>> afl-cio president, richard trumka says the supreme court united decision extended voter to nonunion households for the first time. mr. trumka says the union has had a glover occurred in 400,000 volunteers. on a door-to-door after, not the tbs. he spoke at a breakfast hosted by the christian science monitor. this is an hour. >> our guest chair richard trumka, president of the afl-cio and michael pedrosa, the political adviser. the growth in the presidential call for them all at his father

and grandfather into the minds. he worked his way to penn state university and earned a law degree from bilodeau of the university. in 1882, each 33 was elected president of the united mine workers of america coming at us to hold that position. he served three terms as president at the u.n. debut into afl-cio. in 1995, ran to be secretary of treasurer of the afl-cio and became the youngest person to hold the position where he served for 18 years. mr. trumka was elected president in september 2009. mr. pretorius or has been on the afl-cio is political team since 1997 come expert in sophisticated voter mobilization models became political director in 2005 and director in june of last year. before coming to the afl-cio, he was associated director where he managed state and local

campaigns. so much for a biography, now onto the process portion of our program. please, no let logging or tweaking. in short, no filing by the breakfast is underway. there is no embargo with the session ends except for c-span has agreed to wait two hours before airing the tape of this practice. with the goal of maintaining the birth dates for the facility, if you would like to ask a question, please do the traditional bank and send me a nonthreatening signal. i will happily call on one and all. we'll start by offering guests the opportunity to make brief, opening comments and move to questions around the table. with that, mr. trumka, the floor is yours. >> i don't know if everyone can hear me or not. i was having trouble hearing you quite frankly. it just seems like we were here last year at this time and of the year has gone speeding by

and they seem to go buy a little quicker each year. hopefully we can make this term are meaningful and perhaps last year. i'm going to be very brief. i want to say a few words and that will open up for the conversation in question says she might have. you know, for the last 30 years as the economy has a moving away working people and tore his face at the very top. that has taken a big toll on not only workers, but the middle class in the country as well. that is why this particular election where facing right now is so important for us because it is the difference between two competing visions and were about to have at least a debate over which one of those divisions -- is best for the country. and we're excited that we've joined together with a number of

progressive groups to endorse and to advocate a thing called prosperity economic. go find it in the green packet passed around. it was started by jacob hacker and me. they put this thing together with a number of progressive groups. it really offers from our tears a light at the end of a long, economic tunnel. so we are excited about that because we're going to have this debate. we were excited that we were able to have a debate over collective-bargaining and we can move forward and talk about what's been hollowing out the century and where we go from here. our political program this year is going to be different than it's been in the past. it will be more accurate towards the rank-and-file, but unlike in the past when we started building their programs before

the election, this time we have a permanent program that will stay in place. after the election day, will reach out and mobilize them also continue to bring people and educate them. it will also allow us to do things that we were prohibited by law for talking to nonunion members. now because of some of the new tools that are out there, will be talking to nonunion members in reaching out to them and mobilize the man. we are in the process of training over 400,000 volunteers. we already have over 300,000 already in the line. we're also doing between five and 6000 hall monitors so they can monitor the polls on election day in medina to election day to make sure everybody's vote gets counted. all of this will get a real kick off on august 25th when we'll

start our first national day of walks and 27 states on that day and that will expand out to 50 states. but on the 25th of august and thereafter will be in 20 states and will be knocking on doors and encouraging participation out there want that romney will be non-natives with their inventions. so it's going to be an exciting time were about to kick off the exciting and were ready for it. >> thanks very much. i will kick it off with a softball? shandon steve kerr likes to say and anyone who wants to jump in, wave at me and all take a look. if you could walk into the oval office and give president up on that of campaign with way

workingman which is a tough demographic, would it be? what would you say? >> talk about jobs, jobs and more jobs. if you look at our program, i'll go through this a few because this is the union difference in the last election. you talk about white men. obama lost weight and in the last election by 15 points. 31 white union men. that's a 34-point spread. he lost white women by 37%, but he won white union right 47%. he lost weekly churchgoers by 50%, by the one churchgoers by 1%. the same thing for brand owners and veterinarians. there's a tremendous union advantage for our program because they keep teaching them about economics than he was actually providing a program

that would help workers and children and their family and community. so my advice to them and be keep talking about jobs, jobs and more jobs and ultimately the division of the economy that works for everybody. so this is two competing visions. your decision to is more of the same. if you look at the 85 page economic program it boils down to two things. give us more attacks and remove regulations that will create jobs. >> might, do you have -- all right. as melanie trautman here by chance? melanie put in for a question last friday. >> i wanted to ask about pensions because last year there

is a big debate about collective-bargaining. are you expect a man? hardier expect to spend programs for your members? >> i don't think world today pension programs. why should be? the american race we should provide quality security time for everybody on this something everyone should have. here's what happened over the last couple years. i think the far right has been successful in turning around the normal american way of doing things. it used to beat it to say we don't have a pension. i do. what do we have to do to get you one? now they've been successful in some instances in turning around to see of attention i don't. why should we take years away? we shouldn't take people's pension away. despite economic, that policy in a bad example. the rest of the world doesn't do that. the rest of the world has figured out how to provide

pensions for their family we can't do. all we need to do is get that political will and i think it can, shed and will happen. >> they're not about pensions actually. they're about trying to weaken the labor movement. now, are their state entities and local entities that are hurting? yes, there are because they don't have the tax revenue for they had massive layoffs for jobs. and we work with them? yes, we do work when there is a legitimate problem. but take wisconsin. wisconsin starts off with a surplus. it's a major tax break to corporate america because there's now a dataset and you take a pension. he really did not take anybody's pension. he chose to take the pension. but do i expect continued attack

on the pension plans? of course they do. >> caravan, sorry. catching you made my. i am back [inaudible] >> what do you think this second term president obama -- [inaudible] how do they feel about a second term president obama -- [inaudible]

[inaudible] what do you think will be some of the pluses, some of the conflicts and also how do you feel politically about what is going congruous? >> well first of all, maybe in the future, everyone will know the name. maybe give your name and who you represent. but i knew you. first of all, i do think president obama will win israel's action. it will be a close race and i think will be a close race because of the massive amounts of resources to look at pounded into this election. second of all, in some instances because that's a little bit of good luck, the senate will remain in democratic camp and i

think the democrats in the house will pick up seats primarily because of the obstruction that we've seen so far and the lack of a program. republicans have been shown in a program about job creation. they voted hundreds of times on other teams like on reproduction control and things like that, but they've not advocated or given any kind of program for a jobs program. so i think they're going to lose some ground this time of brown. that happens in the second term i think is determined by what happens in the election. but i'm knackered and the democrats announce to the senate and they maybe pick up a seat or pick up some house seats, then i think the republicans will have a choice. though have to offer some solutions that come up with some job creations and get off of the fighting over things that used to be nonpartisan, the service

transportation act, faa act, clean water act. we never used a fighter but those because those are necessary for the u.s. government, for economies to go forward. now we fight over everything is sort of foolish. now why it is not creating jobs, we fight over things and deny things. so this second term will be some of the same. we'll continue to fight an advocate. we will organize around a hacker report with the whole progressive community supporting it so the progressive community will be behind that. the report if you look at it is we ought to be investing a minimum of $250 billion a year in infrastructure to pick up for the deficit will have job creation effect. it will also make us more effective and efficient estimation, markham had a fascination and will organize around that.

>> i thank you again. my only problem is i think it's fair to say if the democrats will pick up decease somehow. >> that's a possibility. i wouldn't rule that out, but i'm not going to bet the ranch on that. that is what we'll see what happens. [inaudible] >> i think so, yeah. >> except for the extraordinary amount of money going into the house from outside groups, this could be another way for the democrats, that if you look at any of the normal indicators before citizens united such as gallup's question about whether you need most representatives deserve to be reelected and wave

theorist, 94, 2006, that 50% to 60% said that most members of congress should not be reelected. right now with 76%. the republican approval for congressional approval is at an all-time low, yeah that has to be put up against the fact that when you look to designate to 2012, democratic house between the candidates have a super pack that have spent have $100 million less than they did in 2008 and the republicans have $100 million more. i think it's pretty clear poll after poll that the public is completely dissatisfied with the obstructionism in the house and is going to be a test as to

whether or not that much money can keep the house republican. >> david grange from the christian science monitor. [inaudible] >> will you sort of address that distinction or that paradigm that says you guys are the big hitters on that side, we're going to be even steven at the end of this. can you compare what she do and maybe take off that concept that labour are doing the same thing quite >> first of all, any legitimate study says weed out spam. we turn our people at the grassroots level, something they can't do. december cannot try and do even better because now mobile to reach out to nonunion workers and talk to them.

it used to be we would do a door knock in there at the 500 houses in the small community. if 100 were union, we desk at 400 houses. now we're going to give it ago to 400 houses, talk to them about issues can reply to this using that information back about the issues that define apportions. were also going to do a couple other things differently. energize our volunteer system a whole lot more actively than we have in the past. last election, life cycle we had about 300,000 volunteers on the ground. this time we were shooting for four and we think we actually have four because he got three so quickly were able to get 300,000 actually very, very quickly so we were able to move beyond that. we go to the grassroots level. you will you will see all the ads, anonymous ad or the ads for

feel-good america or the other front groups they put out there. go between the airwaves and will do the ground waving will see that happening. >> i find what they say about that and making it can harrison is laughable and not one organization, the support business has a couple hundred donors should be treated adequately with labor movement, which has 15 million members which will ignore the fact and all the different business groups on top of that. there'll be some equivalency between one group on the right and the entire labor movement, which is jazz preposterous. and if you go to the signer for politics or anybody independent,

you see the margin is spending by those groups combined wherefore we spend. and it's disingenuous. >> can you introduce yourself? >> mr. trumka, we were talking earlier about the president's union advantage. i was hoping you could talk a bit about president obama as a candidate, specifically for unions and union members as opposed to working people broadly. i think when you talk to a lot of labor leaders the state, there are some with the president. he hasn't done everything he can to go back for organized labor. i'm wondering if you sense with rank-and-file, and maybe an

enthusiasm with the president and if you feel like you can make a strong case that he's done everything he can for the labor movement. >> has he done everything he can? that's a simple answer. no one has ever done that. no president has ever done that. has he done a lot? absolutely. has he done a lot for the working people? absolutely yes. let's take a simple guy who goes to work with her year in a factory where you go to school as a janitor or anybody. under eight years of george bush, the occupational safety health administration was a cadaver. they starved of resources and turn it from an enforcement agency into a consulting team for companies. so you have more people being injured, less people coming home

from the health disease. now you have workers being protected. this guy has software jobs. look at the last guy. the last guy came in, bush guy came in with an economy blowing up the charts. growing a giant surplus. he leaves office eight years later with fewer jobs than when he came into office. so every american worker, every american was worse off. pension funds have been ravished, lost money because of the deregulation. and this president has created three and a half, 4 million jobs in the worst recession that we've seen since the great depression with an obstruction of house and republican senate that has tried to stop everything he's tried to do. so he's worked hard. has he done everything? of course he hasn't done everything. he worked hard to get the health

care bill. we tried for six years to get health care for every citizen in this country. every other civilized nation is figured out how to do it and they provide health care to the citizens. he finally got that done, despite the obstructionism that we've seen on the other side. so whether pockets of workers that they should have done more? of course there are. but whenever you compare them and when we compare them, like what mitt romney intends to do and what barack obama does when it comes to working people, there's no contest. barack obama is more for working people than mitt romney. vietnam is for the very rich. he doesn't identify with us. he doesn't identify what we go through everyday. he doesn't understand the decisions we have to make. he doesn't understand it's tough. you should be splashing it to college or polygraphs are things of that sort. you should be increasing for the good of the country.

