. >> not town hall meeting with republican congressman joe barton of texas. topics include immigration, health care, and the proposed mosque at ground zero. this is about an hour. >> ok, hi there. of this is all taped up. ok, but i was wanting something so they could hear me. oh, this goes through there. can you hear me ok? we're not that big anyway, so anyway, welcome to my town hall meeting. obviously i think that it is not necessary to state the obvious, but we do have c-span covering us today. that is what these and all that is about. i do not normally travel with my own mobile television operation. [laughter] so when it comes time for the q&a period, think about how you're going to look on the national news if what you say is decided to be newsworthy. [laughter] this is an open public meeting in everything i say is on the record. everything you say today normally would not be on the record. but since we have the television cameras here, to some extent it is. i really only have one rule, and that is when we get to the question and answer period, i will tr

the party of joe barton, john boehner, mitch mcconnell. there are decent people. joe barton called for bp -- called our requirement for bp to pay for the damage from this bill "a shakedown." he apologized to bp. it could have been a slip of the tongue, but it was not. it is a philosophic point of view. he was honest enough to assert it. is not a bad guy. i am not making a moral judgment on what he said. that is what he believes. and he represents a party that believes the essence of what he asserts, if not specifically about bp. john bamir -- i like john -- john boehner, i like john. i like a lot of republicans. i really do. i strongly disagree with them. john boehner is a decent guy, the leader of the house republicans. he said our efforts to regulate the excess of wall street and the financial industry as we attempted to hold them accountable -- he said it was akin to using a nuclear weapon to kill an ant. guess what? that is a pretty big damn ant. it ate up about 8 million jobs. [applause] look, folks. mitch mcconnell -- i have worked w

house leaders pretended to run on george -- rock ridge run from joe barton like he had measles. less well-known is that the chairman representing the 116 member house republican study group said the same thing. he accused the president of a chicago-style political shakedown for coming up with a fund to compensate the victims of the deepwater horizon spill. the policy is no different -- the bush-cheney policy to allow big oil to dictate our big -- our energy future. and most republicans voted against legislation to prevent a future oil spill. the point person on the budget is paul ryan. he should be credited by putting his policy proposals on the table. his so-called road map for america would partially privatize socialists -- social security and in medicare as we know it. in this election year, many republican members and candidates who had embraced those ideas are attending to run away from them. but just last year there was a vote on the medicare portion of that plan. and the republican leadership and republicans voted for the ryan budget plan to abolish medicare by cutting it

joe barton is a leading republican on the house energy committee. the me remind you, there is a requirement for bp having to foot the bill for the oil spill as a shakedown. this was not a slick of the -- the of the tongue, it was not. he was honest enough to assert it. he's not a bad guy, i am not making a moral judgment on anything he said. that is what he believes. he represents a party that believes the essence of what he asserts. john boehner. i like a lot of republicans. i really do. i hope they like me even though i strongly disagree with them. john boehner is a decent guy. he said that our efforts to regulate the excesses' of wall street and the financial industry was holding wall street accountable. he said this was akin to using a nuclear weapon to kill an ant. just what, that is a pretty big dam and, if a up about 8 million jobs. -- guess what, that is a pretty big damn ant, it ate up about 8 million jobs. mitch mcconnell, we have worked together for years. we just eulogized ted stevens a few days ago. i like him. he calls for the health c

historical study next sunday with gordon would 3 jing wood. -- gordon wood. >> texas congressman joe barton taste questions from his constituents at a town hall meeting greta: this is one hour. we do have c-span covering this today. that is what is all about. i did the normally travel when my own mobile television operation. everything i say is on the record. record. when we get to the question and answers, i will try to give as many of you an opportunity to make a comment as we wish to. if someone says something you agree with, you can applaud, tell them that they are great. this is not a public debate society. if you care not to speak in public, that is what these cards are for. you just need to write it where we can read it and you need to give as a way to give effect to you. i will take as many questions as i can. if you decide to place template congressman, if i have to say i don't know, i have a record for that and i can research the answer for that. that is basically it. the first and no one to comment on, america speaking out, that is a website that the republicans are using in the

house leaders pretended to run from joe barton like he had the measles. less well-known was the fact that congressman tom price, the german representing the 116- member house that the group, said the same thing, accused the president of a chicago style political shakedown for coming up with a fund to compensate the victims of the deepwater horizon spill. the house republican energy policy is no different. than that of the bush-cheney energy policy, and all but two republicans voted against our legislation to prevent a future -- a feature golf type oil spill. the republican point person on the budget is representative paul ryan. like john boehner, he should be credited with putting his policy proposals on the table. his so-called road map for america would partially privatize social security and and medicare as we know it. again, in this election year, the republican members and candidates who would embrace the -- those ideas are tending to run away from it. just last year there was a vote on the medicare portion of that plan, and republican leadership and

