we are very grateful to alice rivlin for gracing us with her presence today. lice is one of our most distinguished scholars at brookings. it is not often that we have an opportunity to invite her to our foreign policy podium. she was in the congressional budget office as director of the economic studies program. she is now a senior fellow in that program and a visiting professor at the public policy n thatute at georgetown deals with budgets and deficits that does not -- there is a commission that deals with budgets and deficits that does not include alice rivlin. there was a commission that came out with the important recommendations on the deficit, which included recommendations on cutting the defense budget. alice is the author of many books. a modest them is a series that she coedited called "restoring fiscal sanity." that is something we will try to do today. bob is also a senior fellow in the form policy program. he is one of the preeminent experts and commentators on u.s. foreign policy. a historian by trading -- by training and proud of it, he is the au

alice rivlin has held the two top jobs in the federal government at either end of pennsylvania avenuedressing budget issues, the congressional budget office director of the office of management and budget. less well-known perhaps outside of this building is that she's been a senior fellow at brookings off and on for four decades and she's been a member of both the presidents commission on fiscal responsibility and cochair of the bipartisan policies debt reduction task force, with senator pete domenici. to her right is senator ivan bayh over the last figures has been senator until last week. and before that was a governor for eight years and it's hard to imagine looking at alice that she's been here for four decades the 90s but public office without bob. he started shortly after he graduated from the university of virginia law school. >> i value are going to say high school. [laughter] to his right literally and figuratively is ron haskins, other senior fellow at brookings who served on the maturity house ways and means committee staff during the years when newt gingrich was speaker of

alice rivlin to my right who who is help the two top jobs in the federal government at either end ofnsylvania avenue addressing budget issues, the congressional budget office and the director of the office of management and budget. less well-known perhaps outside of this building is that she has been a senior fellow here at brookings often off and on for oardec it's and she has been a member recently of both the president's commission on fiscal responsibility and reform and cochair of the bipartisan policy debt reduction task force with senator pete domenici. to her right is senator evan bayh who for the last 12 years has been senator from indiana intel just last week, and before that was a governor for eight years and it is hard to imagine just as it is hard to imagine looking at alice that she has been here for four decades and it is hard to imagine he has been a public office for that long but he started surely after he graduated from the university of virginia law school. >> i thought you were going to say high school. [laughter] speak to his right literally and figuratively is r

the by spartan policy center commission that was headed by former clinton director alice rivlin and budget republican chairman pete domenici. both of those plus a panel put together by the national academy of sciences the year before looked carefully at this. they concluded we need more revenues than the revenues we would get under current policy. >> we do a lot of spending through the tax code. people think of tax cuts as just universally they benefit everyone broadly. but we have a lot of special government spending, special interest spending done through the tax code. we could fill in those gaps, fill in those holes in the tax code. raise more revenue in an economically efficient way. >> ifill: reality. thank you both very much. >> lehrer: still to come on the newshour, senators udall and alexander debate the filibuster; the stalemate in ivory coast; innocence after 30 years in prison; and video poems about the haiti earthquake. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman in our newsroom. >> holman: the u.s. navy has relieved captain owen honors from command of the aircraf

alice rivlin and i worked all proposals.ied to come together to find a way to fix some of the problems to address our health care problems and our fiscal problems. i know we continue to build bipartisan support for policies to reduce costs and promote patient satisfaction. it is an honor to welcome our first witness, rick foster. his unbiased reports have proved difficult to square with the claims made by the law's components. after his testimony, we'll hear from three witnesses -- the newly confirmed secretary of health services from wisconsin. he has served as a medicaid director under the previous administration. he will give us a sense of what the impact of the law is on the survey -- on the states. next, someone who made a compelling case in the consequences of this blot. we will hear from the center for budget and policy priorities. paul has an impressive background and i welcome his thoughts. i look forward to today's discuss it. i thank our witnesses for starting early. all like to turn to represented van holland for

when alice rivlin, a well-known democrat, from a think tank, when she said that action needs to be takenn medicare, then you will have bipartisan action. host: political posted a story by someone who was traveling with the president. are we seeing an effort toward transparency with his religious -- with the president's religious beliefs? guest: i think it is good to see the president professing faith. i think it reassures of americans. -- a lot of americans. i do not know the soul of the man, but i think it reassures people if they can believe it is sincere. host: you indicated this earlier, but the constitutionality ruled that the house is going to implement, making sure that each bill is presented in the house, is somewhere included in a constitution. how do you deal with that ... guest: it is not easy. -- how do you deal with that? guest: it is not easy. we are not a pure democracy. we are conitutional republic. they wanted two houses of representation. they wanted one that would immediately reflect the citizens, which was the house. and then there was the senate that could slow thing

alice rivlin and i am commissioned co-authors of reforms that are innovative, that put medicare on the way toward solvency. she and pete domenici and their other -- i forgot what they call that thing, the domenici of rivlin commission, they advocated medicare reforms imposed on the list of solvent b. let me just tell you what the malpractice on medicare. i'm not suggesting congress is going to propose this, what people like me have been saying is let's guarantee current seniors are going to get medicare benefits the coming to town. people near retirement as well. my bill says 55 and about here in the is currently designed. but if you're under 55 or so, it's not going to be there for you. you will have the severely and deeply rationed medicare seniors at that time if we keep this program going as it is in the new law puts a lot of these rationing mechanisms in place. >> my guess would be if you put a question to the american public that even today, with all of those facts about the looming crisis which are real and if they were under dead, which you favor reductions in medicare spending