thank you. >> greta: tonight, governor mitt romney is here and the polls open in wisconsin in just 10 hours. we are live in the battleground state on the eve of the presidential primary here. but that's not the only big news. governor scott walker and lieutenant governor rebecca kleefisch are facing recall elections. and congressman paul ryan goes "on the record." you will never believe what the gsa just did to you. now, we are not going to tell you part of it right now. you are going to get way too upset bu. we will tell you in a few minutes. that's coming up. but right now, governor mitt romney. and tomorrow is a big day for him in wisconsin. we spoke with governor romney a short time ago. nice to see you, especially in my home state. >> thank, greta. good to be here. >> greta: it's the first time i have done an interview among oil drums. >> this is a company that is a distribute oar of oil products. happy to be here, hopefully we

can get the price down. >> greta: one of the questions were asked was about oil in your town hall and the president's super pac is running an ad saying that you pledged to protect the billions in profits of oil companies. so i am curious nlight of the fact that gas prices are so high, how do you explain -- hoar how does the government justify tax break when it is big oil companies have billions and billions of dollars in profits? that's taken from us. >> i think it's amusing and troubling for the president of the united states to be looking for someone to blame. there are a lot of qualities that you look for in a president. blaming other people is not one of them. he's the president of the united states. he is responsible for energy policies in our country today. and by virtue of this is policies, we have seen something which he predicted in his campaign. he said with his energy policy, energy prices would skyrocket and he has made it harder and harder for the small operators, the drillers to get more oil, more gas, more coal to develop

these american sources of energy. he's responsible, in part, for what we are seeing around the world, which is people convinced that prices of oil are going to go up. >> greta: i am not talking about the middle guy. i am talking about the really big oil companies. i was looking at the profits, $20 billion or $30 billion in profit. that's a lot of profit because they get tax breaks. i am wondering because every time they get a tax break, that means the rest of us somehow pay for it indirectly. the president doesn't want them to get the big tax breaks. do you support those tax breaks? >> i am not sure precisely which big tax breaks we are talking about, but i do know that the right course for american production of all thicks, agriculture, machinery, is subject to the highest tax in the world. corporate taxes in america are the highest in the world and there are breaks and deductions and exemptions that certain

industries have been able to win over the years. what i would like to do is to get the tax rate down, so we are competitive with places like europe for pete's sakes and eliminate a lot of deductions and the breaks and the special deals that a lot of industries get. i look at them one by one. there are reams of them. let's simplify the tax code for employers of all kinds, particularly for small employers and get our tax rate competitive so we will keep jobs here, rather than having them go elsewhere. >> greta: a lot of discussion about jobs in this campaign. i am not going to ask you specifically about jobs, but if you create jobs, someone has to be able to fill out an application, be able to read and write. the state of our education in this country is so atrocious, a lot of people can't fill out an application. there has been very little discussion, so far on education. is there anything you can do to help these people?

>> as a governor, i had a responsibility for education in my state and i followed other terrific governors and frankly, legislator who is cared about getting our schools to be more competitive globally and do the job they are supposed to be doing. we were able to drive our state to be number 1 in the nation. we did that with more school choice, more accountability. we tested our kids every year to see who was succeeding and failing. if a school was failing, the state was able to take over the school and eliminate provisions in the union contract if they were deemed to be interfering with the education of a child. we imp implemented english immersion, so our kids were not taught bilingual or foreign languages first, they were taught english. so we made our schools more effective. i think you will have to find a recognition that teachers unions have to take a back seat to the interest of our kids and the parent and it is localities. i want schools to have the power to make these decisions at a

local level. but i think the federal government can play a role in standing up to the federal teachers unions. >> greta: would you agree that the education system has hit the skids, in general? not the private schools and some of the public schools and some of the wethier areas, but a lot of our schools have hit the kids and as a result, our kids have hit the skids. >> i think it's a mixed picture in cities and states in the country, some better than others. florida, under governor jeb bush was able to put in a series of school choice measures, measures to test the quality of education for the children and that had a big impact and drove their schools to be far better than they had been prior to these policies being put in place inform my state, driven to be number 1 came as a result of school choice and testing and higher rewards for the student who is were doing particularly well on their tests, in terms of getting scholarships for school -- for college

