quite right. this bill is a bill that reflects what needs to be done around america. we need to fix up the interstate system which is crumbling. we need to to fix a lot of bridges, many of which are in very bad repair. here in washington the bridge that leads to arlington cemetery's about falling down. there are a lot of bridges like that. there are plenty of roads and bridges all over america without any politician picking them, and really, really then it's up to the governor's and people in the states to make those decisions. in the era of no earmarks, the idea idea picking and choosing does not really exist. the idea of saying to the states, here is an amount of money that is going to be allocated to you and then there are also opportunities for other funding to. >> host: the "washington journal" says that the user pays

user benefits, if taxes become less of a proxy, transportation consumption due to more efficient cars and energy prices, then prioritize highway money for the most urgent needs and give more power to the states and cities which can use told them that fuel level use. >> guest: given the fact that there has not been much happening here in washington, a lot of states, 14 states in the last four years race on gas taxes. almost all of those work and trolled by republicans. utah raised 5 cents cents a gallon so they could fix up their roads, in the absence of any kind of major transportation bill, wyoming raise their own gas tax, all republican state. is it easy? of course not. of course not. it's hard for politicians to raise the tax.

the one think they know is that when they do that, the constituents they represent realize that potholes are going to be filled, roads are going to be fixed, bridges are going to be fixed, and people see their friends and neighbor doing the work. the money does not stay in washington. it does not go in some politicians pocket, he goes back to the states. people in the states see progress. that is the recent there is not that much heartburn about raising the gas tax. fourteen states have done it, many very conservative bid states. >> host: you served as republican from illinois, you served as transportation secretary for the obama administration. why is the transportation department, -wise that needed some republicans, wall street journal would say get the federal government out of it, it should go to the state. why do you say the transportation department.

>> guest: this idea of evolution which you are talking about, which just just give the money back to the states, we would not have a national program. we would not have an interstate system. when eisenhower signed signed the interstate bill there are governors back then that said we are not going to have an interstate running through our state. here we are 50 years later, within the state system. why? because we had national priorities. because we set that is a priority. there is not enough money in the states to fix up the bridges that need to be fixed up. these bridge projects are very expensive. in the neighborhood of 50- $100 million. you have to have a national program that allows for big dollars, big amounts of dollars to be allocated to the states. states left to their own simply would not have their own resources to do it. they would not. we would not have the national priorities for safety, safe

roads, safe bridges, standards that may be some states simply would not adopt. >> host: what about competitiveness with other countries? spee2 we are way behind now. anyone who now. anyone who has been to china, asia, south america knows that high-speed rail, new highways, new roads, every time you go to china there is a new row, new bridge, new high-speed railway. their national government set that as there national government set that as a priority. you build it, they will calm. you build it they build economic corridors. people go go to work building these kind of infrastructures. we are being so outcompeted by everyplace else in the world, and that is why companies are thinking about moving to those some places in the world because they have good infrastructure. they have good roads, good bridges, to get their people back and forth to work. to develop economic

opportunities. you build infrastructure, you build economic opportunity. look at all the jobs that have been created along the interstate system over 50 years. these are all all small businesses. they all employ people. that's what a role, a real line, a quarter does. infrastructure is a win-win for america. for the people who do the work, for the people who benefit from the road, for the jobs being created once the road or rail line is in place. again, this is a no-brainer. if you if you want to jumpstart the economy, the largest segment of on a planet in america right now is in the building area. it is in the building trade. these are the people out of work because there is nothing happening. there is no no transportation bill. the highway trust fund is broke. so nothing is happening, a lot of people are out of work that ordinarily, in this right here in july, in the middle of

construction season there's not much happening as we don't have a role program, we don't have a highway program and the trust fund is broke. gas taxes have not been raised for 20 years. you cannot think of another thing in america, a dozen egg's, gallon of milk, and automobile, you name it, they have all gone, you name it, they have all gone up over 20 years except the gas tax. >> caller: good morning. i like your name. the only problem we have out here with the public is i have written my congressman and my senator, i do not believe that when you raise the gas tax at the federal level, you know why a big project. that is just one of hundreds. it first came in at 2,000,000,000 dollars, the dollars, the thing up in massachusetts, that hole in the ground.

