caller: i would like to mention that dick armey was on the sunday morning show talking about how the tea party should not be blamed for the people who are part of the membership. what will be a shame is that some day when all these people figure out how dick armey funded and all his rich friends funded and backed up this tea party and propped it up and made people believe that they really had something and all these people really have some strong opinions on government and politics are all fired up. many of them have these things in there -- put in their heads that you have to use rhetoric that includes guns and violence to make your point across and to scare the opponents. for instance, jesse kelly who ran against gabrielle giffords, he always posted himself an army gear. that points out how ugly things have gotten. i feel certain that had a lot to do with the shooting in tucson. host: gabrielle giffords had just won her reelection for a third term in arizona. she was in the eighth congressional district. have a sioux city, ariz., democrats live -- republican line. caller: i would k

. >>> we're joined now by our roundtable, george will, dick armey who is one of the founders of the teaement and also donna brazile, democratic political strategist and joining me again, of course, is george stephanopoulos, so you've heard all of what has been discussed by the congresspeople. we've seen the tragedy of what is -- of what's unfolding here, congresswoman giffords is still in the icu behind me at the medical center. george, when you hear the debate that's going on, how long do you think this is going to affect business in washington? >> well, it will affect business in washington in several senses immediately and that is i think people will look across the aisle and feel that they're in a common profession with a common purpose for a common country and that will perhaps turn down the temperature here. over time this tragedy will not deflect the great issues that confront the country. what is going on right now goes on whenever these things happen and that is a search for the social environment to find some prompting that might have caused this to therefore make it more soot

there's even a different way these republicans in the house approached power as opposed to the way dick armey and others approached power before. it was how they were going to take the great deal and the new society. you saw nothing of kevin mccarthy, the majority whip on purpose. this was a strategic effort on their part to be humble in the approach of power but also try and manage expectations not only externaly but internally. boehner, canter and mccarthy sevened in state slurs. they know the game and -- legislatures. they know the game and how eager the house republican freshmen are so they have to model late their appearances, their tone and try to keep the tea party inspired house republicans from overtaking the agenda. it's a very difficult thing to maneuver through. >> gwen: john, i was struck by nancy pelosi's speech in handing over the gavel where she basically said the democrats were right, even though we lost. how much different is his little going to be from hers? >> major talked about the differences between newt beginning rich and boehner. gingrich said 6,000 words in 1995. boe

who are going to be supportive all the time, "and don't waste your time "going to see people like dick armey, "who are always going to be "against federal funding for the arts. "go for the fence-sitters. "go for the ones who really don't know "what you're doing with the n.e.a. and what art--in-- for our society is all about." and yet you did not shy away from at least engaging some people who clearly were on the other side. you paid visits to jesse helms, newt gingrich. was that time well invested? i do believe it was in the long run. jesse helms and i-- we must never forget that he's a courtly southern gentleman, and he's not an uncivil person at all in person. he's quite charming, in fact. he and i obviously were going differ on many, many things, but he was an important person and an important person to get to know, to pay attention to. i tried to understand what amendments he was going to bring up. of course, he would never tell me. he's a secretive man too. but i didn't want to alienate this person any more than he already felt alienated. he was disappointed in me, because i didn't do a

dick armey, former texas congressman, said we ought to eliminate nasa, department of urban affairs, wipe out a lot of the federal government in an effort to get this back in balance. one of the acolytes is michele bachmann who spoke for that wing of the party. the republican leaders in the congress have to have the president in front of them and the tea party people behind him. they are fighting a two-front war. >> whiff again the fact this speech was made against the backdrop of the tucson shootings, as matt pointed out to rudy giuliani, he could have addressed gun control. he chose not to. was it a mistake or was he mart to avoid that kind of bipartisan bickering giuliani said would have been the result? >> i think the mayor was right. that would have given it a different political dimension. it is a very radioactive issue. even among western and rural democrats, obviously. what we will see, i think, in the next couple of weeks on a number of these points that he raised is a rolling out of a more detailed plan that the administration has in mind. you know, the country for a couple of y

