as for george bush, jr., he was a thumb tack president. his father put him into office and his father's cronies' ran it. host: what do you think the president obama should do now? caller: well, what can he do? the corruption is so imbedded. george bush, a senior was involved with bringing drugs into the country. he was accused of it and then they all watched it to. the nixon administration -- the public outcry against nixon got him to resign. there is no more public outcry. the american people have become so blase. the corruption is so entrenched that the idiot from texas who apologized to bp -- that is how far it is. host: next, looking at what is going on in congress and some

guest: the george bush school here at texas a and m is named after george h. w. , the 41st president and his library is here at texas a&m. the 43rd president with which i was privileged to serve is establishing hisibrary in dallas. two separate presidents, two different schools, two different libraries. half hosthost: democratic calle. caller: george bush started this by bombing the middle east and staging of us in saudi arabia. that is where we went wrong. ronald reagan created saddam hussein. he case - he gave him tens of millions of dollars in military aid and when the monster got out of control, papaw bush added to take them out.. that is what started al-qaida and the jihad movement and that has gotten us where we are. the fact that you can casually sit there and defend your ridiculous behavior. we have strength in iran and almost destroyed america and the process with thesezú" ridiculos illegal foreign wars that are against what this country was founded on we have no business interfering. we are using is real as our hezbollah over all these years. host: majo

the democrat majority started out their refrain the same way they always do, blaming george bush. bush.

if george w. bush'sresidency lingers as a bad smell for as long as hoover's did, then maybe you're right and maybe the barack obama administration should take your advice and blame george bush more. but i'm not sure that that's the strategy they need to be adopting right now. and finally, caller, your and finally, caller, your strategy is an optics suggestion. gloria, you can't get away from that. if that's what you're suggesting they should blame, that has an optical scommonent. host: what's the difference between a crisis that comes to play that unravels in secret versus one that happens in the public eye? guest: we have a lot fewer secret crises today. one of the great advantages that kennedy had is he had 13 days between when he found out about the russians missiles being built in cuband when the public was told about them. washington didn't leak as much. washington didn't leak as much. the media didn't have as many international sources. and things could be kept quiet. so those crises what you feel

guest: the george bush school here at texas a and m is named after george h. w. h, the 41st president a his library is here at texas a&m. the 43rd president with which i was privileged to serve is establishing his library in dallas. o separate presidents, two different schools, two different libraries. half hosthost: mocratic caller,. caller: george bush started this by bombing the midd east and staging of us in saudi arabia. that is where we went wrong. ronaldeagan creed saddam hussein. he case - he gave him tens of millions of dollars in military aid and when the monster got out control, pap bush added to take them out.. that is what started al-qaida and the jihad movement and that has gotten us where we are. the fact that you can casually sit there and defend your ridiculous behavior. we have streth in iran and almost destroyed america and the process with thesezú" ridiculos illegal foreign wars that are against what this country was founded on we have no business interfering. we aresing is real as our hezbollah over all these years. host: majoroint, let's hea

in 2003, i didn't think fannie mae and freddie mac needed change but george bush converted me. he converted me when he sent them much too deeply, by his decision, into more subprime mortgages. i thought it was better to use them for affordable rental housing. once that happened, i joined many oxley in 2005 in an effort to pass the billism supported a bill that passed in the houseful we'll hear from some republican members who say nothing was done. you know what their problem was, madam speaker? they couldn't get the support of their own republicans, the republican leadership of the financial services committee today, the republican leadership of the house today, join police department oxley -- to join mr. oxley. the bill which passed the house in 20 which i voted against, not because of anything to do with fannie mae or freddie mac but because of restrictions add by the rule committees and the self-executing rule for housing programs that would have kept the catholic church from participating in that, but on the substance of the bill, you will hear there were amendments and man

guest: well, it's not my george bush. i'm not a republican.and i'm very critical in all of my writing and n my book about what the last administration did, too. so i don't accept the idea that all of us republicans because i'm not with any political party. i'm independent. if i were calling today, i would be calling on the independent line. in point of fact, a lot of problems with republicans and the bailout started with the last administration. these were not democrat policies. these were government policies. and some of them economists thought were wise and some were not. so the idea of putting them all together and say all people on the political right or conservatives or republicans want is to get rid of all the bailouts or all of the cleanup from the financial crisis, that's not right. a lot of it were started under republicans. and some of it is agreeable to a lot of economists and a lot of it is not. it's complicated stuff at the bottom line so most economists today think financial bailouts, going in and trying to stabilize the financia

