caller: how come the federal reserve has now taken over the united states treasury? it is not back bygold or anything. when you look back in history when john f. kennedy -- he quit the federal reserve and it issued silver certificates. then he was assassinated. i think it has a lot to do with the federal reserve. guest: maybe two points. one on the tarp in support of mr. obama, senator mccain also supported the tarp program as did the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, the house republican leader, john boehner. the bush administration was the one who came up with the tarp program. it was supported strongly by the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke and bipartisan leadership. the rank and file never liked the program much. to the caller's other point, with the federal reserve -- one of the interesting questions is just how powerful the fed is. it has been very aggressively getting the financial system stabilized. most people think they have done a good job, but will have a difficult time removing programs to return to more normal operations. there are

a result of having that offshore drilling, bringing those moneys into the state treasury. we would do two things. we would help increase the security of this nation with respect to energy, on the one hand, because this would be u.s. energy production. and secondly, we would have royalties going to the state of california in the billions of dollars helping take off some of the pressure that we have currently as to whether -- well, not whether but which services we're going to cut. classroom size is going up in the state of california. there are the suggestions that a lot of services will be cut, some severely. and yet we continue to turn a blind eye to the possibility of environmentally safe extraction of petroleum probable conducts offshore. as one who basically was born just a stone's throw from the ocean, who lived the first half of my life -- actually more than that, the first 42 years as a resident of long beach, california, as someone who enjoys the beauty of my home state and the beauty of the coastline, i also understa that american technology, american ingenuity, a

there are democrats seriously talking about running the state treasury. democrats at this point are >> tomorrow, on washington journal, michael crittenden, , dave mccurdy talks about the auto industry and the government's stake in general motors and stephen after googoo. washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. coming up next on news makers, labor secretary talks about the latest in a normal situation didn't senator john ensign and then former vice-president dick cheney answers questions on a number of topics including the american national security. >> tonight, on "q&a," mitch daniels. q&a, at a p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> how does he spend funded? >> taxpayers? >> i don't really know. >> from public television. >> it donations. >> i do not know where the funds come from. >> how c-span funded? 30

there are democrats seriously talking about running the state treasury. democrats at this point are strongly urging roland burris to get out, but we have no indication that he is doing so. host: john mercurio, thanks as always. david makovsky is author of this new book, "myths, illusions, and peace." guest: good to be with you, steve. host: the call it the cairo speech, pointing out that words are important. mr. obama was right when he urged leaders privately speak of moderation and compromise to dare to say those words in public, but the words are not enough. mr. obama, who had been in office less than six months, has a lot to do to fulfil this mission, and so do others. guest: i mean, clearly what depressed and it is trying to do is turn the page in the muslim world, began a new dialogue, try to transcend old divisions, search for some common ground, and he is trying to open a conversation with them. at the same time, as he said himself, everything does not change with one speech. but i think one of his prime objectives is to get a lot of people in diff

congressman frank's phone call to general motors always is likely to be returned since the united states treasury recently purchased 60% of g.m. and 8% of chrysler with $62 billion of your tax dollars. according to the june 5 wauplt journal -- quote -- "the latest self--appointed car czar, barney frank, who intersraoed this week to save a g.m. distribution center in massachusetts. the warehouse, which employs 90 people, was slated for closing by the end of the year under g.m.'s restructuring plan. but there was a new lease on life for the facility. unquote. the congressman's woke spann said that the congressman was -- quote -- "doing what any other congressman would do. precisely the reason for these cars are awards. as the journal put it -- quote -- "that's the problem with industrial policy and governmental control of american business in washington every member of congress now thinks he's a czar who can call old fritz and tell him how to make cars." unquote. i will continue to confer car czar awards until congress and the president enact my auto stop for every taxpayer legislation, wh