dick armey, who was one of the heads of one of the various tea party groups, is in washington for the purpose of looking over the shoulder of congress as a former member of congress from texas. who is, you know, says, you know, we -- you were elected to make changes that the tea party members wanted, and if you don't do it, you will be accountable. and i think that representative john boehner, the new speaker of the house, is very mindful of the influence of the tea party. on the other hand, members of congress, i think, have a sense of the gravity and the importance of what they do. they're aware that certain things need to be done, that money needs to be provided to keep the government going. even those elements of the federal government that you don't like. and i think it's important, you know, that bills need to be paid. one of the things we're going to be confronting perhaps as early as march is something called the extension of the debt limit. the current debt limit, borrowing limit of the united states is $14.3 trillion. that will have to be raised. we're continuing to borrow m

dick armey, who was ahead of one of the various tea party groups is in washington for the purpose of looking over the shoulder of congress. he says you were all elected to make changes that the tea party wanted, and if you do not do it, you will be accountable. i think better representative john boehner, the new speaker of the house, -- i think that representative john boehner, the new speaker of the house, is very mindful of the tea party. on the other hand, members of the tigris have an understanding -- of the congress have an understanding of the gravity of what they need to do. there are certain things and need to be done. money needs to be provided to keep the government going, even the elements of the federal government you do not like. i think it is important that bills need to be paid. one of the things that we will be confronting, perhaps as early as march, is something called the extension of the debt limit. the current borrowing limit of the united states is $14.30 trillion. that will have to be raised. we are continuing to borrow money. some of the people that were electe

cutting spending, because you were mentioned in a recent "wall street journal" piece written by dick armeyd they said scaling back the number of government employees the fiscal year 2008 will save about $35 billion. a fight that according to calculations made by your office. i want to get your reaction to stephen pearlstein's argument this morning in "the washington post come out where he says instead of invest and grow, republicans offered cut and grow, which will take its place in the pantheon of economic nonsense. guest: i disagree with that point. i have -- i am from a state that has a boom-and-bust economy that is tied to the mineral industry, and we have seen our economy go up and down over the years. we have seen our government expand and shrink accordingly, and our fiscal house is in order in wyoming. we have a robust economy. we have less than the national average unemployment. and so i can point to my own state as an example of a state that has been responsible with its fiscal health, and the economy has benefited accordingly. host: on the issue of energy and investing more resou

taxed enough already that was hijacked by dick armey, who is a republican, and his group. and they hijacked the tea party. unfortunately fox news controls most of the news in a lot of parts of the country. and they only get one side, which was the tea party side. people are like sheep. they will follow the leader right over the cliff, and i'm afraid that's where this country is going. the same group, like mitch mcconnell, his wife was head of the department of labor, and she was instrumental, along with a lot of the republicans that supported the big corporations to ship jobs overseas because she said the american worker was lazy and they got big tax breaks. they are continuing to take big tax breaks. host: mary, we're going to leave it there. thanks for your call. and thank you to all the folks that participated in our open-line sellment. we'll take a short break. coming up next, the discussion on the international challenges facing the united states in 2011. we'll be right back after this break. >> this weekend on c-span 3, american history tv. and an oral televised hist

i have used the dick armey quote many times. he says, when we act like us, we win. when we act like them, we lose. our job is to make sure we act like us. i think our leadership gets it. rnc is there to give them that friendly persuasion. friendly persuasion from your father is not always friendly. that is out with job, to make sure we give that nudge that is needed to make sure we act like us. when we act like us, it is not all the good for republicans. it is good for the country. with that in mind, we have introduced a couple of things. one is a spending reduction act, which we will introduce today. it does what the title indicates. it cut spending. you know the numbers. i would get to gdp ratios are quickly approaching the countries we have been reading about 40 last year and a half. we are not far behind ireland and greece and point to go and spain. we have got to get this moving in the right direction. we have to ultimately get to a balanced budget so we can pay down the $14 trillion that is going to move to $20 trillion in the next 10 years. we are going to go