>> a lot of the voters will blame president george w. bush for the policies and the warsaw, the deficit. republicans on capitol hill are laughing that off. they know that george w. bush will be mentioned on the campaign trail in a lot this year. it is questionable if that is going to work. some democrats say they will not use that message as much as they did before. host: this is from the hill. tell us more. guest: this is a bit of a split among republicans. among the right, you have so much pressure from conservatives to cut back spending in do things differently than when of republicans ran congrees and the white house when spending skyrocketed and they passed the medicare drug benefit. other things that did not please the base. in some republicans saying, let us stop these unemployment benefits beyond the 26 weeks, that are customary. congressional leaders, while using that as ammunition on the campaign trail are saying let's extend the benefits but offset them. democrats are paying for other parts of the extended bill, they're saying that

hos's go toro royal, george bush ad i paall e criticism ofim.thechl is doing we isoing well and i hope hes happe. to t issues -- first ofall, head surveilnc oucotry wheth t tngnd forth which got so much cr got so much cr all attime, theyerbl to he same token, i wish th orge h juedightin in irq rifrom the beginni ery dahey ed and weall these people to vestind tall th stuf ,ñ&ognew, d , do do bause i knew tir wor r-wes ere a most pele fl th . eventhough thehave n und on, that does no mean ther noe. ghe ge bushch here a 41sth.w. bush th hereat tas a. the 43rd president wi wch was ishing hisibrary i dallas. tw seraterests er hoolwoferent ies. halhost: demoatic caller, nex y mbing the ddlest aarted ts staginofus in sa ara that iwherwe w wrong rold rean created saddam n. he case heveim tens o llions ollinilitar aidndhe thmonster got ta the..ol,apaw bh added that is what staqaida d jihaemenanhat has gotn wre we theac yo casy sithe and defend your riculo behavior. weave stng in iran and almost destroyed america and t llgn wars tt areculous nsthat is cr

guest: just to clarify on the front end of that, the bush -pschool here at texas is named after george h. w. bush, the 41st president, and his library is here. -pthee43rd president is establishing his library up in dallas. two separate presidents, two different schools, two different libraries. host: ivan, good morning. caller: george "papa" bush started this madness by invading and bombing the middle east and by staging our american troops in saudi arabia which is mecca. that is where we went wrong.+ ronald reagan created saddam hussein and gave him tens of billions of dollars in military aid. papa bush staated to take him out. that is what started allocated and the jihaddist movement. that is what got us where we are. the fact you can casually sit there and defend your ridiculous behavior, we have strengthened iran and have lmost destroyed america in the process with these ridiculous illegal foreign wars that are against what this country was founded on. we have no business interfering. we are using israel as our hezbollah over all these years. host: you have made your point. >> we l

i think that he came across as not blaming the situation on george bush, as many have. he has accepted the responsibility that he has as president for this situation. this is the problem of bp. not any particular president. it is president obama is responsibility. he is taking responsibility, and i must respect him for that. he also acknowledged in his speech the creator, and i think the creator is on his side now. that will help him in this situation. as far as dangling in the ocean off the gulf of mexico, i know what it can do to our environmeets. it will hurt the wallets of every american, no matter where you live. april 15, 2011, we will realize how much of an effect we have had. host: what are the beaches like they're in sarasota? -- there in sarasota? caller: we have the widest beaches in the country and there are small dots of oil starting to appear. independent organizations giving be able to count on them. the range is just unbelievable. what is really happening out there? i would like to see an pndependent body tracking and telling us what is going on. sometim

and so you saw a lot of people there, ralph reid, karl rove and others, and george w. bush who were right at the center of power in washington, because i think there have been a pretty abramoff in a way to be the scapegoat. not that he didn't do things wrong. he did a lot that was dead--rong. but to lay all the blame at his doorstep as if to sajak was a unique character who operated on the fringes of goveenment, didn't have much affect on somebody. he was at the center, that's why i showed a lot of those people. >> you've done several other documenn riss, but go back to the beginning of when you personally got interested in politics. >> i was always interested in politics. it was always about finding a way in. i think some years back, something happened. i've done a number of tv documentaries, and then at a certain point in time, it seemed like there was an oppprtunity to say things in a more interesting way by doing documentaries that the first one of those i did was one i wrote and produced called "the trials of henry kissinger." then i did one that broke through called "

