host: now on your screen is the top democrat on the budget committee, representative chris van hollen of maryland. congressman van hollen, we appreciate you taking the calls from our viewers. guest: good to be with you. host: what is the message you got from douglas elmendorf of the cbo when he testified? guest: he made two critical points -- the economy remains very fragile. we need to be careful not to do anything that would harm that very fragile economy. that means no rapid, and deep cuts in important investments. the second point he is made is we need to come together now to develop a sustained, predictable path toward deficit reduction over a longer term. his charts made clear you need to do that in a balanced way. that means we have to do it by reasonable and smart cuts over time, but also additional revenue, and that is a bipartisan, balanced approach taken by other conditions in terms of their framework. host: we will show a little bit of his opening statement yesterday and did your impressions. [video clip] >> the economic effects of extending all of the expiring tax provisi

in the end, the congress has the final say. >> the comments of representative chris van hollen a democrat from suburban maryland here in the d.c. area, and chairman paul ryan. he will be delivering cpac conference remarks with his remarks to get under way at 7:30 eastern time, and you can check out the scheduling information on our website cspan.org. today, we are looking at corporate tax policy and hearing from a number of executives including fedex and time warner and executives saying they would be in favor of all tax benefits in exchange to lowering the corporate tax rate to 25%. they testifieded on on the panel before the house ways and means committee today which is the chief tax writing committee in the house of representatives all of the witnesses who testified today described the u.s. tax code as something that imposes challenges to businesses, because of the complexity and uncertainty, and michael frit is with fedex and also mark shicktell with time warner school, and also an associate professor joining us from m.i.t., and also, an investor from ernst & young. and diane black is

but no less a theology. >> and paul ryan, republican of wisconsin and the ranking member, and chris van hollen. we are in the heat of a presidential campaign here, and a primary fight on the republican side and i want to ask more about the serial issues. rick santorum talked about a phoney theology, as he put it, that the president has, and he went on after that speech to stand by the remarks. here's what he had to say. >> the president has come to owe pressing religious freedom, and it's a position of his values over a church who has very clear theological reasons for opposing what the obama administration is forcing on them. >> chairman ryan, let me start with you. is that what we can expect from republicans in this campaign, as a faith-based broadside attack against the president's leadership? >> i could not hear all the click from rick santorum, but what we are getting from the white house, it's not an issue about contraception, it's an issue that reveals a political philosophy that the president is showing that basically treats the constitutional rights as if they are revokable privileges

that's coming up with house budget chairman paul ryan and congressman chris van hollen, coming up thist the press." stay tuned after the program for a special "press pass" conversation. we ta talk to tony award-winning performer brian stokes mitchell, only here on nbc 4. >> thank you, david. he actually gets him to sing. "press pass" is going to be good. >> nice. >> that's going to do it for this edition of "news 4 today." thank you so much for joining us, everybody. >> and wake up tomorrow morning with "news 4 this morning" at [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution,

with politics and the economy top of mind, paul ryan and ranking member chris van hollen will be among guests on "meet the press." >>> when "nbc nightly news" continues, some health news about an academy award winning actress. >>> and after years of decline, why are so many teenagers dying behind the wheel? >>> and she zips around faster than folks half her age. what we can all learn from her. >>> tonight, gas prices across the country higher for this time of year than ever before. the average price of a gallon of gas in america is $3.54. that's an increase of 16 cents a gallon in just the past month. experts say we could hit $4.25 a gallon by late april. >>> now, to some startling new numbers for parents concerned about their kids getting behind the wheel. the road accidents which have been the leading cause of death for the teens are on the rise again after eight years of decline. what's behind the increase? we get the story from mike taibbi. >> reporter: mary louise picard sat in today as her twin daughters took a driving lesson. >> to keep them safe. it's really important. sorry. >

with politics and the economy top of mind, paul ryan and ranking member chris van hollen will be among guests on "meet the press." >>> when "nbc nightly news" continues, some health news about an academy award winning actress. >>> and why are so many teenagers dying behind the wheel? >>> and she's more active than people half her age, what we can learn from her. that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor. [ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the people that made the machines. i had such an amazing group of doctors and nurses, it would just make such a complete picture of why i'm sitting here today. ♪ [ herb ] from the moment we walked in the front door, just to see me -- not as a cancer patient, but as a person that had been helped by their work. i was just blown a

