the platform for innovation and opportunity. if we do our jobs right, imagine how we can help the country deliver. a small business in boston, the bronx, or blacksburg, va., connecting and selling their products to consumers across the country and the globe, parents and brownsville, texas, video conference -- video, and with their son or daughter serving in baghdad or couple --or kabul, a student in a remote alaskan fishing village, and iowa farming town, an indian reservation in new mexico learning math and science over a broad band from a teacher and a major university. yesterday, i heard a farmer in

pennsylvania who grew up thinking that computers and connectivity have no relevance to him. he now thinks that farmers cannot live without broadband. they need real-time access to weather, commodity pricing, agricultural information. i had a chance to visit yesterday with a senior computer clinic in downtown ..

>> commissioner mcdowell and i spoke this week about his hands on visits to alaska where he saw broadband making a real difference in people's lives. but if we do our jobs right at the sec, we can accelerate economic growth -- at the fcc, we can accelerate growth and ensure we have a sustainable economic engine in the united states. the weekend make america a world leader in mobile. the weekend improve small businesses so they can commit -- compete every where, help to deliver better health care at lower costs, extend the benefits of broadband resolution to our hnmpolice and firefighters who depend on communications for their own safety and hours.

these are mentz goals of importance. we are the beginning of the development of a plan to help the country deliver on this. i am looking forward to an energized united commission, blair, which you coordinating pursuing this effort. just because we can dream of an america built on broadband does not mean that we can make it happen. homes and businesses in many other countries have faster connections for lower prices. it will take real effort and bdedication and a long-term commitment to renew american leadership to competitiveness for the 20 per century. it just yesterday, the commerce and agricultural department announced terms for new broadband networks. i am pleased that here of the fcc, we are developing a proper -- a long-term plan for national broadband.

we heard today, blair, from you on how the fcc is going to undertake this challenging an incredibly important work. it is a road map for a process that is open, transparent, that is participatory, that involve3s outreach to the challenges congress has given us. in prosperous nation that will be on your love for this agency. the fcc will reach out to all stakeholders, traditional and non-traditional, because all americans have a stake in this proceeding. i am pleased also that we have a plan that will be data driven. that means not starting with conclusions, but using data to develop our analysis. it means not just accepting data, but the into data -- a

digging into data to find solutions that make a positive difference in the lives of all americans and help build an infrastructure that will be a platform for innovation, opportunityç in the 21st centu. our time is short. the schedule that we have embraced is ambitious. the opportunities are tremendous and the consequences for our country for failure are enormous.

if neither of my colleagues has any further comments, madam secretary, please tell us what we do next. ç[laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman, you may now adjourn the meeting. >> do i? >> it is yours. [laughter] [applause]

>> this meeting is adjourned. [laughter] [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> the white house is confirming this afternoon that vice- president joe biden is in iraq. the associated press reports he is there to meet with u.s. troops and with iraqi leaders, including the president and prime minister. he added to the city of baghdad this week as u.s. trade -- u.s. troops handed over security in city as a and other areas to iraqis. this is by in's first trip as vice-president. a couple of notes about the events coming up this afternoon.

first, the jobless report, the president will talk about that. the jobless report came out this morning, 90 -- 9.5%, a 26-year high as employers cut more jobs in the month of june. perhaps, the vice president story as well will be discussed. robert giggs will be briefing the press in about 20 minutes. live coverage of both events here on c-span. >> over the july 4 weekend, notable americans on c-span, stories from inside the white house, domestic policy advisers on their president from richard nixon to george w. bush. honoring president ronald reagan. ken burns on his corian and an upcoming series on americans -- america's national parks.

and a series on john updike, two -- two time winner of the pulitzer prize. in death, sunday with historian and author john ferling. find out what is happening any time at c-span.org. >> these places remind me of modern cathedrals that donors would build wings on, hoping they would go to heaven. >> walter kirn would like to see a few changes to the higher education system. >> i think, for example, possibly should be on the web. these wonderful concentrated islands of talent and wealth and area addition to be opened up to the larger society, not coltish we -- coltultishly kept separat.

