joining us now, judd gregg, our guest host.r governor of new hampshire and united states senator. joining us is also erskine bowles. both gentlemen also serve on the campaign to fix the debt. ing to both of you and as we sit here, facing down yet another debt deadline, i just wonder how much of the problem is going to fix itself? the lead story "new york times" in the today talks about how there are budget surpluses looming in lots of states because money is finally starting to come back in. what do you think? is this something that puts some of the issues on the back burner? how much is fixed and how much will still come and bite us. >> it doesn't fix itself. it does go down. our deficits are going down. but because of the demographic situation we cannot fix this problem until we fix the entitlement issues and reform tax laws. we may have pushed the problem off by having the deficits go down but as a simple fact, we're headed toward the situation, our debt-to-gdp ratios aren't sustainable. so if we don't step into this problem

years, i moved to the senate and work for senator judd gregg.ussle happens -- jim moved onto the house -- head of the budget. we are now $17 trillion in debt. does anybody ever say, stop? do they ever say stop when you were there? >> they weren't too concerned with the bush tax cuts. they weren't too concerned with an unpaid for trillion dollar war. i guess the answer is no. >> what is going to be the answer in the future? be shortlly, it will and people hocism, will somehow figure out how to get around it. >> do you get the sense that somewhere back in one of these offices, there is somebody sitting there saying, none of this matters? >> i think there are. policy, by default, is in thebeing made unelected federal reserve board. so many of our economic policies , simply because congress can do anything, obama cannot drive his agenda through. it was the faulting the ben bernanke and then janet yellen. know many people have severe doubts about the fed and quantitative easing and so forth . some even go off on conspiracy theories about the fed. i c

kennedy chairman of the senate education .ommittee in his office in just a few minutes, senator judd gregg from new hampshire join me. he was the minority chairman of the committee. the three of us sat in senator kennedy's office. he talked the whole time and told stories about things that were in his office. he showed me and laughed. framed thatt he had his brother, jack, had written to his mother. he thought that was funny. i often wondered if that was his reaction to something as shocking and horrible, because that was the way he had to deal with it. of course, he had many shocks in his life. or if he thought i would fall apart and he thought that the way he could keep things going andto keep small talk talking and keeping things going. anyway, in a few minutes, i left and went to a secure location. how did you leave? >> the secret service came to get me and said, it is time to -- at first, they wanted to take me back to the white house. they had to figure out where i should go because obviously, the people at the white house, the staff at the white house was getting word to run. people

in just a few minutes, senator judd gregg from new hampshire joined me.e was the minority chairman of the committee. the three of us sat in senator kennedy's office. he talked the whole time and told stories about things that were in his office. he showed me and laughed. a letter that he had framed that his brother, jack, had written to his mother. it said, teddy is getting fat. he thought that was funny. i often wondered if that was his reaction to something as shocking and horrible, because that was the way he had to deal with it. of course, he had many shocks in his life. or if he thought i would fall apart and he thought that the way he could keep things going was to keep small talk and talking and keeping things going. anyway, in a few minutes, i left and went to a secure location. >> how did you leave? >> the secret service came to get me and said, it is time to -- at first, they wanted to take me back to the white house. they had to figure out where i should go because obviously, the people at the white house, the staff at the white house was getti