You never know who you might bump into during lunch in Washington, DC. And it’s even better when the chance encounter sparks a debate on national TV.

On Wednesday, I happened to see former Governor, presidential candidate, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. I asked him if he knew if national service and AmeriCorps are in President Obama’s much anticipated job’s speech (we now know they aren’t).

He didn’t know. I briefly reminded him of the value of these programs to create jobs, deliver vital services, and help rebuild America’s economy.

Fast forward about six hours. Dean is on national TV (The Kudlow Report on CNBC). When asked how to create jobs, he focuses on AmeriCorps! Nice!! Every piece of media helps in this climate and we commend Dean for illuminating the role of AmeriCorps to put people to work.

But, that wasn’t the end of the clip. Things quickly got a bit more dramatic.

The other guest with Gov. Dean was former Congressman Dick Armey who responded to Dean’s comments with “AmeriCorps is one of the most asinine programs…it’s an insult to the American family…and it’s just a waste of money.”

Armey continued with his wildly confused beliefs about AmeriCorps and claims that it’s really a disguise to train activists for democratic campaigns. Wow.

There are all times when we need to “agree to disagree.” Everyone isn’t going to like AmeriCorps and that’s okay. This is not one of those times: Dick Armey is beyond wrong. This is not opinion. It’s fact.

Gov. Dean deserves much credit for interrupting Armey and calling out his nonsense. Watch the clip here:

http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000044080/code/cnbcplayershare/&startTime=96/&endTime=208

National service is a no-brainer right now for the country. Young people are ready to serve. More than 500,000 applied to fill about 85,000 AmeriCorps positions last year. For a cheap price and youth unemployment nearing 20%, America could put young people to work to meet pressing needs in education, health, the environment, and more. Pressing needs are far more expensive to America when left unaddressed.

And when people are unemployed they aren’t gaining skills, contributing to the country, paying taxes, or spending money.

Dean gets how national service is a cost-effective, impact-proven answer to those problems. So do other former and current Governors – including Republicans Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour. Same with the Presidents with the last name Bush. The late conservative thought leader William F. Buckley wrote an entire book on the value of national service.

Senators Orrin Hatch and John McCain have both supported record expansion of AmeriCorps (though both could be talking about it a lot more). Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are also proponents.

The list of Republican supporters goes on and on and on.

I often get asked what we can ask our political champions to do since they’re already supportive of national service. This experience with Dean is one great option: frame the benefits around the issue of the day and ask them to use whatever platform they have. Some are on TV a lot; others can get op-eds published; ask them to lobby their colleagues in Congress.

The national service field needs all of its proponents in politics to do more in this current budget fight. Often they will, but we have to ask even if we might interrupt their lunch.