today we are making an announcement about a new cancer plan that aims to save another 5,000 lives every year by the end of this parliament. this is all about the early diagnosis that we need in the nhs but i have to say to the honorable gentleman we wouldn't be able to do it if we hadn't as ..

[applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the oath of office will be issued to governor nkki haley by the chief justice of the south carolina supreme court, the honorable jean hafer tool. >> governor elect haley, raise your right hand, placed her hand on the bible and take yours. i nkki haley do solemnly swear

>> do solemnly swear, >> danang duly qualified >> according to the constitution of this state >> according to the constitution of this state's >> to exercise the duties of the office of governor of south carolina. >> of governors that carolina. >> and i will >> and i will >> to the best of my ability >> discharge the duties thereof >> discharge the duties thereof >> and defend the constitution of the state >> the constitution of this state >> and have demanded dates. >> and of the united states. >> so help me god. >> to help me god. >> ladies and gentlemen, i introduce the governor, nkki haley. [cheers and applause] ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the governor of the great status of carolina, her excellency, nikki rundell a haley. [applause] >> i want to thank each and every one of you for coming out on this beautiful, chilly morning. on this special day, i want to

thank my clinic to see children for their unconditional love and support they continue to show me. we as a family are honored to serve this great state. michael and i want to thank both of our families for the strength come of that and advice that they give us during the past and the most challenging at times. they are the constant reminders of what it means to carry ourselves with grace and dignity. we want to thank governor marc sanford for his service to south carolina and his constant fight for the citizens of this state. [applause] to jenny sanford, thank you for representing south carolina with strength and grace for the last eight years. your friendship is not so much joy family. [applause] to the stanford boys, thank you for allowing the people of south carolina the opportunity to watch you grow up into fine

young man. anantpradhan look forward to continuing your games amazes in the mansion. today is a great day in south carolina. it's a day for new beginnings. it's a day to turn the page from the past and it is a day filled with anticipation of the next chapter of our state's future. before we talk about her bright future, support and pay respect to her past. our state has an incredibly powerful and rich history. it's one that's not always been pleasant, but one that can teach us many great lessons. we have a history of fierce independence and not independence with remarkable reference today. while in 1773 it was a tea party in boston that became famous, there was also a whole lot of tea dumped into the charleston harbor that december. we declared independence from

great britain some four months before thomas jefferson wrote the declaration of independence in philadelphia. in a kings mountain, just over our northern border, our local militia, not professional soldiers helped turn the tide of the revolutionary war that brought us the freedom we still enjoy today. let's see, tax protest, tea parties, the grassroots meeting the professionals. it does have a certain ring to it. [cheers and applause] of course i'm talking about our past, it would iran to mention a great revolutionary. without noting the ugliness of much that followed. the horrors of slavery and discrimination need not be retold here. they too remain a fabric of our history and the fabric of our lives. but i do take comfort in and agree with the words of columnist george will when he recently wrote this about her state's past struggles. it's a question is which state has changed most in the last

half-century, the answer might be california. but if the question is which state has changed most for the better, the answer might be some airline. [cheers and applause] and stand before you today the proud daughter of indian immigrants. growing up in rural small-town south carolina, my family experienced the state in this country at its best. no, not every day was perfect. no, we were not every freed from the burden of those who look and sound different from what we count our blessings in my parents reminded me and my brothers and sister every day how blessed we were to live in this country. we saw the constant example of neighbors helping neighbors. for us, happiness existed in not knowing what we didn't have a knowing what we did have would be the opportunity to better lives through hard work and strong values. you see, my mother was offered

the first female judgeship in her native country, was unable to serve on the bench because of the challenges of being a woman in india. now she sits here today, watching her daughter become the governor of south carolina, the state should proudly calls her home. [applause] when you grow up with a mom like that, the word can't is not in your vocabulary. i will always be the proud daughter of immigrants. i will always cherish our families experience and i will always strive for my actions and in my words to make south carolina a place for all of our children, regardless of race or gender know that unlimited opportunities for happiness and success awaits us. today our state and nation faced difficult times. far too many of our citizens are without a job. our economy is not going as fast as it should enter state budget has the larger short while other. but when a survey this troubled landscape, i am not discouraged.

we know that tough times can produce some of the best decision and it is their duty to make this time to challenge them to the opportunity can be to turn this state around. it is indeed a new day. and on this new day we must commit ourselves to the proposition that failure is not an option. when i think on our present economic challenges, i am reminded of the words of margaret thatcher who said, once we concede that public spending and taxation are more than a necessary evil, we have lost sight of the core values of freedom. nearly two years ago, the federal government in washington decided to transfer its irresponsible business practices to the state and our state, just like every other except today. when we produced this year's budget, we will see the heavy price for having done so. in our coming years, we must recognize that we will not produce the jobs are people deserve a place in higher tax burdens on our workers under small businesses and we will not

reach press dirty by increasing state government share of our economy. be assured, however, that i have every confidence we will achieve a much more prosperous place. and we will do so by going back to the spirit of independence but feel that south carolina's leading role in defeating the strongest nation on earth two centuries ago. when we embark on this journey toward growth and prosperity, we must do so together with one vision, a vision that is focused on the success of our families and our businesses is a vision that is not impaired by partisanship, personalities or distractions. we don't have time for that and i won't stand for it. [cheers and applause] many times over the last 18 months, i asked south carolinians to join a movement. that movement was never about one person or one election.

our state constitution requires the governor and the general assembly to work together to serve south carolina well in search of the other we will. the energy comes -- the energy that drives their cooperation does not come from this beautiful capitol building behind me. the energy comes from the sound of people's voices. the success of the movement i ask you to join will be realized when elected officials are accountable for their votes, when citizen participation and government reaches new heights and when the voice heard loudest is neither mine nor that of any other elected officials, but is that if the taxpayers of this state. [cheers and applause] in the days, weeks and months ahead, we have the opportunity to reduce state spending and make it more efficient. we have the opportunity to improve education and allow our children to be successful

regardless of where they're boring. we have the opportunity to strengthen our small businesses, to help them create jobs their people need. we have the opportunity to restructure our state government to make it work transparent, more accountable and more respectful of the people of south carolina. we must seek these inspiring opportunities. if we do, we'll have a state where good jobs are in constant supply, where south carolina becomes the envy of the nation and where we are so free of political distractions that even the media is forced to report good news. [laughter] [applause] just imagine now. that is my south carolina. it is a south carolina i want for my children and every family in our great state. so with faith in god who knows what is right and faith in our own ability to use the skills and judgment he gives us to do with that right, we can make the

vision a reality. thank you. may god bless south carolina and he continue to bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause] [applause] >> god bless america will not be performed by the university concert choir jorge lopez and singers conducted by dr. isaiah mcgee. the audience is invited to participate.

♪ ♪ ♪ god bless americana, land that i love. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the benediction to be delivered by the reverend charles jackson of brooklyn baptist church in westboro, columbia. >> let us receive the benediction. it's our god, our father, as we conclude the inaugural program for the state of south carolina on this historic day, we can ask you will continue to sustain us with your guidance and protection.

in the words of holy scripture, empower us to do justice, love, kindness and walk humbly with the. and now, may the lord bless you and keep you. may the lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. may the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and prosperity now and always. amen. >> ladies and gentlemen, you may be seated. the nonpareil recession will now begin, let higher ellickson he,

the governor of south carolina along with mr. haley and their family. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> treasury secretary timothy jaeger said china's undervalued currency is affecting the world economy and is calling on china to increase the rate of its currency reform. from johns hopkins university school of international ids in washington d.c., this is a little less than an hour. >> good morning, mr. secretary,

welcome to your alma mater. good morning to you all. we have a special event today. tocretary geithner, head of division byda president hu jinto to this country will speak to us on u.s. and china economic o relations, a subject that all of you know is of great importance the su to both countries and to the world. in the absence of being at thehs school and the hand of our china studies department, david chmpton who was also watching koom koreaen, we are a truly internationalre school, i've ben asked to introduce the secretary and to serve as moderator during the question-and-answer session. i am pieter bottelier and i cous teach courses of china's economy at the school. since tim geithner is well-known to all of you, i can keep my a introductory comments very short

tim has played a very prominent role in national and rolin international economics and finance for many years. he always has a special interest intere in ea. he was sworn in as 75th u.s. he secretary of the treasury on 26 january 2009 in the middle of a deep recession as i don't have to remind you. there are very few challenges that have not been thrown at him since that time. he worked in the treasury department earlier from 88 to 2001. under two secretaries, robert rubin and lawrence summers. the last two years as undersecretary for international affairs. after that he became director of the policy department at the imf and was appointed to the new york fed in 2003 as its ninth

president and ceo. he got his be a in government studies from dartmouth and his am a in national economics and east asian studies from this school. he lived in china and japan and studied both languages. finally before i invite him to the podium, may i remind you to put yourself phones on silent. [applause] >> i spent two years of my life here long time ago studying the chinese and japanese economics, didn't in joy the economics that much. i played quite a lot of pull in the basement. i don't know if there is a pool table there anymore but it is a great place and i admire what

jessica and her colleagues have built. i am biased but this is one of the preeminent institutions in the united states engaged in one of the most important challenges in public policy education to help americans understand the world and the role we play in it. this is important because we can effectively pursue our interests as a nation unless we understand the objectives and capabilities of other nations. president obama will host president hu at the white house. this takes place at a time of important transition for the world economy, and for the american economy. global economy is emerging from the financial crisis but the crisis left lasting scars that will take years to repair and left a growing gap between the growth trajectories of the developed economies and rapidly

growing emerging economies. many major economies are confronted with the challenge of rebuilding after a crisis, many of the emerging economies are at the early stage of what should be a long period of rapid economic growth with rising in comes creating growing demand for resources and investment capital. the growth of the united states stands somewhere between these two divergent paths. we are lucky to grow at half the rate of the major emerging economies but twice the rate of europe and japan. these growth dynamics' will change the balance in the world economy forcing changes in the architecture of the trade and financial systems. in this new global context china's principal economic challenges are how to manage the next stage in the transition from a state dominated developing economy dependent on external demand and external technology to a more

market-oriented economy with growth powered by domestic demand and innovation. i want to talk about the implications of these changes for our economic relations with china and u.s. economic policy. china presents the enormous opportunities for the united states and world but its size, the speed of its ascent and policies are growing source of concern both here and in countries around the world. to put those concerns in context i want to state some fundamental propositions about our economic relationship. first, the economic relationship between the united states and china provides tremendous benefit to both our nations. even though we compete in many areas our economic strength are largely complementary. china faces a very complicated set of challenges as it transitions more toward a market economy but it is in our interest and the world's

interest that china manage these challenges successfully. third proposition. our priorities in this economic relationship from the exchange rate to protection of natural property to reflect changes that are fundamentally in china's interest. ultimately china will need to make these changes to promote long-term prosperity. the fourth and final proposition, the prosperity of americans depends overwhelmingly on the economic policies we pursue to strengthened american competitiveness. even as we work for further reforms in china we need to understand our strength as a nation will depend not on choices made by china's leaders but on the choices we make here at home. over the last few decades china has emerged as a major economic force. growth was the least by china's economic reforms and a growing

