they common humanity and commitment of the american people. we believe more than half of all american families have given in some way to haiti. if you think about that, that is a tremendous achievement, something that all americans should take great pride in. the clinton-80 fund acknowledges that money comes in, it will be aligned with the premier effort on the ground. hostit is a private fund. president clinton and president bush came together as they did around the incident tsunami effort in indonesia. . .

guest: thank you. we have such a strong, vital interest as she indicated to making sure that societies have the abilities to protect their of vulnerable populations. doing that in a way that is effective and sustainable. we can all benefit from the fruits of a global economy that is peaceful and just. that is a critical part of our security. so many countries, that is more acute than other places. haiti is one of those places where we have a longstanding commitment and relationship to the people and its leaders and we have been working very closely with the president and coordinating our relief efforts and in making sure that we are

working in support of what the needs of the people are. needs of the haitian people are. so, that is the spirit that continues to guide our work in haiti. but in countries all around the world we want to be respectful of governments and work in deep partnerships so we are tphnot exercising our work at patronage but real partners and we want to listen ultimately to the most vulnerable people that we serve so we can meet their needs and help them pull themselves out of poverty and lead better lives. and when we are successful, i have had the chance to visit schools or hospitals or entire societies that have graduated from usaid commitments and programs and gone on in many cases to be donors of the activities and you. the gratefulness and connection of that work when we >> we leave this to go to the

national press club. mitt romney is about to address an audience at the press club. this is live coverage. >> you tug at my heartstrings as you talk about the olympics, what a thrill that was to be part of the olympic experience in salt lake city. i was not a great athlete in college and high school. the fact that i was asked to take on the olympic job was somewhat ironic and my boys were quick to point that out to me. i have five of them. we have a lot of competitive sports in our family. i typically come in last among the six boys all together, including me. when my boys actually read the story about my new job in the paper, they give me a call. my oldest son said, dad, we sell the paper this morning. i talk to the brothers. we did not know why you are on

the front page of the sports section. my life has not been a very clear and smooth pathway into politics. i spent most of my life in the private sector. i have always had a great deal of interest in seeing how private enterprise grows and bribes and also how it does not do so well. christmastime, i was shopping at walmart for some gifts for my grand kids. i happen to be in a long line with a basket full of things. i looked around the store and i chuckled to myself that this store reflects the founder of the company. i did not know him personally. i read some stories about him, about his interest and character. he was someone who wanted very low prices on everything anybody could want. that is what you see. low, low prices, all sorts of things. a big -- those big yellow smiley faces everywhere. it is kind of a culture that

embodies what he was. i've actually looked as i have considered different enterprises, and they reflect the founder's spirit and the people who built them. the great institutions like the washington post reflect the gramm family. disneyland, i have been there. i met walt disney. it is like the physical embodiment of walt disney himself. whimsical, filled with them -- fantasy, childlike. look at a company like microsoft. it is a shadow of bill gates himself. apple is a lot more like steve jobs. an airline like virgin atlantic is edgy just liked its founder richard branson. you find that in enterprises we see every day, there is a sense of the individual that stands behind them. whether it is a business or

republic institution, a not-for- profit, a newspaper. what's true of those enterprises, i found is also true of countries. to a certain degree. america reflects the vision and the character and the culture of the people who founded it, those who took extraordinary risk to come to our shore, make this their home, put at risk their life to be able to come across the ocean and those who were the founders themselves is said, we are going to make a very difficult decision. should we continue to lead -- be led by a king and a strong government? or will we lined out entirely of fresh? they took the latter course, not just in terms of their politics did they break ties with the king and with the government of great britain, but would also with regard to their economic life. instead of being guided by a strong central government, we will pursue the pathway lined

by adam smith. we will allow each individual to choose their own path and realize their dreams as they would desire. that is -- that has made all the difference. by virtue of the decision of the founders and their vision for america, we attracted pioneers and innovators from all over the world. anyone truly seeking opportunity that had a way to come to america did so. those of us by and large to sit in this audience today and audiences around the country have in our dna that very sense of entrepreneurialism and innovativeness and pioneering. it is part of the american spirit. it is part of who we are. i am concerned and convinced that what is happening in washington, not just the sheer, but over the last decade, is slowly slipping away -- stripping away that spirit of

enterprise and creativity in personal freedom. if we're not careful, we could smother the very source of what makes america so unique in the world and what has propelled us to be an economic powerhouse and a champion for liberty that the world has come to respect and admire. in the travels i did as a business person, i noticed how important the culture of the nation can be. i was always struck by the big differences between different countries. the fact that you could have to nation's right next door to each other with very similar physical characteristics, but nations that had achieved a very different levels of education and economic prosperity. i thought of having been to israel for the first time and remarking that the extraordinary technology that the israelis had built in their society. in the palestinian areas, there was not that same level of technology and innovation. a look at america versus mexico.

how could there be such a gap between two nations so close to each other? how can argentina and chile have such different prospects for their future despite their proximity? i did some reading to get an assessment of that and i read a book by jared diamond. the one i was thinking of was a book called "guns, germs, and steel." if the nation had iron ore in the ground in its earlier days, a good mind that i and oil and conquered their neighbors bridge as a result, it became the more powerful and -- powerful society. in some places, there were such a disadvantage associated with having disease, that it kept the people from being able to grow and thrive. he explained the the physical and the geological

characteristics of the land some portion of what distinguish one people from another. the book did not satisfy me because i do not think it explains all the differences you see a different nations. i read a book by a professor from harvard university. he wrote a book called "the wealth and poverty of nations." he chronicles the various nations and civilizations that have grown and have declined for the earth's history. after about 500 pages of scholarly analysis, he concludes with these words. if you can learn anything from history of the economic development of the world, it is that culture makes all the difference. culture makes all the difference. what people believe, what they will sacrifice for. i thought about america's culture, which i believe has

made all the difference. this culture of pioneering that i spoke of. the respect that we have for one another, our willingness to serve our nation, the patriotism that we feel. a very extraordinary part of america's culture. our willingness to have children and to sacrifice for future generations. i believe that faith in god is a part of their culture. many people do not believe in god, of course, but even those that don't believe in something bigger than themselves. they will sacrifice for it. education is part of our culture. we value education and seek it. hard work is part of the american culture. together these things help form what we are and at a time like this, given the challenges that we face around the world, i recognize that this is a time for us to be strengthening those elements of our country -- agriculture.

-- our culture. it is a time to be strengthening and restoring those things rather than criticizing them and making them more difficult to thrive and grow. i had hoped that the president, the new president, would be successful in restoring those elements of our national strength. i have to admit to have been disappointed with the year to date. i was disappointed that from the very beginning, he set out on a tour around the world and apologized for what he viewed was america's decisiveness, our divisiveness, our arrogance. he spoke of america is -- america's unwillingness to listen to the concerns of others. he said that america has dictated other nations. i do not think that history would portrait -- would say that that was an accurate portrayal. i think we have freed other

nations from dictatorships. i am afraid that his apology to our -- tort -- tour is that he attempted to gratify those who are among the blame america crowd. that is not underscored the confidence and the conviction that america's values, that the principles that have long formed the basis of our success as a society would be wise to emulate. there is also a concern i have about the agenda which he has adopted. one of the first rules he learned in the business world, and i am sure in the publication world and in the not-for-profit and so forth is that when you have an enterprise in trouble, the number-one rule is this. focus, focus, focus. make sure you concentrate on the very most important element first with all of your energy and passion. when the president came into

office, there was no question as to what that party would be. the first had to beat was to get the economy back on track and to create jobs. thereafter, to make sure we were successful in pushing back the forces of radical violent jihadism. instead, the president decided to focus his energy and political capital on health care. that is an important topic, but given the priorities that we faced at the time of his election, i probably would not have suggested spending all that time devoted to a discussion of health care. i think as a result of his agenda, the opposite of what he had hoped for is what -- is the opposite of what has actually occurred.

the jobs summit in which he said, government does not create jobs. the private sector creates jobs and government's role is to create the conditions whereby the private sector will be active in creating jobs. if that was his intent, his actions have done just the opposite. when you announce that you are going to raise taxes next year, capital gains taxes, that does not make it more likely that businesses will decide to invest more this sure. when you announce that you are going to be pursuing car check, which would remove for the american worker the right to be secret ballots in deciding if they want a union, that does not make it more likely for a small business person to risk their life savings to start a business. when you indicate that you are going to pursue a cap-and-trade policy, which will have an uncertain impact on the cost of energy, it would make it

difficult for any business person thinking about establishing a business or growing a business that uses a lot of energy to do soç in this country. if you have cap-and-trade here, but do not have it in places like brazil, indonesia, china, india, you might think about building in those locations rather than doing so here. when you communicate that you have a plan to have government take over one-fifth of the economy, health care, in the contra for new or in the health- care sector will find it more difficult to get capital. they have to be concerned about what the future will hold. most troubling of all would be the threat of seeing larger and larger deficits. anybody anticipating making a large investment with their life savings has to ask themselves, what will happen 10 years from now? how much will the dollar be worth when i am finally going to get a return on my investment? if they are so concerned that

the deficits will get larger and larger and larger, it will have high rates of inflation and potentially even a serious attack on our currency in our vitality economically. should i be investing now were holding on and buying gold? these are the kinds of things that have led to a reaction in the private sector that says this is the frightening time. rather than encouraging the private sector to grow and thrive and add jobs, it has had the opposite effect. i think this has been the most anti investment, anti and entrepreneur, anti employment, and tight job agenda since the days of jimmy carter. i am afraid that it is prolonged -- it has prolonged the recession and make it more difficult for us to recover. what i think we have to do instead is to make sure that we recommit ourselves to a foreign policy of not apologizing for

america, but of promoting the values which have made america such a great nation. standing with people around the world who are fighting for democracy and human rights and who desire freedom. i personally was surprised when the honduran supreme court said that the president of that nation, an anti american leader, had violated the constitution and removed him from office. our president insisted that he be put back. i was surprised when voices of dissent took to the streets in iran and our president felt that we had nothing to say in that circumstance. i cannot imagine ronald reagan having nothing to say in that circumstance or bill clinton. [applause] i was surprised when some of our very best friends in the world had gone to their own populations and explain to them

the importance of a missile defense system and the desire of the west to establish that system and for america to establish that system and to receive public support. i was surprised that we pulled back from that commitment. by the way, we got nothing from russia in terms of their support of top strength -- tough sanctions on iran in return. i was concerned when the president went to the united nations and addressed that body and took to task our best friend in the middle east, israel. he said that they should not be building settlements in the west bank while having nothing whatsoever to say about hamas launching over 7000 rockets from the gaza strip into israel. in my view, in order to stand up for the kinds of values that have always been associated with our nation, we stand by our friends and we oppose their foes and our foes with every ounce of our energy. in addition, with regard to our

national agenda, let me mention five things that we need to do urgently. we have to be serious in communicating to the american people and the world that we will end the level of deficit spending that we are saying. we will rebalance to our spending. we will not keep spending more than we take in. it is almost like china has given us a credit card and smiled as be keep borrowing more and more. secondly, we have to deal with their debt, not just the deficit and the public debt, but the debts assisted with unfunded liabilities. we have to make our entitlements sit -- are in tight -- our entitlements sustainable. we need to adjust those programs of their sustainable. third, we have to get ourselves energy independent. we have to be serious about it. fourth, we have to take care -- take on health care. i am not talking about getting

people in short. i am talking about the extraordinary burden we have of excess health care costs relative to the other developed nations in the world. america's health care is about 18% of our gdp. the average is 12% of gdp. that is a six. of gdp gap between us and them. our defense budget is 3.8% of gdp. how disappointing it was to see the president take on the insurance companies as if the reason that health care is expensive in america is because of the insurance companies. i am sure there are insurance companies that deserve blame and we can find them out and point them out, but this is an issue that is broader than just trying to punish a scapegoat. this talks about the nature of our health care system and the cost of delivering that care. we will have to take that on if we want to get america back in a position of strength.

finally, i want to midget education. it is unsustainable for a great nation to have schools that are failing kids year end and yet -- year in and year out. we face extraordinary challenges. we have not really dealt with them over these last months or these last years. it is time for us to do that and there is greater energy in this country, insisting the public leaders to take on the challenges we face. i am encouraged by the passion and enthusiasm i am sitting around the country. my party is to talk about too much spending and too much borrowing. frankly, not a lot of people got excited about that. that message is now much, much more broadly accepted and reacted to. you are seeing a lot of people saying, government is too large, spending is too great.

these deficits are too overwhelming and i am happy to see that kind of passion. the american people will do what they have always done. rise to the occasion when they understand the challenges before us. we have seen the sacrifices of the great generation and how they rose to the occasion of the threats that we face in world war to bring to us security, and to lay the foundations of our current prosperity. i am afraid that if we do not change course, we could become america's worst generation. the nation that put in place entitlements and obligations and spent so much for ourselves that we give to our kids in america and the american dream is impossible to be fulfilled. i do not think we will do that. as we recognize the challenges we will face, we will not leave that legacy to america's kids. we will insist that the american dream is alive -- is alive and well. we will preserve the culture of pioneering and creative nice --

created this -- creativeness. this is our charge. this is what we have to do. i appreciate the work in the media. there are some who delight in stories that certain members of the -- certain publications. i am not one of them. i action like the fact we have a strong and ample mainstream media that checks multiple sources and will write the names of the sources. generally, not always. that is a good thing. i like to have a paper of record in various communities so that we can test some of the things that are being spoken of. it is a critical responsibility. given what we face and the challenges that america has, we need the mainstream media and all sources of media to get the real facts out there and to have the american people understand the alternatives we have had a bus, the choices we can make and where they would leave. i appreciate work you are doing.

i hope we can keep america the help of the earth. thank you so much. good to be with you this morning. [applause] >> thank you very much for your words, governor. we have certainly -- we certainly have a lot of questions that are being asked today. our first question, you've been making a lot of appearances lightly because you're promoting your book. we have been seeing many copies around here with the audience today. one of the challenges in writing a book is that when is focused on current events, evince continually change. for example, in your book, you criticize president obama and his lack of visiting with the dali lama. you spoke -- since then,

president obama has met with the dalai lama and he has given his speech in oslo which was wisely -- why is it widely praised. i am wondering if there are any opinions expressed in your book that you may see a little differently now after its publication. do you feel that president obama has been improving in his performance? what have you liked about his first year in office? >> the book was written between january and july of last year. that is the nature of publication. i note that there is a car company that has a record of superb excellence and quality named toyota. i probably would have adjusted that somewhat. i wonder whether the fact that i made it clear that i was writing a book called "no apology" begin

to speechwriters. i was glad when the president speaks out in a more forceful way for our values. rhetoric has to be matched with action. i have not seen on the front i have described the kind of adjustment that i would hope for. i have not seen the kind of action on iran or north korea that i would have hoped for. i have not seen us decide columbia, which was one of our best allies in the effort to try to dissuade chavez, i have not seen us get closer to colombia. we have not build stronger relations with them. on the other hand, a positive development, the president extended the patriot act. he did not talk about that during the campaign. i am glad he did extend the patriot act.

his decision to provide additional troops in afghanistan was one that i supported although he did it in a way that has made it more difficult to assure the success of our troops there. what do i mean by that? it took a long time to make the decision. the decision did get made. if the military had come to president and said, our minimum number of troops is 40,000. i would not have thought about giving him 30,000. in the counterinsurgency, it is essential that the public that you're trying to encourage to support their government have confidence that the government has been appropriately elected. we had all those troops there with a presidential election going on and yet the election was not deemed to be fair and on corrupt. that made it more difficult for us to be successful in that effort. there were things that the president did that i would have taken a different direction. he cannot be right wonder% of the time. i'm very concerned that the policy -- 100% of the time.

