economic policy right through the end of this presidency as long as they are willing to mug and the president is willing to turn over the wallet. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" starts right now. have you ever had to work on the weekend? yeah, i have too. i mean, not too often, but i've done. you know what congress does after it works on the weekend? takes a month off. >> finally the end of the debt debate. >> over for now. >> the debt deal is done, now it's time to campaign. >> crisis averted and now we're on to more fighting. >> boy, it's going to be a hot summer recess. >> i got 98% of what i wanted. i'm pretty happy. >> and now democrats want to talk about jobs. >> that's not necessarily good news for mitt romney. >> enough talk about the debt, we have to talk about jobs.

>> that's the principle i'll be fighting for during the next phase of this process. >> jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. you cannot say it enough. >> still a pretty ugly economy out there. >> confidence was very damaged by this spectacle. >> the politicians won and america lost. >> the president has some work to do to prove he did the best he could. >> the bet he's making is he can get what he wants in the second round. >> the president has his fight on. >> people are angry. >> it looks like a satan sandwich. satan fries on the side. >> i want to thank the american people. >> you're not pinning this turd on us. >> and mitt romney promises to start thinking about when to start campaigning. >> romney released an 11th hour statement on the debt deal. >> easy to take a political position later on. >> literally after we went off the air. >> i don't consider that to be leadership. >> mittness protection program.

>> what happens when america says where were you in the war, daddy? >> at 12:30 eastern today, august 2, the senate passed the largest deficit reduction bill in history. the only reason the bill could pass the senate is that it happened to include one sentence that raises the nation's debt ceiling. shortly after, president obama signed the bill into law, thus avoiding a debt default that would have been catastrophic for an already fragile economy. with an immediate disaster averted, the president looked ahead to what's next, reaching an agreement for an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction before the end of the year, while somehow simultaneously focusing on jobs. >> since you can't close the deficit with just spending cuts, we'll need a balanced approach where everything's on the table.

yes, that means making some adjustments to protect health care programs like medicare so they are there for future generations. it also means reforming our tax code so that the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations pay their fair share. that's the principle i'll be fighting for during the next phase of this process, and in the coming months i'll continue to also fight for what the american people care most about, new jobs, higher wages, and faster economic growth. >> the president again called on congress to act on his proposals to create jobs and spur economic growth and infrastructure bank to help finance construction work on roads and bridges in need of repair, a payroll tax holiday, patent reform, and new international trade deal. there were few members of congress left in town to listen to the president's agenda since

congress is now on a five-week recess. congress left town without extending the federal aviation administration's operating authority, which is negatively impacting both jobs and the deficit. >> there's another stalemate in congress right now involving our aviation industry which has stalled airport construction projects all around the country and put the jobs of tens of thousands of construction workers and others at risk because of politics. it's another washington-inflicted wound on america, and congress needs to break that impasse now, hopefully before the senate adjourns so these folks can get back to work. >> as previously reported on this program, nearly 4,000 faa employees have been furloughed and 200 construction projects have been halted, which has left 70,000 workers idle according to secretary transportation ray

lahood and the loss could reach $1.2 billion if the situation isn't resolved before congress returns in september. joining me now is robert reich, former labor secretary in the clinton administration, he's now a professor of public policy at the university of california at berkeley and mark zandi, the chief economist for moodie's analytics, he worked for the mccain campaign and the obama administration. thank you both for joining me tonight. professor reich, i want to go to the question of what have we done to the economy with this legislation? >> well, the good news, obviously, lawrence, is that the economy now doesn't have the sort of dam collies hanging over it, we can pay our debts, we are not defaulting on our national debt, and we won't face an economic calamity. the bad news is the president has essentially tied his hands and the hands of congress with regard to boosting the economy.

