concerned when the first part of his statement begins with group atrocities and he begins the transatlantic slave trade shrike the holocaust, wait a minute, it wasn't like the holocaust and it wasn't like darfur. it didn't last for 25 years or 35 years or six months. and so the issues that you think are important, brother, are the ones that move us. and i think that we have to be honest enough with ourselves t follow our passions, figure out what's important to us and connect. because i think everybody on this panel can begin to tell you pressing international issues. i'm doing a documentary in urbile because i think the kurdish people are interesting because as we deal with moving out of iraq and we see the images of iraq on cnn or msnbc or fox news, all we see is baghdad and fighting. and while i think we need to support our troops and be

engaged in what's happening with the withdrawal of those troops, i think we need to talk about the fact that the kurdish people who are the largest ethnic minority in the world that do not have their own homeland have been able to create an environment where there have not been any conflict deaths in three years and nobody is talking about it. and they're not talking about it because there continues to be issues of injustice with all peoples of color all over the world. and the reason why it's important that we begin to look beyond the borders is because justice issues have no nationality. justice issues have no borders. and the things that we think are local issues are actually global problems. [applause] >> in relation to it, identity important to realize that we are dealing with communities that are not victims as we usually hear them described on cnn, bbc or some of the mainstream media.

it's important that we are dealing with communities that there ar active agents of change. people willing to change their conditions. it's important to learn from them and understand from them if you want to work on africa solidarity understand from them what are the priorities in their communities and what are they trying to do to address the situation so that the lationship becomes one of solidarity, not one of pity. and i think it's important even for information to not mostly come from your mainstream media t to come from these communities so wk with organizations. go to the websites of organizations that develop relationships with people on the ground and that are getting inrmation from the ground so that you get not the things that are normally peddled but things that can bring about real

positive change. in solidarity with these communities. thanks. [applause] >> the young woman at microphone one. >> hi, i'm ashlyn and i'm from brown, tennessee and i'm also from region 5. [applause] >> okay. my question is, what can we do in our communities to affect international affairs? >> there are a lot of things you can do. the first -- you said it really well that it's really importa to first learn what we need to know and to kind of be in a learning space all the time. i want to turn people to racewire.org which is a website where we look at day's news domestically and globally as it affect racial justice issues and communities of color. i think it's also important to remember that whether you're working at the local, ste,

national or global level, the way we change things is not just by giving out charity or through individual interactions. the way we change things is by changing rules, both the written rules like the immigration law or like our levels of foreign aid or like our decisions to go to war in one place or another place or to go to war at all. the written rules. but also there are also lots and lots of unwritten rules that control the relationship between the united states and the rest of the people in the world. so paying attention to how those rules are playing out in your community, taking a look at where your public institutions ar investing their money, for example, or at the kinds of policies that your public

officials and educators and other local folks are paying attention to and what they think is important and challenging that. if you think there's a set of issues that they're missing, that's really important, too, but the main thing is that whatever global issue you're dealing with, there's an element of theules attached to that global issue that ist play in your community. the first thing tdo is to unearth that relationship and then to dig into it. thanks. >> can iay real quick -- very quickly, another thing that i think as americans we don't do is we don't learn other languages. and i think -- one of the things regret the most about traveling all around the world is i can't fluently speak another language. part of being able to be engaged in work around the world is being able to speak the language. and as americans we can be incredibly arrogant. when we go to other people's homes expecting them to be able to speak to us in a language

that is not their native language and not even taking the time to learn basic comments, questions, terminologies when we go to their countries. so i would request that you all choose one language that you want to learn and learn it well. and if you decide to go to another countr at least learn something so that when you get there, you're not the arrogant american but you're at least willing to humble yourself enough to be able to engage culturally with someone else the way that they would engage with you. [applause] >> may i say one thing? one thing i didn't mention before is also you should voluntee that's a great way to learn. i srted volunteering with a refugee family. a one way to learn about another culture. at one we have something called one campus challenge. it's a way for students to get active o campus on the issues and learn about them so find different ways to volunteer.

there are let's of them. [applause] >> and we have our final question at microphone 2. >> i'm andrew lee. i'm from region 5 from atlant [applause] >> all right. right now i live in dc and my question is, how can we hold the obama administration accountable. we're all very excited about the first election of our first african-american president, president obama, but he's our president, not our homie. and what strategies do you guys have for us to hold him accountable? i mean, right now we have unparalleled levels of spending going on. bailout after bailout. wall street people who got us into this mess in the first place. i know it's a big issue to tackle but what resources do you guys hav or insights as to how we can be more effective in our communits, in making sure that our voices are heard at the table from the stimulus package on to like how is this going to

fix the economy for jobs for us. >> i have just one really quick point and it was touched on earlier. but i work in a congressional office as i mentioned. >> i do, too. >> i thought you looked familiar. i work in a congressional office. you understand -- you understand how it is. members of congress respond to their constituents. okay? [applause] >> now, you know, we all sort of pick up the phone when it rings, if we're not busy, i hear who's on the phone, okay? and i have to say it's oftentimes not us. okay? so are you calling your member of congress? are you writing letters? you know, these thing are paid attention to. and they do -- absolutely. they are paid atention to. and it's not just -- you don't -- it's not just a congressional black caucus that has to respond to you.

'cause chances are you don't even live in a congressional black caucus members' district. i don't care who your member of congress is. you let your voices be heard. you call and organize. call every day. send letters. you ow, there is -- there's a power of one, okay? but by joining with one more, we can really make our voices heard. we don't use this enough in our community and think it's because we generally don't know the process. but we have toake our voices heard. and regardless of what the issue is on the stimulus, on, you know, whatever global issues, domestic issues. make your voice heard. [applause] thank you. >> i think beyond that is bigger than how do we hold president obama accountable. it's how do we become a responsible electorate? because it does no good if we're attempting to hold obama accountable but we don't hold our city counl accountable or

our school board accountable or our state legislator accountable. [applause] >> so a lot of us is focused at the federal level which is good but we know so much what affects our communities and the work that many of you are doing isn't happening at the federal level. it's happening at the local and the state level sot's about how do we become effective and responsible members of the electorate. and thais by, one, understanding how the issue you care most about is changed. you got negroes marching on congress for an issue that's happening at city council. and so know where the issue hs changed. secondly, understand where you have allies. i'm tired of folks wanting to march for the sake of marching when you can have a meeting. take the meeting, discuss the issues. a responsible activist isn't one that agitates for the sake of agitation. a responsible activist is the one that utilizes the resources available to them to create the change that's necessary in the

most effective way. [applause] >> and so you don't have to be loud all the time because you have people in the office that are willing to be helpful. let's be more sophisticated in how we engage and hopefully we'll begin to see more change. thank you for your question, brother. >> thank you. pplause] >> i don't know about you guys, but after this session, i'm inspired. i'm ready to go back to my community and make some change. i'm fired up. fired up! let's give our panelists another round of applause. [applause]

>> the supreme court has a rare special session wednesday hearing oral argument on a campaign finance case. it also mar the first appearance on the bench for

justice sonia sotomayor. and tomorrow her formal invetiture ceremony. >> to some extent it's unsettling. you quickly get to view the court as the court as composed of these members and it becomes kind of hard to think of it as involving anyone else. i suspect it's the way people look at their families, you know. this is the family. how could it, you know, be different but you do get new arrivals in both of those situations. it's a tremendous sense of loss. justice white always used to say when the court gets a new member, it changes everything. it changes everybody. simple changes. we move the seats around in the courtroom. their seats are by order of seniority so there's a shift there. the same in the conference room but more fundamentally, i think it can cause you to take a fresh look at how things are decided. the new member is going to have

a particular view about how issues should be addressed that y be very differe from what we've -- we've been following for some time. so it's an exciting part of life at the court. >> hear from other justices during supreme court week as c-span looks at the home to america's highest court starting october 4th. >> now a group of republicans under 40 talk about the future of their party. the young republican national federation organized this discussion, which was moderated

by margaret hoover, the great granddaughter of president herbert hoover. this is about 40 minutes. >> it's really an honor to be here to introduce them. i'm going to do it one at a time so they can come up and join us in the chairs and give a wave. first please help me welcome kentucky secretary of state trey grayson. [applause] >> next we have your own state's indiana's secretary of state todd rakita and we have massachusetts republican state party chair jennifer nassour. [applause] >> we have colorado, my home state, u.s. senate candidate, ryan frazier. [applause] >> and last but not least at

all, mississippi state gop chair trailblazer brad white. [applause] >> so i thought it would be appropriate to start off the question -- on the tail of scott jones' presentation about technology and understanding that, you know, republicans really just didn't measure up in this 2008 election. and we're not going to do a post mshgsz mortem talk and how the democrats were able to use technology in the last election and republicans uniformly learned this and are doing some really interesting things with it already and one of the people who's doing it is your own secretary of state in indiana, do you want to go ahead and we'll kick it off to you and

tell us how you're tsing technology and then i want to go to all of you all. how can we fix the technology gap? >> welcome to indiana. i hope you'll have a great weekend. worked very hard on this and expect you'll have a great time. i'm going to start to talk a little bit of a habit here with the panel and tryo keep my answers as short as possible so we can get to as many questions as we can from our wonderful moderator and from you all. and secretary grayson is already timing me and i wasted 30 seconds. technology gap wise. i'm proud to say the secretary of state's office 45% that we do, the transactions that we do is done online. [applause] >> and that has allowed me to turn in a bget that was less than the budget that the secretary of state turned in in 1987. unadjusted for inflation. so there's some real things that

republicans can do when running for office in an office to use technology to drive down the costs and that's what we're about, right? small government. efficient government campaign wise, i wasn't so much impressed that barack obama got millions of dollars from george soros and those kinds of folks. i was mor impressed that he got millions of dollars, $20, $50 at a time through credit card transactions on the internet. when i'm going around the state, what i'm tryingo encourage local parties to do is first of all have a website. but also have goals. how many new volunteers and email addresses are you going to get through that website this year? how many 10, 20, $50 checks are you going to get? all that filters down and i think we got to take better advantage of that. thank you. >> brad, go for it. what are you towing in

mississippi? >> the main thing the republican party needs to do is change our mindset on technology. i'll give you a story to illustrate what i was talking about. you mentioned the credit cards. i was talking with someone that worked for the rnc and they worked in the -- they did work for the rnc and they worked in the finance department. it was one of the years when obama really racked up millions of dollars in one month and there was a question, do y'all do any close to that in our best months and we said no, we don't frankly we wouldn't know how to process all the checks when they came in. they weren't even thinking along the line of online and using technology to do anything. they were still in e 1970s, frankly. so i think the first step that has to be made is just for the rnc and the state parties and otherwise just to change our mindset on technology and start realizing that there are valuable resources andools out there and just making sure we're using each of them to their full advantage.

>> jennifer or brad? >> go ahead, jennifer. >> well, for us, i know i took over as party chair in january and i was astonished to find out that -- i know this is a really small number. we only have 12% registered republicans in massachusetts. it's under 500,000 people. we only had 4,000 email addresses. horrible. so now i make my staff every time we're out collect email addresses. get cell phone numbers because i was also so impressed by the people i knew that were getting text messages from the obama campaign. and we got nothing. it was so -- it was radio silent until the very end of the campaign when we started getting more and more emails. but we were so far behind the curve. and it's really important for us to be able to get up to speed on that. >> yeah, you have a race coming up. so how -- are yot using technology to harness voters and volunteers? >> first off i'm going to start

off by asking cha-cha that question. they can tell me for sure. as a matter of fact i'm going to get the new cha-cha ring tone for my slider. [applause] >> thanks for having me. with respect to our campaign out in colorado and by the way i bring you all greetings on the majestic rocky mountains of colorado. it's great to be here in indiana. we're embracing technology to help us connect with pele. i mean, that's ultimately what we're talking about and provide information about our campaign or allow people to access information about our campaign in order to know what's going on or learn how to help or embrace our candidacy and we've embraced facebook. we're doing the twitter and all that good stuff. as our former president used to say, you know, we're all about the google.

