quote i read you from the guy who e-mailed me, one of the things the american people figured out way before most people in washington, d.c. figured it out, the american people figured out that if you write a thousand-page bill, that you cannot say with certainty how it is going to play out in the lives of ordinary people. that is why, according to the "wall street journal," according to the "washington post" and "the new york times," of all places, a significant number of private employers are going to drop their plans altogether, or are going to go to a plan that is stingier and has higher premiums for people. remember four years ago when democrats said over and over, this is going to help the 15% who don't have insurance and the 85 who got it, remember when they said, the 85 who got it, nothing will change for crow. now, someone whispered in

president obama's here and told him, that's not really right, so he changed it to, nothing will change for you because of this plan. whatever that meant. the reality is, payoff this plan, because of the exchanges it sets up, because of the way those exchanges are administered, it will be easier for the average company that's trying to get by on a dire company to get rid of its health insurance for people. think about that. how did you pass a plan that we're told is the most revolutionary thing for poor and sick people since 1965, and one of the big incentives in the plan is for companies to walk away from providing health insurance. second point, on the mandate, this is a bipartisan statement, because both sides, frankly, missed this issue, in a very important sense. neither democrats nor republicans spent nearly a enough time talking about the constitutionality of what was going on. we were arguing about money, because money's important. we were arguing about structure and size, because that's

important. but very few folks in our ranks now give some of our colleagues credit. but very few folks in the congress were saying, we need to step back and ask first principles, do we even have the authority to do it? there's a with wonderful lady running for congress in utah named mia love who's going to make history out there if she wins. when people ask her, what's your philosophy of government? she says, three things. first of all, is it sustainable? second of saw, can we afford it? and third of all, is it in my within my jurisdiction to do it. we need mia love here so i can give her that shout-out, because not many in congress think about that. even if it's sustainable, even if you can afford it, which you can't in obama care, you have to ask the basic question, do we have the authority to do it? and if government can say to you, you have to buy health insurance, regardless of your family situation, regardless of what you choose, there is nothing in the consumer market

the government cannot compel. >> do you have a question? >> yeah. >> let's take one more. go ahead. >> congressman jordan, you talked about a lot about the loan guarantee programs. i'm interested in this, because i'm an energy policy analyst here at heritage foundation, and you know, you have republicans supporting these programs because if they benefit from these programs by having a company come and build their plant in their district, they're going to support it, they're going to pretend this money fell from the sky and created jobs in their district. so while the scandal and everything is interesting, how do we get to both republicans and democrats that this policy is misguided and whether or not the prom is successful, that it's a waste of taxpayer money? >> that's the point. we should have never started down this road. but, unfortunately, it's not just the energy program. it was t.a.r.p., it was auto bailouts, and it was -- and on and on. never start down this road. and the simple point is, what he just said, we don't have the

money. you can't do it. it's not only -- it's not sustainable. it's not productive. capital -- it actually hurts other green energy companies, because they can't get private capital, because it's almost like you've got to have this stamp of approval from the government to get private dollars, just bad across the board. you've got to stop it. we're trying to highlight all that. >> congressman jordan, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. [ applause ] . >> jenny is going to offer a few comments in just a moment. but i wanted to make sure that we played for you a new video on the energy front. nick loris with, who asked that last question, traveled with johnny russell to north dakota to interview some folks to see the economic boom that they're experiencing. so if we could cue that up and, john, did you want to say

anything? >> just real quick, i think this video speaks for itself. it really talks to the hope that exists when the government isn't standing in the way of private markets and hard work and individuals. so without further ado, we'll let you guys watch this and please share it with your networks and tweet @ier energy. ♪ >> where else in the country do you have 1% unemployment? where else in the country can you find a good-paying job? you have to work hard. they're not easy jobs. a lot of hours. if you get caught up on paying off debts and starting over in life -- >> we didn't have to go into

bankruptcy. this is america's way. you can put your boots on and provide and there are a lot of people doing just that. >> i'm from newport beach, california, and came up here with my daughter to chattanoouyo open a restaurant. we saw the opportunity to come up here and make something of it. that really back in california, the opportunity wouldn't have been such. >> in the '90s, people didn't come back. you graduate high school and you just want to get out of here as fast as you can, because there was no opportunity for many more locals moving back to the area, and because the opportunities are here. >> many people have moved here in recent years, a lot of construction going on. when you build home for four people, six people come. >> i was listening to the radio and they said, the baseball game, maybe like in the first inning, going to the second inning, as far as this goes.

