the dollar weakens and progressively. things get a bit more expensive, and economic growth is slow so that we don't get people going back to work very quickly, and this persists for a very long time and we are all just less well off than we would have been. >> anybody else? mr. stenholm. >> if you were a family who has credit card that you would understand what happens when the interest rate goes up and you ought to make the payments for gollies to be the united states owed our debt to ourselves. that is no longer true. $8 trillion of debt is owed to others and i suspect they will want to be paid, whatever interest rate the market determines that some trigger point. i want to make a point on three questions that were asked from a

political sense and as you listen to the questions, so many of us, we have hard idea of what ought to happen and why it ought to happen abide is important. that is the american system. but our political system demands we get 218 votes, 60 votes in a presidential signature. that is what is going to plant next year. i am going to have one recommendation when it comes to policies in the next version of this that i'm going to insist i commissioners vote on and that is to support and all of you were making that recommendation now, supports the tenor bill. john tenet, bipartisan support in changing the way in which we redistrict every ten years. to create more competitive districts though more who run for congress have to care what the other party things instead of having a totally safe republican are totally safe democratic district. i represented a competitive district for 26 years and i found most of my colleagues on

both sides of the aisle who represent competitive districts tend to look at answers to these questions a little differently than what the party asks four, so i would hope that people would take all organizations that are worried about this, would take a look it did john tanner bill. it does have bipartisan support, unanimous support of the blue dog vote but so what? nicki can't get the voted does not happen. if you really want to do something about policy in having some of these serious questions answered that is the best way. in fact i think almost the only way we will ultimately get the perfect solution but there may be some other ones in between, but that is my recommendation and i think that is the answer i would give you right here and you right here. you misunderstood sir i think a moment ago. we are not suggesting if we had tax increases or spending cuts this year. we are saying put in place a plan. from an individual family standpoint if you have debt,

your bankers telling you right now you need a plan. the same is going to be true for the united states of america. >> excuse me, excuse me? dud, do you want to try? >> let me just in too long turley said. i would agree with the tanner bill, i would agree with paygo and i would add to that financing of the political campaigns, those four things. i lived through one of those crisis situations in mexico and i saw how it affected families. we take for granted that we sort of hit the mountaintop and we can afford a house, we can buy a car etc. at etc. the mexicans thought they had finally reached the mountain top and then it all collapse so they were turning in the keys to their house, they were abandoning their cars, 8 million of them came to the united states to get a better life. where are we going to go, so it

deeply affected families throughout mexico. >> a question here? and one in the back there. >> joanne with politics daily, in my question is, i really love your reports and i hope the next one is going to be actions to stem the mounting deficit. you clearly have expertise there, and how many of you see a that as part of that solution? >> a value-added tax, in national sales tax? >> and i do. i don't think it is the only way to go, but i believe we will not cut back on medicare and medicaid and social security enough to close the goal of, to reach the goal on the spending side. therefore, we need a tax increase, and a broad base consumption tax, whether it is a national sales tax, or a value-added tax, is a way to go that i think is a good one, and i would add a wrinkle, namely

that you have to share this consumption tax with the states. otherwise, you are competing with the states in the retail sales. >> mr. nussle? >> no, i'm not in favor of rapier value added tax and i think it can be separate from your mention of a sales tax or a different type of consumption tax. but, again, i don't think that is necessarily what we will be making as far as recommendations a process-- it is still going to be a political decision in the people who have been elected to represent us are the ones who are going to have to be making that decision so we may have different policy recommendations but right now the process is what is broken. they can come to a decision and that is what we are hopefully trying to give them, is a framework to arrive at the skokull for the country in the process by which they can make that decision.

coal little decisions along the way are still going to be ones that they are going to have to make and calculate. >> what jim meant to say is everything is on the table. [laughter] >> hi, i am a grandfather who is worrying about how my children and grandchildren are going to pay for all of this. the panelists are agreed that medicare and medicaid, perhaps to a lesser extent social security are the chief villains and the effort to try to bring some sort of stability to our budget and deficit, presumably, the kind of solution that you all would like to see is going to involve dealing with, as yet, and resolve problems in each of

those entitlement categories. one would like to think that the budget committee, the budget resolution process in the congress might be an instrument for dealing with this, but thus far no disrespect intended, it has proved to be a sort of faulty electric, invisible fence. to the panelist accept that we have to have reform and medicare, medicaid, in the social security, perhaps with health costs, all of that has to be a solution and has to be a part of the solution. how does a uniform, consistent consensus approach be brought to bear in each of those major problems that it's been so resistant? >> how do we crack the medicare,

medicaid and social security nut? alice? >> the 41 puts too much blame on the budget committees, we don't have a regular annual budget process that deals with the entitlements at all. the budget committees deal with appropriations with annual discretionary spending, so it is not basically at the moment their fault. i think, and many of us think that we need to bring the entitlement into the budget process, not that you review them every year but that you have the regular schedule for reviewing entitlements and the congress votes a budget on the entitlements and if you deviate from it than you are in trouble. >> somebody else? >> at its essence, this is the same problem we face in so many areas where there are narrow

interests that either from jurisdiction in congress or by their desire from their programs, neira interest trump the need to get our fiscal house in order and the messenger here from this commission today is we no longer have the luxury of letting each narrow interests live out his life as it has not passo cracking and that means changing the way we do business in the future. >> boemi suggested a way to proceed. let's take two or three questions, as the question and we will have the panelist respond. is there another question? there is one over there and one over here. burring the mic to this gentleman in the blue shirt. >> yes, i am very stern but the education foundation to expand on joel packer's comment earlier. the educators and workforce development people coming in

march, are they going to have to permanently or for the foreseeable future downsize their levels of government at the state and local level? are superintendents of schools going to have to figure out better ways of getting more results with less resources? wedded pies would you give to the other levels of government? >> over here, can we get the mic over here to this gentleman? is there one more? than one in the back. we will take those. >> david dixon, "washington times." who up there, given you all seem to agree that next year, 2010 is the year that the people in congress come to an agreement that would be implemented in 2012. who up there thinks it is just a swell idea to establish right before they do that, another massive health entitlement program that would cost over a trillion dollars and according to the house version incorporate a 5.4% surtax that presumably you would want to keep on the

table to help reduce the deficit or the debt to gdp to 60%? >> okay, back there, the woman in the back. >> okay, my question is will it play in peoria? i guess it seems to me that congress is just in the process of passing a big on this bill with a lot of pork barrel spending in it. we have given a trillion dollar bailout to the banks. why will people think that makes sense for their benefits to be cut when there is so much spending going on that it seems to be unreasonable? >> pretty good questions, one is which and state and local officials expect? what about the current health care bill and how it influences this debate and one about dealing with the public at a time when they are resentful that their money went somewhere other than to debt. anybody want to take any of those? dayton local? >> i think state local, think

they will have to get the message that the federal government has run out and if they are going to provide the services they are going to have define their own sources of revenue. >> the health bill? >> i think it is clear that the health care-- health bill would tie our hands and by taking some of the pieces of the budget of level 4 wiley, and appoint others had made before and setting up new entitlement programs is in my view is that the the wrong thing to do at a time when we are trying to get things under control. how to make a plan in peoria? what we are proposing or what my the was worried about, the economic consequences for and the american family, a sharp recession, diminished purchasing power and a lot of social unrest if you look at the kinds of things happening in the current crisis or in the slow version you just stagnation as far as i can see. this is better than either of those. >> alice, do you want to try the

peoria question? >> i thought you thought i was talking to much david. >> that is not true. i said you were being courageous. that as a complement. >> peoria just kicks us back to, is there a new level of consciousness and-- of the debt and the deficit. some of us think that there may be and that it may show itself in the 2010 elections. but, that is the question, and we don't know for sure. >> bill frenzel and charlie stenholm get to give the benediction. >> talking about peoria, and i would subscribe to what alice and doug have said, that the public seems to be getting a little better notion of how bad our debt problem is and what the

ramifications are if we don't change our ways, so there is some hope there. one of the possible effects in peoria out is that, is that the conservative candidates will do a little bit better in this election and we will have another polarized standoff for two years. i had hoped that would happen but the citizens of peoria will have to make that decision, ivy league. i support jim jones on the other level of government. you can't keep coming back to this well any more. we are about dry, and they are going to have to find new ways to deliver services. they are going to have to make resources that they have go far there. some governors have done that very successfully, and others,

who don't will be shortly replaced i suspect. >> mr. stenholm? >> i never really gave a rip how peoria thought about it. it was texas that i was concerned about. [laughter] , and therefore, what we hope is a commission that these suggestions are going to create the dynamics of some kind of a political will that will demonstrate to the people in the 435 districts in the 50 states what they should or should not be four. now, there will be those that will be opposed to a lot of these suggestions. that is part of the american way. i remember when we ended revenue sharing, because we ran out of revenue and that was, that was a big deal back then, because they love spending the money that i was having to raise the taxes to pay for and i didn't think it was too good of an idea.

many of the state spends too much folks and the state leadership needed had to take a good hard look about how they ran their budgets, which goes up and down, schools. so, and on the health bill, with all due respect, we haven't seen the final bill yet. the criticism comes in the individual components of it and i share some of the concerns about that but look to make this observation. on health care, if you add 1 trillion-dollar health care bill that does nothing to bend the curve you are not addressing what we are concerned about today. you'll have addressed the one problem of health care, but you have not dealt with the long term fiscal deficits. the only people in congress that seriously made an effort for senator wyden in senator bennett and a bipartisan way and jim cooper in the house and i hope some point somebody will go back looking at some of the serious recommendations of how you truly bend the curve and i'm still hoping and i'm not going to be critical of our president until he does something that deserve

to be criticized on on health care, the final version and that is where we are attempting to focus next year on the process. if they pass the bill, that will become part of the political dynamics in a big way in november. >> not to the positive happening for my party. >> on that happy note, i want to thank panel and i think they deserve some applause for the work they have put in. [applause] and i thank all of you for good questions. i'm told that if you want to read this report, and don't want to take down any trees in the process you can go to www.budget reform got court. thank you very much. >> we have got a linkletter web site to the peterson-pew commission report on the federal debt. it includes recommendations on how to change the budget

process. that and more at c-span.org. [inaudible conversations] american icons, three original documentaries from c-span, now

available on dvd. a unique journey to the iconic homes of the three branches of american government. see the exquisite detail of the supreme court to the eyes of the justices. go beyond the velvet ropes to public tours and to those rarely seen spaces of the white house. america's most famous home. explorative history, art and architecture of the capital. one of america's most symbolic structures. american icons, a three-disc dvd set. it is $24.95 plus shipping and handling. order on line at c-span.org/store. >> now an update on preparations from the 2010 census with robert groves, director of the u.s. census bureau. this is about 45 minutes. >> good morning everyone. i am with the census bureau public information office and i would like to welcome you here to the second operational press briefing for the 2010 census. this morning dr. robert groves art director will be talking

