we will hear from former senate budget committee chairman kent conrad and don nickles. also joined the discussion, david obey to lead the house appropriations committee. and former wisconsin governor tommy thompson, republican. the bipartisan policy center and george mason university hosted this event. >> okay, good morning. welcome to the session which we're calling "budgeting on the brink," cosponsored by the bipartisan policy center and george mason university center on public service. i'm paul posner, director of the programs at george mason. this session is part of the longer-term multimedia project which we are undertaking at george mason to probe the history and federal budget over the past 40 years. the past decades have not been uneventful for budgets swinging from deficit to surplus back to deficits again. and while today economic tides are slowly lifting us out of the recession into deficits, government leaders are mired with unprecedented gridlock seems to threaten the appropriations and continuity of government itself. it's no wonder why we call the session

>> wendy: more than don nickles, more than eddie murphy. >> more than the late great george carlton and up with my last one, "calm down girl" what it was called. it shattered the record and i loved it so much i will do another one for bravo in nove. i love doing stand-up. as you know in this business, the material just keeps on coming, thank you, amanda bynes. >> wendy: you're funny. there are only a few things on tornado watch that stop me and feel so comfortable. one would be the body parts and -- >> i watch it ever >> wendy: and kathy griffin, i see you. stop! >> thank you, thank you. >> wendy: up next, everybody, keep it here, will go into the audience information a special edition of "ask wendy and kathy."t. [ female announcer ] the best thing about this bar. 130 calories 7 grams of protein the fiber one caramel nut protein bar. it's the only place i can get my kids arizona jeans. oh, and it's got all the other brands they have to have. so i'll take 'em to the sales and leave the st tthem. [ female announcer ] buy more and save more. with youjcpenney coupon. style. quality. price.

don nickles when he gives you his word, it is good and that is a very important thing. he also is somebody that was willing to work together to get something done. we have disagreements but we worked together productively. congressman obey i will tell you , you never questioned where david was on an issue. he made it very clear. [laughter] and, he was a joy to work with i must say. he was an absolute joy to work with because he had an orientation. did we agree on everything? know we did not that there was an attitude, let's get results. that is the thing. it's not the process. the process to me is not the problem. the problem is the problem and the problem is people who are unwilling to get a result and it's not just on one side of the aisle i might add. i wish it were. it would make it a lot easier. we have got problems on both sides of the aisle. people who don't have the attitude let's get something done. >> kind of a rapidfire real quick around here to open it up for them to respond. tomorrow the department of commerce will release its preliminary second-quarter gdp