to prevent and end homelessness, all homelessness. of these tools is about the same thing, building on the remarkable innovations that have been demonstrated at the local level and in cities nationwide to provide everyone from the most came kaipable to the most vulnerable the opportunity to reach their full potential. working with the conference of mayors, my colleagues from across the administration, and all of the partners on the ground we can make that vision a reality and we will. thank you for inviting me here today. >> good morning. i certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here to talk with you today about the critical problems of homelessness and hunger. usda recently released its 2008 report on food security in the united states, and the news was not positive. not surprising, i don't think, to many. 14.6% of u.s. households faced food insecurity in 2008. up from 11.1% in 2007. this is the highest increase observed since probably the program was initiated or we took records back in 1995. about 6.7 million households or 5.7%

to prevent and end homelessness. all homelessness. each of these tools is about the same thing, building on the remarkable innovations that have been demonstrate at the local level, and in cities nationwide, to provide everyone from the most capable to the most foldable opportunity to reach their full potential. working with the conference of mayors my college from across the administration and all of our partners on the ground, we can make that vision a reality. and we will. thank you for inviting me here today. >> good morning. i certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here to talk with you today about the critical problems of homelessness and hunger. usda recently released its 2008 report on food security in the united states, and the news was not positive. not surprising, i don't think, to many. 14.6 percent of u.s. households face food insecurity issue in 2008, up from 11.1 percent in 2007. this is the highest increase observed since probably the program was initiated, or we took record back in 1995. about 67 million household

to prevent and and homelessness. all homelessness.ch of these tools is about the same thing -- building on the remarkable innovations that have been demonstrated at the local and in cities nationwide to provide everyone from the most capable to the most vulnerable the opportunity to reach their full potential. working with the conference of mayors, my colleagues from across the administration and all of our partners on the ground, we could make that disney reality and we will. thank you for inviting me. -- we can make that a reality and we will. >> good morning. i appreciate the opportunity to be here to talk with you today about the critical problems of homelessness and hunger. the usda recently released its 2008 report on food security in the united states. the news was not positive. not surprising, i don't think to many. 14.6% of u.s. households faced food insecurity in 2008. that's up from 11.1% in 2007. this is the highest increase observed since probably the program was initiated or we took records back in 1995. about 6.7 millio

the homeless. in city after city, he was the paul revere of this. he traveled incessantly for four years, making the argument that it is cheaper to solve homelessness than to treat homelessness. the homeless person who stays on the street costs us far more money than if you simply go and give that person an apartment, someone to watch over them, and find a job. i wrote a piece about his ideas, his crusade, and the larger intellectual context in which he was operating. i did not create that movement, but i publicized what he was doing and a great many people tell me that it made their work a lot easier to have an argument, making the case for what they're doing, and helping them overcome skepticism. that was a way in which the writing of the sort that i do is valuable. it helps people -- when i shed light on something, it helps those people who are interested in creating change -- it makes their life a little easier. >> a woman who writes for the "nation," writing about why you're so successful. she

he made the argument that it is cheaper to solve homelessness than to treat homelessness.he said the homeless person that stays on the street cost us all more money than if we simply were to go and give that much person -- that person an apartment or someone to watch for them and finally a job. i wrote a piece about his ideas, his crusade, and the larger intellectual context in which he was operating. i did not create that movement by publicized what he was doing and many people in that world tell me that it made their work lot easier to have an argument fleshed out and a national magazine. it helped to overcome some of the skepticism. that is the way in which riding of the sort that iÑi do is valuable. it helps people -- when i shed light on something, it helps those people who are interested in creating change, it makes their life easier. >> there is a woman named maureen tassett who writes for" the nation." she says that success is in the eye of the unsuccessful would be the great unspoken dilemma dogging critics asked to consider the work of the rich and famous author

