own? >> actually i think the new technology has been great for us because we have always had incredible journalists, and some among them often tend to rise and become better known and faces in the community of people feel like they have a relationship with them. so in mind -- my mind, they are new platforms and a fantastic of the tuna. many have large twitter audiences. we always had a relationship with television, our reporters have always been on television. so i think it \ in some ways helps us retain talent because it gives us the other platforms. in the beginning of the internet some of the journalists were resistant. they felt like, well, why am i going to the extra work? i used to have to write a story for the delicate for and now i have to do a blog in middle of the bank's -- in the middle of the day. but they quickly learned they

suddenly have all new audiences so they get tons of feed back, so they get an immediate sense of how much did my story have an impact and they get e-mail from all over the world -- sometimes angry, but often how people have been moved or they want to give money to someone we have written about. so i think it has given journalists new platforms to experiment on. >> i have a good and bad things -- the most recent good thing that happened in my life with "the washington post" is, since we are in the process of appointing a woman to be on the supreme court, it is very relevant that i got a hold of supreme court justice scalia will be spoke before a large packed bar room -- he followed, this is good for businessmen, this is good for businessmen, for each issue and height

ascham, are you aware that there are women in business -- and i asked him, are you aware that there are women in business? i asked him, are you aware that you only considered businessmen, do you know there are women business owners, including myself. that made "a washington post" because his response was, i'm an original list, and only believe in issues our forefathers are concerned about and i told him -- i didn't stop and i told him that there were no foremothers. and i also heard his response, and that is what "washington post" picked up. his response is that this woman wants me to throw out the constitution. just when to share this with you. so we need a different breed of supreme court justices who understand this current period.

a bad story -- that was the good one from may. a bad story is my company celebrated the 50th anniversary, we were honored by the greater washington board of trade's and received honors and no mention to an open "the washington post" even though i sent an article. i think for a local company that passes its 50th anniversary, there should be some mention their them i am sorry we were not able to do that. we try to cover as much as we can. we do have limited resources and just up to make some choices. sorry you did not dimension, but congratulations. >> we talked earlier about the industry in terms of women in technology, and we talked about limited resources. of course, the struggles of your area. what i want to know is, are you also struggling with having talented journalist coming up --

for example, in the technology area, coming up through the schools, is there also a struggle to be able to identify the future reporters? >> a great question. one that i think about a lot. i would say, because we are "the washington post" and we are in washington, because of the brand that we have come so far we have not had trouble. in fact, we had an intern class that just started this summer and we had 20 some odd intern's just in the news room alone. what is interesting, i will go to a journalism school shortly -- the schools are teaching these kids to be multimedia journalists off the back. these kids know how to do video, how to edit it, how to twitter, how to do it all. to the extent we all believe that great journalism, but people still care about what is going on around them and they want someone to interpret it for them, that will not go away.

short, there recognize the industry in is in a massive turnaround, but we still have great, young, talented the analysts across the board coming to us. >> i'm alexis, a work at cisco. for every one of the room who has come before me, i want to thank you for what you have done because not every day but most days i feel just like an employee and not a female at work. starting your career out, did you have hopes of being a ceo for what this following your heart and you accidently fell into what? >> that is a great question. no, i never had hopes for being a ceo and it never crossed my mind. i was trained to be a lawyer and that is what i intended to be and this was a happy accident. i'm lucky. this is a family business, so i

had advantages that other people don't have. but it was really one thing that led to another. i was a lawyer and then i thought i would try my hand at advertising, and i actually love it. one thing led to another. >> you just mention a video from "the post" won an emmy. my question is what kind of special value can you provide competing with other milton media like television -- obviously they have more experience, or they know how to do that kind of news. >> that he is another great question. we are not trying to out-cnn cnn, so our strategy is we are for and about washington, period. we use video, twitter, to the

