. >> host: senator lamar alexander, former former governor, former university president. we appreciate your time a book to be. >> guest: thank you. >> here's a look at authors recently featured on book tvs, afterwards. our weekly author interview program. former attorney general. former attorney general alberto gonzales recalled his time serving in the justice department and is right house counsel in the george w. bush administration. georgetown university law professor, rosa brooks described the expanded role of the u.s. military around the world. ann coulter made her case of supporting donald trump or president. in the coming weeks on afterwards representative david bratt will discuss his time in congress and the economic challenges facing the country. face the nation moderator, john dickinson will remember important members and presidential campaigns. mary thompson jones will talk about her investigation of thousands of leaks state department cables. this weekend, new york times president and ceo, mark thompson discusses the way political speech has changed over time.

. >> senator lamar alexander, if somebody asked you for a recommendation about tennessee or tennessee history what would you recommend? >> i would recommend alex stewart by john rise erwin. stewart was a clipper who is a barrel maker and lived in hancock county, a remote county. john rice erwin is the creator ofhe museum of appalachian. he could make anything. he could pull teeth, catch a squirrel and skin it, fry it and eat it. he was so interesting he was invited to washington to be part of the smithsonian folk life festival one time. if you want to get a sense of how some mountain people lived totally off the land, alex stewart by john rice erwin. >> host: a lot of famous politicians from tennessee. poke, a couple presidents like jackson and johnson. >> i mentioned two, john meechamp best book. he wrote a book not as many people know about. it is a short book and i think it is about the role of religion in america. i read polk's diaries. he sat down and must have with a quill pin, this was 1840s, and he wrote sometimes lengthy notes, probably 10-11 at night. something like senator

[applause] [inaudible conversations] senator lamar alexander, if somebody asked you for a recommendation for a book aboutn tennessee or tennessee history, what would you recommend? ale >> alex stewart. he was a barrel maker. he lived in hancock county which is one of our remote mountain counties. john erwin is a creator of the museum of appalachia and he interviewed alex about his life. he was one of the most remarkable man. he could make anything.an he could pull tv and catch a squirrel, scan it skin it, try t it. and he was so interesting he was invited to washington to be part of the smithsonian folklife. you get the sense of how some mountain people lived and totally off the land alex stewart and john rice or when. >> a lot of famous politicians from tennessee. james k. polk, and jackson and andrew johnson. what about biographies of them? >> i will mention two. jon meacham's best book and i like the way john meacham writes. in fact, he wrote a book calleda american gospel that's not as many people know about. it's a short little book about the role of religion in america. but this ja

. >> senator lamar alexander, if someone asked you for a recommendation for a book about tennessee or tennessee history what would you recommend? >> i. >> i would recommend alex stewart by john rice. he was a cooper, a barrel maker. he looked up in hancock county which is one of our remote mountain counties and john rice irwin was the creator and he interviewed alex stewart about his life and he was one of the most remarkable men. he can make anything. he could pull teeth, he could catch a squirrel, skillet, fry it, eat it and he was so interesting that he was invited to washington to be part of this with sony and festival one time. so we really get a sense of how some mountain people lived. and totally off the land alex stewart,. >> a lot of famous politicians from tennessee that james polk, andrew jackson, what about biographies of them? >> well i will mention two, american line john beauchamp's best book and i like the way john beauchamp writes, in fact he wrote a book called american gospel, not not a name people know about it's a short book about the role of religion in america.

i can't tell you any that i've gotten like lately but i have lamar alexander bring me a book about the senate that sitting right over there on the table. and he said he thought it was the best book of how the senate operates that he had read. so we do share from time to time books that we think are important and helpful. >> host: why would senator alexander bring that to you? >> guest: i can't remember. we were talking about books and i can't remember exactly what i was talking about but he said oh you need to read this book and then he brought it to me. senator, the the books that you go back to time and again, the novels, historical, historical books. >> guest: less now than i used to, when i was growing up there were books i used to reread frequently, but because time is more challenging today it is harder to do that, one of the things that i like is having had the opportunity to read to my children and some of the books that i read to them in my grandchildren have been interested in are some of my favorite books, books like charlotte's web, stewart little, trumpet trumpet of the sw

. >> senator lamar alexander and former university president, appreciate your time on book tv. >> good afternoon everyone. i am a member of the archive staff at the franklin roosevelt museum and on behalf of the museum i would like to welcome you to the 2016 reading festival. franklin roosevelt planned for the library to become the institution for the studying of the entire roosevelt era that's one of the busiest of all into this year's group of authors reflects the wide variety of research done. if you love the reading festival and want to support this and other programs do i encourage you to become a member and please consider us for the programming later this month. you can learn more about the membership at fdr library.org. let me go over the format for the festival's concurrent sessions. then the authors will move to the table in the lobby after the new deal store where you can purchase your books and have the office find them and at the top of the next hour if you have a question please use the microphone located at the left side of the room and the author will call on me with yo

it was put forward by senator lamar alexander and senator tim scott of south carolina.s is great policy and also very smart politics because donald trump doesn't care anybody other than himself and he's trying to target the poorest to make them understand that runs by the schoolhouse. i want to give you a leg up, not a hand down. this is brilliant politics. it's going to put hillary clinton in a bind with the teachers unions because it's going to show her true allegiance is with teachers and not the students. we are never going to fix our school system. you can tell me everything about the public system being great but it's not serving the poorest in society because they're not moving up the ladder. cheryl: leslie, respond to that. >> i agree that we have a problem and we have, i think, for pretty much since the inception of our nation that the more money you have, the more privilege you are, the better education you have, the better access to health care you have, but now for those democratic points, with regard to education, you have to look at the facts again, he's t

