something we need to pay attention to and open up a dialogue about our favorite drug. it is our favorite drug. it is legal. and most of us consume it. >> host: that's correct. exactly. can you talk, maybe, a bit about the driving force, for you, in writing "drink ?" the driving force for me is decades old. i grew up with an alcoholic mother who was cross addicted to valium, much like a lot of women were in the '60s and '70s dependent on mother's little helper. she was a "stay at home mom." i have been interested in why she drank the way she drank. the one thing i said to myself, i never will. in fact in my 50s i fell in to bad behavior with alcohol. i had a bad patch in my own life, and i would say a poster girl for this era. i'm well-educate, highly

professional woman, mother, and found myself drinking not two glasses of wine, but four, five, six a night. i slipped in to bad behavior. i went to rehab. .. >> nocturne, everyone. these teachers to. we're about to begin. good afternoon and welcome. my name is mel

>> good afternoon and welcome. it's a pleasure to welcome each each and every one of you here this afternoon. happy anniversary to miami book fair international. 30 years in this community. a. [applause] a round of them pause -- applause indeed. our thanks to my immediate college for all of its leadership and efforts, all of the volunteer students, faculty and staff to come together every single year and for the past 30 years and we can expect that to continue to bring us cultural enrichment to our community. i would also like to thank our sponsors, american airlines and all of the friends of the fair, many of whom are seated here in the first couple of rows. make a few so much for your support and those of you who are not yet friends have the opportunity to also join us as friends of miami book fair international.

please come on in and take your seats as quickly as you can. thank you very much. this year we are asking you to consider making a special donation to the fair and you may have already heard that earlier today. we are asking you to take out your cellular phones and touche text. anna: efi241444. if you are so inclined we would greatly appreciated and i thank you in advance for your support. without further ado, let it tell you that after our featured speaker speaks you will have the opportunity to ask questions. if you would step to the mic at the middle of the room, ask your question as the singly as possible and then step away from the mic and have a seat in your question will be answered. if you would like the book autographed we will be autographing on this floor on

the other side of the elevators. without further ado i would like to welcome an individual who will be introducing our speaker. he is a former state senator and leader in the democratic party and his name is mr. dan gelber. mr. gelber. [applause] >> thank you. hey. i am going to raise the microphone. in a few minutes it's going to be lowered substantially. thank you. listen i've really had the great honor to introduce wonderful speakers over the last almost decade. vice president al gore, caroline kennedy, chris hayes. they asked me to introduce george mcgovern so i'm glad to be here to introduce another right-wing crazy. [laughter] the truth is though someone came

to me this morning and said you know i love your introductions and i smiled. i said thank you for that generous comment. she said, they are always so short and they never distract from the speaker. i can't remember a thing you have ever said so i promise you i will be short. i will not disappoint you but it's very hard for me to speak about debbie wasserman schultz in a forgettable way. i met debbie in the late 90s and i met her at a place where i think she did almost all of her business. it was the superstore in broward county. debbie spent a lot of her time there in those years in a few years that followed because she was having little kids, as was i. i joined her in the legislature almost immediately and became close friends with her because frankly she led a battle against so many things that are are wrongheaded in this state information having her around was an incredible opportunity.

i had always viewed debbie as loath a younger sister and an older sister. what i mean by that is a younger sister, a little sister because while she is younger and she is little or. [laughter] but i've viewed her as a big sister because of really the kind of role model she has been to me and any public servant who wants to fight for progressive causes in this country. this is a person of incredible passion and principles and that is why i have always looked up to her. i can tell you i watched her in so many battles. i have watched her fight jeb bush over the terri schiavo case and watched her fight for education issues. i watched her through the struggle with breast cancer in the thing that is the finder in each of the battles she has had not simply great clarity and great passion but she had a vision that has been very unique i was very fortunate to be with

