anal. see you tomorrow, folks. bill: he says the danger is in ducking his ideas. congressman paul ryan will make public a new budget plan this morning, setting the stage for a new battle over your money and america's future. high-stakes here. good morning, everybody, i'm bill hemmer. look who's back. martha: back. bill: finally. where have you been? martha: hello, bill. great to be back. i had a fantastic trip. i will talk about later, to africa. good to be back. thanks so much. i'm martha maccallum, everybody. glad to here. paul ryan's plan is the story of the morning a do-over of last year's agreement made with democrats. he is calling for deeper spending cuts. not dissuade by the battle at all last time. he will go further after that ever rolling number of $15 trillion.

bill: stuart varney, fox business network. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: what is ryan's focus? >> there are two elements. number one, taxes and number two, reform of medicare. he would create two tax brackets. 25% and 10%. he would eliminate some deductions and lower the corporate tax rate that is taxes. simplify and reform. on medicare there would be no change for anyone 55 or older right now. medicare stays as is for those people. for younger people there will be a switch. at the moment medicare pays doctors and hospitals directly. the ryan plan would have the government subsidize health insurance policies. and that would be the switch in medicare. all of it designed to simplify and at the same time, reform these two major areas, taxes and medicare. bill: tax reform and medicare. he has been down this road before. is this different? >> no, it's not. the details may be a little different but the thrust is exactly the same.

go for short-term growth and long-term reform of entitlements. and use competition within medicare to lower prices and raise the quality of service. it is not that the different from the medicare from, medicare plan that he introduced about a year ago. bill: he argues the faster we go after the better off we will be? >> yes he does. bill: explain why. >> because we are galloping into debt and that must be addressed. he has made a big point out of this, we can not wait any longer. we must address this i've got some new figures from the treasury department which show through the end of february, america was spending $112,000 per second. now that is galloping into debt. we have to do something about it. those figures from the united states treasury. paul ryan is attempting to address the debt problem. bill: how many is that for the past minute? >> i wasn't required to do math of course. bill: that is a lot of cash. stuart, thank you. i know you talk a lot about

this on varney and company today. thank you, stuart. here's martha. martha: let's put this number into context. talking about astronomical numbers so hang with me, folks. the u.s. budget deficit is projected to $1.2 trillion in fiscal 2012. the current budget deficit projection is $93 billion more than was forecast just two months ago. the u.s. government will run a trillion dollar deficit for a fourth consecutive year. these are numbers the likes of which the u.s. economy has never ever seen. bill: congressman ryan officially unveiling budget later today. 10:30 a.m. eastern time. we'll have his comments live as soon as they get underway. streaming live on foxnews.com. why some are saying this plan is christmas in march for democrats? all that coming up here. martha: a fox news alert right now. a wave of deadly bombings hitting iraq.

string of attacks in eight cities reportedly killing 46 people. wounding 200 more. look at these devastating pictures coming out of kirkuk, iraq, this morning. the numbers are very preliminary at this point. and they are bound to go higher. iraqi police and government officials appear to be the main targets of these attacks. these attacks may have been an effort to up stage the annual meeting of the arab league that is set for next week in baghdad. it will be a tumultuous backdrop for it in the face of all this so far no one has claimed responsibility for these bombings. another fox news alert for you. a tornado warning is issued in the houston metro area at this hour. that means there are reports of a tornado that has touched down the area already reeling from heavy, heavy storms that spawned at least one twister 25 miles southwest of san antonio is where that can be found.

fortunately nobody was hurt but a number of homes were damaged and the strong winds also flipped an 18-wheeler, look at that, near dallas on the highway. that sent an awning crashing down on to several cars as one couple was out there having lunch. listen to what they described in all of this. >> my wife's car is underneath there. for the wind everybody says sounds like a tornado or a train coming. within a second the whole entire front of the building just collapsed right in front of us. martha: wow! all of this rain is causing slick roads, making for very dangerous driving. meteorologist maria molina is live in the fox weather center with the very latest on this scary situation, maria. >> we're looking at a severe weather with the storm system and also flash flooding. i want to take you to the tornado warning in effect for central harris county in southeast texas. that does include the highs ton metro area. guys, when a tornado warning for your county, that's it. you have to seek shelter

right away. if you know anyone out there, head's up. this particular storm system is who having northeast at 30 miles an hour. it is indicated that this particular thunderstorm has strong rotation. there currently could be a tornado on the ground or very shortly. go to the basement or try to stay away from end with dose on the lowest level of your home. these storms will track eastward and produce very heavy rain. we had a severe thunderstorm watch, still due west the houston through portions of the corpus christi area and that likely will be expired very shortly as most of the storms are already out of the watch area. just to show you where that tornado warning is, right in the houston metro area moving towards the northeast. seek shelter. there could currently be a tornado on the ground. as the storms continue to head eastward throughout the day we'll look at that severe weather threat across parts of central arkansas and little rock and western portions of louisiana. large hail, damaging wind gusts and isolated tornados

will be possible. the other issue is flash flooding. once the storms move through your area it is still raining. look at dallas area video. you can see flooded roadways. it is very important that you do not drive through flooded roadways. these pictures for dallas are going to be the story along many areas through eastern texas through portions of arkansas. martha, look at our model prindout. over six inches of rain is forecast for little rock. that will be a big problem. martha: that watch in a highly populated area. not a case of going through a really open space in that case. maria, thanks we'll watch you throughout the morning i have no doubt. many thanks. bill: six inches of rain, that will stop a lot of folks in their tracks. severe storms pounding the plains as well. like maria said, don't drive your car through roads covered with water. this is why. the driver tried to risk it. the car ended up sinking.

driver makes it out okay. good reminder to the rest of us to play it safe around the floodwaters. in the jeep he goes. we want to see your pictures of the video of damage from these storms. e-mail to the address on your screen. you report it, foxnews.com. give us a name, your location and brief description what we're saying. as we get to those we'll post-them on foxnews.com. can't get everywhere but it is a great tool for a lot of folks at home to help us out today. martha: sure is. bill: in a moment here, there is more to come including this here in "america's newsroom." as voters head to the polls in illinois, mitt romney saying the economy is getting better, but -- >> the economy always comes back after recession of course.5;p there has never been one we didn't recover from. the problem is --. bill: what he says the problem is. there's a tease. >> very interesting sound from mitt romney on that. the president said if you like your health care coverage you will be able to

keep it. now two years after passing that signature law, today is the anniversary, folks, for many that is not the case. we'll talk two to senators who are uniquely qualified to discuss this because they are also doctors. and they are raising some big concerns. why they are saying this is the solyndra of health care. bill: also new developments in a case making national headlines a florida teen gunned down by a neighborhood watch volunteer. carrying nothing but a bag of skittles. why the justice department is now involved here. listen. >> something is wrong with him. yeah. he is coming to check me out. he has got something in his hands. i don't know what his deal is. >> we got them on the way. let me know if this guy does anything else. >> okay. [bleep]. they always getaway. >> are you following him? >> yeah. >> okay, we don't need you to do that. >> okay. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy to the united states. over the coming years, projects like these could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west,

