for economic policy research. then a former congressman duncan hunter on his new book about the war in iraq. and we will talk to american legion executive director peter gaytan about issues affecting veterans. this is "washington journal." [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] host: today is veterans day. vice-president biden will be laying the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at arlington cemetery at 11:00 a.m. this morning. c-span will bring it to you live. and we will be talking to the head of the american legion leader in the about "washington journal." but we will start off talking about the debt commission shares recommendations on cutting the deficit and debt. here are some other specific proposals. they say, raise the gas tax. raise the retirement age, cut defense spending, cut federal

work force, eliminate mortgage deductions, eliminate earmarks, reduce social security benefits. those are some of the specific reductions that erskine bowles and alan simpson as chairs of the u.s. that commission have made. here's how the newspapers this morning are playing this issue. here is "the wall street journal." and "usa today," uphill battle in plans to cut the deficit. "the new york times" -- and "financial times" -- here is a little bit from "the financial times" article.

the release of the plan came afr a closed meeting --

and is from "the financial times" this morning. we want to get your reaction to this plan. there are a lot of numbers we

will -- we will be throwing out at you. if you would like to respond to a specific proposal, that is what we want to hear. we want to hear specifics from you. is it raising some taxes, cutting some spending? what kind of mixed do you see in this? that is what we will be talking about. you see the numbers/political affiliation. we especially want to hear from baby boomers because the seniors at this point, according to this plan, it does not affect them. this is for future generations, raising the retirement age. so we definitely want to hear from you guys. "the washington post" this morning.

that is the summary from "the washington post." now it is your turn.

we will start with ron, democrat from wisconsin. caller: i would lift the cap for social security taxes. right now it is at a limit where everybody except the very wealthy pay 100% on their income, and it is justified because bowl -- hole surpluses that were given away to the rich during the bush era was a accumulation because of a raise of the social security taxes back in the 1980's. this was done so there would be a surplus when the baby boomers came to age. i am a baby boomer. i am still not eligible for social security gets. i only 64. host: ron, could you have taken

social security at 62 if you wanted to? could you have started payments at 62? caller: i was financially not able to. i had a heart attack when i was 62. host: but legally i could have. caller: i could have legally, yes, at a cut rate. but it was not at a rate that anyone could live with. host: right now you are 64. retirement on social security starts at 65 or -- caller: 66. host: but medicare starts at 65. caller: yes. host: what do you think about future generations raising retirement age to 69 as proposed by alan simpson and erskine bowles. caller: i am against that because there are certain groups in this country, they cannot make it physically to that age.

ayotte one of those people. i worked as a home builder. a first job out of high school was working for moving and storage. my body is in a position where i have a double hernia and i have no insurance and this is a dynamo for me. host: thank you for your time. a little investigation. the congressional budget office and office of management and budget. here are facts and figures from them. options for reducing the deficit and for more savings in the federal debt. this is something we gleaned from cbo, omb, an economist. if the retirement age was

raised to 70, and you could see that $4 billion would be saved. reducingtarting benefit for most workers, lowering starting social security benefit would save about 7 billion. then there were medicaid reforms that would save of t money. these are not just what the debt commission opposed, this is just what we believe from omb and cbo, congressional budget office. the debt commission, here are there specific proposals once again. raise the gas tax, raise the retirement age, cut defense spending by $100 billion, cut the federal work force by 10 percent, eliminate mortgage deductions, eliminate your marks, and reduce social security benefits. gail in rhode island. republican line. caller: i don't agree at all

with this debt commission. they should get together with congress. congress is the one that spend like drunken sailors for that last two years, even that even. congress is the one that rated the social security fund that would have been all right if they left it alone. and congress is the one that decided that they would offer social security benefits to illegals that came to this country and never worked a day and now can collect when many of our people are not able to collect because the "don't have enough quarters." i am not opposed to raising the age. i am opposed to cutting benefits of those people who have already attained social security benefits. a lot of people will collect

social security have no other income, not due to their own fault -- host: as far as the savings, you see reform of social security? caller: there is going to have to be one because they already destroyed anything. how do you get money from a stone? host: by the way, gayle mentioned working with members of congress. i want to show you the full commission. this is just what they call the chairman's mark. what erskine bowles and alan simpson have proposed. the full commission has not voted on that yet and they need to. you see that lot of members of the commission are from congress. nearly all of them. senator max baucus, democrat of montana, dave camp, republican of michigan, tom coburn, senator from oklahoma, kent conrad, current chairman of the senate budget committee, dave code, the

head of honeywell international, senator crapo, republican of idaho, senator dick durbin, covered majority whip in to the senate, and fudge, former ceo, senator judd gregg, representative jeb hensarling, alice rivlin, at representative paul ryan, presumed to be the new budget chief on the house side, representative jan schakowsky of illinois, representative john spratt, just defeated, and andrew stern, head of the service employees international union. those are the members of the commission who will have to vote on what senator simpson and erskine bowles have proposed. richard in new york city on the independent line.

caller: there is a simple answer for that. one of the biggest problems i see i for example, if you increase the social security retirement age, we have enough problems employing our youth at the present time. insisting that people work longer to have adequate social security if there is such a thing is detrimental to employing others. the only thing that i think would be really directly approachable is the fact that i have yet to understand why there are multi-billion there's in the world. what are they going to do with their money. the old eisenhower taxation system of graduating income tax seems like one of the most appropriate things. it doesn't have to apply t corporations because corporations in general to reinvest their money. but why on earth showed

individuals be running all around with billions of dollars, most of which they will never spend? they may at some point be able to give it away. host: what would you like him to do with it -- them to do with it? a much higher income tax rate? caller: a graduated income tax like back and eisenhower's day. -- back in eisenhower positive. anything over a million have to pay 90% on. most that was under a million you paid a lower rate. host: carolina in st. petersburg, florida, democrat. are you with us? we are going to move on to frank in beverly, new jersey, a republican line. caller: great show. first off, i would start by reducing the size of government. host: specifically what parts of government would you cut?

caller: the first thing that will go would be the irs. you would go to a flat tax. you could reduce the size of the employees of the irs. host: we are listening to the go-ahead. caller: you would reduce the size of the employees in the federal government by a couple of hundred thousand people. separately, i would get rid of the department of education. that is another thing that belongs in the state. the federal government does not need to be longing -- to be running the education department of this country. then i would move on and i would get rid of the department of agriculture. there is another department that has outlived its usefulness and does nothing but some money out of the coffers of this country. and the next thing, i would ask everybody in congress and senate

to reduce their pay by 10% for five years. why does everybody always have to go to the people on social security? it is hard enough now to make a living off what you make? i would be willing to venture to say that if the federal government asked the people if they would want to opt out of social security, and if they wanted to invest their money and put it somewhere else and get a better return, i would be one more the will to say that 50% of the people right now would do that. because social security, you don't get nothing. you pay all of your life and you get nothing in return and now they are taught -- talking about reducing it? host: we will leave it there, frank. frank in beverly, new jersey. chuck in palm coast, florida. independent line. what is your proposal? caller: thank you for c-span. you know, our federal government not long ago stepped

out of its constitutional role. i would like to see state's right to be reinstated. host: how would that save money? caller: the federal government has this top-down way of looking states. ate's -- they decide what the states are going to do. they pass all of these laws and try to be daddy to everyone. if the senate would just do it constitutional duty and only do what the states want -- after all, we are the united states of america and we have the 10th amendment. congress should not be doing anything unless the majority of the states feel that there is a need for a national solution. otherwise, most of the problems could be solved at the state level where it is closer to the constituents. host: from "the washington times" this morning, cutting guns and butter. they go through the specific proposals. and they look at the numbers.

congressional cuts reducing congressional and white house budget by 15 percent, $800 million. those are proposals the national commission on debt has made.

mary, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. do you hear me? i am going to be 83 years old in december, next month, and i think i am part of who they call the greatest generation, world war ii, for example, the war of vietnam, cold war with the soviet union and all of these wars, wars. and i am just an 82 year old woman, and very patriotic. and i think this is good advice to give to everyone. in world war ii, we did it as a sacrifice, we wanted our boys to come home. my brother was in the philippines in the war against japan. i wanted him to come home and i want all of these boys to come home, and i want to protect our borders more, social -- border security.

but the illegal immigrants. there are lots of ways we can cut the spending. i would not mind it at all if i had to pay more income tax on what i get in my social security. host: what would you think about means testing social security? caller: about what? host: that wealthier americans would get less benefits? caller: but if -- they -- if they are very well. but i have two sisters older than me and they have to pay $3,000 a month just to live and a little building that they say is for senior citizens to live in. if you have property, your own a home, you own land, you have a vegetable garden in your back yard, and i feel like i am contributing something good to the country by setting a good example for my neighbors and friends, how you can raise food in your back yard. i call it my garden for eatin.

when jimmy carter was president he was a peanut picking former from georgia. i support anybody who knows how to contribute to this country and quit complaining about the money they have to spend on taxes and so forth. but i think the people -- not qualified. my number one goal in life is before i die i don't want to know anybody anything, not even an apology. and therefore i think that is important. and i think during world war ii, when we were kids and franklin delano roosevelt was our president, we wanted to help win the war from germany and japan and wanted our country to be safe and we thought pulling -- crawling on hands and knees and pulling weeds out of the farmers' fields -- host: what was your second goal? caller: making a contribution. and i have no problem paying my income tax, as long as i know it is going for a good cause.

but we spend, our government -- host: what was your second goal? we got your first one. not allowing anybody anything. caller: i have a great sense of humor, i do stand-up comedy and i know how to make people laugh and i want to die laughing even if it hurts. host: alabama. yannick on the republican line. caller: if this goes on like they are talking about, it is going to hurt the true middle- class and below. obama's view of people making over 200,000 would ever being the people that need the breaks, i don't know where his view is -- social security, the people make pretty much nothing for what they pay in, and what do they have to budget? very little, if any bared welfare needs to be totally eliminated.