right now i don't have to tell you, joblessness is huge, the economy is not growing, friday we'll find out how many jobs were created in july, but don't hold your breath. it probably was not many. we need 125,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth and i don't know anybody who thinks we're going to be there, so you need a boost from the government. you need, in my view, a wpa, civilian conservation corp. exempting payroll taxes, you need something to do with housing. you have to help distressed home owners. a lot of things that need to be done that constitute a jobs program, but given this deal, it's going to be terribly difficult, if not impossible, to muster the political will, the political courage, the votes necessary to get a jobs bill through. >> mark zandi, how do you see this deficit reduction package affecting the economy and specifically the job market? >> well, i think it was a good

deal. i think it's not a solution to our long-term fiscal problems, we need some tax revenue to solve our problems, but it's a good step in the right direction. when we started debating this we needed $4 trillion in deficit reduction, $2 trillion would be spending cuts, $1 trillion would be tax revenue and another trillion in lower interest payments on the debt. this deal got us the $2 trillion in spending cuts and interest savings as well, so we're part of the way there, and i think that's very helpful. it's not going to help the job market in the near term, we've got to do other things to support the job market over the next 12, 18 months, but i do think this is a good thing for the economy in the long-term. we need tax revenue, we need to come back and address that, but this is a good first step. >> bob, mark says we have to do things in the shorter term on jobs, you've been labor secretary, you've been there looking at the programs and options we have.

within this spending cuts environment, what can the labor department, what can the president, what can the congress get together and do? >> unfortunately, not all that much. the controls, the caps, the restrictions in this new deal make it terribly difficult to have a real economic boost. whether you call it a stimulus, wpa, all of the other things that the government can do, jobs infrastructure bank for example, something the president mentioned today, it's not clear how an infrastructure bank could be organized without any federal sweeteners at all, and yet this new deal makes it very hard to put any federal sweeteners into an infrastructure bank. look, i want to agree with mark zandi in terms of the long-term, over the ten years, it's good we got started on deficit reduction, but the problem is the conservatives have framed the issue right now as if deficit reduction creates jobs, as if the government, by

shrinking the government, you generate a better economy and more jobs, and frankly nothing could be further from the truth. this is a giant lie and obama is going to have a difficult time, as are democrats, reversing this lie. >> mark, i see you nodding when bob was speaking. do you agree spending cuts do not create jobs? >> certainly not in the near term. i think this disconnect we're having in the debate, in the very near term, if you had spending cuts, you're going to weaken the economy. now, i do agree that in the long run we need to have spending cuts to get back to fiscal sustainability, otherwise we're not going to have a good long run economic performance, but in the very near term, i would agree with bob that we need some additional help to the economy. so, for example, extending the payroll tax holiday for another year probably would be a very good idea, because if we don't do things like that, there's already a lot of fiscal drag,

fiscal restraint already in policy that, i think, given the recent economic data is not the right thing to do. >> bob, we go to the question of revenues in the future. mark has said, acknowledged, that we do need revenues in the future, but i want to read you from mark's report. we'll use your report, mark, to speak for you on this. the congressional commission can use either spending cuts or tax revenue increases to achieve its goal of cutting the deficit over ten years. in practice, the commission will likely agree only to spending cuts. bob, is that your view? how do you see this super committee that's being created in congress dealing with the issue of tax revenues? >> well, republicans have absolutely refused to raise taxes and there's no reason to suppose that by the end of the year, come thanksgiving when this commission is supposed to report to congress and congress has to take up that package and vote up or down, there's no reason to assume the republicans are going to change their mind.

