high regard for vice president cheney's political skills, and i think one of those great skills is sowing discord among the opposition. i think he by saying something nice about her in the way he did it knew it might cause a little trouble. i don't want to help in succeeding his political strategy, but i admire the fact that he's out there, hitting the ball. martha: nobody but bill clinton could loop around a statement likes that. he complimented his wife, he complimented dick cheney, he

left the possibility open that 14e might change her mind but said there's a lot of politics and a lot of stirring u he doesn't seem to mind too much. >> bill clinton is exactly right. this is the republican strategy -- strategy to distract, distract, distract, from the heaping american disapproval of republican leadership right now and instead, pile on to the president. look, the american people are by in large appreciative of the situation that the president is in, the president inherited a bad situation, he stopped it from getting much, much worse, and now he's trying to bring us back to the brink, and the republicans are ting him in every month. martha: let me ask you this. you know, you're a democrat, among your friends, does anybody ever sit around and say gee, you know, maybe we really should have picked hillary? >> you know, no. >> martha: never? >> look, there's always somewhat ifs in political circles, but the reality is what we wish the president were doing, and i'll criticize him as much as i'll praise him, what we wish he were doing was standing up more for what he believes in and for the

american people and worrying less about his republican detractors who have really made clear they want him to lose more than they want america to win. martha: karen, at this stage of the game, six months before he was about to run for reelection, lbj decided not to run, it was a complete shock in all political circles. do you think there's any possibility that the president would make this decision, having said in the past, you know, i'd be satisfied with a good one term presidency? >> well, if he was having a good one term presidency, perhaps he'd be satisfied. but he's not having a good one term presidency, and it is the democrats in the senate and senator dick durbin from illinois who over the weekend said that the president's job bill, which must be passed now, we have the urgency of now, isn't even going to come to the floor until october. democrats do not have confidence in the president's own proposal to save this economy. martha: interesting. it's great to have you both here, sally, thank you very much for being with us,

karen, always good to see you as well. >> thank you. bill: to viewers far and wide, fox news teams up with google. have you heard o google? hosting a republican debate in orlando on thursday. you can submit questions for the candidates, just like this viewer did. roll it. have a listen: >> i'm in decline, i'm in rochester, new york. if you had to choose between cutting taxes and balancing the budget, which one would you choose and why? bill: short and sweet. like it. you can submit a question, foxnews.com, scroll down for the spotlight section and click on the presidential debate. there was a link -- or there is a link, rather, to submit your question, you can figure out all the information online there, a piece of cake, you can do it and we look at each and every one of them, too. minister march it's going to be fun! looking forward to it. thursday night is a huge night for fox and t nation as we watch the next round of the gop hopefuls, squaring off. and this story that happened over the weekend caught everyone's attention, because it was just so

tragic at this air show. as a plane slammed into a horrified crowd on the ground. we're going talk to somebody who was there. and watched this whole thing right before his eyes. >> i ran. i ran, and a second later, the thing crashes right behind me, and i -- all i remember was i'm trying to run, and there was like huge stuff coming.

martha: all right, here's what's developing in "america's newsroom", the trial begins today for the second man accused in the 2007 deadly home invasion that left a mother and her two daughters dead in connecticut. he will take the stand, he faces death if convicted. his co-defendant, stephen hayes, was sentenced to death last year. horrific, horrific crime in connecticut. and a strike deadline may have passed, but so far,

supermarket employees at three of california's largest chains are still at work, this as it appears negotiators are making modest progress there, and netflix today officially separating its online streaming and dvd by mail services, but it's also renaming the dvd service quick s-ls ster. bill: want to get to this horrific scene at a deadly air crash in reno, nevada. watch here: >> it is remarkable to see it, no matter how many times you watch it. dozens of people at that show witnessed that happening. including ron stargis, standing only 50 feet away from where the plane went down and sir, good morning to you in sacramento, california. that is a weekend you will

not forget. >> good morning. bill: you were 50 feet away. what did you see? >> that's right. we have a box that sits right on the finish line, and watched the plane come around the final turn, begin to wonel, go out of control, then arc up and head out over the crowd and the boxes sitting on the tarmac in front of the tkpwropbd stand watched the plane point his nose at our box, we stood up, tried to figure out what do we do, do we run, what do we do and the pilot, wrestling for control, got the nose up a little bit, we then watched it go over our head and come down and impact just about five or six boxes past us, about 50 feet away. bill: there were thousands at the moment watching this, and the pilot was 74-year-old jimmy leewood, a man who has enormous experience, but in your casual observation, you think the pilot was taking

evasive maneuvers to try and avoid hitting more people. how did you observe that or what did you see the plane do that would give you that indication? >> okay. over the years, and going to the races and having several friends that have been out there and a friend who's a flight instructor, i've heard about safety precautions they take, the training, and if past years, when planes have gotten into trouble the pilots get them clearly out over the center of the airfield, out over the sage brush and i'm convinced, one, all those pilots, that seems to be their first thing they do in the event of any problems and secondly, that plane, you know -- what amazing me is now at looking at some of the video live, it was crisp and color, hike watching in high definition and it was boring straight down in on us and it changes trajectory and the only way it would do that is the pilot to change the controls, swing out from the center of the grand stand and the boxes and he

