country. i just talked with former top government official that came back several months ago for my trip to china. is it a bipartisan group of former top officials, republicans and democrats and some of the top chinese leadership took him aside at one point and said, you know, we've concluded that your system is simply unable to face up to your dad. and as a result, over time, you will become a second tier power. it's not going to happen immediately, but over time we have concluded that you don't have the will to face up to this problem. you are too divided, to split along partisan lines and you will not be able to respond. i hope very much this group proves them wrong. because if we don't, we all know where this is headed.

if we stay on a path towards a debt that's 400% of the gdp of the country, at some point there'll be a dollar crisis, the dollar will collapse, interest rates will skyrocket, economic growth will be badly impaired and that's the course we're on if we don't have the will to face up to it. i personally believe that saying everything is on the table is critical. i hope none of us will take things off the table prematurely because i think it's clear it's going to take dramatic changes on the spending side of the ledger and it's going to take changes on the revenue side of the ledger and they should be seen as an opportunity to right size our government long-term and to reform our tax system to help america be fully competitive in this new world that we confront. with that, i just want to again conclude by thanking al and

thank you were setting the right tone. you know, we've been handed a very serious responsibility. i hope history will write that we were equal to this challenge and that we produce a result that was critically important for this country. >> i've been asked by many about my participation in this group and a sight to most this could easily fall into the category that it goes unpunished. whereat about a $33 billion company, 120,000 employees with about half of those sales enough of those employees outside the u.s. so i travel a lot and i go to a lot of converging regions. one of the things i wish that there is a strong hunger to make a difference, to work hard, to create the conditions for growth and to be especially competitive with developed economies.

we face a tough problem as we all say today and i think it's important to recognize that it's one that does affect our global competitiveness. and while another student of history, i would like to build on senator conrad's comments because in the course of my career one of the things i have observed is that the root cause for failure in most institutions and whether that's government, business or organization is when they lose that hunger, when they lose that ability to coalesce politically to make tough decisions that will lead to progressive society institution. i do applaud the creation of this group and the willingness of all the participants to work together and make the step decisions. i really think there needed to make us globally competitive. and i go into it with high hopes that by working together we will accomplish its end will be

reported with dynamic and growing economy that i think is something that the american public would like us to achieve and that i think we're culpably fully capable of doing. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i also want to start out i think in our cochairman for being willing to undertake these fact. like i suspect everybody on the commission here, i also wonder how the needle turned to me and i got appointed. but i also agree that serving on this commission is an honor. and i look forward to working with each of you on a task that is critically important to the american people. as we've heard from our witnesses today, we are an unsustainable course. several of them said it's just a matter but with today. and frankly the american people have this figured out and about figured out for a long time. and that is the math just doesn't equate.

we're spending far more than we're bringing it in revenue. we are amounting unsustainable debt and deficit that will cause the same kind of impact that we've heard now from many of us and from our witnesses. to just look at it again very briefly, it was eerie how consistent the advice of our witnesses here today was, that if we don't get a handle on this, we're going to see interest rates go up, farnborough in growth, higher taxes to save an investment. our policy options will be fewer the longer we taken the nation to deal with this issue. we will crowd out capital and result in a collapse of the dollar and the economic loss of investment and productivity in the economic slump that will follow that. there's many other ways you can describe it but again the american people understand it and they want to get past the politics to the solution and do what is necessary to put before congress and the administration

the recommendations that can give us a path forward. it's going to be tough and i agree with the comments of a number of those of us here already today the we've got to be open-minded, bipartisan and fair and look at every option that is necessary to help us if they are. that being said i'm one of those who believes that we must recognize that our country is spending are in excess of our capacity and that a significant portion of the solution will be found on the spending side of the ledger. i'm also a strongly willing to reform our tax code to another are going to be a lot of differences of opinion here. i've been fighting for reform of the internal revenue code for my entire career in congress and will continue to do so. i hope that we are going to be able to get some of the solutions on the tax side that