labour force and one of history's great migrations from factories. china's growth was made possible by the actress china enjoyed to the market's, investments and technology of the united states and other major economies. the open multilateral trading system with its balance of rules and responsibilities was built with the leadership of the united states decades before china opened up to the rest of the world and opportunities created by that system were fundamental to china's economic sense and remain vital to china's ability to continue to grow. china needs the united states but the united states benefits substantially from a rapidly growing economic relationship with china. the benefit to the relationship are hard to capture in any one specific but remember this. the united states is on track to export more than $100 billion of goods and servicess to china

this year. our exports are growing at quite the rate of growth of exports of the rest of the world. these exports support hundreds of thousands of jobs across the nation in all sectors from high technology to soybeans bleaker still aircraft, automobiles, forklift and financial services. we have a great deal invested in each other's success. in our economic relationship with china we focus on two principal objectives -- the first is to expand opportunities for you as company's to export and sell in the chinese market. this requires a more level playing field to compete with china's companies. courage shifted domestic consumption. as part of this china's exchange

needs to strengthen in response to market forces. i want to provide a quick review of some of our concerns. the extent of progress we have achieved as we see it in each of these areas. first, on the broader competitive landscape in china, we face in that market, the commanding heights of the chinese economy and financials are still overwhelmingly dominated by the government. workers are able to take range of preferences and subsidies. operate behind trade to give them a competitive advantage relative to u.s. and other foreign firms and workers. they get access to low-cost land and energy. they enjoy a preference in terms of access to government contracts. the electrical properties widespread in china across many industries and the chinese government has introduced a range of new policies to

encourage innovation in china designed to favored chinese technology over foreign technology including the enormous government market. where these practices violate china's international commitments we are active in using and continue to use the remedies available under u s trade law to protect our interests. china has been gradually moving to address these concerns. the government recently launched the new enforcement efforts to combat the theft of intellectual property to force chinese companies to pay for the intellectual property they use. the chinese leadership has committed to expand opportunities and access to government procurement contracts. the government is committed not to discriminate against u.s. companies that operate in china and we welcome these commitments. data to address all our concerns that there is something we can build on and we will continue to press the chinese commitments.

in china's interest, government domination limits the chinese economy to prevent the private sector from contributing to growth for full potential. you can't contribute if you don't protect intellectual property. alongside the reforms i mentioned, are we move definitively away from export driven growth model of the last few decades to model driven by electric consumption. this recognizes that china is too large relative to the world economy to continue to rely on foreign demand to grow and the government has adopted a comprehensive program of reforms to rebalance the economy and shift growth to domestic demand. this requires reforms to increase public spending, minimum-wages and investment and services, for individuals and

companies. and specters that drove initial decades of growth. it is already having a major impact on the shape of chinese growth and providing increased opportunities for american companies. domestic demand is contributing more to growth and u.s. exports are growing more rapidly. it is important to recognize china closely manages the exchange rate. that restrict capital to move in and out of the company. these policies have the effect of keeping the currency undervalued. they have substantial costs on a flexible exchange rates with substantial loss of

competitiveness against china. it will run the risk of domestic acceleration as you have for already seen. and a damaging rise in asset prices. sustaining undervalued currency will undermine china's efforts to go towards consumption and higher value production. since june of 2010 when the chinese authorities announced they would resume the reform of their exchange-rate regime, they allowed the currency to appreciate by only 3% against a $1 nominal terms. this is a pace of 6% year in nominal terms. the real rate of appreciation is significantly faster because inflation in china is much higher than in the united states and is the real rate of depreciation that matters for

the incentives for how what they purchase, what they invest. we believe it is in china's interest to allow the currency to appreciate more rapidly in response to market forces because china will do so. because the alternative would be too costly for china and china's relations with the rest of the world. these are the main priorities. let me tell you what china's are. china's objectives are focused in the economic area in the following core priorities. china wants more access far as to u.s. high-technology products. china wants to see greater investment opportunities in the united states. china would like to be accorded the same terms and actress to the market that other major market economies enjoyed. we are willing to make progress on these issues. it is important to recognize that our ability to do so will depend on how much progress we see from china. as china reduces the role of the

state and local economy, performs policies that discriminate against u.s. companies, remove subsidies and preferences for domestic firms and technology and allow the exchange rate to reflect market forces we will make more progress on china's objectives. in any discussion of china is important for americans to understand the solutions to our challenges arrest first and foremost with policies in washington, not those in beijing. fundamentally number of jobs we create the pace of growth and income of americans depend on the results of choices we make in the united states, not the choices of other countries. in our effort to rebuild and put more americans back to work we have to make sure we are making investments and reforms that will be essential to our capacity to grow in the future. as countries like china, india, brazil, grow and expand, won the

american workers and companies to play a major role in that growth. we want to see a substantial part of that growing demand that is going to come outside the united states that by those produced in the united states that are fuelled by investment in the united states. if we are successful in doing that we will be much stronger as a nation but to be successful meeting that challenge there are things we need to do here. we need to invest in research and development, we need to invest more in education reform. we need to invest in public infrastructure and create stronger incentives for investment in the united states by americans and foreign companies. we have to be more forceful and effective in floating american exports and restore fiscal responsibility. restoring fiscal responsibility is going to require the government to spend less and spend more wisely so we can

afford to make the investments that are critical to the future of growth that require tax reform that produces a system more simple and fair, encourages growth and investment to restore fiscal sustainability. these are our challenges. not just an economic imperative but national security imperative because our strength as a nation depends on the ability of our political system to move quickly enough to put in place solutions to our long-term problems. our economy as a country has been our openness to ideas and talent, our capacity to innovate, excellence in higher education, willingness to invest public resources strategically and scientific research and discovery and political will to confront challenges with speed and wisdom and force. if we preserve and build on those strengths and if china successfully continues on its path to a more open, modern market economy than both our countries and the world economy

will be in a stronger position. the president recently said we should feel confident about our ability to compete but we are going to have to step up our game. china's rise offers us the opportunity of dramatic growth and demand for things americans create and produce but it will also force us to raise our game. we should welcome both the opportunity and the challenge. i would be happy to take your questions. [applause] >> thank you, mr. secretary. we now have about 20 or 25 minutes for questions and answers. because the event is taking place in a school i would like to give priority to students, alums and faculty members.

to whom i may i give the floor? would you please wait for the microphone, introduce yourself, your name and affiliation and one question very brief. >> thank you for the excellent speech. actually your speech about china is -- it makes issues left theories. >> excellent question. i don't usually complement the new york times but they had two very important stories that explain this better than i can do. when you think about competitiveness and the affects in the exchange-rate you need to look at inflation and the move

in the exchange rate. you see inflation accelerating, running much higher rate than in the united states and that rate of inflation combined with a change in the exchange rate that affects competitiveness, and if you look at the amount the exchange rate has moved and the relative lack federation of chinese inflation the last six months or so, is appreciating to the rate of 10% a year. if that appreciation was sustained over time, it would make a substantial difference in correcting a major distortion of the chinese and global economy. we are probably at the end of the first quarter to use -- we are in the end of the second inning to use a sports comparison. it is changing. it has to happen. the fundamental forces that are pushing chinese productivity growth and pushing inflation higher will bring about the

necessary adjustment in exchange rates. >> do you have many students who would like to ask questions? we are trying to give priority. >> my name is alex. i am a graduate student. my question to bcu with regard to capture controls. even the large amount of liquidity in the international economy, emerging markets start to point to controls especially brazil for example. it appears to me there has been an ideological change after 2008, especially the imf publishing papers about the orthodox approach. i would like to know how the united states sees the use of

capital controls by the emerging markets. >> it is important what is driving this influence. there are two fundamental sources of work. one is the world perceives likely to be growing at a more rapid rate in the future. that is a good thing for those countries that reflect a lot of confidence in their relative growth prospects. the other force driving this is consequence of china's exchange regime. china still runs a close capital account. tightly managing the link of currency to dollar. a lot of forces that run more flexible regimes push currencies up with the chinese currency. and domestic inflation to come -- you are right to say there is a new wave of experimentation

going on with risks that come from those lows. they can be -- a whole different set of measures. the most important thing to do with that is to make sure those flows don't end up financing too much leverage in the financial system with an unsustainable growth in credit. that is a provincial challenge and mandible challenge, the asian and the emerging crisis. i am not troubled by the new experimentation. china does too reducing the extent to which china's policies are related to the challenge. >> before i go to the next

question i need to come to a few points. >> you are welcome to correct me. >> china embarked on an important set of reforms. to loosen the controls in china to make it easier for countries to use its currency. those reforms are going to happen. they will accelerate transition to a more market-oriented exchange which is a good thing too. if you look at china's intentions, a difficult debate about what the right pace of reform is, we're doing in terms of nominal cases, the controls

that exist with currency out of china. >> the key dimensions where china has to change its economic policy to arrive at a more balanced and harmonious international economic situation. you are very forthright for the u.s. economy. among the chinese leadership or need for these changes, to embark upon these policies. what is the quality of your dialogue? >> there's a lot of support in china for basic imperatives they face and rebalancing and very active debate in china and competition in china over what

the right case is for those reforms. as china goes through this political transition over the next year or so, in some way having an effect of slowing the pace of reform. reducing a bit of caution among leadership. if you look at what china has done, they run a remarkably effective, incredibly ambitious set of economic reforms with a clear long-term strategy that has been enormously beneficial to the global economy as a whole. recognize for them to continue on that path they have to change fundamentally. look at what the chinese leadership has said, there's a lot of awareness. we have a very good

understanding of our interest in the economic side. very good understanding of concerns that we each have, good relationship and huge amount of admiration for the vice premier who leads these efforts in china and has made an enormous difference in things that matter to us. but faces a lot of opposition in china. as you know of anybody in this case. i really think overtime china has no choice but to move what they believe is in their interests in their economic challenges and china needs to recognize that. please let .. in finance and energy. have a question more on the rebalancing theme you mentioned,

especially the point about encouraging or from in china, depending on your perspective toward shifting away from an export driven. i'm kind of zooming out a little bit because the ink that is similar perspective with other export and economies like germany. i want to know how valid such points wherein if they weren't anymore or less valid actually in turning encouraging the u.s. away from credit consumers. >> let's step back and look at s what drives the fundamental imperative. as we all know and we learned through an incredibly painful, a deep recession, the u.s. growth has been driven too much by consumption, by investment in housing, financed by borrowing from the rest of the world. and it is over with well-made in the united states that we a can

finally that is more investmentv driven, more expert driven and therefore more sustainable in the future.ore and the world we have to be is saving more, though seymour,al that process is happening. if you look at the national shape and recovery, private grvings is much higher. our current account balance is much lower. private investment has been growing very, very rapidly. the underlying pace of productivity is very strong.ains manufacturing exports are very nufact strong. that's very encouraging. of the know what that does for the resa of thend world is forcing fundamental change and growth strategy outside of the united states because those other economies recognize they are l t going to the united states to be as strong a source of demand for their products as is true in th past., in china of course recognizesthr that realityies and that is par what has driven, that along with the crisis and the vulnerability they were exposed to in being so

export-dependent has forced a fundamental reassessment of how they want to grow and again, it's that fundamental economic interest that motivates this shift, this rebalancing broader imperative. now, these are thing you can't force other countries to do, you know, this is a much more integrated world economy and a world of sovereign states and so what we have to do is to find it a way to make compelling for countries to make those broad changes together so that the changes that we're going through in the united states are complemented by other growth in the world and allow the world economy to grow much closer to its potential growth. that's a overwhelmingly compelling fundamental imperative for the major economies. i think it's broadly recognized. you're going to have different paths to get there but there's no alternative. >> we have four students.

