staff in welcoming senator alan bowles.and ersjubkine >> even though it is snowing outside, i am happy to give you that warm welcome. in the time we have been here, i have not noticed a single cross were between the two of you. why are you so different from everyone else in washington? >> when you are associated with

someone, you learn about friendship. when we started this, this was a suicide mission. it still is. erskine said, what are you doing? i said, by then -- biden called. the first call i received was from bob dole. it took us three months to establish trust and our commission. it is stressed. that is the kind of the role in politics.

it is very tarnished right now in washington. once we decided we are going, maybe they will sign it. a kind of irritated the rest of them. that is where it was. we have 14 reasons to do it. >> i always feel like we are the sonny and cher show. you can figure out which one i am. someone knew i would lose to elizabeth dole. it was pretty early on. this was not a good sign.

i always believed to get something done have to build trust and had me show respect. i trust al simpson to the bottom of my soul. i respect him like nobody else. the success we have is to the table to him. he has the ability. they can bring people together to find common sense solutions. >> i'm going to do something i

do not normally do. i will open this up and ask you to ask a few questions. what i would like to do is bring everybody in the audience up to speed on where we are. what were the marching orders that you got president obama when you said that this commission? >> this is the numbers guy. he only answers questions. i think the president knew who he was kidding when he brought us. he knew we were.

they will give you the support needs. it is not sustainable. he understands that we face the most predictable economic crisis in history. you all come forward with the recommendation. we will get behind them. that was good enough for me once i found that he would be my cochair. >> i said if we do this, i do not what rahm emanuel running me off a cliff. i was convinced that the health care bill has to be on the table. nothing can be off the table.

he said that was fair enough. we had a meeting. he said he can go through everything including the new bill. we said that was four starters. >> a lot of people are here in the audience today. they will be listening to this. they will say, how serious is this problem? what would happen if we did not do anything? >> that is a great answer. anyone can understand it. if you borrow 40 cents and did not know where you are going, you must be this dubious -- the stupidest country on earth. it does that answer your question? 40 cents of every dollar we spend we barrault. it is not from your friendly uncle charlie.

if anybody can not read the tea leaves, in the last few weeks it one of 200 trillion. it was a disaster. i think these deficits are like a cancer. i think he'll destroy this country from with in. i will just give you one simple example. today we spend 100 some of the revenues we take into this country on the mandatory spending items. every single dollar that we spend on the military and fighting these wars, on

infrastructure and research, every single dollar is bought. -- borrowers. taft is borrowed from foreign countries. if we do not change it, this country will be a second-rate palace before you know it. >> the other day here you read -- harry reid was on television. he said there is no problem with social security. it is fully funded. on the outside, charlie rangel who at that time was head of the ways and means committee i-- ths is before the health care bill. he said there is no problem with medicare. what do you say to that? like i would say to sober up. [applause]

he also says we are not doing horrible things to social security to balance the budget of the united states on the backs of social security recipients. what we did, we take care of the lowest 20% in society by giving them 125% of poverty level. anybody over 80 we get a 5% bump. we turn to a new cost of living index. we raise the retirement age to 68 by the year 2015. the average life expectancy is 77. >> my wife is here. going to work out is thinking about it.

we say nobody stole your trust fund. it has a surplus of $2.50 trillion. that is true. that consisted beautiful chunks of paper. that young person of putting in today what i will get tomorrow. there is no lock box. but he put in yesterday, i get out. in maine -- in may, and not enough came in to get out. here is some of our beautiful paper. we need a little cash. when you walk up to the window, you get 22% less than your chance.

that does not seem to start toomey. that is where we are. do nothing and that is what will happen. that is eight irrefutable figure of the system. >> it is cash-today. in they are exhausting all the funds in the social security trust time -- trust fund by 2037. by law, and they will have to reduce benefits by 22%. that is fact. >> those say they paid into social secured in medicare, you owe it to me. what do we say that's how old are you? they say 79 or 80. i am 79. i put in when i was 15.

he only paid a fee earned over $3,000. no 10 earned over $3,000. then i went to the army. i paid in social security. you do not now. i did. i practiced law for 20 years. it will take 1215 hundred. then it went to six or eight. in 1983, if you retired for all activity you got everything back in the first four years of the benefit. plus 6% interest. it is got to be a different now. if the u.n. gives me that that i put it in at the beginning and i

got it all out with it 14 years higher than it was, somebody said you are going to privatize social security. that is not our package at all. they did not go for it. you cannot believe the aarp. we went to them and ask them if they were patriots are just marketers? [laughter] they did not like that really. he is like a sphinx. he smiles.

they are destructive force. it is powerful. imagine what they make. this country has made a big mistake of over promising. we have made problems that we cannot deliver on. we have made problems on social security. the social security trust fund is going to run out the money into thousand 37. benefits will have to be cut by 22%. i hate over promising more than

anything in the world. i tell my wife out a home at 8:00 and i get home at 730. i am a hero. if i tell her 7:00 and i get home at 730, i am a dog. we have a choice in this country. we can under promise and over deliver or we can continue to overpromise the american people and disappoint them a day in and day out. i think the american people get it. >> there is such a difference between the schedule benefit and the payable benefits. that is what he is saying. by law, but they say this is 22% less,the law says you will only pay cable benefit. that is written in.

you cannot escape that one. that is the law. >> we are into wars. -- in two wars. do not need every penny we are spending? >> i say no because we put forward a plan that does come at national defence. -- that does cut national defence. when asked what is our greatest national security problem, he will say the deficit and the debt that accumulate. why? it is no different than having a cash flow problem in any of your businesses. if you are spending their cash on these entitlement programs, there will be no money left to spend it on the military or on

education or infrastructure or a high value added research. that is what the military guys are afraid of. we spend today about $600 billion a year on in the military budget. we spent about $160 billion on top of that on these two wars. we spend about $760 billion a year on national defense. we spend more than the next 14 countries combined on national defense. you will find that one of the principles we have in our budget is be want this country to be safe and secure, but we do not believe that america can afford [inaudible] we have taken a hard look at the defense budget. we have taken it down by about $100 billion per year for the

next seven or eight years in order to reduce the deficit. did the good thing you will find our proposal is that we told you where we will take every one of those dollars from. a lot of it is painful. a lot of it you never not do. >> the extraordinary thing was and the stern. -- andy stern. dr. colbern was on our commission. they worked together on now to reduce the defense budget. conrad has been trying to get the statistics. how many contractors at the the

have? i do not know. the of something between 250,000 medium contractors. no one will miss them. they do not even know where they are. they are scattered all over the world. we are saying this is an absurd. when we started, there are some politically correct people of both parties. it is real. the first time in our history we have had a war with no tax to support debt, including the revolution, and now we have to o wars and no budget to support them specifically. >> how many military bases to many overseas?

>> we need about 1000 bases in europe and asia. it is hard to believe. we recommend closing about 1/3 of those. we as the military how many contractors we had appeared they said it does rain 1,000,010 million. -- we had, and they said it was somewhere between more and million and 10 million.

we pay about 123,000 vs 61,000. we cut research at the pentagon by about 10%. we to give back to the reagan levels of inflation. we have tough decisions you will make. we have to make choices. the asked him what he did when he ran on a money, and he said

we ran out of money and it is time to start thinking. we've got to start thinking. we cannot be all things to all people. >> the other night, the president delivered his state of the union address. i do not remember hearing the words. >> our names are not associated with anything positive. [laughter] he mentioned the deficit commission. he mentioned the commission. he made a statement that he would freeze the minimal amount. he said this is minutes ago. he will go i think in incremental steps to something there. the budget came out. the house budget will be

something. is dave camp and he's having hearings on this. and i think that -- at the end of this little exercise, i would give you a good note of optimism is how we've embedded our people in the system. and i think things can work to some positive degree. >> i want to take it back, if i can, because i think we kind of got ahead of ourselves a little bit, in talking about, you know, how we get out of this problem and whether when the president was up in the state of the union talking about these investments, he have been talking about it in

long-term fiscal responsibility. >> that is a problem that is not one we can grow our way out. you got have double digit growth for the next two decades and not solve this problem this is not a problem that we can tax our way out. you know, raising taxes doesn't do a dern thing solve that the demographics in this country have changed drastically and people my age are being recipients of these entitlement programs. and if you wanted to control this whole thing with just raising taxes, you could do it but it'd be crazy because you'd have to raise the highest marginal rate to 70%. you'd to have raise the corporate rate to 80%. you'd to have raise a cap gain and dividend rate to 50%. and who wants to start or own a business in a country that has that kind of tax structure?