federal reserve and no one at the united states treasury urged you to manage the timing of the disclosure so that merrill's earnings and the receipt of t.a.r.p. money were all disclosed in january? >> the target was it to do that so that we didn't damage the economy any more. >> so there were discussions about that with the u.s. treasury and with the federal reserve? >> it was about announcing everything at once. >> i understand. but the timing is interesting. let's announce it in january, not in december. was there something critical that happened in in wall street that made it better in january than december? >> there was not an agreement in december. >> i'm sorry? >> there was not an agreement in december. >> there was not an agreement among whom? >> among us. us being the federal reserve and the treasury. >> so there were discussions but not an agreement in december. >> there were discussions but not an agreement, yes. >> did those discussions involve the secretary of treasury himself and a the chairman of the federal reserve himself? >> yes, they did. >> and yourself? >> yes, they di

to identify which accounts could be returned to the united states treasury. now, the group citizens against government waste has advocated similar policies. most recently they advocated rescinding funds earmarked by congress for the federal transit administration that remain unobligated after three years. with so many families struggling in this tough economy, we must invest wisely to help our constituents and be vigilant with taxpayer dollars. we need to ensure there is strong oversight and accountability once taxpayer dollars are appropriated. this amendment is a critical step in keeping track of our dollars once they've gone out the door. i urm my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this fiscally responsible amendment. thank you and i yield back. i will yield. mr. mollohan: i thank the gentleman for his contribution to the bill. it's a real one and we are pleased to accept the amendment. mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman from new hampshire. mr. hodes: thank you understand i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yield

proper payments cost the united states treasury $72 billion or 4% of the total outlay for related programs. medicaid had an estimated improper payment rate of 10.5% or $18.6 billion for the federal share of medicaid expenditures. the highest rate of any federal program. and it is my belief that in the second half of the legislation that we are going to consider we are actually going to consider and i expansion of the medicaid program. and that it will probably be presented at the federal government is going to pick up 100% of the expansion cost for a period of four years and the states will be partners again. i think i know why we are not seeing the legislation will in advance because the state's, the governor's regardless whether they are republican or democrat would be opposed because its medicaid that's not the bogeyman in the state budget right now. they've got to get control but we do nothing in this bill to address the problems that exist in medicaid and at the top of the list. it is $18.6 billion worth of improper payments. we have all been quick to come to a floor and point out of

having failed to do so, .pivatize the united states treasury itself using henry paulson's park program. it is a bleak time. i don't mean to be a downer. i was wondering if you could comment, the famous line about propaganda, the mark of successful propaganda is when you can convince people that their own destruction is nktertainment of the highest order. i am hitting on tom frank, when whercan turn a class conscious proletariat, people can act against their best self-interest. i wonder if you can elaborate on those ideas. >> guest: you said very eloquently everything that i agree with. over the last 30 years since ronald reagan, we have had the greatest wealth transfer of any period of any country in human history. 3-quarters of the wealth have gone to the top 1% of the u.s. population. that is a remarkable for left and we were awake during it, not totally awake but we were alive. the level of poverty in the richest country in human history surprises our closest friends and allies. one out of five being born into poverty. none of this data is equal. some populations have suffered much

if that were to happen to the united states' treasury, then our interest rates would go up even more. these deficits, interest payments on the debt will reach almost $1 trillion. former chairman bernanke said we can't expect to continue to borrow even 4% to 5% of g.d.p. but the deficits are ranging from 4% to 6% of g.d.p. mr. chairman, the debt we have is absolutely unbelievable and unsustainable. we have to stop spending and borrowing so much money. so this amendment is dealing with a proposed $180,000 to be spent on quote, training the next generation of weather forecasters for san jose state university, san jose, california. i'm sure they do a fine job teaching weather forecasters, but do we want to borrow another 1 -- $180,000 for this purpose? do we want to subsidize the training at this university and not subsidize it anywhere else it is done? is this $180,000 so critical, because we really shouldn't be spending anything right now and borrowing more money unless it's really critical to our needs? is this $180,000 that critical that we should borrow it again? i reserve the balanc

