let me read from a -- a statement from dr. david gnash, who is the william r. willard professor of dental education, professor of pediatric dentistry, college of dentistry, university of kentucky in lexington. dr. gnash writes, "society has granted the profession of dentistry the exclusive right and privilege of caring for the oral health of the nation's children. unfortunately, the dental delivery system in place today does not provide adequate access to care for our children. in many instances, it is because few dentists will accept medicaid patients. in other countries of the world, children's oral health is cared for by dental therapists, primarily in school-based programs. this results in an overwhelming majority of children being able to receive care. dental therapists, as utilized internationally, do not create a two-tiered system of care.

they have extensive training in caring for children, significantly more than the typical graduate of our nation's dental schools. international research supports the high-quality care dental naiforts provide. the time has arrived for the united states to develop a newworkforce model to care for our children's oral health." and what dr. nash is talking about is another issue we'll be talking about tomorrow in the hearing. and that is it is clear from international studies, and in fact from some states in the united states, that there are well-trained people who can take care of certain types of dental problems who are not dentists. i think that's an area that we need to explore. how can we expand the dental profession to include people who do not graduate dental school but who have the qualifications to take care of a variety of dental problems. let me just read another story

that comes from vermont regarding what happens if you don't have dental care. that is from kia morris from bennington, vermont. she says -- and i quote -- "when i was pregnant i had a tooth infection that i had got into my hreufrpl nodes and i needed a root canal but adult medicaid has a $495 cap which wasn't enough. dental care shouldn't be a luxury." what she is saying is that in vermont and in many other states where you do have medicaid helping out for dental care for low-income people, there is often a cap, and that cap is much too low to provide the services that many folks need. the bottom line, mr. president, is that we have a crisis in terms of access to dental care in this country. we lag behind many other countries around the world in that regard.

we have many, many people who have no dental insurance at all. some who do have dental insurance, such as my family, have very limited coverage. i think it's about $1,000 a year. meanwhile the cost of dental care is sky-high. we are also going to explore why that is sure. i'm not sure that i understand or many people understand why dental care is as expensive as it is. what i do know is that in mexico there is a city in northern mexico whose function in life is to provide dental care for americans down below the border because they can't afford dental care in this country. there is a serious problem. people don't have dental insurance. low-income people don't have access to dental care. we have many dentists out there who are not accepting medicaid patients. or if they are accepting medicaid patients, they're accepting very, very few of them. the population, our dentists in general are getting older and

we're losing more of them through retirement than we are seeing graduates of dental school. and even the dentists that we are graduating are often not migrating to the areas where we need them the most. many dentists are involved in making our teeth white and shiny and our smiles very beautiful, but meanwhile in those communities there are people who are seeing the teeth in their mouth rotting away, kids who have dental problems and they're not getting the treatment that they need. so i hope, mr. president, that tomorrow at the hearing we're going to bring forth some great panelists, we're going to be talking about the issue. i intend as soon as we can to introduce comprehensive legislation to make sure every person in this country has access to affordable and decent-quality dental care. with that, mr. president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, we are awaiting the transportation bill, so let me say a few words about transportation. why not? mr. president, i think everybody in this country, or at least anybody who gets into an automobile and drives around, understand that we have a major infrastructural crisis in this

country and it is becoming more dire each passing year. the american society of civil engineers has reported that we should be investing $2.2 trillion over the next five years simply to get our roads, bridges, transit and aviation to a passable condition. this is more than eight times the annual rate of spending proposed in the bill under consideration. so the first point i think that we should acknowledge is that the legislation before us, which i support and which is a step forward, is a very modest proposal going nowhere near as far as we should be going. and clearly, i see when i go home to vermont, and i'm sure, mr. president, you see when you go home to pennsylvania, the

very apparent infrastructural needs that we as a nation face. in my state of vermont, just under a third of vermont's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. that's about a third of vermont's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. 36% of our federal aid roads are in need of major repairs. and in fact, a recent national report ranked vermont rural roads as the worst in the nation, and that was before the very terrible storm that we experienced, tropical storm irene, which caused hundreds of millions of additional dollars of damage to our roads. i think the point here, mr. president, is not a complicated point. i was a mayor for eight years, and i had to deal with the roads

and the water system in the city of burlington. i speak for every mayor in the world to tell you that infrastructure does not get better all by itself. i think we can all agree that if you do nothing, if you do not invest in repairs, it just is not going to get better. in fact, it will get worse. and one of the really dumb things that we do as a nation is we end up spending a lot more money than we should in repairing our roads and bridges and water systems because we don't adequately fund maintenance. if you keep things in good repair, it will end up costing you less money. if you ignore them and they deteriorate and you need to massively rebuild them, it ends up being a much more expensive proposition. as a nation, what we should be doing is properly maintaining our infrastructure, investing a certain sum every single year. and i should tell you that compared to the rest of the world, we do not do a particularly good job at that.

right now the united states invests just 2.4% of our g.d.p. on infrastructure. europe invests twice that amount. and china invests almost four times our rate, roughly 9% of their g.d.p. goes to infrastructure. so i think in terms of our own needs, we are falling behind. internationally, other countries are doing a lot better than we are. mr. president, equally important is we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the great depression. if you look at those people who have given up looking for work, those people who are working part time, who want to work full time, real unemployment in this country is not just the official 8.2%. it's closer to 15%. and what economists tell us is that if we are serious about creating jobs, investing in infrastructure is probably the

best way to do that. it's the easiest way to create meaningful, decent-paying jobs. for every $1 billion of federal funds spent, we can create or maintain nearly 35,000 jobs. and given the economic crisis that we face, that is exactly what we should be doing. mr. president, in addition to preserving more than 1.8 million jobs, the legislation that we are dealing with today, which is being presented by senators boxer and inhofe, will create up to one million new jobs by expanding the tifia program, a measure championed by chairperson boxer. mr. president, this is an extremely important issue. it is important for our productivity because when you have a crumbling infrastructure,

productivity suffers. it is important in terms of international competition. it is important in terms of job creation. it is important in order to provide a basic need for millions and millions of americans. people do not want to be driving on roads which are falling apart, where there are huge potholes. people want to make sure that when they go over a bridge, that bridge will not collapse. people want to make sure that we have a strong rail system, not a rail system which is in fact far behind europe, japan and china. so this bill, while modest in terms of what our needs are, is a step forward, and it is a bipartisan bill. i hope we can get to it and pass it as quickly as possible because the infrastructure needs of this country are great and they must be addressed.

mr. president, with that, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 381 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 381 authorizing the taking of a photograph in the chamber of the united states senate. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. bennet: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. bennet: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today the senate adjourn until wednesday, february 29, at 9:30 a.m., following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning business be deemed expired and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. that the senate be in a period of morning business for one hour, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled by -- equally divided the two leaders or their designees with the republicans controlling the first half-hour and the majority controlling the second half and following morning business the senate resume consideration of s. 1813, the surface transportation bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: we will continue to work on a process to complete action on the surface transportation bill and if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection.

the senate stands adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow

>> even a person who is a senator, even a person who is now president of the united states faces a predicament when they talk about race. they say all sorts of things. they say there is sound, an increase of a number of americans who are racially pressing. they face the fact that a much larger portion of the american people want to deny the realities of race, even now.

a new pentagon report revealed a partial remains of some 9/11 pentagon that guns were sent to a landfill after they couldn't be identified. the report is on the military's dover air force base mortuary for the use of putting partial unidentified remains in landfills was discontinued in 2008. when they take you to the pentagon for today's briefing on

that report is about 40 minutes. >> i'm going to send charts. i don't normally do that but to understand what happened here come you've got to take a look at it. at the right to publicly thank the members of the piano, a very distinguished groups of americans that included general fred franks, caleb cage, kerry healey, verney fountain, jackie taylor who are mortuary subject matter experts, bruce parks turmeric salmon are snyder a farmer member of congress and medical.dear and very importantly, ms. stonecipher, very important to have run the panel as well. atlanta make sure you understand boberg told to do and what we were told to do so you can make sure to put this in perspective. of course we were told in a forward-looking manner about whether or not we are moving in

the proper direction to correct the these audit over that were noted a number of different reports. we are told to at processes, take needs, procedures, to make sure that they were closer to having deficiencies being corrected that would note that to secretary of defense may have been correct it and look at overall systems to see if they are working right. or if they worked right previously. we were not told that matter fact we concluded from looking at any disciplinary matters associated with the various investigations that have gone on. i think you would hear later today from the secretary of the air force about those matters. some of those matters, but again, that was not the charter of our committee. the committee was composed of -- the panel was composed of a very, very solid group of experts and i think we were able to over a period of two months look as close as we could not sure to be. at the time at the processes,

procedures and act duties, chain of command come et cetera in order to understand how to fix it. the good news, and there is good news and it will give more to the news that probably is not so good as well. but the good news is it's a lot of progress made at dover. the air force put a new commander in there. colonel tom joyce is a very effective commander. he is doing an exemplary job in moving forward to collect the matters noted in the various investigative reports. captain craig malik is a dover and is also a fine commander curtis. an awful lot of the problems associated with mishandling of remains, the final points of resting for the fallen, et

cetera at these points are a think addressed in manners that people will appreciate and we commend the air force in particular, but that the other services as well for moving forward in a positive way. however, there is a lot of things that need to be down there to correct problems that we saw and it is important to understand that these programs need to be correct good right away. there's nothing more important than ensuring that our troops in the field note that if they gave their last full measure that the country will do everything for them to make sure that they are treated with dignity and respect and honor and reverence than the way to their final resting place and that is usually important and that was one of the most important things that pervaded everything at the subcommittee did. i want to bring to your attention that we did make a report to the defense of ward in san antonio, which was a public

report. the transcript is probably going to be available at some time. i don't know exactly when, but very shortly there was enough a lot of good discussion there that can help you understand some of the more detailed technical issues from the report. but it's critically important i think that we own up to what the problems were out there, that we commit time and understand this is not just an air force problem. this is a department of defense issued. there were policy issues that were clear come executive agency was not strongly exercised or the army. the chain of command and command oversight was not properly conducted. technical oversight was almost nonexistent. rules, regulations, et cetera were not properly understood, disseminated and taken into

