they don't know yet how far with this. but people are -- were tired already of this not having a relationship with america and now they will see an opportunity to increase business and things will come from america that will create jobs. people in cuba believe that we have so much in common with america. and with americans. and so this is certainly good for both partners we believe. cuba plays a very important role and now they are expressing how happy they are and they see america with different eyes. so it opens a new market for american producers is good for the american business with the congressman, your thoughts as alan gross comes home and the possibility of normalization with cuba. >> first of all, we're always elated when an american gets to come home, so i congratulate alan gross. he got his freedom, he got to spend hannukah with his family. that's wonderful news. what is not wonderful news is that the families of the brothers to the rescue shootdown, those four wonderful american patriots, they are spending yet one more christmas without their loved ones and they died at the hands of fidel and raul castro. what is sad is that tomorrow the cuban people will wake up and they will still have no political freedom. they will have no human rights to be expected. there are no political parties that exist in cuba, that has not changed. obama has given away the store. has given everything to the castro regime. of course the regime is happy. we got nothing in return. >> congressman-elect carbello, you are a new generation of cuban american. your generation, does it feel -- in south florida, does it feel the same way as the older generation or are they looking forward to some sort of normalization? >> we all wanting the same thing for the cuban people. we all want the same thing for the united states and that's a strong america that leads and a free cuba. nothing that happened today gets us closer to those goals. the president of the united states has made every american serving abroad less safe today. he's provided a blueprint for dictators throughout the world. if you want to extract unilateral concessions from the united states, all you have to do is hold an american hostage and be patient. we have given cuba everything at the president's disposal for alan gross. we're happy that he's back. we're happy that he's back. but alan gross wins today, that's a good thing. the cuban government wins. but u.s. national security loses. freedom and democracy throughout the world lose. >> congresswoman, was our foreign policy with cuba working? we have this 1996 act where we have this embargo and i guess the president is trying to sort of soften up some aspects of it. i'm not even sure if the law allows him to do it but that's a wh whole other debate. was our foreign policy working? >> you bring up a good point about him possibly breaking the law. i believe he has broken the law. there are three laws that he has violated. we're going to do an investigation about the clarity of how he got the mission to do this. but what it shows, greta, when you ask a key question, has our policy been working. well, the policy of 190 other countries who have been wheeling and dealing and going to tourist trips and doing everything with castro, they have not brought cuba any closer to freedom or democracy. so it's not that the united states policy has not worked, the other policy of engagement has not worked. and in fact what president obama has done today, normalizing relations, that will not bring the cuban people any closer to democracy either. the one that will not change is the cuban communist dictatorial regime. these guys are not going to change. >> congressman-elect, i started to ask you before about men and women ine. you're in your early 30s if i remember from the last time we talked. do they feel the same way you do about it or is that more of an older generation thing as we look towards cuba? >> yeah, greta, i told you our generation wants the same thing that all generations living in this country want. we want to see the cuban people free. my parents were born in cuba. they had to leave. my grandfather served a political sentence, prison sentence in cuba. so we feel it in our hearts. and today we are very sad because we feel that for the first time in this 56-year-long drama that the cuban people have lived, for the first time the person in the white house is on the wrong side of history. we want the president of the united states to stand with the cuban people. we want the president of the united states to stand with those heroes that are sitting in castro's jail today, and we want the president of the united states to stand for a strong united states that leads with a clear voice and with moral authority, and that is not what happened today. and we shouldn't be surprised, greta, because this is the same president that's at the table with the iranians. this is the same president that draws red lines and ignores them. so what happened today is alarming, but it's not surprising. >> thank you to both of you for joining us. >> thank you, greta. thank you, carlos. >> congressman chris van hollen has more on the government plane that lifted alan gross out of cuba after a very tough five years in prison and landed back on u.s. soil. he joins us. nice to see you, congressman. before i get to the question about how the flight was, what did we gain out of this? >> what we gained is a change in policy that might finally have a chance -- >> might finally. >> -- to enpower the cuban people. what we know the policy has been