i would say the kurdish -- the krg, the kurdish regional government, plays an important and positive role. i think they have the autonomy which has enabled them to create a region, that i think meets the aspirations of its >> to be able to live their lives free of oppression. when you traveled with the president and -- we were going over to many countries. he points out these sites where they met with the iraq the army over this difficult dictates. he can see the krg is in a much

better place and it has not even moved. when you look at the investments and the mall -- you should see the university there or the investments going on. the krg is done well. how do we address the issue of the internal about boundaries? these are overlapping claims. one sign does not -- it is hard to deal with the other side's claims. we need a long-term process. i think the people need to believe the rest of iraq is increasing democratic principles.

when you look at the history we are talking more about hope than history. what i do know is they krg leadership understands these issues very well and is a force for progress. we will continue to work with a krg. the u.s. has a special relationship with the kurdish people, but we have made it clear we see they krg as part of iraq. >> we had two related questions. they are both on line. do think they should intervene

and support partitioning iraq into ethnocentric regions or under one government? jaye says the same question. is there a solution or option? >> the letter was from beirut and the earlier was from an iraqi citizen. >> i love beirut, but the rest of the world cannot be like lebron -- like lebanon not all of their political solutions can be replicated. first of all, the notion of partition has been raised.

i don't think any person can support that. it would involve horrendous sacrifice. think any serious person is talking about that. i try to address the identity politics. i think those identities will evolve over time. we may have people who gain a greater sense of identity as a southerner as opposed to a portia -- as opposed to a shiite. people having a concept of being iraq key is also strong. people can have more than one identity. you see many hyphenated

americans. they have one identity sunday afternoon and the rest of that is they are american. that kind of thing can be managed. this government formation has taken a long time. i think the dutch still have the record on that. it is painful, but people don't need to start pulling out that the ideas. >> yes, sir. >> my name is jesse bernstein. i was pleased to hear your comments about [unintelligible] all lot of us were concerned about displacement of forced

christians. i wonder if you could talk about protection of religious minorities. i met with many refugees and they said they would never want to return. my second question is about u.s. affiliated iraq is. iraqis. affiliated i i wonder if you could talk about the steps u.s. is taking to improve processing. >> on the issue of the christian minorities, i had regular meetings with leaders of this christian minorities and i have been out to some of these towns,

including to see a monastery. these are ancient communities. the assyrians, for example. it has been difficult for christians during this time in iraq history. many were accused of somehow .upporting saddam hussein' when you talk to the leaders of these communities, one of the things they are concerned about is western countries have made room for iraq christian refugees, meaning they christian populations continue to be decimated by people trying to help. one of this christian leaders

told me you should refuse visas for them. even the days are perfectly legitimate programs. we will not refuse visas for those with eligibility. these are tough issues to manage. we have worked in the area to make sure you get local peace -- police will reflect local conditions. we are doing ok on that. when churches have been attacked reworked with the iraqi government. they have reacted well and in terms of providing protection. these problems are not government-inspired.

they come from other elements of the society. it has to do with the we need to stay engaged on this issues. i know ryan crocker did those sorts of things where you meet with the command of a to be helpful to -- meet with the community. i know we have backlogs. i have not heard it is a year. if you talk to people and refugee affairs they will say it is less. where't want a situation the affiliation with the americans -- we want to see

examples where people are being threatened for affiliations. we monitor these questions and there are many examples where people have been treated poorly. >> there is a related question. what steps is the government taking to ensure iraqi police have been trained? >> we have a robust training program. that is something we spent a lot of time to make sure civilians continues this training program. it is not just training police on the beat, but forensics.

police training is one of the major elements of the training transition. >> [inaudible] >> you mentioned that several times the need to convince american people iraq is a country and not a war. how concerned are you that people will not be willing to provide resources for a small scale going forward? this was an unpopular war. >> we work a lot with congressional staff with congressional members.

iraq was a difficult seven years. it was quite emotional when you look at thousands of americans killed and the concern the objectives has changed. that is why we went in there. you have to respect the person on the other side of the issue. you cannot just dismiss concerns as coming from those who are uninformed. we have gotten to the point where our programs are slimming down. even though there are different committees doing this, so the

state department made think the numbers are going up, but if they look at what the hit is, the numbers are coming down. we live in an era where we aren't doing this civilian ops, and it is time people took a holistic view of how to measure our engagement. if you consider it military operations and a civilian operations as apples and oranges, that is not the right way to look at it. i think the military has done a fabulous job of police training, but that has to be done by civilians.

want this situation where we have to keep tasks on the military side. the military has a couple of major deployments. we have about 178 other deployment. just all go to iraq and afghanistan we have major relationships. even the embassy. smith is a major relationship we have there. -- even the embassy paris. we need a first rate embassy in paris. we have to balance these.

it is not easy but we have talented people working with the congress, so i think we will figure it out because it makes sense. >> staying on the topic of the transition, we have a question asline on the use of prt's they draw down continues. there has been the auction for five embassy branch offices and there may be four. if you could tell us more about that? >> i thought this issue was very hush hush, but here we are discussing it.

to manage your relationship and iraq, you cannot just do it from one place in baghdad. in an ideal world he would like to in many areas. when you start costing these things out, there are not cheap. the issue is when you look at life sustainment. if you look at transport issues, it is not easy to put people back there. paulison this is the time after the agreement expires.

there cannot be any u.s. forces unless they are an illegal agreement. you have to assume there will not be u.s. troops. to take a provincial reconstruction team out of the military could can and try to -- out of the military cocoon. some of our people are transported courtesy of the military. do you want to have -- you don't really need them? you have to make some

assumptions about what the security situation is. you have to start -- before you know it you are into some big numbers. it is a lot of these things -- you have to work out what is the most crucial? can you handle issues through a more robust travel plan from the embassy? where do you need people stationed all year long? you come up with -- i bet the usip building was twice as large as the one finally built. what i can tell you is what ever finally emerges in our

footprint -- we have informed the iraq a government on this. i can assure you we will have a footprint where we will have the right people in the right place. it will be commensurate and consistent with our country's objectives. >> there are some in iraq when they look at their history of conflict when it comes to cultural, wonder if the current system of government will work. they fear that the government may be weak and unstable.

are these fears justified? what can be done to ensure it this is effective? >> iraqis are used to strong government, but fear it as well. the alternative is strong government is weak government. i am convinced that democracy is the best form of government because it is difficult but better than the others. i don't see any other model for iraq. if did that this is difficult, let's go back to mass murder -- it is tough to keep that a little.

the notion you can go to some other model and said it will be authoritarian some -- i think they have the right system. the issue is to try to make it work. obviously it will be difficult, i am sure people will look back at this time and there will be lessons learned. i don't panic about this. people need to stay calm and it is hard to do when its 120 degrees out. we just have to get through this. as for what iraq had in the past, if you look at their past

there is not a lot of inspiration for good governance. >> [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] whoever becomes the next prime minister in iraq will ensure [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

[unintelligible] thank you. >> iran, did you said? it is not up to us and it is not up to iran. it is up to the iraq news how long they want mr. maliki tuesday. the other question is interesting because it goes to the question of term limits. we have had this issue come up about term limits. he worried about issues like corruption, so should you have

term limits? a lot of countries have term limits. we did not have them until after world war ii. it would not surprise me if the iraq people had a debate. because of this feared that you mentioned. it in hell governance is done in the region. sure that is necessarily good for any country. what did you do? people need to look at it. running iraq is not for amateurs. it is a complicated matter, so

you cannot just say you will have six months and as you go. you need some more professionalism. the concern that the government stay is something the iraqi people ought to have a discussion about. i say this to the point where i believe myself, but iraq is unique and its problems are not unique. this notion that iraq discovered term limits and no one has contemplated that is wrong. there are a lot of problems all over the world in the iraq can learn from how other countries have dealt with it. i note it is obvious, but it

needs to be restated. >> there are representatives from embassies here and overseas questions. it relates to the iran issue. does the lack of respect for iraqi sovereignty posed a threat to a newly formed government? >> lack of respect for iraq's sovereignty? does that pose a threat to a newly formed government? the latest one -- how do you do coordination among allies? this talks about engagement and the next phase.

