hospitals have problems, and you are in italy. that is pretty damning for any congressman running for reelection. they do not want this information out there, so they make it very difficult to find. >> december 16, 2009. this is a story, the headline is "comple congress travels more, e days in scotland." it says there is one for the " control room." what does that mean? >> through a source, i found out about an upcoming trip, jumped on a plane, and went to this conference. i got in the same hotel as this members of congress and found out they are all staying on the top floor. everyone has their nice room at one of the gneisses hotels there. in the middle of it, they had the hotel conference room, and they took a couple of adjoining hotel suites and made it into a kind of bar and relaxation room. so they had a couple of computers there, so they could email and keep in touch with their offices here. they had a bar, they had a bunch of newspapers, tvs. they made their only a lounge. they say that was for security reasons. >> did you

to italy, and will he look at the matter urgently? >> i am very happy to look at this case, and i will discuss it with my my old friend, the home secretary, who is bringing forward worked on the whole issue of deportation. there are clearly the legal processes that have to be followed, but i will discuss it with my old friend. >> now that taxpayers are getting a return on the enormous amount of money they are putting in, when does the prime minister indigent selling shares to friends in the city quiet -- envisioned itselling shares to friends in the city? >> i would much rather sell to constituents. there might be an opportunity to do that. clearly, there will be an important decision to make in rms of making sure on the one hand we get the maximum amount of money back for the taxpayer, who has had to put so much money into the bank, and all the other hand, we want a fully competitive banking system that serves business in this country so that they don't get ripped off by the banks, and at the same time, yes, i think privatizing those

england and italy have both played two lack luster ties. then there's the french who seem to be out to set the wrong kind of world cup record for the bizarre. this weekend french striker was dismissed from the team after a heated argument with the coach . in response, his teammates refused to practice. >> no one can permit themselves to act like that either in the dressing room or elsewhere. the exemplary nature of high level sportsman is something important especially in football. no one can act this way. >> brown: today the coach said some of his players may refuse to play their final group game against host south africa tomorrow. as to south africa, if it loses that match, it would become the first post team to fail to advance beyond the group stage. part of what has been a disappointing round for african teams generally. in the meantime, the u.s. will advance with a win and possibly with a tie in its next match against algeria on wednesday. some tough controversy perspective from roger bennett co-host of off the ball on espn.com and co-

money laundering and extortion in italy. gang violence in mexico. in mexico, the drug cartels have become so bold with their counterfeiting that one group and another group now identify their counterfeit goods with their logo placed on the packaging. a serious problem. the link to terrorism is there ken holt carla -- and i hope carla speaks to that. it is a serious problem that we need to do something about. there are several things that i think are required. i applaud the center for hosting this symposium today to bring attention to the serious and growing problem of organized influence on piracy. not every act of piracy cannot be linked to organized crime. not everyone growing marijuana is related to organized drug cartels. there is a strong link between a lot of the activity that occurs and organized crime. this is an example of a recent blockbuster film and how quickly activities breads. let's talk about "iron man 2." before that film was shown, we identified 24 unique recordings of that that were conducted in various countries. our studios wate

edmond arapi, who is facing extradition to italy, having been tried in his absence? right honorable friend look into the matter urgently and accelerate the review of extradition cases before mr. arapi is taken from his family and sent to an italian jail? >> i am happy to look at this case, and i will discuss it with my right honorable friend the home secretary, who is working on the issue of deportations. legal processes have to be followed, but i will discuss this with my right honorable friend, and perhaps then contact my honorable friend. >> now that the bank -- some of them, anyway -- are coming into profit, and the taxpayers are getting a small return on the enormous amount of money that they put in, when does the prime minister envisage selling the shares off to his friends in the city? >> i would much rather sell the shares in the banks to the honorable gentleman's constituents. i believe in popular capitalism, and there might be an opportunity to do that. clearly, important decisions will have to be made to ensure that we get the maximum amount of money back

