the navy, they are inherently joint. they are inherently engaged. we want our officers to oh, -- to be able to do their jobs to the best of their ability, not just in operations but in all aspects. host: thank you very much. guest: thank you. host: don't forget, at noon today, we have a news conference with sarah palin. you can see it at noon today or follow along at c-span.org. as part of washington journal, we'll talk about what's going on in campaign 2012 politics. in campaign 2012 politics. . 35,000 people have been convict as terrorists in 65 countries.

that's over the past decade. vernon lowe, the author of king's council, will join us at 9 :15 tomorrow to talk about his work in the fields of espionage, especially when it comes to areas of the middle east, and that discussion will take place starting at 9:15. the journal starts at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. we'll see you then. .

>> sunday, on "newsmakers," ohio

governor, john kasich discusses jobs. "newsmakers," at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> there are many people in this town who would like to describe themselves as machiavellian. they have it next to their bedside. not many people would call themselves machiavellian. >> his name is synonymous with the selfish pursuit of power. miles unger argues that machiavelli's theories may have been a response to the corruption around him. tuesday, live on c-span, mitt romney talks about his jobs plan at a truck company in las vegas.

our live coverage starts at 3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> labor secretary hilda solis talked about job creation. president obama plans to unveil his new jobs plan next week, which includes a package to fix roads and bridges. this is hosted by the national press club in washington, d.c. it runs about one hour.

>> members of the public are in attendance. if you hear applause, it is not necessarily evidence that the journalism members have checked their impartiality at the door. jennifer is a member of our speakers committee. she did an excellent job bringing today's events together. america is facing the worst jobs crisis since the great depression. the unemployment rate stands at 9.1%. the real unemployment rate is over 16%. as the unemployed 30% have been out of work more than one year. there are 58% of american adults in the work force.

labor day is right around the corner. our guest since down as the landscape continues to change. lack of useful skills for new jobs is creating a larger pool of qualified workers. the public image for unions is said to be at an all-time low. americans believe unions have a positive influence on their salaries, benefits, and working conditions, but they do not think the unions contribute to productivity and the ability of u.s. companies to compete around the world. the political season is heating up. republicans are vying for their party's nomination. one republican said one in four americans cannot find a full- time job.

14 million people remain unemployed. the administration is working on details to spur job growth. secretary solis is no newcomer to washington. before becoming labor secretary, she served in the house for 8 years. she worked on affordable health care, protecting the environment, and helping working families. she offered to the green jobs at in congress, which provided job assistance for veterans and displaced families. she served in the california state assembly and made history by becoming the first hispanic woman elected to the california state senate. a first generation american, her father was a teacher's union shop steward who worked at a battery recycling plant. her mother was an assembly line worker for mattel, also a union

member. as labor secretary, she implemented major assets of the administration's american recovery and investment act, that included extending unemployment benefits, providing training for workers in need of new skills and help information technology. we do not want to overlook the fact that she was awarded the job -- the john f. kennedy profile in courage award given to public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience. i will ask our audience to give a traditional round of applause to our speaker, labor secretary hilda solis. [applause] secretary, thank you. we have the holiday coming up on monday. we have the numbers day on

friday. the president is referencing a way to cure what seems to be a more substantial unemployment problem that many of us expected. the financialer crisis. we know the president is going to make a speech. i presume you have been working with him and the white house on that plan. what can you tell us about what we can expect at this point? >> i do not want to go ahead of the president. i think the public is aware that the president is concerned about job creation as i am. that is our priority number one.

we have learned what will work and what can work. one of the things he has talked about is extending the payroll tax, which will help millions of people and put discretionary funding out there and help spur job creation. the other part would be to extend its unemployment insurance benefits that -- extend unemployment insurance benefits that will help many people who are still looking for jobs. i hear from workers who want jobs. they are looking for entry into the workforce. we cannot fault them. they lost their jobs through no fault of their own. we owe them as much support as we can to help them transition into new jobs. it is important that the unemployment insurance is used as a tool to help people reinvent themselves, get retrained and get to that job.

the other thing i would say is that it is important to the people who have been laid off in the construction and industry. is infrastructure. that is something that has been talked out for a long time. it should not be about democrats and republicans. it should be about americans getting back to work and helping with the recovery. the infrastructure bank is going to be critical in helping maintain our roads. we will see it right now. with what happened with hurricane irene, we know we have been aging infrastructure. we can drawdown private and public funding to rebuild our infrastructure. put people back to work. those are good, middle-class jobs. >> you talked about the extension of the payroll tax. is that not a continuation of the status quo, extending a

program that already exists? >> we know it is a program that works. shortly after december when that agreement was made between the president and the house and the congress, we saw the result in the first part of the year when jobs are coming back. there is a series of other things that should be there. those are positive signs. >> senator kerry was a sponsor of the infrastructure bank. that idea makes the rounds. it may not be coffee table conversation in many households. can you explain to us how that works? >> what is really important is to understand that there is a large number of individuals who represent various sectors of our economy, that is the building and construction trade. in addition to engineers and architects, individuals who are

tied into that industry -- which are also talking about the restoration of bridges and high- speed rail and major investment in our corridor where we find that if we could ship goods and services in a better way, that would impact our economy and increase the marketability of our products getting one place to another. getting people from home to work and allowing for structures to be retrofitted, the incentive will be to retrofit them in new technology and new types of resources that should be realized. i was the author of the green jobs at that was passed in the former administration. it was not funded. i am proud to say the president helped us make those assessments so we could retrain people in

renewable energy. look at people in california and the southwest and you see the growth of new industries coming to bear. if we continue to make key investments training people appropriately, we will hopefully see good stabilization in our economic situation and it will make us more competitive. i think about what is happening in brazil and what is happening in china and india and other people who are making so many advances in the area of renewable energy. it has taken us this long. it should not be this way. we are ready to take on the next major step. cities and states are already doing it. there are lessons to be learned. the package the president has laid out is positive. >> a little more specifically on the idea of an infrastructure bank. is the idea to draw on private investments to finance these

infrastructure improvements? >> bonds would be put out and get opportunities to contract developers and individuals who want to make those kinds of investments. we know that as an affordable way of getting structures up and build. and also engaging the private sector. this is not something that is just being led by the federal government. we need all partners, local, state, private sector, people who want to make those investments. it is a great opportunity. it will be a potential of millions of jobs created. >> the president is on the road today talking about one of the key priorities for when the congress comes back. the push ahead for a tax credit to help employed veterans, an astonishing number of whom are unemployed after giving service to their country. how does that work exactly? >> it is an incentive to hire

our returning vets who are coming back from service. business owners can give them a job and received a tax credit. the amount for those who have been unemployed for less than six months will be $2,400. it is double if they have been out of work for more than six months. that is an incentive to get these young folks who are coming back and not finding success right now. that is the least we can do. we need to do much more as well. the president talked about that today in his speech before the american legion, about making sure that we honor our commitment to those returning men and women who serve us, many who did not quite understand that they would be serving our country for three and four tours.

it has had a devastating impact on their families. we have been opening up opportunities so the private sector will hire them. those who are disabled. that should be something we all take seriously and should know that it is something that is constantly on our mind and we want to address and we want to make sure we bring all of these resources to bear to help. >> you were a member of congress. you were in the california legislature. that means that unlike some of the other members of the cabinet who come to washington from the private sector, you have been well educated on how the political world worked for better or worse. we have seen almost unprecedented bifurcated debate surrounding the debt ceiling, which was not comforting to a lot of people and is comforting to many.

-- discomfitting to mean. many. what is the reasonable expectation that many of these things will get through before an election? >> it has been an interesting experience sitting in the executive branch and watching what is happening in the congress. it is something that is highly unusual in terms of the polarization that i see and that i have seen. there were many occasions where we would be able to travel and spend time with members on the other side of the aisle. i served my first year in the house on the education and work force committee under chairman banner. -- chairman john boehner.

we did not always agree on issues. where we could find agreement, we worked. i learned quite a bit. we got a lot done. when he saw their work challenges for 2005, we could work them out and think rationally through that process. i do not know what has happened since then. there is this big gap. i know the public is frustrated. i am frustrated because i know there are members of the house from both sides who want to see things accomplished. the urgency is to make sure we create jobs now. and also be able to make whole many communities that really needs help urgently. i think about the northeast. i think about the automobile industry that was impacted and what has happened there. i think about the home builders and folks who are in foreclosure. i think about education and

training and the challenges we are facing. i remember serving on the energy and commerce committee and talking about health care reform and this whole initiative to bring out more change in terms of access to different forms of media through broadband. making sure we did not leave any neighborhood or rural community behind. we had arguments going back and forth about how that should happen. i still believe a role in congress and a role that i continue to think is important is that we should balance our approaches. i do not know that many people in congress are thinking that way at this time. it may be because people have never served before our denied have an exact understanding about how government functions -- or do not have an exact

understand about how government functions. sometimes that can have consequences. i hope people can come together and do the right thing. there is an urgency to get our economy working for everybody. i underscore everybody. >> there is an assessment made on what can reasonably be passed. where do you see the areas where republicans and democrats can reasonably be expected to agree? >> i would hope that the concept of the infrastructure bank and helping to restore aging facilities might be something that would immediately draw the attention of members of both sides of the aisle. i believe the chairman of the transportation committee has supported those kinds of efforts

in the past. we are talking about communities that are showing you what devastation can occur across the country. these are communities that are somewhat conservative and they need real assistance at this time. think about it in terms of trying to help areas that need immediate attention and look at long-term planning so that we do not run into situations where we have aging bridges that collapsed or rail systems that cannot transport our goods and services from one place to another. i think about that all the time. having come from california, we have all kinds of commerce. a bad decision on a railroad line crossing can devastate communities.

if things are not appropriately cared for and handled if we do not have appropriate means to continue -- make sure things operate appropriately and safely. those are things members across the aisle can agree on. they need our attention. >> there doesn't seem to be much disagreement on the notion that the job market need help. there are people at one end of the spectrum who say government needs to be as far out of the equation as possible. others say the state needs to be more aggressive. i know where ron paul stands on all that. it will be interesting to hear his views. michele bachmann is a presidential candidate and is taking a similar viewpoint. where do you put yourself on the proper mix of government and the private sector when you are looking at the solutions? >> i work for the government.