afterwards. we know what works in education. there is not a mystery about how to improve schools. we know that what drives the success of a student and a school is the quality of teacher. >> greta: what happened to the school system? >> we gave our school systems over to the teachers unions. the teachers unions are by far the largest contributor to political campaigns. they give almost exclusively to democrats. democrats feel beholden to do what the teachers unions want. they get -- they can in some case, elect a mayor who sits across from them at the bargaining table and protect the teachers -- nothing wrong with that aboutr but don't put the kids first. >> greta: when i talk to teachers, they all really want to teach. the system, for whatever reason, seems really broken. every teacher i meet, union or non-union, really wants to teach. we have to make our young kids competitive to fill out applications. buth it has gone to almost catastrophic in some areas. >> there is no question about

it. look at california. it's just -- used to have some of the best schools in the country, now ranked almost at the very bottom. what we have to do, in my view, is make it more attractive for young people to go into teaching. we don't have the right starting salaries. i would like to see higher starting salaries and the benefits and the retiree benefits, these things are designed to care for the big players, but not care for those who are coming into teaching, we need to hire the very best and the brightest from our colleges and universities and we need them to have the expertise to make it a subject of interest for the kids they are going to be teaching. >> greta: the unemployment rate's high. there is a lot of discussion about jobs. but one of the things that doesn't get discussed is poverty. poverty, there is the moral issue. but also poverty's very expensive. whether it's the food stamps that have gone up $14 million since president obama has become

president. it went up during president bush's presidency as well. it keeps growing and growing t. sends a message that we are not winning the war on poverty. it is getting worse that. costs all of us. >> there is no question but that this president has failed when it comes to caring for the american people. as a result of the president's policies and part, we are seeing a higher degree of poverty. record level of poverty. 30% of single moms are living in poverty in this country. record number of people, 47 million people on food stamps, 2.3 million homes foreclosed upon. the president's policies have failed. his economic policy has been a bust. the right course for the american people is to have an economy that's growing. >> greta: but there are those looking for a job in the 8.1 or -2%, but there is a huge segment in despair that is not looking for work. a lot of them, you have

fundamentally, maybe some people are critical and say they don't work, i believe that a lot of them do want to work and to succeed and they have, for whatever reason, they haven't made the cut. they have been left behind. i am just thinking that, you know, in order for all of us to do well in the economy, you know, we don't need the expensive poverty. i am curious, besides the moral issue, what could you do to help lift those people up and get them involved? >> again, this is not a mystery. you get people equal opportunity. great schools, terrific education so people have the skills to participate in the modern economy. number 2, if they need help getting into the labor force, you give them job training and skills that allow them to be hired and then, you have to have an economy that wants to hire people, looking to hire people. we have an economy that is not creating the jobs that americans need and want. part of that is because this administration has made america a less attractive place to start a business, to grow a business. businesses today feel they are

under attack because of this administration. and you are not going to create jobs if entrepreneurs decide not to start new businesses. under this president, the number of startups per year has dropped by 100,000. little businesses that employ people, particularly at the entry level are not starting up. larger businesses are moving operations outside this country because they feel in america, by virtue of our taxation, the highest in the world, the regulatory environment, our lack of energy policies to take advantage of our energy resources, all of these features are causing businesses to go elsewhere. they are killing jobs. i always the smile at my liberal friends, they love a strong economy, but they don't like businesses. but the economy is nothing but the addition of the businesses in the country together. have you to love enterprise, small, large, middle size, encourage it, develop it. government sees itself as the opponent of business. it has to be the ally of enterprises of all kind. what we have is a growing

government-centered society. government can't create the jobs that the american people need to get out of poverty, to have rising stasheds of living for middle-income americans. that's what has to happen, a new attitude. >> greta: but that sounds like a trickle down. the economy gets going and auof a sudden, those who are at the lowest wrung will somehow do better. i haven't heard anything since jack kemp days of enterprise zone, where it is more active, rather than hoping to rev up the economy and get the jobs, but actually, go in and dig into these areas and have enterprise zones and get them revved up? >> you know, there are lots of ways to say, how can we manipulate the market? have you seen president obama say i will give $500 million to solyndra. i am more inclined to say let's make it easy to start a business. let's make it easier to get a loan, for a small business. let's make it easier to hire