this much fits in with the plan proposed by lamar alexander and tim scott.mount of money that they had proposed, and donald trump still working out figures, was $24 billion at the outset of this plan. this is something that has been sort of republican who -- orthodox because it gives money for schools that are not accountable and not all charter schools are good and the charter school that donald trump is going recently received a d by the state government. something else that the trump campaign is watching closely this morning is the response to what happened to normaller new mexico governor johnson who is running for president when he appeared talking about foreign policy when he was asked this question. watch this. >> what would you do if you were elected about aleppo? >> and what is aleppo? >> you're kidding? >> no. john: the trump campaign are wondering if gary johnson has a long way toward blowing himself up in this presidential campaign and will he lose some of his support because of what happened this morning and when you look at the polls in analysi

we thought that we could sort of weave our way past lamar alexander and elizabeth dole, and that we woulde from steve forbes, who had a personal wallet. but, of course, then along came john mccain. - senator mccain launched the "straight talk express" and started getting a lot of attention in new hampshire and started, you know, this freewheeling 24-hour-a-day press conference on his bus. - senator, how do you reconcile the fact that you were one of the most vocal critics on pork barrel politics. and yet, while you were chairman of the commerce committee, that committee set a record for unauthorized appropriations? i'm just kidding. no, i don't even know what that means. - he was sort of the one that was appealing to the frustrations of people who were only hearing from candidates who were scripted and who had talking points and, you know, who were of the establishment. and john mccain famously talked off the cuff. - and it is the beginning of the end for the truth twisting politics of bill clinton and al gore. [cheers] - in 2000, mccain was ahead of the curve. he wanted nothing to do wit

the second and third places went to bob dole with 26% and lamar alexander with 23%. all: ♪ god bless home i'm the only journalist that ever won the new hampshire primary. they're going to come after this campaign with everything they've got. do not wait for orders from headquarters. mount up, everybody, and ride to the sound of the guns. - buchanan demonstrates to the gop that there's this important constituency to the right and that if they shift over to the right that there are new states to be picked up, that there are new districts to be picked up, and that there are new issue areas that can be mobilized. - i love pat buchanan, and i live and breathe pat buchanan. he's part of my veins, part of my blood. - you know, christmas is out in california. un day is in. easter is out, but earth day is in, when we can all worship dirt. [laughter] - he stands for all the right things, and he's against all the bad things. can you get any right-er than that? - buchanan's orthodoxy was attractive to the base in the republican party, but was frightening to the general population in the united s

there are a few very, lamar alexander of tennessee has gotten into the conservation story quite a bit. unfortunately like so like so much in our culture it has become partisan and i'm hoping eventually it will come back. if i go to a group of conservatives, republicans somewhere and talk about saving the local lake or river, they love me, because i am praising local sites and we want to clean, we want our kids to fish and hunt, but if i if i start dropping the e bond, environmental, you lose half of your audience right now so a lot of it might be the way we package how we speak about it. but it is a frustration. >> barry goldwater was a good conservationist actually. >> i have read your book on teddy roosevelt, looking forward to the book on fdr. i'm a huge huge fan. i appreciate your lecture today. i want to ask a question or get your thoughts on an issue that is related to the last question. in the course of your lecture and in your book you describe the way the president is in the way they use their authority to create and conserve these national areas. it seems that overwhelmingly

our colleague from tennessee, senator lamar alexander, recently said that for a 40-year-old person, the nonsmoker, lives in his home state of tennessee, buys the cheapest possible obamacare silver plan compared to this year, next year that same person is going to have to pay $852 more than they did this year. not $852, but $852 more than they did this year. in illinois, i talked to senator kirk about that, they're going to be paying 45% more next year. in georgia, 33% more. now these aren't just proposed increases. these are increases that have been approved by the insurance commissioner of those states. it's interesting when the democrats come to the floor and say they're only proposed increases, that will never happen; these are the increases that have been approved by the insurance commissioners of each of those states. premiums are going through the roof. americans are stuck with fewer options because the insurance companies just can't afford to sell on the exchanges due to the rules, regulations and mandates of the exchanges. it's interesting, you pick up a newspaper, you don't hav

. >> this is arguably the most interesting dc education story at the moment, which is senator lamar alexander, chair of the senate education committee, who is pushing hard his interpretation of esa, that it was slapping the hands of the fe federal government, saying back up, we want to give the state governments more power now. he is often at odds with secretary king and the obama administration over the regulatory process. can the federal government dictate more than senator alexander and republicans are saying probably the federal government ought to do. if the senate were to flip, this is actually a really important issue. if senator alexander is no longer the committee chair and for example bernie sanders could be the next chair of that committee, we could see the implementation of esa look a whole lot more like ncob than what a lot of republicans in congress were hoping this next version of the act would look like. >> are you worried, do you think the senate is going to flip? >> i think it's a flip of a coin right now, which way it goes. i do think this is probably the most important k-1

alexander is a very wise and highly regarded colleague. he may have a very good idea. i just heard about it here on the fly today. but my hope is that lamar and the rest of us who want to get things done to do our jobs will take seriously this challenge that's before us and take that original good republican idea from 1994 on the exchanges and creating purchasing pools and make it better. take a look at the individual mandates which governor romney adopted in massachusetts and see how that is working. and to look at other changes we need to make as well. but the long story short is when we took up the affordable care act in 2009, here's where we were as a country: we were spending 18% of g.d.p. for health care costs. 18%. in japan, they spent 8%. we were spending 18% of g.d.p. they were spending 8%. they were getting better results, longer life, longevity, lower rates of infant mortality. and they covered everybody. they covered everybody in 2009. where were we? spending 18% of g.d.p. we had 40 million people going to bed at night without health care coverage at you will a. one of the reasons why the cost of coverage has gone up pretty hi