giveaways and deductions and exemptions. i think he is in favor of getting rid of the research and development tax credit, i am not, but we could find a parcel of these to get going. a lot of them in the energ indury. there is no need to subsidize deep offshore oil drilling. we hav the technology that was disarray at the time when we needed to encourage people to that. what we should not do is pick out the energy instry and said, we treat the manufacturing and industrial sectors this way and we will now say the energy industry involving chemical, natural gas and oil is no longer part of the manufacturing base and you are treated differently. we ought to focus on the things we can agree with and put t politics that we cannot agree on to the side. >> dr. summers? >> i want to say a couple of things, and then put a question.

we have an important agreement here, that we have to do something on all sides. karl is right, we need to do the arithmetic, but to proposals and a sophisticated way. i agree with them that if a tax change produces economic growth, we ought to take account of that. i hope that he would agree with me that if collecting money for people who are not paying their taxes and the irs budget, collect $5 for every dollar we spend, and weould count that. we are bringing about competition in health care. that saves costs. i hope we count that. if we do that, i think it would be an important step forward. blame and both rections. republicans have traditionally been much stronger supporters of

medical malpractice reform than democrats. personally, i am a democrat, but i think republicans are more right about that issue. the president would have been prared to make a compromise on that issue in the context of health care. he would have made a big change, he would have sold out longtime supporters. just one thing that he wanted. if he did it, he wanted somebody who wasepublican to vote for the bill. at sort of seems fair. not one was willing. so it is complicated. i am not going to tell you that all of the problem is on the republican side, but if you don't think there is a problem with both sides of this question of partisanship, i think that is wrong. my question for my friends is this -- we have to get together on the budget deficit.

we do, and we have to touch all places that alan simpson talked about. we have some other deficits in this country, i think. i think there is a deficit when 50 million people have to rely on charity for their health care. my life was saved by the health- care system 25 years ago, but i would not have gotthe treatment i get if i had not come from a relatively privileged family and i think that is wrong in america. do you? i think it is wrong that in a variety of our states, public schools are open four days a week. i think that as a deficit. i think that is wrong, too, and we need to address that deficit. how many of you have ever flown into kenne airport from

someplace internationally? does it make you proud to be an american? you thk about what kennedy airport looks like, the airport that came from looks like, i think that is an example of our deficit that we have. our infrastructure is not remotely what it should be. so my question is, yes, we absolutely have to do the right thing on the budget deficit, but when we are sitting here right now with 20% of construction workers unemployed, able to borrow money at 2%, should we not do something about the education deficit? should we not do something about the health care deficit? that is my question. >> senator simpson, do we need more government spending currently on these things that

dr. summers talked about? is that fair? >> just for the record, his question was almost four minutes. ?was that fairpor >> it is what it is, i suppose. emmy said we need spending from the public sector and private sector. to nrow that question? >> you reconstructed his question, beautifully. [laughter] >> i am getting the sense this is not a hometown crowd. >> if you read the report, we dealt with the issue of a fragile econo, not doing too much too soon, talking about infrastructure, education, research and development. every time we get a load of stuff, whenever i do i say,

don't call my house anymore until you read the 67-page report, because it is very specific. i am talking about defense. that's get to that, quickly. how many contractors do we have and the defense department. the said it is between 1 million and 10 million? ehab anyway to audit them? no, we don't. i am a military retiree, active duty in germany. there are 2.2 million american retirees. i was two years active duty, reserve. eight more years i would've been a military retiree. they have their own health care plan called tricare. the premium it is $470 per year,

no copiague, takes care of every single to panic. takes care of it every single dependent. you think we could change that? the drinks are on me. they come to the meetings and raise hell. if he cannot get that done, we went to gates and said, come on, he said he taken over, i have been cremated by these people. >> what i am trying to pull down, says the fundamental question is governmentpending compared with cutting the governor ment. >> that is not the fundamental question.

alan simpson exactly right. there is a whole set of cutting that needs to be done. it needs to be done in defense, god knows there is waste everywhere. >> so what needs to happen first? >> just from my perspective is that it needs to be balanced in three ways. there needs to be balanced cutting the waist, their needs to be balanced in cutting the tax expenditures, the subsidies that go and appropriately, and even as we at reduce the amount we borrow, we have to make sure that between the pubc sector and private sector that we're doing right by the future. fate dependsdren's on whether we don't leave them to bit of a debt. it also depends on if we educate them. it also depends on if we are

leader of science. it also depends on the airport. all of those things are important. the right policies take responsibilities for all of on. >> karl? >> let me dwell on tort reform 30 seconds and then i will answer the rest. the person that did a od thing in the health care speech. the president did a good thing in the health care speech. he said the republicans, we ought to look at tort reform. two weeks later they laid out their tort reform proposal, after no discussion with republicans. it said the following, states can apply for patient safety programs, money for that, which is what the trial lawyers try to position as an alternative to port reform. however, if your state has medical liability reform, you are not eligible. which the republicans took as a

direct attack. and the president made no effort to sit down and say, will come of tort reform can we integrate into the pkage? we need to do a better job at educating our kids, because that is why the income gap is growing, and we're becoming less competitive. but is money the answer? one of the districts with the highest per capita expenditures is the district of columbia and it has some of the worst outcomes. mae we need accountability and the precipitation so that we could have better outcomes rather than focus on putting the money in. could not agree with you more about health care. the system simultaneously the best and simultaneously one of the most broken. but is the answer to turn it over to the government? hh says after passing the affordable care act that will spend as a country $3.1 billion

more at the and then if we had done nothing. maybe what we ought to do is look at getting market forces and competition in health care to drive down costs by putting the consumer back in charge and not having it so much depend on third-party payers. >> robert gibbs? [applause] >> i would say, look, i think we raised a good point about education. sometimes we talk about education is not being part of the economy. karl is exactly right. we have seen some scary statistics in the past couple weeks. median household income in the decade that just concluded actually went down for the first time ever since we have been keeping the statistics. we started in the 1940's.

it is likely this happened in the 1930's, but in the 1950's through the 1990's, median household income went down. we have seen the end, of the upper 1%, the top 1% over the st 30 years triple, while those in the middle class over those 30 years have seen very little growth. i think we would all agree on this, there is one way to make sure we did not live in a country that is overly stratified in terms of income and there is one way for 8%, 90% of the people to get closer to 1%, and that isducation. i think the last two administrations have done more on educaon than, quite frankly, i would say the clinton administration did a lot

as well in terms of making education more contemporary at the federal level. i think we are watching, though, a walking back of all of that. we are watching the fact that when karl first campaign that, there was a heavy emphasis on having a larger federal role in the education system. president obama and secretary arne duncan have done quite a bit as well,nd the president would be the first to tell you that it is not just dollars. it is teachers and it is parents. but i will be honest today, i don't look across the aisle and see a lot of people either running for president on the republican side or in congress that that there is a healthy role or some role for the federal government to play in

education. >> 30 seconds. >> there is a coalition that does not like testing. the teacher unions do not like it and some of the right to not like it. but the administration is lowering the standards of the no child left behind law. it extended the time for meeting the proficiency standards. you touchedn something. you talked about the decade, the last decade of median household income. i look at the census numbers and this confuses me and disturbs me. this chart shows the change in median household income of the last decade. it shows the change from the bottom of the recession, 2001, where it grows 3% from the work load. and here is what has happened since the end of june ,2009, household income has dropped 2%.

this is the first time we have had the recession and it and the income has declined. something is fundamentally different. my explanation is we have an overhang that is causing people it iran companies to sit on their cash, afraid at about regulation and obama care, what will happen to their business, and not willing to make the kinds of investments they need to make. >> could you respon >> the only thing i would say about that chart, i don't think many people think the recession ended in june 2009. >> i agree, but the economists say -- >> what aut larry summers? >> a lot of people did not think the recession ended.

>> dr. summers? >> look, we have the worst overhang crisis of excess debt, stuff that was constructed during the bubble of lack of confidence since the depression. little wder when you have that that the growth is slower. we all agree on that. the question is, how do you make that growth to be faster? we all want to see inclusive growth as rapidly as possible over the next years. some people think that the contract youway to glory. some people think if you just cut government, everybody will feel better and there will be some type of renaissance. herbert hoover tried that strategy. they are trying that strategy in

britain right now. we have a good experiment to evaluate. i think if you look at e economic experience around the world, cutting government over time it is absolutely necessary and right, but we have to figure out right now ways of getting people into the stores. we have to figure out ways to get people to buy their houses. we have to figure out some ways to get people to buy stuff that our nation's factories are capable of producing. that is what we have to focus on as well. i will tell you one thing about debt problems, and i have studied at around the world, and this is probably one of the few things we agree on, if we grow, we have a much better chance of managing these debts that if we stay stagnant. let's focus on what can get this economy growing.

if we grow fast over the next half dozen years, it is hard to believe we will not be fined a matter what else happens. if we do not grow, you could cut entitlements, commissions, whenever you want, if this economy does not grow, it will not be the country that we love. [applause] >> ok,uestions from the. audience to robert gibbs. why has the obama administration that focused on president clinton's exple? >> i think there is no doubt in broad agreement that we have a serious debt crisis and a serious deficit crisis. but i want to build off

something larry said that. if all we are going to do is cut -- about three-quarters, correct me if i'm wrong, about three-quarters of our economy is driven by consumer spending. it is not a surprise right now and a world of anxiety that there is not a lot of consumer spending. howou're only a theory on to get the economy back in order is to undertake massive cuts, i think you are exactly right, and you see what happens in britain. their growth is a fraction of the growth that was announced just a day or so ago. you want to take some of my time? >> yes, go ahead. >> this is what i do. i am an accountant. i advised president clinton to

cut the deficit fast. i advised president obama the country needed stimulus. the world is different. when bill clinton became president, we had terest rates that were 7.5%. we have factories that were full and we had businesses saying they cannot get the capital to invest. therefore, if you cuthe deficit and you bring down interest rates coming get more investments and you grow the economy. that is what you needed to do to one block the economy. guess what, you cannot hurt yourself jumping out of the basement window. interest rates were 2%. there was not any room to bring that interest rates by cutting the deficits in the short run. the reason people are not investing to not have to do with capital cost, nobody was walking into the store and nobody was buying their product. different conditions, different solutions. >> dr. summers, what did you say

to the people who say that businesses are not certain about the future because of regulations and laws from washington? >> i say a couple things. first, if you actually look at the laws and regulations that have come out of the obama administration, it has not been very different from what came out of the bush administration in the first two years. second, i look at what happened to the financial sector, between 2001 and 2008, be really think the problem was we regulate banks too hard? or did we need tmake sure there we more careful? i think we needed to insure there were more careful if we want them to be there. third, i talked to these guys. the biggest uncertain in their lives is not about laws from the

government, is about whether they will have any customers. that is the important uncertainty. has the investments collapsed in sectors that the government is involved in relative to ones they're not involved in? no, it has not. what about the famous obama- care. the truth is that obama-care lets businesses if they want to do something they were not allowed to do before, and a lot of people in the president's party are upset about this, if you want to stop having any health insurance costs, even let them go into the exchange, the public plan, that is a lot less than the cost they pay now for workers. if anything, that is reducing the costs that businesses will have to face for health

insurance. everybody wants to complain about washington, but the president is not just doing this stuff because he likes to. he is doing this stuff because, remember, what he inherited was an economy in free fall. that is what he inherited. >> you had to. just kidding. >> you said companies wld be able to dump their coverage. the business people i talk to will be dumping coverage, but they do not like it. the affordableare act as soon as 24 million people will be in the exchanges. 21 million people who are not currently covered and 3 million people who will be dumped. we think that 78 millionto $87 million will lose their coverage.