it went out with cost over run at 22,000,000,000. the money was siphoned off, as siphoned off, is nothing but corruption, kennedy was alive at the time, he directed that federal money and set everybody else pays in guest tax, new mexico to iowa back and forth again. when they opened it up the ceiling fell in because these garbage up there. remember that? in the public, we don't trust the public government anymore. i was drafted during vietnam, as a policeman for 25 years and retired. i could tell you this. we have the most corrupt government and the whole entire world right now, until you straighten it out and fly straight, that's why people don't trust anymore. >> guest: first of all, thank you for your service as a 25 year policeman, sign policeman, then easy job. we appreciate the work you do. i would say don't agree with you. i i don't think our government is corrupt. i think the big gig was a huge

crossover run and it is inexcusable that project cost so much money. i'm proud of the work that we did at dot while i was secretary. we funded a lot a project that kept a close eye on them, make sure they were done correctly. we worked with mayors, governors all over the country who are people that really want to get things done and really innovate in infrastructure. i take your point, that project was a huge cost overrun. >> host: in florida, jim, a republican. >> caller: yes, the previous caller stole my thunder, i was also going to raise the issue of the big dig.

he an illinois politician went to prison for corruption so we have to be careful of what he says, he's a rhino, republicans used to stand for conservative fiscal policy, this is the old concept of just spend and spend our way out of economic problems. we we have an 18 trillion-dollar debt. 18,000,000,000,000, your, your grandchildren's grandchildren could not pay that thing off. >> host: let's get a response. >> guest: while i served in congress for 14 years i'm proud to say that as a member of the transportation committee we pass to six-year bills and fully funded them. during that time speaker gingrich was in the majority, as part of the majority party, we passed three balanced budgets. bill clinton. bill clinton was in the white

house. so the idea that you can't do both is not quite accurate. we did both, we passed major legislation, very legislation, very comprehensive transportation bills, balance the budget at the same time. people in washington can do those things, i think there are people who want to do that. >> host: how was it funded then when you pass those bills? how has it been funded something? spee2 the two bills that we passed during the time that i was in congress were funded primarily by the gas tax. it had been raised in 1993, prior to the time that i came. i was elected in 1994. under elected in 1994. under president clinton's first administration the gas tax was raised 18 cents per gallon. the truth is, during president reagan's administration, between his first and second term they raise the gas tax 5 cents per

gallon and passed a five-year bill. reagan bill. reagan was a conservative fellow, i don't think people would accuse him of being a rhino. he is the need for the resources of andhat's what we need today. we need that kind of vision and leadership to say that the highway trust fund is broke, there's no money there. it has done a good job in helping build an interstate system. in great system in a country which is crumblin >> host: how do you pay for this highway funds when, if you see even more fuel efficiency and cars and less consumption? >> guest: there are number of other things that can come into play. a lot of states have raised their own gas taxes, 14 last year and some very conservative states. a lot of states are doing tolling. i'm from illinois, i, i still have a home in illinois, we have done a lot of tolling around o'hare airport in illinois. in northern virginia, tolling

has come into play in order to build roads. tolling is one way, public, private partnerships which will deliver people from downtown washington out to bella's airport when it is completed. that was a public, private partnership. a partnership. a billion-dollar project that totally funded by the government. so you have public, private partnership, you have tolling, and there are people from around the world that want to invest in infrastructure too. you have have investment bankers that are looking at infrastructure as ways to invest two. we don't say it's all through the gas tax because you have to have other resources to. >> host: okay in michigan, john a democrat. >> caller: good morning. i drove over the road 22 years,

a truck company of never had an accident, never a ticket. >> guest: congratulations. >> caller: the only way to do it is raise the gas tax because we were reporting hub miles on our fuel sheet and what you guys in washington were getting, the truck company was paying you mile maker. so there's stuffing about 22% in their pocket. so the easiest way is to go ahead and raise the fuel tax, most people don't realize, a couple two or 3 cents at the pump and we can cut out worrying about all of this. i'm retired now. >> host: is that tree that two or 3 cents would do the trick? spee2 not really. we need a need a big chunk of money right now. the infrastructure in america is

in really bad shape. there's a list at the dot a list in bad repair that need funding. these are very costly projects as i mentioned. arlington cemetery is in the state of bad repair, it costs a lot of money to fix that bridge alone. we know the interstate system is now 50 years old, and needs to be fixed up. there are roads all over america that need repair. were talking billions of dollars. 10 cents per per gallon, i say 10 cents per gallon and index it. at the gas tax was indexed in 1993 we will be having this problem. index it to the cost of living. gas of living. gas prices are low right now. in some places in the country