[laughter] my role is to help facilitate access to employment opportunities. we run 3000 one-stop job centers around the country. this has been going on from some time -- for some time, to get people in the doors and connected to a business or industry to get trained. i looked at my job as one to try to help enhance and help provide access, choices, and opportunities. many people are befuddle but with the department of labour does. we are not just exclusively -- many people are befuddle the by the department of labor and what it does. we facilitate investments. if i have someone i meet who is interested in trying to train their employees or attract the

employees in a technological area like pharmaceuticals, our one-stop centers can post those openings and even train and collaborate with some of our partnerships and community colleges and technical schools will work with and provide the training so we can meet the needs of that employer. that is what we need to do a better job at. we are doing it now. i have seen it in the last two and a half years, a more precise way of figuring that out. it has taken a while for the government to really understand that the priority is to make sure we are connecting with the businesses, that we are not training people for jobs that do not exist, but for jobs that will make potential employees competitive. you hear a lot about the work force not being trained well and having all of these job openings. there are so many people in terms of those who have not been

able to find jobs. they are highly skilled. you have scientists, architects, engineers, a whole slew of well- trained people. the jobs they are seeking may not be available right now. what that tells me is that we better start investing in the able new source of jobs and, hopefully, making investments in renewable energy, broadband, health care. these are areas that are growing by leaps and bounds. i see that there will be a future there. also bringing back the manufacturing base and bring in those jobs back here. one example is the creation of lithium batteries and putting new and smarter cars out there. gm and chrysler are competing with foreign markets. seeing the reality of formerly laid off and dislocated workers put back to work, now creating new systems -- being a part of

that management and labor partnership. i saw it on the ground when i went to ohio, detroit, different places in tennessee and other parts of the country where these are stories that have to be told to the public and our elected the officials. -- elected officials. the fiscal crisis creates a challenge for us. it is stubborn. i am committed and the president is committed to seeing that we put people into the best fit for them. >> there is a perception that people express that the president's priority was more about deficit-reduction and getting jobs created and he has only recently turned around on that. is that accurate? >> i do not think so at all.

for the last 2 1/2 years, we have been making major investments in training a new work force and renewable energy and health-care and broadband. and also training up individuals. this struck me as something interesting when i was out in the field a year-and-a-half ago. there are many small manufacturers, tool makers. they told me, secretary, it would be great if i could have the average joe who could help me develop and continue with the development of our industry. toolmakers, welders and the old jobs people are not prioritizing right now. they are highly skilled people in that industry. i have seen that when inappropriate investments are made, you can bring back that industry. we can compete across the world. i saw this happening at one of

the largest manufacturers of tool bets. i learned a lot about it. the assistance they receipt through the federal government private investments that were made helped them retooled their factories and take old machinery that was one used and was maybe 50 years old and take it all the way down to the bottom, rebuild it and create a new dynamic and new bits that are sold around the country. they are saving money. they are also recycling and conserving and retraining. they are sending some of their folks to our neighboring partnership of school-. -- partnerships of schools. people are saying it cannot be done, that we cannot create opportunity for those looking into the future.

>> someone asked can the u.s. job market grow in a robust way without having manufacturing lead the way in your opinion? >> i think manufacturing is definitely a major cornerstone for our economy. it has felt so many people in the past stay in the middle class. i know there have been some changes in the past. i believe there is this interest now. i am talking hypothetically hear from what i have seen. people are feeling a sense that, we have got to invest in our country. we have got to invest in our best resources, that is our human capital. training and retraining people here and making and selling products and selling them abroad. that is why the president talked about trade agreements and being able to sell our products.

or automobiles or pharmaceutical our technology and send them abroad to help lift up those economy. i am for that. i think that is something real. the president and i are working together on something we want to see accomplished. the other side of the aisle has talked about that. now they have an opportunity to help. >> that is a good example. there has been a push for trade agreements to be passed recently. in this political of parliament we talked about earlier, the best political environment we talked about earlier, we cannot find agreement on those -- political environment we talked about earlier, we cannot find agreement on those issues. is that a problem? >> we hope these agreements move forward. the president knows that part of our success would be the kinds of products we can sell abroad.

that is going to have a tremendous impact and drive markets in a whole new areas, hopefully help our farmers and all kinds of industries that can benefit. meanwhile, making sure we are mindful of our protections and keeping our standards when they should be. those are two goals come out of the whole trade discussion. >> i think it would be interesting to know how the dynamic works between you and your department and the white house in terms of driving the unemployment -- driving the employment agenda? argue well -- are you well- aligned on that? did you have to step up your voice and say, do not forget about us?

i note that the administration is concerned about keeping the nation's a -,- know that a the administration -- that the administration is concerned about keeping the nation safe. how does that work? >> i am so happy to work for this president. i have met many presidents. i worked many years ago in the white house, but at a different level. thinking about the ability to sit with the president and talk about policies and what i see out in the field and sharing that with him and his staff is legitimate and welcome. much of what i bring to the table is exactly what the

president wants. he wants honesty. he wants to know what is better served for the public. he wants to know how quickly we can get things done. i am pleased with the relationship he personally has with members of the cabinet and with myself. this is the first time i see myself in a great situation. i am the first cabinet member who is a latina in history of the country. it does that put me in a different category. it is allowing for people to see that there is a vision in this white house that allows for different ideas and different individuals to serve. while i did not attend the preps

schools and the different formalities that other individuals have been exposed to, i bring a different experience, but one that has served people in public service. the president, being the first african american president, is quite an accomplishment. don't you think? >> you both have something to brag about. i am glad you were able to make that point for us. we do expect that if the president is reelected that you will continue to serve as labor secretary? >> that is entirely up to the president. i serve at his will. >> he does not control your expectations. [laughter] >> i enjoy working for him and representing this administration. it has been an exciting time for some of us to serve. he needs are so profound and so

great. people have often asked me, why did you take this job at this time knowing unemployment was so high? that was not the first driver of why i decided to do this. i did it because this is a historic moment in time for us. i think my country needs individuals who are going to think differently, but with the same enthusiasm and patriotism to want to help our entire country and be able to set a good example. that is probably one of the greatest things i could say that i have experience in a short time. it has been to in a half years. >> you talked about what you have in common with the president. it seems like the experience of

the last several months as poll numbers go up and down, some americans feel they do not know who the president really is. they have a sense that they thought they knew him during the election to be one thing. obviously, i am speaking in generalities. i am speaking about polls and and it noteat a ghost and what y have -- anecdotes and what they have told us. when he was speaking of the bp oil spill, he used some colorful language about people being brought to bear in their responsibility for that. you have seen the president in public and private settings. who is barack obama? what is teammate of? i ask that seriously -- what is he made of?

>> he is a compassionate and intelligent human being. he will listen and take the time to better understand issues and problems and what to hear everybody out regardless of what authority you might bring to bear. i respect that. i also see an individual who cares deeply about this country and has inspired many people. here in washington, it is easy for us to get lost and think that just because the networks and cable television folks are saying this or that, that that is the rule of the day. when i go out to communities that i visit -- i spent a lot of time across the country -- i hear a lot of people say, it is nice to know you are focusing on helping us create jobs, to get

the job training, to get the assistance i need so that i can continue to look for a job. let me give you an example. i visited a reservation in arizona. a group of individuals who had been serving a community that has suffered high unemployment for decades, 40% unemployment. there need of assistance to our program was to help provide job training in the area of health care and renewable energy and getting some semblance of hope to these individuals. our finding was not be made in source abc -- major source of funding been received, but they were grateful and proud. they did not necessarily want a handout. they wanted a hand up and assistance. i see that as important.

i do believe the american public, because they are resilience, we have that can do spirit about us regardless of what situation you are in the. i have seen net from those at the bottom, some in the middle, and some who were in the middle and have fallen down. let me tell you how horrified that can be for families. i know the president seems what i see. he is a very, very sensitive individual. everyone has their different style. i respect him greatly and the people he has brought together to serve in this administration. you do not hear a lot about that. sometimes, is about making sure people get the services they need.

the president made this point in a cabinet meeting. he said, if i did not call it in as a cabinet member, that is good. you are doing your job and getting the services out and doing what you are supposed to be doing. to me, it makes so much sense. he announced a former chief economist at the labor department is not his choice to be the head of his council of economic advisers. some people were making the point that he is a labor economist and therefore that means this or that or the other thing. is there a particular importance to the background of krueger that this is where the president's priorities are for the remainder of his first term? >> i know alan.

we worked together in treasury. i respect him greatly. he will provide an continue to provide good leadership to be president and to his economic team. i think he will bring a depth and a greater understanding about what our economic situation is and how to help remedy that. it will be great. the president urgently needed his position filled. i hope the congress and the senate will make their voices heard. some are already saying they truly understand the role he will play and has played in previous administrations. he served at the department of labor as the chief economist. he is intelligent and thoughtful and highly respected. >> would you be dismissive of those who are suggesting that

the appointment of someone with labor department experience means anything about when the president's agenda is going? or is this a continuation of what the president has been intending all along? >> i am not one to predict. as i said, i can only base my opinion on what i know. he is highly talented, highly intelligent and has served us well and will continue in that capacity and help us immediately began to attack this problem of high unemployment and help to provide a better balance in our economic endeavors. i think he will do a good job. >> friday is numbers day. we have the payrolls numbers and the unemployment numbers being released. that is always a big day for you and those who are following these numbers. today, we had some consumer

confidence numbers. they were not just bad. they were horrible. they may be reflecting the situation with the debt debate. we do not know how that played into it. as one who has interviewed you from the beginning of the administration on a monthly basis, i would say you have been consistent try to be fair. you never want to raise expectations that its recovery was going to be particularly easy. i remember one month there was an outsized gain in the payroll numbers and you said, do not look for this in the next three months. at this point, do you feel like you have seen all along that this is going to be a slow and steady process? many americans are frustrated and not showing up in some of the poll numbers. >> this is a tough recession.

we have added 2.4 million private-sector jobs. that amount may seem small, but it needs to be higher. people have to understand that when the president began his job, we had already lost close to 4 million jobs. when i came on board in february, there was another 4 million jobs. we lost 8 million jobs. we are losing 700,000 jobs since the beginning of his administration. we are adding. it might seem smaller, but we are seeing contractions in our economy. some sectors are doing really well. silicon valley, pharmaceuticals, some of these highly technical areas are the ones that are

helping to continue to move our economy. i see that continuing at that level. we need to start bringing in making the changes we need to bring people along so that we have better skills, better trained, more competitive individuals and we are competing with our other friends from other countries like china, india, brazil. we need to make the hard choices. some people are of the mindset that they do not want to go in that direction. that is the force we have to contend with. i am cautious. i am not an economist. i know that i can only base my judgment on the reports i am given from the bureau of labor statistics. i make my assessments on the basis -- assessments based on what has happened. we have been able to create 2.4 million private-sector jobs.

they have been in the manufacturing. they have been in the health care. we have seen them in the businesses and professions. there are different sectors that have been able to improve. the one i worry about a bid is the public sector, local government, and teaching. if we want -- the one i worry about is the private sector, local -- the public sector, local government, and teaching. people get discouraged and do not want to stay in the teaching profession. we need new teachers. we want to take care of the teachers who have been serving us well and make sure we do the right thing to increase the ability of our young people who decide to go to college to have access to go to college and to be able to have the tools and training available to them. right now, education is suffering.