[unintelligible] is the u.s. working with other countries to making sure [unintelligible] >> on iran, there is more talk about this in washington than baghdad. iraq is -- i don't care who you are, you don't plan to sell your country. i heard a lot of people described as pro-iran and. i really think there is a lot of exaggeration in the degree to which there are iraq is looking to sell the country's interest. what is not exaggerated is the degree to which i ran inside

engaged in mischief and iraq and the fact that some of these extremist groups get equipment from iraq is a fact. a rocket that landed in my yard a few months ago -- it had iran markings on it. if i were the iran hinske and i thought to myself, what ever we do will not determine that country's fate. it will be determined by its own people. i would be looking to build a good relationship overcoming one of the most horrific war is in the 20th century.

i would do a much better job of looking at what my long-term interests are. iran cause long-term interests are not served by allowing rockets to come over the border. i think iranians have acted recklessly for these activities. when i look at their efforts to affect the political situation, they have not been very successful. iran made it clear they oppose open less. iranians made clear they did not want to see opened lists.

they wanted all shiites together to turn this has been to shi'a curses cine issue. -- vs sunni issue. there are statutes for [unintelligible] but the i iranians clearly engaged in trying to hit did not work -- it did not work. they have tried to put their weight behind various candidates. they have invited all the shia parties and a kurdish party is

to have a government in to run. when you look at how influential they are, i would be careful with the notion that they call the shots. even iraq says who want to have a good relationship with this neighbor -- i would be careful that those people are doing iran's work for them, they are not. i would take a deep breath and look at what my long-term interests are. >> [inaudible] his are really good ideas. we have been pleased with the

nato countries that have been interested to help the iraqi army. i want to emphasize terrorism and a dictatorship, we know about those. isolation has been a serious problem. polls have been there as part of it. we have seen meet danish involved, the french have been interested. i look to see more of this. what is most gratifying is to say iraq is more understood to be the important player that it is. it is not just a u.s. issue.

i went to the convocation of the swedish embassy attended by the swedish foreign minister. it was a pretty serious and to say. the swedes are talking about doing other things in northern iraq. the more european countries get involved, the better. >> [inaudible] >> yes. >> you gave us an optimistic scenario. >> here i always do. >> do you see on the horizon any

[inaudible] >> [inaudible] the car or the president? [laughter] not to bring down the optimism, i would like to see more iraq is engaged in the political process. seven years into their democracy, one would have liked to have seen some new faces and yet there are not a lot of new faces. i think it is important for young people to understand this

is their country and they have a great opportunity to build a new state. when i have gone to some universities i don't hear the iraqi kids talking about sunni or portia. most of them asked if their energy -- engineering degree would be good enough when exxon mobile comes? i hope that democracy will spawn an interest in political activity. it is encouraging the government went ahead with an ngo law. in many of these democracies, -- protoplasm of

democratic structures. in the middle east sometimes those have not than positive structures. with this law and i see it as very positive. i hope we will see these political parties get some fresh blood. maybe you will say some great leaders emerge. it is easy to be critical of the current crop of leaders. you can't complain they spend too much time out of the country. this is easy to criticize find a lot of these guys risk their lives they take a lot of

criticism. it is not an easy job and somehow i do believe they country is going in the right direction. we need to have the iraqis blazing the trail. it is easy to be critical, but we ought to cut them some slack and encourage a new generation of leaders. >> the last question will be here. i have two online.

>> i am a grad student at texas a&m university. my question is how about nato members in iraq. turkey is pursuing a more assertive foreign policy. what affect will this have on the development of a new government in iraq? >> turkey has a great interest in how iraq develops. they are inviting leaders and are engaged. from u.s. policy perspective, turkey is a positive influence. economicurkey's investments and it is

positive. i don't think more of a regional interest means less of a western aspiration. we are very much engaged with the turks on these issues. i know the secretary clinton talks to the [unintelligible] i talk to the turkish ambassador a lot. we have a good ally in iraq. they have a history there. is amazing when you talk about the turks and won some iraqis might be critical about what they have done in terms of

engagement with the parties. when you look at the history of the ottoman empire, you see the complexity. if it is always difficult. but we have a great relationship with turkey. >> at the beginning of the occupation, one of a primary focus this was to remake the economy into a free market. what will be its legacy? >> i would not call iraq a socialist economy. in some respects it is a race between dissipation and rise of the private sector. i think the private sector is

winning. it is going in the right direction. you stub your toe a lot on it. i avoid wide sweeps of socialist versus capitalist. i would rather talk about the direction it's going. >> the last question is, what is the extent of the optimism for the deployment? is he more or less optimistic? >> first you get there and you said this is not so bad, and then you get to know more people and you start understanding the

dimensions of the problem and they go into a view nothing will get better. then you figure it out and sort out what the issues are verses what issues will take more time. then you finally leave and you look back and say, i think they will make it. it is usually because you cannot see the alternative to making it. iraq is in no danger of being a failed state. they have been through the toughest time, so i have an optimistic sense they know what

they need to do. i am not sure us telling them what they need to do will get them to do it. i think the iraqi people need to be consistent they get some things done. you are seeing some pressure building, but there was an interesting piece over the weekend about american clocks and a sometimes i don't understand the stuff he writes. it will not be done in our time schedule. it will never be when you want it.

i made the point the other day, if this is instant gratification, you better look elsewhere. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the funeral for senator ted stevens. we will hear from vice-president biden and mitch mcconnell.

then president obama in ohio on the economy. later, in a report on big companies and health-care costs. congressional budget office director will give an update tomorrow on the federal budget and the latest economic numbers. live coverage begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern. now they funeral service for senator ted stevens. he died in a plane crash last week in his home state. this is a one hour portion of the service. >> as we begin i suggest we

pause to be mindful in our thoughts and prayers of those who died along with the senator and for those who are recovering now. i have only one point i would like to make concerning senator ted stevens. that is to say that senator stevens of was a man of god. there are certain circles that would find it surprising to put god and a politician in the same sense, however, think about it.

what each of our senators are challenged to is to love those whom they serve. andy -- and if we think of the words of st. john the baptist who wrote one of the letters of the new testament, he said a pattern for linking the love of guide with the loved -- love of god with love of neighbor. if you cannot love your neighbor you cannot love god./

the two are inseparable. the two are mutually demanded. if we could borrow in line from one of the ancient broadway play if they both go together. you cannot have one without the other. that is where the life of senator stevens takes a special note. he understood that and he lived it. he realized his work in the senate was not going to be measured by appropriations and

gets -- gifts and earmarks. rather, what he wanted for himself was to be known as one who loved his people. he served them, but also loved them. that is why i say he is a man of god, because he loved his neighbor and love the guy. that is the essence of the message of jesus christ. in the book of wisdom there are a number of things that are said that are appropriate. the souls of the just will not

suffer torment, for the foolish, they seem to be dead, they see passion as an affliction and even utter destruction, but they soals of the just are at peace. they hope of the dead is filled with immortality, but cannot found them worth a -- found them worthy. as a sacrificial offering, he took sufferings to himself. the faithful will abide in him.

the book of revelation is an echo of the old testament. as john wrote, i heard a voice from heaven. blessed are those who die in the lord and the spirit response, yes, they will rest from their labors because their works go with them. ted showed his love for god and his neighbor. we have no hesitancy in trusting him to almighty god. i would like to add one little note.

it might be called a spiritual lobbying. we know that the lord will have no hesitancy in welcoming ted as one of his own. but we do hope the lord finesse a building big enough to accommodate all the good works that will go with him korea the other pointed it is i am not sure how this fits, but if we could imagine that in heaven they work through committees -- [laughter] than all alaskans would be

asking that got put ted on the appropriations committee. [laughter] [applause] ted, on behalf of everyone here, i say to you not only do we love you, but we saw they love in new in your work and relationships with people. because of that, the lord will extend his arms of welcome to you and it will be an hour. that we will be able to go to the lord with the same confidence as we see extended by the lord.

>> the hon. lee summer caskey -- lisa murkowsly reading a legacy of dreams. >> alaska has lost a giant. we are gathering together to remember and celebrate all that ted stevens was to sell many of us. when we learned of the tragic accident all across the state

people gathered together to share stories of ted stevens. they were watching reruns of c- span when ted delivered his tribute to the senate. we have seen the big banners that express thanks to ted from across their community. i was flying from fairbanks a few days ago and the flight attendant came over the intercom and gave a must beautiful in prompted of tribute to ted stevens to all those of us assembled on that flight. just last evening thousands of alaskans lined the streets in

the rain to stand with signs paying tribute to our senator. these alaskans were not just out to patriots or show respect -- just to pay tribute. alaskans are out to express the honor for the man and truly the love for ted stevens. ted was alaska. he just was alaska. he will be remembered for all that he bilked going as far back -- all that ye built.

whether it had to do with fisheries, telecommunication, the military, all he has done to build our state. these are all legendary, but his legacy rests not just with the infrastructure, but really that legacy rests with the lives that he touched. all those thousands of lives he touched over the years. we all have our ted stories. something it was nothing more than i shook his hand in the airport. he was famous for his handwritten notes expressing a condolence, congratulations.

ted had a passion for this land and the people he represented he treated them as neighbors. he treated them as friends. that was returned. he helped raise so many young alaskans. he would seek talent in a young person and would encourage that. as so many who are gathered here to have been touched by the life of ted stevens, that will continue for decades to come. it was through his example through the life he lived that he taught us about trust and

loyalty. he taught us about the tenacity and commitment, never giving up. he taught us about faith in god and in prayer, and love for our country at all times. ted did so many the wings to fly. we see that in our state bailie. -- course date daily. three weeks ago we were gathered in our church and the question was asked, what are you looking forward to? he said to spending that time with the grandkids, giving them those wings to fly. as important as ted stevens is

to alaska's history, he was all about alaskas future. the legacy of dreams and confidence he left alaskans surrounds all of us. to the family, to catherine , we thank you for sharing this extraordinary man with each of us. . of alaska and everywhere, we thank you and we love you, uncle ted. i had been passed by the family to read a column entitled "to all legacy of the dreams." -- " a legacy of the dreams."

i would leave a legacy of dreams to. the generation gap, igniting a fire in the youth and old alike. only the eternal flame spirit to light a path of change. i would leave a legacy of dreams that breed the best, a stalwart race of many free and fresh and kenya as the great north land, creating magic from the natural i would leave a legacy of dreams, sculpture a round of courtesy and respect, of all julie in undoing, pride in of horsemanship, -- a joy in doing,

and a pride in workmanship. we would share in peace and amity, shunning the urge to do another in. i would leave a legacy of dreams for all to see beyond the bottom line of and now to where greener grass is grossest brightly for tomorrow. i would leave a legacy of dreams. >> would you sing with us, please? ♪

faith of our fathers in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword all of our hard to beat with a two -- hearts beat with joy faith of our fathers we will be true to thee til daed faith of our fathers

we will strive to win all nations unto to thee and from the truth that comes from god we all shall then be truly free day of our fathers -- fate of our fathers holy name -- faith of our father's holy name a♪

♪ faith of our father's holy name we will be true to thee til dead >> thank you. please, be seated. our scripture reading today is psalm 1:21. i will lift up my eyes to the hills from which, it might he -- which cometh my health. the lord is thy keeper.

the sun shall not smite thee by da oy or night the lord shall preserve thy coming out and going in from this time forward and even for ever more. the lord blessed the reading of his award. we would like for our special guest speakers to be escorted to the platform.