almost made t. clipped that first row of boxes, and it would have been so much worse had he come down in the middle of that pox, in the middle of that grand stand. bill: had he not done that, would you be here today? >> i probably would not be. that was one of those things that we've talked about with friends, and one of them said, you know, there's something in life left for you to do, for that to occur but if he had not, as i said, that plane was just -- friends and i were just staring at the nose of that plane coming straight in under full power. bill: ron, i got a note here that you had said there was no explosion, it was like the plane just pulverized into the earth. >> right. bill: describe what you saw there. as the trajectly changed, i saw it go straight good the ground at that row of boxes and i braced myself, figuring one, there would be a fire ball, an explosion, and nothing. you heard the sound of that plane just going into the

ground. then i braced myself, figuring well, i'd feel some kind of concussion from it, there was none, and then also, i expected to see parts of the plane flying toward us, and there was nothing. so it became very surrealistic at that point, it was almost as if i was looking at a big video screen. when i went up into the grand stand a few minutes later to get more of a bird's eye view, to see that the pilot ended up getting the plane so that the impact was pointing out toward the center of the field where there weren't any spectators and all the debris and all the force got blown away from us. it was just amazing to be standing there and not have a scratch, not have anything, for as close as we were, for a plane that went in that hard. bill: truly remarkable. you say what was odd, perhaps, is that not a whole lot of people screamed or yelled. it was kind of quiet and hush? >> it was. as the plane was coming in, everyone was staring, and it may have been that it was so shocking to see a plane

swing over the crowd that way. there wasn't a lot of screaming, there wasn't a lot of panicking. the plane hit and within a minute, the emergency crews were there, and you know, they're is the up to deal with the pilots in -- with the pilots in an emergency and there was crying, a woman and a gentleman in booth next to us started to cry, we went over, we worked on comforting each other, another woman came over and started a prayer immediately for the victims and their families and the pilot. in doing it, then they asked people to organize and leave, and people did. i mean, ty were very respectful, headed out, very smoothly. i think part of it was the response was so fast. bill: so fast. requires responders had everybody at the hospital within 62 minutes. you have nine dead, more than 50 wounded, and ron, i'm happy to say you're not one of them. thank you, pal. >> we feel very blessed. >> bill i bet. thank you. >> reporter: to viewers at home, go to

foxnews.com/"america's newsroom", the website on air, click on the bya box, maybe what's on your mind as we start a whole new week, also, e phaeuplt, hemmer, foxnews.com, also on twitter at bill hemmer, because you asked, bya. ron sargis. martha: we hear a lot of accounts of people feeling that that pilot did everything he could in the final moment toss minimize the damage and he was a true professional from all the accounts you hear. it's just an awful, awful story. bill: and pictures, took the trim on the back of the wing apparently was loose, and in one picture, it had fallen off in another, without that trim, you cannot steer the plane and that's what we see moments before impact. martha: all right. let's turn your attention to what's going on on wall street. we got a big dip happening this morning, folks, almost 2 percent decline for the dow jones industrial average, down 215 points, this comes as there is increasing concern over europe's debt crisis, and the need for greece to

basically curb their public expenditures and increase their revenues and get their economy under control. a lot of attention is headed in the direction of greece this morning and that's why you're seeing the dow down so considerably. this as we wait for the president to discuss our own decifit reduction plan that he wants to put fourth morning from the white house. that's going to happen at 10:30a we'll hear about that live shortly as well. so a discussion about the economy, speaking of the economy, turned really ugly. >> this just doesn't happen! >> bill: another thing about your mom! >> martha: exactly. but they were talking about the economy! billionaires, brawling! look at this, on a tv show in russia. we're going to tell you all about that. interesting story there. bill: and this one, too, she was the whale trainer dragged under water during a live performance. now sea world is fighting back after getting fined for her death.

>> does she actually have trainer in the water with one of our whales, the whale that they are not supposed to be in the water w we don't know what's going on. we're told to call and have people here on standby when they get the person out.

bill: billionaires brawling. it happens every day! come on, right? competition! russian real estate developer throwing verbal jabs at a russian newspaper owner, even saying he'd like to slug him! so he did. love it! that's russia for jerry springer, by the way! now the guy who got punched is threatening legal action. we'll see whether or not the courts take that up, huh? >> martha: the vladimir

putin, macho style brand of deal w-g the problem! bill: next time they'll do it without their shirts on, be perfect for putin! martha: while wrestling a bear! this is part of the ongoing series of america's third war, nearly one year ago, tiffany hartley says a day of fun and jet skiing on a texas lake turned to horror for her and honor husband who was allegedly shot to death by drug cartel members right in front of her. today, she will testify before lawmakers at a congressional forum on border security and kris gutierrez joins us live from brownsville with more on this. you spoke exclusively to tiffany last night. what did she say about this? >> martha, we should point out, this is tiffany's first trip back to this region since her husband was presumably murdered last year, she now lives with her parents in colorado. we should point out her husband's body was never recovered on falcon lake, nearly a year later, as i pointed out, coming up,

september 30th, will be one year after that shooting. according to investigators over in mexico, the investigation continues. listen here: >> i really don't feel like there is an investigation over there. i think they just say it's open, and it's ongoing. but it's hard to believe that they're really doing anything. >> >> reporter: tiffany tells us she's actually filed three different lawsuits, one against the fbi, one against the state department and another against the justice department, because she's looking for answers in what exactly is being done or has been done to recover other husband's body, martha. martha: kris, who is hosting this forum today? >> >> reporter: texas congressman ted poe is actually -- he initiated this forum, it will take place in the brownsville, the campus here at u.t. brownsville later this afternoon. it starts in about an hour. yesterday we had the opportunity to go up in a helicopter for a tour of this border region with the congressman. take a look at this video here. you can see that parts of this area are actually lined with a border fence but not all of it and that's why

