syndrome. it is a well-defined but rare occurrence in medical literature in which somebody has a concussion and they go out and play a little too soon and sustain a second concussion that could be lethal. that is when the swelling comes back and it causes their demise and eventually their death. it is a rare occurrence, but we don't have any evidence to believe that you have sen ymptoms, have them resolved, and then years later you have a relapse that leads to brain swelling issues. i'm not sure i can address the article, but we're looking at protection of the brain from subsequent injuries. host: how has the training of army medics and navy corpsman changed as a result of recent discoveries? this is from mr. happy.

guest: ok, mr. happy. there is a whole algorithm for medics and korman. they are trained before they are pushed out into theater on these new algorithms and care. they are trained up on a tool that they provide, if they are the ones that administer this tool on the battlefield to people they believe has sustained a concussion. in terms of the medic k corpsmen's roles, they have expanded and are trained on these algorithms, and they are the first responders that lead the path towards whether somebody is in trouble and needs to be evacuated, because that

you believe the injury may be more severe, as well as being the point person for what type of care is rendered. host: two minutes left with our guest, katherine helmick, talking about brain injury in iraq and afghanistan wars. colorado, hi. caller: my wife has traumatic brain injury, and she has not typically improved. she went to the hospital in denver, her initial rehab place. they encouraged us to think, in a few months, she will be quite a bit better. that was for a half years ago -- four and a half years ago. host: we will have to leave it there. guest: many times the rehab process is lengthy and

aggressive treatment is extremely important. host: katherine helmick of the defense centers of excellence, senior executive director for traumatic brain injury, thank you for being on "washington journal." chris van hollen is the chair of the democratic campaign committee. he just started a news conference at the national press club. here he is. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the club is now working up a date for pete sessions to present his side of the issue as well as the joint luncheon discussion from mr. van hollen and mr. sessions. the campaign chair as well as the assistant to nancy pelosi, congressman dan holland will talk about why the democrats

year ve to win the offic- elections. he is the author of legislation. more than anyone else, he can provide insight into the message war of what is in his view accurate verses wrongly perceived, as well as an election strategy and the fluctuating opinion polls. he is a member of the powerful ways and means committee, and the committee on oversight and reform. he is vice chairman of the renewal caucus. he is the eighth renaissance man in his breadth of knowledge, which is why speaker nancy pelosi gave him a tool role -- a dual role.

that is the wrong page two. "the baltimore sun" labeled chris van hollen as a rising star. it was 2002 that he was elected to congress, beating some powerful democratic competitors. in the last two cycles, he helped democrats gain 50 seats. congressman van hollen is at the center of the storm. if democrats retain control of the house, he will reap much of the credit, and if they do not, well -- following his presentation, the floor will be open to questions. this is a traditional news

conference, but we will give to each questioner -- when you have the microphone, please see your name, organization, and your question. many thanks to those who have --anized to the's event today's events. we also want to thank the national press club president and newsmaker committee chairman for jumping through many hoops for making sure to date's event has happened. also, richard is doing the microphones is an enormous help. the national press club this honor to present congressman chris van hollen.

>> thank you very much, and it is great be with all of you. thank you for say -- for taking some time off and august to be with us. thank you to the national press club for the invitation. we are here to discuss the upcoming elections, which are 67 days from today. 67 days from today is millions of americans, on to the polls, a vote in the 2010 midterm election, one that will shape decision making for years to come. congressional republicans inside the beltway are already popping the champagne bottles, saying they are going to seize control of the united states congress. it is a premature celebration. i can assure you that despite the washington summer political chatter, reports of the house

democrats' the mice are exaggerated. i have been talking to our democratic colleagues, in their districts, they are meeting constituents, talking about issues that matter and are important to people, and make a difference in people's lives. it is clear that the democrats will retain a majority in the house come november for three reasons. first and most importantly, america wants to continue to move forward and not return back to the same economic policies that got us into messes in the first place. while nobody is satisfied with the slow pace of growth, america is facing a very stark choice. do we continue down the path toward recovery and a more stabilized economy and efforts to support the business community, putting people back

to work, or do we return to the economic policies that resulted in catastrophic job losses and brought our economy to the brink of collapse? an agenda that benefited big money, special interests, at the expense of american tax payers, consumers, and workers. second, the republican candidates that are emerging from primaries across the country are on the far right of the political spectrum. in many cases, they are being driven by tea party movement, in many cases, being the nominee of the tea party movement, and they are not a good fit for what are moderate, centrist districts. those are the swing districts around the country. you are finding the republican candidates out of the mainstream. third, campaigns do matter, and

congressional democrats have been preparing for what we knew would be a topps -- a tough cycle from the very beginning of last year. unlike 1994, when a lot of democrats will come up the day after the election, caught by surprise, no one is going to be surprised this time. people have been preparing, and that preparation is calling to be successful. let me delve a little deeper into each of these points. i will focus primarily on the choice, the troy is that american voters face, because they are going to be going into those voting booths and it will have a choice between two and sometimes more candid. there are many differences between 2010 and 1994. you hear republicans talking a lot about 1994, when newt gingrich and the republicans up

more than 50 seats. in 1994 the american people saw congressional republicans as a viable alternative to the democrats. the polls today indicate that is simply not the choice. when asked if they had more confidence in the congressional democrats or congressional republicans to make the right decisions for the country, the july 12 poll gave the democrats a six-point advantage. when asked if they approved of the democrats and republicans handling of their jobs, the august 16 poll gave democrats a seven-point lead. in the august 9 nbc poll, by nine points, people had positive feelings about democrats. do not get me wrong here. i am not suggesting the american

people are bullish on either party. what i am suggesting is that they consistently have greater confidence in the democrats than republicans. none of this should be a surprise to any of us, because what happened during the years of the bush administration is still fresh in people's minds, and the american people know the facts. they lived them. the american people know that the day president bush left office, the economy was in total freefall, and we were losing jobs at the rate of 700,000 a month. they note that over the eight- year span of the bush administration, we lost over 630,000 private sector jobs, that, from the beginning to end. they note the reckless fiscal policies of the previous administration, including the on paid wars in iraq and

afghanistan, turned the surpluses from the clinton and the station into a record 1.3 trillion dollar deficit. today obama was sworn into office. -- that they obama was sworn into office. they know the approach created a huge financial body of -- bubble that inevitably burst, caused havoc on main street and cost millions of american workers their jobs. it was a go for wall street bonuses, but it resulted in trillions of dollars of losses of retired savings for american consumers and workers. they know the bush-cheney energy policy allowed oil companies to run the issue will -- to run the show when we should have been investing here in homegrown clean energy jobs, and they know

during the previous administration the cost of premiums for health insurance doubled while health insurance profits quadruple. they know all those facts. you and those listening may ask ourselves, why are we going over that history that is all in the past. the answer is this -- if you listen to our republican colleagues and you listen to their current economic plan, they are telling us very clearly that if given the opportunity, they would enact the same agenda going forward. in fact, one of their leaders said they would enact the exact same agenda going forward. others are saying publicly, no, we learned our lesson, but then they proceed to articulate the same economic agenda, the same

failed policies that drove the economy into the ditch. now, many of you know that there are a lot of republican operatives and strategists out there who were recommending to republican leaders, not to say a thing. keep their agenda secret. those are operatives wanted aboute to continue to renant what the democrats had been doing. i have to give john boehner credit for beginning to spell out what he and his republican colleagues would do if given the chance, because elections are about the future, and americans deserve to know the choices they have. what has john boehner and the republicans told us they would do if given the chance? first, he has said clearly that republicans would seek to

repeal the wall street reform bill. everyone in this room knows a lot of high-priced lobbyists repeat a lot of money to try to defeat legislation, which is designed to make sure never again american taxpayers are left holding the bag for bad decisions on wall street. john boehner voted to rescue wall street weighed back, but now he wants the republicans to repeal the new law that holds those banks accountable. in other words, go back to be anything goes policy that precipitated the financial meltdown in the economic -- and the economic crisis. second, the other day in ohio, he said he would reverse the remaining elements of the economic recovery plan. no one has suggested the economic recovery plan is going to be a miracle cure. americans understand you cannot beat yourself out of a very deep hole overnight.

the recovery bill has succeeded in stabilizing an economy that was heading toward depression, and we have experienced four quarters of economic croats and seven consecutive months of house of private sector job growth. in his very recent -- in a recent report, a report has succeeded in -- the bill has succeeded in increasing the gdp and increasing the number of employed americans to 3.3 people. in fact, if you follow some of our colleagues around the country, they continue to show up ribbon-cutting ceremonies, ground-breaking services, to take credit for jobs that would never be there if they had their way, because every republican in the house voted against the recovery bill. are we satisfied with the pace

of recovery? of course not, but what mr. baker proposed the -- but what john boehner proposed the other day would cancel contracts and awards that have already been made, i used at about $216 billion. do not take my word for it. much of that work is already under way, as we speak, and canceling those contracts could easily precipitate a double dip recession. republican leader has said he wants more certainty coming out of washington, and canceling contracts is no way to send a message. not only with that plan jeopardize the fragile recovery that is under way, but it would

undermine the foundation for a strong long-term economic growth. mr. john boehner rightly said we need a deficit reduction plan. he said economists have warned that all this borrowing runs the risk of causing a damaging spike in interest rates which would cripple job creation. how is it that in that very same speech he proposes to blow what the nonpartisan congressional budget office would say is a $680 billion hole in the deficit over the next 10 years? that would send a terrible signal that the united states is fiscally reckless and we have not gotten our economic house in order. in the longer term, that that will inhibit the economic growth, but the republican leader and his colleagues will risk our future economic growth

to permanently extend the bush tax cuts that the to the wealthiest 2% in our country. the non-partisan tax policy center estimates 96% of that $680 billion will go to that 923,000 households that make over $500,000 a year. under that plan, next year households making over $1 million will receive an average tax cut of 100 feet thousand dollars. the notion that we need to permanently extend these deficit-busting tax cuts for the top 2% in order to grow the economy has been flatly this proven by their record of the eight years of the bush administrations. after all, they enacted those tax cuts to the folks at the top in 2001, 2003, and at the end of that period, the economy had lost over 630,000 private

sector jobs. yet, here they are once again proposing to redo and go back to the old policies. they should not hold the american people hostage in order to provide a deficit-growing for the top 2%. instead of passing on the $680 billion bill for children and grandchildren, we need to take steps to get the deficit under control. that is why we passed the statutory paygo law. that law helped restrain spending in the clinton administration. the bush administration and congressional republicans, as soon as they came in in 2000, repeal that law, contributing to a huge spike in the deficit and debt. unfortunately, when we voted to reenact that provision, the