so this is not new by any means. >> michael gerson, you were working for george w. bush when he had to deliver these big kind of oval office speech moments. how did last night compare? how does the entire handling of this compare? >> well, i was a little bit concerned about last night. using the oval office as a setting as a high-rofile setting that spotlights the presidenciy. in the past you had john kennedy announcing a quarantine of cuba. and last night, the president seemed much more passive, much more input-oriented, he announced a czar. he announced a commission. when i was -- you know in the white house, we viewed these things as fairly weak policy inputs. you always want to push back, do something more active, more executive oriented as far as action are concerned. i thought proot had a pretty bad day yesterday, although actually a pretty good day today. i think the b.p. announcement was a good follow-up to the speech, but the speech itself was quite weak. >> when you were working for president bush you were the author of the speech delivered during katrina which

but not george bush. all of the tax cuts were not paid for. the wars were not paid for. iraq cost more than one trillion dollars will we have done together, and that is what we need to keep doing. i have never forgotten that my number one responsibility are the people of the state of nevada. that is why, with your help, we are creating thousands of jobs with an economic recovery plan that puts jobs back on main street that were wrecked by wall street. what -- but we have so far to go that is why we fought wall street reform when we were able to get the conference completed. some of you have some favorite christmas eves, but my favorite will always be christmas the 2009. that is my favorite christmas. that was when we pass health care reform. -- past health care reform. [applause] that is why we are making bp paid for every cent of this disaster. because why should we bail out the richest company in the world? i will tell you one thing. i am not want to apologize for anything that i do or say about bp. [applause] we must meet our self -- wean ourselves off of fossil fuel.

but not george bush. all the tax cuts he gave to his wealthy people were not paid for. it was borrowed money. our money was borrowed. and the wars run paid for, iraq alone costing more than $1 trillion. what we have done together each of us, in these ms. placed -- these misplaced policies is turn them on their head and that is what we need to keep doing. i have never forgotten that my number one responsibility is the people of the state of nevada. [applause] that is why with your healp we are grading thousands of jobs with an economic recovery plan that puts jobs back on main street that were wrecked by wall street. but we have so far to go. that is why with your help we stop greedy wwll street when we were finally able to get the conference completed. [applause] some of you have some favorite moments, but my favorite will be christmas eve 2010 -- well, actually was not. 2009. my favorite christmas. we passed health care reform. [applause] that is why i--making bp not the taxpayer pay for every cent of this disaster. why should we bail out the bridge just company in the

the first from the assistant treasury secretary under george bush. this is one of bush's top economic strategists who said their economic policies, including the stimulus have helped to move the economy. frr mark zandi, chief economist from moody's, a chief economist feels like the light switch went on in businesses this spring. when you take it all together, the response to the recession was massive, unprecedented and ultimately successful. you have a broad spectrum of agreement, mr. boccieri from the economists who say the policies that have put us on the right track. mr. altmire. mr. altmire: i want to reiterate in the district that i represent just across mr. ryan's and mr. boccieri's districts, the similar experiences that are happening in pennsylvaniaaas well and we had a choice to make in 2009 when we as members of this house had to make a decision as to what to do when we were looking off the cliff into the aayss with an economy that was on the verge of collapse in a verr literal sense. we could have done nothing or more of the same. those wer

listening to my friend from pennsylvania i'd remind him as well as others that the last month of george bush this country lost 780,000 jobs in one month. ok. 14 months later, 15 months later we gained some 400,000 jobs in this country, but in the process down here in the recession after the bush administration we lost eight million jobs. we have a long way to go to put those people back to work, but for democrats that's job number one, to continue to add jobs and put people back to work. when president bush left it was a $1.3 trillion deficit. we know that we have to rein in spending and we can begin by with iraq, by drawing down those troops and saving this country some real money, but first job is to put people back to work and that's what democrats are going to do. with that i'd yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ord

george bush sometimes misunderstood his mandate. so did bill clinton. this is nothing unique to president obama. i think that he is just dealing with the strains of government in a time of crisis. host: the financial regulations bill, there is word that the white house wants to get it done before upcoming g-20 meanings -- meetings. what is the timeline that the white house is looking at? the spokeswoman said that the president was looking forward to discussing the financial overhaul. is that at all practical? guest: democrats really want to get this done. they have got the votes and they feel that this is the one big thing, speaking of big things on the president's agenda, they can campaign on that they think will " pay off. host: you say that ththing to watch tomorrow in arkansas is if she loses that runoff there in arkansas that the derivatives to the financial regulation bill goes out. host: i -- guest: that is a real good chance, i think. yes. host: independent caller. florida, good morning. caller: technoly as far as drilling down, we would like to