her in the legislature and watched her and her career going from the florida house to the florida senate to the u.s. congress to the chairman of the democratic national committee. it's really a pretty incredible story for somebody who started as an aid in the florida legislature. she is our debbie wasserman schultz. she is no one else's and we are very fortunate to have her. let me just say this before i bring her up here and i also have to ask you to buy this book that is why she is here. it's "for the next generation" and by the way it costs $25.99 a month you are canadian and then it's $29.99. she will be afterwards signing your copies but i urge you to do that because she is very chatty and she will talk with you probably a lot longer than anybody wants her to but she can't help talking to people because she is a lot to talk about. let me just end with this. i watched debbie wasserman schultz for the last 15 years and almost everyone of her

battles and the thing i love about her and why i think you'd publicly love her is that she never picks a fight with the weaker cells. she always picks a fight with somebody who is stronger, who is well-financed, who is fighting for some other cause. if you read this book you will quickly understand, debbie is about fighting for the principles and the passion. a lot of you know my dad is -- and we were watching her. he said your friend debbie has got moxie. my dad is not euphoric so i'm not sure that word moxie has been used in the last 40 years. i said i think that's a little bit for georgia's frankly. moxie is a word you use to describe the woman who has got a lot of passion and principles of the truth of matter is it doesn't matter whether you are a woman or a man. debbie wasserman schultz is someone who represents them reflects to me the greatest principles he should have been public service.

she stands up and she believes it's her job to stand up for people who cannot stand for themselves to speak for people who do not have a voice and fight for the principles that she believes represents the best angels in america. that is why i'm proud to present to you today to hear her speak about her new book "for the next generation", which you should buy, debbie wasserman schultz. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] thank you so much. thank you. it is great to be home and i have to tell you that it is a little surreal to be doing this in front of a hometown crowd. and incredibly special and dam thank you so much for that really touching and incredibly warm introduction. what dan did for me is like having my brother introduced me.

we have fought side-by-side for so many years and i actually met dam's father, seymour, before and that dan. especially a public servant and a leader like seymour gelber, as dan said probably many of you know him, is really remarkable in for me at teens that abm doing something right. but ian has been a great dad and a great leader and someone who has chosen a path of public service in spite of the fact that in our generation when we grew up, a lot of our friends in the 80s which was the me generation, chose the path of making as much money as humanly possible. there is nothing wrong with that. that's a good path but dan and i will chose a path that allowed us to go to bat making the world a better place for others every

single day. that is what really is what this book was all about. thank you very much for that really special introduction. this book and writing it, and people have said to me debbie you didn't have enough to do? you had to cram a book in too? the answer is yes. i really did because i realized especially in november of 2010 when this project came to fruition, that after the tea party swept far too many elections in that year, that they began hurtling us from a manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis in every issue, every significant issue whether it was the economy, education, health care, civil rights and civil liberties, the environment, energy, gun safety you name it, infrastructure investment, all of those have come to a screeching hault because of the unbelievable gridlock that they are poison

has caused and for me as a mom, i am a mom mom with twin 14-year-old and a 10-year-old. i have a lot of walls in the air and you know, i think so often we all hear politicians and i'm one of them, talk about the importance of any ring of issue being critical because we have to do what's right for the next generation. only i realize that that concept is not an abstract one for me. i have the next generation in the backseat of my car every day and course is a mom that makes sense. when you think about it, and i'm sure you don't realize this, i am counted. i'm one of eight women in congress with children younger than 10. now when we ask ourselves why the issues that are important to the next generation don't reach the top of the legislative agenda if there aren't moms with young kids just might have something to do with it. so i wrote this book so i could sound an alarm bell, so that i

could make sure that regular people had an opportunity to read this book and find issue that they are the most passionate about even if they don't realize it now and give them a roadmap to how to make a difference in the lives of others on that issue. and because i am a busy working mom and we'll have a lot of in the air and i recognize that our most precious resource is what? time, yes. so many people perceive the most precious resources money not whether you are trying to balance a working family in trying to make sure that you can make ends meet. time is the most precious resource. what i did here is in each chapter we lay out the problem, i lay out my version of what i think the best solution is and we give you some guidance on how to get involved in that issue and made a difference in an effective way because too often