a failure. >> what was the failure at spent of it? >> the failure was that by isolating and punishing cuba, you were somehow going to get a change in regime from the castros or have an opening in cuba clearly failed. what it did help do is sustain the castro regime. the castro brothers have survived eight presidents. >> except that we're sort of getting to the end of this biological clock with the two castros. i mean they can't last forever. they're both getting to be pretty elderly gentlemen. and cuba isn't a threat to us in any way. >> but we now have an opportunity to empower the cuban people because the one thing that they're probably most afraid of is more engagement, more travel from americans, more trade, more communication, opening up the world to the cuban people. no one is talking about the castro regime changing their mind, that's not the issue. they didn't change their mind with 54 years of the failed policy we have. more engagement with the cuban people, a little more taste of free market and free ideas will, i think, encourage more demand for change from the cuban people. >> what was that plane ride like? did alan gross -- when did you first see him? >> we first saw him when we walked off the plane and the tarmac into a build in havana. as you can see from the pictures he's lost a lot of weight, he's very fragile. >> where was his wife at that time? >> she was the first to come in the room. that's why his face lit up. judy has been fighting for five years to bring alan home. >> you see that picture? it's a great picture. >> i can tell you he was in great spirits. obviously even greater spirits when he got on the plane and it lifted off. he's maintained some strength, even though he's wiry and gave everybody a big bear hug. >> this is not new to you. he campaigned for you years ago. >> alan was one of the people who helped go door to door in my first campaign. after he was taken prisoner, i worked very closely with his wife, judy, and his entire team to try and make this day come about. but there were lots of ups and lots of downs -- >> you got a good phone call the night before this election, i hear. >> one of the things that happened is as we got -- over the years we were ail to get alan more privileges, including calling. it used to be once a week and then he got to be on the phone so, yes, i got a call from him in october saying best wishes in the election. so he did bring me luck. >> it mm-hmm been amazing after you left cuba airspace. when they leave that airspace and enter the u.s. airspace, what a thrill that is. >> it was. you can see a great weight lifted. >> did they announce that? >> and he kind of said yeah, you know. so it was a great moment. >> it's always great to have an american home who was held overseas. congressman, thank you. i imagine it was a great trip and lots of fun. >> it was fun, but everyone was very, you know, on edge until we actually got alan on the plane. >> i don't doubt that. congressman, nice to see you. thanks. >> thank you. while alan gross finally got his freedom today, so did three cubans. many republicans and some democrats are calling it prisoner swap. the white house denies it's a prisoner swap. ed henry joins us live. ed, what difference if we call this a prisoner swap or not? i know the white house denies it, but what's the big deal about this? >> well, the deal, greta, is the white house is saying getting alan gross out was separate from the swap. they don't want to be tied up and look like there was a trade there. they're saying that cuba on a humanitarian basis let alan gross out, then the u.s. was able to make this swap of three cuban spies, as you say, let out of american prison and then there was an intelligence asset to the u.s. government, we believe a cuban man, who was helping the u.s. from cuba thrown -- he was caught by the cuban authorities at some point and thrown in prison, been there for some 20 years. so that was the swap. look, that might be a distinction without a difference. all of this was happening around the same time. it was a deal between the president of the united states, the dictator from cuba. i think the big question moving forward, you've got democrats, not just republicans but democrats like bob menendez saying they think it was a direct swap and how that might matter moving forward. will someone like bob menendez go along with formally lifting the embargo with cuba. he's saying no. while there are republicans not normally aligned with the president, congressman plake wants to see the embargo lifted so this is scrambling the parties a little bit. >> ed, thank you. while some are jumping for joy, some are blasting president obama for the plans to normalize economic and diplomatic things with cuba. lindsey graham said i will do all that i can to block the use of funts to open an embassy in cuba. even senator robert menendez is not wild about president obama's plan. he said trading mr. gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous press denting. and joining us -- john, what did we get out of this? >> we got a chance, an opportunity to turn the page. >> for what, though? >> he's talked about this going back to 2007-2008. he'd wanted to say let's get rid of the old policy and start a new policy. that wasn't possible as long as alan gross was held captive. releasing him gives you the chance for the new page but there are limits to what he can do. senator graham is going to try to hold up funding. the idea of full normalization, a lot of lift has to happen and that's where the give and take has to happen