billion dollars every year we'll spend trillions of dollars on wars in collectively in iraq and afghanistan china didn't get into that china is putting their money into growing their economy and into growing their national economic profile we've taken a different thing we've thrown money away investing in wars and investing in a growing military we have we have a military we spend more money than almost the. rest of the world combined for our pentagon what's that about it's sinking america's but it's beyond and i'm sure i want to thank you very much for joining us tonight i wish we had more time we'll have to have you come back and thank you thank you so much. also to come on and i still have our friday fireside chats and that it's happy hour it's so good the logo for the two thousand and twelve summer games in london be a racist symbol that in a lot while an argument is getting churchill and lucy top it up join me there are stories that you'll be talking about in the cars this week from. a charmer and her broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture. new web site wit

-- congo, afghanistan, china, mexico. more than a hundred 30 ensembles and soloists auditioned in january for a slot in the ethnic dance festival. in the end, 37 companies were selected to perform. 26 of those performances are world premieres. >> each year, we assembled a panel of dance experts that is made up of academics, scholars, researchers. people have been working for decades in the field. many of them came to this country in the seventies and have trained the next generation of dancers. they are proud to see many of these students at the these masterful levels. this was one of the best panel'' we have ever had, extraordinary people. at the end of the process, they rank their top groups which are then merged into a master list. >> performers are judged on stage presence, costumes, and innovation. >> the four programs are created around an exciting and dynamic range so the soloists and groups selected each weekend will have enough dynamic range to be a society overall to are experience. >> hundreds of dancers from d

europe -- new bureaus walt maintaining a full- time presence in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, jerusalem, cairo, east africa, west africa, china, and other spots around the world. over last couple of weeks, npr journalists have been in tunisia, saudi arabia, bahrain, and lydia -- libya. we may soon be in algeria and yemen. closer to home, we have reporters on just about every beat imaginable. race, demographics, education, religion, we have the entire unit dedicated to science, arts, books, music. last year, we launched npr's first investigative unit. it now has nine full-time staff. we stay on this story when everyone else moves on. npr's howard is still reporting on the big branch mine of west virginia were 29 workers died nearly a year ago. debbie elliot list of the gulf of mexico and continues to follow developments since the bp disaster. danny has did the story of returning soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury. we are the opposite of parachute journalism. our reporters have subject matter expertise built up over years, sometimes decades. member stations have the same. still in the growing void in local reporting

getting to the other part are over, and what happens be it in japan, what happens in china, what happens in afghanistan, pakistan is certainly reel vaunted to -- relevant to our own security here, and i mentioned the banks before because i'm very concerned about jobs in westchester chon, and i've worked hard to get spa loans so that we can help businesses expand, but in terms of international assistance, again, we export to japan. they export to us. we export to china. they export to us. we are all interconnected, and by the way, when there are asian flus, those are exported too. let's fight it over there and deal with the flu be it an outbreak in china, be it an outbreak somewhere else. i'd be happy to talk with you further. come on in. >> host: trying to give you news updates on the earthquake and tsunami talking about the federal spending priorities. bbc breaking news. this is a sad story. 300 bodies were found in one city according to japan's news agency, and retweeted by bbc news. next phone call as we are talking with congresswoman lowey. robert, democrat, go ahead, please. >> caller: yes, i just

china has a border with pakistan and india. and they have a border with afghanistan. they have their own agendas and strategic imperatives. the chinese actually have a lot more influence in pakistan than the u.s. although they take our money, but the influence is coming from china. they call us the all weather friends. china does look at the u.s., and they look at india as a quasi, and i was wondering in they have interest in createing some stability like "the new york times" a story where they funded the technology for the nuclear reactor to make bombs. just now in the world of proliferation, they are encouraging pakistani to build nuclear woman. what's your take on the chinese? and do we discuss it in the book? thanks. >> briefly, you characterize china quite rightly. from pakistan's perspective they are the all weather friend. they are taller than the himalayas. they have given the design for the bomb. in any clutch situation, the chinese haven't done anything more than we have. china's sort answer is they are in a quasi rivalry with us and indian, but they are also