people, give people greater visibility with the cost of a hire will be. and you can do that and you get great jobs. we can encourage in certain sector, places for job growth. i was pleased in my state to take an area where a military plant had been removed and we said, let's do our very best to get some jobs to move into those areas. you can have policies, state by state, which are trying to focus on creating economic empowerment zones. but the right thing for the nation overall is to be competitive on taxes and have regulations that encourage enterprise and to have energy policies that take advantage of our resources and keep energy prices down or competitive, to have trade policies policies thp new markets and crack down on cheaters, including china, if they steal our patents, designs and hack into our computers. we have to make america attractive for small business. the 100,000 new employers per

year, they make a difference at putting people at every wrung in the economic ladder back to work. >> greta: what's the difference between running a business and running a state? you were a governor. you get to say a little bit more when you are running a business than you -- you have more options. what's the more difficult part about governing? >> well, the more difficult job is working in business because business is not forgiving. if you spend more than you take in, year after year, you are going to be out of business. if you make serious strategic error, you are going to be gone. government borrows more money and taxes more people, blames the opposition party. the people in business are doing the harder job. the people in the government, you have to learn to work with other folks. people think if you are the head of the company, you don't need to work with others. you can make all the decisions on your own. not so. you have shareholders, have you bankers, have you competitive

tors. have you customer, have you to listen to others. in my experience, if you near business, you are a fiscal conservative. have you to balance your books. we need more people from the real economy to go into government did and to use their skill and learning how it live within an economic framework to hold down spending and not to borrow more than you are taking in. >> greta: president obama taking -- talk about this health care said an unelected group of people would overturn a duly constituted and passed law. he was talking about judicial activism. your thoughts on calling his remark, much broader, calling the supreme court an unelected group looking at the health care law. >> isn't this wonderful to have a liberal talking about judicial activism? we have been concerned about judicial activism for years and years and years. what the president's complaining about, however, is that the supreme court might apply the constitution to the bill that he passed. and the whole purpose of the

supreme court is to make sure that congress does not pass laws that are in violation of the constitution. and so, judicial activism is not following the constitution. judicial activism is departing from the constitution, which is what they have too often done on issue after issue. i applaud the fact that the supreme court looks to be taking the responsibility of following the constitution. seriously. and if the president complains about a supreme court that follows the constitution, he is coming from a very different world than the world that the founders and frankly the judicial history has described for america. >> greta: up next, what happens in wisconsin doesn't necessarily stay in wisconsin. both wisconsin governor walker and lieutenant governor kleefisch facing a recall, which could have a giant impact on the 2012 election. lieutenant governor kleefisch is here next. and paul ryan goes on the record, he says the g.o.p. has

one big concern about tomorrow's primary. what is it? congressman ryan will tell you. and rick santorum is in wisconsin, in my hometown of appleton. and get this -- he's trying to dig up some dirt on me. what until you hear what senator santorum said today, caught on tape. and more from the ironhorse hotel in wisconsin. straight ahead. ♪ [ male announc ] you plant.

you mow. you grow. you dream. meet the new definition of durability: the john deere select series. with endless possibilities, what will you create? ♪ learn more about the new select series x310 with power steering at johndeere.com/x310. pandora rocks the big board. to put more giddy-up in our get-along. it's time to start gellin' with dr. scholl's... ... and mix a little more hop in our hip-hop. with the eneizing support and cushioning of dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles ... you'll want to get up and go. last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans...

in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spotn the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪

>> greta: the presidential primary is hours away, but wisconsin is also gearing up for a recall election. you will remember last year, the union protesters almost seizing the state capitol, fuming that governor scott walker pushed through a law on collective bargaining rights. now both governor walker and lieutenant governor kleefisch face a recall. >> nice to see you. >> greta: explain this. when you ran for lieutenant governor, did you run on the same ticket with governor walker? >> it's confusing. we are elected separately in a primary and paired together on a ticket in the general. so folks cast one ballot for us in the general election, even though they cast separate ballots for us in the primary. but the funny thing is, we are

being recalled separately. when they changed our constitution so that we were elected like that in 1970, they never went back into the recall function of our constitution and changed that. so even though we are elected together, we are being recalled, potentially nseparate questions. potentially on separate ballots and even different days. >> greta: you are the first lieutenant governor in history to be recalled. >> i am the first lieutenant governor in national history to be facing recall. i am the first to be elected twice in my own first term. how's that? >> greta: i like that. that's interesting. all right. now, i want to talk about they recall petition, we did a story here last time. it was quite stunning. it had just been revealed, disclosed, exposed, however you want to describe it, that 12% of the state court judges signed the recall petition. since i have gone, i learned

