Skip to main content

tv   Today in Washington  CSPAN  September 2, 2011 6:00am-9:00am EDT

6:00 am
6:01 am
6:02 am
6:03 am
6:04 am
6:05 am
6:06 am
6:07 am
6:08 am
6:09 am
6:10 am
6:11 am
6:12 am
6:13 am
6:14 am
6:15 am
6:16 am
6:17 am
6:18 am
6:19 am
6:20 am
6:21 am
6:22 am
6:23 am
6:24 am
6:25 am
6:26 am
6:27 am
6:28 am
6:29 am
6:30 am
6:31 am
6:32 am
6:33 am
6:34 am
6:35 am
6:36 am
6:37 am
6:38 am
6:39 am
6:40 am
6:41 am
6:42 am
6:43 am
6:44 am
6:45 am
6:46 am
6:47 am
6:48 am
6:49 am
6:50 am
6:51 am
6:52 am
6:53 am
6:54 am
6:55 am
6:56 am
6:57 am
6:58 am
so it sounded like me. but that was a mistake. i said we shouldn't have done that. did didn't see it before it went out. i am patient. this is a long period of time. there are ten more debates
6:59 am
scheduled. 9 need to make one or two. i don't need ten. you know how high perform. led don't need ten. i will ask where they got their money. i will ask how many superpacts they made and how many million dollar checks. i am going to ask them if they spend as much time growing jobs as they have raising tax money. i will ask about the money. not one question about the money in these so-called debates. i will turn the questions on jobs to a debate on free trade versus fair trade. i stand with fair trade and i am going to ask each of them to tell me where they have been. >> you mentioned you were a successful businessman and a governor. you advantages> some. as just a businessman.
7:00 am
shouldn't you expect yourself to be in those numbers to make that debate? >> here is my problem. if you look back 20 years i am proud of my record. when i was elected governor of louisiana are was 6 ft. 3 with light brown hair and smile lot. ibm a guy who spent $50 million against me. i spent 1-1/four million. louisiana had the highest unemployment rate in america. it was greater than 12%. at one point it was twelve.8%. our teachers were paid worse than america. our students have the worst test scores in america. of bond rating was worse than any state plus glom. we had the most toxic and and water each missions of any state in america. four years later all of that had changed. we had our bond rating up five times. mr obama had a downgrade once.
7:01 am
we have an upgrade five times. i like our record but remember, that was 20 years ago and politics is legitimately what have you done for me lately? don't i know you from somewhere somebody asked me at the airport? didn't you used to be newt gingrich? no. my problem i don't think is what i believe and my passion or might debating ability. my problem is i am not known. it is easy to put me aside. that is what i called myself a crotchety old man. it is easy to have the new face with no experience than jim herman old face with a lot of experience. i have tried to excite my age
7:02 am
and experience by talking about things others don't talk about and i think i will be on the debate. i don't think the other opponents will be. but i think i will make the debate. and won't make the next one on october 7th. i would love to be there. i was invited regionally. or originally it was in southern california and i was invited and we accepted. and then they came out a couple weeks ago with new standards of higher name recognition and i don't quite meet those standards. i am working in new hampshire with limited money. i paid all my bills with money in the bank. last week was our greatest fund-raising week. i raised enough money last week to buy one ticket to a obama fund-raiser. $35,600. one ticket. you want to know what the
7:03 am
difference is in this campaign? one ticket. we are just starting. announced four weeks ago we are beginning to rise also we are at low levels and i told my campaign manager don't worry. they will be asking us to be on it. before july. >> you haven't used your plans outside of louisiana and spend most of your time. >> good question. i know you from somewhere. i am joking. she was the first reporter starting this track. i miss out carolina. that don't have an accent there. when i get up in new hampshire i was in conway yesterday which is south of canada. it was an editorial room. the editor was there.
7:04 am
i introduced myself and said i am from southern new hampshire. they get my joke. i spent the bulk of my time in new hampshire but i am here today. i wanted to announce in front of the chinese embassy people choose where to make their jobs. it is typical the president will speak before congress. that is a mistake. governor huntsson made his in new hampshire. governor robby will make is in nevada. i am a line where the problem is. the problem is not in nevada. the problem is not in new hampshire. the problem is not in the congress. the problem is in the bear dance. that is why we are here. all i am suggesting, everybody knows it is a problem. i am just saying i'm going to do something about it and i give
7:05 am
you three specific actions. first week, first year. i promise you. did i ask you up? >> you asked my question but how do you feel about having to qualify? >> you have to have some rules. it is the tv world. i am born in 1943. my parents got their first tv set when i come back from college in 1964. i am an old guy. i am healthy. i love life. i can lead. that experience can be useful but i am not a television kid. television runs politics. here's my problem is the candidate. i can to get on television. i get on the business shows. i won't mention neil's name.
7:06 am
they worked me. i am a banker. i know this business. , have not yet earned the right to get on the national shows. i was not on the show when i was building banks. i didn't take television phone calls. that wasn't in my best interest building a bank. now i am paying a price for that. i am having to reintroduce myself. i am having to beg. i have to be available. what gives me peace is me and you talking. if i like my opponents but they're not talking about the issues i like it. i have a free rein. there is no competition. anybody ever read a book called blue ocean strategy? are recommended. it is ten years old. it is the best book on business ever written. it is called blue ocean
7:07 am
strategy. there are two oceans. read ocean where there's blood in the water. that is these other campaigns. how much money do you have? how big is your pat? who cares? i am a blue ocean. no competition. nobody is talking about no pact. nobody is talking about it. all they will mention is china. . they won't go into details. my campaign staff is anxious. it is too early. there's no hurry. you can't pick a winner. we are going to make a winner. we are doing it in new hampshire. and back to you we are going to go to south carolina. we will be in floor of the week after next. i will try to move around.
7:08 am
i got to -- anybody else? thanks for putting up with me. >> mike gray and with cnn. it does seem you are trying to get trade protection. >> against unfair trade. it is kind of like chocolate cake. one piece the doctors said would increase your life, your pleasure, your enjoyment but eight pieces? that is what trade is like. i am a competitor. my bank travels the world growing american jobs, help american companies sell their product. we grow american jobs. i am proud of that. i am for trade but unfair trade is unforgivable and to let it continue for 30 or 40 years is a crime. it is a moral crime.
7:09 am
and what the bill clintons of the world and the george w. bushes and barack obamas, the free traders, i want them to come with me and visit families across america who are hurting not from free-trade, not from fair trade but from unfair trade. it is not right. it is not fair. we withstand for it. if we tolerate it in july at shame on us. no more questions. i am kidding. >> our in the world would you get a platform through congress that seems to be weaned on free trade. >> funny how life started with the money. first thing you heard about the was a $100 limit.
7:10 am
guide that everybody in the newsroom will last. buddy roemer is not serious. yes i am. i will have more money than john mccain or mitt romney had four years ago. watch me. i am not opposed to money and politics. if i get it i will spend on your station and on others. what i am opposed to it comes in the dark. it comes with special interest attached. it comes in a pack. we have superpacks independent of a candidate. do you believe they're independent? of course you don't. they are run by the chief of staff and a former campaign manager of the candidate. one went to a fund-raiser for the superpact. they are independent. osborn, just yacht--not yesterday.
