The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

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is obvious whereas have written thousands and thousands of residents a republican senate republican house we hear the cousin every day so i don't want crisis and complex the one hundred eighth congress is made possible by contributions to a pbs station from viewers like you thank you came in from washington on her lap and welcome to

prices and conflicts a special look at the one hundred and eight congress only a few times in history as a new congress face so many critical issues all at once a possibility of war with a rack north korea's nuclear buildup homeland security the economy tax cuts the deficit affordable health care the modern age powers officially conveying three weeks ago this is the night members oppose the president's analyst at the union address then it gets down to work making decisions that could chart america's course for generations to come and they'll do it with new leadership and will the house of representatives and the senate as well saying in sports you can tell the players without a program well we have one for you tonight over the next hour with the overview analysis of mark shields and david brooks we'll examine the issues and the people who will shape the agenda and the legacy of this congress only home and he gets graduations us at the moment members of the

one hundred eighth congress took their oaths of office republicans have something they hadn't had in fifty years but starting control of both houses of congress and control of the white house as well the last time january nineteen fifty three and had ridden the coattails of dwight eisenhower's election and cattle majority control of the ad third congress house democratic leaders sam rayburn evening with a vision presented the gavel to the newly elected speaker of the house republican joe martin just as nancy pelosi passed the gavel to dennis hastert this year of the senate will be in order vice president dick cheney presided over the opening of a divided senate just as vice president richard nixon did fifty years ago in a senate with an equally narrow split congressional leaders also traveled to the white house for the customary first visit with the president a tradition that continues today in fact the issues they raised with president eisenhower were similar to current concerns listen to indiana as charles halleck

the house majority leader in nineteen fifty three a local it would comment a lot of consideration either that wasn't me on a matter that was talked about the appropriations committee members were present and that would indicate that necessarily that the impact on the domestic economy of a burden are other commitments that was discussed but all did not go well for republicans in the ad third congress senate majority leader robert taft of ohio like most senate republicans at the time was a conservative and they clashed often with the more moderate president eisenhower speaker joe martin found house republicans to independent minded and not always interested in the president's agenda as a result president eisenhower had better legislative lot in the eighty fourth congress and the democrats were back in control democratic congressman paul kanjorski of pennsylvania was a sixteen

year old page in the house of representatives here during that republican controlled at third congress they had a hard time even without admission the rules of the house and understand how to move a chair at a time and there was a conflict between should be there a majority leader because of the gift while they had never seen these rules over approve twenty years but kanjorski doesn't see his republican majority is suffering the same difficulty i walk and step there's no question but that one house so i mean the president will have the house really be very present very ideological supporter to put out pieces of legislation and trying to get the senate to come with the house that's just how a new house majority leader tom delay season having one george w bush believes and we believe and there is that and again we have to do is work out the details house speaker dennis hastert really huge beat nation we keep our members together in everything that we do our spare time is to make sure that we have a stronger majority

the new house minority leader nancy pelosi has of applause when i look back on it i want to say that the democrats having taken back the house in time for the one hundred ninth congress acting out throughout the one hundred eighth congress possibility of more struggling economy new leaders in the house and senate and the two thousand for presidential campaign all will play major roles in the decisions members of congress will make in the months ahead and now those specific issues facing this congress number one the possibility of more and more threats of terrorism margaret warner has our report today nearly every day senator joe biden rides the train to washington from his hometown of wilmington delaware and on nearly every trap years the same anxious question every single person whether it's a businessman or a woman

making five hundred thousand bucks a year or worse the conductor is what it's always in this till it's joe are our going to war it pains biden the top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee to tell its constituents the decision is out of his hands and they don't realize that we including me give the prisoner far and voted to give me a party to go ahead from this point on in what he thinks is basically the right way to proceed joint resolution is passed congress gave the president that authority by huge margins in the house and senate last october so while opposition to wars growing louder protesters should look to the new congress for help says norman ornstein of the american enterprise institute the house and senate will have a lot to say about the president's decision but they will have nothing to do with the president's decision to go to war they've already made their choice the die is cast republican senator robert bennett of utah thinks the president still has to be