nobody. so that doesn't make any sense. so we can't tax our way out and what al and i believe is as much as fiscally conservatives we are and three-quarters of the deficit reduction we recommended were cuts in spending, we don't believe you can solely cut our way out. those people that go on television and say we ought to do it all just by cutting and then you ask them well, what are you going to cut? and they go blah, blah blah. it doesn't do any can good. and people who say we want to do all on cuts but we're not going to touch medicare or social security and defense and, of course, we got to pay interest on the debt. well, if you exclude all those things then you've got to cut everything else by about 75%. that's not going to happen so what al and i tried to do was can you please with a balanced plan that was reasonable and it was based on six principles which goes to your question. the first principal was we didn't want to do anything that

disrupted a very fragile economic recovery. so you'll see in our plan we don't get back to 2008 levels of spending till 2013. i think you'll see the house republicans try to get there in 2012. but we didn't want to do anything to disrupt a very fragile economic recovery. the second thing is we wanted to protect the truly disadvantaged and that's why we did some of the things in social security that a al mentioned. third, we did want to make sure the country was safe and secure but that doesn't mean we felt you could spend what the next 14 countries, largest countries combined do. fourth, we do think as the president said that you got to invest in education and infrastructure and high value research. we actually paid for it in our budget and we believe that's important. i can tell you i spent the last six years as president of the university of north carolina. and i've seen the kind of people

that are trying to go and get the tools they need to compete successfully globally today. and the standards in the u.s. are simply not up to the global standards. in singapore this year, 44% of their eighth graders scored at the most advanced levels in math and science. in the u.s. less than 2% of our kids two and less than 34% of our kids are even proficient in reading, math, science or writing and what happens to those eighth graders in the dawor right here in texas. 58 graduate from high school. 28 come back from college and 18 of them graduate. and you think we're going to compete with those guys from china with those kind of results, i don't think so. we do have to make those investments but we have to make them in a fiscally responsible manner. fifth, what we wanted to do was reform a tax cut. that's critical. we wanted to broaden the base,

simplify the code. if it was up to al and me we would eliminate these tax expenditures and use that money to bring down those rates to 8, 14 and 23% be it the maximum rate and we'd take the corporate rate to 26% and go to a territorial system to get the cash to come back in the country and i think it's a great time to own a when i we want to cut but we want to cut spending wherever it is whether it's in the nondefense budget, in the tax code or nonentitlement investments. that's what we believe we have to do. and that's where we got to $4 trillion worth of investments. the president talked about that one part of that in his state of the union. he talked about making those investments. i wish we had heard him say those investments have to be made within the context of long-term fiscal responsibility. so if you're going to make more investments in one area and you're going to reduce spending, you dern well are going to have to reduce spending significantly

in lots of other areas. we live in a world today of limited resources and that means choices. sorry for the long answer. >> that's fine. as we sit here today -- >> very well done. >> you really rolled that one off. [laughter] >> that was spectacular. [laughter] >> i'm impressed. >> i was impressed. >> i've heard -- i hadn't that full version. [laughter] >> you had all six points there. beautifully done. >> but we worked hard at that together. >> as we sit here today, give me the odds. what are the odds that something will be done on your package of benefits? >> here's the odds. there are four u.s. senators who are on this commission who are sitting in the u.s. senate today. they were speaking, i think, erskine said yesterday it took them six hours to discuss this plan dick durbin who is a

democrat from the illinois who is the assistant majority leader of the senate, a job i did for 10 years under bob dole. he voted for this plan. to the terrible consternation of many democrats that he would do this and at the end of his beautiful remarks on the day of the vote, he said best thing to happen that day -- his son called him and said, thanks, dad. and that's again what this is all about. this isn't about gray hairs. it's about young people. your children, your grandchildren -- all the rest of it is babble. so anyway, on the floor of the senate and then you've got warner of -- a democrat from virginia, a wonderful young man and then you have sax by and they are working on this measure. a week, two weeks ago 47 u.s.

met to talk about this, just this and how to get into legislative language and how to move it. that's an inconspiracilation harry reid whenever he said you know very well he would not have ever described to allow durbin to vote for this vote for this package. if dole came to me and said arches l if that's a nice piece of bait, don't nothing else it reflects on me. harry has not been an ininstructionus to us in our personal dealing but then over in the house you've got the three arch conservatives paul ryan, dave camp and jeb henserling. he's in the third in the power structure as a republican. dave is ahead of ways and means and paul is head of budget. they didn't vote for this package. they would have given us the 14 of the 18 and we went to them and said -- i said in a delicate way surely you're not scared of

grover norquist anymore. grover believes that if you put a penny more of tax you should be strung up in the town square by your heels or flogged or maybe even flayed like mar saus. [laughter] >> which is not a good thing. and i've told that to grover. he said high hero was ronald reagan and i said so is mine. grover, ronald reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration. he said, no, i didn't like that. [laughter] >> i said i don't care whether you liked it or not. why did he do that? i don't know, he sounded very disappointed he did it for a sick reason, to make the country run. that idle thought. so -- and they said we're not frightened of grover we fear that if you get rid of all these tax expenditures, one of the big ones is employer deduction of health care premiums for employees. and they fear that the employers

will flee to obamacare. and bloat that, and that's a valid fear. we agreed. we said well, you'll to have sort that baby out. but at least they're not cowed by the pressures of the groups. they're very fiscally conservative. and they're going to do something. ryan says he's going to throw 85% of the package into the budget foundation and that will be a bombshell. we have supporters out in the world. you have to have -- compromise doesn't mean you're a wimp. you can compromise an issue without compromising yourself and feel good about yourself. so here are these guys and they're going to put together -- we have steny hoyer over there. we have the vice president who's very helpful to us. jack lew who's a great friend of

erkinse. bill daley and you don't to have like him and our executive director for ten months jeff reed is now joe biden's chief of staff. this is the way the system works. it's not a government of laws and not men and women it's a government of men and women who know the law and will try to help people understand it. that's what it is. >> i'm pretty encouraged myself along with al and the same reasons, you know, getting 47, 48 senators to meet at 8:30 in the morning on a day like this and you're not raising money, man that is -- [laughter] >> you must have something good going. and, you know, that was bipartisan group. it is led by the big 6 which are chambliss and warner and coburn and crapo and conrad and durbin. and i think goes from the right to the list and we have a chance to have this introduced in

legislative language in the senate. in the house paul ryan is as smart and as quick and as facile with the numbers as anybody i have ever worked with in the public or private sector. he has told that we can expect to see 85% of the recommendations on the spending side that we've made end up in his budget. so i'm encouraged there. dave camp again another terrific guy. head of ways and means. really fell in love if you looked at our plan what we call the zero option which was again broadening the base of a tax code, you know, sim flying the code, eliminating this $1.1 trillion worth of tax expenditures, many of which you in this room like but by doing so, we took 92% of the proceeds down to reduce tax rates and we got to the tax rates down to 8% up to $70,000, 14% up to $210,000 and 22% -- 23% was the

maximum tax rate anybody would pay and we got the corporate rate to 26%. and, you know, he really likes that. what he -- what we did is we used a trillion of the trillion one to reduce rates. and we used the other $100 billion a year to reduce the deficit. they would rather have seen it all go to reduced rates. we wanted to see some of it go to reduce the deficit. >> if you want to ask a question, there are two microphones in the back. just raise your hand so those guys can see you. let's go back to health care for a moment. while you're deliberating and while the biggest problem you have is dealing with entitlement programs, passes a health care reform bill that really basically says if health insurance costs more than, say, 9.5% of your income. you don't pay it. even though for society as a whole we're paying twice that

much. is this not another entitlement that was foisted on you while you're trying to deal with the old entitlements? >> well, i think for heaven what you do for that after and what you try to do by your public forums and this is not my first time here. i think you and i did this after 10 years. i think it's wonderful what you do but we couldn't even wrap arms around health care. this is a monster. and for me, i just take two things. i think it's wonderful to take care of people with preexisting conditions. i think that's important. but if you take a person, then begin to take care of that preexisting condition with no expense to that person at the age of 3, and they might go on to live a fruitful life, that's a tremendous expenditure. and then the insurance is all messed up. it's so complex. so unbelievably bizarre.

it's disney land. it's the wizard of oz and that we're going to save this and that. and then you have an illness or an accident or something and you just pay for it forever and all limits come off. i mean, come on! how can you do that? and this is -- this is the one gorilla that will eat everything in the cage. i really mean it. we just were puzzled but we did hit them for 4400 billion over 7 or whatever it was and then put -- couldn't exceed 1% gdp per year. i don't know any that way possible how this is going to work. and i live in the real world of cody, wyoming, where a beautiful 91-year-old lady, sharp as a tack had a heart attack. she's on medicaid. she's supported by her dear

family and in 10 days she had every test known to man and woman in cody, air flight, i think they saddled the air flight, i'll check that one. her last 10 days of life cost 350,000 bucks and that's the way it is, ladies and gentlemen. as walter cronkite would say. the huge glut of the money is going to people over 70, 80, 90. and this bill, the new -- the obamacare bill on into the stratosphere. >> what i would say on this, you know, you can't imagine how -- how raw the scab is on health care in washington. and so approaching this subject was the toughest one we had. and just personally i can tell you, you know, my mom said, i'm really proud of you. thank you for doing these things and being fiscally responsible

but don't mess with my medicare and that's how a lot of people are with a lot of things, medicare, medicaid, and the chips program consume about 6% of gdp today. just those three programs. and that doesn't even include the 267 billion you need for the doc fix or the 76 billion we call for to repeal the class act. what we tried to do was approach this from both a short term and a long term viewpoint. as al said we took $433 billion out of medicare and medicaid principally in the short term. we did cut those programs. no other way to describe it. to reduce the cost of health care. and we hope that would reduce the rate of growth in health care down to gdp plus one.

but we also said if it doesn't, and my best guess is it won't, that we're going to have to take more drastic steps and that's putting in a global cap of gdp plus one on federal -- all federal health care cost and you're going to have to look at enforcing it with things like raising the medicare retirement age, block granting medicaid to the states to give them more flexibility. you're going to have to look at a premium support plan like paul ryan has recommended which is basically a defined contribution plan as opposed to a defined benefit plan. and the democrats would also want you to look at a robust public option and all-payer plan and a single-payer plan which you're going to have to take some drastic step or health care will consume the entire budget before you know it. >> i'd just make one more comment on the health care issue and you don't really need to

work for a think tank to know this. but if you keep the medicare fees down here and everybody else's fees are going like this, these guys down here are not going to find doctors who will see them. they're not going to find hospitals. they'll take them in or if they do find them, it's not going to be the same hospital everybody else is going to. >> as i say, you're doing god's work. but, boy, i'll tell you it's just -- i'll tell you where you have to go. this was just one sentence. you're going to have to cut doctors. you're going to have to have more co-pay from patients. probably affluence testing. you're going to have hospitals that keep one set of books instead of two or three. to see how much they can get to into their reserves. that's what you do. try that one. merry christmas. >> real malpractice reform. >> i have two lawyer sons and they do love me and they love their mother but not as much. [laughter] >> because we talked about that type of reform. >> go ahead. >> oh, yes.

