moral ground that we believe that you should not be required to go to the undertaker and the irs during the same week. and we recognize that working hard and saving for your family, building up all of your lifetime is a positive thing to do and we want to encourage parents and grandparents to say to the children that we do not want to discourage them. we would not have a death tax so these people would be able to pass this on to their children and grandchildren. [applause] >> i outlined those four, because i want to show you the fundamental difference -- and this has been the great mistake in the last few years. .

explosion of economic growth in the united states. we would rapidly become the largest exporter in the world. we have a larger capacity to invent new businesses than anybody else in the world by a huge margin if we're not crippling ourselves. that is a fundamental difference. let's take energy as a similar example. a year ago, massive energy tax and wanted to continue to cripple the american economy by punishing american companies we proposed petition drive called drill here, drill now, pay less. that petition drive got a million 500 signatures and fundamentally changed the underlying debate. instead of being energy tax versus no energy tax. it was energy tax versus lots of energy. the american people turn out and 79% of the country believes we

ought to produce american energy. one fact as to the kind of debate you could have on your campuses. some of you have heard about the concept called peek energy. liberals say we are about to run out of fossil fuel and they don't count coal because then it it wouldn't be true. so they only count oil and natural gas. well, now it turns out we have new technology in natural gas, we can drill down 8000 feet and drill out horizontally in every direction. the result is we're discovering gas in shale and we have enormous quantities of gas, from western new york to western pennsylvania, through eastern ohio, through west virginia and kentucky, all the way down across texas. there is this enormous deposit of natural gas, none of which we knew about five years ago because it wasn't economically developable because we didn't have the right technology. now how much natural gas?

well, in the last five years we've discovered over 100-year supply. so now if you go back to your campus and start a debate about energy policy, here is your poor liberal friend about to tell you about how we will run out of things and should go to green technology late tuesday because by wednesday your car will not work and you will not have air conditioning and now the actual estimate is we have a minimum of 1300-year supply that we haven't found yet. it also turns out that last year we increased our estimate of of the size of the balkin formation, producing oil by a factor of 25. not 25%, 2500%. u.s. geological survey estimated it was that much bigger. three weeks ago they estimated a brand-new formation in north dakota and they think it has 1500% more energy than they thought it had two months ago.

you say, you mean if we get new technology and we're allowed legally to explore we might be able to produce all the energy we need without having to pay either saudi arabia or venezuela. [ applause ] >> now i'll give you a simple slogan to go back to your campuses with and this will be a really good format. we believe that bowing to a saudi king is not an effective energy policy. [ applause ] >> so let me just for a minute, i'm going to run through a set of ideas and we'll toss it open to questions. i want you to see the contrast. we believe you ought to stimulate the american worker, american business, small

business in particular to maximize the growth of american jobs through the american private sector. they believe you ought to raise taxes massively to hire more bureaucrats, to control more of america through politicians. that is a fundamentally different world. we believe we ought to develop american energy and american technology so america is able to keep the money at home, both for national security and for economic growth. they believe you ought to raise taxes massively on american energy, cripple the american economy and make sure you are dependent forever on countries like venezuela and saudi arabia, a fundamentally different model. we believe you ought to develop green technology. i wrote "contract with europe," but we also recognize there are 240 million vehicles in the current fleet that will require current technology fuels for the next generation. they believe we ought to make a

magic switch overnight to technology that does not yet exist at a price we cannot imagine using things we don't know about from companies that have not yet been formed fundamentally. [ applause ] >> we believe the world is dangerous, borders ought to be controlled, homeland security ought to work and security ought to defend america and americans and our allies. they believe the c.i.a. is dangerous and that if only every prisoner had therapy they would all be available for release next tuesday so they could vote in the 2012 campaign on behalf of of the party that liberated them. i mean, fundamentally different world here. [ applause ] >> now i just cite this because i think what reagan was saying at cpac in 1975, after the

