next, from the state department a briefing with middle east envoy george mitchell, the former senate majority leader spoke to reporters for 30 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, everybody. welcome to the briefing. as promised, senator mitchell is

here, and he is going to give you an update on the recent announcement by the israeli government with regard to settlements. so without further ado, senator mitchell. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. prime minister netanyahu has just announced its moratorium on new settlement buildings. i think it's important to look at this issue and a broader context. particularly how it affects the situation on the ground and how it can contribute to a constructive negotiating process that will ultimately lead to an end to the conflict and to the two state solution. it falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any israeli government has done before, and can help move the toward agreement between the parties. as president obama has said many times, we believe that a

two-state solution to the conflict is the best way to realize the shared goal of israelis and palestinians to live in peace and security. it is also in the interest of the united states. it is urgently needed. the president knows that achieving this goal will be difficult, but he also has said that he will not weaver and his persistent pursuit of comprehensive peace in the middle east. for that reason, he has dedicated himself and his administration to the resumption of israeli-palestinian negotiations and to the creation of an atmosphere that maximizes the prospects for success. to be clear, the steps we have suggested to all parties -- israel, the palestinians, and the arab states -- to improve the atmosphere for negotiations

are not ends to themselves, and they certainly are not preconditions to negotiations. but they can make a valuable contribution toward achieving our goal of successful negotiations that result in a two-state solution. that's why we've urged the palestinians to expand and improve their security efforts and to take strong and meaningful action on incitement. it's why we have urged the arab states to take steps toward normalization of relations with israel, and it's why we have urged israel to stop settlement activity. as i said earlier, while the fall short of a full freeze, we believe the steps announced by the prime minister are significant and could have substantial impact on the ground.

for the first time ever, an israeli government will stop housing approvals and all new construction of housing units and related infrastructure in the west bank settlements. that's a positive development. the israelis have said that the only exception will be a small number of public buildings, such as schools and synagogues, within the existing settlements. under the moratorium, those buildings already under construction will be completed. but the number of buildings under construction will decline since, as each new building is completed, there will not be a new building started. so implementation of the moratorium could mean a much less settlement construction than would occur if there is no moratorium. the steps announced today are the result of a unilateral decision by the government of israel. this is not an agreement with

the united states. or is it an agreement with the palestinians. united states policy on settlements remains unaffected and unchanged. as the president has said, america does not accept the legitimacy of continued israeli settlements. we recognize that the palestinians and other arabs are concerned because israel's moratorium permits the completion of buildings already started and limits the effect of the moratorium to the west bank -- concerns which we share. as to jerusalem, united states policy remains unaffected and unchanged. alice has been stated by every previous administration which addressed the issue, the status of jerusalem and all other permanent status' issues must be resolved by the parties through negotiations. the united states also disagrees

with some israeli actions in jerusalem affecting palestinians in such areas as housing, including the continuing pattern of the fictions and demolitions of palestinian homes. the united states has not accepted and disagrees with any unilateral action by either party which could have the effect of pre-empting negotiations. house we and others have said many times, the way to move forward is to enter negotiations without preconditions and reach agreement on the two-state solution: a jewish state of israel living side by side in peace and security with an independent, contiguous, and a viable palestinian state. as the secretary of state said today, and i quote, "today's announcement by the government of israel helps move forward

toward resolving the israeli-palestinian conflict. we believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with a great swaps, and the is really goal of a jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet israeli security requirements. let me say to all the people of the region and world: our commitment to achieving a solution with two states living side by side in peace and security is on we've during." that's the end of the secretary's quote. despite the difficulties and the

complex political circumstances in the region, we are committed to the relaunch of negotiations and to the two-state solution. we will not be de turd by setbacks. we are determined to stay the course in the cause of comprehensive peace in the middle east. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. i will now be pleased to respond to your questions. >> we all thought you were going to come down here and say you were frustrated and you were going to resign the i guess that is not the case. [laughter] you're going to keep at it? i guess the question is is this the best that you could get? and are you going to try to sell it to the palestinians as the best that they could get? and this, as you noted, does not. so i guess the bottom line is is this the best you could get out

of the is release? >> i will address the latter part of your question first and then i will return to your earlier comment. our goal remains the relaunch of negotiations as soon as possible in an atmosphere in which they can succeed. we recognize that the internal political situation is more challenging on both sides especially in light of the aftereffects of the goldstone report. we've always intended that negotiations will proceed on a variety of tracks, including high-level direct talks the establish the framework and set the tone, parallel talks with the u.s. about key issues, and lower level direct talks with the details of the issues are often worked out. given the current environment, we think it makes sense to explore the relaunch of negotiations through a mix of these tracks. as the secretary said, we believe that the differing views of the parties can be reconciled

through good faith negotiations. now, as to your earlier comment about being discouraged, although there are many differences between the middle east and northern ireland, in this respect, my experience there is relevant. over a period with five years, i chaired three separate sets of discussions. the main negotiations lasted for nearly two years. for most of that time, there was little or no progress and our effort was branded a failure. the question you asked me today i was asked hundreds of times there. but then after two years of saying no, both sides said yes. in a real sense, we have 700 days of failure and one day of success. i know that if anything, the middle east is more difficult and more complex. but no matter where the conflict is or what it's about, if you're serious about peace, you can't

take as final first know, the second note, or even the hundred no. you can't get discouraged by setbacks and you can't be deterred by criticism. you have to be patient, persevering, and determined. neither the president, the secretary of state, nor i have never promised anything other than a total commitment to comprehensive peace in the middle east. that remains our commitment and our goal. >> senator mitchell, given that you're hoping this will launch final status talks, i was wondering if you could talk to us about any context you had with president of abbas since he doesn't plan to run. do you think he's sincere about that or what has the united

states been doing to try to convince him -- or if they are, maybe they are not -- to stay on? >> i've had several meetings with president abbas since then and several conversations. we encouraged him to remain in office and work with phyllis and achieving his longstanding goal of the two-state solution which includes as i said earlier an independent, viable and contiguous palestinian state. and we hope that he does stay. we hope to continue working with him. >> yes, senator mitchell, matt has asked this question, but the palestinian authority has refused the israeli offer because it doesn't include the east jerusalem. how can you push them to go to the negotiations? >> well, as i said, we believe that the best way forward is to relaunch negotiations in an atmosphere in which they can succeed. we will encourage both sides to

continue to take steps that will lead to that result and enable us to begin negotiations in a way that affords what i believe to be a responsible and good prospect of achieving what the palestinians want and what we'd want; that is, a two-state solution with an independent and a voluble and a contiguous palestinian state, and a state of israel living with secure and recognized borders with security for all of its people. and we are going to continue to pursue that object if. >> kirit radia with abc news. you've got now a ten month window. do you think that is long enough? what would you like to see happen during that period and what would you like to see the palestinians to next and we're d.c. the process ten months from now? >> we would like very much to begin negotiations on the permanent status issue.

as i said earlier in my response to the first question, we think the best approach is a mix of contacts, direct, bilateral in some cases, at varying levels, contact sophos for discussions on permanent status' issues. we hope that there will be a substantial progress. my personal and fervent wish is that we will during this process at some point have a resolution of the issue of borders so that there will no longer be any question about settlement construction, so that israelis will be able to build what they want in israel and palestinians will be able to build what they want in palestine. and we think that the negotiations should begin as soon as possible. we hope that time limited to a period at the end of which all of the permanent status' issues will be resolved and the people of the region can achieve their

objective. i want to be clear, however, that while this discussion has understandably focused on the israeli-palestinian negotiations, when the president addresses his vision of comprehensive peace, he includes, in addition, israel and syria, israel and lebanon, and the full normalization of relations between israel and all of its arab neighbors. and we are going to continue to pursue those objectives at the same time with the same vigor. >> right here. and please state your name at news organization. >> muna shikaki with a arabia tv. there is talk about terms of reference from the americans guarantees to the palestinians so that they can resume

negotiations including the 1967 borders, changing some areas from b to eight, and perhaps releasing some prisoners. is there -- are there any american guarantees or terms of reference that you're preparing? >> we have been in discussions with both israelis and palestinians for some time regarding terms of reference for negotiations. we have closed many gaps between them, and why all admittedly important differences remain, we've made very substantial progress. and we continue to explore those, and i will pursue those on my next visit to the region, which will be in the near future, to continue the dialogue and that effort as part of trying to bring these parties together. in addition, some of the points you mentioned represent steps that israel can take, and we have encouraged action in that regard as a means of both steps to create an atmosphere towards conducive and what we hope will be good faith and constructive negotiations, and house ways to move us toward the final result.

>> glenn kessler with the washington post. i mean, i noticed you didn't in your statement call this unprecedented, there you came very close to that. and i'm just wondering, was there -- is their anything different between what israel has outlined today versus what the secretary labeled as unprecedented when she was in the region a few weeks ago? and can you outline in what ways this is superior to the unstated agreement that the bush administration had with the state of israel? >> well, first, as i said that this has never happened before, and if you look in the dictionary, that is the definition of unprecedented. [laughter] >> i know, but there was -- that word was loaded. so like i said, you can close to unprecedented. >> nothing like this occurred

from the bush administration. from 2000 to 2008 there was new housing construction starts on nearly 20,000 new housing units, 9,000 of them between 2004 and 2008. in the moratorium just announced by the government of israel, there will be no new housing construction starts during the ten month period. non. there will be no approval of any housing projects during the ten months moratorium. no israeli government has ever taken this step, and nothing remotely like this occurred during the bush administration. >> josh terrett from al jazeera english television. the desk has just sent over to

me here mahmoud abbas's comments and he's pressing the necessity that israel put an end to the legal settlements and palestinian territories which he says to block the viability of the geographic border of the future palestinian state which most of east jerusalem at its capital. could you talk to what you think it is in this announcement today by mr. netanyahu. do you think the palestinians should find some optimism or hope in this? >> anyone who opposes settlement construction, continued settlement activity, as does the united states, should of course take into account that under the moratorium announced today there will be much less settlement housing construction activity than there would have been if there were no moratorium. that's a fact. now, we will continue in our efforts to persuade the parties that the best way forward is to enter negotiations, with the united states as an active participant and support of the parties, encouraging them in their direct talks to move

forward. and we believe that's the best way to achieve what is the common goal, not just of the leaders, but more importantly of the people they represent on both sides to be able to live in peace and security. and we will continue to pursue that object it vigorously and to seek to persuade both sides that the wheat board is through negotiation and agreement. >> question here. we are going to take two more after this. >> yes, joyce karam with al-hayat newspaper. senator, there are many cynics in the arab world that are saying if washington couldn't get the israelis to completely

freeze settlements, how can they force them to withdraw the 1967 borders? i mean, how do you respond to this? what kind of assurances can you give the arab world that these negotiations are -- be different and the one we had previously multiple times? and what can the arab governments do to contribute to the success of such negotiations? >> right. as i mentioned briefly in response to an earlier question and in my remarks, we have asked all of the arab governments to join in the effort in support of the therapy sensitive to take steps toward normalization of relations with israel. we've not asked anyone to take the final step of full normalization. what we have asked his gestures on actions, statements, and movement in that direction.

for example, we are seeking, and we believe we have gotten a good response, to a multilateral track in which several governments of the region would meet to discuss regional issues that they have in common, such as energy and water, which would follow the resumption of direct negotiations. it won't occur before then, but if direct negotiations can get under way, we believe this could occur. and this would operate to the benefits of everyone in the region, whatever country that have been to live in, because of what helped to deal with these important issues that they face in common. and we think that increased contacts between political and non-political leaders, cultural and other exchanges, trade relations and other forms of contact for mutual benefit, all of that can form as throughout

the region. now, in response to your first question, of course there can be no absolute total guarantee in advance of what is going to occur in negotiation. i said earlier that if you're serious about this, you can't take the first or second or the contract no for an answer, and that has to be the case here. we have to continue to urge, to encourage, to seek to persuade. the alternative is to accept for the people of the region endless conflict, never ending a disagreement, and the absence of

opportunity and hope for the future. now, nobody gets everything they want in a negotiation seeking to resolve a conflict like this. there has to be a willingness on everybody's part to give more than they want to give and to accept less than they want to get. that applies to everyone in the process. that takes time, it takes patience, it takes a courageous leadership. i believe that it can and will be done for one overriding reason: it is in the best interest of the people of the region-israelis, palestinians, and other arabs.