they couldn't pay him 'cause the united states treasury was not set up yet. so they gave him bonds bearing interest at 6% but this didn't help kosciuszko because he wanted to go back to poland. so he met this -- he met this man, mr. solomon who was a polish jew who came to poland in 1775 and he hung his shingle at 22 wall street in new york city was a polyglot city at the time and solomon traveled all around europe and he started trading in currencies and he knew all the european laws so he made a lot of money and he opened this shop where he traded every species of merchandise and every branch of business. well, solomon became friends with jefferson, madison, and a lot of the people that he agreed with politically. so he would give them loans but these were loans that he didn't want paid back. and this is one of the greatest lost heroes of the american revolution because mr. solomon ended up funding much of the american revolution. the british arrested him in new york and he escaped and he made his way to philadelphia and in philadelphia he opened up a bruje

please join me in welcoming the 75th treasury secretary of the united states, the hon. timothy geithner. [applause]

also, let me ask this about the voluntary purchase of treasury bills by citizens of the united states, people in china, middle east, and around the world. they don't have to boy treasuryy bills. and we're going to be offering amounts -- these kind of bills in volume we have never offered before in the history of the public. the question is, who wants to buy them? who wants to hold a mortgage on the united states? what if we defligh deflight our currency. maybe they want more. maybe china which had the huge trade surplus a few years ago, maybe they don't have it anymore. they don't. and maybe they're deciding they're not going to buy so much treasury bills in the united states. babmaybe they decide to invest n their own economy which has not done as well as it has done in the past. same with the middle east. they used to have huge reserves of american money as a result of the high price of gasoline and the price of "on th oil on the d market but that has dropped and perhaps they don't have the money on the treasury bills either. so who will buy them? we're not talking a little bit but

people at the department of treasury were shocked. they shouldn't have been shocked because after this language was inserted the bill came back to both the house and senate. every republican voted against it. every democrat save 11 voted for the stimulus bill that included in this paragraph that protected the $173 million in bonuses. we have been coming to the floor for the last several months to try to find out because nobody's fessing up, nobody has said, you know what, i took out the first language and i put in this language and maybe you could tell us why. but nobody will do that. everybody wants this issue to go away. as a matter of fact people were so shocked that their reaction, the majority's reaction, was to come up with really a stupid bill and that was to tax these bonuses. rather than going back and doing the right thing and taking out their mistake, to tax these bonuses at 90%. i'll tell you why i call that a stupid bill, madam speaker. i call it a stupid bill because the person who got the biggest bonus at a.i.g. got $6.

governor and the state of california and the treasury in talking to people in the white house. i know that california is a great concern. that economy collapses, it could have profound impacts across the globe. i and others, given the opportunity, will try to do as much as we can with our discretionary money and funds to try and focus on the hard- pressed areas. we have a tremendous foreclosure problem. there has been some leveling off for people -- people are utilizing the incentives that the government has put out. there was encouragement with people purchasing automobiles in the survey that we just saw this past month, but not where it needs to be. every state in the union is struggling from this economic crisis. >> is california's economy collapsing? >> i would say it is in a dire situation and it does need attention. i believe the state lawmakers have to make some hard decisions. the pain has to be spread out. there are negotiations going on now. the governor has his plan and there is some resistance. part of the problem is that you have such a high standard you have to me

this says -- this is what you told your boys, it says the treasury and fed stated strongly that were the corporation to invoke the material adverse change mac clause in the merger agreement with merrill lynch and fail to close the transaction, the treasury and the fed would remove the board and management of the corporation. if that isn't a threat, i don't know what is. if i say i'm going to fire you, if you don't do what i tell you to do, not only am i going to fire you, but i'm going to fire your board, what you said -- and i know you were caught in a difficult situation. i know that after this merger was done your folks benefited tremendously and i know that bank of america is doing fine now. i'm here to tell you, no matter how great bank of america is doing today, the end does not -- the means does not justify the end. in other words, throughout these transactions we must have honesty and integrity and transparency, period. what i'm saying to you is -- i know you're trying to be nice but here we've got a situation where apparently mr. paulson has told you, do it. so like the nike

