with it. romney's scoop, which -- what ann romney says was her favorite birthday present, the surprising candid romneys didn't know reporters could hear them. plus the secret service sex scandal, the latest black eye on an agency that has had its chair recently. how damaging are these latest allegations? and a bloody 18-hour series of coordinated attacks by the taliban. the spring fighting season has begun. good morning from washington. last night, mitt romney had his own hot mike moment, if you will. now that romney is the

presumptive nominee, he's focused on raising money for his campaign. romney laid out plans to consolidate federal agencies in specific terms that he has not yet offered in public on the campaign trail. garrett hague is our inbed with the prom any campaign. >> reporter: a lot of people were here -- already written six and seven figure checks, to restore our future. the romney campaign is not really excited to have press here, they don't advise these events, press aren't allowed inside. but you get a sent of the kind of folks who are coming to these events, just by checking out the cars in the parking lot. if you bring your nice car to an event like this, you don't have to park it yourself. complementary valet parking is

included with admission. >> on the trail romney has said he'll shrink the size of government but he has not offered specifics on which agencies would go. here's what romney said, things like housing and urban development, which my dad was the head of, that might not be around later. and romney also said he would dramatically restructure the department of education, he added that he learned in his 1994 senate campaign that proposing to eliminate the agency was just too politically damaging. in fact at many moments last night, campaign tactics were a running theme. which may not be surprising given that the audience are major donors and political junkies as well. ann said this, it was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother and that was really a denining moment and i loved it. also for the first time, romney

whose own tax rate has become the focus of the president's campaign against him also has listed what he would get rid of. i'm going to problem eliminate for high income people the second home mortgage deduction, probably eliminate deductions for stating income tax, state property tax, by virtue of doing that, he argued we'll get the same tax revenues, but we'll have lower rates. romney would not dispute the quotes, but would not comment any further. by the way, romney also discussed immigration, something i'll get into later in the show, it was a remarkably candid admission by the candidates. the senate would vote on the so-called buffett rule that people who make more than a million dollars should pay more

taxes. in columbia, the president was pressing for millionaires to pay more. >> that is not an argument about redistribution, that is an argument about growth. because the history of the united states is, we grow best when our growth is broad based. we grow best when our middle class is strong. >> now republicans argue the legislation argued that the republicans -- $43 billion over the next decade is just a distraction. >> this is an obama strategy, look at this shiny object over here, don't look at the big picture, of an economy on the brink that i didn't do a thing about and actually made things worse. >> the obama campaign continues to press for romney to release his tax returns.

>> we know that governor romney gave to the mccain campaign when he was considered as a vice president candidate for 23 years, so they're just sitting someplace in a vault or something, he tugt release it. >> john mccain himself defended romney. >> i don't think it's necessary. >> he gave them to you, didn't he? >> john kerry only admitted two years, i did. two years is sufficient. >> i am following five senate votes in particular, all of them are senators that are up for re-election, that i'm following, curious how they might vote. the two republican votes keep an eye on, helder of nevada, and scott brown of massachusetts. the president's going to try and get the spotlight back on his agenda this week and off, what is this prostitute scandal involving 11 members of the --

the secret service personnel who were sent to columbia ahead of the president's arrival are accused of hiring prostitutes. now when one of the women was still there at 7:00 the next morning, hotel management was called. they found her in a room, fighting with an agent after he failed to pay her. the police were called and there were reports that went to the u.s. embassy and of course to the secret service. while prostitution is legal in that part of columbia, it's official misconduct and frowned upon by the boss. >> i expect that investigation to be thorough and i expect it to be rigorous. if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course i'll be angry. >> the white house was made aware of the scandal on thursday

evening, the president was told about it on friday morning, and as you can imagine, it was cat nip for the american press. but the columbian papers picked it up, spending as much time on it -- media coverage shameful. white house secretary jay carney was asked whether it has been a distraction for the president? >> it has not, i think it's been much more of a distraction for the press. he's here engaging in the business that he came here to do with the assembled leaders of the americas. >> this is strike two for the secret service which you're still dealing with fallout from those notorious white house crashers, the salahis who slipped in to the president's receiving line. strike two, strike three potentially for him. here's what the chair of the homeland security committee who has jurisdiction here, peter

king had to say. >> my committee, we're going to look into all the details of what happened here, to see whether there should be changes in procedures. >> we'll have more on the secret service scandal later this hour. all right, congress is back in session today and on their immediate to do list is the budget and taxes. at least six committees will begin drafting bills to meet a man dated $261 billion in savings over the next decade. congressman jim clyburn is the assistant democratic leader who has been involved in a lot of these negotiations as a member of the aptly named sue committee. -- >> i want to talk about what's going on on the hill today, the markups of these tax bills that are coming from obviously the house republicans. but we heard a little bit from mitt romney, at least we overheard a little bit from mitt romney about the types of

