here on c-span, erskine bowles and alan simpson, coachers of the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform, will discuss the budget deficits, entitlements, and tax policies live at 10:30 eastern. also at 10:30 on c-span 3, a pentagon briefing on the role of reserve units including comments from general james cartwright, a vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. president obama went to new york yesterday for a wreath laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial perry previously planned a trip followed the send a mission that killed osama bin laden. before the ceremony, the president visited firefighters at the pride of midtown fire house which lost 50 men on 9/11, more than any other fire house in new york city. this is about 5 minutes. [applause] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] >> the main reason i came here is because i heard the food is pretty good. mayor guiliani performed heroic? almost 10 years ago but most of all to you, i wanted to come up here to thank you. this is a symbolic sites of extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day. almost 10 years ago. obviously

this is guys who came together, understood that admiral mollen and erskine bowles were correct and that we're doing something important and sustainable to get our house in order. that is what it will take to get my vote. the details of it, i am not going to share with you guys. i love you all, but i'm not going to share the details of this deal with you so i would encourage you to ask your question in a different way. >> legislation is always some form of compromise. your insistence on putting medicare on the table -- >> it is on the table. >> why not [inaudible] >> i am confident the taxes are not going to be a part of this. medicare is on the table. that has been the knowledge by the people who are participating -- acknowledged by the people who are participating in the talks. it is going to be a part of any final agreement. >> on a different subject, you spent a lot of time this week pushing the patriot act extension down the pipeline. you sent it to the white house and they decided to audit it. are you comfortable with it? are you concerned a judge could jeopardize it? >> that is a

the democrat he worked with, the numbers man on the team, is erskine bowles. he is a southerner, and not a westerner, but equally dedicated to public service. this is his third go at fiscal problems. we hope the third time is the charm good as chief of staff to bill clinton, he helped to shepherd the 1997 negotiations that led to the last balanced budget as president of the university of north carolina, he tackled challenges for the 17- campus system. i will put slots on the screen to illustrate the seriousness of the problem -- slides on the screen to illustrate the seriousness of the problem that the commission addressed. this chart that shows department of the federal deficit under three different scenarios. the top line, with the least red ink, is the baseline that the congressional budget office uses. according to that line, 10 years from now, at the annual deficit will be only $763 billion. that is the rosy scenario. the other two lines are more realistic. they show what happens if we extend the 2003 tax rates and keep discretionary spending at a constan

. >> i have a bias and that is that my wonderful cochair and i, erskine bowles, 18 great americans, six appointed by the president, 12 from the congress, put together a package that was voted on by 60% of the 18 of us. five democrats, five republicans, one independent. 60% will get you anywhere in washington. then you have the gang of six. when the president finished his remarks, pray for the gang of six. three democrats, to republicans. i can tell you this. the president's plan is a good shot. does not get there, because you not do anything -- do not do anything for social security. we are not out to cut social security. we want to make the thing is solvent for 75 years. unless you want to leave it alone, with all of the passions from aarp -- do not touch it. do not put your hand on that button, the third real. when you walk up to get your checked in 2037, it will be 22% less. how brilliant is that? you have got to do something with defense. there is stuff that has nothing to do with the credibility or protection of the u.s. paul ryan, a powerful statement -- because he is a digging in

after that, alan simpson and erskine bowles.ater, treasury secretary tim geithner. >> there is a saying in the military, amateurs do it over and over until they get it right. professionals do it over and over until they cannot get it wrong. >> the platoon leader of sealed teen mom in vietnam is today the author of 14 books. he will discuss the training of today's navy seals on "q&a". it is one of our many signature interview programs available online at c-span.org to >> this weekend, former utah governor john huntsman delivers the commencement address at the university of south carolina. south carolina is the first southern state to hold a presidential primary. watch tonight on c-span "road to the white house." >> i get to go in the front door today. >> i will just make a brief statement here at the top. i was really pleased and they've all these guys showed up. we know we have two looming concerns. one is the debt limit. the fact of the matter is, we have to make sure we address the larger looming issue of the long-term debt. w

i thought the alan simpson and erskin bowles came up in their committee with exactly the right answer. you can tweak it, you can change some small things. i assume the gang of six will come up with something similar. you have to have some combination of cuts and expenses and some revenue enhancements, call it taxes, whatever you want, and i was talking to erskin yesterday. his idea is 25% increasing revenue and three-quarters in terms of cutting expenses and some ratio like that is the solution. how much chaos and destruction to our economy we have to do before everybody in washington starts acting like an adult, coming together and not pandering to small voting blocks but saying, hey, this is in the interest of the country. i'm not going to do a poll, find out where my constituents are and follow them. we need leadership from the front. that's true in congress, it's true to the other end of pennsylvania avenue, it's true on both sides of the aisle, it's true in states. the governor is very proactive and he's steered virginia through some very tough times, but he's done it by making d