>> ladies and a gentleman, we are honored here in alaska. senator ted stevens is honored today to have the presence of joe biden. >> thank you for the welcome. i am the one that is honored. i am honored to be asked to say a few words.

i must pinch myself to understand i am privileged to speak on the floor of the u.s. senate. i could never have even dreamed of being here today. home is where the heart is, mr. president. if that is so, i have two homes. one is right here in this chamber. the other is in my beloved state of alaska. i must leave one to return to the other. susan, beth, walter, attended junior -- ted junior, nothing describe your father bet your then that statement he made from the floor of the united states senate. your dad used to kid me about the fact that my quote a lot of irish poet. i do that because they are the best poets.

your dad had a lot in common with one of the irish poet that i quoted for a long time, james joyce. he once said "when i die, dublin will be written in my heart." i have no doubt in my mind that alaska is written in ted's heart. his heart is big enough that along with alaska and his six children and 11 grandchildren will be written across that heart. he never had to wonder what was in his heart. it was obvious to everyone who knew him.

it was obvious to me when i was elected into the senate. i said before to my colleagues in the senate. i see so many loyal friends to ted that are out there that listened to him. i might add a significant portion of the money that belongs in delaware, new york, and a georgia reside right here in alaska. [applause] by would like -- i would like to say we did willingly -- it willingly. i served with ted for 37 years. we all immediately knew what was in his heart. i have said it before.

every man or woman that comes to the united states senate brings with them a piece of their state, and everyone who goes there brings something of a piece of their state. ted stevens, unlike any other man or woman with whom i served, was in his state from the eerily silent of the tundra to the mountains piercing the sky to fierce independence combined with the strong sense of community all of you alaskans have. if these things more than describe alaska. they define a way of of life -- way of life. no one has had a bigger defender

and ted stevens. he took incredible pride in this place. you took great pride in ted as well and with good reason. from the ballard he demonstrated in world war ii to his love and devotion to his family, there was one thing you could always be absolutely certain of that everyone in this church knows. you could always count on ted stevens. whatever ted stevens said, whatever ted stevens -- when ever ted stevens gave you his hand, you could absolutely bet your life on the fact that he would keep the commitment.

everyone in this church also knows that ted's friendship and support was not bound by ideology. it had no bounds, none whatsoever. when i came to the senate in 1973, i was 100 out of 100 in seniority, just having gone through an accident where i lost my wife and daughter. to many of my colleagues -- many of my colleagues offered help to get me through this time. very few, and i can count on one hand, offered as warm as an embrace as the senator who walked across the floor of the senate to my corner desk, extended his hand and said it swiss " i want to get to know you, ann and i want you to come

to dinner." we actually come out -- went o ut. ted was part of a close-knit senate family. that family took me in to their family. i met ted daughter when sh-- in 1973. they used to have dinner at one another's homes. they insisted that this 30-year- old would where -- widower become part of that family.

they were a life preserver. they were there for me in 1973. we were all there for ted in 1978 when he lost ann. they were there for both of us will me began to rebuild our lives. i used to kid said that no man deserves one great love of their life, let alone two. and i share that distinction. -- he and i shared that distinction. in the early days, we used to have birthdays together in the senate dining room. ted and i were bonded over

shared similar tragedies and celebrated life's greatest joys together. there are a lot of stories about his power and prowess. one single strand i saw go through everything ted did. that was his word was his bond. his personal generosity was surprising in how quickly it was offered. one thing i love the most about ted is the pride he took in his family, and the people and places and things he loved the most. ted jr., we are flying over the bering strait with your dad in

the helicopter, he was pointing everything out. he whips out his mustang suit and a photograph that was up five by seven. it is a picture of a guy you could hardly make out a stand on the deck of a boat that like it was about to sink with lobster claws. it was full of ice. it looks like it was going to sink. he said, "that's my ted. that's what he does." i was telling my wiffe -- -- liy

just got a master's degree from the university of pennsylvania. she graduated with a 3.93. i called him and told him. i said, and no biden has ever done that well." he said, "we have." one of the mastermeasures i appo true frontier is whether your friends is willing to share with your the things he or she values must. ted was a true friend. he shared with all of those who called him a friend all those things he valued. ted stevens probably and

unapologetically did everything he could do to improve the lives of the citizens of his beloved alaska. in return, he is going to live on in the state's history, not only as a man who literally helped create this state, but the man who also built it into the great ate has the,. your state legislature was absolutely right in naming him the alaskan of the century. i know of no united states senator who was ever been given such an honor. i think no habitat beyond being a father and husband made more prop -- made tadmor proud. for its time back in the interior department when his

office door said alaska headquarters to actually writing the alaska state act that president eisenhower signed in 1958, ted stevens was alaska. maybe that is why his closest friends in the senate is a man you are about to hear from. he is this -- he has a similar backgrnd. they both got their estates into the union. if ted had been japanese, they would have been brothers. war heroes, incredible similarities. incredible similarities. ladies and gentlemen, inhe summer of 1899, edward henry

harriman assembled a crew of 125 high-profile writers, artists, and scientist aboard a ship. their mission was to survey the alaskan coast. one of the men on board that ship was probablyhe second most important person in alaska history. he was one of the first to put the majesty of alaska into words and to pce it in america's consciousness. i would like to share something that he wrote to and that i find especially fitting today. "a few minutes ago, every tree was excited, about an to the roaring storm, tossing the branches and glorious enthusiasm like worship. the to the outer ear, that these trees are now silent, their

songs will never cease. the glorious enthusiasm of ted stevens may have gone silent to our adherent -- our culture year, but for all of us, especially with this crowd of a beautiful state, his song will never cease. my prayer to you, catherine, and the entire stephens family, is that his memory will soon bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. i pray that number will come sooner than later. from experience, i guarantee you that it will come. the people of alaska, i can say with absolute certainty without fear of contradiction, we shall not look upon his like again.

i was proud to be his friend. >> thank you, mr. vice president. ladies and gentlemen, the honorable mitch mcconnell, minority leader of the united states senate, from kentucky. thank you for coming today. >> catherine, then, susan, bath, -- beth, walter, ted, lily, members of this magnificent stephens family, the

vice-president, reverend clergy, senate colleagues, distinguished guests and friends, last week, american said goodbye to one of its great men. d stevens was respected and revered in washington and throughout the lower 48 for his service to this country and as many legislative achievements and his legendary and gritgrit. ted colleagues in the senate lost a dear friend and yes, even sometimes feared. it is obvious to everyone that the people of alaska lost

something even more. one of the things you learn when you come here for the first time is that despite its size, alaska is a very small place. people know each other. everyone, everyone knew ted stevens. he is an omnipresent reality. from t airport here in anchorage to the remotest villages, atnds contribution to alaska are as fast as the state itself. it is hard to imagine that any e man ever meant more than any one state then ted stevens. of course, it did not have to be that way.

once he's been the a little time in washington, tune noticed that some senators with a double . they can play one role in washington and another bk in their home states. they can use their job in the senate as a platform to reach a national audience beyond their own constituents back home. and for four decades, ted stevens was a living, breathing antithesis to that approach. in his view, if it was not good forlaska, it was not good, period. [laughter] as a young man, netiquette baltic it that 49 star on the

flag. -- ted all tickets at 49th star on the plight. he helped transform alaska into a modern state. he came to washington with a mission and he was faithful to that mission to the end. and every alaskan here and across the state should know that ted stevens devoted every day of his life, not to the promotion of himself, but to you. it took a lot of effort, but ted was clearly the right man for the job. former chiefs of staff remembers being taken a back on his first trip to alaska with ted. when he showed up at ted's house to pick them up at 6:00 in the morning, he learned that had

had arctic on to the briefing book he had been given the night before, read all the daily papers, and had already been on the phone to washington for a couple of hours. by the end of the trip, he said he needed a vacation for billing for two wks what ted stevens had been ing for 39 years. ted would say that he worked so hard because there was always so much work to do. alaskans did not have the benefit of centuries of infrastructure and development. and he did everything he could to make sure the rest of his colleagues knew about it, first hand. most lawmakers in washington, when you meet them for the first time, they might invite you to join them for dinner somewhere around town. ted stevens invited you to alaska. he wanted us to appreciate the unique challenges that people who lived here face every day

in and every day out. and i can assure you -- turning down an invitation to alaska from ted svens was not recommended. [laughter] in ft, an entire generation of federal officials and lawmakers trekked . ted stevens -- trekked up here to ted stevens' invitation. they were impressed by the magnificence of the scenery and just how much of alaska as progress is the direct result of this remarkable man. he poured himself into this place, treating it like one of his children. and to the people of alaska, i assure you, uncle ted.

whatever it took to make sure that your concerns were known and that -- uncle ted did whatever it took to make sure that your concerns were known and met. it was a privilege discern -- to serve alongside him in the senate. we missed him for the past two years and we agreed with -- ive with the stevens family. his legacy will last as long as the flag is flown.

