host: does the bls report, doesn't talk about union membership at all? guest: i don't think it talked- about it. union membership in the economy is a fraction of what was coming out of world war ii, but i'm one of the rare union members and the service sector. host: which one are you in? guest: iapi -- it is called. caller: i want to make it, about the republican blaming the workers -- make a comment. here in michigan, there used to be fact -- 60 factories here and now there are hardly any and there ain't no jobs out there and a lot of people are not on drugs and educated that need jobs. i don't like the lady who made a comment about unions. unions made all of the benefits -- minimum-wage, it hour days, social security and all of this came about by unions. host: thank you. we will move on to bedford, new jersey, maria. caller: i just want to ask his opinion of futility about getting any more training or education when congress and the president are not going to ever did any of the trade agreements. actively we could walk through fire and they will still

>> well, for one thing, union memberships, most of the plans are in a tailspin they're not getting out of. union spent $400 million getting democrats elected. we have earl pomeroy putting taxpayers on the hook for bailing out private union retirement plans. >> neil: how are thee being treated differently say than private industry workers where you have the backup of the pension benefit guarantee corporation, the ppgc and provisions to buttress those workers. you're right, pennies on the dollar, the max you can get is $12,000 a year. nevertheless, how is that different from what public workers or public union workers are getting? >> public union workers are -- they're on the hook for taxpayer dollars. so you know, if you were in a private union plan, you know, they can only basically extract what the company is worth. at some point of money runs out where as when you're in a public union, the fact of the matter is you're on the hook for 75, 80% of the budget in california covering retirement plans of public sector workers. they can always raise taxes and generate cash that way. there's

. >> lehrer: the union membership and the city council must still ratify the deal. >> brown: now, a big court decision about the business and regulation of the internet. >> brown: are the companies that provide internet service allowed to block certain sites or online services from their networks? can they charge one site more than another for heavier use of the bandwidth that carries all the digital information? those are some of the questions at the heart of an ongoing debate over so-called "internet or net neutrality"-- a set of principles adopted by the federal communications commission in 2005 that limits the ability of internet providers to treat sites differently. yesterday, the issue gained urgency when a federal appeals court in washington came down with a decision in favor of comcast-- a large internet service provider as well as cable company-- and against the f.c.c. the case began with actions by comcast in 2007 to interfere with an online service called "bit torrent," a so-called file- swapping site that allows consumers to swap movies and other material over the internet f

. >> there are three reasons why we need to be a part of the european union. 3 million jobs depend on our membership of the european union. half of their trade is with the union. 750,000 businesses -- i am sorry it is not your business -- but 750,000 businesses trade with europe. the idea that we should be isolated and on the margins and not in the mainstream of europe would be a terrible, terrible mistake. i worked with the european leaders through the global financial crisis. i had to persuade them that we had to restructure our banks and they had to restructure their banks. i had to restrict -- i had to persuade them that they had to work with america in the g-20. when we work with america, we are stronger to do with the economy, stronger to deal with international crime, stronger to deal with terrorism. let us never again be an empty chair in europe. >> thank you. david cameron. >> i interest and let people like christopher are frustrated with the european union. one of the reasons people are so angry is that politicians that have given way powers to brussels without asking us, the people, first

it still has to be ratified by the council and the union membership.ut the proposed pact gives the city 3800 teachers a hefty raise, 20% over five years. they're going to get extra pay for performance. the city would have to provide professional development programs to help the teachers keep their jobs.there's less reliance on tenure and there are tougher dismissal rules. mayor fenty calls this one of the most progressive contracts of its kind and both sides seem to be happy with it. did both sides win. >> $65 million is coming from private funders, the city's finance officer is white knuckled about this. frankly their concern is we're looking at a personality thing. the full employment bill instead of a union contract. if rhee walks out the door or invited to take her elsewhere, what's going to happen with the private funds underwriting these contractually obligated pay raises. they're very worried the taxpayers will be left holding the bag if the funders don't come together correctly. >> that's exactly right. the devil is in the details. the $64 mill