>> because of the recent, i think it's all technology. you know, they've always known it's there, they've just never been able to capture the oil from the formation. >> i live in north dakota, actually live in a farm northeast of town and i've been there for 22 years. some people refer to this balken as an oreo cookie. you have these layers of shale sourcing, that's the oil source. and when you look at that rock, it's hard. it's dense. it's tight. but by drilling two miles sideways, that's the horizontal component, and then fracking this rock, which just means cracking it, you then draw the oil out of the entire system. >> the area that we worry the most about would be the federal government and regulations particularly the environmental protection agency. we're concerned that the federal government would look at this and say, you know, i'm really not sure.

let's put a moratorium, that would be devastating. >> from the science standpoint, i know that we're very safe. different people have asked me, am i an environmentalist? my answer is, yes, absolutely i am. i'm a farmer. i want good, safe drinking water here. i think that the country can learn by what north dakota has done. >> that's what i would tell congress. you guys immediate to come and see this. come and talk to the people, see what kind of people are here. see what made this country as great as it is. it's hard working, you know, blue-collar people. not to say that we don't need politicians, but they're not what made this country great. they don't. it's people on the ground who made this country great. and north dakota's full of them. >> so we hope that communicates both the process of fracking, but also the great things that are happening there. and as johnny said, please, share it. it's on the foundry, we've been tweeting about it today. it's been great to work with

irer on that project. now the cofounder of tea party patriots, someone who's been involved and active in the tea party movement right from the start. first inspired by rick santelli and shortly thereafter, organized a rally in georgia, in which she brought together people and really has been a champion for the values that we care about so dearly inherited. i'll let jenny offer her remarks. please welcome her. >> thank you. >> so while many in congress were not asking the constitutionality of obama care, people around the country were. and we have maintained that the law's unconstitutional, especially the individual mandate, and we've seen from polling this year that 80% of americans think the individual mandate is unconstitutional. clearly people in the tea party movement and the people in this room are making a difference and

we're bringing our attention as a nation back to our founding document, to the constitution. and that's what we're doing at tea party patriots. our core values have remained the same since we started. core responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets. we are working this year to make sure that we create a mandate for these core values. so as if what congressman jordan alluded to happens in november and republicans vote for republicans to maintain control of the house and for republicans control the senate and the white house, we don't go back to what happens in the early 2000s. what happened then when republicans were in control of everything was the spending went out of control and we strayed from our constitution. so we want to make sure that we create a mandate, a mandate to balance the budget in five years or less without raising taxes.

a mandate for full repeal of obama care, regardless of what the supreme court does, and a mandate to roll back the regulations so that free markets can work. our country has created tremendous things against tremendous odds, from the birth of our country to defeati ining naziism, putting man on the moon, defeating communism and the cold war. we -- our free markets have created lightbulbs, televisions, the personal computer, the iphone, the ipad, and google. and we can do this. we can balance our budget, we can restore our economy, and we can make sure that the government gets out of the way so that free markets work again. thank you. [ applause ]

>> if anyone has any announcements, feel free to make them now. anyone? yeah? >> i want to yield to the campaign for limited government. >> hi, everybody, i'm ashley. i wanted to invite all of you to happy hour tomorrow, the one by the south capital entrance lot. campaign for limited government. we want to empower young people to hold the government responsible. so right now we're working on three projects. our first is to have the stays to force congress to propose a balanced budget amendment. and going to the gop convention august in tampa. so see you tomorrow. >> anybody else? announcements? okay. well, see you next week.

author peter edelman's latest book, "so rich, so poor," talks about why our economy produces great wealth and great poverty statement. the book also offers suggestions on how to improve the condition of the tens of millions of americans currently living below the poverty line. he'll be speaking about the book this afternoon in washington and we'll have live coverage 5u69 30 eastern on booktv.org. >> this weekend on american history tv, harvard professor john stauffer on the civil war and the movement end to slavery. >> it's one of the fascinating aspects of abolitionism, or the abolitionists is that when lincoln gives his inaugurate l,e self-described abolitionists are still a minority and they're still despooids.

what transforms abolitionists into respected critics of the american seam is ft. sumner. >> also this weekend, more from our series on key political figures who ran for president and lost, but changed political history. "the contenders." and a look at eugene debs, five-time socialist candidate for president, sunday at 7:30 p.m. american history tv, this weekend, on c-span3. at the recent take back the american dream coverage in washington, d.c., representative jan schakowsky said there would be major consequences if progressives don't show up at the polls in november. molly catchold with the rebuild the dream campaign and damon cyr silvers with the afl-cio also spoke. this is just over an hour. >> please welcome the co-director of the campaign for america's future, roger hickey.