>> thank you, senator mcconnell. ladies and gentlemen, i am happy to present to you the honorable daniel k. in a way -- inouye. he is the senator from hawaii. >> my dear friends, we arrived in ancrage last evening after a six-hour journey from allied -- all white. i must say that it was a sad journey. the plane was quiet.

believe it or not, no one drank. there were no movies. just whispers. because we for all: to anchorage -- we were all going to anchorage to say goodbye to a friend. yes, this is a time of mor urning. we mourn for katherine who lost her husband, a great man, a great companion. we mourn for your children who got all love you dearly, he stood up for you time and time again, bravely, to protect un defend you. yes, he was a big bother, a good

father. father, a goodt father. he told me once, he was glad that i was a grandfather. he was the old as grandfather in the not a state senate. [laughter] he said that he was looking for to several more. so, girls -- [laughter] keep in mind. this is a time of mourning, but it is also a time of reflection and celebration. many words have been spoken, printed, written about t. they have reminded us of that

tragic year, 1978, when he lost his beloved ann. when i saw him, he said why ann and not me? he waseady to give up t he realized he had a duty to carry out. so he stuck on. thank god. that has reminded us -- when we all knew it, he was not guilty and he was vindicated, cleared of all charges. [applause]

well, much has been said about his going to harvard, becoming a lawye, and he served in california. i like to share with you a few personal footnotes. i do not kno if you remember this, but ted was sworn and of december 24, 1978. christmas eve. he was a christmas gift to alaska. [laughter] in many ways, he was. i call them up and said, let's get togeer. and we did.

and we sensed that we had many things in common. we served in world war ii, halfway ound the world. he loved veterans, he loved the military. then we re representing territories which were appendages to the nation. we were the forgotten people. did you know that it was cheaper to call tokyo from honolulu? it was cheer to call beijing from anchorage? yes, we were considered not only foreign.

we did something about it. [laughter] [applause] thenne day, he called me up and said, i want to see you. so i got to his office. and he said, there is a lot of oil improve obey -- in prudhoe bay. we have to figure out a way to get it down here so we can sell it. i said, how do you propose to do it? he said, i am going to build a pipeline. i said, you are nuts. [laughter] you know what happened? when the oil began flowing through the pipe, it gave off

friction. if he did that area, the snow melted, grass grew 12 months a year, the elk came by to eat, and they loved it. and now the elfl flock is five times what it was before the pipeline. for some reason, he always invited me to go on his congressional delegations to other parts ofhe world. but he always picked those that somehow members sort of round upon. they could not take their wives, there were no shopping places, anything like that. for example, we were one of the

first ones to go to afghanistan and iraq. it was so early, we stayed in tents. when we got there, it was dark -- no lights. this was a combat zone. and so i inquired, like all men should, where is the men's room? we are in a tent. and so the colonel said, go down here, turn right, turn left, turn right, and turn right. and it was about two city blocks. [laughter] i let it ted and said, what are you going to do? [laughter] well, you got the answer.

[laughter] as the vice president and senator mitch indicated, his work was good. his word was absolutely dead. you could take it to a bank. -- his word was absolutely good. you could take it to a bank. and he was also a tenacious he called me one day and said, i want you to come to alaska and see the natives. which we did. and as a result of that trip to gather -- to gather, wheat conjured up all kinds of things, not just schools and hospitals and clinics and roads, but other things. for example, at that time if you lived out in the village, there

were no roads, and you could not fly in. but the village usually had a nurse. they needed a way to communicate somehow. ted and i began this high-tech business, it was from that trip. now it is commonplace all over the place. ted was that type of person but soon after the vietnam war, when the country was divided, with soldiers returning from the front who literally had to sneak in at night because there were no welcoming bands and parades.

the country responded by saying, from now on we will have only volunteers, no drafts. and ted said, if a man or woman is willing to put on the uniform and stand in harm's way and risked death to defend me, to protect me, i am going to do everything possible to be of help so that they can come home to their loved ones, to their wives, their sweethearts, to their sons and daughters. and i hope you will join me. that is the kind of fellow he was. the veterans of america -- [applause] the veterans of america, the

military family of america, lost a good friend. but there are many of us here who will do our damnedest t carry on his work. i have so many things in my heart i would like to share with you, but as a result of our relationship and trust, friendship, me -- we will make the word bipartisan become real. real. and as you look around here among his colleagues, former colleagues, you will see a lot of democrats. the vice-presidt is democratic.

yes. [laughter] [applause] no, unlike this audience. -- you know, i like this audien. yo understand doubletalk. [laughter] as a result of this friendship, we came across this legislative process that we call congressional initiative. for those who want to be negative about it, they call it earmarks. ted was the grandfather of earmarks. [laughter] and you can thank him for that.

[applause] on march 9, 2005 ted gave an interview to the vfw, and this is what he had to say. i would like to close with these words. and i quote, as a young boy growing up in california, my dream was to become a pilot. during world war ii, that dream became true when i flew in the army air corps and supported the air force in china. those of us who served in world war ii have been called the greatest generation. those of us who answered the call to service to what we call it the work on war -- the forgotten war, there are a few of us left.

but as we see the heroism and reverie of those who served in our armed forces today, we know that they are truly our greatest generation. it takes an extraordinary person to do the job asked of the men and women in the military today. the world is a dangerous place, and this ia newra with new thats and determined enemies. our men and women in uniform preserve our freedom abroad. as a veteran, i salute them. this nation owes a great debt to them. and to every american who has served. farewell, friend. we will never forget you. [applause]

♪ [instrumental [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the funeral for ted stevens temple church. the alaska senator was named to the senate in 1968 and spent 40 years in office, becoming the largest serving republican senator in history. you is 86 behalf -- president

obama traveled to ohio and talked about the jobs. that is spent on c-span. then a report says the companies expect their health-care costs to rise into bedlam. the countries on the right track despite political challenges. on tomorrow morning's "washington journal." we will talk about the cost of the federal government. then they g - a look at drug abuse. after that, former chief accountant for the sec will talk about what the new financial

regulations bill could mean for investors. later, a hearing on the bp oil spill examines the safety of cp -- safety of seafood from the gulf of mexico. president obama answer questions on the number of topics earlier during a backyard gathering in columbus ohio. this to a place at a home of ohio and it is that own a small architectural firm. this is about an hour. >> gret tat to see you.

>> i am just thrilled to be here. i want to thank you for being such great hosts. i see the mayor of columbus is here, a great friend. somebody who's going to be running and i hope winning for the u.s. senate, lee fisher is here. and mary jo kilroy is here. we've got one of the best senators i believe in the united states senate in sherrod brown -- is here. and one of the finest governors in the country, ted strickland, is here. so give those folks a big round of applause. should we tell them to take off their jackets, too? take off your jackets, guys.

lighten up a little bit. sheesh! this is just a great opportunity for me to have a conversation with you. and i don't want this to be too formal. what i want to do is have a chance to listen to you and also answer your questions. what we've tried to do whenever we are in a setting like this is to talk about the things that folks are going through day to day -- because, look, i'll be honest with you, sometimes when you're in washington you get caught up with the particular legislative battles or the media spin on certain issues, and sometimes you lose touch in terms of what folks are talking about around the kitchen table.

