the unions. what do you think in a race to the top. think this country will win or a guy to grab you from a rice patty say build the building on the bamboo scaffolding and back to the rice patty? is there not one decent person who values integrity more than their contract? i say most union members are those decent people. they love america as much as i do. this is not the union members. it's the leadership. like with soviets. it wasn't the soviet people. it's the leaders. we're all the same, republican, democrat, union, non-union, we're the same. we just have to cut the crap and start actually, start actually doing the right thing. the way to remain the world superpower is more unions? more seiu? you know and i know it won't work. the only way is through the people. the people. call it populist all you want. it call it american. more on thththth >> glenn: i have to tell you, it's amazing. i think we're on a journey together that is different than anything i experienced if my lifetime. viewers and lepers have been stopping me and writin

madam president, when president obama delivered his first state of the union address just several weeks ago, i will tell you, i was pleasantly surprised by his remarks on energy policy. in addition to calling for bipartisan legislation, the president indicated his support for more nuclear energy and new oil and gas development. and i think those are all positive steps. they're taking us in the right direction, not least because they would draw strong support here in congress, and i think that they would really help to create jobs all across the country. and in a time when we're looking at how we boost the me and create more jobs, this is critically important. now, having listened to the president's ideas, i -- i looked forward to seeing how the administration would begin to act on them, how these would all play out in his new budget. and when the document came out last monday, i -- i expected to at least see some progress in each of the areas that i just mentioned during the state of the union address. but instead, i found some disparities. some were small, some were i think rather stri

she comes from the former soviet union. grew up with billions of veterans not in their generation but he knew them and the older generation of the veterans of the war to a while american historians are increasingly more careful and aware of the fact of was the red army that defeated hitler i think when one gets into the popular discourse it becomes difficult for americans who view it as a good war to write about yalta soberly. someone coming from the east european perspective by which it cannot be considered a good war, necessary because it was false, a bad war that did better in did than the alternative but to win ukraine with lithuania is going to become a good war. allowed for a more sober yalta. he points out the allies did reasonably well. roosevelt wanted the u.n. and he wanted soviet participation in the war with japan and he got both of them. churchill had less power so he got less of what he wanted but he got recognized. these were things stalin didn't want to do what he was sent -- he didn't get poland, what he wa

we have to get back to fiscal responsibility and i spoke about this in the state of the union. just ten years ago america had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. remember people were worried about what might happen with all these surpluses and whether it would create problems in the financial markets. that was just a decade ago. after two wars, two tax cuts, prescription drug program, none of which were paid for, we faced a deficit of over a trillion dollars, a debt over the next decade of $8 trillion before my administration spent a single dollar. now we can't change the past but we can change the future. that's why i'm asking you to adopt a freeze in nonsecurity discretionary spending starting next year. we're still having a tough time right now given the economy is just starting to pick up steam but starting next year. that's why i'm grateful that all of you restored the pay-go rules that worked so well in the 19 s 1990s. i mentioned the fiscal commission. we may not have been able to get the votes for a statutory commission but we're going to -- i am going to appoint a co

and much of this had to do with the union, what it was and why it was worth the saving. he saved it by fighting and winning the war, of course. but his initial step in this was the decision to go to war, not a popular decision, and surly not an easy one. his predecessor, the incompetent james buchanan, believed that the states had no right to secede from the union, but there was nothing he could do about it if they did. dust by the time lincoln took office, seven southern states had succeeded, nothing had been done about it. led by south carolina, they claim to be doing only what they and the others had done in 1776. to oppose them might bring on the war, and began had no stomach for this. lincoln knew that the time to come when the only way to save the union was to go to war. but could he say so and retained the support of the people who had voted for him? for abolitionists, slavery was a sin, and the slaveholders centers. but they're leading spokesman, william lloyd garrison, who was an old friend of the union, he said the constitution was a covenant with death and in

