is that a fair guess? >> that is a fair guess. in fact, we are in the month of my birth, but it was not in that year. >> would you like to share with us? >> it doesn't really matter fundamentally. i was not alive at the time you reference. >> but you look pretty good. >> pretty good? okay. >> very good, very good. i misread the script you gave me. you look great. >> the show starts now. >> good wednesday afternoon. i am dylan ratigan. nice to be seeing you. this, of course, the day everyone is joining in, saying will indeed the obama versus romney come the presidential election? romney won wisconsin, described as do or die for santorum. 8 in 10 voters believe romney will win the nomination.

in maryland, a romney rout. and in washington, d.c., santorum not even on the ballot. romney securing 70% of that vote. of course, being on the ballot in any election, huge to winning. beyond all the actual ballot numbers, though, on the delegates, romney has more than all the other candidates combined. he also is halfway to total needed for the nomination. so we want to take you down memory lane, with the help of the great barbra streisand, here you go. ♪ memories, like the corners of my mind ♪ ♪ memory of the way we were >> president obama said that he

designed obama care after romney care. and basically made it obamney care. ♪ scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind ♪ ♪ smiles we gave to one another ♪ ♪ for the way we were >> the tea party is a dynamic force for good in our national conversation. and it's an honor for me to speak with you. ♪ can it be that it was all some simple thing ♪ ♪ or has time rewritten every line ♪ ♪ if we had the chance to do it all again ♪

♪ tell me would we ♪ could we >> i have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. i was just informed that our president has finally released a birth certificate. ♪ memories, may they be beautiful ♪ ♪ and yet what's too painful to remember ♪ ♪ we simply choose to forget >> 9-9-9 replaces five taxes. ♪ so it's the laughter that we

remember ♪ >> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone. commerce, education and the -- what's the third one there? oopse. ♪ whenever we remember the way we were ♪ >> get back to a sound currency as the constitution mandates and the gold standard. ♪ so it's the laughter we will remember ♪ >> of course we would have a man colony on the moon that flew an american flag. ♪ whenever we remember the way

we were ♪ >> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. ♪ so it's the laughter we will remember ♪ whenever we remember the way we were ♪ ♪ the way we were >> our day after the vote go-too guy, is it the laughter you'll remember, jonathan, or will you choose to forget all this? is there anything in this that

will carry into the presidential election? >> i think lit be known as the clown car primary. we had one back in '88, they called them the serve dwarves that year. we'll remember this for the laughs mostly. where it's very relevant for the campaign is that a lot of what mitt romney said in these primaries is etch-a-sketched in stone now. and because of his reputation as a flip-flopper, he can't go back and erase all of -- >> give me some examples. what are a couple things that are really burned in? >> a couple of things that relate to major voting groups, women and latinos. if he says something like i want to get rid of planned parenthood, there's millions of swing vote women in the suburbs. they got their first birth control from planned parenthood. or an immigration we saw rick perry. romney was so determined to prove he was tough on

immigration because he had illegal lawn care workers in 2008, that he went over the top against perry's program in texas of allowing innocent children of undocumented workers to go to the university of texas. so he locked himself out of the dream act. you can expect president obama will make a big deal in the debates about the dream act and how cruel it is to penalize these innocent kids for their parents having come many years earlier. so there are similar kinds of issues that, much more than his gaffes, will haunt mitt romney and give obama, on the issues, an opportunity to wrap that around his neck. >> i'll ask you the same question i asked ed rendell yesterday, in the context of the republican primary debate, we saw very little significant serious debate around meaningful

job creation in this country, around wealth and equality in this country, around the probability of moving from the lower 20% to the higher 20% in america is lower than in england or spanl. we're top in the world for incarcerations. there's lots to debate. i didn't see any of it in the republican debate. i don't feel that this president has dealt with any of it. and the only people that have less interest dealing with it than this president are his opponents. what is the liability to alienate -- forget the politics of winning the presidency, but alienating the country -- >> there's always been a distinction in these campaigns between the real issues facing the country and what are called campaign issues, phony flaps

