coburn, and see the fruits of some of your labor and the gao's report?you are not going to see any fruits until we have a president that says i'm not signing any appropriation bill until you eliminate this duplication. you need somebody tough in the white house that says, the only way we are going to fund the government to run the next six months or year is if you eliminate this waste. send me the bill i will veto the bill you will have to override it and i'm taking it to american people you won't do your work. you won't eliminate the waste, fraud, duplication to the tune of 350 billion dollars a year. that's what we need. we need courageous moral leadership. somebody that will stand up for the best of this country in the lonnnzbz term rather than for political expediency. >> greta: if you think that report is all there is, you are wrong. tomorrow night the shocking amount of your money wasted by the department of education. >> also tomorrow night, donald trump is talking to us about everything from president obama's jobs plan to the republican race for

gao is the other watchdog.etween these two and independent innovations by cms, i am looking forward to hearing about how and when we can eliminate improper payments. i'm encouraged at the progress that the the administration has made in the last two years in reducing improper payments. wherever it is that this committee -- whatever it is that this committee needs to do to assist in the terms of the reduction, i'll let you know that we stand ready to do just that. thank you very much for being here, and i look forward to your testimony. thank you. i yield back. >> thank the gentleman. members, we'll have seven days to submit opening statements and extraneous materials for the record to get to our witnesses, unless any other member wanted to make a brief opening statement. if not, we'll move to our witnesses. we're honored to have four distinguished public servants here with us today beginning with daniel levinson, the inspector general of the united states department of health and be human services. he also serv

the gao is the other watchdog. between these two and independent innovations, i am looking forward to hearing about how and when we can eliminate improper payments. i am encouraged that the progress the administration has made in the last two years in reducing improper payments. whatever it is that this committee needs to do to assist in terms of the reduction, we stand ready to do just that. thank you very much for being here and i look forward to your testimony. thank you. i yield back. >> the members will have seven days to submit opening statements and extraneous materials for the record. unless any other member wants to make a brief opening statement, we will move on to the witnesses. we are honored to have four distinguished public servants with us today. daniel levinson, the inspector general of hhs, and serves on the council of integrity and efficiency on inspection and evaluation. mishal snyder coming the deputy chief operating officer for cms where she leads the improvement initiatives for promoting excel

his career gao dates back to 1981. mr. has a bachelor of arts in political science from the university of paint. and a masters in public administration from its graduate school of public and international affairs and not the nfl strike has been averted, is going to sa first question of you, what nfl football team we've be rooting for this fall with that kind of bio? all right. welcome one and i'll tear your entire statement will be made part of the record. if you'd like to summarize that would be great. raskin you keep your remarks roughly five minutes. if you go a little beyond that okay. maybe i'm just not okay. i want you out to finish and then senator brown and i will take turns asking questions at the third mr. foley, please are sepia thank you for coming. >> at afternoon chairman carper, ranking member brown. appreciate being invited to discuss gsa's efforts to reduce clients on the space, a person this acquisition and how we manage of authority. gsa searches for the most cost effective ways to fight space to help th

government accountability office, actually known as gao. he specializes in transportation and communication, federal real property issues. is career dates back to 1981. mr. wise has a bachelor of arts in political science from university of pittsburgh and a masters in public administration from its graduate school of public and international affairs, and now that the nfl strike has been averted or lockout has been averted as good as my first question of you, what nfl football team will you be rooting for this fall? [inaudible] >> all right. welcome one and all. your entire state will be made part of the record if you like to summarize that would be great. we are asking you to keep your remarks roughly five minutes. a little beyond that that is okay. if you go way beyond that that is not okay. just go ahead and watch all finished, senator broun and i will take turns taking questions of you. mr. foley, please proceed. >> good afternoon chairman carper, ranking member brown, i appreciate being invited here today to discuss gsa's efforts to red

