alan simpson and eric bowles.e represented for nearly 20 years and rose to the post of the public wit and took the lead on contentious issues such as social security reform. as white house chief of staff under president clinton mr. bowles helped broker the budget deal that paved the way for the nation's first balanced budget in 30 years. we have fought president obama for establishing this commission and especially credit him for choosing these two great americans as co-chairs will. they've already demonstrated the orie team and are leading the way on a bipartisanship that we so desperately need. who better to direct the discussion than leslie stahl of cbs news. please welcome alan simpson bowles and leslie. [applause] ♪ >> hello, everyone, thanks for coming. first i want to ask alan, how is your me? [laughter] [inaudible] [laughter] [inaudible] erskine hasn't been sympathetic at all. [laughter] >> i durham all over washington. >> can now we have dispensed with the funnies because our topic this kind of heavy. so,

former republican senator alan simpson, and erskine bowles, bill clinton's former chief of staff. it's a "fox news sunday" exclusive. then, the debate over financial reform heads for a senate showdown. we'll talk with the senate g.o.p. leader, mitch mcconnell. and in arizona, should authorities be able to check the i.d. of anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant? we'll ask our sunday regulars whether this crackdown goes too far. all right now on "fox news sunday." and hello again from fox news in washington. the president's debt commission holds its first meeting tuesday and his job couldn't be tougher. finding some way both parties will accept to cut the trillion-dollar deficit that is stretched to the end of this decade. joining us now are the two cochairs of the commission, former republican senator alan simpson and erskine bowles, who was chief of staff to bill clinton. gentlemen, let's start with the size of the problem. according to the non-partisan congressional budget office, under the obama budget plan, by 2020, the national debt will be 90% of the u.s. economy, th

the co-chairs alan simpson and erskine bowles were with us. is this the way to go? is it going to make a dent? >> congress has extreme difficulty making progress on a single front at a time, much less multiple fronts simultaneously. this commission is not a statutory commission, therefore that means that congress didn't buy in and there's no guaranteed vote. it's got a goal to try to be able to balance the budget without interest by 2015. it also needs to focus on how to stabilize debt to gdp at a sustainable level. and most importantly, it needs to engage the american people with the facts, the truth and the tough choices. and we'll see whether it will do that. >> let me ask you this, david. everybody talks about the tax plan and there's all this debate. you know, few people like to pay taxes, obviously. i mean, but everybody know that we pay taxes for the health of the country, and to create services. but do you believe that the tax revenue that's being spoken about right now in terms of race raizing taxes on the highest earnings is enough money? is that really go

. >> alan simpson, erskine bowles good luck. a little straight talk.next, the top two democratic power houses in washington jock kiing for the same job and president bush's upcoming memoir is creating buzz with the late night crowd. >> top ten thoughts, number ten what's the memoir. number nine, is 36 pages enough. number 36, how cool is it that i was president. come on, up high. number two, do you spell nuclear with two os or ew. and shouldn't cheney be the one writing this. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you'll love. girl: this is good for my heart? chef: you noticed. [cheering] announcer: campbell's healthy request. i own a small law firm and i'm a much better lawyer than i am an accountant. so, when i wasn't getting paid as quickly as i would like, i did what came naturally. i threatened to sue. turns out, that's not the best way to keep clients. so i went looking for answers online at openforum.com it's a place where i can talk with other small business owners like thomas and connie and learn about tools like

please welcome alan simpson, erskine bowles, and lesley stahl. [applause] >> hello, everyone. anks for coming. first i want to ask alan, how is your niece? -- have is your knee? it is new, and it is seven weeks old. it is healing. i have not had a drink. erskine has not been sympathetic at all. >> now that we have dispensed with the funnies, our topic is kind of heavy. senator simpson, let me just are often ask you whether the word "doable" is going to be factored into your deliberation. if it becomes pretty clear that there is a solution that is obvious, will you just toss it out there? or will the idea of whether this can fly politically be woven in to everything you do? >> let me just thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me. we worked on social security. he is more than all the things you see. there is a deaconess to him called patriotism. that is where he springs from -- there is a deepness to him. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i have a real deal for you. i said sure, joe, i have heard that for 30 years from you. he said my co-chai

former clinton white house chief of staff bowles and former republican senator alan simpson. congress must act on the commission proposals at the end of the year, and when i say must act, we did not pass statutory commission. i was for a statutory commission, we did not pass it. president obama did what he could do in the face of that failure to set up a commission, ask both majority leader reid and speaker pelosi and myself -- i schedule legislation -- have pledged that we will put on the floor between december 1st and december 31st the results of the commission. now, the results of the commission are not guaranteed. as you probably know, you need 14 out of 18 votes on the commission to make a recommendation. that's an extraordinarily high bar. whether it can be reached given the membership of the commission is problematic. now, as you'll recall, the greenspan commission had great difficulty in 1982 in reaching a conclusion as well. in fact, it was jim baker in the white house that finally got a conclusion reached so that we could address social security. to get to that poin