7:11 am
the system is corrupt. unfair trade growth is not the only symbol of a corrupt system. a tax code that you cannot read, >> budget that was imploded with earmarks, there was no supervision. the battle is against federal spending. that is the battle to be won and we need the government to be strong where we need a government to help people on the bottom to defend our shores, prevent unfair trade, protect america. i am not against government. i am against sloppy, bloated, inefficient government. these are the battles that have to be won. but i believe at the age of 67, 45 years of political experience, that the money is in
7:12 am
control. that the special checks and the winks and nods ron washington. i have two pieces of evidence. i am a banker and i watch bank reform last year that didn't kill too big to fail. it is still the law. i watch the bank reform that didn't institute glass-steagall and it should be done. it is still dead. i watch the bank reform that didn't require the megabanks to increase their capital as their size went up. it is not in the law. i know two weeks after the bill passed where the president of the united states was. he is a lawyer, not a baker. i don't hold him to banking standards. i know where he was two weeks after the bill passed. he was on wall street at a fund-raiser hosted by goldman sachs who are considered a firm that lied and stole and cheated
7:13 am
and not one person went to jail except for homeowners under water from their bad mortgages. he went to wall street and accepted tickets to his fund-raiser at $35,000 a ticket. this system is corrupt and i don't just hold president obama to a standard of moral high ground. i told them all and i challenge any person running for president at this late date, join with me. fight for american jobs and don't take the big money. you could be president of the united states. looking at this deal is the only way they will become president. thank you all. i got to quit doing this. >> he is a partisan guy who wants to unite people. all of the problems of the era
7:14 am
is from this guy. why we couldn't elect him is the same reason we eventually went to war. they could be resolved. >> he had the misfortune of running against a great military hero, dwight eisenhower. i don't really think there's any way at last season's and could have won. >> think of our smith in 1928 or her bird hoover -- herbert hoover. the way for franklin roosevelt. 14 people in this series many of whom who viewers may never have heard of and all of them my can guarantee they will find interesting and fascinating and surprising. >> clear politics editor, wrote and and and presidential
7:15 am
historian richard norton smith talk about the 14 men who ran for president and lost tonight at 8:00 eastern and pacific. preview for the contenders. 14 week series on c-span beginning friday, september 9th. this weekend a three day holiday weekend on booktv on c-span2 from katrina's secrets. former new orleans mayor ray nagin's account of the storm. afterwards harvard law professor randall kennedy looked at the influence of racial politics on the first african-american president and lives under a three hours in depth. editor and columnist for newsweek magazine ellis notes on race and the media. look for the schedule at booktv.org and signed up for booktv alerts, weekend schedule in your in box. >> c-span is covering town halls around the country as members of congress talk to their
7:16 am
constituents during recess. next we take you to los angeles where democratic congressman xavier becerra talked to constituents about the economy, deficit and congressional agenda. the congressman is a member of the deficit reduction committee. the 12 member bipartisan panel set up this $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts. this is an hour and 15 minutes. as much time as possible for folks to ask qu >> i want peesople to ask questions or make comments. i will go through the mechanical stuff usually go through. many of you have been to my town hall before so you will be bored but it is good for those who are new to hear it who have seen and heard it as before. since i am not always here i have to be in d.c. bit. it helps for you to know who my staff members are and to know the process of the way it works.
7:17 am
can i ask someone from staff to grab my jacket? okay. we first and always begin by thanking our hosts who make it possible for us to be here and it is a treat to be here at this particular school. it is a cluster of schools. everyone remembers it. this is where the ambassador hotel used to be which is now a landmark as a result of -- we have been here a long time but many of us remember bobby kennedy was assassinated at the ambassador hotel. is great that so many kids have an opportunity to learn history. we will take to the new open world academy. thank you very much for hosting us and we want to say to the principle, georgia lasso right
7:18 am
over here, thank you for letting us use this school and this facility. [applause] i always try to make sure aiken get the name. are don't know if i have it. after we leave she has to make sure this facility is ready for school. that means folks will be working after we had done cleaning up and to all of the facility managers and his staff we say thank you very much for being available after-hours to be able to clean this room and have it ready for the kids tomorrow. also try to introduce -- [applause] always introduce my staff because they're the first deck of contact. when you can see xavier becerra the member of congress you know my staff members and hopefully you can start the process of seeking my assistance for my
7:19 am
service as quickly as possible. let me go down the list. i want to begin by mentioning minefield staff. where is yuvi? and brenda to my right, who is on staff, she used to serve on staff and went back to school and now is working with us while she is finishing her master's degree. she is working and going to school which you see a lot more these days. by district director, liz, is upside. she will be walking in. we have a lot of folks outside. gail greenberg is outside. she is my constituent out reach supervisor and my district director, the boss here locally.
7:20 am
right here to my right, deputy press secretary and in charge of website. if you ever look at my website, mike nielsen is my key works supervisor and scheduler right here. michael is very important if you have a particular issue you need to address. my staff assistant does case work, right here outside. amy lopez is one of are in turn the. student at the university of pennsylvania. she is here with us so i tell folks you -- she is here for free. she is working for free. we don't have to worry about a taxpayer dollars. [applause] ortiz to the left is my translator. people wish they had translated services. let me introduce some of the folks from the los angeles police department. the lapd is gracious to attend
7:21 am
these forums that i do. they answer questions i can't answer directly because if you have a question relating to public safety idea with federal issues. not a lot of city issues. if you have a concern about safety in your neighborhood where drug dealing and, i wouldn't answer as well as someone with the lapd. they are here to make sure we have a good time with this particular town hall. let me introduce the folks who are here from the lapd. sergeant aspasia? he is here. we have senior lead officer to live far right, mr. james john, senior lead officer for the area and several officers you will see as well for without the
7:22 am
evening. sometimes we have representatives from other elected offices. u.s. question related to the federal government i am the god who should be answering it. a city issue or county issue or school district issues sometimes others can answer more directly because it is in their jurisdiction. i begin with keynote speaker john bettis. if we have any state issues hopefully he will be available to answer them for us. but typically proceed to give you a glimpse of what is going on in washington d.c.. we have a big crowd. we only have an hour. unlike to just reduce the amount of time i take to what is going on in d.c. to leave as much time as possible for q&a or any comments you might have. as we move into this session, let's here from as many of you as possible and i guarantee you we don't have enough time to
7:23 am
address all questions you might have or the comments you might want to make. we will run out of time. we typically ask you to write your name on a piece of paper. i will randomly draw names so there's no kicking or choosing who gets to ask or not ask and we will take those questions. as much time as we have hopefully you have given us your paper with your name on it. we will get to as many as possible but we won't get through all of these this evening. we will go through as quickly as possible. perhaps the reason you are here is your heard i was recently appointed to serve on this deficit reduction committee, supercommittee because of 530 members in congress, 435 in the house and 100 senators. twelve of us have been appointed to this committee which has a short span of three months. in those three month we are
7:24 am
tasked with trying to chief deficits savings of 1.2 to $1.5 trillion. it is open to us to explore every avenue to come up with ways to reduce the deficit. it is a tough task and 12 of us, six from the house and six from the senate have been charged with that responsibility. i hope you have a lot of good ideas you want to share. that i will take with me and i hope to have opportunities as we move forward to talk to folks that often as possible about this. i consider it a privilege to be on but i get as much congratulations as condolence so it works both ways. any number of things we can talk about but i will keep it to rest and go straight to questions and this is the way we want to handle it. by the way.
7:25 am
if you notice we have cameras here, c-span, which is a public service cable station requested an opportunity to be here and we surge to more -- we do these the way we usually do them. they have been gracious to accommodate the way i typically do mccarthys. we are going to allow c-span to film and if anyone has any objections this is national cable. so we will broadcast nationally. there are a public service station. i will answer each question i will answer each question as
7:26 am
succinctly as i can. cure question as succinctly as possible. we have a lot of questions. and we will get to as many people as possible. i love it -- let's agree and do neither and spend time asking questions or comments. bent if we could proceed forward. i asked staff, we have lakes and what i call your name my will draw four names. i will draw four different names and when your name is drawn please make sure you raise your hand. we will ask you then to go to -- we have folks on the outside of the aisle so if you hear your name raise your hand and walked to the center of the aisle and we will have a staffer with the microphones so everyone can hear your question or comment.