collapse of watergate at a period when conservatism seemed to be back on defense and he said, we need bold colors no panel pastels. he was describing this kind of contrast. he was saying, don't try to be liberal-lites, try to offer a vision of a successful, dynamic america. we have three core goals, safety, prosperity and freedom. we have to stand up firmly and say, we're prepared to do what it takes to make america safe, to make sure that we are the most creative and productive economy in the world so we can be the most prosperous and by ensuring our safety and ensuring our prosperity, we want to make decisions that maximize our freedom, which gets me to my last major point, which is healthcare. you should go home and contact every person you know and use everybody you have on facebook and everybody in your e-mail

account and make sure that everybody talks to their member of congress and their senator to stop the left-wing government bureaucratic health model they are trying to pass in the house. [ applause ] >> we do need to reform the health system. i founded the center for health transformation because i believe we is can have a better system with more wellness, more early testing, more self-management of chronic diseases. i think we can have a system which actually moves at higher tempo with greater efficiency at lower cost, but i think that is a system that ought to be between the doctor and the patient, that is a system which ought to be run according to best practices. we do not need a government bureaucracy imposing left-wing

political values in the name of saving the budget by cutting health cost by refusing to give people healthcare. [ applause ] >> if any of your friends or your professors doubt the federal government is incompetent manager of healthcare, jim frogue just produced a new book called "stop paying the crooks." i know it's a clear statement in a city that is not very clear, but it is an important notion. jim and 13 experts studied medicare and medicaid. their conclusion was that there's between 70 and 120 billion a year of your money being paid to crooks. now when i say crooks, i mean a dentist in new york who filed 982 procedures a day.

i mean, a dental office in brooklyn that had somebody stood up front and said, if you will loan us your medicaid card for 30 seconds, we will give you a free dvd player. i'm talking about five pizza parlor necessary miami that registered with the medicaid program as hiv-aids transfusion centers and are getting paid by the government for hiv-aids transfusion. you have to look at this stuff to realize how bad it is. the idea paper-based bureaucracy can keep up with crooks in the age of blackberry and the internet is ludicrous. and so long before the politicians expand the current health system they ought to revise the current system to quit taking money away from you to spend paying to people who are cheating the government and cheating the country. i think that gives you a sense of how big the gap is between where we are and where we need to be. let me say in closing and i will

take questions. i want you to understand this. your generation is now participating in the fundamental decisions about whether we remain the freest, the most productive and the most powerful country in history. or whether we decay into a government-dominated, politician-defying, bureaucratically-controlled mess that has no capacity to compete with china and india in had the next generation. the decisions we make this year, next year, the year after are unbelievably important. your help this sumener making sure that everyone you know calls your congressman and your senators to tell them not to pass a giant energy tax that will crush the economy and not to pass a giant government-run health program that will crush the economy. this summer you have a chance to help change history. your help over the next year in

winning the argument on your campus, winning the campus in talk radio, winning in letters to the editor, going to town hall meetings, arranging for debates on key topics, setting the stage for 2010 election, which sends a signal, we want america to get back on the right track and setting the stage for 2012 election where we end up having as with jimmy carter, ensure liberalism is a one-term experience, that is the key to being successful over the next generation. let me if i could take questions. [ applause ] >> yes, ma'am? [question inaudible] -- spee

>> there is a mic. speekt >> my parents own an agency. it is important everybody learns about health insurance because that is the best way to combat what we are facing in washington right now. i also wonder what you think about -- i think a lot of the problem with health insurance right now, people want it to pay for everything, even private health insurance. i want to know what you think of that because i think that is why we are in this mess now. >> two things, healthtransformation.net, there is lots of of information on healthcare. second, i think you are right. part of the reason i have begun talking about 2 plus 2 equals 4 is to get people to slow down and be honest about life. the fact is there is no free health insurance. if you work for an employer and the employer provides health insurance, guess who paid for