>> thank you. i'm an assistant professor in international economic region of american university but i'm also an alum and a adjunct professor here to economics. i have a question about the topic of today which is emu's -- the european debt crisis. the japanese are buying europe-owned -- your president promised to double american exports in the next two years and it's much bigger than china and must be a major source of american product. the euro is at four-month low against and it doesn't seem it will get any stronger anytime should not so i'm just wondering, u.s. treasury secretary, are involved with brussels in the u.s. decision-making and how are worried are you about this. i don't think the chinese will be any rush to straighten their

currency but demand will change too. >> i think you're absolutely right. one of the still most remaining challenges in the process of the economy is the challenges europe is facing but i'll give you my personal view. i do spend a lot of time talking to my counterparts in europe about the choices they face and how to get ahead of this problem. it is my view that they have made decision that they will do whatever is necessary to prevent this crisis from escalating beyond the countries that were the initially were the focus of so much pressure. there is no doubt that they have the ability to do that financially and economically. and i think they've chosen to do so and if you listen carefully to what the leaders and germany and france and the others are saying, they made it clear they're going to do it. and what they're engaged in now is a complicated discussion of how best to do that. what scale of financial support and support of what set of reforms to help the banking

system through this, help the weaker sovereigns to do this. and they have the capacity to do it and i think they recognize that if you get behind the fundamental forces driving this process, it's more difficulty to solve, much more costly and expensive to solve and they are eager not repeat that -- the choice of the last first six of last year. and that's my perception and you're right to say that europe and japan together are still a very large share of global growth and demand. and the world economy as a whole is not going to be growing at a sufficiently rapid rate unless you see the major economies in europe play a major role as part of that. now, of course, realistically the challenges that greece and ireland are going through are going to -- they are

unavoidable. i mean, they are necessary adjustments they have to go through. but for growth in europe as a whole, what matters is how rapidly do the major economies, germany, france, and spain and italy grow and how successfully are they going to in restoring confidence in their capacity to manage these financial challenges. >> wait for the mic. yeah, yeah. >> charles, a teacher at sais. as you said in your speech, i think, correctly, what is very important is what we do in terms of our own economy. so my question to you? -- to you is this, what can we do to accelerate foreign investment in the united states and our own investment into this economy as rapidly and as effectively as we can? >> in the short term, of course, it's worth noting that the tax

package that was passed in congress has a very short-term incentive for this that because we provide for one-year period of investments and capital equipment and that has the benefit of providing a pretty powerful spark and catalyst, useful reinforcement and recovery in gathering momentum but we have some ways to go to repair the damage, climb out of the hole. long term, it's obvious. we want to make sure we have a tax system that create better incentives for investment in the united states. the president proposed last september to expand resigning a permanent tax credit for research and development in the united states. but that's just one of the things we can do and we're examining whether we can find the political support for a comprehensive tax reform. it would be neutral but would improve incentives of investment in the hundreds what we do for

education, not just higher education but the basic quality of public education across the country is fundamental. our ability to make this still a compelling case for talent people around the world not just to go to school but to build a business and make sure that we restore our economy that was a financial system that was really very good, really the envy of the world and taking the savings of americans and channeling them to support innovative companies, entrepreneurs, making sure those reforms work and creating not just a more stable system but want to encourage inocomparison allocate the capital sufficiently is very, very important. i'm repeating now what i said in my speech. we were very early very, very good as a country in investing a substantial share of public resources in research and development in basic science. that's something we have to make sure we preserve the capacity to

do. and if you look at the quality of public infrastructure in the united states, it's alarmingly poor and that operates like a tax on american businesses, raises costs for businesses and there's a very good compelling economic case, you know, for a prudently financed economic investment in the united states. that's a good start. doing those well won't solve all of our problems. but if you won't do those things, nothing is possible and that's what i would focus our priorities on. >> good morning, professor. i studied with you for two semesters. my question is about the financial narcotics china and deepening them and making them broader. and what do you see and how do you see that in terms of a bond

market or a derivatives market. >> excellent question. financial reform is a key part of that. and you see china expanding foreign firms so they have a spark for the major global institutions in in this area but they are starting to gradually set a more market set -- a more driven system and reduce the role of the state, reduce the administrative controls on how capital is allocated, and that process has a long way to go. but i think they recognize that part of this transition to a more domestic driven growth strategy requires financial reform creates greater ability for individuals to borrow, for companies to borrow. and, of course, fundamental to china, they want to make sure that the -- you know, what financial systems do is they

allocate capital. and how fast you grow over time depends on how well they allocate capital. you know, we've had a great long run in the united states. but you saw what happened when our system misallocated capital substantially to housing investment. and for a state-dominated financial system that risk is much, much greater. the risk for them is much greater that there will be huge investments wasted over time and things that are not going to be very helpful to china's growth ambitions. so there's a very substantial fincialmpere .. for a financial based marketship prudently managed and good but you don't want to -- you can't grow if you rely on the state to decide who get capital at what price. it doesn't work. there's no successful example of a strategy that relies on a government to decide how to allocate the price capital. >> i have another student question in the center here.

>> good morning, secretary geithner. my name is john gams and i'm a ph.d. student here at sais. my question, is we went through a heated political election and china's role was not the chief concern >> it was the potential scapegoat of the chinese and our economic problems was certainly leveraged by both parties to some extent. how is that warning to you as a policymaker and how disconcerning is it to you, and if you don't mind sharing, how is it discerning to your counterparts in beijing? >> it should be concerned by people in the united states and the strength of concern in the united states across parties, it's not a republican or democratic concern, but a bipartisan concern. you saw the strength of the volt on the house in the fall, and it's something china is attentive to, and they need to be.

what china needs more than anything is an accommodating external environment with access not just to our markets, but others to meet their growth ambitions. i think we should be troubled by it. what's happening in the united states today happened in the past. when you're in a moment in crisis it causes huge damage to the spirit of the americans. we tend to, you know, look at the consent of others as a concern, as a threat. we look at them as the sort of prison in which we view our weaknesses and concerns, but as i said, to put that in contest to rick news -- recognize how well we do represents how well we do not united states and presents huge opportunities for u and where things we admire in china's

growth spurs more action in the united states, that would be a good thing. >> okay, now, we're going to turn it over. we have a couple last questions from the media. i'll turn it over to them. >> peter, bloomberg fftion mr. secretary. thank you for taking our questions. it was said today chinese officials in beijing suggested it would be welcome in the united states provided more reassurance on the safety of their investment in the united states most notably. their holdings of the u.s. treasuries, and are you prepared to offer reassurance and will president obama take any action to put the fiscal house in order? >> these are things we typically see, usually foreign min city treem -- ministry people say in the runup to have the meetings, nothing exceptional in this, and no one cares more than i do and the president does that we're doing things in the united states to

sustain the confidence of americans in countries around the world in our capacity to manage our challenges here at home, and, of course, we're very focused on that. >> i'm with the japanese newspaper. i have a question regarding the chinese currency. regarding, you used an assessment by the ims that the country is significantly undervalued, but i want your judgment on it right now. >> i agree with the ims. [laughter] >> specifically the rate of the depreciation you mentioned it's 6% annually, are you satisfied with this pace or do you have any idea of the deappreciation saying 10% or 20%? >> again, what matters is the rate of the nominal change

against the dollar, but also the relative rates of inflation in the united states. it's the real change that matters, and in real terms, the chinese currency is moving at a rate substantially faster than 6% a year. just for comparison, last time the chinese allowed the currency to move over a period of time was in 2006 and 2008 where the dollar moved 20% in a two year period of time. >> how's that? [laughter] >> i'm, i said that in my speech, we'd like them to move faster. we think it's better to move faster and the exchange rate carry the burden than the challenges they meet on the inflation side. if they don't move fast, inflation is higher, and so you still see the same real

appreciation, but it's not as good of a mix for china. peter can explain that better than me. [laughter] >> i agree with you. the exchange is what to focus on and because they designed it that way and because of the event of inflation in china the real exchange rate is now appreciating much faster, i agree with you. it's probably going to be at least 7% this year. >> it could be significantly higher than that, but the most important thing to understand is it is going to happen. there's no alternative path. the only choice for china is how it happens and what mixes with inflation with the exchange rate itself. i think there's substantial recognition of that among the chinese leadership. >> thank you, mr. secretary. the end of the election season

seems to have taken a lot of steam off the currency debate. my question is how much of it is politics and how much of it is real economics? >> all economics is politics to put it differently. [laughter] what makes economics interesting and challenging is how to, how to figure out how to get closer to what's good economic policy given the political con straiments that -- constraints that can get in the way of that. how much of this concern is political from not just a fundamentally economic concern, but for the reasons we've discussed. the exchange rate is something you can see, so you can look at what it's doing and how fast it moves and since it's obviously under valued, it match naturally becomes a focus of concern.

it's understandable. if you look at all the other things we focus on in the trade relationship and will continue to be a substantial focus of attention, it's harder to measure progress. you know, if you try to think about what's the prospect for more credible enforcement, it's going to take some time to know. if you look at the collected impact of the other measures china puts in place that subsidized domestic product and investment of services where we hope they will dial those back, it's going to take time to know. it's less visible. exchange rate, you can see. it's a national focus of attention and it's not surprising it's a focus in the broader political debates. >> this is the last question of the morning. >> thank you, mr. secretary, with fox network. you mentioned tax reform should be revenue neutral so we have to do more on the spending side -- >> as the president said before,

we are going to take a look at whether we can find a political support for a reform of the corporate tax code that would lower rates by broadening the base, but not lose revenue on net because we don't think it's responsible or fair to do something that does not achieve that fundamental objective. >> would the administration then be open to a system that would overall increase revenue from the corporate sector? >> well, i think you have to recognize, and i'm sure you do, that, you know, we have to set -- we have to look at the incentives we create in the united states against those created outside the united states. although our effective tax rates for corporates are roughly even, our rates are roughly the average of the other major economies. our rates are higher, and there are limits to what we can do and turns out we can reform without

taking into consideration that basic imperative of what's happening around the world. what we want to do is making sure we're strengthening the relative inacceptabilityives for invest -- incentives for investing in the united states. we don't want to tax code to create incentive to invest outside the united states. >> i know we need to spend more wisely -- >> i said spend less. >> where are we spending unwisely and would the administration be open to discretionary budget of 2008. i know the administration has spending and are they willing to go further? >> you have to see the president in the state of the union lay out senate proposals for laying this back into balance. if you look back at what we proposed in the first two budgets it was spending to

restore nonsecurity discretionary spending back to the levels that prevailed in the, i think, the reagan administration. we proposed very substantial restraints on discretionary spending that would shrink the government back to the level it prevailed about a generation ago. now, that's not the most important thing to do. the most important thing to do is do that that still conserves the capacity to invest in things that are essential to our competitiveness. that's why i wanted to emphasize again as you think about restoring fiscal sustainability, the challenge is not fundamentally how to bring our resources more into balance. our challenge is how to do that in a way that is not just fair to the american people, to the middle class family, but to that improves rather than compares

our capacity to grow in the future. the debate has to be about how to make sure we're preserving the capacity to spend more wisely, more strategically in research and development and education and incentives for investment and the public structure. thank you very much, it's nice to see you all. [applause] i hope all of you sias come up for your country. it's a cool noble thing to do and nothing more compelling. i hope you do it. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> in a few moments a decision on how our government and political leader responded to crisis in the past.

