lindsey gramm, he said we had to build some kind of facility in the united states. we can say that trouble and leave them in gitmo. >> we are handling the worst kinds of war criminals, but we have been able to incarcerate the worst kind, like the oklahoma city bomber. is this saying that the system will not work properly? criminal or war criminal? of is there a way to dispose of them properly in our prison system? to handle these folks? i know deatthat when you have a terrorist detainee, he is not a criminal. they are totally different people. if you try to prosecute those people in our system, and the rules of evidence are different. their miranda rights, all these things people have been reading about, so they have now come to the conclusion that the court system is not going to effectively do it. they are going to have to have some kind of military tribunal. that is what they are trying to set up in the united states. i draw a clear distinction between how we should treat these guys. at terrorists detainee -- a terrorist by definition is in the business of traini

i am not lumping it all on to senator gramm. we can all the many republicans that have been for immigration reform at different parts in their career. the question is where are they? senator gramm is certainly well positioned to take their temperature and see what it will take for them to make progress on this issue. i think he will get an update on the id cards today and he will be interested in hearing from both of them on the nature of their proposal and whether that is their proposal that can garner increased bipartisan support. >> the think immigration -- is the president this link directly with health care and the economy? [unintelligible] >> i do not know how directly it is linked to all those issues. as you mentioned, former president bush was a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, and we made progress on that issue. again, i think the president is anxious to hear from others as to where they are. >> what specifically did the president discussed on health care with the congressional black caucus. >> i think is

everything seems so uncertain and gramm. >> let's go live to brussels, we're joined by a senior research fellow for european reform at the research center. if we do nothing, surely the values will drop further. >> you see the leaders coming to a different position on that now. it seems that they have created a kind of blocked space in which something has to give. >> what do you think that they can and should do? >> not very much, i am afraid. they can try to come up with something to prevent the collapse. political agreements to bailout greece. they can make noises about how it would actually work. the minimum that will be needed to give speculator something to chew over. unfortunately in this situation, germans to know what to say anything but they have to do something to prevent the worst from being assumed. often the outcome of the european summit, indicating that -- the conventional wisdom is that it is not a question of if, it is a question of when this has happened. the germans are in a difficult position. >> the german chancellor has said as much in the past hour that as far she i

gramm -- it doesn't matter whether you closed the place. these people do not need a reason. we need to take them out of the way. people are wicked by nature. that is all i have to say. host: toms river, new jersey. caller: hello. host: i am fine. go ahead. caller: this land we love so dearly and so many have died for, it is unbelievable, the allies and the deceit in -- the wilies and deceit in congress. host: we're asking about lindsey gramm and his comments on "face the nation" and proceeding with military tribunals. the headline of the associated press story. he said reversing eric holder's plan in new york would be seen as an act of leadership by the public. the white house is reviewing the plan. a decision is not expected for several weeks. john in maryland. good morning. a democrat. caller: guantanamo has been a thorn in america's side for a long time. closing it is not going to do anything for american image over the middle east. the people who care are the american people. they know what happened to guantanamo. they know who did it and who it was done to. the people i

lindsey gramm, he said we had to build some kind of facility in the united states. we can say that trouble and leave them in gitmo. >> we are handling the worst kinds of war criminals, but we have been able to incarcerate the worst kind, like the oklahoma city bomber. is this saying that the system will not work properly? criminal or war criminal? of is there a way to dispose of them properly in our prison system? to handle these folks? >> i know this issue, i know that when you have a terrorist, they're not criminals, they're detainee's. you try to prosecute those people into our system in the united states, the rules of evidence are different. they're not read their work miranda rights, these things that people have been complaining about. people have come to the conclusion that the court system will lead to a correctly, and it will have to be a military tribunal. that is what they talked about in the united states. terrorists are in the job of training people to be terrorists. then they end up -- it will not work, it has to be terrorism. by the way, one less thin

