erskine can tell you a little bit more.visited with him personally alone for an hour and a half. he would have been ripped by the democrats, say, why you rotten -- you're digging into the precious, precious medicare. and the republicans would have rejected if he had embraced it, the republicans en masse in the house would have rejected it. either way he was going to get hammered, so he is playing the waiting game. >> erskine, a lot of economic experts say, look, the right solution for the united states right now is obvious, which is you need some stimulus now, particularly given the very low interest rates, the very high levels of unemployment in the construction sector, the government should spend some money repairing and rebuilding the infrastructure, but that would only be viable and particularly something the markets would celebrate, if it was tied to a long-term deficit reduction plan, like simpson-bowles. do you buy that basic idea that if your plan were adopted as a ten-year plan, it actually gives the u.s. governmen

erskine bowles, just superb. he is the numbers guy. i do the color. let me tell you what we found. erskine and i might say pull up a chair, we don't do bs or mush. and people are thirsting for that. and you don't give them bs and mush and when somebody gets up on their behind legs running for office says i'm here to tell you, we're going to save everything and we're not -- we're going to save precious medicare and precious medicaid, and precious social security, and precious defense, they are phony. you can't get there unless you are messing with the big four. and the biggest of the big four is medicare and no need to go any further and call it obama care, call it elvis presley care, i don't care care. it can't possibly work under any scenario if you use your brain. well, what do you mean by that? well, it's got to take care of preexisting preexisting conditions for somebody three years old who will live to be 60. one person in the united states weighs more than the other two. you've got obesity. you've got diabetes a and b. you've got people who choose to do booze and cigarettes a

i have enormous respect for your former president and my friend, erskine bowles. he has always put pragmatism ahead of partisanship, and i hope all of you will do exactly that. he does deserve a round of applause. [applause] think for yourself. decide for yourself, even if it is not popular or runs counter to the party line. if everyone in washington did that, our country would be a whole lot better off. the seventh and final piece of advice that i have is, in the game of life, when the final buzzer sounds, the only stat you carry with you is the number of assistance you may. so help other people put some points on the board. don't be slow to dish the rough. there's nothing more rewarding than making a difference in the lives of others. i have learned that first hand, both through philanthropy and public service. give what you can, your time, your talents, your money. and i promise, you will never regret it. i know you have remembered every single word of that, but just in case, i thought i would provide a summary of the seven, in no particular order. teamwork is

take a look at the two massive crate erskine that were caused by -- craters caused by the force of the blast. he listens to survivors of his deadly rampage. and lighting the olympic flame. now the fire of an vent greece begins its relay to london. >> welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. it was a deadly scene in the syrian capital today after two car bombs exploded killing at least 55 people and leaving many more injured. the blasts went off near a military intelligence building in morning rush hour. the opposition and government forces have blamed each other for the attacks. our correspondent is in damascus, and i must warn you some of the images in her report are disturbing. >> just before 8:00 the first blast went off. within minutes, another more powerful explosion was captured on this video. they tore through the tarmac of a major highway south of the capital. this intelligence complex appears to be one of the targets. many lives were lost. the anguish was raw. the explosions wreaked damage across a vast area. i counted more than 20 vehicles strewn across

erskine and i will often say toa a group, might say just this way.g on the ropicture, we don't do bs or much. and people are thirsting for that. and you don't give them bs and mush. am heromeone gets up on the hind legs and sayse i'm here today f we're here to save everything and we are not, we will savere mecious medicare and pressures medicaid and precious social security and precious defense without touching those, those people are fake.urity they are phony. you can get there unless you're messing wit the big four. and there biggest of the big fo. his medicare. and there's no need to go any on further, blame it on obamnicare, collett elvis presley care, i don't care caarre. it can't possibly work under an. scenario if you use your brain.f well, what do you mean by that? well, it'sme going to take care- preexisting condition forcondito somebody three years old whomeod will live to be 60. one person in the united states weighs more than the other two. tu have obesity, you've got diabetes, a and b. you've got people who choose toe an booze and cigare

communication, communication, talking, going back to their -- when erskine and i were on the road, and i bet we talked to 500,000 people in the last year and a half. we would speak for ten minutes each and take questions for an hour, and stick around sometimes, and people are saying how come people don't understand where we are? and they say because you're listening to people who are interested, more interested in their re-election than their country. let's just pick. grover norquist is one smart cookie, but he is the most powerful man in america right now. how does that sound to you that grover norquist of the americans for taxpayers reform or whatever it is the most powerful man in america because he had 95% of the sitting members of my party pledging never to raise a single penny of tax without a commensurate cut in spending. and so we said here's one for you, grover, babe. we're taking the tax expenditures and getting rid of 180 plus of them and taking $100 billion to reduce the debt, and the other trillion to give the lower tax base. and what can he do to you? he can't murder you,