please join me in welcoming the 75th treasury secretary of the united states, the honorable timothy geithner. [applause] >> let's get right down to it. you have an up and laying out the new regulatory framework of the united states. >> we have -- we had a system that proved too fragile that undermine the great strength of this country. we had a financial system that was the best of the work -- in the world at taking the savings of the people around the world and channeling them to the best ideas. our system is still good at that, but it was too unstable and fragile. it did a bad job at basic protection of consumers and investors. that is something that we have to change. >> we were going to do a chart of all of the regulatory agencies that exist. there were too many to put on a two-page chart. >> it was a spectacle. >> the system that you are going to lay out is a bit of a compromise. if you are not getting rid of too much. you are putting in a new college of regulators. how is that going to work? >> we are trying to get at the things that were at the core of the problem in this process. the

the federal government has no business using the federal treasury to support state projects. obviously things have changed considerably since then. but at the time some bought that argument that people in new york thought the real reason for this very surprising veto is that medicine suddenly realized that most of the money that would be flowing out of this bonus bill would be doing to a new york for its erie canal project. and so you have -- and the new york goes ahead it right away. the state legislature approves of projects and bonds it with state issue bonds which is also very unique. but you have this very intense competition between the new york and virginia. new york is essentially winds, at least the commercial part of the competition. there are some other things i'd think we can talk about. i forgot to start my clock to see how long have been going, but of what to say something. it's not actually in the book. but there has been a lot of talk lately about the national infrastructure bank. i don't know if people are aware of it. it is in the obama budget. senator dodd

treasury to support state projects and obviously things have changed considerably since then, but at the time some of that argument of people in new york thought the real reason for this very surprising a veto is that medicine suddenly realized that most of the money that would be flowing out of this bonus bill would be going to new york for its erie canal project. and then new york goes ahead right away state legislature approves the project and funds it with state issued bonds which also is very unique situation at that time in the country. so you have this very intense competition between new york and virginia and with the erie canal, new york essentially winds of lease to the commercial part of the competition. there are some other things i think we can talk about, i forgot to 7:00 o'clock to see how long i have been going, but i wanted to say something that is not actually in the book but there has been a lot of talk lately about a national infrastructure bank. i don't know if people are aware of it, but it is in the obama budget, senator dodd from connecticut has a bill in the

couple years later arms in the office of the treasury of the united states, i ran into her and she said i was wrong. we had a kind of -- joked about it and who did you vote for? she said ronald reagan. ronald reagan? you have given me nothing but grief. she said he gave me a sense that he was a true leader and he knew where he wanted, i don't agree with him always but i got the feeling he was in charge, he could take charge and move this country and that is what we need. leadership is a very powerful asset to have, and people -- my brother, pat, how many people, he was a leader in the immigration movement and he is pro-life, not all of them but many of them are not. they risk saying dropped the life side, just drop it. if we can drop that, he can surely drop the immigration side when he needs to too. the key is to appreciate people. you don't usually vote for somebody because of a, b, and see. there's something more to it. to see somebody who has terrific character, somebody who is very strong and definite and knows what they are about. and wants to take the country in a certain directi

with that, please welcoming -- please join me in welcoming the 75th treasury secretary of the united states, the hon. tim geithner. [applause] >> let's get right to it. you and larry summers have an op-ed in the "washington post" laying out a regulatory framework for the nine states. what is different? >> we have a system that proved too unstable, too fragile, undermined what was the great strength of this country, which was a financial system that was the best in the world at taking the savings of americans and channeling them to the best ideas. it helped finance growing companies. our system is still pretty good at that, but it was fundamentally too unstable and fragile and did a bad job at basic protection of consumers and investors. those are things we have to change. >> a couple of weeks ago, we are going to do a chart of all the regulatory agencies that exist, but there are too many to put on a chart. >> is a spectacle. >> it seems like the system you are laying out is a bit of a compromise. you're not getting rid of very much and you are putting in a new college of regulators.

