>> lehrer: alice rivlin, you served in the fed.ou watched it for many years as has professor galbraith. he says a whole new culture is needed and it can't happen with the current chairman. you don't see it. >> i think a lot of changes are necessary, and some of them are in the process of being made. we have a bill from barney frank's committee that will -- >> lehrer: in the house. >> in the house -- that would change the regulatory structure rather considerably. i don't agree with all of it. but i think bernanke is an experienced person who was a student of the great depression, had handled himself extremely well under fire, as jamie galbraith said, and is the right person to go on leading the fed now. >> lehrer: professor galbraith, if not bernanke, who? or do you think in terms like that? that, well, there is a better person out there who could do the job? or is it what you say, a cultural problem, not an individual problem? >> i think there are capable people. there are capable people in the federal reserve system now who would

economist james galbraith and former fed vice chair alice rivlin debate his record. >> brown: and the relevance in our time of john maynard keynes: "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman has a somewhat off-beat explanation. ♪ my general theory made quite an impression i transformed the econ profession, you know me, modesty say it loud and say it clear, we're all keynesians now. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "pbs newshour."

economisjames galbraith and formered vice chair alice rivlin date his record. >> brown: and the levance in our time of hn maynard keynes: "newshour" ecomics correspondent paul solman haa someat off-beat explanation. ♪ my general theory made quite a impression i transformed e econ profsion, you know me, modesty say it loud and say itlear, we're l keynesians now. >> lehrer: that's alahead on tonight's "pbs newshr." major funding for e pbs nehour is provided by: >> this is the enge that coects abundant grain from the american heartla to haran's best selling whole wheat, whe keeping 60 billi pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. bnsf, the enginehat connects us. monsanto producing more conserving more. improvinfarmers' lives. that's sustainablegriculture. moret producemoreconrvemore.com. >> chevron. this is the power human engy. and by toyota. vestas. grant thornton. and byhe alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, tenology, and improved economic perfmance and financial literacy in the 21 century. and with the ongng support of the institutions and foundations. and... thi

with that, i defer to alice rivlin who really knows something about this. >> i think should introduce people. bill, former republican chairman of the house budget committee. alice rivlin's resume is too long to go through but the relevant thing is she is democrat and founding mother of the congressional budget office, one of the few institutions in washington that seems to function as it was intended. alice, i am wondering if you could speak on what makes this deficit reduction set up proposal different from all the other deficit reduction set of proposals to which your name has been affixed over the last 25 years? >> more than 25. i think it is the urgency of the problem and shift in focus from the deficit to the debt. obviously they are related. the debt is the sum total of the deficits. but those of us who have been talking about deficit reduction for a long time have pointed out that in the future we are on an unsustainable course. we have made promises under medicare and medicaid and social security that on any reasonable set of assumptions will exceed the revenue available from

i have a specific question for alice rivlin and jim nussle. all the panelists have said that it is essential that all issues be on the table and trying to figure out what you do about the deficit in the debt. for alice rivlin, on the question of medicare savings, what are areas that he would look at that congress has not looked at already in trying to finance health care reform and for jim nussle, would republicans seriously consider raising taxes as part of an overall solution? does it seem likely? >> do you want to start, alice? >> i think that the first line of defense on rising medical care of costs is making the system more efficient comma and medicare is actually an extreme case of large and efficient medical care system because it is a fee-for-service system that does not emphasize managed care. i think we have need to change the reimbursement rates in medicare, so that they reward more efficient kinds of care, and yet, and discourage treatments that don't work and excessive treatment. that is going to take time and it is going to take

i have a specific question for alice rivlin and jim nussle. all the panelists have said that it's essential that all issues be on the table trying to figure out what to do with the deficit and debt. for alice rivlin, on the question of medicare savings, what are areas that you would look at that congress hasn't looked at already to try to finesse health care reform? and for jim nussle, would republicans seriously consider raising taxes as part of an overall solution? it doesn't seem likely. >> do you want to start, alice? >> i think that the first line of defense on rising medical care costs is making this system more efficient. and medicare is actually an extreme case of art and efficient medical care system, because it is a fee for service system that is not emphasized, managed care. i think we can change the reimbursement rates and medicare so that they reward more efficient kinds of care and get -- and discourage treatment that don't work and extensive treatment. that's going to take time. it's going to take -- it's going to take effort. a

