prior to that, he was in the state house in jefferson city. as a member of the house and senate armed services committees, senator talent was directly involved in some of the most critical debates and decisions regarding national security policy, both prior to and immediately after the 9/11 world that we live in today. here at heritage, jim talent specializes in issues involving foreign policy, military readiness, and his old favorite on the domestic front, welfare reeorm. he's one of the most astute commentators in the conservative realm of ideas, we're privilege to have had him with us as our colleague, jim will you please come up and introduce our distinguished speaker? [applause] >> my thanks to dr. fulmer for giving me the privilege of introducing our honored guest who is a fellow missourian, which is the reason i have the privilege of doing this, and a man who has accomplished so much across such a wide range of responsibilities and offices over the years that it would embarrass him for me to try to list them all, and intrude in his spea

prior to that, he was in the state house in jefferson city. as a member of the house and senate armed services committees, senator lent was directly involved in some of the most ctical debates and decisions regarding national security policy, both prior to and immediately after the 9/11 world that we live in toda here at heritage, jim talent specializes in issues involving foreign poly, military readiness, and his old favorite on the domestic front, welfare reeorm. he's one of the most astute commentators in the conservative realm of ideas, we're privilege to have had him with us as our colleague, jim will you please come up and introduce our distinguished speaker? [applause] >> my thanks to dr. fulmer for giving me the privilege of introducing our honored guest who is a fellow missourian, which is the reason i have the privilege of doing this, and a man who has accomplished so much across such a wide range of responsibilities and offices over the years that it would embarrass him for me to try to list them all, and intrude in his speaking tim

fretted that he was in the state house in jefferson city. as a member of the house, he u.s. directly involved in some of the most critical debates regarding national security policy prior to and immediately after the 9/11 world that we live in today. he specializes in issues involving foreign policy, military readiness, and his old favorite, welfare reform. he is when the most of us did commentators in the realm of ideas. we are pleased to have him with this. can you please come up? [applause] >> my thanks for getting the privilege of introducing our guests. he is a fellow missouri him. he has accomplished so much across a wide range of responsibilities and offices across the year. it would embarrass him for me to try to list them all. i do want to touch on the highlights. john ashcroft entered office for the first time in 1973 when he became missouri state officer. he followed that with two terms as missouri's attorney general. he followed that with two terms as governor. silage is summarized as by saying and i would summarize those pressing wheat traded 330,000 jobs. the b

host: they look at three cities in trouble, jefferson county, alabama, harrisburg, pennsylvania as you'veeen talking about, and also detroit. looking at the situation in harrisburg, pennsylvania's capital $68 billion in bond payments this year, thrrs 3 million more than its entire budget. the governing body that issued the bonds to construct a state-of-the-art trash insin rator has been unable to make several payments and now the county government which foot it had bill last year for a $775,000 swap fee is suing for the funds. guest: mm-hmm. host: tell us more about this situation. how did they get in this trouble and how do they get out? guest: how they got into it has to do with an idea from years ago to use the insin rator to burn trash, to sell the steam from it for energy. and i believe the first company that agreed to do the retro fit failed in it and went under. then they had to hire somebody else to do it. so that's the example of the really bad deal. right? and apparently it's an incredibly complex financing and as you point out very expensive and the debt service exceeds the cit

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city council. everything that happened in april affects not only the coastal parishes, jefferson, st. bernard, and plaquemine, but they also affect new orleans. we have made several trips out here and pass legislative reginald -- resolutions. we have offered all the help we can to our friends, because there is great regional unity. as we learn from the trading, the waters do not discriminate from one parish to another. -- as we learn from katrina. the devastation of the oil spill, we will offer our support to all the other elected officials. >> we are here mostly to see it for ourselves and let the parishes who are more adversely affected right now let -- let them know that we care and are supporting them. one resolution we did in the council meeting was to re-enter -- reiterate what the regional planning commission said, that everybody from bp, the coast guard, and the president should listen to the individual parish presidents and mayors of the different cities. they know their territory, they know their people, they know their waters, and they know what to do. they should be listen

city council. everything that happened in april affects not only the coastal parishes, jefferson, st. bernard, and plaquemine, but they also affect new orleans. we have made several trips out here and pass legislative reginald -- resolutions. we have offered all the help we can to our friends, because there is great regional unity. as we learn from the trading, the waters do not discriminate from one parish to another. -- as we learn from katrina. the devastation of the oil spill, we will offer our support to all the other elected officials. >> we are here mostly to see it for ourselves and let the parishes who are more adversely affected right now let -- let them know that we care and are supporting them. one resolution we did in the council meeting was to re-enter -- reiterate what the regional planning commission said, that everybody from bp, the coast guard, and the president should listen to the individual parish presidents and mayors of the different cities. they know their territory, they know their people, they know their waters, and they know what to do. they should be listen