china. >> a san jose soldier has been killed in afghanistan. the 31-year-old died over the weekend.ad and he was trying to disarm one bomb when he stepped other another, hidden. wells played bag pipes at military funerals. his wife is eight months pregnant with their second child. >> the united states will resume putting suspected terrorists on trial at guantanamo bay, cuba. president obama ending a tw year ban. white house reiterated a commit tomt close guantanamo bay. the president vowed to shut down that prison within a year after taking office. he wanted to try inmates in federal court systems but the plan met with resistance on capitol hill. >> u.s. supreme court refused to hear a sacramento man's latest challenge against a government reverence to god. the attorney michael newdow tried to have pledge of alliegance banned from public schools because of the phrase "under god". the high court did rule in favor of a death row inmate who wants dna tests conducted on crime scene evidence in his case thchl zmot mean tests will be conducted but gives the right to ask for them. the inma

it's really important to bring in countries like iraq and afghanistan but we've got a if we have this discussion we've also got to talk about china you know when we look at competition at the game of success china makes no bones about it they're not here talking about principles and so they have no problem doing business with other countries whose principles they may or may not agree with unlike the u.s. and here's where the u.s. trapped itself we passed a trade agreement with china which would have was devoid of workers' rights the right to strike the right to collective bargaining the right to join a union a right to decent wages and benefits the right to say ford place it was devoid of prohibitions on child labor and slave labor when it was devoid of any environmental protection so we sacrificed our principles in the name of being able to trade which i don't what have we what is what has happened last millions of jobs and china is now setting the rules for commerce internationally instead of the united states taking our principles and ensuring that china would have to. not just setting the rules also in many cases dealing with

budget and so whether china is really a threat or not i think that's what the security people are already focused on you know they're already you know they plan ahead and afghanistan and iraq are passe they're looking down the road and of course when you fight counterinsurgency warfare it doesn't justify these huge weapons you have to have a peer competitor threat and that's where china comes in very very interesting the way that the government does that we saw that of course in the iraq war with these weapons of mass destruction that they sort of created as a reason to even have to start there. i guess if i want to talk a real quick you know back to dance class where there's so much interesting stuff to talk about with these statements but have you heard anything from i haven't seen any people in russia being offended by the statement have you heard anything or do you expect the reaction from officials in that country well i think they realize that he's kind of a loose cannon because he's made other comments and you know the higher ministration officials are much more willing to. be friendly to russia i think and so i think russia will probably take their comment

afghanistan. and beyond but also closely related, china and russia. the european union or its key members. japan. turkey, a special and interesting possibility given its role in the region and its current involvement in afghanistan. perhaps saudi arabia and perhaps others. we are not prescriptive with respect to that. their role would be initially to work closely with the facilitator to help in fact cement ties and bring forward the kind of agreements that are absolutely necessary to see the inner afghan part of the process prosper. the their second role and it will evolve in our view over time to also consult together and negotiate to undertake hollen what with the international community and particularly the region will support what is that the afghans can agree, support what the afghans would like with result -- respect to their future status in the region and the world, is it neutrality or something else? also make commitments themselves on critical questions regarding the future of afghanistan. centrally continued economic assistance and wherever required in the future of the governmen

part of the world and not getting to the other part -- what happens, be it in japan or china, what happens in afghanistan, pakistan, is certainly relevant to our own security here. i mentioned the banks before because i am very concerned about jobs in west chester county. i have worked hard to get fda loans so we can help businesses expand. in terms of international assistance, again, we export to japan. they export to us. we export to china. we are all interconnected. when there are asian flus, they are exported as well. i would be happy to talk to you further. host: we are trying to give you some news updates on the earthquake and tsunami as we talk here about these federal spending priorities. this is a sad story. as many as 300 bodies have been found in one city. the next telephone call as we talk about foreign spending with congresswoman nita lowey. this is a real personal story for her this morning. caller: i just want to say that i believe in giving foreign aid to people because people around the world need the help. a lot of the money goes to governments that keep it for themselves. as i was grow

countries like iran and india, the central asian neighbors of afghanistan, and beyond, but also closely related, china and russia. japan, the european union, turkey is an interesting possibility given its important role in the region and its current involvement in afghanistan. we are not prescriptive with respect to that. the role will be initially it to work closely with a facilitator to help cement ties and bring forward the kind of agreements that are absolutely necessary to see the interest-afghan part of the process. the central be -- the second role will be negotiate to understand how and what way the international community will both support what it is that the afghans can agree, support what the afghans would like with respect to their future status in the region and the world, making commitments themselves on critical questions regarding the future of afghanistan. wherever required t, security ad and assistance to help against any resurgence of al qaeda. a whole series of issues having to do with the international gold at afghanistan -- peacekeeping. that needs to be monitored and verificatio

