services? >> the short answer is no. i say that, remember in the job before this i was also in my previous job before these two i was a navy guy. i was the service covers possible developing the navy's cyber force. i've lived in that world about how you man, train, equip. i find myself as a joint command with global responsibility across the department. ..

overtime to see if it changes. there is no doubt about that. >> final thoughts? >> thank you for your willingness to engage any discourse. there are important issues to us and we are able to do this today without yelling and screaming at each other or pointing at each other and making acquisitions -- accusations against each other. we have to as a nation come to grips with what is the balance here and there is going to be a lot of different perspectives out there. i understand that. be grateful that you live in a nation that is willing to have this kind of dialogue. that is a good thing for us. are there tensions along the way? yes. it's not unique to cyber and it's not the first time we had

challenges have challenges like this and it won't be the last. but if we are willing to sit down and have a conversation we can move where we want to be. [applause] please remain seated until -- >> wrapping up. if you missed any of the conference you will be able to watch it in its entirety on the website c-span.org along with other events we covered on the topic of cybersecurity. we turn now to capitol hill. the senate dabbling in in a three at what eastern and later in the afternoon they will be making another attempt to move forward on the bill to fund the homeland security department. current funding runs out on friday and the bill to fund the dhs includes provisions to block

the president president executive action on immigration. we heard more about the bill from a reporter that joined us this morning on the washington journal. >> host: joining us by phone is jeff mason, white house reporter for reuters. as we look at it from the white house perspective, what is the president's current posture on this dhs bill and is it likely to change at all? >> guest: i think it will not change because he believes the congress and the republic and the republican congress should absolutely find dhs. he beat beat he was in the executive authority to issue the executive authorities the white house announced last year that would help shield up to 5 million immigrants or undocumented immigrants. so right now i think that he is eager and curious to see where the congress will go and he isn't going to change his position on what they should do

>> host: the president is going to ask an appeals court to issue a stay on the amnesty. can you explain that for us? >> last week a judge in texas issued an injunction that is a temporary stop to the order that the president issued that basically puts on hold with a plan to grant the deportation for up to 5 million immigrants and what the white house said on friday is that the department of justice will seek to stay on the injunction and what the state would do is allow the department of homeland security to continue preparing its program to allow these immigrants to stay. so, basically they are trying to have the court set aside the junction and allow the preparation to continue while the process goes on in the court system. >> host: we know the president is traveling to miami this week i think for an immigration town

hall. what is the message going to be from the white house? >> guest: it will be an opportunity for obama to talk about this issue that is so important politically in florida and many other states in the country. the issue of immigration will probably be a huge deal in the presidential campaign and the white house wants to highlight the fact that it is trying to give an opportunity for the immigrants to stay in the united states and reach out to the hispanics and latinos on the important issue. so this will be a chance for the president to address what went on in the court and address with the republicans are doing in congress. he did say if you words after the court's decision but he hasn't gone much further than what he said in the oval office last week after that. so i think that this is a way to keep these two in the news and for the white house and the president in particular to make this vertically to the american

people. >> host: there's a lot more out there for the white house of course this week jeff mason of reuters. one of them is the pending veto on the keystone oil pipeline legislation. has it not been sent over to the white house yet or is it coming soon? >> guest: i believe it is coming soon. and for the viewers that has to do with the pipeline that the canadian company wants to build and that would bring oil from alberta down to the u.s. gulf coast. basically the president and the white house position has been that the state department is studying the project and should be up to the state department and then ultimately the white house to say whether or not they wanted to go forward. congress passed the bill that would force his hand on that and the president said that he would veto it. so it is likely to be this week we will see that vito and that will be the sort of culmination of the throwdown between the executive and legislative branch in this very controversial

project. >> host: a couple more topics before we let you go in one of them is featured in the "washington post" today. congress faces the debate on the war resolution and this is the au mf legislation that the president sent up to the hill. remind us what this is and also the white house role on the resolution. >> that resolution is baking basically seeking the authority to continue the united states attacks on isis and the islamic state. the president put forward a resolution seeking the backing from congress looking for the government is doing. and the controversy there is to how far it goes. there are some in the congress to say the authority that he is asking for is not going far enough. there are some lawmakers that take another open-ended request for the united states to be at war. so basically that is going to be debated right now and the signal

is to the point to negotiate a little bit on that. with congress that's what they will probably start doing. >> host: and briefly a couple of tweets you put out about the president meeting with the governor as they meet in washington. obama to deliver remarks about what is called the new consumer protection announcement. any hint about that? >> guest: more information this morning i was not able to achieve last night he would be announcing today during the appearance of the aarp mr. x. into the department of labor that they should come up with some new rules that would remove a conflict of interest between what he sees and what the administration sees for the financial brokers when they are giving retirement advice to clients. basically suggesting that some financial brokers don't always follow what's in the best interest of clients when they steer people towards more

investment products that would be be to higher commissions to them and and not necessarily higher the returns for the client. it's a bit more controversial for the republicans in the financial firms who believed that it could lead to less for the brokers and not necessarily the better product for investors. >> host: use of the president is campaigning for the mayor of chicago as he runs for the election. a little bit of trouble for the mayor. that is for last week he went to chicago last week and appeared with rahm emanuel who is indeed running for the reelection before becoming the chicago mayor the president's chief of staff at the white house. so that is a very tight relationship there and the president went out to get him some help. >> host: jeff mason is white house reporter for reuters.

thanks for your time as always. the senate expected to start debate on the homeland security bill with a procedural vote scheduled for 5:30. they need 60 votes to move forward and you can watch the action on the senate floor and three a clock on c-span2. president obama hosting governors around the country today the white house we expect remarks from some of the attendees around 12:30 we will have live coverage over on c-span and we will be streaming it online. before the governors meeting started on friday politico hosted a series of interviews with some of the governors on state and national issues including tennessee terry mcauliffe of virginia, gina of rhode island and rick scott of florida. [applause] thank you marty and the second or third time for varying the

elements to be here this morning. it's an exciting lineup and we are lucky to start with the governor who just -- [inaudible] [laughter] you just won with 70% of the vote. congratulations on the second turn. the former mayor of knoxville won the election in 2010 and since you've taken office you've done a lot of reforms in the first term protections to cut the charter schools taxes and now four more years you will talk about your agenda for that. you've earned a reputation in tennessee as an earnest kind of no drama guy. a lot of governors talked about you in the past as a workforce not a show horse and a someone that is eager to talk to both sides of the policy ideas and actually want to talk about

policy so much so that no real democrat ran against you last time. all those things made the republican governors association chair. you throw a lot of red meat and that is just not your stuff. >> in politics you start to get in trouble when you are not who you are and try to wear someone else's clothes. that isn't who i am that's not why i ran for office. but i still think that might not be any but i still think they have an important role to play to be successful for the republican governors like me and other people. >> first i do want to start on the policy front. you called a special session at the start of the new term to

expand medicaid you spent months negotiating and you got to buy in from the chamber. in the special committee i want to get your opinion because we are talking to a lot of governors today and the governors association. matt and my wyoming tried to do the same thing and the speaker said he wanted to expand medicaid and he got nowhere kind of dead on arrival. sean and ohio had to go around of the legislature to do it. so we have seen a lot of republican governors governors say let's do this. let's make this happen and get people coverage and then there are the legislatures that block it. what do you think is going on there and what is driving that? >> guest: i think from a i stand pointless and i'm not a fan of the affordable care act either but not for the reasons

most people start with. the thing i think they messed up with is these two huge issues around our healthcare is access. no matter what party if someone's primary method of health care is going to the emergency room isn't good for them and it is a smart cost wise. some access is an issue and everyone should say that but the second thing is cost. my issue in the affordable care act if you look at how they did it they didn't really attack the cost and the ways they could from medicare being able to have negotiating and you can keep going down the line for things they could have done at the time. so the issue is if you're going to attack a problem you should be really upset when people take the easy apple but don't apple but don't forget the hard one. let's cover more people. that's hard for people to argue against politically. so you get the health care providers getting paid. apartheid was to attract cost in the state government and federal

government that is eating up everybody's budget. you'll heard the joke the u.s. government is about to be a large health insurance company that has to have an army and a navy and that is where we are in the state. that's why college tuition is going up and medicaid is taking every dollar in the budget so we have to do something to address the cost. our revised kind of proposal for what to do about medicaid we think address address the cost side on both the user side side about having some incentive for the premiums and co-pays that you could get reimbursed if you make healthy choices and if you didn't use the emergency room for the non- emergency basis and if you got an annual physical theme anybody can do regardless of the economic circumstances you can get kind of the credit back to your account for that. and then on the provider side to move towards more of an outcome is to system instead of just fee-for-service where you go get a transplant and you are paying an anesthesiologist and surgeon in hospital and pharmacist that we are going to pay even more if you get a good result. we have to go there.

