that's what faith does. and why we have to remind our fellow citizens what it is that makes i us so exceptional. we don't apologize for that. we brag about it to the rest of the world. [applause] you see, we have been such a force for good for about the last 100 years. the world was safeguarded by what was known as pax britannica. england was the world's military and economic superpower. but as we all know things didn't stay that way. summer in the middle of the 1940s we move from what was called pax britannica to pax americana. why? because in the 1940s the united states of america became the economic superpower of the world. and when that happened we also became the military superpower of the world, and we are a force for good and brought peace to different regions of the world.

you see, i think it's time that we wake up because that mantle is slipping away. i will tell you, sometimes it is absolutely despairing to serve here in washington, d.c. but i will also play at the same time we are told as believers very clearly, we are not to despair. we are to look up, whether we feel it or not, we look out. whether we want to or not, we look up. whether it doesn't seem like it on the evening news, we look out. and that's my charge to you today. we do not curse the darkness. we light a candle. that's what believers due. [applause] and while it's true that i'm leaving congress, i want you to know i am not leaving the fight [applause] because there is too much at

stake to sit on the sidelines. none of us can sit it out. and so what i'm asking you today is to have your voice be heard. we are 39 days away from having our voice be heard. our leaders need to hear from you. that's why it's more important than ever that conservatives take control of the senate away from harry reid in 2014. [applause] and we need to expose hillary clinton's record of failure, and we will defeat her in 2016. of that i have no doubt. [applause] and that's why together we have to do something very important that every generation has had to figure out and do. we have to focus on returning this nation to what made it

great, our founding principles, the constitution, the declaration, and understand what those principles are. because, you see, it is never too late to save the country. don't buy into defeatism. it is not too late. i'm encouraged. be encouraged. that's what faith can do. you are like the phoenix that rises out of the ashes. i'm there with a smile on my face because i know we serve a god of the possible who can make it happen applause but and with people like yourselves, we cannot lose. [applause] so thank you, value voters. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. [applause] thank you. [applause] ♪ ♪

>> all right. thank you, congresswoman bachmann. only one-of-a-kind and the liberals are glad of that. our final speaker this morning is a combat decorated u.s. marine, a number one best selling author. in fact, he has this brand-new book available by oliver north called counterfeit lives. he will be doing a book signing right after he finishes speaking. so you want to be sure to pick up a copy of that. also a successful businessman with three u.s. patents, a syndicated columnist and a host of war stories on fox news channel. he is also the founder of freedom alliance, a foundation providing support to injured military heroes and college scholarships to the sons and daughters of u.s. military personnel killed in the line of duty. ladies and gentlemen, would you please join me in welcoming colonel oliver north.

[applause] ♪ ♪ >> thank you. thank you, gil. i appreciate the opportunity to be with you this afternoon. actually it's still morning. actually it is afternoon. my mission is to get you off to lunch. close to on time. the photos you see on the screen were taken by my combat cameraman who by the way that final shot is of the next commandant of the marine corps fighting joe dunford. taken last year while we were in iraq. or 13 years it has been my privilege to report on a document the finest military force the world has ever known. during our 57 embeds, shadows of

the hindu kush, iraq, africa, philippines, central america, the stars of my report documents and books of in the bravest and best of this generation. and the truth are america's hero's. [applause] -- and they truly are america's hero's. fox since the out often to speak to young people -- i can say that at 71, most of them are. fox and the out to speak to young people. when i say there were heroes are often i know i've conjured up and minds of those in august minds of those indicted the idea of someone who catches a pass in the end zone or sets a new mountain climber record or even someone wearing a spandex suit in a cave. a comic book, that's a hero. my heroes wore flak jackets and combat boots and flight suits, and they would go to work and someone most difficult and dangerous choices on the planet earth. we'll be rose are selfless.

they put themselves at risk for the benefit of others. and because the mainstream media won't tell the truth and because i'm the chairman of the nra's veterans and military affairs committee, they put together what you are about to see, a video of what this generations great american heroes really look like. look at this. ♪ ♪ since 9/11 more than 2.5 american young americans have forfeited comforts of home, and gone into harm's way to protect us. for the very first time, think of this, the very first time in history since the american revolution, every single person serving in an american uniform

in time of war is a volunteer. hasn't happened in any war since the one that gave us our liberties. they came because of some terrible events. is footage writer just shows some of what they can do. you can see more if you go to olivernorth.com and you can see what they look like doing the things they do so very, very well. these are truly remarkable young people. they deserve better than what they are getting from this administration. [applause] >> from some of the tens of thousands of miles of footage that we are shot over those 57 embeds, my producers picked out some frames, literally, you're going to see why they came, because of this. even the ones i interviewed the

last week out of walter reed national military medical center who, in grade school when this happened, which are looking at on the screen, 18 because of this. they came because they know what happened that terrible day 13 years ago this month. and they don't want it to ever happen again. and we were promised when this administration came to office in 2009 that they were going to quote end of the war responsibly, speed up those slides, guys, because we got to get through this. get beat the dogs. don't want to short site them because they're the best thing you've got for sniffing out a bomb. the young americans came because they wanted to fight for our country. they wanted to serve our nation. they wanted to make sure that terrorism was wiped clean. they wanted to make sure that it couldn't be exported to this country again. and they were told that this administration was going to

quote in the the war responsibly. these youngsters became the protectors of muslim women and children. these frames are not staged. this is real. this is what they do. and those youngsters who use the gathered in prayer circles, those youngsters you see huddled up saying a prayer, didn't come because they were told to. i want to see the aclu go after those youngsters for praying on government time. [applause] they are brighter, better educated, trained and led in any military force in history. they volunteered to protect us from an enemy that is dying to tell us. and you see them gathered together like that, they know they're not going out on the football field on friday night. they are going into mortal combat against an enemy that

intends to die. and they deserve better from the commander-in-chief, guard as a nobel laureate, trotting around the world, kowtowing to foreign leaders and apologizing for america. americans have nothing to which we need to apologize. [applause] we saw it happen again this week up at the united nations. don't we deserve and don't they who have sacrificed so much deserve a commander-in-chief who knows american, the greatest force for good in the world, the world has ever known? doesn't need to apologize for the sacrifices made by them and their families to protect us and offer others the hope of freedom. i think we do. [applause] the members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like laboratory rats in a radical

social engineering experiment. [applause] christians in iraq and syria who have been killed by the thousands over the course of the last six months are paying the terrible price for the ineptness and incompetence that has run this country into the ground for the last six years. and that's something we need to resonate across america as we look forward to replacing and hiring a new commander in chief. [applause] and in 39 days electing a congress that understands it as well. [applause] i maintain that we're all paying a terrible price for america's, if you will, leadership deficit disorder. the utopian rush to total disarmament. we don't need a

commander-in-chief or head of state the guts our defenses, draws funny red lines with a pink crayon and then fails to stand up and keep someone from crossing it. our leader ought to be trusted by our allies and respected or even feared by our adversaries. between now and 2016 when we hire a new commander in chief, we need a majority in congress who understands the rule of law and the constitution of the united states. [applause] if you'll allow me i want to make this personal. our children and our now 14 and have grandchildren are threatened by a mountain of debt, unconstrained spending, and ever higher taxes, and they headlong rush to socialism. our congress must be held accountable for what they are supposed to do to hold and administration accountable, one that offers the protection of our constitution to our enemies but strips those same

protections from the american people. we need a congress that will stop this administration from perpetrating frontal assault on free enterprise, private property, and the civil liberties enshrined in our bill of rights. we need a congress that will use the power of the purse to defend our national sovereignty, our borders, and stop the subordinate of our nation to a globalist agenda that limits our use of our own energy resources. the obamacare debacle is but the tip of the incompetence and corruption rampant in washington. we the people, the first three words of our constitution, must demand accountability for a string of horrific scandals and coverups. "fast and furious," benghazi, the irs enemies list, government spying on american citizens.

summit that began yesterday when eric holder, thank god, decided to get out of town. [applause] the words we the people is not a political slogan. it's a way of life. commitments aren't just what we say. commitments are what we do. the framers who crafted our constitution were counting on we the people to hold government accountable. some say, it's okay to ignore the so-called social issues like marriage, the sanctity of life, or religious freedoms. i say those aren't social issues at all. they are deeply moral and spiritual issues, and they should matter in every election. [applause] i just want you to understand. i know that this is a

nonpartisan organization, so let me put it to you this way. in the 1850s, a political movement began on a great moral issue. it was founded on a great spiritual issues of the day, the abolition of human bondage, slavery in america. if we cease to be a home in that particular political party, for people of faith and those who believe strongly in moral and spiritual issues, that party will cease to be a political force for good, no matter who our candidates are and what they stand for. in short, that party has to be a home for those of us who fear god, and the wrath that will follow when we reject him. [applause] our greatness was built on the

shoulders of people who state their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on a creator who endowed us with inalienable rights and responsibilities. they made a commitment. well, let me show you a contemporary definition of commitment. this what you're about to see is a marine captain by the name of matt lampert. he's on his second combat tour in afghanistan and they put a microphone on him and we put this in the file because fox didn't necessarily think it was appropriate for a young audience. this is a measure of commitment. watch matt lampert. spent on captain matt lampert, this is my second deployment to afghanistan. i just wish the american people would understand there's a lot of people here has to believe in what we are doing out here and are willing to come back again and again to prove that point.