with the castro regime. you wouldn't see that at all without these first steps. >> susan, i'm all for making friends with everybody and i think it's important everybody be friends, but the fact is that this regime, they're monsters. i mean we're not talking about the human rights violations going on in cuba right now. i'd love to have a great place and everything. but they have the worst record for freedom of the press, they lock people up for political opponents. so i'm not quite sure is the idea that maybe if we're a little bit nicer they're going to release prisoners and they're going to stop locking people up and all of a sudden let newspapers flourish? >> i think the point congressman van hollen made is a good one. no one is expecting the castro regime to change. but no rights are going to be added to people's lives because of what happened today. but they are getting near the end of their biological clock as you said and there may be an opening in the future where people will want freedom and a freer society will evolve. but the points made today by rubio and menendez and others who are opposed to this are that this is not going to change anything. people aren't going to get more rights. they're still going to be human rights violations. whatever freedoms are provided by the u.s., the internet or travel, the cuban government will control tightly. that's a really important thing to be aware of. >> so essentially, john, susan is saying we're trying to get our foot in the door for when the castros die. we're trying to get ahead of the game. >> that's the theory, but i mean what the people who support the embargo have always said is this is our last and always leverage point for when they're gone. that is when we want to negotiate with their successors and say you want normalization, you want greater economic interaction, then give some more freedom to your people. let them speak freely, worship freely, move freely. you got none of those things today. i don't really see -- there's the theory if we engage a little more, they will be inspired. i hope that's right, i fear it's not and i fear the cuban people will be owe pressed longer than they would have. >> i think they think the cuban people themselves will force change in the government by having more exposure. >> we've had some bad luck with the arab spring where we have the expectation. it's really hard to predict what people are going to do. panel, stay with us. straight ahead, former florida governor, jeb bush, and he's a potential presidential candidate. he says the obama administration's decision to restore diplomatic ties with cuba undermines america's credibility. you'll hear more from him. plus a long-time friend of governor bush goes on the record next. also there's developing news. sony cancelling the release of the film "the interview." that's coming up too. patented sonic technology with up to 27% more brush movements. get healthier gums in two weeks. innovation and you philips sonicare save when you give philips sonicare this holiday season. that's all i crave.e that's where this comes in. only nicorette gum has patented dual-coated technology for great taste. plus nicorette gum gives you intense craving relief. and that helps put my craving in its place. that's why i only choose nicorette. dad,thank you mom for said this oftprotecting my future.you. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. you don't need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. because we do. we're exxonmobil and powering the world responsibly is our job. because boiling an egg... isn't as simple as just boiling an egg. life takes energy. energy lives here. governor coming out one day out of the gate and skewering the president? >> well, jeb bush just a few weeks ago said the problem with the restrictions on cuba is that they're not tight enough and we should be tightening the screws, not loosening them. with this, this goes back to a feeling he's had for a very long time that we cannot give an inch. we cannot give anything to cuba until castro gives freedom to the people of cuba. keep in mind jeb bush's background. he moved to south florida in the early 1980s, established connections, friendships, worked closely with cuban exiles who have very strong feelings about this. oppose the castro regime. later when he got into politics he worked very hard to bring them into the gop fold in florida and he's succeeded to great extent. this became a very important part of his political base and later the gop political machine after he left office. that said, the political climate here in florida, polls do show a shift of opinion in favor, more people wanting to see us improve relations with cuba. but you have to keep in mind those who oppose the direction that we saw the president take today are very fervent and very passionate about this. they tend to be very loyal voters and often can be single issue voters when it comes to this. >> we only have 20 seconds left. what does this mean having -- if governor bush gets in, what does that mean for senator marco rubio? >> it's going to be a problem for marco rubio. if this debate advances to the senate, it can elevate his profile. but keep in mind they're very much aligned in terms of how they believe with respect to this issue and in terms of donors and support with jeb bush out front. this continues to be a problem for marco rubio if he chooses to run for president. >> craig, thanks. all eyes on florida, of course, as always as we approach 2016 in two years now. thank you, craig. >> sure thing, thank