will not result in increased tax burden from the american people, but will result in our ability to have a fairer, more effect did and frankly simpler tax code. again, our witnesses today could be very helpful to our economy. and i like the idea of looking under every rock as i think was mentioned. i like the idea that senator baucus mentioned if we should start looking at some of the areas we know what the tax gap in the spending gap in the productivity gap. we've got to look at everything. and i also believe that we must not fall to the notion that some have put out a that it will be hard for this commission to do much significant than we can maybe practice a little low-hanging fruit and taught success. i think we need to be let larger and powerful vision than that. and i believe we can achieve it because the american people needed and expected others and we have a unique opportunity to

really do something that makes a huge difference for this country. >> thank you very much. i want to thank mr. bowles and mr. simpson for cheering that. i want to thank this opportunity. what is special credit to two members in this commission could do with a little over a year and a half ago when senators gregg and conrad approached me with an idea that really sprung this commission and they built that idea into a political force in the united states senate. special credit to kent conrad who can really be a burden your saddle when he gets focused on an important issue and we wouldn't be sitting here today were it not for his dogged determination that we address this issue honestly. so cat, thank you are much for your leadership on that. i think the issue before us is not just an issue of quantifying the cuts we will make in

spending and we will do with taxes, but making some important decisions about what we're going to do with this nation and its future. it's true that our largest creditor in the world as china, but it's also true that china is fast becoming our greatest competitor. they have a vision, they have a plan and they are executing it. i would say flawlessly, but with great impact and we need to have the same vision and plan or a better one. and i think we can achieve that goal. i asked the question directly here about income disparity because they believe that as we talk about balancing our budget and economic growth, let us do it in the context of promoting the general welfare of our nation, which was in the preamble of our constitution. and over the last two years, we assume the opposite occurred. we have seen tax policies that favor those who are well-off and

we've seen a growing income disparity in america. american workers are very productive workers, but they're not being rewarded for effort and they are falling behind. as we come up with the solution we need to be able to save the working americans, we've not only their best interest in mind in terms of their grandchildren and legacy, but also in terms of their productivity and every words for that productivity. the president was careful in his order to sms responsibilities for the medium and long term. it did not include the short term because the short-term as the president notes in his order as the recession. and the recession were too many people are out of work across the nation. at least 8 million currently unemployed and another 6 million discouraged. and each one of our states is a sad story to tell. there's a lesson in history about the definitely was franklin roosevelt used in even greater economic challenge. he faced in the employment rate in the early days visit ministration of 25% nationwide.

he started on his new deal program to try to inject money into our economy and that the unemployment rate down to 14.3%. but four years into it, there were voices in congress saying but what about our national debt? we've got to be worried about this debt. and so they started retrenching them back enough of the earlier commitments and they watched as the unemployment rate crept up again to over 19%. sadly, it took the shot of economic activity involved in world war ii to finally bring us completely out of the depression. let's not make this a mistake. we the executive order carefully here in the short term we need to make sure we have an aggressive effort to rebuild its economy and rebuild jobs through the last thing i like to say is there some that i think have preconceived notions of why we're here. i don't believe this is a trojan horse for a flat tax, but we've faced a vote on the senate floor over there were facing a fat

tax. i wasn't given any secret marching orders about a tax before he was appointed to this commission. i also want to say that this really shouldn't be a forum for revisiting the greatest tips of the latest health care reform date. you know, that was a contentious debate. it went on for a lifetime in lifetime in parts of the dishes there have to be reconsidered your insurer. but i think we need to get beyond that. and the lesson at css. if this commission is going to make an historic contribution to america, the conservatives on this commission need to open their minds to the safety net in our country and the traveling plate as many working americans. and the bleeding heart liberals on this commission have to open their mind to what it takes to inspire competition and economic growth in our economy and make real sacrifices to strengthen our nation. thank you, mr. chairman. [inaudible conversations]