and our proposal i think spans that. obviously what happens is in our state we have a very red state. we have 132 state legislators 100 of whom are republican and by the way it's kind of a historical shift. i'm the first governor in history to serve the republican majority. so, we went around rarely ever having the republican majority to having these what they used to call the majority of the super majority now they call it a superduper majority. we have a blue to red switch and legislators are terrified of being identified. >> v. obamacare brand is so toxic even that you can argue -- >> there is no question. we made the argument here is what obamacare is and the individual mandate to what they did and here's what we are saying in a program that has premiums and copayments that is

a different idea but it's hard to get away from that. but some of that is the leftover residue of passing something on a totally partisan basis and then some of the if you like it you can keep it. that's all led people to say we can't trust them. >> in the state of the state is that just because it just because it doesn't happen doesn't mean the problem goes away. what happens next if it is a toxic brand is medicaid extension going to happen while you are governor? scenic i hope so. again we think that the approach that we made was a really practical and smart answer. the program we think would think would cover an additional $280,000 in tennessee who do not have health insurance and again, they are getting health insurance and healthcare just in the wrong way. so the emergency room is getting care in the wrong place and

wrong time so what we want to do is provide a different way to get healthcare coverage which is so important and do something to attack the cost curve. but we have our providers willing to work with us on payment reform but they are going to work with us a little more wholeheartedly if they see the coverage for people they are not getting paid for now. >> one of the components of a substantive argument that the federal government is going to cover her the first couple of years and then they are just not going to provide money and people will healthcare and it's going to be a tough situation. do you think the federal government will be good for the money? >> this is going to sound odd but the united states of america has ever missed a medicaid payment and that's what we are talking about. that's important to remember. there is some fear and that's why if you like it you can keep it and all of that stuff kind of

built into the fear that people have. but we had with the supreme court ruling said they want to put this in their hands that the government could enforce the couldn't force the states to expand and they covered. so if they can't force you to expand, they can't make you keep covering those folks so we have the attorney general of the state is a ruling that said if we didn't want to cover them any longer we wouldn't have to and then we had a letter from the secretary of hhs saying the same thing but again people just couldn't get past the concern. >> let's switch over to education. education governed in a lot of ways you accepted the top funds and sign the legislation guaranteeing the free years of the tuition for kennedy six tennessee graduates. president obama praised you for the summit in nashville. what do you make of the obama college level.

>> i mean you are always flattered to be copied that there would be when he came to tennessee to announce the plan there are some differences and powers as a last dollar scholarship. there is basically was legal pay for everybody to have two free years of community college. there is a reason they went their way and ours is obviously a lot lower cost and we did basically very little cost no cost to the state general fund. here is the reality. the gap for most people to go to college is really small. the numbers are amazingly low. >> a couple hundred dollars. >> four or 500 to go for a year. but if nobody in your family has been to college and you don't see your self as a college person that you don't fill out

your form. but that is just you don't know. the other thing in the program is to study actually shows you need somebody to hold your hand and help the reform to help explain when dhcp comes up, you have to take it that day. if you grow up in a college family you can't go on a sunday and say i was a little bit late and here's how it works. we actually tested this program and in the county that i'm from prior to rolling this out on a statewide basis kids call so we put in place mentors where every student had a mentor and they had five students to work with and volunteers. we had almost 10,000 who volunteered to be mentors. but the questions were okay the

first class is next week and it's in the nws building. but if you haven't, you don't know that you're thinking what is that? there is a lingo and culture that people don't know so the mentor piece is another distinction that we have. >> did you oppose the obama plan? >> i'm a governor so i'm going to say this. states can come up with their own method to do things like this. we obviously think it's right but let the states figure out how to do it. >> i want to transition to a political question and i think we will end up taking some audience questions, too. and i think you all know the hash tag pllgovs. you follow chris christie.

how is that different from the regime? >> who the leader is doesn't matter about more than that what matters is to be able to have a core of governors committed to it. we are meeting up here today and the fact that we have 31 elected governors that is how life works, so more people have 31 governors. but i think also people are attracted to success. if you think about it the republican governors can say we are helping to change the brand. what is the wrap with republicans right now? you do well in the white southern suburban areas and now you have the republican governors who are in places like maryland and massachusetts and illinois. i thought that was a whole red blue map and you have texas

against the female candidate who had gotten a lot of notoriety. they are supposed to be struggling. so i think that. they are going in the places. >> listen, if you are the new governor of illinois, you have a good job. the financial structure from the pension structure, the general fund is really hard. if you talk to bruce and his sleeves are rolled up and we will take $6 billion out of the budget. what they tell you when you start to talk about putting the government budget in theory you might say okay. but it's hard because you are

getting into constituencies and people that either really care about that service or they benefit one way or another from that service and it's hard. so i think what you are going to see is some republican governors doing am attracted to those doing it financially and doing things to produce a better education results but that is the challenge for all of us held we make certain we have the workforce between need and you kind of heard of that on and on but it's true in the states like ours that have historically been in the bottom of the 50 states when it came to education results are to change that is a big deal so last year when they have a national assessment education process the one test that's given all across the country's if you want to compare states, naep is the one that you take because it is given to language arts and math. and you can compare to the kids from every state you you can't then compare what the results

look like and when tennessee was the fastest improving state in the country and actually make the biggest game of any state ever come of it was a big deal because you've actually have an objective measure that says the results are happening. >> so on the governing side of the three races are the three red states and mississippi is in louisiana -- [laughter] >> in kentucky pretty popular and was able to win the reelection. the democrats have kind of caressed the press conference and now you have the republican primary the first television ad in 2013 running and now they are getting bombarded again already. but you have the three republicans who are laying out

the rationale for being able to do it. have they have have they ever told you about the republican primary making it harder to pick up that -- >> kentucky is an interesting thing and one by 8410. except for a few years from the last 20 or 30 years is a state where it's the molly of the states in that region. >> like tennessee. >> exactly. that's probably fair. when you talk to mcconnell in the world they say we want to do what you did in terms of flipping the statehouse. i don't think primaries are bad. i ran in a competitive primary against the lieutenant governor and a sitting u.s. congressman who was very popular and the democrats had the son of a very popular former governor. we went through a hard year and

a half primary literally our ad started earlier and lasted longer than kentucky. but the result was a good one because in the process, you become better, you know the states more if people see you in the middle of a contest but i don't think that's bad. >> in the three races bobby jindal is going out getting the competitive bid and they have a incumbent rick is a democrat and we feel like it is a red state and we should have a chance. we will put some focus in kentucky. >> right now they have the 31 memberships that help. most republican governors.

next year 2016 is pretty good for republicans. there are not as many governors races. a big part of your job is recruiting became sure that the right candidates get in the races but if they currently control 31, what are some of the races next year in the presidential here which is bad for the senate republicans into pennsylvania but good for republicans if there is that sense of opportunity for missouri, west virginia. what is the high water mark? >> first of all in this job even though you are the chair for one year, the first year of the cycle is to think through the next four years and really what we have to be thinking about is we have a lot of republicans who came in like i did in the wave of 2010 and those folks will all be term limited and think of everything from martinez to even go across the map.

the republican governors class was a lost almost 14 or 15. so ultimately putting the plan forward so when that happens, everything from fundraising to the governor support system and all that for the 18 race. 16 will be big. i don't know the number yet. every pickup is big. we were pleasantly surprised to get to 31 this year because a lot of folks worked hard to debate. hispanic not for alaska. >> of course we saw last. you have the two opponents team up together against sean and we had the governor still there. >> your counterpart, the democratic governors association chair of montana do you think that he is beatable?