if we don't get unemployment down to 5% isn't that going to blow a hole in your whole plan if we have persistent high unemployment? in this country? >> look when you talk about unemployment, you got to talk about economic growth and, you know, our budget is based on "x" amount of economic growth in the future and if we don't get unemployment down then their costs are going to go up and your revenue is going to go down and that means your deficit's going to be wider. that's for sure. >> i realize you have to stay respectful of the president, but bose i heard you say when he gave you your charging orders he said do your thing, do your job and whatever you decide on, i'll back you. and obviously you did your job and i haven't heard you say -- and when we got finished the president stepped up and said what he was going to do and backed us.

what private dialog have been for the two of you on the one hand and the president on the other hand about what happened to the vacuum. what happened to the advocacy that you promised us you would give in support of our efforts? >> yeah. i think that's a fair question. i had hoped that you would see more in the state of the union dealing with fiscal responsibility. he did touch on it and he did talk about the need for tax reform. he did talk about lowering the corporate rate. and he did talk about some -- some spending reduction. i think you will see this as a process. i think you'll see more cuts in the budget that will come out on monday. i think you'll see more negotiation as this process goes forward and more cuts come out when the continuing resolution

has to be renegotiated by march 4th and then i think when this debt ceiling is going to be breached in april, then i think you'll see the two sides come together and you'll see more of where people are willing to go. this is a process and i think from the president's viewpoint, my best guess is, what he wants to see is both parties in both houses jump off a bridge at the same time he does because every one of our recommendations we've made are pretty darn controversial when looked at by themselves. and that's why al and i are in the witness protection program now. [laughter] >> i think, you know, just today he's having lunch at the white house with boehner and cantor and the other gentleman today. this is the first time many of them are in the white house. this was a stiff job that happened.

i saw it happened with other presidents except reagan. he loved to have people at the white house. it didn't matter whether they were commies or right wing -- or the right wing kukles and he loved it and that was reagan and that was because of the expanse of the man. but these are small things. again, sitting with each other at the state of the union, people say well, isn't that a bunch of goofy symbolism. let me tell you it isn't. and all during the state of the union you saw that. instead of the standing up and cheering like little kids at a kindergarten party cheering on one side, clapping the other side is sitting all sullen. and the american people are disgusted by that. so something is happening. something will happen and the debt limit in my mind will be it. and bernanke said the other day, he hoped the republicans wouldn't vote against the debt limit just to get spending cuts

but let me tell you, there's lots of democrats who will be doing the same thing including conrad. he said i'm not going to vote to extend that debt sealing unless we get real spending cuts and that's where the hair and the eyeballess lay on the floor when that comes up. >> i negotiated the balanced budget in 1997. i can tell you it's a press. we won't get there overnight but. but all the guys who are working in the white house all worked for me when i was chief of staff. and i know these guys are serious about taking us on a path of fiscal reform and responsibility. >> and let me just mention another thing. it's a shame we're in america now where you mention that joe biden is helping us and suddenly, oh, god, joe biden, that's terrible. [laughter] >> or coburn is helping us tom,

coburn, get over that. get over that. this system can't work with that kind of hostility and it's disgusting. and so i see progress on so many fronts, on a person-to-person basis. here's one for you. do not throw your dinner role. bill clinton is very helpful to us in this process. very helpful. put it in your notebook. >> very good. >> solvent americans owe you guys a great debt of thanks for your hard, unpopular work so thank you very much. [applause] >> i've read your plan pretty carefully and i've read mr. ryan's plan and i understand why they're back-loaded because everybody is scared to death of this thin little recovery we have and frankly there are some of us that kind of think it's more smoke and mirrors this anything. my area of expertise is housing finance. and the census said that 11% of

american homes were vacant and this sort of matches up with a shadow inventory of r.e.o. that's owned by banks of 7 million houses. we have 8 million american families that are over 90 days delinquent and they're currently entering foreclosure at the rate of 95%. 14% of home mortgages are delinquent in america. these are unheard of numbers. almost 20% of our houses are greater than 25% under water. so this is a fragile situation and the chances of a double-dip are going up. you guys are proposing plans and so is mr. ryan that move-in changes gradually and yet the facts on the ground is that we're on thin ice. are you guys working at all on freddie may and freddie macin getting the government out of the housing finances? >> that would be a good move.

that's what the other commission was dealing with but they crumpled in a partisan chaos, really that last commission that reported. too bad. fannie mae, i always -- i was on the floor of the senate. how can these guys be on the public stock exchange 'cause if they go broke, it won't be the shareholders that will go broke. it will be the treasury of the united states. this is stupid. they said well, that will never happen. well, merry christmas but we can't -- you can't fight stupidity. [laughter] >> you want to but you can't. a lot of these people thought they would get two or three homes and just live it up. and they didn't. and it crushed them and it's a shame. but let me tell you, greed is what made america great. i mean that in the sense the people that earned all the tons of money back in the rockefellers and the -- all of

the things, the mellons and all the carnegies -- at least when they gathered the bucks they decided to do something with it and they built a library in every county in wyoming with the carnegie library or they built this and they did this. nowadays we have people in the higher echelon that takes care of themselves first and that just irritates the american public more than you can ever know when they read that the guys that got the money gave the bonuses to a bunch of jerks who tell people, if it weren't for us, you'd really be broke. that's arrogance. it's out there and people are fed up with it. they're tired of it and that's not good. not good at all. >> short question, short answer, go ahead. >> you talked about simple identifying the tax code and even threw out a whole bunch of percentages here, there and yonder. what do you think of the fair tax and if it's a good idea and is there any chance it could be passed?

>> well, i babbled last. you could -- >> we had some people come to us and talk about the fair tax. some people came to talk about the flat tax. we wanted to keep some progressivity we wanted to keep the tax code and that's why we had three points at 8, 14, 23%. we also had a proposal to cap revenue at 21% of gdp. i think you all had one of your writers the most it will ever be is 23% of gdp. so we tried to keep the amount of money that the treasury was taking in to a manageable level and since we wanted to balance the budget that means you also have to keep spending at that level. so our proposal we felt was fairer than any other ones we looked at. it was progressive and it really did reduce rates. and we thought it was the right way to go. >> i think the thing that surprised us of this 1 trillion

100 billion in tax expenditures, that's what they're called, they have no oversight. you can't get into them because they're there. nobody touches them. and they were put in there and you don't need to touch them and just let them roll and we found that 2% -- basically 2% of the american public use them. 400 top income earners in the united states pay an average of 16% income tax. buffett was right when he said i pay less tax than my secretary. .. we were stunned to learn these things about where do these things go. average guy has never heard of any of them, expect the home mortgage interest deduction, child care and so on. i won't name things like harry potter, the name that will not be mentioned in the energy industry. i am from cody, wyoming, the heart of the greatest fields in

the country. elk basin, oregon basin. let me tell you, there are things in there that are not really needed there are 180 of them. parking employees? where did that come from. you could get rid of every one of them and -- give the little guy break on the whole industry. 12% underrefundable tax credit really does help the little guy. not $1 million in interest for two homes. we say $500,000 for one home. the one you live in. now you're taking on the national association of realtors. across the street from our office. our office had no sign. we live in a cave and two employees and a bunch of the

500,000 for the year and they came over and left. they said you really got one here. you would never get to first base. let me tell you you're going to get to second base. we never promised anything but moving the ball five yards down the field and we moved a lot more than five yards. [applause] >> last question for erskine bowles. what is the biggest problem with democrats? >> spending. biggest problem with democrats is spending. most democrats want to spend money for the entitlement programs. they want to spend money for no discretionary spending. they're afraid to cut stamps. spending is the biggest area of problems with the democrats. >> what is the biggest problem

with republicans? >> defense. somehow they think if we do anything with defense we destroy the safety of our country. that is just not true at all. >> thank you for being with us. [applause] >> up next on c-span2, from the u.s. conference of mayors we will hear from new jersey mayor cory booker and later education secretary arne duncan and then interior secretary can salazar will discuss the details of president obama's new water wildlife and conservation program. live coverage from the center for american progress at 10:00 eastern. and c-span2 a forum on global trade from the law goes, switzerland. we will hear from angela merkle

and bremen and -- british prime mr. david cameron and delicate international competitiveness and broadband technology. then a discussion on border security and u.s. immigration policy. >> the u.s. conference of mayors is meeting in washington. we will hear remarks from newark, new jersey mayor cory booker. this includes education programs and jobs. this session is 1 hour and 25 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, we want to begin. we are a little bit behind. mayor greg is on his way. i was trying to wait for him but we should probably get started. just a little bit of

housekeeping. this is being filmed by c-span and my mom what does that. so if you would please when you talk about the sheriff for something in my mom would appreciate but in all seriousness what it means is as we filmed this the only way you're going to be heard by the c-span audience is to talk into the microphone. mayors are used to yelling. i can here you are away from here. i would ask you to lean forward and speak into the microphone when you are speaking as well. and will give a few general remarks and i would like to go around and have all the mayors introduce yourselves the personal what city you are from and how much you like the new jersey giants and then we will go right into the panel discussion as well. the want to thank everybody for joining us today, for the work and opportunity. line name is cory booker and i'm the mayor of newark, new jersey

and chair of the mayor's opportunity taskforce. the task force was formed in january of 2006 to create major action oriented agenda to significantly reduce the number of americans living in poverty. this means people employed, working poor and many of those who deny have abundant texas to what is the american dream. the task force has examined workforce development, economic development, education reform, health-insurance, fender reentry issues, expansion of affordable housing and many other issues, critical steps towards creation of the antipoverty agenda. and a special thanks to let you know the we do our business. it is public/private partnership that drives so much positive change in the city. we as a group of mayors know a lot of thanks to the same ideal in america of working with

foundations and in particular i want to thank the casey foundation for sponsoring our needs here today. their partnership and continued support, making a lot of good things in our city and in powering a lot of people. in the twenty-first century this task force, i believe that america can no longer afford poverty. poverty is the underutilization of the greatest natural resource the nation has which is not our oil or coal but the greatest natural resource has always been its people. this is especially so in today's global knowledge based economy. for america to compete in a twenty-first century economy we need everyone of our members pull in our nation forward, contributing to its gdp, hoping to keep america as the most

competitive democracy in the globe but frankly we all know this is not happening. from our prisons to our unemployment ranks we have a gross waste of human potential and capability that could be used to propel our nation forward. this is not a country where we have a 0 sum game. the more people that work and more businesses are created and the more we expand educational opportunity and innovation, the greater the pie of american expense benefiting people not only within our own borders but also putting people in the hole. america must maximize the potential of all segments of the population. we can afford to lose no man or woman behind. this means we need to connect people with opportunities as they exist and we need to create new opportunities so more people can maximize their potential. today we will be discussing those opportunities and learning

from one another in so many ways that mayors in america are governmental innovation machine of this nation. every single day mayors are finding new ways of moving their cities foreword especially in the last three years under the most difficult conditions so we will be examining that today and how we can expand what we know as a knowledge base and spread from one community to another but also as we stand here in the nation's capital how we can better influence federal policy and policymakers by giving them information about what is working and what could work better and new ideas that should be brought to the table. we want to begin the meeting with introductions of mayors. often have noted the definition of politics in the dictionary comes from a latin group meaning many and bloodsucking letterman. but the truth is that is definitely not true.