to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now. martha: they have got spirit,

yes they do and they are heroes too. members of the kansas jayhawks spirit squad now being credited with saving a man who was trapped under a car in arkansas. what a good story this is. he was working on his car. apparently got stuck when it rolled off the jack. the squad heard him calling for help. they managed to lift the car up and help him to crawl out from underneath. >> we tried to help him. at first i didn't understand what was going on. he was trying to pick up a car. i realized oh, my goodness there is somebody trapped underneath. at that point i realized we picked up a car to save a life. >> we were heading toward our bus and someone was calling for help, yelling asking for help and everything. we just kind of did the human instinct thing and ran over to them, trying to assist them in their time of need. martha: well the squad was in town for the women's ncaa basketball tournament. they went on to win the game and they cheered those kansas ladies on to victory

over nebraska. bill, i have to say. i love it when the spirit squad is young men and the basketball team is young ladies. bill: different. talk about march madness. martha: exactly. bill: there you have it. critical day for the republican presidential hopeful. 54 dell fwats on the line in illinois today. rick santorum does not care what the unemployment rate will be. santorum was argued he was taken out of context. romney jumped on that. here is more of santorum's explanation. >> of course i care about the unemployment rate. i want to unemployment to go down. what i said was our candidacy doesn't hinge on whether the unemployment rate will go down. it didn't hinge on governor romney's idea that the he will fix the economy. bill: the unemployment rate, 8.3%. more than it was four years ago. stephen hayes. "weekly standard.". >> good morning, bill. bill: you have a unique duty to correct a wrong on

tuesday. you can shake up this race, end quote. back to what he said. can you explain it? >> yeah. i've been out on the campaign trail with senator santorum and he has made arguments like this in the past. what he says is, his candidacy, as he explained in the clarification didn't hinge on one issue. he isn't saying i am not the guy to go out and tweak the economy. i'm a way of fundamentally transforming the way the government of the united states relates to its citizens. that is his comment. that is his argument. >> he makes the argument that romney can run if the economy is lousy but santorum can run because he is a true conservative. that is what he has been saying? >> this is part of his, santorum's bigger case that he is making bolder, sort of stronger arguments, provide a better contrast with barack obama than mitt romney would. that is what he was saying. bill: now mitt romney, he said a little something and

some folks jumped on him for the following quote but if you listen to the entire thing, there is a bit more context. that is what we're about to do. runs about 35 seconds. roll this from romney on the trail in illinois. >> i believe the economy is coming back by the way. we'll see what happens. i think it is finally coming back. the economy always comes back after recession of course. there has never been one that we didn't recover from. the problem is this one has been deeper than it needed to be and slower recovery than it should have been by virtue of the policies of this president. almost everything he has done has made it harder for this economy to recover. and that is from obamacare to a failed stimulus, to massive deficits, to dodd-frank, the list goes on and on. bill: now take his argument, answer that and i will ask you a very specific question, steve. >> this is pretty standard republican argument president obama and i think mitt romney on the campaign trail often points to the stimulus and failure of the stimulus to do what it said it was going to do which is keep the unemployment rate under 8%. that is i think the heart of

mitt romney's argument on president obama's economic performance. bill: can he make that statement where it is easier to comprehend? >> yeah, he needs to. he needs to i think. that is one of the things he needs to do get these down into shorter, harsher sound bites so they really stand out. bill: unemployment in illinois is high. karl rove told me yesterday he doesn't think the economy is a big issue in that state but this is where the issue comes in. 14.9% of the america's potential workforce unemployed or under employed. that is 23 million americans. that is almost 13 million unemployed, 1.6 million marginally attached to the labor force. eight million employed part time for economic reasons. it comes back to jobs in many of these battleground areas. what does illinois do today, steve? >> well, i think it is a good place for mitt romney to make his argument on the economy in part because the state is controlled by democrats and the way democrats have approached illinois's problems are the same way that president's

bauchl approached national. problems. bigger government, more spending. that is one of the reasons he has advantage there. bill: couple that with puerto rico over the weekend and you have this lull over the primary season. >> that is interesting. nobody would pointed to puerto rico and illinois as potentially decisive. this primary will go on quite a while. i think senator san francisco's underperformance in puerto rico pretty significantly combined with potential of mitt romney victory in illinois, taking majority of delegates there could set up for a good few days for mitt romney. bill: we'll see who gets the delegates. steve hayes, long night for you. we'll be watching. thank you, sir. >> anytime. bill: martha. martha: this is a story full of heartache and a lot of unanswered questions. an unarmed teenager gunned down by a self-appointed neighborhood watch man. the new development that has

many, including this young boys parents hoping they will get some answers. bill: also in a moment. do you remember this? >> this year like always we'll have a guaranteed benefits and with the new health care law more good things are coming. bill: well the government pays for ads like this with your tax dollars and the tab is a little higher than you would think. so do you want to keep paying for these? we'll find out. i'm a lobster girl.

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>> tabs masters, we solve our irs problems, recall that spot? been on air many times. tax masters apparently in a jam itself. filing for bankruptcy. tax masters fighting fraud

charges in two different states at the same time. some customers said they were misled in contract terms and forced to pay thousands of dollars up front. tax masters. tax day 3 1/2 weeks away. martha: reminder. we'll get on that right after the show today. all right, this is a story we've been covering a lot at fox news. it has stirred real outrage and for very good reason across the country. the fbi and the justice department are now launching an investigation into the killing of this young 17-year-old boy. his name, trayvon martin. he was unarmed, 17 years old. a florida high school student, shot to death by a self-appointed neighborhood watch man, who had called the police many, many times about all different people. his name is george zimmerman. zimmerman says he was threatened by the chilling 911 calls from this event have raised a lot of questions. >> this guy looks like he is up to no good or he is on

drugs or something. it is raining and just walking around looking about. >> okay. is this guy, white, black or hispanic? >> he looks black. martha: martin was carrying nothing but a bag of skittles and an iced tea. he was on his way back from a convenience store. he was visiting relatives in florida. steve harrigan is on this story. he joins us live from miami. originally, steve, this case did not get a lot of attention but as the details started to come out, it has truly sparked somewhat of a protest movement. >> you're right, martha. a large protests across the nation online. a lot of people out in the streets here in florida. two factors really drifting anger, driving the protest. first there still has been no arrest of the shooter. 28-year-old george zimmerman. seconds after a lot of pressure from the victim's family the 911 calls were released. some are from witnesses. in the background of those calls you can hear a cry for help and a shot being fired.

>> he is yelling help? >> yes. >> what is your -- gunfire ♪. >> there is gunshots? >> you heard gunshots. >> i'm pretty sure the guy is dead out here. holy [bleep]. >> we have several people calling also. anything else that you heard? >> no. guy yelling help, oh, my god. >> reporter: the next event in these protests will be a town hall meeting to smite -- tonight sponsored by the naacp. martha? martha: what is next in this case? is there any discussion of an arrest at this point of an arrest for mr. zimmerman? >> reporter: it is not clear when or if an arrest will be made. it is tricky depending on florida's gun law. what we're likely to see reinvestigation of the case. it is something the family has been pushing for. getting feds involved. the department of justice as well as fbi. that investigation is likely to start this week. that is something the father of the victim says he has wanted for some time.