congressman poe calls this, quote, a forest border and he still has questions whether or not washington really understands what's going on down here. listen here: >> washington is blissfully ignorant of the problem. washington says it's not a problem, therefore, they ignore it and move on down the road and talk about something else. but it is a problem. it is a national security issue, that the whole country should be aware of. >> reporter: congressman ted poe says among other things he'd like to see more boots on the ground securing our southern border. martha: we'll watch that, kris, thank you very much, kris gutierrez. bill: we are about to see the president's new plan to bring down the decifit. his target is americans making more than $250,000 a year. why republicans say that could hurt more than help. we'll get all that coming up in a moment. martha: plus, the gop is charging that it is a case of crony capitalism. new details emerging in the solyndra and light squared

scandals. we'll bring you the very latest after this.

martha: all right, here's the question, is it as some critics say a case of crony capitalism? the white house is under fire this morning for pushing solyndra, but now we're also finding out that president obama was an early investor in a connected company that was also up for a big government prong. we told you about it on friday, about a 4-star general who said that he was pressured to change his testimony about communications company light squared. now, that company, whose major investor is a big democratic donor and heavily favored for a huge contract to expand america was wireless internet, said the pentagon had its concerns about that, so now we know that president obama once held a stake in that company. so that's getting a lot of attention this morning as well and that's how we start a brand new hour on this monday morning. good morning, bill hemmer. bill: good to see you,

martha. this comes just days after solyndra filed for bankruptcy, sending billions of dollars in government money, taxpayer money, up in smoke. martha: the administration saying it sent government funds to political cronies. listen to this. >> this is industrial policy and crony capitalism at its wore st*r. it's exhibit a for how this doesn't work, we shouldn't be picking winners and losers in washington, we should be setting economic conditions so the private sector can create jobs. martha: that was paul ryan with chris wallace. joined by byron york, chief political correspondent for the washington wh-r. good morning to you. how bad is this getting for the president? >> so far, my guess is you did a poll of the whole country and see how many have heard of the word solyndra, you'd get a pretty small number, but i think it's beginning to stick a little bit because we are learning about the webs of connections between some of the people involved in these companies. for example, we've learned that another obama

fund-raiser, a man named steve center, was involved in the whole green energy loan guarantee process at the energy department. as a matter of fact respect he recused himself from the solyndra matter because his wife's law firm represented solyndra. we're learning more about this web of connections hind these companies. martha: you know, it strikes me that a lot of folks might look at this situation, byron, and say isn't that the way things work in washington, when there's money handed out it's likely to go to people politically connected to their corporations? but the big surprise i guess for supporters of this president would be that it's still going on, because that's precisely what he promised would not happen anymore. >> that's the only difference here. there's no doubt that that sort of crony stuff does go on, in republican add democratic administrations, but the problems with the white house now is they control the white house, so they can the target in this, and finding out that barack obama himself was an early investor in lightsquared is

also going to be just more fodder for the opposition, more am nicks for the opposition to use with this charge of crony cap tammism. marioo capitalism. martha: is this something the white house should have come forward with when this matter came forth? >> this is not reported yet. we have the extraordinary scenario of an active duty general saying he was pressured to change his position on this for political reasons that we need to learn a lot more about this. right now, there's not a whole lot the white house should probably be saying but we need to find out what happened first. martha: byron, we've talked about sort of the how it looks level of all of this, but then there's the level of the economy, because the whole idea was that these green jobs were the growth sector and we hear economists every day saying look, the problem with the u.s. economy is we don't have growth, so we were told this is where it needed to go in order to create that, and now you've got the

companies, solyndra in this case, going bankrupt after the money goes in, so everybody is going to question whether or not this money is going anywhere that might help. >> this is going to become a huge political issue. we know about a stimulus-based program in the energy department for $38 billion in loan guarantees where clean energy has created 3500 jobs so far, that's $10 million in loan guarantees per job. i think you're going to get republican os on a day that the president is proposing higher taxes, you're going to get them saying no more taxes until we -- this going to be the debate over higher taxes. martha: this was supposed to create tens of thousands of jobs and so far, 3500, which is a pretty expensive 3500, according to how the numbers break down. byron, thank you very much, good to see you as always. >> of the firm, lightsquared will be a guest with the megyn at 2:15.

phillip falcone will be on "america live". that is something you don't want to miss. we'll find out what he has to say about this. bill: sure will. have a lot to say. first, 2012. first there was obamacare, and romney-care and the offshoot. michele bachmann adding another care to that list, coining another term for a rival's health care position. >> whether it is obamacare, or whether it's perrycare, i oppose any governor or president who mandates a family's health care choices and in turn violates the rights of parents on these issues. bill: bachmann'sparicare, on governor rick perry's order for young girls to get the hpv vaccine. bachmann caught criticism of her own and others said she was wrong about that inference. five minutes past the hour. martha.