>> give us your name. [inaudible] >> president trumka, i was curious how much money was spent in wisconsin recall election. >> , should we spend? the afl-cio? probably less than 500,000. >> do you believe that was all well spend? >> absolutely. we took back control of the senate says scott walker can't do some of the nonsensical foolish things that he tried to do. he can't continue to make war on his employees. now we cannot just try to create jobs because are going to have jobs proposals put up in front of a spirit who either support them or he won't. >> i want to ask you, could the president hope is showing up and be more engaged in that race in

the recall could he is made a difference? >> that was debated back and forth on the ground. we really did. a lot of people don't believe this, the people on the ground were really making the calls and that recall decision. you know, if we had been in control of data in a different way, who knows we might make different decisions. they decided they wanted to keep it about what was happening there and they didn't want it to become a national issue. and so, i think he probably honored that. he was supportive, but he wasn't intrusive. >> you are disappointed he went out there quick >> no, he responded that the people on the ground really thought was best. [inaudible] >> toni diamond. can i bring you back from the type to go labor movement. can you tell me why you think

the overall argument -- and also, can you give me more detail about how you think they'll fight back on pension? there is a sustained effort in the private sector around the country in many big cities struggling under data. are we going to persuade people of what many people feel is very comfortable and the justifiable private sector counterpart? >> when they go back to the first part of the question. when you look at what happened in wisconsin, the wisconsin election degenerated into an election between scott walker. take ohio. ohio was a clean decision or discussion or both of her collective bargaining. should workers have collective bargaining or should they not? it was 60 plus% of the ohio population said all workers, public and private should have

an election. i think that election had gone through the same way, we would've won in wisconsin just like anywhere else. it degenerated into between walker and bear it. maybe it isn't the proper word, but that's where it went in with millions of of dollars of bad flashy with millions of dollars, saying what a great person walker was. and then in the end you have even her own membership, probably of those 75% voted against walker and as a 25% they didn't, another 40% of those said they were going to vote against them because they think it should be used for policy. so we trailed off a little at the end. the primary thing though was the election between people, between the buried and walker and wasn't about collective bargaining.

if it had been it with water. and i think step with the pension, people are getting tired of that. you could talk to people in the littletown a corrupt corrupted many say to them, hey, we better take away the pension over there. what does that do for me? i still don't have a pension. they don't have attention to. neither one of us have a penchant. he spends the money in the community? what happens to the economy? you see economist after economists look at their shared prosperity. it talks about pensions and a strong social security, strong medicare and dedicated because the economy can't survive. i think that's run the course of them being able to divide us and were continually giving it back and it's starting to take over and we're going to have a debate hopefully around the shared prosperity salute to be shared

prosperity or prosperity principles and the let the american public decide. i think only shared prosperity is the better avenue for everybody. >> i want to ask a slightly different? president obama. when last for years as president obama done organized labor? >> for organized labor? >> i'll answer it the same way. it's not just what is done for organized labor. what is done for workers. okay, help us get a health care bill that will bring health care to everybody. he set up for social security and medicare and medicaid. ps help us with occupational safety. he is a policy right now geared towards manufacturing back to the contrary, stop rewarding those taking jobs off shore, bringing jobs on.

he saved detroit from bankruptcy so that when i hired people in ohio and michigan and indiana, illinois, kentucky. there've been hired in other places as well. they are hired because he saved the auto industry. >> was sober at the $1.2 million for the afl-cio spent. but he got the bang for the back and the first-term? >> you're attempting to quote harper on not one. i'll answer that question. >> for us to play in the system of democracy to educate and mobilize our members and get them involved in the voting project is always worth it and

everybody ought to be encouraging them, unlike what we see right now from the republican party, where they are discourage people from playing or participating in democracy. i think that's inexcusable. [inaudible] >> i'm having trouble hearing you for some reason. [inaudible] >> , cheered spec to spend on the elections this year? >> it will probably be in the same area except for super pack, we'll have more to be able to spend talking to nonunion workers than we did union workers. if you win a figure, i'm not going to give it to you because that'll be the story, how much are you sending?

will be on the ground. ow many people were organized. we'll have over 400,000 activists out there getting posed and trying to make phone calls. that's where bush at this time. [inaudible] >> we oppose citizens united. since it's fair, will use a small part called workers voice to talk to non-union workers because it prohibits, so will use that money to talk to nonunion workers. [inaudible] >> foreign direct within the u.s. >> there is an investment about a chinese come to me -- a battery maker, 8123, which has

been troubled in his gotten support from the u.s. government from a program. this follows news last week interested in buying some canadian nonsense. i'm just wondering as we think about creating jobs in the u.s., what are your thoughts on chinese investment in the u.s.? , should there be, how much scrubbing of such deal should we have? >> you know, i think it all depends because foreign investment can be a good thing or can be about getting. or it can be a bad thing. a number of years ago, five, six years ago under george bush, we used to make we are magnets in two places, one in indiana and one in illinois. the guidance systems a smart bomb airplanes, missiles, things of that sort.

the chinese came in about an exemption from the bush administration. they bought into both of those that invested into both of those. everybody said that's good. six months later they close a plant stand with them to china after they learned of the technology and the know-how. national security come about for what they're doing. a thorough lambasting and battery making so they can gain the know-how to transfer back to china so they can ultimately decide to use a bunch of things that violate international trade rules, gave that market like they did with windmills and other renewables, that would be a thing and we shouldn't allow those types of things to continue to train us have the resources we had. we had 50,000 plants in this country since 2000. 50,000. but that not only the

manufacturing process, but with them also with the r&d because the r&d followed the manufacturing process. take boeing. china says will buy boeing planes, but there's a catch to it. you have to take the tail assembly in china. before long they look at the engineers and they are working on other project over there. we shouldn't allow that to happen. other countries don't do that. why we allow that to happen is beyond me. i think we should look at their own best interest and i think you have an rss question question but i'll throw it out. there's a guy who did this in tremendous study. it said that the years ago the interest of corporate america and the interest of the country really coincided.

they thought about what was best for their community stakeholders, states in the country and made decisions along that line. somewhere since that period of time, the interest of corporate america, particularly multinationals has diverged from the interest of the country. so they look to us in their best interest about the intensely and spend billions of dollars to the politicians that will do within their best interests regardless of whether it's in the best interest of the country. our biggest challenge is a country is to try to realign those interests. so the interest of corporate america and the country coincided god so we can both win. [inaudible] >> well, only to this extent. we should look at all foreign investments in the same light, but only to this extent.

we have such a massive deficit with china and they violate the trading post so significantly. we should be paying very close attention and get them to comply with international norms and shape us. what happened when they do that. the president took a case up on steel pipe in front of the wto. we put several thousand workers back to work, creating steel pipe because they didn't have to compete against illegal subsidies and other ways of cheating that the chinese had appeared the same thing happens with rubber tire. the same thing with a number of other auto parts. so we should be enforcing our laws. and because they are the biggest deficits, they should get special treatment, not any more special scrutiny anybody else. >> burned some multi-friend newspapers. could you talk about the two political conventions coming up. but while the president of the

afl-cio, who are the republicans you might want to honor? [inaudible] >> yes, people in north carolina have been under attack probably more intensively than anyplace else other than maybe south carolina, but they're pretty face the group and tougher because of the attack. the convention this time -- you think i might conventions in the past, everything is pretty much decided, so i think it's a little anti-climatic for everybody. there'll be issues talked about, planks will be decided.

i think you need to look at those because i think the platforms of both countries, both parties speak volumes about who they are and what they are. now, we're going to have labor day festivities. i just looked yesterday at about 10 or 12 single species of all the labor festivities around the country. i will be some status in north carolina and charlotte stuff elsewhere. the president will be wherever the president's going to be, and probably one of the states near made me to do a celebration town mayor. and will be participating. this saturday of course we have the second bill of rights day. we have a signing in philadelphia. we asked the democratic chairman of republican chairman both to sign the second paper bill of rights they have five points.

one second here. and see if they'll sign it. if they do that'll be great, and if they don't they don't. we want who was a passenger was that with ice. it's part of days doing immediately charge people 50 products -- that's a different issue. >> josh is with me. they are the right to full import of men and in the right to full participation, the right to a voice, the right to a quality education and the right to secure a healthy future. i don't know how you could oppose those, but we'll see. we'll see you signs and who doesn't and then we'll organize. >> you're not going to go around quietly grover norquist and his candidates to sign, are you

quite >> that's not our intention. as part of the bigger thing of having the debate of the american middle class of workers and the shared prosperity. as part of that. it's a continuation of attention to that city can continue to have the debate. if you say i won't finance, the fair question is why? what is sitting here that you oppose? now, i would assume that mitt romney would say i oppose the right to a voiceover. i would say okay, that's your decision. think he opposes the right to full employment and living wage? let's do a survey. who opposes full employment and a living wage? nobody. so it's going to be fine. it is going to be part of the debate on the bigger issue, getting people to talk about a different type of economy that

works for everybody unforeseen and say, and his policies were, these policies don't. >> getting back to the earlier question. are there any republicans who you'll be recognizing us prolabor? >> we've endured several. you ask there's few were on the stronger that the tea party gets, the less likely they'll be any more candidates because they have people -- orrin hatch was too liberal and their rights. i remember not remember when he went describing orrin hatch is liberal, that he was too liberal in their eyes. so there are fewer and fewer. olympia snowe, the ones that were able to do bipartisan staff and work with are actually politics getting beat week as they are not right-wing enough. and if that is the party they want to arbat, is going to be tough for them to sell to the american public in the future.

i think guys like joe lobiondo, we've endorsed and will continue to endorse. last to right, c. boettcher at. we endorsed him. i don't think a run again, but the more moderate runs are sort of falling off. politics are driving the best and brightest away from all of those. why do this? the best and brightest are going into politics like they used to administer but alas for the country as far as i can see. >> michelle. [inaudible] >> -- president obama to sign off and has he agreed to a? >> we sent a letter to the head of the democratic national committee and republican national committee. we sent by may, mutter, by the way, so no one could say we did it to favor one or the other.

we sent it off to them. we sent word to the president that we went in to sign it and made no reason to believe that he will sign it or be supportive of all of those things. all of those things on the policy. >> robert. [inaudible] >> what is the obama team need to be doing better and what is the romney team to involve that has surprised you? >> i think the president is making the case that he should be making. this is about two different types of economy and i think that romney has made some -- everybody cause them gaffes. i don't consider them caps.

my wife drives to cadillacs. that's life. take stuff with the tax returns right now. when that romney was trying to be vice president, he gave mccain 23 years of tax returns, 23 years. now mccain saw something. he picked sarah palin and senator mccain. and then he doesn't want to give returns to the american public. it's not just about transparency. it's about that romney. it's about him saying, i'm special. i don't have to play by the rules. every other candidate has to get their tax returns. i don't have to. i don't have to play by the

rules. i don't have to play by the rules. it is hand the elites and i think he's got to break out of the. because as long as people think he is an elitist and he is standing with the elite, i don't think the american public how the vast majority of adults in the vote for it. >> do you think they're running a flawless skin pain right now and there's no way they can improve? >> i think it's got to keep talking about the economy and his vision of the economy. i think you started.last labor day. you remember we were in here before last labor day and i said, you know, the president is making a strategic mistake. the assumption that deficit reduction that would get him reelected as well as he's going for new losing ground. i don't want to say i told you so, the last labor day he started talking about jobs and

economy and creating jobs in a different vision and it's not like a. i think he stays on that vision. i think that romney has to stay on his vision and i think he loses and obama wins because i think the american public are tired of the old economy. they see through it. they don't want the economic winners to be able to make the economic policy that are going to continue to stop them and their kids from getting ahead. >> ng. can you introduce yourself? >> eddie's solo then with talking points. a question for you, mr. trumka. >> benji saarland about collective harkening. it seems that the forefront of the whole conversation ever was invested a couple years ago. are they expecting a major issue in the presidential campaign? the president rarely mentions collective bargaining rights.

and they're probably to some degree doesn't bring it up while it often on the trail either. are you surprised if that not much attention from party candidates on the trail? >> is obvious when that romney doesn't bring it out. he doesn't believe in and he wants to destroy it anyway. of course he's not going to bring it out. the president talked about collective bargaining in the right to the union. does he talk about it every day? no. do i talk in every speech? probably not. more than he does, but not every speech. i'm talking about the economy and different things i bring out. it'll be part of this election i'm sure. we'll make part of it and we're going to be able to get the shared prosperity out. when you read it, and i hope you do, i hope all of you do and give it a fair hearing and see which one you believe would be better for the country. it is replete with references to collective bargaining.