there below $3 per gallon. now might be a very good time to raise the gas tax. >> host: okay, do you do you see that happening in this congress? >> guest: i don't. it's very difficult difficult for politicians to raise taxes. they don't want to do it. >> host: san diego, an independent. >> caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. coming from america's finest city, i've have been in the city for 42 years, i own my own business for 25 of those years. i traveled as an outside salesman all those years. i have to tell you, i think san diego has done a terrific job with their roads. maybe there is one exception i would complain complain about and that is the toll road from san diego to chula vista paper by company out of australia. i had one of those easy passes and i use it frequently. i must say that i am probably

one half of 1% of the people that use that row. the the road was so bad and so underused that it had to be taken over by the state. i don't know know how much money we had to pay for that. secondly, i'm going going to ask for a few things and then hang up. if there are 100,000,000 people in the united states that aren't government subsidies of some kind, how is any increase in gas tax going to help those people? i noticed how you kinda brushed off the big gay get as a big mistake. that was an enormous mistake. that set the highway trust fund back years. >> host: will take those two points. if you raise the gas tax what that does to lower income americans were already struggling. they now have to pay more. >> guest: if we raise the gas tax, we have the ability to put

together a comprehensive bill, there are a lot of people in america that use mass transit, buses, light rail, think of the people in washington d.c. that use the metro system. people in chicago views the system. it's true all over america. if you have a good transportation program it is not just the roads and bridges, it is for transit and for people who frankly may be do not want to own an automobile or cannot afford one. but they still need to get to work and get to the dr., get their kids to school and they need mass transit. that that is part of a comprehensive transportation program. you can have that in less you have the resources. we do not have the resources right now. that is why the senate is struggling. they put together a six-year bill but only funded it for three years because the resources are not there. the highway trust fund is broke. we need to replenish it. >> host: what you make of the

senate last night attaching reauthorization of the export import bank onto the highway bill. >> guest: i'm a big supporter of the export import bank. i'm not elected to anything but if i were serving i would certainly be supporting that. it was a commitment that the senate majority leader made to people in the senate who support the export import bank, way to revise it. frankly, the export import bank is lane dormant right now because they ran out of its authorization. so the senate majority leader said there would be a vote on it, obviously there is support for it in the senate. it is a way to get that organization up and running again. >> host: what happens at the end of the week, the house says they're not going to take the six-year bill, the senate says they're going to pass it before the resource. they pass 34 short-term passes.

but they don't come together before the august recess and funding runs out. how does transportation department respond? >> guest: i don't think it will happen. as a former staffer for 17 years i think there is a lot of discussion going on between speaker staff and majority leader staff about putting together an extension similar to what the house pass. i don't know if it will be through the end of year or through the end of fiscal year which would be the end of september. before everybody leaves on thursday there'll be some kind of extension. the house is not going to pass the senate bill, even if the senate passes it today, there's not enough time for that. it is taken the senate almost two weeks to passes bill, it was passed out of the committee several months ago. these things take time. i think there will be an extension. i think that people are probably

on the phone as we speak figuring out how to do it. i think speaker boehner, and majority leader will be on the phone with one another today figuring out what the endgame will be. by thursday there'll be an extension. we will have a transportation. >> host: a five month extension recently but last night they put together a three month extension which they hope the house will take up. >> guest: i think there's some agreement on that. >> host: an independent from florida. >> caller: good morning. i am retired a couple of years now, the telecommunications engineer. you are correct as far as how everything is falling apart with infrastructure. however, what i can say about that is the department of

transportation has basically failed because if they had not filled then all of these things would not be in such disarray, in such horrible condition. we would not be out of money if there is a choo-choo trust fund that was not rated in order to buy loans. we know the american taxpayer pretty much get screw. i don't think anybody should get any money until they fix the departments and fire everybody, because when i worked if you didn't take care business you didn't have a job. it should be that way with the government and every one else. >> host: okay, do you want to respond to that. >> guest: when i served in congress we pass to six-year bills. there were big bills, they were bis that put people to work,

kept our infrastructure in a state of good repair. i think that is what we need to get back to. >> host: using text, you are are part of the obama administration, please explain where all this endless money promising to fix the roads went? >> guest: we got 48,000,000 dollars at the dot as part of the 870 billion. within two years we spent 26 billion on roads and bridges, a billion to implement high-speed rail, 8 billion for transit, 1,000,000,000 to to fund projects in cities, 1 billion for airports. that money was spent in two years. >> host: not enough? >> guest: of course not. i i think we should bed 480 billion, but it ended up being 48 billion. no earmarks, no sweetheart deals. we did it the right way.