got a nice bounce from the state of the union address last week. according to was rasmussen 35% of americans now strongly approve of mr. obama's job performance while 39% strongly disapprove. a big improvement for the president. mr. obama did a smart thing last week. he said he wants to work for the republican party for the good of the folks. left of center said he is not an idealogue. some people believe that some people don't. of my beef is not with mr. obama g.o.p. i think far too many play political games. my is the gulf between the president and you, the folks. three examples, first on friday the obama administration announced it may not try khalid sheikh mohammed and other al qaeda thugs here in united new york city there was no reason to run up hundreds of millions of dollars of expense when they could have handled by the military. in fact, 44% of americans believe that al qaeda should be tried in guantanamo guantanamo n astounding number considering all the controversy. why did it take months for the white house to figure this deal out? exce

and the soviet union were so great that neither side would ever initiate. and according to this you, the cold war was actually a good of relative global stability, a long piece and some historians have actually turned it. i think this too is misguided for a few reasons. for one thing, we now know there were actually a number of occasions when the two sides actually did reach the brink of a direct military confrontation, either because of deliberate provocations or more often, unintended misunderstanding. in many parts of the world the cold war was anything but cold. hundreds of thousands of people died in conflicts waged by the united states and the soviets all around the world. more than 100,000 u.s. troops died in wars against communist and made in korea and vietnam. 10 times the number of them have died in iraq and afghanistan. and i think it is an arguable that the end of the cold war actually did make the world a more prosperous place, especially for those living behind the iron curtain. today's financial times i noticed an article on what life is been

only -- >> neil: the union guys are exempt? >> right. >> good to see you. i'm glad i didn't put money on the bet. it doesn't stop there. democrats are rushing, rushing right now, to get this guy in. his name is craig becker a union lawyer. he's the president's nominee to head the national labor relations board. the senate is set to vote tomorrow hours before scott brown takes the oath of office. the fear is if becker gets in, car check is all but in. it will allow unions to bypass secret ballot elections. the u.s. chamber the commerce ain't happy. mark, lay this out. what happened? >> well, it's looking like they're just reporting in the last 20 minutes, half an hour, scott brown may be seated tomorrow so that may have a damming consequence for becker's nomination to the national labor relation board. what people are worried about with becker is that he has been council for the afl/cio for the last several years and is cozy the american unions to be on the national labor relation board and giving a fair shake to businesses. in addition he wrote a paper in 19

and in 1986-87, murdoch break the unions in the u.k. the unions control fleet street. are essentially they take all the money out of, they censor the news, they are in charge, and murdoch sets out to change that. and in the dead of night he moves his operations from fleet street out on the docks to an area in london, outlying area. set up a fortress, essentially, and over the course of a year, in which most of fleet street strikes against him, he has brought in outside workers, scabs, he wins. and that was a moment in which his reputation could not have been worse. he broke the unions, the enemy of the working man. but i'll tell you, i can't find anybody in the media business in london now, the u.k., who would not say that saved the newspapers. if murdoch hadn't broken the unions, newspaper business in the u.k. would have collapsed long ago. so he is in hindsight a hero. >> probably have time for a few more questions. >> i was wondering if you would tell us a bit about the scope and depth of your research, and especially james, primary sources that do use? and i imagin

shaw group that everyone thinks of ran right up after the state of the union. urs is the nuclear porterhouse. we weren't recommending urs. we're recommending because nuclear power's time has come and even though plans designed now won't come on stream for six to eight years, urs is the company that should get the best bang for the buck from the rest of the budget while you await construction, something shaw doesn't have going for it. plus right under 46, urs is seven points off its high while shaw is less than two points from its peak. urs is practically tailored to take money from the government. a whole lot more indirect exposure. they service everything transportation, including a lot of military businesses. that matters given the 3% increase in the defense budget, 2% in the transportation budget. urs has a strong relationship with the defense department. it's possible the company could take a larger share of an already expanding buy. there's all the beautiful stimulus money just starting to hit now. there's about $100 billion left in total infrastructure spe

the same thing was true of many other families. unionamilies all across america -- my mom and dad made it to the eighth grade. they sent their boyce on to high school -- they sent their boys on to high fiscal and college and i managed to finish law school. it was the american dream. american unions played a big role in realizing that dream. now what has happened? fewer and fewer americans belong to labor unions. fewer and fewer americans are able to bargain collectively for decent wages and working conditions and the basic benefits that we would expect. and what do we see happening across america as a result of that trend? a growing disparity in terms of the wages earned by working people and the amount of money being paid to those who are the officers of corporations. that disparity has reached shocking, if not disgraceful, levels where people who are at the highest wrongs of corporate america are drawing salaries and bonuses dramatically higher than the people who work for them, who wrongly are productive and doing a good day's work. m

