be movement on the epa front whether they will relax the standards for ethanol at this point. >> that will be something to watch for sure. all the economic data of late suggest no qe3. i think that -- we'll see what the fed has to say, certainly mr. lockhart tomorrow. liz: thanks so much for joining us. ashley: "money with melissa francis" up next. have a great day. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes in for melissa francis and here's what is money tonight. the worst drought in 50 years threatening to starve our country's livestock. animal feed costs are through the roof. the price spike putting the nation's livestock at risk as well. we have a cattle rancher that will join us to break down how dire the threat has become and what it could mean for your wallet. plus the u.s. co2 emissions plunged to their 20-year low. the discovery surprising most vocal environmental activists. we're going to explain. the end of an era at augusta national golf club.

the home of the masters welcomes its first female members. it could loot to a flood of sponsors for the nation's most famous golf tournament. even when they say it is not it is always about money. tracy: it's always about money. first let's take a quick look at the day's market headlines. apple has officially become the most valuable public company in history. shares of the tech giant lept more than 2 1/2% today, giving it a market value of $623 billion. apple smagsed the previous record of $620 billion set by arch rival microsoft back in 1999. shares of best buy tanked more than 10%. the struggling electronics retailer named former

hospitality and travel exec hubert jolly as its new ceo. best buy founder over richard schulze over a potential buyout of the company. the stock closed fractionally to the downside with little news to drive investors in either direction. the dow dropped three points for the first loss in three sessions is. >> as we mentioned earlier cattle ranchers facing another blow from the drought and it could affect you at home. first up, the supply of hay feed is the lowest since 1976. it is getting so expensive ranchers can't afford it. how do they keep themselves from starving and keep themself in business? let's ask james bledsoe, a cattle rancher in colorado. thanks for being with us. is it really that bad that you can't feed your cattle? >> hey, tracy, thanks for having me. yeah, it is getting pretty rough. what we do, we're a traditional cattle ranch and

on an average year we have a lot of range land and we feed the cattle on the range land. you have a fixed cost, the range, the grass grows and get your adequate nutrients but as this year things have changed and we have to go out and find different feed around which unfortunately kind of hard to do in our area. tracy: okay. >> so, what is that? tracy: wait. so hay is about $300 per ton. that is up 150% from a year ago. how much are you paying? are you paying that much? >> that is for certain amount of feeds. there are certain kind of feeds you can use. there's, you know, we're having to resort to even bailing weeds and, there is some corn that's dried up in our area that we're having to bale but the problem you reach there is, that corn has been so stressed, the fertilizer could make it high in nitrates which could be toxic to cattle. so what we're, we're having

to resort to is, we're getting some supplement feeding in such as cake, that would be a protein pellets and different things. and the problem is, there are some cheap hay out there but you might have to go 1,000 miles to get it. with the price of fuel and everything, by the time you get it back here could cost as much or more than what is available there. tracy: right. have you lost any cattle at this point? are they starving to death? >> no, no. tracy: okay, good. >> that is our main goal. we, that's our main livelihood is those cattle and we're not going to jeopardize their welfare. i mean, if they're starting to stress real hard we'll send them to the feed yard but that how we make our living. those cattle, and if you stress them now, then next year they might not have a calf. tracy: right. poor things. okay. so, there's no cattle that we've lost thus far.

you don't know of any cattle but you do know this is getting really bad and we need simplyments. you mentioned corn earlier. interesting just crossed the wire that the epa is looking for comments on the renewable standards whether or not they should be removed. now i know corn clearly part of this whole renewable fuel standards. that is eating into your issue. i guess, where do you stand on all that? >> well, on an average year the corn, it's, that's mainly for feeding fat cattle. our instance not as important. tracy: okay. >> but we graze the cattle, we grades them after the corn is picked. and you can still find forages out there. if there is no corn that has grown this year we can't really, really do that. but, i think in the next, within the next five years there will be, the corn could be shortage for sure