i see it. we work a lot with community colleges. a look at my own state of california where the budgets have been shrinking. we cannot afford to not make those investments. we have to be mindful of where we are going, what our path is. if we take the right path, the pact will take us where we are better prepared, better educated, and ready to meet those challenges. >> when you talk about making those investments, the federal government is not in a position to fund state and local governments need more, is a? it? >> we will not see stimulus two. the infrastructure bank is important. it is an immediate remedy to alleviate the distress that has been experienced by many families. extending the payroll tax and all those things are going to be

helpful. i hope we can get to the business of the people that we represent and what to help. >> another person taking political fire is federal return chairman ben bernanke. -- federal reserve chairman ben bernanke. at the fed meeting earlier this month, the fed came out and said we will have persistent unemployment for the next two years. does that seem surprising? were you disappointed when you heard that? defense is saying give up hope. the unemployment rate is going -- is not going to go down before the election. >> he did not say give up hope. i do not give up hope. i know you do not. i feel strongly that -- going out to what i see -- go out into the field i see people's

resiliency. you have got to figure out what to do. you get up every morning to go find that job. nonresistance and you find that the employer is not calling you back or no one is going to accept it. it is tough. and yet you get up every morning because you know you have to. there are millions of people who are feeling like that right now. i am not going to give up hope. >> i probably misspoke when i said that. he is no 1's spiritual adviser. he meant that this -- he is no one's spiritual adviser. he was saying that the central bank does not expect the job market to be improved. did this come as a surprise when the fed came out and said that to you? >> it is the job of the congress

now and our leaders to make some decisions and to break the gridlock. that is what is important. that is what the public and everyone is watching from around the world, to see what is going to happen. i believe the president is ready. he says he is ready to meet those demands and work until this is resolved. take care about that, but also make sure we do not heard it -- take care of our debt and make sure we do not hurt the economic recovery. in the previous administration, we were adding on average 11,000 jobs per month. since i have been with this present, we have added far and above that. 2.4 million jobs is not where it

should be. let me tell you, we have worked really hard to make sure we increase the opportunities. we have a long way to go. people have to understand where we started and where we are going. i hear it from other economists, too. they do see the that the president has taken as one that has been well thought out and about. given the constraints we are faced with politically and other structural problems we are faced with. >> let me ask you about labor day. as i mentioned in my introduction, there is a wide the emergence of opinion among members of the american public - divergence -- divergence among

members of the american public regarding unions. as labor secretary, do you feel as if you are an advocate for all of the workers, all potential workers including members of labor unions? how do you balance that with you have all of the potential workers in the american public seemed to have an angry debate about the world the union should play? >> first of all, as labor secretary, we represent all workers. that is number one. that is important, especially for those folks who have been dislocated. that is important to all of us. we represent everyone. i support individuals who choose to be part of the union and those who don't. that is my role. i have to be fair and objective

in how we run our programs and making sure that across the board there is a balance. that is what we have been able to do. all you have to do is see where we have made our investments in terms of our federal funding. we want to continue to raise standards so that we do a better job. >> my sense is that people do not mind the idea that unions have helped them and help the americans attain a 40 hour work week or the right to minimum wage. but when they see union members that they perceived have greater benefits than they do, especially if they are state or unionized government workers, they become resentful. that seems to be what is driving some of what is happening lately. when you see a states having a debate over try to take away collective bargaining rights for

some workers, and it is getting to workers or people not represented by unions who are pushing an agenda for work, how weigh in on that debate? >> we are concerned when there are issues that arise like wisconsin and ohio. that has been a big debate. a lot of states are faced with some financial crises right now. they are operating in the red. we know there are challenges. i would continue to say that it is good if both sides can meet at the table and decide in the best interests of the public and themselves and what they are charged with doing and be able to work those differences out face-to-face, not one of overruling the other. sit down and have that kind of

compensation. that is what the president and i believe in. you should be able to negotiate. i know that public-sector unions and other sectors have given up a lot in the past few years. some members gave up salary increases and bonuses just to keep their health care benefits. i have seen that time and time again. you do not see that very often. sacrifices can be made and have been made. you cannot hold one group responsible for the demise of the whole state. that is not what this is about. that is that how that happened. you should not be blaming a group of people. we realize there has to be compromises. i understand that. the president understands that. let's do it rationally and stay at the table. >> let's get some questions from the audience.

you can answer these as you can. are you concerned about encouraging illegal workers to work here in the united states? >> federal laws protect all workers in this country. previous administrations, republican and democrat, had held to that. i am not doing anything different. my priority right now is to make sure that we enforce our laws appropriately and that we help businesses and employees understand what their rights are and what the expectations are and assist businesses to better understand that they have a responsibility when they take on the wall of employing individuals. i think that is what my role is. >> this came from twitter. what impact will be plan to

provide work permits for 300,000 more foreign workers have on the limited number of jobs available in the workforce? >> there are some great challenges right now in the job market. our priority is to insure citizens here in our country have the opportunity to apply for those jobs. we have a lot of jobs that go unfilled now. that may give you an example. agriculture. we hear a lot from farmers and contractors say they cannot attract people into these jobs. some of these jobs paid from $11 an hour to $14 an hour. i am wonder why we are not allowing for more folks who are unemployed who are drawing in less to be told that these jobs

are available. we should try to do that before we necessarily have to go outside our own country. we have programs in the place like being -- like the h2a program so that we can minimize abuses in the work force. you are not disadvantaging a competitor that is over here on this side who is played by the rules and pay their taxes and doing everything right and rewarding another individual who may not be doing any of those things and hurting our american workers. >> you may have heard the story from hershey, pennsylvania about some foreign students employed by some third parties and went on strike recently. the questionnaire asks, should

foreign students be employed in american industries or plants that are doing any kind of work such as in the hershey? >> that is one thing of great concern with us -- currently something that is of great concern to us right now. i do not want to jeopardize the investigation. >> should the government subsidized summer jobs? rather than being given to foreign youth from eastern europe. . .

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>> you will see some of our young veterans coming home and they can get into all different kinds of activities, and much of it is subsidized through the private sector. it has worked well in some parts of the military branches. i hope it can expand. i hope more people will take advantage of it. i have seen also industries, i look at industries, with the i.e.e. building, and the electrical contractors, the labor unions. it is a collaboration. and private industry to come together that know how to get things done and get projects done, that are well trained. good paying jobs. i've seen them work at their best.

i've also seen where they haven't. of course we want to leave the system as much as we can. >> before i get to the absolutely last question, i have a couple housekeeping matters to take care of. matters we have coming up, september 6, former mayor rudy guilliani will talk about the anniversary of september 11. the chief executive of space-x will talk about the future of space flight. any of you that have been covering that story, whether the international space station can be inhabited by humans is a very pressing question. that will be a news worthy event as well. ken burns will be here october 3rd to talk about prohibition, which is the subject of his next documentary on public broadcasting. before i get to that last question, secretary, i'd like to

present you with a token of our appreciation. the national press club, thank you for being here. >> thank you. [applause] >> my last question is, someone told me that essentially you could write a book that could be along the lines of every i needed to know about government i learned in the state of california. >> california is represented -- representative of our country. you have inner city, you have suburbia, you have country. you have different geographical landscapes.

you see different growth in silicon valley, napa valley, agr-business, manufacturing. some of the finest institutions of finer learning and also some of the challenges that we see faced by the unemployed. i recall i was a member of the house before i even took this position that i saw in my own district. at least before the recession was actually called a recession, high rates of unemployment. manufacturing jobs already leaving. and the fact that you could already see a kind of -- a low-moving economy. lots of jobs were already starting to happen. i knew then that there were going to be some challenges. if i saw it happening in california in my own district, i knew we would be faced with some major challenges. and in the house and the senate, i was chair of the industrial relations committee where a lot of these labor issues i was confronted with there.

many things i was privy tofment it is a continuation of what i'm involved with now. to see that many of the projects we crafted or funded or what have you, i had some exposure to while serving in the house, also, as a member of the congress. more important back in sacramento. i was also a board member or trustee for a community college. right now they are one of our major sources -- our engine of growth for our training program. i know those programs very well, and i'm very proud of them. i'm proud to be able to have had such a rich experience coming from california. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker today. [applause]

>> thank you secretary. i would like to thank our national press staff for organizing our event today. i would also like to thank our guest from china who has been so good to visit us here today from china. you can find more at our web site at www.press.org. thank you. we're adjourned. happy labor day, everybody.

>> 2008 republican vice-presidential nominee and former alaska governor sarah palin will be the keynote speaker at a tea party of america restoring america rally in iowa. live coverage begins today at eastern on s&p -- on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. from today's wurnl -- "washington journal." this is about 45 minutes. host: our guest joining us from new york, the senior editor.

mr. rosenberg, the headlines when it comes to the release of the job numbers yesterday, the "washington post" cas it flat job figures. if you go to the "wall street journal" it says job growth grinds to a hal if you go to the "new york times," it says zero job growth, latest bleak sign for the u.s. economy. in light of the headlines what's the future when it comes to jobs? guest: right now it doesn't look very good. that's one of the issues that we're going to be hearing a lot about in the next couple of weeks. but for right now we're treading water and that's a big problem. we've seen over the last three months zero growth in august but over the last three months we've only had 35,000 jobs a month creet, nowhere near the level need to keep up with the growth in the labor force let alone grow and create new jobs and improve the economy going forward. host: any estimates that the

jobs could grow over the next few months? guest: well, right now the white house itself isn't looking for -- isn't expecting that high of a job growth going forward. they put out a report from the office of management and budget this week projecting that unemployment is going to stay at 9% through next year. and it's going to be a long time, 2017, before it comes down to the 5% range. so we have got a ways to go in trying to overcome this jobs, this gap that we have in jobs. host: and those estimates do other economists or people who follow these things such as yourself agree? caller: well, the white house, the office of management and budget was probably a little late in reducing some of these forecasts. commisses across the board have been trying to -- have been loweri their projections, forecasts both for gdp and

employment picture for a little while now, particularly as the growth that they expected to happen in the second half of this year so far has not been happening. host: what's the explanation of why we didn't see any job growth? guest: well, twhrs a range of factors affecting that and it's sort of depends on who you ask. but right now, the main issue is that businesses say they aren't seing the demand they need in order to be able to start hiring. now, republicans particularly house republicans for example will say that there's a lot of uncertainty and the overhang, clouds hanging over the economic conditions right now caused by regulation and taxes and things like that are a factor. businesses, some businesses are worried about credit being able to expand by getting lines of credit. but the main factor right now that a lot of businesses are reporting is just they're not

seing the demand that they need. host: demand as far as their services are concerned? caller: exactly. right. the demands among consumers for their services. people -- consumers have been spending but it's not at the levels that businesses need to be able to expand, to hire more people, and to aggressively grow in a way that would be really boost the economy. host: so what signs to businesses have to see in order to change that perspective? guest: well, consumer spending is a huge key. consumers cuent account for 70% of o economy. 70% of our economic growth. and so they're really important. and so we'll need to be able to see demand pick up for a whole range of products and services range of products and services before companies say they'll really be comfortable in going out and hiring. hiring jobs is what's called the lagging indicator meaning that it's not going to -- that

companies aren't starting to hire and for that matter not laying off people necessarily until they see conditions in place that will require them to do that. host: off of twitter,. how does that track with numbers you follow? guest: that's pretty close. economistless say that you need 130 to 150,000 jobs created a month to keep up with population growth and growth in the labor force. and so we've got a ways to go before we can get tre. and we lost 8.8 million jobs in the downturn and we've only add add back a fraction of that so far. so we need to really -- numbers like the one we had come out yesterday of zero change just rrned helpful at all. host: is that a psychological blow along the financial fronts? guest: it certainly could be.

