all of these are important from a u.s. perspective and what is a critical region of the world, what did the iraqis get? i think they have gotten a lot of opportunity, and they are develop. they are not where they need to be or where they desire to be. >> general, and when to try to get in one last quick telephone call for you. from ohio, michael, can you make it quick print >> yes, transparency and accountability, general. >> yes. we are listening. we are listening. oil,

logistical location. a twice decorated marine general wrote a book called "war is a racket." this says nothing to do with the democracy. host: general, can you respond to that? >> they have a lot of oil. there is a potential to develop the oil sector. it had been stymied by years of inept management by the government of saddam hussein, and the people were not getting the benefit of what oil they did export. i think over time, they have made some decisions and helped to privatize the oil companies at-bat and bring in a number of international oil experts from all over the world, not just the

united states, but also the u.k., denmark, china, russia, and they are helping them to develop their oil sector. increasingly, you see a number of rational decisions being made by the iraqi government to develop the oil and gas, and money into an investment in their future in things like education, but this is a lament i think that we hear a lot of times from people who suspect the u.s. motives, who somehow have suspected that the u.s. military came here to take the oil of iraq, for example, and, obviously, there is just no basis in that. we're here to provide the iraqis opportunity to meet their own potential. host: we have to say goodbye to major jeffrey buchanan joining us from baghdad to give us an update on that situation. we want to thank him for giving

us an update this morning and for answering telephone calls. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> coming up, pat toomey, followed by wasserman schultz in about one hour and how the u.s. has changed since 9/11. >> henry clay ran for president of the united states and lost, but he changed the course of history. he is one of those featured on "the contenders." friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> pennsylvania senator pat toomey is one of the 12 members of congress appointed to the joint committee on debt as a reduction, charged with recommending spending cuts by

thanksgiving. this is just over one hour. [applause] >> i have the pleasure of introducing pat >> i have the pleasure of introducing a woman to lead us. >> economic financial-services and budget issues, striving to restore fiscal discipline to washington and economic

opportunity for all americans. among other things, the senator has announced a 10-year budget proposal that received more votes in the senate than any other budget plan this year, and he has successfully helped to cut red tape for communities and job creators in pennsylvania. the senator service on the budget, banking, commerce, joint committee on deficit-reduction, and the joint economic committee. he is also a ranking member on the consumer protection subcommittee. the senator previously served in congress as a member of the house of representatives from the 15th congressional district in pennsylvania, where he championed economic growth and fiscal discipline. he retired from the house in 2004. in addition to his service, he has also served as president of the club for growth, up and operated a small restaurant

chain in the valley, and worked in the financial-services industry. a graduate of harvard, he lives here and has three children. ladies and gentlemen, senator pat toomey. \ [applause] i would ask that you all join us 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. >> thank you. thank you, kim, and i would like to thank our hosts for providing a terrific forum. this is a terrific spot and a great place to do this. i would also like to thank everybody for taking the time to

be here today, because i will tell you, these series of round table discussions and town hall meetings that i have been having across the commonwealth have been very, very helpful to me, helpful in bringing me up to speak about some of the challenges that we face and getting this economy moving and helpful in a lot of ways, so i am grateful for them. just yesterday, we had a town hall meeting. i see a couple low folks who are back with us again. -- of folks who are back with us again. a wide range of opinions we presented. that is what we should be having, a free and open debate about the challenges we face as a country. it is great for me to be back in this county. my family was here last weekend. my daughter is a girl scout. her troupe had a white water

rafting expedition. we decided to make its eighth family outing. we left our 16 month old with -- make it a family outing. we left our 16 month old with a babysitter. it was a great afternoon. such a great resource to have in this part of pennsylvania. i am will give a quick overview of the two big agenda items that i have been focusing on since i have been in the senate for a months. -- 8 nths. i will use a few crts so that i will not wander off of my ain of thought. i would like to have your comments and observations and thoughts. the two big items for me have been trying to move washington policy in a direction that will encourage economic growth rather than discourage it. i believe a lot of the policies

being pursued in the last few years are costing us jobs, not helping us to create jobs. i am tried to move us in a direction where we will be able to -- i am trying to move us in a direction where we can have job growth and have a strong and viable economy and create job opportunities for people who need them. that is focused number one. the second is to try to restore fiscal sanity in a place that has lost its. i am not overstating the case when you consider the budget disaster we have going on. i will speak more about that at the end of my comments. we have a chart. these are some of the town told me -- town hall meetings i have been having all over the commonwealth. let's look at the next one. what i have been hearing from constituents is remarkably

simir at these meetings. i think everybody gets that we need to get our fiscal house in order in washington. it should be a high priority. it is created -- it is related to creating jobs. as long as washington is running excessive deficits, that has an effect on our ability to grow in the private-sector. i have heard about how existing regulations, newly proposed regulations and the threat of new regulations are blocking job growth, business creation, business expansion. i will tell you the one that appears to be the worst offender from the pennsylvania and i have spoken to. the epa. what they are doing and what they are threatening to do -- i will give you some examples of how it is absolutely costing us jobs. i have been working hard to push back on the regulatory excesse''

of the epa. the obamacare, the big health care bill, a huge problem for employers, a huge problem for job growth. i want to talk about its impact for pennsylvania, which disturbs me a great deal. lastly, even local governments are being adversely affected by some of these new regulations. we have some good news on that front. it is also a problem. if we could go to the next chart. if we ask the question, where have the jobs gone, part of the answer is, the jobs have gone here. the excessive regulation and this wave of new rule-making and controls exceeds that of the bush administration and the clinton administration's. it is starting to add up. -- bush administration and the clinton administrations. you have hed of this act for them, mact.

it is a way the epa uses to impose more stringent regulations on industrial america. power companies and manufacturers of all kinds. i am in favor of moving in the direction of cleaner air. we have cleaner air today than we did 20 or 40 years ago. that progress is good. i hope we can continue to make progress. we have to be careful how we do it. the new proposals that the epa has put out that would require all industrial companies -- all companies -- to replace the boilers they use is devastating to huge segments of industrial pennsylvania. when example, in particular. a paper manufacturer. they are the biggest in player in their county. the millions of dollars it would

cost them to replace their boilers could jeopardize their ability to keep everybody that they have working working. it is an example of the kind of problem that is caused by these regulations. the chesapeake bay regulations. runoff rules that put a huge portion of the burden of further improving the water quality of the chesapeake on agriculture when it is not entirely clear that agriculture is the source of the problem. i am concerned about the impact that is having on pennsylvania firms. new ozone standards. we have made progress on reducing the level of ozone. the epa wants another generation of rules to come out. if they have their way and their rule becomes effective, most of pennsylvania will be not in compliance. most of pennsylvania ll be out of compliance. what that means is, it becomes

difficult, if not impossible, to open up a new facility that they perceive might contribute to the level of ozone. that is baffling to our ability to create new jobs. -- that is stifling to our ability to create new jobs. i talked to a company where they employ hundreds of people at good ping jobs. they decided they are going to grow and build a new plant. they will hire part of the reason is the new ozone rules would put in a burdensome set of costs on them if they were to expand in pennsylvania. so they're going to grow. they're going to hire new workers. it's just not going to be here. that's the kind of regulation that really disturbs me. yesterday, i was -- i started the dayn mckeon county and went to a fascinating company. the north america's oldest

continuously operating oil refinery. it's a small oil refinery. theyre -- occupy a little niche. and they take pennsvania oil, exclusively, and then they refine it to a series of niche products. they don't make their money competing with the big guys and making gasolinand diesel. their business is making lubricants. and waxes and other things that you can make from oil. well, the e.p.a. has a new set of regulations they want to apply to refineries in general. there are huge fixed costs in complying with these regulations. if you're exxonmobil, or you're conoco, you can probably absorb those costs because you can spread them out over the millions of barrels of oil that they refine. but if you're an american refining group, one of the biggest employers in meon county, you only do 10,000 barrels a day. they will not be able to afford these costs. this is what i nene when i talk about these consecutive regulations. i think we all want to have a clean environment and continue

to make progress on clean air and clean water. but we've got to do it in a sensible way. and i think some of these regulatory agencies are not. the next one is specific to- you went backward. go to the next chart. i just -- i'm moving along quickly here. the health care bill, i think, is profoundly problematic at many levels. but just a couple that are specific to pennsylvania, we've got a big successful relatively young life sciences industry. these are medical devices, some of them are in the pharmaceutical field. the discoveries and inventions are breathtaking. the job growth has been impressive. but it's threatened by this new tax,ot on their profits, but on their total sales. a lot of these companies are small and they're startups and they don't have profits yet. they will nevertheless be forced to pay taxes on their sales and we have some quotes here from some of the folks who

have been hiring regularly including fujirobo in suburban philadelphia and bo surgical. and they're saying this tax could be enough -- actually it's already stopped them from further hiring. it could have even woe consequences. this is a problem. we've got a tax on orphan drug makers that's a huge problem. let me touch quickly on some of the things that i'm trying to do to push back on these regulations. i've introduced a bill that will affect the e.p.a. i was shocked to discover that they are not required to consider the impact, adverse impact on jobs that their regulations could have. i don't think that's very reasonable. i think they have to make that consideration. because that's part ofhe costs they need to weigh against any perceived benefit. my bill would require that for any future regulations, the e.p.a. would have to weigh the costs of jobs lost and publicize that so that the public and congress and the various states affected would

be able to weigh in and hopefully push back. ientioned the orphan drug act. i'm looking to repeal the medical device act. and we have some broad support for that. i don't know if we've got enoughut we're going to keep working on it. some of the unfunded mandates. this came to my attention earlier this year. that we had a transportation department rule that was going to require every municipality in america to replace all their street signs. anybody hear about this? replace all your street signs. talk about a solution in search of a problem. this costs millions of dollars for your average municipality. how many municipalities in pennsylvania are sitting on millions of dollars of excess cash? i don't know of any right? and so that means property taxes would necessarily go up to pay for this, totally unnecessary mandate. now, to the credit of the administration, ray lahood is the secretary of transportation. is former member of congress. i served with him in the house and got to know ray. and reached tout him early on. and quested a waiver for one

particular municipality that had a good argument they wanted to preserve the historic and unusual character of their street signs. and he immediately granted the waiver. much to his credit. and we continued the discussion. we've joined a group of other legislators and municipal leaders from across the country. and theyave decided to suspend that regulation altogether. it's not going to go into effect. so every once in a while you have a win here and that's important. and that's part of why i'm here today. if you have a specific example of a regulation, a mandate, a cost that is not reasonable, that is consecutive, that is preventing you -- that is competitive, that is pventing you from getting a job, creating a job, that's what i would like to hear the most. let me wrap up. one other success in terms of job creation for pennsylvania that i was delighted to have a modest role in but the shipyard tkoup in philadelphia -- down in philadelphia, and very little work for a long time.

but they just won a big contract. to build two tankers for exxonmobil. it's hundreds of millions of dollars and will allow them to bring several hundred, maybe more, skilled workers back to work in building these tankers. i was delighted to be involved in that. let's go to the last one. and i'll just sum up he. these are the things that i think we ought to be doing to maximize job growth and economic growth. one, we need fiscal balance. i personally would like to see a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. i introduced a budget that balances over 10 years. i don't think it's realistic to balance the budget overnight but over time. it's a very reasonable goal. and i think we ought to get there. i think we nd to have stable tax rates. i will tell you right now i'm not in the camp that believes it's a good idea to raise taxes. i think that will do more harm to our economy than good. and we're not undertaxed although i will say we have an absurd tax code that has so much -- so many ridiculous features that are there because

special interests carved them out. i'm all in favor of reforming it. so that we can get rid of those kind of features. as i mentioned we certainly need to reduce regulations. we need sound money. we could talk about this if anyone would like to. but i've been a critic. fed's policy. and we need open markets. i was just at a farm in lehigh county where the farmer exports hay. and i didn't realize this but a substantial portion of the hay that's grown in pennsylvania is exported. he believes that our exports to south korea will double if we pass the free trade agreement with korea. because it lowers the tariff on amican sales into south korea very, veryonstructive. last thing i want to mention is the joint select committee that i've been put on to address this fiscal challenge. i said earlier, i don't think you can overstate how bad a mess we're in. we're running 1 1/2, almost $1.5 triion deficits each year. we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that we spend as a

government. does anybody think that that's -- that's sustainable? it's totally not sustainable. we've racked ua level of debt that's unprecedented. and in my view, the threat of higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher taxes, that that poses, is alrea having a chilling effect on our economy. i think it's desperately important that we get this under control. i'm looking forward to working with the other 11 members of this committee. it's bipartisan. it's bicameral. six republicans and six democrats. house members and senate equally balanced. and we have an extraordinary opportunity because if we can agree on a package to reduce this deficit, then both the house and the senate are required to have up or down votes in a very short time frame. it is t subject t obstruction. it cannot be amended. it cannot be filibustered. if we can pass this in congress, i feel quite confident the president will feel compelled to sign it. and if we can -- if we can use this opportunity to put ourselves on a sustainable

fiscal path to just moving in that direction, i know we're not going to solve all of these problems by any means, but if we can move the direction it can be very constructive for the sake of job growth for our economy and for our future. so thanks very much for being here. and i welcome your questions, comment, obsertions. -- comments, observations. >> gd morning, senator. >> good to see you again. >> good to see you again. my name is dan from philadelphia. unemployed worker. >> yeah. >> laid off from express script with 650 other people due to corporate greed and outsourcing of jobs. so yesterday, up in countersport, myself and a gentleman from tayoga county asked a direct question we feel was not answered. so we want to know why you will not support taxing corporations and millionaires to bring more revenue instead of asking the working folks and the working poor to bear all the burden of

taxes. the tax breaks they have now from the bush era, all of that done -- all they've done is create a big deficit. the job losses that we have now started during the bush era. so we need to get those folks that are not paying their taxes to start paying their taxes, you know, they get tax breaks. and also get a fedel refund every year. and i'm paying my taxes still on unemployment. i know yesterday you said you didn't -- you didn't know that unemployment you have to pay taxes on. but yeah, i am paying taxes on my unemployment. and i still have to pay federal taxes. i may get a refund at the end of the year but still got to pay it now and i'm hurting now and so are 14 million other people in this crinlt. and especially pennsylvania. -- in this country. and especially pennsylvania. bringing jobs to pennsylvania,

it hasn't happened. all we hear is you going to lobbyists and business people. to meet with them. but nothing has happened. when are we going to have jobs? when are you going to support us? >> i thought i answered it yesterday. but i'm happy to answethe question again for you today. and i will say i'm really not going to apologize for meeting regularly with groups of small business owners, chambers of commerce, when they invite me there. and let's fa it. those are the people that are going to hire unemployed workers and sthare going to crailt the -- and they're going to create the jobs that we need. [applause] mitch, if could you bring up chart number 24, let me make a few observations. and this gentleman brings up a point of view that is -- is fairly widely held. he's not in a tiny minority here. i don't share his point of view but it's understandable. the question is whether we should raise taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. my own view is the problem is

