whitehouse: thank you very much. madam president, bad things can bring out the best in people, and i rise today to speak about our response to the earthquake that devastated haiti last month, and in particular, to the compassionate efforts that rhode islanders have made to help those who have suffered through this tragedy. the 7.0 scale magnitude earthquake that struck haiti on january 12, 2010, is really the first great natural disaster of the new decade. even before the quake struck, the small island nation of haiti faced significant challenges as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. haiti's been racked by years of political strife, and the constant threat of hurricanes and tropical storms. now this most recent catastrophe has led to, for us, almost unimaginable suffering on the part of the people of haiti. on february 3, haiti's prime minister announced that over 200,000 people had been confirmed dead. the u.n. has estimated that over 3 million people have been directly affected by the disaster. in the c

joining us from los angeles is james whitehouse. he was married to susan until her death in 1989. susan was serving life in prison for her role in the infamous tait labianca murders. how did you meet susan? >> she wrote a book in 1979, and in 1985 i was able to find it. i was trying to get out of partying and i found this book, and it was mainly about her born-again experience, but it talked about how she had turned her life around from death row, and it was hard for me not to decide that if she could do it from that environment i can certainly could get my act together with all the advantages i had in life. >> larry: how did you go to meet her? >> well, i realized at that time there was only one women's prison in california, and at the time it was the largest women's prison in the world. >> larry: is that chino? >> yes. and so i wrote her. and mainly for encouragement as i went through these changes in my life, and she wrote back and i was surprised at how articulate she was and how intelligent and how encouraging, and so i just kept writing her. >> larry: you got married in pris

then on the whitehouse side i detect an atmosphere of serenity. there's constancy, keep on keeping on. they're not fighting amongst themselves, they're not really changing, they're not going to switch into some clintonite mode. there are these three different groups. >> does that mean that president obama and his folks feel they're off the hook now because they can blame a lot of the republican no voting obviously and take the heat off themselves. is that what's going on here? >> that may be part of it. it's a major element in the serenity david describes is the calendar. every host member is up every two years. they're all facing the voter's verdict this november. the president has a four year term and a four year cycle. remind you of president reagan who lost 26 seats in his attempt and got re-elected four years later. clinton lost 56 seats and got re-elected. so the serenity is partly induced by the fact that look it may be rough patch right now. we're not on the ballot this november, the other people are. >> i also think, well it's partly that

. >> "whitehouse chronicle" is produced in collaboration with howard university television. now luellen king. >> hello again and thank you for coming along. i am joined by andy from polito, and a journalist with many years' experience, and another guest. [unintelligible] he predicted the crash of 2008 with back in this program. and he forgot he had predicted it. andy glass, we see endless troubles in the financial world. we had our own with the banks and suddenly europe is in chaos because the greeks have been cooking the books. what is going on? why can we not trust any numbers that we get? >> because it is all one ball of wax. in athens, it is in germany or the u.k. with their separate currency. it is a perpetual market. when the markets are closed here they are open in asia. what we saw in the crash of 2008 is that everything now is interconnected. we cannot separate the economic situation on a national basis, and yet individual governments still have a lot to say about policy. you have a disconnect there we have not solved. >> markets are supposed to be all milling. how

whitehouse: thank you. i appreciate the senator from illinois yielding for, if you wouldn't mind, a series of questions. the first question has to do with the -- i guess i'd say the sense with which we on this side of the aisle should receive the protestations of intense concern about the deficit that come from the other side of the aisle. and it relates back to when the previous republican administration first took office, as the senator from illinois mentioned. the last democratic administration left an annual budget in surplus, and a nation that had a $5 trillion debt. but my recollection is that in addition to a nation in annual budget surplus, what president clinton also left the republican administration that followed was a budget trajectory projected by the nonpartisan congressional budget office to eliminate the national debt of the united states of america. we would be a debt-free nation if the democratic policies of president clinton had been followed according to the nonpartisan professional cong

thank you. >> senator whitehouse. >> i haven't been here 34 years.i've been here only three years but i find it extremely discouraging with these gentlemen before us, that of the defense intelligence agency, the head of the fbi, the director of national intelligence, the head of the central intelligence agency and acting head of the state department's intelligence service who i would add is the acting head because there's a republican blockade of the person slated for the position here more than a year into the obama administration that all of this committee can talk about is where mr. abdulmutallab was mirandized and where the trials should be. there are so many issues important to the national security that these gentlemen have expertise in. i think it is clear the tradition has been strongly towards civilian trials. there is one person in the world incarcerated as a terrorist as a result of a military tribunal right now, hundreds because of the other come and get this question persists and persists and persists. it seems to be the only talking poi

my time is expired. >> thank you very much, senator whitehouse. senator widen. >> thank you, madam chair and thank you to all of you for your service to our country. we've had a number of closed sessions on the christmas day attack. but i'd like to talk about a couple of issues in public to getctuall on the record. when i think the country is especially my sense is that the intelligence community does a good job collecting intelligence but does a -- has a harder time integrating it and analyzing it. you all have talked about a number of steps through the course of the afternoon. senator pa net ayou tapanetta, talked about this. i want to ask this of you, director blair. if the events leading up to abdulmutallab's infect were repeated over the next several months, how confident are you now that a new mr. abdulmutallab would be identified as a threat before he bordarded an airplane bound for the united states? >> senator wyden, i'm confident that someone who left the trail that mr. abdulmutallab did would now be found, even in the month since the 25