i am alice rivlin and it's my pleasure to be talking to david wessel about his book, "in fed we trust" been bernanke's war on the great panic which actually has a second subtitle as i read it. not every book has to subtitles, how the federal reserve became the fourth bank branch of government. it's a fascinating book. >> guest: thank you. >> host: i loved it and i think i should make that clear. at the outset you take the readers step by step through the crisis of the last couple of years from eyes of the chairman of the federal reserve ben bernanke was so the book lets you see what ben and his colleagues were thinking, would the minister, why they did what they did, the internal tension and uncertainty and how they were learning along the way. you are a very good translator federal speak by the way and i've been known to speak fed speed calvo i tried not to. [laughter] the last couple of years were a wild life at the fed and it's not necessarily over yet. i was watching closely during this period but i learned a lot from this book. there's other books about the crisis, quite a few of

participants include former congressional budget office director, alice rivlin and douglas faults-e kendrick-eakin. and as congress considers reauthorization of the elementary and secondary school act, educators and activists and government officials discussed ways to eliminate the so-called achievement gap. live coverage at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. "washington journal" continues. host: matthew levitt is the counterterrorism director for the washington institute for near east policy come here to talk was about what is becoming known as homegrown terrorism, particularly in the wake of the five young men arrested in pakistan in the last week or so. reports from pakistan indicate that that country's judiciary will not release those five suspects to the united states. what is behind all of this increase, or is there really an increase and what is called homegrown terrorism? guest: we are seeing the product of a radicalization process that for a while we were noticing in europe and has now come to the united states. for the past couple of years, people have been saying that europe is very d

alice rivlin right there. in greenberg of the current director also came from brookings. so did his immediate predecessor peter orszag who is here with us as director of the omb pricing goal them now because of their contributions as dollars and public servants are pertinent to what the president will be speaking about shortly. but i could just as easily cite their experts who have worked here and in the government to education and health care, infrastructure, innova tion, a smart growth, our power, a climate change, non-proliferation, a piece. those subjects of course, are all on the president's agenda. today and every day. but no matter what else he is dealing with, he is always thinking about the troubles that the sapped the american economy and what it will take to fix them. for us, that is what he might call the all hands on deck challenge. the week before last thomas dollars from four of the research programs joined the business committee for a two day brainstorming session benefited from the participation of the former colleague larry summers as well as caramels gu

all you have to do is look at the history, auction to alice rivlin, the first c.b.o. director about the accuracy of c.b.o. in estimating anything when it comes to health care. they've missed it every way. they have only got one wrong by saying it was going to cost more. every other one they said it's going to cost less than what it did. so every patient, every patient in some way or another is going to suffer under this bill. that's what we should be worried about. we shouldn't worry about whether the president wins or we win. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. coburn: i thank the president for the accommodation of the time, and i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. baucus: how much time is remaining in this hour? the presiding officer: eight and a half minutes. mr. baucus: mr. president, i'd yiek to yield three minutes to the senator from massachusetts. i spoke with senator sessions. he has very kindly -- he was very gracious and agreed that senator shaheen from new hampshire sp

alice rivlin, right there, in green. the current director of the cbo, doug elmendorf, also came from brookings. so did his immediate predecessor, peter orszag, who is here with us today in his capacity as the director of omb. i single them out because their contributions, both as scholars, and as public servants, are pertinent to what the president will be speaking about shortly. but i could just as easily cite our experts who have worked here, and in government, on education and health care, infrastructure, and innovation, smart growth, and smart power, climate change, and non-proliferation, war and peace. those subjects of course are all on the president's agenda today and every day. but no matter what else he's dealing with, he is always, always, thinking about the troubles that beset the american economy, and what it will take to fix them. for us, as for him, that is what he might call, an all hands on deck challenge. week before last scholars from four of our research programs joined leaders of the business communit