>> i will take an initial stab at it. actually, many of us did. i voted no for that bill, and i voted no for two key reasons, one, the potential defense cut excluding the wars in afghanistan. we have got to stop funding those wars. if we cannot fund our own schools in the united states -- [applause] we certainly cannot find them in afghanistan. second, if the gang of 12 does not come to an agreement, there will be cuts on medicaid doctors'. it is tough enough now to get doctors to take medicaid patients. if there is another cut, you will not be defied a doctor who will take them. that is why i voted no. >> we simply did not have the votes. and the country was at a place where we do not have a debt

ceiling, we are already not able to pay obligations that are our responsibility. even if we did pass the bill, standard and poor's passed -- lower the credit rating. many people did not understand the impact of having the rating lowered. fortunately, it was only one of the rating agencies that did that. that would affect all of the retirement pensions invested. it would affect all of the local communities, how they can borrow money to build the infrastructure that we are talking about building to put people to work. it means that you will not be able to create those jobs because the cost of doing it would be prohibitive. and it means that those people from whom our government borrows money and the people to whom we

sell bonds would not be interested in investing. >> i see you are getting ready to grab the microphone, and i would like you to make the comment, but i'm concerned about something. as we travel to detroit for cleveland for here, but it is talking of the congressional black caucus were the president, people in the committee in particular want to feel that someone is fighting for them. whether you are voting yes or no, do you believe the congressional black caucus was vocal enough in how they were voting so that the people at home knew who was fighting for them and was not? i know you can only speak for yourself. how can the congressional black caucus on these and other issues be even more vocal? even when you have to play politics, this -- so that even when you have to play politics, people at home know who was fighting for them.

>> i have been in the congress for a while. never before in all of my years have we ever had this amount of discussion, this amount of debate and division about the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling used to pass the house in maybe five minutes, maybe 10 minutes in the senate. sometimes it is one line, maybe one paragraph, one piece of paper. but it was the tea party and the people who hijack it in the republican party, they wanted to destroy this president. they made a decision to make him a one-termer. and that is what it was all about, politics. i voted against it. i could not vote for it because in the end i felt it would destroy the safety net, medicare, medicaid, social

security, and all of these things that our people depend on. my sister from california is right. we have been fighting in afghanistan for 10 years, right? >> yes. >> none of these wars -- not one of these wars were paid for. they're not even budgeted. i am going to write a letter to the president about what dr. king would say. it will take a few days, but it will be published. and i'm going to say, mr. president, the thing you need to do, and the war. [applause] bring our young men and women home and stop robbing our children and our seniors, those that have been left out and left behind. it is not right.

it is not fair. and it is not just. and the same thing we are doing abroad, it will come back to haunt us in days and years to come. if we fail to be faithful to our own beliefs, to our own principles, history will not be kind to us. and i do not think god almighty will be kind. you have to take a stand sometimes, and that is what the majority of the black caucus did. >> first of all, as i move forward from this question, one- third of the cbc voted for it. two-thirds did not vote for it. many of us felt that the president should have used the 14th amendment and use that position to stand firm against the tea party republicans and make a decision to just raise the debt ceiling. some of us went down and demonstrated on 14th and

constitution for that. but going forward, as congresswoman richardson said, this committee is not going to come up with any agreement and if they were, it is not going to be one that the cbc is going to support. we have already started talking among the men -- the executive leadership about having our own proposal for where the $1.5 trillion will come from. and we have had a cbc budget every year. this year, it would have cut more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years and still invested in education, still invest in job creation and, still invested in health care. we know we can do it and we're working hard to get that message got through any means possible. birther blogging enter facebook and we team and all of those

things -- through blogging and through facebook and tweeting and all of those things because we are not going to take a mandatory cuts across the board. [applause] >> to the question, what can we do to make it known that we are truly fighting for people, we can do exactly what we are doing right now. we have come to atlanta so that you are not -- so that you will not only here, but you can see that we will stand up. there are some fights that you must lose and that is where we are here, too sure you. and we are here to -- to show