we are not just a candidate country for membership for the european union. we are a negotiating country. we are negotiating for membership. we're facing to the west. we are continuing and pursuing our foreign policy in the way of normalizing our relations in all directions. and this does not mean that we would leave the west and move in another direction. >> well, there's been a bit of a crisis between turkey and the united states over the last several weeks after a congressional panel voted to describe the armenian genocide as genocide in 1915. and you withdrew ambassadors. then you put your ambassador back. what do you expect president obama to do about this issue, about calling what happened in armenia genocide, especially when he talks to the armenian-american community in about two weeks from now? >> translator: i think that we have to make an observation here first. we have a centrstrategic allian with the united states. so our two countries are very much all the work that they have been doing together. we have been in nato together for a long time. cha

presiding officer: withoutk, congratulating the republic of serbia's application for european union membershipand recognizing serbia's active efforts to integrate into europe and the global community. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. the senate will froatd measure. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. the chair submits to the senate for printing in the senate journal and the "congressional record" the application et al -- errata to the answer of judge thomas por porteous jr. to the articles of impeachment against judge porteous pursuant to s. resolution 4511 with application was received by the secretary of the senate on april 21, 2010. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the

union, well over 45%. in fact their income taxes in the range of 45% and the vat tax, while for membership in the european union starts at 10%, some of them go to 18, 20% on top of the 46%. so i mean that kind of taxation would completely shut down our economy. >> neil: all right congressman, thank you very much. >> how would a vat flakes with the tea partiers? we thought we would ask two prominent members. mark is a national coordinator. jennifer is it a itself -- stefan know. >> many in your organization have said a vat wouldn't be a bad idea if thought solely on its own, not in congestion with the income tax. how do you feel? >> i agree if we talk about replacing income tax with a vat tax that applies to everybody. there's nothing wrong with that discussion. what offend me is you don't hear talk about cutting spending, removing waste and fraud. there are hundreds of billion dollars wasted by our government and we're not talking about cutting these. all they can talk about is how voracious the appetite is to take more money from us. >> what if this is a scheme to make a deal to satisfy folks like you and

there are 3 million reasons we need to be a part of the european union, and they are called jobs. 3 million jobs depend on our membership of the european union. half of our trade is with the european union. 750,000 businesses, i'm sorry it is not your business raising the question about the building trade, but 750,000 businesses trade with europe. the idea we should be isolated and not in the mainstream of europe would be a terrible, terrible mistake. i worked with the european leaders through the global financial cry si.s i had to persuade them that we had to restructure our banks and they had to restructure their banks. i had to persuade them to work with america in the g20. but when europe and america works together, we are so much stronger. stronger to deal with climate change which is one of my priorities. stronger to deal with the economy. stronger to deal with international crime and stronger to deal with terrorism. let us never again be an empty chair in europe. my fear is the policy would put us in that position. >> i understand why people like christopher are frustrated about the european union and some of the

and others 3 million reasons why we should be part of the european union and are called jobs for 3 million jobs depend on our membership of the european union good of our trade is with the european union, 750,000 businesses -- i'm sorry it's not yield business as raising a question about the building trade for 750,000 businesses trade with europe good and the idea that we should again be isolated and on the margins are not in the mainstream of europe would be a terrible, terrible mistake. now i worked with the european leaders to the global financial crisis. i had to persuade them that we had to restructure our banks and they had to restructure their banks. i accused persuade them they had to work with america in the g20. when europe and america work together we are so much stronger, stronger to deal with climate change, which is one of my priorities, stronger to do with the economy, started to do your international with international prices and terrorism. but it's never again be an empty chair in europe. my fear is that it is policy would put us in opposition. >> thank you. david cameron >> i understand why people lik