7:27 am
otherwise most folks won't get to hear you. if you hear your name, right away just start to make your way to the center of the aisle and i will call four names. this way you are ready to go and as i finish with one person's question or comment i will draw another. always have four people ready to go and hopefully not like an assembly line but in order refashion we will get through as much as possible. i will go right to so here goes. of day. feel like the price is right. stephanie taylor. are you here? go ahead. you will be the first to ask. i will call three other names. patricia buenos? recin
7:28 am
recinos? where are you? why don't you go ahead and get behind stephanie. it will move faster once we get these names down. eric ares? come to the center. and then -- you guys aren't trying to make this easy. carol likens? excellent. those are our four and we will keep trying from there. stephanie, give us your question or your comment. thank you for coming. >> thank you for the opportunity. my name is stephanie carol and i represent thousands of members
7:29 am
of the green coalition including the sierra club. we are here to speak to you about the land and water conservation fund and asking you to fight for it. we know you support it but we need someone to make sure the land water conservation fund doesn't get decimated and devastated. it is a small percentage of the federal budget and very bipartisan issue. we need you to correct the budget deficit. it is a very important tax title and state prospect in the santa monica mountains. >> thank you very much. you know i am a strong supporter of the program. i will tell you i have been tasked with finding the one.2 to $1.5 trillion in savings and i believe i have said this before. the 12 of us who have been given this assignment, i don't believe we have a right to walk into this negotiation with
7:30 am
preconditions were protecting special interests or making special-interest pledges. i will protect what i think is important. i also think nothing is a sacred cow and everything should be considered. even things i fought for all my life. having said that i believe i have a right to fight for things that i believe in. to come up with a mix and ultimately i believe it is good for america. but i have to be ready to put whether it is conservation funds or reprogram for seniors or reprogram for children or something for companies and corporations are have to be willing to put that on the table. what i will tell you is take a look at my record. you know where i stand on these issues. you probably have a sense what i am fighting for. i cannot guarantee what will happen because it has to be part of the negotiation where we end up and hopefully everyone goes in to this negotiation putting their egos and preconditions at
7:31 am
the door and leaving them at the door so we can have a good robust conversation which i hope the work of the 12 members of the deliberations and hearings are all public and transparent. ..thank you. who did i say was next? it will be patricia. i am going to draw out what other name before patricia begins. ann. come on down. >> thank you for having this town hall meeting. i am very happy to be here. politicians talk about shared sacrifice. the people in our community have done the sacrifice already. what do you plan to do on the deficit committee on making sure the taxation it really goes to the wealthy and not the working poor? in addition to that, i want to know your stance on the free- trade of columbia panama, we run the risk of losing jobs in california. interdistrict a loan, it is
7:32 am
5247. i left at intermission with your staff. >> i love when you, with data. --i love when you come with data. i want to make it clear. i will not stand here and guaranteed that i will not let them touch -- you fill in the blank. let me give you a quick example. i and the ranking democrat in the house of representatives when it comes to social security. i and the highest-ranking democrat. i do not believe social security should be on the table for cuts. why? because of social security -- please. tbd favor. why? because the social security in its 70 + years of life has never contributed one penny to these deficits that we have in
7:33 am
every year or the debt. not one single cent in debt is due to social security. in fact, social security today has a surplus of over 200 trillion dollars. some people are saying, we should take money out of social security, raise the retirement age, all sorts of ideas to help with deficits. i do not think that is there. i have to hope that i can argue well enough and windy day in that debate that everyone would agree with me that of the 12 of us, we should not go after social security benefits to solve this deficit and debt crisis. i cannot tell you that because i have a socials -- i have a strong belief of social security that i would close the door. i would be doing a disservice to all the americans in this country who believe the 12 of us have a sincere obligation to try
7:34 am
to find common ground. if i see you cannot touch social security and somebody else says you cannot touch medicare or taxes for the rich or money for schools -- i think we have to be prepared to deal with what ever the majority in this committee comes up with. look at my voting record, he will see where i stand. i do not have a right to close the door on things that are my sacred cows. on the trade deals, it is time in this country where our biggest export was not a american jobs. our biggest import was not will. we have to come up with a trade policy that recognizes that we must grow jobs in america. in fact, i will tell you right
7:35 am
now that my belief is the biggest deficit in my country today is a jobs deficit. you put 15 billion americans to work and that they are paying taxes. they are paying taxes, the treasury has revenue. if the treasury has more revenue, the deficits go down. it is tough to imagine the government will balance their budget is 15 million americans are out of work and when they get home they have a hard time determining how to balance theirs. we have to have a trade policy that generates jobs in america. not one that just opened supporters and we have to move businesses abroad. those trade agreements, while they are making progress, i think there is issues with some of them. we have to make sure that if we are going to open our doors to columbia, columbia is treating
7:36 am
not just its capital properly, but is treating its people properly and not making it difficult for workers in colombia to be able to have rights. in colombia today, you are as likely to be assassinated for being a worker tried to help people organize as you are if you are a narco traffickers. there are some real issues there. we have to get these right. next was erick. before you go, let me pick in other name. richard spicer. are you here? come downtho the center aisle. >> a good evening. i am a lifelong resident of your district. i appreciate the opportunities for conversation and your
7:37 am
sincere effort to get the opinions and thoughts of your residence. i will push back a little bit because i know you have been put charged with a great task. i just want to make it clear to you and it to your staff that when you say things like special interests and sacred cows, i understand that. but the residents who are struggling are not sacred cows or special interests. they are everyday people who live off of social security, medicaid, and food stamps. the you understand that we are not sacred cows that the way other people are, we're trying to live our lives. please do not see us as another special interest or sacred cow. if that is not clear enough, we are having an event in los angeles to try to portray that livelihood that we are living on september 22 at city hall. in by somebody from your staff to come here some more stories of folks who are struggling and why we need you as a leader,
7:38 am
somebody we do respect, to take that to the table as well and make that a message. >> i appreciate your point. let me go right to it. let me say this. do me a favor. i can see that the cameraman behind you is trying to figure out how to fill a around your heads. why do we not all get to decide so they have a clear shot. and remember to smile. you are right, but caution. what i consider a special interest -- somebody else might say, no. that is not a special interests. let me give you an example. how many here own a home? all of us who own a home, we have a special interests. every time it is time to file our taxes, we get to do
7:39 am
something that people who do not own a home get to do. we get to write off the interest on our mortgage. if you grant, you get no such tax break. we also get a tax break because we pay property taxes on the home. we get to write down how much we have made and how much we will pay to the government because of the property taxes we pay on that home. somebody who rents, they do not get to do that. they are helping to pay the property taxes and mortgage on the property owned by the person who gets to write off expenses. our homeowners special interests? my point to eric is this. what you may think of as just the people, someone might say, are you talking about the people getting medicare? are you talking about people getting homeowners' mortgage deduction? tell me what you mean.
7:40 am
that is why the best way to approach this, i believe, is to say, "i will not come in protecting anything or anyone. but i will fight like the dickens for those things i believe in." i do not think i have to be coy about what i believe in. i have been in congress for 19 years. you can see what i believe in. that is why i say to folks, it is pretty transparent what i will fight for. i just have to believe that i have done more training and prep and someone else. at the end of the day i will prevail in convincing my colleagues at something like social security should not be cut so we can pay for deficits. but thank you for the question. next person, we have carol. francis.
7:41 am
c.g.r rodriguez. are you here? go ahead and make your way down there. we will go with stephen smith. are you here? right over here. go right ahead. >> i think special interests most people think of as the people who are making, you know, the billionaires, the millionaires and people who cause the economic crisis. i really appreciate the whole idea of you going into the committee -- the super committee without a set agenda and willing to be flexible and try to persuade. but that only works of both sides to it.