in my state and in my district and in the district in the state of the distinguished lady from north carolina, h.r. 1256 will result in job losses to the beleaguered tobacco manufacturing and farming interests and it will compromise an already overburdened f.d.a. i cannot in good conscience support this measure. and i thank the gentlelady again from north carolina and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves her time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, mrs. christensen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. mrs. christensen: thank you. mr. speaker, i rise in support of the rule and in strong support of h.r. 1256. i want to take this opportunity to thank chairman waxman for his many years of hard work on this legislation. we would not be here today passing this landmark bill without his and senator kennedy's unwavering commitment to have tobacco regulated and their leadership. as a physician, chair of the -- and chair of the

and the secretary of state. bob helped establish the washington-based think tank, the center for american progress. and he has served as communications and political adviser to party leaders in leading governments, government officials in both the united states and europe. since 1987 when he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, mr. boorstin has been an outspoken activist and advocate on behalf of people with mental health conditions. now, our very special keynote speaker, george stephanopoulos, is the chief washington correspondent for abc news, an anchor or abc's sunday morning political affairs program, this week with george stephanopoulos. and i was actually given permission by klein who is not -- colleen who has not allowed david or me to get off script even once, but she said it's okay, you can talk about it, because our kids know that on sunday morning in columbia this week comes on from 10:30 to 11:30. and they have to be in the hospital before they call during that hour. [laughter] and with just friends

dating back to 2006, the paulson treasury department noted systemic gaps in the state-based system which aig exploited. the blame for the collapse of the company should start with aig. from a regulatory standpoint, there were failures at both the state and federal level. using capital for their -- from their insurance subsidiaries, with the approval of various state insurance regulators, the securities lending division in tandem with the financial products unit put at risk the entire company and the broader financial system. half of this came from the securities lending division, the other half from the financial products unit in terms of the overleveraging. with more than 250 subsidiaries operating in 14 states and more than 100 countries, aig is the poster child for both the need to open up lines of communication among regulators worldwide and the need to establish a domestic insurance regulator with the ability to oversee these large and complex institutions, and again, mr. chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. >> thank you, mr. royce. we'll hear from the gentleman of georgia

they worry about inflation in the united states. they worry about a decrease in the value of their treasury bills. they worry about a weakening of the dollar relative to other currencies. and with all these risks, it is very natural holding a trillion of u.s. t-bills and other bonds , that they want to see the world, and explore a better way with which they can hold their reserves. and with their being such a large player, and it's true they have talked to the other countries that hold dollar reserves, i think there's going to be a lot of pressure to create a global reserve system. i head ad commission for the u.n. that explored an expert commission that explored alternative ways by which we could go from the dollar system to some alternative global reserve system, and there are ways that we can do this st in an orderly, stable way. but if we don't do that, there are so strong forces already at play that's going to happen. there are regional initiatives that the initiative that is called the shanghai initiative in asia. at the meeti

explain how the treasury determines the size of these stakes we have taken, and given the treasury's large stakes in these companies, how will the united states government extricate itself? i would like us to be out of this business yesterday. that is not going to happen but a lot of us would like to see us get out of it, get businesses function on their own. how easy will it be to achieve? for you, dr. montgomery, i admire you taking on this job. we have confidence in you. you have no budget to operate with. all of us, our colleagues from detroit and michigan and ohio, senator brown, all of us are being adversely affected by job losses, some more than others. we want to help our communities during times of adjustment. what an initial tools will you be asking of us, be helpful to perform your job? wonderful things to do. i suspect they want to know what kind of help is they're as they try to find a new economic path for themselves and their families. we need to get some initial specificity as to what you are asking of us, how to minimize the economic blow the community is facing. >>

. >> in testimony to the new york state attorney general andrew cuomo, you stated that you had been advised by representatives from the treasury department and the federal reserve not to disclose details of merrill lynch's difficult financial position. so why do you believe that representatives from the federal government would not want you to disclose knowledge you had of merrill lynch's increasingly dire economic position? >> during all of that time, there was never ever a time that the federal reserve or the treasury department told me that we should not disclose something we thought would be a disclosable event. >> so there was never a time that you were told to hold back on this information? >> not as regards something that should be disclosed. >> okay. remember you're under oath. okay. despite the fact that the plan for a merger was announced on september 15th, 2008, there was no mention of the $20 billion capital injection from the government until january 16th. at what point during the negotiations between the b of a, merrill lynch and federal government was it determined that this

