simultaneously, the banking committee, its members, the staff, and others are working on drafting andtting the other a proposal along with barney on the financial market -- financial modernization issues. the president will not consider it until the fall sometime. if we can do both at the same time -- half of all my members on the democratic side are members of the finance committee and the labor committee. in addition to myself, i expect members to be able to function. the point i want to make is, i have instructed my staff, i have talked to senator shelby, we're working on pulling together the product. >> i apologize. gerald ford was a bright guy. i could not resist. the house and the senate are obviously differently constructed. the house as your responsibilities in terms of across the board. we have collaborated on a mortgage foreclosure and funds in a way that, given the nature of it, a number of these things can be done by general agreement. we get to a point where there are some specifics that have to be dealt with. if you look at the pattern, and has worked very well. the hous

this is the fundamental challenge facing the banking committee of which i'm a new member. however, before i joined this banking committee, before i joined this august body, i did spend 20 years in the private sector around the financial system, taking companies public, looking and learning about the market. so i came to this body, i believe, with some background. but only since that time have i learned how complex the problems and the challenges of trying to get financial re-regulation or financial reform right. so since joining the banking committee, i've been working to educate myself, meeting with a range of experts to learn more about the issues and collect their thoughts on potential solutions to financial re-regulation. so today i'd like to speak about one issue that i've discussed at length with these experts: systemic risk regulation. and i hope in the coming days to come back to this floor and discuss other parts around securities and banking regulation. systemic risk is a term that, quite candidly, probably most of us even around the financial markets hadn't heard

here you have the banking committee, the speaker's office, the conference room. pretty clearly it either happened in the speaker's office or in the conference room. we get get that from published reports that shuttle diplomacy. i wish i could tell you there was a republican be suspect in this. there weren't any republicans permitted in the conference room. we believe and i think for the purpose of this exercise we are going to say it happened in the conference room. the missing piece and where i really thought we were getting close was who did it? let's finish clue. it was colonel mustard with the pen in the conference room. and around this board we have the people that we believe, we know, were in the room and were capable of making this insertion. just, madam speaker, i know you know who they are, but just sort of running around the board here, down here charlie rangel, the distinguished chairman of the ways and means committee, here a former colleague of ours, rahm emanuel, president obama's chief of of staff, up here mr. or zag -- orr zag, the -- orzag, the o

the sub committee to get to the truth about the issue. i think it's an important first step in learning the full extent of the government's manipulation of the the banking industry. this committee's investigation into the bank of america merrill lynch transaction is raising troubled questions about the abuse of power as both the chair and ranking member have indicated. we've learned that at a minimum then secretary hank paulson threatened to remove mr. lewis and bank of america's board of directors if he exercised his legal option to back out of the deal. we've learned the department of treasury and the federal reserve were involved in discussions about how to be disclosed. we know in october of 2008 mr. paulson brought the ceos of the largest private banks in america to the treasury department and demanded they accept nationalization of their bank in exchange for amount of money of the government's choosing. i understand the significant challenges that our economic system faced last fall. i understand their intention to do what they thought was in the best interest of the economic system as a whole. we must understand the full story in what happened in

the banking industry. wells fargo has well over $1 million invested in a political action committee. ohio on our democrats' line. caller: thank you. everyone has their mind on the banks. i give the president a b overall, but a d as far as the economy and oil prices. we started with the low prices -- with those oil prices. i would like to ask your guest about how he feels without oil prices going up again. host: sen diego, calif. on our republican line. caller: right, thank you. ok, i do not know if you can hear me, or not? host: yes, go ahead, please. caller: i think that the guy is a failure and john voight got up yesterday and started talking about what is going wrong with the administration and raised $18 million just by talking about. everyone is afraid to say anything. the they are for the news media will not reported because of their voting the same way as this guy. all they do is pander, pander, pander. whoever is voting their way that is what it will pander to get going. thank you, c-span. host: in other news this morning, a californian republican has picked to be the ranking