20 of the people there will be homeless is ex-service personnel. given everything these people have already done to serve their country, is there more that the government can do to honor the military covenant and to focus on serving the health and welfare needs of these people who have so often bravely served us? >> well, we absolutely -- i absolutely agree with his point that we should do everything possible as part of the military covenant to support our serving military forces in the field. to support ex-service men and women and to support their families. and if he's got any particular suggestions that he would like to make on that, then i'm sure that they would be well received by the defense secretary. >> albert oing. >> mr. speaker, leon jones was killed following a fatal stab wound near his home recently. devastating his family, friends and local community. already that local community has been proactive in raising awareness of the possession and knife crimes. can my right honorable friend, the leader of the house, agree with me that such c

telling me about this time of homelessness he mentioned before he headed for bed in central park he would look all around to make sure that no strangers were watching because anyone who saw him entering the park it that late hour would guess that he was homeless. when he told me this i thought of my daughter. once coming years ago when she was a young teenager on a trip to new york, she started to cross the busy street against the light. my wife yelled that thereinafter word in cold fury my daughter said, thanks a lot mom for running my reputation in new york city. [laughter] i knew that deo's story which are write then in more than that i recognize his feelings and not just to my daughter. i could imagine myself in his place, fearing not be, fearing the eyes of strangers, fearing not the darkness one of the parker what might happen to me if i surrendered myself to sleep there, but the distain a pity of strangers who would never be anything but strangers and feeling this i thought i could find a way into his story if he decided he would let me tell it, as he eventually did. the other day

telling me about his time of homeless ness. he mentioned before he headed for bed in central park he'd look all around to make sure that no strangers were watching. because anyone who saw him entering the park at that late hour would guess that he was homeless. when he told me this, i thought of my daughter. who once years ago when she was a young teenager on the trip to new york. she started across the busy street. my wife yelled at her. in cold furry, my daughter said thanks a lot mom, for ruining my reputation in new york city. i knew the story was true. more than that, i recognized his feelings, and not just in my daughter. i could imagine myself in his place. not fearing the eyes of strangers, fearing not the darkness of the park or what might happen to me if i surrendered myself to sleep there. but the destain or pity of strangers who would never be anything but strangers. feeling this, i thought i could find a way into his story if he decided he would let me tell it. as he did. somehow it seems important to say that i do

my son, he had come to me and asked me if i had a couple extra dollars to give to the homeless shelter toys at home that they can give to them for christmas. >> pelley: your kids are looking for extra toys at home that they can send to the homeless shelter? >> bach: yes, so they have christmas as well. >> pelley: people like to say their jobs drive them crazy, but in truth, work keeps them sane. this christmas, many in wilmington sorely miss the dignity and purpose they once had. lora walker says she learned that years ago when her late husband, roger, lost his job as a machinist and refused to be anything else. >> walker: i watched what he went through by not making the concessions, by not making the changes. he didn't go back to school, he wasn't willing to think outside of the box. >> pelley: he couldn't find full-time work for six years. then, he was hired again, and given business cards and a lapel pin by his new company. before his first day on the new job, he had a heart attack. >> walker: and i went to the hospital, and i went in and i was so surprised. and you know, the first

and he said well, 80,000 people dead, 2 million people displaced, homeless. where did it happen? it happened in the cashmere region. the area where people thought that osama bin laden was hiding out. he said, okay, i need to know more. he said he calls me when he needs someone to say yes. and doctor said would you think of going to pakistan? i said yes. now the question that we might ask is why did we not hear about the pakistan earthquake? the reason that i've heard from a lot of people is that there was something called donor fatigue, media fatigue, there has been a big tsunami that wiped out large parts. we all heard about the tsunami. not long after that, there was hurricane katrina. we all know the pit falls of what happens in that crisis. but to give you a sense of the response, $85 billion were spent in hurricane relief for katrina within the first three months. in the entire time from pakistan it was about $6 billion from the entire global community. went into foreign aid. doctor was a board member. he said would you go? i said yes. i asked ben and mike, and they said yes

i was trying to make homeless people feel better. or you were bribing them. making sure you know what you can do. you can give somebody a ride but can't pay them. give somebody something to eat but not over a certain dollar amount. make sure you know what you can do to drive somebody to the polls is important. okay. i want to talk a little bit about polling because we talked about it broadly before i want to make sure you understand this. the example i like to point out is, we are in the waning days of the mccain campaign and trying to figure out where we spend our resources. numbers started suddenly looking good in colorado. we went back and looked, i can't remember exact numbers but we ran the math, basically figured out because of early vote and how bad we were losing early vote, too many people had cast their ballot for the remaining number of voters to overcome what we were already losing by. everyone, colorado numbers are looksing better. people already voted in instant push button polls like rasmussen and those kind of things every day, those numbers w