about alder's canvasing in the current status of operations for the 2010 census. this conference will be about 20 to 25 minutes followed by question and answer period. if you are on the telephone we do have they on line and news ram that you click on and we will also be able to allow questions on the phone, so please just queue up with the operator and we will get to you when we can based on the people in the room as well. without further ado, dr. croats. >> good morning. thank you for coming here. this is the second update we have had since my coming to the census bureau in july and we will try to do these every once in awhile to make sure that everyone is up to speed on how we are coming along on the perforations. as you know, in 1790, the census has been done every ten years,

and each of those ten years we do the same thing. we enumerate everyone in the population, and we try to place them at their residential location, so we count all persons in their usual abode as the founding fathers said. this decade, we had the shortest census in our lifetimes. it is a census that can be completed in about ten minutes by every household throughout the country so it is an easy thing to do. we are happy about that. let me give you a rundown of the basics of the timing of the arcenio census this year. in mid to late june there will be a start of the paid advertising campaign that will go on throughout the country. so a big event. at the end of january, we will start enumeration in the state of alaska. we have to start early up there

because of weather conditions. in march, the vast majority of the population will receive their questionnaires at their homes. most of them through the postal service. april 1 is census the. we ask everybody to return their forms by april 1 and we hope everyone does so, but it they don't, starting in may and from may through july we will have a large set of people going throughout the country, knocking on the doors of those folks who were not able to return their questionnaires and we will do interviews with them in a face to face way. we are very under a hard deadline to return the accounts of the decennium census. it is those towns that determine the apportionment of the house of representatives going forward and then in about april of 2011, we will distribute the data that will allow each state to

restrict their state for representation. i am going to do three things today and i want to give you an opt out on how the preparations are coming for this massive event. we call that the dissent aills census. i will say a few special words about the hiring process because we are hiring large sets of people over the next few months, and then i will say a few things about the address list. this is the key file that we use to mailout all of the questionnaires around the country and we have to get this right to produce a good census. first, how are we doing? on administration and processing, we have successfully opened up about 500 local census offices throughout the country. we are in place. that is the total we are expecting. they are getting staff, they are up and running, they are doing their thing. we have opened three very large

processing centers, one in baltimore, won in phoenix and one in jeffersonville, kentucky. these processing centers are filled with machines, electronic scanners and disorders that can process tens of thousands of questionnaires every hour. it is a massive operation. and then, we have already printed hundreds of millions of forms. your press kit has a picture of one of our warehouses in the country stacked up with the interviewers which forms of various kinds. it gives you a sense of how already we are. we are ready to go and still some forms are being printed. we are putting labels on the questionnaires that will be mailed out over the coming weeks. outreach and advertising. we have successfully formed partnerships with 135,000 organizations around the

country. what me tell you what a partner is. partner is an organization that volunteers to help us out. they volunteer to get the message out of the census to their group. some of these partners are national partners. some are large corporations like target and best buy, like aarp and campbell's soup, like the naacp and several media, black entertainment television and the urban league. we have national partners and then we have local partners. the local partners are the heartbeat of the system. they reach out to local communities, to local neighborhoods to get the word out about why the participation in the census is important, so first on our reach, partners are william porton frist. these are voluntarily non-contractual people who helped us get the message out

because they realize their group will benefit from their participation in the census and then we have complete count committees. complete count committees are tenet the local level often named by a local mayor. they often break up into subcommittees. some committees focus on education, some on civil services, some on business communities, some on ethnic and cultural groups and they speer had the effort to get the word out in their cities. we have over 9100 of those spread throughout the country. 37 states have formed complete count committees. a lot of the groups have formed national committees and we are looking for more and we are also focused entirely with our 3,000 partnership specialist on energizing those partners throughout the country. this decade more than in another decade in my experience, we have tailored our methods to very small areas.

we have gotten pairs of our folks at every local census office to focus in on individual small areas of the chol census tracks. we have focused on a hard to enumerate tracks. we mean by that those areas, those neighborhoods that in the year 2000 had very low return rates are have characteristic since 2000 that suggest their behavior in the 2010 census might be less than ideal. we are tailoring our methods, are outreach, our ties with local religious and social leaders in those neighborhoods, to the neighborhood itself. i am very excited about what we call those track action plans because i think that will localize the census efforts in a particularly effective way. we have also launched throughout the country program called census in the schools, were from k-12 there are curriculum materials that teach the census,

teach a little geography, a little map reading skills and so on but also tea j6 lesson about how the participation in the census is the key thing for all communities. we will begin a road to war with 13 vehicles from the country, stopping at local events and in neighborhoods and areas, blog partisan salon, to spread the word and a particularly effective way, face to face. menees a few things about software and systems development we have run just a couple of-- a few days ago a very large load test of the key components of the software that will allow us to manage the overall census. that software load test involved thousands of people of around

the country, so we had a lot of clerks and our local census office banging on the system, looking for weaknesses in the system. it was a successful test in that we found glitches at various points in the system. one system indeed was not part of the test because of a glitch. each of these glitches have solutions and actually tomorrow we will do the follow-up tests. we will do software testing and in it fashion prior to production to make sure these large sets of software systems worked well and we need them in production. we have completed a variety of operations successfully, on time, under budget. they include a massive outreach to the country, looking at group corridors. these are facilities like assisted living facilities and

dormitories and anywhere work groups of unrelated individuals live. the last census, those cause problems especially problems of duplication and we went to get that writes do we have added an operation that we have just completed. ..

>> to make sure everybody who needs a job knows about the job opportunities. we are hiring locally. what does that mean? we want to hire people in the neighborhoods where they work. we have learned over the decade that hiring people who know the neighborhoods and to know the streets and the lifestyles and the comings and goings of neighborhoods work better. this is especially true when

we have areas that have non english speakers. we will hire disproportionately by main goal interviewers to help us at that stage to help us speak the language of the residence for every applicant for every application describes the background as well as the criminal history. as part of our paramount concern of the american bob -- public and our enumerators report all applicants through a name check on of debt fbi did this site. there name, social security number, date of birth and gender to the fbi system and read check for criminal history based on the fbi. we have also gone beyond that in 2000 and doing something extra this decade with regard to safety of the

american public and taking fingerprints on all applicants and submitting those even though that adds very new discoveries of criminal histories, we're doing it because of the concern's. we're also concerned about the safety of our e enumerators. we have a variety of procedures when they go to various for the crime rates are high to protect them and go in pairs, as courts and help out in various ways to make sure they are saved. we're very concerned about that and we are actively and acting aggressively to make sure both enumerators are safe and the american public is eighth. on the criminal history check, if there are any felony convictions for crimes such as murder, sex offense comment aggravated assault, weapons charges

grand theft child molestation and the conviction like that you are ineligible to work as an and narrator. if there are convictions of less serious crimes, then you can be hired only if the applicant can demonstrate the extenuating circumstances that prove beyond a doubt that they don't pose a risk to the american public. i cannot emphasize this enough the safety of the american public is of paramount concern to the census bureau because we need to rely on the cooperation of the american public to do a good sense is. finally. third, fifth let me talk about the address list that is so important. we have completed many of the process but it continues as he made no you didn't max -- massive exercise of the summer were 150,000 went out on every road and st. in

the country and listed addresses. they came armed with a list of addresses that we have built up over the decade with cooperation from the postal service and other sources especially local government. we went out with 145 million come as 67% find all the components were correct and we took a gps quarter net. but some of them we could not find. when all is said and done at the end of this process our address list consisted of 134 million address is. how would you evaluate that operation? an independent estimate of the number of housing units come close to that. we're two percentage points

high less than 1% of the addresses have less than insufficient address is to mail mugabe special follow-up operations that occurs in every sense is. about 100,000 of the address we have we have been address but cannot place them exactly in the block that they belong. we're going through a special operation at the local area to update geographical information on those and we will deal with those with follow-up operations i want to give a

thinks to settle local governments of supply those set of addresses to us to help us in the process. part of the process built into the senses it is a great local and federal procedure. we're also out with local governments seeking their help in identifying new construction being built right now. then we will get a new update from the postal service of new addresses. we have one in october and we will get another one. we're constantly updating the address list to make

sure it is up today. those ads, many of them will not get mailed questionnaires but will follow-up as its major operations. i think i can conclude by noting that we're entering a special time of the 2010 census. the plan has been set. the operations are being assembled, for production use, you will see in the coming weeks, more and more activities. advertising campaign in just a few weeks, a lot more activity of the initial operations. it is a time for all of us but especially social and political and religious leaders to get the word out that everyone needs to

participate in the senses. for the good of the country everyone needs to participate and we need to get the word out this is an important thing to do it is easy to do and especially safe because of our strong was but i thank you for being here and i am happy to field questions. >> for those of you we will get you as we take questions in the room. please state your name and also media affiliation. >> i am with the national washington bureau. can you talk more about the efforts to energize the local groups as well as talk about the efforts to ensure or increase purchase of asian among people of color who traditionally feel they are under counted. >> absolutely. let me tell use of stories from going around the country.

of these council committees that existed at the neighborhood and a 60 level are inventing their own solutions to energize their local communities. of these are fascinating things to do. some cities have put magnetic signs of all of the garbage trucks and all city trucks that say the census is coming it is time to get out there. there are census booths at block parties and local community centers here and there. there are wonderful of reach i was in the st. louis a few days ago with some first graders who completed one of the exercises for first grade which is a class census and all of the reported on whether they tuck a bus to school or their car or walked. that was the affirmation

that the census provided for the group. all of these things we attempt to do are the efforts in a set of words or concepts that fit each group and communicate their group purchase the patient is important to. four groups that are traditionally undercounted we are reaching out with a level of energy that we have never had before. 3,000 partnerships specialist in the last decade we have one-fifth of that number. that is the result of stimulus funding, these partners there really down at a block by block level trying to reach out as much as possible. some groups in some areas five are not as energized as others. we always have that problem fifth and we're working and reaching out to local leadership. it is not just politicians. in his social leaders and

community leaders that are connected to the different groups. the message is always the same. you only benefit yourself, your family, your community, when you participate. nothing of benefit comes to you if you fail to benefit. you are harmed indirectly. >> the. >> good morning and from federal news radio part of you talk about the address counted and the process of tabulating the address is. one of the tools the enumerators was supposed to be using in the early praise of the address count was the hand-held computers, the address tally that was only

rolled out. what can you spend a little time talking to us about how those hand-held and the back of systems worked? and has there been any thought given to possibly another role or maybe a creative use of the hand-held speech reno and senses day? >> for the benefit of everyone there were small hand-held devices that have the capability of recording the addresses for good during a few edit checks as well as taking gps corporation and its those are used successfully in the address canvassing in the effort of the summer to list all of these addresses. it was judged at that time that the utility of the software building process was fine. they performed quite well.