[applause] [applause] >> we couldn't put it on the air and we couldn't tell people that matt lampert's wife, matt is a graduate of small boat and trade school i attended on the banks of the river vicky been an enlisted marine and then went to the naval academy, took his commission in the marines are on his second combat tour, and he is married to a marine helicopter pilot.

quite a commitment. i'm asking you to make a commitment here today. i'm not going to ask you to make that kind of commitment like metadata, ins need to make a commitment. when you go back home to inspire our countrymen to reject ideas like unilateral disarmament, to dismiss the concept of spending our way out of debt, or regulating our way to prosperity. i'm asking you to inspire others that we might elect those who know we cannot surrender our sovereignty to ensure security. i urge you to make a commitment today to assert a moral authority of a free people. the next election is just 39 days away. make a commitment now here to elect a congress that would preserve freedom and operate -- opportunity in america, who will

stand up to the liberties granted to us by our creator and protected by our constitution. we are no that much to the young americans who risk their lives for us in difficult and dangerous places. i started this afternoon talking about heroes to be president that i was blessed to serve told us that we have a rendezvous with destiny. he asked us to commit ourselves to ensure in the words of abraham lincoln, that we would ensure government of by and for the people that it will not perish from this earth. we often hear that we don't have heroes anymore. let me close with this from that commander-in-chief who called me a hero, though i never sought, thought of myself as one. here he speaks the real hero's and the kind of leadership that we need is reflected in what he's going to say.

>> if we look to the answer as to why for so many years we've achieved so much, prosperous as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available, and assured here than in any other place on earth. the price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. the sloping hills of arlington national cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or stars of

david, they add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero i spoke of earlier. their lives ended in places called bellwood, the argonne, omaha beach, salerno, and halfway around the world on wallop now, pork chop hill, the chosin reservoir, and then 100 rice paddies and jungles of a place called vietnam. under one such marker lies a young man, martin track down, left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to france with the famed rainbow division. they are on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.

we are told that on his body was found a diary. on the fly leaf under the heading my plague, he had written these words. america must win this war. therefore, i will work, i will save, i will sacrifice, i will endure. i will fight cheerfully and do my utmost as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone. we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. it is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have the. it is a weapon that we as americans do have a. let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey

upon their neighbors. as for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the american people. we will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it. we will not surrender for it, now or ever. we are americans. [applause] >> so we americans, we americans have the chance to fix it. we americans if we want our nation to remain the land of the free, we are going to have to take a stand to make a commitment and show our friends and our adversaries that we are

still the home of the brave. god bless you, and thank you for being here today. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> our campaign 2014 debate coverage continues tonight at nine eastern on c-span. live coverage of the final texas governors debate between state senator wendy davis and state attorney general republican greg abbott.

>> c-span campaign 2014, more than 100 debates for control of congress. >> here are just a few of the comments we've recent receive from our viewers. >> i am a constant c-span viewer. i really want to say that when you allow the republicans representatives or senators on, you need to be more demanding of honesty and not demagoguery. they sent their and -- they sit there and they just don't address the issue. a demagogue, the filibuster, and i wish you guys would say to

them, senator, or congressmen, the caller asked you a specific question. would you please answer it? >> my comment is a suggestion. i would like to see the c-span morning call in have a live set up especially when there's a representative on that, that line be set up for the people in that represent his district so that they may be able to call in directly to that person and ask questions. so i thought that would be a good idea and a good way for their representative to be accountable to hear from their constituents. when you have them on let him be questioned or commented by their constituents. >> i think that c-span is a great show, but i think when you have a republican on, or a democrat, it should be both so, therefore, one side won't just

be saying what it is. we need another side, if a republican is on the we need a democrat on to combat what they're saying so the american american people can make their own decision. i think it's a disservice when you put a democrat on and let him spew what he wants to speak and then put a republican later on or vice versa. like it with a format like that? i think it was much better for the american people. >> continue to let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. call is set to zero to 663400. e-mail us at comments@c-span.org or send us a tweet at c-span hashtag comments. join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow was on twitter. >> we are live now as white house economics council director jeffrey zients is expected to join members of the economic club of washington for up to this point on the nation's economic recovery but to also examine future policy to the

administration to spur job growth and job creation. live coverage here on c-span2. it's expected to start in just a moment. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] ..

in the obama administration. the beginning of the obama administration he was the first chief performance officer of the united states. and also deputy director of omb. and on two occasions he served as acting director of omb, in one case for 16 months. prior to joining the government he was very active businessman in this area. he graduated from duke university, and went immediately to bain and from bain in boston came back to washington where he grew up and then he join ad firm here, consulting firm, mercer, was later recruited away by david bradley to join the corporate executive board and help run the companies for a while and help take them public. after they went public, later jeff began to do other things in the private sector, investing his own money, doing number of philanthropic things including starting urban alliance

foundation in washington and other cities helping underprivileged youth get more training how to act in the professional world. he was also one of the leaders in getting baseball to come to washington, d.c. >> here here. [applause] >> and so if the nationals win the world series here he is directly responsible for this. and so, jeff is a person who has a lot of interest, philanthropic interests, public interests, government interests and we're very pleased you're here today, jeff. >> pleasure to be here. >> one thing i didn't mention in your bio is this. you were the acting head of omb for 11 months. then you left. and around april i guess of 2013. later the president announced you're going to come back more or less at the beginning of this year and as the economic advisor to the president and head of national economic council. you had some time off but while you were off the president

called you one day and said, by the way, i have a problem. my health care website isn't working so well and although you're not a software expert can you come in and fix it. so my question is, a, did you expect to get that call? b, did you think if you didn't do a good job you might not get the economic job later? and how did you actually fix the health care website? >> well the chief of staff called and asked if i would come in for a meeting. that meeting led to announcement a week or so later that i would come in and help lead the turnaround. i think it is fair to say that if the president and chief of staff ask you to do something, if you're in a position to do it, which i was as you said, i was off at the time, you take on that assignment. it was a hard assignment in that there was, obviously pressure to create a deadline which we did. that was one of our first moves after a quick assessment. we put a stake in the ground. this was early october. so about a year ago.

we said that by the end of november the site would work for the vast majority of people. as we all know there is nothing like a deadline to force action. so there was ruthless prioritization and the second thing we did, beyond setting the deadline was to bring in a new team of people. anyone who is in i.t. knows that you don't flood with lots of new people but at the same time a handful of the best talent did join the team. people from the private sector. people from google and elsewhere. that alongwith appointing a general contractor so the project did not are a general contractor. so a firm that is a major division of united health care called optum stepped up to the plate. the ceo of that $40 billion of that company spent a third of his time in washington, d.c. on the project. a combination of lot of late nights and a lot of stress. we hit the deadline and the site fortunately is work well. >> you never worried if you

couldn't get it done, president said maybe you wouldn't be the economic advisor, you never worried about that? >> we were so focused on fixing the site there was not a lot of time for that type of reflection. >> okay. >> and you know there were scary moments. there were nights in the middle of the night we realized fixes we were doing weren't working. we would have to roll them back. so there were several times, you felt like, oh, my goodness will we make this deadline? thankfully due to great team effort and a lot of private sector help we got to where we needed to be by november 30th. >> so when you joined the government in the beginning of the obama administration, there were a lot of economic problems very severe. we were in a very sad situation economically. now the economy is somewhat better and there seem to be problems overseas. do you feel like the maytag repairman but nobody is paying attention to the economy and nobody paying attention overseas or are you getting enough attention. >> if you're the ceo of the u.s., which is what the

president is, the ceo's in this room, you do a lot of things at once. so yes, the president is focused on international issues and at the same time he is very focused on the economy. we are optimistic about where the economy is headed. you see it in the jobs numbers. we have 54 straight months now of job growth. over 10 million private sector jobs created, and this is lead by the private sector, the job creation obviously. gdp was just revised up for the second quarter to 4.6%. when you break down the components, consumer balance sheets are in decent shape. you're seeing pick up in consumer spending. corporate balance sheets are in terrific shape. we're starting to see increased investment there. so we are, when we look at the forecasters we agree that absent any major surprises that we should have decent growth ahead. now there are challenges. >> right. >> housing has recovered about 2/3 of the losses but we are not

seeing the type of new home construction that you would normally see at this point in a recovery. if we were on that path we would have another point, point 1/2 percent of gdp growth. there is a lot of focus what we can do on access to credit and other tactics to improve the housing market. and then there are a couple of areas real concerned. long-term unemployed, if you look at 6.1% unemployment rate, unpack that or disaggragate between short-term unemployed, less than 26 weeks, that back where we were before the recession. however long-term unemployed, greater than 26 weeks, that is two times its normal level, just under 2%. very elevated. and having sat through a roundtable of long-term unemployed folks, it is really heart-wrenching. these are folks who are very talented. have good experience, relevant experience but can't even get their foot in the door. what you find is that it is downside of technology.

