will violate both. and the decision about how you move forward in a case relates to what are your objectives. i think you should think about a couple of things in making the decision and it'll be a decision which has to be tailored to the needs of the circumstances and the -- and what your objectives are. one of the things we need to understand is that in everything we do, we teach. so the enemy will learn something with whatever we do. certain kinds of exposures of certain kinds of information will teach the enemy very valuable things that would be improper for us to teach them. so i think we ought to be very careful about taking those kinds of circumstances and having the kind of exposure that regular trials would offer if it's possible for us to adjudicate the individual in another setting that wouldn't provide that kind of exposure.

we shouldn't seek to teach the enemy any more than we have to. so there should be certain limits. on the other hand, we should seek to learn everything we can. especially in the uncertain arena of terrorism. .

compromise of information. complex questions that are based on -- will be based on individual facts in various settings. i think that is more than enough. >> here is another one that brings up a different set of facts and circumstances. you deal with one of these things. >> give the man a glass of water. he is about to endorse lawyers. >> question. the obama administration authorized the targeted killing of -- does the fact that this man remains at large present new legal challenges not considered in other recent cases? >> well i don't think there is

any -- i haven't known of a recent case. we will go back to the case. you may remember it because of the sabber tos. couple of those people were american citizens. now, when we are fighting for the defensive freedom, and we encounter an american citizen on the other side. i think that there is a generally accepted idea we can treat them like an enemy because they are fighting for the other side. one of the other cases ssid that in detention an individual as the right to have a proceeding about his -- it does not have to be a full-court proceeding, which is part of the problem because it is as if justice o'conner was suggesting that there was something between judicial due process on the judicial side and some type

of executive due process. i believe that there is. i don't believe all due process has to be judicial. i would suspect that in a decision made in any administration to pursue someone as an enemy in circumstances like this means that there would be a potential finding somewhere to support that which was ordered and that those findings in my judgment and the judgment of individuals who would come to review such a circumstance would probably be more than sufficient to support the requirement that an appropriate process, an adequate process, the most recent case the court of appeals talked about an request process. almost as if they do not want anyone to have the word due process. it is constitutional. but it would be an adequate process. i continuing is possible to fight enemies as enemies and

ignore the fact of whether or not they are an american citizen. >> big component of national security is economic stability and growth. do you see any hopeful signs that we can assure request funding of defense priorities? >> well the request funding of defense priorities is a matter of will and priority, know. i am worried about the financial condition of the united states. i am worried that if i were to talk about threats to the security long-term stability, liberty, interests of the united states , i would consider our wreckless financial conduct to be one of the biggest threats to our country.

maybe this is what happens when you get as old as i am and have grandchildren but when you continue to have no plan for provision of the resources necessary for the spending, to me it is stealing from our grandchildren. i worry about the moral component of a culture which seeks to displace its own pleasure and the costs of it on to generations yet to come in such a profound way that it may endanger their ability to remain score. and in the current setting, and i am sure you had profoundly educated speakers talking about it who know far beyond me, but we weaken our ability in the world when we are debtors to the world. and when we do not have the ability to signal our self sshes in dealing with competitors on the world scene.

and i am not so concerned about the competitors of the past, although i don't think that we shoold ignore our friends in europe and the like. but i don't think that greece, for instance, is raising a specter of competition so much. it raises a warning flag to us. but when you think about the emerging high energy productive culture that will be challenging in terms of the ability to match their productivity like china and obviously india has great potential as well. we have to be careful that we do not find ourself so burdened with debt that we inhibit our capacity to exercise the leadership that the world expects from us and that we deserve to provide for the next generation in terms of securing freedom. so i am very concerned about

our finances. i don't think that the american people are so ignorant they don't want more government. i think they are so intelligent that they don't want to buy more government. i think they understand that being in debt impairs the ability of one to be as free as one would otherwise aspire to be. [applause]

>> if confirmed he will replace dennis blair who resigned last month. he would be the fourth director since congress created the office to oversee the nation's 16 intelligence agencies. from the white house, this is 10 minutes. >> safety and security of the american people. aad in an interconnected world where dangers can emerge suddenly we have to protect ourselves against a full range of threats. from a terrorist network striking our homeland to violent extremists seeking weapons of mass destruction to threats such as cyber criminals. to keep america safe my administration is strengthening and integrating every element of our national power, military and economic, diplomacy and

development. homeland security, law enforement. it is critical to all of the other. as president i always depend on the best decisions that i make every day. i depend on the director of national intelligence. dennis blair continued the extraordinary service that defined his entire career. our intelligence became more integrated and agile. i will be grateful for his sense of purpose and service. today i am proud to announce my next choice, james clapper. jim is one of the nation's most experienced and respected intelligence professionals. as under secretary of defense

he has overseen the military and civilian personnel and budgets that make up the bulk of our intelligence community. he has improved information sharing, increased support to afghanistan and iraq, upheld civil liberties and played a key role in the effort to update our intelligence community to meet the threats of our time. as director of two critical organizations and during a distinguished career in the air force jim developed an understanding of our programs. he possesses a quality that i value in all of my advisors. a willingness to tell leader what is we need to know even if it is not what we want to hear. jim is a forceful champion. never orgetting what it is like to risk his own life