sensitive to congressional opinion congress speaking legally now what's written on a piece of paper has virtually given the president a blank check and said you do whatever you want to do now the practical situation is the president even without authority will not go to war unless he has a sense that the congress is still with him but florida senator bob graham who voted against the iraq resolution disagrees he made being the recipient of a lot of violence but finally it's his decision the same goes for the broader war on terror overseas president bush is calling the shots sen graham the ranking democrat on the intelligence committee thinks the president should focus more on pursuing terrorists overseas unless on a rock i don't think we're pursuing the war on terror as insufficiently aggressively so what can congress do about that i think it's too late for

congress it's almost too late the administration to do anything before the war with a rat congress does have one bit of leverage and foreign policy appropriating the money senator richard lugar is the new chairman of the foreign relations committee presidents and has a sour always have realized that the power of the purse governs how far they can go and how long mr lugar says there's no way this congress can use that power to try to limit the president in a time of war the public is a horny goat war is behind the president i would not tolerate in congress attending the frustrated presidents face nor is this post nine eleven congress not even it's democrats likely to curb the pentagon's funding requests there is almost no level of defense spending that would be proposed by the president that could be strenuously resisted by congress for fear of being labeled weak on terrorism

that's changed the whole budget dynamic congress will be asked to spend even more money after anymore to rebuild we're going to be involved and construction hopefully of a battery rack for the people there as well as the entire neighborhood in and for the work and do you think that will be nice as much support in this congress for spending the money that that will take as there was for going to war probably not be a tragedy if we got one of the problems with the gulf war was that there was not proper follow up afterward is that senator biden predict trouble for postwar rebuilding given ballooning deficits and the president bush's tax cuts i don't think most of the congress republicans and their work has focused on the fact that they're going to face a very hard choice if we go in the president next years we stand by when you know the twenty billion dollars to keep these truths its role in fighting terrorism here

at home creating the new department of homeland security out of twenty two agencies that fund the head it was just beginning to sing and lawmakers are far more needs to be done to make the homeland safe america is not significantly more secure today than it was before september the eleventh and that's my judgment also is the judgment of the head of the cia who said in october that we were very vulnerable and had made little progress since september eleventh in reducing volatility many lawmakers have ideas to fix that and fortifying the nation's power grid creating a new domestic spy agency the biggest homeland security debates procession will be about my knee i think were flung the under funding homeland security by about sixteen to twenty billion dollars they don't know soccer moms are not soccer moms border security lines their home in my state wondering joe the nuclear power plant

three miles across the river are you sure it's secure initially president bush said the new department will be created at no additional cost now that's in doubt they can make homeland security worked with the budget that they've got the costs of reorganization of movie of pulling together twenty four separate tables systems twenty two separate computer systems are enormous cost us billions more sen bennett concedes most members of congress feel that he is the congress has to recognize that that we must be vigilant on this we must fall through or indeed the department will lag behind and then will come the inevitable attack and then the finger pointing mr nobody wants to be at the other end of the finger pointing but the administration is resisting spending more on homeland defense while promoting six hundred and seventy billion dollar tax cut and congressional democrats see an opening earlier this month the

democratic senator robert byrd try to add five billion dollars to the white house request for homeland defense in this year's spending bill there we are paying attention when it comes to protecting the homeland we need the homeland security resources now to meet real needs that have the author of the the congo for port security airport security border security numbers or thirty republican appropriations committee chairman ted stevens responded that we didn't have an obsession with lace we don't have a deficit with ice i would go in once again supports other birds funny at any time under the circumstances we cannot words proposal lost on a party line hold all the republicans stuck with the president unforeseen homeland security is not coming from the politics that is involved so many other things here finally politics of a very local stories we get in the way of the congress's ability to oversee the sprawling new agency we must assure the

dilemma one which had dozens of congressional committees all claiming partial jurisdiction will have ultimate authority will most of them be willing to step aside for the great goal of effective oversight i've always said that hell hath no fury like a committee chairmen whose jurisdiction is being challenged substantial leadership will be required by the speaker and the majority leader and minority officials to do this it will not happen by itself ms rita wright and for the newly sworn in congress asked that the nation the work of defending america against terrorism has just begun next issue affordable health care it's on everyone's early list of priorities for this one hundred ninth congress susan davis reports on the problems congress faces in getting there six days a week here at new britain general hospital in connecticut where flows in and out of these human dialysis machines