simultaneously, the banking committee and its members and staff are working on drafting and putting together a proposal on the financial modernization issue. the senate is not going to consider that until the fall sometime. if we can do both at the same time, we will try. almost half of all my members of the democrat side are members of the finance committee and labor committee. in addition to myself, -- the important point i want to make is that i have instructed my staff about working together to pull that product together so we will be ready to go this fall. >> we have procedures. we have collaborated on much of legislation on credit cards, mortgage foreclosure. and number of these things can be done by general agreement. we get to a place where there is significant -- if you look at the pattern, it has worked very well. we focus on the institution. we get to a place where it takes contentious forms in society and the number of issues that to be decided must be narrowed some and in a joint process where the senate and house works on them. look at the when we have done some of the mortgage

chris dodd of connecticut chairs the senate banking committee. >> i do not see 12 of us here yet, and i do not want to delay the hearing. it is on the executive session nominees. there is going to be a vote sometime tomorrow morning on the tobacco bill, and my recommendation would be, during that zero or right after the vote, we need to consider these executive session nominations. i think, based on conversations, they should be relatively noncontroversial. i invite my colleagues to look at them and tell me if it requires further discussion. we will save it for another moment. yes, bob? >> i am curious about the status of the fha nomination. the nominee that is not on there. i'm curious as to where we are on that. >> let me turn to senator shelby. >> there is a hud investigation going on, as i understand it, from staff dealing with respa and in some of the companies, we do not know if he is involved. we're waiting to see what comes out of the investigation. my interest is making sure that all nominees feel like he will be ok. we want to make sure. we're waiting for a little more infor

chairs -- he also chairs the banking committee but the legislation is broken. it's too costly. and it's incomplete. of course, we're promised we will get the other pie pieces oe bill. arguments show that in the race to revamp our health care system this bill was a false start. in order to get this right, we should slow down and in some areas, we need to start over. this shouldn't be a matter of speed. to stay with the analogy of health care, no one guess to a doctor or a surgeon based on how fast they can operate or conduct an examination. it never matters how long it takes. all that matters is that they get it right. we should do the same. i'm not suggesting that we come up with a new process to develop this legislation. all i'm saying is we need to make better use of the one we already have in place, the way we have always done things in the senate when we want to mak sure that we get it done right. for instance, it wasn't all that long ago that we had to do something about our nation's pensions system. we worked together. we talked about what we had to do, together. and then

it is important for everyone to understand the financial nature of derivatives and does, the banking committee's interest in overseeing them. let me say at the beginning that i to not know what regulations and restrictions we should put on these product figuring that out is the purpose of this hearing. but, it should be clear to everyone that the current regulations are not enough. i understand the desire of the firm's to hedge their risks. whether those risks are interest or exchange rates, commodity prices, credit exposure, or something else, jenny when hedges are accurately priced, that are accurately priced in provide the risk management firms need, but it is not clear that all derivative products arjun yiwen hedges are accurately priced. in fact, some look a lot more like a way to get around regulations, improper risk management, or just plain gambling. regulators and the public needs a better understanding of all the exposures of firms to eliminate uncertainty and the justification for further bailouts. increase transparency and standardization of derivative contracts will help, and must b

i chaired a hearing last month with the economic policy subcommittee, the banking committee on manufacturers and access to credit. one of the witnesses, he and his members get regularly is if you supply for autos you're on a bank in europe black list. the administration stated that the updated sba loan programs is a source of credit for the. that's not what we found typically. because loan eligibility is determined by banks and banks are not making those decisions affirmatively for the. so i want to know what the administration plans are for sba specifically, for loans for them. are there other things we can do beyond promoting diversifying and nuclear clean energy, areas through the extension partnership. what's the plan to provide financing, national emergency grants for autoworkers like dealers and suppliers? by the new authorities from congress like the defense production act? i just want to pick your brain for a moment on how do we get this? how do we get suppliers financed when credit is still pretty frozen if you're in oddo supplier. >> my impression, senator, obviously the issue you