a continuation of this conflict and further delay and attempting to resolve it does not serve the interest of any of them. and the leadership now should commit themselves that the next generation, young people now growing up, those yet to come, israel, palestinian and arab -- don't have to live through what the present leaders have had to live through. and we believe that that can be done, and we are determined that it will be done. >> the gentleman right here, please. >> thank you. senator mitchell, you're making it sound as though the israelis have given a concession by their decision today to temper early phase the building of the new settlements. when it is actually an agreement that had taken place and annapolis meeting years ago, during the bush administration. now, asking the arabs also to

normalize -- to take steps to normalize the relations with israel -- is like putting the horse before the cart where it is actually supposed to be a result of the peace agreement. now, the syrian government -- on an icy rain reporter, my name is zaher imadi. i'm sorry i didn't mention that. the syrian government has welcomed so much the speech of president obama. your mission. but president asad asked if there is a road map to execute the peace agreement or peace negotiations that are supposed to take place in the future with the israelis. do you have any elaborate plan or a detailed plan for your mission where the steps could be taken, one after the other, that you could emphasize the parties must take in order to bridge that peace. what is your goal? do you still recognize 232,

three injured 38, the united nations resolution? is a peaceful land and negotiations? i need some explanation along these lines, mr. mitchell, please. >> thank you. i will attempt to provide it. >> thank you. >> we've been consulting intensively with israel and syria for several months. we are seeking a mutually agreeable basis for the parties to renew talks, and we have strongly encourage them to do so. both sides are well aware that the president obama's vision of the comprehensive peace, as i just explained a few moments ago, includes israel and syria. we think that is an important part of the objective. i have met with president al-asad and with prime minister netanyahu and discussed directly with them our hope and our encouragement that peace talks

be revived, and we will continue in that effort. until now, while they both stayed a willingness to get into them, their differences on how to do so have prevented them. the government of syria wishes to conclude the indirect talks which were begun through turkey last year before going to direct talks. the government of israel prefers to go directly to direct talks about dee dee, without preconditions. we are attempting to find a mechanism on which both can agree, because we think it's important that they begin the process. we want them to do so. we want to support that effort in any way that we can. and that will continue. >> last question, back here. please, the leedy. yes. >> thank you so much. this is tulin daloglu with the

turkish daily newspaper. you talked about the israeli-syrian talks and that turkey played a role in that. do you still see a role for turkey to play at this time? >> i've had several meetings with turkish officials including the president,, the foreign minister and others, and we welcome the further were dissipation, but that is of course a decision for the parties to make whether or not they wish to continue the indirect talks in that manner. so, it would be a to them to decide how best to proceed. i have told the turkish officials in both syrian and israeli officials we welcome that as one mechanism. we welcome any mechanism that will result in progress. and so, we hope -- i intend to make this part of my discussion in my next visit because we do want this process to proceed, not to the detriment, not as an

alternative to the talks between israelis and palestinians. i want to make that very clear. these are not exclusive alternatives. these both must happen. we believe they both should begin and we will encourage the parties and we ourselves will do all we can to make that possible. thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your presence today.

this thanksgiving holiday we have four days of book tv on c-span2. beginninooks on history, public policy and politics. you can see taylor branch on his newest book the clinton tapes and hear from two of the little rock nine. watch the authors of super

freakonomics. he will also see norman paul hornets from the recent book festival. from thanksgiving morning through monday morning watch book tv on c-span2. to get the full schedule, go to booktv.org. and you can also follow booktv on twitter twitter.com/booktv. happy thanksgiving. the group known as single-payer action called on the congress to reject both the house and senate health care bills. single payer refers to an entity usually the government pays for health care service instead of for-profit insurance companies. it's. this is about one hour and ten minutes. good morning. thank you for coming. my name is russell mokhiber, president of single payer action, and on profit 501c4.

our mission is a simple one, secure medical health insurance for the people. we are less than a year old and already more than 100,000 americans have signed up and donated at singlepayeraction.org. thank you for the support. we will reach our goal, single-payer, national health insurance for the american people. with me today, on my left, dr. margaret flowers congressional fellow with physicians for a national health program. dr. carol paris is a practicing physician from steny hoyer's district and maryland and a member of physicians for a national health program kevin zeese, executive director of prosperity agenda u.s. which was

an initiative organization for the mobilization for health care for all. we are here today the day before thanksgiving to say in unison the bloated democratic health bill is in turkey. we need to start from scratch and pass single-payer health insurance for the american people. we will each make brief statement and then take your questions. i am speaking today for myself and on behalf of single payer action. the others will be speaking for their organizations. six months ago on may 5th, 29, margaret, carol come kevin and i were on capitol hill. we were in the senate finance committee hearing room. it was the beginning of three days of hearings to kick off the health care debate in congress. the room was packed with industry lobbyists of all stripes, health insurance, pharmaceutical, medical, the ama, you name it, they were

there. senator max baucus the chair of the committee had scheduled three days of hearings on health care reform. bachus asked 41 health care experts to testify. not one was an advocate for single payer national health insurance. single payer is a simple, clear reform. the house single payer bill, h.r. 676 is only 30 pages long. bachus, obama and the democrats have taken off the table. and they've replaced it with a 2,000 page monstrosity. single payer by contrast is simple, and it works. under a single payer system, the day that you are born you get a medical card. with this card to get free choice of doctor and hospital anywhere in the united states. you pay no health care premiums to private health insurance corporations. you receive no bills. instead of the premiums we pay now, we would pay that amount or

less into one public insurance pool. everybody in, nobody out. single payer saves lives, right now 45,000 americans die every year from lack of health insurance. under a single payer system, zero americans would die every year from lack of health insurance. why? because everybody would be covered. single payer covers everyone. single payer also saves money. we would place the hundreds of private health insurance papers with one public a year. in one stroke we perceive the $400 billion a year in administrative waste, profits and overhead. we would then use those savings to ensure everyone. the single-payer would use its tremendous volume power to drive down drug and other medical costs. dr. marcia angell every

industrialized country in the world has some form of national health insurance where health care is a human right. we're selling basic health insurance for profit is against the law. every industrial country, industrialized country has the system except the united states. we are going to change that. national polls show that the majority of doctors and majority of americans favor a single payer system. that is why six months ago the four of us went to capitol hill. when senator baucus opened the first day of hearings and may i stood up and said excuse me, senator, why have you taken single payer off the table? why have you not allowed one doctor to testify for single payer? instead of hearing the south, bachus orders are arrested. one by one, margaret, kevin, carol and four others stood up and confronted bachus and one by one we were arrested and charged with disruption of congress

congress to the end of this year. through that day, bachus and harry reid in the senate and nancy pelosi and steny hoyer have cobbled together incomprehensible legislation. it is convoluted. it is confusing. but one thing is clear. president obama and the democrats have cut a dirty deal with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. obama took single-payer off the table and exchange the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry supported his drive for, quote, reform. that's why harry and louise, once again paid for by the big forma are on the air. the passage of obama as health care legislation. there are 80 members of the house who say they support single payer. yet it was on the congressman dennis kucinich and eric massa who courageously stood up

earlier this month and voted against president obama and against nancy pelosi and against steny hoyer and against the democratic leadership in the congress. kucinich called the democratic bill a bailout under a blue cross. massa said the bill would enshrine in law we the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry. single payer action today's column on the 88 single-payer supporters in the house and those in the senate, including senator bernie sanders and tom harkin to stop hiding, come out, come out, wherever you are, and joined with kucinich and massa and delete obama's health care monstrosity. start from scratch and pass single payer. on july 30th single-payer supporters signed the letter that anything less than a public auction tied to medicare rates was unacceptable. a few months later they backed down and accepted and even to jr

public option, not tied to medicare rates. a public option that would only cover 6 million americans. option in the senate bill would cover only 4 million americans. in much of the puny relief will kick in until 2013. many people that need coverage now will be dead by then. who will stand with kucinich and massa and against obama, against obama and his health care monstrosity with? earlier this month congressman xavier becerra was critical of nancy pelosi for giving up too easily on the robust public option. according to politico, policy said i understand i have tire tracks on my back because it xavier through me under the boss. no, madam speaker, it's the other way around. bye taking single pay off the table, you through the american people under the bus. what about congressman john

conyers? will conyers, the lead sponsor 676 stand with kucinich and massa? he said he was tired of rahm emanuel's approach of, quote, give us anything and we will declare victory. conyers said he feared president obama, quote, but just sign anything. but the question is will john conyers agreed to vote for anything? he did earlier this month. when will he break from obama? congressman don edwards is another so-called progressive for single payer. she took single payer off the table. she, too, said in july anything less than a public auction tight to medicare rates was unacceptable. she, too, then reneged on a promise and accepted the puny public option. then just last week, guess what? steny hoyer posted a fund-raiser for donna and ones, johnnies have shell on capitol hill.

host come $5,000, pact, $25,000, individual, $1,000. congressman raul brough of all, the head of the so-called progressive congress started out supporting single payer. now he's in favor of the puny public option. he says he will strongly consider voting against the puny public option if it is watered down to the triggers. this is what the democrats are good at, capitulation. capitulate, capitulate. let's look at the other side for a bit of guidance. joe lieberman, the senator will shut down the senate if to the tropics have for the health insurance companies. who will be our joe lieberman? who will shut down the senate for the american people? once again, the people are ahead of the politicians. as the date reaches the end game, single payer forces all over the country are quickly moving against the democratic legislation. earlier this month, health care now, a coalition of labor unions

and other single payer activists, adopted a resolution at its national strategy conference in st. louis, calling on congress to defeat the democratic legislation. dr. marcia angell early this month called on congress to do nothing instead of passing the democratic bill. as the house bill better than nothing she asked? i don't think so, she answered. it simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry. the danger is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude we've tried health reform and it didn't work. but the real problem will be that we've really didn't try. i would rather see us do nothing now and have a better chance of trying and again later and then doing it right. that was dr. marcia angell. last week robert reich, clinton former secretary said the cut is 90% empty. most of us are stuck with little

or no choice dependent on private insurers who care only about the bottom line would deny the claims, who charge more and more for co-payments and deductibles, who serious and forms, who want to cover calls, he said. and then he went on with this. i want every senator not in the pocket of the private insurers and big pharma to vote for a ted kennedy amendment to whatever bill taken to the florida. that was reich. we only need a courageous few in the house and courageous few in the senate to take this turkey. call your member of congress and your senator. the switchboard for a number of congress is 20,222,453,021. tel dan the democratic bill is a bailout of the health insurance industry. tell them to join with massa and kucinich and vote against the 2,000 page obama bill, passed the symbol 30 page bill instead, h.r. 676, health care as a human

right. everybody in, nobody out. join us in this historic movement to defeat the democratic bill. start from scratch and pass single payer. synnott at singlepayeraction.org, on what to the single payer. thank you. >> good morning. can you hear me okay? i'm dr. margaret speed, a pediatrician and congressional fellow for physicians for national health program. i also serve on the steering committee of the leadership conference for guaranteed health care and i am on the board of health care now, which is a national symbol pay grassroots organization. members of physicians for national health program, which is known as pnhp, educate and advocate for eight single payer national health system also known as medicare for all. pnhp performs groundbreaking research on the health crisis and the need for fundamental reform. and contributes scholarly

articles to the peer reviewed medical journals. pnhp takes pride in providing information that can inform legislators and the public about the reasons why medicare for all is the optimal solution to provide necessary medical treatment to everyone and the united states in a way that controls health care costs. pnhp doesn't, however, take a position on how congress members should vote on the legislation that is currently proceeding for congress. we do provide information to members about whether the legislation is likely to be effective, and how it compares to a national single payer health care system. we joined the many health care reform advocates across the nation who are disappointed by the health insurance reform legislation that is passing through congress. we, like you, are seriously concerned by the health care environment in the united states. we are saddened by the number of people, our patience, family and friends who are donner and because they cannot receive or for access to health care.