>> as a father, i don't know what to say. i'm hurt. i feel betrayed by the sanford police department. and there is no way that i can instill trust in them in investigating this crime. >> reporter: in the bigger picture this is focused a lot of attention on florida's gun law, the stand your ground law which was actually changed in 2005, to no longer require a licensed gun owner to flee first before using that weapon in self-defense. martha, back to you. martha: steve, we'll stay on top of it as i know you will. steve harrigan. bill: horrible story there in central florida. new warning about an israel attack on iran. why what israel does will have a serious impact on our u.s. military overseas. martha: plus you remember this? >> it will be very, very exciting but we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.

away from the fog of the controversy. martha: now we're away from the fog, right? it passed of course, the health care legislation. there is that momentous day two years ago today in fact. we now know what is in it and now two republican senators who are also doctors say the obama administration has quote, not kept their word to americans. they will join us, tell us why they think that. that is coming up right after this. two. three. one. -two. -three. -one. -two. -three. [ male announcer ] with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% back on groceries. and 3% back on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. -it's as easy as...one. -two. -three. [ male announcer ] 1, 2, 3 percent cash back for the things you buy most. the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you.

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picture now, cook county, illinois. that is chicago. vote he is heading to the polls in illinois. it is next republican primary "happening now." they may see a presence of the justice department at least in chicago. the obama administration wants a monitored election to make sure minority groups do not face discrimination. federal officials will make observations in cook and lake counties, that is chicago and north of chicago. the justice department says it routinely sends observers to monitor elections. watch the vote. 31 minutes past the hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states of america, barack obama. [applause] [bleep]. martha: that was a great moment, right? vice president joe biden famous words after congress passed the health care law. almost two years later it will be on friday. republican lawmakers are calling out the president for making promises they say

that were not kept. >> if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. period. [applause] martha: all right. so have those promises held up? two senators are pointing to several failures they say in the law and they have issued a new report this morning. in it they say this, we found fewer choices, higher taxes, more government, and less innovation under the new health care plan. republican senators john barrasso and tom coburn join me now. they have a combined 50 years of experience in practicing medicine. senators, welcome, good to have you here this morning. >> thanks for having us. martha: this is the first time the two of you have spoken out about the report you released and your findings and evaluation of the health care plan almost two years later. the president said you could keep your health care plan if you liked it.

senator coburn, what have you found? >> well the cbo has found and the mckenzie study has found somewhere 50% of the people are not going to be able to keep their health care plan. and that is simply because a lot of the employers will drop their health care plan and force you into an exchange, simply because it economics sense to do that. the other thing is with the rising cost, the taxes on insurance, the taxes on medical devices, what we're going to see, even though they have a minimum medical loss ratio to the insurance company the prices for insurance is going to go up. so if you're in the individual market you will lose the ability to purchase that because of the pricing. >> senator barrasso, what we've been told though is that there would initially be some increases in the cost of health care but that once the whole plan kicks in and co-ops kick in and everybody has insurance, overall, over time, the president has said those prices will start to come down. they say they have evidence

to prove that. >> well, that is not what the american people believe. and we're showing that in our in our side-effects of this health care law. go to town hall meeting and town hall meeting do you ask the question do you believe you will pay more under the health care law? every hand goes up. do you believe the quality and availability of your care will go down? again, every hand goes up. people were hoping from the health care law to get the care they need from the doctor they want at a cost they an calf ford. overwhelmingly the american people realize that will not be the case. martha: senator coburn in the piece you co-wrote you say the government loans given to set up these insurance co-ops to help insure everybody across the country ostensibly, you're calling that the solyndra of health care. why? >> well, simply because it isn't going to work. you're going to have misallocation of resources and we're going to be financing it, supposedly to

set up so that they will fund and make a profit to be able to keep running. and there is just no way that is going to happen given the large number of people that are going to be running towards this system. and remember, not only as senator barrasso said, are you going to have difficulty with access, once you get access, the quality of care and the level of training that you're going to have access to will go down because we'll be using physician extenders, not physicians, nurse practitioners and pas. for some things that is great. but for most things that will not be great. the co-ops will actually collapse on themselves. we will have put the money into it and we'll never recoup it. martha: scary scenario. this is something that the gop candidates have said that they would fix, that they would find a way to overhaul this health care law, senator barrasso. do you think that is possible given the evaluation you have made of it? >> well we have to actually

repeal this health care law and put in place replace it with something that is patient-centered but this health care law is bad for patients. it is bad for providers, nurses and doctors who take care of those patients and it will be absolutely awful for the taxpayers of this country. martha: senator coburn, last thought from you as well? is this repealable? do you see a scenario if someone from the gop is elected to the presidency of repealing this? >> oh, think it is possible. there's a a reconciliation can be done on a lot of it and defunding can be done on a lot of it. so i think that it's highly possible. the key point is americans want to have access for health care that is affordable. we've done everything accept the thing we know works. that is use some consumer input and some consumer responsibility to help control the costs. to ask the question why does something cost this much? where can i get it cheaper? why do i need it? why are you erreddering it?

to start applying market forces to health care, right now as a physician, taking care of somebody in medicare, there is no incentive for me not to do whatever i want to do, even though it may not be cost effective for a patient. we need to have those forces if we want to control health care costs and keep ourselves competitive internationally and actually give access to quality care and prevention. one thing i just leave you with, one out of three dollars we spend in health care today doesn't help anybody get better and doesn't prevent them from getting sick. martha: all right. >> we can do a whole lot better. martha: that is a biting statistic. senator barrasso, senator coburn, always a pleasure to speak to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. bill: big deal. a big deal. martha: a big deal. bill: first lady michelle obama stopping by the late show with david letterman. her first appearance on that show. letterman was working for some white house gossip a little bit. >> you don't have to answer this question. >> okay [laughing] >> but, hypothetically speaking, at the end of the

day has your husband ever come home and said to you, oh that john boehner, what an idiot. [applause] >> it has never happened. never, never. he is always upbeat particularly about congress. bill: that is the way to answer. mrs. obama did get emotional when she talked about her late father who battled ms. telling dave, don't make me cry. this is not oprah. the supposed to be letterman. martha: she was funny. very good delivery. that was fun last night on letterman. in the meantime we want to get back to this story, troubling new details today on the botched gun-walking operation known as "fast and furious." we are just finding out that the feds had the prime suspect in this case in custody and then they let him go. this is coming from that new document dump right before the weekend. brand new information on

that. bill: a gorilla on the loose tracking down a 400-pound animal that escaped the zoo. listen. >> i guess they were trying to get everyone into different buildings. they had suggested we go towards the front of the zoo. @?