remember my first trip to washington d.c. mayor wine scene from california pulled me aside. senator who said i want you to know that the hardest job in government today by far is not united states senator or congressperson or state representative but may years must every single day and night answers the urgent demands of the community in a reactive way but also proactively thinking of a better way for the american city. i am pleased to be surrounded today by who are believe are the nation's most humble heroes who every day of performing miracles. unlike to go around the table perhaps giving the panel for a moment and forgive me for stepping over him. he is bitter about the performance of the phillies this past year. hope springs eternal.

unlike to start perhaps with mayor baker if you would lead us and say your name and the city from which you handle. >> james baker from wilmington, delaware. >> bill bell from durham. north carolina. >> massachusetts and if you are watching, >> lean into the microphone, >> corridos you proud. [talking over each other] >> bill finch from connecticut. i'm not a giants fan but i am a blue fish and tiger fan. >> last time we play our minor league team against yours we won. >> i think you did but you know logger have -- >> connecticut crabs or something? >> not exactly sure. but our team is still in the league and i don't know what happened to the newer chair.

>> moving along very quickly. >> i am mayor of the city of davenport. and city administrator of davenport. as they say as our schools go so do our cities and our nation. we have great schools in ottawa but there is room for improvement and that is why we're here to figure out new ways and new innovations and ways to make our schools even greater to compete in a world and global economy. >> hi serve as mayor of the city of san marco, texas and communication foundation. by the school district superintendent. >> 9 name is harvey johnson. >> i am the mayor of sacramento california and the job work force committee for u.s. office of mayors. >> to the better basketball

player? >> by a small margin the mayor of sacramento who is on the phone trying to save the kings from going to anaheim. >> if there's any truth to the rumor that they're coming to new work someone get the law of that phone call. >> the city of alexandria virginia across the river and served as chair of the washington council of work force development committee. >> germac corley from south carolina. >> from taylor, michigan and proud to be here after spending ten years as a public schoolteacher representing taylor. >> mayor tony mack from new jersey. still the capital of the state

of new jersey. >> mayor stephanie minor from new york. >> andre pierre from north miami. >> mayor of the capital city of san juan. >> wayne smith from new jersey. your son that the extreme pleasure of being my date. >> i am mayor of fresno, calif.. >> i will hold off to introduce the panel members to my left and my right. we will be dealing with a lot of issues today and i want to reemphasize from high-level deployment deron nation to problems of poverty we have a lot of work to do. mayors around this table across carnation carmaking good things happen to dwindling resources. that should be on our mind today

as congress considers everything from summer job programs to workforce investment back to the reauthorization from the urban enterprise zones that we all know programs we have used to leverage jobs. is not just a conversation about how to bring more money to the city. that is not the only paradigm for which we make progress but a lot of innovation from our panelists addressing innovative way to start new businesses, to source new research to lunch innovation funds, new ideas how to grow businesses and attract businesses that might be leaving overseas. today we are talking about american problems. i have a conversation with a great american general called poll to said to me after a larger conversation about proliferation and terrorism and the war in iraq i asked what our

greatest threats to democracy was in the next 50 years and he said the greatest threat to our democracy in the next 50 years is our inability to educate our population and adequate or high levels. this is the truth of america that people to my left and right mentioned. real quick for our viewers at home, what many mayors know as well, only 68% of american a graders, 68% can't read at grade level. 1-third of students drop out of high school and another third are not considered college ready when they graduate and try to go to college and end up in remedial class plead for -- 2014 math, seventeenth in science and tenth in literacy. this reality is undermining and cannibalizing america's future. it is connected to all the issues we struggle with from

poverty to high joblessness, and specifically to high levels of incarceration. we talk about the cost of poverty, the cost of ignorance is immense within our nation and we know from studies like the one recently done years ago from mackenzie that just looking at high-school graduation rates they have an impact on low graduation rates in our country have an impact on american gdp in the trillions of dollars. we learned in the city of newark that our state has 60% the senseless reality. not only incarcerate 20% of the global in population in prisons but prison populations, when we release these men and when they go right back into prison. it is costing us and amend amounts of dollars in police and courts and incarceration with a loss of money. we will have a lot of frank discussion about these issues. i am very proud of the mayors we

have on the panel that discuss this issue first. i will ask everybody to hold questions until all three speakers are able to arrive are presented and we will get to questions from our fellow mayors very soon. our first speaker this morning is a philadelphia mayor, michael nutter. he is the second vice president of u.s. conference of mayors. since he took office in 2008 he has made education, public safety and jobs his top priority and has delivered and brought about significant change. he has committed the city and philadelphia school district to increasing school graduation rate by 50% in seven years and double in college payment rates in five to ten years. the office of education released a two year study that showed the mayor's office to increase

graduation students from high school and create more educated city in which all citizens have the opportunity to reach their potential and the findings of the report say that since january of 2008 the school district i school graduation rates have gone up words including a 3% increase in four year and six your graduation rates. the report shows to help students drop out of school, in new small school and innovative programs. and for coming years, focusing on increasing philadelphia's who have the opportunity to attend and complete college. to the end, opened up a philly goes to college office. is a 311, the first four city hall's when you walk in provides information and referrals to young people and adults

navigating college process. and a personal remark, i got to know michael nutter who is a mentor mayor, one of our great national leaders. >> thank you very much. i want to say that mrs. booker and mr. booker, mayor booker read what he read the way i wrote it. i greatly appreciate your working with him. he is a great mayor in our country. it is a pleasure to be on this panel and to all my fellow mayors, come here with city chief education officer lori short, director of human capital investment and from legislative affairs and community outreach we are delighted and honored to be here to talk about the most

important issue facing the united states of america. as mayor booker laid out with regards to comments by general powell and philadelphia public schools and i to you up front the mayor of philadelphia does not run the public schools but from my perspective, they are my children in the city and i have a responsibility and obligation to them and their parents so we take education very seriously in philadelphia, end face the challenge and -- financial challenge and schools do as well. federal funding for schools is going away and that presents a challenge in and of itself. the commonwealth of pennsylvania is facing a $5 billion deficit in the upcoming fiscal year.

and state funding for public schools. our school system has no funding ability of its own, and its funding primarily from the state, second from the city and small amount of funding from the federal government. we are very concerned about drastic budget changes for the district which will result in increased class size and reduced services in core programs. and they want to maintain them, to go forward. 30% more of the schools, math and reading achievement, eight years in a row. it move from one in five students achieving the level

eight years ago. and achieving grade level. and secretary duncan with regard for educational investments looking to make more investments in education. i suggest and i said before that in education should be considered part of the national defence of the united states of america. that is how we will compete in the global economy going forward. at this point we must work together to improve educational opportunities not only for young people but those young at heart. if we are to achieve economic recovery in the united states. mayor cory booker talked about doubling the college degree is in a trade. talk about philadelphia and the region. i see mayor baker next to me. in the philadelphia region, we have 101 colleges and universities in the tristate area.

we are one of the most education enriched post secondary environments anywhere in the united states of america. we want to ensure not only are young people graduating from high school but understand there is opportunity ahead of them. we tried to remove the language of k-12 from the mexican in philadelphia and talk in the context of k-16. the only way to compete in the twenty-first century is with at least 16 years of education if not more. on the local level i meet with the president of various colleges and universities every six months to discuss how we can collaborate with regard to young people not only high-school students going to college but hold on to the thousands of young people who come from across the state and country and around the world to get a fine indication in philadelphia and the philadelphia region. we discussed a variety of things. i am on a campaign to get 1,000

full tuition scholarships for graduating students from philadelphia schools regardless of what school system they come from. our colleges provide more data and not only on how many students come to school but how they are fearing once they are there. getting students in school is one thing. making sure they graduate is the goal. it is about graduation in our view. partnering with high schools to support each school student's success center the place where students can connect for information and support as they plan to enter college. also a focus on adults. the mayor's office of education is uniquely situation not for space purposes but on purpose. my office in philadelphia is in room 215 in city hall. the education office is in 115 city hall not only on the ground floor but right below my office. we put it there on purpose. we have 73,000 adults in the

workforce today who started college and didn't finish. we are encouraging our employers. we have a traditional tuition reimbursement program for our public employees in the city. we are encouraging employers to change their program from the traditional person who puts up the money and gets whenever the threshold is and then gets 70% to 80% of their money back. that is a very tough task for those facing economic challenge. we eliminated that program and now just paid directly with the colleges and universities. we want to invest in our public employees because we want them to be more educated and serve the citizens better. we are encouraging employers all across the city of philadelphia to frosted tried to do the same thing. folks who try to intervene and back in the work force we can dramatically increase college