>> i did your work for 18 years, 10 years as assistant leader. it takes some guts to say those things. excuse me, and. >> first of all, let me thank the chairman and also my fellow members on the commission. this is my first participation in an effort of this sort and i had many questions before finally saying yes. but i too was driven by the importance of the issue that we are dealing with, which leads to my comments. i thought it was interesting that both bob and rudy and their comments to about quote, that the copyright involves more changes than the american people are used to and also the comment that quoted as they are a few americans fully understand the seriousness of the problem from the consequences of inaction or the degree of sacrifice required to ensure that our children and grandchildren enjoyed an economy rising income and expanded

opportunities. they come to this commission obviously with my 30 plus years in business and that is the lens through which i am dealing this area i also come to this commission as a mother and grandmother and so that is another lens through which i deal my participation. it's been interesting over the last several weeks i have read a lot of information. today they finegan hearing the facts in the numbers, but ultimately i think that we are here to servers fellow americans. and the biggest service that we can do during the process of this commission is to help the public understand the issue that we are dealing with. the one thing that i played consistently and i'm sure dave would agree with me in business. it is great to come up with strategies and policies. but if we can't execute and execute in a way that people are

accepting of these recommendations, though the work will be for not. and again, we can have a great business strategy, great policies, but poor execution will ultimately yield failure and unexpected of the policy recommendations. and we are all in agreement that we are not in a position and we cannot afford to stay open. we cannot afford to fail or filler markets. we cannot afford to fail one another in this effort to work together and my god, we cannot afford to fail our grandchildren. so if i look forward to my participation in the collective work or we're going to do together, i think it's important that we understand that we're in a position to create a framework, a framework for sustainability for fiscal sustainability, we may not come up with all the solutions, but my god the information that we have available to us today is

rich with options for us to consider. and i was really happy to hear many of you say that we have to look at everything on the table. it's not an either/or solution here. we've got to look at everything and every option. .. >> i think our co-chairman and all the fellow commissioners say that our challenging is daunting is an understatement. i approached my service here as i approached my service in any

washington challenge and that is with high hopes and low expectations. my high hopes are based on the fact that history has shown that in challenging times, americans, even members of congress, are capable of rising to the occasion. my hope is also based on the fact that a number of these commissions have been successful. witness the 9/11 commercial -- commission and social security which was mentioned earlier by senator conrad. my low expectations are based on the fact that these commissions paid into obscurity. i have some concerns over the design of this one. unlike the 9/11 commission, i know that 2/3 of the members of this commission were appointed by the president or are of his party. the results of this commission are not due until after the next election. according to press reports, some of the a administration would

like to take health care off the table. table so time will tell whether the conditions are an exercise in to political expediency and exercise in its utility or actual first step in saving america from. i certainly believe that it can be the latter. the first challenge we have is whether or not we can agree with fiscally responsibility looks like honey believe in a balanced budget and i truly believe the deficit is, central standing remain disease. we can debate the desirable the, but i do know that we now see an 84% increase in the non-defense discretionary spending and less than two years, $1.2 trillion stimulus plan on the debt service, new health care plan that just last week was certified by cms to increase national health care cost and

then to the real bad news and that is as we all know a federal government which is on automatic pilot to grow the government from 20% of the economy to 40% of our economy over the course of the next generation so for those who simply wish to approach this problem on the tax side i know that over the two-year budget window we could balance the president's budget by increasing the tax burden 50%, income taxes go up 50%. according to the members one by the cbo mustachio over the long term we can balance the budget by increasing taxes 2.5% which leaves a 10% bracket to the 25% bracket, 35% bracket would increased 89%. i think at that point we all know number-one economic growth was clearly stagnate the fact government revenues would decrease. i think at that point our

children and grandchildren will be living in smaller homes driving less reliable older cars and competing shrinking jobs with sinking paychecks to the limited to small to mid raising taxes to that level either by income tax, corporate tax, death tax, excise tax or european-style about tax is not my idea of fiscal responsibility. i think ultimately the attempt to tax our way out of this crisis will lead us to be the first generation in america's history to lead the next generation with a lower standard of living. historians when they might know that in the 20 the sentry belonging to america perhaps the 21st entry into a cup of to china. my idea to fiscal responsibility as a budget that does not for faster than the family budget

ability to pay for it. mine is the current generation that does not have a future generation with more debt. my idea is a government limited power scope and experience enabling americans to enjoy the high standard of living and freedom the world has ever known. to achieve this ideal of a humble we've respectfully submit a couple of ideas in the commission for its consideration one would be h.r. 3964 when the spending deficit and debt control co-authored along with fellow commissioner paul. it isn't a silver bullet is a budget process reform bill but i do believe it would impose statutory spending caps on mandatory discretionary spending, cap on our deficit increasing such reforms as annual budget only since setting the federal agencies and it's already been mentioned fellow