>> we want to welcome to the table here in washington, thomas mann from the brookings steetion and joining us from rice

university. >> let me begin with you the u.s. and the aftermath of national tramming discretionaries, and first let's begin with the role of the president. what is it? >> well, the president has to become healer and chief in a sense. he's the agent of healing. the whole country after an event like tucson are hurting like now, and there's not any easy answers. we're not sure if there's going to be a big congressional debate over gun selling policy or there's going to be increased security on congressional candidates or people in state houses other r or in the governor's mansion. we know that the behavior, the behavior we witnessed and are all feeling disdain for this man who shot innocent people. somebody has to move us beyond the mourning area and frame it for us. president obama is going to

tucson like bill clinton in oklahoma city in 1995 or ronnel reagan with the challenger disaster in 1986. he's going to have to say words to heal the family and soothe the mood and talk about there being real evil in the modern world and we have to confront it and give a moral speech that's tinged with the spiritual alty quoting from the bible or some sort of spiritual text, and at the end of the speech has to give hope. i recently reread bill clinton's oklahoma city speech, and he talked about planning, you know, trees in the white house lawns for the victims of oklahoma. he needs to feel the people of arizona feel like they are amazing folks and the state is wonderful and they are feeling hurt. the people that were shot people knew, and he needs to bring that state back into the union if

he'd like e motionally. >> host: the daily star has a piece in the editorial pages. thaifer view is they have a note to the obamas. despite tragedy, this is 5 good town -- this is a good town. they write in there they would like the obamas to get to know how great of a town it can be. according to the party, he has to steer clear of politics. >> guest: i think that's very right. if there's any inclination that he is trying to get political advantage from this, the opportunity for the country would be lost. i think doug is exactly right. he's healer and chief, and it's particularly important seeing the reaction of the last couple of days. i'm not talking about tucson. i'm talking about the broader political partisan debate that is ensued as to whose fault it

is and whether the heated violent prone rhetoric we hear is coming from one side or the other and some way caused this. i think all of that is a reflection of our times. in some respects, the worst of our times, and president obama needs to get us beyond that, and i suspect that's what he's going to try to do. >> host: here's the headline in the "new york times". speaker boehner has an agenda. mr. boehner is called on to play a far less partisan role leading republicans and democrats alike through a difficult period. what is the role of the speaker of the house? >> guest: yeah, i think that's really quite accurate, and i think speaker boehner has risen to the occasion so far. the early maneuverings in the congress suggested open partisan

war over repealing the health care act and intense battles over domestic spending, but speaker boehner immediately takes the new situation and canceled the immediate business and i think is doing his utmost to tone down the rhetoric. frankly, that's what's needed right now. we need to tone it down and i think this speaker is a constitutional officer of the united states, not simply the leader of the majority, and he or she has a responsibility to speak on behalf of the entire congress and country, and i think boehner understands that. >> host: here a piece in "usa today" a president inspires and heals and looking back at different tragedies that have

happened to our country and when and how and what past presidents have said. i want to show our viewers what president reagan had to say after the challenger accident. >> ladies and gentlemen, i plan to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. today, is a day for mourning and remembering. nancy and i are pained to the core of the tragedy of the shuttle challenger. we know we share this pain with all the people of our country. this is drewly a -- truly a national loss. 19 years ago almost to the day, we lost three astronauts on an accident on the ground. we never lost an astronaut in flight or had a tragedy like this, and perhaps we've forten the courage it took of the crew of the shuttle, but they, the challenger 7 were aware of the dangers, overcame them, and did their jobs brilliantly.

we mourn 7 heros. >> host: what did you hear there? what was the reaction? >> guest: well, it's a speech and i think ronald reagan did a magnificent job of paying home imagine to the people who died in the challenger. the difference in a speech like that, however, is when you go into the space program, the risks are so high that you're training and any sometime you go -- any time you go to space it could be your last time alive at any moment. that's the risk of the space program. in tucson, it's a congresswoman doing a meet and greet at the local store so it creates a different kind of mourning. it's filled are anger right now. there's a lot of political warfare in just, you know, partisan bickering over what happened. that wasn't the case in the cartilager. our country was unified in mourning of that.

obama has a tougher task in a way. he has to not stoke hate rhetoric against him or his opposition. he has to keep an even keeled tone, and i think bill clinton and oklahoma city is the speech. i might add when we've been looking at tucson and looking at other assassination attempts, and it's almost earlly similar what happened to giffords of the attempted association of george wail las in maryland where you have a real cook keeping diaries and just wanted to kill somebody and fumbled the job and couldn't kill the person he was after in close range. i see great similarities to that and also in the sense much wallace an congresswoman

giffords, and not everybody was interested in their movements, so it was sort of a per riff rei event so like oklahoma city had a tragic consequence for the country and we rethought terrorism and they brought political warfare down a notch. most americans are not in the mood right know for a partisan food fight this week about what went wrong in tucson. people would like to have a proper mourning and believe our country is still capable of having the dignity in the time of tragedy. >> host: that service gets underway this evening 8 p.m. eastern time. we'll have coverage on c-span. past presidents and their messages have customarily been invoked with national pride and resolve. mr. mann, is that also the role of congress? i mean, when you think of

pictures after 9/11 and members of congress coming together continue capitol steps. >> absolutely. it's a way of showing national unity in the face of the crisis through trauma or just horrific outbreak of violence. frankly, members of congress don't come together very often. they are separated into party caucuses, the level of debate is very intense and heated and these occasions call for something very different. you know, it's not that the rhetoric of politics cause the -- this mentally unbalanced person to commit violence. it's that this sad occasion provides an opportunity to try

to tone down the intensity of partisan debate, and that's what you'll see unfolding over the next several days. >> host: phone calls here and the topic this morning is u.s. aftermath of tragedies here in the united states. north carolina, jim, on the republican line, go ahead. >> caller: good morning. >> host: you're on the air, jim. >> caller: good morning, can you hear me? >> host: we can, go ahead. >> caller: yes, in my opinion we overdo this national mourning stuff we engage in when this happens. we're a big country. we're going to -- we have things like this happen every day in the country, you just don't hear about them. it's a good thing we don't have this current problem of america and it's a good thing we don't have this when we were in the great plains and trains and we

just need to go about our business, bury the dead, tend to the wounded, comfort the graved and let the families mourn in private. >> host: is this overdone? >> guest: well, i disagree completely with the caller on that. we're not a country that business as usual is blasting congress people in the face, so i find the caller just living in some fantasy wild west vision of america that has no basis with reality of this country. we have violences that have been part of american history, certainly, but curtailing violence is what the real history of even the great plains and west that he's talking about. we have a situation of a psychotic killer in a city like tucson, and that brings fear to people. i'm a husband with three kids. i don't like the idea of my wife

with the kids going shopping and getting dpunned down -- gunned down because someone gets cleared for a semiautomatic record with a history of being unstable of the we have to pay attention this this and look at it and not just bury them, but mourn them. if he doesn't want to listen to a funeral, take a walk, turn the tv off. nobody's forcing him to listen. >> host: democrat from new york. you're on the air. >> caller: i just want to say united we stand, divided we fall. at this critical point with our economy struggling, we're divided like never before, and after national tragedies, they use this for political points. i'm not saying he should, but look at bush before 9/11 and nobody liked him. they thought he stole the election. 9/11 happened, and he's a hero. i just want to say from my

information and studies, the president has really no power since kennedy was killed, the shadow government pretty much runs our president and chooses them like puppets, our country is divided for the people and by the people. it's a mirage. >> host: could you address those comments? >> guest: well, that's a well-known conspiracy type of thinking, but our presidents have an inordinate amount of power to make decisions on war when they want to, and they have ability to use rhetoric if you heard ronald reagan with the chamger and bill clinton with the oklahoma city and president obama coming to move the country in a different direction with their words. we talk about the getsberg address a lot because lincoln struck the right tone at the right time, and i don't believe we're living in the age of the imperial president, but

increasing president. congress seems to be where the governmental power is being lost, not the executive branch. >> guest: i agree. presidents are hardly forced -- it's hard to underestimate the extent to which barak obama individually through ambition, resolve and talent came out of nowhere and gets elected president of the united states nor underestimate the mark he has put on his administration in his first two years in office. he is not a tool of some other powerful forces pulling the strings. of course he operates in a democratic constitutional system, and others have influence and power and even the lives on other -- he relies on others for advice, but no, that sounds too much like a con conspiracy to me.

>> host: you talked about the tone and timing of what a president says. how important for both of you is it that a president responds quickly and what he says and while the president may want to steer clear of politics, there's a political cost to not striking the right tone in the right timing. >> guest: well, i don't think it's an issue of the quickness as much. be careful, but he needs to be app play poe at all times. he set a tone about the tragedy in tucson, and then the national moment of silence, and now appropriately he's going to tucson. there's going to be a lot of hugging and emotion there. you're dealing with a very traumatized community in tucson, and i'm sure the president is going to rise to the occasion and give a fitting memorial speech and healing speech. he's good at this, president obama, it comes with the job description. what he didn't want to do is

what happened in the bp oil spill where he seemed to have a callousness and didn't get down quick enough to the louisiana gulf coast and got a drum beat of criticism of you don't care, and i was one the people criticizing president obama at that time. in this case in tucson, a different national crisis, i think he's doing all the right steps and all the right things in the right tone. >> host: all right, this viewer e-mails in from pennsylvania. it will need to be identified, but not today. perhaps to say everyone is responsible is to say no one is responsible, and that simply is untrue. not to tone down the virtue against the president is to ensure another tragedy. it is the "washington post" with their editorials. getting past the pep rally, a

model suggestion for the state of the union speech, and what they suggest in here is that republicans and democrats mix up and that they don't necessarily sit on their separate sides so you don't have that symbolic picture of one side jumping up to applaud and the other side sitting there. >> guest: it would be an interesting expirmt. you might have democrats and republicans get to know one another. this is common in decades past. oftentimes you would find members get together. members with sharp differences, say a bob dole and a george mcgovern could fight it out on the floor and then walk hand in hand to talk about something else. i think the country would be encouraged by that. i don't want to diminish the importance of differences, philosophical partisan

differences, the real issues to be fought out, but the other side is not the enemy. they are not un-american. they simply are americans with a different take, and that's the sentiment we need to see coming out of congress and reaching the public. >> host: all right, bridgeport, ohio. tom, independent, you're on the air. >> caller: good morning. i resent the way this assailant is depicted as being politically motivated to commit these crimes. it's a horrendous act he committed, but, i mean, it's also -- you know, one political party would use this for their own benefit in portraying to guy as somehow being motivated to commit this crime, and you know, based on what you have been affected by republican propaganda. i don't think that's right. i think the democrats are dead

