. >> michele browne, followed by david pelle pelle. >> the issue to me is not so much an issue of the alternatives that take away a lane in each direction would work best. to me, the issue is taking a way -- away a lane in each direction and making a busy street from six lanes to four lanes, which moves traffic all you still traffic over there. because the plan that they came up with was just come up with about two weeks ago, the final compromise plan, the neighborhood as says the asians are just reacting to it. the association -- of the neighborhood associations are just reacting to it. one association is meeting tomorrow. another is meeting in the next couple of weeks. i think you are getting a more negative reaction to taking away two lanes that i think is being communicated to you and what is being cured now. the cost of this, the transit authority program tabled it said they could study it more. basically, by reducing from six lanes to four lanes, rather than focusing on an alternative with all of the improvements except that you are leaving the extra two lanes, compare that with

the pell grant is a beautiful thing, but with college getting more expensive, is it enough by itself to satisfy your collegiate needs? oh, pell no. ♪ oh pellay keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students. they say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well, so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires. [ cheers ] but their position is that students just have to make this rate increase work. frankly, i don't buy it. >> jimmy: mm-mmm-mmm. the barackness monster ain't buying it. [ laughter ] we all -- we all know our legislative bodies in the house tossing and turning late into the night, but still, republicans disagree, and can even filibuster, but if they do, the president said they're going to feel it, buster. ♪ the gop is steady saying no no, no ♪ ♪ they should find something new to do like tim tebow ♪ >> the reason it's so important to keep down costs is so we keep college affordable. >> jimmy: and the president knows his stuff, y'all. that's why they call him potus, which means person on top -- what is it? >> jimmy, potus stands for president of the united ates. ♪ he's the potus wi

pell grants. i would subsidize more the pell grants for the poorer kids who are not able to go to college and i would then let the middle class kids take the higher interest rate. it's still economically a great deal to go to college. you've seen the differences between your life income if you graduate from college as opposed to just graduating from high school. this subsidy again of the middle class, some of the figures, somebody at cornell did the figures the other day on inequality, growth of inequality. i know it's a favorite thing of yours in your book. one of the reasons we're seeing this growth in inequality is because more and more of the subsidies have been going to the middle class from the real poor. and again, i think that's a mistake. tavis: two things. we make that case in our book because politicians love playing to the angst of the future of the middle class but that's the question we raise if the middle class is disappearing as we know it, if the middle class make up the new poor, who are we going to talk to on the campaign and every time there's a program that plays to the middle class as opposed to poor people, talking student loans versus pellrants, every politician, romney or obama, they want to focus their attention on the voting class because they're the largest voting block but they're slipping into the poor now. >> i understand. i divide it up a little differently when i think, when i write and that's the older folks and the children. we've been very generous with our older folks. i'm an old guy now, hard to believe, but i'm an old guy. and i listen to old people sometimes sitting around telling people ways to get more money from the federal government while the kids are not getting what they need either in terms of very basic basics of nutrition and other things and i think that's a real problem. again, back to my -- i'm for an efficient government. i'm also for addressing this problem of the deficit. but there is so much waste, so much money that we are putting out there to placate the middle class and i think this is a classic example. i told chairman klein, the education chairman and i'm going to argue with him abo

earlier on your show you were discussing the pell grant situation. i was a pelllf. so it's programs like that that are really vital to continuing that pipeline of innovation here in the u.s. >> no question about it. listen, congratulations on what you've discovered. with your experiment so far. and all the best with your continued efforts. i hope you are able to achieve the necessary resources, which i know is the number one issue with a lot of these things. it's just development resources for the idea. so i hope that continues to flow for you. certainly you have the credentials to do it. thank you, professor. coming up here, the vice president, biden, who's our favorite around here, because the man just tells it how it is, even if it doesn't mean to, his straight talk on gay marriage making headlines. kelly govern's got a news flash from her perspective. and half that chris with more on that unguarded moment and what it could mean for the 2012 race. "hardball" at 5:00. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male a

pell grants. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: sir, i teach sunday school, jesus doesn't say anything about pell grantsaughter) father, thank you so much for joining me. (cheers and applause) father tom reese from georgetown university. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) ladies. wondering what men are always doing out in the shed? well... it's a guy thing. like dr pepper ten. with all 23 flavors of dr pepper... in just ten manly calories... it's what guys want. like explosions... dr pepper ten. it's not for women. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: welcome back, everybody. thanks very much. my guest tonight proposes a new form of government. i hope it's a poppy-ocracy. that would be adorable. please welcome carne ross! (cheers and applause) mr. ross, thank you so much. all right, sir. now you are an economist, correct? >> originally, yes. >> stephen: originally an economist and now you're a former senior british diplomatic official and you left service in the british government after you had testified secretly that bush and blair said it was more of a threat than iraq maybe was. >> yes. >> steph