>> the sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on c-span. you can also listen on c-span radio or down lot -- download the podcast. >> the white house briefing is coming up in about 20 minutes. until then, and look at items in the news and conversations with c-span callers from this morning's "washington journal." financial times this morning. in this story, the first batch of iou's to be issued by california has been printed and will be sent out today and thus arnold schwarzenegger manages to strike a last-minute budget deal with state government. many other states find themselves strapped for cash this year. we want to talk to you about your views on that. let me introduce you to lisa,

senior staff editor for smart money.com. yesterday filed a story with the headline about six states getting residents with big tax hikes." thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> how many states find themselves in economic crisis or difficult times this year? guest: the majority. 47 states have the fiscal year 2010 projected shortfalls in their budget. i would say all of them except for three. a few western states are in good shape for next year. host: why are states having big battles over the budget? why not just have deficits? guest: unlike the federal government, states are required to balance their budget by law for the upcoming fiscal year. they cannot borrow. they cannot like the federal

government does. they cannot print new money. they have to get things done. most of those states have come up on the deadline of june 30 because of the new fiscal year starting july 1. the big problem with the states is the recession hit all of them. in the sense that income tax collection was a big revenue source and that completely was devastated by people's unemployment situation, sales tax revenue as well, consumption rates going down. that has led to a falloff in sales tax revenue for state coffers. >> what about the federal bailout, stimulus packages that have been going out to states? hasn't that helped some of the pain in the states?

guest: i believe it has helped. without the bailout money, the situation in many states would have been a lot worse than it is now. but it is just not enough to really help ministates deal with their shortfalls. host: will learn more about california, but let's take two other states that you reported on and dig deeper. i want to stay in the western region and about what's happening in arizona and nevada. guest: ariz., from what i saw in the news yesterday, they sent through to the governor a budget without the sales tax increase that she had wanted. so, i think that involved a lot of cuts. they are suffering a great deal. they were hit with a large

falloff in real-estate market. and their state deficit estimate for fiscal 2010 is somewhere around $3 billion. host: over 28% of their budget. >> that's right. 28% of their overall budget, which is a big amount. they really got hit with the housing slump and the construction industry. it remains to be seen whether gov. brewer will get her way with the sales tax so she could at least veto the budget. that has been yet to see. >> i will take calls from viewers and then talk with you about arizona and massachusetts. we're asking you to call us with your views onub

must listen to the viewers.nz wh the budget on the states and board your view of it is as they start to resolve some of the budget issues. mcginn with a call from mandell, louisiana, paul, on the republican line. caller: from the state of louisiana, it is not too bad for my industry. i'm in the sale of automation and we do a lot of business overseas, especially in south america, automating a lot of different in district -- different industries. but here, it has slowed down quite a bit. the budget down here, bobby jindal has done a pretty decent job. he is trying to cut some offer of higher education. hospital system down here, a charity

hospital system. he is trying to do what he has to do to reform the budget, he's getting a lot of flak down here from democrats any time because it's anything. anytime you got anything, you get flak from democrats. i am looking at the nation and the direction or going right now. that really has me scared. obama's four main goals are stimulus, banking, insurance industry. everything that has touched -- i mean, it's not going in the right direction. that is what really scares me. you don't hear anything on the news about what is going to happen in the future, but i think we are going to have, according to economists, intelligent economists that are not just talking heads for the administration, are saying we will have 20% up to 30% inflation.

that scares me because it will devastate the country. host: thank you. let's move on to north palm beach, florida. paul, good morning. caller: florida is like california. it confuses me. i live near one of the wealthiest states -- in one of the wealthiest states. we have oranges, nasa, so much, and tourism. so many different ways people in florida make money. the same as california. i cannot understand year after year of being the most wealthiest place where most people and a lot of workers and illegal aliens, large amounts, working at low wages, year after year, were not doing nothing but working and working and our

dollars that we have sweated for, how can these two states, especially california, be in so much debt year after year after year? it is robbery. i want to know why this is not being investigated. every state everywhere across the country, everybody is broke and bankrupt of a sudden. nobody had any problems until the word "stimulus" or "bailout" came about. there are no excuses. we're working and busting our backs. host: thank you. in florida there% of general fund deficit is 27% this year. in dollar figures that is $6 billion. lisa is online at reporting on how the states are dealing with their budget deficits this year.

we heard about florida. we gave numbers. we also want to look out west to nevada. one of six states looking at a big tax hikes. what's going on there? >guest: they are in a similar situation with arizona in a sense that they got hit in the housing slump. that has devastated the state budget. they have 32% of their general fund budget has gaps. another issue with them is gambling. it has supported the state final until now. as people cut back on vacations and discretionary income is not available, they are suffering. they have increased their hotel room tax and sales tax and

business corporate income tax to make up for it. host: they're hoping the tourists will still come even with those decisions? >> they're allowing hotels to bump up the room taxes in the meantime. host: this is michigan, jessie on the democrats' line to talk about what's happening in the state. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and letting people voice their opinion. this is devastating here. everything, property taxes going up. there are no jobs. it is awful. almost like a depression. seems more like a depression than a recession. i don't foresee anything getting any better.

