first, the co-chair of the president's deficit reduction commission alan simpson. his take on the budget battle and the bipartisan plan put forth by his commission. former wyoming senator alan simpson and jeremy skyhill from "the nation." >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i am james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment, one conversation at a time. >> nationwide is on your side >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- tavis: alan simpson served as co-chair of the president's bipartisan national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform following on long and distinguished career in the senate for

skin bowles, chairman of the debt commission, along with alan simpson who said it could be one year, in his opinion, we could have a debt crisis. not a little warning from people who spent months hearing witnesses and studying the debt situation facing our country. but it appears that the leaders of the senate would prefer to hide in the hills and take spots at republicans from the distance? is that what they prefer? chairman paul ryan and the house g.o.p. have put forward a plan to get this country out of a looming debt crisis, make our economy more competitive, save medicare for future generations. it's an honest, courageous plan that will improve the quality of life for millions of americans and do the job, short term and long term. it may not be perfect.

tavis: join me next time for the president's head of the deficit reduction committee, alan simpson. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference -- >> thank you. >> you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- --www.ncicap.org--

also, at 10:30, erskine bowles and alan simpson, the national commission on fiscal responsibility cochairs will speak at a seminar that will be live in about 28 minutes from now. this afternoon, president obama will be at fort campbell, ky at 3:50 p.m. eastern time as he talks to the troops. enjoy this may weekend. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> this weekend on c-span 2, the origins of government from early tribal society to the first modern state in china and europe. andrew breitbart discusses his transformation from liberal to self-described conservative cultural warrior. he will be interviewed by armstrong williams. david gold field will talk about the role of religion leading up to the civil war. look for the complete schedule at book-tv.org and get our schedules in your in box. >> you can access our program any time with the cspan radio iphone app. it is all commercial free and you could listen to our signature interview programs each week and is available around the clock wherever you are. downloaded

moments, today's headlines and your calls, live on "washington journal," live at 10:30 eastern, alan simpsonskine bowles will discuss the budget, deficits, entitlements, and tax policy. in about 45 minutes, we will look at the results of last night's republican presidential debate in south carolina. our guest will be congressional quarterly roll-call columnist craig crawford. at 8:30 eastern, democratic representati

after that, alan simpson and erskine bowles.ater, treasury secretary tim geithner. >> there is a saying in the military, amateurs do it over and over until they get it right. professionals do it over and over until they cannot get it wrong. >> the platoon leader of sealed teen mom in vietnam is today the author of 14 books. he will discuss the training of today's navy seals on "q&a". it is one of our many signature interview programs available online at c-span.org to >> this weekend, former utah governor john huntsman delivers the commencement address at the university of south carolina. south carolina is the first southern state to hold a presidential primary. watch tonight on c-span "road to the white house." >> i get to go in the front door today. >> i will just make a brief statement here at the top. i was really pleased and they've all these guys showed up. we know we have two looming concerns. one is the debt limit. the fact of the matter is, we have to make sure we address the larger looming issue of the long-term debt. w

i thought the alan simpson and erskin bowles came up in their committee with exactly the right answer. you can tweak it, you can change some small things. i assume the gang of six will come up with something similar. you have to have some combination of cuts and expenses and some revenue enhancements, call it taxes, whatever you want, and i was talking to erskin yesterday. his idea is 25% increasing revenue and three-quarters in terms of cutting expenses and some ratio like that is the solution. how much chaos and destruction to our economy we have to do before everybody in washington starts acting like an adult, coming together and not pandering to small voting blocks but saying, hey, this is in the interest of the country. i'm not going to do a poll, find out where my constituents are and follow them. we need leadership from the front. that's true in congress, it's true to the other end of pennsylvania avenue, it's true on both sides of the aisle, it's true in states. the governor is very proactive and he's steered virginia through some very tough times, but he's done it by making d

