they're create boogiemen out there that just aren't real. >> joining us now is democratic senator sherrod brown of ohio. senator brown, thanks very much for being with us tonight. >> sure. thank you, rachel. >> today new hampshire, a discussion about health care policy. at some town halls across the country today, a shoutfest of intimidation and threats and fighting about whether or not we're now a communist party and calling people nazis. what is the distance between these two things going on simultaneously in the country right now? >> well, i think when you can get people to sit down and discuss rationally, you end up learning from each other. i was today at a chamber of commerce meeting in dover, ohio and at a hospital and another hospital in cambridge, ohio. we had good discussions. we had people that in some cases were angry. some people bordered a little bit on rude. but, you know, i don't dispute -- don't even believe -- i do believe that people who disagree with the president, disagree with me and others on this, even people who are angry about it, i think it's a legitimate anger but so

joining us now is democratic senator sherrod brown of ohio. it's nice to see you.hanks for coming back on the show. am i right cash for clunkers is working as intended? >> yeah, not quite. it's actually working better than intended. this town is full of ideology and sort of this knee jerk reaction generally from the far right that if this is a government program by definition it can't work. and this as you pointed out so well in each of those three or four points, it's clearly worked every bit as well or better than expected. it works for jobs. it works for creating demand. it works for the environment. it works to put people back to work. it's the best, it's in some sense the best stimulus that we've seen. the money goes out in people's pockets. it's spent. it's back into the community exactly what we want to create demand in the auto industry. >> well, republicans in congress on the issue of stimulus have been critical of the economic stimulus issues thus far in part by saying things weren't happening fast enough. now we just heard that argument from senator demi

democratic senator sherrod brown is with us. wouldn't this be declaring war in the senate?> i don't know exactly what it means, declaring war in the senate. i do know that senator baucus has tried for months to get bipartisan agreement on things like important parts of legislation like an option. and republicans for philosophicals are not able to make any kind of significant concessions so they can move forward. we want to do this bipartisanly, but more important than a bipartisan bill is a good bill. and to allow the drug companies and the insurance industries to write this bill the way they did the medicare law under the bush years is certainly not tenable for the great majority of democrats and for the country, frankly. >> well, senator mccain this weekend on cnn state of the union said that they've been shut out, particularly on the health committee, which i believe on which you serve. let's watch what he had to say. >> well, first of all, unfortunately, there was no input by republicans in the writing of the bill, in the health committee, it was all a democrat proposal

the great words you just got from my friend sherrod brown are important. let me just explain that on this public option, i view it as absolutely essential. we need to give individuals that choice. and we need to force some competition among these insurers that aren't competing for health care providers now. the congressional budget office has said that under our plan, even if it's not weakened by all this blue dog nonsense, that under our plan in ten years, 96% of the population under 65 will be in private insurance plans, and 4% will be in the public plan. how much more do we have to compromise? they got 96%. i think what we have is a fair and reasonable approach. and we need to pass it in september in the house and insist the senate do the same thing. >> congressman doggett, do you really see it as nonsense from the blue dogs? i mean, you're a democrat from texas. you know what it's like to -- to try to work democratic party politics in a state that is fundamentally unfriendly to the democratic party at this point, so i would expect you to have a sensiti

columnist in the politically important state of ohio, you're also married to the democratic senator sherrod brown right. >> can you give us your benefit of how this is playing out in your front yard? >> well, in ohio i get on average -- and this is not exaggerated, i have been counting. i get at least 50 e-mails a day that are those chain e-mails that have -- it looks very official. and it has section by section on all of the health care proposals and they're all flat-out lies. politifact.com has done a wonderful job of showing just how badly written these are. they're not true is basically what they're showing. and my husband, the senator, got one earlier last week from an attorney who said, here's why i'm afraid of this health care reform. my husband started to read a couple lines from it and i said wait a minute. wait a minute. i can tell you exactly what that is and i got on politifact.com and i showed him the e-mail. >> and you mentioned town hall meetings earlier and there was one held by republican senator kruk grassley in iowa yesterday and a man in attendance reportedly compared presiden

senator sherrod brown of ohio will join us. we begin tonight with recess. recess. it's recess time.u.s. house of representatives is officially on recess. they're on recess for the rest of august. while that sounds like an awesome summer vacation, what it means for house members is does tradition dictates they go home to their districts and they meet with their constituents about the hot issues on the political stove right now. hottest among them of course is health care reform. now, whatever the political issues are this recess happens every year. and the meetings with constituents thing happens every year. what's different about this year? well, i'll let you judge for yourself. to my mind, this is not your typical meeting with constituents. >> it's a question of time. that's the issue. >> democratic congressmam

we need this, and i thank god for barack obama, sherrod brown, in the people who are fighting for our rights to get health care. host: you alluded to something that there was a time back into the night-back in 2008 -- back in 2008, so what was your reaction -- what was your interaction with him and what were your circumstances? caller: we met with barack obama because we could not get national care. we pleaded with him to look into what was happening with the potential layoff of 10,000 people, and he was the first one that went to bat for ohio and let the world know about it. i thank god for john mccain, i mean, he is one of the greatest senators, one of the greatest humans i have ever had the opportunity of meeting i just felt that barack obama has a plan, and i just felt like four americans it was better than john mccain. i am still the republican, i still love john mccain. as a black man, i still love john mccain because of what he has done for america and for my freedom, but i just think that barack obama has what americans need. he was the most sensitive to us in ohio. host: bruc

had already done that, would the absured trade act put forward by congressman mike michaud and sherrod brown have attracted more than 100 supporters in the house? of course not. the internationalists who run the administration, folks like larry summers, ron kirk, hillary clton, timothy geithner, gary locke, they understand this. the silence in the white house has left a vacuum and congress like nature abhors a vacuum. a week ago the chamber joined with five other leading business groups in calling for the president to make the case for a leading -- a forward-leaning trade agenda including in his promised speech. we wrote, quote, the united states cannot standstill in the international economics sphere. we need to revitalize our export and international trade leadership. by moving forward on multilateral, regional and bilateral marketing opening opportunities. second, clear the decks. pass the ftas. if you want to build a growth-oriented international economic policy focusing on asia as the administration has said that it wants to do, korea and the fta with korea is the place to start. if you

it did ministers now redundant with the absurd trade act, but for by congressman and senator sherrod brown0 supported in the house. of course not. the internationalists among the administration, folks like larry summers, ron kirk, hillary clinton, timothy geithner, gary locke, they understand this. assignments in the white house has left a vacuum in congress like nature abhors a back and. a week ago the chamber joined with five other leading business groups in calling for the president to make the case for a leading forward leaning trade agreement included in his promise speech. quote the united states cannot stand still in the international economic sphere. we need to revitalize our export and international trade leadership by moving forward on multilateral, regional, and bilateral marketing opening up opportunities. second, clear the decks and passed the ftas if you want to build a growth oriented international economic policy, focusing on asia, as the administers and has said that it wants to do, correia and fta with korea is the place to start. if you want to have any kind of engagemen