he worked under pete domenici and staff director for the budget center when pete domenici was chair ofhat committee. justin from california, good morning. caller: good morning. i heard that we get enough money into the federal government from taxes every month to pay interest on the debt. we don't have enough money to pay the debt and the other expenses. is it a matter of choosing which one will pay first? that is what i heard on a talk- show. guest: that is an important question. can the present order to the secretary of treasury to pay some bills and not pay others? it is likely that the treasury secretary would pay the interest on our debt. we would not default on our sovereign debt. a lot of other bills will not be paid. they are just bills you think about. it is thousands and thousands -- two million transactions a day, most of which come from private contractors, people to keep the grounds at the white house in good shape. those are the kind of bills that will not be paid on time and in full. the economics impact of the private sector will be very large and at some point extremel

he worked under pete domenici and staff director for the budget center when pete domenici was chair of that committee. justin from california, good morning. caller: good morning. i heard that we get enough money into the federal government from taxes every month to pay interest on the debt. we don't have enough money to pay the debt and the other expenses. is it a matter of choosing which one will pay first? that is what i heard on a talk- show. guest: that is an important question. can the present order to the secretary of treasury to pay some bills and not pay others? it is likely that the treasury secretary would pay the interest on our debt. we would not default on our sovereign debt. a lot of other bills will not be paid. they are just bills you think about. it is thousands and thousands -- two million transactions a day, most of which come from private contractors, people to keep the grounds at the white house in good shape. those are the kind of bills that will not be paid on time and in full. the economics impact of the private sector will be very large and at some point extrem

director under president clinton, recently worked with senator pete domenici on a medicare reform bill that included a defined premium support plan. in addition, democratic senator ron wyden worked with the house budget committee chairman paul ryan to develop a similar proposal in the 112th congress. so while there may be some resistance to this particular idea, it has enjoyed bipartisan support. and finally, number five, we need to strengthen medicaid for patients and states through realistic reforms. setting per-capita limits on federal medicaid spending would put the medicaid program on a sustainable budget, and when combined with increased flexibility for patient-centered reforms at the state level, would reduce costs and improve patient care across the board. and as with other ideas i have mentioned, this is a bipartisan proposal. in 1995, president clinton introduced a medicaid reform plan that included a per-capita cap on federal medicaid spending. at that time, all 46 democratic senators, including several that are still serving today, signed a letter to president clinton expre

made that change is -- is exemplified in the -- in the -- i'm a senator by the name of senator pete domenici, who everybody knows very well, serves 36 years in the united states senate, was my predecessor. he served on bipartisan study groups to look at the rules, and we have had many study groups like that. they have always concluded that the motion to proceed should be shortened significantly and we should get on to the bill. senator cardin has worked very hard to do the same thing, to -- with a bipartisan group, work and say, how can you make it work better, how do you make this institution work better. the reality is, you get on to the bill, you allow amendments, you allow debate, you allow discussion. and -- and that's the way to move. so this -- this has on a number of occasions been bipartisan and i hope that we can join togeth together. but my question goes a little bit different part to the rules. as the senator from maryland knows -- and we both served in the house together -- we have today a democratic senate, democratic majority, and we have a republican house. and the way to res

rivlin, who is the director of office of management and budget under bill clinton and senator pete domenici, longtime chair of the senate budget committee, people who understand these matters better than just about anybody. so there are solid bipartisan proposals on the table, yet here we are, trillions of dollars later, since the obama administration began, with no solution in sit sight. president obama had the american people with their backs against the wall with the expiring tax provisions on december 31 which led to the so-called fiscal cliff. and if we hadn't acted, taxes would have gone up more than $3 trillion on all americans, would have been enormously negative impact on the economy and jobs. and so we had to come up with some sort of stop-gap solution. but the president got his pound of flesh, he got his revenue, $600 billion over ten years. now is the time to return to what the president himself has called a balanced approach to deficit reduction. unfortunately, the president has never even proposed a balanced approach, much less a balanced budget. i can only hope that with his

my friends, the late senator paul wellstone and get along with my friend pete domenici, thought for years to try to enact the mental act, as two different things under health insurance, we finally passed that in 2008. however, i am sad to say it's been four years, four years that we do not have any final rules on implementing this law. that is a shame. i am told the president said they will be announcing a final rule soon. i don't know what this means but i hope it means what we generally take it to me, which means soon. [laughter] another critical step will take place next year when things to the affordable care act some 30 million americans will become eligible for medicaid or private insurance to health care exchanges. coverage of mental health and substance abuse disorder of service is one of the 10 essential benefits required and qualified health plans. the insurance expansion here offers both challenges and opportunities, experts predicted newly injured by police while the greater need for mental health. as a think about how to meet this need there's an opportunity to realign our he