hos[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> these are in the best interest of the country in the best interests of the financial sector. i want to tell you with this reform looks like and why this matter. the bill is being considered in the senate would create what we did not have before. this is a way to protect the financial system and the more broader economy, and american taxpayers. this is in the event that a large financial firm begins to fail. if there is a lehman brothers and an aig. how will we respond in a way that -- that does not force taxpayers to take this. >> he is talking to wall street at cooper union. here is the headline on bloomberg. u.s. stocks rose, erasing the biggest effect of goldman sachs facing a lawsuit from the government. the los angeles times' front- page has this headline. the pace quickens as there is a finance bill deadline. the regulatory overhaul vote is on monday. this is how the "l.a. times" frames this story. obama paces wall street on reform, with lloyd blankfein at the speech yesterday. he will face the senate hearing on tuesday. with six current or former colleagues. he failed to disclose the critical information to the investors. mr. obama restricted to move -- the room for maneuver by standing explicitly behind the locker -- volcker rule. they have the banks with the proprietary trading. this is aimed at the former fed chairman, this may give him discretion for the sell-off according to the people involved in the late -- the overall. with the financial times story about the speech from president obama, the ratings agency has found that the top rating agencies, standard and poor's and moody's, were influenced by the investment bankers who paid their fees in the lending industry in the lead-up to the financial crisis. if you want to read those stories in several of the papers this morning. what do you think of the approach from president obama? this is your first phone line. >> i am small-business owner. i am at the bottom of the group. i have studied this kind of thing and i think that this is very important. looking back into 1947, when they studied civilization and why they thrive and why they do not thrive. this was the cover of "time" magazine. you have to have a middle-class for the consensus to survive. the other thing is that you have to have cooperation within a society, and currently, this is not happening. these are not even willing to consider using troubled asset relief program money. the speech from mr. obama -- i want for him to think of the small businesses. these are the small, safe harbors of american enterprise. these are the places where the ideas -- you have to have them. if you have this kind of situation, you'll have what they described when he talked about the last chair being used to sell. we have to use the seeds to grow the new economy, the new ideas, and the process that microsoft started. when you do this, this is going to become stagnant and this is going to die. host: what do you believe that the president should do to help small businesses? what should congress and the president do about this? caller: i just ran in and my voice is a little bit shaky. i do not care about being supported, economically, right now. all that i want is for a safe harbor to be preserved. like the small ships and the sailboats, the rowboats that represent the economic forefathers. he would be perfect, on sunday, bring in a person like this, part of the teaching company that presented this so that people can understand what is going on in context. host: thank you very much. the independent line, in roanoke, virginia. caller: obama said to lloyd blankfein, the head of goldman sachs. he says you have nothing to fear from this legislation. this is a charade. they knew that this was all planned. this is a very narrow base, from the sec, and certainly, goldman sachs is going to lose, and they will have to pay a fine of $10 million. but in the meantime, we lost $1.7 billion in this crash. they made billions of dollars out of the selling on the low side, much more money than they lost, and that was planned in this way. after this was concluded, they may even say that they will have to remove some of the executives of goldman sachs. but this is no major deal because others are going to move up with the situation. the system is going to change -- this will remain the same, and goldman sachs will be in command. the stock market went up because people understood that this was a charade. they were wanting to make this look to the people that the administration was finally being tough on goldman sachs, but this was far from the truth. they will remain in business the same way that they are. host: we will hear from the democratic line, from georgia. caller: a person with a certain amount of intelligence, they cannot be manipulated. what kind of degree did he have, the money was never there. the money was never there. people were just living this life. if there was some kind of way to trace how this money went, taxes should be paid on this. if you are really looking at what is happening, all of these people, this is like a balloon. people were exposed and the money was there. host: let us have a republican. caller: the government created this problem, and we have the least-qualified president to address this problem. he does not like a business or wall street. if you want to fix the economy, quit trading business, and wall street, like the enemy. host: then you will agree with the "wall street journal" editorial. obama is a gifted man, but we did not knew that he predicted the financial panic of 2008, referring to the speech yesterday were he said failure of responsibility, -- it says that they would have new sway over financial markets and risk-taking. this is the "wall street journal" editorial. we have a democrat on the line. caller: this is the same as his approach on all the other issues that have come forward. this is intelligent and thought out, and we have already consulted the experts. i hear people talking about him, not being experienced. people call him a marxist and they say that he is inexperienced. these are the haters, and the people in the tea party. he is coming from a place where they do not have any clue. he is really trying to bring the country out of the masess that this is in. this is the right approach. the statement about how -- there will be more testimony to this being the right approach. host: on the republican line, what are your thoughts? caller: the bank of international settlements has said that the federal reserve -- the currency in the