technology is screening and it is screening in a way that doesn't allow people who have been long-term unemployed to even get their foot in the door for an interview in many situations which is clearly unfair. so a lot of corporations, 300 corporations stepped forward said, we'll look at our hr practices to make sure we're not discriminating against the long-term unemployed and that we give them a fair shot. if anyone in this room is interested in signing up for that, that is an important corporate effort to help the long-term unemployed get back to work. >> today we had 4% growth more or less last quarter. would you expect for the here overall, given the first quarter was relatively weak, we'll average 2 1/2% for the year? >> that is consistent with those forecasters. i think there is more than we can be doing. infrastructure is a great example. we have a short-term patch on infrastructure of the it is a great opportunity for the country to be investing in infrastructure. interest rates are low. construction worker unemployment

is relatively high. we have a great need. you see it when you drive here from any part of town, the potholes, backups on bridges, the airports, the ports there is opportunity for us to do an upgrade. it is really a two heifer. it sets up us for who are long-term competitiveness in increasingly global markets to have long term infrastructure. it creates jobs in the short term. it is a great time to invest in infrastructure that can help the middle class with well-paying jobs. that is piece of business we hope to make progress on in the new congress. >> proposal for infrastructure bank so-called. is that likely to get through congress? >> i think there are two pieces of infrastructure or three if you will. one is long term reauthorization of the transportation bill. that is important. there are infrastructure banks that are on, on the floor and the president supports an infrastructure bank to leverage private and state and other

capital. third is public/private partnerships. if you benchmark various states around the country, if you look at virginia, for example, they have done a good job on public/private partnerships in infrastructure space. other states have done very little. how do you take best practices for public/private partnerships in the infrastructure space and really scale that form of infrastructure development? >> now inflation is not a problem you're worried about right now, is that right? inflation is 2% for the year? >> we leave monetary policy to the fed. right now we're focused on jobs and wages as you talked about earlier. >> but you don't see inflation as a big problem today? >> most forecasts for inflation are relatively modest. >> one of the problems that came out of recession income inequality and rising and gap is big. what can the president or administration or congress do about income inequality? >> you're right, david, we've had very flat income for the middle class for several decades. so this is a problem that

predates the great recession. we've seen a little bit of pickup as unemployment has come in but we need to really focus on middle class wages. the minimum wage is something we believe should get done. that helps those that are earning less, at the minimum wage and also helps lifts others to higher wages. increased investment in job training. we've done a thorough scrub of the $18 billion that the federal government spends on job training to make sure we have good metrics that we're allocating those dollars to the programs that actually work. secretary perez, very strong secretary of labor, says we've got to move away from a system of train and then pray for a job at the other end to a system where we're training people for jobs that are available not only now but will be available in a couple, three years. >> right. >> at the same time when you talk to employers around the country there is some frustration that you can't find qualified workers. we need to work closely with the

private sector because for every dollar that is spent on federal training, $20 is spent in the private sector. so the leverage is really in the private sector. private sector working with community colleges, creating their own job training programs, there is a big movement here that we have to accelerate to make sure that we have a workforce which is well-positioned to compete in the global economy as technology and automation and other things accelerate change. >> so when the obama administration first came in, it inherit ad fairly large budget deficit, annual budget deficit. the deficit is around $600 billion more or less annually. it is down from 1.3 trillion but no one seems to talk about the deficit very much. it is still 500, $600 billion. is there any real realistic way to get the budget balance anytime soon. >> to review history when the president walked into office the way to measure deficit the percent of economy and percent

of gdp and it was north of 9%. so very high. in 2013 last year, we were around 4%. down to about 4%. we'll be down to around three according to the congressional budget office this year. the president's budget has just over 2% in 2017. a nice downward sloping line. i think in large part we're talking less about this right now, david. the president's accomplished this, the country accomplished this through $3 trillion of deficit reduction and on top of that, a real decrease in health care costs. we see it, in our premiums. premiums are up about 3% this year versus 2,000, 2010 they were growing closer to 6, 7%. they were cut in half. federal government benefits because health care is a big piece of the federal budget. if you look at the 2020 projects on medicare, health care

spending we're saving $200 billion versus the forecast a couple years ago. last word on deficits and debt crises and sequester and all the rest. as we look at the economy and the progress we've made and the outlook we have, i think it's important to note that we have not had a period recently of self-inflicted crises. you know, debt ceilings or otherwise. it is important that washington not get in the way of the recovery by returning to those unnecessary dark clouds. >> when is the debt ceiling expire or when will we hit the next debt ceiling? >> it is sometime in 2015, mid 2015. there is always the statutory period of time and then extraordinary measures. again, let's hope that we don't create a crisis around that. >> do you think remaining two plus years of the obama

administration, it would be possible for congress and president to actually get appropriation bills signed on time and passed and actually have something more than a continuing resolution or is that unrealistic? >> right now we're operating under a continuing resolution. we're hopeful in the lame-duck session in november we can sign an omnibus bill. we, you know, as we enter the next congress, there are bipartisan pieces of legislation that, i will focus on ones that matter most to the economy. i mentioned earlier infrastructure and doing long term reauthorization of infrastructure, it is something traditionally has bipartisan support. corporate tax reform is something that, again, has bipartisan support and we're hopeful we can make significant progress on across the next couple of years. there are trade agreements that, you know, that we belief we could have good, fair, trade

agreements allow us to compete on level playing fields in this global economist. we're optimistic we might make progress on that front. there are smaller things that traditionally, smaller but important that traditionally failed through -- sailed through like reor authorization of the ex-im bank which has been reauthorized 16 times, set to expire now in june. responsible for a couple hundred thousand dollars, a couple hundred thousand jobs a year. cost u.s. taxpayers nothing. importantly allows us to operate on level playing field with our global competitors. there are pieces of business we believe can get done that have bipartisan support. we look forward with congress having productive 2015. >> seems like republicans view of corporate tax reform there has to be no enhanced revenues to the government and the democratic view seems to be there has to be enhanced revenues to be used for other purposes. how will you square those? >> let's spend a minute on it.

i think there is reason to be optimistic on corporate tax reform. both the president and republicans talked about revenue neutral corporate tax reform. you can get pretty geeky and technical how do you measure revenue neutral versus what baseline. let's accept that both are looking for revenue neutral corporate tax reform. the president's framework which he put forward two years ago is remarkably similar as a framework to what chairman camp put forward earlier this summer. let me run through the three components. >> go ahead. >> the first is to lower the statutory rate which is 35%. that is too high. it is highest in oecd countries. president would take away deductions, loopholes and bring that into the high 20s. camp the same thing, probably into the mid 20s. so same basic approach, different, some difference on level. that is point number one. the second is, how do you tax

overseas earnings? right now we operate under a global system with that 35% rate applies and but it doesn't apply when the earnings are earned. it is when they're brought back to the country. that discourages many countries from repatriating their profits. that is a global system. the other system that some countries deploy is territorial system you pay the rate in the country where you're earning the income. the problem with the territorial system is creates sort of perverse race to the bottom for the lowest corporate tax rates in the world. what the president proposes is a hybrid. which have a minimum tax. if you're in a country and in the tax rate is above that level, somewhere maybe in the high teens or low 20s, you would then, if it is above that level you don't owe any further taxes. if it is below that level you pay the gap between what the country's rate is. again, same structure as chairman camp's.