and could pose a major issue. tracy: let's talk about, drop this all together for the people at home because if we have, obviously we know corn's going up. you can't feed the cattle. so you're struggling with hay. this has to affect prices at home i would think, right? beef prices, milk? >> oh of course. of course. and it is definitely affecting our local towns. they're hurting as it is and it is definitely putting a depth in your pocket. and what our deal, our cattle, we're having to send a lot of them out of the area, trying to find anywhere we can to, that had at least some rain and to get some feed. tracy: right. >> and, and that, then you have your shipping costs also. but it definitely affects your cost of game. tracy: fuel costs are a big part as well. james bledsoe, bledsoe ranch. you're an independent cattle rancher. i appreciate you taking the

time to share your story. i think it is a side people didn't know about. thank you, sir. >> thank you for having me. tracy: poor cattle. all right. dare i say we have proof that free markets can work better than government overregulation. yes, they can. new report by the energy information agency says greenhouse gases or those carbon dioxide emissions actually dropped to a 20-year low. that is way more than environmentalists expected even with all the epa rules. so with insight we'll turn to the deputy administrator with the eia right now. howard, thank you for taking the time to be with us. all right, first let's backtrack a little bit on carbon dioxide emissions. they're not poisonous. they're flammable. plant need them for photosynthesis. i'm only know this because i have a fifth grade science person in my home. why are we so against carbon dioxide? >> well we at eia are not against or for carbon

dioxide. we somely track it as a product of combustion of fossil fuels. tracy: there are a lot of people that want us to lower our carbon dioxide emissions. we're seeing results that private sectors are doing it on their own but the government's rationale behind it, the green house effect still, do you buy into all that? >> again, it is not part of our mission but personally i think there's a lot of evidence out there. tracy: okay, fine. let's go now to what the private sector is doing. we see natural gas prices dropping and as a result, i guess people moving off coal, using natural gas, nat-gas produces less carbon dioxide emissions s that part of the reason for the decline? >> that's certainly part of the reason. our supply of natural gas has grown very dramatically with the exploitation of shale gas. natural gas production in the first quarter of 2012. and again, this report really looked ad emissions during the first quarter, was up about 10% over the

year ago period. i don't know what your view who causes the weather but that also had a big effect on the situation. so the demand for heating this winter which was quite mild, was actually modest. so you had a strong supply of natural gas, a modest demand for heating fuels. and natural gas, very important heating fuel. as a result prices of natural gas were down. consumption of heating fuels was down. the lower price of natural gas led to a shift in the fuel mix for electric power generation. tracy: right. >> electric power generation itself was actually down but in moving the mix away from coal toward natural gas, there was a further reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. tracy: how does it work though? because i mean, if you've been using coal this whole time, a company can't just flip the switch and become a nat-gas user. this has to take time and

clearly investment in the company to make this switch. so this is something that has been happening over the course of a long period of time, right? >> well less of it is the switch at an individual plant and more of it is deciding which plant to run in one order. you typically start with your lowest cost plants first. so often you will run your nuclear plants first because they have very low fuel costs. and then traditionally you would run your coal and only when you were using all the coal would you start running your gas. in many parts of the country it is actually flipped and it's economically desirable, again your view of the markets, providing guidance, it is economically attractive to run some of the very efficient gas plants ahead of the coal plants. so it is less the change in fuel at a particular plant than the decision about which plant to run. tracy: i understand. okay. so we were at this 20-year low and it seems that we are somewhat ahead of schedule, right, as far as estimations

how low carbon dioxide emissions would be at this point? how much lower can we go? do you see us really blowing the schedule out the window? >> we do, in addition to collecting data which is what we're talking about so far, we do some outlooks and for this year we expect carbon dioxide emissions to be down from energy about 2% a little bit more than 2%. they have been down in four of the last six years. they are influenced by the level of economic activity. so emissions crashed in 2009 when the economy crashed. they came up in 2010. but they're also influenced by, again the energy mix. they're influenced by the weather. they're influenced by a whole host of factors. tracy: quickly if natural gas prices go up, carbon dioxide emissions probably will as well? >> certainly if natural gas prices go up, there would be more of an incentive to run coal plants harder. tracy: right. >> and natural gas plants less hard. tracy: howard, thank you so