7:42 am
when the republicans begin by saying -- >> to me a favor. i want to make sure everybody has a chance to hear what is being said. i do not what somebody walking away misunderstanding what is being said. the more you applaud, the more i am going to have to say please hold, stopped for a second. at some point, somebody is going to feel like, you clapped. i can do. before you know it, it will escalate. let us focus on the q and a on the commentary. >> what the republicans have said, we will make sure that nobody who believes in raising taxes on anybody, on the top 10% or the top 1% or anything that are going to be on the committee. if they already have that preconceived and you come in as saying -- it is only the
7:43 am
democrats who want to be flexible and republican said, no, we will go with this agenda. we know that we need to cut the war in libya and iraq and afghanistan. quit funding at israel for no matter what it does. we need to do these things. >> let me go ahead -- i need to keep going. i get your point. i am not stupid. i am not going to walk in saying, i have no preconditions. and by the way, i see you have 30 of them. let us continue to play in the sandbox. when i say i believe we should walk in with no preconditions making no special interest pledges that i sign on the dotted line i will not do this or i will do that, i am
7:44 am
that if we saying th want to be serious and honest with all of our constituents, i cannot have in my back pocket this "get out of jail free"pass for one constituency. everybody is going to look for those passes. i have to believe that if i walked and earnestly sank to my colleagues, "you just heard what i said about social security," but it is on the table. before we leave it on the table to find savings, prove to me why. i believe i can win that argument. but i have to test that theory. that is why i think it is important for this to be a transparent process. social security has never
7:45 am
contributed a dime to these deficits or the national debt. if somebody votes to keep it on, i want to see -- to me, social security is one of the greatest inventions america has ever given us. i understand your point. you may still have issues with my position. if i walk in sang, so when so, i know you have always taken this position and you will never do this and now you are on this committee. because i know you have always taken a particular position, i will take a particular position. this will break a part. i do not think failure is an option for us on this. if we do not do something, the 12th of us, the consequence is there will be an automatic trigger for the same amount of cuts. that is like having it all guillotine come down and decide where the cuts will be. it is better to have 12
7:46 am
americans who at least profess to wanting to do the best for their country come up with a solution and it just take a guillotine with our eyes closed and say, we need to top off all this money and let it come down. that is not the way you legislate. i do not believe. i understand your point. please understand my predicament in trying to get this done. i hear what you are saying. do me a favor. we cannot proceed if anyone wants to interject. please, sir. we will just ask that you all try to cooperate. please be respectful. as i said, it will escalate. this is what i ask.
7:47 am
please respect your neighbors who have taken the time to come. please respect the rules. please respected the law. this is a public forum. if you break up this form and make it impossible for us to continue, you are committing a misdemeanor. we would ask that everybody respect your neighbors if nothing else. at least respect your neighbors who have taken the time to be here. 2006. theyusty announced they have no intention of ever operating a eveum there a again.
7:48 am
they will not let the southwest museum name be used again. they are ready to give theagain. property to the city of los t angeles, not the collection but the buildings and the land the buildings and the land. do we have any options? >> anne, we have discussed this many times. never to a resolution. i do not know the answer to your question. it is not an issue that i deal with on a day to day basis in washington. this is a local issue having to deal with an important site over in the northeast area of l.a. that has been closed for many years. they have control of the site and the collection. it is the very precious collection of native american artifacts, one of the best
7:49 am
collections in the united states. the concern of many local residents is what will happen to what is a treasure in the community? a museum in an area not to void of a lot of treasures and historic sites and opportunities for people who want to come into the community. as i said as always, i understand the passion. it is a treasure we want to continue. at the same time, they will say it was a museum that was on the verge of closing, its attendance was very low. it was having financial difficulty. somebody had to come in and where it would close permanently. it is a city issue. i know city council members to have jurisdiction over the issue have been talking quite a bit a about it. i know the mayor has been involved as well. suffice to say this -- i agree
7:50 am
with the residence who want to keep the museum there. i do not know if i agree with the residents who say we must keep it there at all costs. somebody has to bear those costs. somehow you have to be able to prove to those who will run the museum and own at that they can bear the cost. museums are very expensive to operate. if you have to keep everything in our climate condition, and you have to make sure you have security. that is what makes it tough. i wish i could give you a better response, and the last time we spoke about this was a couple of years, i do not know what has transpired since then. i have not dealt with that at the federal level. i am always welcome to work with you to make sure that that site has every opportunity to remain the southwest museum. thank you.
7:51 am
ok. who was next? i think richard, you are next. then we have c.g. and stephen and one more. judy. you will be next -- fourth. >> thank you very much for having this forum. in your role on the committee, i would appreciate if you would share some of your ideas about how to make it work in the manner you have suggested -- either conduct, transparency, perhaps ways in which the members of the committee could share and education on some of these complicated subject matters, and to do with any matter that keeps everything on the table including revenue reform, increases as well as shared cuts across the board --
7:52 am
not across the board. smart choices on ways to make cuts. >> i think you're going to the heart of this without asking me to comment on something. let me let you probe my brain a little bit more, which i think you have a right to. i am voting for you. you gave me that privilege. first, i said it earlier. i believe it has to be a transparent process. if not, it is too easy to gain the system. wink wink, not not, you come out with something like the smoke of the vatican north dakota try to figure out why was he chose an for the vote. transparency -- as open as possible. i think that is crucial. secondly, i think we have to have an initial opportunity to talk about how we are going to
7:53 am
-- what can be put on the table? what is really in the next? what i think is extremely critical -- i do not know if all of my colleagues would agree. the whodunit? what happened? just the facts. how did we go from 2001 when we had the largest federal budget surplus in our history and we were being told by the fiscal referee for these things, the cfo, that we would have budget surpluses so large that over the next 10 years we would likely see budget surpluses totaling 5.6 trillion dollars. surpluses. so much so that we were going to be able to wipe out all of our national debt within that 10 years and have extra.
7:54 am
we would be free and clear of any debt. that is what the congressional budget office was telling us. that is the most neutral referee that we use to determine costs, revenue, those kinds of things. in fact, we would use them for this committee. all of a sudden, 10 years later, we went from that projection of record surpluses to now, record deficits. a turnaround of 12.7 trillion dollars in 10 years. $12.7 trillion. go home, right out the number $ 12 trillion. breakdown. you are probably going back to before the caveman days in time. 12 trillion is an astronomical sum.
7:55 am
what happened in 10 years? we all watched. i believe we have to answer the "whodunit" question. otherwise, we are going to say chop this year, change medicare here, change taxes here. what caused us to get into this mess? now, we have a general sense of what did, but we need to probe further. the biggest contributor, i do not say this but the congressional budget office's numbers, the biggest man-made contributor -- the bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 which over the next 10 years will cost us over four trillion dollars. in the first 10 years, the cost about $three trillion. second largest contributor,
7:56 am
likely, the wars and iraq and afghanistan. why? we have never paid a single cent of the cost of the two boards. it is all borrowed money. over $one trillion dollars and growing. we never paid for that. you could start to add up these sounds and see where we went awry. if nobody says, we should do something about those bush tax cuts, which went mostly to very wealthy folks. nebraska there are some millionaires in this room. your tax break for this year was probably a about $120,000. if you are somebody making the average income of $45,000, you probably got enough of a tax break to give you to tanks of gas. we need to figure out what caused us to get there. once we do that, we can target better what we do to come up with 1.5 trillion dollars in
7:57 am
savings. if we blindly say, we have to cut the schools because we have no choice. i do not know any child who spent any of the money in iraq or afghanistan. i know no child who got that tax break. i think we have to go and figure out the sources, the drivers of the deficits. that way you can answer every american plainly what we have to do to get this right. the bottom line, my bottom line what we do, will it create a job or kill a job? i will not be any -- very favorable if it is going to kill a job. i believe the quickest way we get america back on track is to put america back to work. there are too many americans who are not working and paying their taxes and feeling good a outworking.
7:58 am
maybe not great, could it not paying taxes. long answer, i apologize. i have to keep them briefer. but as go to the next one. >> i want to thank you for your support of educational programs that you provided in the past. can you share ideas as to how you can promote those kinds of programs, protect those programs? i am very concerned that it is going to be on the chopping block and it will be a blind cut. >> what i love about these sessions is, you all tell me through your passion with you care about the most. invariably, it is something very important to the family and neighborhood. in this case, the program to
7:59 am
help kids, a lot of children who are mostly disadvantage and modest income families, it helps them make sure they catch up so they do not fall further behind and to drag some of their peers with them because the teacher has to teach to everyone. the program has been very successful getting a lot of these kids a lot closer to where we want to see them. can i guarantee that something like trio would be cut? nope. i cannot guarantee that. have i been a supporter? i have been more than a supporter. when i served on the education committee, i was one of the principal advocates for gear up and trio. i have fought to expand those programs because of the work they have done. i guarantee we get a lot of those resources for gear up and trio here because we have a lot of kids who come from modern
8:00 am
income -- modest income families and they are trying to survive. it is tough. you can talk to any principal in the unified los angeles school district and they will tell you how gut-wrenching it is to send out pink slips every spring and summer to teachers because they have to be sure they can meet their budget come september and hope they can pull back some of those pink slips by the time school will start. not a way to educate kids. that is the way things have gone. it is tough. we have to figure out where the sacrifice will come. as i said before, if you can find me a gear up kid who told us to go to war and i iraq border got $120,000 tax break, i am willing to talk to that kid and say there is something we have to do about that. thank you. let me give you two other names. next is too deep. after judy, we will have been. ben, are you here?