martha: ron paul is pocketing a straw poll win in the california gop convention. paul got 45% win, with much coming from younger voters. closest competitiontics with rick perry at 20%. paul chalked up his win to supporters who believe in limited government and freedom. >> we have to address the philosophy of government. we have to dide what is the purpose of government? and political action? i think the main purpose of our constitution and political action should be the preservation of liberty. would be great at the end of the first 30 days of new administration get rid of the irs and the federal reserve. martha: there you have it. ron paul has won many recent straw polls but placed in the bottom of the pack at opinion polls but barry manilow is huge fan. bill: he is. write the songs and get the votes. in news this hour, president obama announced his plan to cut back the nation's

skyrocketing deficit. we already gotten word that the proposal will slash $3 trillion over the deficit if enacted over 10 years. half of that comes from new taxes. wend dole goler live on the north lawn. wendell, what can we say about what we're about to hear? good morning? >> reporter: good morning, bill. this package of tax hikes and entitlement programs is set to cut $3.5 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years but republicans and democrats already butting heads. republicans saying the tax hikes included in it are a nonstarter. the white house saying that the president will veto cuts to medicare and medicaid if cuts are tax hikes are not included. wisconsin congressman paul ryan fold "fox news sunday"'s chris wallace yesterday that the tax hikes would actually be counterproductive. >> look, if you tax something more, chris, you get less of it. if you job creators more you get less job creation. if you tax investment more

you get less investment. >> the president's plan calls for $1.5 trillion in higher taxes. about half of that rolling back the bush administration tax cuts on families making more than $250,000 a year. the rest from limiting deductions for those families and closing corporate tax loopholes. $580 million would come from entitlement program cuts more than half from medicare and medicaid. $430 billion counted at savings from interest we wouldn't have to pay. another $1.1 trillion from winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan which some say isn't really saving money though republican plans have counted it. a lot of pundits consider this plan 2012 campaign but the president says it is intended to pay for his jobs plan and that he says can't wait. >> most americans don't have the luxury of waiting. it was three years ago this week that a financial crisis on wall street made things much more difficult for working folks on main street. and too many are still hurting as a result.

>> reporter: the president's plan less than half an hour from now. about 22 minutes. fox news channel will carry it live. bill? bill: we will be there, wendell. good to be with you today. bianna golodryga at white house. what is next. martha: seaworld is making money at the expense of animal and employee safety. citing death after trainer attacked by a killer whale at a live show. seaworld is fighting back. bill: it could be a big slap in the face for some of our bravest americans. the possibility of major cuts to health and pension benefits for our nation's military. we'll tell you what is going on there our guest is the buck mckeon, saying it is a matter of national security. also -- >> let's plan past the next election. let's plan the best defense for our country. what if we're attackinged in some other area? what is our military going to do if we keep cutting them?

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bill: getting reports, fresh reports out of yemen this morning, government force, including snipers are shooting at protesters on the streets there. watch here. [shouting] bill: that is am mature video come coming out of the capital san'a. 46 said to be killed in the new clashes that started after thousands of protesters took to the streets on sunday. they want the current president to step down. that country has been in turmoil like many have going back to the month of march. martha: thank you, bill. they are the brave men and women that fight to defend our country and now u.s. soldiers could see some major cuts to their health and pension benefits. one republican congressman is making it his mission to remind americans that the number one thing congress should do is protect the nation. watch some of this. >> when i came to congress, the army brigades were about

76. now they are 45 and they were supposed to be 130, b-2s. that was cut down to 21. fighter squardrons, dropped from 82 to 39. strategic bombers, 360 down to 154. we've got b-52s the pilots are probably the grandsons of the pilots that flew them originally. we've got b-1s being retired. and our average tanker is 47 years old. we're the smallest navy we've been since 1916. martha: wow that last fact is really stunning. the smallest navy we've had since 1916. congressman buck mckeon is the chairman of the house armed services committee. he is our guest in the studio. >> good to be with you. martha: we're hearing so much across-the-board cuts and that everything has to be on the table. if the supercommittee does not come up with the cuts they are required to come up with, then these triggers would kick in. that could mean cuts of $900

billion in defense, right? >> actually, even higher than that. we've already cut 465 billion. if the sequestration kicks in it will be over another 500 billion. you know, we understand that defense has to be on the table just as everything else is. out of a budget as large as the defense industry has there has to be some way to save some money but we have saved a lot. to try to break the back of the recession on the backs of the military means who will have our back the next time we're attacked? martha: there is lot of discussion obviously about the pension and benefits packages received by the military. obviously this is hugely sensitive area, nobody, everybody wants these people who put their life on the line to be well-taken care of after that. it is interesting, if you are not in 20 years, you're not getting any of this package. a lot of these packages are in the neighborhood of $26,000 a year in pensions.

so we're not talking about a lot of money in most cases for most of these people, right? >> you know, i was down visiting some troops down at camp lejeune saturday. i was talking to some of the marines and their wives and this is a big concern that they have going forward. i had a call from a young boy that i saw grow up who is now an army or air force physician down in san antonio last week. he is concerned about his pension. he has been in 12 years. should i re-up? what is my future going to be? our troops that go outside the line over in afghanistan every day should not be having to think about what their retirement's going to be, what their pension is going to be? are they going to be able to stay in the military, the problems they're having and effect this is having on their families. that is not fair. and i think we need to remember, the marine motto, semper, fit dell list, always fableful. what the promises to the mail terri that we made to

them. martha: absolutely. i talked to general bob scales a few weeks ago. he was very much against it. leon panetta said would not be people currently in the military but in the future they should invest in 401(k) plan potentially allow investments and retirement to grow at a higher rate, one would hope. >> well i think if we want to look at something for future, that is not what affects the military right now. when they signed up, promises were made. those promises should be kept. in the future i think, you know, we need to look at things. we also need to understand what it's going to mean to keep an all-volunteer force. do we want to reinstitute draft? some of the cuts we're talking about would take over 200,000 out of end strength of our military. martha: it is amazing to me you could do two tours in iraq and began gas, if you're not -- afghanistan, if you're not in for 20 years you would not see any of money in your pension.