wrong on that. that's my point. >> guest: i don't think that's the argument they made. virtually all of the commentary acknowledged that this young man seems to be seriously disturbed meantly and that -- mentally and that his ramblings were in coherent. there was no evidence of taking any signals from sarah palin or glenn beck or anything else. democrats or liberals aren't saying that, and i think it's the mistake of the caller to find into the same kind of partisan trap of oh, those bad democrats are saying this. what many people are saying including moderate republicans is let's tone it down. the tone was not the cause of this disaster, but it brings to mind for many americans -- i feel this way and members of congress feel this way -- that

it's a little scary when a representational process like a meeting back in a district creates the possibility of vulnerability of the lives of ordinary americans and there's so much talk of hate in the air that let's just tone it down. >> host: this is an e-mail from a viewer talking about the mental health treatment system in arizona calling it the poorest in the country and saying the least amount of treatment and there's a big loophole regarding substance abuse. if a person has a current history, the styte refuses to treat them. go ahead, linda from florida, a republican. >> caller: good morning. you're historians, and i want you to put this into light with a couple issues. first of all, my paper did a little thing yesterday talking about past violence with

politicians, and in the past 110 years or 111 years, there's been 10 different incidents of shootings, and there have been 8 -- i'm sorry, 8 incidents, and 10 people killed. that's over 111 years. i'm not trying to make light of what happened at all, but for people that seem to think this happens frequently, i don't really think it does. >> host: all right, doug? >> yeah, i agree, but you know, keep in mind, there are so many -- this is somebody actualizing the event in tucson, but we've got so many death threats to politics constantly, horrific e-mails, commentators, and here at c-span you probably get some incredibly crazy people that call in or write in, and they are out there. there's the percentage of this

country that's just not very stable and we have to figure out a way to address that. one question might be as you mentioned from an e-mail how does arizona improve dealing with mental health in its state and all states for that matter. i think that that's something we need to look at. these gun laws, should we be giving semiautomatic weapons because they're 20 years old and produces a driver's license? we need to ask those questions and the gun lobby is high. here in texas we have a land commissioner that wants people to carry guns and pushed for them in national parks and carry guns on city busses, and recently he said i should have shot my opponent when i had the chance using a wild west rhetoric in the west. there's the old shootout in the

ok corral, and there's an aspect to the southwest, and it's fine if you are doing it as theater, but when young people actualize it, it's a problem. i think that these states have to make stop making guns into a feddish and make them into a right. >> host: florida, richard, independent line, you're next. richard, are you with us? richard, it would help if i pushed the button. my fault. go ahead. >> caller: okay, yes, i hate to say this, but one of the problems we have is right in the white house itself. our president is not a uniter, but a divider, and he is definite a radical, and it looks to me like the left, the progressives are going to use this incident by this deranged

lunatic who politics probably didn't play any part in whatsoever in what he did, but they're going to use this incident to further their agenda, and we have to look at president obama's actions when he first came into the white house and what his background really is. >> host: all right. thomas? >> guest: the caller's comments are emblematic of the problems we have in the country. i think any objective, fair minded view of president obama, his background, his policies endorsed, and actions in office put him very much in the mainstream of american politics. much of what he's done embraces republican policies of a decade or two ago, and yet there is a belief built up that there is a radical in the white house who doesn't deserve to be there. that kind of demonization sort of fuels an anger and a rhetoric

that this is really quite destructive of our politics. i could say the caller should cool it, calm down. talk to someone who sees things differently than you and see if we can't get back to a position of reasonable deliberation and compromise. >> host: well, doug, did you see a similar pattern when president george w. bush was in office and rhetoric coming from the left? >> guest: yes, there was. i mean, you can read people on the left that were saying george w. bush was like hitler or the new stalin. i mean, if you read the antibush language coming from the left, it went overboard and over the line. i would say it's growing. it seems to have grown, and i don't know where it began. if you look at where this may have been some years back with

the clarence thomas supreme court appointment. it may have started with wood ward and bernstein when the press got stronger and got huge permties and -- personalities and trying to play i got you journalism and with nixon, i'm not sure, but we're in a period now where we have to calm our jets, i think. we have to create some kind of by part san -- bipartisanship and civility back into american life. we're turning people off on politics in general. what people are engaging in is a finger pointing over fellow americans, even this tragic event, people are pointing fingers. i haven't, and i don't think people should. i'm not sure what role, you know, talk radio had played in this young man's life and as a writer, i write books and look after artists a lot 6789 there's

tv, movies, violence everywhere. any time there's a crime we can't say oliver stone is at fault because he made this mew view and this video caused this crime. it is a deranged person we are dealing with, but get back at looking at mental health issues, how do we detect it? there was a trail that this man had a lot of mental instability. how do we help these people when they are young? take a real look at a country drenched in guns and how do we make sure the right people are getting license and not people getting semiautomatic weapons that are not for hunting or protection, but to kill. >> host: a tweet from a c-span junky who says we had a kinder union when they were not promising to meet our needs, but two protect our rights. . an e-mail says we are trying to draw a straight line between

this. we will never agree to what degree each factor played a part. we don't have to just pick one over another. can we as a society improve and learn from this tragedy? to floyd, a republican in butler, tennessee. yoir on the air. >> caller: yes, ma'am, i want to make my statement to both. i'm a republican, an old man, and i've been around and i've seen a whole lot of stuff, and i'm going to tell you in the last 30 years, the republicans made me a republican when i was young, would roll over in their grave to see what we got going on today. >> host: thomas, you take that first. >> guest: you know, i've spent quite a bit of time speaking to former republican politicians, the elected office holders who

are as disstressed as anyone with developments in their own party and in our politics it really is such that it becomes a crime to think about compromising with the enemy, and yet our whole constitutional system is predicated upon people with diverse views coming to the and trying to understand what's behind other arguments and interests, but that's been taken out of our politics. no compromise. stand on principle. reclaim americans for real americans. it's a dangerous period, and our politics -- i'm noting it's directly -- i'm not suggesting it's directly connected to the tucson incident, but the roots are in the personal mental problems of the individual

involved, but it calls forth a larger problem in our country that we really need to deal with. >> host: manhattan, gregory, democratic line, you're on the air. >> caller: good morning, everyone. i hope i can express what i have to say, and i'll keep it short. america has a history of violence, a violent history. when the people came over and the i understand were there there and the indians taught them how to use the land. what happened to the indians? they were destroyed. my family is native american and black american. the second thing is there were limpleggings in american -- lynchings in america and rallies going on. most people alleged to be by the few. as the guy who called in earlier and wanted to degrade president obama who he is, you know, greta

you came back with a balanced approach and did the same thing to bush. the attitude towards president bush who i don't believe is a racist personally is how he became president. the supreme court anointed him president. secondly he took us into wars was not really the way we were supposed to. that's where that history finds itself and the responsibility that bush has to take personally, and lastly but not leastly, it's fox news. okay? can't nobody with college degrees who teaches classes can stand there and actually believe that the intention behind fox news is to be fair and balanced. >> host: this is a comment and question. let's go to trevor in northerly on the independent line. you're next. >> caller: good morning. where is the tendency for governments to react to tragedies that's called problem reaction solution?

it is part of the dialect government that practice for years to divide the people and to promote a certain agenda. you two men are very educated and well aware of the the hegalian dialect. a couple examples would be the christmas day bomber which i might incidentally add was a story broken by the detroit press where the state department helped that man, that alleged bomber, get on the plane, and then right after that, what do we get? scanner. 9/11. right after that, what do we get? the patriot act. now with this shooting incident here, what do we get? we're getting the tone down the rhetoric. as things get worse this this country, as the unemployment

rises, as the food crisis rises, as people start becoming more disconsent, obviously the anger is going to be targeted towards the so-called public servants we have. >> host: all right, doug? >> guest: well, clearly there's a lot of anger that's put on the politicians in the time of particularly recession. today as a historian, we talk about franklin roosevelt and the new deal, but go back and look at what was said about fdr in the 1930s and not just people like father coslin on the radio and many people thought they used to slur him as being rosenfeld making an antisemiautomatic metic connection. it seems to me even when fdr was attacked of being a socialist and anger with the great

depression, there seems to be some kind of rules of engagement that people had. photographers didn't even take photographs of fdr in a wheel cheer. there's just a couple that exist for respect to fdr, and even unfriendly papers didn't want to disrespect the presidency. we don't see that anymore. anything is fair game. any people, just misinformation flowing, and i don't know. we're in a new era, and i don't know if the past is helpful with this new information age we are at. we are still trying to figure out how to use technology, computers, solely to our advantage because there's a lot of negative aspects to becoming as wireed as we are right now. the internet has a mob quality to it at times. >> host: okay, i want to show both of you and the viewers the

video put out this morning by sarah palin, a web video reacting to the criticism that has been put toward her and the shooting over the weekend. >> there are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for this deranged character and they believe political is more peteed. when was it more heated? back in the day when leaders settled differences with pistols? in an ideal world it would be civil, but our founding fathers knew they were not designing the system for perfect men and women. if men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. our founders genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways, so we must

condemn violence if our republic is to endure. >> host: let me turn to you, thomas. get your reaction first. >> guest: well, as sarah palin is under a great deal of pressure now fairly or unfairly, she is a woman who is very effective in coming up with colorful rhetoric, and she's gotten quite a following out there, and i think feels unfairly attacked and responsible and she's what she's saying is it's always been this way. we've had violent and heated rhetoric. we have to live with it and just get beyond it. i really think that's a comment of a political player and not as a national leader. i really think -- if our president said that tonight, i think the country would feel let

down. you need an appeal to our better angels. yes, it's tough. there's pressures, disagreement, differences, intensity, difficulty, but we don't need political figures especially in our two major political parties that further fuel that. we need someone to bring us together. >> host: doug, there has been a lot made of car ri palin not saying anything and told us this morning she put an e-mail out to glenn beck over the weekend. what do you make of her times this morning with the web video? >> guest: well, i think she was feeling compelled to do something and instead of being drilled by a reporter, put out a sometime like she did. it seemed time defiant. i think she's feeling defensive.

it was defensive comments. she's having to depend the tea party movement she's a leader of, and they are under criticism now. she felt she needed to step up, but that's not a speech you just heard of a states person or somebody that's actually active in politics. it's somebody who is leading a movement in which guns are a big part of the movement hence her going back to duals in american history and always had rules. well, we also used to just shoot native american on the spot and used to have slavery. part of being a maturing country like the united states is you change and put things behind you and progress forward. i think her argument that violence has always been there so chin up, everybody, that's part of our, you know, we sometimes settle disputes that way. i don't find her comments particularly helpful.

it might help her maintain leadership in the tea party movement. >> host: all right, doug brinkley going us from texas and thank you and you're out with a new book. thank you very much. >> guest: thank you. >> host: and thomas mann with the brookings institution thank you for being here as well and talking with our viewers. >> guest: happy to be with you. >> today is the anniversary of the earthquake in haiti, and next an update on the relief efforts from the president and

eco of the red cross. it's estimated that the earthquake killed 230,000 people, injured 300,000 and left 2 million homeless. from the national press club in washington, this is an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon and welcome to the national press club. my name is allen buerga. we're the world's leading professional organization for journalist and committed to the future through our programming and being fostering free press worldwide. for more information, visit our website and www.press.org. visit www.press.org/library as well. i'd like to welcome our speaker and guests.