some difference where you set the level. final piece, how do you bring money back from overseas? both have repatriation tax at lower levels than we talked about. some difference where chairman camp would set it versus where the president's plan would set it, but the basic three-part structure, that framework is similar or remarkably overlapping. that makes me optimistic we can get something done. there is a lot of negotiation i alluded to here. and taking it away, special tax treatment, is a hard thing because everyone's tax treatment is represented by some special interest. >> administration send legislation to the hill or will you let congress develop corporate tax reform themselves? >> i think we'll see what is most helpful in terms of advancing corporate tax reform in 2015. but we're hopeful given that overlap and framework and such bipartisan support. such strong support from the business community to get something done. >> now secretary lew recently

announced proposed regulations dealing with inversion which would be related to what you talked about in terms of corporations trying to reduce their taxes by going overseas. do you think congress will pass anything related to inversion? would you send legislation to congress dealing with inversion or are you happy with the administrative actions? >> clearly right thing to do which we talked about, to do comprehensive business tax reform. we have sent legislation to congress on inversions. it was part of the president's budget that he sent up last winter. so the president sent legislation to change or eliminate these inversions last winter. secretary lew last week did administrative action which does impact the economics of inversion. takes away some of the positive economics of the action. at the same time, there is no substitution for legislation like the president's legislation on inversions. but again, the real piece of

business here is to do comprehensive business tax reform. >> what secretary lou did i thought propose regulations or go into effect right away or no comment period? >> no they go into effect right away and relate to deals not yet closed. >> what about personal tax reform, is there any chance in the last two years of administration there is proposals on personal tax reform. >> possible. we all agree it is way too complicated to do taxes. too many, like on the corporate side, too many special interests and loopholes. a hard piece of business, in that here the president would propose to raise significantly additional revenue from the top 1% and the republican party is opposed to that. so there is not the revenue neutrality we talked about on the corporate side. >> what about, talk, let's talk about russia. you've been involved in the sanctions on russia. do you think they're working? >> i think they're working at level of they're having a significant impact on the

russian economy. russia was forecasted to grow by the forecasters one or 2% before the sanctions. now, forecasts are hovering around zero percent. many believe russia is headed toward a recession. if you look at their companies, those subject to sanctions, are having real trouble accessing capital. they have drawn about $50 billion of capital from the russian reserves. the difficult thing here is that it's hard to draw a straight line between our actions and putin's behavior in that his behavior is not necessarily economically rational. i can tell you that we put a lot of time and energy into crafting those sanctions. two main areas of focus. one is, how do we maximize the impact on the russian economy while minimizing the impact on our companies and our allied companies? and the second is making sure that we work very closely with

our allies. we have different sanction systems. so they're never going to perfectly overlap but we've been doing everything we can to maintain symmetry which is important, to again have maximum impact on the russian economy. also make sure that our companies are treated fairly and are not subject to backfilling by our allied -- >> suppose, nothing really happened and putin's actions continue to be ones we don't like. do you have more sanctions in your back pocket you can do? >> what we really want to have happen is putin de-escalate and we can across time remove the sanctions. but if his actions continue to, run against what was agreed to in the peace plan in minsk, we'll have to consider further sanctions in conjunction with our allies. >> suppose he pulls all of his troops out of ukraine and basically says, okay, you win, i give you everything you want, go

back to where we were but i'm going to keep crimea, would you keep sanctions in place? >> hard for me to speculate. that is obviously a decision for foreign policy team and the president. >> do you want to make foreign policy? >> no. clearly he has illegally seized crimea and that is unacceptable. >> today, when you're in your current role how is it different than being head of omb? which job gives you greater pleasure and which job gives you greater headaches? >> i start by saying both jobs are incredibly intense. you talked about the initial public offerings of some of my advisory board colleagues are here, that period of time in my corporate life when we took the two companies public, the intensity of getting ready, the team on the road. making that first quarter. those five, six month period of times for both companies were intense as it gets.

it is that level of intensity that i and my colleagues operate at all the time. both are very, very intense. both were, are tremendous jobs. omb is like being a cfo. so you're helping to put the budget together. you are monitoring performance against the budget. you're looking for areas that are working really well, that you might invest more in. you're looking for areas that they're are inefficiencies that you might figure out how through technology or by spending less, to get productivity gains or eliminate things all together. you also are watching the performance of the government for the president and the executive branch. it is harder to map directly my current job at nec, to the corporate org chart. when i went to see bob reuben who was the first nec director

as i got ready for the job, i got his advice. he said, look, your main job is to help set priorities, economic priorities working with the president's economic cabinet and getting the president's input and sign-off on those priorities. you need to be an honest broker and because at times there will be differences of opinion what the priority is or the right policy to achieve that right priority and the piece i spend a lot of time on, rubin coached me to do so is implementation. implementation or execution is hard in any setting. it is particularly hard in government. as we all know from business, strategy or what we call in government policy, is important but the great companies or organizations are differentiated by their ability to execute. so we spend a lot of time at nec working with treasury and

commerce and labor and transportation and energy to insure that we are getting strong execution against the president's priorities. >> when you're at omb or in your current job, if a cabinet officer down agree with you, do they tend to try to go around you to go to the president? does that usually work or how do they do that? >> well, we minimize that i think by running good process. and i think that, that comes back to rubin's advice around honest broker. these are hard issues. we have very talented cabinet secretaries and teams. we'll have differences either how to achieve a priority or whether something belongs in that handful of priorities and what nec does, nec tees up those options for the president. at the same time, that is honest broker function. at the same time we will have a view. so we'll present both options and at the same time, we can put our thumb on the scale. might not impact the president's decision-making but we will

express our views. >> suppose a business person or non-business person says i have a view on economic policy or i want to lobby on something. what is the best thing, just call you up or just get on your schedule? how do they do that? >> when i was on corporate advisory executive board when we were trying to launch a problem in sales or retention or we were trying to figure out our next new product or market we would always kick people out the door. go talk to people. go talk to customers. go talk to potential customers, particularly those who aren't happy. talk to those folks. that's how you learn. you are the customers, all of you as business leaders in terms of growing the economy, in terms of creating jobs, well-paying jobs. so, i try to meet one-on-one with several ceos a week. i come to forums several times a week of ceo's and other leaders of businesses, small and large.

to get feedback. my question though is, what are we doing well? what are we missing? what are we doing that is getting in the way of you creating jobs and growing economy? so we learn by understanding what is going on from your perspective? >> do you find people coming to you and saying, i talked to the president about this and he wanted me to talk to you about it? do they ever try that? >> occasionally. the president too is doing a fair amount of outreach and he will pull me aside occasionally and say, i was meeting with this person or small group. there were some ideas that came up i want you to follow up on. there was some feedback, maybe not positive on some of our policies and what we're doing. we follow up. yes there is follow-up from the president or have individual calling me to say, i was meeting with the president he wanted me to follow up on. >> so at omb you have a gigantic operation a team of working for you. a thousand people or maybe

something like that. you have grand offices in the omb in the executive office building. now you have a smaller office in the west wing but smaller on smaller staff. which job actually makes you feel more powerful? big staff, big office or small staff right in the west wing. >> let me correct the data. if i were to describe to you what omb does, you would say must be a thousand, 2,000, 3,000 people. omb is about 400 people. might have been closer to a thousand when you were government david, but it has been slung which is remarkable given its scale. the, west wing, probably some of you have been in there, it is teeny, tiny. it was built for a different era. and so there are only a handful of offices. most of my staff is actually in the old executive office building. i have a handful of staff in the west wing. but, we're a gang of about 30. and we're lucky to get another 10 or so interns. that is relatively big scale group for the west wing but

you're right, david, it is remarkable the breadth of terrain. we talked about some of it today. . . >> let me take a step back, sort of where are we positioned in the globalling economy. so if you were doing, you know, the marketplace is the global economy, now it's competitive analysis. we have a very strong position. we have our historical lead in

innovation. 30% of the patents worldwide come from the u.s., 15 out of the top 25 research universities are here. we are the leaders in r&d. second, our work force is the most productive in the world. 30% more productive than germany, two times or more productive than china and south korea. and then, third -- and we would not be talking about this a decade ago with energy. a decade ago we would have said this is a vulnerability, not a strength. we're now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world. we now produce more than we export on oil, you know? ten years ago there was talk of importing gas. we're now exporting or getting planning to export gas. all of this helps when it comes to manufacturing. our manufacturers enjoy a big advantage on energy. about a third of the cost on natural gas here versus our

asian competitors, so that leads to a real cost advantage. you are seeing a revival of manufacturing, over 700,000 jobs. there are more manufacturing start-ups in this country than there have been in two decades, so that's a very encouraging sign. you are entrepreneurs in manufacturing. if you poll ceos, global ceos as to the number one place to invest in the world, it was china for a long period of time, it's now the u.s., and we're widen bing our lead. -- widening our lead. bcg surveyed u.s. manufacturers who had operations overseas, over half of them, 54%, now plan on bringing those facilities back to the u.s.. >> right. >> so, yes, we're optimistic, david, about our position in the global economy which translates to success in manufacturing. >> so let me ask you this, we're producing roughly 11.5 million barrels of oil a day, equivalent, in the united states -- >> 8.5 million --