i do not know that senator gramm believes -- i do not believe that senator gramm thought that it would do damage to the legislative priorities of the president when in 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were through reconciliation. i doubt the president agrees with him. >> what issue has come up with louise "heiress -- with luiz gutierres, with the hispanic caucus? >> i do not know. >> the house bill about restrictions in the senate bill -- there are no known fixes on immigration i am aware of. the senate language is too restrictive and not allow undocumented workers into the help exchange system and would prevent them from doing that for five years. he says publicly he will vote no. is that a concern of the white house? is there something the white house is open to in fixing the legislation? >> let me check with the state of affairs. i do not know the degree to which -- i was not at yesterday's meeting. >> yesterday, you said some of the president's priorities after health care are financial regulatory reform and the citizens united case. what do you mean by that? what do you know specifically ab

senator gramm, senator kerrey, senator lieberman are all working on a proposal like that in the senatend i know the president is hopeful to get an update on just from them but others in the house and senate working on these issues. >> is cap-and-trade doable this year? >> putting together a coalition of somebody like senator kerry and senator gramm who represent obviously different political philosophies demonstrates yes it is certainly possible to do that. >> robert, the president didn't go to the gridiron dinner and isn't giving this year. is there any message the president is sending to the media or the gridiron? >> he will be in indonesia. that is the message from this year. >> [inaudible] >> if he went to the radio correspondents dinner last year and is going to the white house correspondents' dinner as well. yes? >> to follow on david if question, the energy meetings today, we shouldn't expect a tall figure passes we shouldn't expect the president to pivot and start pushing cap-and-trade in the coming days and months? >> let me not get ahead of the update the president gets today

don gramm of the washington -- of "the washington post" provides a great deal of support for the district of columbia residents. it is a great program. >> if you are a kid in the district of columbia, you have a lot of good things. >> there should be no student in the district of columbia that can say that they cannot afford to go to college. there are plenty of scholarship support programs have plenty of opportunities for a student to go to a really great institution like trinity, but also like some of the private and public institutions in this region. >> what percentage of your students comes from the district itself? >> 40% of the students are from the district of columbia. possibly another 30% come from the state of maryland. that is our next largest group. >> what is a day like for president pat mcguire? >> i have no data is the same. i get up about 5:30 a.m.. i get work done between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning. usually, starting about 8:00 p.m., the meetings start. students will come in. we are not a very high our call -- we are not a very hierarchy based school. there are a few b

senator gramm, senator kerry, senator lieberman are all working on a proposal like that in the senate and i know the president is hopeful to get an update not just from them but again from others in the house and senate. >> is cap and trade doable this year? >> i think putting together a coalition of somebody like senator kerry and senator gramm who represent obviously different political philosophies demonstrates that, yes, it is certainly possible to do that. >> robert, the president didn't go to the gridiron dinner last year and he's not going this year, is there any message he's sending to the media or the gridiron club? >> he's going to indonesia. >> is it just scheduling? >> i think he went to the radio correspondent's dinner last year and will go to the white house correspondents dinner as well. >> the energy meeting today, if health care passes, we shouldn't expect the president to pivot and really start pushing cap and trade in the coming months? >> let me not get ahead of the oath that the president gives from the -- from those involved in these negotiations. i know the pres

i don't know that senator gramm believes -- hold on, let me finish -- i don't believe that senator gramm thought that would do damage to the legislative priorities of the president when in 2001 and 2003 tax cuts when a reconciliation. so i wouldn't characterize it except to say i doubt if the president agrees. >> one issue that has come up who i believe someone who attended the meeting at the hispanic congressional caucus -- >> i think we put out a list of invitees and i don't know who was there. i can certainly check and see if rep. gutierrez was there. >> he still remains concerned and was when he voted for the house about mr. sins in the senate bill was underlying legislation that there are known fix is being posed on emigration i'm aware of and correct me if i'm wrong and the senate language is too restrictive and does not allow undock printed workers even with their own money to purchase in the health exchange system and would keep them -- prevent them from doing that for five years and he says publicly now he will vote no. is that a concern to the white house? is there something th