alan simpson, one of the more respected members to serve in the united states senate.'s idea without offering a better idea in its place. that's exactly what the majority leader plans to do. we don't need a democratic budget, he said. it would be foolish for to us produce one. we'll just call up this house budget and we'll attack it and with our senate majority, we'll vote it down but we won't produce our own, we won't produce any other alternative, we won't tell the american people what our vision is, what our prospects and plans are for getting this country off the unsustainable debt path we're on and on to the path of pros expairt job creation and sound financial future. -- path of prosperity and job creation and sound financial future. why don't we hear it? because it', as one of their stf members inside that comment to the press, it has -- might cause somebody to be -- object. we might have, as the debt commission warned, "advocacy groups and special interests" who are going to rise up and complain about anything that reduces a dime that they recei receive. i don'

bowles told us, as senator alan simpson told us, as alan greenspan told us, we could have a debt crisis in just a few years. wouldn't that be a disaster, because of our failure to respond to the extraordinary debt that we're incurring, that we have a financial crisis that could put us back into a recession. i hope not. i don't think that's going to happen this year, but i don't know. we have been warned it might. and it's scary. so we're going to continue to talk about this. we're going to continue to use the rules of the senate to try to force this senate to comply with the rules of the united states code. it says we should have a budget. we're now at 757 days. how many more will it be before we have a budget? we're going to continue that battle, and it's going to be, i think, a battle for the financial future of our country. hopefully, we'll be successful. hopefully, somehow, some way as the pressure builds and the american people continue to have their voices heard, that the white house to date has been oblivious to these challenges, that the democratic senate which has been obliviou

and i thought that the alan simpson and bowles came up in their committee with exactly the right answer. you can tweak it, you can change some small things. i assume the gang of six will come out with something very similar. you have to have some combination of cuts and expenses and some revenue enhancements. you can call them taxes, whatever you want. and if you want to say -- i was talking to erskin yesterday. his idea is 25% in increasing revenue and three-quarters in terms of cutting expenses and some ratio like that is the solution. how much chaos and destruction to our economy we have to do before everybody in washington starts acting like an adult, coming together and not up and down -- pandering to small voting blocks and say, look, this is the situation of our country. i'm not going to find our constituents and follow them, we need leadership up front. it's true in pennsylvania, it's true on both sides, it's true in the states. the governor is very active and he's pulled them together because people know where they stand with this governor in virginia and we need that in all of

alan simpson said, i think twobgd be one year -- i think it could be one year. we hope we don't have some new debt crisis. we hope that the people that have been loaning us money don't get so nervous as they've done in greece that our interest rates surge, puts this economy in a dangerous condition and damages our country. i hope that's not happening within two years or one year. wouldn't that be a disaster for us? how do we prevent it? we take action now that changes the debt trajectory of our country, sends a message to the whole world. we get it, we know we can't continue on this path, and we're changing. and the way our congress and government is set up, the way that change occurs is through the adoption of a budget. and, madam president, i remain very disappointed that while the house has produced an historic budget on time, by april 15, we now have not even begun to mark up a budget in the senate. that's irresponsible. and we need to know, and the american people need to know, that the majority leader, if a budget is passed out of committee -- and certainl

alan simpson said, i think maybe one. not when our grandchildren -- i'm talking about now. so i guess what i would just say, madam president, i think it's time for us to go back to regular order. we're trying a lot of different things to confront this crisis we face. it seems to me that our leadership in the senate is desperately seeking to avoid having to do the responsible thing. and that's to stand up and produce a budget. if you aren't prepared to stand before the american people and tell how you think the country ought to be run and where the money ought to be spent and how much ought to be collected, then you're not leading, it seems to me. and i'm very disappointed in the president's leadership. he's been roundly criticized because the only proposal he has sent to us is irresponsible. it in no way comes close, as mr. bowles said, to doing what's necessary to avoid our fiscal nightmare. and that's the path we are headed to. it is not a matter of dispute. we will not reach 10, 15 years down the road spending like we are because we'll have a catastrophe before then. all