house leaders pretended to run from joe barton like he had the measles. less well-known was the fact that congressman tom price, the german representing the 116- member house that the group, said the same thing, accused the president of a chicago style political shakedown for coming up with a fund to compensate the victims of the deepwater horizon spill. the house republican energy policy is no different. than that of the bush-cheney energy policy, and all but two republicans voted against our legislation to prevent a future -- a feature golf type oil spill. the republican point person on the budget is representative paul ryan. like john boehner, he should be credited with putting his policy proposals on the table. his so-called road map for america would partially privatize social security and and medicare as we know it. again, in this election year, the republican members and candidates who would embrace the -- those ideas are tending to run away from it. just last year there was a vote on the medicare portion of that plan, and republican leadership and

after that, joe barton talked to constituents about the economy and immigration. up next, in conversation on the latest economic numbers in wall street. this is a 45 minute a >> "washington journal" continues. host: let us introduce you to roben farzad, senior writer for "bloomberg business week." i will start by engaging in any discussion we had with our audien thi morning. about, given all of the stories we have this summer but the economy and the situation there, with don going on with much of the world, we discussed the theory called rational optimism, whether or not there is a case for having a long view to be optimistic about where society is going in e long run. what do you think of that. given all you are seeing in the markets and the economy today? are you optimistic? guest: i was listening in and what immediately came to mind is so of the best investors of the world, including warren buffett, saying that they are greedy when other people are fearful and fearful when other people are greedy. it does pay historically to be contrarian. in times ofeak fear a

if you choose to vote for joe barton, i will not be disappointed.just participate in the democratic process. >> i has been to a couple of your things before. why has a couple loews short questions asked you. -- i have a couple of short questions to ask you. if you come back to congress and say the republicans have a majority or say they have maybe a one-vote majority and if they could not repeal delonthew law,d they vote for non funding? the second question deals with the border. everyone in the news, all of these so-called experts, generals, colonels, whatever, one thing they don't seem to catch, they want to say it is a national guardsman down there to watch people come across the border. i am a vietnam veteran. you cannot -- it is never possible to set up a barrier to keep people from coming into a country unless you have flyer covering it. you must have a response of force that will come in with force and knock them out. you cannot do this. a fixed defense, this will only challenge an enemy, it will not stop them. why isn't someone saying someth

something changes, i am thinking some external event or some unimaginable republican meltdown, a joe bartonment apologizing to bp times 10 is going to be hard to see how the democrats could turn it round. it's got a lot of the passion on the right is coming from the tea party movement -- host: a lot of the passion on the right is coming from the tea party movement. but we heard one member calling this morning saying he is not crazy about republicans, either. he plans to vote because it thinks it is is his responsibility but not crazy about voting for republicans and putting them back in power. how do republicans tried to harness that passion and get them to vote for them? you saw that in the missouri race, the primary race on tuesday. roy blunt, not a favorite of the tea party movement but yet was able to win. guest: a couple of things going on. one -- a part of the great usefulness of the tea party movement is it is another vehicle for limited government conservatism that is separate from the republican brand, which is a very helpful thing because the republican brand has not yet recovered

something changes, i am thinking some external event or some unimaginable republican meltdown, a joe barton comment apologizing to bp times 10 is going to be hard to see how the democrats could turn it round. it's got a lot of the passion on the right is coming from the tea party movement -- host: a lot of the passion on the right is coming from the tea party movement. but we heard one member calling this morning saying he is not crazy about republicans, either. he plans to vote because it thinks it is is his responsibility but not crazy about voting for republicans and putting them back in power. how do republicans tried to harness that passion and get them to vote for them? you saw that in the missouri race, the primary race on tuesday. roy blunt, not a favorite of the tea party movement but yet was able to win. guest: a couple of things going on. one -- a part of the great usefulness of the tea party movement is it is another vehicle for limited government conservatism that is separate from the republican brand, which is a very helpful thing because the republican brand has not yet recov

but joe barton is a leading republican on the house energy committee. he actually called for a requirement that bp paid for the damage caused by that spill a shakedown. and he apologized to bp. that could have been a slip of the tongue, but it wasn't. it is a philosophic point of view, and he was honest enough to assert it. he is not a bad guy. i am not making a moral judgment on anything he said. but that is what he believes. and he represents a party that believes the essence of what he asserts, if not specifically about bp. john boehner -- i like john, and i literally do. my problem is, i like a lot of republicans, and i really do. and i hope they like me. john boehner is a decent guy, leader of the house. we attempted to hold wall street accountable, and we did. he said it was akin to using a nuclear weapon to kill an ant. guess what? that is a pretty big damn ant. it ate up about 8 million jobs. [applause] look, folks. mitch mcconnell i have worked with for years and years. he and i both did you do for a mutual friend of ours, ted stevens, just two

house leaders pretended to run from joe barton like he had the measles. less well-known was the fact that congressman tom price, the german representing the 116- member house that the group, said the same thing, accused the president of ahicago style political shakedown for coming up with a fund to compensate the victims of the deepwater horizon spill. the house republican energy policy is no different. than that of the bush-cheney energy policy, and all but two republicans voted against our legislation to prevent a future -- a feature golf type oil spill. the republican point person on the budget is representative paul ryan. like john boehner, he should be credited with putting his policy proposals on the table. his so-called road map for america would partially privatize social security and and medicare as we know it. again, in this election year, the republican members and candidates who would embrace the -- those ideas are tending to run away from it. just last year there was a vote on the medicare portion of that plan, and republican leadership and r