that operation finished early. the one said of the glitch on the software was a set of delete operations. we're actually going through this from the feedback that we have got. we are running through those right now. looking forward, there are no plans to use those hand-held devices and any further operation of the 2010 census. the reason for that is the same judgment that led to their use for address canvassing led to the rejection of their use for more complicated operations where we would actually be using them to talk to residents and filling out the questionnaire. does that address your question? >> i write for the chicago business in chicago and a further ahead behind of other major cities

particularly after stopping the use of becor and. does that have been the fact? >> i was in the chicago region a few weeks ago. it has a wonderful feature of the demobilization that should be a model for other regions that a group of local foundations have gotten together. they have offered small grants to communities throughout illinois to help them advertise the census to their local community. the joyce foundation and others. that has built the gap in that region. it needs to be filled in other regions. state and local governments are on hard times right now. the staff that we used in 2000 for about reach are not there now because of layoffs. we are relying on volunteer activities at a greater rate

than we did in 2000 and those activities of private foundations are filling a gap and chicago is a wonderful example of that. >> we have a question on the telephone. >> thank you. i am with the cincinnati enquirer. >> and talking to some of the local liaison three have a number of frustrations with the address canvassing and that master address file. one is the short deadline that cannot be helped put the information they have gotten back they say is a little murky in terms of what new addresses have been added. they seem concerned with the converted units that might have been once 10 years ago but now converted into housing units kumble to use buildings. and the impression it seems to me they should get the benefit of the doubt of those units. can you talk about at and

you mentioned you are 2% over the independent estimate and wouldn't days where does that come from would you rather be 2 percent over or under? to you want to give the benefit of the doubt to released mail out the forms a you do not under account? >> to address the last question, i think we prefer to be a little over because it does not bother us if we send to a unit that is not in habitable right now. we won't get a form backer check that no one lives there. we rather have addresses of the high side then miss addresses. i am pretty sure we feel that way. we'll let me go to the first point*. we are now given ourselves a lot of work in the government's that participate in this program a lot of work in a short amount of time.

we'll understand. we're all working real hard. the purpose of the time line is to make sure we stay up-to-date to make sure we have a complete address list. i thank them for their cooperation. with regard to their process it is well specified in the statute and there is an independent appeals office that is overseeing by the offices -- office of management and budget in washington that receives those addresses that they thought they were there but we could not find when we went out there. we will put those back and if they pass the appeal process and we will follow up. this is the natural process. there is a lot of work and some materials could be designed better in retrospect but we're all working hard to make sure

the process works. i appreciate the local and city officials for doing that. >> any additional questions on the telephone? >> the next question comes from the associated press. >> i am wondering at this point* to take a big picture look at all of the preparations you described. what is your confidence level to the overall government readiness to take this up early and in a cost-effective way? >> that is a great question. i think about it every minute of my life. i can answer in this way. i am much more confident than i was when i come in. i am more confident than i was at the end of a deep dive into our process. my confidence is growing, not declining.

but i am a worrier. i am never completely confident. this is a massive, an awesome massive operation that has a lot of moving parts. we need to realize the moving parts will all not work perfectly when they're up and running. there will be bulbs. this is the nature when you mobilizes many people to do one piece of work. the success is both preparation but also staying lights on our feet when something bad happens we call may quickly wisely, and make repairs. and i am surrounded by a set of colleagues at the census bureau who knows how to do that quite well. that gives me great confidence. >> could you tell me what the bureau's latest assessment is in terms of the adjustment what the response rate might be next april? >> we're working on this right now. we are very close to

examining the of uncertainties that still remain in the cooperation of the american public. there are two pieces that you have to realize and keep in mind when we start talking about return rates. when we build out a form to a vacant house, and we will do that to come it does not come back. sometimes across back really quickly and the postal service says we cannot deliver to this address. the return rates often cited from 2000 is a 67% number. the narrator of that number is all of the returned questionnaires but the denominator is occupied households are vacant. the vacancy rate in the united states is in the 2010 will be larger under our

forecast of the vacancy rate in 2013 that will be a source of low return rates using that same definition. we need to focus both of the vacancy rates but also the co-operation rates. the proportion of occupied households the return the questionnaire. we're focused on that to our advertising and our reach. when we estimate there there is good news and bad news. the cooperation of the american public for sample surveys has been declining slightly every year. a harder population to measure. we also put in place a set of procedures that should increase that cooperation rate a short form a sense this is a good thing. for replacement forms are good things and bilingual questionnaires are good things and our estimate at the end of all but is the range of possibilities

include what we achieved in the 2000 census. there is a lot of uncertainties that remain but we think we can still aim for the 2000 rate within the realm of possibility. it could be worse or better. slightly. we will keep us to reading. i need to remind you of one thing. it is a very fragile thing to estimate. one event in the public that changes public opinion about their participation in the census can change that for good or bad. it is hard to forecast a. >> we have a question in the front. >> on that point*, there has been talk of the anti-government sentiment out there. is that among your worries? you think it is any different now than it was 10

years ago as something to hold down and participation? >> i worry about everything. the anti-government sentiment was there in 2000, 1990, i saw a wonderful advertisement from the 1940 census that talks about the anti-government sentiment. it is part of the american in spirit. it is the population we measure. of lot of our advertising is focused on why, even if you don't trust the federal government why you can benefit from your participation in your neighborhood and community can benefit. and also why it is safe. and how the census bureau is detached and independent from any enforcement agencies. we have a law that puts all of the folks in jail for five years if there is a breach. this is a pretty tight system and we can say that

honestly. we tried to deliver the message goes by ourselves but also trusted voices in the community. people who share the sentiments about the federal government but understand the census is a different part of the government than the parts they fear. >> [inaudible] >> local community leaders down to the block level. in my travel and this world i will go to senior citizens centers where some people in the room are undocumented and they have spent their entire life. they are working with their service providers to understand the process. what is the american in census and why is a useful to respond? that is the key. you have to get down to the local level for effective communication. >> two or three more questions.

>> the next question is from john mccormack with bloomberg news. >> doctor, you have touched on this a little bit but the economy is in the worst shape since the 1930's water advantages third disadvantage is and what you doing to express the challenges? >> as your question implies is good news and bad news. the horrible recession has benefited us in a direct way. our applicant pool contains a set of people with experience and background and training that is unprecedented the rich. if you visit our local census office that is being staffed right now, you will

see people with skills and team work experience that we will benefit from, the country will benefit. the high unemployment rate has helped us. as your question implies there are other things that are bad news. the vacancy rate through foreclosures are other soap reasons people live in homes they were trying to buy, heard suspect it means that we will mail out a lot of forms to units where no one lives. there is nothing wrong with that. they will come back. but we have to check on bad. we will call back on those houses me through july. we will spend a lot of money determining if those houses are really big and. there is a cost to the 2010 census with the vacancy rate for another impact, those

people went somewhere. many of them are in housing with relatives and friends. we're trying to get the word out and you can help us, that people need to be counted where they are living. even if they don't in their own mind think they will live with their brother and offer the rest of their life adjust there temporarily. that is the usual residents and no other residents prepare we want them accounted for their living. getting that word out is important for all of us to work on. >> there are some concerns about not having the availability down the country of origin. there are some groups there but not others and they are concerned about that. >> one of the question years

are in your press package and you will see ethnicity is one of the questions. if you have nothing to do what we can to look at how the question has been asked over the decades. it changes almost as our country changes. this is always a question about which there are debates when the census are rises. and these debates are good. . .

the arguably the 2010 census is the sort of super bowl for people in your profession and statistical field and social research field and i was wondering if you could talk about -- >> march madness -- >> very good, sir. tell us a little bit about --

hello? one, two, three -- okay. we are back. can you tell us, sir, about the disconnect, if there is one, between what you need to do to manage the census professionally in suit land at the very big offices you have around the country and the understanding and the expectation the average american might have about how the census works, how it's going to affect them and what does that do in your thinking and planning for the management at the census? >> first of all about the census, being a nonstatistical geek like ibm and my colleagues are, we are reminded every ten years how the rest of the country sort of goes on without thinking much about the census for the tenure period. we have a massive re-education process challenge. every ten years about the basics so why do we do the census?

what's it all about? and why was it in the constitution? why did i actually do it? amine i filled out a form? do you measure everyone? the questions are at that level, and we are answering those questions now for all of our outreach. you have to start at a fairly low level and we build up over that time to read that process is part of the process of a professional scientific organization when you measure the public to read these aren't in conflict at all. our job as scientists is to construct designs that effectively measure the population we are interested in and of the economy that we are interested in. you can't do that at your desk completely well. you have to know and understand the population you're measuring. so a professional scientist who measures populations has to understand the population's you're measuring to be a good

scientist and of those things are to -- together. >> thank you. that does conclude the operational press briefing for today. i would like to go over a few milestones coming up and probably get an estimate when we might meet again. i know it's a very busy holiday period right now, but january is a very busy month for the census bureau. january 4th we will be launching an national 2010 census road tour across the country. you'll see more information coming out of that from our offices, and then also our paid media launched start adding january 18th. we will be doing a big kick off of the paid media campaign here in d.c. on the 14th, so look for more details on that as well as the first enumeration of the country, dr. grove will be going to alaska to participate in the first an imitation of a remote alaskan village and that is on january 25th. so again look for some of the states and we will keep you posted on the developments.