i am very concerned. i am concerned that he has given the impression of timidity rather than strength. i think the president will have anç opportunity to be tested in his first days. he was. it was not a test that resulted in people around the world sing this nation has been committed to the principle of the past. i hope the president is able to be more forceful in not just in the words, but in the actions in the coming years. >> a question from the audience. a request for clarification. did you misspeak when he said that the united states did not support past dictatorships? >> had i said we had never supported prior dictatorships, i would have misspoken. that is not what i said.

the president said that america has dictated to other nations. i do not believe that american dictates to other nations. i believe that america has freed other nations from dictators. >> we had numerous questions about health care end your perspective on the current health-care debate. have you been present -- had given president in 2009 -- had you been president in 2009, with your experience as governor of massachusetts, how would you have handled the health care issue? does government health care worked in massachusetts? >> a lot of questions in that. let me take you through them one by one. two big problems in health care, at least. one is the problem of tens of millions of people that do not have health insurance. the other is the problem of health care costs being way out of line with that of other nations. let's deal with a first. by the way, the easier one. it is getting people in short that do not have insurance.

that is something that we took on in massachusetts relatively successfully. some parts going well, some parts not as well. i believe that the best way to deal with getting people insured is to do so on a state-by-state basis. the federal government gives more flexibility to states and the monies that go from the federal government to the states that deal with the care of the poor, let those moneys go with fewer strings attached so that the states will be able to care for their own people without insurance. i like the way we dealt with it, by the way. our system is working pretty well. there are some big adjustments i would make if i were governor there today. some would be to make it more consistent with my original proposal. the legislature made some changes. i vetoed those changes. they put them back in. it is a pretty good model for what can go right or wrong with the state being responsible for getting their people in short. the other issue, how to get the

cost down. not just for the people who are uninsured. for individuals were buying insurance, their premiums are now lower in massachusetts and they are able to get coverage at reasonable price. for the great majority of people, how you get the cost down in a level consistent with other nations? in that regard, there is a lot of work to be done and it has not been tested anywhere yet i have my own ideas as to what we do. the idea is this, health care costs are rising. a lot of liberals and the president say, let's take over health care so we can impose cost controls and keep it down. cost controls do not work. they have not ever. they have not anywhere. that is not the right way to go. trying to get the health care system looking more like the

post office or amtrak is not going to work. the way to get the health care cost down is to apply the magic ingredient that applies to every other aspect of economic life and that is to see if we cannot get health care to act more like a market. in health care, you do not have the provisions of the market because the consumer of health services has virtually no stake in what the cost is of treatment. when to pay the deductible, it is free. in the hospital is going to charge 50,000 for surgery or 5000, you could not care less. the insurance company's going to pay. there is no pricing mechanism. there is no cost benefit that goes on that allows the patient to have input. i would change that. i would change the incentives for doctors and providers. instead of getting a fee-for- service reimbursement, there is a more -- i also would not think that a president would say,

let's take something like one- fifth of the u.s. economy and get some congressional staffers together and decide how we will change it all. we're going to write a couple of thousand pages and we're going to see how it works in the whole country. let's let each state work on these things. let's see what we can learn from other nations and see which things work and what does not. look at the mistakes we made in massachusetts and improve on them. if we can all agree that something is working, let's apply that. this approach, in my view, is not the kind of approach that any reasonably run enterprise in the world would ever consider. >> would return of president obama's health care approach socialism? -- would you term the president's health care approach socialism? >> i tried to avoid incendiary words. i think the intent of the

president's plan and that of the legislative leaders that are pursuing obama care is based upon a view that the only way we will really be able to control health care in america is by having the government control it and set prices and set usage. if we get that done, we can finally bring it in. you look around the world where those features have been applied in socialist type systems, socialized medicine, the only way they have been effective is where they have rationed care or denied care. that will not be acceptable to the american people. the better alternative is to allow individuals to have a stake in their own health care, let market dynamics play. that is why help savings accounts have such potential. -- help savings accounts have such potential. how much is it going to cost?

they will look at one provider versus another. that been drives those providers to be more cost-effective. that is how markets work. >> how is health care as a sector different from the social security system, the postal -- the postal service system, the high was system -- the highway system? >> i think i would choose to take exception with high satisfaction rates with certain aspects of government run entities. whether that is the post office or amtrak or fannie mae or freddie mac, there are -- [applause] there are certain things that government alone can do, like defend the country. and provide for the justice system and many others.

government has a very poor and roll. let's be very clear. sometimes we perhaps have become carried away in our rhetoric. we're not anti-government. conservatives recognize a role, an important role in government, to set the rules to make a market work, you have to have laws and rules. effective markets and efficient market require that. where you have an opportunity to allow a function it to be carried out in the private sector, it will overwhelmingly be more effective and more efficient and more satisfying to the public if you let it market dynamics or the private sector actually manage that portion of the economy. i remember a conversation i had with regards to prisons, for instance. i mentioned to some legislators that i thought we ought to take a look at having the presence in massachusetts managed by a for-

profit prison company. based upon my calculations, they could save as a lot of money. the response of the individual that i spoke with said, there'll be much higher cost. i said, why do say that? the present company has to earn a profit and we do not. i said, i do not think you understand how markets work. the profit incentive is what encourages on to for new orders and innovators all over america to find ways to do things better and come up with lower and lower cost ways of doing things better and better. that is the nature of our entire system. that is why they can make a profit and did the whole job better and at lower cost than we can. that is lost on way too many people. it is something that we need to communicate. as i look at health care and fixing health care, find ways to bring the cost down by moving

toward something other than fee- for-service bridge the federal government -- fee-for-service. the federal government buys half of all health care in america. we already have creeping federal government controlled health care. they buy half of all the health care through medicare, medicaid, and the federal employees and others. you add that up and they are half the market. some in congress are intent on a creeping, more and more people, more and more control. that is something -- if you like the post office, you'll like health care. [laughter] >> at several points today, you have discussed in center it -- incendiary rhetoric and inflammatory language and you have seen some very contentious town hall meetings on health care and other topics as well as some public demonstrations

bridge he told the boston globe that republicans must resist the temptations of populism. not to bring up a sensitive topic, but sarah palin did al draw you on letterman last tuesday. that may show that the template -- temptations of populism to have a popular appeal. how do you respond to this? >> i have to come up with better material, i am afraid. [applause] populism means different things to different people. it populism -- if you mean appealing to the public and to the majority of americans, that is something we're all in favor of. we want to elicit the support of the great majority of our fellow citizens. by and large, the american people to the right thing. after they have studied something to some length and listened to the alternatives, they generally come to the right place. winston churchill said you can

always trust the americans to the right thing after they have exhausted all the alternatives. [laughter] that is close to what he said. i very much believe in the listening to the american people and communicating to the american people. the form of populism is fine and well. there is another form, branch of the word populism, there are some people who are scapegoating, who look for someone to blame for more fundamental problems that we have as a society. it may be a politician. it may be a wall street banker. it may be immigrants. it may be certain ethnic group. over the history of the world, there have been state voters who have achieved -- escape -- scapegoaters. i watched the president go after

the insurance companies. our health care problems are a lot broader than insurance companies. the big one in our state, please cross blue shield, it is not that their profit is driving health-care costs in our state. likewise, you will see people take on immigrants and suggest that immigration is the source of america's challenges. our problems are more significant than that. it does not make sense. it exists -- i see it coming from the white house i was very concerned about what i saw as a anti business series of rhetorical claims. it makes it less likely for people to want to create jobs. it is not the kind of rhetoric -- you do not want to attack the job creator. i welcome people with differing views. i am happy to hear their perspective. from leaders of our nation, i salute the work that is being done by those who are appealing

to our best instincts and are not trying to scapegoat or demonize other groups or perspectives. >> is the tea party movement a helpful force within the republican party? >> i wish i could decide -- i wish i could say that it is çdecidedly within the republicn party. the tea party movement is an encouraging development. it is saying that the silent majority of america is silent no more. the individuals who are concerned with the scale and spending of government say, enough already. we're going to meet and talk and do so in a respectful way. we're going to do so in legal ways. we're going to make sure that people hear what we have to say. i know the president is fond of talking about republicans responsible for gridlock in çwashington. you recognize, of course, that he did not need one single republican vote last year for

any legislation he wanted. he could rely entirely on democrats. we could not filibuster to stop a bill. we did not stop a bill in the house. average american citizens were letting their voice be heard loud and clear and telling their democrat senators and democrat congressman what their views were andç those democrats were listening and responding. i am delighted that the tea party movement has been successful and vital in our political discourse. i hope we can capture that senate within our party. i hope that we will elect their primaries folks that are committed to republican principles, conservative principles, because i think they're right for america. [applause] >> one more question dealing with political discourse. yesterday, a gunman who appears to have repeatedly railed against the government on the internet shot and wounded two police officers at the pentagon

metro stop. when that type of that -- violence plays out at a metro stop, do see a connection between those actions and some of the political -- extreme political statements that you've been hearing? >> do me any statements by them are typically detached from reality -- do you mean that the statements by them are typically detached from reality? they do things that are inexplicit -- inexplicable. i cannot imagine limiting free speech on the basis of such paranoia. i can tell it you that the rhetoric and the discourse that is most alarming on the globe today is that which comes from radical violence jihadists. whether it is on the internet or the networks that carry their voices, the hate and the vitriol which comes from these radical

jiahdists lead to suicide bombings and death. it is essential for us to stand up against this kind of misinformation, disinformation. america should make it very clear that we stand for principles which are lofty and good and we are not going to cut off the ability of these people to speak, we are going to cut off the ability to attack our fellow countrymen. when they come here carrying bombs, the first words they should here are not, you have the right to remain silent. ç[applause] >> is domestic terrorism ranging from fort hood to oklahoma city a concern for you? >> no question. that is the yacht is some -- jihadism i am speaking of.

i listed in the book a number of countries where there have been they are not all the same, obviously. it comes from very different strains, some of local concerns, some have broader international concerns. these various groups have several principal police. one is that we are the epitome of evil. they see america as being the great tempter, tenting people to do things that are wrong. this democracy as being in the complete violation of their view of god's will. qthey see america as the great satan. it is an effort that wants to see the elimination of israel. most of these organizations seek the establishment of a globe will leaders -- global

leadership. this is a sentiment and an evil which afflicts our time. we will over comment. i believe that there are signs of progress even in the world of islam against these radicals. they threatened the world. the threatened -- they threaten the world. i shudder the thought of them having access to nuclear technology. it is his belief that if they obtain nuclear weaponry, they will use it. it is not something they will threaten us with. it is something they will use. i do have a great deal of concern. we see the apparent lack of reason on the part of people who

carry out these attacks and we can only be thankful that the weapons they have used so far have not inflicted even greater casualty. yes, it is an enormous concern. it is reason for our involvement in places like iraq and afghanistan. >> what actions can be taken to concern the threats of a timothy mcveigh? >> i do not know that i have a great answer as to how to find a timothy mcveigh or an individual attacker. i can find you an experience -- i can tell you about an experience that shed light on my perspective as to the best way to deal with these folks and to prevent their attacks. the number of attacks that have been prevented will underscore the same story. when it came time to host the olympic winter games in 2002, we had in toward just about five months before the attack of

september 11. we were very worried. would we be attacked during opening ceremonies? we are tan venues be attacked? would citizens be attacked on the streets? we put up fences. they are of limited help, by the way. someone could launch a shell into a populated area. they could be helpful against the lone shooter, but with someone with a more violent weapon, not about. the fbi worked at great links in the years leading up to the olympics to identify sources of potential threat, to follow them, to interrogate, to let them know they were being watched. great intelligence is the best source of protection of our people and their property.

therefore, i have become very alarmed when i see our justice department decide that we're going to go after our own cia members. this is not a time for us to be causing our intelligence officers to have concern about the support that they receive from their government and the people. we should be standing with, standing arm in arm, with those who protect us. that is what has a stopped attack after the attack in this country. it is what protect our soldiers and of one's around the world. >> in your book, you call for a 4% of gross domestic product to be spent on defense. given the constraints, would that spending, what would your top priorities before finding against a threat? i]-- priorities for funding a

threat? >> i realize that we will have to think about what our priorities are. i do not know if you know how much spending government does. i was a little surprised. we're a free nation. the private sector creates the world and the opportunity for citizens, whether they're starting in brand new jobs, or whether they are people at the top of the executive ladder. the government today is roughly a third, 33%, of the total gdp of america. the federal government spends about 20% of gdp. i would make sure that we drop a hard line there and not allow the federal government to take a larger and larger share of our overall economic activity. if the government is going to spend about 20% of gdp, how much should be allocated to our military? my view is, at least four points of those 20 points, or roughly one-fifth should be directed to

our military budget. we can spend it better. we buy a lot of projects that are not desired by the pentagon. our desire to buy a congressperson or eight senator. we can be wiser and the way we spend our money and make sure we're spending it as effectively as possible. i would like to see us have an additional one under thousand troops. -- 100,000 troops. i would like to see us have at least -- that is a number that we should plan on keeping in mind. it is now down about 3.8%. is projected to continue to fall as are spending on entitlements grows and grows and grows. we simply cannot allow our entitlement desires to eat up the entire federal budget and put at risk our ability to

defend ourselves, protect ourselves from threats wherever they might arise. >> in your address and your book, you speak about the influence on culture on the development of nations. do you believe that the united states was based on christian principles? >> i believe that judeo- christian principles generally, the biblical principles described in the old testament and the new testament are part of the culture. i do not believe that we as a nation have ever adopted the stance that it particular religion or brand of religion is an aspect of being an american. i believe that religious principles, including christian principles and those of other great religions -- religions are part of our culture. honesty, and family, integrity, commitment, patriotism, serving things greater than oneself, charity toward others, that

those are part of the american culture. i am not going to a sign that to any one religion. do believe that those elements flow from those original sources. >> we are almost out of time and thank you again for all the time you have set with us today. before asking the last question, we have it couple of matters to take care of. on march 8, we have lisa jackson, the administrator for the environmental protection agency. on tuesday, march 9, we have ambassador ron kirk, the u.s. trade representative. on march 15, we have dick armey, the chairman of freedom works. i would like to present our speaker with -- this is always the most exciting parts of the program -- with the traditional national press club and mug.

-- press club mug. [applause] the final question has to do with looking ahead. i know you are very busy with your book tour and i know you believe for time with reflection for your family as well. vacation spots possibly in 2009. i am wondering if you are considering destinations such as des moines, manchester, cedar rapids. what could be your travel plans for the upcoming year? >> thank you. some of those places are lovely in the summer. [laughter] frankly, this is a pretty critical year for people like myself who are conservative. as a result, for people like myself, and hopefully for a number of view in this room and others across the country, we're going to be working in our various states to let folks who share our views and values. you can expect me to be in a lot

of states. i am going to be visiting 49 cities during book signings and speeches. the book is about the challenges i think america faces. we have to stop apologizing for who we are, for values, for what america has done and stand tall and are believed that america is right for our kids, for grandkids, and read for the world. we have to strengthen the foundations of what has made america strong and such a model for the world. i am not going to avoid being in new hampshire, i have a summer home there. i will certainly make a trip to iowa as part of that to work. -- tour. i am going to be in states were certain elections are key. we have a lot of places where there are some pretty critical elections there. we need to bring back to washington the kind of balance that is essential to make washington work.

that is something that is a key point here. the way to get things done in washington is not to have one party had unilateral power to push everything it wants through. that is not the right way to make it work. we need to have two parties and then find common ground. to assure that we are moving towards the middle and that we have a great support of the american people. if you take a sharp left turn or a right turn, america will say no. let's see some balance in washington and i appreciate the fact that a republican is here today and mary -- made their be many more. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, governor ramy. -- romney. i would like to thank the national press club staff for organizing today's events. for more information, please visit our website. thank you very much for attending.

we returned. -- we are adjourned. . .