i think they are going to be more dug in having won their victory, essentially, on the debt ceiling, they feel they can flex their muscles more. we're not going to see revenue enhancers or tax increases on the wealthy even though the wealthy are taking home a larger slice of american total income than they have since 1928. nevertheless, they are not going to pay their fair share. that means there's going to be another struggle around thanksgiving or before thanksgiving, the same thing we've been through already. what happens is congress is probably not going to reach agreement, that means the automatic triggers will come into effect and that's where the action is going to be. those triggers are going to make a lot of cuts in defense but also, probably, probably medicare and a lot of domestic discretionary programs. that is not going to be good for an economy that is still in the gravitational pull of this great recession, and it does not spell

fairness. >> mark, you know how to talk to republicans. quickly before we go, tell me how you would explain to an anti-tax republican why we need tax revenue in the longer run. >> well, i don't think we're going to get to the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that we need without it, and i think reducing tax expenditures, those are the loop holes in the tax code, is something that everyone can get onboard with, broadening the tax base will generate a lot of revenue, it will make the tax code more fair, more efficient, less complex, and you could, in fact, generate so much revenue you could lower corporate rates and i think everyone would like to see that. i think that's something democrats and republicans could get on board with and i think we'll have a window to do that once you approach the expiration of the bush tax cuts in 2012. >> mark zandi of moody's and robert reich. thanks very much for joining me this evening. >> thanks.

>> coming up, matt damon rewrites the political caricature of the american public school teacher. his eloquent argument is tonight's rewrite. first, howard fineman on what was gained and lost in the debt ceiling fight. that's next. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™.

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coming up, 2012's current republican front-runner for the presidency is campaigning less than any other candidate, earning his campaign the new label "the mittness protection program," and steven colbert retells the debt fight as a children's story. that's next.

this summer, the largest billy goat came clopping up and said mr. troll, i will not raise the debt ceiling unless i get to gouge out your eyes and throw you off the bridge. so the troll had to compromise by gouging out his own eyes and throwing himself off the bridge. and the moral of the story is, when the first goat comes along, you got to tear its head off, have sex with the neck hole and mail its carcass back to the brothers and say any of you goat -- want to put a hook on my bridge? >> across the country the american people have responded with a disgusted and sarcastic slow clap.

tea party activists and leaders told "the wall street journal" they saw no triumph in the compromise. that doesn't mean a weary nation won't be immediately subjected to the next round of the budget fight. the deal called for a special congressional committee of 12 members to find $1.5 trillion in debt reduction over the next ten years. house majority leader eric cantor and other republicans have said they will only appoint anti-tax advocates to their six slots on the committee. progressives are now demanding nancy pelosi and harry reid only appoint people who will protect medicare, medicaid, and social security. pelosi came close to endorsing that idea. >> let me say it is more than a priority, it's a value, it's an ethic for the american people. it is one that all of the

members of our caucus share so that i know whoever's at that table will be someone who will fight to protect those benefits. >> republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell -- no, minority leader mitch mcconnell, got to correct those things, is ready to have this fight over and over again. >> it set the template for the future and in the future, no president -- in the near future, maybe in the distant future will be able to get a debt ceiling increase without a reignition, reigniting of how to cut spending. i expect the next president is going to be asking us to raise the debt ceiling again in 2013, so we'll be doing it all over. >> joining me now is msnbc political analyst howard fineman, editorial director at the huffington post. the teleprompter has prematurely

called him a majority leader, but is he coming out of this debt deal and lineup with senates up for -- he's on his way to being the next majority leader of the senate? >> well, quite possibly, lawrence, i think he's one of the winners, politically, out of this, because he's really the guy who brokered the deal and he very shrewdly used the energy of the tea party and the threat of the tea party to go to joe biden, his old buddy from the senate and the president, this is what we're going to have to do. and i think in the end the president took what mcconnell offered with some trims here and there. by the way, mitch mcconnell is already describing that special, specially empowered committee, which we at the huffington post are calling the super congress, he's describing that the cost-cutting committee. he said that on the floor today.

it's the cost-cutting committee, thereby demonstrating exactly how he views the role of that thing and the type of people he's going to put on it. >> well, you know, harry reid has got something to say about who gets on that committee, which i'm going to call a super committee, not a super congress, because it's functioning as a committee. i'm not going to get carried a way now with this super congress stuff. harry reid in my interview with him some months ago, i asked him when he thought we might have to make adjustments in social security, any trims, any kind of adjustments in order to keep it solvent going forward and his answer to me was 20 years from now. he said he wouldn't consider doing it for another two decades. so that's his attitude about protecting social security going into this, so might we expect for him to be appointing real, hard liners on protecting the programs democrats need to protect?