you. our next guest is the chairman of the american conservative union and he has been friends with former governor jeb bush for decades. good evening, sir. >> greta, good to be with you. >> i noticed you've told us about the fact that governor jeb bush might run for president. you said you have mixed feelings and you go on to say but he'll be a difference maker. what did you mean by that? >> a difference maker meaning, look, we live in an area of gridlock, less people turn out to vote than they ever did before. more people are registering no party affiliation. folks don't seem to be happy with either party. so jeb bush, who's a conservative problem solver, is coming and saying, look, it's time we get together, we heal our nation, we move forward with a positive vision, but we've got things to do. we've got energy policy to put together. we've got tax reform. we've got to balance our budget. we've got to deal with our entitlements. i'm going to be the candidate with ideas. i'm not going to go out there with a strategist telling me precisely how to win. i'm going to share my vision and i hope the american people buy into it. i hope they do. if they don't, i'll go home in peace but i'm not going to be led by a group of strategists who tell me what to say, what not to say and end up in a process where i'm part of this toxic environment that politics is all about today. he's just not going to do that. >> i can tell you, i hear the consultants in these races all the time and so i get the frustration that candidates can have with the consultants but i'm curious, there's a big difference from being a great governor or great president than being a great campaigner, which office. in iowa, you've got to go door to door, you've got to be in kitchens, you've got to talk to the people. some people are better talking to audiences. is he the kind that can sit in a kitchen and is he willing to do that? >> i've seen jeb bush walk down a street with me in the dark of night and stop to see a homeless man and see how he was doing. this is a different kind of candidate. one of the most caring, one of the most compassionate candidates you're going to see in the trail in your lifetime. >> i'm curious, what's the downside for him? what's going on in his mind why he might not? it sure looks like his toe is in the water, but why might he not run? >> well, look, he's proud of his family. he's got one son who just won statewide office in texas. he's got another son who's by his side every day in business. he loves his daughter, loves his wife. he travels a lot but is more at home than he was before. he's dangled a bit in business, he's done well there. he gets to play golf on sundays. he's going to give up a lot of this life to try to help america get back on its feet and to heal our country, and that's a major sacrifice and he's giving up a lot to do that. >> does he have the fire in the belly to do that? >> he's the most competitive guy i've ever met. i've been with him and two campaigns for his dad, three campaigns for him, two campaigns for his brother and he's the most tireless worker, most compassionate and competitive guy i've met in the process, so he'll be ready for anything and anyone if he decides to do it. >> we just saw a picture of the two of you and of course i hope you'll come back because if he does get in, we'll need to talk to you a lot and find out what's going on in the governor bush campaign. thank you, sir, for joining us. >> my pleasure, thanks, greta. and you can see our complete interview with al cardenas. executive orders by any other name. president obama finding another way to bypass congress. that's coming up. here at fidelity, we give you the most free research reports, customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed 1-second trades. and at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and e-trade. i'm monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. and i quit smoking with chantix. i had tried to do it in the past. i hadn't been successful. quitting smoking this time was different because i got a prescription for chantix. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. the fact that it reduced the urge to smoke helped me get that confidence that i could do it. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix or history of seizures. don' take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, or develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. i love myself as a non-smoker. ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. katy pesoft and fullntrary, how dlike a flower,grow? with new covergirl full lash bloom mascara. finally! volume that's soft - not spiky. new full lash bloom mascara from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl so tell me your thoughts on this. >> yeah, i think this is a big victory for the bad guys. i think that's the dangerous precedent in this. this was essentially a terrorist act and by sony now giving in after equivocating a little bit, you go back to the original making of this movie, if you're going to make the movie and not stand by it at the end. my colleague talked to president obama even today and the president's advice is go to the movie. obviously this was the intended effect was to squelch this movie, to make it not happen and it's worked. >> you know what, i've told both of you during the break, i actually -- i've been to north korea, as you know, three times. north korea looks at this -- they have nuclear weapons and they are so erratic, you can't even point at a picture of kim jong-un