>> admit romney asserts that a strong american is essential for the world. this is part of our "book tv" weekend on c-span 2. >> some news for you this afternoon. the bureau of labor statistics released unemployment figures for february. the rate is 9.7%, unchanged from january. from capitol hill, bill delaware hunt announced yesterday that he will not -- bill delahunt announced that he will not run for reelection. as we look at the $787 billion

stimulus plan that is a year old, $343 billion have been committed to various projects while $190 billion have been paid out. we have a web site devoted to following the money, cs pan.org/stimulus. >> our public affairs content is available on television, radio, and on line. you can also connect with us on twitter, facebook, and youtube, and sign up for our alert e- mails @ c-span.org. >> house human services committee chairman barney frank talked earlier today about the housing market and financial regulation during a conference on minority home ownership.

this is about 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. let us get started. unfortunately, we really need to get started. i was asked to come until 930, and i have a habit of trying to stick to a schedule. i have events that i have to stick to that depend upon my reading at the agreed upon time. i am pleased to be here. i say that more often than i mean it, in my line of work. [laughter] we also must often tell people how much we regret not being somewhere. you have heard people say, "i cannot be with you in person, but i am with you in spirit." in my line of work, it is often the opposite.

it is very time-consuming. [laughter] i say that because you are people in the business of selling houses. one of the things we have to rabat, and you do it more effectively than anybody else because of what you do, is the notion that sensible regulation somehow is an attack on the business being regulated. in fact, the absence of regulation is the worst thing for the economy. we are in a terrible economic situation now, the worst since the great depression, because of the absence of sensible regulation, because in some cases the regulations are on the books and people refuse to use them. alan greenspan was by the congress in 94 the ability to regulate mortgagesn and out o the banking ste bause of the pblemsysidthehan inde. heefed to the for

was toint that s e discrimination continues. i think iensitive on the subject of race. but i was reminded recently how living day-to-day is different than just looking at it. i was making a point i have made before. in the security minded world, one of the things you get our trunks sales. -- are trunk chekcs. has anybody who did the trunk checks at a security point been subjected to a search? everybody i mention that to said know until i talked to an african american man yesterday. he said he gets it all the time. race is still there.

we were reminded by that done in massachusetts -- we were reminded by a survey done in massachusetts. non-white borrowers were much more likely to be given some prime loans than white borrowers with less income. that is something we have to deal with. you are obviously people who can help us fight that. i want to leave some time for questions. we are going to continue to promote responsible home ownership with your help. one last point. we were supposed to have a hearing yesterday. i had to cancel it because of a conflict in my schedule. we are going to begin hearings on the subject of housing finance. it is not just any mae and freddie mac. it is the fha. we have a number of institutions involved in housing finance.

we have a number of functions, the deep subsidy. i want to do that for rental housing. we have a shallow subsidy for home ownership. that specifically works through the fha. we have the function of replying -- the function of applying liquidity. a mixed function turns out not to work. with fannie mae and freddie mac, a privately owned corporation with a public commission did not work well. warren buffett has a great quote. when the tide goes out, you see who has been swimming naked. that is what we found out. we are going to close them, moving forward. let me throw this open to any questions and comments. i would be glad to respond. >> [inaudible]

right now, the disaster policy [inaudible] the time. is just too long. it is keeping us from getting people houses while credit deteriorates. >> this is a taxation issue. >> this is the fha rules. we need a disaster policy. it eliminated the flip rule. it allows us to get the housing stock back on the market. >> gail lester, who was the

council at high debt, is now part of the housing service for the committee. give that to gail and she will take it back to look at it. we will talk to the fha about it. yes, sir. go ahead. >> [inaudible] you made mention that second loans are a big issue. what efforts are you making to deal with investors? >> we were worried about the investors. we now believe that the investors -- we have servicers, investors. we were looking at them. we now believe many of the investors are ready to accept the fact that they are going to get something instead of nothing. that cannot be easily worked out unless the second lienholder

agrees. they are probably going to get something. the second lienholders are probably going to get nothing. people have more of an incentive to get something done to get nothing. -- to get something than to get nothing. bank of america are a major presence in my district, and we have worked together. citicorp, j.p. morgan/chase, and wells fargo -- i have written to the four ceos saying we need to talk about this. it is an accounting issue. the second lands are not working, but by accounting rules they may not have had to acknowledge that. at the point when they acknowledge that, the banks' capital could be negatively affected. we had a meeting yesterday. we have met on this with people

from hud. we are trying to figure out a way to deal with that accounting issue. there is a group of people who are talking about trying to do a shared equity situation to get the modifications down. if that happens, then the second lienholders would have to be given a piece of any equity appreciation. it is accounting. i have written to the four big banks that hold the second liens. i have said we cannot get this resolved -- what can we do that will help you? that is where we are. i have time for one more question. >> [inaudible] the problem -- >> that will not happen.

>> the main thing is we need them to stay consistent. right now, our problem in community is that the only available loan is fha. we have been there before. >> we are not going to change -- the status quo is going to remain until we know what is going to replace it. we have the fha. fannie mae and freddie mac are no longer private corporations but a public utility that is being used to help finance housing. what we will start with on the functions -- there are subsidies for rental housing. we may want to do a show lower subsidy for home ownership. there is general liquidity on the secondary mortgage market. there is back stock if the market freezes up, so you have a liquidity short-term problem. we are big -- we are going to begin by looking at all of those

and figuring out what institution should do that. we are talking about -- given these functions, what is the best way to deal with them institutionally? do we need to have the government start them up or not? until we know what the new system is, no one is going to interfere with what is going on. no one is going to say fannie mae is now under fha. we are talking about a new set of institutions doing various functions. until we get those in place, we are not going to disturb existing arrangements. thank you all. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the next journalism must be open to blogs and e-mails, who are hammering on the door to be let into the conversation, to raise new questions, to suggest new context. >> winners of this year's

national press foundation awards talk about journalism in a changing society. >> as "washington post" international correspondent, t.r. reid has traveled the world. his books are about contemporary issues, including "the united states of europe" a and "confucius lives next door." join us on c-span to. -- on c-span 2. >> the house is out until next week, when house members consider a resolution by dennis chris an edge on the afghanistan war. there will also take up the impeachment of a louisiana judge. the senate hopes to extend work on a tax bill, and may take up

the jobs bill which the house completed yesterday. you may watch live senate coverage on our companion network, c-span2. according to senator chris dodd, the public will see a financial reform bill soon. senate talks were hung up on the proposed consumer financial protection agency, which seems more likely to be housed within the federal reserve and not a stand-alone agency, as dodd had preferred. that is according to "the hill." the bureau of labor statistics released its monthly jobs report this morning, which said the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7% for the month of february. you will hear more from the bureau's commissioner at this hearing of the joint economic committee. it is an hour and 20 minutes.

>> the hearing will come to order. we want to thank our witnesses for being here. i know we have a number of members who will be here. we are in a period of tremendous trauma for a lot of americans. in pennsylvania, we do not have the highest unemployment rates, but the results are staggering. we do not know what the number will be for february, but i know a lot of people in pennsylvania, across the board, not limited to one region, have had great difficulty. we have to continue, here in

washington, not only to be aware of that but to act to tackle that problem. we have taken some steps in the last year, the recovery bill. i believe it has begun to work in many places and in some places has worked in a very substantial way. that is not enough, even if it is working very well. we have taken steps i will outline later. i know the house worked yesterday to pass legislation that the senate worked on. we will have that returned to the senate. we will get that piece of legislation worked through to create more jobs and have a four part strategy to do that. in addition to that, we have other legislation. i am grateful, as many americans are, that the unemployment rate

has remained unchanged at 9.7%. as i said before, there is much work to do. in february of 2009, we lost 728,000 jobs. that was after january of 2009, where we lost about 740,000 jobs. we lost over 600,000 in march of 2009. in december of 2008, we were losing between 600,700 thousand jobs. a year ago, every single month we were losing over 600,000 jobs. the job loss is still too high. we cannot rest in terms of moving forward. but instead of losing 740,000 jobs or 726,000 jobs in january,

february, and march of last year, we are now losing in the tens of thousands. we lost 26,000 in january 2010. this month, february 2010, we lost 36,000 jobs. we know the congressional budget office, which for a lot of americans, you did not hear much about this office until the last year, but because of health care, it has been recognized as an arbiter -- the one office in washington that has had a significant impact on certifying or stating what the numbers are, whether it is health care --

scoring the health-care bill and telling the american people what it costs, but also in terms of unemployment. the cbo reported that the recovery act added between 1,000,002.1 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- added between 1,000,001.2 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- added between 1 million and 1.2 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2009. it is increasing gdp relevant to what it otherwise would be. but are not my words. -- those are not my words. we are not anywhere near out of the woods. the senate in the house have worked on the so-called "higher

re act." the act has four basic elements. number one, a payroll tax holiday for those employers who hire new employees. no. 2, a build america bonds act, where local government entities can borrow money in a way that is more affordable. third, an extension of the highway trust fund, essential to preserve jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs. that would keep road building and other infrastructure- related projects moving forward. fourth, the act focuses on small business, the ability to write off certain expenditures. if a small business wants to invest in new equipment, we give them an opportunity to do that in a more substantial way.

currently, the senate, as many people know, is working on an additional piece of job creation legislation, the american worker, state, and business relief act. upon passage, this legislation will provide a couple of things. number one, energy efficiency tax credits. no. two, tax credits for businesses that free up cash flow and will allow them to expand and hire. no. three, the extension of safety net programs. it is important that we do that for cobra health insurance for those who have lost their jobs, unemployment insurance for those who lost jobs through no fault of their own. we have big numbers of americans in that category, millions of people. we have to help them get from here to there, from unemployment

to employment. you cannot ask them and their families to do that alone, as some in washington seem to want to do. we need to continue to focus not only on at new -- not only on new job creation strategies. we also need to have a safety net in place. those programs also have an economic benefit. you spend a buck on unemployment insurance or food stamps and you get a return on investment of a lot more than a buck, $1.65 or $1.75. it is not only the right thing to have a safety net. it also has a jump starting effect on our economy and creating jobs. we are going to continue to work on this legislation i mentioned in the senate. we are going to continue to focus on job creation strategies as we move forward.

i will wrap up now so we can move forward with our opening statements from our members. then we will get to commissioner hall. congressman grady? >> thank you, mr. chairman. today's employment report is more bad news for american workers and their families. payroll felt by 36,000, after excluding the hiring of temporary -- payroll fell by 36,000. after excluding the hiring of temporary census workers, payrolls fell by 52,000. the number of discouraged workers reached a high of 1.2 million. earlier this week, the administration attempted to spein these numbers as a result of storms in the northeast.

higher taxes and levels of debt aren't the real reason businesses are delaying -- higher taxes and levels of debt are the real reason businesses are delaying hiring. that is the real answer why this economic recovery is so slow. the uncertainty in america among the public is palpable. the health-care takeover and another wasteful stimulus bill will not restore confidence. with two-thirds of the original stimulus bill left to be spent, it is ludicrous for congress to attempt a second stimulus bill. when i asked small and medium- sized businesses for their opinion, they said it would do nothing to convince them to hire business. a payroll holiday to hire a

$40,000 worker is not good math. until they are ready to expand again, we will not see those hiring decisions. i know the president and congress are well intentioned in their efforts. i am puzzled by the president's economic approach. i do not know what you call it. if you can blame it, you can tax it, you can punish it. we are seeing that in proposals to punish energy companies to invest here in the united states, banking and financial- services industries, insurance industries, investors with capital gains. higher taxes on "the wealthy." higher taxes on real estate companies. companies that compete around the world are facing dangerous,

punishing tax proposals in the president's budget. i think when the white house sees these poor numbers and wonder why no one is hiring, it could be that these proposals are having a huge dampening effect on the ability to recover. i am convinced that if government does move out of the way, american consumers and business leaders are inherently optimistic, bounceback more readily from severe recessions than any country in this world. but what they see out of washington is that blizzard of bad policy proposals that is having a huge impact. i will close with this. we talk about restoring consumer confidence. i know that the week that congress was snowed out of business, the spirits of the american public lifted. perhaps the best stimulus package, and i say this only

half joking, would be for congress to adjourn for the rest of the year. it would allow individuals to live their lives without the heavy hand and dampening affect of these proposals. i think we can do better than this. i am anxious to work with other senate and house members on issues that really can get government out of the way and allow us to prosper again. i yield back. >> congressman burgess. >> thank you, mr. chairman. in january, in this committee, frequent attendees of this committee responded to the losses of jobs in december defensively by stating that sometimes real recovery occurs in fits and starts, but we need to focus on the overall trajectory. let us do that. we have 14 months of the

trajectory of the obama administration. in the state of the union speech, bling was cast on previous administrations in bringing us to the current situation. a year ago last month, with the passage of the stimulus bill, this administration began ownership of what was going to be their recovery. they advocated for a $787 billion bill which the congressional budget office says cost the taxpayers $862 billion. we had to pass it in a hurry. we had to pass it without reading it or thinking about it. we have to keep the unemployment rate from going above 7%. if we spent the $862 billion as president obama said, we would save or create millions of jobs over the next few years. perhaps members of congress would not be upset if it had

happened. it did not work out. since we borrow that money, unemployment has been on a rise of 7%. the congressional budget office said the economic effects of the stimulus bill would go-starting at the end of this fiscal year. -- effects of the stimulus bill would go negative starting at the end of this fiscal year. the country has lost 3 million jobs since the bill passed. why? why did the administration and congress pass this bill only to sit on the money, all the while paying interest on the loan, while jobs are leaving in droves? yesterday, in "the congressional quarterly," they indicated that the energy department got $33

billion from the stimulus and has spent $2.40 billion. i did not know that a day would come when i would agree with senator schumer. he is right to want to freeze the spending on renewable energy grants because the oversight is nonexistent. there is no looking into how these forms -- how these funds are being spent or whether they are being spent at american companies. the education department received double the budget of the previous year, and yet the secretary, the administration, could not be bothered to give the district of columbia the $8 million it needed to fund the d.c. opportunities scholarship program, which has helped over 3300 students in washington, d.c. improve their quality of life. i cannot even calculate the percentage that is of the

hundred dollars billion they got for the education department. it is infinitesimally small. i suggest that as we continue to delve into the numbers we consider this administration's solutions to unemployment and hold them accountable to how the money is spent, if it is spent at all, and how many jobs have been created. i will yield back the balance of my time. >> mr. chairman, i appreciate your calling this hearing and the two hearings there were held last week on jobs creation, as well as the fine work this committee has already done on this very critical issue. frankly, no matter how many hearings we hold it will not be enough. there are 14.9 million unemployed americans, and the damage done to them, their families, and their communities

is unending. as we know, the unemployment crisis we face right now was preceded by the collapse of a nationwide housing bubble. falling home values kept borrowers under water. in many cases, they were unable to make the payments on a ballooning high interest loan. all of this further as a nasty pro-cyclical twist where unemployment leads to more foreclosures, which drives down demand and creates more unemployment. last thursday, in the oversight and government reform committee, we heard again about the havoc wreaked by foreclosures. this time it was officials from the northeast ohio area discussing the destruction that foreclosures have done to the city and the outlying suburbs. we saw pictures of vacant homes in cleveland side-by-side with pictures of post-katrina new

orleans. you could not tell the difference between the two. unfortunately, i do not need to attend a hearing to learn this. i just had to go home to my baltimore neighborhood. i can see the same things. thus, i have made foreclosure prevention my highest priority, and will continue to do so. the witnesses told us at the oversight committee hearing last thursday that we could only fix the economy if we keep people in their homes. as long as the perfect storm created by unemployment and foreclosures remains over us, it is incumbent on us to do more, and do more soon. i know the senate passed a $15 billion jobs bill. yesterday, we moved that bill toward president obama's desk. i did not cast my vote for mayor

satisfaction. there are too many people sitting at home unemployed, with a house worth 20% less than the note on it. they need more than a watered- down at jobs bill. before i close, i will pass along a "that i found striking from an article in -- i will pass along a quote that i found striking from an article in "atlantic monthly." there is unemployment, a brief and routine transitional state that results from the rise and fall of companies in any economy, and there is unemployment, a chronic and all consuming. the former is a necessary lubricant. the ladder slowly eats away at individuals, families, and the

very fabric of society. history suggests it is society's most noxious ill. that ends the quote. thank you for your leadership in addressing the employment and housing crisis. i also think -- i also think dr. hall and his colleagues for their work at the bureau of labor and statistics. >> commissioner hall is the commissioner of labor statistics for the u.s. department of labor, the national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates its dental statistical data to the american public, the united states congress, businesses, and so on. he also served on the council of economic advisers for two years under president bush.