homeless people carried [applause] -- homeless people.ll-housed people to shelter. [applause] and young people to be educated. [applause] and so, on this occasion, i applaud the congress for what it has done. our three branches of government, have a wonderful founding by our founding fathers. our legislative branch is as strong as it wants to beat. there is nothing congress can do that cannot correct. nothing. they have the power to do what -- they have the power to do it. the president is powerful, but he has oversight by the congress of the united states. we are part of that. the judiciary, we must never politicized the supreme court and the judiciary system of this country. [applause] as eleanor said, and i don't want to minimize this honor, but when she first told me about it, i said -- i will exchange the honor if the congress will pass the voting rights act for the district of columbia. [applause] [applause] eller said one day to me, she called me -- eleanor had said to me when age, she called me -- when i turned 80, i was still pla

or $578,000 to fight homelessness in union new york, a town that's reported no homeless citizens. h.u.d. official said we hope to encourage these new grauntees to develop a quote, creative strategy for this funding. now, remember, the bureau of public debt says we must borrow $160 billion per week for the united states to service our current debt and add new i.o.u.'s. 46 cents of every dollar spent by this congress is borrowed, and most of it from abroad. this bill has 5,000 earmarks, over several00 -- several hundred pages in this 2,500 pages. the press reports indicate that the congressional leaders will soon approve $1.8 trillion to our national debt next year. they need to do this to fund 10,000 earmarks they already approved, 500 just in this legislation -- 5,000 just in this legislation, accelerating spending by $50 billion over last year alone. i think we should turn away from this kind of spending and enact a more frugal set of spending priorities. and i yield back to my chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcg

homeless people carried [applause] -- homeless people.ple to shelter. [applause] and young people to be educated. [applause] and so, on this occasion, i applaud the congress for what it has done. our three branches of government, have a wonderful founding by our founding fathers. our legislative branch is as strong as it wants to beat. there is nothing congress can do that cannot correct. nothing. they have the power to do what -- they have the power to do it. the president is powerful, but he has oversight by the congress of the united states. we are part of that. the judiciary, we must never politicized the supreme court and the judiciary system of this country. [applause] as eleanor said, and i don't want to minimize this honor, but when she first told me about it, i said -- i will exchange the honor if the congress will pass the voting rights act for the district of columbia. [applause] [applause] eller said one day to me, she called me -- eleanor had said to me when age, she called me -- when i turned 80, i was still playing tennis a

my question is about h1n1 and the homeless population. it is a particularly susceptible population and i'm curious of the numbers of how many homeless people have been infected nordyke and to cut can you talk about the vaccination push in that population both in shelters and on the street? >> many people who are homeless fallen to the higher risk categories because of the underlying health conditions and of course in any congress give facility such as a homeless shelter there is the potential of an outbreak. we have not seen as many outbreaks as we might have expected. we have seen more of the school based college based outbreaks that clearly this is a population that has significant medical needs and wants to try to encourage rapid treatment and if they are in a high priority group vaccination and now that many states have expanded vaccination to the general population, a group that can be vaccinated. next question on the phone. >> bob rose, your line is open. >> thank you. dr. frieden wondered if you could measure this point what the le

it is that reason that we see the tragedy of so many homeless veterans on the streets of this holiday season. host: you can i moreps.dc.org -- you can read more at ips-dc.org. what did you read in this past year, and what do you like? we will spend an hour talking about that coming up right after this.