>> oh, i think he will, and i think the republicans have already acknowledged that social security's probably not going to be at the heart of what the super committee does, because if the triggers are reached, social security's left out of the trigger mechanism. my expectation is that -- that mcconnell and boehner on the republican side and reid and pelosi on the democratic side will appoint hardliners, people that they trust to hold the line for the two philosophies and the two sets of programs you were talking about. which means it's quite possible, i think, that the committee won't reach an agreement, at which time we go to the triggers, and the problem there as robert reich was explaining, you're talking about withdrawing a lot of money out of the economy at that point. let's say this about defense spending, lawrence. it's not just the conservatives and the hawks who care about defense spending.

most defense spending takes place in the united states, and a lot of defense spending, whether you like it or not, is a type of spending that creates jobs. so you're looking at a tremendous potential hit to the economy that would occur next christmas time right into the teeth of the presidential election in 2012. president obama, by going along with this deal, may have really dug himself into an even deeper political and economic hole. >> msnbc political analyst howard fineman, thank you very much for joining me tonight, howard. thanks, lawrence. coming up, finally some sparks are flying in the republican presidential campaign as jon huntsman takes on mitt romney on jobs and much more. and the fbi says it has new information about what happened to d.b. cooper. yeah, we're going to go way back for this one. the guy who hijacked a plane 40 years ago, jumped out with

$200,000, parachuted down and was never seen again.

d.b., it looks like i'm going to be taking all the money now because of the personal humiliation involved, don't you understand? grab some sky there, toots. >> come on, buddy. >> buddy, buddies now? you told the woman we were acquaintances, remember that? >> pretty tough to insult you.

>> oh, hannah. >> in the movie "in the pursuit of d.b. cooper," the movie offered one possible explanation, the fbi has traced more than 1,000 leads in the case, but there are new reports the fbi is pursuing a new suspect. in 1971, cooper hijacked a plane over washington state, threatened the crew with a bomb, got a $200,000 ransom, then parachuted to freedom. in real life the fbi doesn't know how he escaped and says they may never know because their d.b. cooper suspect may be dead, even though the new suspect has been dead for more than ten years, investigators are searching for fingerprints or dna to compare the dna from

cooper from his clip-on tie he left on the plane. still to come tonight, with the debt ceiling fight over, maybe the 2012 republican candidates can get some attention, especially if they attack each other. and matt damon tries to explain to a right-wing website why teachers teach. that's in the rewrite. [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms.

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to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. one day after willard m. romney's campaign staff issued a written statement announcing his opposition to the debt ceiling deal, the staff announced some additions to his campaign schedule, which still will keep him mostly close to home in new hampshire. today ben smith coined the political phrase of the day, possibly the political phrase of the year so far when he described mitt romney as being in the mittness protection program. and there was this headline in

the des moines register, don't take it personal, iowa, romney's avoiding everybody. thanks for joining me tonight, josh. romney's position here as the kind of front-runner who campaigns the least, how long can he keep that math going? >> yeah, we've kind of got a contest in the press, i call him the phantom front-runner, ben smith did take the cake with mittness protection program, but look, this has been mitt romney's m.o. from the very outset. i wrote a column last may joking he put the invisible in the invisible primary because he really wasn't showing up to these events. that's a conscious strategy on romney and his advisors who have decided look, we're in the front-runners in this race, we don't have to go out there to mix it up on these day-to-day political fights, it's up to our opponents to force us to engage and if they don't we're going to sit back and enjoy our lead in the polls.