8:01 am
go ahead and get in line over there. after that will be donald. we will not have that march more time. richard, are you here? we may only get to these last four depending on how quickly they are. and i am sorry, steven is next and then judy. by the way, i hope you do not mind, steven, we are friends because we ran against each other when you're a go for congress. he was my worthy opponent last year for congress. >> we actually had a very interesting debate. >> we did. "i would like to make a comment on education since it is brought up. what is happening in los angeles
8:02 am
is a tragedy. what i am looking at numbers that we on the have 50% of our students graduating high school and in nebraska los angeles arkansas congressional district respect -- especially the hispanic community is running 30%, the fact that that is not front page headlines is very upsetting to me. i am very upset about that. you would not have your job on that tour person committee if congress, the senate, and the president had not failed putting together a budget. that is very sad. i hope we can be successful in that. i would like to comment in terms of taxation as well. if we were to take that $250,000 a year wage earner and above and take 100% of their income, my understanding is that would only cover about six months' worth of our current budget. the numbers are huge.
8:03 am
just a huge in terms of how far we are behind. that is very disturbing to me. the question or comment i have for you, you have a remarkable act -- opportunity right now. i hope you take advantage of this. that is to say, there are some areas where there are common ground. we know where of there will not be. you know republicans will be a little hard-nosed about taxing. we always see it as being wasted. there are areas in terms of savings, major tax reform that we can deal with. i just want to encourage you to let go of some of the things and start to build piece by piece and find areas of commonality that we all have. >> i agree with pretty much everything you say about the part of 250 and above -- the amount to collect and revenues. it is much more than what you have indicated. otherwise, i think are absolutely right on education.
8:04 am
that goes to the point of gear up. it is so important for our kids to have a chance to prosper. i say that because i in the first and my family to get a college degree. my wife and i, who also has a college degree, she is a doctor. her father and mother were carried little and education. we made it more in one year than my parents probably made in 20 years. nobody can ever take away my college education. i don't need to be a member of congress to be happy. i am a very proud that because i got myself educated, i had a chance to run and had a chance to serve. we need to make sure others have that opportunity. there is so much talent in this country. some people are saying, our best days are behind us. i do not believe that for a second. there is no country that has the vitality that we have. this diversity has helped us so much because there is always
8:05 am
somebody coming in who can talk about the really tough story and life, but all of a sudden in america, they are making it. it reinvigorate you to see that folks believe in this country. what a shame if you cannot give to a kid a chance to show their parents that they can just do some phenomenal things. my dad would tell me stories when as a young man he would walk on a street and he would see a sign outside a window that said no dogs or mexicans allowed. he could not go into a restaurant. guess what? my dad has met the president of the united states. only in america would a guy who could not walk to the doors of a restaurant get his kid a stanford education and introduce him to the president of the united states.
8:06 am
our best days of -- our best days are ahead of us. we just have to believe it. let us focus on giving everyone the opportunity. if you do not want the opportunity, which should not be helping you. if you are willing to work hard, that is what we ought to be about. these decisions i have been privileged to be cast to make, i understand that i was given something that so many kids did not have. i also know that it was hard work, parents went through to give me this chance. shame on me out if i fail in this committee, share on -- shame on me if i fill my parents to give me the chance to be on this committee. go right ahead. judy, you are next. and and and and donald. >> i am a mother of two boys who are going to the charter school across the street. we have been at the mercy of charter school lotteries for a lot of years.
8:07 am
i will do a quick laundry list so please bear with me. republican colleagues that signed the allegiance to go with norquist instead of the constitution of the bill of rights should be shamed at every moment. it is a shame to swear allegiance to some guy in a piece of paper. the waste they are talking about is over 750 bases all over the world. the military telling our young men without an education to go over 100 places around the world where they can serve. we need to get out of iraq and afghanistan immediately. we should not be advertising to see the world. where are the hundred bases? how would we feel if all of these other countries have military bases here? then we are paying these people $500 to have privatized the military. a bodyguard for a congressman
8:08 am
fit -- visiting over there on are getting budget why are we not paying our own military people that? where are we wasting on contractors -- the good old but military industrial complex that eisenhower talked about. i am sorry, i am getting emotional. >> wind down. >> my friends and belgium and work for the eu to solve the issues of poverty. she had six months off, her kids in childhood care, they have all these things in europe without any more taxes than we pay here. something is really wrong. something is basically really wrong. spending all of this money on military and privatizing it should all be going to our schools, our children, our roads, and infrastructure.
8:09 am
sorry i went on. >> thank you very much. i hear again the passion and i appreciated very much. i will say one thing. first, i have seen a number of families who have lost their sons and daughters, sons and spouses over a number of years. you give me this right to vote for you. i take it very seriously -- especially when it comes to the military. at some point, i may put your son or your daughter in harm's way. when i had to go visit a mother or a wife and provide them with a flag of the united states has a token of appreciation for their husbands or sons of service, it is tough. what more do you say to
8:10 am
somebody who has given their all? i do not want to look back and say, i could have done more to make sure that soldier was better trained or equipped. i never want to have that kind of regret. i think we have an obligation -- and by the way, i am a very progressive democrat. i think we have an obligation to make sure somebody that puts on the uniform, the give them the utmost to make sure they can do their work. their work is as precious as it comes. they are defending us. however, i do not think that means that the pentagon has license with my vote to spend $32,000 for a refrigerator. that does not give the pentagon the right to say, well, you cannot audit us to say how the pentagon keeps our books because we are too big and of audible.
8:11 am
pentagon, we could not audit them, any firm could go in and give an idea of how dod spend their money because they are in such a shambles. they do too much importance stuff to not have their books in order. the more we get them in order, the more, i think, they will make sure those contract overruns into the hundreds of billions of dollars do not occur. as i said, i am not interested in cutting a program that makes sure our soldiers are the best equipped and prepared to fight with whatever they need. by god, i am not interested in telling them they need a $32,000 refrigerator to help fight this country. that is what we have to go after. you make some very good points, but again, without telling you i'm going to go after this or that or protected this or that,
8:12 am
there are areas where we can make some changes and find savings without having to go into the bone of what america cares about. letting the public sees so that the public knows why we did what we do. i have no doubt -- americans, i have no idea why. maybe it is the sense we can always do what can we go for the underdog, americans believe we can get this done. we just have to prove it. let it be open so that at the end of the day we come out with a product. kasich, i know how we got this because i watched this. i can see the record. thank you for your comment. please do not stop having that passion. a lot of folks talk about the bases. >> when i heard you were on the super committee, i was very grateful and if very relieved. whenever i checked your votes,
8:13 am
you are always voting what is at my heart. i am very proud to say you are my congressman. >> thank you. >> i will be a little specific into details, i do not know if this fits your radar, you know i care very deeply about arts and the endowment of arts. we have been operating on $161 million this year. the administration proposed $146 million. there were several motions to eliminate the endowment which you opposed and were joined by moderate republicans and all the democrats to defeat the elimination of the endowment and to defeat the defunding of the endowment. i am very grateful for that. we are going to need a champion in that committee. i know you are not making any promises, but the interior subcommittee approved a hundred $35 million.