not that we're undertaxed. the problem is that we overspend. and the federal government has grown its spending as a percentage of our economy by 25% in two years. that is a staggering expansion in the size of government. and that itself has a huge cost on our ability to create jobs to grow an economy because the more the government consumes of our --he results of our hard work, the less growth we're going to have. this is well documented. this is historical. it's around the world. it's an american history. politicians don't allocate resources as wisely as markets do. as wisely appearance individuals do sitting around -- as individuals do sitting around the kitchen table. that's what it comes down to. who will allocate the results of hard work of productive people, politicians or the people who produced it? i'm in favor of the hands that produced it rather than in the hands of government. there's also an important point about competitiveness. because it's not the case that corporations and millionaires don't pay taxes. you can believe that they don't

pay ough, but you can't argue that we don't have corporate taxes. i would argue that the american corporate tax rate is too high. and here's why. is is a chart, it's not my data, by the way, this is the peterson foundation that produces this. they're a nonpartisan, actually most people think they lean slightly center-left. but be that as it may their data is certainly credible. it shows something that's widely known. the united states is here. we have the second highest not only marginal corporate tax rate in the entire industrial world, but the second highest effective tax rate. in other words, after you take into account the deductions and the fact that some corporations pay little or nothing in taxes, on average, our businesses, and therefore our workers, are at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world. i don't think that makes sense. and that's the case. but that's why i don't want to raise this burden and make us even less competitive and encourage multinationals to leave the united states and go somewhere where the tax burden

will be less. having said that, the gentleman makes a very valid point when he refers to corporations that pay no taxings. when one of the biggest most successful and famous corporations in the world pays no income taxes, that's outrageous. and it's wrong. [applause] totally indefensible. but let's also consider some of the reasons why. they're complying with the tax code. they're not breaking any laws. this is congress' fault. and part of it is because there is such huge tax giveaways for so-called green energy projects that you have the tail wagging the dog. they're making decisions based on the tax code. they're choosing to produce thgs that are not economically competitive. but they get a huge tax break and so they do it. and at the end of the day, they pay nothing in taxes. that'sn outrage. and i am in favor of dramatically reforming the tax code, simplifying it and making it much more fair and

eliminating these ridiculous giveaways and loopholes that special interest groups have carved out, and at the same time, using that opportunity to then lower rat so that we're in the competitive end of this graph and we start winning against our competitors in europe and asia. [applause] >> thank you for holding this town hall. my name is gene barr, vice president of government public affairs for the pennsylvania chamber of business and industry. we're the largest broad based business advocacy group in pennsylvania. and i represent the people who would love to hire people like dan and others in this room and elsewhere in pennsylvania. i want us to pass on to yo a surv that we just completed of hundreds of businesses across pennsylvania. just within the last week or two. and we asked them an open ended question to go to some of you previous points about what is the problem in job creation now? what are they seeing? what are they concerned about? number one wax the economy, not a surprise -- was the economy, not a surprise. number two, hindering job

creation, the competitive regulations, the -- the consecutive regulations, these business people are all across pennsylvania and all sizes and all kinds of businesses. one of those this was one that you hinted at which is the federal health care. and i'll talk about one point specifically ws the provisions of the federal health care kick in when you have 50 or more employees. if you're a small business with 45 employees, particularly in this time, you're going to think long and hard about adding five employees to your rolls to pick up costs that are undrmed at this point. the question would be, do we have any chance -- the goals of health care are laddable. do we have any chance of going back in and crafting a health care proposal that really does what it should do which is lower health care costs for everyone and not hinder job creation? thank you. >> it's a great point. [applause] i often will ask small business groups at a chamber of commerce gatherg or some other

roundtable how many people believe that the result of obamacare is going to be to lower the cost of providing health insurance for their workers. and i've never seen a hand go up. it's a huge problem. and you're absolutely right. when you create this threshold that says all of these new burdens are going to kick in if you hire more than 50 workers, well, guess what? we're going to make sure they don't hire the 50th worker. terrible policy. we don't have a consensus in congress to repeal it. we had a vote in the house to repeal it. we had a vote in the senate. and unfortunately, it went on party lines. i spo full repeal of this bill -- i support full repeal of this bill and replacing it with an alternative sers of reforms that would lower the costs and improve access without all of these mandates and huge expense and the government's consecutive -- excessive intrusion into the devery of health care. we don't have a consensus receipt now. what we're trying to do is work around the edges where we can. you might recall -- i know you recall the 1099 provision in this bill. this was a provision that would require every business to file

a form with the i.r.s. every time they spend more than $600 on anything. now, stop and think about that. a small contractor is going to spend more than $600 filling up his pickup with gas. you have to keeprack of every gas station that you go to and when you reach $600 that's a 1099 for that one. can you imagine the administrative hassle of trying to keep track of this sort of thing? that was in the bl. we were able to get that repealed. it took three votes on the senate floor before we could get a majority. but we final did. i mentioned that because it illustrates that occasionally there are little risme shot improvements we can -- little risme shot imprfments we can make but not solve the problem until we repeal it and replace it with an alternative set of reforms. [applause] >> my name is rick elbert and i work for the postal service and they claim they're going

through some hard times. i would like to know why we can process a bar coded piece of mail, meaning a letter or magazine, for 2 1/2 cents, why are we paying places like pitney bowes 10 1/2 cents to do the same mail? wh this mail does then is it comes back to our facility and it's presorted. but you have 100 trays of other mail that also has to get sorted. so this presorted mail just gets dumped into the mail stream. i don't know. it just doesn't seem right. and we only process about 17% of the available mail out there. and my other comment about it is the postal service was mandated by congress, the only government agency to prefund future retirees' benefits. i believe there was $39 billion

in this account to begin with. what happened last year was the postal service overpaid this fund by $60 billion. they're trying to recoup this money. who makes that kind of mistake and keeps their job? >> yeah. in government it happens all the time. >> you know, let's say -- we can deliver a letter from allentown to allentown. talking about praoistizing for less than 44 -- privatizing for less than 44 cents. that includes training me to go to oklahoma anywhere from two days to six weeks. there's a thousand mechanics, technicians there coming and going all the time. they house us. they pay us. we get trained. and that's in with your 44 cents. i don't think fedex would do that. another thing when the post office does a study, like where

to put a newrocessing center, they pay big bucks to have this survey done so they can place it in the right area. well, within six months, guess who's right arnd the corner? the fedex, u.p.s., they don't pay a dime. and it's -- it's just a shame. there's so much mail out there. and sure, email has cut back a bit. but why are we only processing 17% of the mail? that means private companies are doing that. work that we can do in house for like i said 2 1/2 cents as opposedto us paying 10 1/2 cents. thank you. >> well, thank you. that w certainly informative. and i hope it will be the first to confess that i know nothing about the postal service's sorting system.

[inaudible] to fund the postal service. we don't pay city tax or whatever -- >> property taxes, right. thanks for your input. let me -- i am not familiar with the stas of the pension system. but we'll take a look at that. and i appreciate your bringin it up. >> hi. my name is pat senafane and thank you for coming to inform us of your progress in congress. i have a two-part question. the first part is this. most people today feel that congress has relinquished its authority and has given it over to czars. we have never had a situation where we have people who have never been cross-examined by congress as to their background. we even had a communist -- registered communist working in the white house earlier in this

administration. and i would like to know what you feel should be done so that this country never gets into this situation again. and secondly, the other part is the national labor relations board in boeing, and how it's tilted to the left and unions and how they stopped a thousand jobs in south carolina, how now they're making rules and regulations. and here i believe it to be an advisory capacity of this board, not a government agency. why are they allowed to do this? thank you. [applause] >> i think it's -- it's hard to dispute the idea that congress has voluntarily relinquished

authority that i think the constitution intended congress to have to the executive. and to the bureaucracy of the executive branch is stunning in its scale. and i think it's just way too big. one of the ways that we have to provide a check on that is through the power of the purse strings. this is also by the really brilliant forsythe and design of the -- foresight and design of the constitution by the forefathers. in the annual funding bills that fund the government includg the executive branch, congress can go through and decide how much money they're going to get and what they get to spend it on. so this is actually a very useful process by which we could decide, for instance, that money used to fund the national labor relation board, would not be permitted to be spent to have them telling companies where they can locate their future plants. i think it should go without say, but obviously it doesn't. so we could force that issue.

here's the problem. congress has become so dysfunctional that we don't have a federal budget and we're not doing appropriation bills. senator reid made it very clear. very open about it now. for more than two years in a row, the federal government, by his decisio refuses to produce a budget. now, i went on the budget committee because i wanted to play some role and whatever i could do to change the fiscal path we're on. believe me, i was shocked and i'm stillurious that we didn't even have a budget. it's required by law. the 1974 budget act requires congress to do it. so this is a flagrant violation of the law. more fundamentally, it's an abdication of a basic responsibility. the government's the biggest enterprise in the world. we spend $3.7 trillion and to think we have no budget. and so i introduced my own. and we -- and forced a vote on the senate floor for my own. but i wasn't able to get cooperation from the other side so we couldn't pass that.

but i think it's appalling that we don't have a budget. now, why do i mention this? in part because one of the consequences is that this is the first step in the process that then leads to a series of individual funding bills that are supposed to be consistent with the overall budget. we have done none ofhose. and that means guys like me and the other 99 senators have had no opportunity to go down to the senate floor and influence policy by offering an amendment to change the funding for a czar tore an nlrb or an e.p.a. or any of the others. it's ridiculous. and we're going to go back into session in september and the first point of discussion i goingo be some giant humongous funding bl for the whole government because we haven't gone through this process. and i assure you we will not have the kind of opportunities we should have to affect policy the way you're describing. and i know it sounds like procedural minaya and tedious and i apologize -- minutee and

tedious and i apologize. but this is the way the congress can reflect the will of the pple we represent and if we don't have a process for doing that you end up with government by the executive branch without being able to hold it in check. [applause] >> senators, thank you so much for coming to carbon county. my name is robert dages and i'm a businessman and own three businesses. and so does my wife and children here. i do it entrepreneurial style. it's my opinion, my conviction, sir, that the biggest problem to business is government. government being in competition with private business. sir, there's three parts to this issued question. it has to do with the bill of rights.

it has to do with government moving outside their charter. and it has to do with transparency in government. first, moving outside their charter, we have the situation here in carbon county, also known as packard and ginyards, a big cost, my understand, the excise tax on gambling went to fund that project when it was supposed to come back for a tax relief. sir, when i pressed issues, they said they had constitutional authority to move outside provisional authority to do what they're doing. they would never give it. when i pressed it in court, horrendous decision came, which now allows any official, there's actually case support to move outside of category in

kind, and move away from government charter into corporate law, corporate charter, and use -- and use corporate law, litigation issues, to argue for client attorney privilege with an affidavit to being the appropriate roadblock to deface us from making redress of grievances which is our bill o rights. i've taken this to a new level and i would like you to call the chief clerk of commonwealth courts and follow case 1415. and see that it gets the attention that it needs. so would you tell me, please, senator, what you are doing for transparency in government? >> well, first, let me say that i think it would be helpful if you could spend some time with

one of my staff afterward. i really didn't fully follow some of the aspects of what you are referring to. i think some of it is specific to state government and probably -- i probably don't have much of a role in some aspects. t maybe i do and i would be happy to try to determine that. as a general matter, i'm a believer tt transparency is a go thing. and sunshine is a good disinfectant. and the government ought to operate with as much transparency as possible. and then citizens can hold their government accountable. so i would like to work with you if we can on the specifics of the issue that you raised. thanks. >> senator, i am a businessman. i have built and sold three businesses in pennsylvania, including a manufacturing

company. i have dealt with government regulation all my life. i have to respectfully request that you take it easy on the environmental protection agency. i am also the father of four children. i have a stake in the next generation. while i recognize that the paper mill you will meet with tomorrow in pennsylvania need to create jobs and to maintain production, i also recognize that what they are asking you to do is make it so they do not have to invest in state of the art clean oilers. they are asking you --to you- clean bo -- clean boilers. i believe in capitalism, free markets, and liberty.

i believe that your liberty and swear in frenc of -- enfringe -- infringes on my right to exist. the paper mail is asking you to let them pollute. the coal power -- mill is asking you to let them pollutes. the coal power plant is asking you to let them pollute our air. i disagree with that. i think it is time that we stop thinking of ou atmosphere as a sewer for toxic waste can we stop letting companies dumped mercury, carbon monoxide into the air we breathe. that is not liberty. i do not care if my electricity went up 5%. i would pay that to have clean water and clean air.

i just hado respectfully suggest that to you that maybe take it easy on the epa. what i wanted to ask you about is our precarious dependence on oil. our entire economy is dependent on oil. as i think you probably know, the united states has 2% of the world's oil. 2%. if we had to rely on our own oil, it would last four years. to me, as a business person, it seems reckless and irresponsible that we let our business model for the country cling to that precarious dependence. 81% of the oil is in saudi arabia, venezuela russia, libya. they controlled 81% of the world's oil. my question is this. america has done so many great things.

why aree not rising to the occasion and creating clean energy technologies that we can deploy throughout our country and get off of the foreign oil and stop importing foreign oil and exports this technology? i think that is what will create jobs for america and the clean energy for the next generation. why is the senate not embracing the concept? -- that concept? >> thank you for that. you are the first person to suggest that i go easy on the epa. it is a good alternative point of view. i would just remind everybody that we all pollute. most of us probably got here by a car. there is some pollution that comes out of the back end of a car. there is a certain amount that is part of our lives. we have made enormous progress

on the missions we put in our atmosphere. i am in favor of -- the emissi on we put in our atmosphere. i am in favor of the process. we have to be careful about doing this because there is a cost. when that costs us jobs, that is a price a family is paying. it has to be weighed ainst the hope that there will be a benefit in the form of cleaner air. i want to move on to your point about oil. it is an important additional point. i doubt there is anyone in the room who doesn't believe we should continue to strive for cleaner air and cleaner water. it is a question of the pace at which we do it and how we do it. we have to do it in a rational and careful way that does that damage the economy. no questiowe have a huge

dependence on foreign oil. it is a huge national security vulnerability for us. we have not done anything about it in a long time. we did not leave the stone age because we ran out of stones. we figure out a better way to make tools. in time, we will figure out alternatives to fossil fuels. right now, fossil fuels are more affordable as a means of producing energy and transportation. one of the things that is encouraging to me about our dependence on foreign oil is the natural gas we haveiscovered here in the united states, specifically pennsylvania. in the first time in our history, it is plausible to see an alternative to oil has been a transportation fuel of choice. natul gas is already cost competitive to gasoline. we do not have a natural gas refueling infrastructure the way

we have a gasoline refueling infrastructure. it takes less infrastructure to take it from the ground. we have a staggering supply. we have a huge supply just in the marcellus shale. it is equivalent to half of all the oil in saudi arabia. there are other comparable fields throughout the country. we also have our own oil, which i think we should develop more of. that would diminish our dependence on foreign oil. we have in alaska and offshore. i think we should be developing every source that is economically competitive, of which there are many. over time, the technology will emerge that will introduce new sources. as that happens, we should embrace them. i am in favor of most of the above when it comes to an energy policy. [applause]

>> hi, i live in harting, pennsylvania. my question will not change because of what you were talking about about oil and gas. the gas industry -- the natural gas industry is not exactly sure of the outcome that they are projecng with the chemicals that they use and the contamination from the dissolved solids and a lot of things that are involved. there has been no study by our government to protect us. my original question was about the epa. one of the reasons we have, as

you stated, the best ever, is because of the rules and regulations from the epa. the epa relies on science. science tells the epa that this chemical is bad. that chemical is bad. we should not have in our bodies more than 0.8%. my question is, how can you say, i am going to give you a job, but y have to hold your breath for 8 hours? how can i tell my child that he can only eat one fish per month? how can we let companies pollute? it may create a job, but five years from now i will hav

leukemia. 10 years from now you are going to have something wrong. how does that -- how is that actually cost effective in the long run? how can we allow lobbying in congress? our d.e.p. is one of the lowest rate in the state. we are used as an example of bad d.e.p. regulations. trouble because of the gas companies lobbying our representatives that we elected to protect us. how is lowering chemical protection, epa protection actually going to benefit me or my family? >> maybe i was not clear. i am not suggesting that we reverse the progress we have made over these recent decades. what i am is suggesting is that the new way of regulations that

the epa is trying to impose -- some ofhem go too far and happen to suddenly without examining the implication. if the benefit of a new regulation is actually going to save lives and it is measurable and we can clearly establish a significant benefit, we need to do it. in some of these cases, the benefits are tenuous and the costs are real. i have to disagree of your characterization of the d.e.p. it is my understanding that the d.e.p. is qualified to regulate marcellus shale. that should be some comfort. the fluid that is being injected into the stone is being injected

two miles bel the surface of the earth. it is kept and contained in steel tubes. this is extensively regulated. i am in favor of regulating to the best practices out there. i am convinced that the best practices make for a safer approach. i have been too well sites. i have the -- to well sites. we should put whatever resources we have to make sure that that is what happens. i think the epa is capable of doing it. [applause] >> three more questions. if you did not get your question in, raise your hand.