people end up wasting whatever little time they do have on a way that isn't going to have enough reach and make a difference. of course at the end, i made sure and it was really important make sure that there was a list of organizations we talk about in this book and how to contact them. what will happen someone will hopefully feel motivated and excited after they read this book and they take something away that they want to do themselves and they close the book and get distracted by their very busy life. there is a list right there for you to go back to two follow-ups or you can get involved and make a difference on the issue that's the most important to you. i want to read a few excerpts from the book and i'm excited and looking forward to taking your questions because i think having spent three years writing it i really want to share how i shape it my advocacy that this look represents. so i want to start with the

conclusion because the conclusion is a good way to show you what this look meant to me and why it was important for me to write. the conclusion is called the change and what happens is up to his bitter over the course of our lives each of us has moments of clarity of and you know what matters above all else in that gives us a sense of purpose and in that moment we have the capacity to reorganize their lives so that virtually every decision that we make from that point forward serves that overarching purpose. my own life there have been two such moments. giving birth to my children and being diagnosed with rest cancer. one was exhilarating, the other was devastating but both of these events made me realize i absolutely must make the most of my opportunity to have an impact on what matters most on earth sharing what knowledge and skills i have for making a better place. that had been my mission like the one i had children this mission came into sharper focus

becoming more urgent than ever before. my husband and i brought into this world three babies who depended on is completely and who we could not imagine living without meaning more dependent on them as well. caring for those children immediately became the most important thing in our lives and with that came a sense of vulnerability. this is why my breast cancer diagnosis gave me a dreadful jolts. even though my doctors were confident the disease could be defeated through aggressive treatment i knew how pernicious cancer could he. there was no guarantee that i would survive the no guarantee of wood and come back. all the experiences i had with my children all they wish to teach them and do for them was in jeopardy. at the same time i learned i was not alone. there was a sisterhood of women whose lives have been interrupted just like mine had had felt the same fear about the future. women like nan mcconnell who was 32 when she received her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2006. her daughter was three years old at the time. with the breast cancer at

stage ii she didn't know whether she would live long enough to see her daughter go to kindergarten much less graduate from high school and college. in the midst of a grueling chemotherapy regimens she promised god that if she was given the strength she needed to outlast the disease she would devote her life to helping other young women battled breast cancer. she won her battle and then she made good on a promise by creating tigerlily foundation. even before my own diagnosis i voice them a promoter of research and awareness but when i developed breast cancer that work to k. more important me. in 2009 after he shared my own experience publicly teamed up with her and her foundation to craft legislation that directed the centers for disease control to launch a campaign designed to raise awareness of breast cancer in young women. that the was incorporated within the affordable care act obamacare is that passed into law in march 2010 thanks in large part to a diverse coalition of more than 40 are physicians who supported the bill. today the task force at the cdc through appropriations passed

awarded grants to organizations like force which help younger women to with the challenges they face when diagnosed with breast cancer. the early task force will create a awareness campaign targeting young women so they are more likely to catch breast cancer early and survive. taking these actions knowing i had a role in helping future roles limiting and preventing breast cancer was empowering. we managed to turn versatile -- and universidad. every person has the capacity to empathize. since not all of us have children but all of us want children at one time so we can understand the consequences of decisions made by adults responsible for children's well-being. we must recognize their responsibility and obligation to make decisions in a way that will improve children's welfare. similarly not all of us will receive a cancer diagnosis but we will have to come to terms with their own mortality. when that day comes we will face the question of whether we did

enough during our lives to make a difference in the lives of others. having considered that question myself i can say there is no room for doubts or regrets. each of us must be able to answer that question by saying that he or she absolutely has made a positive impact on the world. we cannot fool ourselves. we must really believe this and we cannot afford to postpone the purpose that defines their lives because we do not know how long we have. for the sake of our children and our fellow human beings in the tranquility of her individual souls we must begin to take action right now. and that really crystallizes i hope why i thought it was so important to insert a little more work into my own life and try to motivate people to part with a little bit of their precious resource that make it different to the lives of others. the way are we are going to make sure that this country can thrive is by making sure that we measure our nation's success by how well our chilled are doing.