>> montana is a state that we should be able to compete in if we look at the national map it is a state that republicans continue going and when you win in massachusetts and illinois and maryland okay we can compete anywhere. so that will be a race that i'm certain i'll get some rga resources. >> you talked about the tough decisions of the governors making tough calls in the budget cut and it has a negative impact on the approval rating. in north carolina we'd seen that in a lot of ways north carolina shows that it could be very vulnerable next year. how much work can you do to help him to make sure he is well positioned? ..

why don't you pay more taxes? okay, you know, not so excited about it but that's the challenge, it's about prioritizing. you started talking about backgrounds and how people act in office. i think it's one of those things that background matters, which he done before. for me being a mayor was great preparation because it does make you be more practical.

the whole mayor la guardia there's never been a republican or democratic pothole. it's true people want their garbage picked up in the streets cleared of snow on days like this. make sure the drainage ditch behind the house works. all that delivering service is what's important. i think that's again one of the things you see from governors is weakened. people want government that works. >> do you think the next president will be a governor? >> if you look at historically i think there's a good chance of that. there's a good argument to be made. i'm the chair. we have a whole -- have to say it. several of our members i tell people we have 31 republican governors and three of 30 are thinking of running. i considered because i know i'm not. we have a lot of folks but there is a tactical advantage. we had program in nashville last

night where former president bush 43 and clinton worked together at the two of them talk about things we did realize how much each of them were influenced as president being governor before. >> what's the dynamic look like at this point? you are hitting, fundraising, a lot of these guys are running for president. isn't awkward sometimes in the meeting that scott walker, chris christie -- >> it is remarkably not. you think these guys are running against each other but they been around each other. bobby was the rga chair two years ago and i think maybe scott was the vice chair that and then chris was the chair last year and bobby was the vice chair. 8-ball been working together. obviously, you know, if you're in a competitive race you're in a competitive race and you know that. it's difficult, but they are

folks who used to that. they knew that was part of the deal when they signed up. fortunately for me to fall said hey, when i first things is i know you a lot of you have other interests that i need you all to continue helping rga. to a person they all said we did it. we been in your shoes and we will help. >> we have a couple of questions from people in the audience. please send more. it's hashtag polgov. the first question is how does this administration intend to common core? >> great question. a little background. but as you said tennessee was one of the first winners of race to the top. not the first, the big winner. my predecessor actually a democrat, made the application. tennessee was awarded $500 million. we were one of the early adopters of a lot of pieces that came with that. and due to a lot of things

happening in tennessee, as i said earlier, we are actually the fastest growing state in the country in education results. a lot of that was about raising standards for us. the issue i to people in tennessee is like this. prior to this win one every state could set its own standard of what was provision it was like we set our basketball goals at succeed and we're so excited because everybody on the team could dunk. there was great but we went to 10-foot goals it wasn't very helpful. the process of raising our standards and being their specific about what we expected third grader should know and eighth graders to know has been really important for us in tennessee. common core it's really may be one of the most damaged brands ever. they understand a whole lot about brand marketing at the issue with common core is this be anything to anybody doesn't like about education, they have dumped it there. >> it's now obama core. >> if you think there's too much

testing, that's common core. it's not. common core is about state standards but if you think you don't like the way they are teaching world history now that's common core. no. common core is about english and math but if you think, i had a woman who is very informed woman but she was convinced that we are teaching sex education to her kindergartner because of common core. no. but if enough people believe something about a brand, that's what it is. what we did is this. those standards have been a place for four years so we typically reduced and there's every years. what we said is, that's fine we will speed up our whole review of the standards process which we should do anyway. now we are four years of history teachers who said, i've been teaching 56 graders for four years. this is a good expectation, and this is not. so we're going back and redoing all of our standards to see if they are right and taking the for your track record we have.

>> great. next question from richard rohmer. with a lack of federal action on transportation funding, what are your plans to increase funding? >> really, the question where, obviously the federal funding really matters to states but most states have changed their gas taxes either. i have said at some point in time will uncover we going to have to address that but i don't want to do it into we are two things, a real long-term plan or more transportation department. we already have a plan in terms of we've got billions of back to the projects but if we change the funding here's what we would do instead. and in second a plan on the funding sign that said it's not just a band aid to get us to were years down the road but to have a thoughtful approach to how we will do that. but all states are in the situation we're in. tennessee is one of the only states that doesn't use of debt for our infrastructure funding your country.a lot of stitcher pay

more in interest now than they are receiving in in federal funds. they've just been borrowing and always board which was great as long as the federal monday came and. once the integer in trouble. this started long before i got the regarding have as pay as you go on roads which is sometimes frustrating to some of the infrastructure people builders but it's been great policy for us. >> the republicans now control congress obviously. they control a lot of the transportation funding. what do you make of the republican congress is first 50 days on the job the? >> first of all, i mean it's easy for governors to take swipes of congress, okay? is the easiest thing in the world but our political situation is much easier than theirs. the senate is great but unless you get 60 you really can't do anything. they have a lot of limits that we don't deal with. they deal with, i mean, we have

parts in politics. there's is obviously out of control with you spend a lot of time just positioning against each other. all that being said you got to go to what the senate has tried to move and do in these first 60 days first wanted or so what did all of last year and give the figures and progress under leader mcconnell. >> something like the dh as funny, the watch that and roll your eyes brinksmanship on both sides of the show is a just kind of politics as usual? >> no, i think it's i think one of the realities, and i worry about it at the state level but it's true at the national level is the are a lot of people who make their living off of keeping things stirred up. that's not good for the country. and in the states we are able to send off some of that. and i'm saying that not just about dhs but in general about the way things work around you. and i think if you actually went and talked to folks serving in congress they would tell you the same thing, were frustrated by how many people raise money

about things being stirred up or make money themselves off things being assertive. it's a problem because it's a lot easier to stir something up than it is to solve the problem. >> tennessee has had a lot of success. i used the word establishment carefully, but you have kind of a tradition, howard baker, lamar alexander bob corker. why is that? why is tennessee support kind of pragmatic republicans are some other southern states have really gotten behind the firebrands who do raise money off picking fights? >> i mean it's really, i do get asked that a lot. the best answer i have come those of you don't, tennessee, our states i guess three different stores on because there's what we call almost three different parts of tennessee, the east this madness, east was basically fought with the north in the supporting of slavery was never an issue because nobody could plant anything.

it's historically been republican, lincoln republican. middle tennessee is dominated by national which is a really thriving economy. west tennessee was traditionally dominated by the mississippi river. it's a delta farming agriculture, a cambridge democrat traditionally. i think the point would be if it is to when you had to be able, you could just come out one part of the state and bowled over everybody. your to really do well in all parts. and so it forced you to be out listening to people. i think the more you are out again is a good part about democracy. the more you're out talking and campaigning, what do people carry the? you realize they don't care a lot about -- bill care a lot about the stuff we spent time talking on. into three different natures of tennessee force you to go and listen because when i ran i'm from east tennessee and when i go to memphis they would be like, how do we know you're going to care about us?

to when you better understand their city and understand their problems. >> governor, it is been great to have you. this been a great conversation. thank you for the excellent question. really appreciate the time the best of luck in your second term. >> appreciate it. [applause] >> and now we're going to quickly move on and bring in rick scott, the governor of florida. [applause] >> governor, thank you for coming. welcome to frigid washington. >> i know. we have houses, condos, we have hotels. you can move down there. it's warm. my hometown is going to be i think 75 today. the beaches it's clear. there's no rain. >> it's like 40 in tallahassee.