maybe that is something we need to rethink as well. >> we lost a special forces sold other a couple months ago on his 10th deployment. two, four, five, six. martha: he would have been eligible for nothing, correct? >> right. >> congressman, buck mckeon, very good to see you today. thanks for bringing us to our attention. bill: about 17 minutes after the hour. explosive new charge, calling about life in the white house and calling it a hostile working place for women. new fallout by a death by a seaworld killer whale and the decision that could have effect. >> i don't think they're out of the water yet. they're still there in the whale. >> but someone is, they are getting them out of the water now. >> there are people working on it yet. two, three dozen people over there right now.15 or more on car insurance? host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things?

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martha: a deadly carjacking in atlantic city. police say it happened inside a parking garage. two people in the car, both later found in an alley near the trump taj mahal casino resort. one person died. another is recovering in the hospital. investigators say three people of interest left the scene on foot after that shooting. bill: the one debt to lose in that town. seaworld fighting back after getting fined for the death of a whale trainer. dawn brancheau died last year when a killer whale dragged her underwater during a live performance. federal investigators say seaworld is making money at the expense of animals and employee safety. phil keating live out of miami. the feds fined seaworld but they're arguing this is about more than just a fine. explain that, phil. >> reporter: oh absolutely, bill. this was a $75,000 fine for seaworld. that is easily affordable.

what it is about is about the willful negligence of endangering their killer whale trainers that was concluded by the osha investigators. seaworld does not want to have that official label because they maintain they are not jeopardizing the lives of their trainers. tilikum is the 12,000 pound killer whale who has killed a total of three people in its life in captivity. however, there were no guardrails at the pool there at seaworld. and the osha investigation saw underwater camera video from seaworld, that shows most of the attack, but it does not show the initial pulling in of drawn brancheau the trainer. but the osha description is, the killer whale rammed her head on. grabbed her either by the arm or by the hair. took her underneath the water. she drowns. eight minutes later her lifeless body is floating up to the surface. then it says a third time

the whale turns, gains speed and strikes her head-on. the she was scrap and her army was severed. up in the seminole county courthouse the hearing is going on right now. there are representative attorneys for seaworld as well as the widower of dawn brancheau and her sister and their attorneys. they do not want tis underwater video shown publicly. the judge has yet to rule on that. bill: wow that would be dramatic if it would go public. what about this whale. bill: tilikum? still performing at seaworld. >>reporter: yeah. it was sidelined for a year in isolation. with much fanfare seaworld reduced tilikum to the public in april. keep in mind at the deadly and brutal killing of that trainer a year ago, there was a full crowd. children, tourists, everybody watching this event. they were all quickly ushered out of seaworld's auditorium. however, there are also

activists there that think seaworld is actually mistreating these animals. they shouldn't even be in captivity. here is what one woman said this morning. >> and you put them into a small box and you force them to, you know, live next dreamly limited life. and they are going to act out now and again. it is not safe to be that close to them but seaworld has been fooling people for a long time that it is. >> reporter: seaworld is currently constructing a special pool with a underwater floor like a false floor with holes in it so in the emergency of an attack they could quickly lift up the floor, bringing the whale out of the water and prommably save the live life of anybody in the water. bill: it was so dramatic when that story broke. phil keating in miami. thanks, phil. martha? martha: there is a brand new book coming out this week that is getting a lot of attention, folks. it has thrown a lot of criticism towards the obama administration. ron suskind saying

white house officials told him that the the west wing, rather, was quot, hostile to women. the white house is fighting back on that charge. bill: speaking of fighting, rick perry taking fire from all the candidates on the policy regarding immigration. why the texas d.r.e.a.m. act is taking center stage in florida. >> there is not anybody on this stage has to had to deal with the issue of border security than i have with 1200 miles of texas and mexico and our federal government has been an abject failure at securing our border. the postal service is critical to our economy--

delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

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medicare guide and customized rate quote. bill: this will be the headline of the day, it's about to happen, fox news alert as we await president obama's announcement on his plan for reducing the deficit over the next ten years. a live look at the rose garden, decent day in our nation' capitol, president obama will speak any moment now but we're getting word he might be delayed. we'll see what time he decides to go, depending upon the schedule of the white house. as we await, brit hume with us anmonday morning. how you doing brit? >> fine bill, how are you? >> bill: doing tpaoeufpblt let's get into specific necessary a moment. i imagine the left this cheer this and the right will knee dunes in -- denounce it and we'll think about the 2012 campaign being fresh and open for debate. how do you see it? >> this looks like it will be another round in the long running argument over tax and spending. this is a plan to reduce the decifit by some