his senate confirmation hearing before the banking committee runs an hour and 20 minutes. >> the committee will come to order. let me welcome all of you here this morning. let me say to my friend and colleague senator shelby, the former chairman of the committee, will be with us shortly this morning. let me welcome our nominee this morning, mr. herbal i son, who is our nominee to be the assistant secretary-designate for financial stability at the department of the treasury. we welcome you as well, mr. allison. let me begin by thanking you for your willingness to serve during these times. i'm going to take a couple of minutes and some opening comments. i will ask my colleagues whether or not they would like to share any opening thoughts on this matter. then we'll turn to you for opening statements. as soon as senator shelby comes in, i will give him a chance to make any opening comments. then we'll get to some questions for you if we can. let me begin by welcoming everyone here. it's no overstatement to suggest that this position for which you have been nominated, that of assistant secretar

. >> that's because we have had two chairmen of the federal reserve who said at the banking committee that they shouldn't be regulated. i can go back and get the testimony. >> i'm sure that's right. that's certainly not the position of the securities exchange commission. we believe these products absolutely should be regulated and need to be regulated affectively because the impact they can have on the economy but also on a particular markets like the equity markets. >> there seems to be agreement that all derivatives need to be reported to someone. who should the trades be reported to and what information is necessary to be reported? and is there any information that should not be available to the public? anybody. >> senator, i think we need to bring a great deal more transparency in the markets, and i think this will actually lower the pricing for the tens of thousands of users. we found over many decades is when you have greater transparency markets are more efficient. so, all of the product the dealers trade should be reported into a central triet repository where the regulators d

that is the way i have tried to work in the past as a member of this committee and chairman of the banking committee in the past, working on issue of financial services. it has been my relationship with mike enzi. so, i invite that kind of process in this mark-up and i thank all of you for your attacks on these issues and turn to senator enzi. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the flexibility that you built into the program as we worked on it since you took over the reins less than two weeks ago. and i agree with about 80% of what you said, which is usually about where we agree on legislation, too. that 80% would make a huge difference for america. and that 80% would make a huge difference for america. there are some disagreements. i think those could be worked out. i don't think they can be worked out in this short a time frame as we're picturing all of this to happen. my republican colleagues and i have stood ready for months hoping to get a chance to help write a bill that would fundamentally reform the insurance market, that would offer new protections, to guarantee that consume

the subcommittee. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. members of the committee. bank of america became the largest commercial bank in the nation, the 11th largest corporation in the united states, and the 23rd largest company in the world through the aggressive acquisition of other financial institutions including the purchase of merrill lynch last year. but something went terribly wrong with the merrill lynch acquisition. nearly enough to bring bank of america down. taxpayers now own $45 billion in preferred shares and warrants in bank of america. that money was committed by treasury department and the federal reserve and mr. lewis is here today as the c.e.o. of bank of america thanks to the commitment of those funds through a seer as of events that unfolded through the end of december 2008 and into early january 2009. due to the secretive and unaccountable conduct of the fed throughout its interventions addressing the current financial crisis, many questions about the bank of america-merrill lynch deal and bailout have until today remained unanswered. some of the ke

it is a pleasure, we served together on the banking committee and now you are here as a real asset tohe institution the max mr. chairman, thank you very much and they're grateful for your leadership here and as we have her from so many of our colleagues about senator kennedy i think it is evident the impression that we hold for him but also he is. so many ways, he doesn't have to be physically in this room to help the center and guide us. i think his inspiration is here years of work we would not be here without his leadership, his passion and his work ethic is evident in this hearing room and in the work that all of us have done. and now he called this morning and i'm sure he may call tonight and i want to make sure we're doing a good job for him but i do want to thank you for your leadership in the midst of some of the other challenges that the nation has and you have been working on directly. i also want to thank the members of the democratic side who have been, have the working groups, two years with senator mikulski and harkin and senator bingaman and mary, so many who have worke

