The president is telling our european allies it is time for them to step up to the plate and provide more defense dollars in order to secure the continent and deal with threats such as russia. You can join in on the conversation by giving us a phone call at we welcome our listeners on cspan radio. You can also send us a tweet or join in on the conversation at facebook. Com cspan, or send us an email to journal cspan. Org. Withresident is meeting pope francis at the vatican. We will have more on that coming up later this hour. This story inside the New York Times closed quote puts into perspective what the u. S. And nato are facing. Times put into perspective what the u. S. And nato are facing that is this morning from inside the New York Times. The Washington Post is out with a new ap poll. The nation come about 59 of americans disapprove of the president s handling of the nation. Disapprove of the situation in ukraine of the way he handled the situation in ukraine. With a dutch newspaper to outline what he thinks needs to come about from this week. Heres a quote from the president. He said heres some more from the president yesterday in brussels. [video clip] if we defined our interests narrowly, if we applied a coldhearted calculus we may ourde to look the other way people are not integrated with ukraines. Of we face no direct threat from the invasion of crimea. Our own borders are not threatened by russias annexation. Casual difference would ignore the rest fences re it would allow the old way of doing things to regain a foothold in this young century. That message would be heard not asia, therope, but in americas, in africa, and the least. The obamald administration expect more from europe and nato . Many of you already weighing in on our facebook page. This from russell uss go to charlene joining from maryland on the line for democrats. I am a democrat and i disagree. I do not think it is casual indifference to not support ukraine. I think the European Union needs to fund it. Compensationotten for merrick and who have not recovered in this economy for americans who have not recovered in this economy. There is more for helping americans and less for helping the European Union. Host there is an new poll from the Gallup OrganizationAvailable Online. It shows Many Americans show russia as unfriendly. Have that8 perspective in the u. S. Front page of the Washington Post has this headline by the way, if you are interested the entire speech by the president is available on our website. The question we are asking, should the expect should the u. S. Expect more from europe . This is the front page of the york times next up at is this headline as the president renews his commitment to the nato alliance. Join in on the conversation, our phone lines this is from the wall street journal closed quote the wall street journal our next caller comes to us from southaven, michigan. Good morning, youre on the air. Everybody is down on obama. I say the president has a great idea. We do not need to send aid to from here to ukraine or russia. We cant beat russia anyway. Enqueue so much for the call. Host thank you for the call. Kevin drum has this analysis piece is analysis france has threatened to cancel the sale of two warships come of the g8 has effectively kicked russia off the club, ukraine has power to crimea, the russian economy is hardly robust in the first place and has already begun to tank. What has russia got in return . 10,000 square miles of territory that nationalistic pride aside mostly represents a political and economic drain on the state. That putin sure is a master geopolitical strategist. The is robert joining us on republican line from gaithersburg, maryland. Welcome to the conversation. Caller thinking for taking my call. I think europe should definitely step up. I think we are moving now towards more regional alliances. We know europe needs to do more nato. We have congress wanting to put in billions of dollars to crimea. What about order rico that wants to be one of the United States what about print oh what puerto rico that wants to be one of the United States . I want to share with you, the source of this is cnbc. The u. S. Spent more on defense in 2012 than did the countries with the next 10 highest Defense Budgets combined. China, russia, u. K. , japan, france, saudi arabia, germany, italy, and brazil. U. S. Spending 680 2 billion collectively. The other nations, 652 billion. The next calls from florida. Good morning. We have been holding their hands, wiping their nose since 1945. They need to step up. If they would spend more on their military we would have to spend our military spend our money over there protecting them. It is an absolute disgrace. If we dont wean them they are not going to do some that theyre not going to do nothing for themselves. Caller a story from political. Com from politico. Com. Time is on his side, obama they will succeed, even in russia. Even if it is ruled by flounder of International Law and a believer that that is from politico. Com. This is from our viewers saying it is the new world order. You can send in your tweet. Cspan twospan and you can watch the debate unfold as the house and senate are both expected to pass a bill that will provide said provide additional assistance to the ukraine, Loan Guarantees and additional funds. The imf was taken out of the Senate Version because of the debate in House Republicans saying they will not support that part, that reform in the imf legislation. It is a straight upanddown vote. Speaker boehner was asked about all of this. [video clip] can you articulate in a very concrete fashion what exactly to be withthe result Vladimir Putin . Do you expect him to pull back against crimea, not moving to the eastern part of ukraine . What is the concrete out from outcome . Ande have allies in