house, the republicans in the house, all voted against it. the house recently passed legislation and people came back to pass legislation to make sure that 150,000 teachers would be able to stay in the classrooms and at 150,000 police and firefighters could remain protecting our neighborhoods. because of the paygo law, to not add one penny to the deficit. it was paid for by making cuts to programs and closing a loophole that actually rewards american corporations that ship jobs overseas. we should be exporting american goods, not american jobs. this is a defining issue this year. we support a patriotic pro-jobs agenda that puts the interests

of american workers first. as part of our make it in america agenda, which removed a terrible provision of the tax law that incentivizes some corporations to move certain operations overseas. in his ohio speech, the republican leader got this issue totally wrong, and it is important to set the record straight. the fact is that very creative lawyers have found a way to have the american taxpayer, you, me, and the people who are watching, subsidize the taxes of certain corporations paid to foreign governments for profits generated by their overseas operations. this is unfair to american workers and to american taxpayers. mr. john boehner and his republican colleagues voted against stopping this abuse and chose to protect the and patriated overseas profits of

certain corporations at the extent of american workers. there are other clear policies in the midterms. republican point man is joe barton, who famously apologized to bp when he said the $20 billion compensation fund that president obama insisted upon amounted to an unfair government shakedown. house leaders pretended to run from joe barton like he had the measles. less well-known was the fact that congressman tom price, the german representing the 116- member house that the group, said the same thing, accused the president of a chicago style political shakedown for coming up with a fund to compensate the victims of the deepwater horizon spill. the house republican energy policy is no different.

than that of the bush-cheney energy policy, and all but two republicans voted against our legislation to prevent a future -- a feature golf type oil spill. the republican point person on the budget is representative paul ryan. like john boehner, he should be credited with putting his policy proposals on the table. his so-called road map for america would partially privatize social security and and medicare as we know it. again, in this election year, the republican members and candidates who would embrace the -- those ideas are tending to run away from it. just last year there was a vote on the medicare portion of that plan, and republican leadership and republicans voted for the ryan budget plan to abolish medicare in its current form by cutting debt by 75% when phased

in, turning it into a voucher plan and throwing seniors to the winds of the uncontrolled costs of the of private insurance market. that is what it says. with respect to the bush plan, to partially privatize social security, john boehner was a strong backer of that plan, and it was a key element of the house republican study group when republicans were last in control of the congress, a plan that would steer billions and billions of dollars of american social security retirement savings the wall street. those are the issues at stake, those are the choices, and it is clear that after the eight years of the bush administration policies the economy was driven into the ditch, and for the past 20 months republican colleagues have been criticizing every effort we need to get the economy out of the beach and

back in gear. now, in 2010, just as a fragile recovery is under way, they are asking the american people to give them the keys to the car again. before they do that, the american people should read the republicans' 2010 driving manuel. as we have been discussing, that manuel tells us very clearly they want to reenact the same agenda that drove us into the agenda -- into the ditch in the first place. it is an agenda that is unsafe at any speed, and americans will not go into a hard reverse. i can assure you the next nine months you will hear more and more from the president and our colleagues about a clear contrast and the clear choice the americans will face when they go to the booth. i want to address the other two components of why the democrats will retain a majority in the house. the republican candidate are out

of sync with the main street in these districts. in arizona the other day, all the national media attention was focused on the fact that senator john mccain defeated the tea party favorite candidate. little noticed was the fact that the washington republicans' highly touted candidate in arizona's eighth district, a state senator, lost to the tea party candidate, a far right candidate who believes in privatizing social security and takes a very hard line right view. you are seeing that same thing play out in other parts of the country. in other instances you are seeing republican candidates who are simply retreading, people

like steve pierce, people who have had their hands on the driving wheel with the bush administration. it will be difficult for them to make the claim that they represent a new turning of the page. third, campaigns matter. these will be close elections. many will be decided at the margins. we have been preparing for what we knew would be tough midterms from the very beginning. when people were still basking in the glow of the victory of president obama, democrats expanding majorities in the house, we were getting to work planning for what would clearly be choppy political waters, given the fact that in the last two cycles democrats have picked up 55 seats in all the swing districts in the country. we have a front line program

designed to help our members in the toughest tricks in terms of the resources for their campaigns. on the official site, these members have been more active than any classes in history, 2006 and 2010, in passing legislation that directly benefit their communities. the focus not only on front-line members, but also on the senior members, members who in 1994 got caught by this prize, making sure they took nothing for granted. we have a strong financial advantage, and we have put in place expensive field operations that are not designed simply as a last minute get out the vote, but have been placed around the country for months, knocking on doors, talking to voters, in the swing districts about these issues. we also made it -- make a clear

decision early on to stay on offense wherever possible. clearly, after picking up 55 seats over the last two elections, we have had to work hard in defending those members. wherever possible, we have stayed in offense, and there are a good number of what we call red-to-blue candidate out there competing for republican seats, and we are confident that we will pick up a good number of those. let me end by saying that just as republicans are currently prematurely popping the champagne bottles about november 2, they did the same thing in three special elections we have seen over the past two years. new york 20, new york 23, and pennsylvania 12. some of the same themes are playing out today. in new york 23, we saw that

local choice of the republican party was run out by a tea party candidate. he had been a moderate republican candidate, chosen by a local republican party. you had sarah palin and the tea party movement come in and essentially drive her out of the race. this is a district that had been held by the republicans since the civil war. in the case of pennsylvania 12, after the polls closed, republicans were telling folks that their candidate was going to win. what happened was the democratic candidate focused on the issues, economy, on the fact that his opponents had supported and benefited from some of these special tax breaks rewarded corporations to ship jobs overseas and focused on bread and butter issues, combined with a great field campaign operation that out the vote.

where republicans did not think democrats would come out the vote, they did in big numbers in that campaign. for the three reasons we've talked about today, the fact that this election prevent -- presents a clear choice moving forward and returning to the same policies that got us into this mess to begin with, the fact that you have republican candidate out of the mainstream in what are centrist, mainstream, swing districts, and the fact that we have been preparing from day one for what we knew would be very tough campaign season, i am confident that the democrats will retain control of the house, which will allow us to continue to move this country forward rather than go back. thank you for your attention today. i hope that we will have an opportunity between now and the election to have a traditional exchange between both of the

congressional campaign committee leaders, and with that i will be delighted to try to answer any questions you have. >> i will ask the first question, and then we will turn it over. was not give the right, there are enough seats in play, but you are thinking you will win this? >> this is a political town, and people need to understand when the phrase things certain way they get interpreted. that comment was interpreted to mean we have tough contested elections, but to suggest that the democrats would actually lose the house, even though that is not exactly what he said. that me say this. we have said from the beginning that these are going to be tough elections. this is primarily because the

democrats picked up 55 seats. in addition to the fact, you have a historical pattern, the president's party traditionally loses seats in off-year elections. for the reason i talked about it, the democrats will maintain control of the house mostly because people do not want to go back to what they know is a failed economic agenda. the amount we will go to questions now. >> thank you. you spoke about the advantages you have. you did not mention what your real deficit is, which is talk shows. unfortunately, you guys are not representative or represented in such an unfashionable way as to be statistically insignificant. talk to us about your concerns

in this area. >> you raise a good point, because despite the huge proliferation in sources of information that we see today, the fact is that many people tend to go to just certain sources of information. there is no doubt that you have a lot of very right-wing political talk radio and some very other stations that tend to focus on the republican position on issues, and that is no doubt a challenge, and it is one that we just ask americans to take into account as they listen to the information they are getting. it is the same issue we have with some of these third-party expenditures we are seeing around the country, which i hope to have a chance to talk about all was well. that there is a power to those voices. i would just ask the american

people to listen where they are coming from. there is some. , a time ago, where someone said that he hoped the president would fail. there were a number of republicans in the congress who said that does not sound right. i do not think any american would want the president of the united states to fail. within 24 hours after rush limbaugh got on the air, announcing that, he apologized. i do not underestimate the power of some of these outlets, but we have to counter them by trying to get the best information we can out there. >> your style is traditional washington gentleman's tone. what i know this is when you guys get lied about by your opposition, when they lie about the president, when they lie

, you members of congress a guys do not come out and say you have lied and prove the facts. why don't you do that? >> i think we do. one of the concerns americans have around the country is the tone of our politics. i think a lot of that style that you see on the other side, which i think you accurately describe in terms of the tone -- no doubt there are people who have misrepresented the facts. now, the fact that the matter is i do not think americans appreciate necessarily the total food fight. i believe at the end of the day people will look at the facts and information, but it is our job to get that information out there, and that is what you are going to be seen over the next

nine-plus weeks, in every one of these districts, people will be clearly defining process. we have spent the last 20 months trying to get the economy out of the ditch. now it is time to counter all the misrepresentations out there and present it as a choice. this goes to the point i referenced earlier. republicans would like the american people to have a collective case of amnesia, and they would like this to be a campaign only about the democrats and how you feel about washington. our point is when you go into that booth, you have choices, and we need to clearly articulate what those different choices are, and we started to lay that out clearly in the last couple weeks today in correcting a lot of the statements john boehner made in ohio. also, just making it clear that

the extent that they laid out an agenda, it is one that would take us back to the same failed policies. >> mr. van hollen, this week's sarah palin showed her muscle in the senate republican primary in alaska. what impact do you expect her to have in the general election in the house in november? >> you are already beginning to see that. esol as i mentioned earlier in in the new use ayou saw york 23, where they came in and endorsed a libertarian, and that is the effect that you are seeing from sarah palin. if you watch these republican primaries closely, there are

many instances now where the candidate that represented a more moderate republican has lost to the more extreme right candidate. these are swing districts. they are decided largely by independent voters, and independent voters do not want to return to a bush economic agenda on steroids. what a lot of these candidates are proposing is exactly that. b. defect you are seeing is one that moves -- the effect you are seeing is one of his people to the right and out of the mainstream. [unintelligible] there are two issues. one is the political energy issue and one is what impact they have on independent voters, ok? what you are seeing is as i said

they are driving the debate in the republican primary to the right and moving away from the centrist, sort of moderate, tempered the use of these districts. there is no doubt that there is political energy that will affect turnout. the mistake they are making is concluding by the end of the day you will not have a strong democratic turnout. it is exactly the mistake they made in pennsylvania 12. the reason they were claiming they were going to win that election, after the polls closed, all their modeling and assumption said that democrats are not going to turn out. what happened was, when people focus on the choices, focused on the issues, combined with a good ground operation, they did. >> raise your hand and we will go, this german, sick and wrote, right here. >> to drill a little bit on the budget discussion, is there any

hesitation among democrats about letting the bush tax cuts expire in december, given the state of the economy? >> a couple points. what republicans are calling for is a permanent extension of the portion of the bush tax cuts that benefited top 2%, which the congressional budget office would blow a $680 billion hole in the deficit. john boehner himself indicated that these long-term deficits are going to harm long-term economic growth, and yet that is exactly what they are proposing. the democratic position is that we should make sure that we provide tax relief to 90% of the american people, and to the

point with respect to the state of the economy, again, it has been proven by the eight years of the bush administration, and paraclete shown, that those tax cuts for the folks at the very not cause this roaring economic growth because the last day of the economic class of the bush administration, the economy was in free fall. you need that for long-term job growth is contrary to the history of the bush administration. >> good morning. abc news. i want to ask whether you were concerned about the recent democrat at we have seen that are running away from the leadership of minneapolis in an president obama.

