administration officials, members of congress, and the papers of reporters and editors. the cost? 25,000 to $250,000. the offer appears in a flier. more on health issues from the cdc. at a recent meeting on the h1n1 situation, health officials said that u.s. demand for flu vaccine could reach 600 million doses. that is enough for two doses for each of the approximately 300 million people in the united states. one day after conceding the minnesota senate race, norm coleman is considering entering the 2010 race to replace gov. tim pawlenty.

meanwhile, senator james inhofe , who has been criticized for his denial of global warming, is calling al franken a clown. he says, he does not mean to be disrespectful, but al franken is a clown. that is what he does for a living. finally, representative henry waxman, chairman of the house energy and commerce commission is in the hospital after fainting tuesday in his los angeles office. today, he is in good spirits and is turning his attention to turning on -- to working on health care reform. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. host: here is our last half-hour in our final test of the morning. we're pleased to welcome edward montgomery, the director of monk -- the director of recovery at

the office of autoworkers. what is your job mission? >> my job is to try and bring together people from the communities that have been impacted by the significant decline in the auto industry that has occurred over the coast -- the course of the last eight years, to work with community leaders, work with state governments, figure out what they need in terms of how to move forward in terms of both the current crisis we're in, and plan for the recovery and expansion. to make sure that the resources the president has made available to regular programs or mica -- or the of recovery act is used to help these communities, to make sure that to get access to those resources.

host: we will talk about communities that have been hardest hit by the challenges of the auto industry. and i know that many of you are well familiar with this from your own lives. we would like to hear your perspectives on it. can you list the five cities that are most affected by the auto industry challenges? >guest: the auto industry is very heavily concentrated in the states of michigan, ohio, and indiana. those are the three biggest states. if you thought about michigan, obviously detroit, places like pontiac are very concentrated perio. if you go to toledo, dated -- those are places that are very highly impacted. host: what are you finding when

you talk to the city leaders there? guest: two things strike me. one is the incredible resilience of these communities. they are focused on the future. realize that they have been hit hard they are dealing with, and unemployment rates in that 20% range. they are dealing with what that means in terms of the community and their ability to pay property taxes and social services going, educating people, the challenges that individual families are confronting. they are focused on the future. each one is approaching it in a slightly different way. host: is this a recognition that diversification is the way for the future?

guest: right now, we're selling about 9 million vehicles a year. seven years ago, we were selling 16 million vehicles a year. everyone would expect in forecast that auto sales will come back from these current record low levels, but it is clear that over time, manufacturing has become a smaller share of total employment. many communities are diversifying out of manufacturing. many communities are thinking about if they are going to stay in manufacturing, how to get into green jobs, how to get into producing wind turbines, solar energy, things like that. those are the growth areas that will be the big growth areas over the next 10 years. host: larry copeland reports, since the number of miles traveled by motor vehicles

peaked in november, 2 does 7, the total has dropped by 123 billion miles. that is the biggest decline. their quotes by some people saying that there has been a real societal shift in the way that people are thinking about the use of their automobiles. guest: i think it is clear that people are changing the types of cars that they are driving and buying. they are no longer buying as big cars. there is a lot more emphasis on fuel efficiency. it may very well be that there will be a permanent change in terms of driving habits. i think the notion that the auto industry is going away or the auto industry will not play a big role is just not true. we will come back to a higher level of sales than we currently have, perhaps not to the record levels of 16 million, but

somewhere in between. host: go-ahead, please. caller: i am glad to be able to ask you. here in michigan, we are trying to -- it is nearly impossible to find loans for small businesses. how is the federal government going to assist the states that the issue money for people who want to start small businesses? right now, they only have the fda in their criteria. if we could have small, little outlets that the government

could fund for microfinance in, it would be really great. host: what is your idea for a business? caller: that would be one of them. i would like to have an outlet for the public. guest: it is very clear that this current economic crisis comes out of the financial system prices. it comes out of the collapse of problems in the banking system. part of the record -- part of the recovery has to be to restore credit. it is critically important for homeowners to get access to loans. it is critical to get working capital to get loans to start. the president has invested lots of money in supporting the banks and getting them into position where they can return to health and begin to increase lending.

there are some hopeful signs that the lending is starting to take effect. we have not put all the eggs in that basket. there have been additions to the small business programs. the small business administration expanded access to a 7-a loan program. it has put in place different kinds of financing for automobile dealers. it has a new program called arc financing. there are a variety of different efforts that have been made. there is another program that people might be less aware of through the department of commerce. there economic development administration -- many of the regional offices have revolving credit funds. host: this is from the bankruptcy court from usa today. new gm division's ipo in 2010.