>> let's listen to jon huntsman's vicious, savage attack on mitt romney. >> you look at romney and others in the race and you can see they've all taken different positions. it's easy to take a political position later on, tough to take a position early on. this is the real world. >> i guess i should have watched the video before i introduced it. is that the best shot huntsman has? >> it actually is, yeah. he's the polite candidate, but look, he's also in a position where he has to make attacks, even sort of meek huntsman-like attacks like that one, because he's the margin of error candidate, as he says himself, and romney's the guy on top of the polls, and at the end of the day, romney's the one winning this race, even though people consider him a weak

front-runner, it's up to the folks behind him if they want to overtake him and knock him out of that top spot, but so far nobody's really been successful at doing that. >> the bachmann campaign is touting her, you know, absolutely flawless consistency on the debt ceiling and being against it and having the chance to vote against it in the house. the paul campaign, the paul family, rand paul, now, is joining in the mailer that's going around new hampshire attacking romney for his flip-flops, presumely the mail are paid for by his father's presidential campaign. my bet is on rand paul that will be the guy that will end up throwing the closest thing to what we might see as punches in this campaign. >> i think it might be. you can't question rand paul's conservatism. he votes no on everything and anything. but, you know, i would actually

argue that romney has been wise in holding back, you know, last time around he tried to kind of out-do every other social conservative and be, you know, tougher and more aggressive and more out there than anybody else and he wound up basically humiliating himself. nobody bought the idea mitt romney is this far right conservative. he was the guy who supported an individual mandate, he'd been the governor of a blue state, he's not going to win a contest with michele bachmann and ron paul when it comes to who's the most conservative, so what romney's trying to do is hold back for as long as he can and be palatable to enough conservatives without alienating general election voters. >> josh greene, senior political editor for the atlantic, thank you for being with me tonight. coming up, a 21st century famine, tragedy in somalia continues. but first, matt damon takes on the myth of a school teacher

clinging to tenure and ruining education in america. that's in the rewrite.

coming up, matt damon does his best to try to explain to a right-wing website why american public school teachers do their jobs. that's coming up. wear is hoodies. hoodies and cargo shorts. getting dirty. then she left some crayons in her pocket and they went through the wash. i thought all her clothes were ruined. enter tide and tide booster. the stains are gone. it's kind of too bad. [ laughs ] another car garage honey? it's beautiful. that's my tide. what's yours? [ female announcer ] find the tide that's right for you at tide.com. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center recommends the custom-fit orthotic that's best for your tired feet. foot-care scientists are behind it. you'll get all-day relief. for your tired achy feet.

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my parents to blame my teacher. we knew what the problem was. the problem was i just didn't study hard enough, or in some cases, i didn't have much aptitude for the subject, and some subjects i was simply afraid of, like chemistry. i never really knew what was going on in chemistry, and that was not the teacher's fault. none of my older brothers did well in chemistry and they all promised me i wouldn't do well either, and i met their expectations. i also hated and did badly in anything involving writing of any kind, which is kind of like wicked ironic since i then grew up to be a writer. that just points to the unpredictable ways we learn things. i couldn't be taught writing in school, but later, as an adult on my own, i could somehow get the hang of it. none of the teachers who tried and failed to teach me how to

write should be blamed for my failure as a writing student. there are countless complex variables that go into what we call student achievement. the teacher is only one of those variables. more important factors are home learning environments, individual student aptitudes, individual student effort, the student's expectation, the student's family's expectation, the number of students in the classroom, the temperature of the classroom, undiagnosed eyesight infirmities that make reading difficult, the list goes on and on and on and the more professional educators that consider the factors that go into student achievement, the more our politics have oversimplified them to the point that by the end of the first decade of the 21st century, our politics, democrat and

republican, has reached the consensus that all perceived underachievement by students is entirely the fault of teachers. this idea has taken hold across the political spectrum. show business liberals make documentaries that they think prove it's all the teacher's fault. a republican president followed now by a democratic president adhere to the belief that there's a regime of standardized testing of students that will measure not just the student's achievement but teaching excellence. the blame the teacher movement began not as the product of reliable research on academic performance but as a right-wing republican political movement, an anti-union movement, specifically an anti-teacher's union. they were told to take the blame for any disappointing academic achievement statistics in america.