without risking going to some prison camp. i don't know why sony didn't make this a fictionalize movie about some make-believe country because we're not dealing with normal people. we're not dealing with a normal situation. we're dealing with people who see us as complete enemies and we're trying to kill them every single day. >> i'm noticing on social media people are joking can they make requests to producers about what kind of pictures sony can produce because it looks as though they're being dictated in terms of what they are going to put out there. i think that's the sad fact about all of this. we should not have a foreign country dictating the terms of what comes out, no matter who they are. >> of course we shouldn't, but we're not dealing with a full deck on this. i mean that's the problem is that, you know, this is a predictable response. if you've ever been there, literally they think we are training seven days a week, all three of you and i'm training every day to try to kill them when we're not doing any of that. but they see that and see this as such an insult, they're going to go nuts. >> but what does going nuts mean? >> this, this. >> are producers upset about the hacking. >> it's a terrible thing to hack. look, they did a terrible -- if they're the ones that did it, it's a terrible thing to hack. it's a terrible thing for us to bow to the pressure. it's a terrible thing to have the terrorists act on the movie, but it's all going back to the judgment of making that movie, knowing that we were dealing with a situation that wasn't quite normal. >> i mean i think north korea is the most brutal regime in the world. it's run by a totalitarian psychopath. i think if hollywood had any decency, they would make a serious film detailing the brutality that is going on. >> that's a great idea. >> an i think right now -- i hope they're just delaying this. we don't know all the details. maybe there is some credible threat we don't know about. imagine if isis -- isis is actually carrying out terrorist attacks against americans. what if they threaten an american mall or football game? >> i know, it's terrible. >> they caved to pressure because they feared people would not show up on one of the most profitable days for movies. >> i am not defending north korea. i'm just saying it's a very dangerous situation sony got into without using good judgment to begin with. i am not defending north korea in any way. >> they made a movie they aren't prepared to stand behind. does it even look funny? what exactly is the joke in all of this? i think sony has a lot to explain to the american people and to the world community about the making of this movie and of course this halting and contradictory response. >> and all their embarrassing e-mails too. >> we didn't even get near their e-mails. anyway, panel, thank you. if you are outraged over president obama's use of executive action, brace yourselves for this. turn out it is not just executive orders. president obama also using something called the presidential memorandum to bypass congress. according to "usa today," president obama has issued the memorandum more often than any other president. gregory courty joins us. nice to see you. we have presidential memorandums and executive orders. what's the difference? >> the differences can be subtle. executive orders are what we're probably all familiar with. they're numbered. executive order 1033 or something like that. mem -- memorandums are called by scholars executive orders by another name. they're more regulatory in nature but very similar and both carry the same force of law. >> they're essentially the same then, right? >> they're used a little differently. >> but you could -- you could use them interchangeably? >> there are some areas where previous presidents have used an executive order. for example, nixon had an executive order on let's get rid of some of these federal properties we're not using and save some money. president obama did that by memorandum. >> so the fact is that all these things that they're doing by executive order or presidential memorandum, are there instances when they can only use one and not the other? >> they tend to only use executive order -- >> but there is any restriction? >> if you're going to amend an executive order, you're going to use an executive order to do that. neither of these terms are defined anywhere in the law much less the constitution. so it's precedents. >> president obama says the truth is even with all the actions i've taken this year, i'm issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in over 100 years. he's not mentioning the presidential memorandums so i'm wur wondering if that's a slippery quote. >> he said people didn't have a problem with george bush when he uses executive action. he uses the terms executive order and executive action somewhat interchangeably. >> so slippery, transparent and deceptive? >> i have no evidence to suggest this is a deliberate misdirection by the white house. >> he must know the difference between presidential memorandum and executive order. he's got to know the difference. >> he signs them. >> and when you add presidential memorandums and executive orders together, is president obama on the low end or has he done more? >> he's certainly signed more presidential memoranda than others. when you call them both executive actions, he's on pace to take more than any president. >> the reason i ask this because as i read this, it seems that they're essentially the same thing. whether they have historically been used for