the gao report is being released today and is the backstop of the testimony this morning. we welcome experts from the broader community who have worked for years to prevent child deaths due to maltreatment. we have the spokesperson for the national coalition to end child and we thank them for their commitment for protecting children from further abuse and neglect. in the time that we have worked together, doggett and i have had a commitment to correcting broken information processes, removing obstacles and silos, and continue to hold hearings like this to identify constraints that prevent the service providers or the care givers from doing their very critical job. without objection, each member will have an opportunity to submit a written statement and included in the record at this point. now i would like to yield two mr. doggett for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chair. each weekend that my wife and bair back in texas, we tried to devote a little time to our three preschool granddaughters. the joy of being with them, their growth, they're learning, their creativ

the gao report shows state practices vary widely, even within different markets in the same state. to me, the gao report shows just how fractured the health insurance market continues to be in how consumers are not uniformly protect it remick regis rate increases. i believe that what should be standardized as the authority to block or modify unjustified, unreasonable premium rate increases. i strongly believe each state insurance commissioner or regulators should not only be able to look at insurance rate filings and evaluate them thoroughly prior to implementation, which this gao report out with, but that he or she should also possess authority to block or modify those rates that are egregious. to evaluate the raids and have no authority to reduce or stop those found to be unjustified makes the state insurance commissioner sent away a paper tiger. the department of health and human services reports that as of december 2010, less than half of states and territories have the legal authority to reject excessive rates. the kaiser family foundation report at least 17 states, including

dicken, on the work that the gao has done. has anyone provided evidence that the rate review process or the review results that any of the companies have pulled out of the market in that state -- was there any evidence to suggest the tighter rate of review policy for states would increase the types of policies available for consumers? >> thank you. we did not specifically asked in our surveys whether there were any changes in the market share or carriers in the market. your point is fair. we have looked in the past at the market shares of carriers in the small group market. many states only have one carrier that they represent. many states, 23 states, have five or fewer carriers representing 9% of the market. carriers may have increased or decreased their role in the market as a parts of the rage reviews. >> i think the small business health plans would have increased the number of companies that were out there participating. i hope this health care reform does, too. ms. miller, congratulations on hiring an actuarial firm. alw

his career in gao dates back to 1981. mr. weiss has a bachelor of arts in political science from the university of pittsburgh and a master's in public administration's degree from pitts graduate school of public and international affairs and now that the nfl strike has been averted the lockout has been averted i was going to ask -- my my question would be what nfl football team would be rooting for with that kind of bio? [inaudible] >> all right. welcome one and all your entire statement will be made part of the record. if you would like to summarize that'd be great. we're asking you to keep remarks to roughly 5 minutes. if you go a little beyond that that's okay. if you go way beyond, that's not okay. so just go ahead and once you're all finished, senator brown and i will take questions just asking questions of you. thank you all for coming. >> thank you. good afternoon, chairman carper, ranking member brown. i appreciate being invited here today to discuss gsa's efforts to reduce our reliance on lease space. our approach to

on may 26, the gao committee approved the resolution to renew the fillmore cbd with some conditions. was that it becomes subject to the sunshine ordinance. the second was that the fillmore cbd more accurately reflect the intent and content of the bylaws. when seeing the draft resolution, i did not see those amendments. i was surprised and concerns. i ask that you support and approve the fillmore cbd renewal with those two amendments. thank you. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. in 1957, i was a child. in 1958, the redevelopment agency walk up or made the announcement that the fillmore would be changed and that most folks would have to leave. my family was one of those families that left. over the course of time, the mayors, the supervisors, a number of others said that there would come a time when the african-american community, which had been, of course, as you all know, brought to san francisco to help build the ships that helped win world war ii, would be able to come back to the fillmore. that date has yet to arrive. i come not in oppositio