account in the way that i think we all can appreciate. so what i'm going to do so bear with me because i know your questions and i want to get to your question. if you'll bear with me and let me talk about the organization so you know how things link. it is very complex, but unless you understand these relationships and organization, you probably can't put this in proper context with regard to our recommendations. so we have here the organizations, the air force mortuary affairs office were received most of our time and attention. krum force medical examiner services. the joy of personal effects depot and very serve liaison. i urge you to focus on these four organizations. i think from your report you probably know what they do. the mortuary, medical examiner and the coroner come mature and

personal, depot face the final, the equipment and personal effects of the fallen and gives them to their proper point of destination. the also take personal effects from anybody in the field that has been removed from the field as a result of combat or sickness. so it is a very, very big job they have. and over here overhear the at this service liaison officers are at the point of interface to train the family is and the armed forces, air force mortuary affairs office and the armed forces medical examiner service. what is done here is partially in conjunction with afmao. what is done here is an fully conjunction with afmao and coordination responsibilities all along. we found out the points between

afmao and the armed forces medical examiner is where portions were unaccounted for or implied off of accountability of remains that took place. we also found from time to time the officers were unable to get proper information to families in a timely manner and when you look at based chain of command and many realize how it's reported, jped reports to the early channels and a medical examiner reports to the search of material command in the u.s. army chain of command reports right now to the assistant a1 at the air force personnel officers in the service liaison officers report directly to their respect to services. next slide. can you go back, please.

a couple of other things to make sure people understand. the department of the army is the executive agent for mortuary affairs for department of defense. so they are responsible not only for -- do i need this? okay. the army is for the department of defense and they are responsible for harmonizing policy across all these various organizations and of course the army has an important role outside of the mortuary in the duties that go on on the field when fallen troops are collected on the battlefield and transported back home. and it's a huge operation that the army runs fair. as the war progressed, it was not necessary to form a centralized joint watch where he

affairs for, which was responsible for coordinating all of these various duties. to ensure that the work was done properly, that there is some degree of policy oversight that was shared by an army colonel and the members of it primarily civilians and military members in 806 public grant cat is in the navy and the army. and the department of defense, usd for personnel and readiness discharger's overall policy oversight with all of this. next slide. this is the historic chain of command that party to does the neighbor benefit. don't need that. and if you take a look at it and you see these comments on the side here, too many command

channels, kind of a very difficult chain of command to search her way through. the air force thought it necessary to streamline the chain of command so they moved to -- next slide. this chain of command. this chain of command is the commander that goes on up through the assistant personnel officer at the air force through three-star personnel for the air force the air force chief of staff of the air force. but when we look at this command, this command structure we figured that there is very little command oversight possible from it. first of all, the afmao commander did not have the military justice authority, without commanders need. he is not what i would call essentially select to commander. the a1s was a civilian ses at the time and had no command authority of its own and of

course the three-star above the a1s has no command authority either. so you have a commander in maine who was no command authority, no true command authority reporting to a chain of command that is a staff chain that is not responsible to commanders. and this in our opinion showed lack of command oversight. if any of you think organizations within this building for better supervise field activities than other commanders in the field, i think you'd be mistaken. i think you probably know that. so it is important to understand that. next slide. the other portion that you need to understand is that within the chain of command, there is a requirement for oversight of

inspection. and that requirement was not fully exercised throughout the operations that were conduct did at afmao. so command oversight, inspection oversight were laughing. technical oversight was also lacking. and afterwards come outside of the very small group of the accident and bombers and morticians who operate from afmao, there was nobody of independent technical oversight that could show them the way ahead for good reach them on the most modern tech needs. so here you see one the rio currently underway between the armed forces medical examiner and afmao, which you have to understand the diagram and this really shows that it tvd between

afmao and the armed forces medical examiner was intermingled within this activity, within the building of this facility. and in the civilian world, you would recognize the coroner is being very separate and distinct from the mortician. next slide. and the reorganization that has taken place, they have completely separated those two dvds and they have made it clear line in the sand of responsibilities between organizations. in the many recommendations that we've made, we have made 20 of them. i will highlight the ones in the command and control. the secretary of the air force needs to direct that the commander at afmao be given uniform code of military justice authority, be essentially selected and that he be trained well in advance of accepting this position.

it's also very clear to us that the air force -- next slide. next slide. to the first slide, please. but the air force needs to establish a responsive chain of command and we recommend that the air force to start coming either from an existing command or a new command, but i imagine the air force will probably figure a way through services commands to figure out how to get the oversight. but our recommendation says that we have to string than the chain of command by giving the air force the command of authority for afmao to the armed forces medical examiner also needs to be given command authority and the service liaison officers need to become directly responsible to the commander at

afmao. i know this is confusing. i know there's an awful lot of moving parts and boxes in there, but if you read the report and understand this mindset where diagram, you will understand some of the changes that we've recommended from a command. we also recommended to centralize joint mortuary affairs board has the general officers at the top, above the level of afmao at the top part of this teaching up in the senior army general officer for assistant secretary of defense chair that cannot directive authority, which they did not have previously, to make policy recommendations flow through the chain of command, et cetera appeared throughout all of this, you can see in order to make all those work you have to have an overarching department of defense inspector general or some form of inspection agency

designated by the secretary of defense to look at all of this and make sure that the problems between organizations are fixed and properly accounted for. we think that just like in the nuclear surety business, we need to understand that this is 100% no film mission. and that means the same level of care needs to be taken with regard to the final resting place of our fall and that we do in safeguarding a nuclear munitions. it is i think hugely important to understand it is a no film mission. perfection is expected and there has to be very stringent oversight. by the way, the air force can do this. they have a very excellent oversight program for nuclear weapons security and accountability and those types of standards and organizational readiness inspection, et cetera should also be implemented here. and of course come the secretary

of defense and secretary of army have rules and making sure that the system works as well. they are also training issues that we found at afmao. these training issues, although the people they're quite skilled skilled at what they do come in the issues are more of a routine training that needs to be conduct it over time. we found some issues with regard to meeting in terms of whether it was weird fast enough. we also found some other resourcing issues throughout afmao and by the way the air force is addressing it. finally, it is important to note that as you look through the report, there are many other recommendations that we urge the air force to make, before the panel, it is clear to us by correcting the lack of oversight for command, lack of oversight for technical capabilities, lack

of oversight for policy, et cetera, et cetera, all of these things need to be fixed in the report provides a way for them to be fixed in a very timely manner. the panel also recommended the establishment of a board of visitors as technical experts, not unlike the board of visitor -- or the panel that we assembled to be able to report through the defense health board on technical oversight matters and the sistine afmao getting their job done in particular. ..

with >> by the way, all the remains of the fallen have been identified. but you have to also understand the way the remains come into the moch rare where there are --

mixed as a result of the horrific explosions that take place from ieds and so, and what happens, craig, is that the unidentified remain, and you can imagine there's a lot of unidentified remains, and you can also imagine that there are subsequent remains, portions, whole bodies ending up in the landfill is not correct. what happened was, just give me a second, and i'll come back to you. what happened was unidentified portions or portions that the families elected not to have join up to be buried, major portions of the fallen, went to a crematory, they were cream mated there. from there, they were in some sense or other mixed with, and

we can't tell for sure, we don't have the full information and they were either mixed in with some portion of medical waste, so you're taking the remains, you are cremating them, and then mixing with medical west, can't say what it is because we couldn't figure it out, and then it goes to incineration, and then it's down even further, and then from the incineration, it was turned over to medical waste contractors, and that's where the notion of it ending up in the land fill comes about, and as far as we're concerned, that's what happened. anyway, we don't think it should have happened. we think that our fallen deserve what they are getting now, which is remains are taken out to sea and buried at sea, or there's

other things you say in the reports of the veteran's administration that was put into effect. >> yes, sir, i guess what i am asking has to do with 9-1-1 victims. the air force described your procedure, but they just had records of this happening from back of 2003. what your report says -- >> i think -- >> i just want to -- this is important. a lot of people in the public want to know what happened with this, and they said these incinerations of unidentified portions of remains -- >> do you have the page that's on? >> page 6 of one of your subsequent sections, under introductions. if you look on page 6 on the third paragraph, it says "this policy began shortly after

9/11/2001 when several portions of the remains from the pentagon attack and the crash site could not be tested or identified. >> right. >> these >> you need to understand where we put that comment in there is the point for understanding how this happenedded. in other words, while i understand how sensational the notion is, there was a point

where people considered going to the crematorium, and in some states, that's law, that that's the final disposition of the fallen, and so that it goes from the final disposition, which we don't agree with, by the way, the time december position needs to be the final resting place, and we believe that if in never you can trace back the origins of for why what happened happened, records only go back, antedoal evident, told to us by the people interviewed. >> yes, sir, but appendix e in the report, lists in the time line, 25 july 2002, memo from acting director to dispose of group remains from the attack on the pentagon through insip

ration. sounds like there's a memo talking about it. >> right. >> and august 2002, there's another note about remains. seems like it's not just antedotal, but there's paper work. >> you can try to track down the paperwork, but that was not the focus of this panel. this focus of the panel was to look forward, to see what was wrong, to correct what was wrong, or make a forward looking sort of recommendation about what needed to be done. a great deal of time and effort and energy looking into what you're talking about. next question. >> sir, i'm sorry, but -- >> i'm sorry, but we're going to the next question. >> it's in the report. >> it's the report, but it's not the focus of the report. next question. yes, sir? >> but there does seem to be --

>> responsible military civilians aware of questionable activities at the mori chew rare over a series of years. >> i'll readily admit there were a series of investigations within that were command directed inspections, that we looked at, and we concluded that the results of the inspections were not properly taken intoing the. in other words, correct -- with a dysfunctional isolated chain of command, they could not have, which is the point i want to come back to. i appreciate the fact you're looking deep, but we didn't look deep. we spent 5% of the time looking back for information. that was not our charge.