commissioner offered h.r. 3529 the road map for america's future and human not consider it the plan but it is at least a plan that secures the center of the entitlement programs for the current generations and the reforms for future beneficiaries without bankrupting the nation and i think it's critical for each of us on any ideas helpful in achieving fiscal responsibility that unless we deal fundamentally with reforms of entitlement spending in general and health care in specific idp dewitt be all for none. finally i would submit h.j. res spending amendment to the constitution i've offered along with congressman mike pence and congressman john campbell. i might want to differ slightly with one of our witnesses in a churchill quote if my memory serves me correctly it is

americans can usually be counted upon to do the right thing once the fix allston every other possibility. unfortunately we are at a time to complete that exercise. i sincerely look forward to considering all of the proposals by members of this commission. i will have an open mind but not an empty mind on every one of those proposals and finally i am mindful we will one day face the judgment of. i've heard almost to a man and woman people speak about their children and grandchildren and i know that one device since a picture of my children like blackberry if you each take out a photograph of our children and grandchildren as we go through these deliberations we will probably do the right thing. thank you. >> i am very pleased and humbled to be on the commission.

i think we are a group assembled to deal with a very big problem at the moment we had a chance to make a difference. i was struck by the fact that there was almost nil disagreement among the people who briefed us starting with the president and going through the federal reserve and various experts on the dimensions of the problem. we are not arguing about that and we are not arguing about the danger. people put them in different terms but i think we all realize we are facing a serious perhaps catastrophic threat to the prosperity, future transparency of its united states and whether the threat comes in the form of reducing standards of living

gradually over time or in the form of a tremendous but unpredictable crisis one of us know but the threat is there and the problem that both the senator emphasized the long run problem or the on sustainability of the federal budget is not a new problem. i've been making speeches about for a very long time. like 20 or 30 years. we have known that social security but more importantly medicare and medicaid was invested in the economy >> so we have a problem in this growing wedge. the reason it is so much more

urgent now is two things. the baby boom generation is a different thing they are retiring now and in the last couple of years we've had this recession that has thrown it into a different debt situation with rapidly rising debt. that wasn't true three or four years ago it was still modest in relation to the gdp but the rapidly rising debt but one problem in the long run sustainability which was bigger we've had two problems, the needy problem of how do we keep this a bit from rising faster from the gdp. we have to stabilize it somewhere there is no magic number but we've to stabilize it fairly soon and that means getting the medium-term down. and senator baucus is write the

things we need to do about the long run are not going to help with that very much because we get to them quickly. we need to think about some of the things we can do more quickly that will not be a real recovery and that is going to be tough. one more thing i want to take issue with bob reischauer on the process is not so important. process ascent everything but i do believe that when the budget enforcement act of 1990 is enforced by partisan we supported from 1990 to 2002 that we use paygo and caps to get to the surplus is that did happen. now it's harder paygo will help

us not make it worse but the programs that are already on the books are what are driving spending. medicare and medicaid particularly so we have a harder problems but i'm optimistic and excited to be part of this group. thank you. >> when your name is william and you go in alphabetical order [inaudible] let me try to say something a little bit different. first to the chairman senator simpson, each of you have a great reputation of integrity and i look forward to working with you on this effort. most of us were in congress during the last economic crisis and the was a crisis where the chairman of the federal reserve and treasury secretary came rushing to the hills in panic mode and we got together and we governed in a panicked situation. we have before us the most

predictable economic crisis we have ever had in this country. we all know that. we also i think are getting a good grasp of the size of the magnitude of the crisis. sovereign debt crises are popping up all of the world and we are kidding ourselves if we don't think it can come to us next. here is one of the problems i think we have to end up discussing as we know health care is the biggest part of this. unfortunately it doesn't matter how you voted on the last bill it is all. we took 529 million of state savings out of medicare not to go toward spending medicare solvency but toward a new entitlement. we increased by one-third and we have a new entitlement and the entitlement speak many of us have been in this week is to call to the big three medicare medicaid and social security and now it is the big four. that is an issue we have to talk about what do we do about this entitlement affect that in this