>> my name is paul. i am a rered steelworker. you mentioned a big corporation that did not pay any taxes. i think you were referring to generally that trick. am i right? >> yes. >> i think they got some of the stimulus money. their ceo is jeffrey immelt. he was a big supporter of president obama. general electric is one of the biggest manufacturers of light bulbs. they are manufactured in china.

there was a vote in congress a little while ago to ban incandescent bulbs. is the band going to be voted on again? when they close all of these plants -- there were 40 plants that manufacture incandescent bulbs. they were sending jobs to china. am i right? tried to get rid of these fluoresct bulbs. you have a problem with the mercury in there. will that be another vote on ban that ban? >> i do not know th answer to the question. i am personally in favor of libelled freedom. -- light bulbreedom.

[applause] they emit different shades of light. let nsumers decide. consumers can sort this out. i do not think we need a ban. >> my name is bob. i am a local resident. two quick items. back to the jobs. in order to create jobs, how do you come down on these three items. to me, you need consumption. you need to have people buying things so that companies will be forced to produce more. now you have roughly 12-14 million people who are out of work. you have these companies that have high productivity that they are making 1000 gizmos and they need to make more, they can

increase their productivity and they do not need to hire more workers. my second point is on this super committee that you are a member of. do you really think six republicans and six democrats sitting in a room are going to really come up with any ideas that 500 members in congress should be able to do? >> the first point you made those to the hearts of the debate that is raging across america about economics. should we be focusing on the demand se or the supply side? this administration is all about the demand side. i would argue that it has not worked. a massive stimulus bill -- the giant one was not the first. the huge surge in spending is unprecedented. if the idea that the government can create demand and created by borrow-- create it by borrowing

and spending, we would have a recovery going on right now because of the huge amount of spending. my view is that that is looking at economics in a backwards fashion. if the government can have policies that allow people to produce things that a lower cost, there is unlimited demands. who does not want a newer car, a nicer home, better things for their kids. the demand is there. the problem is we cannot provide the product at an affordable price. when the government at to the cost of the products, we separate the natural consumer demand from their ability to have that demands met. the focus should be how we enable people to provide supply at an affordable price. as to your question about the select committee, i do not blame you for being skeptical about this. i have my concerns about whether

we can get this done. it is not as though we do not have enough committees down there. my hope is that there is a greater sense of urgency now than we have had in the past. the deficits are massive. the debt is unprecedented. we see this volatility in the equity markets. we see on rest in europe. -- unrest in europe. i am hoping that this combination of the bids will help us come up with a reason -- of events will help us come up with a reasonable way to succeed. [applause] i have a couple of comments. we need oversight on the epa. the burden of regulation on businesses and people is too much.

people do not understand that the cost of the product to make is passed down to the customer. you mentioned tax loopholes. one of the things i have been hearing is that some of the mortgage interest deductions you were able to take on yo income taxes will be eliminated. 52% of the american people do not pay federal income tax. everyone needs to have a ste in the game even if it is all the 5%. [applause] i am happy that you are on the super committee. we need a conservative boys. -- voice. the problem i have with the super committee is, is it constitutional? >> good question. as far as the tax policy goes,

nothing has been decided by the select committee or anybody else. the mortgage interest deduction is one of the most popular features of the tax code. the least likely thing to be addressed. because it is so popular and so widespread -- it has not been addressed yet. there is nothing in the legislation that creates and authorizes the select committee that forbids csidering tax reform. i hope we will. the tax code is a disaster. we could encourage economic growth much better if we made some reforms there. at this point, i cannot be sure we will take it up, much less what the changesill be. as far as the constitutionality, here is my view. the constitution specifically states that the congress is

authorized to develop its own rules. the house is required to choose a speaker and it does so. beyond that, both bodies have, from the beginning of this republic, developed their own rules or proceeding. they have developed their own committee structures. every congress has some kind of change, even if it is only the ratio of members. it seems to me that the creation of this particular committee falls entirely within the purview of congress to decide how it will conduct its own business. at the end of the day, all we can do is produce a piece of legislation that congress passed to vote on. they can all take it down. if congress votes in favor of it, the president has to sign it. it follows the constitutional process in that respect fully. as far as us coming up with something that the 535 members

have been unable to, i do not know. we have to get this done. i am in favor of giving this a try. thank you, senator toomey. i have a concern. there is talk, and you probably heard this, that sometime next year before the election president obama intends to circumvent congress and give amnesty to the illegal aliens in this country. this will virtually assure his reelection. i am wondering if that is possible and, if so, are you and the fellow conservatives

planning to stop or have some method of stopping this action from happening? >> i do not think it is likely that that would hapn, to be honest with you. the president probably views immigration issues differently than io. he has acknowledged that it needs to go through a legislative process. if he attempted a dramatic and large-scale change that was profound -- to attempt to do that unilaterally would be disastrous for him. i doubt that. you hear these rumors from time to time. i think it is quite unlikely. thanks for raising that. i want to recognize a couple of people who have been kind enough to join us. where is dave?

[applause] i appreciate you coming. and representatives, thanks for being here. i think we have run out of me here. i want to thank you for taking the time to be here and providing the input. people have a wide range of opinions here. they are a valuable. i appreciate the fact that we were able to have a reasonable and civil discourse, including on those matters that we disagree. if you have a question and we did not get to it, please reach out to our staff. send it to us. if y have a suggestion or an idea about something that we can and should do, please. we would love to hear from you. thanks again for being here this morning. [applaus

[random conversations]

>> we want to discuss some of the problems that which did not bring up. that would be great. you're doing a wonderful job. >> thank you. i led ford to hearing from you. >> appreciate that.

-- i look forward to hearing from you. >> appreciate that. [unintelligible] >> would you consider running for president? >> not this time. >> really? >> i think my wife would divorce me. i do not want to go on today and find my stuff on the front lawn. [laughter] i did not think at that i will do it. >> we want to find someone who has your views and will --

promise? >> i agreed to look at it. >> i've got my sticker in the car. >> and now town hall meeting for senior citizens with congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, focusing on health care and the economy but if the congresswoman is on the house budget committee and is also the chairman of the national democratic and -- the national committee. this is just under an hour.

>> hey, how're you? just checking the microphone. the red light went off. are you ready? ok. >> good morning and welcome. it is a real honor this morning for me to be able to welcome a lady that needs no introduction to this city a plantation.

her presence is always felt here, because even though we see you on the nightly news now -- [laughter] and in the national arena, she is not a shrinking violet by any means. she is a friend of a plantation. she has always been just a phone call away. her office meets with our staff on a regular basis and we have to thank you for that, because she has helped us with some many issues here at the city of plantation. when i say she is just a phone call away, indulge me for one moment. i want to tell you with the personal experience i have had, it shows you how she keeps a pulse on our city and i am sure all of the other city dishy represents an our area.

-- cities she represents in our area. i just got elected on march 11, and after campaigning all day, and then you get your returns, and i was fortunate enough to be the winner. i go home and think you can put your feet up. i have to savor the victory and the phone rings at 1230 at night. i think, what is happening? there is a voice at the other end of the fund, saying, hi, diane, congratulations. and i said, debbie? she said, yes, i call to congratulate you. never too busy. keeping a pulse on the neighborhood. that speaks volumes about who you are. it is a honor to welcome congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz.

>> i have to step up on my small steps mayor, it is an absolute privilege to represent you to washington, this city which i have represented for all of the 18 years that i have been in public office. in the state house, in the state senate, and now in the united states house of representatives. i can honestly say and you can say that i have literally grown up and you have watched almost every major thing that happens in someone's adult life, live through that with me, and it has been such a wonderful experience to represent this community. you have all made the absolute best choice that you could have made to select the only strong

mayor left in this county. [applause] she does a fantastic job. the tradition of strong female leadership in plantation continues. for the leadership of the the mayor it is so meaningful. in a time in our country when such public services often denigrated and considered a bad thing by far too many people, having a family here with -- who has devoted their life to public service and specifically geared to the well-being of the residents of the city of plantation is really remarkable. i was proud to call you, and i

might serve and the nation's capital, and i have a broader stage with other things that i am doing, but i am still always the hometown girl, you're grassroots legislature. -- your grass roots legislative or. i still walk door to door to this day and i cannot think you enough for the privilege to serve you. of what to spend a few minutes talking about what is going on in washington. -- i want to spend a few moments talking to you about what is going on in washington. if you see a more political, campaign-oriented question coming up, that is not why i'm here. someone asked me about what i thought about the president's chances for reelection, and i said i am here is your representative. we can talk about that at another time. i want to make sure that we can cover the issues that are so

prevalent on everyone's minds in washington right now. this town hall meeting, i am proud to tell you, is being taped by c-span. their microphones and you should know that in exact -- in advance. you might see yourself on c-span this evening. . we have a lot at stake in the country right now. it cannot be overstated. i would like to think -- for having me here. thank you for having us here. i'm pleased to tell you that i have three wonderful advocates here. -- from social security is here. [applause]

we have -- it is here from the senior medicare facility. [applause] cathy and i started in young democrats together. it is wonderful to see here. she is here to answer any questions you have about your specific information -- situation. i tried to make sure that i pull together some of the advocates. you have a question on your particular -- and social security, we'll have some of helping. they handle health care and medicare and social security and it of problems that you might have.

i want to give each of the senior advocates time to tell you what they do and how they can help you if get a problem. >> i am also a small package so i have to get out on this. thank you for inviting me. i have a couple of pamphlets down here on retirement and disability, read and touch medicare eligibility and i invite everyone to visit our web site and visit me at the table to answer any questions you may have. thank you. >> i am proud to be a volunteer counselor serving the health insurance needs of elders.

we are a free unbiased service of medicareare. there is no fee from the services. the first thing that i want to do is remind you that in the open enrollment has been moved out to october 15th and it will run from october 15th until december 7th. you don't have those last three weeks in december as you did last year. keep that in mind. we would like you to think about your medicare insurance. does the plan that you have give you easy access and convenient access to services?

is there a hospital near your home that you are allowed to use? are your copay is reasonable? are you treated with dignity and respect to for -- and respect? are you thinking about getting your medicare costs? do your plants still fit? maybe you bought this plan five years ago. maybe your medical needs have changed. you need to look at this. you have questions or concerns about the content and coverage or the way in which your needs have been handled. -- can help with that. most of you have picked up a brochure with of our county phone number on it. we are a free, unbiased source of information. you call the number and a

trained counselor will get back to you. remember, things have moved up this year. october 15th to december 7th. [no audio] >> i am a longtime resident here. i am here representing this senior medicare patrol. what we call ourselves is just a great group of people that we walk hand-in-hand with and all social security and some of the other programs. we could put a big dent in

helping to reduce medicare fraud. this particular book is very helpful to help you plan. he might spend some time with you. we will see what your diagnosis is. what level of service you are getting. anything.

this is one opportunity. please, do not, if you have in your wallet, please take out your social security card, please take out your medicare card. take those cards out. you know what your numbers are generally speaking. we are trying to help with medical anti-fraud helping all of us. don't give your credit card over when you have a copay for a bill. don't give your credit card over the phone for someone. these are really good tips that we need to wrap around and deal with the problems. lastly, we need volunteers. we need help. we get our funding from the federal government. we rely on grants and money and i am proud to say that south florida is doing a heck of a job

even though we have huge medicare fraud but we will be working on these issues. if we make a little bit of each of us reporting it, medical equipment, if you see someone in the parking lot and they come up to you and ask you, do you need some equipment, just be on guard. we will all work together. >> thank you so much to all three of you. again, i try to provide resources like these. >> i am here to give a legislative update. it has been a challenging first seven months of the 112th congress. that might be the understatement of the year. the republicans took control of the house of representatives and left democrats in a minority. i have been in a majority in the

minority, i like the majority of lot better. i will be honest with you. to me, the important thing is to work together and to sit down and figure out how we can find common ground. we don't always understand that it cannot be this way and remove the country forward. we will have to put some of our differences aside to find common ground and work towards a common goal. and the last congress, democrats worked to improve and grow our economy while protecting our seniors, children, and the middle class. we passed historic health care reform. when it is fully implemented, all americans will have access to affordable health care.

finally, this is a right, not a privilege. the legislation provides many important improvements to medicare. a lot of you might not realize this. this congress, while the house democrats have been focused on creating jobs and bringing down the deficit in a responsible way, we have had not had that kind of focus and cooperation. instead, what we have seen from republicans are a series of bills that pursued a reckless and extreme social agenda or one that sent to break requirements to medicare and social security. the medicare proposal under the guise of reform it simply shift the costs on to the states and low income beneficiaries and weaken social security. while we do need reforms to ensure there is sustainability. virtually everyone on this room is on social security and medicare. i bet if you ask your children

or grandchildren, many would be worried that those programs are not there for them. we need to make sure that we take those steps to shore up those programs. i would say that we need to take a different approach unlike the proposals that have come from the other side of the aisle which i will detail in a few months. i want to turn to what health- care reform has done for medicare beneficiaries. this is one of those import laws in a generation, really one of the most important since 1965. there has been a lot of misinformation out there about what it means for seniors. this will improve your quality of care and save you money. last year, how many of you are on direct medicare?