chairman murray, senator brown and members of the committee, i am pleased to be here today to talk about gao's recent work on the a's approach is to estimate future capital and health care budgets. for the aging veteran population and for younger veterans returning from afghanistan and iraq, it is vital that va effectively estimate the facilities and health care the veterans they need. let me first talk about va's capital planning process. va has thousands of facility provide health care and other services to millions of veterans, as thing time and location of facilities and services is a complex process. and as we recently reported, da over the course of several years has changed its approach to this planning. va's current diary processor ge capital process, or skip. however, i can't tell you can skip is an effective planning tool it is too early to tell. but i can say that va incorporated a number of leading practices in to skip. for example, va now considers capital investments across the organization using weighted criteria and expand its five year planning horizon to 10 years. also, prior

james, in your analysis of the va's capital plan from 2004 to 2009, excuse me, gao noted va's real propertyortfolio changed with an increase in leases and lease spaces. this was va's efforts to adjust their real property portfolio to match the agency's overall mission to move the delivery of care toward more outpatient facilities. beyond cbocs and vet centers n. what ways can the veterans' health administration expand their inventory of leased buildings, and also is there any effort to have these buildings within already government-owned properties to, in fact, save money? >> the results of the space that was really looked as if those were improvements, and i believe there were 24-29 that were reported in our report indicated that there had been some improvements in that. so part of an initiative that's included in their planning is the need and the planning for community-based outpatient clinics which is directly tied to trying to give care to the more rural, more rural community. so it is a factor in their planning, and there could be more that could be done in terms of that. i think it's

dicken, i want to thank you for the work that the gao does. it's sherman does help and i appreciate the reports that have come out. in looking at the state authority to review rates, did any of the states provide evidence that because the rate review process burden or the review results that any of the companies that pull out of the market in that state was there any evidence to suggest that the policies for the states will decrease the number of policies available to consumers or of leased decrease the types of policies available for consumers? >> thank you, senator enzi. we did not specifically ask as a part of our survey as to whether there were any changes in the market share more carriers in the market. certainly the point is fair. we have looked in the past at the market shares of carriers in the small group market and many states only have one carrier that may represent half of the market or more. many states i think 23 states had five or fewer carriers that were representing 9% of the market. as we did not examine to extend the carrier

government accountability office, officially known as gao. he specialized in transportation and communication, and federal real property issues. his career dates back to 1981. mr. wise has a bachelor of arts in political science from the university of pittsburgh, and a masters in public administration from its graduate school of public and international affairs, and now that the nfl strike has been averted, i was going to ask my first question, what nfl football team will you be rooting for this fall? with that kind of buyer? [inaudible] >> all right. welcome one and all. your entire statement will be a part of the record if you like to summarize that would be great. we're asking you to keep your remarks roughly five minutes. if you go a little beyond that that is okay. if you go way beyond that, that is not okay. just go ahead, and once all of you finish, senator brown and i will take turns asking questions. thank you all for coming. >> good afternoon chairman carper, ranking member brown. i appreciate being invited here today to discuss gsa

. >> people watch on the record senator tom coburn study by the gao it's about this tall talks about the government we have 50 agencies doing the same job instead of one agency. ridiculous expenses we can possibly think of. to me there are a couple of things you can do right here. they are built into the program if you want to slow it down just a percent you could get all of the balance within five years. one of the things that will be meddlesome for the market longer term and even in the near term is the idea that they have already put the number out there. you have a right to because they haven't been great in the past. it was a little thing called a meltdown. >> they have said look we would like to see $4 trillion in savings over the next decade. which are looking at free trades. we have all but threatened to cut our debt rating if we don't come to another. you call their bluff you would downgrade it now what. before it happened in 2008 in the middle of the financial melt down we to cut and package a tarp dole and the markets in the next few months regardless. >> always nice to se