what happens if the number of people is much larger dumped into the coverage and put on the taxpayers' tab? what happens if the number and up 100 million people or 75 million people? we will have a $3 trillion tab for this program. that is why we have to repeal obama-care, exactly what dr. summers talked about. [applause] >> herman cain's rise in the polls rose when he proposed the 9-9-9 plan. that that is -- is that contradict that americans will support a rise in taxes?

>> i am not sure people fully understand. first, 9% federal sales tax on top of the local sales tax. when people find that out, support crops. it is not% flat tax. the average effective tax rate, for anybod making less than 100,000 others. year, is somewhat less than 8%. we are asking those people to pay more in federal income taxes. i may like that as a conservative, but i may not like that as a political consultant. the final thing is the most problematic. i am a consumption tax advocate, but only if we are writing our initial constitution. we made the decision but had years ago coat down the road of taxing income. take the sales, less the cost of doing business, and that the

defense between the two, times 9%, and that is the tax? no, is take the sales, thus the cost of materials and other imports, excluding labor, and pay 9% on that. it is a diuretic tax that will create a lot more -- it is a value added tax that will create a lot more cash. it may take care of the revenue problem, but i think when people unrstand more, they will have more qualms about it. >> karl rove is not an advisor of the herman cain campaign, as we see there. >> i am not an adviser to any campaign. especially not that one. [laughter] >> patricia rights, what are the imications and the world currency replaces the u.s. dollar? >> it is like asking the estion like what is going to

happen to the world that if people all of a sudden -- we will not have a world currency. the unitedtates it's a great advantage at of the fact that the dollar is a central currency of the world. it is an important asset, and is why all four of us agree that we have to do everything that we can to keep the american economy strong by ensuring that the growth of the federal debt is not excessive and we have to keep the economy strong by ensuring that it grows so that the other remains the key rrency of the world. >> christine, for senator simpson. if president obama had and that it recommendations of the national commission on fiscal responsibility reform, or with the economy be right now? >> i don't know where the

economy would be, but he would have been savaged to pieces, and that is why he did not dit. but the economy would have been lifted. i know my colleagues of the other faith know that president clinton went to president obama and said, you know, you appointed these guys, you put them there, executive order, and i would have wrap my arms around it. obama did not accept that. president clinton has been a big help in this process. i think all you need to do is have a plan. the reason they don't mess with germany and france and england, the rating agencies, is because they have a plan. we have no plan.

when that happens, watch out. eventually they will confess. >> i told you -- [applause] >> i will tell you, the tipping point will come when the money guys decide it will come. it will not come because of some government thing or something you saw in the past half and it. it will be when the money guys are protecting their money. they nev lose in this game. you mentioned dick durbin who voted for this. people said, he is a democrat. cold and voted for this to appear that is what you have an american now. stereotype being left and white

-- left and right and gasping wh you say their name. if we had a plan, and would have been a buoyant think for the economy of america. >> to you have any hope for the super committee? "i said 50/50 and my colleague said 10%. i had to reach over and say, you only thought it would be a 10% chance. he said, i changed my mind because i talked to all 12 of them and they are locked in a huge rise of entitlements and all and tax increase. you don't have to do a tax increase. it just go out and dig around like colbern did. he takes a $6 billion out of ethanol. if that is a tax increase, the drinks are on me all day long. >> we would be really drunk

right now. is there a bar near by? >> i have a slight disagreement with the senator. i think of senator obama embraced it, we would be a heck of a lot for their belongings. >> thais what i said. >> the other thing is, i wonder if we don't make a mistake in time to get the grand bargain and slam the solid to one legislation. i am reminded of the compromise of 1850 which i think he voted on. >> the compromise of 1850 is offered by a henry clay. it goes down. let's have them go -- all five of them passed.

a different group of people voted to make california a free state and to determine to the senate will always be controlled by free states that voted for the fugitive slave act. i wondered if some leadership could not take some order of these things whether -- particularly strikes me that you could get people to vote for something that saves a cp i which generates a lot of revenue. that would be a different group that might vote for reform on medicare or this or that. at the end of the day if he said that to the floor of the senate under protection, you could get a different set of majorities to pass. >> to you have told about the super committee, either of you? >> i am more a optimistic, but that is not a very strong statement. i would be marginally south of the senators -- that means that

those cuts that are in the bill would go into effect if they don't which the bill. do you guess on the other cuts that are baked in the kit that don't which the deal? >> they don't happen until the beginning of 2013. what would happen if they were scheduled to happen is however the presidential election turns out in november, there would be another huge flurry of political activity in the fall of 2012 with a specter of those cuts coming in 2013. >> look, we all ought to be able to agree that the country would

be much better served by compromising on some theory of what the cuts are. then on having some automatic mechanism kick into place without any reflection of human being on the specifics which items are going to be cut where. that is true -- let me say something else that people on our side don't usually say. the idea that somehow we are going to go slashing our national security budget because we can't agree on how to reduce the deficit. it is just irresponsible. we ought to spend on our national defense, we ought to spend our national defense. we surely should not be cutting

the forces to protect america at a time when troops are in danger because we cannot resolve the budget battle. that ought to be something that everyone can agree on. >> i want to get to as many as we can. given the bad chip of the economy, is that mitt romney the strongest candidates because of his mix of experience? >> we will start to find out in 67 days when they stumble after the years and the iowa caucus on the third of january. what's the figure that would be a short answer. doesn't the minimum-wage and to be too high employment, legal immigration, and outsourcing to china? >> there may be some small -- i think it is relatively small on

the evidence adverse effect of employment in some groups. it also means there are higher incomes for a lot of people whose wages are protected by the minimum wage who would otherwise be very poor. >> i think that is the trade- off. i would not advocate right now for raising the minimum wage, but at a time when the poor are getting poorer and at aime that the working poor are suffering more than they ever have before, i don't think that is the time to go cutting the minimum wage aall. but the question points to very real trade offs. >> the republicans are losing the public relations war on taxing millionaires. why are they so reluctant to raise taxes on such a limited number of people? >> i have not any idea. i think they are caught in a

trap there. that is one thing again. you go to the dot. let's say u confiscated everything that anybody who has a net worth over $1 million -- take all the dots, the jets, the offshore -- that will run the country for nine months. let's get serious. we are in the whole 16 trillion dollars. that is an and comprehensible figure. you can't possibly get their with little things. the essence of the question was -- >> republicans are losing the pr work. >> they will lose it. the sad part is, how did they get to this position? what do they all people like that to face this onslaught? this is huge dollars to them.

it is in the full scheme on how we need to dig ourselves out of here. it is an unfortunate thing they are and. and now grover is saying that if you do happen to let that expire and to go to taxing, that will not be called a tax increase. he knows where he is getting the ground right now. he has to figure out -- it might be ok to do that because i think it is a disaster. >> you need help on the obsession with grover. [laughter] >> i do. >> 16 trillion dollars is like to be the bar tab at the end of the night. [laughter] >> buying all of the drinks. >> de support occupy wall street

and why or why not? >> i don't know -- i think many people have said they don't know exactly what he wants or what their demands are. i will say this. i am not at al surprised that there are people either sleeping in a part in the new york were living throughout the midwest that are frustrated where we are in this country and in this ecomy. we have watched the economic collapse -- it did not start in september of 2008. for people in middle america, the median household income. you have people in this country who are paying their -- you have some parents are paying for undergrads just at the school who are paying their 2011 tuition bill using their 1999 incomes. that generates frustration.

there is also a huge frustration in this country. i think this is on both sides of the political aisle. we have watched for the last few years a different set of rules for people on wall street and people in banks and for everybody else. if they can game with that money and if they lose it, somebody will pick up the tab. if they lose your money, they were just taking a risk and so were you. i think people cant understand that. i can understand exactly why they cannot understand that. we had a different set of rules. we cannot exist as a country if we decide there are two sets of rules for bankers and wall street -- one set of rules for bankers and wall street and another set for everyone who lives on main street. >> a quick lightning round

before opening statements. gdp has increased for the last three quarters in the u.s.. europe has some significant debt agreement. perhaps we are on the road to recovery already. the you agree or disagree? >> it is a very slow road. we need to turn it into a highway and then it is right now if we want to be the kind of country we are. yes, the economy is growing but not nearly fast enough. >> what role if any does our policy play in either worsening or improving our economy? >> i am a pro immigration. i think we are benefited by having by having people come to the united states and having an orderly way in which people who want to come here to work for jobs -- we ought to have the system in place. we have an immigration system that says our number-one

priority i to are you related to. family unification. i think we need to change our immigration system so it is easier for people to come and study and stay in the united states and put skills to benefit here. i think we need to find a way to let people who want to turn hospital beds in albuquerque or pickford and come here if those jobs go begging. we don't have a systethat allows us to do that today. >> medicare will recruit -- reduce hospital payments by 30% in november. how will patients get to his future excellent treatment? >> this is a fundamentally important question. the question that hangs over

our defense hangs over the medicare providers of the other end. we are going to decide how much we'd l you care for those over 65 in such an aitrary way that we just are going to cut it in a huge and massive weight. my guess is we will have some of it in 2012. what type oservices do we want and what are we willing to pay for it? in all honesty, for the past 10 or 20 years, we have not actually had that debate. we have had elections in debates about what we want your we have not had a debate on how to pay for it. he rightly points out what our bar tab is. we are going to have to have that debate because we cannot have a country where we decide every person gets their taxes

cut, and we are going to invade this country. we are or to invade the untry. we are quite at entitlements. we are or to add benefits to entitlements and not pay for any of it. those days are just gone. i hope that our campaign is a robust debate i hope this. i hope it is a conclusion of that campaign. anothere don't have national campaign for four years. let's take that. to come together and try to solve the problem. >> last question. it seems self-evident that's spending cuts over a decade will be pushed to the last few years of the decade. these cuts will occur over two

or three electrons away. when bonds future congresses to these cuts? >> nothing. the other part of it is, the group of 12 will grapple to the point of press the press and the sit down and congress and it changes the law that put is package together. don't leave that out as a possibility. you get the house and senate together and say, man. we can't do this. let's just get in here and change this to 2015 and a mess around and doing another piece of legislation. don't forget, theyave to have legislative language presented by november 23. that is hard. it will be very difficult. then 2013.