the person that called from florida talking about what obama has not done, he forgot about the last eight years of bush that cosmos of our problems. one thing, obama said when he got elected, he was going to start from the bottom up. all they have done is sent out a few checks of $250. you could hardly make a car payment with that. it's really bad. the talk about transferring prisoners from california to michigan to try to save jobs. that's how bad it is here. it seems like we got a lot of our priorities in the wrong places. if we don't stop spending all this money in different countries and now start spending it on our own people is what many to do.

this is my opinion for a long time. thank you for letting me speak. host: edward montgomery will be with us. he's helping the white house direct recovery for autos, unions, and workers. we will speak about some of the communities in michigan having to revisit their structures in order to face declining populations with many jobless citizens. that's our final discussion today. now to san antonio. john on the republican line. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about the man from florida. i would like to answer his question as to why all the money they made is gone. government employees do not create wealth. the only create debt. they live very well. they raise property taxes when they need more money. if you consider the wealth, or

the taxes they create as well creation for the government, there lies the problem. they overpaid workers when secretaries make more money in the public sector than they do in the private sector. california is the biggest problem. they have people making more money than they should be. but no one wants to admit this. no one wants to cut down the size of government and the cost of government like they do in the private sector. in the private sector when business goes bad, they start cutting. the government needs to do the same thing, but the people on the street and let them start paying taxes, which they don't pay now. host: thank you. states are cutting government workers as a way to address the budget. can you talk more about where that's happening? >guest: that's probably happening everywhere.

state lawmakers wandon't want tx increases, so first they tried to cut spending on all sorts of government programs. that includes laying workers off. in california in the news this week governor schwarzenegger mandated another three furlough days for all the state workers. unpaid days that he is forcing people to stay home to save money. that certainly is an option for lawmakers all over. host: go to massachusetts. when massachusetts was starting to take a nickname about taxes, the state is starting to increase taxes on everything from alcohol to satellite television. why is that? guest: it has a $3 billion

deficit for 2010, which is pretty big. it is putting through a sales tax increase, the sales tax is going from 5% up to 6.25%, a pretty sstantial, and they're making cuts over the place. i think governor patrick has been unsuccessful with including soda and can't come to tax those items in retail stores, but the sales tax has gone through. >> thank you for spending time with us, lisa, this morning. i encourage people to find your website smartmoney.com. she's been covering this as a senior staff editor. >> thank you. host: next is a call from

philadelphia. pennsylvania has had a lot of this bdiscussions about its budget. caller: governor wants to raise the state income tax. if it is being raised, i guess it's not so bad if everybody's paying for it. it should be from the low income to the high income. and everyone would feel the pain. but that is not a problem. i think the problem is the tension from the city workers, the teachers, the fireman, a policeman. i think there should be a freeze on all government workers for at least the next year or so. i don't think -- i think the pensions are the biggest thing. that is forcing the big property tax increases, because of policeman -- when a policeman retires, the retire at age of 45 or 50 and they can live another

30 or 40 years, so that is a big pension they are paying. that is the dirty little secret. private industry is saying you have to take a freeze on your salary. some are even being cut. but city workers and state workers, nothing is being cut. pensions are not being cut. i think that is where it has to be. the pensions are driving everyone -- that is what i have to say. host: that was the independent line. now there's this headline today. talks ended tuesday night with no substantial progress. that's an rouge, louisiana, diane on the democrats' line. go ahead.

caller: hello. after the first caller from the man from mandeville, i'm glad i got through. i've been disabled since 1997 with a rare disease that has no cure and just gets worse, but walt kilmeade. my husband died three years ago, leaving me widowed and destitute at 40. not exactly the plan for our lives. the thing i was calling about was i just found out the long- term personal care that i waited two years and eight months for and other people are still waiting for, they will start cutting it back. i can barely get around, but i can at least get around. they're cutting people who are in real tears and cannot move into place caught fire. the planning to cut things like that. host: what would your message be

to the state legislators in that news? caller: louisiana politics are screwed up. i would say please don't cut long-term personal care. why do they always cut education and services first when those are the things people need the most? i don't know what i would do now without my personal care worker and i only have her a few days a week. thank you so much for letting me get through. have a good day. host: good luck to you in figuring out how to proceed with that situation. this a front-page story about the budget battles in california. iou's on the way.