a new gm could be ready to make an initial public offering in 2010, a u.s. treasury official testified in u.s. bankruptcy court. if the sale does not close by the july 10 deadline, the government will withdraw its portion of the $33 billion debtor in possession financing for general motors, said harry wilson, a member of the auto task force. we cannot make an open-ended commitment any comments on that? guest: we inherited a general motors and chrysler that were in very deep trouble just at the end of last year. these companies have lost around $70 billion over the past two years. they are hanging by a thread. the president came in and he made a commitment. he was not willing to make an open-ended commitment. he was willing to have taxpayers make them a viable company, but not an open-ended commitment. chrysler has emerged from

bankruptcy in record time in his opening production. we're hoping we can do the same with general motors. host: we have taken a camera to flint, michigan. we will show you some of that as we listen to our next telephone call from new york. you are on the air. caller: how were you doing? i was wondering -- with the amount of money that we have spent to bail general motors out and other money that we spent and we have not seen any return on it, can you give us a realistic view of how they are going to bring general motors back and how they are going to pay us back this money? i am talking about numbers. could he give us some numbers? i'm very skeptical that we will ever see that money.

hostguest: the administration pt together the general motors package. they talked to a wide range of industry people, a wide range of experts. they went through multiple different scenarios and assumptions about sales and market share and a variety of things like that. they became convinced that there is a reasonable chance that this was going to succeed. by the definition of success, there is an ongoing and a viable entity it could pay the investment that we are put into this. the important thing to remember is, we came to this thing reluctantly. we came to this situation facing it in an economic crisis. we faced an auto industry that had for years been in decline. general motors had been in trouble and had not made our decisions. the president stepped forward and make those hard decisions.

they want to do it in a way that allows them to have a viable future, and also to not have an open-ended commitment on the part of the taxpayers. host: you had a prior public career and served as chief to part print economist of the labor department. this is james. good morning, james. caller: it seems to me like the whole problem is the fact that the labor union -- they are paying some third grade dropouts to put a bullet through a little hole. they get more money then a professor in college. that is why you get cheaper labor. it is time to wake up, america.

host: looking at pictures from flint, michigan. guest: i think that is not true. the american auto worker is one of the most productive workers in the world. their productivity rates match those that we find in other countries. if you look at recent analysis, they are efficient. clearly, the autoworkers made significant concessions to keep general motors in business. they took lower wages. they gave up some health care. they gave up a variety of different benefits. they sacrificed a lot for the sake of the company. and so, there are a constructive part of crafting a vision forward for the future. hostcaller: i am calling about r

local 488 retiree. i'm talking about our negotiated benefits. they were taken from us this month. one of the things that was preventive medication and care. i was concerned about how they are going to help us in that respect. guest: it is very clear that the autoworkers' made significant sacrifices. retirees made significant sacrifices. those are significant concessions. the autoworkers' made concessions as well as bondholders. there was a very painful sacrifice involved with keeping the company's going. the simple fact was, these were

not viable entities if we did nothing. the arrangements that the president put in place called for shared sacrifice. they called for a very significant and painful sacrifice by all the involved parties. there was an investment on the part of the company to keep it going. if the president had not made that investment, basically these companies would have been liquidated. host: this is mike on our line for independents. caller: thank you for your forum. as always, i watch it quite often. does he have any comparisons with the other companies? they seem to be regrouping and going back to the old days, building a product that we can trust. i have grandparents and uncles who have all worked in the

industry in one form or another. are you lobbying to help people get out of their destituted -- looking into 401ks. maybe they can start some small businesses. just some comments on that. i think that would be a good question. guest: there is lots of evidence from j.d. power associates that look at the quality of the american automobile. it all seems to point very significantly toward dramatic improvements in terms of the quality of the cars, the productivity in terms of the company's being able to produce them, over the course of the past half-dozen years. we may have been in a situation where perhaps when i was young

and first learned to drive in the 70's, american automobile companies were living on their reputation. they were not necessarily making as good cars as the reputation was. now it is a flip. in that sense, i am optimistic that expectations and realizations that they are making progress will catch up to the reality of the improvements. all of the companies have made massive investments in improving quality. that is the key to staying in business. host: we're talking to edward montgomery. the next call is from texas. republican line. good morning, thomas. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i would like to point out no matter what the administration is in office, unless we get out of the wto and in a timely basis -- that is when we became an official member of a wto. this has caused companies to leave in massive numbers to foreign lands, reestablishing their product line. those are huge numbers against next to nothing going back over that way in their direction. therefore, getting out of the wto and put a stop to the drainage of jobs is paramount to anything else. by the way, cap-and-trade will never work.