that framework is very close in the basic concept to what alan simpson proposed at the end of last year. it's similar to the free-market discussed by the bipartisan center is now. all of them share this common feature which is the recognition that to do this in a way that is sensible it doesn't damage the future growth that is judged fair to people. you need to take a comprehensive mix to the comments of savings and revenues, and people have a different approach to what's balanced but in the president's proposal, it's roughly $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of revenue through tax reform. two of those dollars in spending cuts or spending cuts of all the reduced interest payments over deficits but that's the balance we need and it's important to recognize the hard thing is not deciding how much debt direction you have to do or how low to get the deficit because if you look with the house republicans passed or their present and proposed everybody is recognized the certain magnitude you have to do to restore the sustainability. the challenge is how to do it in a way that doesn't weaken

alan simpson spent nearly two decades in the senate to recognizing the state of wyoming.ommon sense and blunt talk. he said his fellow republicans had rocks forebrains because they refuse to work with democrats. they worked with numbers man on the team. he is a bit more soft-spoken. is equally dedicated to public service. this was his third go at fiscal problems. we hope their time is a charm. bill clinton helped shepherd the 1997 negotiations that led to our last balanced budget. he tackled severe economic challenges for that important system. that may put some slides to illustrate the seriousness of the problem. and none of it includes the commission's recommendations. this is the path of the federal deficit under three different scenarios. the top line is the baseline that the cbo uses. according to that line, the deficit will be only $760 billion. the other two are more realistic. they show what happened if we extend the tax rate. with those, trillion-dollar annual deficits continue to grow over the next decade. what he's been for the national debt -- the total overha

the co-chairs of the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform, erskine bowles and alan simpsonecommendations for balancing the federal budget and improving the economy. they'll be speaking at the investment company institute. live coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this week on booktv on c-span2, francis fukuyama on the origins of government on "after words" conservative blogger andrew breitbart discusses his transformation to a self-described cultural warrior. he's interviewed by armstrong williams. also in this weekend in america aflame, david goldfield on the role of religion leading up to the civil war. look for the complete schedule at booktv.org, and sign up for booktv alert. >> at the annual national rifle association meeting in pittsburgh, nra vice president wayne lapierre called for the resignation of attorney general eric holder. he accused the justice department of mishandling an investigation of gun sales allowing guns to reach mexican drug cartels. this is an hour and a half. >> today amid swirling reports of a growing government scandal, most of t

alan simpson said "i think it could be one year." these are independent people who love america. they're warning us we need to take action now. and the president's budget simply doesn't get it. the american people are not happy with us. they think we're not meeting our responsibilities. are they right? they hammered a lot of big spenders in the last election. were they right? i totally believe that they're right. i totally am of the view there is no way this country should be in the debt situation we are in. it should never ever, ever have happened. i opposed a lot of this spending. i'd like to think i was more vigorous than most in warning against it, but i don't think i've done enough. there's no reason we're spending -- we're borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar we spend. it threatens our future. we will double the entire debt of our country in four years under the president's watch. when he leaves office, completes his four-year term, he will have doubled the entire debt of america, and we're on a course, it continues to be dangerous. now as we know, budget chairman, senato

on c-span, erskine bowles and alan simpson will discuss the budget deficits entitlement and tax policy live at kennecott 30 a.m. eastern. also at kennecott 30 on c-span3, -- also at 10:30 on c-span3, the future a military reserves. >> congratulations to all the winners of this year's studentcam competition. you can't view the videos on our website at c-span.org. if you would like an early start on next year's competition, the thing is the u.s. constitution. create a video about why it is important to you. but for details starting august 1. >> president obama went to new york today for a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial. the trip: the's mission that killed osama bin laden. before the ceremony, the president visited firefighters at the midtown buyer house which lost 15 men on 9/11, more than any other fire house in new york city. [applause] >> the main reason i came here is because i heard the food was pretty good. [laughter] mayor -- mayor guiliani performed heroic acts 10 years ago i wanted to come up here to thank you. this is a -- this is symbolic of your extraordinary sac

