>> it sounds like tom coburn is willing to go for a tax reform scenario that raises revenues.college on a gang of six, his republican colleagues have been very careful to say that they want to reform the tax code but we only want to raise money through economic programs. tom carver and told us that would not be enough. -- tom coburn told us that would not be enough. that is a big change. that is a big change. >> they will be negotiating the senate majority the next time around. >> one of the things tom coburn said today and that is something that everyone knows to be true that is that if you have to get a big deal, it will involve taxes and spending cuts. we go to these budget briefings all the time and talk to these by wonks and everybody says this is true except the mindoro -- majority and minority leader and everyone is hiding behind their political positions. at least tom coburn is willing to stand up and take the heat for stating what a lot people think could be true. >> the clock is ticking on the debt limit. qc a grand plan emerging from all of this? >> the way i read t

tom coburn is one of these people who says what he thinks. he often votes against people he really likes. i believ him, that he was just tired of banging his head against the wall. >> let me direct this to the former banker on the panel. this week we reached the debt ceiling of $4.29 trillion. what does it mean to the average taxpayer? >> at this moment it doesn't mean anything, because we have not yet the threshold where all of a sudden we will default on our debt. whent happens, we will have an economic calamity if the u.s. defaults. you will see it in the cost of everything, especially interest rates. >> didn't the treasury secretary say he would have to suspend payments -- >> it would be like lehman brothers. >> he is already doing that for the time -- >> he is moving money around. it would be a calamity, although some say it let's have it, let's go to the debt ceiling. it is crazy. >> what do you think, charles? >> as the sun rises in the east, but the debt limit will be raised, but it will be a heroine process and it should be. the repu

we've got a number of congressmen to see how and especially senator tom coburn who appear to help him cover up not just as a theory that's his business and help him cover up his violations campaign finance laws lobbying loans very serious of genesis issues but i think imus this time of the arrest of the guy who's the head of the i.m.f. and and some of the details of ensign's you call it an affair it seems to me like him it's close to rape actually or at the very least abuse of personal power st paul wrote most of the new testament but never met jesus in person has always seemed a bit massaging mystic to me had these guys adapted the anti-woman view that paul arguably expressed for example in his first letter the cranky ends when he said that if a woman didn't shut up and keep her head covered in church she should ever head shaved and live in shame and these guys have been looking at the wrong time the inner circle the organization hues to this idea called the male ship it sounds like a dirty when it would be as their idea the idea is it as christ. is so a man should be to the women in

so i say it's a good thing that's on tom coburn dropped out because given the history of gang rule in the united states congress the end result of the gang of six was likely a few thirty am worthless instead let's go gangbusters and bring back open debate to the floors of congress where our representatives know that they're being held accountable we can see what they're up to and then and hear everything they have to say then maybe democrats will start acting like democrats and more importantly our government will start acting like our founding fathers imagine that would be a refreshing change. as the big picture first and i for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites at town arbonne dot com and our team dot com also check out our youtube pages at youtube dot coms lifestyle big picture and you too dot com slash. ellis entire show is available as a free video podcast i took this and don't forget democracy begins with you when you show up when you participate when you get active that's when it all happens tag you're it. let's not forget that we had an apartheid reg

be optimistic, but when i see the gang of six senators, the ones who have bucked the orthodoxy, tom coburn, a republican, dick durbin, democrat, they have been dropped like a bad habit. the white house pays no attention to them, and they are being ignored. >> they are my heroes -- >they have not actually announced what it is they are going to do. >> family emergency -- ken conrad said he would go ahead with something. >> my point is that neither the republican or democratic leadership in the congress or white house paying heed to them that they deserve, in my judgment. >> this week, financial format passed last year overwhelmingly -- financial reform that passed last year overwhelmingly -- republicans said that if you pass this law, yowe will not appoint people to the consumer agency. what have we come to 1when a law that passed with significant margins gets undermined with that kind of threat? >> i was reading jimmy carter's so-called malaise speech -- he never used the word -- and the language she used is what we say every week. >> if we sound like that, that is not a good sign. >> that

