for the business community's perspective on budget negotiations, we are joined by john engler of the business roundtable. you can call in with questions about hospital costs to elisabeth rosenthal of the new york times. ♪ good morning. it is tuesday, december 10, 20 13. despite most federal offices and ecb and closed due to the weather, congress is scheduled members session as scramble to wrap up legislation before adjourning for the year. the centerpiece of those efforts involve a budget deal that is expected to be released this week. in thathe key questions deal is whether congress will spend 26 billion dollars to expand the federal unemployment benefits. that is where we want to begin thisashington journal" morning. are you in favor of extending benefits, where you come down in the debate that the benefits discourage the jobless from finding work? republicans can call at (202) 585-3881. democrats can call at (202) 585- 3880. independents can call at (202) 585-3882. we have a special line if you are unemployed and have thoughts on this matter. (202) 585-5883. with us onch up social

people are surprised by this, the fact that john engler and myself wrote a letter in november to every single governor who was on top and -- adopting the common core, and saying it is important, but we're to do it right. we should trust stages, give them the time in the professional development and the curriculum support to do this right before you do this kind of testing. the isu have the head of is roundtable and the head of the national union saying stop, do this right because really knew -- we really get it, i would hope that some people would listen and stop with the race to announce and actually do a reflective and limitations so that we actually implement it with fidelity to give kids the skills and knowledge they need. know, it is as you toxic in states all across the country. and what is it going to implement the standards effectively? and can you assess whether or not they're going to work? >> number one, i think we need to dealing the testing. link the testing from these standards. look at the countries that outcompete us. none of them test every kid every year. they do not

for the business community's perspective on budget negotiations, we are joined by john engler of the business roundtable. you can call in with questions about hospital costs to elisabeth rosenthal of the new york times. ♪ good morning. it is tuesday, december 10, 20 13. despite most federal offices and ecb and closed due to the weather, congress is scheduled members session as scramble to wrap up legislation before adjourning for the year. the centerpiece of those efforts involve a budget deal that is expected to be released this week. in thathe key questions deal is whether congress will spend 26 billion dollars to expand the federal unemployment benefits. that is where we want to begin on "washington journal"

people are surprised by this, the fact that john engler and myself wrote a letter in november to every single governor who was adopting the common core, and saying it is important, but we're to do it right. we should trust stages, give them the time in the professional development and the curriculum support to do this right before you do this kind of testing. when you have the head of the is business roundtable and the head of the national union saying stop, do this right because really knew -- we really get it, i would hope that some people would listen and stop with the race to announce and actually do a reflective and limitations so that we actually implement it with fidelity to give kids the skills and knowledge they need. >> randi, i'm sure, as you know, it is toxic in states all across the country. and what is it going to implement the standards effectively? and can you assess whether or not they're going to work? >> number one, i think we need de-link the testing from these standards. let's look at the countries that outcompete us. none of them test every kid every year. they do

for the business community's we will be joined by john engler, president of the business roundtable. you can call. washington journal is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> carl levin came to the floor earlier today to discuss the 2014 program bill. in the past he has tried to take it in order to get the legislation passed. levin was joined by james in half and john mccain. this is 35 minutes. will beresident, senator withhold? >> morning businesses close. the senate will resume consideration. military activities and so forth and further purposes. left for the thanksgiving break, senator inhofe and i said that we would come to the senate floor today to update members on the status of the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2014. before the break, we spent a week on the senate floor trying to bring more amendments up and to have them debated and voted on, but we were unable to do so. we tried to reach agreement to limit consideration to defense-related amendments, but we were unable to do that. we trade to get consent to vote on two sexual assault amendmen s that ha

host: john engler was elected the governor of michigan, the 46th governor of michigan, 1991 to 2003,? guest: that's correct. host: crisis up from florida on our line for independents. chris, good morning. caller: good morning, the more i'm listening, the more distressed. first time i have ever called into a show. it's really -- a number of things are aggravating but at the top of the list one more person referring to entitlements as if that was a four-letter word. if you go to a store and pay for a product are you not entitled to take it away with you. and that is how people get entitled to social security and to the medicare they paid for. it is not a four-letter word. and it was intended to be a trust fund. it should have been kept in a trust fund. congress has been raiding that trust fund for decades. i don't know that many of the american public knows that. if you run the numbers, we wouldn't be this broke with social security or medicare if the trust fund hadn't been spent on everything but. host: seems like you would agree. long-term fiscal problems aren't due to programs that