is that hard going from naples to tallahassee? >> i don't like cold weather. i moved to florida because i don't like cold weather. i grew up in the midwest. it was way too cold for me. even texas was. i lived there for a little bit. they have ice storms. unbelievable. >> is normally not like this. so thank you for being here. just a quick introduction. rick scott just won reelection to bill haslam one with 70%, a pretty easy read electric you one by 1% what a win is a win. >> didn't waste any dollars, any efforts. >> so you're just starting her second term. you serve in the united states navy before starting a very successful business career. he joined a dallas firm as you noted in 1987. at 34 you cofounded columbia hospital corporation with two partners that became columbia hca come eventually the largest private for-profit health or

comfort in america. intelligent you could've took on the republican establishment. i think people can kind forget that's part of your profile. ran against the city attorney general. you took them on. you one. >> every pollster said i would lose. >> and you want to the polls said you could lose again in 2014 and you one and now you're here. you are starting her second term. next week you're going to pennsylvania, making a lot of upcoming trips on -- >> jobs. >> jobs, which is something you've always loved to talk about, laser focus on jobs. tell me about this upcoming jobs tour you're planning and what's motivating you to go on the road? >> so my background is it's all about, i grew up knowing jobs report the i don't know my natural father to my mom went through a divorce right when osborne. she remarried a little while later. so i have been adopted by. we lived in public housing.

my parents didn't have jobs often. i watched them struggle to put food on the table, pay the rent. i remember in dad's car got repossessed. that's a tough life. so in my life i always focus on jobs. i get married at 19. i've had a wonderful marriage. we have two daughters and i talk to them always about getting the job and working. so they love that. so in 2010 computers were our state was. state of florida, inc. about this for a second. this is one of the most beautiful places in the world to live. we lost 832000 jobs in four years. housing prices dropped almost in half. in four years. unemployment has gone from 3.5 to 11 for 1% to the state borrowed basically $8.7 billion. 5.2 billion, owed the feds 3 billion for unemployment debt. nothing was changing. and so we had big budget

deficits, so i rant on my whole campaign was if you ask me whether can i talk about jobs. it was seven steps to 700,000 jobs in seven years. to the shock of everybody i won want because they think about a typical family, what do they care about? step one, i want a job. they want to work. people are not looking for another government program. they want to work. number two when they have children they're their sing i want a good education system because or my child to have a shot at the american train is good education. and number three is a safe community. those are the three things i thought about every day. i walked in with a $4 billion budget. we cut taxes, paid off simplify billion dollars worth of debt, cut 3100 regulations streamlined just a professional license. when i started as governor, it was 47 days in florida. 47 days. it is not 1.7 is on average. and what's happened is jobs have

come back. 728,000 jobs. we have 88,000 people on our unlimited out of 20 million. bigger than new york now and we have 279,000 279,000 job openings now instead of florida but housing prices are way up. estate is back. we've gone from a $4 billion budget deficit by $1.8 billion surplus. that's after cutting all the taxes and after paying off all the debt. i am unabashedly going after job so i will be in pennsylvania. i love it when other governors want to raise taxes because it's good for us. the new governor of pennsylvania wants to raise taxes. all that is going to is make those companies is competitive in the global economy. we are competing globally whether we like it or not. when you think it would you buy how many times the family going to buy if it says made in pennsylvania or virginia or district of columbia? or america or she don't. we are competing. so in other governors race

regulation, raise taxes make more difficult for business, i want to get those jobs in florida. we are growing and keep doing it. i've done 10 trade missions around the world and we've been recruiting companies from all around the united states which is, and pennsylvania will be one of many states i go to. >> tom wolfe the new democratic governor of pennsylvania you just referred to come he called it is a political stunt. he said the stagnant economy we inherited from republicans is not our doing. you didn't come are under our predecessor. what do you say when you get that kind of pushback? >> i've been recruiting companies. we've done in four years we have one over 400 competitive projects. we've gotten companies like hertz to move to florida. that's 700 jobs average incomes over $100,000. verizon, navy federal credit union. i've gone after jobs in every state. by biggest competitor has been with area. when i won my election in 2010

i met rick perry but didn't really know him. we met at an event and i said governor come are going to do everybody i'm going to kick your rear as you been the gold standard for jobs. .com after jobs and women on national television joking but who was the best state. joking now that he has given up might be running for something else. but i've tried to recruit cover some all over the united states and all over the world. i want florida to be the place if you grew up in florida you know you can get a job and your kids can get a great education. >> how hopeful is that playful competition? >> is good because think about when i got started doing this, taxes was the gold standard for job creation to they didn't lose jobs in the recession. florida lost all those jobs. if i could perceive to be competitive texas it was good for us. we went on squawk box different shows together. we did for alms together, --

forums to get ended in asking to say you are worried about is but that's all i want you to say. >> who is going to be your foil now? >> any government that wants to raise taxes. i'm appreciative of the governor of pennsylvania raising taxes. >> are you going to states with republican governor? governors? >> i recruit from other states all the time. i think it's very typical that for the northern states for them to compete with us because put yourself imposition of a company. you've got to solve your customer needs to if we have a great workforce, which we do. if we have no income tax for your employees, very low business tax, less regulation, faster permitting. do you think you can solve your customer needs faster in florida and other states? sherbet that's what we're going to do. florida is the second biggest area gestate for jobs only stay because is taxes. we are the third most technology

companies in the united states. we are growing our businesses very rapidly. on top of the fact we're a great tourist destination to 97 bound to respect the weather is really good force. a lot of people are coming down. last week and i think was the busiest tourist weekend in history in the state of florida, presidents weekend. so all that is good. we are also we have 15 seaports with expansion of the panama canal. but miami port will be dredged to 50 feet before the canal this done to with all the ports opened an east coast in each of our coast we should be shipping capital for the east coast. with a strike out on the west coast it's good for us. it was good for us in 2002 when they had it before. we are getting more shipping. >> with a win in terms of this job? every job is went in its own little way by geometric a target of i want to bring 100,000 jobs to florida by the end of the second term? >> we did 728,000 by first term

so i would like -- >> you could say this was a job that was in pennsylvania, we brought to florida is not necessary from pennsylvania but -- >> what you do, most the things they get all the press are the big companies like hertz moving their corporate office. but the truth is most of the job creation and small companies. but i will stop at a dunkin' donuts for starbucks and i just go shake hands with people and eat at restaurants with your busy. people are moving their businesses and moving at 2% or 5% because they are tired of more taxes tired of more regulation. there tide of the weather. they are tired of all of it. and then if you doing business in latin america they know we are the gate to latin america. it's never one thing. i've been in business all my life. it's never one thing when you make a decision. it's a whole bunch of things put together. >> i want to talk about 2015 to you in a unique position, the governor of florida likely to

run. a senator from florida likely to get into the race. >> mike huckabee lives there. >> ben carson lives there. >> everybody is making a good decision, moving to florida. >> you office are close to rick perry as you mentioned that you're close to bobby jindal. what are you looking for in a 2016 candidate? >> i think the biggest issue we have as a country is the same thing in florida when i got elected. it's all about jobs. we can't do the country that has higher corporate taxes more regulation and antibusiness attitude and think we're going to get jobs. all these companies are competing globally. think about it. we don't care where they are headquartered. and so we've got to elect somebody that says my primary job is jobs. we're going to figure out how to limit the growth of government, figure out how to cut corporate

taxes, cut individual taxes reduce regulation. we can't have more and more and more regulations on our companies. i mean, take something as simple as the obamacare, what we done to our companies. you buy produce, write? you could buy florida produce or mexican produce. by the way by federal you're supposed to know what you're buying. i'm sure all of you do that all the time. they are not having to comply with obamacare in mexico. and so do you think their prices are going to be cheaper than ours? were other jobs going to be? i want all the jobs in the united states i want to florida to have to have a president who says we have got to figure out how to compete globally. if you've ever built a corporate office, like i built the company from scratch from the and the secretary to to an 85,000 employers to you're trying to keep your costs as low as possible because you're always competing on calls. it's the same thing as our federal government under state

government. i'm doing everything i can to make florida government as efficient and as effective as possible. we have the lowest taxes per capita in the united states. the most number of workers per capita in the united states right to our federal government has to do the same thing where we are competing against other countries. because we are competing. but jobs are going to go to other countries. i have daughters. i have a three year old grandson, two, 18 -month-old grandson but i want them to live the united states, florida. one does live in texas which governor perry reminds me of all the time. but we are competing. we've got to have a president that understands we've got to fight this war on terror. our citizens are getting beheaded. citizens around the world are being killed, murdered and with that you shall. we've got to show up and fight terrorism. we've got to go promote our country.