democrats, bill clinton, al gore, hillary clinton, the of four named five people i mentioned, bob gramm, the democratic chairman of the intelligence committee, jay rockefeller, leader the ranking member of the committee and a member of the committee at the time, even opponents like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was consensus of the community shared broadly throughout the government commissure broadly throughout the government of clinton and probably into the government of bush and shared widely through western intelligence communities. and the preponderance of evidence was that he had wmd so in fact there are 110 democrats who vote for the war resolution, 149 oppose it. of the 110, 67 stand on the floor of the house or the senate and say saddam hussein had wmd. if you want to say bush like you've got to assume every one of those people live including ted kennedy and barbara boxer who opposed the resolution. we now know that he didn't have it. he had lots of material. we found 500 tons of yellow cake uranium yellowcake. we found biological and chemical delivery systems a

. >> i know that senators kerry and gramm and lieberman are working hard to fashion a proposal that cans in the senate and we'll see whether... what form it takes. but i know that we're going to have to work on energy. it's just a... it's a great challenge of this century. we have to face it. and, you know, the chinese are working on it. india's working on it. brazil is working on it. we can't hang back. we have to continue to lead and to do that we have to get serious about energy. i believe that we will do something on energy. >> rose: give me a sense of what you having come to washington have seen. how is it different than you expected? how long will you stay? and where are your... >> you know, it's not different than i expected. jack kennedy said after he became president, i said what surprised you he said i were surprised that things were add because as i said they were. i knew what washington's idiosyncrasies were. i will also tell you i think i have the greatest job in the world. i'm working for a president who i deeply, deeply respect and it's a thrill to be by his side. i have

>> guest: on march 6th of 1990 he had a seizure what -- during a fund-raiser for phil gramm in washington. and it occurred in the morning. he'd been feeling ill for several days, but it came out of nowhere. and he had a limp for about six months in his left leg, but they attributed it to his -- his heavy schedule of travel and -- and normal fatigue, plus the fact that he ran six miles a day. and he was -- he was struck with a seizure in march of 1990. he knew at the end of the next day that it was a -- a high-grade tumor. and by the end of that month he was talking with medical specialists who were estimating that he had a year or two to live. then he decided to go for this interstitial procedure that i mentioned earlier. c-span: and they -- you actually -- somewhere you say that you got some record -- all the records at george washington hospital? >> guest: yes. c-span: did they just give them o -- over to you? >> guest: no. no, i had to get permission from sally and fr -- of course,from all the -- from sally basically to -- to look at all the -- the medical records. c-span: how cooperat

one of the things senator gramm was commenting on because when i hear from the guardsmen serving throughout massachusetts they are confused how they treat folks how they're captured. i also want to kind of go along the same vein, what rights are they given and do we send them to afghanistan? do we keep them where they're captured? do we bring them to u.s. soil? do we get them to gitmo? i know i'm new here, but being in the military, these are the questions that my troops are passing on to me when i'm representing them. and if there's any insight you can give as to the policy as to where we're heading with that or if it's an off-line conversation, i'm all ears because i think it's creating indecision with our soldiers as to what to the with the folks when they're captured. >> senator, let me talk about that because with respect to i don't think there's indecision in iraq or afghanistan. and i'm not aware of us detaining people anywhere else. in quite some time. when someone is detained in iraq or afghanistan, there are quite clear procedures for what they've done. by the way, we don't detain

we have worked together with senator schumer and senator gramm to develop a framework includes common sense and effective strategies to protect our borders and in force the law while creating a path to citizenship. i congratulate senator schumer and senator gramm for their leadership and i pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus on this important issue. you know as well as i do that this will not be easy. but if we work together across party lines, we can build the future worthy of our history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. thank you, so much. [speaking spanish] tomorrow morning, -- >> tomorrow morning, edward berkowitz will join us and after that, a look at the u.s. education system with the education secretary, duncan. washington journal is at 7:00 a.m. eastern. later, the president will sign the health care bill after the house passes the measure. we will have that live on c- span at 11:15 a.m. eastern. passage of health care live discussion was the main topic at the white house briefing press secretary robert gibbs announced that presid