then the state of the union came around and gradually it opened up at $3.25 the next day. my question is, is there a bundle of political issues that are going to come up? where are we going to be at a year from now. >> i think you'll have to endure more testimony and endure slow trials, kangaroo courts, star chambers against the various managements of the banks. no doubt that will include the ceo of citigroup. vick who's an okay guy. this stock has bottomed. i have been saying that over and over again. i think this is a great call option meaning put down a lot of cash on a bank -- it's like septicism. i'm very "self. . i believe citigroup may be a great roll of the dice to play the bank stock comeback. all right. obama's bark is worse than his bite. it's no more powerful than the wrath of caan. you know how that ended up. i say we've got a great buying opportunity ala health care, ala credit cards, jpmorgan, goldman sachs, live long and prosper with those stocks. "mad money" will be right back. >> coming up, uncle sam boost? >> this morning i sent a budget to congress. >>

during his state of the union speech, the president said that republicans have presented no solutions. later that week when we handed him a copy of the republican better solutions, without reading it he said many of our ideas have already been incorporated into his bills. which is true? i urge the president to immediately abandon the government takeover of health care and other industries. instead he should actually consider some of these commonsense ideas so we can solve this country's problems in a bipartisan way by immediately cutting deficits and restoring the thing this country wants most -- jobs, jobs, jobs. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman from california is recognized for one minute to address the house. mrs. capps: mr. speaker, on monday the president unveiled his budget to help restart our economy and get our deficit under control after years of mismanagement by the previ

it deprived the soviet union of a sense of an enemy. it gave gorbachev time to proceed with his reforms to the point where this took over five, six, seven years, where they turned out to be reversible. there comes a time after reagan leaves office in 91 wendy soviet union really tries to mount a coup against gorbachev but it is really too late at that point. so, reagan's diplomacy gives gorbachev sort of the time to proceed. lastly, it furthers gorbachev's sense of a desire for a new relationship with the united states and with western europe, which proves crucial in 1989. my own view of the end of the cold war, it ended by any-- anyone calculation in 1989, if you want to take the day, the day the wall came down or the whole year in which there is a series of unfolding events throughout eastern europe. what was the key? the key was that the soviet union didn't intervene to stop what was happening. and that was much more touch and go i think then we now imagine. at the time, i think there were soviet officials, who thought about maybe try

and that is the labor union -- the united states labor unions could really play an amazing role in suchuction effort when it becomes self-evident -- we can't afford these wars. but we can afford to reach out and much as we might do in haiti help rebuild the country using labor from the united states on some sort of foreign aid type of thing. >> thank you for your ideas. the work around jobs for afghans, i think, raises a very fundamental question which is where does the money go and what does it mean to talk about rebuilding the country? right now the people that are being hired by the u.s. military are being hired to support a u.s. military occupation of another country. people who they are hired are not rebuilding their country. they're building things the u.s. occupation forces need. certainly it is true that it would be cheap to hire a lot of afghans to rebuild their own country but that also means giving afghans the material basis to rebuild their own country as they see fit. not as we see fit.4óz so that doesn't necessarily mean putting a lot of money into the cities. where 80% of

he was a farmer, he was from a poor family in a kenyan to serve in the union army. he ended up in the hospital in washington. he got a case of german measles, which killed many, many service members on both sides of the war. he developed peritonitis from his measles infection and he died in a washington hospital. was brought across the potomac rivers here to to arlington as the first military burial. things were so desperate at that time in the civil war, there were so many people dying, and that there wasn't much time for ceremony or ritual at arlington. they would bring people over for burial day after day after day and they went into the ground as william christman dead with no flags flying, no music playing, quite often not a chaplain to give them a signal. so basically we're just trying to keep up with the carnage from the civil war when arlington began. during the war, things are so desperate that there was no time for tombstones. they have had words that were made out of time or walnuts, painted white with black lettering. those, of course, to be maintained or