hell, as erskine says clinton said i would have wrapped my arms around that thing and take it. and he would have. and he told the president that. >> but would you take now, you're saying delaying the cuts, delaying the cutbacks until the economy is growing again. >> we put in our proposal. i always say to people when everything fails, read the 67-page report. and it uses a word of shared sacrifice. you didn't hear anybody talking about that all day. and uses words like going broke. and so it's not a mystery to americans but you can't get there with just fluffing it. what the hell was your question? yes. i want to be sure i answer that, george. what was it again? george, speak out there. >> i think you did. let me bring this -- mayor nutter. what did you find you couldn't address, you couldn't cut, you couldn't -- people would absolutely say no way, no how we're not going to do it. >> well, the fact of the matter that every department and agency in the government had to take a cut. i had to cut police services. i did not lay off a police officer. didn't play off a firefighter, d

this great campaign conversion, either on the part of the president or mitt romney for your work on erskine's have yet to hundred percent support it. could you envision a late conversion on the part of either your recommendations by election day? >> no. not by election day. after election day, yes, but not before. >> who is your candidate? >> you know i'm a republican. i watched them scrap. i like romney. president appointed me to this. i would say not voting for him but i think romney is the guy. >> neil: he doesn't embrace what you are doing? >> nobody embraces what we are doing. they will get cremated. nobody is mentioned anything about social security even when they are told it's going down three years before. i'm talking about old selfish people, guys medicare who get a heart operation and $200,000 and don't get a bill and they could buy this studio. they are selfish. >> neil: maybe they could rent it but they can't buy it. alan simpson you are best. agree or disagree in a land where everyone says, this guy is clear as a bell. >>> what is really behind the administration's probe of j.p.

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we need to invite these reforming democrats, you know, erskine bowles, alice rivlin, the medicare ideas we've talked about, john bro, alice rivlin, ron wyden, they're all saying this is the best way to save this program. so we these to invite those democrats into our coalition, work with them so we can fix this country's problems not by cramming our vision of saving the country down their throat like they did, but by bringing the country together. tax reform and medicare reform, perfect examples, two of the biggest ideas that we have to do, and there are plenty of democrats who agree with what we're saying. so what we need to do is win, be magnanimous and include them in a coalition just like ronald reagan and tip o'neill did, and i think that's the secret to success. that's not the kind of democrats you have right now running congress or in the white house. but they do exist be, and so we need to invite them into the coalition. [applause] >> kind of a specific question here regarding banking regulations. what type of regulations do do u favor for banking? >> well, i'm a big opponent of

when erskine bowles says this is the most predictable crisis in history and yet the congress has done nothing on it this year and we're sitting still not doing anything and we know for us to finance over the next year, year and a half our debt that we have to make major changes in how we spend the taxpayers' money and our grandchildren's money that we're borrowing, 40 cents out of every dollar we spend at the federal government we're borrowing against our grandchildren. if we don't... those are obvious things. it's the greatest threat to our nation but it's also the greatest threat to our future and what we love... no matter what your political persuasion is, we all... if you go on a trip to somebody that's your polar opposite you find 90% of the things you agree on when you start talking about america. we discount that and only talk about the 10% that we disagree on. that 90% that we agree on is that risk in this nation, the very mechanisms and intertwining of people and ideas and possibilities that built this great country is at risk and the number-one thing in front of us is we hav

erskine bowles and alan seupl sorpbgs former deficit hawk from wyoming. people went to work on a real deficit-reduction plan. 11 out of the 18 of them ended up voting for this kind of plan. not a 50-50 deal on deficit reduction, but $3 on the spending side for every $1 on the revenue side. $4 trillion to $5 trillion in deficit reduction over a ten-year period of time. that, my friend, we've seen a lot of different ideas. we've got a bunch of them here on the floor. the administration submitted their budget as well. frankly, none of them come close to being as good as bowles-simpson. alice rivlin has done good work, pete domenici, our former senator from new mexico, has done good work. bowles-simpson says we're going to raise $1 revenue for every dollar on the spending side. the grand compromise is democrats agree to an entitlement reform to make sure they are going to be around for our grandchildren and grandchildren. on the revenue side we reduce rates for the individual side and corporate side. we eliminate it by half the so-called tax expenditures in t

erskine bowles and alan simpson, senator conrad served on their committee, came before the budget committee of which i am the ranking member, and told us this nation, both of them, a signed statement from them, this nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. in other words, the course we are on today is unsustainable. they told us that. they told us it could happen as soon as within two years, and that was over a year ago that they made that testimony. we are in the danger zone financially, and i know a lot of people would like to say it's not so, but it is so. look at this chart. this chart shows the total debt of the euro zone, including the u.k., britain and the united states. our debt exceeds that of the euro zone. we had a larger debt than they do, and president bush, who my good friend, senator conrad, who is such a fine person, noted, presided over a period in which our debt increased and it did increase. the largest debt president bush ever had was $480 billion in one year, which was too large. president obama has never had a budget that's less than $1,200,000,000,0