martha: all right. here is what is developing right now in "america's newsroom." take a look at the big board. the dow down about 95 points right now this morning. that is largely due to some economic data coming out of china wasn't so great. has the market weighed down a bit. investors also keeping their eye on a new commerce department report showing a drop in u.s. home construction the report does however show that permits for new homes is on the rise. so that is a positive indicator in the housing market this morning. and a mistrial in the "desperate housewives" case. a jury failed to decide whether actress, nicolette sheridan was wrongfully terminated or whether she was killed off that show, bill, for, you know, just for creative reasons. the character perhaps, it

was time for the character to go. bill: happens on soap operas all the time, doesn't it? martha: killing off for creative reasons. at least we hope. bill: 17 minutes before the hour. there is explosive new information now, in the botched "fast and furious" gun-running program. documents revealing a federal agents picked up a top drug cartel suspect targeted by the operation but let him go after he pledged to cooperate and stay in touch with investigators. good luck with that. utah congressman, jason chaffetz serves on house committee on oversight and government reform. good morning morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: what do you make of this revelation? >> this is troubling. we're being slow-walked by the justice department. the obama administration is still not giving us all the documents. here we have a revelation in may of 2010, we apprehended somebody who is committing a crime, with 74 rounds of ammunition hidden under a

tire in his car trying to cross the border. the agent in charge of "fast and furious" is called in. she meets with him. writes the contact information on top of a $10 bill, please contact me after you come into town. they have already moved hundreds of weapons in "fast and furious.". 1,000 additional weapons go out the door. we end up having a dead agent in december. we are then able to apprehend him in february. it begs more questions than it answers. bill: but the question still comes back to why. why would he be allowed to go free? >> i don't know. that's is the question we want to ask. remember the obama administration is holding 80,000 documents. according to the inspector general within the department of justice, we have less than 8,000 of those documents. less than 10%. so we've always had this question why did this happen? how do we prevent it again? is there a cover-up? that is what we're concerned about. bill: in the hypothetical if the idea was to allow people

to transport guns and lead them to bigger fish, and had it worked in this case, these agents would be claiming victory, right? then you wouldn't have a problem with that, would you? >> well, manual acosta, one of the main suspects was one of the big fish. why did we let him go? he already committed a weapons violation trying to transport ammunition across the border. they had already surveiled him committing a lost these crimes -- a lot of these crimes allegedly. why did they con to let this go, they had 300 people dead according to mexican authorities. we have a dead u.s. agent on the other end of these guns. why did they go on so long, bill of that's what we're trying to get answers to. bill: you've been looking at story for how long? >> too long. bill: is it a year, two years, what is the time line at the moment? >> no, it is well over a

year. remember it was back in january of 2011 when you actually had senator grassley present a document to eric holder questioning about this. the problem is, in february, senator grassley got a letter back denying they had done anything like this. they flat-out lied about it. that's why it smells like a cover-up and why the department of justice has to come clean and provide those documents to congress. bill: i gotcha. you have been on the case more and that a year. what is your hunch. were they building a bigger case or is there more of a political agenda? >> that is what we're worried about. why are they slow walking on these documents. we issued subpoena after subpoena. 22 categories of subpoenas. on 13 of those 22 categories we've gotten zero documents not even one. you have to comply with subpoenas. that is the way this country works. at that that's why we have separation of powers. so far the department of justice has not provided documents required under the subpoena. >> jason chaffetz, we'll see at what point you get them if ever. thank you for our time today. >> thank you.

bill: for viewers at home, what do you think? got a question you want answered. one line, hemmer@foxnews.com or follow me at twitter. bill hemmer. bya. because you asked. the martha maccallum writes from new jersey. the we put it on the air. martha: this one coming up would make don draper proud, folks. the government getting into the ad business big-time and that is a tabitha is turning taxpayers into mad men. bill: also most likely annoying thing you will hear on an plane. please shut off all your electronic devices. alec baldwin might be happy to learn about this. why that could soon be a thing in the past. martha: that was a problem for him with the ipad. ♪ .

bill: 400-pound gorilla escapes, biting a zookeeper in up state new york. buffalo zoo. koga slipped into unlocked door into a zookeeper's room. a s.w.a.t. team called in. they said the public was never in danger but still the situation is very serious. >> he was not free on the ground and was not free in the building. however there was a worker in the zoo who had been bitten by this animal both on the arm and the hand and the leg. she had locked herself in another cage with another gorilla to escape the wrath of this one. so the situation was very serious. >> you didn't feel panicked like something crazy wasp haing. you could tell something but not exactly what was going on. bill: that is going to leave a mark, right? the s.w.a.t. team tranquilized the gorilla. the zookeeper's injuries not

considered life-threatening. she has been caring for koga. since 2007. martha: what a hobson's choice when you have to lock yourself in a cage with another gorilla. you can't be shocked but how many money the government blows you see this. a congressional report shows that the government spent $945 million, almost a billion dollars, on commercials in just one year alone. that price tag we're told, it actually may be a lot higher than that. money paying for medicare spots like this. you remember this one? not so old but goodie. andy griffith putting in a plug for the president's new health care law. >> this year like always we'll have our guaranteed benefits. and with the new health care law, more good things are coming. free checkups. lower prescription costs and better ways to protect us and medicare from fraud. see what else is new. i think you're going to like

it. martha: well if andy griffith tells you will like it and everything is going to be free, what is not to like? eric bolling co-host of the "the five" on the fox and from fox business network. i remember thinking at the time when i saw that, you know, it sounds like a form of propaganda. oversight committee actually brought them up seven times during the health care reform on issues of propaganda. >> that happens to be the unique, maybe the outlyer. a lot of people were outraged by that because that was partisan. it was, in the times when president obama wanted to pass health care just after he passed it, it was kind of a victory lap. people said hey, stop rubbing in faces of people who are against obamacare. that was a little bit of an outlyer. the $945 million you put up there really encompasses all the federal agencies. the department of homeland security. department of defense, they all are advertising. i'm looking at this thing, doesn't look like a bad

thing. sounds like a lot of money. look about things they advertise, see something, say something, buckle up, don't drink and drive. a lot of public announcements are good. martha: they serve the public. >> we should be paying forist and probably could do a little bit more of them if they want to. but when they venture into partisan politics like the ad you just showed, i think they can eliminate those. i think they did. there was such an outrain, such an outcry to not do those types of things we haven't seen that ad since, probably over a year now. martha: since we were back in mayberry. >> the concerning part of the study, martha, is $945 million is what they can calculate. there a whole lot more they can't even calculate. we don't know the true numbers. martha: a lot is done through social media. as you report out, $545 million of that 945 number went to the defense department for recruiting videos and kinds of ads you see on tv. but as you say, it is

difficult for someone to judge fine line. there are probably people who think that is not money well-spent. >> there are recruitment videos. the armed forces have recruitment videos. for me i think it is great. shows an opportunity for people who may not have the opportunity to go on to college and higher education to say, there is another opportunity out there. some of them are good. let's be honest. when they venture into the partisan politics they probably don't want --. martha: that andy griffith ad cost $700. sounds like a lot for an ad? can get eric bolling probably cheaper than that. >> we probably all seen it, right? they probably used quite a bit. that is -- you could have me cheaper but maybe not for that ad. martha: eric, see you in your next psa. eric bolling, we'll see you tonight on "the five.". bill: bring four others. >> i shall. only do fives. bill: see you later. u.s. officials raising concern about a possible war two between israel and iran

and what happens there would have a serious effect on the military everywhere. martha: budget chairman paul ryan set to come to the microphones to announce his new budget. will congress get behind it? why democrats are poised to attack on that. that is coming up next. [ male announcer ] the next generation of lexus