during two combat tours during the vietnam war. jim will be my principle intelligence advisor and the leader of our intelligence community. our intelligence community has made great strides. we have struck major blows against the leadership of al qaeda and its affiliates and disrupted many plots in our country and saved many american lives. as we saw in the failed attack in detroit that we need to do better, constantly evolve and adopt and improve. that is why i ordered a series of things to strengthen our community earlier. i will be looking to jim to insure we have the most efficient community as possible. it must be anne -- acted upon decisively. that is what i expect as president. that is what our national security demands. in short the intelligence

community needs to work as one integrated team that produces timely and accurate spgs. this is a tough task. but this will be jim's core mission. he is imminently qualified and has my complete support. jim understands the importance of working with our partners in category. not to just appear when summoned but to keep congress informed. not surprisingly the senate voted to confirm jim for senior positions on four separate occasions and each time it has done so overwhelmingly. the urgent threats to our nation and jim's unique experience, i urge the senate to do it again and as swiftly as possible. i have indicated that i expect this nomination to be completed during this work period. this nomination can't fall victim to the usual washington politics. as we go forward i will work with congress to make sure jim

and all of our intelligence professionals have all of the resources and support that they need to succeed. let me say to the men and women across the intelligence community. most americans may never see your work but every american is safer because of your work. you have chosen to serve america. now it is america's duty to back you up so you can fulfill the mission we ask of you and keep this nation safe. that is my promise to you as president of the united stateses and what jim will do as director of national intelligence. theank you for taking on this critical assignment. with that i invite jim to say a few words. >> thank you very much. thank you mr. president. i am humbled, honors and daunted by the magnitude of the responsibilities. it is a job that cannot be done without your support and that of the congress. and i intend to earn that

support from both as well as the public when i am confirmed for the position. we have the largest and most capable enterprise on the planet and it is a solemn sacred trust to make that enterprise work. with that, the nominees are like my two oldest grand kids who are here today. better seen than heard. thank you very much. >> around the time the president made this announcement from the white house,ed that allen held a briefing on the gulf oil spill. >> good morning folks. i would like to talk this morning about the operations out in the gulf with the containment. i will go with operations locally. i would like to talk about the uniqqe facility that we are at here in alabama.

last week i was given the responsibility to do the daily press brief. i have been asked a lot of questions about why that is happening. one of the reasons is because i move around a lot. where i go the press follows. gives us a chance to highlight the different parts of this operation around the gulf. it is important to understand that we are here in theodore, alabama today. we are at a facility owned by core industries here in mobile. it is owned by a gentleman named russell miles. they are supporting patriot industries, an oil spill response organization out of long beach, california, that has been employed by british petroleum to set up a base camp for operations all around the gulf. i want to complement everybody that is involved in this operation of the management and the team from california brought to operate it constitutes only 10% of the

workforce. 90% of the people working here are local employees. the amount of business being generated with local contractors, local hotels and facilities, i am talking to the folks here and it has had an extraordinary impact. this is a really good working model. from here they do training. they deploy boom equipment and repair boom equipment. they can handle oily waste and debris. anything associate with the life cycle of a clean up operation can be supported out of this base here. we will be hearing more about that as we get into the brief. i would like to take the opportunity to update you on what is going out in the gulf. we have succeeded in putting the containment cap over the well head. we are starting to bring the oil up and starting to produce it in a vessel called the

discoveror enterprise and it is connected by a riser pipe to the containment cap. when we first put the cap down it was full of a nitro jen gas to keep the oil from forming hydrates. a slushy type of material that comes when you have natural gas combined with water. to preclude that with this containment cap they are easing the pressure up to the vessel as far as production so they can maintain control over the oil and not let water get in there. they are also pumping methanol down into there, the equivalent of gas line anti-freeze. slowly loweringly the pressure so that oil comes up and they can begin production. in the first full 24-hour cycle

yesterday they were able to bring up and produce 6,000 barrels of oil from the well. the goal is to continue that production and take the pressure off of the well and reduce the oil coming out to make sure the oil had a place to go. i can answer any questions that you may have about that. in general the southerly winds taking the northern edge of this spill perimeter and moving it closer to alabama. we are seeing the product come ashore in the form of tar balls . the impact is from western mississippi over towards pensacola. the oil will generally start to move north and slightly east. the area we are concerned about is from the mississippi-louisiana line to port st. joe in florida. in regards to that we have a lot of people out doing clean up operations.

i want to talk about two different things. the first is our vessel opportunity system. local boatmen and boat owners can register their boat to do work on the water. it can be anything from deploying boom to inspecting boom to seeing if it is damaged to reporting. yesterday we hit one of our best days since we started this response. we had a total of 443 vessels of opportunity working around alabama. i will give you a sense of where they are at. 1 vessels operating out of dolphin island. 142 vessels and 143 from home port marinas over in baldwin county. and 3 vessels from fair hope. we are trying to optimize local knowledge on the water, what these folks know, their expertise and talent. the second thing is our

qualified community responder program. we started this for the local communities in alabama, mississippi and florida. what we are trying to do is find unemployed individuals that would like to seek training and get involved in the response. the goal is to train about 1,500 in alabama and 1,500 in mississippi and in florida. to date we trained 2,700 individuals. they are ready to deploy. 898 in alabama, 344 in florida. to date there are another 1,900 individuals scheduled for training. the types of tasks that we have these folks involved in is handling materials and supplies, removing debris from beaches. cleaning rocks and beach areas, removing trash and other debris. safety is a primary concern.