if we didn't get to the questions on the telephone please feel free to e-mail or call the public information office, and we will get those in front of dr. grove and respond as quickly as we can. once again, thank you very much for attending. have a great day. [inaudible conversations] now available, c-span's abraham lincoln great american historians on our 16th president of a perfect gift for the historian in your life. it's a unique, contemporary

perspective on lincoln from 56 scholars, journalists and writers from lincoln's early years to his life in the white house and his relevance today. abraham lincoln and hardcover at your favorite bookseller and now in digital audio. to listen to any time available where digital audio downloads are sold. learn more at speed. now to an event with karen nels, head of the small business administration. she talks about efforts to increase capital for small businesses and the potential impact of health care legislation. from the national press club, this is one hour and ten minutes. >> good afternoon. welcome to the national press club for the speakers luncheon. my name is donna leinwand. i'm a reporter for usa today and president of the national press club. we are the world's leading professional organization for journalists and are committed to the future of journalism by providing informative

programming in the journalism education and fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the national press club, please visit our web site at www.press.org. on behalf of our 3,500 members worldwide, i would like to welcome our speaker and guests in the audience today. i would like to also welcome those of you watching on c-span. we are looking forward to today's speech and afterwards i will ask as many questions from the audience as time permits. please hold your applause during the speech so we have time for as many questions as possible. for our broadcast audience i would like to explain if you hear of calls it may be from the guests and members of the general public to attend our conscience and not necessarily from the working press. i would now like to introduce the head table guests and ask them to stand briefly when their names are called. from your right, nina east and a "fortune magazine," marked as

bloomberg, kerry lynn mitchell of the federal news service, joe adler reporter at american banker, mike norton of team critical care and a guest of the speaker. doug of kiplinger and past president of the national press club. rebecca gould vice president affairs of dell and guest of the speaker. skipping of the podium, angela kein, bloomberg news and press club committee. ski dee dee costing over the guest speaker, deborah, speakers member who organized today's event. thank you very much, deborah. graced speed, trusted solutions incorporated and a guest of the speaker. maryland, senior business editor of npr. nancy of reuters and finally

paul merriam washington bureau chief of cranes chicago business. [applause] >> well, the nation has trained its attentions of the excesses of wall street, main street has suffered quietly. small businesses typically derive job creation, but the news from the main street has been dismal lately. banks have reportedly cut more than $10 billion from their small-business lending over the last six months. businesses with fewer employees cut another 68,000 workers in november. at president obama's jobs summit earlier this month, the message from small businesses was clear. no jobs without growth, no growth without credit. as the recession continues and rate of joblessness remain struggling labor leaders and democrats in congress suggested to the obama administration to

turn its attention and its bailout money to small businesses to read the president prodded bankers today to make more small-business loans. our guest today is one of the administration officials charged with trying to fix the situation. karen mills runs the small united states business administration. the sba is the single financial -- largest financial backer of small business. the sba was created in the 1950's when most banks did not like to lend to small business. the thinking was if you could provide the bank a guaranteed to make the loans could spur credit in amounts large and small for american entrepreneurs. today, sba provides direct and guaranteed loans, technical help and training, government contracting programs, and even disaster assistance. karen mills, who holds an economics degree and m.b.a. from harvard was a venture-capital

list and business manager before she came to washington from maine earlier this year to join the obama administration. she ran to successful capital ventures, investing in and guiding a range of businesses and serving as a management consultant. in maine, she also served on the governor's council on competitiveness and the economy. her challenge today is to help millions of small businesses get back on solid ground. so we welcome hearing today from the head of the small business administration to hear about the jobs, the economy and outlook for small businesses. please help me welcome to the national press club, small business administrator karen mills. [applause] >> thank you very much, donna. thank you for that introduction. good afternoon, everyone.

it is a great honor to be here. donna said i am from maine, and first women to take the opportunity to help the chef -- to thank the chef at the press club for this maine-oriented lunch. i understand we had seen scallops from maine. thank you. i know that many of you recognize that maine is the home to many small businesses, and in fact this weekend i was home, and i was walking down main street, which we spell within e. [laughter] and i saw many of the people who really are the reason why i come to work every day. and they are the force that is behind the american economy. so i'm walking down main street and i was looking at henry and marty's restaurant. henry and march he retired three years ago and were able to sell the restaurant to their

employees and continue the tradition of great scallops and lobster and food on main street because of an sba loan. and then i went by porch swings, and this was an entrepreneur who was the school nurse at the elementary school and she had historical design for an authentic porch swing and now she makes those in brunswick, maine and exports them all over the country and all over the world. so on maine street, you can really feel the pulse of small business community, and even in tough times like this it's easy to see how small businesses are the engine of our economy. so here are the facts. half the people who work in this country alone or work for a small business. and 64 per cent of the jobs that were created in the private

sector over the last 15 years came from small businesses. it's our or entrepreneurs, the small business owners that are also going to be able to drive america's ability to innovate and stay competitive across the globe. you know this week is an anniversary for me. a year ago this week the president asked me to come and serve at this small business administration. it was a tough time a year ago we had just had a meltdown in the financial markets. we had a freeze in credit in both conventional and sba loans. but the new administration and congress got behind small business because we knew that they would be an essential part of the recovery. so today, i want to talk about the progress that we are making and helping small business but the brakes on recession and i

want to describe how we are going to continue to build small businesses and create jobs in 2010. at the sba, our mission is to help small businesses start and grow we do this in three main areas: access to capital, opportunities in federal contracting and developing entrepreneurs or more simply the three c's, capital, contracting, counseling. the first is capital. as you might know, small businesses rely on access to bank credit much more than big businesses. at the sba you may not be aware, but we have a portfolio of over $90 billion in loans and loan guarantees. these are helping businesses get the credit they need to grow and

create jobs. and we do this by partnering with over 5,000 banks, credit unions and other institutions. a year ago, credit had frozen. with the recovery act we needed to get this credit flowing again so we made to temporary changes to our major program, the 78 and 504 program. first we've reduced or eliminated loan fees so weak it that small businesses keep more of that money and put it to work in their businesses. second, we increased the guarantee on seven a loans to 97% and that helped banks be more likely to lend. that formula worked. our average weekly loan volume increased more than 80% from the weeks before the recovery act. and as of now in the past few months, we are back up to higher

loan levels than in 2007 and in 2008. here is the headline. we've leveraged 375 million in stimulus funds into more than 16 billion in the hands of lending to america's small business. not only is that a good return on investment for tax payers but its 16 billion in the hands of the people who know exactly how to put that money to work. in addition, we brought more than 1200 lenders who had not made a sba loan since october when the credit markets rose until the recovery act. we brought 1200 lenders back to sba lending. and our goal in 2010 is to keep adding to this because we want to focus on having a more points

of access for small business to come and be able to get sba loans. the impact of this is very real for people like mike norton sitting up here, you can wait, mike, and katie couric is here, too, his partner in the business. they own a company called "team critical care in maryland," and it runs the ambulances that serve the local hospitals. i asked them before they ever drive the ambulances. i think they did the beginning of the business. they started three years ago. everything was fine until they had a conventional line of credit and it was unexpectedly called in. so in june they had to find a new lender, and that linder help to get them a sba loan for $300,000. now they saved $8,000, reduced fees, and they've hired 18 more

employees. so mike told us this loan literally saved their business. [applause] thank you for being here. thank you for coming, mike and td and also the work you do to save lives every day. we can't stop there. we have progress with our access to capital. but now we are working on small business is benefiting from recovery act contracts, the second c. at the sba we help ensure small businesses get access to 23% of all federal contracts. now i describe this as a win-win, because contracts are like oxygen. the revenue small-business is need to grow their business and create more jobs, and especially at this time when revenues are

tight, recovery contracts are even more helpful. and this is good also for the taxpayers because the federal government to get access to some of the most nimble and innovative small companies sometimes with even direct line to the ceo. in august the vice president asked commerce secretary barry locke and me to make sure federal contracts were heading to small businesses, especially those owned by women, minorities , and veterans. and since then we've worked together, and our teams have created about 300 outreach events, they are called matchmaking evin sprick our goal is to put the right procurement officer together with the right small business. some people say that's light speed dating. we prefer to think we are creating long-term relationships

may be like match.com. [laughter] so far, we are actually exceeding our goal in the recovery act. we are exceeding the goals. we've got about 5 billion recovery act dollars in the hands of small businesses and we are exceeding some of our sub goals such as those with service disabled veterans. we are also very focused on the women and minority-owned firms getting access to federal contracts because these sectors, the women and minority-owned businesses are some of the fastest-growing sectors and all of small business. so we have capital, contracts. the feathered c is counseling. i want to touch on this because many of you don't know about the extent of the counseling network. i call it the sba bone structure. the backbone is our sba employees.

we have over 100 field offices all across the country where a small agency with a big mission. our most valuable asset in achieving that mission is our people. we also have 14,000, 14,000 affiliated counselors. these include 900 small-business development centers. mostly located at community colleges, local universities. we have more than 100 women's business centers. we say we have a counselor within 45 minutes to an hour of most small businesses that are out there. and we have 370 chapters of our mentoring program which is called score. altogether, these folks serve more than 1 million clients a year. this past year they've been working particularly hard because small business owners

have had to shift gears in order to survive. many of them have come to review their business plan and these people are helping new entrepreneurs start up businesses. i want to point out kenneth who runs scored. he has an entire volunteer army of retired executives and he has challenged them over the next five years to help create over 1 million small businesses. i always tell small business -- [applause] you know i come to these gatherings, i do them all of the country and their small business owners and i ask them to raise their hand if they have a sba counselor who helps them and if they don't i tell them they should because our data shows when you have a long-term counseling relationship you have

better sales, higher profits and higher and more people. the best part of that is that all of these services are free. another tool in our counseling tool box is sba's partnership with the private sector. on that note, i'm very happy to be here to announce we are launching a new online partnership today called strategies for growth with dell that knows about growth. they started in 1984 with $1,000 in startup capital. some of the best advice a small business owner can get is from someone who has been in their shoes. that is what is in strategies for growth. it is video and its online and shows how to get contracts and export and create jobs and i

want to thank rebecca gould from dell for being here today, and grace from trusted solutions. that is one of the great i.t. cos. she has a number of federal contracts and she is a star in the video as well. and has anyone in this room ever eaten a cupcake from k. clough? alright you're going to have to stand up because warren is here and he started cake love. he told me earlier he is expanding. he's opening a new location and hire more employees. thank you very much. he's also a star of strategies for growth telling other people how to grow their business. thank you, warren, greece, rebecca for being here today to kick this off. thank you. [applause]

so, we've covered capitol, we've covered contracting and counseling, and through those we at the sba have helped small business is come a long way in 2009. but what about now? the president said, i'm going to quote, we will not rest until businesses, small businesses are investing again, businesses are hiring again and people have worked. and each recession, we know that job growth lags behind the econ money. so we are seeing the economy take off, and we are focusing on how to make sure small businesses have the tools and incentives they need to create jobs and to create them as quickly as possible. so what are we doing? the first thing we did is we listened. and some of you actually were in

attendance or have seen that tama geithner and i held a forum last month on small-business lending and that, in turn, set the stage for the small businesses jobs summit where tim and i had another forum. we had a small businesses there, banks, community banks, large banks, and that contributed to the rollout last week of the jobs plan in which small business was a priority. this process has been a great way to get input directly from the small business owners, so it's not surprising this plan, this jobs plan has very broad support from the small business community because it is built on the things that work. i mentioned before the waived fees, the increased 90% guarantees in the loan program

