Transcripts For FOXNEWS Americas Newsroom 20110215

think there's no new money to pay irs folks. bill: where do you get the money and what's behind this? stuart varney digging into this, what's dollars idea? >> got to close the tax gap, that is, the gap between how much money the irs actually collects and how much it thinks it ought to collect. that's a tax gap of some $300 billion per year. so you hire an extra 5000 agents, bringing the total number to well over 100,000 irs agents, boost their budget by 12 percent, to a total of $13 billion per year. they're doing it to close the tax gap, bring in minister money. bill: where did you get this tax gap, by the way? who comes up with the $300 billion? that's basically an accusation that americans are not paying their share. >> that is correct, and it comes from an irs study of 46,000 taxpayers conducted in 2005, it is assumed that the $300 billion gap -- there's a $300 billion gap, however, how you account for the billion dollars cash economy, that has to be included in that -- look, it's a mess. that is not a firm figure. but it comes from the irs, back in 2005. bill: the "wall street journal" says this is part of the mentality in washington, that you believe that there's more tax revenue that's not being paid into the federal government. isn't that the same argument they used during the health care reform that required that 1099 form? >> yes, precisely. bill: any business that makes a purchase over $600, you have to report it? >> yes. bill: that was just overturned resoundingly in the senate. >> 81 votes against it in the senate, correct, thrown out, you're not going to have to report that 1099 over $600 per vendor, not going to have to do it, but you're right, the question is the mentality, where does it come from, it comes from a belief that you crack down, you get hold of business and you shake it, you get hold of the rich and you shake them, and you take more money off them. that's the mentality which says this is how you get more money. the "wall street journal" correctly points out that in january of this year, tax collectors would deduct 23 percent, why, not because of irs agents but because the -- because the economy is growing. that's how you get more money. bill: going back to the late 1990s, that's how we get ourselves out of a decifit, greater revenue into washington. by the way, the health care law also calls for 16,000 irs agents. >> yeah. bill: to be added to the payroll necessary washington, d.c., so they can figure out whether or not people are owning up. >> i think these are two separate hirings of people, the health care reform law says get 16,000, the budget says get 5000. whether that makes it 21,000, i don't know. bill: that's a gross expansion of the irs in washington. >> any way you slice it, you are correct. bill 9:15, check him out, new time on the fox business network. talk to you later. >> thank you. martha: privileged tax code, anybody? that raises questions about how many irs agents you need, right? the last ten years, the number of irs employees, hovering in the 90,000 range. the biggest increase in workers came back in 1998, when the agency added nearly 13,000 jobs. the agency was at its lowest staffing back in 1982, 82,000 workers in that time and the high came ten years later, 1982, 116 -- 1992, 116,000 people organized and getting paychecks, and taking a little more out of yours, right? bill: amen. just into our newsroom, moments from now, president obama will hold a news conference, two hours from now, white house reporters get together in the main room and get a chance to fire away. spending, the budget, certainly top of the list and egypt and perhaps what's happening in the middle east. we'll get a live report from the white house in a few moments on what to expect there. stay tuned for that. martha: meanwhile lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been criticizing the president's spending plan for next year, republicans say the numbers don't add up, paul ryan, with a bit of a play on words, causing the budget, quote, debt on arrival. listen to this: >> look, presidents are elected to lead to face the biggest problems in our country and he's mia. he's pickup trucking. >> he wants you to be the bad guy. do you believe that congressman ryan? >> i suppose so, i guess so. i don't really care. we want to fix problems. we see this as a problem to our country and economy and we need to fix it. if the president is not going to lead we're going to propose alternatives. martha: that defines a big issue, of course, you've got democrats going the other way, saying they think the president's proposal cuts too much spending. listen to them: >> what we're worried about is cuts of this magnitude will slow the recovery and instead of unemployment going down, it will go up, and have just the opposite effect. it will increase the decifit, rather than bringing it down, which is what the other side wants to do. martha: all right. so far, the president doesn't seem to be making too many on either side too happy, republicans are proposing their own cuts, they say that getting debt under control is the only way to get this economy going again. you can bet there are going to be a lot of questions for the president about this, a couple of hours from now. bill: the american shopper, pushing retail sales up for the seventh consecutive month in january, despite all that nasty weather all across the country. commerce department reporting retail sales rose 3/10 of a percent last month yippie! martha: you don't have to leave your house to shop online. bill: .3%. martha: not surprised. bill: this is the best in six years. this points to stuart's point, to, about the economy. martha: just into "america's newsroom", rots from iran that two people have been killed in clashes between police and protestors, iran's hard line regime demanding that the opposition leaders be tried and be put to death over the renewed protests they are seeing in the streets of tehran, antigovernment demonstrations the serious and most recent that we've seen, inspired by the revolt we saw over the last few weeks in egypt. tens of iranians gathering in tehran, the largest show of resistance from iran's opposition leaders in more than a year. so where is all of this heading for iran? steve centanni joins us live in washington. does it look like the protests in iran will continue to spread to other regions as it's been bubbling around all this week? >> reporter: very possible, martha. of course the hard line regime in iran offers little comparison to what happened in egypt. a member of parliament, as you mentioned, saying two people were killed in a banned opposition rally monday, an opposition website saying at least 1500 people were arrested while taking part in the ban pro-- banned protest, all this applauding the revolution in egypt, yet cracks down on its own people when they take to the streets to protest, prompting this u.s. reaction: >> a regime which over the last three weeks has constantly hailed what went on in egypt and now when given the opportunity to afford their people the same rights as they called for on behalf of the egyptian people, once again illustrate their true nature. >> reporter: and of course, no surprise iran accuses the secretary of state of meddling in iran's foreign affairs. martha: that's no surprise, steve. where else are we seeing this pop up in the middle east right now? >> reporter: we have the protests in yemen as well, thousands of people marching for the ouster of yemen president ali al dulla saleh, at least three demonstrators were injured according to latest reports. riot police tried to turn back a crowd of about 3000 but they defiantly continue their march. this was the fifth day of protests in yemen, following the successful uprising in egypt and could represent a problem for the u.s., of course, since we've been relying on yemen's president to rat out the al-qaeda fighters hiding in that country who launched several attacks against the u.s. martha: fascinating what's going on. steve, thank you very much for the update, steve centanni in d.c. bill: to this news, a judge ordering the italian prime minister, silvio berlusconi to stand trial on charges related to a sex scandal. he's 74, he's a billionaire, accused of paying a 17 kwr-rl teenager for sex and then trying to cover it up. berlusconi denying any wrongdoing, set to go on trial the sixth of april, it will be one of four court trials berlusconi is facing in the coming weeks, and it's a big, big story happening today in europe, martha. martha: how about this? he won the straw poll at landmark conference of conservatives two-year in a row but will that stamp of approval give ron paul the boost he may need if he does decide to run and as a budget hawk, what does he think about the white house's proposal on the table for the budget of 2012 -- 2011-2012. bill: he's always entertaining. he's always good to talk to. the state is at the forefront in cracking down on illegals. why it may now take its fight to the hospitals. see what's shaping up to be the new battle in the state of arizona. >> and it is a bill that would sort of introduce a police state mentality to emergency rooms. bill: something to think about that in this era trillion dollars decifit, reported by the "wall street journal," nondefense discretionary spending over the past two four-months has jumped by 24 percent. mary katharine hand, doug schoen, both fox news contributors, good morning to both of you, we've got the left and the right coming at this and check this out. over the past two years, department of transportation, up 548 percent in spending, commerce department, up 219 percent in