house of representatives and sponsored by congressman paul ryan, and ranking republican member chris van hollen and let's begin with this debate this hour that continues to percolate here in washington, d.c. and around the country. from the "washington post" seeking to stoke the political ver nublability of the president, the republican lawmakers seeking to ram up the pressure on the white house over a controversial new health care rule that critics say violates religious liberty. it would repeal the legislation unless the white house relents, and dovetailing writes the "washington post" that it is a rule that requires employers regardless of the religious after fill yagtss to provide contraceptive and other birth control provisions as part of the employees health care plans, and it was opposed to by a number of catholics on the president's staff. we will get more background on this with margaret tallen who has a piece with the white house angle from bloomberg news. first the speaker of the house as he went to the floor earlier today with this statement. >> my colleagues, in recent days, americ

chris van hollen should agree on that because you know, it's wrong for him to disagree on it. i think salaries should be frozen one more year. thank you. annapolis, maryland. >> i'm calling from college park, maryland. sean duffy is misrepresenting the situation. it turns out that the lower paid federal employees are being paid more than private sector employees. but upper paid federal employees are not. they're paid less than public sector employees. so to treat them all the same and want to freeze their wages is unfair and unrealistic. i think we should have the truth from representative duffy. >> calling from westchester, pennsylvania, my name's michael. and i think that the great idea, in can the fa, i would take it a step further and ask that they take a 10% pay cut when they don't -- when they fail to meet a balanced budget. i think it's ridiculous that think that they should not be penalized for doing their job properly especially when you consider that most of the time they're not even at congress. they're off on other you know, tasks outside of congress instead of foc

we pass defender chris van hollen leadership that failed by one vote in the senate. he did not succeed because they didn't have 60 democrats. if we think about this to the public and mr. allison is going to address that, we believe the pressure will be on even without a law because shareholders, employee customers will want to know what the political contributions are to compare. i yield the floor to the distinguished element for maryland the ranking democrat on the budget committee. he serves on the conference for the federal tax cut and he is the author of the disclosed that from the previous conference and has reintroduced it today. >> thank you, leader pelosi and thank you for your leadership on the disclosed that as well as making sure the american people get a fair shake and i am pleased to be here with my colleagues, mr. israel and mr. allison. we are announcing the disclosed that today. the american people deserve a political system that is fair, transparent and accountable and the political system is fair, transparent and accountable, we believe that will re

. >>> on our next washington journal we'll talk with rob woodall and chris van hollen about the latest congressional budget office report. and later, robert jones of the public religious research institute joins us to discuss politics and religion. "washington journal" airs each morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >>> republicans have introduced bills in the house and senate that would revamp the federal budget process. the legislation would make it more difficult for congress to pass spending bills without first having passed a budget. some of the bills gop supporters spoke to reporters about the legislation. >> a good group, isn't it. thank you all for coming. the american peopleot happy with how congress and the administration manages their money. and i have concluded that they are basically right. first and foremost, we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend. that's so irresponsible as to produce no real argument in return that this is legitimate. second, in our budget process, we've known for years it's filled with a whole lot of gimmicks, techniques and methods that have

we pass it before and chris van hollen's edition. -- leadership. if we speak about this to the public and mr. allison will address that, we believe pressure will be on coz shareholders and employees to know what the political contributions are. now it is my honor to yield the floor to the distinguished gentleman from maryland, the ranking democrat on the budget committee, he has served on the conference, the payroll tax cut, and he is the author of the disclosed at in the previous congress and has reintroduced it today, mr. van hollen. >> thank you for your leadership on the disclose act, as well as making for the american people get a fair shake, and i am pleased to be here with my colleagues, mr. israel and mr. ellison. in announcing to disclose act today, the american people deserve a political system that is fair, transparent, and accountable. if the political system is fair, transparent, and a campbell, we believe that will result and policies that are fair, and as the president said in his state of the union address, the american people deser

soil to whimp chris van hollen for his work and on the amendment parts and also in closing getting back to the stock act to come and louise slaughter and congressman tim all for their leadership and expediting all of this, so hopefully our own majority here will realize this is an important bill that should be taken up now. with that i would be pleased to take any questions that you may have. >> [inaudible] speed clich beavers that i don't agree to the stipulation that some of the stories. then you've been some inferences to be drawn from the stories but mr. hall year and i always had a partnership. we were not just a team we were a partnership. people have fun interpreting one thing or another, the kind of story they would walk into a room or this or that. why it's interesting to me is that we need jobs legislation and we don't need anything to stand in the way of that job creation. >> [inaudible] the most powerful -- >> the normal the why we're here all the time. >> thank you for the question. in answer to eight that is the way that you phrase it. i feel very sad. i feel very sad abou

morning, republican chairman of the house budget committee, paul ryan, and democratic congressman, chris van hollen