consumer confidence took a hit in this past month we saw that it reached low levels that it's been in a couple of years. consumer spending has stayed pretty good but the confidence took a blow and consumers are definitely worried. a gallup poll that was out showed that about 30% of people said they were worried about laufs coming. that's near it's all-time high. so is some concern that jitry consumers are going to pull back and that would really hurt the economy also. but for now, consumer spending has stayed strong and that's one of the things that's giving us the little glimmers of hope that we've seen so far. host: our guest from the fiscal times will join us and talk to us about the economy, the job creation, and what's going on in that front. the nuers are on the bottom of your screen.

asking the question of our guests, what kind of economic activity can contribute to abrb the unemployed and also what is being done besides pumping money into the economy? guest: well, in terms of what's being done besides pumping money in, we're going to hear a lot about that in the next starting this thursday when president obama speaks to a joint session of congress. he's going to outline a number of plans. now some of those do involve pumping money into the economy but not in monetary but more of a fiscal stimulus by creating new policies that will, the president hopes and will create new jobs and lead to improved economic conditions overall.

those could be national infrastructure bank, for example, continuation of the pay roll tax cuts. the infrastructure bank by the way would look to improve schools, rebuild roads, things like that. and that's one of the keys that apparently the president is going to be talking about. host: is there a clash then between having those type of proposals at the same time we're having discussions here on capitol hill about austerity and especially as we have a debt commission who will be meeting over the next couple of weeks to start talks on where to cut money? guest: there cerinly is. that's one of the key fights that we're going to be seeing in the next month or two and toward the end of the year through the end of the year. there's certainly an issue of we've got debt and zifts issues that we need to deal with. and the president is going to have to toe a fine line between stimulating the economy near term and dealing with the debt

and deficit issues longer term. republicans right now would just say forget about increasing spending and the government, the best thing the government could do is just get out of the way and let business take over and let business really try to grow. host: our guest, from new york, and our first call from georgia, democras line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call and thank you for c-span. i wanted to make a remark to the gentleman, and i'm hearing this so many times that the big businesses aren't hiring because there is no demand. well, this to me is i hate to use the word as nine but how can you have a demand if people don't have jobs or income to spend? it's just stupid. i don't understand where people are getting this concept. to me it is an excuse for not

hiring. it has nothing to do with demand. if you hire people have money in their pocket the demand is there. so they need to stop this nonsense. and all this stuff about the president creating jobs. presidents don't create jobs. businesses create jobs. everybody's putting this burden on the head of the president. and not saying anything to the big corporation or sitting back holding money because of their greed and wanting to get cheaper wages so that they can have more money to pay their c.e.o.s. i mean, this country is going to hell in a hd basket. host: mr. rosenberg guest: well vilea is right that corporations are sitting on a corporations are sitting on a lot of cash right now. the corporate profits are very strong. and there's a question of what it really will take for businesses to start hiring and work down some of that cash. but at the same time they do

say that they need to see more demand. right now, the pressure isn't on them in terms of the business effects really certainly is politically but not in terms of the business effects necessarily to hire and grow. and that's one of the y issues. still. now, businesses, you know, you can say that -- and i think some people will make this case, that they need to be hiring and try to hire as much as theyan and certainly have their jobs here instead of overseas to jump start that demand. but c.e.o.'s do have a responsibility to their share holders and companies to make sure that they' leading the company responsibly and trying to maximize their profits also. so it's a tough scenario. i think that businesses once they see some demand or they have some sense, some confidence that the economy will b -- will not be entering a dole dip recession for

example will be staying strong they will respond to those demands that they e and start hiring. host: when we talked about the stimulus plrks rosenberg, there's a story that came this week about that solar panel company i think it's sold ra that received a loan guantee from the federal government and thrmp stories that it closed its doors. what does that story mean for future discussions about assisting certain type of job markets with federal government money? guest: it certainly presents a challenge politically for president obama and his team. the stimulus is a huge point of contention at this point. the congressional budget office nonpartisan congressional budget office has said that the stimulus did help to maybe added as many as 2.9 million jobs recently. things would have been worse if it weren't for the stimulus. but that's certainly a case that's being disputed

particularly by republicans who feel like it was about $800 billion that was spent very unwisely. and the examples like the solar power company just add to that case, that the money could have been spent better. host: virginia you are next for our guest. caller: government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is a force like fire. it makes a dangerous servant and a fearful master. george bush, barack obama, these businesses are hiding. they're keeping their head low they're keeping their head low and riding out the storm and they're not going to come out until this president goeto martha's vineyard or whatever the heck, if he would just stay thrup and go on dancing with the stars, then the economy would come roaring back. but he keeps meddling with something. the only two thing that he

hass worked on is the chicago climate exchange and the united states government and they're both broke. learn, people. learn. host: any response? guest: well, i think the dancing with the stars producers mit make note of that. but for right now, the president is certainly working on trying to fix the economy. like i said before, there's a lot of people out there who agree with the callinger that government should just get out of the way. lower taxes. you know, maybe through tax reform, deregulation, businesses would just be able to do what they do and grow and create jobs. host: we had a caller previous who worked on wall street and talked about policy made in washington that's directly affecting the banking industry in new york. what's the response generally these days about these policies? you mentioned dodd frank but other's as well. guest: well banks certainly have a difficult situation.

they're facg a difficult situation. it's not necessarily the same it was in 2008 but they're certainly facing both in terms of liquidity, debt loads and the regulatory picture. they're in a challenging place. now, the thing is that the challenges are not going away any time soon. we saw this week the federal housing finance agency brought suit against a number of big banks for essentially fraud in misrepresenting the quality of mortgage-backed securities that they were selling and there's a lot for the banks still to work through both in terms of those kinds of issues, regulatory issues that they're goi to have to adjust to and in terms of, for example, the foclosure and mortgage crisis that'still overhanging the banks and the economy overall. host: republican line.

rob from sacramento. caller: i'm going to chime in with what he just commented. the federal government gave over $800 billion to the banks. and they're not loaning the money out on the streets. they're not loaning the money to new construction. all they're doing is putting the money back in treasury bonds and getting the safe interest rate and backing into those banks. some kind of restriction has got to lighten up from the federal reserve so they can start loaning money to the businesses, to the people on the streets. let's do the math. if you don't get the money out on the streets and where the businesses are at, you are not gog to start stimulating this economy and it doesn't do much good to get the fire hose out after the house has burned down. it's been three years. it was in obama plrks, it was an obama congress and senate. the democrats had the whole thing for three years andow he's trying to catch up. host: mr. rosenberg, the

federal reserve planning to meet on september 20th and the 21st. and what does that mean in light of current news about the economy? guest: well, the unemployment numbers jobs numbers that came out yesterday senl only add to the pressure on ben bernanke, the federal reserve, to see if there's something they can do. the federal reserve chairman the federal reserve chairman has said and insisted tt there are still tools that he there are still tools that he can use to try to improve the economy. now, whether that's third round of quantitative easing essentially buying more bonds and injecting money into the system that way, or if it's something that's being called operation twist just changing the ma turts on the bonds that the federal reserve owns and trying to lower long-term interest rates and do things that way, there are still maybe a number of options and the thing is at this point there's

also some conflict within the federal reserve we saw the statement that came out on august 9th, i believe, had three fed bankers who dissented from that statement and didn't want to be as specific in terms of the time frame for low interest rat that the federal reserve set. so there's some dispute about what policies are going to be going forward. and that's why the federal reserve is going to meet for two days to try to hammer these things out and sort through what it can do and figure out if there's monetary policy that would really help at this point. host: and the speech las week mr. bernanke didn't indicate that another round ofond buying was on the table. guest: no. he didn't promise action, although he said he's prepared to act. and given the unemployment numbers now, i think the expectations are that we're going to see some form of acti. the question is what exactly the fed is going to do. host: connecticut, on our democrat's line. you're on with our guest from

the fiscal times. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a three solutions. i want tonow if the, if you would agree. the first one is raising the minimum wage $10,000 for commodities like gas food and electric. the second one is taking a strong stance agast the work organizations against slave labor by making a living wage in third world country and if they don't comply refuse their products in the united states. and the third is putting the glass spiegel act back in place so that banks cannot gamble with depositors money. guest: well, look, foreign trade is one of the issues that we're going to be hearing about. there are going to be a number of trade agreements that president obama is going to

send to congress hoping to improve trade relations with various countries. and right now it's true that we need to -- the manufacturing sector has been hiring, has been building this past yesterday's report showed this past month it lost 3,000 jobs but before it had been adng and there are areas like that that we need to improve on and try to improve trade relation soss that we get the economy growing again. host: maryland thanks for holding on. mark, independent line. caller: basically there's three things that the u.s. government needs to do to get our economy back on track. and they seem to be advocating passing on all three. the first thing theyeed to do is to allow people who are current on their mortgages to refinance regardless of how much equity they have in their home because the banks are still relying on those people still relying on those people to pay their mortgages. two, they need to place tariffs

on any companies that are taking their jobs overseas and doot have the jobs that they're putting here in the united states. and finally, what they need to do is bye pass the banks. they need a direct stimulus into the sba, the small business krks and have the sba make direct loans to potential entrepreneurs. that's part of what's happening now. they're not allowing that so the money is not stimulating the economy. the midd class has all of their money tied up in housing, credit card debt, car debt. so unless the government stimulates the economy, businesses has refused, there's no money. guest: i should just add there could be a coection between your firstoint and your third point there. the mortgage issues that so many home owners in this country face right now, and we've got one in four home owners under water meaning they