session of congress we passed 1.8 trillion of new spending to buy 670 billion in new taxes so i would argue the fiscal trajectory was bad and now is getting worse and that is my personal perspective. i put the number of ideas as a mine shaft on the cutting of reform and if there's anything i've learned from that experience is that the american people are ready to be talked to like adults. we are ready to know the fiscal facts and if there's one thing we can accomplish on this effort is better public education about the nature of the problem and it is getting our congress and the nature of the problem. on, too will get this with an open mind, not an empty mind. i think if you look at the mass of all of this spending mathematically speaking you literally cannot tax your way out of this problem so i don't think we should try to go down that path taxing away on the problem. if you look at the congressional

budget office model the model of the future of the country, the economy shutdown and the computer cannot think of any way out of this fiscal problem we have we know for a fact it is irrefutable we are giving the next generation and interior standard of living. we've never done that before. in the legacy of the country is always been to on the challenge before you to make sure your kids have a better life. all of us agree with that challenge with that legacy. it will take a lot of heavy lifting and i would simply say when you look at the spending problem the sooner you act the match better off you were going to be. we've got millions of our fellow citizens who organize their lives around these programs acting very soon you can assure their lives won't be uprooted. we will not yank the rug from underneath them and we can make perspective changes when forward so that people have time to organize their lives, learning from so to speak but if we keep

taking the can down the road not confronting these massive spending challenges that kind of assurance to those involved in organized their lives in the program cannot be maintained. so we are in a situation where time is of the essence to deal with this and i would simply say we have got to spend most of our time i think on the spending side of the ledger because after all that is what is driving at the end of the day the level of personal and economic freedom, living standards, jobs and international competitiveness have to be the overarching concern said drive the decisions we are making. >> i am very honored to be on this commission and i look forward to working with all of you with the statements that everything does need to be on the table but i want to say that we are gathered here not as encounters or as columns of

numbers but us policy makers and leaders who care deeply about the lives of the american people of today and tomorrow were impacted by the economic policies of the country. the president said last week, quote, some on wall street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged there is a family looking to buy a house or pay for an education, open a business comes a for retirement, that happens on wall street has consequences across the country and across our economy. and the same can be set up a task that we are engaged in a now balancing the budget and reducing the debt in my mind are not in and of themselves. the welfare of the american people have said to be the goal of the fiscal policy. everything we do here should be measured in terms of the impact of the wellbeing of our people, the opportunity we provide for our children and grandchildren

as the value of our space society. so watch is when to be said about what we can afford to do and what we can't afford and these questions in my view ought to be considered in the biggest context possible. for example, i believe we can't afford to skip on our children's education, assuring access to quality affordable health care, retirement securities, achieving energy independence, investing in our infrastructure, supporting medical research, creating more jobs and the bottom line is while we are committed to saving our children and grandchildren from the crippling debt we must be as committed to ensure they are not ignorant, or unemployed. there are many items and practices we can't afford to continue that i intend to put on the table for example i do think we can't keep up with the double-digit premium increases and private health insurance and we can't afford costly contract

and policies that resulted fought and abuse we can't afford tax loopholes and identify sniffing american jobs overseas. we can't afford to build to pay for outdated and ineffective cold war weapons systems or to find 200,000 americans servicemen and women plus contractors and iraq and afghanistan and it definitely we can't allow wall street to run amok and frankly i've heard enough sanctimonious statements by the most entitled about internet programs. wall street bankers who saved tens of millions of dollars of bonuses while the touring retirees who bring home an average of $18,000 a year about tightening their belts. tax entitlements as well as programmatic entitlements need to be on the table. we have to acknowledge as the current deficit isn't solely the result of spending and tax policy, substantial cause of the current deficit was the

recklessness of the wall street banks that cost 8 million american jobs and the failure of our regulatory policies that we need to present our financial sector from spinning out of control. the recession as senator durbin said like the current one is no time to make the same mistake that led to the double-digit -- double-dip downturn in the 1930's, short-term reduction of the deficit i think is the worst thing we can do for the economy. we need government spending to create the jobs that drive continued economic growth. and i am absolutely certain we are not engaged in mission impossible. we've done it before just a decade ago. we ushered in the era of the fiscal responsibility during the clinton administration creating over 20 million jobs producing budget surpluses and a rapidly declining debt and we can do it again. we are ready beginning to see

signs of progress. americans should be confident that we have it within our power to fully restore the economy and soundness of the federal budget while keeping the commitments to with our grandparents and our children. americans should feel confident that this great country can continue the american tradition of each generation looking forward to an even better life than the one that came before it is up to us to show the way. >> thank you for taking over. [inaudible] this commission faces a great challenge, one that is worthy of our best efforts. the public debt is rising relentlessly has alternately the worst recession since the great depression. the mounting debt in the interest of the true entitlements because they are have to be paid. they must be paid with the country will collapse.