. > y reina e deonteo en espaÑa por la visita del pa benedicto i, y los manifesttes que rechazan el gaoÑos y 20 llamas que habitaron la tierra hace 800 aÑos los cuerpos son de una civil zaciÓn pre inca. >>> y pensban que serÍa subastado el auto de kasey antony, evidencia clave en el juicio por la muerte de la hija quedÓ reducido a chatarra en un centro en orlando y su abogado josÉ bÁez esta siendo investigado por el colegio de abogados de la florida. >>> para mÁs informaciÓn, entre a la pÁgina de www.univision.com, en "primer impacto", y tambiÉn sigan en su estamos en twitter y facebook, allÍ los esperamos. >>> y vamos a la pausa y en seguida un integrante del grupo aventura se busca un problema con chayanne. le contarÉ de que se trata. >>> y mÁs adelante la acusadora decidiÓ posar como dios la trajo al mundo y escucharÁn reacciÓn del cantante kalimb >>> y la presentadora dominicana venya carolina testificÓ en el caso de homicidio en la que se ha visto involucrada. >>> y hablan del embarazo de ana ha visto involucrada. >>> y hablan del embarazo de ana (♪). >>> y de regreso a "primer imp

. >> people watch on the record senator tom coburn study by the gao it's about this tall talks about the government we have 50 agencies doing the same job instead of one agency. ridiculous expenses we can possibly think of. to me there are a couple of things you can do right here. they are built into the program if you want to slow it down just a percent you could get all of the balance within five years. one of the things that will be meddlesome for the market longer term and even in the near term is the idea that they have already put the number out there. you have a right to because they haven't been great in the past. it was a little thing called a meltdown. >> they have said look we would like to see $4 trillion in savings over the next decade. which are looking at free trades. we have all but threatened to cut our debt rating if we don't come to another. you call their bluff you would downgrade it now what. before it happened in 2008 in the middle of the financial melt down we to cut and package a tarp dole and the markets in the next few months regardless. >> always nice to se

. >> greta: if you go to the gao report released in march, there are so many instances of billions of waste. congress has the obligation to oversight. take a look around, do a little oversight, see what it is. start cherry-picking some of the problems off. congress could do that and it won't. it won't look at the waste. it just commissions studies and says that is awful and then ignores it. >> you are right the report 300 billions in duplicate federal programs, 100 billion dollars in fraud, waste and abuse throughout the federal government. we have to go line by line. tonight one person said in our budget when we run on tough times we go line by line and decide what we can afford and what we can. that's what we have to do in washington -- what we can't that's what we have to do in washington. >> greta: thank you. remember the dodd-frank bill? president obama was proud to sign it and make it law. has it been a bust? on the record investigates what this law means to wall street and to you, 13 months later. >> our nation's financial crisis is now spreadinging to the states. we'll tell yo

that gao report issued in march this tall which shows a lot of waste and the government does an oversightmembers of congress can walk down the street pan go to government agencies and see 17 people doing the same job. there's a lot of work here. >> congress can always do anything you put on a list of paper. the question is, what would they do if they were here now? i'm not sure if they were here today after a very divisive summer fighting over that debt plan they would get anything constructive done. i'm not sure it would inspire the american people they were here given they have an 18, 20% approval rating. they were here for months and it didn't inspire anything. as far as that select committee on deficit reduction that needs to form per the debt plan that passed last week there's a 14 day limit. a week from tomorrow the committee has to be selected and get to work. so we are going to foe that. it is my guess during recess members will talk start to put staff together and this place won't be exactly a ghost town. you just won't have congress in session. >> greta: in terms of that committ

earlier this year the gao put out a report that said there was two to 300 billion dollars of duplicative programs in washington. >> greta: that bill is sitting on my desk. go ahead sir. >> yeah i read it and i think that is one of the things we should tackle. as far as going to israel at the end of the month, it will be a great opportunity to go there and meet with the prime minister and the president. i'm here as a member of the united states house of representatives and we have a serious situation here. when i was in the military we had defense condition one. that means all leaves and passes were cancelled and it was all hands-on deck. i think we are at that point in time now. >> greta: if you came back to town, i think it would send a great signal to the american people that you really care. i know congress is working. many are having town halls, i'm not a fan of the big ones -- i think it could be an important message to send the american people. do you come back and buy against yourself and pass more bills or come back and somehow try to get the senate to vet yours down so you can g