like to be optimistic, but i see the gang of six, the once you add in fact broken the orthodoxy -- tom coburn, a republican, and dick durbin, democrat -- and they have been dropped like that had it. the white house pays no attention to them, and they won biden -- instead -- they want the biden commission. >> they are not doing it. they have not announced what they are going to -- >> family emergency -- kent conrad said he would go ahead with something and that the deal is not of t -- off yet. >> my point is that neither the republican or democratic leadership in the congress or white house is paying heed to them that they deserve, in my judgment. >> this week over the financial reform that passed last year, overwhelmingly, republicans said that if you don't change this law, to obama, we will not appoint people to run the consumer agency. what have we come to when a law that passed by significant margins suddenly gets undermined by that kind of threat? >> this week i was reading in jimmy carter's so-called malaise speech -- he never used the word -- in 1979, and the language he used was pretty

article that came out yesterday about this reported good it's really the work of carl levin and tom coburn of oklahoma. and it's a six hundred fifty page report which details. quite extensively the activities of goldman during the summer of two thousand and seven when they were dumping toxic securities on their clients and betting against them at the same. time and this mountain of evidence that's in this report stands in a very stark contrast to the testimony that was offered by the executives of goldman sachs a year ago when they were dragged into the senate by the same exact investigators and asked to explain themselves there was a their own guilty or be forgery as well as the crimes laid out in the. ads absolutely i you know one of the points that we made and and that you know my sources continually made to me is is that the kind of fraud that we're talking about you know defrauding investors. is very complex and there are very specific legal standards that prosecutors have to meet in order to get convictions on those crimes and that's difficult and hard to explain to ordinary people b

we know you have had a sixth member and senator tom coburn. he fairly publicly stepped away last week, and today we were supposed to have senator conrad. he is the last minute had to be on on the florida senate because of the senate debate of coming both coming up at 5:00. give us a sense as of today, where do your discussion stand? >> first of all let me say judy that what you mentioned is exactly right about the fact that if we could have six senators said in a room for almost six months in this town and the contents of the discussion, that is the way the senate used to work and our goal was to make it work that way from day one and these folks have just been tremendous to work with. we have talked about a lot of sensitive issues obviously, and this issue in and of itself is so complex that every time we would reach a point of mutual common ground on one issue, then something else will pop up. and that happened during the course of all of this, and at times all of us became frustrated but we always came back together. fortunately senator cob

tom coburn is asking the justice department to examine that report. as for stock futures, we're looking at a quiet day. a little bit higher. yesterday we edged lower, a least in the s&p. some change in the dow. the commodity stocks were under pressure. marriott getting tough marks for its rewards program. merit rewards snagged first place in the frequent travel awards. who knew there was such a thing? i'm jane king reporting for wbal-tv 11 news. back to you. >> we all know food costs are going sky high. one restaurant is going to hold the line on price hikes. >> we're talking about denny's. they are seeing costs for commodities on the rise. it will trickle down to customize but just minimally, just 1%. we'll have more on that in my next report. >> thank you. >> i am a fan. delicious. 52 degrees on tv hill. you can eliminate some of the clutter in your home while helping others this weekend. >> don't forget to e-mail us your response to our water cooler question of the day. you can share your response at wbaltv.com and on our facebook page, or send us

that's why i look to guys like tom coburn who is a party of six. you can't question his opposition, he's conservative, but he understands reality. >> i hope you're right, and that's what some people around me at that speech were saying. jean with cnn money. jean, if we want to keep the level of debt at the number it's at right now, not reducing, just to keep it growing from spending cuts, we would have to cut our spending by 35%. that's about $1.2 trillion, or basically our government's entire budgets for discretionary spending, including defense. now, to achieve the same goal of keeping our debt where it is just through tax increases, so forget about spending cuts, the government would need to take in 50% more in tax revenue. bottom line, it seems to me we would have to do both. as i explained earlier it's simply not feasible to attack our debt without spending cuts and increasing revenue, although you will continue to hear some conservatives say this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. i know this, you know this. when is washington goin

senator tom coburn put out a report mocking the national science foundation for funding research projects$500,000 grant. the media began cracking jokes about obese shrimp. >> you know what you call a shrimp that is overweight? jumbo. jumbo shrimp. >> reporter: this, this is my idea of shrimp on a treadmill. but you won't find this guy working out . he is at charleston where they are using that $500,000 grant to do what doctors do to people. this is like a stress test for shrimp. >> yeah, it is, exactly. >> reporter: how long will they run on it? >> they will run for hours, at least five hours in some cases. >> reporter: lab director lou burnett say they subject the shrimp to environmental stresses like low oxygen or pollution and then measure their response using blood tests and checking respiration. what's next? shrimp on a stairmaster? actually, treadmills for crabs and even lobsters were the next step. not to create crustaceans but help seafood survive. professor burnett sounded a little fried accused