republicans targeted teachers as soon as they saw teachers aligning themselves so often with the democratic party. now which party should the teachers unions have seen as best representing their concerns? the party that wanted to cut taxes and cut spending on public schools, cut sports programs, cut arts education, cut the band, cut educational resources across the board so that we could then have even more tax cuts? or the party that wanted to deliver to teachers the resources they need in the classroom and the resources that every school needs to provide a full educational experience? in a creed to both parties, teachers went to washington on saturday for a save our schools rally, and they were joined by exactly one celebrity, matt damon flew overnight from vancouver to new york and then

to washington to address the rally and to address a right-wing website that has blind faith, blind to the facts that is, blind faith in the blame the teacher theory. >> in acting, there is -- there isn't job security, right? there's an incentive to work hard and be a better actor because you want to have a job, so why isn't it like that for teacher? >> you think job insecurity is what makes me work hard? >> well, you have an incentive to work hard. >> that's not an incentive. that's the thing, you take this mba style thinking, this view of problems much more complex than that. it's saying a teacher is going to get lazy when they have tenure. a teacher wants to teach. why else would you take a [ bleep ] salary and really long hours and do that job unless you

really love to do it? >> that's how crazy the attack on teachers has become. comparing public school teachers work incentives to the work incentives of movie stars. it has never occurred to the teacher haters that teachers want to be teachers for any reason other than job security. it has never occurred to them that teachers might want to be teachers because they like teaching, because they love teaching, and because they care about their students. the right-wing attackers of teachers have never even shown the slightest curiosity about the job performance of another group of government workers who have very, very high job security, police officers. and police officers carry guns instead of textbooks and as we've seen in new orleans after katrina and in countless other cases around the country, police officers have sometimes used

those guns to shoot and kill innocent people. they have done so accidently, which is in some cases understandable and forgivable and some of the them, statistically very few to be sure have done so deliberately, maliciously, with full criminal intent. they have executed people. the worst teacher in america could never do as much damage as the worst police officer in america, but the right wing has never even been slightly curious about evaluating the job performance of police officers, never once has republican world said hey, maybe we should look into how police officers are carrying out their solemn public responsibility to serve and protect. no, no right wing website in america is investigating or will ever investigate how well police

officers do their jobs. the targeting of teachers has been a vicious and politically deliberate action and it has been so successful that many of its fundamental falsehoods are accepted as true by both republicans and democrats in our ongoing dialogue about public education. a few years after college as a boston school teacher and i loved it, but i was never committed to it, committed to it as a career. i moved on to easier, better paying jobs, like this one. teachers who have committed their lives to the classroom deserve better than our politics has given them, and no one has offered a better rewrite of the current political caricature of the lazy, uninterested teacher clinging to tenure than matt damon did on saturday.

and no more important speech was given in washington that day. >> so i was raised by a teacher, who you just met, and my mom is a professor of early childhood education, and from the time i was in kindergarten and she said all the way through my high school graduation, i attended public schools. and i would not trade that education, that experience, for anything. i had incredible teachers, and as i look at my life today, the things that i value the most about myself, my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity, all of these things came from the way i was parented and taught.

and none of these qualities that i just mentioned, none of these qualities that i prize so deeply, none of these qualities that have brought me so much joy, that have made me so successful professionally, none of these qualities that make me who i am, can be tested. now, i said before that i had incredible teachers, and that's true, but it's more than that. my teachers were empowered to teach me. their time was not taken up with a bunch of silly test prep, a bunch of drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn't promote real learning. no, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. they took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us.