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martha: our future in afghanistan is the subject of a hearing that is just about to get underway on capitol hill. the commander of nato forces general allen, set to tell the house armed services committee whether the shooting rampage and koran burning have changed the

u.s. exit strategy. huge issues right now. that is about to get underway as we welcome you to a brand new hour of "america's newsroom." good to have you with us everybody. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. how does it feel? good to have you back, martha. good morning to you. the hearings come about as officials are ending nighttime raids. authorities say they were close to deal before the shooting and now these negotiations are a top priority. chief intelligence correspondent, catherine herridge is on this. what are we learning this morning? >> reporter: good morning. we're moments away before a hearing before the house armed services committee and according to the prepared testimony by general john allen the mission remains on track in afghanistan despite the massacre of afghan civilians and burning of korans and there is no hint in these remarks of an accelerated draw down of forces n a rare public admission allen confirms that extremist groups beyond al qaeda are driving the insurgency. quote, the taliban remain a resilient and determined enemy and that many of them will try to regain their

lost ground this spring through assassination, intimidation, high-profile attacks and placement of ieds. we know that iran continues to support the insurgency and fuels the flames of violence. also key this morning, the administration is reportedly offering to cede some control over the nighttime raids into these villages in an effort to get a i had on the tension with the afghan president hamid karzai. one of the conditions is said to be a review of these missions by afghan judge. on this surface the proposal seems unworkable because the timeliness of these operations, bill. bill: do we expecting a aggressive testimony when it comes to the status of staff sergeant robert bails? >> this comes to the two central issues the stat discuss we discussed. specifically the circumstances that led to that massacre. staff sergeant bales a case underscored debate of stress on u.s. forces. because of multiple deployments. he had been deployed four times before he allegedly

walked into that village and executed 16. >> i think general allen ought to be prepared to answer questions what he thinks of the status of the forces and behavior and mental health of forces in afghanistan because of numerous deployments. is it possible this could happen again and what can we do to prevent that from happening. >> reporter: so to recap a lot will unfold at that hearing this morning. it is allen's first testimony since the koran burning and also the massacre at that village. so a lot of headlines to look for this morning. bill: certainly are. thank you, katherine. catherine herridge in washington. martha has more on this. martha? martha: we turn this question of an israeli attack on iran which has been so discussed in recent weeks. a new war game essentially those -- shows that it could have devastating consequences for united states. that is according to defense department officials who say a strike on iran's nuclear sites could spark a broader war in the region and that drawing american forces in is the biggest concern there and it could, according to

this assessment, cost hundreds of american lives. joining me now with his thoughts on this is retired army major general, robert scales a fox news military analyst. general, welcome. good to have you here this morning. >> hi, martha. martha: we've heard so many discussion in recent weeks of possibility of a iranian strike on iranian nuclear facilities. this war game of sorts done over the past month, assist sesed if that happened we could lose hundreds of americans lives. do you agree with that assessment? does it make sense to you? >> first, martha i'm very familiar with this war game. it is called internal look. it is a complex, high level strategic simulation in the past proven to be reasonably accurate in predicting enemy performance, iraq, afghanistan and to some extent pakistan. there were several outcomes of the game. this particular outcome was based on two things. number one, that the, that the israelis struck these facilities, failed to take

them out and the united states was sort of pulled into backing up the israelis. secondlying most importantly, the iranians responded by attacking a u.s. vessel with a surface-to-surface sea skimming missile that killed 200 americans. after that what happened, a sort of sarajavo-like, spiral down into a conventional war between iran and the united states. of course which would have awful consequences for us, martha. martha: at the beginning of what you stated, in terms of the scenario, was a strike by the israeli that was not 100% successful, right, against these iranian facilities. >> right. martha: so assume for a moment that it is successful. if they could strike those underground, we're hearing very deep underground facilities do you think it could be? is it possible it could work and be a clean strike? >> it's possible it could work but not likely. as time goes on it will be less and less likely. remember the israeli air

force is a fabulous, fabulous institution but it is very small. this is not like a strike on the syrian reactor or the iraqi reactor. this isn't a strike. this is a major campaign. and i just, as a professional military man i just can't see the israelis pulling this off without some type of american backstop and that american backstop i think, give the right circumstances could lead the iranian leadership to do something that is very, very bad for everybody, martha. martha: a frighting scenario. major scales, thanks as always. great to have your input. >> thank you, martha. bill: we have this video in from syria. the aftermath of heavy fighting this morning between government forces and rebels there. reports of a gunbattle near the capital city of damascus that lasted about seven hours. state-run news agency, saying the government troops launched an attack on rebels inside of a building, killing two and seizing automatic rifles and grenades and other weapons there. martha: at this hour, energy

secretary steven chu is facing tough questions from house committee on oversight and government reform. the committee is investigating how the department of energy handed out loans for clean energy projects including solyndra. there is familiar face in oversight committee hearings of darrell issa. they will be discussing why solyndra and others went belly-up despite the fact that the united states deemed them accessible for all fund that went into for green energy money the administration has been very much backing. we'll keep an eye on that. that will be streaming on foxnews.com as well. any headlines out of those hearings this morning, we will let you know. bill: on to illinois. primary voting underway in the land ever lincoln. 54 delegates on the line today. mitt romney and rick santorum going head-to-head trying to win over the socially conservative voters. >> this could be an amazing time in american history. right here in illinois you

can usher that in. you can surprise the pundits. amaze with koith son tiffs [applause] >> as you know this november we face an important decision. our choice will be not just one of party and personality. this election is going to be about principle. our economic freedom will be on the ballot. and i intend to offer the american people a choice. bill: steve brown, live from a polling center, chicago suburb of naperville. steve, good morning. santorum making news about comments on unemployment. what is the fallout from that? >> reporter: well, what he said yesterday that in the context of another subject matter he said i really don't care about unemployment rates and taken out of context that certainly could sound like a damaging thing with the economy like it is and so many people out of work. immediately mitt romney tried to capitalize. have a listen. >> one of the people who is running also for the republican nomination today

said that he doesn't care about the unemployment rate. that doesn't bother him. i do care about the unemployment rate. it does bother me. i want to get people back to work. i'm concerned about those, those who are out of work. one of the reasons i'm running to get my expertise in play so we can put people back to work and get america strong again. >> of course i care about the unemployment. i want the unemployment rate to go down. i'm saying my candidacy doesn't hinge whether the unemployment rate goes up or down. my candidacy is for something that transcends that, about freedom. >> reporter: in the broader context what santorum was talking about what the basic tenets his campaign why. he was trying to seyfried dom, not necessarily individual indicators on the economy. very difficult for somebody to run for president over the course of a year plus and not occasionally step in it and make a bad choice of words and that apparently happened to senator santorum yesterday. bill: thank you very much. we'll be watching that in in illinois. steve brown in naperville. martha.