i lived in texas for a while. the second they deliver you start bragging about the state. that's what i'm trying everybody in florida to do. we've got to elect someone that says our country note this and/or but's about them with the most exceptional place in the world to live. that's what i'm looking for any candidate. there's lots of people running. >> do you think you'll endorse when it matters? >> our primary should be next year march most likely but i will worry about it down the road. >> there's now talk in the state legislature that primary date will be march 15. do think that will happen? >> like everything else the legislature does i'll review it when they get to meet. >> what is your relationship like with jeb bush? you guys exchange ideas about what you are doing? >> i got asked yesterday about

the pictures would have i've known governor bush. i knew his brother better but i've known governor bush so we talk more about education because that's what his big focus has been. realities you talk to people that having issues at the same time. so rick perry chris christie bobby jindal probably the two i talk to the most is rick and bobby. they are seven states having some issues. most of our issues are caused by a federal government that is trying to dictate how we spend our money. it's no different than when i first came in. they had high-speed rail project, they wanted me to spend our money. i'm walking in with a $4 billion budget deficit and they want me to spend billions on a project they want done not that i asked for. >> marco rubio is in tallahassee before you. both elected in 2010 to your jobs. do you have a relationship with him? do you talk to him? >> i think senator rubio has

done a good job. he's been a good partner when we have federal issues. so he has been a good partner. >> there's a new public push by senate republicans to get into stay in the senate. there's all these people in the presidential field let's hold of that florida senate seat. it's his decision that you think he should stay in the senate? >> i think if he wants to be president, he needs to run for president. no one is going to anoint you. if he wants to be president, he has to run. but i think anybody from florida running for president is good for florida. because they're going to talk about how great we are doing. i'm trying to get everybody in our state to brag but if we can get those two to go brag about our state, that's a good start. >> and i still talking to rick perry even though he was no longer governor? >> i talked to him the other day. he's fun. rig is a ball to be with.

-- rick. he has a lot of energy. he was out in california. .. of any large state and in the

country the last three years. the art i think the only country that has had the state achievement gap between the students in the last few years. the national teacher quality every two years they were number two for quality two times in a row. we have a lot to brag about in education but one thing while we all believe in measurement what we have done is we have put in a lot of taxes. florida is set up different than other plates. we have districts by counties. they have lots of school districts and we have 67. so we have some state mandates and some district mandated tests. so last year as we were hearing about the testing i asked for the test investigation so we would put out what was actually going on so if you talk to the

teachers they would both save the state government is mandating this, no districts are mandating that and so we are going to get rid of some of our testing where we would continue to focus on the results which is what parents and students and teachers care about some of the testing we will get rid of and some of the things that are redundant. at the state-level and some will happen at the district level. our state is doing well and it leads to three things. think about when you were going to school. what is going to cost me, do they get a job, do i make more money and that is what we will measure this year we will have about $460 million in performance funding for the universities and state colleges. >> you support common core but you got permission, does the state tax in the florida standards basic common core gets scapegoated for every problem in

education. everything is about common core. can you tell about your thoughts on common core and a very bad brand right now but there are some seasick >> a lot of common core standards said we are going to use the florida standards and we are picking and choosing what we like and continuing to make changes in what we have but we have our own standards and a year ago we passed legislation so the federal government isn't going to data mine and that decisions will be made at the district level. so close to where we have elected school board members in our counties and so at the local level they can make the decisions that we are going to continue to have high standards and we are going to continue to try to outcompete every other place in the world because we

are competing for jobs. we are doing that but we are using our own standards. >> switching to healthcare medicaid. after the watch you kind of endorsed the idea of expansion and didn't go anywhere in the lotus nation and you are here in washington for meetings this weekend. i presume that they will pressure you -- >> the table will be full of people trying to get me to do something. >> what are the other wish list items? >> right now that is the biggest one. but here is where we were in the states when i got elected. medicaid has been growing at three times the general revenue for something like 20 years and so it was not a small part of the budget. it was $20 billion out of the 70 billion-dollar budget. so growing at three times the

general revenue that is pretty tough. so, we passed the legislation my first year and is it our medicaid program would be the private company would be responsible in the areas of the state for those recipients and response for the quality and access and protectors. so now we have a medicaid program that we can afford and that's though they are not getting good care. two years ago when they wanted to do high-speed rail between orlando and tampa i said as long as you pay all the money do it but don't come and tell me how to spend my money because i'm responsible for the taxpayers of you want to spend federal money spend federal money. with regards to the medicaid as long as the federal government wants to pay for something, they should do what they like to do but don't ask me to take it out

of my budget for a program that you want to have happened. happen. so, that hasn't happened in the state. i don't know if it is going to happen in our state. >> people can send questions to politico events. >> the taxpayers pay for it just like every other state. we would like to take care of our citizens. we care about the citizens. >> but then the conservative criticism of the expansion they shouldn't even if they are good the first three years or four years. >> what you do business with them? >> that's a legitimate concern. you stay in coverage and then they will change the rules.

>> the federal government would provide a grant to one of the agencies and it would be a two or three-year grant and they would say aren't you going to keep it? so we stopped the agency from doing that without talking to the government office because why would we do that to our citizens and get people hooked on something they didn't ask for? i traveled the state pretty much every day. nobody asked me. they say you have to have a government program. it's like medicaid expansion in the hospital industry. i wonder why. >> we have a microphone -- we have a microphone for audience questions and i want to ask if there are any hands.

>> did you all see that ithaca new york put on their website that the weather was so bad everybody's should just go to florida? >> my fiancée would love that. during the cycle you were attacked in q1 more than almost any other governor on education on the reform and on the school choice, pretty much anything. >> years ago i could have moved to a state that could have been easier but i didn't. >> are there other governors or republicans that have done what you did in florida it is a red state and in the presidential year how you prevail?

>> we went after everybody. we have a significant expanding population. my spanish isn't perfect but i practice every day. i do spanish radio spanish tv. we put a lot of effort into the hispanic market. i personally believe everybody should vote for what we are doing because i don't talk to any family that says i don't care about jobs or education or public safety. so, we went out and we did and events all over the state we talked to everybody we could. we did while especially with the hispanic vote. we did a lot of events. fortunately i had a wife that was willing to travel so she did events around the state and this is a person that when i ran four

years ago she said that the great now remember you agreed i never have to give a speech. so we worked every day and got the message out. we didn't have 15 messages. we talked about jobs and education and public safety and when we got done with that it was public safety and more about the public safety. >> is that the key for the republicans nationally? how do republicans nationally extrapolate? >> everyone cares about the same thing. everyone does. think about the people that have come to our country. what did they come here for? the dream that we all be leaving. i went and talked to them about how we are going to do everything we can to get them the same opportunity that everybody else has.

and i think that our state is the best in the country. we have three languages spoken people from all over the world living in florida. especially if you look at the orlando area and tampa was second but if you look at especially broward and miami-dade you have a lot of people from central america, south america and they feel connected with our state. we are a melting pot and we like all of the culture in our state so i think the biggest thing we have to do is talk about what people care about and they care about jobs. that is the biggest thing. everybody wants this economy to turn around. what we have to do is tell the story about why our beliefs help everybody.