that journalists sign the recall petition. >> i was a former journalist. having spent my first career as a journalist, it's disconserght when have you the people covering the elections every day, signing petitions, basically signaling their political intent. it's the same thing when you talk about the judges signing. it's concerning for the folk who is are going into those courts, expecting impartiality. >> greta: have any of the other newspapers or journalists said, this is wrong, the one who is are the offenders? i know my local newspaper -- and so the other newspapers are policing each other about this? >> they are, a little bit. our biggest newspaper in the state, the milwaukee gorm came out with a statement. but one of the things that concerns us is the fact they did t. when i was a news anchor, we signed ethics forms and declared we were going to be impartial

and that's how we were going to report the news. >> greta: how many opponents do you have? >> vione opponent who is backed by the democratic party, the head of the state firefighters union -- >> greta: oh, we interviewed him. >> yes, you did. >> greta: that's the only candidate. >> there are others. actually. we know that -- there is a gentleman from portage, a gentleman from maronnette. a private investigator from milwaukee, all who have declared their intention to run against me in the recall election. but to be honest with you, i am really confident because we have the facts to go back to the voters with. we have the facts -- >> greta: but they also came out with a tremendous amount of numbers. that has to be daunting, almost 800,000 signed yours and 900,000 signed the governor's. so it is not like there isn't a groundswell of enthusiasm. >> we are passionate in wisconsin, i will admit that. we are ethical, we are passionate, we are hard workers

here. but i will say that the 800 number that i care more about is the fact that we saved $848 million from the reforms in state and local governments for the first time, after 5 years of 5% tax hike, we are seeing a tree tax freeze. we have good stuff. >> greta: we will be watching. i think tell indicate a little bit about what the republican party can expect in november, in the state, after the june 5 -- is that the recall? >> june 5 is the recall and may 8 is the primary. we urge people to keep their eyes focused on wisconsin because we are a harbinger for the country. >> greta: we are going to watch. president obama saying something pretty weird about the united states supreme court. yes, it's the same court that is deciding his health care bill. what happened? that's coming up. and also, we have a story tonight about the gsa and if this does not set your hair on fire, nothing will. here's a hint -- vegas.

that's straight ahead. today, we stand against the tyranny of meager travelards. battle speech right? may i? capital one is issuing a venture double miles challenge.

sh us how much you spent last year and we'll give you 2 miles for every dollar spent on your travel reward card. up to 100,000 miles! hawaii, here we come. claim your miles at capitalone.com today! wh's in your wallet? cayou play games on that? not on the runway. no. cayou play games on that? living with the pain of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis... could mean living th joint damage. help stop the damage before it stops you with humira. for many adults with moderate to severe ra, humira's proven to helrelieve pain and stop joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common.

tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your rheumatologist how you can defend against and help stop further joint damage with humira.

>> greta: okay, what's up with president obama? he took a weird shot at the supreme court, worrying that the justices, not to strike down his health care law. >> i just remind conservative commentators that four years, what we have heard, the biggest

problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn... a duly constituted and passed law. well, there is a good example. i am pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step. >> greta: an unelected group of people. really isn't president failed to mention the unelected people we should really be worried about, that's the hhs workers, implementing the health care law. we don't even know their names and they are writing the rules. senator powell is on the senate judiciary committee. your thought on the president not liking this, quote, unelected group, meaning the nine justices, will make a determination on constitutionality or not? >> your first word was weird.

and it is weird and incoherent. the liberals have no problem with this unlected group ruling in cases in their favor. they were all for the court deciding this case when they thought it was going to rule in their favor. but strangely, after the oral arguments when a lot of observers felt that the liberal case wasn't made very well by the government lawyers, they seem to be in a panic mode. and a lot of forks both political and media, now appear to be as "the wall street journal" said, mow-mowing and intimidating the justices and accusing them before they even ruled of judicial activism. it's a strange thing for the president to do. i think he did this in the presence of two foreign leaders, to be criticizing the court. i recall the state of the union speech when he called out the court. he seems to have a habit of this. it is not a good thing for the president to denigrate the