last nine months. these are the real problems. inflation is 70%, and the value of the dollar is down by almost 90%. those are the real issues and he cannot fix this. host: the provisions in the financial regulation bill, the formulation of the nine-member oversight committee was chaired by the treasury secretary, and the head of regulatory agencies, to monitor the financial markets for potential threats. miltown conn, the independent line? what do you think? caller: i would like to echo the man that says that this is a charade. if you look at this civil complaint, what this does is that this exonerates them of criminal activity. this case will be brought before the justice department. and when you look at the scandal, -- there are presidents from both parties that are culpable, and there are politicians and the banking scandal that begins with the secretary of the treasury, reagan. dismantling the new deal. this is a collision between congress, and the multi- nationals. let's stop the battle between conservatives and democrats. she stated this much more eloquently than i -- that i can. we should get the country back and get a justice department, and get these criminal politicians out of office, i did not care what party they are in. c-spahost: republican line, from louisiana. caller: he says that changes coming, and lost -- wall street controls the money. we have to go in there and this is part of the kaleidoscope. you have the president who is doing the right thing. those who do not want this, -- host: eagle rock, california. caller: this is just criminal, with this triple-day and then there is henry paulson, under reagan for the bailout. did not ask where the money is going and did not invest for the money is going. this is democratic. you sound like frank luntz. host: we have more from the speech from cooper union college. >> as i said here two years ago, i believe in the power of the free market. i believe in a strong financial sector, that will help people to get loans and invest in savings. part of what has made america what it is. you take whatever you can never you can get this, and that is what led up to this crisis. some of them on wall street forgot that behind every dollar that is traded, or leverage, there is a family trying to buy a house, or pay for the education or open a business. or to save for retirement. what happened on wall street has real consequences across the country. i have also spoken about the need to move -- to have economic growth in the 21st century. wall street reform as part of that foundation. host: here is the "the new york times", they have a $50 billion fund that will be financed by the large companies to take apart the big banks and move them out of business. the obama administration is against the finding because this may affect the ability to deal with costly bank factors. there is also concern over the consumer banking agency and the republicans also oppose a proposal in a bill with ranch -- given by center blanche lincoln from arkansas -- centered blanche lincoln from arkansas. -- senator blanche lincoln from arkansas. caller: she has done nothing, and this will not stop. i have been in health care my entire life. professionalize, excuse me. one of my mba's is in accounting and finance. with the proposals that have been made, what they are doing is setting up wall street to do the same thing that they did before. i also happen to be privileged to live in the chicago area for more than one year, in the last decade. and there were a lot of my relatives, people in my employee who worked and they knew barack obama and his wife. she was working in a different hospital in that area. and this was extremely interesting because all of the funding from the first day, when he was, from the time that he was working with the administration, in chicago, they came from the banking industry. nothing is going to change. and then i saw he was surrounding himself with. host: this was at the speech, yesterday? you said that he was surrounding himself -- caller: when he decided to run for office in chicago, and then he went on beyond that into national politics, he surrounded himself with the same people and they were all financial. ron emmanuel -- rahm emanuel -- host: here is "usa today" who say that the financial industry has gone to d.c. insiders. host: that is usa today. we have jane on the republican line. caller: i hope that we have a great discussion about this bill. we have the return of the robber barons from 100 years ago. we have not gone back to using that term again. we cannot chase the money out of the country. we have to be mindful of what the international financial industry is doing. when we put something in place, and the more conservative regime comes in, we have to make certain that we can fund this. this has to work. i am conservative, to the people who are listing. even george soros said that we have to regulate the banks. they should not stop regulating them. this is not good for us. we had a hand, the united states financial community, in collapsing the economy of other countries. host: you may be interested in the "financial times." george soros has an article. he has said that credit defaults locks can be used as a license to kill. if you are interested in reading that, that is in the "financial times." wilson joins us on the democratic line. what do you think of the obama approach to wall street? caller: this is a great idea, but in the same time he has the petition did -- the position to do something for the american people. most of this came from the poor people of america. he has raised more money than any candidate during the race. he could even balance the deficit. he could shut down all the banks and in time, the money that is left in the bank's, the rest of that will go back to the united states treasury. host: we have other headlines. it is likely that they will pass this with the new health care bill. 4 million americans will have to pay the penalty for not getting health insurance. this will average a little bit more than $1,000 in 2016 according to the congressional budget office. next to that is the frieze of the payment of congress. they will deny a built-in pay raise next year. the front page of "usa today." generation y is held down by a lack of savings. obama -- barack obama and his wife will go to north carolina, to go to a resort in-fill for private time, and they are expected to stay at tehe grove park in. this may be $670 for the club level. that is the schedule for the weekend. otis from jackson, michigan. caller: i want to say this. all but obama