credit card reform bill which i want to commend my colleague senator dodd and all those on the banking committee who worked so hard on it. it's been 25 years or more since we've done anything in that field. there was a third rail in this discussion which we couldn't bring up and couldn't discuss for fear it would explode the whole process, interchange fees. interchange fees are the fees that are charged by credit card companies and imposed on retailers and there's very little room when it comes to the retailers to negotiate these fees. approximately 2% of our purchases using credit cards are paid back to the credit card company in interchange fees and the retail establishments across america are very concerned about this becausehey have little or no voice in that. i'd like to ask two questions about interchange fees. first is a more general question about what the treasury is doing, if anything, to look into the interchange fee system, but then in particular, since it turns out that the federal government is now accepting credit cards, it turns out there are over 200 federal entities that accept

i am going to look forward to working with chairman dodd on the banking committee to see that this agency becomes a reality. it won't be an easy task. but it's a perfect follow-up to our credit card reform act. we need to be more sensitive to consumers in america struggling in this economy to make sure that they have protection. one illustration tells it all. there was a prepayment penalty that was folded into a lot of these subprime mortgages. if you've been to a real estate closing on your home, you know that they stack up the papers on a table in front of you and they turn the corners and they say, keep signing and eventually you'll get out of here. and you may slow them down and say, what am i signing and they'll say, it's standard. it's boiler placement it's a --- it--it's boilerplate. you get the check, hand it back to the bank and you go home with the keys in hand. that's happened to me a few times with my wife and i'll a lawyer, did i reel read every page? no. well, it turned thiewt the mortgages that were -- well, it turned out that the mortgages that were sold for a long time in

later, the senate banking committee holds a hearing on the u.s. auto industry. they will hear from representatives of the white house and the treasury department. you can watch a live at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3 and c- span.org. >> every weekend at the latest books and authors on c-span's "book tv." the washington d.c. the delegates will be interviewing this offer. and dole resenberg -- joel rosenberg will be discussing his book. foreclosure nation, a florida real-estate attorney is speaking on the housing crunch and where it is headed. every weekend is filled with books and authors on this show. look for our schedule online at booktv.org. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations. >> i do not really know. >> donations. >> i do not know where the money comes from. >> federally? >> contributions from donors? >> 30 years ago america's cable companies predecease been as a public service, a private business initiative, no government mandate or money. >> it now a senate appropriations subcommittee hears from treasury secretary jim kessletimothy that thergeit.

later, the senate banking committee holds a hearing of the u.s. auto industry. we will hear from representatives of the white house and the treasury department. you can watch it live at 2:30 p.m. eastern. .

chairman dodd, ranking member shelby, members of the senate banking committee, thank you for the opportunityto testify before you today. first let me apologize for the snafu with getting the material to you late and appreciate your indulgence on it and to commit to you it will not happen again. over the past several months, the obama administration has been working to manage an historic crisis in the auto industry. president obama inherited an auto industry that lost 50% of its sales and over 400,000 jobs in the year before he took office. two companies, general motor and chrysler had received substantial loans from the prior administration and were requesting substantial additi additional assistance that only the government could provide. without this assistance, both of these companies faced uncontrolled bankruptcies and almost certain liquidation which would have cost significant job loss with a ripple effect throughout our entire economy. even so, president obama was unwilling to put additional taxpayer dollars on the line unless these companies and their stakeholders were willing to fun

in the afternoon, the senate banking committee holds a hearing on the u.s. auto industry. they'll hear from white house and treasury department officials. that's live at 2:30 eastern also on c-span3. both hearings also online at c-span.org. >> every weekend the latest non-fiction books and authors on "book tv." saturday, how do you run for congress with $7,000 and your sixth grade students managing the campaign? tierney cahill gave it a shot. she's interviewed by delegate eleanor holmes norton. sunday, joe rosenberg takes you inside the revolution. how the followers of jihad, jefferson and jesus are battling to dominate the middle east and transform the world. and what's next for the economy? steven moore and former reagan economic policy advisor arthur lafer on "the end of prosperity." and later, a real estate attorney on the housing crunch and where it's headed. every weekend's filled with books and authors on "book tv." look for our entire schedule online at booktv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: senator coburn, senator baucus says that when it comes to th