teacher tenure, education needs a major overhaul because their teachers out there that really do care but once they complete that tenure, that's it. it just seems like a lot of them kicked back into crews and whatever happens, happens. they keep on raising the cost for children to go to school, to go to college, to better themselves. and it is going to wind up being a lost cause because with education being so expensive, what else are they going to have to do? they are not going to be able to afford to go to school, their parents cannot pay for it, then what? host: jackson, michigan. independent line. please, but what had. how would you cut the debt? caller: three things. for one, you should cut the expenditures that are in of the white house. they should not get as much money. they should get a pay cut. not the poor, working man.

the people on welfare should be drug tested. it is they are positive for drugs, they should be cut off, and we would not be spending so much on welfare. 43, if you lose your children -- abuse of children, you should be forced to be fixed. host: "the new york times" this morning opines in their lead editorial on what alan simpson and first in bulls propose to the debt commission. judy erskine bowles proposed to the debt commission. this is how they concluded. the chairman was spread the pain and both in the logical directions -- ideological directions.

that is "the new york times" this morning. new york, dan, democrat. caller: good morning. if you look at everything they are proposing, everything, including social security, is an attack on the middle-class, an attack on the people. businesses are not even touched. based should raise the marginal income tax fix rates -- they should raise the marginal income tax rates up to the 90%, like it

was up to 1965. they should also raise the corporate taxes up to where they were paired -- where they were. they are only cutting the people. not doing anything to the corporations. they are not reinvesting in the economy. the they are speculating. the reason they speculated is because the taxes were low. if the taxes are high, then history shows us when they have higher tax rates, they invest in their corporations rather than speculating and trying to make a quick buck. host: thanks, dan. here are some other ways to cut spending that the congressional budget office looked at, office of management and budget looked at, and the economist has put together. this is what they conclude. if tax deductions were

eliminated for employer provided health insurance -- again, this is not a proposal by the debt commission -- but if you eliminate the tax deductions for employer-provided health insurance, it would save $215 billion. if you eliminated the mortgage interest deduction, 100 and set -- $147 billion. tax deduction for state and local taxes, 65 billion. capital gains, 60 billion. property-tax, $33 billion. again, these are not proposals by the debt commission. these are just some gleaned from the congressional budget office and office of management and budget. amended in fort wayne, indiana. republican line. how would you cut the debt? forgot to push the button. sorry. caller: i would have them go through the department heads and wear the overlap, discontinued.

i also would take the department of vacation and send it back to the states where it -- department of education and send it back to the states where it could to be more effective. i would also take care of all of the farm subsidies. if i would get rid of those. i would definitely get rid of people like planned parenthood and pbs -- that have no need to have money from us tax payers. they can make their own way. many other corporator jeep corporations do that. host: would you be willing to raise the social security retirement age? caller: i would be willing to do that providing that there would be something in there for people who do physical labor. i don't think they should have to work until 67, because it is very difficult as you get older to do hard labor work like some of them do in factories and also far more.

host: are you retired? what did you do in fort wayne? caller: i was a typist. host: thank you for calling in this morning. "usa today" lead editorial. gridlock just another word for lack of leadership.

that is "usa today's" lead editorial. how would you cut the debt? i have to remember to push that button. sorry. caller: first of all, not raise the price of playing the lottery in every state. host: i'm sorry customer caller: hi, how were you. host: how would you cut the deficit question of caller: raise the price of playing the lottery in every state because everybody spends all of their money on all of that. they give away a lot of money every day.

ofon't like raising the age social security. host: all right. thank you for calling in this morning. mary ann in atlanta. democrat's line. caller: i want to ask the question of, what are the pensions that all of the ex senators get and generals and high-ranking people who work in government and then they go and get high-paying jobs as lobbyists or whatever they do, people on tv who get their opinion, what they call analysts. i think they should look into that and see how much they get or continue to get. and also on their medicare, i am sure they still get -- even though they get millions of dollars. they should investigate that. they should look act -- into what and see what they are

getting, especially the republican to don't believe in socialism. i am sure they are still collecting their pensions from the government. thank you. host: tommy, republican line. how would you cut the debt? caller: good morning, peter. i've got a couple of different ways of looking at this. it is not necessarily cutting the debt by cutting spending, cutting, cutting. it is by increasing our economy. this is another way of doing it, is by making ourselves energy independent. spending $700 billion a year on this stuff overseas. we are sending that money out. we need to be spending it here, increasing our jobs. cutting taxes do not necessarily do it. because we got more money to spend but we are spending on goods from china. where is the manufacturing? we need to increase that here.

another way of doing this is decreasing our spending overseas in military. let countries that are able and capable of paying for their military -- our protection, let them start paying for some of that protection or shut down the bases overseas. different ways of doing it. there are other ways of doing it, increasing the social security taxes. of the manufacturers -- maybe having a car out for those who are self-employed in that area. there are other ways of doing that aside just cut, cut. they are talking about tax cuts. across the board. well, that is going to dig us in a deeper hole.

tax cuts for what? spending on manufacturing, from overseas? thanks, peter. have a great day. it is kotani from nashville. the debt commission, some of the specific proposals. raise the gas tax, retirement age, cut defense spending, federal workforce, eliminate mortgage reductions cup -- deductions, eliminate earmarked, reduce social security benefits. a couple of e-mails from our viewers -- and another email, from bill in glendale, california. plano, texas. independent line.

caller: i tend to agree -- going to be handled through industrial policy. that is what made us great. we invented the telephone, car, the chip, created this great economy. i am in high-tech and you can't give venture capital. what made silicon valley in the 1960 don't exist in this country. half the people don't pay taxes, the get entitlements. we are planning the tax and spending. i simply don't understand why as a country we don't create an industrial commission and figure out what do we do to get back to getting an industrial base -- the entire high-tech and entrepreneurial. it is completely ignored. it is not taxes we need. it is revenue. we need to figure out what gets revenue, you can't just throw taxes around and saw your problems, or social security. i wish we would get an industrial policy and i don't

see any of these things on the table that we ended -- directly address, we know how countries leave america and the one asked -- i may have to leave america -- no one asks why can't entrepreneurs who are trying to do things in america today do what we have done in the past? maybe life christopher columbus, one has to go to another -- host: thanks. dale, a democrat, new jersey. caller: we have an obscenely bloated military. they are in the face of all of the world. all over the world. host: all right. that was bail in jersey city. stephen, a republican line, st. petersburg, florida. caller: hello, and good morning. host: how would you cut the debt? caller: i would make a flat tax. decrease social security by 3%, increased the -- decrease the

fed pay by 5 percent, encourage cities and states to save money rather than spend everything. fix prices for medicine so people will have the social security cut can still afford medicine. and i would make more prisoners go on work release and charge the one-third of their pay while they are out of work release to pay for their time in prison. host: gym in michigan. independent line. good morning. caller: thank you very much for c-span. i really enjoy what the man said about the industrial base. we have to raise and -- revenue. one way i think we can do it is we have to look again at what the royalties are paid on minerals, oil, and all of this stuff. we settled this out years ago when it was nothing per barrel and minerals were nothing, going back to these things to belong

to the people, the united states. if we charge a fair market value based on what they are selling for now, we would raise more than enough to pay for this. i realize the oil companies would be against it and they are basically controlling the government right now. the american public has to realize we've got to look at everything and be honest about it. thank you very much. host: "the washington post" lead editorial. this is how they conclude their editorial. conn. mark, a democrat. how would you cut the debt?

caller: first, i would like to stop or limit the foreign aid. also get rid of the department of homeland security. they could have just put the money in the fbi. raise the retirement age for federal workers to 65, so people over 35 can get a job. host: florida, philip on the republican line. caller: my way to reduce the debt is to eliminate welfare. we pay an entire group of people not to work. that's it around and then they have a drug problem, which is another problem in itself. we are basically funding our own drug problem by paying people not to work. to me, that is insanity. it is an entitlement spending, the big elephant of the room that nobody seems to address. entitlements take up more than 70% of the entire budget of the

united states. in all of those taxes that people talk about, it all goes to the same pile, to include social security and everything else and they spend more on entitlements than they do on anything else. the only way to address cutting anything is to address entitlements, which is a big elephant in the room no one wants to touch. host: a little bit of political news. this is from "the new york times." michelle bachmann ends bid for house leadership job. that is "the new york times."

"washington post" this morning, alaska senate write-in tally turns murky.

that is in "the washington times" this morning. this is "the wall street journal." some call for pelosi to drop top post. wednesday, four more democrats at their names to a list of lawmakers calling for pelosi to step aside.

indiana. steve, democrat. caller: a lot of the stuff they are wanting to cut is on the middle-class or the poor people, and the rich are getting by with nothing again. another thing, if it helps, if they raise tariffs on the stuff that comes into the country. that would take care of a lot of it. host: we lost you. sorry about that. this is from "the hill."

that is an "the hill" newspaper this morning. this is from "the baltimore sun." representative john boehner expected to be the next house speaker.

and this in "the wall street journal" -- bush book sells well.