trying to find a solution to the debt problem fell victim to partisanship when republican senator tom coburn walked. he wrote in an op-ed -- the lack of leadership and initiative in the senate is appalling. it is not realistic to expect six members to pull the senate out of its dysfunction andlet that are gi." and on the international front, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu up close and personal, publicly rejected president obama's starting point proposal for peace between israelis and palestinians. >> while israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines. because these lines are indefensible. >> appalling and indefensible. but are they insolvable equations? >>> today, the congressional impasse over taming a ferocious u.s. debt with the senate's number two democrat, dick durbin. >>> mid aeft promise in peril with leaders of the intelligence committee. chairman mike rogers and ranking member -- >>> and then presidential politics right and left with republican dick armey and democrat ron -- i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the unio

i look to guys more like tom coburn. you can't question coburn's ideological position. >> i hope you're right. that's what people around me at the speech were saying. it's an hoping salvo. jean, if we wanted to keep our debt at the level that it's at right now, not reducing it just simply keeping it from growing through spending cut, we'd have to cut our spending by 32%, or basically our entire government's budget for discretionary spending, including defense. to achieve the same goal of keeping our debt where it is just through tax increases, so forget about spending can you tell us, the government would need to take in 50% more in tax revenue. bottom line is it seems to me that we have to do both. as i explained earlier, it's simply not feasible to seriously tackle our debt without both spending cuts and increasing revenue. although you will continue to hear some conservatives say, this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. when is washington going to start reflecting this? >> i think under a couple of scenario

we know you have had a sixth member and senator tom coburn. he fairly publicly stepped away last week, and today we were supposed to have senator conrad. he is the last minute had to be on on the florida senate because of the senate debate of coming both coming up at 5:00. give us a sense as of today, where do your discussion stand? >> first of all let me say judy that what you mentioned is exactly right about the fact that if we could have six senators said in a room for almost six months in this town and the contents of the discussion, that is the way the senate used to work and our goal was to make it work that way from day one and these folks have just been tremendous to work with. we have talked about a lot of sensitive issues obviously, and this issue in and of itself is so complex that every time we would reach a point of mutual common ground on one issue, then something else will pop up. and that happened during the course of all of this, and at times all of us became frustrated but we always came back together. fortunately senator cob

there are some republican senators, conservatives, saxby chapel bliss, tom coburn, who say if you do in as a net result more money to washington, they're potentially okay with that. >> okay, but dana, let me ask you the hard question. everyone says, close the loopholes, you can lower rates. everybody loves that line. then you say to him, which loop hopes are you closing, and nobody has a clear answer? which loopholes can actually be closed to get us to that wonderland of lower rates and more revenue? >> it's very hard. they are talking about closing corporate loopholes. they are talking about some things that people are not going to like, like taking away the expenditures or the deductibility for charity and for mortgages. those are very much things that are on the table, particularly in this group of six senators, three democrats, three republicans who are trying to come up -- >> but correct me, if i'm right, if you want to close loopholes and use some of that revenue to lower rates but some of it to close the deficits, means you don't lower the rates all you could. and grover norqu

in fact, it's now the gang of five, because tom coburn dropped out.man on the biden panel, vice president's biden's panel says so far all they're playing is small ball. that's what he said here last week. a couple of hundred billion dollars. realistically, what are the chances for a deal before august 2? >> there will have to be a deal. let me just say what it would take to get my vote for example. i am just one member of the republican conference. to get my vote we have to do something significant short-term and long-term. long-term means medicare and medicaid. which is why i keep leading you back to this discussion. this is the one that is going to create law. it's actually going to be signed by the president of the united states. it's going to have to make a difference. look, we have a $14 trillion debt. big as our economy. we look a lot like greece. we have the unfunded liabilities, $50 trillion in medicare, medicaid, social security. the president's own cabinet member said a week ago, both social security and medicare were in trouble. medicare so

senator tom coburn, who is a member of the gang of six, had to suddenly go home because of a family emergencythey aren't meeting right now. but they say they're going to return to the table when they get back next week, and i think the problem they're facing at this point is, you know these are three very conservative republicans who desperately believe in this goal. but the package that they're looking at would involve a tax reform proposal that raises additional revenue, but it leaves to the commits to decide how that will happen. and i think they're having a very difficult time signing off on some things where they can't control the particulars. >> brown: now, we mention the context here, which is the looming deadline on the debt ceiling. are these two things, the long-term deficit and the debt ceiling, are they inextricably tied together now, at least in terms of negotiating positions? >> well, for the moment they are. but i don't think-- i mean, i think that the debate over the long-term deficit continues once we get past the debt ceiling. i think the debt ceiling is force something kind

