earlier today i spoke with former education secretary margaret spelling and asked her why she thinksas gotten so expensive. >> i think it is a number of things. for starters, our higher ed officials and educators argue that, you know, they have been subject to a lot of mandates, health care, and other sorts of mandates that they're pushing off on to students. they argue that state support is down from legislatures across the country, and that has caused them to raise prices, but think that to the matter is the religion of the answer to that question because we lack transparency and information from a basic consumer information in their product. we spend more money in families are struggling to access higher-ups'. gerri: getting a seat is a little like being on an airplane. the people to your left and the people to the right may be paying totally different prices. it is not transparent. do not know what people paying. you may be paying something different. but the depth of the problem. take a look at these numbers. over the past 30 years housing costs have gone up 375%. health care of

[applause] margaret spellings, former secretary of education. [applause] trent lott, former u.s.senate majority leader and cochair of the commission on political reform. [applause] vicki kennedy, cofounder of the edward m kennedy institute for the united states senate. [applause] karen hughes, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. [applause] morvan, u.s. army retired and managing director of got your six campaign. [applause] you can read more complete biographies in the programs for our panelists. we invite everybody here at the national constitution center, our people watching on our webcast, to join our conversation. if you are physically here, you can select one of these cards at your seat with your comment or question, and if you are digitally here, send us an e- mail or a tweet. bpc_bipartisan. #engageusa. before we begin, here is a quick video of our colleagues at "usa today." it features some faces you are likely to recognize. [video clip] ♪ >> i am susan page, washington bureau chief of "usa today." it has long been a truism for proud par

there are a number of people, margaret spelling on a commission looking to see that we can reform theolitical appointments process to make it less laborious, but even though we had a very laborious process, people still want to serve. i am not convinced that if you discourage people wanting to serve -- i think we have been talking about this service. there are countless jobs and fellowship programs in the federal government, management fellowship programs, white house fellowship programs, fellowship programs at nih, the national endowment for the arts. you name it, you can do it, and i think there are so many people who are just unaware of what great opportunities there are and how diverse those opportunities are in federal government. we need a campaign to say this is your country, these are great opportunities to serve. serving in the arts and humanities in the federal government. did you know that you can serve as a research assistant at nah -- nih? do you know you can help with the fisheries? that is part of our challenge. that is part of our opportunity to help people appreciate

we are so lucky to have margaret spelling, who was our secretary of education with president bush, but women are rosalie underrepresented, and i think there are a lot of reasons. there is raising money. the life dial of having to be on the road, away, raising money. i go back to raising money, raising money, raising money. the money raised is enormous, but if you had more women whose voices were there, and i look at olympia snowe and how much the arete misses her voice, we so lucky you are still on the road and giving your message, olympia, and so happy to be a part of this commission with you. temper theen to dialogue. i think women understand the teamwork that we were just talking about. i think you need as many diverse points of view as possible. we need to have a conversation, and women tend to be pretty good at talking and having that conversation. do not think there are easy answers to it. to call it a safer space, i would welcome the other women to talk about it. >> i am just going to say this. opportunities in government for women are amazing. in fact, when i think about my own

even walking away from so many things including core standards that was led by jeb bush, margaret spellingsno it hurts the party. people my daughter's age who care about education can say this is kooky. >> james carville, david axelrod, thank you. eugene robinson, thank you as well. we'll read your column in the washington post today. walter, stay with us if you can. still ahead, lars ulrich, drummer from met tallica and to blair, former british prime minister, joins the table. this is "morning joe." we'll be right back. ( ♪ ) for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the days when you get a sudden call from the school, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. when you have children's motrin on hand, you're ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer than children's motrin. be ready with children's motrin. >>> 21 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." joe, i think the last time this guest was on he was bringing you a birthday cake. here with us now -- >> i'll tell you what. that's something yo