[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] fáhost: it is thursday, february 18. thank you for being with us. we willok spend a great deal of time talking about the mood of the nation. we have two guests -- david keene, chairman of the american conservative union. he will be with us from a hotel ballroom in washington as the 35th annual cpac, conservative political action conference, gets all the way. we will have cameras there the next couple of days. later on, thomas frank, columnist for "the wall street journal." he will be attending the conference. he writes a lot about the conservative movement in the united states and he doesn't from a liberal perspective. he is our guest later on as we discussed the mood of the country. that is our topic this morning. we will peg off from a column in "the new york times." is the country in the need of a pep talk or something more fundamental? call us and let us know -- good thursday morning to you. çthe column that caught our attention is written by robert schuller, a noted economist based at yale university and co- founder and chief economist at macro markets and co-author of the case schiller index -- case- shiller index. he writes that -- we want to hear if you agree with him. while we are waiting, jonathan weisman is on the phone with us. "the wall street journal" white house reporter to tell us about the president's decision to sign an executive order -- order to create a debt commission. there was debate whether this should be a statutory commission or one created by executive order. congress weighed in. the president is doing what today exactly? guest: congress weighed in on it because they voted it down. once again, a piece of legislation was filibustered in the senate. there was an executive order that would have created a commission that looked at the long-term and short-term issues of deficit and debt. it was to come back to congress at the end of the year with the recommendations that would have mandated an up or down vote with a super majority, 60 votes, to get something done. but it was filibustered -- it got 54 votes, a majority, but it fell to politics. seven republicans thatç had co- sponsored this legislation turned against it and voted no -- co-sponsored prayer including but minority leader mitch mcconnell -- in the minority leader mitch mcconnell. as part of the deal president obama struck with democratic leadership to get the united states debt limit, the statutory debt limit raised, he said if the commissionu! does not get çthroughç congress he will dot by executive order and that is what he is going to do. ñru!okhe will sign an executiver creating an 18-member panel to look at the deficit and the debt and come back of the end of the year with recommendations. it will be chaired by republican former senator alan simpson from wyoming and a democrat, erskin boweles, who was the white house chief of staff and the clinton years when the last balanced budget deal was struck with the republicans. host: you heard our questions from audience. i want to take a few calls from our viewers and talk about more about the construct of the commission and what the impact it will have. let us take our first call on the question of is america and the need of a pep talk, and manhattan is on the line. mack, a democrat. caller: thank you for c-span. we are in such a serious need of a pet talk but i don't know what kind of vague talk could possibly come about. i'm a democrat. i am going to switch to become an independent. trying to talk to republicans is like trying to negotiate with the iranians and the republicans k of no and i'm finding out the democrats are the party of maybe. the government -- politicians have got to step up and start to make some simple butu! profound decisions on behalf of the american people and the american taxpayer. i believe one the super great fix would be to sell the medicare, not to people 55 necessarily end up, but to people 25 and up for full premiums as if you were paying a full monthly premium, pay it to the government and let the government make a profit and let the government make money on already existing health care institutions like medicare. they've got to make decisions -- i think we need to have a vat tax like we have in europe. we are going to have to raise taxes. republicans don't want to hear about it. nobody wants to get along. host: let me jump in on that point. lorain, republican, the line from michigan. is the country in the need of a pep talk or something more fundamental question mike caller: -- more fundamental? caller: no, they need more jobs over here in america instead of shipping them overseas. and the reality, peptalks cannot pay your bills. i'm sorry about there. we are not the party of no, we are at the point of, show us the money. host: north carolina. grayson, independent line. caller: i think we are in the need of a pep talk. i tell you why. the article that mentioned the social security of the spending of the past -- social psychology of the past few years. whether it is spending, the country's debt sort of went haywire. i think now it is leavening out. i think a great indicator is the stock market. the stock market is doing great. it to me that is a sign. i think americans are real capable of jobs. our country is capable of re- establishing a stable economy, a stable job force. so, yes, i think it peptalk would be great right now. host: jonathan weisman from "the wall street journal" is back on the line. it is adjusting to have the comments from the public as a backdrop for the president's decision for a debt commission. i am wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about what the commission is in power to do and how it would work. guest: the existence is in some ways indicative of the need for a pep talk. i look back at fdr. franklin roosevelt came in during obviously an even worse economy, and unlike president obama, president roosevelt was able to keep the american people behind him and convince them he was on their side even though the economy did not recover immediately. it took years to recover. president obama has not been able to keep people by his side. a people -- people like the republican callers said, where are the jobs. people cannot have the patience, say, like in the 1930's. roosevelt had his fireside chats. he would sit down at the radio and people would listen and he would talk about these problems and he would try to coax americans through a very difficult time. this commission is trying to plant some of these -- decisions to the end of -- trying to punt some of these decisions