[inaudible] wondering if you could reflect on the frenzy if anyone him that romney would pick on the republican side as a running mate who would light a fire under organized labor or do whatever would worry you. conversely, if you could also reflect on the role that vice president biden played into the partnership and whether you feel like he's been a voice for you within the administration. >> you know, i'll take the second part of the question first. vice president biden has played a constructive role over the year, over the term. his first term as president obviously we have a great relationship and he understands working people, so he comes out of a blue-collar family. so i think he's been a real plus. people say he disagrees here, he does cecere does not. i think you guys would be pretty

boring. , citing vice president payton has been a plus on his job. he cares about the country, so i really have a lot of respect for him. i don't know who that pics. the fire's light would be to energize our site, not distinguish the energy on our site. so it's his call and will be his first major decision and we'll see what happens. >> there's no one candidate you might pics i would really hate your force? >> heat pics sarah palin. [inaudible]

>> first of all, if you go back and look at the architects of the american trade policy, not just of,, but under bill clinton, they are now saying that the trade policy that this country had hasn't been real good for us. it had to effect a panoply that people want us to believe. it's been bad. we've lost jobs. and then, this president spent a number of years trying to fix the three agreements that ultimately were signs. so do i agree with them? no, i think they still don't go far enough as a trade policy. they still allow -- they are too

slanted still is what i will say. he has enforced the law. unlike george bush, who never would enforce any kind of trade, this guy has taken trade case after trade case on this one then. one of those cases has played china back, stop some of the illegal practices they are doing and has put people back to work in this country. not trade can be a very, very positive gain. the regime that we thought under the last say 20 years has not been the trade policy that this country needs. now tpp will be the first time the president gets to actually do one of his own and we'll see what happens. it can be either good thing or a very, very bad thing. i [inaudible]

>> very, very close personal relationship. i disagree with them on trade policy, but as a human being i think is a fine guy with a good relationship. >> paula. >> i want to ask about the $400,000 -- [inaudible] either way we have to do the democratic nominee. >> it would be totally up to him. if he makes that decision i'm not going to wait until 2016. i'm worried about 2012 what happens in 2013, 14 and 15. he can hurt his chances are less than his chances by what happens in between. i'm not going to 16 and more here at 12. >> with states are you guys focused on? where most of these -- what will

they do and do you have a percentage on the amount you hope to move in obama's structure and by having a big group of volunteers, like that sheet in front of you, the nonunion members, a percentage of that to grow that on? >> first of all, there are 20 sound and those volunteers will be analogous battleground states. there are six corestates we may have more. pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, wisconsin, nevada and florida. those are the six corestates. we are ready have. we've had full-time staff in those states for a couple of months now. the other will be full-time staff as well. i'll do everything. i'll do everything. i'll do everything. the plant is or worksites. i'll be talking to the union and

not union workers for changes in getting back to nonunion workers on the issue that they say are important to them. >> is there a certain amount you hope can move? >> yacht, 100%. for not saying there's three i don't want to talk. we're going to try to get all of them. we'll see what happens. >> cannot. >> just going way back to health care that she meant it earlier, what you make of the new priority, basically saying -- [inaudible] basically blaming romney for killing those workers -- were in a big brouhaha about it for the last couple of days. >> i really haven't seen the ad. i read sort of a synopsis about it. i think what he was saying is being capital took away my job. they encouraged outsourcing,

come in and you know what they do. they vicomte nez, voted with that to pay themselves back at the debt service is too big the company so it collapses with a transfer part of it overseas. he lost his health care. and he said that his wife died several months later, i think 20 months later or something like that because he lost his health care. i mean, if you lost your health care and your wife was sick, back then remember you probably didn't have -- she had a preexisting condition and you couldn't get any anywhere else. now president obama has changed that as well or at least preexisting condition, you can still get health care. they can drop you when you hit the max. >> moving from negative ads -- [inaudible] does this cycle of ads become more and more negative, bashed

>> that's a byproduct of citizens united. it is corrosive to the democratic process taking. whatever you are pumping and three, $4 billion in ads, they won't even tell you in some cases he was doing it. that is not good for democracy. we had to change the system. it puts dollars with free speech. somehow i just don't believe whenever jefferson and adams said dan franklin worked together and shot from the constitution, one side, you know, tom, you a thousand dollars out there speak at a thousand dollars in free speech come up at $10,000, so i should have 10 times the amount of free speech you have. i don't think that was part of the original equation. if the supreme court says money equals free speech, except when

it comes to union. because they say time and time again you can limit the free speech of union all that you can't limit corporation. so we'll be testing some of those in the near future to find out if they do mean what they said in the citizens united decision. >> one last question. >> out of time already? >> yeah. >> rich, as the main estimate president obama does get a second term, what do you think the prospect as the keystone united project? assuming president obama gets a second term, what are the prospects for the keystone accel pipelined project? >> i don't think it's keystone. it's about job creation. if he gets a new one at josie step in the hacker reportedly

can invest 252 mike $400 billion in infrastructure, you'll see job creation along the way. and you'll see things i think done correctly. the thing i get a little upset about, particularly from the industry, a lot of people try to say it's either/or. either you do the project or destroy the environment. i think there's a way to do things both ways. you can do things without destroying the environment and they should be looking at this, doing them in a very sustainable way. i think that projects and others have every chance of success, doing it the right way. both are going to see more job creation under barack obama and mitt romney who is going to go right back to where we were, deregulating everything. or tax cuts for the rich and letting it trickle down. it doesn't trickle down at the were, it got us into the mess that we currently find ourselves

in. >> all right, great. thank you for coming in. see you in a year. >> yeah, i'll be here. >> rate, thank you. [inaudible conversations] .. >> i do not envy the drowsy harmony of the republican party.

face welch debate. we welcome it. they deny differences. we bridge them. they are uniform, we are united. [cheers and applause] the choices this year are not just between two different personalities or between two political parties. they are between two different visions of the future. two fundamentally different ways of governing. fair government of pessimism, fear and limits or hours of hope, confidence and growth. [applause] >> now a conversation with former house speaker and

presidential candidate, newt gingrich from the 2012 presidential race. from "washington journal," this is about 50 minutes. >> host: newt gingrich is here now and mr. speaker i wanted to get your position on welfare and you are all over the place in the favorites today and many issues but welfare in "usa today" said romney is centering his attack on the 96 welfare law and there's a picture of you here. it says that you are calling president obama the anti-clinton at this point. what are you sing? >> guest: first of all my newsletter in human events yesterday i said there was a real gamble on obama's part to the clinton to become a nominee. clinton announced in his "state of the union" that the arab the government was over and obama's trying to rebuild it. clinton treated the democratic leadership council to try to move the democratic party to the center. obama's taken aback did left. i worked with clinton in a very bipartisan way, very tough

negotiations. eubie e.b. dubois their reform twice. we finally worked it out. it is the most important social conservative reform in our lifetime. obama gutted the welfare, the workfare provision by just issuing a regulation which i think is illegal by the way. clinton and i worked at a balanced budget act of 1997. it was a very tough two and a half year negotiation and in a bipartisan way we looked at four straight surpluses. obama has led the largest deficits in american history. because of welfare reform and economic growth, the number of children in poverty drops 25%, the largest improvement in child property in the last two years of the clinton administration is these policies went into effect and his people went to work, earned a living improve their lives. i think it almost every major son clinton is in one world and obama's in another. half. >> host: talking point memo tracking your points this week,

newt gingrich -- a secret will ruddock go plot to end welfare reform. >> guest: i don't know that it's a secret plot. what i said is obama's a state senator in 1996 opposed the work requirement. a substantial number of the bull democrats bitterly written a post it and attacked bill clinton for signing it. section 407 is very direct. no waiver is legal and the reason is we we have wanted we wanted to force the state level social service bureaucrats to recognize that this was a major shift back to the work ethic and that they had enough occasion to apply the work ethic to the poor. the president, president obama has gone in and issued a proposed regulation to health and human services which waves something which congress has said and president clinton signed, you can't wave.

you have to ask yourself a very simple question. if they don't intend to waive the work requirement where they waiving the work requirement so they say to us you are leaping to conclusions. i think that's nonsense. it's very clear that people who are left-wing who don't believe in the work requirement are now trying to set the stage to wave the work requirement. >> host: the former secret former presidential candidate will be with us for 45 minutes and newt gingrich will start taking your calls. we want to get back to the presidential race itself. a lot has been written about this matt bramley campaign video or campaign ad entitled the rise and fall of welfare reform which sparked a lot of the discussion. let's take a quick look. >> the new bill restores america's basic organ of providing opportunity and demanding in return responsibility. this bill will help people to go to work so they can stop drying a welfare check and start

drawing a paycheck. why shouldn't able-bodied person receiving welfare benefits not be required to work? >> i believe it's an important change. yes people ought to work. hard-working american citizen should not be required to carry people. i introduced the concept of workfare in 1986. i remember being pilloried by my colleagues on the democratic side of the time for suggesting that the mandatory work requirement for anyone receiving welfare. >> i was not a huge supporter of the federal plan in 1996. >> i would not probably have supported that federal bill that was passed. >> the obama administration quietly offered the waiver to the work requirements in the

law. >> host: mr. gingrich you have been pressed on this ad and the one headline that developed overnight. newt gingrich has no proof of the romney at. where are you with this issue right now? >> guest: that came out of a conversation i was frank a pretty calm deluded. had they actually waved it, it's only been around since july 12. do i believe that they're going to waive the work requirement the first chance they get? absolutely and so the ad sets up what i think has not yet happened but you have to ask yourself the question, why would they waive, why would they put in place a waiver that they don't intend to waive? so i think the particular reporter was determined to get me to say it hadn't happened yet and i'm happy to say okay it hasn't happened yet but clearly it's going to happen if he gets reelected because otherwise why would you set it up.

>> host: lots of other shoes to go through but we want to get the viewers involve talking with newt gingrich. delaware suffers, may on the democratic line. hi, may. >> caller: good morning. the first thing i have is i have a comment. basically everything i have to say the comment that the first thing is the welfare situation. with entitlement, they were talking about the poor man and setting up the criticizing. i want you to love yourself more than you hate the president. understand what i'm saying. he has your interest in heart. if romney gets and the republicans will be like they were in the great depression. they will be jumping off every bridge they can find. thank you so very much. >> guest: i just would say that theory periods of great prosperity, when i was speaker reworked we worked in a bipartisan way with the clinton

and the largest production -- reduction in children in poverty in american history as the two years after we passed welfare reform so i think we can work together to get things done. i do think president obama is much to far to the left and compared to president clinton he is much too partisan. >> host: mr. romney hits bottom and welfare. truth twisting with the accusation that personal bond plans to cut welfare reform by adding federal work requirements is blatantly false. mr. romney is increasingly desperate desire to find a president something he is not. what do you think of mitt romney at this point? >> guest: i think is a smart hard-working guy with great management capabilities who has put together a very effective campaign and he won the nomination and distillate in a real fight. as you know i was in the middle of it. but he also thinks "the new york times" is just plain wrong.