[laughter] >> but, you know, we're looking at ways in which we can connue to provide additional information to folks about our candidacy, not just in colorado but around the country because we got aig opportunity in this country as you all know, a big opportunity for those of us who believe in those ideals that make this country great and the majority of americans, in fact, do believe what we believe to make our case. and the way we need to do that is connecting with folks in ways in which make sense at that. and today means technology, technology, technology. we're in the digital age and we have to embrace it so our campaign is doing everything we can to take further steps around information-sharing through all the different networks that are out there and now that i know about cha-cha we'll work at how to engag that platform as well. >> trey, how about you in kentucky? >> like todd we did technology to do more with less. our budget is a lot smaller than it's ever been. some of you may have heard two months ago i announcedn exploratory committee for the united states senate.

in about the 55 days in the last filing period where i could actually raise money 20% of our contributions came online. i raised about 600,000 dollars and about 120,000 came in line and in the last email plastia we di 40,000. i'm not an announced candidate i'm exploring. those who know the dynamics in kentucky you know why what's going on in kentucky. i'm excited in putting a lot of this in the practice. i maxed out on the number of personal facebook friends i have. i'm stuck at 5,000. but we have the politician page. and i'm also hurt, though, because i cha-cha jed todd rokita and i chahaed me, we need more information. [laughter] >> i know there's an indiana bias against kentucky but come on? [laughter] >> that's great. so i thought -- that was a great

round of answers and sort of a softball question at first because we all know the answer and it's especially sort of fun. actually, quickly, between the two candidates who are exploring for u.s. senate, exploring for candidate. who has more email addresses. how many do you have? >> can i ask cha-cha that question too? how many email -- >> is there -- i mean, can you categorize how many contacts you've made over the internet? do you have facebook friends? >> we do have facebook. i think i have 1,000 or something like that. >> good, good. you got some room to go. 5,000, that's great. that's good. here's a harder question. we're stepping it up. i mean, here we are -- you all young republicans are going to be choosing the national chairman for the next year and i thought it would b poignant to ask our young guns on the stage about conservatism. what is conservatism mean to

you? there's amongst republicans a lot of discussion about individual freedom, fiscal responsibility, strong national security and the word conservatism gets tossed around a lot and we all call ourselves coervatives but i thought it would be nice to hear from each of you what are the most important tenets of conservatism and how do you define your conservatism? secretary of state in indiana? >> thank you. for me as the practice of consertism for me individually evolves it's focused these days on the constitution. the principles, the underlying premise of our constitution is what conservatism is to me. and we are losing that in this country. far and wide, we are forgetting what me this country so great. we are forgetting the blueprint, there are many of us, family and friends, who think the constitution is a living

document tohange with the times. it's absolutely the opposite. it's an in-place blueprint that has led to the most successful experiment in politics that the world has ever seen. and for me, conservatism has to get back to those principles. >> yoe know, i agree. absolutely. [applause] >> it means so many things t so many people but to me, it's always come back to two basic things. freedom and opportunity. freedom and opportunity. somebody once asked me what do i think makes this country great? and i said it's the freedoms that we enjoy and the opportunities that are ahead of us. and i think that's precisely what conservatism is seeking to advance. freedom of the individual and the opportunity for everyone to make a life for themselves. i'm often asked, you know, why am i republican? you know, evidently'm not supposed to be one. [laughter]

>> and i said, you know, when i was growing up, i grew up in a working poor neighborhood in southeastern north carolina. my mother, who separated from my father when i was 7 years old, worked two jobs to provide for three boys. we didn't have a lot but we had each other. and she instill my brothers and me in the faith of the almighty and to do what's right and go make a life forourselves. i've carried that throughout my life and when i look at conservatism and what i believe the republican party's role, young republicans, our role it's very much that role of expanding freedom and opportunity for everyone regardless of race, regardless of age, regardless of gender. everyone should have an opportunity to make a life for themselves. that's what conservatism is all about to me. [applause] >> who wants to take a stab at

it next. jennifer? >> sure. so i'm from massachusetts. so conservatism and massachusetts not really synonymous. however, we do have a large constituency that is fiscally conservative so for us up in new england, it is more of a financial -- a financial question, a financial endeavor that we all are seeking. so it's keeping government small. it's making sure that our taxes don't skyrocket. our legislature just imposed a 25% sales tax increase on us. our property taxes are out of control. they want to tax us on gas. they want to raise our tolls. it's just a constt surge in government to continue to tax those of us that work really, really hard. and those of us who work really hard, it doesn't matter if you're working hard as a waiter or waitress or it doesn't matter if you're working hard in financial institutions, it

doesn't matter if you're a professor. it's just that you're out there working and so for me and for most of us i think up there, it becomes a question of, how do we control costs? how do we make sure that people are not taking advantage of the system? and to preserve those freedoms and lerties that we all enjoy and to make sure government keeps its dirty hands off of the people. [applause] >> brad? >> i agree with all that they've said. when william f buckley, jr. started the national review in 1955, i think it was while on the heels with the new deal with fdr and in the mission statement it says we stand t thwart at history yelling stop! and that's basically what i think it ans. i believe transactions should take place in the private sector ere if you and i want to make a deal, we can determine one that benefits both of us. anytime government gives in these entitlement programs or in government expansions and things like that -- when you give tax

dollars, you can't do that without taking it from someone else. and so for me, igree with what they've said. it goes back to getting back to the basic fundamentalof government that's of the people and they're to serve the people and do those things that the people simply can't do themselves. and only that. >> that's great always going last when you have -- what's the next question? i may want to go last next time? i mean, i agree and i don't have a lot to add to the definition of conservatism based upon what i've heard here. i guess, my one addition that i would make is that -- well, we pretty much agreed on things. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jrbrbú@ @ @ @ h@ k everybody in this audience this particular question, we would generally agree on a 80% of things. i think it is important as we think about the definition and how we apply that to our politics and our policies that

we focus on that 80% and not the 20% that divides us. if we focus on that 80%, we will win elections. [applause] >> i could not agree with you more. it was ronald reagan that said eightout of time. if we could agree on those eight out of 10 tngs, -- i am going to toss to the next question. >> over the last eight years, i had the honor of working for president bush in the white house, and one of the things that got me going a lot and probably you all as well was the bush derangement syndrome. anytime anything went wrong they blamed president bush. bush does, bush that. there is a new movie out where the trailer had rumsfeld and cheney and bush. it's a movie about food and about where our food comes from and not having pesticide in our food. it's a classic case of bush

deranged syndrome. now that we are in the minority, how do we prevent ourselves from going nuts and having obama derangement syndrome? because we start to sesome of it, to me it strikes me that we need to be as a party in the minority party that is still putting forth constructive, policy ideas. and even though we are not setting the agea, health care may not have been at the top of our agenda. if we had control of congress. nor would some of the spending stimulus packages. is it our responsibility to still be putting forth constructive oppositiongenda and policy ideas in the context of them framing the debate? and how do we best do that and had we be be effective in the minority? go for it, trey. >> when you're in opposition you do have to stop bad ideas. week can't not try our best to stop the bad ideas. we need to persuade the public that the ideas are bad. one of the ways you can do that

is something called alternatives. that sounds better. so i think things go hand-in-hand. the other thing when you're in opposition is we are in opposition in washington, d.c., right now but we're not necessarily the party in opposition all across america. here in indiana, we saw this the end of the 2012th slight. you think great governor and we have some great -- [applause] >> we have some great governor's, we have some great secretary of state. we have great legislators who are doing really good things so we need to highlight those as well. and out of the darkness of the late 1970s, the carter administration, democrats controlling all these governor offices for all those years, we grew up into the '80s and had this great farm team of leaders that came fromhe state level. d so i think as we do this in washington we have to oppose and offer good ideas. let's focus on a lot of the good stuff going on at the state and

pilot is because those with your future members of congress and pridential candidates. >> bd, do you want to take a stab at it? we will go backward order to. >> just like a stimulus bill, it was a republican governors that took the first and against it refusing to accept some of the money, refusg to do those things. i think you're exactly right. it's not enough just to stand there and always be fighting against things and the republican party needs to do things for things and we need to learn how to be proactive on issues and offer the alternatives that we can do it. it all boils back down to communication. one of the biggest problems with our party, andhis goes back to technology and things like that, the 1990s, when my governor was rnc chair and newt gingrich and all these guys got together and got the draft with america, they effectively communicate to people this is who we are, what we stand f. if you elect us this is what we'll do. and then they did when they were elected. we have gotten away from that.

we failed to communicate effectively. [applause] >> we fail to guinea pig effectively. we failed in the past at times to put together a very effective and efficient message that can be communicated. and into a great degree fortunately we have lost some credibility in an acting and standing for those issues that the republicanational committee has always did for. i think the awer is the part becomes proactive again and gets back to the basic fundamental values of our party. >> you know, i guess i would add to this question that before we republicans and before we are democrats, we ar americans. and think that we need to all remember that first and foremost. we are all americans. and that we need to look at it from the standpoint that republicans are not always going to be right, and democrats are not always going to be wrong. i think that's a part of the problem with republicans, they perceive where we don't want to

wo with the other side to try and find solutions to some of the challenges this country faces. where the are wrong, they are wrong. we often point out that we have to offer up a better way. i don't care if it's health care, energy, education or national security. whatever the issue is we have to offer a better solution to the challenge is that this country faces. and i think we do so, we regain the confidence of the people. and we do it in a way which doesn't make us look petty or divisive but rather in a way in which we really want what's best to help move our country for. i think that is absolutely essential to us retaining the confidence and the majority. [applause] >> i think it multipart, i will say number one during this time where we are not in power, we should take the time for self reflection to realize and really think about what we did wrong and where we need to go. and not what we did wrong during the bush administration but what we did wrong during the

election. and define the fielding fielding, to get everyone up and running, and to go and really affect the grassroots and to talk to people that feel like they have been left out in the cold. and then no one cares about the. i'm sure all of us have been in that position where you say okay, i worked really har on a campaign and in the campaign is over and you never hear from the candidate they can. that iawful, and we need to stop doing that. we need to have better outreach, and we need to ask people their ideas. i was told by a donor when i first took over that the democrats always ask for money and ideas. the republicans just ask for money. and so what does that do to us? it really ruined our reputation and it really destroys our brand. and so it takes a lot of self reflection to look back and to say we are going to stop doing that, we have many smart people in the party and we need to engage them and ask for tir suggestions. and we also need to be spent doctors. democrats do a great job of

spinning everything. spinning it that way, they look wonderful. and we can do the same thing. we can spend issues so there are issues. massachusetts under governor romney instituted a new health plan, and that it should be a model for what we are doing nationally. and so instead of looking back to what massachusetts did, because it was done under a republican, they just forget about what massachusetts did and go on and are trying to basically tax the hell out of the rest of us do, you know, take care ofou that either don't want health care or are in before it. [applause] >> thank you just finishing this up real quick that the only thing i can add to that is that what governor romney and govnor daniels have taught me as a young republican is that yes, we have to have a better idea. but that better idea can be less government. that better idea can be a suggestion, hey, we can help

ourselves and help our neighbors better than any government program can. and we have to have the strength and the courage to talk straight to people about that. and not look like politicians i think people can handle it. and we ought to talk to them, with them as equals. and that's one thing we need to do a lot better job of. >> the next question i have is about a couple of deficits we're running on the republican side. of course nationally we all know deficits have tripled, the nation debt has doubled, but in the replican party, and this is not a financial question even though i set it up is that, there is a diversity deficit, there is an age to visit and a gender deficit. here is a statistically. 19% of voters born after 1977 are republicans. that make you all a very unique select group. >> special. >> special.

