we are joined this evening by alan simpson the former senator and erskine bowles, the former chief of staff of president clinton. >> we face the most predictable and also luckily the most avoidable economic crisis in history. nobody disputes the arithmetic, fiscal path we are on is simply not sustainable and the deficits are like a cancer, they are really going to destroy the country from within. and the arithmetic is easy to understand. and if you take just last year, charlie you don't have to go back 20 years ago or 20 years hence, 100 percent of the revenue that came into the country, every single dime of it was spent last year on interest on the debt and these mandatory spending, mandatory spending is principally the entitle programs, medicare, medicaid, social security that means every dollar we spent last year on these two wars, on homeland security, on education, on infrastructure. >> rose: money we didn't have. >> yes. it was borrowed. >> rose: we would have to borrow it. >> half was bore red from foreign countries, that is like crazy, so at the end of this year, you know, we

. >> the erskine bowles proposal was brought up at the house of representatives. it went down in flames, mostly republicans, even some democrats. it showed that the administration was wise to not even push it because they knew it was going to fail. >> florida shooting victim trayvon martin's parents come to capitol hill. >> a lot of people can relate to our situation, and it breaks their heart like bricks mind. -- breaks mine. >> that is the mother of trayvon martin, the high school student shot dead in florida by a neighborhood watch captain, one at george zimmerman. zimmerman says he acted in self- defense. he has not been addressed, and that is set off protests in washington -- not in arrested, and that has set off protests in washington and across the nation. democratic congressman bobby rush was kicked off the floor of the house for wearing a hoodie. martin was wearing one when he was killed. it has called attention to "standard ground" law -- "stand your ground" laws like the one in florida. >> that law is an abomination. this guy zimmerman called the police

. >> dear scandals proposal went out and if limit -- the erskine bowles proposal went out in defeat. the administration is publicly why is not even push it. >> florida shooting victim trayvon martin's parents come to capitol hill. >> a lot of people relate to our situation and it breaks their heart. >> that is the mother of trayvon martin, the high school student who was shot in florida by any bird watch captain, george zimmerman. zimmerman says he acted in self- defense and has not been arrested. that set off protests in washington and across the nation. this week, democratic congressman bobby rush was kicked off the floor of the house for wearing a hoodie. martin was wearing one when he was killed. this has reignited the issue of race in america. the public forum has called attention to so-called "stand your ground at" laws like in florida. what is your take, charles? >> well, that law is an abomination and that is the root of what is happening. this man is a man called the police 50 times in one year to report so-called suspicious activity? when you have a law like that, you are g

but what you could do, i think erskine bowles and allen simpson did an enormous service by setting out the framework even if you don't agree with the specifics, but even if you don't agree with the specifics, i think they did the country a tremendous service by setting out a framework. so that framework, as you all will remember, was ten years to get to a point where the debt to gdp ratio stabilizes and then slightly begins to decline. you could put together a set of structures that would get you to a ten-year program that would stanlize debt to gdp with a few simple measures and probably want to defer the implementation of that program for a couple of years to give the recovery more time to get traction and you certainly, i at least think, you want to have robust public investment within that context. because as bernie schwartz and others can tell you, we have got to have infrastructure. earch. we have to have a whole host of other programs if we're going to be competitive. and i think you could do that. there are legislative strategies that could put in place that would bridge you to

. >> rose: but there was a proposal laid out by alan simpson and erskine bowles. >> that was a good proposal i thought it should have been adopted but the failure to adopt that, i think was on the part of the administration who refused o ba their own commison. >> b they say they've come around now. that's the argument they made. >> well, after the election. after the election let's hope... >> rose: but not where they're prepared to cut entitlements and you are prepared to say to america we have to cut entitlements... >> absolutely. >> at the same time we raise revenue. are you prepared to say we have to raise revenue? >> if i were king i'd say we've got to get this entitlement spending under control and we've got to raise revenues but when we raise revenues, congress that's it. we're going to raise the revenues but you're not going to spend more in addition to that unless there's some provision made for that amount of spending. >> you have to have deficit reduction but at the same time you have to have things that will encourage growth as well. you have to have an investment in the future. y