i think if you took a step back and thought about how her children are doing on a host of issues all the issues that i have run through in the last few minutes were not doing that well whether it's education, health care, the energy movement, the environment, and vesting in a nation's infrastructure protecting our children from guns and other harmful weapons, civil rights and civil liberties we have a lot of work to do and we have got to stop the my way or the highway politics. that i think is a big part of what the tea party, how the tea party has dragged us backwards allowing the tail to wag the dog, allowing the agenda to be controlled more by the power that people want to hold onto in washington rather than doing the right thing. so i really hope that this book will motivate real people, regular people to go down to your elected officials town hall meeting, spend a few minutes after the meeting is over talking with that elected

official at the podium giving them a sense of what's important to you. get involved in an organization that lucas is on an issue that really matters that most of all communicate to the people that represent you that you want the gridlock to stop. i can say that even as the chair the dnc. obvious i support my chairman said -- agenda so it's clear to me where my constituents are and that is where i am also but it's also clear to me that it's critical that we reach across the aisle and they work together to find common ground, that we stop digging in and insisting on everything being our way. so, in that spirit i wrote a chapter on civil liberties but i also wrote a chapter on making sure that we can focus more on civility and the chapter is called discourse, not discord and i want to read a brief ask for -- excerpt from it now.

as we consider the consequences of the deterioration in the political discourse and how we can can reverse that course is helpful to ask ourselves how did we get here? my more tenured colleagues tell me while there've been moments of discord in washington this era is especially vicious. i find a friday the opinions for why that is read some blame the media for stoking clashes colorful enough to color the news cycle. advertisements that lasts longer than you ever have before. when the more interesting came from senior member of congress who noted a seemingly shift in the lives of congressional members pretty used to be one of representative was elected he or she could move to washington d.c. with her family living there roughly half the year so was not common for a democratic member to have a child on the same baseball team is her public member. they were more likely to run into each other at the grocery store or out to dinner with their spouse. they were more civil in congress

because they had a sense of being part of the same can the same divinity sharing at least one attribute even if they disagreed about every political question. calling arrival and name on a congressional or would make it up word in the stance of their children's ballgame. in more recent years most of the congressional action is then condensed with a house meeting in session 3.5 days a week alternating between monday through thursday or tuesday night through friday meanings often members need spend only three evenings in washington before flying home for a four-day weekend. the 112th and 113th congress also seen a light schedule with congress in recess many more days than recent history make it more difficult for members to spend time getting to know each other and building trust. considered a republican remembers congress swept into office in 2010 on a wave of tea party support. this class is legislators has been widely criticized for using harsh language in the course of debating issues and is so happens many of the same members are reclusive when it comes to washington. a cbs news rep ford and 2011

found 19 of the 87 new republicans from that class slept in a congressional office rather than rent a home in washington. as representative joe walsh republican of illinois told a news station i think it's important to show we don't live here. we are not creatures of this town. maybe if representative wash -- walsh were more of a social creature in washington -- as a way to get votes. that opponent tammy depp worth flew 120 combat hours in iraq before a year was hit by a rocket launcher blowing off portions of both of her legs. duckworth had the poise to help her copilot land the helicopter before passing out from her injuries. she now uses two prosthetic legs. today tammy duckworth is a member of congress a democrat from allen i and she'd be joe walsh. [applause] this excerpt goes on to talk

about an effort that i've engaged in with a number of my colleagues dan webster a republican from orlando is one of them to try to make sure that we can build those relationships across the island start to build some trust. when i was in the legislature with dan and other colleagues in tallahassee, we did have opportunities to sit next to each other in committee hearings and spend time together on the house floor. if you notice how we conduct business on the house floor today, we really are engaged in a series of timed speeches and betake turns back and forth republican and democrat that we are not hearing each other. it's not really a debate. it's an opportunity, no offense to c-span but it's an opportunity to often get in front of the c-span cameras and project our message across the country to the hundreds of thousands of people that are watching at that moment. years ago when the founding fathers conceived how we would actually pass a bill into law

the idea was that members would gather and build relationships and trust and work together across the aisle engage in give-and-take and eventually the product that came out of that process with the one that went into the top of the funnel and came out the buried and arrow and with the diversity of opinion that represented america unfortunately, our process has deteriorated to such an extent that we are really not even doing anything of consequence particularly in the last couple of cycles. dan webster and i decided to start a bipartisan dinner, a dinner that we have no agenda. we just got five republicans and five democrats initially together and we went to dinner and started to get to know each other a little bit better. with every subsequent dinner at the requirement is the previous attendee has to bring a guest from the opposite party to the next event.

