i'm glad that my fellow erskine bowles and i are jumping without a parachute. it is not just unsustainable, it's uncon chkunconscionable wh going to happen to the country unless we, politicians, non-politicians, academic and citizens realize we're not republicans and democrats first. we're americans. >> chris: mr. bowles, this president and this congress added trillions of dollars more to the deficit which was big when they came in office. why should we think they are part of the solution and not part of the problem? >> oh, chris, i think it's fair to say that when president obama came in, he inherited a budget that was structurally unbalanced. he inherited two wars. and he inherited an economy that was on the brink and he has taken some steps to try to bring it back. but i don't think we can look to the past. we have to look to the future. if you look at where we are today and you just look at the mandatory payments, they equal the entire revenue that comes into the u.s. government. that means every dollar we spend today on the military, on homeland security,

the co-chairs alan simpson and erskine bowles were with us. is this the way to go? is it going to make a dent? >> congress has extreme difficulty making progress on a single front at a time, much less multiple fronts simultaneously. this commission is not a statutory commission, therefore that means that congress didn't buy in and there's no guaranteed vote. it's got a goal to try to be able to balance the budget without interest by 2015. it also needs to focus on how to stabilize debt to gdp at a sustainable level. and most importantly, it needs to engage the american people with the facts, the truth and the tough choices. and we'll see whether it will do that. >> let me ask you this, david. everybody talks about the tax plan and there's all this debate. you know, few people like to pay taxes, obviously. i mean, but everybody know that we pay taxes for the health of the country, and to create services. but do you believe that the tax revenue that's being spoken about right now in terms of race raizing taxes on the highest earnings is enough money? is that really go

he said my co-chair would be erskine bowles. i have the deepest respect and admiration for him. called erskine and said we have to talk to the president and see where he is. and we did, and all i can tell you is both of us agree that we may be only able to move the football a yard, and i have no idea, but i can tell you that i have no illusions. we will get savaged from the right and left. every time we go somewhere, someone says, are you going to have of vat tax? what are you going to do with the veterans? everything is on the table, including the new health bill. that is on the table, too. there is not anything off the table. that may be the only thing that will save us, and yesterday the commission -- there was not a single member of the team that did not know that this was one of the deepest problems of this country. >> let me get back to my question about "doable," which may be at the heart of this. i was thinking about this, and it reminded me of the israeli- palestinian analyst problem. where there is a roadmap -- it has been a road map since president clinton was in offic

. >> alan simpson, erskine bowles good luck. a little straight talk.next, the top two democratic power houses in washington jock kiing for the same job and president bush's upcoming memoir is creating buzz with the late night crowd. >> top ten thoughts, number ten what's the memoir. number nine, is 36 pages enough. number 36, how cool is it that i was president. come on, up high. number two, do you spell nuclear with two os or ew. and shouldn't cheney be the one writing this. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you'll love. girl: this is good for my heart? chef: you noticed. [cheering] announcer: campbell's healthy request. i own a small law firm and i'm a much better lawyer than i am an accountant. so, when i wasn't getting paid as quickly as i would like, i did what came naturally. i threatened to sue. turns out, that's not the best way to keep clients. so i went looking for answers online at openforum.com it's a place where i can talk with other small business owners like thomas and connie and learn about tools like

erskine bowles is one of the ablest human beings on the planet. he served me as the head of the small business administration as the deputy chief staff, my chief of staff, he got the last budget agreement, he got the children health insurance program, the biggest increase in health care since medicare. he'd been great at the university of north carolina and he ran the effort i did for the un and the tsunami relief reconstruction. these people are release marked the -- really smart and they are able. they will know immediately what pressures the president and both parties in congress will be under. they are good enough to disregard the politics and smart enough to take them into account. if everybody jumps hands and jump together. >> you are better than on the one -- you'd better than anyone will remember the impact of ross perot on american politics. he did meet -- make people aware of the fiscal crisis that this country faces. was the fact that ross perot was in that race, did that cause you to focus more on fiscal responsibility? what was its im

spending and revenues, it has 18 members, 10 democrats and eight republicans, bipartisan cochairs, erskine bowles and alan simpson, the senate republican whip. the rope for will be submitted by december 1 of this year and importantly, the commission is coupled with firm commitments from congressional leaders to bring the panel's recommendations to a vote before the 111th congress adjourns, if 14 of the eight team members can agree. with these commitments, president's executive order is as close as we could get to the statutory commission senator gregg and i have proposed. it is going to take a lot of hard work and real dedication and difficult choices, but i am hopeful that this commission will come up with a bipartisan plan this year to address this nation's long-term budget crisis. with that, i wouldn't turn to senator gregg to make his opening remarks and then turned to individual members for their spirit again, i want to say to senator gregg, it's we appreciate the leadership you have given this country. we could not ask for more. >> thank you, senator conrad, and thank you for those kind wor