different purposes or not. you can amend executive orders with executive orders. it seems when the president says i'm issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years, he's being a little slippery because he's not mentioning the presidential memorandums which he does so much more than other presidents on the presidential memorandums. >> no. these are precise terms that even the president, even the president's press secretary sometimes slip up. josh earnest said he's issued an executive order on immigration. there was no such thing. the immigration executive action that republicans are so upset about were not done by executive order, they were done by memorandum. last year when he took executive action on gun control, those were not executive orders, those are presidential memoranda. if he's going to tell the epa how to enforce the clean air act, that's done in a memorandum not an executive order. right now are democrats on a desperate search for a message for 2016? plus we're trying to solve a mystery that has to do with the release of alan gross and sergeant tahmooressi finally released from a mexican prison. celebrate what's new, the bigger, better menu at red lobster! with more of what you love! try our newest wood-grilled combination! maine lobster, extra jumbo shrimp, and salmon! so hurry in! and sea food differently. it's one of those things i think that went away from -- that democrats didn't do a very good job of in the 2014 election. we talked about everything but the economy and that's still going to be -- it's still going to be a driving issue in 2016. there has to -- and change has to happen. we have a changing economy. there have got to be some new ideas out there about how to effect its impact on the american people. >> like what? how do you convince the middle class america that something good is happening? what's the message to them? >> it's about how we're going to adjust to it. kodak -- when kodak went bankrupt, it had 187,000 employees. when instagram sold itself to facebook for a billion dollars, it had 13 employees. both parties are not addressing the -- how technology and how fast paced we're moving forward into the future is actually hollowing out jobs there. it's not just attacking wall street. like that's one of the things that is a go-to populist liberal you know, elizabeth warren attack wall street. wall street does need to be reformed. republicans may offer tax cuts. the tax system does need to be reformed but no one is addressing the economic consequences of where this tech economy is taking us and how do we get the american people to participate in it and whether that's job retraining, other things, but somebody has got to speak to it. >> but that requires a long vision. it seems to me the voters are looking more right now. can i put food on the table and pay the tuition, so that's the problem. >> that's right. and, you know, everybody is going to offer up really quick, simple solutions that no one believes anymore. or you've got to take a step back and really talk to the american people with what we have to do to be competitive, to move forward and to get people -- it's not the same old, same old. a lot of the ideas -- look, i was a ted kennedy liberal and, you know, there are a lot of populist liberal progressive economic ideas i believe in but a lot of the ideas on both sides are obsolete now. you need to take those principles but apply them to the issues that are for us right now economically and lead the american people there. >> joe, thanks. >> good to be with you. remember that outrageous convention government employees spending your tax dollars on themselves, face hotel suites and mismatched wine glasses? you didn't like that. you need to stick around for our next segment. soy buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah. it's out there somewhere spreading the word about america's favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's go red for women campaign. if you see it i hope you'll let us know. always look for the grown in idaho seal. [ female announcer ] you've tried to forget your hepatitis c. but you shouldn't forget this. hepatitis c is a serious disease. left untreated, it can lead to liver damage and potentially liver cancer. but you haven't been forgotten. there's never been a better time to rethink your hep c. go to hepchope.com to register for more information. then talk to your doctor about scientific advances that may help you move on from hepatitis c. gsa's lavish las vegas convention, complete with photos of the gsa's regional commissioner that fancy bathtub on your dollar? well, after outrage was over the abuse of your tax dollars, omb issued stricter requirements for spending reports. makes sense, right? but listen to this. the cfo of hhs now says accurate spending reports won't help taxpayers. really? sarah westwood joins us. nice to see you. >> nice to be here. >> you wrote the article. why does hhs's cfo say that? >> well, what happened here is the hhs inspector general discovered millions of dollars in unreported conference funding, and in defense, pushing back on the inspector general's findings, the cfo ellen murray said the cost of. >> getting the right information? >> right would outweigh the benefit to taxpayers. >> how does she figure that? how could it possibly be we don't want exact information? >> well, she cited difficulties in actually gathering the information and keeping track of it. and said, basically, you can either have an accurate report or a timely report, but you can't have both. >> okay. so