$3.6 trillion over a period of, what, ten years or whatever, that relies very heavily on tax increases, and they are obviously not going anywhere as far as the republicans and the congress are concerned, both house and senate, so presumably the president is hoping this will give him a talking point that will, a, rally his base and, b, perhaps rally the country to his side because pollsters ask people the question should the rich pay more and the answer is invariably yes and if you ask the question in different ways, is it a good idea to raise taxes in a slack economy, most say no, so you fight it out to see who can get the issue framed best, but i will say this, i don't think that the democrats have won this argument very often recently. they argued this throughout the 2010 campaign for the house and senate and lost badly. so we'll see. i have my doubts. bill: why do you think that's the case? is that a trend you're seeing and if so, what explains that? >> well, look, what's

happening here is the president has made the argument for higher taxes, which broadly speaking are not popular. he obviously believes deeply in it, his base and his party believe deeply in the idea but they haven't been able to carry the day. look at what happened at the end of 2010 when the bush tax cuts were set to expire, that was what the law said and the president was very much for that but he couldn't carry the day on it even before the new congress was sworn in, because when you get down to it, people resist this and they particularly resist it when the economy is not going well. -- doing well, so i think it's critically a loser -- politically a loser but the president is trying to tkpwao*or his forces behind him to go into his election campaign, he's ice did -- disappoint dollars the base on a number of issues and on these issues, which has to do with taxing the rich, this stuff is popular among his people and presumably that will gather enthusiasm going for him in this

campaign. bill: you wonder if it's dead on arrival in the house and some are questioning whether or not democrats and majority in the senate would even pass it. some particulars about this, now, some people call it the millionaires' tax or the buffet rule. this is what it would do, in part, anyway. you'd save 240 some odd billion dollars but reducing spending in medicare, $72 billion from medicare, you save over ten years after the drawdown out of iraq and afghanistan, more than a trillion dollars. >> but look at that, bill, look at that number. that's money that isn't going to be spent anyway. so you know, when you're trying to get a handle on all of this spending and you know that these entitlement programs are responsible for so much of the growth in spending and you're trying to get to $3.6 trillion, you got about half of that in, what, tax increases, which you can't pass, another trillion, plus, in money that wasn't going to be spent, anyway, and the actual amount of savings

you're doing begins to shrink and that's one of the big issues here. this is hard to do, cutting spending. this is hard to do, even cutting the growth of spending, but this does not appear to do much of that. bill tax reform is the second panel there. the point i was making is that people are going to cast this as a millionaire's tax or the warren buffet rule, they've already categorized it, but if you look the a the fine print, if you make $200,000 a year, $250,000 a year, loopholes in the tax will be closed, limiting deductions, will be eliminated, so this isn't just millionaires in america. >> well, yeah, so it ends up being a tax increase on a great many people who consider themselves middle class, and also consider that the amount of money they make isn't all that much in today's world. so you know, i just don't see how this is a winner, bill. bill: on that point, i think it goes back to the original point you made as to why things have not been successful or you're losing elections or you're losing the debate on this point.

so we'll wait for the president to come out and -- to come out and listen for the headline. thank you for your time. >> you bet, bill. bill: britt brit hume. martha: we've got that in a few minutes, stick around for that. in the meantime the next straw poll is going to northbound florida, which is of course a huge battle ground state in all of this, the governor there, republican rick scott, is already making this morning a very big prediction about that straw poll. watch: >> 3000 very active republicans, they are going to be delegates and i personally believe whoever wins that straw poll, they will be the next president of the united states. martha: and he says that's backed up by history. so we'll see if rick cott is right, the president speaking moments from now from the white house which should lead to a round of fresh reaction from his would-be rivals on the gop side and chief political correspondent carl cameron is already in orlando as he gets ready, the president dark the fox news debate coming up on thursday and

you've got the big straw poll, so it's a very crucial week in all of this, and carl is already on it. good morning, carl. >> reporter: it is indeed, martha. we should point out that in between the fox news debate on thursday night and republican party of florida's presidency five straw poll on saturday, there's also a conservative political action conference taking place in florida that will also have an impact on the race. so we take a look at how things stand at this point, rick perry remains the national frontrunner, he and mitt romney are in a close dead even tie according to the polls in florida. florida is a very, very important state and for mr. perry this will be his third debate appearance in just 15 days in which he's been the center of attention and he can expect a lot of crit civil and attacks from his rivals. for mitt romney, it's a very big deal today and today he's already issued a statement in advance of the president's remarks saying that the president plans to raise taxes, will have a crushing impact on economic growth, higher taxes means fewer jobs, it's that simple. this is jet another -- yet

another indication that president obama has no clue how to bring our economy back. romney and perry, battling in florida and michelle pwa*ugman who slipped to third has also a big opportunity in the sunshine state. it's a huge week here, martha. martha: it sure is. when you think about it, they've had a lot of opportunity toss go head to head over the past few weeks and this one is going to be crucial debate for all of them. immigration, carl, we expect is going to be front and center as well for all the candidates as they head into this. how is that playing out? >> reporter: it is. and immigration in florida is particularly complex. this is a state with a large population of immigrants, a large latino population, but many are cuban american and they tend to be quite conservative. they've been in florida for in some cases many, many generations and they are very aggressively conservatively opposed to illegal immigration and for that rick perry could face some heat, his opposition to a complete border fence for all 1900 miles of u.s.-mexico border has him at odds with sort of the republican conservative