in response to a question before the senate banking committee on june 10th, ron bloom of the auto taskrce said and i quote, we did not give the companies in the miracle targets but we certainly did say regarding plants and dealers regarding white and blue caller head count, regarding all these matters that you need to be more aggressive, closed quote. everyone agrees that these companies need to decrease costs and increase revenue by dealer cuts did not achieve these goals. it the other key elements of the restructurings provide direct and time and cost savings to gm and chrysler. in sharp contrast terminating a dealership does not provide any material cost savings. in the retail an hour, the land, the buildings, the employees, training, the dealers pay for all of this. as detailed in my written testimony we dispute the notion the dealer network imposes a significant per vehicle cost or any significant administrative costs on the manufacturers. indeed, company officials have been widely quoted as saying the manufacturer's cost do not very whether 6,000 dealers or 3,000 dealers. moreove

these are the type of things that cause a lot of banks on the committee. -- a lot of angst on the committee. i expect judge sotomayor to be treated with the same respect and care than a number of our nominations have for the supreme court in the past. nobody here has the desire to misuse the process. these are very important questions. i think a vast majority of the senate were really concerned. when they lie in the face of what we believe -- these are matters of great concern. i suspect that raising this in advance will be helpful. >> thank you. >> also yesterday, republican senator came to the senate floor to talk about the nomination of sotomayor. his remarks about 10 minutes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> i would start by saying that any confirmation the senate considers important but none more so than a lifetime appointment for the most distinguished judicial office in our nation. the president has nominated judge sotomayor. it is the senate's job to give . constitution convention, senators -- and i q

the committee. how about now? now? okay. germantown's ranking member ice and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to discuss the federal reserve's role in the acquisition by the bank of america of merrill lynch. >> you know, is it on? staff, help me. because we can't hear him. pull it closer to him. i believe the federal reserve acted with the highest integrity throughout its discussions. >> still, we are still having trouble. we have some senior citizens up here. [laughter] we are having trouble hearing you. is there any way you can turn the volume up on it? >> we have got a replacement down below that they can pull up. >> there is another one on the floor? a back up on the floor? staff? >> that sounds better. >> how is that? >> better. >> i would like the full extent of my time if i may. i believe that the federal reserve acted with the highest integrity throughout its discussions with the bank of america regarding the company's acquisition of merrill lynch. i will attempt in this testimony to respond to some of the questions that have been raised. on september 15, 2008 the bank of america announced an agreement to acquire merrill lynch. i did not play a role in

one of the most successful actions we've done all year is when banking ceo's wife before the house financial oversight committee to defend their expenditure of millions of dollars on taxpayer money bonuses and corporate junkets. we were able to get -- we said to remember if you want to ask a question of them before congress, send them to us and we will get them to the representatives on the committee. 38,000 people responded, 30,000 people responded and we handed those to the members of congress who were questioning the bank ceo's. two things happened -- the main thing that happened was they read them and they ask the questions of these banking ceos but two things happen from that -- are members felt empowered, they attended -- they penetrate the walls of this in committee meetings and their voices were heard and them. what we saw is congress people sitting with sheets of paper from their constituents with outrage asking questions. they felt that average come out through their body and out to their voice and you can see them and their spines stiffen just by the fact they were sitting there with the voices of an