that is the president from the state of the union. bipartisan cap and trade. i thought that was as dead as a cartoon polar bear in al gore movie but the washington examiner reports that the president now is writing the budget assuming that we will have the $650 billion over the next decade from cap and trade. so we are counting our chickens before they hatch and from a mother that hasn't been born yet. what do they know that we don't know? how do you develop a budget on things that you don't have? back room activity is not new to the process. and reviewing all of the science, the schemes are based on from the u.n. climate arm. ready for this? we told you about how the claims of melting glaciers were based on peer reviewed science. but in an off the cuff comment with a magazine interview this is undone. the head of the ipcc, and i can't say his name, was asked about the glacier mistake on january 22 of this year. he admitted the "error," and said "i became aware of this when it was recorded in the media ten days ago." facts are sticky because the problem is, he

reason president obama took the public and surprising whack at the supreme court in the state of the union is that he is going to try to make the composition of the court more of an issue. . . of mana from heaven for this white house. it is a decision that really riled up a sense of a populous satisfaction with the court a sense that the court was giving corporations personhood. i think you are quite right to say that his -- he's e!ing it up for the elections. he's putting it on so that he can put -- very similar list. one of the things that i think >> a little later, syndicated talk show host, thom hartmann. >> joining us is david axelrod, and here for the questioning is jerry from "the wall street journal." let me begin by asking you to respond. twice in the last week, the president meeting with house republicans and senate democrats. the senator said we do not want it on camera. >> we want to have a dialogue with members of both parties. i think there was something valuable about the exchange the president had, both with the house republicans and with the democratic senate caucuses this

this is really a shift in tone that began around the state of the union, a little before. hy did you decide to do this? >> we're dealing with the reality of trying to govern in a very difficult time. and it became apparent because of this sort of habitual use of the fill buster, because every appointment was being put on hold and so on that political mischief was making it difficult to solve the problems of the country and we really felt that we had to penetrate that in order to move forward. and we would be more than happy to work together with people from both parties to solve problems. and that's what we're trying to encourage. but what we can't do is be governing while the other party is simply running a campaign, an election campaign. i don't think the country can afford that right now. but we're going to shine a bright light on that and we're goiven to give every opportunity for cooperation but where cooperation isn't forth coming not as a matter of principle but as a matter of politics, then we're going to make a point of it. because the american people need to know.

these two right -- a fellow named john merriman was one of the people captured by the union army says i want a rate of habeas corpus. i'm held unconstitutional. >> for sure they didn't have jury trials but they can be tamed without a military commission, with the writ not in play. >> that clinton's policy in theory. he seeks a writ from time you issue said. he says to the general, to the general mchenry, by the way, where the star-spangled banner was flying back in the war of 1812. the chief justice orders the general of the fort to release, not reduce that produce them in court and explain why he's been held. tommy appears on the front steps of the baltimore courthouse in front of a crowd of 2000 people to receive the news of the generals have refused to produce mr. merry men. he said that the president is going to allow this, even i may be in jail very shortly. he found in order to lincoln and says, i want the rates observed and i want -- you were the chief law-enforcement officer officer in the country. you have to obey my order is chief justice of the united states. amazing confer

so on the union could plug the massive gaping pension hole. wouldn't it be great if they could just get some sort of healthcare that could take care of all of this? in 2007, they only had 74% of the assets needed to pay its benefits. then you have these, the bigger plans operated for the teamsters. altogether they have 59% of the reserves necessary to cover the pensions. 26 funds at the food workers union. 58%. seven locals of the united brotherhood of carpenters, 67%. take a look at funded ratio of 13 seiu local pension funds from 1996 through 2006. i'm guessing it's worse than this now. here they are. 120% funding. look at that. now they're all tracking down here. the middle line, the middle line shows the average trend. you see the union benefits are funded out at 90%, here in 1996. but dropped to 60% funded by 2006. why is this alarming? rule of thumb is they consider the fund endangered below 80%. critical status is below 65%. this required them to come up with a plan to get off probation in a decade. what is obama's plan for getting us o