we are saddened by the number of people facing bankruptcy or foreclosure of their homes and those who are suffering needlessly because they cannot afford or have access to medical treatment. the anticipated a health care debate this year that would focus on the trees stakeholders, the patient and those who take care of them. and so we were disappointed that those voices were silenced by the industries that have a financial grip on the media and on our legislators. we share the growing sense of desperation among patients and providers across the nation, desperation that has been heightened by the current economic crisis. like you we are hungry for change but we believe we should act based on evidence of what types of health reform have been most effective in the united states. and review of the current legislation repeals it resembles health care reform that has been tried and failed over and over at the state level recently. it is for the reasons i will list below we ask our religious leaders to start from scratch in

order to create a national health care system that addresses the fundamental problems with health care in the nation and creates a system of similar quality to what is seen in other industrialized nations. number one, during the time that it will take for this health care reform to be enacted, which according to the house legislation is 2013 and the senate is 2014. tens if not hundreds of thousands of americans are going to die. number two, once the insurance reform takes effect people will still be left without health insurance. whether it is the 70 million who are going to be left out in the house version or the 24 million left out in the senate version we find this unacceptable. we know the actual number of uninsured people is likely to be higher than the estimates. and we know the people who do not have health insurance have a 40% greater chance of dying.

members become a medical bankruptcy is will continue to occur as families will face out of pocket costs on covered -- on covered services of up to $10,000 per year. in addition to the cost of premiums and uncovered services. the average medical debt that drives a family into medical bankruptcy is $18,000. number four, people who are uninsured will suffer a further indignity of being forced to pay a fine which may be as high as 2.5% of their income. this is called criminalization of health care reform. number five, the number of people who are underinsured will increase with this legislation. people will be required to purchase insurance or face a penalty. but there is no guarantee that the premiums will be affordable, even for those who qualify for the federal subsidies. health insurers have already predicted that the cost premiums will rise because it required to stop the practices of not accepting pre-existing

conditions and practice of rescission. a similar -- the public insurance is estimated to be more expensive than the private insurance. and a similar reform in massachusetts has resulted in a rise of patients who forgo needed care because they cannot afford the co-payments and deductibles once they take their insurance premiums. number six, people will continue to be confined to only receiving the quality-of-care that they can afford. instead of a standardized benefit plan that covers all necessary care, people will have to choose from a tiered set of plans. the least expensive plan will cover 60% of their necessary services and they will be responsible for paying for the rest. number seven, the legislation will not control health care costs and will in fact increase the waste in health care spending. the regulation of insurance companies which has failed to date and is predicted by industry whistle blowers to continue to fail will be expensive to enforce. and the exchanges will have to be created from scratch.

the exchange would add another level of bureaucracy which in the state of massachusetts has added 4% charge to each insurance premium. unfortunately this legislation does nothing to reclaim the hundreds of billions of dollars and on necessary paperwork, administration and marketing for the hundreds of insurance plans we currently have. number eight, this legislation transfers hundreds of billions of dollars of public dollars to the private insurance industry. people will be mandated to purchase insurance whether they can afford it or not, and the insurance companies will benefit by having millions of new enrollees. it is estimated between 447 million to $605 billion, public dollars, will be given to the private insurers and the forms of subsidies. to help people purchased the defective health insurance products. number nine, this legislation protect the outrageous profits of the pharmaceutical

corporations. the majority of americans will not see any improvement in the cost of medications, and in fact in light of the legislation that is passing through the pharmaceutical corporations have already raised drug prices 9% this year. in addition this legislation gives biotech firms a windfall tenure patent on the new pharmaceuticals. and finally, this legislation continues to allow discrimination based on age and immigration status. olver enrollees will be charged twice as much as younker enrollees and those will be required to prove their citizenship to qualify for the subsidies. those who currently do not have citizenship status will be required to purchase premiums without subsidies. so the current health insurance reform legislation that is passing through congress announced a massive bailout for the profit-making health industries which will enrich them and further increase their ability to lobby and influence legislators in the future. at the same time, patients will

receive little in the way of long-lasting protection or ability to afford needed health care. this legislation is designed to fail and in the meantime will waste billions of dollars and delay the process of creating effective health reform. we call on congress to start from scratch. we believe that we have the resources in the united states to create a national health system that will improve the health of our people and of our nation. we believe that being ranked 37th in the world for health outcomes is unacceptable and that we as a nation can do much better than this. we believe that improving and expanding medicare to all people is the simplest and the quickest way to achieve our goal of universal and financially sustainable health care. as far as the health insurance legislation in congress goes, we do support senator sanders substitution amendment which would substitute public financing for the current complicated and wasteful patchwork of financing and we urge our senators to vote yes on

the sanders substitution amendment. no matter what happens in congress this year, we will continue to build the medicare for all movement until we reach the day when all who live in the united states received the same health security as those who live in other industrialized nations. as those who see this as their and other board today that doctors have no interference by health administrators. we welcome all people who support health care reform to join us in this movement because together we will succeed. thank you. >> good morning. mauney -- i am the founder of

board member of health care now. president obama stated several times over the past year that if we were starting from scratch in a single payer system would make the most sense. so we are here today to say that it's time to start over from scratch and pass single payer health insurance for the american people. the house bill, 3962, is completely inadequate and expanding coverage and controlling costs. we have heard it stated already by dr. flowers and cannot be overstated, this bill is essentially an insurance industry bailout. most provisions to expand coverage to not even going to affect until 2013, 2014 in the senate bill. after which it still leaves at least 17 million americans uninsured. the senate bill would have even less intact. leaving at least 24 million americans uninsured. instead of putting more band-aids on the -- instead of

putting more band-aids on to the cover-up it continually festering poor hand lacking health insurance system, starting from scratch seems to be the only way to ensure that all americans can have equal access to care where everybody is an and nobody is out. just looking at the turnout of the more than 6,000 uninsured citizens who came to the forum in inglewood california this august to receive care from the remote area medical frequent it is clear many people, mostly poor, need more immediate access to care than what the bills are offering. thousands more have just recently been served this month by the national association of the free clinics with their one day operations in little rock arkansas and new orleans' louisiana. according to harvard medical school researchers, 45,000 people die annually from lack of access to quality medical care. we cannot continue to simply rely on the kindness of these

tireless medical volunteers just because we have a system that neglects even the least of these among us. healthcare is a human right. nearly 61 years ago on december 10th, 1948, the general assembly of the united nations, of which i might add the united states is a member, adopted and proclaimed the universal declaration of human rights. article 25 of this great document states in part and i quote, "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the well-being of himself and of his family including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services." this declaration was intended as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. and now, decades later the united states remains the only industrialized nation that has

yet to enact universal health care system for its people. it is clear that the american people want more. a "new york times" cbs news poll from september, 2009, found solid support for a government administered health insurance plan. the poll asked would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan. something like the medicare coverage that people 65 and older received. that will compete with private insurance plans. with the question posed in that way, 65% of the respondents supported the idea. with a majority of americans supporting the idea of a government administered health insurance program, which is exactly what single payer is, then why is it that, chris, those elected to represent the will of the people, cannot seem to translate the people's strong overwhelming desire into pragmatic application?

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mainly middle income working people promised and delivered to mandated health insurance and the hundreds of billions in taxerpayer subsidies as that is what is basically being given with these bills. we say no to both the house and senate bills. start over from scratch and enact a single-payer system. medicare for all which is both humane and financially solvent. thank you. >> good morning. my name is dr. carol paris. i am a practicing psychiatrist and a member of physicians for national health program. mikuak another set of voices that is missing from this debate besides the voices of the uninsured and underinsured are the voices of america's doctors.

here is what america pause doctors think. 59% of u.s. physicians now support national health insurance, up from 49% in 2002 according to ase studying the annals of internal medicine april 2008. says the lead author and member dr. aaron carol, quote many claim to speak for physicians and reflect their views. bad we ask the doctors directly and found the contrary to conventional wisdom most dr. support the government creating national health insurance. why? according to the co-author, dr. ronald ackerman another member, quote more physicians feel our fragmented and for-profit insurance system is obstructing good patient care.

as a practicing physician for 20 years, i see every day of the greed of the for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical industries have added a huge burden of financial anxiety and stress on to patients at exactly the time when they are most vulnerable, when they are ill. just this week a 62-year-old patient of mine told me that she and her husband lost their health insurance when their business of 45 years succumbed to the economic crisis. at 62 she is too young to qualify for medicare and she doesn't qualify for medicaid. they are living in a trailer attached to their car. she doesn't know how she is going to pay for surgery that she desperately needs next week. later in the day i saw a patient whose employer just switch

plans. and i don't participate in that plan. so now she has to find another doctor. congressman hoyer, senator mikulski, senator cardin, you represent my state when i am asking you, how does this constitute good patient care? how is this cost-effective? when you tell your constituents if you like your employer-sponsored health insurance, you can keep it, what you don't say is if you hate your employer-sponsored insurance, too darned that. you are stuck with it. with the single-payer option, which a single-payer solution would like traditional medicare, everyone has the freedom to choose the doctor and hospital of their choice and i say made the best doctors and the best

hospitals wind and prevail. that is competition i would support. in the toll isn't born just by patience. they are not the only ones who are stressed out and anxious. this toll is borne by physicians too. we have an epidemic of this heartened, discouraged and sometimes angry physicians. there misdirected anger has become such a problem to hospitals that hospitals are now required to have a policy for dealing with these so-called disruptive physicians. i believe that the disruptive physician is a discouraged physician. discouraged by a health care system that has become so intrusive, burdensome and demeaning that we don't practice, we don't feel like we are practicing medicine anymore.

it is a system that is taken the art and the joy out of the practice of medicine. doctors are retiring early. they are taking disability in record numbers. or leaving the practice of medicine entirely to join the ranks of health care administrators who add to the cost of health care but not to the delivery of care. for me, personally, the antidote to discouragement has been active as some. i am proud to say i am one of the 17,000 members of physicians for a national health program. educating and advocating for a single-payer national health program. it is something that i do joyfully and in the spirit of compassion of good will for all patients, all my physician colleagues and everyone living in the united states. it is also something i do for my

own peace of mind. pnhp, as margaret said is a wellspring of the evidence-based research that clearly demonstrates the flaws in the proposed legislation. i won't go over that again but i would encourage everyone who is listening to go to the pnhp web site, www.pnh bedaub lord.org and to president obama in 2003, when you were a state senator, you said you supported single-payer national health insurance. but you said first we have to win back the house and win back the senate when and win back the white house. well, mr. president we have done that. now as president, you said if i were starting from scratch i would go with the single-payer system.

mr. president, happy thanksgiving. but please, don't pardon this turkey. it is time to start from scratch. thank you. >> thank you all for coming and being so attentive. my name is kevin zeese. we are trying to remake the economy so that people have more control of their economic lives and it is more democratized and more equitable and so my comments will focus primarily on the economic impact of this legislation compared to what single-payer would do for the country. we are also initiating organization for mobilization for health care and i think this kind of demonstrates how the congress is so out of touch with the american people and basic urgent necessities. the mobilization for health care we started a few weeks ago, six

weeks ago and we focused on protesting insurance companies for denial of health care. we asked 100 people to step forward and go to insurance companies and sit in and risk arrest to make the case that insurance companies are not the solution to the problem but the cause of the problem. surprisingly almost 1,000 people live signed up and more than 150 people were arrested so here we have people risking arrest, protesting the insurance industry, thousands of people doing this will the congress is about to force them to buy private insurance quite a disconnect between the congress and the american people. not just the congress and the funders though. they put those interests first before the urgent necessities of the american people. the mobilization for health care which is that mobilized for health care dodd lord, if you will visit that and get involved has switched its years in the last week and many of our activists are going to their

senator's offices and asking them to support senator sanders of man meant to put in place a single-payer health care system as well as an amendment he will put on the floor to allow states to enact a single-payer statement. her they are urging them to support these amendments and on december 10th human rights day, wheat tend to go back to our senators officers and make the demand and seek their response to highlight on human rights day that health care is the human rights. it is a birthright, it should be a birthright of everyone in the united states. one other example what before i get to the economics and how out of touch it is, harvard found 45,000 people die each year in the united states a baseball stadium full of people die every year in the united states because they can't get health care. harry reid's bill does not take effect until 2014. that means more than 200,000

americans will die while the congress waits to do something. how out of touch can a congress the? hauck incompetent and dysfunctional canoy congress beat, a democratic party be when they allowed 200,000 americans to die while they do nothing? when medicare was passed it was put into effect within a year. why did delay? 200,000 deaths on the hands of the congress. i am going to turn to the economic impact and i want to put the health care bills into context of the economy that is what most, the real economy most americans are living through and there have been a number of studies that i think will highlight that. first the census cannot. the census found a widening income gap as the poor and working-class take a big hit on the recession. here is a report on it. recession has hit middle and

ports families cardes wyden the income gap between the richest and poorest americans as rippling ravage households. household income declined across all groups. people soarer across all groups but the sharpest percentage was for middle income and poor americans, those who don't have insurance by the way. there income fell down to levels in the 1970's so people in that thing on 1970's income in the 21st century. poverty jumped from any levin ten-year hi, 13.2%. another report from "usa today" analyzing the census differently, the incomes of young and middle-aged especially men have fallen off a cliff since 2000, leaving many groups poorer than they were even in the 1970's. poor then they were even in the 1970's.

there is another study from the university of st. louis, and nearly half of all u.s. children will use food stamps during their lifetime. 49% of all u.s. children will be in a household that uses food stamps at some point during their childhood said mark rink, a poverty expert at the george warren school of social work at washington university. his steady entitled estimating the risk of food stamp use an empowerments with in the adolescent medicine found 90% of african-american children will be on food stamps at some point in their life. nearly one-quarter of all american children will be in households that use food stamps for five years or more. 91% of children of single mothers, of single parents will be in households receiving food stamps.