one of the ways that i stay in touch is through events like this, as well as reading letters from constituents and voters all across the country every night. and obviously what's on a lot of people's minds right now is the economy. we went through the worst recession that we've had since the great depression. and when i was sworn in about 18 months ago, we had already lost several million jobs and we were about to lose several million more. we lost 800,000 jobs the month i was sworn in. and so we had to act fast and take some emergency steps to prevent the economy from going back into what could have been a great depression. we stabilized the economy; we stabilized the financial system. we didn't have a complete

meltdown. and whereas we were losing jobs in the private sector when i was first sworn in, we're now gaining jobs, and we've gained jobs seven consecutive months in the private sector. the economy was shrinking about 6 %; the economy is now growing. so we've made progress. but let's face it, the progress hasn't been fast enough. and joe, rhonda and i were just talking about the challenges that they've had to go through when rhonda got laid off -- and, by the way, also lost her health insurance in the process, at a time when her son was going through some significant medical needs. so, in addition to trying to stop the crisis, what we also wanted to do was make sure that we were helping people get back on their feet. so something that i'm very pleased with is that rhonda was able to use the provisions that we passed to help her get cobra so that she had health insurance, could keep her health insurance, at a time when the family was very much in need. and millions of people across the country have been able to keep their health insurance. we've also been trying to help our state and local governments

so that they're not having to lay off as many teachers and firefighters and police officers, and i know that -- i think the mayor and the governor would acknowledge that the help that we provided them has really helped to plug some big budget holes. and, in addition, what we've been trying to do is to build infrastructure that puts people back to work but also improves the quality of life in communities like columbus. so joe is an architect and he's now working on a new police station that was funded in part with recovery act funds. so all these things have made a difference. but we still have got a long way to go. and so a couple of things that we're focused on right now is, number one, making sure that small businesses are getting help, because small businesses like joe's architectural firm are really the key to our

economy. they create two out of every three jobs. and so we want to make sure that they're getting financing. we want to make sure that we are cutting their taxes in certain key areas. one of the things that we've done, for example, is propose that we eliminate capital gains taxes on small businesses so that when they're starting up and they don't have a lot of cash flow, that's exactly the time when they should get a break and they should get some help. we're focusing, as well, on trying to figure out can we build more infrastructure here in ohio and all across the country that puts people back to work, not just building roads and bridges, but also building things like high-speed rail, or building broadband lines that could connect communities and give people access to the internet at a time when that's going to be critical in terms of long-term economic development. we're also going to have to look at how do we, over the long term, get control of our deficit.

something obviously that a lot of people have on their minds. the key is to make sure that we do so in a way that doesn't impede recovery, but rather gives people confidence over the medium and the long term. and i'm going to be happy to talk about what we're doing in terms of spending. but overall, the main message that i want to deliver before i start taking questions -- and i said this to joe and rhonda -- is slowly, but surely, we are moving in the right direction. we're on the right track. the economy is getting stronger, but it really suffered a big trauma. and we're not going to get all 8 million jobs that were lost back overnight. it's going to take some time. and businesses are still trying to get more confident out there before they start hiring. and people -- consumers -- are not going to start spending until they feel a little more confident that the economy is

getting stronger. and so what we're trying to do is create sort of a virtuous cycle where people start feeling better and better about the economy. and a lot of it is sort of like recovering from an illness; you get a little bit stronger each day and you take a few more steps each day. and that's where our economy is at right now. what we can't afford to do is to start going backwards and doing some of the same things that got us into trouble in the first place. this is why it's been so important for us, for example, to pass something like wall street reform to make sure that we're not creating the same kinds of financial bubbles and the massive leverage and the reckless risks that helped to create this problem in the first place. and i am very proud that we've got somebody like a sherrod brown or a mary jo, who worked really tirelessly with us in congress to make sure that we don't have a situation where we've got to bail out banks that have taken reckless risks; that we are monitoring what's

happening in the financial system a lot more carefully, making sure people aren't cheated when it comes to their mortgages, or that there are a bunch of hidden fees in their credit cards that helped to create some of the problems that we've seen in the financial systems. we can't go back to doing things the way we were doing them before. we've got to go forward. that's what we're trying to do. and hopefully as we continue over the next several months and the next several years, we're going to see a columbus and an ohio and a united states of america that is going to be stronger than it was before this crisis struck. i am absolutely confident of that. but we've got more work to do. all right. so, with that, what i want to do is i just want to open it up and you guys can ask me questions about anything -- and just ignore all these cameras who are here. pretend they're not there. the only thing i would ask is

introduce yourselves so that i get a chance to know you. or if you haven't met one of your neighbors, this is a good chance for you to do so. why don't we start with this gentleman right here. and we've got some mics -- the only reason -- the main reason we're using mics is so that these folks behind us can hear you. this gentleman right here. >> hi, president obama. i hope i don't pass out while i'm asking this question, so -- my question is actually about health care. my brother is disabled. and he's definitely what i would consider one of the working poor. he will not mature any more as far as mindset of a 12-year-old. right now he works washing dishes at a local restaurant and, unfortunately, because the employer does not offer health care insurance, one whole check, which is two weeks' worth

of work, has to actually go towards him just paying for cobra, which is obviously well out of his budget. but he has to, simply because of various illnesses that he suffers from. my question is, unfortunately, i'm not able to sit down and read a 2,000-page bill or law that -- with all the reform that happened with health care. with the present reforms that went into place, how will that help him? and if it doesn't, then how will -- i know that you're not done with health care -- how will your -- the latest changes that you want to happen with health care, how will that help him? and thank you for doing such a wonderful job. >> well, thank you. healthhow specifically reform should help your brother. number one, it gives an incentive to his employer to provide health insurance -- because one of the key

components of health care reform was providing employers a 35 % tax break on the premiums they pay for their employees, all right? so basically it's cutting his potential costs -- the employer's potential costs for providing your brother with health insurance, it's cutting it by a third. that's step number one. and there are going to be companies out there that say, you know what, we want to provide health insurance, but we just couldn't afford to do it, but now that it's costing us up to a third less, saving us thousands of dollars, maybe we should go ahead and provide coverage for that. ok, so that is step number one. step number two is if the employer still doesn't provide coverage, over the next couple of years your brother is going to be able to join a pool -- what we're calling an exchange -- where he can basically buy the same kind of insurance that these members of congress are buying. and the advantage that he's

going to have is that now he's part of a pool of millions of people who are buying it all at the same time, which means they've got leverage. the same way big companies are able to lower their costs per employee because the insurance company really wants their business, well, now your brother could be part of the same pool that these guys are and that's going to give leverage, which will lower his rates. and the final part of it is, if even with these lower rates, this better deal, he still can't afford it, then we're going to provide some subsidies to help him. so all those things combined should help make sure that your brother is getting health insurance. now, one of the things that i think people may not be aware of is that although this exchange isn't going to be set up until 2014 -- because it takes a while, we've got to set it up right -- there's some immediate things that are helping right now. if your child has a preexisting

condition, insurance companies, starting this year, will not be able to deny those children coverage. and that's a big deal for a lot of folks whose children may have diabetes or some other illness and right now can't get insurance. insurance companies are going to have to provide them insurance. that's number one. number two, how many people here have kids who are college- age, about to go to college? all right. well, one of the things you're going to be able to do is when those kids get out of college, if they don't get insurance right away, they're going to be able to stay on your insurance until they're 26 years old. that's a big deal because a lot of times that first job or those first couple of jobs out of college are the ones that don't provide health insurance. so there are a number of changes that are being made right now that will make those of you who have health insurance

more secure with the insurance they have. we're eliminating lifetime limits. there's a bunch of fine print on the insurance forms that sometimes have ended up creating real problems for people. your insurance company decides to drop you right when you get sick, just when you need it most. those kinds of practices are over now. and the final aspect of health reform that's important is, is that by changing the incentives for how doctors get paid under medicare and under medicaid, we're actually encouraging doctors to become more efficient so that over time health care costs actually start leveling out a little bit instead of skyrocketing each and every year. because everybody here who's got health insurance, what's been happening? your premiums have been going up; co-payments, deductibles, all that stuff has been going up. so we've got to actually try to control the costs of it, and part of it is just a matter of making sure that we get a

better bang for our health care dollar. so, for example, when you go to a doctor, we're still filling out forms in triplicate on paper. it's the only business there is where you still have a whole bunch of paperwork. and what we're trying to do is to encourage information technologies so that when you go into a doctor, they can already pull down your medical records electronically. if you take a test, then it's sent to all the specialists who are involved so you don't end up having to take four or five tests, and pay for four or five tests, when all you needed was just one. those are the kinds of things that will take a little bit longer to actually take into effect, but hopefully over time they're actually going to lower cost. all right. i'm going to go boy, girl here to make sure it's fair. right here. absolutely. >> mr. president, i'm concerned about the furor lately that's been -- it's similar to what's happened in the past but it's

reemerging, mostly from the republican party, but some democrats -- that social security needs to be privatized because it's losing money, and we're all going to -- and it's going to go broke, and that sort of thing. how would you comment on that? >> i have been adamant in saying that social security should not be privatized and it will not be privatized as long as i'm president. and here's the reason. i was opposed to it before the financial crisis. and what i said was the purpose of social security is to have that floor, that solid -- rock- solid security, so that no matter what else happens you've always got some income to support you in your retirement. and i've got no problem with people investing in their 401(k)s, and we want to

encourage people to invest in private savings accounts. but social security has to be separate from that. now, imagine if social security, if a portion of that had been in the stock market back in 2006 and 2007. i mean, you saw what happened with your 401(k)s -- you lost 20, 30, 40 % of it. now, we've recovered -- in part because of the policies that we put into place to stabilize the situation, the stock market has recovered 60-70 % of its value from its peak. but if you were really in need last year or the year before, and suddenly you see your assets drop by 40 %, and that's all you're relying on, it would have been a disaster. so here's the thing. social security is not in crisis. what is happening is, is that the population is getting older, which means we've got more retirees per worker than we

used to. we're going to have to make some modest adjustments in order to strengthen it. there are some fairly modest changes that could be made without resorting to any newfangled schemes that would continue social security for another 75 years, where everybody would get the benefits that they deserve. and what we've done is we've created a fiscal commission of democrats and republicans to come up with what would be the best combination to help stabilize social security for not just this generation, but the next generation. i'm absolutely convinced it can be done. and as i said, i want to encourage people to save more on their own, but i don't want them taking money out of social security so that people are putting that into the stock market. there are other ways of doing this. for example, it turns out that

if you set up a system with your employer where the employer automatically deducts some of your paycheck and puts it into your 401(k) account, unless you say you don't want it done, it turns out people save more just naturally. i mean, it's just kind of a psychological thing. if they take it out of your paycheck, and they automatically take it out, unless you affirmatively say, don't take it out, you'll save more than if they ask you, do you want to save, and then you say, nah, i'm going to keep the money. and then you save less. so that's just a small change. it's voluntary, but that in and of itself could end up boosting savings rates significantly. so there are a bunch of ways that we can do -- make sure that retirement is more secure. but we've got to make sure that social security is there not just for this generation but for the next one. ok? all right, gentleman's turn.