41% are independent. 40% are democrats. what do we do about the deltas here? there are young republicans are shrinking, shrinking species. what do we do about young republicans, diversity and the republican party, and also the gender gap as well? this is one of my hot issues here i am a woman. and as a woman in my 30s, there are very, very, very few of me. and the mass delegation that is here, we all know it's the same women. a few women in their 20s, in their 30s, one or two in their 40s and then back in the '50s and '60s. and i have to say, we as a party have done an awful job reaching out to the groups of people that would be our normal affinity groups. when you look -- when i start talking to women and other mothers and they talk to them about issues that really

resonate with parents making this world a better place for our kids, that's not a partisan issue. it's just a very commonsense issue. and it's amazing how you can start engaging people. so it doesn't have t be a fiscal conversation that you're having. it doesn't have a social conversation that you're having, it's just this world has been a better place for me. my grandmother immigrated here from sicily when she was 10 in the early 1900s, and taught herself how to read and write english. and went on to be a laborer and went on to own her own business. she made this world for my mother and better for myself. and i would like to leave a better world for my daughters. it'so simple. so why can't we reach out to people? there is no reason why we can't grab the kids out of college and take you know what, you're going to get a job and whether you're making $20000 or $200,000, you have to pay taxes. and where are those taxes go to and how are you going to support

herself? and suddenly people's interest perks, and so we really have to start reaching out to minority groups and every -- on every aspect of timing, the party, i am sorry gentemen, but there is one woman and one nonwhite men. and when you look around, there's not much diversity in the party and we really have to work on that and we have to talk to everyone and make them talk to their friends and their friends and their friends. because we are just ling it with young people and with women, just is that all. >> absolutely. [applause] >> and then give ryan the assist. >> yeah, gosh. we really do have a lot of work ahead of us but i know we're up to the task. now is our time. for those in the room, young republican, now is our time. this is the moment. i like to joke and say these are rare tim, indeed.

barack obama was elected president, the arizona cardinals made it to the super bowl. [laughter] >> these are rare times, but it is time for young republicans to step forward and engage. and i think if we engage around those two ideals, i said earlier, freedom and opportunity, specifically opportunity. we have opportunities to make gains within women, younger folks, minorities, you name it. opportunity. because ultimately when it comes down to what people are looking for, they are looking for an opportunity to make a life for themselves. and that ought to be our focus, specifically economically. we need to be that party that looks that way in which you create economic opportunity through stimulation, through reducing the tax burden, and allowing them to thrive and create the jobs in the sinesses that put people back to work. that's the type of republican party and the areas where young

republicans can help make a difference by engaging at the halloween free opportunities. and when we do so, through opportunities people have skin in the game and when people have skin in the game daycare. they want a government that is responsible. they wanted a government offer back and they want a government that does those things that are supposed to do that lets them live their life. as i like to say to folks all around the place, look, people want a fiscally responsible government that works for the people. that keeps their taxes low, that builds roads and water systems, that protects their rights that upholds the constitution and defend our country, that strips the free enterise system, embraces technology for self-government and gives parents a choice in their child's education. and yes, my friend, a government that is one to get people that need a hand up, not a handout. and for most americans a government that keeps its hands off our last respecting our liberties and individual responsibility. [applause]

>> .co. >> .org très? >> it's hard to follow those two speakers. [laughter] >> i'm going to try. one issue that we talked a little bit about, is health care. and in my family, my wife is the one that is very involved in any of the health care decisions and are fairly. i think as a party, right now healthier, as a country right to health care is the biggest topic of discussion right now because of what congress is looking at right now. and we know that what congress is looking at is terrible, putting bureaucrats between you and your health care provider. is going to result in a single-payer system. i don't need to persuade any of you of that. but we had the opportunity to reframe the debate and say why do we actually empower the patient, the consumer. the consumer of the health care, the peon was in there in the

hospital, in the doctor's office. if we can get better hold on that issue and become more articulate about our vision for healthier future, that may be a way to kind of cut into the gender gap on a particular issue because i think when you look at surveys that's an issue that is of particular concern to women. and so just like when 2000 president bush closed the gender gap and was able to win on education, when democrats used to tell us on education and president bush convince a lot of women and men that he cared about improving our nation education. i think health care is probably that for this coming decade, issue that we need to grab onto using our conservative principles and offering a better way. >> those are great answers. do either of the two white men want to take a stab at the diversity gap? >> and mississippi ran a very high population of african-americans, largest number of africanmerins elected officials than any other state in the union.

not all of them have been damocrats. i guess the simple answer to it in my opinion, i've heard speeches about this from republican leaders for 15 years, but it's easy just to go do it. we had a statehouse district in mississippi with special election, 65% of black voting age population. and normally in the past that would be a district, the state party would just concede to the democrats. and we got back to. we recruited a candidate, an outstanding candidate, african-american, true conservative, would have been outstanding leader, we ended up losing that race but for the first time in the history of that district, the democrat staffers, decratic party, everyone had to go and fight it. it was a battle to win. and there was another district, the same way with where we recruited the only sitting state republican woman senator.

so i think it's just something that you've got to go do. someone involving when i was youn and i think it's ju that easy to go out, reach out and just do it. you kno don't be afraid to engage. don't be afraito engage. i n't care who they are, where they come from. don't be afraid to engage. just talk to them. we have more in common than we have a part. >> and i think the man from colorado is exactly right. we've got to be very carefulf pandering. i don't think anyone here wants to do that. but the fact of the matter is because of who we are for some responsibility activists, limited government activists, we are selling health food. they are selling twinkies, dingdong's. all right? much easier sale, but it will kill you. and so whatever the demographic is, we have to make the argument that selling health food is going to make a stronger and better, and we have to now wait for them to come to us but we have to go to them with that message.

>> we have one more question, just to wrap this up. and i would like to ask each of you to offer what you see the biggest challenge in the next two to four years before the gop is and how you think we should address it. and i didn't give them a heads up i was going to ask this. who want to -- >> going back to the american people. i simply believe as jennifer said during a self-evaluation, determining who we are, and then communicate that effectively and efficiently to the american people, our elected leadership standing up for those same guys and fighting that fight. and reaching out and being something that people would want to be a part of, and that people can buy into, people can get skin in the game with. i just think that's what we need to be about. >> i will go.

it absolutely is -- i think our biggest challenge is just branding. we are the label that the republican party has got is awful. we are these mean, cold, you know, nasty people that no one smiles and don't like to have fun and don't like to party and i know you guys had a party last night. [laughter] >> so we need to go out there and just, again, our principles are so phenomenal. we want smaller government. we want limited data to its personal responsibility, freedom andiberty. who cannot agree with that? but if we're not communicating those on a normal, average discussion, a conversation level, people will not listen. and we hav to engage people and we need to make them feel good and we need to make them believe in us. we can't just sell them a bill of goodsnd not follow through on it. it's very important for us to forge ahead, talk to everyone,

be really do that outrage. make people invested in the party and invest in their future. and that will get us back on the right track. >> you know, i kind of skipped my turn. i didn't know it was my goal, but when i talked a little bit about this on my website, www.fraser for colorado.com, please check it out, but really ultimately when it gets back to is we got t connect with people. we have to connect with people on the issue they care about. and i think that's our biggest challenge. if we do that i believe we will in fact regain confidence and restore ourselves as the majority of this country. [applause] >> i think we are to finish up with secretary grayson so i will be quick to get out of the way by saying again, thank you for coming. there is another fellow in the room who was also thinking about running for u.s. senate against a certain mr. bayh. and i can't thinof a better person to speak the truth against that man who will think

about doing it. thank you for being here as well, sir. for what you are going do. [applause] >> and as i turned over to secrary david grayson i just want to say if you go to each of our website, you'll see on our bios very proud fact that between the two of us secretaries of state we have kept the wars between indiana and kentucky down to zero during our 10 year. thank you very much for coming. [applause] >> i think as we are looking over the next couple years, a lot of the conversations today have given us food for thought, but for me the trick in all this when youe in oppositionnd we're trying to stop bad ideas, promote good ideas, is always to remember to be forward-looking. and ultimately i think that ronald rgan showed us genius and a guy that lost was the jack came was forward-looking. the history of america, the history of forward progress. reagan's reelection campaign was born in america it was the dawn

of the new day. and so as we look forward, you look to talk about these ideas, be optimtic and be positive. president obama was able to do that in last year's election and it really helped about. so as we are thinking about the future, frame these issues. look at the policies. whenever i look, because i think of my age or older, my sexual daughter, i want to lead a better life for them like my tears left for me. so just keep looking for the future. keep looking forward and that optimism is the tie that binds all americans, democratic and republicans. if we can recapture that i think we can recapture a lot these offices would've lost in the last couple of years. >> let's give -- [applause] >> thank you. thank you to trey, todd, brad and jennifer. we would also like to thank todd tolson, the chair of the convention opposes all on together. he did a terrific job. [applause]

>> and have a wonderful rest of your convention, and thank you for being with us here at lunch today. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the pentagon has scheduled a briefing in just a few months at 10 a.m. eastern from iraq.

watch that live coming up here on c-span in just a couple of minutes. >> why i made the trip from the white house to alex feel junior high. i am not here to teach a lesson. you already have a very good teacher. i'm not here to tell you what to do or what to think. maybe your custom to adult talking about you, and at you. well, today i'here to talk to you and challenge you education matters. and what you do today and what

you don't do can change your future. everyday, we hear more bad news about our schools. maybe you saw today's headline. i don't know if you had a chance to look at it, about the release of the new national goals report. if we can get the camera to come in and take a look at this for a moment. and math, fornstance, this national report card shows that nationwide, five of six, eighth graders don't know the math they need to move up to the ninth grade. in spite of troubling statistics like this one, i don't see this report, however, as just bad news. and i will tell you why. this report tells us a lot about what you and what you don't know. it gives us something to build on. it shows us our strengths and weaknesses that we have got to

correct. it sets forth a challenge to all of us. work harde learn more, revolutionized american education. i know you have heard about percentiles, surveys, and statistics. but here's what all that fancy talk really means. education means the difference between a good future and a lousy one. reports don't give uthe right to make excuses. our scores will tell us where we are and where we need to go. i mentioned earlier the bad news we hear about schools today. but what we don't hear enough about are the success stories. you know, all over america thousands of schools do succeed. even against all odds.

kids from all over the district ofolumbia petitioned to get into our deal school here, because parents know the school works. it works because teachers like the one standing over here who decided at the age of 25, maybe you all know this but a lot of people around the country do no she decided at the age o25 that she wanted to teach. she was standing in a surmarket checkout line when she saw a magazine ad about college. and she went back to school, work our way through in seven years, waiting tables to pay tuition. and she made it. and so can you. the school here works because of students like the ones with me today. students like rachel rushed. where is rachel?