that get -- >> birth control? >> right. so there will be a certain number of those kinds of campaign issues. but i think that this debate that is starting today, we've got seven months now of hand-to-hand combat between romney and obama. i think lit be one of the more substantive debates for this reason, that there are fundamental issues of what we owe each other as a society, what they call the american social contract that are on the table. so romney just called the ryan plan "marvelous." this is a plan that has, in some cases, 95% cuts in programs that americans take for grant it, investing in medical and scientific research, head start, environmental protection. even air safety. everything that is not either entitlements or defense is not

just trimmed or cut a little bit, it's slashed into the bone by the ryan plan, which romney supports. so we're going to have a real debate on what people want from their government and that's not -- it might not cover a lot of other issues that are important, but it's on something real, which is more than can be said for a lot of prior presidential debates. >> from your mouth to the debate stage, i hope. thank you for being was through this primary season. i look forward to learning through your reporting and engaging with you over the months to come. coming up, it is all but certain as you know, obama and romney will go mano i mano for the white house in 2012. so which candidate fairs better in our current economy? peter marissi with a point of view. plus, who's the boss? we'll tell you about the new idea to let your co-workers decide whether you get a raise or not.

and a segment i can't wait for. he takes on river monsters in his hit tv show. i wonder what he'll think of me. jeremy wade joins us here on the set in a moment. [ groans ] [ marge ] psst. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue...

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it was only because jesus conquered his own anguish, conquered his fear that we're able to celebrate the resurrection. it's put in perspective our small problems relative to the big problems he was dealing with.

>> president obama at this morning's white house prayer breakfast, tying the story of easter to the story of america's rebirth. but the idea of any economic resurrection is proving to be a tough sell, with nearly 1 in 5 americans either unemployed or underemployed with gas prices at record levels for this time of the year, it's only helping to fuel frustration among voters. here to talk economics is our panel. peter, we've been doing this for years now on this network. can you possibly have a functioning economy if you have a corrupt banking system, rigged trade, and screwed up energy relationships? >> absolutely not. america comes down to four things right now. china, energy, health care and banking. on two of those issues, romney is clearly different than the president. it's going to be an interesting face-off. >> which two? >> on trade with china and on energy.

he wants to do something about china. president obama has decided not to. and on energy, he wants to drill. president obama has shut that down. on health care, you've got to admit, mass care and obama care look a lot alike. and on banking, all romney promises is to do better than obama but doesn't tell us how. >> in a sense, and no one contests this, jonathan, the president has aspired to many things and done some good things, but has left himself very vulnerable on issues like banking reform, unemployment. at the same time you look at the ryan budget as the latest example, the republicans seem like a political party desperate to make sure that they always look crazier than the people in charge. >> yes.

so a lot of these things that we talk about on the show and what peter talked about in terms of china and drilling and things like that, the american people, they hear that and -- >> it bounces right off. >> it bounces right off, because ultimately come october, especially when they go into the voting booth in november, there are going to be three things they're going to think about. they're going to wonder about gas prices. am i still paying too much for unemployment rate.as last month is the unemployment rate still above 8%? and is it still going down where people can see that the economy is getting better. that gets to my third point, which is the person in that voting booth has to feel like the economy is coming back, that the country is coming back. and that's something all three of those things are things that

the president and the republican nominee cannot control. >> yeah. have you ever seen -- compare this to the political progression you've seen in england. is this a new phenomena where one political party tries to outcrazy the other like we're seeing in this year's presidential election? i'm not kidding. these people are trying to outcrazy each other. >> we're just crazy in britain any way. it's a lot tougher in the uk than it is here. what it is very interesting between the romney and obama campaign is the grassroots support. obama's campaign donations are all about those small donors. in february, 98% of his doe nars donated $250 or less. romney's campaign is about the big money donors. so obama is going to have more of the grassroots support. so it's going to be very

interesting when you got those people in the polling booth, are they going to be more invested in obama? maybe. >> there's sort of a green washing thing that obama has mapserred where he gets almost all of his money from a very small group of people. and then washes it with all these small donations so people can talk about how many donors he has, which is true, but he's still highly dependent on 189 of the people that provide all the political money. >> but the fact that he's got small donors at all, where romney is short of that. >> no question. turning our attention away from politics, shall we? >> yes, please. >> who really should be in charge of our compensation? in an effort to find a way to doll out raises, a california company is empowering the co-workers to decide how much