budget committee chairman paul ryan and member of the house budget committee, maryland's own chris van hollenobama is looking for a new slogan for his 2012 campaign. the president has reportedly been testing different slogans while speaking to crowds, including "winning the future" and "we don't quit." advisers say the new slogan will reflect the idea that the president still has lots of work to finish to help the country. senior adviser david axelrod says the re-election team will keep their slogan under wraps until they know who their republican opponent is. >>> gas prices are continuing to rise, and experts say it could get even worse. right now, national gas prices average out to about $3.54. now, that's 16 cents higher from a month ago and 25 cents higher since january 1st. in d.c., gas is at $3.76, 23 cents higher than a month ago. virginia drivers are paying $3.53 a gallon, which is 21 cents more. maryland gas is at $3.61, 21 cents higher than a month ago. and in west virginia, gas is $3.61, 13 cents more. experts believe gas prices around the country could jump up to $4.25 by late apr

joining us is chris van hollen of maryland.tend just the payroll tax cut without the need to pay for it. is this a deal that you think democrats might be able to live with? >> well, martin, we should move forward on all three pieces. we could extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans, and i'm glad to hear our republican colleagues seem to be saying they're willing to do that without offsets that sock it to others in the middle class, but we should also make sure the millions of americans who are unemployed through no fault of their own and have paid into the unemployment system continue to get support. there are millions of seniors on medicare who rely on doctors, and that's why it's important we deal with that piece as well. >> and as you know, sir, one of the things that republicans would like to attach to any extension of unemployment benefits is drug testing. is that something that democrats would accept? >> well, the drug testing is a red herring. it suggests -- >> not according to the republicans, sir. >> yeah,

>> well, we'll be talking to a local congressman chris van hollen, paul ryan about the economy and the budget. we have a great round table talking about the race. we hope to have one of the presidential candidates as well to talk more about this fight for michigan. >> too soon to tell whom. >> yes. exactly. we're still grinding it out. >> david, thank you. we appreciate it. >>> coming up tonight, controversy over plans to have flags at half staff for whitney houston. >> a norovirus hitting students at a local college campus. what is being done to stop it from spreading? >> an ingredient found in baby formulas and energy bars may be toxic to your health. >>> we're talking about mike griffin taking on the clippers are the wizards. maryland hopes to bounce back against boston college. hear what alex ovechkin has to say in his response to the criticism from former goalie >>> the man who tried to blow up an airplane over detroit on christmas two years ago is going to spend the rest of his life in prison. he was sentenced to life without parole today. he is 25 years old and a native of niger

. >> let me tell you, chris van hollen has a bill called the disclose act. we need to pass it.e. i think people who identify republican, democrat, and independent want to know where the money is coming from. if you poll on this issue the american people want to know who is spending money to influence them in a presidential election so it is somewhat of a surprise that congress is not moving. maybe that's a symptom of the problem that, you know, maybe some of us are disproportionately influenced by the big money as opposed to the will of the people. >> i think, sir, that is the view of many of us. congressman keith ellison, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announc

kent conrad is the chairman of the senate budget committee and chris van hollen is the ranking member of the house budget committee. they spoke to reporters about the white house pose a $3.80 trillion budget. this is about 35 minutes. >> i personally believe this is moving the country in the right direction. i think we need to put in context the circumstances we have faced. first of all the president inherited a fiscal disaster. that was not of his making. that was of the previous administration policy-making and he has had to cope with it ever since. i am encouraged by the trajectory of the deficit under the president's proposal from 8.5% of gdp down to 2.8% of gdp at the end of the budget period. it is important to remember the context within which the president is operating. in 2008 and 2009, we experienced the worst recession since the great depression. economy contracted at a rate of almost 9% in the fourth quarter of 2008. barack obama was not the president of the united states. we lost 800,000 private sector jobs in january of 2009. that was not the result of the policies of ba

we will also hear from a couple of democrats, kent conrad and chris van hollen. >> tonight, the fourth in a series of the consumer electronics show. improving spectrum use. also, what is an ultrabook and the latest on smart phones. >> now president obama talks about his budget proposal for 2013. the request includes $4 trillion in deficit cuts over the next decade. the president spoke at a northern virginia community college in annandale, virginia. [applause] >> thank you. good morning. welcome to northern virginia community college. after working various jobs in real estate, i found myself having -- i read about the demand for skilled personnel in the news media. cyber security is a constantly changing field. our finances are constantly under attack. as technology advances, so does the reisk. new jobs has been created such as security analysts and digital forensics. i enrolled in nova recent complete -- and recently completed a certificate. my experience has been very enjoyable. one of the greatest assets here are the instructors to. whether taking courses online or in the classroom,