the problem was but it did not come up with a solution what advice would you get erskine bowles and alan simpson as they start out on this committee? >> let's talk about what happened and what did not. the medicare thing lost game because when i lost -- when i took all the is, medicare was projected to go broke in 1999. social security, the pension fund you wanted, and it never has been a funded pension system. we added only five years to that. the reason we did not get social security reform is, the chairman of the well look -- the ways and means committee and i had just about reached the deal where we would slow down the cost of living increase for social security and make them more in line with the real cost of living, at least for upper income people, we would do more for that, in return for which we would make available through tax incentives the opportunity to build a savings account top of social security, and we had worked the numbers out. we thought it would take about 75 minutes -- it would take us out 75 years. as far as i could determine, it was the only issue that newt gingrich and

participants include cochairs of that commission, erskine bowles and alan simpson. michigan. terry on the independent line. caller: some of the things i find ironic is the idea that all they are talking about is fraud and things like this, but some of this is insider-trading also, isn't it? host: do you think it is? caller: martha stewart was thrown in jail because she move money out when she found out it was going bad. you sell me a stock, i am long run it and you are on the short side but you have more information than i have. isn't that insider trading? it is not just the federal government that we have to watch and have trouble with. this goes from federal, to state, all the way down to your local governments. in some of our areas around here, you can buy your property and own it but then they dictate the size of the house you have to build. so, we've got 300 or $400,000 homes, or what they say is 300,000 or $400,000 homes, and how are they supposed to pay for that and by $40,000 cars and people pay for it working at places like wal-mart making maybe $9 or $10 an hour? h

revenues, it has 18 members, 10 democrats and eight republicans, bipartisan cochairs, erskine bowles and alan simpson, the senate republican whip. the rope for will be submitted by december 1 of this year and importantly, the commission is coupled with firm commitments from congressional leaders to bring the panel's recommendations to a vote before the 111th congress adjourns, if 14 of the eight team members can agree. with these commitments, president's executive order is as close as we could get to the statutory commission senator gregg and i have proposed. it is going to take a lot of hard work and real dedication and difficult choices, but i am hopeful that this commission will come up with a bipartisan plan this year to address this nation's long-term budget crisis. with that, i wouldn't turn to senator gregg to make his opening remarks and then turned to individual members for their spirit again, i want to say to senator gregg, it's we appreciate the leadership you have given this country. we could not ask for more. >> thank you, senator conrad, and thank you for those kind words, and there rec

revenues, it has 18 members, 10 democrats and eight republicans, bipartisan cochairs, erskine bowles and alan simpson, the senate republican whip. the rope for will be submitted by december 1 of this year and importantly, the commission is coupled with firm commitments from congressional leaders to bring the panel's recommendations to a vote before the 111th congress adjourns, if 14 of the eight team members can agree. with these commitments, president's executive order is as close as we could get to the statutory commission senator gregg and i have proposed. it is going to take a lot of hard work and real dedication and difficult choices, but i am hopeful that this commission will come up with a bipartisan plan this year to address this nation's long-term budget crisis. with that, i wouldn't turn to senator gregg to make his opening remarks and then turned to individual members for their spirit again, i want to say to senator gregg, it's we appreciate the leadership you have given this country. we could not ask for more. >> thank you, senator conrad, and thank you for those kind words, and there rec

and i met today with erskine bowles, who was the head of the small business administration under president clinton, as well as alan simpson, former united states senator from wyoming who chaired this commission. and we're going to start in just a couple of weeks our inquiry and debate on what to do about our national debt. and it is one that's long overdue. but i think if we're honest about this, we realize it will take some thoughtful consideration and some time to come up with an approach that really deals with the debt in a humane and sensible way but doesn't stop our recovery in this recession. so we're tasked with doing that. senator baucus is a member of that commission as well. we'll spend some time together talking about it i'm sure. and we have to report by the end of the year. in the meantime, we'll be watching the appropriations bills that come through here to cut the waste out of the spending, if there is some, in some of these agencies and i'm sure we can find some. in the meantime, let's not really make the unemployed across america the vick tills of this debate. -- the victims of this debate. let us give th

please welcome alan simpson, erskine bowles, and lesley stahl. [applause] >> hello, everyone. anks for coming. first i want to ask alan, how is your niece? -- have is your knee? it is new, and it is seven weeks old. it is healing. i have not had a drink. erskine has not been sympathetic at all. >> now that we have dispensed with the funnies, our topic is kind of heavy. senator simpson, let me just are often ask you whether the word "doable" is going to be factored into your deliberation. if it becomes pretty clear that there is a solution that is obvious, will you just toss it out there? or will the idea of whether this can fly politically be woven in to everything you do? >> let me just thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me. we worked on social security. he is more than all the things you see. there is a deaconess to him called patriotism. that is where he springs from -- there is a deepness to him. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i have a real deal for you. i said sure, joe, i have heard that for 30 years from you. he said my co-chai