patients his kidneys if they'll come for three hourlong treatments to waste and excess salts influence from their body spray auspices of service that really is what sustains her patients come here three days a week every week in order to maintain white medicare the federal health insurance program for the aged and disabled picks up more than half of the roughly eight billion dollars that the nation spends each year on kidney dialysis in britain for more than ninety percent of the dialysis patients are medicare programs payments don't fully cover the costs hospital president and ceo lawrence turner says these institutions may not be able to offer dialysis much longer it's so integral to the lives of everyone who comes here over one hundred patients every week really depend on us off if it's a decision that we just haven't felt comfortable and making and that's why kanner was among that group of hospitals ceo's who recently went to congress to lobby for a bigger medicare payments the louisiana democratic senator john breaux serves on the senate

finance committee which will have to make decisions about provider payments he says asking congress for more money is a time honored ritual for health care providers and all the years of them in congress which is thirty years now never had a provider to come to congress and has less money every year to say we cut we and we cut we aired an islamist national public policy but this year a particular lawmakers say the policies are leading to chaos in the health care system is house republican nancy johnson represents the connecticut district in which you'd written hospital was based we caught up with johnson outside her district office the system is under enormous stress it's under the most hess i have ever seen it because there've been a number of us now where both public and private payers have been reducing payments and pressing down hard on costs and at the same time the science of medicine has

been inventing new diagnostic and treatment technologies that drive costs up experts say that about a third of us hospitals are doing just fine but a third are barely breaking even and another third are in serious trouble this one in britain general hospital isn't a middle category barely breaking even it's already had to cut back some services and of the pressures grow it may have to cut back even more because medicare is a federal program congress sets overall payment policies that in turn influence everything from the price of heart surgeries a child or doctors visits and providers say those fees often fall well below their actual costs or new britain ceo tanner showed us one example an implantable heart that they really are a small device keep patients alive if they have a regular heart heart rates and rhythms and that cost us is about twenty three thousand dollars and it typically would cost is over thirty thousand dollars

to live took to implant and the patient is over thirty thousand dollars to guarantee issue how much will work were probably paid somewhere between seventeen to nineteen thousand dollars well below that just cost a lot it even harder by kurds on their medicare payments are the nation's physicians for various reasons including a formula congress adopted siblings doctors' medicare payments to the rate of growth of the economy in physicians' fees under the program or actually cut by five point four percent last year another four point four percent cuts scheduled for this year he's almost certain to be put on hold for now by congress that girls or tom bowman heads a large medical group practice not far from new britain hospital he's also incoming president of the local county medical society of course to weaken our employees have gone on a word healthcare benefits have gone up by fifteen percent of a malpractice they're up

by fifty percent sort of what will have useful high the cannot so why their medicare cards we haven't worked hard in a focused way as chair of the house ways and means subcommittee on health johnson helped to pass a bill last year they gave doctors hospitals and other health care providers sum payment really but the senate never acted so johnson vows to lead the fight again this year but the drive by providers are many lawmakers to hike payments faces obstacles those include the growing federal budget deficit as well as president bush's proposed tax cut another is the likely effort to expand medicare's coverage a prescription drugs a separate congress has debated often on for most of the past decade in the coming days president bush is expected to send congress his own broad plan to reform medicare it's likely to include more generous and expensive prescription drug coverage than the president has previously backed as well as a far greater emphasis on providing

those drugs and other medicare benefits through private health insurance plans as much as some lawmakers like bro y bush's efforts to reform medicare they still wonder how the president plans to make it all add up we're going to spend six hundred and forty billion dollars on a tax cut where is the money going to come from for medicare reform with prescription drugs how to finance a war in our activity calm the mood was running in dollars that we don't know what the demands are going to be some unknown role in this point christopher johnson and many other republicans contend there is room for all of it to provide a relief a large tax cut and the drug benefit we can't let the rather temporary difficulties that we're having in terms of economic growth we can't let that dissuade us from a prescription drugs for seniors and if we put a growth package in place we ought to be able to increase that level of economic activity america and therefore the total

resources that come into the federal government and much of the work of this congress will be finding ways to keep the health care system healthy in the meantime and now the economy every member of congress is aware of the troubled times constituents in their states and districts are facing again recalling all things back oh bright cold afternoon earlier this month dave dicing her paid a visit to his press agent to live on the outskirts of dayton ohio typically the first mo but the year would be an extremely busy time for dyson with large orders from clients consuming every moment but the struggling economy is bearing down here that helped force doesn't go to lay off one hundred employees leaving him with only fifteen after a stop at the plant we caught up with the cigarette is corporate offices were currently he's the only employee about you're having is one business shrunk to a size and i could no longer justify this facility so