here the gao, general accounting office, over six months ago came out with a list of hundreds of duplicative programs, billions of dollars of spending that a nonpartisan entity says is an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars. we haven't cut one penny of that spending. when you look at the extremes, the extremes are practiced today in our congress and by our president who can't seem to find a single dollar to cut from the current budget. that's extreme. >> jenny beth martin, you've been called hobbits and terrorists by the other side. do you feel you're either of those things? >> i think it's crazy that the other side calls us so many names. we've been called names from the very beginning so we're used to it. but to go to the extreme that the vice president is saying that we're terrorists or at least hearing that we are and saying, no, these are just american citizens who are expressing their first amendment rights, it really ratchets up the tone in washington and it's not what we're looking for. just after gabby giffords' shooting they said that we needed to have a new tone and needed civility

. >> eric: also amazing is the gao for all things, the government investigating the cost of tax books that have gone up 240%. faster than almost anything else. how come this stuff is skyrocketing? >> i know. it's ridiculous. it's like a second tuition because i have a son who just graduated and i know what we paid in textbooks in the last four years was amazing. however, there is some sites that can save you a lot of money, up to 90% off on some of the -- i got on this morning because i thought, i can't believe this. how come we didn't know this four years ago? but one that we really like is called betterworldbooks.com. and you can get new and used books on this. free shipping. they've got a great return policy. and then there is also one called meebo.com. and you can also buy books at a discount, has free shipping, but you can rent books. the ereader can save you money, especially taking classics are free to download. >> arthel: sue perry, good to see you, thank you very much. good to have you here with us this evening. that's going to do it for us, i'm arthel neville. >> eric: harri

there is a gao report from 2008 that says 55% of the companies in the united states pay zero taxes, so if you are in this room and you had a job, you paid more taxes than those corporations. how do you propose getting that money back from the corporations that, for example, oil, you mentioned on hardball several weeks ago that you were open to wind, farm subsidies and ethanol. what about the billions accompanies get in tax breaks? >> i'm so glad you asked that question. prices be't gas there? >> how many of you know what the ax to fall oil and gas company's tax rate is in the debt -- in oklahoma and the nation. it is up 41.5%. it's the highest on the s&p 500. of all the depreciation of all the tax advantages of everything, the tax credits and everything else, the oil industry call of all energy gets less than 8%. the tax credits they do get -- they don't get tax credits, they get accelerated depreciation. here is where the lack of knowledge is in america. the oil and gas industry through accelerated depreciation pay the exact same tax they would without a, they just pay it later becaus

and this is a direct result from the findings in the gao report. and i think that's positive. but i also feel strongly that these rules need to go further. shouldn't these rules -- and we're talking about the online also apply to brick and mortar institutions so that all of the for profit institutions are held to the same standards whether they're online or not? and additionally, with all of the fraud and abuse that we've seen, do you believe these rules should apply to all dod and va benefits and not just the tuition assistance programs? >> yeah, an interesting point you raise. we are focused at this time on online education, but it certainly seems logical we would be focused on making sure these soldiers get best value for the money whether they're in a brick and mortar schoolhouse or online. but as you know, this next generation is more likely to seek education opportunities online. that's probably why we've chosen to start the process there. i would support the idea that we should take a look at both. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senato

gao told us that we've been too relint on leasing since 2008gsa has leased more property than it ownsand in 201 # 1, the agency spends over $5 billion to house federal employees in 184 million square feet of private office space. in addition, while gsa is a central leasing agent for the federal government and responsible for managing and obtaining space for agencies, many agencies obtained their own leasing authority, and in doing so have chosen not to take advantage of gsa's expertise in real estate. given the agencies lack experience in performing lease procurements, they often bind the government into costly, long-term lease obligations that result in millions of dollars in additional costs to the federal government. actually, tens of millions, maybe even hups of millions of extra dollars in costs. for example, the u.s. security exchange commission, we know this all too well, but it's an agency granted independent leasing authority along with other agencies. in july 2010, the commission entered into a sole source lease for 900,000 square feet, a privately owned building called the