prior to that, he was chief economist at the department of commerce. dr. hall has also spent 10 years at the united states international trade commission. he received his b.a. from the university of virginia and his ph.d. from purdue university. you have the floor. thank you. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the all employment -- to discuss the employment and unemployment data released this morning. employment fell in construction and information while temporary help services added jobs. severe winter weather in parts of the country may have affected payroll employment in february. however, there are too many unknowns to say precisely how much the weather might have affected these measures.

construction employment fell by 64,000 in february, in line with the average monthly job loss over the last six months. job losses continued throughout the industry, although non- residential trade contributed most of the decline. temporary health services employment increased by 48,000 over the month. since last september, this industry has added 284,000 jobs. health-care employment continued to trend up in february. employment in most other industries showed little or no change. average weekly hours for all employees in the private-sector decreased by 0.1 hours in february. hours decline were significantly in construction and manufacturing, 0.4 maryland 0.5 hours respectively -- 0.4 and

0.5 hours, respectively. the unemployment rate remained at 9.7%, with jobless rates for major worker groups showing little or no change. of the 14.9 million unemployed in february, the proportion who had been jobless for 27 weeks or more was 40.9%, little different from the all-time high reached in january. the number of individuals working part time who would prefer full-time work rose in february, partially offsetting a large decrease in january. involuntary part-time employment levels have held near 9.29 in the final months of 2009. i would like to return to the issue of severe winter weather in february and payroll estimates released today.

major snowstorm struck parts of the country during the reference. of our survey. many schools, government agencies, and businesses closed temporarily, and many people or off work for a time because of the storms. workers who do not receive any pay for the entire paper. are not counted as employed. therefore, it is possible the storms had-effect on unemployment. however, not every temporary absence counts as unemployment. if they are employed by a single hour -- paid by a single hour, whether they worked or not, they are counted as employed. most workers had weekly or monthly pay periods. we do not know how many workers may have been added to payrolls for snow removal, cleanup, and repairs to to storms.

-- and repairs due to storms. for these reasons, we cannot say how much the february numbers were affected by inclement weather. in our household survey, persons with a job who missed work for weather-related events were counted as employed whether or not they were paid for their time off. non-farm payroll employment was little changed in february. my colleagues would be glad -- my colleagues and i would be glad to answer any questions. >> the sentence or two you have just concluded with, using the phrase you used earlier, "little changed," is encouraging. from my vantage point, it is hard to use phrases like good news or to be overly positive. but it is encouraging that we

are at least stabilizing. that is critically important. i did want to ask about a couple of sectors or subsets of what we are talking about. i want to ask about health care. i know that consistently, and i know this goes back a ways -- health-care employment, as an industry, has been fairly strong overtime. i want to get your sense of that over the last couple of months, of what you see for the rest of the year, to the extent that you can predict or identify a trend in health care. >> healthcare has continued to fairly consistently add jobs even during the worst times during this recession. this past month, healthcare added about 12,000 jobs. over the past four months, they added an average of about 15,000 jobs.

healthcare has been remarkably consistent in having growth. >> how about other sectors that have had growth or have been stronger? i know we have had for a long time a manufacturing challenge. any others you can point to within the past year or the last couple of months? >> manufacturing, as you mention -- we had manufacturing job growth that was flat this month. our estimate was a gain of about a thousand jobs. we gained some jobs in the prior month. that is the first time manufacturing has showed job gains in three years. >> i would call that good news, in my words. >> yes. a lot of the industries have stopped losing jobs. they have been fairly flat for a few months. the actual job loss has been centered in things like construction. we lost 64,000 jobs in

construction. we lost a round of 31,000 jobs in local government this month. >> i talked about comparing january 2009 and february 2009 with the 2010 months. do you have those in front of you, the job loss january 2009 and february versus 2010? i just want to establish that on the record. >> absolutely. in january of 2009, we lost 779,000 jobs. in february, we lost 726,000 jobs. >> of 09. >> of 09. that is compared to 26,036 thousand. -- that is compared to 26,000 and 36,000.

our benchmark adjusted the numbers slightly. >> in the two months. period -- that is versus now 26,000 and 36,000? i know my time is running out. i will come back. two categories i asked you about last month and the month before -- veterans and americans who have disabilities. in terms of veterans in particular, if you could answer this -- i know we are low on time. veterans from the post 2001. period, after the gulf war --

i am told that rate is higher than the national veterans' right. could you walk through some of those if you have them? >> we have the gulf war ii veterans. the unemployment rate for february was 12.5%, well above the national average. >> is there a no. 4 overall veterans? >> for overall veterans, the unemployment rate is 9.5%, a little bit less than the national average. >> so the folks who served most recently are having a tougher time. >> yes. >> persons with disabilities -- do you have that number? >> yes, i do. the unemployment rate for persons with disabilities is 13.8%. i will say that the more notable fact on people with disabilities is a very low labor

force participation rate. that is only 21.9%, as opposed to somewhere over 60% for a national average. >> thank you. congressman brady? >> earlier this week, the white house tried to spin the bad numbers in advance, knowing their policies have failed our economy miserably. larry summers said that localized snowstorms would distort the unemployment and jobs numbers of today. that is the equivalent of, "the dog ate my economy" as an excuse. in your testimony, you tend to dismiss that. you point that there are two ways that -- you point out that there are two ways that you conduct jobs numbers. one is that household survey.

obviously, if they are on vacation or home sick they are not counted as unemployed. they are just not working that day. the other way you collect information, you said in your testimony -- the only way they can count as unemployed is if they receive not a dime during the month of their pay. period. they would literally have to be out of work for their whole pay period to count as unemployed during that period. >> that is correct. >> would you say the snowstorms distorted the jobs numbers you are presenting? >> i would say it is hard to tell. i would say we will not know -- we will have a much better idea by looking at next month's numbers to sort of see. whatever happened with the snowstorms this month will be gone by next month.

we will see a bounce back if there was an effect. there is no way for us to precisely know. obviously, we saw a decline in hours worked, which you would expect. with payroll, it is difficult. different establishments have different peril periods. some are one week, some are two weeks, some are four weeks. we cannot even give you a good idea of how likely it is. >> i think it is important that we not try to spin these numbers in advance when we know they are headed the wrong direction. one thing the white house did not talk about was the distortion caused by the hiring of temporary census workers. my understanding is that the government will be hiring 700,000 temporary workers, which will boost the jobs numbers out

of the mainstream. in january and february, how many census workers are counted in these numbers today? >> for the job growth today, 15,000 jobs were added for census workers. from the -36,000, 15,000 growth. it would have been -51,000. >> 51,000 jobs lost. our economic recovery is sluggish and sub-part in comparison to how we have responded to past recessions, how we responded to the reagan recovery, and against our competitors around the world. i am looking at an unemployment rate from when the stimulus took effect until today. our unemployment rate increased by 1.5 percentage points.

australia had increased by a fraction during that period. can that is one-tenth of our increase. japan has increased by less than a third of what the increase -- less than a third of what the increase here is. we are falling behind countries like south korea. can you compare -- it appears we are falling behind our major competitors in an effort to come back to a sustained, vibrant economic recovery. can you compare our unemployment numbers and increases over the past year compared to our major competitors? . .

>> we are seeing some progress. let me ask you this. going back to the temporary help services, that has been up. >> that is correct. it was up 48,000 this month and two hundred 48,000 the last six months. >> is that significant? >> that is significant and it is a fairly reliable indicator of a

strengthening labor market. >> as i understand it, when you have that temporary help, the logic tells you there is a probability that at some point, those jobs will increase into permanent jobs. >> historically, when temporary help services have added peril, overall payload increases. >> let me go to the african- american unemployment situation. with regard to african- americans, back in january it was 16.5% and this month, 15.8%. i understand that it not significant? >> and that is correct.

>> i look at african-american women. in january of 2010, the rate was 13.3% tot -- now, it is 12 points -- 12.1%. is that significant? >> i am not sure off hand. i am guessing that is still modest. >> it is a reduction of one. . let's go back to the entire snowstorm situation. that could fall either way. in other words, it could have been a situation where it could have effected the numbers negatively or positively, is that right? >> that is correct i would expect that if it is had any effect, overall it would be any

-- a negative affect. >> in other words, the unemployment rate would have been higher or lower? >> the unemployment rate, because of the way that we calculate it, i am not sure that would be likely to be effected much. the payroll jobs numbers could have been effected. >> in what respect? >> let me give you some perspective. there were literally 1 million people who did not work during the referenced week. while we would count them as employed, for the unemployment rate, there is some question whether or not these people showed up on payroll when we collected establishment data. some of them may have shown up, some of them may have gotten paid, worked at least part of the time, but some may not have

worked at all. in which case, they would not show up in the payroll jobs numbers. >> in other words, the number of people employed could had been hired -- could have been higher. >> that is correct. >> this whole issue of 31,000 jobs lost in a local government, i guess that is pretty significant? >> yes. >> local governments, i guess, are seen their tax bases harmed and they do not have the funds. >> certainly, numbers have been consistent with that. we have lost 17,000 jobs a month over the last four months in local government and about 13,000 jobs per month before that. it is unusual for local governments to lose jobs like that. >> my time has expired.

>> thank you, congressman burgess. >> thank you, dr. hall, for being here again. probably not a year ago, we had a conversation about the weather and its effect on your numbers. they are similar to what you gave me last year. because of the way you calculate things it is unlikely that the snowstorms themselves would have had a significant effect, but, have you looked back at the way the numbers were calculated say in the blizzard of 1996? >> yes, as i mentioned, we had 1 million people who did not report to work during the reference week. this time in 1996, we had about

1.8 million people who did not report to work. it was a much more severe storm. during that time, there was a drop in payroll employment that recovered the next month. there may have been an effect in payroll employment in 1996, but again, that was a larger event, and we still do not know for sure. >> we may see an adjustment in the figures next month and likely that would be an adjustment in the way that the numbers were not as bad as they appeared, or we just do not know? >> we just do not know. >> on the household data -- let me apologize if you have already given this number. we talked about the chronically unemployed, the people that have given up looking for work, where is our number with this month's report?

>> with the long-term unemployed, the people that are still looking, that is 6.3 million people. it is a very high number. of course, we have people who were marginally attached, another 3.5 million marginally attached to the labor force. >> when we have talked about the figure in the past, it has been 60% or 17% that are no longer work -- 16% or 17% that no longer looking for work. >> sure. it includes the unemployed, those that are marginally attached, and it includes people that are working part-time for economic reasons. that rate is 16.8%. that is -- >> that is higher than last

month? >> it is up from last month, but down from the muck below that the before that. -- the month before that. >> we are trying to figure out if we are seeing green shoots or leaves growing in the parking lot as far as the economy is concerned, but just looking at the numbers for february 2009 or going back to january 2009, where you had people unemployed for six months, but the unemployed number now is well over 6 million. is that right? >> you mean the long-term unemployed? >> yes. that number has in fact doubled over the past year? >> yes.

now comparing this to other recessions other downturns, how is this looking? to me, that looks disturbing that the people that have been looking for work for six months has doubled in the past year's time. we passed a stimulus bill one year ago. >> the level of long-term unemployed is at record levels. it has been at levels that we've never seen before. it is extremely high. >> is that doubling over the last year's timed in spite of the things we have tried to do to boost the economy. is that typical or unusual? >> you typically see the long- term unemployed go up significantly during the recession. >> doubled?

>> it is certainly not unusual for that level to double, sometimes it might go up much more than that. i go back to the recession in the 1970's where it started out around 300,000 and ended up at 1.6 million. in percentage terms, doubling is not unusual as commissioner hall said, the big difference now is that the levels are all higher. we started at a higher rate, and we are at a much higher level than we have ever been before. >> mr. billings was talking about the increase in temporary health and that being one of the -- temporary help, and that being one of the leading indicators. where does this number fit in with previous recessions? does it the cricket is getting better or worse? what -- does it look like it is

getting better or worse? what does it say about the state of the recession? green shoots or weeds in the parking lot? >> i did not sure that it tells us a lot about the current conditions. the long-term unemployed kind of light. once the economy starts to recover, will start to grow jobs. >> the government put money into the economy, or we thought we were, maybe if your the department of energy, maybe would not. there is talk of a second stimulus bill. people are asking what good are we dealing with pumping these dollars into the economy if we are not seeing any relief for people who have been looking for work for six months? those are the people that were looking for work six months into the stimulus package, right?

>> you mean are they the same? >> that rolling number looking back six months ago, we are now six months into pumping all that money into the economy and saving or treating all of these jobs, but it did not work out for these folks. >> this number did rise over 2009. in the last month or two it has not moved very much, but over a longer time. it has continued to grow. -- but over a longer time frame, it has continued to grow. >> i want to make a few points about the numbers. dr. hall, the total number of americans unemployed right now is 14.9 million. >> that is correct. >> in that 15 million per cent range for this month and last

month, i think the record is clear, not only from your testimony, but from other data we have seen more recently, and i think it is delegated today, job loss has come down compared to january and february o 2009. according to the numbers to give us, it is about 1.5 million jobs lost. i know those numbers will be adjusted, but that is a significant difference. the other reference point i wanted to put in the record, the bureau of economic analysis reported that the growth of the -- gross domestic product grew in the fourth quarter of 2,009.2 percentage points higher than initially estimated.

we went from a negative gdp, to a positive gross domestic product. we will see what the first quarter of 2010 brings. i did want to ask a couple of specifics i raised and congressman, means raised on some of these some sectors. elijah cummings mentioned african-americans. i'm not sure that any of us asked about hispanics. the picture i have the record right. with regard to african-american unemployment, it is 15.8? >> substantially higher than the overall number. >> for hispanics, 12.8%? >> yes. >> i think the percentages are helpful, but the numbers are

more telling. the veterans unemployment rate -- maybe, if you could just look at the post-2001 service members. >> the number of unemployed are two hundred 12,000. >> veterans overall? >> yes paris >> -- yes. >> those are post two thousand one -- those are post-2001. >> correct. >> in terms of the african american, we've talked about the african-american total and a hispanic total as opposed to the percentage.