91%. another study says 14% of americans are now short on food, more than 49 million americans, one in seven struggle to get enough to eat. the highest level in 14 years. so here we are, these workers and their families are the new working for. they are unable to put enough food on the table for their children or even for themselves. they are facing incomes that are being depleted, facing job insecurity, bankruptcy and foreclosures ed record highs and what does the congress do? they say these impoverished americans which is a big group of americans, you are going to buy health insurance from these corporations that you hate, with ceos that make an average salary

of $11 million a year. bucan put food on the table but we are going to force you to subsidize the in comes of the ceos. that is how out of touch our congress is. deaths, 200,000, people being forced to choose food over health insurance and the federal government making them criminals if they choose food. that is where the united states has come. at to that personal bankruptcy. hitting a four year high. here is a report from cnn, personal bankruptcies topped the 1 million mark for the first time in nine months. for the first nine months of the year, the first time it has done so in four years. personal bankruptcies were up 35% in 2008 according to the american bankruptcy institute. here is another report on health care in bankruptcy. harvard study finds 50% increase from 2001. most of those bank corrupted by

illness or middle class americans who have insurance. medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds of all bankruptcies in 2007 according to a study in the american journal of medicine. surprising most of those bankrupted by medical problems have health insurance. more than three-quarters, 77.9% were insured up the start of the bankrupting illness and yet they went bankrupt anyway. what does the house bill do to stop bankruptcies? nothing because denial of care will still exist on these bills. there is an effort to include in the bills allowing an independent court review when an insurance company denies doctor recommended care but that was not included so these people facing health crises can be denied health coverage by the insurance industry and there is no cost control. the projections are we will see a 75% increase in the cost of

insurance premiums that the party jumped dramatically in the last few years. so here we are again, the congress out of touch with one of the most pressing issues today, bankruptcy and the health care and the form they put forward will do nothing to solve it. what alternatives are there? there is a study that came out last week that i think is one that needs more attention and didn't get much attention the book that medicare compared to non-medicare patients in black, latino and poor households. they examine 6,000 people over a seven year period looking at cardiovascular disease in diabetes. what they found was even though we have gotten better at treating these diseases for those under 65 years old and their health actually got worse with these diseases because treatment was out of reach the wind you got to 65 and had medicare suddenly that inequality disappeared and people got healthier.

medicare worked over all socioeconomic groups, all ethnic groups, blacks, latinos, the poor got healthier under medicare. medicare was an equalizer. it worked. that is consistent with how people on medicare field. studies have found 60% of those on medicare rented a nine or ten on a scale of positive values, nine or ten, 90 or 100% said yes we like medicare. in contrast to only 40% of those on private insurance ranked it positively in that way hand multiple surveys back this up. 68% feel their interests comes first when it comes to health care under medicare. only 48% of those on private insurance feel that way. staring us right in the face, 40 years of the successful health care program one that has made the united states one of the best in the world that treating cancer, one of the few areas we

do better than most of the world. we talk about how bad we do in the world, but-- why? because those people are treated by a single-payer system, medicare. it works. so rather than taking up people like, what has been shown to be effective what is uniquely american, what is the low bureacracy of three to 4% compared to 21% for the insurance companies, does not create hospitals and doctors' offices, they ignore the obvious position, medicare for all. , for everybody. that is the solution. one other point in this is a broader point. i study came out of ritgers earlier this month that says it will take seven years for the jobs to recover in this economy, seven years. 2017 remake it back to where we were at the beginning of this

recession. compare that to a study that came out earlier this year on the impact of single-payer health care-- single-payer system will provide a stimulus to the u.s. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs and they infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenue and $100 billion in wages for the u.s. economy according to the findings of a report released earlier this year. a stimulus to the economy. a net increase of 2.2 million jobs that creates 2.8 comment you lose 600,000 insurance jobs and a net increase of 2.2 million jobs. that is as many jobs as for lost in 2008. single-payer would be a stimulus. rather then-- everyone recognizes the economy is a

matsen rather than putting forward a solution that will control costs, create opportunity, they pick a bill that is going to anchor it, that is going to create new taxes. rather than choosing a single-payer that would be a stimulus to jobs they pick a choice that is going to be an anchor to job creation and reduce the number of jobs. it will ensure jobless recovery rather than job expansion. rabid than single-payer which would brings hundreds of billions of revenue to the system now we are going to spend a trillion dollar band-aid to cover a failed system. this bill, the democrats have made a dramatic mistake on. this bill needs to be defeated. we need to get on a single-payer path, defeat this bill and start all over with the obvious solution that stairs as in the face, one that is in touch with the needs of the american people, one that will prevent death and that is a single-payer system expanded and improved medicare for all. please join us as we try to

remake the economy. we see health care is an essential step toward giving people control of their lives and join us at mobilize for health care.org to challenge the senate to put in place some real provisions that can improve this bill if they don't do it, we should defeated. thank you very much. >> thank you kevin. carol, mikuak, margaret. i was listening to c-span this morning in a call-in show and they were talking about the war in afghanistan. apparently president obama is to send some 30,000 more troops over. the calls were overwhelmingly opposed, left, right, center, independent with and i think the same c-span audience is opposed to this democratic bill. the republicans, when they go on the floor of the senate and talk about this bill they hold up the

2,000 page stack and there's something real about it. nobody can understand it and nobody is going to read it. our bill is 30 pages. it is simple and we have compromised if you want to compromise on single-payer, dropped the medicare age from 65 to 55 and then dropped it to 45 and then dropped to 35 but what is going on now is out reaching the american people, both the afghan war in the health bill and those should be defeated but we hope to see an uprising this coming year on this. we have a few minutes for questions. yes sir, could you identify yourself? bead john reichert with "congressional quarterly" healthy. i was just wondering what chance do you see it turning centers sanders vote in the senate into a no vote in on the house side you mentioned two of 88 people who support single-payer. do you expect a no vote and how many more do you think you can pick up in the house?

>> we have low expectations. first because the progressives in the house have waffled and when they said they would do something they did not stand by what they said so for example in the july 30th letter 54 progressives said that anything less than what they decided was a robust public option, public option tag to medicare, anything less than that was unacceptable so that is where they drew the line in the sand and two months later they said we can accept something less. grijalva is saying i will strongly consider voting against-- but he also signed the july 30 letter. how can we believe him? when i raised to a friend the possibility that sanders could be our joe lieberman and say no to this monstrosity he said

sanders is no metzenbaum. we had a history of fighters in the senate, fighters for the american people. standards apparently is not that. >> your question really brings out is going to leave tens of millions uninsured and it is not going to control costs. it is not going to solve bankruptcy problems. it is not going to solve the problems of denial of care. it will cover up for a few years but the reality is all these problems remain so that is the practical reality. they can pass this bill but they are not going to solve health care with its do we believe we are going to continue with this there were various organizations and continue to mobilize and build an organized and the and we think single-payer health

care is the solution that will actually solve the health care crisis in the united states and i think it will come sooner than people realize. her. >> the question i have is congress and the white house is basically said it is this bill or no bill, this plan or no plan. are we going to be better off without passing this bill? are we better off now then if the plants in congress got passed? >> thank you. that is the age-old question. what we have been the history in this nation is that very same struggle of do we pass something just to pass something that is going to help the few people because it is all we think we can accomplish and we keep accepting that saying we have done this before, we of the mandates and subsidies, we have done expansions overmedicate before and while it does help

some people in the short term in the long term it has failed. each of these programs that fail within a matter of years. none of them achieve the coverage they anticipated the cheating in talking about states like tennessee, maine, massachusetts, or again so they all predicted these four solutions that would cover everybody in save money and within a matter of years they have failed. our concern is i think realistic one that if something is passed this year people will get the sense that we have done this, we have done health care reform and let's move on to the next issue and in fact this is not going to be fixed, so we want people to remember that no matter what happens this year we have not address the fundamental problems. we have not created a health system one that provides health care to everybody, one that allows doctors to practice and care for their patients. we have not enacted something that is going to save money so we need to continue working for medicare for all.

>> beginning with the public option, a robust public option, what will that actually consist of? will it actually helps some people? have the break that down? what would actually have been there? husein. >> what that is why we call it designed to fail, is that those who were healthy, those who are working will be keeping their employer-sponsored insurance. they will be allowed to actually by the public option so most likely the public option is going to end up with those who have more medical problems. this has been kind of a pattern we have seen repeatedly in the united states, when you have public and private insurance is that are kind of both available,

the private insurance is typically able to attract mostly healthy to avoid this shipwreck of the public programs pick up the sicker patients and struggle to be able to provide for their health care costs and the ultimately fail. the public option in the house is estimated to be available to about 2% of the population. it is estimated to be more and she-- expenses and the one in the senate is estimated to be available to about 1% of the population, who will be the sickest. >> you said that it would be basically the same money we are spending now and up costing the same while covering everybody. why hasn't the cbo moved on this? there have not been any cbo numbers as i understand. why hasn't that happened? >> that is an excellent question.

there have been studies in general office accounting studies done in the 90's would show under a publicly funded health care system we could provide health care to everybody for the same amount of money we are showing. the leadership conference for guaranteed health care that with leadership early this year and requested that we have cbo scoring of single-payer so we can compare head-to-head with the legislation passing through congress. that request was denied. we were told that it wasn't a priority, that the bill had not, our bill h.r. 676 said not made it out of committee so we were denied that's going. there was a request when anthony tweener was offered the possibility of having a vote on a single-payer on the floor of the house but the cbo did not have time to do a study so we have not had a full cbo scoring recently in this decade on single-payer. we know that it would perform much better than what is coming out now.

>> him aye wet eight blog, election dissection.com. your organization organized a series of protests against the whole foods market, op-ed in "wall street journal" opposing-- and modest version. it didn't seem to get much action. a lot of people showed up. i went to the one where people were avoiding it like they did on election day in an election year. that constituency had these 80% of people voting democratic for obama who say they would support this. it seems to be low on their-- as far as how excited they are about this. in light of that how do you see this passing if people aren't fired up about it? the first of all the whole foods protests, there were protest all

over the country, indications that whole foods lost some business over the protests and people were very upset about it. for those who don't know the ceo road in op-eds in "the wall street journal" basically saying health care should not be a human rights and a lot of people were very upset about it. there were facebook web sites. we did call for a boycott and a lot of people participated in protest of round the country, so i think it was a successful protest. how do weech rigor mass action on single-payer? i don't led obama off the hook on this. a lot of people in the single-payer would say we have to push obama, we have to give him cover but obama, obama started in the middle.

obama started with a dirty deal with the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry's. had he started with single-payer , there would have been a real coalition. there is a coalition now because the health insurance companies are going to fight everything and the pharmaceutical companies are going to fight everything but had he started with single-payer the line would have been clear and we could get heady real national education campaign about what this is about. amman he pulled his punches and i think it is a disgrace, and we have to start over. we have to start over and we have to be clear about it. >> democrats who favor single-payer seek-- they had met and some public moments that the public option is backdoor single-payer but that is not good enough. we want to walk in the front door and we want to confront the

health-insurance industry had on. >> i would like to add to that that, when single-payer gets the media coverage that the teabaggers gatt, i think we will have a lot more about wellspring of enthusiasm. the single-payer advocates are not teabaggers. we are not crazy, screaming, yelling people. we are intelligent, compassionate people to use evidence-based research to make our points and unfortunately sometimes that is just not very sexy. thank you.