that's why i'm going to speak later on with erskine/bowles. we have to tell the public, call your representative, a president, senator, congressman, and say, i want a concrete solution. it may not be a solution that i like, but you've got to come up with something that actually balances the budget. neither party nor either end of pennsylvania avenue have done that. they keep promising everybody something for nothing. unfortunately as you ee in europe, something for nothing doesn't exist. eventually countries get into real trouble. we're in somewhat trouble right now. one reason we have this high unemployment rate is companies are afraid to make investments. banks are afraid to make loan because they don't see leadership. they don't see a problem to our problems. >> with respect to president obama's proposal and the bufffett rule, do you believe it's not about fairness? >> the buffett issue is we want people to create jobs. we lower taxes on capital gains to get people to invest. the good new is, it worked. warren buffett did exactly what the t

the size of your economy and you suffered a credit downgrade,ers kin bowles called it the -- erskine bowles most predibblingtable crisis in the clint's history. s that big issue for our country. it's not going away and it'll still be there after the election. >> two years ago, there was so much passion with the rise the tea party, had the town hall, the big rallies, thousands of people here at the capitol. do you think the tea party is as strong as influential as they were two years ago and do you expect to see that passion -- do you think the passion against the health care law is still there? >> i do. i think the passion that brought about the rise of the tea party had a lot to do with the issue we're talking about today. i believe the passage of obamacare, though the tea party had come into existence before christmas eve of 2009, i think obamacare is a metaphor for all the excess of this administration. this stimulus. the debt. the takeover of health care. the nationalization of the student loan program. all of this government excess. i think all the folks who have been involved in that

erskine bowles and alan simpson who chaired the debt commission both together issued a written statements we are today guarantees a financial collapse that could impact every person in america and deeply impact our ability to have healthcare in this country. we have to recognize the house of representatives, republican controlled house will unveil a budget plan on wednesday that will be the senate is not going to bring up a budget. the democratic leader has said it is foolish to have a budget. so we will go for the third consecutive year without even attempting to pass a budget. supposed to be out of the committee by april 1st. supposed to be passed by april 15th. the house is going to do it. they're going to step up to the plate and way out like they did last year a plan that will change the debt course of america and put us on a sustainable path so we don't have to fear financial collapse and they are going to look at this legislation and it can't be imposed. we do not have the money. it will make health-care worse as we heard but more than that even if it were a good idea, a nice thin

when you have a debt the size of our economy and you have suffered a credit downgrade, erskine bowlesamerican history. regardless of what is discussed in the campaign, this is a big issue for our country. it is not going away. it will still be there after the election. yes. "it's a there was so much passion with the tea party, town halls, but thousands of people at the capitol -- do you think that the tea party is as strong and influential as they work? do you expect that passion to still be there? >> i think the passion that brought about the rise of the tea party had a lot to do with the issue we are talking about today. i believe the passage of obamacare, although the party came into existence before christmas eve 2009, i think obamacare is a metaphor for all of the excess of this administration -- the stimulus, the debt, the takeover of the health care, the nationalization of these two long program. i think all of the folks involved in that movement understand the single most important thing we can do is replace the current occupant of the white house. it would be an assist if the

and last year after the erskine bowles from your state and alan spimp son frosimpson from wyomie together with the bowles-simpson report, there was a pretty big effort in this body to try to adopt the principles that were laid out there. as a matter of fact, 32 republicans and 32 democrats sent a letter to the president asking him to embrace those. later on, there was another effort put in place by -- a super committee wasupercommittee and numbers of people on both sides of the aisle that this supercommittee really do something outstanding for our country and reduce the deficit by $4 trillion, if possible. my point is, is that there's been a lot of bipartisan efforts towards reducing our deficit and yet the only thing that we've done thus far, the only thing that has any meat on it at all was the budget control act, which was passed on august the 2nd. the budget control act was passed in a trade, if you will. at that time, the country's debt was beyond the debt ceiling that was allowed by law and so in order to raise the debt ceiling, there was an agreement reached by this body to lower t

leadership and the fact is that president obama for at least four months decides not to meet with erskine bowlesey had the report and sent the signal all over washington that the president was taking a step away from it. it wasn't until much later he decided to get religion. the answer is can you put together a new congress if he is re-elected or can mitt romney if he's elected put something that will throw in tax reform like simpson/bowles? >> let's sure hope so, because i think there's a real possibility here that unless -- unless we can configure that kind of package we're going to have a rolling set of two- or three- or four-month debt limit extensions through 2013 and that would create anxiety and uncertainty that no one needs. we absolutely need a big deal to come together and, again, with the congress of tw or three decades ago it would have been virtually guaranteed, today given there's no middle, it's much harder but necessary. >> this is what is going to cause the drama early next year. >> i want to pin john down on how high you would like marginal rates to go. 26% is simpson/bowles, l