but we believe, and we've always believed, that tax cuts should be paid for, but not george bush. all the tax cuts he gave to his wealthy people were not paid for. it was borrowed money. our money was borrowed. and the wars were unpaid for. iraq alone cost more than a trillion dollars. what we've done together, each of these misplaced priorities, these misguided policies, we turn them on their heads, and that's what we need to keep doing. i've never forgotten that my number one responsibility is the people of the state of nevada. that's why, with your help, we're really creating thousands of jobs with an economic recovery plan that puts jobs back on main street that were wrecked by wall street. but we have so far together. that's why, with your help, we fought greedy wall street reform. in fact, we stopped fighting greedy wall street reform at 5:30 a.m. on friday morning when we finally were able to get the conference completed. some of you have some favorite christmas eves, but my favorite will always be christmas eve 2010 -- well, it actually was and wasn't. it was 2009. my favo

you would rather have a beer with george bush or senator kerry. that personality factor in the political world is overlooked because we are motivated by issues. with the scott brown campaign and how we used on-line video is to make a personal connection, is possible for all types of voters. that is something that cannot be overlooked, flexibility is a huge. >> i will ask you the same question. we will take q &a from the audience and a couple of seconds. something we have not talked about tonight and that is an important thing. it is hard to like some of these people if democrats are successful in talking about their record and successful in talking about health care, not just as a record of achievement but what it means -- young voters are no different than the rest of thh american. american they still don't understand the nuts and bolts. there are young parents to have 22-year-old coming home from college who do not have a job and need to stay on their parents' health care plan. they were not able to before. if we are thorough in discussing what

my colleagues at the post, once said you sent george bush a 20 page memo. you are crazy. don't you know from his biography and all those years it yale, there is no evidence that he ever read anything that long? what makes you think he will start w? but he did. i spent hours to win over with him and other people involved. this empirical method. i want to find out what happened i think ather technique that works is to take people as seriously as they take themselves. to know who they are. if somebody has written a foreign affairs article 20 years ago, i will redid and ask them about it. i am working on a book on president obama which will be out in the fall which wilhave the exact kind of cinema verite of this is what happened in this is what people said. it is just reporting and knocking on doors at night. i told the story earlier. when i was working on the last bush book, there was a general who wouldot talk to me. i sent e-mails, i left messages, nothing. i found out where he lived. in the old technique we would not on their door. the best time is 8:18 at night. people h

ultimately the president of the united states, george bush, he and his chief cabinet officers asked this congress to support the banking system in a way that none of us could have ever conceived, but that was needed in an emergency to save the banking system and keep this economy going in some fashion or another. even so, under the rules and the approach taken by the republicans who are in office through -- throughout the bush administration and this congress from 1994 on to 2006, wall street was unregulated. it was allow the to just -- allowed to just go wild and it resulted in a terrible cataclysm that we are all paying for now. the bill that's before this body addresses nine separate subjects. . consumer protection, investor protection. it deals with credit rating agencies, derivatives, hedge funds, insurance. it deals with salaries so we don't incentivize too big of risk taking by executives so they put their banks or their financial organizations at risk. and it deals with too big to fail. putting a structure in place so that if financial institutions get way out there, overleverage

we know him best as the 14th chairman of the federal reserve nominated by george w. bushnd renominated by barack obama last august. his scholarly expertise is in the great depression and its causes, and that prepared him for the historic task in facing the second greatest financial crisis in our nation's history. he has been at the center of the extraordinary efforts of this country, indeed the world, to rescue us from the frightening near-collapse of the financial system in the fall of 2008 by making available literally trillions of dollars of official funds and helping us to understand better what happened and how to respond. for his work, we can only offer our appreciation, our support, and our fervent hope that he and his colleagues will succeed in enabling healthy and sustainable economic growth. the other day i saw a picture of him standing on the great wall of china. he was of course much more than an ordinary tourist. for some reason, my thoughts turn to one of his predecessors, william boardman, chairman from 1951 to 1970. and as i recollect it, his travel schedu

but we're going to spend $77 billion less in iraq than under george bush and at the end of the republican rule of congress. so here we've improved employment by some 1,100,000 jobs per month. we were left with a terrible deficit by president bush of $1.3 trillion. we're drawing down iraq and saving real money, but instead they come up with a propaganda -- pardon me. withdraw that. come up with an advertising program of youcut to sell this -- sell assets of this country. so with that i'd yield to my friend from north carolina. i reserve the balance of my time. i don't yield to her. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, my colleague from across the aisle, all of my colleagues across the aisle always fail to mention that in the last two years of the bush administration democrats were in charge of congress. the president can't spend any money. only the congress can spend money. and so they conveniently leave out the fact that when they took over t

