the long walk. one of the great tragedies they went through as a people. we ought to remember. it is a little bit different than the traditions in oklahoma. cherokee with the trail of tears. the long walk, if you know the history, and of course, mostly everybody in the room does, it is a two-way walk. a long walk away. it was a long walk back home, too. we're engaged as native americans in a very long walk. the longest walk in american history. and much of it as a walk away from who we were. sometimes forced relocation. sometimes forced assimilation. sometimes forced efforts to literally eliminate tribal governments all together. now, i think we're at the turning point and long walk back. the long walk back home.

the long walk back to retaining our sovereignty and retaining our identity and retaining and celebrating the unique contribution that each and every indian nation makes to this wonderful nation that we all call the united states of america. thank you very much. [ applause ] . >> from the newseum here in washington d.c., tom cole of oklahoma who is a member of the chickasaw nation. he delivered his response to the state of indian address that took place earlier today. you can watch it on our web site at c-span.org. we will continue the discussion tomorrow morning beginning with your calls and reaction beginning with the debate that is airing on cnn. david sterns, the president and ceo of the mortgage bankers association.

that's all tomorrow morning on the "washington journal." thanks for joining us on this thursday. i hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. today's "washington journal" was live from the washington auto show. over the next three hours, we will show you the interviews with the executives from the auto industry. in a few moments, ford motor company vice president susan cischke. then coda auto ceo phil murtaugh. then david zuchowski. every weekend, american

history tv. 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. get our schedules and see past programs at our web sites. join in the conversations on the social media sites. susan cischke, who is a group vice president for ford motor company. miss cischke, thanks for being with us here on "the washington journal." how would you describe the fiscal health of ford right now? >> we will have the earnings out tomorrow. in general, i think we are doing quite well. we are very proud of the accomplishments we had and we have gotten an exciting line up showing many of the new cars here today at the washington d.c. auto show. >> which car are you highlighting the most out there? >> we are talking about our whole fuel efficient line up. one of the key messages we have is to show people they really have the power of choice at ford. they can choose a lot of

different vehicles with different power trains and be able to give fuel economy and leadership in every segment we sell in. >> susan cischke, you have been with ford for a while? >> that's right. 36 years. >> how long have you been with ford? >> i have been with ford for 11 years. i have been in the industry for 36 years. i am retiring next week. it is an exciting career. >> as a group vice president, what are you responsible for? >> i have the responsibility for our sustainability, strategy and environmental strategy and our performance in the field and what we are doing and certainly helping to shape regulations worldwide when it comes to giving the consumer really what they need from the safety and environmental side. >> a lot of public policy in your world? >> that's correct. >> we started off our show this morning by asking our viewers, by the way, we will put our

lines up on the screen. if you want to dial in and talk with susan cischke, group vice president for ford, the numbers are up on the screen. you can contact us electronically as well. miss cischke, we want to know about the u.s. government's role in the auto industry. is the government too involved or not involved enough? what is the cost to have the government involved in the industry? >> certainly regulations play an important aspect in the auto industry. we've had increased regulations over a number of years. that is an important aspect of that. affordability is very important. we are trying to balance the regulations against other consumer needs. we are very proud of the fact that we didn't have to take the government taxpayer assistance that ford was able to go through our recovery on our own. we know how important it is to

have a strong auto industry because it does mean jobs for the u.s. >> how many people in michigan are employed by ford, do you know? >> i'm not quite sure of the michigan total. i know we have over 150,000 employees. i probably should know that number better, but i don't. we have plants around the u.s. and around the world and in michigan. a pretty active auto production. >> are the cafe standards in place reasonable? >> they are challenging. we knew it would be a stretch. that is something we think is the right thing because that's what our customers are seeking. we asked people what they are looking for in a car. fuel economy is high on their list. >> 202 is the area code. we're going to begin with a call

from los angeles. you are on the line. go ahead with your comments. >> i own a 2002 jag. which at that time, it became ford. what i want to know and i'm asking -- good morning by the way. are any of the parts interchangeable with the ford parts? >> no, we are a separate company. ford motor company owned jaguar during that time frame. we sold the other auto brands. so we could focus on ford motor company. a lot of the parts in the early years -- you have to go to a jaguar dealer in order to get the correct parts for your car. they are not interchangeable. >> susan cischke, how many women are involved in the auto industry? you think of the auto industry, you don't think about women. >> we have a growing number of women in all aspects of our