>> the democratic leadership in congress have said all along that the job of a member of congress is to represent his or her constituents as best as they are able. they have to reflect the views and values of their constituents. one of the things that makes the democratic caucus different from the republican caucus is we have a spectrum of theological and philosophical views, and therefore, on any one issue, you'll find people who are voting with the present and voting the same way as the speaker, and on many cases, they will be voting the other way. that is what it means to be an independent member of congress. the fact that these members of congress are talking to there's constituents about how they vote on particular issues and that they are independent-minded members of congress, is an

appropriate thing for them to be doing. they should be laying out their record and talking to their constituents and demonstrating they are doing their job. >> independent writer. corporate profits are very high and so are banking profits, and what is the democratic position to get them to invest in a new capital equipment which will create jobs? on the other hand, the $8,000 subsidy for housing has artificially kept prices up and not stimulated new housing as the new numbers show. could you address this, please? >> on the first point, you are right, there are a lot of businesses, especially the larger businesses, that had greater capital, and the key is to make sure we continue what is a very fragile recovery and do everything we can to accelerate it. that is why it be such a

mistake to go backwards. john boehner has recently proposed, as i have said, canceling over 60,000 contracts and awards worth an estimated $260 billion. that is a sure way to start moving confidence -- moving the economy back and undermining confidence. what we need to be doing is passing the legislation that has already passed the house and is now being blocked by republicans in the senate to provide small businesses greater access to credit. the issue raises into larger businesses. smaller businesses are having difficult -- development -- different from which. -- different problems. where trying to increase their access to loans, and keep their

operations going and growing. this is why it is so maddening to see the republicans continue to block that in the house. with respect to the housing issue, this economic class whispers of the guided by years on why -- years on wall street and the games played in the mortgage market. it will take time to get out of this. legislation was successful in helping the housing market at the time when it was most vulnerable. we hope to see a recovery. we went from total freefall to stability, and now very fragile growth. we understand that the growth is fragile, but it would be a huge mistake to do the things that john boehner is proposing. >> i want to follow up, given on

it helped the housing situation for a while, is there a chance the leadership would extend credit? >> that is something, bob, that i think people may look at, we are focused right now primarily on trying to get more capital into the small business community. that is our focus right now, and that is what we want to get done, and we urge our republican colleagues in the senate to move quickly on that as soon as the senate reconvenes. >> ok, over there, modern health care. >> can we talk about the impact of the health reform law? are you confident this will be an advantage for you in the election? is there a concern that it will hinder you? thoughts on that? >> with respect to the issue, it is another measure that the republicans call to repeal.

and i do think when americans are asked the question, you want to repeal a provision that prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against kids, which is now in effect, you want to repeal a provision that says people can stay on their parents' insurance policy until the age 26, a policy that closes the donut hole so that seniors can afford prescription drugs? the american people and not want to go back on those issues. the health care reform bill represented a shift from eight years in which the health insurance companies called all the shots to a time where more power has been transferred to doctors and consumers. to bring down premiums over time, to get people more affordable choices. now, as you know, this goes back

to your earlier questions, there are members of the democratic caucus, who did not support health care reform and many who did. that will be a debate carried on in those districts, depending on particular votes. i would say it is very clear that the american people do not want to go back to a time where insurance companies had all the power during the eight years of the bush administration. premiums doubled and small buses were facing this increase in premiums, and profits quadruple. now small businesses have tax credits as of today to help provide their employees with health insurance at a time they are struggling. i do not think the american people want to repeal that and start all over from scratch. as we identify issues, we should fix them. i'm glad you raised that because there is an issue that deals

with section 1099. mr. john boehner raised this the other day in his speech. it is a provision that requires small businesses to report on payments they made exceeding $600. we had a vote in the house to repeal it. democrats proposed -- proposed repealing that provision. we pay for that by closing down loopholes. when faced with the decision, do you help small businesses by getting rid of what everyone agrees is an onerous provision or, again, supporting incentives to shift american jobs overseas, they voted to protect those overseas corporate profits. it was interesting to hear john boehner raise that issue, since, to a person, his colleagues voted against the opportunity to

repeal 1099. >> a question? >> political report. this is getting to be this season where we will start seeing a lot of ads from the other side, and the committee has reserved at time in over 60 districts so far. how coldblooded are you willing to be about strategy, and are you open at all over the course of the next month to pooling resources from races beyonce bifurcating and allocating them -- from races beyond saving? >> one is cold-blooded in the context of drawing a clear contrast, but you really meant in terms of hot making hard decisions about how we allocate

resources. our candidates on the first interpretation of the question, they are out there, they will be showing clear distinctions. the independent expenditure arm of the independence will decide the content of those ads. with respect to how we will make decisions, at the end of the day, we will look at races that we can win. the dccc cannot create a campaign from scratch and build a totally successful campaign, but we can be the booster rocket that helps a campaign get over the finish line. we will make our decisions primarily on two factors. one looks at the polling data, and the second looks at the organization and the funds available at the campaign so we

make a determination about whether or not those campaigns can be successful at the end of the day. >> "the washington post," over there somewhere. >> we have seen a bunch of republican polls out there in the last few weeks. we have not seen the democratic polls come out. are the polling day you are seeing refuting the republican'' in any way, and why you think, if the republican polls are off, what are they getting wrong in the methodology? >> the polling that i have seen does refute that. it does receipt that you have -- it does not refute the fact that you have a lot of close races, a lot of republicans running away with these races.

i believe that the main error in a lot of these polls is assumptions about turnout on the democratic side. it is the same reason, i have to go back to pennsylvania 12, the same reason that republicans were popping the champagne balls after the polls closed in -- the champagne bottles after the polls closed in pennsylvania 12. the result of your pole will be driven entirely by the assumptions you make. turnout is a difficult thing to gauge, especially in a year like this. we have to look at the facts. on the one hand, it is true in poland today, if you try to measure the political energy level, you have got folks on the right who are running out the door but the campaigns have not happened yet. most of the activity will take place in the next nine and a

half weeks. that is when the messages will be sharpened and our kames have been doing a whole lot of field work that has been going on on a regular basis for months now, and you are seeing the energy level rapidly rise on the democratic side. in fact, this saturday, tomorrow, we will have our national day of action. we will lock on over 200,000 doors across the country. withricts75 thousands of volunteers each, and if you are listening, you can sign up at dccc.org. getting back to the question, it all depends on these turnout assumptions.

i think they have been miscalculating democratic turnout. >> we will come back to decide now. in the back. >> cbs. i am curious about your thoughts rally tomorrow.'s he says it is not going to be political. >> it is blatantly political. come on. talkingn glenn beck about this election for the last 15 months since the day president obama was elected president. you have had a constant tirade against the president, against democratic efforts to get the economy turned around. let's call it what it is. it is a plan to it -- it is a

blatant political effort. going back to the earlier questions here, that americans are going to be turned off by the sort of outrageous rhetoric on the right, conspiracy theories, rants. there is certainly an element of the electorate that is charged up by that, but it is a turnoff to the sensible center, and the people who constitute the keep independent voters in the swing districts. they see that kind of stuff, and they say, we do not want to go there. the policies of the previous eight years of the bush administration were bad enough. these guys are way off on the right. >> over there? >> pbs.

i want to know if you guys have any plans to use president obama or for president clinton to campaign for some of your honorable members? >> i think both will be on the campaign trail. president obama has already been making some stops and run the country. i am sure that schedule will accelerate and intensify in the next five and a half months. the president understands what is at stake. he does not want to present the republicans with an opportunity to turn back the clocks to the earlier policies. the same with bill clinton. he has been out there. bill clinton was helping in this pennsylvania 12 special election, the york 20 special election. they are very much out there. >> are they asking to coordinate

that in any way? >> our members have been asking, and we will be working with the president and the white house to make the best use of the president's time and a former president's time. >> any questions? >> i have trouble getting my mind around your optimism here. >> identify yourself. >> bloomberg. how you account for the fact that in florida, a swing state, which will be crucial in his reelection in 2012, the turnout for republicans was almost 50% more than in the democratic primary, which people say is an enthusiasm gap in florida voters? >> you typically see it in primaries.

you see higher republican turnout. i could point still whole slew of candidates, members of congress today who, when they had their primaries, there was a lower turnout and republican primaries for the same offices. because people are motivated by different issues, and i think the choice in november is going to be very different than the choices people are making in republican primaries. a lot of the activity you are seeing in the republican primaries is driven by the division between the tea party republican candidates and the more mainstream republican candidate. that is driving a whole lot of that turned out activity. you saw that in arizona, too. you had a statewide election, primary on the republican side.

you had some big races that are again, i go back to the most recent test case. we did have a big senate primary. if you look at the turnout numbers, that turned out in pennsylvania 12 was much higher for democrats and republicans, because that particular campaign, in terms of the message campaign and the ground operation, helped bring out

democratic vote. i can go back to the most recent data point we have. >> where are some of these red to blue districts you are talking about? >> we will have to bring them to their attention. there are a number of congressional districts where you have a high democratic performances that voted overwhelmingly for president obama. you have delaware open seat, illinois 810, you have louisiana, a democratic seat,

where the incumbent was elected three weeks after the national election because of scheduling in louisiana elections. you have a white, where in the special election we just saw the democratic combined got 60% of the vote, but because of a special election rule they split the vote. then you have a lot of other districts where you have strong candidates. in many cases they have outraised the republican incumbents. they have strong arguments to be made, and the full list of those red-to-blue candid this can be dccc website. there is a narrower band of territory to compete on offense,

but we are still doing it and made a calculated decision to do whatever we could on that front. hello there. in your opinion, in the media, saying that the the democrats will lose house seats, is there anything to that? >> you have a lot of folks, a lot of them inside washington, if you go around most of the country, people are going about their daily lives trying to make ends meet.