this will fix the problems and restore the confidence. yes, ma'am? >> one thing i wanted to ask is about the lack of oversight. >> go ahead. >> not to go too far in to the past, but why do you think it's taken so long for this to be a come to jesus moment, and do you think there's any factors that will keep that chain of command from being tightened. >> we think the recommendations we made stengthen the chain of command and give the oversight that's necessary. organizational understanding between the various organizations and what they adopted in 2008 basically was

isolate the command. it was an isolateed command i would call it for oversight, and whenever you put things in staff command, you're asking for trouble, and that was identified with whistle-blowers and various investigations that were undertaken or those with a lack of command oversight. yes, sir? >> "wall street journal," from my reading of the earlier reports, a lot of the problems of the missing portions were due to the themes and interaction between the medical examiners and why not a more radical chain of command recommendations from your subcommittee whereby, you

have a civil commander in charge of both groups? . >> yeah, we looked at the possibility of a joint command, and you have to understand that the armed forces medical examiner is not completely doing work on fallen troops. it's working for the broader medical command and armed forces of the united states, does toxicology, dna, dna for the entire army, which is where it impacts here with this, but that's probably only 10%, so we thought about, i mean, at first glance, really, we have to put a joint command in here, but when we look at it, o no, we have to keep this medical line of command to the armed forces medical examiner, and the air force services command line to the air force affairs, and we

have to make the service liaison officers and elements come under the supervision of the department of minimum standards of training, and under the commander. now, the strength of the commander comes from properly resources what goes on in uspnr where the current officer is one that is unable to really handle very, very serious and difficult operational issues that come up, and then you -- you have to strengthen that office and then the army's executive agency oversight, and then you have to up the level of directive authority within the

organization. i think that we have very important to fixing the lack of oversight from a technical manner as well as a command point. >> it seems, if i'm reading this explanation correctly, it seems there was an incident with a master car gent cremated there in september of 2011 and was not cree mated in a hardwood casket, basically card board. >> right. >> troubling, but how do you make the leap from that to no cremations 1234 >> there's a new crematorium built there, and that crematorium, there have

been times when families have asked for their fallen family members to be cremated at, and we think that it's a bad idea for the business, especially at such a quick point in the process to family, and families make that decision fir their disposition because sometimes a mother wants the body cremates, a father may not. these are filled with all sorts of difficult sorts of issues for the families, and so we think it best only use them, only use the crematorium absolutely when necessary. >> after, was it relatively

new? >> yes. yes, ma'am? >> a couple things. >> we'll come back to you, because i can see -- >> yeah, two civilian bodies were used to tip?

>> there was a lot here. >> quell well, a lot i can't say about. we included what we thought, at the time line was important for understanding of what's going on there, and the time line goes back pretty far. >> like on september 26, 2005, you went to the investigation that found that human remains were misrouted in a fashion constituting their motion to sue. do you know anything about that? >> look what we didn't do is go back and look detailing through

the records to try to determine whether or not something had gone wrong there. we knew that something had gone wrong. our charge was to look at what was going on now, figure out what to do going forward, and fix it. there was a lot things going wrong there because of lack of demand and oversight and policy in some and coordination, and so, craig, you get the last question. >> thank you, sir. i appreciate that. >> you're welcome. >> i guess i don't understand you looked forward and not back, but appendix c, these were all incidents, investigations, allegations of fraud, settlements to the spouse of a marine for anguish. these are not public -- >> well, i don't know that they have not been made public.

>> they have not been made public. >> okay. >> we'd like more information about them because -- >> it's not our panel. >> [inaudible] >> we have records received from the air force that we published. >> release the records outlined in your appendix? >> it's been released. >> the memos and -- >> i have no authority to release anything. you'll have to go to the air force to ask for those particular questions, but i'm telling you in conclusion that you need to focus on these recommendations about whether or not they'll strengthen accountability throughout the entire system. i think they will. i think they'll strengthen command oversight, strengthen technical oversight, training, accountability and coordination between organizations, and they'll lay the ground work that this never happens again and

adopts the policy of this. historically, craig, shortly, you'll have to ask the question elsewhere. i can only say historically there were significant problems there. >> were you shocked this happened? it was a top priority to treat the fallen, how could it have happened? >> i'm not shocked. i've been in the armed forces of the united states for a long time. i've seen just about everything that can be seen. i'm not shocked that our sorts of revelations you consider to be revelation, are they completely explainable? i think they probably are. of the vast number of cases that

come through the port mortuary, people do the right thing 99% of the time. we're talking about the 1% of the time when things didn't go right and because there was no proper command oversight, we didn't really have the ability to get down and look at the organization and figure out how to fix it. i think what my panel did is provide a guide path to the secretary of defense to fix those things that are wrong, and i think that my panel did a good job in doing that. i appreciate the fact that you may regard some of these things as the ire reel rapt, i did not. i regarded them as issues that happened in an organization that didn't have the proper mechanism necessary to correct them, and they happen too many times. that's why we make these recommendations here, so i very much enjoyed that. i -- [laughter] i don't think you will see me again. [laughter] i do appreciate the fact that

this is a very important issue for the country. look, it's about confidence; right? confidence has will be lost in the ability of these organizations that care properly for the fallen. we must restore the confidence of those doing the work, got people, honest people, hard working patriotic people who don't mean to do the wrong thing. they are constantly doing the right thing, but it takes more than them at the motto fix it. it takes oversight from above that flows through the chain of command, and that's what is weak, and that's what's has to be fixed. thanks. [inaudible conversations]

>> even a person who is a senator or president of the united states faces a predictment when they talk about race. they face all sorts of things. they face the fact there's some in a crucial number that are precious. they face the fact a much larger portion of the american populous wants to deny the reality of race, even now. >> sunday, law clerk, randall kennedy on racism, politics, and the obama administration. he's the scholar of five books and takes your calls, e-mails, and tweets for three hours live on "in-deathdepth" on c-span2. >> primary voting continues in michigan and arizona.

showing more than supporting the bailout of the auto industry. >> we talked with congressman happenson clarke about this year's presidential race in politics. >> host: welcoming back to the table congressman happenson clarke, democrat of michigan, excuse me, and michigan and arizona primaries today. focusing on michigan. >> guest: sure. >> host: mitt romney was on hand last night on the fox network, asked about the auto bayout issue and what it means for the state. this is what he had to say. >> the right way to get detroit

back is to get the american economy to come back. part of that is by changing the entire relationship between government and the private sector. this president has to view that government should dominate what's happening in the private sector and directs the course of general motors and he doesn't, and the right course is to have lower corporate taxes and lower marginal taxes for americans across the board, secondly, get regulations to work to encourage free enterprise in the country, not stifle it, third, energy policies to taping advantage of our energy resources, fourth, open up new trade agreements this president stalled on, and finally, crack down on china for stealing our jobs in unfair ways. do those thing, detroit comes back, america comes back, and we'll be working again. >> host: congressman? agree or disagree? >> guest: totally off base.

he has to invest in detroit to create jobs in this country, and that's what the president did when his leadership helped rescue the auto industry. the president's decisive action saved not only the auto industry, but the u.s. economy, and so many of our jobs come from manufacturing, and so in michigan, they're doing much better now that the president was able to help save the auto industry and there's folks in michigan uninsured right now, no health insurance, at risk of going bankrupt because of high health care costs, can be helped because of the president's leadership in land mark health care reform, and so, yeah, i think he has it wrong. our country's academy is wrong because of manufacturing, because of up vesting in detroit. that's what the president has done, and that's why michigan's going to support him in november.

>> host: congressman, the polls showing a little bit different take on this issue of the auto bailout. doubtful of employment -- 51% of all of those polls disapprove of the federal government auto bailout. 31% of democrats disapprove, and 63% aproven of this, but crucial for obama's reelection, less than half, 45% of independents approve of the auto bailouts. is that a problem for the president? >> no, it's not. the reason why people will vote for the president and what they are concerned about is the overall health of the economy. they are doing better now than before. our economy's so much strong e and they see the benefit of increased jobs because of a stronger auto industry and a will the is because of political

messaging. they may not appreciate how the economy's grown so much now. the spirit of the economy is growing as well, and that's because of the threat of its leadership. >> guest: learning today from democrats, an open primary in michigan, democrats are being encouraged to turn out and vote, the labor unions encouraging democrats to go out and vote for rick santorum in order to undermind mitt romney as a candidate for the general election. do you think that's appropriate? should democrats be voting in this primary? >> guest: there's some people asking democrats to crossover and vote in the republican primary. i already voted. i voted absentee, and i voted for president obama. i encourage everyone now who is watching vote for president obama. vote for who you think will be the best person to lead our country in the next four years. it's clearly the president. he saved auto jobs he provided

the families now with opportunities to get more affordable education. >> host: on this issue of the labor unions, president obama speaking today in washington before the united auto workers, having a conference here in washington, why else does he need to say to the workers? >> number one, that every worker must have the right to bargain collectively. that's important. i know this firsthand. my father was an immigrant from india, died when i was 8 years old and died a slow painful death and worked in the plant and they were able to negotiate workplace protections. he breathed in all that stuff in his lungs and he died because of that. organized labor helped save the lives of many parents after that. they were not able to save my dad's life, but this country is

strong because we've had labor being an advocate for workers getting paid a wage and benefit, and that's important to create jobs, not only do we have to manufacture the best products to be sold worldwide, but which we are right now. the american people, need the money to prosper and create more jobs. that's essential for the economy and future. >> host: on the issue of jobs, 9.3%, ranks 11th worst among states including washington, d.c.. president obama doing enough to bring jobs? >> guest: yes, he's working to create jobs. what he's doing is what many of the republicans don't see the value in -- >> host: although it's higher than the national average? >> guest: we were like the worst in the country, though, before, for a long time, and now people are going to work. mu buddies working in the auto plan plant, and people have hope. they feel good about themselves,

going back to school, knowing the president is helping making college more affordable, reducing student loan debt. the recent housing agreement that he helps brokers nationally help many folks in michigan stay in their homes who otherwise would lose their homes and life savings and foreclosures. people understand the president is fighting for them directly and their economic interests. >> host: president obama has seen uptick in the approval ratings. his personal approval rating of a 4% overall job approval, and on this issue of people peopling optimistic. the president's numbers are not that great. if you look at president obama on jobs in the economy and budget issues when people asked in this "politico" survey to give george washington university ground polls, 59 disproved of the president with spending, 51% disapprove with

the handling of the economy, and 50% disapprove with what he's done on jobs. >> guest: first of all, the president went through a horrific recession in the country. in michigan, metro detroit, outright depression, the worst i've seen, and i grew up on the streets of detroit. people see the pos sieve difference now. people are going back to work in michigan with good paying jobs, people are able to go back to school now and able to afford it, and the white house shared this -- a lot of people don't see those working bhiebd the scenes helping people. the white house is working on an initiative to train metro detroiters for jobs already available in michigan but are unfilled in the information technology space because we don't have the people trained for that. he's doing that now. that's going to train people for over 3,000 jobs.