to the end of the year. six of them appointed by the present and of those six, four would be democrats and two republican -- six of them appointed by the president. the republicans, so fearful that this commission would come to the conclusion that taxes would have to increase, the republican leadership is thinking about boycotting it. they feel like it is just a front to raise taxes. and it would be the ultimate irony if president obama signed an executive order to mandate bipartisanship and even that can't be navigated because the republican leadership said, no, we will not name our six members. host: what kind of teeth would it have? since it is not a statutory commission how would it get suggestions mandated? guest: this is the problem about the fact that the statutory commission was voted down. the president, according to the constitution, cannot mandate congress to do things. so, the president cannot mandate a vote on the commission's findings. what the president did was extract a promise from nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, and harry reid, senate majority leader, that at the end of the year, probably in a lame duck session, there will be a vote on these recommendations. i am extremely skeptical of the spirit if you think about an election in 2010 that is likely to cost democrats a fair number, if not a huge number of seats, and then a lame duck congress comes back and take some of the most significant votes that any congress could take? i just can't imagine that republicans could abide by that given they would be coming in with either a majority, perhaps, or a much bigger hand to play parrot host: jonathan weisman from "the wall street journal" where he covers the white house. thank you so much for setting the stage today. senator alan simpson, former senator from wyoming, republican, and erskin bowles, cochairs of a new debt commission. we are returning to your telephone calls. is american -- americans in need of a pep talk? robert shiller refers back to fdr. he says that -- leadership in a crisis cannot undo all of the damage of lack of leadership in the past. our question for you -- is america in need of a pep talk? lafayette, louisiana, jason on the democrats' line. caller: i have a comment and a suggestion. i called about 45 days ago and i was giving the president a pep talk. i give advice to all of the cabinet members. americans need a history lesson. they need to be reminded where we were a year ago when obama took office. they need to realize that tarp and recovery act are two different things. tarp was passed by president bush, yes, supported by president obama. the recovery act was to stabilize, keep jobs, will create jobs. we need to make americans realize the gains in iraq and in afghanistan, even catching the top leader. democrats need a pep talk. my suggestion for president obama, if these democrats are getting scared like evan bayh, a man who could have won his senate seat back but decided to opt out because he hates what is going on in congress, so when the tough get going, he has to go. allow these democrats who are not true to you, too to their constituents, allow them to fall. whether republicans take their seats or not. president clinton passed better policies and legislation when the republicans were in a majority, because what it is going to look like is, if the republicans take back control of congress and the senate, it is like a small dog fighting the big dog. people like the underdog. right now democrats are like the big dog and republicans are using it to their advantage. host: little river, south carolina. mark on the republican line. caller: like your last caller, these people do not have a queue. we are not asking for show, we want action. we don't need peptalk, what about action? you got a cheerleader on the white house who is on the tv every day for 30 months cheering people lawn, reading his teleprompter -- for 13 months. maybe he needs a new speech writers. you don't need a teleprompter for little kids added elementary school. if you cannot talk to little kids, something is wrong. the teleprompter has to go. what we need is a commander in chief. how about a president that does something? if you can't pass anything with the 60 votes in the senate and a majority in in congress, then something is wrong with your party. it is not the republicans. the republicans can't hold up anything. they could not hold up anything. but the president is out there every day -- we need more bipartisanship. the democrats won at this party, this large tent, a huge tent to include everybody. they want the republicans to have a large, a huge tent. see what happens when you get your large, huge tent. nobody can agree on anything. the republicans, we stand for our principles. that is why the problem is today -- the people want a side show. the democrats think there is some kind of utopia -- we can make everything wonderful. it does not happen, people. host: paul is next. independent. is america in need of a pep talk? columbia, south carolina. caller: we do not need a pep talk. i agree with most everything that just the past caller said. but the reason we don't need a pep talk, we have too many people talking already and that is all they are doing is talking. we need people and congress -- both democrats and republicans -- get rid of what we have if we can next november, both parties, and tried to start over again. and people will sit down and work the problems out. the commissions that they try, but we don't need more commissions. that is what we are paying these congressman for. host: the vice president talked about the national mood. here is what he had to say. >> people don't think you or a lot of other folks in washington gets it. does the obama administration get it? >> we get it. we understand why they are agreed. -- why they are angry. we are in good shape compared to the congress. nobody in washington is in good shape. what is it? 20 or 18? but that is no solace. it reflects the reality that washington is broken. i don't ever recall a time in my career where to get anything done you need a super majority, 60 out of 100 senators. we can block -- >> you said to me at lunch, you have never seen it is dysfunctional. >> i have never seen it this this function of. i'm trying to get the other team to cooperate, to get in the game a little bit. i understand the political motivation but i think, people say the message out of massachusetts was to the democrats. i think it was to everybody in public life. host: that was the vice president yesterday. let us go back to your