coming on the heels of this debt are the internal and obligations, healthcare and others increasing faster than the economy is growing in time it will be in support. this is a great fiscal threat. the sooner we act the better. in january this year the congressional budget office released its annual budget and economic outlook for the next ten years. cbo found that under the current law assumptions those that govern the typical forecast the current assumptions deficits in 2020 would total $687 billion that assumes of course that the tax cuts passed no one in 03 without being carried forward. we must assume the current policies will stay largely unchanged between the over $1 trillion. everybody at this table knows that is not attainable. the budget to be warning signs lead us to even more questions

about the current situation. how long can we choose to or from the generations to satisfy our current needs? how long will the world's greatest debtor be able to command the greatest superpower? the in the fundamental question raised by someone earlier who will tell the people? while the fiscal challenges that face us are daunting the historical record provides hope, cause for hope. in 1990 under president bush we had a bipartisan process which resulted in significant reduction in the deficit were at least proposed reduction deficits that results. president clinton came to office and build on that foundation a successful budget that paid off in 1997 both sides came together in a bipartisan effort to pass the agreement of 1997. we've done it before and we can do it again.

i had a small hand in the 1997 effort and i brought away from it lessons lie can share with you. common sense listens. first everybody needs to be at the table and the competition strikes me as a better life. we are democrats and republicans, members of the house and the senate. we have representatives from the sectors as well as public sectors so we need this diverse mix but we need these more for everyone to lean into the problem and look at the common ground. second everything it needs to be on the table. it was 97. we can't come out of these discussions successfully if we enter with rigid preconditions by what can or cannot be done to the government finances on the line. the problems that confront us are clear. the elements of constructive solutions. i look forward to working with all the members of the commission and i hope that we can set our fiscal policy in

route to long-term solvency. thank you. >> i was honored when the president asked me to serve. you can call me old-fashioned but i love this country. i happen to think america is a gift and its greatest gift is people have come here generation after generation like my grandfather who became a butcher in north new jersey. all my grandfather ever wanted from america was a chance to work really hard. all he hoped for was maybe his work would be rewarded but what he dreamed about is that his son milton and his grandson, andy, with a tube with a better life than he did. that is a wondrous remarkable and incredible american dream. despite the civil war, two world wars, the recession, natural disasters that dream has endured.

but as congressman hensarling and why it had set maybe not anymore. 79% of americans think their kids are going to do worse than the duty and that is not the america any of us want or need or came here to create. so, i think everywhere but washington, d.c. we've come to realize something is put out a different in our country. it's not the 20th century. it's the 21st century. the economies internationally is international. america isn't clearly going to be the dominant economic superpower in the long run the heavy competition in china for the first time in our history. among to make 3.3 at one, this is not our fathers and grandfathers economy and i would say it is even much more profound. our country and the rest the world is living through what is third economic revolutions. the first economic revolution was agricultural. the second of economic revolution was the 300 years. this revolution, and it is the

third economic revolution has of course from national to international and for manufacturing the finance knowledge environmental innovation economy is only going to take 30 years and we are only halfway through the revolution and everything has changed. and in this revolution, countries are teams and team usa, the red white and blue team has no plan. we have all said what is going on here. you can say it is unconscionable, it is unsustainable, team usa needs an economic win and that is what we are here to do to win the global economic competition by making the plan together. my second point, we had a assumption here when you listen to people that we are going to automatically return to the kind of job and wage growth we had prior to the economic collapse and if that is true we have a problem. we had a jobless decade in america the senses to recipe for