so we made sure they go through basic training, not only for the task they are doing but exposure to potential materials they could come in contact with. the majority of training is doneehere. this is actually a processing point and dispatch point for personnel. they come in here, receive their training and get their credentials and be deployed elsewhere in the area. in general the operation here is one of the best i encountered in the group. i want to commend everybody for the way the contracts, subcontractors and local community came together to help us out. with that i would be glad to take any questions. >> the governor is not very happy. what is going on? what can you do about it?

>> i am here in theodore to look at this operation. i will look at all of the areas we are booming and i am scheduled to meet with the governor later in the day. we will talk about whatever issues he has. that is at the direction of the president. it is based on the conversation that he and i had with the president government. >> one thing the governor wanted to do is -- >> you can boom the beaches. there is always a tension between where you are going to boom and what areas you are going to protect. in general going into this response the state identified sensitive areas that needed to be protected where you have a lot of juvenile water life that comes and becomes mature there.

the problem is the hardest place to pick up oil is in a marsh or wet land. the easiest place is from a sandy beach. you take it to a certified dump and treat it as oily waste. but it is much easier to recover and remove. the best thing is to do it on the water. beach is easier to deal with than a marsh is. i am not sure what the question is. i will give you a summary of what is going on. there are reports of underwater oil plumes. the administrator has put together a large area sampling plant to send vessels out and form a consortium to get data and test the water at different

depths. that is being done right now including operating in a five-mile and ten-mile radius. those vessels are starting to return to port. there are others going out. sometime in the near future they will put together a profile based on all of the data so we can understand what profile based on all of the data so we can understand what >> when we put the cap down there were four vents on the cap that allow the oil to escape. you want to keep oil in the containment cap and not let

water in. when water gets in you form hydrates. they are increasing production tt the ship on top and actually producing oil like it normally would in any production capacity. they want to raise that up to the maximum extent possible on a daily rate basis and slowly start turning off the vents where the oil is coming off of. they are sure they don't have sea water coming in. there is a rubber seal that connects the containment cap to the riser pipe because we did not get a smooth cut. we had to use the here ises. it was a little jagged. when we go to full production it will be forced down around the rubber seals. we will have to get to a full rate production before we know what the exact state is for leakage that you may see.

we have installed equipment to try not to have to deal with as much at the surface. in the meantime we will continue skimming and burning and we are trying to limit any dispersed application at the surface because we used so much up there. you know we reached the 1 million gallon threshold. there is public concern over the implication that disspursments, it is preferable to having the oil because the toxicity is much less. we are mindful that there are talks of the impacts. we are trying to focus it down where the oil is actually coming out of the well head. >> will you get everything alabama needs? >> i am here today to do a complete brief on boom

inventory, i will sit down with the commander and sit down with the governor this afternoon. >> that is when you will come up with the plan? >> yes. >> i am not sure. i am doing it by handset. the gentleman asked once we understand the full production rate and hat is being

discharged out that is not being recovered will we make that public. of course we will make it public. we have a technical group that i established that came up with the revised estimate a while back. they said there are two models that show it was leaking between 12 nooned to 19,000 barrels a day. when we establish a full rate of production we will understand the oil that was released while we had to cut the pipe and make an estimate of the oil that was lost in that period of time. we will make that available to the public. it will be completely transparent.

>> production rate and flow data from the ship. we will get that and make it public. yes, sir, we will. does that answer your question? next question. the vents remain open. we will get an up date from british petroleum. they will remain open until they stabilize the pressure. they are making adjustments to the systems. they are making sure that they do not increase the production rate until it is safe to do so. we will make an announcement when we know.

>> you are saying that is the lowered estimate? and there is really no higher estimate. >> i would be glad to. the two flow rates were developed. they had two different models. the low end is the same in both models, 12,000 barrels a day. the other model produced 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day. it is not a bad idea to have competing models. hopefully we will have a more acceptable representation of what is actually flowing. the best way is to get a good

rate of production. once you know what you are producing every day, that is a known quantity. the estimate you are basing it on starts to narrow. next question. >> i had another question on the vents. if they remain open it is safe to say that we have not really come that far since we heard about this yesterday, 24 hours ago. i guess i am wondering how successful can we say this has been so far. it seems that we have only saved 6,000 gallons taken up. the vents which we were told

yesterday were getting closed. is the rate of spillage decreased that anybody can detect? >> first of all, let me correct you. it was 6,000 barrels yesterday. what is happen suggest that they are increasing the production and rate and they are doing it in a manner that they will have maximum production at the floating production vessel overhead. when we get to the point, slowly close off the valves. that will happen and it could happen very shortly. but it will be based on the production rate. next question. >> you are talking about the conditions, what sort of conditions do you need to see before you start closing off those vents? is it just a matter of

increasing the oil? >> that is. what we want to do is take as much pressure coming from the well as possible and put that into production. once you optimized that pressure there is a smaller chance that whatever oil can't be accommodated through that will go down and out those rubber seals. it would be the residual leakage that we will have to manage in the long-term. they are going to try to get this right. again, they will move forward. we said in the next day. if that is confusing people i will say it has to be conditions baseed based on the flow they are achieving. they want the most pressure taken out of that pipe through production as they can.