you get your prescription drugs from the party planned. i remember when it was being implemented, i remember trying to help you figure out how to sign up. they have that dreaded coverage gap called the town uphold which never should have been part of that original proposed law and which the affordable care act is closing. over the next nine years, the medicare coverage down uphold look completely close. last year, if you fell into the doughnut hole, how many of you actually fell into that zone uphold? last year from the affordable care act, you received a $250 payment. this year, brand-name prescription drugs, once you are in the town hall has a 50% discount. we will increase that over the

course of the next nine years so that we will close the town of whole and it will save the average senior an average of about $3,000 a year. in addition, improvements to medicare will help to ensure affordable access. one of my frustrations and all the time i have been in congress and really be on that is that the medicare system has always been a sick care system. when i talk to constituents like you, so often you are going to the doctor when you are ill, when something is wrong parent of course, when something is wrong, you're care will cost more. i have always thought and affordable care act does this, that we should shift the focus from a sick care system to a prevention and wellness system. that is why the affordable care act gives you without a copay free access to a preventive

health care visit to your doctor to make sure that you can catch things early. as a breast cancer survivor, now going on three years and with a clean bill of health. thank you, thank you. i can tell you the reason that i can share that with you is because when i found a lump in my breast, i was able to catch that very early. it only makes sense that being able to get an annual checkup which he could not get before the affordable care act passed, let us catch things earlier and will help you live longer. it also provides for preventative screening like mammograms and colonoscopy is and other copay is so that if there is a problem, it will be caught early. the plan that we put into law

was designed to improve the quality of care under medicare while limiting the amount that seniors pay out of pocket every year. it has been the star contract with the proposals that the republicans have offered. house republicans took what i like to call the appeal and abandoned approach by to completely propose to on to the affordable care act. if this were to become law, it would reopen the doughnut hole coverage gap and it would cost seniors thousands of dollars. it would force them to pay for preventive care. it would strip the benefits from preventive plans. these challenges are not the only way the republicans are putting seniors security at risk. four months ago, it might have heard, that republicans under budget share paul ryan rolled out a budget which would include

nothing short of a termination of medicare. if it ever became law, medicare would be turned into a privatized voucher program requiring seniors to go buy private insurance and then cover any additional expenses on their own, completely yanking the safety net from seniors and the promise that when you reach the age of 65, after paying into medicare, we will make sure that you don't have to worry about how you are going to pay for your health care. according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, over the next 10 years, the republican plan would more than double the out-of-pocket expense. that it be about a $6,000 a year increase to what you would pay and in 20 years of a triple your cost. this is dangerous and wrong to assume that someone on a fixed income could afford the premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. that is why medicare was created

in the first place. this guarantees your access to health care fits your budget. democrats make sure that the affordable care act would pay for those out of pocket expenses. seniors should have a certainty in the health-care expenses. i cannot tell you how times i have had senior stand up and say that i have such a hard time making ends meet between living on social security for most of my income and trying to pay those premiums and make sure that i can pay for my prescription drugs. there are seniors that shared with me that they had to have a doctor draw a line through the bill. the pharmacists bring five prescriptions to them and they can only afford four of them. should a senior deciding which

prescription they will not take so they can grow to the grocery store? that is an unacceptable choice that would be worse if we went with a plan to privatize and make a voucher of medicare. this made deep cuts to the children's education funds, even deep cuts to pour security all the while creating a trillion dollars in new tax breaks. to republican budget turned this into a block grant program. some time people's eyes glaze over. keep in mind that 60% of seniors in a nursing home, the way they're able to be in a nursing home is through medicaid. if we turn this into a block grant program and the federal government is not provide enough funding, that will leave a lot of seniors in a position where

they will not be able to get access to a nursing home or they will not be able to afford it or the seniors might get people to remain. when the federal government capped the amount available for patient care, the population increases, natural disasters, all of those unaffected events will have to be borne by the state. additionally, the budget projects that the block grant would not increase at the same level as health costs and there would be less and less individuals covered. this is not simply a funding issue. medicaid provides federal standards of care and enforcement of those to ensure that they can protect the health and safety of their patients. i want to make sure we have the highest quality staffing in those homes as we have all heard the nightmare stories when a quality staffer is taking care

of someone's loved one. we made a commitment that each and every one of the americans that when they got older, they would not have to live in poverty, would not have to force our children into poverty in order to care for them. the americans pay in with the expectation that the federal government would honor their commitments. now you see a clear attempt to allow the government backed out of their commitment. that is wrong and that will not happen on my watch. i will fight every single day to make sure that social security and medicare are preserve much as for those collecting it now for generations to come into that is a commitment that we made. it will separate them from other countries and their commitments through the quality of life of seniors. and the last congress, democrats made great strides in turning around the economy, protecting consumers, and protecting medicare and social security.

we prevented former president bush from privatizing security. when i go back to washington, i will make sure this progress doesn't disappear and make sure that the fund is not that -- is not cut. [applause] thank you for joining me and i will be happy to take any questions. i also want to make sure i don't fall off the podium. have a microphone. if you have a question, feel free to come over to the microphone with the microphone on the other side of the audience.

i would be glad to take your questions. >> yesterday, on "hardball," they had the president of the teamsters, james hoffa on. what are they looking for. i think that he gave a pretty good answer. it is not what we're looking for. maybe we are disappointed in what the president or the democratic party hasn't done in congress to enter any bill that you put forth in the committee and any bill that does get through the committee will probably be shot down. represent if kantor is a kid -- rep cantor is a good example of

that. the president should at least make a presentation and would be taught to our membership, this is what the democrats and the president did. it was the republicans who >> i appreciate the comments, but let me just add to your comment. we are living -- we have a republican house and a democratic senate and a democratic president in one house. that signals that we should absolutely be finding a way to work together. in manila on the political side, i obviously have a goal of political respect, but as a member of congress, my first responsibility is to the well- being of my constituents. that is why i am here. i go back and forth every week

from washington, making sure writer remaining can touch with my constituents. -- making sure that i remain in touch with my constituents. during the debate over the budget when the republicans brought us to the brink of government shut down earlier this year, -- let me take you back for a second to when obama was just inaugurated and the economy under president bush was on the press a bus of disaster. we were literally about to go over the economic cliff. the economy's was bleeding 700 tickets thousand jobs a month. i mean, really, we were in free fall. now, 2.5 years later, although we have a long way to go and there are still far too many people out of work, we have made a lot of progress and begun to turn things around. now we have aidid's -- added some private-sector jobs for 17

straight months. we have added 2.4 million jobs in the private sector. we are going in the right direction instead of in free fall. we can only do it in a significant weight if we work together. i think it is extremely important that we focus on jobs across america, which is what president obama will talk about next thursday in his joint session address. i just hope the republicans are focused on everyone's job, because right now they seem focused on only one person shop, the man who is in the one else. i think we need to make a decision to work together, instead of what happened during the debt ceiling crisis was never clearly were focused on the welfare of the most fortunate in america, instead of a significant compromise like the president wanted to put forward with speaker boehner.

the tea party seems to be -- it has not allowed for compromise and working together. i am going back to washington next week to continue to push for common ground because i think that is what america expects. >> i am very happy to be here and to see. i work for zero essay -- osa, by the way. in the past two years, gas has gone from $1.60 a gallon to $4 a gallon. my food bills have gone sky high. i don't have to tell you what has happened to the economy, for which i do not blame president obama, by the way. my question is, during those two years, we have not seen an increase in social security. my question to you is, what can

we expect this coming year, and are we ever going to get another increase in our social security? >> thank you for the question. you are right, it is economically a very difficult situation. i want to answer your question in a more expanded way. specifically on social security and a cost-of-living adjustment. a lot of people perceive that congress actually controls and votes on cost-of-living adjustments for social security. we don't. the social security administration, through the social security trustees, they make that decision, based on a cci index that is tied to inflation and tied to a market basket that is, i think, very out of date. so the last couple of years, the social security trustees have said that because the inflation rate, because the cost of

living has not gone up at the same rate -- it has gone through a calculation -- it is done through calculation that looks at a correction in a market basket. they take the cost of living of 02 different items, and those items that look at or more like the items that a family like mine spends money on, as opposed to what senior spend money on. so i support legislation that would actually create a senior , so you would look more -- they will look more at a market basket that is typical of what seniors spend money on, and the new could see a more true reflection of the impact of inflation on senior citizens household income.

then the cost-of-living adjustment would be more likely to come to you. unfortunate, the republicans refuse to pick up that legislation. we tried to get it taken up at the end of last year and they still refuse to take it up. so we are stuck with the cpi that does not reflect the true spending of seniors. they years ago, we did provide congress, knowing this was a difficult situation, we appropriated a $250 payment a couple of years ago to make up for the pact that seniors did not get an increase. we did not do that last year because unfortunately, the republicans refuse to support it. i know it seems like i am being partisan here. i am not being partisan, those are just the facts. we had support for the appropriation from democrats and we did not have it from republicans.

to the rest of your comment on gas prices and food prices, the frustration that i have over gas prices is that because we have such a divergence of opinion in washington right now between the two parties, the republican approach is to drill for more oil. i mean, really? there is an expression that says the to keep doing the same thing over and over an expected different result, that is the definition of work i will not call. but we have to make sure that we can make investments in renewable energy and wean ourselves off of our dependence on oil. number one, that is not smart foreign policy. most of the oil producing countries are not our friends.

that is problematic to begin with. to say nothing of the fact that a lot of those countries have serious internal problems politically now, anyway. so we need to make investments. we need to have a universal agreement and understanding that global warming is a problem, that it is important for us to reduce our energy costs, and we can do that by investing in renewable fuel here. that is important. that will have an impact on food prices, because if we are able to make sure that we don't have to move food around, or if the transportation cost of food -- and transportation costs to move food or less, that will trickle- down to the overall cost of groceries. it is in all our economic interests to do that. think the social

security trustees have said for this next year yet whether there will be a cola. it has been two years. do me a favor, it is not my fault. please tell your friends, it is a formula that i am trying to help change. >> you said the magic word before about working together. it really hurts my heart to see how this country has fallen apart. i have seen so many changes in the last big years that i have never seen before. look at all the hurricanes we are having, look at all the flooding. never before. is god punishing us? it is said. i am 83 years old, and i have never in my life seen stuff like

this. we better wake up and smell the coffee and start believing in god or somebody that looks like god. thank you. [applause] for don't want to blame god natural disasters, but i do agree with you. as i said at the outset, i have been in public service for more than 20 years and elected office for 18, and i have been in the minority and the majority. i have worked with republicans in leadership and i have worked with republicans when democrats were in leadership. one thing i have always really work hard on is to treat my opponents, people i don't agree with or who don't agree with me, with respect, and recognize that they may have a valuable point of view, even though i am most things i might not agree with them. right now, what makes me so sad is that i have never treated my

republican colleagues -- i have always treated them like they are my opponents, but never like my enemy. and that is what i think we have reached in america right now, in terms of the polarization that exists in politics. this tea party and the people who are running the republican party right now treat people they don't agree with like that are the enemy. when they disagree with us, we are not wrong, we are right. that is just not how we do things in america. that is how we -- i go on the other side of the chamber of the time, and hopefully through the force of my personality, through being a nice person, through building relationships with individuals and trying to find issues we can work together on, a co-sponsor legislation with

republicans all the time and i push them through into law and works against people who opposed that legislation on both sides of the aisle. that is what democracy is all about. i also agree to disagree with opponents on the other side, and quite frankly, opponent on my side, and recognize, like i tell my children when they are insisted that they want their way but i know it is not the right thing to do, they have to realize an important life lessons is that it cannot always be your way. oftentimes, the best outcome results from everybody giving a little. that might seem odd coming from someone with a political role i have on the other side of my professional life, but i think first and foremost, we have to commit to work together and move forward together. that is what president obama has been working so hard to do. i think that has been evident to most of the people in the

country. there is a very stark contrast that exist right now between the direction we have been going, which we need to pick up the pace, and he acknowledges that, improve job creation, make sure we can get people back to work, and the other direction that is proposed by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, which would continue to focus on the most fortunate americans and not focus on the middle-class and working families and stockpiling pain -- we are all having to endure some pain right now and i have had to vote for some cuts there were very painful that i normally would never have wanted to vote for, but i recognize that i have to come before you and tell you that we all have to sacrifice. they are asking nothing of the most fortunate americans in terms of sacrifice. why do major corporations in this country pay more to their

ceo's than they do in taxes? war in bonuses than they do in taxes. unacceptable. that is what i am up in washington fighting for on your behalf. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, and thank you so much for taking the time out. the one thing i need to ask you, and it is sort of the segue into the gentleman's statement. there have been so many horrific and catastrophic weather happenings all over our nation, whether it is tornadoes and hurricanes. the one thing i would like to say to you is, with the threat recently with hurricane irene, south florida was another target. to be an elected official or anyone looking for your budget issues, the one problem which seem to have is expediting

refunds when it comes to fema. another nasa to work load, and i am not trying to criticize, but most of us have an emergency preparedness reserve. at the same time, we use it, but we need to refund its and deposit back in. we still are having difficulty getting our money from wilma, and is in the tune of $400,000. is there some way that if we don't know the secret to expediting this, is there some secret we are missing here? our paper work, everything is in, but with so much coming, it is not just for me, it would be for everyone who has to deal

with fema. i am not being critical, i am just asking. >> if criticism is warranted, you can be critical. >> i know they have a workload, and i appreciate it, but i also have to look at my home town, and i would really appreciate them expediting our funds from wilma and from francis. >> i am glad you raised that because i have been able to be successful in helping the cities in my district cut through the red tape that fema has and get those refunds. i am surprised you are still struggling and have not called me yet to help you with that refund from wilma. talk with jody and vivian after an we can definitely start to put in some calls to shake that money loser. is not ok that it has been this long. we do have some good news with

the mud. the director of fema now, unlike some of the incompetence we have had in the past, is craig fugate, our former director of emergency operations in florida. we have a hurricane response system that is second to none, and other states since katrina have come down and got an advice and been tutored by greg fugate. let me have my staff and me follow up and make sure we can shake loose what is supposed to be coming back to you for sure. let me also point out that there is a little bit of a frightening debate going on right now related to fee must pacific fleet and to disaster funding. you might have seen in the news. the majority leader in the house of representatives, eric cantor, who is a colleague and friend, i

would single him out as someone i have been able to work with on some issues, but he has actually been suggesting that we should not appropriate disaster funding to help communities that get hit by hurricanes like i read or like the floods that have happened in the midwest, unless we have a budget cut somewhere else. this is not something i am making up for misinterpreting. he said it point blank out loud. we live in her cane alley here. can you imagine having to wait until congress acts on a different budget cut to ensure that we get the disaster relief that we need? that is just unacceptable. it is madness. i agree we have to reduce the deficit, but let's make sure that we make smart cut. let's make sure that we don't

cut so deeply and so much that we put people in harm's way or leave people in harm's way. absolutely, let us know how we can continue to help you sort that out. [applause] >> i would like to get back to social security and medicare. next year i will be eligible for medicare. i not only have to get medicare but i will have to get a supplement as well. i am confused because what you are talking about earlier, it seemed like eventually we would not need those supplements. medicare does not cover everything, as you know. >> as the affordable care act regis pulp implementation by 2014, you may not. each individual has to look at their situation.

