groups. is this the best use and what are we getting for our money? and look at the u.n.? $7.7 billion, wolf. that's b, billion dollars to the u.n. last year and you have groups like cuba on the human rights council and you had cuba and north korea cheering the committee on disarmament. north korea which is such a proliferator of nuclear arms. in iran they stone women to death. so, the days of a free pass and an open checkbook are over. i understand israel may want this funding for the palestinians or or that funding for israel, i'm worried about the u.s. taxpayers and the u.s. philosophy and u.s. principal. let's stand for helping people become free and helping foster democracy but not funding extremist organizations. >> just to be precise on the funding for the united nations, you say the united states is providing about $7 billion a year to the united nations. what number would you like that, the appropriate number to be? >> well, i would like for the funding for the united nations to be changed from a mandatory assessment to a voluntary assessment. what do i mean by that? we get to select which organizations, which committees are working, which we should not fund organizations like durbin three, which is a hate fest for the u.s. and israel. we should not fund the committee on the council on human rights. we should not fund all of these councils and committees that really are anti-democracy. we should not fund a palestinian government that is now in cahoots with hamas, hamas wants to destroy israel. i'm not saying no funding for the palestinians ever, i'm saying that if you are in a hybrid government, which it is now, palestinians with hamas, an entity that wants to destroy israel, why should u.s. taxpayer dollars go to the palestinians, tell mahmood abbas to divorce himself from the palestinians. let's take it to programs that work, unicef is a wonderful program, that's funded by voluntary assessment. we have many refugee assistance programs that are funded on a voluntary basis so they work, and it has been proven in the past, voluntary assessments is what makes the u.n. reform. but if they're to get our $7.7 billion and not have to change a change, it's going to be business as usual, count on it. >> the chair of the house foreign affairs committee, a powerful committee, thanks congresswoman very much for coming in. we're going to assess what we just heard from you, we're awaiting the president of the united states who's getting ready to address the united nations general assembly, this is the president of brazil, immediately after she completes her remarks, the president of the united states will begin speaking at the u.n. general assembly. we're also following the breaking news out of iran, josh fattal and jason bauer have now been released. our reporters are hoping to find a way to speak to them. much more of the breaking news coverage out of iran as well. the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. great! did i mention no hands in the bundler? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. when an investment lacks discipline, it's never this obvious. introducing investment discipline etfs from russell. visit russelletfs.com r a prospectus, containing the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information. read and consider it carefully before investing. >>> we're only a few minutes away from the top of the hour, that's when we expect the president of the united states to address the united nations general assembly. the president is expected to speak of a whole bunch of issues. this is the president of brazil speaking. when she's done, the president of the united states will speak. but there's also breaking news we're following here in the cnn newsroom. the dramatic word that those two american hikers are, kyra are free. >> we're talking about josh bauer and shane fattal. they have been locked up by iran for two years now and they were convicted of spying, entering the country illegally, but a million dollars bail was paid, $500,000 for each hiker and now we are told that possibly they have walked out of that prison. we want to get to our cnn producer that's there in iran. have you been able to confirm if or not they got into those two cars that got through security and headed up to the gate? >> nobody saw the actual two hikers, but the two cars that went inside the prison to get them out came out with police escort. and so as far as we can tell, it is confirmed that they have been released, been taken by the omanis in their car and we're trying to follow them and see if they're going to the airport or going to the swiss ambassador's emba embassy. >> you're now following this entourage of cars, the swiss ambassador and two other cars driven by omanis, possibly with the two american hikers inside those vehicles. >> possibly but it's almost certain because everyone left. >> everyone left the prison? >> everyone left because the omanis when in there to get them out, nobody could see them but everybody's certain that they were in the car. >> all right. and what we have learned, they will go from oman and straight from oman straight back to the united states. please keep us updated. once again e that's our producer there in iran. apparently the two american hikers have left that pliz and are in a convoy of sorts right now. headed toward possibly the airport, our cnn producer following that convoy, trying to get a glimpse to see, wolf blitzer if those two american hikers are in those cars headed for home. >> i home they are. all of us hope they are. it's about time, two years, enough time in that iranian prison. kyra, thanks very much. we'll check back with you, meanwhile we're waiting for the president of the united states to begin speaking over at the united nations general assembly, we have got a panel of experts watching what's going on. our own jessica yellin is over at the u.n. the former secretary of state. the former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and our senior political analyst david gergen. you're a former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., you told us what the chair of the house foreign affairs committee basically said cut u.s. aid to the united nations and basically cut or eliminate all u.s. aid