owe more on the home than the home itself is worth, that could be affecting some entrepreneurs and small businesses also, because a lot of small businesses when ey're looking for financing and just individuals out there looking to build a business, will be taking loans on their home and using that to finance the business. and if they're under water then that means that that sort of financing is much more difficult to get and they're not going to be able to grow the business. host: the president expressed interest on lining some regulations about seven or so proposals. do any of those affect i guess the private industry and what and could help improve business climate or make it easier for business to operate? business to operate? guest: well certainly that's one of the reasons the president is interested in doing it and that's one of the reasons that eric cantor put out this week a list of ten regulations theapt to roll back

with house republicans to remove the burden from businesses. the president yesterday agreed to shelve regulations, new rules regarding ozone, smo and that was one of the issues that had been brought up as potentially detrimental to business at this point with costs that could run well into the billions. now, on the othe side of that environmentalists have been saying that those regulations, that regulation, for example, and other environmental regulations in general are needed to protect people improve their health and that if you let that deregulation happen, or shelve new rules as the case may be, then the costs are going to be showing up eventually as people get sick, have to go to hospitals and things like that. there's a fine balance and the important thing at this point is to have, to try to have a

good sense of the entire economic effect of any of these regulations before decision making is made. host: an e-mail says guest: well we've seen as i mecksed consumer confince took a big hit and we've seen a steady drum beat of bad economic numbers and weak data. so there's no question that confidence overall sentiment is a little bit more less confident more jitry than it had been. the debt ceiling certainly was a factoi think in that we had a lot of people, a number of people not just the ratings -- credit ratings agencies like s credit ratings agencies like s and p but a number of other

people saying that if president obama and congress had been able to come together on a deal in a timely fashion and hadn't pushed it to essentially the 11th hour, before coming up with a deal that ultimately disappointed a lot of people, then the economy confidence at least would be in much better shape. host: the president formed a jobs commission. do they have any input on what the president will propose next week? guest: well, you know, it sounds like the president in response to some of the numbers that have been ming out has been maybe tweaking the exact shape of his proposals and there's a big question about exactly what he's going to be talking about when he speaks to the congress thursday night. is heoing to go big so to speak and put together a package that he really believes in tt he thinks will do considerable amount to help the economy and create jobs? or is he going to try to

moderate that package and his proposals a little bit to try to work with house republicans, for example, a come wup a plan that will actually pass? and so there's a lot of politics involved there and it sounds from what i understand it sounds like the president's proposals are still -- were stil being formed and may have changed a little b over recent weeks. host 9.1 unemployment rate for august. and for nonfarm pay roll employment that remained unchanged. what does that mean as far as because there was no net creation of jobs. but does that mean that jobs didn't happen? guest: well, no. it just ans that there were no jobs added overall. within the economy, the economy is very dynamic. there's always jobs being created and destroyed month to month. but it just means that there

were no jobs added overall so the totals stayed the same. and what it means is we've got 14 million people who are employed, 6 million of those people have been out of work for six months or longer. and we've got another 8.8 million people who would like to be working full time but can only find part-time work. so there's about in all actually more than 25 million people who aren't working or aren't finding the kind of jobs that they want. host: our guest, the senior editor for the fiscal times. and for those who don't know, what is the fiscal times, sir? guest: it's a website independent editorial site covering all things fiscal. business and economy. and looking at both politics, policy, business economy. but also looking at the way those policies and business programs affect consumers, too. really covers the intersection of all those areas. host: from maryland we hear from bonnie on our republican

line. caller: good morning. i don't blame the president for job loss. i blame our local politicians. our governor went to asia, our governor went to asia, hired a bunch of teachers, paid their expenses to relocate to ltimore, all the while they laid our teachers off. now he's going to india. he bragged. we have five companies in baltimore and we have 50 companies in india. he's traveling with businessmen at the taxpayers expense. to me, it would make more sense to hire local rather than go to other companies and pay them to come to o country and take our jobs. to me, this is our politician's fault. it's the locals. it's not the president's responsibility. it's the state responsibility to keep our jobs in our state.

guest: now, i have to say i don't know about the conditions and the situation in maryland that you're talking about. but there's no question that ate and local governments have been shrinking. they'veost about 550,000 jobs in all over the last couple of years. and so that's one area. states are dealing with their own debt issues and having to cut back and that's certainly an issue. state and local job losses, government job losses have been a drag on overall jobs numbers. no question. st: fiscal times.com is the website if you want to find out more about our guests and the -- how many people work for the fiscal times? guest: that's a good question. i'm not sure. we've got a beau in d.c., we've got an office we're head quart here in new york city.

in all it's probably about 20 with another staff of a whole bunch of contributors that probably names that you're familiar with out there. host: michigan, curtis on our democrats line. caller: ok, i'm from michigan. i am a disabled veteran. i got shot up in vietnam. and i'm struggling with the housing market, too. and i'm water. i'm on the water and when they gave me this loan, bank of america took 80% and put 20 with gmac. charge me 11.5% and bank of america isharging me 6.7%. and i'm having problem problems. can't get refinanced. and until president obama or whoever does something about the housing, that's going to be a problem. people cannot afford their notes. and they won't give us a modification or help. i've

[inaudible] now he said he's got to help me but i've got to give him $1,000. and i'm scared it's a fraud. i can't afford to give him the down payment. he said he can help me but i've got to give him $1,000. now why? guest: now, i don't know who it is that you're talking to. i should say it sounds like something you should look into before you spend your money. but you're certainly right that loan modification programs are a big topic of conversation because the mortgage issue still a big overhang over the economy. there's a lot of people out there in situations much like yourself trying to figure out how to get out from under water so to speak on their homes whether through refinancing or other programs that might be available and we're going to be

hearing a lot more about that over the next few weeks. host: jefferson still, missouri. independent line. caller: politician here a few years back said we were going to hear a giant sucking sound when you pass nafta, sucking 7 million jobs out of this country. and giving the tax break to do it i think a lot of american people are going to let you know what they're hearing come november, 2012. host: is there a connection as you see it following the fiscal side of it when it comes to people's voting habits on the political side? guest: well certainly i think people are going to vote their wallets this election. it seems like it's going to be another case of it's the economy stupid as we heard back in the 90's. and that's why tease numbers are certainly a concern for

president obama and his administration right now. we've seen the republicans taking the leing president sh contenders taking a hard line criticizing the president for his stewardship of the economy. host: medford, oregon. steve, republican line. caller: good morning, sir. i hearan comics professor history say that unemployment during the greap great depression fluctwut. and if we measure unemployment the way we did in 1934 we would be at those levels now. please comment, and i'll list b on the air. guest: right now the overall unemployment rate if you include unemployment and underemployment is 16.2%. ere are more than 25 million people out there who can't find

the jobs they want even including those pple who are working part time because they can't find a full time job. and that number, that portion of the employment picture, those people who are working part time because they can't find full time work actually jumped by 400,000 last month according to the numbers that came out yesterday. so it's a really big number overall and when you say 9.1% or 16.2%, it's still sort of hard and vague to get a good understanding of what that means. and i'll throw out one other big number and it's more than 25 million people and it might be hard to really comprehend what that means too but it's a big number. there's a lot of people out there who can't find the work they're looking for. host: the papers mentioned t fact that verizon workers are on strike.

how does that factor in? guest: it factored in just because they were on strike at the same time that the government was taking its survey. so those 45,000 workers who would have been counted as being employed actually showed, fell out of the number. now, so you had the information sector for example verizon telecom company included in that had showed loss of 48,000 jobs. but 45,000 of that was actually these people who were on strike an are back at work. so the numbers overall would have been slightly better tha they were. but still, you know, even if you add those people back in to zero that we ultimately had, it's still nowhere near the number that we need to have to really see robust growth and reduce the unemployment rate

long term. host: dallas, texas. on with our guest. democrat's line. good morning. caller: gork. -- good morning. in relation to the job situation we hear people say business has got to create the jobs and businesses aren't interested in creating jobs. they're interested in laying people off, sending jobs overseas, ing technology. washington can't create jobs now because now that the republicans control that the house they're notgoing to give any money to president obama for jobs package. they're not going to give zero. but on the other hand we've got the federal reserve. now they've done qe 1, 2, 3. and all they did the first time they bought 800 billion worth of treasury bills and then 600 billion. instead of using this money to buy treasury bills, why doesn't the federal reserve set up an infrastructure bank and make the 600 available for infrastructure pjects at 0%

terest like they're doing to corporations? and they're doing to banks. why not make it available for infrastructure banks to help america build projects that benefit our country? thank you. guest: well, i believe the president is going to be talking about an infrastructure bank on thursday night. but in general, there certainly are people like the caller who say that the economic stimulus that we had as far as it went might have helped, might not have helped. but it really could have been much bigger. there's a lot of people on left particularly who argue that the money that was spent was, there's a big debate about whether it was too much, too little. but a lot of people agree with the caller that it could have been more money put out there to stimulate the economy.

host: so then the president has to make an argument that go big as you put it that he could get a return on the investment? guest: certainly. the idea and i thk that's the key for the jobs plans that he is going to be putting out. we want, you know, a lot of these programs have already been out there. they've been discussed. and somhave worked better than others. the idea is that we want to be able to say that there really is a return on any new spending that we're going to be doing. and return not just in terms of the government not losing money or things like that but return in terms of creating jobs, boosting the economy, getting the economy back on the right track. and so whether it's payroll tax cuts or infrastructure bank or other programs, job training programs, for example, certain energy efficiency programs that might be out there, there are a

lot of programs that people are going to be looking forward to see whether they actually have a return and are a return on the money that is being spent on them. host: when you say some have worked better than others can you give one example from the previous spending that we saw that did work? guest:ell, i'll talk about maybe a number of them. the payroll tax cuts for example, it's interesting the government says that that on average put about $1,000, gave $1,000 back per household. and the idea is that that money then was spent and further you know increasing consumer spending consumer demand for products and services. now, on the other hand, some economist that is i've talked to suggested that that payroll tax cut might have been more effective if it had been put on the employer side of the ledger

and so if you made it effectively made it less costly for employers to hire new workers and apparently that's one of the proposals that the president has at least considered and we'll find out thursday if that's in his plan. host: mary asked the question, can the federal reserve fund the infrastructure bank? guest: well, i'm not sure how that's going to be funded. we'll see how it's set up. the feral reserve certainly has a large balance sheet at this point. and it's been adding, we've seen with qe 1, 2, and other purchases that it's made but i think we'll see this week various proposals for how this infrastructure bank should be funded. .