erskine bowles, and they told us in a written statement delivered by mr. bowles and cochairman simpson that this nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. we are heading toward that wall at warp speed. we can have a financial crisis. in fact, mr. bowles was asked by our chairman, senator conrad, when you think this crisis might occur. he said two years, maybe less. alan simpson said i think maybe one year. surely, we have got to get off the debt path we're on spending so much more than we take in, 40 cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed, we pay interest on it. the interest has the potential to damage our economy in a very significant and substantial way. they put us in another recession. that's what mr. bowles was talking about, a debt crisis, another recession maybe could be perhaps worse than the one we're in, and our projections for fragile growth is squarey. it's just not coming back nearly as much as we would like it to. one reason expert economists tell us is that we're carrying too much debt, and this debt has a potential to p

well, we know that the co-chairman of the president's deficit reduction commission, erskine bowles, said that this is the most predictable crisis heading our way. that's our debt and deficit, the most predictable crisis in american history. we know the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, when asked what was the biggest national security threat to the united states, said the debt and deficit was our biggest threat. it's time to act, david, regardless of the election a year and a half from now. and you know, the president, to his credit, is at the table through the discussions with the vice president and members of the house and senate over the issue that is confronting our country. look, standard & poor's recently sent us a warning signal about the downgrade of the credit rating of the united states. we have a $14 trillion deficit -- debt, the size of our economy, which makes us look like greece. and by the way, $50 trillion plus in unfunded liabilities and popular entitlement programs. >> it's huge and the entitlement program is the heart of it, but i ask the same question, which is,

we considered and had testimony from the fiscal commission that president obama appointed, erskine bowles and alan sirch sofnlt -- alan simpson. we had the riff are inand dim commission. alice rivlin was o.m.b. director for president clinton and a wizard herself with numbers. and they proposed some real changes in the debt projectory we're on. so i thought after that, and based on the comments of senator conrad, our chairman, and the strong witnesses that we heard that called on us to make significant changes in what we were doing, that we would move forward with a budget that would be a good bit stronger than the one president obama submitted. indeed, president obama's budget was not serious. president obama's budget took the current spending line for ten years that the congressional budget office says we're on, and it made it worse. it made the deficit worse, $2 trillion worse than the current plan we were on. totally unacceptable. he proposed in his budget increasing education funding by 10.5%, increasing energy department funding funding.5%. increasing state department funding 10.5%,

erskine bowles said this is the most predictable crisis in american history. admiral mullin called it our biggest national security threat, our debt, not some military adversary. so, what have we done to advance the ball and to try to begin to do what we all know we need to do? well, this week we had a vote on four different budget proposals. the president's budget proposal back in december received no votes at all, not a one. the house-passed budget received the votes of almost all republicans. that was created by one of our own members -- and not a single democrat. i think we have to ask at this point, what is the senate democratic plan to do something about the most predictable crisis in american history? we are waiting for it. some have referred to the president's speech as their plan. i guess that was one of the more recent speeches. we as parliamentarians if you can vote on a speech. -- we have asked the parliamentarian if you can vote on a speech. the answer is, you cannot vote for a speech. when will they step up and help us deal with the most predicta

i am going to quote build clinton and erskine bowles and you have been retained that stuff. this is not an issue we should be apprehensive about. everybody in america is concerned whether or not we will have the same kind of country for your kids that our parents left behind for us. there is a lot of things that would be impacted if it was up to me we would discuss social security as well. who this year. not in the future but to remind people who are currently on the beneficiaries of the and adam programs that we are not talking about them. we're talking about having a sustainable program for future generations. once you introduce that fact into the discussion i think the political anxiety that people feel is bound to go down so drawing conclusion out of the three way race a year and a half before the election i don't want to put you down but it is, into a foolish. a lot of happen between now and then. >> just to clarify, and has big numbers of cuts but without substantially addressing medicare will not get your vote? >> correct. >> other senior republicans have introduced l

erskine bowles, chief of staff to president clinton.ate. that's the bipartisan debt commission's challenge. don't shoot down somebody else's idea without offering a better idea in its place. that's exactly what the majority leader plans to do. we don't need a democratic budget, he said. it would be foolish for to us produce one. we'll just call up this house budget and we'll attack it and with our senate majority, we'll vote it down but we won't produce our own, we won't produce any other alternative, we won't tell the american people what our vision is, what our prospects and plans are for getting this country off the unsustainable debt path we're on and on to the path of pros expairt job creation and sound financial future. -- path of prosperity and job creation and sound financial future. why don't we hear it? because it', as one of their stf members inside that comment to the press, it has -- might cause somebody to be -- object. we might have, as the debt commission warned, "advocacy groups and special interests" who are going to r