we put a lot of people to work for two years and funded a lot of projects. >> host: another transportation story today, more fees propel airlines. profit margins for add-ons could be as high as 80%. this is how airlines are making their prophet, by charging for these add-ons. >> guest: i think it's more than that, i think the energy cost that comes in that has been with the airline industry. one of the biggest costs is the jet fuel they buy. as these costs have come down, it has been a tremendous boom for the airline industry. though obviously, charging for pillow, meal, better seat is a great source of irritation. these are private companies, they have a bottom line, they

have a board of directors to report to and they figure out ways to make money. the main reason they're doing so well financially is because their energy costs have come down so dramatically. gas prices has fallen. the price of a a barrel of oil has gone down. >> host: susie in california, your next. >> caller: hello. i have a question but first i want to say, shovel ready, shovel ready, ready, shovel ready in 2009, a trillion dollars stimulus, about two years later president obama yukking it up about shovel ready wasn't sociable ready. ready. i'm always on the side of the taxpayer and i wish that every time a politician asked for a tax raise that the whole of

america would say now please stop disrespecting our tax money. do not disrespect the hard-working taxpayers tax money. also this question question is, do you think if a republican president had left with over 1,000,000,000,000 dollars dollars with a have gotten away with that? >> guest: of the 870,000,000,000 dollars which was the economic stimulus bill that congress passed within the first 30 days, we got 48,000,000,000. we. we spent it correctly, we put people to work, we showed that when you invest in infrastructure you invest in the american people and provide jobs. i make no apologies for that, i am am proud of the work that we did. we proved that we could put people to work and jumpstart that segment of the economy.

as i said earlier, even republican presidents like president reagan use gas tax 5 cents a gallon during his time in washington because maybe he was a former governor and he saw the need for infrastructure. he saw the need for the kind of resources that were needed. that's the the kind of leadership we need today. >> host: from north carolina, paul, democrat. >> caller: i would just like to comment on the fact that per capita or we are one of the highest tax states in the union. like a lot of other states, they are always broke. this state, no matter how many taxes they put on us is always broke. they start the lottery a few years later, education system is broke again. they have no money for the highway fund except to help the developers. they build major bridges so that

developers from the north and south can come in here and develop stuff they should not be developing to start with. even on the lakes they do it. they have all the money on the world to bring a box store somewhere but they can't pick the dangerous intersection in the community. they are always broke. we have a bridge on the interstate they have been working on for two and a half years, with stimulus money supposedly. there is nothing more than an advertisement for the realtors to sell the mountains off to people who live above and run it for the locals. what it is, their lobbyists their lobbyists pushing down in raleigh to push funds which is destroying our states because we don't have any jobs anymore because they ship them to china.

>> guest: obviously you have a disagreement with the way your tax dollars are being spent. that that is why we have elections. to elect people that are responsive to the people they serve. >> host: an independent caller in maine, go ahead. >> caller: back when the stimulus thing was going to rebuild bridges and highways, and so on, the republican stood obama's way every inch of the way. this fellow that is on white now wanted to raise taxes another quarter on gas, will gas is cheap right now because of all the fracking and whatnot, people are catching on to that. gas is not going to be cheap forever. that quarter that you're talking about is just going to add to the burden of

the people who have low income jobs, having a hard time making ends meet. you need to stop taxing people. we need to get to congress and the senate together and get rid of half of them, most of them and get some real people in there that are serious about doing something. >> guest: i'm proposing not a quarter, but a a 10-cent per gallon increase. >> host: over the 18 cents so it's 28 cents then. a couple of calls have talked about the safety issues. we had colors before talking about, color from connecticut saying people were losing their lives daily in connecticut on the highway system. what is going on with the safety? >> guest: the current administration has placed a very high value on safety. while we are the dot, we did did too. we work very closely with

organizations promoting bus safety, motorcross buses and certainly truck safety, safety on the roads whether it be we had a whole campaign against distractive driving, texting while driving people. now you have almost 50 states that have passed laws against distractive driving. safety is always always the number one priority for the department of transportation. i believe it is today, i believe the statement the secretary made in the last few days about safety with respect to if it was against the fiat for the jeeps that have gas tanks and chrysler has also talked about that now they are going to buy back their dodge ram trucks.