. >> larry: joining us, ari fleisher, former white house spokesman for president george bush. pete hegseth is president of vets for freedom. he's an iraqi war veteran. peter beinart is the author of "the icarus syndrome, a history of american hubris." and john soltz returns, co-founder and chair of vote vets.org. and staying with us in kabul is "rolling stone's" michael hastings, who wrote that article about general stanley mcchrystal that will be everywhere on friday. what do you make of these developments? >> shocking. it's an end to a good career. the president did the right thing. you cannot have the military do that. in fairness, it was mostly his aides. that doesn't get the general off the hook. larry, the big question i have is who in the world approved michael getting this interview? and, you know, things like this aren't just the general's people out in the field. people at the pentagon have to sign off on this. public affairs staff at the pentagon needs to explain all of this. because i don't want those people in charge of anything serious again. when you allow a jou

that disapproval rating is about the same of george w. bush after hurricane katrina. the overall approval rating stayed stable at 50%. the poll also indicates that the economy remains people's top concerns. 64% of respondents say their household budgets are sound. new figures out today on the economy. home construction plunged last month by 10% from april since the lowest level since december as builder scaled back without a federal tax credit to work by years. building permits also fell. wholesale prices fell for a second straight month in may. the first time that has happened in the year, reflecting big declines in the cost of energy and food. north korea is warninn that tension over the sinking of the south korean war ship could trigger a nuclear war unless the u.s. security council act impartially. the threat came just hours after the un ambassador told reporters that if military -- that military will respond if they condemn north korea over its the sinking of the south korean ship. those are some of the headlines on c-span radio. >> this weekend on "book tv" kai

bush. a $5.3 trillion surplus under president clinton. an $11.5 trillion deficit under george w. bush. the numbers are stark. every solution they try to come up with is about giving more tax breaks to the wealthiest americans and taking the stripes off the referee. this is not theance. we need to come -- the answer. we need to come together as a country to address this, but the facts are presented there%%. that's why it is so important we have to invest in the greatest asset in our country, that's the people. by investing in the recovery act, retraining workerss because some of these trade dealsshave been good for the ports of galveston and california and port of new york but haven't been good for the midwest. congressman schultz and i understand that by reinvesting in our work force, helping those workers transitionnfrom manufacturing jobs that have left is very important to me. while i'm encouraged we have seen 10 consecutive months of manufacturing increase in our country, we have got to be the producers of wealth in this nation, not swrust the movers of wealth. i'm happy to report

i don't know, i thought nominating -- or appointing petraeus was like an apology to george bush and dick cheney, an acknowledgement finally that petraeus' strategy with the surge did work which the administration was slow to knowledge--. >> woodruff: when president obama had been critical of it. >> in private i think they knew it worked. in public they can't say it. nonetheless, there are no questions there are people when think petraeus is a great general, think coin is the right strategy. afghanistan is in trouble and it's in trouble in part because the afghans don't seem to be fighting for their country as hard as the americans are fighting and it's in trouble because karzai and many other people think, well, the americans are leaving in july 2011, they're probably not going to beat the taliban and i have to make my own arrangements. there is a failure of military success, and there are doubts about american will. and those doubts, the third issue there, comes out of the divisions in the administration are we going to stay past july '11 or are we not? and those seem to be open questio

it was george bush that put us afghanistan. now he gets the blame. host: thhnk you. guest: the good thing is that his pension promises is an obligation of the federal government. the united states treasury and all taxpayers collectively, and no one has suggested that pensions be taken away from military personnel. my father is a military veteran as well. he gets a pension from the federal government. no one suggests there is a risk to this pension promises. the good news is americans are living longer. host: because we are living longer, we are draining the system. guest: that is correct. you can take that to the absurd extreme. it is a good news, bad news scenario. someone rushes in to say they found a cure for cancer. wonderful. that also means that the life spans are going to go up fairly significantly and that will have a negative economic impact on anyone making profits to pay benefits for someone's lifetime. whether it is in social security, we modestly extended the normal retirement age for social security being phased in. host: but only by a couple of years.