my staff person is very familiar with the affordable care act. you should evaluate whether or not initially, because it is not fully implemented, you should take a look at what medicare will cover for you and what you are other needs are, what a supplemental policy would provide for you, and down the road, and a couple of years as the full implementation takes effect, you can decide whether or not the preventive screens that are available now, if that is what primarily you paid for a supplemental policy to cover, then you may want to let it go. that is one of the things that is really important, learning the details of how the affordable care act will directly help you, and we can help you with that. there are other organizations that can help you, too, but shine can specifically help you

coma 3 that detail. are you going on direct medicare? >> i have no idea. -- that can help you comb through that detail. when you sit down with shine, have them help you with the comparison of constriction -- prescription drug plans. that can be confusing, and they have a good way of helping people sort it out. >> the other thing is social security. last year, you had come to us and proposed two bills for increasing social security because of the cola increase for social security. but they did not pass, and yet the democrats were in the vast majority in both houses at that time. that is why i don't understand

why that did not pass. >> the reality is, in the senate, my colleague from oregon is the prime sponsor a that a legislation and i know he introduced it sometime in the last congress initially. while we have had a solid majority in the last congress and the house, effectively we did not have a working majority in the senate because of the way they required 60 votes for anything to pass. we did not have the 60 vote majority in the senate, and as a result, every single thing gets filibustered. the house bill move the little bit, but then it did not go anywhere, and subsequently, there was republican opposition in this congress and we still have the same problem in the united states senate. >> my biggest concern is

outsourcing. the economy is bad. there are no jobs here, but we continue to have companies outsourcing. and our utilities -- utility companies are doing it, and i think it is a disgrace. we know trickle-down economy never works. how about a trickle up? >> i am with you on the trickle up. you are 100% right. our tax policy under the bush administration incentivized corporate operations to actually offshore jobs. there was a tax incentive for them to create jobs somewhere else other than the united states. what president obama and congressional democrats have been pushing for is to give a tax incentive to onshore jobs, to bring jobs back to the united states of america and incentivizies to do that. i hope we get the cooperation of our colleagues on the other side

of the aisle to do that, because we should be focusing on making things in america. making its in america should be the focus. the good news is that over the last year, we have actually had a surge in american manufacturing, for the first time in decades. we have had manufacturing jobs created for 16 or 17 months straight. we have had a resurgence of the manufacturing sector in america, which is fantastic. look at the rescue of the american automobile industry. in the early part of last year, or the early part of 2009, the tarp program, although it was unpopular, if we asked people what they thought of the park plan, people would say they cannot believe we did that, but the president's courage to

overcome unpopularity and invest those funds come along them to the american automotive industry, which was about to go down the tubes, and which many republicans said let them, it would have met over a million jobs in the pipeline. you have so many suppliers to the automobile industry that would have folded if that happened. now we have all three american automobile makers operating at a profit for the first time since 2004, and they have paid back the tarp funds to the federal government with interest. so president obama's judgment was right. it was also right to use those funds to prevent banks from being too big to fail and to prevent the entire financial system from collapsing, following up on what president bush was forced to do in october

of 2008, and then we had to invest another infusion to make sure you could never again have a bank so big that failing would wreck the economy. so the focus on manufacturing is absolutely a priority and needs to remain one. >> [inaudible] >> come to the microphone over here. >> no one has ever accused you of not being able to be heard. >> we have only to allow time. -- we have known each other a long time. everything has grown in stature. there are two things. number one, the cola increase you talked about for social

security. it has been on the books up to june of this year. it is true for veterans, it will be true for social security unless something changes. if there is going to be a cut somewhere along the line. i don't think that is going to change. >> right now we are ok, what what happens later on, i don't know. they have already paid back 76% of the total amount of money that has been brought in, with interest. $113 billion is what they took an $313 billion is what they paid back. but how many new that the financial-services industry and the automobile industry paid back the tarp funds with interest to the federal government.

that is because my seniors are so knowledgeable and well informed -- fantastic. >> i don't see anyone else at the microphone. i am sorry, forgive me. right ahead. bill is not only the president of brouwer county veterans council but he shares my military academy council the reviews all the met -- all the applications of the young men and women who applied for admission to any of our military academies and helps screen all of those applicant and health send the best candidates to the naval academy's, to the merchant marine academy and the air force academy. he has been the chair of that committee for all the time i

have been in congress and i cannot thank you enough for your service. thank you very much. >> we have always been a consumer driven economy and it seems to me the investments we have made have not been directed at the consumer so much as that big business and so forth. talking about a jobs bill, if it were possible to take that investment and make available to every taxpaying citizen in the united states x amount of dollars, whatever it might be, not in their pockets, is a bandit art lose that amount of money, so that every time they went in and wanted to buy new car, if it is a $17,000 car and they have $20,000, $17,000 comes off the top and if it is spent

in america, in business, and whatever money is taken goes directly into the economy, towards american businesses, whether retail stores -- you want a new kitchen, you have the money to do it but you are spending it. you don't put it away, you don't save it, it is not money in your pocket. it is use it or lose it. if you put in a billion dollars, it goes directly into the economy so that american businesses grow and need more employees and the consumerism starts up again that way. >> that is a good suggestion. let me share review the ways in which we have already done that under president obama's policies and leadership in a variety of ways. actually, the reason that president obama has championed tax-cutting policy that is targeted to the middle-class and

working families and small business owners, rather than republican colleagues to focus on the trickle-down policies that never worked and focusing on the wealthiest and most fortunate americans -- is more likely it deep give a tax break to small business owner or someone in the middle class who has been putting off buying a new refrigerator for their kitchen, when they get that tax break, they are more likely to take that money that was not in their pocket before and go by their refrigerator. what happens with wealthier people is the windfall does not mean much to them, so they invested or sit on it, and the money does not get put back into the economy. that is why president obama passed 17 different tax breaks last year for small businesses, including capital gains tax breaks and tax breaks on equipment and things they could actually use to invest in their

businesses. it is also why even though it was frustrating to have to extend both the tax breaks for the wealthy and the middle class at the end of last year, i voted for that compromise because i recognize again that it cannot always be my way. i voted for that tax cut, but included in it was a payroll tax cut that made sure that we put some money -- we put it back into their pockets. we want to extend that payroll tax cut when we come back. republicans right now or refusing to extend it. that would do exactly what you are saying, keep extra money in the pockets of individuals who would go out and invest it in the economy. not the direct spending you would propose, but there are ways to do its and ways not to do it, and we think our focus on tax breaks for the middle class and small business owners and working folks are a lot more

likely to end use resources into the economy and do exactly what you are saying. i think president obama's jobs rollout next thursday will include some of those good ideas, thank you very much. anyone else? ok. >> good afternoon. i name is mark and i am one of the contractors here at lauderdale west. i have a great question for you concerning the edley committee of lauderdale west. they passed an energy efficiency act for rebates like they did with "cash-for- clunkers" last year. a lot of people have been receiving high efficiency air conditioning equipment. so we don't consume as much energy. i would like to know why the people of south florida that are spending the money on these high

efficiency equipment are not receiving the rebates that they used to be entitled to. the obama administration actually lowered the federal tax credit rebate for these efficiency unit and they have almost cut them out completely, and i would like to know why and how we can get them back to the community. >> i will have to check this to make sure i am right, but the obama administration did not into them. they were part of the recovery act. a portion of the recovery act, when president obama took office in 2009, we passed the recovery act to make sure that we could make significant investments in infrastructure and job creation. energy was a big portion of that investment and that included those energy rebates. as the money has run out, it was $787 billion. as the money has been spent and invested in the economy, we have

tried to get the republicans to re-up on those investments. created tons of jobs for people of -- contractors like you they can go out and installed a new air conditioners and purchase the equipment to do that. there are so many different facets to investment spending economy that rebate like that generates, but they will not make the additional investment. they are only focused on cutting and not on balancing the way we deal with deficit reduction and job creation at the same time. it was not a policy decision, it was just a result of the recovery act beginning to run its course, and we cannot get them to re-up to continue the flow that ensures that we reduce our energy costs and put people to work at the same time.

you don't have to write your congressman because i am standing in front of you. i assure you will continue to push hard to make sure we have investments like that and we need to make sure at the end of the day that after president obama makes that special address on thursday, i hope you talk to your friends and neighbors that have different representatives in south florida and ask them to have their representatives support these proposals. thank you very much. >> i just want to say thank you. thank you for coming. we appreciate everything you do for us. >> thank you very much. the two of you will close us out and then i would just set couple of things and we can chat. >> what is the solution?

i am behind you 100%. i know how you are stymied, but if you say yes, the republicans say no. i have never heard the republicans say yes, so we can get rid of that. what is the bottom line? where are we going? america is suffering. we are suffering. your children will suffer. >> this will be the most political thing that i will have said, the only way i know how to respond. elections have consequences. the solution is the decisions that we make in 15 months from now. we have to make sure that we have different people serving in washington that are going to be able to sit down and work together and move our country apart and work with president obama and make sure that we don't have the people who are

there now that are committed to furthering the polarization. thank you. [applause] >> i live overseas. my question is, does the democratic party, or do the democrats have a pr person, and if they don't, they should. sometimes i don't feel like the message is getting out there. most of us listen to our programs, and i think the majority of americans, whatever news they are watching, local news, it is not on there, and no one is tooting the horn of all the policies that have been passed. with everyone calling this obamacare, it gets put down, and i don't think anyone really notices how much has been implemented already and how much good that has done, except for the people who have already felt it. so you should get a pr person

because there is a lot of good. also to do comparisons, because i am sure that by this time now, when nancy pelosi was running the house, she passed an awful lot more bills than have been passed right now. i am sure you had less vacation time, so please, get a pr person. >> i said at the outset that i was here with my congressional hat on and not my political one. i will not get into a detailed answer of your question, but i will tell you that we do have them, and i will take your message to heart. thank you. one more question and then i will have to wrap it up. thank you for your sentiment, i appreciate it. >> what if we all made a concerted effort and just one day, as a suggestion, we buy

nothing from china. >> by american -- that is a great way to close this out. we should all make a commitment to check those labels on the clothing and the things that you buy that are manufactured elsewhere. look a little harder to buy american, because that is how we can all personally contribute to making it in america. thank you so much.

>> ladies and a gentleman, i would like to welcome new to our annual ideas festival whole. we have had a wonderful relationship cents the ideas festival number one. and the polls that we have specially commissioned have been extremely interesting. this is going to be a special

one. it is not only interesting, but important. it will get a great deal of attention beyond the precincts. part of the reason is our collaboration this year with high magazine that has been a full participant since the creation of the idea of the pull. the managing editor and the team working collaborative lee with the firm that is preeminent in the world. i'm going to briefly introduce the panel, and after that, we're going to present people in summary fashion. i will ask a couple of questions and we will open if all to you. i think you will find a provocative and that it ties in remarkably well with many of the themes lived in talking about

the last few days. he is the managing editor of time and time.com. he has had a distinguished career as a journalist and as a collaborator in the biography, the autobiography of one of the greatest men of this century or in a century, nelson mandela. mark, who has been here before is the vice chairman in berlin. he has devised countless people are around the world. of course he was adviser to bill clinton and a chief strategist for hillary clinton's presidential campaign. previously he had at discovery

communications, he has been a senior adviser, not just to leading political figures, including bill clinton, but to many corporate figures as well. we will set the stage for the survey that we conducted. he will present the key findings. there will be a few overall remarks and observations. then i will ask a few questions and it will be over to you. >> i am delighted to be here. it is fantastic, such a cornucopia of great ideas. it feels like your head is bursting. what we are going to talk about today will be very sobering. we decided to do this pull together, because the last 10 years is a signature moment in

american history. the beginning of the decade with the horrible tragedy has, in some ways, shifted the ark of american history. and in the largest possible sense, that is what we're going to talk about today. every other journalistic organization will be doing something and we wanted to get out ahead of the pack into if this summer. of the coverage going forward. what we wanted to get at is a very simple thing, how has america changed? have americans changed as a result of 9/11 end of the decade that followed. it was such a key moment in time. the larger message, it was fantastic to work with mark.

we have been doing in a long time. he will walk you thru the details of the poll, but the headline is that 2/3 of the people polled feel that america is in decline. 71% say that we're worse off now than we were at the beginning of the decade. only 6% of people feel that it is better. is one of the most staying in times of pessimism in american history. during the depression, but i argue was a sustained time of american pessimism. leading up to the civil war was not a bright spot. we don't have holes of that time.

but since world war two, this is the most sustained climb of pessimism. it may not be temporary. we're going through structural changes in our population and historically, we have been the great optimistic nation of the city on the hill. where we believe that tomorrow is going to be better than today. that has sustained american life. is inally don't think it our dna, i think it is something that is learned. we are not inculcating those ideas and values and americans. what the polls show, and we can discuss this. we may be experiencing a tipping

point as a nation going from a nation that is preternaturally optimistic, we have become more, if not pessimistic, realistic. the new world was this world of optimism and hope, civilization. prosperity and the salvation, what we are moving into now is this more adolescent nation to maturity where we're looking at things in a more realistic flight. only with the extreme optimism does realism look like pessimism. americans are so bright and so

sunny, they think everything will turn out all right. we know in zero ways and is more heavily. that is one of the extrapolations of the poll. that is an enormous finding. and we're looking at this generation of young people that have only known history since 9/11. and the generationhere is this notion of the end of history which i think is a bit of an n they are the future and they look at america and america's promise in a different way than those they came before us. so, take it away. >> it has been a pleasure to work with you on this poll. i think you will find it

captures the mood of the country and raises three big question areas that i think going through some of the data. there is not time to go through all the questions, but they will be made for people that are interested. this seven year time of negativity, it has been seven years since the american public has hot this country as on the wrong track. you really see the depth of that negativity seems to be growing and people really see this as a decade of decline and see a mounting series of problems in front of them almost traced to what they see as the most important event of the decade, 9/11 that led to what they see as the debacle of the decade, the iraq war having led to a lot of problems that mountain of and

were not handled. i think you really have to look to the continued fear of terrorism. you will see through this whole that the continued fear and terrorism is not done with. this is very much in the american consciousness in a way that if i took a poll in 2000, it never would have been. third, there will be political implications. well obama be able to get people to give him more time to turn america around? or will the republican challenger offer the kind of hope that he did. i think it will be an enormous part of the contest. let me go through specifics. we conducted approximately 2000 interviews. we did 1000 on the tough on

using random dialing messages. it has an extremely reliable margin of error. let's take a look at some of the data and i will take you through the data and to set of the discussions that we had a. what is the single most important event of the past decade? overwhelmingly, people said september 11, 2001. next was the election of barack obama, and as you can see, a pretty big drop. re-election of george bush down at 1%. to what extent did the events of 9/11 weekend the united states?

63% or 2/3 said 9/11 weekend the united states. the think that the country has gotten over 9/11 completely? only 6% say the country has gotten over it. 51% say mostly, and 38% say a little or not at all. the people still feel the impact of 9/1110 years later. what is the assessment of this decade? 68% said this was a decade of decline. that is a pretty difficult statement for americans and i have a couple of years of decline, the three difficulties and found back in record time. reassessment of the last decade is one of the climb. is the country better or worse off?