their peers should get in a raise. the belief is that those who work together in the trenches are better equipped to judge performance and value than the big boss in the front office. some interesting anecdotes from those who are doing this. large disparity in the raises, the largest bonus was 2500 shares, the smallest 800 shares, so a wide market. one of the biggest raises went to the highest paid employee. culturally, jonathan, your thoughts on sort of allowing the community to dictate compensation? >> oh, my. i want to know -- i really want to know what the rules are, because the internal politics, can you imagine what that could do to the internal culture of a company, particularly a small company, where everyone is

looking over their shoulder, wondering whether, you know, that their livelihood, whether they're going to get a raise, whether they're going to be able to take an extra day on vacation or pay that extra bump up in tuition is determined by the person you might not like three cubicles over who might have it in for you. >> the presumption is it's done very transparentally. >> i think it's very important. we're going to see more and more of that with the occupy movement. certainly in the uk is a business called john lewis, which is a bit like macy's. 18,000 employees, and they're all shareholders in the company. so they all share in the profits. the employees are very

enthusiastic. it's a different model from the traditional model and i think we're going to be seeing more and more of that moving forward. >> what do you think of sort of the culture of compensation, peter? >> i've lived it. this is the way academia works. for the last 30 years i've observed in several universities what happens is about 55% to 60% of the faculty figures out how to rig the rules so they get paid and the other 40% don't. we have extraordinary anomalies in pay at the university of maryland and many institutions across the country because of these kinds of processes. having lived it, i would prefer my boss determine the salary. >> listen, the panel sticks around. up next, a citizenry fuming, and as our specialist puts it, the white house is burning. if one and only does some debt myth busting when we come back. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation,

so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

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just like a family. if you've got to tighten your belts, you make some choices. >> you have to cut spending and tighten your belt. >> these are the tough decisions that are made every single day across dipper tables. >> while american families have to set priorities and balance their books, this white house isn't serious about making the same tough choices. >> the middle class family sits around the dinner table friday night to figure out how to pay those bills. >> ah, yes, tightening the american belt. it is a delightfully popular political cliche. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle like to talk about it. the problem is, our specialist says, it's a false analogy. and it is just one of the many myths about america's debt that

our specialist is busting today. he says when it comes to government spending, it is how we spend our money, not how much. co-author of the new book "white house burning, the founding fathers, our national debt and why it matters to you," you say that it's a false analogy that the kitchen table managing your weekly expenses analogy as compared to the issues of the american government and spending is false. why? >> i think the fundamental fallacy, which goes back a long way. thomas jefferson had the same sort sof problems. debt is okay at the federal level as long as you manage it properly. and then you control it relative to the size of the economy.

think of the country much like a company. >> at the end of the day, there's a perception that if we simply cut costs, we cut spending, that suddenly we will have magically have prosperity. how does -- if you have an economy where the banking system is designed to suck money out of your country, not invest it using the credit default, the trade agreements are rigged in favor of trading partners, when you look at the tax code, which is designed to distort the flow of capital to a very specific group of people that is bought and sold every day in washington, if you have a rigged tax code, how does it deliver prosperity? >> it's not. europe is in an episode of some self-inflicted, some imposed by the markets austerity. those economies are going to have a very hard time for the

next decade because of where they have gotten to. we are not greece or spain or the united kingdom. we can handle this in a much more gradual, reasonable and responsible manner, and we shouldn't do spending cuts as proposed by congressman paul ryan. >> peter, go ahead. >> i think that cutting the budget back a bit would be useful. spending money, you should do it responsibly and deficit spending has its place. however, that permits governments to be irresponsible. look how the stimulus money was mismanaged. the dozen or so energy projects destined for bankruptcy before they were purchased. we have to be careful to say debt is okay, it's just a matter of managing what you spend. >> do you disagree with that, simon? >> yes, i do disagree with that. i think the fundamental point about 200 years, more than 200 years -- we go back to alexander