>> sure. for african-americans, two 0.8 million are unemployed. -- 2.8 million are unemployed. x, it is the same number for hispanics or latinos. 2.8 million. >> i think that is all i have. congressman brady. >> we are looking for a woeful numbers, but not false hope. -- we are looking for a hopeful numbers, but not false hope.

it is not the government sector that holds the key to job creation. i think it is important to remember that looking at the u.s. economy, we actually lost fewer jobs during this recession than in during the 2001 recession. the first six months of 2001, we lost more than 50 million jobs and in this one, 48 million. one of the reasons the unemployment rate continues to be so stubbornly high, it is not in the job losses, it is in the last -- it is in the job creation. in 2009, only 40.3 million jobs were created. we have a gap. i really do believe, commissioner, that the uncertainty throughout this country by many of the people

that spoke to the president in his round table saying that we are holding on to capitol and delaying hiring decisions because of the health-care takeover with all of its mandates and taxes. cap and trade, which will have a devastating long-term effect on our economy. while it is not at the greece level, we are rapidly approaching those levels where we will lose confidence among our investors in the united states. my question is, how do you measure, or are you able to measure the obstacles to an economic recovery? the rational expectations, i believe the economists call it, where and businessmen look at

this massive stimulus, the second stimulus, how you -- are you able to measure how they are delaying hiring decisions? >> we are not able to measure the reasons for employment or unemployment. what we can and to measure is the number of people that they do employ and the wages that they pay. >> looking at productivity, it seems we always look at the hours that average workers have, knowing, that the temporary workers, businesses tend to make their workers more productive before they reach a certain point where they bring back hiring. we continue to be around 33

hours per week. the long term average is 35 hours before businesses consider the costs of adding the new employees. what range are we in right now? >> for the number of hours? >> are we still around 33? >> yes, i am sure that is correct. let me look through the numbers. yes. the average hours were 33.8. >> hiring temporary workers should be an indicator. the fact that we still have room to grow in hours per week, before traditionally businesses start to hire. is that true? >> that is correct. i will say that we have had some strengthening in hours worked. but temporary help services,

that is an indicator of a tightening labor market that in the past has signaled better job growth. >> construction, manufacturing, the two areas of we were told would see the most job gains -- you said construction is down how much more? >> 64,000. >> manufacturing, do you write that down. >> it is essentially unchanged. commissioner elijah cummings >> when we look back at this whole issue and try to figure out the unemployment rate and job loss, we're talking about net. it is not the jobs are not being created, you're looking at an overall kind of picture? >> that is true. some of our data suggest that literally 1 million people are hired a week, even now during a

recession, but 1 million people lose their jobs as well. the numbers we give you are not numbers. >> looking at the long term unemployed, people that have been unemployed for six months, is that right? >> that is right. 23.6%, those people have been unemployed for more than a year. in other words, prior to this administration is that correct? >> and that is correct. a lot of people lost their jobs a long time ago. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> let me ask you this. last fall, if you brought unemployment figures that slightly cracked down. would it be fair to say that the labor market has stabilized or

is that a word that you even use? >> it is a word that i would hesitate to use. it is true that the job loss has moderated considerably to where we are fairly close to neither gains nor losses. that is consistent to the idea of possibly stabilizing. >> as i close, let me say this. sometimes i listened to my good friends on the republican side and it is not that anybody is trying, and i am sure that chairman casey would agree with me, no one is trying to paint a rosy picture. we are very realistic, but we refuse to look and see a difference between 729,000 jobs

lost in january 2009 and 26,000 lost in january of 2010 and say that is not significant. we want every single american working. when we talk about the stimulus, and a lot of people have been up on the stimulus, i probably had one of the most interesting experiences in baltimore where we hired 50 police officers who would not have been hired if it were not for the stimulus. to see these young officers be hired, and these are people that we desperately need -- i think that a lot of people have beat up on larry summers and the president and the administration saying he predicted this would happen begin this amount of time -- trying to predict is not always easy, as we can see from

our interaction with regard to these -- to these statistics. the fact still remains, that we are, i do believe, moving in the right direction. i always say, i believe in cheering for the home team. so often, what happens is we spend so much time looking at the doom and gloom that we do not see the progress that we are making. i want to thank you again, mr. hall, for your testimony, and i would like to thank your staff. hopefully, next month, when we come back, we will be able to have an even stronger report for the american people with regard to the employment situation here and our country. thank you very much. congressman burgess. >> listening to my good friend

from maryland, i am reminded of the yogi berra saying the future is not what it used to be. it is not easy to be in the prognosticating business. these predictions were put forward as a rationale for selling a policy or a group of policies that the congress passed rather hastily last year. the only coral that type voice this morning is that i wish we had taken a little more time to get things right. with the cash for clunkers bill, we might not have done anything but to accelerate third quarter or earnings -- third quarter earnings into the fourth quarter earnings. no quarrel there. it was passed by congress. every day, and i walk out my front door and i see that automobile sitting down the street, i cannot help but think

that my grandson will pay for that car every day for the rest of his life. there are better ways about doing some of the things we've done for the past year and we may be locking ourselves into some policies that may be difficult to unwind. just on the numbers themselves, when this number, whether it is 10.2% or 9.7, hovering around where it has been for the last few months, when is the last time in our economic history of the numbers were here? >> he is going to look up the exact number. i'm pretty sure it is 1983, that recession. >> we talk a little bit about the number of minorities that are unemployed, african- americans, hispanics, what about young people that are just getting out of college?

>> yes, right. let's see. yes, i may have to get back to you. >> where i am going -- >> i can characterize it. it is really high. the youth unemployment rate has gone up quite a bit. >> let me ask you this. has anyone looked at the situation in previous situations, whatever the numbers of young people unemployed during times like this when there is an economic downturn as opposed to times that might be regarded as more normal and what does that do to that young person's lifetime earning

capabilities or expectations? does having the bad fortune to start off in your productive years when the country is in the midst of a serious recession, and i think i remember that time in 1983, but i do not remember 1972. i was a recent college graduate and i went back to school because i could not find one. it does effected in a significant way. i remember in 1982-1983 the news stories were talking about young people having no hope for employment. this was the worst economy that they have ever emerged into. with all the statistics gathering that you all do, i wonder if anyone has looked with the 25 years of experience with that graduating class, how did they differ with some of their courts -- some of their cohorts that may have graduated when things were measurably better?

you have to ask yourself if a young person who aspires to go to college and wants to amass a lot of student debt, is that really a good idea for someone to be doing that when the expectation of lifetime earnings may have adjusted downward since we have not emerged from the recession and no one knows how long it is going to continue? i think these are valid questions. we, as policy makers, because we do deal with things like loans and secondary education, we do need to take that into account. just one last thought i want to put out there before my time expires -- we heard from kevin has it from the american enterprise into some rich institution several weeks ago, and he was concerned that the extension of unemployment benefits was facilitating people

staying unemployed. have you looked into that in any way? 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, i do not know if that is unprecedented, but it is a long time. we have now gone to two years of unemployment benefits. is there any correlation there that we might be aware of that might affect policy decisions? >> i do not know how to characterize it. i have seen some research that showed that reemployment rates go up when unemployment insurance starts to run out. i do not know what the cause and effect on that is. it is not clear that these folks are holding off from getting a job, especially at a time like this. if you would like, we could put together a study on studies that

have been done on this. >> i think it would be helpful. thank you, mr. chairman. i will yield back. >> commissioner, thank you for your time. i did want to comment of the to put about some of the points that were made by our republican colleagues i know that a constant refrain and have made it hit today, with regards to the -- republican colleagues. i know that a constant refrain, and they have it today, it is with regards to the recovery bill. they voted against it, i voted for, and a lot of democrats did. there has been a debate about what has been working at and what has not been working. when you look at what the congressional budget office has said, that the recovery act has added 1 million or two million jobs by the fourth quarter of

2009 and raised unemployment, the director of the congressional budget office said, and i quote, "the policies that were enacted in the bill are increasing gdp and employment relative to what they otherwise would be." i also would note that, and i am glad that congressman brady a couple of minutes ago in both of his time slots talk about history. i think history can be relevant and instructive. he mentioned the reagan era and also compared job loss in two different kind -- different time

periods. if you look just in terms of job gains, when president clinton was in office, job gains by 22 million. for president bush, about 2 million. also, if you look in terms of deficits, when president clinton left office, the following things happen. the surplus was two and a $36 billion on up. when president bush left office, that had changed to a about a $1.30 trillion deficit. we know what the jobs numbers were in the january -- in december of 2008. if we're to talk history, we ought to put that on the table as a part of this debate.

if president obama walked into 2009 facing a set of economic circumstances that no congress or president had faced since the 1930's. i would not declare or say that the recovery bill has worked perfectly. i would also not say that it has worked completely because we still have at least a year of jump starting effects from the recovery bill. i did want to get to a question about manufacturing jobs, and that touched on it a little bit before, but we did have some good news there. it was in a sector that we seem to never have good news. commissioner, could you walk through that for us? >> sure. manufacturing has had a long- term trend decline in employment. the previous recession manufacturing loss, which lost

literally over 3 million jobs and did not recover any of them. the last couple of months, the job loss has moderated. we have heavy essentially no job losses in manufacturing over the past couple of months. >> over? >> the couple of months. the job losses moderate. >> 6000 manufacturing look jobs lost over the last four months. in my opinion, that is good news, something to be positive about. congressman brady. >> i am try to recall who was in charge of congress when president clinton had that surplus. it was republicans. i am trying to recall who had the purse strings in congress for two years who handed president obama the deficit,

that was democrats in control of the purse strings during those years. i do recall, not just a year ago, that we were promised if we passed that $800 trillion stimulus that unemployment would be no higher than 8%. we are hovering around 10%, we have lost another 3 million jobs since stimulus to defect, and in consumer confidence, only 6% of americans said they believe istomin's create jobs and half of americans feel -- believes the stimulus creates jobs, and half of americans confidence is down. two surveys reported that it

would actually cost our economy. it has crowded out private investment and consumption. the truth is, as our friend from maryland said, it has created jobs in the government sector with our police, which is wonderful. the problem with those jobs is the only continue as long as taxpayers pay. jobs in the private sector are what pay. we want those jobs to be created. our energy companies see themselves under attack. our small business professionals are under higher taxes. our banking industry, real estate industry, hedge funds, medical devices, on and on and on, no wonder they are not hiring jobs. i think we should all work at trying to find economic policies that work best for america, and

while we are a cheerleader for this country, we are certainly not cheerleaders for this government or the policies that are not working and we are anxious to work together with the democrats and republicans across the aisle to find the policies that will give us the possibility of a true sustainable economy. >> just one last point to make a buck the congressional budget office and their outlook for fiscal year 2010 to 2020. their conclusion, our contribution to growth will turn negative during the latter part of 2010. it would be nice to give it more time, but i do not know that giving it more time will allow it to have the effect that people are wanting. dr. hall, as always, we

appreciate you coming in and sharing your wisdom. i would appreciate if you could bring up those figures the talked-about earlier and have a look at those. i look for to visiting with you. i yield back my time. >> thank you. i fail to mention that the beginning of this hearing why why i'm in this chair. councilman maloney could not be here. she has been ever faithful to being here, but she could not i want to thank our colleagues for making that long trek from the house to the senate. as you can tell from the discussion here, the debate will go on. thank you very much.

[no audio] >> and join us tomorrow night for the 27th annual national press foundation awards dinner. see that starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> we are in the business of trying to help our students, predominantly young women and some of the older women and men that come to us, understand that you should focus on achievement in your own life and not be looking to grab headlines. >> sunday, meet the woman credited with turning around trinity washington university, president for over 20 years, patricia mcguire on c-span2 and the q&a.

>> tea. -- t.r. reid has traveled the world. join our three-hour conversation with t.r. reid and your phone calls live sunday at noon eastern on both tv in debt on c- span2. >> we have the town knew about the latest unemployment figures, the figures show 9.7%. president obama commented on that earlier today during a trip to suburban virginia. this last just on -- this less just under 10 minutes. -- this last just under 10 minutes. >> ok. good morning, everybody.

it is great to be here. looking around, this looks like a fun place to work. [laughter] >> the work you do here is making homes more efficient, saving people money, and putting america on a path to a clean energy future. i understand you doubled your work force last year thanks to connie. [applause] >> you are hoping to hire another 100 workers this year? this is a model of what we want to be seen all across the country. our goal for the economy is to show similar job growth in the months ahead. this morning we learned that in february, our economy lost an additional 36,000 jobs. this is actually better than expected considering the severe storms all along the east coast

are estimated to have had a depressing effect on the numbers. it shows that the measures -- that the measures we are taking to turn the economy around are having some impact. even though it is better than expected, it is more than we should tolerate. far too many americans remain out of work. far too many families are still struggling in these difficult economic times and that is why i am not going to rest -- i am not going to rest, my administration is not one to rest in helping people who are looking to find a job and help of business owners were looking to expand feel comfortable hiring again. we are not want to rest until our economy is working again for the middle class and for all americans. my immediate priority is not only providing relief to people that are out of work, but also help the private sector create jobs to put america back to work. early this week, after breaking through a political logjam that some of you saw if you're

watching television, congress passed and i signed into law a bill that -- a bill that extended unemployment insurance. it also extended cobra. it extended financing for small businesses and makes it possible for two thousand furloughed transportation workers go back to work. signing this bill, and getting it released swiftly, it is essential. it is only temporary. the relief i signed into law will last about one month. i am calling on congress to extend this through the end of the year. the best form of economic relief is a quality job. i am also called on congress to pass measures to increase lending and incentives for businesses large and small.

>> this tax credit may aspire to hire more workers quickly. we will see. instead of 100, we'd like it one time, -- instead of 100, we might get 110, or 115 [applause] >> now, even as we fight to help the private sector create more jobs and fight to bring about a full economic recovery, we know that there have been success stories all across america. this is a company that works with utilities to help folks

understand. energy costs and how they can save money on their energy bills. this board testified to a number of kilowatt hours that have been saved, the amount of money that has gone back in consumers' pockets, and the amount of carbon that has been taken out of the atmosphere. part of the reason i suspect you are growing is that you're doing your jobs well. i also know that a big part of the reason is that you are seizing the opportunity of the future. the jobs of tomorrow will be jobs in the clean energy sector. this company is a great emblem for that. that is why my administration is taking steps to support a thriving clean energy industry across the country. producing cutting edge batteries, making it wind turbines, and helping consumers

get more control over their energy bills. that is also why earlier this week i urged congress to act a initiative we are calling home star. it is going to offer rebates if they are getting this good information from opower as they see that the drafty window is costing me a couple hundred dollars a year, they will have incentive to go to home depot and hire a contractor and make changes that will ultimately improve themselves, our environment, and ultimately, our economy. think about the way the rebates could help spur private-sector job growth. it could not only help businesses, like yours, to help

consumers make their home more efficient, it will also create business for the companies hired to upgrade homes. they have to purchase supplies. that chris business for retailers. the retailers would need to restock their shelves. almost all of the goods that are required to make homes more energy efficient are actually produced right here in the united states of america. it is hard to ship an energy efficient window across an ocean. yes, the people that are out of work right now need in the belief. we need to extend unemployment insurance to help americans whether these tough times and we need to do everything we can to help the private sector create jobs right now. even as we do, we need to replicate the success of clean energy companies like your own,

investing in jobs of the future and the industries of the future. the country that leaves in claimed energy and energy efficiency today, and maps of the convinced will lead the global economy to market a one that country to be the united states of america. -- the global economy. i want that country to be the united states of america. it is good for our environment. it is wonderfully exciting to be here, and i think that when you look at this group that is gathered here, you can see the future in this company. thank you for the great work you are doing. let's see if we can replicate your success all across the country. thank you very much, everybody. [laughter] [applause]

♪ >> looking at the $787 billion economic stimulus plan, over $343 billion have been committed

to various projects, while only $119 billion has actually been paid out. we have a web site devoted to follow when the money. c-span.org is where you will find watchdog groups and are tracking the money. >> the next journalism must be one open to those of hammering like fists on the door to the election to the conversation. to add new conversations, suggests new contexts. >> winners of the national press federation awards discuss ways to change. >> we are in the business of trying to help our students, predominantly young women and some of the older men and women that come to us understand that

you should focus on achievement in your own life, and not be looking to grab headlines. >> sunday, need patricia mcguire, the president of trinity washington college. >> the senate health committee held a hearing on reducing child and obesity. according to a recent national survey, 16.4% of children were considered obese in 20007. this is just over 90 minutes. >> the senate committee on health education, labor and pensions will come to order. hour hearing this morning will be the first in a series dealing with child could of this city

and how we can reverse it. the harsh and said reality is that for the first time in our nation's history we are in danger of raising children that will be sicker and the younger than the generation before them. today, all the gains we've made things to public health and wellness programs are at risk. one of the main reasons is the rise in child and obesity. currently, when more than one- third of our children are overweight or obese, and half of these kids are clinically obese. it is more than twice the rate of just 30 years ago. as we all know, children that are overweight and obese are at greater risk for a whole range of greater health problems both during childhood and during adulthood. they are at risk of cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes children that are obese are likely to remain so as adults.