degree attainment rate with those 73,000 going back to work. graduate philadelphia is the new program that provides free guidance and support to adults who want to complete their degrees. since the start of this organization has advised 1400 adults of how to returned to college. the majority re-entering college and stay in and roll. we established mayors returning to a partnership which provides city employees with a 25% discount for the employee, spouse and their children to go to college in philadelphia. nine colleges have signed up with us in this post secondary opportunity in college and career advancement program helping our employees develop the right skills, better prepare them for self-service opportunities or enroll in college courses across the

since the program started in 2009212 employees have completed their program and another 60 enrolled in the next course that is upcoming. for those interested in a broader array of services recreate philly goes to college. it is a web site that offers 1-stop shopping. whether you are 18, 38 or 81 you can get information about going to collagens in philadelphia. the opening in february of last year, 5200 people have come to the office and made phone calls and participated in workshops and presentations. website has been accessed 40,000 times. is clear that citizens are serious about getting educational information and upgrading their skills. last month we announced the citywide financial aid completion campaign to educate students and families about the availability of federal, state

and local funding to go to college with an emphasis on getting those forms filled out. we train 100 public employees to help families in 2009 and they receive $30 million, additional free financial aid just by filling out the form and getting it in. this year our goal is to increase the amount of free college aid available to philadelphia's by 50%. that would be an additional $38 million in free financial aid for young people to go to college so we are proud of these efforts. we have a lot of work to do. in a city with a 25% poverty rate and successively higher levels of citizens who have challenges from a literacy standpoint we believe investing in education, uplifting educational opportunities and skills for people in the city is one of the direct ways to reduce the poverty level and make philadelphia and the philadelphia region that much more competitive all across the united states and around the world.

thank you for the opportunity to talk about some of the things going on in our great city. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> i hope people have held some questions. i have written some that i have. i am very pleased and we are very privileged to have mayor vincent gray. just joined us. he is our host mayor for this conference. he is mayor of the most significant city when it comes to supporting work that other mayors are doing. he was recently elected to office and has already taken steps to fulfill his campaign promise of uniting this city and focusing energy on the creation of jobs, huge amount of development and working on a collaborative approach to school reform and restoring fiscal stability and responsibility to city government. mayor vincent gray is a native

of washington and has been an advocate for more than 30 years since he was 6 years old through his work. .. >> and build a new community service center in the city's far southeast community, talk about work against poverty. in 2004 he was elected city councilman for ward seven.

he chaired a special committee on the prevention of youth violence. he also spearheaded the pre-k expansion act with the establishment of a voluntary high quality preschool program which will provide 2,000 new classroom slots for 3 and 4-year-olds over the next six years. mr. gray has been actively seeking ways to leverage job training dollars to serve low income populations, and he has been developing a proposal to strengthen work force development. it's an honor or to introduce the major of the city -- mayor of the city of my birth, i don't know if you know that. >> i did not know that. >> it was the greatest eight weeks of my life. [laughter] it is a privilege and an honor, actually, just to tell you thank you for your service and tell you thank you for being with us. introduction, mayor

booker, and i'm sure you have some very fond memories of those eight weeks. >> yes, i do. >> i can't imagine why you left but, obviously, that's newark's gain. i'm delighted to be here with all of you and delighted to talk about efforts that we are, we are involved in here in the district of columbia. as you well know, we have some very unique challenges in the district of columbia. our budget woes are probably similar to other cities. we just went through a period where we closed the gap in fiscal year '11 of $188 million which relative to our budget, that's quite substantial. we have a $5.2 billion local budget, so that's a substantial sum of money. and we did it in a variety of ways. we now, for the first time in many years, have our work force involved in furloughs.

we have four furlough days this year, the first of which was this past monday on presidents day, and there will be three others; on emancipation day, memorial day and independence day which has a unique significance for us since we are challenged deeply in terms of having independence that everybody else in america enjoys. we did it on holidays, frankly, with intentionality, and that was to try to, on the one hand, effectuate the savings which will be about $20 million, but, also, to engage in minimal disruption of government operations. and we really, i'm really quite pleased with the support that we got from our work force, especially our organized labor that worked very closely with us recognizing that we are in a very difficult fiscal situation where we continue to be challenged. we are facing a problem next fiscal year of nearly $500

million which is a huge challenge for us given what we've already done. we have to present a budget on april 1st, i don't know that i like the symbolism of that, mayor booker, but it is what it is. [laughter] to, in terms of fiscal year '12 which begins on october 1st, and we are working now to try to determine exactly what measures we will take. it could be, obviously, and will continue to be a substantial amount of cuts, but we could be looking at trying to generate additional resources as well in order to close that gap. so i say that, also, to say that as you are in the nation's capital, i invite you, i urge you to spend every dime that you have in your pocket. [laughter] you know, come often, go out as much as you possibly can, and, you know, in the event that you think we don't take credit cards, we take credit cards, we take checks, and we'll even take

ious at this point, so feel free to spend everything. [laughter] we can use the tax revenue. i want to thank mayor nutter, also, it was a nice segway for talking about education. and i could not agree with him more in terms of the emphasis on education. as some of you may know that we've been involved in a very aggressive and substantial education reform effort here in the district of columbia which competitive work force. right now our unemployment level in the district of columbia is around 9.6, 9.7% which in and of itself is substantial, but when you start to look at the distear pays across -- disparities across the city, on the western end of the city, our unemployment is probably around 3 or 4%. but when you go further east in wards seven and eight, i live in ward seven, ward eight on the eastern end of the city, the unemployment levels are remarkably high. in the ward i live in, the

unemployment level in 19% at this stage, and we have the poverty levels that accompany that, of course, extremely high levels of participation in some of our entitlement programs like tan i have -- tanf, like medicaid, like food stamps and others. and then when you go to ward eight, it is unbelievably high. the unemployment level is over 30%, and that's just among the people who are continuing to look for employment. it probably rises another 10 or 12% if we factor in those who have essentially given up and are among the chronically unemployed. so one of our strategies is to focus, i ran on a platform of a zero, birth through 24 education effort. and we've done some things even before i became -- was elected to this position. i was sworn in on january 2nd, but i was a chair of the council for four years prior to that. and one of the things i'm most proud of is what mayor booker

mentioned in his introduction, and that is an emphasis on prekindergarten services. i happen to believe that that kind of early intervention will have a profound impact on the future readiness of our young people and then, of course, our young adults to be able to participate in the work force: we indicated in the legislation we did in 2008 that we were going to, we were going to aspire to universality in the our pre-kindergarten programs. we said we would do it by 2014 and, frankly, that effort has been so popular in the city that we actually got fully to scale with universality at the end of september of 2010. i don't know fully at this stage, but i don't believe ha there's another city -- that there's another city in america at this stage that can reach the point where they can say we have a seat for every 3 and 4-year-old, they have a seat for

every 3 and 4-year-old in one of their organized education programs. education reform actually began in 1997 in the district of columbia with the advent of charter schools, and i don't know the extent to which you have charter schools in your cities, but frankly, for us i think it's created a kind of competitive environment in education that, ultimately, will be tremendous to the benefit of our children and families. just to give you context, we now have about 74,000 children in public education in the district of columbia. but 40% of our children now are in charter schools. we have about 28,000 children in charter schools, there are 52 charter schools on 93 campuses in the district of columbia, and it is a growing area of education every day. and, frankly, one of the things that it has done is help to make our traditional public education programs far more competitive. we have seen a decline in enrollment for decades in the

district of columbia in traditional public education programs. in fact, back in the mid '60s we had 145,000 children in public, traditional public education in the district of columbia. by the end of last school year, we were down to 44,000. for the first time in the enrollment data will be released in about a week, for the first time in decades, we will actually show growth in our traditional public school enrollment. it will go up probably 2-3,000 kids when the data are finally audited and released which we think is a good sign in terms of what the -- the emphasis on education and the outcomes for our children. in terms of a birth through 24 continuum, one of the things i was involved in, also, and it's hard to believe but we had no community college in the district of columbia. virtually every jurisdiction in america has a community college. we have now created one, and in about 18 months it has been

phenomenally popular. we now have 2600 students who are enrolled in our community college on four campuses in the city. not only are they working to award two-year degrees, but it's the continuing education and work force development aspects of that that have tremendous significance and relevance for our city as well. and, frankly, it has helped us to more crisply define the mission of our state university, if you will, and that is the university of the district of columbia which has had to try to be all things to all people. it is now focused on becoming a first class four-year flagship institution, and the functions that they were performing including re-- remedial education have gone over to the community college. so we believe first and foremost that an unwavering emphasis on education is ultimately going to get us out of some of the

problems we had. for us it isn't just an absence of jobs. as a matter of fact, in some respects it is just the opposite. in the last year, we had 26,000 -- 25,000 new jobs created in the district of columbia. but the problem is that the skill sets required for those jobs are a mismatch with the skill sets that the people who don't have jobs bring. and the challenge that we have is being able to close that gap. i see our new deputy mayor for planning and economic development is here today, victor hoskins, who i am delighted he has joined the team in our administration, and he will have a principle responsibility in terms of economic development and work force initiatives here in the city. one of the, one of the foci will be on how we expand the economy in the city. essentially, we have been defined as a government town, and that is true, and that is never going to change. we are the seat of the federal government, and there are probably north of 200,000 jobs

in the federal government. one of the problems we have in this city is that 70% of the jobs are filled in the city by people who do not live in the district of columbia. and because we don't have the authority to tax income at its source, that is revenue that is generated in the city every day that walks out every day. so we're not going to get -- i mean, i'm realistic, we're not going to get the authority in the near term to be able to tax income at its source, so how do you address that? you work hard to try to increase the percentage of people who work in the city who actually occupy the jobs in the district of columbia. for example, our first responders, we have only 19 percent of our police officers who actually live in the district of columbia. they live in maryland, virginia, delaware, pennsylvania, west virginia or whatever. an even smaller percentage of our firefighters, between 12-15 percent of our firefighters actually live in the district of columbia. so as one of our work force development initiatives we are