use the program for union organizing throughout new york. orse, the program is -- the program itself however was ms. smith's refusal to provide the committee with complete information about the program. in april of 2009, i wrote to mrs. smith to ask if she foresaw -- quote -- "the possibility of instituting similar efforts on a national level." on may 12 she replied that she had not considered or advocated expanding it across new york to other parts of the country or to the federal level or to the state level. however, documents produced by the -- procured by the "help" committee revealed that ms. smith wrote in january of 2009, five months before the letter i just mentioned, that she would like to double the number of organizers involved while laying the foundation to expand the program to various parts of long island and upstate new york. she continued "we're creating a movement here. and the more the merrier." clearly she had both considered and advocated expansion of the program. thus her statement to me was inaccurate. her deceit on this

deals with big drug industry and the unions not. >> right. and the insurance companies all the negotiations that were preparatory to this process deals worked out ahead of time that only became obvious one the process began were hidden from public view and those were meetings that really mattered. >> greta: a little slick he talks about all the hearings in congress were on c-span and how people could watch. i don't recall him running on a campaign that congress was going to be on c-span. it already was on c-span. he said he was going to do that, his stuff. even if he never run on that campaign and may the promise we still would have had c-span on the congressional hearings so we got zippo from that >> that's true. his claims of transparency are probably unfulfillable. i think the white house has done a lot wrong and there's a lot of criticism for how it mishandled a lot in the first year. however, total transparency means no deals. let's be honest. >> greta: that's fine then don't keep telling us c-span. tell us, i didn't realize that was a du

in the state of the union address. he keeps assuring me that the president is serious about this. there is so much going on and there are so many problems. the economy is such a huge problem to begin with. it is hard to see where he finds the time and energy to take on these things. he has already taken on more than i thought was conceivable. >> i am not sure i am encouraged about -- encouraged by that wait-and-see attitude. mr. kaiser, good to have you on the program. >> up next, richard schiff. stay with us. >> he is a emmy-winning actor. starting tomorrow night, he is back in prime-time on the series "past life." here is a scene. >> how does it feel? >> i got the call about an hour ago. >> congratulations. >> way to go. >>the practical a kick me out of his office. you did this all by yourself. >> you were right. >> let's have some champagne. >> you have refrigerator? -- you have a refrigerator? why don't i have a refrigerator? >> congratulations. >> it is nice to have you with us richard. >> it is pretty good. we are

the malice toward none and charity to all, he wants it to be quick and the union to get back together again. republicans in congress actually want to remake society, send the troops permanently there to occupy which is eventually what happens. but lincoln first reit, christopher street their plans and tries to bring a policy of faster reconciliation and then he is assassinated. >> host: at this point, you write regarding executive powerd we've seen big heights up to now, the other branches of these have ample authority to counter it. a reviewer in the "washington post" which a pretty decent review but he made this observation that your book has a deceptively simple theme at critical moments the president has been the driving force in american history and neither congress nor the supreme court has never rivaled the presidency and its capacity to direct how our country response. first i don't think it is quite simple because why they don't respond or why they act the way they do is pretty complex. it wasn't in your book. i wonder where you think of the gup submission. >> guest: it was a

>> well, i think that even before the state of the union, but certainly since the state of the union,re out where they have common ground. put aside republicans, like, what can they do that they think is popular with voters, that they can actually get through the house and senate. and obama's having problems. even with the jobs bill, which in individual pieces, a lot of them are very popular, but when you put them together, he has trouble. he would like to use t.a.r.p. money and give that to some small businesses and congress is like, we'd much rather you just do that by executive order. why do we have to keep taking these votes. and then you have health care, there's so much hand wringing and finger-pointing still going on about who's to blame for what seems to be, at least, so far, the defeat of health care. they want leadership out of obama, there was this private meeting two days ago where franken stood up and really got in the face of axelrod and others and said, we need more leadership from you. we need more direction. you need to be pushing the house and senate with clarity on