"the new york times" has to answer the question, why would you issue a proposed waiver, something which was illegal if you aren't going to win? i think on the the left is this desperate desire to protect president obama and certainly the board is on the left and they want to protect president obama from himself, but it's his department that did this and i think it's pretty clear that they're trying to do and i think the heritage foundation got it right. probably the best informed person on welfare reform in the country was actively for years and years and said it's going to go to work requirement. >> host: williamsburg virginia randy republican for newt gingrich. hi. >> caller: yes, good morning. i hope you remembered this. about four years ago on the coldest morning in new york, handed you a package of my small business, virginians for education which was the mobile fitness facility that had a number of teachers of pre-k-12

children exercising in this mobile program. now i have been to over 1000 schools throughout the state of virginia and i have had nothing and the reason why get there is because the parents paid for me to calm, and so i am greeted by the children and the parents to pay my fee which means all of my clients are repeat customers. what i find at the local and state level in respect to pre-k 12 health is anything that is innovative, reducing costs and improve service gets exactly what they're fighting against. what i do as i operate a program that costs $100 an hour and i can take as many as 90 children an hour with a measured outcome immediately and improve morale and health. every school i go to. sadly, that has meant nothing to republican or democrat leadership here in the state, and it just doesn't make a

difference what local community i am in. i am battling an entrenched school board, the local owners, the local school groups, teachers association. the last thing they wanted someone to come in and out work them, i'll outthink them and provide the best facilities for the children. so they will have a job. >> host: thanks for calling. >> guest: i think that is a very powerful and important point. i have talked to a number of innovative educational technology companies. one of which had a brilliant computerized program for learning how to read particularly for people who needed remedial reading and the resistance of the education bureaucracy to anything which reduces the workload and therefore reduces the union membership and reduces the payroll. it's really the very resistance to that kind of modernization which happens in most of american society. >> host: back to presidential politics.

the one viewer via twitter says mitt -- tax returns. >> guest: harry reid is truly not telling the truth and i think it surprising that none of the democratic senators have said, the senate majority leader should have some minimum respect for the truth. i think if you check romney first begin releasing financial documents when he first ran for governor in 2002. i think he is now released documents for a 10 year period and a great deal of information is available. i think that there is nothing he is going to do that's going to satisfy a president clinton or axelrod are the democrats. look, if you had a .3% unemployment as president he would want any issue other than the economy so i think romney just has to do what he is doing, relax and focus on issues like welfare and let the democrats talk about whatever they want to. >> host: as we sit here we are still waiting for a vice presidential announcement by mitt romney.

who should be the next vice president? >> guest: that is romney's choice. it's a very personal choice because he has to -- there are four criteria but publicly the four that are practical far can the person the president. it's not a ceremonial -- can a person philosophically be in the same general direction as romney? can the person helped win the election and can the president health the senate's which is going to be the critical place or what is happening? there is the fifth which is are the compatible and one of the things you really sought in e-2 is, bill clinton and al gore just has the right chemistry. in 2000 i think the cheney brought george w. bush a sense of comfort about national security that really became an important part of their chemistry and i think romney decided, it could be an

objective criteria and is mitt romney comfortable with that? this is somebody he wants to work next to for eight years and i think he has got some great choices. senator rob portman of ohio would certainly be a possibility and governor bob mcdonnell the virginian congressman paul ryan of wisconsin senator marco rubio in florida. senator kelly ayotte in new hampshire or governor susanna martinez in new mexico and there are a number of first-rate choices he could pick from. i'm like everybody else, and looking forward to the announcement. >> host: is there when you are thrilled about? let's go to las vegas for newt gingrich, charles independent color. >> caller: good morning. as far as welfare is concerned in america we shouldn't have welfare. we are the richest country in the world. we shouldn't have 22 million children going to bed hungry as they are living in poverty. all these rich folks are not paying enough taxes and my in my

question to mr. gingrich's, i heard you speak a few years ago at a college. one of the speeches that you are being paid $60,000 an hour for. you told these kids in college that the rich do not pay taxes. they hire attorneys and they go around the irs. were you lying or were you telling the truth? we know you were telling the truth because the rich rich don't pay taxes. they collect taxes. number two, don't cut me off. i heard you say about the union janitor. you would fire all the union janitors because i suppose you think they are making $60,000 a year is too much. and you would hire children to do the work. and that you would appoint one master janitor. now my question to you is what is this masters name? simon the greek?

thank you. >> host: a response from newt gingrich. >> guest: it's fascinating, first of all in taxes. clearly the wealthy pay much more taxes. my point was if you raise the marginal rates to a high number like they were before ronald reagan, what the french are doing, they just hire more cpas and more players and try to find ways to avoid taxes. that is the natural human reaction to high marginal rates for going to janitor issue is fascinating the intensity of the people on the left about this. my younger daughter worked as a janitor at first baptist church in georgia. it was her first job and she went and cleaned the church and clean the restrooms and did everything you're supposed to do as a janitor and she got paid. she was glad she had the job. she was in junior high. gave her some money to go do some things. it taught her some habits. you have to show up. both of my children worked all the way through high school and college. they both learn terrific

lessons. they have both had their own businesses and they have both been very successful. i've talked to people who are extraordinarily successful who started at 14, 15, 16 years of age doing something and getting paid for it. my point was, if you could have an opportunity and i've since had people walk up to me all of the place he did exactly what i'm describing. if you had an opportunity in the poorest neighbors goods in america to pay kids to do some work whether they worked in the school library or the cafeteria of, they help mop the floors, it not all hard heavy work. it's all not work that's going to be danger. you have ate, eight, ninth and tenth-graders who would like to run the money so i'm trying to find creative new ways to tie them back to their schools. give them a chance to earn some money and to give them the dignity of work rather than dependency. >> host: baggee, democrat for newt gingrich. good morning. >> caller: right now there are 56 million people drawing social

security. i have heard you all want to redo it. i was surprised, there is only a little over 13 million actual retirees. there in 9 million physically and mentally disabled kids on social security i know over the years our government had has borrowed $43 million -- which has never been repaid. i feel like what is wrong with the social security program is that they have turned it into a welfare program. [inaudible] there wouldn't be a problem. it is time people when they have kids to start taking responsibility for being parents. and taking care of their kids. >> guest: i think a lot of what she just said makes a lot

of sense. we should have a retirement plan which is the social security plan design -- it should be fully funded. to the best of my knowledge everybody that i've talked to on the republican side believes that anybody who is close to the age of retirement should have an absolute guarantee and younger people should be, believe younger people should be offered the opportunity to invest in a personal social security savings account which in galveston texas has been tried since 1980 and it has given people two and three times as big of retirement as they get under the current system but a lot of what she just said and i think she brought a lot of common sense to the commerce asian. >> host: there is a tweet for you about economic, specifically the federal reserve. explain your position on the federal reserve and its action. >> guest: i think the federal reserve should be audited and held accountable. i think we should understand how much power the chairman mr. bernanke has and i think the decision documents for 2008 in

2009 and 2010 should all be investigated by the congress because i think you cannot in a free society have the amount of power and money invested in one person that chairman bernanke has had. he has moved trillions of dollars and i think that we need to have a much more accountable and much more reformed federal reserve. i also believe frankly we should go back to a stable dollar and we should try some method to transition to having a much harder currency, closer to goal than to the current inflationary paper that we have. >> host: how significant is the debt right now? >> guest: we have been in a very strange period were to two things have been happening that nobody could have predicted. one is that inflation for our audience, inflation is two things. how much money is available and how fast is it being spent? what has happened in the last

three years is bernanke the chairman of the federal reserve has dramatically spent the supply of money but it hasn't dealt with inflation because it is being spent so slowly that what is called velocity has collapsed. there is a lot of paper floating out there and the more velocity picks up the more you will see inflation almost overnight. the second thing to remember is that when you're in this kind of environment, because we are still the largest economy in the world and because we still have more of the rule of law than any other country, people actually come to the u.s. to invest their money when they are scared so the pressure has been downward on the u.s. bonds. the danger is, the morning people happen opportunity in the morning inflation starts. if you have 15, 16, $17 trillion you are paying interest on you are going to pay an enormous percent of your budget. you will end up paying more in your lifetime for them just on the debt then you will pay for

national security. but it's a very dangerous and sets up some very difficult economic choices later on. >> host: a couple of the vice presidential candidates that have been put out there who are experts on fiscal budget matters, one of them is rob portman. speak to him and his ability to help with the problems. >> guest: clearly if you are looking for expertise to two people who know the most about this among the potential nominees are rob portman and paul ryan. portman has been director of the budget. he has been in office if budget and is remarkable he broadly experience. paul ryan is probably the brightest person ever to chair the budget committee so the two of them are really really powerful. and important and's casey also comes from a very important state, ohio. candidly i think ryan will help carry wisconsin so either one of them is an asset in trying to win the election.

>> host: fairfax city virginia, rick, republican. >> caller: one quick preliminary. would romney not even consider him because he supported yourself? and the main economic question is, the media narrative is that republicans don't want to compromise on taxes but the system is already effectively progressive according to the cpl. tax reform would result in more revenues than rate increases. the democrats had 60 in the senate in 2009, unlike the republicans from 2002 to 2006, who led an average of only 52, and the democrats chose not to pass tax reform. and only getting $40 billion tax increases would not reduce the deficit because they would redirect that to more spending. >> host: beginning with j.c. watts. >> guest: j.c. watts is a

great congressman a great all-american football player, a terrific preacher, is a great private sector business today and certainly he is somebody you would want to think about as a great talent but i don't think he would think of himself right now it's being in running for the vice presidential nomination. on taxes i have a very simple principle. this come -- countries overspend and it's not over tax. i would put washington on a diet and get washington to shrink. i don't want to feed washington. >> host: back to the future, twitter. , what is your role in the party and i bring that up because one more "new york times" piece that i wanted to bring out and it talks about various republicans and their role at the convention in tampa in the headlines says many clamor for convention roles but more are out than in. that is the way the times is putting it but featured here are donald trump, rick perry, michele bachmann, ron paul's for

gove and yourself, newt gingrich. it says here the romney campaign instead of hitting the podium will lead workshops at the convention nicknamed newts university. >> guest: this is a conversation i had with the romney people shortly after we suspended our campaign and i said you know starting in 1984, i have taught a series of workshops usually in the morning and i have found that there are delegates in alternates and activists from all over the country who are excited to come and the news media frankly doesn't have much to cover that time of the day and they are intrigued. they said they that both want to come and frankly it may shock everybody so it would be fun. the last convention for example we did a workshop under american solutions on school choice and we shocked everybody because we had the reverend al sharpton came to the workshop at the republican convention.

we also had governor plenty who has been a real leader on school choice and we had lisa keegan who is in the head of education in arizona. it was very well attended covered by c-span and lots of other media. so you know, people have often said that i am an idea person. i am clearly a teacher by background. we are currently working out the details and hope to announce over the next day or two in tampa but i think we will end up having from 10 to 12 monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday very issue oriented but also less scripted in the evenings. the evenings are very controlled. this is really a chance to learn hopefully what we are going to put on the line and make it available to everybody in the country and it will be a chance to talk about some in depth issues in the a way you couldn't. i told them i would rather do that than have a brief speech in the evening and i'm very mfortable that i will have a chance to work with a party. i've been a republican activist since august of 1958 so i've had

a very long experience in doing these things and i'm looking forward to seeing many people i have known over the years. tampa is a great giant family reunion and these workshops are going to be terrific. >> host: one of the things about the new york times headlines that want to get your response to, says it party tension is high according to you. >> guest: well, i don't think that party tension is any higher than normal. what you have is a party in transition and you 11 new generation coming along and you have the marco rubio's and you have the next senator from indiana, richard mourdock and ted cruz and texas. this is a new generation. they are aggressive, they are intense and excited to frankly those of us who have thought of ourselves as young reaganites in the late seventies we can all identify with them. this is the new blood, the new waive in the new enthusiasm. you are going to have tension and governing majority party is going to be big enough in the country of 311 million people

for stable majority of 60% and that's 180 million people. if you invite 180 million people to a family reunion will have a lot of tension. what you have to do is relax and be cheerful about it. >> host: one more question about your campaign. hewitt had a couple of months to reflect. are there one or two things that if you do them differently might have made a difference? >> guest: well for less than i have talked about a fair amount. she was would say figuring out early have to race much more money was a big factor. we got outspent particularly in florida on a scale that we could not match. i would say i made a mistake and it's my responsibility in trying to work which additional consultants because justice is idea for mood and university in tampa, i was never a traditional candidate. ..

i'm never going to be more than a small business owner. what is going to give me the incentive to be the next steve jobs. , to be hated for my success to on taxes, whatever is taught is

on the people that we get our commodities from, oil, gas, electricity, food, he may give me a tax break, but i've just been taxed toronto's commodities just to make it through. that's pretty much whatever they wanted wanted to say. >> host: thank you for calling. >> guest: i thought the speech the president gave for you figured it build a pier at abbott watching the olympics. you know, guesses olympians head coaches, family and friends supporting, or you saw michael phelps and you have to say to yourself, he put a lot of himself into being competitive. you look at this terrific people we had sport after sport and you watch yesterday at the women at beach volleyball who won their third gold. yeah, i'm sure they had great coaches, lots of family support,

and their neighbors were positive. those two women went out on the beach and they practiced and they distant crack just and we ought to recognize and encourage exactly your point. we want to encourage the next steve jobs, the next bill gates. it's not just in business. we want to encourage that working for the red cross. i have a granddaughter and ballet, a grandson who plays the bass. i want to encourage them to music about their future. we want americans to have a work a fake. i thought president obama was undermining precisely that talent. you mentioned taxes. you raise taxes on products to become more expensive, scarce or appear that a hardship for working americans. we have an american energy opportunity to become independent of the middle east, the north american independent and energy. that is not going to happen with an obama style approach.