if we can put a man on the moon, why can we not hear homelessness. if we can put a man on the moon, why can we not fixed schools. if we can put a man on the moon, why can we not make killer robot police? >> before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. no project will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. >> john o'leary, my co-author, does a wicked kennedy impersonation. it was an impossible challenge, but america pulled together. in july, 1969, neil armstrong spent his flag on the moon. the trip to the moon inspired a generation. climbing mount everest, flying across the atlantic, and reaching the north pole all rolled into one. no one alive at that time could forget that feeling of pride at that moment. do you remember that? most of you probably remember where you were exactly at that time is made up -- at that time. it made an impression on americans, especially the young. like barack obama. he said, "my grandfather explained that we americans can set

my question is about h1n1 and homeless population. this is a susceptible population and i'm curious if the c.d.c. has any numbers on how many homeless people have been infected or died? >> many people who are homeless fall into the higher risk categories because of underlying health conditions and in a homeless shelter, there is a potential of an outbreak. we have not seen as many outbreaks. we have seen more school-based and college-based outbreaks but they have significant medical needs and we want to encourage rapid treatment and if they are in a high priority group, vaccination and many states have expanded it to that group that should be vaccinated. >> your line is open. >> doctor, i wonder if you could have an estimate of what the level of population unity is for h1n1 either by vaccination or infection and if you could estimate what the level of population unit it would take to prevent a third wave this winter. >> there are a lot of theories about what wouldn't or would prevent a third wave and how many people are immune now thr

incredibly one in every 50 children will experience homelessness at some point in their lives and someth will return within a few days of running away. others will remain on the streets never to return. in far too many cases these children will fall prey to the worst forms of exploitation, including the sex industry. in fact, 30% more youth are using the sex industry as a means of survival today than in the year 2000. there are many reasons why children run away from home. some are expelled from their homes by their families or separated from their parents because of death or divorce. in other case as child may be fleeing from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at home. having runaway, these youths are now homeless without means to secure their own basic needs and are often ineligible for able to access health resources. there are many individuals and organization that is are doing whatever they can to assist america's runaway youth by providing food, shelter, clothing, and counseling. others are working with families to prevent a child from running away in the first place. still ot

he is over a barrel if he doesn't reaffirm, he is homeless, is that right? extent that a borrower agrees to pay more than the economic dictates, the answer would be yes. >> to take advantage of a debtor in that case, is that fair? >> i'm not sure i'm the one to answer what is fair and not fair. >> making him reaffirm to higher economic value than the creditor would be entitled to  in liquidation because if he doesn't reaffirm, he is over a barrel, either he are affirms at the higher rate or he is homeless? >> traditionally bankruptcy law is created to be fair to the most people involved. in the context of putting one creditor entity or any entity having more clout, if you will, more ability to hold somebody over a barrel, that works to the detriment, not simply of the borrower or the debtor, but all of the other creditors in the case. >> i think you hear you saying that's not fair which i would agree with. mr. chairman, i would ask all of the witnesses, because we don't have time for a coherent answer on accounting incentives and disincentives whether the

of a crisis like existence, of living down in the lower east side of new york with the hungry and homeless and the unemployed in simply being fair with them -- to being there with them, sheltering them, listening to them, inspiring them and the other, of course, is archbishop romero, perhaps the single emblematic figure of liberation theology who started it is a very very conservative, holdrun conservative catholic priest and because of the suffering of his people in el salvador lead the way toward a new understanding of catholic christianity's, liberated quarter. in the standing on the side and what they called the preferential option for the poor, for those who have been left out and the losers in life. which i still think is most important of all the theological and tendencies of the 20th-century whether catholic for non-catholics. now, just a word or two about pope benedict xvi. i think benedict really has the idea that he needs to circle the wagons and make the catholic church something which is defendable and clear, not suffering any kind of losses around the edges, but you have to r

he raises money for a homeless shelter in florida. go to rodmanralph.org. salute you for that, dense nis. >> thank you, brother. >> larry: people are complaining that mr. knight of nike is supporting him. he's taken a lot of hits for that. do you understand that? >> i'm supporting him also, so they have to complain against me and dennis. i know plenty that are supporting him. it's his personal life. it's just one of those things. it's unfortunate. i certainly never saw tiger in this light, but you know what? i know him and like him. he happens to be a good guy. >> larry: dennis, should he come forward in another form than issuing press releases? >> i think in my position being a bad boy, i think you just go out and live life, man. you can't do anything now, because a lot of women are coming out and chasing him because he's tiger woods. if he was an average guy, people wouldn't care. he's such an icon and legend right now, such a young age. he needs to play golf somewhere, go down the street and play golf, go to vegas. go see donald trump. go to the hamptons