>> my job is to take care of the families like mine growing up that are struggling to keep their car or pay the rent or pay their mortgage. if those individuals do well everybody does well. they can get a job. there's less government needed. there's more public safety. everything is better for everybody. >> i want to take more questions than a minute. cuba is because of president obama's move and nancy pelosi this week during the congressional recess you opposed relaxing the embargo. is it frustrating to see the national democrats but still travel to cuba and there are these human rights abuses? >> the countries that do not have the transactions haven't changed. they still have political prisoners. if you follow what happened in venezuela they are killing

peaceful protesters so the only way we are going to get the democracy in my belief and i listen to the only way to do that is to keep the trade sanctions. if i was going to do a trade mission we went to ten countries. brazil and there was quite a bit of business there. columbia, panama canada, japan france. that's where we are getting jobs in pennsylvania. >> there's a lot of republicans now, just wait in arizona. why do you think there has been a shift in public opinion about the embargo nationally and in florida? >> i'm not much of a pond and. i know what i believe.

>> do you think a republican could win florida not supporting the embargo? >> the biggest issue is who is going to focus on jobs. i'm looking for which most people let's get our economy going let's fix obamacare and have somebody that brags about the country. >> we have a question. >> you already talked about performance funding for the state colleges and universities and you also spearheaded a $10,000 bachelor's degree in the state of florida. can you talk further about the nexus of higher education and economic development

particularly having the access for students in the state who obtained their skills? >> when i went to junior college my first year out of high school i think it was $200 a semester. the university was expensive. you take 21 hours and 55. if you want to give people a shot at the dream of america make education more affordable. why does it have to cost this much? things can get cheaper and of the value equation gets better but how does that happen with education of max so i challenge all of our state colleges the 21

state colleges, 23 of them have a four year degree. can you get a degree for $10,000, they all did. this year we are going to expand that total tuition for four years. this year we are going to expand it to get more degrees and the universities were raising tuition at 50 plus% a year. 15 plus% a year. if you have lots of money doesn't matter. but if you don't have a lot of money somebody that's willing to pay for it for thousands of dollars then how do you pay for it? so by my fourth year we got that stopped and so a lot of it have to do with the cost of a prepaid plan. before we became governor you could buy a plan for the university for the newborn for $100 a month for 18 years or

$14,000. by the time i got a stop to it was 54,000 upfront or 350 a month. now think about it you have two kids how many people will spend $100 on after-tax you can do it. so now who does this hurt, the poorest families. we want our kids to get degrees. we want them to get degrees in areas where there is jobs. there's a lot. we recruited all of these aviation and other companies that need to stem. it was 21 million baht last year it was 200 million this year it will be 460. basically tied to three things. the cost per degree. and when you think about that, i care about the degree. as a part of it is tuition. part of it is how fast you get

through that people start thinking about when you're going to score number how hard it was? you are the customer. if a business did that to you you would stop going there. they would also get the textbook costs down. i talked to someone that one textbook cost $500 for a freshman class. $500. that's crazy. so we are focused on tuition and costs to get a degree, do you get a job. i asked our universities when i came in give me all the surveys you do so i'm sure you know where all the jobs are. you know how many i got back x. zero. in business you are doing customer surveys all the time. so they are already thinking how to get people through here

faster. how much are people going to make. it's changed the conversation and it's for everybody in the state. >> we are wrapping up i want to ask another question. jeb bush used to talk about the audacious goals. do you have this ahead of you for four years you just won this election. what are your big audacious goals for the second term ex- >> the biggest i have is by the time i get out of office we will become the number one place in the world to get a job and if we are the number one place in the world to get a job here is what happens and it's already happened as far we have a record funding for k-12 education, record funding for universities funding for state colleges, eckerd funding for transportation and we continue to have the lowest taxes per capita in the country. so it is all tied to making our state the place where people say i'm going to build a business in

florida before i think about anyplace else because i know i can compete globally better in florida than any place in the world. that's my goal at the end of the day. and when i finish that's what people are going to say florida is the absolute best place to get a job in the world. >> governor scott thank you for being here. [applause] >> thank you suzanne and hello everybody. i'm the executive editor of politico. thank you for joining us today. thrilled to be joined by the governor of rhode island. thank you so much for joining us for this afternoon's session. let's get started.

you are one of a dwindling number of democratic voters and you are in your first term as a democratic governor. but you ray and on a platform that actually alienated some constituencies. is that a recipe that more democrats should be folding at the state level to try to get the number of democratic governors up? >> i don't know if that's the recipe. the theme of my campaign and i think the reason that i want is one is that i was relentlessly focused on economic development and job creation and i think every advertisement that my campaign did was focused on that. that was the best bit that we made that the worker pension reform certainly did alienate some of the public public-sector unions and it made it difficult in the primary.

what i said is it's time for a governor that has the courage to take on the tough issues and get things done and i think i was able to convince people that i did i'd take this encourage i used to get through to fixing the economy. >> there as is an increasing tension in the democratic party as it relates to the teachers unions with arnie duncan's proposals. there's a large there is a large number of that are reformed democrats that feel as though the teacher tenure and charter schools and other education innovations are not really necessary and another group tends to support the union position and another that is teacher bashing. is this something that they have to make a choice going forward not just the teachers unions but also a very powerful public-sector unions that you took on when you are the treasure? >> they just need to be willing to be honest about the reality. if we have schools that are not

working in educating our kids well and the results are not what they need to be diminutive ace the facts and if that means some changes i think democrats have to have the courage to do that. unfortunately all of this quickly gets unproductive and i think we ought to treats teachers like the professionals that they are and then hold them accountable. every teacher that i know wants to be held accountable. every teacher that i know wants to be treated like a professional and as a mom i want my kids to be well-educated. >> i reviewed a powerpoint presentation that you have presented a large number of rhode island leaders about the rather daunting task ahead for the next four years. the growing budget gap over the next four years combined with the stagnating economy 47th in

unemployment among the 50 states lack of investment in the job creation. how are you going to do that with a budget of? >> i really threaded the needle on this. there's a huge budget deficit and for those of you to get a sense of what we are dealing with, rhode island had one of the weakest economies in the nation which might be a surprise to you between new york and boston we had amazing universities. we were crushed when the manufacturing sector lost and we didn't reposition ourselves in the high-growth industries. so i am in the position where we are facing $200 million shortfall and the natural instinct would be to cut and there would have to be some cuts except you can just cut.

you can't just cut your way to prosperity or job creation. we have to cut in the areas where we spend too much or that are not job creating and then reallocate that money to job training development, economic incentives for businesses and that is exactly the task before me but those are tough choices. i have to take a hard look at medicaid for example. the second highest in the country per enrollee on medicaid. not doing a great job necessarily taking care of the vulnerable but spending a lot of money doing it. and then invest in building roads and bridges into schools and development to fundamentally get people back to work. >> we are going to be joined by the governor nixon of misery and talking to some of his staff. their plan for the future is the

return of the american manufacturing. they are convinced that missouri is going to be a big beneficiary of that. now some manufacturing jobs have been lost in rhode island. ken rhode island benefit from a rebirth of american manufacturing or is it smarter to go with the knowledge economy direction like boston and new york? >> i think you have to do both. what we have to do is figure out what we can be really good at. manufacturing is a piece of that and is the knowledge economy also. once upon a time, rhode island was the mecca of two remaining texturing. that's what we did in rhode island. we made beautiful jewelry and watches and that's all gone. my dad worked forever at the

wall chapter eight. that factory went away. but the new manufacturing, high skill, high tech knowledge based in effect during sql is coming back to america and it's absolutely poised to get at their share of manufacturing in areas of excellence like marine technology. i deleted to be the building capital of the world. we have newport we have to go where we can be great and build upon our strength and guess in the advanced manufacturing. >> what are your critiques in the powerpoint presentation is that there wasn't enough flexibility to attract businesses. that is a very controversial position and a lot of people think that you've given away the factory that screened the massachusetts 20 miles away and

move to a big success for the governor of rhode island but the fact it is a zero-sum game that's hurting all of the neighboring states. >> it is a balance. this is a difference between me and my opponents. they say cut taxes as low as possible and good things will happen. i don't agree with that. you have to have low enough taxes for businesses want to be there. i had my career over a dozen years. streamline regulations, transparent government and reasonable taxes. you have to have high skilled workers. i would like us to raise the minimum wage. i want to have excellent training programs. so here's the thing rhode