unions. the uaw is down to the lowest membership's since pre-world war ii. host: what is your outlook on the help of toyota? guest: they paid off the $16.4 billion fine because they had recall information from regulators. we are in a strange time were there are many investigations ongoing. there's not a lot of action so far. toyota is spending heavily on tents -- on incentives. they out sold general motors for one month which was pretty rare. uço will cost toyota hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars to get through this period of recalls. they will have to work to amend its reputation with the american people. that will take a lot of time. this was the same thing as firestone a few years ago. it will be a heavy lift for toyota going forward they are strong company financially and they have the resources host: our guest writes for "the detroit free press." thank you for your time. coming up, we'll take a look at how the senate works especially specific rules the use today -- to debate. >> lets look at another winner. we ask students to te

membership of the euro. if greece cedes from the union, who is going to be next? that's the assurance the market is looking for right now. a simple statement on the table that there's $45 billion available, we'll see about it next time around, won't cut it. >> marc, this is christine. i want to ask you this from my point of view here in asia. we all remember the asian financial crisis and how the imf got involved. are you also a skeptic when it comes to imf involvement in the greek rescue package? will it mean a lot worse for the country? >> a lot worse? it probably certainly means there's going to be a lot more strings attached. and it certainly makes life difficult within the eu. i think if it winds back the tapes here, really what we have to consider is, how did we get into this mess and essentially what it boils down to is nothing to do with greece at all. it's to do with germany turning a blind eye to french infringements of treaty requirements for a whole decade. the fact that they've now actually had to resort to the imf on top of everything shows that the

we supported poland's membership in nato to defend the values which we share and in the european union where they have become a modern economy, a major leader in europe. poland stood by the united states as well in our nato efforts in iraq and afganistan. as poles struggle to come to terms with this week's tragedy, the united states will stand with them and will support their government as it works to overcome the loss of so many of its great leaders. the president and mrs. kaczynski and their delegation were on a mission to try so many years later to close a deep wound to the polish people of the katyn massacre of world war ii where more than 20,000 poles were executed by soviet secret police an buried in mass graves in that forest. as the ambassador said to me this morning, that katyn forest is a holy and a cursed place because now this tragedy is added on to the memory of the losses that took place so many years ago. russia and poland have begun to deal with this tragedy and that is a positive thing. the russian prime minister putin joined conned tusk at a ceremony marking that trag

employee unions in the aerospace, international association of machinists have expressed serious concerns about the administration's proposals in part because of disruptions to their membershipocrat. this is something that cuts across the field. the organized labor, i think, does have and will continue to have an important role and i think the pay scales should stay about the same. but the question really is what is the stability. we have gone through a lot of ups and downs in the aerospace business and that has taken a toll. host: matt, clearwater, florida, republican. caller: hi. yes, i actually know and am related to someone who works at nasa, and to me he already has been assigned a new position at a completely different and a different field having nothing to do with nasa and basically been told, you know, you are going to lose your job and this is the new placeç you are goin to work. now, i don't know if i can say too much about it. but if obama is so interested in, oh, we are going to try to boost the economy by giving it to,ç you know, to make it private, then why in the world would people be losing their jobs if this is supposed to help so much? guest: good questi

employee unions in the aerospace international association of machinists have expressed serious concerns about the administration's proposals in part because of disruptions to their membershipo this is not a traditional company versus labor or republican versus democrat. this is something that cuts across the field. the organized labor, i think, does have and will continue to have an important role and i think the pay scales should stay about the same. but the question really is what is the stability. we have gone through a lot of ups and downs in the aerospace business and that has taken a toll. host: matt clearwater florida, republican. caller: hi. yes, i actually know and am related to someone who works at nasa and to me he already has been assigned a new position at a completely different and a different field having nothing to do with nasa and basically been told you know you are going to lose your job and this is the new place you are going to work. now, i don't know if i can say too much about it. but if obama is so interested in oh we are going to try to boost the economy by giving it to you know to make it private, then why in the world would people be losing their