have a substantial role in that. the exact structure remains to be @@@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ r cabescabes [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] the chinese concerns about the strength of the dollar as being a challenge? >> the share of reserves held by all countries, that's gone up. that being said, we have the

responsibility to make sure our economy is appropriately run and my view is the best way to get the strong dollar is to get a strong economy. to get the economy back on the growth path with high productivity, a good amount of savings. that's the best way to get the dollar strong and that's why it's important to get us turned around and get the economy growing again. that's what the federal reserve's poll icy is trying to achieve. >> i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman and chairman bernanke, thank you for your patient ens. i want to begin by saying that very privileged and powerful bankers in our country have hurt our nation deeply. yes, it seems they get special treatment by the federal reserve and other financial regulatory agencies that should be protecting the public's interest. these bankers have earned huge

profits for themselves, but when their inprudent behavior causes bad economic dislocation, it raises our national debt. taxpayers who are hurt, people lose homes, their jobs, companies. bankruptcies go up. but they don't get the same treatment. so i'm interested in the favorites of these bankers as well as the -- other federal regulatory agencies. the presidents of the fed have been expressing what's going on and the power of the new york fed, kansas city fed, st. louis fed, the richmond fed, shockingly, find in agreement with you, an unprecedented

agreement, where you agreed to absorb any losses that would be incured by the fed. the treasury actually signed that agreement. my first question is yes or no, do you support the concept of having the presidents of each bank be confirmed by the senate? >> no. >> thank you. for the record, before this month is out, how much t.a.r.p. money will aig, can you provide for the record before this month is out, how much t.a.r.p. money aig has disbursed since january 1st of this year and who are the recipients? >> i think so, but i can't do that here. >> can you do it within the month? >> i think that information is in the public domain. >> how many of those and which

contracts were paid at 100% on the dollar and which were not? >> i wish there was a legal contract, there was no bankruptcy allowed. we need a system where we can renegotiate those things, but we don't have a system like that. >> well, we are going to want as much detail as you can provide for the record because the fed is really, heavily involved in that. am i correct? >> the fed is involved unwillingly because there is no good system for addressing the failure of an institution. >> how much of our rising debt is being provided by foreign creditors? can you provide that? >> actually less than it has been because we know the current deficit has been declining. that measures the flow of lending for creditors. as the federal deficit has gone up, the private borrowing has gone down. >> thank you. how many no-bid contracts has

the fed now signed with private money management black rock and its subsidiaries? >> several. all that information is to be provided in this monthly report. >> will the contracts be released to the congress? >> i believe so, yes. >> what is the value of the assets being managed by blackrock? >> i don't have the information. >> will that be provided for the record? >> oh, yes. >> what is the fed paying blackrock? will that be provided? >> we have a committee, which has gone through and made a whole set of recommendations and writing a great deal of information. i don't remember every decision made, but i would like to defer to their decisions. >> do you know which foreign companies are a part of these transactions? >> i don't understand the question. >> what other business does

blackrock do besides service the fed? >> so you wouldn't be aware? >> not necessarily. >> are you aware of one contract blackrock manages may be compromised, dealing with fannie mae and freddie mac? and i wish to state this for the record. lawrence bank, the head of blackrock, in which the mr. summers who heads the national economic planning council, is a major investor, just got several no-bid contracts from the fed including one to manage fannie mae and freddie mac. does the fed now that he is the person who first created a collateralized mortgage and

brought that instrument to freddy mac and sold it to them for over $1 billion? he's now the fed's go-to man through his firm on workouts. i have a question about the revolving door and how do you protect the public against the company's conflict of interest that relate to his own and his firm's historic ininvolvements with those portfolios? >> it's a separate institution. i don't understand your question. >> you have signed a contract with blackrock to manage the fannie mae and freddie mac -- >> not to my knowledge. >> i understand it was one of the four and five contracts you signed with blackrock. >> i'd have to go back and check on that. >> we'd appreciate that very much. >> one final question. before you have to leave, we're going to make two big fiscal

policy decisions just this summer. talked about cap and trade briefly and then health care legislation. those are the two big fiscal developments. that's going to impact borrowing and deficits. the bill moving to the floor out on the commerce committee on cap and trade auctions off 88% of the permits which therefore dramatically reduces the ability to dthe rebate as needs to be off setting the blunt impact on the economy. gives away 88% of the permits. given that the lels we're looking at gives away 88% of the permits drying up the money to do rebates. do you think that has a negative effect on the economy? >> my understanding is that they'll be given to consumers? >> no, to various industries. >> if you give it to the industries but prices reflect the cost of the permit, it's

basically money given to the industries. the tarkt targets will be as aggressive. the point i'm trying to make is the revenue from auctions will not be there because the permits will be given away to the firm. >> it's true, if the permits are given away, you don't get the money. >> and therefore, if there's not an off setting rebate, do you think that has negative effects on the economy? >> it could. but again, my understanding is that these permits, which have different effect in terms of spending, but to some extent goes against the promise of the policy, which is to reduce energy consumption. >> i think a lot of the us would question the logic of requiring it to be passed to the consumers because it counted against the whole notion of the program.