what chris van hollen is going to say is not at all parochial. is this something that is national. -- it is something that is national. i want to point out that the three issues we are discussing today basically hit middle income tax payers. there are a few exceptions. i suppose there are some federal employees that would not be classified as middle income. there are very few. for the bulk, and they are very much middle income taxpayers and middle-class families. when we talk about health care and pension benefits for the federal employees, and the benefits have helped them become an important part of this country. all three of these items on the agenda today have would essentially hit middle income tax payers. the freeze, at the health care coverage provision, and the medicare payments. i want to pick up before i turn it over to chris. >> we may be moving to the republicans if you do not finish soon. no two bites of the apple. >> why don't you finish and then we will go? >> i was not sure about to bite of the apple. -- bites of the apple. >> and

here's the house budget chair paul ryan and the ranking democratic member chris van hollen squaring off on the issue just yesterday. >> what is frustrating about the white house is they have four budget submissions and they decided to duck this challenge every time. more debt, more spending, more taxes. that hurts our economy. that will lead to austerity. >> what we need to do is take a balanced approach to deficit reduction. that's what simpson-bowles did. that's what other bipartisan groups did. we need to make some cuts and administration's budgets makes $2.50 in cuts for let me one dollar in revenue. that is balanced approach that is fair. that's what the american people want. bill: jason chaffetz a republican sits on the house budget committee. at home in salt lake city. happy presidents' day. >> good morning. bill: paul ryan was on our program last week. he talked about the president's proposal. he had nothing good to say about it. over the weekend he said that proposal will increase spending $1.5 trillion. it will increase taxes 1.9 trillion. what do you think of this budget idea

host: chris van hollen of maryland is also part of this payroll tax extension conference.e had a news conference yesterday. >> our view is that if we are going to talk about offsetting the cost, and that is fine, you need to look at areas that do not hurt the middle class. that is why we have proposed the surcharge on millionaires. that was a proposal put forward by the democrats in the senate and is supported overwhelmingly by the american people as you indicated. host: here is one person in the public. this is from a librarian who writes -- guest: this is something that has failed four times last year when the senate was asked to vote on it. they did not have the t voteshen. -- have the votes then. it does not seem to be the place we ought to be looking. we ought to be looking at places where we know there is money and opportunities, and that would be freezing federal pay. you said that salaries are up a little bit in this country. people who work for the federal government, the benefits are better. people for working in the private sector purses people working in washin

we have chris van hollen on the program to talk about people taking over the race.th, gay marriage, contraception. and there is a real question i will ask them about whether this is what republicans want to be running on. who does it help politically that there is a return to these social issues in the general election as we get into the fall? >> speaking of the primary campaign, we have a very interesting race shaping up for the primary next week. we have rick santorum looking like he might upset favorite son mitt romney. what's at stake here. if you can, what will happen? >> the fact it is that close and santorum has the edge right now is bad news for romney. the reality is that the volatility in the field continues. there seems to be a conservative favorite out there who is emerging and leaving gingrich a bit in the shadows and that is rick santorum. i think if santorum is able to gain momentum in michigan, it is katie bar the door. so this is a very touch-and-go time right now. i think there is a lot of anxiety about how it is all going to kind up. >> you said i

chris van hollen? >> thank you, mr. levin. look, i think we all benefit from the federal employees doing research at nih into lifesaving cures and treatments. i think we all benefit from the folks in the intelligence community who help track down osama bin laden. i don't think this is an issue of whether or not we represent a small number of federal employees. again, i think we all benefit and i think the american people benefit from the. let me start that those mr. up to and referenced in the house. the reason that had such a big vote, i think the gentleman knows, is because you couple a freeze on congressional with a freeze on all federal employees salaries as mr. card mention. i think we can all settle the question of the pay freeze for congressional salaries. we can all support that. that chairman was to entertain a motion, we can do that right now but let's not mix up of the to. and the reason you have that vote was come and heard from a lot of my college. they were afraid to be accused of trying to protect their own pay

one of the more articulate people in the house is chris van hollen. when we disagree, i still admire his ability to put words together in such an in-depth fashion and i have his exact words and his argument against passage of a bill that ends the automatic increases every year. and a friend across the aisle, mr. van hollen said, quote, this bill when you pass it doesn't save one penny. he goes on to talk about how we can cut, if we really want to cut them, but he goes on and he says, quote, so again, this bill doesn't save a penny, unquote. he finishes his comments in saying, quote, but this bill doesn't mandate any kind of cutting of that nature, unquote. so i was interested when our colleague across the aisle, representative delauro, came to the floor because she stated in arguing against the zero baseline budget, she said, quote, at its heart this bill is a backdoor attempt to enact the same radical cuts the majority attempted last year and further reduce the spending caps agreed to in the last budget control act. she says by eliminating inflation