>> on your question again, two points. first i would say the media if you go to prosperity agenda that u.s. and search single-payer you will see the research that shows overlapping boards with insurance company executives on media boards. you will see the advertising that media survives on with, from articles insurance industry so it is hard to get media coverage and that is a big challenge but on developing and moving, i would first off say even russell is being nice to obama. obama held a white house town hall on health care of right at the beginning and not only did we have a hard time getting single-payer in there, we got john conyers and representative the pnhp but neither was allowed to speak but he was allowed to speak? the first speaker the insurance industry, the last baker, the insurance company. it was obvious president obama was leading us down the path of

a private insurance bailout, a private insurance base system and that is what we got but i see evidence of real growth in the single-payer movement, real activism in the single-payer movement. as i mentioned we started the mobilization for health care hugo to that site you can see what has been going on a run the country. it hasn't gotten immediate attention and i'm talking about demonstrations in dozens of cities at dozens of insurance companies were hundreds of people have been arrested sitting in an protesting the insurance companies. it shows the conflict from where congress is going and where the american people are. even without the media coverage we set a goal of 100 people setting in and we got 1,000 people willing to sit in. tin the motley expected and we thought 100 would be hard to get. ascetical 500 signing up and we have almost 5,000 signing up in just a handful of weeks.

so i see this movement actually growing and getting stronger and getting more determined and i think we have all come to the agreement that what is going on in congress will not solve the problem and our organization has become more for the so i expect he will see this issue come back sooner than people expect and he will see the single-payer movement which is under the radar screen because of the lack of media attention, much stronger than you realize. [inaudible] definitely, shirk, definitely. the next phase is focused on congress and we are focusing on the democratic leadership in the senate because they are the ones who are making these, this health care bill and so particularly senator reid, senator durbin, senator baucus and dodd and harkin. these are the primary focus is the buyer effort so yes they will be pressured by their

constituents at home. this week they are making the demand on december 10th on human rights day and they will come back and make it clear that health care is the human right in should be considered a birthright of all people in the united states and they will make that demand aggressively so keep watching that and hopefully you will visit mobilize for health care.org, joy gnat and report on it. >> i am john craig, i work in the health system in fairfax and albania park to develop media tools for health care and for the politics of health care now. i just wondered in terms of, obviously there are a number of organizations and a lot of people interested. i just want to see if he might comment on how well you think right now the different organizations, how well coordinated they are in terms of

working together in a unified way. you are always talking about the right wing noise machine and how beautifully coordinated the message is and things like that and i was just wondering how he would assess that, is there room for improvement and things like that? >> i would answer that by saying from what i have seen in experience with being introduced to the various-- there is cohesion and it is growing. i think as was indicated both by kevin and others who have spoken here there is growing momentum and growing awareness and education around that. there has been more coming together with in fact the health care knell conference that took place in st. louis, a variety of organizations being represented there are looking at ways to improve andy pfaff the messaging of the single-payer effort, so that as we continue to move forward because there is the intention of continuing this move down the court.

it is not over by any means, and the matter what happens now. there is momentum building and we are looking at new tools in terms of media outreach and ways to engage community across the nation, becoming more inclusive of the first groups and organizations that recognize health care is a common ground issue. also with the u.s. social form coming up in june of next year in detroit that will be another point of further mobilization for the single-payer effort across the nation, so i do think from my own observation, of my own exposure in involvement that there is cohesion. it has room to improve and there is certainly the effort there on the part of all the organizations. as he can see today there are 45 organizations here representative of this press conference and basically cure in solidarity recognizing we are

committee for guaranteed health care. the conference is a coalition of organizations convened by physicians for national health program, the california nurses association, national organizing committee, health care knell, progressive democrats of america and numerous labor organizations, faith and community groups. we represent over 20 million people nationwide who support a single-payer national health system and we are growing and we anticipate continuing to grow. health care now, which a number of us are on the board of health care now, in national grassroots organization has single-payer act of this in those states across the nation in many of us particularly those of us who are physicians and physicians for national health programs speak regularly and are willing to speak so if there are states are groups around the country who would like to learn more about

this or join the movement i urge them to go to health care-health care dock now--.org, if you go to www.pnhp.org you can speak there. we will continue to educate and grow. there is the issue of money. our organizations do not receive industry dollars, and so when you look at the work that we have done over the past number of years and the amount of, a small amount of money we have had to put towards that work and you look at the millions and millions of dollars spent to oppose health care reform we have come a long way and that also speaks to the power of our movement. >> one last question. the interesting thing about this movement is that there are a lot of grassroots groups that sprang up spontaneously. i'm from west virginia and in

the eastern panhandle there's a single-payer group in west virginia and there are literally scores of these groups and the list a lot of them at the resourced page at single-payer action.org. a lot of it is spontaneous grassroots. their national organizations. as mikuak said we are coming together. the first thing would be to defeat this democratic bill and to have a single-payer advocates in the house and senate in the lead on defeating the bill so for the second round we have a leg up on the debate and not just let the republicans take charge in the defeated the bill. last question. >> back to the whole process thing, before the teabagger thing happen in august as you noted that the beginning of the news conference, a bunch of you were arrested at those hearings and what was a mistake to step back from that? the illusion that there is a settlement made. >> that was just a legal

settlement and it was a legal settlement and it was pretty much a plea agreement with part of the condition of the plea, we did not plead guilty, but we said we would not protest in congress through the end of the year and then the charge would be dropped so that was the agreement on that. >> did you abdicate protests on that? >> we can get arrested on the hill. it is just the consequences mobile little more severe potentially but my view is we should focus on the democratic leadership in congress. they are responsible for this bill. they are the ones who created this bailout and if we are going to get arrested we should get arrested up there from now on in front of pelosi, in front of harry reid and we should hold their feet to the fire because they are the ones who are responsible for this bill and we won the defeated so that is where the attention should be. [inaudible] well, you know sam, it is not,

it is pretty difficult to get 13 people willing to be arrested for single-payer and we pulled that off. it did trigger a wave of anger and we didn't see a lot of people coming up and saying we want to get arrested in congress. we did not stop that and we are continuing to agitate and we are going to continue to focus. keep your eyes on these web sites. arza single-payer action.org. let's move forward and build a form for single-payer. thank you very much.

>> saturday night, as americans laid down for sleep, moderate democrats laid down their beliefs. sold out their constituents. world by pressure from barack obama and harry reid for good they voted to move forward a government-run health care bill our nation does not want and can't afford. when members sold her vote to the highest bidder. when members sold out his principals. to more lost what little credibility they had on fiscal responsibility. another put the interests of the left of his party before his own state and another voted one of late after saying she was for another. it is no wonder why democrats voted in the dead of night.

>> a year from now i will break my leg and my parents will have to sell our house because we couldn't afford health care. >> three months from now i will need surgery and my parents will go bankrupt because they could afford health care. >> two years from now i will be diagnosed with leukemia and i will die because we couldn't afford health care. >> there over 8 million uninsured children in america. >> 8 million. >> 8 million. >> we all deserve health care. >> the democratic national committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

sadique thanksgiving day mounties dannette tenet glaude easter and bill clinton is on hand to present stevensville burke with this year's liberty medal from the national constitution center. also stanley greenberg aunt alex castellanos, a panel assessing

the obama presidency and from the j.f. kehl library bernsen leslie geld on terrorism and nuclear weapons. at 5:00 hip-hop artist ludicrous on mentoring and howard dean and dick armey on the economy and capitalism. thanksgiving day on c-span. >> on this vote, the yeas are 60, the nays are 39, 3/5 of the center's duly chosen and sworn have voted in the affirmative. the motion is agreed to. >> with that of the senate moves its health care bill to the floor starting monday and through december. follow the entire debate and how the bill will affect access to medicare the public option, taxes abortion and medicare like here on c-span2, the only network that brings to the senate gavel to gavel. >> next, an event with education secretary arne duncan and new york city mayor michael bloomberg. they discussed the program called the "race to the top"

which sets conditions for federal education dollars. from the center for american progress, this is an hour. >> good morning and welcome everyone. i am the president of the center for american progress, and we are very pleased to have back at the center three people who have been at the forefront of the fight to give every kid in our country a quality education any chance to succeed. secretary of education arne duncan, mayor of new york city michael bloomberg and kati haycock president of the education tress. i think the fact that this wednesday before thanksgiving and it is a:00 in the morning and we have the full house and a lot of cameras is either testament to the fact of the timeliness of the quality of this discussion or arne they are expecting you to announce the "race to the top" decisions this morning. we are here today to discuss education reform the 21st century and issue that could not

be more timely. to keep our global leche in our economy strong the nation needs to get education right. we need to improve our failing schools and close the persistent achievement gaps. we need to prepare all students regardless of their family background for the workplace of the 21st century. that is what these great leaders and their team led by sidney brown have been-- the american recovery act provided an unprecedented amount of discretionary funding targeted for education reform. $4.35 billion in the "race to the top" guns, 650 million for investing in innovation funds, $200 million for the future incentive fund, $250 million the statewide longitudinal data system grants and $3 billion in title one improvement grants a total of $8 billion. the "race to the top" program especially for by the educators and policymakers with an unprecedented opportunity for

innovation and reform but the program also requires states and cities to make hard decisions and to commit to change. the focus of the department's requirements for the "race to the top" fund parallels the priorities of the center for american progress first and foremost for laser like focus on improving teacher effectiveness through rigorous evaluation systems that link teacher performance to that of their students meaningful tenure processes, pay for performance and initial responsibility support for new teachers and those needing to strengthen their teaching skills and removal of those who did not improve all worked out together with future represented despicably at the center urge break-through is national now called common standards, strong accountability, expanded learning time in community schools for most disadvantaged students in greater fairness and distribution of financial and human resources. the issue of innovation in education has long been important to the center.

before we got bogged down in this great recession, before there was a "race to the top" we did begin the project with the u.s. chamber of commerce that is looking at this very issue. the project culminated in a state-by-state report card of innovation in the states which were released earlier this month with secretary duncan and we hope we can trigger future state action. what is the unprecedented and encouraging its of the department's discretionary funding is leveraging reform activity in states even before it is awarded. as you know number of states have made changes to state laws to be eligible for "race to the top" funding. i am sure many of the noted the change in california's law prohibiting the linking up teacher student data for evaluation purposes. they reverse that and many other states are taking these programs very seriously. indeed there are reports, as many as 30 states plan to apply

for "race to the top" funds for the governors are competing working groups in several states including illinois and massachusetts to take action to position their states to be awarded these grants. these funds are beginning to reshape state policy before they even lead the department of education. maybe i should not trumpet that too loudly or congress might decide not to send the money but seriously we encourage more bold efforts by the states and districts because the magnitude of this federal funding opportunities on likely to rise again anytime soon and in many cases the politics of making changes of the status quo will be tough but the carrot of these funding streams will be a powerful lever and it is essential to bring all the stakeholders to the table when designing and advocating for transformative the education system changes. just as important as the stimulus dollars for education reform is the weitz reauthorization of elementary and secondary education act a process we hope begins early

next year. almost everyone recognizes major improvements are necessary and from the most successful actions and outcomes of state and local efforts with "race to the top" dollars as well as the school innovation and chip programs that are in are. as the preauthorization move forward it should include an approach to accountability ones that set challenges but achievable goals for closing achievement gaps and acknowledges different types and degrees of the inadequate schooling district performance and targets interventions for specifically to meet those needs. the approach to accountability should also prevent widely varying state standards, assessment and accountability measures that reward success. esea teacher quality title needs to be improved substantially. in addition in need a new program for middle and high schools to take aggressive steps to prevent dropouts to recapture those that that have left school as well as with students on a