one in three children born today runs the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. i must reverse this trend, countless children's lives will be cut short because of the preventable condition. on a macro level, childhood obesity is a national public health crisis. on the individual level, for each child effective with this condition, it is something else. it is a true tragedy. a yale university study concluded that children who are overweight are stigmatized by their peers as early as age three. they are subject to teasing, rejecting, bullying and are two or three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes. the quality of life is comparable to kids who have cancer. if we appointed transform our

nation into a wellness' society, we need to begin with our kids. child and obesity is more than a threat to private health, it is a threat to budgets. by increasing chronicled this become a drive the cost of health care. the cost of treating a child that is a piece is approximately three times higher than treating an average weight child. $3 billion of this money is children that are covered by medicaid. we can see the impact that it has on budgets. as we will hit today, the childhood obesity ek -- epidemic has many causes and everyone has a part to play if we hope to reverse this up and die. i applaud first lady michelle, for -- if we hope to reverse this trend. i applaud first lady michelle obama. she says we need common sense

solutions that empower committee to make tough decisions for their kids. i also applaud our surgeon general for giving priority to the obesity epidemic for her vision. as our nation to the top doctor, her recommendation highlights the importance of recognizing this problem from a clinical perspective and in our neighborhoods. it is invaluable for our country to have both the first lady and the surgeon general teamed up to take on this challenge there are other reasons for optimism. two days ago at a briefing on child could ability, multiple initiatives were brought up. examples include primary care doctor's roles in preventing children from becoming obese. promoting healthy behaviors to employer-based programs for parents, so that parents know what to do.

and both community-based efforts and public-private partnerships that facilitate healthy choices by increasing access to healthy foods and physical activity. today, we are beginning the dialogue here in this committee about how we can confront the crisis of child and obesity. to help us better understand the issue, we'll be hearing from four distinguished witnesses. we will talk about smart, is effective solutions that are emerging in our doctors' offices, our committees, and through private partnership. i think all of the witnesses for coming in today. i'll have more to say when i introduced them. i will turn to someone else who has a great interest and has been very good on this issue in promoting child could awareness u2y.

i would have been here a year, but i decided when we were using -- when we were talking about obesity, i needed to take the stairs. our nation faces an epidemic. as a result of this epidemic, millions of children are appointed develop heart disease, diabetes and a host of other serious medical conditions. costs for programs like medicare and medicaid will further increase beyond already unsustainable levels. today, will discuss the first lady's initiative to stop childhood obesity through a public campaign focused on petition, physical activity, healthy options in school and helping families to make a good lifestyle choices. i applied -- i applaud her efforts. .. .

>> this obesity epidemic has a direct impact on national health care spending. the medical bills of an obese individual or 42% more than someone who is not obese. a 2004 study cited by the cdc sow's that -- shows that americans spent $78.50 billion

on obese medical care. while the financial impacts are daunting, the human cost is greater. people who are obese face higher risk of developing heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. obesity in children only leads to greater help, and -- to greater health, social, and economic social problems in the future. in ohio, we have the commit to your health campaign, which hosts community walks with third graders to bring attention to childhood obesity. the focus on physical fitness, lifestyles, and sound nutritional practice. it is important to work with children to educate them about being physically active and aware of food choices. the federal government does not have a great track record in implementing programs that

modify people's behaviors. i hope we can learn from a variety of sources, including employers and community leaders, about how to encourage solutions that will promote greater personal responsibility and result in healthier lifestyles for american families. i would also like to think the witnesses for their dedication to combating this serious problem that faces america's children. i am looking forward to their testimony. i noted that dr. benjamin listed the increase in technology as one of the problems. i just saw some kids playing video games. they did not get much exercise with it. maybe the new wii will help. >> our lead witness today, dr. regina benjamin, the 18th surgeon general of the united states public health service. as america's doctor, she provides the public with the

best scientific information on how to improve their health. she oversees the operational command of uniform health officers who serve and protect the health of the american people. dr. benjamin is founder and former ceo -- i am not good for us this correctly. [laughter] a rural health committee in alabama. she is a former dean of the college of medicine in mobile. in 1995, she was the first position under the age of 40 and the first african american woman to be elected to the ama board of trustees. she was the first african- american female president of the state medical society in the entire united states. dr. benjamin has a bs in chemistry from savior university in new orleans, her m.a. from

the university of alabama, and her m.d. from tulane, and five or honorary doctorates. she is a fellow of the american academy of american physicians. she is a kellogg fellow. welcome back to the committee. i am honored to have you here. we are all honored to have you here. i understand this is your first time to testify before a congressional committee. let me assure you we are honored to have you here. i think you personally for your great leadership on so many issues, but especially on the issue of childhood obesity. your statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety. please proceed as you desire. >> thank you. i thank you for holding a hearing on this important issue, and for giving me the opportunity to testify today.

thank you for being such enthusiastic advocates of wellness and prevention. as i mentioned, when i met with many of you, wellness and prevention is my priority as surgeon general. i look forward to working with you as well as the partners in government, in the nonprofit world, in the private sector, to confront serious problems that challenged the health of our nation. perhaps the most serious challenge to the nation's well- being is childhood obesity. since 1980, obesity rates have doubled in adults and tripled in children. the problem is even worse among blacks, hispanics, and the american children. needless to say -- and native american children. needless to say, we have been working on this a long time. in a call to action, w were

warned of the negative effects that we gain and unhealthy lifestyles were having on american well-being. i have followed up on this report with my first paper, the surgeon general'ssss vision fora healthy and fit nation. i out ways in which to respond to the publicealth issues that were raised nine ars ago. although we have made some striririri since 2001, the numbr of americans who are struggling with their weight and health conditns related to their weight remains much too high. the statistic that today more than two-thirds of adults and one in three children are overweight or obese. we see the sobering impact of these numbers i the high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses that are starting to affect our children more and more. this week, a study from the

university of north carolina reported that obese children as young as three years of age showed signs of an oinflammatory respse that has been linked to heart disease later in life. i was impressed by the first lady's desire to solve obesity within a generation. her let's move campaign takes a comprehensive approach that engages families and communities as well as the public and private sector. for years, we have encouraged americans to eat more nutritious, exercise regularly, and maintain healthier lifestyles. for these things to happen, americans need to live and work in environments that support their efforts. there is a growing consensus that we need to recreate our communities and our environments so that healthy choices are the easy choices and the affordable choices. my vision for a healthy and fit nation is an attempt to change

the national conversation from a negative one about obesity to a positive conversation about being fit and being help the -- and being healthy. we need to stop bombarding americans with what they cannot have, what that things will happen 10 years from now. we need to talk about what they can do to become healthy and fit. we need to make exercise fun, something people enjoy it and want to be doing, such as playing sports, swimming, or going dancing or simply taking a walk. to do this, we need to reach out to parents and teachers as well as mobile as action across the government, in partnership with governors and mayors, the medical community, and the sports and business communities. we need everyone's help to support common sense, innovative tools and solutions. for example, healthy foods should be affordable and accessible to all americans in

our community. children should spend less time in front of the tv. research shows that the correlation between time watching television and weight gain -- children should be having fun, playing in safe neighborhoods that provide parks, communities that have walking and bike paths. schools need to serve healthy food and set high nutrition standards. schools should require daily physical education class is as well as recess. hospital and work sites, as well as communities, should make it easy for mothers to initiate and sustain breast feeding. employers should implement well as programs that promote healthy eating, encourage physical activity to a group classis, and create incentives for employees to participate. i hope is that communities across the country will use my vision as a blueprint for action, a blueprint to share

resources, develop partnerships, and use innovative resources for change. as surgeon general, i want america to become a healthy and fit nation. we must remember that americans are more likely to change their behavior if there is a meaningful reward, something more than reaching a certain weight or dress size. the real reward has to be something that people can feel, something they enjoy and can celebrate. that award is an invigorating and joyous health. that is the level of health that allows people to live their lives to the furthest -- to the fullest, without disease, disability, and the loss of productivity. we stand at a crossroads. the old normal was to stress recommended numbers for weight and bmi. although these numbers are important measures, the total picture is bigger. it involves the creation of a new normal, with an emphasis on

achieving an optimal level of health and well-being. people want to live long and well. they are making their voices heard across this nation. today's obesity epidemic calls for committed, compassionate citizens to mobilize and command the health and well-being they richly deserve. we have all heard their call. with your help, i am honored to do everything in my power to help americans to live long and well, and to be a healthy and fit nation. thank you, mr. chairman. i will entertain any questions. >> thank you, dr. benjamin, for an eloquent statement. you're going to be a great leader and a great example to our country in moving to what i have often referred to as a wellness society. i was handed a copy of a speech

i gave in the fall of 1991. i said the truth is we are spending about $700 billion a year in america for help here. i wish we were still spending that. i said we needed to spend it better. we spend more money on treating diseases, but we do not spend enough on prevention or wallace. i said that in 1991. my mom taught me that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. i talked about wellness, getting us into a wellness' society -- a wellnrddess society. it has to be something with -- something we aspire to. we have to think about it this

way. right now, in our country, it is easy to be unhealthy and hard to be healthy. shouldn't it be the other way around? it should be easier to be healthy and harder to be unhealthy. everything is geared toward being unhealthy. we take elevators instead of stairs, except for some of us. we drive the car a block to the store rather than walking. we build neighborhoods without sidewalks so kids can all walked to school. -- so kids cannot walk to school. we have foods that are high in sodium and sugars. they are fast and easy. everyone is always in a hurry. it is always easy to be unhealthy. every time i go through an airport around lunchtime and try to find something to eat, it is

hard to find something that is healthy. you can pick anything up that is unhealthy. we have to start re-engineering things to make it easier to be healthy. one other thing. senator enzi and i, senator dodd -- we are now meeting with secretary duncan on the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act, which was double that no child left behind in 2002 -- which was dubbed the no child left behind act in 2002. what about their health? we adjust our initial meetings -- we have just started our initial meetings. maybe we should think about pulling you in to start thinking

about what needs to be done in our elementary schools to get more health education, more exercise, things like that for kids. i ask you in an open session here -- would you be willing to work with us and to work with secretary duncan on seeing what we might do in an education bill to promote better health for our kids in schools? >> i would be excited. that is exactly what we are calling for in our paper, more physical activity in schools. it is recommended that children get 150 minutes of exercise a week as elementary kids and 225 minutes for secondary school. they are not. many schools are not having as much physical education. p e is an afterthought. they used to be that helps was taught in peak. they are not getting pe, so they are not getting health.

it is important that we get these things back into the schools. >> when i was in elementary school, we had one hour a day. you had to go outside and do things. you could not sit around. someone recently said that 80% of the elementary schools in america have less than one hour of physical exercise a week. that is how far we have gotten away from that. my time is running out. you were a primary care doctor before you became surgeon general, so you have been on the front lines of this. in your judgment, what are the greatest obstacles to your patients in being healthy and fit and pursuing healthy choices? what are some of the big obstacles? >> the biggest obstacle that i was seeing is the time that they have.

they did not have enough time to do things. most patients understand the issues. they understand that we need to become healthier, they need to lose weight. that is evidenced by the amount of money spent on weight-loss products and exercise. the awareness is there. it is what can they do to actually get these things done. most of the parents are working. many of them are working two jobs. when they come home between jobs, they do not have the time to cook a good meal. they grab whatever they can. the stresses in their life are tremendous. we have to find a way to make it easier for them, in their day to day life, to do the things they know they need to do and what to do. we have to make things available -- choices that are healthy choices and affordable. healthier meals are often the more expensive meals. we have to make those things available.

that is one of our roles, to start to bring these things together to help. grocery stores in the communities where they live -- they are not there. they are not there for that mom who is in between two jobs. we need to make it easier for them. >> i want to thank you for the comments in your full statement. some of the things i caught in the testimony you just gave -- i really don't think we celebrate enough the average child doing something physical. i remember there used to be a program, i think it started under president kennedy, where you got certificates. that was continued later. schwarzenegger was the head of giving out some other certificates. one of the difficulties of that program was that you had to be able to do all the categories.

the suggestion i was given was that there be a wider range of things that kids could do and certificates for doing a certain number of those, so they are encouraged to do the things they have some capability in, hoping they will come up with some kind of a lifestyle activity from that. one of the difficulties i have with the pe program i grew up under was that i came to hate calisthenics. most of them i was not any good at. there were other things, more sports oriented, that i could do well at. we insisted on calisthenics and drove people out. that is one of the reasons there is not so much peace in the schools today. i ran across a suggestion that there be recessed for lunch instead of after lunch, that it would add to improvement in the academic performance as well. my daughter, who was in fourth

grade, once invited me to see her school lunch. she did not like the school lunch, so she brought a sack lunch and one for me. she put her hand up in the air to be able to go out and air -- to be able to go out and play instead of each. -- instead of eat. how do you plan to work with the schools to design the best policies that can lead to health care in garments for kids, like perhaps recess before lunch? >> recess is a great thing. some kids should have structured play and unstructured play. we are working with a number of partners, including throughout various departments in education, agriculture, to make sure that we have more activities in the schools, that school lunches are nutritious,

provide water. often kids will think they are hungry, and they are really thirsty. to have water available for them, the ability to go out and get a drink of water -- they have to get permission first. we encourage that. healthy things in the vending machines, when they want to have a snack -- fruits and vegetables in the vending machines available to them. those are the sort of things we need to do, particularly the physical activity and extramural activities after school. we have to involve the parents. the parents are the first teachers. where the parents are involved, things get better. >> thank you. you mentioned the water. that brought to mind something else among the native americans

in my state. there is a height lactose intolerance. we provide regular milk, not lactase. there are things that need to be done with the lunch programs and things that can help. in your statement, you mentioned there is a higher percentage of obesity among rural than abovmog urban. can you tell me why you think that would be? i don't disagree, but i would have guessed that the people out in the rural area would be doing things while people in the urban areas would be constrained to buildings. >> in rural areas, we tend to drive everywhere now. in inner cities, you walk from where you park to the building. in a rural area, parking is

easy. you would get in a car to go across the street. we are not doing the active things that we used to do. the other thing is that we are not doing the activities that we tended to do years ago. we are not seeing that, unfortunately. >> computer games are cutting into that quite a bit. there is also mention of building bike paths and sidewalks. i hope we can give a little bit of concentration to how we get the rubber to meet the road. a lot of those are not being used. president kennedy had a hike along the path here. i think it was a 50 mile hike. there were a lot of blisters and bad shoes. i look forward to working with you on this. >> one of the things about the activities outside, the parks and walking paths, is that often

they are not safe. people need to be assured that they are safe, that when they go out and play, the local governments have made them safe and comfortable for families. >> thank you. >> now, the person who has been our leader on children and families for so long, has been advocating for health-care for kids for as long as i have been here, senator dodd. >> thank you for doing this today. your involvement with this issue goes back a long time. we have a renewed sense of hope that there is a possibility we are going to start taking some concrete actions. we do not have to debate the issue. it often takes years to convince people of the merits of an issue, and then you go to the next step of what you're going to do about it. i hope, in a city that seems

absolutely frozen in its inability to come to agreement on what the problems are sometimes, that here that is not the issue. do i call your doctor or general? >> those are admirals'. . >> it is good to have you with us. bill frist had an interest. in the 109th congress, we had hearings and bills focusing on this issue. we are in the throes of this health-care debate. this committee was deeply involved in that issue a good part of last year. the numbers i was looking at --