island and america, we cannot compete on price anymore. if a company wants the lowest cost labor, they are going to china and i don't want to be the lowest cost. i want to compete on quality so again we have to be low-cost enough to be competitive including taxes and incentives but at the end of the day we have to compete on quality which is skill and know-how into that takes some investment. >> and education. >> absolutely education innovation, research and development. if you look at the economies in america that are humming including massachusetts where you are from they are through the roof. they are competing on quality. companies want to be there because they are the centers of innovation research and development and new ideas and i

need to position the rhode island fire. >> what is your theory of what went wrong? the idea is that it benefits because it's got all these universities that it has in boston a high quality of life as people generally like to be there and emphasize the historical attractiveness to that kind of lifestyle but it's the same that providence and newport have and you have brown university the university of rhode island, a large number of colleges and universities. what went wrong and how do they not benefit from the same forces that helped massachusetts and new york? >> i will tell you what i think massachusetts has done a great job of partnering and collaborating. the government can't do everything. the government cannot make an economy work. it has to be a collaboration and bottoms up. great things happen at the

universities working with the government and working with business. and massachusetts and pittsburgh and other places have nailed that. and rhode island hasn't. we just haven't brought together -- yes we have brown university and a school of design the school of design but we haven't married them with industry so we haven't tapped the intellectual capital to turn those good ideas into commerce. the other thing candidate lee is at the state we were too reliant for too long on manufacturing. just so everyone knows rhode island was hurt almost more than any other state in the number of manufacturing jobs we've lost. and we were very dependent on manufacturing ten years ago. so we waited for too long to reposition ourselves. my dad had a way of describing things and he said i can see it and i was working in the jewelry shop all of the jewelry shops

were going away and massachusetts, they got into computers. they tapped into mit and turned them into businesses. so it's my job now as a governor to move. we are adding passed by. >> the difference between new york and massachusetts and rhode island is about the political culture. >> i think the culture has a lot to do with it. rhode island for a long time has been parochial and we need to be a little bit more outward facing of the new ideas and innovation. if you are inward looking you are not innovative and we need to be more innovative and collaborative and we need to move faster. it's not acceptable and it drives me crazy and i hear from people it took me a year and a

half to get a permit or it took me three years to get a permit and massachusetts. i was online for 45 minutes waiting on hold to get my unemployment insurance. that's not okay. that isn't okay. i have to fix that. but the six of the government needs to work and we are going to get after that. >> a lot of attention to the congressional inaction on the range of issues including transportation does prominently but a lot of things that help the states have been slowed down and have become subjects here in washington. what do you want out of the federal government? >> i want them to get things done. sometimes it feels like they've left the building and nothing is happening. and you are on your way to a fun infrastructure. i don't have a know a single person that thinks it is a bad idea. have them tell you about pensions. don't talk to me about management versus labor.

we have a problem. let's get to work and be practical. our infrastructure is falling apart. we have the money as a nation to fix it. there is no question that it's holding us back. we are less competitive just look at europe and asia. they are ahead of us and we have the money to do it, so get to work. >> have you talked to folks in washington about that? >> i'm pretty aggressive and vocal so i need to get everyone to do everything i can. i talked to our delegation. right now we are in the minority but they are working hard. and i encourage them to speak up if you don't sit on the sidelines. don't be afraid, do what's right. >> great. we have some microphones in the crowd. people might have questions for

the governor. questions. right over there. >> i guess somebody has to break the ice. governor, how can we address the increased cost of medicaid without decreasing the eligibility or benefits and at the same time deal with the populations accessing care generally in the wrong location at the wrong time? >> what you said at the end is the answer. we just because we are spending a lot of money doesn't mean that we are doing a good job. there are many people in nursing homes or long-term care who could be at home and frankly would rather p. at home if they

had the proper wraparound services so that they could be at home and save enormous amounts of money. the reality is in medicaid a small number of very complex patients come from the lion's share of the money. so we need to do a better job of managing the patients that have many different kinds of medical issues and if you run through the system they keep shoving up in the emergency room getting readmitted to the hospital, back in the nursing home and before you know it they are on the end honest and of the population. so let's identify those people and manage them properly so they get better care. that's going to be the way that i approach it because i will tell you if you just grabbed her and say we are going to cut

eligibility and we are going to cut the rate, you are going to hurt people. and in the long run i'm not sure that you are even going to save money. we all know my son gets a lot of gear infections site able to get him to the doctor and on his medicine right of way at work by 9:00, life is good and he is taking care of. if i didn't have health insurance he would get sicker. cutting eligibility for kids and denying them access is not good healthcare and it doesn't save money. so that's how i think about it. >> fellow governor. i moved to virginia.

i was in a coastal community in rhode island and it's just i hate to use the word corruption but it's pervasive and i think it is because of the small state no deal was too small. everyone wants to get connected. they want to connect. they have an inroad. any other issue governor, is the most powerful person in the state includes the speaker of the house. i thought that you had more power as governor and some of those issues. >> it's funny. tell me your name. it's funny i had no power as treasurer. the power that i got was derived from the people and that's the power the governor had.

the governor has the power of the people to make the case of the people and this is what i'm going to do. i'm going to tell the people and then i'm going to invite them to get engaged because for too long with happening in rhode island and it may have been another statehouses the governor proposes a budget and then the general assembly takes the budget and often in the dark of night in a quiet room the lobby and the general assembly get-together and pass the budget and it's bad for everybody as far as i can tell. but my job is to shine a light on the process and make sure that the voice of the people is in that room and even better that the hearings take place in public and gave everybody an opportunity. and the truth of it is the pension reform at the end of the day the reason that happens is

because the average member of the general assembly was more afraid of their constituents than they were of the special interests and lobbyists and they did the right thing for all the people. and so that's what i need to do and that's with any leader needs to do. you can't force your ideas on people. that will make the case and fire them up enough to get behind what you are trying to do. >> something that occurs to me we will get other questions that the issue of the regionalization is rhode island massachusetts and new york is doing and all that they don't do a great job collaborating with each other you put them all together and they are as big as texas but individually they all have very different cultures and things.

and i heard that you attended charlie baker's inauguration which is the gesture statement that the two states are not competing and they have a common interest. what could help all the states in terms of the regionalization and cooperation. >> i did attend the inauguration and of course he's republican and i'm democrat and he came to mind and that was an important symbol i suppose that we want to work together. the particular thing that i would like to work on his energy policy. energy costs very high not just in rhode island but throughout new england is a supply issue and no one can solve that on their own and so that is an issue i want to work with him on to see if we can come up with the regional strategy to in the

long run to a renewable and in the short run see if there is a natural gas opportunity to increase the prices. because you talk about manufacturing. manufacturing consumes a lot of energy. and even if i create great skills programs which we will do and bring the manufacturers next come if our energy costs are 20% higher than other regions, that is a hard thing to overcome. >> and how would you transition? there are a lot of benefits moving to the renewables in creating the industry that can build wind farms and things like that. but it's still much more expensive. so it's not in the short-term going to help the manufacturing cars to be converting to the renewables. i mean, how would you manage

that? >> i am a proponent of natural gas on the bridge to the renewable because we need energy pricing relief right now. and as a practical matter, it's the only option. in fact most of the uses natural gas. c-charlie is with me on this and the challenge of course in the pipeline has to go through massachusetts which is why i need to collaborate with him. [laughter] but it is in his best interest as well for the consumers in massachusetts. so the first thing is in the short-term, work on the natural gas to increase the supply which brings down the cost while overtime you get to the renewable. >> there's a couple questions i can go through. one is how does the governor implement common core? >> i am a supporter of common core and i think that we need to stay strong and stick with it.

imo the view that most of the folks who don't like the common core it's for a political reason and not a substantive reason. the world isn't lowering its standards. when people want to hire they are lowering their standards, they are hiring people that have the skills and the brutal reality is that education is still the great equalizer. the reason i am where i am. and i grandpa started as a helper and i ended up with a successful career. i think we need to move to the aggressive targets and keep our standards high. the way the teachers teach to achieve the common core i think there should be flexibility. i think they should be great flexibility. but i don't think that we should lower our standards.

