i think that governor cuomo is doing an amazing job. and he's in the home stretch, our fiscal year ends april 1. and i think it's possible that he is going to workout with the legislature and the various stakeholders and from business and the community. i think he will work out where we have a positive change and everyone is participating. even though new york is one of the dozen states with a work situation, we have a 10 billion deficit and have the highest education costs and highest taxes in the country. he's got a huge challenge that he inherited. but he's said from the beginning, i am going to work with everyone and bring people to the table. and in the health care areina r arena and have to figure out how to bring it down. and met with many people and they came with a plan to cut the budget by 2.5 billion dollars in the health care area. that everyone agreed to. well, not everyone but the task force was strong and recommended to the governor and said that's my program, i will go with you. it's totally different from leaders or gov

. >> if you went to see the governor andrew cuomo in albany and he said what can i do for you? what do you want changed? what would you tell him? >> i would say keep up the good work. the governor campaigned on a program of reform, budget reform and bringing economic investment and making new york state a stronger economy. he has been amazing in going forward, taking on rough challenges that in other states like in wisconsin have blown up into camps. the governor has been working collaborative lay with all sectors of the community trying to bring everybody in. we are seeing real coordination of communication and people trying to work together rather than standing at the i think that governor cuomo is doing an amazing job. and he's in the home stretch, our fiscal year ends april 1. and i think it's possible that he is going to workout with the legislature and the various stakeholders and from business and the community. i think he will work out where we have a positive change and everyone is participating. even though new york is one of the dozen states with a work situation, we

one of the fascinating things in terms of trying to change this and break this bottleneck is andrew cuomo, elected governor of new york, said something sensible. we have to cut budgets and we have prisons upstate new york, where, you know, they're being underutilized. we have to close some of hose down. he's having so much trouble trying to close these prisons. all of a sudden people are saying, this is hurting jobs and upstate new york. there is literally a prison industrial complex that, you know, has an economic interest. >> that's an important point. that's an important point we need to think about. michael, i know you've done a lot of work in the criminal justice system on the activist side and as an attorney. what does there mean for there to be a financial stake in prison as barry pointed out there are jobs attached. we go to some cities where towns would shut down if the prisons shut down. how do we make sense of that too? >> there's money to be made in the prison industrial complex, no doubt about that. but you would think if its was only about the money, then the white boys woul

actually, i'm a tea party member more than a republican because i'm surprised by cuomo who is doing good things for the state. i'm mad at the entire congress. you know, our debt payments are four times larger than the entire state department budget. we are destroying this country with the massive level of debt that we're piling up, and neither party is willing to do anything. one party is offering a third of a percent, and one party is offering 1.6% while racking up debt in exponential levels. >> guest: i've known andrew cuomo since he was a kid in queens, and i'm proud of him. i think he's doing a good job. secondly, i happen to agree that we have to tackle the debt, and it depends how. i am opposed to the $40 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. there are many special cause-outs for large corporation and businesses that we have to attack. there has been a major assault on appropriation earmarks, and i think, and i've always felt you have to be very careful when you provide a legislative directed earmark, but no one is looking at those special give aways, and i think we have to do

attempt to bust unions, this is a factor that jerry brown is dealing with in california and andrew cuomo, and either one of them are right wing republicans and i doubt they watch fox news. they should. i doubt they do. i want to mention one other thing. we spent what we don't have, you can't borrow what you pay back. you understand that in your family. if you are in real serious financial trouble in your family, the first thing you do is say we're going to have to stop spending. i'm never met a father, mother, husband, wife that said i lost my job. i don't know what we're going to do. we're broke. we have no savings. you know what we need to do? let's go to disneyworld. we don't spend money. we figure out what to sell. when i ran for office and i knew i didn't have enough money to live on, i cashed in the insurance policy, annuities, we sold off things. my point is that you don't just go out and recklessly spend if you don't have it. the last thing you do if you can't pay it back, i'd like to borrow several million. how do you plan to pay it back? i don't know. i actually don't plan to.