>> well, the with other equivalent things, it's about 11.5. but, okay, 8.5, still second biggest. [laughter] why don't we export some of the oil we have? >> let me do natural gas first and then we'll talk about oil. natural gas, i think this is a somewhat unknown story. the department of energy has approved, conditional approval, for 11 billion cubic feet a day of exports. that's about 30% of the lng market today. so that is significant. >> and when will that actually occur? >> they are now studying, they announced that they're studying the impact of going up to 20 billion cubic feet a day. so they're understanding the trade-offs of, potential trade-offs of allowing exports up to that level. so that's senate. so that's significant. there's a significant amount of activity around lng. >> and you think there'll be

more exports, do you think there'll be more? >> there's tree of the received final -- three of the received final license which represents about four billion of the 11 cubic feet that i described, and then the other seven billion or so is working through the process, through the ferc process, and as i said, we're studying up to 20. so, yes, i think we will be exporting significant sums of lng in the future. these are big projects dub. >> so it's good for gas, what about oil? >> so on oil it is a changing land scape. the 8.5 million figure, that's up 60% in the last four or five years, so this is a changing land scape. we are looking -- we do now produce more than we import. at the same time, we still import a lot. so we are looking at policy implications of this changing landscape. >> all right. well, if we're doing so well and producing all this, do we need a keystone pipeline? when is that decision going to be made? >> that's something i'll defer

to the state department and the president. >> all right. you don't want to get in trouble or say anything about that? >> no. >> okay. [laughter] so today what do you see as the biggest economic challenge that's facing this country? >> i talked about it a little bit earlier. i think we have i'll say two. one where we've made a fair am of progress which is the -- a fair amount of progress, the long-term unemployed. running about 2%, 1.9%, down a lot from where it was, but unacceptably high and, again, i think we need to not only have some targeted programs in the government to help with training, but we also need the corporate sector to step up and give these folks a shot. the larger systemic issue is wages, middle class wages. as we talked about stagnant for a couple of decades now. we're starting to see a little bit of uptick, but nothing nearly significant enough, and

we need to focus on that. we need to pass the minimum wage, we need to invest in infrastructure, we need to look at our education system and training and make sure that we're equipping folk folks to compete in this global economy and earn a decent wage. >> okay. so when you were in the private sector for a while, you created the urban alliance foundation. tell us what that does. >> so it's a gang of people led by a good friend named andrew. i started the organization about 15 years ago. and the basic insight were there were a bunch of folks at the time, kids who were 17 years old who really had not stepped foot into one of your corporate environments. and by giving them the opportunity, the paid opportunity to intern during the school year, after school and then full time during the summer, that it could be life changing. it started off with just sort of a match making. let's take this individual

student and put them into a law firm. and it's not quite that simple. it requires a lot of mentoring, a lot of training, coaching on basic life skills. but the end result is perfect graduation from high school and many going on to two and four-year colleges and being quite successful. there's an alumni network, so we continue to work with students throughout their time in college. my guess is a quarter of the companies in this room have urban alliance interns. the goal is to make that 100% of the companies in this room. the urban alicense is now also in -- alliance is now also in chicago with a very big program because of the size of the corporate community in chicago, also in northern virginia and also in baltimore. >> okay. so i presume you're going to stay in your position -- >> if the president -- >> right? >> -- prefers that i do, yes, absolutely. >> so would you want to stay, if

there was another democratic administration, would you go back in or go back to the private sector? >> i think it'll be time for a break. a little catch up with family and my wife, and at that point i'll lift up -- i do miss the private sector. i loved my time in the private sector. i'll take a little time off -- >> so is it easier to get something dope in government or in -- done in government or in the private sector based on your experience? >> i said as i said earlier the execution is critical, i think the degree of difficult even higher in the -- >> so when you deal with members of congress, what is your sense of their understanding of economic issues? >> i think it varies a lot. i mean, if you were to -- mark warner who is someone i talk to on a regular basis or senator bennett, people who have spent time in the private sector and have focused their time in congress on the economy, it's a discussion like a discussion

with any of you in the room. but, obviously, more policy focus. what can we to to get infrastructure done, what can we do to advance the minimum wage. there are other members of congress who have different backgrounds, weren't in the private sector or don't focus on economic issues, and they can be, you know, less sophisticated conversations. depends on the member. >> and the least effective way to influence you if you're a corporate ceo is to come in and say what? [laughter] the least effective way. >> i think, i always start by asking what's going on in the economy, and the questions i ask, what's working, what's not working. i think when someone is in just to talk their own book, you can learn, but that's probably not as fulsome a conversation as when someone's stepping back, helping us think through the economy as a whole and thinking through the dynamics of their industry as opposed to their own

narrow corporate interests. >> right now are you more worried about growth in china or deflation in europe as it impacts the u.s. economy? >> i think europe would probably be our number one area of concern. you know, unemployment across the region. the zone is close to 10%. they're still 2.5% below their pre-recession peak. we are close to 7% above, just to show you the delta between the two. they're potentially going to have a triple-dip recession. we believe that, you know, both monetary and fiscal policy are too tight. we're pleased by draghi's most recent move, you know, there needs to be some fiscal flexibility, and they're talking about that to allow some time and space for some of the structural reforms in the labor markets, in the pension terrain, in the regulatory terrain. you know, i think if you step

back and think about president obama's approach with the recovery act, i think there's a lesson learned here that you really can't cut your way out of a recession. not that we've done everything right here, but directionally we've had a good approach, and it's resulted in, as i said, us being about 7% above our pre-recession peak whereas europe is still several percent below. >> what about technology? silicon valley and a lot of technology innovations in our country have been quite remarkable in terms of leading things around the world. what impact on the economy do you think technology innovation has right now? >> i think very positive. i mean, if you think about our sources of comparative advantage that i talked about earlier, i started with innovation and technology, and, you know, technology has been very important to improving productivity and really does position us well in the world economy. one thing i'll say about technology and the u.s. government versus the private

sector is if you think about the productivity gains of the private sector -- 1.5, 2% a year, year-over-year for several decades -- that compounds to a significant level. the federal government, there's no metric of productivity but probably has grown about a third the level. so that's created a big gap, a big productivity gap between how the private sector operates and the public sector. we all know that it's always wrong to lead with technology as the answer, but if you think about those productivity gains, technology's been in the center of those productivity gains. private sector, it's not that every technology project works, they're hard, but we have a very low hit rate in terms of successful technology projects in the federal sector. so the root cause of that productivity gap is technology. we have to get a lot better at technology and get better fast, and this budget-constrained

environment we're in is forcing a hard look at productivity and technology. and like with healthcare.gov, we've got really strong private sector folks stepping forward to do rotations for six months or join in a full-time basis to help us with technology. the federal government is finally gaining some traction on technology. it's, if you will, a late mover advantage. we can sort of skip some of the prior technology and go right to the leading edge. >> so you have four children. are they more impressed with your being economic adviser to the president or acting head of omb? what do they respect you more for? >> the caveat that they are ages 19-13, i'm not sure respect is high on their list. [laughter] >> one final question. i notice your initials are j.z., has anybody ever thought you might have a career in music -- [laughter] >> if there's one way to get my

children to run out of the room, it's to either sing or dance. so the answer to that would be, no. >> all right. well, thank you very much for a great conversation. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> our campaign 2014 debate coverage continues. tonight at nine eastern on c-span, live coverage of the final texas governor's debate between state senate, democrat wendy davis, and state attorney general, republican greg abbott.

wednesday night at eight on c-span, live coverage of the minnesota governor's debate between democrat mark dayton, republican candidate jeff johnson and independence candidate party hap that nicollet. thursday night on c-span, live coverage of the oklahoma governor's debate. also on thursday at 8 p.m. on c-span2, the nebraska governor's debate between democrat chuck has brook and republican pete rick debts. and saturday night on c-span at 8 p.m. eastern, live coverage of the montana u.s. house debate between john lewis and ryan zinke. c-span campaign 2014, more than 100 debates for the control of congress. >> c-span2, providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and key public policy events. and every weekend, booktv. now for 15 years the only television network devoted to

nonfiction books and authors. c-span2, created by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> coming up next, a congressional black caucus foundation held its annual legislative conference last week. the attorney for shooting victims trayvon martin and michael brown joined by congressional leaders and social justice advocates take a look at policing practices, the shooting deaths of young black men and what the rights of citizens are when pulled over by law enforcement. it's about an hour, 20 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> all right, good, good. just checking. my name is joshua harris, and i work for the national office for -- [inaudible] and on behalf of alpha phi alpha and the national association of

black journalists, i'd like to thank you all for attending this afternoon. we're going to go ahead and get things started. this is going to be a great conversation and something that needs to happen in our communities, a discussion that needs to be had in our communities, so i'm excited. are you guys excited? all right. good, good, good, good. the first person i'm going to introduce here, he was elected to the united states of house of representatives in 2012, representative horsford is the first african-american and perp of chor to -- and person of color to serve in this delegation. approximately 52,000 square miles, prior to coming to washington, d.c., congressman horsford served in 2346d's state senate and became the youngest and first african-american state senate majority leader. representative horsford serves on the financial services committee and the committee on oversight and government reform. please join me in welcoming

