the same dunce cap leadership we had that took us into iraq. me dunce cap leadership that took us into the worst financial crisis since the late '20s. and he wanted to go back to that dunce cap thinking, fine. but he ought to tell us where he's not going to take us back to that. deregulation, tax cuts for the rich. the trouble with romney is, he's skating around, hoping the economy will fail, and i'm not holing it against him, that's how politics works, hoping it will fail so he can come in as the relief pitcher that's the entire romney strategy. that's what it is. it may work if the economy tanks, look, we know what will happen if the up employment rate climbs above 8.5, it's romney's election, that's a fact. he'll be able to say i didn't do this but the fact is his policies will be exactly the same policies as w.'s, again, a dunce cap policy of deregulation, let anybody on wall street do what they feel like doing today and same tax cuts for the rich. it's the same fiphilosophy that got us where obama had to pull us out. they used to say to add

about getting us into iraq? they spent billions of dollars. where was this outrage there? i just want to know that. he was being so dishonest intellectually dishonest to outh say obama is the worst thing ever. we were all there. bush created a horrible mess. host: we're going to leave it there. guest: i said it earlier, i'll repeat it just to be clear. i don't believe this led to the mess. i think affordable housing policies led to the mess and liberal policies led to the mess some of which president bush subscribed to. when he did create that if he hadn't the drabts would have created a more wasteful program. i talk about that in the earlier book. but i would also reiterate it was not bush's wars that led us over the financial brink. we had a growing economy, we had $161 billion in debt it wasn't until the housing market exploded that his deficits went up. his deficits averaged way lower than president obama. this nonsense about comparing bush's debt with obama is prposs truss. again, i show the chart bush deficits versus obama deficits. there's no comparison. and obama i

us, no matter how we got to that point. but iran should be covered through the prism of what happened in iraq. all of the neoconservatives and right-wingers, who called for us to go into iraq because of wmds and because saddam was bad. there is a history there. that history is within living memory of a lot of grownups in this country. and unless people are willing to do the hard work of presenting the history and holding people accountable for the past, we will be condemned as it's been said, to repeat it first in tragedy and then in farce. >> here's something i wrestle with and a lot of journalists wrestle with it. that i'd like for you to address. we sometimes bend ourselves into euphemistic pretzels in order not to call a spade a spade or a lie a lie. for example, when rick santorum's opponents took his words out of context to make him say something he clearly had not intended to say. >> on the economy, rick santorum says -- >> i don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. >> i didn't hear any prestige journalist speak up and say, "you know, that's a lie." >> no, what you heard instead was, isn't that something? what a deft maneuver. what a great politica

i always like to point out that when president bush sent us into iraq was an immigrant military. tthe i would also like to point out that when we talk about the dream kids, the kids that have been brought to this country through no fault of their own by their parents, their parents -- in many cases, they have never known any country other than this country. that is why the president by executive order passed the two- year time frame that they can stay, hoping that in the next congress will do the right thing and passed comprehensive immigration reform for everyone, and most importantly, for our national security, which most importantly, carlos the serving in our military is representative of. host: congressman sylvester reyes, formerly of the house intelligence committee, and now serves on house intelligence and -- veterans affairs. coming up next, we will switch gears and look at a new report that examines the state budgets and friends they are improving challenges. brian sigritz joins us. first, this news update from c- span radio. >> republican carol issa is challenging presid

. >> because w was so ridiculous as to take us into war with iraq, it drove up the cost of government poor people programs. that's what you just said. >> no, that's not what i just said. >> the cost of wars. >> among other things, the safety net issues. and look, republicans have been consistent over the years arguing about the spending on the social programs without the benefit of going back and reviewing the program and making sure that those dollars are being -- >> just on a general principle, let me get to the general question. percent of people who believe the government should take care of those who can't take care of themselves. from 62 down to 40%. >> this is asymmetric polarization. the numbers show that they haven't changed on these core economic issues. all of the shift is on the republican side. >> how do you explain it? he said the cost of government and the cost of government has driven -- what do you think has driven it to the right. >> i think people who used to be republicans aren't republican any more. moderates began leaving the party in the '90s. counties where --

. >> w was so ridiculous as to take us into war with iraq. it drove up the cost with government.s no what i said. >> it was also the safety net issues. the republicans have been very consistent over the years arguing about the spending on the social programs and making sure those dollars are being spent. >> percent who agreed government should take care of people who can't take care of themselves. a dramatic decline. somewhere between 62% down to 40%. >> what's more important is this is asymetric. >> he says the cost of government and big regulation have driven paem to the far right. what's your explanation why they went to the right? >> i think that a lot of people who used to be republicans aren't republican anymore. a lot of moderates began leaving the party in the '90s. >> where did they go? >> some became independents and some became democrats. >> to make your point it's changed. moderates make up a small part of the party. 68% call themselves actual conservatives. 38% even. 38% call themselves moderate. i always say don't be too puristic when you want to get a democrat elec