product design and marketing and every aspect at ford. what we know is women influence over 80% of auto sales. whether they are the actual buyer or they influence somebody who is buying. we think it is important to have women at all levels of the company. i'm on the leadership team for ford and report directly to alan mullaly and bill ford. i have had a voice in the strategy. i feel it is important to have women influence in the trucks and cars we make. >> how did you get started in your career? >> i'm an engineer. i worked up through the ranks in engineers. i got into the leadership aspect of it. i think just having the broad knowledge as far as the technical knowledge has been really important. i had a chance to run proving grounds and run scientific labs

and got into the regulatory side of the business. i had an interesting time to see all aspects of the company. i think what we find, especially at ford with our leadership and how we work, it's really one ford, one team. we all participate in a lot of the different decisions. for me, it has been exciting. >> what do you currently drive? >> right now, i have a ford explorer. i have a ford edge. >> from wisconsin. chris on the independent line. you are on with susan cischke. go ahead, chris. >> good morning. i have a question about some years ago ford bought volvo. prior to them buying volvo, i had seen a program on pbs that volvo had developed a 100-mile a gallon car that you could stop at a grocery store and throw vegetable oil in it and it would burn just about anything. they said they weren't building it because of the cheap gas

prices. of course, we all know that gas went up. since ford bought volvo and i assume they bought their technology with it, i was wondering why you still have not come out with a 100-mile a gallon car. it was not a tiny thing. it was a mid to full-sized sedan. i'm still waiting for that 100-mile a gallon car. >> good morning. i think everybody is interested in fuel economy. certainly we are looking at all aspects of it. with our eco boost technology at ford, we will offer on our new ford fusion a vehicle that gets 37 miles per gallon. with the hybrid, we get 47. with the fusion energy, we can get over 100 miles per gallon n. regards to your question regarding the volvo engine. it would be great if we could have vehicles over 100 miles per

gallon. you were referring to a diesel engine. there is a lot of working done on bio-fuels and that is one. from a production standpoint, believe me, it is a competitive industry. if they could meet all of the emissions requirements, they would be in production. what we are finding is it is very challenging for us to get to that number with the conventional technology. with our hybrid and plug-in hybrid, we are achieving over 100 miles per gallon. >> susan cischke, the tweet. does ford ever take bailout money? >> we did not take the government assistance when it came to the bailout money. we have taken the d.o.e. loans when we knew the fuel economy standards were challenging and we wanted to invest in the

technology. ford was one of the few companies approved as well as tesla and nissan. we have gotten that money in order to invest in changing our plants over. as far as bailout money, no, ford was able to do it on their own. >> next call for susan cischke comes from new york city. lawrence, you are on the air. >> good morning, susan. i want to say ford makes a great car. i just bought a brand new ford escape. i love it. i had a 2011tarus. we had to trade it in because we have a lot of snow where we live. my next one is the mustang. hopefully when we get a new president, i can afford to buy one. i want to listening. >> i just want to tell you that ford, keep on making them great cars. you know, i used to buy gm, but

ever since they took the governme nt to ford. i love my ford. i just want to thank you. >> thank you very much. that was terrific. >> now, susan cischke, we are looking at some of the cars you have on display at the auto show. such as the ford fusion. i think the focus. we looked at a focus. we saw the mustangs earlier. we had a caller earlier talk about the percentage that is made in the united states and the percentage made internationally. are most cars just international production anymore? >> well, we have global vehicles that may be designed in one part of the world, but built in many other places in the world. we have quite a bit of production in the united states. what's important and on the sticker does show the content of

the vehicles by cost in terms of the percent built in the united states. we follow that. that is something that is important and we are very proud of the production that we have in the u.s. >> today is policy day at the auto show. a lot of lawmakers will be out there. what is your message to them when you meet with them? >> for us, it is all about fuel economy and the power of choice. the fact that ford is a fuel economy leader. we will have 11 vehicles that will offer our eco boost engine. that is our fuel efficient. it has been down sized for fuel economy, but boosted for power. we offer the consumers good fuel economy with no compromise in power or performance. we will talk about jobs. we will be adding 12,000 new jobs in the u.s. by 2015. there is a multiplier effect. every new job we add is nine more jobs. that is hundreds of thousands of jobs that are affected in the united states. we are really proud of the work

that we're bringing in from other countries back in the united states. >> next call for susan cischke. group president of ford. comes from massachusetts. vincent you are on the "washington journal." >> listen, the ford. people have to understand the automobiles were first invented in this country. okay? >> that's right. >> i believe that all vehicles -- if you are going to buy from other countries, they should be built in this country. instead of them buying from that country. if you are going to buy them, let them stay here. this is where it belongs. i have a mercury villager. 2002. i love it. it is beautiful. that was built by ford. >> that's right. >> they stopped building them.