branch of the third branch of government. >> greta: i think it's odder than that -- here's a guy -- i don't mean to be disrespectful. he went to harvard law school. and every single person who has gone to every single law school, the first month of school, you hear marbury versus madison, still a good law, which says the function of the supreme court, its power includes the right to review whether a statute is constitutional or not. so i don't know why we are criticizing, maybe the one group in the whole city -- no disrespect to you, of course, senator, but they are doing the job they are supposed to. >> well, that's exactly right. that was the holding in marbury versus madison, the first great case from the supreme court. i think you could contend that the supreme court would be judicially active if it supported this stretching of the commerce clause as the congress did in the obamacare legislation. i mean, the court in effect was

asking the lig litigants, how far can this be stretchd? is there no limit? i think the court would be imposing judicial restraint on the congress, on the federal government fit drew a line here. the court has never been presented with this case before where congress has forced the citizens to buy a product so it could be regulated. and so the court didn't ask for this case fwurk came to the court and it has to make a decision, one way or the other. it it is not being judicially active if it says, whoa, have gone too far. i'm sorry, the other thing is that the extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratally elected congress. number 1, it was not a strong majority. in fact, it was really close. number 2, it was a democratically elected congress and the democratically elected congress didn't read the statute and farmed it out to hhs, who are writing the rules and

regulations and they aren't elected at all. so the president really has this one wrong twoi. point there is. the democratically controlled congress almost couldn't pass it because every republican voted against t. when scott brown was elected from massachusetts, the liberals thought they had lost until nancy pelosi pulled out the procedural gimmick of the so-called budget reconciliation process to pass it with less than the majority that is normally required required in ce this. at the time it was passed and still to this day, the american people oppose it by about 2-1. so it is not like it's a really popular thing that the court would be overturning here. >> greta: no tisn't. you know, i think it's unusual for the president to strike down the supreme court. but senator, thank you, sir. >> thank you, greta. >> up next, wisconsin congressman paul ryan. there is a presidential primary,

followed closely by the recall election. congressman paul ryan goes on the record and then rick santorum takes his campaign to my hometown, appleton, wisconsin. andee we hear he's dishing about me. what does he tell the crowd? we have it on tape. you will have to hear this in 2 minutes. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security aneconomic growth. north america actually has

one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project icanada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for oucountry's energy security and our economy. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter job on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, noit's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can trust 'em.

unlike rdy. dolr for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. anti-aging cream undeniably. it creamed unbelievably a $500 cream and now women have made regenerist microsculpting cream also unscented. women love it. in original and also fragrance-free. >> greta: the polls open if nine hours and today, santorum hitting the cam pape trail in where else? my hometown of appleton. >> i have been e-mailing greta van susteren all day. she is so proud to be from the town of appleton, wisconsin, i said i would tell stories but actually what i -- does anybody have any stories about greta they would like to tell? anybody? we can put them out in front of the media. no stories? okay, i'll work the line later. you can tell me just

one-on-one. it's always an opportunity, you always have to have an advantage over members of the media. something to hold over their heads so maybe they treat you better. greta has been great. >> greta: he is a rat. i don't know if senator santorum found out stories about me but he is right about one thing. i'm proud to be from appleton. are you proud of your hometown? hometown? te

i used to not travel very much, but then i discovered hotwire. now, i use all my vacation days. i can afford to visit my folks for the holidays. and reconnect with my girlfriends in vegas. beuse i get ridiculously low prices on all my trips. you see, when hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them, so i g 4-star hotels for up to half off. now i can afford a romantic trip to new orleans. hi honey! ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e... ♪ hotwire.com on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary.

but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? >> from america's news headquarters, i'm ainsley earhardt. a mega-dispute over friday's record mega-millions jackpot. the "new york post" reports that a single mother of seven claims she bought one of the three winning tickets, but her co-workers at mcdonald's say they were in a pool with her and she has to split the winnings. she claims toe she bought it separately. the other two winning tickets in the $656 million jackpot were

won in illinois and kansas. the kentucky wildcats winning the ncaa tournament. it's their first national championship since 1998. the kansas jayhawks hoped for a fourth national title. the final score, 67-59. kentucky, the new ncaa champs. i'm ainsley earhardt. back to "on the record" with greta. thanks for watching. have a good morning. >> greta: wisconsin congressman paul ryan is back home in the home state. earlier tonight we caught up with congressman ryan in milwaukee. congressman, nice to see you, sir. >> welcome home. >> thank you very much. nice to be home, especially among oil drums. >> it's great. the economy. this is people working. >> greta: indeed it is. >> this is milwaukee. >> greta: wonder to feel be home. i want to ask about the election tomorrow, the primary. this is an open primary.