right there. okay. a member of the alice deal's award-winning math counts can be greater, you tell me if i'm wrong, but you and six other students in this class alone have taken part in the johns hopkins talent search. they took the college entrance exam on an experimental basis last year, as seventh graders. and even in junior high, some of them scored well enough to get in college right now. so let's just put it on the line. you've got the brains. now, put him to work. certainly not for me here but for you. progress starts when we ask more of ourselves, our schools, and yes, you, our students. we made a start nationally now, by sending six national education goals to meet the

challenges of the 21st century. and by the year 2000, at least nine in every 10 students should graduate from high school. we should be first in the world in math and science. we need to regularly test students ability. every american child should start school ready to learn. every american adult should be literate. and every arican school should be safe and drug-free. >> part of a speech by president george. w. bush in 1991 to students in washington, d.c.. you can watch all that online at c-span.org. we are showing president obama speech at noon today from wakefield high school in northern virginia. right now we are live at the pentagon. the briefing room there. were going to hear from iraq major general richard nash will be speaking with reporters as

the associated press is reporting this point the u.s. military says four american soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs in northern iraq in baghdad raising the total number of dessel in iraq to 4343. that is according to the associated press. again, we are waiting for the briefing here with general richard nash. it should get why here shortly. [inaudible conrsations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> good morning and welcome. general nash, can you hear me okay? >> i can hear you very well. >> thank you for joining us, can you. i think is back in august when he last gave us an update. this is for those of you who might have missed an earlier one, major general richard nash who is the commander of multinational division south. and he is in basra today what he is reading you from. and he is going to give you a brief update an orview of what hisorces are doing down there and then take some of your questions. genera again thank you for joining us and let me turn it over to you. >> again, thanks. good morning from basra, iraq. i am major general richard nash,

and i commanded multinational division south. also known as the red bull. the rebels are a national guard division based in saint paul, which is a suburb where we are located by the name of rosemon minnesota. i appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today about our operations here in southern iraq. there are at the 34th division is responsible for the command and control of the multinational division south with division headquarters located just outside of the city of basra. we have three eat sectors throughout the nine southern provinces, in addition to an aviation brigade that provide support throughout our area of responsibility. our mission here in iraq is to build civil capacy and train and support our iraqi partners in their mission to provide security for the iraqi people. since we spoke last month, the iraqi security forces have had tremendous success in establishing security throughout

the ni provinces in southern iraq. i would like to highlight a good news story in the dakar and maison provinces. and a productive mission that resulted in a significant capture of weapons and ammunition. during recent operations, the tense iraqi army division captured dozens of explosive book, magnetic card sticky bombs, rocket propelled grenades, hundreds of machine guns, assault rifles, and thousands of small arms rounds. additionally, over 100 rockets, artillery rounds and mortar shells were collected in cash sites around the marshes of the south of the province. amg the recently confiscated items were rocke rails, radios, and gas masks. the iraqi army is committing its reputation to citizens of southern iraq as a catalyst for peace and adding to their security. most of these caches were

exposed by tips from the concerned citizens who refused to let criminals and terrorists the road security and economic opportunity in the country. as wmove forward together, the ongoing success of the iraqi police, the iraqi army and the department of border enfcement are indicative of the positive outcomes we have achieved together and they are also a testament to the professionalism of iraqi security forces. so brian, thanks we opportunity to share the successes with you. at this time i look forward to your questions. >> very good. i'm sure we hava a few here. looks like joe would like to start up off. go ahead, joe. >> good morning, general. this is joe. could you give us more details about the capture of munitions that the iraqi divisions have found lately in the south, do you know what the source of these weapons, these rockets?

>> joe, thanks. again, i would like to expand a little bit about the great effort by the tense iraqi division. i must also mention in my opening comments that there was a great participation from the adjoining division, the 14th division headquartered here in basra, commanded by major general aziz. the 10th command, those two major generals both division commanders worked very closely in an operation that was well-planned, well coordinated, and supported by our u.s. forces. the 401(k) d. this operation was named the southern triangle and it started approximately six weeks ago. with an effort to intercept trafficking of lethal in

addition, lethal weapons, mechanism that would provide terrorists and criminals means to do harm to the iraqi's. this effort is still ongoing. they are deliberately killing through the areas i mentied, the swap area. it is very difficult operations, during the hottest part of the year here in iraq, late august, early september. the soldiers have done a great job. i am speaking directly about the iraqi division, the 10th and the 14th. as i mentioned, the caches that they were able to find, and the nations that i've mentioned, certainly have markings on them. and they come from a variety of places. and i will be quite frank with you, some of the rockets have made in iran on those rockets. asell as some other countries,

munitions. and they certainly can be munitions that are left over from the pvious war. the iranian iraq war in the '80s. some of them are rather new but again they are markedith certain country markings. and those are the things that we try to exloit and look out, find out howo use those weapons are, how do those munitions are. as we continue to exploit the networks that are doing harm here in southern iraq. >> just po follow-up, general, again, joe. do you know who was behind, who was controlling these munitions? is there any specific group that you know you could name? >> i think, joe, i would be safe by saying, you know, they are extremist group. these are loted in very remote areas in vacant buildings in the

marsh areas themselves. some of them were already buried. so to tie it back to a particular group, would be very difficult again. but again, through the human intel that both the 10th iraqi division and the 14th iraqi division are able to do, they do a great job of exploiting information that we gather when they go out to the villages and cities and dealing with the shakes and the tribal areas. and they do a tremendous job in getting to the source of those. and again, we have developed a good network, good network of intelligent and we share that with our iraqi partners on a continuous basis. they have full knowledge of how we bring that information together. we share it with them. we believe individuals, groups, cells, are working those issues. and we allow them than to be in the lead as they he been.

and we partner with them, but they are in the lead and the are prosecuting. they get warrants for their arrest. they go in front of a judge, and the rule of law is well in place and embedded. and they are really doing a great job, and i have seen just magnificent improvements since we he been here taking over this area if a. >> general, you said the other munitions aside from the rockets come from a variety of places. could you please be more specific or tell us why you can't be? >> bill, again, you know, if i talked about names i would be pointing fingers and again we don' really have information or intelligence that would directly pinpoint it back to a particular

supplier. so needless to say, the bulk of what we see would have a stand on a particular mission that would say iran. >> thank you. >> barbara starr from cnn. i have to follow and as my real real question. on the iranian weapons, you have seen this for many years now and you understand the date of the stands on the iranian weapons. so what is the most recent manufacture of iranian weapons you have seen? and then i would like to ask another question i need to ask you. >> a follow-up on that i believe, i've already answered. i believe probably 2007 was the latest stamping out the date on a munitions that i personally saw and have heard about. >> what i really wanted to ask you about was the case against the four soldiers, it may sound

alleged mistreatment of fellow soldiers, and specically the link you believe there is to the suicide of pvate first class wilhelm. in reading the chart sheet you see here the military seems to make a direct link between the alleged maltreatment and the private suicide. what can you tell us about what it is that you believe these soldiers did to their fellow soldiers? and what happened to the private in the hours before he committed suicide? >> first of all, i would like to express my deepest thoughts, prayers to the wilhelm family during this very difficult time. all of our soldiers have private wilhelm in our thoughts. to follow up on your question, we immediately started an investigation first of all into

the death of private wilhelm. that investigation is still going on. it should conclude probably before we speak again next month. to determine the actual cause of ath of private wilhelm. in the conduct of that investigation became clear that there were other issues that we need to take a look at. and a revolve around their cruelty and maltreatment that was discovered during that investigation of private wilhelm's death. we take these allegations extremely seriously amah very seriously. and ware investigating that. if the cruelty and maltreatment charges are true, the accused will be brought to justice. >> well, sir, let me follow up there. the charge sheets that have been released indicate excessive physicalxercise was ordered, corrective action was ordered, someone was forced to carry rocks in their backpack.

can you get any better indication of what these allegations are? and since you said you are still trying to determine the cause, the specific cause of private wilhelm's death, and his family have told it has been suicide, do you have any reason to believe it is anything other than suicide? >> again, i'm waiting for the cid report, the final report from the cid regarding private wilhelm's death for that final determination. that will be the concluding determination of his death. with regard to the charges, the charges of the four individuals that you speak about abbott made public, they range anywhere from nine down to four charges per individual. and a revolve around cruelty and maltreatment, making false official statements, and a charge of reckless endangerment.

and those are the types of charges that four of the individuals are currently facing. again, that is going to be under total investigation. there will be a full investigation will be an article 32 hearing, if you will, that ll determine if there is enough evidence there to formally bring them to justice. >> way in the back. >> i just have one more follow-up on the same issue, general. courtney from nbc news. where are the four soldiers right now, and where is their court-martial presumably if any of them is court-martialed? where would that be held, in iraq, kuwait? are there any plans to bring wilhelm's family over, his parents over to be there for the trial, any trial?

>> those are a good follow-up questions. first of all, the soldiers in question immediately after the preliminary investigation was conducted at that the particular face were removed from that site. and they were by the brigade commander, and they were redirected for further assignment back to his headquarters at, and so that's where those individuals are currently performing duties. we are in contact with the family, and we will keep them informed about the total process that we're going to the investigation. we will facilitate their wishes to the best of our capabilities. again, keeping in mind this is a combat zone, a war zone. and someone will he to decide about the availability of them coming to iraq. if this does become an issue that goes to a court.

my eectations are until i'm told differently that i am expecting that the trial, if it becomes a trial, or individuals would be held here in iraq. >> this is jim with american forces press service. if we could go back tthat operation southern triangle. i would just like to ask you, you know, you worked with the 14th and 10th divisions. what sort of support did you provide them? and could they have done the job even may be taking longer without that support? >> jim, i think i can answer that by the fact that we are continuing toartner, and it becomes not only just an operation, operation southern triangle. as an operation to get at the

legal aid. it continues to build confidence with us as partners. the u.s. forces, the iraqi's, and it becomes still a part of their training. this is a major effort. two divisions coming together to do an operation like that, i'm cord on in search around areas that we have is pretty monumental. and at this stage in the development of iraqi security forces, this is something to be pretty proud of for the iraqi's and for the u.s. forces that have spent time training and working with, mentoring and providing resources to the iraqi's. and so it not only was an operational issue, it was one that we went with them, we partnered with them. and i say with them, we still have military training teams out that train and advise as they go through this. whether it's the conduct of the operation, the development of e operation order. i was personay present when major general, major general and in fact the governor briefed us

on his operation as he was whining to do. laid out the map, what he intended to do each and every day of the operation, what his ldiers were going to do. we also provided them our capabilities. also provided for them medevac capabilities. again, as i mentioned earlier, intelligence sharing information, what we know about that worked to make sure that we were covering the area that we feel we were probably coming in across the border illegally. and so those are the types of things we continue to do each and every day, but again this was such a large operation with a lot of forces across two divisional boundaries, to provcial boundaries. it was a well-planned and well executed and will be a phase t following on this. >> just do a quick follow. how about logistical support? food and fuel, things like that. did you provide that to the

iraqi's? >> no, we did not. day -- in their fledgling logistical capabilities, have had the ability to refuel themselves, provide fuel for themselves, maintenance, transportation. so that was not an issue in terms of a successful conduct of southern triangle. >> i'm with stars & stripes. getting back to the instigation on this soldier's death. our investigators looking to whether this could be a homicide? >> again, i cannot determine what the cid is looking at. it is an independent operation, investigation, under investigation. and i would expect that that is going to conclude shortly. i cannot predict a timeline, but the cid is doang the independently, and i will have to take a look at the results of that. but they are totally in charge of t investigation.

>> originally, it was said this was a suicide. now i understand investigators are looking for a cause of death. can you rule out that this was a homicide? >> i will not rule out whether it was a suicide or homicide. that is not in my purview. again, the cause of death will be deterned through the cid investigation. >> general, your territory down there a year or so ago was fairly lawless, militias running around. we haven very little news. what is the overal security situation? you obviously still have weapons coming in about security incidents. can you give us an overall view of what your security situation is?