speaking about the consequences of the fiscal path we're on, erskine bowles said simply, it's the most predictable crisis in our history. the most predictable crisis in history. that was a democrat talking, and yet democrats in the senate don't even want to talk about it. yesterday here in the senate democrats rejected every single proposal we've sean on our nation's fiscal future. they just simply took a pact. they've chosen to ignore this crisis, just like they've ignored the last one. three years ago as the financial crisis approached, the senior senator from new york was holding press conferences trying to link the war in iraq to what passed for an economic slowdown at the time. the majority leader was postponing votes that we all knew would fail so democrats who were running for president could be here to vote on them. now in the face of a looming crisis, we all admit is coming, they're doing the very same thing. this crisis is staring us right in the face, right in our face. the democrats themselves from the president on down say they see it. yet once again they're so focused on

over on c-span, the co-chairs of the national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform, erskine bowlesl discuss their recommendations for balancing the federal budget and improving the economy. they'll be speaking at the investment company institute. live coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this week on booktv on c-span2, francis fukuyama on the origins of government on "after words" conservative blogger andrew breitbart discusses his transformation to a self-described cultural warrior. he's interviewed by armstrong williams. also in this weekend in america aflame, david goldfield on the role of religion leading up to the civil war. look for the complete schedule at booktv.org, and sign up for booktv alert. >> at the annual national rifle association meeting in pittsburgh, nra vice president wayne lapierre called for the resignation of attorney general eric holder. he accused the justice department of mishandling an investigation of gun sales allowing guns to reach mexican drug cartels. this is an hour and a half. >> today amid swirling reports of a growing government s

erskine bowles, the man chosen by president obama to head the fiscal commission president obama himself established, told us that along with a loan simpson, his cochairman, that this nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. we're heading right to it. it's going to hammer us. not to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. if we don't get off this course the bond markets are going to revolt. we're going to have a serious financial crisis of some kind that's not going to be good for this economy. when asked such a crisis could occur, mr. bowles said two years; maybe a little less, maybe a little more. alan simpson said "i think it could be one year." these are independent people who love america. they're warning us we need to take action now. and the president's budget simply doesn't get it. the american people are not happy with us. they think we're not meeting our responsibilities. are they right? they hammered a lot of big spenders in the last election. were they right? i totally believe that they're right. i totally am of the view there is no way this country shou

on c-span, erskine bowles and alan simpson will discuss the budget deficits entitlement and tax policy live at kennecott 30 a.m. eastern. also at kennecott 30 on c-span3, -- also at 10:30 on c-span3, the future a military reserves. >> congratulations to all the winners of this year's studentcam competition. you can't view the videos on our website at c-span.org. if you would like an early start on next year's competition, the thing is the u.s. constitution. create a video about why it is important to you. but for details starting august 1. >> president obama went to new york today for a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial. the trip: the's mission that killed osama bin laden. before the ceremony, the president visited firefighters at the midtown buyer house which lost 15 men on 9/11, more than any other fire house in new york city. [applause] >> the main reason i came here is because i heard the food was pretty good. [laughter] mayor -- mayor guiliani performed heroic acts 10 years ago i wanted to come up here to thank you. this is a -- this is symbolic of your extraordinary sac

erskine bowles, whom the president had asked and did, in fact, chair the fiscal commission, is supposed to come up with a plan to help us get out of this fix. mr. bowles said about the president's budget, it's nowhere close to what is necessary to avoid our fiscal nightmare. that's what the president's own person said, so now we are looking at congress, that's the president's proposal, but the senate has got to move a proposal. we can't even go to conference to begin to work out a budget that both houses could agree on until the senate moves a budget forward. mr. hatch: that's right. i think the distinguished chairman of the budget committee, senator conrad, wants to do it, but in their caucus, they can't get together because they all want to spend more, they all want to tax more. they want to keep spending and taxing the way they have in the past, and it's clear that we can't keep doing that. mr. sessions: i would agree. as a matter of fact, we have heard reports that the democratic caucus is debating a budget in closed-door caucus meetings, have done that at least twice, and this is n

erskine bowles, who cochaired the debt commission, being appointed by president obama, said, along with senator alan simpson, his cochair, in a written statement to the budget committee that this nation has never faced so -- such a predictable economic crisis. in other words. the deficit levels we are operating with are so high and they create such danger to the economy that we have to get off this path, is what they told us. every expert has said we are on an unsustainable path. many people have thought, well, the problem we're dealing with today places a burden on or children and our grandchildren, and, therefore, it's removed to some degree the immediacy of the problem. but that's not what mr. bowles said. in his testimony before the budget committee just a month or two ago, he said that we could have a financial crisis, when asked by senator conrad, our chairman, when, he said two years, maybe less, maybe more. senator simpson said i think it could be one year. so we are taking a risk with the american economy. this has been echoed by moody's bond ratings. it's been echoed by the s&