i'd also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. after the speech concludes, i will ask as many audience questions as time permits. first, i'd like to introduce our head table guests. from your right, executive strategy adviser for security first,. liz skinner, reporter for investment news and new member of the press club. international news manager for world vision. sam worington and a get of the speaker. senior vice president of the national services for the american red cross and a guest of the speaker. melissa with the news hook media, speaker committee's chair and organizer of this event. skipping over the speaker for a moment, susie francis, and

rachel ray of the london daily telegraph. richard don hue, associated press. april ryan bureau chief for the urban radio network, and finally erik stoddard for the journalist. [applause] today is the one year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated haiti claiming more than a quarter million homes leaving more than 1 million people homeless. many haitian families one year later still need food, sheet or, and sanitation. survivors are living in tent camps marked by disturbing reports of violence. debris bogs the capitol in port-au-prince. today's guest has been essential

to haitian relief efforts. as president and ceo of the american red cross, gail mcgovern has the largest organization one that raised nearly a half billion dollars for haiti. last week the red cross spent or signed agreements to spend $245 million on haiti recovery efforts, more than half of what it has collected. haiti is a test for the american red cross as well. when she took the job in 2008, mcgovern was the charity's 7th ceo in seven years, hired to restore the tarnished reputation and bottom line. twice named among phenomenonture's magazine as the most powerful women in america, they slashed expenses to cut the debt working to regain the trust of donors who were wary of plans to divert 9/11 funds for other purposes and their response to hurricane katrina.

on january 12, 2010, also is mcgovern's birthday, the deadly earthquake struck. the day after the quake, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. as she fought her personal battle as well as the one in haiti, they vied resources to haiti's victims. she's here today to give an update on what they've accomplished and lay out the challenges that lie ahead. please welcome to the national press club american red cross president and ceo, gail mcgovern. [applause] >> thank you very much, alan, and i am really pleased to be back at the national press club. it's an honor, and i'm grateful for the opportunity to report out to you and also to the public about our operations in

haiti on this one year anniversary. .. one in five people in the united states have been touched by the american red cross. but it's unusual for me to meet anyone who knows everything that we do. weavers on to 70,000 disasters every single year. and we do this as volunteers who

were pitchers 24/7. this has to be worked out with major disasters in the u.s. as well let the floods in tennessee or the tornadoes that hit the south and the midwest for the wildfires in colorado. we are also there to respond to tens of thousands of single-family house buyers that have been each and every year and probably don't even make the evening news. these seemingly quote unquote small disasters seem small, but if your family has impacted, there at the apportions and we are always there to provide shelter, food. were there to provide comfort and hope. in addition to disaster response, we provide nearly half of the nation's blood supply. in every single one of those 10 million units were donated by a generous and selfless person who really wanted to save lives.

we also work with members of the military, veterans and their families by providing support in $500 in emergency communications every single year and that could range from delivering the news of the tragedy at home or to the video connection that we set up for a soldier who was deployed so he could teach his teenage son how to shave for the very first time. we also teach lifesaving skills to about 10 million people every year. and it's unusual for a month or two to go by when were not honoring somebody who was an ordinary person who has done an extraordinary act. recently we honored a 17-year-old young man who saved his 3-year-old brother from choking because of his red cross training. the depth and breadth of all that we do still continues to amaze even me and it truly is a privilege to be part of it.

one last thing before you are talking about 80. 18 months ago i spoke to the national press club about the challenges of navigating the nonprofit or turbulent economic waters. and at that time it about how the red cross was trying to eliminate a $209 million operating deficit over a two-year period. and i'm very pleased to let you know that after a great deal of cost cutting, consolidations and streamlining, that we closed our fiscal year this past june and we didn't know with a modest surplus. none of these cost cutting initiatives impact did our ability to develop our mission and were continually seeking ways to be efficient in order to be outstanding stewards of our donors dollars. now for haiti. as we all know, a year ago today, he was struck by a devastating earthquake, 7.0

magnitude that killed an estimated 230,000 people and left an additional 1.3 million people homeless. it flattened homes, destroyed much of the capital city, damaged government operations including the deaths of many civil service. matt merrick, a 36-year-old from wilkes-barre, pennsylvania was ahead as the american red cross operations in port-au-prince when the earthquake struck. he and his coworkers dove under their desks when the earthquake started. and when it was over, they saw late and they realize that the walls of their building had collapsed around them. not crawled out from the wreck it and he looked across the hillside tc thousands of homes that were pancaked. he knew in an instant that many, many people had died.

despite the trauma that t. and himself and his team experience, not in the other spent all night in the chain and cleaning wounds. he sent out teams to provide first aid to people that were in hard to reach location and they didn't have stretchers, so they dug through the rubble to find doors to carry the injured two vehicles to get them to one of the few remaining operating hospitals. my first trip to haiti with just a few days after the earthquake. the deceased mourn. and they were still in the street. i saw people walking around the streets of port-au-prince with nothing more than just shock and grief on their faces. the extent of the devastation, the number of injuries and the smell of death were just and describe full. the city was eerily quiet. no one smiled, no one laughed, no one spoke. no one even cried.

people were living in makeshift tents that they made from pieces of sheet under the dough sticks they had pitched. if he wanted to talk to the residents in these makeshift camps come you literally have to crawl around on your hands and feet to the will them. these images are still very, very vivid to me today and i expect they will be for years to come. the experience fundamentally changed my life. i felt a combination of heartbreak, but also steely determination to do whatever we possibly could to help the people of haiti recover, no matter what. i have pictures of children but i took during my first trip. i have them on my refrigerator and a look at them every day. they help remind me of our mission and why we need to be sure that every single dollar that we spent is spent wisely. but also strengthens my resolve is the incredible outpouring of

generosity from the american public, the tremendous need for the haitian people brought out the tremendous heart and the people of our country. so many americans reached into their hearts, reached into their wallets and they even reached for their cell phones to be able to give. and they did so in such tough economic times. i want each and every one of them to know that we are truly grateful for those donations and they are making a difference for the people of haiti. overall, the american red cross has raised $479 million for earthquake relief and recovery effort. these came in -- these can and from millions of donors in various ways in various sizes, like the million dollars gift from a fortune 500 country, the $400 that was raised by a fourth-grade class in massachusetts for the crumpled up dollar bill that came with a

note that was sent to the outside, this is from the tooth. can you give it to the people of haiti? more than 32 million came from text messaging at just $10 a pop. and this is truly a game changer in the world of fundraising. it shattered all previous records for mobile giving. and i'd like to think it introduced a whole new generation to that delicious feeling of giving back, probably for the very first time. but with this outpouring of support comes a responsibility for accountability and for transparency. in this new generation of donors want to know how the red cross is spending their money. and i learned that firsthand when i did a skype interview with pat fourth-grade class i talked to the raised $400. they expected the conversation to be pretty simplistic. i mean, these were 9-year-old

kid. but i knew we had entered into a new era of transparency when these kids asked me the really tough questions about exactly how their $400 were going to be spent. i provide it with a lot of details. nsa told the class, the red cross is committed to wisely spending the money that our donors have entrusted to us. whenever i make decisions, i try to imagine that her donors are sitting right there at the table with me. and i ask, would they be happy with the way we're spending the money? would they approve? and what he the people of haiti. personally, i woke up the of trent. he and i'm proud to share decisions with their donors. i'm often asked whether or not we're spending the donors dollars fast enough in haiti. three months after the earthquake, we told the press and we told our donors that we estimated we would then will

have contracts to spend $200 million in the first year following the earthquake. the fact is today we provided even more release than we originally projected that i'm proud to report the american red cross has sent contracts to spend or we have spent $245 million in the first 12 months. and that is more than half of the $479 million we collect it. and if you do some quick math, it's a spending rate of two thirds of a million dollars every day. if it is possible because of our large disaster response capacity you can also very swiftly identify partners in haiti who can also deliver massive amounts of assistance to complement our own capability. so for the next two minutes, i'm going to describe the emergence of relief we provided in the first years of the earthquake. and these are the kinds of services and activities that are urgently needed after a

disaster. and in haiti, they have literally can't people alive. and not the point were three-point worth reemphasizing. while conditions in haiti are still extremely difficult, and each of these efforts made possible by your donations have saved lives that otherwise would've been months. after i described our relief efforts, i'll talk about the challenges that we face, the need to be flexible and also talk about her plans going forward. i'll be using some of the facts and figures that can be found in her one-year haiti report on our website, red cross.org. i'll also be talking about what the red cross, the american red cross is done. but also refers to but if we've done as a network with other red cross societies around the world. our emergency relief efforts include six different categories

food, water and sanitation, emergency shelters, livelihood, health services and disaster preparedness. and i'll give you a few details on each and i'll start the food. after the earthquake, the american red cross provided a world food program is part of the u.n. with $30 million in funding and an additional $14 million in ready to eat meals. that was enough to feed 1 million people during the height of the earthquake response. this assistance was vital in a country were even prior to the earthquake 1.9 million people at either went bed hungry or were completely reliant on aid for substance. in early spring, the haitian government asked eight organizations to stop distributing food. they felt that it was 200 local economy, particularly local farmers. so our funds are redirected to provide school meals for the

work programs and nutritional supplements for children who are under five years old or pregnant women or nursing women. next is the area of water and sanitation. since the earthquake on the global red cross network has been providing clean drinkable water to hundreds of thousands of people throughout port-au-prince each and every day. we've also funded latrines to serve 265,000 people who are defending champs and it's important to know that before the earthquake, only one in three people had access to clean drinkable water a month than 20% had access to latrines or the toilet. the american red cross is also working to an approved drainage in and around the camps. just imagine living in a home where every time there's a heavy rain, you're knee-deep in water and you can't lay down and your children can't lay down and you have to stay up all night.