i can tell you that they are not that focused right now on all the ins and outs of the horserace in washington. my sense is that you have a lot of chatter going on. it has been a fact from the beginning that this was going to be a tough election for the democrats. i think you'll find , looking at historical cycles, we have one close to 100% of seats. all of that being said, i am confident the american people will not want to turn back. you have a lot of republican candidates. i am confident the democrats will take a majority. i think that the more voters

focus on those choices and the more that they listen to john boehner and what the republicans said they would do, to the extent people think it is a real possibility that could happen, then they will be even more motivated to come out because the american people do not want to go back. if i could say one word about the third party ads, there are a lot of groups on the right spending a lot of money to influence voters and influence the elections. they are on the air right now. our message to voters is they were. tried to take the time to find out or at least ask yourself who is running ads and paying for them. one of the reasons democrats want the disclose act was

because we wanted voters to know who is paying for the ads. our republican colleagues voted to keep people in the dark. and right now as a result of the supreme court decision, foreign- controlled corporations can secretly spend as much money as they want in these elections and nobody would know. they are not looking after american interests. they are looking after whatever interest they may have. it is just common sense that the american people have a right to know who is paying for this advertising. one of the group's spending a lot is americans for prosperity. it is a group created by david koch. it so happens that his

subsidiaries not long ago received the and outsourcing toward from a group that soucers.es great out sorcerer' but the message is americans need to understand the reasons out-of-state groups are standing -- spending millions is because they have an economic interest in supporting in this case the republican opponent. americans for prosperity is not interested in american prosperity. they are interested in the prosperity of corporations and individuals who benefited greatly from the bush economic agenda. we believe the voters need to ask themselves that question and calling upon these groups that are on the air to tell them who

is paying for these ads, why are they running these ads supporting these republican candidates? these groups are not interested in charity. they are interested in republican candidates who will support their economic special interests. >> i think we have no more questions. is there anything else you would like to add? >> thank you all for being here. it looks like everyone -- the congress will reconvene soon. having spoken with our members around the country, who are actively engaged every day with their constituents, that they are encouraged by the fact that americans are an optimistic people.

one thing americans always want to do is move forward. americans do not want to go back and they don't want to go back to the kind of policies that got us into the deepest trouble to begin with. thanks very much. thanks for having me. announcement.e adults mea join us on monday at 10:00 for two federal judge is discussing personal threats and security concerns. randall frye, president of the association of administrative law judges and who we have the president of the national association of immigration judges and other judges will participate in this important event. congressman van hollen, thanks very much. we are adjourned. >> thank you very much.

h[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

[inaudible] what we are focused on when it comes to these issues are, first, and making sure we don't

blow the $680 billion deficit. we want to extend the middle- class tax cuts, which benefits 98% of the american people. what is unfortunate is the republicans have taken the position that unless you have a permanent extension of that portion of the bush tax cuts that helps the top 2%, where an overwhelming number of people in that category make over $1.5 million a year, that is what is currently holding up moving forward with the middle-class tax cuts. >> it is not just republican thinking it is a bad idea to roll back the tax cuts. a lot of democrats want that extended at least for one year. if you had a vote in the house this fall, you would sustain the president's position of repealing matt? -- that?

>> the bacillus you have a prominent extension, the republicans, but you can have other variations -- the republicans are holding up continued relief from middle income americans. but they have said unless you get a permanent extension, we would have nothing. >> could you pass the president's position in the house today? >> i believe we could. for all the reasons we have talked about. people are nervous about the economic stability, making sure we have a foundation. it has been driven by those in

history that not succeed. if that was the prescription for economic growth and jobs, we would not have seen the end of the movie. >> [unintelligible] >> here is the difference. the democrats want to extend for the long term the tax cuts. the republicans have said they will not do that unless you prominently extend tax cuts for the top 2%. -- prominently -- permanantly. >> congressman mccarthy has said there could be 82 seats in play. >> there are seats that are very much in play and other seats

theoretically in play. i don't know how he is measuring that. is includingif he the number of republican seats that are in play. we have 42 from nine members. -- front line members. then we have patrick kennedy's seat. some of those are open. so you kind of look at that list. we don't get to that kind of number. again, this is a --how you draw the lines inside washington, but we don't have that. >> which seed concerns you the

most of the three competitive races in indiana? >> we are taking none of those races for granted. they are all going to be competitive. at the end of the day the democratic candidates will win. he has been through this and has d.ttle-testee ste jowell donnelly is ready. and [inaudible] we are involved in all of those three seats. thank you all very much.

there are different variations that are possible. the reason the republican position is important is anything you do has to get out of the senate's. the deposition is there but not -- even if you wear to do -- even if you did not to a ant extension of middle- class tax cuts and 01-year extension of the 2% tax cut, the

republicans would not approve it. unless it were for the long term. the democrats do not want a permanent break for the top 2% of americans. >> [inaudible] >> why do you want this job? job.have the worst >> in a recent column the writer said it's time to and did that what we have now is not a recovery and during decanter

change the situation. would you agree with him that we have now is not a recovery? >> it is a very fragile recovery. i would agree with him that we need to do more. that is why we need to get this small business lending bill unfair. that would create a pool of $30 billion that could be leveraged for a lot of small businesses. that is why it is so important to pass that legislation. >> with unemployment at 9.5%, the stimulus work or has it done what the president and democratic congress thought it would? >> the stimulus has stabilized the economy, it got us out of a free-fall. the nonpartisan congressional budget office has been degraded that between 1.3 million and 3.3 million jobs available not be there but for the recovery. we wish there had been more job

creation, but it is a sign that the economy was in far worse shape than anyone realized. we were a bottomless. we were digging allyson of digging out of a hole. our focus right now is getting small business lending bill passed. it would be a big help to small businesses. i hope our republican colleagues will listen. >> thank you. >> democrats maintain a majority in this election, what do we see in the democratic agenda? >> the budget enforcement act that we passed, a blueprint for this year, calls for -- actually cuts below the

president's proposal for non- security domestic discretionary freeze, so arbuckle further reduce debt. you'll see further tightening in the years ahead, putting us on a path toward making sure that we reduce the deficit. the pay-go rule, we saw that in operation recently. it does create a mechanism to enforce greater fiscal discipline. people are waiting to see what the president's commission has. >> what kind of tightening do you mean? >> the chairman of the committee is going through the programs and scrubbing them line by line, looking for savings. we had legislation that cut hundreds of billions of dollars in previously approved projects from any prior years where the authorization was there, but the money was not being well spent.

that was done. i think there is an amendment on that. >> i appreciate it. >> nice to see you. >> [talking all at once] >> did that work? i am sorry. i was not looking.

all right. >> thank you very much. thanks for joining us. >> [inaudible] >> i do remember that, actually. >> so, thank you very much. >> from the national press club this morning, democratic congressional campaign committee chairman chris van hollen, from maryland, offering his take on the upcoming elections. also spending time on the extension of tax cuts. he spoke about a house minority leader john boehner's remarks on the economy. you can see those remarks on our website on c-span.org. we do have a repository of

related information for you. watch campaign rallies and events, concession and the three speeches and related but pages all available at our website, c- span.org. looking now at preparations for tomorrow's glenn beck reilich of one of two taking place in the city this weekend. later today will hear from the americans for prosperity foundation. speakers include virginia gov. bob mcdonnell at 1:00 eastern live on c-span. we do have rallies tomorrow, beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern with glenn beck and his restore honor event from the lincoln memorial. we will also cover al sharpton and his valley, reclaim the dream, at dunbar high school in washington. we will have coverage later tomorrow afternoon on c-span.

>> we have plenty of people in government that all of us can talk to inside d.c., but what we need to do is get, the beltway and across america and here from our constituents. >> while congress is on break, some members of holding town hall meetings in their districts. we have been covering them. what spam online at the c-span video library if and see what's your member of congress has said from across the country to the house floor. it is free on your computer any time. >> the young america's foundation held its annual conservative student conference in washington earlier this month. speakers included members of congress, scholars, and conservative activists. this portion is just under an hour.

knopf >> i did not even have to ask you guys to quiet down. you are a good group. give yourself round of applause. i like to introduce myselfevean . an gaston. even pesto -- gassman. click on plus our mission through conferences, seminars, internships with yale, and the national journalism center, and by providing speakers to students across the country. with the want to work and protected the reagan ranch in santa barbara, california. these visits are website for more. also, follow us on twitter at

yaf. this panel will talk about the tea party. big deal. [applause] absolutely. as i said in my introduction, the young americans foundation is the principle of reach organization for young conservatives. the question that this panel will seek to answer is why should young people be concerned about the tea party? young americans foundation has sponsored many events. we are primarily a student outreach organization. we want to decide is this something and people should be concerned about. i think it is, personally. the panelists will speak about that at length. our first speaker is john o'hara, president of external relations with the alibaba policy institute, author of the

new book "american tea party," which will be available after the panel. [applause] >> i like to thank the young america's foundation for putting this on. events like this are very important to bring up the next generation of leaders considering the fall position -- the fall political position is one of radical liberalism. a year or so ago i was very concerned with the direction our country was headed. a popularly elected president promised to fundamentally transformed united states of america. arrowed leaders and newspapers across the world claimed the free market was dead, capitalism was-dead was ahead- world leaders claimed.

cap and trade, a government-run health care, union handouts, and more. this radical agenda would not advance without a strong and successful [unintelligible] on february 19, 2009 rick stood up for the chicago board of trade and put his foot down and expressed concern about the moral hazards of bailing out irresponsible individuals and corporations. he was not the first to express these views, but it was his rant that sparked a civic reawakening that we now know as the modern tea party movement. people began to organize using social networking tools like facebook and twitter and old fashioned tools like websites and e-mails. [laughter] from baqouba tea party as of

april to august health care town hall protests to the enormously successful 9/12 march that others in the movement put on, more and more americans involved themselves in the political process. they are not on the opening their eyes and taking to the streets, but they are probably foundinging the p principles of our nation that the young america's foundation believes in. today democrats still have control of congress and the white house. despite the concerns of their uneducated and confused constituents, they show no signs of relenting to deliver this brave new america. i stand today more hopeful than othever about the state of our nation. tea party members are getting results.