many victims are most vulnerable victims are homeless and a chemical dependency problem or some otherblem, possibly mentally ill problem and so they are preyed on and we need to get those victims d.n.a. results into our data base as well. they can be linked to other cases and we have done that on a number of occasions and been able to prosecute cases where we have gotten multip am hits. >> -- multiple hits. i have a minute or so left. one is, do any of you fear that a broader regime of mandatory d.n.a. testing would test the capacity of the private laboratories to run the d.n.a. or is there not that kind of a capacity problem? >> there's definitely a capacity problem. all laboratories nationwide have a capacity problem if there's a mandate that we have to do every single kit. even without mandating every sing kit, the -- >> mandatory testing of every single violent criminal. >> it's actually done -- it's separate. there is convicted offender laboratories for each state and then there are local and state labs that process evidence. it would necessarily different. the money would be all

he raises money for a homeless shelter in florida.f you want more information, go to rodmanraffle.org. rodm rodmanraffle.org. i salute you for that. >> thank you, brother. >> larry: a lot of people are complaining that nike is supporting him. >> i'm supporting him also. i guess they'll have to complain against me. dennis, i know, are supporting him. it's his personal life. it's just one of those things. it's unfortunate. i certainly never saw tiger in this light. but you know what, i know him, i like him. he happens to be a good guy. >> larry: dennis, should he come forward in another forum than issuing press releases? >> i think that being in my position, as far as being a bad boy, i think that he should go out and live life. he can't do anything now. a lot of women are coming out and chasing him because he's tiger woods. i think he was an average guy, people wouldn't care. because he's such an icon, such a legend at such a young age, he needs to come out, go play golf somewhere. go to vegas, go see donald trump, go to new york, to t

a report issued yesterday, the number of homeless and hungry families is still on the rise. we need a bill to unfreeze the credit markets so financing is available to allow u.s. businesses to grow and create jobs. we need a bill to improve regulation. we need a bill to help americans get back to work so they can provide for their families and put food on their table. mr. frank's bill sets us back and imposes a tax on financial institutions and diverts away from lending and creates a permanent bailout fund tarp two. taxpayers will pay in advance for the failings for those that are reckless. and taxpayers are on the hook once again, if there isn't enough money. does that sound familiar? of course. it is more of the same. this double downs the instrution of the government. increases fees. instead of strengthening consumer protection, it creates a giant federal bureaucracy. it will tell groups across america, anyone involved in financial activities, including churches that provide payment plans for funerals, what products and services they can offer. the churches cause the finan

he is over a barrel if he doesn't reaffirm, he is homeless, is that right? >> to the extent that a borrower agrees to pay more than the economic dictates, the answer would be yes. >> to take advantage of a debtor in that case, is that fair? >> i'm not sure i'm the one to answer what is fair and not fair. >> making him reaffirm to higher economic value than the creditor would be entitled to  in liquidation because if he doesn't reaffirm, he is over a barrel, either he are affirms at the higher rate or he is homeless? >> traditionally bankruptcy law is created to be fair to the most people involved. in the context of putting one creditor entity or any entity having more clout, if you will, more ability to hold somebody over a barrel, that works to the detriment, not simply of the borrower or the debtor, but all of the other creditors in the case. >> i think you hear you saying that's not fair which i would agree with. mr. chairman, i would ask all of the witnesses, because we don't have time for a coherent answer on accounting incentives and disincentives wh

nearly 200 people lost their lives and more than 14,000 were left homeless. up to 10,000 salvadorans were left in reported need of emergency food supplies. the devastation did not stop at the borders of el salvador, however. hurricane ida also left about 13,000 people homeless in nicaragua and damaged about 100 homes in guatemala. this important resolution expresses our solidarity with all of the people impacted by this horrendous storm and it commends the brave efforts of all who helped to contribute in the relief efforts in its aftermath. specifically i would like to recognize and commend the significant and immediate efforts undertaken by our most generous country, the united states of america, in wake of this horrific storm. through the u.s. agency for international development's office of the u.s. foreign disaster assistance, and the u.s. southern command, the united states was able to help airlift emergency relief supplies, finance humanitarian assistance projects, support medical evacuations, assess infrastructure repair projects, and deliver emergency