after a year of sitting there and watching the crash and listening to the pain, can you imagine the voting against oil and gas depletion allowances? can you imagine me voting against the abandoned land -- i come from a state if we were a country we would be the largest coal producing company in the world. nobody at home complaints to me about not doing my share. but if everybody -- the great escapes hatch is i am ready to do myhare if everyone else will. that is a glorious escape hatch for everyone. >> and now for the closing statements from each one of the debaters. we begin with robert gibbs.

>> let me begin again by thanking you all for coming and having us debate. maybe in some ways you were disappointed. in a lot of ways we actually agreed. maybe that is the problem with some of our politics. we are scheduling date and we are not giving ourselves the ability to stop and agree. >> we are right to come to the several states that are coming up. november 18 as when it expires. november 23 is what the committee has to have its language. if we don't do somhing by december 23, we have automatic cuts that will take place in january 2013. we are like to have to have a debate in this country as i said a minute ago on what we wt and what we are willing to pay for. i hope we have the robust

debate. as i said, i he we decide we are going to use the intervening time to put it with the campaign commercials and put away lining up in boxes on cable tv and yelling at each other and listen to each other. try to come to some understanding and agreement with about the fact that carl and i could probably walk out on a clear day and argued about the color of the sky. but the truth is, we agree on probably more than most people walked in here thinking we might agree on. the truth is, that can be the case in washington d.c. it is the case in almost every other place in this country. i have the great honor of traveling it around the country with the president he helped

elect we come and we meet with groups of people like you. i know there is another thing we can all agree on. that is that there is not any problem that this country will face this year or next year or in the next 50 years. it cannot and will not be solved. at every single traction in our nation to talk htory, efface the inflection point on what kind of country we are going to live and what we are born to pass to our children. we have made it hard decisions, we have had a tough debates, we have made compromises, and we ve strengthened our country. that is the only way we are going to pass a stronger country that continues to be the envy of the world on to our

children and grandchildren. i think in 50 years, we are still going to be the envy of the world. we're still going to be the envy of the world not because it does not require us to do hard things, but exactly because it does. because we have great people that can g togetherven in the most political debate and agree to ensure our country continues to be the envy of the entire world. thank you for having me. [applause]

two-thirds of the so-called millionaire's are small businesses reporting on the individual tax line. and you raise taxes on small business and you will raise taxes on job-treaters. secondly, there ought to be limit on what the government can take from anyone regardless of how much they make. [applause] 35% is a big shock. they're al-- there ought to be a limit on how big government is. [applause] bankers were regulator, but two big financial institutions were unregulated -- fannie and freddie. [applause] when we attempted to regulate them in the bush administration, it took them 62 years to buy mortgage paper. when we tried to regulate them

between 2001 to 2005, they bought another two dollars trillion of mortgage-backed paper. but the bill went down because of a filibuster in the senate. in the next three years, between 2005 and when they went belly up in 2008, the but another $1.50 trillion in mortgage-backed paper, put the american taxpayer on it, and sold it to the banks. they nearly brought down the world economy because of it. it cost $806 billion according to the latest estimate. that was money better spent $86e failed stimulus bill in all respects. there will be a big robust debate next year hope between

we need more government taxation and spending. we can i w to agree on this platform, but let's be honest. this is what the elections are all going to be about. this big robust debate. it will be a choice between two different philosophies. when that says, let's make the government bigger. let to grow it to 25%. we want a bigger government. others may have a different view. one of limited government, of limited taxation, and a reliance upon the enterprise and energy of the free people of the united states of america. robert, i agree with him. the country is fundamentally sound because our people are fundamentally sound. at the end of the day, we are going to be all right.

you know these guys when they are always and tolerant of people from utah, colorado, and nevada. i lived in all three states. all of those people in wyoming who moved to utah to become sheepherders. we all new people. is this heating up my time or can i ke more? anyway. thank you for having us her today. i really appreciate the opportunity to be invited back to regent. the most important thing i heard today was 480 teachers a year graduate from this university. that is an impressive sight of what a christian based education can do to change lives of people all across the country and a

fundamental way. thank you for having us. [applause] >> i am glad to have been here. i learned a lot. i learned a lot from questions and from colleagues in this debate. you know, the stngth of our country is actually that there are many different perspectives. i knew when i accepted this invitation that it was not going to be a hometown crowd. [laughter] i have not been surprised by that. there is a lot in the

perspective that is brought here that was brought to in america. without it, we woul go badly wrong. there are not employees witho employers. great strength of our economy is the private sector. it is private initiative. it is private entrepreneur said. the strength of america has a great deal to do with its religious traditions. utopian top down schemes can often do enormous damage. you are right, i think, in the kinds of concerns that you have. if we were not a country with a robust litical debate, i am sure that someone in the

progressive side take us to places that would not be where we'd want to be. nobody wants or should want a big government. -- for the sake of having a big government. what i would like you to think about. i am under no illusions under which political party is going to win at regent university in the next election. here is what i want you to keep in mind. nobody wants government for its own sake. but there are some things that we all do want that are going to have a hard time happening without government. we all agree easily that we are not 20 stay strong as it entry

into force of freedom in the world without a strong military. only government can provide that. we are leaders because we are the best in the world in science and technology. that comes in large part of the supports the government is able to give. god knows i am an educator. i know, our education is vastly run too much for the benefit of the providers of the education. is room for the administrators and not for the benefit of the kids. but, you know, without a federal government, there is not going to be anybody to hold school districts accountable. i visited schools across the country what i w treasury secretary. i will never forget the teacher who said, youave a gat

speech about the education is the most important thing in our country. the paint is chipping off of the walls and this school. why should the kids believe you? it takes government to make public schools work. so push the things you believe, i know you will. but remember, it is very hard to love a country and hate its government. the government has a role as well. remember one other thing. we have terrible problems. i have spent much of the last year traveling the world. i would rather face the challenges that the united states of america faces and then the challenges facing any other country in this world.

i would rather have the citizens of the united states addressing thchallenges they face then the citizens of any other country in the world facing their challenges. thank you very much. [applause] >> i happen to had been at harvard teaching when larry was president. i could not have gone int harvard if i picked the locks. but i was there. i will tell you what he is. he is a leader. he has a lot of guts. that is what leaders today do not have the scots. he had guts. he took on establishments. he took on the worst political system of all, the faculty senate. [laughter] i in admire him. let me just say that education

s been floated through. if i recall only 7% of the entire education budget in the united states comes from the federal government. it comes from the local school districts. those are called governments. they are called school boards. if you don't like what is going on in education, don't in being on were 7% of the dollars are. go back to your district and say, what are you doing with the money? make that very important. i would just add that you can't hate politicians and love democracy. it does not work that way. let me just add -- what we were saying and our commission. if you want it, pay for it. if you want infrastructure, bulk of the trust fund. we suggested a gas tax. is it hot?

we did. if you are going to have a fund, funded it. that is what we describe it. i hope you read it to. i just need to talk about social security. this is the greatest myth of all time. the beth that we are balancing the budget on the backs of poor old senior citizens is a myth. it is a total myth. we are trying to do something with the solvency of social curity so it will remain solvent for 75 years. it was put in in 1937 and 1938 when the life expectancy was 63. that is what the set the retirement age at 65. it was never intended as a retirement system. has nothing to do with retirement. it is and in, supplent for guys wiped out. guys who did not have anything because of the depression. so what did we suggest?

nobody will argue this. life expectancy today is a 78.1 years. we have suggested that you raise the retirement age to 68 by the year 2015. the aarp said, how will people ever be able to figure that out. i said, i think they will. i really believe that today will. i know that they will. what else did we do? we said the lowest 20% othe people in that system, we will give them a hundred 25% of poverty. it takes money to do that. the bridge pay little more. the little guy is a little less. we raise the wages subject to the tax 190,000. we change the cost of living index. we take care of the guy who is exhausted. we don't change the retirement

age for that person. we had an older -- we said, there is a package for it. we tell people what they are because i will tell you what will happen. by doing nothing, which is so for the recommendation of the wizards at the aarp. by doing nothing, and the year 2036, you will wonder and bobble up to the window to get a check for 23% less. we alssuggested that you reduce the payment into the social security payroll tax. everything i dealt with in my whole public life.

you have to goehind those people like the fourth of july and be able to shovel. [applause] thank you. thank you all. this has been fascinating for my point of view. let me give a brief summary. hubert humphrey once said, freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, descent, and the debate. we clearly have that tonight. restarted at the binning. dr. summers has been out the dire consequences of the obama administration. he said, the us cannot shrink its way to prosperity. the u.s. need spending in both the public and private sector. nobody wants government for gornment said on at all. simpson said, yes he did slip in

the suit he is wearing. he also said you have to walk a mall. everything needs to be on the table. whatever you call it, it is a mess. he is not having norquist over for thanksgiving. robert gibbs said the economic collapse has been going on for a long time. he wishes washington would go back to a time of senator simpson andetween the elections to get things done. we can solve the toughest problems despite our parties. karl rove said spending our way to prosperity has not worked. removing regulations and giving certainty to businesses would be key. one point he called senator simpson centered sourpuss. something about wyoming and sheep. i cannot follow it. he is a two-time tighten.