and, unfortunately, for the speaker, a group of democrats in the house led by then-democrat phil gramm voted with republicans defeating the rule on the reconciliation bill, which is almost unheard of in the house. and basically we were off to the races on reconciliation. and for the next four or five years, reconciliation became a way of passing in my view just utterly outrageous things. i remember the senate commerce committee -- i think it was in 1983 decided they were having a lot of trouble with their legislative agenda. why not just send that entire agenda as part of their reconciliation language and have it included in the reconciliation bill. and there was no rule against that. and so in the mid-'80s the senate adopted what is now called the byrd rule, to keep that kind of thing from happening. but the result has not been happy. if there were anything i could undo in my life, it was ever helping create the reconciliation process in the budget act. it is now a monster. and it is showing its monstrous qualities repeatedly as it's used by both parties. and the result, unfortunately

in fact, here is from the 1990's, senators rudman and gramm. >> there are two possible crises we face, according to an economist to you want to talk to, somewhere between now and probably 1997. one will be an artificial crisis caused by the passage of the balanced budget amendment. i say artificial because unless the courts enforce it, which is doubtful, it probably would not result in a balanced budget. what it would do -- it would point out what we are talking about today. if it were in effect tomorrow and we were to do would by next tuesday it would be 12% across- the-board on every program, including social security and medicaid, and 12% increase of every tax. that would balance the budget this year. obviously that is beyond the pale in one year. people would realize it. it would precipitate an office addresses which in my view would not be very salutary in terms of education. the real crisis we are all trying to avoid is when you folks never did much reporting on. i would say that some in event of reporters and newspapers and television networks ought to talk to some central bank

and, unfortunately, for the speaker, a group of democrats in the house led by then-democrat phil gramm voted with republicans defeating the rule on the reconciliation bill, which is almost unheard of in the house. and basically we were off to the races on reconciliation. and for the next four or five years, reconciliation became a way of passing in my view just utterly outrageous things. i remember the senate commerce committee -- i think it was in 1983 decided they were having a lot of trouble with their legislative agenda. why not just send that entire agenda as part of their reconciliation language and have it included in the reconciliation bill. and there was no rule against that. and so in the mid-'80s the senate adopted what is now called the byrd rule, to keep that kind of thing from happening. but the result has not been happy. if there were anything i could undo in my life, it was ever helping create the reconciliation process in the budget act. it is now a monster. and it is showing its monstrous qualities repeatedly as it's used by both parties. and the result, unfortunately

-- gramm. >> i don't think we saw the text of the legislation. you saw the president a few days ago that he wished and hoped that china approached their currency -- using more market-based interpretation. and i would point you to the treasury for any further announcements on that. >> there does seem to be rising rhetoric. is the president concerned that it would undermine with china collaborating in the g20 -- >> as i've said before, the president believes that diplomatic relationships sometimes come with disagreement. we've been reading about a few recently. but that doesn't -- that doesn't curtail our ability to work on problems of mutual concern like the global economic recovery. >> but does the president still believe as he said in the campaign that does manipulate its currency? >> again, i would refer you to what the president said a few days ago. >> i want to push a little bit on the up or down vote. the president said, look, ohio, that's the proposal and i believe congress owe a final up or down vote. he's promising the american people rep

and, unfortunately, for the speaker, a group of democrats in the house led by then-democrat phil grammvoted with republicans defeating the rule on the reconciliation bill, which is almost unheard of in the house. and basically we were off to the races on reconciliation. and for the next four or five years, reconciliation became a way of passing in my view just utterly outrageous things. i remember the senate commerce committee -- i think it was in 1983 decided they were having a lot of trouble with their legislative agenda. why not just send that entire agenda as part of their reconciliation language and have it included in the reconciliation bill. and there was no rule against that. and so in the mid-'80s the senate adopted what is now called the byrd rule, to keep that kind of thing from happening. but the result has not been happy. if there were anything i could undo in my life, it was ever helping create the reconciliation process in the budget act. it is now a monster. and it is showing its monstrous qualities repeatedly as it's used by both parties. and the result, unfortunately,