once they see the benefit of what he's doing and know the president and the great things happening in the economy, no doubt people will vote. >> host: congressman from michigan the guest, from the metro detroit area. up first, democrat in new york, good morning, norman. >> caller: hello? >> host: you're on the air. >> caller: oh, i was -- [inaudible] there was a survey taken at yale university, and they said that part of the $80 billion and pension funds and the loss of income and that investment would help bring it back. remember those three executives came with their own private plap

at that time, and they were not concerned about the welfare of the automobile industry. the president did the right thing, saved the industry, and they were able to have a cheap rate, and where would we be today without all the other supporting the automobile industry. >> host: "washington times" echoeded those comments. could exceed 14 million vehicles this year compared to the 12.8 million last year. they are hiring shifts and hiring workers across the country. car makers and part companies added 38,000 jobs last year. the downside, the success is straining detroit auto makers'

factory networks as well as companies that make the thousands of parts that go into the each vehicle and that could lead to charges that drive up prices. are you hearing this in detroit? what are you hearing? >> guest: it's a good problem to have. there's so much demand, we need capacity. this is why the president's strong cities, strong communities initiative bringing in all of the cabinet departments to rebuild cities in the united states, six of them in detroit, it's been one of them, that will help redevelop a lot of the veigh captain land that we have. we can build new plants in detroit, but we have to have the business climate. the president's working right now in detroit to help make the streets safer, improve the schools, stabilize the housing stock, and then train people for jobs, so that's great. that means what the president's done has been a success. detroit has a well paid work force, we have the property and research universities to build

more exeat and create jobs. he's working on rebuilding the city which creates jobs in michigan and throughout the country. >> host: taking e-mails, phone calls, and tweets for the congressman from wishes, and we have a phone line set aside for michigan residents, 202-628-0134. independent from new jersey, you are up next. go ahead. >> caller: yes, just two points that i just think the congressman is living in a dream world. first point, and please don't cut me off, i'll be quick. first point is democrats have controlled the state of michigan in the city of detroit for how many decades? two democratic senators, a democratic governor, the whole congressional delegation is majority democrats. the mayor of detroit has been a democrat. when you blame the economy, don't you have to look in the

mirror? my second point is because no one helped destroy michigan more than the democratic party and unions that demand too much. my second point is everybody keeps saying what obama inherited. people forget obama was in the u.s. senate for four years. he has supported policies like trying to rally, but the cars have to have 65 miles per gallon. what's that going to do to detroit? destroy it because nobody wants the slower cars, and you can't make them. >> host: let's get the congressman to respond. democrats are responsible and the unions are responsible for the down fall of detroit. >> no, what happened with detroit, yes, lost a quarter of a million residents in ten years as a result of many factors. number one, the housing crisis.

because we didn't properly regulate the housing industry, we allowed homes to go into foreclosures and allow people to be victims of predator yal loan, and also, too, it was the state's misguided takeover the detroit public school system that resulted 234 many good schools being closed in neighborhoods, and as a result, parents left the city of detroit and left with their tax dollars, and that's why the city is in financial crisis in part. the president has effectively been addressing the foreclosure problem with a landmark settlement to help people stay in their homes, and as a member of the science committee on science education, i've been working with the secretary of education to help reform and improve the schools, and the president on top of that, american jobs act initiative understands the value of reducing classroom sizes for the

young people to learn more by hiring more teachers. he has the plan to rebuild the city, and he's already taken action. no, the caller doesn't understand why the states have been in the problems. it's because of housing, education, and we've had trade policies. it was not because of the wages and benefits of workers, although many people want to blame that on that,. yes, detroit is in a financial crisis, but they have a well paid work force, great research universities, the capacity to build new plants and create more jobs, not only for detroiters, but for all this country. the reason why i see this is detroit is the democracy in the past, won the war, saved the country from fascism, and created millions of jobs. we also now have the capability of creating jobs flout the country in manufacturing, and that's why the president's leadership savedded the auto

industry, was doing more than that, saving the country's economy and creating jobs. jobs now that people are being hired into and is making our economy stronger every day. >> host: united auto workers holding a two-day conference in washington today and tomorrow and president obama spoke before theupon today. go to c-span.org for more details on the coverage. let's go to a republican in michigan, how are you going to vote? >> caller: mitt romney. >> host: why is that? >> caller: well, the obama administration is not working, clearly. i was watching the program where they say the economy is strong, it's sharp strong. he seems to have pretty much the same ideas on the bailouts that i do, so that's where i'm going. >> host: okay. all right, congressman? >> guest: the economy is improving. people are going back to work,

and most importantly, people are seeing a way to manage their debt, to be able to stay in their homes, the president's also taking on student loan debt, the worst type of debt, because it robs people of the ability to get the education that we need in order to pay for these jobs globally. finally, by taking leadership to provide health insurance, over a million michigan residents had no insurance and likely could go bankrupt because of high health care costs. that took leadership, political courage, that's going to help michigan residents, and that's why michigan supports president obama in november. >> host: republican in las vegas, early morning to you. >> caller: hey, how are you guys doing? good morning. >> host: morning. >> caller: okay, i have a question for mr. happensen. i don't like the comment you

made 15 minutes ago that you said the right person needs to be in office is the president, and president obama is not the right person to be in office. i'm 20 years old, republican, and when i was in high school, i was just fascinated by this, and my mother came here because of communism, and that's what i see in president obama. he's not changed anything. i live in las vegas. the economy has not improved at all here. i don't know how things are in michigan, but nobody's buying cars here, nobody sells anything here. it's very -- i believe you know it, and i just think you're taking president obama's side, and he has not changed anything. >> host: we got the point, has not changed anything on the economy. >> guest: he talked about communism, referring to the role of government in america. america has a republic. let me say this, this is why i'm a democrat.

why i believe government has the role in helping stabilizing the economy and helping people. when i was in my early 20s, i had lost everything that was important to me in life. my parents were dead, lost my college scholarship, my income, i was on food stamps. i many my food stamps cut off. i knew i was not going to make it in life. the one thing that provided me hope was there was an initiative created by an agent of congress that provided me with not only a job, but assigned me to help high school students who were skipping school. it gave me more than a paycheck. it gave me confidence in myself to actually see i that could do something to help people. yes, that was the government's program. it helped change my life. all government is is us, us bringing together our tax dollars to help each other in a time of great need.

we're in an economic crisis. if we lost the industry, we would have lost the manufacturing base, the ability to create the best products to be sold worldwide and our pride in ourselfings as americans and the president didn't allow that to happen. yes, government can be us. it's us. it's our money used together to help each other. completely disagree with you. >> host: the democratic line, ashville, north carolina. >> caller: yes, are you there? >> guest: i am, i can hear you well. >> caller: okay. number one really because paid back, took back another loan to pay back their loans, they have not paid back the bondholders

yet. three, as in the auto industry failing? gm -- [inaudible] volvo, nonunion factory and bmw also a nonunion factory. they are doing just fine and are still doing just fine. >> host: taking your points, first one, taking loans to pay off other loans. >> guest: they paid off the loans. they needed the support to get stablized and create jobs. it was not just a bankruptcy, and the president's leadership, he negotiated tough concessions on both sides with management and labor. this was something that we needed to do at this time, and so, no, that type of a rescue was essential to keep the auto industry stable. >> host: what about bondholders, still have nos been paid back. >> guest: the car companies are just now starting to make

money. now that gm is making record profits, but, you know, again, it's the bankruptcy. >> host: volvo, bmw, non-union companies not in trouble and the other union companies were in trouble. >> guest: there were changes that need to be made. there was restructuring that needed to happen in the auto industry. that is true. the president's leadership made those changes and improved those companies. absolutely. you know what though? it's not because of union wages. we have a strong middle class because of organized labor. i don't want people to forget that. right now, we always want to take a whipping boy it's not that. labor help protect these. the only labor sometimes is too good of a job. people forget how they got great wages and benefits. it was not on your own, but because together workers were organized and lobbied and

negotiated for those benefits over time. that's how they are able to get the good wages and benefits. >> host: chris in queens creek, arizona, independent there, go ahead, chris. >> caller: yeah, congressman, real quick, and i want to put the ideological book up on the shelf for both republican and democrat. i just want you to address the reality of the numbers. child that was born at the beginning of the obama administration owes $30,000 right now. four years of president obama, that person owes $50,000. if president obama is re-elected at the end of his years, an 8-year-old owes $80,000. here's 16.2 trillion in debt. we have not cut anything other than slowed the increase of the federal debt, and president obama is re-elected, we will have $22 trillion in debt.