did exactly what they were supposed to do. they worked so well in fact we ran out of stimulus funds before thanksgiving. it was months before the authorization is going to expire. small business owners and in our lending partners are very vocal about the need to continue these provisions. and that's why the jobs plan calls for them to be extended through the end of 2010. in addition we are asking congress to increase loan size from $2 million to $5 million. based on what we've heard from small business owners as well as our own hard data we know that demand exists for these larger loans and there is no reason we can meet that demand and help these small business owners create jobs. extending the recovery act loan

provisions, increasing the loan size. those are good first steps. but they are also complemented by the administration who is working to encourage more conventional small business loans. in fact i'm sure that you know right this morning, maybe not at this very minute but in the last hour the president himself met with the top u.s. banks on this very topic. we are also not going to stop their. the small-business community told us that tax incentives are critical. for example you might remember that in the stimulus we had the carryback provision for small businesses, and that has been actually renewed. the president signed legislation extending that to 2009 as well, and already i think it is accounting for about 5 billion

in tax relief for small businesses. that's money in the hands of small businesses of their taxes this year. we are going to build on this in the jobs plan. calls for congress to extend the tax write-off, the accelerated depreciation for investment in equipment and to completely eliminate the capitol gains taxes for people who invest in small businesses and 2010. furthermore, the administration is talking with congress about a short-term tax cut that will accelerate new hires. with this tax cut we want to say to small-business owners don't wait. go ahead. make that higher. you can do it now. jobs plan businesses -- kuhl this plan benefits for small business don't stop there. the money for energy retrofits

also helps many small businesses that specialize in the weather station and in a renewable energy. and in fact, we have some experience already with that because the sba approved and recovery act over 300 loans, 100 million for businesses that put solar panels on rooftops, that install wind turbines and provide energy efficiency and environmental services. so this leads me to the key focus items for the sba. it focused on with creating jobs in the short term and at the same time we are working to help those small innovative businesses that are the foundation stone for america's long-term competitive position in fact, there are two kind of small businesses. there's the small businesses on

main street, and these are the restaurants and the dry cleaners and car repair operations that are part of the fabric of our everyday lives. the sba serves those small businesses on main street, and we have since we were founded in 1953 and we are going to continue to do so. but in addition, we have a unique opportunity to build america's future by investing in the high-growth, high impact small businesses sometimes called the cells. there's one study that shows 375,000 of these small businesses, and they are not all young high-tech start-ups on east coast or the west coast. no, instead they exist in every county, both rural and urban. all across the country. they are in every industry including manufacturing.

some are the young high-tech start-ups and alternative energy and healthcare information technology. others are hundred hero of third generation companies that have found a way to reinvent themselves for the 21st century. edify sba, we are committed to helping these important job generators. we are going to tell you two quick ways to do that, the first is exporting. trade has been global to america's big companies for decades. but the growth of networks and communications, new markets have opened up for small businesses. since 2003 america's small-business exports have grown about 80%. they are nearly 500 billion now and sales. but the problem is these exports are now only 30% of the total

exports of the country and have the small businesses that export they export to one country. we are helping lead an interagency group come across government that's going to change that. we are ill going to increase both the number of entrepreneurs who export and the number of countries the export to. i will just give one quick success story. i love this company, southwest wind power. focused in 1987 in a garage in flagstaff arizona. in 1995 they got a sba loan and since then this company has made 160,000 small wind turbines, and the power offshore oil platforms and telecommunications towers and homes and schools and in 90 countries. they have 100 employees and are

hiring even more because the heavy supply chain they are building up to expand. they saw the demand abroad. they are meeting and we are going to create more exporting business is just like this. it's the second quick idea is something i've worked a lot with with some of my friends from brookings who are here, regional innovation clusters. several years ago, in maine we knew our naval air station in my hometown of brunswick went on the closure list and we were going to lose jobs and the governor asked me to find innovative small business is who would help and go there so we looked around to see what our assets were and we saw that maine has been building boats for over 400 years, and at the university of maine there was new technology, cutting edge technology in composites that need boat hulls that were the

fastest and latest in the world. so we formed a cluster of these independent builders and leveraged this new technology, branded that mean built boats and now mean is exporting boats as far away as shanghai. at the sba, this year we did it again. we saw that there were all these small automotive suppliers in a hard hit area, michigan, and i actually went to detroit and kicked off this cluster. they had expertise in the state of the arctic area of robotics and this expertise was very interesting to our department of defense. so we put this cluster together and as i said i went out, and it is extraordinary how when you get the universities with expertise, small businesses with expertise and at this time the

department of defense how many opportunities we are creating because these suppliers are now diversifying out of the automotive industry and supplying unmanned military vehicles and much more. in 2010 we are going to expand this to other locations in the united states and establish even more regional innovation clusters. we are also going to push exports because we know we can help these high growth small businesses turn innovation into jobs. so, in closing we have three c's, capital, contracts and counseling that are really part of the bone structure of the whole small business administration. at the same time we are going to push ahead and exports and clusters, and we know that if we do this we can get small businesses the tools they need to grow and prosper, create jobs

and drive our economy once more. i've been working in small business most of my life. i have had the chance this year to see the resiliency, strength throughout the whole united states. i've heard the great success stories here in d.c.. we've had trusted mission solutions and team critical care, many more. i've traveled all around the country. i met this guy, samuel in chicago, and he had walked into one of our small business development centers with technology that does titanium and use the old for the automotive industry. there's been zero business experience and there's a company supplying state of the art technology and offices in ohio and michigan and wisconsin and he's still growing.

stories like these that inspire me. when i go home for the holidays i'm going to see the familiar shops on main street, with and e, and i'm going to see these are the businesses that inspire me personally. they inspire everyone at the sba and they are the inspiration for all americans because they or the force that is going to create the jobs we need and innovation that is going to keep the american economy competitive thank you for having me here. [applause] >> we have all kind of questions so we will get started right

away. risky lending is part of the reason the u.s. economy tanked. how do you balance the call for more lending with the designer to not repeat past mistakes? >> thank you. you know, right now as you know we are still looking at an environment where there is not enough lending to small businesses. and we know that they are still good companies out there that can't get the credit that the need. our credit scores on our loans have actually gone up in this environment. they've gone up. so we are not making risky loans. we are seeing more great companies out. this is why today across the administration we've urged banks to come back on this market and make the loans to those good companies because without the credits as the economy perks up and the need to expand

inventories and higher in the next worker they are going to need the capitol to grow. >> how does the sba protect itself against people irresponsible like the mortgage borrowers who cannot meet their obligations? >> it's very important as you know. we work through our 5,000 banking partners that are out there and we have very strict credit standards about what is inappropriate sba load so when we go out we are providing access and opportunity to viable business is that the market is and surfing. we actually have fairly low default rates in our sba lending. but what is important is we are providing access and opportunity through 5,000 lending partners who have strict credit procedures that we also oversee because this is taxpayer money

so it is important that we not put it at risk in a risky situations but instead we find those liable businesses and make sure that the have access. >> what leverage do you really have with big banks? [laughter] >> these banks are partners. we have 5,000 banks and many community banks that are partners, but we also have sba operations and pretty much all of the large lending institutions. so we talked to them every single day and they have i will have to say they have stepped up in these recovery act programs. they have put more emphasis in their sba lending and as i said we have 1200 banks who had stopped lending and have come back to our program today. so we know that when we have these relationships with them they will come back and serve this market.

>> why do the banks want to work with the sba? >> the sba provides a very important function. the conventional marketplace operates for most bank lending. if you can get a loan from a bank, why should you get -- why should the taxpayers subsidize your loan? you should get that loan. but if you are by all business and for various reasons the market is not serving you that is where the sba comes in. so banks are able to get our help with a little more credit support to stretch for the less viable business is that for some reason they need some additional credit help with. and that is why they want to work for us because we expand their possibility and partner with them so that we work often through their processes and procedures and allow them to serve more clients and very often grow and take out

conventional loans. >> do you blame bank regulators like the fdic for the trend of tightening credit? >> we work very closely with all of the regulators. we were just talking to the fdic trying very hard to work and a pair banks and make sure the crises in dislocations we've had which are very bad for small business are put to rest and that we move forward with a strong and viable banking system. from our perspective, we have enormous faith in our banking partners right now who are stepping up and partnering with sauce. one of the benefits of the sba guarantee is that portion of it doesn't have to go against their balance sheet so at the moment it is a very good way for banks to partner with us, stretched out and make some of the credit

available said they know the marketplace needs. so we have very good balance at this time. >> what conditions need to occur for the administration to consider making direct loans to small businesses? >> once again, i want to mention we have a network out there as banks that we work through so for us to be in every corner of every state as we are now, we have 5,000 partners who have a sba loan, just about 3,000, just under 3,000 who have made a sba loan in the last year. that is a pretty powerful network, so our choice in what we are advocating is to continue what works. we know that we are able to get 1200 banks back to lending who stopped with the 90 per cent guarantees in the fee reductions

so we know if we can continue to do that and we can get as the president is urging today banks back making conventional loans and increase the size of load limits which allow us to reach a broad group, we believe that will be the right formula to serve the marketplace that is not getting served today. >> isn't access to capital threatened since the stimulus funds ran out in november? >> yes as i mentioned the stimulus fund state run out. we went from 90% guaranteed to 75% guarantee so we are still in business and we created a.q. for small businesses who want to wait for the 90% guarantee if congress comes back with that activity. so, if you've ever been to the airport and see your name on the standby list it is a new

technology and open portal and you can go in and see where your name is and we think those combined still being in business with our current product is going to be able to serve the market. >> what are the prospects of sba 2869 passing before congress adjourns? do you know that one? >> whoever asked that question -- if you ask a question try to avoid the acronyms and senate bill numbers. but we will move on to a psychological question for you. do you feel misunderstood by congress? do you think that congress understands your agency? [laughter] i absolutely feel conyers understand her agency. when you have -- when your in congress and go home to your districts they are hearing from our small businesses, from their small businesses every day so when i go to the hill i know

that each member is focus on solving these issues for small business. we have to terrific committees to oversee, one in the house and one in the senate. they've been doing this a long time and provide enormous attention to these issues and are really focused on solving some of these problems, so we had actually quite a good partnership three >> many displaced workers look at starting a business as an alternative. however are hesitant to fund start-ups. are there plans to enhance funding resources for startup businesses? >> having been in a start a business and funding start up business this is the year to my heart. we have terrific resources. we were able to get $50 million of additional microloan money to put out into the communities through our network of microloan lenders so we are everyday

actively helping people start up their businesses. sometimes it is a cookie store on main street and sometimes it is going to be the next dell petraeus we also have the score counselors, remember, who are 12,000 of them with a mission to help create a million small businesses. these are people who have been beebee in that very business and they also do their counseling on line so we are quite active right now with both capital the counseling for small business start-ups. >> small manufacturers say they have special hardships that make it next to impossible to get a sba loan. what specifically will you do to help factory owners? >> actually factory owners are very much a part of the core sba lynndie so i will have to hear more whoever said that about what issues. we have particular i your limits on the 504 loans from