george w. bush will be at the miami book fair this coming sunday. book tv will bring it alive, his presentation live at 4:00 p.m. on sunday. vineland, new jersey. george, republican line. caller: stop borrowing money from the fed at interest. interest is what is killing the debt and that will eventually kill the economy. there is a website, perfecteconomy.com. right. . montana -- mike montana is an economist who basically has run all the numbers and provided his thesis of numerous precedents, including obama, and

it was returned unopened -- presented his thesis to numerous presidents. i think everyone should look into it. host: thank you for calling in. it's a way -- two articles. this from "the hill." that is in a "the hill." this is the front page of "the guardian" newspaper in london. "this is just the beginning." talking about the riots in central london. rioters breaking windows in central london. tens of thousands of students took to the streets of london in a demonstration that spiraled out of control when a french group of protesters hurled missiles at police and occupied

a building housing conservative party headquarters. at is the front page of "the guardian" newspaper. we will continue our talk about economics and cutting the debt and deficit with dean baker. we will be right back. [captioning performed by

national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp2010] >> as the country marked veterans day, learn more about the holiday and the men and women who served in the military but the c-span video library. oral histories, offers on the nation's wars, and veterans day commemorations through the years, all searchable, free, on your computer any time. >> this weekend, c-span 3's american history tv this is the eleanor roosevelt papers project. how the longest serving first lady used the media. at hillsdale college in michigan, we will see how very different thinking american and british leadership worked

together to defeat the nazis, th a conference marking the 150th anniversary of the civil war. live, saturday, november 20, day-long symposium from the national archives as prominent historians discuss domestic and international impacts. american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c- span 3. >> in an ideal world, the fact that there were people shorting the mortgage market should have sent signals saying, they're all the smart investors who think this thing will crash and burn. but the market was opaque enough that nobody, you could not see that the way you can see it in the stock market. and because of the way these instruments were, you were basically not betting on real mortgages, but rather you were inventing on the casino version. >> bethany mcclain wrote about "and ron." this week she will talk about the current financial crisis in

the future of the american economy. a sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by arthur an economist dean baker, co- director of the center for econom and policy research. as we continue our conversation on cutting the debt and deficit and u.s. fiscal policy. mr. baker, the debt commission, as you well know, the two chairmen proposed some things to cut the debt and deficit. here are some of the specifics they propose. raising the gas tax, retirement age, cutting defense spending, cutting the federal work force, eliminating the mortgage deduction, eliminating earmarked, and reducing social security benefits. you have already written an article in "the new republic." here is the headline -- "deep-6

the deficit commission report." guest: we go through these piece by piece. but my main objection is this is a little peculiar. we have an economic crisis that has nothing to do with the debt and the deficit, the crisis is due to the fact that there was an $8 trillion housing bubble that collapsed. the bubble was driving the economy through the last recovery. when it collapsed, we lost almost $1.20 trillion in annual demand. $600 billion and construction demand. glutted real-estate market, non-residential real-estate, and annual consumption because people had all of this wealth and the homes that evaporated. we lost over $1.20 trillion of demand from the private sector. right now the deficit is our friend. as much as it might sound strange, it is creating demand in this economy, people running

around saying the government does not create jobs. if the government gives you a paycheck, it is a job. it might sound silly. people are not working not because there is a deficit but there is not enough demand in the economy. we need the government to fill the gap created by the end of private sector investment. that is the point i have been making, it is really a disaster. i find this strange saying people sang if we don't do something, 10 or 15 or 20 years, but this year we have 25 million people who are either out of work altogether, working short hours, like to work full time double or have given up looking. and we have te of million of the water in the mortgage, millions of lost their homes. if we are talking about the dead as this great problem? this is otherworldly. host: before we go into your specifics, can you put the debt commission in historical perspective? we have been down this road before. guest: sure.

deficit and debt has always been something people raised as an issue. we have this idea we should always balance our budget. we know as individuals i cannot run up $10,000 of credit card debt every month. well, the government, in fact, can run deficits. it has through its history. the point is to keep it in a reasonable balance. of it -- it has done that. one time it became a big problem in the 1980's in the reagan years, and you could argue about where to put the blame. it was large look into the economy. arguably it was -- leading to a trade deficit. president clinton and first president bush actually took steps to bring the deficit down. we actually got surpluses back in the late 1990's and the year 2000. we have been down this path and did a quite good job. as much as people like to complain about congress has been

irresponsible and have huge deficits and debt, for the most part they have been a reasonably responsible and i think perhaps might have gone too far in many cases. but the point is, we kept the debt reasonably well contained, deficit reasonably well contained, through much of the countries history. host: when you look at the raw numbers, $460 billion deficit, this year looking at $1.20 trillion deficit. the $468 billion is 2% to 3% of gdp. that number does not scare you? guest: it was probably a little bit higher than it should have been but not acutely out of line. we are dealing in a situation where there is a major macroeconomic imbalance, something coming up on the g-20 meeting, stemming largely from the trade deficits. people think the budget deficit is causing the trade deficit but it is the other way. we would have had the man from the trade sector we are not seeing. people are buying goods from china, korea, europe, wherever

they might be, rather than here. it creates a void that is filled by the budget deficit. so i am less concerned by the budget deficit than the trade deficit, which is a direct outgrowth of the overvalued dollar. we have to put the pieces together. if we say we are going to get rid of the command from the government, fire all of the bad public-sector workers, who is going to make all -- up the demands? unprintable it is made up through the trade sector. that means lowering the value of the dollar which is not an easy and simple process. host: how do you create demand? guest: as i say, a trade is the key. if we had a lower dollar. a simple story. when people -- people saying where the trade deficit because we have a budget deficit. if someone is at a store and choose the foreign-made goods rather than domestic, they are not doing it because we have a big budget deficit, but they look at the price and the far and that is cheaper. why? because the dollar is high. the key part is getting the dollar down.

it is a fairly recent problem. we actually had a modest trade deficit through the early '90s and the mid-1990s problem of the overvalued dollar really dates from 1997, east asian financial crisis. the dollar shot up against other currencies, most importantly, east asia, but other currencies and some of the trade deficit began to explode. that is what really laid the groundwork for the situation we face today. the housing bubble -- stock bubble of the late 1990's, halting bubble, and the collapse of the situation with trying to dig out from under. host: the numbers are on the screen as you can -- we continue the conversation. we divided than just a little bit differently. we divide them by age because we wanted to get a feel here for different generations. the next age group we want to

call in our the baby boomers, 46 years old to 64 years old. this is the baby boomer generation. if you are between the ages of 46 and 64, the number is on your screen. the first wave of baby boomers is just getting to retire. then, 65 years and older -- we are going to leave those numbers up there. please call on the line that is appropriate to you. when it comes to federal spending, dean baker, what would be your proposals to congress? guest: i would not put a priority on doing it now because we are in a situation where if you cut spending, it is not boosting private-sector demand. if you want to put things on the table down the road, obvious to

me is the military budget. it has increased hugely. it is close to 5% of gdp. i would like to see that wind down. getting us back down to where we were pretty agricultural subsidies -- we are closed -- spending close to $20 billion a year. it is probably not a good use of our money. there are smaller items. senator mccain ran around talking about the woodstock museum in upstate new york. it was $1 million. there are a lot of little things like that. those are probably the two biggest areas you could look to make big cuts without having a negative impact. host: john boehner spoke after meeting with the republican conference yesterday and he talked about extending the tax

cuts. >> i think extending all the current tax rates and making them permanent will reduce the uncertainty and america and help small businesses create jobs again. you cannot invest when you don't know what the rules are or what the tax rates are going to be next year. making these permanent will be the most important thing we can do to create jobs in this country. guest: there are two problems with this story here. the vast majority of small businesses would not be affected by this. analysis from congress that look that people's incomes including small businesses. it is hard to believe that is really affecting them in any big way. you would have to spend $300 or

$400 more in taxes. businesses have been in testing at a reasonably rapid rate. if you look at equipment and software investment over the last year, it has been growing at a double-digit rate. it slowed down a little bit in the most recent quarter, about 12%. you have seen it relatively good growth in investment in equipment and software. investment in its structure has been slow. there are empty malls everywhere. that is not because of the repeal of the tax cuts. host: dean baker is our guest. our first call comes from carl from massachusetts. caller: thank you for taking my call it.

i agree with some of the statements he is making. one thing i think we should encourage is encouraging people to buy american products. i think if we all contributed a little bit, i think it would help. i think the ethanol program that we are involved in -- if all of the farmers planted corn, the maximum we could reduce our consumption is by 5% it. i think it is helping drive up the food prices are around the world. i think our money would be best spent investing in other technologies. guest: what he said about ethanol is right. everybody jumped on that idea a few years ago. it turns out, it is somewhat of a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. it is probably not a good way to

reduce oil as the caller said. and it is costly. it is probably a subsidy worth saving for the future. host: george from indiana. caller: thank you, peter. this is what i have seen it. you have buyers, sellers, landlords, creditors -- all of these dyads. what happens over a period of time, one of these parties are requires -- acquires too much leverage over the other during a length of time. if you do not have a widespread -- employers vigorously competing for employees by trying to be a good employer of choice, where they can do it is begin to appreciate wages and required more work out of workers. when that happens, we have

growing productivity and falling demand. if workers have less wages to pay for goods and services, eventually, you are going to have corporate retail outlets around the country erode. some will go under, some people will get laid off. that is my point. if you have shareholders that are upset, the corporation will immediately try to shorten that relationship. if you have a very good worker who is it disgruntled, if you do not like it, there is the door. one more brief point. most people do not work for very small businesses that produce most people work for a publicly traded corporation with 50 or more people.

host: george, we are going to leave it there. guest: i think your first point is right. the basic story, at least my story on this, if you look at the decade immediately following world war two, you had a period of great prosperity. the country was growing very rapidly. it was relatively evenly shared so people, and down the ladder were benefiting. that really changed in the 1980's where we continue to see productivity growth, but most of the games went to the ones at the top. -- the gains went to the ones at the top. it created a problem with not enough demand, opening the door for the kind of bubbles that we

sought in the 1990's with the stock market. bubbles burst and give us the downturn's we are facing today. that is the central problem facing our economy. host: when did you start writing your book? is corruption to blame for ignoring the warnings guest: you: i began writing the book and i believe 2007. i was riding on this topic as early as 2002. i will say in a sense it is a corruption, but i don't think it is someone slipping dollars under the table it. due to the fact that people are profiting from this regime are the ones that are controlling the debate. on the one hand, we have this deficit commission predicted there are two privately funded deficit commission said.

the people that have the money largely determine the agenda. i view that as a type of corruption but it is not handing someone $100,000 to do 'x' or 'y'. host: the next call comes from minnesota on our 65 years and older line. caller: i usually call in to chastise the villains. you are one of the good guys. perhaps you can answer this question it. i have enjoyed your articles in counter punch, the blog site. i would like to have you give me an estimate on what as added more to the decade from 2000 to 2010, what is added more to the

deficit? in the social security program -- how much-that add to the deficit? how much did the bush tax cuts, coupled with his two criminal wars, add to the deficit? guest:thanks, jack. i appreciate the call and commons. your points are exactly right. social security has been in surplus for almost the whole decade. it was still collecting more based on the interest on the bonds that it held. on the other hand, the tax cuts and the wars we have been fighting in afghanistan and iraq, they added about $2 trillion to the deficit. both of those were very big additions to the nation's debt.