>> what is the worst case scenario? >> the question is what is the worst case scenario. you don't contain the flow. the only way we will ever cap this well is drilling a relief well. that is underway right now. the first relief well is 7,000 feet below the sea floor. they will have to achieve 16,000 to 18,000 feet to intercept the well. the goal then would be to pump mud down the well to reduce the pressure to the point that they can put a cement plug in. at that point the well would be killed. you heard of the top kill. this would be the bottom kill exercise. in the long-term the threat from this well will not go away until a relief well has been drilled. in the meantime we have to optimize our containment efforts which is going on right now with the containment cap.

the worst case is that the discharge related to what we can't contain goes forward until we have the relief wells drilled, sometime in early august. >> last question. >> my question is based on the 6,000 barrel estimate if you look at the low estimated rate it could be capturing half the oil or at the low end a quarter of the oil. am i interpreting that the right way? what you said yesterday was a 1,000 barrel estimate. >> what i said earlier is that after the initial production was established they were at that point in the day captured

1,000 barrels. they tend to measure their production from midnight to midnight. from midniggt last night to midnight the last night they were able to prrduce 6,000 barrels. they started at a low rate and go to a higher rate. ultimately the capacity of that rig is 15,000 barrels a day. and the that is the upper limit on what they can achieve with that production capability. we like to push it to the limitings. that is what they are trying to dd at this time. thank you. >> a quick point for everybody, b.p. is providing twice daily updates on the containment. they provide an update every morning on what the rate of production is from the containment method. you will be getting that from them in the morning. >> thank you folks.

>> everyone has an agenda. as long as you know what it is and the facts are right, you can write about it. >> brody mullins has written a series on lawmakers overseas trips funded by taxpayers. >> next republican kevin mccarthy holds a town meeting. he represents the 22nd district and spoke on several issues earlier this week. >> thank you to coming to the town hall meeting. i am congressman kevin mccarthy. the district is quite big. it goes from land caster in los angeles county all the way up

to ridgecrest and all the way across. we actually touch water, but only two times a day during high tide because of how they draw the lines. i would like to call up angela to lead us in prayer. angela, come on up. you can stand if you want. >> our heavenly father, we thank you for the blessings you have given us, especially this great country where we can meet today as free citizens and freely express our thoughts. we ask that you give our elected represents strength, courage and wisdom to do the things that serve the people. most especially at this time we ask you protect the men and women who are putting their

lives at risk so we can enjoy the blessings of liberty that our forefathers envisioned for us. >> remain standing. i would like to invite brian whit field down to lead us in the pledge. brian. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and he justice for all. >> you can be seated. thank you for coming out tonight. i know it is a busy night. lots of graduations. there will be people joining us with with us.

tonight is a little different because we call it america speaking out. we want to bring greater accountibility to congress and empower the citizens across the united states. we can used 21st century technology to do that. i am going to show you part of that. i have just -- i appreciate. i feel each and every day you have given me the right to represent you. one of the most important things you do is to continue that. we do town hall meetings on a regular basis. i know the last one more than 3,000 people and all of the networks covered it live. in those four years in washington, each year i learned something new. first year i learned that we needed a lot more accountibility. the second year a lot more adult supervision. but this last two years what

has happened in washington reminds me of that old story. do you remember that story of the 85-year-old gentleman who has been married to his wife more than 55 years. he had a heart attack. wakes up in the hospital. he looks at his wife and said honey, you have always been there for me. when we first got married and i got fired miami job, you stayed with me. when i couldn't find a job and had to join the military, you joined the nurses corps. when we had children, you pretty much raised them. when i went back to start another small business that went bankrupt, you stayed with me. i wake up and you are right here. i am beginning to think that you are bad luck. the idea that there are a lot of places that cause pain. you put the blame someplace

else. that is why i like town hall meetings. i said tonight we will have differences of opinions. my wife judy is here and she has a lot of difference of opinion than i have. she expresses them to me daily. that is very productive. for me being able to represent you, i need to be able to hear. tonight when people give their opinion, let's be respectful. we may not agree but they have a right to express it and they have a right to explain it. i would like all of the information i can get. tonight i want to walk you through something new. as we progress i would like to bring up america speaking out. this is a new program that you can get on the internet. so, at any time you can come on and give an idea to congress. district. it does not matter how you are registered to vote or even if you are registered to vote. it is called america speaking

out. when you go to the page, you won't always see my face. that is just an opening video. but there will be different things. it tells you how to use it. where you can submit an idea. if you don't have an idea you can vote on somebody else's idea and actually debate ideas and find responses. it is from your own home. you go in and you log on. the next category if we can turn the page, you would find that there are about five different categories. inside there are other categories within. you would see american prosperity. you talk about debt, economy and others. fiscal responsibility, american values, national security and there is open mic. you can talk about anything you want. you go inside there and submit the idea and look at them and debate them. if you go on and look to the next slide, this is how easy

registration is. you would go in there and give your name. you create a password. all you do is that you do not give any party affiliation. you give your zip code. and you can pick your avatar. the first thing i realize is that they have no man with gray hair. i had to pick myself 20 years ago. if you go to the next slide, this is what you will find when you go into one of the topics. you have a thumbs up or thumbs down. if you look at the top, you can sort the ideas by whatever is the most recent, whatever has the most votes, from different ideas. anybody can sort it the way they would like. say you really liked it and expressed it. you can click on the little facebook symbol it would go directly to your facebook and you can send it to all of your friends on facebook.