>> race, democrat, hi there. >> caller: yes, as i watched the republican debates, i notice all of you stood on stage and huffed and puffed about horrible care act and i think it's important to understand that everyone of you stood up and talked with all the subsidized health care and pensions from my taxes. under their benefits program, according to the office of personnel management, this program will begin after i had a successful first year of operation condor sought unprecedented 750,000 employees and retirees sign up for their dental. this program also brought costs down 2% further consecutive year. i found it very strange all these politicians in congress

included all put down health care subsidized or paid for by taxes and yet you're willing to push this off in a something we don't deserve this kind of health care, this kind of program. in fact, i understand congress used are federal employees help nsa programs as a template for providing affordable health care. and to bring up paul ryan, if he has such a great economist, how come it's not tearing apart your programs that are helping us in the congress, such as you receive lifetime pensions or lifetime health care. and if i remember right, if an employee pay certain company and i lose my job, i lose all those benefits. how come you don't lose your benefits? postcode mr. gingrich. >> guest: you raise some interesting points, but they're very misleading. congress has reform the pension plan to the refined contribution plan and the defined benefit

plan is to be. and lots of companies people are not long-term benefits and when they get older, members of congress on medicare just like everybody else. i think that part of it is not an accurate perception. the key difference is no corporation, including federal employees in the mouth to control corporate america. you have a wide range of choice. if you look at the benefit act, it's a good model for thinking about how to have a large number of choices. what worries those of us to look at various national health systems is putting power in the hands of bureaucrats so they start making decisions. zero, and there's a recent argument about whether or not you should have a particular test for men that relates to prostate cancer, one of the leading experts said this government or private decision made by a committee that had no

cancer expert on it, no expert, this decision sent a good theory, but in fact would lead to premature death of 10% to 15% of the men who get prostate cancer. i want to stick with you having the right and your doctor have been the right to practice appropriate medicine for you and then i want to find ways to maximize the number of people who have health insurance. if you look at medicaid, a government run program, there aren't many people who will voluntarily get a decayed and studies the uninsured have better health outcomes in the people on medicaid because medicaid tends to be so badly run. postcode mr. speaker, it do want to shift to national security, touching briefly earlier. this fear wants to know what national security means to you. >> guest: national security means to me that my grandchildren, matthew was 12 and robert 11 should wake up every morning feeling they are safe and free and that their

government has taken steps to preserve their safety and freedom. whether that means stopping the mexican drug cartels, whether that means stopping radical islam is for developing deterrence against the rising chinese military, that on every front their government has looked ahead and said this is what we need to do to keep americans safe. postcode where do you see things going with iran? >> guest: i think it is a mess and very is very weak and dangerous. i believe we need and i just wrote a piece outlining a platform plank of radical islamists. we need to understand how dangerous the will middle east is becoming a how serious the problem is. we just had yesterday reported in the morning news the egyptians bombing their own territory on sinai. bush is sober people. if the egyptians can't control their territory, you have a war

underway in theory, a war underway in yemen, a war underway in iraq and afghanistan, large parts of pakistan out of control. libya is very, very unstable. we need to understand how dangerous the world is in iran is a piece of the danger, but not by itself the only danger. postcode elite editorial in the "washington post" talked about hard-core without western intervention it is likely to go on and on. western intervention, should there be intervention into what degree? >> guest: we should be actively helping arm and train the guerrillas and independent forces to defeat the size of government and sent clear signals that the thought government is not going to survive and i think it will break under the pressure. >> host: one more point. one of the health stories that has to do with this whole debate

over the muslim brotherhood and the aide to secretary of state clinton. the headline in the were gingrich is saying the attack on michelle bob and come on the latter are baloney. what is your position? >> guest: first of all comments on individual person. i'm not making any allegations about one person. the five members of congress wrote a series of letters to inspectors general, state security and justice, et cetera appeared outside, we want an assessment of the influence of the muslim brotherhood in your department. i think that's totally appropriate. i think the muslim brotherhood is a very, very dangerous organization. i think tony blair was just quoted last week in saying that one of the things he's concluded is that since 9/11 we have greatly underestimated the

desire of radical islamists to achieve supremacy, not toleration, the supremacy. the west is asleep. i think these letters were an effort to wake us up and i think it's fascinating how intense the emotional some of the reaction to those letters have been. i would suggest we as american have a right to know whether or not people who want to replace our civilization has significant influence in the obama administration. postcode from south florida, frank is a republican. you are on with newt gingrich. >> caller: hello, mr. speaker. i have a couple questions for you based on the budget. a few weeks ago the president was claiming to be the lowest spending president in 40 years, which i found totally misleading. nobody in the media seems to explain the budgeting process and how misleading that is based on the date at fiscal year-end

and how the first nine months of his day, the money that hand and nancy pelosi and the stimulus and the $400 million omnibus bill all get taxed on president bush and he's basically saying the scenario based on the baseline. that's the first part. the second part is, how is the t.a.r.p. by me accounted for in that scenario? how is that with bush's numbers? when you talk about that is paid out. where does that go into the obama numbers? >> guest: first of all company raised a number i can answer. i'll have to find out. it's a very good question about the way to keep score. the loans under bush could have been about spending and the payments under obama could count as revenues in.

that could have a reverse effect, but i don't know that's true and i don't want to mislead any viewers. you've now given the assignment and i will go learn about this later on today and i will do so. in fact, i'll probably e-mail paul ryan and ask his advice because he knows more about this than anyone i know. i think the space lion thing is crazy. imagine your children convinced that they had a baseline of 2-dollar increase in their ballots and they deserve a normal month of four weeks. they deserve an $8 increase to the event. they say well, haven't gotten a pay raise. how about if they give you $2? they say, why are you cutting the six? they've been giving you $2 increase. if they know you're not, may baseline is to get $8. i'm not doing this on a black board, so i hope our viewers can follow me. this is why you want to complete the reform of the congressional budget office.

the congressional budget office has these models of what they call bayside retching income which basically says if you don't increase by this amount is a cut, even if it's an increase. if you pick up on that, there is no small business in america that has a baseline is like that. normally if you spent $100 last year at 105 this year, isn't it crease at the congressional budget office glory $15 cut if they have a baseline. so you put your finger in a very sophisticated point about why washington is so hard to cover in reforming the congressional budget office is a significant step towards getting the government. republicans control the senate in january, i hope you will sit down with the house republicans insist on a directory dedicated fundamentally overhauling and changing the congressional budget office. >> host: you talk about congress potentially changing. what about the atmosphere and how is the gop leadership doing? >> guest: well, i think speaker boehner have a very hard

job because of the one front they have a president who is essentially a radically different from bill clinton bill clinton is the governor of arkansas. he do you have to work with the legislature. he did not like them, but you have to work with them. so, even when the lanai were fighting, we knew we had to talk to each other. i think obama is sort of a classic college professor. his way or no way. woodberry very hard by the speaker. i admire boehner keeping his temper. reid has shown us this week of level of dishonesty that is breathtaking. he is no basis for his attacks on romney. he is not produced a single person is substantiated. you have a president you can't work with and they basically have been patiently trying to buy time to get to the election and the host of a president who wants to be bipartisan and a senate willing to actually sit down to work. >> host: show on the independent line from spring green in wisconsin.

>> caller: hello, first of all, newt, i wish you were the classic college professor. the country would be in much better shape. i don't know if you're the most intelligent guy in the room, but you certainly articulate the most intelligent points. i want to talk about our president. my president, i would really like someone to call this guy on what he is. he's the pandering cheese and expect all these groups, women, free contraception. hispanics, amnesty like. voter registration is now going to come with your welfare check as well as your comments on the relaxing of the welfare to work program. he changed his stance on gay marriage. the unions get the auto bailout. governors get all the stimulus

money to balance their budget. and those are drops in the bucket of taxpayer money that the president plans in order to cater to these groups. and then you have the big banks. they get these bailouts and tarps and the average person on the street that has no retiring, has no stocks, has no investment and stuff like that. i haven't worked in a couple years. the residential construction trade. do i have to tell you how that do it. i'm in madison wisconsin, but i'm from chicago. how you guys could be surprised if some of the stuff he does around congress, by presidential fiat, mayor daley in the middle of the night for up a runway in

chicago at hbo and the middle of the night because he had just moved from bridgeview, which was a deteriorating neighborhood to the lakefront and one of the chemin c. -- sorry, chemin c. condos and the airplanes landing and taking off her writing past the windows in him and his wife decided that wasn't the lakefront view he wanted to have. >> host: thanks, joe. we get the point reaction. just go good to hear from someone in wisconsin. we were just out in the cross. we do a one share unstacked, so we were out campaigning and tommy thompson is a great, great leader who helped welfare reform. governor thompson is one of the key leaders in making it possible. look, let's be clear, barack obama as president of the united states, we want to replace him. we can have big arguments, but

this is one of the responsibilities he asked, that there is an institutional presidency that i think he weakens when he, for example, on welfare reform violates the law. the president should be the number one upholder of the law and the rule of law. i agree with you a lot of his behavior actualized behavior of that entire team can be better understood if you understand chicago machine politics. do you think there's a certain amount of approach and that kind of runover that model. that is too big and complicated company for that machine politics. postcode a number of americans seasonally adjusted to 61,000, level consistent with modest gains in hiring. future of the job market. >> guest: they had stored the barack obama presidency would no

longer in the workforce. workforce participation. and the only reason were not at 13, 14, 15% unemployment is the number of people who quit looking. so the fact he was giving up i don't think is a good sign. i don't see any circumstance under which an obama second term leads to a better economy. there's no evidence that there's anything he would change that would lead to a better economy. i think people about themselves, do you really want to be stuck at a percent or 9% unemployment and a declining workforce? or do you want to really shift around and training policies and new approaches? >> host: one lescol, staten island, new york. good morning. >> caller: you republicans confound me. the way that it would be a better economy is simply god as democrats got a 60-vote

supermajority so things could actually get passed once again because the republicans are just blocking everything. they are filibustering every single thing that this president has tried to pass. that is why nothing is getting done in congress. how do you call mitt romney a liar and face the nation and supporting him now. and this new welfare to work reform thing, and that romney is actually one of the governors that requested it. >> three things. two questions. and they say the first of all, for the first year of nothing got blocked. he passed obamacare. because huge increases in spending. he pass a stimulus and unemployment wouldn't go above

80%. hasn't come down below 8%. says first two years he had absolute control of the house and senate. he is the wrong track in the wrong economy doing the wrong things. as a matter of fact, romney did not ask as governor for these kinds of changes. romney as governor works to strengthen the workfare requirements of massachusetts and romney as governor signed the letter along with 20 other governors to the u.s. senate, which was considering an increase in the work requirement from 50 to 70% and he was supportive of the increase of the work requirement come exact opposite of the obama position. >> you've been quoted as saying the senator knows what he's doing. how much more campaigning. >> the primary is next week. if he gets nominated i'll help them in the general. i hope governor thompson is going to win.

he not only help us with welfare reformer he is a pioneer, he was a pioneer in school choice working with democrats in milwaukee. he was so cutting taxes and creating jobs, turns the state from what it was that he was alike had and he was a very effective secretary of theirs. i have great respect for governor thompson and will be a very effective u.s. senator. >> guest: spent four to one by a bulky billion mayor who has not been not amnesty for 25 years for the giant chat. so just to share with that money. people in wisconsin are pretty tired of politics and then for the recall election, scott walker survived when walker is doing a great job. all of that makes it more difficult. this is the first time they've had in august primary. is the question of who's going

to turn out. he's thinking about school and whose thinking about voting quite tommy is a great campaigner and i personally had a great time tuesday morning in in the cross and is crisscrossing the state. >> host: newt gingrich, former personal candidate and former speaker of the house from georgia. thanks a lot for your time. >> guest: glad to be here.