deductions th deductions that he's willing to eliminate, as you just heard from our reporting, deductions on a second home mortgage, deductions for the wealthy when it comes to property taxes and state taxes, is that how you start dealing with the tax code, what do you make of it? >> we had those kinds of discussions in the super committee as well as u on the biden group which i was a member of. and i think that they're taking a look at the level of deductions that are allowed on second homes is something that's thought to be done. markets and deductions, you've got a lot to do with the encouraging homeowner ship and of course to create the housing market that is going to help beef up the economy. that is very, very important that we keep that on first-time -- first homeowner

ship, but when it comes to vacation homes and that sort of thing, we ought to take a look at maybe limiting the amount of deductions that go for those kinds of things. but you eliminate it, i'm not too sure that i would discourage what i would call home building, but it could very well have some limit on it. >> let me ask you this, there's been some polling on this idea, is the tax code fair? do people think they pay a fair amount of taxes? ra and the majority think they do. do you think the tax code is fair? >> i always apply three alpha bhets, tfh, transparency, i think the tax code needs to be transparent, it needs to be fair and i think people need to be

honest in dealing with it. that's the problem we have here. when people try to make the tax code be something that drives job creation, i don't think that's what the problem is, i think that when people go to pay their taxes, as most of them will be doing by midnight tomorrow night, they want to make sure that what i'm paying is a fair assessment and it's not going to be my carrying this burden by wealthier people continuing to get these tax cuts while big industries that don't need them get these big tax subsidies and people who are going to work every day making 35,000, 40,000, 50,000 a year, pay at a rate of 26%, 27% 28%, while the wealthier people pay the 14% or 16% rate. that is not fair and we need to be more transparent about it.

i think there's something to be said about people who pop their money off short and we don't know exactly what's in those accounts. when we look at despots in foreign countries, putting their money in swiss bank accounts, we always have frowned upon that and i don't see us saying that people of wealth, especially people wanting to be president of the united states and parking money in a swiss bank account, that is -- >> you're comparing mitt romney to a despot? >> what i'm saying, what we do, we -- i'm not comparing -- i'm talking about the habit of putting money, hiding money in bank accounts. i think there's something wrong with that. >> let me ask you a quick -- speaking of campaign donations, had to do with campaign money. "new york times" over the weekend talked about how the white house was giving more

access to donors, even quoted patrick kennedy, a former colleague of yours, he said this, he says this, if you want to call it a quid pro quo nine, he said i know what the record is, they're my friends anyway but it won't hurd when i ask them for a favor if i see them as a slouch. given how candidate obama campaigned basically against his culture of pay to play, or pay for access, are you disappointed to see that that's what a former democratic colleague in the house, patrick kennedy is the only way he can get access to the white house? >> i don't think that's the only way you get access to the white house. but i don't believe that just because i make a substantial donation to the presidential cam pain, i ought to be denied access. there has to be some balance here, when i have constituents coming up to washington over the weekend, especially for the easter holidays, people wanted

to come up to the easter egg roll, wanted to bring their grandchildren. should i be denied that privilege just because i contributed to the campaign? i think that that's what we have here and that's what patrick is talking about. it's not that you're pay to be play, but i certainly am not going to approve this request because you made a contribution to the president and people might think it's quid pro quo. >> james clyburn, welcome back from the easter recess sir. >> thank you for having me. the battle over the buffett rule, that's what's happening in the senate today. democrats say they're focussing on fairness. republicans believe it's a gimmick. is it really all about mitt romney -- plus we're taking a deep dive inside the world's most exclusive club, they even have a

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later today, senate democratings will hold a procedural -- millionaires who end up making a million dollars annually. president obama talks about it a lot on the campaign trail. but it's not expected to get past the republican controlled house and it may not get past the very -- somewhat evenly

divided democratic senate. senator, welcome, welcome back from easter recess. >> thank you very much. >> let me ask you a basic question that i just asked congressman clyburn, do you believe the tax code is fair? >> i think the tax code is a train wreck, it's hard for people to understand. we know that half of households in america pay zero income tax and we know that according to the president's own bipartisan fiscal commission, that it incentivizes people to create jobs abroad rather than here in america. >> let me stop you there a minute because on this buffett rule, there is one way of looking at it which is because of the complications of the tax code, and because the rich, and you're talking about something about small businesses, trying to help them get through the tax code and in your reasoning, you

talk about the fact that the code is complicated and wealthier businesses can cut through that tape, well, it's the same thing with wealthier americans, they can cut through the tax code in a way and take advantage of things simply because they have the wealth and resources to do it. so shouldn't there be a simpler way to tax the wealthy? >> that's the reason why this is so misguided because you're right, the wealthy have an army of lawyers and accountants that can help them work around this so-called buffett tax, but it's individuals who are going to get hammered. and at a time when we're depending on the private sector to create investments to create jobs, this is going to discourage that. and that's why this is so disappointing. and as i was saying earlier, the president has ignored the commission that came out with a

template that would actually do real tax reform and helping the economy get going again. >> one of the precedents of simpson bowles, so you're okay with getting more tax receipts, more tax money out of wealthier americans? >> i think it's not unfair for mr. buffett and other wealthier americans to pay a little bit more than than a widow who depends on medicare for her health care and depends on social security for her safety net. and so i think there could be a bipartisan consensus there as we saw on simpson bowles to begin the important work of tax reform. >> why did you not endorse simpson bowles, there's a lot of people who talk about the