we downsized at that time and we move our car operation i continue to have my office in this facility so last year half of working as billy selph oh on across town jim clark from the machinists union understood what bison gear was going for forty eight of his members were laid off from their shock absorber plant it's blue mayor democrat running and he says the layoffs are taking a toll on a city that already has suffered from a shrinking population and jobs now the revenue goes down income tax good day and one of the things that we're facing in cities especially in ohio so we have to come up with another way to generate revenues now two thousand degree

is going to be worse the economic problems facing dayton our primary concern for its new member of congress the first republican elected to represent the dayton area in decades what mike turner believes he has an advantage says he served as britain's mayor for eight years i think that i come with about their experiences will the different than a prep some of my republican colleagues in that i have struggled with them work on the issues of urban development work on issues such as public housing that it really do need attention and focus turner's district spreads throughout the miami river valley in southwestern ohio it extends from snowy rural plains on its eastern edge to wealthy suburbs just south of dayton predominantly urban areas and for decades industry flourished here auto plants and auto parts manufacturers still the alliance wright patterson air force base the area's largest

employer generates two and a half billion dollars a year in economic activity and several fortune five hundred information technology companies have home offices here as these industries boomed during the late nineteen nineties the city spent millions supporting up its downtown cleaning up abandoned factories but that and ran headlong into a harsh reality economy was taking a nosedive so this month the mayor's slash city jobs for the first time in three decades and she's considering cutting fire and police units even local residents now are paying a price five dollars per month for garbage collection how do you handle a bank were outfitted what do you do it would take us a good two it means to come out of this and be whole and with that it would take a lot of the changes that would be very painful many residents in ohio's their districts now are waiting to see what sort of

help they might get from washington and clark focused on president bush's economic plan particularly the proposal to increase the value of equipment and small businesses can ride off on their taxes i think that helps but mayor mclaurin dismissed one of the central elements of the president's plan or repeal of the dividend tax saying average americans will not reap the benefits how many americans are really ended in a position to be receding give it in dividends on a regular basis and waiting for when they can retire and receive your money than just an address to people who live in urban areas mainly those who have dividends are as a select happy happy day singer remembers the days of higher dividends withers in the good times making money and spend the money that's what a firm but he is unclear about how much the federal government could help them today i'm not sure how that relates to my business

event even if that happens if a consumer has more money the fact is consumers have been spending money all through this recession yeah i don't know anything specific that could come in and make a difference congressman mike turner said it was too early to talk specifics about the president's plan seems to be important is that proposal move forward that we look at ways to make certain that it's at them in a fair manner with the one hundred eighth congress now in session citizens of didn't expect mike turner to voice their concerns on capitol hill mike tackett delillo and then the heat he has a responsibility to make folks away in his caucus and many many people get their jobs from manufacturing so i would ask him to remember that as the abortion legislation

mike turner is covered in washington policymakers understand what has to be done on the democrats republicans who all levels of review the economy with four grammys take action to stimulate our economy and certainly that's actually ten and people in places such as ohio's miami valley are counting on those actions to make a difference in nuevo the nelson pull together thought from our regular newshour observers syndicated columnist mark shields and david brooks a weekly standard mark the economy health care war is the issue for this curse falling away to make colorado well it had i think it is jim i mean beginning with that charlie halleck before republican leader in nineteen fifty three seconds come from president eisenhower sent the war in korea and its impact upon the national economy in how little things have changed and then in fifty years but i was particularly struck in listening to that piece of susan's on

on the question of health care we spend one point two trillion dollars a year in this country and healthcare three times capital of a democracy and if we can't figure out how to cover forty one million people with health insurance and it's so it's a it's not a question of spending money we spend on in extraordinary amount of money i had ended but it is it is going to take a lot more allies in an informal visit a viable way to fix the health care system too well you need a values and play them in the problem has been for them along with one a mercedes benz of health care quality and unless panama's a price for and anybody who's challenges that as the president's trying to do get punished and so there's a sense or a bipartisan effort that so far that hasn't where do you see the people it's all sad and congress what is the issue that they most active deal with if they're going to go back home whether it's to dayton ohio or wherever and