>> all right. i'd like to bring on our panel, mr. chi cannery, jan schakowsky, molly catchfold from rebuild the dream, and damon silver from the afl-cio. all right, we're still filling the room, so i want to take a moment to do a shout-out to the generational alliance. and all of the young activists that they have brought here to this conference. the campaign that they have enlivened this conference, brought down this conference, and brought us close to reality on the ground. we have made a commitment to bringing those people here, but we haven't quite paid for it. so i want to make a pledge, a plug for you to text and use the

text information on your tables, text 41444, and in your message, say, "future," just "future," or "futu "future $30." we would not take any money from your card until you confirm what you'd like to give us. let's give it for the generational alliance and all those groups that they represent. >> so you text 41444 and put in "future." it's right there on everybody's table. so brothers and sisters, i'm a little like reverend joel osteen, you've seen him on tv, i like to start with something funny. so have you heard that mitt romney is running for president on a plan to create jobs? the man from bain capital.

let me get something very, very clear. with 12.5 million americans still out of work and the middle class shrinking, the economic policy of conservatives, of the tea party, the chamber of commerce, the republican party, and mitt romney is a new wave of painful and destructive economic austerity. they want to do to america what angela merkel and david cameron are doing to europe. they want to slash public investment in everything from teachers and cops to medicaid to roads and bridges. they're imposing austerity right now on the u.s. by demanding spending cuts and opposing every single plan to create jobs. and after the election, as we heard this morning, whether they win or lose, the right-wingers are setting up yet another blackmail situation by which they will threaten to throw the

u.s. economy off the fiscal cliff, unless they get what they want. what do they want next? they want the extension of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. they want deep cuts in public spending, including medicaid, medicare, social security, education, but not for the military contractors. and on top of all this, they want more tax cuts for the top 1% and for the corporations. now, as we've heard this morning, the conservative train wreck in december, avoiding that conservative train wreck, requires that we work to win a progressive majority in congress this fall. and our first speaker in this plentiery knows how to win. before she won a state in the illinois assembly and then in the u.s. congress, jan schakowsky was one of us. she is an activist winning victories then and now for consumers and seniors and women.

and she kept on being an activist in congress. as a member of the simpson/bowles commission, she wrote up a progressive alternative to that unpopular deficit plan, and she advanced a clear plan for funding public needs through economic growth, not austerity, and through progressive taxation. and working with all of us, she put forward real solutions. now, john schakowsky also knows how to talk with americans about the economic devastation that conservative policies are imposing on working families. we asked her here today to talk about how we can take a common sense program to create jobs, protect social security and medicaid, and to create an economic future for young

people, and how bewe can win a w congressional majority that will prevent conservatives from having the power to throw our country over the cliff in december. so please, give a big, big welcome to our progressive champion, jan schakowsky. [ applause ] >> thank you. thanks so much, roger, and thank you, bob, for organizing once again this fabulous event. i think i've been to everyone of the conferences, the take back america conferences. yesterday my son showed me, i haven't seen jon stewart, the hysterical bit he did about the senate hearing with jamie dimon. if you haven't seen it, you've got to google it. it is just priceless. but one of the things that he

shows is jim demint talking to jamie dimon saying that, you know, i really can't chastise you for losing $2 billion, because here in washington, we lose twice that much every single day. so it comes back to jon stewart and he says, does senator demint really think the spending money is just the same as losing money? and then he says -- he mocks demint and he says, yesterday -- this is supposedly demint -- yesterday i had $4 million withand now all i see is a freaking highway. where's my money?! where's my money?! that, i think, so clearly describes what, first of all, the sense that somehow it isn't the people's money, whatsoever. and this idea that spending is really a way of losing money in