you. and we are here to say that if we can bail out aig, if we can be allowed to the auto industry, if we can be a lot of big banks, we can bail out the people of america. that is why we are in atlanta. [applause] but we're also here to tell you something else. it is about jobs, but a lot more. it is about people who do not believe in the safety net that you have paid into. there are people that want to privatize social security, -- we stand in their way. we believe these safety net programs are not entitlements. they are investments. you pay 6.2% of your income. that is an investment for people who cannot invest on wall

street. that is for social security. .45% for medicaid. that is an investment. we want them to continue to be there. that is why we are here and we stand for you. but there is another question. the question is, where will you stand? this is a tough question for you. because we now have a group of folks that call themselves by many names, but they have hijacked the principles of the civil rights movement. and they do not just go into their neighborhoods and protest, but they come into the hood and protest. the question is, what will we do? will we allow the minority forces to speak for the majority? are we going to stand up for the

things that we believe in and are we willing to go across town, are we willing to go into other places beyond our comfort zone and stand up for the cbc, stand with the cbc, and held the cbc -- help the cbc make a difference? will we work together? that is what is going to take. [applause] >> one of the things this group of people, the tea party, is not too keen on its unions. we senate in wisconsin and ohio, florida and in michigan, and going -- we have seen it in wisconsin and ohio, florida and michigan, going after union benefits. with your strength and the numbers that you have, what can the cbc do to support unions across the country?

and there is a report that specifically wants to know what the cbc will do for the postal service. i want to direct the one to congressman richardson because you served on several committees that deal with that business. >> looking at the continuing resolution as we finish the budget year, there were numerous unions to go after. the we were able to defeat most of those. if you look at even what is going on with the faa and a number of pieces of legislation coming through, there is a movement directed at labor unions. part of it is a commitment from them to big business. part of it is their systematic

war on the working class. what the caucus does and what the caucus will continue to do is advocate for brothers and sisters that are part of the labor movement. the labor organizations represent working americans. as much as we talk about labour and about unions, we are talking about people who have to come together in order to get their fair share. those are the principles that we stand for and that is what we fight for. let me just build this in because i do not have many chances where i get to disagree with a guy whose shoulders i stand on, which is congressman john lewis when he says we are fighting three wars. we are fighting for wars. -- four wars.

we are fighting the tea party, and they are willing to have as casualties, the 14th or 1 million americans who do not have a job. -- the 14.1 million americans who do not have jobs. a part of the other question of what we talked about is what can we do? and what can you do? we can help to change the conversation. and congress -- congressman lewis is right, the discussion over the debt ceiling went on far too long. instead of talking about the debt ceiling we should have been talking about jobs. but we did not have the chance to. now we have to be sure that we are talking about jobs what we o make sure we understand what is really going on. and there is a republican majority that is sinful, and they are talking about our

financial bankruptcy, and we are talking about moral bankruptcy, because we are supposed to help those who need help. we are supposed to love our brothers and sisters, and they are forgetting that so they can win the white house. we have to make sure we do not let other people tell us what the issue is. we know what issue is. this is jobs. if anyone talks to you about anything else, you should ignore them. that is why congress man hank johnson brought us here. we need to get them back to work. that was a long answer to a short question, but all of that is what we are fighting right now, and that is a targeted war

on an 98% of the american spirit -- of the targeted were 98% of americans. >> this question spoke to why, when the democrats had control of the house and the senate, where jobs not first on the priority now there was an opportunity for democrats to push jobs then. >> i was not a member of the 111th congress. more important, the 111th congress will go down as one of the best ever. they pass health care reform. >> i want to make sure we get to as many questions as possible.