extent it helps illustrate this story. people confine had live anywhere. so we have the headlines. but our value is really explain to people, ok, it happened yesterday but what does it mean to me, what is coming down the road? what shall i be thinking about? so to the extent video helps illustrate that -- we did an amazing story last year and a series about women in underdeveloped countries and their struggles, and we used one of are pulitzer prize-winning photographer as to the photography and video for the story and we got a flood of response. kind of the same thing "washington pos" with a gun anywhere but now we have the ability to illustrate that in new ways. >> i am president of chain-link network and solutions. i hear you are a mother of

three. i am wondering how you use technology today to give mothers and the work force more technology to take -- flexibility to take on jobs. to continue work? >> that is a good question. i don't think of technology as a substitute. we cannot use it as a substitute for coming in the office. but those of us have blackberrys and iphones, it allows you to be away from the office to check your phone and e-mail. so it makes it easier for you to be on the road and be available at all times -- in good ways and in bad. you are tethered at all times. i think it just enhances our ability to be connected, but it is not changing @ "washington pos" the way we do our work. -- changing at "the washington post" how we do our work. >> with the elimination of the

business section in "the pos" we have two, if we are lucky, three days -- three pages a day for business coverage. what does it say about respect for business in this town that is villa devoted to government and, two, is a expectation that we will not receive business as by and large from the pos, that we will get it from the business journal or perhaps -- >> here is what i said, we did not eliminate the business contact. we eliminated the stock tables, which most, in fact, newspapers already eliminated and we waited to do that because we know there were readers who still care about them. when we eliminated the stock tables, we needed to put the rest of the pages in another section. we started -- thought where they used to become a big time sports, but we decided to put it in maine is because business is a much part of the main news.

there is stuff about local businesses, also stories about the economy. we felt it was a natural fit to be in maine news. we got very little outcry about it. in fact, we got a letter from the greater washington board of trade say i thought i would hate to it by actually like it. we have not cut back on the content. we have a robust business staff. on the other hand, we have never tried to being called the wall street journal." our view is we provide news about the economy, both from a national government standpoint and local businesses. and that is going to continue. >> time for about two or three more. over here. >> since we are on the topic of economic development, i am with montgomery county economic development. i wanted to ask about a business model. is it possible that -- you are

aware of a posting site that budding, i guess, journalist who are developing their own sense of those letters or blogs or however they communicate, sort of becoming a hub for washington area news for younger journalism stand point, and if it does not currently exist, would you consider becoming that home posting site? the reason i ask is that there is so much activity going on online that the market share seems to be a little difficult to get into for people who really have quite a bit to say. the problem is, where to go to find that. so if there is some place that is safe, actually almost spell it, but has the capability of harnessing back, it gives them credibility but also gives you a sense of control, here is the

pool you think of opinions, as well? >> i am not sure i completely understand your question, but let me take a crack addict. one of the great things about the internet id is it allows you to allow your readers to interact and weight have not been able to before. it's sort of broke down barriers to people being able to write their own blog and deliver their own opinions. as you said, there are but that of a web. some of great and some is not so great. we are starting to do more and more of is abrogating contents, linking to it, we often say we don't need to have the view that if it is not written by "the washington post" is not good enough. of the same time, we need to maintain our standard of journalistic integrity and make sure we know that journalists we would be linking to maintain the same standards we have in terms of checking sources, developing

sources come checking facts. so i think we are more and more linking to other content that we think is worthwhile and our readers want to know about being careful to maintain our standards. >> one more question. >> good morning, my name is judith westbrook and a work noa a. i have lived here all my life and always read "the washington post." thank you for that. i am wondering how you can give us the express newspaper and the metro -- please cannot take away -- as you address -- adjust the business model, how does it work? >> we will not take away. express has a loyal audience and it has been a great product for us. it sustains itself. but we run it as a separate business within our business. we set it up as a way -- it is designed to be a 20-minute raid. it is free. a lot of wire stories but

stories we feel are good and worthwhile. it has brought us both new readers and new advertisers. so, i think at first people were worried it would cannibalize our audience, but we have not seen that. it has been a great and we will keep it around. thank you. >> thank you very much for joining us this morning. [applause] >> today president obama addressed the american medical association's annual conference about his health care plans. we will show you that speech in its entirety litter this evening on the c-span network. next, a portion of his remarks. >> today, we are spending over $2 trillion a year on health care. almost 50% more per person than the next most costly nation. and yet it's, and i think many