then "newsmakers" with oklahoma senator tom coburn. then former president bill clinton talks about medical funding. >> people often say to me, perfectly good question. how much of your time do you spend writing and how much do you spend doing research? great question. no one ever says how much of your time do you spend thinking? and that's probably the most important part of it. >> tonight in part 2 of c-span's "q&a." >> this morning, town hall.com political editor guy benson and jed legham founder and editor of think progress.orling discuss politics and the 2012

and i wonder how you're going to deal with this particularly when social conservatives, like tom coburn, senator from oklahoma, has said the following about you. and i would put it up on the screen. this is from last summer. senator coburn "made it clear that he won't be on newt gingrich's 2012 presidential bandwagon. gingrich is a super smart man, but he doesn't know anything about commitment to marriage," he said of the thrice-married house speaker. he's the last person i'd vote for for president of the united states. his life indicates he does not have the commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president." >> they have a right to ask these questions. i have made mistakes in my life. i've gone to god for forgiveness and to seek reconciliation and i'd say look at my life now. look at the marriage i have, the close relationship with my daughters and their two husbands. look at the loving relationship we have with our grandchildren, and decide whether or not i am today a person that they believe could lead the country and could save us in a period of enormous problems

in the senate, tom coburn yesterday dropped out of the gang of six talks.he other members said they will continue to meet today. the "washington post" says that drones were entering pakistani airspace to keep watch over the osama bin laden compound. the private life, should it impact your vote? their stories about former california gov. arnold schwarzenegger and the imf had as well. we would get your phone calls here. the phone calls are on your screen. let me begin this morning with the "washington post" store. bumpy start raises doubts during a torrid in iowa. in the middle of it all, over the dustup up for his comments about medicare, gingrich has a new problem to contend with, -- that is from the "washington" this morning. in other stores, from the "christian post" posted yesterday. new cambridge there is a marital indiscretions for evangelicals to discuss. a democrat is up first on this discussion. has it in the past impacted your road? caller: it is actually lewis. that is ok. for me, and for the electorate i believe, private peccadilloes and personal

. -- tom coburn. today, one senator had to be on the floor of the senate because of the vote coming up at 5:00, but give us a sense as of today, where your discussions stand. >> well, what you have mentioned is exactly right about the fact that we could have six senators sit in a room for almost six months in this town, and the contents of the discussion might get out. that is the way it used to work, and our goal was to make it work that way from day one, and they have been tremendous to work with. we have talked about a lot of sensitive issues, obviously, and this issue in and of itself was so complex that any time we reached mutual common ground on one issue, then something else would pop up, and that happened during the course of all of this, and at times, we became frustrated, but we came back together. senator cockburn made the decision last tuesday to exit the group and as he said, take a break. i am not giving up hope that tom is going to come back. ande're able to reach one, we have gotten cl

on newsmakers, tom coburn. he was a member of the gang of six.en working on a deficit plan. he talks about the nation's debt situation, the work of the gain of six, and his involvement with the nevada senator. >> he was forced to resign. the ethics committee report has, you name it, stop the affair. it discusses whether you are an inch -- intermediary of how to get mr. hampton out. >> that is totally inaccurate. i got a phone call wednesday from hampton asking me to communicating a message to john. i said i did not know. i called john and left a message. the story you hear is not accurate. >> this group known as crew has filed an ethics complaint. have you been contacted? >> i have testified before the committee. i have no worries. i would do what i did again. we put to families back together with multiple children. those marriages are stable right now. i am proud of what i did and the way i did it. >> you can see the entire interview with the senator on the "newsmakers." 10:00 a.m. on c-span. it is also available online at c-span.org. on thursda

grants given by the national science foundation, the subject of a scathing new report by senator tom coburn. >> what it says to me is they have too much money if they spend money on something like that. >> reporter: and then there's agency's arlington, virginia, headquarters, $19 million a year in rent. and they're looking to move into a new building for $26 million a year. and nsf says the move is necessary because its current 20-year lease is almost over. coburn's report also cites jell-o wrestling and nsf project in antarctica, although the nsf says those contractors not employees. either way, coburn says that the spending is out of control. >> 12 different agencies doing pure research and we're duplicating and not sharing the experience. >> reporter: nsf strongly defends its projects telling us they, quote, have advanced frontiers of science and engineering, improved americans lives and provide foundation for countless new industries and jobs. that's true. one nsf project led to the creation of google. another led to the invention of bar codes. more recently, there is the robot hoedown

captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> on newsmakers, tom coburn of oklahoma. the was a member of the senate bank of six. they work towards a deficit reduction plan. he left the group on may 17. people talk about the nation's debt situation and his involvement with nevada -- with the nevada senator. >> the senator was forced to resign. the ethics committee report says how you try to convince the senator to stop the affair. ultimately it discusses whether or not you were an intermediary or working on the question of how to get mr. hampton out. >> it was totally not the characterization of what happened. i said of caldwell if he wanted me to. the story you hear is not an accurate reflection of what happened. >> this group known as crew -- as the committee contacted you about them? >> what i did i would do exactly the same way again. we put two families back together with multiple children. both marriages are stable right now. i am proud of what i did and the way i did it. there is nothing unethical about what we did. >> you can see the entire intervi

he will take your calls, e- mails, and tweets. >> our guest on "newsmakers" is tom coburn.on post" and pay a congressional reporter. >> one of the main things i want to talk to you about is something you have become well known for. a group of senators was trying to solve the problem of the $4 trillion national debt. that group was trying to bring all the pieces together to try to address revenues come to bring down spending, and deal with entitlements. it seemed like our best hope to find a bipartisan compromise. but you decided to take a break. can you tell us why? >> it is not just a $14 trillion debt. people need to understand that. we are projected to run excesses' of $1 trillion deficits each of the next nine years. that is unsustainable. our country will crash economically if we don't fix that. the largest component is mandatory spending programs -- social security, medicaid, medicare. we ran into an impasse. i do not think there is any hard feelings. i just thought we needed to take a break from this. it is a false

and caught up in this, another senator, tom coburn.s an interpete jerry to doug hampton. at first pushing ensign to stop the affair with hampton's wife. later meeting with hampton's lawyer three times to discuss a possible financial deal to help him, quote, start over. then balking on hampton asked for $8 million. ensign ainterruptly resigned last week rather than face what the ethics chair woman now says would likely have been expulsion. his farewell speech now even more revealing. >> i even tried not to become caught up in my own self-importance. unfortunately the urge to believe in it was stronger than the cowher to fight it. this is how dangerous the feeling of power and adulation can be. >> ensign's former colleagues said he violated campaign finance laws and made false statements to the practical election commission about $96 thousand payment his parents made to the hamptons. the justice department is reviewing all of the charges which could amount to jail time and as for the senate ethics committee, issuing this kind of damning

on news makers this week, republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma. senator coburn was a member of the senate gang of six working towards a deficit reduction plan but left the group on may 17. senator coburn talks about the nation's debt situation, the work of the gang of six and his involve woman john ensign. >> senator ensign was forced to resign. your ethics committee report has your name on it, how you tried to convince senator ensin to stop the affair and ultimately discussed the question as to whether or not you were an intermediary or working on the question of how to get mr. hampton out and whether there would be compensation. >> that's a totally inaccurate characterization of what happened. i got a phone call one day from hampton and he said would you communicate a message to john and i said, i don't know, i'll ask him if you want him to and i called john and he said yeah so the story you hear is not an accurate reflection of what happened. >> the group known as crew has filed an ethics complaint against you. has the committee contacted you b

pull together, rather than a part, and do what the gang of six is doing -- senator kent conrad, tom coburn, michael, senator dorgan, -- michael crapo, senator dorgan, and, help me out. >> you have warner. >> those six guys to come together and do what is right for our country. we could solve this problem today, and america could compete with any country in the world because our balance sheet problems are not nearly what the problems are in other countries as they face a people that do not have the right to vote, or do not have democracy. but, our problems with our financial structure are so deep that if we do not face up to them, we will see this problem, and see it really, really quickly. >> one of the reasons we were delighted to have you join us today is that it appears part of the difficulty has to do with the myths that surround this area. it is clear that the seriousness of our budget situation has not registered with many americans. i had the opportunity to meet with senate budget committee chairman kent conrad, and he emphasized that to make in our discussion, and here is a stateme