stepping up an emphasis on academies, and a part of that will be done actually in our high schools as a part of career and technical education program so that we capture the attention of these kids while they are still in high school and, hopefully, help them develop careers as first responders. in addition to that, we are, we are leveraging, trying to leverage our relationship with the federal government. some of you may know that the biggest construction project in the near term in this nation will be the location of homeland security to the st. elizabeth hospital campus. there will be over the next six years, there will be 22,000 construction jobs that will be associated with that, and there will be 14,000 permanent jobs that will be either located or relocated to that campus. but the huge -- the opportunity that transcends that, that exceeds that, to me, is what we have in terms of addressing the problems of war date that i mentioned before where unemployment is chronically high, and it is the highest in

the district of columbia. what we are working to do is to try to integrate the development of homeland security with the community so that there are amenities, there are businesses that are developed right in the community. one of the worst things that can happen is that we wind up with an enclave where all of these people go into this campus each day, work, go out and have no relationship at all with the community. and point of fact, we have so few amenities in either of these wards that we hope to use this as a catalyst to be able to do that and then to generate quality jobs as a result of it. i like to say i live in ward seven which is right next to ward eight, and we just doubled the number of sit-down restaurants we have in ward seven from one to two. [laughter] now, around here, of course, you have three or five on the same block. so this is what we're trying to use the federal government's presence for, and that is as a catalyst for this kind of development and job creation

east of the river. we also are focusing a lot of our attention on creating new modalities of transportation. i don't know how many of you have been to portland, probably many of you have, but they have a fabulous streetcar system in portland. and we now are committed to developing a streetcar system in the city. it's going to take us to fully mature the system that we've envisioned, it's going to take 20 years, but we already are starting now. we've laid the first tracks for the first line. it will be a 37-mile system that will cost over a period of 20 years about a billion and a half dollars. but we also know from the portland experience in particular that it has a major impact on economic development. if you've billion there, you've probably been -- if you've been there, you've probably been through the pearl district which at one point was extremely challenged, as i understand it, and it is a thriving economic area at this stage with all kinds of amenities, and the streetcar is credited in substantial part with having served as a catalyst in order to

make that happen. a couple other things i'll mention and then i will stop, and that is we are working to grow tourism as an industry here which is already a substantial part of our economy, but we're also focusing a lot on green jobs. and victor has been charged with the responsibility for how we do that. we just, we just had a briefing this morning, that's why i was late, we had a council mayor breakfast this morning where we review issues of mutual interest, and we presented a contract we're about to enter into for a sustainable energy utility. and that will allow us to begin to develop an increasing number of green jobs in the city, focus on energy efficiency and bring additional companies as well as jobs to the district of columbia. there is a vermont firm that will actually get the contract, but the eight subcontractors are all district-based firms, and the idea is to work the transition over the next two years as we build capacity here in the city, to transition

responsibility for the seu over to district-based firms which will create additional jobs. we expect to be able to create somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 new green jobs over the next couple years, and i think that is at a minimum. the final thing that i'll mention is that we believe we have an opportunity that is quite unique to the city. we all know that the financial services locus has changed substantially in the last few years given the recessionary economy that we've been involved in. and we are looking to see, looking at an opportunity to create the district of columbia increasingly as a financial center. what does that mean in specific terms? you may know that the insurance industry is required to maintain extremely high levels of reserves, hundreds of millions of dollars. and many of those reserves are not -- i often ask people, what state are those reserves maintained in?

and they'll tell you connecticut, you know, all the logical answers. well, the reality is they're not in any state. they're actually in offshore locations. they're in the caymans, bermuda and other offshore locations because of the tax advantages that accrue to those companies. we are looking to try to create the same advantage in the district of columbia so that we then can become competitive to be able to attract those reserves to the district of columbia which will, one, bring companies to the district of columbia, secondly, it obviously will occupy office space in the city and, thirdly, it will create jobs that currently do not exist. so we are, we are very challenged, and we are exceptionally challenged by virtue of being 600,000 people that are substantially disenfranchised. we pay $3.6 billion in federal taxes each year, yet we have no vote in the congress, we have no senators, and we are significantly at a disadvantage by comparison to the rest of this nation. on the other hand, you know, as

we work on that we also have a responsibility to try to build different futures for our children and build a more robust work force in the city. so those are some of the efforts that we're focusing on, and will be focused on over the next four years, and i thank you again, may your booker -- mayor booker, for having me today, and i look forward to working with you around the table as we undoubtedly tackle the project -- >> the name of the restaurant that doubled the? [laughter] >> raise the stakes. [laughter] >> do they have tofu burgers for us vegetarians? [laughter] >> can we have the next mayors' meeting in west seventh? >> that's a good idea. i saw some new mayors -- not necessarily new, but they came in the room, and i want to give them a chance to identify

themselves and -- i think that's mayor cooper there? >> yes e. >> where we're being viewed by c-span. >> oh, wonderful. >> you have to speak into the microphone. lean in and tell someone watching at 2:00 in the morning to wake up. they're missing something very good. [laughter] >> good morning, good evening and good night. [laughter] no, i'm mayor joy cooper and thank you very much for moderating the session. it's good to be here and looking forward to working with everybody. >> thank you, mayor cooper. and i i think that mayor lawrence had not introduced herself. >> yes, good morning or good evening. my name is brenda lawrence, i'm the mayor of the city of southville, michigan, and i am very glad to be at the table very important issues. in this topic so thank you so much for hosting. >> thank you very much. and moving -- catch me, mayor nutter, help me out here.

>> [inaudible] >> mayor, would you, please? >> yes, mayor booker. my name is brian stratton, i'm the mayor of schenectady, new york, birthplace of general electric company where we had president obama visit last month, and we had you come, mayor, to the college about a year and a half ago to speak, and i had the opportunity to hear your fantastic presentation there. so i am delighted to be here, and good evening and good day to all the people watching on c-span. m. >> we're grateful. thank you very much. >> good morning, i'm jenny stall, major of gastonia, north carolina, home of -- [inaudible] we laid him to rest the other day, but he was famous for playing for the was senators. >> fantastic. you were too young. [laughter]

>> i wish we'd have had dimaggio and gehrig as players in washington at any point. maybe we would feel won more -- would have won more games. >> and california? you two -- introduced yourself. >> mr. chairman? >> let me make sure we recognize our great president, mayor elizabeth capps who has joined us as well. madam president, good to see you. >> yes. and i would love to pass you a microphone and give our president -- and, again, people who know government know that the james browns of american politics are american mayors, the hardest working positions in governance. and to be the leader of a body of mayors and to serve with such distinction for the last year plus, really, i don't know about the people coming after you -- [laughter] but your tenure has been extraordinary, and you've been helping us during very difficult times. and you would honor us if you gave a few words.

>> thank you, mayor booker. and thank you, first of all, to saying yes to this assignment. i can't tell you how much i appreciate your state answering the call because this is a very difficult standing committee that you're chairing, and i can't thank you enough for saying yes. so thank you, first of all. and to the mayors of america, thank you so much for being here because we're here to do some very difficult work. as you all know, this particular standing committee looks at work force and, also, looks at those people in our community who are in need. and i was really happy to hear mayor gray talk about that there are jobs available, be but the disconnect is in the skill sets. so we need to work very, very hard with our work force development folks w the

education -- with the education system to make sure that we have opportunities for our people to learn new skills. during our winter meeting, you all learned when we had our panel with ceos and mayors that the jobs that were here -- and when the paradigm shift with the the economy, those jobs are not going to come back. so there are opportunities for innovation, there are opportunities for our people to learn new skill sets. and we need to work together on all of those. as the economy changes and we see an uptick on all of this, improvements in the economy, one of the things that we all know is that the jobs still lag behind. and with the disconnect between job skills' proficiency and equipping our people, we don't have those methods in place. so, mayor booker, i look to you

and to this group to really push that agenda because it is needed. and every day all of us meet our people, and they're all looking for jobs. and so we need to find solutions for that. and the way for us to do that is not just to work with the work force development and to work with our education system, but to work with our businesses. because the thing is, it is the businesses who create jobs. they're the ones who are going to have to tell us what are the skill sets they need and then for us to work with our work force development and, also, with the education system to make sure that we have the right, um, programs in place to equip people for those jobs. the jobs are going to be there, it's the new jobs for the green economy, it's the new jobs that we need to equip people for. so i thank you all for being here. we have a heavy lift not just

with this, but for cdbg, and, mayor booker, i look to you for your leadership. thank you so much. and, mayor nutter, thank you for everything you do, you've been carrying the torch in this last year and a half, and i really appreciate that. thank you so much. and to all of you, you know, collectively when we come together, we make a big difference because we hit critical mass. and if all the mayors of america stand up, we have critical mass. >> that's fantastic. >> [inaudible] >> no, that's tremendous and well put. and the statistics are true and back up what you say. 80% of the united states population live directly in cities or in their immediate suburbs, and this group right here really does represent what i believe is, in many ways, america's heart. and life blood. and the engine, most importantly, for america's economy. so we appreciate your words. i'm very happy to pass over now to who's become a dear friend is

the mayor of hartford, pedro segera. he was sworn into office in 2010 and has put a strong emphasis on creating jobs, pursuing academic excellence in the city's school and promoting economic ability with a focus on the number one job creators in america which are small business. one of the ways is economic development for hartford through swift building project. the project will restore the swift buildings located in the city's northeast neighborhood and bring about critical investment in job opportunities for neighborhood residents. it'll also be a way to generate green technology opportunities and develop quality housing. i'm very glad that the mayor is here, and i want to say in my painful attempts to learn spanish, gracias. [speaking spanish]