hold tight for me for a second. let me make sure i am directly getting to this question, and let me get it to someone on the congress, because i think you made a great point that you were not there, so i want to make sure this question is answered by somebody who was on that congress. >> when we were dealing with the stimulus package, the biggest question we had was whether it was going to be a jobs package with infrastructure that would create jobs and pump revenue into the you see economy or whether it was going to be -- into the economy or whether it was going to be a bailout. we have that struggle. in the house and we passed a good bill, but the senate has

some strange rules. any require 60 votes in order to end debate, and the republicans have that number of votes to block the bill from coming to the floor. they use that leverage to prevent us. the congressman was one of our key spokesman. he was in negotiations and with the president, with the senate leaders, with all of the parties putting that packaged together, and it was everything we could do to get the number of jobs earmarked based upon the need for us and our communities like , for them to be able to

get the money from the stimulus for infrastructure projects they deserve. >> can i follow up as well? the stimulus passed by one vote. it was close in the senate, but some of the obstruction did not come from republicans. you had democrats. you had a former democrat but stood in the way not just of the stimulus bill, but also in terms of the health care reform bill. that is why there is no public option, because the democrat joe lieberman blocked it. how has the caucus worked to try to influence democrats in the senate suzanne with the agenda that the president needs to be -- present on. h >> joe lieberman is no democrat. [applause]

some of us worked to make sure he did not get back in the u.s. senate. he did, and he is there as an independent, and he is able to use his power in whatever fashion he deems is in his interest, voting sometimes with republicans and sometimes with democrats. the question is why didn't we do more. we really did do a lot. if we made any mistakes, it was not be enough. -- big enough. if you are going to have a stimulus package, it cannot be the kind that goes through the regular process with response to proposals. it will never get to the communities, because the big

boys, the contractors who have all of this monday, and not rip off all of that, and they do not hire into our communities. we have to do away with the way money is disbursed. we cannot put it in the hands of some of these governors or mayors who rip it off and never give it to the community, so those are some things we have learned. meanwhile, we are always working four jobs and not -- for jobs and the creation of jobs. there were 10 of us. we literally held up the dodd- frank bill and the recovery bill in order to create some jobs. one thing we did is we created the neighborhood stimulus program. that is a program that puts

money into the cities to rehab these houses that are boarded up that are creating so much strain on police and fire and messing neighborhood and all that. we discovered much of that money did not get where it was supposed to go. you have the realtors, the contractors, painters, everybody who gets a piece of the action, and we have some cities who have not spent the money, and some of its is going to the same old bunch and never got to our people. when we created the office of women and minority inclusion in all of the offices. the occ, the treasurer-we are not even in the table -- at the table in these agencies.

we have never had agencies were african americans have played a real hard. they really do not include us, so we created these opposite, and because some of us have seniority, we were able to get on the conference committee of the dodd-frank bill, and we worked it so it is in theire. today when you went downstairs, you saw something that said the offices of women and minority inclusion. we created that. they had to have directors. we gave them six months to put that into play. they have to have staffing. they have to look at all contracts coming through so they can make a decision whether or not those contracts include diversity and turn them back, so we were constantly in many ways for job creation -- we work

constantly in many ways for job creation, but we need to do a lot more because of what happened with this economy, and we have to focus on the financial institutions, on the gangsters of wall street, on the folks who ripped us off, on the folks who came into our communities and got us to sign on the dotted line for mortgages they knew you could not afford, on exotic products. do not worry about it. this comes do with the interest rates have been quadrupled. i wanted to get them in the white house around the table and say, we are going to make it very tough on you unless you put some of the people's money back in the economy and help us create jobs, so we are always working in many ways to create

jobs. many people do not have access to opportunities. why am i talking about this political moment of maturity? first, we have to understand our power. we have to understand there is power in organizing. there is power in numbers. anyone who would suggest the civil rights days are gone, let me have you rethink that. if you show up at any day in america at noon and throw a ring around -- at any bank in america at noon and through a ring around its and say there is going to be a run, they will fix

it. we are not doing our jobs to exercise our power. the tea party discovered something. they discovered if they organize, if they talk loud enough, if they threaten, is a registered to vote and a lack a few people -- if they register to vote and elect a few people, they could take over the congress of the united states. they called our bluff, and we blinked. we should have said, you got this country to close down, and if it had closed down in one day, the reversal would have taken place just as it did when bill clinton challenged them, and they close down the country, and the people rose up and were glad to get in and get it going again, and that is what we should have done, but you cannot be intimidated. you have got to look the tea party and i and take them on.