then more about the cbo report with the budget committee's ranking member, congressman chris van hollen of maryland. and robert jones, founder of the public research institute. he talks about the major religious groups in the u.s. and how they vote. washington journal texture caused and e-mails, live every morning, starting at 7:00 eastern, on c-span. with talk of possible legislation to improve the nation's cyber defenses, the former cia director discusses dealing with national awareness of cyber threats from an aspen homeland security group event. >> i have an alarming thought. in some ways, this mirrors the discussion we used to have about terrorism back in the 80's and 90's. there was a great deal of difficulty coming to a national consensus about what to do about it until we had 9/11, which crystallized everything, and we knew what to do and the nation moved forward. we have not had that kind of event in siberia. we talk about it. the attack on zappos -- the only good thing that comes out of it is after a few more events there will be growing public awareness that this is a serious

i thank my friend, the ranking member of the budget committee, chris van hollen, from maryland, for yielding. i unfortunately have not been able to listen to all of the debate. but i've listened to enough of it. this week we're paying -- we're playing let's pretend. we're playing the game of let's pretend that if we solve the process, we'll solve the problem. there was an excellent article that i think everybody ought to read. stan collingder who is a real expert on the budget process, and who has been involved in this budget process for a long, long period of time, quotes in an article that he wrote that i hope most of you read in "roll call". he quotes rudy pener. rudy pener was the director of c.b.o. not a partisan individual in my view. i've had the opportunity of dealing with for some period of time. his quote is, a process, no matter how well designed, cannot make difficult problems easy. i think my friend paul ryan would agree with that. it's not the process that's the problem. the problem is we don't have the courage to make decisions which are clearly necessary for us to make. no am

chairman, i want to begin by thanking my friend, chris van hollen, the ranking member of the budget committee. this is a collaborative effort, it's a bipartisan effort. it's not that often we have a chance to do this. mr. chairman, let me begin by saying i yield myself two minutes. the chair: the gentleman virginia tech. mr. ryan: i want to first say i want to thank the gentleman from maryland, for his collaborative effort. we believe whenever we can find the opportunity to reach across the aisle and work in a bipartisan fashion to go after wasteful spending, we should do that. that's what this effort's all about. i also want to thank some of our staff who put a lot of -- mr. chairman -- the chair: the house will be in order. the gentleman from wisconsin may proceed. mr. ryan: i also want to thank the staffer who put a lot of work in this. paul, nicole and john on the majority side. i want to thank tom, gale, and ellen for their hard work on the minority side. chairman dreier at the rules committee. congressman hensarling who has been one of the forefathers of this effort. what this does it i

paul ryan will join me as well as the democrat chris van hollen. >> thank you very much. >> whitney houston's family is gathering one day before a funeral that will draw big names. this as new information emerges in the investigation into death. nbc's jeff rossen is outside the new jersey church where houston's funeral will be held. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. let's start with new information on the investigation. law enforcement tells nbc news police have already questioned whitney houston's doctors and they have already received her medical records. they are poring through them on the west coast. for this weekend the focus is on the east coast in newark, new jersey. the family will hold a private viewing of the body at the funeral home and here, about a block away at the church is where the funeral will happen tomorrow. there is major star power. late thursday night, bobby brown and new edition were back on stage in maryland. >> i'd like to say thank you for your prayers. >> reporter: he paid tribute to whitney houston. >> i'm going to throw two up for whitney. >> reporter: aft

if you live next to chris van hollen in montgomery county, md., and you commute to the capital, it costs you about $200 a month. you can only deduct now only $125. people are making decisions now to drive their cars into the seat that is going to have a cost factor on our infrastructure. we need to take of those types of issues now for the sake of our environment and for the sake of our economy. i would just urge us to understand the penalty that we pay when we have a lapse in these provisions. we pay a cost for 8. i hope that we would have an opportunity to take of these issues in a responsible way and not lose focus of the three principal objectives that we have to get done. >> all right. i think it is the republicans' turn at this opportunity. we will continue to move around. >> i have a question. do any of you here want to tackle the text extenders before we have completed our work? >> i would like to summarize the discussion in relating to our focus. i think we have to keep our eye on the bal. -- ball. the three major issues need to resolved and resolved wisely. and policy will very