tony fratto, i don't deny mr. obama his political and presidential progty of take credit for anything good that happens to anything, including the economy. isn't ate wit a wee bit unfair o give bush credit, paulson credit and bernanke credit and most of all, the american businessman and free enterprise. >> i'm with you on that i'm not surprised you and i agree on that i'm surprised watching the last segment, robert reich and i agree on the outlook. the t.a.r.p. is what pulled us out of the worst days. we keep hearing the president say the worst may be over. mr. president, the worst is over, the worst was that horror show we were living back in the fall when banks were failing, aig had to be taken over, fannie and freddie had to be taken over, we broke the buck, these guys did extraordinary work developing the t.a.r.p. and programs bernanke and fed put over and ben bernanke's contributions at the new york fed, they pulled us out of the abyss, if not for the work they did, we wouldn't be talking about maybe a recove

bush, tony fratto had to steer down the washington press corps. you recently said that they are "enablers." guest: i do an award-winning commentary every thursday. you only have to win one award. i will give a shame usplug for my station. i watched the recent press conference. first of all, i have criticism of the president. before, during the transition, he would come out and never let the appointees speak. i found that to be a bit odd. i am old enough to remember presidents the mortgages. moving to what you asked, i remember a time when the might yes, presidents have it favors, but people would raise their hands, and the president would call on people. he did not have a list of the anointed few he would call on. all the press people sit there as a manikins and asked the questions of the day. there are never any surprising questions. they accept this protocol of not asking questions. yes, the president used to call them favorites. but this almost seems scripted. they are called and told that you will be allowed to ask a question. i think that the

bush, tony fratto had to steer down the washington press corps.ou recently said that they are "enablers." guest: i do an award-winning commentary every thursday. you only have to win one award. i will give a shame usplug for my station. i watched the recent press conference. first of all, i have criticism of the president. before, during the transition, he would come out and never let the appointees speak. i found that to be a bit odd. i am old enough to remember presidents the mortgages. moving to what you asked, i remember a time when the might yes, presidents have it favors, but people would raise their hands, and the president would call on people. he did not have a list of the anointed few he would call on. all the press people sit there as a manikins and asked the questions of the day. there are never any surprising questions. they accept this protocol of not asking questions. yes, the president used to call them favorites. but this almost seems scripted. they are called and told that you will be allowed to ask a question. i think that there

tony fratto, kind of conservative republican guy. do you see how this exemplifies some problems of the housing bubble and too easy money? >> yeah. this really is the problem. if this was the only situation, it would be pretty unique.. the truth, you go through south florida, parts of arizona and los angeles, you see this repeated, repeated, condos with 700 units with 20, 30, 40 tenants.s. the problem is we set up these government programs and government programs are never set up to deal with this kind of problem, never with vacation homes, these kinds of condo units. >> julian a question for him? >> yeah. one of the first things you learn in law school, when it comes to property there, is something known as specific performance. when you contracted and you bought this place, you were also promised you would have all the amenity, swimming pool and all the other facilities inside the unit. my understanding none of those are operational because nobody else is inhabiting this structure other than you.u. you actually have a legal case arg

tanya acker, and nancy skinner, and amanda carpenter and tony fratto, former white house aid to president bush. tanya, the billions of dollars goldman earned means goldman will pay the federal government $5 billion in income taxes this year. why should we be upset gold man is earning money. >> that's all well and good. frankly, i don't think anyone is upset goldman is earning money. what happened was goldman was the beneficiary of the government intervention and lived to do another deal and got a government bailout and taxpayers are confused by that isn't being felt on main street. >> you are saying they lied about the bailout. that is entirely untrue. the company had $10 million in capital and never needed it and paid it back yet you guys won't get out of their face. >> aig, dennis, what about aig. >> exactly. >> i'll bet neither one of you has reported this with wall street sources on aig, i happen to know those $20 billion at risk, aig gave goldman $10 billion in cash and goldman did default swaps with the remainder. goldman would have been covered by aig if it faltered and they did no