now, look me straight in the eyes, okay, and basically come to the point you have a checking the. you have a mortgage a pay. you know this as well as i do. that's bankruptcy. neither republican or democrat are willing to go ahead and step forward and make choices, and i'm talking entitlement programs and the reality of it is, you have to cut those things. if you do not, guess what? we're bankrupt. we'll be bankrupt. >> host: congressman? >> guest: well, first of all, you're collect we have to manage the federal money properly, but the reason why we got into this mess for the last ten years we got into two wars, we didn't pay for it, provided a benefit not paid for and cut taxes to reduce the revenue. that's a bad situation. the president's taken decisive action to reduce the costs, but

we're out of iraq, now drawing down in afghanistan, but, and this -- in this caller's question is the reason why many republicans are not getting traction in michigan while they support the president because the real debt that michigan residents are concerned about is not necessarily the federal debt, which we need to address in a long term responsible way, but their personal debt. their mortgage that they are underwater on. the student loans, things they carry for decades of burdening them and preventing their kids from enjoying a good life. that is the debt that the president's taking on directly, helping people stay in their homes, avoid foreclosure, provide certainty on one certain loans to be forgiven after 20 years, by allowing borrowing to pay the loan based on your income demanding that congress keep a cap on student loan interests rates. these are real debt, the

question is the credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and that's precisely what democrats are helping to reduce on american families, reduce dealt burden, and that's why the economy is coming back because not only do we have to create jobs, you also need to give americans more purchasing power. you help reduce personal personal debt on americans, they have more money to invest, buy a home, start a business creating more jobs and prosperity. >> host: one from michigan as well, independent caller there. >> caller: yeah, hello? >> host: good morning, you're on the air. >> caller: yeah, thank you. i'm trying to figure out michigan used to have multiple primaries for a long time, and this morning i hear on local news they closed the primary, and i don't understand that. now i have to choose a party. >> host: we see in the

prepares today it is an open primary. do you have an update on that, congressman? that it's a closed primary? >> guest: you know, i was not focused on that, i just wanted people to vote on the candidate who is the best person. >> host: as far as we know, it's an open primary, so what do you plan to do? were you planning to vote today? >> caller: well, i was planning to, but they want me to sign up for a party, and be an independent, i don't want to do that. i was going to vote for rick santorum because i don't know what i'm going to do now. >> host: you were going to vote for rick santorum because you don't like him? >> caller: yeah, hoping he'll win and that way that's putting pressure on mitt romney, at least it'll make the primaries last longer. >> host: okay. what do you think about that? is that appropriate?

>> guest: you know -- >> host: for michigan voters to be doing? >> guest: it's a free country, and that's the beauty of it. you can vote for who you want to for whatever purpose. vote for the person you want to get elected. that's the way of making the political process work for people. >> host: heard about the calls put out by rick santorum's campaign encouraging democrats to vet for him in the primary. >> guest: we'd be better off politically if we didn't deal with those tactics this discourage people from voting, and just focus on serving the public, talking about your records and your plan to actually help the american people. that's the simple way to do it, and that's how you get rehired. i had to run against incumbents and democratic primaries, and i did that by listening to people and working for them. it's that simple. >> host: democratic line in north carolina, good morning, ben. ben, are you with us?

ben in north carolina? >> caller: yes? >> host: from north carolina? >> caller: this is dennis. >> host: all right, go ahead. >> caller: i don't understand that we have eight years of bush. nobody had a problem. we -- [inaudible] i don't think these people understand. people who try to get elected, but i mean they had a policy, they'll vote for what the policy will be. all they want to do is say what he did or did not do. we have congress. congress is the one who put it together. >> host: got the point. is racism at play here in the campaign 2012? >> guest: i think negativism

is unfortunately that turns people off from voting. now, many people can say that the president's held to a higher standard than others in the past, but the president has a record to run op that he's accomplished, taken bold leadership moves to create jobs, a great plan to help create more jobs, helped american families, and he understands the importance of investing in detroit in or ran areas, and he's doing that. we have a chance to vote for the person who we think is the best person, and the president, he's a tough guy. you know what? i met him years ago both in the state senate. he's just wanting to see this country provide the opportunities that it stands for to everyone, and he's doing

that. he's fully committed to that. he's not concerned about the fiscal impact at all. >> host: have you had a conversation with him since being elected to congress? >> guest: yes, i spoke to him on air force one expressing i was concerned about the city of detroit's finances, and he's working with the major of detroit to provide systems that know how to help the city, and, again, detroit is so key not only to michigan, but it is still the point of u.s. manufacturing, and also detroit is the symbol of the economic come back of america. people see detroit coming back, they know america's strong again. >> host: how did you get a ride on air force one? >> guest: the president came to visit michigan, and i went back to dc with him. it was for one purpose to mention to the president to support investing in detroit,

and to rebuild. >> host: his response? >> guest: he understood it. he's the man who saved the auto industry. he knows. >> host: independent caller, you're next. >> caller: i was calling about unemployment benefits that congress just passed. supposedly michigan does not qualify for the extended benefits that's called ed, okay? so i don't understand what the unemployment rate is that a certain level in order to qualify for this race and people in michigan dropped off the unemployment role, so why in the world why levin and all the guys vote for this unemployment and we don't get anything. none of the rest of the unemployment benefits. >> guest: the reason they

don't get the full benefits, it's not because of what congress did, but what the michigan legislature has done by reducing the amount of unemployment that the unemployment -- and reduce the benefits connected, and the problem is with the republican, and not trying to be partisan, but the republican controlled state legislature reduced unemployment, and that now, in turn, has reduced the federal benefit that both can receive. that's important. we want people to make it. look, i was almost on the street. i understand the anxiety of not knowing how you're going to be able to provide for your family. the president's working on the best unemployment policy, creating jobs, helping to train

people for jobs that are currently available, and that's how we're going to get people on their feet, but in the meantime, be compassionate. we cannot allow people to be in the street like this. so many homeless veterans right now that we cannot put people on the streets. we have to extend the unemployment benefits. the unemployment benefits in michigan, again, are nos at well as they could be because of the state legislature's actions in reducing unemployment benefits. >> host: congressman, a tweet for you. obama bailed out failing car companies with bad management and the same management is still running the companies. what changed? >> guest: it's different management. the president demanded reforms, major concessions, and so the president's leadership and tough decisions he made helped restructure the auto industry into now a little profitable -- look at what gm is doing,

scored -- earned record profits this past year, and i only see more jobs being created through the auto industry and moving manufacturing sector over time. >> host: all right. couple stories this morning confirming the primary is open. reid, republican, in forth smith, washington, good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you for taking the call. a couple quick comments, and then i'll get off the air. the president keeps railing on the auto industry and how the president staved it. you know, the reality is any big plan like chevrolet, chrysler, when they go into bankruptcy, there's brands for 100 years and my investor will want to adopt that. the federal government doesn't need to step in in an unconstitutional way, save the investors money and give it to whoever they decide. the president, i'm sorry, it's

radical in his attitude towards it. i wish democrats would get off this about how the president saved anything. >> host: and the market works as well. >> guest: if they didn't, they wouldn't have gm or chrysler. taxpayers need the money to pull together to help create jobs and save jobs for americans. that's all this was about. the president had the courage, the up sight, and the toughness to make the decisions happen. >> host: we learned that speaker boehner before the past recess break said this would be a huge issue in the 2012 campaign. how concerned are you that rising gas prices could hurt re-election and could impact democrats' chance of taking back the house and taking the senate? >> caller: i'm not concerned about the politics of it. the reality is the oil

speculators are rising up the price of oil, increasing the volatility, and, yes, the demand for oil in china and india is keeping prices up. the president understands that we have to responsibly reduce dependence on foreign oil, and i'm looking at all sources of energy, wind, solar, and he's increased the oil and gas production domestically in the u.s., and then also looking at better ways of being more energy efficient, being more conservative on how we use energy. >> host: on the issue of increasing oil and gas production in the country. was he wrong then on the keystone pipeline then to delay that? >> guest: he wanted to make sure that this pipeline didn't jeopardize the environment and pollute our water quality allowing the companies to reapply for the permit. that's fully responsible. >> host: the gas prices, did

your colleagues say that the president should tap the strategic oil reserves in the country. do you agree with him? >> guest: that could be away of greasing it, but, again, the fundmentals of it, oil speculation is driving the oil prices up. for example, it's been reported that just a day after the outbreak in libya, oil prices went up dramatically even though the oil supply remained unchanged. it's speculation that's driving this. ..

and that's the president's planned. he's striking the right balance winning as from our dependence on foreign all but making sure a natural resource and public health is protected at the same time as a leader he has to look at this in a balanced perspective. i represent one area i can fight for detroit. the

also brought along with that initiative he received two wars. now can i also, i would like to correct the gentleman about how the american autoworkers and uaw from chrysler and general motors cut in this situation. we are not planning on the playing field as far as trade. we cannot send our cars to japan or korea to the extensive tariff placed on our part, yet there's legislation out there from the republican side who wish to reduce the amount of terrorists to be cut tariffs on their vehicles. one other point. also, the congressman brought up that detroit was in world war ii. you realize general motors was the only auto manufacturer that

wasn't supportive 9/11 after the attack? let me also make one other point -- >> host: in going to stop you there. we are running out of time and i want to get another phone call or to waive weekends i'm going to have the congressman responds to your trade argument. >> guest: he is right, our trade policies have been missed balanced. these are agreements on the balance that have allowed the foreign companies to be able to sell more of their products are in the u.s. than we have been able to sell overseas and that's not fair, so that's another reason why we as taxpayers help support our industry in a time it actually needed it and make our industry smaller and train more people for these jobs. we have a great market here in the u.s. and we are going to be able to sell cars to our own people we just have to make sure people are being paid a fair wage so they can purchase these cars. that's how the industry grow. it's because the american workers are being paid a wage

that they can now afford to purchase that car and that is the american way. you provide opportunity for people to enjoy themselves and invest the purchase of products they choose and that is what the president supported. >> host:, hansen clarke represents the 13th district of michigan in the detroit area. peter, you're next. independent in his new york. >> caller: yes. i find it disingenuous on many levels because you don't talk in any way about how the unions are tied to president obama. you don't talk about the fact that in 08 the union gave more money to obama than the entire american people. the 400 million of the $700 million. on top of that, you don't talk about the fact that the car companies that were bailed out by the president are paying no taxes the next few years. now i can discuss a whole bunch of other subjects but i'd like to hear you on those right now.