here on c-span, erskine bowles and alan simpson will discuss the budget cut deficits, entitlements, and tax policy live at kennecott 30 a.m. eastern. also at kennecott 30 on c-span3 -- also at 10:30 on c-span3, the future a military reserves. the house took up the first of two measures of dealing with offshore oil drilling leases. yesterday's bill directs the obama administration to make lease sales for drilling off the shores of virginia and the gulf of mexico. a companion bill is expected to be debated next week. this part of yesterday's debate is a little less than one hour. the chair: the gentleman from colorado is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this bill is the first step for republicans to bring a new energy policy to this country, the american energy initiative. mr. lamborn: look at this chart. it says it all. under barack obama an had -- and his regulators, the average price of gasoline in this country has gone up from $1.84 a gallon when he took office, to just under $4. under his watch, gasoline has more than doubled. we need more supply and everyone a

erskine bowles, the man he chose to head his debt commission said that the president's budget came nowhere close -- nowhere near doing what's necessary -- actually what he said was that the present budget comes nowhere near doing what's necessary to avoid our fiscal nightmare. nowhere near. -- nowhere near doing that. so i'm wondering what's happening here. the american people get it. they sent a message in the election in november. sent 64 new members to the house of representatives. almost every -- every single one of them promised to do something about reckless spending in washington. and what about this budget that the president has submitted to us? it's the on-line one, i guess -- it's the only one i guess we have in the senate. the senate democratic leadership hasn't presented one, it called for a 10.5% increase in education, 10.5% increase in the state department budget, 62% increase in the transportation budget. well, we don't have the money. 40 cents of every dollar we spend today is borrowed. it cannot be continued. we are on an unsustainable path. the american people know it. ev

ers kin bowles -- erskine bowles an alan simpson, appointed by the president, they wrote a document they to us as their remarks through the budget committee that said this nation is facing the most predictable economic crisis in its history. in other words, they're saying the path we are on is so unsustainable that it's easy to predict that we're facing and heading toward a financial crisis. and there's no higher duty, no higher responsibly for members of congress of the united states than to protect the people of this country from a foreseeable danger. when asked by chairman conrad when we might have such a crisis, mr. bowles said in his opinion it could be two years, a little less, a little more. a financial crisis. something like greece is what he's referring to, another recession, a surge of inflation, a surge in interest rates. that's the kind of thing he's talking about. senator simpson, the co-chairman of the commission said, i think it could be one year. the s&p 500 bond evaluators have warned they could downgrade our debt. in fact, moody's in december warned that they could redu

followed by a look at pension plans around the world and a lively discussion with the chairmen, erskin bowles and alan simpson. i'm honored to introduce our next speaker, mary shap is iro. she will be taking questions from the audience after her remarks so please write your questions on the blue cards provided and hand them to one of our staff who will be circulating throughout the audience. chairman shap ira -- shapiro was appointed by president obama, unanimously confirmed and sworn in january 2009. her swift confirmation was a testament to her proven track record as an effective regulator and a strong investor advocate. in 1988 president ronald reagan appointed mary shapiro commissioner of the s.e.c. she was named acting s.e.c. chairman by president bill clinton and later appointed chairman of the commodities futures trading commission. from their she entered the financial industries' self regulatory instuges. she was chairman of the nasd and in that role oversaw nasd's merger with the member operations of the new york stock exchange. she became c.e.o. of the rulingting -- resulting organi

according to erskine bowles, accomplished businessman. president clinton's chief of staff, chosen by president obama to head the commission. that's what he told us in the budget committee just a few weeks ago. how serious is he? well, our highway spending this year is about $40 billion. last year, this country spent in interest on our debt $200-plus billion, five times the highway bill, just for example. and we need to do something about our infrastructure and highways in america. i am really worried about it. i see the majority leader. if he would like to -- mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i will dwreeld him if he -- session significance know he has many things on his agenda. keep us all under control. mr. reid: i appreciate, mr. president, very much my frents friend yielding to meevment even though i have said this on the floor, we have on occasion some political differences. no one has been more generous and kind in their statements about me over the years than my friend from alabama. and

that's the scenario admiral mullen and erskine bowles are worried about.eanwhile entitlement spending is growing faster than inflation, meaning sooner or later these programs will either consume all the money we have or these programs will be forced to change. members of the president's own cabinet admitted this last week when they signed a report showing that medicare is running out of money and urging prompt reform of the program. so the question isn't whether these programs need reform. the question is how's it going to be done? do we do it now, together? or do we wait until we're absolutely forced to do it? there's no other choice. congressman ryan has shown a lot of courage by proposing a budget that would tackle a big part of the problem. democrats are showing none by ignoring our problems altogether. this is the contrast americans will see in the senate this week. republicans will vote on several possible approaches to our fiscal crisis this week, including the ryan plan. democrats will vote against every single one of them. we'll also have a vote o