>> i had no idea about the experiences that many of the people who are essentially my predecessors as correspondents are diplomats in berlin. despite all the time is spent in germany, i haven't spent a lot of time to get about what it would've been like to be a correspondent eric in the 20s and her duties, you know, how would you have operated? what would you have noticed or not notice, much less, how would you have acted? >> consumer product safety commission chair, inez tenenbaum

march the fourth anniversary of bipartisan product safety legislation with remarks at the national press club. she says the law has led to an 80% decline in toy recalls due to lead violations. recently made news of her decision to sue to companies who refuse to stop taking and selling small powerful magnets called buckyballs which have been linked to injuries. this is about 40 minutes. >> things the radio person didn't think i was. all right. we are ready and will begin. good morning and thank you one and all for being with us today. i am a member of the newsnight or his committee here at the national press club and i'm also host of the sex politics and religion hour, contributor as well to the "washington post" blog, should the people. the u.s. consumer product safety

commission is the agency cast with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of energy or death from consumer products. chairman inez tenenbaum helps to hone the agency, rather she does home the agency and we are very glad to have her here with us today. chairman tenenbaum was nominated by president barack obama, confirmed by the senate in 2009. since then, she has brought greater transparency to the consumer product safety commission. she thought implement safer standards, especially those for children adhere to stronger measures so that their safer for everyone. she stated she believes that the next year the united states will both the strongest juvenile product standards in the world, with continued commitment to other critical safety issues, robust surveillance and strengthen regulatory review. chairman tenenbaum has worked to ensure americans will have and will continue to receive in the

future the best assurances that the products they buy are safe and tested to be found so. we all know the chairman has an important announcement this morning. i shall now let her get to that. thank you for being with us, inez tenenbaum. >> thank you, jamil asked for that very kind introduction and for your warm hospitality this morning and thanks for the national press club for this and the newspaper committee for allowing me this opportunity to be with you this morning. it is good to see a number of familiar faces here in the ibm, faces at people who convert the consumer product safety commission regularly and i'm so glad to see members of the media who are covering the commission for the first time. since this is new massacres form, the new servers breaking news from the cpsc. this morning, the cpsc is announcing that 1.3 million general electorate dishwashers

are being recalled because of a fire hazard. this is a very important recall. there've been 15 reports of heating elements in the dishwashers, causing seven fires, three of which caused extensive property damage. fortunately there have been no errors untreated injuries, but we need consumers to respond right away. the recalls involve well-known idols like ge profile, high point and other models sold between march 2006 and april april 2009. my message to consumers is based, stop using these dishwashers immediately and disconnect the power supply to the unit. consumers will have the choice of a free in-home repair or they can get a rebate toward a new dishwasher. this buckyballs communications staff is here in the room right here in the front row with a can give you more details and we'll be sharing more details at the end of this forum.

this one other news item i'd like to mention before i get into the main topic of today's forum, even though i am charged with running a federal regulatory agent t., i don't believe other problems we face are best solved by promulgating regulations. one such area is concussions in sports, particularly football and jamil a shared with me she was part of the washington defense, when it's the all the care in washington d.c., so this will be for you. i'd like to share with you the work we've been doing at the cpsc that led to nfl commissioner robert prideaux joining forces at a used football safety that last weekend in cleveland. because of some impactful reporting that "the new york times," my staff and i set out to see what contributions the cpsc could make towards reducing risk of injuries that concussions and head injuries in football, especially at the youth level.

we've been working on strong collaborative fashion without a major football organizations from the nfl on down to the major helmet manufacturers, re-commissioners, voluntary standards body and sister agency, cdc. this joint effort has been berry fruit and a number of ways. for the long-term are working to focus on it and accelerate brain injury and how that research efforts. we need to know how these can be prevented. we hope this will lead to a better understanding of compassion. because of the role and limitation of preventing this often devastating injuries. even without those answers yet, we know enough to say that there's no sure thing as a concussion proves how men. the science just is not fair, but it doesn't need the research can point the way to safer products.

we are doing more than just pushing on the research site. we feel an urgency for immediate safety results. one of those safety results is now visible on the back of many football helmets for sale. i was very pleased earlier this year when most of the major helmet manufacturers agreed to my request that they placed on the back of a home at a born on date. this was the day bahama was born on may don't use any later date that tells people in a visible manner is time to recondition or dispose of the helmet. my own inquiry shows far too many children are very likely wiring for bar comments not properly cared for and combined with the young age should, combined with the age of bahama should be taken out of service. at this point, even in the absence of hard science or a known injuries number, and very uncomfortable using poorly maintained, often older helmet for children.

he's done everything we've learned, you believe it's very unlikely that the older, poorly maintained football helmet images different types of force from tackles the play of football fields as well as the newer properly maintained models do. until we know more in the scientific front, i see no downside to an approach that leads to less energy and possible trauma to the brain. this simple, yet informative label is a very clear reminder for parents, coaches and players at helmets model may require care and maintenance, but also just don't last forever. these new labels are a great step forward in the name of safety, but they do not address the fact that too many kids are still using old poorly maintained comments. this serious concern brought my staff to the door of the leadership of the national football league. who better to lead a national football safety effort than the leaders of the sport itself. we presented our deep concerns

to them about the state of helmets, especially at the youth level, as well as the dieter needs for an acceleration of the safety change in sport and i mean keep your head out of the game and safer ways of tackling that is not above the head. this discussion, which also ended up including other football related organizations that we are brought to the table resulted in an unprecedented public-private collaboration. the core element is a program designed to assist economically disadvantaged youth programs to trade out older poorly maintained helmets for new. but here's the key, it was one of my absolute requirements. no program would receive its new hamas without going through a robust education effort aimed at accelerating a vital safety culture change. now, nfl commissioner robert caddell and i kicked up a safety initiative with more than 100

football players in akron, ohio just hours before the football hall of fame induction ceremony. the real game changer is learning how to play the game and use those helmets properly. smarter play a safer place. parents, coaches and players will be smarter about the game and kids will be playing football safer because of its historic collaboration. now i'd like to focus on the theme of today's forum and that is the consumer product safety improvement act referred to as the cpsia, signed into law in 2008 by president bush and revitalize the cpsc. next tuesday will mark the fourth anniversary of the cpsia been in effect and i want to talk about how this child safety law has genetically changed to improve the u.s. marketplace. let's start with a few names you may recall.

jar now brown, kenny sweet, william johns, danny keys are and bobby's corigliano. these are all children who died to sin. as a result of swallowing jewelry at a very high level that contained a high level of lead, swallowing powerful magnet that have fallen out of children's toys or been entrapped in cribs and players that were deadly. these were products made in china, that was dangerous materials and did not have safe designs. they were not made to meet the best safety standards. they were not properly tested. they were not caught at import, not recalled on time to prevent these strategies. simply put, the global product safety systems in 2007 in 2008 did not protect the safety of children. congress stepped in to change the system by passing the most comprehensive consumer product safety legislation in decades. the passage by congress of the

cpsia was a game changer in the soap implementation in recent years has created one of the strongest product safety systems in the world. to explain how we created a stronger safety system, net and safety system, i have been referred to our consumer product safety protection triangle. there's three points on this triangle. the first is education and prevention, standards and rules and enforcement. i want to start with the new standards and roles that the cpsc mandated. since 2008, we have approved 41 final rules and nearly 100 notices to industry, all of which were congressionally mandated. when you consider the agency has historically averaged three and a half years and sometimes longer to promulgate a rule, you can come to understand the cpsc staff has been working overtime

to complete these rules mandated by the cpsia. here are some of the safety rules we have created. cribs, the united states now has the strongest cribs standard in the world. play yards. we've worked with the asp on to create a player as standard we cannot force to which removes the hazard that strangle any case are that created all of the mandatory standards for durable nursery equipment. we now are 100 parts per million lead limit for content in children's product. this is one of the strongest lead and lowest levels of lead limits in the world. congress permanently banned and temporarily banned three others. the log required us to create a chronic hazard advisory panel to look at those three temporarily banned how they can make

recommendations that others should be banned. finally, a chemical that is in plastic to make it more pliable. so you'll find in other products. s. 963 was a rule by the stm. it is not mandatory to a standard angst to the cpsia and thanks to the action by the consumer product safety commission. we now have a federal toy standard that we can enforce. tracking levels. all children's products must have tracking levels so we can track all the way up the supply chain, raw materials for that child's was manufactured here we now have independent third-party testing. it is required of domestic manufacturers and importers for all children's products. so before he product for your child can be sold in the united states, it has to be tested by an independent third-party laboratory. parents of children who were

killed by products that would affect over dangerous wish these rules were in place years ago. parents who were once ensured the safety of the marketplace so greater confidence stronger standards in independent testing are in place for children's products. i am proud to say that the majority of the cpsia rules have now been promulgated are in effect. the only remaining major roles to be completed on the cpsia are durable nursery equipment in the years that minute to the passage of the cpsia were numerous instances of injuries and deaths of infants and small children and effective durable infant and toddler products that cribs and other products. as a result, congress put in the final version of the cpsia code section 104, which requires mandatory safety standards for all infant and toddler products. when i assume the chairmanship of the commission in the summer

2009, there were no mandatory safety standards for any product. and since then i've moved to implement this mandate is ugly as possible. we have completed rules on cribs, data thieves, walkers, toddler beds, bed rails for children and play yards in the works for this era standards for bassinets and cradles, strollers and into carriers. these are standard at once in place will save you why lives. now i want to talk -- turn to another part of our triangle and consumer product safety and that is called enforcement. from day one, when i became chairman, i said i would be a fair, but a firm enforcer of the law. companies that comply with the cpsia confirmed incidents or injuries to the agen in a timely manner as required by law and work cooperatively with the agency when a product is to be recalled are treated fairly by the agency. the majority of industries and companies we deal with and

studied requirements of the cpsia, well-informed about the standards for which their product must comply and want to comply with the law and keep their customers safe. the overwhelming majority want their consumers to be safe. but when companies import tories with amounts of letter choking hazards, we have those in place to hold them accountable. when companies knowingly sell products that present a substantial product hazard and cause injuries, were going to hold them accountable for failing to tell us in a timely manner as required by the law. we are working to become more goods with her enforcement activities in recent years. one of the best those of his proactive with producer quarter surveillance program. the best way to protect american consumers is to make sure that violated products never enter

the united states. the cpsc has drinks and -- i mean, the cpsia has strengthened our authority at the ports. we work hand-in-hand with the customs and border protection than we were the first agency to have a memorandum of agreement with them, allowing us to have streaming data live on products before the container even came into port so that we know well ahead of time within that container. the cpsc is a small agency. we have only 550 people, but we have 20 full-time staff located at 15 major u.s. port along with 30 other employees who support their mission to testing and analysis. i wanted to tell you there's over 300 u.s. port such you can see we are spread then. however, because of our relationship with customs and border protection of the fact they allow us to stream live video, information entered the harbor, were able to pinpoint and identify products before