8:14 am
there was some very strong language in the appropriation to support core programs of the endowment. we were hoping it would go to the senate and and reconciliation be boosted up. i do not know if there will be any reconciliation anymore or if you guys are doing that. that is one of my questions. if you are doing it, and there will not be a reconciliation with the senate, i would implore you to look inside and consider being our champion on that committee and at least supporting some sense of language with the preservation of core endowment programs with sufficient funding. you know the arts creates jobs, it inspires people, it enriches people's lives, and supports education. all of the things that make it worthwhile of being the american are supported through the arts and the endowment. >> thank you. again, my record will speak for
8:15 am
itself on those issues about the arts. i will to say for those who may not know, i think the arts are important not because of the adults and the talents that the show. i think the arts are important because of our children. i think the arts give our kids to express themselves in ways that too often we do not give them a chance. financially, they do not have a lot of resources so they are of limited in what they can do, or perhaps there are of limited in their capacities because they never had an opportunity to open their minds and learn. to me, the arts are a very fine way for a child to really explore the mind. that is where you find the talents. all of us can do one plus one. it is the kid who can take it and it turned one plus one into something we've never what have thought about. the creativity that i think
8:16 am
creates patents and copyrights that make us the country we are today. the country that builds google and microsoft's of america. the more we give kids a chance to explore -- especially in ways that are affordable -- i think the more we will create an america that is strong because these kids will have used their mind from an early age. to me, it is very distressing when you hear that a school says, we have to teach the core curriculum. arts, music, pe, we have to sacrifice those things. it is hard to say to them, how dare you. do we want them to sacrifice mad and science? know. but those are the decisions we are making. those are the options we are being is given. teach a kid math or let them also the music. to me, that is the wrong set of
8:17 am
values that you have to give up that intellectual capacity a child would have if he or she had an opportunity to play that instrument or to do that art. because we want them to learn math or science or english or geography. i went to public schools when i was growing up. in fourth grade when we had a chance to get an instrument, i was in line. the parents could not buy one for may. i ended up a little late so i got a mellophone. there are some people who know what a mellophone is. i wanted a trumpet but i got a mellophone. it is a smaller french horn. can you imagine a fourth great kid having to carry a french home -- a french horn every day? but then i got my trumpet. it was not my normal appearance but the schools. i played in a band.
8:18 am
i got some great opportunities and got to meet some girls. it was a great opportunity to feel good about myself and have some esteem. my art is terrible, so i had to be able to play music. every kid should have that opportunity. then, when you talk about the arts, is indispensable. should we sacrifice some other core curriculum and our schools? no. but we should not be talking about sacrificing size to get our or sacrificing our to get science. that is where i think america has gone wrong when those are the options. the option to me is do we need that base in the foreign country or do we need the parts? to many debates, ok good. but do we have to spend more on the military than the 18 largest powers behind us combined? no, i'm sorry. i do not need responses.
8:19 am
let us move on. reconciliation. this super committee will drive much what is going on with the budget because it sets up the parameters of what we do over the next 10 years. that will give us the parameters. to some degree this law that created a super committee at christie's the automatic trigger is if a super committee does not come up with a solution will drive the budgets for the next 10 years and will see what kind of appropriation the arts will get. yes. so donald and then richard. that will close up. you have all been very patient. >> my is very simple. there is a program that is not being covered by the mainstream media. this is a program called the world global settlements. it has already funded in the tune of $47 trillion. that includes $10 trolling to
8:20 am
refund the treasury to issue an asset backed currency to replace our fiat currency that has put us in debt. i have not heard anything about this in the news. it has been reported that this is being blocked by the present administration. this particular program would solve most of the ills that your committee has been tasked to take care of. i am curious to know why it is being blocked. why is it being kept under the radar when it is already funded? >> donald, you're going to have to send me information on that. i cannot answer any of those questions because i do not know enough of what you're talking about to give you a straight answer. give me -- do me a favor. give us a citation or if you have anything with it, leave it with me. then we will have that conversation. if there is a solution that can be addressed or arrived at with the information and programs
8:21 am
you're talking about. you keep have raised something that i cannot respond to well. world of global settlement. you can always look at up. you are free to give us whatever information you have. deborah is right next to you. actually, do not talk to her because she has a microphone. brenda, liz, somebody will make sure they are talking to donald before he leaves. thank you. guess what, richard, you get to close us all. they get a good one. >> thank you for the opportunity, and it do not hate me for loving you. here it comes. >> you need to come to all of my town halls. >> sir, my questions are geared towards jobs and the financial situations were we are at right now. i have two career, and i have
8:22 am
been without a job for 1.9 months. when it comes to jobs, politicians, talk is easy. remember, you do not bite the hand that feeds you. when it comes to jobs, it is easy to say, "we need to create the jobs." but the companies that actually treat the jobs, they took it away from us and take it to the east. how going to basic binary logic can you create, i do not know, when hundred 50,000-200,000 jobs in california? you require these huge corporations, which by the way, all the time they keep on merging. when they merged these huge corporations, jobs need to be let go because of the double jobs that they get.
8:23 am
on the other hand, as of today after 2.5 years with the debacle on wall street, as today nobody has been sent to jail because of the crimes they committed with our money. that money that saved them came from the taxpayers. they are printing money, printing machines can only go so far. thank you. >> richard, you hit it out of the park. let me see if i can try to catch it. first, i think you are absolutely right. it is easy for this guy who has a job to talk about how we need to create jobs. let me give you some ideas about how the federal government can help america -- most of the private sector, create good jobs. there is a program here and los angeles called the 3010
8:24 am
transportation program were the transportation agency is trying to use the money we all voted for -- we have taxed ourselves to these initiatives, to create a fund of money here in the county of los angeles to help us build transportation infrastructure. the city of los angeles has said to the federal government, we are going to build these things. typically, you help pay for part of this. what if we do this? what if we tell you, federal government, we will dedicate a larger portion of the money we have already taxed ourselves onto this particular project which you would typically support to a matching grants, you give us that money up front quickly. that way we can accelerate the completion of those transportation programs whether it is freeways, mass-transit. essentially, we leverage the money that we have committed to
8:25 am
produce through our own taxes locally to guarantee the federal government that we will come through with the money so that the federal government will have the confidence to give us more money up front. instead of giving us -- i am making up numbers -- $10 billion over 10 years, they will give this $10 billion in year one. we can then start moving on all of these projects right away. we have a ton of projects here locally that we can get moving on. nobody needs to be told an los angeles that we need to improve the ability for mobility. it is a great idea. we are essentially saying, you want confidence that we will come through. if you give us more money up front than you would give us but no more than you would give us over the long term, we will pomp and the money to show you how we are going to make this happen. $15 billion investment by the
8:26 am
federal government -- which is a ton of money -- i am talking $1.5 trillion treaty know what 15 billion can give us? about 1 million american jobs. that transportation project cannot be done from somebody in another country. you have to build that road here. you have to put up the real system here. the federal government is going to give any help, you are doing it up front early. 2, there is a program some have proposed a called fast. fix america's schools today. this is a great group, but it also just opened. there are a lot of schools to it that are not looking like this. kids are having to learn with kids who are here and in a lot nicer schools. we are going to fix the schools at some point. at some point they will lead to the roof, then they will go in and fix the roof.
8:27 am
why wait until the water starts damaging the roof more? if you know the roof is old and you will have to replace it, why not replace it now? there are a whole lot of construction workers in l.a. and america who are out of work. you know what you get out of it? to get to feel better about going to school because they are going to school and a nice place instead of waiting until all the rain is a shining down on that because the bridge is leaking. that would also create good at paying it jobs for americans. he said to often american corporations are sending jobs abroad -- they are. by the way, the majority of americans who are put to work are not put to work by large corporations. three out of every four jobs are created by small businessmen and women. just sit -- just a you know, they are treated by small
8:28 am
businessmen and women. not the big guys. in the whole scheme of things, out of the hundred 60 million americans that are working, most of them are working for small firms. to your point, today if a corporation in a america decides to open a factory abroad or open 8 from abroad or a particular business abroad and therefore says i do not need you working here anymore and jane or joe, i will let you go, many of those firms are getting tax breaks for having treated the job somewhere else. why do we not get rid of the tax break that a company is getting to send a job overseas and instead give companies to say, it is tough. i am not sure to do. if your federal government is willing to partner with me and you say you will give me a little bit of a tax break for treating a job in america, let us do it. instead of giving tax breaks to
8:29 am
companies that send jobs abroad, but this tell those companies will induce a in america, we will help you out a bit. it will cost us money because it is a tax break and coming out of our pocket, i would rather give an incentive to a company to create a job here and be giving a tax break to a company sending a job overseas. there are ways we can do this, and i hope was this committee will explore and be smart, reduced deficit by trading more jobs so america will feel proud that they are working and will not feel bad that they have to do their volunteer part and pay taxes. richard, it was a great question. things have to be done. i appreciate you all have come. i have an important tax -- a task in front of me. ' please feel free to look at my website, please feel free to communicate with me.