the people want us to fight. they want us to be strong, and they want us to not only create these jobs. they want something massive, something that is going to make a tremendous difference, and i think we are at that point where we have learned, we have worked, we have taken a enough where we are going to be insistent that what comes out in september is going to reflect the experiences we have had. >> you are talking about jobs in general and the african american community, but what about -- in the african-american community, but what about specialized areas? we have people who deal with specialized segments of the community who are having a hard time finding jobs. one is people over 55. i know this job fair dealt with giving advice to people over 55.

the second is people who have been out of work a long time. there are studies showing people who are jobless are less likely to get a job, and the third would be people with felonies on their record. what is the cost to specifically include items that deal with those specific items in any job? i am going to go back to senator richmond furs. >> the thing i was going to say on the last one is congress did pass the small business jobs bill last year, which yesterday i had the chance to announce $37 million going to small banks to lend to small businesses, because they employ 60% of new jobs in this country. there is 100 million jobs hitting the streets, but when

you talk about specific segments, that is something the caucus would like to talk about. we have to make sure we identify and we push to help very fragile communities, communities of color. when you talk about second chance, the congress started the second chance program, and we have to make sure when we talk about a second offenders, there are two things we have to do. one, we have to change the community mindset about when they come home. if you continue to isolate them, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, so we have to make sure we bring them home to a nurturing environment that will give them a second chance, so that is why the second chance act was important, and if you

are talking about seniors and communities of color, that is the conversation we are pushing to have. we want to make sure if we are going to have targets and special cases for the gay community, the hispanic community, but we also talk about ex-offenders. we are also talking about african american males dropping out of high school almost at 50%. we want to make sure we have targeted conversation. that is what we are pushing for, and that is the passion you are getting from us, because we know there are certain issues that are so important it is going to take a singular focus on that issue to fix, so i hope that answers your question about ex- offenders and second chance act. maybe somebody else can talk more about targeting our seniors, but we would like to target special populations.

>> there is another segment many of you have forgotten about, and that is the hundreds of thousands of veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan. if you go down to a downtown atlanta writes now on piedmont, you will see people on the streets homeless. statistics show as 9% or 10% of those are veterans. it could be higher, so we have an obligation to those veterans who have come back with ptsd, who come back with behavioral problems, who end up homeless and jobless, and of course one of those efforts that millions of members of the congressional black caucus also congress has

embraced is the hiring heroes act, which was sponsored by the -- in the senate by senator murray and me in the house, which really gives new meaning to rehab and job training and job opportunities for veterans, a special effort to give extended transitional assistance to our veterans so they will not end up homeless and jobless, and it provides incentives for employers, extra training for veterans. it provides extended unemployment for their veterans, but it gives more and brings together all of the existing training programs under one bill with an additional resources. i think that bill will probably become law, but that is a

targeted population that has suffered tremendously because of the unfunded wars, but who have paid the price that was necessary for our freedom and security in this country, and we owe them that, and that segment i believe will be addressed in the hiring humans act. >> -- hiring heroes act. >> one is infringements -- of movement that says to employers, and when someone comes in for a job, do not start out with, have you ever -- you have been convicted, but rather, let's take a look of this person. who is this person? what experience do they have? to get a chance to see the whole

person before you get to the question of whether or not you have been convicted, and we believe that gives you a better chance of getting that job. this is a difficult question for african americans in america because of the huge numbers of formerly convicted and so-called fallen as we have, and we really do have to make sure we provide some tax incentives, and there are some where they do some tax incentives for employers to hire people, and i understand some states are doing bonding where you take a chance on the former elaine incarcerated, you can get of bonds to protect you -- on the formerly incarcerated, you can get a bond to protect you. for women over 50, the justice department needs to enforce discrimination laws. they need to make sure they know