my grandparents were immigrants from southern italy where family was the big value to work toward.d i always knew i would have a kid. and then i realized i was gay, i didn't really know how that was going to work out. and through a series of meeting the right man and a friend passing away, leaving us the money, it enabled us to have a surrogate and have our child. >> larry: soledad, in covering this as a documentarian, in a sense, what puzzled you about it? what intrigued you about this? >> once we really got commitment that we would be able to follow this story organically, we would go with the highs and we would go with the lows. we talk about the struggles. we talk about the good times. we would tell the story of the journey. then i knew as long as we were really being authentic that that would be a great story, regardless of how it went. there were great highs and tough, tough times. there's a lot of crying in this documentary. so, for me, i knew that they were both good talkers. we get into their back stories, where gary and tony came out to their families, how challenging tha

made it quite hard for them to return back to italy where they're based . >> brown: this sense you're describing war but also trying to understand it, the nature of courage, of fear, almost the psychology of war. did you start off wanting to do that or did that sort of come along in the process of recording what you were saying? >> my initial object was to just chronicle their experience and try to understand it. very quickly it became clear that what civilians call courage was an essential part of what was going on out there. there were many situations where we were taking very accurate fire and the guys would stand up and shoot back. which was the only way out of that situation. to shoot back you have to expose yourself. that's an act of courage. guys running through gunfire to pull an injured comrade to safety. but when you try to talk about courage with them, they sort of deny it exists. they just say "look, that's being a soldier, that's being a friend. that's not courageous, that's the minimum you can do." >> brown: in fact, the group dynamic of friendship, protection, is what c

the six volunteers and one backup are from russia, china, france, and italy. they'll be locked inside a windowless capsule for 520 days, the time needed for a round trip to mars and they'll follow a strict regimen of experiments and exercise. scientists and doctors will monitor the men to see how an actual space voyage would affect a crew. >> ( translated ): some people have a fear of being locked in. some people enjoy the change of scenery, circumstances and people. but when everybody interacts with the same people in the same space, habits and behavior become apparent very quickly. these habits may irritate and cause indignation and even fits of aggression. >> sreenivasan: the mars 500 experiment is set to launch on thursday. >> lehrer: international law and politics on day three of the gaza story. judy woodruff has our report . >> woodruff: the procession began at dawn, and throughout the day, israeli buses carried hundreds of detained, pro-palestinian activists to ben gurion airport and to the border with jordan. nearly 700 people were captured. commandos

another ship now off the coast of italy is heading toward gaza and presumably another off-shore confrontation later this week. late today, president obama spoke to turkish prime minister in a phone call. a white house statement said mr. obama expressed condolences for the loss of lives and he promised support for a credible investigation of the israeli raid. >> lehrer: now the other news of the day. here is hari sreenivasan in our news room. >> sreenivasan: al qaeda acknowledged today its number three leader has been killed. the group announced the death of mustaf a al yazid along with his wife and other relatives. it gave no details. u.s. and pakistani officials said it happened in north waziristan along the afghan- pakistani border. they said he was killed by a u.s. missile attack last month. iraq has moved one step closer today to a possible end of its election impasse. the country's supreme court ratified the results from last march. the secular alliance, led by former prime minister ayad allawi, won two more seats in parliament than the prime miles an hourster a.l. maliki and his coaliti

there are examples in italy and so on. we know sort of what the problem has been. what are we seeing as the trend? bruce addressed that very well, how organized crime groups have changed and have been growing rapidly in their size and power. this globalization of the economy has created more widespread opportunity. there is much more sophisticated criminals and these crimes can be quite complex, especially when you're dealing with online nuances. there is new technology out there. there are better packaging, shipping. there is new growth of organized crime, they have emerged in cyberspace. that gives them 24 hours a day, seven days a week to committee, to engage in their financing, and to do all other kinds of activities. you get $500 and you can buy a pretty nice computer today and then you have the means to be part of it. it is a different kind of structure. they are less centralized, less focalized -- focus. the connection to violence or corruption is not always apparent and sometimes not there because they do not needed to achieve their activities. so we have i