we are up to 30 or 40 members now and we have gotten to know each other. in fact i have been able to co-sponsor legislation with a couple of the republicans who might would never have spoken to otherwise if not for the attendance at that dinner and it's really started to make sure that we could find a way to find common ground not necessarily on the big issues but the longest distance starts with the first step. i am trying to do my part. some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are as well but we do have a ways to go. another thing that has been fun and also build collegiality in the congress is after i shared my own breast cancer experience publicly i started the bipartisan congressional women's softball team and that might seem trivial but the women members came together. there has been a baseball game played for 50 years that the republicans and the democrats play against each other. it's mostly all the men and a couple of women that played from

time to time but the women decided, we would be better off playing on the same team fighting the common enemy, the press corps. we played the female press corps. that's easy to rally members around a single cause. we raise money for the young survival coalition which is a young women's cancer organization. we have been playing this game for five years. sadly the congressional women's team has only won once. the quest for that trophy continues but it has given us a chance to be out there at 7:00 in the morning for three months in the spring every year practicing being women, just being girls and getting to know each other as moms and his girlfriends and they don't talk about politics. in fact i consciously don't wear any of my democratic t-shirts to make sure we keep everything neutral on the field and it has given us a chance to work together. what we all said during this last shutdown was if they just locked a few of the women in the

house in the senate in a room and left us alone for a few hours we would solve a lot of these problems, just like that. [applause] so before i get to questions i want to share one more thing with you because i'm sure the affordable care act will come up and i hope it does because i've really looked forward to talking about it. i want to share an excerpt from the health care chapter which should give you an idea why fully implementing the affordable care act of making sure everybody in america has access to quality affordable health care soap article. in october 2009, during the -- excuse me with so many provisions of obamacare yet to take effect -- i'm still not starting on the right age. let me start again. in the introduction i shared with you that before i begin my career as a legislator i was encouraged to sit down and list the policies that matter most to me. near the top is making health care affordable. in this sense voting for

obamacare was the fulfillment of my deeply held beliefs about the role of government and being a force for positive change in people's lives. before congress passed the part d. drug benefit in 2003 traditional medicare did not provide coverage for prescription drugs. many seniors face a difficult choice between medicine and meals. when congress passed part b the republican majority the time left a gap in coverage known as the doughnut hole. when a senior on medicare spends approximately $2600 on medication they fallen to the doughnut hole coverage gap and have to pay for their drugs 100% out of pocket until they reach approximately $5600 in prescription drug spending. some seniors never reach that top amount so they pay their 100% of their prescription until the next year. of course many seniors living on fixed incomes can afford to pay their way through that gap in coverage. if audible care act faces out the doughnut hole closing it for good in 2020 saving seniors up to $3000 a year in drug costs. about a year after president obama sign the affordable care

act into law i spoke at the democratic club whose membership is made up of senior citizens who live in my congressional district grade when i finish and began taking questions a woman i had known for 23 years who i never thought of it struggling to make ends meet rows to make a statement. she said, debbie thanks to obamacare is don't have to ask a pharmacist to score my pills anymore. i used to do that so they would last longer but because the doughnut hole is closing i can afford my prescriptions now. i have used that story generally as an example in arguing for the affordable care acts passage. i've stood in line behind seniors who couldn't pay for their prescription so they had to decide which to fill and which to leave. here was a woman i knew well who trekked that benefited from the osha that medicare's prescription drug coverage gap. it was more clear than ever before obamacare and safety net programs like medicare are essential to maintaining a minimum quality of life for seniors. of or serve forms that improve the lives of american of all ages. i have friends who worry about