what is going on in society and that women and men have a place to go and that there is an effort of forward to learn what is happening in this workplace, why women over 50 are losing their jobs and being replaced with younger people they pay less money to and they do not have to pay benefits for, and why even for those who have been on the job until the point where the pension is due, they are getting fired. we need the justice department to weigh in on this. >> i just want to say since we are in hank johnson cost district, part of the question is about the unemployed being discriminated against. hank did not file a bill that would amend title 7 when -- did file a bill that would amend title seven that already prevents discrimination based on race, sex, sexual orientation,

and it would adnah status to that. that is something that is long overdue, and it will fight discriminatory practice. >> one other segments we should not lose sight of is young adults, and we have heard a lot about the unemployment rate being 9% in the nation and 15% with african-americans. with our young adults, like unemployment is 23%. black and african-american is 39.2%. hispanic and latinos is 32%. now after our young people have gone to school, gotten their degree, they cannot get a job. they are competing with people already in the workforce, and what happens when they find themselves unemployed for five years? it may be impossible for them to ever catch up, so that is

another thing we should keep in mind. >> thank you all for those recommendations, but i think another sector as we go to the next question is young people, whether we are talking about a summer jobs funding being cut all over the country and juxtapose that to pour education systems that are not preparing young people to go into opportunities. there has been so much discussion of young people being connected to a lack of opportunity, so with that, there have been several questions asked about training, preparation, and opportunity, and those are different areas. what is congress doing, and where are the opportunities? as we are shifting in the economy, those who may have been part of the skilled labour force partars ago are no longer

of the emerging labour force. as what to do whether it is young people or in the general marketplace. >> i will start and yield to my colleagues. we are and have been for some time advocating job training for young people, job training for those who have been displaced, and also job training for persons who find themselves without a job because they have worked hard, done a good job, but they find themselves seeing their jobs go overseas to other places. a lot of jobs we used to have in manufacturing we do not have any

more, and we have to find a way to make sure we do not continue to incentivize relocating jobs from this country to other places. i want to take a moment and go back to something that was said earlier, and i want to say this to you. notwithstanding anything that has been said, president obama has been not just a good president -- he really has been a great president. he has been a great president. [applause] what we called a stimulus was not really a stimulus. it was a stabilization. this economy was losing 600 plus -- 600,000 jobs a month. this president turned that

around, and we have been creating jobs, more than 2 million. maybe not enough. we would like to do more, but thank god he did what he did to save this country. he has not save the world, but he did save the auto industry. he did not save the world, but he did save the financial structure of the country we all depend on. he has not save the world, but he has made it possible for those who do not have jobs to have unemployment insurance, and he has been fighting to keep that unemployment insurance in the pockets of people, so we all understand we have jobs to do, and we have to be vocal about things that impact our communities, but make no mistake about it. this president has done a great job, and this president, when

you look at what we are confronting, and we must reelect president rob obama. -- president barack obama. [applause] here is something to consider. if we do not reelect him, there are people who have already said in written as well as spoken words that they will do away with the department of education. they are going to eliminate it. they have said they will do away with minimum wage laws. there will be no minimum wage laws. they have said they will do away with early childhood development programs. they have said they will privatize social security. they have said they will voucher medicare, so we have a challenge that goes beyond jobs. we have got to put this

president back in the white house to protect the gains we have made. >> thank you very much. do you have a comment spam of >> i just want to say to you and to the audience that are raising questions. it is not just the president. it is not just members of the congressional black caucus. one of our problems in america right now, and we are too quiet. we have to make some noise. during another time in our history, we did not wait for the president to act, and the power of some movement is to get people to say, yes, and they may

have a desire to say no. we have to create a power. lyndon johnson said in 1960, the first time after martin luther king, jr., received a peace prize, dr. king went with a group of us, and we met with president lyndon johnson, and he said common-law -- and he says, you need to sign it. he said, make me. that is what we did. you need to get out there and push and pull. as in the congress, we have three major trade bills that are

pending, and people want it. they call every single day trying to get the votes from the ways and means committee. i say, no way. it means the transfer of jobs here, and the other side of congress, they do not have the will to vote for the trade adjustment act, and it is ok. if you lose your job, we are not going to help you. we are not going to make money available for training. we cannot stand for that. you need to help us fight. we never had a web site.