the collapse people didn't get a raise in four years, the august sec nation in history and the goldman sachs profits were record high and wages were a record low so we need to be very thoughtful that we cannot simply cut away, tax our way, spend our way out of this. we need to have job growth and wage growth in the short run if we are going to be able to do anything we wanted and that is quite to the thoughtful about changing anything. that might interrupt us getting back to the kind of growth we need to begin the conversation. last point. everyone i talked to in washington called upon to answer some of them have said although this is a critical discussion, they deal with as democrats and republicans with a look at it in terms of less than right and i think we need to look at it as what is right or wrong for the country and i think if we view that all of the assassins of change as i like to call them in

washington, d.c. stand around trying to make sure nothing happened there would be very disappointed. i've met every single republican member of the commission and of the democrats i've known for a while and i would say this to happen to agree there is a lot of interesting ideas here. it's not about democrats and republicans really said that dr. colburn earlier and many others here that i think focusing on the waste, fraud and abuse is important. as congressman boxer said to think about all of the tax caps that we have and the whole question about two-year budgeting and the questions about how we have an accountable budget makes absolute sense. i happen to not be a great fan of earmarks and i like congressman becerra's idea about taxpayers' bill of rights and about how we simplify the tax code and senator conrad's indictment of the general and fairness of that current tax. the congressman ryan said the income tax rate for corporations are too high and the loopholes

are too big and we need to think about effective rates much as absolute rates and i agree with those on the panel who say that we need to address retirement security not just social security and there's a question because adequacy as well as solvency and i think there is a question about how people are going to have universal add-ons to what we have now and look at all of the tax expenditures we need for retirement and more integrated and better ways like congressman kemp's idea how we simplify the current tax structure and i want to and by saying senator creepo said to me in our meeting that the goal is not just about fiscal balance, but we need to make decisions that restore the economic engine of the greatest country on earth. so until we have an economic engine pulling the train, we are not planned to get where we want to go so i would say that our future is not a matter of chance. it is a matter of choice and it is time for america to decide.

>> i don't need to sum up. >> yes you do. [laughter] >> first play of the greatest partner in the world. if this team can develop a trust that we have and there's nothing we can't accomplish. but it's all about trust. a lot to talk about the 97 budget agreement. the reason we got that agreement done was because we developed a trust on both sides and in the that getting 75% of the members in both houses of congress on both sides of the aisle to go forward. we can do it. i thought representative ryan said it best in saying this is the most predictable economic crisis in history that we face. and we are on autopilot right now and if we don't face up to the deficits, and rising debt we

will have a tremendous economic crisis and as you said, mr. stern, we do the economic plan. everybody here from a president to the fed chairman to every member in this room has every witness said the path we are on today is not sustainable. so we all get. now do we have the courage to do something? to me, this date is like a cancer. it is a cancer that is when to destroy the country from within. it is as plain as day. the arithmetic is compelling. the problem is easy to agree upon. what is hard is the solution and there are a lot of ideas out there. i want to protect the social safety net. i want to make sure that we invest in those areas that will

make american competitiveness competitive and knowledge based economy. i want to make sure any time we discuss revenue that we don't do anything that has a negative impact on economic growth. but we have to be willing to change. we have to be willing to make the tough choices. we are not going to solve this by waste fraud and abuse or by limiting foreign aid. we have to make tough choices and that is going to involve the entitlements, it's going to involve the military, and its splinter involves discretionary items and it's going to involve revenue and we have to face up to that. i think the president was right. he has insisted every time he's talked to us that everything is on the table. that he will support the conclusions of this committee if we have the courage to make the

recommendations. i think if we trust each other we can get there. i have three goals. first i want to make sure that we do it to keep the american people. we've got a huge education job to do and that is a big marketing job. we have to make sure they understand that look there will be no jobs out there if we don't get this debt in control. in fact that in the business world, small businesses can't grow it can't create jobs without capital. if they beat credit out of the capitol markets if we don't get this debt under control. i am in education. i know the importance of making sure that we have a highly trained in a highly skilled workforce but there is going to be no money for education infrastructure, transportation, innovation if we don't get this debt under control. and max, do talked about the best chinese start to sell our debt, but if they quit buying