to the palestinians right now. i wonder what you think about that? >> first i believe that the united nations is important for the united states, the u.n. is very helpful to us, has been on very important issues, such as in afghanistan and i am the ambassador in iraq when i was there. i think we do need the united nations and the united nations needs the united states, but the congresswoman does have a point regard to reforms, there is a lot of resources that get wasted in the u.n. and reforming the u.n. as very difficult and sometimes we do use the leverage of, threat of cut off of resources or delay of giving the resources to bring about reform. but what happened with regard to particular decisions that she referred to, iran being on this committee or being on that committee, that's not so much the u.n. as such, that is the membership and really is more of a challenge for our diplomacy and working with others to block some states from taking important positions in the u.n. that is not the u.n. itself, but the organization as such. >> let me just -- i'm going to bring jamey rubin in, but jessica, have you heard any serious discussion from white house officials or obama administration officials at all? they don't want to eliminate u.s. aide to the palestinian authority to the west bank and i don't believe they want to cut u.s. financial contributions to the united nations, but maybe you have more information than i do. >> no, i see this as a nonstarter for them, wolf. for the president, the united nations is an important international body and my expectation is what they would say is let's see this play out here before we get to jumping the gun and talking about cutting off aid. they in essence don't see this as coming to a head quite yet, the palestinians are loading the gun, so to speak, by threatening to take this to the security council. but that doesn't mean they necessarily will and there's still a lot of hope that that can be averted and that there are many steps that can be taken to avoid that kind of a confrontation, so there's a lot of hope that there can be other ways to resolve this, and potentially, although it's a great big wish and with some sort of peace notiegotiation starting again. and the idea of cutting off aid is not something this administration is toying with in any way. >> in a time of economic hardship, the u.s. economy not in great shape right now, there's enormous pressure to cut spending across the board, foreign aid as you well know has never been very popular with domestic public opinion, so there is a community out there and illiana ross lleyton certainly reflecting that in what you just told us, that you know what? in a time of economic distress, the u.s. should not be sending off this money around to the world. >> i you're absolutely right and with a republican congress and increased support for these kinds of positions, it's tougher and tougher. but this has been going on a long time through republican and democratic administrations. in effect the u.n. is a gigantic mess smess sen ger of world opinions. through the united nations, it gets thrown back at us and we see this very visibly here in new york. but the ambassador said that we use the u.n. for american security purposes. we use the united nations as we did in the case of libya to get authority to have nato overthrow moammar gadhafi, we used under president bush the united nations to get authority to invade afghanistan. so the united nations is really a reflection of world opinion and we can worry about it and be frustrated by it, but these specific programs that illiana ross lleyton is talking about, some are frustrating, but in general it serves our interest. i would just add another one point with regard to these two hikers. what we're seeing today is the goal of president ahmadinejad, he arranged for these two people to be released, timing it precisely for his arrival here at the united nations. and so this is going like clock work for him to show the world as he arrives here in new york and he gives this speech that he's the moderate. and the really troubling part is he is the moderate. right now ahmadinejad is the moderate in iran. and he wants these hikers to be released on the very day he arrives in new york. so he's getting an excellent victory here. >> let me bring david gergen into this, but the thrill of isolationist move, but there is an increasingly isolationist move, ron paul for example, a republican presidential candidate suggesting you know what? the u.s. spending too much money and when a lot of americans hear that the u.s. is spending $7 billion or $8 billion a year contributing to the united nations, they're saying it's better spent here at home. >> we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on war. and this is an effort to spend money on peace and it's not very big. the republican party has changed a lot in the last few years, wolf, and i'm not quite sure how these leaders of the republican party expect to win the war on terror and to bring peace to the middle east anymore, they argue that the war on terror, many muslims are in arab countries. george w. bush was trying to build democracies and work with the arab people. in the last few days, what we have been hearing are a groupn leaders who are turning their backs on arab aspirations and the hard part of diplomacy is to protect israel's efforts. to cut off money to the palestinians like that, to cut off money to the west coast bank where the -- netanya taanyahu h wants to provide money to the u.s. i don't get this sudden turning on your heel against the arab aspirations and sort of making it one sided. the best republican progress has been made by people like george w. bush senior with jim baker as the secretary of state where they work for a balanced approach, where they work with the arabs and with the israelis to work with progress. >> ambassador, you served in the republican administration to president george w. bush as you point out, u.s. ambassador to the u.n., to iraq, to afghanistan, are you concerned about this isolationist trend? >> i am concerned, i think there is an economic situation worsened, the desire to focus more ahome which to a degree is legitimate, we need to get our economic house in or