they were empowered to unlock our potential, in other words, they were allowed to be teachers. i honestly don't know where i would be today if that was the type of education i had. i sure as hell wouldn't be here, i do know that. i was having so much trouble getting around, i thought, end of the line... i was headed to a nursing home. well, i'm staying in my own home now, because we chose hoveround! hoveround's compact round design makes it easier for you to maneuver through the tight spaces in your home. and best of all, 9 out of 10 people pay little or nothing for their hoveround, so call now and you can be the next to pay... zero...i paid nothing for the unit at all. and now only from hoveround, every power chair includes a handy tote bag, so you'll always

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we turn now to east africa where the worst drought in 60 years and a lack of humanitarian assistance have left tens of thousands dead and over 12 million starving. worst hit has been somalia, which has lacked a central government, in effect, since 1991. the united nations has declared

famine conditions in two southern areas of somalia, both controlled by al qaeda, which the u.s. deemed a terrorist group in 2008 due in part to its support of al qaeda. they have threatened and killed western aide workers and diverted and collected bribes on supplies. aide organizations that pay those bribes risk violating u.s. sanctions that ban providing material support to terrorist organizations. because the situation is so dire, today the white house relaxed restrictions for aide organizations operating in good faith. >> guidance to allow more flexibility to provide a wider range of aide. this new guidance should help clarify that aide workers who

are partnering are not in conflict with u.s. laws and regulations. >> joining me now, chief executive officer and president of the u.s. fund for unisef, carroll stern, thanks for joining me tonight, carroll. >> thanks, lawrence, good to be here. >> what's your reaction to the white house easing restrictions? >> saving childrens' lives should not be a political decision. i would hope if it were my child starving that the world would do whatever it takes to save my child. while it may not be in the best political circumstances, i'm glad our president made that decision. >> how do you operate under those conditions where you have a terrorist organization who is, in effect, siphoning out some amount of what people are trying to deliver there. >> unicef is on the ground yesterday, today, tomorrow, we

are part of that trusted neighbor. we have been working in somalia, we were able to air lift supplies in last week and you do the best you can. we have brave and passionate workers who are going to do whatever it takes. >> what do you need now and what do the other organizations operating there need now? >> dollars, we truly need dollars. one of the things the world doesn't understand when an emergency like this hits. and you need to understand this is an emergency on the level of a cyclone or tsunami, it's an l-3. we're not banks. we don't stockpile resources for this day. that means you don't want us to take money from another country's children to save the children in the horn of africa. it is going to take dollars. >> and carol, what do you say to people making these contributions, they want to think of every penny they hand over as actually going to the

problem, and we know with these people there that our siphoning off some of the money and taking these bribes and demanding bribes and all of that, we know there's going to be some drainage of what's going on in the effort, what do you say to people in that situation, to donors? >> i say first of all, you work with those organizations who are large enough, powerful enough, and have been on the ground long enough to know the best way to get supplies there. check the track records of organizations, it's public information, and secondly, consider it if it was your child. we're the grown-ups. if it were my child, i'd be willing to have some siphoned if it meant the difference of life or death. >> going forward, what is your sense of where we will be a month from now in this crisis? >> you know, a lot of that depends on the public. we are in need of $300 million

for the next several months to get us through the end of the year to save the lives we're trying to save right now, and at this point we're $200 million away from that goal. we are in dire need of dollars, and it is critical that people respond and see these children for the people that they are. i have heard stories this past week from workers on the ground, from people who are moms making choices which child shall live and which child shall not, no mom should have to make that choice because food is so scarce. no one should die in today's day and age because they don't have enough to eat. >> they are worse than just bribe takers, they can do worse damage than that. >> they can, obviously, all security precautions are taken but they are going in, they are doing the work, they are putting children first. >> carroll stern, president and ceo of the u.s. fund for unicef, thank you very much for joining me tonight and thank you very much for your work.