hamilton, go back to the constitutional convention when he became secretary of the treasury. the premise was, issue debt when you need it. we've had six big debt surges in american history. none of those led to massive mismanagement of public spending. what's changed is the tax revolt. a huge shift in the political preferences of the republican party elite, prioritizing above all else cutting taxes. they used to care about being careful with the national debt. from the '70s they stopped caring about that. that is why the debt has got out of control. >> jonathan, go ahead. >> do you think the frenzy here in washington to reduce the debt is wrong? and the second question, given what you sate about congressman ryan's budget, how would you

grade president obama and his administration plans for reducing the debt? >> so i think the frenlzy or the panic i would call it is a problem. i think it's gone too far. it's exaggerated. i do think you should be adjusting the budget over a two decade horizon. we propose stabilizing debt at 50%. that's a very aggressive policy but doesn't involve any spanish type austerity. i think president obama has a better set of proposals on the table, but i don't think he's serious enough about explaining to people what they're getting from the government. 40% of all americans who use social security don't believe they participate in any government program. there was no health care available at a reasonable cost for 85-year-olds before medicare came along. do you want to go back to that? do you want to go back to

pre1930s? i don't think americans want to do that. when you put it in those terms, they start to understand it and understand you need to fund these programs properly to make them robust. but the president has not gone there properly. >> what would you say is the number one myth the american people believe about debt and spending, is it social security? i don't know, any sort of spending. >> the biggest myth is exactly they don't understand what the government does and the ones who directly benefit from social security, medicare and medicaid don't think they benefit from any government program. it's astonishing. very different from many other country where is you know what the government does. in the u.s., many people don't understand the extent to which they participate in. it's insurance. you may a premium, you get a benefit. if you live to be 85 or 95, you

get more out of medicare than you put it. that's insurance. everyone is going to get that. >> there is a precipitous decline in revenue. you see tax collections, real estate value. unemployment spiked, so the amount of money coming in collapsed. the spending, while it has been rising, has not been the explosive maneuver. it seems insane to me if the reason why you have a lot of debt is because you lost your job, so if your job is collecting tax money from real estate, from people having jobs, that's like america's job is to collect that. you've lost your job, meaning that real estate values have declined and people no longer have jobs. so what manageable debt you may have had appears unmanageable because you're now unemployed. and instead of saying we need to

get another job, we need a culture of investment, we need to seize a renaissance of activity and move forward into the future, which will create a surge of economic potential, we're saying we're not going to get another job, we just got to stop paying for things and what we're paying for is food. is that a bad analogy for this? >> it's a very good analogy, dylan. what really happened to the budget is the bottom fell out of tax revenues because of what the banks did and what the banks were able to get away with. i say this to every fiscal conservative, what did you do on bank reform? what did you do on ending too big to fail? that is a 50% of gdp swing in the debt, let's call it a $7 trillion increase in the debt because of what the banks did and what they can do going forward. >> so the current debt load is

what? >> the debt held by the public, $10.8 trillion. >> so we'll call it $11 trillion. you're saying that the swing in the size of that debt, 7 of $11 trillion came through the collapse of our tax revenue -- >> we're not done yet. if you look over the cycle from where they thought we were going to be and now where they think -- they real eased after the crisis we're going to be, that swing between 2009 and 2018, that's a $7 trillion increase. 50% of gdp. it's staggering. that's the whole ball game. >> so we're sitting here saying we should take away food from poor people and tax rich people. you guys just blew out a $7 trillion hole in the side of the system and now you're making us scramble around. it's nuts. congratulations on the book. checku, of books, holding a

talk tonight. straight ahead here, just 24 hours ago, tornadoes tearing through texas. now the gulf coast bracing for severe storms of its own. we'll check in on this developing story in a moment. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing.

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this is just what our economy needs right now. dwopg now, another afternoon of wild weather moving through the south, this time yesterday, of course, we were in extended coverage of a dozen different tornadoes touching down in the dallas-ft. worth area, seeing images of 30,000 pound tractor trailers being hurled through the air. but more incredible than those images is that no lives were lost yesterday. the mayor of arlington speaking earlier this afternoon. >> today's a different day. i saw yesterday and last night so many miracles from that tornado. homes destroyed, nobody hurt.