>> all right. vincent. >> basically we have discontinued the mercury brand. we have a fine line up of vehicles. thank you for your confidence of building in the u.s. we think it is very important. the auto companies and auto jobs are important to any economy. it is important we have a strong auto industry in the united states. >> why did mercury go away? >> we wanted to focus on the ford brand. that is one of the reasons we difficult vested from a lot of our brands. we wanted to be able to focus on ford and also our lincoln brand with lincoln being our luxury brand and ford being our main brand. it helped us focus our resources when it came to freshening our

resources. >> is lincoln going to survive? >> lincoln will be very exciting. we are adding a lot of new vehicles. the new mkz concept car shown at the detroit auto show won best concept car in the show. we are very proud of what we are doing for lincoln. you really see it as a luxury brand and how we can reach out to the customer and make that personal connection. that is something luxury buyers are excited for. >> elmira from new york. go ahead. >> i have a question for the ma'am. i don't think any car is 100% american made or foreign. i do agree we shouldn't be bailing out these companies. if they cannot build a quality car for the consumer, we should not buy it. if my business fails because i

don't provide the proper service, then i go out of business. >> susan cischke. >> i think overall what people need to understand is what we are going through. a few years ago when the banking industry was going through crisis and the consumers lost their ability to get loans. our business went down by 50% in a very short-term. what happens in all that is the supply base is affected. ford did not need to take the bailout money, but it was important that the government could come and step in and stabilize things because if all of the suppliers could go out of business, it would bring down chrysler and gm, but ford and toyota and everybody that uses the same supply base. it would have been chaos for the u.s. it would have put us into very difficult economic times. i agree with you. the free market is what is really important and companies should be strong enough to survive. that was very unusual. 50% of the market would go away

so quickly. gas prices that hit over $4 a gallon. some very important steps had to be taken to stabilize the whole u.s. economy. that being said, we are a strong company. we have done the tough job of taking out excess capacity. we offer the vehicles people want to buy. i'm very confident about ford and the products we have to offer. i think we are very competitive and we are able to compete with the best of the industry. >> while we are talking about susan cischke, we are showing you around the auto show. what is the benefit of an auto show like this to your company? >> there are two benefits. one is before the show where we have a chance to show the media and show the influencemakers or the people that want to come and hear our message today. we will be talking about fuel economy and jobs. then for the consumers being

able to come in and see all of the products all in one place and compare what we have and really get to see it. kick the tires and see the product and get the feel of all we have to offer. for ford, we have an incredible line up. we are excited about our all new fusion. it is an exciting design. it won best in show for the detroit auto show. we are excited about our new products. >> is that the one that was the aston martin design? >> you can see it has a ford look to me. it looks like our other ford products with the rake-ish grill and fast looking and european looking. a nice design. >> it was the official car at the consumer electronics show in las vegas recently. one of the focus was telematics

and use of electronic communications devices in cars. is that an area you are focusing on? >> ford has been the lead vehicle at the consumer electronics show. alan mullaly has been out there delivering the keynote address. we are excited about the sync technology with microsoft. we are offering voice-activated controls for the car. we think people want to be connected to the vehicle and be able to have access to everything when they are not in their car. we do that in a very safe way so people can keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. we are very proud of the telematics in the car. you will see this in the future as we move to more vehicle-to-vehicle communication and more vehicle-to-infrastructure

communication. >> we are in west virginia. neal, you are on with susan cischke of ford. >> susan, good morning. >> good morning. >> i bought a new ford in 2003. a ford ranger pickup truck. i also own a 2007 ford edge. the pickup truck, the frame on it rusted away on me. i took it and got it welded. i had nothing but problems ever since i did that just recently. i would like to know why when i called the ford motor company they told me they were sorry that happened, but there is nothing you can do. you talk about your american cars and everything. i understood that toyota, when they had any problem with their trucks, i don't know about the cars, but they fixed them. ford told me, the lady told me