in the book "confront and conceal," it was inserting mechanisms into the centrifuges into iraq and iran and giving us a mirror image of what was happening in the iran's nuclear plant and u.s. initiated and not as previously suspected or inferred. >> and we thought it was a cover-up. >> yes, until we read sanger's book and not denied by anyone, and it was george bush and expanded greatly by president obama. >> and you are a president watcher, but i thought he gave it away with the way he treated with gravity and the way he responded to the leaks and the anger of whoever did it was almost to me a statement, hey, this is what we are doing. and i don't want it out there. >> well, in fact, what mike rogers the chairman of the house intelligence committee who has been completely nonpartisan in all of this and has been given high marks by the white house and democrats is saying that he did not think that the president was tough enough in sending a tough enough signal to the aides, cut it out and stop it, this cannot take place the leaks, because this is an ongoing covert operation. >> this is president obam

the problem and a syria is -- because they were useful to funnel people into iraq over the last several years. so they're reaping what what they sow. these are not good people, but there is a reality on the ground i think where the jihadi threat there is much more dangerous over the long run. for all those reasons and also because the proximity to a neighbor, iraq, whether it is still an active al qaeda element, that is still quite capable, and kills people by the many tens when it feels like in baghdad. select couple of questions, right? what comes next? the goals are clear. the purpose of military intervention is clear. what we want to achieve your i think it's pretty clear. the issue is whether or not these kind of mechanisms are going to get us where we want to go. i'm skeptical that they are. what comes after? i think jihadi groups are going to be able to organize in syria. i am not convinced that there will be a cohesive government structure afterwards. i would like to more of out that, but i think that what we'll see age of a lot of countries in the region. right now they all agr

used them in iraq and afghanistan. i was surprised. >> the drone that crashed into the eastern shore was on a routine test flight. ght now unmanned aircrafts are used as border surveillance or to do surveillance. >> this year they're going to grow. >> mark white is now the aif aviation team leader. he said the number of unmanned aircrafts patrolling the sus going to explode. >> that's because congress has orderered them here -- ordered them here by 2015. >> they will be used for surveillance. >> the concern has been raised of sharing the high with commercial aircrafts and having one hijacked by terrorists. while there are valid uses, the kings need to be worked out. >> we were lucky it crashed into a marsh. can you say it's going to happen that way every thousand? >> drones can be flown by operators up to a thousand miles away. >>> the northern colorado fire has grown to 68 miles and destroyed 100 buildings and killed one woman. that is said to be 10% contained now. >> we're here for the if -- for the long haul. we're getting things in place. we feel like we're getting our feet solidly under us. >>> in new mexico

iraq war. the president was able to talk us into a war. the noncritical factor of the media is gone. we are a critical media today. the media today is totally different than it was in the war to the buildup. there would be questioning on ms, fox, cnn. people would be listening to the neocon drum beats. and they would say, wait a minute, this is a class of people here pushing this war. that group of idealogs would want this war. we wouldn't allow people to say let's get even with the thoughts on war. they would be challenged, and i would like to think there would be a reckoning that we didn't have then because of modern media. it's not only breadth, but depth. and critical argument on the air. no more of this, the president said this, let's get embedded with his thinking. wait a minute, let's question his thinking. the united states has never been the aggressor in this way before. aggressors were a bad guy. how do we change that position overnight with limited ability, changing the definition of when we go go to war. the media was intellectually embedded with the thinking of the admin

that at some point lebanon will face the threat of being broken up into pieces and of course it concerns me look at iraq for example the us occupied the country then they withdrew their troops and what do we have now iraq is divided there is a danger that something like that will happen in syria two if the current situation persists and if syria is divided this will directly affect lebanon. do you think the concierge in regime can protect lebanon. the question is not whether this regime stays in syria or is replaced by another one the problem is that the insurgents in syria affects the situation in lebanon. who do you think is behind the syrian conflict. we have some global and arab interests clashing here and we all understand that what we don't understand is where this clash will take us in the end but we can say one thing with certain that if the syrian conflict is resolved one way or another this will affect the situation in lebanon. this is the recent events in lebanon the murder of two shakes the situation in africa the detention of saudi malawi who was later released in tripoli all these events indicate that seven

. >>> as we move, we got some news just into us about the man president obama wants to name as ambassador to iraqvelations of some questionable behavior. i want to go to kate baldwin. what's the latest. >> >> reporter: this name night not be familiar but it's an important position he's been nominated for to be the president's pick to be the next ambassador to iraq. we have just confirmed from the administration that he's withdrawn from his candidacy has with drawn. he says not only do they greatly appreciate brett's years of service but he suz that brett has proven himself to be a skilled diplomate willing to take on the toughest challenges and goes onto say while we regret to see him withdraw, there's no doubt he will be called on again to serve the country. you noted that he has been under intense scrutiny recently coming under fire and really under intense scrutiny for a few things. some e-mails with a wall street journal reporter while they were working in iraq around the time of the iraq war. the two did later marry. the revelation of these two exchanging e-mails is probably the best way i s

i have known iraqis in iraq who have worked with us and lost their lives. i've known iraqis who have gotten into this program and never came out of it. they were never able to get a visa. and i've known iraqis who have resettled in the united states. it's very personal to me. as you may know, we also have to have security checks to make sure that the american people are protected. that's also first and foremost. there was a substantial backlog, which as you said in your statement, is absolutely right. we have now over the first half of this year admitted more siv cases into the u.s. than we did all of last year, and i have been told that the numbers for the third quarter look to be substantially higher. i think this year so far, the number is about 850. senator, i will get you the exact figures on the number of cases that are being processed now in the backlog. since i saw senator carden, i visited with samantha power at the national security staff who has done a terrific job in streamlining the processing of these cases and making sure that we have the personnel and the right resources directed