of you are aware, for all of this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured, the quality of our care is often lower, and we are not any healthier. in fact, citizens in some countries that spend substantially less than we do are actually living longer than we do. make no mistake, the cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. it is an escalating burden on our families and businesses. it is a ticking time bomb or the federal budget. and it is not sustainable for the united states of america. if it is unsustainable for americans like a young mother that i met in wisconsin just last week's who has worried that the breast cancer she thought she had beaten had spread to her bones. but who is now being forced to spend time worrying about how to

cover the $50,000 in medical debts she has already accumulated, worried about future debt that sheet will accumulate, when all she wants to do is spend time with her two children and focus on getting well. these are not the worry is the one like laura should have to face in the nation as will the ads are in a nation as wealthy as ours. as stories like hers are being told by women and men all across this country, by families who are seeing out-of-pocket cost sort and premiums double over the last decade at a rate three times faster than wages, this is forcing americans of all ages to go without the checkups or prescriptions that they need, that you know they need. it is creating a situation where a single illness can wipe out a lifetime of savings.

are costly health care system is unsustainable for doctors, like michael, and in new hampshire, who, as he puts it, spends 20 percent of each day supervising a staff, explaining insurance problems to patients, completing authorization forms, writing appeal what others from a routine that a cause destructive and distractive, giving him less time to do what he became a doctor to do and actually care for his patients. [applause] small business owners like chris and becky in national are also struggling. they always wanted to do right by the workers at their family run marketing firm. but they recently had to do the unthinkable and lay off a number of employees, layoffs that could have been deferred, they say, if

health care costs were not so high. across the country over one- third of small businesses have reduced benefits in recent years and one-third have dropped their workers' coverage altogether since the early 1990's. our largest companies are suffering as well. a big part of what led general motors and chrysler into trouble in recent decades were the huge cost they racked up providing health care to their workers, cost that made them laugh -- less profitable and competitive with all the makers around the world. if we do not fix our health-care system, america may go the way of gm, paying more, getting less, and going broke. when it comes to the cost of our health care, then, the status quo is unsustainable. [applause] so, reform is not a luxury, it

is a necessity. when i hear people say, why are you taking this on right now, we've got all these of the problems, i keep on reminding people i would love to be able to defer these issues, but we can't. i know there has been a lot of discussion about what reform will cost from unlikely so -- rightly so. it is what we are serious about holding the line on the spending and research and strict -- restored and discipline. but let there be no doubt, the cost of inaction is greater. [applause] if we fail to act -- and you know this because you see in your own individual practices -- if we fail to act, premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further, barrels of the uninsured will swell to include millions more americans, all of which will affect your practice. if we fail to act, one out of

every $5 we earn will be spent of health care within a decade. in 30 years it will be about one out of every three, a trend that will mean lost jobs, lower take- home pay, shuttered businesses and a lower standard of living for all americans. if we fail to act, federal spending on medicaid and medicare will grow over the coming decades by an amount almost equal to the amount our government currently spends on our nation's defense. its will, in fact, eventually gluck -- grow larger than what our government spends on anything else today. it is a scenario that will swamp our federal and state budgets, impose a vicious choice of either unprecedented tax hikes or overwhelming deficit, for drastic cuts in our federal and state budgets.

to say it as plainly as i can, health care is the single most important thing we can do for america's long-term fiscal health. that is a fact. [applause] it is a fact, and the truth is most people know it is a fact. yet, as clear as it is about our system badly need to reform, reforms are not inevitable. there is a sense out there among some, and perhaps some members who are gathered here today at the ama, but as bad as our current system may be -- and it is pretty bad -- the devil we know is better than the devil we don't. there is a fear of change. a worrying about we may lose what works about our health care system while trying to fix what doesn't.