. >> alan simpson criticized a a are a today at the time that chances -- and changes are needed to keept zarate para -- appears aarp where today. the commission presented a report to president obama in december with recommendations to address the nation's fiscal challenges. this is about an hour and 10 minutes. restore reason to the fiscal debate. i think you are and for an informative and enjoyable session. >> thank you very much. we are excited deal of and the commissioner general today. they courageously will have the greatest impact on the american of economy than any issue we face today. when president obama signed the executive order creating the commission on fiscal responsibility, he said they are taking on the impossible. they are going to try to restore reason to the fiscal debate. come up with answers they did. they backed the answers was straight talk about the deficit problem and the sacrifices that will be needed. they refuse to work with democrats. the democrats they worked with, the numbers man is irksome bowles. this was his third go at serious fiscal problems. we hope

then alan simpson comes along as a co-chair of the dead commission and says i tell my republican friendst we have paid for every war including the revolutionary war except for iraq and afghanistan. then he says at a later time that even ronald reagan, th hero e hero of so many republicans raise taxes 11 times. you sound like a very reasonable person. i wonder if you, like speaker john boehner and everyone else, that there is no way that we can solve this debt crisis with any increase in taxes. i do not like paying taxes. but at the history and various republicans alike reagan and simpson saying we have done it when we needed to makes me wonder if you are in that era of ideological crowd or if you have a more reasonable stance, that everybody needs to have a mutual shared sacrifice. guest: i do believe that we need to bring in more tax revenue. that is a separate argument then raising tax rates. we could lower the rates, as low as 25% as the top marginal rate but that would require getting rid of certain deductions and tax credits that some people view as raising taxes if you are getting

president obama's own commissi commission, simpson-bowles commission, i think is alan simpson that said this as their issued their report, he said there's no more they can to bring home. the biggest day. i think is exactly right. -- the page is dead. when they see these numbers they see the stickers on fox and cnn about theinterest payments, and just rolling by thusands of dollars a second, type of thing. we got to make some change. >> you mentioned scott walker. what is the situation in wisconsin mean to you? wisconsin, virginia, very different states, but what does the experience we've been watching in wisconsin mean to you? >> it means that there really are big battles in the country between the left and the rght. and for there to be significant results gained and restoring fiscal responsibility at both the state and federal level don't have to be some very tough battles. and there were two issues really in wisconsin. one was the walker budget to address the $3.7 billion deficit similar to what had in virginia, and i think largely the citizens were with him. they got it he was very c

ers kin bowles -- erskine bowles an alan simpson, appointed by the president, they wrote a document they to us as their remarks through the budget committee that said this nation is facing the most predictable economic crisis in its history. in other words, they're saying the path we are on is so unsustainable that it's easy to predict that we're facing and heading toward a financial crisis. and there's no higher duty, no higher responsibly for members of congress of the united states than to protect the people of this country from a foreseeable danger. when asked by chairman conrad when we might have such a crisis, mr. bowles said in his opinion it could be two years, a little less, a little more. a financial crisis. something like greece is what he's referring to, another recession, a surge of inflation, a surge in interest rates. that's the kind of thing he's talking about. senator simpson, the co-chairman of the commission said, i think it could be one year. the s&p 500 bond evaluators have warned they could downgrade our debt. in fact, moody's in december warned that they could redu

here on c-span, erskine bowles and alan simpson will discuss the budget cut deficits, entitlements, and tax policy live at kennecott 30 a.m. eastern. also at kennecott 30 on c-span3 -- also at 10:30 on c-span3, the future a military reserves. the house took up the first of two measures of dealing with offshore oil drilling leases. yesterday's bill directs the obama administration to make lease sales for drilling off the shores of virginia and the gulf of mexico. a companion bill is expected to be debated next week. this part of yesterday's debate is a little less than one hour. the chair: the gentleman from colorado is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this bill is the first step for republicans to bring a new energy policy to this country, the american energy initiative. mr. lamborn: look at this chart. it says it all. under barack obama an had -- and his regulators, the average price of gasoline in this country has gone up from $1.84 a gallon when he took office, to just under $4. under his watch, gasoline has more than doubled. we need more supply and everyone a