we never heard of the internet. we did not have a facebook. we did not have done ipad. we did not even have a fax machine, but we use what we had, and you have got to use what you have. do not be quiet. stand up. speak out. do it. >> we are coming very close to the and spirit of we are in our last 15 minutes, so we are going -- we are coming very close to the end. we are in our last 15 minutes, so we are going to have questions. i think the big issue is with companies emerging and becoming global, the skill set within a lot of african american communities is not adequate to meet the challenges of finding jobs, when you are competing with people in india and china who are going to school year round and getting the education

which in some black communities they are not. given the fact you have high dropout rates in many communities, low graduation rates, and a lot of america and -- a lot of african-americans are not prepared. what marching orders are they giving to protect and restore education funding, because even before you can get a job, you have to be qualified? what marching orders are they giving to protect education? what advice is he being given? what do you want to see out of that committee, if you think anything can? >> how do we answer this question? the education question is a bit complicated. you are absolutely right. the dropout rates are too high, and the investment in education in this country is not substantial for a country of this size and these resources.

we have got to make up our minds about whether we want public education and whether we are going to support it, or we are going to keep giving away our schools and these so-called charter schools into different interests, and we are all over the place on this. some directions are coming from washington, starting with leave no child behind. it is a mess of policy, -- a messed up policy, and what bothers me is a lack of involvement on local level where communities do not involve themselves in education. that is what bothers me. that is where the education policy is set. from the federal government level, we do title one and subsidize education, but we should not end cannot be making

the rules for how all of these communities operate. that is what the boards of education are about, but you do not see us at the board meetings anymore. they do not even ask parents. there is no parent involvement, and they did not want parent involvement, and if you come from a city like los angeles, they are giving away the schools to corporations and all these different people, and there is no indication or substantiation of the fact that they are doing better than public schools are doing. we need to pay the teachers. we need to put money in training and development of our teachers. we need to give support to foster parents sending these kids to school and managing large numbers of kids in one setting. there is a lot we need to do. am i giving any direction to

education? i am not. not because i do not want to solve the problems of education. the problems in education are huge, and when parents and communities decide that they really want to educate the kids, that they really want to stop the drop out, that they really want to have strong education systems, that is what is going to change this mess around. i fight against post-secondary schools who try to rip us off, the schools for computer learning that have no computers. i fight against those who track our people and tell them they can get a diploma and two and a half days. i fight against secondary schools and that a rip-off all of this government's pell grants money, and people come out of

the training program with nothing, so i have center in my action on trying to get croakoks out of education. i hope somebody on our panel is dealing with k through 12 -- k- 12. i am trying to get an office in the president's office for the excellence in education for african americans. there is one for latinos. we do not have one for african- americans. i am fighting for it. i always do something people do not want me to do. >> i want to make sure we get at least two more questions in before we have to close, and we have only 10 minutes. this question is from bill. he said earlier this year president obama talk about the importance of wireless networks to our country, particularly

because of the ability to create a new electronic development an entrepreneurial opportunities. how can we ensure this technology gets out to americans and talk to them about how it affects and jobs? anyone? congressman bishop? >> that was a substantial portion of the stimulus and will let was dedicated to -- stimulus bill that was dedicated to creating the infrastructure for technology networks, particularly for underserved areas-urban areas that were under served as well as rural areas. it was a tough fight, because the department of commerce wanted to control the whole thing, but we have at least 40% of this country that israel, and