to italy, and will he look at the matter urgently? >> i am very happy to look at this case, and i will discuss it with my my old friend, the home secretary, who is bringing forward worked on the whole issue of deportation. there are clearly the legal processes that have to be followed, but i will discuss it with my old friend. >> now that taxpayers are getting a return on the enormous amount of money they are putting in, when does the prime minister indigent selling shares to friends in the city quiet -- envisioned itselling shares to friends in the city? >> i would much rather sell to constituents. there might be an opportunity to do that. clearly, there will be an important decision to make in terms of making sure on the one hand we get the maximum amount of money back for the taxpayer, who has had to put so much money into the bank, and all the other hand, we want a fully competitive banking system that serves business in this country so that they don't get ripped off by the banks, and at the same time, yes, i think privatizing tho

there is an acronym that as portugal, ireland, italy, greece, and spain. they are close to the breaking point. if you look at g.d.p. and put america in with the trajectory of where we are going, we are very close to where it should be. the imf recently said in 2015 america will be were greece is, and it will actually be worse. the president put together this debt commission where there are people on both sides of the aisle. the recently had an economist in. he took the entire amount of deaths from governments and others. -- of debt from government and others. his numbers came out when he said you hit 90%, you lose 1% of growth. you may think 1% is not enough, but if america is projected to only grow at 3%, you're losing only 1/3 of your entire percentage abroad. in march they had over 18% unemployment. you need job growth. before we had our town hall, i wanted to give you exactly where rearm. i believe this is an biggest crisis before us, and we cannot ignore it. we want to do a lot for everybody, but there comes a point when you cannot do anything for any

it was adorned with red drapes and special columns, made from marble imported from italy and spain. but taft's wish called for more than just a new courtroom. there were rooms added to help justices and attorneys prepare for oral argument. >> in the lawyers' lounge, they come in, and they give practical pointers. they try hard to put people at ease before going into the courtroom, because there is a lot of camaraderie, in is good to meet your opponent. there is a lot of nervous energy in there, of course. >> it is designed to calm lawyers down, to make sure that there are not faux pas, to make sure they do not attempt to tell jokes or to refer to their familiarity with one of the justices and that they will succeed, and they can make their best case, and the court will hear them, and they will get a straight decision. >> we want them to enter the court prepared and ready, and both sides have an equal chance of winning the case. the attorneys are instructed to be there at 9:15 in the morning, and sometimes, you do not know this is a national court. it is not just a bunch of attorneys

there is an acronym they call pigs, portugal, ireland, italy, greece and spain. they are all in a financial crisis. they are very close to the breaking point. and if you look based upon g.d.p., if you put america in there and the protectory of where we are going, we are very close to where greece is to be. the i.m.f. came out to say in 2015 america will be where greece is. and it will actually be worse. the president put together a debt commission where there are people on both sides of the aisle. they recently had an communist in. he took the entire amount of debt from government and others for the united states. his percentage comes to 90% of g.d.p. his numbers come out and say when you hit 90% you lose 1% of growth. now think for a minute, 1% is not a lot. if america is protected to only grow at 3% you are losing a third of your entire percentage of growth. we are in the middle of a recession. you need job growth. so why i layout before we have our communication and our town hall, i wanted to give you exactly where we are. i believe this is the biggest crisis