>> house republicans preparing for a battle on the budget that is a live look on capitol hill. congressman paul ryan, video on the right-hand side of the screen he is getting ready for a very big moment this morning. he will unveil his budget proposal. we're a couple ways from that. but is this a political gift to democrats? does it give them a lot of talking points in all this? as soon as the congressman gets to the microphone we'll bring you his comments live. bill: a hot-air ballon pilot making a snap digs that saved lives of five others but a decision that came at a heavy cost. martha: there are new clues surfacing at this hour for the, in the search for the missing california teenager. what police have found that now adds to this mystery. >> i'm just worried. i'm worried for her. >> i love you so much, sara. your family and friends are really worried about you.

bill: a veteran hot air balloon pilot hailed as a hero today and he's credited with saving the lives of five other sky drivers divers. he navigated over a field just in time for the skydivers to parachute to safety. he was seen skydiving during a previous flight. he remained in his balloon. his body was found inside the balloon's basket about ten miles from the spot where they took off. martha: fox news alert right now. house budget committee chairman paul ryan is set to unveil his plan that would slash our more than 15 trillion-dollar debt in this country. he's going to step in front of the microphones moments from now. mr. ryan of course has made a big push for his proposal over the course of this week e. says the democrats have been punting on what he considers to be the most important issue of our

lifetime. >> what if though knew what they needed to do to stop from it happening and they had the time to stop it but they chose to do nothing about it, because it wasn't good politics. what would you think of that person? it would be immoral. this coming debt crisis is the most predictable crisis we've ever had in this country. martha: very interesting, that from paul ryan. illinois republican congressman peter rothcom is the chief deputy whip and he joins me now. congressman, welcome. good to have you here today. >> thanks, martha. martha: in one article this morning they are calling paul ryan's budget a christmas gift to democrats saying it will get them into a media blitz and a frenzy shooting back at paul ryan and a cushion him of the kinand accusing him of the stuff they accused him of last time, destroying medicare. >> to paul ryan the most important thing to paul ryan is

the budget crisis if they don't act. it's been since the governor of my home state rod blagojevich was indicted since they passed a budget. i think the public is road weary of the sniping. they want remedies. this is a remedy that moves forward that has bipartisan support and creates a buoyancy in terms of tax reform and living within our means and ultimately it says we are not going to fall into the nonsense of spending money we don't have any more. martha: we expect we'll hear that the individual tax rate would basically have two rates, 10% and 25% under this paul ryan proposed budget. the house gop proposed budget. for corporations the upper end of the tax bracket would be 25%, that of course is designed to stimulate growth in the economy. one of the things that's been said about this budget is that it may give the g.o.p. sort of a new talking point in the election scenario.

as the economy approves a little bit and that issue perhaps moves away from the center stage, if indeed we see that happen, that this will become a major focus of the election. what do you think? >> i think tax reform is a way to move forward. there is nobody that can defend the status quo as it relates to taxes. the united states is poised to have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. what we're seeing is an adverse impact, companies are not bringing cash back to the united states, and they are deploying it overseas. what we're saying is let's lower the corporate tax rate, lower the rate for individuals, get rid of the six tax brackets we have at the individual level and simplify it and move it to two rates. i think that is the type of clarity that the american public is longing for. they want to see the white house lead on these issues. the white house has chosen not to lead unfortunately, and so we are putting forth a proposal that is robust and dynamic and makes sense and ultimately is a

pathway back towards economic growth. martha: as you pointed out, it's been three years since the senate, who is likely to shoot this bill down, has come forth with any plan of their own, any budget plan, any ideas to cut spending, right? >> right. i mean it's a completely dysfunctional body under the leadership of leader harry reid. leader reid has made a decision apparently not to put things on the floor because he's afraid that they might pass. so when the president's budget was put on the floor every member of the united state senate, every member of the senate voted against the president's budget. now this is a proposal that actually got more votes than that in the past. we think the country is ready for this. to live within our means and create growth and long-term prosperity. martha: paul ryan has not hesitated from putting himself in the forefront of this battle. i know you join him in that as well. congressman good to have you with us today. we'll be waiting moments away of

paul ryan's announcement of the house budget. >> thanks, martha bill: we are 18 minutes past the hour now. we found this story about a call for jury duty. how did a nine-year-old get called to do his civic duty. you'll find out from him specifically on that. martha: he might have been a good jury member. it is the most annoying thing about flying when they say turn everything off. they come down the aisles and make sure your ipods are off as they taxi down the runway. now, you may soon be able to keep rocking as you wait for take off, bill hemmer, good news.

when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy.

and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home.

martha: 22 minutes past the hour. here are some of the headlines we are watching in "america's newsroom." the number of new homes starting construction dipped in february for the first time in four months. the congresthe commerce department said 450 homes were in that number. a landslide damaged dozens of homes in southeastern peru. farmers there reporting heavy lastess. and a news conference in denver later today, folks, reports are that they will sign four-time quarterback pay tongue manning in a deal that is expected to be worth $95 million over the next five years, and this could also mean a little news for tim tebow of the broncos. they are saying he may go to jacksonville. what do you think of that theory bill: could be jacksonville,

could be miami. stay tuned. possible break in the case of a missing 15-year-old california girl. sierra lamar her name. her family last saw her getting on the school bus, or getting ready for school on friday morning. police say they found her cellphone in a field a few miles from outside of her home in san jose. but investigators say they are still looking for so many more clues. right now there are few. >> we can't confirm that she voluntarily ran away, nor can we confirm there was a crime involved. >> she has asthma, and she doesn't have her inhalers, and i just want her to be safe. bill: i'm going to bring in former l.a.p.d. homicide detective mark fuhrman to talk about this. it's so sad for that family. you can imagine how much anxiety they have. mark, good morning to you. you say there are no gaps in the timeline and that is important to the investigation. why is that, mark? >> well, bill, we know at 6:29 that morning she went onto her computer and then she was supposed to walk directly from the house at about 6:30 to a bus

stop to pick up the school bus. the bus driver never saw her, so we are looking at about 12 to 15 minutes, a space of time that somebody contacted her, or she ran away, which running away seems to be highly unlikely, since her cellphone was found not only off the side of the road, but a 15-year-old discarding her cellphone seems probably the most unlikely scenario for a teenager bill: the other item that was brought up was that the charger for the phone was left intact back in her bedroom inside the house. and so you're putting these pieces of the puzzle together, mark. does it look good or not for this young girl? >> well, you know, you have an emotional side of this. you know, you're a family man, you're a parent, but you have to step away from that and look at the facts as a professional, or as a detective. you have dogs that pick up her

scent leaving the house but it ends at the driveway. it's maybe not so surprising since there is so much traffic and vehicles and people, but the scent isn't picked up any farther and it's not picked up around the cellphone, so the cellphone was most probably discarded from a moving vehicle in the opposite direction that she would go towards the bus. it's a really bad scenario to say that this is evidence that she ran away. bill: let's hope for the best okay. thank you, mark, mark fuhrman, helping us sort through what we know at the moment. have breaking news. sorry to interrupt. martha: we're going to go back to washington. we are moments away from the house republicans unveiling their 2013 budget plan. paul ryan is set to come forward to that podium any minute now. we'll bring you that live as soon as it gets underway. why some are already saying that this plan is sort of like christmas for the democrats. more on that coming up .

