issue one. obama the populist. >> we got to do something to help families to be able to afford and students to be able afford the higher education. >> president obama says that college education must become more affordable for all-

american students. private universitys have seen -- universities have seen their to you eggs by 29%. they charge roughly $160,000 board and tuition for a ba degree. public universities funded by state tax dollars have seen their tuitions rise in the last decade by 72%, nearly doubling in ten years to roughly $120,000 for a ba degree. so, mr. obama has unveil his plan to make college more affordable through loans, ies, perkins loans, named after a loan serving 1980 chairman of the house committee on education carl perkins from kentucky. perkins loans are administered by the u.s. department education and will haved at a low interest rate of 5%.

5,500 a year for college. $8,000 for graduate school. mr. obama wants continue to increase the funding for perkins from $1 billion a year to $8 billion year that is a 700% taxpayer buildout. >> here's a trick question for you. think outside the box. do i know what that means, pat, think outside the box? what makes college lisa affordable for today's middle class? >> it's a supply and demand situation. you got to have a ba degree, it seems, to get a good job. everybody knows that. socially if you have not gone to college and didn't get a ba disagree our considered a semi sec class accident so there are probably half of america's young desperate to get into college that is the demand side. but a lot of professors have enorm russ salaries and -- enorm russ salaries and teach ago assistance in there and the

huge pots of federal and state money pouring in that frankly, drive prices high and higher. i think education, john, in america is -- part of education, there are some outstanding schools. but education is one of the biggest rackets going on in america today. >> it's the biggest racket that everybody needs to be a part of if you want to make in society. the taxpayer money is not there to fund t and professors making huge salaries. but i don't believe that is widespread. i think it's expensive because providing classrooms and teachers and the campus ac daze, everything has gone up. and college education now costs three times when it did a couple decades ago. people cannot afford that on

their own. people cannot afford their health costs on their own either. and he understands if you invest money on young people to get degrees that is money well spent. he's doing the right thing and it's good for his politics because young people are part of his coalition and they need loans and one of his most signature achievements was getting the banks out of the middleman and the making of student loans. student loans are cheaper today. they're still hard to pay back but they're cheaper today than >> follow the money. bigger loans and bigger tuitions. >> ohio university economist said that more loans distributed will not bring down tuition costs. >> if you drop money out of the airplanes or over students' houses. they'll take the money and the colleges are going to be aware that have and they're going to raisfees a good by the. so i'm not sure that we're dealing with the root cause of

the problem. >> and increasing the perkins loans by 700% the put the us news a deeper ditch of public debt that is already $15 trillion deep that is t as in trillion. >> we're borrowing money off friend overseas like chinese investors lend money to the u.s. government that then often lend to middle class and upper middle class students. we have a nation that has enormous broader debt problem. >> know that, do you not? >> that's right. >> what do you think of what he has to say? >> i've learn a lot more while i was a student. he's right. but dr. voter believes that there is a spiraling of costs related to salaries and related to a number of things that

could be made more efficient. he likes on line education. he likes other alternatives that should be tried more. at the same time, i come from a generation, me and my cousins were the first to go to college. in the 1960s and 1970s, it was easy to work at the steel mill and go to good school like ohio university. but steel mills are gone and the tuition is gone and is ten times what it was. so that is a real job and support that with a little documentation. paying benefits for private college professors rose 14% in the last decade. the average spay over a hundred -- average pay is over a hundred thousand dollars a professor. one professor in maryland makes

over $1 million annually. is that what he's talking about? >> yes. over the last decade you had tuition go up 5 or 10% a year. do you think they're getting 5 to 10% better every year? no, they're no they're run for the faculty and the alumni more than they are for students tons of money is poured into tenure fact at this time. and the alumni -- faculty. and the alumni wants one thing and the athletes want something else. 42% of college kids, the first two years show no advance in their critical thinking in whatsoever because there is so many classes. president obama is right that is broken but he doesn't know how to fix it. >> how do you fix it? how do you fix it?

>> innovate. and pat is right about the supply and demand problem. you have more people wanting to go to college and you have limited seats. you have colleges and their ranking are based on ex excluding people. >> we have a president that is working a set of statistics that shows if you don't have a college education or some post high school training, you have a tough time in this economy. and we have a republican that once to run against all the elite. so suddenly turning the college professor as the newest scape goats is nowhere we should be going. >> in the hard sciences, fewer and fewer americans in there. you have the asia american kids and the gut courses and silly

courses. the federal government has an interest in having sciencists and engineer. it's junk and they're there for four years to get a ba and they learn nothing. >> but the fact is my dad was right. just get that diploma. the fact is, you were soft on the projections are you need more school beyond high school and that has been true since the early 1970s. >> it doesn't matter what you learn. if you want to learn something, go to grad school. >> spending four years at college does not make you any

smart error betterer and better. this is a broken system. >> a $7 billion increase in student loan funding is that good public policy or bad public policy? >> i think you're going flood more money in there and it's going to raise the prices on all the rest of it. but that is 7 or 8 billion in this education industry that is about a trillion dollars. you saw that. it's peanuts. >> it's a bubble. >> there's an enormous amount of student loans that are in defundamental. people go to college and spend student loans and they cannot pay them back. >> our president is restructureing that to make the loan as affordable and get the loans out from making big money. and the $7 billion is money well spent and it goes to the neediest people. and everybody on this set went to a good college. and they worked hard to get there. >> that is the nicest thing