these drainage problems keep residents dryer. they reduce the threat of waterborne disease and they help put people to work. a third area is in the area of emergency relief as emergency shelters. more than one third of the tarps and tends that were provided to the people in the communities came from the red cross. enter with that in perspective, if you lay those tarps and tents end to end, they will go all the way from new york city to miami. now of course we're working to get people out of the tents as quickly as possible, but at least these shelters have provided earthquake survivors from protection from the blazing sun and the punishing rains. the american red cross has been working hard to help the haitian people get back on their feet through jumpstarting livelihood. we've been working with the micro-financing partner in

haiti, from coast day. we've had 22,000 people to cash grants and business loans. many of these families have received grants that were led by women and that was a particularly vulnerable group economically as you know. also because hundreds of thousands of displaced haitians left the capital with friends and families another region, were providing support to about 70,000 people who are living the coast families. these grants and loans made a real difference for haitians, like the owner of this mall food shop, odette minard. she lost most of her inventory during the earthquake hit and thanks to money from the red cross through franco say, she opened her shop, business going and what can she can provide support to her family. there are signs that more and more haitians are getting back on their feet. in fact, the u.n. tracked the population in the camps and they

have determined that the number of resident has declined by more than half a million people since the earthquake. the fifth area includes several different initiatives that are working in the area of health. the american right cross helped fund a u.n. vaccination program. revaccinated close to a million men, women and children against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles and rubella. nearly 217,000 people have been treated at red cross health care facilities since the earthquake. it also provided funds to keep the doors open at the largest public hospital in port-au-prince as was the only critical care and trauma center in ocd. the earthquake left thousands of haitian survivors with crushed wins, so the american red cross is helping to refund reconstruction of ascetic and

rehabilitation facility run by the healing hands for haiti. and you can just imagine the joy that a childhood experience of artificial limb. it brings him back to normalcy, whether it's being able to walk forward being able to kick a soccer ball again. our final set of projects in the emergency response phase is in disaster of a paradise for haiti. haiti is obviously a disaster prone country and in order to be ready for the rainy seasons and the hurricanes seasons, we are working to build a culture of preparedness. the red cross preconditioned enough emergency supplies, tarps, tents, blankets and caused for 125,000 people and they are scattered around tahiti. haitian volunteers trained by the red cross had gotten into the camps to provide residents with basic disaster preparedness and response tools. they worked with community residents to put sandbags on the

hillsides and create evacuation route. and this included setting up emergency communications using bullhorns or cell phone calling chain and the like. these efforts also reinforced by the innovative use of text messaging and broadcast media. for example, when hurricane thomas was approaching haiti in the fall of, we were with a wireless provider in haiti and we sent millions of text messages throughout the country, telling people the steps they should take to prepare for the storm. and these preparations have kept the loss of life to a minimum when thomas struck in november. so hopefully that gives you a sense of our belief about committees. and as i said, more details are available on her website. at the american red cross, we know that it is very important to have a plan during disaster response, but it's also very important to be flexible.

on the cholera outbreak is an example of a new and unexpected traces that we had to respond to. as soon as the cholera outbreak started, the red cross spring into action. within days of the outbreak, cargo planes filled with relief supplies that were paid for by the american red cross were landing in port-au-prince. the red cross network opened three cholera treatment centers and were also providing funds to other centers as well. we're providing safe, coordinated water every day to more than 300,000 people in port-au-prince. the red cross donated 10 million aqua tabs. these are tablets that purify water and we donated goes to tahitian water authority. text messaging has also been part of our cholera response as well. the red cross response team has spent 3.7 million text messages

with prevention type names and information across the country. we've also purchased and transported hundreds of thousands of prevention and treatment items like soap, oral titration tablet and iv solutions, et cetera. we've shipped thousands of cots from our own warehouses here in the u.s. for use in the cholera treatment facilities and hundreds of american red cross trained hygiene promoters are going tent to tent in the camps in port-au-prince to explain how to stop the spread of cholera. and this is really not an easy feat to cast this as a country where the literacy rate is so high you can't just drop a brochure and ask people to read it. i had the privilege of following a group of these volunteers around the tents and they used ingenious techniques from having

a storyboard illustrations to literally demonstrating how you wash your hands with cholera so. when they were done, do we teach the kid from the camp cholera song, which has a catchy tune to it in the lyrics are all about how to prevent the spread of cholera. a second example where we had to be flexible and had to do with an extensive initiative that we're planning as part of our relief for. however, this project unfortunately is going have to go into the column of challenges that we face and it shows the need to adapt to new developments in new directions. speaking about a cash transfer program, which you may recall from our previous report. we have successfully piloted the program, where we were going to be able to distribute $40 million to help people living in the camps. and our feeling was this would empower them to provide for their own needs, rather than

waiting in line for aid distribution. however, the government of haiti asked us to stand down on the program in mid-october. and the rationale was the provision of cash would have more people moving into the attempted communities and what have people not leave. we were disappointed. frankly understand the point of view, but we have to abide either decisions. and since that time, the american red cross has been working to reallocate the money into financial assisted initiatives that would be more targeted. and he was include cash for work, relocation grants, school vouchers to offset tuition payment for k-12 students. most every student has to pay a fee to go to work in haiti because 90% of the school system is private school. our goal remains to get cash

into the hands of families, which will not only improve their lives, but also stimulate the haitian economy. another challenge that all of you have read about is finding land to get people out of the camps and into transitional homes. in this effort has not moved as quickly as any of us would've hoped for for a number of reasons. first, it's been very difficult for the haitian government to determine exact way who owns the land. and obviously groups like the american red cross can't just charge in there, steal land and start building. it's not our land and it's not our country. much of the available land is covered with tons of rubble that has to be removed from their isn't enough heavy equipment in haiti to do so. even if there were, the roads are so narrow that heavy equipment would be able to have accessory for survival. despite these challenges, the american red cross is moving ahead in our efforts to provide

more permanent shelters for haitians that are currently living under tarps and tents. we're spending $48 million as part of the red cross network's overall goal to build transitional homes for 150,000 people. and our partners have already completed a number of these homes in 16 different communities. the homes they've completed will be able to house 15,000 people. and these are brightly colored homes. they are vivid sign of progress in a sign of hope. and i like the fact in many instances they are being built by the haitians proliferate in the community as part of the cash for programs being funded by the american red cross. so looking ahead, the red cross is planning to spend the remainder of our funds on longer-term recovery from a plan to be in haiti until the very last dollar is spent. and our hope is to leave a lasting impact.

for the bulk of the remaining funds will be spent on permanent housing. her plans to provide permanent homes involve two different approaches. the first is to rehabilitate existing communities and tired of port-au-prince. a homes in the city have been marked with green if they are able to be habitable, yellow if they need to repair and read if they have to be demolished. so our program would include preparing homes that are damaged and replacing those demolishing and replacing those that are on sound. this obviously is a street by street approach and allows people to return to their neighborhoods and stay close to family, friends and jobs. the second approach is a green field effort, we developed a new communities outside of port-au-prince. and we're very excited to be able to tell you about two brand-new initiatives are first come in the american red cross is working closely with the

united states government, the state department or its implementing arm, usaid. nor can i expand partnership to build permanent housing for people that were left homeless during the earthquake. under this partnership, usaid would identify and prepare at least two locations in haiti for permanent homes that would include groves, drainage and other infrastructure. the plan is that the american red cross would build these homes, including water and sanitation. and we anticipate spending this much is $30 million in the land partnership with usaid. second, the american red cross is also working on a separate housing project with the inter-american development bank or idb. we anticipate that will spend as much as $15 million to construct homes on man's been identified by the government. plans would include rose, sanitary systems, electrical

services and other infrastructure. these projects are part of the $100 million that we plan to invest to provide tens of thousands of people with permanent homes and they will unfold over the next few years. so before you take your questions, i do want to offer a personal taste. mike variants in haiti is like nothing i've ever experienced. i've made double trip since the earthquake and each time i ask. every single possible emotion. deep sadness and despair, but also pride, joy and hope. and i'm like all americans, i really wish to pace the process could be faster in haiti. i like to see how haitian living in permanent homes with robust livelihoods and how vibrant communities. and instead, about 800,000 people are still living under tarps and tents, while the haitian government works to sort

out and ownership issues. and this is not easy in a country, where title documents often did never asked and where the government workforce was decimated during the earthquake. while much has been done in haiti, the commission still a very tough with the people they are. i keep reminding myself that haiti was a very poor country before this devastating earthquake. more than 70% of haitians with the xenon $2 a day or less. only one in three haitians have access to safe drinking water. less than half of the people in haiti have electricity and the illiteracy rate is 45%. in many cases, eight groups are just rebuilding haiti. we are rebuilding some of the infrastructure for the very first time. and of course the recent events over the past few months, like the collar up week, hurricane thomas, the civil unrest after the announcement of the election

results, these have only compounded misery of the earthquake survivors. but amid the destruction and hardship, there is also open progress. the resiliency, determination, spirituality and a positive attitude of the people i have met in haiti are absolutely inspirational. and i'm also inspired by our red cross workers on the ground who endured many of the same hardships in order to be there every single day, helping others under incredibly challenging circumstances, they have really accomplished so much. and i'm deeply moved by all a few who entrusted us to spend your dollars buys we in ways that best help the people of haiti. and that is exactly what we are doing. i am personally committed to spend it in a way that will make our donors proud.

thank you very much. [applause] .. the ones that i described in here were put in front of the commission, and it is still moving. it is moving slowly.

>> this audience member asks, how much has the haitian government helped or hindered your work there? >> as i said, their job is not easy. people were living in homes that had no titles. if you visit he and you see the rebel, it is incredible what they have to do. the good news is the completed the work to label the yellow, green, and red houses. the projects that i described, for example, are starting to move forward. i have seen transitional shelters spring up all over the place. we are building a 20-30 every single day seven days a week. there is progress, but the haitian government has a lot of hard work to do with the decimated workforce. >> from the haitian government to the u.s. government understanding that the red cross is a donor agency, what is your reaction to discussions that you hear in the new congress budget

about accountability with relief efforts and the general atmosphere of budget cutting and deficit cutting? >> well, as the ceo of the american red cross one of our tenants is neutrality. i want to be neutral on all things political. having said that, we are working very closely with the state department, u.s. aid, and they are helping us forge ahead. >> you mentioned near the end of your address that you had seen had examples of hope and inspiration. what is a specific example of success that you have seen that gives you hope? >> there are signs of hope all over haiti. you can walk around and hear how many transitional shelters go up, kids with artificial limbs that are walking for the first time since the earthquake. people look healthier. when i was their the first time

there were so many injured people. now you can see that people, health care systems, non existent before. only one in 10,000 people had access to health care. it will also there is progress that you don't see, like the fact that a million people are now vaccinated against diseases that were widespread or that illnesses or minimized in close quarters in port-au-prince because of prevention, clean water distribution, except for a. every time i go i am so delighted to see how much commerce is happening in the streets. it seems like there is not an empty spot on the curb where someone has not set up some sort of shocked and is selling something. i have seen people using our red cross tarp and tents to -- izod restaurant that had a table for

two. it was fully booked. i saw a manicurist. i saw. these are beautiful signs of progress and a testament to the resiliency and the determination of the haitian people. >> still following up on your examples of health care, how do you take what is a relief effort and translate that into the foundation of a sustainable health care system? >> that is an excellent question. be of the truly helping to keep the doors open of the two hospitals i described. the haitian government has started paying salaries and the university hospital, which we think is a great sign. but in order for the health care to be sustainable it has to be a government run institution. the aid will eventually run out. we have $479 million. that sounds like a lot, but it's

a really isn't enough to keep hospitals going forever. the haitian government has begun to engage. we are working with them to transition this salaries over to the government. >> so when a disaster occurs there is the initial debate. then there is the longer term. you said in your example there was an immediate rush of food and then it desire. you push it away. windy you make those judgments that certain areas you have left in the crisis faced. to what extent right now are we still in one phase and not yet into another? >> that decision varies in each and every disaster. there are all a little bit different. as a humanitarian i never want

to stop distributing relief. you want to keep continuing this. i know that if we were to do that at the and the money would run out and we would leave and there would be nothing to show for the incredible outpouring of generosity from the american public. so as people are leaving the tinted communities, which is a sign that people are getting back on their feet, we have started to divert funds to recovery, as i described, the permanent housing and the transitional homes as well. it is important to do this because it is a sign of progress. it is a permanent end billable lasting impression on the country. at the same time we are constantly prepared for unexpected disasters like the cholera outbreak or hurricane tomas. we work closely with the government of haiti, the people

on the ground, our sister society, the haitian red cross to get a sense for when it is right to start to a recovery efforts. we feel that it is time to start breaking ground and building permanent homes. >> one of the issues you have heard discussed to some much of the population has been concentrated. he made reference to new greenfield initiatives to disperse the population. you talked about building homes. you talked about infrastructure, water drainage, except trap. how do you go about creating an economy? >> your observation is exactly correct. porter presents before the earthquake had a population of two when the half million people. they say that it was a city built to accommodate 900,000. even before the earthquake struck it was over populated. when you look at the blueprints,

the intern commission worked on to figure out long-term recovery, it include flattening and dispersing the residents outside the community. there has to be an effort to provide livelihood's, jobs, except for. so part of our recovery is to continue to support lovely head.