all this talk about how to deal with the big crisis that erskine bowles and alan simpson are talking about without medicare is nonsense. i think the 2012 election will take care of itself. it is about a year-and-a-half from now. i would think that we will hopefully have done something significant in this area by then, and the american people can decide if they want to punish both sides for having done that, because it will take both sides to do it. >> i would like to follow up on that. could you discuss the political challenges for republicans when it comes to reforming medicare, given that the democrats have a pretty easy message and something that has legs, which is that the republicans want to take medicare away? >> when president clinton is saying what he did yesterday, when congressman hoyer, the no. 2 house democrat is saying what he did yesterday, who is their argument with? it is amongst themselves. everybody in this town knows you cannot do anything about the single biggest problem we have without impacting medicare. the good news is for current medicare beneficiaries, we ar

alan simpson and former wyoming senator and commission cochair spoke at a meeting of the investment companyinstitute this morning here in washington, d.c.. >> the budget as you've discussed is split between mandatory spending and discretionary spending which includes defense, foreign aid, and hundreds of domestic programs. how much of what you have in mind in your plan depends upon cuts in discretionary spending and frankly what impact would that have on american's quality of life? >> well, i think it's 12% that when you chop around in the discretionary budget and don't forget the biggest part of the discretionary budget is defense. it's $700 billion, it's huge. content conrad is a -- kent conrad is a warrior and an amazing man, but when he has been doing his work -- he's been doing this for 20 years -- we just say the myths, the greatest myth of all is social security, that somebody stole $2.5 trillion, stole it, that's right, cheap corrupt politicians stole $2.5 trillion, the reserving the social security. the greatest mist in social security is this, hang on tight, it went to the aarp. i

who cochaired the debt commission, being appointed by president obama, said, along with senator alan simpson, his cochair, in a written statement to the budget committee that this nation has never faced so -- such a predictable economic crisis. in other words. the deficit levels we are operating with are so high and they create such danger to the economy that we have to get off this path, is what they told us. every expert has said we are on an unsustainable path. many people have thought, well, the problem we're dealing with today places a burden on or children and our grandchildren, and, therefore, it's removed to some degree the immediacy of the problem. but that's not what mr. bowles said. in his testimony before the budget committee just a month or two ago, he said that we could have a financial crisis, when asked by senator conrad, our chairman, when, he said two years, maybe less, maybe more. senator simpson said i think it could be one year. so we are taking a risk with the american economy. this has been echoed by moody's bond ratings. it's been echoed by the s&p, who warned that ou

simpson bowles budget. the others don't. it does -- to show the different vision and the final compromise if there ever is one, they raise an interesting question and i want to ask stewart and alan, you would cut taxes and you would cut spending a lot to get fiscal sustainability. what if you can't get those spending cuts. which would you prefer? fiscal sustainability or giving ground on your tax returns? >> we have revenues settle down to 19.9% of gdp which is where you were when you enacted the end tea spread or the bush tax cuts expire for everyone. we are a little above the historical average. the choice you propose is not a choice at all. you have to service that eventually. it is true you cannot get the spending cuts that revenue is the only alternative. it is important to emphasize spending cuts. >> if you say we can't get spending cuts with tax increases that is completely on the spiral we have been on so long. >> you have a very small spending relative to the other plan. if you can't get those spending cuts, would you rather have bigger deficits? >> i would rather a in for the spending cuts because of the fact is spending cuts are essential because of you don't achieve

his cochair, alan simpson, said it could be one year. so we could have another debt financial crisis that could put us back into a recession as a result of our fiscal irresponsibility as soon as two years. according to erskine bowles, accomplished businessman. president clinton's chief of staff, chosen by president obama to head the commission. that's what he told us in the budget committee just a few weeks ago. how serious is he? well, our highway spending this year is about $40 billion. last year, this country spent in interest on our debt $200-plus billion, five times the highway bill, just for example. and we need to do something about our infrastructure and highways in america. i am really worried about it. i see the majority leader. if he would like to -- mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i will dwreeld him if he -- session significance know he has many things on his agenda. keep us all under control. mr. reid: i appreciate, mr. president, very much my frents friend yielding to meevment