that anybody has ever said about the university of virginia. >> what is the answer to the question? >> it's bad policy. it will feed the spiral of tuition. there is more college debt than credit card debt and it just feeds the problem. >> it's good policy. but we need to be more innovative and we need to look across the board at the entire system. it has not changed since world war ii. >> and you have the declining

president of the united states looks like he's a really good father and really good husband. but he's a terrible looks like he's a really good husband. but he is a terrible president. >> republican senator marco rubio is the freshman u.s. senator from florida. he's a gop up and comer and a favorite of the tea party. the senator is also a leading candidate for the number two slot on this year's president and vice president ticket. let's assume that the president is mitt romney or rick santorum. who else will be the best running mate for either? governor nikki haley. she is an indian. traction. her parents are u.s.

entrepreneurs. and chris christie, the new jersey governor that endorsed romney a very popular republican in a democratic state. and daniel's rebuttal it be deemed clear, very persuasive and station man like. and other candidates, south dakota's senator, new hampshire's senator, and virginia governor bob mcdonald, and new mexico governor martinez. >> let's assume that the presidential primaries are protracted and they are decisive. what imperative does that impose on a presidential nominee when selecting a running mate? you understand the question? >> i do. >> do you want to answer the question? >> want to unite the property. and if you're mitt romney, there's not much enthusiasm for

you, so you want to excite the party. who you foreclose do that is another question entirely. romney and the delegates that he needs are held by rick santorum, then we'll have a romney and rick santorum ticket. christy is a problem. would he light up the campaign trail initially and the question is would the tea party be happy with his positions when they get a close look at them because he is a northeastern republican, although a right leaning one. >> would rubio think i have enough star power and enough chops and i'm young enough doing this under my own power. i don't want to be lassoed to a candidate that may lose this time around. >> ticket looks like a loser, why would anybody want to get on board. the most obvious ticket would

be romney and santorum. if they can make up, maybe the rest of the party can. what if rick santorum gets the nomination what is not unthinkable at this point. then i can't imagine rick santorum and mitt romney. but i can imagine rick santorum and -- and he's a mid-western guy and a working man's guy. thing that could be good. >> in 2008 john mccain became a boring candidate. he went to vietnam. the point is when he picked up senator palin, it was a sensational pick, probably most dramatic we ever scene. he went from 8 points down to five points ahead and layman's brothers -- the point is you got to unite the party if

romney gets elected he's got to ignite the base. the best one for that if rubio is out is chris christie. >> what does rubio bring with him? he brings several things. he's tea party endorsed and he has a lot of people that are not tea party. he's a cuban-american. >> he brings in the latino vote. is that big? >> he has the potential of being the hispanic president obama. >> he's quite -- >> what do you mean? >> way he has conducted himself in washington is impressive. he's never gotten out in front of himself and he's given a

series of wonderful speeches. >> he gets the cuban vote. he doesn't get the mexican vote. but if rick santorum comes rolling in with 30% of the delegates, it's you have to to pass over him. but the thing is with christy with the gay rights and marriage amendment on the ballot in new jersey may be able to pull them out of democratic party. >> what else does florida have? catholic. >> he's anti-immigration. sew brings not necessarily goin to him. >> ask i have a frog in my

throat. think about it. >> not with the hispanic vote. >> it's there but it's not there. there are four republicans now in the running, rick santorum, mitt romney, ron paul, and newt gingrich. will to be a four man race all the way to the convention? >> i think it will be a three man race with one corpse and that will be newt gingrich being drag to the convention. >> but if newt gingrich does well on super tuesday in some of the south states, he may be there. >> newt gingrich wants to go to the convention. the only thing that will stop him if he runs out of money and has to go into get to do it. >> i think the negative ad will do it for rick santorum. >> clarence, you volted into the top topic. we'll be right back with

"the mclaughlin group" is brought to you by --

you got 25 seconds. >> >> syrian civil war has turned into a proxy war between the she i can't and sunni. there will be people coming in from iraq and it will turn into a greater conflict between the united states, russia and china and we'll veto any action. and it's an ethnic conflict with the others seeking to break away. this could be almost like the spanish civil war was in the 1930s. >> cue does to the congress for doing something on the bipartisan basis and extending the tax cut and the unemployment benefits.

but once they get that done, they will give the president plenty of reasons the do nothing congress. they probably will not even get a transportation bill done which is a serious issue for infrastructure. >> i have a prediction for you today. the artist will win the best picture at the oscars and the best news for a silent hilariousness. >> is it 60 minutes. >> i think it's longer than that. i think it's two hours. >> others predicted it. >> i think it's a long shot myself. but we'll see. my prediction, look for the caucus system to be questioned

this year after iowa and maine. will have been questions about count. unlike the regular primary system where you have professionals out there work in the precincts, the cause kick relies on volunteers. and that causes a number of problems and people are raising question about that. >> i predict that the new president of the world bank will be secretary of state hillary clinton. bye-bye.