so explain this to me. >> we don't have party registration in wisconsin. you ku walk in whoever you are and say i want the republican ballot or the democratic ballot and vote for whoever you want in the republican or democratic party. like you heard in michigan, you know there is a concern about the crossover voting. democrats voting in the presidential primary for republicans to vote for whoever is the worst candidate for obama to face. that is a concern we have in wisconsin. >> greta: are you hearing any noise? >> i don't know the answer to that. i have not heard of anything. sometimes you the robo call campaigns about the crossover voting. >> greta: this is a big primary. if mitt romney wins tomorrow could -- >> yes. even if romney win wins in al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula rom -- i think rick

has to win 82 of the rest of the delegates and i don't see how he can put it together. this is among the reasons we're endorsing romney. he is the best person to be president. i spent time with him, going through details a the budget, time of year, 2013 has to be to get america back on track. i am convince ed he has the conservative principles to put it in action. he is the best president. i think he has the minneapolis of becoming president. beating barack obama. tuesday, tomorrow, we think we can make a difference in that. if he wins wisconsin and the other two states it's far out in the lead. he's the prohibitive nominee. we coalesce around the nominee. the primary has been productive but we are moving to the counterproductive stage. if this drags out longer it will be that much harder to beat obama in the fall.

>> greta: if you look at history, you might have an uphill battle. in 2008, president obama took the state by 14 points. two years later, republican governor scott walker won by five points, which is a big turn-around. now he is taking a lot of heat. he has a recall in june. things seem topsyturvy here. >> george bush lost wisconsin by one-half of one point both times. last time with obama, john mccain stopped campaigning here in september. the campaign didn't exist. so obama ran up the score. the last election where scott walker and ron johnson won, took two house seats and the senate. we have feel like we have a chance as republicans. i think mitt romney is in the best position to win states like ours. ohio and wisconsin. which are the states to determine this whole thing. >> greta: what about governor walker? this recall in june. this is going to -- i mean it seems like it's gotten ugly. going to be a fight on both sides. >> greta: huge fight. we're told that the unions around the connecticut are going to spend something like

$40 million in wisconsin between now and june 5 with the recall ends. a massive effort. a big fight. i think scott will win. you know why i think scott will win in it's working. the point of reform -- >> greta: there are almost a million signatures for recall. >> sure. >> greta: a lot of journalists and judges. >> did you notice that in the reporters and judges signing the recall position, objective people. more to the point. it met with the school district superintendent of a small school district of a district i represent the other day because of scott walker's reforms. saved $1.6 million. just in her school district. on being able to put health insurance out for bid. she doesn't have to use teachers union monopoly insurance plan anymore. she saved $1.6 million. she put reforms in the class room to make education better because of the reform. walker reforms kept taxes low, didn't require massive layoff of teacher and public worker

osrequiring the government services. it helped balance the budget without raising taxes. those reforms are working. >> greta: i guess if i were governor walker to have the confidence you have, but for the fact that the recall petition has so many signatures on it. even when i was doing reporting on it, i got an e-mail from a friend of mine who teaches at the university of wisconsin. haven't heard from her in 25 years, practically took my skin off she was so angry. there is real anger toward the governor. >> very angry. i think as people learn the facts if they learn about how the reforms are working, not just the state level but the local level, i think by and large, wisconsinites will not vote to recall. recall over policy dispute i don't think is called for. people don't like what scott walker did which is what he said he'd do in campaigning the normal course of election is when they should vote for somebody else. >> greta: outside money coming to the state for his opponent and outside money coming for -- >> i imagine so. >> greta: interesting how

this is becoming a national election. >> it was said in a major newspaper the other day. this is the most important election this year after the presidential election. courage is on the ballot. what legislators has the courage to address problems in the state if they do this this is what happens to them. that's profound. he is taking on drivers of the debt in wisconsin. we're taking on our drivers of debt in washington. we're going to be attacked from the political adversaries. more debt and decline, we're offering the solutions. we will be attacked for offering solutions. people are bigger than that. i think the american people want to be treated like adults not pandered to like children and ready for real solutions and honest talk. >> greta: thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> greta: straight ahead, members of congress calling it outrageous. unethical an gross abuse of the taxpayer dollars. tonight, heads are rolling at the g.s.a. why is everyone so peeved in

the g.s.a. threw a lavish vegas convention with more than $7800,000 of your money -- $800,000 of your money.

i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too. learn where to find your number at drscholls.com.