much for taking the time to be with us and share all this information with news you're very welcome. tracy: all right. we have a double-whammy for california. moody's and fitch each find a slate of cities moving to the edge of bankruptcy. which ones can still be pulled back from the brink? we have details next. aetna making a blockbuster bid for health insurance rival coventry. what will the push to dominate the market for medicare and medicaid patients mean for your bottom line? we have more "money" coming up. ♪ .

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[message beep] [tires screeching] ♪ . tracy: governments across the country in a fiscal mess. thank you, captain obvious. many are threatening to default. fitch ratings came out and warned about more downgrades that they are expected on the heels of moody's the noted that more than 10% of california cities declared financial crises. how will this all shake out? joining us our very own liz macdonald. emac, glad you're here.

you're covering this for a very long time. what is the problem? is it pensions? why are they the way they are? >> it is both. tracy: okay. >> here is the deal. put it into perspective, maybe one to two municipal bankruptcies 43 since 1981. now we have three in the past year. seven total during the crisis. here's the problem. judges don't like bankruptcies. they will kick them back to cities and towns to try to file. 2/3 of the bankruptcies filed since 1981 judges say go back to your towns, go back to your cities. you fix your physical problems. don't make us do it. tracy: how does this shake out in the end? should municipal bondholders in these cities be concerned? >> i think so. let's back up. the cities will always need the credit markets. the issue with california they can't go running to sacramento with a then cup. because sacramento doesn't have the money. tracy: right. >> we're seeing in california 33 municipal bankruptcies year-to-date. some of the school

distributes. some are universities. because schools and hospitals can borrow in the muni bond market. that number may be inflated. we know for a long time, tracy, cities have been a real problem in california. what we'll see essentially consolidation. cisco lapsing. merging with other cities. you say that with maywood and bell, california, they started outsourcing the police and fire department to surviving cities. vallejo, they did that too. they basically outsourced the cops to the county sheriff. what i'm saying reality check clearly bounced in california when it comes to fiscal prudence. but, you know, there is way they will get out of it. they have to just do the work on their own. tracy: the bondholders are what people worry about the most. you bought a municipal bond years ago and you expect to be paid out. >> right. tracy: in theory you're supposed to be. >> here what you have to watch, stockton. first time since 1981 city of stock ton says you have to take a loss on the

principle amount not just the interest rate. all the banks cut the interest rate, cut the rate we owe you, cut the yield. now it is principle. calpers is saying wait a second. we're not just a creditor. you have to honor the pensions. old hold on pension guys, no longer can retire at age 50 with 90% of the your pay. enough. that is the battle for your viewers. watch stockton, california. watch it closely. that will abel weather court case. in the courts right now. a big fight going on. tracy: it will set precedent, you're absolutely right about that. liz macdonald, she is a bomb. she follows this stuff. we'll keep talk about it though. california is the nation's largest insurer of municipal bonds. as we mentioned three cities, stockton, san bernardino and ma'am poll lakes already in bankruptcy. plus the s&p just downgraded fresno. we have a gop strategist. mark, thanks for being with us. my first question, moody's, s&p, are they totally behind the eight ball on a this and

is it way worse than we think? >> well, no, actually i think with bond markets they always work on the principle of anticipation. they always panic a lot earlier out than the actual crisis. in this instance with moody's, fitch, with s&p they're basically doing what i would call warning the titanic. they're sending up the big flare guns saying you guys better change your course soon because all we see are icebergs dead ahead. tracy: wee worry about the bondholders. many people think, let's not panic. california will eventually get bailed out, all will be well, everyone will be made whole? >> that will not help in the near future. what the municipalities are looking at are just the short-term fixs. what do we do to be gratified immediately rather than come up with long-term solution that is a lot of sitting and local governments absolutely need? to me, you talk about the bondholders. they would much rather see some intent of actually the willingness to not only pay