manufacturing operations so they can buy the building for more equipment, and we have quite a few in our program so i would have to say that sba is quite focused on manufacturing operations i'm particularly focused because most of my small business experience is and manufacturing. >> apart from a financial institutions do you see a deeper partnership with large companies to our suppliers to small businesses? >> as you know, we are a responsible for helping insure 23% of all federal contracts go to small business. very often in all agencies the department of defense for instance this happens through partnerships we call mentor protege, small businesses and big businesses partnering to get there because big business is more than ever before need a whole supply chain of small businesses behind them and they

focused on this. so they've come to us and asked for additional help. and this is for real partnerships. this is not a big company masquerading as a small company. this is for big companies to make sure they have the best innovation which often happens in a small company and has a partnership with those small companies so that their supply chain allows them to operate with the best possible products in an uninterrupted fashion. >> with the passage of the recent appropriations bill how great a reduction in fees can the borrowers expectation of attaining a sba loan? >> in the recovery act we were able to fund the full elimination of border where fees for our 504 and 78 loan as well. we are at a point where the president asked congress and

we've asked congress to continue that through the next year so we are hoping to have that see elimination for borrowers continue through the whole of 2010. >> do you think the senate will approve the bill to increase 78 and 504 maximum? >> in fact both senators snow and landrieu put in bills to increase maximums to $5 million. we feel that this actually can bring a lot more small businesses into our network and allow us to fund them particularly in the times of tight credit, but we will not let those big loans crowd out the small loans. we are going to make sure we also keep taking care of our small customers as well. >> so congress was giving you love but someone else wants to ask what do you say to small-business groups that argue the best way to help small

business is for government to get out of the way? >> one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we watch out for small business and that small business did not suffer unintended consequences of other regulation. this is something we take very seriously and we have a great office of advocacy that operates independently and focus is quite a bit on this issue. we have an entire group you may not know about called the omnibus and they are to help small businesses navigate through regulatory issues so if you were a small business and you were out there on of our main missions is to help you navigate these kind of fish used. >> what help can sba offer in reducing taxes on small businesses such as payroll taxes? >> well, right now we are in discussion to do some claims of

new tax reductions. the administration is talking to congress about all kind of plans that might reduce various kind of payroll taxes or other things to support new high years. in addition the tax incentives that have been proposed in the jobs plan or proven benefits for small business. i just want to spend a minute on the accelerated depreciation which is very beneficial if you are going out and buy a piece of equipment we are going to be able to write off much more of it right now. so this is directly into small businesses to help them expand. the same with the tax loss carry back a very powerful. $5 billion already held holding small business. it allows small business to get immediate benefit when they file their taxes they can write off losses against the last five years so that can be in cash

right back in the pocket of a small business. >> the federal tax incentives are admirable but financially pressed cities and states going to hurt small businesses through higher taxes and fees and by reducing services? >> well, this issue of what's cui to have been in state and local government is very much on everyone's mind. i know that bruce katz is here from brookings, runs the metropolitan and division and focuses on the 100 metros that drives our economy. these are critical pieces of our economies calls all businesses operate and depend on them and we need to make sure that they can operate so that small businesses can operate. >> are there any particular parts of the country or industries in trouble that have kept you up at night?

>> you know i traveled around really every week since i think july all the way through to quite recently, and i've been in every region and we have an economy in many places the same transformation. we have to make sure that we work in those regions to make sure we have for instance the clusters of activities that are going to allow the companies and the jobs to turn to what is quinta be successful in this next year of going forward. we have a lot of tools out there that can do it. we have great emphasis of the federal level on the work force training and a lot of resources going down there. we have all of our sba network and bone structure that lives in every one of these metropolitan areas and every one of these

states. we have universities and innovation predation all across these areas. that's one of the reasons why i'm such a big fan of these clusters of innovation hubs because lots of them will involve small businesses and lots of them in fees more troubled areas, i was in kokomo indiana, 25% of employment in that town is chrysler. but they already have an accelerator. they already have innovation. they've got trained engineers. our job is to make sure we've got on turbeville was starting businesses, creating environments we can take that innovation, turn it into jobs, turn it into products competitive for of the country. we are very focused on that. >> the small business investment company program is part of the sba. this program is operating on the 20% of capacity leading to $.4 billion on used in fy 2009. what are we doing to get this

unused money out to small businesses? >> i want to point out in the whole sbic groups there are several of you here and i know that you're going to be out there helping us use this money. we actually have a terrific person hitting that area. i want to introduce shawn green. i'm not sure if he's here but has great experience in this area and i will tell you what we are finding, applications for the sbic's have gone up, the highest quality people coming in. we've tremendous new innovation on how we are working with those applicants. we are taking a lead times down. he announced the fast-track program for a particular set of folks we've been working with already. we are going to get applications through much faster. so i would anticipate we are going to be very able to put the money to work over the coming

year. >> with increased focus on financing available willing to be able to hire more people to manage sbic in particular the approval process? >> i think just answered, yes, there's a great community out there that we are partnered with. we have folks at the sba with great expertise in this area and there is a capital gap, there is a valley of death, and we are helping people that the early stages and helping them get all the way through that area. we must fill the valley of death with access to capital and opportunity if we are going to create these innovative companies i described earlier. so we are focused and i think we are going to have the expertise and partnerships with the entrepreneurs and fund managers that are going to allow us to do

it. >> you often hear people say government should run like a business. since you have run a business is this reasonable and how are your challenge is now different from where you were running a business? >> i have a great team at of the sba command when he wore running any kind of operation, you know that your greatest asset is your people. when you look at what is available in the small business administration, 90 billion-dollar loan portfolio, 14,000 affiliated counselors, 5,000 banks who are network partners all across the country, and we have a relationship with all our fellow agencies to work together in order to get small businesses these contracts to get i find in the sba we have enormous assets,

so it makes my job as a leader quite easy because i have only to and how were these great people and help us i think work together not in silos but as a team to help our constituents small business. i also find if you have a great mission it's pretty easy to get passion and enthusiasm and energy against the problem and that's what we've got today. ..

>> the president was talking and i was standing behind the president and he finished his prepared remarks and i knew he was finished. but i did not know he was going to say and he said to all of the small businesses who are out there, i can't imagine how difficult things might be and how tough it is to run your business in these times. by you should know this, this administration is committed to small business because we know when you succeed, america's succeeds. the president believes

that, i believe that so i am honored to serve. thank you very much for having me. [applause] >> our web like to thank you for coming today also like to think said national press club staff members to andrews, moen datuk and pat nelson also think to the national press club library for the research. of the video archives provided by a dead national press club operations center and events are available for free download on itunes as well as website. non-members may purchase transcripts and audio and video tapes by calling or e-mail nas at archives at press.org. for reformation please visit our website at press the.org. thank you very much for your time and we are returned.

[applause] [inaudible conversations]

spec they did not say anything at all that was very newsworthy unfortunately a and avoided some controversial subjects notably what has happened to the public option. we are told by other senators that attended they talked about the state of the health bill and the state of the very important

issue o o o the public option and some that democrats talk about the secondary option that would allow people age 55 through 62 bite into medicare and some democrats oppose that. thinking it is more acceptable to the moderates teeseven what was the decision about that? teeone book ideas are out of the bill both the public option and the medicare teeten it teeseven what was senator the burmans role? teeone he said yesterday that he would not support the bill if it included the buy yen -- teeten also that had any kind of public options those uttered leonard lieberman because they need all 60 democrats to vote for this bill have become a very powerful and influential senator. and looks like he is getting his way teeseven a 2z need

to sort out to secure passage? >> abortion is outstanding. him and senator nelson are working on some two language. hof. senator reid helps will bridge the gap between senator nelson and the rest of the democratic force -- caucus teeseven between seven democrats and president obama? at tomorrow's meeting? teeone from the perspective of a lot of democrats he needs to sell the bill to the liberals without a public optioned in a. lot of liberals said they would support it now they're looking at a bill on the senate floor that the site have that policy. it is so important to him he needs to vote even though it does not have the policy teeseven we appreciate your

time. alex wayne from congressional quarterly. >> we have gotten over most of the hurdles, and the steeplechase raised. the last few puddles in front of us and we have to jump over that to the finish line prepare a tough race but it has been worth it. the american people have waited a long time for health care reform. democrats will be sure and the scope of its that their people have different opinions of the caucus and that is the way it should

be. we stand shoulder to shoulder that health care reform is necessary and timely working hand-in-hand with the white house to accomplish that goal. i am confident by next week we will be on our way for this bill to go to the president. i remember this bill saves lives, saves money, and saves medicare. we are still awaiting word from the now famous cbo to find out what they will do with the manager's amendment there are i am confident the cbo and the conversation i had with them the provision of the amendment will make our bill even stronger. we have been very careful not talking about the specifics of the package for the reasons that are very, very obvious. we don't want this to be made public then have to change things so the cbo

handles this of the right way. at the end of the process democrats and we hope a few republicans can deliver good news to the american people. we are april consumer and a pro patient to build the stock being insurance companies from manipulating the system making it more affordable and accessible stopping the abuses and 70 different ways and reduces the deficit brings in runaway health care costs and strengthen its medicare for the future. senator baucus? senator dodd? >> having been hear a few years, it's easy to envision the legislation you want but pass legislation that you need. that is true with health care. whatever differences exist within the united states senate, those differences will pale by comparison to the differences it can make

to the american public with health care reform. and has been a part of the process directly for one year. i will tell you this tonight that before we leave here in the next couple weeks, we will pass a national health care insurance reform for all americans. >> i have said this before and i will say it again. this will be our most important legislative endeavor for most of us that are serving or leased for social security. this will mean so much for so many people. there are so many people are we going to act or not? we let them down or not? the democrats fervently feel

that sense of urgency to be sure we get the legislation passed. it is amazing. sometimes people tend to forget. lower-cost for americans. increase health insurance than coverage for 30 million americans. think of that. in the insurance industry practices such as discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and a bill that i said will lower health care spending would be paid for, reduce the national debt, improve choice of competition in the insurance market, create centers for better quality throughout the health care system and protect americans from being denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions. tax credits. this bill lowers taxes of

americans. it is the biggest tax cut since the 2001. on a net basis this legislation because of the tax credits, lowers taxes for americans. i look forward to working with my colleagues as sure as i am standing here i am confident i know we will pass health care insurance for all americans in a matter of a couple weeks. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> i have heard the president talked about creating jobs a number one priority should be creating jobs to gives incentives it -- incentives. have heard my colleagues talk about job creation and how important it is. yet everything coming at a washington whether the form of heavy-handed regulation is like this in danger of finding coming out of the epa, in the form of a