part of the world and not getting to the other part -- what happens, be it in japan or china, what happens in afghanistan, pakistan, is certainly relevant to our own security here. i mentioned the banks before because i am very concerned about jobs in west chester county. i have worked hard to get fda loans so we can help businesses expand. in terms of international assistance, again, we export to japan. they export to us. we export to china. we are all interconnected. when there are asian flus, they are exported as well. i would be happy to talk to you further. host: we are trying to give you some news updates on the earthquake and tsunami as we talk here about these federal spending priorities. this is a sad story. as many as 300 bodies have been found in one city. the next telephone call as we talk about foreign spending with congresswoman nita lowey. this is a real personal story for her this morning. caller: i just want to say that i believe in giving foreign aid to people because people around the world need the help. a lot of the money goes to governments that keep it for themselves. as i was grow

part of the world and not getting to the other part -- what happens, be it in japan or china, what happens in afghanistan, pakistan, is certainly relevant to our own security here. i mentioned the banks before because i am very concerned about jobs in west chester county. i have worked hard to get fda loans so we can help businesses expand. in terms of international assistance, again, we export to japan. they export to us. we export to china. we are all interconnected. when there are asian flus, they are exported as well. i would be happy to talk to you further. host: we are trying to give you some news updates on the earthquake and tsunami as we talk here about these federal spending priorities. this is a sad story. as many as 300 bodies have been found in one city. the next telephone call as we talk about foreign spending with congresswoman nita lowey. this is a real personal story for her this morning. caller: i just want to say that i believe in giving foreign aid to people because people around the world need the help. a lot of the money goes to governments that keep it for themselves. as i was grow

china has a border with pakistan and india, iran has a border with afghanistan, and they have their own agendas, and they have their own strategic imperatives, but the chinese actually have a lot more influence in pakistan than the u.s -- they take our money, but the influence is really coming on china. today call them the all-weather friends. >> that's right. >> and china has, does look at the u.s. as a quasi-- [inaudible] city, and i'm wondering if they have interest in actually creating some instability? today in "the new york times" they funded and gave the technology for a nuclear reactor to make bombs to pakistan, just now in this world of non-proliferation and all this other stuff, they're encouraging the pakistanis to build nuclear bomb materials. what's your take on the iranian and the chinese, and do you discuss it in the book or focus on it? this thanks. >> briefly, you characterize china quite rightly. they are taller than the himalayas and deeper than the indian ocean. in if -- in practice, while they've given pakistan a lot of weapons and nuclear reactors, in the every clu

new bureaus while still retaining a full-time presence in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, jerusalem, cairo, east africa, west africa, china -- we actually have two bureaus in china -- and other spots around the world. over the last couple of weeks, and the our journalists have been in tunisia, saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar, and as you heard a moment ago, libya, covering the world-altering events covering -- unfolding. closer to home, we have reporters on just about everything imaginable. race and demographics, food, education, religion, rural affairs. we have entire unit dedicated to science, to the arts, to books, and to music. last year, we launched and the our's first investigative unit. it now has nine full-time staff. we stay on the story when everyone else moves on. on thetill reporting upper big branch mine of west virginia where 29 workers died nearly a year ago. debbie elliot lives near the gulf of mexico and continues to follow developments since the bp disaster. danny swerling stayed with the story of returning soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury. we are the opposite of a parachute journalism. our rep

part of the world and not getting to the other part -- what happens, be it in japan or china, what happens in afghanistan, pakistan, is certainly relevant to our own security here. i mentioned the banks before because i am very concerned about jobs in west chester county. i have worked hard to get fda loans so we can help businesses expand. in terms of international assistance, again, we export to japan. they export to us. we export to china. we are all interconnected. when there are asian flus, they are exported as well. i would be happy to talk to you further. host: we are trying to give you some news updates on the earthquake and tsunami as we talk here about these federal spending priorities. this is a sad story. as many as 300 bodies have been found in one city. the next telephone call as we talk about foreign spending with congresswoman nita lowey. this is a real personal story for her this morning. caller: i just want to say that i believe in giving foreign aid to people because people around the world need the help. a lot of the money goes to governments that keep it for themselves. as i was grow

china was one of five nations that sustained from last weeks vote to allow all necessary measures to protect libyan civilians. >>> in afghanistan president karzai says afghan forces will take charge in security in seven areas around the country. it's the first step toward president karzai's goal to have afghan police and forces to protect the entire country by the end of 2014. in his speech today he named four capitols that are slated from transition from nato lead forces to afghan police in july. >>> in arizona the judge has ordered the suspect in dew san shooting ram pain -- tucson shooting rampage to under go a mental test. he's accused of killing six people and wounding 13 others including arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. >>> a jet heading to san francisco last may was allowed to fly without repairs even though there were rebares thats cockpit window overheated. the pilots say flames shot out of the cockpit window right near the captain. the pilots were able to put out the flame and made an emergency landing. before that flight mechanics had checked the win shield and they decided it was safe to fly. >>> a new poll