and chris cuomo is here with that. chris? >> reporter: we're getting updates right now, diane, as we're broadcasting. the situation still far from under control. we're hearing radiation levels inside the plant reached as high as 1,000 times the normal level. so, what started as a natural disaster has the potential to become an even more threatening man-made disaster. the fukushima knew clenuclear p plant is one of the largest and oldest in the world. and now, it is in great jeopardy. >> the immediate crisis period is right now, extending over the next five to six hours. but it takes at least two days to cool a reactor down completely. >> reporter: nuclear plants use the energy from uranium to make electricity. uranium normally operates at 3,400 degrees. to keep it from getting any hotter, pumps circulate water to cool the uranium core. the problem is, the earthquake and the tsunami combined at a one-two punch, experts believe, knocking out the primary and backup water pumps. if there's no water, there's no cooling. pressure b

right now folks like a second walker are actually deciding to stand up and let me tell you something cuomo in new york going to be next ok guy i'm going to ask you here no no no no all right go go real quick and then i want to know the real quickly hatcher. absolutely you're half right for both parties have been spending the problem is democrats have wanted to pay for it by taxes and what's happened every single time a democrat has said listen we've got to pay for what we're spending republicans are like oh i look at it it's democrats they want to tax and spend they want to tax and spend no that i want to tax and spend they want to balance the budget and you guys have been stopping us in every state and the federal government for the last thirty or forty years so it's not true that both parties are equally culpable one party has tried to pay for it all right now i want to go to you for sure now ok it seems to me i don't believe in the united states i don't have to support a governor or be against the governor or senator or anything ok i'm an outside observer now but you know it seems to me

this as republicans attempt to bump unions, this is a fact to jerry brown is stealing the in andrew cuomo in new york and neither are raping republicans any doubt they watch fox news every night. they showed, but i doubt they do. i want to mention one other thing and that is that we can't spend we don't have any camp are what you pay back. you understand that in your family. if you are in real serious financial trouble in your family come east of spending. i've never met a mother and father, husband and wife who sat wife who sat down and said you know what, i lost my job, i don't know what we're going to do. we are broke. we have no savings. you know what we need to do? let's go to disney world. we don't go spend money. we figure out how to cut back expenditures and start a dream out what we can tell. my gosh, when i ran for office i knew i didn't have enough money to live on. i cashed in my insurance policy, cash and some annuities beardslee sold off things. my point is we don't want to recklessly spend if you don't have it. the last thing if you can't pay it back sand lake to borrow sev

chris cuomo has more on that. >> the power plant is one of the largest and oldest nuclear power plants in the world. now, it is in great jeopardy. >> the immediate crisis period is right now extending over the next five to six hours, but it takes at least two days to cool a reactor down completely. >> nuclear plants use the energy from uranium to make electricity. uranium operates at 3400 degrees. to keep it from getting hotter, water cools the uranium core. the problem is the earthquake and tsunami combined as a one-two punch. they believe knocking out the primary and back-up water pumps. if there is no water, there is no cooling. pressure build which could trigger a release of steam in the environment. if the water level drops enough the uranium core is exposed and temperatures can rise up to 5,000 degrees causing a meltdown. >> they are not designed the worst case accident. they are only built the most likely. if you do that, eventually you're going to hit a worse case and that is what happened today. >> the only nuclear accident in u.s. history happened in 1979 at three-mile island