if you go to debt as a perct of g.d.p the united states is he, greece is ahead of us there, italy is ahead ofs, we're ahead of the other eopean countrs as well. this isn'txactly a cheery picture that we'rdoing the job we ould. we're coming close time, there's one other chart hering r corporate tax rates, the green one, on the right, second ighe corrate tax of any nation in the country. what's thsoluti? i promed we'd dealit soution. he solution is you've got to cut spendingnd you've t to cut tes. if e democrats could not learn from ronald reagan or bush en tt taxes and restored the economy, they suld learn from j.f.k., who did thvery same thing. here's an example of this, it's lled the laffer curvhis red is the tax rate, as the tax rate comes down, the bar chart shows the photo tall federal savings in receipts system of we get more revenues in -- when you drop taxes, you get more revenue. the lution has been donstrated by j.f.k., by ronald reagan, by bush. they've tued enomies around. inead of doing what f.d.r. did, what henry mor again thaw told us would t work -- henry morgenthau to

you've already begun to address the financial realities of our nation and italy the odds in the head out about the workability of the coalition. but as your knowledge, you all on -- you alone cannot solve our problem. we are all in this together. i hope that the call for the city to be cut down to five has ceased. we understand the sentiments that gained but we must not forget that this is the lifeblood british manufacturing. without funding, machines are not made, products are not produced, there is no budget for innovation, and services: provided. after all, one successful specter of the economy -- sector of the economy does not have to be diminished to encourage another. a strong british economy is strong buy a strong british financial center. this is been the case since at least the late 17th century and is true today than ever before. the financial-services sector and the rest of the economy are inextricably linked. break one and you wound the other. chancellor, if you want to work on rebalancing the u.k. economy by growing other sectors, then it will take support of the capital

there are examples in italy. we know what the problem has been and what the organized groups are. what are we seeing as the chance? bruce address that very well. -- bruce addressed that very well. the globalization of the economy has created more wide- spread opportunity. there are much more sophisticated criminals. these crimes can be quite complex, particularly when you deal with some of the on-line nuances of these offenses. there is new technology out there. there are improve messages -- methods of manufacturing, packaging, and shipping. in addition to the growth of organized crime, they have emerged in cyberspace. if you think about it, that distant 24 hours a day, seven days a week to communicate, to engage in their financing, and be involved and other activities. you can buy a pretty nice computer today and doom. you are part of it. organized crime groups are less centralized. they are less ordered -- less worry about hierarchy. their connections to violence or corruption are not always apparent. they do not need it to achieve their activities. we have identified a lot of p

am not one of those hysterical that opponents of this, but if the sovereign debt crisis in greece, italyspain, and portugal have a lesson i, tn we should be able to learn something from that. i am talking about saving money that could be used to reduce the national debt, thereby reducing our interest payments. i am not talking about socializing anything. i am talking about a more productive government that is able to faithfully execute all of the delaware laws. i think that is a win-win benefits. if we can save a nickel in making government more efficient in these times, it cannot be anything but positive, especially if we clarify what government is supposed to do and give it the resources to get it done. host: phil on the republican line. caller: i like hat you are saying, but i do not know how you begin to dismantle something like this i live in a small town in kansas. we have that in issue with the school district here. there was a real budget shortfall. i dug into the numbers and found out they had a strategic planner. i thought that there was one, but there was a strategic planner f

. >> related to that, germany and italy said today that they believe that the cortet should be involved in the investigation to help its credibility. do you like that idea? >> there are a variety of ways to accomplish this. i don't think we have centered on any particular way at this point. [inaudible question] >> we got to work backwards. we want to see an impartial, credible, prompt, thorough investigation and we are talking about the best way to get from here to there. we recognize that international participation, which lends itself to countries and entities being able to vouch for the results of the investigation, that will be an essential element to putting this tragedy behind us and hopefully creating additional thrust and momentum to get us to our ultimate destination, which is an agreement that ends the conflict once and for all. >> the ambassador has been all over the air waves saying everything is going to be internal. there is nothing impartial about an internal investigation. >> we are in consultation with the israelis and others. >> is there a possibility of an internation