>> greta: this will leave you speechless.

if you are not outraged there is really something wrong with you. listen to this one. 146,000 for catering. $75,000 for team building exercises. $6,300 for commemorative coins. 8,100 for conference books. those are some of the expenses that the general services administration racked up for a training conference. and guess who paid for this? you guessed it. you did. taxpayers. we all paid for it. the lavish government employee convention cost total of $822,751. tonight heads are rolling at the gsa. abc news senior washington editor rick klein joins us. this can't be true. >> it is stunning in every detail. you read this and think it's parody of bureaucracy run wild. there are 300 employees in the las vegas area to spend this money with these stunning expenses you're right, jaw

dropping. >> greta: a list of things. while waiting for the segment i got a tweet from the "washington post" that said we paid for a mind reader and a clown to attend this. go figure. senator tom coburn who is so corn certained with waste, who does he commission to do the waste and fraud studies by the gsa. now they have a new chapter themselves. i'm equally angry at congress. they are the ones who weren't doing overseeing on fannie mae and freddie mac and weren't overseeing on the sikh a sec as lawyers were downloading porn on our dime. it doesn't stop. >> it gives you some indication of how hard is it to wrang the federal bureaucracy. the fact that it happened in october 2010, just says before the tea party takeover of congress, there is no time maybe in american history where this there is fervor over the taxpayer spending. to see this thing where the people, first of all, they got all this tens of thousands of dollars spent on meals and room and board and everything.

$8,000 for the yearbook and mo momentos on their way out. they went line by line to find a way to charge additional line items. >> greta: head of the gsa stepped down. two people have been fired. this is a presidential appointment, confirmation in senate. they're all up to their eyeball in this. the white house, senate, they're in charge of the government agencies. they're supposed to be the stewards of the government. $830,000 washed away of american taxpayer money. deplorable. >> the angler continue on this. there are people directly involved in setting this up. imagine that a lot of folks up the food chain involved in this. other conferences like it. it will spur congressional oversight. chairman issa of the oversight committee has shown interest in this investigation. you are right, just the kind of thing you think can't be happening anymore. not with the taxpayers dollars in this day and age. >> greta: we talk about the oversight we want overtight

before these things happen. we have want monitoring before these things happen. this was planned before october, before it happened. you think someone would get wind of it. what i put on the greta wire is the list of the two committees on capitol hill with oversight with a list of all the members of the republicans and democrats, everyone who voted on greta wire.com, see if your senator or member of congress is one of those that didn't do oversight and cost incredible money. think of what this could do for any community. we wonder why we're in debt in this country. >> indefensible. you're not seeing anyone try to defend it. that's why the white house is trying to get in front of it. the report got released today, they announced martha johnson the head of the gsa was stepping down and two deputie deputies. there is possibility of other people that will lose their job over this as well. this is 300 government employees who had a heck of a great time it sounds like in the las vegas area at a time where everyone is cutting back, everyone knows that the government has to do more with less, we get a lot of promises

about efficiency. see something like this is just something that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. >> greta: rick, thank you. >> thanks. >> greta: coming up, the last call before you reach for that soda. yes, even a diet soda. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousas of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. anthe tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp.

[ male announc ] you plant. you mow. you grow. you dream. meet the new definition of durability: the john deere select series. with endless possibilities, what will you create? ♪ learn more about the new select series x310 with power steering at johndeere.com/x310. learn more about the new select series x310 with power steering so i test... lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep! wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in.

so easy. yep. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? so testing is one less thing i have to worry about today. great. call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test ey.

>> greta: time for last call f you're watching your weight you may want to think twice about reaching for a soda. >> researchers say chemicals in plastic bottles may cause weight gain. so before you have a soda, make sure you pour it into a cup so you don't drink anything unhealthy. okay, guys? >> greta: that is your last call we are closing down shop. thanks for joining us tonight. go to greta wire.com tell us what you think about gsa hiring clowns and mind readers. good night don't get fbn