when president reagan wanted his name before the year even began, president george w. bush did also. are there dramatic changes? yes. are we going back to the old days? no. she is replacing john paul stevens. i was in the senate when john paul stevens was nominated, nominated by a conservative republican president. it was overwhelmingly democratic senate, and he was confirmed in two and a half weeks. he made courtesy calls to a number of senators. that is not going to be the same for his successor. she has made courtesy calls. i think she has talked to practically every senator, but the questions will be significant. i am concerned with the trend becoming active in this court. we have seen a lot of long standing laws being overturned. you have basically saying men can be paid more than women. we had to rewrite the law. that was the first law president obama signed into law but we all feel women and men should get paid for the same kind of work. the turning back the award of the exxon valdez, i wonder if the supreme court would do that today after what has happened in the gu

it was a question about one time but of george bush winning in 2000.ed that an unpopular president winning and pot -- waging unpopular policies had beaten a candidate who talks a lot, but john kerry is a fairly impressive person if you can get him to shut up. [laughter] rmally does not a bad problem. but they destroyed a war hero. they were able to take a president who was unpopular and had him when fairly easily. there may be is a problem in our movement. movement.

in one year under president obama we have created more jobs in this country than george bush did while eight years in office. the american people want us to focus on jobs and job creation. and i would just make another suggestion since we're talking about how we protect the taxpayers. i'd urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to stop apologizing for the way the federal government is treating b.p. to stop apologizing for the fact that this administration wants british petroleum to live up to its responsibility and pay for the cleanup of that mess in the gulf. i wish my friends on the other side of the aisle would stop trying to defend big oil from taking its responsibility. b.p. should pay for it, not the american taxpayer. if you want to do something for the american taxpayer, then demand that b.p. do what is right. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, madam speaker. i now would like to yield one minute again to the gentleman from california

gohmert: former george w. bush must have had an awful lot of activity to have that kind of effect on global warming back then. i find it interesting because i know my friend recalls seeing the articles as i did. in fact, i recall in college being told that we we were probably at the very beginning, some said we were at the early stages of a new ice age that would end the world and all people in the world with ice. well, i just didn't believe it, because as a christian, the bible doesn't teach with the world ending with an ice age. i knew that couldn't be right but people are saying, this is the beginning of an ice age. global cooling and ultimately going to have the whole planet frozen solid and who knows what forms will emerge after the ice age. i remember the discussions and discussing with classmates and things and i just could not buy back in the 1970's that we were at the beginning of a new ice age. so i come into this thing a bit skeptical and as i said many times, there is an addage here in washington, no ma

they know that george w. bush be mentioneddon the rail in a lot this year. it is questionable if that is going to work. some democrats say they will not message as much as they did before. host: this is from the hill. tell us more. of a split is a bit among republicans. among the right, you have o pressure from conservatives spending in do%- differently than when of congrees and the house when spending skyrocketed and they passed the benefit.drug things that did not please the base. in some republicans saying, let stop these unemployment benefits beyond the 26 weeks, that are customary. coogressional leaders, while using that as ammunition on the trail are saying let's benefits but offset them. democrats are paying for other parts of the extended bill, not're saying that does need to be paid for. an issue for%% republican leaders were they have admitted that. we should be fiscally conservative. of that ision different for different people. host: republican, new castle, pa.. caller: when i hear people in going on and on about presideet bush, i have to if they

once he won the election george bush just disappeared. please do not cut me off. this country, not just the government, has always operated on mis-truthis -- lies. the polls the state that 70% up to 85% that say the country is against the administration, you are only polling the 70% or so of the people who did not vote for barack obama. you must clear up that. john mccain and sarah palin received 70% of the white vote, then you have the other parties such as the libertarians with baba bar who received 4%, ron paul 9%, ralphader 2%. guest: first of all, you are right. i should have mentioned this stimulus as something that obama accomplished. it was major. he is having trouble though getting through the next round. i do not quite understand your point about white people, even though they did not vote as a majorityor barack obama. i don't think that means you should cut them out of opinion polls. the opinion polls it did not show that 70% or 80% people of any color oppose the president. host: i thk she was referring to the polls are referenced, those for free enterp