let's talk about the great recovery with jerry bowyer of boyer media, our bull and tony fratto, a formeruse aide, our bear. tony, you were with us, i could swear you were the kickass of pax americana and then i read suddenly you're a big doubter and cash for clunkers on wall street, people are paying cash for clunkers symptom with wilful disregard for the fundamentals. explain yourself. >> i don't like being a bear. i'm a bull by nature and want to see the economy take off and firms do well. >> yet? >> yet i look at it and see gdp, 70% of gdp is the consumer. is consumption, i see people -- we have a way too many people out of work, out of cash and out of credit. and the economy still depends on people being able to go out and buy stuff. if they don't have cash and don't have credit and out of a job, they're not buying stuff. i can see a little bounce but it will be choppy. >> what tony's missing there is the idea business inventories are so low a restocking by business could offset that consumer and further more maybe the consumer isn't so fraidy-cat anymore. >> the consumer isn't. by t

julia raginsky, susan, former congresswoman from new york and tony fratto, isn't it time to keep ourugs off goldman sachs and be happy they're profitable. >> i'm with you. it makes me wonder whether people want a special goldman rule, we want to put hobbles on them to keep them from performing well. they've got good talent a good strategy, they were stronger going into the financial crisis, no one should be surprised they're stronger coming out of the financial crisis and why they're doing better? tonya, why are we so mad at goldman sachs? their risk is half of what it was a year ago and they paid back all the t.a.r.p. money and the government made a very good return. why don't you let them out of jai jail? >> i hardly think anybody's at risk of having their fry come to and liberty curtailed. the issue is goldman opted to fundamentally change its business model when it became a bank holding company. while it has two years to reorient its risk, people don't see any sign it's changing its fundamental business strategy. it has to and has two years to do that and we need to know it's act

tony fratto former white house deputy press secretary and a cnbc contributor. thanks so much for joining us. tony, where do we stand in this battle? >> there's still a lot of time left to go in this month. but i'll tell you, it's not looking good for the president. the white house said today the president was setting out to change some minds and it appears he's succeeding. every time he goes out he keeps changing more minds against the health care proposals under consideration in congress. so it's a real problem for them right now. >> greg, you don't agree with that? >> maybe my friend tony can help me. there are so many good arguments against this health reform plan, i'd be the first one to agree. but this euthanasia death squad stuff which is mccarthyite garbage, why haven't any republicans spoken out against this kind of demagoguery? >> i think we know exactly why. but instead of the health plan itself, let's talk about how it's being managed, how the message is being managed. i mean, greg, you said the issue is now radioactive for a lot of democrats. >> it i

. >> my next two guests tony fratto, a former white house deputy press secretary and cnbc contributortor services. inflation or deflation, which is the issue? >> i think it's inflation. i haven't seen signs of deflation yet. cpi still is in pretty good shape and you know, really if you look at the risk, we have all these liquidity programs out there, zero policy rate from the fed. i think the risk is definitely on the side of inflation. >> we still see deleveraging going on. >> going to happen for sometime. the fed knows how to deal with deflation and not afraid of it yet or they'd be talking about expectations a little bit more than they are. they're very primitive tools to deal with deflation. we may see disinflation, you know, some lower prices. maybe even some deflation, but not a broad deflationary spiral. >> what do you think, john. >> i don't know how you can talk about being worried about price when it's real estate deflation that was one of the principal drivers behind the latest recession. we'll still very much kempbd about price deflation as it relates to rale assets. comme

today on c-span is "washington journal" our guests include tony fratto and mark plotkin on national politics. and then john mercurio looks about governors' res

we get the thoughts of tony fratto, he's former white house deputy press secretary and a cnbc contributorand paulie qwali, president of qwali & associates, a washington, d.c.-based strategic consulting firm, also a former chairman of democratic national committee's business council. guys, good to see you. paul, let me start with you. what do you think of some of these big banks that got taxpayer money also getting funds to help break up aig? >> a sound banking sector is both a necessity and an indicator of a recovering economy. so nobody wants a weak banking sector. >> but i hear a but. >> i think the question here is if these banks are in fact going to get the taxpayer a good rate of return on this sale, then if these fees are in the normal course of business then i think that's fair. but i think there are going to be a lot of people in washington -- >> jim, what do you think? yes or no? >> again, i think -- based on what i saw in the "wall street journal" today it looks like the fees are fairly high by again -- >> you told our producer that this was the biggest atm fee and that you are