health care coverage for the young adult sons and daughters after graduation sometimes find it hard to find a job with benefits. in years past insurance companies were free to end coverage for dependent children children who were in rolled in their pants plan at the age of 19. tanks to obamacare insurance companies must allow young people to remain on their parents plan up to the age of 26. that starts with children who are protected from denial of coverage as of september 23, 2010. for adults the same protection takes effect in january 2014. that is when the individual mandate takes effect. the addition of the health care beneficiaries will balance the cost of covering the higher needs patients who have been excluded on the basis of three existing conditions. under the old system being female is treated as a pre-existing condition meaning women were charged higher premiums. this was a reprehensible

practice and since my bout with breast cancer i've had a double whammy. i deferred so many stories from women diagnosed with breast cancer time they didn't have health insurance. they needed radiation and chemotherapy but they had to choose one treatment because they couldn't afford the co-pay and deductible for both. i can imagine how tough it must be to make that choice. it is absolutely critical that we make sure that no one has to choose between medicine and meals, that no one has to worry whether not the other shoe is going to drop when facing a serious illness and as someone who had 41 years old after a mammograms just two months before was the picture of health on one day and diagnosed as a breast cancer patient the next day knowing that i was one job loss away from being uninsured or uninsurable, on january 1 the 129 million americans who like me live in this country with a pre-existing condition will have that peace of mind that we don't

have to worry about the other shoe dropping if god forbid that illness ever occurs. and what's going on right now in washington and what republicans who have spent years trying to repeal or delay or unbind the affordable care act are trying to do is take away that peace of mind. i'm here to tell you until my last breath i will fight to make sure we will not go back there. [applause] thank you. thank you so much. that's why love being in south florida. i will conclude by just telling you that in spite of the fact that i just shared with you my views of the world and what i think we need to do to get back on track i know that they can be done alone. i know that i can't be done just exactly the way debbie wasserman schultz prescribes. the only way for us to solve

these problems and they are big problems, immigration reform is a significant challenge. why are we not able to take up the legislation that the senate has passed yet clearly a majority of the house of representatives have said they support through cosponsorship or republicans who publicly said they would vote for it if it allowed to come to the floor. why can we take the issue off the table and make sure we make our economy more robust and make sure we have a humane and just policy for people who are here who simply want to make a better life for themselves. why can't we work together to solve our nation's problems? if we don't make a commitment to doing that, if we don't get folks like you off the sidelines and each of us commits to just spending a little bit of extra time making our impact on the world, then we are really going to set ourselves backwards, set the dial backwards and in a

competitive global economy that like the one we must acknowledge we live and we will lose that competitive race on too many issues. i know how proud i am as an american that we are and should continue to strive to be the best me shin on earth in every indicator that we care about, and we can do that at the lawn together and if we work together and stop the my way or the highway politics and stop the finger-pointing. if we simply work together to solve our nation's problems instead of spending endless hours of pointless finger-pointing that simply sets us backwards, so thank you so much and i hope you enjoy the book. [applause] thank you. there is one microphone in one line. >> my question is, the health

care plan was passed and was called the obamacare plan now. is that the plan the republicans propose to 93 basically and yet now that it was passed they oppose oppose it? i just want you to comment on that. >> the individual mandate concept that is the underpinning of the affordable care act, obamacare it was actually the report conceived by the heritage foundation embraced by republicans in the early 90s and for some reason now that it was not raised by a president obama suddenly it's a government overtaking of health care and about the worst thing we can do. affordable care act is not her fate that i cannot name a piece of legislation that we have passed in over 200 years that is perfect. the founding fathers set up a process worse to deal with imperfections. it's called working together to solve problems and if there is things that come up that need to

be ironed out, and legislate fixing the web site. obviously the web site should work. the affordable care act which i've described this afternoon so much more than a web site. it means so much more to millions of people, so i am ready. all of my colleagues on my side of the aisle are ready willing and able to sit down and hammer out some of the problems that might crop up. what we are not willing to do is repeal it and go backwards. [applause] thank you. >> is there any chance that congress will work together, but specifically on eliminating the salary cap on deductions? >> on the federal deductions? >> on fica for social security. >> oh, you know that concept is part of the broader discussion which i hope we get to in congress on what to do about