we're sorry. there isot >> susan cischke. >> well, i am sorry that happened to you. i'm not that familiar about any particular problem that we had on the ranger. i can do some checking into that and think if you call back to our customer center that maybe we can give you some updated information on that. >> the ranger is going away? >> it is going away in the u.s. we have a new ranger that is the orld widen try in a lot of other markets. in markets. we have a range of f-150s to handle every aspect of the truck business. >> dennis lane tweets in to you. how many subsidies does ford receive from the state and local governments for their assembly plants? >> i don't have a number. we work with all of the states when we try to bring jobs into a

particular state. we get subsidies from the cities whether it is for education of our workers or a number of different things to aid that. it is a very competitive business. we have a lot of choices of where we put our plants. a lot of times, we'll go where we have a good working relationship with the city or the state. >> is that standard business practice anymore to work with states and local governments? >> certainly it is for everybody. it is a very competitive business. we think jobs are a key part of that. we want to make sure that we have, like you said, a good relationship with the city and states that we're working in. >> suke tweets in to you. what percent does ford invest in research and development of green technology and safety? wilford make hybrid or electric trucks soon? >> we invest in a significant amount of research.

as far as an exact figure, i cannot tell you how much we put in from a safety and environmental standpoint. the vast majority of the dollars we spend in research and development is based on fuel economy and safety. those are important aspects to the company. we will continue to look at hybrid technology. we announced a joint venture working with an agreement to work with toyota to understand how we would bring hybrid technology to trucks which is more challenging. that is the future and that is the next opportunity we have. as you know, we have five electronic products that we are offering just this year on the car side of the business. we have the fusion hybrid, fusion energy, which is a plug-in hybrid and a dedicated hybrid. the cmax platform. that is the cmax hybrid and cmax energy. we have quite a bit of work done on the electronic platforms.

we will continue to look for ways to improve fuel economy with the new technology, but also working on our gasoline eco boost engines. >> i have been told that the joint venture with toyota is because alan mullaly accidentally ran into the president of toyota. >> we have a good working relationship with toyota. we constantly work with other people looking for partnership opportunities. i'm not sure what an accidental run in is. i think everything in this business has purpose. i think we have a lot of history on hybrids from the ford motor company side. toyota does too. we are able to learn from each other. it would help in a lot of ways. one is trying to progress the supply base and also get volumes up so we can get costs down. then just how we are going to use the technology in the future. what we are going to do from a

communications standpoint. there is collaboration on that as well. we are always looking for ways to advance the technology and do it in such a way to get most from our investment. sometimes that means partnership. this is a partnership. >> martha in indianapolis. thanks for holding on. you are with susan cischke. >> yes. i wanted to make a comment. thank you. i enjoy your tv program. i have a ford f-150. it is a 1992. wow. i drive it and it drives smooth. all i have to do is take good care of it. i do have a 2012 sitting in the driveway. a chevy. that is my daughter's car. i had a ford f-150, 2007. right now, i drive that 1992. i bought it brand new. it is still running very good.

i get into it and i do my own wires and i do my own spark plugs. it just keeps on running. it keeps on going. i said that i'll drive that car until it stops and i'll buy another f-150. it just won't stop. >> that's great. glad to hear that you have gotten a lot of use ougt of tha. it sounds like a great vehicle for you. >> next call is from hastings, michigan. gordon. >> good morning, susan. >> good morning. >> congratulations on your retirement. you will love it. i do. >> thank you. >> the first 25 years of my career, i worked at a company called ew bliss. we made punch presses. you may have heard them. i wanted to ask you. i have my only hobby i that i can afford now that i'm retired is fishing. i have a dakota truck. a v 6. just the right size for pulling

my boat around. a lot of the trucks are too small. i don't get that good mileage. couldn't they make a small engine truck with different gearing that would get you the mileage in them? >> well, we have for the f-150, we have eco boost engine which for the first time we have seen a big shift from people gos to . it has the power that you need from the v 8, but the fuel economy of a v 6. we are seeing over 50% of our new truck buyers buying these small smaller engines. maybe it is a good time to look at getting a new truck. a new f-150 with eco boost. you will be able get the better fuel mileage. >> susan cischke, if somebody gets in a ford vehicle, can you point to somethingat