it? we will be in deep trouble. so we've got to educate the american people that there is a crisis. that paul ryan is right. second, we have to agree on a set of numbers. al and i believe the numbers of the actuarial numbers from the social security commission and from the medicare commission. we also believe we'll reduce the cbo numbers because the of the most residency in this town. i hope we can agree on a set of numbers. that we have to explore these options. these two guys that came, the former head of the ceos and there's lots of options out there. you guys have great ideas. let's explore the great ideas and leave everything on the table until the end and then we have to make the difficult choices. we have agreed we are going to make those choices. we are cui to work together. we are not a republican democrat we are just americans but we have a big problem in the

american problem and i am excited about working with each of you on it. thank you for serving and for being part of it. we have a couple of issues to bring up before we leave. the next full commission meeting will be on may 26 o'clock to 11:30 up on the hill and we will announce we're in between that we will have working groups that will deal with the mandatory spending, discretionary spending and revenue reform and we will have each of those on every wednesday going forward. the subsequent meetings after the next may 26 meeting if i can find my notes we will have a third public meeting on june 30th and on july 28, 5th on september 29th, 6 on november 10th and a seventh on december 1st which is the due date. in between we will have meetings to discuss working group meetings by mandatory discretionary and revenue.

i would like to now before the co-chairman poses this meeting have them introduce the members of our staff. >> thank you for the world that you've shown throughout this and the extraordinary amount that you've given in hitting the ground running. i would like to introduce and think a couple people who helped make this possible and who will be working with you over the coming month. first mckay and then the timekeeper. there's no time limit. we have a couple of people who have just joined coming from omb and has an illustrious career on mandatory spending. she has worked at the gao and cbo as well as the omb and then

mark for responsible federal budget is also a mandatory spending expert. and numbers which is and i should say we are fortunate that the members of congress on the commission have some of the most extraordinary talented people in the field and we will be taking phone advantage of that fact going forward. we are determined to build a nonpartisan bipartisan staff has no majority, minority and we look forward to working with you to carry out the ideas and tackle problems we've heard about from the meeting yesterday >> we have a grand total of three. >> if you did america is bear bones this commission is in their bones. this is about eight. and that is what makes it a conflict we have some hearings around the united states.

i tell you we don't have a scratch as the old guy says to do it. >> if you will give us some opportunities that we have to look at so we don't have to physically all go some place we can figure that out. >> you are right it is about education that everywhere you go in the united states you hear the people say something is very wrong here and they know that. >> i don't think i could add to the remarks -- here we go. if it doesn't work i will know that i have given it my best but i have been on commissions that worked. we did the commission on immigration refugee policy and the only reason that it failed is because the extreme right and extreme left said we have a national id card. but watch out when they are using emotion, fear, guilt and

racism on you because that is how you pass or kill anything. the motion, fear, guilt or racism use flash words which like amnesty or taxes or whatever, those are words and i would just say in the study group to people five from each side agree on every word and we wouldn't issue a report until we agree on every word. i was disappointed at the end when i changed a couple of words with sandra day o'connor said to have used the split infinitive. [laughter] i don't even know what the hell a split infinitive is. [laughter] but the 57 of those suggestions have been accepted to this point out of 79 so they can work with the cynicism of their used to be skepticism and now it is just

cynicism and is heavy with the media. we will get out of here. what does it say about entitlements and taxes? so first we go to those and try to laugh them out of their particular complexities. they seem to be twisted. their knickers or twisted as they say in england. [laughter] [inaudible] [inaudible conversations]

c-span3 c-span[captioning perfoy national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> here is what we are covering on c-span 3 today. we will have the 2010 fiscal summit. we will hear from members of the national debt commission, the formal federal reserve chairman's, and from former president bill clinton. that starts at 8:45 a.m. eastern. later, we will bring you a senate hearing on the annual budgets of the securities and

exchange commission and the commodities futures trading commission. the heads of both regulatory agencies will testify. live coverage begins at 2: 30 p.m. eastern on cspan 3. sunday, a television analyst and columnist and 3-time presidential candidate pat buchanan on conservative ideology. he will take your calls, e- mails, and tweets, sunday live at noon eastern on c-span 2. today on c-span, "washington journal" is next, live with your phone calls which is followed by the coverage of the u.s. house where they will work and a bill to overhaul defense acquisition procedures. in about 45 minutes, we will talk to congresswoman jan