it is not economically rewarding -- that is cruel -- rural, and it is not economically rewarding to invest in internet in those areas, so the stimulus and was designed, and thanks to the efforts of the congressman who was our person on the inside, he made sure that at least a substantial portion was allocated to us for rural communities and underserved areas. both contracts are in the process of being implemented not so that, for example, here in the state of georgia, and an 98% by the end of this year should be covered by internet access. that will help our young people who are in rural areas who need to have advanced placement

courses in their local school boards and cannot afford it, to be able to get distance learning through the internet. those communities that have underserved health-care facilities, to be able to get the internet so they can be connected to the hospital so that all of this, as well as small businesses. in my rural district, there is of great manufacturer who has been able to quadruple his business once he was able to get on the internet, so instead of selling his fish bait just in the counties around his southwest georgia location, he is now selling across the world to all of the bait shops where

they have the fishing as a vocation. >> speaking of internet, i neglected to give a shout out to those of you watching this. this is being streams, so we want to give a shout out to those watching via the internet. this is going to be our final question. martin would like to know what can be done by congress about companies that intentionally drive down wages, including nine by not buying american made products, -- including by not buying american-made products. outsourcing is a big problem. of what can be done if anything? >> we can remove the tax incentives they are currently using. if they are not going to bring jobs to the united states and they want to continue to ship jobs overseas, they should not have the tax incentives. the last thing i would like to say, the president's initial

plan for his jobs bill is infrastructure investments, patent reform, free trade agreements. i would suggest he started to do companies mondey things and incentivize them to do things for people who are on the employed. >> i need your assistance. there are seven more of you, and i am probably insane for asking this. if you can do this within one minute each as your colleague has set a precedent for, we can allow recommendations. i think there were two questions. one that said you are officially unleashed for atlanta, but what she followed up to say was how do we support you and the president in what it

is to be done, so i would like you to enter one of two things how can people in this room become advocates and be engaged in actions to be a will to support the congressional black caucus of local -- to be able to support congressional black caucus and local officials beyond voting? or no. 2, what are things get local community members can do to help better prepare people in their family to be ready for a job? one of two recommendations. what do you recommend folks do to help support you and the president? no. 2, on what can they do to assist you or a family member be better prepared for a job?

>> aside from being a legislator, i am an organizer. i believe in organizing. our communities need to be organized. start something, get people together. gets smart. educate yourself about how to challenge the elected officials, how to make things happen. the prepared -- be prepared. show up. you will get things done if you do that. >> less than a minute. why don't we start with congressman louis and work our way down? >> thank you very much. i want to use part of my minutes to recognize a young lady i have started working with as an organizer many years ago when she was only a teenybopper.

she was born and bred in virginia, and she came into the deep south and organized and got arrested and went to jail and did a lot of other things, and now she is a state senator here in georgia. i would say, and what you can do is stay engaged. get organized. help mobilize those that need to be mobilized. stay in contact with local, state, and federal officials. do not close go out and elect someone. when we have no telephone and electronic town hall meetings, you can use the new with -- when we have telephone and electronic

town hall meetings, you can use technology. he is in power. use it for good. thank you very much. >> we need to utilize every network we have. all of us have multiple networks. we got family. we have churches. we have fraternities, sororities. we need to utilize all of that. we need to tweet. we need to facebook. when we were dealing with the debt ceiling, the switchboard, and the service at the united states capitol was shut down. two or three days a crash because so many people were sending e-mail messages expressing themselves on the issues.

we do not want our social security checks cut off. we do not want our medicare cuts. we do not want our medicaid stopped. it was an amazing demonstration of the power of what people do when they are on message and on point and they are engaged. let's be engaged. >> we need to support teachers. we need to stand up for teachers. teachers did not create credit default swaps. they did not create derivatives. they did not create the reason we are in this condition, and we ought not to be we have got to protect teachers. there are 12 people who are going to make a decision in your lives. state street is about to spend $100 billion on 12 people. where y