how did the treasury determine the size of these stakes to be taken and given the treasury's large stakes in these companies, particularly gm, how will the united states government quickly extricate itself. as i said, i would like for us to be out of this business yesterday. obviously that's not going to happen, but a lot of us would like to see us get beyond this, get out of it. given the stakes we have, how easy is that going to be for us to achieve. i admire you taking on this job. the president obviously has a lot of confidence in you. as i understand, you have no budget to operate with, ore than what exists. so we need to know if we can do anything to happen. some of us more than others, our colleagues from detroit and michigan and ohio, senator brown, senator bayh. i assume all of us here are being adversely affected by job losses. obviously we want to help our communities during times of readjustment like this. so what additional tools are you going to be asking of us in congress to be helpful for you to have do your job. holding town meetings are great, but i suspect the people wh

you want the treasury secretary of the united states to come off as granddaddy who inspires confidence. but don't think you see those kinds of performance is any more. and i think it has been reassuring. host: a buehler and princeton, new jersey -- guest: i don't know, i am not in a stock market -- in the stock market's sudden i'm a good advisor on that. host: bruce on the republican line. caller: i just wonder where uc -- i am from wellington where dhl made the decision to close 10,000. we felt it was somebody from germany who made that decision instead of somebody who knew us, most of the people who worked for dhl wonderful people. we thought it was from afar. with so many of us unemployed workers in america now, already the obama administration has made a decision on health reform that is really helped. i just have a feeling that nationally with so much unemployment going on, what is your national field on -- you have 10 percent of america on an unemployed. how does that affect everything on a global picture? guest: fortunately -- or unfortunately for our viewers delaware -- the rat

a significant portion of the treasury's n

in recent years, the united states has been heavily dependent on large capital inflows from abroad. a significant portion of the treasury's new debt, in fact, 74% since december 2000 has come from foreign interests. this happens -- has happened because many nations have had large trade surpluses with the u.s. or were awash with petro dollars or had no need to stimulate their own domestic economies. the inflow allowed the united states to borrow at very low rates but all of that has changed now. the trade surpluses have disappeared. the petro dollar balances have shrunk and many countries are trying to stimulate their own economies. not to mention the fact that other democracies in the world are also in the market, borrowing huge amounts of money. so we have to be very, very cognizant that the ability of the united states to move forward and buy the time for health reform to begin moderating the growth of cost is limited. and what this means is that, i think, the cbo cost estimates and the debate around the spending in these programs is critically important to our future. now, i real

whole framework of the regulations of the united states will include suggestions for trying to encourage >> where does the start begin? is it in treasury or i.r.s. or the s.e.c. and how do we get things introduced intod governance of these things? -- into the governance of these things? >> as you'll hear from us in the next few days the s.e.c. has some important responsibilities and obligations to this area and some tools and authorities they may seek in this area. the bank supervisors under the leadership of chairman bernanke and others have initiated a process to define standards and principles that supervisors could use to bring about reform of practices in the financial industry. those are two ways we can have influence over the shape of practice in these areas. there are other ways, too. but my own sense is that the core will be those two authorities. >> if senator nelson mentions something about government owning shares, and -- in these companies, and it's -- i think it has to happen. who, for instance, would vote the shares? would the government be -- american government likely to

a stronger fiduciary duty to the united states taxpayer. so, even though the legislation, congress has spoken, there is a lot in the land of their recovery act, we felt that the law as stated this not have a limit on salaries and we felt that coming in the case of companies to receive such exceptional taxpayer assistance, that we had to have a stronger fiduciary duty and we spent a lot of time trying to think what was the best way to do that. and the end, we felt that if we could find somebody of the judgment and stature of ken feinberg who could look across these companies, look at what, looking at a set of principles on a risk and performance wabasso what is likely to lead taxpayers to get return on their dollar, that at that extra level of protection for the taxpayer was necessary and important there in the way it would not be as simply a community bank in your district chose to participate in the capitol purchase program, partly because their government thinks it is a good thing for them to have stronger capital and be in a stronger pos