the congressional budget office is reporting that the cost of the iraq war was approximately $709 billion. guest: there is some ambiguity where you cut this. the book was written about the cost of but $2 trillion to $3 trillion at. there is a range of cost that one could include. one could argue how much of these additional costs should be included it. you could easily run up considerably higher numbers. host: dean baker's book, "plunder and blunder."

you can watch any of the shows on a web site for free. sharon is a baby boomer. go ahead. caller: it seems like everybody bypasses and the fact that we are dealing with billions of illegal aliens. i have nothing against anybody because of race, religion, or culture. but when people come over like they are legally, it is creating a problem. they had on the front of the paper just months ago that there was 2.7 million illegal babies born in the united states in 2008. 4 million in legal babies were born in 2009. they have not even added of this year's, which will probably exceed 5 million.

host: dean baker? guest: i think your numbers are a little bit high. the total number of babies born in the u.s. but both from people here legally and not are significantly less than the numbers you are suggesting. there are complex issues in terms of illegal immigrants coming here. they both add to the economy and create some problems. on the one hand, we have a lot of businesses that have come to depend on an inflow of workers who are not here legally. i am not saying it is a good thing. if you were to send them home, you would put a lot of businesses out of business. can we physically pick them up and throw them out of the country? that would not be an easy thing to do. we should have a serious discussion about this. there are costs associated with

illegal immigration, and there are benefits associated with it. i would love to see people come here legally, decide how many we want, decide what they will be doing pretty host: when did you first start getting interested in these issues? guest: probably when i was in high school. i was a weird kid. i grew up in chicago. it was a mixed bag. you had a lot of wealthy people. you have to wonder why some people are doing very well and others are living in the crime- infested neighborhoods struggling to get by. host: did to study economics? guest: i studied economics my last year and decided to become an economist. host: carl emails in from new

mexico. guest: it is very hard to see how getting the dollar down will cause people to lose money. if someone in tended to move to europe or another country, their dollars will not go as far. the vast majority of things we purchase are still produced here. it is about 84%. what it means is that 16%, that will cost some one more. no doubt about it. are borrowing from abroad. yes, that means we get things cheaper.

at some point, you cannot count on your credit card. host: was the $800 billion stimulus effective? guest: i think it was it. president obama grossly oversold the stimulus. to start with $800 billion, you boil tap -- you boil that down a little bit. you take the money that is being spent in later years, that is fine. what was the stimulus in 2009 and in 2010? $300 billion a year. roughly half of that was offset by cuts at the state and local level. the offset roughly half of the stimulus. that means the net stimulus coming from the government

sector was about $150 billion a year. saying before, we lost $1.20 trillion in annual demand from the private sector, so we lost 1.2 trillion dollars. most estimates from the congressional budget office and private economists, that is great that we did that but we probably needed something that was two or three times as large. host: annapolis on our under baby boomers aged. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a few comments. if an inspector once said, "allow me to control the issues of money for a nation and i shall not care who makes its laws. " that is exactly what i see as one of the problems with the

federal reserve because they have undermined the american economy and the american standard of living because they are devaluing the currency. the dollar is worth 96% less now than when the federal reserve was created. you could look at the 1970's when it nixon closed the gold window. you can see how the debt exploded. what bothers me so much about the whole situation, you have a corrupt government that truly, with the treasury and the federal reserve and the wall street banks, especially goldman sachs, have really corrupted the system. there is a wonderful documentary about that. it is called, "inside job."

it shows you the connection between all these elected officials and the people that go back between the federal reserve and the treasury, and then they work for the big banks. hank paulson, larry summers -- you can put them all in one pot. they are controlling the system. they will continue to run it into the ground because the people that have run the system into the ground of the same people that our government officials are asking to fix. i don't see any sense in doing that because they have really destroyed the system. guest: i agree with a lot of what the caller said. i encourage people to see the movie "inside job." i correct her on a couple of points, or i disagree. i am not troubled by fiat money. it has been considerably more

stable that is really what troubles me. i am not bothered if we have an flation rate of 3% or 4%. you can get that even if there is a gold standard. i don't think the fed having money is a problem. the government debt began to increase rapidly not wind nixon took us off the gold standard but in the 1980's with president reagan's tax cuts that protect the basic point about corruption, i think it is right. you have this inner circle of people. during the 1980's -- during the last decade when the housing bubble was growing larger, it was easy. it was easy to see the bubble. the people at the fed and in the

regulatory bodies did not want to do anything because goldman sachs, morgan stanley, the wall street banks were making money hand over fist and saying everything was fine. when things collapsed, their work on life support. they ran to congress and got the money. their profits are back up to record highs. the bonuses are backup to record highs. that story looks right to me. host: pat from clearwater, florida. caller: it is my understanding that when it illegal immigrants come to this country, they do not have to pay any taxes for the first five years. they are given $25,000 per family. it just seems rather expensive for us to do this host: where

did you get that information? caller: my daughter used to work with some illegal immigrants it. they always wondered why their paycheck was larger than hers when they did the same amount of work. they said they did not have to pay taxes because they were here, and you do not have to pay taxes for the first five years. speak that maybe some program -- i filed a tax return. they do not give you a break if you are an illegal immigrant it. there may be some special programs for narrow groups. if they are in special services, they could qualify it.

in general, the government does not give you anything by virtue of being an immigrant. host: your wife is a legal immigrant. guest: yes. host: mike, go ahead. how old are you? caller: 60. host: you are a baby boomer. caller: i still feel like i am 18. first of all, if this guy ran for president, i would vote for him. second of all, i want to know if he has ever heard of a book [unintelligible] third, i would like for him to explain if the rich people do not get their tax break, how

come -- and that is supposed to create jobs, how come they have not already created these jobs that they say they are going to be able to create? guest: that is a very good question. we have had a chance to do these experiments. we have the people saying we have to have a tax break for the wealthy like it is something that has never been tried it. president clinton raised taxes on theealthy. we had very rapid job growth in the 1990's. i am not going to say that is because he raised taxes on the wealthy, but obviously that did not prevent the economy from growing and creating jobs. president bush comes in and cuts taxes for the wealthy. we had fewer jobs when he left office. it is not like we have not tried this story.

i don't really think there is much of this story to say that cutting taxes will create jobs hos. host: dean baker, you write that alan simpson produced a plan that would substantially reduce benefits for most middle-class workers even though this program fell outside their mandate. they must have been expecting extra credit. guest: this was supposed to be a deficit commission, but senator simpson through his career in the senate. they took it upon themselves to say if they were going to balance the social security program over a 75-year planning horizon. here is they are supposed to come up with these deficit targets, we are actually going

to fix social security, too. we know this was not really supposed to what we were going to do but we thought we would do it in addition. why would they take this on? host: another e-mail has come in -- guest: this is something that came out near the end when they were trying to put together the final pieces of the health care reform plan. there were many advocates opening up health care for people under 65. if that wked, you could lower that down. i don't see a good argument against that except that the industry does not want the competition. let people who want to have the choice to buy into medicare.

host: our under 45 line. go ahead, jimmy. caller: [unintelligible] host: obviously, he is 25. go ahead, bobbie. from new orleans. baker presented an extraordinarily sober, clear projection of what was coming with the real-estate collapse. the referenced that the real estate collapse bubble is a disaster. my questions go to the following. first of all, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? one economist said there is a

light, except that it is a speeding locomotive coming at all of us. it is this collapsed not so much an anomaly -- is this collapse not so much an anomaly as it is a part of a troubling trend whereby we are running out of bubbles and now we are seeing the ultimate bubble? we are seeing the government stepped in and creating the mother of all bubbles. guest: we have had, i would say, two decades of very on healthy growth driven by bubbles. it drives me up the wall with these deficit commissions. for tens of millions of people, particularly for baby boomers nearing retirement, their major savings was the equity in their home. they just saw that disappeared.

maybe you had 30% equity for years ago, now you are under water. we have tens of millions of people in that same boat. they have nothing other than social security to depend on it. how do we get out of this? we have to restore a pattern of healthy, sustainable growth, which means workers see rising real wages. it will we get there? i do not see anyone making policies that will get us there. part of the story has to be creating -- correcting our trade deficit. that alone will not do it but i think that is a big part of the story. we have a long way to go, even on that. host: nafta in the 19 nineties gave u.s. industry away.

culprit?ta a guest: i think the bigger story is a larger trade agenda. there were about putting manufacturing workers in the united states in competition with the lowest paid workers around the world. we have done that with just about everyone. it is not a surprise that you lose that competition. it is hard to compete with someone who is working for a dollar an hour. we protected higher paid workers, higher paid professionals, people like myself, economists, doctors, and lawyers. it is very difficult for foreign professionals, even educated and trained to u.s. standards, to come to the united states and work as highly paid professionals. we adopted a policy specifically designed to the were the wages of a vast majority of workers

while protecting a small, elite segment of the work force. that has produced better results. host: russ, baby boomer. go ahead. caller: demand is what they should be focused on -- the deficit commission. i don't see anything that creates $1 of demand. if you cut government workers right now at this time, a lot of government spending at this time, it is going to do the opposite. the 800 pound gorilla -- i have an empty house next to me and one across the street. and they have been sitting there for five months. there are thousands of them in this state, probably 1 million sitting here. how do we fill those empty houses? we have callers that are xenophobic about immigration.

part of the reason we have empty houses, everyone build back to mexico or of salvador or wherever they come. foreigners create demand faster. we should be encouraging people maybe with more money to not put a hardship on our school system but what can we do to bring more foreigners to our country? they will create businesses, which will create demand. guest: in terms of real estate, i do not see any good stories out of this because we have an enormous supply it. expect prices to fall more before they eventually stabilize. i know you have a lot of people in the administration who say prices are going to stabilize. expect prices to rise? as far as immigrants, i think

what we need is an ordered flow of immigration. immigration has positives and negatives. if you have more immigrants in the country, you have more demand but they can put a strain on the school system. what kind of immigrants are we going to prioritize? to date, there have been in the less skilled segment of the work force which means we get low- cost workers in the restaurant industry and in agriculture, but the u.s. workers looking to work in those industries are shut out from them. some of those people and of working for very low wages. that segment of our market is in a very bad shape right now. that is a factor. we have to recognize that we are going to have immigration. the question is what that is going to look like. it will be a mixed bag. host: we have about five minutes left with our guest, dean baker.