say i did so there are all those reports was an iranian government that the war ii vets are spending causes that the economy as a low pressure pressure precious little buster keaton movie where it has been hit by car hit by a train other to me despite all those pressures it is the war the war's most important than face this decade it's in the shape of bush presidency is seeing how americans see that the world shakeout in surprising ways my first impression on me much of his work was that the domestic policy would take a backseat because there's no money for national attention for a review of that war's pants there's always accompanied by bursts of domestic policy activists of the civil war yet railroad legislation homestead act a land grant colleges the whole raft of legislation and it's happening just about every war and that's because people have a sense of those really aggressive and four affairs it feels weird not to be doing something equally them out of caressing on domestic policy and what happens is it's funny because it's just been awarded spent at home deficits go sit up lying under the john breaux put it very well

he said they were with many of the eighty six hundred and forty billion dollars the state is that it is a big big big jump right now this year there was the nineteen seventy billion dollars in theaters on the national that ok that's the top of the second item that logic behind the fence i mean it's one of these than education that's one that we spend on on all sorts of natural resources on a plane in the country i mean it's an enormous i don't feel is authentic to go but that method has any sense of civic enterprises and collective citizens sit and responsibility when you say what is going to have bigger and bigger deficits i don't think that's the answer what about this work or you know just so little of the pieces are either the margaret congress really well george being said congress has it has something to say about the war but nothing to do now on the economy may have something to do is they're going to do is they're going to nominate what they must have because they can't do anything or they can do something about the economy

and they better do it not that i think that i think that the answer right they have given the president the authority but it was a bob bennett our dick lugar percent they fear that the president will only go so far he's got a look at the congress and what they say if the congress goes south lawn and you know i can recall lyndon johnson and eighty seven to vote on the gulf of tonkin resolution ii and then that didn't stop the year the senate literally from peru against that war i but the economy is obviously what would a bubble and they have a series of votes on where they stand on taxes and was rewarded with dayton ohio is like being in forty seven states and the district will be lost manufacturing jobs in two thousand lee manufactures and depression in this country i was in the stimulus package and how we build the economy that got us here in our house that india's atomic what that looks like in july and if it goes well in the economy will probably work sami know today it's almost irrelevant to try to do with the economy as the

economy that a deal with the economy with the war well it's a question what's the problem because the problem the economy as there was nervous nellie was to make a big investment they don't know what the wars will like well the war is the accountable political weight with that is now the leadership it's new in both houses of congress and the senate the majority a minority have switched sides were rival looks at what the razor thin difference between the two parties may mean at first glance nothing much has changed in the united states senate is still almost evenly split between democrats and republicans fifty one to forty nine with jim jeffords of vermont as the lone independent the chamber is being led by two men who at first blush see mild mannered and conciliatory and david it is my hope and this congress that we will be defined by achievement as well as that cooperated spirit but they graduate majority leader

i have little doubt we will do it well and we will rue unfairly but the political equivalent of an earthquake has shaken the nation's most deliberative body with mississippi republican trent lott ushered from office after remarks which appeared to endorse segregation with tennessee's surgeon and leadership not this bill west's rise to the top job and with democratic leader tom that shell's decision not to run for president in two thousand for story really that america president i am i am i i've been weighing this decision so carefully for many weeks now and david feels good to have a binding national decision has freed him to pursue a full throated critique of the bush administration and the republicans he's promised to work that we can somehow find the resources to give more tax breaks to two hundred and twenty six thousand millionaires but we

don't have five billion dollars to live up to our constitutional obligations that is bizarre already in the senate has been engaged in some pretty fractious disagreement you think the democrats will have a cloud or perhaps more raucous voice and that all this debate the next you're absolutely you know apply here one word that describes our democratic mood right now gets fi we really believe that we've got to fight for the things we believe in and fight against the things that we think undermine those dreams of those goals first there's the new kid on the block a prosperous transplant surgery is a second career and he didn't even vote until nineteen eighty eight when he was widely reported to be the president's pick to run the senate your republican colleagues a little bit nervous about that it passes president and you know it is it is fascinating