position. mitt romney and michelle pwa*ugman have been aggressively criticizing him for that. look for immigration to be a very big issue in the upcoming debate and florida race n. large measure because of the latino population is so conservative and takes a hard line against illegal immigration. martha: very interesting dynamic there, carl, thank you very much, carl cameron in orlando this morning. bill: where you going to be on thursday night, america? fox news is teaming up with google to host that republican debate in orlando and you can submit questions. here's how do you it for all the eight candidates, two different ways now, go to google's home page and click on ask it now, or you can always go to our home page, fox news.cole and click on the ask a question tab and write your question or submit a video question for all the candidates and we're going through all of them and some great ones are coming in, so you're going to see that play out on thursday night. it's going to be a very interesting debate. martha: and you can get all together and have a party to watch yourself on tv! so we're looking forward to that, it's a big week here at fox news as the

debate comes up on thursday and we want to talk about this coming up as well, a new book is getting a lof of attention -- lot of attention this morning and it claims the white house was a hostile work environment for women, and now the white house is hitting back against this, they're saying it simply is not true. so who's telling the truth? we're going to talk about that. >> bill: also she's 69 years young, five grandkids, loves to read but bad guys, beware! >> he told me get away, lady, get away. i said no, you get away. go while you can, and i had the knife in my hand, and i just smacked him across the wrist.

bill: everything is more expensive, right? get shedo get ready to shell out more for pumpkin pie and jack-o-lanterns. torrential rains led to a shortage across the country and it could be spreading to your neck of the woods.

>> buy your pumpkins soon for best availability because there are not going to be as many around. i'm getting calls from other farms, other pumpkin retailers asking if i might have pumpkins that i might be able to wholesale to them but my response is sorry, i barely have enough for myself. bill: some farmers predicting a 75 percent spike in pumpkin prices. charlie brown would not like that! martha: and they could be eaten by the squirrels before halloween! let's talk about this, the white house fighting back against controversial new claims regarding president obama's inner -- inner circle, ron sesquin's book -- suskind called "confidence men", among the claims, he says that former communications director, anita dunn, told him that she found the obama white house to be, quote, a hostile workplace told women. anita dunn is denying she made those comments. kirsten powers is a daily

communist and fox news contributor. good to have you here, good morning, kirsten. >> good morning, martha. martha: i got the book last week, starting reading it over the weekend, it's a very interesting read on a number of levels, but we want to address this issue first because this is one of the first things that the white house has sort of been fighting back on. what do you make of these claims? >> well, i think when i first read it, it running true as to what i had heard some people complaining about it, not just women, but people of color who felt that they don't have as much influence in the white house. i think that the hostile part of it is -- i've never really heard. it's not so much that it's hostile in the instance of sexual harassment or distribution -- discrimination, just that it's more of a boys' club and it really is a place where women aren't in the inner circle, except for, of course, vallerie jarrett who is one of the president's friends, but outside of that, the women are sort of kept out of that inner circle.

martha: yeah, let me just read to the viewers what anita dunn said about this, and anita dunn has been a long time member of the inner circle of the obama working team. so it is somewhat surprise, and she says this is not what i told the author, this not what i believe, and anyone who knows me in my history of supporting this president as a candidate and in office knows that it is not true. so it was a flat denial, and it does raise a lot of questions about this, and you know, looking back through several of his previous books you can find other examples where the bush administration people and others who have been profiled in his books have said the same thing, that they're misquoted. we're going to speak to him live on thursday about the book and talk to about him that. what about this fact that it's a fairly negative look at the obama presidency and it would appear that's not what they thought they were in for when they agreed to do it. >> agreed to talk to him for the book? >> martha: martha:y yes. >> it is hard when you have people saying i unequivocally did not say

this, this was great working environment, so it's hard to know exactly where he gets this kind of stuff. anita dunn was very powerful and it's hard of -- kind of hard to believe she was treated that badly, but you know, i don't know if he takes things that other people said and attributes them to certain people or what he's doing. it does ring true about this white house. again, i wouldn't say hostile, because that's a legal term, i think, but i think that it does ring true that it is very much of a boys' club, which is not frankly that unusual in a white house. martha: what about the book in general, kirsten? as you look at this situation, he was given almost an hour, ron suskind, to sit in the oval office and talk to the president, now there are reports that the reason they did that was they started to get nervous that the book was heading in the wrong direction and there have been so many laudatory books written about this president but this one accuses something, maybe cutting closer to

home, that he's not a strong leader, he likes to sit back and watch how things unfold and this is something that he questions about himself in early passages of the book, so that's got to be an uncomfortable situation for this white house, i would manage. >> reporter: yeah, it's a very, very unflattering picture, but it's not one that you haven't heard before in terms of this is a president who didn't have a lot of experience, he did have an economic team that did have a lot of experience, particularly larry summer, who sort of runs rough shod over everybody. in that sense it's very believable. it's what we already kind of know about how these people operate. it's how they operated in the clinton administration, it's how they've operated with obama, and let's face it, they knew more about what to do than oma did coming in. so i think it is very unflattering and that's why they have to push back at it, and the question is how do we know which parts are true and which parts aren't true. well, i think some of the stuff just -- it really does