one of the concerns we have with our nonprofit, whose target audience is the homeless population and medically underserved is we want to access prepared cooked food from airing a food establishments. and conferences, symposia, that type of thing. we would like to determine the best way that we can encourage the contributions of those wasted resources outside of the social and economic pressures that could be applied internally beyond that, how if you might think it advisable to perhaps apply external pressures on these perhaps hotel chains, other organizations who might influence the hotel chains. just to give you an example if i may. i was at a recent medical conference and there was tremendous wastage, and i was looking to just take a few items with my colleagues who normally don't have a chance to beat a decent meal. and there was this sponsor, a pharmaceutical company, object loudly to my moving some items out of the room to another area of the hotel with the understanding of this was considered to be inappropriate -- socially inappropriate. so any comment that you could have as

notice came and by the middle of 2008, dorothy thomas, the mother with two girls was living in a homeless shelter. when i first met dorothy in 2008 she was going to a job center in oakland trying to figure up if it was worth coming up with the train and bus fare to get there in a time of soaring unemployment because now the financial crisis had spread far beyond subprime and wall street. it was hitting everyone. and even healthy companies were terrified that they would lose access to credit or that their customers would lose access to customers and they were trying to cut costs as quickly as they could and they simply were not hiring so dorothy who had never lacked for a job was sending out applications and not getting any responses and starting to grow really depressed, beginning to fear that she might never work begun. -- again. at one point she got a job and her would-be employer checked her credit and discovered she had bad credit and turned her down on that basis. dorothy made some bad choices. there was some very bad judgment which goes into explaining how this happened. and, in fac

homeless shelter. we are a state of great diversity as is every state in this country. and what i have to say to you comes from the perspective of a practitioner. i am honored that the folks that put this together thought that the voice of a teacher was important. i will tell you for myself and for my colleagues, we are confused. we are depressed. we are discouraged. and we've never been so hopeful that things will get better, that things will improve. they have to. they can't get worse. well -- maybe. but we are going to make things better because of conversations like this. where people who love children, who love the entire community's children are coming together to say closing those achievement gaps is important. what's an achievement gap? what are we measuring? what is the proper measurement to find out if we're going in the right direction? i will tell you for myself ihave stop, stop, stopped calling a test score gap an achievement gap. if you are limiting achievement to the difference in a stan

i was trying to make homeless people feel better. or you were bribing them.aking sure you know what you can do. you can give somebody a ride but can't pay them. give somebody something to eat but not over a certain dollar amount. make sure you know what you can do to drive somebody to the polls is important. okay. i want to talk a little bit about polling because we talked about it broadly before i want to make sure you understand this. the example i like to point out is, we are in the waning days of the mccain campaign and trying to figure out where we spend our resources. numbers started suddenly looking good in colorado. we went back and looked, i can't remember exact numbers but we ran the math, basically figured out because of early vote and how bad we were losing early vote, too many people had cast their ballot for the remaining number of voters to overcome what we were already losing by. everyone, colorado numbers are looksing better. people already voted in instant push button polls like rasmussen and those kind of things every day, those numbers wer

homeless shelter. are a state of great diversity as is every state in this country. and what i have to say to you comes from the perspective of a practitioner. i am honored that the folks that put this together thought that the voice of a teacher was important. i will tell you for myself and for my colleagues, we are confused. we are depressed. we are discouraged. and we've never been so hopeful that things will get better, that things will improve. they have to. they can't get worse. well -- maybe. but we are going to make things better because of conversations like this. where people who love children, who love the entire community's children are coming together to say closing those achievement gaps is important. what's an achievement gap? what are we measuring? what is the proper measurement to find out if we're going in the right direction? i will tell you for myself ihave stop, stop, stopped calling a stop, stop, stopped calling a test score gap an vement gap. if you are limiting achievement to th