that is the part that gets thrown out the window with senator gramm and successive congresses, where they were not willing to hold the banks accountable, they all took a walk and left consumers to their peril and to the abuses that the industry created four great profit, regardless of the bar was ability to pay. host: do you have any numbers about the impact of a neighbor who has a house that he is paying for, is paying the mortgage, fiscally ok, next to a neighbor that could either foreclose or get his loan modified or do a short sale and sell his property for less than it is worth. what is the impact? guest: if your next-door neighbor goes into foreclosure, your house will drop in value, on average, about $7,000. when multiple homes go down, you have multiple impacts. we have somewhere between 35% to 40% of value lost in the country. significant property reductions without that homeowner having done anything themselves to lessen the value. pretty significant. host: john, republican line. good morning. caller: you are talking to someone that had to put 50% down in 1986 to purchase h

i know that he and lindsey gramm, a republican, have written a letter to the leadership of congress and them, "cannot we have monthly meetings were we all get together and have lunch and talk about our issues -- immigration or whatever it might be?" members of congress do not get together as a body. they have the republicans meet in one room, the democrats meet in one room, and never get together. all they do is fight on the floor. the time when they used to go out to dinner or socialize with each other -- they do not do that anymore. a think to some extent that does reflect the larger world. i think we probably can to socialize with people who agree with us, and i think the media has become -- i am a journalist. i have been a journalist my whole life, and i am concerned about what has happened in the media. i am very concerned. when i was putting things together last night for this, the phrase -- remember the navy recruiting phrase? it is not just a job, it is an adventure? that is the way people used to feel about journalism. it was an adventure. it was an exciting pursuit. you were d

we saw gramm-rudman go the way of the dodo bird. we have seen pronouncements by republicans about fiscal discipline we were in charge and yet the government continues to expand the size and scope. debt doubled under the last administration and getting to triple under this administration dared what we have come to the conclusion of is that there has to be some outside force large enough and powerful enough to advocate for the american people in this process. and we believe -- and not little bipartisan commissions that have no force of law or authority -- but rather of the constitution of the united states of america, that will say to congress this far and no farther. we carved out in our proposal, if there is a declaration of war, i think we went to 50% of the economy in federal spending to defeat nazi germany and imperial japan, but absent declaration of war or two-thirds vote in congress, the american people have the opportunity with this amendment to say, you can have 20 cents out of the dollar that i earn, and that is it, and any

there is a discussion that senator kerry and gramm made release a bill of next week. how quickly could epa have an economic analysis completed? >> all right, who is here from senator kerry's office? [laughter] one of the strengths is a an incredible staff of the folks who have worked for years on what are generally thought to be state-of-the-art models. we model every regulation we put in place and we do it to look up the impact on the economy. my argument is we've never looked at all the benefits to the economy but the modeling takes six to eight weeks because the models are interrelated and quite complex so from the time now that we get legislation but that we get something that has specifications to model it takes easily six weeks. >> several months ago the epa postponed a decision on an ethanol weaver to raise to 50% but said a final decision would likely be made in mid march which is next week. since we are about their do you care to make news on this issue today? are you still expecting a final ruling in march? >> i'm sorry but i've got to back up a little bit.

we saw gramm-rudman go the way of the dodo bird. seen pronouncements by republicans about fiscal discipline we were in charge and yet the government continues to expand the size and scope. debt doubled under the last administration and getting to triple under this administration dared what we have come to the conclusion of is that there has to be some outside force large enough and powerful enough to advocate for the american people in this process. and we believe -- and not little bipartisan commissions that have no force of law or authority -- but rather of the constitution of the united states of america, that will say to congress this far and no farther. we carved out in our proposal, if there is a declaration of war, i think we went to 50% of the economy in federal spending to defeat nazi germany and imperial japan, but absent declaration of war or two-thirds vote in congress, the american people have the opportunity with this amendment to say, you can have 20 cents out of the dollar that i earn, and that is it, and anyone who