congress, with all the members in congress they have plenty of powers, subpoena power, to get this information. there's a hearing thursday and house oversight committee on the bankof america. the ceo ken lewis will be called up to testify. congress still has the ability and a lot of oversight. host: to inverness, florida. caller: hello, i was wondering why gm does not look for merger instead of selling out hummer? as an executive branch maybe they could put a limit on the president's spending. as a veteran i can hardly afford to go to the movie theater. host: we will talk a bit more about the auto industry in an upcoming segment, but go ahead, if you would like guest: when the government rescued the auto companies the key was putting together a program to move the company's ford with a new slimmed-down structure. seen some of these brands sold off this week expected when they received government host: aiaid. host: d.c. any parallels between the auto and -- do you see any parallels between the auto industries and of the banks? guest: there has been this belief that we have to get the banks going again, get liquidity back into the system. it will start with lendin

the nation's banks. this is just over two hours. >> the committee will come to order. we meet today to hear the distinguished chairman of the federal reserve, benjamin bernanke, testify on the recession that is plaguing our economy and on the prospects of recovery. chairman bernanke testified before our committee on october 20 of last year, as we searched for ways to mitigate, if not avoid a long recession. the chairman acknowledged then that monetary policy has its limits. without being specific, he welcomed a fiscal compromise. congress had just passed a bipartisan compromise offering $700 billion to dispose of troubled assets, so-called t.a.r.p. backed by these funds, the treasury, the fed, the fdic have made extraordinary measures to banks and other financial institutions, recognizing what chairman bernanke told the joint economic committee last month, quote, a sustained recovery in economic activity depends critically on restoring stability to the financial system. this is one question we hope you'll address today, mr. chairman. just how strong and how table are o

the banks. in the house committee he said, no, he didn't want to buy stock in banks. but a week after that bill passed, he was buying stock in banks and they haven't yet begun to buy mortgage -- toxic mortgages. maybe they'll begin soon. they say they've got a plan now. but i'm just sark the american people are -- but i'm just saying, the american people are right to be concerned about the reckless, irresponsible behavior of this government in washington. i hope they will continue to watch what is going on. i hope the american people will speak out and let the folks up here know that they expect us to do something more than deal with the problem next week. they expect us to be thinking about the long-term health of the american economy. i just heard a well-known financial expert say, well, you know what? he said, i'm not saying that there will be reckless inflation occur, although vom predicting that. this is what he said. he said after president reagan broke inflation and we got the economy on a soundtrack, the economy grew, mr. president, about 3% a year. and inflat

the proposal is to bring together the work of the three committees, insurance of banking through the supervision through one financial sector type regulatory body. in terms of developments from abroad which may affect the u.s. market, and again i come from a european perspective, i can only talk really about how our markets are interconnected. we've seen the near financial meltdown has meant actually when you get a cough or cold in california, we feel the sneeze effect in london in frankfurt in rome. sovereigncy ii was trying to predict what might go wrong already. it was a radical overhaul for the insurance regime in the european union. it is to deepen the integration in the eu insurance market enhance, policy holder protection and improve the competitiveness of eu insurance and reinsurance. international communication amongst regulators can be difficult. to be able to get this movement, we have to do something about this. it's difficult if we don't have a single regulatory person to speak to. in fact, the u.s. is the only country around the world not represented by a single nationa

she will testify this morning before the joint economic committee on the recent bank stress tests. we will have live coverage right after "washington journal" at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. and treasury secretary timothy geithner and the irs commissioner today before a senate appropriations subcommittee talking about their 2010 budget. at 2:30, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. you can also find them online at c-span.org. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations? >> taxpayers? >> i do not really know. >> from public television? >> donations. >> i do not know where the money comes from? >> contributions from donors? >> 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiatives. no government mandate, no government money.

these of the type of things that i think cause a lot of banks of the committee among republicans and again i share the opinion of senator cornyn and the distinguished ranking member of the committee senator sessions. i expect judge sotomayor to be treated but much greater respect and care by our sign and then a number of one of our nominees to the supreme court and major circuit courts of appeal in the way they were treated in. when nobody has a desire to his use of the process in an offensive way. but these are very of questions and at least four of us here today and out how to say and think the vast majority of the senate's were really concerned about loire one impromptu discussions about the second amendment in cases of law that were necessary in deciding the case. and especially when they buy in the face of what we believe loli's so these are matters of great concern to we would and i suspect that by raising this evidence will help judge sotomayor during the hearings with which is a lot more than they did for our nominee is somewhat. >> now we will hear from women senators on pre