the public were ready for it. they wanted to see union power reduced. margaret thatcher embodied that idea, and one of the reasons why she won so many elections so handsomely and ruled us for 12 years, the longest of any british prime minister in the 20th century, was because she embodied that idea, and she fought through tremendous battles, one against the coalminers union and one against the print workers union, and won them both, and she tamed the unions. so she was an example of a person who radiated power because she embodied an idea whose time has koch. >> host: mitch e-mails, why haven't you written a book on abraham lincoln? do you think his is overrated as a president? >> guest: no. i think he is your greatest president. as for writing a life about him, that is precisely what i'm thinking about at the moment. i was asked to write a short life of winston churchill. i did that. that's already published. then the person said to me is there another very important person you could write a life about, short life about? and i said, yes, jesus christ. i

was there a master plan of the reagan administration to bankrupt the soviet union? >> the question was whether the reagan white house had a plan to bankrupt the soviet union. they certainly did have a strategy. they did believe the soviet union and reagan really believed this from the get-go, that the soviet economy was weak and that it was crumbling under pressure. their ability to actually, you know, carry out that strategy, i think, was, is not entirely clear and it is not clear that ultimately anything that the united states could have done, we already had sanctions imposed on em. there was, there were efforts made i think on the margins probably did make a difference, or at least continued to soak up more of russia's spending but, i don't think that there's anything, any sing thing we could have done that on its own could have bankrupted the soviets. but certainly the pressure that the administration was putting on the soviets in afghanistan made a difference. you know, i think there's some evidence that by urging the opec countries to boost production and lower

how do you feel the union can move forward and companies can move forward? can we really compete and get our minds better rounded? the second question, health insurance. that whole debate. as a manufacturer frankly i would love to get out of that business and not have to offer its two employees at. provide cash and then we go buy it on our own as individuals. what do you think is the future through business of health insurance? >> let me take the first part of your question about the future of the union. what happens, the contracts that were signed before the bailout was that the uaw agreed to a two-tier wage system in which continuing workers would get $28 an hour, but new hires would come in at about 14. now this will be the first big crop of people coming in at about $14 per hour, which is what toyota pays its workers down in san antonio, but it pays 25 down in kentucky where there are a couple of plants right nearby. you know, bob king is in line to be the new head of the uaw. he has always been progressive. he has always been someone who has seen that yo

the public were ready for it. they wanted to see union power reduced. margaret thatcher embodied that idea, and one of the reasons why she won so many elections so handsomely and ruled us for 12 years, the longest of any british prime minister in the 20th century, was because she embodied that idea, and she fought through tremendous battles, one against the coalminers union and one against the print workers union, and won them both, and she tamed the unions. so she was an example of a person who radiated power because she embodied an idea whose time has koch. >> host: mitch e-mails, why haven't you written a book on abraham lincoln? do you think his is overrated as a president? >> guest: no. i think he is your greatest president. as for writing a life about him, that is precisely what i'm thinking about at the moment. i was asked to write a short life of winston churchill. i did that. that's already published. then the person said to me is there another very important person you could write a life about, short life about? and i said, yes, jesus christ. i

of the tsa workers i'm wondering what your view is on the effective unionization on homeland security personnel as somebody that has obviously had the top job. >> the administration's position was a post under president bush was to oppose unionization of tsa. in particular because typically if a work force is unionized any changes conditions have to be dealt with negotiated and often we saw this in 2006 when we had the airline bombing plot in london or to change things quickly. and so the need to bargain or get to the grievance process becomes an impediment. we did work hard to try to elevate morality in tsa and create mechanisms for feedback because the point of avoiding unionization isn't because we don't care about them are -- moral of the officers because we do what we want to operate in a nimble matter. it isn't unionized because you don't want to have marines going in grievance when they get sent overseas. i know the current administration has a different view on this. i don't know that the tsa nominees withdraw was related to that. i think other issues cannot. the one thing i w

he is also the current chairman of the european union. that is not enough, he made a claim to fame as a prime minister with the cabin were majority of his cabinet members are women. -- with a cabinet where the majority of his cabinet members are women. the prime minister has also made invaluable contributions to interfaced dialogue in his country. his personal quest has been to promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance among the religious faiths in his own country and throughout the world. please join me in welcoming the prime minister of spain. [applause] [speaking foreign language] >> mr. president, members of congress, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. thank you for inviting me to participate. on behalf of my country and on behalf of spain. thank you, and please allow me to speak to you in spanish, the language in which people first grade to the got in the gospels of this land. -- the language in which people first parade to the god and the gospels in this land -- first prayed. [applause] [speaking spanish] >> no one knows the value of