the largest fine ever leveled against a car company was leveled by secretary fox, all around the idea of safety. nobody's going to take a backseat to safety when it comes to the apartment of transportation. i'm i'm glad secretary fox has stepped up. we did that during our four and half years and i am led to do that today. >> host: what you think about having a finer penalty. >> guest: a think sends a good message to consumers that there is a group in washington, at the department of transportation that takes safety at its highest priority. there someone looking out for consumers. that's what this message is about. [inaudible] he has to be their number one priority. it certainly is with the dot and

i commend secretary fox and his entire team for what they did the last few days. >> host: what you make of the stories the last few days what you make of the future of cars and technology? obviously there are going to have to be smart people to figure out ways to prohibit hackers from hacking into automobile computers. the chips that go into them. >> ..

i know that in this region cars he to be inspected, but in my home state of illinois we don't have that kind of a program, so it's really up to the states to decide whether a car is going to be inspected or a truck and what the fees are and where the money goes. and i suspect the money in most states goes into the state coffers. but it's not true in all 50 states. >> host: wichita falls, texas, greg, good morning to you. an independent. >> caller: good morning to both of you. >> guest: good morning. >> caller: yeah. let me preface what i'm going to say by saying i really don't mind paying for the roads that i use, i really don't mind paying a gas tax. the money's got to come from

somewhere, you know, why not the people who are using it? my rub, and there was a guest last week that talked about this, and there was a lot of calls on this issue, is that a good part of the road tax or fuel tax doesn't even go for the roads. it goes for public transportation and light rail. i mean, why aren't these people paying for this? i just got done driving through colorado, and i got soaked for maybe a 30-minute toll road ride north of denver for $20 coming and going. and frankly, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way when i started hearing about, well, they want to raise the fuel tax. we've got uber, we've got all these companies that want to go into these inner cities to serve these people, and it's like, no, we're going to spend money on light rail or on public transportation. and, like, why are we fighting to keep these people out and sinking money in from the federal -- it just doesn't make any sense. you know, you have people in idaho that are paying for very

disburse road system that are paying for a public transportation system in big cities, and it's like why isn't that at least done at the state level if nothing else? >> host: secretary lahood. >> guest: first of all, i know people don't like to pay tolls. we heard about that a lot while we were at the department of transportation. and, but the lion's share of the money that is spent on transportation is spent on roads and bridges. and, you know, if you look at the stimulus money that we were talking about earlier, $48 billion came to d.o.t., $28 billion of that went to roads and bridges. and if you look at the lion's share of the taxes that are paid, it goes to roads and bridges. now, does some money goes to transit? yeah, some money goes to transit. there are people that need to, in washington, d.c. if we didn't have a metro system, think of all the cars that would be on the road. we wouldn't be able to fit them all on the road. the same is true in and chicago

and other cities -- in new york and chicago and other cities. some percent does go for buseses, for transit, for light rail, in some instances for streetcars, because this is what people in the community have said it's what they want to use for their transportation. either because they don't want to own a car or because they can't afford to. >> host: john, independent, in florida. >> caller: good morning, mr. lahood. >> guest: good morning. >> caller: my question has to do with energy, it's tied to transportation. a lot of people are saying gas is cheap, i don't believe it's cheap. i'm 50 years old and lived through the last energy crisis. we've got more oil in this country right now in storage than we ever have, okay? so that being the case, why are we refining it and sending it elsewhere? >> guest: well, because oil companies want to make money.