as i watched them at a sure pickup and shows he's got christina wear it where we want to go in and spend less overweight and my relation to the present is over play in the sense that it's like that you were so nonviolent i'm talking clotted and i just haven't updated but we are both republicans we both believe in working across the aisle and getting things done so sure about to be served that babies even put in the same sentence with this president on state by a majority leader of the state senate and that our constitution really spells it out pretty quickly this co equal branch of government means it's our responsibility is very different than the president yes in terms of agenda we can work together but at the end the day we're going to debate with a man in and this legislative body has to make its decisions bruce oppenheimer political science professor at vanderbilt university in nashville has watched bill frist political development or think it's a similar

challenge as if he had gone from being a heart transplant surgeon to being hostile ministry or the chief of surgery all the sudden you have two instead of just wearing about what you're doing in the course of legislation you have to worry about managing institution and scheduling the institution and keeping things running smoothly and that means no bargaining with senators negotiating unanimous consent decree means communicating with the white house but in some ways part of the job but unlike a private talk in new york city where all the people are either cab drivers are jaywalkers and nobody does so as to pay attention to the sale of their independent basis of power first naturally prefers a medical analogy i wouldn't start a heart lung transplant of taking the part of one person put in another and along that one person really another item on how good i would be and to get there to large chains to go but it's not just the surge and make an incision and within the workings of lives take

huge things and now indiana state senate initially end and that majority leader i know that i go around to be a lot smarter than me then around a lot longer and thought about the issues more so i know what the goal is among the issues first and tasha will battle over the budget president bush has proposed six hundred seventy billion dollars in tax cuts the president's tax plan that is an answer that isn't going to happen and georgia's president bush has re nominated mississippi's trials ranks and is also nominated several conservative jurists to the federal bench a look at their qualifications and i said i will start absolutely supported nominations come over i think we have the votes whether it's through a filibuster or straight up or down to defeat to victory nomination these issues and others have potential to slow the senate to a crawl if not flat out gridlock is it easier to marshal unity when you're in the minority rather that when you're in the majority this is why i

think in part psychological were fighting for a cause hear that term that requires i think more unity in part because we feel on the defensive you generally in the offices and sometimes there is a difference of opinion about what that often should look like when you're in the majority and it's even more troubling when you only have a one vote majority because you have to you have to make sure you had every single book lined up and that requires a lot of copper mine see you lose all the energy and the compromise that's a far more complicated strategy to employ as a member of a very fragile might majority when you define power is stopping something done to run the risk of being deemed obstructions as there have been people we do but sometimes you have to wear that that's a badge a proudly right now i view as a major responsibility for caucus being the brakes on inadvisable bush policy and there weren't going to do it probably an aggressive don't you characterize your relationship with comcast will

good question because tom and i had up until two weeks ago and had no opportunity to work side by side larger he looks of a sigh who is this guy can trust and we got parsons year we can have great lawn but at this moment in history is there time where it really worked together so i'm sure he's sizing me up and i am you know the two leaders do in fact appear to be circling each other does it work here than to unlock its majority leader until well i told so my colleagues this morning and i think it would be a big mistake to underestimate girlfriends he has a stellar reputation a an experienced level that may not be in keeping with the past majority leaders but i think it would be a mistake and i'm not going to do that i fully expect that he will be a very effective in hand and successful republican leader both leaders also recognize that even if they get past the procedural debates to domestic policy the looming possibility of war an

interactive yet overshadow everything else they plan to do this year war and peace and politics at the one hundred eighth session begins each fighter is taking his corner and now to the house when the one hundred make congress finally adjourns only two thousand for it will mark ten years of republican majority control of the house but there is new leadership there to ray suarez has that story mm hmm on opening day of the one hundred and eighth congressman dennis hastert was reelected to his third term as speaker of the house but he was escorted to the podium by two new party leaders republican majority leader tom delay is a staunch conservative from texas are very rare sure about what i believe in some people think i'm a little too aggressive and with that passion i am that yes i i think i deeply believe an end and

i speak out on and i i use my position to to further that agenda the incoming democratic minority leader is nancy pelosi from california liberal and the first woman in congress ever to lead her party well house democrats most diverse group of people in government owned number of african americans we have a large hispanic caucus we have the asian pacific american caucus we have openly gay people lead a caucus that is representative of american when i go to the table and the only one who can represent the great diversity and strength of our country and that despite their strong political views views speak well we appreciate where each other was coming from philosophically and i connect and understand each other's tactics but i think he would agree when i say that we are friends i have the utmost respect for her height she's a very good spokesman