calls. chicago, doris. caller: no pat talked in this country can combat the hate in the republican party -- pep t alk in this country. fdr had a real media. i would like everything to crash and burn. i have listened to the media, i have watched it and i have become so distrustful and disgusted with the media sense of the march to the iraq war and it has just become worse and worse. there is no truth. to the media, there are two sides to the truth. there cannot be two sides to the truth. what good is a peptalk going to be. i don't know what to say about it. " the new york times," "the washington post," the head of the ap bureau, he was asked to be mccain's media director and then you have npr trashing howard dean and cnn asking one year into obama's term whether he could be reelected. what kind of media is this? host: republican, south carolina. caller: i cannot agree what the last two callers any more as far as the pep talk. that's the last thing we need. what we need is jobs and to start with get rid of illegal so we can get back to work. we lost three job sites to other construction workers, and the job sites are going on. getting done now by mexicans. illegal in this country. it is wrong to the american people. and the politicians in this country need to stand up and do the right thing and start deporting them so we can go back to work. host: "the wall street journal" has an optimistic had lied. factories get set to hire. makers of shoes, electronics to add staff. next is a call from albuquerque, new mexico. john, independent line. caller: how are you? i appreciate this program and i love that yesterday's series about -- i love to yesterday's series about the recovery act. my frustration has been that i don't think america will go everywhere and so we stop killing people around the world. i just said -- i became a democrat originally in 1960 when i heard the keynote address to the democratic party. and since then i have become a green party member or independent. i think one of the problems in the united states is that the republicans are fine -- finally showing themselves to be the traders. the wealthy -- why don't the wealthy stand up and pay back the deficit that they took out of the economy? they are the ones that profited from this total collapse that we are about to face. here is my frustration with obama. i don't think he can get us out of the trouble. what he is doing is exactly right, except for murdering people around the world. he's keeping this war going on. that would be a trillion dollar savings right there because we are not talking about $1 trillion spent on the war, talking about $2 trillion more that we are going to have to be paying to get our soldiers back to par. host: next up is henry in miami. henry is on our democrats line. does america need a pep talk? caller: they desperately needed. host: who can deliver it and how would it work to change the psyche? caller: there could be no better person than current president obama along with a couple of moderate republicans liked -- like senator arlen specter who switched parties. i really have a lot of respect for senator dole when he stood beside president clinton, they had differences but they stood beside each other. senator dole is the most my mind as a republican after ronald reagan. host: of looking for a bipartisan peptalk? caller: absolutely. host: like a panel discussion? we have so much of that. how would stand out? caller: i'm from india. i migrated to this country in 1986. i'm in indian-american. i have been part of the proud fabric of america. as a community i have paid a lot of taxes, contributed a lot. but today the middle class in america is in the biggest limbo. the middle-class of this country drove the country where it was in the clinton administration and before that in the reagan administration. today the middle class is completely out of business. president bush helped the 10% rich people, president obama g-8 support from union but he figured out belfast it did not work so he -- president obama got support from the union but a figure out it did not work and now he is going to the center. the fact of the matter remains that republicans need to understand it is a live and let live policy, that is what condi said, live but let other people live. -- that is what gahndndhi. rich people -- if they can prove they did not -- when things are closing down at his villa set our country. host: lansing, michigan. republican line. caller: first of all, i think any peptalk is nonsense. we need to do the math. all of this foolishness of continually -- that is continually comporting -- i think they need to fully pay attention to the people first -- c-span, " washington journal" and the callers, the viewers, we need to take surveys and polls. we need to take these things the serious because i think the viewers and listeners and people like yourself and everybody just talking, they have more sense than anyone. we need to listen to the people and leave all of this demagoguery and politicking and take action because of this -- we are bankrupting america. they don't act now, i guarantee you, we will continuously be a çminus. what the market, 20 years from now we will still be talking about the same thing. let stand and that's had unity and our communities. let's do what the republicans of doing here in michigan. they have what is called eyes and ears to or and they are going state to state and listening to everyone -- they are listening to the college people, retirees, professionals, the homeless, the college students. listen to these individuals because they have more common sense. host: thank you. a couple more headlines as we talk about the national mood. in "the wall street journal" -- on the other side, grove has a hit payrolls a year and to the stimulus efforts. -- growth has not hit payrolls a year into the stimulus efforts. that is "the washington post" today. inside -- the administration's push to expand a foreclosure program. we learn the $75 billion program that is a year old now pays rent is to modify mortgages -- lenders to modify mortgages but so far fewer than 200,000 borrowers have received permanent changes to their loans. a small fraction of the 3 million to 4 million that initially they said the program could help. also -- state bows to seize pension funds. -- state bows to exceed pension funds. and this is more about the loan modification program. we will go back to call at that point. that is a look at headlines. next is a call from new york city. jane, independent not -- james, independent line. caller: i like that you let viewers express opinio