someone i have the pleasure of calling my fraternity brother, congressman stephen horsford. [applause] >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon! >> good afternoon. >> i know we were out late now -- [laughter] but we're here now. it's great to be here. thank you, josh, and to the brothers of alpha ph hirks alpha fraternity incorporated for hosting this very important forum and discussion on knowing our rights and the criminal justice system. i'm so pleased to have this dynamic panel and fellow fraternity brother moderating this panel as well. i'd like to just give a couple of opening remarks, because as everyone knows, we are here in large part because of an event that occurred on august 9th in ferguson, missouri, when a young, unarmed boy who had just

graduated high school and who literally was weeks away from end rolling in college -- enrolling in college had his life taken from him in an unnecessary event and tragic event. i had the honor of attending michael brown's funeral at the request of one of my colleagues, congressman lacey clay, who represents that area. and i attended to pay my respects to the family and to the community, but also to be part of this national conversation about what we can do to improve the community/police relationship and what each one of us can do to make sure that we know our rights. and that's what this panel is all about. during the funeral, one of the young men who spoke on behalf of

michael brown -- he was a friend of his -- said that michael brown wanted the world to know his name. and so out of this tragic, unfortunate and unnecessary event and the circumstances following that tragic event, the fact that we had literally law enforcement agencies in ferguson having the militarizing force in a community and turned equipment against citizens who were expressing their first amendment right to protest, we have to use that trammingic event -- that tragic event as an opportunity now to have this larger discussion, and that's what this panel is all about today. i also want to can for your help and support, because there are members of congress who are

working hard and have been working hard to try to address these issues well before the michael brown event in ferguson, before even trayvon martin. i sponsored the universal respect act which is one opportunity for us to enact meaningful change. it's a bill that would require a comprehensive review of law enforcement policies across the country in order to eliminate procedures that result in racial profiling. the legislation would amend the homeland security act to require that recipients of federal law enforcement grants and training facilities do not engage in racial profiling. and if they can't prove that, then they would be at risk of receiving funds from the department of homeland security. this is a companion bill to congressman conyers' end racial

profiling act bill that does a similar thing with the department of justice grants. but we need your help. we need you to push other members of congress to support this legislation. every member of the congressional black caucus supports these measures. many of our other colleagues do as well. but we need others to contact your local congressional member and to ask them to sign on to these bills and to help bring them to a vote in the house. because the only way that we're going to change these dynamics is by having laws that support those changes. so as we continue to mourn the loss of michael brown and others who are tragically taken away from us, we must use our energy and our grassroots organizations to call for change. these types of local discussions such as the one that we are

having today is where real solutions can be formed and shaped by the community. and it's vitally important that we as american citizens know our rights, know that we are protected by the constitution and fight for our dignity against brutal actions by certain law enforcement agencies. and i want to say this, more than 90% of law enforcement officers and agencies do their jobs respectfully and professionally. but there are those instances where officers are not following those standards, and they need to be held accountable. and so while we support those men and women who serve and protect us, we also want to hold those accountable who are not doing their job in the manner in which they are called upon. and so i want to, again, thank the brothers of alpha phi alpha

for this panel and for the discussion that we are going to hear next. thank you for bringing your voice to these issues, and each one of you brings your own perspective. so thank you very much for participating and for all of you being here today. have a great alc, everybody. [applause] >> and now we'll get this conversation started, and i'd like to introduce someone who you all may know. he's an actor, an author of two books, "letters to a young brother" -- >> five. >> five books, i'm sorry. my apologies. most important thing is this brother is truly invested in empowering young people. he wants to inspire them to manifest their destiny, and he's bringing his foundation actually here to the d.c. area from l.a. to help expand upon that.

so if you all would join me in welcoming another person that i have the pleasure of calling my fraternity brother, mr. hill harper. [applause] >> hey, everybody. this is a very important panel, and i know it's friday afternoon and around 3:00 is the time that folks get a little sleepy, but this is, this is a panel where we need everyone to be engaged, because this is a panel that's about life and death. and it's about issues that i take extremely seriously, and first of all, i want to say i want to dedicate this panel to the late chuck stone who was renowned for using his column in the philadelphia times to combat police brutality. he had more than 75 -- yes. [applause] he had more than 75 wanted black men turn themselves in to him first in efforts to not have them beaten by the police.

he would take their photos, and if they showed up with scars or bruises after they were turned over to police custody, he wrote about it in the newspaper the next day, and he chronicled this. he is someone that would -- chose to hold others accountable, and that is in part what we're going to talk about today in this panel. oftentimes i find that panels can meander, and we talk about things, and we hear people saying you know what we need to do, and we need to do this. i really want this panel to focus on what i am going to do, what you are going to do and who are we going to choose to hold accountable and what steps we will take in terms of our energy to do that. now, most of these panelists are holding individuals accountable, and i want to do a quick rundown. the more extensive bios are in the programs on the seats, and so let's introduce folks. my brother, ahmad abuznaid,

director of the dream defenders growing up living under brutal military occupation, it was there he first developed his interest in social justice. next we have charles -- if i say your name, just raise your hand and wave to the people. [laughter] now we have charles belk. producer and president of i will make you a star productions. charles recently became the face of international media coverage surrounding his august 2014 wrongful arrest by a local law enforcement agency where he was arrested and held on $900,000 -- $100,000 bond, not allowed a phone call and denied access to his attorney. next we have ruby sales, founder and executive director of spirit house bringing diverse people around a common table to work for racial, economic and social justice along with spiritual maturity. spirit house has stood at the forefront in breaking the silence on state-sanctioned murders of black folk by white

police. and in the process of exposing these murders, spirit house has documented more than a thousand of these cases. we have c.c. battles, she most recently served the statewide youth engagement coordinator, currently she serves as the florida coordinator fur campus rote -- for campus vote project and works with students to educate and mobilize their campus in the voting process. next we have daryl parks, successful attorney, managing partner of parks and crump llc. they distinguish themselves as successful litigators, and we have lee ivory, veteran

washington, d.c. area journalist, media executive and media consultant, most recently adjunct professor at american university in washington d.c. president and ceo of ivory communications and all purpose media consulting marketing firm, also the regional director for the national association of black journalists. i have some good news for y'all and the possiblists. -- panelists. as you can see, my brother, roland martin, is not the moderator of this program, i am, which means you all will get a chance to talk. [laughter] so that's good. and i want to show, i actually want to tell you where we're going so so folks have a road map of what we're trying to achieve here, so it's coordinated. i want to break this panel down into five steps. i first want to start with data. i'd like us to lay out some of the data that we're talking about so we at least have data from which to frame a discussion. second, i want to go to the micro areas which is more of a personal relationship to this

issue. then i want to talk about macro, the bigger areas which would mean policy. then i wallet to open it -- i want to open it up to the audience, audience questions, and then i want to end with action. we walk out of here with action steps. so, first, let's go with data. you know, i want to -- i'm going to go to ruby sales. finish i spoke on a panel earlier this week about equity and education with young black men, and it was detailed and laid out very eloquently how much data there is around education and the government keeping data about testing, education, etc. and when i was doing research for this panel, i found out that no government agency is currently tracking the killings of african-american males. and so spirit house project has been tracking state-sanctioned murders of black boys and men. ruby, will you talk about some of those numbers? and not all of these, obviously,

are making national headlines. >> well, first of all, thank you very much for the opportunity, josh, to be a part of this absolutely urgent conversation. and i hope that at the end of the conversation we will not only act a, but have a broader understanding of why we should act. i want to, first of all, say to you -- i want to start my conversation quickly with a song that was written in 1963 when goodman, cheney and turner were murdered in philadelphia, mississippi. it was written by bernice johnson regan upon hearing ella baker speak at their funeral. we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. until the killing of black mothers' sons is as important as the killing of white mothers' sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.