guest: my other co-director is an old friend that went to college with me. host: larry on our 65 years and older line. caller: our government does some pretty unintelligent spending in my way of thinking. we have a cruise ship off of the california coast right now which is it did in the water. the carnival cruise line has the military, all of these boats, planes, ships, and helicopters delivering food to people. carnival cruise line has agreed to pay for the food, but who is paying for all of the planes, the ships, the workers, the people in the warehouses providing all of this help out there? does that cost go over to the

american people? guest: i am afraid i do not know the answer to that question. if my house is burning down, i expect the fire department to come there and not hand me a bill. i pay my taxes so i expect the fire department to put out the fire. if somebody does an activity that is risky, then it is reasonable that i pay for something like that. in this case, i am not familiar enough with how that is assessed. i would be inclined to agree that there would be a tax. we should recognize that ships that occasionally run into trouble, they should have to pay for that at least on the average host: are you satisfied with the return on the taxes that you get?

guest: i don't have kids so i am not looking at the school system. i look at the services i g as a citizen and the ones that i expect to get when i hit the retirement age. i expect my social security and medicare. you can always point to ways things could be better. the health-care system, illegal immigrants -- my wife is from denmark protect everyone's health care is paid for. the cost per person is about a half of what it is in the united states. in some ways, it is better. in some ways, it is worse it. i think we could have a more efficient health-care system. on the whole, i cannot say i am acutely unhappy. host: richard from georgia. you are on the air. caller: i am kind of nervous

right now. the people who are making a big deal about raising taxes and lowering taxes, i feel that is wall street. no matter if the money -- the money is still going to the same people. 80% of your income went to wall street last year. can you help me understand that? guest: i think one of the big problems in our economy has been the explosion of the financial sector, of course centered on wall street. it takes a larger portion of economic activity. the way to think about this -- this is not like food or housing or medicare where we can identify the benefit. finance is like trucking. trucking delivers goods from. 'a' to point 'b'.

that is the way it is with wall street. it is a big drain on the economy. these people are getting enormously wealthy. that is a real loss to everyone else. i would like to see that change. i am not the only one, by the way. a conservative organization recently came out with a steady , calling for substantial taxes to be imposed on the financial sector for high income earners of the economy. economies around the world would operate more efficiently if taxes were placed on the financial sector. the deficit commission did not consider perhaps in part because he is a director of one of the wall street banks. host: the debt commission will present a report in.

we will thank them for their service, then filed it away to gather dust. is that true? guest: i think it is likely that that will be the case for this particular report. the debate over these issues -- what do we do with social security, medicare? that is going to be a big issue in congress over the next two years. host: dean baker has bn our guest. thank you. please come back. up next, former chairman of the house armed services committee. this is his new book. >> here are some of the headlines. in south korea, president obama says he does not want months to

pass before the u.s. and south korea agreed on a free-trade deal. the two sides failed to work out a deal, but mr. obama says they will press ahead even after the summit. president obama is facing questions about the economy and what the federal reserve is doing about it. he has been meeting with chinese president and the german chancellor. in baghdad, and the rocky kurdish leaders says politicians has agreed on a new government. the official says at the head of a pact block that was opposed would be in charge of a new council with authority over security. finally, britain's government says an unemployed people who refuse to go back to work would

have their benefits cut off up to three years under sweeping reforms to though when. the british government is unveiling plans to cut 8 billion pounds from its welfare bills. a nation of over 60 million people, britain has about 5 million people on unemployment benefits, including 1.4 million people who have drawn welfare for a decade. those are the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> on one of his first live tv appearances, george w. bush on his memoir, "decision points." live from miami did college on c-span2. >> saturdays, landmark supreme court cases on supreme court radio. >> there is nothing in the

constitution concerning contraception or abortion. >> argued in 1971 and ruled on in 1973, roe v. wade still considered one of the most controversial decisions. for the next two saturdays, listen to the argument on c-span radio. >> this year's student camera competition is in full swing. make a video on this year's theme, washington d.c. through my lens. you have a chance to win the grand prize of $5,000. for all the rules, go online to studentcam.org. host: throughout much of the

iraq war, duncan hunter was chairman of the house armed services committee. the former congressman has now written a book. congressman, in the first page of this book, you write -- what do you mean by that? guest: the reason i wrote that and the reason i wrote the book is well illustrated by the driver that dropped off the first several thousand books after they left the printer. he asked me as i was there at the receiving station. he said, what is in the box? what is it about? it is about the victory in iraq proud he said, "we did it? " i then entered a 20-minute conversation with him. that is why i wrote the book. because we did win in iraq.

we turned around the province where we had massive the gunfights in 2004, 2005, and 2006 with the insurgency. we made friends with the tribes. they joined us and turned against the al-qaeda. they wiped out al-qaeda in the provinces. in eastern iraq, the surge supported a counter insurgency where we went into baghdad and the other urban areas. we went into the neighborhoods and provided security for the population. that was the thrust of the surge in early 2007. because of that, we brought down violent by 90% in baghdad and we stabilized baghdad. pretty soon, basis started to operate and people started to go about their daily routine. we now have a government that

america built it. lastly, the army stood out. they took the army in 2008 and had control of the oil in iraq in a very strategic location. he sent down on his own the first iraqi division, a division that americans trained. they swept the army out of the area. in the last election, even though the washington postirst said this was a failed again but, sending this first division, there were so successful, they captured arms that were shipped in to fight the americans. in the next election, he got 5.9% of the vote. he should have known any time the washington post declares a politician is going to win a big victory, it is usually the kiss

of death. that was the last impediment to a true, freestanding nation with a government that would hold and an army that would hold. we left iraq, which is and in perfect country in in in perfect neighborhood. we definitely want that weren't. there is no doubt about it. host: what about what people call the hearts and minds? guest: one of the real factors that came out of the iraq war that people do not appreciate enough is that al-qaeda was destroyed in iraq. the world wide war against terrorism is largely directed to al-qaeda. they made common cause with the suuni insurgency against the americans it. we turned the tribes against a cadet. we brought them over to our

side. they turned against al-qaeda. al-qaeda was wiped out to. if al-qaeda goes into a neighborhood now in that province, they will have a quick death and an early burial. if they go into the area, there will be met with great hostility and will be wiped out. a cadet was a huge loser in iraq. the critics of the work or right in saying that al-qaeda was not there when we first went into iraq. al-qaeda came in in numbers. there were manifested in the first or second battle of calusa. the they put together a fairly formidable structure, so al- qaeda and was wiped out in iraq.

they were not wacked-out by americans. there were wiped out by a combined force. and the animosity towards the al-qaeda remains. it will not be a state based for terrorism. they have an attitude of animosity towards al-qaeda. we have an ally now. host: in your book, you look back and talk about 20/20 vision that people had. we have put up the phone numbers on the bottom of your screen to call in. our fourth line this morning is set aside for iraq and

afghanistan veterans it. if you want to call in and talk to the chairman of the house armed services committee, the number is on your screen. in your book, you talk about hindsight, 20/20. if you could do it all over again, would you support going into iraq knowing what we know now? guest: yes, i would. i often look at that picture of the kurdish mothers holding their babies killed it in its stride in the hills of northern iraq by the poison gas from saddam hussein's aircraft. i also reviewed the massive graves that tony blair estimated holding some 300,000 shiites in southern iraq.

they bulldozed them into open graves, nazi-style. according to the farmers testimonies, when the military firing squad did not get there in time to kill all of these men, women, and children, they simply bulldozed them alive and covered them up. so we took out a regime that in many ways had some of the same dimensions as the nazi regime from germany. they used poison gas to kill their own people. they exterminated and killed thousands of people it. we now have a government that is a friend of the u.s., which has a military -- the military that the u.s. built in iraq, the first iraqi division, when they made their last battle filled deployments, they followed

those deployments with humanitarian distribution just like the americans did it. they followed the rules of war. they did not abuse prisoners. they took care of people and had discipline. the american model has largely been transferred to a lot of people in the military and in iraq. i think that has improved that part of the world. host: according to the congressional budget office, the iraq war, $709 billion was the cost. 1.2 million american soldiers were rotated in and out of iraq at some point. 4000 for -- 4421 american casualties. georgia, you are on first. caller: during the months that president bush was giving saddam

hussein time to comply with the united nations, and that was watching many mornings of the trucks moving across iraq, could those trucks that have taken weapons of mass destruction into the surrounding countries? guest: sure, they could have. i looked at the humanitarian abuses, the mass murders and executions and gassing of civilians. both of my sons volunteered to serve in iraq, one in the marines and one in the army. i think that is justification. saddam hussein, according to the united nations, had over 6,000 liters of anthrax. that is enough to kill over 1 million people. you could put that in one pickup truck with high sides. you had a lot of trucks leaving

dodge, so to speak, getting into syria and into iran. who knows what was in those vehicles? i represented the entire california-mexican border. we had massive loads of drugs and other things going across the border on a nightly basis. one reason why i wrote this book, it is a testimony to these guys, these folks that fought in iraq, these 1.2 million people that peter just talked about it. their mission was successful. this veterans day parade one of the best things to tell a veteran is a "thanks." -- this is a veterans day. one of the best things to tell a veteran is "thanks." we did win in iraq. we built the government and put in place that was voted upon it.

we left a military, and military that is holding now, which has a modicum of discipline and a modicum of what i would call it the american model of professionalism. we are leaving a country which is much better than when we came in it. i think over the next several decades, having a friend in that strategic location in the world is going to accrue to the benefit of americans and also from a moral basis. the idea that we have gone in and have taken out a regime that has murdered some 300,000 people, these guys have done it. there are guys like sergeants who went into a burning bradley

while he himself was on fire. he continued to rescue his soldiers. another performed a tracheotomy on a guy while under fire. he held off and shot several insurgents while he was taking care of this wounded man pretty he finally got him medevac. the thousands of people who did their job who were separated for months and years from their loved ones, serving in this place called iraq, those are the best people that america has. they were successful in their mission. i think it was time that someone acknowledged that they won the war in iraq. host: go ahead, mike. on our line for veterans. caller: i am so happy i get to talk to a republican neocon.