this reaffirms what most of us all believe and have witnessed, which is that our country is a center-right nation. people are more often than not in line with our principles of individual liberty and limited government. if we are seeing incumbents dropping out of races because they have competition. our president was so short that he would usher in the audacious agenda with ease, expressed his preference for 01-term presidency of a lackluster two- term presidency. his third optiont of a lackluster 1-term presidency. with approval numbers dipping after day, he might get that. what is the tea party movement really? i have spoken a little about this in my book.

i referenced a gentleman named e wrote the, h handbook of the modern radical left. he refers to a counterrevolution to the policies and tactics that we are seeing adopted day in and day out in washington and state capitals across the country. i think the tea party movement is that counterrevolution. it is an instinctive american backlash to a government that is grossly overstepped its bounds and is exemplified in the bailouts and handouts and persistent pursuit of radically expanding the size and scope of government. the tea party movement serves as a vindication of this country is really center-right. people are realizing that in rejecting the false hope of big government as sole protector and provider or that the election of

barack obama was anything of an overcorrection down a dangerous path. people are standing up and realizing someone will have to pay for the bailouts and reckless spending. it is you and me. most important, more and more americans are realizing that more freedom and not more government if is practical for prosperity. how does the tea party affect young people? it is not an interest group that can be won over by politicians. it is the core of what you all and we all are fighting for. it is about limited government, market, and individual liberty. many people say, what is this new tea party movement? are they libertarian or conservatives both this is an uprising of people, more and more people coming to the polls to work on what many people on

campuses and my fellow panelists have been working on for years. polling indicates the tea party is mainstream, broadly represents the country as a whole. more and more americans identifying with the tea party movement and believe it is on track, compared to barack obama and this congress. at the tea party is the definition of a mainstream. it presents a unique opportunity particularly for young people as a gateway into the conservative movement. i think you should look at it as an opportunity, we all should. are you out there with them marching? who has been to a tea party? wonderful. who has organized a tea party? fantastic. the tea party movement is a popular wave, a grass-roots uprising. what will you do to ride the

waves in your city or on your campus to maximize the impact of this counterrevolution? while the tea party does tend to skewed towards an older generation, the issues that the tea party focuses on and many of the most important issues we are facing today as a nation are very much about the future of our country. we are drowning in debt. roughly half a million in debt per taxpayer. do you have that in your bank account? are you going to be able to pay that when you graduate? "when it increases in 5 or 10 years? your friends where they expect that money to come from? there are bail outs and handouts bank of thing our country and your generation is going to have to pick up the tab, our generation. these are not sexy issues, but they are serious issues.

when i was your age on my campus i always found it frustrating when people would say, john, you are passionate, but you are not going to convince anyone to change anyone's mind. if people are the way they are. i reject that premise and i will you do. otherwise, what is the point of being here? there is a middle that decides both elections that can be persuaded. think about not only preaching to the quiet but making converts. when you get into political discussions, things in and manage your peers will digest them. you don't want the stubborn philosophical opposition to bailouts without any supporting evidence, that would be boring. personalize the high-stakes that our country is facing excess. and the game politicians are playing with your future. if you know someone is graduating, explain to them how big government policies of this

and the last administration are suppressing the job creation and those are employment opportunities they will not have. make the case for them why the conservative movement speaks to them and is right for them. we are where we are deciding what kind of country we are going to be. will we depend on the government is slowly subjugate or will we be a nation of independent, liberty-minded individuals able to pursue our own versions of the american dream? this is not just for older folks or politicians, but the what the tea party is working for is as much for your future as for the year and now. get out and get busy. don't let a good counterrevolution go to waste. [applause] >> next we will hear from president and ceo of frieden

works purity has been with them 12 years. on august 17 his new book "to give us liberty" will be released. you can pre-order on amazon.com. kapoor [applause] >> i want to start off by quoting my favorite scholar bob dylan hit. does anyone torture themselves by reading "rolling stone" tazeen? i do. this is from 1996. i think it captures the tea party. a republican politician says, "i don't expect politicians to solve anyone's problems. we have to fix our own problems. the world owes us not a single thing. politicians or whoever."

the editor of the magazine was incredulous and he said, "who's going to solve our problems?" he responded, all in selves -- our own selves. there is a decentralization that suggests it is not your typical political uprising that we all notice after the fact that politicians have screwed up our economy. both republicans and democrats. we rise up and in a lot of ways is too louay to fix anything because of bad policies have already been passed. what bob dylan is saying

is that politics is too important to leave to politicians. politics is politics. they respond to incentives and there are certain reasons why they disappoint us, because they are responding to the people that show up. this is the power of the tea party. every time you go to a political speech, what do you hear? he says i'm going to go to washington and changed the culture in washington and then they come back two years later having really screwed up washington and they say it again. it is a cynical for politics. george bush promised to do it. barack obama promised to do it. nancy pelosi promised to drain the swamp and be a fiscal conservative. they all do it. what you need to understand is we don't need to change the culture in washington. we need to change the culture in

tacoma, washington. we need to change the culture so that people that live in america if understand what the founders of dust when they said you have to be eternally vigilant. if you don't stay involved in this process, we will lose this country. they said it before the ink was dry on the constitution. somewhere along the way, we lost this tradition. we decided that publishing 40- page papers on why we should fix social security before it goes bankrupt, was going to be compelling to politicians that respond to incentives and not ideas, was a bad strategy. 1998 i was looking at a lot of leftist literature and i found a website for a radical leftist group called the ruckus society, the ones that'll start riots in seattle during inwto meeting. -- during the wto meeting.

they teach young people how to blow things up. they had a training manual. they said look at the boston tea party, look at how sam adams organized the boston tea party. when i saw that i said when did we give our tradition to the bad guys? shouldn't we take that back? rick stumbled into this, but it was a perfect fit when he said let's thave a tea party. he was introducing a tradition that went back to our founding. that is our tradition. glenn beck had a program on friday and he was talking about a lot of allure is mostly driven by the left that the tea party is somehow falling apart, but there's all this squabbling and

people are down because obama passed his terrible health care bill, the financial regulation bill. i would argue the opposite is going on. we have gotten farther as a community in changing the dynamics of politics in washington, public opinion, and our political prospects in the fall than anyone have a right to think about a year ago. everyone thought back then it was the end of the world and what are we all doing here? there is a lot of power in what is going on. if it is decentralization that has been enabled by the internet that allows people to go right around the republican party, right around the democratic party. you don't have to listen to the three networks anymore to get your information. they go get it for themselves. if you look at 8 blog hand competitive sources of

information, it reflects what an austrian economists use to call the spontaneous order. the market process by which all of the little bits of knowledge in society came together and through cooperation and produced marketplaces, produced knowledge that allowed people to effectively organize their lives, to better their communities, and create products people wanted. that is what is going on in the tea party movement. did anyone march on september 12? anyone come to washington? just a couple. all of these guys did. we were privately thinking, we are going to get 100,000 people. it was almost arrogant. we have never organized 100,000 people in washington before. so we had to expand our microphone system. we had to expand the number of

toilets and the number of security so that we could keep our permits and the park service would let us continue to do the event. we got 10 times that many people. we got 1 million people, and it shut down the city and shut down the metro system and it completely overwhelmed our facilities and our sound. nobody could get where they wanted to go and get the bill was not a single fight for rest or a single problem the whole day. if that is because this community is self-organizing, self-policing. they believe in these values that we talk about like freedom and individual responsibility. it is different than the character that you see on the press. none of these organizations could have organized 1 million people on to the mall that day. it is because there are thousands of leaders across the country, maybe tens of thousands, who each of them did

the hard work of bringing people here. they organized buses. they did a lot of good internet and networking that allowed them for the first time in their lives to find people in their community that agreed with them and wanted to do something. 12 months ago, in the old days, we had to introduce people that live in the same community to each other. we don't have to do that anymore. they can find each other. organizing fort themselves. they can go online and get information and find thousands of groups like ours to tell them how to do what they are trying to do. that is the incredible power we have. i could count 7000 buses that had organized through our web site. that was probably one of 100 communities and most of all: i

did not know. that is why we did not know how many people were coming. we got 1 million people. the opportunity for us today is threefold. the first few will be obvious to everyone. we have to beat the republicans before we can beat the democrats this fall. you're looking at the republican establishment, whether it be taking out bennett in utah, digging out charlie crist in florida during the republican establishment is really angry at us right now. that suggest that we are getting something done. they want to speak with who is in charge so that they can cut a deal and say back off. they cannot find the person in charge because there'll lot of people in charge. the people are defined by

values, not what they are going to get from a special relationship to a congressman or what they're going to get some earmark or a cap and trade group. they don't care about any of that. they care about basic things like the government should not spend money it does not have, the government cannot run vehicle companies, the government should not take over my notes year because they don't know how to do it and it is not appropriate anyway. it is not in our constitution 40 tools our country was founded on. this used to be -- i always thought this was a silent minority, the people that held these values. as we have discovered in the tea party movement and in public opinion polls, there's broad spread sympathy for the tea party. americans had these values but they did not know how to find each other. they looked at the republican party and the democratic party in said i don't have a home

politics, so i'm going to yell at my tv and watch from the background at altink falls apart. if people don't believe that anymore. they are in pallet. empowered. they find a lot of people all around the country just like them. we are moving into this -- at some point we have to put down are signs and start showing results. what you are seeing is the party candidates either self-defined or just people that have embraced these values are taking out to sitting republicans that have failed us in primaries across the country. it is happeningt everywhere isim scott, a black tea party candidate, pete the son of strom

thurmond in south carolina. -- tim scott. this is going on throughout the the republican establishment. -- he defeated the son of strom thurmond. there needs to be a referendum on obamacare. even though republicans will try to screw it up, i am optimistic there will be a big change who in the elections. the most important thing we can all do, if you want to become part of this community, if you want to be a leader in your community, the most important thing we have to understand is november 3 is more important than november 2. if you let a new generation of politicians, even guys you think are good in their hearts, if you leave them alone, the incentives in this town are all

wrong and they are either going to be isolated and become ineffective or they will become part of the problem if you leave them on their own. you have to stay engaged. the community has to stay committed not just to the values, but the idea that you are always there, you are always old and these guys accountable. it is a lifetime commitment, we cannot fix washington and then go home. what is interesting about the tea party today -- i have been trying to do this for my entire professional career. what is exciting about what is going on today is i think this community is sustainable and it is growing. i think it is a home for the silent majority of people who share these values. that is readying power is. i am looking for to getting there. thank you.