>> i will try and enter that the best i can based upon what i think i heard you ask. you are right it back in early part of 2008 the bozrah area was pretty much under control of militias. prime minister malki as you are all aware started off with an operation called the charge of the night here in sra. and it was pretty violent, taking individuals off the street. there was pretty heavy fighting here in the city of basra. it was not in control of the security force. i mentioned an individual earlier, major general aziz who was commanding the 14th division. he was part of the 11th division that came in here with prime minister forces at the charge of the knights. and he currently is here in charge of a portion secreting in charge of the iraqi army, along with another great iraqi army

officer, by the name of major general mohammed and he is in charge of the bozrah operations center who also has controlled and iraqi police. and to that center, that said i was down to last night talking with nature general mohamed about some future operations, has taken control of bozrah i have spent time with the governor of the bozrah. a newly elected official as of january. is concerned about security. is concernedbout the economy. electricity and water and citizens and the clean of the city. and i can tell you that the city of basra has done a 180-degree turn. recently we had in my headquarters, i invitedver for a dinner in honor of a man last

wednesday, a sunni, shia, general mohammed, and an individual from the 70s recon squadron, major general mohammed. and all told me how better the city of basra is now compared to what it was a year ago. and all of these efforts are going on. were putting together coalitions here in basra with the ledership, the religious leadership of talking about how to make things better, along with the governor. and we are supporting. there are over 100 projects we're working on your that are all focused on the citizens of the basra and making life better for them. from what i see, the polling that i see, it's clear that the citizens are not as concerned about security any longer in the city of basra, or in the province in south. they are concerned about jobs, and they are concerned about the economy and they are concerned about their families. and so those are the things that the governor is working on and

into support of the iraqi sigurd forces, in support of the governor, are making great headway in that area. >> if we can come back to that. i'm with the christian science monitor. can you give u kindf a some sense of the amount of violence across your area of responsibility, and also just kind of characterized what are your troops doing? >> okay. let me answer the sort of a two-part thing. what my troops are doing and in the level of violence. we average a little over 143 attacks per day, and that is throughout all nine provinces. and i mentioned earlier in my opening statement land lies is probably the size of wisconsin, geographically. primarily all shia, you have to keep that in mind. and the fact that we probably

ha close to 10.5 million people in those nine provinces. so we are averaging a little over 1.3 attacks per day. and this is last in baghdad in the last in the north in the mobile area, but slightly more in multinational force west in the anbar province. since june, the attacks generally have dropped slightly in our area. the number of ied attacks have gone down dramatically. the highest month was the month we got here inmate, but that was the highest in eight months. and each month since then the ied attacks have gone down. now, have the same that, indirect fire attacks on bases ve increased slightly since june 30, since we have complied

with the security agreement. but in general, the attacks against the coalition forces on the road during their missions, partnering with iraqi security forces, going out to the train and advise citizens to be part of their operations, as i mentioned hagone down slightly. now talk about our soldiers, what are they doing? they are engaged each and every day like they have been in sort of like netware commuting to work whereas before we were out and about not so much here in the south because we were really not part of embedded in the major cities that were part of the security agreement. but we continue to partner with our iraqi counterparts, whether it's the border enforcement individual at the ports of entry, we have a large port here in the star, a large vessels coming in, oil going out. we are engaged going down there

on a continuous basis. we have worked with the iraqi army and continue to train them to professionalize their officer corps and nco corporation. and that training is being asked for so by the iraqi. it isn't as if once we became workinout of the city program that they forgot about us. they will escort us on the routes to whatever the training site may be, whatever the range may be that we will go out and assist with them. and so we are probably more rtnered with them in terms of they are with us from the time we leave our bases until the time we returned that evening to court if we remain overnight, working. and some of our bases are still collocated with iraqi's. some are joining, tea walls are separating us. others are within two, 300 meters. of our basis. so the partnership is there from morning until night. and to that relationship has not

stopped. our soldiers are still totally engaged during the great work that they have since at least i have been here in may, and that partnership has been getting greater and greater because success rate here in the south is getting better and better each and every day. >> to quick clarifications. you said attacks 1.3 per day down somewhat when you got there in may? and then you said attacks were up in one category. i just didn't catch it. >> sure. i will crify that. the attacks with indirect flier attacks, rocket attacks if you will, and that is why we are pretty adamant about interdicting the lethal aid because indiscriminate rocket firing at our bases has increased slightly since jun june 30, because, you know, you know, we are asics location. and after this amount of time, they become, the change their

techniques and tactics procedures and the are able to kind of a choir as, if you will, with indiscriminate rocket firing on homemade rails with, if you will, washing machine timers, set the timer and ignition on these rockets. anthey just let them fly. they aim them towards a base, or an iraqi infrastructure, if you will, and they just shoot them off and by the time we are able to respond, which is in minutes because we can track where these rounds started from, those terrorists and criminals have vacated because they set a 30 minute timer, if you will. the iraqi's, both the army and the police and the board enforcement are usually there before we are at the site because they a out patrolling. they set these systems up and leave. that is, the criminals and terrorists. but once they fired the weapon systems, the iraqi's respond

immediately. and then we look at those sites, we exploit them, find out anything that the criminals or terrorists are doing differently. and we try to always get ahead of their thinking cycle, if you will. and to upset those networks. we also have seen where those indiscriminate rocket attacks have landed and impacted in residential areas. and certainly we exploit that, and the local citizens are angry. and that is why they are using our tabloids. and that is why they are calling in suspicious activity and are reporting more and more, more than i have seen since may. but that has increased, the rocket attacks on our bases. >> . .

>> here in the boston areaing the british were here before that. they all were worki on these issues toinimize the attack. so it's been on a study decline against our forces. >> if i could indulge and just see if youould take oneore from abc news, we're waiting patiently. go ahead. >> i with abc news. i think the first advisory and assistant brigade, how would you

compare the operations with the other brigades? what makes them different than the other operations? >> sure. that's -- i'm glad you asked that. i think you ask about the advisory assistant brigade, which is fourth brigade commanded and colonel peter. that organization, it'seally a mission change for that bct. it's still a brigade combat team. they have comen and taken other operations in bikar and may maysan. how do we deal with the

enforcement of the boarders which is not a bcp mission cast? and so they spend time and u.s. boards and training with our border enforcement people back in the united states. afternoon how do we deal with the border forts here along our border, not necessarily the border that we share with kuwait or saudi arabia. they look at how do we partner and train the border enforcement individuals that are at the ports of entry, both for personnel, as well traffic of goods. as you know, there's a great deal of trade that goes on between iraq and iran. and a lot of goods, agriculturally goods come from those locations, as well as building materials. so how to you look at searching those types of vehicles, how do you process people through, how do you look for terrosts and

criminals coming through. those are the types of lessons that they can learn back in the united states outside of going to the national training center where they train on the full spectrum. aib is a principal colonel nuwell is cutting new ground on. with regard to what he's done in the first 100 days. and it's been pretty spectacular. the impact that his bct has done now with the aab concept partnering out with as i said the governors, looking at issues that they can request and ask for that -- and his forces can respond to through the economic areas, assistant in governance, working very close with our reconstruction teams. we support them here in the

south all the nine teams that we have is a focus for pete also as he goes around and discusses issues, rule of law, agricultural issues, other factors and extear -- expertise that they come in to increase again the capability for training iraqi, so there is a pool for future investment from foreign investments, opportunities for business, all caveated with the fact that we pride the securidy for those types of things to flourish. >> general, i want to thank you for the good discussion that we've had here and taking the time to give us your perspective. and before i bring it to a close, let me throw it back to you for any finalhoughts. >> great. thanks. i certainly appreciate the opportunity to talk with you again on our ongoing positive

relationship that we've had with our iraqi partners. going forward we will continue to provide training and support for our iraqi security forces that are capable and nonsectarian. we will move forward with continuing our part of the strategy. to responsibility remove all american combat forces by the end of next august and fulfill our commitment to remove all american troops from the country, the sovereign nation o iraq by 2011. every day i'm impressed by the work and accomplishments of the soldiers, airman, sailors, and coast guards of multinational division. they strive daily to help ensure iraq security and improve the quality of life for this emerging democracy. our deepest gratitude goes out to the families, friends, loved ones, and employers of these

patriots and professionals. our thoughts and prayers continue to be the family that those have given the last full mission. both americans and iraqis can be proud the fine job. there's sons and daughters are doing. i have complete confidence that working together we can overcome any obstacle as we move forward by, with, and through our iraqi partners. thank you. >> thank you. we look forward to having you back in this forum in a few more weeks. >> we're looking forward to the same opportunity. thank you very much. [no audio]

>> in about an hour and 20 minutes president obama will speak with students a nationwide address to students across the country. we'll havlive coverage o that for you and get your reacti that will be on c-span, c-span.org and c-span radio. the house returns today. in the house members will start at number of bills dealing with federal lands and historic sites. later in the week, plans to restore the chesapeake bay. and later in the day, we'll turn to legislation promoting u.s. tourism to people in other countries. it creates a nonprofit tours and cooration. to do so it would get its money from fees from foreign visitors.

>> the supreme court has a rare special session tomorrow. hearing oral argument on a campaign finance case. it also marks the first appearance on the bench for justice sonya sotomayor. here's chief justice roberts on what it's like for a new justice. >> t some extent it's unsettling. you quickly get to view the court as a court as composed of these members. and it's becomes kind of hard to think of it as involving anyone else. i suspect it's the way peoe look at their families. this is the family. how could it be different? but you do get new arrivals in both of those situations. it's a tremendous sense of loss. justice white always used to say when the court gets a new member it changes everything and changesverybody. simple changes. we move the seats around in the courtroom, they are seats by

order of seniority. same in the conference room. but more fundamentally, it can cause you to make a new fresh look at t views. a new member can have a particular view from issues that may be very different from what we've been following for sometime. so it's an exciting part of life with the court. >> hear from other justices during supreme court week as c-span looks at the home to america's highest court, starting october 4th. >> as health careominates political debate this summer, medicare continues to be one the main proams providing care to seniors. next a look at how the program was passed by the house and senate back in 15. president lyndon johnson spent a lot of time on the phone talking to house and senate as well as members of inner circle about strategy and political

maneuvering to get the bill through congress. in the next section we will play the calls. >> as congress continues to work on health care legislation, we now bring you special program from the debate on medicare from lyndon johnson. with participants including larry o'brian, key members of congress including senator albert gore senior, a house committee wilbur wells. and throughout the program historian dove shreve will be giving us context and background for these conversations. and we do note profanity in some of thes -- the calls.

we'll get to the calls in a minute. but david shreve currently working on a book called "american promise:kennedy, johnson, and the forging of the modern economy." describe the amendments signed in 1965. >> well, at the tail end of this process we're doing to listen in on today indeed johnson signs the medicare amendments to the social security act on july 30th 1965. this was characterized by a three-layer cake design. and we'll a little bit about how that came to be i some of these calls here. essentially what it comprised was a hospital insurance program which was the core element of medicare plans over he years that had been banned about. a second part which was doctor's

insurance forhysician's bills et cetera which was a on not at 11th hou boreal toughly late in the process,nd then what we know as medicaid today was an expansion of act in 1969. so we have three parts to it. the most controversial and long running part was the first part, the hospital insurance. >> host: and what similarities and differences should we will listening for in the 1964 and '65 process, and the current administration's efforts on health care legislation? >> one similarly i think we'll pick on pretty readily is how lbj in '64 and '65 and even kennedy before him, which we won't learn too much about today, had to play off one house of the congress against another. both had dramatically different

designs on what they wanted to do. the politics of each house was radically different, you might say. and, you know, wll see f example at one point the question of whether or not they should push for this in a new design in conference committee comes up. we may well see something like that coming down the pike here this year with the current health care reform proposals. at the very least i think we've noticed of course that the house has one set of plans and the senate is still forming another set of plans. and that situation is very much like lbj faced in64. >> host: and the calls in this first segment take place from may 18 to august 1 of 1965. please outline what happens to the medicare in in period. >> well, the story of 1964 is one in which johnson feels he has a decent shot of getting

medicare amendments passed. it's not his highest priority. he's launching the war on poverty, he's pushed for a big tax cut on the legislation that he inherited from kennedy, and he's phing for the civil rights act of 1964, a historic measure that he signs into law that july. noneeless, he's willing to give this a shot because it's something that he's been pushing for at least a few years himself. he and sam rayburn signed on and certainly deced to push for it in 1960 in particular. so this is near and dea he wants it if he can get it. wh we'll see is he realizes soon enough that he can't get it. and the yes is do you simply pull the plug on the whole process and start over again in '65 or do you try to get something in '64. that's the question raised

again. >> host: thank you, historic and author david shreve. now on may 18, 1965. as the call beginning youl hear about the conversation with wilber mills. >> mills told me by the end of this week he thought he would have something to come down and discussion with you that he could present by way of a packet that might be of interest. i told him i had read some articles that were dturbing and would indicate nothing was happening on the medicare end. and he said, well, you know better than to pay attention of the stories. i agree with you. i wanted to be re -- reassured.

and he said well you just tell him ain as i told you late last week that just as soon as i'm ready to sit down and present something to him that i can ell out and would represent a pact that would be of interest. and now wilbur collin reported to henry. i asked henry to get ahold of him this morning. he reported that hadn't been any particular new moves in the committee thathey are still kicking around. but mills is edging toward a -- first of all toward the end of last week he felt that on the contract basis under any medicare program that he wanted to have the private insurance companies be able to move for us. now the laker folks got a little

wind of that, and he came in to see me and h seenills and told today that mills has decided over the weekend he thought that over and that was too complexion and he's kind of back in the position that the -- but he's certainly in t medicare ballpark. 's feeling his way along slowly and carefully. and he's manipulated and maneuvering. i think we have to have confidence in him to be contacting united us by the end of this week for this long awaited meeting. collin says that from everything he can see is this is no hankie panky. an awfully deaent guy said i

have a feeling that something will work out. but i get nervous because mills won't tell us anything. that's how he operates. i talked to him as recently as noontime today. but i would like to get him with the rap -- wrap up on the thing. because i notice these stories e starting to break out in different directions and all kinds of interpretation of what is going on in there. so far,'ll have to say that the consensus is mills is going to coe out witha package that bypasses medicare. that's about all i've read. mills says this isn't what he intends to do. it all in the final analysis, what does it contain? he said you and i now my goal is to prove a medicar program.