why can't we at least change the time requirements a little bit? i think most taxpayers want to know whether or not they're partying on our dime again. >> right. it's essentially the bureaucratic answer of we can't get this data because we don't have it because these services are being provided by contractors. >> i read your story and it said that hhs had 140 conferences last year. that seems like a lot. i don't know why they're having all these conferences. go figure on that one. the ig, the inspector general, looked at only four of them. so out of 4 out of 140. and out of the four the ig looked at found hhs had failed to list $1.4 million. so is there a discrepancy in each of the four? >> yes. each conference had a discrepancy. and that 140 number that you just cited, those are just the conferences that cost $100,000 or more. they actually have more conferences than that. and hhs actually spent $56 million on conferences alone in 2012. >> it's stunning, though. if you look at four conferences, if you sort of the inspector general looks at four of them and finds 100% mistakes, they have 136 more at over $100,000 a year a conference, and nobody is going to bother to look at those? >> right, exactly. you can only imagine that there is similar waste in all of the other conferences. and keep in mind that this was two years ago. so there was, you know, two years of additional conferences that we don't know where the money went. >> and the cfo at hhs doesn't see this as a problem? >> evidently not. it's just kind of evidence of the bureaucratic culture that leads to so much waste in our agencies today. >> but it's worse than bureaucratic culture. it's our money. la-di-da. why does she get to decide that? >> exactly. she cited the fact that there are already guidelines in place to produce reports that have estimates. so she said that sufficient accurate reports aren't necessary. >> well, there is our government working for us. anyway, sarah, thank you. >> thank you. and coming up, after the release of american allen gross from cuba, i'm not trying to solve a mystery. i'll tell you what i mean, off the record next. but here is a hint. >> it has to do with sergeant andrew tahmooressi. at 10:00 p.m., senators marco rubio and ted cruz talking about cuba. tonight 10:00 p.m. on "hannity." people with type 2 diabetes come from all walks of life. if you have high blood sugar, ask your doctor about farxiga. it's a different kind of medicine that works by removing some sugar from your body. along with diet and exercise, farxiga helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. with one pill a day, farxiga helps lower your a1c. and, although it's not a weight-loss or blood-pressure drug, farxiga may help you lose weight and may even lower blood pressure when used with certain diabetes medicines. do not take if allergic to farxiga or its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include rash, swelling or difficulty breathing or swallowing. if you have any of these symptoms, stop taking farxiga and seek medical help right away. do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis, or have bladder cancer. tell your doctor right away if you have blood or red color in your urine or pain while you urinate. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including dehydration, genital yeast infections in women and men, low blood sugar,kidney problems, and increased bad cholesterol. common side effects include urinary tract infections, changes in urination, and runny nose. ♪do the walk of life ♪yeah, you do the walk of life need to lower your blood sugar? ask your doctor about farxiga and visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free. you don't need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. because we do. we're exxonmobil and powering the world responsibly is our job. because boiling an egg... isn't as simple as just boiling an egg. life takes energy. energy lives here. let's all go off the record for a minute. there is something that absolutely mystifies me. but before i tell you, let me say this. i am very happy alan gross is home. it's been five years too long. it was wrong that cuba held him in prison. so how did he get out? because president obama's administration held secret meetings in canada with cuban officials and cut a deal. then today president obama sent a government plane to pick him up. the obama administration packed that plane with members of congress. and as he landed at andrews air force base, secretary of state john kerry was there to hug and meet mr. gross. but that's not all. president obama even placed a call to mr. gross on that plane as he flew back to the united states. and while i'm absolutely thrilled he got that treatment, i'm thrilled he is home where he belongs, i don't get it. i would love to know why didn't president obama help sergeant andrew tahmooressi when he was held in a mexican prison? i know a president can't help everybody. but a u.s. marine who got hit with an ied, did two tours for the u.s. in afghanistan and just made a wrong turn? not only did president obama not help, but he never called sergeant tahmooressi's mother, or even sergeant tahmooressi after he got home. maybe there is a reason, but i remain left in a big mystery. why didn't president obama help our marine? and that's my off the record comment tonight. thanks for being with us. we'll all see you again tomorrow night here at 7:00 p.m. eastern. and follow me on twitter at the handle @greta. and a reminder, go to greta wire.com. check out our complete interview