congressman joe crowley joining us. why are you doing this? i love this. it does bring it out big time. i don't think anybody has done this. why are you doing this? >> i think it's a request to understand the ironic hypocrisy. what's going on is they ran against the health care bill that we passed. an opportunity to give our constituents including their constituents an opportunity millions of americans who don't have an opportunity to get health insurance to have options, to have choice, in their health care coverage. they want to deny them that opportunity and yet go on the public role themselves and get publicly sponsored health care in the house of representatives. i think it's hypocrisy and ironic. >> it's on an average that the taxpayers are forking out 10 thousand $500 per member. their response is going to be hey, it's a job benefit like any other american. what do you say to that? >> i say that's exactly what every other american wants, they want a job, they also want health care. so many don't have. reality is if they come to congress and they wan

i led the effort, along with joe crowley, to award the congressional gold medal to aung san suu kyi. we must not forget the strength and hope she represents. we must never be fooled into believing that this time there really will be a change in burma. a flawed election process cannot hide the fact that until a sincere, transpernt dialogue is begun with the opposition that there cannot be true democracy and rule of law in burma. one need to only recall that hitler and stalin had elections also as they were just as meaningless. and this raises the whole question of the value of engagement with a regime which hunts down refugees and shells its neighbor in the aftermath of bogus elections. the administration clings to the desperate hope that talking to thugs will lead to a world of peace and harmony. the burmese junta and their bogus elections demonstrate the naive assumptions behind this approach to foreign policy. the release of noble peace prize lawyerette aung san suu kyi from house arrest, however, still leaves one peace prize behind bars. the recent price of a chinese dissident. it

"state of the union" is about to start with joe johns. candy crowley and her interview with president bush coming up 8:00 tonight. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> there is a laundry list of legislation facing congress when the lame duck session kicks off tomorrow, but there's one issue at the top of everyone's list. these are a lot of solutions guaranteed to create strong reaction in washington, d.c., with the deficit commission. we want to thank both of you, senator john cornyn and senator warner for talking to us this morning. we want to start out with the deficit commission and some of the recommendations. we realize this is just a draft, a chairman's mark as they call it. but i want your reactions and what the two of you might actually sign on to from among these issues. raising the age to receive social security, cutting benefits. for higher income retirees. any takers there? reforming the tax code, including ending tax breaks for mortgages in the child tax credit. $100 billion in tax cuts on defense spending to senators fr

i'm joe johns in for candy crowley and this is "state of the union." candy crowley is on assignment in florida, preparing for her 8:00 p.m. special, "bush: two years later." >>> president obama's focus on his overseas trip was jobs, jobs, jobs in reaction to the democrat's big losses in the midterm elections, the president's team recast this long-scheduled trip to be about putting more americans back to work, though the president's choices of countries turned into fodder for the late-night comedians. >> and president obama was in india yesterday, visiting our jobs and tomorrow he goes to china to visit our money, so it's a nice trip. nice trip. >> meanwhile, back at home, a draft report from his own commission on how to tackle the national debt was received like a stink bomb in washington this week, which included something for just about every interest group to hate. reduced social security and medicare benefits, big changes to the tax code, and dramatic cuts in government spending, including the defensing budget. >>> a lot of solutions that are simpl

joe ka role yos. also john crowley. and jets owner woody johnson. all of those guys could challenge menendez in the next cycle. ali. >> thanks, guys. goods to talk to you and good to see you, peter. mark, glad to have you back in the mix. >>> in an hour we'll have our next political update. our fantastic i-reports team hunting for i-reports from every country in the world. we don't have them yet. which countries still have countries that have not -- which have continents have countries that have not submitted i-reports to us yet? north america, south america, africa, europe, asia antarctica or australia? pick two. i'll give you the answer on the other side. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again. can your moisturizer do that? [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that's healthy skin for life. only from aveeno. i took emergen-c. with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin c and energizing b vitamins, it made every performance

a sunday morning, but joe, i don't get to do enough tv with you, my man. how are you doing? >> that's true. >> how are you doing, filling in for candy? >> i'm glad i'm filling in for candy. sorry i can't be candy, but those are the breaks, t.j. >> that's all right. again we don't get to do enough tv together. i'll take advantage of this opportunity here and she has this opportunity -- he's been out a whole lot lately. he has been everywhere. is this going to change? >> it's amazing. >> is he trying to change people's perception of him? >> i think he is. regardless of what he's trying to do it's fascinating, those of you who actually got to spend time to him and talk to him when he was president, the real george w. bush is now starting to come out, and all these interviews he's taping, in ways we never saw during his eight years in washington, so you're getting to see a little bit more of george bush the person, as opposed to george bush the president, who was standing there in front of the media and the briefing room at the white house, or whatever. he see