erskine bowles, the chairman, president obama's chairman of the debt commission warned that we are heading to. so i'm just looking at the numbers here, and i want you to recognize that everybody is going to have to tighten their belt. under the proposals for the defense department, would take by far the biggest reductions. and that's not were funny. that's tasha i talk about the base defense budget. they're taking significant real reductions in spending. and others to question would be dramatic. but wouldn't you recognize that even though we are having the greatest deficits in history of the republic that your budget has been continued upward since 2008, remains considerably above that level? >> sir, i think that, i don't agree with that. we did get a bump up primarily to fund water infrastructure. that's state money, and the great lakes program, which is grant money. that does not get spent primarily by epa, by any means. we took a 16% budget cut in 2011, 3% in 2012, 1% in 2013. and those numbers are misleading because, as in those times we've increased funding as i said in my opening rem

erskine bowles and alan simpson, who chaired president obama's debt commission, both together issueda more predictable financial crisis. and what they told us was, spending as we are today, running up debt as we are today guarantees a financial collapse that could impact every person in america and deeply impact our ability to have health care in this country. so i think we have to recognize that the house of representatives, the republican-controlled house, tomorrow will unveil a budget plan. the senate on wednesday, they'll -- the senate is not going to bring up a budget. the democratic leader has said it's foolish to have a budget. so we'll go for the third consecutive year without even attempting to pass a budget. it's supposed toking out of the committee by april 1, supposed to be passed by april 15. the house is going to do it. they're going to step up to the plate and they're going to lay out like they did last year, a plan that would change the debt course of america. a plan that would put us on a sustainable path so that we don't have to fear financial collapse. and they're

but what you could do, i think erskine bowles and alan simpson's did our country and enormous system by setting up the framework. even if you don't agree with the specifics i think they did the country a tremendous service by setting out a framework. so that framework as you all will remember was 10 years to get to a point where the debt-to-gdp ratio first stabilized and then slightly begins to decline. i think you could not do the tax reform, i agree with that. but you could i think, greg, put together a structure of changes that would get you to retain your program that stabilize the debt to gdp, that with simple measures. you probably want to do for the implementation of the program for a couple of years to give the recovery more time to get traction. you certainly i at least think you would want to have robust public investment within the context, because as bernie schwartz and others can tell you, we've got to have infrastructure, we got the basic research. we've got to have a whole host of other programs if we're going to be competitive. i think you could do that. if it takes y

erskine boll chaireerskine bowle headed for the most predictable financial crisis in our nation's history. why? because of the debt we're running up. and we heed to confront that. but -- and we need to confront that. but senator reid didn't want to talk about it. he didn't want his members to have to have votes. and if you bring up amendments, they'll talk about the debt course of america, which is on an unstannel path. -- which is on an unsustainable path. judges have moved at a reasonable pace, as they've always moved. there'i vote for 90% of them. what's unusual is we're violating the statutory law of the united states of america that says you should have a budget. we're required to pass a budget. by april 1 it should be up in the senate. it should be passed by april 15. isn't that perfectly sane that the united states of america would have a budget? and the senate doesn't want to do that. and what else should we be talking about? we should be working to have more affordable american energy. now, look ... we all want to create jobs. our creation on the democratic side ran through a big

bowles? >> no. >> when i look at the one-page summary and your 98-page report, you're 80% overlap. >> alan and erskine i really like the guys a lot. i'm friends with them. what i didn't want to do was to go to the country and suggest i'm fixing the problem like with simpson-bowles when i'm not, when it doesn't include healthcare. simpson-bowles is silent on those. alice rivlin and i had an amendment to this, to complete the package to have fundamental healthcare entitlement will reform. that was rejected by the elected democrats and as a result it wasn't passed. i didn't think this fixes the problem. simpson-bowles has a lot of good things to it and i put a lot of in our budget. but it doesn't fix the problem. i want to fix the problem. i want to stop this debt crisis. i want to stop medicare from going bankrupt and compromising the security of many seniors. >> a lot of people are saying that your plan would hurt the seniors. kaiser permanente, 70% of americans are satisfied with medicare and satisfied with what they get out of medicare. what do you say to them? it sounds like what you're trying to do