senator tom coburn -- i think he is probably the most direct, natural, and the most convincing. guest: charles makes an interesting point, and i have heard this quite a bit over the last six or so months about the emerging field and more broadly about the republican leadership. i got criticized because i am a direct -- i speak to mind. i am not going to sit here and do the talking points. my staff used to go nuts because i do not do talking points. that is what leadership is expected to do honestly with people. two things and that charles said strikes me. direct and convincing. look me in the eye and tell me directly when you are going to do. do not sugarcoat it. convince me that your vision, your policy, your direction is something worth fighting for. that is what people are looking for. it is what, obama brought to the table in 2008, a freshness of what he was saying and how he said it. he has become aloof and sitting back and letting things unfold without directly leading. what makes paul ryan stand out right now is he has put something on the table and said this is the visio

host: senator tom coburn of oklahoma announced this week he was taking a hiatus. guest on our " newsmakers" program this week. here is one of his comments during the interview. >> tell me why it is ok for the senate not to have a budget. the majority leader does not want the votes because it is hard political vote, and the minority leader does not want the votes because it is a hard vote. guest: he is right. where is the budget? host: both sides of the aisle. neither leader want this because of politics guest: politics is always a part of everything and washington. the american people want a balanced budget. if they believe we need a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, that says to me we need to balance the budget this year as well. there have been so many programs and promises made over the years that we need to deal with that. you mentioned the ryan budget as one issue, and a big part of that discussion was medicare. i practiced medicine for 25 years in wyoming. my mother is on medicare. we need to save and strengthen medicare. it is the biggest part

you also know that senator tom coburn left the gang. he is our guest this week on " newsmakers." leflore group on may 17. he discussed related topics like the gang of six, why he joined, why he left, and whether republicans would be willing to agree to revenue increases and spending cuts. >> it seems like where the gang of six was going, if you reached the agreement we were homing in on, you would have had more democrats willing to embrace it than republicans, because republicans, with the exception of a handful of people, are less willing to give on the question of revenues. >> i do not think that is true. i think that republicans want to fix the problems just as badly as anyone. first of all, they have been burned. and few get the revenue increases but not the spending. we were trying to negotiate spending cuts. i think that a lot of republicans will go there if they think it solves the problem. but it passed a relief of a problem. we have an impasse that you are not really addressing. significant programs in a way that will create significant savings. host: you can see that pr

host: tom coburn will be ever guessed this weekend on "newsmakers.o -- will be our guest this weekend on "newsmakers." he will speak on why the senate is moving so slowly on a budget and spending issues. >> why don't we have a budget? how is it ok that the senate does not have a budget? majority leaders do not want the votes. minority leaders do not want the votes. how do we maintain our positions? host: you can see the entire interview on sunday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. let's go to north carolina on our democratic line. caller: i would like to respond to the 84-year-old man that called in. i do not know why he does not understand that a law was passed by congress, and they determined how much the cost of living increases were raised. i do not know why everybody wants to blame obama for everything that has happened. i also want to ask them, what do you think about the voter i.d. loss past -- laws that will prevent people your age from voting? guest: i do not understand the argument that it will prevent young people from voting. i cannot think

quali equality of -- i'm looking for the equalities of senator tom coburn of oklahoma. i have listened to him several times speaking. he is very sincere, very honest and really wants to some the country's problems. talking about government waste and duplication of programs. he is very honest. host: thank you for your call. last voice on the question. we will have hrts of time to -- lots of time to talk about it next month. our next segment is with the head of the u.s. energy information administration. he is going to help us understand what affects the price you pay at the pump. we will listen to the oil executive one of our callers who were on capitol hill yesterday defending the oil industry tax breaks. we will listen to that. >> fossil fuels have and will continue to represent more than 80% of the energy deposits required around the world. one of the key things that is important for our country is natural gas, which over the last several years the technology that we are blessed with a great deal of natural gas. some think for decades or centuries to come. so, we are

[applause] >> senator tomko burn has called earmarks the gateway -- senator tom coburn has called earmarks gateway drug to -- and they explode spending and even when republicans were in charge they dramatically increased. and you supported -- has your view of these earmarks changed and where would you go policy wise if you were president? >> jim demint, now, he doesn't have nearly the trac something we should get rid of. >> senator rick santorum. >> thank you very much. [applause] and our third participant is governor mitt romney from massachusetts. governor? >> thank you, my friends. good to see so many people this evening. great to have you here. thank you. for your great service to this great state and to our nation. ank you also, mr. speaker, thank you for those that have come from outside the state to join us this evening. what a week this has been. from one extreme to the other. our hearts go to the people in the south who were affected by that terrible series of tornadoes. this morning, great excitement as we saw a wedding across the pond. and big political news this week. the presi