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impossibility and we said so, end quote. paul ryan at the microphone now. >> morning, everybody. this is a good day. i'm proud to be here with my fellow colleagues on the house budget committee. they've worked very hard. we have together, to produce this document that we are all holding in our hands, the path to prosperity. i'm also grateful for senator jeff sessions who is here with us who is the ranking member of the senate budget committee who brings a pros cue tore kwral zeal to the budget that has got even out of control. one yore ago we offered our path to prosperity and this year we

are offering our plan to prosperity. we are going to take several new and improved strides. first he he propose that we repeal the president's disastrous healthcare law. it stops the law's mandates from trampling on our liberties. it stops spending from threatening our fiscal house and stops the board of bureaucrats from threatening medicare. instead we propose to save and strengthen medicare by taking power away from government burea bureaucratsment we preserve the medicare guarantee for today's seniors so they can count on the benefit that they've organized their retirement around and we secure the future for tomorrow's senior by providing them with choices. including and option within a premium support system. choice should be the way forward versus price controls that lead to rationing.

on the budget we also propose to strengthen medicaid by empowering our states, by returning money to them so they can design programs that are unique to their states to taylor this program to meet the needs of their populations. we also reform welfare. the 1996 welfare reform was very successful in getting toward an upward mobile society, in getting people off of dependency and onto lives of self-sufficient see, and unfortunately that was the only program that was reformed and we are proposing similar reforms to the states so that we can make sure that we are not creating a culture of dependency in america but a culture of self-sufficient see of getting people back on their feet in their lives of upward mobility. we propose to get economic and job creation. specifically we include in here a tax reform proposal provided to us by all of the members of the ways and means committee.

we propose to collapse the six different tax pwabgts into two rates a10% bracket and a 25% bracket for individuals and a 25% bracket for corporations which is at the international average and going tow a territorial system. all those kind of details you can get on the website that shows the letter that we've been given by the ways and means committee. finally i would say something about what is coming this next year. the sequester is coming. a lot of people in washington would like to simply ignore that. a lot of people in washington would like to simply think that we can spend as we are going and ignore the facts that on january 2nd the sequester kicks in. we don't think we should ignore this. what we are doing in this budget this year is something we haven't done for six years. we are going to propose to go through a reconciliation process. you might be thinking, well they used reconciliation a couple of years ago. they distorted the reconciliation process to jam through a new partisan healthcare entitlement. we are going to bring

reconciliation back to what it was meant to do to get spending and deficits under control. we are constructing six authorizing committees to bring their spending cuts to the budget committee and therefore to the floor by may so we can show how we would replace next year's sequester. we think that that is extremely important to show the country exactly how we would prepare for these even these things. i think it's critical to reiterate the several challenges that are facing our country. i want to bring everybody's attention to these charts. the thing actually works. we've had deficits in the past. we've had for a brief moment surpluses but we've had deficits. look at where our country is headed. look at where the president and his budget its taking the country. the president's budget is putting us on a path of a debt crisis, of decline, and these are the deaf sits that are in store for america if we stay with the status quo.

here is what the path to prosperity proposes. we propose to get our budget on a sustainable path. get our budget not only on a balanced but to payoff our debt on the path to prosperity. if we grow the economy faster which we think our policies would result in the budget would balance faster than it's shown right here. let's talk about spending. the president keeps the size of government at historic highs now and well into the future. he never brings spending back down to where it historically has been. by 2015 we get spending down to 20% of the economy, which is our historic average and then below that after that. all in all what we're proposing here is to cut $5.3 trillion in spending from the president's budget. this results in at least $3.3 trillion in deficit reduction compared to the president's budget. here is really what it all mountainse matters to.

what about the national debt? in front of us is one of the most predictable crises we've ever had in this country's history. a mountain of debt that is coming. this is what the congressional budget office is telling us our future is going to look like. this is the future that the president's plan of debt and decline brings us to. this is what the senate gets you by doing nothing, by not passing a budget for three years in a row. this is a future that gives our children a diminished country. this is a future that ruins our economy. this is a future that we don't want to see happening. and so if we have a difference of opinion with the president and the direction he and the senate leaders have taken the country, which we do, we feel morally bound to offer a choice, and we have a legal obligation in our budget laws to produce a budget. so what our budget does is it shows precisely how we will get this budget under control and get our debt levels under control. at the end of the day it's all about growth. it's about growing

opportunities, it's about growing the economy, it's about lifting the debt, restoring economic freedom, reforming the tax code so that we can help have our economy reach its full potential. it's about turning our system that has become a dependent culture into an upward mobile society bill: that is the headline from paul ryan, talking about the dangers in ducking the issue. bob beckel former democratic campaign chair and andrea tanteros, good morning to both of you. some would think it's a risk. some would say it's a risk you cannot afford as a country. andrea how do you see it with paul ryan's proposal out there right now. >> you even have liberal economists coming out saying you have to do something about the debt and the deficit. when you look at someone like paul ryan this is a man who understands the budget better than anyone in washington d.c. and he courageously put forth a

plan almost two years ago, a little over a year and a half and he came out and he had the courage to make the tough choices when it comes to actually reforming medicare, something the democrats don't want to do, bill, now he's coming out and saying, let's simplify the tax code. let's get rid of the ticking time bomb that is the amt. let's actually reform medicare so it doesn't go bankrupt, which it is on a pathway to do. so you look at paul ryan, and he's going to be demonized by democrats for doing this. get ready the communications offensive is already in play. what he has put forth is something that is workable, that they should look at in washington d.c. if they are really serious about getting our country off the road of financial ruin, which it's on now. bill: bob, is it a winner? >> no it's a looser and it ought to be a looser, there is nothing new here. i don't know why they are making a big deal out of this. the same stuff he talked about in the past. when you cut the tax rate it will increase the deficit.

where you get the savings is through medicare. what he does is take medicare and turn it over to the private sector with a government allowance. which is not going to be enough to do it. this is nothing knew bill: >> eyes the only way to do it. >> it's the only way to do it. bill: he's banking on the idea that the american public will change. >> sure. the thing that is interesting to me is how few of the republican presidential candidates -- we'll see how many of them endorse this plan. i would bet you not one of them does bill: andrea a quick word here. >> eventually members of congress will have to go home and say they did something about the debt and deficit. paul ryan puts forth a plan that allows republican toss get behind this. what are democrats going to do? they are going to say you know what we didn't reform medicare we put 500 billion from it through obamacare. paul ryan says i'm assuming those same cuts and i'm working to make it solvant. in its current structure, bob

you know it, i know, everybody knows it it will go bankrupt unless we do what he says. >> it ain't going to be sold to the public i tell you bill: to both of you we will look forward to your discussion at 5:00. thank you. martha: it is the ban that makes flying a real turn off these days, folks. so why you may no longer have to shut down all of those electronic devices before leaving the ground. bill: also, a soldier surprising his young son. the emotional reunion you will not miss here. >> i know he's very proud of me. he doesn't understand everything that i do. it's kind of hard for him with the separation. sky hook !