>> hillary clinton came out and campaigned with you. obviously you are someone that has come to the idea that she could be the nominee in 2016. is there really a difference in how you are the first woman governor for rhode island being a leader and what is the difference and if you are making the case on why we need a woman as president right now, what is the value added for the whole country lacks >> i do support hillary clinton and i hope she runs and again she knows how to get things done and is willing to do the right thing and that is primarily what we need. having said that i think it is time for a woman president and i think that we are overdue. i hear that every single day as governor i hear from a little girl who thinks that it's the greatest thing ever that we have

a woman governor and the thing of it is is a powerful unspoken symbol of you can be whatever you want to be if you work hard enough. you don't have to be a man to be in the top job. and so having women in the position of authority is greatly in powering for other women and also younger girls. i also think it's a good thing to have a mom as a chief executive. we recently had a blizzard in rhode island. we got through it. but the things they don't teach you. i want everybody to stay home and my kids said you have that

serious mom voice. i heard over and over i was the first governor that talked about the safety of the guy driving the plow and please stay off the road so we can keep them and their families safe so they can do their work. so we bring the perspectives into the office and clearly i bring a different perspective. >> you are also in economist and actual economic benefits to aspiring girls to reach hire the resource that we have as a nation is women and girls and 50% of the talent pool and 50% of the brains and innovation and the creativity that is underrepresented across the board. and it's not a women's issue to help get women and girls into

science and technology and business and government. it's a societal issue if we could figure out a way to totally and power half of the brains in america imagine how much better and productive we and productive we would be. >> and if a woman could do that better. >> i think that a person that is committed to making that happen well get that done that on balance it is powerful you can't underestimate the value of a role model. >> thank you very much. we've run out of time. it's time to wrap up. >> next i would like to welcome back the editor susan with the governor for the last conversation. thank you.

[inaudible conversations] they are carried by the cold. we discussed the conversation and many thanks again. we were saying this is the version of the conference that microsoft has sponsored and we have republicans this morning and the democratic governors are kind of a vanishing species. we had rick scott --

>> i think that is a great starting point for the conversation. so more than anyone else the race to the governors today you straddle the national politics and you don't have your hat on any more coming you are a governor and you like to get stuff done. does it look different to you? soon as the governor in the commonwealth of virginia we are the number one recipient in that apartment house. so restoring the military assets the largest naval base in the world the cia quantico so anytime we have the dysfunction up here is really impacts us greatly. just in the last three years virginia lost $9.8 billion in defense contracts was to northern virginia. sequestration is a real calamity for our economy. so i hope it doesn't happen but i just left the pentagon and i was there at the council government which is the president's council of advisors and the national security comes

a at democrats, five republicans and j. johnson gave us a presentation and it really woke up every governor in the room i was aware of but everyone in the room clearly understand is if the dhs shuts down, even if they have a continuing resolution. all of our funding for the department of emergency management and all of our first responders all get a shot off. i don't think they realize the implications for every state intact. i think the secretary said $2 billion went to the states and the emergency management. so the dysfunction here excess whole issue for the partisan political reasons you are going to shut down a vital government entity that has a work for the government of virginia and many

many of these employees that would be for load. so for us it has a dramatic impact. so the dysfunction in washington today they are doing a disservice. >> it's striking that we are already talking of a government shutdown and it's only in december than a republican the new republican congress came in and made a deal and that seemed to be part of their plan to show that we can govern the shutdown so quickly. >> i don't think that the leader -- maybe they can get their leaders in line. tidying this ratio is nothing but a partisan political maneuvering. we shouldn't do that and we clearly shouldn't do it with the department of homeland security

for donations security interest and as i see as a governor if we'll have it will have a tremendous impact on our economy. they are not going to get paid. the secretary made it clear. understand every check will stop. >> two quick questions. you are a better reader of this than i am. will that really happen next week? >> i asked the secretary that and he asked us for help and i read all the papers today that they've all gone home. every time they shut down of course it adversely impacts the republican party. and the elements of the house of representatives that loves to do these types of things they pay a huge price and i'm sure the speaker is trying to get it worked out that you have to control your caucus.

>> you have a perspective in the multiple administrations. talk about the dhs issue and he said you know this is somebody that is more democrats don't understand and you said it is just waving a red flag and this is very much about president obama as a personal issue. >> i would not disagree with that. but he is doing what he said he would do. i have the same issue in virginia. i ran on a lot of issues. i ran a unique campaign for the governor and i talked about women's rights and members of the community. i talked about responsible safe walls that we had and rolled back and put some restrictions on folks that should own guns

and i talked about what happened during the campaign. that isn't normally what you talked about when you run for the governor of the commonwealth of virginia by title into the context. we need to become for exactly what we are talking about we have to be less reliant on the federal government. i can't grow if we don't act which 90% of the fortune 500 companies do in their clause. their claws. so their clause. as i try to put virginia in wine. and you know what, i won and i broke the trend. i broke a 38 year trend and i brought in sullivan and governor first time in 20 years the democrats in all offices in virginia. i'm doing exactly what i said i would do. we had a great year on job creation. $5.6 billion of the direct investment in my first year which is double what any have done. i announced the lowest unemployment rate since 2008. but i am also doing the things i

said i would do. the health clinics closed down. i put out what i thought were very responsible restrictions on people who want to purchase guns. if you are convicted you shouldn't be able to buy a gun i think that is common sense. i'm the first governor to perform gay marriage and allow them to adopt children. so i'm getting exactly what i said i would do. president obama was doing but he said he would do and it's we have to get together we have to work together. you have to compromise. unfortunately, somewhere up here in washington the word compromise is gone. you don't get everything you want in life. you have to work together and give and take and that is what is missing up here. >> in terms of getting stuff done this is another thing that connects to his agenda but also to your agenda, the medicaid expansion and connecting that with obamacare.

you haven't been able to get that done and of course it's basically undermined the basic premise in the affordable care act. what do you make on that and what is your conclusion? >> p. tried his legislature. he is a republican governor and 20 some state closed. i tried to make the argument. i knew that my legislature was never going to pass. but that doesn't mean you don't try. i worked my heart and soul out every day. i went to clinics and met with folks and i have to tell you when you go into a clinic and someone comes up and grabs her coat and says if you don't fix it i'm going to die they need healthcare. and we need the ability to close the coverage gap and provide healthcare for.

you can dislike the president and the healthcare wall but it's the law of the land he and i can change it. the supreme court decided that. in virginia there is a 13 different taxes that you pay. you shift two and a half billion to washington. i can't stop that. we have the right to bring 100% back and then it goes down to 90. this is our money. it will help our hospitals and to save our clinics and it will provide healthcare and as the governor competing for business, maryland, west virginia kentucky, arkansas. they don't close the gap. almost every single chamber of commerce, most of them very republican, all of them indoors the gap. but it's unfortunate that the partisan politics overtook the common sense and i think for many folks in the electoral politics they were worried about a primary challenge, let it be that he he party challenge or whatever it may be if they vote for the so-called obamacare.

so i'm going to continue to work for it. i can provide healthcare to 400,000 virginians. at the clinic last year, there are thousands of people who come from saturday and sunday, doctors, dentists, free healthcare for one weekend. thousands of people show up. >> many of them come down and this is it for them and i walked through and there is bedsheets. they turned people away. this is their only hope. we had a young gentleman that had all of his teeth pulled out of his mouth and i asked him why. he said because the pain. the sad part of it is if you got in the car and drove 40 miles west to west virginia they get health care 365 days a year

because they closed the gap. >> do you think -- event obamacare. we had an event and she said one of the biggest mistakes that i wish it wasn't called obamacare. >> i agree. >> we did change the name of bunch of times. [laughter] >> is beyond changing the name. ..