host: purdue a veteran of iraq? caller: i am a veteran of iraq. mr. hunter, you have a real problem telling the whole truth. the reason the search work, we paid them to fight. why don't you people tell the truth? i was there and i saw what happened. guest: sergeant, you have a problem because both of my sons served in iraq also, and they tell a different story than the one you have told it. my son just came back. he was in the last combat brigade to leave iraq. if you look at what happened in one of the provinces, al-qaeda came in. there were not there originally. a lot of foreign fighters came in it. they joined with the tribes to

fight the americans initially. but al-qaeda were thin on the tribes. they set their own system of law. ibes 40%ed the trive it. they killed some of the leaders. every time you had a recruitment effort, al-qaeda would go in and murder the tribal leaders who were doing the recruitment effort to prevent anyone from coming in and joining our side. in 2006, a tribal leader, a very brave man later murdered, got together a bunch of leaders and said we are making our stand against al-qaeda. both of his brothers and father were murdered by a cadet. that is why they came over to our side.

they were going to side with the americans it. the americans are gone now and we are not paying the tribes. the tribes are not getting american money. they have a fairly significant oil revenue. if you are al-qaeda right now and you go into the province, your life expectancy is very low because the tribes in the province remember the al-qaeda that came in and in some cases killed people for the sin of smoking because smoking was against their strict version of muslim law, took their women, taxed them and abused them. i had one brain tell me that parts of the province, families would tell their children if al- qaeda puts them in a burning fire, go ahead and breed quickly because you will suffer less pained. it was the abuse from al-qaeda. al-qaeda unwittingly was part of

the reason why the tribes came over to our side. they helped forge the american victory. now, with no american money going out there to the province -- the general left in 2009 it. he was a top marine in the province. he start -- he stopped giving out money for projects. he said you are going to have to raise your own money and have your own projects. he put together a budget summit so they could come up with their own way to fund the projects. they did that in 2009. if you go to that province today, they are not going back to the al-qaeda. host: san antonio, texas. caller: you and the people around you other reason why we are in the mess that we are in

it pretty your tunnel vision sent us into a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. you took out saddam hussein out in the middle of the night, popped his head off with no trial. you mentioned the kurdish mothers. where did he get that gas? we did it to him. how did osama bin laden get his money? we give him the money to fight the soviets. you are our friend as long as you are killing the people we want you to kill. when you quit doing that, then you have become our enemy. the suffering that people are going through right now, the trucking business, going out of business. our debt is caused by the immoral wars. host: duncan hunter? guest: most of those were put

together we have a lot in place -- a law in place to keep poison gas from going to other countries that might use them in the way that saddam hussein's use to them. any humanitarian organization in the world will not agree with you that somehow saddam hussein did not do the gassing of thousands of kurdish people. that he did not shoot by firing squad or bulldozed civilians, men, women, and children and put them in mass graves. our people excavated those graves and found the skulls of mothers with the bullets in the back of their heads. that was on the discovery channel. there were executed before being put into the graves. we could be having the same

discussion in 1941 or 193about what it did in gasing a lot of people. would the west have responded in a moral manner if they had not been invaded? i like to hope that they would. moral justification for going was solid, with or without weapons of mass destruction. this book has 120 instances of heroism by silver star winners, guys winnerskip who fought massive firefights in the battle of fallujah and others. american realty believed in this mission and succeeded. you don't do justice to america's fighting forces when you are parts of a voice in america that does not acknowledge to military people

when they have succeeded, and their mission was successful. we talk about how well we should treat veterans, one way to do that is to say that you did did abkhaz. this book acknowledges -- at yousay th did the job. kip was firefighting for weeks in fallujah. he was at a machine gun battle, ended up in an knife fight with one of the last insurgents. he survived that. he was in several other massive firefights. chuck yeager is his grandfather. his father served in the 1 73rd

airborne in vietnam. this is a story about terrorism. kip joined the marines at age 17. he came from colorado. there are pictures of me at the temples and foot level. i have a picture of that in the book. 10,000 ft level. the kelly family is in the book as well. john kelly was the deputy mission commander for the first marine division during the first battle of fallujah. his son robert was a pfc going door-to-door with firefights. his son john was also a marine and was in iraq. if family, generation's going to

war. we have been reluctant to tell our soldiers not thanks for serving can and you are good people, but when they win, thanks of winning. this book's as banks or winning. >> a call on the republican line from aidala. >> how are you? host: fine. caller: can't you consider the chemicals that used as weapons of mass destruction? guest: yes, we've knowledge saddam hussein used weapons of mass destruction, chemical poison gas, to kill the kurdish people in large numbers in northern iraq. that was chemical ali, that was the name of his deputy who was

tried and executed. just as we executed people after the november trial after the second world war for gassing jewish people. the question was did he still have supplies of sports and gas. we did not find supplies of prison guess when we arrived in iraq. we did not find weapons of mass destruction. that's true. from my position, the things that's a, did to his people -- debbie lee, her son mark was the first navy seal killed in iraq. what she said was a, is a weapon of mass destruction, himself. if you look at to tony blair estimates that he executed 300 dozen people and bulldozed them into mass graves that have been uncovered, yes, he was a weapon of mass destruction, himself. from my perspective, it is in

the american interest to have a nation which is a friend and not an enemy of the 90 states. a nation that has representative government. we have built a model for them. al qaeda, going into the sunni parts of iraq or the shiite product of iraq, today those terrorists have a short life expectancy. one thing the iraqi people and learned to do was understand the terror that al qaeda brings an end to hate them for it. they're men and women and children have been killed by al qaeda. there was a major strike by the the longates anin war.

>> the teams will still be in afghanistan in 2014. we will be there until at least the end of 2014. a change in tone aimed at persuading the afghans and the taliban there will be no significant american troop withdrawals next summer. your reaction? guest: when you set a deadline, the problem is that your allies, the people you are trying to persuade to be undecided, say say the support of the americans will be gone and i will have to face the bad guys by myself. the bad guyis as if we wait long enough, we can take over in four years. that dynamic is a danger because american politicians and us

wanting to get reelected, that is a common thread across republican and democratic lines. we always want to put a withdrawal date on a conflict because we want to assure the families end the american people that we will not be at war for ever -- and the american people. the administration did set a date to get out and that was criticized by the leaders of the fighting forces but since you are sending the wrong message. the reason we won in anbar province was a private and the pse fighting on the ground, we refused to say that we were going to quit. we gave enough confidence to but sunni tribes. they watched americans dying on machine guns. americans going into firefights

and 10 feet until they were the only guy standing. the americans never left wounded soldiers on the battlefield. these americans are going to stick with us. so the tribes and got enough confidence that they said we will declare our independence of al qaeda and they won. in afghanistan we can statement by the administration that we would have a deadline to get out. that was criticized by military leaders. the commandant in the marine corps said that was not the right message. they have modified that to say that we are not going to set a deadline, that we will be there for long haul. hopefully, that gives confidence to the afghanistan people fighting the insurgency to stick with us. let me tell you what one problem is in afghanistan. our allies. 1361 americans have died in afghanistan.

the british have lost -- 26 other nations bardera on an agraria -- 26 other nations are there. they have only lost about half as many as we have lost a combined. we have more battlefield casualties -- almost twice as many as the rest of the free world combined that are present in iraq. the british have about 300 casualties. the rest of the 26 nato allies and other allies if only hackers about 300. that means they're not going to the dangerous places. there's a game that's is let the americans do the tough stuff. helmand province has lots of

firefights. they have switched on us so that the marines are there fighting in helmand province. the europeans have have pulled out of there. one thing the president needs to do is sit down with leaders of france and germany and other countries and say that you have an interest in fighting terrorists, you have an interest in not having terrorist bases in afghanistan that will hurt you in five or 20 years. have erroll in germany but says your soldiers cannot leave the forest at night. you cannot be in france saying that all we are going to do is guard to the airports. you have to go to the battlefield and stand side-by- side with the americans. president obama needs to say that to our allies. report this is there is little risk to lifting the ban on gays openly

serving in the military. according to two people familiar with the draft to the report. guest: i am sure it was worded in a way it that will play out in the way that they hope, which i take it the people that gave that report to the paper on lifting the gay ban. i am strongly against it. you go to a combat platoon of marines in afghanistan and give them a secret ballot and say are you for lifting the ban on practicing homosexuals being injected into your ranks and the answer would come back nearly 100% no or very close to it. i guarantee that. any combat units, give them a secret ballot and let them vote. we had to the homosexual issue, gay marriage, for example, raised in 31 states.

reports in each state that says everything is ago. the only people who end of being against it, now people in uniform cannot vote down the ban or cannot vote on maintaining the gay ban, we will have a corrosive effect on unit cohesion. most people in combat units are conservative. they have judeo-christian values pure the idea of practicing homosexuality is repugnant to them. if that is their values. they have a right to their values and their judeo-christian background. isey don't get to vote on who in the foxhole with them, that tight compartment on a navy ship either. they don't have a vote on this. we have to stand and have a

little courage and stand up for this effort that is an annual effort that has gone on for the last decade, the same group that gave $3 million to bill clinton and got a promise from him that he would put homosexual men in the military is more active than ever. they are very active. they have lots of leverage to pull. if you ask people in the platoons, it would be close to 90% rejection of this idea. just as those states that had gay marriage on. the ballot a post it host: our guest is duncan hunter, author of "victory in iraq.:" -- john on thein \

line from texas. caller: i served in honor reserved -- army reserve. i have a question about the link to al qaeda. i was serving with coalition forces. i saw someone in solitary and asked who it was and they said this was al qaeda. this was in may of 2003. another time, as far as wmd's, i was going to camp looking for somebody if and there was a gas mask. i inquired where that came from and they said that was taken from iraqi soldiers captured on the battlefield. they had to take their chemical equipment away from them. i thought, that's funny, we are not going to guess anyone, are they carrying chemical equipment? i wanted to address those two observations. guest: regarding al qaeda, i

think al qaeda and watched the invasion and made a decision to enter iraq and fight the americans in iraq. the kennedy's battalion in battle of ramadi in early 2004, i asked the lieutenant colonel kennedy if any of the 300 insurgents killed in the fierce firefights were al qaeda and he said they were not, that was part of a sunni insurgency, ich al qaeda started coming heavily into iraq and the timeframe of april of 2004 onward. they were not there in numbers in 2003. that is probably so. you may have seen that designated as al qaeda, that person. he may have been coming to get intelligence on how local was going. but al qaeda was not there in force until 2004.