and by the way, i know that some folks may be hot, and if they are, you guys can always move into the shade. >> mr. president, sir, i was born and raised in a good blue- collar town in toledo, ohio. i grew up in a union family and i work now for a significant number of pension assets in the labor union market with an investment firm. i think the question i have that most bothers me is what's important to my people out there that i talk to, and those two things are, the first, what's going to happen with their pensions, especially those, as you know, in the red and the yellow. the ppa has not exactly been that favorable to them. and the pbgc is not a very good option. my father had to take early retirement. he's not receiving the maximum amount after decades of hard work and service that he had anticipated. the second part is i'm not naïve enough to think that just the pensions alone can help save workers. we've got 9.5% unemployment in this country, at least at last release, and i'm sure as you know, that's even more -- it's larger than that for the manufacturing industry and us in the rust belt -- toledo,

detroit, cleveland. obviously we need to put those guys back to work; they need to have man-hours out there. how can we create a sustainable, competitive product at an advantage to make us another leader in the manufacturing and labor force industry going forward, not just to get them back to work for a year or two, sir, but to get to work for the long term so they can grow the market on their own with their own product and their own work? >> well, look, this is a great question and it goes to the heart of what our economic strategy has to be. and senator brown and congresswoman kilroy and others, i know this is their number one concern each and every day. and certainly this is your governor's number one concern each and every day, is how do we make sure that we're creating a competitive america in which we aren't just buying things from other countries, we're selling things to other countries, and we're making things here in the united states of america. let me give you a couple of examples of areas that i think have enormous promise. number one is the whole clean energy industry -- and toledo

actually is becoming a leader in this, creating good jobs, in areas like solar -- building solar panels, wind turbines, advanced battery manufacturing. there is a whole series of huge potential manufacturing industries in which we end up being world leaders and, as a bonus, end up creating a more energy-efficient economy that is also good for the environment. now, we made, at the beginning of my term, the largest investment in clean energy in our history. and so there are plants that are opening up all across the country, creating products made in america that are now being shipped overseas. i'll give you one example, and that's the advanced battery manufacturing industry. these are the batteries that go

into electric cars, or the batteries that are ending up helping to make sure that if you get solar power or wind power, that it can be transmitted in an efficient way. we have 2% of the entire market -- 2%. by 2015, in five years, we're going to have 40 % of that market because of the investments that we made. so one of the advanced battery manufacturing plants that we helped get going with some key loans and support and tax breaks, they're now putting those batteries into the chevy volt. and you combine it then with an entire new u.s. auto industry that is cleaner and smarter and has better designs and is making better products -- those are potentially thhousands, tens

ens ofthousands, the thousands, hundreds of thousands, of manufacturing jobs. and the midwest is really poised to get a lot of those jobs. in a town like toledo where you've still got a lot of skilled workers, they are poised to be able to take off on that. but we've got to continue to support it. the other area that i've already mentioned is infrastructure. we've got about $2 trillion worth of infrastructure improvements that need to be made all across the country -- roads, bridges, sewer lines, water mains. it's crumbling. the previous generation made all these investments that not only put people to work right away but also laid the foundation then for economic growth in the future. and we used to always have the best infrastructure worldwide. now, if it comes to rail, we certainly don't have the best rail system in the world.

our roads in a lot of places aren't the best. our airports aren't the best. somebody is laughing -- they just got -- obviously, went through an airport. so we've got a lot of work to do on infrastructure. and this is an area where i hope we can get some bipartisan agreement. it's hard to get bipartisan agreement these days. but i think the notion that we can put people to work rebuilding america, investing in making stuff here in the united states that -- by the way, every time you build a road, that's not just putting people to work on the actual construction; all those supplies that go into road building, all those supplies that go into a bridge, all those supplies that go into rail, that's creating a ripple effect all throughout the economy. so i think that's a second area of great potential. last point you made was -- had to do with pensions. look, the truth be told, the

way we were handling pensions both in private companies and among public employees, a lot of it wasn't that different from some of the stuff that was going on in wall street, because what happened was -- is that these pensions weren't adequately funded. some of these companies would underfund it, and then say, well, we're going to get an 8 % return or 10 % return on our pension funds, to make it look like they were adequately funded when they weren't. that contributed to pension funds chasing a lot of risky investments that promised these high returns that, in fact, were built on a house of cards. so you're going to see a number of pensions in a number of companies that are under-funded. now, we've got a mechanism at the federal level that provides a certain percentage backup or

guarantee for these pension funds if they fail. but we're going to have to, i think, work with these private sector companies so that -- right now, they've become very profitable. companies are making money right now. we were talking earlier about the economy and how it's moving slow. well, corporate profits are doing just fine. they're holding onto a whole bunch of cash -- they're kind of sitting on it, waiting to see if they can make more money and more opportunity, but they haven't started hiring yet. one of the things they need to be doing with some of this cash is shoring up their pension funds that are currently under- funded. it's a girl's turn. yes, right there. >> mr. president, tied in with the jobs situation i think is the education system. and it seems to be in a crisis now, and people are not being educated to take these jobs that are going to be created.

and i wondered what sort of plans you might have for that. >> that's a great question. are you in education? >> no. >> no? >> i'm a nurse. >> well, that's important, too. >> yes. >> thanks for the care you give to people all day long. i'm a big fan of nurses. the thing that will probably most determine our success in the 21st century is going to be our education system. i'll just give you a quick statistic. a generation ago, we ranked number one in the number of college graduates. we've now slipped to number 12 in the number of college graduates. that's just in one generation. that is putting us at a huge competitive disadvantage. because, look, companies these days, they can locate anywhere. you've got an internet line, you can set your company up in

india, you can set up your company in the czech republic -- it doesn't really matter where you are. and so what that means is a lot of companies are going to look for where can they find the best workforce. and we have to make sure that that is in columbus, ohio. we've got to make sure that that's in toledo. we've got to make sure that that's in the united states of america. now, we still have the best universities and the best colleges on earth. but there are a couple of problems that have come up. first of all, our education starts at k-12. and we're not doing a good enough job at the k-12 level making sure that all our kids are proficient in math, in science, in reading and writing. and what we've done is we've set up something called the race to the top, where, although a lot of federal money still flows to schools just based on a formula and based on need, we've

taken a certain amount of money and we've said, you know what, you've got to compete for this money. and you've got to show us that you've got a plan to improve the education system, to fix low-performing schools, to improve how you train teachers -- because teachers are the single most important ingredient in the education system -- to collect data to show that you're improving how these kids are learning. and what's happened is, is that states all across the country have actually responded really well, and we've seen the majority of states change their laws to start doing this bottom-up, grassroots reform of the k-12 system. that's critical. that's number one. the second thing that we've got to solve is that college became unaffordable for a lot of people. and joe and rhonda, we were just talking -- we're about the same age and we got married i think the same year. our kids are about the same age. so we've kind of gone through the same stuff. and michelle and i -- i don't

know about you guys -- we didn't talk about this -- but michelle and i, we had a lot of debt when we finished school. it was really expensive. and neither of us came from wealthy families, so we just had to take out a bunch of student loans. it took us about 10 years to pay off our student loans. it was actually higher than our mortgage for most of the time. and i don't want that burden to be placed on kids right now. because a lot of them, as a consequence, maybe they decide not to go to college, or, if they do, they end up getting off to a really tough start because their pay just is not going to support the amount of debt that they've got. so here's what we did. working with sherrod, working with mary jo, democrats in congress -- this didn't get a lot of attention, but we actually completely transformed how the government student loan program works. originally what was happening was all those loans were going through banks and financial intermediaries.