making sure that we add had to the long-term solvency of social security. it is really important and there are variety of different things we can do. for example and i actually talk about this. there's a safety net chapter 4 the next generation that i talk about medicare and such security and medicaid and some of the things i think we could do one of which is that if you take off that cap, that cap on fica it at 75 years of solvency to social security. 75 years. [applause] and it doesn't cut benefits. will wealthier people obviously who make above $107,000 care that now they are paying taxes on all of their income? sure, but the whole point of last year's election, remember we debated this for the whole presidential election in 2012 whether everybody should have a fair shot in a fair shake and everybody should pay their fair share. why should wealthier paper --

people pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes into the safety net programs that are so essential so that we have a least a minimum floor through which we are not going to allow our frail seniors to slip through. the answer is that they should and we have to focus on working towards that goal. [applause] >> hi congresswoman. nice to see you again. my question again is about the gridlock. yesterday doris kearns goodwin, we had a discussion about woodrow wilson and theodore roosevelt and specific lee wilson. he used to go to somewhere called the presence room in congress and when asked about how gridlock, one of the suggestions from the other speaker was that maybe the president should be finding that room. another suggestion and i wonder if you would comment on what -- with congress. another idea that is been talked

about by that panel was members are spending so much of their time raising money, so in addition to what you spoke about having to fly back and not living in washington which was also discussed was this idea that they go home. the question is, is there a campaign finance solution we can put in place? >> the presence room is on the senate side of the capital and you know that question i assume is more symbolic of the larger question, what can president obama specifically due to engage congress more? you know i think the whole notion and criticism of president obama that is out there that he is not engaging with congress is pretty overwrought. you know he can have all the beers and barbecue with members of congress that he wants. he could fill his calendar with those kinds of interactions but if we don't have a willing dance

partner that wants to actually get common ground and is worried more about whether they are going to draw a tea party primary if they actually work with the president than they are about doing the right thing, then the beer and the barbecue isn't going to matter a hill of beans. i will give you an example just so i can make sure you understand that i practice what i preach. i tell the story in the book as well. in the summer of 2011 but may have the debt ceiling deal, the first time we bumped up against defaulting and we ended up with the cuts only deal, the deal that resulted in the sequester which we are still struggling to replace. but that deal included 1.2 chilean dollars in spending cuts only. really painful cuts many of which i spent my career opposing. i was one of a handful of democrats that combined with republicans to pass that deal because we were on the brink of default than we could not

jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states. i knew a lot of people in my district would be opposed to me voting in favor of that deal and of those cuts. but i had to decide okay have i've built enough trust, hopefully built enough trust in this community that i can come home to my constituents and explain that even though they did in 100% agree with me on my decision they trust me enough that i'm willing to spend political capital with my constituents so they understand that i have gathered all the information and made the best decision i thought we could make for the country. yeah there is risk to that but when you have significant issues facing the country your seat can't mean more than doing the right thing. it really can't. then you know you stand for re-election and hopefully the people think he did the right thing and if you don't, that's the way it goes. [applause] yes. >> i like your take on the shift in the wealth of the country to

a very tiny percentage. that is only gotten worse and worse and worse since reagan, the republican god. and your example on the discussion of social security as an example where the wealthiest propose to eliminate that cap. what could be done and the wealthiest have the power to create a tea party funded by koch money. >> let's not distract from the myth of the grassroots movement that the tea party professes to be. corporate is used, no question. >> if we don't we are going to end up like some of the countries with a wealthy and increasingly rebellious disenfranchised majority. >> i think your faith should have been restored with the re-election of president obama

last year and here is why. because that election between mitt romney and barack obama presented two very distinct and clear paths down which americans could choose to go. the path of the republicans and the tea party extremists who really thought the solution to our nation budgetary problems was cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting spending. we watched that movie before and we saw the ending and we didn't like it and barack obama and the democrats in congress path which was take a balanced approach to deficit reduction, make some difficult choices in spending reductions that but don't cut the heart out of our future like education and health care research that really would make us less dependent and also make sure that we ask people who can afford to pay a little bit more by closing tax loopholes that people really have no business benefiting from and