faster track to college through early college in dual enrollment. there also needs to be more substantial programming that leads to academic learning time in richmond experience and commit to support for low-income students to get much less than their middle-class peers. this is a big task. much remains to be done and that is why this event brings together some of the nation's reformers to talk about how best to improve our education system and prepare all students for the future. i am very pleased to introduce brief we are three speakers who have agreed to be with us this morning. arne duncan as the secretary of education former superintendent of chicago public schools. he together with president obama is leading an extraordinary effort to transform america's public schools. michael bloomberg as mayor of new york city. in 2002 the new york state legislature awarded him control of the city's school system and

heal long with chancellor joe klein who is also with us this morning has initiated several major reforms that are paying off for new york students. finally kati haycock is president of the education trust leading advocacy organization on behalf of low-income students and students of color. with the center have teamed up with that trust on several important strategies in closing the shameful achievement gaps. after they speak they will take questions and participate in a panel led by cindy brown earthrise president for education policy. let me thank you colligan for being here this morning and especially to our speakers for agreeing to get up early and come here and address this important topic. secretary duncan let me handed off to you. [applause] >> thank you john. i am honored to be here and i want to thank the mayor and kati for their extraordinary leadership. it is a huge opportunity to

share this panel with them. many politicians run away from education. they don't do much about it. this is the mayor that ran on education and it's been a relentless to improving the quality of life so thank you for your courage. kati haycock has been a lifetime focused on equity in closing the achievement gap. she is a smart woman in the way we closed the achievement gap is to get great teachers and great principals in front of communities that have been historically underserved. we are seeing now more than ever not just great classrooms but schools that are consistently closing the achievement gap not from one miraculous child and one miraculously year by year after year. she continues to shine a spotlight on what is possible and the myth that poor children or children of color so-- can learn so i thank you for your leadership and focus. the challenge we face boils down to a conversation the president

had recently on his trip and a ship. he met with the president south korea ann's in what is the biggest challenge to face in education. the president went on and on it his point was the biggest challenge in south korea he said is his parents are too demanding. his parents are asking them to do too much too fast and somehow even the poorest parents expect the best education. every child in the country is learning english in the second grade so the question as a country when the rest of the world is very serious about this and very committed, working very hard, how do we awaken our country to understand how critically important it is for our children to have a chance to compete for all of our children, particularly the disadvantaged children to have a world-class education and we have to get to the point where this is really being driven from the ground up.

until we get to that day, until we awaken from a point of a complacency and apathy and acceptance of the status quo we have to continue to push very, very hard for change. ..

of two things. i think the courage and the capacity within the states to deliver dramatically better results for children. so this is less about states looking over their shoulder at what other folks are doing, but really doing a gut check in heart jack to look in themselves to see if they have the ability, the courage, the will power, the staying power to fundamentally do things in dramatic ways at the local level but will lead to dramatically better outcomes for children. two challenges i think in education historically, one is a massive under investment, and while money is never not $100 billion this president and congress has given unprecedented resources coming into education, but the other big thing lacking has been political will, courage and what i called adult dysfunction. and part of the recent education is so hard and complicated as in our country is you need education leaders, you need political leaders, you need parents, community support,

philanthropic community, business community, nonprofits and social service agencies. you need everybody working on behalf of children and in far too many places adults do to their own ego, silos, agendas, those agendas have been at odds with each other and with adults fight, children who lose and so i see our resources race to the top money is bates basically venture capital we want to not only invest in a great ceo but management teams and where we see alignment, where we see collective courage, where we see willingness to challenge the status quo and fundamentally different ways those are the kind of places we want to invest in. we've been very clear what is important to us, raising the bar dramatically, stopping lying to children, much higher standards, college career with the standards are what we are looking for. secondly, transparency of around data. i've talked a lot about louisianan. louisianan checks students' progress. they attract teachers back to

students, and they attract teachers back to the school of education to their different alternative certification route so after hundreds and thousands of students and tens of thousands of teachers uc schools of education literally changing their curriculum based upon the results of the students of the alumni. louisiana doesn't have some technology the rest of the country can't figure out. this is not some technological breakthrough. this is simply having the courage to say that great teaching matters and adults make a big difference in student lives. and guess what, if we track these things over time, not in a gotcha way but in a method or philosophy of continuous improvement, that we can get dramatically better. so i sort of question why when it's not some miracle of technology that louisianan has patented and will share with the rest of the world, why is it today we only have one state operating in this manner? third, great talent matters.

thinking about how we get the best and brightest teachers and principals, the hardest working, the most coveted adults to the children in the communities that have been historic the underserved. and for all of the challenges we face as a country, a job outbreak this devastating, too many graduates are not prepared for colleges. i've never been more hopeful because we've never had more luck symbols of success of schools and school districts beating the odds year after year after year. how are they giving it? bye getting the most talented adults in front of the children who need the most help, and we have to do that systemically, not haphazardly, not by accident. and finally as a country having the courage to fundamentally turnaround chronically underperforming schools. i talked about a drop out rate that's devastating. we have over 100,000 schools and our country. only 2,000 high schools, not that many, pretty contained number, 2,000 high schools produce half, 50%, of the nation's dropouts. those 2,000 high schools produce

75% of dropouts from the minority community. our african-american, latino young boys and girls. that is fundamentally unacceptable. and what's heartbreaking to me is in most of those communities that hasn't been true for two years, five, ten, that's been true for decades and we look for incremental change and marginal change. we've not had the political will and courage to do things fundamentally different. so what we want to do is invest unprecedented resources and states and districts and nonprofits and universities plan to raise the bar for students to be transparent and around student achievement to think very differently about how you create real incentives, meaningful incentives to get great talent into underserved communities and willing to change the status quo. where schools, despite the work and best intentions, who will challenge the status quo. where the schools are actually in effect perpetuating poverty and social failure. it is an extraordinary opportunity. there's been a lot of focus on the wrist the top that's about

$4 billion. but the other discretionary resources. incentive grants, teacher fund, money for education technology. we have more of $10 billion. we've never had this kind of discretionary resources. what i've said repeatedly is for all the challenges as much as we are going to push everybody else, the department of education has been part of the problem. we've been this big compliance in the theocracy and we try to look in the mirror every day and be very self critical and fundamentally change the business we are into being about compliance and audits to be about driving innovation and skilling networks. so just as we push everyone to be hit in different ways, i promise you we challenge ourselves to do things very differently within the building. it is an extraordinary opportunity. john talked about the tremendous movement without spending a donner. i think there's an appetite, there is a willingness now. there is a sense of urgency about the country that hasn't existed before and our goal is to capture that and build upon the great leadership at a local level and fundamentally

transform education. if we can get a set of states to break through and lead the country where we need to go i think the rest of the country will fall behind that. i look forward to the conversation and it's my honor to introduce the mayor of new york city, mayor bloomberg. [applause] >> thank you, everyone. great to see you. kati, thank you for coming. i'm joined by dennis as well as joe klein, our great chancellor. i'm sure everybody here is thinking about turkey and pumpkin pie. that's fine. tonight i will be watching the balloons be blown up. you can watch on television. it is an incredible experience. i can't imagine this much hot air in one place, although this is washington, so perhaps. [laughter] it is always a pleasure to be here in the nation's capital, particularly since this is the only city whose basketball team is doing as badly as new york's.

so i feel right at home. i ride the subway every day, and the only time anybody has yelled at me is one time i was getting off a big guy looked at me, glared and screamed fix the nicks. there are some things even mayor can't do. before president obama took office rahm emanuel told us we should quote, never allowed a serious crisis to go to waste. and so the president has not only been working to stabilize the financial community, the financial markets and save the auto industry for immediate collapse. he focused on our long-term economic -- his focus on the long-term economic challenges, including the auto industry's, publics -- the auto industry public sector equivalent, and that is our school system. and if you think about it, of the auto industry and our school system were built for another era, and both were very slow to adapt to changing times, and neither can compete in the 21st century without major structural reforms that place consumers at

the center of their operations. in the case of our schools, the consumers, not the politicians, not the labor unions and not the ideologues. schools exist to ensure children and learn as much as possible and as well as possible. and for the first time we will say the federal government is telling states through its race to the top program discard policies that impede learning and adopt policies that promote learning or forfeit federal funding. as arne has a number of times the state can't enter "race to the top" if they prohibit students from using data to evaluate teachers and that is why california does repealed its prohibition on doing so. in new york state legislature passed a law we last year that actually tells the principles you can evaluate teachers on any criteria you want, just not student achievement data and that's like saying hospitals you can evaluate heart surgeon on any criteria you want just not

patient survival rates. you really can't make this up. thankfully the law in new york is set to expire this june, but that is not enough. we will urge the state not just to prohibit but require all districts to create data driven systems to comprehensively evaluate teachers and principals, and we want new york city to lead the way. as it turns out, our lawyers now tell us after a very close reading of the new york law that the current law does not actually stop us from using student data to evaluate teachers up for tenure this particular school year because the wheel was written it covers only teachers hired after july 1st 2008, and those are not up this year. so today i directed the schools chancellor joel klein to ensure principles actually use student achievement data to help evaluate teachers up for tenure this year. it is an aggressive policy, but

our obligation is to take care of our kids and we will also be creating our own comprehensive evaluation system that includes classroom views and student achievement data and we know great teaching is reflected in more than just test scores but we certainly should never dismiss quantitative data in favor of subjective opinions that fit a predetermined conclusion that might make all of us feel good but a really doesn't help our children. using data to help evaluate teachers and principals will get a state into the race to the top but as the secretary duncan has repeatedly said unless the states take other major steps they are not willing to get very far off the starting line. and for new york city that's worrisome from a short-term budget perspective because in this economic environment we can model afford to leave federal money on the table and it's even more worrisome from the long term economic perspective any just as surely as the car companies that set out the race

to build affordable hybrids, not to mention shortchanging our kids on the education they need to compete in an increasingly global and technological world. today i just want to take a few minutes to walk you through six of the seven steps new york should take to compete in the race to the top. and the more steps we take a more likely we think we will deal to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that can only go to improve the system. the steps really fall into two broad categories attracting and retaining more great teachers and creating more great schools, and mr. secretary i hope you hold all states accountable for submitting an application that achieves both, the time for excuses is over and this really is our nation's future and is in your hands. we will play our part you can rest assured. the evaluation system new york city is going to create lay the foundation including step one paying higher salaries for higher performing teachers and principals and for those with skills in the greatest demand.

and new york city the last eight years we have raised teacher salaries by 43 per cent and veteran teachers in new york city and now make more than $100,000 a year. i've always believed if you want the best you've got to pay for it and we really are improving the quality of teaching and new york city. and the quality of those providing the service. we've also adopted you should know a bonus program in partnership with our labor unions that rewards teachers and principals and schools that meet their benchmarks. but sadly like most people new york city has difficulty attracting science and math teachers because they have so many other career options that pay more and also prevented from the highest performing teachers more money. this kind of lockstep pay scale is what you see in factory assembly lines but teachers we think are professionals, certified by the state. and we need to pay based on skills, not just seniority, and we will start by demanding the

state education department changes the way it awards incentive pay. we want to see that money go where it's needed the most to math, science and special needs teachers and low-income schools who received high ratings on comprehensive evaluations. this would benefit students, schools, teachers and the race to the top application and rest assured we will beat the drum of the public to make sure that this happens. the second reform the new evaluation system would make possible, step number two is ending a layoff policy called last and first out. right now as everybody knows state will typically mandates if the layoffs have to be made the newest teachers are the first to go even if they are among the best teachers. the only thing worse than having to lay off teachers would be lead off great teachers. remember the system is supposed to work for, the students, not its employees. with a transparent new evaluation system principles will have the knowledge to make

the layoffs based on merit. the ability to do so only if the state legislature gives us the authority to do so and so we will pressure them to get that authority. third, our evaluation system ability to identify the lowest performing teachers, but it's also a key criteria for the race to the top funding. in new york city removing bad teachers from a classroom is extremely difficult, and moving them off the payroll was even harder. when a teacher is removed from the class room for multiple negative reviews or for breaking ball, he or she can go to something known as the rubber room. it is basically a suspension hall for teachers for pay. believe it or not we are still paying teachers in new york city who have been in the rubber room for seven years and counting. seven years. this is the public money and this is the money that would otherwise go to pay those teachers who are helping our children. this is an upsurge and outrageous abuse of tenure and we have got to work with a state

representative to fix it. but let me be clear we are not proposing the end to tenure. we are only proposing that our state legislatures streamlined process for removing feeling teachers from classrooms and put an end rubber room as we know it. to ensure students have more great teachers and more great schools we are going to take a few more steps. step number four in the list of six is most important and that is raising standards. i believe the federal government should require states to adopt a single national standard for all students and all subjects. but as bill bennett, one of arne's predecessors once told me, the reason we don't have national testing is the conservatives take anything with the word national in it and the liberals hate anything with the work testing. the race to the top very pragmatically skirts this ideological divide by incentivizing states to adopt a common core standard and i'm glad to say that new york state signed up to be part of that. when the standards are completed

next year there will undoubtedly be pressure to water them down and so today chancellor klein and donna are sending a letter to the state board of regents irving it to ratify the standards without material alterations. in new york city we've built of the reforms around raising standards and holding everyone accountable for the results and that's why our kids have made enormous progress on state exams especially when compared to the rest of the state. the chancellor of the board of regents merrill tisch has been a great champion of raising standards that account for 14% of the state's race to the top application and will give her all the support we can to raise them as high as she can get done. the fifth step we've got to take is lifting restrictions on growth of charter schools. this fall stanford university study should charter school students in harlem performed at nearly the same level of students in scarsdale, one of the wealthiest districts in the country. no wonder the waiting list for charter schools of new york city is upwards of 40,000 children.