and even though the loans were guaranteed by the government so the banks weren't taking any risks, they were skimming off billions of dollars in profits. and we said, well, that doesn't make any sense. if we're guaranteeing it, why don't we just give the loans directly to the students, and we'll take all that extra billions of dollars that were going to the banks as profits, and we'll give more loans. and as a consequence, what we've been able to do is to provide millions more students additional loans and make college more affordable over time. that's the second thing. third thing we've got to do is we've got to focus on community colleges, which are a wonderful asset. not everybody is going to go to a four-year college. and even if you go to a four-

year college, you may need to go back and retrain two years -- for a year or two, even while you're working, to keep up, keep pace with new technologies and new developments in your industry. so what we've really tried to do is to partner with community colleges, figure out how we can strengthen them, put more resources into them, and link them up to businesses who are actually hiring so that they're training people for the jobs that exist, as opposed to the jobs that don't. one of the problems we've had for a lot of young people is they go to college, training for a job, thinking that their job -- or thinking there's a job out there, and actually the economy has moved on. and what we need to do is tailor people's education so that they are linked up with businesses who say, we need this many engineers, or we need this kind of technical training, and we'll help design what that training is -- so that when that person goes to college and they're taking out some of those loans to go to college, they know at the end of the road there's actually going to be a job available to them. last thing -- math, science, we've really got to emphasize those. that's an area where we've

really fallen far behind, and our technological competitiveness is going to depend on how well we do in math and science. ok. yes, sir. >> mr. president, i am a proud firefighter for the great city of columbus here in ohio. thank you. >> joe, did you use to play for ohio state, man? >> i must correct you. i was actually part of the national championship team for eastern kentucky university. >> oh, ok, all right. >> for the national champion, no less. >> well, there you go, ok. but you look like you could -- we could put you on the line right now. >> oh, that's what they all say. >> anyway. >> but, mr. president, i wanted to talk to you about a couple of things as it pertains to the safety and security of our firefighters. i want to share with you some good news as it pertains to the stimulus and the safer act for which you championed and signed off on.

locally and from the state standpoint, we had some firefighter jobs that were in jeopardy, up in the hundreds. the stimulus package -- i know the state was strapped with its commitment and what it had to with those monies. some of those areas we weren't able to be supported in. but because of your administration signing off on the safer act, which is staffing adequate fire and emergency response, you provided over $300 million last year and upped that to over $400 million this year -- that had allowed for the jobs in ohio to come back -- the firefighters rather who had jobs to come back and get their jobs back. in addition to that, the fire act has provided safer equipment for us. we -- don't want to sound cliché, but i'm just your average joe. but what we do as firefighters, we want to make a significant difference to our citizens here in our community, as well as our lives.

that safer act and that fire act has provided us significant equipment -- money, funding rather for significant equipment -- face pieces, self- contained breathing apparatus, things of those nature. so we come to say how proud we are to be able to afford that opportunity to secure our firefighters. the international president has sent a appreciative thank you and we would hope that you would find -- i know your busy schedule -- somewhere around this country -- cincinnati, akron, elyria, niles -- have brought back firefighters because of the safer act. and if anywhere along your schedule you have the opportunity, as a symbolic gesture of support, to stop in to those stations, thank those firefighters, we would greatly appreciate that. >> well, thank you. and as i said, you guys put your lives on the line each and every day. we wanted to make sure that public safety was not being threatened as a consequence of the recession. we've done that.

we've helped to support not just firefighters but also police officers, teachers, other vital services. we're going to continue to support you. and again, we're very grateful for everything you do. and if this is your lovely wife here, we're grateful to her too because she's got to -- she's got to put up with you -- running off into fires and putting yourself in danger. and i'm sure that makes her a little bit stressed once in a while, but i'm sure she's very proud of you. >> thank you. >> ok. anybody else? yes, go ahead. here, we've got a microphone. >> hi, mr. president. i was actually recently laid off of a position working at our local community college, helping dislocated workers get back and get retrained. but the position was funded on workforce investment dollars and the funding ended. as i look for a new position in social services, one of my concerns is i'm having trouble

finding a position that pays enough so that i can pay my bills and also send my daughter to quality childcare. so i was wondering if there's anything that's been done to reduce childcare costs. >> well, we have a childcare credit in place. we'd like to make it stronger. this is one of those back-and- forths we've been having with the republicans, because we actually think it is a good idea and they don't. but i think that giving families support who have to work each and every day is absolutely critical. thatthere's some companies are starting to get smart about providing childcare on site for their employees, which makes a huge difference. it's a huge relief. but those are usually bigger companies. and some of the smaller companies or small businesses don't have that capacity.

bottom line is we just got to make sure that we're providing you more support, primarily through a tax credit mechanism. this is something that we have incorporated in the past in our budget; we haven't got everything that we'd like done on it. it will be something that we continue to try to work on a bipartisan basis to get the cost of childcare down. there's another component of this, though, and that's also boosting the quality of childcare. kids learn more from the age of zero to three than they do probably for the rest of their lives -- and this goes to the earlier question about education. we want to get them off to a good start knowing their colors and their numbers and their letters and just knowing how to sit still. and a high quality childcare environment can help on that front. but that means that childcare workers, for example, have to be paid a decent wage and get decent training.

and we've been working -- we set up actually a task force that is trying to lift up the best practices, who is really doing a great job in creating high quality health care -- or childcare at an affordable rate, and then trying to teach other states and other cities and other communities how to replicate some of that great progress that's been made. there are some terrific programs out there, but they're still too far and few between. all right, i've got time for two more questions. yes, sir, right here. >> i work for a company who is benefiting from some stimulus money here in columbus. and it's keeping me and my crews afloat for a while. but what we really need is a stronger housing market here in columbus. we need to be building new roads and making houses affordable for people. they need to get out there

buying. they need to be able to get the loans. and what's up with that? >> well, remember i told you that it's going to take some time for this economy to come back. one of the reasons it's going to take time for this economy to come back is the housing market is still a big drag on the economy as a whole. and the reason the housing market is still a big drag on the economy as a whole is we built a lot of homes over the previous five, seven, 10 years. every year, about 1.4 million families are formed that are ready to buy a new house, or need some place to live. and what happened over the previous four, five, seven years during this housing bubble

was we were building 2 million homes a year when only 1.4 [million] were being absorbed. and then the bubble burst, and now we're only building 400,000. and all that inventory that happened during the housing bubble, it's still out there. so some states are worse than others. you go to places like nevada or arizona or florida, california, their inventory of unsold homes was so high that it is just going to take a whole bunch of years to absorb all that housing stock. now, what we can do is to help people who are currently in their homes stay in their homes. we can strengthen the economy overall so that that new family that just formed, they feel

confident enough to say, you know what, it's time, honey, for us to go out and take the plunge and start looking. and right now they're kind of holding back, the way a lot of people are still holding back, because there's uncertainty in the market. and we've initiated, through the treasury department, a number of programs like that to help support the housing market generally. but i want to be honest with you. it is going to take some time for us to absorb this inventory that was just too high. quickthere's no really way to do it, because we're talking about a $5 trillion market. bigd we can't plug that hole in terms of all the housing that needs to be absorbed.

and there's no really quick way to do it, because we're talking about a $5 trillion market. and we can't plug that big hole in terms of all the housing that needs to be absorbed. we're not going to be able subsidize all that over- capacity right now. what we can do is just stabilize it and then improve the economy overall. what we're going to do is get back to the point where we're building 1. -- 1044 million homes a year, instead of 400,000 -- and that's a huge -- 1.4 million homes a year, instead of 400,000 and that's a huge difference. >> i'm the practice manager at an ophthalmology practice at the eye center of columbus, downtown. it is a great facility that the

city of columbus helped us get in place. there are over 30 ophthalmologists providing specialty care in separate practices, a state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center. we see tens of thousands of patients a year. and i think we do a very efficient job of providing quality care, over 300 people employed. so i'm kind of on both sides of health care. and when i started working for this practice 25 years ago, we are now getting reimbursed one- third of what we got paid for -- i'm just going to pick cataract surgery -- yet our operating costs continue to go up. my boss is kind enough to provide health care costs entirely for all of his employees. how does he continue to do that when medicare continues to reduce what they're paying, and there's the threat of more cuts coming and the private insurance companies follow suit? >> medicare, i think, is one of the cornerstones of our social safety net. the basic idea is, you've been working all your life, you retire; just like you've got social security that you can count on, you've also got health care that you can count on and you're not going to go bankrupt just because you get

sick. but in the same way that social security has to be tweaked because the population is getting older, we've got to refresh and renew medicare to make sure that it's going to be there for the next generation, as well. and the key problems are not just that more people as they retire are going to be part of medicare. the big problem is just health care inflation generally. the costs of health care keep on skyrocketing. now, the way we've been dealing with it, which i think is the wrong way to deal with, is basically under-reimbursing our providers. the right way to deal with it is to work with the providers to figure out how can we make the system less wasteful, more efficient overall. and that way we're paying -- your boss, if he's spending a dollar on care, he's getting reimbursed a dollar. but we're also making sure that the care he's providing is exactly what the person needs, and high quality for a better

price. and that's part of what health care reform was all about. i'll just give you a couple examples. one of the things that we were doing in medicare was we were giving tens of billions of dollars of subsidies to insurance companies under the medicare advantage plan, even though that plan wasn't shown to make seniors any healthier than regular old medicare. so we said, all right, we're not going to end medicare advantage, but we are going to have some competitive bidding and we're going to force the insurance companies to show us, well, what exactly -- what value are you adding? how are you helping to make these seniors healthier? and if you're not helping, then you shouldn't be getting paid. we should be giving that money to the doctor and the nurse and the other people who are actually providing care, not the insurance companies. well, there was a lot of hue and cry about this, but it was absolutely the right thing to do -- because now we just found out -- the actuaries for medicare said the changes we've already made have extended the