i am here to tell you, i understand that fear, and i understand -- there are scars left over from past efforts of reform. after all, presidents have called for health care reform for nearly a central -- century. teddy roosevelt, harry truman, richard nixon called ford, jimmy carter called for, bill clinton called for. but while significant individual reforms have been made, such as medicare, medicaid, and the children's health insurance program, efforts at comprehensive reform that covers everyone and brings down costs have largely failed. part of the reason is because the different groups involved -- doctors, insurance companies, businesses, workers, and others, simply cannot agree on the need for reform or what shape it will take. and, if we are on us from another part of the reason has been a fierce opposition fuelled

by some interest groups and lobbyists, opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to, yes, socialized medicine. despite this long history of failure, i am standing here because i think we're in a different time. one sign that things are different is just this past week the senate passed a bill that will protect children from the dangers of smoking, a reform the ama has long championed. [applause] it went nowhere when it was proposed a decade ago -- i will sign it into law. [applause]

what makes this moment different is that this time, for the first time, stakeholders are lining not against, but in favor of reform. they are coming together out of recognition of while reform will take everyone in the health care community to do their part -- everyone will have to pitch in -- ultimately other but -- everybody will benefit. i want to commend the ama in particular for offering to your part to curb costs and achieve reform. just a week ago, you joined together with hospitals, labor unions, insurers, medical device manufacturers and just -- drug companies to do something that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks -- years ago. it promised to work together to cut health-care spending over $2 trillion over the next decade relative to what it otherwise would have been. that will bring down costs, bring down premiums, and that is exactly the kind of cooperation we need, and we appreciate that very much.

thank you. the question is, how we finish the job? how do we permanently bring down costs and make quality affordable health care available to every single american? that is what i have come to talk about today. we know the moment is ripe for health care reform. we know this is a historic opportunity we have never seen before and may not see again. but we also know that there are those who will try to scuttle this opportunity the matter what. " will use the same spirit tactics and thurmont ring that has worked in the past. who will give warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers, long lines, rationed care, decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors. we have heard this all before. and because these fear tactics have worked, things have kept getting worse.

so, let me begin by saying this -- to you and to the american people -- i know that there are millions of americans who are content with their health care coverage. they let their plan, and most important, they value their relationship with their doctor. and that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the american people, if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. [applause] if you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. [applause] no one will take away. no matter what. my view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle -- fix what is

broken and build on what works. and that is what we intend to do. if we do that, we can build a health-care system that allows you to be physicians instead of administrators and accountants, the system and gives americans -- [applause] is system that gives americans the best care at the lowest cost, a system that eases -- eases up pressure on businesses and unleashes the promises of our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, making wages and thousands of dollars higher and growing our economy by tens of billions of dollars more every year. that is how we will stop spending tax dollars to prop up an unsustainable system and start investing those dollars in innovation, advances that will make our health care system and our economy stronger. that is what we can do with this opportunity. and that is what we must do with

this moment. now, the good news is that in some instances, there is already widespread agreement on the steps necessary to make our health care system work better. first, we need to upgrade our medical records by switching from a paper to an electronic system of record-keeping. we have already begun to do this with the investment we made as part of our recovery act. it simply doesn't make sense that patients in the 21st century are still filling out forms with pens on paper that has been stored away somewhere. as newt gingrich has rightly pointed out, and i do not quote newt gingrich very often -- we do a better job tracking effects package in this country than we do tracking patients' health records. [applause]

you shouldn't have to tell every new doctor use the about your medical history or what prescription you are taking. you should not have to repeat costly tests. all of that information should be stored securely in a private medical record so that your information contract from one doctor to another, even if you change jobs, even if you move, even if you have to see a number of different specialists. that is just common sense. >> and president obama a bit earlier this afternoon in chicago. you can see the entire set of remarks that president obama made to the american medical association later this afternoon right here on c-span as soon as the house is finished debating some 19 suspension bills. the house comes in in just a moment. >> how is c-span funded? >> i have no clue. >> maybe some government grants? >> donations. >> advertising for products? >> public money, i'm sure. >> my taxes? >> how is c-span funded? 30 years