some people who are homeless, people don't have access to the web site. these are simple and add striff -- administrative changes. one of the things in the meeting that i had over the weekend on weatherization and i know they meant well. they came to the meeting and we had a pre-meeting and 50 people were in the room and they said, here is the criteria, your bank account must be secure and flourishing. they said you must have the department of energy experience, congressman payne and already had that experience. d.o.e., they thought was the department of education. no disrespect to them, they said, you must have past experience. weatherization, these dollars are to build capacity. these dollars are to get small businesses so they kl build capacity and they can become weatherers in the future. we need to eliminate these barriers of being able to work under federal dollars. don't tell them they have to have department of energy experience. do they have enough money to pay workers. and so this is, i think, a way of simplifying. i yield to the gentleman on th

if you put a man on the moon, why can't we cure homelessness? it did not start off as a cliche.t started off as a challenge issued by president john f. kennedy. >> i believe that this nation should commit its silo to land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. no single space project in this time will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. >> i usually give the presentation and a co-author does a wicked kennedy impression that usually gets a big ovation. it is an impossibleçç challen, but america pulled together. in july of 1969, neil armstrong planted a flag on the moon. the trip to the moon inspired a generation. no one who was alive at that time, and i know that a lot of you were a live band can forget that feeling of pride. most of you probably remember exactly where you were a time. it made an impact on every american, particularly the young, including our president, barack obama. he said that as a young boy, he remembered growing up in hawaii, sitting on his grandfather's shoulders, and his grandfather expl

a report issued yesterday, the number of homeless and hungry families is still on the rise. we need a bill to unfreeze the credit markets so financing is available to allow u.s. businesses to grow and create jobs. we need a bill to improve regulation. we need a bill to help americans get back to work so they can provide for their families and put food on their table. mr. frank's bill sets us back and imposes a tax on financial institutions and diverts away from lending and creates a permanent bailout fund tarp two. taxpayers will pay in advance for the failings for those that are reckless. and taxpayers are on the hook once again, if there isn't enough money. does that sound familiar? of course. it is more of the same. this double downs the instrution of the government. increases fees. instead of strengthening consumer protection, it creates a giant federal bureaucracy. it will tell groups across america, anyone involved in financial activities, including churches that provide payment plans for funerals, what products and services they can offer. the churches cause the finan

if you put a man on the moon, why can't we cure homelessness? it did not start off as a cliche.t started off as a challenge issued by president john f. kennedy. >> i believe that this nation should commit its silo to land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. no single space project in this time will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. >> i usually give the presentation and a co-author does a wicked kennedy impression that usually gets a big ovation. it is an impossibleçç challen, but america pulled together. in july of 1969, neil armstrong planted a flag on the moon. the trip to the moon inspired a generation. no one who was alive at that time, and i know that a lot of you were a live band can forget that feeling of pride. most of you probably remember exactly where you were a time. it made an impact on every american, particularly the young, including our president, barack obama. he said that as a young boy, he remembered growing up in hawaii, sitting on his grandfather's shoulders, and his grandfather expl

if we can put a man on the moon, why can we not hear homelessness. man on the moon, why can we not fixed schools. if we can put a man on the moon, why can we not make killer robot police? >> before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. no project will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. >> john o'leary, my co-author, does a wicked kennedy impersonation. it was an impossible challenge, but america pulled together. in july, 1969, neil armstrong spent his flag on the moon. the trip to the moon inspired a generation. climbing mount everest, flying across the atlantic, and reaching the north pole all rolled into one. no one alive at that time could forget that feeling of pride at that moment. do you remember that? most of you probably remember where you were exactly at that time is made up -- at that time. it made an impression on americans, especially the young. like barack obama. he said, "my grandfather explained that we americans can set our minds to do

veterans, rural health improvements for veterans, mental health care for veterans and support for homeless veterans. this was republican objection number 89. and objection 98 was another filibuster against those pay raises for our troops. just nine days before christmas. and despite all of those objections, 101 now, we have been doing, mr. president, what we were sent here to do. we have focused on actions to help create jobs and strengthen our economy and focus on the things that families struggle with and care about every day, to make people's lives better. not just a few, not just the investment bankers on wall street, not just the wealthy folks that got the tax cuts in the last eight years, but middle-class families who every day are trying to figure out who's -- what about them, what about us. that's what we have been focused on. we passed an extension of the children's health insurance program to provide health and dental care to nearly 10 million children. we passed legislation to reform government contracting and protect taxpayer dollars. legislation to invest in health care and en