then germany, great britain, canada, france switzerland, norway and italy. switzerland ahead of mexico of course by a tremendous margin, mexico. china, the philippines, cuba, el salvador, cuba, the domincan republic also more likely than average to have more children. this also require a more degree of social services tend to live in a house that has a low enough assessed value to not pay much into local municipal value to fund public schools. all three are vying for a top as someone who is trying to be a close observer of american culture under threat from people who speak languages of people other threats seem over blown keep an ear open depending on which coast you are the crowded streets of baltimore and cleveland. the news stands are bursting another one for socialist and union members the grandchildren of the children who run those streets are some of the same people worrying openly from all the data, my best advice is, don't worry what do you hear? every couple of minutes, adds for night schools cd rom languages. no one is developing these products, p

italy has 27%. germany, 21%. russia, 14%. france, 11%. the point is, the contemporary europe is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the rest of the world in terms of the vitality of religious faith and practice. if that is the social climate in which policy makers in the church or living and moving in having theirbeing, it is no surprise that the attempt to defend catholic identity, to resist assimilation has become the top priority of the catholic church. this is not just my private hypothesis. the pope's most senior deputy, the cardinal secretary of state, the no. 2 official after the pope himself, in 2007 he was giving an address to a group of businessmen in a lawmilan. this is the stated policy. i think this is the most important trend to get your minds around anyone to address and how decisions are being made had the policy setting level of the church these days. why things are being decided the way they are in the holy see and in many dioceses around the world. this is the engine that is driving the train in terms of the policy

he graduated in 1989 from pen traver high school, joined the national guard in 1993, and served in italy, saudi arabia, and iraq. his experience in military as well as state prison guard made him an excellent leader of the younger troops. it was said of him that the guys respected everything he said, they trusted and liked him. staff sergeant hoover graduated from elizabeth ford high school in 2000 where he was a standout athlete in track, football, and wrestling. he enlisted in the marines and served in iraq and then the army reserves before joining the national guard. back home, brian hoover was an assistant track and dross country coach at elizabeth forward high school. he also volunteered to coach low-income children at the ymca. he left a mark on his students. one described him as an inspirational coach. these two guardsmen were friend, having served together in iraq in 2007 and 2008. the results of their shared commitment to community and country that led them to join the military where together they protected the reconstruction team building schools and infrastructure for the peop

. >> foreign ministry office germany and italy said today that, they believe that the quartet should be involved in the investigation to help it's credibility. do you like that idea? does that seem plausible? >> there's a variety of ways to accomplish this. i don't think we've centered on a particular way at this point? no, i mean ultimately - the united states would like to see? >> we want to see an impartial, credible, prompt, thorough investigation and we're talking about the best way to get from here to there. and we recognize that international participation lends itself to, you know, countries and entities being able to voucher for the results of investigation and that's essential element inputting this tragedy mind us and hopefully creating additional trust and momentum to get to the ultimate destination that's agreement that hence the ending of the conflict once and for all. >> all over the air waves all but saying that everything is internal and there's nothing impartial but an internal investigation. >> we're in conversation about how to best accomplish this. >> there's sti

order, and germany, great britain, canada, france, switzerland, mexico, norway, the netherlands, and italy. switzerland was ahead of mexico. in 2000, the top 10 countries of foreign born americans was by a tremendous margin, mexico, china, the philippines, india, cuba, vietnam, all salvadoran, correa, the dominican republic, and canada. no european countries in the top 10 in 2000. three of countries of foreign birth in every census from 1850-1980. now it is not even in the top 10. the first nine on the list of developing countries only canada has an advanced industrialized economy and a middle-class majority. of the 10, only 1 cents caucasian immigrants to the united states. we get a tremendous advantage from many of these immigrants of highly educated people with much saw after skills. in many cases, they are who they were 150 years ago. pour, poorly educated, agrarian, at an incredibly hard working. they are also younger than other americans sell more likely to pay into old age support schemes like social security. they're also more likely to have more children. on the one hand, they rei