pell grants, i have to reference my colleague and predecessor, claiborne pell, because he seized on that lesson in 1965 of the g.i. bill and said, well, let's extend it to -- broadly to college students. so pell grants, stafford loans, all of those vehicles were created. and, frankly, that i think is not only the reason we've led the world in innovation and creativity, but it's the reason why america as well as and probably better than any other society in the world was able to proliferate computers and technology, et cetera, because we had a literate, well-educated citizenry who first could invent these devices and then could use them properly. and we're in danger if we don't continue to support education, to lose our innovative edge and lose our capacity as a people to adopt innovation and technology and continue to lead. so for all these reasons, our economic future is linked to assuming that -- to continuing to support higher education. there's another point before i talk about the way we propose to pay for this is that there has been some on the other side say well, you know, the problem is tuition's just going out of sight and we're contributing to those tuitions. well, in the cost of t

pell grants. i don't think my friend from tennessee would want to cut pell grants. i think he's a pretty good supporter of pellhat went. $750 million went to college access challenge grant programs, $2 billion went for community colleges. so my friend may be right. maybe we could reduce those interest rates a little bit, but what that money is being used for is basically students. now, i will be honest about this, $10 billion went for decreasing the deficit. i don't think my friend from tennessee would be opposed to that. $9.2 billion went to other health care programs, including requiring dependent coverage in the health care bill. in other words, how many students now are covered under their parents' policies until they're age 26. they didn't have that before. now they've got it. so some of this money was used to invest in that or community health care centers. yes, we did do that. by providing some of the money from that, $9.2 billion of that for some specific types of items in that health care bill. lastly, mr. president, i just have to ask a question. are we having a health care debate here or are we havi

education with the paul ryan plan, it would decimate, for example, pell grants, which thousands and thousands of latino students depend on pell decimate head start programs which hundreds of thousands of latino families depend on head start programs for their young children. it would decimate the hiring of good public school teachers and, again, hundreds of thousands of families depend on good public school teachers for their kids' education, especially in latino communities. so what he is saying and what he wants to do for the latino community does not match up. >> dana, i have to let dana respond. go ahead, dana. >> i think that we can very easily compare and contrast barack obama and mitt romney's educational policies with what's happening in the d.c. opportunity scholarship program. the president's 2013 budget proposal absolutely gutted this program. this is something that he tried to do back in 2009, house republicans went in and saved the program. this provides students from low-income areas and minority students with vouchers to go to private schools so they don't have to be segregated to schools that are performing po

i think i had, yes, about of that $61 billion, $36 billion basically went to pell grants helping raise pellgrant awards. $750 million went to bolster college access for students through the college access challenge grant program. $2.55 billion went to historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. $2 billion went to community colleges. so about $10 billion was used for deficit reduction. $9.2 billion, as i said, went to certain health care activities. guess what one of those was that it paid for. requiring dependent coverage. saying that a young person, a person could stay on his or her parents' health care policy until age 26. now, does that help students or not? of course it helps students. how many young people go off to college, they are in college, maybe they drop out a little bit to work, make money, they come back into college. maybe they even graduate, but they don't have a full-time job, they can stay on their parents' policy until they are age 26. i can't tell you how many people i have heard from in my own state of iowa who said what a godsend thi

program was created sponsored by a republican, robert stafford of vermont the pell grant program was established by claiborne pell, democrat of rhode island, all to providing the building blocks so that young people have that opportunity and the ability to pursue their dreams and to pursue their skill sets. the true key of success in this nation. we are a nation as blessed with great natural resources. we have the greatest military in the world. we have great financial institutions. but the real success of this country is our broad based middle class where education provides the foundation for families and students to succeed. that clock is ticking. i started this morning at 110 days. we are now down to 45 days. it is time for the senate republicans to drop the filibuster, allow consideration of a bill to help middle class families as they deal with next year's tuition costs and pass 3826 in the house of representatives. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. seeing no other members present seeking recognition for morning hour, pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declare

pell grants, in particular, and that's a good thing. but you can be making well above the pell grant allowance level, well above the income that you need for a pellis extremely expensive. the average private college cost a year is over $30,000, and the average public cost has gone way up with all the cutbacks at the federal, state and local levels, is about $17,000. and if you just figure that out, if you're an average family anywhere in america making $65,000 or $70,000, $17,000 a year, after you pay your taxes, pay your mortgage, pay for the necessities of life, is a heck of a lot of money. and so wisely, the federal government has provided some loans and a few years ago, under the leadership of senator kennedy, we decided to have the federal government pay for those loans because when the banks did it, it ended up being far more expensive than it had to be. and those loans originally were at 6.8% around when the banks did it and they went down and down and down. and they settled to a nice level of 3.4%. 3.4% is still interest, particularly these days it's not such a low rate of interest given that the cost of money is quite low, but it's a lot