here's a quote from henry ford, coming together is the meeting, keeping together is progress, working together is success. i think tonight we have seen some items that both sides can truly agree on. one last thing, in the media we do not do a good job of showing what all these numbers flying around really are. to get a perspective of how big thsituation is. 1 billion seconds is 31 years ago. one trillion seconds is 31,688 years ago. one trillion dollar bills stacked on top of each other would go 68,000 miles in the sky. if they were stacked and it to end, they would reach the summit. one that trillion dollars -- there has been a lot of talk tonight about education, to --

could pay the salaries of 18.2 million teachers for the year. the u.s. census bureau says there are 6.2 milli teachers in the country. we don't have a perspective of what one chilling as let alone 62 lange, that does. it ia real honor. thank you very much. here is to class of the titans no. 10 next year. thank you. [applause] >> monday, herman cain will be making a stop in washington.

that is live a.m. -- live on monday at 9:00 a.m. on c-span. also live, monday, at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> spend this weekend in knoxville, tenn. with the tv and american history tv. look at the history and literary life of the marble city. on c-span 2, the university of tennessee body farm. dr. william bass on a real-life see a side -- real-life csi.

and then alex haley on how he fell in love with the city. and then on c-span 3, a visit to the sequoia birthplace museum. also a visit to secret city, oakridge national laboratory historian steve estero and the development of the atomic bomb. end is not so -- and is not so interested in city? today at 6:00 p.m. eastern. watch throughout the weekend. >> in his weekly address, president obama urges congress to pass his job proposals and talks about the action he has taken this week to grow the economy. then a different perspective on job creation by bobby schilling.

he talks about his party's jobs bill that remains stalled in senate. >> this week, a judge report showed what most americans know to be true. last three decades, the middle class has lost ground while the wealthy few have gone even welfare. their wealth has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle- class family. this has happened during a time when the cost of health care to college has skyrocketed. in this country, we don't begrudge anyone, will for success. we encourage it. we celebrated. but americans better off when everybody has the chance to get ahead, not just those of the very top of the income scale. the more americans prosper, the more america prospers.

our economic problems were the kids in the making and will not be solved overnight. but there are steps we can take right now to put people back to work and restore some of the security that middle-class americans have lost all the last few decades. right now, congress can pass a common-sense jobs proposal that -- that independent economists say can work right away. proposals that will not cut taxes for middle-class families in america. these of the same kind of proposals that both democrats and republicans have supported in the past and they should stop playing politics and act on them now. these jobs proposals are also paid for by asking folks to make more than $1 million a year to contribute a little more in taxes. these are the same folks who have seen their incomes go up so much. i believe this is a contribution that they are willing to make.

one survey found that nearly seven in 10 millionaires are willing to step up and pay a little more in order to help the economy. un fortunate, the republican congress is not paying attention. the have not gotten the message. over and over, the have refused to debate the same kind of jobs proposals that republicans have supported in the past. proposal that are supported today not just by democrats, but by independence and republican voters all across america. somehow, they found time this week to debate things like whether or not we should mint coins to celebrate the baseball hall of fame. their only scheduled were three more weeks between now and the end of the year. the truth is that we can no longer wait for congress to do its job. the middle class families who have been struggling for years are tired of waiting. they need help now. so our count -- so our calendars will not act. i will. -- so our congress will not act.

i will. we will make it easier for veterans to get jobs, putting their skills to work at hospitals and community health centers. we reform the student loan process so that more young people can get out of debt faster. and we will make more changes like these on a regular basis. these steps will make a difference. there will not take the place of the bold action that congress needs to make. tell congress to start taking action on jobs. we want to rebuild an economy where every american gets ahead and we will need every american to get involved. that is how real change has always happened and that is the way it will happen today. thank you. >> hello, i'm congressman bob schilling. i am a lifelong resident of illinois, born and raised in rock island and now living in cologne of. for the past 14 years, we have been the proud owners of sages

gesepe's.e -- st. joseph i it was a look at war with pride because it was their dream, a small family-run business. it was not always easy, but it taught me a lot about what i needed to know about our our economy works. with unemployment in my state and the president's home state at 10%, there is no higher priority than jobs. but when i look at things like the policies coming from the white house, i think the folks there could use a few weeks the wearing flower and pizza dough. they need to understand the american small business owner. and you are a small business owner, your a troubleshooter. you identify a problem and fix it so it does not come back. temporary bandits will much do the trick. that is why i am proud to support republicans plan for american jobs critters.

our plan looks at the problem -- jobs creators prepare plan looks of the problem and work to clear up barriers to job creation by addressing excess of regulation, fixing the tax code, and closing loopholes and paying down our debt. this week, the house passed another bill on the republican jobs planned. if some say byers withholding plan that stops companies from doing business with the government. this is not just a good idea. it is a bipartisan one. it was in our jobs plan and the president's jobs plan as well. i am pleased it passed the house with bipartisan support. jobs is not a democrat issue or a republican issue. it is a red, white, and we wish to. we owe it to the american people to find common ground. we did it with the free trade agreement that the president recently signed and we're doing it with the withholding tax and we can do more. unfortunately, many of the jobs

bill but th-- jobs bill that congress has passed have been stuck in the senate. they address excessive federal regulations that are hurting small business job-creation. they were written after losing to the farmers, manufacturers, and small business people from around the country. and number of them have bipartisan support. yet the senate will not give these bills a vote and the president has not call for action. politics and pessimism will not get america back on track. i was disappointed to hear the president say at a campaign fund-raiser that americans have lost our ambition, our remit -- our imagination. i respectfully disagree. the people of my district are working harder, making more sacrifices, doing whatever it takes. his more than welcome to meet some of them down at st. joseph

gesepe's. all we're asking is that government did out of the way so we can get back to creating jobs. republicans have a jobs plan, one with some bipartisan support, but it is stuck in the senate. we are asking president obama to work with us and call on the senate to pass the forgotten 15, to help the private sector create jobs, american jobs desperately needed. this season this opportunity. let's build on our common ground for jobs. you can learn more about the republican jobs plan at job.gop.gov. >> tomorrow, edward demarco talks about the home affordable

refinance program, the status of fannie mae and freddie mac, and what congress can do to address the housing market. that is at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> i don't want every story to be 1800 words pierre >> last month, and jill abramson became the first woman to hold the post of executive editor @ "the new york times." >> there is a certain lack of discipline. sometimes a point is reputed to many times in a story or their three " making the same point where one would do. i would like to see a variety of story length. >> you will discuss her career and the history of "the sunday times" on c-span. >> next, a discussion about the group called coffee party usa.

this is 45 minutes. guest: we are a response to the tea party. we approach issues as fellow americans, as neighbors, as friends, as instead of representatives of parties. we try to get people to come to the table and make decisions together. we want specific engagement at the heart of organizing. right now, organizing is based on your ideology and facility

with issues. host: give examples of how your organization does that. guest: we often meet in coffeehouses it is a civic space in which we are ready to work and have the energy to work on these issues that are very complex. they are often very distorted by party. here are the facts about health care. here are the facts of campaign law. can we problems all these things together? there is so much gridlock in washington. it is not meant to be like that. there is supposed to be billed to power, but not this kind of gridlock where -- be a balance of power, but not this kind of gridlock. we want to get past that. we want to creating new model from the bottom up where we can say, if you know what, i am sick

of that rhetoric. let's just talk together. host: how do do that? guest: we have to change some laws so that we incentivize people to actually cooperate instead of obstruct. campaign finance laws have a lot of impact, way too much impact, on the outcome and the process. it incites them to fight against one another. they are not necessarily rewarded according to the outcome. so we have to change campaign finance laws. some of it is cultural and some of it is psychological. so we have to reset the norms. right now, the norm is that it is ok for people to yell at each other and call each other names and not work together. at some point, we have to say, you know what, enough is enough. you have to work together. host: you started on facebook?

guest: yes. i was of sets by -- i was assessed by the kind of rhetoric and ugliness that came out at the time of health care. we needed an alternative to this. this is crazy. we cannot go on like this. we cannot solve anything like this. it just became a viral fan page that eventually became into an organization with dozens of chapters across the country. there are 500,000 people in the network. host: are you meeting in washington today? guest: we have moved from the coffeehouse is to the public space. despite the bad weather, we will be out there, hundreds of us, speaking out, almost like a filibuster, coming from across the country, supporting people like buddy roemer, the joe suspect, lee said reyes, and

common cause, ... and, and occupiers from occupied d.c. -- occupy d.c. host: one of the issues according to your realization is tax reform, particularly when it comes to the tax code. guest: the tax code is very complicated. it is not fair. there is a revenue problem here. there are people who are categorically do not want to raise taxes or even close loopholes. we have to get past that. good is a publicly subsidized corporate welfare going on.

in billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars, that we can save to close the loophole. >host: so closing the loophole is one could you have a financial tax. guest: even a small, not even 1%, like 0.5%, would produce billions of dollars. it would basically help with the income inequality that we have, that we're seeing. no one disputes that we have a terrible income and equity right now. how will we sell that? that is the kind of thing that leads to the unrest you see right now in the st.. >> host: so and tax breaks to oil and gas companies. guest: and capital gains.

we basically have to close that loophole. it is not just tax reform. it is also lost reform. the fact that we have too big to fail and that the public is actually subsidizing -- they are basically gambling on wall street. they are high risks and we cover their losses. so they think it is ok to take these enormous risks because the government will cover us. of course they will want that. there is so much to gain from those risks. that is something that we have to say no to. and it will not happen spontaneously from wall street or even in washington. host: it looks like you're taking some of the rhetoric from the 1% vs. the 99%.