Central Eastern europe. We have allies in western europe who are asking the question, where is the line . We are trying to do his work with the demonstration to stand up to putin. I will let the Administration Talk as to what their goals are. Our goals is to make sure the administration has the most effective tools available to deal with a very difficult situation. Does that mean crimea is gone . He won. Continue withg to the administration created caller and ministration. Host the house and senate are expected to post to vote on that aid package today. Chicago, democrats line. Should the u. S. Expect more from europe and nato moving ahead . Caller almost definitely. Thank you for taking my call. Stand we spend more money than the next 10 countries combined on military, that is up seen. Obscene. S up seen we need to back germany and western europe and Eastern Europe with resources and Technical Support and Everything Else. Is the same as Guantanamo Bay. We would not give up Guantanamo Bay even though it is in cuba. Host thank you for the call. And other editorial based on the president s through europe and his speech in brussels. This is from the Washington Post next calls from alexandria, virginia. If you could turn the volume down on your set we will hear you much better. Going to put on hold and we promise we will go back to you in a moment. Were going to jesse next in mesquite, michigan. Caller i would like to make a brief comment. Of all the continents we have , iraq, afghanistan, what korea, vietnam, business do we have telling russians what to do you go what to do . Obama spent most of his time trying to [indiscernible] when a mclemore, before i get off the air. Im going to make one more comment before i get off the air. What in the world was oreilly doing . It was a slap in the face. This point on our twitter page this editorial from the Financial Times should be expect more from europe and from nato as well . Heres more from the president in brussels. [video clip] that is the question we all what kind of europe . What kind of america . Will can of world will believe behind . What kind of world will we leave behind . Back ourlling to beliefs with courage and resolve , then hope will ultimately overcome fear and freedom will continue to triumph over terror. Because that is what forever stirs in the human heart. Host the president in brussels. Well go back to virginia. Go ahead. Youre on the air. I dont understand what you said. Host if you have a quick comment we are on the air. We were getting some feedback. Do you want to make a point . Caller what has europe to do with everything . Europe. Ave bombed how much have you stolen when you left europe . Today you make movies that show the different side. There is treasure in the mines. Where did it go to . It vanished. Why dont we ask what he did with all of it. Call. Thanks for the from the Washington Examiner, this perspective from senator. Ed cruz he believes russian president putin and russian leaders no longer respect the president because of his failure to lead. He tells the Washington Examiner he added that putins aggressive next aggressiveness was a direct result of americas position in the world. We go to our next caller. Certaini am not so about nato or europe. Even they are backpedaling now. First they get their oil three ukraine and from russia. The best way to deal with them would be for us to produce oil here. That is about the best way to do them and take them out of ukraine and Everything Else. Give them thatld billion dollars just to give them get them off their start. After that we should supply them and we shouldnt give the imf any money. We make our money back to us instead of giving it back to putin. That doesnt make any sense. We are having with putin is just that. A strong leader and everybody in the nations know it. That is the main problem we are having here. The silver tongue is going to bite off at some point. Ishink the mess we are in basically his fault. I voted for him but that was a mistake. I would not be voting for a third term there was one. A statement from the white house as the u. S. Welcomes this preliminary agreement between the ukraine and imf. An 18 billion Loan Guarantee was worked out between the imf and government of ukraine. The president is sitting down with pope francis this morning, his second meeting with the leader of the catholic church. In 2009 he met with Pope Benedict the 16th pope xvi. Dict david is on the call line next. To me ask you how much we will focus on health care, social issues, and abortion is likely to come up. Unique situation. Verse he had the meeting with the pope himself, which lasted about 53 minutes. Am told that was more of administering situation, they were talking about religious and philosophical ideas. After that the president went into the meeting with secretary of state with the vatican. That is where the difficult issues will be talking about, such as abortion, the contraceptive mandate, and the healthcare law. The more difficult talk is going on right now with the secretary of state. De son the audio we were able to hear, the president was genuinely pleased to sit down with the holy father. Guest he has been looking to this meeting for many many months. Because of the popes comments about treating the poor and income gap between the rich and the poor, the president has talked about it. He has warranted this meeting and he thinks the goodwill very much overshadow the bad. You have covered past president s meeting with the popes. Of we should point out that mark er sent out a tweet president obama tying his predecessors meeting with the pope now for a second time. What are the dynamics in these gatherings . Isst any time the president in italy or rome they go to visit the pope. It can be tricky politically. There are things they agree