i am committing to open 100 new charter schools over the next four years. but we do need the state legislature to lift the cap just as illinois and louisiana have recently done because we are about to hit it. arne said states with any cap will lose points we also urge the state legislature to provide charter schools with funding for facilities, just as new york city is doing for other schools. charter schools are public schools. people forget that. and all public school children deserve to share in the resources that the state has to not do so and as an outrage and the state doesn't get this done i've directed the chancellor gwine to sue and see if we can't get it done in the courts. the sixth and final major step that race to the top challenges us to take is turning around our lowest performing schools. since 2003 we've closed 91 schools in new york city and the schools that have replaced them have graduation rates 15 points

above the citywide average. secretary arne jalabert states to turn around the last five performing schools. arne, we see the 5% and we are going to double it. our goal is to turn around the lowest performing 10% of city schools the next four years by closing them down and bringing in new leadership and holding everyone accountable for success. and this is to reform something called the absent teacher research poll. right now when we close the schools and teachers don't get hired back on and many find jobs elsewhere. but some teachers to get hired back on and many find jobs elsewhere but some don't. those teachers can go into a reserve pool and stay on the payroll indefinitely. when we combine the poor with a rubber room it's costing more than $100 million a year of money that don't produce better education for our kids.

we just can't keep wasting that money. and as arne can tell, chicago has a one-year limit for displaced teachers and we urge our state legislature to adopt the same. all of the reform secretary duncan and i have talked about today share something in common. the make sense. they are not space ideas or republican ideas. they are common sense ideas and the we to make progress in government is by combining common sense of political courage which the obama administration is doing. the race to the top is challenging the education establishment in a way that i think has never happened before. and new york city is ready, willing and able to help the charge. the year ahead will tell a lot about whether we are going to bring our schools and to the 21st century. whether our schools and our students are going to be left clinging to the 21st century is more and more countries pass us by. the president and secretary duncan have set the bar high and if they keep the bar height we really can give our children

more great teachers and great schools. they deserve it. parents demanded both here as well as to deliver it. thank you very much kati haycock, president of the education trust and she is well worth listening to. kati? [applause] >> thanks. you know, arne and mike have just outlined some very big and very bold, some might say earthshaking changes for education system. i doubt i need to remind most people in this room why the big changes are so important. yes over the past decade we have made some progress in this country and raising achievement of american children especially elementary grades. and yes, the children furthest behind, low-income kids, kids of

color, students with disabilities, english-language of learners have made more progress than other kids substantially narrowing the gap between the kids in other young americans. and yes, despite the contention that we don't know how to improve our lowest performing schools and an awful lot of those schools actually have gotten a lot better in recent years proving beyond the shadow of doubt as arne said so clearly were kids can achieve high levels when we teach them at high levels. but the truth of the matter is we have made gains only been measured by an old yardstick. of basic skills. when you ask the question differently, when you ask the question are our kids leaving high school with the knowledge and skills that the need to be successful in college, and careers, the knowledge and skills they need to make our democracy work for far too many

of our young people especially low-income youngsters and youngsters who are black or brown the answer is not even close. and that, my friends is the yardstick that truly matters to the american people. and it matters to the kids. to them the good news of the games we've made in fourth grade math and fourth grade reading feels small and irrelevant. what looms much larger for them is the bad news. the horrendously high dropout rates and high rates of college remediation and the depressingly low college graduation rates. that's the top we've got to race to and the yardstick where we are not even close. when you look at the most recent data on the 12th graders one and three of the 12th graders don't even read at the basic level. they are still trapped in that very dangerous category called

below basic. for african-americans and latinos, about half of our kids are still trapped at that below basic level. when we look over to mathematics, for in ten of our tenth graders are still not even doing that math at the basic level for african-americans and latinos it's about seven ayaan ten. the numbers and science are even more depressing. fewer than one and five, about 18% of our 12th graders are performing what we call the proficient level in science for latinos its 5%. for african-american 12th graders its 2% performing at the below -- or the professional level. we don't like the wolf creek levels, how about a ct levels for the most recent bridge building plus? amongst our graduating white high school seniors about six out of ten performed at the college ready level in reading

for latinos 35% for african-americans, 20%. the numbers in mathematics or even worse. about 50% of our white high school graduates performing at the college ready level in math. for latinos, 27%, for african-americans, 12%. why do we have to be bold this time? simply because of that. american people are watching this race to the top initiative. i think we all know that. some of them frankly are watching with the hope that we will fail. with the hope that they can say sure we gave them the money and they couldn't get it done. but far more americans are watching us with the hope that we will succeed. with the hope that we will succeed in being boulder this time than we have before. what does that mean? it means being bolder in implementing big system reforms,

but bolder also in something even more important, and that is looking established interest in the eye and saying no, not this time. this time we are not going to just to equity when it's convenient for the adults that work in the system. we are not going to do equity as an afterthought putative from the beginning this time we are going to both do serious system change but built in fairness from the very beginning. thank you very much. [applause] have a seat wherever it is most comfortable. >> thank you for a terrific remarks about this very important time in american history for public education. we have got to get serious about

getting this job done, making our country a leader in education again instead of -- and eliminating the kind of statistics that kati talked about, and all three of you set forth bold ways to do it. mr. mayor, let me ask what are you going to do with your state legislature now? have you had conversations about your proposals today with them and are you encouraged about support? >> i think it is easy to say they will never do anything and they are the problem. you can do the same thing about the unions. but number one michael blease thought where there's life there's hope and based on experience keep in mind our state legislature did give the mayor the control of the system and did we knew that so they are not just saying no, and our unions did work with us. today we have performance pay based on schools which to me always made more sense than based on individual teachers

simply because when kids go from one cluster to another it's hard to identify who is really providing the service said to me i always thought at the school of politics more sense. the teachers teach the equivalent of 25 days more year. they have gotten a lot of increase in pay but they also changed a lot of the work rules and i think it's fair to say the progress we have made that shul has made and dennis has made and our students and teachers and for what is made has been done with the unions. brandywine barbara, no matter what the press wants to make that big fights, she and i got together every few weeks for breakfast, she got together with julca a lot and together we made progress. and her successor replace what i think is the kind of guy we can work with as well. there's quite be rough patches, there's always going to be disagreements. that's what negotiations are all about. but i really am optimistic that the state legislature will come together. the yelling and screaming, it will take some time. but in the end we've made progress with them and there is no reason to think we cannot go

forward. >> terrific. kati, you travel around the country constantly, you and secretary duncan must be the biggest travelers for education and this country. where do you see the leadership of the state level, the kind of dramatic changes that we need that will be permanent that have widespread support in the state's? >> one of the things i have been fascinated about is the place is even we would have half of what kind of more in terms of education policy and education sort of progress the last few years there are folks lining up in the state capitals to make the kind of changes. right now that we thought would probably take a decade. this race to the top of thing has had quite fascinating affect. i don't think that i have ever seen as much state policy

activity on hard issues in a short period of time as i have seen the last six months. it's really interesting times. and i am not sure whether you are wanting me to name particular states. >> you can. >> but actually, you know, it's pretty broad right now. i'm pretty excited. >> terrific. secretary duncan, tell us a little about the schedule how you're going to go forward. when do you expect to announce these grants? and how do you expect the results of them to affect the reauthorization of the sea? >> the first grants will go out this spring. folks are still waiting for us to give money to the 50 states. people don't believe, and i think there will be a real week op call but i promise everyone in this room this isn't to be a

50 state winner situation. this will be a very high bar, and to me i equate this to olympics. it's like the gold medal. we have a low largest to get into the competition, that's to make the olympic team but now it is about winning the competition. so there is a very high bar. we hope to work with a relatively small number of winners who can demonstrate to the country what's possible, and they shall in dredging capacity in all these issues. everyone who doesn't win the first round will get an individual letter back about what things they need to do to improve and there will be a second round that will follow in the fall. and so this is a process we want to continue to learn and grow and folks who don't get in the first time shouldn't be discouraged. we hope those numbers will increase as we go into the second round. there should be probably north of of billion dollars in that round as well. so again, huge amounts of money for the two rounds of the funding. >> terrific. mayor bloomberg, so the states are responsible for putting

together the biggest to the top application. have you and the chancellor started conversations with the state leaders? >> merrill tisch, the board of regents who lives two doors away from me and probably see her in the streets of a couple of days, joel and she covers all the time. one of our assembly women who has led the charge in the state assemblies for reforms certainly understands the need and i think has done a great amount of work in helping us to go forward. and we will submit all i hope, i think and i suspect agreed application. but i think the answer is we would love to win the competition and get the money but our objective is to improve the schools. that is what aharoni wants us to do. that is what he's trying to incite us to do and we have an obligation to our students. so the citizens of new york to give our kids the kind of education they need to participate in the great american dream and we are going to do that and if he can help us

and help fund this, god bless him. but we are going to give it any way. >> very important. >> kati, the distribution of highly effective teachers has been one of your major agenda items at the education trust. where do you see the farmers on that? >> there is as you know, some become nothing more important to close and longstanding gap in achievement than getting strong teachers to the kids who most need them. yet on firstly every measure we have poor kids and kids of color get less than their fair share of our strongest teachers. that has been probably the most difficult though needle to move in the last decade. people really have a hard time facing that issue honestly

looking at the data and figuring out sort of what to do. we are beginning i think to see some efforts to change that. one of the most interesting is hamilton county, tennessee we're using a real database identified some of their strongest teachers and provided them incentives to come in groups to their lowest performing schools, and they have also paid the teachers in those schools who are strong performers more as well and the results in the schools or op as a result, the fer county north carolina is another system that has taken this issue on and made some real progress. houston independent school district is to make some interesting work around the teacher distribution and performance as well, and i think some of these cities will help lead the way as we figure out what is the right combination of strategies, how much of this is about real important, is about school leadership, because we

know that having good leaders in schools is one of the strongest magnets we can have a first-round teachers. but how much of this is impeded by contract provisions that we need to change. having some of these cities and now finally states take this issue on and move out ahead will help us learn more about what works and what doesn't. >> terrific. secretary duncan katella about your plans of the reauthorization of the sea. are you going to announce a proposal? it is like a crowded agenda for next year in congress. what do you expect or are you not reading the tea leaves? >> i don't know if i can read the tea leaves. there's a small number of folks working on health care and we need to get past that and through that plan actually convinced that education is maybe the best issue for bipartisan support, and as we move into the new year we want to be prepared to come back with

a comprehensive plan of what reauthorization would look like. we have had great conversations with leaders on both sides of the aisle, and again we are not going to grant every issue but there is a lot of durham, 70, 80% where there is a great common agreement and so we would love to move forward we want to focus on graduation rates. it's got to be third pretest scores or important and you can't get a job on the third great test score so i'm focused on outcomes. i said a lot that was broken with no child left behind was the lowest type mix. los on goals and tight on how you get there. we're going to be tight on goals, old folks accountable for hitting a high bar but give them the flexibility to get there and then continue to build on the philosophies we talked about in the race to the top. great teachers matter, are matters, transparency around data coming getting great teachers and principals to the community that had those

historical. it's a hugely important a fundamentally turn it around failing schools. so the philosophy the strategies of going "race to the top" cliche where we go in nclb. why give the administration credit for is the achievement gap. that is something we didn't like to talk about, folks like kati championed it for a long time. those make folks uncomfortable because the picture is not pretty and an overwhelming majority of places in the country and continue a laser light focus on closing that achievement gap is something we are absolutely going to stay with. >> i would like to open the session to the audience. i would like to begin with the press. if there are any prez questions. yes, in the front row. and please, say who you are and use the microphone. >> mr. secretary and mr. mayor, lacking in this discussion has been security. is that part of an education agenda? race to the top we have our kids

and new york and as you know sadly racing home to a scape bullets. where does that -- >> with a second, that is it fair. we brought crime down to the lowest in recorded history. yes there were a few tragedies but given we have 1,001,000 schools that go to school every day they don't raise home. as a matter of fact by making schools safer and removing disruptive kids from the classrooms, and by raising standards i don't think any school system has ever raised standards the way we did when we ended social promotion. that's the fundamental basics of all of this. we are able to attract -- the last few years we had between 50 to 60,000 teachers from around the country apply to come to work in the new york city school system. and you can walk -- if you are a woman you can walk in any neighborhood in the city during the day without having to look over your shoulder. our kids don't have to worry in going to schools. it is safe and people are moving into the city to send their kids to the new york city public school systems whereas before they used to move out to avoid them.