spending. department of education, up 181 percent in spending. those are whoppers! i mean, is anyone getting the message, mary katharine? >> well, that's the question. i'm not sure politicians are getting the message. the saving grace of all this, because we have a colossal problem ahead of us, this is very hard politically to solve, the saving grace maybe be -- may be that the american people are actually saying you really need to deal with this and i don't think that they're going to be satisfied with a budget that adds $8.3 trillion in new spending over ten years when we've got these huge problems in front of us. bill: there's a clear disconnect, mare credit katharine points out. do you agree with that on the surface, does america get it and washington doesn't? >> i agree with it on the surface, i agree with it fundamentally. we're also not dealing with entitlements which are 60 percent of the budget and if we're going to do something about a decifit that the obama administration says will cut $1.65 trillion in the short term we have to reform entitlements, we should tie it into tax reform and do it on a bipartisan basis, because the american people deserve no less. bill: you know what that takes, doug, it takes guts. >> yes. bill: and a lot of it. back to the arguments. this is what you're going to see from the white house as opposed to what's happening in congress. the white house is going to say don't pull that now, you'll hurt the economy. republicans on the hill, mary katharine, will say pull back on the economy, give businesses encouragement and once they give that encouragement, they'll start hiring again and folks, you got more jobs. fundamentally, do you agree with that? >> yeah, i mean, i agree, because you have this gigantic problem that is going to become an incredible weight on the economy and the longer we wait to solve the problem, the more painful the solution gets. i think that's the message that needs to be driven home. bush and others, they have tried to to tackle social security and you politically get kicked in the ribs from all directions and the american people, this is why i say they're the key, they have to stand up and say no, really, we want you to deal with this hard problem, even though, you know, politically it's going to suck for you! i mean, we have to give them the ability to do that, because i don't think they're going to get backbones right away and doug is right, the entitlements are the issue. and i don't know why everyone calls the -- obama calls the decifit commission if he wasn't going to listen to them or take responsibility or endorse any of those recommendations. bill: they were saying you could cut $4 trillion in ten years and it was appointed by the president and kicked to the curb, doug. congress didn't take up any of this stuff because it didn't get out of the commission. >> again, it's really sad when the have tom coburn and ken conrad between the right agreeing, alan simpson, erskine bowles, all agreeing, but you raised a fundamental point that has to be considered. the fact that we're not tieing in entitlements, nondiscretionary defense spending, tax reform, and the whole range of issues related to managing the economy into a balanced budget, progrowth plan is ridiculous. that's what the american people want. that's what they'll support. and the absence of it means that we have pointless political arguments that go nowhere and produce economic results. bill: your point is why debate this stuff if you're not going to include that. i tell you, what mary katharine points out is very true, if you do not do something today, that $14 trillion decifit that we looked at on the debt clock every day, in five years, if you do not make a move, that $14 trillion, doug, goes to $21 trillion. who is going to tackle that? >> and what does that mean? that means the cuts are deeper and the cuts are more painful. >> mary katharine is right. this is not an issue of politics. it's an issue of fairness, economic leadership, and what you said, bill, guts and leadership. bill: doug, thank you, mary katharine, thanks to you, terrific panel. >> how about a bipartisan -- i like the bipartisan agreement between doug and me! bill: it's cable, so i guess you can use suck! >> sorry about that! bill: no, it's all good! >> that's not an fcc thing, right? bill: that's what we're talking about! >> martha: on the same topic, the president tried to mend fences with u.s. business leaders about a month ago, right, but they say that now he's talking the talk but not walking the walk with the new budget deal. what is next in the standoff between those two sides? >> plus you bailed out the auto companies, right? now they're doing a bit better and giving management some hefty bonuses. here's the question: what are you getting? bill: got a 911 call in massachusetts alerting police to a rather unusual home invasion. the perp was a deer! a woman noticed the deer in the back yard, she opened the fence apparently to let the animal out but the deer chose door number two! here's how it went down! >> 911. >> i'm here to report a deer in my house. >> there's a what? >> a deer in my house, he was in my back yard. >> unfortunately she left the back yard, she called to report the deer, the deer decided to go in the house and take up residence for a short time. bill: the police showed up later and tranquilized the deer inside the home and brought it back into the woods. martha: yeah, he took up residence for a short time. took up residence, but just for a short time. fascinating. anyone who's been to an emergency room is very familiar, of course, with being asked almost immediately for your insurance card and i.d., right? in arizona lawmakers want the hospital staff to also at that moment check for a patient's citizenship before they treat them. as you might imagine this is pretty controversial. keith yaskin of kfaz has more on this fiery debate. >> reporter: opponents of this bill say it will create a health care disaster. and a police state, trying to catch people while they're sick and they ask, who's going to decide what's an emergency? >> i think it would probably stop some people for coming in for health care and it would also create a moral and ethical dilemma for all health care institutions and providers. >> reporter: opponents of the bill held signs outside the state capitol, those opponents included a retired doctor and nurses. >> we are medical professionals, not immigration agents. no act of legislature will compel us so violate our professional ethics li blurring that line. >> the arizona health care and hospital association strongly opposes the bill and released this statement: this legislation would require hospitals to confirm the citizenship status of every patient being admitted for non-eskwrerpblgent care, and would result in a delayed hospital admissions process for all patients, including u.s. citizens. in addition, all hospital patients would be required to carry documentation, acceptable for citizenship verification. placing an undue burden on patients and possibly jeopardizing their care. twice, we called the bill sponsors but they were busy or unavailable. martha: all right. well, thanks to keith yaskin of ksab in phoenix. hospitals are iran -- are on the front page of arizona's immigration battle. to read about it on the very front page of foxnews.com/latino, that's the big story on the cover of our website there. check it out. bill: launched a few months ago and doing very well. online now. it is the number one question on the minds of so many, when will companies start hiring again? how would the president's new budget, which adds taxes for business create jobs? intriguing. martha: and a not so smooth criminal, folks. this genious, literally advertising his identity to the police. >> he's denying everything. how you can deny it when you're on video? but he did deny it. martha: you know we've talked a lot about how much of our debt is held by china. so there's an interesting piece of news that's just crossed the wires and it explains that china has reduced its u.s. debt holdings, so they're holding a little bit less of our debt, that means they're selling off the u.s. debt this month, and they did the same thing last month. that was after four straight months of increases. but it's very interesting to note that the biggest owner of u.s. treasury, which is china, of course, is selling off its u.s. debt. we'll get into the meaning of that perhaps later when we talk to one of our financial folks. bill: in the meantime, 930 now now -- 90:00 now, we're awaiting a news conference from the president at the white house today, it comes as the white house unveils its budget for 2012, that happens in 90 minutes, 11:00 a.m. eastern time. volunteers piling up sandbags in fargo, north dakota, expected flooding there in the red river, forecasters picketing -- predicting that river will reach near record levels as the winter snow melts and there's a lot of snow to melt. 9:31. martha: all right. there are new concerns about the future of the job market after president obama's budget outlines new tax hikes for some key groups. according to this proposal, it will raise taxes on businesses and on high income earners by $327 billion, folks, over the next ten years. meanwhile, the overall package will send federal debt to levels we haven't seen -- we have only seen once since world war ii. i want you to take a look at this chart, this comes from cbo and white house office of management and budget, omb, okay? in 2008, our country's debt was equal to 40 percent of our total economy. with the president's new budget, that number is going to jump to 90 percent, our debt will be 90 percent of our output in