life of the medicare trust fund for another 12 years -- which is, by the way, the longest it's ever been extended as a consequence of a reform effort. so we've made medicare stronger just with some of the changes that we've already made. but you're absolutely right that we're going to have to keep on making these changes to continue to make it stronger. and that will affect not just medicare; it will affect the entire health care system. because there's no doctor out there who doesn't see medicare as the $800 gorilla. -- 800 pound gorilla. if medicare is saying you've got to improve your quality and efficiency, then they will because they've got a lot of medicare patients. but they also have a lot of regular patients. so hospitals, doctors, everybody starts getting more efficient as medicare gets more efficient. the key is making sure that we're not just cutting benefits. and, frankly, this is an argument that i have with my friends in the republican party sometimes. one big change that some of them

have advocated is to voucherize the medicare system. you basically -- instead of once you have medicare, you knowing that you can take that and go get care anywhere you want, we would just give you -- all right, here is whatever it is, $6,000 or $7,000 or whatever. and suddenly, you've got seniors who find themselves way short of what they need in terms of providing care. we've got to change how the health care system actually operates. and that means more prevention -- more preventive care. it means better -- that we reimburse people for checkups. it means we reimburse doctors when they're consulting with people on things like smoking cessation and weight control and exercise. there are a whole bunch of

things that can make us healthier, reduce our costs overall. but unfortunately, the system doesn't incentivize them right now. we need to change that. anybody have any last burning question? that was technically the last question. but this has to be like one that you're just, man, i really need an answer for. >> i've got a very general question. >> ok, go ahead. >> it's a very general question, here. i work on wall street. i was wondering what kind of changes we can expect to see in the reform in the next couple years. >> well, here's the essential components of wall street reform that we set up. number one is that we got a-- we had a system in which there was huge amounts of leverage that banks could take. and what leverage means is, if they got a dollar in deposits, they were making a $40 bet using that one dollar -- which when times are good means you're

making a lot of money, right? you're putting one dollar down of your own money, and you got $40, and when the market is going up, you're making out like a bandit. but when the market goes down, when it starts de-leveraging, you're in trouble. and that's basically what happened with lehman's and a lot of these other companies. so one thing that we've said is that we've got to have -- for big firms that are what we call "systemic," that if they go down, the whole system could go down with them -- we've got to have a better check and say, you know what, you've got to control a little bit how you work in terms of leverage. you've got to have enough capital, actual money, to cover the bets that you're placing so that you're not putting the whole system at risk. that's number one. number two, there's a whole derivatives market out there, which, frankly, even the bankers don't completely understand. but you've got trillions of

dollars -- and if you work on wall street you're familiar obviously with the derivatives market. i mean, you've got trillions of dollars that are basically outside of the regulated banking system, and people didn't know who's making bets on what. and what we said was that derivatives market, it needs -- it can continue, but it's got to be in an open, transparent marketplace so that everybody knows who is betting on what. and we're very clear about who the various parties are in these complex derivatives transactions. that means the regulators can follow it a little more closely. that's number two. the third thing that we did is we made sure that we don't have taxpayer bailouts again. so we've set up a system whereby if a big firm gets in trouble, we're able to essentially quarantine it, separate it out from the rest of the pack, liquidate it without it spilling over into the system as a whole.

that's the third thing. and the fourth thing is having a consumer financial protection agency that is really going to do a good job making sure that consumers know what they're getting when it comes to financial products. i mean, when you buy a toaster, there has been some assurance provided that that toaster will not explode in your face -- right? there are a whole bunch of laws in there, people have to do tests on the toasters to make sure that nothing happens. but if you buy a mortgage that explodes in your face because you didn't know what was going on, everybody acts like, well, that's your problem. well, no, it's actually all of our problem, because part of the reason we had this financial crisis was because people did not always understand the financial instruments that they were purchasing.

a lot of these subprime loans that were being given out, a lot of these no-interest -- you can buy your house, you don't put any money down, you don't pay any interest, you got this beautiful house -- and naturally people were thinking, well, this sounds great. but what they weren't looking at was, ok, there's a balloon payment five years down. this is only going to work if your housing -- the value of your house keeps on appreciating. and if it stops appreciating, suddenly it's not going to work anymore. people hadn't thought through all those ramifications. and that had an effect on the whole system. so what we've said is we're going to have a strong consumer finance protection agency whose only job is to look after you when it comes to financial products. and joe and rhonda and i were just talking about how it was only seven, eight years ago when michelle and i were trying to figure out our student loans, how were we going to invest for the kids' college education.

we had -- at the end of the month, i'd be getting my credit card bills, and i'm a pretty smart guy, but you open up some of those credit card bills -- you don't know what's going on. you don't read all that fine print. you just look at the statement. well, as an example of the kinds of things that this new agency are going to be enforcing, we've already passed a law -- thanks again to mary jo and sherrod -- we've already passed a law that says a credit card company can't raise the interest rates on existing balances. so it can't attract you with a 0% interest, you run up a $3,000 balance, and then suddenly they send you your next statement and it says, oh, your interest went up to 29%. you can't do that. i mean, they'll still be able to say, we're going to raise your interest rate to 29%, but that can only be the balances going forward. it can't be on the money that

you borrowed where you thought it was a 0%. well, that's an example of straightforward, honest dealing that we're going to be expecting. we think the financial markets will still make money, the banks can still make money, but they got to make money the old- fashioned way, which is loan money to small businesses who are providing services to the community. loan money to joe for his architectural firm, and he's going to make sure you pay him back. loan people for mortgages, but make sure that you've done the due diligence so that you're not tricking them into something they can't afford. make sure that it's something that you can afford -- right? they're just a bunch of basic, common-sense reforms that we're putting in place that will allow the market to function. because the free market is the best system ever devised for creating wealth, but there have got to be some rules in the road so that you're making money not by gaming the system, but by providing a better product or a better service.

all right? well, listen, i want to thank all of you for spending the time. i know it got a little warm, and you guys just hung in there like troopers. i want to make sure that i thank, once again, ted strickland, sherrod brown, mayor michael coleman, your lieutenant governor, and i believe the next united states senator, lee fisher, and mary jo kilroy for being here. and obviously, i want to thank joe and rhonda weithman and the whole weithman family for sharing their backyard. and we're going to have to make sure that we're helping their lawn here. it got trampled on a little bit. i hope you guys are not stepping in the corn. michelle, by the way, would be very proud to see that you've got the vegetable garden working. all right? give them a big round of applause, everybody. thank you very much. thank you.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> i wanted to let you know that the weithmans made me be the o in o-h-i-o. it is on tape. it is on tape somewhere. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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in the meantime, we have jim warren on the phone. he is a columnist and we want to focus on this jury action yesterday in the trial of the

former illinois governor, rod blagoevich. "the defiant blagojevich bows to appeal. explain what happened in the courtroom yesterday. >> the found out why they had spent two weeks deliberating, mainly that they could not come to the unanimous decision on a single count. in some ways, the most ancillary of account, false statements. allegedly lying to fbi agent in 2005 as to whether or not he had a fire wall between his political contributions side of his professional life and the government side. that is the only one that went 12-0 on. in terms of selling the senate

seat of barack obama after he was elected, they apparently came very close. there was one woman holding out, simply refusing to change her opinion. that is how close on some counts that he came to an insured track to a federal prison. when headline talks about appealing, more important is the government quickly announced the attempt to try them again, so we will do this all over again. host: think to that, here is the headline, if you go to "the sun times," they talk more about the numbers in all of this. "some of the numbers were split, but the most explosive of these

charges came to the holdout vote, and one woman felt she had just not gotten a clear-cut evidence that she needed to convict. -- convict." move this forward, what are we likely to see? caller: will likely to see this whole thing done over and the federal government is going to push back in court in august, formally indicating their plan to retry, and knowing the federal government they will say that they are ready to go. there will be representation for both of the blagojevich costs, not just a former governor but also his brother were on trial. they have spent substantial sums of money and got a fair amount

of free legal work from the lawyers i also think it is interesting that both sides will certainly be studying each and every comment from the jurors as to how they perceive the case. particularly how they received the weaknesses in the government's case. some of the comments suggest that the jurors felt the case was confusing, which i think i might agree with. the timeline and chronology of the misdeeds became uncertain and you can bet that the government will stand back and say, ok, if there is committed the to this, we will come at it again next time. >>host: "yes, another trial woud

be worth at," according to these e-mails this morning. what is the public's mood on all of this? caller: i have assumed that one of the factors that might play into jury deliberations, as you know, as your audience on those, the general a very critical state of americans for the politicians these days, i certainly thought that that would not help blagojevich, who was clearly caught plotting and scheming potential quid pro quo. not just for allegedly trying to sell the senate seat, but there are other matters where he was caught in a conspiratorial

fashion with aids, who i should parenthetically note to the audience, they are in prison, going to prison, or testify for the government as a result of the same evidence. nevertheless, it is clear that it is possible with the jury went in and saw that it was as straight as possible. they were confused and a few folks were never convinced. there was not much poland in the chicago area. the former governor has been somewhat effective in portraying himself all over the country in various high-profile media forums. he has been somewhat effective in portraying himself as a victim, turning his back --

turning away from the one count that they got him on. there might be that of a backlash from folks sending my gosh -- saying -- my gosh, are we spending more money on a trial for a man that was already in pete? no longer have this is resolved, his political career is in the dumps. host: following up on all of this yesterday, dick durbin seeking to distance the illinois democrat from blagojevich, " another trial could hurt the democratic fall campaign." what about that on the national level? caller: it is pbl