8:30 am
share your thoughts like the gentleman donald who mentioned this program. i will look into that. please feel free to share your thoughts. we have t - three months to try to get something done. i hope you will participate with me. you are my constituents. i owe you the opportunity to speak to me and give you my thoughts. and for you to receive my feedback. i hope we stay in touch. thank you for being so corporative and courteous. i look forward to speaking with you again. have a good nit. [alause] [applause] [applause] .. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]
8:31 am
>> now another of the town halls we are covering during this congressional recess. republican senator mike lee talk to constituents in fairview, you talk about the economy and the federal debt. this is about an hour and a half. part of our state. it is probably the most beautiful part of our state. i do >> it is probably the most beautiful part of the state. most of it is beautiful. some less than others. a lot of people here made this day possible. senator oberlin also introduced me and all of the citizens of
8:32 am
escambia county who have been supportive of this. mayor bentsen of fairview, dick taylor, brian nelson, people least chief, i want to thank the channel and be grateful to c-span for being here tonight. good of them to be concerned about these policies and make sure they are aware of what we are concerned about. it is a pleasure to be here at peterson dancehall. this was built in 1896. the year we became a state. it was a significant year. in that year we went through a transformation. we left the stage of being a territory of the united states where our laws were subject to congress. everything we did, even our territorial legislature had to act with the permission of congress and always subject to
8:33 am
veto by congress at any moment. when we became a state it was different. of a sudden we were our own sovereign entity. we have our own rights as a sovereign let congress had its own right. the difference between state power and federal power was felt then and is filled out today in this 224-year-old document. wasn't quite that old man. this document fostered the development of the greatest civilization the world ever had. it tells us where state power comes in and where federal power comes in. we will talk about that tonight. 1896 was an important year because that is when we became a state ended many respects we are still claiming the benefits of statehood. some of which have yet to be fully realized. what i would like to do is talk for a few minutes about what we have been dealing with in congress and open the floor to questions. we can talk about anything that is on your mind. the most important thing we will
8:34 am
do tonight, you will see me taking notes from time to time. i want to know what is of concern to you so we know best to respond in congress so i can serve you well. shortly before we left washington a few weeks ago when members of congress went back to our home state to get things done to meet with constituents we dealt with the debt limit issue. some of you may have heard nothing or two about that. we voted to raise the debt limit, authorized the money that congress can borrow to an unprecedented degree to $2 trillion. a lot of money. some people in utah don't make $2 trillion in a whole year.
8:35 am
that is the amount of money congress is able to borrow. new money is able to borrow in addition to the amount that is already borrowed. they borrowed $15 trillion. but an end of the year accumulated national debt is up $15 trillion. we don't usually use the word trillion in our day-to-day vocabulary. to put it in perspective if you divide fifteen trillion by three hundred million americans it works out to $50,000 a head. that is a lot of money. that includes everyone. includes people who are retired. includes infants. people born today. includes students in addition to those who are working and paying taxes. if you measure it according to taxpayers depending on how you gauge that number it could be anywhere from 125 to $151,160,000 per taxpayer. that is a lot of money. at some point that becomes a
8:36 am
problem. i voted against the deficit increase because i didn't think the legislation that authorized it did enough to take care of the underlying problem. it didn't do enough to make sure we were to back in the same position a few months from now or a year or two from now. it didn't solve the underlying problem members of congress have. members of congress want to please their constituents so what they do is they will approve a lot of spending. sometimes spending a lot more money than congress has. we have been bringing in $2.2 trillion a year in tax revenue. we have been spending $3.7 trillion a year. that difference is made up for in borrowing. the reason that is such a problem is at some point we will reach the limit not of statutory borrowing power, not the limit of what congress is going to
8:37 am
allow itself to borrow, we will reach at some point of the natural limit of our mathematical borrowing power. at some point people will stop lending us money at least not without charging us much higher interest rates. as that starts to happen we will accelerate pretty dramatically the rate at which we are moving to the day that has been acknowledged by the white house as something we are likely to hit in the next decade or so. we will be spending a trillion dollars every year in interest on national debt. just on interest. we are spending $200 billion the year on interest. that is a lot of money but $1 trillion is about five times that amount. let's put trillion in perspective. that is more than we spend the national debt in the year end social security in an entire year. it is more than we spent on medicare and medicaid combined. the closer we get to that
8:38 am
moment, the more we potentially place in jeopardy everything. that money has to come from somewhere. when we get to that point we will make up the difference somewhere. you don't end up having to come from every federal program. we can't just borrow more at that moment because if we do that our interest rates will jump so high we quickly won't be able to borrow any more. we will find ourselves in a much worse position. our tax system has proven capable of producing only 18.5% of all the money in the economy every year so raising taxes at that point might make some difference in the short run. in the long run it won't make a difference and may damage it. at that point we have to make far more severe, dramatic cuts than we would prefer to have to make. if we start the process now and put in place a balanced budget amendment that would require congress to put it on a sustainable constitutionally enforceable course toward
8:39 am
balancing its budget the cuts we would have to make will be more manageable, more compassionate, less likely to have an adverse impact on the most vulnerable members of our society. those are some of the reasons i voted no on the debt limit deal. i believe we should have in place a balanced budget amendment passing boat house of congress committed to ratification before we raise the debt limit. that is a big issue that potentially affects everything else but i want to open with that because it will have some impact on other things we talk about tonight. with that let's open up the floor to questions. you can talk about anything we want to talk about. i will take off my jacket. it is kind of hot. that place you have up there, i just got back. this narrow project.
8:40 am
absolutely beautiful place. the resources up there are phenomenal. i found it easy to imagine what it might look like. are appreciate your county commissioners taking me up there. i saw a hand up right here. we have a microphone? some of your names? >> longtime libertarian. voted for ron paul so it has been a while. i have been watching this mess come about. we're looking at welfare states. we have four or five constitutional wars going on that we can keep track. we apparently had troops on the ground in libya it is coming out now, before we said we did.
8:41 am
we are involved in all kinds of stuff. 170 countries we are currently occupying with the military. when will we bring these people home? when will we reinforce our borders with these people? and stop the bleeding of this nation and quit exporting our jobs? because of what obama has done expect to get back to washington to start the impeachment process for what he has done? [applause] >> thank you. you addressed quite a few issues. let me scribbles some of it down as i am talking. i want to start on the final point you made. you referred to jobs. a lot of what we deal with in
8:42 am
washington. the most important things we deal with relate in one way or another to job creation and job preservation. a lot of things we do make the job market worse than it already is and we can't afford for it to get worse. we needed to get better as quickly as it can. we make that worse rather than better when we pretend that through the federal government weaken take your money and send it to washington and run through our own process and take our cuts. when we try, it makes it works. i agree with you there. as far as your comments as directed toward our presence overseas a big part of it, the natural process that will occur as we move in the direction of about balanced budget will be willing down what we do for our military. people have asked in the past what cannot be cut?