36%. obese americans spend 36% more for health care than others and 77% more for medications. the increase in spending on health care -- after every $4 of increased health care cost, one of those dollars is directly related to obesity. if you are looking for -- to bring down costs, this is clearly an area. so much of it begins early on. you used to talk about problems that were adult onset, various issues that did not come until adulthood. now we are looking at a staggering number of problems showing up very early in children, even in infants. let me ask you to questions. -- let me ask you two questions. it is wonderful that the first lady is taking such an interest.

it is a great issue. that kind of profile will help us tremendously. there are some of the committees appear -- there are so many committees that can claim jurisdiction on this. it involves the finance committee doing things on the tax budget. the agriculture committee clearly with food and nutrition -- obviously, this committee. across the board, there is a role. sometimes it is the property of too many chefs. we need coordination. we have these battles over jurisdiction. it needs a coordinating effort. i would be interested in knowing whether or not this is a role -- how we can coordinate this. we have witnesses, wonderful people from the american academy and the nfl, taking on

this issue and elevating the profile. coordinating the activities -- that is my first question. the second question -- over the years, i know the time of the day -- so much of recess is local. one of the reasons there is less is because having the number of teachers who can supervise is sometimes a problem, less resources available. there is one time during the day when all of us can agree, giving the -- given the economics of our country, is that after school. . -- is that after school period. wants that child leave school, -- once that child leaves school, it is a dangerous time. what can happen in that window?

we have introduced some legislation on the afterschool area. we can play a critical role with resource allocation. we have done a lot of it already. i realize there is a danger in picking one time of the day, excluding the others. this is one area where i think you will get universal recognition that video games, and supervise the activities -- unspureviseupervised activities, contributed a lot to the problem. >> about coordination, the president has established a task force on childhood obesity. that task force is going to review each government program that is related to child nutrition and physical activity. once they do that, they are going to come out with a

national action plan with benchmarks that help us reach the goals -- the first lady's goal of reducing childhood obesity within a generation. that task force should be starting to look at that. regarding the after school, i think that is a tremendous issue you are talking about, really important. government cannot do it alone. we need partners. that is where the community comes in, the industry, the medical community, starting to do things like extramural activities after school, to keep the lights on in the gyms and on the walking tracks. that takes everyone at the local level to be able to do those things. it gets the kids moving. they learn to play with each other. they build up social skills. it gets the entire community

involved. i agree with you that is one of the things we need to involve our partners with. >> who is on the task force? >> there are a number of agencies throughout government -- h. sms, hud, education, usda, and others. >> let me urge that the department of transportation be a part of it. it may be -- i am not suggesting it is not. i insist it be a part of it. it is critical. there are so many diverse interests that i think the mere existence of the diversity sometimes is daunting, in terms of how you coordinate it. i thank you very much. i am excited about your stewardship. you have a great leader in tom harkin in this committee.

he has a long history of ideas and thoughts of how to do this. we are motivated now by costs. we know without question that if we do not address this issue is going to mount as a cost issue, not to mention the hardship and heartache that families and individuals go through as a result of obesity. thank you. >> thank you, senator dodd. another senator who is physically fit and exercises all the time, a personal example of fitness, senator byrd. >> we thank you for being a part of this hearing. i think you for highlighting the north carolina study in your opening statement. you have a lot of fans and a lot of colleagues who think a lot of you in north carolina. i know you already know that. this is a very difficult issue

to solve. we can plan an after-school program, but for most communities that means a child is left at a program without a bus to get home. we have to rethink our entire education system if we want to integrate education and physical fitness together. without that, we will come up short or will leave students behind that do not have the transportation. last year, dr. coburn and i introduced the patient's choice act. the cdc would have established a web-based prevention tool that would prevent -- that would produce a personalize prevention plan for individuals. do you think such a tool is a resource for parents and health- care providers that they could use to promote better health? >> i am open to all innovative ideas.

anything we can do to help parents helped the communities -- to help parents and communities to do the things they need to get fit. >> we have talked about a lot of traditional things. let me say one study. 50% of the american people receive their information through traditional sources -- newspapers, television, radio. 50% received it to social networking. there is an incredible world of communication that targets exactly the folks we are after that goes unmentioned in a lot of the educational proposals that are out there. let me highlight one thing i will make available to the committee if we pursue this with further hearings. in north carolina, a converted textile town is the largest

planned research park for human nutrition. academic has come together with business to look specifically at the nutrition of america. from the research of academia mixed with corporate influence, the nutrition standards of the products could find their way onto the shelf. that is an excellent place for us to maybe get some guidance. one of the areas we do have some direct ability to manipulate would be that the federal government pays for the free and reduced school breakfast and lunch. let me ask you honestly. should we set a nutritional standard that must be met for that meal that the federal taxpayers are providing? should we set the course by example and say to the schools

"it has to meet this?" >> that is one of the things we call for, higher nutritional standards in the school lunch programs. i tend to work the other way. i think the parents should be demanding that we have -- demanding from us that we have higher nutritional standards in those programs. we should be delivering that to them. the whole idea for me is to make sure that the parents and the communities are the ones asking us to deliver for them -- the other way around. >> every school system is a little bit different. we cannot lay this federal architecture on it and say "you are going to do it this way." however, we can influence that with what we pay for. my question is simple. should we leave for example?

should we say for that at-risk population that we are going to set a standard? we could hopefully influence everything else that comes out of the cafeteria because the other students or parents the value -- see value. it would be good sense if the required it for a portion. it would influence everything in that cafeteria. >> it is hard to argue with increasing standards and improving them. >> i thank you. i think it is extremely difficult to penetrate this problem when so many americans do not have a medical home. we have our differences as to how we get there. senator harkin and i agree on the need for prevention and chronic management. we may differ on how we get

there, but we agree that we need to get there. it is hard to believe we can take any investment in health if the delivery at the end is an emergency room, a doctor trained to treat trauma, not to educate about nutrition. your specialty is pediatrics -- family medicine. >> family medicine. i am honoring pediatrician. -- i am an honorary pediatrician. >> instructing and educating is part of your education. the difficulty we have today is that the normal delivery point for a lot of americans is not the point where that specialty was taught, the educational component to health care.

were we to accomplish creating a medical home -- the best example is medicaid. to me, it is the worst delivery system in the world because it funnels everybody to an emergency room when they are sick. there is no mechanism in most states for them to get education on staying well. how do we change this? >> i certainly believe the medical home is an important concept. i even talk about it in my paper, the role of clinicians. they have a tremendous role in the obesity epidemic. we are often the people who are well respected and who are considered authorities. people will listen to them. the parents are the first teachers.

the doctors and nurses are the second. we have a tremendous role. we need to start doing a little bit more than telling patients "you need to lose weight." we need to go a step further and talk to them about how important it is that the consequences of it, and what they can do. the doctors and the nurses and the other clinicians in the community are often leaders in their community. if we can bring all of them together with the school board, the chamber of commerce, the business communities -- bring everyone together in a local community and you can start to address the problem. this problem cannot be solved by one group. i think the medical home is a place that people can feel comfortable. they will trust their commissions. it can start there. it is going to take a lot more.

>> the chairman came to my office and we sat down and talk for 45 minutes. one subject was obesity. i talked about a program i had heard about. i promised i would give him the information. a businessman in south carolina that was very successful -- he started a program in the public schools that he funded. every student had an id card. there was a scale in every school. on a regular basis, they could put their i.d. card in and the scale recognized them. it tracked their trend of weight. when the trend line was positive, it spit out discounts for certain things that you could purchase or places you could eat in that town. it rewarded those students for

action that they had taken to fall more within the norm. i share that with you. it is something we will look at. i want to share with everybody how far out of the box i think some people have gotten. this is not about doing it a traditional way. if we keep it limited their, we are not going to get this done. if we do invest by reaching into america and saying we do not care how you do it -- we just want to get there -- we probably will not have to drive this. people across the country will drive it. >> i agree with you. i think people are going to rise up and do it themselves. more innovative ideas are often out there in the community. >> thank you, senator. we thought his and senator cockburn is idea on the cdc web portal that we included it in

our health care bill. do we get your support? [laughter] >> all three of you have talked about your experiences in the school, and i cannot think back that far. >> thank you very much. my colleague from north carolina, the specimen of physical fitness, gives me a little bit -- i wrestle with figuring out how to exercise and how to eat healthy. he gives me a little bit of a perspective on the challenge for our children. my wife is a nurse. i cannot tell you -- in 10 years, she worked at the hospital. she would come home and say, " you cannot believe how big american children are getting." it is certainly a challenge. in oregon, we have done a number

of things to try to take this on. we are now third in the nation, behind utah and minnesota, in childhood obesity -- on the better end of that spectrum. i thought i would mention the nine things that oregon has done. one is to adopt a bill that promotes back to work breast feeding. that bill is in the larger health-care bill adopted by this committee. i hope will have that nationwide in the future. the second is to prohibit or limit foods of low nutritional value in child care centers. a third is healthy foods for help the students, which sets guidelines for foods and beverages, trying to have healthier food in schools. the fourth is a law requiring regular physical activity, with a number of minutes specified that there has to be a physical activity. there is a curriculum that is

required for obesity prevention, restrictions on junk food marketing in schools, investment in safe hiking and pedestrian routes to try to encourage movement to and from school, and farm programs to encourage nutrition. i saw nutritional programs making it into the schools. i saw many of these ideas in your presentation. i did want to ask you to expand on the concept of food at desertdeserts and what that is d how to tackle that. >> many communities do not have a grocery stores. they basically have convenience stores or gas stations. that is where they have to get their food, or get on a bus or sometimes two buses to get too rigorously school -- to get to a

grocery store. there is no opportunity to have fresh vegetables and help the food. that is not in their community. those food deserts exist in our urban and rural areas. there are a number of programs working on this issue. there is one in pennsylvania. i think it is called fresh food financing. it is a program to present capital for companies to go into these communities where they could not get financing before. they have shown now that they put a number of chris restores in these communities and -- a number of grocery stores in these communities and allow citizens to shop where they live. >> i certainly saw that when i was working in the inner city. i saw that first him. -- i saw that firsthand. i think it is a tough issue to get our hands around. i think identifying it and

trying some of these different approaches is a good idea. when i first saw that bullet point, i thought it said to eliminate food desserts. don't go there, please. smaller portions, absolutely. [laughter] there are little moments of joy in our life that we have to hold onto. >> every now and then, they are good. >> in moderation. >> right. >> one of the things that is apparent as my children go to grade school and now middle school is that the activities were all free when i was in grade school. i came from a working-class community, but there were no fees. i think that was the standard across the country. activities associated with school were free. we also had a free summer -- open jim activities, and so forth. now, everything has a cost on it. i wonder if we have been able to determine the degree to which

that structure of thatfeeputtins on physical activities is having a negative impact on our efforts to take on obesity. >> it sounds logical that that would be the case. that is certainly something that we could do a little more study on, some research on. we have the cdc and nih doing studies to find out why we have this obesity epidemic and how to combat it. that would be something i think we could look into. >> that would be very interesting. i have noticed that some activities that used to be school activities, for example swimming, have become club activities. the cost is way up. i think it decreases access to the children and cannot help but have a negative effect. i wonder how much an impact, so

it would be wonderful to study that. thank you for your presentation and your focus on this. it is a very important issue, as you have pointed out in your presentation, not just for our children. childhood obesity becomes adult obesity, adult diabetes, and a huge health-care issue. in the course of this health- care debate over the last year, we too often have noticed we have a sick care system rather than a health care system. tackling childhood obesity would be part of a much stronger health-care system. thank you. >> dr. benjamin, congratulations on your assumption of this very important job. i think you for your leadership in this area. we look forward to working with you to seriously address this. the first lady has taken a great leadership role. as you pointed out, we are

getting all the different departments put together. i hope we have the department of trade protection involved. we will look at that and make sure they are part upper -- which have the department oof if transportation. thank you very much for your leadership. you are excused. i know you have another appointment you have to get to. we will bring our second panelist. >> thank you. >> now we will call our second panel. that is dr. sandra hassink, chair of the obesity leadership or group. she is a pediatrician and director of the pediatric obesity initiative in wilmington delaware -- in wilmington,

delaware. we have dr. jo thompsoe thompso director of the robert wood johnson foundation. he is also at the arkansas surgeon general and an associate professor of medical science. he was originally appointed as the chief health officer for the state of arkansas by my custody in 2005 -- by mike huckabee in 2005. we have rashard mendenhall, who is a running back for the pittsburgh steelers.

he played for the university of illinois. someone said he ran all over the university of iowa, but i do not know about that. we will get into that in the big 10. he was drafted 23rd overall in the 2008 nfl draft. he's been using his role model status to encourage children by being -- to encourage children to be physically active for 60 minutes every day. we look forward to hearing from him. we will start first with dr. hassink. all of your statements will be made a part of the record in their entirety. if you could summarize in five or seven minutes, we would appreciate it. >> good morning. i think you for the opportunity to testify before this committee. i am proud to represent the

american academy of pediatrics. the rapid increase in the presence of childhood obesity is nothing short of alarming. by 2006, 30% of u.s. children are overweight and 15.5% were obese. obese children and adolescents are more likely to have cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. they are more likely to experience chronic illnesses such as diabetes, liver disease, and sleep apnea, as well as increase mental health issues. obese children also experience decreased physical function and delayed developmental trajectories due to the physical limitations of an increased body mass. they have lower health-related quality of life than children and adolescents who have normal bmi is, as noted. let me share a little bit of the

clinicians perspective. patients at my clinic have included a two year-old hispanic girl who weighed 45 pounds whose mother wanted someone to talk to about her child's weight. there was a third grade boy who told me he never goes out side -- not that he does not play outside. he does not even go outside. there was a 15 year-old girl with suicidal thoughts who feels she does not spend -- feels she does not fit in with anyone else. there was a 2.5 year old with obesity-related back pain and liver disease. how do we help these children? we must recognize there is no single factor responsible for obesity. it is a complex interplay of issues. any solution must be equally complex and multifaceted. we can help children. we are learning more every day about the most effective ways of doing so.

in addition to the troubling cases noted above, a clinic has also seen success stories like the three year-old whose bmi when from the 95th to the 85th percentile after 34 visits. another was able to lower his bmi and began to reduce his elevated blood pressure. i would like to share the range of resources that the academy of pediatrics shares with children, family, and parents. we maintain all of our tools and resources at a centralized web site, ap.org/obesity, as well as a newly created website just for parents, healthychildren.org. we also publish material for parents, including books, brochures, and handouts.

here you have one called "food at bites" to help parents manage real time. we are a key partner with first lady michelle obama in her recently announced let's move on initiative. as part of this effort, we pledged to continue urging pediatricians to calculate bmi at every child visit. we provide free downloadable prescriptions for healthy, active living that pediatricians can give to all patients. four pediatricians, multidisciplinary teams, and other health-care providers. we are proud to lead at the development of child care. we promote healthy weight, promote health and nutrition, and promote physical activity. we were intimately involved in

the development of the committee recommendations regarding the prevention, assessment, and treatment of childhood and adolescence obesity, which provides comprehensive guidelines on the subject. we provide health care providers with policy statements that died the treatment of obesity and its co morbidities'. -- and its comorbitidies. we provide growth charts, weight management protocols. we have created modeled forms to coordinate care with other providers and coding resources so pediatricians can get reimbursed appropriately. we publish books and handouts for positions on preventing and treating obesity. we highlight obesity issues regularly in our publications and our journal "pediatrics."

we provide online learning, chapter meetings and publications, national conferences, and other venues. we are engaged in a range of partnerships to provide partnerships in healthy living. we were really participant in the alliance health care initiative, an effort to offer health care benefits to children and families for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity is. partners included the american dietetic association, at now, blue cross/blue shield of north carolina, blue cross/blue shield of massachusetts, and wellpoint. . .