afghanistan. >> all right. >> the muslim brotherhood will be running in the show in egypt. they already are. >> they will succeed as president of china next year. >> who? >> ted strickland will be the new chairman of the democratic national committee. bye-bye! q

vietnamese were supplied by russia and china with 18 divisions of artillery and tanks, and they seized saigon with artillery and tanks. i believe that in afghanistan the taliban cannot mass. they have to be able to mass to go against a city or any large target. i don't believe they can do that, number one, because of the air that we now have, but number two, also, because pakistan, i don't believe pakistan is going to do again what they did in the 1990s. if pakistan had not been behind the taliban in the 1990s, the taliban would not have seized control. you need in order to have an army somebody who's supplying you, and the pakistanis now are giving it to them with a thimble. they're doing just enough to keep things stirred up, but i don't believe they want to suffer america's wrath by really saying, here, you can have all this equipment. i don't think that's ever going to happen again. >> so what's your view of general petraeus? is he fighting the last war? too big an ego, or is he doing the right thing? >> i, i think -- i don't like to get into personalities -- >> i was thinking of his strategy. >> the, the -- i think our strategy is evolving ev

europe -- new bureaus walt maintaining a full- time presence in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, jerusalem, cairo, east africa, west africa, china, and other spots around the world. over last couple of weeks, npr journalists have been in tunisia, saudi arabia, bahrain, and lydia -- libya. we may soon be in algeria and yemen. closer to home, we have reporters on just about every beat imaginable. race, demographics, education, religion, we have the entire unit dedicated to science, arts, books, music. last year, we launched npr's first investigative unit. it now has nine full-time staff. we stay on this story when everyone else moves on. npr's howard is still reporting on the big branch mine of west virginia were 29 workers died nearly a year ago. debbie elliot list of the gulf of mexico and continues to follow developments since the bp disaster. danny has did the story of returning soldiers suffeng from traumatic brain injury. we are the opposite of parachute journalism. our reporters have subject matter expertise built up over years, sometimes decades. member stations have the same. still in the growing void in local reporting.

the central asian neighbors of afghanistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan particularly. beyond but closely related china and russia. the european union or its key members. japan. turkey a special and interesting possibility given its particularly important role in the region and its current involvement in afghanistan, perhaps saudi arabia and perhaps others. we are not prescriptive with respect to that their role will be initially to work closely with the facilitator to help in fact eshouldn't -- cement ties and bring forward the kind of agreements that are absolutely necessary to see the inner afghan part of the process prosper. their second role will be and it will evolve in our view over time to also consult together and perhaps negotiate to understeak how and in what way the international community and particularly the region will both support what it is that the afghans can agree. support what the afghans would like with result, with respect to their future status in the region and the world. is it neutrality? is it none alignment or is it something else and make commitments themselves on critical

bureaus while still retaining a full-time presence, full time in iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, jerusalem, cairo, east africa, west africa, chinatually have two bureaus in china, and other spots around the world. and over the last couple of weeks, npr journalists have been in tunisia, saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar, and as you heard a moment ago, libya, covering the world-altering events covering the east and middle east. and we may soon be algeria and yemen. closer at home we have reporters on just about every beat imaginable. race and demographics, religion, rural affairs. we have entire units dedicated to science, to the arts, to books, and to music. last year, we launched npr's first investigative unit. it now has nine full-time staff. we stay on the story when everyone else moves on. npr's howard berkus is still reporting on the upper big branch mine of west virginia where 29 workers died nearly a year ago. npr's debbie elliott lives near the gulf of mexico and continues to follow developments since the bp disaster. danny swirling has stayed with the story of returning soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury. we are t

china based on your model? >> gentleman in the middle. same row. >> afghanistan is shown as in the youthful state. i was wondering how with this demographic affect our attempts to develop a culture of older democracy in that country, and also as well in iraq? 2035 is when they will reach that particular threshold. how with the injection of a liberal democracy culture be affected by this model, and how this model would counter affect that? >> one more. >> callebs at the united states naval academy. -- caleb at the united states naval academy. i would like to know what you see as your key limiting factors in using this model for analysts were predicting what will happen in the future. >> very good question. >> on rule of law, i do not know anything about it basically. i have tried to limit this to a tool that can easily be by a in the list. what you're talking about are real things on the ground, and i am talking about things i can pull out and make, i do not want to say a snap judgment, but something that is almost counterintuitive. it is a tool, and as matt said, it is really best in an environmen