it? you did. they don't give it to you. that is part of what you earn by being an employee. if the government rubs health insurance program, the government doesn't pay anything, you do. if they don't get money from the taxpayers, they borrow from your generation in debt and you pay interest on the debt the rest of your life. one way or the other, it is paid for. this had idea there is a free thing out here is fundamentally wrong. we believe in incent vised health plans and health savings accounts and things that give people interest in their own health. we've learned working with a number of different companies if you get people engaged in health they take better care of of themselves, they are less likely to get sick, they are better shoppers and i think the result is that -- i think this is a fundamental discussion about the nature of life with one side saying we'll take care of you and it it won't cost you

anything. then the other side saying, oh, in the real world, you know, you have to be involved in your own life and involved in studying and getting a job and you have to be involved in your own health and that is a real argument about what kind of country we're going to be. the country in which you rely on somebody else to give you everything is a country in which you gave power over your life to somebody else. once they can give you everything, they can take everything away. a country where you are self-reliant and capable of having work ethic and capable of controlling your own money is a country vee have more money. that is one of of the most important debates over the next years. >> i continuing is great, too, thank you. [ applause ] >> hi, samuel suttle from penn state. thank you for coming out, i know you are a very busy man. did you manage to schedule vacation time around 2012 for states like nuhampshire,

michigan? [ applause ] >> well, all i can say my limited experience what you are referring to doesn't sound much like a vacation. my sense is you have to work hard in those states, but something i will look at in january of 2011. >> thank you. >> hi, joseph hawkins, bailey university. one of the points in the contract with america was term limits. unfortunately we didn't get that enacted during the republican revolution. do you still believe in term limits and if you doe how long should they be for the house and senate? >> i think 12 years is is favorable and reasonable. i don't favor shorter time because you have no learning curve. a 12-year term limit for the house and senate would be more than reasonable.

>> thank you for coming out to speak to us. his question may have answered my question. i think you are absolutely right about the need to paint in the bold strokes as opposed to pale colors. colors fade to pale rapidly after elections, how do you think we can maintain a change and not just make one? >> i think you should run for office. i'm serious. if every person in america who is griping filed for office, you know, you'd have a new generation of candidates and that is part of the process. i'm not for defending anybody. if you have a republican who is not doing the right thing, they ought to get beat in the primary. if you are in a democratic district where a republican cannot win, find somebody to run in the primary f. people are unhappy, challenge them. the healthiest thing that can happen in free society is for jour generation to decide to

take your own future seriously and get directly involved in politics. if you are legally old enough to run for office, starting with school board, city council, county commission, go run. you will be amazed how much it will change the country. [ applause ] >> hi. melissa harrison, i'm political science student at lafayette. i plan to run for political office one day. i have a couple interesting solutions on healthcare and i wanted to get your feedback and the positives and what you think the negatives are. going back to what you were saying about hsa's, tax-free savings account, mainly to put for like doctor visits, that sort of thing that, way like you said, people will shop for their healthcare. i mean, right now we don't know what we're being charged at the doctor's office because it it is in the hand's of the insurance company. in the hands of the person, they

will shop and that will create competition and lower prices. also want to see what you thought about promotion of of non-profit organizations in creating big incentives for people to give to non-profits to have free clinics and that sort of thing. >> well, i think first of all, that it is very much key to any future successful health system to have price and kwality information available to everyone. people should have the right to know price and quality for doctors, hospitals, any kind of health activity they are engaged in to make a comparative choice with real information. that is very important. the more you directly engage in that, the better off we are. those who look around will know if you pay cash you can get the same procedure from the same doctor for surprisingly less money. it is really quite remarkable. then if they have to file forms, wait 90 days, go through that stuff, that is the first point

i'd make. i think that would be a useful step in the right direction and we favor it very much. thank you. >> i would like to say it is an honor to speak with you today. earlier you mentioned the time period we are in now is similar to that between reagan presidency and carter presidency. i wonder was there a defining action during that time period that led to the reagan presidency? >> i think what happened was across the whole country there was a growing sense that it it wasn't working and it wasn't that obvious at this stage if you go back to august of 1977, which was the same point for the carter presidency, it wasn't obvious it was going to be the disaster it became. nobody predicted you would have 13% inflation and 22% interest rates and have 440-day iranian