we had them before the federal reserve bank, and somehow we came out. what worked for them? how did we come out of recession in our history? or is it the fact that this recession is so unusual, that there is no solution? thank you. guest: this recession is certainly different than other ones that we have had. in the recent past, for example, we can go back to the great depression and look at how the depression and look at how the economy was able to rebound coming out of that. that was in large part due to world war ii. and the requirement that we spend less, and prepare the country for war, manufacturing less. also during that period of war, because it was difficult, we ended up there was pent up

demand after world war ii. ing after the second world war. people who were not able to buy cars, suddenly wanted to go out and buy cars. all of these other products as well. the recovery that we had seen, with production increases, they we able to continue well into the 50s and go from there. in tricky spot. a lot of comparisons this time around after this great recession. it was to those yearsthe late '20s and after. the question is, whether the stimulus of thing -- whether the stimulus will actually work. what makes this much more difficult is we also have been

-- we have much higher overall national debt at this point, which makes that stimulative spending much more difficult. we do not want to end up like some of the country and in europe with the debt crises. it is a matter of finding the right balance, short-term spending with long-term fiscal responsibility, and figuring out a way to grow the economy. near term at least. host: you talked about auto sales. there was a story in the washington journal yesterday about chrysler, gm, and ford. guest: the car companies have been doing pretty well. e interest is a big reason the consumer spending was up. zero point eight%. gm in particular has seen strong interest.

people are interested in buying smaller, more fuel-efficient cars at this point. that has been something of a success story for gm. it has been traditionally known for making those a smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. host: what about the wheel to and honda? -- toyota and honda? guest: toyota was obviously affected by the earthquake in japan. we should see new models rolled out. sales and a specia offers to customers should be coming back. customers should be coming back. for now, and a son, general motors, they have been seeing strong sales. -- host: time for one more call.

caller: i do -- we need to late to jobs with tax breaks. we need an incentive to create jobs that are planted cash-rich. -- that are plenty cash-rich. the middle class has been battered. we have 7% of the people here that need to generate the economy. we cannot, because we do not have the money. as far as banks are concerned, the credit type is a significant. when people start losing their houses, which would then cause down's for the economy and losing the taxion base. guest: i think all of these

points you mentioned, we will points you mentioned, we will hear about them this week . in terms of companies and hiring, still a big question about what will convince them to hirer spend some of the money that is sitting on their books right now. they will do that once they see the prospects for growth pick up. once they see the money is not one be hting their profitability in spending that money will increase their profitability, that is when we will see jobs pick up. host: we saw the bond rating lowered. what has the effect been as you see it? guest: it has not been a disaster in terms of interest rate and costs.

we have seen treasuries drop to really an all time low rate. interest rates have not gone u interest rates have not gone u consumers overall , -- investors overall, sorey, have not followed the s&p lead. they are still looking to buy u.s. bonds in treasurys. u.s. bonds in treasurys. i think the effect has been seen mostly in terms of our confidence -- business confidence in washington politicians to come to an agreement, put together policies that will be able to grow the economy. if the s&p downgrade has had an effect, it seems to me that it has been mostly put in psychological terms.

>> coming up soon we'll be tabing you live to a speech by 2008 republican vice-presidential nominee and presidential candidate sarah palin. there are also a number of tea party group founders at the rally, including ned ryan, iowa tea party founder, ed rhodes, and mike george, conservative radio talk show host. because of bad weather, the tea party event is running a little behind schedule. we'll bring it to you live as things get underway here on s&p. you'll also be able to listen live on c-span radio and stream the event. here's a look at today's

t-mobile discussion from "washington journal." the depart of justice weighed in on the suit with the merger between at&t and t-mobile. let's hear from the acting attorney general. >> we know this industry well. inside and out. hear the i just division conducted an exhaustive investigation. we conducted dozens of interviews with competitors. we reviewed millions of the at&t and t-mobile documents. the conclusion is clear. anyway you look at this transaction, it is anticompetitive. we seek to ensure that our nation enjoys the competitive wireless industry. host: here to talk about the department of justice and what surrounds it is a new york times

and reporters are writing a story on this, what is the backdrop of this decision? guest: the department of justice has been striving to show it is tough on anti-trust. they look at it from a number of perspectives. it really and eliminates significant competition, takes the number of competitors down from four to three nationally. it will harm innovation, customer service, and they cannot let it go through. at&t and t-mobile say the opposite, of course. they say, not only does it allow them to expand the reach of wireless broadband around the country, but it will provide better service and allow them to give customers more choices. host: was this an unusual act by the department of justice? guest: not historically, but they have been under fire for

not cracking down on mergers, most recently comcast and universal. in number of consumer advocacy groups thought that very strongly. the detest -- the justice department said we will put conditions on the way you offer service and the products to offer and they have a high degree of oversight. now they are singing, we can do some of the same things. the justices said, no, the deal is just too bad to deal with. host: after the announcement it made, does that mean the deal is off? guest: it is never over. at&t is pursuing two tracks. it will fight it in court. they have asked for an expedited

hearing. they want to go to trial and think they will [inaudible] at the same time, they said they are going to go in and negotiate with the justice and see if there are conditions that can be agreed to, to allow the bill to go through. they previously have said, in local markets, where there would not be in a competition, we are willing to give up something. host: the headline to your story ooing." word "will guest: they have to convince the justice department that we are willing to work with you. at&t never believed that justice would stay -- stand in the way of this deal. they came across as somewhat arrogant. according to people in the room, they never thought this was a real concern. it did not quite cozy up to

regulators and say, let's see where we can work together. host: the president of at&t said he expected the deal to go through on television. guest: to be asked about the deal on television, the justice apartment filed a lawsuit in hour later. host: one person's book about the decision made by the department of justice. hear what he has to say and expand on it, if you would. >> at&t and t-mobile curly compete head-to-head in 97 of the nation's largest 100 cellular market areas. they also complete -- compete nationwide to attract businesses and government customers. with a merger to proceed, there would only be three providers with 97% of the market.

competition among the remaining competition among the remaining competitors, including price, quality, and innovation, would be diminished. host: he talks about markets. can you expand on that? guest: if you are in st. louis, milwaukee, or phoenix, you have a number of different cell phone companies to choose from. in most cases, you have six or seven companies to choose from. the justice department says people do not buy cell phones that way. certainly, companies do not. somewhat national reach. they do not have roaming charges. at&t and verizon and sprint and t-mobile offered nationwide plans. they would take these four competitors down to three. the justice said that t-mobile is a maverick.

they have been very aggressive with pricing plans, making low price their signature model. host: the washington post had a description of the pricing plans and companies involved. they said maybe t-mobile or the company looking to own t-mobile would unload it said that it would ultimately be sold to someone else? guest: the german telecommunications company said we cannot afford to invest both in the united states and europe. we want to focus on career. we want to get out of the united states business. someone who would be willing to buy that company and operate it and there is good business there, t-mobile, until the time of the merger, was a dynamic competitor than that. the justice said you cannot do

it in a way that would take quadra competitors down to three. host: our segment until 9:15 is the department of justice and they're concerned with the merger between at&t and t- mobile. here are the numbers for you to call in. if you want to send us an e- sail, journal@c pan.org. if you want to send us an e- guest: it affects the majority of wireless subscribers. it is an issue that affects everyone now. at&t says it is not a national

market but a local market. when you look at those other companies, they are a distant fifth starting with my trapezius and going down to other companies. they do not have the reach. they cannot offer the pricing plans. they cannot offer the handsets that people want. it really is a different market in a lot of ways. host: what about consolidation in this market? guest: a consolidating market is one that offers consumers a lot of benefits. if you are a phone maker, apple, you want to go to the company that can reach the most of customers rather than having to associate -- negotiate agreements with them. host: jack, ask your question or make your comment. caller: i would compare to what

they are considering now. it is my experience that i as a serious subscriber for a long time -- they added a royalty fee. my antenna ability went down. can you comment on that? guest: that is a merger that a lot of people have pointed to as a relevant one for the justice of parliament to consider. it allowed it to go through. they caught a lot of flak from consumer advocates. it was a market where there were two competitors down to one. what you see a lot of times when you go from two to one, there you go from two to one, there has to be some consolidation and it seems inevitably that it results in prices going up and

choices being limited. choices being limited. host: cleveland, ohio, independent line. caller: there are things that a government has a right to pick and choose what they want to do in the private sector. if we want to eliminate competition and the consumer would then be heard. on the reverse side, they could have opened up health care to the private sector, and allow themselves to spread among the many states. instead, they want to dictate how to run it, what to do. it seems like they are controlling what they want to control and not leaving it open to private competition. guest: that is a valid point. there is a lot at play.

the federal communications commission also has a somewhat different criteria that they look at the deals with. the fcc has to see if it is within public interest to transfer of the licenses for wireless airways from one company to another. they look at competition. they get a service and a lot of other fast -- facets. they have the ability to pick and choose what industries and the deals they focus on. they have deals since the beginning of the obama administration where they had filed an antitrust and then it went on to settle the case to allow the merger to go through with some conditions. it is not out of the question that they would do that here. it is the main way that the

justice has to make sure it in their view consumers are being protected. host: have they showed -- has the sec showed their hand when it comes to this deal? guest: they said we have some of the same concerns about competition. they also are looking at a number of other factors. spectrumthat t-mobile's words with at&t in overlapping in certain cities, whether they use the same technology and therefore they can share our things they have to consider. a difficult problem if -- that the sec has to solve if the justice $50. when looking at these things, the ability to lower -- offer lower prices, how would consolidation happen?

guest: pricing for consumers is what the justice to permit has said it is looking at here. that is the primary concern. hong they say no phone company really offers different prices to different markets. we have to consider this as a nationwide market. in previous deals, the justice to permit said, this is a local market. as for at&t come we are depending and making all of its arguments on, they have kind have edged away from that recently. this will be up to the judge to say, what is a consistent argument made, and what are you singing in this case? singing in this case? -- saying in this case?

host: has the judge had experience in this before? [inaudible] [inaudible] guest: she is a no-nonsense person. she has dealt with a number of cases. she was a judge in the citigroup case. she is one, who most people look at as someone that is not going to mess around and make a quick decision, which is really what companies in the markets throughout. host: to her previous decisions indicate whether she backs of justice on these kinds of cases? guest: not to a great extent. she has been on both sides of those arguments. i do not think has shown bias or inclination one way or the other. host: democrats line. caller: i am a customer of t- mobile. i am very upset about the

merger. i get so tired of companies trying to decide where my money goes. i should have a choice into the right to choose whatever company i want to go with. if you let at&t by t-mobile, you only have three large telecommunications available. i do not think that is right. i am glad the justice department stepped in, and i hope they step in on more companies that are getting rid of small companies so that a big corporations rule. i am just sick of it. i really am. i am glad the justice department has gotten involved. thank you. guest: t-mobile customers are the ones most affected here. we have to look at how they have been affected. a lot of people have gone to t- mobile, because they do not want to be an at&t customer or a verizon customer. this is something similar that you saw in new york city a

couple of decades ago with banks. banks. if he got mad at chase manhattan, and you decided to go to main facts jurors andover, you could do that, but you would end up right in the same place. t-mobile customers are suffering the worst through this, because the company has is essentially, while it has not halted investment, it has put a lot of decisions on hold. the longer it drags on, the less they are going to do. what the justice has tried to do is bring it to a head, get a decision, so either the company will be sold to at&t or it can operate independently continue to make the investments and update the key technology it needs to provide the customers with the best service. philadelphia,

independent line. caller: i'm interested on his perspective of this. under the department of justice, market quantification guidelines, it is off the charts. i am just wondering what at&t thought when they went into this, in terms of the ending -- the department of justice. where this would go in terms of other mergers, where you go from four to 3, where the market shares are incredibly consolidated. what do you think at&t saw was the best out coming year, going into something safe and it in a controversial tax credit what at&t wanted in this case was the

spectrum on by t-mobile par. [inaudible] how good your wireless province services depends on where the electromagnetic spectrum you have licenses are. t-mobile has very attractive places on the pants. in various cities. at&t want those to be able to expand the market. it is the secret that at&t cell phone services have problems, drop calls, particularly in urban areas, which would allow us to put up more cell towers and improve its service in those places. that is a way to address one of the biggest price isms against the country. host: one person made those arguments when he was before legislators. thus see what he has to say, and you can comment on it.