the next ten years. and as you can see, we haven't seen levels like that since 1945, when it actually reached over 108 percent. so we want to bring in democratic congressman haar bucera who served as part of the debt commission and vice chair of the house democratic caucus. sir, my first question to you, we just mentioned you were on the debt commission, are you upset the president didn't take more of what you guys worked on into account in this? >> actually, if you take a look at the president's budget proposal, he took a lot of what the commission is recommending. in fact, you mentioned how the debt has continued to increase. that's the lag effect of the worst recession, the bush recession, where we created virtually no private sector jobs. now that's all changing. you can't get total control of those deficits and debt overnight, so what the president is doing is gradually putting it back on track, creating over a million, 300,000 private sector jobs back here and getting that debt under control. so you have to do it gradually, without imperilling that economic recovery we're seeing and the over economists are saying we're probably going to see a doubling of jobs this year compared to even last year, so that's great. martha: i hear what you're saying and that's sort of, you know, with all due respect, that's kind of the old it's the last administration's fault and it was so, so bad that nobody can expect anything to look any better than it does but i want to move to the question at hand, which is the taxes on businesses and high earnerrer individuals, how does this help the country when you're tacking on $3,420,000,000,000 over the next ten years, taxing this group universally accepted to be the main drivers of job growth in this country? how does that work? >> remember, slogans -- slogans, those were for the campaign, so the fact that we are coming out of the worst recession is a fact. it's the fact that george bush created less jobs in eight years than barack obama created in one year is a fact. but let's -- okay, the past is the past. what we're looking at now is the president saying we made tough choices, making specific cuts in our direct spending and as you mentioned, making significant cuts in our tax spending. we have a lot of tax loopholes, a lot of these tax breaks that really are doing nothing to create american jobs and what the president is saying -- look, if this program or this tax provision isn't creating jobs in america, let's take another look and that's where he gets a lot of the savings that's going to help drive down the decifit. martha: let me ask you, i think a lot of businesses might take issue with what you're saying and let me drill down on some of it. one of the things that appears to have encouraged hiring in this country was the news that the bush tax cuts would remain in effect. in this new plan, that goes away in 2012, so that's going to have a lot of businesses and people who own small businesses who fall into that high income area taking a look at the future and saying you know what, i'm not sure that i'm going to be able to hire more people under this current tax scenario which they will find onerous to them and they will find it to be not encouraging for them to expand their businesses, start new plants, hire new people, buy new machinery. that's not a big -- that's not a big driver of that in this budget. >> so right, martha. take a look at the president's budge, you'll find that 99 percent of small businesses are not going to be affected by the closing of the tax loopholes, why, because most small businesses don't have the tax loopholes they can use to avoid paying taxes, at the same time, most of the tax cuts that went to the vast majority, 98 percent of americans, will continue in place for the middle class, but those who are superwealthy, warren buffet, bill gates, they won't -- >> martha: we're not talking about those folks. >> sure you are. that's exactly what the president's budget proposes. if you read the budget and he makes it clear, that for the middle class he's going to keep those tax cuts in place but for the very wealthy -- >> martha: i guess the question becomes who is very wealthy. the question becomes who is very wealthy. >> over $250,000. martha: right, and a -- >> 98 percent of americans will fall underneath the president's plan of protection, so we want them to have money in their pocket, we want them to buy the consumer product that is keep this economy rolling and that's what we'll do. martha: let me put one more question to you this way. the top 5 percent that you're calling very wealthy and i want to point out a lot of those people are small business owners that fall into that category. >> that's a top -- >> let me finish. >> you make it a false premise here. the top 5 percent of americans are not small business owners. martha, you -- >> martha: you're not going to let me finish my thought. >> it's the premise that's incorrect. martha: it is not incorrect. >> 2 percent wealthy aren't small business and women. they are the wealthiest americans. don't say that -- you can't say that they are small business people when they are the wealthiest americans in the country. that's the difficulty. martha: let me ask you this: 5 percent of this country, okay, 5 percent of the country pays 60 percent of the tax burden, so we're talking about raising the tax burden on that 5 percent of the country who already pays 60 percent of the taxes in the country. is that fair to you? does that sound fair to you? >> no, that's incorrect. 5 percent of the country is -- >> martha: it's not incorrect. it is not incorrect. >> they're not going to be paying -- remember, i just said to you, 98 percent of americans will be spared any tax increase from the bush tax cuts because the president has said $250,000 below, 98 percent of americans, will not see tax increases. it's the 2 percent of the wealthiest. when you say 5 percent, the numbers, it's easy math, your numbers don't add up. that's why you have to make tough decisions. martha: i think it's pretty clear, these numbers were run by the brain room and their based on very good data, i assure you, 5 percent of this country pays 60 percent of the tax burden in this country, so what i was asking you is do you think it's fair to raise taxes on those people and do you think it's job positive, which is what everybody cares about in this country is creating jobs, so we want to know whether or not it's going to be happening in this budget, whether it will actually do that for america because that's the major concern we're talking about. i hope that you're right and i'm wrong. i hope this plan is -- >> we can talk about the 5 percent, but let's talk about the wealthiest in that 5 percent. who really should be paying more taxes. and most of the 5 percent that you're talking about, they are not with -- >> martha: they are paying the tax burden for the rest of the country. i think it's more than their fair share. >> the bill gates is very different from a lot of those other folks in that 5 percent that you're talking about. >> nobody is talking about bill gates. he doesn't fall in that. >> he's in the top 2 percent. >> of course he is. of course he is. >> this is designated so you know -- >> martha: 5 percent pays 60 percent of the tax burden and congressman becerra, we thank you, we know you've been dedicated to the -- dedicated to the debt commission and you want to see this turn around and we're going to debate this, to make sure we get there one way or the other. bill: to the white house now, former president george herbert walker bush, leaving a -- leading a list of bold faced names receiving the highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom, the 41st reflecting on the big moment with greta. >> it means something to me, it really does. not many things do but that one does. >> why? >> well, i'm emotional about service to the country, and i'm -- it's the highest honor that a president can bestow on anybody. and the fact that he's giving me that honor is -- means a lot. bill: i bet it does. molly henneberg is live at the white house. good morning, molly, is it unusual or usual for a former president to get an award? >> reporter: hi bill, somewhat usual. this award was established in 1945 and expanded in 1963 and president george h. w. bush will be the sixth president to receive it. the last presidents to receive it were presidents carter and presidents ford in 1999. today, 41, as he's known in the bush family, for being the 41st family, will be honored for his one term in office and efforts out of office, the work he and former president bill clinton have done to raise money for the victims of the asian tsunami and hurricane katrina in 2005 and the earthquake in haiti last year. 41st ladies also have received this award, including rosalyn carter and nancy reagan. bill: molly, who else gets the medal of freedom today? >> reporter: there will be 15 recipients as the nation's highest civilian honor today and there's a wide range of their areas of excellence and prominence. let me show you a couple of them. german chancellor angela merkel will receive it, as will famed investor warren buffet, democratic congressman john lewis, one of the leaders of the civil rights movement, labor leader john swao*pie, president of the afl-cio from 1995-2009, and in the arts, cellist yo yo ma and hall of famer bill russell. those are some of the 15 that will receive it in the east room later today. bill: you'll be there. that's a power room today! man oh man. >> reporter: those 15 are quite a group of people, yes. bill: enjoy the picture. thanks molly, from the north lawn. martha: the new health care law could add 20 million