jerry is a credit adviser with credit.com and todd mark, the vice president of education at the consumer credit counseling service of greater dallas. welcome back. good to speak to you again. let's talk about a question we get a lot of. that is how do know when you need a credit counselor. how do you know when it's time to get outside help. gerri, start with you. >> i think if you find that you cannot get ahead yourself, there's absolutely no harm in getting outside help from a credit counseling agency. the reason is it's confidential, the first consultation is probably free and at a minimum they can maybe help you find ways in your budget to cut back and put more money toward your debt. there is no down side to getting help. >> todd, you say you need to do risk assessment. if you have trouble paying credit card bills, fighting with your spouse or having trouble at home over concerns about bills, it's time to see a credit counselor. >> absolutely. we actually designed a risk assessment test with the dallas morning news last year and we were ahead of the curve before the federal reserve d

todd mark joins us with the scoop on this. let's tackle first, the deals. where are the best deals?> it's absolutely incredible what's happening today with the downturn in the economy, people are eating out less but don't want to deprive themself of the dining experience. the deals have been flowing in by casual dining restaurants, we're talking about sit-down restaurants ranging from a real family style place up to a mortons. the deals have been spectacular at all ends of the spectrum. you see deals like outback, 15 entrees under $15. chili's has a deal for 20 bucks. these are all over today and change almost daily. so if you have a favorite chain, go to their website and find out what the latest deals are. >> you mention smd deals and some chains out there that you may be getting a deal but it may not be the best meal. you guys also -- what are the best values? how did you define value? >> value is the hall mark of today's dining experience, it's bang for the buck. it doesn't necessarily mean the best restaurants like a morton's or capital grill which did very well, offer the best

." >> larry: that is a good get todd purdam. markes she have a shot at the children, knowing california law? >> knowing california law she has the presumption. she has a good lawyer in eric george who will advise her. that having been said, when i represented michael in the child protection services trial which was unfounded, those kids love -- the older two love and adore katherine, had a real bond with grace. >> larry: the nanny. >> i call her a caregiver. she is a lot more than a nanny. if grace and katherine are involved, that is where the children belong. as the biological mother you get a presumption. >> larry: would you give debbie rowe visitation? >> i don't think there is any judge who would not give her visitation. >> that tape is unfair. she is a terrific person. she is strong willed. she doesn't take anything from anyone. when i talked to her last week she said initially and stuck with this but she wanted to wait until after the funeral before she did anything. she didn't want to scare the kids. she is very fond of kather

. >> mark todd. >> will my right honorable friend reflect on the decision of the ministry of defenseo appeal against the judgment which would allow hearings of cases of nuclear test veterans seeking compensation against the ministry for injury that they or their relatives may have suffered as a consequence of their exposure to nuclear explosion? >> i will, of course, look at this. but as he knows, these are legal matters. they are matters that have ended up in the courts and we've got to look very carefully at what we do. >> mr. nick klegg? >> mr. speaker, after everything that's happened over the last few months people are crying out for change. yet, we have a spectacle of a prime time busy doing nothing. he pretends to control bankers' bonuses. they rise. he pretends to want to have a serious discussion on the economic mess we're in. yet, he fiddles the figures and yet nothing has happened. people want action. >> what's the country wants us to do is take you through this difficult world recession and that is what we're doing. the opposition parties have no policies for jobs, no pol

. >> mark todd. >> will my right honorable friend reflect on the decision of the ministry of defenseto appeal against the judgment which would allow hearings of cases of nuclear test veterans seeking compensation against the ministry for injury that they or their relatives may have suffered as a consequence of their exposure to nuclear explosion? >> i will, of course, look at this. but as he knows, these are legal matters. they are matters that have ended up in the courts and we've got to look very carefully at what we do. >> mr. nick klegg? >> mr. speaker, after everything that's happened over the last few months people are crying out for change. yet, we have a spectacle of a prime time busy doing nothing. he pretends to control bankers' bonuses. they rise. he pretends to want to have a serious discussion on the economic mess we're in. yet, he fiddles the figures and yet nothing has happened. people want action. >> what's the country wants us to do is take you through this difficult world recession and that is what we're doing. the opposition parties have no policies for jobs, no po

todd has more tonight on this fight. good evening. >> good evening, brian. as you know, theresident is mark his six month anniversary in office. today, on that health care fight, he put it on more comfortable ground. he's back in campaign mode. faced with the public and a congress growing more skeptical about the pace and scope of his health care reform goals, president obama today embraced the political fight. >> now there's some in this town who are content to perpetuate the status quo. are in fact fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests. rests. >> reporter: and mr. obama specifically took issue with what one republican critic, south carolina senator jim demint, said last week f. we're >> if we're able to stop obama on this. it will be his waterloo. it will break him. >> it will be his waterloo. it will break him. think about that. this isn't about me. this isn't about politics. this is about a health care system that is breaking america's families. >> reporter: republicans believe they have the president on the political ropes and there's even a republican health care play book that michael steele spoke from