participants include cochairs of that commission, erskine bowles and alan simpson. michigan. terry on the independent line. caller: some of the things i find ironic is the idea that all they are talking about is fraud and things like this, but some of this is insider-trading also, isn't it? host: do you think it is? caller: martha stewart was thrown in jail because she move money out when she found out it was going bad. you sell me a stock, i am long run it and you are on the short side but you have more information than i have. isn't that insider trading? it is not just the federal government that we have to watch and have trouble with. this goes from federal, to state, all the way down to your local governments. in some of our areas around here, you can buy your property and own it but then they dictate the size of the house you have to build. so, we've got 300 or $400,000 homes, or what they say is 300,000 or $400,000 homes, and how are they supposed to pay for that and by $40,000 cars and people pay for it working at places like wal-mart making maybe $9 or $10 an hour? h

and i met today with erskine bowles, who was the head of the small business administration under president clinton, as well as alan simpson, former united states senator from wyoming who chaired this commission. and we're going to start in just a couple of weeks our inquiry and debate on what to do about our national debt. and it is one that's long overdue. but i think if we're honest about this, we realize it will take some thoughtful consideration and some time to come up with an approach that really deals with the debt in a humane and sensible way but doesn't stop our recovery in this recession. so we're tasked with doing that. senator baucus is a member of that commission as well. we'll spend some time together talking about it i'm sure. and we have to report by the end of the year. in the meantime, we'll be watching the appropriations bills that come through here to cut the waste out of the spending, if there is some, in some of these agencies and i'm sure we can find some. in the meantime, let's not really make the unemployed across america the vick tills of this debate. -- the victi

spending and revenues, it has 18 members, 10 democrats and eight republicans, bipartisan cochairs, erskine bowles and alan simpson, the senate republican whip. the rope for will be submitted by december 1 of this year and importantly, the commission is coupled with firm commitments from congressional leaders to bring the panel's recommendations to a vote before the 111th congress adjourns, if 14 of the eight team members can agree. with these commitments, president's executive order is as close as we could get to the statutory commission senator gregg and i have proposed. it is going to take a lot of hard work and real dedication and difficult choices, but i am hopeful that this commission will come up with a bipartisan plan this year to address this nation's long-term budget crisis. with that, i wouldn't turn to senator gregg to make his opening remarks and then turned to individual members for their spirit again, i want to say to senator gregg, it's we appreciate the leadership you have given this country. we could not ask for more. >> thank you, senator conrad, and thank you for those kind wor

bowles and leslie. [applause] ♪ >> hello, everyone, thanks for coming. first i want to ask alan, how is your me? [laughter] [inaudible] [laughter] [inaudible] erskinen't been sympathetic at all. [laughter] >> i durham all over washington. >> can now we have dispensed with the funnies because our topic this kind of heavy. so, senator simpson, let me start off and ask you whether the word doable is going to be factored into your deliberations. in other words, if it becomes clear that there is a solution that is obvious will you toss it out there or will the idea of whether this can fly politically be woven into everything you do? >> first of all let me thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me. we worked on social security. he's more than all of the things you see. there is a deep next to him that's called patriotism. that is what he springs from and he's just very special and does so much. but doable, i don't know. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i've got a deal for you. [laughter] i said sure, joe, i've heard that for 30 years from you. so he said your co-chairs will be richmond bowles. fisa i have the deep re

he said my co-chair would be erskine bowles. i have the deepest respect and admiration for him. called erskine and said we have to talk to the president and see where he is. and we did, and all i can tell you is both of us agree that we may be only able to move the football a yard, and i have no idea, but i can tell you that i have no illusions. we will get savaged from the right and left. every time we go somewhere, someone says, are you going to have of vat tax? what are you going to do with the veterans? everything is on the table, including the new health bill. that is on the table, too. there is not anything off the table. that may be the only thing that will save us, and yesterday the commission -- there was not a single member of the team that did not know that this was one of the deepest problems of this country. >> let me get back to my question about "doable," which may be at the heart of this. i was thinking about this, and it reminded me of the israeli- palestinian analyst problem. where there is a roadmap -- it has been a road map since president clinton was in offic