people to state medicaid roles. states as you know are already crushed in their budget situation, in many of them, so what happens if states can't afford to pay for the health coverage, can't afford to do this new law as it's written? we're going to have florida governor rick scott about it. bill: ron paul is the big winner at the annual conference for conservatives. why is he so popular there and what does he think of america spending its way to oblivion and what about donald trump saying he can't win if he runs for the white house, anyway? all that with ron paul, live, coming up. martha: boy oh boy. police in southern california saying it was just too easy to track down the suspected tire thief. that's because security cameras captured his nail and cell phone number since it was printed on the side of the van that he used! that was pretty smart, wasn't it? tire shop other than says he couldn't have put it any better. >> he should be on the world's dumbest criminals. he had the phone number and name on the side of the van. >> one stop shopping, huh? >> yeah, exactly. he denied everything. i don't know how you can deny it when you're on video, but he did deny it. martha: stealing tires, just got his cell phone plastered all over. there it is, the cell phone number. police say the officers called the null and got their guy, adding to the tires were found, where? in his house. bill: guarantee he answered the phone. martha: how you doing? i'm the guy that stole the tires, can i help you out? bill: never met a spharl criminal. medicaid, the sinkel largest item in the state budget and the new law expected to add 20 million people to state medicaid roles, it's eating up 21 percent of the state's budget now, according to the national association of state budget officers. in florida alone, medicaid spending rose 17 1/2%, in the past 2 1/2 years. wow! republican florida governor rick scott is out of tallahassee. we just lost him. hang with us a moment. we're trying to get the signal back here. the governor is pushing for greater reform. i know there's been an experimentation underway to try and figure out what the best course is for the state of florida. we've seen cases in washington state, in tennessee, in indiana, all experimenting with new ideas, so we wanted to figure out what's happening with the new idea in florida. governor, good morning to you, we'll try this right now, if this thing locks in? and it's not going to. florida, by the way, spent 2 1/2 billion dollars more in real money over the past 48 months, and they expect their total spending in medicaid to shoot past $20 billion this year alone. and the figures, they're just staggering, they're spending 21 percent of the total state budget that's going to medicaid costs. it is extraordinary. governor, we're going to give this a shot here. what is your idea, short of a sweeping overhaul plan out of washington, d.c., to figure out your finances at the local level? >> it's almost now 30 percent of our budget, it's skyrocketing in cost, because of all the federal rules, it's very difficult to control it. we want to go to a statewide managed care program. we have it in a few counties now. we're struggling with the hhs that allows us to do that, we need to get a block grant to be able to do that, so it's a big problem. on top of that, as you know in our state, omabacare is absolutely unenforceable, it's unconstitutional, we'd like him to repeal the tax that is floridians are paying, the taxes are already in effect and there's another 18 taxes that are going to be increased and those ought to be stopped. but medicaid is a significant issue that i've got a -- >> bill: but under the new health care law, doesn't washington help cover a lot of that cost for additional medicaid patients added to the roles? >> it -- >> [inaudible] >> yeah, but what it does, it only covers a lot of it for a period of time, then it's just like the stimulus bill which we're dealing with now, the stimulus bill that covered things for a while, then one goes away, you've created more dependency. the same thing is going to happen with this. they're going to create a lot of dependency for medicaid, then they're going to pull the rug out from under floridians. i just ran for office, floridians are fed up with this, they're fed up with the federal government telling us what to do, making us more dependent on federal dollars, then changing the rules. they need to just give us a block grant, let us spend the money the way we want to do it, but with regard to omabacare, they need to repeal the existing taxes that have already passed because it's unconstitutional in our state, and stop the new taxes that are coming around. bill: the only way to get a block grant, though, is to either de fund the health care law or hope that the supreme court says it's unconstitutional. do i have that right? >> well, they could do a block grant if they want to but look, it's unconstitutional, the supreme court will hold it unconstitutional and they need to accelerate that. let's go to the supreme court, let's don't waste time. because what's happening in our state, we know it's unenforceable for the state, nfib, they're still asking insurance companies to comply with it, so we need to get this confusion taken care of. but they need to change what they're doing, just like welfare reform, give us a block grant, i know what needs to happen in florida, i know what our citizens need. we don't need all these strings attached from washington. bill: otherwise, washington controls your budget and tells us -- tells you where to spend your money or not to. rick scott, appreciate your time, appreciate your opinion on that. >> have a great day. bill: we've gone through this with others and wanted to share with you, 30 percent of your state budget, climbing towards medcade costs today. thank you, and thank you for hanging in with the satellite adjustments we may, successfully, i have to say. martha: tricky, but it worked out. check outior tax dollars at work, speaking of that, he bailed them out for $50 billion, it was very controversial at the time, of course, and now two years later, gm is shelling out pretty big bonus for pretty much everyone in the company. the question is, where is your share, and have you been paid back? bill: we're learning a bit more about the folks getting sick at a conference held at the playboy mansion. they hold a conference there! right now the number sick is at 170, the conference ran from february 1st to the third, drawing 700 people from 30 different countries, nighttime events including a polynesian theme pool party, there were respiratory problems, the l.a. county health department saying the type of illness and source of exposure remains under investigation. martha: stay out of the grotto! that's what i say. words to the wise. let's talk about this now, there is new outrage today after reports surface that general motors is shelling out bonuses to pretty much all of its employees. according to the report, gm's top managers are going to get 50 percent of their salary in bonuses. most managers will get somewhere between 15-20 percent. even the average workers is going to see their pay jump as well, the company is giving out $400 million in woepb uses. you remember that americans, of course, this is the punch line, folks, bailed out that u.s. automaker for $50 billion. and the kicker is the stock is not yet at a level where we could get paid back. so that's the punch line. eric bolling joins me now, "on the money" host, of course. >> take your blood pressure. this is the most outrageous -- when i saw this story, i e-mailed the producers, i said we have to talk about this, this is crazy. gm, gm alone, still owes us $26.4 billion, chrysler owes us 12 1/2 billion dollars, still, even after all the payments they've made, yet they're giving record, double the prior record, record bonuses to hourly workers, 400 million bucks of our money, taxpayer money, going to these guys. martha: really, it seems to me it turns out, surprise surprise, gm and chrysler are about to head into union negotiations, okay, and during the whole thing, during the bailout, the whole country says well, you've got to give something back, too, right, so they got all the union folks to say we'll give back this, give back that, now they say they want it back, right? >> haerz what they gave back. they gave back an hourly wages, the wages were here and there's controversy on where they started at. they reduced their hourly wage, now they're going to back into negotiation in september, we guarantee you they're going to want that higher wage. in the meantime, martha, uaw, on this deal, on the gm deal alone, not the chrysler deal, has $4.3 billion of our money that they didn't have before, because they were given ownership of gm. given ownership. handed over. don't pay a dime for this, this is all yours. and the taxpayers are still owed 26 1/2 billion dollars. martha: you know what? this goes back to the main premise of bailing them out in the first place, because you've got executives saying we got bonuses so we have to give bonuses to the unions, and that's all fine and good, but you know what, keep the taxpayer out of it. >> why are they giving bonuses? what's the excuse, what do they say? they don't want to lose workers to ford, a company that didn't take bailout money. lose the workers, go to ford, make that company the nonbailed out company that it is, a fantastic company. martha: thank you eric. >> thank you. martha: that is uplifting. "follow the money" is at 9:00 p.m. eastern and catch it at 10:00 p.m. eastern, do not miss it. great stuff. >> thank you guys. bill: the unemployment rate said to be at 9 percent but the