>> now we turn our attention to a new line of storms targeting a wide swath from north carolina down to the mexican border. part of a stubborn system that will take until the weekend to burn the energy out. carl parker is back with us today. what are we looking at this afternoon, carl? >> stubborn really says it. it's a slow-moving cutoff low that will drift towards the east. let's look at where that feature is right now. we have this big upper low in the middle of the country and some energy will spin out from that and move into the gulf coast over the next several hours here. so we'll see an increase in coverage. there is a severe thunderstorm watch along the gulf coast. there's been large hail south of houston, still a bunch of severe thunderstorm warnings indicated. and along this front, more coverage. there's another severe thunderstorm watch area in virginia and north carolina. some warnings here dropping down

into north carolina and a flash flood threat in parts of kentucky. these storms are moving very slowly in the mountainous terrain. and here you have got our severe area storms developing tonight in parts of louisiana and mississippi and moving over into alabama. but much less of a tornado threat today. it's primarily going to be a damaging wind and hail threat. >> thank you, carl. coming up, a creature more fearsome than jaws discovered in u.s. waters. jeremy wade, host of animal planet's "river monsters" will show us some american killers. did i mention "river mon sters" is in fact my favorite television show? we're back after this. ins... unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart ways to sweeten. same great taste. splenda® essentials™.

hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. [ speaking in japanese ] yeah, do you have anything for a headache... like excedrin, ohhh, bayer aspirin... ohh, no no no.

i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. no, bayer advanced aspirin, this is made for pain. [ male announcer ] bayer advanced aspirin has microparticles, enters the bloodstream fast, and safely rushes extra strength relief to the sight of your tough pain. feel better? yeah...thanks for the tip! [ male announcer ] for fast powerful pain relief, use bayer advanced aspirin. well, we are back now with one of my favorite shows that is currently on television in america. animal planet's highly rated "river monsters." i implore you, even if you don't like fishing, to spend a little time with this man here, jeremy wade, traveling the world. the british biologist, they call him an extreme angler these days, although jeremy seems to be good, deadly, man eating creatures found in fresh water

around the world is his specialty. again, take a look at what he recently found in american waters. >> it's a goliath grouper. that is just a massive, massive grouper. after a 20-minute struggle, it should be worn out. but there's still a lot of fight left in this beast. >> with us now with a rare midtown manhattan appearance for jeremy wade, the world's most fearless fishermen, host of "river monsters." >> pleasure to be here. >> where to begin. i guess with that fish that we just looked at. where was that? >> that was in florida, in indian river lagoon.

we made one episode of the upcoming series entirely of the u.s. people assume the big scary fish are in the amazon, the congo. the thing about fresh water, because the waters are muddy and cloudy, you often don't know what is in there. >> is that in fact the case in america? >> there are some impressive fish, yes. we went from there, i then went to look at a story about an alligator gar in texas that somebody spotted in a canal. and i tried this catfish noodling where you just go in there, you shove your hand under the water and you're waiting for something to bite it. >> you did that? i had a friend of mine suggest we should go noodling. i saw a youtube video and it struck me as insane. >> i don't want to do that in a hurry again. i'm glad i've done it. at the time, i just wanted to get it over with, but it was very intense. >> we put out on twitter the

fact that you were going to be here. a ton of people want to know this fish that scared you the most. >> that's quite difficult. it's very hard to select one in the top position, but i think possibly if i had -- i think the electric eel is high up there. a lot of fish you can see they have teeth. but the electric eel, it doesn't look impressive, doesn't have before big teeth, but this can produce 500 volts. you can be in knee deep water and that thing can paralyze you and so that is a fish that has invisible powers. i find that creepy. >> did you say for you that is where you felt the most fear? we all watch you and you wonder

at a certain point where jeremy is starting to wonder what he's gotten himself into. and i would imagine an electric eel would be one of those situations. >> i do feel fear, but fear is about self-preservation. fear makes you pay attention. when i went to encounter that electric eel, i had big rubber boots, so i was prepared. >> scars, lots of questions about have you suffered any personal injuries? >> i have. i was head butted in the chest in the amazon about ten years ago. the interesting thing is, i think my worst injuries from come from smaller fish. with a big fish, i'm completely focused. but a couple times small catfish have wriggled in my hands and i

haven't been paying total concentration and i've been spiked in the hand. nothing life threatening, but that is painful. >> two of the things that you seem -- among the things you ore best known for, is one, the piranha episode, you're swimming with them like a mad men. >> wherever i go, i talk to the local people. in the amazon, if the local people are in the water, i take it as safe as i can. but if for whatever reason you see that the locals aren't getting in the water, then i am not going to risk doing it myself. so yeah, that particular occasion we filled a small swimming pool with about 100 of them and i just sat in there. again, i was quite -- >> take two, take three, no, no. we got that shot, okay.