on and things that the president and pope disagrees on. They cut across traditional traditional ideology in the United States. Those were two issues bush agreed with him on. Pope john paul ii criticized president bush over the war in limited his support for stem cell research. There are issues on which they agree and disagree. The menu has flipped for president obama. And the vatican are in sync in terms of trying to reduce income equality. Their disagreements over abortion. Resident obama supports abortion rights. There are disagreements over contraception. Host a debate over labels, as well. His is a tweet from politico, quoting some bigname conservative catholics. Guest it is true. In the first year of his papacy pope francis talked about the. Our about the poor he believes the church should be more open. That doesnt mean he supports abortion rights and supports gay marriage. I think that is what the conservatives are talking about. Guest mark noller tracks all of these things. This is a tweet he gave a while ago guest thats right. Its worth noting that there was president s who never met with the pope and for many years in our country anticatholicism was a political platform. In the mid19th century we had the socalled american party. Part of their platform was to cut off immigration so there would be fewer catholics in the country. It took a while for president s and popes to be in a position where they could meet. That happened in 1919 with president wilson. He was the first president to travel to europe. Trips tod to take side meet other World Leaders and the pope was one of those leaders. Host, what is the white house hoping to achieve . Guest i think president obama would like some of that mojo. He sees this as an opportunity to talks about to talk about his issues in terms of reducing income inequality and helping the poor. Pope received a formal invitation to come to the u. S. Heor boehner we know Speaker Boehner guest i think theyre still working on the details. I fully expect pope francis and the United States to meet by the end of this year. Host we are going to continue with your calls and comments. The primary message that he has been delivering, it is time for europe to step up to the plate. Our phonelines are open. Obama enlists in europes aid. We are joined from tennessee. Caller what i wanted to say has to do with all the stuff that is going all over europe. A if i was if i was a leader of the world, right now the you cant tell me that putin doesnt see that. For the call. U from inside the washington times, obama quoted in a speech yesterday. This is not another cold war. Michael is joining us next. Good morning, welcome to the comp look into the conversation. Welcome to the conversation. Caller i dont believe europe should look at us as a world police figure. To stay strong we need to be at home. I dont know why our opinion is so valued over there. We need to be relied on as economically ingenuity is people. This is a host this is a headline it is above the fold from the pittsburgh postgazette. Danny is joining us next, good morning from alabama. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think europe should step up a little bit. I think nato should put more into it. I agree with the guy from tennessee who called in. Thinkingke Ted Cruz Obama is weak, i dont believe he is weak. Did he say this when bush and thats when bush invaded when bush invaded the . They threw it back in our face. Thank you. Host this point on our twitter page you can share your thoughts at cspwanwj. At somebody d to go we need to go back to somebody like henry kissinger, who is very in touch with different leaders. Variesg different cousin a friend countries, you have studying different countries, you have to go back to politics. Each country has a different trade. Putin put on the olympics. We did nothing but criticize him. Host from the hill closed the hillaper newspaper the speaker called the move, in other deadline made meaningless. That is from the hill. Congressman darrell issa, chairman of the House Oversight committee, and new head of the intestinal Revenue Service of the internal Revenue Service that story is front page of the washington times. Next calls from the democrat line. Good morning. Caller i am going to call to i am just calling to touch upon what john baer just said. He said he is doing everything he can to make obama as strong as possible and give him the tools that he needs. When it comes to helping people here, why isnt he like that when it comes to helping obama . Host thank you for the call. This is inside the Washington Post. More from the president yesterday as he spoke in brussels. [video clip] we sent no troops there. What we want is for the ukrainian people to make their own decisions. Just like other free people around the world. Understand as well this is not another cold war we are entering into. Unlike the soviet union, russia leads no bloc of nations, no global ideology. States and nato do not seek any conflict with russia. For more than 60 years we have come together in nato not to claim other lands but to keep nations free. What weve always will do is our solemn all location that solemn obligation, defending the integrity and sovereignty of our allies. Nato nations never standalone. Patrol theplanes skies over the baltics and we have reinforced our presence in poland. We are prepared to do more. Every member state of nato must step up and carry its share of the burden. Willst show the political in our defense. Just a portion of what was a 40 minute address in brussels. You can dial in at if you are watching this program outside the United States should the u. S. Expect more from europe and nato . We are getting your comments on our facebook page. This is from Richard Smith lee is joining us from windsor, new york. Welcome to