>> i'd like to talk to him about it as soon as he gets where he can. i sure hope that no action, he makes no commitments. >> yeah, he promises no mmitment endnd told me by the end of the weekhy don't i just touch base, hello, how are you, and keep on him. it should be by the end of the reach. it's a complex bill. there could be an ultimate price tag on this bill of about $3 billion i would think overall, because they get into the increase and the cash benefits and social security and i think that would be a tag of $400, $500 million something like that. i had told wilbur, if he's getting into something, no one fights those things. as long as he doesn't mean he's using this toet out of medicare. he said, well, he's not going to use it for that purpose but he'd like to try to use

that. i said hell, those folks must be getting it before election. then on the medicare end, he was lking about the value of package on 750 a month. and that would be irrevocable. and we will kick that around for a week or so. and my contention was hell if it's a 750 package, the election to take cash, the person should get the package. hell, now, it's my understanding that's the road he's traveling. he's figuring the package he has in mind is worth in the open markets say 750 and the election that they uld have at the outset which would be irrevocable election which means they chose to take $5 rather than the medicare package. and the labor follows and that

would be fine with them. and they feel there should be an election. and i guess from our point of view if a person, you know, i'm sure we can do a hell of a good sales job. it doesn't concern me. it did concern that he gave 750 in cash instead of the 750 package. i think a lot of the people would have the cash at hand. between $7.50 package and $5 bill and they have to make their choice, i know a lot of people would with the insurance program. but that's the area that's he's been in. >> there's an indication in the house to increase social security. the committee met behind closed door. after that the committee said the unofficial reports be bipartisan support has been

displayed. this means the increase of 6% in the retirement rates have now run up to $125 a month for man retiring at 65 and increase at taxes and 1% each. i tell him if they get where it's getting now, i'd like to know where he has in mind. they are asking me questions, and i don't know what they are doing. justell him that. >>ll right. i will. >> may 18th, 1964, lbj and larry o'brien. nocing you're reacting. what do you think? >> there's a couple of things. one is the lengthy discussion about choosing one option other another is really a moot point at end. because that doesn't end up in the bill. so they -- folks do not get that option.

but it does pointut one other issue here that is the way in which, especially in 1964, they were balancing this politically and maybe economically as well on the pivot of cash benefits increased to social security act, which everybody wanted, and which was probably going to go down the pike if nothing disturbed it, versus adding on medire benefits or maybe taking medicare benefits in lieu of cash benefits. so this is critical part of what becomes the big debate in 1964 which ends up as we know in a deadlock. >> lbj and his chief congressional aid have another call. now, you'll be hearing references to health education and welfare secretary and hew

assistant wilbur cao win. he's the h.e.w. point man. mr. o'brien is listening the medicare legislation. >> hi, mr. president. the wilbur mills situation has deteriorated at the moment. i had mills here, he killed a couple of hours in the committee this morning. there was no action. he talked to cohen following that and feels he can't put this thing together. and he's suggesting why not vote out of the social security bill in the morning. he's going to have the final markup, and with an increase in benefits that he wouldn't ask for any vote on current bills and put that over in the next year and that he can do both

medire or perhaps he could skip that boat spirally. and why didn't we try to do something over at the senate side whe it went over there to atch medicare to it and at the point something could happen in conference and what have you. now i asked them just what they both felt that short of the conversation again because you and mills that there wasn't anything that could happen tomorrow morning except to lose this thing totally. the best that would happen is they take a formal vote. that would require talking to gene and others to keep them away from demanding a former vote because he's been raising hell with mills as it is. the whole thing is at a point where i think there has to be anotheronversation of some sort, very frankly, i don't have the handle, i know i'm just up

and following your lap without the answers to it. i think perhaps what we ought to do is suggest to mills, which i can do, that perhaps he could postpone tomorrow morning's meeting until wednesday. that we could talk to the leadership further in the morning within that we can safely even have mills at the leadership breakfast if you think that, or we arrange with the conversation in the morning with mills down here. that might lead mills to be presented to the mills currently you're out of steam because you don't have the votes. but what do you think about having the democratic members of the committee get together in one group and let us, you and i, put the pitch on them to come out of here with some piece of this bill. we can do that or try to avoid

and let them just vote the social security aspect on the senate side with mills feeling that conceivably he could be reversing the situation. isn't so much he could be of help, but good shape with the ama if he could convince the ama that something strong was going to come out. therefore, he would be the immediatey cutting back. i thought the number one reported to you. i'm sorry that i don't have specific suggestions that would be meaningful for you at this point. but i did want you if you want to advice me on what you think that we could do at this point. >> i guess best thing is just let him go on with social security and see if we can add the other in the senate. >> yeah, that maybe the awer. if we can avoid an up or down

vote on medicare in that committee, which is all takes that we don't have to get cut in the crack on this thing in the white house. i don't know. anyway, that's one possibility. i don't know if there's worthwhile, i suppose it's nothing to be lost in a way if i could call him and say this program -- i don't think your committee should meet. you ought to wait another day. and these labor folks are on and left a message that currently all hell broken lose and things are falling apart. that type of message i anticipated what the hell he was calling about. he's always hopeful that way. to tell you how bad things are without any answers. but i did want to alert you to it. i am inclined at this point to ask mills if he would consider

not having the committee meet mt. -- in the morning and to try to grab more time to see if lightning will strike. if we can't find anything in 24 hours try to work o an agreemen with them during that period s he wod ensure that no hope would be taken. :

as i say, we may have to do that anyway and take the chance, these fellows, kerr-mills act, they screw around on this thing. it is a little tricky and i don't -- i just ant to advise you that things are in a lousy state and i don't have an answer. the next step, why don't i dart -- start talking and open the conversation that is forecast tonight and we have the rest of the night, until 10:00 in the morning. they are scheded to start, the

analysis will be taken in the morning on this. >> why don't you try to avoid a vote if you can, then take another day to tell him what you are trying to do, and seek any encouragement. >> not particularly. he is just saying the votes are added on the senate and make sure that we do what the hell -- we can do it. teddy iennedy will not be voting any more this year. that is two votes we have to worry about. i don't see a day like kerr-mills act is suggesting he will be helpful in the conference assuming we take it out on the senate or the conference. mills would say the conference, i will play ball totally to get a good piece of this thing

accepted and run it through the hmuse. that is one thing i am afraid he is getting at, that his role to get to that point in the conference, we could become convincing that the thing was in the process of full settlement, then ben mills move than, he is the guy cutting back, and at the same time he is indicating he is a big help to us. that is a pretty tricky operation. i don't know. anyway, why don't i not go any further, let's get a feeling with him and see what we might comef with. i don't know at this point. >> we were talking about the two wilders being mentioned in this call, you had more to say about that. >> we should know more about both wilbur mills, chair of the

ways and means committee being discussed, in this recent nversation, and wilbur cohen, health education and welfare, assistant secretary appointed by john candy in 1961. one senator, paul douglas of illinois, during the testimony for bobbi jackson -- wilbur cohen's testimony in 1961, he jumped in and said i hear the definition of an expert on social secity is anyone who has wilbur cohen's phone-number as a way of endorsing his appointment. most people believe that was true. so wilbur con is a part of this legislation, putting it together, crafting a legislative strategy. this goes back to when he put together the first social security act in 1935. in and out of government over the years, he had come from a

professorship in michigan before kennedy appointed him in 1961. he is internal to this process. even more integral is wilbur mills. this is a case where wilbur cohen admitted later i took a back seat. wilbur mills shepherded this bill to passage. he is the one who crafted what i call b layer cake composition. mills's chairmanship is quite peculiar in american history although it dovetails withther chairmanships to some extent. this was a critically important committee, mills ran a tight ship. one of the things to rememr critically about mills's leadership, he usually did not support any legislation unless he knew it was going to pass, run into some opposition on the floor. all of the bills that left his

committee during this period came out with a closed rule which meant no amendments were allowed on the house floor. when it reached the floor he generally rationale this by referring to how comex the bill were. the whole thing would come unwound. at was true to a certain extent but a lot of this had to do with his own conservative approach to passing legislation. >> as a special program and medicare continues this is part of an august 1st, 1964, called for a democratic senator, member of the senate finance committee which at this point will start hearings on medicare. 1964 is a presidential election year. is this portion of the call beginning, senators mathers is talking about the political implications of dicare, with republican nominee barry goldwater. >> this talk about bowater, against the socialist theory,

you are for it. if it is held up and defeated in the senate in an effort to get out, with a couple of fellows, you are off the hook. it is a t better issue than it is in fact. if they find out, i campaigned on this in '62, they find out what they have done under the social security, theyre not going to get free hospitalization, they got to pay $90 historic plea, they come by, take him to the cleaners, and i really think it is a helluva lot better issue to repeal the taft rtley bill for years, a lot better issue than it is on the books. we just oughto keep it that way because i don't think you're gointo come out with it anyway. what i am trying to suggest

discretely is why on't we somehow blame this on the republicans for not even having social security increases, so that -- >> you have a 2-1 vote. >> i agree. >> you have e president, good one. >> pass social security and not increase it to the point where you block out ithe future the medical care program. >> we had better see -- >>ussell -- >> cheese with the doctors. >> russell will shift in time, it is coming. suddenly shift without destroying her own position.

>> we can try. >> you get a hold of the menu call me back. i will go to work. you hang that on the wall. they have to have a canal or whatever they have got to have. this is of the night cannot lose. if you vote against me you are out of the republican party, i eliminate you. i have 29 southerners, like roge from my own state, some of them have taken walks on me d some of them are going off. i had to get him to give me this canal, just see what they got to have and let's get it. let's get those two of votes. call me back. >> a portion of a call between president johnson and florida democratic senator george sanders. a member of thsenate finance committee in august 1st, 1964.

our special program on the medicare amendment to the social security bill. we go back to historian and author david shreve and chat about the calls coming up in the next segment. the first three calls will take place on september 2nd, 1964, the day the senate will vote on the medicare measure. before the vote, what is the status of the measure and how is lbj dealing with that? >> the status of that measure at that point is, as you may have picked up from larry o'brien's conversation with the presiden wilbur mills is not inclined to supporthe measure, the one not enough support on the house floor. it appears to be dead on the house side. you may he also picked up already, o'brien suggested that mills -- this is a case where

o'brien misread wilbur mills completely, the notion arises that may be what we will do, passing the senate finance committee, enough nators and enough congresspersons are willing to support an increase in cash benefits to social security. that is likely to pass. perhaps the senate can tack on an amendment to that measure and bring it to the conference committee and get the house conference over there and effectively you are askg them to bypass the wishes of the ways and means committee, and many of the congressmen who have expressed their opinion on the bill on the house floor. as i think o'brien said in a previous call, very risky apoach, that might have been the term he used, it is a real long shot. i think johnson is skeptical that it wil come to pass. nonetheless, that is what they

are approaching. september 2nd is historic day because what happens is even though they are doubtful of the end game, they do go through the motions. the senate ds cac on this amendment and they support it and it passes 49-44. this goes on record as the first time in u.s. history that the senate votes affirmatively on a national health insurance bill. the fate is more than uncertain. everybody kno it is probably doomed at this point, but nonetheless,t probably was important in retrospect that the senate went on record as voting affirmatively for what was essentially king anderson, a hospital insurance segment of what would become t ultimate medicare legislation. >> the next call in this segment deal with the bill in conference committee as lbj talks to larry o'brien, and senate finance

committee member and louisiana democrat russell bond and hale bonds of louisiana. as we will hear in these calls, one of the prospects for the medicare amendment in the conference committee. >> not good. as i mentioned earlier. nonetheless, they feel like it is worth trying this out, so to speak. you heard mention of how russell long was difficult to deal with on this. ultimately he does become the floor leader on the senate in 1965 for the legislation that passes. at this point he is being ornery, he wants to add some amendments. one of the things the administration, and even wilbur mills, who iworking tangentially, want to see the clean bill, they don't want to see a lot of amendments. we will see some mention in a few of these conversations of how russell and albert gore, sr. and others are missing things up by throwing amendments on to the

bill. nonetheless, it does come out as a successfully passed amendment on september 2nd. you might want to mention hale boggs in a different concept, he is clearly a more dependable supporter of the administration, very close to lyndon johnson, they sought aw eye to eye on ma issues. >> we will talk to you again a little later. now call between president johnson and senate finance committee member and tennessee democrat albert gore, sr., whose son would later become vice president of the united states. >> to do something they won't do. he must have talked 30 minutes.