it is costing employers on the health care side as we heard earlier today. it is threatening the productivity and the future of our nation if we cannot address this and reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity. the cause is simple. the solutions will be multiple. there is an imbalance in the calories are children take in. our bodies are designed to takeouts in and if we do not burn them off restore them. over the course of the last three decades, our children have been exposed to an environment that causes them to be out of balance. the take more calories in than the balance. -- then they expend. the changes in the diet patterns, loss of the family sitting down to nutritious meals, the pervasiveness of television. cartoons used to be only on saturday mornings, and now they

are on several channels 24 hours a day. the number of television is that families had in their homes, the safety of parks where kids can not now, either because the perception of reality, go out and play every day. each of these have contributed to the imbalance. researchers say it may be as little as 200 calories a day but that is each and every day brought a child's life that has caused this epidemic of childhood obesity to where now, in my state, two out of five or 40% are obese or overweight. some populations, african- american, hispanic, lower income populations is even lower than that. this is real and the solutions are multiple. i have had the opportunity -- this is the seventh year in arkansas. this is a non-partisan issue that affects every family. it crosses all party lines, all

socioeconomic levels. we have tried to change everything we can think of in schools, cafeterias, education about snack programs. we have tried to add physical activity back in. we have tried to change the communities in which we live. when my local legislators said we know you are making a difference when we have built the world's largest pedestrian bridge to try to make a bike and walking trails available. we record every single year these childrens be a mine -- these children's bmi. we need help from the federal government to reverse this. we have halted. that is where four years ago for the robert wood johnson foundation donated money to reverse this by 2015. we are actually having programs

across the nation in each and every one of your states making a difference. we are supporting the innovation as the local level. we have examples that i submitted in the written testimony including the fresh fruit financing initiatives where they reinvest to get groceries stores back into the food business. making flea markets in baldwin park, calif., to add food as an item being sold and electronic debit cards for food stamp recipients so that actually help individuals that are on supplemental nutritional programs be able to access fresh fruits and vegetables. in columbia, missouri, they're looking at their communities designed by looking at g.i. mack in. how do get people into the stores without having to drive. -- by looking have g.i. mapping.

their charge, with innovative ways to reestablish the calorie balance for the children but the community at large. this is an important issue and a true epidemic. we have to have local leaders, school leaders, community leaders, state leaders, and we are excited about the administration's leadership. there are true opportunities here to move forward to reduce this epidemic. i will close by saying that we did not intentionally can hear and no intention of broadness year. here is the entity, institution, or industry that caused this. we need to have a safe, productive, healthy future. they want a healthy, educated child coming of the pipeline and we have to do better to provide that opportunity.

thank you very much. >> dr. thompson, thank you. and now we turn to mr. mendenhall. you can establish their credentials right away by being forthright and saying that the toughest games you ever played were against the hawkeyes. [laughter] this is a big tent offensive player of the year. i am well aware. -- a big 10. >> i am not going to lie to congress to start off. [laughter] chairman, ranking members, and members of the committee, i am rashard mendenhall. appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the epidemic

of try the of the city. in 2007, the nfl started a campaign focusing on combating child of the city by encouraging children to be active for least 60 minutes per day. in a cell place 60 has a longstanding commitment -- nfl play 60 has a commitment in our culture to influence attitudes in behavior especially in young fans. nflplay60 for months 60 hours of physical activity per day. whether this is taking advantage of the local playground, placed fourth in a schoolyard we promote organized sports, such as football, to get active. you do not have to play football for 60 minutes, just play for 60 minutes. the effects in 2007, we have

committed more than $200 million in resources through public service announcements, programs, and grants. last year alone, more than 700 events were hosted by nfl teams who have implemented this in their local markets. i see this epidemic around the country, in our schools, and in my community. as a professional athlete, i feel i have a responsibility to be involved. that is why i am active in play60. in january, i attended an event at central park east middle school in manhattan. the westergren event -- of agriculture and others can together to try and --

fuel up currently has a presence in 60,000 schools across the country. it is used to make their schools healthier and develop lifelong healthy eating habits and physical activity. i had a chance to interact with more than 100 kids from a six- eighth grade. i spoke to them about healthy living and staying active. i talk to them about what i did outside of football such as like, dance, play basketball. -- biking, dancing. i also had the opportunity to participate in a play 60 activity board rework done football activities as well as running, climbing, and agility skills. nearly one in three children are obese or overweight which is more than 23 million used. in the last two decades the rate of overweight children has doubled. we now use who are overweight or

obese are more likely to have health problems such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, type two diabetes. in contrast, the benefits of good health translates that the students are less likely to have disciplinary problems. help the students also perform better on tests. it is possible that these facts, while traveling, it should not come at a price. schools find it challenging to offer physical education classes. 50% of class's did not offer physical education for grades 1- 5. this trend makes it even more difficult for children to live the value of physical exercise. recently, the nfl has been honored to participate the first lady on her let's move campaign. we are supporting play 60 and president obama's initiative. it is exciting to see the white

house and the commitment in passing this issue. i am hopeful that the efforts of bridge along with the help of the white house will achieve results. i commend you for holding this hearing on this vital issue of public health. >> think you very much, mr. mendenhall, for your involvement in various aspects of this national issue. mr. mendenhall, to start with you. first of all, let me commend you for your involvement in play 60. as group with them about one year ago in washington -- i was groups with them. let's face it. kids look up to you. people like you who have been successful and extremely good that when you do, how do we get

more sports figures involved in this? let's face it. there are not a lot of them doing what you are doing. how do we get them involved? they could be a great example to our children. >> with the nfl plate 60, it is fairly new. -- nfl play 60. as time has gone on, it has started to pick up more and more. i feel like as it goes a long it will start to spread to other sports because we are recognizable to young kids. for you to see a face the ec on television all the time, i'm not sure to many children are watching c-span so it is harder for you guys. [laughter] as this is becoming more of an s u it is picking up. -- more of an issue.

>> we just need more sports figures like you involved in this. the second thing is that i think it is important to send it to -- send a signal to children that not everyone can be a rashard mendenall. when i was younger, some sports i just was not very good at no matter how long i tried. it is important to tell kids they do not have to be a running back that they can do other things just to be active. that is what we need act -- athletes like to be talking about. >> i think it is very important. children need to understand that it is not just about playing sports but doing what you are interested in whether that is jumping.

i am interested in dance and i have taken several class's. as far as physical exercise and doing what you enjoy, it is the same with her. i did not like vegetables. when someone tells you to eat healthy and eat celery, it is not much -- it is not as much not but finding the is that you enjoy. finding fruit or yogurt that you enjoy. finding a way to do something that you like while not forcing. >> i appreciate your involvement. dr. hassink, dr. thompson did not talk too much about this about the disparities with rural, urban, hispanic, african-

american, upper middle income, lower income, cutting across all racial and ethnic lines. it seems to be kind of a hot spot. how do we get a handle on this in terms of who is at the most risk? i see the hispanic americans seem to be at the most risk as young people. how do get to the root cause of this and get the parents involved? the hispanic americans knew the for example or the african- american city involved early on in the time line. >> when we wrote the recommendations we really considered all children's of preventive efforts would go across all populations across the board. i think if you look at each child and family, they have

their own constellation of risk factors. there are groups that have their own risk factors and we are starting to really understand in what environment is that family and child? are they living in a food desert? did they have prenatal care? was the mother healthy during the pregnancy? are we communicating effectively said that the two-year-old that he meant to see me -- that came in to see me, the mother did not speak english. she had been looking for a place to have that discussion. we have to understand the barriers for people who want to have healthy children. i think it is understanding the model of the child and family in the wider community in what forces are acting upon them. it will be different but there are similarities that we can

learn and understand. >> there is no question that lower income communities are more affected by this. if you think about the causes we talked about, they have been greater in contributing in those communities that are lower income and communities of color that are isolated geographically. it is not because the parents made poorer choices, but the environment in which they have grown up are more hostile to the health of the family. at the state and local level looking for solutions, we need to disproportionately invest in those communities who have been more effective to make sure we are bringing everyone along to address the epidemic. >> thank you very much. senator? >> thank you, mr. chairman. this has been very helpful. i, too, will start with the football player.

i appreciate your comments. the program and especially the emphasis you are placing on dance. physical activities -- there are several physical entities that children shy away from. conversation is embarrassing to children, too. i had a son that was 6 foot 6 inches in junior high and he trip during the freeze our line. he wound up playing a little basketball. some children develop later. it takes some patients to really get them to that point. are you finding the nfl program to be very transferable to others? what percentage of the children when you say are doing something

besides football? >> i would say i feel like it is fair productive. when you are wearing your jersey and you walk into a school, it leaves a lasting impact on them. we tell them you enjoy eating healthy and the feeling of being active, i feel like that stays with them. when you tell the things you do outside of sports and not just for young boys and young girls, too, who did not play sports, when you tell them all the things you like to do i think that sticks a little more than just you being recognizable. as far as a percentage, everyone seems excited when you are there, but i really do think -- >> i think it is a good program. there is a program in wyoming for football.

we were talking to the class -- she had one call into the class and talk about what it was like being in the nfl. it had more of a lasting impact on them than anything she had ever tried. really appreciate what you were doing. and he makes a tremendous impact what you do and just being involved. you did some studies on this urban versus rural. how is the center for childhood obesity using this data to make sure they are targeting the communities with the greatest need? >> one of the things we have identified is that anywhere where you have isolation be a geographic in rural communities where there are fewer food sources the school might be on the opposite side of the highway. the environment is not conducive to be able to walk to school anymore.

in the inner-city urban areas where there are economic plights in a loss of resources as terms -- in terms of food availability, we are trying to invest in people, programs, and policy change so that we reinforce and reclaim those areas. the king of whydah can stimulate local produce, forming for school initiatives, farmers' markets that we help lowell, to help local growers to be able to have the card capability to use supplemental nutrition programs for lower income people. we have programs in communities across the nation that are really taking on new, innovative strategies. complete streets programs. we have looked at the alliance for health the generations trying to get schools to challenge to have healthier options in the cafeteria and in great physical activity back in

their set of physical activity. these are going on across the nation in coming from the grassroots on out. if we can help reinforce and support when the state level. it will make a great difference on child of the city. >> i appreciate the study that you did. the thing that struck me was that out of all of the new graduates and none of them were obese. i have no idea why said is. i appreciate someone studying these things and finding them out. dr. hassink, have there been studies that show the relationship between whether the parents were of these and the children are the novis? i know in math class's the parents who did badly in math

and allow their children to be bad in math that say it is genetic. can the of the city become -- be over, as well? -- ken of the city be overcome? >> children in families of obesity are predisposed. genetic and heredity are the predisposition. the environment is also -- is often the trigger. i think the epidemic was in the last 25 years. the family genetics have not changed as much with the environment has. parents who have this in their family needs be aware of the same things everyone does and be vigilant about things in the hong, communities, and schools to help their children. i think it can be overcome but

it takes some support to help those families. in communities like our native american population were of the city is incredibly prevalence, that is an example of a population that originated in scarcity and and moved into a situation of abundance. its environmental and inheritable. we have to pay attention to that risk. i think we have a predisposition and the environment tends to to read off. >> if i could add that there's never a strong advocate for a child then a parent. one of the things we have failed to do is raise awareness and offer support. one of the things we wanted to do is wrap everything we were doing around families to get that support.

parents really picked that up. i saw in front of my house and another with three teenage boys read the third day i saw them i stopped them. she said my mother died of diabetes. my son got a health report that says he might have it in the future and that will not happen. parents really can make a huge difference. >> speaking for the young generation coming to added to the environment, but we brought up earlier, technology, the internet, sell phones. when i was around, none of them were round. to see your friends who had to go outside, run around, like to someone's house to try and find them. b. ike to someone's house. i think with social networking

and cell phones, you really did not have to try. when you acted up and did not do good in school, you were grounded where there was not the internet or television. >> a lot of families only had one television, too. you three have been a tremendous resource. i will continue to: you. i noticed there were a whole lot of television people out there. i appreciate your c-span, and you probably increased the watch. -- watchership. [laughter] >> again, i hope we can call upon you as mean move forward. we had a meeting with the first

lady twice on this issue. she is really taking the song. that gives us a nice bully pulpit. -- she is really taking this on. i really think we can start to make a difference this year. now the we have the nutrition authorization bill coming that rage she pointed out that there are a lot of things happening in the communities, all sorts of isolated things. if you don't mind cutting back to i was some time,mr. mendenhall, in a much more gentle capacity than in the past, we have a high school doing great things in iowa. every child comes in --

actually, when you first enter grade school you get measured your bmi and weight, blood pressure, everything. their track all the way through grade school and high school. every child has to exercise even those with disabilities. if the program around individual children. it is amazing what they have done an incorporated into their school systems. the parents are supportive, the communities are supportive. if that can happen in a little town in ireland it can happen anywhere. it takes some leadership -- a little town in iowa that it can happen anywhere. things are happening all over the country because we need to find these links them together, their expertise and try to get out to the rest of the country. again, we need support from this government, local governments, school boards.

i guess i am just saying that as we move ahead, each of you in your own capacity can be very helpful in helping us think about what we do, how we do it. i hope that we can continue to consult with each of you and have you involved in this effort. thank you all very, very much. and the last things before we leave? >> the only thing i would add that this is a real epidemic and a real threat. if we can encourage this and we will safeguard the future of our children. >> no parent wants their children to be an educated and unhealthy. parents do not want that. we need to do all we can to help

parents meet that goal. >> i think that's what you are saying earlier with that school, at the end of the day we want to encourage children to do with a naturally want to do is to just play. we have got away with that for nature -- for numerous reasons. >> we need more parks and playgrounds that are supervised and safe. >> i do not think there's anything more important to parents or communities than the health of its children. that is our future. i think it is wonderful to get together and start this effort altogether to really reinforce that value that they are important and our future. >> a good note on which to end. thank you again.

17:32

>> the associated press is reporting that congressman massa resigning his seat. he is facing harassment complaint by a male staffers. he is stepping down with a profound sense of failure. the resignation takes effect on monday. his departure is good news for house speaker pelosi vance health care. he voted against it. he reduces the majority she needs. this weekend, former republican presidential candidate mitt ro mney his latest book, 'no apology" he asserts a strong america is needed for the world. a house hearing on the fiscal

year 2011 budget request for veterans affairs secretary shinseki. this is about two hours. >> good morning everyone. i like to welcome everyone to this hearing. the purpose of which is to review the administration's budget request for fiscal year to thousand 11 and 2012. -- fiscal year 2011 and 2012. i want to welcome you back before our subcommittee and all of the va in and leadership that is working with you and are here today. we are honored, mr. secretary, that you are here because we are grateful for your distinguished public service to our nation as an army soldier, chief of staff of the army, and now secretary to the department of veterans affairs. members, i am going to forego

any lengthy opening statement. i want to make one or two points. first, mr. secretary i salute the administration's budget request last year. it did not get a lot of attention in the press, but mine understanding is the president's budget request was the largest single budget request by any president over the last three decades. that money is obviously needed and deserved by our veterans and i salute the president for making that request. i know you were a major part of putting their requests together. i also want to thank you and the administration for your leadership on funding for appropriations which was a singularly top priority for virtually all of our major veterans' service organizations. it is now the law the land and when not have happened without the administration. we had the bipartisan support

for that. i think it is a great step forward and allows us to spend taxpayer dollars more efficiently. my final point for recognizing -- before recognizing the ranking chair, i think it is fair to look at this in the context of what we have done over the last three years for veterans from the increase in funding for medical care and benefits has been unprecedented. in my knowledge, in the history of the va, i think this subcommittee and full committee can be very proud that -- of its work. war veterans will receive better care and benefits that they have earned for their distinguished service to our country. with that, i would like to recognize the ranking member for any comments.