but the ability to pay. and that is the crucial issue when i think we're dealing with california right now. tracy: it is all about taking cuts and everybody kind of agreeing they have to do something as opposed to not in my backyard. take your cuts somewhere else. do you actually have any faith in these communities that they could pull this off because i don't think a lot of people do? >> i think, not just dealing with a catch 22. this would be a call a fail. three big things hitting cities in the face. they can't go to voters for higher taxes because the voters are already pretty much maxed out here in california when it comes to tax rates. they can't go to the public union bosses to renegotiate the pensions and salaries well, they're public union boss. they can't go to the rating agencies and these bond issuers, you have to just trust us somewhere down the road we'll fix this. again we deal with what the ability for the municipalities to pay. right now there is absolutely no confidence in

that whatsoever. tracy: you say in your notes we're past the point of no return and far gone. you say this is all politically union motivated. this is cyclical and will continue to spiral downward, won't it? >> and there is also a tendency with these governments to try to kick the can down the road or issue assurances or deal with promises when they come up with their budgets. this would be like me promising i will fly you to chicago and in the middle. flight i admit to you i know we don't have enough fuel to get there but i'm hoping for a real strong tailwind. tracy: that's bad. it is not just california. pennsylvania, there are many other municipalities out there in the same dire straights. the problem though we keep seeing these rating agencies downgrade these bonds. these municipalities that need to get money and bring money in are not going to be able to get it, right? who will want to buy a bond from a municipality going bankrupt? >> you're right. that is the big concern. there is this perfect storm brewing.

you can't increase the tax revenues. housing unemployment. there are no real long-term solutions presented by any local governments of the yet bondholders are say i will not give you anymore money because you haven't proven to me you can take care of finances we'll already given you. tracy: play this out. do we all go down in a fit of furry? >> you can take what elizabeth was saying a couple minutes ago. the city of stockton has to come up with a some kind after plan if they child for chapter 9. look to what vallejo did a couple years ago. they just now started crawling out of the quagmire they created in 2006, 2008, 2009. but it will be a long, slow process and there are no easy solutions. i really feel for a lot of these government officials who frankly are doing everybody they possibly can now and but they're not looking to long term fixes that will self issues of pension liabilities, of dealing with the kind of, i would say, instability that

most of these governments are having to face on a consistent basis. tracy: a microcosm of the larger picture though, isn't it. >> absolutely. tracy: what we're seeing in california what could happen to us. so what happens to us as a country if we don't change our ways then? >> well, you're looking at california right now and unfortunately, jerry brown as governor with some of the solution that is the state government isn't proposing with this he is looking more like the new office manager at mifflin instead of ceo of a 9th largest economy in the world. if california starts down this trend you will see small governmenting county governments, state governments finally maybe even the federal government moving down this road. we have to come up with a solution that will unfortunately going to affect somebody directly and i think painfully in some way, shape or form but right now there are another other solutions out there as far as the experts can see. tracy: that is really disheartening because california, as you mentioned,

so big it could single-handedly pull our whole country down with it. mark, analyst out in cali, thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. tracy: aetna moves to buy up one of its top health insurance rivals but will it push to become a giant in government funded health care? could this lead to higher costs for you? did you know your tax dollars are subsidizing sky-high pay for ceos? author of a startling new report is here to explain. here's a question. do you ever have too much money. ♪ . ♪