. >> elizabeth warren will testify this morning before the joint economic committee on the recent bank stress test. we'll have live coverage right after "washington journal" beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. on c-span3 today a couple of fiscal year 2010 budget hearings. first up, treasury secretary timothy geithner and the i.r.s. commissioner today before the subcommittee talking about their 2010 budget, 10:30 eastern. in the afternoon at it it:30, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius on her department's budget. both of those theargs on c-span3. you can also find them online at c-span.org. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations. >> i don't really know. >> from public television. >> donations. >> i don't know where the money comes from. >> federally? >> from donors. >> how is c-span funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies created c-span as a public service. a private business initiative. no government mandate. no government money. >> there's still time get your copy of c-span's "2009 congressional directory." district maps, how to contact committees and cau

, but i know the consumers and the owners of property are not being assisted with refinancing their loans. let me go on. in testimony before the committee on june 11th bank of america fawzi eo ken lewis claimed that the razzle-- revolution of a 12 million-dollar loss at merrill lynch on december 14th of 2008 caused him to consider invoking the material adverse effect clause referred to as mac to back out of the dealed nine days after shareholders had voted to approve the acquisition. however in an e-mail on december 19th, that bank supervision office of the new york fed, tim clark, stated that lewis's claim that they were surprised by the rapid growth of the losses seem somewhat suspect. chairman bernanke, given that shortly after the deal was announced in september, bank of america has installed 200 people at merrill lynch to thoroughly review their books and you believe mr. lewis was honestly surprised by the acceleration of losses? >> i have no way of knowing. we did have concerns about the quality of due diligence but i have no direct evidence that he was in fact informed about the losses. >> well, 200 people were installed at merrill lynch so that s

today, fed chairman ben bernanke before a house committee, taking questions on that merger between bank of america and merrill lynch. one headline in "the new york times," the gop expected to paint ben bernanke as an ally of big government. the senate health committee continues its market appearance today on the issue of health care reform. nancy pelosi holding her weekly news conference. president obama meeting with some members of congress. today the issue is immigration. there's also a white house picnic on the south lawn for lawmakers. governor mark sanford admitting his affair yesterday on the front page of "the washington times." social conservatives fall from the moral high ground. that is our focus for the next half-hour. our phone lines, as always, 202- 737-0001, of our line for republicans. 202-737-0002 for democrats. if you are an independent, the number to call is 202-628-0205. beginning with the "los angeles times," another gop bombshell. the "atlanta journal constitution," where the governor flew back cut from his trip to argentina, a costly confession for the south carolina governor. also this morning from the leading new

there's a ceremony at the white house that some members are going to have to attend on this committee so probably come in around 3:00 in the mark up, a little after, maybe. there's a banking committee. >> mr. chairman, i would just add that on our title on workforce that we are working with the other side as well on a number of amendments that we hope when you get through senator harkin, we'll be ready to accept a number of amendments as well. we're working with them. >> the intention is to go after prevention go to workforce and then the areas of fraud and abuse section. those other ones before we get back to the coverage issue which is the issue is the more serious division as to where we are as po opposed to language. >> there's one thing i need to say. congratulations on your 10th anniversary. [ applause ] >> that's not my anniversary in the senate, that's my wedding anniversary. and i asked jackie whether or not she would like to spend the evening talking cbo numbers. i think we'll go to dinner instead. she's here and my two daughters are here as well. came this afternoon. wonderful friends from iowa. >> let's have a shout out for the dodd girls. [ applause ] >> all