cap-and-trade proposal coming through the congress right now, whether a massive expansion of the federal government, two and a half trillion dollars to create a new health care entitlement, all of these things madame president are raising clouds over the small business sector of our economy which creates 70% of the jobs. we are telling small businesses where you may end up with the massive new energy taxes, the employer mandate that will cost $750 per employee gummy will be faced with all of the taxes that would be imposed on prescription drugs, medical manufacturer or a device manufacturers that will be passed on to you than me say go create jobs and the like to follow the policy and certainty of washington, the proposals to tax and spend and borrow more money by the

federal government point* cannot blame small businesses for acting with a little bit of hesitancy that comes to making a major capital investments. those of the very things we want small businesses to do we want to encourage that type of behavior that investment, job creation. unemployment is at 10%. we have lost 3.3 million jobs. who will put people back to work? the small businesses. in my state of south dakota there are 96% of the game. when it comes to employment. here we are debating a health care reform bill which it addition to spending 2.5 trillion dollars to create the new health care entitlement raises taxes, cuts medicare, and at the end of the day according to all of the experts, the cbo, the chief actuary for the center for medicare services which is the referee that tells us what these things will

cost, they have all said the premiums will stay the same or go up. the best of small business can hope for is the status quo. high here colleagues coming down day after day making statements this will be good for small business and help small businesses steel with a high cost of health care. the problem madam president come up with all of their arguments is the one thing. they are completely and utterly divorced from reality. you cannot look at this health care reform proposal and come away from it and say this is a good thing from small businesses would they say it will drive up the cost of doing business or raise health care costs and the taxes you hit us with will make it harder to create jobs. why do we precede in the face and defy what all these small businesses are saying

and that is the this is a bad idea. why don't you go back to reconsider this and start over again and do things that will lower health care cost? we have people saying this is good for small businesses. water small businesses saying or large business? representing small businesses all of the country say it will not deliver the small-business community they say it will destroy job creation opportunities for employees. create a reality worse than the status quo for small business. the wrong reform of the wrong time and will increase health care costs and a cost of doing business part of that is the national federation of independent business that represents small business all of a country. the chamber of commerce expresses their disappointment with the health care bill and has strong opposition.

the national association of wholesale distributors the entrepreneurship council the association of manufacturers, independent electoral contractors, international franchise association, the list goes on and on there is an organization called the small business coalition and that is 50 organizations around the country who are members of that group including mim eight -- many that have members in my state of south dakota at which represents farmers and ranchers to our small business people out there trying to make ends meet for of a submitted a letter that said small businesses have been clear about what they need and want. lower-cost, more choices and greater competition for private insurance. they go on to say these reforms fall short of meaningful relief if any potential savings from these reforms are more than outweighed by the new taxes, new mandates and

expensive new government programs that are included in this bill. that, madam president is what the small businesses across the country are saying. they say that because not only are they hit with the taxes every year that will amount as $60 billion over 10 years that will be passed on to small businesses, there is a new payroll tax, medicare tax which incidentally for the first time ever will be used to create a new title meditation time a program that tax will hit one-third of small businesses across the country. they have them player mandate which will have another $28 billion that will hit small businesses across this country. you have all of these new taxes and all heaped upon the small business sector and they say what do you get out of it? i want to show you what it

will do to the health care costs. this represents what the cbo has said from health care cost would do if this bill is enacted. the blueline represents the cost of doing nothing. the blueline represents what will happen if congress does nothing. the year-over-year increases it represents the status quo. we have heard people come from the other side and say you have to do better, the president, vice president, say that, our democratic colleagues you cannot accept the status quo. that matter president the blueline represents the status quo. that is what will happen year over year in terms of increases with health insurance premiums that small businesses will deal with a record does not matter where you get your insurance. the employer small group market and large market if you give the individual market the rates will be 1013% higher.

can i ask unanimous consent to extend for another five minutes? >> without objection. >> does not matter of your market unless you're in the individual market you'll pay much higher premiums than just the status quo which locks in double the rate of inflation increases of the premiums. the red line, madam president from matt represents spending. this is what the cbo says will happen producing the cost curve fined up, not down produce the more money coming out of our economy to pay health care than today. that is what small businesses are reacting to and why they are coming out strongly and adamantly opposed to this legislation as they are. it increases the cost of health care rather than spending it down. we hear the same thing come out of the actuary just last

week, the experts are saying, the referee the people who don't have a political agenda come out and say repeatedly this will increase the cost of health care. drive health insurance premiums higher. the other point* i want to make after one to show you how health care cost will go up under this legislation income and the other amazing thing, this is phony accounting techniques or gimmicks that washington uses, the same old business smoke and mirrors ways of disguising what this really cost. in order to bring in 10 at $1 trillion which is the democrat majority wanted to do they use budget gimmicks and a senator from new hampshire is here and he has followed this closely the he can attest to the fact one of the things that they did is started the tax increase

is immediately. on january 1st which is 18 days away from all of the businesses across the country will see taxes go up. 18 days. but amazingly benefits don't get paid out for another 1,479 days. they followed all tax increases they will be passed on immediately by 2013 every american family will be paying starting next year's $600 per year through 2013 and so every family will feel the brunt of the additional cost in the premium increases but the remarkable thing is they actually structured a bill that would punish small businesses and people who pay the taxes on january january 1st 201018 days away and all-star paying out the benefits under the bill for another 1,479 days.

in a 10 year window they used to measure what this will cost, it dramatically understates the cost of this legislation. so what we're faced with this is not a $1 trillion build a 2.5 trillion dollar bill when it is fully implemented and all of the budgetary gimmicks and phony accounting is taken into consideration. madame president it is a bad deal for small businesses. in you cannot get up on the other side day after day and the fire reality and logic and reason and fax. that is why those who are trying to push the huge government expansion and takeover of health care on this country are trying to solve-- have people believe and i believe the american people are tuning into that that is why increasingly they're turning a thumbs down by majorities of over 60%. the senator from new

hampshire is here and i appreciate him indulging me for an extra few minutes and i will be happy to yield back the balance of my time. >> i asked and the unanimous consent. >> without objection. >> i rise to urge my colleagues in the senate to support senate amendment to replace the proposed excise tax and replace it with a surtax that would affect only those making literally millions of dollars per year. senator brown and senator sanders have shown tremendous leadership on the issue and i want to thank them in join them in their efforts. before i get into this, i want to answer a couple of things.

my good colleague from south dakota, senator thune had a charge up and he said when your taxes will kick and and when your benefits will kick in. i did not hear the whole speech and i feel bad about that. i went up to him and said i did not hear your whole speech and he said that is too bad. but i said did you actually have to mentioned any of the duke and it -- benefit said to kick can write a way? he said no. again, we are entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts. benefits to kick in right away. if you hold up a chart that says when taxes kick again and win benefits kick in you say 1800 days? you better include those

that do take 10 it right away specular you yield for a question? >> does the senator from minnesota when i was pointing out on the chart i understand the point* was making that the taxes increase 18 days from now and the benefits, the spending benefits under the bill? the premium tax credits and the exchanges designed to provide the benefits to not start until 2014. >> do you understand the spending benefit start right away. >> you miss the point*. >> i ask your question, senator. i yielded to you for a question and i am asking a question. >> the senator may yield only for a question and a senator from minnesota has the floor.

the senator from south dakota says the spending does not start $5 billion starting immediately for a new program to provide affordable coverage to uninsured americans of pre-existing conditions. i do not know about anyone else in this body. >> will the senator yield again? biv nablus senator frank is saying the five is for the high-risk pool, those who have the most trouble because of insurance companies this debate is really all about the insurance companies my friends always come down on the insurance company is. they are the ones that are driving so much waste in the system and another thing in

this bill is the medicare teeten. summit 58 or 62 years old cannot get insurance. they have been laid off from a pre-existing condition, maybe they are part of a small business that does not ensure them. they cannot get insurance, this legislation will allow them to teeten in the medicare program by republican friends cannot make up their minds what they think about medicare. they oppose it mostly for 40 years they tried to privatize and they succeeded partially pri they tried to cut it now when we add that a a rp request are pushing legislation that will cost -- cutouts some of the waste all the sudden they are big fans but now they don't like it again because we do the medicare teeten i am confused. >> will yield for a question? >> we gave the other side

30 minutes. but you want to monopolize our 30 minutes. we have our time. the senator from south dakota just said when he give his presentation and coming he was saying that nothing that we were paying for starts until 1800-- from now. i have full list of things that start. >> the senator from the minnesota has the floor. he may a gauge in a colloquy and is not have to yield to any further questions. >> it will prohibit insurers to have lifetime limits on benefits. store chain on day #1. starting on day one, a senator. he does not want to hear a. he does not want to hear. we are entitled to our own

opinions but we're not entitled to our own facts. benefits kick in on day one and a large majority of benefits again on day one. we should not be standing appear with charts that say the exact opposite. senator mccain one week ago said facts are stubborn things. these are stubborn things. small business tax credits will kick in immediately. the senator from south dakota just said no payments , nothing that will cost money will kick in right away. that is not true. we are not entitled to our own facts. i stand here day after day after day year my

colleagues, my good friends from the other side say things that are not based on fact. we hear this $78 trillion unfunded liability. we've used a year the 11 trillion mandate then they asked the actuary what it was about and the treasury secretary's no and what it was comment that america and actuarial society. i was mad about this. the infinite horizon was the liability. into infinity. that was a figure used by the president of united states, george bush, a $11 trillion unfunded mandate what was the actuarial thinking behind it? >> into infinity and people will live at 150 years old.