direct conflict of interest, and we have a position, which i hope will be implemented in july, the gao we will be talking about conflicts of interest. and people were part of the process in which the benefit of very handsomely, but the fed is a huge issue, and we need to work much more aggressively on that issue, and the function of the fed in my view should be to protect the middle class, to create decent paying jobs in this country, and not just to bail out very large financial institutions. [applause] >> my question is about the federal [inaudible] [inaudible] >> i've known elizabeth for many, many years. elizabeth is one of the smartest people that i have ever known. she came to vermont to do some town meetings with me and what i love about her is that she is able to take the difficult economic concepts and translate that into english so that people know what she's talking about coming and i will tell you i did more lobbying to get elizabeth appointed than on any other issue because i will tell you this also, when net not long into the obama administration i can tremor, six months,

direct conflict of interest, and we have a position, which i hope will be implemented in july, the gao we will be talking about conflicts of interest. and people were part of the process in which the benefit of very handsomely, but the fed is a huge issue, and we need to work much more aggressively on that issue, and the function of the fed in my view should be to protect the middle class, to create decent paying jobs in this country, and not just to bail out very large financial institutions. [applause] >> my question is about the federal [inaudible] [inaudible] >> i've known elizabeth for many, many years. elizabeth is one of the smartest people that i have ever known. she came to vermont to do some town meetings with me and what i love about her is that she is able to take the difficult economic concepts and translate that into english so that people know what she's talking about coming and i will tell you i did more lobbying to get elizabeth appointed than on any other issue because i will tell you this also, when net not long into the obama administration i can tremor, six months,

"gao -- millions wasted during katrina relief. the government wasted millions of dollars in its post-katrina contracts for disaster relief, including 4000 beds that were never used, said a federal auditors. the government accountability of this's review of 13 major contracts offers the first preliminary overview of their soundness. waste and mismanagement were widespread, according to the five-page briefing paper released on thursday. that led to money paid for work never used." looking back on our largest hurricane and the federal dollars allocated there. dennis is an independent. caller: i want to tell you this straight away -- if i hadn't had fema with hurricane wilma in 2005, i would have been out the window. i also went through andrew, had a brush with gene . my cousins daughter was a recipient of katrina's catastrophe. certain individuals, whether democrats, republicans, independents, teabaggers, are crazy. fema was set up, and certainly george bush was not offered to help people as was bill clinton before that and so forth.

after they pass the law, the gao can talk about how screwed up is. but the gao cannot tell you beforehand that we did a systems analysis and this is dumb idea. there is no real technical advisory thing in the department. if you add those up, it creates a perfect storm of coming up with good ideas and then only finding out it is not a good idea when you go try to do it. then it becomes the true perfect storm. you create a requirement that forces the government to do something stupid. the new have been hearing about how stupid they are. you beat them up over that period -- you beat them up over that period -- you beat them up over that and we go through an endless loop. because it was your stupid idea to begin with, you cannot write the law that says you repeal your stupid idea, because that would ke you look stupid. cargo scanning is a perfect example. every responsible homeland security analysts said this is a stupid idea because the only thing we're really concerned about is a smuggled nuclear weapon. the last thing they would do is hide it in a shi

direct conflict of interest, and we have a position, which i hope will be implemented in july, the gao we will be talking about conflicts of interest. and people were part of the process in which the benefit of very handsomely, but the fed is a huge issue, and we need to work much more aggressively on that issue, and the function of the fed in my view should be to protect the middle class, to create decent paying jobs in this country, and not just to bail out very large financial institutions. [applause] >> my question is about the federal [inaudible] [inaudible] >> i've known elizabeth for many, many years. elizabeth is one of the smartest people that i have ever known. she came to vermont to do some town meetings with me and what i love about her is that she is able to take the difficult economic concepts and translate that into english so that people know what she's talking about coming and i will tell you i did more lobbying to get elizabeth appointed than on any other issue because i will tell you this also, when net not long into the obama administration i can tremor, six months,