71% say america is worse off. the fundamental question both in politics and for the american public in terms of what they assess this happening in america. in fact, we are slipping into a worse position now. 47% say this is one of the worst in decades in the past hundred years. we ask, do you think has been hurt them of or decline the most? again, hardest-hit were working class americans in the view of the rest of americans. the class a second, seniors 30. only the third biggest political groups.

on the other end, this talk upper-class americans is doing better, hispanics as doing better, and i went back into the data. and upper-class americans agree they did do better in the last decade. working class americans feel they did much worse. when children grow up, will they be better off or worse off than people are now? 52% worse, 29% better. the shift in psychology tends to occur at a time when they lose faith 20 or 30 years from now, things will be better for americans. fundamentally, they think that things will be worse for their children. but depressed you enough? i have always been an optimist.

president clinton turned the mood around. these results were negative and they had me down by the time i finished reading them. >> if you look at that, 78% believe that a terrorist attack will take place in the united states over the last decade. the answer would have been and may be about 10%. the fear of that continues to be as strong as ever. if there is another major terrorist attack, what city is it most likely to take place? washington and new york were first. philadelphia at 1%. 49% somewhat concerned about being the fear -- of being the

victim of terrorism. and when we ask them, in your opinion, has the killing ofosama it?eased by 2 to 1, there is more concerned that the killing may increase the possibility of a terrorist attack. it is a sense of closure. even though we got him, the fear and threat of terrorism is very real and the mind of america today. they think that pakistan knowingly harvard of some london london. if you ask them about the aid,

77% say that it should be cut back. if you go to afghanistan, 40% one of the u.s. to end combat operations before -- before 2014. only 10% think it is too fast. we did this on june 8 before the president announced his full policy. negotiationsthe taliban, 58% say that we should not negotiate with them. if you look at the implication that people had, the first question we ask, what is most to

blame for the u.s. of being in a worse position that a decade ago? the bush administration is still number one. 23%. but with the debate over who owns the economy, the obama administration was not far behind. corporate ceos 8%, terrorist groups 7%. if you are in the political system, the political system is on the front line to blame for the decade of decline in america. americans want their leaders to focus on domestic issues. the greatest threats come primarily from within the united states.

the biggest threat to our stability is if we don't get our internal fiscal and political house in order. we will have challenges from within, not just from without. what are the biggest threats? national debt, government spending, a health care costs. pretty strong west. foreign policy is laid out at the bottom of the list. the american public is very focused. 71% say that major threats are within our control. it is within our control to do something about these threats. only 10% think that the threats are being effectively addressed. what specific threats are within our control that are not being addressed? the economy, jobs, health care,

education. widespread pessimism, concerns about terrorism. an enormous concern. how do we let problems like the deficit amount of so we can see what the final conclusion of the public is? i agree it is a pretty tough job to turn this around given the depth of the negativity and pessimism that we see in this whole. >> it is hard to give you enthusiastic applause? >> i am the only one not wearing a blue shirt, so i have to take a contrarian point of view. having been thinking about this since january, i want to thank the people involved.

michael and nancy that worked very hard on it, it has been a great team effort. let me say that clearly these are grim results. it is impossible to dismiss them. i do worry about the self fulfilling prophecy that can play as we think about ourselves as a country. if our leaders are telling us that we can't come together and get things done, more importantly, they are showing us, we come to believe over time that we have lost our fundamental capacity to move ourselves forward, we risked falling into spinning into a

time in our history where we may not be able to dig our way out of that. i want to look a little bit deeper at some of these results. and if seen tremendous progress in technology. we have seen the rise of democracy in many places in the world. it is coming our way in fits and starts. scientific and medical advancements in research, i think we have to factor all of that in. time magazine does a good job of reviewing all of that. not to dismiss the majority of respondents, but 32% of these responses said this is one of

the best decade in the last century. nearly a third, 29% said the next generation will be better off. a quarter see this as a decade of progress. this light up like the most and that is the 71% say it is within our control to solve our problems. they believe we have the capacity to move ourselves forward. i want to have what they are having. i think about the words of another person, president clinton. i am not embarrassed to say these words because i had nothing to do with writing them. he said, there is nothing wrong with america that can't be cured than -- with what is right with america.

we can have that confidence and faith. >> let me kick things off before we opened it up. you have just arrived in town and we had a track of others on happiness in this description of the american psyche being singularly and historic plea unhappy and gramm is really pretty striking. even with all we have talked about for happiness. i am not sure it is enough to overcome the messages of this. american dna, the notion that we do think that there is something in our dna and you say it is learned, a dominant gene of optimism and hope that set aside

as a country for our entire history. one of the graphs and that you showed, mark, a majority of people think the next generation is going to be worse off than the one before. that is un-american and what we all stand about. it is sadly accurate that this generation is a financially more lost than their predecessors. if this is not turned around and whether it is learned or narrative, if they pick up from us this message of pessimism or despair, when the implications of socially and politically be profound? >> i think it is a profound change. in a sense, is the kind of

neuroscience of optimism. we did a book earlier called the optimism by us. if you think something will be better, the cards will are that it will be better because you can positively change those events. those arguing it is an evolutionary trade. the of those that argue that we are, as a nation of immigrants, we have selected for people that are optimistic. people come here because they believe that they can succeed. in our dna, we have selected those folks that are preternaturally optimistic. it has animated the us as a nation. there are downsides of optimism. bernie madoff would not have happened in a pessimistic

country because people would say it is impossible to get "% returns year after year. that sometimes makes you actually more gullible. europeans say that we are not leave. i would argue that we are becoming less money for which i think is a virtue. we're going through structural changes in our economy. i talked to economists occasionally, and why isn't that an% unemployment just want to be forever? what is it about our economy or system that will reduce it? i never get a very good answer to that. we will have to come to terms with certain structural aspects of society. and now, a note of optimism. they wrote about why we are not grief.

compared to our competitors, and going into the future, we are so much better situated in way is the people intuitively understand. we are the youngest, richest nation. china is aging much more rapidly than we are. europe is much older than we are. and our demographic aspects of our society and our innovation that is putting us in a very good situation for the future. the reality has to begin to change the perception. >> you say sometimes optimism can be a problem. with discussions last year among the theme. as long as the pessimism isn't debilitating and if it is really realism and

acknowledgement that we have serious problems and combine it with the fact that americans still have confidence may be a message that let's forget the rhetoric of abstract optimism and hope, why do we rank reverb we rank for health care, education, and let's actually fix these problems and not just assume they will get better on their own. he thinks of this could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. what would you advise our political leaders whether it is the president or members of congress? what do they do differently? >> the difficult situation we face, i think about it in very

simplistic terms. there is showing and there is telling. i don't believe we have a sustained, persistent, and consistent set of messages coming from our leaders. in that respect, one of the things of the country is crying out for the national narrative that shows how we go from this decade of decline to a future that is bright and realistic. it is a hard thing to accomplish. he can't do it with one speech or 10 speeches. the shelling part that we are lacking right now, how to demonstrate to people that we can solve problems. having one of the challenges that we face is that we were hit

with such an enormous body blow, september 11, mistakes that were made and perhaps most important of all, what happened to the economy, our leaders believe that we have to show how we can come back full force, and simply to where we were. you convince people to believe in themselves again by convincing them to do things in concrete and smaller ways. yesterday in the conversation about education reform, there were things that we learned about how to return of around different kinds of schools.

the phrase had nothing is wrong with america that can't be cured right with america. where new businesses are flourishing. where schools are accomplishing things. we need to show what is happening. it can happen here and we can move things forward. over the course of a few years, lincoln earned our confidence. >> i would like to try to disentangle the significance of 9/11. it is obviously the defining event of the decade. it seems to me that one way that we might look at all this, the enemy is not the terrorists, the

enemy is us. many of the things they are worried about is not directly related to 9/11. he who deal with the medical costs, inflation, other items on the list. what this also speaks to is discussed with a perception of the dysfunction of the political system. and we might not have had very similar results because of the sense that our system just doesn't work? >> i think you're quite right that this poll is a shot across the bows of the political system. you guys have to fix the deficit, you are to blame. they don't think the iraq war

was the right use of our resources. what america have stayed on course? the '90s were pretty good for america. getting it ready for changes in globalization, trying to modernize the country, and at that point, even have a surplus, fast forward 10 years later. and if 9/11 would have happened anyway, we will never know. but despite a permanent fear of terrorism, the focus is on the political system. to go to the point about the national narrative, the world is on the move. this is not a pessimistic world. you have parts of the world,

asia, other places where optimism abounds. for the first time, americans don't think they can take advantage of a growing world to be successful. it is our world to be successful. what is going on in asia or india is a plan that america doesn't have to pay for. areas of the world are going to have enormous trouble with these. they will say it is an amazing development, and they see it much more and oppose european framework. the political system is out of whack. >> we have microphones because all of this is filmed and available on the web.

we have one right here in front. i think -- >> during to the environmental forum here and ask them, -- in aspen, did any of your questions address climate change? it seems like a problem not only for the united states or for the world. >> essentially, how the client -- and how did climate change factor into this at all? >> ways to deal with it have fallen off of the national

agenda. one of them is that if we can't deal with some of these challenges and issues that are squarely in front of us and susceptible to human intervention and being able to deal with in our own communities and our own lives, how can we even comprehend dealing with something that has taken centuries to get to this point? i am not saying that we should be, but i think that is the national psychology. >> in this pull, i don't think there is a direct question on climate change. i can say from another poll that we recently completed the americans are generally getting a greater and greater consciousness as it relates to the environment. and as it relates to climate change. also see that developing in

china and india. if you penpoint americans about the tough problems, front and center is the deficit, unemployment. if you look at the chart on the end where they can say essentially everything that they want, it is a pretty long last. >> i think one of the findings the you have emphasized is the next generation will be worse off, and i'm curious what the next generation would think about that and whether or not within the pull you can separate but the attitudes and beliefs are under the age of, say, 30. i spent a fair amount of time on college campuses, and i think there is a prevalent attitude in

an opposite direction. that is a sense of empowerment. some of those same attitudes, -- >> i would not call it a dominant flee optimistic loop because they are still buffered by the deficit and unemployment. of course, in this key madam -- in the scheme of optimism, young people have the most ahead of them and the most that can change in their lives. as you get older, things are pretty sets. is this the kind of optimistic

generation that we have seen in the past? no. the question is how the whole move will cut the that. parents are wondering how their kids will make it in a world where it is harder to get jobs. it is fundamentally more competitive and you have to do more in order to be successful. i think you are right. >> all of the children will move back in with their parents. dodge or parents will move back and let their children. >> one of the things i do think about, i wonder what kind of course they will take. what was it like to graduate high school in 1932? roll forward 25 years what that generation accomplished.

and the optimism that permeated this spirit of america, the people sitting up here. what theirow psychology was at the time and how they came to believe that they could build out of what ever those circumstances. >> the single most optimistic thing in the poll is that 70% of people feel that it is within our power to make the nation better. that is an incredibly optimistic view. the european view would be that there are external factors. americans believe it is within our power to make a positive change. >> i am from new york, thank you for your commitment to this excellent work. my question is to do with language and leadership.

the future is very weird, it never seems to get here. it is really kind of a story that we are always making up in the present. how can our leaders used language in a way that really creates a future that we can step into and open up what is possible? >> a very pessimistic candidate. it is a great question. it is the third rail of american politics to talk about anything and downbeat is pessimistic. the pull references jimmy carter's speech. and i would argue what is even worse is wearing a cardigan

before the american people, which is not a very optimistic thing. in reality, how much did that affect it? i don't really know. but we all remember it and feel like, what a mistake. if president obama became more of a realist, he has to be optimistic and forward looking. in some ways, the greatest example of presidential optimism is ronald reagan. he went through a terrible economic time and some would argue that his optimism helped turn perception around the turn reality around.

>> is an interesting cocktail of influences that have to be brought to bear. i would not say words are important. president clinton would say words, words, words. if we asked if he wanted us to write the speech in numbers and he didn't want that either. the words need to match the actions. the country needs to be able to both here and see and feel the impact of these things in concert. if i were in charge of a thing right now, one word i would ban is the term comprehensive. no one believes it, it is an overpromise, and that perpetuates the sense that

somehow we can solve all these things with one fell swoop. you have to be showing people the things you're doing and keep coming back to it. in fact, people understand that they have impact in their lives and you keep going from one little thing to the next little thing. >> i am sure there are some in the back. next question? take the microphone there. >> we heard in this room yesterday from david brooks that he thought the odds were that we would solve this august 2 thing are about 50/50 or worse. i have heard from several other

speakers that if we default on august 2, it would be catastrophic for the united states. that might be the next 9/11? >> the budget deal and the negotiations relative to the last great budget deal, let's be clear. the worst the rhetoric and more than name calling and the worst of fighting, the more likely they are to actually settle things. that means they are engaged in a negotiating process and they will play the system out for every vantage down to the end. the wall was in front of us, the door is over there, the american public is out there, we will get

down to it. if they were to fashion and, hey, don't worry about it, no chance of a budget deal. understand the reality is always the opposite. i think there is a political imperative. but the deals have a funny politics. budget deals will help the sitting president of the united states and it will help the sitting speaker in the republican help out -- republican house. it will hurt the democratic challengers and it will hurt the republican challengers. when i saw her, it is good for america, there are political dynamics of out there. republicans kept the house. there are some really counterintuitive political dynamics that surround the

budget making process. it is essential for the country that the politicians get there. the public has made a clear and it will be a pox on everybody's house. >> in the self-interest of the republicans and the president to come to some sort of agreement? i don't think that the faulting, which we have never done, and it is unconstitutional, a think it is armageddon. i think there are financial instruments that can give the illusion of not defaulting. i would argue that obama has in his arsenal, the fourteenth amendment that says america is not allowed to default on public debt. he says republicans voted against this, but i am

authorizing been bernanke to furlough federal workers. that would be a huge victory for the president because he would be seen to be doing something. the republicans are very mindful about what happened under speaker gingrich when the government shut down. i completely agree that is in both parties itself interest, and when they do this, it tends to happen. >> my question relates to the mechanics of polling. and perhaps this is something you have thought about. the american population, if they didn't get their information here, where would they get it from? there is a way to get your information from.

if you have a network of the continually hammers the administration, how does that affect you? >> i think this was not a poll about where people get their information, but we have taken those. people are very bad of self reporters on that. nobody ever says i got it from a political ad. they self report those things that they think [unintelligible] there is no question we have seen a shuffle here. where are people getting their news, online, real-time, news sources. the that the traditional model of people having a long daywork and getting home, putting their feet up and watching the nightly news has been radically changed. by the time they get home, more

people are more informed about more evidence than ever before in history. the news models may be changing, but the desire for information has never been greater. >> respondents from the survey said they got all their information from either "time," for the "atlantic." >> even reflect the way the great people interact with media. there is a transition period when i started 35 years ago, people did not believe the interviews. we did this -- the right now, we are transitioning from phones to internet. we did 1000 interviews on the fun, but even when we do the phone, 25% of households no

longer have a land line. we have to incorporate cellphone interviews. we did another 1000 online. we think we are in transition. five or six years from now, if you think we are going to go on to 100% on line, that is not only where people are getting information, but the new phone book is really the directory of people who accessed on-line through their personal devices or through their computers. >> you have the microphone and the middle? >> i'm going to ask dick question about the growing class divide and money and the anger which they do not feel you have touched on. maybe i'm wrong. it seems to me that looking at different kinds of data, you are seeing if syrian the middle class. your singapore distribution of wealth.