todd purham. in "vanity fair." at the top of the hour. mark, does she have a shot at the children knowing california law? >> california law, she's got the presumption because she's the biological mother. she's got a very good lawyer in eric george who will advise her as to whether or not she wants to. that having been said, when i represented michael during the child protective services investigation which turned out to be unfounded back a number of years ago, i can tell you that those kids love and -- at least the older two, who i spent a lot of time with, love and adore katherine. had a real bond with grace who has been around for years. >> larry: the nanny. >> well, i call her a caregiver. she's a lot more than a nanny. if grace and katherine are involved, that's where those kids belong in my opinion. >> larry: if you were a judge, that's what you'd do? >> that having been said, she does have as the biological mother, you get a presumption. but it's obviously a presumption that can be rebutted. >> larry: would you give debbie rowe visitatio

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. >> hearing terrible defenses, too todd rib, not mystifying enough, speaks for all the people. he is the fed head, mark that meeting, he can go and face its financial press where experts cross-examine him. >> larry, i agree with you but on the other hand, i don't think we should ex-age rate, the vast majority to of the financial press, except for cnbc are going to be softball questions. >> all going to go melissa is going to go steve's gonna go. >> all shouting at the same time. it will be ugly. we are going to leave it there. >> glad we solved that. >> trish? >> i'm going to go to, and i think actually i'm going to start a petition, we will get that going for us. okay. "power lunch" coming up at the top of the hour, bill griffeth, would you sign the petition and what you got in store? >> put me down. i do get cookies for that as well somehow? >> sure why not. >> coming up, back to school well under way this summer. find out hot winning retailers are as a result of all of that. good news also by the way, "newsweek" magazine has declared officially the recession is over. now we just have to survive the

mark something up before we leave here. >> hover, senior administration officials tell nbc's chuck todd that the senate does plan to have all the committee work done before the recess. so the committee work will be done, but it will not get to the floor. for more on where health care negotiations now stand, i'm joined by a key participant, republican senator orrin hatch of utah, who sits on two key committees. senate, health, education, labor, and pensions as well as the finance committee. senator, you walked out of the negotiations yesterday, saying that you did not think that they were going anywhere and that they were key ingredients in what finance was working on, that you could not support. could you tell us what were those obstacles? >> yeah. i basically disagreed with the direction that it was going, but i didn't mean to cause such a furor. all i can say is that i cannot support a government-run plan. and placing bureaucrats back here between you and your doctor. i really don't like the idea of a job-killing mandate that is going to hurt a lot of the people in the lower-income spectrum, people who really need those j

mark, back to you? >> thank you. small businesses across the country bracing for a likely bankruptcy by troubled lender cit. let's talk about that and the possible ripple effect. todd, president and ceo of the national small business association, the oldest small business advocacy organization in the country representing more than 150,000 small businesses. todd, good morning. thanks for being with us. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> what would a cit failure mean? >> it's going to mean a significant disruption if it happens. they provide credit to something like a million small companies which is a huge cross section of the small business community and they are tattered the as the biggest fda lender but they have their fingers in all sorts of activities. they are huge in the retail industry. they provide the loans that allow suppliers to retailers to float those products out there to them. that's a huge disruption for that marketplace. >> no one around or no group around who can step in and fill the void? >> we were hopeful the secretary of treasury made comments at the beginning of the week that they felt they might be able to them and were on top of the

using the chuck todd approach, figured that d just go have breakfastnd have our friend alex hre do the hit for . >> there yougo. >> yeah,th is disgusting. one of the people who benefted from markrd/michael son is john ensign. more deils today coming out about ho he handled the aftermatof hisistress situation. ke,e maye all -- we have had a parent pay a bill for us, a utility bill,ratey dues. his parents paid off theamily of his mistress 6,00 chec f $12,00 at time. i can ju imagine that call. dad,he car's oay but i wder if you can -- credible. >> how old is senator ensign? >> o enough to know tter. >>ut he loo to be about, what 50s? eay 50s maybe? >> that's about right. he's prematurely white. >> and hs calling his father? >> it's absurd. andhe fact this someone fr the republican party, someone who has cast himself as being conservative, was in their leerip. it's incredible he can remain in office. there's more andore disgust ing people who are in ofce. >> oh, man. this is unbeliable on a better note. a much more positive note out of washington, one the truly terric people in public servic-- actlly in my memory, was form white house press secretary the late tony snow. what's ha