the latest report from the gao was 84 programs

so after they pass the law, the gao can write all these reports how screwed up it is, right, but the gao can't tell you beforehand and said well, we did a systems analysis of this and, boy, this is really kind of a dumb idea, right? and, of course, there is no real -- there's no really no technical advisory thing in the department. so there's nobody really that would -- so you add all those things up, it really creates a perfect storm of coming up with good ideas, right? and then only finding out it's not a good idea when you actually go out there to try to do it and then it actually becomes the true perfect storm because you create the requirement which forces the government to do something stupid. the government tries to do it and, of course, it does it stupidly so then you have a hearing about how stupid they are in doing this thing and you beat them up over it. and so you have this endless dulu and you reality more requirements to make them do the stupid thing more efficiently and the requirements you have later on make them be more inefficient and we have this endless dulu or fo

we have had many gao studies, and so i think both on the payment side and beyond that there's frankly been elements of fraud and abuse in the dme field have and are being addressed, and, again, that's a well-recognized problem, so i think the caller is correct. >> host: linda calling from tennessee now on the line for democrats. good morning, linda. >> caller: good morning. sorry to bring up fraud and abuse again because i understand that you're trying to really get people to understand that the tidal wave of demographic reality that's flooding the system, but you're talking 20 individuals on the phone who have individual problems, and we all want to help, and what we see are the individual things that happen to us, and, again, we have a problem with what we think is fraud from a physical therapist. the points i wish to make are how difficult it is for the individual to do anything about it because the system is not set up to facilitate it. service providers are not required to send copies of bills to their patients by default. up stead, you have to -- instead, you have to send them -

>> mollerr quantitative in the sense like that six men did better use and the gao does not go into greatdepths in the campaign. my book fore instance is one chapter and gettysburg is to because of the movement's. i tried to portray a sense of combat also mistakes and leadership. it is the wonderful booko based on a lot of years of research. i use it be carries theexce profiles of the members but to his chapters on thes campaign was not his purpose. with the sense of what the army is doing. that is where. thank you. [applause] >> we like to thank all of you for being with us today on that insightful and informative presentation in. we hope you come back to visit and in now he will sign the some books. please give yourself a round of applause. [applause] >x?x?x?x?x?x?x?x?x?x/ >> i am happy to be speaking today with the amanda foreman off there of the book world on fire. it has gained negative a great deal of attention. we will have a nice conversation with britain in right thing about civil war history. hello. maybe we could begin by asking you, somebody said there are 50,000 books on the

, which was the safety and soundness act that created a new regulator for fannie freddie, treasury, gao cbo. cbo took a job job of analyzing how rich the subsidy was from the government that fannie mae received. there were visited by fannie mae executives. june o'neill was that he cbo at the time that like they were being visited by the mafia. she was pressured to try to water it down, not to produce a report that is very explicit but how much they guarantee was worth to the company and how at all costs they had to protect it. so we have cbo people who are standing up against the pressure from fannie mae. there were other people who saw what was coming. people in the georgia area were first to wave the flag and call it the rating agencies for inserting themselves in a process, where georgia had the most, toughest predatory lending law and the country, but the ratings agencies what him and said will not rate any securities that contain georgia loans. and so the predatory lending law has to be guided because the ratings agencies said they would not rate those funds. with people on the way

i put out a list of 1200 programs with the gao.rillion with things you could eliminate. you don't have to agree, half you could agree with. if you read that book at all, there's a ton of stupidity in it. we won't have the conversation we need to have about what our problems are. >> senator coburn, thank you very much, i think. >> thank you. we greatly appreciate it. >> good morning. >> good morning, oklahoma. >> greatly appreciate it. thank you, tom. i will say nicole still had the dreamy look in her eyes. he belongs up there. >> 99 -- >> championship game. >> emotional return of gabby giffords to the house floor. keep it here on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] this...is the network -- a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you