my time is expired. >> thank you very much, senator whitehouse.>> thank you, madam chair and thank you to all of you for your service to our country. we've had a number of closed sessions on the christmas day attack. but i'd like to talk about a couple of issues in public to get actually on the record. when i think the country is especially concerned about. my sense is that the intelligence community does a good job collecting intelligence but does a -- has a harder time integrating it and analyzing it. you all have talked about a number of steps through the course of the afternoon. senator pa net ayou tapanetta, talked about this. i want to ask this of you, director blair. if the events leading up to abdulmutallab's infect were repeated over the next several months, how confident are you now that a new mr. abdulmutallab would be identified as a threat before he bordarded an airplane bound for the united states? >> senator wyden, i'm confident that someone who left the trail that mr. abdulmutallab did would now be found, even in the month since th

senator whitehouse?not too much 6 an ordeal -- of an ordeal for our witnesses. >> they are here and ready to answer. >> thank you. dr. marin, in your written testimony you looked at the 11 million households that are under water on their home mortgages and conclude, a, they are likely to default, and b, that that will eat away at the thin capital cushions of many banks. to what extent do you believe that the liability for these mortgages has already been written down by the banks, and would you distinguish between mortgages that have been securitized and mortgage that is are actually held by the bank? >> i don't have a good answer to your first question. maybe dr. johnson does. on the second, there are, as you know, some of these mortgages have been secure advertised and have been moved in various places including back on to the federal balance sheets. you have other ones out there held by the banks. the reality is, this goes back to the uncertainty point to what extent have we realized the difficulties

senator whitehouse? >> thank you, chairman.ll of the witnesses who gave a very valuable testimony. i want to extend my particular participation to dr. rivlin, and for many years of service. -- her many years of service. i would like to to really focus on dr. pinner. i want to thank you for being here. i thank you very much for presenting -- choosing the nation's fiscal future reports. it is the first time that i have seen a budget document address, in anything other than a cursory way, the value that can be achieved from reform in the health care delivery system. you put it in the context, on pages 85-86, and later on 95- 102, of the medicare system. but, um, if we are, in fact, engaged in achieving those "very large opportunities to make the system more efficient in the near term," if we are engaged in capturing those, it is my understanding that because they are systemwide reforms -- if a hospital increases quality, reduces infections to zero, we are no longer paying $7,000 per infection -- $70,000 per infection, it is not ju

respect to medicare and medicaid and is provision in our bill supported by senator baucus and senator whitehouseand all my states. previously the states has 60 days to identify fraud and collect the money and turn half of it to the federal government. as a result they did almost none of it. rather they could do it in 60 days. they just let it go and what we're doing is under the legislation change it that you have a year to identify and go after the money and get it back and then that is on the legislation. there is a $250 million increase to fight wasted. will you talk about that because we all know it is your job there and i think we're using private contractors to recover at least in three states the last couple years the money, fraud and taken out of medicare recovered a $700 million alone and we're taking that too all 50 states. can you talk how these resources and the partnership will help us get back more money. >> well, senator, the president's i think takes very seriously that we be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and certainly anyone stealing out of medicare or stealing from a this a

million by milking the former contacts and uses that to run from -- for congress not in the obama whitehouseis a lobbyist now who was the ex obama administration official already less than one year and somebody went to the obama administration and left him became a lobbyist. >> this is damaging because anything festering fence are gives more power in the fact takes political power away and gives perverse incentives because they will say this will kill the program or i will tinker that way when it passes somebody's to hire me to figure out. that happens quite a bit. that is very problematic some actions have helped her you cannot become at a certain level use where not to become a lobbyist for a while more not to lobby the administration but this is radical anyone who is an elected official or makes over $100,000 at any point* should be prohibited from becoming a lobbyist. i don't think that would pass because the people affected are those who write the bills. on the other hand,, that is the only lobbying regulation a proposed and in the end i would not back it because lobbying is an expressi

senator whitehouse? it's not too much 6 an ordeal -- of an ordeal for our witnesses. >> they are here and ready to answer. >> thank you. dr. marin, in your written testimony you looked at the 11 million households that are under water on their home mortgages and conclude, a, they are likely to default, and b, that that will eat away at the thin capital cushions of many banks. to what extent do you believe that the liability for these mortgages has already been written down by the banks, and would you distinguish between mortgages that have been securitized and mortgage that is are actually held by the bank? >> i don't have a good answer to your first question. maybe dr. johnson does. on the second, there are, as you know, some of these mortgages have been secure advertised and have been moved in various places including back on to the federal balance sheets. you have other ones out there held by the banks. the reality is, this goes back to the uncertainty point to what extent have we realized the difficu