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the move will help aetna grow its government business from 23% to more than 30%. seems like a smart move considering the new health care law calls for bulking up on government based health plans but is this actually going to end up taking more money out of your wallet? joining us now, dr. sreedhar potarazu, vital spring technology ceo. great to see you as always, dr. p. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me back. tracy: let's talk about this. this merger is a business decision or a political one? >> well, i think it is a business decision in response to a political one. so, you know, not too long ago you had wellpoint and cigna made pretty big acquisitions to get into the government market and aetna has to do the same. that is where the money is. they're under a lot of pressure with implementation of the new law to spend more on patient care, to take on more people with preexisting conditions. so a key way for them to

drive revenue is for commercial companies and the private sector to go after the government market and that is medicare and medicaid. tracy: so that's it. the expansion of medicaid and medicare is really where the money is going to be in the health care sector, isn't it? >> well, absolutely. if you look at paul ryan's proposal in terms of driving more competition in the medicare market as one proposal for trying to reduce costs, if you look at the states that have to expand their medicaid rosters, at least the ones that choose to comply, there is going to be a lot of activity in terms of the commercial insurance carriers getting into that market in terms of getting more could have covered lives. but the flipside of that is that there are also getting a lot of pressure from hospitals who are raising their rates for insurance companies and so you're seeing a number of these dynamics roll in that are forcing the insurance companies to start to gobbling up the smaller ones.

tracy: we start seeing that right? wellpoint agreed to by amerigroup corps for 4.6 billion last year. >> that's right. tracy: cigna agreed to buy health springs. we're seeing consolidation in the industry, right? at the end of the day does that mean less choice, higher costs for us at home? >> you have it exactly right, tracy. we tried to go after this, raising more competition to try to keep prices competitive but doesn't take much to figure out exactly what you said. when you start consolidating the market and you don't have much choice anymore and start creating monopolies, then they start to dictate price. so this is what they're doing by forming, you know, small, bigger insurance companies by some of them coming together. the insurance companies themselves are out there acquiring either hospitals for doctors practices. for the average consumer watching today, while we're pushing them to get more choice, in reality in a few

years they will have less choice and more costs. >> you mentioned paul ryan's plan to give vouchers for private carriers. do you think that will work? >> a study published in the "journal of the american medical association" that validated when they looked at medicare advantage versus medicare in terms of whether that kind of system would work, lo and behold the results were rather shocking to the harvard economists, some of them obama supporters, that medicare advantage actually did better than standard medicare. there is actual evidence to show that kind of system can work. the second thing is, is is that if you look at the corporate sector, many employers today have used that model of defined contributions, giving a set stipend or a set payment to employees to go out and buy health insurance. so it is not a new concept. and there is enough evidence now coming out to say that could actually work in terms

of driving competition and bringing down cost. tracy: it is really interesting that prior to paul ryan's nominations, we were barely even talking about medicare, medicaid and now all of a sudden it is front and center again. do you that we're going to carry this wave all the way to the polls? is it hitting a nerve? >> absolutely it is. and there is no question that you're hearing a lot since the announcement of paul ryan about whose plan is actually going to be the one that ends up winning votes in november. i think that the one who is able to defend the math behind the medicare solution, how seniors will not be able to lose medicare, will actually be able to pay for it and keep the country solvent, and not become bankrupt because of medicare, is going to be the one that ends up winning with at the ballot box in november. tracy: hope you're right about that. dr. p, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me back. tracy: always. all right. so are your tax dollars

subsidizing the salaries of ceos? well the coauthor of a disputed new report will join us next to explain. plus saving social security in one fell swoop, can you do it? i don't know. the man behind a controversial rescue plan says it can be done with a single, he says, easy fix. he is here to explain. "piles of money" coming up next. don't go anywhere. ♪ . ♪

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clinics to be closed. get this. there is a new report by the institute for policy studies says 10 of billions of our tax dollars ending up at ceo pay. the higher the ceo's pay the well, the bigger tax breaks for the company. scott clinger is the coauthor of the report. scott, let's explain first or help people understand what we're talking about here because part of this is a payroll deduction, isn't it? >> well, thank you for having me, tracy. we did look at four different tax breaks that corporations get. ways they're allowed to write off what we think is excessive ceo pay on their taxes. there is a principle in business taxes that businesses can deduct reasonable business expenses from the taxes. each dollar they deduct they save 35 cents on their taxes. we have defined what business, reasonable means in terms of entertainment. companies can't deduct skybox expenses is or expensive super bowl tickets but can deduct unlimited amounts of ceo pay.