8:43 am
people assume since i am a member of the political party that i am a member of a assuming that would say defense is a sacred cow that can never be touched. we have to look for efficiency in every corner of government. the reason for that is in order for government to survive you have to make it more efficient. we can't afford to be in every country on earth and fighting other people's wars and can't afford to be fighting a war for which there has never been military justification expressed much less a proper constitutional declaration of war. [applause] yes? >> you say you are for unbalanced budget amendment. don't you think that is dangerous? wouldn't it be better if we just follow the constitution and stop spending money on things for which the federal government has
8:44 am
no mandate, for instance get rid a lot of organizations like the fda, department of education, on down the line down the alphabet list, get rid of a lot of stuff that is not constitutional and stop foreign aid subsidies to farmers and businesses and we could keep a lot of money in our pockets if that happens and spend a lot less money. [applause] >> led didn't get your name. >> betty mason. >> i don't know if you could hear in the back. she makes the point why we need a balanced budget amendment to the constitution when we have a constitutional ready and when the constitution is followed it would put congress on a course
8:45 am
to stay focused on the responsibilities given to congress in the constitution like national defense and regulating trade and when a foreign nation is declaring war, and so forth. you raise a valid point. here is why i think we need to amend the constitution. that document and particularly that part of the document that tells congress its jobs are limited, its responsibility exists within a limited sphere has been so over looked over such a prolonged period of time that we have almost forgotten as a society. some feel passionately about these things but as a society we lost sight of it. we assume there is no job that is too big or too small for congress to handle. members of congress don't like to balance the budget because it makes the less powerful and makes the more difficult to look constituents in the eye and say that sounds like a project that will help lot of people but we
8:46 am
can't do it. they don't like to say no. until we restrict constitutional authority to deficits spending they won't and we know that based on a sad track record in which they have bit by bit dollar by dollar mortgaged the future of our unborn children and grandchildren. they have spent money they don't have and buried our posterity under a mountain of debt. it is a form of taxation without representation. we fought a war against that and won that war. wanting to reclaim that victory by restricting congress's ability to borrow. [applause] >> great question. >> can you elaborate more on the mayor's project and what you can do to force it to go through and
8:47 am
what you have been trying to get for over eight years? >> i hesitate to answer the question from the premise you started with. i can force it through as we learned over the last 80 years. it is not the sort of thing that is amenable to being forced. it is nonetheless something important to the presidents of san peak county and something they have waited patiently for over the last 80 years as you mentioned the. something the presidents waited for even when in 1944 these residents were ready for that to be completed but they put that off in order for work to be done on schofield so it wouldn't fail
8:48 am
or jeopardize the rail line. we are at the point where the environmental impact statement will be up and we expect the decision could be issued by some time early next year. when that happens there may be litigation. there's nothing i can do as a u.s. senator to force beyond that process. if there is litigation it will have to work its way through a court but we have to have a couple things happen before next steps can be taken. the decision has to be issued and litigation, if any. litigation if any will have to be completed. i hope we are able to get that done properly. we have a lot of litigation and as i understand it the water rights are not in dispute. they have been deemed and even settled to be long residents of san peak county. i am optimistic this will come
8:49 am
to irresolution. a lot of that will depend on how litigation goes. yes, sir? i will get people in the back of the room. just realized. [inaudible] [laughter] >> the president nominated the financial committee and members of the committee and i heard just today he proposed a value-added tax for the first time in my life but he wasn't on top of the income tax. is there anything you can do or not? to stop that? that is my concern. >> that is generous of you and i
8:50 am
will try to get back to you. it is not the supercommittee. this is a top-level administration official and dino who you are talking about. i can remember his name but remember when you are talking about. this presidential appointee who has been an outspoken advocate of what is referred to as the value-added tax. it is kind of like a sales tax placed on items that you buy in the store weather as a consumer or business and adding value to a product before you sell it. your tax dollars and taxes imposed after the value has been added. value-added taxes are common throughout europe. they are frequently placed on top of an income-tax system. i refer to this as burning the candle at both ends.
8:51 am
they want more revenue than can get you through an income tax so they create the illusion that people are taxed less than they are. people pay income tax and value-added tax and don't always notice all of the tax that is folded into what they're buying because if it has gone through several cycles where they had value added at different stages of business input cycle than the product might be more expensive and people might not realize a lot of that expense really -- related to government. i opposed that. i think we need to pick a horse and ride it. [applause] what i mean by that is we need to stick with an income tax which needs to be simplified so that it doesn't have tens of thousands of pages. we never read that in its entirety and if we did they would probably die.
8:52 am
on the other hand when you go to a national sales tax model, the fair tax as they refer to it, i would forcibly oppose both and i will likely oppose confirmation of people in a position to bring about a policy change like that. i look at each nominee on his or her own marriage. i have yet to invest in a nominee whose name i can't remember at the moment but i share your concern. [applause] with your hand up back there? >> thank you for being here. i am dave parish. i have three questions. cuts, cap and balance that you
8:53 am
see coming forward again? fair tax, you mentioned a little bit about it but we see them fall lanais one group of people, we don't tax 1% of the people in the country. the third thing would be immigration. what are we going to do to protect the borders? in two parts. protecting the borders but figuring out what to do -- i am more concerned about protecting the borders but the dictation from washington and not going to take any action on those people that are already here unless they break some felony law or something like that. >> pet that down with the first -- and the second -- >> villain icing up certain
8:54 am
group. >> thank you. first part of your question relates to cut. the look cap and balance. those not familiar with this, this is a bill i introduced in the senate couple of months ago. what it said was we will raise the debt limit. we will raise it to the degree the president asked because he is the president and much as some people may or may not want somebody else in there he is the president and we will defer to him on that but we will raise it only under certain conditions that will address the underlying problem and make sure we are not all is accruing more debt and make sure we don't reach the point we can't find anything anymore from entitlements to social security, medicare and medicaid to the salaries of soldiers, military and marines. those conditions are we need to propose a balanced budget
8:55 am
amendment to the state for ratification ended up spending caps to put on a balanced budget and we need some immediate cuts. doesn't matter how large they are but we need a down payment right now all from cuts that are real and not smoke and mirror cuts. your question related to whether we would bring that back up. it was disappointing because i introduced in the senate a week later, my friend jason chaeff z chaeffetz. the house of representatives passed it and it went to the senate and the senate tabled it. meaning they decided to push it aside so they didn't even have to vote on it. there were members of the senate who didn't want the pressure associated with it. they knew it would be popular because according to a source no
8:56 am
more conservative than cnn, three of four americans believe we should have a balanced budget amendment and a comparable number of americans believe we shouldn't have raised the debt limit without this kind of approach. i continue to insist this approach could have saved us from a credit downgrade and i am going to continue to push for that same kind of approach. i don't know whether we will be able to get it for a straight up or down vote in the senate but i will push that approach and i will continue to sound the message so it can't be ignored as it was a few weeks ago. as to taxes, it is difficult when you have a tax system in which only about half of americans are anything, because at that point you have a situation in which it becomes all too easy for some americans to be tricked into thinking
8:57 am
government is free. it is especially worrisome from the standpoint of those in the middle and low end of the economic spectrum. we worry about tax increases and raising the top marginal income-tax rates not because we are worried about the rich and the ability of the rich to survive and thrive. they will do that one way or another. we are worried about the impact on middle to lower income because those people end up the and hypertext rates in terms of increased cost on good and services or unemployment or underemployment or lower wages. it is the way it ends up happening. we trick people into thinking big government is free when in fact it isn't. it has a very regressive effect been an unfair impact on the poor and middle income earners. it is one of many reasons we have to reform our tax system and make it simpler and easier
8:58 am
to understand and more equitable so everyone have a chance to participate. finally immigration. i sometimes say not just when the federal government ignores the fact there are certain things it is not supposed to do. things that are supposed to be left to the states rather than at the federal level. bad things happen when government gets so busy doing things it is not supposed to do that it forgets to do the things it is supposed to do like protect our national security interests and our border. we haven't been doing that. here is the problem. here is one reason you haven't seen and this congress will not see anything we could describe as a comprehensive immigration reform package. in bad taste left in members of congress's mahal because a few years ago they tried to do comprehensive immigration reform. they got off on a bandwagon of
8:59 am
back door amnesty. you referred to another form of backdoor amnesty that the president is proposing for his policy of people who may be here illegally. we are where they are illegal and may take into custody but leave them here anyway unless they have committed some violent act. people have such a bad taste in their mouth based on all these forms of backdoor amnesty. what i am proposing to do for office is look for surgical strikes at the problem to figure out where the problem areas are. a lot of what we need to do has to do with fixing illegal immigration. making legal immigration more possible. [applause] i will be introducing legislation soon, be there i

115 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on