the same regulations as campaign ads. finally, a third case concerns state's ability to investigate alleged discrimination in lending by national banks. two weeks from today the judiciary committee begins in the u.s. senate. to mount carmel on at the democrat's lead. what are your thoughts? caller: yes, i favor probably fdr's policy. i watched a bush. he invoked the power of the unitary executive and basically he had a lot of trouble with the commissions to set up. and also not giving the prisoners lots of rights, on the other hand i would not like to go all the way for there would have middlmiranda rights. i like to see something in the middle ground. on the other hand, i like to see them tried in civilian courts. but i'm not very comfortable with them being housed in the united states. those are my ideas and i would really like to hear more about how fdr handled the situation. host: lechery more from this article this morning -- let's read more from this. the alternative which would be going to congress would be painfully political. you would have the budgetary machinations limiting the president's discretion on closing guantanamo. the president can still get what he needs on

they past the glass-stegall act in 1932 and when phil gramm was chairman of the finance committee he directed investment-banking which began appreciable rate markets. people would have $800 escalate to $3,000. what obama is doing is deregulate commercial and investment banking. it is simple. anyone who is well-read in knows -- i majored in history and political science at southern university. if you know what happened, you know this happened. he calls us whiners last year, but they did. he needs to get it back like it was. that is all they need to do. guest: that is a nice history lesson there. and might be the first time i have herdsmen suggest that president obama is trying to remove some of the regulatory walls there. many people accuse him of trying to put too much regulation into the system. he has said he is trying to have a light touch. but certainly the umbrella would be expanded under his proposal. there is concern about the removal of walls between commercial and investment banking and the extent it has had on this crisis. it is debated on both sides affected has had. the risk institutions took after

the honorable chris dodd, mr. frank's senate counterpart, is chairing a banking committee hearing featuring two of the administration's chief meddlers in washington-owned auto companies. one is mr. ron bloom, a senior advisor on the auto industry at treasury. the other is mr. ed montgomery, white house director of recovery for auto communities and workers. and tomorrow over in the house of representatives, the financial services committee will hold a hearing on salaries of workers in companies the government owns. another obvious contender for the car czar award today is the administration's new chief price fixer for the cost of labor, mr. kenneth fineberg who will review and approve how managers of car companies are paid. according to "the new york times" article on june 8, mr. fineberg is likely not just to tell government-owned car companies and banks how much to pay people. it's likely -- quote -- "everyone else's compensation will be monitored too." but there is time next week to honor all these worthy contenders. today's car czar award clearly should go to the members of the wisconsin and michigan and tennessee

the banks. if you have a medical advisory council as the health committee legislation provides for a national institute for health and clinical excellence, as in great britain, it is anything but nice to win your health care is tonight to you. -- anything but nice when your health care is the night to you. -- denie to you. the government says that you cannot have a certain device for treatment that you need because they use this research to say that in your case, you are not going to live much longer anyway. it is not cost-effective for us to buy it for you. that is not the american way. it is ironic that countries like canada and great britain are starting to provide private alternatives. they know that they cannot take care of all of their citizens. there is a revolt going on of people who not -- cannot get all of the care that they need. their safety valve is to have the private sector provide some of this coverage. why would we want to replicate their mistake in health care reform? there are easier, less costly, and less harmful ways to do that then the legislation that is being proposed that would

the fed to give $12.8 trillion to these banks. congress is supposed to be doing that. the justice committee should be looking at each one of those laws. i can't say it any stronger than that. we need to get a congress and a justice committee. we do not have justice in this country. we need to get that. so i appreciate anything -- it's more of a statement than it is a question but is there anything along that line that we can look for in the future? >> well, we very much appreciate your comment, and we think we have done a lot since we took control of the house in 2007, as i tried to outline, and i think i tried to outline a number of additional initiatives that we're planning to undertake. fortunately, some of the abuses to which you refer, the administration has made it clear will not happen. the president has banned some of these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, but we intend to continue to be vigilant, to continue to take action. the judiciary committee is not able to itself pass laws on some of the issues that you had mentioned so frankly, you should take your concerns more