that this morning from "the washinton post." and this figure, back in 1960, and curtains of current dollars, how much we spend on -- in terms of current dollars, how much we spend on national health expenditures. it was $200 billion in 1960, $2.30 trillion today. joining us from baltimore, good morning, and democrats alike. caller: good morning. i am currently fine with my health care because i go to dental school so i was able to get health care through the dental school. all i did this was my ankle, and i could not pay for it. even my wife, she could not really change her job because she has high blood pressure and she needed health care. she could not switch jobs because she has to get health care. i really think that the president is trying to have a public auction and that would be really great because people would have a choice to get what they want. in most places i have been, there is only one health-care company in that particular area. people are not really aware of, and a lot of people that are not really satisfied wi

below the fold in "the washinton post," "a first lady who demands substance." some of the changes inside the first lady's staff and her efforts to have an agenda here in washington and around the country. we will come back to this issue in the next hour on the private lives of public officials. we will take a short break. when we come back, congressman boucher will be with us.

our focus for the next 20 minutes is from "the washinton post" editorial, "no laughing matter." the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, considerably more decorous then the chinese students in testimony before congress wednesday. but only slightly less skeptical. "maintaining the confidence of the financial markets requires that we as a nation begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance. the editorial says it is serious to time -- is a serious time to get serious about deficit. caller: good morning. i do not understand it. i thought that we had a debt approaching 12 trillion dollars right now, and if i understand the gross domestic product of our nation, it is in the 14-15 trillion dollar range. so i do not understand where they get the 40%, the 80%, the round numbers. host: the numbers can become blurry, but it is the year-to- year deficit, the overall debt. you are right, the last i saw, the overall debt was $11.9 trillion. caller: i still do not understand what you just said. we go $12 trillion. our gdp is $14 trillion or $15 trillion. so how do we get

host: three different sets of numbers from "the washinton post." $3,120. that is the yearly amount that house republican leader john boehner says the legislation would cost each household by 2015. between $98.100 $40 and -- we will hear from fred, on the phone from carleton, texas -- carrollton, texas. caller: good morning, steve, and thanks for c-span. i am not a believer in co2 being a global warming gas. it does hold some heat energy, but i read a book by james p. hogan one time, and in their he described basically there are 33 degrees celsius of greenhouse gas effect on the planet. 32 degrees celsius comes from water vapor, and one degree comes from all other gases. that includes co2. so i did a little bit of checking myself, and when i ran the numbers for heat energy -- i mean, it seems to be exactly right. i would like to request from the congressman and congress, for that matter, can you guys just published a breakdown of the heat energy in the atmosphere contained by the gases? i mean, nitrogen is going to be first because it is the most abundant g

"the washinton post" yesterday, 70% of people support this. the actual figure -- and you all keep quoting the guy down in georgia that he came back and told you he did not say that -- the actual amount of money this is going to cost, if it does cost any money, is a i think $174 a year for a household. what this amounts to is that it is not going to lose jobs, it is going to create jobs. guest: i am not sure it deserves much of a comment. i personally do use the term cap and trade because that is what is called. i

host: scott wilson for "the washinton post," thank you for being with us. coming up next, congressman akin will join us. now a news update from c-span radio. >> president obama focuses on health issues when he meets this afternoon with several governors and hosts a town hall meeting later today at the white house carried by a c dot carried by abc news. later, kathleen sebelius says the president is willing to listen on how to pay for health- care overhaul as long as they do not increase the deficit. the senate received articles of impeachment from the house this morning in the case against judge samuel kent, a federal judge in texas who has been convicted of sexual assault in his home state. the senate has not held such a trial since the impeachment of president bill clinton in 1999. the federal reserve board continues their two-day meeting today. members are considering whether some programs intended to drive down rates on mortgages and other consumer debt to be slow down. most economists predict fed chairman ben bernanke will not raise interest rates. tho