>> thank you very much. >> you did very well. >> thank you very much. >> you almost speak as much spanish as myself. >> great. for those of you who don't speak spanish, i, basically, as a single mayor, i asked him to fix me up with somebody. [laughter] >> can we edit that out? >> i forgot my mom is watching. [laughter] >> [inaudible] >> hook 'em up. [laughter] >> thank you, mayor booker, and thank you, madam president, mayor kautz, mayor nutter and the rest of you. it's a privilege and honor to be here. i've only been mayor for seven months, so if i don't look like the previous mayor from hartford, you know why. i guess i was given a more narrow topic rather to describe the whole city, but i'm going to initially take a couple of

minutes to stray and try to give you a broader perspective of our city. the city of hartford is the capital city of the state of connecticut, yet it's a city of wide discrepancies and disparities. the city's capital is often thought to be the identity card for a state, but the social data from hartford is very different from the state of connecticut. our state is going through a very difficult budget time. recently, the newly-elected governor had to confront a $3.5 billion state deficit which he needed to deal with, so the new budget has a series of cuts, requests from the labor unions and, also, new taxes in order to offset that deficit. our city is a unique city. the state of connecticut is one of the most affluent states in the nation, yet the city of hartford is one of the most

economically depressed cities in the nation. we have a city in which more than half of our property is tax exempt, therefore, putting an extra burden on our citizens, our business help and residents -- businessmen and residents as we're often having to make up the margin by increasing local taxes through residential and commercial properties as the real estate tax is the only taxing entity that we have. we have no payroll tax, we have very few sources under the new governor's proposed budget, it will allow us to have a hotel tax and several other ancillary tax but those will be minimal in terms of what it will yield by way of revenue. so we have a city that compared to the state has a very low per capita income of about $13,000. median family income about 23,000, so that gives you a notion of what the median and per capita income is. with respect to the neighborhood in the which this project will

be located, it is even more dire economically. it's more depressed economically. but one of the things that we've been trying to work, i've been trying to work through my administration is, also, try to increase job development in the city by such things as inviting the school of medicine and the dental school as well as the research school of connecticut to relocate to the city of hartford. that will help us compliment opportunities in the medical technology fields and the research fields and, hopefully, grow our local economy by over $3 billion, something that should have been done when the university was first put out in a small, quaint town that neighbors nearby but really doesn't do much for a population that has very big health disparities. as the insurance capital of the world, the reinvestment is not in the city. as mayor gray indicated, often

times the reserves for insurance policy capital is found elsewhere. so we're also working on high-speed rail efforts along with congressman larson and also trying to get the governor to commit to bonding money for a bus project which would facilitate travel between our city ask the city of new britain. but moving on to the redevelopment project, one of the models i have found that works a lot better given the problems we're having in terms of federal funding, state funding and even funding at the local level is to have a collaborative approach to problem solving and, also, towards building job. most of the jobs that are being created in our city are small businesses. recently, we'll be opening up a grocery store in downtown which brings 75 jobs to that area. one of our problems has been that our downtown area is not

really a residential area. it accommodated a lot of the insurance buildings and a lot of the insurance interests but never really grew a significant downtown population, so we're working on that by way of redeveloping some properties and bringing amenities to the downtown population that are important in terms of having a vibrant city. we are also trying to leverage, as well, the arts and culture. two weeks ago we had from the city of hartford, the city where mark twain wrote some of his greatest works and harriet beecher stowe wrote a little book that started a big war, we had two plays that opened up in broadway from hartford. so that's quite an accomplishment, and it's a testament to the potential of the community as an arts community. getting to the swift hartford healthy neighborhood initiatives, and they even gave me a little powerpoint presentation here, the swift with factory building is a

building that was a gold leafing building in the city of hartford going back to the 1800s. at one point it was a place of industrial activity as were many buildings in hartford, colt firearms factory and many other great manufacturing plants. but those jobs, as you know, have pretty much have evaporated over the years, and we have been forced to look for new and creative ways that we can make use of these older buildings, most of which are coming back to life, but many of which are still vacant. this is a representation of the building. it's an old building. it's approximately 65,000 square feet of space. we are teaming up with the common ground organization which is represented here today by ms. rosanne haggerty. if you could, please, just stand

really quickly. common ground has been a very successful program in new york that has led to the creation of over 4,000 units, mostly to accommodate homeless population and populations that are in dire need of housing. and they have become partners with us along with many other partners in trying to take this building and, basically, turning it into an entrepreneurial business supplier development and also a job creation program for neighborhood residents. this particular neighborhood that i'm speaking about is located in the northeast section of the city of hartford. it is, also, more heavily impactful from a financial point of view and, also, from an education point of view. 95% of the families that live in the northeast quadrant of the city are living below poverty. 17.4% of the families are unemployed. less than 6% of this population

has a college degree, and over 42% lack a high school diploma. so you could see how economically depressed this neighborhood is and how much it would benefit from this programment what we're trying to do -- program. what we're trying to do with this particular facility is use it as a training ground and also as an economic development and also a residential potential. it's going to support local partnerships between us, the city, the private sector, universities, residents, government and also not-for-profit corporations to create a safer, healthier and more prosperous neighborhood. what we're going to do is we're going to repurpose this property which has the iconic brownfield symptoms. we're going to be leveraging or have already $600,000 from the brownfield's program from the state to the federal government in order to do environmental cleanup. we're also going to be having at that location a group of

workers. it's going to be a training ground to train our local residents from the community to do not only the remediation work, but also green retrofitting and green reconversion of the property. a local university, the university of hartford, is already working in the terms of collaborating and communicating in terms of plan design and plan work for this building. what we're trying to do is create jobs, and also use it to create health initiatives and also to promote civic engagement. what we're hoping to do is link the folks -- as i've indicated, it's a 19th century gold leaf manufacturing plant which became vacant in 2004. what we're trying to do is make it a multiphased development that's link today the local needs of the community. and by that i mean try to provide some job and residential opportunities. we're hoping that this will be a

green manufacturing center with co-location space for artists and artisans, that means have residents that can also use this as their shops, as their work spaces to create art, and we're also hoping that it's a hub for neighborhood agriculture network including a rooftop hydroponic farm. we have many restaurants that are coming to life in hartford, especially in the downtown area, and we're hopeful that we can use this place as a farming line not only to provide food for consumption by the community, but also to provide some food stuff for the restaurants, fresh organic edibles. there's also two historic homes in the area that are going to be partnering up with us so that tourist-like homes that are going to be transformed into six units of housing. and, hopefully, the people who live in the house willing also have co-ops that will be created at the facility.

these will be co-ops which will generate income for the residents. we have multiple partners, it's a collaborative effort, and that's the city of hartford, the state of connecticut common ground which has been very successful and has already done some very successful projects in the our city. one of them is an award-winning program at the hollander building at 410 asylum street. this one was also a coalition effort and has created many units of housing, most of which are affordable and market rate properties. the other, the other groups that are involved are the university of hartford, our capital work force partners is involved in that, mr. phillips was also very involved in our employment and job training efforts in the city of hartford and also a member and chairs the employment committee. also the hartford preservation alliance. one of the good things about having these projects is that

we're taking buildings and structures that are historical in nature, and we're able to preserve them. a lot of these buildings have good architectural features, and it's also worth preserving the history and the tradition of manufacturing in our capital city. the hartford system which is going to be creating agricultural programs in the city as a job creation method will also be involved as will be the knox hart foundation which has been very involved in reforesting and beautifying our city parks and also the hartford foundation for public giving which has also given seed money to this program. i think that given the scenario that we have in our city in which we have many unemployed, in which we have these incredible buildings that can house not only residential needs of our community, but also create enterprises, small enterprises that can put people to work by creating new jobs not

only in the green technology field, but also in the areas of local economic development, healthy foods and, also, create a center of learning for the community. it's an important project, and i look forward as we do have an inventory of other properties in the city that are similar to these older buildings that were using for manufacturing purposes that are now vacant, and it's going to take a collaborative effort from the private, the public and also neighborhood institutions to put them to some good, functional use that will accommodate and provide jobs for our community. >> gracias, mayor. [speaking spanish] again, more code about our discussion. laugh look, we are, we are transitioning right now. what i want with to do is, number one, there's food in the back room which is lunch, and i'm inviting people to get up at their leisure to, please, make

themselves available to do that. and also we're going to be having soon secretary duncan come in to join the conversation and make a brief presentation. but in the meantime, i'd like to get a conversation going here with our, with the mayors who have spoken and invite you all to ask questions, too, if you would like. if mayor palmer, former mayor trenton and leader of our -- will stop causing such a disruption back there. [laughter] but what i'd like to do is just, first of all, i think there's two things that are going on in our nation that we should be concerned with, and i want to put it before. they're all involved, the pressures we face with fiscal challenges. you know, right now as we see there's some danger in a lot of the federal streams that we have. there's immense conversation in our country right now about budget cutting from the federal level down to the local level. i'd like to just get to the point of that by say things like

the work force investment act which fund the bread and butter for many of us for getting training dollars is so critical in what we're doing, and we need to raise our voices as a large aggregation of mayors present and those who are not to make sure that these, ultimately, anti-poverty, economy-growing investments we're making in things like job training, in things like work force investment act programs are really, really critical. but i don't want to just focus on that. and so each and every one of you all mentioned the pressures you're facing around budgets and the challenges of cutting. and i really would like to hear from you guys some innovative thoughts that you all might have about how you're doing more with less to combat poverty, to increase educational opportunity. you know, in newark we've done some programs that haven't cost us anything. we brought all our law firms together and created our nation's first pro bono legal practices focused on liberating the potential ex-offenders

coming home so that they can deal with their administrative law problems from expunging records to actually clearing up things that stop them from getting their driver's license. we put a one-stop center for, a free tax center right in city hall that increased our getting money back in the earned income tax credit money back in our city dramatically bringing millions of dollars more into our city for low income families. so i want to turn first to mayor nutter, and i was listening very closely to a lot of the things you were doing. extraordinary. you chose city hall to create a one-stop for helping people go to college, and i'm just curious, number one, about your innovation to fine funding for this -- find funding for this because i know you're going through budget cutting. how are you, how are you finding ways to source many of these programs, and how are you finding ways to do more with less as you're reducing the size of your city hall? >> well, mayor booker, thank you. as i mentioned, our chief

education officer is with me here today, so some of the folks don't get the wrong impression, it's lori, sharon and four other staff people in this office. this is not a huge place. some of which actually are receiving, they're with us through grant funds and other support -- >> government grants or -- >> foundation. >> -- foundation grants? there. >> yeah. you know a little about foundation activities. so we've really reached out, and, again, when we talk about these partnerships whether on the government side, whether on the nonprofit and the for-profit side, we're pretty aggressive about going after grant opportunities. and i think the larger public in philadelphia does get it. i mean, they understand that we can't -- one, we can't do everything. the notion that government can solve all problems, i think the last two years has finally, hopefully for many, put that to rest.