>> all i meant to suggest was argue looking for national legislation on gun control -- sprick there's no question -- >> [inaudible] >> it's to a the students, to eight adults and copps. i couldn't agree more. it's one of the seminal things we have to focus on. and arne duncan -- he said to me one time as important is fixing the education he thinks it is getting guns off the street from his experience in chicago the scene is true with us we've got 500 mayors working together in a coalition to get guns off the streets unfortunately we cannot get washington the legislature in this capital city to do something about it and it is a national problem. >> secretary duncan, was wondering if you could talk about the safra, the student

financial responsibility act. the administration leaning on groups to lobby to have this legislation passed. isn't this a violation of the 2009 omnibus act? also voucher program why is it the at the restoration still doesn't support even though the "washington post" and "the washington times" which i am part of have not called on the administration to continue the program? >> i think your first point is wrong. we haven't lobbied anyone to do that. we have said we have $87 billion that is now subsidizing banks. we think much better use of taxpayer resources to invest in children. and we think that's the right thing to do. the house passed this with a strong support. it's now going before the senate and that passes the chance to invest $87 billion in higher education and early childhood

education is hugely important, and so we are hopeful that that will pass the senate. you're second question, what i said repeatedly is i just think at the end of the day we fought hard as you know to keep children in schools, in those schools and not to displease them. at the end of the day the goal is about fixing the system, and i think we have to be more ambitious. as a country like to save one or two children in the neighborhood and let the other 500 around and go home and sleep at night. we have to be more ambitious as the federal government, federal government, local district our goal is to save every single child. this turnaround effort we are talking about the is that and i can take you to the schools of chicago and in philadelphia. i can take you to schools in new york where the overwhelming majority of students are failing. and by turning the schools around the overwhelming majority of the students are succeeding. not pulling one or two out to save them, the entire community. there's a school in philadelphia, a charter, where a few years ago was the second ma most violent school in the city

of 20% of kids were at great level. two years later the same children, same building, families, seen in the eckert, same socio-economic alleges, 85% of those kids are passing. the fact like close to the achievement gap in the suburbs. not seeking to children, but the entire community to get that's what's possible. i don't think folks understand how serious we are about that yet. >> the man with the bow tie in the back. >> good morning. robert from the d.c. federation of civic association education committee. to ms. haycock, in the race to the top evaluation, what advice would you have to many district of columbia parents and community education advocates who feel they are intentionally walked out of the district education reform oppose vouchers and whose accomplishments the mayor and chancellor are misrepresented in the media?

>> what advice why have? >> yes come to the community education advocates and parents who are locked out of the reform. it isn't that they oppose reform, it's about the mayor and the chancellor do not include them in the reform efforts. >> well, i guess i have a slightly different perspective as a former parent of adc ps student i am strongly supportive of the reform of work going on here in d.c., and speaking as a parent, ausley appreciate, as i am sure many other d.c. parents do, how urgent the need for change is. so i appreciate the sense of urgency the chancellor is bringing to this effort you to join her in the effort to make

fast change. >> [inaudible] >> if she is not opening up to the community -- it's not that they are opposed to it but she is locking them out. she testified in congress she isn't including the parents and the community. [inaudible] the -- other than seen as opposing reform because it's hard to be part of free-form because she won't let them in. >> how about we talk afterwards about creating a then you to sit down together? this is not somebody that i perceive as being hostile to the parent interest. on the contrary she is interested in doing what most d.c. parents want to happen and that is big change for their kids right away so why don't we talked afterwards? >> this is a question for mayor bloomberg. my question is you worked with

the unions on the school bonus program. did you work with them on today's announcement on tenure? in other words to nuclear and part for secretary duncan i wonder do you have any comment on today's tender announcement? >> well, law is the law. as we read it it says we can for this year use the data in evaluating whether or not somebody deserves tenure. we used to do it. our lawyers before said to would have to start but now they say we can probably go ahead and if anybody would challenge us in court we would win. and we plan to do that. and i think in all fairness to the unions don't have any more interest in keeping teachers who can't teach in the classroom any more than anybody else does. their approach might be take

more time to immediate problem but we have no interest in throwing teachers out that we can't help. if we can help them become great teachers we are going to do that but i think the teachers union and all americans understand that our kids deserve equality in education and the education system should be room for the kids and not those that work in it. after all of your body that works in this room in the private sector every day goes to work and they have to perform or they are going to lose their jobs. >> [inaudible] >> i didn't consult with them but they certainly know my views which have expressed many times. we should use all means that we have to evaluate the better teachers are, promote them, pay them more if we can come and at the same time, those who are not up to standards give them the remedial work that will make them into a great teachers and if after all of that they can't

cut the mustard the line sorry they cannot work in our school system that our school system is there for the kids. in the elected department of education. it isn't fair for me. we have an obligation and we are going to fulfill that obligation >> one last question. >> my name is joseph williams and i'm with the "boston globe," and i would like anyone of the panel to talk about who is doing things right as far as closing the achievement gap. everybody knows this is a consistent problem districts are having trouble getting their arms around to raise the bar. boston is one of them. who's doing it right? who's doing successful work in closing the gap between african-americans, latinos, and white students? >> well -- there are certainly some states that have made substantially more progress than

others in recent years. interestingly, florida is one of those where when you look at both reading and math you see substantial progress for all groups of kids over the last eight or ten years, but much faster progress for latino and african-american kids than for white kids. which means basically the gaps are narrowing. the state of virginia has made substantial progress, the state of maryland has made substantial progress. again, these are states you see all the kids coming up the rate of progress faster for latino and african-american kids which is exactly what we want to see, everybody gaining but kids that have been behind gaining faster. >> [inaudible] >> i think there are a combination of approaches. but one of them that is horrible important is providing lots more guidance teachers about what to teach. one of the worries that parents and others have is our teachers

just teaching to the text. what we are finding is that when districts and states provide more help to teachers, more guidance about how to teach the standards more curriculum, more assignments, that helps them and hire and because basic problem that we face in schools serving concentration is the expectations over time just get watered down. and so, the districts and states that are actually making more progress or confronting the issue directly by providing teachers help in raising their expectations but they are also dealing honestly with underperforming schools moving new leaders and a stronger teachers into the schools and a combination of these things seem to work. >> in new york we have cut the debt essentially in half.

we should be proud of that. what we shouldn't be proud of is we haven't raised overall standards, and that's what we are asking the state to do. merrill tisch, the head of regions, is in favor of that and we are going to work with her and give her as much support as we possibly can. we should keep raising the standards while addressing this issue, and the ways that you address the issue is to raise accountability. for too long i think in this country said while some kids can't learn. i don't accept that. we said some kids are not worth bothering with. i don't accept that. we are going to try to get every single one of our kids quality education and we are going to expect them and their families to be part of that. they have a responsibility as well. >> we have run over on our time this morning. thank you, gentlemen and kati come for joining us today. [applause] -- for this very important conversation. everyone have a great thanksgiving.

[inaudible conversations]

an international team of scientists presented new findings on the potential health impact of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. the group issuing the report is the national institute of environmental health sciences. welcome. we are here in the london school of having just had a low carbon of lunch we gather you've had your breakfast. so welcome to all of you. it's an important date.

we've had a very good morning session. and we of course are talking about a public health impact of climate change, of climate change litigation. and i very much am looking forward to this session. so, we are delighted to be able to link to you in washington, and this is the opportunity to announce the findings on a key area of studies funded from both sides of the atlantic. and of course as everyone will remember al gore described climate change as an inconvenient truth. the study findings today are actually a more convenient truth because we have got the opportunity to improve public health powell at the same time mitigating the worst effects of climate change. i think the other nice thing about having the meeting in this way is it shows we can have international events without a huge carbon footprint and so we haven't put too much money into the airline business to have

this meeting. welcome to you all. chris, are you there? >> yes, we are. welcome to you. we're looking forward to the discussions today. we are sorry that we missed your earlier discussions, but 3:00 in the morning was a bit early, even for me. we've had our low carbon breakfast hopefully and have gotten here by low carbon transport on the metro. with that i think i will turn it over to you. i've made opening comments and i will let you get it started. thank you very much. i will let you get started. >> thank you very much. thank you india. and i am going to start by introducing three messages that have been recorded for us. first, we are going to hear from ban ki-moon, the united nations secretary to the to secretary-general and then st after that from the honorable kathleen sebelius, secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services, and then after that, we are going to hear

from margaret chan, the director-general of the world health organization. and then after that it will be my pleasure to introduce to you andy burnham, secretary of state for health. so over to the videos. >> honorable u.k. secretary of state for health andy burnham, honorable u.s. secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius, distinguished partners and medical professionals, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to join all of those who have gathered in london and washington, d.c. for this event. i congratulate the researchers who have worked with each other and with the who to produce this important study on the links between climate change litigation and global public health. and it just two weeks governments from around the

world will meet in copenhagen to forge a response to one of the most fundamental challenges of our time. copenhagen can and must be a turning point in the wiltz effort to reduce emissions and protect people and the planet. we need an agreement in copenhagen that traps the path to a healthier, cleaner, more prosperous future for all. climate change affects every aspect of our lives. it could pose one of the century's greatest risks to public health. rising temperatures mean more mosquitos, increasing the spread of diseases like malaria, changing of the patterns will affect food production and water supplies. the result could be malnutrition in the poorest countries.

the good news is solutions to climate change are also good for our health. in developing countries, greenhouse hold on stoves can reduce risk for three infections and avoid millions of premature death. greater use of public transportation and bicycles means clean air and your respiratory problems. it also means people will be more fit. and experts say eating less meat will also minimize our impact on the environment and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. climate change is about our health and the health of our planet. we are all in this together. all i call on every citizen and every government to make copenhagen a success.

i urge everyone to add his or her voice to the chorus heard around the world calling for climate action and for a safer hall fear future for us all. thank you. >> good morning. i wish i could be with you today but i am home in kansas visiting my family. to everyone else who will be enjoying stuffing and mashed potatoes to mauro i want to wish you a happy thanksgiving. secretary general ban ki-moon, secretary of state for health andy burnham and director general chan. the more we learn about the climate threat the more we understand this is the problem that no country or organization can solve on its own. it doesn't matter who puts the

greenhouse gases and the sky we all face the consequences. this is one problem on which we have no choice but to work together. that is why gatherings like this one and the copenhagen meeting a few weeks from now are so important. if we are going to build a clean energy future that benefits all the people in the world, we need to share, listen to each other's good ideas and work together. that is our only chance to meet this challenge. and let me be clear this isn't just about the danger for our planet. filling the sky with carbon dioxide has national security consequences. it has economic consequences. and as we continue to alert, it house health consequences, too. relying on fossil fuels leads to a healthy lifestyles, increases chances of getting sick and in some cases takes years off of our lives. laat is the message that the