one second. want to explain the end of this part of this was the unfunded liability assuming people lived until 150 and still retired at 67. that was an 83 your retirement i assume the first 50 years her great the next 50 not so great in the last 50 are horrible. that is ridiculous stuff. let's have honest the bait for goodness sakes. let's not put up charts that contend one thing that they're just not true civic i appreciate the senator from arizona at yielding and the discussion on the floor this evening pointing out not only how flawed in the process is that is being conducted behind closed doors despite all

contradictions as libya transparent and open process part of the senator from arizona has been a great that holding the other side accountable when it comes to all of these pronouncements how this will be an open and transparent process. something is going on write now we're not privy to what some point* i think they will throw something at the wall hoping that it will stick. but one observation with regard to the discussion held earlier today. the senator from minnesota indicated he thought the chart was somehow inaccurate or misleading and a one 2.data again, madam president that the church is very accurate. they began 18 days from now on january 1st of next year, january 1, 2010. almost $72 billion of taxes will have been collected

before the benefits as start to kick and will be paid out. premium subsidies that support the exchanges for those who don't have insurance get access. that is 1,479-- from now. what the senator from minnesota said "we are entitled to our own opinions but not entitled to our own facts. the fact that benefits kick and on day one and a large majority kick and on day one and we should not be standing appear with turrets that say the exact opposite" end quote. madam president, this is the cbo saying that 99% of the coverage spending in this bill does not kick 10 until january 1, 2014 or 1,479 days. if i say to my colleagues are most americans around the country do you think it is fair to construct a bill

that in order to understate the total cost starts raising taxes in 18 days but does not start delivering 99% of the coverage benefits until 1,479-- from here? of the other side was to have an argument about whether 90% of the coverage benefits kick can in the year 2014 or 100% i'm happy to have the argument. taxes start 18 days from now. $72 billion of taxes will have been opposed -- put upon the american people and 1479 days from no. i want to make that point* and refused that argument made that the larger jury of benefits kick and on day one. 99% don't. incidentally i have an amendment i hope we get a chance to vote on that will delay the tax increases

until such time the benefits begin. it is only fair that we synchronize the tax increases with the benefits. many of us do not support the tax increase in the first place. that is why we will support the crapo amendment and hopefully get rid of them. but if you have tax increases and raise revenue immediately, then you ought to start paying out the benefits of this same time or delayed the tax increases of it are synchronize part of that is a fair way to conduct for the american people. that clearly is not the case. the reason it is done this way in the newspapers have made it clear that the statements they said the effective date was pushed back one year 2014 that is the biggest cost savings of any legislation, but the measures date was pushed back. they keep pushing that date

back to understate the cost. the reason i want to start collecting revenue right away and not spend until later because they know that if they start spending earlier, they will start inflating significantly the cost of this and the goal was to keep it under $1 trillion for the they have been acknowledged the 10 year fully implemented cost is not one but two point* $5 trillion. the american people deserve to know the facts. that is a fully implemented cause. the only reason they can say the first 10 years is 1 trillion because tax increases start 2010 and 99% of the benefits don't start kick in until january 2014. thank you to the arizona the -- senator from arizona to clarify. i tried to talk about the facts and i'm happy to have the opportunity to restate the facts as they exist as

they have been presented to us by the cbo and cms x-ray both of whom who have concluded the same thing when it comes to the benefits and the impact of this will have on premiums in this country which is the most devastating blow to the arguments the other side has made in support when cms actuaries said this will actually increase the cost of health care in this country by $2,304,000,000,000 over the next 10 years for i am happy to yield. >> good afternoon.

i thank you for coming out this afternoon. i want to take a moment to bring you up to speed have we see the debate right now on health care in the country. and to share with you a few thoughts of some actions that we're hoping to take at the grass-roots level to more involve the american people and their voice that i think has ben lost and translation over the last few months especially. we will go through that and then also a little radio spot we will be launching today.

first-come but i want to think the leadership and the house and senate leader boehner and senator mcconnell for their extraordinary efforts under difficult circumstances get to under the proposals that we thought would go along way to address these concerns which business owners have which comes back to health care. they made several attempts certainly to stop this madness the lurch of the government takeover of the health care system and to work with republicans. i have heard time and time again buy just have not seen a. what we have met with legislatively is winding and complaining and noise about

republican and obstructing and blocking health care reform. while we have been talking about creating a patient doctors interred bottom-up process that is more reflective of the concerns with respect to cost especially and other concerns that the citizens have out there. in case there has been any confusion about where the republicans in the house and senate are or have been for four or five months now, on health care, i have a list of 10 steps the we have proposed reform ideas that we thought again were common-sense oriented and based on the reality a wholesale makeover of the health care system was not cared for but to if they

wanted the incremental steps taken and then get back to the business of what is at the heart and soul and minds of american people, jobs. we want to lay that out to reiterate what we think are the appropriate at bottom-up responses to the concerns of health care. but here again, a bill after bill and amendment after amendment as you have seen over the last few weeks, some were surprised last week when i went across the country and stated very clearly that we wanted to stop the lurch toward nationalized health care and we want to stop and slowdown and prevent a takeover of the health care system that this experiment was not the way to do it. the bottom line is still

remains that is exactly what we want to do. it is not in the best interest of the american people lower of small business owners in this country. and i still find this amusing to the point* of being said that here we are all live under 12 months into this year and certainly this administration come in nearly one year and we're just beginning to have a conversation about the one thing the president said he would address which is jobs. the health care battle is before us and the congress right now. the american people, a 60% of them in poll after poll stated very clearly they do not want to this. this is not my opinion or the opinion of elected officials but the opinion of the american people and i think they have been very clear going ford about what they want us to do.

they don't want to washington to spend $1 trillion they don't have. that want washington to create that that their children and they're grandchildren and they're grandchildren cannot pay back. they want washington to focus on the fact one neighbor have their home for ] are relative just lost their job. they're own small business is shrinking and cannot access the capital that the white house talks about in the giving to deliver because the weight and the burden of this economy, the regulatory burden and the tax burden come even before we get into what we want to do with health care is too much. the creation of a new entitlement program is not in the best interest of this country for the american people. cutting $500 billion out of medicare is not in the best

interest of the country for seniors. certainly not in the best interest of those who will be relying on the system in the next three or five years alone the next 10 or 15 years. increasing premiums on health care in driving further in debt too again are not in the best interest of the american people. as i have traveled around the country and spent the better part of this year talking with grass-roots activist talking with citizens and those who have been expressing very clearly how they feel, i come to find the one thing that matters to most of them is leadership paying attention to what they're saying. the town hall was about something this summer ladies and gentlemen. folks coming to washington september 12 was about something.

when a grand mother leaves her home in the middle of the day or a business owner shuts down his or her business or a and our the wage employee risk being lost wages to go meet a congressman or senator and tell them face-to-face of their concerns and what is in their hearts, what their fears are, it is about something. something that is moving them to do that. the essence of that is the what their leadership to listen to them. they want the people they have sent to washington and to the state legislature to listen to them. there has not been a lot of listening going on. we have seen arrogance, power, it has been displayed an amusing

and not so amusing ways this past year. the american people have taken note of that and they are just a bit tired. just a little bit fed up. and just a little bit disappointed. in this leadership. as was noted today in "the wall street journal", peter orszag the president's budget director "we don't know enough to produce results right away with respect to the health care bill. the key is to encourage continuous improvement through pilot programs and demonstration projects. it will actually take years or decades to address. >> i labeled this from the very beginning come an experiment and if that does not sound like an experiment to me, i don't know.

there is more. last week won a new yorker reported this morning on the editorial pages, there is no master plan for dealing with the problem of soaring medical costs for only a battery of small-scale experiments. you don't think american people are concerned? you don't think the american people are worried? refinery get people to a bit to what it is we are dealing with, small scale experiments? is this for rear taking our health care? settled think american people want that. in fact,, i know they do not want that. they want their stories to be a part of the solution and their experiences to be a part of the solution. they don't want the

government to experiment on their health care. but the real story is not just about left-wing ideology or frankenstein experiment on the health care system. the real story is a party consumed by the own monopoly of power here in town. democrats control the house senate, the white house. they have the level of power in their hands. yet to at every turn their look at others to blame and they look at others to call out to and embarrass instead of addressing in an honest way with the american people want to address. they believe they can trample the system of checks

and balances and they have protected themselves to the rhetoric and shields that they throw up. calling individuals on american and, out of touch, those who disagree with them are somehow being different. the american people are not different. they are unique they are a cross-section of a lot of attitudes, experiences and all they're looking for is leadership to appreciate my neighborhood is a little different than over here. so ago create something that allows both of us to achieve what we want. it is a give and a take part of the arrogance of unbridled power at the precipice of nationalizing 1/5 of our economy. the party, our situation is simple we cannot force the

democrats to listen to the american people what we can certainly help the american people left up their voice to be heard by those in washington. so i am announcing today the launch of a national listen to me ever. asking the democrats in washington to do something different, for one's. listen to the american people. we will be deploying staff that six states to help lift the people's voices. north dakota, nebraska, virginia, arkansas, louisiana, connect icut. we're focusing on senators who have not yet made it clear how they would vote. the people who elected them might think would like to know that. as would the rest of us. american people certainly have a right to ask the senators and all members of

congress to listen to them. and then we will do everything we can to help people get there elected representatives to look and pay attention and hear their voice. will be hosting town halls. we have two more scheduled for today and others scheduled throughout the week. the state parties will be very, very active boswell to create opportunities for the citizens' voices to be heard. we offer a multifaceted internet campaign to provide a platform to express their opinions let teeing voters and say, listen to me and let them speak directly to their members of congress. we have several coalition call to action that is going out today and throughout the week and into next week.

again, going into a cross section with the doctors and health care professionals, business owners, those are involved in the health care industry and ultimately affected by it. certainly a grass-roots activist campaign, that again, will allow for the voices that are oftentimes taken for granted that has made it close to some decision on the bill, the members of the u.s. senate will know exactly what people were thinking and we will have heard directly from them. >> we're launching a national radio ad that will clearly defined what is this is all about. with that i will be ready to go.

civic democrats accuse republicans to stonewall the government takeover health care. they're finally ripe for republicans are trying to stop the disastrous takeover and tried to keep the liberals and spending another trillion dollars and to have 40 seen the results of the binge spending. the jobs are evaporated no democrats want a health care bill that will raise taxes and cut medicare and increased premiums. they know that we don't want to bridge trying to push it down our throats. log onto g.o.p..com and may core issues a listen before it is too late. >> the rnc is responsible for the advertising authorized by the rnc not authorized by any committee.

g.o.p..com. i will take your questions. >> you said you were surprised by the reaction and arguments have been saying you have been trying to do that. why no? >> we have been stalling. i think it's certainly the republican in addition penthouse and very much in engaged to get the leadership and the white house in in the congress to go over the ideas, some of which are listed here for the fascinating part or all of us that while harry reid would talk about the republicans stalling, i see you have the vote, passed

the bill. but they seem to have a small problem with that. they cannot pass the bill. the fact a 60/40 advantage in the senate, you are looking to republicans either to blame or this tells me there is something when you try to bring your own people on board but from my standpoint the adl that we're going out and saying let's blow it down and stop it is consistent with what i have been saying and i certainly know what others have been saying for some time. this creates an environment in which we can do patient doctors and turner purchase for govett is bottom up and focus is if you don't like that happen on this one. you have a menu of choices

that could be very easily introduced. and not as complicated as a 2000 page behemoth that they have running around the senate right now part part -- there are some challenges getting this through because they want to block it teefour -- day for the leadership has been fairly consistent every time they knew what we were arguing for as when i was on the committee talking to people every day and getting feedback that these are just a few of the things that we know we can do right now to begin to address this issue and not have to turn this over to the federal government. teesix