we don't mean that companies shouldn't pay whatever that want but we say they shouldn't be able to duke as much as they want. tracy: effective rate is 20 cents on the dollar. that because of the tax code. it is not because companies or corporations are doing anything illegal. >> we're not saying any laws are being broken. we're saying the tax laws are broken, the tax code is broken and the way we compensate our executives is also broken. tracy: but the way we compensate our executives probably has a lot to do with the fact that corporations can afford lobbyists. they can afford people down on wall street to get breaks they're looking for because the tax code has become one big book of favors, hasn't it? >> that's right. when that happens the rest of us pay. we calculated that the subsidies given to corporations for the executive pay equals $46 for every man, woman and child in the united states. tracy: i don't want to come down on ceos or ceo pay because some ceos actually deserve what they get paid. i think the bigger story

here we subsidize so much stuff just so that our congressional leaders can get reelected. >> that's right. it is a circular loophole with campaign contributions, financing, the people who are making the rules campaigns. tracy: okay. so what is your solution to this? because mine is always to junk the tax code and start over. but many don't think that is the right way to go? >> well that would be a pretty large task and we prefer i think some changes along the way. one of them we think we need to have a national conversation about what is reasonable level of executive pay. some people have mentioned a million dollars. some mentioned half a million dollars. right now companies are deducting in some cases hundreds of million of dollars per executive. tracy: why is it the nation, why should we discuss with the nation what a ceo should be paid? isn't that insider corporation discussion? >> we're not discussing what the ceo should be paid. as i said we think corporations should pay their executives what they see fit. tracy: we're you're talking about the deduction. >> we're talking about what

can be deducted from their taxes which taxpayers pay a chunk of. tracy: that comes back down to overhauling the entire tax code because you know as well as i the lobbyists from these high, big corporations are never going to actually let you lower those deduction unless the entire thing is overhauled. >> yeah. they need a lot of public pressure. i think if there was a level of outrage and we've certainly seen both concern lack of payment of corporate taxes as well as ceo pay reach across the political speck thumb. it is not really a left-right issue. many americans on both sides are concerned about this. tracy: you're right. this is bipartisan problem. the tax code is completely flawed. scott, thanks so much for sharing your insights. >> thank you, tracy. tracy: can the third rail of politics be fixed with one simple solution? the author of a potentially devisive plan to save social security here with details. and, don't forget at the end of the day it is all about money.

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tracy: all right. no one will jump at the thought of paying more taxes for anything. fortunately according to some that might be the only option for saving social security. new data from the social security administration shows drastically hiking the payroll tax could actually help them pay the trillions of dollars in benefits, it won't otherwise have in 20 years. how dress i can are we talking about and who actually will support paying more taxes? joining us on the phone, codirector of social security works and syracuse professor, eric sing ton. professor. ashley: thanks for being with us right now. >> pleasure to be here. tracy: explain quickly through payroll with holdings that is how we fund social security. i pay half. my employer pays other half. 12.44% is supposed to be sent to social security. >> these are contributions

to protect a variety of risk, loss of income due to death of a spouse, due to retirement, due to disability. let me back up for one second first. tracy: okay. >> we have remarkable system here. 77 years old. over 77 years, it was built to provide broad protections to the american public and has done that very well. over 77 years it never missed a payment. it has achieved the, today it is the core retirement system that we have. tracy: right. >> when you look what happened since 2008, where americans have lost housing equity, americans have lost 401(k) and ira savings and americans have lost their pension protections in many cases, the one system, our social security system, is the one system that's stands strong. tracy: it doesn't though, really the let's fact check a little bit. it doesn't stand strong. it is 20% of our federal spending. it is about to be inso vicinity and pays out more that it corrects in taxes