real unemployment number higher than that, almost double, in fact. we'll explain the difference between the two numbers in a moment. also this: >> martha: deadly protests in iran, is the egyptian revolution spreading and what will it be like inncer ] tehran?te taste a little more, perfect. reduce lead and other impurities with the advanced filtration system of brita. martha: "fox news alert," two people dead on the streets of tehran. as riot police crush an anti-government up rising in iran, attempts, to at least at this point. due to protests that are similar to the ones we saw playing out in egypt. the iranian government showing zero-tolerance for dissent in their own streets, though they praised the protests in egypt, if you remember correctly. the hard line lawmakers in tehran say the opposition leaders should be put to death. and, if you think this is on the other side of the world and doesn't hit home, maybe it is not such a personal way but it hits home at least to some stents in oil prices. at the last check crude was $85.25 per barrel, a 25% jump integral prices and national average, $3.12 as the tensions rise across this part of the world and those numbers coming from aaa, up 3 cents from the last month and up 50 cents from last year and a live report from the region is coming up, minutes away. and we are bracing for what could be a complete government shut down, republicans today launching a new push, with their budget blueprint, and if they can't compromise, the continuing resolution ends and the stand-off begins to keep the government open and that is how we start a brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer, good morning. martha: good morning, bill. bill: awaiting a news conference, in an hour the president will talk with reporters there. no doubt his budget and the events unfolding in egypt. and throughout the middle east, including iran. among the top questions there. martha: let's get to mike emmanuel standing by at the white house. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, we expect the president to open up with a 5-7 minute opening statement on the 2012 budget and field a investigator of questions on the topic. yesterday the president traveled to baltimore to highlight one of themes of his 2012 budget, more money for education. innovation and infrastructure. one would expect him to get questions about why his budget does not attack our looming entitlement programs, social security, medicare and medicaid and will ask if the assumptions made in the budget are too optimistic and unrealistic and may get questions on the latest regarding the swiituation in egt and we heard from him last friday when hosni mubarak left and, his health is poor and the military is transitioning and the president may take a question on other countries, such as iran and question whether the government of mahmoud ahmadinejad will last. the president starts the tone with the budget and the reporters, take it from there. martha: a lot on the table to talk to the president about, mike, thank you very much. bill: back to the budget battles, congress is yet to approve a budget and there is a show down over next year's plan, live look at the hill, the president's budget director set to defend the new plan, harsh criticism from committee chair paul ryan, who is calling it death on arrival. doa. >> borrowing and taxing and spending more washington, if it was the secret to economic growth we'd have it already and have all of these jobs and we don't. it is a serious threat to our country and our economy and i'm really disappointed the president has basically punted on this. he's adding to the problem, not fixing it. and, when he sets aside in the leadership backing we feel that it is or duty and obligation to give the country a different idea and choice and we'll lead and we'll propose a fix to this problem. bill: paul ryan from earlier today, now, carl cameron, live on the hill. carl, good morning. is it going to be a bit of a grilling for the budget chief? how do you see it? >> reporter: absolutely. no question, as you heard paul ryan, this chairman of the budget committee will say to the omb's director on behalf of the president they don't believe the president's budget, the administration is taking the nation's fiscal crisis seriously, paul ryan and republican leaders argued we are seeing the president ignore the need to reform entitlements and save social security and medicare and medicaid and to push back the date of insolvency and is spending and taxing too much which will hurt the economy and shoulder future generations with huge amounts of debt and you see a live shot, they are getting ready to have the hearing and this is the beginning of the process and they are talking about a ten-year budget that starts for next year, and, while all of that is going on, and republicans and democrats very much at opposite ends, like two trains passing each other because that is talking about next year's budget and on the house floor they are debating cuts to this fiscal year's budget. something the president was not prepared to do and republicans have forced on them today. bill: there is still a fight over this year. >> reporter: absolutely. bill: how will that be sized up. >> what house republicans are trying to do is trim $100 billion, out of the current year's projected spending. no budget was actually formally passed by the democratic majority of the house and senate, last year, to organize and make legal this year's spending and what they have done the better part of the last year is passing continuing resolutions to keep the government open and this one they'd pass this week in the house would cut $100 billion out of it and republicans say it is what is needed and democrats say it is grossly draconian, cutting too deep and theories top republican and democrat from that committee. >> the people last november said, cut spending. they said we're broke. you are out of money. we're borrowing 42 cents of every dollar we spend, so we have no choices. and, the leadership, we ran on the platform, frankly, of cutting $100 billion, off of the president's requested spending for 2011 and that is what we are doing. >> what we are worried about is cuts of this magnitude, that they will slow the recovery and instead of unemployment going down, it will go up, and have just the opposite effect. it will increase the deficit, rather than bringing it down, which is what the other side wants to do. >> reporter: they are not near getting close to one another on this and the numbers, briefly: this year the projected deficit, in other words, the short fall for the u.s. government is projected to be $1.6 trillion, and house republicans are trying to shrink that by only $100 billion. and, are meeting republican resistance and, as for the president's budget for next year, and ten years beyond it is designed to cut the national debt, by a trillion dollars. but, it goes up, nearly a trillion as a consequence of what is spent. bill: remarkable, carl, thank you, we have starting points almost now on both sides and we'll see the -- where the two sides go. it will be a heck of a month. carl cameron on the hill. >> reporter: you bet. martha: now, back to the dramatic up risings unfolding across the middle east. riot police clashing with protesters as we see demonstrations now in yemen, algeria, bahrain, in jordan and, most recently, the now deadly violence that is unfolding on the streets of tehran in iran, let's go to leland vittert standing by live in cairo. leland? >> reporter: martha, this is the prophet mohammed's birthday, a holiday here in egypt and while things are relatively calm, here, around the rest of the world, around the rest of the middle east, it is a very different story and we'll go country by country, iran, protesters taking to the streets and it turned deadly in tehran as they protested president mahmoud ahmadinejad there and, the question is what happens in iran? will the president use the unbelievable force he did to put down protests after the elections or not? in bahrain, a u.s. ally and, where the u.s. naval fleet for the persian gulf is based, deadly protests there, with a shooting yesterday, and at least one person was killed and reports of shots fired at the funeral today, a key u.s. ally in the persian gulf in yemen and also a u.s. ally and al qaeda is trying to take a strong hold and usage anti-government protests against the president who has been compared to president mubarak here in egypt, those anti-government protests have continued against the u.s. ally leader. here in egypt, things are relatively calm. remember, it took only 18 days, for the anti-government forces to kick president mubarak out of office and now the army is in control, and it announced a constitutional committee in the next two months is supposed to come up with a constitution and try and form some type of system for a civilian government, after that, we will move to elections, and the muslim brotherhood today announced they may not put up a presidential candidate here, but what is interesting, is that the government, the army here, has decided to incorporate the muslim brotherhood which up until this point, has been banned and put down by hosni mubarak. including into the constitutional committee, a lot of developments here in egypt, martha. martha: leland vittert, reporting on the amazing things unfolding in those countries. bill: and both parties waiting for the other to make a move and nobody wants to make the first move, to make the tough cuts to the budget, exemcept these two guys, what happens when these governors make the cuts nobody wants. martha: anything strange in the sky on valentine's day? maybe it wasn't your imagination and maybe you weren't delirious with love for your special someone. bill: cupid, i would say. he set out for winter kayaking and turned out maybe not the best idea in february. >> i wanted you to give a couple yells at the top of your lungs. >>. [yelling]. >> don't panic on me, okay? >> it's a dire situation. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ bill: i dramatic 911 call from a man who fell through a frozen lake in indiana, kayaking and luckily clinton baker was wearing thermal gear when he launched the small boats on lake monroe and heard the cracking beneath him and how smart was he? his cell phone was wrapped in plastic. which enabled him to call for help: bill: he is a tough hoosier! baker is doing just fine, he told the folks there, who rescued him, he is not going kayaking in the winter, ever again! martha: seemed like a good idea at the time, right? you know what this is, about the third rail, folks, medicare, social security, and medicaid. critics are now going after president obama because he didn't touch any of those in his new budget plan, and several analysts out there believe that both parties are kind of playing a game of chicken here, waiting for the other side to make the first move, in case it gets nasty, when it comes election time, and, what would slashing entitlements actually do to help the president? it has worked for these two governments -- governors, andrew cuomo and new jersey's chris christie, interesting these two guys have found each other in common situations in many ways and both have been not afraid to make tough cuts and both of them are seeing incredibly strong approval numbers, especially chris cuomo, at 77%, and i don't think any new york governor has ever seen those numbers at least in recent history and let's bring in our good friend, ari fleisher, former press secretary to george w. bush, good to have you this morning. >> good morning. martha: the paper, cuomo, 77% approval rating and people don't like the 10,000 jobs he wants to cut from the state and they are mad about that but they say they feel he's doing a good job. >> you get a sense the public is far ahead of the president and, those far ahead on entitlements and you see it in new jersey and people are hungry for folks to tell them straight and take on the tough issues and bite the bullet and get it done and our nation is broke and we need to fix it. martha: it is true, i interviewed david axelrod on his last day and asked three separate times, is the president willing to lead on this issue and he basically said, no. you know? he said this is a difficult situation, we're going to... they see it, we'll put out the first offer and want them to come back to us. why is that not a good way to do that. >> republicans say, okay, president you are right. we won't, either, and what good is government? what are they doing for us? and you almost get the sense here that when it comes to entitlement, republicans are from mars and president obama is from venus nuand they are not talking to each other and i predict in his news conference he'll make up for lost ground and should have done it in the state of the union and didn't take on entitlements and should have done it in the budget and now because he's criticized so much he'll try and rhetorically to come back and say, i mean, it, i'm for real -- >> you can't talk about high speed rail and adding money to education, which, you know, we've thrown more money at the education problem over the last ten years and we are -- making us slide backwards. >> i think, that sends the wrong signal that he is locked in this mind set of spend here and there but those aren't the big issues, the big issues that are bankrupting america and led to the largest deficit in history are medicare, medicaid, social security and defense. you have to look at defense. martha: let's look at the -- what ari is talking about, demonstrating the problem, nondefense is 610. look at the chunk medicare and social security take up and you have the interest on the debt and then you have defense. even within defense there are areas a lot of people think we could see cuts. >> the president has to find a way to fix social security and medicare and medicaid and have been the third rail of american politics and what do you have presidents for? they can help you get over the third rail and we are a nation that needs to get over it, we are heading towards bankruptcy and we have a $1.5 trillion deficit the largest in history and $14 trillion debt. and we have gone beyond the dingdin danger zone. martha: a lot of folks thought when he created the debt commission he was creating an entity he could point to and say, these folks are really smart and told us what to do and could have leaned on them and why is he not leaning on their recommendations to raise the age for social security, that is a start. >> i think the president made the same mistake three times, when the debt commission came out he didn't enforce their findings and when he had the state of the union he was not emotional and didn't make the deficit his priority and the budget, he took a pass and cannot keep punting and hope to win the game. he has to shift on this and i think he will, what i have seen about his presidency, he's hesitant to do anything that is personally risky that could endanger himself and his standing but once he's criticized for that he tax back and tries to figure it out. and i hope he'll do that again. but, we can't as a country keep missing these opportunities. martha: and that is the way it has been viewed by a lot of people, for leadership and, as andrew cuomo is making the case in new york, this is not necessarily a democrat/republican issue and doesn't have to be right. >> and president obama, in the center of the country and among intended, it will be huge he tackles entitlements. martha: and... >> there is status quo with barack obama, isn't there? it is surprising. martha: interesting. always good to have you here. we'll see you soon. ari fleisher. bill: in a moment we'll take you to the ultimate battle of wits, man versus machine on jeopardy. who is the winner, alex? the strange looking contestant in the middle, isn't it? the answer, we don't know yet and we'll talk to a doctor, too, over the mystery about a reporter, live on television, why did her words come out this way? >> well, a very, very heavy... heavy... we had a very... [words not understandable]. bill: sometimes feel like the cat has your tongue, don't you? lucky for you you are not standing in front of the tv camera live on tv with a hot microphone outside the grammy awards we heard this in los angeles. >> live at the staples center with highlights and, back stage coverage, we're seeing for the first time. >> well, a very, very heavy... heavy... [unintelligible words]. bill: after that report, many wondered whether or not the reporter had a minor stroke live on television and dr. kathleen london, the family physician in new york and assistant professor at wild cornell medical college out of new york city. good morning, you have not seen her or treated her. what do you think happened right there? >> i mean, looking at that, it looks like something we called a transient ischemic attack or tia and she had the confusion of her words and face looked a little droopy and, that can be a warning sign and is not a stroke but can be a warning sign of something. bill: trans yenient ischemic at. common? >> very and in younger women, i would worry, does she have a clotting disorder and deserves a workup. and, stress can do it, too, we see it more with amnesia, people can have episodes where they will not remember hours and everything is fine. bill: it could be brought on by stres stre stress, getting ready for a live report and perhaps there were no other symptoms that she noticed. >> but, but something, when we see tias in practice, you know, they are a warning sign and people who have come in with a stroke think back and will have had episodes like this, that are very -- transient and quick, and they are a brief period, and is a warning sign and if anybody listening is having anything like that, absolutely -- >> she did not go to the hospital and she was treated on the scene, and, said to be okay. and she tells everybody she's feeling fine as of yesterday and assume this morning she's feeling fine. >> hopefully she's checked out by her physician, and it doesn't mean that she cannot work, that she is not fine but is hopefully worked up and, appropriately. bill: and working for the station since 2006, nominated for two emmys and has a nice career going for her and we wish her the best. but it has gotten a lot of attention, and, maybe, perhaps, if your diagnosis is correct, and someone is watching it, they get the early warning, also. >> hopefully. bill: doctor. thank you very much, kathleen london, works here in new york. >> thanks for having me. bill: our best to the reporter, too, in los angeles. martha. martha: he came out of nowhere and won the republican straw poll, ron paul, named by conservatives as their favorite to run for president. at cpac and reaction, not exactly warm and fuzzy. >> by the way, ron paul cannot get elected, i'm sorry to tell you. [cheers and boos from audience]. martha: that was the donald's take, but, no doubt ron paul begs to differ, the lonestar republican joins us live, next. bill: donald and ronald, huh? it was not a bird, plane and was not superman, and, what is streaking across the sky on valentine's night, 2:14:11. after the break. nf]fídn/xçyyxññw8woññó [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. 