Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) rejected the notion that federal efforts to stimulate the economy have fallen flat, saying the economic downturn would have been worse had Washington not acted. He conceded that job-creation is lagging, but he said there are signs that business confidence is picking up. 

And he insisted that Democrats do understand the concern Americans have about over-spending, saying efforts to re-impose "paygo" rules in Congress and the President's creation of a Commission on the Deficit are proof that his party "gets it."

Van Hollen's comments came during a wide-ranging discussion on TBD TV's "NewsTalk". The first segment of that debate re-airs Thursday at 4pm & 6pm; Part 2 can be viewed in its entirety below.

The Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee acknowledged that his party sails into a head-wind going into the mid-term elections, but he predicts Republicans will fall short in their bid to re-take the House, because -- from his perspective -- the GOP's effort to roll back the Wall Street reform bill is a sign the Republican Party wants to return to the era of deregulation that led to the Great Recession.

During a discussion of the NTSB's report into the 2009 Metro crash, Van Hollen praised the panel for its review and described the changes WMATA needs to make in the future.

Listen:

We asked the Assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi about comments from Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) about partisanship in Congress. Wolf told us recently that Capitol Hill is more sharply divided than ever, and that more bills have come to the House floor under a suspension of the rules than in any other Congress. Van Hollen said the House floor was "under lockdown" more under former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) than it is now:

Here's part two of our discussion:

Friday morning at 10am: a DC Council At-Large Democratic debate pitting incumbent Phil Mendelson and challengers Clark Ray and Michael D. Brown against one another.