let me ask you one final question. do you think it makes sense we need to spend more on entitlements? we're in the middle of this health care debate. the discussion revolves around raising about 1.2 trillion in new revenues to spend on a new entitlement program to be created for health care for the under 65 population. we already spend more than 2.5 times more in health care compared to any other country in the world. is it a good idea from a fiscal stapt to increase that over the next ten years and is that the best way to save more money in the long run with the entitlement programs? so we've got two health care entitlement programs already, medicare and medicaid. we're going to create a third

now, with a revenue stream that may or may not meet that requirement. never the less, it's a larger tax and spend program than what we have now. is that the right way to go toward containing our fiscal problems? >> the reforms to health care need to address the cost issue. the question's about how to change the structure of the health care system, whether to do it or not or how the government's role should change, but if you don't get control of the cost of health care, then the fiscal issues are very serious. in particular, medicare trustees assume that costs are going to grow. in fact, they have been growing 2.5% faster than per capita. part of the effort has got to be addressing the cost.

the cost of per capita health care and growth in that rate. if you don't do that, just adding programs would be a big program. >> thank you. >> and for conclusion, the the members who did not have the opportunity to ask questions, be given seven days to submit questions for the record. thank you very much for your testimony and your clear and

>> next, progressive and president obama. at 6:15, president obama and angela merkel. then at 7:00 a.m., "washington journal". >> this week, judge sonia sotomayor was in washington in advance of her confirmation hearings. >> i would like people to say this is the best hearing we have ever had. >> she is a very human person of great legal mind, and i think that is the right person to be on the supreme court. >> watch her with senate leadership and members of the judiciary committee on c-span's "america and the courts "today at 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> today campaign for america's future.

this included john podesta and clust discussed ways to advance the progressive movement with the obama administration. this is an hour. >> good morning. my name is roger hickey. this is the take back america conference. in this last historic election we did take back america. we took it back from the edge of disaster. so the people in this room

deserve a lot of credit. i'd like you all to give yourselves and president barack obama a big round of applause. [applause] >> for progress siffs taking back -- for progressives, taking america back was just the first step. during our years in the wilderness, progressives kept our eyes on the prize. we worked creatively to build strong new coalitions to advance bold economic vend agendas for prosperity and democracy. and in the process, we built a strong progressive movement. in 2006 and 2007, candidate

barack obama came here and spoke at take back america, and after putting his own stamp on what we were talking about here, candidate obama took our progressive change agenda into the election contest, and with your help, he won a powerful man date to take our -- mandate to take our country in a new direction. i want to note that candidate obama and his team also learned from our organizing techniques as well as our message. the campaign fueled the organizing instincts of barack obama with the activity of such groups as moveon.org, so we had quite an interest change, even early on. and now with the president in the white house is a democratic

majority in congress, our job is to go beyond taking back america. our job is to win real change. and that as my partner said today will require a specific strategy. like the movement in the 1960's and franklin roosevelt in the 1930's and 1940's. president obama who started as a community organizer in chicago clearly understands this. every president, every seck successful president, needs the outside citizen movement in order to make big changes. let's just listen to what he told us at take back america on his most recent visit. >> and all of you, activists from across the country, it's

going to be because of you that we take our country back. so take back america, this is our time. our time to make our mark on history, our time to write a new chapter in america's story. there are a few obstacles that can withstand the sound of millions of voices calling for change. that's how change has already happened. that's how we caused an end to the scourge of slavery, that's how we brought the vote to women, that's how we brought an end to the vietnam war. that's how you and i will change this country! [applause] >> he gets it. he understands. and during president obama's amazingly successful first 1 hundred hookup days, he stayed true to that vision, and working together led by people like heather booth who is here in the

audience, progressive coalitions helped win big victories, passing the economic recovery package and the budget and building crucial momentum in a forward direction. now, you will see in the sessions of this conference focused on the big battles to come. the economy, health care, education, workers rights, immigration, and real security. right now we want to hear from organizers who have built winning organizations around big progressive ideas. each of them represents the kind of constituent wednesdayies that will have to work together if we're going to turn the theoretical majority in the congress into an active majority for change. hires the question i want them all to address -- how did we get here at this dramatic moment in history, and how do we move fort together. our first speaker is an insider who orgs like an outsider.

i won't say mitch stewart is responsible for barack obama being in the white house, but mitch and steve hildebrand played an enormous role in the crucial victory of the iowa caucusses, and you know how crucial those iowa caucusses were. and then mitch went on to pull off another miracle, turning the commonwealth of virginia blue for barack obama. he is director of the new 13 million strong grass routes and online force to emerge from the campaign to help obama win new victories. mitch will talk about how they won the mission of organizing for america and how they plan to work with outside groups. please welcome mitch stewart. >> thank you all very much, and

thank you for the gracious introduction and for putting this conference together. and for all the folks here participating. as roger said, i did start on the campaign the third week in january of 2008. i lived in iowa for a year and traveled to a number of different states -- nevada, minnesota, texas, indiana, and then spent about six months in virginia, which was a truly gratifying experience. there are a number of things that we learned during the campaign that i think because of the president's unique background as a community organizer helped instill in us a new way to reach out and talk to people about electoral campaigning. that was what we believed is that people matter. and all too often in campaigns, people are paid lip service but they are not taken seriously. so we had a motto on the campaign that paul came up with called respect, empower, and include.