>> guest: number one, it is vital that we support american manufacturing. that's what made this country strong, and manufacturing not only creates more jobs in the manufacturing sector it creates service jobs. so, i would say that supporting manufacturing is probably the most important policy measure that we could implement to create jobs and create a future for americans. also, i'm not here to be partisan. we have republicans in michigan that understand the value of supporting metro detroit like kansas miller and understand the importance of having effective urban policy, but we have to quit bashing of the american worker. the american worker is the one that's built these great products. we want to make sure that they get paid fairly, and in this country unlike other countries, our workers are able to bargain collectively which is so important so they can get a fair deal.

>> host: bond is next in michigan. good morning, donna. >> caller: good morning. greta. hauer you? >> guest: good, how are you? >> caller: there's been confusion other michigan callers about the voting. we are an open primary, but what you do is when you go and vote you have to choose one of two ballots. you can't vote for both democrats and republicans you have to choose to you only want to vote for republicans were only democrats. if you are independent to use the independent and to give balad? if you are a democrat likely to go vote 10:05 whenever the show was over, on the republican ballett still going to be a democrat. >> host: why are you going to vote on the republican ballot? [inaudible] you are going to vote for rick santorum to undermine mitt romney? >> caller: yeah, we did it to george bush and mccain, too.

>> host: and you think that's appropriate? >> caller: for america. >> host: all right. louisiana. jackie, republican. you're next. >> caller: hello. mr. clarke? appreciate you being on the show this morning. i would like to ask a question if i could. you know, people talk about how gm was bailed out, and dr. lee was a bankruptcy. so a bankruptcy is a bankruptcy. you think that contracts are binding? someone signed a contract and the government can step in and say we are not going to honor that anymore so i want to ask a question to you think of someone signs a contract that is valid and should be honored and therefore do not think that gm and the auto industry is a normal bankruptcy would have not done the same thing that we had a previous caller that talked about the brand name, that it would not accomplish the same thing? i will listen for ury answer. thank you. >> caller: probably not. as with those emergency loans that's what helped provide the

auto companies the capitol that the need to be able to restructure and to be able to ultimately create jobs in the process that they are enjoying right now and the workers are in joining. >> host:,, one must phone call for you. david is in a couple of misery, and dependent? >> caller: yes. thank you. yes, my question is every time we seem like the economy -- i live in a rural area and i am disabled and i can't afford to buy new cars any way. i would like to but when you are disabled and don't make that kind of money. my question is every time we seem to start rolling in going in an upward direction, gas prices shoot up again. all i keep hearing is about these manipulators or whatever it's called that has to do with the oil prices. we are such a powerful country why can't we do anything about that? and also, we talk about using the alternative fuel. well, they keep going to ethanol and using it for cornyn and bigger using all the corn we

feed our animals with and we can't afford to buy corn. >> host: congressman clarke. >> caller: the caller says we have to diversify our energy supply coming and that is the president is talking about and that's his plan, is to get wind, solar, natural gas and domestic oil production along with energy efficiency. so we have to look at -- and biofuel. so we have to get the whole range of resources that are available. succumbing yes. i understand that. and that's why the president's energy policy, i think, is the appropriate one, the responsible one long term. >> host: congressman clarke, thank you for talking to the viewers this morning. >> guest: you're welcome. and michigan, again it's about saving the economy and manufacturing jobs. it's providing our families the financial security the needy and the chance to be able to go to school. the president is working on driving down tuition rates. that's going to make it more affordable to everyone to get the training they need to get hired in these new advanced

manufacturing jobs and that's what the american dream is all about. >> host: we will leave it there on the michigan primary. >> we have results from today's presidential primaries in arizona and michigan on c-span2 night. gop candidates mitt romney and rick santorum have been campaigning in michigan today. while the other two republican candidates from paul and newt gingrich have not been in the state. ron paul is speaking in springfield virginia tonight, and new gingrich is calling a rally in georgia this evening that will get under way live on c-span shortly. so we will have speeches from all of the republican presidential candidates tonight in our primary results program along with your phone calls over on c-span. house republicans today unveiled a package that they said would help small businesses raise capital and create jobs. here's a briefing held out by the capitol today.

>> [inaudible conversations] their success was burned buying mining businesses and succeeding the very tough economy that we are in the house has been noted these entrepreneurs made it through. the years were 06 and 08 and there is plenty of the entrepreneurs who have not needed is for them that we are here and we are here to make sure we can jump-start this economy. we are here all behind the jobs

out. to jump-start our act. it is a compilation of bills some of which have been voted on the floor of the house with heavy bipartisan support. these are bills which also reflect the work of the president's job council. and as has been shown today, the white house has said we need to get started jump-start in our business start-ups, and that's exactly what the bill does. many of the members that are here will speak about the bills in the package. they range from increasing ability for small business to access capital, to the bills that tend to reduce the regulatory burden on the startup businesses, and frankly allow them to flourish and grow, and that's what we believe is the secret to the success of growing this economy. it's get the small business engine started again. as a, with a that it is my

pleasure to call upon laureen coming ten, president of the oil company in bloomfield of michigan, a successful entrepreneur who's here in washington to join to try to jump-start the small business. >> thank you. first i just want to say that as we look at our country and how to motivate our economy its entrepreneurs every company in this country started by an entrepreneur so with the leader has done for us is he's given us this opportunity to unshackles some of the things that have been binding us, so my company which is an energy company this is going to create the opportunity to create jobs and we are just really grateful for them. >> next of course is the speaker of the house who has been nothing but a champion for small

businesses being a small businessman himself knowing the importance of growing small business. >> let me just say thank you and your team and all the members behind us that have worked hard to put this bill together. red tape bureaucracy, lack of access to capital makes it difficult to create new businesses. right now we have a new business start-ups at the lowest level we've seen in some 30 years and if we are serious about growing our economy and creating opportunities for our fellow citizens, making sure that we get rid of the red tape and that people have access to capital or critically important. i used to run a small business. i know about the red tape bureaucracy and how difficult it is to put the cattle together to take an idea and turn it into a real business. so i want to think all of the members for their work during the state of the union address the president called for ideas just like this in order to

increase business start-ups in our country coming and i hope that the democrats and the white house will join us in moving this very important bill. >> next up, i would like to call upon the majority whip who has one of the hallmark bills in this package, kevin mccarthy. >> thank you, mr. leader, and i will tell you at age 20i started my first business, a small doubly. didn't put a lot of fault into the name but a lot of thought into it. in today's environment, i don't know, i could start it again. the biggest challenge we have is access to capital and regulation. and we wonder is small business the place we should focus and in my view it is the only place. every statistic shows you the greatest growth in america you take from the last recession to the beginning of this one from the small business 7 million jobs were created by small

business. 60% of the 7 million came from companies 5-years-old or gender. and as the speaker said we are at our lowest level in 30 years. this is a great opportunity to find with the future holds. this will jump-start it. now the challenge when it comes to access to capital when i started my first small business kind of successful so i wanted to open five more rallies to the police. it's hard for a bank to lend to a 20-year-old kid but because i agree with on a different side of the neighborhood, the rules that we have based in 1933i couldn't go talk to somebody that had capital that wanted to invest with me privately ellison had a previous relationship with them. i would have to go register, take my money, get an attorney and register with the sec. that's yesterday. today we want you devotee to have a good idea for capital to find the idea, but also when you have the ability to find capital

and other places you don't have to make the monthly payments, you are able to grow and prosper the business and get the ideas so let's match a strong idea with somebody that wants to match capital and go out there. one thing people don't realize today, there is more cash on hand than any time in the last 50 years and is it's there because of the uncertainty in the country. this will not go down. >> next up is a member of the financial services committee and our chairman of the republican conference, joe hensarling. >> thank you. we know that we continue to be in the slowest and weakest recovery in the postwar era and one of the reasons we are as the previous speakers have pointed out is that new business start-ups are at one of their lowest levels in decades. not unlike hour majority with the before coming to converse on was a small business person and

the two great challenges that i had as a small-business person was access to capital and government red tape. the jobs bill addresses both of them. i certainly want thank eric cantor for heading up this initiative, but we have to jump-start our small businesses. we know that it is the animal spirit that adam smith wrote about in 1796 that are the key to job growth in america. we want to help on leash those animal spirits to jump-start this to help our small businesses grow greater access to capital, and even bernie marcus, the founder and former chairman of home depot once said he couldn't even start home depot today. we need to make sure the future home depot get their start, the job act addresses that and i'm proud to be a co-sponsor. >> next, a member of the financial services committee chairwoman of the financial

institutions subcommittee from west virginia, shelley capito. >> thank you for being here today. i am really excited to be here for two reasons. number one, last week when i was home many of us were home i went to our technical park, it was formerly a huge research facility for what was then the union, but the community leaders got together when they downsized and thought what are we going to do with this area and what it is is exactly what we are talking about today. it's for entrepreneurs, new ideas to create the businesses of the future for a state like west virginia as they are transitioning away from some of the more traditional ways of economies in the state and the question i got in this meeting is what are you doing for the entrepreneur start-ups and the bills we passed through the committee to the financial services committee some that we passed through on the floor the other reason the other question

i got is are you ever going to bring anything together? and i don't think they are meaning us together, they mean us as america's yes but as republicans and democrats this is something we agree on we've shown in the committee and work through the bumps and bruises in the committee and we've done it on the floor. i think the president is supportive of this because he knows it will relate in job creation. the other thing i like about this bundle of bills is it does look to the future. it looks at how to use the internet, how to use the new technologies to create capital to eliminate regulations and to be more efficient and reward those bright young minds that are trying to find a way to not only provide for themselves but provide for the members of their community. >> next is the individual who actually whose bill will serve as the base bill and the sponsor from tennessee. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i was speaking to a group of

constituents, and one of them said we need jobs company to bring us more jobs, and i said news flash, we don't create jobs in the halls of congress. the private sector creates jobs and that's what this package does. it puts the focus back on the private sector back on capitalism and free market. i was thinking the heartbeat of america is in the heartland of america come off in washington, d.c. on a beautiful day like this we have here it's good we were sitting here a year and a half ago almost to do what we are doing today. this is a process that's been a tough journey but this shows you we can work together and hopefully our colleagues will get behind this and show the american people it can be the greatest country on earth and our children can have the brightest future than we have had. thank you. >> next is the gentle lady from new york, also serves on the financial services committee, dr. man he worked.

