>> first of all let me thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me.worked on social security. he's more than all of the things you see. there is a deep next to him that's called patriotism. that is what he springs from and he's just very special and does so much. but doable, i don't know. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i've got a deal for you. [laughter] i said sure, joe, i've heard that for 30 years from you. so he said your co-chairs will be richmond bowles. fisa i have the deep respect and admiration for him, and i called gershwin and said we have to talk to the president and see where he is and we did. all i can tell you is both of us agreed that we may be only able to move the football a yard, and i have no idea but i can tell you that i have no illusions we are going to get savage from the right and the left. we will be beat up. every time we go somewhere someone says are you going to handle that tax or what are you going to do for the children, the veterans? i said everything is on the table including the new president's and co

he's the chairman and ceo of the pete peterson foundation. he's the nation's top auditor. he has a new book out called "comeback america" which talks about the problem and offers solutions. he joins me now to talk all about it. good to have you on the program, david. thanks for being here. so you are clearly concerned about the nation's debt, the deficit, and that is the focus of the book. why does this matter so much? >> it matters because it's going to affect the u.s. position in the world. it's going to affect your standard of living at home. if you can't have a strong economy, if you can't put your financial house in order, then ultimately it will affect your national security, our international standard and our standard of living. >> and do you think that this is an achievable problem? i mean, here we are, we've got mandatory spending taking up a huge chunk of the budget between social security, medicare, medicaid. that's 60% of the budget. that's spoken for. how do you think you get america's politicians to pay attention to the issue and make hard decisions which are

around the country that the seats will be filled and that americans will come as you hope, as pete peterson hopes, as concord coalition hopes the public does, in fact, understand, and the aei, for that matter. we're all of one mind on this issue. i understand there is no fiscal slight of hand or silver bullet to eliminate waste and inefficiency in our health care system. i know that no expert can tell us definitively the best steps to cut costs, but i do know that american health care is the most expensive per capita in the world and that we don't have better health to show for it. in so doing, nothing on costs in the health care system was not an option. the bill we passed was the end of a long struggle to cover all americans but is only the beginning of the struggle to control health care costs, the single greatest driver of our deficit. i believe this administration and this congress must be committed to the work both now and in the future to returning of our nation to fiscal balance. that is both an intellectual imperative and, in my opinion, a moral imperative. president obama has prop

>> let me just thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me.e worked on social security. he is more than all the things you see. there is a deaconess to him called patriotism. that is where he springs from -- there is a deepness to him. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i have a real deal for you. i said sure, joe, i have heard that for 30 years from you. he said my co-chair would be erskine bowles. i have the deepest respect and admiration for him. i called erskine and said we have to talk to the president and see where he is. and we did, and all i can tell you is both of us agree that we may be only able to move the football a yard, and i have no idea, but i can tell you that i have no illusions. we will get savaged from the right and left. every time we go somewhere, someone says, are you going to have of vat tax? what are you going to do with the veterans? everything is on the table, including the new health bill. that is on the table, too. there is not anything off the table. that may be the only thing that will save us, and

pete peterson, who is behind this documentary and what's behind this is awareness.t to go straight to the people and tell them this is the problem, we've got to get our policy makers to start thinking about it. >> at the present time, it's safer for the politicians to do nothing. we have to change this so that it's safer for them to do something about the problem. only when the public understands the problem and puts pressure on our political system are we likely to get reforms. let's hope to god that it doesn't take a huge crisis because as senator bradley was pointed out, if the foreign powers lose interest in the united states, it has enormous impact on foreclosures, on inflation, on standard of living and so forth. so we have to educate the public about the seriousness of the problem. one of the problems we all have is these numbers i've been hearing are so unbelievably large, you know $62 trillion, $10 trillion, people have trouble identifying with them. part of our education job is to say what does this mean to you? for example, when dave walker and i talked t

>> let me just thank pete peterson. that wonderful man has been working with me.e worked on social security. he is more than all the things you see. there is a deaconess to him called patriotism. that is where he springs from -- there is a deepness to him. when we got the call, joe biden called and said i have a real deal for you. i said sure, joe, i have heard that for 30 years from you. he said my co-chair would be erskine bowles. i have the deepest respect and admiration for him. i called erskine and said we have to talk to the president and see where he is. and we did, and all i can tell you is both of us agree that we may be only able to move the football a yard, and i have no idea, but i can tell you that i have no illusions. we will get savaged from the right and left. every time we go somewhere, someone says, are you going to have of vat tax? what are you going to do with the veterans? everything is on the table, including the new health bill. that is on the table, too. there is not anything off the table. that may be the only thing that will save us, and