we are coordinating to make sure those types of things are available before we start digging. and we are also making sure that our initial projects are close to port-au-prince where there are jobs centers and possibilities for employment. >> on the topic of pace of recovery and funding you often hear when that effort is initially put forth that the money is being spent entirely too quickly to lead the economy cannot absorbent. people who don't say that will often tend to say you are not spending the money fast enough because it is being spent and efficiently. your organization clearly cannot dispense this aid. these are contradictory concepts. how does one man did to the pressure and how does one know that you have spending money at the proper pace? >> that is an excellent question and the true observation. if we don't spend it at a really

rapid pace people say, why aren't you spending it fast enough? if we had blown through the $479 million in the first year and quite confident that people would have said, what the heck did you do with that money? we -- in the question, how do you deal with that pressure. the way i wake up in the morning and look myself in the mirror is by saying i want to spend the money to make our goal is proud and help the people of haiti. we have resisted the urge to just dump money because you want to make sure it is spent wisely. and in the number of the initiatives that i talked about we are working with partners. we make sure we put out requests for applications. they will spend money wisely. we have the ability to audit where funds are going. we want to make sure at the end of the day that we can account for every single diet and that

we don't succumb to pressure, that we really just do the right thing. >> related to that question according to one report to nations in the wake of hurricane katrina were spent much more quickly in the first year than they had been in haiti. what is the difference? >> in the u.s. during hurricane katrina, and i ought to preface this by saying katrina was about four years before my time when i started at the american red cross. but included in our work was an enormous financial aid package where we were supplementing the work that fema had done. we took the outpouring of donations and gave money to the victims that were impacted. we did it with debit cards, and we were able to transfer the donations directly to the people there.

that was one effort. the of people could get on buses, leave the city. i read somewhere that only 60 percent of the people returned to new orleans. get on buses, move in with relatives conducted jobs. in a lot of ways it was easier to get relief done quickly because it wasn't that same long recovery effort. you just walk around haiti in d.c. the recovery has to be a huge part of our donation or else there will be nothing to show for it. so here we are planning recovery operations. and as i said in my speech, this is not to rebuild haiti. this is to build parts up to the very first time. >> before this address of was speaking with a person in the reception marking the l. a.

attention span for a disaster can be very short. regrettably even one year later people are still talking about haiti, it can be kind of unusual. you have a large haitian community and you have nearby access to u.s. media and a lot of things that help such things along, but while this is happening there are other humanitarian disasters. has he taken the oxygen out of the room? is it harder to raise dollars for other needs because of ongoing interest? what areas need more assistance that may be suffering from lack of attention to back. >> so, first of all, has he taken the oxygen out of the room? i take that this disaster struck a chord with the american public like no other. the visuals on tv were horrific. much more vivid. for whatever reason the media went deeper into showing some

really graphic images that will stay with all of us for a long time. at think that is part of the reason why the attention has taken so long. the other thing is just the sheer number of donors. that the amount, but the number of donors. i have walked through the airport with my red cross banon, and the kid will come up to me and say i gave you $10. what are you doing with it? there are so many people that feel a vested -- vested interest in connection to 80. the question is as it diverted our attention? no. we respond to 70,000 disasters last year. we still delivered half the nation's blood supply. we still trained 10 million people a lifesaving skills and we still supported military families to the tune of 500,000 connections every year. could we use the nation's? absolutely. absolutely. there is a bit of donor fatigue. there are a lot of things going

on in our country that the red cross is providing. whee exist because of the generosity of the american public. in the donations and in the area are greatly appreciated. >> about the cell phone messages a person asks, does the phone company get a cut? >> they did not during haiti. they were very generous and did not take their fee, which is pretty amazing. another question that i get on the cell phones is tomorrow, my gosh. it might get on there and takes hundreds of hundreds of dollars? i am here to assure you that the answer to that is no because you could only do it twice. the $32 million bois love this medium. we are constantly sending text back to the people that donated.

s status reports telling them how the money is working and how they're doing. it is a great way to send messages. people feeling connected to the people of haiti and the american red cross. >> are you able to harvest that? >> there is an interesting question. we send a text that invited people to opt in by texting as their e-mail address. at think we got between five and 10 percent opted. we do communicate with people now via e-mail. i love texting. i love this medium, but it is kind of hard to send a stuart chip report like the one that i just gave you in a text message. we are delighted for anyone to get on our website, give us your e-mail address. we really want to keep you informed. the more we can tell our donors about what we are doing, not only in haiti, but throughout the american red cross, the more

connected they feel, and the level of transparency, as i said in my speech, is something that we welcome at the red cross. >> following up an earlier question, could you please talk a little bit more about the haitian packs pat community in the u.s. response and expertise in the disaster. >> we work very closely. please solicit opinions, get their advice, ask them to volunteer. we asked creole speaking people to help staff the ship that was used for critical care. we rely on them to help guide us as to what is the right thing. we have dedicated staff at the red cross who interact with the haitian diaz borah because we feel that they are so important. we do out reach in cities where there is a big population.

they are vital to keeping us informed. they all have relatives back in haiti said that they can help keep the finger on the pulse of what is going on. they are vocal. they demand transparency. as i said, that is something we welcome and keep them informed and have quite an outreach to make sure that we have a give and take dialogue. >> on transparency, you have spoke for some time but your efforts with accountability. the uc other organizations working as hard on that topic as the american red cross? overall what are the greatest transparency challenges that you see? >> so i think that the owners are demanding transparency. if there are organizations that are not providing it i can assure you eventually they will. we made a commitment that we want to be -- lead the effort in

transparency. for the most part we share anything we have, probably the biggest decision is when is too much too much? sometimes the facts and figures and details get a bit. we could provide what we give during relief, but there is a point in time where transparency become so overwhelming that people don't really grasp it. we are happy to share the way we are spending our dollars, the way our budget looks. a lot of this is in our 1-year report. if there is press up there with questions, we will commit. i think this is kid for not only the nonprofits because it keeps us on our toes and forces us to continually do the right thing, but i think it is good for philanthropy. i think the more people that want to donate, when they truly understand where their dollars

are going in the difference there making. >> realistically windy you expect 80 to be a functional society with permanent homes, no tents commanded develop civil society? >> that is a tough question. i think that i would have to have a degree in urban planning to be able to give a realistic answer. i can tell you that in japan after the earthquake it take seven years to get back to where it was before the of quake. that was one city in a country with extraordinary infrastructure and resources. as i said, he was such a poor country to begin with that there are actually people living in the tinted communities that have told us that they're better off now than they were before. so i guess i could give the answer that it is going to take a long time.

some of these projects are going to take a long time. construction takes a long time. it's going to require a coordinated effort. it is going to require utilities, infrastructure, water, sanitation. i will not give up hope that we can get there. the reason i have hope is with you ask people what he needed those a water or food or shelter they say, i need a job. with a society that is so eager to work it seems to me that there is tremendous hope for haiti in the future and that as people discover how industrious the society is, i would like to think that we will see job opportunities. manufacturing and the like that will help bring haiti back at a faster pace. >> what has been your most

moving or powerful memory? >> oh, mike goodness. there are so many images that just flew in my face when you asked that question. when i went to haiti the very first time nobody smiled. nobody smiled. i mean, i came home and i couldn't smile. it was almost like my smile muscles had been frozen. when i got home i stood in my shower and i thought, oh, my gosh. the stuff that we take for granted. the fact that i can stand here and have drinking water pouring down the drain without giving it a moment's thought was so amazing to me. on my next trip to haiti i came back and people were smiling.

i have emblazoned in my memory what the smiles look like. i saw children that had taken pieces of sheets and cloth that they were using for this makeshift tent. they are now under tarps intense. they had taken the cloth and reusing it as kites. there were flying against the backdrop of an unbelievable blue sky. they were squealing and giggling and work just -- the joy on their faces was a memory that i will keep with me for a very, very long time. >> and we are almost out of time. but before the last question we have a couple important matters to take care of. first of all, remind our members and guests of future speakers. the hon. tempo nt will be launching his book tour here at the national press club for his memoir. on january 206th just to let

you know, the national press club will be hollow of -- holding a night of solidarity. proceeds will go to the haitian press advocacy group. then on february 203rd we have a member is only luncheon with the chairman of the federal reserve. at think we have some guesses. second, to present our guest with the traditional, coveted, always waited for national press club mont. [applauding] and dell a final question simply, you have spoken here before. what would you be able to tell the national press club on the second anniversary? >> first of all, before i answer that question, you have no idea how much i covet this cup.

it is hard to get one of these. now i have to. i am working on getting a said. i will be back wrestling is you invite me. i hope that one year from now like and report back that our financial source abel, the american public is still reaching into their parts. we continue to be there for people in need. almost 100% sure that i will also report that i have the best job in the entire world. they key very much. [applauding] >> de que, gail mcgovern. the national press club, adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> in a few moments the latest report on homelessness and the u.s. in about 40 minutes a state department briefing on the political situation in lebanon. after that sworn in as governor of south carolina. later treasury secretary to the diner on how the world economy is affected by china's currency. on washington journal tomorrow morning we will discuss the shootings in tucson, ariz. with paul held key, president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence and john lott, author of more john -- more guns from a less crime. also joined by the national alliance and mental illness.

and associated press energy reporter will take your questions about the final report of the gulf oil spill. that was announced this week. ..

the is 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good morning, everyone. welcome in thank you toase of sa coming -- were coming to everetm sees as the state of homelessness in america. i am nan roman, president of the national homelessness. homelessness is the first of what we plan to be an annual report that will examine two or dow things, whether homelessness has repo up or down since the last use report and what the economi and demographic causes of like homelessness look like over that same period of time. we'll answer these questions

both nationally and for eachh state.ate. typically when we think about at homelessness, we focus onn homelessness programs and homelessness assistance as beint responsible for whether theomels number of homeless people goes ups or down.s a homelessness assistance is definitely a part of thearbut tr equation. is unt the other part is larger outside drivers like t employment and housing causedr in this report really focuses on the economic front yours. deep homelessness shows thatn homelessness, which had been declining over the past few years between 2008 in 2000 night and this increase with this is asso needed with economic recession people was 656,129 and that was up 3%. also populations of homeless people went up. however, families went up most, about 4%. the number