sharks. that obviously is sort of the psychological boogeyman of the water. you've done some interesting work with bull sharks showing them 1,000 miles, 1,500 miles up a river. >> they have swam quite a long ways up the mississippi in the past. most sea fish cannot enter fresh water. it's almost as if there's a physical barrier. but bull sharks have this clever physiology that allows them to swim upriver. a lot of people don't know this, people don't see the fish there, and they don't see the fin cutting through the surface as they would. >> are there bull sharks in american rivers? >> they do swim up the lower reaches of the trinity in texas. at a certain time of year, you get small bull sharks in the river there, and there are local anglering who know when and where to catch them. >> are you surprised by the response to the show? >> up to a point i am.

we always set out to make it not your normal fishing show. we've made it a bit of a mystery story. so we start with a fisherman's tale, somebody had their leg bitten, but then we sort of unpack that and find out the creature that was responsible. the thing that has possibly surprised me is the number of children who watch it. it is quite scary, but children like watching through the gaps in their fingers. >> fishing advice for the amateurs of the world? >> i think a lot of people forget that fish are wild animals and they are very sensitive to what's going on around them. so remember be quiet and tread quietly. >> listen, an honor. it's exciting for me to see you and i'm just thrilled to have you here and thrilled at the success of your show. i think it's wonderful work. jeremy wade. the show is "river monsters." if you haven't seen it, check it

out. if you've missed it, catch new episodes sunday night at 10:00 and there is a book "river monsters," true stories of the ones that didn't get away. check it all out. coming up on "hardball," defining romney. but first, why the gop and the president make for poor dinner companions and worse budget negotiators. for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service.

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♪ strea-ea-ea-ea-eam ♪ ...stream, stream, stream... ♪ whenever i want you, all i have to do is... ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing xfinity streampix. stream your favorite movies and full seasons of shows instantly on any screen. find out more online. and now i just want to talk today about the big debate over the federal budget, which took off yesterday as you know.

president obama threw down and called the gop's new budget proposal a cruel joke. take a listen. >> as deficit reduction plans, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it is thinly veiled social darwinism. >> speaker boehner fired right back, releasing a statement complaining that instead of reaching across the aisle to enact the changes needed to restore america's prosperity, the president has resorted to distortions and partisan potshots, recommitting himself to policies that have made our country's debt crisis worse. this may all sound like another reactionary washington squabble, but it's not. this fight reveals a fundamental difference between today's parties. think about it like this -- if you meet up with a friend for dinner and you eat want different cuisine, you can compromise. pizza this time, chinese the next time.

but if you meet up and your friend announces he's already ate, there's nothing to discuss. look inside the gop budget, you can see this is not a debate over where to eat. the republicans are not budgets to pay for america's commitments, they're using this process to cancel our commitments. congressman ryan's budget cuts medicare and related health care programs by a whopping $770 billion. that is 1/3 of the total health care spending. it cuts another $1.5 trillion by eliminating the president's health care law. outside of health care and social security, ryan's budget cuts all other domestic spending in half by 2050 according to data from the nonpartisan congressional budget office. then there's a bunch of tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. all told over the next decade, this gop budget would cut the debt about 15% more than the president's plan. and most of those debt savings

come from cutting programs for poorer americans as "the washington post" recently reported. so in the end, i think if you're willing to cut everything, it is easy to balance the budget. the hard part comes if you want to honor our commitments and address the deficit. that's the fundamental divide today and i think a large part of it is due to congressman ryan's budget proposal. the democrats should introduce something of their own in congress, but that's how i see it. dylan? >> it's frustrating. we don't have the time right now, but we were talking about simon johnson earlier. american revenue collapsed because of the collapse in employment and real estate prices. cutting money for poor people to make up for a corrupt financial system that has imploded the real estate and employment markets is insane. you must repair the financial system and resurrect employment and housing or create