>> thank you for that. last but not least is lisa, the sepang director at the american conservative union. the conservative political action group. without further ado, here is lisa. >> thank you. how many people have been or are planning to go? [laughter] i think it is three. what they spoke about, what many people don't know is the first d.c. tea party was held during cpac in 2009.

we did not have anything to do with it, it's sort of came along organically. if people knew that a bunch of conservatives will going to be in town. i want to reference that in relation to how conferences and things like that can help and what you can do on your campus. i am going to talk about a tale of two conferences. one is to take back america or america's future now!, which is the lefty version of cpac. they tell the media that they are like the lefty cpac, but they cannot compare. we have debates at cpac. they have debates about those that want to tax the rich purse is those that want to tax the wealthy. they have debates on whether the american health-care system should be like cuba or canada.

they do talk about some things. let me give you a couple of examples of some of the panel's they have. the economy, kick them when they're down, how the right plans to come back and what we want to do about it, tackling the big money obstacles to a progressive agenda, and taking on the folks who stand in the leg. they are unfocused on monday. what is interesting is i went to one last year with some of our staff. in the exhibit hall most of them are young in spirit among the attendees, most of the students -- or not even students, most of the young people are wearing a coat and tie and sitting behind tables, which means there are there because they are paid to be there. it is their job. it is not the most organic conference you have seen. they adored using the word "-."

"narrative." we have a great narrative and that is the tea party. people want to make a difference and they want something done in d.c. one of the speakers at the take back america conference said -- conservatism is "a movement about nothing and i employed the american people to turn their backs on it." why all of this imploring? they are in power, and the house, the senate, they are in the white house and they are saying conservatism is on the way out. but one of the things i think you can point to is what each movement's future looks like. and that is certainly within the students that attendees conferences. at cpac 2010, more than half of

the attendees were college students. he compared that to america's future now!, the largest conference, because i will graded on a curve, 3000 attendees. they did not release an estimate of the number of students that attended but they did have a straw poll. of the 727 respondents, only 24% said they were between 18 and 24. by contrast, cpac straw poll, 56% were under 25. track think you can look at the newly converted in order to see where this movement is going. another thing in the exhibit halls, at cpac we have over 10 organizations dedicated to reaching out to students, mentoring students, and that is over 100 groups total. none of them are labor units.

at tailback america, 20 organizations in the hall and seven were later units. cpac 2010 and -- 2009 and 2010, we honored young leaders, about speech codes on campus -- and they will be here this afternoon. we also honored tea party organ as art -- organizers, with the ronald reagan award. america's future now on a union boss, a corn later and chairman of insurance company at their gala. the organizer of take back america saying this is a gathering of a movement coming into its own power, confident that the american people are moving our way. she concluded -- this is no longer a protest movement. he is totally right. it is not a protest movement because they have nothing to protest. there in the house, the senate, the white house.

the radicals who were on the streets are now running the government. and we need to make sure that we are not going to let them be comfortable with that. the majority of those that go to your conservative campus lectures, that reads conservative opinion piece in your school paper will not join the college republicans, will not become conservative activist or attend cpac or even attend a tea party but they all get to vote in november. and i think right now that needs to be our ultimate goal, conservative victories in november. so don't be afraid to engage people at a level that is going to get them interested. in a newspaper article, snooki was right, talk about the tax, oranges the new black. more people saw snooki's rant about obama and the tx then

watched keep all berman all week. so you can make a difference. i want to sort of leave you with this, as we gear up for the november elections, i think it is helpful to draw on victories from the reagan revolution, the people who were the old guard because we forget that those who were -- the old guard now were our age when they can pay for goldwater, campaigned for reagan organize the very first cpac, wrote books like "god and man" at yale and they did it without computers, facebook, the internet. the stakes are high now and the american people are on our -- at our side. don't forget the conservative revolution in 2010 started with the tea party and we need their help in beijing people in the college campus to make sure we have conservative victories in november. thanks. [applause] >> this might just be a wild

guess, but that might be one of the only panels we have that discusses jersey shore and snooki. it's just a random observation. we are going to go ahead and take questions. we have two microphones. i am sure you have a lot of questions regarding the tea party. >> my name is naftali rifkin. of the new tea party caucus -- how does it hinder or help what is supposed to be a grass roots movement? >> i guess the question is for anybody. >> it was michelle bachmann, right, that announced it i guess last week or something i think it is a sign of success.

i did not know whether or not the tea party caucus itself becomes important or not. we will wait and see what happens. but what you see is you have candidates from both political parties, and even phonies. everybody is trying to pretend they are a tea party guy now. so, we are like the cool kids and everybody wants to get up on our stage. i think we have to make sure that we continue to police our communities so we don't get any phonies but we get people committed to those ideas. and i want to make sure the tea party caucus days true to those values as well because these are in fact politicians, with all due respect to them. >> what is interesting is none of the republican leadership signed on. neither the wit or minority leader. i am wondering if that spoke anything about the republican party. >> my chairman is a guy named dick armey, and he was one of

the engineers of the republican revolution in 1984 and i -- 1994 and i was working on capitol hill in 1993 and watched from the back benches. you always have to bring the republican caucus kicking and screaming on to good policy ground. i don't know why it is. just accept that. just like gravity, it is how they are. i think if you privately spoke to republican leaders on the helm, they are more nervous about us than supporters. i think they agree with a lot of what we are talking about but they don't like the fact that they are not in charge. they are afraid we are going to push them to stand on too policy grounds. the idea of contract from america, it solicited thousands of ideas from the community at large and it's put together a document. a lot of challengers are signing

the document. the republican establishment is telling their guys and not to. we've got to get them to come our way. >> thank you. >> my question is for matt kibbe. you mentioned we should kind of take control -- us, but certain situations such as the bp oil spill where almost immediately the obama administration said we will step in and take complete control. shouldn't be in hands of the people with education and those who make a mistake? >> yes, i have a friend, an economist at george mason that have been interested -- interesting insight. he argued that obama, given how he approaches everything, he approaches everything from a top-down, i am in control right away. he always assigns a bureaucrat or agency to take complete control and kept everyone else out of the process, including

keeping materials and ships from other countries from coming over and helping because he supported the jones act and the union guys that like that. given that it was a unique problem that apparently no one was prepared for, it would have been a better idea to have an open-ended discovery process where some innovative ideas might have come from, some private sector company looking to frankly make a lot of money to solve a problem. and he did not do that and i think in a lot of ways he let the thing go on a lot longer than it should have. >> i am from georgia tech -- my question is the impact of tea party cannot over all. i know they will play a huge role in the november election, but as you pointed out, the role

in the primary elections. i guess for every success we have seen in utah and florida, for example, i think there is at least in my home state of georgia of a failure of the tea party candidates to win in the primary. do you think the tea party, most effective in the republican apparatus or best as an outside -- outside movement to put more pressure on both parties in a more general of side way? inside track or outside track that will have the tea party goals more successfully realized. >> i will field this one. i did not think they are mutually exclusive. depending on where you are in the country, sometimes the republican party, typically, more in line with tea party but i think we said and the crux of what matt was talking about in your question is very important, applying pressure to

both parties. matt talked about the day after election as being the day to remember. because the reason we got in the mess we are in now is because people in this room, many of you -- how many of you could vote? almost everybody. ok. i do not how many elections -- probably a couple at most. but conservatives, libertarians, used to looking for the guy and washing their hands and go back to running their business or living their lives and calling it a day. but what recent political events have shown us is you cannot trust the republican label of a conservative label or even somebody says i am the tea party candidate for being a sturdy vehicle for political policy, keep them in check. looking at not just labels or personalities but the substance. the short answer is a little bit of both. but keeping that pressure on when people are in office i

think is very important. >> a couple of additional thoughts on that. i personally don't think third parties win, and as a political strategy, starting a third party is a bad idea. i would like to say our job is to take over the republican party, not to join it. [applause] the other thing we need to appreciate it is how the republican caucus will function in the house and senate. it is always driven by the people i call the legislative of japan and ours. it does not have to be a majority of the caucus but it could be a small, energetic minority. jim demint is a one member caucus in the senate that i think is very effective. but in this new senate, i would like to believe you would have ran the ball, you were have mark rubio -- rand paul, marco rubio,

sharron angle, that will be the center of gravity. you will not win every senate seat but you will fundamentally shifted what issues the new talking about. so, when scott brown is on the senate floor and he is forced to vote whether or not to help the unemployed instead of voting to extend benefits one more time which we know is kind of a dead end solution, he can actually vote on the demint proposal to eliminate the capital gains tax to grow new jobs. that is the dynamic we are shooting for. we are not going to win it everyone, we should not let the perfect fit at enemy of the good but we can ship the center of gravity. >> ron meyer -- i not a lot of people in the tea party, especially when it got started thought it was mainly a populist movement and some people think freedomworks, tea party express, sarah palin are micromanaging

the movement. it is turning some people off because they see a former insider -- i have respect for dick armey but he is a former insider and for him to try to become the head of the tea party movement -- cpac, i did not think has -- but freedomworks. >> and you guys should always be conscious of that and make sure nobody takes over the tea party. the mythology that dick armey is taking over is kinda funny because every time he gets on tv he makes the point i am not in charge of this, i did not want to be, this is a movement of the people and there are thousands, if not towns -- tens of thousands of liters. this kind of goes back to sol olinski's did i forget which rule, the left wants to identify a leaders of the end destroyed the leader and destroy the tea party.

they say sarah palin is the head of the tea party and go after sarah palin and and 20 other leaders pop up. that is what is so different about this. you have to protect this e. sells in this movement. i think our job at freedomworks is to be of service to leaders who want to do something. dick armey was majority leader. i think he brings out some knowledge about how legislators act in congress and frankly, what went wrong last time. i used to work for the republican national committee. i worked on the hill. i personally consider myself a tea partier, but as a group that supports the tea party part of my job is to bring what i know to the table -- not to tell other people what to do but to try to help and grow this community. >> here is the difference between freedomworks and cpac -- lisa touched on but conference would ever paid people.