>> thank you mr. leader and compliments to you and our colleagues for introducing a bill that will truly transform the climate for our businesses in ways we desperately need. i represent the hudson valley of new york, and in fact we do have folks at home i can think of very directly. a biotech entrepreneur who are growing companies right in the hudson valley. they are creating life saving innovations. they are creating jobs. and the jobs act will provide them with the fuel the need to grow. this is what america is about. this is the best of america. it's about our and entrepreneur somehow or innovators and all of the people who rely on americans to create and innovate and all of our american people who desperately need jobs and will have many more of them based on this act, so i want to thank the president for voicing support for this bill today and i am

confident that it will pass through the house and i complement our colleagues again. >> questions? >> [inaudible] how to get this to the president's desk. >> i've not spoken to him today but i certainly plan to speak to him and work with the speaker see what we can do to try to make sure this package of bills gets to the president's desk and as we saw this morning the president seems willing to actually work with us and perhaps we can sign this into law. >> there is a tragedy in a high yesterday. do you think that will cause a new legislation [inaudible] >> clearly our hearts go out to the families of the two victims. violence like this should not be tolerated in our society.

but let's be honest. there are about 250 million guns in america so they are out there. but people should use them responsibly. >> on the highway bill [inaudible] i'm not even sure if i heard him right. he explained -- is that the case or are you still working? >> when you figure out your question -- [inaudible] [laughter] >> no, we need to pass a highway bill. clearly the bill that came out of the committee has had its share of difficulties. and the leadership is working with the chairman to try to bring a bill to the floor that can pass. >> i was just with steve at a panel discussion. he is back on plan and has tox3

speak at a dinner in california tonight. thank you very much.y bobby jindal was scheduled to review this proposal for balancing the state budget for the next fiscal year today. budget $900 million. in shreveport now it's mostly cloudy and 37 degrees at the airport, 48 in mengin. you are listening to shreveport news and weather station news radio. >> this weekend book tv and american history tv explores the history and the literary culture of shreveport louisiana. saturday starting at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. author

rick santorum delivered the defense of religion in public life on saturday appealing to the fiscal conservative who resigned his presidential campaign. on the talk shows this weekend and in speeches, mr. santorum responded to comments made by president john f. kennedy. >> i believe in an america that a separation of the state is absolute to tell the president

no protestant minister for whom to vote. when no church or church school is granted any public funds for political preference and when no man is denied public office merely because his religion the first from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him we will have results from today's presidential primaries in arizona and michigan. we will hear from calls and speeches from all four republican candidates. our political coverage is getting underway shortly with newt gingrich speaking life at a rally in the carroll and georgia. all of that is live on c-span. the senate will vote thursday on an amendment that would let

insurance policies deny coverage of any medical procedure on they moral grounds.constr today california senatoruc barba boxer explant her objection tonf the amen tdment.on this is a half-hour. >> at the beginning of thisoday. month in fact february 7th, i move to precede the surface bill transportation bill is before uy today. in extremely important bill. a bipartisan bill led by the to bend senators. other very conservative. vit senators boxer and in half, the chairman and ranking member of that important committee and thp public works. this is a vital job-creating measure. the bill would create or ds maintain up to two-point -- 85- 2.8 million jobs. the mot and on february 9th, 2 days after i moved to this bill, the invoke cloture on the motion to proceed.ry blunt a the bill has broadsk bipartisans support. but after the senate moved to as

the bill february 9th, senator e lloyd asked that it be offeredha as an t'amendment on contraceptn and women's health. i was stunned.tran i couldn't believe this to the i said what's going on and thetran service transportation bills is a corporate place for ancan amendment on contraception andhe women's health but by the to leaders on the side of the all is not going to be able to move forward on this important surface transportation bill unless we vote on contraception and women's health. the my friend the republican leaderr said at the national tv on face the nation with bob schieffer, senator mcconnell said, and i js quote, they will not go away. so mr. president, i believe it n is vital to the jobs bill done m with stanley is republicans' insistence on having the vote ok denying access to healthven services like the contraceptionh

and even prenatal screening. ded esen after discussing it with on numerous senators i decided we on thewe'lup a vote amendment on contraception and women's health there's been enough to lay on this bill so having vote on this on thursday peery we hope to be the towardan agreements to have votes on thee number of non-germane amendment one' each side and maybe will n. some side by side.ers that's fine and. let's move forward pivotg meanwhile the managers have madn tremendous progress. they want to work on the claim even on the additional germane t amendments. so i believe w this process wout be the most constructive way to move the bill forward and i hopl thatac we can -- this will helps be placed in a position to worke through the transportationmendmt developed by the end of next up,

week. so mr. present i ask unanimous consent that it would be inay, order for the amendment 1520 ton be called up on thursday march 1st at the time after that consultation with the republicar leader the senate would proceed to vote on the relation to the one ameobndment for that no oth. amendments be in order in relation to the one amendment. >> is their objection? without objection, so ordered. e >> mr. president? pased >> the senator from california. >> i ask the majority leader and leaving the floor i'm just pleased that he has decided to take us forward on this highwayi bill and he has something more toke add. >> i failed to called the from amendment and i would like to de that.s >> the clerk will report. readif >> mr. blood and others propose. amendment number 1520 to the amendment number 1730. >> i ask that the reading

amendment be waived. notnterfere >> without objection. flow >> i ask unanimous consent thatm mine next slide interferey withl majority leader and that mymrs.x remarks began after his finalta? comments here on this bill. the >> without objection. ord >> thank you so much.n ds where we stand?un 21st century where in order to move forward on the highway bill mo forward that since their highways, the roads, bridges, the transit8 mio systems in onrder to move forwae on that jobs bill where 2.8 million jobs are at stake in this great nation we have to i just want to say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, what are you thinking? a ifre this is what you want to dt

fine, and i want to make it clear to the people who areinsue listening that the amendment not only would say that any employer for any reason could deny coverage to their employee, it's not just about birth control, it is any service.uess' now, mr. president, you served . proudly on the health kennedy,hh and i guess it's called the health committee now. and you were very instrumental a in working through the cored, essentials services that arehat covered in the preventivethos services thate are covered, and it's very important we note with the epessentials services and ti preventive services, and what i'm going to do is read them, and as i read them, i wantunders people who are listening to this to think about whether theseenty services are important, and to e

understand that under the blood amendment any one of these services can be denied.isthese by any employer, any insurance company for any reason. so i'm going to list these services.orn emergency services, and hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health, prn treatment, preventive and wellness services, pediatricslia services, prescription drugs,es. and to the three patient services, rehabilitative services and devices and of laboratory services, that's ther category of the central health benefits that this senate voted to make sure hour covered under insurance plans.an that'surer the law.

the blunt amendment would allowy any insurer and any employer to deny any of these services for m any reason. all they have to say is they have a moral objection. so let's take maternity and're newborn care. if somebody works for you and they are not married and they are pregnant and for having thin child, you can say from now on i'm not covering anybody that works for me who isn't married,t that's an example, because i ths have a moral objection. mental health treatment you mena could say i don't consider this a disease. i think it's bad that somebody his mental health problems. on. that's the way it is. i deny that.s that those on and on to the emergency services, if some employer believes that if you have a heart attack it's god's will,

now go that is their belief.oead they can deny that kind ofsay ta coverage. now we go to preventive health, and i'm going to read these. the the blunt amendment would also say any employer, any insurance company can deny any of theseamn benefits to anybody at any time. so listen to these services, mr. president, which came againe out of your committee. breast cancer screenings may be an employer doesn't believe that is necessary. and they could deny it. cervical cancer screening some hepatitis a and b vaccines, vace measles and mumps, there is pro. controversy over vaccines and somebody could say i have a moral problem. i'm not going s to offer these vaccines in my plan. are colorectal cancer screenings. fm we found out those save lives, a number of lives.ncer it is a did the death rates ares going down from the collector

cancer screenings the 50%. an employer or insurance company could deny that kind of screening.toba diabetes, cholesterol, blood a pressure, obesity screenings, tobacco cessation, all to some come hearin screening for newborns, scre supplements, tuberculosis elder, testing, depression from s osteoporositas, flu vaccines for children and the elderly, contraception, that's whattake c started all this,on contracepti, i become a 15% of women who taky contraceptives to get to prevent cancer, to prevent the building on plebeian, and it is eaten taken to prevent serious skin problems that are very no. debilitating but no mention of that in the amendment. tes,

no, no.ng h.i.v. screening scum st de comd hpd testing, will win in visitss breast-feeding support, domestie violence and gestational diabetes which is the kind of diabetes some women get when so, here is where we are. at the blunt amendment would bef take this list of preventive health benefits, this list of essential health benefits, and send a very clear unequivocalgaf message to every insurer in thie country and every employer and says regardless of any other law, if you decide you have aag. moral objection or objection, you do not have to sy offer this coverage. t peopl remember what we are tealking about here. o are talking about coverage. t we are not saying that people have to do all these things if r have an oagbjection to doing any

of theset. things as an employef don't have to do it but i have coverage if i decide to do it.h that is the duty of the health care bill that we passed. i it says here is the essential health benefits, preventive healthif benefits, employers ans insurers, you have to offer this coverage if people want to taket it, they can.will not tl what will happen is good. when you hear the other side vey describe the amendment, they b will not tell you what it is. o, but i have a very clear take onh what it is because i've printedi it out mr. president and here it says a health plan shall not ben considered to fail to provide the essentials health benefits n package described in subsectiony a preventive health services described in section 2713 if they decide they have a moral or religious objection. that is the basis of it and so

