i appreciate 31% of something else. my real question was when he spoke about the private man and if i remember correctly, i saw on c-span, governor romney announced four years ago, you have segments afterward, when you see the human side. shortly after the announcement it appeared he was bringing supporters and there was a mom with a child who had down syndrome, but seemed to be a family friend. he got down off the stage when he learned the boy, i thought johnny or something, was missing and went to try to help find him. i have also read when he was a bishop of his congregation, he drove a beater car, even when he had a lot of money because he was sensitive to those in his congregation who had less. i wonder if he could comment on does he have this kinder, softer side, but maybe he's following the scripture to do your good deeds privately and different trumpet that as much. from the c-span moment it was impressive to me this huge big

important moment, he would leave the stage and try to find this lost boy. >> a partners daughter had gone missing in new york city and mitt romney took the partners to york and did everything he could to help find the daughter.

the daughter was found ann romney said it was one of the most important moments at his company that there were able to help find the daughter. that was turned into a campaign ad which come across to come as awkward -- to some as awkward. mitt romney does have a compassionate side of iran that at about that incident to try to bring that side of him across. >host: next as an independent call from florida caller: caller: i was troubled more than anything else by mitt romney's comments in nevada with people in foreclosure that they should let the free market to its business and people should be kicked out of their homes and then the corporations would come in and rent out those houses and

wouldn't that be in a lovely resolution to the problem. also, i only got a little bit of money from my speaking engagements, 3 and $75,000 is a little bit of money and corporations are people, too. the democrats -- teddy roosevelt was a wealthy man, aftere was a wealthy man. kennedy was a wealthy man but they identified with the common person, the fireside chats and so forth. i keep remembering anatol francis talked about law and its majestic equality to serve the rich and the port. it seems all the republican candidate, romney especially with his $230 million personal fortune, has not a clue as to what is going on with the middle-class and working-class. this $50 that he gave this lady had one of his he vance, this kind of hear let me throw you a

bone and let them eat cake type of thing is all obscene. -- is a scene. i have seen people who have to choose between medicine and food because i am in the health-care profession. no one has said that 34% of the people on food stamps are white. they are not black. these republicans, everyone of them, are coming out with this social commentary. rick santorum had -- say the black people have paychecks instead of food stamps. newt gingrich had his comments and ron paul with his newsletter is going back in time about big- footed black felons -- host: thank you for your call. guest: those issues would likely

be his shoes that would be raised if he was the. nominee. mitt romney calls creative destruction of the economy, whether that would be helpful to the average person. those to be the issues that would be front and center and presumably the way -- that is the way robbie wood wanted. i don't think he would agree with the power phrase of the caller's comments underscore believe is in the power of capitalism and business to work its way and to help all sorts of folks that is certainly the corps center of his beliefs. there is no doubt that is the way he feels about things, in massachusetts, he is known for the health care measure which was seen as a very compassionate measure helping all sorts of people, not the kind of thing he likes to talk about in the republican presidential primary and maybe something he will come back to in the general election.

he wants to repeal president obama's health care measures so he will have to explain what he would do to replace that. he says it's important to have held insurance but why would you want to get whatever -- rid of the one that is passed. we will see woody says about how it can be done in a -- we will see how he says it can be done in a effective way. there is a balancing out if he is the nominee and runs for the general election. host: new york city, mike, a democrat -- caller: mitt romney has been trying to run for president a long time. if he were not to become president this time around, do you think he would try again in 2016? he has five sons, all of military age. have any of his sons ever been

on the military or thought about being in the military? thank you very much. guest: it seems likely that a person would run a third time. that it would be extraordinarily difficult. rather than get into his son's, let me bring uppe mitt romney ad self and what he did during the vietnam war. i write about that in the book. he got deferments. he was a student at stanford. he went on a mission in france and there were deferments given out for mormon missionaries. there were limited and if you're in utah, their only so many available per each church district in michigan, because there were few mormons, most

people wanted and got them and he did. they got a deferment for his time when he was a missionary for 2.5 years if and when he returned to the states and went to brigham young university, he had a deferment for that time. after that, he had a draft number but it was so high it was not called. he did not serve in the military and there are a couple of quotations and the book about that. we go into that a little bit further. i am not familiar if the suns have gone into military service that i can recall. that is in a book regarding -- regarding mitt romney himself. host: we have a brooklyn night. caller: [inaudible] subway and dunkin donuts, most of those people pay more taxes

than mitt romney. it is very concerned. -- concerning. what about the county pays no taxes on? is that in your book? guest: his tax rate being 15% is not surprising. gets most of its money from capital gains but the money he earned on speechmaking which he described as not very much, being $375,000 would be a higher tax rate. it would be interesting to see, talking about what money went where and he said he did not pay less in certain taxes that may be in accounts of sure, you can see the details of the tax returns to go fully into that. we're talking about tax returns

going back to 1984 when he began running bain capitol. there could be tax shelters and all sorts of things. we want to see tax returns going back to that time to get a full accounting of what his taxes were and what the tax rate was and companies he invested in what happened with those companies. all that will give us more information. right now, we're mostly discussing this in a vacuum. when he runs for office, he puts forth a financial disclosure form but it is extraordinarily vague. they talk about ranges of income and it only comes out when runs for office. they really don't give you a full accounting. if he is the nominee this discussion will go on all the time. democrats will make sure of that. some of his advisers are suggesting he puts out everything.