new york's governor andrew cuomo wants a safety review conducted on indian point which sits on one of the most populated areas in new york. judging from lawmakers in washington he will not be alone. congressional hearings held wednesday over growing concerns about the safety of nuclear power in the united states. >> china, venezuela and countries shutting down older plants and scrapping plants for newer ones. we need a seismic approach in our shift to nuclear reactor safety. >> reporter: of particular interest is what is used in daiichi plant. called the mark one designed by gm in the 1960s. there are 23 mark one reactors currently operating in 16 sites across the country. dale bridenbaugh quit his job in 1976 as a ge safety manager over ge's concern over the mark dependability. >> anything that would wipe out the backup power system to those plants could result in the same thing that is happening at fukushima. >> reporter: yn electric says modification have made the mark one safe but not just the mark one that is raising concerns across the country. the indian point nuclear plant her

attempt to bust unions, this is a factor that jerry brown is dealing with in california and andrew cuomo is dealing in with in new york, and neither one of them are right-wing republicans, and i doubt they watch fox news every night. they should, but i doubt they do. [laughter] i want to mention one other thing, and that is that we can't spend what we don't have, and you can't borrow what you can't pay back. you understand that in your family. if you're in real serious financial trouble in your family, the first thing you do is say, okay, we're going to have to stop spending. i've never met a mother and a father, a husband and a wife who have said, okay, i lost my job. i don't know what we're going to do. we're broke. we have no savings, so, you know what we need to do? let's go to disney world. we don't go spend money. we figure out how to cut back our expenditures. we start figuring out what we can sell. i mean, my gosh, when i ran for office -- and i knew i didn't have enough money to live on -- i cashed my insurance policy, i cashed in some annuities, we sold off things. my point is

cuomo has the idea, just shut it down and let them walk.like to address this earthquake issue because that's something that's come up a number of times. i think it's important to recognize what got the plants in japan was not the earthquake. despite them not being engineered for a 9.0 earthquake, despite them being 40 years old, it wasn't the earthquake. it was the tsunami that put them in the position where they are now. that wasn't an excuse. they should have been prepared to withstand a tsunami as well but it's important to recognize that these power plants in the united states and around the world are built to withstand earthquakes. as i said earlier, that's something that the nuclear regulatory commission and investors -- investors don't want to put billions of dollars on the line into something that will be taken away via earthquake. this is something that will be taken under very serious determination to try to site a plant. host: thanks for joining us this morning. jack spencer nuclear energy senior fellow at the heritage foundation

he was inadvice-- invincible, all of the smart guys like al gore and mario cuomo decided not to run. the prize went to the man who took the risk, ran and bill clinton became president. so i think there are a number of republicans that are saying this is a good time to run, let's don't wait for more years. >> lehrer: what is your reading on obama now? i know it's early to put it mildly. >> the problem is that because our elections ar are-- divisible by four, the decision to run can be made no later than the winter of the year before. and byron is absolutely right about george herbert walker bush. ronald reagan in 1983 at this point was at 35% approval. so everybody and his brother got in. i mean gone glenn and rubin and gary hart and fritz mondale, jesse jackson, they all ran because they knew he was going to be vulnerable. by november 1984, he was at 60% approval and he carried 49 states. i mean you make the decision now, and i think the decision they are looking at, mike huckabee had an interesting thing to say. talked to him a couple of weeks ago. and he said look, he said barack o

cuomo has the idea, just shut it down and let them walk. guest: i'd like to address this earthquake issue because that's something that's come up a number of times. i think it's important to recognize what got the plants in japan was not the earthquake. despite them not being engineered for a 9.0 earthquake, despite them being 40 years old, it wasn't the earthquake. it was the tsunami that put them in the position where they are now. that wasn't an excuse. they should have been prepared to withstand a tsunami as well but it's important to recognize that these power plants in the united states and around the world are built to withstand earthquakes. as i said earlier, that's something that the nuclear regulatory commission and investors -- investors don't want to put billions of dollars on the line into something that will be taken away via earthquake. this is something that will be taken under very serious determination to try to >> in a few moments, for marking the eighth anniversary of the creation of the homeland security department. lat