if you are on twitter, hit the twittee sign. if someone goeses on there and puts something you find is disrespectful, the software tries tt take out any vulgar language. but there is a symbol at the beginning you can go in and say hey, there is a problem here. the idda is that we are protecting everybody as we go. if you go to the next slide, because we are in america, i always believe comp tigs is good. you get points for the more you participate. as you go through you will continue to get more badges. you can see who is participating more. now lots of times if you go to the next slide to truly make it in the 21st century you can have phone applications. not while you are driving, but maybe while you are walking. you can submit it directly from your phone. duever think of that? i always wanted to tell my member of congress that they should have done this. or you are watching tv and say

that would have been a better idea. right there on your phone. simple as possible. and that is a new approach. and that is what a parcel of what america speaking out is. to take 291st century, apply it to congress where it makes it more accountable and let the people have a greater voice. that is what part of tonight is as well. you will not always have town halls. there are lots of times i go back and forth each week. you don't have to wait. you can submit the idea. easy as can be. i want to talk about one topic and we will open it up and go through the town hall.3 concern no matter what issue we have across the table of what is happening in america, the amount of debt that we are accumulating. there are enough problems on either side of the i'll. it is something that we all have to understand. if you watch what transpired in

greece. if you watch what is happening in california. united states is on a path with the trajectory that is growing beyond any kind we had before outside of world war ii. what will happen if we ignore the problem, it can't be ignored forever. i personally believe within the next four years is the only time we have to address it. otherwise other people will make the decisions for us. there will be very few options and it will be very painful. let's walk through a little of what this slide will tell you. last week we went over $13 trillion of debt. part of that debt if you break it out, we have social security and others. if you break out who owns our debt, i always think that is very important. just like if you go to borrow to someone, you want the best terms. you want to have a good relationship with whoever you are borrowing money from because they have the leverage if you are borrowing money.

if you look here foreign holdings in 1970, total debt, just the debt by foreign was $283 billion in 1970. 5% held by foreign countries. when you went to 1990, our debt increased. up to $2.4 trillion. the holdings by foreign was 19%. in 2010 our total debt, this sent everything. it was $8.4 trillion with 47% of that being held by foreign holdings. who owns that debt? number one is china. they own 11% of our debt, over $877 billion. japan owns 9.7%.

u.k. owns 2.9%. a group of countries the oil exportors, 2.8. brazil owns % and all of the other countries combined own 18. you see growth well. i want you to walk back to another situation. the dollar was not always the world currency. prior to world war ii the pound was the world currency. there are a lot of reasons why the pound switched to the dollar. but there is also a story right after world war ii britain was in a situation. they spent a lot of money on the war. they had been in the battle longer than we had. their financial house was in disarray. they needed a loan. who were their best friends during the war? america. who did they shed blood and die with? america. they asked us for $5 billion for 0 interest.

that is not unusual in that time. we told them no. we went back and said we would lone you some money, $2.5 billion. but we had other concerns. a lot of the concerns were where they were in india and the idea of the dollar not being the world currency. there were other factors involved. but you have to accept other terms. why would we ever put ourselves in a position as americans to accept terms we would never want to accept. what happens when you get to a point where more than 50 prgs of your debt is owned by other countries, they will have a say whether you want them to or not. if you go to the next slide, these are current projections. there have been 44 administrations in the history of america. and i want to show you the growth of what is going to happen. i only say it is obama's

budget. he is the one who laid out the current budgets. they have a growth in here where if you look at the side of where the deficits are going to go and continue on. that means that ou already have the amount of debt that we have today, and you have to keep borrowing pretty much for as long as the eye can see. under this budget our debt will double in five years and triple in 10. think for one moment if you take from george washington the first 43 to george bush think of all of the debt that we added up. the creation of the country. we had to go through war. we had states that had to combine and become a nation. we went through a great depression. we went through a building of highways and water systems and airports. universities and other things. we went through a couple of

world wars. we went through vietnam, korea, katrina. if you combine all of that debt for everything we invested in, we will take all of that and for the first 43 and double it in five years. what are we doing? are we building new bridges? that is too fast accumulation of debt. if you go to the next slide this is based upon g.d.p., gross domestic product. it is the percentage of your debt. if you look, and where you see the beginning of the red line, that is 2010. that is where we are. you see the trajectory. if you go back to world war two, that is the highest that it ever was. why were we borrowing? we were building tanks and ships and airplanes. we were fight to save the world. were we not?