he wants us to accept a modified farm, provision in the bill with six republicans, association of inrance cpanies to write policies f specific purposes their bill. the treasury department has some doubts about it because it provides tax exemptions. justice has some doubt about it because it provides exemptions, but for the purposes of providing old age health-care, approved private insurance, we could afford to do it if

adequate supervision, as the rates and benefits are provided. jarvis came to me yesterday afternoon and said he is going to support anyway, whether we accept it or not. if we would acpt this, i talk to like about it and he said would never we decide to, you was not inclined be favorable to it. i talked to wilbur cohen, a technician in this field, and he says if we want it, we can redraft it to meet the objections othe treasury, but

when i contacted wilbur cohen, he sd someone in the white house, that you didn't want it. this might be something that would be necessary. >> that is the first time i have heard of it. >> 54 >> i will check to see who it di i agree wh you out wilbur cohen. if you want to go along with it -- >> by all means. >> we ought to explore it because you really need the markets to help you. they tell me that they think you have marked on our side. do you have anything about that?

>> i think we have a minimum of two votes. the president spend more money on lobbyists than any out fit. >> we're cnting on two people being on who may not be done. >> they might be back here. >> you know who those two are? >> walters is one of them. they say that he and lester hill, lester has always been a doctor's friend, i watched him in the house. they voted on anything productive. they are counting on his being gone. >> is there any way to get him? >> they can get him back if his vote is the but i don't know. in the old days i would have had him back because this is the gut issue in this campaign. >> barry goldwater dramatize it. the only thing that makes him

change. by flying across the nation. >> it is going to be awful. >> they will do what you want to do with respect to this amendment. this came about, i got into the leadership of this thing, i thought the issue had to be pressed. i expected him to takeover but he is not well. he requested that i continue and present the amendment. somebody has to speak 3-1/2 hours or it will be read out of court. i stepped in and pull it. cu assign someone to look at this amendment? if you can say this is okay with

you, it will give us something. >> if you're going to do something like that, that the get myself on it. you had better seek mike feldman's advice or call ke feldman for the two of us and ask what their hang up is because i don't want a candidate to say the president cled up and moderated and threw away our victory by compromise and i can do that quick unless the request came from plantain because he might feel i moderated his. >> just how do i -- >> what i would do is say you got this call, you're pretty fond of him, let's find out what the opinion is, try to see if our opinion would change.

>> what i will do is say i had called last night. >> tell him what you think ought to be done about it. if you agree with me, pi up the phone and get wilbur cohen and the president willgree to anything we agree to. i know he has feelings toward me and he will go along with what we suggest. if you say i don't like you, that is not true, just about everytng i do, just get on it. i will let him look at it. he will be prepared. just don't take any chances, you are mighty careful. >> if you could possibly call walter? >> could. what do you want to ask him? >> let me see if he is going to

be here. >> what they are doing -- >> heading over on this issue, happen to the -- when i made my speech the other day. he didn't realize, the president's program takes care of tax deductions, takes care of the very rich. what this will do is provide prepaid health care for our self supporting, self-respect, people who want to remain so even after they are 65. i will do that. >> he is -- committed to the doctors. >> i'm afraid he is, but he is happy to be away. if i find out he is not going to be away, go-ahead in new york.

>> president johnson a tennessee democratic senator albert gore, sr. talking about the senate debate on medicare on september 2nd, 1964. later that da lbj urges another democratic senator to support medicare in this portion of a call with senate appropriations committee chairman carl hayden, you will hear lbj mention res presidential rival and republican senator barry goldwater. >> goldwater is fighting back, going to be close. is that vote going to be closed today? on medicare? i see on morning television he is flying back from arizona. don't let him beat us. >> i voted against that before. >> as i remember you waited for us. >> yes. >> won't you do that today? >> i might. >> we can't lose this one.

this is one we can't lose. we have got to have these old people, that is the mt population we got. you agree to do what you did last time, wait and see, do what you have to. if i do need you, let don't let us lose it because youo into a republican win over me. >> i hate to have that happ. >> do like you did before, wait and see. if we don't have to have you, we pe we don't. thank you. >> lbj and senatappropriations chairman and arizona democrat carl hayden talking about medicare legislation under debate in the senate on september 2nd, 1964. later that day the senate comes up with a time vote on medire. in this call, lbj and myra feldman are considering how to break that tie.

you will hear mentions of senators edward kennedy, alfred jordan and mike mulroney and hubert humphrey. >> according to theount, we have a tied vote on the medicare amendment. we have to get either jordan or mulroney to give us a live pair with teddy kennedy. luther hodges, jordan is uncertain, won't give us a commitment. the suggestion is perhaps if you call either mulroney or jordan this would convince them to give us what we need to carr this -- >> if he thinks -- i don't want to do it unless i have to. he told me this is all right. >> i can talk to mike benatar. i will talk to you. >> president johnson and white house counsel myra feldman in a call on september 2nd, 1964.

david shreve, what is a live pair? >> a eentleman'sgreement that was periodically used during this time in congress. in this case what it amounted to, what it always announce to is when the is an absent senator for who you know that senator's position, in this case they were referring to senator kennedy, a supporter of medicare, if you could hear that senator, absent senator with a presence senator, both of whom would agree not to vote, the absence senator could not the present senator agreeing not to vote caring essentially offsetting one against the other, one supporter against one opponent, what they were essentially asking the opponents to do was not to vote but to pair instead. >> historian david shreve, we little later. later on september 2nd, 1964, as you heard us discuss, the senate

does approve the medicare amendment on a vote of 49-44. september 3rd, lbj and larry o'brien talk about the next steps for the measure. you will hear mentions of house speaker john mccormack, carl albert, a majority hale boggs and republican charlie halleck and house ways and means committee chairman wilbur mills. >> by the time i returned the call, they had -- ey said they would call me late what they want to do is they say at the post conference that one come out of conference, they can get a vote to instruct the conferees to accept the senate

amendment. there are 2 key people -- 250 people against that. i hope he is wrong. i don't believe that many would be opposed to it to come back on record. that would be one vote. the other one would be there is a motion -- they are going to decide what to do. something to consider, my guess uld be voting up or down, which i wou doubt, that i instruct the senate if i had my district and the house defeated it. >> i talk to hale boggs earli today and we have labour people in this morning, we tracked down senior citizens yesterday. putting itard on the labour people, they want to take the senate bill and do all these things and you say how many

votes do you have, republicans are supposed to handle republicans, do you have for the republicans? they only have 40 republicans and can't count 20 republicans, they had 165 democrats. you are going to be one of the conferees in this, there are only two tes. what do you have in mind? this bill winds up with goldwater and mills opposing this could illustration? or you don't have any troops. mills, i talked to him yesterday, what the hell? we realize we can't g the senate bill adopted in the house and if they come back for instructions, we would get looked on that too. the only judgment i c make

this mills will certainly try every device he can to get an agreement on a conference that would include bonds, the as reluctant as they can be because they hate like hell to be on the house side of a conference where he and the 2 republicans ved this week to democrats to come teleconference record. ..

>> i don't think they will after we decided. until we decide what screws us. it that screws us, i believe we won't ever get it out with the boats we have. >> no, we don't have the votes. >> what would screws and what wouldn't. the only thing else then, if we can't get a good conference is devoted up or down, is that it? >> we can vote it up or down but i do tnk we can spot like the country on this thing, you know, by giving us a little time. disband congress will be ending at the 15th of the week anyway. my view is that this thing can get really heated up, and i -- my view of the thing is that mac i know you are tied up in a. why don't we, if it's all right with you, why do i get back to you and will talk later this

afternoon. arai. hello? okay. >> september 3, 1954, president johnsonnd chief congressional aide larry o'brien. in this special program of lbj's calls about medicare. on september 14, larry o'brien tells lbj about his conversation with house leaders, about the next up for the medicare legislation here. hello? mr. president. dale bgs and cl albert called me a little while ago here and they came to the conclusion that the best thing to do on this medicare bil would be to go to conference without instructions. they wanted to get -- argue on it here. i told them that i was jot going to disturb you with it, that you had discussed the matter with me and you left it up to me to do what we all thought best, and

therefore that i could sayo them that their argument makes some sense and soun reasonable, if they could get mills to comment the colloquy at some point that he of course would series a considering medicare provision and conference. that they should then withdraw any attempt of any kind of floor action on it. and they're going to contact mccormick, and they felt he shared their view. they asked me about labor. i told them that no labor share their view because b. miller called me this afternoon and told me exactly the same thing. intern i called no and td them i thought that he had to carry out his responsibility, should talk to the three leaders and should talk to cecil king, and tell them what the view of lor was. and the only other aspect of it was ,-comthomas lexi, oh, yeah. in talking to mills the other

day, bill said i can't see any point in you fellows going forward and the speaker wants to do it by having a vote on this thing on the previous question. i said i think the point perhaps that there a many republicans that would be positioned finally on medicare, that adds up to not taken the position. and he said how many would there be. i said i suppose in the vicinity of 30 or so, but i imagine that's probably what the speaker has in mind. so the speaker this morning doctor jim trouble. i don't know what transpired in the conversation. the whole idea was the speaker had in his mind that he could ultimately convinced trumbull to result tomorrow. >> just a second. i got another phone is in the. >> hello? >> so i will not pursue this. i know you're busy but i just wanted to fill you in that the way it stands is that the

leadership came to this conclusion, they feel that there is some merit in putting the pressure on mills as best they could so that they could get a firm agreement that will be discussed in depth and conference, that labor is notifying the leadership directly that they share the view and the leadership asked me what the white house position was that i said i would take it on my own because i didn't -- i was in a posion to consult with you further at this point. i didn't feel that there was any need of having a big discussion involving you directly, that why didn't they just leave it that they had talked to me. and i am telling them on my own whether i am right or wrong, i am taking the responsibility to agree with them and they can, and their conversation with cecil king they talk to me and i ree with the ldership. >> all right. >> president johnson and his chief aide to johnson, larry

o'brien, talking about medicare legislation on september 14, 1964. we are jned by historian and author david shreve. what is going on with medicare in the conference committee at this poi? and explain what the suggestion of sending it to the committee without instructions. >> with or without instructions? indeed, the debate here in the conversation has to doith whether or not the administration and the house leadership, speaker mccormick, congressman from massachusetts, would be willing or count on putting pressure on those and th committee. the prediction that the administration had that this point was that mills was going to vote against accepting the senate amendment and he would likely be joined by the oer two republican house members which would give them a majority on the house side of the conference committee, thre threo

two. so the prediction we hea in the earlier conversation, they think is likely to come to. that is, the chairman bill joined with republican opposition to defeat what essentially the democratic position was and would be. going with instructions simply meant that the majority of part leadership in this caswould instruct their committee conferees to vote a certain way, they weren't about to do so, but they would be issued formal instructions. and by virtue of that they would put pressure on wilbur mills, take it to the people, publicized the republican approach to it, etc. etc. >> on september 24, 1964, as the conference committee continues to work to resolve differences between the senate and house versions, lbj gets a call from one of the conference, louisiana democrat senator russell long. is also a member of the senate finance committee which had earlier worked on medicare.