guest: yes, there are some people in the 1% another this is unfair. so anybody who cares about fairness -- in the 1% who know this is unfair. so anybody who cares about fairness, why can we not focus on fairness? why can we not focus on sustainability and stability? instead of thinking that this is about our various interests. that is not a democracy. host: she is the founder and president of coffee party usa. tell people about your web site and how they can find out more about you. host: we have a web site called

citizensintervention.com. did is to really confront washington with these problems. we think it is a sickness. it is almost like a family suffering from an addiction that we have to confront and say we need to get help. we need to stop this because it will not happen spontaneously with in washington. we are also asking people to really step up and take a leadership as citizens and not just sit back and beat spectators. basically, really commit to the democratic process. that is the only way we will be part of the solution. host: the first call is from massachusetts, jerry, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i like the name -- we need more

citizens to act like patriots. the biggest mistake in deregulation was the repeal of glass-steagall. we need to reinstate glass- steagall immediately. they screamed and gave mocking orders to obama and nancy pelosi and squashed the repeal or any chance of getting on the floor to reinstated. there is a house resolution, 49, right now -- 1489, right now that hawill reinstate glass-

steagall. the first major step that we need. the system is bankrupt. host: thank you, caller. guest: absolutely. we need to be able to separate investment banking from commercial banking. it will not and too big to fail, but if we have the public subsidizing investor banking, we will be in trouble. there will be bad investments and we will have to do more bailouts. we cannot commit to more bailouts. it is just not fair. it is not sustainable process. it could happen tomorrow that we pour billions and trillions of dollars into another bailout. on top of that, we did $9 trillion more in loans to big banks and wall street firms. how will that continue? i do not understand this. this is the type of thing that

requires legislative solutions, but it takes the public to demonstrate our political will that we will not tolerate this any more. so we have to be involved. i am sorry. it is not enough to have leaders in washington talk about this. american people, i am calling on you to be involved. host: do you have anybody specific on capitol hill on your concerns? guest: we want to address this as a non-partisan way as possible. on monday, we have lovey day. we have appointments made with people from across the country. they're coming here to not just speak out today, but their meeting with their representatives in washington to really begin that relationship. so we will not just denounce washington and say you are awful. it is to say we have to collaborate. can we work on this together? because, you know what?

my life is hanging in the balance, hanging by a thread. can we do something together? do we have to continue like this? we cannot. we cannot afford it. host: our next caller is mark from bainbridge, georgia. caller: i like what annabelle is saying. she has a sense -- a fresh perspective. something that has been said a couple times a sustainability. if you think that we can support people long term that do not work -- and i live in a poor part of georgia where we have probably 20% unemployment if you took a really hard look at it and they are not used to working. their children are used to getting things for nothing. they are used to worker's comp. they have gotten food stamps

going on two generations now. we come as a government, have effectively disable them by giving them something and not holding them accountable. that is not sustainable. there are too many people who are born into that and they're not enough people who can support all the people who are not supporting themselves. that has to be a part of what you're talking about. guest: thank you for that. basically, we need a big reset on the entire system. it is in systemic failure. this is political and financial. yes, there are people who are basically doing what they can within the system or the federal rules that we have and doing what they think is best for themselves and their family. this is not just people who are unemployed. these are people who are also making billions of dollars off the current system. i am more concerned about people on wall street gaining the

system so that it is running like a casino and people like k street and people in washington gaming the system. $300 billion were spent in the 2010 election. compare that to the $60 million spent in the 2006 election. that is a huge jump. that has a lot to do with citizens united and all the anonymous money that is pouring into our campaigns. $300 million, half of that, $150 million was spent without anybody knowing where that might actually came from, and disclosed, and restricted donations. how was that not gaming the system? how was that not the two policies on things like jobs? on how whether or not main

street will ever get help? will main street ever get a bailout? right? that is the kind of thing that concerns me more than people who do not have jobs, who have lost homes, trying to do what they can to have enough money to put food on the table. i guess that is where my priorities. but i hear you. i guess that we need to have a big reset in which we are really looking at what will work, what is fair, and whether or not we can basically have a government that responds to the people as opposed to their donors. host: on twitter, ok, you're in taxes.of more taxes wha guest: it is not about more taxes. it is looking at this holistic play. why do we have subsidies for enormous companies like exxon mobil and bp?

why? that does not make sense. there is no rationale for it. pharmaceutical companies? you can go on. the sugar industry. why is that? that is a huge question that we have to ask ourselves about the basis, the political and rational basis for our tax code. the government vs. small government, that kind of thinking is reductive and simplistic. it does not help but ask questions about what we action want to do and what we want to change we are stuck on i want the government or i want small government. that does not help us. it is not just about shrinking it to the smallest possible size. that does not make sense, right? think about what is actually

smart and fair. in terms of raising taxes or not, i want to think about how we're spending the money. what are our priorities. why are we spending so much money and the pentagon and the military? why do we need hundreds of bases all over the world, for instance? there are big questions like why we are doing the things we're doing. we need to look at them in a holistic way rather than getting stuck. i am pro-military, therefore, i want to keep it the way it is. host: what would you do with entitlements? guest: corporate entitlements? host: medicaid and medicare? guest: you have subsidies for big oil. is that not an entitlement? are not corporations getting entitlement? they're getting privileges and bricks. -- and breaks. they get that for some reason that other people do not appear

in social programs that help us to stay alive is considered somehow not necessary. why is life not necessary? why is not feeding people in keeping them healthy not necessary? why is that not important? why is it more important to give money to oil companies? we have to look at the prairies and see if these policies are in line with our values -- we have to look at the priorities and see if these policies are in line with our values. caller: www.mybetteramericaplan.com is a plan to get america out of the economic mess that it is in. it has a way to reorganize the government so it has a balanced budget and takes all the something-for-nothing programs

we have and make them something- for-something programs. we will take the whole united states government and make it so that you do not get benefits. you work for benefits. host: what is your question for our guests? caller: why does the united states government reorganize itself so it does not give out stuff for free instead of giving people the opportunity to work for stuff that they need from the government? also rehab -- host: we will leave it there. guest: i fully understand your campaign. but i would say that we absolutely need to invest in our future, in our infrastructure, so there is better education and more opportunity and more encouragement and incentivizing and into -- and innovation. these are things we can work on as a nation. but we basically have to commit

to this. we have to show that we are united as a country toward thinking about long-term future, not just what happens in the next two years. right now, in washington, they are stuck on what will happen next year or whether or not they will be reelected. that is not the best way to make decisions about our future. there is definitely a cognitive problem in terms of how we approach these issues. again, it goes back to crime -- to campaign finance laws, that people are dependent on enormous amounts of money to run for office. $6 million, average, for senate campaign -- that is an incredible amount of money that they have to raise. they have to spend the majority of their time in office raising money, not working on these issues. it is crippling us. it is debilitating our country, our government, and this is something that we have to put an end to. host: there is a story about

those running for president and fund-raising. rick perry reportedly rose $13 million. there is a story this morning about herman cain raising $3 million in october. that can change how presidential politics is done when it comes to campaign finance? it should be important to note that president obama has out- raised them all. guest: if you're going to run for office, you know you have to raise money. this is a game that we are playing. we have expected this game. -- we have accepted this game. imagine if we play this game and there is no money involved. it would be based not on money, but the quality of your character.

host: but you have to raise money to buy advertising to put your campaign out there. guest: most of those ads are misleading if not false, as we know, right? imagine if people did not want those ads, if we stop watching those ads, if they had no bearing on how we voted, if we went somewhere else to get information. right? this is the kind of cultural change we can make so that the money they raise on ads have no impact on the outcome because no one is paying attention. that would be an incredible kind of resistance and protest. host: will the coffee party endorsed the president? guest: no. we do not want to be in the business of endorsing candidates. we want to have people work on issues.

we want to ask candidates on where they stand on too big to fail, on citizens united, on things like disclosure. do you want people to know who is giving you money? i want every candidate to enter that. how do you feel about these billion dollars of subsidies on oil companies? why? these are things as should be asked to every candidate. i want them to answers -- i wanted to have answers rather than having a d or an r next to their name. i want to restructure our politics so that our primaries are run different and so that gerrymandering is stopped. right now, the best solution is

for american people to get in there and reform these corrected parties. it has been corrupted by money. host: new jersey on the republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning, and a bill. annabelle.rning, and a bel 40% of americans pay nothing in taxes. i have a neighbor who paid two thousand dollars last year in taxes. i asked him what he got last year. he got $4,200 back. will that be part of your cultural change? i think every american should pay something, even if it is just a dollar. will that be part of your change? guest: absolutely. but something that i do want to clarify is that we all pay taxes. every single day, we pay sales tax, property tax, is not just

income tax. our income is taxed so much on what we do. i think it is very misleading to say that they're people who pay no taxes at all. we want to focus on giving people jobs so that they are paying income tax as well. so, absolutely. but, again, it will require us investing money into creating those opportunities and improving our education so that people are more equipped to be part of this economy. there is a huge gap between people's skills cuts and our economy right now. it is true that -- skill sets and our economy right now. it is true that manufacturing is being reduced in this country and jobs are going overseas. what will we do about that? that is a huge problem it is a macro problem that cannot be dealt with by one person. there is nothing i can do right

now about the fact that there are enormous companies chipping away jobs to other countries. can we talk about that instead of saying that my neighbor is not paying his share of taxes? let's think about the bigger issue, the bigger context, which is that jobs are going overseas. host: democrats line, johnny. caller: the reason i'm calling from the west coast at 5:00 a.m. is because i was worried all night about had it all work -- about how i would pay my bills. the lowest household income per capita in the country -- my question to you is, not only with statewide government and corruption, but federal government and the way it is -- for example, congress was doing

things in chambers and nothing was getting done. what exactly does the coffee party bring to the table to reform that, statewide and countrywide? guest: i am sorry to hear about your situation. i really feel for you. there are many people coming today your exactly in your situation. they are really hanging on the balance with government basically saying, if you know what, there's nothing we can do about it. the other party is not cooperating could i will not do anything. i will just do what i can to get myself reelected. it is an incredible kind of cynicism around the reality of our elections. what i want to do is change incentives and the intentions that people bring to these discussions. i do not know what is going on with the super committee. they are supposed to answer this

big question about what our budget will be and how we will deal with our deficit and how to help people such as yourself. i do not know what is going on there. it is a really elite group people with little transparency. and the consensus right now is that very little will get done. they're not incentivized to get anything done. all of them on capitol hill are in a state of permanent campaigning. that is what they're focused on and not try to figure out how they can work together to help you. we need to confront them with this truth and say enough. we need you guys to focus -- and not worry on rick elections. focus on how we can help american people -- and not worry on your elections. focus on how we can help the american people and their families so that they are actually paying their bills, so they can eat, have a house, have shelter, have gas in their cars.