sound familiar in terms of the criticisms that are made about this president. martha: very interesting. and you know, so far, it's a really interesting read, and we're going to talk to the author on thursday, ron suskind, about the book and we're looking forward to having him here. kirsten, thank you very much, good to talk to you. bill: in the meantime, jon scott is standing by down in our news raofplt what's going on on a monday, jon? >> jon: we are carrying on just as you are with a couple of busy hours today. bret baier will be along with the politics of the president's decifit plan after two deadly air show crashes this weekend, some are saying they should be banned. we'll get into that question. also, are we getting closer to the release of those two americans still locked up in iran? authorities in the -- on the west coast are wondering if the body of missing nursing student michelle lee has been found. we'll talk with dr. baden about that. >> another trial in that horrific murder in the

connecticut home invasion case, that trial beginning today. and a man dies, fighting off a grizzly bear. all of this ahead. you can go to 230*bgs news -- foxnews.com/america's asking to weigh in on all of the day's headlines. bill: all right jon, see you in about 11 minutes, okay? jon scott there. prosecutors say he murdered his wife, he claims he tried to stop her from committing suicide, and accidently shot her in the face. well, today, both sides try to convince a jury.

>> things are running a little behind schedule at the white house this morning, we expected the president at 10:30, looks like he's going to come out in the next few minutes. we have the folks there that need to there be to get things underway. we'll take through as soon

as the decifit reduction speech begins. bill: standby mode! right now the third day of testimony is underway in the murder trial of a florida millionaire, prosecutors say bob ward shot his wife diane in the face in the bedroom of thir florida mansion, ward initially telling a 911 dispatcher, quote, i shot my wife but later said her death was a tragic accident, that she died during a suicide attempt. steve harrigan is live on this. the jury is going to have to sort through this and find truth. what's going on today in court steve? >> reporter: bill, day three of testimony, the prosecution is splitting -- putting its gun expert witness on the stand, the prosecution trying to make the case this was not a gun that could be fired accidentally, easily, it's a revolver, smith smith & wesson 7 magnum, it would have to have the trigger pulled to be fired, they're making the case it was fired, the single bullet that killed diane ward at a distance of 18 inches away from her face, making it difficult

for her to have pulled the trimmer and they say it's unlikely that suicide, particularly female suicide is fired directly into the fate, the single shot that killed diane ward, entering the face just to the left of her nose. bill: what would be a possible motive in this, steve, what have prosecutors suggested? >> >> reporter: the prosecution is pushing money as the main motive. they say bob ward was a wealthy developer who was now in bankruptcy, whofg being sued by several different people, his wife was about to give a deposition in one of those lawsuits and the people suing him claim that bob ward took tens of millions of dollars out of his real estate development to lead a lavish lifestyle, they say he bought the mansion in florida where they say he killed his wife with some of that money, as well as houses in georgia, cars, as well as race horses to maintain that lifestyle, bill. bill: has a -- it is a high profile trial in the southeast. steve harrigan is on that out of miami. martha: safe to say you probably never want to get into a fight, right? but you definitely do not

want to get into a knife fight with this lady. she knows what she's doing. >> my reaction, you don't have a weapon, but i do! and i'm not afraid to use it! [ male announcer ] do you have questions about medicare?

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>> as expected to the rose garden we go. president obama with his deficit-cutting plan set to be unveiled. here we go. >> i sent to congress the american jobs act. it is a plan that will lead to new jobs for teachers, for construction workers, for veterans and the unemployed. it will cut taxes for every small business owner and virtually every working man and woman in america. and the proposals in this jobs bill are the kind that have been supported by democrats and republicans in the past. so there shouldn't be any reason for congress to drag its feet. they should pass it right away. i'm ready to sign a bill. i've got the pens already. now as i said before, congress should pass this bill knowing that every proposal is fully paid for. the american jobs act will not add to our nation's debt

and today i'm releasing a plan that details how to pay for the jobs bill while also paying down our debt over time. and this is important. because the health of our economy depends, in part on what we do right now to create the conditions where businesses can hire and middle class families can feel a basic measure of economic security. but in the long run our prosperity also depends on our ability to pay down the massive debt we've accumulated over the past decade in a way that allows us to meet our responsibilities to each other and to the future. now during this past decade profligate spending in washington, tax cuts for multimillionaires and billionaires, the costs of two wars, and the recession turned a record surplus into a yawning deficit, and that left us with a big pile of ious. if we don't act, that the

burden will ultimately fall on our children's shoulders. if we don't act, the growing debt will eventually crowd out everything else, preventing us from investing in things like education, or sustaining programs like medicare. so washington has to live within its means. the government has to do what families across this country have been doing for years. we have to cut what we can't afford, to pay for what really matters. we need to invest in what will promote hiring and economic growth now while still providing the confidence that will come with a plan that reduces our deficits over the long term. these principles were at the heart of 9 deficit framework that i put forward in april. it was an approach to shrink the deficit as a share of the economy but not to do so abruptly with spending cuts that would hamper growth or prevent us from helping small businesses and middle class families get back on

their feet. it was an approach that said, we need to go through the budget line by line looking for waste without short-changing education, and basic scientific research and road construction because those things are essential to our future, and it was an approach that said we shouldn't balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class. for to us solve this problem, everybody, including the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations have to pay their fair share. now during the debt ceiling debate i had hoped to negotiate a compromise with the speaker of the house that fulfilled these principles and achieved the $4 trillion in deficit reduction leaders in both parties agreed we need, a grand bargain that would have strengthened our economy instead of weakened it. unfortunately the speaker walked away from a balanced package. what we agreed to instead wasn a