they reach our shores. we are currently testing a pilot program called the risk methodology, targeting system which will allow us more effect is -- allow us to more effectively target dangerous products. we are working to find a proper balance between the flow of commerce and detaining dangerous consumer products. we have stock products with excessive lead, sleepwear that's flammable, two is a small parthenon complaint fireworks and mattresses. we now make public the names of foreign manufacturers and importers of diluted products that we see a recorder. so we can give this to the chinese. we can give this to the europeans. it is public on the companies that have sent products to the united states. so during 2011, the cpsc opposite surveillance screen nearly 10,000 products at the ports. we collected almost 1800 samples than we found more than 1100

violations of safety standards. as a result, our staff is able to stop approximately 4.5 million units of products are venturing the united states. the most out of products are children's products for violations related to that limit, flammability a small part, which could present a choking hazard. here are some of our success stories as an example. our investigators in detroit targeted and examined a shipment of toys. there were numerous violations of the shipment was seized. two months later a second shipment from the very same importer was targeted and examined at it to was found to contain violent oases. investigators in san francisco targeted and examined a shipment of hairdryers. the hairdryers were seized by the cpsc because they didn't have the required shop detection system. if you look at her hair dryer, the big black thing as the shot

detection system. another example is the cpsc investigators identified a shipment of cigarette lighters may come any that has the proper paperwork required by law, so we have paperwork at the shipment was turned back an exported from the united states because the cigarette lighters did not comply. the cpsc investigators are standing shoulder to shoulder with the customs and border protection and work to prevent products from ever reaching the store shelf and our goal is never to have these products in the hands of consumers. another example is how we can be seen at first to address cadmium in children's products. cadmium was in many of the stories generated by the media and we were determined to not let cadmium in children's products become the next lead, which led to the passage of the cpsia. but we did was get up front when

we learned at cadmium in children's products. we want the asian regulators and manufactures in the speech from a january 2010. the chinese government work with us and sent out a directive to chinese manufacturers weeks later using ventilators as ours, warning all the manufacturers not to substitute cadmium per lead in children's products. we conducted five major recalls of metal jewelry due to high levels of cadmium in 2010. we do not have any recalls in 2011 or 2012 so far. we can't have turned back shipments of jewelry because of excessive cadmium. we conducted a nationwide jewelry sweep. our agents went through and investigators enter into the jewelry sweep of big and small retail stores in 2011 is a part of our general compliance program. there were 711 pieces of jewelry

screamed using our xrs analyzer at xrs as x-ray fluorescent is a small hand-held instrument and you can put it up against jewelry or any other item in via all of the metals contained in that article and i will tell you whether it's in violation or not that the limits of the memo. only a handful of pieces of jewelry had a violative level of cadmium out of the 711 we screened. those pieces were not children's products. there were adults products can be either old and tory and the cpsc staff got out the remaining inventory in the store to get them off the market. the cpsia created mandatory limits on cadmium and other toxic metals. we recognize these limits were needed for cadmium and other toxic metals inside and on the outside of children's jewelry and also inside toys.

we work cooperatively with the fashion jewelry, accessory trade association, toy industry association and the astm was right for standards to craft a child protective standards in children's jewelry and toys. our proactive approach has been a team effort across multiple divisions of the agency. cadmium did not become another lead. the final part of my enforcement but i want to talk about are the civil penalties. when congress passed the cpsia committee increased the amount of penalties we could use this science. they went to $100,000 per violation up to a maximum of $15 million total. no penalties are a deterrent and they're typically imposed well after the recall is in effect. we were to protect the consumer first and then we work to hold the company accountable afterwards. two weeks ago, burlington coat factory agreed to pay a

$1.5 million fine for failing to report dangerous drawstrings in children's outerwear, like sweatshirts and hoodies. this is a standard. you can't put drawstrings in children's outerwear because of the choking hazard. the cpsc staff has let the companies sell garments after they have been recolored. the penalty is the highest cpsc is ever assessed in children's upper outerwear which the industry may default to standard. other notable penalties in fiscal year and put a $1.31 penalty against the master for failing to report aqua dots. in the news in 2007 was widely discussed when congress passed the consumer public safety act and this was a hazardous substance and spin master paid $1.3 million as a fine for that. henry corkery agreed to pay $1.1 million penalty for failing to report children's toy dart

guns that were involved in multiple fatalities. another enforcement action that is in the news lately is the administrative complaint to cpsc staff filed and magnets. these two complaints followed the statutory process outlined for us in section 11 to follow and make a determination to present a product hazard. in addition, the status and the commissioners and media briefing package yesterday, recommended the agency start rule-making on rare earth magnets to address it the concerns with all rare earth magnetic products. later this afternoon the staff will present findings and recommendations to the commission and you can watch the briefing live starting at 3:00 p.m. on the cpsc.gov. by the way, when i came to the commission, we did not provide this service to anyone.

our meetings were held -- the briefings are public, but are commission meetings were not. so i made all of those public and you can watch us to liberate these rules, but you can especially today since this is timely, listen to staff recommendations, recommending the heavy rule on on rare earth magnets. the final point on consumer protection triangle is education and outreach. when it first came to the commission and met with members of an history who came than day after day to meet the new chairman of the consumer product safety commission, i was told uniformly by manufacturers and other members of the industry, please finish the rule-making under the cpsia. we have a responsibility to them to be predictable. in the industry said we want these rules now. we want predictability so we can plan and we want to know what rules were going to have to follow. so effectively to implement the

cpsia, i believed it was unconquered to work with the affected agencies. i thought it was so important we had outraged and provided information so that large can of mace, small companies could have had permission on how to comply with rules and statutes. so i create the opposite education, global average and small business and through this office we have our online content so that our rules are now in plain english so anyone can understand them. we've conducted a webinars coming to teleconferences and leverage 87,000 small and medium-sized businesses. small businesses like him a toys people do not have lawyers. they are not a big corporate. they needed organization. they needed us to help them understand roles and understand what they had and didn't have to do under the cpsia. were going to have our first

cpsc in september the 20th way faster counterparts in beijing to participate. it is unusual to teleconferences and work in beijing. with center people even over to china to do seminars for manufacturers. on this international front we've conducted 43 industry sessions totaling over 18,000 chinese manufacturing professionals. also reconnected 27th session for the chinese government. this approach was in keeping with my philosophy of taking safety to the source. sources manufacturers for messieurs in many of our products within china. we believe that you can build safety into products, do you can design the product safely and if you follow the rules you can have products that comply with all the cpsia and other rules, whether you're manufactured and said the united states or outside the united states. another key element of the cpsia

mandates is the creator of safer products.gov public database. congress created this web base when they passed the cpsia and i believe that it was the biggest of a government project in my tenure so far. it went live in 2011, march 2011 and it's a valuable database for consumers, industry and the media and cpsc. consumers use safer products.gov to research incident reports involving a product they have or are thinking of buying. they also used to say to file the report of harm or potential harm to the government for a product they are purchased. we screen all of our reports, read them and share them with the means manufacturer and the manufacturer has a dedicated confidential port, where they can register. within the information to them and they have a chance to tell us that the claim is materially

inaccurate. they can claim that the information is confidential and should not be posted because it's confidential business information. and they have a chance to post their reports alongside the person who enter the report of favor products.gov. we're getting close to having 10,000 incident reports on safer products.gov. so important to know when used as site. some reports have contributed to product recalls another reports include company response explaining why they believe the product is safe. we are even using the site to give retailers and easier online to report hazardous products to the agency. i really safer products that god is doing the job of informing consumers that away in way empowering them. consumers can tell us about their experience with the product. i also believe hoping to make cpsc for assessable to the

public unless the sean sunshine in an operation. we work to integrate data from safer products that the to all other data warehouse and system so we can connect the dots faster when we see an emerging hazard. i hope that all of you will check out the website and that you will use it frequently. another idea that is, to increase public awareness of who we are and what we do as a creation of our new logo. as we near the 40th anniversary of the consumer product safety act, we felt it was time to establish a new logo, which is being displayed for the very first time today. we've been working so hard during my tenure as chairman to make cpsc more available to the public. it's often been considered dating and confusing. people with luck in ca wonder what that has to do with consumer product safety. we developed a new symbol for agency. the new logo reflects the unique

rand that is the global aspect of our mission commander should you be the global safety. the code in the logo is quite unique. you can see it there. it represents the type of logical advance of the agency an interactive window for consumers to link to our website and receive mercy information. the code can also be linked -- used by consumers to link into videos, publications and online resource. i'm excited about the new logo when i hope it will help consumers get to know the cpsc and what we do. so in closing, i believe because of the consumer product safety improvement act and all of cpsc's accomplishments, i can say with confidence that state of product safety is strong and to borrow a quote from industry, it is built to last. i believe we have to cpsc are making a strong contribution to the state of product safety around the world. i am using our strength not for

short-term gain, but to create a sustainable product safety system, a system built to last regardless of whose chairman or who's charged in congress. a system that is built to last through compliance with stringent safety requirements established by the cpsia 30 system built to last a creek in a regulatory approach that strives for injury prevention rather than reacting to injury. my system built to last for future generations are that they will thank us for what we've done so far. so again, i want to thank the national press club for providing me the chance to speak to you this morning as we celebrate four years after the passage of the cpsia on my three years of chairman of the commission. i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> the moderator has a question.

adiabatic >> the arch rogue was written by industry and the arch rule worked so that it closes in a way that did not prevent a feed, which strangled any key. the way that collapsed, it is a fee in the child cop ahead and mayor. so if you can see the play yard, it collapses in a different way like is the so that the strangulation hazard is removed. ..

who were doing excessive work on how much they came back and said scientist are telling us that we do not have a concussion proof helmet that could be manufactured. so then we started thinking about education. and my staff and i knew there were a lot of the football leagues, you know, pee wee and youth leagues with very old helmets. we learned that after ten years, even sooner the helmets need to

be reconditioned. so we started to talking everyone involved in the football. my staff went to the nfl and said would you like to participate? they said yes, we will go do a pilot project and we will -- they and other members put contributed funds to the and gave it to the u.s.a. football which is nonprofit organization. u.s.a. football bought the helmets for the leagues. it's going to be in that area, it will be in the new york city area, the san francisco area, and the gulf states these pilot projects. and the leagues can apply and, you know, fill out an application and ask to be a part of the initiative, but the coaches have to agree to take an education course so they can teach the players how to play as they say, keep your head out of

the game. how to play more safely and avoid concussions so you don't dive with your head in first and put your head in danger. that's what the national football league is really one of the contributors to the fund that the u.s.a. football will be administering. >> [inaudible] at point whether to set the standard for -- [inaudible] >> what we did is get the manufacturing to put on the back of the helmet, a sale it was manufactured on the date. we call it born-on date. it should be recon decisioned at this state. it was not out there. people don't know -- what was

the shelf life of the helmet or playing life of the helmet. it's brand new to have that marking. we were continuing to follow the major research being done on football helmets. if at the time, the science supports that the helmet can be concussion proof. we will work to get the volunteers standards committee to adopt it. but right now, what we were seeing is that there wasn't a standard that could completely prevent a concussion. there were older helmets with the football leagues that were being used without ever being reconditioned. the coach shon inside them was gone. we have a brochure we're going provide that you that gives you the cbc and the cbsc worked with u.s.a. players and football we have a brochure that tells parents about how to change the culture of football and also coaches. we would sure -- this is just a

pilot project. we'd like to see how it goes. we'd like to see it be expanded throughout the united states. we'd like for all children to be in a safe helmet. >> chairman, i have a question. >> sure. >> for moms who work at home, i wanted you to talk about what resources they have to make sure that their goods are compliant and their livelihoods can continue even as safety standards get stricter. >> thank you, that's a good great/great question. anybody that followed the improvement act knew it was one of the hard things congress dealt with. you have major corporations for making children's projects and you have the small business, the mom and pop handmade toy alliances what they were called. what congress did was pass amendments to the cpsa and it said if you are a small batch

manufacturing, meaning gross sales were a million dollars a year or less. you make 7500 of a or less and you can sign up on a rebelling city and qualify for the small batch manufacturing. you don't have to test your products. you still have to comply. you still have have the 100 parts per million and you have to know 90 parts per million lead paint. so you to comply but you don't have to dot testing. many are working in con issue july or they with -- toy train you would buy a thing of paint that already met the standards. you wouldn't then have to test. so if you were going make things with lead in them, so you to see that the -- you would try to doubt do without the lead or say

it doesn't contain over 1 parts through million. they didn't have to go through the rigorous testing. they have a small batch exception. and i'll have to give credit to our small business man. he spent hundreds of hours with the toy -- small toy manufacturers and small business. he took our rules and wrote them in plain ang learn. -- english. he did semimires we had seminars and invite them to come in. we try do everything so they understand the rules and help them learn how they can comply. , and be in compliance with the cpsia. >> we're without any more questions. i appreciate you coming. thank you again for the national press club and the news committee for this invitation. we appreciated. thank you. >> it's an honor to have you.