they are not encouraged to say that that is our focus. they say it, but that is not what we are seeing in their actions. so we have to confront them with this truth as the american people. not as they left. none has the right. not as independents. but as the american people coming together and saying enough. you're stuck in your little ball in washington while we are hurting. and we cannot do this anymore. we do not even want to vote for you anymore. 9% approval rating? do you not think you should do something? do not think you should care that we are hurting? host: grade, independent line from sarasota. good morning. caller: straight to the point. what we have to do is start something pretty simple. you have to leave something so you're not a grease spot by midnight when it comes to a 40. we have to get to a point in our

voting when it comes to congress -- we have to say my vote given with no confidence in the party is. it is not like kissing your sister. you put everything in front of them and say who are these people? what have they done? they are drawing lines in our cities. they exist. it is a form. you cannot double flush them because of the constitution. but when it comes to congress, my vote given with no confidence in the parties. guest: no-confidence is the perfect phrase to use. there is no confidence in our government. there is no confidence in our economy. without that confidence and without the trust, the wheels do not turn could this is why we

are stuck. we are stuck in washington. we are stuck on wall street. we are stuck economically because we do not trust the system. we have eight games to play, but we do not trust the rules that are fundamentally rate and are unfair. the majority of americans feel that way. we have a trust deficit. so let's basically say let's put the brakes on it and stand up to this. we will demonstrate. it is already happening. occupy washington is showing people that there are people who are fed up and are going to great lengths to the say that this is dysfunctional. host: would you say the same thing about the tea party? guest: the tea party comes from the same place of discontent. there's something very wrong with their system. it is basically sick and dying.

so we basically have to revitalize it could but how? the solutions that we hear from the tea party movement are not solutions that i can just get behind because there is a lot of stuff that is not filled out in detail. once it is spelled out in detail, it is kind of frightening, cutting social programs, cutting social security, things that the majority of people do not want if you look at the polls. people would prefer to see raising taxes on the rich. but for some reason, the majority of the people are silent. it is not that they are silent. they are ignored in silence by washington and the media. the polls show that we want a government that functions, to help ordinary people, not multinational corporations. but that is what we have. host: bob, republican line, indiana, good morning. caller: just a few things.

can you tell me where in the constitution is says anything about fairness? and the reason we have so many lobbyists is because the washington -- because washington get into businesses it does not belong. it is easy for me to see that your and other left-wing organization. -- you are another left-wing organization and this is drivel. guest: like you, i do not want to see lobbyists governing the country. that is what we have. we do not consent to a government run by lobbyists or corporate persons or billionaires'. we signed up for a democratic, a representative democracy, and republic. that is not what we have right now. it will not get any better if we get stuck on calling each other names and you: what i say is

drivel. we need to be able to see each other as human beings and say, if you know what, we are all unhappy with their current system. can we talk about it? how we will make it better rather than how we each other? what is the point of you calling me names? what is the point of view hating me because you do not agree with some of the things i say? that does not make things better. we do not have to come to the table in agreement, but we do have agreed that we will solve it together because we are the united states of america. we are one people. the laws that are made affect all of us. and we can show washington that we are not in such disagreement that we cannot be part of one country. we have to be part of one country. we have to agree sometimes that we will not always get our way. but we have to have a system that is fundamentally representative, that cares of

what we think. i want a government that cares about what you think in the same way that it cares about what i think. that is not what we have. we have a government that is interested in giving itself more power and more money. this is where you and i can say, ok, the least we have a democratic process so that our voices can be heard. host: coffee party usa will hold a rally on the west lawn of the u.s. capitol today. if you want to learn more, citizensinnovation.com is their website. how is coffee party funded? guest: by our members. host: no foundations? guest: no. we would love to have money from

foundations or those who are willing to support what we're doing. but they have not come knocking. it has been a beautiful process. host: how much have you raised? guest: we have raised about $200,000 or so. host: will the rally be held given the weather we are expected today? guest: we will be there rain or shine because we want to show our determination. so this is a test. but we will show that we are absolutely determined. nothing will deter us. we will not go away. host: massachusetts go ahead. caller: i have not heard about the coffee party more than two or three times. i have to commend you for

adding sensibility and focusing on what is right for the country. but i cannot see where we can focus on any of it if there is no sensibility and what they are talking about. it sounds like they are talking about taxes. there is no plan for the future. i do not see any sensibility in what they are talking about. guest: absolutely. this is why we focus so much on things like incentives and intentions. i do not know exactly how to get all of washington to get past their gridlock and their own self-interest to basically say you care that we have actually

bought 10 million homes that will go into default. 10 million homes, out of 55 million with mortgages. this is a crazy situation. it is not being dealt with because people are so stock on basically whether or not they will be reelected. that is not the governing. that is permanent campaigning. the solution, part of it has to be people like you, people like me, and people like pedro and other colleges understanding that the government -- and other callers understanding that the government is us, whether we are getting out there talking to our neighbors, going door-knocking, talking to our neighbors and convince them that we need a massive change in participation, not to disengagement. we need people to step up and

say i have to save this country. i have to save our future. i am sorry to tell all of you out there that the will to save this country and make it better for all of us is not there in washington. that is why we need that intervention of people to say that. it is not the 1%. again, i commend the inclusiveness of the mansion, but it is a very small percentage of people with power right now in this country and we have to change that. host: one more call from montrose colorado on the independent line. caller: thank you, c-span and annabel. i am a c-span viewer for over 30 years and a political junkie for 40 years. i joined the coffee party over a year ago.

i am amazed by the media blast. i wanted to know if there was an alternative to the tea party. even c-span is doing their job. when the tea party has their guests, they have a separate line for tea party members. the difference between the tea party and coffee party members seems to be in the interpretation of who "we the people" are. it is all about, if you agree with them, you are an american. host: what is your question or comment? caller: just a comment about the media's suppressing all of the voices. host: we have given 45 minutes

to this guess. go ahead. guest: this is really what a grass-roots movement looks like. it takes an idea and a group of people wanting to change the country. many are successful because there was a lot of money going into building an infrastructure and they got support from people inside washington. we did not have appeared we really -- we did not have that. we are really volunteers. there is a huge difference in terms of recourses and infrastructure. it is not just that the media decided there is something wrong with the coffee party. in order for us to have real power as an organization, we need to build that infrastructure and resources.

. .

>> is still the most fascinating career. ng theave challenges amoun parks. they have to rely on their analysis and stand up and push it. and do not be pushed away by the politics. >> you get the final word. >> i thought it was going to be all the above. i was off four -- all for him cutting back. i think we are going to have to spend more money but we cannot spend more money until we

restructure the institutions to do this. i would focus on younger children. >> as we look specifically to the super committee, what to we hope for? >> said they do not do too much damage. >> on that uplifting note, i want to thank my panelists. [applause] thank you. >> today, a discussion on the 2012 presidential campaign. katrina vanden heuvel of the nation. and the republican primary. also look at the european union's plan to remedy gris's debt problems with robyn harding and sudeep reddy.

that is at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. today, and gordon demarko, acting director of the federal housing erected c. -- agency. what's congress can do to address the housing market. that is at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. monday, herman cain is making a couple of stops in washington to talk about his nine-nine-nine plan. he will speak at the american enterprise institute. that is an 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 2. he will talk about his background as a businessman and take questions at the national press club. also what 1:00 p.m. here on c- span. -- at 1:00 p.m. here on c-span.

>> the heat is on. their real heat. if these guys cannot come up with something, they will not want to go home. >> the deficit reduction committee will hear from allen sees -- alan simpson. you can watch a video of those meetings along with the deficit committee on line at the c-span video library. everything is archived. watch what you want, when you want. next, the house foreign affairs committee questions officials from the department of defense on president obama's decision to send military dreiser's to ug -- advisors to uganda. this is almost two hours.

>> subcommittee will come to order. that was my gavel. before we begin i would like to acknowledge the presence of evelyn. is that you? thank you. if you could stand. she is an lra survivor who less traveled to washington to witness this important hearing first hand. we thank her for coming. and for continued efforts on behalf of children here in impacted by this forested conflict. after recognizing myself and the ranking member for seven minutes each, i will recognize the chair

and ranking member of the africa global health and human rights subcommittee for three minutes and the ranking member of the terrorism trade subcommittee also for three minutes each for their opening remarks. we will they're here from our witnesses. the witnesses' the prepared statements will be made a part of the record. members will have five days to inserts questions for the record, subject to the length limitation in the rules. the chair now recognizes herself for seven minutes. the department of state has concluded the resistance army on the terrorism exclusion list since 2001. in 2008, its leader, joseph, was designated as a specially global terrorist. they're responsible for one of the longest and most violent and

under reported conflicts in africa. toconflict which has speread the congo and suffer -- central african republic and threatens investments and peace and stability in the region. it is a predatory force which has perpetrated some of the most deplorable atrocities known to man. it makes no attempt to hold territory but murders, mutilates, tortures, and rapes with impunity. the movement -- a move in small groups striking remote villages, of ducting women and children. we're not here to determine whether he is evil.

those who manage to this tape find it difficult to return home. we know that he is. he signed into law of the army does armament in northern uganda recovery act. with the backing of thousand advocates andthere are over 200 co-sponsors in the house. they enjoyed overwhelming support. it requires the president to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal and provide political and intelligence support to protect civilians. one increases the protection of civilian, apprehension and removal of the other senior

commanders. promotion and the disarmament and reintegration of remaining combatants. there is the provision of humanitarian relief. they emphasize the u.s. pulled pork with the national government and regional organizations to accomplish these goals. what steps to the u.s. undertake to achieve the objectives outlined? we ask them to summarize what progress has been achieved toward meeting the strategic objectives. u.s. troops are being deployed to central africa.

i have authorized a small number of u.s. forces to deploy to central africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal. although the forces are combat equipped, they will only be providing assistance to partner nation forces. they will not engage forces unless necessary for self defense. as the sole house committee of jurisdiction for the lra act, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that it complies with both the letter and the spirit of the law and further u.s. national security interest.