president george w. bush did also. are there dramatic changes? yes. are we going back to the old days? no. probably the best example is she is replacing jean-paul stevens. i was in the senate when he was nominated. nominated by conservative republican president. it was an overwhelmingly democratic senate and he was confirmed in two and a half weeks. and he made courtesy calls on a number of senators. that's not going to be the same for his successor. she has made the courtesy calls. i think she has talked with practically er senator. and but thh questions will be significant. i'm concerned, for example, with the trend of the court, it's become a very activist court. we have seen a lot of long-standing law that has been overturned, for example with the led better case. you have basically saying men can be paid more than women. we had to rewrite the law. the first law that president obama signed into law saying we should all feel that women and men get paid the same for the same kind of work. so turning back the award in the exxon valdez, i wonder if th

think for one moment if you take from george washington the first 43 to george bush think of all of the debt that we added up. the creation of the country. we had to go through war. we had states that had to combine and become a nation. we went through a great depression. we went through a building of highways and water systems and airports. universities and other things. we went through a couple of world wars. we went through vietnam, korea, katrina. if you combine all of that debt for everything we invested in, we will take all of that and for the first 43 and double it in five years. what are we doing? are we building new bridges? that is too fast accumulation of debt. if you go to the next slide this is based upon g.d.p., gross domestic product. it is the percentage of your debt. if you look, and where you see the beginning of the red line, that is 2010. that is where we are. you see the trajectory. if you go back to world war two, that is the highest that it ever was. why were we borrowing? we were building tanks and ships and airplanes. we were fight to save the world. were we not

george bush, with the help of richard burr, has taken us to two wars without any way to pay for it and given as a prescription drug program without paying for. at the same time, giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. our priorities are out of order. the very first thing we have got to do is to let those tax breaks expire. then we have to stimulate the economy and create jobs. we have to build that tax base. we talked about small businesses. we need to grow our way out of the problems that we are in with the deficit. it is a serious problem, and we need to address it. hard question, but we have to address it. >> it will certainly not be solved overnight. any rebuttals? arizona made national headlines for beefing up its illegal immigration law at the state level. president obama ordered 1200 national guard troops to arizona and is calling for $500 million to beef up border patrols. what are your thoughts on this new state law for arizona and the federal government's latest move? >> i understand where arizona is coming from. the federal government heretofore has not been doing what they

think for one moment if you take the first george bush, think of all the debt and why we had to add that money. we have to become a nation. there were a couple of wars. we went through a great depression. we went through highways and water systems and air ports. think of everything we built. we went through a couple of world wars. and we went through vietnam, korea, katrina, and others. if you combine all that debt for everything we invested in, we are going to take all of that and double it in five years, and what are we doing? are we building new bridges? are we accumulating? that is too fast accumulation of debt. if you go to the next slide, this is based on gross domestic product, and it is a percentage of your debt. if you see the beginning of the red line, that is 2010. you see the trajectory. if you go back to world war ii, that is the highest it was. we were at 100% of gdp during one -- world war ii and. we were building ships and airplanes. we were fighting to save the world. we new ones that ended we no longer needed that many ships, that many planes, that large a military. you

i actually heard, i believe, that somehow this oil spill is now george bush's fault. it reminds me of the game that kevin bacon game, no matter what actor or movie, you have to bring it back in seven cycles to kevin bacon and seems everything that goes on in the united states that the majority party seems to somehow that whatever goes on in the united states, they can somehow track it back to george w. bush. and what i heard was that mr. bush had used a drilling rig at some point in his life and therefore it's bush's fault there was a failure or to some extent there was a failure on this b.p. drilling rig. it's getting a little old for the american public for them to hear constantly that no matter what goes wrong in the obama administration, it's george w. bush's fault. i think this is getting a little old and getting -- seems to be a fantasy that seems to be prevailing. we have got a great disaster in the gulf. and nobody's denying we have a great disaster in the gulf. today, i heard a man who actually knows something about drilling in the gulf. i haven't heard anyon

people in wisconsin who wwre never involved in politics, and they woke up one day and said what george bushing is terrible, and i need to get involved. what you see with a similar pattern with many people who have run for office, and at the same time you have an essentially right of center movement filled with people who feel betrayed by the right of center party. just as the anti-war movement ended up leading to the candidacy of howard dean, who blasted his fellow democrats for having voted for the iraq war and so on -- team may not have been against the patriots back. similarly, the tea parties are motivated -- the patriot act. similarly, the tea parties are motivated with the discuss over the debates in the waning years of bush's presence steve -- presidency. finally, i think there's a parallel in the sense that the tea parties comprised of core and potentially much larger group that does not share the same structural critique of american politics but shares the overall critique. if you look that the anti-war movement, there was a deep structure of critique goong right to the 1940's and