as you said in the state of the union address on wednesday, jobs and the economy are number one. i think everyone in this room,

what we are trying to do in the teachers' union -- and i have to give a child out -- shout out to the teachers' union in detroit. they did a lot of stuff to save the education system there in detroit. we need that kind of respect. that means everybody need to take more responsibility, and teachers and the unions are starting by throwing out the current evaluation system and focusing on creating better teachers. but we need other people's health, including parents, elected officials, including our administrators. host: a comment on twitter -- they suggest publishing the evaluation of parents. guest: the budget can be a factor. we need more money into schools and classrooms directly. but we also need to make sure the accountability system is 360 degrees. when we have principles in control of budgets, and it is all about what the test scores may be, all about what looks good to central administration, we will see them hire one or two people just to do the record- keeping and inshore that they look good, instead of spending the money on services and teaching. host: oklahoma. marlon on the

what if the teachers union say okay, we accept the terms.s it too late to go back or do you accept a renegotiated settlement now? >> well, there's been an awful lot of inappropriate language and letters written. the teachers have brought all the students into the issue. this would be a very difficult thing to turn around. i can't imagine that that would be possible but, on the other hand, i don't discount a thing. and if, as we approach 120 days of planning, as we move forward. if indeed something of that effect comes around, i still think we have a lot of doors that could be opened. >> a drastic but very bold move. we wish luck to you and the students in your district. >> thank you, ma'am. >> and at 360, we bring you all sides of the issue. you just heard from the head of the school district. now let's talk to a guidance counselor who's being fired. george mclaughlin isn't the only one in his family getting a pink slip, so is his wife who's a chemistry teacher. mr. mclaughlin, thanks for joining us. you just learned that you and your wife c

the afl-cio and that seiu. these unionsave a substantial interest in the most important decisions pending before the board. that's one thing to come from private law practice represent employers or unions of client. it's quite another to come to the board directly from being an officer in an associate general counsel of the labor organizations with that mention substantial interest and multiple matters pending or that will be pending before the board. last week's hearing was clearly necessary as it revealed that while mr. becker will recuse himself for a period of two years and only for two years from those incentives, when his former employers, the international union are a party and a board proceeding. he did not commit to recuse himself from cases raising issues in which the internationals are involved were impacted and he did not commit to recuse himself from cases involving the locals of these two international unions. parties before the board, whether union or employer have a right to a fair and impartial tribunal. th

that is the nation's second largest teachers union. thanks for being with us this morning. >> guest: great to be here in this beautiful snowy day in d.c.. >> host: talk to us about the president's budget and how it looks for education. >> guest: you have to look at the lens all that was cut. so we're very appreciative that education was not cut in this budget and there is some increases in it. because ultimately, i can't invest in the economy if you don't invest in education. that is our next generation of children and we saw that with the recovery act last year in terms of the amount spent to avert the draconian cuts that helped throughout states and localty throughout the nalgs. having said that, i am concerns about the cut in the safety net which affect kids. we are concerned that we want to make sure that those dollars flow into classrooms for children. so a lot of the new dollars are of competitive grants and kids, particularly disadvantaged kids shouldn't have to rely on how well the adult writes the grant in order to get funding

fell apart, all new independent states in the former soviet union, noriega was overthrown, the end of -- the restoration of democracy in nicaragua with free elections. when you look back at it, there was quite a bit of accomplishments. at the time the president was undertaking these, he did not get much credit. there was some criticism. now there is a stern a stodgy for george bush 41. -- now there is nostalgia for george bush 41. the talk about the process and the people in this administration. the president had a process in place that was effective and congenial and the firm much successful. the people but surrounded him were key to the process to that success. some of those people were jim baker and brent scowcroft. people look at the accomplishments and the process. there is a nostalgia to say, why cannot this be brought back now? when you look back 20 years ago, it wasn't so. we got criticized for being reactive. vision.s a guy for being noei- the vision thing. he has no ideas. he is just a caretaker. nothing was further from the truth. what of like to do is balance that v