we knew once that ended you no longer needed that many ships or planes or that large of a military. so you noticed that it went down. what are we spending our debt on now? we are borrowing money, which i believe is to fund the continued wellfare state. there is no end in sight for that. that is why we have to have a serious discussion. the way that congress works, i believe, is backwards. you know how the budget system works in washington? committees get together to decide what they want and put the number together of what the budget needs to do. this is how much money we have. this much goes to saving. this much to college fund. we have to prioritize what we can. some things we will not be able to do. that is what we will have to do to fundamentally make a change.

there is probably nobody in the room that is somehow invested in the market. you are somehow invested in the market. invest inside the market to maintain. if you notice the market drop recently and drop based upon greece. greece could not go out to borrow money. the european union had to come in to bail them out. why? greece was over 100% of their g.d.p. there is an acronym they call pigs, portugal, ireland, italy, greece and spain. they are all in a financial crisis. they are very close to the breaking point. and if you look based upon g.d.p., if you put america in there and the protectory of where we are going, we are very close to where greece is to be. the i.m.f. came out to say in

2015 america will be where greece is. and it will actually be worse. the president put together a debt commission where there are people on both sides of the aisle. they recently had an communist in. he took the entire amount of debt from government and others for the united states. his percentage comes to 90% of g.d.p. his numbers come out and say when you hit 90% you lose 1% of growth. now think for a minute, 1% is not a lot. if america is protected to only grow at 3% you are losing a third of your entire percentage of growth. we are in the middle of a recession. you need job growth. so why i layout before we have our communication and our town hall, i wanted to give you

exactly where we are. i believe this is the biggest crisis in front of us, and we cannot ignore it. now, we are passionate people. we want to do a lot for everybody. i am going to tell you that it comes to a point that you can't do anything for anybody when you get to this high of debt. when i look back, judy and i have two kids. connor just turned 16. and megan who is 13. i did a little looking. i went back and said how big was the budget in 1994 when connor was born. entire budget was only $1.4 trillion. you know the deficit is of what we are going to borrow? we are borrowing in that short amount of time the amount of our entire budget. what more have we done in

government? what could we do to find a way to have savings. if i take $1 out how much of that dollar does the federal government borrow? 43 cents. now think of what the interest rate will be. in the short amount of time the interest rate grows as well. just the interest on the debt will be greater than anything we spend. so, as we move forward, if you have ideas on ways that we can save, i always go back to my first job. it was in quick and handy market. do you remember when we brought bottles back to get a refund? . .

>> who first went to be up? and who has some ideas? come on down. come on down. >> i want to us your opinion on the greatest threat to our entitlement, as far as the federal, state, and local unions. should we have an excise tax on refined fuels? should we pay for it as we usage -- as we use it?

[inaudible] accountability issue, but we need your help in terms of fiscal and financial responsibility. >> the pension issue is a tremendous issue. we made promises to a lot of people, and you're not going to be able to have it because we are underfunded. the other issue is energy independence. we have done a tremendous job of educating the country about where our money is going and who is spending it based upon our energy. if we could be energy independent, we would be stronger, because we would be invested in america. one type of technology will not get us there, because technology continues to change and improve.

we have great potential in the wind, solar and geothermal. we produced 10% of the entire oil in the nation. the idea that, if we are buying it from someplace else, from another country, are we finding our problems? how could we make an investment so that we can control our own destiny? that is the issue. let's go over here. >> [inaudible] >> is that gone? i do not think i hear it -- is that on it? i do not think i hear it. let's do this. you figure it out. we will go over here and come

back to the spirit -- come back to you. >> my name is jay. an oil tax? that is too big. you're looking for trouble. let the u.s. navy go in there and fix it. i think that the environment down in that area, people are starting to get sick.

in a security needs to be dealt with. -- internet security needs to be dealt with. we have a big problem with identity theft in this country. i guess that is it. >> thank you. different points. the difficulty with the oil is on two fronts right now. one, you have to cap it. second, we have known for about 40 days that this oil is coming to the coast. we have to be able to protect that. hurricanes are coming. this is where the government has faltered. i have a couple of friends who represent new orleans.

they have been working for quite some time to get waivers to put barriers in the ocean. that would give them protection. my friend was telling me a story where he has continued to talk to local and federal government. he called the president. it has not -- it has been a week and the president has not called him back. we cannot wait for action. a couple of different questions that you go through. i think when we look at this, we have to look at it a couple of different ways, much like any other crisis. we want to make sure that oil drilling is safe and that this never happens again. how much and how fast were

things approved without looking at the change in the diagram? where were the checks and balances? where are the protections as we go forward? is that other microphone working? >> i will give it another try. the first thing i would like you to answer is how to save some money. i took my granddaughter to the welfare office the other day. there are a lot of nice new cars down there with people getting welfare many people -- getting welfare money. they're going to get a load they can handle and they are going to be more selective in who they give money to. regarding the oil spill, let me go back about 40 years.

i worked for the telephone company in 1960. it was falling apart. they gathered up a whole bunch of technicians all over the united states. they had horror storiessto tell about how they would spend eight hours on hold not doing anything. these guys were not doing their job. with the oil spill, you have two people not doing their job. first is bp. you guys were nottdoing your job either. we are in a place where we have to make sure that everybody is doing the right job. the agencies have had a lot of close calls now, and it is because people are not doing their jobs. the fda says they have to recall a lot of things that are fatal.