this country. two visions, two paths. that's what the president is talking about. and i want to tell you that i am proud, once again, to be a co-chair of the president's re-election campaign. i have known barack obama, i'm from chicago, for the last 17 years. and he's talking about investment in education, in energy, in innovation, in infrastructure, and in doing fair tax reform. and this is the republican plan for job creation. more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation of everything, particularly like the environmental protection agency, repealing obama care. i say that, i think we should all embrace the term obama care. it's great, obama care. we love obama care. and repealing dodd/frank. the republicans now have gone from just rooting against the economy to outright sabotage of

the economy. if the transportation bill, which has always been a bipartisan bill, is not passed, far from creating jobs, this could cost 1.9 million construction jobs. they're already well into the construction season, they will not pass a bill. john boehner threatened once again a debt ceiling fight not to raise the debt ceiling, which the last time helped plummet our economy even further and put our credit rating, diminished. so they're doing these direct sabotage efforts, much less not passing the american jobs act, or a piece of legislation that i had, that we know would create 2 million jobs, because we would just hire people to do the jobs that we need to do in our country. so here's the truth. that during the obama

administration, 4.3 million jobs have been created. now, i know, we had a bad week, when they were talking about only 69,000 jobs that were created. i just want to point out that that 69,000 jobs still 69,000 more jobs that were created than during eight years of the bush administration. okay? and 27 months of straight job -- okay. so here's the solutions that the republicans offer. austerity. we know how well that worked. roger pointed out how well that worked in europe and there is increasing now talk, not just among republicans, but democrats as well, about the bowles/simpson plan, or as i like to call it, the bs plan. and roger's right. i offered my own alternative,

because i just want to make sure that everyone is clear about what bowles/simpson really did. because i do not think people really understand what's in it. among other things, bowles/simpson raised the retirement age for social security from 67 to 69. it cuts benefits for current social security retirees, because it changes the way the cost of living adjustment, the cola, is calculated. it increases the cost of medicare. it increases cost sharing. shifts about $110 billion to seniors and persons with disability. it would undermine employer-sponsored health insurance as it cuts the tax expenditures, all these tax breaks. one of the things it would do would be to take a close look at how we can take this tax

deduction for employer-provided health care and diminish that. it is two-thirds spending cuts and only one third increases in revenue. many of those increases in a bad way for middle class people and for poor people and so in many ways, if if people really look at bowles/simpson, this is more of the same, an attack on middle-income people and those who aspire to it. so what are the good solutions? let me give you an example of how we win not just elections with, but how we win on our issues. last week the president announced that those dream kids, the dreamers, would no longer be under the threat of dpor station, and they could get work permits. now, i believe that the

president always thought, and i know that the president always thought that the dream act was a good idea and changing our immigration laws was a good idea, but it certainly helped, that day after day, the dreamers were out there organizing and pushing and putting out a tremendous message and mobilizing around this issue. mobilizing really works, we see the results. so progressives cannot be reluctant. we have to lead the way. women, is there any reason why any woman with any sense would vote for a republican? but we need to get the word out. and it's not just this tremendous assault on our health care and our bodies, but every single republican voted against the paycheck fairness act in the senate, so our economic security

is is that risk and that includes social security and medicaid. so organizations like the national committee to protect social security and medicare, the alliance for retired americans, social security works, the older women's act, we have everything in this room to make sure that women and planned parenthood and all those groups that work on our reproductive rights are out will mobilizing. with their help, we can make sure that the women's vote and the gap, the gender gap, rose even more and more. so there's a war on seniors. there's a war on poor people, there's a war on unions. there's a war on our environment. there's a war on our environment that we feed to mobilize to protect. so we need to organize just relentlessly, we need to organize for november 6th, and then we need to be ready for november 7th.

and if anybody is under the illusion that if we don't organize for november 6th, that we're going to be able to make any progress afterwards if we lose these elections for the house, for the senate, or the president, get over it. because we will be, once again, in a total defensive crouch for the next many years. and it could be generations, because remember the supreme court and those appointments. think of 2010. one-half of 18 to 24-year-olds didn't vote in 2010. one-half of eligible hispanics did not vote in 2010. single women who tend to vote democratic did not come out to vote in 2010. and seniors, we lost by 21 points. eight points in 2008 we lost it.