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But he proposed $500,000. i'm surprised he would. i would propose zero. >> you have to start somewhere. >> how about steer owe? >> what we are doing, and this is from the work tom has done, he's done a great job to get the audit of the federal government. but we are starting to insert in appropriations bills a limitations of $20,000 before it needs to be posted quarterly, and if you do international conferences no more than 15 employees. from my standpoint as a business person, we would send people to conferences, trade shows and send one or two people, gather the information and report back, ...

But he proposed $500,000. i'm surprised he would. i would propose zero. >> you have to start somewhere. >> how about steer owe? >> what we are doing, and this is from the work tom has done, he's done a great job to get the audit of the federal government. but we are starting to insert in appropriations bills a limitations of $20,000 before it needs to be posted quarterly, and if you do international conferences no more than 15 employees. from my standpoint as a business person, we would send people to conferences, trade shows and send one or two people, gather the information and report back, ...

Make the situations go away. but ultimately what you're dealing with here is a european union in the eurozone where these members have gotten together under a common currency but they don't have a common budgeting process. and so therefore you can see greeks and italians running up huge debts. and germans and french, folks being liable for the damages that those debts are creating. that's a structural problem that ben bernanke's not going to be able to solve sitting in washington, d.c. >> i want to talk, ben, you brought up the 2012 question, how much of this is going to affect president obama...

Budget 18%. compared to 2010. >> we are doing fewer new projects, we are using a larger proportion of our money to operate and maintain the infrastructure we are responsible for. just like these levees that are holding back the mississippi river. >> reporter: the corps says it will probably need to ask congress for more money to pay for the work it is doing now along the mississippi. it is used to doing that. in fact, critics say its projects are often too politicized, too dependent on earmarks. spending requests by individual lawmakers. >> when the congress had projects for the most part they...

All become ph.d.s in the budgeting process. let's bring in lex harrison. as wolf says, is this the conversation that we need to be having, the one we've been having all week or is this a distraction from our true and mighty fiscal problems? >> well, absolutely. the conversation has just begun as you guys said and it really is. it's spending, it's taxes, it's medicare and social security. the ones we've had so far for 2011, yes, such small potatoes. it frames the debate. you said this is the week that president obama launched his campaign. the other thing that happened paul ryan launching the r...