but secondly, and i know most of the folks around this table, it's not a shy crowd, i think that being that much more aggressive with our corporate community, you know, people want us to make our city safe, pick up the trash, fill the potholes, run a rec center, all that. fine, i have that. but we can't do it by ourselves. so i think laying out not just, you know, give us money because of a handshake and a smile, but here's a program, this is what we're trying to accomplish. we need sustainability over time and, also, show what you're doing. we are reducing the size of our work force. now, everyone has had to take a different approach and, you know, a lot of folks in ore places have -- other places have had to literally lay off thousands of people from their cities. work force. i want a right size work force, but i also don't want to contribute to the problem. someone does have to pick up the trash, we get a little snow from time to time, and as much as i

love technology, we've not yet figured out a way to technologically run a recreation center and its programs. you need people and bodies to do some of this work. so we've had a lot of folks retire. well, we've not replaced them. so we've reduced the size of our work force by 1600 people, 6% of the work force, but not throwing thousands of folks out the door. we still have a 10.4% unemployment rate in the city. over on the volunteer side, katie wolfgang is a chief service officer for the city, we received a grant from the rockefeller foundation for that. her entire staff is vista folks who come through that program. and so when we hear these ideas whether it's an hr1 or others about cut this, cut that, cut the other thing, cut aher core, oh, it's just a bunch of young people -- no, four of them are in the mayor's office of civic engagement and volunteerism making sure that folks are getting opportunity to focus on

literacy issues, tutoring children, etc., etc. these are serious programs that i could never fund and in many instances would not necessarily be able to justify given some of the other changes that we've had to make. so getting foundation support, private sector support and moving a few bodies around is, quite frankly, is a little bit of the way of the future. it's the new normal that most of us are going to have to deal with. >> you're pointing to two things. one, public/private partnerships focused on creating jobs and opportunities. in newark we have a partnership with a right-leaning think tank on reentry programs. not partisan issues. and also the emphasis on volunteers. i want to get a couple more ideas but i see mayors from georgia and wisconsin that are here now, and i'd like them to introduce themselves. wisconsin as a state has been keeping such a low profile recently -- [laughter] i figured nobody knows what's going on so, mayor, we're on

c-span. you might want to just say your name and -- >> i'm the mayor of the city of milwaukee, and right now in wisconsin our democratic state senators have fled the state, so i thought i should flee too. [laughter] solidarity with them. i'll be back tonight. >> okay. thank you very much. and from the great state of georgia where my parents live -- >> wonderful. i'm robert richter from macon, georgia, and delighted to be here with you. >> thank you very much for coming. i want to pass it on to my other two mayors about specific ideas they may have under tough fiscal times to really address these issues without necessarily getting, relying on the important government grant dollars. do you want to go first? >> >> yes. we've done -- i took office on june 25th. our budget year was over june 30th, and i had a week's time to try to reconcile a multimillion

dollar deficit which i was successful in the doing it. i don't know how. we ended up with a $3 million surplus, but this year has been an incredible challenge. so one of the things we've done is tacked on to the state medical prescription program and, hopefully, that'll save us about another two million. we're trying to also see if we can tack on to the state's insurance carrier and by pooling, we will save more millions there. you know, 80% of our budget is salaries and benefits, and we're at the point that we pretty much minimize the work force to the bare bone. so it's very difficult to continue to delay and provide a minimal level of service. so we've tried to reorganize as best as we could, we've tried to partner up as best as we could with the insurance companies, with the hospitals, with other institutions in terms of providing some degree of social services. we're very fearful what can happen with cdbg because it's --

we can only tax in the city of hartford according to how we're permitted by the state, and as i said, we have very limited options of doing that. the other pressure that we have is that our pension fund pursuant to charter needs to be funded 100%. so it's a big, it's a big situation to have to have to fund at that level. what we're trying to do, what i've been is, basically, a cheerleader for the city trying to champion the city, trying to get the arts community going and helping it along, try to create a different mood in the city to complement tourism and, also, the rules to try to get some of the institutions that can help with quality of life gravitate towards the city. >> mayor gray, would you have the final word? because we're going to need to move on to secretary duncan. what are some ideas that you have that are helping to make things happen in d.c. despite the budget climate?

>> let me mention one broad area and then one much more specific. we really don't have what i would characterize as a work force development system here in the district of columbia, and we're working to build a work force development system that has our employment services department, our schools in terms of career and technical education and our new community college work much more in a collaborative spirit. because, again, for us what's happening is that jobs are going in a very substantial, to a very substantial degree to people who live outside the city. now, to some extent that's understandable because, you know, if work is available and it has to be done, people are going to look for employers -- employees, excuse me, wherever they can get them. so, one, we are building a work force development system. we are strengthening, also, something we call a first source law in the district of columbia, and that is requirements on people who contract with the district of columbia for vital

services to hire people who live in the district of columbia. and we're trying to do that, this is a new approach that we're taking. we're trying to do that in more than just a punitive fashion, by saying if you don't do x, you will be fined in the following ways. we're looking now at an incentive system that will say if you do these things, here's what you can earn additionally in order to be able to meet the requirements of the first source law. you know, it's kind of basic behavioral psychology and that is a rewards system typically works more effectively than a punishment system. secondly, we -- to go back to what mayor nutter said about the recreation centers -- we have the same problem. as a matter of fact, we have a number of recreation centers, some of which have been built in recent years. and we are really now challenged in terms of being able to staff those, the facilities, let alone what's coming online. we also have a robust with nonprofit community in the district of columbia that provides a host of services in the city.

many of them really don't have stable places to be able to hang their hat. so we are looking now at creating partnerships and, essentially, it's a quid pro quo. look, we don't have the staffing or adequate staffing to be able to operate these centers, you need a place to hang your hat, why don't you come in and work with us in be terms of actually operating programs with the recreation center. the management will continue to be done by the city, but the services would be provided by nonprofits who then come in and actually locate in the centers so that we can continue these kinds of important services to our community, but we do it without raising costs and in some instances actually reducing costs. >> those are great ideas. just, again, to summarize, we have got to find ways to do more public/private partnerships involving volunteers, selling our cities, marketing them. i love this idea of bringing nonprofits in to run public institutions. that's not privatization, that's publickization, i think. is that the word we can coin today? incredible ideas for my yours.

i know there's a lot of other mayors, i've gotten some ideas from some to help fuel things we're doing in newark, we created something with a dough fund which is a nonprofit to create a pest control business in our city because we didn't have it that's now employing ex-offenders. i hope we can consider to share ideas. my brother from i springton -- irvington, has done the right thing by going to get some food. [laughter] and he gets to hear me speak more than he wants to, so i'd like to invite people -- leadership! >> it's leadership, thank you very much. [laughter] i want to invite people to do that. a little bit of housekeeping. mayor littlefield is here, would you introduce yourself for the c-span audience, wake them up at home? >> yeah, mayor booker. it's good to see you again. we were pleased to have you in our city a few weeks ago. the unfortunate effect keep coming up to me saying all of our problems would be solved if we just had a mayor like cory

booker. [laughter] i joined the party somewhat late, but i've been here long enough to be inspired by the mayor of hart forth. as a city planner, we have watched hartford for decades as hartford has wrestled with its industrial heritage. the city of chattanooga is an old industrial city in the south which is something of an anomaly. but one thing that we have been doing that i think is a little bit creative, we've been used a lot of brownfield money to train young people and unemployed people in environmental management and finding them jobs, and we've been very successful at finding jobs for people who were previously unemployed. once they have the training and skills necessary to work with some of of the environmental problems that we old industrial cities are left with. >> so thank you, mayor. chattanooga inspired me back when i was in school, vision 2000 and what you all really did in transforming, pulling your community together, it's a great example. if there's any issue we want to pull folks around besides the important of nourishment, the

first lady says let's move, so i'm hoping we can move to get some food while we are inviting up to the head here -- point of order, i'm sorry. go ahead. >> mayor booker, i know we're trying to get folks moving, but i wanted to raise one issue in the context of our, secretary duncan coming in. as an organization i know that we focus a tremendous amount of attention, properly so is, on the issue of cdbg. just want to raise as an additional point with the secretary of education coming in, this h.r.1 that we are now facing is also looking to cut title i and individuals with disabilities' education act, wea, the work force investment act and head start programs all at the same time. we have a multi-headed fight ahead of us, and i'm certainly hopeful, and i know that he will, secretary of education is very concerned about all of

these issues as well. and these are some very, very challenging times for all of us not just on the cdbg side, but i want to make sure we have, quite frankly, enough energy and ammunition to have a multipronged strategy to deal with these very serious issues that face us. and as tom cochran, our great executive directer, likes o talk about and is our ability to be agile and mobile. on these particular issues. so thank you, mr. chairman, for that opportunity. >> more, now, from the u.s. conference of mayors in washington. coming up we'll hear from education secretary arne duncan in this one hour session. >> mayor nutter, point very, very well made. these are names and acronyms that are thrown around in often a flippant manner, but these are programs that pe