pell grant and the president doubled the amount of money in pell grants. it might be hopeful for them to apply to one that they did not qualify. to thank don't forget the president for all the pellrants and how the money is given to the black colleges. i tell my grandchildren do not take the loan from this government. i will sell the kit made before i will let you be an indentured servant to this president. host: thanks for the call. let's go to doracon, north carolina, republican line. caller: yes, i feel sorry for the graduate of 2008. she kind of sounded a little vacant. i don't know how she does in interviews but i can understand why she has been out of work for four years. the graduates of 2012 need to look at the graduates of 2008 and learn from them. the future that to have is the future that you make. if you want to live in the future were you don't have a job, where you pay more for gas than you should come where you have regulations and you cannot open a business or start a business you want because the government will come after you, if you want to have drones in the sky looking at you and what you do when you are at home, then vote for the democrats because that is e

pell grants away from a million students. and for those who aren't kicked out of the system entirely, it will freeze the maximum pell grant award despite tuition raising far above the rate of inflation. and to add insult to injury, the ryan budget would allow the interest rate on subsidized stafford loans to double. a debate that is all too familiar to this body. now, my republican colleagues claim to support lower rates, then filibustered then. now they're proposing a budget that would allow the interest rates to double. so for more than 0*e6% of -- sor more than 60% of students who receive pell grants but also take out loans, they'll be forced to pay double the interest rates on their loans which will only increase with a reduction in pell grants. today receiving some form of higher education is almost a prerequisite for a 21st century career. in fact, young adults with only a high school diploma are almost three times as likely to be unemployed and earn just over half as much as those with a bachelor's degree. but even as the demand for college graduates in the workforce increases, so have the costs of tuition, making higher education all the more critical as well as for the nation to be the global leader competitive. yet more out of reach for millions of student student if w these plans. how is that fair and balanced? it's not and it just shows the misguided priorities that are behind these proposals. middle-class families can't afford it, seniors can't afford it students can't afford it, and that's why we can't afford to let it happen. madam president, i yield back the ba

it is not ok for our kids to get a pell grant to go to school but it was ok for the veterans to get a pellrant. it is ok for some researcher in science to do research at a university and get a university grant to do that, but it is not ok for some committee-based organization to get some research to rehab low income housing. that's all i'm saying. host: we have been talking with representative gwen moore, a member of the budget committee. chaplain conroy: let us pray. loving and gracious god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. help us on this day to draw closer to you so that with your spirit and your presence among us we may all face the tasks of this day. bless the members of the people's house. help them to think clearly, speak confidently and act courageously in the belief that all noble service is based upon patience, truth and love. during this week, we ask your blessing on america's teachers who give their lives and talent to empower young americans with the tools they need to create, mold productive lives. bless the millions of foster parents who have generously provided

pell grants -- >> that's absolutely right, stephanie. and it's not just the early education, which we know is so important to our student's success, but when you take a look at higher education, the slashing to the pell grants, of course, which we know impact those students who need that help the most. now his idea -- listen to this -- his idea is for those students to go and ask their parents to give them a loan so they can go to school. >> yeah. >> if their parents had the money to send their children to school, then there wouldn't be an issue. so it's such a good example of how out of touch he is with the realities that our middle class americans are facing. >> the headline i'm reading today is romney's higher education plan a give away to the banks and predator agencies that fund his campaign. that says it all doesn't it? >> absolutely. it says it all and all we have to do is look at his record. we know that he -- he slashed education funding by millions and millions of dollars and resulted in layoffs -- not just of teachers, by of police officers, and librarians. of course he cut staff -- and this gives us ancation of why he is tacking class size because it resulted in the increase in class size in massachusetts. so we just have to look at his record to know what we're going to get. >> absolutely. becky do you still make kids dissect frogs? >> of course stephanie. but we now have such incredible technology -- >> wow. >> we can actually do it virtually, but there's nothing like the hands on experience. >> i have never gotten over the trauma of mrs. shore forcing me to dissect a pregnant frog until i had to force my lab partner paul defosso to do it. [ laughter ] >> the members of the national education association are throwing their support behind president obama, because he understands that education is absolutely essential to this nation's economic recover, to its security and success, and he has proven it, but not only supporting pelled in our public schools saving thousands of jobs for teachers and other educators, and trying to make sure that our schools deliver absolutely the highest quality education that we possibly can, and that our children deserve. >> becky has rod paige would say that's exactly what a terrorist organization like yours would say. [ laughter ] >> and the president lets kids touch his hair. which is -- it's all about learning and love. [ laughter ] >> becky pringle thank you so much. thank you, stephanie. please continue to get the message out. >> you too. and we'll talk to you again. [ applause ] >> george bush would dissect frogs on his own time just to watch them die. >> seriously did you read about this kid. he made advancement in pancreatic cancer -- >> i just grew shrimp with that light bulb and then the light bulb went out the night before the science projectic, so i just stirred them up when the judge came over. >> you basically did sea monkeys. >> exactly. they like were doing this w