>> some countries bond yields -- i think spain and italy raised fresh highs this week. in your opinion, is the ecb doing everything from a policy standpoint to extend this crisis? how do you risk it -- how do you rate the risk of contagion? >> this is a joint effort of a number of authorities including the european union and the european commission. it is a complicated problem because there are a number of countries to have a difficult fiscal situations. the concern is that these countries cannot manage their fiscal positions on their own and they might be a contagion -- own their own and they might be a contagion to other systems. i am encouraged by the response of the europeans. although they lack the central authority that the united states has, they understand the importance of cooperation. they have put together some substantial programs including a 500 billion euros stabilization mechanism that will stand behind countries on the periphery that need assistance in meeting their fiscal obligations. together with i them -- together with the imf, they will provide assi

to some extent you are seeing that in europe, portugal, italy, greece.hey made promises that they could not afford to keep. to mix metaphors, the chickens have come home to roost. they have a huge problem the hands. we must make sure that as a society we find more intelligent, smarter ways to get more effective health care and retirement security of more effective costs. anyone who avoids dealing with that is condemning future generations to lower standard of living. frankly it is tantamount to generational theft in should not become susceptible in america. host: rocky mount, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to address what the congressman said. i notice that he said the government's cannot plug loopholes in he does not trust government because they cannot plug the hole with the oil coming out. you know, government is not in the oil drilling business. mainly because republicans do not want them in there. because they want the private sector. they want the government out. all of a sudden you are saying the government cannot plu

this is the larger term, year after year after year, united states is at 99% and you got greece and italy that are worst off than we are. that is not a good sign when we are in third place. this rate of spending just does not work. this is a path -- this is a glide path. i use the analogy of the old -- the guys of world war i that used to fly those airplanes, whatever it was that snoopy. they get in their spiral and head down to the earth and what happened is -- because of lousy economics, we're in essentially a grave yard spiral in economic and you, my friends, know what the solutions are to fix this. and there was a solution to the graveyard spiral. but from a pilot's point of view, their instinct is to pull the nose up but the counterintuetive thing is to pont the nose down. and there's the same kind of thing in our economy which we have to do or this economy is going to crash. and if you think 10% is bad for unemployment, it can get a whole lot worse. i yield to congresswoman lummis. mrs. lummis: the chart you have up does compare the u.s. to greece, but what is really frightening abo

crowding out other investments in our economy we are marching down the road towards greece, towards italy, towards spain, towards the kind of problems the u.k. has been having. but is changing course on and is going to address. and we wish them the best in those efforts. now, where did the money go? these are components of the 2009 deficit growth in billions. here's the federal budget deficit. the places where the federal deficit tripled in one fiscal year as tax revenues fell and congress pumped out large sums to stabilize financial institutions and stimulate the economy created a tripling in the federal deficit in one fiscal year. furthermore the policies we've enacted will double the debt in five years and triple the debt in 10 years. so the situation that we put ourselves in in the last 18 months creates dire circumstances. so the components of the 2009 deficit growth occurred due to lower tax receipts, that's part of our recession, stimulus, half in spending and half in lower taxes, the republicans quite frankly had a stimulus package that would have created twice as many jobs with h

even in this country, the world cup final france-italy, did a better number on abc than the nba finals. it is a global game. even in this country even in this country, all lot of people pay attention -- even in this country, a lot of people pay+ attention. host: sean. caller: i think democrats seem to be more open to international soccer, then republicans. particularly, in the south, i hear a lot of animus toward the world cup. it is akin to the hatred of the u.n.. a lot of republicans do not like the united nations, and also, because urban areas tend to be more democratic. uc soccer to be more popular there. do you believe that is true? guest: i had a chapter in my book about how soccer explains u.s. culture war. you do have a certain divide between people that are engaged with the global economy and the world more broadly, before whom it is a natural thing to embrace soccer. you have the other side that does not like the united nations, they believed in american exceptional ism, with a religious fervor, and is scared of globalization. that tends to inform their views about emigration