governor cuomo is talking about substantial reductions in spending in new york, governor christie in new jersey, governor brown in california. i just saw my friend, john mcmillan, the head of agriculture and industries in the state of alabama has 200 employees, said that they are going to have to reduce 60. that's almost a third of the employees of his department. do you think the department of agriculture and the industries of alabama will cease to exist? i don't think so. i bet mr. mcmillan will figure out some way to perform most of the duties in his office, but he doesn't have the money. and when you don't have the money, you have to make tough decisions. and the american people understand this. when they don't have money, they don't spend, and if they spend when they don't have money, they know they are taking a risk, and they know it can't continue long. but this congress does not get it. we're in a denial mode. we think we can just continue to spend forever, and we have got the majority leader in the senate whining about losing money for a cowboy poetry festival in nevada. giv

governor cuomo in new york and christie in new jersey and brown in california and others all over the country are making real significant alterations in their level of spending while we worry about protecting the cowboy poetry festival in nevada. and remember this: people have forgotten this. since bob took -- since president obama took office, discretionary spending on our federal programs in congress have increased 24%. we didn't have the money for that. we never should have increased spending that much. it was a big error. but you know what they said? don't worry, we're making investments in the future. but you've got to have money to make investments. if you don't have money, how can you make investments? all of this increase was borrowed. we're in huge debt, and when you increase spending, you have to borrow the money to increase spending. every penny is borrowed. we did an $800 billion stimulus package. every penny was borrowed. we will pay $30 billion-plus a year interest on that borrowed money for as long as i'm alive, and longer, no doubt. there is no plan to pay that debt of

people know that we cannot continue on these levels which is why andrew cuomo, democrat, new york, very, very blue state has proposed a budget with spending levels less than they were before. 12 months ago, that would have been inconceivable, especially from a democrat. public opinion has changed. also pivot on blocking some of the worst aspects of the health-care bill. if they also combined with drastic simplification of the tax code, then i think they have a real high ground going into 2012, and getting good stuff done in 2011. host: republicans are reaching across the aisle -- to centrist democrats. gop leaders can afford to lose 23 votes before meeting democratic help, which is why mccarthy reached out to leaders of the blue dog coalition. host: let's go to phone calls for steve forbes. laura, a democrat in sylv. >> caller: may be a year or so before your father died caller: may be a year or so before your father died, barbara walters have been the and -- had an in-depth interview, and one of the worst things he said was i hope we never see $1 trillion in the deficit. we know, and m

i think andrew cuomo is doing some very good things for the state. i am so mad at the entire congress. our debt payments are larger than the state budget. we are destroying this country with the massive level of debt we are piling up. neither party is willing to do anything. one party is offering a third of a percent. while we are racking up debt at exponential levels. guest: let me say, number one, i have known in drew, since he was a kid. he lived to run the corner from me in queens. i am very proud of him and i think he is doing a good job. secondly, i happen to agree that we have to tackle the debt. i am opposed to the $40 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. there are many special cause outs for large corporations and businesses that we have to attack. there has been major assaults on appropriations and earmarks. i have always said that you have to be careful when you provide a legislative director of it earmarked. no one is looking at the special giveaways. i think we have to do a lot more because addressing the debt is essential n. but yo

governor cuomo in new york and christie in new jersey and brown in california and others all over the country are making real significant alterations in their level of spending while we worry about protecting the cowboy poetry festival in nevada. and remember this: people have forgotten this. since bob took -- since president obama took office, discretionary spending on our federal programs in congress have increased 24%. we didn't have the money for that. we never should have increased spending that much. it was a big error. but you know what they said? don't worry, we' making investments in the future. but you've got to have money to make investments. if you don't have money, how can you make investments? all of this increase was borrowed. we're in huge debt, and when you increase spending, you have to borrow the money to increase spending. every penny is borrowed. we did an $800 billion stimulus package. every penny was borrowed. we will pay $30 billion-plus a year interest on that borrowed money for as long as i'm alive, and longer, no doubt. there is no plan to pay that debt