>> caller: but why tax the american taxpayer instead of putting taxes on what we're exporting? >> guest: well, there are proposals to do that. you know, that's a good point. i mean, there are members of congress that have introduced bills to tax a barrel of oil and also to tax oil that's exported. these bills haven't passed, but, you know, it's an alternative to raising the gas tax. >> host: another alternative that's being floated is work by ways and means chairman paul ryan, republican of wisconsin, talking with the white house about a one-time tax on multi-nationals to help fund a longer-term highway funding bill. what do you make of that effort? >> guest: i think it's probably not going to be very popular with the business community. these people, these companies that are parking their money in other countries, you know, i think they're going to be reluctant to want to use that money for infrastructure. i know the president's talked about that, i know that chairman

ryan's talked about it, other people in the senate have talked about it. i don't see it getting much traction though in the business community. >> host: what do you make of the effort to tie tax reform to reforming the highway fund? >> guest: well, i think it's probably a good place to do it. i mean, in order to raise the gas tax it has to go through the ways and means committee in the house and the finance committee in the senate. i just testified before the finance committee. chairman hatch was good enough to invite t me, and i just, again, i made no, you know, i promoted the idea of raising the gas tax. and i know that there are people, most people probably across the way here at the capitol that aren't too gung ho about that, but i do think it's the major solution to our funding problems. >> host: we'll go to phil in baltimore, democrat. your governor just lowered the tolls for bridges, for the bay bridge from $6 to $4.

>> caller: well, i didn't vote for him. [laughter] first of all, i want to thank the secretary for his service. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i really appreciate him crossing the aisle to work with president obama. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: that was probably not an easy thing to do, and it was much appreciated. i want to come back to the issue of safety. i don't think a lot of people realize how many fatalities there are each year in the u.s., somewhere around 30,000 from traffic fatalities. which is somewhere around three times the level of gunshot homicides. and we hear so much in the news, appropriately so, about guns but so little about cars. what do you think is preventing the media from playing a more active role in making people aware of the issue and promoting more safety? >> guest: well, you know, truly not up to the media to do that, it's up to people at department of transportation, people in transportation, safety

advocates. there's some very strong safety advocates in, not only in washington, but around the country. you know, we wouldn't be in the position we're in with taking a lot of drunk drivers off the road if it hadn't been for mothers against drunk driving. they, over a long period of time, persuaded congress to set a standard that now is, you know, a national standard. so, you know, i don't fault the media. what i -- we need to just be vigilant about this, and we woke up every day at d.o.t. thinking about safety. we just considered that to be our top priority. and so we're going to, obviously, continue to applaud secretary fox and the entire team at d.o.t. for what they're doing to continue to promote safety. it just has to be the department's number one priority. but, look, i agree with you. 30 plus thousand lives lost on

our highways is way, way, way too much. and we just all need to, you know, work on it. >> host: insurance institute for highway safety put together some numbers -- >> guest: sure. >> host: -- the most recent one from 201 on this issue -- 2013 on this issue of fatal crash totals, over 30,000 fatal motor vehicle crashes in which over 32,000 deaths occurred. so the number -- >> guest: yeah. that's just way too high. any death is one too many. >> host: danny's next in silver springs, maryland, republican. danny, welcome to the conversation. >> caller: thank you. good morning, everybody. hey, i love hogan. republicans lower taxes, democrats raise taxes. hey, my thing is it takes too long to build a road around here. >> guest: well, it takes a long time to build a road because there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of red tape involved, and while we were at

d.o.t., we tried to reduce it from ten years of red tape down to about four years. it's not easy. there's a lot of rules and regulations, and -- but i don't disagree with you, it does take a long time. >> host: what goes into it? >> guest: a lot of standards, a lot of environmental concerns that have to be met and a lot of studies that have to be done, making sure that all of the citizens understand that there might be a road running through their, by their front yard and, you know, where it's going to go and what environmental impact it's going to have, and these things take a lot of time and a lot of money. >> host: so tie that to the debate up on capitol hill, these short-term patches, they're looking at number 34 this week. >> guest: right. >> host: how do you plan ahead? >> guest: not a way to build roads. it's just not. i mean, we need to do better. we need to, we need to have a six-year, very comprehensive, fully funded transportation bill to get our country moving again.

>> host: wayne in georgia, democrat. hi, wayne. >> caller: hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my call. mr. lahood, if you could please address, first of all, if you have already spoken about it, please forgive me for bringing it back up. but in february 2015 president obama made a proposal to actually do a six-year revenue fix for the transportation infrastructure by taxing the businesses that take their business overseas. >> guest: right. >> caller: could you speak to that for me, please? >> guest: sure. that's called repatriated funds, and the president and some people in congress have proposed the idea of using that money to pay more infrastructure. i think -- for infrastructure. i think the business community is going to resist that because they're parking that money offshore, probably earning some pretty good interest on it, and they want to use that money maybe for r&d or their own