we're looking like a banana republic. the middle-class dream is gone. how does that fit into some of the things you have been talking about? it is -- is another survey you should do? >> there was some of that in the poll. >> you and i were talking about this before. mark knows more about it than i do. but increasing inequality, a greater disparity between the wealthy and the poor is something which is probably the most important issue for us to reckon with. more important than the debt the. speaking of optimism, the middle class of wealth and achievement and success in american life,

the problem is that there are some structural problems and our economy where once upon a time you could be middle-class and be an hourly worker. that has gone out the window. polarization has good and bad aspects -- aspects. there are 400 middle class people around the world to do the jobs americans used to you. i do not have an answer but i think it is within our power to deal with it. that is the problem with the political power that nobody is dealing with that issue. >> in to really get at this question is another survey on the class divide and how it is changing america. but it is also insisting there is a political dynamic that has

developed. if you go to the last election, 26% of the voters made $100,000. they split evenly with democrats and republicans. ops obama did well with young people and people making under $35,000. republicans do best with those in the metal. they have an done a good job of the tapping into the frustration while obama has tapped into what i call the new professional plans. americans wants to be middle- class. 85% say they are middle-class. the now 50% say they are professionals. these jobs are not manufacturing. more based on education. they have a much more international outlook toward the world, much more concerned about

global warming and the environment. they gave a obama audit support. they made the difference for him in the election. there is a interesting coalition between those of the top. he actually has a coalition of those who make the most and those to make the least. >> 1 hours to more questions. -- one or two more questions. >> how much would you expect the poll numbers to drop after you publish this poll tax that is to say, in a more general sense, all we read about is the deficit and all the issues your polling about. is it a surprise that people are feeling pessimistic?

if the media were to publish more on the positive initiatives that are going on by cities when the federal government is failing or any other private sector initiatives, would that make people feel more positive? thisif you're publishing paul is going to cause numbers to drop. >> does someone want to take that? >> these numbers are based on real feelings of real people based on their experiences. i do not think we're going to have a poll fact the american people. i think to go back to the question earlier, they have to go back to a budget deal. they have to look for a sense that washington is not gridlock or frustration has got to grow. obama has as much opportunities as his challengers to rea

express what optimism is about. how america can overcome the challenges political, social logical, getting together. on a lot of scores america is better. technology, tolerance, other issues. we're coming together as a more mature society. but the president is going to have to tell the story. he is going to have to provide leadership. to be credible to that story, he has to get a deal to show that he cannot break gridlock. and he is to show that his second term will be even brighter than his first. >> it is 1:15. i'm going to bring this to a close and thank our panelists for their provocative and important comments. [applause] [captioning performed

>> in honor of david petraeus, former commander assistance force of the united states forces in afghanistan. hugh has retired after 37 years of distinguished service. ladies and gentlemen, general david petraeus accompanied by the host, william lynn, deputy secretary of defense and admiral michael mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. please rise as honors are rendered. ♪

[canon fire] ♪ please be seated.

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the next element, the united states marine corps honor guard.

and sgt. robert martinez. the colors have always been one of the most important units of the -- elements of the unit. the color guard is led by staff sergeant christopher wren. there forceext element is honor guard. the platoocommanded by capt. ths

earhart. marching is the marine captain. [applause]

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>> ladies and gentlemen, please stand. please remain standing for the playing of the national anthem. ♪

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>> please be seated. over the course of his nearly

four decades in uniform, he let his unit to achieve the most difficult and critical of missions. the rapid growth and improvement of iraqi security forces to the surge in iraq. to the expansion of the architecture in the u.s. central command region. beyond his successes, he also created a lasting impact on the way the army conduct counterinsurgency operations. his leadership in the fight

against terrorism across the globe, saved countless lives. his matchless leadership are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service that reflects great credit upon himself, the u.s. army commander ronan of defense. -- u.s. army commander of defense. [applause] >> the department of the army by order of the secretary of the

army, the following soldier is retired. general david h. petraeus, united states army. general petraeus is being presented with the flag of the united states of america. the occasion of retirement, we also recognize the upstanding service of his spouse, mrs. holly petraeus. over the course of her four decades of being associated with our armed forces as an army spouse, she has been a

relentless advocate for the military community at large and for military families. this exemplifies the true spirit .f the army spouse shoo helping others to do the same. she guided her family through 23 moves. while her husband was deployed. she has brought to bear experience with our military and has distinguished herself through many years of service. she has demonstrated unwavering determination and treated positive change and improving the lives around her in the military and local community.

signed robert m. gates, secretary of defense. [applause] she is also being presented a decoration for her service in recognition of her service to the u.s. army from july 1974 after 2011. [applause]

at this time, general petraeus is presenting his wife with a bouquet of flowers in appreciation for dedication and support. [applause] also at this time, flowers are being presented to mrs. nolton and their daughter and son. [applause] we are proud to recognize his devotion to our country and wish him happiness and prosperity in his well earned retirement. [laughter] [applause]

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>> the deputy secretary. [applause]

>> thank you very much and welcome. admiral mullen, a distinguished colleagues, civilian and military sides of the department of defense, members of congress, the diplomatic corps, general petraeus, holly and steven, mrs. nolton. it is an honor to celebrate the storied career of one of our finest soldiers. general petraeus and i have a lot in common. we both hold graduate degrees from princeton. each of us worked at the pentagon in the 1990's. general petraeus avalos 5 mile runs with rounds of pushups and pulps. i too am known for my affleck endurance. i follow hours of watching football with repeated rounds of "sports center."

general petraeus began his career in the shadow of vietnam. he will be remembered for his leadership in the decades following 9/11. in over a week, will mark the 10th anniversary of that decisive moment in american history. we will remember those we have lost and we will salute the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen who emerge from this crucible to stand among the generous -- the greatest generation in our nation's history. this has been defined by that date in these wars. 5 million of them that served in uniform, 2 million in combat. their service has changed the course of world events. no one has played a more important role leading this new generation on the battlefield than the man who stands before

us today. general petraeus has been a combat leader and a leading strategist in this post-9/11 world. it is rare for a leader to have the endurance and charisma to leave troops in war in the force of mind -- and the force of mine to ship the strategy for that war. david petraeus has distinguished himself at each. in iraq and afghanistan, our forces fought on battlefields different and we have faced before. different than we had trained for, and different than we had equipped for. to overcome an unfamiliar enemy, wielding an arsenal of lethal tactics, general petraeus bill to a counterinsurgency strategy around the adaptability and ingenuity of the 9/11 generation. that strategy enabled the

world's most remarkable military to wage a new kind of war. iraq and afghanistan have tested our men and women in uniform. they have tested the resilience of our institutional military and they have tested our nation's resolve. but by acting on his belief that the most powerful weapon, most powerful tool any soldier carries is not his weapon, but his mind. general petraeus has redefined how america fought those wars. the revolution in tactics he inspired not only delivered iraq from the clutches of sectarian violence, it is giving the people of afghanistan a fighting chance to determine their future. general petraeus exceeded -- succeeded because of his skills and the brilliance of a strategist propeled him at each step of his career.

he distinguished himself at west point as a cadet. soldier petraeus stood out in every committee held. dr. petraeus was commissioned as a political strategist at princeton. professor petraeus talk on the faculty of west point. strategist petraeus made his mark on army doctrine with a manual on counterinsurgency might have heard of. general petraeus lead our forces in two of the most dangerous and complex war as our nation has fought. he has done all this while setting an exceptional example of self -- selfless service. when asked by president obama to step down from central command and return to the field, general petraeus did not hesitate. and now, a year later, after he

has departed, the commander in chief called on him again for a very different mission. leading the cia. again, without hesitation, general petraeus pledge to continue serving our nation after a 37-year career in uniform. i know our colleagues at the cia are looking forward to those 10 mild morning runs with the new director. the selfless devotion to service is a trait shared by the entire family. his daughter, bannan, served -- ann tolerated her father's absence. his son, lt. steven petraeus, fought in afghanistan. his wife has spent her life as

the daughter, the wife, now the mother of a soldier. she to accepted president obama's call to serve by helping to protect our service members and their families from fraud and financial hardship. your life and worked all -- honors those who stand with us in uniform. [applause] general petraeus, as you drink it -- bring your relentless drive to another institution, you leave behind a military that is forever indebted. you have proven yourself the greatest kind of patriot. a man who so cherishes our country's ideals, we're not -- or not afraid to challenge the institutions that are them.

by transforming our military from within, you have showed us how to honor tradition by remaking it. you will no longer wear the uniform, but you will always be a soldier. where you live, you set the creed set by another general. faced with orders to execute a daring maneuver, general patton said, i am a soldier, i fight where i am told, and i went awry fight." goodluck and god speed. [applause]

liasson tillemann, admiral mullen. -- ladies and gentlemen, admiral mullen. [applause] >> secretary, general petraeus, holly, stephen, and mrs. milton, other distinguished visitors. it is a privilege to join you today of the grounds of the old guard. this is a place that both sanctifies our past and harold's our future. i cannot think of a more fitting location to pay tribute to the historic leadership and far reach of two national treasures.

i know dave and holly are pleased to have their children n andtephen here to -- an steven. stephen petraeus recently returned from a highly successful deployment in afghanistan. when steven called his father in baghdad to tell him he wanted to go into the army, dave's reaction was a smart one. he said, you better call your mother. then he said i did. she told me to call you. i am glad my house was not the only one that works the way. well done and welcome back. after hearing a little bit about the year you had, i wonder if

your sister's plan to spend the next year in chapel hill is not starting to look pretty good. i am honored about -- to be here and honored to call david petraeus a friend. when i got to know him i was gratified to learn he had some important things in common. we were both a voracious readers and realize the lessons of vietnam would forever permeate our perspectives. we made a decision when we married women blessed with a strong spirit of service. and a great deal of tolerance as well. dave had returned to iraq and -- at a few short months of home, [unintelligible] i was impressed with his energy, his innovative thinking, and his

resolve -- results. by the time he left in 2005, he had grown the ranks to 200,000 iraqi soldiers and police. a force that would prove crucial to winning the peace in the years that followed. while this achievement by any measure would be considered astounding, i frankly was not that surprised. by this time, like so many before me that when it comes to the art of the possible, there was general david petraeus and everybody else. i suspect it has been that way for a long time. this was all young local boy who would sneak into west point to play on its historic athletic fields. some say because they were the most beautiful along the hudson. i believe they already knew this was where his true destiny awaited him. his classmates remember him as strategic and measured and

peaches. someone who would one day of a " run the army in 10 years, and that is when he was in a high- school." on the soccer field, it was the pacesetter crew was always good at seeing the next shot. indeed through his ability to see that next shot, most western not. he has advised two presidents, change the course of two wars, transformed our military, and perhaps more important of all, most important of all, reminded americans once again that with the right ideas, and the right leadership, almost anything is possible. quite simply, general david petraeus has set the gold standard for wartime commander in the modern era. what elevates him above the

others is not just his ability to visualize victory. and the resilience to see it through. he had done this his entire life. from early successes finishing at the top of his class at west point, ranger school, and leavenworth, to equally impressive operational successes in company and battalion command, often at an age far earlier than his peers. his principles help to make mobile and early success for the coalition. when he returned to the states after his second tour, my

good friend the chief of staff at the real-time told him bluntly, to shake up the army. dave took the chief at his word, setting out to do nothing less than recast the way our nation fights its wars. in concert with general jim mattus, he drafted the counter insurgency manual. it would also go on to become a best seller. only david petraeus could take a military manual and make it a great stocking stuffer. they've encouraged not just physical but intellectual strength. charging this generation of leaders to understand the true purpose of power as a force for good. and that in sharing risk with those we protect, we build the trust and partnerships so crucial to success. did did not just write the book

on counterinsurgency, he put it in practice like no other under the toughest of circumstances. when general petraeus took command of the multinational force iraq in 2007, it was a time of the doubt, of chaos, and of death. around the nation and around the world, skeptics question whether another change in strategy or leadership could make a difference. that change was hard, as our troops moved out into the cities and towns of iraq, casualties were high. and the fight relentless. yet david never wavered and even in the face of a tough fight in iraq and a very tough political climate here in washington, he rose above it all as he always has. and the morning of september 10, 2007 as he prepared for what would be a historic set of hearings on the war in iraq, did

receive a special message from hometown friend, the poem "if" i read your kipling. he commented this iconic palm who -- that happened to be his favorite captures the qualities demanded of a good leader during tough times. throughout it all, dave embodied kipling's words, to -- to keep your head about you when all oaround you are losing theirs. as dave performed his job, our troops to theirs. your every unforgiving minute, they adapted at every term embracing the counterinsurgency principles they've forged and after an extraordinary effort, " returned to iraq. it was natural that they would rise to assume the range of central command, executing the

strategy. he helped design. last summer the president would turn to dave yet again to lead our efforts in afghanistan. while the circumstances were unexpected, if response was not. he picked up his rucksack, ready to lead another critical mission at its most critical moment in history. afghanistan is a more secure in hopeful place a year ago. they would be the first to tell you that a lot of hard, the work remains. progress has never been more real or the prospects more encouraging. yeah, no soldier fights alone. although i am certain dave will think his troops and his family, i want to add my appreciation to those who have made his lifetime of service possible. holly petraeus has known no other life.

they have moved 23 times. i am sure holly hopes this next job will last a little longer so she can take the movers of speed dial. through those many moves and long separations, holly manage to tirelessly advocate for military families. it has been -- she has been passionate in her efforts to protect the finances of our military families. this morning i joined thousands upon thousands of our military families to say thank you for your support and your sacrifice and to reach beyond the boundaries to make a difference for so many. [applause] and we want to thank you for the love and support you have given your dad and for sharing him with the rest of us. a special is your dad has been deployed for the better part of

this decade of conflict. i know he is proud of both of you. david, you have run the race well. swifter and surer than the rest and you stand among the giants not just in our time but of all time. joining the likes of grant and pershing and marshall and eisenhower as one of the great battle captains of american history. you have expanded our view of the possible, inspiring our military on to historic achievements during some of the most trying times america has ever known. today, you depart our ranks with the sincere thanks of a grateful nation. as you take the helm of the central intelligence agency, your ability to see the next shot and around the corners will never be more important. t.e. lawrence one said, "all men

dream, but not equally. those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds week in the day to find it was vanity. but the dreamers of the day are dangerous man, for they may ask their dreams with open eyes to make it possible." david petraeus has indeed been a dreamer of the day, dangerous to our enemies, but no greater friend to those with whom he fought alongside and fought for. he has been a driver with a vision and plan to get their, dave, you remain the brightest star in the consolation and you will be missed by all of us. god bless you and the entire family. may god continue to bless the united states of america. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, general petraeus. [applause] >> thank you very much. fellow alumni of the great class

of 1974. not yet. an enthusiastic bunch. other distinguished guests, fellow members of the u.s. military, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being here this morning and for helping to make a very special occasion even more special by a presence. secretary lynn and at ramallah, thank you for your kind and generous words, and for the honors you have bestowed on holly and me. needless to say, i can only accept the medal presented this morning and as much as i do so on behalf of those with whom i was privileged to serve in iraq and afghanistan. this metal is by rights their mettle and i will wear it for them. more importantly, thank you for your unyielding commitment to our troopers and their families and things as well to presidents bush and, and secretaries gates

and leon panetta for their steadfast support of their -- the men and women in uniform during the time had the honor of leading them in iraq, afghanistan, and the central command area of responsibility. i cannot imagine any more meaningful ceremony than that which the honor guards are conducting here today. the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard on parade before us represents all the members of all of our services. men and women who nobly surf around the world, it has been the greatest of privileges to command joined forces in combat for much of the past decade. i appreciate secretary panetta offered -- authorizing a joint services ceremony so i could recognize our military services, individual and collective contributions. i ask that you join me in thanking those on the field

today and all those they represent for their characteristically outstanding performance. thank you. [applause] when i asked holly for her thoughts on my remarks today, she responded with two words. "be brief." asking a four-star general for brevity is probably asking more than a bit much but i will do my best to follow my wife's wise counsel. an occasion like this is a time for thanks and a time for reflection. thanks to the countless individuals who made the last 37 years so wonderful, so rewarding, and so memorable for my family and me and reflection on the extraordinary privilege of serving during a time of

enormous consequence for our country and partners around the world. president teddy roosevelt was fond of observing that life's greatest gifts is hard work worth doing. i have enjoyed that gift many times over since raising my right hand on july 1, 1970 and as a brand new west point cadet, reciting the oath of office for the first time. i can remember that day as if it were yesterday. waking early that morning, packing the one that we got to bring with us, getting into the car with my mother and father and driving the seven curbing miles around storm king mountain. i had grown up in the shadow of west point and spent countless hours of my childhood on the hudson river. even so, we all felt anxious. as my wonderful parents, both now deceased, but entrusted their only son to the u.s.