ireland is behind them and italy is behind them and spain is behind them. there are many nations that are in precarious financial stability. there is a tremendous responsibility in the united states. if we will get our house in order and drastically cut spending and have written tunnel reforms of social security and welfare and if we create a growth environment by dramatically cutting taxes for five years and making permanent killing of the death tax and getting rid of the alternative minimum tax, 34% corporate business tax is insane. we need to lower that to about a 9% level. i do not believe that anyone should be paying more than 21% of their income in tax to the federal government and have 100% expenses if someone buys a business item. maybe that will take a long weekend. you would not even wait 1/4 and you would see absolute robust growth here and the united states economy. you would see job increases. if you would just consider, and we, rather than spend one trillion dollars because that is the cost of s

debt that meets or exceeds that that we see in countries like greece or spain or ireland or italy. the european union threatens to collapse under the financial stress that they have because they have loaned money -- it's almost like they're sitting at a poker table playing for chipping that are writing each our i.o.u.'s around the table. at some time you have to pay fo- the drinks and the food that's coming along. those chickens are coming home to roost in europe. we don't need to be there in america. we're a different kind of people. we have a unique vitality in our character, in our soul. one of the things that is part of that vitality is that we've skimmed the cream off of the crop of every civilization in the world. everybody that were immigrants to the united states, they didn't get people who were sitting out there on the porch that didn't go to work. these were the entrepreneurs, the creative ones, the ones that had a dream, that were frustrated because they had the shackles of a dictator that kept them from using freedom to grow their own lifetime success. can you imagine i

and the second circuit bows to the executive position saying, well, that ought to be decided between italy and the united states on how that's to be handled. i think that's wrong. but at least the supreme court ought tdecide it. not goin to ask you how you would decide the case, but would you consider it? a case involving the survivors of victims of 9/11 has not been heard or petitioned om the second circuit. the second circuit said, well, the sovereign immunities case doesn't apply because saudi arabia hasn't been declared a terrorist state. that's really nothing to do with the act, congressional intent, not governed by sovereign immunity. said the acts occurred outside of the country, a distinction i don't understand. if the consequences of the trade towers and 3,000 americans are killed, certainly the sovereign immunities act ought to saudi arabia subject to sue, but i won't ask you how you will decide the case, but if you would take it up. another issue which wouldn't be resolved today and perhaps never is how to see to it the nominees who make statements here ar on congressional power

[unintelligible] some countries bond eals, spain, italy, reached fresh highs this weekk in your opinion, is the ecb doing everything it needs to be from a policy actions stem. ? -- policy action standpoint? thf >> this is a joint effort of a number of european authorities, including the european union, the european commission, and the ecb. it is a complicated process because there are a number of countries that have difficult since fiscal situations. the concern is that those countries cannot manage their fiscal positions on their own and that there might be contagion to other countries or to the banking systems. those are the concerns that are being faced. i encouraged by the resppnse of the europeans. although they lack the central authority that the united states has, they have understood the importance of cooperation and they put together some very substantial programs, including a $500 billion euro stabilizatton mechanism that will ssand behind countries on the periihery that need assistance in meeting their fiscal operations. the imf is also providiig bilateral assistance. the goa

there is an acronym that as portugal, ireland, italy, greece, and spain. they are close to the breaking point. if you look at g.d.p. and put america in with the trajectory of where we are going, we are very close to where it should be. the imf recently said in 2015 america will be were greece is, and it will actually be worse. the president put together this debt commission where there are people on both sides of the aisle. the recently had an economist in. he took the entire amount of deaths from governments and others. -- of debt from government and others. his numbers came out when he said you hit 90%, you lose 1% of growth. you may thin 1% is not enough, but if america is projected to only grow at 3%, you're losing onl1/3 of your entire percentage abroad. in march they had over 18% unemployment. you needob growth. before we had our town hall, i wanted to givyou exactly where rearm. i believe this is an biggest crisis before us, and we cannot ignore it. we want to do a lot for everybody, but there comes a point when you cannot do anything for anyone, wh