in london after the state of the union. so where are we with this president? here he is coming after the state of the union, had these two sort of well publicized meetings, he's now talking about a third. he had has press conference, he's reaching out. where do you think he is in his presidency. >> well, i think fundamentally... i don't think he thinks this, but i think's a fundamental decision he has to make. we have this long debate in this country between conservatives who want to shrink government and then there's another debate, the liberals who want to create government to enhance equality sort of european welfare state. obama comes in with what you might call sort of modest tech no cat i can government, which is the larry summers peter orszag style which is hardened by experience but essentially using washington to change the energy policy, change health care, change education, a lot of stuff like that. if health care fails-- which i think it will-- that option, which was really his offering, that's gone. so what is the sentence he is remembered? and if

>> the president outlined on the state of the union, and you heard secretary gates and admiral mullen discuss a process that will take place if that process results in legislation by the year's end, the president would certainly sign at. i think most importantly the president, the military and others feel like we have the best process structured moving forward to and don't ask don't tell. chris, obviously the president will discuss with the dalai lama his belief that he and the chinese continue to discuss the issues that they have relating to tibet and i assume we will have a read out after that. do you have anything? >> with the president's support eighth moratorium on the discharges of don't ask don't tell until the pentagon completes its review? >> i would point you to what the testimony from defense to date, gates and mullen -- the process that will take place over the course of the next year. yes, ma'am. >> on tuesday at the news conference the president talked about the jobs bill. back then he mentioned to read this incrementally. he used the word -- >> i'm sorry. i can't hear y

the european union is about to sign a trade agreement with south korea. s opening of the market, the europeans might get in there before we do. we have got to make sure that we seize these opportunities. i'll be talking more about trade this year. it is going to have to the trade that combines opening their markets with an enforcement mechanism as well as his opening our markets. i think that is something that all of us would agree on. let's see if we can execute it. >> texas. and that will be it. >> jim is one to wrap things up? >> yes. >> all right. >> how're you? >> i am doing well. a year ago, i had an opportunity to speak to you about the national debt. something that you and i have in common is that we both have small children. i left that conversation really feeling your sincere commitment to ensuring that our children, our nation's children, do not inherit an unconscionable debt. we know that under current law that governments -- because the government is due to grow from 20% of the economy to 40% of our economy. that is about the time our children

caller: first of all, this goes to the union guy. i'm going to tell you about the union. e mines since he was 16 years old and went to school and right now he is 79 years old, and he cannot get -- he went from six-foot tall to 5'4", and yet he cannot get [unintelligible] because your senators will not do anything to push a bill for anybody that worked in the mines for 25 years has done nothing for the coal miners. here's my second gripe. host: caller, what legislation are you talking about specifically? caller: years ago they tried to push the coal miners to push that automatically anybody that worked in the mines for 25 years would get black lung, which was false. host: and your second point. caller: i have two other very important points.Ñi i belong to the tea party, and when i have to hear that we do not welcome blacks, that is a lie. we pay $1 every time we have a meeting. and that goes to pay for the rent, the hall. we have a -- the point is, blacks are welcome. we have two black people there and they are welcome. host: we'll leave it there. mr. cline, are you familia

the union is often criticized severely. the g20 is a creation of the union. on in financial terms, if we had not ended up in the major crisis such as we had in the 1930's -- the reason that has not happened is that the european union was able to do something about it. the european union created the g20 which took initiative to stabilize matters worldwide. we have been more present than is often suggested. in copenhagen, it is clear that we need to take more initiatives on the external front. that is part and parcel of economic governance. what is your second question? it is not a formal proposal yet, but i drew the conclusion from the questions raised -- whether we should touch on this topic or that, whether we needed better coordination. there is only one possibility. we need to meet more frequently. [inaudible] >> sorry. i am from the bbc. you have talked about the clear political message you have sent on greece. do you accept that without specific pledges from eu nations and specific obligations on greece that that will not be enough to restore the markets