does is talk about the lack of integrity, and he will set the tone. host: is that everything? caller: that is everything. host: we have the democratic line. caller: how is the average american, or the average investor, going to be able to figure out the exotic instruments that were being sold when the german banks could not figure this out? what was done, this was almost a crime. i think that the president was very easy on wall street. i think that i want to see somebody in handcuffs. people have lost their homes, their children's opportunities to go to college, and the savings were tied up with all this money. they are still getting bonuses? two weeks ago? host: "don't cry for wallstreet." obama went to cannot -- went to a crowd drawn from wall street to push financial reform. krugman writes -- mr. obama said it won't affect financial regulation. too bad. it seems likely -- lakeland, florida. leo, you areo n the air. -- are on the air. caller: i am calling, in reference to what is happening on wall street. i saw what he said and what he's trying to implement, this is very positive. there was a previous caller, and said that he surrounded himself with his friends and all of that. every president does this. that is all that i have to say. i think that he is doing a good job. what he is doing should have been done a very long time ago. host: thank you. the senate seat is going to be competitive in arkansas. this is currently leading republican. and this is also listed as a tossup. joining me is the little rock bureau capital correspondent to talk about this. blanche lincoln, the incumbent, she is being challenged in the primary on may 18 by the lieutenant governor. guest: this is a key race to follow because blanche lincoln, even before he was in the race, was considered one of the most vulnerable democrats facing reelection. the approval numbers in arkansas have gone down, over the last year. especially as the debate has increased over health-care overhaul. she has described herself as being the role in the middle of a tug-of-war between the extreme right and the extreme left. halter got into the race right at the beginning of the filing in arkansas, and basically, at the urging of a lot of different groups that have been unhappy with her positions. she was seen as going against the obama administration on some important issues like the public option in health care and halter has the support of a lot of groups that are not happy with her, including labor unions and moveon.org. they are putting a lot of money into the race, and this is looking like one of the most expensive political race in the history of this state. host: moveon.org has raised about 1.5 million online to support the lieutenant governor. how has she respond to this challenge? guest: she has responded very aggressively. that is one thing that is very striking. this has become a very bitter battle, very quickly. if you live in arkansas and you turn on the television, you will see advertisements between them and not to mention, other groups that are doing independent expenditures. they are going after either candidate. she is trying to make him look like he is supported by a lot of the outside groups. she has been making an issue out of the support that he has gotten from the labor unions. it is very hard to get over that period. guhost: she is part of the agricultural committee, and they rode a large part of this when it comes to the derivatives. some are surprised by what she brought to this legislation. guest: this is a move over to the left, especially for her. and this is something that many of the bank's do not like. they do not like what this puts on the practice. and there has been some speculation that she was moving to the left on this because of the challenge from halter. she has got a lot of press out of this, and she has a lot of attention from this. this was approved in the agricultural committee and she was able to get one republican to support this. this is something that she has been mentioning more, and we expect this during the first debate, she will be talking about this as an example of working against wall street. the message against her has been trying to paint her as an advocate for wall street instead of main street. host: the first debate will be tonight and we will have this at 8:00 eastern time. the first democratic primary debate for the arkansas senate seat. your story for the associated press have this headline. blanche lincoln says that she will not take the money from goldman sachs. guest: this is an issue that has been raised and we expect to hear about this tonight. and there will be another debate on saturday. i expect to hear about this message on friday and saturday. even though she is working on derivatives legislation, she has received money from goldman sachs. on january 1, she received $4,500 in contributions from the political action committee. another web site reported that she had a fund-raiser at their headquarters planned for monday. she had canceled this. the campaign says that they did not have anything scheduled but they had been discussing about some kind of meeting their. but they now say it -- because of the charges against goldman sachs, her campaign would not take any contributions from goldman sachs or the employees, or schedule anything related to the campaign. this was a change from what she had said before. but one thing is that alter -- alter -- halter is telling her to return the contribution. she has been talking about the derivatives legislation, and she says that this does not influence policy. this is something that goldman sachs of the other banks would not like. >> how are the opinion polls? >> there is some variation. one website recently did an opinion poll that shows that she has only a seven-point lead, 38-31. this was about 20% of the people have responded, they were undecided. and 10% were supporting the third candidate in the primary, and he has not been getting a lot of attention. he is a very conservative democrat. he is the only one calling for the repeal of the health-care overhaul. the other opinion polls have shown a greater margin for blanche lincoln. she had a 45%-33% lead with 6% undecided. this may be anywhere from seven%. -- digit lead. she is still below 50%. there was internal opinion polling that gave her a greater margin, above 50%. but there is definitely a variation, and the interesting thing is that many people thought that this would be decided on may 18. there is the possibility that there may be a runoff, that may stretch until june. host: and there is the r