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call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for all of us. martha: this is so cool, a unique look stardom as seen from space. truly amazing, check this out. time lapse video ever the movement of stars and the earth. it's so beautiful, it's an enhanced nasa video from the international space station. you can see the northern lights

sweep through there in a moment as well. the milky way, brewing thunderstorms over the earth. the video has gone viral all over the world and maybe viewers from outer space also enjoying checking out that beautiful view of our beautiful planet bill: i always wonder if they have cable. martha: we certainly hope so bill: plans to build a memorial to dwight eisenhower in washington d.c. turning into a battle between the former president's family and world renowned architect frank geary. a subcommittee is holding a meeting on this. and james rosen is here now. >> reporter: they like ike, it is the memorial that is the issue, bill, good morning to you. for more than a decade, members of congress, world war ii survivors, federal agent seats and the eisenhower family have been dealing with a difficult challenge of how to create a park that will honor in a respectful way. he led america to victory over the natzis in world war ii and

was a successful two-term president at the height of the cold war. let's take you to the hearing that is underway of the house subcommittee on national parks, forest and public lands. we are expected to hear from his granddaughter susan eisenhower along with her brother and sister over the past five years have developed a growing distaste of the winner of 44 designs submitted. it calls for a 44-acre space to be punk waited by giant soaring columns, enormous medal tap is trees and depicting ike as a barefoot boy from kansas, as he once described himself. it was created by one of the most revered creators of museums and buildings. it is the sculpture of young ike that has drawn the greatest criticism. they are seen by some as a

diversion from eisenhower's accomplishments as a general and president. they added huge large stones depict being eisenhower addressing troops. the eisenhower family hopes they will pressure the team to go back to the drawing board. if and when it ever gets built at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $100 million. it will be the 7th memorial to a u.s. president in the nation's capitol and the first erected since fdr's. bill. martha: voters in illinois are making their choice for the republican presidential nominee tonight. all throughout the day today, exactly. who has the upper hand and what could tonight's results mean? karl rove has handy capping on that event coming up. we'll be right back. bill: this n

jackson waited nearly a year for. he is in the 4th grade but he didn't expect it to happen like this. his father corey jackson returning from deployment in kuwait pulled off the surprise of a lifetime. damian had no warning when dad walked into the classroom and the two quickly made up for lost time there. >> it's hard for eupl with the separation and i talk to him on the phone a lot. and he's like, dad i just miss you. it crushes me here, but i'm like, son i'm doing a job bill: yes he is. the surprise took three weeks of planning. sergeant jackson says he had to use some of his military skills to help keep it a big secret. martha: the little girl clapping in the background. yeah, this is a good show.

new reports that the federal aviation administration may reverse a ban on electronic devices that would make flying a whole lot more enjoyable, folks. those announcements please shut down your cell phones, turn off your ipods could soon become a thing of the past. skopscott brenner shows me now, he is with the firm gephart government affairs. good to have you here. is it a myth or not that these devices, our phones and everything else could interfere with what is going on in the cockpit? >> you know, everything to date has been basically just antidotal evidence. i don't think the faa has done any thorough testing to show the emissions and how they affect aircraft navigation. i think the faa high school a pretty good idea of going about it. what they are not doing, smart phones, anything that emits a signal, like your wi-fi, or smart phone cellphone, they are not looking at.

they are looking at stuff that can be loaded on a device, like on an ipad, a kindle, they want to bring all groups together, and do testing and figure out where they can go from there. martha: you're saying there is no way you can use your smart phone or anything else that tries to reach out and connect with any electronic devices, right? >> exactly. i think you have a couple issues there. you have the f t-rb c jurisdiction over that. you have the interest of the safety of flight. they don't want to have any opportunities where you could have another signal interfering with navigation devices. but, again, they haven't really shown that to be true. martha: is it true that one of the reasons that they make everyone shut everything off is so you'll look up and pay attention to the life jacket demonstrations and the exits and where they all and all that. >> absolutely. i know people don't like to listen to it. it actually is a fairly important part of the flight. that first 10,000 feet when they say don't use anything, that is really the most critical phase of the flight.

really people should be paying attention. martha: you say this could lead to passengers being more rude and perhaps flight attendants also being a bit more pushy. that sounds delightful. >> flight attendants are in a tough spot already. they are already fighting with passengers. everybody is trying to bring as many bags on as they can because airlines are charging so much. maybe you have somebody that is watching a mover sraoe that is not appropriate for that cabin or a kid sitting next to them. you have flight attendants acting as the police, looking at what is being watched on the devices, what people are listening to. it has to be a tough job for them as all. martha: how long before this all kicks in and how difficult will it be to dived what devices you can or can't have on. that sounds like a potential night pheur for the flight attendants as well. >> absolutely. airlines right now, they have the ability, they could go through the testing themselves, they could approve the devices and you could use them as soon

as they are approved by the faa. it will be what is the cooperation from all the stake holders on this. what is amazon going to do, the flight a tkepbd tkapbts and airlines going to do. usually when you bring those types of groups in things don't go as smoothly. martha: the whole flight experience is not what it used to be. we are working on it thanks a lot, scott. good to get your thoughts on that bill: do you pay attention to the rules. martha: yes, i turn everything off. i don't want to be the one person that causes the plane to interfere with something and goes down. you don't? bill: i didn't say that. martha: i don't think he does. the rules aren't made for bill hemmer apparently. bill: i didn't say -- i just said sometimes. house republicans unveiling a new budget plan only moments ago calling for new efforts to take trillions of dollars, our u.s. debt watch. >> this year we are going to build on the important work that we did last year. we are going to take several new and improved strides.

first, we propose that we repeal the president's disastrous healthcare law. bill: do republicans have a chance? or is the other question, can america afford not to listen? are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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martha: you may have noticed that i wasn't here last week. i was traveling, i got a firsthand look at progress that the united states is making in the very tough night against malaria in africa. i traveled in gana with a group ma rare yeah no more along with the president's malaria initiative. this is me hanging nets here, bill, in this really lovely woman's home. you hang the mosquito net. the whole initiative was started under president bush. here i am dance w-g one of the queen mothers. you can't say no when the queen mother welcomes you to her village and they want you to dance with her.

these ladies are awesome. they were just incredible to me. this is at a pregnancy clinic where they give people three treatments of anti-ma layer kwral drugs whicantimalaria drug so they don't transmit it to babies. they lose a child a minute, every minute. we'll do more on it in april. bill: it was a great trip. martha: it was an incredible experience. i felt like i got a lot more than i gave away in that week. it was truly remarkable bill: great for your son too. martha: we had a terrific trip together. it was a real eye-opener for both of us bill: you really made a memory too. and they talk aboute eradicating malaria in our lifetime. martha: they have cut the numbers by 33% since this started just in 2006, so that is pretty remarkable. they've cut it by a third. it's simple as $10 a net. you have to go to malaria no