>> you have drop calls, block calls -- it is a very basic concept. in any industry, grady -- greater capacity is a factor of innovation. .

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] guest: most of the people that look at this c.e.o. are concerned about broadband, because that's where the future is. the companies that offer a wire to your house, that's really going to be going away in the not too distant future. >> is that l.c.e.? >> well, l.c.e. is what's marketed as 4-g services. it is the fourth generation of wireless services. it allows simply more stuff to be pushed through the line. in this case, more data, because

people use their smartphones to >> we take you now to iowa where sarah palin will be the keynote speaker at a tea party rally. >> currently, he is involved with homeland security. he is also studying counter terrorism. ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with

liberty and justice for all. >> to sing our national anthem will be stacy ruth stelting. stacy and her sister have been on fox news several times. they will be again monday morning. they live in cherokee, iowa. these two young ladies have made a national prominence. they sang for rick santorum and mike huckabee.

carrie beth recently recorded a patriotic see the, "in god we still trust." learn more about it at their website: unitetheuse.org. stacy and carrie love their country, but more importantly, they love their lord, jesus christ. >> it may be raining, but it does not put out our fire, right? it is exciting. what a blessing to be here. as i did when i sang for president george the be a bullish -- george w. bush, i dedicate this to our troops, our veterans, and our lord jesus christ.

and i say that not as a swear word. i say it from my heart. jesus is my lord. time for our national anthem. you all our great patriots out there. rise if you have not and i will sing our national anthem. i am waiting for the music. because i do know the words. by the way, as he was mentioning earlier, we're going to be sharing about our prayer event on fox news that counters bloomberg's ban on prayer. we are going to have 911 prayer. check it out. inis an on-line event

facebook. we will pray anywhere, anytime on 9/11. we would love to have you there. ok. it will work out. is it going to start? o say can you see you, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were so

gallantly streaming, and the rockets' red glare, of the bombs bursting in air, i gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. o, say does that star spangled the landt wave, o'er of the free, and the home of the brave.

[applause] praise bad. keep up that fire. even in this rain -- praise god. keep up that fire. even in this rain. >> ok, boys and girls, they have not got as yet. al gore's liberal rain still has not run as of yet. our next guest hosts the afternoon drive show from 4:00- 7:00, and he is truly my hero. he is a true patriot and a true american citizen. ladies and gentlemen, mr. simon

conway. >> hello, my fellow patriots. who loves the constitution? who is here for sarah palin? you know, we have to fight the language that is coming from the left. we are terrorists, right? we are holding the country to ransom. we tea party people are just itching, itching to find some black people to hang from a tree. i know. that is the language we are facing from the liberals, from the congressional black caucus, from these people who invoke martin luther king about as often as i take my dog reagan

for a walk. they invoke him, but apparently they did not pay any attention to him whatsoever and to what he dreamed. the mere existence of the congressional black caucus would have been hugely offensive to martin luther king, who longed for a day when his children and his grandchildren would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. but you know what? we have to rise above the garbage that is being spewed by these hate-filled people. we have to deal with the real issues facing this country, facing the greatest of all nations. you know, yesterday morning, the new unemployment figures came out. the united states -- exactly right. added zero jobs in the month of

august. 0. seen none since 1945, when we were involved in a little that i like to call world war ii. the president has told us over and over again that jobs is his number one priority. you would think he might have something to say about this shocking number. it did not happen. he left the white house aboard marine one first thing in the morning and went for a life -- a nice weekend at camp david. not one word to all of the americans out of work. next week, he is going to address a joint session of congress to unveil his master plan. i can hardly stand the anticipation. can you? the big miracle. our savior to the rescue.

of course, it does three remind me a little bit of that movie "groundhog day," because on september 4th, 2010, one year ago tomorrow, the president said to the nation, "we are doing everything we can to accelerate job creation. the steps we have taken today to stop the bleeding, investments in roads and bridges and high- speed rail will lead to hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector. oans to businesses who create jobs." did i miss something? did i sleep through something? hundreds of thousands of new jobs? if he was serious of creating new jobs, the first thing he has

to do is remove the massive uncertainty businesses experiencing because of his failed and unconstitutional health care law. if he were serious about helping the economy, he would cut short his long weekend and get back to the white house and tell the nation that when the country gets back to work on tuesday, the first thing he is going to do is repeal obama-care. but you know what? if he does not do it, we're going to do it for him. and we also have to talk a little bit about illegal immigration. that is something that is a little close to my heart, as he might understand. all presidents have used executive orders, but to enact major legislation that they could not get through congress by using executive orders is not something we have seen very

often. the president cannot get cap and trade past. solution? give the epa powers that most communist secret police would be proud of. even with the democrat- controlled house and senate, the president could not get the so- called dream act passed. what did he do? he used an executive order to run around congress. but i have to tell you, it is far worse than not. he not only did a runaround congress, he did run around the judiciary as well. some 300,000 cases that have come before our courts are going to get individual review. think about that. the president just overrule the judge. where is the outcry, the shot, the sense of outrage coming from the united states congress? where is it?

from the senior judges, from the mainstream media, where is it? i have to tell you, as a legal citizen and proud in jig as a legal immigrant and proud -- as a legal immigrant and proud citizen of this country, i am horrified. if you are illegal and attending school, you are allowed to stay. if you are illegal and have a family member in the military, you are allowed to stay. if you are illegal but have primary responsibility for the care of other family members, you are allowed to stay. if you are one of the 300,000 who has received a final order of deportation, your case is going to be reviewed by someone in washington, d.c. and of course, they are so efficient up there, they should take what? a couple of weeks?

and by the way, you could be given a work authorization document that will enable you to complete your job with real americans right now. in case there's any confusion left in this audience, that is amnesty. i hope you're going to join me. i hope you are going to continue to fight for our republic to make sure you are informed and stay informed. you see, right now we still have 14 months ago until the next election, 14 months until we get this guy who has worked so hard to destroy our nation to go home and stay home. this is a never-ending road that we are on. this will never stop. your fire will never stop, and i have to tell you, if it does, freedom itself will probably

stop. it is a never-ending road, and we do not like to hear it because we are lazy. i am lazy. we have other things we like to do. this is fantastic, magnusson. give yourself a round of applause for being out here today. especially the people who slept under the stars last night. but this is for nothing, nothing, if you simply go home and say what a great day this was. we have to stand up for our children and for their children. this is really about saving the republic. i have lived through where we are headed. i tell you that on the radio all the time, and i'm telling you right now, our very republic is that risk. are you ready to tell those in the white house that we have had enough?

we have had enough of the content they treat us with. we have enough of the president trying to legislate through executive order. they say that people like us are crazy. we are the far right. we are than the jobs. they are wrong -- we are the nutjobs. they're wrong. they could not be more wrong. this is the center of america. when you stand up for the constitution, this is the real america, and we are standing up right now. i have to tell you that really, the reality is, the only people who think we are on the far right when we fight for the constitution are king george and the new royalty at 1600 pennsylvania ave. my promise to you is that i will

continue to fight each and every single day with every breath i have. i will continue to fight for the constitution. i will use every power i have to do that, my radio show, where ever i am on the radio in the country, i will continue to fight for the constitution. and also, by the way, the preservation of the second amendment. god bless you for coming out here today, really, and god bless the united states of america. thank you very much. i have to introduce someone now. sam clovis is a radio host from sioux city, iowa. he is also the professor and chair of the department of economics and business administration at morningside college. before all of that, he was a colonel in the air force, where he served for 25 years. he flew f-one a six's, f-four's

and f-16's. ladies and gentlemen, sam clovis. [applause] >> i was told to be quick or be gone. i want all of you to dispel some rumors that when a fighter pilot gets a doctorate in gives liberals a lot of trouble and makes their heads explode. back when i flew fighters, when i was quite literally half the man i am today, i enjoyed that immensely. i it thought it was more fun -- it was more fun than the law should have allowed. i am here to talk about the principles that bring you here today and all the things that matter to us as americans. our liberty and our freedom are under assault, and we have to do something about that.

one of the things i want to talk to about is a little thing called cut, cap and balance. i want to take that in reverse order. the number one priority of the united states is to pass a balanced budget amendment and to send it to the states for ratification. there are 87,000 jurisdictions, governmental jurisdictions in the united states today. all but one has an obligation to balance its budget. all but one, and that one is the national government of the united states. they cannot impose discipline upon themselves, so we the people must do that. over the last 50 years, we have been spending at a rate of about 20.5% of gdp. our revenues have only been about 18%. it does not take a harvard ph.d.

