mr. harrison, i was a tactical flying squadron commander at barksdale in the late '80s and we had about 155 people in our unit and we had an audit one time and the audit was about travel. 155 people in the military, the air crew members travel a lot. they've said okay, here's how much money was spent and we want you to account for it and the paperwork is monumental. we fill out a form travel voucher and when it comes back that reconciles it. there's no requirement for anybody to keep these things. we didn't keep them in our squadron. they're kept at some god forsaken vault probably somewhere in washington, d.c. yet i was supposed to come up with the answer where did all of this money go? i just happened to be one of those people that keeps those things and i brought out this stack of things and handed them to this audit and after about two days he came back and says, we can't do this. now this is the auditor, the individual sent to do the audit on a very small, 100, 150, a slice of the squadron, me, realized in three days what he was trying do was impossible. i cannot imagine how they could

mr. harrison. i could have sworn a study came out not long ago that said up to 25% of the d.o.d. budget could not be accounted for. is that the ballpark this audit revealed? i had another point about the higher-ups and generals, the upper echelon in the military, they don't have much incentives to cut the budget. when they retire, they start working for raytheon and boeing and everyone else. that is the two points i wanted to make. guest: the audit did not come out with a figure that 25% of the budget is unaccountable. there was a prior study by the defense business board, a quasi-independent board made up of business professionals. they performed a study that looked at how much of the pentagon's budget is spent on overhead functions and how much that could be reduced. i believe they found about 25% of the budget was spent on overhead functions. of that, they said you could probably reduce that spending by about 5%. you multiply that out and that is about $125 billion in potential savings over five years. the caveat is they were applying a blanket savings, we think you could prob

mr. harrison. i could have sworn a study came out not long ago that said up to 25% of the d.o.d.t could not be accounted for. is that the ballpark this audit revealed? i had another point about the higher-ups and generals, the upper echelon in the military, they don't have much incentives to cut the budget. when they retire, they start working for raytheon and boeing and everyone else. that is the two points i wanted to make. guest: the audit did not come out with a figure that 25% of the budget is unaccountable. there was a prior study by the defense business board, a quasi-independent board made up of business professionals. they performed a study that looked at how much of the pentagon's budget is spent on overhead functions and how much that could be reduced. i believe they found about 25% of the budget was spent on overhead functions. of that, they said you could probably reduce that spending by about 5%. you multiply that out and that is about $125 billion in potential savings over five years. the caveat is they were applying a blanket savings, we think you could probably c

mr. widmer: william henry harrison. a war hero from indiana. he basically never said a word. which was good politics back then. vanburen campaigns for reelection. he wanted it. he was out there giving speeches hoping to be reelected. but he is become unpopular with the panic and the growing nervousness over slavery. harrison was a charismatic war hero. a brilliant strategy was created by political handlers around him that included slogans, toys, trinkets, mass-produced objects like whiskey bottles in the shape of a log cabin. because he was supposed to have been born in a log cabin. lincoln would. later use that to slogans like too."canoe and tyler there were terrific songs from that election. out-van burened. they made fun of him. there were songs that made fun of them. up man.", he's a used songs that made fun of how he looked. questioned if he was a man or woman. did he wear a corset? there was a lot of the true all and he came up on the losing end. independence hall became a clothing store? is set to true story? mr. widmer: yes it is. holla --nce all -- hall has been many

mr. widmer: william henry harrison. a war hero from indiana. westerner, interestingly, and a war hero, who basically never said a word. which was good politics back then. we often say that presidents did not campaign for reelection. he often did. he wanted it. he was out there giving speeches hoping to be reelected. but he had become unpopular with the panic and the growing nervousness over slavery. harrison was a charismatic war hero. a brilliant strategy was created by political handlers around him that included slogans, toys, trinkets, mass-produced objects like whiskey bottles in the shape of a log cabin. because he was supposed to have been born in a log cabin. as abraham lincoln would later too.hat, slogans like "tippecanoe and tyler too." there were terrific songs from that election. van buren got out-van burened. he had been a political tactician of the highest genius of to that point. they made fun of him. there were songs that made fun of them. "van, van, he's a used up man." songs that made fun of how he looked. questioned if he was

harrison did that in 30 days. brian: you teach at a law school. mr. gerhardt: yes. worked with ceo jeff rosen and i oversee content that is produced for the public. sometimes the programs are all over the country and we try to arrange those and find people to come in and talk. brian: michael j. gerhardt has been our guest. he has got two books you might be interested in. "impeachment" and the other is "the forgotten presidents" thank you very much. mr. gerhardt: thank you. it has been a great honor. ♪ announcer: for free transcripts or to give your comments, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available as c-span podcasts. next week on q&a, jackie spear of california talks about her memoir. that is q&a next sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. : next, where live with your calls and questions on "washington journal." announcer: c-span launched book tv 20 years ago. since then, we have covered more than 15,000 authors. in 2009, temple grandin was a guest of our local monthly call-in program. >> there are people that are visual thinkers and are not necessari

william henry harrison did that in 30 days. teach at a law school. mr. gerhardt: yes.osenworked with co jeff -- ceo jeff rosen and i oversee content that is produced for the public. sometimes the programs are all over the country and we try to arrange those and find people to come in and talk. hasn: michael j. gerhardt been our guest. his two books are impeachment and "the forgotten presidents" thank you very much. mr. gerhardt: thank you. it has been a great honor. ♪ announcer: for free transcripts or to give your comments, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available as podcasts. next week on q&a, jackie spirit of california talks about her .emoir that is q&a next sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up monday morning, melanie xina and john bennett discuss the week ahead in congress. and carolyn yoga talks about the medicarees incur for expansion. join the discussion. >> as the party organize the new ongress, watch it unfold c-span. night on the communicator, v

harrison did that in 30 days. brian: you teach at a law school. mr. gerhardt: yes.nd i worked with ceo jeff rosen and i oversee content that is produced for the public. it's produced on the internet, in public programs that the public are invited to. sometimes the programs are all over the country and we try to arrange those and find people to come in and talk. brian: michael j. gerhardt has been our guest. his two books are impeachment and "the forgotten presidents" thank you very much. mr. gerhardt: thank you. it has been a great honor. ♪ announcer: for free transcripts or to give your comments, visit us at q&a.org. programs are also available as podcasts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] next week, u.s. representative from california talks about her memoir, surviving jonestown and fighting back. that is q&a next sunday on c-span. announcer: c-span's washington journal, lives every day with news and policy

in the telegraph, hays, the telephone, arthur, an elevator, harrison, dc electricity and taft, a one ton bath tub. that was the weight without mr. taft. this seems reasonable. there was a problem. every time they brought in a system like this, they had to drill a hole through a beam or a wall stud. they were told to hurry up. you are inconveniencing the president, hurry up. they would hacked their way through and cover it all back up. that is what constituted the damage in those beams. the other problem is that these additions were very heavy. a lot of them were cast iron. in a house that would be built in a lot ofing steel pipe would not be a problem. it was a problem in the white house. i want to explain why. distinct house had a system for distributing its weight loads. the outer walls of the house are in black. thick.ere four feet they were stoned. the foundations went five feet below the ground and they caps off with sprint footings. it is a pure middle -- pyramidal foot. the interior walls where the problem. they are red. those were numeral walls of brick. -- those were walls of brick. they had no foundation at all. i don