that is not strong. that is pathetically weak. >> no your facts are wrong. first of all it is not 20%. the more important thing here this is a system that americans left or right, you can ask tea party households, you can ask union householding ask republicans ask democrats. tracy: okay. >> they say do not cut my social security. tracy: of course they do not. >> they know they built it. tracy: get to the crux of the pro. >> they earned this benefit. tracy: look, i know that i am never going to see it and i know when they take social security out of my check it goes to my mother's benefits right now. i'm perfectly comfortable with that. i disagree with you. i think a lot of people say close this up already and we're sick of congressional leaders from dipping hand in the cookie jar. that is what happened. they borrowed from social security fund and now they're figuring out a way to fix it. you're telling me, raising taxes that the american people will agree to take more money out of my paycheck to make up their mistakes? >> i'm telling you what the

facts are according to polls done by both democrats and republicans. tracy: no, no. >> the public says this is not a cause of the deficit. we do not want benefits cut and we would prefer to pay increased contributions to seeing our children and our grandchildren's benefits be eviscerated. >> my children, my grandchildren will not be relying on this system. know better and you know what? you raise taxes, more money for them to take. >> listen, this was said 35 years ago by people who are now receiving benefits. it is interesting. you know, basically, this structure, people invested in their lives in protecting it. tracy: i understand. >> protect it, building it, politicians and democrats and republicans in the past. tracy: professor i understand. that is what makes it more disheartening we all put our blood and sweat into this fund and congressional leaders wasted it. we're out of time. >> can i ask you one question? tracy: fast. >> do you think there will be people working, 30, 40,

50 years from now. >> i think we should raise the retirement age if that is what you're asking. >> if you think they're working they're paying contributions into the system. tracy: i think a lot of people will agree we need a better system but you got to come back and keep talking about this. >> i think we have a great system. i think the public agrees but i appreciate being on here and appreciate your point of view too. tracy: well i do too and yours, sir. come back. professor eric sing kingston social security works and codirector and professor at syracuse. that debate will continue. how about this congressman gone wild. alcohol-fueled skinny dipping romp in the sea of galilee. are you crazy? remember you can never have too much money.

this is a test >> it's time for a little fun with spare change. today we are joined by carol roth and michael painter, ashley webster. working late, working like every

show today. in case you haven't heard enough about lawmakers going wild when traveling to conferences, because that is what they do, now the fbi is investigating an incident in israel. one republican congressman went skinny dipping in the sea of galilee. some of the gop frenchman were allegedly drinking along with him, but only one representative went skinny dipping. the sea of galilee, that is where jesus part of the water. this is like the holy land. can we take our clothes off and cemented? i think that we maybe need to put a list together. >> i think that drinking is

okay. going into the sea isn't. picking up hookers is not okay either. tracy: they need a little rulebook. >> do you think? we need a lot more federal government -- honestly. >> it is amazing to me that america has such a bad worldwide reputation. tracy: okay, i guess the national golf club has two new members. for the first time in their 80 year history, they are winning. coming under par for a lot of years. most recently in april. because they didn't allow women to join. finally, they have. secretary of state condoleezza rice and darla moore playing golf when it opens in october. they have accepted and will be

the first woman ever to wear the green jacket. ashley, you are a golfer? >> i am. i love it. we talked about this earlier. they can do whatever they want an invite whoever they want to into the club. i just think it's about time. i will be honest with you, it is 2012. come on, let's get with it. this is a subject that has been going on for many, many years. finally, they take the next step. >> they are joining the 21st century or the 20th century, as joe biden likes to call it. it is one of the things that makes really good business sense. from a fashion standpoint, the green jacket doesn't look so hot. i hope they have a linen version with a commitment in at the waist. tracy: you are talking to a girl who were catholic school uniforms all her life. do you ever worry about you and