and sure is bruce reed, the executive director of the commission cochaired by erskin and bayh. i'm not going to go any further. i see him over their one of my students at harvard. ann has cleared her throat street times now and none of you have heard it, but i have. [laughter] i want to say we are going to stick around and thank to sponsors because the test of an event like this i go out and i say house the wine? better than anything you've ever bought. now that i'm finished on will be having one. but look, there's something i want to -- if you have a book and i just don't want to just scribble my name you can get those out there. if you have a bookend you want me to do some personalization just leave it and we will put a slip of paper and eventually i will get them back or they will be here with mike, my dear friend, chief of staff. where is he? [laughter] >> anyway, mike, the finest i've ever known. [applause] you wear your crown. and becky, here to read this is like the picture. [laughter] >> im falling apart and this picture is internal. the picture and he never did. he sol

and outside democrats -- i'm a big fan of of erskin bowles.compromise, you have to pass legislation. we have a budget law. it says the house and senate pass a budget and then they nebt those two and pass a reconcilw version. that's how laws are written. house and senate pass a bishlgs you get together, you reconcile the differences. but when the senate chooses to do nothing, then nothing happens. that's where we are today. >> senator paul ryan, i don't know if your ears were burning. we talking about the senator. maybe someday you'll be with us. >> maybe. >> so much quinn, obviously you're a successful business person and you basically have become very well known nationally telling businesses, specifically health care providers, how to turn things around? how do we turn things around if both sides aren't talking to each other? we're in the middle of a fiscal disaster internationally and democrats and republican can't get anything done. i think with my people where i say up just solve the problem and i look at what the private employer can do,

erskine and i go all over the country and have spoken to over 500,000 people. we have gotten standing ovations. it was the first is tell him what a trillion bucks was. >> what what is that? >> h. william bucks and now you stabilize social security. not heard an old seniors but how you do something with medicare that is eating a whole through -- it doesn't matter what you call it. call it elvis presley care. >> thank you. >> how are you? >> good to see you. enjoy a little bit of cody coming to d.c.. >> who are these people? >> i know, i know. >> all your fans. >> it is bizarre. >> you will have to change that. a second printing. you covered jokes for them, right? >> we got a couple of copies. >> i read it is greater first and then i read it as a reader and reading it as a reader -- to. >> it's a lot more fun. >> i can't wait to read it. >> it's wonderful. will we see some of your brewed in here? excellent, excellent. >> are you kidding me? >> you didn't have to do this. >> we couldn't not. >> get in here. >> get in here deborah. you are so dear to come to this.

erskine bowles and alan simpson senator conrad served on their committee, came before the budget committeewhich i am the ranking member, and told us this nation, both of them, a signed statement from them, this nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. in other words the course we are on today is unsustainable. they told us that. they told us it could happen as soon as within two years and that was over a year ago that they made that testimony. we are in the danger zone financially, and i know a lot of people would like to say it's not so, but it is so. look at this chart. this chart shows the total debt of the euro zone, including the u.k. britain and the united states. our debt exceeds that of the euro zone. we had a larger debt than they do and president bush, who my good friend, senator conrad, who is such a fine person, noted presided over a period in which our debt increased and it did increase. the largest debt president bush ever had was $480 billion in one year which was too large. president obama has never had a budget that's less than $1,200,000,000,000 des. ne

simpson was a certified republican and erskine bowles same and the democratic side. it was evenly distributed. that gives us a place to begin the discussion about entitlements and tried to get deficit reduction back into the appropriate proportion when it comes to the gdp. >> host: from "the time of our lives: a conversation about america" it is jon corzine framework the on the military uniform and provide a long-term benefit for the country. it is fundamentally unfair to expect a small percentage of the population from largely from the middle and working-class to carry the burden and pay the price of fighting wars that are always initiated in the national interest leader the however credible or contrived the threat. >> guest: i am proposing what i think is a big idea and have no illusions about how easy it will be to get it done. it grew really out of my experience being embedded on short-term basis with troops in afghanistan and iraq but especially afghanistan. with special forces. we would going to these villages after these guys and really remote bases and fighti

erskine bowles and alan simpson, senator conrad served on their committee, came before the budget committee of which i am the ranking member, and told us this nation, both of them, a signed statement from them, this nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. in other words, the course we are on today is unsustainable. they told us that. they told us it could happen as soon as within two years, and that was over a year ago that they made that testimony. we are in the danger zone financially, and i know a lot of people would like to say it's not so, but it is so. look at this chart. this chart shows the total debt of the euro zone, including the u.k., britain and the united states. our debt exceeds that of the euro zone. we had a larger debt than they do, and president bush, who my good friend, senator conrad, who is such a fine person, noted, presided over a period in which our debt increased and it did increase. the largest debt president bush ever had was $480 billion in one year, which was too large. president obama has never had a budget that's less than $1,200,000,000,0