personate information was omitted from the report to congress. we need clarity on the rules of engagement. what is the precise nature of the assistance that will be provided? houle of the partners be -- how will the partners be vetted? does the administration interpret the lra act as an operation of force? we will address this more throughout the hearing. thank you for making yourselves

available to testify before this issue. i am pleased to recognize my good friend, the ranking member, for his opening remarks. >> thank you very much. two weeks ago the obama administration announced it would send 100 u.s. military advisers to central africa to support regional efforts to defeat the large resistance army, lra. many questions were raised about the deployment. while lra -- why the lra? why now? this provides an excellent opportunity to discuss this important issues. as noted in the letter to the

speaker and as reflected in the title of this hearing, it is congress that played a leading role in putting it on the agenda. for years they pass resolutions drawing attention to the lra's reign of terror. the bipartisan legislation which president obama signed into law required the its mission to develop a comprehensive strategy for dismantling the lra and protecting civilians. we have all heard about the horrors perpetrated by the lra and the deranged leader. mass killing, rape, mutilation of innocent civilians, children forced to kill their neighbors and family members, more than 20,000 children of debt and forced to become soldiers or

sex slaves, 2 million people displaced and tens of thousands murdered. while the lra may not pose a direct security threat to the u.s., it does threaten the stability of a large area of central africa, the size of california. this includes south sudan whose independent efforts the u.s. strongly supported. you gonna, one of the the strongest allies against -- uganda, one of the strongest allies against terrorism. they're suffering the brunt of the atrocities. it is squarely in our natural interest to build allied forces so that they can fight and to support our allies when they need assistance as we expect

them to do for us. the u.s. and international to vanity have recognized that the lra poses a threat to the stability of central africa and have taken steps to stop the behavior. in 2005, at the criminal court indited him and three of his commanders for crimes against humanity. the u.s. place them on the terrace exclusion list -- terrorist exclusion list. uganda try to negotiate peace

agreements. they launched a joint military operation but failed to apprehend him or stop it. i am very hopeful the comprehensive strategy including the deployment of a modest number of advisers will help turn the tide against the lra. it is important to remember that civilian lead programs are an integral part of this effort. it includes diplomatic engagement with all of the central african countries to remain strong cooperation, effective campaigns to encourage child soldiers to abandon the group and reconstruction assistance for devastated communities. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the goals and expectations as well as the

details of these efforts. thank you. >> i am pleased to yield three minutes on non-proliferation and trade. >> thank you. the lra has been pillaging central africa for a while now. they exist for one reason, it to kill and capture and to resupply for the next plunger. there is no other reason for its being. this savagery has landed them on the terrorism list. it is good to see evelyn here. we appreciate your efforts on the behalf of other of debt to

gross employees. -- abducted girls and boys. one boy told that he was supposed to kill eight other children. they were surrounded in a circle. they were taking turns bashing heads in. if this is not a crime against humanity, i do not know what is. it was orchestrated by a kony. congress passed legislation to counter the lra threat. we pressed it is rationed to be bold, and to develop a plan to help apprehend or remove joseph kony and his top commanders. a broad coalition were passing this. the administration is now sending small teams specializing in training foreign units. this is a reason the command was created.

the need for a light footprint is targeted. this is far from the peacekeeping model. the u.s. has made a big commitment in south sudan. the lra de in situ de stabilized. -- threatened to destabilize its. they seek to eliminate the root of the problem. the africans are not sitting on their hands. david like some help getting kony -- they would like some help getting kony. that is the deal. history is full of captivating leaders with bad idea is to do great damage. kony's removal will not guarantee peace. it is the one thing that makes

peace possible in region. we tried this mission was before again kony in 2008. let's succeed now at sidelining this terrorist. >> thank you. >> i am pleased to yield three minutes to the ranking member on the subcommittee on africa of global health and human rights. >> thank you very much for calling this very important hearing. after years of congressional bipartisan support and resounding support from the american people, the administration has taken action to bring an end to the predatory military group known as the lord's resistance army, lra. over the last 25 years, they have murdered, raped, objected tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and judge. they killed at least 22

civilians. they heard about the lord's resistance army. they were wreaking havoc on the community. there is no doubt that without a sustain the u.s. action, kony and his gang will increase their attacks on civilians and abduction of children. a large number of commanders recently reduced in august, i traveled to the eastern congo where i met with women who were raped and sexual violence was used as a weapon of war by justice kony. i spoke to women who had been victimized and have lost their children, adapted from their villages.

i am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses about the details about the strategy that will be used. i was pleased that my friend recently stated on the senate floor a statement that the lra must be eliminated. he said that we are not at war with the lra. the troops are prohibited from any kind of combat aside from self-defense. last year we passed the lra resistance disarmament in northern uganda. the president announced that the troops will follow the letter of the law. i strongly support the

president's action. we must eliminate the murder. i go after this would chaining the groups in uganda. >> thank you very much for that eloquent statement. i will now yield one minute to any members who wish to make opening statements. he is recognized for one minute. >> thank you for completing this hearing. u.s. forces are engaged in more

than 50 countries around the world. they're providing support in more than 20 african countries alone. they're concerned about our military presence throughout the world. i am hopeful that this limit said -- this limited mission that has been approved by the house and senate on multiple occasions is critical to our security as well as global stability. i fear there is widespread mis- information about the current mission even in defense of the lord's resistance army. we know that the lra has terrorize central africa from more than 25 years. its leader kony is guilty of unspeakable crimes. >> your time has expired.

>> this hearing is especially timely and helpful. the kony terrace populations in uganda. the tactics included the employment of child soldiers, sexual violence, objections and then slam them. millions have been displaced. this body to an important step in passing the lra disarmament, reaffirming the u.s. efforts to support regional partners in combating the lra. i yield back. >> i yield to my friends. it is not proliferation and

trade. the vice chair of the subcommittee on terrorism. >> in the last decade, the lra has killed thousands of innocent civilians. they have used children to carry out its campaign of terror. the president's authorization to deploy to work with regional partners toward the removal of judge kony is against the objectives.

is in support of the objectives. i look forward to hearing your perspectives. on the wisdom and the effectiveness of the proposed action. >> virginia is recognized. >> the decision by the president to dispatch 100 military advisers to assist in the effort to address that threat is consistent with congressional intent and the passage of previous intention. it is important. we need to hear exactly what the rules of engagement are going to be and how the united states will react. he has demonstrated leadership

here in this targeted dimension. i yelled back. -- yield back. >> thank you. the chair of the subcommittee on asia is recognized for one minute. >> you are recognized for one minute. >> thank you for calling this hearing. the lra is a horrible group that has tortured and raped hundreds of thousands of people in uganda. our concern is that the mission may be an expansion of military presence in a world that does not directly bolster security. this is just before members were breaking for a week.

i have a lot of concerns. i have anxious moments about whether the troops will grow to more. with this in mind and despite my concerns,i will try to reserve judgment about this appointment until there is more of information. thank you. >> now the chair is welcoming our witnesses. i welcome the principal deputy assistant secretary for african affairs. he recently served as the ambassador to the federal area of ethiopia. and u.s. ambassador to the republic of djibouti to 2003.

then we welcome mr. alexander vershbow. he is the assistant secretary of defense. prior to his appointment, he served as u.s. ambassador to the north atlantic treaty organization from 1998-2001. u.s. ambassador to the russian federation and u.s. ambassador to the republic of korea from 2005-2008. i would like to remind our witnesses to keep your oral testimony to no more than five minutes. without objection, the written statement will be inserted into the record. we will begin with you. >> thank you very much. thank you for having this

hearing here today on this very important and difficult topic. and for the opportunity to brief this committee on the implementation of the u.s. strategy eliminates the threat posed by the large resistance army. we are grateful for the bipartisan support. the legislation sent a very strong message not only that -- that we will help protect civilians and bring an end to the lra threat. we have appreciation to the americans have expressed their concerns for humanities under siege in to the people who are here today. from 2005 to 2006, they moved to the more remote border

regions. this is now known as the sudan. the united nations estimates that over 385,000 people are currently displaced in this region as a result of the lra activities. they have continued to commit atrocities. according to the u.n.,there have been to a near 50 attacks attributed to them this year alone. for the recent years, therefore together to pursue them across this. -- a dense area of jungle terrain. they have some some success. as reggie centers on four areas. protecting civilians,

apprehension and removal of joseph kony, the promotion of support of disarmament and reintegration of remaining fighters, and the provision of humanitarian relief to afflicted areas. they have continued to work with the united nations, the african union, and the regional government to put a military pressure. we have provided training to the regional military. the united states has a strong interest in supporting our partners. they are addressing the press to -- the threat to peace and

security. the united states is deploying u.s. military and pfizer's to improve our support to the coalition -- and advisers to improve our support to the coalition. i will defer to my colleague to describe the details of these operations. we continue to consult with all the regional leaders. they have all granted their consent to the deployment. this is a short term deployment was specific goals and objectives. we know it leaders can provide capability to help forces succeed. we will review and ask whether this is sufficiently to enhance the regional effort. our staff will work closely with the advisers and make share that the political dynamics

reduce and make sure that the political dynamics will help counter the work of the advisers. the administration is helping communities to develop protection plans enjoying an early warning network including setting up high frequency radios and towers. the same kind of telecommunications capacity does not exist yet. this is not yet exist across the border. we recognize this gap. we hope to work with our partners to help address this. of the will continue to work on -- we will continue to work to to peacefully disarm and leave the organization and come home. there are 12,000 you have done so. we will continue to work with the government to ensure that the fighter has the necessary importance with the family.

and reintegrated into normal society. we are grateful to you and the members of both the house and the senate. thank you. >> thank you. ambassador. >> thank you. i want to thank you all for inviting me today to discuss with you our efforts to assist the central african military encountering the large resistance army. as has been mentioned, there are four pillars to the comprehensive strategy to help our regional partners ended the threat. the second is the apprehension or removal of the joseph kony from the battlefield. that is the focus of the effort. is to be the focus of my remarks. -- it will be the focus of my remarks.

we have been pursuing the lra for several years. strengthreduce the significantly. the mood out of northern uganda completely. in operates in small groups in south sudan. while the weekend the there remains at large, they continue to commit unspeakable atrocities. with the consent of the regional governments,we have deployed a small number of u.s. military personnel to lra effected areas who are pursuing the lra. the personnel deploying under this mission will travel out to field locations with the regional forces were they will work in advisory and liaison role. these u.s. personnel, u.s. army

special forces, will collaborate with the militaries engaged for information sharing, cooperation, and effectiveness. what the department of defense is not in the lead with regard to the other pillars, and our advisors working alongside forces will be sensitive to the challenges of civilian protection. they will work to ensure that considerations are incorporated into planning. they will seek to encourage the relationship and sharing of information between regional militaries and local populations. this reflects lessons learned. from prior regional operations. they have key capability gaps.