thank you. [inaudible conversations] up next on c-span2 a forum on airline security about the offer line pilot association and remarkets by acting faa administrator. and after that, a look at the 2012 campaign with aflcio president richard. this week we've been showing you some of this year's luncheon speeches from the national press club. tomorrow tennis champion on exercise on childhood obese. that's 6:00 p.m. eastern on

c-span2. this weekend on booktv afterwards. >> i think we have the myth two guys in the dorm room and -- you don't see friends on myspace and twins laying on the side of the road not having achieved success. >> unintended consequences, former bain capital partner edward looks at the free market economy, the causes of the 2008 recession and explains how lower tax rates leads to investment and economic growth. part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. >> transportation security administration and customs and border protection officials outline how a risk-based security strategy is allowing them to secure planes and cargo arriving into the u.s. this is the focus of the opening panel of the day two of the

airline pilots association air safety forum. it's about an hour fifteen minutes. [applause] good morning, i hope you had a wonderful evening and are fully caffeinated. i want to thank boeing for sponsors the reception and airlines for america and the can nad yaidz and all the sponsors with their support make the event possible. we appreciate your support. [applause] please mute your cell phones and ore electronics and keep them muted while you're here in the hall. thank you. i don't think i'll get an argument from the statement. nothing has changed more in the airline industry in the past eleven years than aviation

security. whether it's the tsa striving to improve techniques for passenger screening installing secondary barriers to protect cockpits. tougher security is a permanent component of today's aviation dna. the big question is, has our security networking just gotten harder to get through or smarter? we're starting this morning with a discussion on the risk-based concept. how to make the process more efficient, increasing the throughput, and finding the bad guys before say that can hurt us. moderating this panel is miest steamed colleague captain fred eissler. captain eissler. [applause] chuck, thank you very much. good morning and welcome.

i serve as federal aviation chairman. i fly for fedex compress. it's a pleasure to welcome you here today and the panel discussion for the need on weeding out evil doers for risk-based security. this discussion is intended to devil into numerous aspects programs that are applied throughout the aviation sector by government and industry. we are pleased to be joined by distinguished government and industry subject matter experts who will provide us with the organization perspective on the use of risk-based security emergencies and protecting the aviation domain. their bios are include, in the conference pact. packet. please fell free to read them. we have put together a topnotch agenda and expect it generates a great deal of interest. time has been reserved for q and a at the end.

i will kick off the discussion by offering thoughts about perspective on the need for risk-based security and find some examples of the netter the regard. follow my excellents we will hear from the guests. risk based approach to problem solving in the domain is not a new concept. the strategy has been prevalent in air safety relates matters for decades and it has become more prevalent in the years. it is clear that the way forward in aviation security is through an intelligence driven risk-based approach. the vast majority of people in cargo transported on commercial aircraft posed no intended threat to aviation. knowing in, a one size fits all approach to screening doesn't make good sense nor sz it most effective use of the limited screening resource. in fact adopting the one size

fits all in the aviation environment wastes time and resources and reduces achievability margins of security. alpha has -- security strategies long before the events of 9/11. for example, in the mid 1990s our association was a maisht contributor to the development of the computer caps program. capps was developed as a methodology for prescreening airline passengers in order to identify those persons considered to be a higher degree of risk to 58uation and then subject them and their belongings to appropriate levels of screening. early last year, al l pa published a white paper on risk-based security which advocates the tsa made or is presently making. following the 9/11 attacks our nation witnessed a creation was

department of homeland security and the transportation security administration. we also saw the reenvying ration of the federal air martial service. alpa enjoys a close working relationship with the fans in maintaining and the ffdo. we're pleased to have the director of the fams mr. bob bray with us. another one of the 9/11 programs that alpa acted is the because of the legitimate security concerns stemming from the 9/11 attacks, traditional access to the flight deck is severely limited by government regulation. these restrictions had noticeable, negative impact on airline industry operations. they resolved the concern by affording a reliable means to positive identify a pilot's

identity and current employment status in real time. facilitating flight crewmembers and faa authorized fors tell me to ride in the cockpit jump seat once again. beta testing of the program began on august 10, 2003, and the full implement takes was approved in june 2004. it is in use today and proven to be remarkably effective program. speaking of the pilot careening anesthesiology -- alternate risk-based methodology that is different than the check point screening protocols. to remedy the problem, alpa received a crewpass through personal screening system. the pass it was presented to tsa in may of 2007. consideration by the tsa resulted in the program being

implemented as a agency's first risk-based aviation security initiative in 2008. the three air posts colombia, south carolina crewpass has been replaced by a new system called kcm. it is a rapidly expanded program coresponsed by alpa and airlines more america a4a with the support of the tsa. as of today, no crewmember operational 18 members and plan to be in place of 31 domestic arms by the end of the counter year 2012. it is a center piece of the growing list of tsa risk-based initiative and accompanies by others such as precheck, passengers under 12, or 75 years of age, honor flights and use of behavioral deduction officers. we're grateful for john pistole for spearheading the agency's

approach. we're extremely pleased to have doug tsa associatessed minister for risk-based secure with us today to elaborate for on the perspective of risk-based security efforts. among the other government agencies adopted risk-based security programs is cbp. we are grateful for the efforts in this regard such as the global entry and u.s. visit programs. which are designed to reduce the lay yai son associated with international travelers prior to the entry into the united states. it's participation in the national center, customs a rein trade partnerships against terrorism knickertive and other risk-based programs cbp spearheads to protect the borders. we look forward to hearing the initiatives to joins us today cbp's representative. along with us today to provide

insights on the increased application and risk-based security strategies and the all cargo world is the airlines for america's car go service director mrs. liz. among other things, liz will talk about the application of the air car go advanced screening system in the passenger and all car go environments. thank you for your kind attention and now i'd like to bring up the panel lists one at the time with we begin with tsa administrator. assistant administrator robert bray and fall with associate administrator doug then ms. liz shaver. thank you for being here with us today. to speak to you today to join

the forum as we continued the relationship between tsa and alpa. today i'll talk about risk-based security in the federal air martial service. some of the layers of secure city that tsa uses to detect the terms of terrorist. as the assistant administrator of the officer of law enforcement, i join the panel of distinguished guest to discuss a topic that is primary importance to all of us. aviation and risk-based security. tsa under the destruction of administrator john pistole recognizes the importance of risk-based security in the aviation domain and taken several steps to implement new programs supporting risk-based security and continue our progress toward our effort toward being a leading counterterrorism. i'll talk about the history of the federal air martial service. it's a good context where we are

and are today. the federal air martial service was staforted in 1962 after the series of hijackings. it was by attorney general robert kennedy in 1962. from them until september 11, 2001, the -- there was only a handful of federal air martial they only threw international mentions. all that changes since then in order to meet the challenges about a year ago we started a work within our organization in fact within all of tsa to look at the staffing and headquarter

across the nation. within the federal air martial we have gone from five to three divisions and now we're starting to look at where the field officers are. that's part of the problem you know better than i. in the ten years since 9/11 the aviation industry changed significantly how you fly, where you fly, and what you fly. and we need to be changing that in the process of looking at that. primary mission being the flying fan. but our reference extend throughout the transportation domain. federal air marbles are a risk base. involving a law enforcement response to emerging threats with the unmatched capability for deployment anywhere in the

transportation domain. the federal air consequence vulnerability and intelligence. we recognize that all the flights are not created equal. every u.s. carrier flight is cat cat gorized basked on the risk 69 flight. like other security exoapts the federal -- limit effective efficient manner. and therefore we concentrate on the highest risk flights. you though there's about 25,000 commercial flights everyday. they vary somewhat. we focus on those that that flights. in order to utilize a risk-based model, that's is intelligence driven, the essential elements of the information that we gather on current threats and

the intelligence environment throughout the world. the federal air marshall service works with tsa officer of intelligence and analysis and other federal agencies. we have personnel assigned to many different federal agencies in the area that focus on intelligence. we gather the information and use it to build the risk-based mission schedule. at very large part of the information coordination role is the transportation security operation center here in northern virginia. that's a 24/7 operation center. it was any first job within the federal air service. in the tsoc which is what we call it texas tsoc. we have people working there all the time. we have a joint effort people from the faa, department of defense and many other agencies that coordinate the gathering of

intelligence on -- [inaudible] that affect the entire transportation domain and the essential element that have is to gather the information and push it out to the airports, our 450 domestic airports and stakeholders so we never have another instant like 9/11 that occurs we have instant awareness on events occur in the entire transportation domain now. that's a response of the operation center. another element that we have as far as our information coordination, every day the tsa leadership team gets a briefing from the tsoc on events that occurred previously and the intelligence that we do received through the tsa office of analysis. we take the information and we use that to guide us through our strategies through our event planning and through our

responses. another important aspect of the is the flight deck office program. the ffdo program plays a important role in safety and security in commercial aviation and cargo aircraft through the thousand of pilots who on a voluntary pay sis participate in the program. ffdo the last line of defense and compliment the holistic risk-based approach the tsa uses in providing random presence. for those in the audience today who have choose ton participate in the program, i want to express my sincere gratitude. the ffdo program is facing a rapidly changing budget. i don't know what the numbers are going to be, there was some possibility of the budget was going to decline, now hopefully that has been resolved and we'll be able to grow the program next

year. that's still not fully resolved. we'll work on that. we have layers of security throughout the airport. we have the fans wffdo we have intelligence and environmental awareness and we work in the airport to keep the evil doughers outside the airport. to look at the physical program parameters of that. we work closely with the fbi to improve airport security. another program we have is the awareness program. based off the work we have done a lot of work with airports and the united kingdom. we learn a lot from them. we have a robust assessment we do a domestic airports and the invitation of foreign airports we do that to raise awareness

for the local that have responsibility of the security of the airports in possible areas where they should have concern. another program we have is -- [inaudible] prevention of response program the viper program. it's an with you look at what happened on 9/11 or the train bombings in london or madrid or the event the mumbai incident, you look at the number of preoperational surveillance that was done by the terrorist themselves to conduct and pick their targets. the viep are program is a random intelligence driven program to put physical and covert personnel into the transportation domain to detect and detur, and defeat the terrorist. i think important to understand the global reach of terrorism. when you look at mumbai and study the terrorism events about the people of the american,

david headle who participated in the preauthorization surveillance for the attack in mumbai. the program utilized the risk-based deployment model and works with the state and local law enforcement who have responsibility for the security transportation domain. rapidly and response to specific credible intelligence. there are -- these are some of the risk-based intelligence driven programs we use to detect and prevent terrorism. i'm sure miest teemed colleague doug will talk about others. but at this time, i'd be remiss if i did not thank each and every of one in the audience today who directly support the security efforts within the aviation and transportation domain. each of us, everyone every one

of us as a result of the specific role is responsible for the safety of the public. we must work together without your assistance and support everyone in tsa and the federal air service dedicated to the mission could not be as successful. we're in the flight together and it is my promise to you it will remain that way. thank you for the invitation today. please stay safe. [applause] good morning it's great to be here with the friends with alpa and my personal thanks for captain eissler for inviting me. we continue to enjoy the opportunity to move the working relationship with alpa to a strategic partnership and i often get asked the question of what's the difference betee