we have had $200 billion of those programs, out in the gao report that whatever -- it was published in of this year. nothing has been done. they would be a great place to start. reform the regulatory systems. in the month of july, about 600 new regulations were sent down from the federal government. they will cost businesses up to $10 billion of compliance. if we continue in this fashion, we're going to preclude our businesses from being able to grow. things such as the epa criteria which says that farmers and as a polities have to have runoff -- and municipalities have to have runoff water that as parts per billion purer than rainwater or else they will be fine. that is coming out of washington, d.c. that is frustrating business. this is the symbol of the inaction that we have had here recently. these other bills passed in the house and as you can say, nothing is getting through to the senate. people said i should run for the senate, and i said i would rather go up there and work. i don't know what these guys do. [laughter] [applause] here is a flow chart. back in february, the presid

going so after they passed the law, the gop right all these reports about how screwed up it is but the gaocan tell you beforehand and say well the to do systems analysis and boy this is kind of a dumb idea. of course there is no real, there is really no technical advisory plan in the and the department. so there is nobody really -- you add all those things up and it creates a perfect storm of coming up with good ideas, and then only finding out it is not a good idea when you actually go out there to try to do it and then it actually becomes -- because you breathe create the requirement which forces the government to do something stupid. the government tries to do it and of course it is a stupidly so then you have been hearing about how stupid they were doing this thing and they beat them up over that so you have this endless thing and you create more requirements. the requirements you layer on forces them to be more efficient and we go through this for years. but here's the deal, because it was your stupid idea to begin with you can't fight the law that says i repeal my stupid idea. that w

. >> gao gives us a to-do list. there's a high risk list. it's high risk for all of us including the president and his folks and federal agencies and certainly of us. i want to just follow-up on what senator brown's lining qefing and just -- questioning and just ask for the space that the fcc is now occupying or about to occupy a constitution center, occupying one-third of the space as one thought; is that correct? >> senator, on the hook for one-third of the space, and we have no intent to occupy that space. >> at all? >> at all. >> all right. if you look -- >> represent will be dune -- rent will be dune in january of 2013 and we are optimistic in terms of partnership we will find a tenant between now and then. >> that's good. give us some idea what the cost per square foot of that space would be if fcc were occupying this space in january 1 of 2013. >> at the time it was cost per square foot of $44 which would have jumped to $47 per square foot years later. >> i know what $44 per square foot and how that's regarded in delaware. it would be

we can look at some of those duplicative programs that the gao report sent out earlier this year andp right now. >> sure. the problem is and this is what the tea party has brought to the forefront of our consciousness, congressman, we got too much debt. it's a math problem. bring it down, we'll eventually wind up with our -- with our triple a, again, perhaps, down the road a piece. let me ask you about this. it sounds like tim geithner has given us some good news despite the calls from people like jim demint, the senator from south carolina who says geithner has got to go given what's happened. mr. geithner said he's sticking around through the election. your reaction? >> well, i think having had timothy geithner sit before us and testify in the small business committee and had an opportunity to query him, when you open up that refrigerator door, the lights don't come on. i think he should move on. >> what does that mean? what does that mean, the light doesn't go on? >> i don't think that timothy geithner really has a handle on the fiscal situation here in the united states of americ

as is the gao's annual finding that it is unable to barter the pentagon's budget as a whole. in its turn, the media often -- toheads and since censorial nadir. -- behavior. for the first time before a national television audience, due to the presence of c-span, the subject of mandatory voting is to be addressed in its many dimensions and consequences. we want a flexible debate format that encourages multiple back and forth responses on any single assertion, questions by the debaters to one another, and questions from the audience submitted on cards. this will be a 90-minute event in the debate starts. for the debaters, in for mandatory voting is norm ornstein. is an advocate for all the coral or form. his books and articles have led him to be widely quoted by media for his insights. his recent, "the broken branch," reflects his concern about the state of electoral politics. he writes a weekly column and is an election analyst for cbs news. he is a resident scholar at the american institute -- enterprise institute. in opposition to mandatory voting, as fred smith, who studied