he said the next largest field was in 1992 when bill cnton, george h. w. bush ross perot battle for the white hse. stronger numbers now? guest: we thought it was interesting, particularly the 1994 election. you thought there would have been a surge then. but there was not. but there was not. the next highest total was in 1992, when you had that memorable presidential race between clinton and george stage h. bush and ross perot. the record 100 candidates that year. -- there were 2100 candidates that year. host: tell us about what you are watching. with the runoff and arkansas, battles and nevada, california. guest: therere 12 states with primaries. it should give another indication of just where the electorate is, just how angry voters are. there are two races were incumbents seem to be on the ropes. in arkansas, blanche lincoln, a two-term democratic senator is being challenged from the left by the lieutenant governor. she was forced into a runoff in the primary and their runoff is tuesday. it is never good for an incumbent when you are forced into a runoff. so

republicans have been attacking them since the first george bush administration and the republican partyhas been notorious for its attempts to stifle voting in america and at voting by minorities and the poor. after the close 2000 election, karl rove and the voter suppression machine took voters suppression to a dramatically new level. they targeted a corn lost votaress -- voter registtation or by ordering the u.s. attorney to indict a corn for voter fraud. acorn has never committed a crime, never committed voter fraud. they have never committed voter registration fraud, having committed any crime. after that, they went out and registered over a million voters. >> i have to cut you off. >> i have -- that is the story >> what he is illustrating fit perfectly in here -- it's a story most americans never hearr, the great work that warren has done and it underscores the responsibility of every progressive organization -- the great work that acorn has done. to go to our next speaker and and comeback to my -pgood friind of feet doesn't -pmind. john is the founder of crops and lyres column of t

ye we do that because we are so stuck in the mentality that came from eight years of george bush thate are afraid to ask for more and -- in case it is too much. that's not our job. we are not here to be satisfied. what a bill is introduced, saying after decades of lobbying, though well compani had its liabily cap at $75 million and we're going traise it to $10illion, we should say that's great, we will take it, but they should pay every penny they arrow. why should there be a cap on liabilities? -- on the liabilities. we are notere to be sasfie we'reoing to call out the impostor's ango to the mat for the people who are in elected positions or who are trying to belected to e the real deal. right? we're going to call out the imposts. we're going to call out our own. if we not call out our own, we are seeing the mantle of populism to the other side. if we're not o there sing blanche linco is no pulist, and the two-rty is to sayhe democrats stand with corp. said we are your savior. -- theeaarty gets to s democrs stanhope corporations. tuesday, when there is a run off and aenpecter was def

now i am being confused with george bush. i did not bail out any institutions until george bush did it first and came to us. bear stearns was done by the federal reserve system, without any congressional input. aig was done by the federal reserve without any federal government input. we were asked about tarp -- i think my colleague. -- i think my colleague. i did not have the responsibility for the past. many of us cooperate with tarp, although i regret it would not get conditions on it. then the gentleman from texas says we want bailout. apparently, the more inaccurate the statement, repetition will overcome the and accuracy. this bill says quite the opposite. there is to issues. one is if there is a failure, should we do anything about it other than bankruptcy? that is legitimate debate. there is no debate about this bill. the institution itself does not survive, does not continue, and that is where they are confusing them. we are very clear the institution is out of business. there werr some ambiguity about it, which they

and ronaldeagan before president bush and president george w. ush, president clinton and now president obama and one of the distinctions that he made early on was the fact that in the senate we serve with presidents. we do not serve under presidents. i think that was a calng card by senator byrd as a constitutionalist on the separation of power. and he was a fierce fighter for that separation of power. and when the le-item veto was passed, he took uphe battle to have it declared unconstitutional as an encroachment on article 1 powers in the united states congress on appropriations. and the bills which we present to the president have a great many provisions, and senator byrd was looking upon the factor of a president perhaps taking some provision he didn't like too well in order to take the whole bill. and i'm sure that on senator byrd's mind was the largess which came to the state of west virginia. the and that part of our federal system, part of our democracy, part of our constitution of the advantage of seniority, where senator byrd and then e