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[ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. bill: you feel smart when you hear that, don't you, martha, music to our ears. rounds one, man versus machine in the history books on jeopardy, the computer called watson named after the founder of ibm, tied brad rutter, both earned $5,000, and the other human player, ken jennings, the guy known for having the longest winning streak on jeopardy, now is trailing with $2,000. and here's how it played out. >> 800, same category, she was the first woman to discover and excavate on the minoan settlement on this island. >>... bill: not fair, just not fair. the humanoids and we'll see whether or not the humans get the computer in the end. martha: even the computer hesitates when they try to figure out the answer. and, form it in the form of a question and president obama answering the tough question when he holds the first formal white house news conference of 2011 which gets started within the hour and retail sales rose for the 7th straight month, although, the 0.3% increase is the smallest we have seen in several months, and, we are also awaiting a senate vote that could affect us when we travel in the airports and would bar tsa agents from collective bargaining. this is a big story and some republicans fear union influence could jeopardize security and disrupt travel. >> the winner of this year's cpac straw poll... is now. [cheering and boos from the audience]. >> okay. ... the winner of this years are cpac straw poll is texas congressman ron paul. bill: in the end he was a winner, probably not the reaction he was hoping for. mixed applause and boos and the fiery texas republican no doubt unphased by the reaction, he's live now, from capitol hill, winner of the straw poll for the second year in a row. how are you. >> i'm fine. just fine, thank you. bill: welcome back. who is in the audience, booing you? did you get a name? an i.d. on those people? >> no. i wasn't there, so, i didn't watch that little ceremony at the end. but, it tells you that there is not cost of liberty and i'm determined, the issue of liberty is at issue and more people wants to be taken care of than -- >> maybe it was the donald, you have won two years in a row and why are you so popular there? sn>> i hope because the messages popular and people like it but it is definitely a younger crowd there and i think young people realize the bad rap they are getting and, i think they see in the message of liberty, maybe they'd have a better life if they had a freer country and less taxes, no income tax, get the government out of their personal lives and they are attracted to the foreign policy of less intervention overseas. bill: we see numbers from the "wall street journal" that will make your head spin. it will make everybody's spin, from 2008 we were spending $434 billion a year in nondiscretionary and nondefense discretionary spending, and that went to 537 billion and 24% increase. between 2008 around 2010, and department of transportation, that shut up a whopping 548%, and, congress department shot up 219%, department of education, 181%, there is ongoing budget battles between the house, the senate and white house. who gets it down there? that america is broke? >> the people are starting to get out outside of washington but i would say on both sides of the aisle they like to spend money but for different reasons and have been bipartisan too often and they get together and spend all of this and should be bipartisan and cut each of their own programs that they like but, there is an addishgddiction heri don't think anything will happen until people are willing to go into rehab. but there is a momentum of a system dependent on deficit financing and inflated currency. bill: do you think members of congress, are they serious about breaking the addiction that you describe. >> no, i don't think so. they are serious about portraying themselves to the grassroots to satisfy the 20, 30% who are angry with washington and know that is not the majority of people and when it boils down to it, the majority of people, still, want to make sure that they are getting air programs financed and those people who hate obamacare, boy when they talk about president bush's programs with medicare and medicaid and they aren't talking about that and philosophically and is constitutionally is all the same thing. bill: you are painting with both sides of the brush and i appreciate that, hovwever you support and defend earmarks on your web site, is that not a contradiction on behalf of you. >> i don't see that as a contradiction and nobody accused me of that, they'd like to. but i see the earmark as a constitutional responsibility of congress, i want us to earmark everything and the definition of earmark is vague and if you earmark a billion dollars to build an embassy in baghdad that is not consider an earmark but an earmark for someone to get their money back we have paid into for the highway system and say that they took our money, the highway should be built and, say i don't want any highways in texas or arizona or wherever, that doesn't make any sense to me. but... bill: it is a symbol or maybe a symptom of the problem. and, you can set a firm example by getting rid of earmarks and telling the american people we are serious. it would send a strong signal to businesses that the road ahead is better and you can start providing jobs. >> see, i think that is the wrong thing to do, the money won't be cut, you give it to the executive branch and they pass it out for political reasons and i set the example for never voting for appropriations and taxes and get the government out of the business of this, distributing these funds. so it is a constitutional issue for me, who spends the money, it is very very, clear in the constitution, congress has a responsibility, why should we collect the money, vote to give it to the executive branch and not cut one penny? that makes no sense to me. bill: we'll continue the debate and i want you to come back here. because, this is important stuff, and i know you have been at the leading edge of it and your opinion accounts for a lot, how we go forward. what do you think of donald trump? he said you cannot win. >> oh, he did say something like that, did he? well, i guess everybody has their -- is entitled to their own opinion but like i said before, that is what they said to me when i ran for congress and ran and won 11 times because they said my message was too strict, too much of a strict interpretation of the constitution, and too much of an on section with individual lib birth and no one would vote for -- liberty and nobody would vote for anybody like you. bill: and 22 years later, ron paul, thank you for your time. >> thanks a lot. bill: appreciate it. >> all right. martha: and some of those ideas have been catching on, lately, too, the tea party attention we have seen and we want to head overseas for a moment, because we have new details that are coming in on what is going on in the streets of iran. there are deadly protests underway, information as you might imagine, is a bit hard to come by in terms of what is going on and this is amateur video. the regime is cracking down on its own people and we are hearing that two people have died, and we have been getting a little bit of cell phone video in but they are not ones to let all the cameras into watch it unfold, either, iran, of course is blasting u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton after she made some very pointed criticism of the regime's treatment of the iranian protesters, after they seemed to really think that -- what was happening in egypt was a great idea. listen to this: >> a regime which over the last three weeks has constantly hailed what went on in egypt and now, when given the opportunity to afford their people the same rights as they call for on behalf of the egyptian people, once again, illustrates their true nature. martha: very interesting comments from the secretary of state. we welcome back michael shore, a former cia counterterrorism analyst and former head of the cia's bin laden unit. michael, welcome back, good to have you here. >> thank you very much. martha: i want your reaction, first, to hillary clinton's comments and what you think about what is goings-on in the streets of tehran, right now. >> i thought mrs. clinton sounded like a blood thirsty person. she's nice and safe here in the u.s. and is urging those kids in iran to go out on the streets and get themselves shot. mrs. clinton is a perfect example of what the previous guest, mr. paul talked about. we have an elite in this country that wants to interfere in everyone else's affairs. and, it does nothing over the long term, excepted get people killed and hurt the u.s. martha: you know, i'm very struck by your comments and i heard another foreign policy specialist, pretty well-known talk about that and he said there will be bloodshed on the streets in tehran. believing that this is a whole different story when you look at the situation that lays out there and there were so many crickets of president obama for not encouraging the people to rebel and revolt against their government in tehran, not long ago, a couple months back. >> well, i wasn't one of them. i always think the best thing for the u.s. president to do is to keep his mouth shut. but, mr. obama, mr. bush, believed that somehow what we have built in north america over the last 800 years, really, can be transferred to the streets of tehran or cairo or tunis on a cd-rom and they will end up getting a lot of people kid and are also, as we watch, are destroying the basis of u.s. foreign policy in the muslim world so this is really a tragedy unfolding that we are going to be at least in part responsible