that is scary. i have things written down, but i cannot seem to remember. >> we can just address where you have brought so far. >> no, let me get rid of this. [laughter] our government is at a point where it wants to do everything for us. they cannot do everything for us. let's take a seat belt. i think seatbelts are a good idea, i think a lot is a bad job. we ought to be able to take care of ourselves. motorcycle riders are getting all banged up and they did not have money to pay for it, so they made a lot about helmets. child seats are a good idea, but there does not need to be a lot. there is a woman they want to put in jail because of her child died in iraq and she did not have a car seat.

we kill 40,000 dogs and cats around here every year because people do not take care of them. we is to be able to immerse a leash to them and drag on them -- we used to be able to mercifully shoot them and drown them, but now you cannot do that. the government can. i have a long page. >> you know, in congress, we have a time limit. let's say three minutes. is that fair? >> one more thing. i would like to see you guys, democrats and republicans, take the same stance as the super bowl. there are no winners and losers. you guys are working for us. [applause]

>> alright, i will tell you this. the last thing you said, i agree with you. i thank you for giving your opinions, but i do not agree with some of them. if you ever come to d.c.,, office before. i want to make sure to give you a tour. assure you my favorite monument. -- i will show you my favorite monument. it is the stairs to the first floor of the chamber. why? because of the marble is worn out. whatever party or from, you must think of what has transpired there before. i love watching their every day, because it brings you back. if you come, i want to be able to show it to you. let's go over here. >> i have two things. one, i get really irritated when i go to vote and everything is

in several languages. you're supposed to be american. even if you come from somewhere else, you are supposed to know our language. we should be able to get through the ballot box. the other thing is, i have been disabled since 1993 from a workman's comp accident. i would love to be working. i am on ssi. everybody on ssi lost $100 per month last year. when you are on ssi and every penny you make, every dollar, it is bad enough that you cannot go back to work. you lose everything. we are already struggling so much.

there are other things, such as what is at the welfare. i am not against welfare. i had to do that when i was waiting on ssi. but sometimes it seems it is being taken to the wrong place. >> thank you for your comment. >> hi, my name is dennis. i have a very -- mining is -- my name is janice. i like very simple, straightforward ideas. i am also of animal lover. i believe in animal control. i am concerned about our presence and our borders. we spent $52,000 to incarcerate

our prisoners, to have a much better lifestyle than our veterans who i see here on the street. why don't you build the prisons in the desert east of where i live, in the mojave desert? i also heard that instead of all of the expensive guards protecting the perimeter, they put those lovely, as sweet dogs that are dangerous. it only cost $300 to feed them. it does not cost expensive dogs. you could also run some of those dogs along the border. it does not cost very much at all. all you have to do is feed the dogs. >> that is a good point.

animal control and prisons. one of the ideas that you bring up would be a state issue as well. one thing i would say regarding state prison reforms is health %+re. theeway state prisoners get health care is a fundamental difference from the way you and i get it. some of these issues are challenges for the court. they are court issues. next. >> thank you for holding this town hall? . >> is that mike on -- is that microphone on? >> i am running for city council in a local election. i would like to say that you are in at the leadership back in washington. this country is hurting.

i do not think the fallout from the finances and what is happening globally -- if we do not all put our shoulders together, we are going to lose this country that we love. if you can get down there after the elections and work together for the benefit of the country, because we all worked to put you there, whether we voted for you or not, we have to start working together to save this country. we are in bad shape. we do not have time to be fighting with each other. i am looking for you all to go back there and work together, put your differences aside and try to get something done for the people. >> i appreciate -- let me respond in case you have a difference of opinion. i do agree that i get frustrated that someone is going to

dislike an idea does because it comes from one side or the other. that is what america speaking out is for. there is one thing i did. it is a small thing, but i think over time it willlchange. when i got to congress, i discovered that even where you sat on the floor was based on what party you were in. i decided to have a gathering that i only invited freshman congressman to, because i did not want the others teaching us bad ideas. we were all about the same age, concerned about the same things. we realize there were a lot of things we might be similar in. we wanted to find ways we could

agree to do well for this country. we should be able to stand up and say that no bill should come to the floor that has not been out there 72 hours for the public to see it. [applause] >> thank you for having this town hall meeting. i would like to speak on the social security. it started in the 1930's. it has gone all the way to today, and it is pretty much bankrupt. next year, the people born after 1946 are going to get the benefits of social security. when they get in there, it is like a ponzi scheme. the people who are paying into the system are not going to be able to have the benefits because of the people now getting the benefit. it is a horrible problem.

i do not know what the answer is, but that by itself could bankrupt this whole country, this social security. i want to go back to the graph that you had. you guys spend and print money like mad. there is nothing behind it. i wish you would go back to a system where money has value instead of using a printing press. >> would use the social security is right. when social security firss started, there were 40 people working to pay for every one person. your life expectancy was less than when yyu started to receive it. the difficulty is that the numbers no longer pan out and we have to do something about it. there are now three people working to pay for everyone.