senator whitehouse?f it's not too much 6 an ordeal -- of an ordeal for our witnesses. >> they are here and ready to answer. >> thank you. dr. marin, in your written testimony you looked at the 11 million households that are under water on their home mortgages and conclude, a, they are likely to default, and b, that that will eat away at the thin capital cushions of many banks. to what extent do you believe that the liability for these mortgages has already been written down by the banks, and would you distinguish between mortgages that have been securitized and mortgage that is are actually held by the bank? >> i don't have a good answer to your first question. maybe dr. johnson does. on the second, there are, as you know, some of these mortgages have been secure advertised and have been moved in various places including back on to the federal balance sheets. you have other ones out there held by the banks. the reality is, this goes back to the uncertainty point to what extent have we realized the diffic

whitehouse: thank you. i was presiding during the time that my friend, senator corker, was speaking. and so i did not have the chance to respond. but i want to assure him through the chair and through this question that as the distinguished senator from missouri has just said, this was not planned on our side, at least not by me. i came for the votes. and the only surprise tonight was my surprise that a senator was going to stop our unemployment insurance program. it never crossed my mind until it just happened tonight that that was within the realm of possibility. i have 75,000 people unemployed in my small state of rhode island. we are at 13% unemployment. so when i discovered as a surprise tonight at these votes that this was going to happen, like senator durbin, i couldn't just walk away from this chamber. no way. no way. but it wasn't as part of a planned surprise. the person in my life who was surprised at what happened tonight was me. and frankly, i'm still surprised. and i'm surprised that this hasn

senator whitehouse? much 6 an ordeal -- of an ordeal for our witnesses. >> they are here and ready to answer. >> thank you. dr. marin, in your written testimony you looked at the 11 million households that are under water on their home mortgages and conclude, a, they are likely to default, and b, that that will eat away at the thin capital cushions of many banks. to what extent do you believe that the liability for these mortgages has already been written down by the banks, and would you distinguish between mortgages that have been securitized and mortgage that is are actually held by the bank? >> i don't have a good answer to your first question. maybe dr. johnson does. on the second, there are, as you know, some of these mortgages have been secure advertised and have been moved in various places including back on to the federal balance sheets. you have other ones out there held by the banks. the reality is, this goes back to the uncertainty point to what extent have we realized the difficulties we are

"washington times" the whitehouse said that the got will run huge deficits for the future.the "publication politico" five years, $5.08 trillion in debt. this $3.8 trillion budget is another sea of red ink. more of the record spending and debt that have come to characterize this administration. let me go over some important numbers. under the president's budget, the budget which is the gap between revenues and spending in a year will reach $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2010. for fiscal year 2011, the budget is expected to be $1.3 trillion. the deficit, i should say. that will mark the third year in a row of trillion dollar-plus deficits beginning in 2009. these three years of deficits are more than the total accumulated debt from george washington to george w. bush. the president's budget also virtually doubles the debt held by the public over five years an virtually triples it over 10. and it exceeds 60% of the g.d.p. as a share of the economy this year, and that surpasses last year's 50-year high. interest payments will more than quadruple by the end of the decade reaching

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. may i ask that the pending quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i want to speak just briefly about today's vote. today this body, in a rare but very welcome moment of at least partial bipartisanship voted to pass leader reid's jobs bill. while that bill does not include every provision that i would like to see, it is certainly an importantship and i commend my leagues from both parties for supporting these provisions to put people back to work. as a senator from rhode island which currently faces one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, at near 13%, i know that the help contained in this bill, which builds on the programs we passed last year in the recovery act, cannot come soon enough. and i hope the vote is a watershed. over the past few months, i've heard from hundreds of rhode islanders who are struggling just to find work. i've heard from carol in north provid

spy ring i am not sure how many people in this room are watching this are are familiar when the whitehouse tapes became available? >> with i was writing my first book that focused that the military had moved against the president and it was called an affair and being the young men and the chairman of the joint chiefs, and while i was doing the project, in great detail john had a letter that allowed him to go in get things out of his files. he said i am going to washington i have a admiral confession. directing the entire operation. i will try and get it for you. sure enough he came out with a transcription of that confession that delays out the whole case. the briefcases they broke open and he also says cut the sin on their plans and talk about the data in detail. you still cannot get that document. we have it and have now put it on mine. it was in my first book. it is very important in this context to understand the military, while republicans and democrats go the military's day. i the one to talk about them as though they are one because they are not. some people do not agree but these f

illinois or michigan, but, you know, when senator jack reed came to the floor and senator sheldon whitehouse, they talked about hundreds of people that their state who will be cut off from unemployment checks on sunday night because of the objections of one senator who say that we have to learn our lessons about deficits. the simple fact of the matter is that this is an emergency situation and should be treated as such. if the floodwaters were rising in kentucky or illinois, and people were displaced from their homes, desperate to survive, we would not sit down and do a calculation about whether to send them emergency aid. we would do it. because we are a nation that cares. and a nation that responds. and we believe that helpless victims deserve a helping hand. these are helpless victims of the recession and they're helping -- their helping hand is an unemployment check which will be cut off sunday night because of the objection of one senator. some came to the floor last night, senator corker of tennessee, who i respect who said i don't think you ought to be doing this. i don't believe this