weak response of the united states of america. that must change. when u.s. secretary of state clinton visited china a few months ago to talk about treasury bonds, she said human rights should not be allowed to "interfere with that and other issues." that attitude enables the chinese dictatorship to continue brutalizing its own people. while i respect president obama's outreach to the muslims in cairo today, that event truly could have been scheduled for any other day but the transie20h anniversary of tiananmen square. that priority. this solemn remembrance of the victims of the mass murder of tiananmen square and the oppression of their bodies, but not their hopes, by tanks should have been the white house priority today. there is bipartisan support on capitol hill. republicans and democrats care deeply about human rights in china, but we need to more than just say and tulk wordalk. it's time for deeds. we need to link human rights with trade and other parts of our relationship. next week secretary geithner will be in china pushin

the kind of dire state that we have been in for the last month. so the fed expanded that in march by buying the loans from treasury securities, and there has been a lot of concern over whether the fed would try to increase that beyond the $300 billion target that they had set, and whether they would try to make other adjustments to the program. we are expecting in that statement some sense of what the fed plans to do, both with its conventional interest-rate tool, and how long it expects to stay that rolow. we are obviously still in a pretty weak state for unemployment, for the job market, for the overall economy, so they are trying to gauge where they are with that before making other major adjustments. host: is more attention being paid on this now because of the economic situation? guest: absolutely, there is. because we are in such a precarious moment right now, nobody really knows whether the economy is coming out of this. we went through this free fall in the autumn and into the spring. the overall economy declined at a 6% annual rate per mo

we've got the united states department of agriculture that's going to be involved. the internal revenue service will be engaged in this bill as well. the department of treasury. i wish i could tell you what f.w.s. was but somebody could probably tell me. we have the commodity futures trading commission that's going to be involved in helping to regulate this. the national ocean weather service, basically. the department of health and human services is going to be involved in putting this together. how about the department of state? play a big role in making sure that we get cleaner air and green energy. we got the department of energy, of course, the department of labor, the u.s. army corps of engineers, the bureau of indian affairs, the bureau of land management, all these federal agencies are going to take part in trying to put this bill into action. but that's not all. not even close. we've got the offsets integrity advisory board. we also have the carbon market oversight interagency working group. that are going to try to help control who gets these carbon credit

world's largest holder of our treasury debt, as i mentioned, that lending money to the u.s. government is still a wise thing to do. he said in the united states, we are putting in place the foundations for restoring fiscal sustainability. in a moment that all americans should consider a wake-up call, mr. geithner was met met with laughter -- laughter -- when he told a group of chinese students that their country's assets in the unitewerevery safe in washi. madam president, i'd like to submit in this "washington post" article for the record. title of it is: "no laughing matter: why the u.s. needs to get serious about long-term budget deficits." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. voinovich: this week, as you know, president obama announced a plan to reenact statutory pay-go. now, what is pay-go? pay-go basically is this, that if you want to spend more money, you either have to find other spending that you're going to reduce, or in the alternative, you're going to have to raise taxes to pay for them. or in the alternative, if you want to reduce taxes, you're going to

bernanke who stated that he had spoken to other federal regulators and we are informed of the commitment of the corporation by the fed and the treasury that all concur with the commitment of the federal regulators obviously to the voa. what is that reference to and what is the nature of the commitment he is referring to? >> as i mentioned before we did inform the treasury and fed informed the fdic and occ about the situation and about the fed and treasury commitment to working in good faith with bank of america

the president of the united states has said we don't want to run an ogle company so i say good for you, mr. president. we will set up a circumstance with this amendment where the secretary of the treasury has the responsibility to the shareholders the same as if he were a ceo or a member of the board of directors of a private company. and therefore in discharging that fiduciary responsibility we have removed the conflict of interest and have made it clear he will be subject to the same kind of laws and regulations and perhaps shareholder lawsuits that anyone would be in a position of fiduciary responsibility of a company. i fink by doing that i will spur the desire of the secretary of treasury to comply with senator alexanders part of the amendment and get rid of this stock as fast as he possibly can and getting it to the american people who have paid for it strikes me as a good idea. another portion of my amendment says no more t.a.r.p. money can go to a bankrupt company. the t.a.r.p. mauney was sold to the congress as acquiring assets, not as acquiring stock positions in various comp