there is no way possible, as long as tthe wto. do you have any answers to that? guest: i would say two things. on the question of the wto and trade, if you look at the data, what we have seen is that the united states has been able to expand its exports, has been able to expand the product that it sells abroad over the course of the last 15 years. there has been a dramatic expansion in the ability of americans to compete. clearly, we want to have a trade policy that works for us that brings benefits to americans and helps to raise our income and open new opportunities. i think the way to do that is to make sure that we have fair

access abroad and that we can sell our products abroad. i guess i am optimistic and believe that we can compete very successfully with any country in the world. host: the wto just released a report. they are reporting that over the past three months, the recorded 83 trade restriction measures taken by 24 countries in the european union. the paper says the report is likely to be seized on by proponents of the doha round to restart negotiations on a broad treaty that would do away with many of these exceptions. guest: i think one of the

lessons of the great depression is that countries and the worldwide economic system need to be very sensitive to the dangers of excessive protectionism. if every country puts up barriers, we end up turning an economic crisis into a very prolonged depression. to the maximum degree possible, people need to resist that. in terms of going forward, the key is to position ourselves so that we can compete effectively. host: our next telephone call comes from flint, michigan. caller: i have been a lifelong resident of the flint, michigan area. i'm calling in defense of our city. we have a wonderful city. we have fallen on hard times.

all of my family were factory workers and union members. this country seems to want to trash the unions. we make good money, yes. we spend it. we always thought a new car. we put our kids through college. we saved money. when we went on vacation, we spend money here and in other places. i do not know how they think that people are going to live like that on $10 an hour. the whole thing is in the name of greed. the cars come back and the foreign cars do not sell any cheaper than ours do. their insurance is paid by their country. we are still alive here.

we are trying hard to keep our heads above water. i am so tired of people bashing autoworkers. we put 45 years in there when other people did not want to spend their time standing in a hot, sweaty place in the summer. i'm just tired of people bashing the unions and bashing the car industry. it is not our fault that they shipped everything overseas. you talk about exports. guest: i agree with arlene that the autoworkers in the automobile industry was very important in terms of creating the middle class in this country. they played a leadership role in expanding health-care benefits

and getting retirement benefits out. my brother-in-law is a uaw retirees. he worked really hard for everything that he and his family had. this situation was not caused by the autoworkers. they can play a very productive role. they have dramatically changed how they make the cars. they are making much better cars. when i go to the plans and you see guys -- we have just changed. there is a real pride in how they are operating. i think she is right. they feel very proud of what they have done. the times are hard right now. people across the auto belts are

hurting. there are proud people. i think there is lot of reason to be optimistic about the future. host: next telephone call is from michigan. good morning to jerry on the line for independents. caller: what i would like to say is i am enjoying this conversation, however, i would like to know why the gentleman is continually referring to things being done by the president. as far as i know, we still have a complete government. i just want to know why -- he needs to correct that, i think. guest: i apologize. clearly, members of congress passed a budget that gave us the

resources to make the investments both in terms of the overall recovery act -- they played a very vital role in helping us to craft the strategies of new market opportunities reform i work for the president. clearly, it takes both congress, the administration, and it takes the taxpayers, the united states public. host: this is a story with this headline. u.s. cities might have to be bulldozed in order to survive. it talks about a radical experiment that is the brainchild of the treasury of genesee county. his strategy is to help cities raised sections of them where the population has shrunk so that they can afford to send city services to more concentrated areas. suggestion here that he will concentrate on 50 cities that

were identified in a recent study by the brookings institution has potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes. this would be a challenging thing for people to deal with in their communities. guest: i spoke with him earlier this week. he is dealing with a situation where you have large tracts of abandoned homes. that is both a nonproductive resource, but in as and negative affect on the surrounding community. the people who are in occupied houses, their property values are driven down. i think the strategy is, by raising those properties, turning that area into green areas, it has the possibility of raising the house prices for people who are left. it is a different strategy. some communities are doing it. i think youngstown is doing this. i have heard about it in other areas.

it does not necessarily fit for everybody. it is something that they are trying to do. host: there are already plans to split detroit into a collection of smaller been centers separated from each other by countryside. our last call for edward montgomery is from illinois. this is tom watching us. he is on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me talk on c-span. i think toyota and kia and saturn -- a lot of the smaller car companies that moved down south and do not have union workers. the problem with unions are -- this has happened always in the past. the end up getting too much power in the company. they strangle companies. this is what is going on with the car company right now.