as we think about those words today, the first thing that i must say to you in all honesty and urgency, that this is not merely about black men. this is ap assault -- an assault on the african-american community and that the discourse must be expanded to include the lives of our sisters and our mothers. black women are being killed, they are being raped. for example, melissa williams in cleveland, ohio, was riding in the car with her boyfriend, they were chased by 59 police cars who fired 137 rounds of bullets into the car. killing both of them. we have a case of a young woman in detroit, michigan, who was killed by a s.w.a.t. team who entered her house. she's 66 years old. we have 93-year-old mrs. goldie in texas who was killed by the police. this is a crisis that is not con

confined to gender, and spirit house has documented since 2007 when i became very interested in this issue after reading a small little story about an african-american man, 17 years old in leesville, mississippi, billy johnson, who died suspiciously in the hands of the deputy sheriff on a dark road in mississippi. it turned out that he had scholarships to multiple schools, he was an athlete. it turned out that he was shot and was made to lie in the street for seven hours. mr. and mrs. johnson were not allowed to see their son as he lay in the street. in addition to that, mrs. johnson passed out. and so that when we see what happened to michael brown, we understand that the data show us that michael brown is the tip of a larger iceberg, that black bodies are not valued in this society. we live in what i call an age of

dispose about of culture, of capitalist technocracy where only a few people matter and inspire a culture of violation. where black bodies are the lowest, carry the lowest currency in society. so when we look at michael brown and when we look at -- what's his name, the guy who was just killed in ohio, we began to detect a real pattern that the assault is on the african-american community. i know that black men are being killed larger than all other men, in larger numbers, but black women are being killed in larger numbers than all other women. and so until we can frame a discourse that represents the reality that the entire black community is being profiled, to be black is to be a suspect, to be black is considered to be a criminal, to be black is, means that you're not safe in american

society. and in those 1,000 murders that we have cat a logged, there are -- cataloged, there are several things that you need to know. >> ruby, i'm going to stop you right now because i want to stay focused right now on data. and i'm going to -- there's a few data points i will share, but before i do that, i want to -- and we do appreciate your comments in that space and about this issue in general. but i would like to open it up to the rest of the panel to share any data that they believe is relevant to this discussion. at all. anyone. >> well, in the seven years -- this is from "usa today" -- in the seven years ending in 2012, and like hill says, the travesty of this whole thing is these statistics aren't really kept. independent media organizations have to go and talk to the fbi and piece these things together.

but in the seven years ending in 2012, two times a week a white cop killed an african-american. of those numbers, of 400 shootings, there were 96 such shootings among every 400 shootings, okay? 18% of black men or black people under age 21 were the victims in these shootings compared to 8.7% of white people. of the cases that were complained about or drew media attention, of the 26,000 complaints that the fbi has kind of kept track of, only 2,000 -- of 26,000 -- only 2,000, okay, were considered excessive.

that's ridiculous. absolutely ridiculous. >> one data point i'll tell you, i was asked to go to ferguson, and i went down there, i spent four days in ferguson, and as i was kind of digging through things and looking at my own data point, the one that stuck out to me the most was that in 2013 in the municipality of ferguson, missouri, there were 1500 arrest warrants issued per 1000 citizens. now, if you want to break down what an arrest warrant is, it's, you know, an arrest warrant is issued by a judge after some type of penalty or ticketing of an individual. they don't make their court appearance so, therefore, an arrest warrant is issued. so when you start to think about that, in one year 1500 arrest warrants per 1000 people, you're talking about a municipality

that is, basically, creating their whole income and budget off writing tickets aggressively, picking up people, an institutional mandate that i am going to grab these citizens, and the poorest among them i'm going to fine them, ticket them. and when they don't show up for their court date or pay their fine, i will issue an arrest warrant. >> [inaudible] >> i was astounded by that. astounded by that. any other comments from the panel vis-a-vis data? >> well, i just want to add, reiterate what the brother here said, that the malcolm x grassroots report tells us that every 28 hours a black man, woman or child is killed by a white police, security guard or vigilante. >> so now i want to, i want to take it a little bit more personal. i want to go to charles belk,

first, and actually i'd like to hear from are all of the panel about this. what have some of your personal encounters been with the police, and, charles, will you run down what happened with you, give us some detail? and other panelists, i'd love to hear you talk whether when you were young or even now some of your personal encounters with police. >> for me, for 51 years i was able to stay on the right side of the law. had never been stopped, arrested, handcuffed, put in a car, any of that stuff. when i thought it was going to happen, i never thought it was going to happen just for walking down the street. i was walking down the street, was mistakenly identified for the wrong tall, bald black man who just had served as an accomplice to robbing a bank, armed robbery of a bank. out in los angeles. i was sat on the curb in handcuffs for 45 minutes, taken

to the -- not really told why. i was told there was a bank robbery, and i matched the description. that's what i was told. i was then taken to the station where i was from time to timed, booked -- fingerprinted, booked, denied access to making a phone call, wasn't told exactly what i was being arrested for and, in fact, was told directly by the booking officer when i made a comment this is a bad dream, she said to me, yes, this is a serious crime that you have committed. so throughout the night i was released six hours later. once i asked the fbi agents and the detective, clearly you guys have reviewed the videotape at the bank and saw that it wasn't me. maybe it looked like me, but here's some of my features that you may have missed, and i was told that they had not reviewed the videotape. so after spending six hours in there -- and at my request they reviewed the videotape and within five minutes i was then

released -- i was released and given a paper that said i was just detained, i was not arrested, it was a detention certain. so personally for me -- certificate. so personally for me it was now being reduced to just being detained until i later found out a week later that there was an arrest record for me on the internet at the lapd sheriff's department. so my whole when hill asked about actions, which we will get to, my whole set of actions are surrounding that and how it can effect each and every one of you, each and every one of us. >> i would like to comment. i was raised in miami, florida. i don't know if anybody here's from miami. but miami police officers are not necessarily friendly to folks that look like me. [laughter] yeah. at all. and interesting, i have a very similar story.

i haven't really told many folks, but i was detained as well. at the time i was in grad school, you know, i had just finished my application to become a gubernatorial fellow. my boyfriend at the time was driving, they pulled us over. they asked for his license and my license even though i was in the passenger seat. and i'm, like, well, why do you need my license? so, you know, i've read the books, i know what to say, i gave the lady my license, and she told me there's a warrant out for your arrest, and i said, for what? and she said, well, that you have a suspended license. but when i run your license, it doesn't say suspended, so i'm a little confused. so i'm like, okay, so you don't -- so what are you telling me? she's like, i don't know, i just have to take you in. long story short, similar to your story, it was a system error, and they told me, no, you don't have an arrest record, it was our bad, my fault. later to find out i did have an arrest record, and i had to go through the expungement process

and all of this craziness for something that was a system error. so i can agree with that. and in terms of a call to action, i think the piece that we forget about is holding people accountable. in terms of filing complaints and mobilizing our community. and one of the things in terms of if you're not a part of the solution you're a part of the problem, that's part of the reason why now i work for campus vote project, and i'm so passionate about, you know, educating our young people in terms of voting. the reason why a lot of folks, especially, you know, law enforcement officers that are in these high positions don't take us seriously, because they know they can't lose their job. they're like, yeah, i don't vote anyway, so it doesn't really matter. i'm still going to be here regardless of what i want to do. and it's little pieces like, you know, what kind of training do these police officers have? what are the protocol? what are the type of things this you need? what are the types of interactions you need to have with citizens? we're not seen as viable because we don't exercise our right to

vote. that's very important. and the next thing i would like to say is being in miami, yes, i'm pulled over a lot even if i'm not speeding. you have the right to be smart. and one of the things i was telling my friend here is that i always walk with my constitution. i know that sounds crazy, but when i'm pulled over, it's on my lap so they know what's up, okay? i am not just this brown face that you, you know, see in the media and that's off the chain. no, i know my rights in real life. so i think that another part of our conversation is we have the right to play smart and know what to do. >> so, daryl, on that note, what is an individual obligated to do when approached by police? what are they obligated to do, and how should an individual act, and what are some of the things that your climates have done that's the right thing, and what were some of the things that your clients have done that were the long thing. >> i was listening to the previous speaker, chris teach b

from miami, and -- christine from miami. last week i got stopped in south georgia. answered the question, signed the ticket and move on, is what i tell you. [applause] and let me say, the time to get smart is after you leave them, right? the ticket i got stopped for in georgia got a little legal tidbit. in the state of georgia, actually have a real good law that says if you're driving less than 15 miles under the speed limit, you can just pay the fine, and it doesn't count toward your license. so the big fight i was about to put on, it's about money for them. so is give them the money. but, you know, it wasn't -- i'm not going to fight it. y'all going? i'm not. [laughter] but, you know, you don't fight them on the side of the road. i want to piggyback on a few things she did say also. you know, our policymakers appoint police chiefs, right? so they hire goons, get rid of the chief, get rid of the

elected officials. number two, we elect sheriffs who hire goons sometimes. get rid of the sheriff. so you have a way to actually influence it. i'll talk about one little thing we did that i thought was great. a kid was killed in a boot camp in florida, and although it didn't get mush publicity, i'm actually kind of proud of one thing that happened in that case. there was an e-mail that went public where the prosecutor actually knew the guy that was headed by our state police, fdle. and he cement him a little e-mail -- sent him a little e-mail saying we're going to work all this out and take care of y'all. and he had to resign. and so you can force some action in some situations, right? for the head of our fdle to resign over that case was major. and i'll never forget the day that he called jeb bush and jeb bush accepted hi resignation -- his resignation, and he was gone because of what happened in that