regarding saddam was slain on the poor is investing, he got everybody off balance. he had used it, killed thousands of mothers and children if with poison gas at one time. nobody was sure how much he had or will it was. we did not find any in the end. host: anthony in columbus, ohio, a democrat . caller: saddam was slain invading the kurds, it was a result of our initial is supporting the kurds, the uprising against saddam hussein's. as a result of that, we abandoned the kurds and saddam was slain punished them for that. you have to admit that we encouraged the kurds' revolt against saddam was sane and they did. when he had an opportunity to punish them, look what happened.

guest: i would argue with anybody's right to gas women with babies as a result of any foreign policy mandate or any foreign policy position that was taken. actually, the kurds for time immemorial, the northern part of iraq, have inhabited the area. they have tried to hold on to their position in northern iraq. in places like turkel where you have an arab population and the kurdish population, you have the friction and you have said, kirkuk areas the curric and the displaced families. now there is disputes. you have a kurdish family with a

deed to a piece of land and it comes down to my father's for centuries. and then you have an arrow that's as i got this deed from those of, government a couple years ago, so we have to work those disputes out. rab then you have an a who says they have a deed from a few years ago from saddam hussein from the same piece of land. the kurds want to be left alone. they have their piece of land in northern iraq. they don't want people flying over them. we did a no-fly zone for years to try to keep saddam was an from having air power into northern iraq. as a result of him guessing men, women, and children. i don't think we were wrong there. if if somebody is guessing women

and children on the basis that he does not like the united states, that is not a valid proposition that we are at fault he did the mothers and babies. host: seven minutes left with our guest is duncan hunter, author of "victory in iraq: how america won." now from richardson, texas on the republican line. caller: thanks for writing this book. i appreciate you and i appreciate our military personnel so much. thank god for them. if they keep us free and they keep us going every day. a couple questions about iraq. first, do you think that the andror groups hamas hezbollah are in iraq? are they the ones murdering and slaughtering iraqi christians? the other question is in afghanistan, is it not true that pakistan and india are

doing a sort of war against each other in afghanistan and we are getting caught between them? i think india is sneaking in and their terrorist instigators into afghanistan. host: we have to leave it there. you have to keep your answers short. guest: hezbollah model from iran was injected to some degree in the training and arming of the special groups of iraqi shiite extremists who were fighting the united states and iraqi government and the sunnis, but we defeated them when the first iraqi division went down and took out the mahdi army. there were hezbollah elements in the training of the so-called

army special groups. i have not seen a strong presence of indian espionage in the afghanistan theater. thanks for bringing it back. to the back this book is a tribute to 2 million americans who fought in iraq. -- this book is a tribute. it is published by genesis publishing. you can get it at amazon or go to victoryinirazbook.com. host: what is genesis publishing? guest: pretty major publishing house in mississippi. the ceo read several chapters before i had it ready to go. he looked at my riding style,

which is not the greates he called me and said i read the instances of courage and bravery, but the american public would not know otherwise. all they know is that things that happened. but the tales of heroism have not been sufficiently related to the american public so he agreed to publish it. i'm grateful. >> it is laid out chronologically and profiles several generals. it profiles of difference soldiers who participated. two phone calls. liz on the independent line from new york. caller: thank you to all of our veterans. they have kept us safe hundreds of years and continue to do so today. my father was a world war ii veteran and my husband of vietnam. i have waited years to talk to you about this.

i live in upstate new york. i was in new york city at a meeting three weeks after nine size 11. i am aware of the devastation. -- after 9/11. i have always considered the afghan area and illegitimate -- a legitimate war. my question is why did you turn your back on afghanistan? we don't invade every country that's having trouble. you started two war and let both of them language. the reason we can say we are victorious in iraq is not because of our leadership but simply because of our soldiers. my second statement is why did you ever bring this country to war? why did you never fun galore on anything but supplemental and why did you not institute the draft?

host: ok. guest: why did we fund bonds or on supplementals? it's always been that way. -- why did we fund the war on supplementals? it's a little less than the full impact of the bank bailout that we paid for. a more valid program and more valid american interest than the massive bank bailout. an impact of a trillion dollars. you fund wars on supplementals not not mean that it's real. you don't know how much you're going to need to spend. so you do it on the basis of looking at what you need for the next couple months, you pay for that, then you go to the next six months and pay for an ad and

you do what you have to do to win. second, we had a very successful stand up in afghanistan early on. we went in, knocked al qaeda isleton of afghanistan. it went to pakistan. we stood up the government and the constitution and the court system. there's a lot of corruption and problems right now. you're going to have massive problems in that part of the world standing up a government that is similar to the model of the united states and that is a model based on honesty, fairness, on having a system that works without corruption. that is always a difficulty. in 2003 through 2005 in afghanistan it was looked at as a model of success. we had very little american casualties. we've had more american casualties in the last year, times as many as american

casualties in afghanistan in the last year than we had six years ago. this is an injection of force is largely from pakistan, the 1500-mile strip between pakistan and afghanistan, coming to fight the americans and the existing government in afghanistan. there's a lot of things we have to do. that is beyond this program. we had a successful standup of the afghanistan government early on. it has gotten worse over the last year or so. host:kirk in virginia on the caller: veterans line than. caller: i served in ramadi and other areas. it was the right war. but i dispute your characterization that we won this war.

i left in 2007 very optimistic about the direction we were hitting. in 2009 i left ramadi very despondent because we are still at a stalemate and the war is still ongoing. there's still a lot of shooting going on. the governor of on our province had his legs blown off in downtown ramadi at the provisional government center. that was 2009. there's too much going on. we were pulling back before the government was ready. it is a little unstable situation. it has not our way yet. host: 30 seconds. you are always going to have some bombs going off in

some countries in the middle east. twice as many americans were killed in chicago in 2009 than were killed in the entire country of iraq. my son came back with the fourth stryker brigade after one year. they just came back in september with not a single one lost. you're never going to have a country totally free of gunfire. with respect to a strong government, having a military that is mature and a country with a modicum of democracy,. iraq, backed -- iraz has that. host: our guest is duncan hunter, author of "victory in iraq: how america won." thank you very much, as always. >> thank you, peter. >> the president of the american legion will be out here on veteran's day after this break from c-span radio.

>> some of the headlines. the federal government has asked the u.s. supreme court to support an appellate panel ruling that would allow the military to temporarily continue enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay and lesbian soldiers. senate democrats and republicans will choose their leaders on tuesday, november 16 in several meetings. house republicans have officially announced wednesday, november 17. and the 100th of congress leaders. house democrats will pick their leaders thursday, november 18. according to a new gallup poll, house republican leader john brainard's approval rating has improved after the election. that poll also suggests that more americans have a negative view of democratic senate majority leader harry reid 4 with 43% saying that they have an unfavorable opinion of him.

a poll suggests most people support the republicans when it comes to extending the bush era tax cuts for even for wealthier americans. a majority of people who answered a poll do not w to back doho want to -- do not support republicans who want to repeal the health-care law. realtytrac reports house repossessions dropped 9% from sep through october because many lenders temporarily halted foreclosures if amid allegations that thousands of those. were those those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> washington journal continues. host: the executive director of the american legion, peter gaytan, on veteran's day, to talk about veterans issues including veterans health-care and more. thanks for coming.

how many veterans are there in america right now? how big is the veterans' health care service? guest: we are creating new veterans every day. as the numbers increase daily, our obligation as a nation increases to make sure we provide the benefits they have earned for their service. if you ask about the veterans affairs administration, what the american legion tries to do is ensure that the va is capable of moving its mission to american service members. meeting held care obligations if, the benefits obligations such as the gi bill. the american legion is the author of the original service members be adjustment act of 1944. we take great pride in that accomplishment. that adjustment act went on to create what we know as the american middle class. it allowed veterans returning from the second world war to come back to transition easily

into the civilian community and to find jobs, go to school, purchase a house, start a business, and provide for their families. our understanding of the country to assist veterans as they returned has helped our country to become strong as it is through our accomplishments in the middle class. the original g.i. bill has created thousands of doctors, teachers, engineers. we as a nation cannot ignore how beneficial that was to the establishment of our country in the 1950's. what the american legion would like to do is to balance the focus from our past accomplishments with what we understand is our obligation to this new era of veterans, this new generation if we create every day. we need to understand that there transition issues need to be addressed. that we as a nion have a

continuing obligation to meet their needs. if we provide those services, we will insure that our country will remain strong. in showing our appreciation for the sacrifices made by the men and women, but showing that we don't forget our citizens who have chosen to wear the uniform and defend our freedom. host: 23 million u.s. veterans currently. we are spending $124 million a year on veterans services, health care, etc. is it necessary for the va to be separate from the regular health care system? guest: there is a need. as a nation, when we ask a service member to go to a foreign country, a young americans, to defend our freedom for someone -- or for someone's freedom in another

country, we don't ask if they are ready to go. they pick up that pride of service and they go without question. we as a nation should not question the cost that it would take us to provide for them when they return from combat. that caused its parts of war. the continuing cost of war is relative to what we provide for our veterans. your other questions about two health-care programs, i think so. the american public needs to understand that because of the va health-care system stand- alone and providing quality service, has improved considerably since the vietnam era. no longer less than adequate facilities. the va is cutting edge. it's making progress not only for american veterans. it is responsible for recent developments that benefit the entire country.