for the first time, about a year and a half ago, more money started going out of social security dan actually coming in. it depleted faster than they thought it would. that is a place where people are going to have to come together, not make it a partisan issue, because it does not matter who get social security, republicans and democrats have to have an honest debate and find a real solution. thank you for that. yes. >> i would like to ask you a question. where do you stand on arizona's le -- arizona's a lot? do you supported -- arizona's law? do you support it? >> i do support it, because it is not much different than what

the federal government has on the books. the kidnap capital of the country is arizona. drug cartels have a final -- have a funnel coming through. a rancher who would help the people coming across at the mortar -- come across the border got murdered. they cannot sit back and ignore a problem that they are having. they may need to have a debate, but they cannot sit back when they have a murder capital, and if it is only enforcing the laws that are already on the federal books, and the federal government will not do their job, we as a nation that has

been able to grow by immigration -- my family came here from the highlands. we have problems with immigration. people cannot get through the system rapidly and honestly. we have a lack of border protection. even during the time of the financial meltdown, people still invested in america. why? because we believe in the rule of law. we believe in treating people fairly. well, if we allow generations of people breaking the law to come here, it breaks down the country. we have to have an honest debate about this. if states have to act because the federal government will not, i do not blame the state for doing their job.

[applause] >> thank you, a congressman. i would like to support your idea of the tour, a second year marks, -- second,ear marks, third, the oil spill. i once went on a tour of mount vernon and my son got to lay a wreath. i can tell you from looking at the tomb that george washington was not baathist. -- was not a theist.

if you compare the declaration of independence to the 159 new agencies and the health-care bill, many progressives do not think the declaration of independence has anything to do with the constitution, but it needs a debate. on the oil company thing, i have a failed company that had an array of naturally occurring organisms, many of which are on your body as we speak, and we used them to do an array of things. we were successful at oil cleanup. we put in a proposal to the exxon valdez and the huntington beach oil spills. we did not have the resources, and we certainly could not work through the bureaucracy at the time. during dunton beat bill we have

the san walking helicopters -- during the huntington beach spill, we had the san joaquin helicopters spraying chemicals everywhere. ww could have taken care of it. your guys said no way, the bugs will mutate and spread. i was listening to marc levin today. he said the epa has changed all the rules against microbiology. a professor says that nature will take care of this in time. these buds would take care of the hole clean up, and right now

they desperately need it. i could not take care of it anymore, i do not have the supplies. i am just trying to find out if anyone is trying biological mediation. >> we have a lot of oil expertise working to clean it up. this is an unbelievable problem. i think, in a tough situation, we should learn from it. if you have ideas for how to clean it up, please provide them to me. i will make sure they get passed on to the correct a stories. -- the correct authorities. let's go over here. >> i will bring up something a product three years ago on the fourth of july. -- something i brought up three years ago on the fourth of july. if the government wants to get

back to being relevant, it must ensure justice, promote the general warfare -- general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. i have not seen much of either party that indicates that they understand that. if they do not understand that, maybe we ought to elect new people to congress. [applause] >> i appreciate your opinion. you definitely should hold people accountable. people choose to call their office however they do. -- to hold their office however they do. when we set up this website, people ask if we were using government money to create a way

for people to express their opinions to us? we said yes. they seemed to think that was wrong. only been -- only in washington would people think it was wrong to use government money to allow people to express their opinions to you. but you're a republican. yes, but people can come to this whatever they are. hi. >> thank you for this town hall, the telephone town hall, and america speaking out. as an american of mexican descent, and thank you for your support of enforcing current immigration laws, something we really need to put pressure on the federal government to do. any steps you can take to do

that are very powerful. i detest the racially charged rhetoric being used to describe arizona's law. i am a college sophomore, and it is really hard -- >> where do you go? >> i go to the university of redlands in southern california. it is really troublesome for people my age to get jobs. in california, minimum wage is $8 per hhur. it is hard for someone who is unskilled to actually have their labor valued at $8 per hour.

another problem is that our public schools do not provide the education necessary. i took the most advanced courses possible. i honestly felt that high school was more of the day care than anything else. our schools don't offer courses that actually teach us how to live our lives once we get out in the real world, and this is a major problem that is going to affect the generations to come. i think we need some aation to confront this problem now. is there anything that you can do in the next session, hopefully when republicans gained a majority, because this is of very pressing issue. >> it is a pressing issue. there was a study about republican leadership. this was before 2000. it said the greatest american

threat to america was an attack within our country. lo and behold, september 11th. they said that the second greatest threat was our lack of education. we are behind in math and science.+ i have two daughters. when our kids graduate, they are not going to be competing with your kids. they're going to be competing with india and china. this is a global economy. we need to be able to expand at -- expanded that to its largest point. i believe that accountability is important in education. my children had a lot of great teachers.

one help them ssudy for a chemistry final. that is going above and beyond. people are willing to help. we have an obligation to future generations to make sure our education system is the best, and we have to raise the bar. >> yes, before i begin, thank you very much for your national leadership in these difficult times. the national intelligence estimates say that china is our largest threat in the foreseeable future. do you support sending an f-22 fighter to japan? that is technology that we chose not to deploy.

china is going to launch their first manned mission to the moon next year. our space program has been affected by the deficit and budget cuts. china does not agree with the non-proliferation agreement in space. what is your position with regard to a draft if we need