for the democratic party and what they believe in and she worked very hard and done she's she's a pepper she's a very very worthy opponent we've got to keep this ship afloat and it reminds you of the two have already drawn their battle lines particularly over the president's tax cut proposal so i think what the president is proposing in his economic plan is reckless i think it's really dangerous to our economic strength or dead tanks at random a tax cut that the president wants to have faber of favoring in a disproportionately of the wealthiest households in america in a way that far exceeds the taxes that people pop history has shown when john kennedy cut taxes from coolidge cut taxes cut taxes actually the revenues to the government went up

deficits of coal caused by the government's spending too much money and that's and so what we have to concentrate on is what is the policy that will get the economy growing again so that the revenues to the government come in and the origin amounts so and if we hold the line on spending we were we were a tackle these deficits and we'll get back to balanced budget balancing the budget again delay was the picture of a loving grandfather on congress is opening day i am going to present this about what members on both sides of the aisle have dubbed him the hammer and he's known for being a fierce partisan and ruthless party whip tom delay loves the identification is the hammer and i smile because tom delay success has been through his convictions and his attempts to argue that we need to work together and that i know you like to have you think he's fearsome but i don't think is i don't

see the hack a moderate republican christopher shays about valentines co sponsoring campaign finance reform legislation last year but he also felt delay's wrath when it passed over the gop is opposition if ever i got a punch it would be in my stomach and not in my back and then i know is coming from and so does everyone else and so he strongly opposed that i think he respected the way in which i handled the debate i think he said to me chris is going to be consequences for this and sell shares wasn't surprised to be passed over when it came time to fill the chairmanship of the government reform committee earlier this month despite being the committee's senior republican i knew that he didn't have to tell me but he was telling me that there are other members who would want there to be some consequence delay had been an exterminator before being elected to congress in nineteen eighty five he posed comically for this photo of looking for pests and his new congressional off

style running southwest from houston delays predominantly republican suburban district takes in sugar land the home of imperial sugar and the bedroom communities around delay's home overlooks the sweetwater country club his family prefers living there to washington he's a regular at the first baptist church and that includes participating in a men's prayer and self improvement you might say nancy pelosi's political act human came with her genius her father thomas dallas sandra was a congressman from baltimore when she was born he later became the city's mayor in the nineteen fifties or brother tommy jr was baltimore mayor in the nineteen seventies pelosi's san francisco district includes this exclusive neighborhood where she lives where their husband paul wealthy businessman while raising five children low seed over the california politics as a prodigious fundraiser and campaigner for

others in the democratic party it is and nancy pelosi herself in nineteen eighty seven she's won every election since and was the overwhelming choice to succeed dick gephardt this year as the house democratic leader saudis say what shall have a challenge satisfying the party's different factions for instance the moderate and conservative blue dogs for lackluster in this report for pelosi's leadership bid while the black caucus was disappointed pelosi passed over their members for her leadership team harold ford of tennessee is a member of both groups even challenge pelosi for the democratic leader's job but was defeated if you're going to be affective in the congress and politics in general you have to govern from the metal

it's hard to govern from the far right and it's hard to govern from the far left i think our new leader recognizes that and i think the leadership race we went through here in congress on the democratic side was a healthy invaluable experience for all of this i think it highlighted some of the challenges we face as a party and many opportunities and we can see is if i'm willing to have to think a different and broader somewhat say outside the box turned to bring about solutions drama critic the works best for hastert a former high school wrestling coach plays a more non partisan role in the house he reminded the congress that he's the speaker of the whole house republicans and democrats alike my door was be open to you as we work together and as hundred and eight congress and to all members of this house i say thank you for giving me the great honor to serve once again as your

speaker says the slim republican majority in the house doesn't give him sweeping power some of his predecessors have we run congress should have run congresswoman the humble margin of six votes so you know your hair was time to be a curious or anybody had because of lingering year edges together so to get things done and now you know we double or partially in the marginal was twelve was the solution you know a hundred fifty votes to play with that a rollover people to take their offices away that they'll blow up their car spy service with people used to do that day he can't do that because you better off workers over who voted against it on the next bill that be might be five minutes later he's the speaker says creating harmony in the house is only part of the job another is to be sure the senate and the white house are onboard as the republican legislative agenda is pieced together the