it would infuse intelligence with operational planning. this would give impact well exposing u.s. forces to the brig. -- to minimum risk. we expect that only a portion of the personnel will directly advise and assist forces in the field. most of the u.s. personnel will carry out the functions. to be clear, u.s. forces deploying for this mission will not themselves engage in forces. given the potential need to defend themselves, there will be equipped for combat. that is why the administration --they provided a formal report. we appreciate the strong congressional interest in this effort. we continue to engage with the congress to keep you informed of our progress. this is a great joint initiative between the executive and legislative branches.

despite the bipartisan support, there are still many questions. many were proposed by you. i would like to address several of these questions in remainder of my remarks. regarding the purpose and timing of the deployment. we are providing advisers to the forces because joseph kony and other leaders have refused to end peacefully. they continue to commit atrocities. there was a negotiated peace agreement during the talks in in 2006-2008. they ended when kony refused to sign. he conducted new attacks. regional governments have continued to pursue a military approach. as for our regional partners,

we provide assistance to the region's military in recent years. we trained the design of the democratic republic of congo. we're providing equipment to the armed forces of the central african republic and supporting the uganda's people support force. so it can maintain its presence in somalia. we believe that despite the assistance they will benefit from the capacity to process information on the information. -- location from leaders and convert it into operational plans. the u.s. advisers point to the operation. they have the right skill sets to help with the shortfalls. there is a specific timing to the deployment. it was predicated on the availability of the pre u.s. --

appropriate u.s. forces. forces. >> thank you. >> maybe we will get to the rest of it. >> i have not measure the success. >> thank you very much. thank you to both of you for excellent testimony. we will begin our questions and answers segment now. i wanted to ask you if the president's report to the congress transmited consistent with the war powers resolution trigger the authorization requirements under section 4 of the war powers resolution? if not, why? what is the anticipated scope, duration, and cost of this deployment? from where in the budget will the costs be absorbed? how does this deployment square with the department of defense's effort to cut 350 billion over the next 10 years.

cuts may force d.o.d. to pull back from africa. ambassador? >> on the war powers issue, i think the reason why be made notification was based on one simple fact. the nature of the rabin region of the weapons are considered -- the nature of the weapons are considered to be equipped for combat. a phrase that is in the resolution itself. even though they're not going to be engaging in combat, the fact that they are equipped for combat trigger the requirement to file a report to congress when they will be entering the territory of a foreign nation.

i do not know if he has more on the legal aspects of that. i am not a lawyer. we can be a more detailed response for the record. >> we would appreciate it. we have some of our members that have many questions about the legal analysis of when the war powers act is triggered and what would constitute that. and your interpretation of it. >> we will do that. >> than on the scope, duration, and cost. or will the money becoming? >> i think that the clear goal for this advisory mission is to enhance the capacity of the regional forces so they can better protect their civilians and track down joseph kony and end the threat posed by the lra. we will be measuring success in a number of ways. we will see whether the

regional forces are able to successfully apprehends lra commanders on the battlefield. whether we can encourage larger numbers of the sections for lra moody -- from the lra and whether we can see a measurable degree of professionalism of the forces engage in this effort so that they have greater capacity both to protect their citizens and conduct counter lra operations. this is not an open ended commitment. as part of the decision to employ our advisers, we have agreed that there would be a review after several months in order to assess whether our advisers are making sufficient progress. continuing this deployment is contingent upon a number of

factors, including addressing the lra threat. it is not open-ended. we do not have a specific time line that we have adopted. as i said, we will be reviewing the state of affairs. >> thank you. i do not know is that answer the question, but we will follow up with that. this is been going on sadly for so many years. what assurances can you offer that we will not be in as entrenched and expanded protracted conflict, as you pointed out? >> i think that we have seen a lot progress by you going to -- uganda and other regional militaries in reducing this group. i think we are building on a fairly strong foundation. but as i said in my remarks, we

fill that the regional forces have been limited by their capacity to -- we feel that the regional forces have been limited by their capacity to deal with intelligence. giving them the greater skills in terms of use intelligence with operational plans could give us and that improvement to attract the leaders and take them out. >> i look for to getting some written responses about the cost, the scope, the duration, where the funds are coming, and about triggering the war powers act. if you could provide that in writing. mr. berman is recognized. >> thank you, madam chairman. a few points. on the issue raised by the gentleman from illinois, regarding briefing, the fact is that the administration pursuant to congressional law prepared a strategy which suspect -- which

is specifically included references to end military objective, to remove joseph kony and his top commanders, and the u.s. assistance in achieving that. it was a public document almost a year ago. that does not even go into any classified private briefings on more specific subjects. this has been out there for almost a year. secondly, i like to ask a few questions. first, the historically tense relationship between uganda and the democratic republic of condo, do you see -- will we have special forces working with the drc's 309th battalion

trained by africon? >> thank you, congressman berman. on the issue of the kony military, we need to focus comprehensive approach, not only military, but the problems with the victims. >> i understand that. >> politically, we need to help all of these countries that are victims of kony to coordinate much better to go after him. >> will our forces be working with the democratic republic of congo's 391st battalion? >> that is correct. in that effort, we have the state department-trained 3 91st battalion riding out on the border area. the issue of ugandan troops, in

the issue of sovereignty, it is to correlate the work between the two forces and how they will corner kony's forces and how it will eliminate an. one example -- when we have transferred the drc peacekeeping mission, one focus was on the lra and the coordination between his forces. that is something we have been trying to do over the last decade. >> do you envision that our advisers will be deployed at the brigade level, at the platoon level? are they authorized to be complied with -- deployed with ugandan forces in the field?

>> thank you. as ambassador yamamato said, anything we do will be based on full coordination and consent on the part of their respective governments. while they have all come out in support of this initiative, we take nothing for granted that any steps that we take to execute will be with their consent. certainly within the concept of operations that we would deploy forces -- >> my question -- >> possibly at the platoon level. and/or at the headquarters level, it is what would be most effective. >> there is no official constraint on where we might deploy at. >> note, but they will be full consultation. >> i understand. but they could well be deployed at platoon level in the field. >> that is right.

still in the advisory and assistance rolde. >> i understand. will the trainers be equipped with? our military trainers and the advisers. when you say they are going to be combat equipped, so that it triggers the report. >> a specific cancer after the hearing for the record. they would basically be caring small arms for their own self protection. and then there would be other communications gear, of course. beyond that, i like to consult with my colleagues in the joint staff to give you more specific answers for the record. >> thank you, madam chair. >> i would encourage people to be more precise about the answers to the questions we are opposing. but thank you for getting it for

us letter. mr. royce, the chairman on terrorism, non-proliferation, is recognize. >> the question i was going to ask was to do with the reality on the ground that the you don tends -- ugandans have been supporting a lot of heavy lifting in another country. i've heard concerns that they might be distracted on the follow through on this. obviously you have a different breed. can you tell me your discussions -- a different read. can you tell me about your discussions with them and their willingness on this? >> i have met with president on separate issues. but we have had very close discussions with the president as well as the other leaders. he is fighting a multi-front conflict, not only lra but also

in somalia. it does not mean that he has lost or is distracted because of these two conflicts. he has increased focus on both areas. on the lra and the violence perpetrated violenceuganda, that is still in the psyche of the redundant people. you have 1.8 million displaced in the northern parts and 66,000 kids. >> we understand that and to the extent that we can keep him focused on this will be part of our task. the other question is about them operating in congolese territory. how are we planning to address this? are you able to dialogue with the congolese on this issue? >> yes, and we're doing processes where they are arranged how these forces will coordinate against the lra. >> what steps are you taking to

improve intelligence? that is one of the big failings in the past, one of the missing pieces on the location of kony and his commanders. >> the issue is trying to get the intelligence that each of these countries has and to use it together and analyze it. that is why the u.s. military will be very helpful in that effort. >> the me suggest that it is somewhat limited -- let me suggest that that is somewhat limited. you have the ability to analyze leaflets and radios in order to get the factors. today that extent, -- to that extent, your boots on the ground will be able to advise indirect the congolese and the guns. -- and direct the congolese and the ugandans. >> the u.s. forces will be iable

to advise and train the indigenous forces in using their skills for outreach to local communities, encouraging the people -- that people provide tips to the forces. >> we need better and tell them we had in 2008 on that mission. -- we need better intel than we had in 2008 on that mission. we will have to drive the intelligence-gathering capacity by getting defectors to come in and give us the information needed for that mission. the army special forces teams specializing in training are in units -- foreign units will provide a cyber rig advice and assistance to these units. my expectation is that you would have the platoon level, but the

bulk of it would be back in uganda coordinating the statistics and the intelligence of communication. would that be correct yes, congressman, the bulk of the overall 100 people would be in uganda, but small teams would deployed forward with the local forces to help them improve their skills on the front line. >> special operations headed by our rear admiral, a navy seal, who previously commanded u.s. forces in the horn, so he knows the region well, is the assigned to oversee this operation? i was wondering how that would be engineered? >> i believe that that is the case. it is under the overall direction of them. >> i yield back, madam chairman pierre >> thank you very much, mr. royce.

mr. payne, the ranking member of the african global health subcommittee is recognized. >> thank you very much. as i mentioned, i was at a camp last month and visited with people from villages that had been disrupted by the lra. they were in goma. we see the destruction continuing on. a number of people wonder why we are going after the lra and why should we care about you going to? -- uganda? we know that they have a tremendous number of troops in somalia. i went and saw them and was escorted by the ugandan troops throughout mogadishu. i think they were doing an excellent job. we have a responsibility because of the fact that hawkeye that is supporting another terrorist organization, which destroyed

the u.s. call of yemen, so it is all connected. the fact that kenya is now being attacked by al qaeda because of them going after some mullions, at the kenyon in the sea was bond -- because of going after somalia, and the canyon in the sea was bombed. -- kenyan in the seed was bombed. when countries -- kenyan embassay was bombed. when we have the troops trained there, i want as quickly, ambassador yamamato, what

impaction -- what impact will the elections in the drc have? >> the elections are very tight. it is not clear whether the president could be reelected or whether the presence of the opposition. the commitment on the lra operations still remains pivotal. we have discussed this closely with the presidents. >> but about president pe bashir