case. now, compare that to the local sheriff down there who we butted heads with did not give up power. he fought. and continues to fight. so there's a way to get to solutions for all of it. one thing i will say, too, is when you have issues with the departments, never fight on the side of the road. i mean, you can't -- you cannot beat them in the controlled environment. don't even try, right? yes, sir, no, sir. like some of y'all try to talk about the license first, you know? and once they figure he about to hook me up, we're through talking. be you're going to give me the ticket, we're not going to have small talk. but also, too, you know, you never know. sometimes i've had times where i was speeding, doing over 90 and talked the trooper out of the ticket. had other times, back in georgia again, that they have a local courtesy that people and law enforcement don't get is --

lawyers included -- they don't writer tickets to them. i didn't know that until i started talking and i laid my bar license out in my wallet, and another south georgia redneck said we like to look out for our law enforcement people. i didn't know that included me, but i was glad it did on that day. so, you know, you be nice and don't, you know, nobody likes a smart butt, so be careful about that. you know, so often they'll -- it's sort of like something i heard the ag say when he was talking about the mike brown case. he talked about how mad he was one time on the side of the road on the new jersey turnpike when he got stopped. all of us are mad when we get stopped, okay? pissing mad about whatever. so you have to keep your cool, it's really important. some of the worst treatment i've ever gotten on the side of the road was by a black ann state troop -- alabama state trooper. y'all know we're orphan the road

a lot, and some of that travel is by car. so there's the potential for a lot of sewer action. you know, it comes in all shapes and forms and sizes. >> ahmad, when you think about dream defenders and the work you do with individuals, young people, what are some of the things that you teach, and what's your own personal relationship? >> yeah, absolutely. thank you. so christine actually brought a stack of these cards -- c.c., i'm sorry, brought a stack of these cards from the aclu, and these are awesome. dream defenders participate in what's known as direct action; civil disobedience. and so our folks are often prepared to be arrested. and so we feel that, you know, folks should know their rights, and so i would encourage folks to go to the aclu web site and kind of check this out and figure out or c.c. has a stack of them, and you can just kindly get some after the panel. we try to make sure that they're prepared for anything but also knowing that, you know, knowing your rights doesn't always

protect you. we know for a fact that michael brown, you know, may he rest in power could have recited the constitution to officer darren wilson, and he still may not be with us here today. so we know that knowing rights is empowering, but we know it's not the end all, be all solution. i'll touch briefly, just a bit, on what brother parks about how you respond to some officers. i was pulled over speeding by a state trooper when i was rushing, actually, back to law school, to a course, and the officer asked why i was speeding, i told him i was in a rush to get to criminal law, and he said, you know, we need a lot of people on our side to help us, you know, administer justice. and knowing full well that i never had any intention of being a prosecutor, i was like you're right, and i look forward to that day one day to serve the state of florida. but i think, you know, just hitting on brother parks' point, you know your rights, but you live to fight another a day.

and so, yes, sir, here you are, here's my license. i don't understand why i'm being pulled over, but i'm complying with you, and you live to fight another day. you have a litigator go to bat for you in the court system, and one day you can maybe see justice. we know that's not often the case, but we have to fight with what we have and 234 the best manner we can. and so i'd leave it at that. i think the dream defenders are willing to go that way, we're willing to get arrested for what we believe in. some of them are just in the crowd right there, i'm sure you all have seen them plastered in mug shots across the country. it's something we believe in. we'll lay our lives on the line for others because some of the others are not able, have not had the privilege to be able to sacrifice in this manner. many have sacrificed previously, and we're just going to do our part to continue advancing that fight. >> thank you for your courage and the work you all do and the sacrifices you make. you know, personal story for me, and i'm sure we could go around this room and have many stories recounted, i was in alabama

driving to a talk in montgomery, and i was in a rental car and headed that way, and a state trooper pulled me over. and mind you, you know, i have a degree with honors from harvard law school, and he said i want you to step back into my vehicle. and i couldn't, for the life of me, remember if he could ask me to do that with no probable cause. in order, he pulled me over -- in other words, he pulled me over for a speeding ticket. he's welcome to write me a ticket, but to can ask me to sit in the back of his vehicle, i felt, was beyond the pale. yet i could not remember whether or did not know whether i could refuse that request, lawfully refuse that request. because i didn't know what his game was. i didn't know if he wanted to put me in the back and then claim that i did something that i didn't do, or if it would be better for me to sit there. so i'm thinking to myself, you

know, it's early in the morning, you know, it's probably six in the morning, and the highway is deserted. so i'm thinking to myself, okay, now, you're supposed to be a smart brother. you're supposed to know something. you got this law degree. what do i play here? i decided to sit in the back of the car. got out of my car, fine, got in the back of his vehicle. he shuts the door and, of course, you know, i can't open the door. he will have to let me out if i'm getting out of the back of this car. and he proceeds to lecture me about why and how he's writing this ticket and what i can do to fight this ticket. and i don't think that he expected me to interact with him the way that i did. and i ultimately invited him to

my speech in montgomery which he refused to attend. and then i asked him if he knew about some of the wonderful civil rights leaders that have worked at this very highway and how he's in service of them. he didn't appreciate that much, but i said it in a very nice way because i felt like i had to at least get him bang a little bit. [laughter] -- get him back a little bit. [laughter] so i took my ticket and went on. but i say that story to say that even though you think you're educated or know something, you can be asked to do something or put in situations individually by, you know, individuals of so-called authority, police officers, etc., and you may not know what to do or how to do it. and does anyone have any comments about that? >> you know, they've got to be careful on trying with the get back and be careful about that. the way to get them, the one part of my job i love, you know,

you should -- under the federal rules, you get to sue the police individually. i love suing them, having them served at their house, bringing in a deposition and putting a camera in their face and asking them six hours of questions about everything, right? and they don't like it. i mean, and it's not racial, y'all, because one of my associates did an incredible job breaking down a drug detective in jacksonville one time that congressman scott, he just bust out the room. he thought he had the right to leave. and his lawyer kindly go back and get him and bring him back in there for three more hours. >> so i want to move to the macro or the policy area, and the perfect person to help us move in that direction is congress match bobby scott. -- congressman bobby scott. so i'd like to invite congressman scott up to the podium to bring remarks, and

after that we'll kick into the macro discussion or policy discussion. >> well, before he -- >> congress match bobby scott. [applause] >> thank you very much. and thank you for helping us in a lot of different areas. you have testified for the prevention/early intervention approach the crime, wait for people to mess up, get caught and get caught up into a bidding war as to how much time they're going to serve. a little proactive approach makes a lot more sense, so i want to thank you for coming to testify. and, daryl, i've known daryl for a long time, national bar association, a leader and a high profile client. it's certainly a pleasure to be here, and with my own fraternity, alpha phi alpha, getting young people on the right track and keeping them on the right track has been a theme for over a hunker almost a

hundred years. and the national association of black journalists, i want to thank all of you for bringing us together so we can discuss the activities behind knowing your rights. one of the problems that we have has kind of came to light in ferguson, is that the police didn't fall out of the sky, they were hired in a democratic process. and if people do not vote, then you have a disconnect between the police and law enforcement and the community. people have to exercise their vote. alpha phi alpha has had that as one of their themes, make sure -- a voteless people is a hopeless people. that's been a theme for many years, and i see many members of alpha phi alpha here including the president and former president of the from alternativety -- fraternity. so to the extent that we can focus on making sure that we participate in the democratic process and make sure the right

people are elected so the right people are selecting the law enforcement officials, that will go a long way in solving many of these problems. so, hill, thank you for all you do and using your celebrity status to help in a number of different ways; crime prevention and early intervention being just one of a few, so thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, congressman. now, ruby, i know you wanted to say something. >> yes, i -- >> go on. [laughter] >> first of all, i think -- i was in ferguson for two weeks, then i went back for another two weeks, and we have a teach-in and a revival, social justice revival. and people, we all have stories to tell, but what young people don't understand is why is this happening to them. what is the landscape that has generated these assaults against them that they feel are unwarranted? so i believe that in order to organize successfully, one has to understand the context of the

fight. voting is an essential part of participatory democracy, but one must ask the question in a militarized state what happens when the pentagon since 1990 has been giving weapons to police departments under the auspices of a war on drugs, and those weapons have been aimed principally at the african-american community? we have some serious questions to ask about what was going on and why did we not know that and why is it that we allow those things to happen, and what can we do to change that. when police departments are armed by the federal government, the pentagon, you're moving away from democracy to a totalitarian state, to armed state police. ..