and in this call you will hear mentions of the finance committee chairman harry byrd, an committee democratic members of our burglar senior and clinton anderson. >> mr. president. i have a mute but i have some folks out here. i want to find out until they all brokup this afternoon. did you make any progress? >> mr. president i don't like the way things are going. i thought with mills talked with a couple days as though he's going to do something. that that meant he was going to dohat he is talking about. so i w just writing off about this medicare thing and get o of our hair and get it behind us. now today, i've been out to the candy bowl and i think i have a majority. i left that thing with anderson and gore with the understanding

that, see, i can't leave my proxy. the only thing i can do is just to be there when the vote occurs to send, you know, when you need . each of them sitting there to hang on any that we had to have to do this. now, wilbur, wilbur said something to this point it sounded like heust wasn't going to take anything. he said you've got to divulge it completely from social security otherwise it can be considered. then he brings up the point, and i wish you would talk to clinton anderson because anderson is very upset about the way things are going right now. so i figured, well, i guess if worst comes or i would go call on wilbur. i am in a hell of a spotted because harry byrd wants to beat this thing. as you know, iean i love the

guy and i'm tied to him, and i try to be true to them and all that sort of thing at the same time i would be willing to take anything to go forward, and i'm hanging on for it as responsible senate conferees. but even though i voted against on the floor. but i think we're in trouble, and i think clinton can explain it better than i can. wilber hadn't shown his name yet, but i think what w are in floor is he's getting paid to say, that was after documents were a couple of days, the stuff won't work and it can't be done. that being the case, suggest you go ahead and settle the rest of the bill and talk about this medicare business next year. now, i can vote against it two or three times. and i'm going to have to vote to receive. you said make them vote on it

and i spoke with wilbur. so he said no, i'm not going to do that. he said i suggest we go back and forth with this agreement. he said no, i'm not going to do that. i think this though. [inaudible] >> what? spirit haugen ever they can issue in the house if we don't vote on it? >> here is my vote. my thought is he takes that back. the house has to act first on congress, of course. so he takes that conference report back here i think i ought to sign it if it gets dow to what he can't get it done. i think we have designed what we can get. and then gore and anderson should refuse to sign. now, then when we -- when he goes back to the house, i think that the house people ought to say now we -- the senate is going to oppose this conference

report. gore and anderson put them on notice. answer the question comes in the house on uprooting the conference report. and somebody should get up and say, bob to be the logical guy to do it, now we think in good conscious, we should have taken at least some part of what the senate had. you see? we think there should have been some kind of a medicare program. and we want more conference. we want to go back and confer. and i'm against that conference report. you recl all my frustrating efforts to get that conference, when i lost my amendment. and i would say, but the one time i did get the conference report,. [inaudible] and we beat the conference report. i would say that you can get a vote on it, and when they bring it back up, when they bring it back to the house and bring that

thing out you can say wait a minute, i think we should have taken some form of medicare and i think that we ought to go on record over the spirit and in the only way to do is to vote against the conference re@ort. that is my thought right now. >> forget i called you so they won't say they would get you. i will talk to him later. much obliged to you. goodbye. >> president johnson and louisiana democratic senator russell long, a member of the conference to be on the social security bill with its medicare provisions. on september 24, 1964. later that day, lbj gets an update about the committee's actions from house majority whip hale boggs and you will hear mention of chairman wilbur mills. >> mr. president i just want to ask you what happened with the social security. will going to give it to us again? >> well, i'm aaid so. what happed was we were within a half a breath of having t thing, and god bless them, not

knowing mills, we better check on whether not this thing is germane, whether it's subject to point of order. and i said to myself, christ almighty that's all we need to get off the. and sure enough, he comes back and says. [inaudible] it may be something to the point of origin to the meantime i've talked to maccormack and i know we will get a rule, whether it's subject avoidable or not. and it ended up i just told him. i said we just got to fight the thing out, mr. chairman. you have taken this course, if you think it's reprehensible to get a rule. i think it's reprehensible for the way you acted. and we ended up the way we ended was they are going to draft something, but he is giving us all baloney about not going to the rule.

i said that's just the way to get out, that's all. if we don't take some part of medicare and then we ought to banter the hold danville. >> all right. >> president johnson and house majority whip hale boggs. on september 24th, in 1964. later that day, lbj gets more bad news about the medicare provisions of the social security bill in the conference committee as he talks with convery and florida democratic senator george smathers. >> hello? >> going. >> three bases there i talk to them. i talked to russell and hale. russell, he like me, he was lobbying on this but i was busy raising $75000 in florida, which we raised.

and i got that felt that we talked about, red river, from virginia he is coming in. >> but anyway, you've got the picture, did you talk to clinton? >> no, i'm going to. >> all right. okay. he told me what happened. so i talked to wilbur and everybody there, that it's worse now. [inaudible] i do think that wod be the best. wilbur, necessarily. birdies against any other.

the house people on the ground that they would ever close package and use up valuable points, they said. i haven't really come to an conclusion what is best for you. i think clinton may be right. there is a better issue for some time that it is now. it looks like now they will be able to recess, sine die, by saturday night. >> okay, my friend. thank you. i will be in touch with you. >> september 24, 1964. president johnson and frida democratic senator george smathers. in our special program of some of lbj's calls about medicare legislation as our congress continues the debate. will continue in just a few minutes. first we speak again with historian and author david shreve.

mr. schmidt, the first call in this segment will be between lbj and tennessee democratic senator robert gore senior on october 2, 1964. what happens to medicare on this day? >> this is the day in which we see the vote and the conference commtee, both i should say in the house conferences principally fr the senate conferees. and as we have heard, the prediction that many had forecast came to pass here, and that is that mills voted against accepting the senate amendment and with two republicans voting it down to convince senate conferees, instead of voting to support, to accept the amendment, voters simply not to -- simply deadlocking the committee not to accept any bill. and so what clinton anderson had suggested, i think we picked up in that last call, and hale boggs previously, that we perhaps, we would beat better

off, the democratic, the nation come would be better off just letting it all slide. and here's where, you know, one side of wilbur mills come in as well. somewhat. mills is a post for a number of reasons. not only to accepting the senate amendment but to passing some kind of medicare legislationt this point, but one of the critical factors, one of the reasons he is opposed is because he is a little bit concerned that if medicare bill, coupled with advances in cash benefits and social security, reaches a certain point and they have to pay, raise the taxes, payroll taxes to support that to a certain point, it might foreclose on the possibility of doing much in the future, eithdr expanding the dicare legislation, getting something better because they didn't feel they had anything worthwhile at this point. or extending social security nefits, which was mills' baby in some ways. one of the key factors always

were wilbur mills was actuarial soundness as they put it. and will see in the end that mills exercises some interesting judgment and power in determining the taxation rate in the final bill. is an interesting product that he devises. >> and will also be hearing a call about support for the medicare provision rhumb doctor benjamin spock. who is the end is his opinion important? >> well, we'll hear from doctor spock just a few days after the historical election that year. so in part, what we will hear is his reaction johnson's landslide victory, but als it's not mentioned, but the democratic party picked up 38 seats in the house side and two on the senate side. are your predictions on the senate side worth somewhat more pessimistic. so by any means they were pleased with the outcome.

spock was a big supporter of president joson at this point. ironically, he would become an opponent of the vietnam war, very outoken in the later years. and in fact attorney general ramsey clark will prosecute him and convict him on encouraging people to evade the draft in 1968. a sentence for which he never served time, but spock of course is tt things pediatrician off the commonsense book on baby and child care. i think the publication of her for something like 35 to 40 million copies. so everybody in the country, most everybody in the country knew who doctor spock was. although, the telephone operator i think calls him doctor spark in this conversation. i don't know if we'll hear that part of it or not. but he is a big supporter of the president. also perhaps more important, in the wake of the election, looking toward 1965, he and

another of other doctors put together a committee to pass, to push for the passage of medicare. included in thisommittee are michael the famous heart surgeon from houston texans. doctor caldwell from w york, eleanor roosevelt and lou gehrig's hybridization, and another other luminary in a medical worker who also here spock referred to issues and answers probe in which he appears and he will mention how ehime president edward backs out once spock agreed to appear and was learned that spots appeared. john tower subsequently appeared the opposition has a hard time fielding anybody for the show and a point, counterint. >> and a final call on our medicare program takes place on march 23, 1965, as lbj talked to house leaders and the assistant secretary of health, education and welfare. what happens to medicare on that

day? >> this is the way in which the ways and means committee votes affirmatively to pass medicare. and of course, this does take us forward a bit into 1965. the electoral change did make a big difference, that impressed wilbur mills, his committee changed considerably in terms of its constitution and the number of medicare supporters. the old adage back in 1964 and even in 1962 when kennedy was pushing for medicare was we are looking for the 13th vote on the ways and means committee. to get a 13-12 in favor. they did better than that. they ended up with 17 votes on this date in favor of medicare. wilbur and mills saw that. he is making speeches in late 1964 after the election to chambers of congress and the various groups back in arkansas in which he goes on record saying i am going to push for medicare. and when wilbur mills pushes for medicare, medicare happens.

so his influence was just that strong. >> thank you. historian and author david shreve. and wi wrap up with you, our special medicare program, after these next views boss. out lbj and tennessee democratic senator albert gore, sr., a member of the senate finance committee and a conferee on october 2, 1964. >> i made a statelent which i hope is not, and i want to tell you about it tugh. this in my opinion assures health care bill next year and a good one, that this will prevent yo to take the issue to the people andeek a mandate which i am confident you will receive. >> good. >> and i wanted to said that. spec i had no agreement. >> that if i. it was only one change this point. senator byrd, if i asked him to change his vote to receive.

but george was there. russell didn't show up, but george put his proxy. and so four of us voted to insist upon the senate position. >> that's wonderful. >> and we have adjourned, n something subject to consultation by senator byrd and wilbur, if the congress should return after the election. the senate to adjourn a peer is quite high on both sides. so i think you can take this issue to the people, but we will get a good health pl next year. what they were trying desperately to do is to drive through just the social security benefits and leave health care standing there. now we'll put it together in a package. >> that i.

negative thing will try to recess or you don't think we are to try to call them back after the election? z., we'll are you pass in the senator we might not pass in the senate anymore if we lose moss and if we lose mcgee and we lose new york, three or four of these places. we might just not have votes. new york would make any difference, but some of the other places would. and moss wood, and mcgee would. some of those. now we've got it passed. am calling congress back in november but we don't have to cross that until the 15th. >> after the election everybody is true, but you give them something and we'll talk about. >> i will abide by your decision on that. >> i have to say on election comes out again, see if we think will have trouble passing the senate again. we might get it back.

>> from october 2, 1964. tennessee democratic senator albert gore, sr. telling president john that the conference committee is deadlocked and the resulting difference is between the house and senate versions of the medicare provisions and a social security bill. on november 6, 3 days after lbj defeats barry goldwater in the election, the president hasn't always medicare supporter and well-known pediatrician and activist, doctor benjamin spock. >> it might be on abc yesterday, we take a half of a half hour before our medicare which abc is putting on sunday afternoon. >> i will watch it. >> going onto the next that. >> dyou limit what program it is on, what they call it? >> something issues. sunday afternoon. >> issues and answers. >> first they had an expert of the ama to take the other half of the program, and when he

found that i was going to do the other half, the ama would do him and they said they did want the country to get the impression that the medical profession was splion this issue. [laughter] >> then they got abc got senator tower of texas, and he called them, this was to be taken yesterday afternoon. and then wind power called abc yesterday morning and said that texas was a shambles and he couldn't come up to do it. [laughter] >> so they finally g congressman curtis, and he was doing sometime today. to do the tape. >> that is very, ry interesting, and i am so grateful for you to doing it. and i want to thank you again for your wonderful help on the campaign. >> thanks for calling. >> and i will try to be worthy of your cal >> i have got great conference. >> president johnson and doctor benjamin spock. on