i think andrew cuomo is doing some very good things for the state. i am so mad at the entire congress. our debt payments are larger than the state budget. we are destroying this country with the massive level of debt we are piling up. neither party is willing to do anything. one party is offering a third of a percent. while we are racking up debt at exponential levels. guest: let me say, number one, i have known in drew, since he was a kid. he lived to run the corner from me in queens. i am very proud of him and i think he is doing a good job. secondly, i happen to agree that we have to tackle the debt. i am opposed to the $40 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. there are many special cause outs for large corporations and businesses that we have to attack. there has been major assaults on appropriations and earmarks. i have always said that you have to be careful when you provide a legislative director of it earmarked. no one is looking at the special giveaways. i think we have to do a lot more because addressing the debt is essential n. but yo

i think andrew cuomo is doing some very good things for the state. i am so mad at the entire congress. our debt payments are larger than the state budget. we are destroying this country with the massive level of debt we are piling up. neither party is willing to do anything. one party is offering a third of a percent. while we are racking up debt at exponential levels. guest: let me say, number one, i have known in drew, since he was a kid. he lived to run the corner from me in queens. i am very proud of him and i think he is doing a good job. secondly, i happen to agree that we have to tackle the debt. i am opposed to the $40 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. there are many special cause outs for large corporations and businesses that we have to attack. there has been major assaults on appropriations and earmarks. i have always said that you have to be careful when you provide a legislative director of it earmarked. no one is looking at the special giveaways. i think we have to do a lot more because addressing the debt is essential n. but yo

i think andrew cuomo is doing some very good things for the state. i am so mad at the entire congress. our debt payments are larger than the state budget. we are destroying this country with the massive level of debt we are piling up. neither party is willing to do anything. one party is offering a third of a percent. while we are racking up debt at exponential levels. guest: let me say, number one, i have known in drew, since he was a kid. he lived to run the corner from me in queens. i am very proud of him and i think he is doing a good job. secondly, i happen to agree that we have to tackle the debt. i am opposed to the $40 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. there are many special cause outs for large corporations and businesses that we have to attack. there has been major assaults on appropriations and earmarks. i have always said that you have to be careful when you provide a legislative director of it earmarked. no one is looking at the special giveaways. i think we have to do a lot more because addressing the debt is essential n. but yo

host: governor cuomo has found for a closure of one because it's vulnerable to an earthquake. what's your reaction? guest: i think it falls in the hands of the nuclear regulatory commission. indian point has been one of those reactors that has been a focus of the anti-nuclear movement. not making any accusations. people have concerns in light of wt's going on in japan. none of less, i would -- nonetheless, i would follow the guide of our nuclear regulatory commission. it's important to realize the new york subway, for example, runs off of nuclear power. there are a lot of new york city relies on that energy. so if you take that away you have to replace it with something. host: secretary chu, the secretary of energy, ss where you site reactors and going forward will be different than where we might have sited them in the past, where to place them. and this is in response to questions about the indian point nuclear plant near new york city. every time there is an accident we have to learn from those accidents and go forward. the chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission said

closer to home, donald, of course, now governor cuomo says the indian point, 25 miles from where we're sitting right now, we better really scrutinize that. some are saying you got to close it down because it's too close to new york city. it's on some earthquake fault lines and stuff like that. yet, i think a quarter of all the light bulbs in this room are powered by that power plant. >> hey, if new york city were saudi arabia, where they have unlimited money, i'd say close it down and let's go with coal or oil or fuel or something. let's go with anything. but new york city has a definite sit the likes of which few places have ever seen. how are you going to close it down? are we going to spend $4 billion to build a new plant someplace? we don't have so many options. >> brian: you can't be arrogant. you have to be practical. let's talk about what governor palin is doing. this is the same things others did, travel to powerful countries that are allies and be known, interact with the leaders and get a sense of what they think of us. how do you feel about where sarah palin is today over in