freedomworks -- other groups, they are facilitators. they are collecting -- connecting people. a big part of it is the narrative the media put out. the left pays protesters. acorn did it, organizers for america did it, you might have seen a piece in "the wall street journal" where unions protesting non-union shops are hiring non- union labor and minimum wage to run their picket lines. it is the left projecting -- it is very much a grassroots thing and i think groups like lisa's and others just bring some expertise to the table and facilitate. i can say that but i think some credibility, with either of innovation. that is my two cents. >> whoever wants to build this question. james carroll i am from georgia, and in georgia a lot of the participants in georgia are

conservative leaning old people, but the leadership, those again appointed to leadership are libertarian and they caused the tea party to endorse more libertarian candidate. a d think it is the purpose of the tea party movement to endorse candidates or should they let people decide on their own? >> take a shot. >> i don't know if anyone heard who won the straw poll at cpac this past. here is the thing -- things like straw polls and endorsing candidates, a lot of times when it comes from a leader it is just one ability to organize. a small group of people sometimes can organize into a big result. as far as endorsing candidates, i think, because there are so many tea party groups you kind of have to live up to what they want their goal to be paired sometimes have to be voter education. if there are people who identify themselves as tea partieers,

maybe they are more independent -- not political minded, it may help them to know what is the candidate but there are others motivated toward policy and actions or ideas and you have to let those groups do what they wanted it. it depends on the community and individual leaders. as far or -- of whether or not to endorse a libertarian, as long as the discussion is happening, even someone more libertarian-minded and a two- party system is going to be the republican. >> [inaudible] >> what can be the take-home

message and not from the bretibart situation, but naacp, tea party, what is the take on that and a whole situation? >> i actually got to debate ben ous causey actually call that dick armey by name. this is a political tactic left is using to change the conversation away, issues we have been talking about earlier. size of government, economy, proper role of government, whether the health-care bill was a good idea. they don't want to talk about that because the american people are agreeing with us broadly. it is a nasty business. they play the race card. it is because they did not have any more cards left in their deck. that said, i think you need to be very aggressive about

policing your local communities. this is a color blind movement. if you ever waited through a tea party crowd -- i realize everyone is a little bit different than anyone, you will meet one of everybody and everything in that crowd. and some of our best, rock star tea party speakers across the country are not old white guys. frankly, i think this is what this is off the naacp so much. we did have a situation at least in my opinion where we had a self-anointed tea party leader that said things that i thought were, frankly, offensive, and as a community, as decentralized as we were, we kicked him out, and we've got to do that. and we also have the problem of so-called tea party crashers. there are leftist groups that will come to your event with racist signs, hateful signs and you got to ask them to leave politely.

if they will not leave, my suggestion is to take their picture, posted on line and let them explain to their mothers why they are being such. -- jackasses. [laughter] [applause] >> my name is ben walters, university of west florida. i sat down initially because that was almost entirely my question. but i was actually directed to you, john, because you are a contributor to "the daily caller" and "big governments.com" and those websites have been raked over the coals lately by the mainstream media and it is hard to find the truth and a lot of these issues that have been occurring with the racial accusations being from all over the place and the shirley sherrod thing. i love to ask you what your perspective on all of these different things work. >> on the mainstream media raking them over the coals

specifically? >> outlook, as matt said it is a -- tactic of the left to play this race card. one of but things "the daily caller" and "big government" was covering at the time, and left- leaning selected e-mail exchange between journalists. one of the things that was leaked was an explicit tactic being exchanged by journalists about how to divert attention away from jeremiah wright during the election and one of the tactics were, call them races, call them racist. it is outrageous. like matt said, they do not have any more cards left in the deck and the american people are fundamentally but does so they resort to tactics like that.

in terms of the sherood video, and she was sitting there at the naacp event talking about how she had used race to determine how she would administer federal funds. was there another minute and the video where she said i should not have done that? sure, that is fine. but the bottom line it showed a hypocrisy there and the people in the crowd were sitting there and nodding their heads saying, yeah, agreeing with what she was saying before she got to the part saying that was wrong. i don't think there is too much to it. i think it shows that the naacp in which is unfoundedly the tea party races and they cannot police don't ranks and a sort of not that bad behavior. is that your question? >> [inaudible]

as you all know -- political party nomination to the senate. other candidates like california were not successful. with that said, what do you envision the role as grass roots groups movement to play in the coming months and years ahead? >> i think the tea party is going to have a huge impact of going back to an earlier question of whether or not we should endorse. borrowing from saul olinski, the right tactics for the tea party are those the activists are comfortable doing and for some of them, they want to get political, they want to walk the precincts, they want to endorse candidates and for others, they did not want any part of that. that is fine. i think we need to be a big enough community to accept all of that.

that said, adding that those who do want to get active on election day represents what howard been used to call a 50- state strategy. we actually have an organized community in every battleground states that matters on november 2. and there's a lot of work being done by a lot of groups, a lot of local groups, trying to figure out the best way to get out the vote. and at least my group is offering them some technology that helps them go to the right household and to maximize that effort. keep in mind, these are all new guys. they have never done this before. this is not the whole wheat -- old republican 72-ever program. but i think it will have a profound impact because they are motivated but they will be sophisticated and the way they get out their neighbors to vote. that is going to allow not just guys like rand paul to win, but i think you'll see a wave that is much bigger than 1994 which

will elect a bunch of other republicans. some of them probably will not be worthy of that, but again, you have to take them all and then tried to discipline them once they get elected. >> well the way the last or will it fizzled out after the november election -- will the wave last? >> i think internet and these communities on facebook and the relationships that are built -- these protests serve a purpose. people get to know each other. they become family. that makes this thing more sustainable whereas, if this were the republican national committee doing gotb, you would want people to death and then they would collapse on a couch is the next day and they will destroy the list and the community will evaporate overnight. this community, because it is independent of that and because it is based on values and relationships, it has to be sustained past that. to me, that is more important

than the election. >> hi, christian campbell from university of alabama. last year i have the honor of speaking at a tea party rally and talking about this with my peers and explaining why i was speaking. i found it is not that they are not in form, it is that they don't care, they did not have the desire to turn on the tv and watch any news channel. i am wondering -- i know that we can bring speakers to our campus and things like that, how we make them care? how do we make them excited about this? accept just saying there will be a conference and a speaker how do we make them want to go and want to hear? then i think you have to make it sort of a -- then i think you have to make it a must attend the event. speakers where something could happen and you could be part of it. also, keep in mind, even if it is just conversation, you and everyone in this room, you are

going to be able to get your circle of friends to vote, more so than any speaker and you will hear this week or anyone you would see at cpac or anyone you would see on tv. really, like matt said, the personal religious i think what is going to get people involved. -- the personal relationships. take them for event and go out for a drink after work and talk about it. it doesn't hurt to bring the social aspect to it and just let them start to be involved in it and certainly tell them how it is galling to affect them as far as whether or not they are going to be able to get a job in two or four years when they graduate, what it means as far as taxes and where you are going to live. are you going to be able to live in the city where you want to live or do you have to move back home? there are certainly ways to personalize political issues. and you will always have more than impact on them than

leaders. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, panelists. that was great. i think we know a lot more about the tea party. and if you want to bring speakers to talk about the tea party or other conservative movement's core ideas, visit yaf.org. we are going to take a short break. john o'hara's book will be available for signing an purchase outside. otherwise, we will resume shortly for dr. paulson. see you in a bit. >> thank you, it was great.

>> and look at preparations for

tomorrow's glenn beck event, one of two rallies taking place in this city this weekend. more of our coverage plan in just a minute. first of this from associated press. federer reserve chairman ben bernanke sang the fed will consider making another large- scale purges of securities of the slowing economy would deteriorate significantly and signs of deep -- deflation. remarks after the government said the economy slowed sharply in the second quarter to a 1.6% pace. he described the outlook as inherently uncertain and sang the economy remains vulnerable to unexpected developments. programming note -- more conservative programming coming up in just a little bit from the americans for prosperity foundation. speakers include virginia governor of bob mcdonnell. that will be underway in about half an hour. starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. of course, we have the two rallies to mark, live starting at 10:00 a.m. in a morning.

glenn beck and his restore honor event at the lincoln memorial. also covering al sharpton and his rally calling it "reclaimed the dream" and will take place at dunbar high school. at the lincolny memorial is not the last to take place at this historic venue. one of the most famous, martin luther king's "i have a dream" speech. we will feature that speech and a look of his legacy this weekend on our history program that will get underway at 10:00 a.m. eastern saturday on c- span3. >> this weekend on c-span2's "book tv," saturday, and look at the aftermath of hurricane katrina and argues that businesses and faith based organizations are better equipped to handle disaster down the federal government. a free-lance journalist offers a critical view of talk-show host

glenn beck. and on "after words" the high risk fast money world of hedge funds. for a complete listing of this weekend's programs and times, visit booktv.com. >> now, a segment from this morning's "washington journal" about social -- soldier rehabilitation, especially those with a brain injury. this wraps up this week but on issues related to the military. "journal summer series continues this week with a look at defense issues. monday, we look at the f-35, tuesday look at mraps,, wednesday, the military use of drugs, yesterday, a look at military -- military use of drones, want to come into the military benefits, and today,

rehabilitation for those injured in iraq and afghanistan, specifically brain injuries. joining us as katherine helmick of the defense centers of excellence. describe your job to us. guest: i ever see a lot of the programs and initiatives- oversee a lot of the programs and initiatives to assess and treat and ensure optimal recovery for our veterans who sustained dramatic brain injury. we are -- trauma brain injury. --a traumatic brain injury. we are located in silver spring, maryland. one of the first lines of business, when you look at how many folks are coming back, we

had to make sure that we were ab to code traumatic brain injury correctly there is not want system in the health care are we not like someone with a heart attack would have. traumatic brain injury is quite different. we have had to really isolate what that means in terms of the coding system. we monitor how many service members and veterans are found to have traumatic brain injury. these numbers are posted on a few websites. we're looking at, a team in the tivoli, 178,000 since the year to doesn't -- we're looking at, cumulatively, 178,000 since the year 2000. over a decade, about 178,000. host: a lot of people have said

that brainnjury ishe signature root of this war. do you agree with that -- signature wound of this war. do you agree with that? is that because of the helmets being used, or what? guest: we certainly have a greater awareness of the brain injuries from the war. when we talk about traumatic brain injury, that is a wide spectrum of injuries. it to be somebody with a mild traumatic injury, or a severe or penetrating brain injury. through this awareness, better protection of our service members, we have seen increased rates of compassion than in previous wars -- concussion than in previous wars. early on in the conflict, we were seeing people come back with memory disturbances and headaches, and you could not make sense of what was happeng here.