purposes. i think it's going to be difficult for them to come to grips with the idea it's going to be used for infrastructure. but we'll see. i mean, it's a debate that's going on here. it's not only just been proposed by president obama, but by some people on capitol hill too, and maybe it'll have legs. >> host: before we let you go, your son's looking at having a turn in congress. >> guest: right. >> host: how has to run against democrat in a special election coming up. what is it looking like? >> guest: it's a republican district, and i'm sure darren will do very well on september 10th. he's put together a very good organization. it's a very grass roots organization. he's working very hard, not taking anything for granted. and governor romney carried the district with 62% of the vote, so it's looking very good, and i'm very proud of darren for the way that he's conducted himself, the campaign that he has run,

and he's his own person, and he'll be a good member of congress and gives me an opportunity to continue to live vicariously through him and still be involved in politics. >> host: any advice? have you given him advice on how to run, win a campaign? >> guest: the advice i gave him was, please, never forget where you came from. if you remember where you came from, then people will respect you for that. >> host: all right. well, secretary lahood, we appreciate your time. >> guest: thank you. always good. >> host: that conversation continues on highway funding, obviously, in washington. >> you're watching booktv. it's for serious readers -- television for serious readers. watch any program you see here online at booktv.org. >> being pressed to go on the road, because once panic sets in, it's unstoppable. and hannah is panicked. he's now, by late july and early

august beginning to believe, by god, we've got a race on our hands, and he keeps pressuring mckinley, you've got to go on the road. mckinley says to him, look, i can't cothat. if i go on the road -- he's going to get on a trapeze, and, you know, i'm going to have to mimic him. i've been on the road before, i know what it's like. hanna sends charles g. dawes to go talk to him, sends a friend, myron t. herric, to talk to him, and finally mckinley says i've got to think before i speak. so what happens is people are already showing up in groups, so somebody -- and i think that somebody is mckinley -- says let's make that my routine. only let's get it organized so people don't show up on my doorstep and say, hey, we're here to see you. let's invite the people we want to have come, so it's not just the people who volunteer to come, but let's have them come. if it's a critical voter group from a critical state, let's know that they're coming, have

them send us what they want to say in advance so we can edit it, figure out what i'm going to say, we'll have a manifestation, we'll take them under an arch to the courthouse square, we'll have them form up there. we'll have bands and all kinds of entertainment to keep them occupied, and when the moment comes when i finish meeting with the last delegation, we know how long it takes them to march up market street. we'll have an organized program, they can say what they want to say, they'll give me a gift, i will thank them for coming, if i've got time, i'll shake everybody's hand, and, bang, we go on to next group. and this becomes campaigning on an industrial scale. 750,000 people come to canton, ohio. on some weekends 100,000 people come in groups of various sizes. they show up to the station, they go to the town square, the women go shopping, the men pick up some cigars. the merchants do well in town. sometimes the community feeds them at the tabernacle.

they have appropriate drinks for the men. if you're wet, they've got a beer and a sandwich, and if you're dry, you get a cup of coffee and a sandwich. and it's industrial in scale, but it is unified, organized and deliberate. he knows exactly what he wants to say. the message is tailored to that individual audience and repeated back in their hometown papers and repeated by them at home. i saw the major, and here's what he said to me. >> which of these two men do you think addressed more people? >> well, i'm convinced that bryant sees more people. the estimate is 2-3 million people attended his rallies. he would go everywhere, and there were people. but he attracted spectators, and mckinley attracted supporters. >> targeted. >> it was targeted. and what he did was he drew key -- he, in essence, created an army. and his campaign was based around this principle, we want to create an army of people who will serve as our surrogates and advocates. and, i mean, they organized everybody. they had groups for blacks and

germans, they had women because some women could vote in western states. one of -- they organized traveling salesmen, the commercial club. pause these were people who -- because these were people who traveled widely, spoke well and knew lots of people. there was a big craze sweeping the country. lots of young men were falling into it, and it was great excitement, so they decided to tap it: bicycles. >> you can watch this and other programs online at back tv.orgful -- booktv.org. >> stanley greenberg has been a polling adviser to presidents and prime ministers, he's also the author of "america ascendant." what is america's biggest problem right now? >> well, the biggest problem is that the main problems aren't being addressed. you have a huge revolutions that are remaking the country from technology to breakdown of the family, new jenner roles, great -- gender roles, really a ch