play and now some closing words from shields and brooks mark shields and david brooks is taking leadership for the time the republican leadership david how would you rate it generally of the house and senate together really strong sweeping changes that four years ago the republican leadership was dominated by trent lott if gingrich dick armey southern and western west world suburbanites now the two most republicans in washington are george bush and bill frist southern patricians and they are from the upper class backgrounds of a hard doesn't believe this really am looking heritage foundation the policy they printed because they're anonymous and that stuff i they come from background that emphasizes faith service and noblesse oblige well that is what he said because i can change things that one what makes them conservative but not ideological least on the surface not want to confront facts it makes and compassionately conservative and waited a

condescending or really genuinely passionate about the problem and therefore much softer and ironically the richer you get the republican party i think the more in tune you'd get middle class america which is not over with pretty logical i don't see that way as i see the house republican be a lot more interest in the senate republicans quite frankly the hallmark of the republican program for the past two years what has been a remarkable unity of the house republicans and i think that he has been made this beacon house is not given given the credit is not a guy who seeks this time it's not the way anybody else and i think he's a decent develop the trust go across the aisle but certainly in his own caucus and the tension between him and tom delay israel it's a complicated relationship with a game there would again it interesting enough time to stop newt gingrich was elected with the republican house is a moderate from illinois on a boat back then i am made yet it's

at the good cop bad cop hastert is the year that it easygoing cautious i have been willing to delegate even defer where is the delay as aggressive might be in the lightning rod ii and it's it's an interesting race and it's worked but who has really run things and the necessity for both the delays that are interesting image make over is sort of a kinder gentler tom delay the compassionate conservative or with other timmy bush was running the republican party in both houses nice exotic marigold i don't think there's been a time when the party is so unified behind a president so deferential to the president and especially now the democrats harry reid that a test and the test though is his falling poll numbers and the key point between hastert and first that to what it is to them is that they both have committed on health care they're both interested health care that the one not expensive bill frist is one of the silliest he's used to pressure i mean you've always the reasons you're saying though that tourism bush started as an unknown as irene is

it just the result but i was sad about seven so republicans be a political scientist vanderbilt you like in your carpet that play with you george bush a bill frist everybody's a j walker a taxi cab driver and they'll pay any attention to it the democrats and the democrats drawn data was very good bet it's a lot easier to be unified in the eye in the minority and you have to worry about that fifty one you have to worry about the deal or disagree with any big projects raise k race came in and didn't add a whole people together on a common ground i get super low seeing is there is going to find out it's going to be a tough battle for her eye dick gephardt were addicted painfully now you've got six democratic party's by actual coconuts reason is that the black caucus latino caucus and women if he knows the impact at the progressive caucus with labor and business democrats and a democrats the blue dogs themselves in the west it and yep parts put a lot of time with them every one of them and that's why he was effectively but deleting the

specific members of the house representatives on the democratic side as a no tom daschle a meticulously are the leading democrats accept that the fault of the river president of the people in the face and the voice of the democratic party what kind of faces and voices are they well tom vessels made a very kind of looking where he hears all the time that he was democrats represent the word fight is far it's taken some punishment and they wanted a liver some punishment and that to me is a high risk proposition if you're really aggressive really fighting a media can galvanize the country newt gingrich rose to the top without being pretty aggressive pretty bad and eliminate you end up like the ninth street corner screaming about martha's table might be about your thoughts are you really run the risk of alienating people were not in the mood for a fight for violence you can get forty three percent of the country really loving you and that doesn't exactly what does the war due to a loyal fighting opposition it puts him in a real problem

because this is a party that's divided on the war many of them voted with the president on in the senate on the war resolution most of not without heart and soul the democratic party at the base of the democratic party especially against the war what's more they left with no words i agree the heart and soul the democratic party is far less warlike and more enthusiasm of the war that is the president are other republicans really does look like the democrats are still reacting see it in the defeat of two thousand and two when they were accused of lately so first of criminal personally and identity i think they were vacated and from washington this has been a crisis in conflicts a look at the new one hundred ninth congress more on congress and what we've been talking about the night can be found online at pbs dot org and jim lehrer thank you and good this program was made possible by contributions to a pbs station from viewers like you

thank you iran then who'll oden