hostage and gasoline rationing with people buying gas every other day. it was a real mess and you couldn't tell that this early. you could sense carter believed, much like obama, in big government. if only we create enough departments and hire enough bureaucrats and raise enough taxes, everything will work, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of america. we are not a great bureaucratic country. we are not a country where if we hire more bureaucrats things would be terrific. it is entrepreneurial energy, small businesses, people who create the next wave of jobs. so a number of us, i was a candidate during that period. a number of of us felt like carter would not succeed because his models were wrong. for example, we didn't have enough gasoline. instead of encouraging exploration, they raised taxes

on the oil and gas companies and went to rationing. rationing turned out to be a nightmare and a good friend of mine, dave boss, of citizens united, was 13 that year and his father every morning would give him the screwdriver to go out and change license plates so that the car that needed gasoline had the right license plate and could therefore go and buy gasoline. i've told people, this was a great test of whether you are liberal or conservative. if you learn the government adopted a rule so dumb 13 year olds are changing license plates, is the correct answer, a, to drop the rule, or b, to hire license plate police at every gas station in which case you are a good liberal? [ applause ] >> hello. will campbell. i work at business incubator we

use private money to spur economic development in our county. i can't justify using this money, i can't justify my own job. i wonder how you feel about businesses like this, business incubators and businesses they create? >> i mean, of all the ways, that is one of the least destructive frankly. we have a very long tradition of government cooperating to build a better future. george washington favored gnarl turnpike and favored building canal around the potomic. dwight iize eisenhower created e highway you all drive on. if it creates a more productive future, i think there are times and places where government will do it. i want it to be real. i don't want to have make-work

programs or people pretending to develop new jobs. part of the thing i would ask you to look at in terms of your job, i am not urging you to go home and resign in protest. is this office creating enough new jobs to justify it? if it is not, we should get rid of it f. it is helping create a new generation of jobs, much like agricultural extengsion agent. they took seed corn out of lab and taught to grow productive crops. there is no question that public-private partnership was a key to the most productive agriculture in the history. is it real? is it getting something positive done or making work so politicians can give away jobs to their supporters? >> thank you. >> with the young britain foundation. i want to ask you where you

think american foreign policy is going in the fixture four years? with the current government we have criticism of of the state of israel, a president installed who constantly criticized the intervention in iraq. he will say stuff about honduras, but nothing about the protest in iran. we are in pakistan at the moment, i don't know if obama knows what we are supposed to be doing in pakistan at the moment. it's bizarre. i'd like to know your thoughts on that and whether or not america's influence in the world will diminish because of the government and obama himself particularly? >> well, let me say first of all since you are from britain. i recommend to you and everyone else here, book called "why margaret thacher matters." what? >> sounds good. >> yeah. it is worth your reading, remarkable study of the novelist

living in istanbul. she got fascinated looking back at what an enormous impact thatcher had on british economics. i think one of the fascinating differences between president reagan and president obama is president reagan had had a long period to think about foreign policy and to think about what he believed and doing the daily radio show for a long period after he was governor, he had really thought about almost every major public policy issue and developed firm opinion. i sense that president obama has a lot of sort of surface-level ideas, but he hasn't thought through the next two or three layers down. i think one of the most interesting things about the next two or three years is going to watch him come to grips with this. if you notice for example there is an article i believe in

today's paper on the fact that life has gotten harder in afghanistan, not easier. pakistan is in a relatively fragile state and that the northwest is really hard to deal with in pakistan. i think that we're going to find that hamas has a rather clear view of the future of israel, which is it ceases to exist and it is not a problem of xhungsz, they actually know what they want, they want to wipe out israel. we are going to find the iranians, having had a phony election in which the hard liner won by having stolen vote system now in a power struggle internally over how much power he's going to have. but no one i know believes the iranians will not try to get nuclear weapons and are are not pretty close to getting them. in north korea, it is clear despite years of the world yelling at north korea, the north koreans have nuclear weapons. when you have a country as weak

as north korea, with a government as bad as north korea, where the average height of the north korean people has shrunk through malnutrition, one of the most horrendous stories in modern history. the entire mrplanet can do nothg about it. i don't feel comfortable about our ability to secure the future. i think what is going to happen for president obama, is he will be in a position where on many different fronts he is simultaneously going to have to make very hard decisions and the first may number iran. because there is some talk, there was an article yesterday that the administration is looking at cutting off iranian gasoline shipment. iran produces oil, 60% of the gasoline. i'm not sure the administration has thought through all the second and third order effects of cutting off gasoline to iran. if the administration throws its hands up and says there is nothing to do, you may get an israeli attack on iran.

so this is all going to get much harder before it gets easier and is we don't know today how president obama will deal with it. >> hello. my name is heather cotman and i go to lake forest college. one of the biggest problems on campus is not so many liberals, but so many apa thettics. despite prominent advertising and efforts to get the campus involved, it seems like my college is a small private liberal arts college and people tend to live in a bubble. it is in a non-college town. they don't realize the policies being enacted, they sound good when they switch on t.v., are not going to be very beneficial for them once they leave that bubble and so i wonder if you have any suggestions about how to communicate these ideas and what the effects of healthcare and other issues will be once

they come out of college in a couple years? >> well, i have two dramatically different ways of communicating them. one is at a very high level, that is to have, because there are some people who get attracted intellectually to big debate. if you are liberal arts college, you have attracted a bunch of people who like talking about ideas and will stay up late at night talking about ideas. they don't necessarily know the idea they are talking about, but they love to talk about it. one level is you develop debate on fairly big positions. you know, does the american constitution matter? do our rights come from god or from politicians? and the kind of stuff people get engaged mentally. the second is practical direct self interest. would you like to have a job when you graduate? if you had a job, would you like to have money to go home with you at the end of work? would you like to have a health

program that actually enabled you to talk to your doctor, rather than bureaucrat. if you look at what dr dr. emmanuel has said and considered euthanasia. should down syndrome children be at risk of the government or should their lives be protected? should people who have disabilities -- [ applause ] >> you know, i mean if you read the "communitarian" standards the doctor describes tsounds threatening. you can have people engaged in conversation and debate who would not normally be engaged in it. >> i think that group debate format may be more efficient in terms of giving people the opportunity to share. >> legitimately young people like to talk to each other and

they have the time and energy to stay up until 2:00 in the morning and talk to each other and stagger to class 15 minutes later. it's remarkable. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is gerraline and i recently graduated from northern california. my question is a follow-up to heather's. after the last election, the huffington post even admitteded the media establishment in the u.s. was overly favorable to obama and yet after admitting it, they haven't made any changes. you just spoken to us at length about the reasons to have lower taxes and not enact new healthcare bill and frankly most people in the room probably knew that because we are political nerds. for the great masss of the american people who might not be interested in slugging through the messy business everyday, they're only or basically only source of information is liberal

news establishment. obviously we have strong allies on our side like rush limbaugh, god and the facts, how do you see the conservative movement as a whole being able to communicate our message effectively to the american people as a whole and kind of the middle, non-politically elite class when we have such an establishment of media and like showmanship up against us where they twist our words and we can hardly combat that? >> let me say first of all that i was active as a candidate during the rise of reagan. then i was a congressman for the last two years through the presidential campaign of '80 and i serveed with him for eight year necessary congress when he was president. and we had -- you could argue we had a harder time because we

didn't have rush limbaugh or fox news or hannity or the internet. there was actually probably greater net monopoly by abc, nbc, cbs, "new york times" in that era than there is today. i have two practical pieces of advice for you. the first is sheer repetition. i mean, if you took all e-mail addresses in this room, collectively you probably represent 60 or 100 or 200,000 people. you would be startled how many people you can connect with. you become the equivalent of a newspaper. what reagan did that was brilliant, he developed very specific ideas. the reason i talk about a 50% reduction in social security and medicare tax is you can go back home and every person who works can calculate how much they would take home next week with that kind of a tax cut and now it begins to be personal and it is not nbc news or "new york

times." it is personal. if i contrast competing with china, which has zero capital gains, why don't we have zero capital gains? every investor and capitalist in america can calculate what zero capital gains would be worth. now i get their attention at a level the "new york times" can't match. it does require immense amount of persistence and so the part of the reason reagan succeedd and we succeeded with the contract in 1994 was that you took big ideas and you stayed on them for two or three years. over a two or three-year period it penetrated and people talked to each other and said, that is what i want. you got down to fairly straightforward fight. reagan was for three-year tax cut, 30% cut in the income tax, that was his answer to carter's bad economy. the average american sat down and said, would i like 30% cut on my income tax? if it is not patriotic duty,

i'll accept it. you know. once they got it in their brain, the left couldn't get it out. we compainod welfare reform and people went down the checklist and said, i want that, i want that, i want that. the left couldn't get it out of their head. our challenge is pick big enough changes that can can translate into people's lives and be prepared to talk about them until we pass them into law and in that process you will change the whole country. >> thank you. you get to be the last person. >> wow. my name is valerie pratt. my question is during the carter administration, there was huge regulations put on the reprocessing of nuclear energy. my question is, if france can do it, and they can do it effectively, why do we still have such regulations that prevent us from doing it, as well? >> let me ask you, are you asking why the political class in america would be too stupid

to match france? >> yeah. >> that is really a hard question. i recommend you go see barney frank and henry westman and chris dodd. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> let me -- let me close and go back to heather's question for one second. i'm thrilled you all are here. i don't think you are nerds, i think you are citizens and being a citizen is very important. we have a new novel coming out in october called "triman's souls," which is about washington crossing the delaware on christmas day. the american revolution was on the virge of dieing and out of three million people, washington's army was down to 2500. of that 2500, only one-third, one-third had no boots and were marching in ice and snow with their feet in burl ap bags, leaving a trail of bloods

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>> sunday frank rich reflectos 15 years of political columns for the "new york times," including his look at the future of the internet from 1995, the whitewater hear sxgs his column following 9/11. that is sunday night on c-span.

>> cent democrats met with the democrats to discuss healthcare and spoke with reporters for almost 10 minutes. >> this was a wonderful time we spent together. the massive legislation is now law in this country. we talked about that. the first thing we did, the thing we are working on now is

healthcare. there was absolute unity in the conference. different ideas were expressed, but every idea was that we understand that before year's end we're going to get comprehensive and everyone recognizes we are going to do if there is any way humanly possible a bipartisan bill. we don't want to do a partisan bill. we hope our republican colleaguesk knowledge that. we will continue to work with them as long as we have to. the american people want healthcare reform and we're going to do healthcare reform n. spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town hall meetings and just throw monkey wrench into everything, we're going to continue to be positive and work hard. there was a lot of experience in that room and we had someone who was leading us and we all admire so very, very much.

the president didn't get one standing ovation, but several of them. he was really kind of reminded me of the days when i was an athlete and the coach was giving you a pep talk before the game. you came out of that pep talk that the coach gave you ready to take on the world. we're ready to take on the world. senator dodd. >> well, thank you. we thank you and the president. this is very gracious. we were going to recommend we do this every tuesday at the white house, having lunch, but the president was enthusiastic about where we are, what we have accomplished. let me echo the leader's wordings and the president's strong sgsz, obviously and that is is we get this job done. four of our five committees have acted. i have confidence in the person standing to my left immediately. he's been through an effort to reach bipartisan agreement in the finance committee. i'm confident we can get that done with max's leadership,

leading the committee in senator kennedy's absence, we are ready to sit down and meld our legislation and work with the house. the process is dynamic and open. we're welcoming people that want to come to the table and share their ideas, whether they be democrats, republicans, nurses, doctors, the insurance industry, pharmaceutical industry, others who have ideas. it improves and strengthens our efforts. we welcome that. we are determined to get the job done. we'll be gone for a month. in the month we're go a half million people will lose healthcare coverage in the united states. 14, answer are00 people a day. we need to come back with renewed sense of purpose that we will do everything possible to bring stability to the american public, they no longer have to worry at night to whether or not they have coverage or opportunity for care as they get into trouble. many of you may know i will go through surgery in a few days. i have a great healthcare plan. i never worry body my healthcare

plan or getting good care when i need it. that shouldn't be different from any other americans. we ought to be able to get help when we need it. just because i'm a member of congress and have a good plan doesn't mean others shouldn't have that sense of security, as well. democrats and republicans can get that job done. max. >> this was a reconfirmation that healthcare reform is necessary for the american people and we work together and we will get it done this year. we agree it should be bipartisan because that is more sustainable, more enduring, the right thing to do. the american people want to stay working together. second, we agree that we've got to get cost down. costs are too high. a third of the healthcare

expenditures today are just waste. we got to bring the waste out so the american families don't have to spend as much, american businesses don't have to spend so much and budgets aren't so high. we also rededicate to health insurance industry. why? because so many companies frankly are seeing days of too many americans denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and so forth. bottom line is we are going to try to get a bipartisan bill. it is the right thing to do for the country. the president does, too. but beyond that we're going to get healthcare reform pass third degree year. senator dodd and i, two separate bills, virtually about 80% of that is contained in both bills, very little difference here. we are going to get cost down and reform the health insurance industry and get coverage for americans and it was really a wonderful meeting led by terrific man, our president, barack obama.

one of the senators said, you know, it is wonderful to hear him speak. it's like a symphony. it is like, just great. he is so good, he has it together for all the right reasons. therefore, great motivation by our leader, to go out and get this done for the right reason because it is the right thing to do. >> what makes you think you have the democratic votes to do this on a bipartisan basis? what makes you all think you could get it done on a partisan basis? >> partisan or bipartisan? >> well, the preference is to do it together. american people want us to work together. american people do not like partisanship, but american people also don't like groups of people trying to kill something that should be done, should get passed, healthcare reform. we know that we have to reform

healthcare system because costs are eating us alive, we are going to get it it done. our hope is we will get it done together first. >> do you want a specific plan? >> if we were in nevada and it it is 115, we would take a lot of questions. it is high humidity, couple questions. >> yeah, we discussed, we should did, senator bingham and the chairman of of the committee talked about energy legislation, yes, we covered it it. we spent a lot of time on a lot of different issues. >> cash for clunkers, we will pass cash for clunkers. >> when? >> before you leave here. >> do you have the votes for it it? >> yes. >> did anyone ask the president to weigh in with more details of his plan and what he wants? >> as senator baucus said, 80% of the two bills represented by the two chairman are together

anyway. the president has been involved in this from the very beginning. anyone that thinks president obama and his people have not been involved in healthcare reform haven't followed what is going on. not a day goes by i don't talk to several people in the white house about healthcare reform and the same applies to the two chairmen. >> the main thing here, this is so right, so much the right thing to do when we go out during the august recess and beyond and explain with such conviction why this is right to do, the american people will start to realize that is the case. also show when the american people explain much of healthcare reform is insurance market reform, then it becomes quite popular. our goal is to explain what we're doing, why we are doing this, getting cost down, reform the insurance industry and making sure that people are able to keep the same doctor and same plan and have the choice they want to have and when they

understand that, it will work out quite well. >> one more question. >> yes? >> taking the lead in allocation under credit under the cap and trade bill? >> we are working on that now. i will have to work that out and i'll do that. thank you. now senate republicanos healthcare. mitch mcconnell will talk about the cash for clunkers bill, which he thinks the pass by the end of the week. from the capitol, this is less than 10 minutes.

>> august is an important month for all of us to go home and have an opportunity to discuss the way forward on healthcare. i think there is a bipartisan agreement that we need to improve the american healthcare system, but very broad differences of opinion about exactly how to go about that. all indications are at this point the american people would like for us to slow down and try to get this right because of the magnitude of it. i think they are not interested and clearly expressed themselves already in another russian span like we saw on the stimulus package. august would be a good opportunity for all of us on how

to deal with this issue, to go home and interact with our constituents and come back here in september with a stronger understanding of exactly where the american people might be on this most important issue. >> when i go back to tennessee, i expect to hear that we are heading in the wrong direction on healthcare and that we need to start over and get it right. when you have the mayo clinic, the congressional budget office, local chambers saying you are going in the right direction, that means start over and get it right. in tennessee, the democratic bills when broken down to the state would provide medicare cuts for 900,000 seniors, about 1.6 million tennessee citizens

would run a significant chance of losing employer insurance, most of those would go into a new government-run program. 20 million 400 thousand of those would go into a failing government-run program that already exists called medicaid. we'd have 135,000 businesses in tennessee who will be paying new taxes and fines. we need healthcare plan that americans can afford and then when we're through fixing it it, we need healthcare plan and a government that americans can afford. that will be our objective. >> thanks. >> i had a teletown hall meeting in advance of the august break and i'm looking forward to getting out in the month of august across my state as my colleagues are and hearing directly from the people about how they perceive the impact of the things that are being debated in terms of healthcare solutions. it strikes me the thing most

americans care about now is jobs. it is the economy and obviously the cost of healthcare factors into that, it is the availability of healthcare, access to healthcare, all factors into it it. the one thing we shouldn't be doing is raising taxes at a time when the economy is in recession in a way that will cost jobs to the economy. i think most people are making the connection between the cost of many healthcare proposals in thrillions of dollars paid for, financed by new taxes on small businesses which create two-thirds to three-quarterings of all jobs in our economy. i think the american people are appropriately focused as they were in my town hall meeting last night, the issue was healthcare and its impact on the economy. i think probably when you have employment on the threshold of 10% and your economy is shedding jobs literally every week, anything we do right now shouldn't be dilutive of job

creation. it ought to be additive to it and what the american people are concluding is that the proposal for democrat put forward in the form of healthcare reform would in fact cost the economy jobs. so they need to weigh in on this. august will give us all an opportunity to be out and hear directly from people in our individual states and hopefully will come back in september and push that reset button and actually get down and talk about things that would reduce cost, improve access and that wouldn't cost the american economy jobs. >> yes. >> how do you expect -- and will there be a final vote by the end of the week? >> what i anticipate, is we'll talk about how to process cash for clunkers. what i anticipate, it it will be complete by the end of the week. what we'll be negotiating over is the appropriateness of some amendments to the bill, but i

would anticipate that the matter will be completed sometime before the end of the week. >> and we'll -- >> what i'm predicting is we'll get a vote on the proposal sometime before the end of the week. >> after the meeting -- >> well, i think right now what we can safely say is the only thing bipartisan about the bills we've seen is the opposition to them. clearly for health -- excuse me, a healthcare bill that ought to pass ought to have bipartisan support and we'll continue to hope that will develop. but sort of major overhaul of

one-sixth of our economy is not likely to enjoy anything other than bipartisan opposition. >> there are a series of amendments i think our members would improve the proposal and i'd rather not speak for them on it it, but we will discuss with senator reid putting together a consent agreement to allow tous move toward completion and have votes on those amendments. okay. thanks. >> how is c-span funded? >> i have no clue. maybe government grants. >> advertising for products. >> public money, i'm sure. >> my taxes? >> how is is c-span funded? >> america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money.