that is the part that gets thrown out the window with senator gramm and successive congresses, where they were not willing to hold the banks accountable, they all took a walk and left consumers to their peril and to the abuses that the industry created four great profit, regardless of the bar was ability to pay. host: do you have any numbers about the impact of a neighbor who has a house that he is paying for, is paying the mortgage, fiscally ok, next to a neighbor that could either foreclose or get his loan modified or do a short sale and sell his property for less than it is worth. what is the impact? guest: if your next-door neighbor goes into foreclosure, your house will drop in value, on average, about $7,000. when multiple homes go down, you have multiple impacts. we have somewhere between 35% to 40% of value lost in the country. significant property reductions without that homeowner having done anything themselves to lessen the value. pretty significant. host: john, republican line. good morning. caller: you are talking to someone that had to put 50% down in 1986 to purchase h

the great institutions like the washington post reflect the gramm family.isneyland, i have been there. i met walt disney. it is like the physical embodiment of walt disney himself. whimsical, filled with them -- fantasy, childlike. look at a company like microsoft. it is a shadow of bill gates himself. apple is a lot more like steve jobs. an airline like virgin atlantic is edgy just liked its founder richard branson. you find that in enterprises we see every day, there is a sense of the individual thatç stands behind them. whether it is a business or republic institution, a not- for-profit, a newspaper. . . -- is also true of countries to a certain degree. america of reflects the vision and character and culture of the people who founded it. they took extraordinary risks to come to our shores, make this their home, put at risk their lives to be about to come across the ocean. those who were the founders themselves said, "we are born to make a difficult decision. make a difficult decision. we continue to be led by at king and the government? or will we ligh

air force, colonel lindsay gramm, and as much the iraqi security force element in charge of that now.andoff to them. we train and we monitor and so forth. >> i am always concerned when program is in theater. [laughter] >> we will give him an extra minute of his time. >> needs more than that. [laughter] the guide had for the troops in afghanistan -- the guiding path for the troops in afghanistan? the collateral issue of training the security forces in iraq, are we on the right path? will we be able to meet that goal next year? >> you are talking about afghanistan? >> yes. >> in terms of the employment -- deployment of the additional forces we made the commitment to the president to have them all there by august. about 99% of the 30,000. we are on track to do that. i can tell you that transportation commanders have done magnificent work to allow us to do that to get what they need into the theater so that we have what we need before we get there or before hand. that is on track somewhere close to the 10,000 mark of the 30,000, increasing a bit recently. again, touchwood, that is on trac

the great institutions like the washington post reflect the gramm family. disneyland, i have been there. i met walt disney. it is like the physical embodiment of walt disney himself. whimsical, filled with them -- fantasy, childlike. look at a company like microsoft. it is a shadow of bill gates himself. apple is a lot more like steve jobs. an airline like virgin atlantic is edgy just liked its founder richard branson. you find that in enterprises we see every day, there is a sense of the individual that stands behind them. whether it is a business or republic institution, a not-for- profit, a newspaper. what's true of those enterprises, i found is also true of countries. to a certain degree. america reflects the vision and the character and the culture of the people who founded it, those who took extraordinary risk to come to our shore, make this their home, put at risk their life to be able to come across the ocean and those who were the founders themselves is said, we are going to make a very difficult decision. should we continue to lead -- be led by

there is discussion and rid the senator kerry and senator gramm made release a draft plan a bill nextey were to do so, how quickly could epa have an economic analysis completed? >> all right, who is here from senator kerrey's office? [laughter] one of the strings epa has is an incredible staff with people who have worked on years for water generally thought to be said of the art models. we model every regulation we put in place. we do it to look of the impact on the economy. my argument is we have never looked of all the benefits in the economy. but the modeling takes six to eight weeks. it takes a long time because the models are interrelated and complex. and the time, now that we get legislation, but as we get specifications -- [inaudible] >> several months ago, the epa postponed a decision on an ethanol label to raise the amount in field to 15%. they said a final decision would likely be made in mid march, which is next week. since we are about their, do you have news on the issue today? are you still expecting a final ruling in march? >> i am sari. i have to back up a little bit.