military academy. i join the long gray line that is one of our country's greatest institutions. there commenced to study the profession of arms and internalize the values, traditions, and standards that have served as guideposts and forced the french ships. there is a wonderful group of my classmates here today. i would ask a stand and be recognized, the pride of the court, 74. [applause]

i would meet the woman who would become my wife. what i did not know was the woman was the superintendent's daughter and she was supposed be fixed up with one of my classmates. after some tradition on both sides, i might add, we hit it off. where were married 10 months later. holly has been the bedrock of our family ever since. she is as has been noted, an army daughter, an army wife, and now an army mother. she is also much more. she has been mrs. dad well i was employed -- deployed. since our kids headed off to

college, she has supported military man and woman and their families by establishing an leading programs at the better business sparrow and now with this new consumer financial protection bureau. holley was described in a profile and small, attractive, smart, and a pit bull. i am glad she has been on my side for 37 wonderful years. needless to say i will never be able to adequately express my love and appreciation for all she has done but i can say thank you. i love you. [applause] as has been noted, we have been blessed with two terrific kids. to watchhas been great, it ha them become the people there today. and as an energetic grad student studying to become a registered

dietitian, she is passionate about helping us the right and cut on healthy -- unhealthy carbs. meanwhile, our son steve, who we moved four years in high school, was the belle of victorian and went to i'm -- mit. he is serving with the 1 73rd airborne brigade in italy, having completed a tour with the brigade in afghanistan as a platoon leader. thank you both for being who you are. needless to say, your mother and i are very proud of you. they say behind every successful man is a surprise mother-in-law. in my case, it is a supportive, loving, and proud mother-in-law. along with holly's father and

three brothers, she welcomed me into the family and made me a fourth son. he passed away during my final tour in iraq but he is i hope looking down from fiddler's green. this is the same field where they were recognized after 37 and a half years of service. i heard some familiar strains of music. the victory division song, the dog faced soldier, we have a round of a with destiny, and the all american soldier. the songs of the divisions with which i soldiered over the years. be assured, classmates, that was the official west point march that was played during the inspection of troops. during my years in uniform with those units from the mid-1970's to the present, our military rose from the depths and had

hit. developing into the great force that serves our nation today. a force that is without question the most experienced, best equipped, finest military ever to serve our nation. in truth, the army i join as a second lieutenant had suffered enormously. in the wake of vietnam, our army and military were grappling with a host of serious challenges. i know i speak for many when i say we came away from that going to never let our forces get to such a point ever again. in the ensuing years, determined leaders transformed what was described as the hollow army and are exhausted military. our services work together to develop joint forces that propelled with such overwhelming capability and -- in panama and the gulf war and demonstrated such versatility of peacekeeping instability operations in somalia, haiti, and the balkans and have carried

out with such admirable qualities the enormously challenging mission in iraq and afghanistan. looking back, the resurrection of our military was nothing short of remarkable. indeed, we owe an enormous debt to the individuals so important to the reverse. manlike general's gallon, gorman, richardson, shelton, sullivan, keen, foley, mcneil, these and innumerable great leaders, those for my services but from all the services provided the vision, leadership, organizational skills, and drive that guard -- blighted our forces as they rose again like a phoenix. many of them from all our services are here this market -- this morning. i want to ask them to stand so we can express our gratitude.

that includes you, chairman, and our chiefs and combatant commanders. please stand. [applause] there were joined in this effort by renewed noncommissioned officer corps, one that truly is the backbone of our military and the envy of military's around the world. men like my first platoon sergeant, sergeant first class david olkie and marvin hill. exemplifying the inspirational leadership of our noncommissioned officer corps and who is with us today representing that great noncommissioned officer corps. i would ask that you please stand and even step out on the

field so we can recognize you as well. together, these determined visionary senior leaders and gifted noncommissioned officers mentor the captains and lieutenants and sergeants and specialists. the new there would inherit the mantle of leadership. our nation, and i in particular given the command to have had since 9/110 these generals, admirals, and senior commissioned and noncommissioned officers and enormous debt of gratitude for their extraordinary service during a critical period in our nation's history. our military went through an earlier transformation in the early years of engagement in iraq and afghanistan.

we revised our doctrine and leader development curriculum, overhauled our training center scenarios and revamped the unit training events on the so-called road to deployment. these and other changes ultimately helped enable the retrieval of a desperate situation in iraq, progress against al qaeda, and reversal of the taliban momentum in afghanistan. it was a privilege to play a part in the process while -- with my great marine buddy and shipmate. it was the greatest of honored to put our ideas into effect in afghanistan. it was wonderful, needless to say, to see so many of those who contributed to this critical efforts here with us today. as the chairman noted, another transformational leader said, "

shake up the army, dave," and we did that. i would like those who did that, and others with whom i have served to stand so i can say thanks to each of you as a whole. -- each of you as well. [applause] we are now approaching a similarly difficult. -- difficult period. elements in al qaeda and commencing reductions in afghanistan, all while sustaining our hard-fought, hard one but still fragile progress in those areas.

this will be done of course against the backdrop of ongoing change in the middle east and difficult budget decisions at home. as these decisions are made, we should never forget the u.s. military is composed of many parts, exceptional ships, planes, and ground systems, unparalleled institutions, and infrastructure, the finest of high-technology, and world like -- class networks that enable all we do. as all here appreciate, i know, the essence, the core of our military is and always will be its people. men and women who raise their right hands and recite the oath of investment. even though they know that may result in deploying to a combat zone. where they will be asked once again to put it all on the line day after day in crushing heat and numbing cold, under a body armor and kevlar, and against

resilience, tough, and often barbaric enemies. they do not know whether there will be greeted with a hand grenade or handshake but being ready and capable of responding appropriately to either. our men and women in uniform are sustained in this challenging effort by their families and their communities. wives and husbands, moms and dads, daughters and sons, all without complete move from post to post each time making the new unit a family, the house a home, and the neighborhood a community. these uncommon individuals unfailingly supporters when we're at home and do more for us when we're gone, be it for a three day field exercise or third tore down range. the intern are some of -- -- of posts like

florida, communities where holly and i were privileged to serve and that were wonderfully represented this morning. the towns around these and other posts and bases around our land have been incredibly staunch supporters of our military families, and they have been particularly supportive of the petraeus family in recent years and i would like to ask all of our civilian communities supporters to stand so that we in uniform can say thanks to each of you as well. [applause] a want to single out one of those supporters in particular, ken fisher. no one individual has done more for our wounded warriors and their families than has he and

his organization. the houses he has with his great team built at military bases and hospitals across our country and overseas have made an enormous difference in the lives of families when they have most needed help and support and i would like to ask you to stand so we can give a special thanks to you as well. if i can figure out where you are. there he is. thanks, ken. [applause] as our nation contemplates difficult budget decisions, i know our leaders will remember our people, our men and women in uniform are our military and taking care of them and their families must be our paramount objective. beyond that, it will be apparent to maintain a force that nunnelee capitalizes on the

extraordinary experience and expertise in their ranks today, but also maintains the versatility and flexibility that have been developed over the past decade in particular. please rest assured that i am not out to give one last boost to the counterinsurgency field manual or recruit all of you for this destination. i believe that we have relearned since 9/11 the timeless lessons that we do not always get to fight the wars for which where most prepared or most inclined. given that reality, we will need to maintain the full spectrum capability that we have developed in iraq, afghanistan, and elsewhere. i know that that fact is widely recognized and i take my final past with a sense of great confidence in our military and i share -- in our country. despite the challenges that face our nation and world, i believe

our citizens and system of government and our men and women in uniform. moreover, those assuming leadership positions in our military, those about to step forward, our classmates, many others, i know they will guide our forces superbly. they are experienced, they are forthright, they have vision, and they will provide secretary leon panetta and president obama thoughtful, principal bed lice. as i reflect on the extraordinary opportunities i have had over 37 years, i recall the familiar words of teddy roosevelt's "man in the arena" speech. the credit belongs to the man

who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood and strives valiantly. who errors and shut -- and comes up short again and and and, because there is no progress without error. who knows the great enthusiasm and devotion, who spends himself for a worthy cause, who knows that in the and the triumph of high achievement and that the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, said that his place and never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. i have been privileged to serve in the arena together with america's finest, the men and women in uniform, as well as with its finest diplomats and civilian officials and in normal will coalition partners, and i sing aloud our nato senior representative who is here as

well as exemplary of them. all of them have been magnificent, and the members of our young generation in uniform in particular have earned the description tom brokaw and gave to them -- after day agree with us in iraq, he shouted to me over the noise of the helicopter, before heading back to baghdad, this is america's new british generation. i i agree with them then and i agree with him now. i was delighted to see that title used on the cover of gq time magazine" two weeks ago. a commander in stop -- a commander stopped and asked me how many years i had been deployed. when i answered eight out of the last 11, he bank reform my

sacrifice. i told and the privilege had been all mine. has been the greta's of honor to of soldiered with aren't nation's new greatest generation in tough but important endeavors for the bulk of that time. i can imagine no greater honor. before closing i also want to remember irreverently those of given the last full measure of devotion in our endeavors in recently years. they and their families must never be forgotten. and a poem published a few years ago, a british troops captured eloquently the emotions of those who served and those who sacrificed. he wrote -- and what is ask for the service we give? no high praise if we should live just silence from friends, our name on a wall

if this time around is i that fall to the family, friends, and countrymen of those who have fallen and to all those who have served in sacrificed on behalf of our cause, i offer my deepest respect and my eternal gratitude. as i close, i know that i can speak for holly in saying that our journey with the u.s. military has been named -- an amazing one, even though we're beginning a new turn it with another extraordinary of corporate organization. let me conclude by again extending our deepest thanks to each of you gathered here, to all those with family of soldiered since 1974, and indeed to all the members of our armed forces and their family members. may god bless each of you, our great country, and most importantly, our men and women

in uniform and their families. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [march commands]

>> forward, march! ♪

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♪ [applause] ♪

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>> ladies and gentlemen, the "on forces met lat

"armed forces medley." ♪

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[applause] ♪ [drums sounding] >> ladies and gentlemen, this

concludes today's ceremony. you're welcome to join the reception. enjoy the rest of your day. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> in a few moments, g.o.p presidential candidate mitt romney at a tea party express rally in new hampshire and then president obama's labor day speech in detroit. on "washington journal" this morning, we'll look ahead to the congressional agenda from fred barbash and daniel friedman and scott keeter will discuss polling and we'll be joined by katherine bradshaw who'll talk about youth

violence. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we have several live events to tell you about leading up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. janet napolitano and mike rogers will both speak at a forum hosted by politico on c-span 3. the head of the transportation administration john pistol discovers -- pistole discusses aviation security starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 2. and on c-span, rudy giuliani talks about u.s. security since 9/11. and also today, republican presidential candidate mitt romney will announce his

job plan in north las vegas, nevada. it is just two days before president obama's address to congress on jobs will be live on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org starting at 3:30 p.m. eastern. watch more video of the candidates. see what political reporters are saying and track latest campaign contributions with c-span's website/campaign 2012. twitter feeds and facebook updates from the campaigns, candidate bios and links to c-span media partners in the early primary and caucus stage. republican presidential mitt romney ones of the keynote speakers at a tea party express rally in new hampshire on sunday. this is about 15 minutes.

[applause] >> thank you, howard. thank you, howard. thank you, guys. i brought the better half with me today. my wife of how many years? 42 years. the mom of our five sons and also the grandmother of our 16 grandkids. thanks so much for being here. i see i have a few friends here. i knownologist back want to see. i get a chance to say hi to everybody that is here. you want to say hi? >> i am so delighted to be here, we are as a family so committed to -- i guess they want the signs down. they are having trouble seeing back there. a lot of people have come to hear mitt andwet to let them do that. i want everyone to know we thought about this a long time. after the last campaign, there was one thing i knew for sure. i felt so tired and exhausted, i said i would never do this again. here i am. but i really am

so committed to seeing the country get turned around. i've been by mitt's side in all of his situations, his turnarounds, i've seen him do it in business and i've seen him do it in government. so if there's ever been a time when this country needs a turnaround, it's now. if there's ever a guy that can do it, it's mitt. so thank you all. >> thanks, sweetie. you know, i was at a home a couple weeks ago, and i said to ann, are we going to do with our kids and our grandkids what my mom and dad did with their grandkids? my mom and dad, when their grandkids got to be the age of 11, 12, 13 years old, take a group of them, put them in a ford ecovan and drive them 30 days across the country and go to different national parks. and i knew what my dad was doing. he wasn't just keeping the kids about the beauty of the land, he was teaching them about the

character of the people that made this land and the values that made america the nation that we are. i'd been on a trip like that myself with my mom and dad. and they read to me from a book called "men to match my mountains." and as i told that story a couple weeks ago, a fellow in the audience said, do you know the poem from which that title was taken? i said no. it was written by someone named samuel walter foss from here in new hampshire. he wrote a poem in the 1800's and i learned the words. it's only four lines, even i can do that. it goes like this, it says give me -- no, bring me men to match my mountains. bring me men to match my plains. men with empires in their purposend new eras in their brains. this is a land that was achieved and crafted by people who had empires in their purpose and new eras on their

brains. and by that we're not talking about conquering other nations. we're talki about vals of pioneering and innovation and creativity. america would lead the world and change the world by virtue of the extraordinary brilliance of our founders. because when they crafted this country, they did not just give us political freedom, powerful as that is, their brilliance in seeing that the state should be the servant and the citizens should be the sovereign was groundbreaking and chained the world. but they also gave us another freedom. the freedom to choose our course in life, individual freedom, economic freedom, americans can be free to do whatever they wanted. and as a result of these freedoms, people from all over the world wanted to come to america. come here to craft for themselves, for themselves and their children a better life. this is the greatest nation in the history of the earth, in part because of the brilliance of these founding parents who

understand the power of liberty and freedom. and we're going to make sure we keep it. [cheers and applause] >> now, we did kind of an unusual thing. about three years ago as a people. we elected a person who had never worked inhe private sector, who never h a job in the private sector, had never really been a leader anywhere, didn't have a track record, and some people asked, what would ppen if we chose someone as the president who had no experience? now we know. and it's not a very pretty picture, is it? we have -- and you know the numbers. we have today about 25 million people that are out of work or stopped looking for work or are in part-time jobs that need full-time work. we had last month zero job we had last month zero job creation.