grover norquist is president of americans for tax returns -- reform. welcome. >> this is a day when all of us finish paying for the total costs, state and regulatory, all levels of government, federal, state, and local, and that is 231 days so far in 2010 that we have had to pay for the total cost of government, federal, state, local, and all regulation. we have a great series of speakers and a panel today. wanted to do is start off by taking a look at what you have in your handouts to lock everybody threw them so you see what is there. obviously you have the cost of government report. you have a summary of the cost of the fed report. top of your handout, speaker lists along with our many biographies for people that might want to know that. this is also the order speakers are going to be presenting. we have 14 ways to reduce government spending. this is largely derived from testimony that we submitted to the obama deficit commission earlier this year. these are concrete substantive ways we would propose to reduce the government spending substantially.

host: grover norquist is president of americans for tax reform, to talk about the cost of government. you are out with your annual report. guest: cost of government day is different from tax freedom day. tax freedom day are all the taxes you pay, divided by how big the economy is and taxes are one quarter or one-third of the economy. cost of government day goes beyond that and it builds on what milton friedman pointed out, which is the true cost of government is not just taxes, it is total government spending. we ought to have total federal, state, local spending, including both taxes and deficit spending, accumulated debt, and the regulatory burden, so when the government says you have to do this and you have to do that, it may be a good idea, but it is not free. so, what is the cost? what we have this year is we are working until today, august 19, to pay the total cost of government spending, plus regulation. back three years ago that was a month earlier. so when people sort of know there has been this explosion of spending on stimulus spending and bailout and the trillion dollars t

host: grover norquist is president of americans for tax reform, to talk about the cost of government. you are out with your annual report. guest: cost of government day is different from tax freedom day. tax freedom day are all the taxes you pay, divided by how big the economy is and taxes are one quarter or one-third of the economy. cost of government day goes beyond that and it builds on what milton friedman pointed out, which is the true cost of government is not just taxes, it is total government spending. we ought to have total federal, state, local spending, including both taxes and deficit spending, accumulated debt, and the regulatory burden, so when the government says you have to do this and you have to do that, it may be a good idea, but it is not free. so, what is the cost? what we have this year is we are working until today, august 19, to pay the total cost of government spending, plus regulation. back three years ago that was a month earlier. so when people sort of know there has been this explosion of spending on stimulus spending and bailout and the trillion dollars t

on tomorrow morning's "washington journal," grover norquist will talk about the cost of the federal government u.s. attitudes toward drug abuse. after that, a former chief accountant will talk about the new appendage or regulations built and what it could mean for investors. later in the morning, a hearing on the bp oil spill examines the safety of seepage in the gulf of mexico. >> the c-span networks provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history. it is all available to you in television, radio, online, and on social networking side. they are content any time at the c-span video library. we take you on the road with our digital content vehicle. it is washington your way. the c-span networks, now available in more than 100 million homes, created by cable and provided as a public service. >> christopher hill returned from iraq a few days ago after a 16-month stint as the u.s. ambassador there. he talks about the future of iraq as the u.s. can that mission draws to close at the end of this month. the u.s. institute of peace hosted the event. it is about 90 m

now we will have the president of americans for tax reform grover norquist address the ballooning growth in government. as ryan mentioned you have at your seat 14 different solutions to stem some of the government growth and grover is going to cover some of those now. grover. >> today can be ready depressing if we just talk about love how expensive government has gotten in the direction. it is not only the 231 days it is that it is jump 30 plus days in the wrong direction. we are working in month more to pay for the cost of government than we were two or three years ago. and that is scary. certainly has done a lot of damage to the economy. so what do you do about it? i have a series of proposals that americans for tax reform has put forward and i am enthusiastic because i see public support and popular support for a number of these ideas. the first is to bring back the byrd committee. this is a really good new bold idea. senator harry byrd conservative democrat from virginia in 1942 said that we need is a committee in congress like the appropriations committee and waits in mideast-- will