framework. >> some of our most conservative members at the time, judd gregg and tom coburn voted for it. don't pay attention to the fact that uncle sam needs to be on a diet, we're going to continue eating jelly the donuts as we take our -- close that gap between federal spending and federal revenue due to a robust private sector and better job creation. this is a stunt t president's as much as admitted it, it's intended to divide america along class lines and it's exactly the wrong way to try to approach a very serious topic that should be approached on a by partisan basis. >> you're a guy that has to raise money out tlrks there is a

report that the romney victory fun which is now going to be the presumptive nominee, mitt romney and the republican national committee jointly start raising money together. they are going to give $50,000 donors private access to the inaugural event, if mitt romney is elected president, to the inaugural event at his california vacation home, is. >> i read in the "washington post" that the president's largest donors are getting access to the white house. we understand to some so m extent that that happens on both political parties, but we -- the president's got a big head start on governor romney, the presumptive nominee of the republican party, he's got a lot of catching up to do. but i think there's going to be adequate funds on both sides. >> but on the basic premise, do you think it's appropriate to promise basically insider

access? >> i think it's not inappropriate to say that you're going to meet with your donors at a location like that, any more or any less than the president to invite his donors to m co-to the white house. >> thanks for coming on this morning and welcome back. all right the taliban kicks off a spring offensive. new questions today about the readiness of the afghan army there. plus, the agency charged with protecting the president now under some scrutiny itself. the question, when was the most recent time that there was only one living u.s. president. the first corre-- coming up on daily rundown. we'll be right back. does any mother ever feel like their kids are adults?

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try swiffer sweeper vac. one of the suspected militants under arrest are members of the k oh, mi -- now midwestern officials are praising the response by afghan security forces but this latest wave of violence, unlike the challenges facing afghanistan, is that the u.s. wants to withdraw all u.s. combat troops by 2014. as you know, nato meets in chicago in may where we are expected to hear about a timeline that gets moved up on that front. the house homeland security committee which oversees the secret service is among the entities that's going to start

investigating the prosecution scandal that's -- the question of whether it's an isolated incident is putting new pressure on director mark sullivan who is head of the agency since 2006, as well as his boss, homeland security secretary janet napolitano. explain first of all, secret service hasn't always reported to homeland security, this was a change only in the last ten years? >> when the department was created--darrell issa who is head of this committee, or the investigating committee was saying that he wasn't really questioning the leadership here, you haven't heard a lot of that initially as you did with the salahi thing. the difference between the salei hi thing is this. curiously there, there were some secret service errors and there were some white house errors who actually let people who were not

supposed to be near the president -- >> not only did they get in -- >> they were not on the cleared list and yet they got access to the president and the vice president. the president wasn't even in town, but it's hugely embarrassing. >> let's talk about who these folks are, because this is not the president's detail. that's important let people know. >> those are in what's called the protective division, that's kind of the top of the elite. the people you see in the white shirts and dark trousers who protect the white house. and also some agents and i think perhaps the most troubling of all for the agency is there were some supervisors who apparently were aware of this and didn't immediately put a stop to it. >> and do the folks tend to be the newer members of the secret

service? twl was there any pattern of who these folks are? >> there are some veterans, i haven't gotten basically the call. >> these are the advance people, the people that come ahead of the president, and try to set up the movements, do the reconnaissance, where would we go if this or that happened. it's a serious job, but it's not the actual body men. >> and mark sullivan, how is he viewed in the leadership ashead of the secret service. >> these questions come up so far, at least from what i have heard from talking to administration officials, there doesn't seem to be a bull's-eye on him by any means. >> the report's on napolitano congress will look into it, but the one that really counts is the one that the secret service doing now. >> next our deep dive into the

ultraexclusive fraternity of the the ex-president. we'll tell you how the club was born, what the leaders of the top club talk about when they get together. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that should do it. enjoy your new shower. [ door opens, closes ]

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now, that's progressive. "today" we're doing a deep dive into the exclusive club in the world made up solely of ex-presidents. the last time they were all in one room together was january 7 when president bush welcomed -- bush 3 had this to say. >> whether we're democrat or republican, we care deeply about this country and to the extent we can, we look forward to sharing our experiences with you. all of us who have shared in

this office understand that the office itself transcends the individual. >> that's been the running theme ever since the president's club was founded back in january 1953 just before dwight eisenhower was sworn in. they suggested they organize a former president's club. fine truman said, you can be the president, i'll be the secretary. since then all presidents have entered that club in one form or another, and no matter what political party they're n they are united in the unique experience that comes with being to the leader of the free world. dwight eisenhower was only in the 60 campaign, but ike was no fan of jfk. nevertheless when kennedy won, eisenhower was so concerned that the young president was in over his head, they melt on mul

multiple-i have needed you for a long time, but i needed you more than ever now. eisenhower replied any time you need me, mr. president, aisle be there. lbj showed nixon where he