afghanistan war and the iraq war. not paid for but rather borrowed money from china and other places. the result of that, an enormous increase in the deficit followed by the great recession which was basically caused by greed, wall street greed and the elimination of regulation. it was as though you had an nfl football game and you would have wiped out the sidelines, you took the referees off the field, send them back to the locker room, ok, play ball, boys. you know what would happen? chaos. and that's what we got in the financial sector when regulation was removed and we wound up with the great recession. we need to put in place sound regulation, good regulation and we need to have the referees on the field. we also need to have a long-term vision on how to deal with the deficit, and you cannot do it by just in a feeding frenzy wiping out critical programs that create future economic growth. unfortunately that's what our republican colleagues have suggested we do. we're not there yet. the h.r. 1, the resolution that would have lost 700,000 jobs was stopped in the senate. we're now i

afghanistan? coal being one of them, which i have a little flaherty with. and copper being the other. why is it that chinas the only country that's able to go in there and extract these resources and they're making an investment at $3.5 billion, looks like a return of $88 billion, and we're paying for the security? >> this is an area where we would like to expand the opportunity in foreign investment and assistance to develop the strategic mineral resources of afghanistan. the united states through something called the task force business stability operations, a very important function that we have. that they actually were the ones that brought in the u.s. geological survey to survey everything that's there. and now sort of give the government of afghanistan a map, if you will, for this long-term development. >> how is it -- >> we are trying to bring in other western companies now to see if they are willing to invest. >> how is it that china is the only country that is willing to go in there? and how can china do it successfully? >> first of all, they're not the only country. in fact, there is now open fo

china. we are engaged in two wars. we have now brought 100,000 troops home. we should extricate ourselves from afghanistan.he last thing we should do -- secretary gates was extraordinarily brilliant the other day, as he always is. this is a bush holdover. this is not someone president obama put in. he said -- anyone's suggesting that we should be engaging in far off course again -- far off wars again should have their head examined. yes, there's a situation in libya. there are reports vary widely about what is actually going on. before i, as a public official, would say i want to take a particular course of action -- we need a lot more information. america has to understand that if we want to be the policeman for the world, it's going to cost a lot of money. host: on the c-span digital bus , a question for the congressman. caller: good morning. with your committee's process for suggesting a budget cut, how do you go about that? for example, there's a $194 million suggested cut in the department of justice is program for the state's criminal alien assistance. that's basically used in the southwestern united

afghanistan but we might end up not doing so well. it seems like it is the same with trade. we are trying to make china do things.aw an advertisement last night for the republican party in which they used the chinese -- i do not know how to describe it, but they were using the future, sort of in terms of the decline of the american empire. one more thing. the ceo of whirlpool said they are replanting jobs back in this country because they are not sure exactly -- his reasoning was is he believes the american production here would be better for various reasons then overseas. also, i want to say that this thing in japan i think has proven that globalization can be as fragile as the peace in iraq. guestone, let me give you an example on china. we are making china toto in the following ways. we are charging basically the same fees for importing. china has not agreed. with the specific example of ge and pakistan, we went to the white house, the treasury department, and what we are now doing is providing the same exact terms that china is providing. they are getting the same exact financing that the chinese manufacturer

china, south korea, and then you end up with a cluster of countries which are japan, pictured, but also italy and germany. eventually, we hope that countries like afghanistannd countries in sub-saharan africa will move down this transition toward the middle and later parts. right now, they are suspended up the the top. that has political significance. here is looking at them more closely, afghanistan on the left. lots of young people. a very rapid for work-force growth -- very rapid work force grows. no place to employ those people. tunisia has moved along the right in 2010. the united states, almost a cylindrical shape. a few bulges. there are the baby boomers and then an echo of a generation that is actually in their early 20s right now. to the right is germany in 2025, not now but 15 years down the road. a mature age structure where there is a board in the retired people. an age structure that is going to undoubtedly challenge their welfare systems. here is the middle east. north africa is across the top. .emen, younger than egypt's then the united kingdom as a comparison, showing you, again, that typically at cylindrical age structure that one finds in

-- congo, afghanistan, china, mexico. more than a hundred 30 ensembles and soloists auditioned in january for a slot in the