for. martha: wow. all right. we will give those words some thought. very strong take on this as always, appreciate your input and hope to get your thoughts on it again. thank you very much. bill: he has been terrific on this issue, too. watch what happens in eastern and bahrain and yemen, too. how was your valentine's day. martha: lovely, thank you. for a monday, right? monday is a tough day for a valentine's day. it was very nice. bill: the week started off on a slowdown, huh? and the rendezvous written in the stars and the star dust spacecraft, comes within 124 miles of temple one and the graphic -- that is a graphic showing what it looked like, and allowed nasa to capture dozens of images of the comet which had a close encounter with another nasa spacecraft in 2005. martha: a cool picture. coming right at it. lovely. all right, if there was one message that lawmakers probably should have gotten from the midterms, right? it was this: americans need jobs, everybody knows it across the country but there's a big difference between the unemployment rate, and the real unemployment rate out there. we'll explain that difference and we will also talk to the former house majority leader, dick armey, about how -- there he is! the big ten gallon hat, how do we create these jobs? we'll be right back. - because it's completely invisible. - because it's designed to help me hear better. male announcer: introducing amp, a new kind of hearing aid, so tiny, it's invisible. female announcer: amp is comfortable to wear and easily removable. amp, the hearing aid for people who aren't ready for a hearing aid. male announcer: call: to find an amp hearing professional near you. only $750 each. martha: all right, welcome back, right now the house budget committee is holding hearings on president obama's budget, examining the charges that the proposal will hurt job creation, check out the latest unemployment rate at 9%, at the end of january, but when you look at the real unemployment as it is known, these are the people who have completely left the workforce and stopped looking for a job, the number is a pretty scary number, 16% right now, let's bring in former house majority leader dick armey, the chairman of freedomworks.org and we want to welcome him, hello, welcome. good to have you here. they are looking over the budget and trying to figure out if there is job creation in it and what is your take on that. >> first of all, what we see now with the obama administration, with most people in washington, is a total perversion of keynesian analysis. you have to remember the lord john maynard kenyesian started with no debt and said we can do with temporary deficits or surpluses, depending on the case and now we have a government that is in and of itself the big burden that weighs down the performance of the private sector and destroys the ability to create jobs, and, if you are going to resolve the dilemma, you've got to put the federal government on a diet. i use the analogy of a race horse, and a jockey. the first thing they don't understand, properly, the private sector economy carries the government. the government is the jockey and the jockey is obese and overweight and he'll wear out the horse. a horse cannot carry the jockey, and grow as well. so the fact of the mary is we have to starve the jockey and feed the horse. martha: i hear what you are saying and have long professed we need a smaller government and that is clearly not what is in the budget and most of the sort of new spending is offset by some cuts, and, that is not getting us far in the direction of the cutting the deficit too dramatically and you have plans to cut $3 trillion. how -- give us some of the highlights. how painful is it -- >> it is really not painful, you know? and this is what i call rationalizing the federal budget, the government is involved with too many things and it can't do them and doesn't do well and oftentimes are counterproductive and we can eliminate entire agencies of the government and get rid of the department of commerce and it does nothing but feed corporate welfare and, get rid of agricultural subsidies and archer-daniels midland can't make it on its own hoof that is too bad, and get rid of for example housing and urban development. you can certainly get rid of silly programs like americorps, and public radio and so forth and you have to start taking -- eventually you have to deal with entitlement spending and the first approach to that is make it possible for people to be free to choose whether they subscribe or not to a government entitlement program. martha: i hear what you are saying and, we keep getting kneeling that the emerging market are very much on the page of being willing to sort of make dramatic cuts and the president will speak in a while and we'll see if he goes any further in what he is willing to do. i want to ask one quick question about the g.o.p. nominees and who you think could lead the charge because the accusation is that the president is not taking leadership on that and we have ann coulter from cpac who said it is chris christie or we lose. what do you think about that? >> i wouldn't say that. first of all, this president has dug himself into such a deep hole with the american people, beating him will not be difficult. the question is how do we find the first best courageous leader to step forward and take the bold moves that will restore the government to the constitutionally limited role that has served the nation so well. martha: is that person evident to you yet. >> i don't think that person is evident and i know chris christie is not in the mix right now and i think right now, lian like you said, for dick armey to predict who will meteorology, i would predict governor pawlenty but i predict there will be others in the race. martha: thanks for being with us and bringing your big hat, thank you very much, good to see you, sir, we'll see you soon. bill: we are awaiting a major news conference, president obama of the white house, top of the hour, you'll see that live on the fox news channel and they have so much love for each other they spent valentine's day in jail. martha: isn't that sweet! bill: why they were arrested will not make cupid happy. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. bill: now we find an american company, the oldest and largest manufacturer of hand-made metal gifts. a company that burned to the ground last year, did not give up, laura ingle is live in our newsroom on this story, now, hey, laura, good morning. >> reporter: it is on national register of historic place and is a key place of employment for many in grove city, pennsylvania. and when it went up in flames, there was not much that could be salvaged but the community pulled together to help save the forge and, its employees. >> late really in 6 hours goes up in smoke and what we see behind us is the remnants which is actually nothing. >> reporter: the fire that consumed the nation's oldest and largest forge, ripped through the structure in grove city, pennsylvania, with scorching, intensity, leaving the factory and retail store in ruins. and, jobs in question. >> i was horrified and i -- you know, it was one of those times where you think, what will i do tomorrow? >> reporter: artisans and crafts men have been producing by hand, metal heir looms at the wendell august forge since 1923. last year's fire might have been the end but the company quickly got back on its feet, and, even added nearly 40 employees, in the process. >> literally, since the fire the amazing things that happened to our little company are miraculous. >> reporter: wendell august insurance adjusters told the owners expect to be out of business up to nine months and instead they were back in business within five days. >> unbelievable group of employees, who pitched in and did whatever it took to get the job done and in a community that rallied around us, in the -- an amazing way. >> reporter: windal august received the biggest order in its history the day before the fire which served as the catalyst for the company to get back on its feet, the order from the penguins and now they are off and running, bill. bill: laura ingle, our best to them. so we wait, president obama will show up any moment, and we'll take you there live when the press conference begins. curtis: welcome back to geico radio, it's savings, on the radio. gecko: kate from mill valley, it's all yours. kate: well, i'm shopping for my first car. gecko: nice! i do hope you'll choose geico and save a good bit of cash... curtis: what color is the car? 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. ♪ ♪ ooh, ah0 a month with la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ ooh, ah la, la, la ♪ ♪ [ dance beat ] [ male announcer ] join theladders.com. the $100k+ job search specialists... that give you the tools and guidance you need to be irresistible. martha: all right, what needs a romantic restaurant and flowers? this couple spent valentine's day in jail after they stabbed each other! police chased them and now they face assault charges. happy valentine's day. bill: true love. martha: what is true love? bill: see you tomorrow, "happening now" starts you right now. jon: take you right to the white house where president obama is holding a news conference. let's listen in. >> -- in the room with all of you. so i'm here to do a little downfield blocking for him. before i take a few questions, let me say a few words about the budget we put out yesterday. i'd just like every family in america, that the federal government has to do two things at once, it has to live within its means while still investing in the future.

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