through our screening efforts, found that a lot of this was related to concussive events from a theater. that is why it is branded as the signature injury of the war. events?oncussive guest: same thing as a mild traumatic brain injury. we see this from bombs, grenades, blast-related juries, explosions. host: the center for excellence -- 137,000-plus mild tbi's, mild to being concussion, right? guest: correct. host: fully recoverable? guest: it can be fully recoverable. it can be minutes to hours. but there are quite a few that

continue to have symptoms and sustain problems after they sustained the injury. host: these other cases that you have documented. guest: that is correct. in theater as well as come back to the states. that is consistent in terms of not knowing how many people a sustained a concussion and go diagnosed. we know that every week folks hit their head while plumbing or other things and they do not seek care or go to the emergency department. host: what is a moderate tbi? guest: it is somebody who sustained an injury that we can scan or some sort of imaging study. we talk to them. some of these patients do have -- 18 moderate -- when a

moderate t is a sustained, sometimes cannot talk to you. you look at what kind of blood clots or imaging changes might be in the brain. host: severe, 1891 cases. guest: somebody who comes in in, and are not responsive to your commands. -- comes in in coma and are not responve to your commands. most of the patients that had sere brain injury it many times need near a surgical -- need neurosurgical intervention. host: finally, penetrating. guest: when you have a device or fragment or some kind of artifact that punctures what we call the dura of the brain, the

outlier and covering of the brain. we learned a lot about penetrating brain injuries from the vietnam era. we did a lot of studies looking at the folks who susined penetrating brain injury. most of these are very obvious. you have fragments coming out, and you sustained a gunshot wound to the head, or perhaps an injury from an improvis explosive device. host: katherine helmick is our guest. a senior executive director for traumatic brain injury for the defense centers of excellence. iraq and afghanistan vets, we set up a fourth line for you all. according to the department of veterans affairs, tv guide is

estimated to affect some 20% of the troops injured in afghanistan and iraq. it is that a higher number of than in previous wars did when you look at statistics? guest: that is in rather good alignment with previous conflicts. when you look at the 20% rate, it is usually the screening rate. you raised the flag on the mailbox to say we need to look further at this person. we are not sure if they sustained a concussion but we want to look little further. the 20% rate or show -- so normally represents a screening process to identify those who require further care for evaluation of concussion. host: what is of the recovery process like? guest: there are many who and up recovering quite quickly and clearly and are able to return to their duty mission, many the following day. there are some patients who end

up requiring having a more convoluted trajectory or a course of recovery that is a little more complicated. they continue to have complaints of headaches, dizziness, memory problems, problems with the balance, sometimes irritability and depression. we don't understand at this point why some people sustain their symptoms longer than other people. we do know that there is an important factor, how many concussions you have. the more you sustain it the longer it does take to recover. this is especially important as we look at sports and athletes and a high-school irene that, the n.c.a.a. and the professional sports arena as well. host: since the beginning of afghanistan and iraq war is, how much has been learned about brain injury? guest: we have a learned a lot about traumatic brain injury.

we still have a ways to go one of the areas of this war has elucidated, not to the degree we won, but last physics and dynamics and what happens when a blast goes off and how it affects the brain and that is one area this war has afforded us the opportunity, unfortunately, to learn quite a bit about. host: june 17, 2006, we had dr. bob metters, operation helmet. talking about the helmets that were designed were not built to withstand a lot of these concuss of explosions. they were having kids made. have you found sometimes it is our own helmets that and not protecting soldiers correctly? guest: i don't have full visibility on the helmet development sector but i do know that there's been numerous renditions in personal

protective equipment, in ensuring that helmets are the maximum -- whether there are more pads, whenever dynamic helps preserve and hopefully prevent our service members from sustaining concussions. we are also trying to learn a lot through our helmets on what the blast exposure is by placing some sensors and looking closer at the exposure to the blast. host: how much money is dedicated to your department? guest: department of defense or -- host: the td i work. host: -- guest: our centers in crystal city and -- to cleanly put it into traumatic brain injury, i do not know i am prepared to give a number specifically for that. traumatic brain injury. host: $200 billion, according to the department of defense

budget, for all health programs, including $1.1 billion for tbi and psychological health. guest: those go to the departme of defense and a portion of those go to the defense centers of excellence. we absolutely realize that this is the time anplace to garner all the information and learn everything we can and tre it as we go along, treat as we learn. we're taking full opportunities to learn everything we can to help provide the state of the art care for this service members and veterans. host: katherine helmick has bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing from virginia commonwealth university and a bachelor of science degree from virginia tech. how did you get involved in this area?

guest: traumatic brain injury has always been a passion for me. in the more severe patient populations, the patientomes in severely devastated neurologically. many times cannot talk, cannot move. you see after the these interventions improvements. that is very satisfying to see somebody who came in catastrophically injured, but within a couple of weeks or months was able to reintegrate with their family and have a great quality of life. when i located to the washington, d.c. area, i was very interested in helping with the military causerealizing that this was a golden opportunity in history to learn as much as we head about -- as we could about brain injury as a whole. host: do you get a chance to go to walter reed and the paents hospitals anymore? guest: not much anymore, but i

do go to facilities and talk to service members about their care and what are they struggle with it. as the war has gone on, our clinicians treating service members with traumatic brain injury it face new challenges. a lot of patients have issues such as substance abuse disorder or other disorders, and it makes the picture more complex. part of our work is understanding what providers to on a daily basis to improve the lives of service members. host: katherine helmick is our guest. traumatic brain injury and war is our topic. y'all have been very patient. bonnie, you are on first. caller: good morning. thank you so much for c-span. i know this may be one of the outstanding injuries that came back from iraq and afghanistan.

is this not true that this could have also been a lot of the problems of the vietnam veterans? guest: thank you for that question. it is a question that has been posed to oust numerous times about previous conflicts, even going back to world war ii, ma'am. we believe that they're very possibly -- very possibly there could of been concussions sustained in other conflicts that continue to pose problems for the veterans back in the united states trying to acclimate with their families. we looked at data from previous conflicts. and we try to understand -- of course, it has been a couple of decades, but trying to understand further what types of assets concussion could have played in those previous -- wars -- what types of defects concussion could have played in previous wars.

host: tim, good morning to you. caller: this is great topic for me. i'm not a vietnam veteran, and i was -- im vietnam veteran -- i'm a vietnam veteran, and i was a grunt, but i remember we got a lot of new guys in because we lost a lot of people, and i was sleeping on theide of the hill and they were in theole and were very scared -- i was, too. at a were shooting are rpg's spread -- if you are in a confined -- shooting rpgs' at us. if you are in a confined space -- they will be up and said, "get in the whole." if you get in there, your brain

will turn into chjelly. it is just amazing how knowledge gets lost when a simple private or lance corporal understands the whole thing. it takes forever to get up to the people who can do something about. guest: 90 for those comments and thank you for your service. -- thank you for those comments and that you for your service. 1 then we have that is very new is a partnership between line commanders and medical. the line between medical assets and armed forces and commanders that are fighting the wars, and the medical folks taking care of people that need care -- one of the promising an exciting new initiatives that came out in june 21 of this year is a

theater gueline that mandates evaluation to be done by the medical team if you are expected to sustain concussion. we believe this to be a bts on the ground initiative to hit the private and all the folks who are discussing. instead of having privates raise their hand and say, "i think i have a headache, i want somebody to check me out," and all that that entails, that they may perceive that you are weak and going off mission -- we want mrap ore -- if you'rur vehicle has been damaged, you are sent off for a comprehensive evaluation to see if you have concussion. our aim is early detection of

concussion, so that we do not have people languishing at home and suffering from any sentence that we could have treated way back when the injury that symptoms thatspan.oany we could have treated way back when the injury if that happened. host: is more being done in thear than in the past? guest: absolutely. we had simple cognitive evaluation strategies, therapists who can help with balanced disorder. you can imagine that if your balance is off and you have a mission that is vitally important that you have your balance -- we are doing more and more in theater in keeping service members in theater as opposed to it evacuating them to germany and then back and forth, either to the states or to afghanistan or iraq. host: are their mri machines in

iraq and afghanistan? guest: there are not. there are a ct scans in both. we have capability for mris when you get to germany. host: pat, independent line, please go ahead. caller: i have some questions to ask you. i had a neighbor man that i was very close to. he passed away this spring. he had been in desert storm, and he was exposed to chemicals and also the oil wells. when he got out, and he started having bad headaches. he ended up having brain tumors, and over a 14-year period and he had three of them. last year he got his fourth one and passed away this may, and left behind a wife and four

little kids. the oldest one is 14. at that time, he never went to the veterans hospital, because it was -- the veterans place there was so bad. host: is your question regarding katherine helmick and her work about brain tors in the first gulf war and the chemical? caller: yes, d if his wife can do anything -- host: i am not sure if she can answer that, but talk about the gulf war syndrome that we've heard about and the lessons there and if that is part of your coverage as well. guest: one of the programs the defense department has instituted -- its wholeurpose of a post-deployment held

assessment is to capture all exposures of service member has undergone during their deployment time. this is a process that every service member is mandated to go through when they come back to the states. sometimes this is done before they get back to the u.s. at the end of their deployment cycle, they are required to fill out a survey that talks about exposures they had while in theatre, any symptoms they may complain of. this is one of the lessons we learned from the gulf war i and the unexplained medical illnesses and exposures. what to capture and document what each service never went through -- we want to capture and bachmann what each serce member went through during their experience. host: steve. caller: third battalion, third marine division.

we had howitzers, and we had a mobile unit of about at least 10 at howitzer's moving to other -- howitzers moving together. i am a vietnam-era veteran. what happened to me -- i sought an interview when clinton was running for president, and she interviewed at a guy from the iraq war and he did not have any memory of his past. i don't remember anything before i was 18 years old. i put in for memory loss. maybe the counselor did not put it in right. my symptoms were the same thing. people would say, welcome home, i love you, and i would say, no, i don't remember. they denied me -- "you don't

know nhing about memory loss." i had a memory test, and also, i was in the marine corps boxing program, like leon spinks was, and i had a lot of blows to the head. i don't know if they give me tbi. i still remember a thing before i was 18 years old. -- i still don't remember a thing before i was 18 years old. guest: there is a lot of science coming out related to cumulative concussions. you talk about your boxing history and being in two different wars. the more the grain isxposed to even sube injuries that can cause, but -- morehe brain is

exposed to even stle injuries that can cause concussion -- you may have read about recent nfl findings with some players come in even though those are isolated -- with some players, and even those those are isolated cases, we are understanding more about the correlations and relationships between having lot of concussions and your brain being injured multiple times. a lot of us to do with how far apart the injuries occur and how well you get better after each subsequent one. we are trying to understand what that does to the tissue and whether there are long-term hanges and whether they are related to changes in the brain. having problems with attention and memory are two of the very common complaints of people that have concussions.

in terms of how long despitthis ensues, that is an area of a very fast-paced research to understand a little bit more about why people with concussions continue to have problems with memory and attention. host: katherine helmick is our guest, the senior executive director for traumatic brain inry for the defense centers of excellence. we have our normal call lines, but also a line set aside for iraq and afghanistan war veterans who would like to talk to her about brain injuries. next call is from pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: my name is stuart earhart and during the supposed democracy elections, my son was