it is that reason that we see the tragedy of so many homeless veterans on the streets of this holiday season. host: you can i moreps.dc.org -- you can read more at ips-dc.org. what did you read in this past year, and what do you like? we will spend an hour talking about that coming up right after this. >> christmas day. a look ahead to 2010 politics, including republican congressman eric cantor and david gregory, buzz aldrin and other astronauts on a legacy of apollo 11, a discussion of muslims in america and the world. . >> there is less spent a month left to enter the contest. create a video on one of our country's greatest strength. it must incorporate c-span programming and show various points of view. winning entries will be shown, on c-span. do not wait another minute. go online for rules and info. host: we will spend the next hour asking you about your favorite books of 2009. the phone lines are open. we hope to get a lot of your comments and your calls. for republicans, 202 737-0002. for democrats, 202 737 0001. independence and others, 202 628-0205. we do this in conjunction

. $578,000 to fight homelessness in union, new york, a town that reportedly has no homelessness. i could go on and on. it makes no sense to be doing this, but i think maybe one of the most egregious parts of the bill that i want to focus on for a few minutes really goes back to those values issues. you know, it's one thing to make abortions legal. it's quite another thing to force americans who consider abortion immoral based on their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs. it's immoral to make them pay for it, to actually promote abortions. and that's what this bill does. everywhere you turn, this administration is promoting any life initiatives and advancing policies that most americans find morally objectionable: namely, taxpayer-funded abortions. we've seen that throughout this health care debate and we've seen now in the very set of bills that fund our government that it is promoting and funding abortion. folks, this nation has had a debate about whether we should even allow abortions to be leg legal, but we have been in general agreement as a nation and even here in the con

but we are hitting world class poverty kinds of levels when you have homelessness that is puts you onople on the streets of calcutta or many other places in the world. when you have people crowding unsafely into apartments with not enough sleeping room for everybody. that's like world class levels of the poverty experience. no medical care. you know, we are, i mean i hate to say it. we're getting up there in terms or down there in terms of the degree of misery poverty brings. host: we're talking to barbra ehrenreich the author of nickel and dimed" and other books. shiella on the democrat line, you're here? caller: the lady you've got on there. she's right on. i have a medical condition, a couple of them that lost me my job. and my health care and benefits and everything else. and right now i've got something going on and if i go to the doctor's, she's going to want tests. i might be able to get up at $70 for the charge for the office call, and i might be able to get the money for the test but then what do i do? so i just forget it. i'm not going to go there. despite the effect, why do

it is that reason that we see the tragedy of so many homeless veterans on the streets of this holidayomorrows " washington journal" we will talk to former homeland security inspector general clark kent ervin, political science professor henry farrell and and look at the president's christmas vacation in hawaii. " washington journal" begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern every day on c-span. >> next on c-span, former cia analyst bruce grendell look said u.s. policy in afghanistan and pakistan. the muslim public affairs council discusses the fort hood shooting at their annual meeting. and william eggers talks about what government does and does not do well. later, a recent speech by secretary of state hillary clinton on human rights. >> beginning monday, a rare glimpse into america's highest court threw unprecedented on the record conversations with 10 supreme court justices about the court, there were, and history of the taconic supreme court building. five days of interviews with supreme court justices starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. get your own copy of our original documentary on the supreme c

>> my family is facing homelessness right now, which i never imagined could ever happen. i am sorry. >> we are with you. >> you are retired. >> mine was an early retirement. i was in the automotive business for 30 something years. >> what did you do in the auto business? >> i was in charge of shipping and receiving for one of the major suppliers of the big three in philadelphia. due to the downsizing, and jobs going offshore to foreign countries, they have just about full deployment on the entire company. the only plants that are open are in canada and mexico now. detroit is a ghost town. i was fortunate enough to have enough time into taken early retirement, which was beneficial to me. i am social security age now so i have social security coming in. my wife has a job in pharmaceuticals. they do not seem like they will ever go out of business. we have had to make a lot of changes. when i was working full-time, we were making better money between the two of us. we had to scale back on a few things. we keep the cars a few years longer. we do not take as many vacations. i h