you take that and say okay here are the essential healthrevent benefits. they no longer have any meaningt here is the list of b. bennettl, health benefits and the thoset's are at the whim of the employer and the insurance company. and it is really disturbing. have some great careers in your life and you are a great senator malcolm and before that you have told a lot of great stories and a lot of great jokes and i have to tell you that jon stewarat took this issue on and so i lovt that. humor is the best medicins he said. humor is the best medicine from he said. t succumb he said that's what i'md

going to do. he said i have an example here and comes on to sthe stage wita very bad cold and flu and he'se, sneezing and he says mr. jon stewarat, do i have to haveselth another treatment now, he says yes and he takes a seltzer balle and that was his treatment. was funny and he laughed and that was supposed to cure this person and he said of another treatment. and so, you know, in the darkese moments when consolation is and humor, just think about there wt nd as strong moral and religiousand conviction that they don't want to take medicine. they just believe they are in the hands of god, and i personally respect 100%, andes people die for their light to have that view and i think that is appropriate. is

we should respect religion.reat, everybody's religion. so, the way to deal with that if the individual doesn't want to ever be treated that's their wee choice. but frankly, if they put a w child's life at risk who has sa cancer, and we have had cases like this in america, where a cr parent said i don't believe in medicine and a child could be me cured with cancer treatment, he' people step in and say we are going to make sure the child gets treatment. all we are singing in o aur heah care bill is here is the list os the central health services and preventive services that drs scientists and doctors have told us would save our families pain and suffering and costs and alld the rest and we make themm available through the injury ant the employer. that's all.er peopsole don't have to take them that they are available. under the dimond amendment, if your boss happens to be a persod that doesn't believe inn thay

medicine, he can just say sorrye i'm not a believer come in and you can have an insurance plan that may have nothing behind it. no services, none of theses services that we have worked so hard to put into the wall. so it is stunning that in this e year we would be standing here on the highway bill anticipating a vote on thursday on an amendment that has to do with women's health. there is a lot of concern out there because we saw when this representatives. do we have a picture of that with us? birth where they have a panel on women's health that dealt with especially access to birth t control. not one woman was on the panel on that panel and the man had

decided it was wrong that women should have access to birthaid t control without a co-payment even when the doctors and the scientists have said it's sothee important when our families are planned what happens? there are fewer abortions.e it's not even arguable. fewer abortions.oblems i would think we would be an agreement on that.now if y don fewer problems for otherlan families. that' jus economic problems when they pla. their families.hat now, if you don't want to plan your family, that's just fine. you don't have to.resident, take that coverage, you don't have to take that contraceptions so, the president in his the decision on a thought struck a , great compromise. of what he said was because the experts, the medical experts, the institute of medicine tolde,

us contraception is a very contl important trace for people because 15% of them use it not i fight disease, cancer, cysts one their overseas and such. you're because it's important we put it in this list of the central pree preventive benefits, but if you are a church you don't have to offer it to your employees.o that is the president said and 335,000 religious institutions are exempted from having to offer this through insurance. the religious affiliatedbleo hospitals and universities wered uncomfortable because they wanted to be not be directlyse connected to the contras wil sections and the prlesident struck what i thought was a really good compromise. by he said to those institutionsale okay, it will be offered to your people, but will be done by the

third party. almost everyone applauded.lic catholic charities of what did it, the conflicts of association applauded, they represent thousands of providers, catholics united applauded it unhappy. goo but the institutions that b fovide service fault the president struck a good for them so we were pleased and wereside thought this is fine because noe everyone's religious freedom should be respected and that is what the president did. pa but now we havendor the blunt amendment and not only does this open up the pandora's box, it opens up a very dangerous policy and allows insurers and employers to simply say they have a moral problem with something had come and they don't have to offer a list ofy t services. to sav maybe they do it because theywet really have a moral conviction,

but you can't really prove it.ae maybe they do it because theyort want to save some money. we don't know, but it opens up a very bad situation and we havewy to beat this amendment.strd it's very, very dangerous, and how about having it on theo highway bill? i still can't get over it.ake when i first heard about it, i thought what does it have to do nthdriv highways? maybe it says you can't to give birth control pill when you aret driving on the highway. vot i mean, there was no connection, and there is no connection, but bi the majority leader is right to get a vote on this. this bi it's called in a hour highway bill. we can't get off that. want we've been on this bill for days and we can't get off dead center because my republican friends we want to vote on contraception and women's health care on aoodl highway bill so we are going to do it and hopefully that will signal our good will to move forward with this bill. 2.8 million jobs are at stake. 0

our bridges are in desperate we have 70,000 bridges. bad i think is that the right roads number? 70,000 bridges is the right not number that are in very bad condition coming and 50% of ourn roads are not up to the standard the should be, and we've had stories of highways in trouble and i'd say to my friend i am b winding down from my remarks at this point. so, we shouldn't be stock on this bill. to get i could really say that senator inhofe and i work in the most remarkable bipartisan way to ged a great bill out of yourtuck, committee. the banking committee did the same, senators johnson and shalh be. done the commerce committee got a little stuck with your bidding e that piece and they've done anpn excellent job of finding the mde funds for us to serve the trustl fund.

mr. president, i bwant you to e think in your mind's eye of a football stadium that hosts the super bowl. think of what it looks like wheo it is jammed packed with peopled it's about 100,000 seats, right? 15 of those stadiums could bet t filled with unemployed construction workers, think about without would look like. 15 super bowl stadium is soldtrn out every seat filled.he that's how many unemployedwork. construction workers we haveon,v because the housing crisis. this bill will put them back tot work in a bipartisan fashion with protected the one to 8 million jobs coming and we create up to another millione. dollars so, i can't believe we ' are discussing birth control on, a highway bill, but such ise on life. that's the way it is to be if that's what we need to move this bill forward, i have the. if we have to move on some othel issues that are not germane tows

the bill, even willing to do bet cause that's really what is at stake here, what is at stake are construction jobs, what is at stake are fallingns. bridges to be i mean, i don't have to tell my friend that thet effect of a fall in bridge. we know what happens pity is senator inhofe is open on thebrd point that he lost a constituent who was taking a walk and a huge piece of the bridge fell and yoe killed her. sthe i mean, this is not the way to powein the run a country that is the number conomic power in the world, and i will tell you if we want to stay the number one economic power in the world we can't bein stuck in traffic and have all that congestion, and its billions of ours and billions os dollars lost because we are not keeping up with what the image e that was taken for us by dwight eisenhower we back when i was af kid when he said we need to have

a network of highways that run seamlessly across the nation an- connect us one to the other come in national highway system, and we can't lose the division.s juh there are some people who say why do we need a national syster states do.en the no, this is one nation under god indivisible. we need to be connected with ths imports come in from all the the various countries from the asian nations into los angeles and 40s of our imports we take those and they we put them on the trains,he buses, trains they get shipped out all across america to every state in the union c they go and that's rey, commerce, that's called commerce,that interstate commer. so we need the roads to be ready, willing and able to take chat kind of traffic and notmu

have a situation where so much as allen to the cost transferrea because there's so muchat's congestion that we begin to lose our effectiveness as an economie power and frankly that's where o we are because not only do we ie part, but we export, as we've got to take those experts andoro them to the various eastoast. coast, the west coast. we have a lot of opportunity to. gulf coast. a ref so if we don't keep up with thit national system of highways, weu are in trouble and this is a great bill. this bill is a reform bill.f we take it down from a lot of te titles to come in and of, a couple of dozen titles. j we don't overspend. we keep spending at current two levels, the finance committee has done its job to help us years, and the last point ieorgs would make before leaving thenoe floor because i know my friend from georgia is here and he's ms fferent and i know he has fferent and i know he has

some remarks he might have onth. another subject of this one or another subject and he's going to talk to me, mr. chairman of t pecos we have some work we want to do. as i want to close here.p. but what i want to see isan this is really close to in emergency and i don't want to overstate mh it. the entire program expires, mr. president on march 31st. all of our states are going to be hit with an end of 1 program that's essential to then people come to their businesses, and that's why we have 1,000 organizations representing gratp millions of people from the chambers of commerce to the afl-cio, to the granite people t and the cement people come to- ze general contractors. i mean, seriously the aaa. not it goes on and on from eight ton see. a thousand organizations that are behind our bill, and they are not going to look kindly ons

a situation that we could come i to which is that we don't have a bill coming and you can't just n extend this bill because the fund. money is not in the trust fund o any more. it's not like the past years he could expand it. of the money is and in the trust. fund, so if we have to cut a third, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of workere would be laid off. so mr. president, i went again think the majority leaderng f because he's getting us our cone center here, he's getting us off that line. we are moving forward, and i ask unanimous consent the following steps of the finance committee be allowed on the senate floorn, for the duration of the debate on if 1813 [inaudible]man, elizabeth snyder, christopher come andrea chatman come and amanda bartleman, clear and green and i ask unanimous

in order otheres than the motion to table prior to the vote on relation to the amendment 1520. >> without objection. >> thank you very much pbr would yield the floor. >> even in person he's a center, even a person now is president of the united states faces a predicament when they talk about race. they face all sorts of predicaments. they face the fact that there are some an appreciable number of americans who are racially prejudiced. they face the fact that a much larger portion of the american populace wants to deny the realities of race even now

and justice, freedom and peace on earth that will raise the hearts and the hopes of mankind for that distant day no one drags the chain. >> as candidates campaign for president this year we look back at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our website, c-span.org/thecontenders. ..

>> coming up on c-span2 tonight, secretary of state hillary clinton testifies at a senate hearing. the defense department briefs reporters about its investigation into the mishandling of soldiers' remains later, defense secretary leon panetta at a senate hearing on the annual pentagon budget. [background noises] >> secretary of state hillary clinton testifies tonight on her department's 2013 budget. the white house says dick quest to have requested and over one-half percent increase over this year's spending.

see also responded to senator is questions about the keystone oil pipeline fees, a run, afghanistan, and the humanitarian crisis in syria. this hearing of the senate formulations committee is to have ours. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises]