and government is willing to make our information true the public. government must commit to modernize the disclosure of ethics and influenced data. among their primary responsibilities is to preserve the public trust on which it is built. . the ethics website will need to be built on new, interoperable

databases that folks across different bodies for this information, much of which will only be potion -- published on- line after public access is able to overcome this comfort from scrutiny. in addition to influence, information can empower citizens. if essential public notification are accessed and practice, often only for expensive commercial publishers, we should expect only money in trust will have the information for presentation. when agencies broadcast opportunities for presentation beyond traditional means, only then will distributed expertise to citizens become an assets to governments. solving this problem will take an effort, reaching out to

citizens and stakeholders when available, and a lot in the public information. in order to unlock additional potential, the government must also recognize an emergent body of technological expertise growing threat the country. people are discovering that their skills can be of use to the government. change can be inspired within government, in turn. also, to demonstrate the potential abuses and developer crating dozens of applications at little or no cost to the government. so procedural information and bulk data access can all of our

citizens -- empower citizens. this represents a large amount of opportunity for the digitally in powered citizenry. just as the successful broadband policy is necessary to fulfil a transparent democracy, is necessary to allow a citizenship to develop to its full placental. >> thank you. >> andrew reminded me of an amusing anecdote zero of the same lines. when i started to work in salt lake city, in 2002, i told my boss he was leaving, and he

said, you caught me doing my guilty pleasure. he grew up in a place called pleasant hills, oregon, a little town, and he said, i can get on line and read my hometown newspaper, and i am so excited. i bet you can read yours. i said, i bet i can. it is called the "washington post." i beat him to about one. one thing we are trying to do in chicago is bring the games. it is an election, and we have got a message, which is that we need people to back the bid, and we're trying to communicate to 118 voters, and to do that, looking at what is the best medium to communicate with them,

educating the citizens of what our bid is about and what we're trying to do in this, what we believe could be a transformative experience for the city. the couple of things we're trying to do is, we're trying to raise money for the bid, we are trying to show we are innovative, and creative, and also trying to reach an and gay youths -- in gauge used. -- engage youth. we also did not watch -- we're not a corporation with a lot of money. we are a bid team, an election group. so it was, how can we do this in the most fiscally responsible way? we need to go where people already are. we cannot create these places. we need to go and find them.

chicago, nationally, they are excited about the games. secondary, the ioc volunteer -- interestingly, volunteers would use this to sign up over 20,000, and they are able to get online to check their hours to find out other events coming up, and as an interesting offshoot, we have a program called 50 words in 50 days leading up to the election, where we go to the wards in chicago and talk about the bid. the number one thing they are concerned about is jobs. at this whole discussion is important to them, as is transparency. if the games come to chicago, it means a lot of opportunity, and how can we be transparent and how those go out to different

communities? this is through a community benefit agreement, and we have seen how we will see is available to them there, their anxiety level goes down. ok, i can get on, read at my leisure, and know about it. we have come out of 83-prong approach. really in gauging, looking upon going social monitoring, we have been able to target 1.2 million importers' connected with us, to reach out for them when we need them through a number of different activities. and really and powering them, making them part of the process and

helping them build our content, we have the video contests, youtube, and put together a program called "why chicago?' people put together their own videos of why they thought chicago was a great city to host the olympics. just enabling them to be part of the process reaching out to the committee and selling their city and including them in that. and then also, to activate them. we had a national olympic day in may, and 1500 people came before. through postings, we rallied 20,000 people to our celebration, which was outstanding. we also have a new application we are working on called sport finder, where we can get on,

volunteers play again, and they say i want to pay -- played beach volleyball wednesday at 6:00. who wants to come? by laying out onto other activities, we can help them find activities and keep them engaged in what they are doing. we have another program we're working on with chicago, trying to engage use in programs in the city paired with the parks district and private funding that the bid is bringing. and one of the things we have challenges with is that a lot of these kids are in areas where they cannot safely get to these programs. we look at this application in the same way to get off-duty

police officers to bring them to the site so they can remain engaged in those activities. we're not a consumer site, so our numbers are not as large. the biggest thing is how much larger we are than competitors. a few folks asked, you know, what is the status of our bid? we're competing against rhodesian air, madrid, and tokyo, and that vote is october 2. where we can get ahead of them on things, it makes us happy to do that. but the most important thing is obviously the vote on that day. we have 30 times more activity than you are seeing on this side. we have that as a four were part of our bid. the evaluation committee came in to see the city, and because of the commission, all the members do not comto your city.

an evaluation committee comes and spends three days in meetings and one day on a vendor to work. you really want to see people supporting the bid, and we went through our facebook page and asked fans to help us out, and it grew 50% that week. we use all their networking sites to get them to places where the bus was going so fans who were there would back the bid post. people were going live and sang, i think there are protesters at north beach, and they were going there so they could sworn the protesters. but again, some of the matter to what we're doing -- we have a lot of numbers so much more than

the cities are there, and having the first and only database of the big city with the numbers we have is important for us, enabling us to reach out and connect with our activities. the first activity was to integrate with the social media and communicate, to have our own youtube channel. you go get it, your first iphone application, and we count down to date 56, giving it a fun facts about the bid. so it is really -- we look at the age. the predominance is in that 13- 34 age where that is derange the

committee is looking for, too. sports are drifting away, and you're losing connectivity to the olympics. to see it now with what we're doing brings the connection back. >> thank you so much, and best of luck to chicago in its bid. we will now have questions from our panel. mary beth, you can ask the first question. >> i have been thinking of it from the physical public square to a national public square, and you have looked back changes you have seen over the past couple of years and for the last 12 years. i mean, what is the experience? why do you predict for the next 12 months or the next couple of years, with the use of broadband applications and things we

should be thinking about moving forward? >> i think we're going to have a fairly rocky. at -- a rocky time ahead, but hopefully one that brings progress. what we're losing, it seems to me, is people turning to web sites, blogs, and reinforcing what people already know. we would move away from innovation. we're using different tools, and i hope they use a significant vehicle for this.

people could be induced to come and have an interesting experience, from which we could build facts around which to have our experience. >> barriers are decreasing. it was pointed out this morning, eight website was made in 1997, and the first steps was to code in html. if you make a blog now, you do not have to do any of that. they are doing this now without having to burn in a database language, a spreadsheet, or did a set. there are tools involved in that, and we can recognize it. the sphere of interest is being lowered.

>> thank you. allah and gave some great examples of how public television can connect -- ellen gave great examples of how public media can connect to a broader audience. i would love some perspectives were examples of best practices where technology or broadband and address the somewhat wide civic divide we see, and i was wondering if you have advice for people connected to the internet for people who are not connected in their same communities? >> in 2005, i ran for the job of public advocate, the senate -- second position in the new york city-wide office on a platform to make new york city wireless.

and i became known as the wife i guy. -- wi-fi guy. i was promoting a not so kids could open laptops in parks and go online, but rather because i believed that organized men -- minorities are always more powerful than disorganized majorities, on-line or off. in new york city -- >> we will livleave this event now to go live to president obama, who is making remarks on the unemployment report. >> fewer jobs lost than in june, and far fewer than the 700,000 jobs we were losing at the beginning of the year. today, we are pointed in the right direction. we're losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when i took office. if we pulled the financial

system back from the brink, we restored value to retirement accounts. we have enabled families to reduce payments on their mortgages, making their homes more affordable and reducing foreclosures. we helped revive the senate market and open up loans for families and small businesses. while we rescued our economy from catastrophe, we have also begun to build a new foundation, which is why we passed an unprecedented recovery act before i took office. we avoided the earmarks and pork barrel spending so common in washington. there's a lot of misinformation about the recovery act, so let me repeat what it is and what it is not. the plan is divided into three parts. one-third of the money is tax relief, going directly to families and small businesses.

for american struggling to pay bills with shrinking wages, we made a pledge to put a tax cut in the pocket of americans. we also cut taxes for small businesses on the investments they make. another third of the money is for emergency relief to help folks who have borne the brunt of the recession. for laid-off americans, we have expanded recovery benefits. we are making health insurance 65% cheaper, and fort budget chart false, we have saved jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and police apsaras and other public service workers. so these two-thirds of the

recovery act to help people whether the worst phase of this recession pulsating jobs and stabilizing our economy. the last 30 is worked towards vital investments to stabilize the economy and build for tomorrow. part of that is the largest new investment since eisenhower build the interstate highway system in the 1950's. these are jobs rebuilding america. renovating schools and hospitals. as we put an end to this recession, we have to consider what comes next. because we cannot afford to return to an economy based on inflated profits in maxed out credit cards where we depend on dirty and outdated sources of energy and are burdened by a soaring health-care costs that serve only special interests. this will not create sustainable

growth, it will not sustain our deficit, and it will not create jobs. that is why we put an end to the status quo the goddess in this process. we cannot turn back to the failed policies of the past, nor can we stand still. now's the time to build a new foundation for a stronger, more productive economy that creates jobs for the future. this foundation has to be supported by several pillars to our economy. we need a commitment to education. we need health insurance reform that brings down costs and bring security for folks who have insurance, an affordable option for people who do not, and bring incentives creaking new clean energy sources for our industries. that is where the jobs the future are, that is where the competition will shape the 21st century, and america must win.

we have a lot more to go. as far as i'm concerned, we will not have a true recovery while we lose jobs, and we will not rest until every american looking for work and find a job. i have no doubt we can make these changes. it will not be easy, though. change is hard, especially in washington. we have a steep mountain to climb, and we started in a deep valley. but i believe in the american people, their capacity for hard work and innovation, and their courage to face adversity. we've already seen the strength of character over the course of this recession. across the country, people persevered even as bills have, and -- have emerged. i believe in our future. that is how we move the economy from the brink, how we are

turning it around, and i'm convinced we can see light at the end of the tunnel, but now we will have to move forward to reach the promise of a new day. thank you very much. >> president obama and the white house rose garden this afternoon with the latest on the u.s. economy and the report showing a decrease for the first time since april. not taking reporters' questions. coming in 14 minutes, the briefing with robert gibbs. we will have that live for you here on c-span. until then, a segment on jailing journalists abroad. l simon on the executive committee and to protect

journalists. when you saw the video of laura ling and euna lee, released from north korea, one went through your mind and the mind of the organization? guest: well, i think like all americans we were just relieved that the ordeal had come to an end. it certainly looked bleak for a while, and they were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in north korea. that is a very, very harsh sentence. it was not clear to us exactly what the way out of it was, so we saw them get off the plane and embrace their families, and we were really relieved that this had come to an end. host: much was written about the role of al gore behind the scenes, bill clinton, the administration, of course, but the committee to protect journalists -- how is it involved in this particular case? guest: this is a somewhat unusual situation. we were in touch with the

family, and we offered our support and solidarity, and really our role was to help keep this arrest sort of in the public mind. to make sure that there was media attention and to provide support, kind of emotional support to the families who participated in rallies and public bills. so that was really our role. host: you tell us that laura ling and euna lee are just two of many alberto tell us about journalists in prison and abroad two of many -- two of many. tell us about journalists in prison abroad. guest: with the crackdown in iran, the rest of about 40 journalists in the post-election crackdown, has actually

surpassed china and become the world's leading jailer of journalists. there are about 40 in jail right now, including a correspondent for "newsweek." i would say there are well over 150 journalists in jail around the world. what is important to keep in mind is i do not think there are many americans on that list. euna lee and laura ling were the only two. most of them are in prison in their own countries. that is what is typical. host: joel simon of the committee to protect journalists, he is the executive director. we invite your questions and comments by phone. republicans, democrats, independents, you have your own lines. we're talking maybe 150, 170 of these journalists in prison.

what other countries do you understand our holding journalists? guest: year after year china has been the world's meeting jailer, and they have around 30 journalists in jail. many of these are bloggers and online journalists, people who criticize the one-party system in china, who advocated for greater openness and pointed out corruption. these are the people who are in jail in china, as china has a vast apparatus to sensor control of the media, as we know. but if you cross the line, if you are not unduly intimidated and controlled and you become too critical, you risk being put in jail, and that has happened to several dozen journalists there. next is cuba in our own hemisphere. cuba has a much more controlled media even than china. in china there is a huge on-line

community and a vibrant public debate. in cuba there is none of that. in cuba the state controls the media. most of these journalists were swept up in a broad crackdown that began in march 2003. they have been sentenced to long prison terms, and their outlook is bleak. it is very, very -- it is a very, very tough situation for journalists in cuba. host: is there a typical situation in terms of how long these journalists are held in jail? what else can you tell us about them, about them being in prison? guest: it is not typical, and it varies. in a place like iran, we tend to see more of a revolving door. there are some loggers sentences, but for the most part -- there are some longer sentences, but for the most part journalists go in, go out, they are released.

in china, sentences could vary from a couple of years to a journalist who has been in jail the loggers, 20 years. in cuba -- the longest, 20 years. in cuba, some are several decades. the journalists who receive these sentences, some of them are older and not in good health, so you are talking potentially a life sentence. they are sending a clear message. china, with enormous population, 30 journalists may not sound like a large number, not sound like a large number, but these imprisonments a message is sent about the consequences of being overtly critical. there are sacred cows in chinese political cart for -- culture, like the one party system. these are issues he cannot

discuss, and if you do so, the consequences could be dire. that is the message of the chinese government. host: do you have a general sense of the treatment of these journalists, how they are doing? can you even tell? guest: in some cases, we're in touch with their families, so we can. we talk about burma, eritrea, africa -- secretary clinton just spoke about eritrea in her meeting with the president of somalia. these are all places -- some of these places, the journalists are held incommunicado. the journalist in iran have pretty much been deprived of all due process. in cuba, they have occasional family visits, but we know from family members had visited that conditions are harsh, with no

adequate medical care. in china, families are intimidated to find out what the treatment is like. it varies a little bit. who was in jail for several years who was in canada and spoke about his experience. he said the international outcry, letting the people of the chinese government know they were outraged by this. sometimes you hear stories like that that give you encouragement host: let's go to calls for joel simon of the committee to protect journalists. beverly, welcome to the program. caller: how are you doing? i wanted to say you mentioned a lot of countries. i think you would have to beat aliterate or uninformed not to know that there are -- i think you would have to be illiterate

or uninformed not to know that there are american journalists in other countries that we cannot get any word on, and why is nothing ever done when someone is held by the israelis? host: koehler, where do you get your information on all of this -- caller, where do you get your information on all this? caller: well, i got my information from callers on c- span, and then i looked it up on the internet and it is true. host: let's hear from joel simon. her point about israel? guest: well, i am afraid i have to plead ignorance and uninformed because i am not aware of that. host: democrats like, you are online with joel simon. caller: i have a question.

it depends on the representation of a particular company. a lot of companies -- those are the best people on the ground. let me ask you. would you think that more of the prominent government people would be going over, like president clinton, to negotiate on the release of the journalists throughout the country? guest: well, first of all, the hikers who were detained by the iranian authorities were not sure that -- it does not seem to be journalism related. that was unprecedented. that visit by former president clinton had to do with the nature of the north korean regime, and their desire for some sort of high-level attention from the u.s.. it is important to point out that this is not the first time something like this has happened. many times in american has been retained, and really what they

demand is some sort of high- level envoy to negotiate the release. this is not something that is unprecedented, and looking around a world that the situation right now, i cannot see this kind of intervention happening, given what the reality is in these places. host: our guest is educated at stanford, and joel simon has written a book, "endangered in mexico." he is a freelance 4 "the san francisco chronicle," and is now executive director of the committee -- how many countries around the world have a free press? guest: there are some groups that do that kind of monitoring, and it is a highly subjective

evaluation. but, you know, i think it is fair to say that a truly free press is rare, that most countries around the world have some sort of restriction on the press, and it obviously varies quite a bit. you can sort of breakdown into two broad categories, countries where there is violence against the press, the government is sort of unable or unwilling to stem the violence. countries that fall into that category might be mexico, our neighbor, where over 20 journalists have been killed in recent years, many of them covering the drug trade. or russia, where there is a long history of violence with impunity against journalists. pakistan, and certainly iraq. iraq is the most deadly country for journalists perhaps in history.

the second broad category are countries that jail journalists, repressive countries. violence is rare, but the government itself is kind of the enemy of press freedom, and we have talked about these countries already. around the world journalists confront two fundamental risks -- the risk of violence and the rest of incarceration. host: you mentioned russia. a viewer 3 twitter mentions russia as well. "what about the journalists that was poisoned because of criticism of putin." can you speak to a journalist who may have been poisoned? guest: i am not sure whether that person he was talking about -- he was actually a former kgb defector who lived in london who was poisoned, and that may be what the person was referring to. there was a journalist who was

one of the most incredible investigative journalists, really a courageous, courageous figure. and she traveled back and forth from moscow to chechnya where there is this terrible conflict going on and was one of the few russian reporters to cover it. she was actually poisoned on a flight from moscow where there was a school that was taken over by chechen terrorists. she went to cover that event and was poisoned. she did not die from that, fortunately, but subsequently she was actual it -- she was actually murdered in her moscow apartment elevator. she has become a symbol of brutality, the impunity of what is like to be a journalist in a place like russia covering human

rights issues, covering corruption. the killings continue, the impunity continues. it is an environment in which independent journalists are really just struggling to survive. host: we hear from michigan. bill, thanks for hanging on. caller: good morning. i want to see how unbiased c- span really is. i'm going to ask a question and make a statement. i was watching c-span earlier today and they did a news poll on how much you believe in the media, rated from a to f. the media got a d from the american public. you made the statement, sir, when you came on, saying that the majority of merit -- the majority of americans are greatly relieved -- the bottom line is the majority of americans do not care. what they care about is at the end of the month, 650,000 people

are losing their unemployment benefits. that is a good domestic army. you know, you want to talk about watering down, that is a man- made disaster that mr. obama needs to look at because that is what the people really care about. host: joel simon, because it touches on the opinion of others. he says most people do not care about this type of thing. do you sense that, and if you do, does that make your life, your job, even harder? guest: you know, it is interesting. the media is one of those things where people have a lot of -- there is a lot of disappointment. you confront that every day. but i have a very global perspective. a lot of people in this country, obviously their criticism of the media, and people around the

world do, too. but i tend to think that the media is viewed in a place where people -- where there is lots of different points of view and information flying around, people forming perspectives and opinions based on this information. you cannot take that for granted, and the countries we are talking about -- iran, china, cuba, russia, these are countries where most of the population does not have access to information, does not have a free and robust and open public debate. i understand the frustration and i understand why people are critical of the media, it is also easy to take for granted. if you live in a place where the media is centered and controlled and journalists are being put in jail, you really understand what the consequences are of losing

that channel of communication. host: we have a call from frank on the democrats' line, from cincinnati. good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for c-span. my understanding is that recently there were three hikers hiking in northern iraq. they were americans, and one, maybe several of them, where journalists. one of them was a journalist for democracy now! and they wandered into iran. as far as i know, they are still in iran. i am wondering what you could tell me about that. guest: yeah, we are simply concerned about the situation. it does not seem to be directly related to their journalistic work, although one of the people, one of the hikers who is detained in iran is a journalist. his name is shane hour.

as you mentioned, he wrote -- his name is shane bower. as you mentioned, he did some fine work as a journalist. he told his editor he was interested in the kurdish elections. it is not clear if he was planning to report on them. it seemed to be more of a recreational trip, and one of his companions released a statement yesterday which i recommend to you. he sort of describe what happened. this is really a recreational trip. it sounds a little strange to people here, but this area of iraq is actually very safe, very secure. it is kurdistan. it is not a part of iraq that you read about every day. it is a beautiful area. people do go up into the mountains, and the border is on mark, and that seems to be what happened. they seemed to be on a hiking trip.

we do not know exactly what happened. they called on their cell phone, i guess, at one point, their companion and said they were about to be taken in by iranian border patrol or border agents, and that is the last we know. the iranian government, some iranian government's boat people have said they were detained. -- some iranian government spokes people have said they were detained. it is obviously a troubling situation. host: tallahassee, florida, you are up now. nathaniel, independent caller, you are on with joel simon from new york caller: i would like to ask two questions, and then i will take my answers off the air. $600 million from the bush administration, allocated for

journalists going over iranian borders, and the election going on in iran. on in iran. it seems to be an a between money allocated, and isn't it a coincidence that the two countries we claim are active are the ones we continually are having? guest: i think it is largely coincidental. iran has -- iran and north korea, the dynamics are so totally different. but let me take a couple different points. one of the things about both of these countries, it is hard to get informations. it is a totally closed society.

information is hard to glean. so there's a tendency to try and figure out what the goal is of these journalists. we fell into the hands of authorities, and we know what happened there. you know, the dynamic that has led to this crackdown is complicated and has as much to do with domestic political competition and the split behind hard line and performance elements, but part of the politics since the 1979 revolution has always had to do with the perception that enemies outside the country, particularly the u.s., but not exclusively, are seeking to

destabilize and overthrow the government. not without foundation. when there is political instability, outside agitators are blamed, and journalists are often caught in the process. there is a history over the last decade or so of expanding the process, making it more vibrant , the government moving online, the government of being against loggers. ink that part of that is based on a perception within the government that there are enemies outside the country that could stand the thought that could destabilize the region. host: joel simon is with the committee to protect journalists. when a journalist is imprisoned

by some countries around the world, what might be happening behind the scenes by that person's news organization, governments that might be involved? guest: a couple of things to keep in mind. more and more journalist ott in prison around the world are freelancers, and more and more journalists around the world were on line. the largest group in prison worked online -- not print, not broadcast, online. that is the largest group. some of these journalists, such as the one who worked for "newsweek," they have people who worked for them behind the scenes. "newsweek" has done a very effective campaign of drawing attention to imprisonment without due process, without access to a lawyer, etc., and

the same with this other photojournalist. but many freelancers, many on- line journalists do not have organizations that can stand up and advocate for them. they do not have anyone who can draw attention to the circumstances of their detention. so it is even more difficult for them. sometimes you can mount effective legal defenses or public advocacy strategies or engage with the government, but sometimes that is more difficult. sometimes you do not even have basic information about where the journalist is being held, what kind of legal process has been implemented against them, so it is quite variable. but i have to point out in some of these cases the journalists are held incommunicado, and we go for an extended period of time without having any contact with them whatsoever. host: go to smith, alabama,

democrats line. what is your name? caller: wiladene. i admire so much the journalists that go to these very desperate, dangerous countries. but i am 81, and i have been watching news, news, news, which i -- from world war ii, the world -- the war correspondents. it was by film, of course, but i got direct news. i want to hear more direct news from anderson cooper, steve weir -- i want to hear their voice instead of all these repeated on the cable stations. i just want to know the latest news because i admire them so much. host: thanks for calling. let's go to buffalo new york and

hear from herb. caller: good morning. as mr. simon knows, about 25 years ago it was found out that journalists had been routinely recorded by the cia, and it was pointed out that this puts every journalist in danger overseas when the cia does that. and the government, as i recall at that point, agreed they would not recruit anymore journalists. now, that was 25 years ago. is there any agreement today, mr. simon, among the journalistic profession that they will refuse, they will totally refused to participate in any fashion in an intelligence-gathering job for the cia or any of our defense intelligence agencies? host: thanks. mr. simon?

guest: purely raise an excellent point. when journalists go overseas, the thing they get accused of most often is being a spy. it is in the interest of journalists and in the interest of our government that the cia never, ever recruit, use journalists as sources, and they had a prohibition on that that still stands that has been in place for a long time. the cia talk about this for a long time. they never recruit, they never use journalists as sources because they recognize the risk it poses to them. u.s. journalists, i can say categorically that it is a central tenet of the profession that this is something you never do. something that you never considered. so the caller is right. it is a risk, and it is something that we have to be vigilant about.

host: one last caller from dayton, ohio. michael, go ahead. caller: yes, i have a question about certain radio personalities -- michael savage. he is on a terror list in britain. he is not a terrorist, but he is on the list. he has also subpoenaed hillary clinton to take him off the list, but she says -- but she has seemed to ignore it. they fired a certain secretary who put him on the list. so far it seems the country just ignores it. the politicians will not do anything for him. he is a journalist right here in the u.s.. his program is never broadcast in britain, so she had lost

its control simon, what do you say about that? caller: is interesting. i am frankly -- guest: id is interesting. i'm frankly not aware of it. >> scheduled for 2:00 p.m. eastern time, the briefing with robert gibbs. we plan to bring you that live right here on c-span. until then, moveon.org's position on health care and protests from today's "washington journal." hogue from moveon.org. what does moveon.org want to see happ on the hill? what kind of healthcare became does it want? >> our members have been strong

advocates for true healthcare reform the heart of which is a public health insurance option. by real we mean ready on day one, everyone is covered. accountable to the population and large enough to compete with the controlling interests of the market. host: do you think you will get it? guest: i think we have a shot. this is the heart of president obama's plan. we have seen versions in the health bill. we have seen congressmen organizing, the congressional progressive caucus with their 57 signatures saying the final bill needs to have a public health insurance option. the bottom line is most americans want a public health insurance option. we have seen 70% of americans say that this is the plan that will work to solve the current healthcare crisis. host: we are here in washington

in a very quiet august. it is outside the country. around the country we have been talking about the town hall meetings. they are all over the news. what do you make of what you are seeing? guest: we are seeing town hall meetings being hijacked by right wing extremists with ties to corporate interests. we have seen the evidence that a lot of this is being funded by astro turf organizations like freedomworks who you just had your guest and most recent scandal that has ties to the coal industry. and i think americans are tired of our political discourse being dominated by special interests and right wing extremists. so we are hearing a lot from members all over the country. we have members in all 50 states and they understand august is the time to make their voices heard. host: what role does moveon.org

have? you talked about @@@@@@ this minority dominates the debate, and our elected representatives do not hear from the folks who want true health care reform. so our councils are absolutely mobilizing in every single state to turn out to town halls, but also, we are organizing a separate events with small business leaders who have stepped up for real health care reform. we're doing small business roundtable. we have been on the ground,

organizing health-care reform for months and months and months. we did 140 rallies or public health insurance just two weeks ago. so it is not new. we are engaging citizens who know how to turn up and think about what they want, and we will just see that amplified old way through. host: there is an ad called political football. >> while the president is trying to make health care affordable, republicans are doing nothing. actually come out worse than nothing. they are turning it into a political football. tell congress that this is not a game, and we can purchase all of us. host: anything you want to add?

guest: the point was to point out that, while 70% of americans want a public auction, all americans understand the crisis. and instead of looking for solutions, the republican leadership is playing politics with this issue that matters every day to people who are losing their homes. caller: 30 cents of every dollar goes to the industry. i cannot afford more to pay for health care.

guest: i could not agree with you more. there is an enormous amount of waste to be cut from the system that has to be set up from the special interests, and most americans understand that an investment in a true public option will lower cost. host: do you think that the insurers are winning? do you see it that way? guest: they are spending millions on advertising, but what we have our honest americans who are fed up with the system.

and comparing and can drastic comparing and contrasting, i know the american system is best. .

>> ordinary citizens can make their voices heard for what they want. we have a referendum on the bush administration in 2000 aid where members said they want a change that obama had promised. following through on that, with health insurance and a plan that covers all americans, the quality that we know we can provide is critical to keeping our country wonderful and strong. and host: next caller? caller: i know we only have a few seconds. you just stated to the last gentleman that people have a right to express their feelings and opinions how come when you come on -- i realize i am from louisiana and everybody thinks that bus in the south we are

trash. this is the furthest thing from the truth. item 53 years old. i may mother, a white, a grandmother, we do with our communities asked us to do. you are trying to tell me that the solution that is coming out of washington will help? we understand health care reform and we know it costs. you want to tell me that i right wing extremists? i do not belong to any organization. for the first time in my life, i went to a meeting in batten rouge. it is not pork -- fair for you to say what you said. are you a left-wing extremist? guest: i am from the south, too. i am sensitive to the stereotypes of southern people. i am from texas. we see the type of hate like you see at the sarah palin rallies.

we absolutely agree and try for honest discourse that gets us to the solutions. that is why we are activating everyone and trying to create a space where we can work for the top issues on health care reform. it is impossible to do that when you have the kind of news reports coming out of these districts where meetings have to be shut down because many of the so-called t beggars or birth ers are screaming down the folks who want to have a real conversation about what health care reform looks like. host: our last guest call this ed shocking. is about one minute long. we will take a look at it and be back. >> the right wing extremist republican base is back. they lost the election. they lost and recovery act, the budget, and children's health care. they have lost the confidence of

the american people after eight years of failed policies that ruined our economy and cost millions of jobs. now, desperate republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs, just like they did during the election. their goal is to destroy president barack obama and stop the change that americans voted for overwhelmingly in november. >> it will break in. >> i hope he fails. >> this month that the delay is from the -- this is from the playbook of republicans. they have called out of mob. >> i want to know why people are ignoring -- >> call the republican party and tell them you have had enough of the mob. host: that is a dnc ed. high numbers of people at these town hall meetings. at what point does a becoming mob? guest: it becomes a month when

you are crowding out the kind of debate and discourse that allows us to move to a solution. that is not our advertisement, that is a dnc advertisement. you have memos being issued from washington, d.c. about how to disrupt town hall meetings. that is not the american way. the america that we believe that actually allows people to sit down and talk about their differences and move toward solutions. the republicans have offered no solutions. they have offered a path to political defeat of obama which is not what our country needs right now. host: frazier, michigan is on the line. are you there? caller: can you hear me? ok, i may -- i am a maryland resident and we attended a town hall meeting. we went to seek what was going on.

we went with the intent of supporting congresswoman wentworht because we don't appreciate congress people being shouted down. no one has the right to impose their right -- oppose upon my right to speak my view -- impose upon my right to speak my view. at this meeting, she did a really good job and we were there to support her. she asked us to be respectful and for the most part it was. all of the right wing faction that was there was ridiculous. guest: i think the caller makes a great point. i have covered these points. the one thing that we are hearing, like from the caller, is the right wing may have overreached. when they are spewing hate and shouting down the american

tradition of debate in these town halls, they will make sure that the 70% of americans who want a public health care option and others who want to health care reform will show up and make sure their voices are heard. host: let's hear from newport, tenn.. caller: good morning. i am a disabled vietnam veteran. i also have medicare. in 2006, the stock market was at 14,000. the gas price was $1.56 per gallon. oil was $46 per barrel. the democrats took over the congress and since then, we have gradually gone downhill. on the medicare part, if the government can run it so well, why do i have to have a

supplemental insurance with my medicare that is a private insurance. when i go to the va, it takes me three months to six months to get care. if health care is so good, why does this have to happen? guest:ov we have absolutely seen the economic situation decline. if you look at the whole picture, this is something that started long before the democrats took control of congress. we are looking at real solutions to get out of it. one of the real solutions is a public health insurance option that allows americans the choice of staying with their current insurer or going with the government plan. this will increase competition which will bring prices down for everyone. one of the things we have seen, the white house released a report two weeks ago about the

impact that this will have on small businesses. they are the backbone of the american economy. small businesses should no longer have to choose between covering their employees or laying people off. health care reform will help small businesses and help get our economy back on track and help private insurers to compete host: host: the jobless numbers are out and they are better than projected. >> i think president barack obama has said this is a long road to recovery. it took a long time to get into this situation we are in. the health reform plan is one component of what we will need to see. we have clean -- we have a clean energy jobs bill that is making its way through the senate. when you see the administration pursuing that, we have a real economic crisis and have to address that first where it is heading americans hardest which is in their health insurance. host: is the stimulus plan working? guest: the stimulus plan has

been a great start, i think. there is evidence that shows that people are starting to feel the recovery but the stimulus plan is only one piece of the puzzle about how we get out of the economic crisis we are in. the other pieces are currently making their way through congress. that is one of the points that we are here to make is that we cannot afford the delay and the stalling techniques that the republicans have engaged. the clean energy jobs bill, the health care reform bill, all of those have an impact on the economic crisis we are in. it must be addressed now. host: clinton, missouri, you are on the independent line. are you there? caller: yes, i am here. i have a couple of questions. who runs moveon.org or? guest: we are a federal

political action committee. we are entirely member-funded by our members. our average donation is $42. that makes us accountable to our grass roots. we do not take large checks from any foundations or individuals. our members contribute when they think we are doing great work. we're proud of that. caller: the actual answer to that question is george soros and you know it. in the health care program that we have that is put forth by congress, as we speak, on page 15, >> we will leave this recorded portion to take you live to the white house and today's briefing with robert gibbs. >> all right. take your seats. happy friday. let's do a quick week ahead.

the president has no scheduled public events on saturday. on sunday, the president will travel to guadalajara to attend the north american leaders' summit. he will return to washington on monday evening. on tuesday, the president will travel to portsmouth, new hampshire, to hold a town hall meeting on health care reform. the meeting will be in the early afternoon. on wednesday morning, the president will host a reception for just a sonia sotomayor at the white house. in the afternoon, the present will host a medal of freedom ceremony here, as well. on thursday, the president will attend meetings at the white house. on friday, august 14, the first family will visit the bozeman area of montana. an august 15, they will travel to yellowstone, wyoming and grand junction, colorado. they will then travel to the

grand canyon and phoenix, ariz. on august 16 and return to washington, d.c. on monday, august 17. the first family's visit to the national parks occurred during a fee-freeing weekend for our national parks. this is encouraging all people, including the many cynical people that sit on the right end of the front row, my right end of the front row, excuse me. we encourage them to go and visit the national parks. you have to pay. everybody else is exempt. he has been to yellowstone. he tells a story of coming to

visit his grandparents that i believe includes stops at yellowstone and grand canyon. it is partly to highlight our national park system and to highlight the weekend where we hope millions of americans will enjoy the national park system and there will be events in addition to some of the stops. we have the best security and the world. yes? >> two topics -- on the economy, the president said in a rose garden that the worst may be behind us. he reiterated that he thinks unemployment will still go up to 10% if the worst may be behind us but unemployment might get worse, isn't that a contradiction? >> no, you have seen this

happen taking out this month's statistics for the purposes of the percentage of those unemployed, we will come back to the larger numbers, each month since january, you have had your -- fewer jobs lost but the rate goes up. we expect the trend of the rate going up to continue. going back to the actual numbers themselves, if you look at the first -- if you take either the first quarter, the first three months of the year, the general number we were at 470,000. you see the rate of decline continues to improve. we have gone from the first quarter from six and 91,000, the second quarter at 436,000, and

as the president mentioned, this month's number is a couple of hundred thousand less than the previous month's number. we continue to believe an economist continue to believe that we can make progress but the unemployment percentage is likely to continue to increase. for that rate to come down, you will have to have some sustained thpositive job growth. >> for the american people following best and might be confuse about which datapoint to follow, does the white house have one that they prefer that is the best standard hourly, is going? >> throughout the week, we get a series of statistics. the american people get those statistics.

some point to positive news and others are not a positive. i do not know that there is one magic figure that i would judge the entire economy by. the president will tell you that if there are people in this country that are out of work, that are looking for work and they want to work, if those people cannot find a job, we have more work to do for them. that is what motivates him. again, we have seen that decline in job loss. that is a good thing. there are numbers within this report that are not as positive. long-term unemployment is at its highest ever. obviously, there is still a lot wrong with our economy. if you stept)e back and take itn the larger sense, looking at the stabilization of the financial system, the possible bottoming out of the housing market, some

improvement in the jobs picture, i would describe the report today as the least bad report we have had in one year. we still have a long way to go. >> i want to ask you about the disruptions that some of the town hall meetings on health care. does the president believed that the republican party is behind those? does he believe that they reflect the genuine concern on behalf of people about the direction of the legislation? >> i do not in any way doubt that there are people that have on this policy disagreements with the white house or democrats with republicans and vice versa. you have seen to those of the group's bragged about being able to coalesce and manufacture the ankle. -- the anger.

one guy holds the title of running a health-care company and having it be find it the greatest amount, $1.7 billion, that the u.s. has levied against a health-care company. i am not entirely sure what part of his role he wants to brag about. i will tell you this -- the president believes and has always believed that town hall meetings are a very useful place for the discussion of issues, to talk about the decisions that are facing him and the american people. they ought to be able to be conducted without shouting and shoving and pushing and people getting hurt. i think we can have honest policy disagreements without being disagreeable and without being violent. i think anybody that has a strong opinion should come to town hall meeting but also respect that others may want to

take part in the town hall meeting and may just want to listen to the debate. if somebody is yelling or someone is being violent, i am not sure that helps the entire process for anybody involved. >> on the economy -- the recession is already the longest since the great depression. at what point point do you think the president can declare when the recession is over? >> that is a hard one for me to say. obviously, that is a determination that is made by an economics board. it is based on a series of data. i am not entirely sure that the technical end from the economic board of a recession will in any

way to note the end of economic pain for the american people. i think that is what is important. the president wants to continue to see improvement. we want to get to the point where we are creating jobs and laying down that long-term foundation. you saw a good example of it this week in the investment in the new battery technology as a way of taking communities and factories that, at one time, have produced something different in our transportation sector and now they might create jobs producing something slightly different. there may be a technical end to something but i think the president will still believe, and i think the american people will see, that there is still work left to do. >> what about economic growth? has it begun in the second half? >> the last statistics that we

have -- no one will confuse me for an economist and i don't want to get ahead of the arithmetic -- we are hopeful that in that second half of this year, we will begin to see either the achieving of that even part or with some good fortune, may be some positive economic growth. the output statistics we released one week ago showed what a variance between where we were in the first quarter and the second quarter, attributed to the recovery act by the economists. we certainly hope that trend continues. >> as the u.s. government been able to confirm the pakistani /taliban she is dead -- chief is

dead? >> we have seen reports even by members of the tell them he is dead. we cannot with 100% certain to verify that. if the reports of his death are correct, there is no doubt that the pakistani people are safer as a result. the two. made earlier art importance -- one that this is an individual whose title as a murderous thug was well-deserved. he is somebody who helped plan and execute the deaths of scores of individuals, innocent civilians, men, women, and

children, from suicide attacks to planning the assassination of the benazir bhutto. his demise is a good thing for the pakistani people. secondly, i think this demonstrates the amount of cooperation that you are seeing between our government and the government of pakistan. in stamping out tell them, al qaeda, and other organizations who are terrorists who seek to destabilize the area and do harm to scores of innocent civilians. the president is regularly kept up-to-date on what is going on with this as well as our broader strategy on afghanistan and pakistan. he could sinews to receive regular information.

-- he continues to receive regular information. it may be many weeks before you could determine something like that. is based on was going on in that region and the remoteness of that region. we don't have 100% certainty. >> you have a briefing every day on situations around the globe, including afghanistan and pakistan is he satisfied with the way things are going because pakistan is cooperating more with the u.s. more than the last 80 years? >> we are seeing a high level of sustained cooperation.

this is certainly a good thing. we think is -- we think is a good thing or the pakistani people and it is good -- a good thing for the region. obviously, his death would be a good thing for the pakistani people, this terrorist. this is a region of the world, with afghanistan and pakistan, where we have quite a lot of work to do. our men and women in uniform are sacrificing each and every day to disrupt, dismantle, and destroyed the tell them, al qaeda, and affiliated terrorist networks. that is what we will continue to do. >> will there be any escalation with more troops or more help from the president? >> we made a series of security

decisions leading up to the election to establish what the president -- what military advisers and commanders on the ground believed what was needed for a secure environment, to have an important election that would be run by the afghans. the pentagon said earlier, as we continue to evaluate that, the final report on that will, post- election. >> there was a published report of were the stimulus funds were going and it was concluded that there was no relationship between the county or any areas with the unemployment rate and the stimulus funds. some areas have the exact same unemployment rate. there is a vast disparity on how much of the stimulus funds are

going to certain places. is this a problem? >> which stimulus? >> i am assuming the job infrastructure fund. >> i'm not familiar with that report. i am happy to take a look at it. differed money goes to different places based on different formulas. as you heard the presence in the rose garden, 1/3 of the money is for tax cuts the code to 95% of working individuals. i would have to take a look at where some of that is. i think the notion that -- we are all a good example. we're washington, d.c. i live in the city of alexandria. some of you may live in arlington and some of you may live in fairfax county or prince george's county. some of you may live in montgomery county and others will live in baltimore. we are in the district of

columbia. to say that money is going to alexandria, the city of alexandria, but not helping anyone in the city or county of arlington, is to assume that between each of these government subdivisions, there is some economic wall that does not see money going from one to the other. it is entirely possible and very real that if you are building a bridge in smith county, you could easily hire people from george county to work in smith county. there is a lot of slicing and dicing that does not necessarily reflect where individual recovery money may or may not be going. i will say that if you look at the statistics we have seen in the last two fridays, it is clear and obvious that the

recovery plan is cushioning the blow, in terms of our economic output. it is helping us save and create jobs. it is working as we believe and intended it to work in order to get our economy back on track. >> a follow-up -- this week there has been an application in terms of the rhetoric of some of the protesters against the president's position on health care reform. they are using nazi imagery. the democrats said the protesters were using on toward tactics. the democrats -- a democratic senator called the protesters un-american. she retracted that. rush limbaugh went on a long speech during his radio show where he compared democrats to nazis.

he compared the president to hitler. i am wondering if the president has seen any of this. the nazi imagery has been condemned by jewish groups but i'm wondering if he feels anything about this. >> i think he has seen news reports. i don't know whether it is written or cable reports. regardless of where we are and the differences we have on an issue as important as health care, i know the president believes strongly that we can discuss these issues without personally maligning the person we are discussing this issue with. we want to do so in a way that respects the dignity of each individual. i think anytime you make

references to what happened in germany in the '30's and 40's, i think you are talking about an event that has no equivalent. anytime anyone ventures to compare anything to that, they are on thin ice. it is best not deployed. we can have a discussion in our democracy about where we want to go and why or why not we want to take certain steps. the president strongly believes we can do so without yelling at each other and without pushing each other, without degrading each other. we can do so in a way that respects the difference in all of our views. >> the dnc put out a video earlier this week that said all

the protesters were birth certificate-denying, and records. it was not exactly a video that was in accordance with the respect and dignity you spoke about. >> we have seen some stuff -- i mentioned it a week ago -- we have seen in a tree that shocks and surprises us. i think the best thing to do is to take the temperature down a bit. >> on health care, can you clear up whether the white house had some behind-the-scenes deal with pharma? there have been reports saying the white house told democratic senators that there was no deal. >> there is an agreement with phamra, the senate finance committee which is supported by the white house to see savings

from the pharmaceutical industry to fill in the doughnut hole for medicare part b recipients that exhausts benefits and find themselves on their own -- part d, >> pharma is saying that you would not seek anything beyond $80 billion in savings. that has already been agreed to others want to squeeze more savings out. wednesday night, and e-mail was sent to "the new york times" from the white house that there was a deal which was beyond $80 billion. >> we feel $80 billion is inappropriate amount. i don't have a statistic in from the but the house bill has $85 billion in it. >> so there is a deal that you won't squeeze any more?

>> i hate to blow our cover but we announced it publicly. >> there were some reports that a privately told democratic senators there was no deal. >> i don't know where that is coming from. i know what that is based on. -- i don't know what that is based on. >> on the economy -- what is a reasonable time frame for the president to reassess whether or not more action is needed beyond the original recovery act? there's a lot of speculation on a second stimulus package. what is your timetable because the president said today will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs. >> i can confirm the president does not think we are fully recovered. we do not have any banners out that say we only lost a quarter of a million jobs. i think you would get agreement

and from what the economic advisers and the president has said witches, first and foremost, our porpoise -- our focus is on growing the economy and employing 2/3 of the recovery act that is yet to be spent for its 70% of that money will be spent through the end of fiscal year 2010. that is our first priority. the president would give the vice-president a lot of credit for how the bill has been implemented and the effects it has had in stimulating our economy. i have also said and others have said that we will continue to evaluate where we are. if there are things that can or need to be done in order to get our economy to grow faster, we will certainly consider them. nothing is on the table but nothing is off the table. we are focused more on

implementing what we have. we are continuing to hopefully see continued prop -- positive impact from the recovery act that we have seen thus far. >> in june, you were asked about the deal and whether the deal with, implied that the white house signed off on other wrestlers -- legislation such as allowing medicare to renegotiate with parma. you said you did not know the answer to that. did you not personally know or did the senate finance committee not inform the white house? >> you are asking me why i don't recall something in june. i don't know the answer to that. the agreement we have is in the confines of health insurance reform. it is being worked on right now. >> on the town hall meetings -- what advice does the white house have for democrats confronting

this kind of hostility? should the canceled meetings or marshal forces on their side? is there a way they can deal with this? what advice does the white house have? >> the personalized i can give somebody is to continue doing the town hall meetings and ask those that participate to be a themselves like your mother would tell you to do. also, have a robust discussion of the issues. >> are you aware of what people told members of congress yesterday? >> i was not there. >> do you have any knowledge? >> there are different reports that say they were talking about but i have not talked to anyone about that. >> you don't know what advice is being given to members of congress? >> no, i don't think it is much different than what i said. it is important that people be settled -- civil.

we can discuss these issues without being uncivilized. >> but they are not subtle -- -- but if they are not civil, should they stand up to them and fight back? what should they do? >> that depends on the individual member. we can conjure up images of how people can handle these things differently. i think the best advice would be to finish your answer, make sure -- i think a town hall meeting is bigger than whatever one person asks a question. it is like you are asking the question, the answer is for the benefit of everybody. continuing to discuss the issues that are important, ranging from

health care to the economy to the war in afghanistan, i think those are things that are of great interest to the american people. i think asking a question of those that represent you in washington is a fairly time- honored tradition >> i am talking about people who are getting shouted down. why hold the meetings at all? >> i think you have to continue to talk to people about where we are on the issues. you may not convince the person that asks or shouts or boos or hollers. the town hall meetings are not necessarily for the benefit of one individual question or one individual questioner. >> on health care -- i am trying to reconcile that on the one hand, you had a hands-off approach on details on how congress is writing the legislation on health care reform for it on the other hand,

you have been meeting unilaterally with people in the industry and cutting deals. when you cut these deals, is it fair to say that you tell the folks in congress that you have agreed to this so what ever you do -- can you explain how the process works? >> the reason that the paper is on the senate finance committee website is that the senate was involved in this. >> what the details? >> sometime ago, we had an event at the white house that talked about the fact that the $2 trillion was the savings would have over a period of time. we want stakeholders' involved in the debate. cost savings will come from somewhere. they will come from changes in the way we pay drug

manufacturers, hospitals, and things like that. >> is it fair to say that in the way this pharmaceutical deal -- people are going out there in saying this is the deal and people agree on the number? is that how you handle the deals with the industry? you also tell the folks in the five committees? >> many people in congress are aware of negotiations with those who are involved in the delivery of health care. >> another topic -- you had said that before the president leaves for mexico, he is expected to meet with president clinton. >> i said yesterday that we expect that by the time he leaves, the nsc keep will have

that meeting. i think it is unlikely that the two would see each other for a longer meeting because of their busy schedules >> what about the telephone? >> i don't believe they have had a conversation. >> as a fulbright second place? >> i don't believe so. the initial debrief with the nsc was about one hour long. there has been nothing since then. i don't think anything has happened, they would have briefed me. >> liberal columnists are saying that you have failed in selling

health care reform. you don't clarify your points. you are turning the other cheek for everything the opposition is doing and you seem week in your response. what i am saying is -- >> is that a question? >> could you clarify your point of view? >> if you could take one by one, on euthanasia and picking your doctor and -- >> i don't think there's a start and finish line to this argument. if there is, we have not gotten to the finish line i think that is why i told these gentleman that our advice would be to continue talking to your constituents, continuing to talk to them about why it is important that we get health care and health insurance reform and why it is important that we

deal with things that -- >> there will be a hiatus now. >> i think the president has had a pretty good week. if you look back, we will take this week. >> on the mexico summit -- it would seem that this is a really broad agenda with the possibility of agreements coming further down the road but maybe not immediately praised the mexican government points to resolution of the trucking dispute as something that could be deliverable. what are the obstacles to reaching that and what chances will become to some agreement? >> let me get -- let me not get into the back-and-forth of what has to be ironed out on that. we don't expect anything -- to announce anything big out of this weekend. obviously, it is something that

the president and members of congress on both sides of the issue are concerned about. that is because of its important to our relationship with mexico and our continued economic growth. i want to get into a back-and- forth on what issues might be outstanding and house might be solved. i think that is best to do after the events this weekend. >> the president sounded wound up last night at the campaign rally for creigh deeds when he said the bank crisis did not happen on his watch. who is getting under the president's scan like that? >> the president just gets fired up. it is liberating to get outside of 1600 pennsylvania avenue, i

guess. >> it was not that far away. [applause] >> you would be surprised at how liberating it can be to get just outside the complex. [applause] [laughter] i think the president gets fired up and the president wants to -- we get free advice every day from people who took the bus and rode into a ditch and wants to buy 7 get out. we get advice from people who run a bar tab. there will be a chance to pitch in some good ideas and come to some resolutions and make some progress on the real problems that face america. >> has he spoken with judge so tomayor. >> i believe he called for after the vote yesterday.

she will be sworn in tomorrow at the supreme court. he will not be there. there will be a reception on wednesday for her here. the event tomorrow will be the formal swearing-in by the chief justice and for her family and friends and there will be a ceremony, a more public one. >> what did he say in that phone call? >> i'd never read out but i will get one for you. >> next week, when the president meets with the judge so, your -- with judge sonia sotomayor, this is a very special thing for me. i was born in puerto rico and i would like to see her. we should talk to us? >> -- will she talk to us? >> i don't know if it will be open mike night but the

reception does have an open press component to it. >> you said the white house feels that $80 billion knees to be saved in health care. to what extent will the president go to have no more and no less than that? >> we are going to far in the in a negotiation process. the negotiations in the house are in that ballpark and we feel confident that we can keep important players involved in support of health care reform. yes sir? >> i talked with some of the economists in the labor department and one thing that happened in july, the labor department took a poll active participation in the work force. about 775,000 americans into that they were not looking for work. they were taken out of the

monthly survey. would you agree that that is partially to account for a reduction in jobs, 247,000, yet the unemployment rate went down. is that an explanation of what happens? >> we talked about that this morning. [laughter] i have to give you points for honesty. i admit i may not have been as clear. >> that is why does not deposited. 7075 b as in people out of the workforce. -- 775,000 people out of the work force. >> >> a decent amount of them would be discouraged, without a doubt. absolutely, some of them may have won the lottery and are

moving somewhere else. probably very few. some are seasonally adjusted. there are fluctuations month to month. that is what i -- that is why i noted earlier that there are troubling signs with long-term unemployment reaching its highest level. we have talked about the fact that we need to create and have sustained creation of a positive job growth to see that number either hold the line or fall back in a way that the notes general -- genuine positivity. basically, my hunch is that if you have not taken that many people out of the work force, you might see something that is more on the level then you would have seen as a decrease. if you go back and look at our reactions to three months ago, three reports ago, when we went

from -519,000 to 300,000 and last month when it went to a revised #443,000 or this month to go from that to -447,000, our response has been the same period. we still have a lot of work to do. there were some pause of size. you had wages that went up a little bit. you had a level number on the work week, meaning that businesses worked -- what sometimes will happen in these reports -- which is why i was hesitant to pick one number for the overall picture -- if you look at the work week number, you may have a series of employers that decide that they do not want to fire people but they want them to work 35 hours instead of 40 hours.

that is denoted in some of the spiriis. i would be the first one to admit that we are all lucky to have gainful employment. several million americans have watched their jobs disappear in this recession. >> this would partially explain why the unemployment rate went down this month. but it is likely to a 10% by the end of the year? >> whether it's 10% next month, you could easily see it go up with a similar number of jobs lost if the number in that fraction hold constant. even as we have seen this go from 741,000 to 652,000 and as the job picture has gotten better from the standpoint of your jobs lost, you still see

the unemployment rate go up because you still have to create those jobs to see that rate go down. >> let me rephrase the drug deal. >> what drug deal? >> the question on pharma -- senator mcclain sent out -- senator mccain sent out a message today that reads as follows," drug companies cut deals with the white house and americans lose, special interests when, so much for transparency." would you like to respond? >> that doesn't seem to make any sense. first of all, there is paper about this because it was announced. i do not understand the last argument. what we're doing is looking for

savings in the program in health care that would make health care more portable and less expensive for all americans. the agreement that was worked out will help seniors who fall into that doughnut hole in a program that expanded medicare coverage drugs for seniors and used savings to make health insurance more portable form -- more affordable for millions of americans. >> [inaudible] >> if you look back of the course of health care reform as an issue of last 40 years, if you look at where we are in the debate and where others have been and where different stakeholders have been in that debate on the other side,

running television ads, opposing health-care reform and making it harder for it to happen, we have those takeovers at the table. they are making agreements that will make health care more affordable for families, for small businesses, that will institute genuine insurance reform and make the lives of the american people better. i think that is a win-win for all those people. >> wasn't candidate obama critical of the president sitting down with special interest groups? >> the president said we will sit down with these guys and negotiate health care. this is exactly what the president envisioned. >> did anyone have any role in discussing malone's potential run in the new york senate? >> i honestly don't know.

>> there are media reports -- >> a few days ago, there was only two and now there is like three. i won it -- i want to get an ironclad agreement. >> there are media reports -- [laughter] their media reports that the president postulate press conference or 15% less than his first presidential press conference. has it occurred to the president that he might reverse this loss if he recognized more than 10 reporters and questions and gave leftss filibusterous answers? >> he would probably have a long answer to that. [laughter] i do not think it is any surprise that fewer people are watching television in the

summer than they are in february because that is why the networks that make a lot of money off of television, that is why, generally, the best programs are in the fall and continued throughout the winter. in the summer we get to go outside. >> would he be willing to have a news conference where for every question from a reporter, he would be able to ask the reporter a question about his or her medias coverage? >> how about we do this? how but he asked -- he answered the question and i get to ask the follow-up. >> that would be real press conference. >> let's play the hypothetical. this is somewhat entertaining. if the ask you a question, this is hypothetical, then he would

get to ask a question about your coverage? >> yes. >> you may be onto something. i will get back with a less filibusteredous answer. >lester hasn't got me all torqud off. >> why did the white house see it was important or had to play a role, malone's position? messages were carried to carolyn maloney. >> i don't think there is any doubt that -- i don't know that the two are analogous.

there was a primary we had with then-senator clinton, taking us to states that we would likely not have been as competitive in had we not spent a decent amount of time there in april or may or june. >> in upstate new york, there are still a few republicans. >> it is hard for me to draw a direct correlations to the senate race without having a better knowledge of the area of the state itself. let me find out the degree. >> can you answer why he would inject himself? >> we want to have good, strong candidates running in the senate and the house. in many of these races, in the new york, we have a fabulous candidate now keeping her house seat and a fabulous candidate we hope keeping her senate seat. .

but i have not seen a recommendation yet, but i can certainly check on that. >> former president clinton [unintelligible] [unintelligible] with the united states continued [unintelligible] >> i think you heard president clinton say many times in the

past, and i don't normally do it but i spoke yesterday about this notion that if you look at the history of president clinton and his involvement in de- nuclearize in the peninsula -- de-nuclearizing the korean peninsula. giving up its nuclear program coming back to the table and living up to the agreements that you as a leader in the country signed, will bring new international benefits rather than further isolation -- will bring you international benefits. that is the goal we have. it was the goal with the clinton administration, and it is our

hope that we can seek that de- nuclearization. thanks guys. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> today's white house briefing with robert gibbs. tonight, we will have remarks from anne coulter at the national conservative conference at george washington university. you can see those comments live tonight at 8:15 p.m. eastern.

tomorrow, at the swearing in ceremony for sonia sotomayor. she will gather with family and friends at the east conference room for the judicial oath that will be administered by john roberts. you can see that live tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern and it will be at c-span.org. we want to let you know the associated press reported now that a flo that senator announced he is resigning. he is holding a news conference right now. -- reporting that a florida senator announced he is resigning. >> this weekend, panels from the key west literary seminar and annapolis book festival. go to booktv.org for the full schedule. >> frank reflects on 15 years of political columns for the "new york times." this will include the whitewater

hearings and his column falling 9/11. >> how is c-span fund it? >> donations. >> federal funds. >> private contributions. >> honestly, i don't know. >> advertisement. >> something from the government. >> 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private initiative -- a private business initiative. >> our discussion now on protests at town hall healthcare meetings and the administration's health care meeting from this morning's " washington journal." host: if you go to your web site, you will see something called the august recess action kit. they are talking about these town hall meetings and other

gatherings. what is the purpose? guest: freedom works is a grass roots organization. every recess we ask our members and tell our members where town hall meetings are and encourage them to go. we. these action kits, and they include -- we include action kits, and the idea is to get them to participate in the democratic process. it seems like more than ever are showing up this august. host: not to make a direct connection but paul krugman writes about withe town hall mo. there a famous norman rockwell painting part of a series illustrating f.d.r.'s four freed freedoms shows an ordinary citizen protesting.

his neighbors don't like what he is saying but they let him speak what his mind is. that is a far cry from what happened. some shouting this is america have been drowning out and in some cases threatening members of congress trying to talk about health reform. so, when you ask folks to go to town hall meetings what exactly are you telling them to do? guest: we want them to go and ask questions. we don't encourage them to be unruly. it is not necessarily any benefit for that. but when you see the gigantic encroachment on people's lives that we have seen just in the last 10 months, you go back to the busch wall street bailout. $700 billion, a $1 trillion stimulus package now the encroachment into healthcare, they are going to get upset and i can't really blame them for

raising their voices and not using their inside voice when talking about such a serious issue. host: dick armey from texas is chairman of freedomworks. you can learn more at freedomworks.org. phone numbers on the screen as we talk about the protests over congress and healthcare. we have lines for republicans, democrats an independents for our guest max pap mass vice president for bush pappas. paul krugman said while organizers are accuracy haven't seen any evidence that the people disrupting those town halls are a florida style rent a mob referring to the bush v gore case. they appearance to be genuinely angry. what does freedomworks want with healthcare? do you have a proposal? guest: yes, we have been working on healthcare reform for years.

we think that there are major problems with the current system and that we have a list of things that we would like to see. there is nothing in the current proposal that is anything like anything we have been talking about for a god decade. we would like to see people be able to buy insurance over state lines. we have the commerce clause in the constitution where you should be able to buy anything in any state without any barriers but you can't buy insurance from one state to the next. that results in jig cliffs between -- gigantic cliffs between prices. the same guy in new jersey will pay about $1,000 more in new jersey than one who wants to buy in kentucky. the reason is every state has a different list of mandates that the insurance company needs to meet before it can sell insurance in that state. and you get those mandate lists captured by the powerful interests in those states. so you have states where you have to buy insurance that includes things lick weight coverage or mass saage therapy

somebody don't want to pay an extra premium but they have to because the lobby holds up the process. so you have the big, big disparities. if we get rid of that barrier, here is the point where i intirl agree with the rhetoric of the president and even what a lot of congressmen are saying, we need more competition in the healthcare insurance market. we do. if you take down the barriers between states and let somebody shop for health insurance in any state, at no does taxpayers you have a big decrease in the cost for health insurance and more people can afford to buy it which is one of the goals. host: having heard your position on healthcare, let's get back to the town hall meetings. the d.n.c. put out an ad saying "enough of the mob." let's takeeñ3ñnovr a look. >> they are back. they lost the election.

they last the recovery act, the budget and children's healthcare. they have lost the confidence of the american people after eight years of failed policies that ruined our economy and cost millions of jobs. now desperate republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs like had he did in the election. their goal, destroy president obama and stop the change americans voted for overwhelmingly in november. >> it will break him. >> i hope he fails. >> this mob activity is straight from the playbook of high level political operatives. they have no plan for moving our country forward so they have called out the mob. >> i want to know why you people are ignoring this instruction kit. >> call the republican party. tell them you have had enough of the mob. host: max pappas of freedom p works. your reaction? >> that is a shocking ad. what we are seeing in that ad is

the demonization of what just a couple of months ago we were celebrating as community organizing. what freedomworks is doing is community organizing. we have people who agree with our positions. we have a mission statement. lower taxes, less government. more freedom. so we oppose any big government program. people who agree with us sign up and come to us for information about the issues and where the town halls are so they can participate. president obama celebrated the idea of that because he was a community organizer. now the d.n.c. releases an ad like that. it is very disappointing. host: before we get to calls some have suggested groups like yours may not be grass roots but astro turf, something that is artificial, something that is prefabricated and preorganized. they are making the point you are structuring all of this stuff. guest: that absurd.

freedomworks has been involved in grassroots organizing for 25 years. we always ask people to go to recess visits with their congressmen. we did so in july. you can find a memorial day action kit and july action kit on the website. the difference this time is you have so many more people showing up. now, what we are hearing from our guys is, wow, this is amazing. we never see this many people on our side when we show,. usually it is 25 or so. now you hear about 300, 500 people at congressional town hall meetings. that is something i think that should be celebrated and we have that much more participation in democracy. now, when you have that many people there will be somebody going over the line like the devil pictures. that is not good. but when those inside the beltway should see is just how much their encroachment into the lives of the people outside the beltway is getting people excited and upset. host: let's get on to calls for

max pappas and we will continue to look at some of shots that have come in, mostly by youtube. we are looking to cover some of our own this month around the country. dave in indiana. caller: hey, max, you are a true patriot. i belong to a small group called council of conservative citizens and once you get out of the major cities and get out that the midwest you realize that the average american just wants to go to work, work hard, be patriotic, pay bills and hope that the government stays out of his way. what has happened over the democratic party, mr. obama is way past a democrat, republican. it is a socialist view that the government can take care of everybody. uc average folks getting fed up. -- you see average folks getting fed up.

i guess i am one of those mob people. we just want to say no. the old expression is i might not agree with what you say but i will defend your right to say it. what happened with the democratic party is they have tried to bulrush america and try to become socialists, but now the average american is standing up. they are getting confused like now what do we do? i think it is great what your doing. keep up the good work. i wanted to let you know there are millions of americans that would prefer not to get involved, that would prefer to keep the status quo, but we cannot afford it anymore. what can we do as regular people to make a difference other than making phone calls? when they do -- when we do go to protest, a lot of times they call us a racist. they say you hate immigrants. i don't hate emigrants, i just

don't want illegal immigrants in this country. whenever someone says obama is bad, people say it is racist. host: what would you tell that collar? guest: he brings of two great points. he is wondering what the average person can do. the first thing i would do if i were concerned was i would write a letter to my congressman and i would find 10 friends to agree with me to do similarly. the congressman will usually talley how much letters they have on each side and if they have more on one side they will give it more thought and maybe won't vote for something. if the caller wants to join frequentlyworks it is free. we will keep you up to date. the second issue he brought up to get back to your question about are these fake grassroots that you are seeing. as he pointed out, people have their own lives to lead. i know here inside the beltway we think that politics is the

most important thing anybody could possibly do and care about. but outside the beltway people have their families and their softball leagues, churches and their jobs to worry about. that is why usually there is a fairly low electrical of participation at the town hall meetings. so, when you see this many more people showing up, you are seeing that many more people taking time out of their private lives, away from their families to participate in the democratic process. i think that is what those inside the beltway need to focus on, not the spin about it being phony grass roots. these are real people who have taken extra time. host: huntington, new york, michael on with max pappas. caller: thank you so much and good morning, c-span. my question is, first of all, as far as your statement about competition state to state, i had a person on c-span one other time and she pointed out each state has their own regulatory

system and that businesses out of state would not be able to flow under it. therefore, the idea that you could have competition state to state would not work. secondly, as far as socialist systems and the competition from a government run system the best system in the world it seems number one and we are somewhere around 36 in our quality of healthcare, is france which is entirely social ills. we pay twice as much as they do per person for healthcare. how can you justify this basically sale of the healthcare system to monopolies and say this is good for the american people? and please let me stay on and respond to your response. host: thanks. guest: the points about not being able to compete over state lines is peculiar to healthcare. i think all i have to do is point out starbucks and mcdonald's as two examples of

businesses that compete across state lines. it is a peculiar regulation to healthcare and if we could have something like what we have with mcdonald's or starbucks where you have them in every state thats what i'm talking about brings instant competition. host: caller, go ahead. sfwloo that is impossible because there must be regular litted inside the state. you would have to eliminate the state's capability of regulating themselves. so what you are talking about is not possible. host: mr. pappas. guest: it is. almost every other business does that. what wouldn't happen is if the wig industry in minnesota has managed to get its business part of the mandate list for health insurance doesn't mean that you are going to have to pay for insurance that covers wigs in iowa. so the list of mandates you pay for will be different. host: newton, mississippi, now, robert on the independent line. you are on with max pappas.

caller: i want to know one thing. why should people be treated like a business? i listen to you the conservative groups, all your people have done is get together, e-mail a lot of people, told them to go out, say these things, disrupt these meetings and you say this is not racist? it is against one person, president obama. it is against everything he is trying to do. you loud mouths like rush limbaugh, sean hannity, all these other folks that you listen to daily, even my good friend joe scarborough, it is ridiculous. all you are trying to do is disrupt something a needs to be done for all people. not just your people and the people you e-mail and try to get something done to disrupt something. host: let's hear from our guest.

guest: we have been opposing big government for 25 years. doesn't matter who is proposing it. we proposed many of george bush's policies that were encroachments into people's lives. we opposed bill clinton's tax hikes. we opposed george bush role one's tax hikes. it has nothing to do with president obama. it has to do with healthcare reform going in the wrong direction. we've got a lot of ideas and none of them is it the current legislation and we think it takes it entirely in the wrong direction so we are opposed to the policy. host: how many members does freedomworks claim? >> we have over 700,000 members that we have built up the last 25 years. host: free to join? guest: yes, assign up on the website and we will send you weekly e-mails. as you get more involved our guys in the d.c. office will call to see how additionally you

can be participating. we do phone trees where the d.c. office will call the top guys saying get your guys to call these and we do a phone tree down. it is a very expensive way to participate. host: what other issues are you mainly involved with? guest: cap and trade is another one we have done a lot of work on. we see that as a giant energy tax that the environmentalists question whether it will have any outcome they would like to see in terms of carbon emissi emissions. that with healthcare are taking up a lot of time. we were heavily involved in the opposition of stimulus this spring. last october we got 70,000 petitions to the white house opposing the wall street bailout. host: are you considered a lobbying organization? guest: no, we are a 501-c-3. host: what feedback are you

getting from members from the town halls, members of congress and members of your organization? because we are likely to see this continue, aren't we? guest: yes, i think so. i think it will be a long august for the members of congress. i think the most interesting thing we are hearing from members in the states is the idea that, wow, we never see this many people on our side at the town halls. because our guys are part of the little group that shows up that is part of the core of 25 that the congressmen see. and i think a lot of times they feel like they are on their own. now they are seeing more people show up with their own hand-painted signs and they sort of feel like they are part of a bigger thing now. so i think they are excited. i think they are glad to see that camaraderie. host: orange, park, florida on the republican line. caller: good morning, gentlemen. as a true republican, sir, you say you have got the power to get these people out there through e-mails.

i called you and challenged you to send an e-mail today to tell these people to wrap it down. we republicans already have the image of being old by corporate. now we are getting the image of being owned by wild america. look at these crowds. i'm looking at one of them right now. evidently most of them are on medicare. at the same time you see no minorities, no blacks, no hispanics. that is the groups we have to get back in our party. it is just by -- i tell friends of mine, which i'm 100% disabled veteran, 73 years old, on v.a. it is a socialistic system. most of my friends are on medicare, which according to you and your group is a socialistic system. i tell my friends, or strangers

i meet some of the things i know about our party and they say where did you hear that. i said sean hannity, rush limbaugh. they laugh at me. everybody thinks these rush limbaugh and sean hannity and all these radio talk people have all of this power. they are nothing but a joke. this new guy, what is his name, i can't remember his name on fox news. he comes on at 5:00. he is a madman. guest: we don't have the power to control how many people turn out or how they behave there. all we really do is facilitate their participation by letting people know when the town halls are and giving tell information about the subjects. the passes are so tydeep we can send out an e-mail that says calm down. there are a lot of americans

who, i think, agree with the idea that henry david thoreau sadist oi sa said disobedience is true liberty and they realize they have to raise their voices and it is too bad that it gets to that but it shows the frustration people have. they go to the town hall and hear the spin. i think the senator specter town hall was a gooding of what w getting to people. he would say we need to consider these things quickly and pass them fast. people don't want that. host: more pictures and write-ups from town halls. here is the "new york post." congressman anthony weiner democrat talking with senior citizens on healthcare at a half empty community center in queens. they say it came of little notice and was free of the angry protests. that is new york city. here is the front page of the "detroit free press." healthcare forum turns raucous.

advocate john dingell tries to defend reform proposal. was greeted with jeers and cheers as he tried to explain why change in the healthcare system has he has advocated more than a half century makes sense. there is a photo of a dan thompson of canton, michigan, yelling during the town hall. next call for max pappas of freedomworks, north little rock, arkansas. nancy on the democratic line. caller: the only thing that i have to say is it has already been well public iized that the republicans have sent out memos directing their people on how to disrupt the town hall meetings. now, i have one thing to say about that. you can yell, you can scream, you can encourage your people to go and you can sit there with that silly little smirk on your

face, sir, and i'm going to say one thing to you. until you are ready to sit down and have a serious discussion about healthcare reform and the idea that in all of this time the only thing that a republican group has come up with is to buy insurance across state lines? how many republicans and republican congresses have been in there? host: is there any more flesh you want to put on your thoughts about healthcare? guest: sure. there are reams and reams of paper on proposals for healthcare reform. host: we also, by the way, have a tweet that wants more detail from you. guest: we would like to see an expansion of health savings accounts where people have high deductible insurance and have money in a savings account instead of the money going to the insurance company your employer puts it into an account you own and control and you have insurance to cover the most expensive things, say above

$2,000 and you get $150 a month into the savings account so you have the $2,000 quickly. that puts a real market mechanism in healthcare that we don't have right now. nobody knows how much it costs to go for a check-up except the co-pay. if you had a co-pay on milk you would probably buy more milk. you could have tort reform where you get the with the buying across state lines, those are three big things that could have a large impact. they would bring down the cost of health insurance, so more people could have it and the cost of health care. leader of those are done by a bill that has passed out of senator kennedy's chamber in the senate. that is also part of the frustration. we heard the rhetoric about

lowering costs and getting more people insured, and the actual bill does not do that. host: let's here from indiana. you are on the independent line. caller: i am glad you took my call. i don't understand for one thing, how come there is no flexibility between the parties when my wife and i have two insurance companies, and 20% of our gross income is consumed, yet that is just broad coverage. we are not talking about shared costs, pharmaceuticals, or anything catastrophic that would happen to us. we would go into bankruptcy. why isn't there some consideration -- why can't the

two chambers of the house come into a compromise where we put a trigger mechanism on it to where we could try this system of universal health-care coverage. i don't want to use socialism because socialism is a buzzword for a lot of medicare people. they think they are not part of the social medicine group. what george just shared with us, i think, is very important and it reminds me of my parents' own situation. my parents live in massachusetts where they have a model of what is being considered in congress and my mom said to me the other day she wishes that her health insurance premium only doubled the last couple of years. it has gone through the roof. they are both self-employed, trying to figure out how to pay for it. so these are really problems and i hope they come to a compromise

on the hill and i hope had he don't do what they did in massachusetts which is harm my parents which would harm so many more. so this is an important issue and it is a false dichotomy to say those that don't support what is currently being proposed don't want reform. we want roreform. host: cookeville, tennessee. caller: i want to make three quick points because i know you are busy and i appreciate c-span. first i want to let people know this is a free enterprise system. it is not up to me as a taxpayer to pay for your health insurance. i thought that we had welfare reform back in the 1990's and we said the rights of people to be on welfare was over. number two, health insurance is not a right. there is nothing in the constitution about health insurance. if you want it, you pay for it. back in the 1940's 90% of people

didn't have health insurance. we have come a long way. the third thing i want to point out to you is if you look at the countries that do have the universal healthcare program they pay a lot higher taxes than we document they pay some of them up to 60% or 50% of total income is tax. and the guy who said they want to demonize republicans, i say shame on democrats for putting this ad out trying to say that we are trying to destroy their party. the truth is there. we have a right to speak or minds. thank you. host: final thoughts on the town hall meetings. guest: well, all the attention has been on a memo saying the right is trying to get the people to disrupt town hall meetin meetings. i went on to the afl-cio website and they have a group healthcare for americans now and they claim

that they have been generating grassroots activism all year on healthcare. they claim to have sent 7,500 people to capitol hill to protest on healthcare and in their memo they have a point that says do not debate on their policy points and two interrupt them on talking points. so the idea that only the right is trying to generate people is false. the unions have been pushing people out. but there are more people showing up opposed to what is being suggested. so, i think that is a good gauge for what is going on. the call also mentioned other countries. i lived in england for a while in the 1990's and i would repeatedly see signs that said nurse shortage and bed shortage and they have nationalized healthcare. so, it is all free but you get the shortages that you see a lot and to sum

>> you can see "washington journal" every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. tonight we will have anne coulter speaking at george washington university. you can see her comments live at 8:15 p.m. eastern. tomorrow is the swearing in ceremony for a sonia sotomayor. she will gather with friends and family in the east conference room for the judicial oath. that will be administered by chief justice john roberts tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. it will all -- it will also be carried on line at c-span.org. >> a florida senator held a press conference in orlando where he announced his intention to resign before his term ends

in 2011. his remarks are about five minutes. >> thank you for coming. 12 years ago by offered myself as a candidate for public office out of a deep sense of appreciation for what the people of florida did for me as a young immigrant when i came to this country. we decided it was time to get back to the public arena. i had the privilege of being mayor of orange county and then a member of the president's cabinet. now i had the honor of serving as a u.s. senator. i had gained the greatest respect for the people of florida and have enjoyed serving their interests. when i began my term as senator, i promised i would not simply want the seat. i promised to make a difference -- i did not simply want to warm the seat. i work for people struggling to

keep their homes and jobs. on that note, i am grateful to the men and women of our military who might have had the honor of representing in washington. i thank them for their service to this country. i have had also a platform to speak against the oppression of the cuban regime and my hope for a better future for the cuban people. i will continue my passion in the next phase of my life. i will always be grateful to the people of florida for bestowing upon me the honor of representing them in the senate. my priorities have always been my faith, family and my country, and after nearly 12 years of public service, it is time to return to florida and my family. today i am announcing my decision to step down from public office effective upon a successor taking office to fill out the remainder of my term.

i have enjoyed my time in the senate immensely. i had the most difficult time in leaving the great friendships i have developed with wonderful people that served this nation in the senate. i also want to thank mitch mcconnell for his guidance, the french ship and is useful insights throughout the time i have been in the sense site -- the french ship -- the frie ndship and useful insights from the time i have been in the senate. to have an even closer opportunity for family time. i look forward to continuing to be a constructive voice on issues that are vital to florida and the u.s. i also look forward to being an active part of a resurging republican party. thank you very much. i will take a couple of questions.

>> [inaudible] >> absolutely not. this is a free country. this is of my own free will. >> [inaudible] >> for the reasons i just stated. i cannot say it any better than i just did. it is only my desire to move on with my life. >> [inaudible] >> that is the governor's decision. i respect that and i trust him to do a good job. >> [inaudible] >> i called the governor to let him know what i was doing. we have talked about this potential and he is prepared to conduct a good process. i leave that in his hands. >> [inaudible] >> i will leave all those questions to the governor. >> [inaudible] >> none whatsoever. not on what.

i am in good health. >> [inaudible] >> the next phase of my life will be in the private sector, but i do hope i can have is a voice -- i hope i can have a voice to speak on specific issues. i have no specific plans other than the fact that it will be in private life. >> [inaudible] >> [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] >> [inaudible] >> no. [speaking spanish]

pardon me? [inaudible] >> no, i do not. to be true to this request, it will be about a 60-day gap when you will not see me doing much of anything. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. no, i will not do that. >> all this month, revisit the festival's we have covered this year on c-span's "book tv." this week we will have the annapolis folk festival. go on line for the full schedule. >> frank rich reflects on 15 years of political columns for the "new york times," including his look at the future of the internet , the whitewater hearings and his column on 9/11.

>> how is c-span find it? >> donations. >> federal funds. >> private contributions. >> honestly, i don't know. >> advertisement. >> something from the government. >> 30 years ago america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiatives. no government mandate, no government money. >> earlier today the secretaries of the department of homeland security, education and health and human services talked about how schools can be prepared for the upcoming flu season. they were joined by the director of the centers for disease control. >> good morning everybody. i would like to welcome you to the department of health and human services. i am kathleen sebelius's

secretary and am glad to be with three great leaders of our country, janet the public can now -- janet napolitano and tom freenman, who is the director of the center for disease control. we have been working together to prepare for the flu season. from the moment i walked in as april, i spent my first evening in the situation room being briefed on the evolving flu in late april. today, we are announcing the latest steps we're taking to get rid -- to get ready for the flu season this fall. new guidance from schools from the centers for disease control that we are releasing today will help schools prepare today h1n1 flu strains.

parents are out buying school supplies and we want you to know we are taking steps to insure that children and teachers are as safe as possible when schools open. but the guidelines are only the most recent product of the obama administration's national framework for response that guides our efforts. it starts with medical surveillance, which means we work closely with doctors and public health officials across the country to identify and operates as soon as they happen. we are also developing mitigation measures, a huge range of strategies to limit the spread of the flu. from encouraging people to wash their hands frequently to advising communities on how to respond to outbreaks. the best way to prevent the spread of the flu is vaccination.

our scientists are working hard to have a vaccine ready for consumption by mid october. they have already prepared a seasonal flu vaccine that should be available very shortly, so we recommend that people who are ready and willing to get a vaccine do that quickly so that we can be ready for the h1n1 the defense against the flu is only as strong as our weakest link. that is why we are reaching out to state and local governments, employers, teachers, the american people, and with allies and colleagues in the media to try to reach the american people with accurate information and timely information and that steps that can be taken.

the best place to learn more about all of these efforts and to keep updated on the flu is to visit the web site at ww w.flu.gov. it is a combined website and we are sharing strategies. it is where the briefing is also being streamed for americans across the country. before i turn over the podium to my colleagues who will tell you more about our efforts on flu preparation, i want to point out a quote that many of you probably saw today. hubert humphrey, after him this building is named, make this quote that is on the wall as it treats you as you enter the building. he said the moral test of a government is how they treat those who are in the dawn of li fe and the shadow of life.

that is a mission as we prepare for keeping the american people say and secure. we will do everything possible under the president's direction to keep our children and the americans' healthy and safe. we appreciate you being here. now i would like to turn it over to secretary napolitano. >> thank you secretary. it is good to be with everyone to talk about our response to the h1n1 pandemic. and to talk specifically today about guidance for schools. this pandemic is a test of how we will respond to any sort of issue that crosses lines, local, state, territorial efforts, non- profit, for-profits in the non-

government sector cannot the government world and the like. the cooperation, collaboration that the president has been meeting over the summer as we get ready for the school year has been quite extraordinary. one of the things we recognize after the spring outbreak of the h1n1 flu was that schools must have clear guidance about how to minimize the spread of h1n1, and that that guidance needs to be ready for the opening of the 2009-2010 school year. the decision to close schools is a local one, and if it is one of the most challenging for any school leader for any community. once you close a school, as we saw last spring, that causes a significant ripple effect, because children need to stay

home. we do not want kids going to the mall or anywhere else. the whole point is to reduce transmission. that means parents need to be thinking about their own plants cannot ship their children need to be stay home -- they need to think about their own plans, should children need to stay home. the guidance we are announcing today developed by the cdc the and they are are based. we are relying on the science for the guidance we are providing. the guidance we are announcing it will give local school officials the tools they need to make informed decisions about how to decrease exposure to the flu while limiting the destruction of day today learning. the guidance is timely, we have 55 million students and 7

million individuals and 130,000 public schools across the country. this is a significant population. school age youth, and we can also talk about college-aged youths, are especially prone to catching this version of the flu. what we are attempting to do is to allow schools to stay open and informed them to send sick students home. specifically, six students and staff should be separated and given protective gear until they can leave the school. hand washing is essential. these simple steps have enormous affect on the ability to slow down the transmission of the

flu. high-risk students and staff should seek medical care in the late if they get flu-like symptoms. only schools with high numbers of high risk students should actually considered closure. this guidance that is being announced today applies to public and private institutions covering k-12. we expect to release additional guidance for other institutions in the near term. when we say that, we may not just community colleges and universities, but working with employers and the like, what should their guidance be as we work our way through this flu pandemic. we will continue to look to the cdc for the science advice. the department of homeland security will continue to --

will continue a very robust outreach efforts throughout the public sector, and lastly, we keep reminding the american public that this is an evolving situation. everything is not cut in stone, sell our strength and flexibility will be very important as we work together to reduce the transmission of this will -- to reduce the transmission of this flu. and we reduce the ripple of >> that it has. with that, i am happy to -- and we reduced the ripple effects that it has. i will now introduce arne duncan. >> i want to thank all three of you for your tremendous hard work. it has been a joy to work on this together because of the hard work. we know that as we approach the start of the school year is an

exciting time filled with great promise, but we also know a can be a time of anxiety. in addition to the changes inherent in making sure students succeed, we are faced with a resurgence of the h1n1 flu virus, which has affected many young individuals. as a. of a second grader and kindergartner -- s.a. parent of -- as a parent, we must put the health and safety of our children first. our team has been working very closely with the cdc,hhs, and dhs to prepare a thoughtful guidance for schools. we are putting that out as an informative kit. guidance is coming. the bottom line, as we set out to make our guidance balanced

and clear and concise as possible, and most importantly, it reflects the best science available. we hope that no schools will have to close, some schools will close this fall. if they do, it is important to all of us that students continue to learn. educators need to start thinking now about having temporary home schooling plans in place. whether it is for a few students or an entire school, we plan on releasing guidance for colleges august 23. cdc will be issuing a version of the k-12 guidance specific too early learning groups shortly. based on the knowledge we've gained last spring, we recognize the benefits of preemptively dismissing students from schools are often outweighed by the negative consequences, and no

one-size-fits-all solution should be applied to schools. i am confident this will serve as a good guidepost for local decisionmakers and help them think through these situations, like what to do if you just have a few cases or if the impact is so severe he must close a school to prevent the spread of the virus. we must continue to make prevention our business. students from kindergarten through 12th grade will be encouraged to wash their hands frequently. students should have sanitary facilities and a room set aside so if a sick child shows up, there is a safe place for them to stay. parents must be vigilant in identifying signs of the flu. we want parents actively practicing prevention, close monitoring and common sense. the department of education will provide districts with as much

flexibility from federal education program requirements as possible to help them address the issues of an outbreak. let me turn it over to the director of the centers for disease control. he has been working hard in his leadership -- and his leadership has been fantastic. >> thank you very much. i would like to spend a couple of minutes saying where we stand in terms of the influences spread to set the context. influenza and may be the least predictable of all infectious diseases. it means we may need to carefully -- we need to carefully track what is happening. it continues to spread in the u.s. and globally. the good news is that globally, a pattern we have seen does not differ substantially from what we saw in the u.s. that means that we have seen

mostly disease among younger people, that most people have had mild disease, although some people have been severely ill and some have died, particularly with those with underlying medical conditions. flexibility is essential, and local decisions are essential. the guidance we are releasing will help states to make decisions based on the best science that are appropriate for their area. what we anticipate is that the vaccine will be available in october, and it looks like it will be a good match with the strain that is circulating. what we don't know is whether and when h1n1 will return. it is possible it will come back when school is reopened. it is also possible it will not. that does not mean we are out of the woods yet it does not. it means we have time to take

additional steps. we will need to continue to prepare to out the fall and continue to track what is happening with flu in our communities. we know that in different parts of the country we saw big different rates of the flu. some places have a lot and some places had very little. we expect it will not be the same everywhere. another reason why local decision making is so important. there are also significant challenges that we will face, not only do we have to track how the virus changes, but we also have to address the fact that we are dealing with a public health system around the country that has not had the level of investment it should have had in past decades come and faces significant fiscal challenges. the vaccine will most likely

require two doses separated by about three weeks, and we will also have seasonal flu vaccine, which will be available shortly. what we are providing today are a series of planning tools for schools. we know from this spring that where there was h1n1, there were very large expose of outbreaks in schools, but we also know that in the spring we had much less information about the flu than we have today. we know more how it behaves and how to control it. it is now clear that closure of its schools is rarely indicated rarely indicatedh1n1 is in the school. -- even if h1n1 is in the schools. it is a local decision based on local intimation that balances a definite harm of loss of learning, loss of wages,

unsupervised children, loss of school support systems, with a possible benefit, which is less a spread of h1n1 for a temporary time. i was health commissioner in new york city throughout the h1n1 culprit this past spring. we had a very large outbreak in new york city, perhaps as many as 800,000 cases or more throughout the city. . >> there were some for children who have special medical needs,

trouble breathing on their own. we closed the school for a brief period of time, about five calendar days and then reopened it. things were, and we were able to deal with that. there were a couple of key things that schools can do. the first is keep sick kids and staff home. if six people stay out of school, they won't spread the virus or other diseases. second, watch your -- wash your hands. third, cover your cough. separate sick kids and make sure if there are children or staff who have health problems like diabetes or who are pregnant, if they become sick with fever and cough, they should be rapidly treated said they do not become severely ill. for certain schools, like schools that have most of their students with serious medical problems like muscular dystrophy or severe sir rebuttal

policy, difficulty coughing, then they want to close under these circumstances. we also have an outline what we might do if the virus or to change and become more deadly. that is a possibility and we need to plan if that situation arises. in that situation, we would suggest that local schools and public health officials coordinate closely to actively screen kids when they walked into the school each day. consider asking people who have serious conditions to stay home to protect themselves and others. also, to increase distances within the school, maybe don't bring kids together ford joined class's. maybe -- maybe have students sit farther apart from each other.

these are all things that we would consider if the virus changed to become more deadly. responding to h1n1 is a share responsibility. there are many parts of the federal government working together. at the state and local levels, we need parents, teachers, students, schools, the business community, health care community coordinated. that is why we have provided resources to health departments and others to begin and extend and expand that coordination process. states and localities need to monitor their situations in their area, to prepare for vaccinations when it the vaccine becomes available, and to be ready to pivot as the virus changes and as we learn more about it. we are going to respond with the best possible action based on

the best possible signs. we can't stop the tide of the influence the coming in but we can reduce the number of people who become severely ill from it. we will now be available to answer questions. >> could you please go over these scenarios under which schools their one to consider closing? >> in the current context where there is no change, if the flue comes back similar to what it was in the spring, we would say that if you have a school where most or all of the kids have particular medical needs, either they are pregnant or they are medically frail, kids who may be on ventilators, oxygen, trouble clearing their lung secretions, you might want to close the

school. in addition, there may be localities that the side that they cannot just stay open. that would be another example why you might close at this time. you might have a situation that despite telling parents to keep their kids home while they have fever, a lot of kids with a fever coming into schools. that was the situation in new york city. one thing that is quite important is the number of days that we ask people to stay out. previously, it was a long period. now based on studies, we are saying that people stay out for 24 hours after their fever is gone, a shorter period, more probable -- practical.

this is whether or not you are taking medications for the virus. >> tracy's with nbc. -- tracy pots with nbc. will that be a local decision, the recommendation coming from the federal government, how will that happen? making these guidelines, did you take into account the financial impact on local school districts for school closures as well as home schooling if necessary? >> we have on their website already, and you can find its on the internet, the guidelines for clinics. because not a lot of kids get vaccinated in a regular flu season, it is going to be challenging to get a lot of kids vaccinated.

vaccines is our strongest defense against the flu. when it is available, we hope that the they will be used. clinics are a great to get all of the kids vaccinated. schools need to plan now for example how they are going to get consent forms back from the parent. how are they going to coordinate with the medical provider to make sure there is coordination? school vaccine clinics are very important and we hope they will occur in many areas. it is a local decision. >> also in terms of the resources, part of the allocation from the supplemental bill that congress pass, and i might point out that response to the flu has been a very bipartisan effort in congress. they are very eager under the president's direction to make sure that we do everything we

can. we are talking about a public vaccination program which is a bit different from the seasonal flu or the vaccine for children program. we have already pushed out to the states $260 million in resources for this kind of planning. we had a major flu summit where officials from many groups came with personnel to look at an updated plan. they are submitting specific plans to the centers for disease control with not only orders for the vaccine but where exactly they think the best sites are. that is clearly a local decision. they may use national guard armories or drive through rural centers. that planning is under way right

now. we have provided resources to update that planning. that will be a part of the ordering process. >> we met yesterday with all of the major associations, both teachers unions, school boards, the school nurses, counselors, and there was a tremendous outpouring of support for having schools to be the central location for administering vaccines. schools are a natural location for where students are so there is this universal support for having schools be a part of the solution. >> i think you had a second question concerning -- >> whether or not you were developing these guidelines, financial considerations were taken into closing schools and the financial impact on districts. >> we want to be very flexible in terms of average attendance.

whatever flexibility we can provide going forward, we want to do that. >> just to amplify that a little bit, it is a balancing act. when you close a school, you have real social costs. he may reduce the spread of flu for a period of time but may increase the number of kids who are unsupervised or social stresses in the community. he may reduce the number of health-care workers to provide emergency response and care. there is a definite balancing in the decision to whether or not to close a school. these guidelines leave the decision to the local level with the information is present. >> i wonder what you would say to parents who might see that there are a few cases in the schools that their children attend. maybe they want to keep their kids home. what would you say to reassure

them to say that it is ok to send their kids to school. >> we do think it is ok to send their kids to school. we hope schools will make the right decision. going forward, the opportunity to receive vaccinations is very important and a huge opportunity to make sure kids are safe. it will be a two-shot process starting in october. the real goal is to keep the schools open. >> also, i think as the doctor said, what we are seeing looks very much like the seasonal flus so far. closely monitoring, don't know the twists and turns, but even though it is a novel strain which is why we have an independent vaccine program, it

is presenting itself like seasonal flu. we are watching that very closely. we are watching the southern hemisphere which is right now is dealing with their winter seasonal flu and no vaccine. we will learn a lot from watching australia and chile and other countries in the southern hemisphere. our surveillance teams are on the ground. if parents understand that not only the vaccine is being prepared the same way seasonal flu vaccine is prepared, the same kind of safety protocol and tests, but also that is how it is being presented. typically, parents would not keep their kids home that some classmate came down with the seasonal flu. >> two questions. our schools legally liable for the decisions that they make? second, if somebody could go

over how the recommendations have changed from what they were at the end of the last seasonal flu season. >> in terms of how the recommendations have changed, one change is the period of exclusion. be used to be seven days. now it is 24 hours after fever goes away, based on new information we have about how the virus spreads, both in the laboratory and from person to person. a second change is providing more information about what schools should consider in the decision whether or not to close. at the end of the last -- at the end of the spring, and now the fundamental points are the same. it is now a local decision. there are relatively few reasons -- relatively rare times where it makes sense to close is " just because the virus is

present. we had hundreds of schools which had thousand or more cases of h1n1 virus that remained open without a problem as long as we could follow those key stats, keep sick kids out, cover your cough, and wash your hands. >> the vaccination program falls under the planning and preparation act that was put together by congress i think in 2005 so there is no legal liability for any step along the way for the vaccine from the time of manufacturing to the time of shots in the arm. there is no liability in that instance. i assume in terms of the overall liability that individuals may bring some legal challenge by at least what we have seen is that

schools are clearly following the guidance. they are working with the best information that we have. what we continue to say to people, we know this will change. this is a work in progress. we are monitoring it closely. we need to expect the unexpected. >> in terms of fiscal to decide not to close and kids get sick, they will not be liable? >> i am not a lawyer. i am not going to deal with that. >> i am a lawyer. am i the only lawyer up here? again, these are local decisions made locally. i must say, these decisions must be based on science and what is in the best public health interest of the students and the community and that is what we are encouraging. >> cbs news.

it a lot of students are already heading back to college, whether it is for rush to get ready for the new school year. do you expect the recommendations that come out in august to be much different? but there some things that they should know that are significant? >> one of the things that is different about colleges is the residences, the dorms. in addition, how colleges can get a vaccination done for their students this very important for them to think about. in terms of college, also looking at the balancing factors in terms of education. a lot of the kids can do learning online through the internet and that is a way of reducing exposures if there is a lot of h1n1. >> we do feel there may be some

practical challenges in isolating sick kids. we hope that we can work with faculties across this country because if you think about a dorm situation, often there are roommates. you can send a college student home. their home is often full of other people. having some places set aside so six kids could be isolated and recover probably maybe one of the more important features of that living situation for college kids. it is the dorm and firemen that presents some challenges. thinking through that before kids get sick. we are very eager for colleges to participate because the guidance is six months to 24 years, and that really includes most of the students in college as a top priority group.

if you are on the a-year plan, you may be outside the priority group, but colleges can be important states to make sure they make it easy for kids who are there to get vaccinated in. >> [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> more now on efforts to combat the spread of swine flu. this is about a half hour. guest: it went worldwide within

a few months. we know it is here and we know it is at a pandemic level. if you follow it vis-a-vis its severity, it is acting more like a mild to moderate flu if you compare it to the seasonal flu. the expectation is because we are seeing outbreaks in camps, it is highly likely that when we get back to the early fall and the kids go back to school, we are going to start to see a resurgence of it. how intense, it is tough to say. we will be prepared for that in a variety of ways but we are prepared for the worse. host: what is the preparation

like? guest: there are several things. keeping an eye on one is a go -- keeping an eye on what is going on in the southern hemisphere, the development of vaccines and the preparation of, getting to implement the program. just literally next week, monday and perhaps today, we are going to start the trials which will give us an idea of what the right doses, the short-term safety. we want good communications to let people know so that we are transparent in our plans. the pandemic preparedness plan was developed a couple of years ago in preparation for the birds lived. remember that? it likely never came. there is a fine-tuning of that plan. there are a lot of things going on. host: the phone number is on the

bottom of the screen for my guest. fauci. we are talking specifically about the h1n1, so-called swine flu. we will take your calls in just a moment. dr. fauci, speak more about the trials. you are saying they are basically under way. how will they work? what else do you hope to learn? how long does that process take? guest: the process takes a couple of months. these are vaccines made by the same companies by the same process that we do each year with seasonal flu, so this is something we are quite familiar with, so is not a brand new process. since it is a new virus and we have made a new vaccine for it similar to other vaccines, you want to ask fundamental questions and in a limited number of individuals with various age groups. the first question in the immediate sense is, is it safe? it is very unlikely that will happen, but you want to look any way. importantly, you want to know what the right dose is.

do we do these standard dose we do during the seasonal flu, which we do every year? would you need a higher dose, one or two doses? hopefully we will get this information within a period of a couple of months, which will help us launched an implementation program for the "novel" h1n1. the seasonal implementation will go on as it does each year anyway. host: is there enough infrastructure to manufacture enough vaccine for when you need it? guest: the answer is yes, in general. there is not enough infrastructure to get a dose for everyone in the world, and that will never happen, i do not think, from a practical, feasible standpoint. but in preparation for the pandemic possibility, we, the federal government, funded a number of companies to get the infrastructure in place to make enough vaccine to get us to

where we would want to be where we to be hit with a pandemic flu. host: some of the numbers from the cbc about the h1n1 flu. the number of hospitalized cases here in the u.s., just over 5500. deaths reported, 353. the total number of states and territories reporting cases would be 47? guest: yes, plus some territories. guest: -- host: what is the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic? guest: an epidemic is an outbreak over and above what the standard level of disease is. a pandemic is an epidemic of disease widespread through multiple regions. if you had an outbreak of something here in washington, d.c., or perhaps in a few states in could be an epidemic. if it is all over the world, it is a pandemic. host: so it is more alarming when you say epidemic.

guest: no doubt. host: republican line, chuck, you are on the air. caller: i have two short questions. how much is it going to cost us destitute americans after the economy is doing what it is doing for these shots? what percentage of that goes to the obama administration? guest: the first question is that the federal government is purchasing these doses. unlike seasonal flu, where is made by companies and distributed to distributors and you have to buy either through health plans, the public has to buy the vaccines, but this is one the federal governmentas bought, so strictly speaking, it is not going to cost the general public anything to buy the vaccine. and there is no profit for the federal government. the obama administration or any situation, is there a federal government profit. in fact, the federal government has put out a few billion dollars to get this program

going, as well as giving to the states about $350 million to preparedness both at the hospital and local levels. so it is the federal government putting money into it to make it available for the american public as opposed to getting something out of it. host: so the average person wants to get this shot -- is free for them? guest: yes. that -- host: so they go to their doctor -- guest: the actual dose of the vaccine is purchased by the federal government. host: how will it be decided who gets the vaccine? you talk about kids going back to school. who else? guest: there are five target groups that has been decided upon among the committee will use, the cdc relies on, called the acip. we target five groups.

pregnant women are at the top of the list because we see that pregnant women in general with the flu are prone to disease, and we're seeing that with the h1n1. those who are caregivers of babies less than six months old. health-care workers and people on the front lines. young individuals who are healthy from six years old -- six months old to 24 years old. and then adults, non-elderly adults from 18-64 -- from 18 to 64 who have underlying conditions that compromise their immune response -- transplant patients -- people on drugs, people with diseases that compromise their pulmonary system. host: why not elderly? guest: it is not that they are gone- it is not that they are not going to get the vaccine, but if you look at the history of the pandemic over in the last several months, it is appearing

to spare the elderly in the sense of suggesting very strongly to us that people of an older age group have been exposed to a similar type virus or have been vaccinated with a vaccine that gives cross- protection sometime earlier in their life whereas younger individuals were not even born then. so there seems to be much less of an impact in disease and severity among elderly individuals, so that is why they are not in the five target groups. host: bakersfield, california. billy, on the independent line. caller: i have two questions. it is -- is it going to be a non-mercury based method for my children? host: let me stop you there first and get an answer. guest: there are two types of vaccines that are going to be available, and the predominant one is the injectable one, which is the inactivated vaccine.

the second one will be the seasonal flu vaccine program of what we call the one that you inhale, called flu mist. the marisol -- thimerosal -- there will be in some of the doses a trace of that because when you have a file that you have to inject multiple times, you want to make sure you have a preservative in there that does not cause bacterial contamination that will make things worse. but there will be pre-filled syringes for children that will be thimerosal free. caller: that is really good to hear. i would just suggest that you make enough doses available because that is the direction we want to go. the other question i have is a county center in question in that we have had some really terrible layoffs of people in

the emergency preparedness area. we had one guy laid off -- i am terrified because here in the county we are laying off the very people that we need, the most knowledgeable people, at a time in which we need them. i was wondering, is there going to be any emergency funding or some sort of direct federal assistance in getting the people most knowledgeable back on the ball? because we have just totally dropped the ball. guest: that is an excellent point that the caller made. in fact, we anticipated the difficulty that states and local authorities always had when you are dealing with a potential crisis like this. just few weeks ago, the department of health and human services allocated and authorized a $350 million to be given to the state and local authorities, $90 million of which go to local hospitals to

handle what the caller is talking about. host: you mentioned the five groups of people you recommend that the shot, but in the terms of number of doses, number of vaccines out there, what is the target? @@@@@@ ultimately get about 105 million doses. that is over a period of time through months. the projection of having about 120 million doses by mid october. i say that, that is the goal, hopefully we will get there. when you are dealing with the production of a biological, you cannot get an absolute number. host: is there anything people can do to avoid -- guest: yes. respiratory hygiene. tech that people do not pay attention to it. but if you get sick, you get a

cold, you sneeze into a tissue, throw it away, you cough this way so that you do not spread it. if you are sick, you do not go to school, you do not go to work. a variety of issues. if there is an outbreak, avoid crowded places if at all possible. so there are a number of things that can be done in anticipation or threw out a pandemic if you do not have a vaccine ready. host: robin is on the line from west virginia. republican column, you are on the line with dr. anthony fauci. caller: i have a few questions. isn't it good that we might not -- we see the shots. isn't it good that our own immune systems -- i mean, if you get something like chicken pox, you are already into it and you never get it again. isn't that also a good thing with these? not very many people have actually died from this flow.

i do not understand why people are in such a panic about giving these -- getting the shots. guest: on any given year, with seasonal flu, forgetting pandemic flu, and i will get to the point why we were rate -- or not worry, but are concerned more about a pandemic than we are concerned with seasonal flu. seasonal flu is in and of itself 8 serious disease. each year 36,000 americans die from seasonal flu, and there are 36 -- and there are thousands of hospitalization. so influence it is not a trivial disease. you bring up the very good point about chickenpox, you have lifelong immunity and never need a vaccine or any kind of that protection if you get it because your immune system will protect you. the difficulty with influence it is that even on a seasonal basis, it changes enough from year to year, and we call that a draft of the virus that you do

not have full protection -- we call that a drift of the virus -- and sometimes, rarely, and influenza virus changes radically so that it becomes a virus to which there is very little experience in the community and very little background community. we call that a pandemic strain, and that is exactly what we're seeing now with this novel h1n1. it is a virus for which there is very little background immunity. that is the reason why we are trying as best we can to get prepared for it with vaccines to be offered to the american public. host: annapolis, maryland. you are on the air. caller: i would like to make a couple of comments, and then can i ask a question before you cut me off? host: sure. caller: one of the college yesterday made a great point. the people are actually the government. this doctor you -- these doctor works for the government. i used to work at johns hopkins

hospital for a research effort, and i also worked for the cdc, which are also the government. it seems like we are constantly being overshadowed by the past year -- by the pasteur institute, which is operated by the french. also, i think it was 1976 because my grandmother insisted on me getting a shot and she remembers a fluke epidemic very well. -- she remembers a lflu epidemic. i was wondering, do i have any protection from that? guest: i have so many good colleagues from the pasteur institute in paris. it is a great institution. it does not overshadow the united states scientific

establishment at all. we are good colleagues, but i think it would be a stretch to say overshadow us. the second is the issue with you and your receiving the 1976 swine flu vaccine. it is conceivable is not likely that you have some cross- reacting immunity to the current circulating h1n1 strains. as a matter of fact, there is a good deal of similarity between the age 1 and one now in the swine h1n1 then. that could be why people in an older age group have some background in back -- some background immunity. we do not know that for sure, but it is quite feasible hypothesis. host: here is a question by twitter. "weren't the last few flu shots ineffective against the flu people contacted?" guest: each year when we make a

decision, we being the federal government and the who, make a decision about what components to put into the seasonal flu, you tend to make a very educated guess about what the new strains that are circulating in the southern hemisphere toward the end of the season, and we are right about 85% to 95 plus% -- to 95% plus. sometimes you have a mismatch between the strain you are using and the strain that is circulating. right now the strain in the southern hemisphere is no different when isolated then what we had in april of this year. we are hoping that that strain will stay as it has thus far over the last several months, exactly the same, so when we start seeing a return in the fall, the vaccine will be as perfect a match as we can get. host: portland, oregon, christina, independent line.

caller: i have a question. going back to the allocation of resources, i remember reading somewhere when the swine flu had broken out that the prevention and aid of infectious diseases in the original stimulus plan that the administration had proposed. that being said, i read about a week after the swine flu epidemic that that part of the package had eventually been cut down. is that true or false? well, it is not completely true at all. as a matter of fact, the national institutes of health, the institution that i represent, and i directed one of the institute's -- the stimulus money that we have received as part of that broad $787 billion stimulus that the nih received about $10 billion of that, and the component that went into the infectious disease institute, we used a considerable amount of that for preparations in the

vaccines that we discussed. host: explain the connection with the who, the world health organization, with states, localities, schools. how does that thread work? guest: the who is an overarching organization that involves all theountries in the world. they are more a coordinator of health issues that go beyond borders of countries, so we are in constant communication with the who about matters such as what we are discussing today. the agencies of the federal government, if you take the health and human services agency, of which governor sebelius is the secretary of, that has a number of components that are continually interacting with each other, such as the center for disease control, cdc, fda, nih, a variety of other groups. we are working closely with the department of education because

this involves schools, the department of homeland security, and the white house. the cdc has a close connection with state and territorial health officials, so the link between the federal government and what goes on at the local level is very strongly channeled through the cbc. so it really is a nice network that talks to each other and interdigitate quite well. host: if you are a parent or pregnant or any one of the five groups that you recommended getting the shot, who should you be calling? guest: it is the local level. we just described the change that goes down from health and human services to education to state and local officials. the local health authorities in a state or a city are the people who will be responsible for how this is going to be distributed? where can i get my vaccine? what should i do vis a vis the schools? in a pinch, the website for the

cdc is really terrific. if you go in and go flu.gov or cdc.gov/flu, there is information there. host: next call, hi there. caller: i have not had a flu shots since the mid-1970s house when the gerald ford hong kong flu debacle happened. do you have a study who people and it -- of people who do not receive flu shots on a yearly basis, and as someone in my age group? guest: first of all, 1976 was not hong kong flu. it was the swine flu of 1976, but i get your point. certainly people who do not get a flu vaccine -- that does not mean that they are going to get the flu, or they may have enough background immunity if they get exposed to the flu, and they actually do not get infected or

ill. we certainly have done studies over the years, and the studies point to the fact that your chances of getting the flu, if you do not get vaccinated, are clearly greater than if you do get vaccinated. that is the study that we do whenever we get involved with a new vaccine, and they are usually done after the season or during the season. having said that, there is no guarantee at all, and you are one of them. you are lucky, good for you. you have done quite well without a vaccine, and you have not gotten the flu. but if you do a statistical analysis of a, the chances if you are -- but if you do a statistical analysis of it, the chances of you getting the flu if you are not protected is greater than if you do get it. i think the media has a considerable role, and one of the four pillars of the hhs is

communication. one of the best ways to communicate is through the media. they provide an excellent vehicle -- they provide an excellent vehicle. they have kept it on the front burner. some people say we are making you panic by seeing it in the newspaper all the time. but i think what we're seeing in the media is a really up to date, real time being on top of the issue that should not be interpreted as being panicked. it should be interpreted as being all over the issue so that in case something does happen that is very serious, we are prepared for it. my response is that the media has done a good job and i hope they keep up. host: plug in health care reform, the potential for major legislation on the hill later this year. what is the connection between the two? guest: everything is connected to the issue of some people not having access to health care, so anytime you have the situation

where there is a disease that can impact the large number of people, a certain percentage of those people who do not have health care insurance, do not have access to good health care, will suffer disproportionately. so health care reform is positive in many ways. it becomes a real life positive when you're dealing with something like this. host: duluth, minnesota, mary ann, good morning. caller: nice to talk to you. some of my questions were answered by people ahead of me, so i want to ask you this. we have a 2-year-old granddaughter, and i have not heard you mention at all tamiflu. what about that? what is the dosing schedule? guest: well, let me just mention tamiflu. tamiflu is a drug that is used

in influenza. it is shown to be effective at decreasing the intensity and the duration of symptoms. the policy with anti-viral drugs for something which we are preparing for now, namely a large number of individuals getting infected, should be done with some thought and in a measured response. so if someone gets a mild symptoms and is in a situation where there is fluke and that person is otherwise healthy, you do not miss -- where there is flu and that person is otherwise healthy, you do not need to -- if someone is seriously ill with it and has symptoms that are compromising the person, without a doubt that person should be treated. the other group is if you are a vulnerable individual -- namely, you are among the risk people who would tend to do more poorly, and you get infected with the h1n1 flew or any --

with the h1n1 flu, then you should get it. td%""'j those people you want to be very ready to treat them if they get infected with the h1n1 virus or any influenza. host: we have joseph on the line. caller: i want to say that it is an honor to speak with you. i know you are a very important researcher and director now. the question i have for you is maybe a little odd. there is paranoia that i have noticed lately amongst the am radio crowd, the alternative media groups that are very afraid of vaccinations probably

in general. also, the idea that there could be sterilants or something. i know mercury is an issue. also there is something about the government forcing people to take things. i was wondering if you have any comments on this. guest: let me take the first question in the first issue. there will not be any mandated or compulsory vaccinations, vis a vis, influenza. there is an issue regarding vaccinations that some people are suspicious about, and i think it is an understandable lack of appreciation of the seriousness of the disease you are trying to prevent. when people are in a society in which there are not diseases that there were decades ago that

killed and maimed people -- diseases like measles, polio, diseases that are very, very serious potentially -- hepatitis -- they do not see a lot of disease around them because the vaccines have been actually successful. so when you are trying to get people to be vaccinated, they look at the potential risks, some of which are very rare. that is something that we have to do a better job of educating people to realize the risk of not getting vaccinated. when you are dealing with an influenza like now, there is no doubt that this virus is out there circulating throughout the world, so i think it will be easier to convince people to get vaccinated now when they start seeing and reading in the newspaper what is going on in argentina, australia, new zealand, south africa. there is a lot of disease there, and we're seeing it in our own country. -

host: the secretaries of health and human services, homeland security, education, and the head of the cdc will be there. we will show it to you later. why are we likely to hear from them as far as flu and high schools and what the government is expecting? guest: i think the broad issues which will be discussed -- they certainly will discuss, could the schools be involved as part of the distribution process of the vaccine? is that an easy, convenient way or not to get the vaccine to be distributed? the other point that will without a doubt come up is that there are issues of school closings in various parts of the country in the spring. so we will be hearing perhaps some guidelines about what one should consider in the issue of closing schools or not. i think that will likely be discussed. i do not know exactly what they are going to say, but i think it

will be open for discussion. host: stafford, virginia, independent line. caller: good morning, dr. fauci. i read in the 1970's when we had the swine flu vaccine, one of the side effects was -- my son had it. should he get the swine flu vaccine this time? guest: if your son had back hundred -- to that country indication, it is a country indication of vaccinating. -- it is a contra-indication of vaccinating. we have not seen it before or subsequent to 1976, anybody who has that propensity for that kind of reaction should avoid it. host: maryland, high there. caller: thank you for taking my

call. what makes a virus seasonal? how does it know it is the right season? if it is a fall and winter season here, is it a spring and summer disease in the southern hemisphere? guest: if it is fall and winter here, it is spring and summer in the other hemisphere. in answer to the first part of the question, it is likely, though not 100%, multiple factors, one of which is that in the fall and winter, people tend to congregate in close places with poor ventilation, but also viruses do better in dry, cold climates as opposed to warm, humid climates. so when i is a warm, humid thank you mdot for the update on h1n1. >> good to be here.

>> tonight, we bring you remarks from ann coulter at george washington university. it begins at 8:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span. tomorrow, the swearing in ceremony for newly confirmed sonia sotomayor. she will gather with friends and family for the judicial oath that will be issued by john roberts. see it live tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> all this month, revisit the fares and festivals we have covered this year. this weekend, a panel from the key west literary seminar in the annapolis boat festival. -- book festival. >> sunday, frank rich from ""the new york times."

and his column following 9/11. sunday night on c-span. >> how is c-span funded? >> donations. >> federal funds or grant funds. >> private contributions. >> i don't know. >> from commercials. >> advertisements. >> how is c-span funded? 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, no government mandate, no government money. >> the deputy speaker of iraq's parliament said he would like to see more open elections next january and called for a reduction in the role of religion in politics. the u.s. institute of peace is the host for this yvette. it is about an hour. >> good morning, everyone.

i don't think this is working. it is it? hello, that is better. good morning. it is my great pleasure to introduce sheikh dr. khalid al- atiya. wh ois undoubtedly one of the major political figures in iraq today. she dr. khalid al-atiya -- the first deputy speaker of the council of representatives of iraq. he has been in the parliament since 2005. he is now in addition to being the first deputy speaker is the leader of the independent block in the council of representatives. he also chairs the french ship

commit the with the european union and is a key figure in the state of local coalition which was formed in the recent elections and more broadly an important member of the united i raki alliance and parliament. his academic career is impressive. dr. khalid al-atiya has a b.a. from the college of prudence. have completed graduate studies under the supervision of others. he holds two master's degrees from the university in cairo. before becoming deputy speaker, he was the chairman of a commission in iraq and has published numerous articles and

books on jurisprudence and islamic law and has edited several scholarly publications. khalid al-atiya has lived in egypt, lebanon, the u.k., and of course now in iraq. i did not introduce myself. i am a fellow. our moderator is familiar to everyone. without further ado, i will invite khalid al-atiya to take the microphone and to speak about iraq and the parliament in iraq. thank you.

>> peace upon you from god. at first i would like to >> thank you for the introduction. [speaking foreign language] without a doubt, she is a very distinguished by iraqi personality that has played a big role in the iraqi opposition. and represented iraq as the

first ambassador after the fall of the previous regime in washington. and she is still connected -- very connected with her own country and aware of what is going on in iraq. i also would like to thank the united states institute for peace for their generous invitation to meet with people who are interested in the iraq

matter. at first i would like to bring backed the -- or view the sides of the dictatorship in iraq.

despite my article today as critical notes, it also should reflect the highlighted or the hopes of the iraqi people to build its own country. despite what has been said about this experience from both

sides, the iraqi, and the american, it is worth noting that iraqis have gained the@@@@ the best out of the experience so far. which is freedom. . . issue, they know that iraq of the 88 years old -- the iraqi

state that is 88 years old could not have established a complete understanding of citizenry or patriotism. >> [foreign language] loyalties to identities such as religion, political party, ethnicity, and sectarianism have continued or sustained itself and overshadowed the citizenry.

the role of the staid has been reduced -- the role of the state has been reduced and overshadowed by power. proceeding authorities or governments have tried ever since 1920 to take the population into their own and have it act that way.

despite the iraqi state having been established on a western style institution, it has build democratic institutions, as well. they have not been able to establish or crystallize a national i.d. for the population. >> [foreign-language]

>> therefore, we have seen in 2003, when the u.s. entered iraq, we have seen the state failed by the failure of the power. >> [foreign language] [foreign language]

>> what has arisen as a result of the failure of citizenship or loyalty or patriotism, loyalties to sectarianism, religions, and ethnic loyalties led the american ruler at the time to adapt the democratic system of consensus. [foreign language]

>> also, there have been a lot of conflicts. there have been doubts about the future or potential doubts and conflicts over the hunger for power and money. [foreign language]

>> as a result of that, the democratic consensus or the system of democracy has been adapted and adopted by the new constitution. [foreign language] >> i have to be brief. i think the time is very short peri. -- i think the time is very short. therefore, i will focus on the negatives of the system that has been taken or adapted by iraq.

[foreign language] >> then, i will move to the vision of finding a way to get out of this negativity. [foreign language] >> especially, we are about to get into a new time when we have new elections. there will be a new politician and new leaders to leave iraq.

-- there will be new politicians and leaders to lead iraq. the consensus democracy have created negative phenomena ls which led iraqis to think of a way to get out of it. first it created the consensus -- the consensus of democracy created a weak understanding of citizenship or patriotism, and

affirmed the private individual identity for iraqi individuals. sharing the power have crippled the decision making and the operating of iraq. therefore, we have seen a lot of political conflict in that period of time.

as a result of the difficulty to find consensus. for example, it took about five months to establish the iraqi government, the government of mr. maliki. and it also took about 117 days, is about four months to select the chair of the speaker of parliament.

and also as a result of -- it is hard to get consensus among legislators, it had delayed some strategic and important laws that are still on the table above parliament. despite a majority to legislate or vote these laws, they already exist. to give you another example.

another example i can give you is the law of establishing regions has taken months and it has not been legislated yeps. -- it is not been legislated yet. one law, a very important law, and the entire world has been waiting to see it. it has not been decided or legislated yet since three years ago.

[foreign

the apartment of@@@@@@@@@ @ @ ' >> the appointment of deputy ministers has been delayed or stopped for years. it is at the behest of the parliament. most iraqi embassies in the world are vacant. the embassy of iraqi in britain is vacant. it does not have an ambassador yet. the interesting part is that the government has recommended 62 names of ambassadors. some have been approved by the parliament recently at once.

[foreign language] on the other hand, the power- sharing have delayed the observation role or the observing role of the parliament. it has crippled the prime minister or the government to hold the ministers accountable just because of the power- sharing system.

this isn't what i think -- this is a way to have -- pushed for iraqis to think of a better way and to develop their own political system in zero way -- in a way where there will be responsive to the needs of iraqis. especially if it needs the power or the ability to make

legislation and make -- and have a rebuilding of the country.

ever since the local elections, political entities have been trying to enhance their own performance and their own operation in order to be able to operate the country in a correct way and also to develop more. these elections have pointed out for brought out the feeling of the iraqi citizen that iraq has to stay united and have an

effective government that is able to rebuild the country. and it also has brought up the need for the formation of parties or political entities and alliances or new coalitions that are beyond the loyalties such as sectarianism and

ethnicity and think of a broader picture as patriotism or citizenship. therefore we say the need to be out of the narrow vision of the power-sharing democracy and the need -- and to move on for the need of pluralism and democracy.

therefore, there has to be a ruling mechanism in order to provide the protection for the political majority that will result out of the upcoming elections, and it also should provide protection for the political minority and the other ethnic minorities.

the most important mechanism that i see is, number one, getting rid of the power- sharing and the executive -- or the quota or power-sharing in the executive positions. and therefore it will achieve what the constitution has said in the basic principle.

there for everybody will be able to reach the executive position out of the knowledge, experience. despite whatever the loyalties of whether it is a political or ethnic. the other important elements or mechanism is basically to have the opposition participate.

that does not mean leaving the power-sharing democracy, it does not mean we will not, or we will give up national reconciliation. it also naturally it will guarantee -- it should guarantee the quota of minorities for small groups among iraqis.

i think these are the important basics or principles that i think it will lead us to better performance to its chief the reconstruction and rebuilding of iraq. as for what is related to principles of the upcoming elections, i think they must appropriate direction -- the

system of open slot, which will definitely achieved a better and precise representation of iraqi people. and it will encourage the population to come out and participate in the election. which also, i think -- which

should be followed is the system -- instead of one slot -- -- i'm sort instead of one district, multiple district systems. -- i am sorry, instead of one district, multiple district systems. this will also contributes to the precise representation of the population and it will also encourage them to widely participate in those elections.

the direction of most political entities, as far as i know, in this direction of adopting the above system. despite another important political courses, it is adapting to another point of view. but i think generally the direction in the parliament and in the streets of iraq is the system of open slots and multiple districts.

as i said in the beginning, despite what ever we have seen in the previous experience in iraq, what ever has been actually achieved with the election, constitution, parliament, and the establishment of two national governments as of yet t and takg iraq out of the civil war towards the national reconciliation.

we're also directing it towards rebuilding, reconstruction, and openness to other countries. last, there is the successful agreement between iraq and the united states. united states throughout the security treaty or agreement that has been signed by the two countries. which has given the gradual withdrawal and safe and gradual

withdrawal for the american forces. after preparing the iraqi forces and having it sufficient enough to takeover the security file. i think all of this will give us hope that iraq will continue its democratic direction. and it will affirm its own constitutional institutions, and

the reestablishment of its own natural position within the international community, which enables iraq, who has the fortune and the resources to achieve prosperity, advancement for its own people. thank you very much. >> i am going to abuse my privileges and ask the first question. if you have other questions, please line up at the

microphones. i think you will find a lot of people in washington who agree with your analysis and who would agree with your support for an open list, system in the elections. i have to tell you in meeting with maybe 25 of your members of parliament, i found no support for the open list. they were collected on a closed list. the pressures, as you mentioned, for a closed list are strong, and you cannot tell us where they come from. is there a strategy -- how are

you going to put together a majority for a open list, up multiple district system? >> the fact is, a lot of political entities have declared their support for the open list, and on top of these entities is the rocky alliances and the front of the court, and others of those entities and

naturally them. this is on one hand. on the other hand, the religious system that has a huge influence on the iraqi street have called the politicians yesterday and the council of representatives in particular to adapt the open list and the multiple districts. and i think this will represent huge pressure on politicians and

it also supports the opinion of the iraqi streets to push the politicians to adopt this system. therefore i think it will be very embarrassing for most iraqi politicians to go against the wishes of the iraqi streets on one hand and the wishes of the religious faction on the other hand. >> thank you. introduce yourself. >> i am bob with "the nation"

magazine. i find ironic that you say iraqis should reduce their religious identification, and yet you were wearing a turban and you are a religious man in politics. the kurds have a secular leaders who are like most of the leaders in the united states or the arab world who are not clergy. the same with the sudanennis. some are secular individuals. what you think the shia of iraq have so far been unable to put forward secular politicians who are not affiliated with other

parties or the supreme council or another party? why is it so hard for secular politics to emerge in iraq among the shia, seems to be the only sector of the country where people still follow that? what does a 75-year-old clergyman know about shia -- know about that? what do you think is so hard -- in the elections, it seems to me that people rejected that. >> ok. >> as i said, local elections, or the governors at the local

elections have brought upper what the iraqi people want. and the iraqi population, or rockies won a system that will keep unity -- four iraqis -- or rockiiraqis want a system that l keep unity. and at the end to go towards the building of a stage away from

the narrow loyalties of political parties or ethnicity and bringing back the spirit of unity.

the cost of the previous experiences iraqis have underwent, they're looking forward to live under a state that can bring everybody together in one stayed that could have them live peacefully.

>> that is what everybody is looking forward to, and getting rid of the thinking of being under a sectarianism or ethnicity. that includes the seculars as well. as far as the failure of seculars being in power, that goes back to reasons of their own. >> i am with the american

kurdish information network. you made a reference to the lack of patriotism in iraq in its 88- year history. iraq is an unnatural state. i am referring to the kurdish question in iraq and the oil that lies under the soil of kurdistan. asa kurd, continue the desire for a two-state solution isra real. if it comes to it, d.c. the czechoslovakia-type model for iraq? an amicable divorce?

@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [foreign language] >> the iraqi constitution has lined out the new iraqi state. the most important element of these elements is federalism. the constitution has given the right to regions and governments to run its own

affairs within certain limits. but that does not mean exiting out of the overall iraq. and i think all parties, whether it is the kurdish party or other arab parties, have agreed to this principle and have agreed on -- to have iraq state as one

unit -- to stay as one unit. kurds are a part and important part of iraq, and they have authorities given to them by the constitution. and they are themselves, and i heard it from their own leaders -- a firm on the unity of iraq and their part of iraq itself. and they do not wish to separate from iraq. >> i would like to take the last two questions together. >> the question of majority

rule and minority rights is one of the principal problems of democracy. in the united states, we address it through judicial review. minority rights are not guaranteed through the political process but through the guarantee of judiciary that can overturn laws that violate the constitution. you did not mention the judiciary. you only talked about the political process. you are a scholar of jurisprudence. please address the role of the judiciary in guaranteeing minority rights in iraq. what are the sources of lot you would look to? >> and your question? >> according to the constitution, it should only exist for one term and should end with the next parliamentary

elections. there is a call to extend this. do you think this amendment or any other amendment will be considered in the upcoming fall term? >> undoubtedly, the judiciary is one of the main elements in the

iraqi state. and it deals with the iraqi citizen despite its belonging, or whenever he or she comes from. so that principle of equal treatment of everybody, the iraqi minorities -- the judiciary has been dealing with them as equal as everybody else.

however, the rights of the iraqi minority are guaranteed by the constitution in terms of civil and human rights and other rights. politically, the political minorities are represented within the government now. i did not think there is any problem minorities experiencing now. in the law of local councils,

they have given a quota to the minorities. >> under presidency council. . as you know, the election law for the current four years has

organized the work of the presidency council for the current four years. in the next term, in the next four year election term, there will be a president and possibly a vice president. the vice president will be taking authorities from the president himself.

within the commission of the constitutional review, there has been calling to increase the authorities of the presidency. but there has been no consensus on those collallings, so it will be discussed in the next turn. therefore, the constitution will stay as it is now. >> sheikh, you have been generous in responding to our questions, some of them have been tough regarding religion,

open list multiple districts. we thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]

>> tonight, we will bring you remarks from ann coulter at washington university. tomorrow, the swearing in ceremony for sonia sotomayor. she will gather with friends and family in the east conference room of the white house for the judicial oath that will be administered by chief justice john roberts. you can see it live here on c- span. >> all this month, revisit the fairs and festivals we have covered this year. this weekend, panels from the key west literary seminar and the annapolis book festival. >> on sunday, frank rich

reflects on 15 years of political columns, including his look at the future of the internet from 1995, the whitewater hearings, and his column after 9/11. >> donations. >> federal funds? >> private contributions. >> i do not know. >> commercials. >> advertisements? >> something from the government. >> 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span and the public service. it is a private business initiatives with no government mandate or money. >> the white house briefing today included discussions on the economy and the unemployment report. it also included town hall protests against proposed health care legislation. this portion of the briefing is about 40 minutes.

>> take your seats. happy friday. let's take a look at the week ahead. the president has no scheduled public events on saturday. on sunday, he will travel to guadalajara to attend the north american leaders' summit. he will return to washington on monday evening. on tuesday, the president will travel to new hampshire to hold the town hall meeting on health insurance reform. the meeting will be in the early afternoon. on wednesday morning, the president will host a reception for justice sotomayor at the white house. on thursday, the president will attend meetings here at the white house.

on friday, the first family will visit the boseman area of montana. they will then travel to yellowstone, wyoming, and grand junction, colorado. they will then travel to the grand canyon and phoenix, arizona. they will return to washington on august 17. the first family's visit to the national parks occurred during a fee free weekend for our national parks. this is encouraging all people, including many cynical people that sit on the right end of the front row, my right hand of the front row, to go and visit the

national parks. you have to pay. everybody else is exempt. let me check. i know he has been to yellowstone. . .

i am trying to reconcile those two. >> as we have talked about -- and a think you have seen this happen, taking of the statistics for the purpose of the percentage of those unemployed, we will get back to that -- each month since in january, we have had fewer jobs lost, yet the rate goes up. we expect the trend going have to continue. going back to the actual numbers com, again, if you take the firt quarter of 741,000 in january,

ucd rate of decline continues to improve. -- you see the rate of decline continues to improve. this month's number is a couple of hundred thousand less than the previous month's number. we continue to believe and economists continue to believe that we can make progress but the unemployment percentages likely to continue to proceed toward 10%, even though we are on a path toward recovery. you're going to have to have some sustained positive job growth. >> for the american people who are following this, it may be

confusing about which datapoint to follow. does the white house have one that tells you how the economy is going? >> we get a series of statistics. some point to positive news and others point to not so positive news. i do not know that there is one magic figure that i would judge the entire economy on. i know that the president would tell you that, if there are people in this country that are out of work, their work -- they looking for work and they want to work, if those people cannot find a job, then we have more work to do for them. that is what motivates him. again, we have seen the decline in job loss. there are numbers with in this report that are not as positive, long-term unemployment being at

its highest ever. obviously, there's still a lot wrong with our economy. but if you step back and take it in the larger scope and look at the stabilization in the financial system, the possible bottoming of the housing market, some improvement in the jobs picture, i would describe today's report as the least bad report we have this year. >> i wanted to ask you about the instruction of some of the town halls on health care. there are people who reflect a genuine concern. >> as i have talked about before, i do not in any way doubt that there people who have policy disagreements with the white house, of democrats with

republicans or vice versa. i think you have seen specific groups to brag about being able to coalesce and manufacture the anchor. we talked with one guy here who holds the time of running a health-care company and having it have the greatest amount of money that the government has levered against a health-care company. i am not sure which party wanted to brag about. the president believes and he has always believed that town hall meetings are a very useful place for the discussion of issues. he talks about the issues that are facing him and the american people. they ought to be able to be conducted without shouting and shoving and pushing and people

getting hurt. i think we can have honest policy disagreements without being disagreeable and certainly without being violent. anybody that has a strong opinion should come to a town hall meeting, but also expect that others may want to take part in the town hall meeting and they want to listen to the debate. if somebody is yelling or somebody is particularly being violent, i am not sure that that entirely helps the entire process for anybody involved. yes, sir. >> i have a couple of questions. on the economy, the recession is already the longest since the great depression. at what point do you think the president will be able to declare that the recession is over? >> that is a hard thing for me to say.

obviously, that is a determination that is made by economics, based on a series of data. i am not entirely sure that the technical and for the economic board of a recession will in any way connoted the end of the economic pain for the american people. i think that is important. the president wants to continue to see improvement. we want to get to the point where we are creating jobs and laying down the long-term foundation. i think you saw this week the investment in battery technique for communities that had produced something different in the communications sector. there may be a technical anend.

i think that the president believes end of the american people see that there is still a lot of work to be done via >. >> would work for the second -- " work for the second half has already begun? -- what work for the second half has already begun? >> we will begin to see the achieving of that even part or, with some good fortune, some positive economic growth. even a week ago, lee saw a variance from where we were in the first quarter -- we sought a variance from where we were the first quarter to the second

quarter. we certainly hope that trend continues. >> the have not been able to confirm that the taliban chief is dead. >> we have obviously seen reports, even by members of the taliban, that he is dead. we cannot, with 100% certainty, verify that. i will say that, if the reports of his death are correct, there is no doubt that the pakistani people are safer as a result of it. the two points and made earlier are important. this is an individual whose

title as a murderous thug was well-deserved. he is somebody who helped plan and execute the deaths of schools of individuals, innocent civilians, men, women, and children. he was involved in everything from suicide attacks to the assassination of benazir bhutto. secondly, i think this demonstrates the amount of cooperation that you are seeing between our government and the government of pakistan in stamping out the taliban, al qaeda, and other terrorist organizations that would seek to destabilize the area.

the president is regularly kept up-to-date on what is going on with this as well as our broader strategy in pakistan and continues to receive regular information. >> you said you're not sure, but you're probably sure. >> if you could determine something like that based on what is going on in that region , we do not have 100% certainty. >> their briefings every day on situations around the globe -- there are briefings every day on

situations around the globe. [unintelligible] >> as i said earlier, we are seeing a high level of sustained cooperation, which is certainly a good thing. we think it is a good thing for the pakistani people. it is obviously a good thing for the region. his death, as i said, would be a good thing for the pakistani people. obviously, this is a region of the world, afghanistan/pakistan, where we have quite a lot of work to do. darman and women in uniform are sacrificing every day -- our men and women in uniform are sacrificing every day to try to dismantle and destroy the

taliban and al qaeda and other terrorist networks. that is what they will continue to do. >> with their be an escalation of more talks with president karzai? >> [unintelligible] i think the pentagon said that, as we continue to evaluate that, i think the final report will be post-election. >> they have published the results of a steadstudy and they

have concluded that there was no correlation between the poverty rate and stimulus funds. in some cases, there was a vast disparity. is this a problem? >> which stimulus? >> i assume the job-creating, infrastructure funds. >> i am not familiar with the report. i would be happy to look at it. different money goes to different places based on different formulas. a third of the money is largely for tax cuts to go to 95% of working individuals. i would have to take a look at where some of that is. without having looked at the report, the notion that -- we

are a good example. i live in the city of alexandria. some of you live in arlington and some of you live in prince charles county and others may live in baltimore, but we are in the district of columbia. to say that money is going to the city of alexandria and not helping anybody in of the county of arlington is to someone assume that, between each of these government subdivisions, there is some economic wall that does not see money going from one to the other. i think it is entirely possible and very real that, if you're building a bridge in smith county, you could easily hire people from george county to go work in smith county. there is a lot of slicing and dicing that does not necessarily

reflect where individual recovery money may or may not be going. if you look at the statistics that we have seen just in the last two fridays, i think it is clear and obvious that the recovery plan is cushioning the blow, in terms of our economic out put, helping to save and create jobs, and is working as we believe and intended it to work in order to get the economy back on track. >> this week, there has been an amplification in terms of the rhetoric. of the protesters against the president on the health care reform, one democratic

congressman said that some of the protesters were using brown shirt tactics. rush limbaugh went on a very long speech yesterday during his radio show in which she compared to the democrats to not see is -- to nazis. i wondered if the president had seen any of this and had a take on this. obviously, the nazi imagery has been condemned. >> i think he has seen news reports about this. i do not know whether it is written or cable. regardless of where we are, regardless of the differences we have on even the issue as a portent -- as important as health care, the president

would like to debate these issues with somebody who respects the dignity of each individual. anytime you make references to what happened in germany in the 1930's and 1940's, i think you're talking about an event that has no equivalent. anytime anyone ventures to compare anything to that, they are on thin ice. is best -- it is best to not deployed. the important thing is that we can a hat -- we can have a discussion in our democracy about where we want to go and why or why not we want to take certain steps.

the president believes that we can do so without yelling at each other, without phishing each other, without be greeting each other, and do so -- without degrading each other, and doing so with a level of respect. >> protesters were described as angry mobs and hordes. >> we have seen some stuff that i think is -- i mentioned a week ago, i think -- we have all seen imagery that shocks and surprises us. i think the best thing to do is take the temperature down a bit. >> can you clear up whether or not in the white house has a deal with farma?

i think you answered that yesterday. there were reports saying that the white house has told democratic senators that there was no such deal. >> there is an agreement with, and the senate finance committee that is supported by the white house -- with farma and the senate finance committee that is supported by the white house. it will fill in the doughnut hole for medicare part b recipients -- part d recipients. it would use part of the additional money for insurance health care reform. >> others, like speaker pelosi, wants to squeeze more money out. there was a letter from the white house that said that there was a deal from pharma and it

would be beyond $80 billion. >> we think that is an appropriate amount. i think the house bill has $85 billion. i think we are in the same ballpark. >> so there is a deal that you will let's freeze anymore -- >> i would hate to blow our coverage here, but we will announce it publicly. >> but the white house told the democratic senators that there was no deal. >> i do not know where that is coming from. >> on the economy, what is a reasonable time frame to reassess whether or not more action is needed for additional recovery act. the president said that we will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs.

>> i can confirm that the president does not think that we have fully recovered. we do not have any banners out that says we only lost a quarter of a million jobs. i think you would get agreement from what the economic advisers and what the president has said on this, which is, first and foremost, our focus is on growing the economy. two-thirds of the stimulus program, the recovery act, has yet to be spent. some of that money will be spent over the fiscal year 2010. that is our first priority. the president would give the vice president a lot of credit for how the bill has been implemented and the effect it has had in stimulating our economy. i have also said and others have said, including the president,

that we will continue to evaluate where we are. if there are things that can and need to be done to get our economy to grow faster, we will certainly consider that. nothing is on the table, but nothing is off the table. we focus more on implementing what we have and hopefully continue to see continued positive impacts from some of the recovery and that we have seen thus far. >> in june, you're asked about the deal and whether or not the deal with farm i implied -- with farma implied the white house had signed off on legislation that would allow medicare to renegotiate with farma. you did not answer that. was it because you did not know where they had not informed the white house of that deal? >> you're asking me to recall why did not recall something in june.

i that i do not know. -- that i do not know. that is within the confines of the health insurance reform that is being worked out. >> what advice does the white house have for democrats when they go home and confronted -- and are confronted in a hostile town hall? is there a way they should deal with this? >> the personal advice that i would give somebody is to continue doing the town hall and ask those that participate to behave themselves like your mom would probably tell you to do and have a robust discussion of the issue. >> are you aware of what axelrod told members of congress yesterday? >> i was not there. i have seen different reports that said that there were up there talking about it.

i have not talked to david or jim about it appeared >> you do not know what advice is being given to members of congress. >> i do think it is any different from what i have said. it is important that people be civil. we can discuss these issues without being a uncivilized. it is the same thing i tell my 6-year-old. >> but if they are not civil -- >> [unintelligible] [laughter] >> but if they are not civil, the stand up and fight them or shoot them down? >> i think the best advice would be to finish your answer -- i

think the town hall meeting is always bigger than when one person asks a question. if you're asking me a question, the answer is for the benefit of everybody. continuing to discuss the issues that are important, ranging from health care to the economy to the war in afghanistan, i think those are things that are of great interest to the american people. asking a question of those who represent you in washington is a time-honored tradition. >> i am talking about people who are getting booed and shouted down a request to have to continue to talk to people about where you are on the issues. you may not convince the person who last four shots or boos or hollers. but town halls are not for the benefit of one individual?

-- one individual questioner. >> when i am trying to reconcile is that, on one hand, you had details on how congress is writing the health care reform. on the other hand, you have been meeting unilaterally with people in the industry on deals. when you cut these deals, is it fair to say that you tell folks in congress that we have agreed to this? >> again, the senate finance committee is involved and -- >> but you give details of the deal that was cut. he did not for the other one. >> some time ago, we had an event in the white house that was about two dollars trillion

for health -- tw$2 trillion for health care savings. cost savings have to come from somewhere. they have to come from changes in the way we pay drug manufacturers, hospitals, and things like that. >> but is it fair to say that [unintelligible] they are going out there and saying that this is their deal and everybody seems to agree on the number? is that how you are involved in the industry? you tell people in the five committees that we have made this deal with them and incorporate it appeare. >> many people in congress are aware of the negotiations.

>> before the president leaves for mexico, he is expected to have another debriefing with president clinton. >> i said that before he leaves for the nsc, he will have that long birdie briefing with president clinton. it is just because of their busy schedules. >> i understand that. it is a powerful thing. >> i do not believe they have had a long conversation. >> so that has not happened yet. >> no. the initial debrief with the nsc was about an hour long that night. but there has been nothing since