we took every person's point of view very seriously, their efforts, their sacrifice, and we felt through that empowerment they would be more invested in our success than if we didn't take the time to build that sort of ra pour. we basically took that from iowa and did that in every primary state, every general election state moving forward, and it's something that we're going to do and have done with organizing for america. for folks who may not be familiar, organizing for america is basically the continuation of the same grassroots organization that got barack obama elected president, but as opposed to electoral organizing, we are focused on supporting the president's agenda. shortly after the campaign ended, we sent out a detailed online survey to our -- and asked them what they wanted them to do next. now that we have won, what would you like us to do? and the number one response was to help support the president's

agenda. the second response was to continue growing and building this grassroots organization. our folks wanted to see this continue. that's basically organizing for america's mission. number one is to support the president's agenda. nothing will ever super seed that. the second mission statement is to continue building this grassroots organization. the way we're going to continue building that grassroots organization is by supporting the president's agenda. i will give you a couple exam pleds of what we've done, and where we see ourselves six months down the road and so forth. the first issue we took on was the economic recovery package. congress was stalling, so we felt it was important that we collected stories about what the economic crisis was doing to their friends and neighbors and what was it doing to their neighbors. so we organized 3,600 house

meetings. we talk bd what was in the package. we received over 30,000 very tough stories to read through, frankly, about what the economic crisis was doing to them. we then sent out at another e-mail and said these are the stories of the economic crisis and this is why passing the economic recovery package is so important. we then moved onto the budgets, and supporting the president's budget priorities where we collected hundreds of thousands of pledges. we also had our supporters -- or our supporters logged in hundreds of thousands of phone calls to congress urging support of the president's budget. we then have moved on to judge sonia sotomayor's action center. if folks have not gone there, we encourage people to go to barack obama dot com and take action

on sonia sotomayor's pp hearing. the goal from -- for these kickoffs is two followed. one we're going to start the process of reaching out to neighbors and friends using the exact same tack tactics we did during the campaign, having friends talk to friends about why it is important to talk to the president's health care principles. there are three principles i'm sure many of you are aware of, the first is lowering the cost for american families, but also american businesses. the second is maintaining choice so that folks have both choice of their doctor and of their plan, and then the third is assuring access to affordable health care to all americans. and the fourth that you can put in there, and john podesta talked a little about this, is that we have to get it passed this year and getting it done this year. so we're going to have our

friends go out and talk to their friends about why it is important to get health care passed this year. getting a declaration signed and passed. and the second component to that is also public service. we're going to be doing public service events across the country this summer, and we want those public service events to be health care related. i think organizing for america has a couple unique roles in what has been a very, very long battle to get health care reform. the first is we had the ability, i think, to tell very personal stories about why health care reform is so urgently needed. we put out an ad to our list and received hundreds of thousands of personal health care stories about why reform is so necessary. the second is, i do think that we have this network of people because of the lessons that we learned on this campaign who are ready and know how to go out and start engaging people in their community.

the important part of this is not just when they are on the clock, and this is something we learned during the campaign. by "on the clock" i mean they are at a campus and they -- they are at a canvas and they know they have to knock on 40 doors, or they know they have to make phone calls. but the real benefit of getting people invest in to this effort is when they are off the clock, when they are hanging out with their buddies, just having conversations, 10, 15, 20 a day, and someone brings this up, they have a wealth of information, basically turning into a message machine, and they are able to engage their friends about why health care reform is so urgently needed. because of that, we know that the best validateor, the best messenger of a message is someone that nn someone knows and trusts. not a tv ad or a radio spot, it is hearing from someone that they know and trust. they have a longstanding relationship with, and they will continue to have that longstanding relationship, advocate and validate the president's health care aprinciples.

and we hope to do that enmass across this country over -- until it passes, frankly. just real quick on an organizational update. right now we have folks in 30 states. we will have a staffer in an office in every state in the country, and, you know, their role will be using opportunities like organizing around health care to continue building these neighborhood teams that we had during the campaign so that we can further support the president's agenda. and just on an agenda update, certainly we're going to be focused until that's passed, i think you will continue to see us get engaged with judge sotomayor's nomination moving forward, and also energy and education. basically the president laid out three pillars to getting our economy moving again. they were energy, health care, and i think you will us active

on all three of those. i look forward to chatting with you both after our session here and also during the q & a. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you, mitch. anna berger started as a community activist in california and now she's one of the most powerful people in the labor movement. as treasurer of s.e.i.u., anna leads s.e.i.u.'s political operation, and she plays a leadership role in building the new infrastructure for the progressive movement. the various coalitions and organizations that seiu and change for america are part of. just recently she