do figure out the that is a negative cash flow. what we are after is a way to balance the budget and start buying down this debt. if we continue on the current trajectory, the current buzz word in d.c., we will be seeing $25 trillion in debt over the next decade. we will be saddled with such debt that our children and our children's children will never have a way of life like we have today. in order to balance the budget, if the growth of the economy stays would it is, below 1%, we will never reach a balance point. if it goes to 3%, it will take 13 years. if we get growth at 5%, it will still take a years. we have got to have the leadership in washington that will do that, and the balanced budget amendment is the way that we will finally get that done

and impose discipline on the congress because it is the congress's constitutional responsibility, not the president, to set the budget for the united states. i just wish the senate would get up off their butts after 900 days of no budget action and get on with the business of the country. let's talk a little bit about cap spending. if we were to cap spending today, we have to go through this process. you understand that the $3.70 trillion offered by this president is one that institutionalizes the stimulus. this leaves an additional -- this means an additional $1 trillion has been added to the baseline. i am an economist, so i have a hard time not talking about these numbers. we need to be cutting about $8

trillion from our budget over the next 10 years to reach that balance point. $8 trillion. that is a big number. what we have to do then is find a way to do this, so we have to stop spending money. now, do the best part. let's talk about cutting spending. let's talk about cutting spending. i proposal as this. that we have 2.8 million civilian employees in the employ of the federal government. if we were to cut 100,000 employees are the next 10 years, that would save as $10 billion a year. now, think about it. we finally have the civilian work force that is only a little bit bigger than all those young men and women in uniform, the people who defend us out there.

next, we have to take on $550 billion a year given out in grants. all grants are are institutionalized earmarks. if we were to cut 10% of that grant money every year for the next 10 years, we would save $55 billion a year. and finally, finally, there are 2107 subsidies that cost the american taxpayer approximately $850 billion a year. let's cut that 10% a year, and suddenly we have real talk of $150 billion a year, and i have not mentioned medicare, social security or medicaid. how about them apples? we have the opportunity in three areas to go after spending, to cut 4% a year from our budget, to get that balance point within

the first term of the next republican president of the united states. now, this is going to mean a lot of rice bowls are going to get kicked over and a lot of oxen are going to get bored. -- gored. you mean i get the bandstand that you want out there. you may -- you may not get the bandstand you want out there. he may not have to bring a certain kind of curriculum in tears schools. you have control from the bottom of -- bottom up. look at the americans who have come out here today to defend liberty. this speaks volumes about what we are about as a nation, and this message will be sent all over the world. and by the way, for those of you

watching on c-span, i do a lot of tv interviews, and it really does at about 10 pounds. one of the things i want to talk about is what you need to do. i am a great fan of movies. one of the movies i watch is "the untouchables." kevin costner is frustrated over what is happening with al capone. sean connery says, what are you willing to do? i am asking you, what are you willing to do? you have to do the next thing. you have to do -- what ever it is -- you have to do one more thing. if you're used to knocking on doors, you have to let envelops. you have to make calls. you have to do missionary work for this cause. you have to bring someone new into the fold every day. more importantly, unfortunately, you have to write checks. you have to support the

candidates who are going to support the principles you are showing you have supported here today. they told me to go quickly. this is as fast as i can talk. i am going to sign off the way i sign-off my show every day. i speak for myself. i hope i speak for you from time to time. god bless you. god bless this country. god bless those young men and women in uniform. let's get them home safe. >> umbrella people, i am told it is stopped raining. our next speaker is the host of his own radio show on the all patriots media network. he is also the host of the

conversation with p.j. cats. ony katz.. he is a tea party organizer in california. how does that work? ladies and gentlemen, tony katz. >> ladies and gentlemen, give yourself a hand. i did not do anything. i got lucky enough to be under here. will this thing hold? can i move this thing? do i have to be behind the podium? i have people out in the rain, do i have to be behind the podium? much better. hello and welcome iowa. how did you get a jewish kid born in brooklyn to show up at this? you know, the last time i had the chance to speak on a stage where governor palin was speaking, it was madison,

wisconsin, on tax day. it's no that day. it is raining today. -- snowed that day. it is raining today. you do not think sarah palin can win the presidency? she can change the weather. it is a pleasure to be here from los angeles. greetings from all of those associated with the tea party in los angeles. yes, there is a tea party in los angeles. have no fear, iowa, you're not alone. i come before you today -- certainly, i am curious to hear what the governor is going to say, as are all of you, as is the entire nation. they sit through the rain to hear what sarah palin has to say. they do not go to hear what

barack obama has to say, ever. you cannot get nascar drivers to show up at the white house. because within sarah palin, with in the tea party is of value that immediately connects. it is the value of something we call the for basics, the constitution, capitalism, fiscal responsibility and smaller government. these values work everywhere they are applied. every time there mentioned they get applause. every time they're put into practice, we have a more vibrant nation, a successful nation, a free nation, and the greatest nation in the history of the world. and as a guy who does a radio show, as a guy who does a few tv shows, who is lucky enough to be able to voice the tea party position on major cable outlets

, isn't it astounding, isn't it amazing, for all of the things we are told about the tea party -- we have heard the litany already -- that the tea party manages to thrive and survive? thousands of people will stand in the rain. we changed the course of history because we on the cultural debate in the united states of america. and yet they still call us names and they still, in the mainstream media, in the press, in the progressive press, still attack as. why is it? why is it with all of their cloud cover, with all of their ability to reach out, they cannot defeat us? the reason is because what we value here in iowa, in los angeles, we have people from texas, we of people from

nebraska. i know we have got some people out from california. what we value is not based on where we grew up. it is not based on what our family was. it is based on the recognition that it is better to be freed than to not be freed. it is based on the recognition that while we may need government, note we do not need government to take care of us. we can take care of ourselves. the media, for all of their talk and all of their bluster -- and it does not matter if they are on msnbc or move over to current tv, in a newspaper, in a blog,

will continue to attack and not understand that we own, quite literally, the cultural debate in america. allow me to prove this to you. the 2010 elections were our victory, not the victory of the republican party. that is heresy in some corners, ladies and gentlemen, but the reality is the same, because it is the tea party that pushed for the agenda the politics as usual is over. it is over. that the value cannot be based on the thesis of, well, that is the way it is done. to hell with the way it is done. we want it done our way. there is no one running in this 2012 election who can even dream of not getting the help of we,

the tea party. you cannot get elected in the united states of america without us. and it is not because of money, and it is not because of access to the press. you see a lot of conservatives out there in the press, down you? we own all of the television stations. we own all of the news. but part two is this cultural conversation, that the tea party has quite literally change the culture in the united states of america. we have created the conversation that is necessary to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity. those are not words. those are actions. and every day we wake up to ensure that we secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

that it involves our civic responsibility and opportunity to be engaged in how the nation gets shaved. this is not an anomaly. this is the norm. but i was fully aware that we control the cultural debate in america last summer. last summer there were a series of commercials that came out on television. madison avenue paying attention. the first was a short-lived commercial for kraft macaroni and cheese. no, they are not a sponsor, but they should be. kraft macaroni and cheese did a very strange commercial engaging in a housewife, imam, and thomas jefferson. -- a mom, and thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson and macaroni and cheese -- it did not make sense. why is it there?

then, maybe one of the best commercials i have ever seen in my life, right up there with where's the beef? see, i am checking the age of the crowd, not everybody knows that. that is how young the crowd is today. for those of you who think we are just old people. take a look around. you are screwed in future elections. but there was a commercial for dodge. and in this commercial, you had the red coats coming out through brush, just like that. they are in two lines, moving forward. all of a sudden, from out there comes a scout, a young kid, 15 years old, running through, speaking to the commander, that is where they are. that is where the americans are. and the commander gives the order. the redcoats get down on one knee, pulled down their guns and

aim. the second row is ready to go, ready to fight, ready to take on the yankees, the rabble- rousers'. a moment of silence happens, and what comes through the brush? but dodge challenger, driving as fast as it can, and american flags sticking out the back, and who is driving that car? george washington. and the tag line was, america got a couple of things right, cars and freedom. madison avenue is interested in the money. i am a capitalist. thank god they are. and it is not a bad word. if they tell them the capital as -- if they tell you capitalism is a bad word, tell them they

are liars to their face. madison avenue is targeting someone when they place an ad, ladies and gentlemen, and they were targeting the tea party. they do not target an audience because the audience is small. they target an audience when they put out a commercial because the audience is wide. now maybe they targeted the tea party audience because we are the ones who actually have jobs. but i come here today to tell you wrote that what we are doing -- to tell you that what we are doing is working in corners that you do not ordinarily see. it is behind the scenes working. it is in the hearts and minds of every american, even those who cannot stand up. even those who truly hate us cannot deny the reality that we control the political and cultural debate in america. you want more proof?

look around. that is a major rainstorm that came through. take a look at the skies, a little clear and coming. we may see another band of rain. someone else has broken through the political and cultural debate in america, sarah palin. >> sarah! sarah! sarah! >> for the record, that is not an endorsement. that is a reality. that is the reality, and the reality is very frightening for those people who engage in fantasy, meaning the hard core leftist progressives. that reality drives them crazy. that reality is killing them. that reality is going to destroy them in 2012. they will be crushed.

they will be replaced. that is not a bad term. it is we doing this work. it is not one person. it is not one woman. it is not one man. we do this. thousands of us here today in the rain, thousands of us who gathered in the snow a few months back, and the unbelievable numbers of us who will do what it takes to prove to america that we cannot go down this path, that the tea party message of the constitution, capitalism, fiscal responsibility and smaller government is the only message, and we will be victorious. i am tony katz. thank you.

>> let's give land to a k tonyatz. a hand to tony katz. in april 15th, 2009, recognition was given to an event for the tea party of america as being the best organized. i was part of that event. there were many great volunteers that step forward to organize that event. now we have a recording artist, cris the branch -- krista branch. she started singing at church at a young age, and she has never stopped. a year ago, she released a

youtube video, "i am america." id when viral and gained her national recognition on fox ms.. -- fox news. all of her music can be found right now on itunes. as a special treat today, in a few minutes, she will make a public debut of her new single, can you hear us now? she is a tea party favorite. she has sung at many tea party events. the first, here she is singing her head, i am america. before she starts, i want to mention to you that her husband pastor mike branch and krista have a tenst.

please go up there and get a cd. it helps them out. they came here at no expense. this is their ministry. all of the tea party folks out there over and buy a cd. after you hear her sing, you want to buy a cd. krista branch. [applause] ♪

♪ ♪ i am america one voice united we stand ♪ i will not rest until we have won

i am america. is there no end to your own hypocrisy you hide your eyes and refuse to listen ♪ you stuff your pockets while rome is burning i am america one hope i will not give up on this fight i will not fade into the night

i am america ♪ you stuff your pockets while rome is burning i have a feeling the tide is tu turning i am america one voice united we stand one hope to heal our land i will not give up on this fight i am america ♪

[applause] >> thank you so much. >> our next performer is stacey and her sister. they will sing "the battle h ymn of the republic." if you recall from history, it

was written during the civil war. our country was torn apart, as it is now, between those who believe in the constitution, limited government, free enterprise, and those on the left who believe that government is the answer to all problems. i thought the song was appropriate. i want to introduce both sisters and sing "the battle hymn of the republic." >> thank you. isn't it great that the rain has ?et up abou ♪

["battle hymn of the republic" being sung] ,,