twoam of america's leading mayors, michael nutter is the mayor ofd philadelphia,mi a democrat and nick cornett, mayor of s oklahoma city. wsmake." also joining us is our press panel. lisa mascaro is a reporter with the "los angeles times." if the i could start with a general question. kind of building on what you were saying in the -- we had a taped press conference, mayor nutter, right fore we came onto this live program. how dependent are u.s. cities on congress and the federal government at this point? and we'll start with you, mayor nutter, and then -- >> the federal government plays a significant rolend affects cities and states all across america. the federal budget obviously is huge. many departments and agencies directly fund programs and services to states and in some instances directly to cities and so when the federal government makes cuts, or when they invest, you can see the difference right on the ground in cities and states all across america. >> well, we're at the bottom of the funding stream. cities operate within the enabling legislation set up by the federal and the state go