the initial artificial heart, that was at the v.a. hospital. a lot of progress that you see in the medical environment of the nation comes from the department of veterans affairs medical facilities. we need to keep in mind that the va is a training ground for a large percentage of civilian practitioners, medical practitioners get their training through the department of veterans affairs. investment but the nation makes into the department benefits into our country. host: we have set aside the fourth line for veterans, especially iraq and afghanistan. do you want to hear from some veterans -- newer veterans. when was the american legion formed and what's the history of veterans day? guest: the american legion was

formed in 1919 by veterans who came back to realize there was strength in numbers. it wanted to make sure their brothers were taken care of, that they had stand together as veterans in this nation to make sure that their needs are not forgotten, to make sure the sacrifices they made our not forgotten, but they have assistance when they return to transition back to the civilian community. veterans day was initially on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month after world war roman one. world war ii. we cannot forget the sacrifices. calvin college said the nation that forbids its defenders will be forgotten -- calvin coolidge. host: go on with your question.

caller: i have been calling your show recently for the last -- since 1993 through 2005. i have been stating that the va has been tearing up my claim forms. each time i tell someone that, they never are concerned on who did that. it is a shame. host: timothy, are you having trouble with the va and would you like to know what the american legion's role in that is? them.e been to all of all of them seem to be working with this one conglomerate group that is, hey, the veteran is a

liar and does not know what he's talking about. it is set that they can come on television and pretend -- is sad that they can't pretend nothing is happening. host: do you work with veterans with issues with the va? guest: we do. the individuals credited by the american legion to help people like timothy to help them develop their claims, to submit their claims to the department of veterans affairs so they can get the help they need, so they will have access to the gulf today deserve fans that they have earned. timothy, don't let this discourage you. what he's dealing with false a lot on the need for improved outreach. veterans' service organizations like the american legion need to provide stronger of reach to every generation of veterans, to let them know there's someone they can come to for free

assistance in developing their health care claim. contact your department of the american legion in your state and ask for that assistance. the american legion every day provides quality assistance. host: have you seen an increase in the need for mental health services and in mental health funding? guest: they are seeing an influx of mental health care needs it. that goes back to a lot of what mr. hunter explained previously about the landscape of war that the soldiers are dealing with as well as marines and navy personnel. the battlefield is a lot different now. in militarytrained specialty and be deployed. you are in a large combat zone, an urban warfare environment, more talented being -- more

prone to being exposed to combat. the american legion is taking a strong focus on traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress right now. we have created a committee of former military veterans, a prominent legionnaires. people with family members serving. we want to understand where we are putting our resources in the country to determine the increase in the conditions and we want to be part of the solution. we want to reduce the stigma of mental health problems. a lot of soldiers are afraid to toit it and they do't want affect their military career. we want them to ask for assistance. host: chip on the independent line from nashville. ♪ i'm calling about a treatment for c.t.s. de that was developed

at a va hospital in the 1990's that head and 85% success rate in resolving issues for the veterans that went for treatment that is not being used at the va today. so this is effectively a cure. i am a veteran. my father was a veteran during world war ii. my grandfather was a veteran. i meet soldiers as i travel extensively for business all the time. it was developed by a doctor named eugene canistandkeniston. host: why do you think it's not being used? caller: because it is a paradigm shift technology that was developed at a time when biofeedback was at the basis of the treatment was not recognized by the medical community as

legitimate treatment. host: where should people go for more information? caller: i don't have a good answer for that. that is why i called when i heard there was someone from the american legion. i think the american legion could become the focal point to get this information out to veterans. i have a psychologist friend working afford good. he has begun a pilot program to bring back the treatment. -- a friend working at fort hood. i addressed the then-senator obama about the issue at an american legion post in chicago and number of years ago. nothing was ever done about it. someone needs to take a hold of this. these men and women with pete yazdi are suffering unnecessarily in the face of there being a treatment of this quality. host: we have the point.

guest: thanks for your advocacy. what you are saying is what the american legion is focusing on. i mentioned are and how a committee. we are setting the groundwork for that committee right now. we want to consider the other options that we may not be considering. those options that may not be traditional medical care of, but are showing improvement for lives of those veterans suffering from pts ansd tbi. the american legion is making progress in other areas that are not being considered, such as highbridge derek treatment. -- such asken -- hyperbaric treatment. we have spoken to veterans and their families suffering. once they had hyperbaric treatment, their life improved for the better. the spouse's income i have my

husband back. if that is because the optional treatment was there for them to explore. we don't need to stay blinded. let's look at other options. we are dealing with a different era of veterans dealing with long deployments. i welcome the opportunity to discuss that with you more. you can trust that the american legion will provide outreach and locate those veterans and their families. host: robert from georgia, go- ahead. caller: i want to thank our armed forces and veterans today. the amount of gratitude that i have for them it's phenomenal. i am disabled with brain injuries.

i was in the program. if people decided to be an optimist rather than the victim. i believe that we with pts can be overachievers if we set our minds to it. as far as military and coming back, i have put forth a program called young enterprises community stabilization that addresses the issue of housing. in january of 2007 it. i tried to work with the government on that on the contractors and so forth. essentially, my heart is with helping veterans to make the transition and into society. host: thank you. guest: your spirit is

encouraging. i hope other veterans have heard you calling and will take the spirit you have and take it on themselves. to ask themselves. that is what the american legion focuses on. the american legion is right behind the secretary and his support of eliminating homeless veterans in the next five years. we have a program in the state of pennsylvania. ron has started a widespread homeless assistance program where we have transition homes for veterans while they're getting back on their feet, so they can find jobs and learn to care for themselves. there will be able to rebuild their lives. host: are all veterans and title to healthcare from the va with no service? guest:no.

the v-8 enrollment eligibility is based on priority groups. those priority groups are defined by the injury. the best way for me to not miss speak on eligibility is to visit the va website to determine eligibility requirements for different priority groups it. a large amount of veterans were shut out of eligibility because we don't have service-connected injuries, such as myself. that's not available to us. host: next call for peter gaytan, american director of the american legion. buffalo. caller: good morning, peter and good morning, peter. i am a vietnam veteran. i am service-connected. i go to the inheritance center

in missouri. -- harry truman center. i have been trying have been8 teeth pulled for year. i cannot afford it because i'm on disability, low-income. i cannot get them to do it. my primary doctor. i had mercury fillings when i was in basic training. that could make it service- connected right there. all i ask them to do was pull eight teeth. guest: sorry you are struggling with dental care at the va. ghz talk to the veterans patient advocates at your va hospital.

then talk to the american legion you can access dental care that you need. you know that in basic training that you received a dental care, so that should be relative to your eligibility to resubmitting your claim so you can get the treatment. host: has the american legion taken a position on "don't ask, don't tell"? guest: it has taken the opinion to wait for no decisions be made by any circuit court, but for the country to wait until the review of the court is done. for those individuals to assess that and provide their recommendation. we look forward to an outcome for those individuals, to review that and make a decision that would benefit service members. the american legion post main concern is the safety of service members.

host: what about the rightness or wrongness of a conflict? >> no. veterans is what the american legion is about and their families. so did the nation does not forget their obligation to the men and women serving in uniform and that we support active-duty troops and their families no matter what conflict. host: cheryl on the line. caller: thanks to all the veterans, especially my husband who flew aircraft carriers in vietnam. i lost the young man that i loved who died in vietnam in 1966. and my father, a veteran of the second world war. he died on october 19. i wrote to tammy a week before

his death. he had dementia and a significant health care problem. we applied for a medical attention an entire year before he died. he wrote to her saying that it appears parts of the procedure was to delay and request over and over again for the same record until the veteran dies. the people that are most misused -- democratic and republican presidents have lied to the american people. those that paid the price are the young men and women who served, and their families. no matter how many times duncan hunter wants to say how

successful things were, if iraq did not have oil, if george bush did not want to take out saddam hussein because he wanted to be a war president and there's a new book called "family energys," and detainee's task force -- and dick cheney's energy task force said getting that oil was number one on their list. it's a disservice to the young men and women serving our country. host: thanks for calling. guest: thanks for the sacrifice of your family members. you are upset with the delays in the claims processing. that the va is taking too long to award claims to disabled veterans. the american legion is in full

agreement with you. we should not have a process that forces veterans to wait a year or two. those veterans have paid the price. they did not ask any questions when they went to serve their country. we should not delay their delivery of benefits. the american legion is working with secretary shinseki to develop a paperless claims process that will allow veterans to submit. there have been accomplishments lately in agent orange disability. the va is looking at that as a pilot program to streamline the claims process to allow victims to receive benefits in a timely manner. that is so that individuals you mentioned do not die before they receive benefits. host: we are excited to welcome the new treatment facility in french camp, calif. desperately

necessary for our veterans. now, michael in michigan, go- ahead. caller: good morning. i am service-connected 100%. i volunteer for an elderly gentleman who is 92 years old, blind, world war ii. i've been taking into his appointments. he spent time in the hospital in ann arbor, michigan at the vip. we --at the va. he's in a wheelchair, not really aware of what's happening to him. i reminded the doctor that he is very ill. the doctor got very upset. he made a false reports to the social services at a hospital that i was a businessman and

taking his money. -- that i was abusing this veteran and taking his money. it was a big investigation. his family and i got together and drew up power of attorney so that i could continue, because the charges were false. now i have this hanging over my head. i feel like somebody reached out my guts. guest: it is disheartening. but it's heartening to hear that a veteran is helping another veteran in need. what you are doing is a testament to your obligation to the nation and to american veterans. thank you for that. i want to mention that what you are doing in terms of delivery of service to your friend is something the american legion has focused on in the past.

we started a program called i am not a number, years ago to find out how the cari is at your local va hospital. from that survey we developed the system worth saving. we have a field service staff from the american legion that goes to the vietnam hospitals. what we do is determine is their quality of care being met and is that karen being delivered in a timely manner? we speak with caregivers and we speak with members of congress. we want to get staff to each individual facility to make sure they are meeting their obligations to american veterans. that's why the american legion provides outreach, to focus on exactly where attention needs to be given in terms of va being able to provide care in a timely manner.

host: the fact that we have homeless veterans is a sin. guest: contact your department of the american legion in your state. american legion takes homeless veterans as a major priority. that email is correct. it is a disgrace to the nation the anyone who swhas worn uniform cannot become a productive member of society. host: peter gaytan is american director.riexecutive thanks for joining us. vice president joe biden and general shinseki will be at the tomb of the unknown soldier to lay a wreath. lay a wreath. thanks for