it will not be comfortable but he will deal with them at 1 scalise gori wants to do it after the primary is over and we don't know when that will be. it is an issue that will come up again and again it does not release everything. host: our next call is from los angeles, independent -- caller: i would like to talk about how mitt romney is embracing the neocons. host: i'm going to interrupt you because don is not your name. remember the 30 day policy. next up is a call from middlebury, massachusetts, republican, go ahead. caller: when you mention romneycare, he tried to veto much of it when he was governor but the congress and massachusetts overrode it. look what happened. that raised taxes more.

many people left the state because of the higher taxes. peopleay just because get something for nothing that everybody is happy with runningcare, thank you. guest: when mitt romney put forward his health-care plan, one of the rationales was the concern that people were getting something from nothing. he argued at the time that it was a conservative idea to require people who could afford it to have a mandate to get health care insurance because the concern was that people were going to emergency rooms and getting free health care on someone else's time when they needed it even though they could afford to buy health care. he was following what he perceived to be a conservative idea that people should have a mandate if the state chooses to give it to them to have health care insurance. i am not speaking for him at

all. we are an independent biography of that circuit was his argument at the time. the caller is right that there are provisions in the bill that the massachusetts legislature that he vetoed and was overridden by the legislature but the bottom line is it is his bill. he took great pride in the bill when he signed it. standing beside him with senator edward kennedy. it was an interesting moment. one of his sons said to him watching ted kennedy's stand behind his father as this legislation on health care, it seems to signal another problem had been solved of climate change because "hal had just frozen over." mitt romney and senator kennedy were standing side by side. it is an interesting moment and it is one you would not have

expected perhaps. massachusetts was uniquely able to deal with this. there are far fewer uninsured people in massachusetts than other states. he viewed it as a signature the achievement that help them run for president. right after he signed the legislature, he walked across boston, to go to the ritz carlton hotel to meet with advisers from iowa that he hoped would run his presidential campaign in the iowa caucus. it is something he thought would be important and he thought would be helpful politically. >host: does the massachusetts constitution require a balanced budget in the state? guest: he talks about the balanced budget but i don't want to say a wrong answer. host: did he more frequently choose to balance it by cutting government programs and services

or by raising taxes? guest: there was a lot of controversy over some statements about fees because he raised a number of fees and does not like to call them tax hikes. other people say is the same deference. he did a combination of both. it is fair to say. he worked with the legislature who were 85% democratic. you have to make compromises and the pragmatic. you cannot come in and say you will tell them what to do. he had to work with these folks. he was not the glad handing politician. he was a very workmanlike person trying to get this thing done when he decided he could do health care. he sat down with the data and his advisers and asked how he could do this. there were federal funds that are described in. detail in. there were parts of federal

money that helps things happen that might not be so easy to do in other states. there were a combination of factors that were relatively low on the insurance rate in massachusetts than they did not deal with the cost control issues that are still left to be done in getting that legislation passed. host: next is orlando, a democrat, you are on, good morning. caller: i have a question regarding mitt romney. how is he proposing to win over the injured -- evangelical vote in florida or in other states? regarding a current state of affairs, i am concerned regarding keeping checks and balances. how does he propose to keep our leaders held accountable by

concerned citizens? i am a concerned citizen and i went to occupy wall street because i am a concerned citizen. guest: "was the first question? caller: how does he propose a -- what is his plan of action to win over the evangelical vote? guest: right, good question. in the last campaign in 2008, they went to great lengths because they were concerned about the view that some christians have of mormons. some christians don't believe that more monism is true christianity. he knew this was an issue. a number of key and the -- evangelical leaders came to mitt romney's home in massachusetts and sat down and try to discuss with them how he would overcome this issue. he went to great lengths and

spent $2 million on the straw poll in iowa in 2008 in an effort to win their to make the issue go away. he won the straw poll but lost to mike huckabee large they do to the influence of evangelical christians in iowa. this time it has been different. the response has been that they have not set up a committee to woo evangelicals directly as they did last time. when he is asked about this, he basically points to article 6 of the constitution and says there is no religion -- no religious test for president. he hopes that the main issue here is the economy. at the same time, he has tried to reassure evangelicals that he is a very religious and faithful man and begin -- and believes strongly in his faith and they share common values. he has tried to deal with it that way and in south carolina tomorrow this will be an important factor for certain

voters. we will see how that plays out there. it has been something he has tried to deal with and he knows it is an issue but they feel it is less of an issue than last time but there are polls that show a certain amount of people may not vote for a mormon based on his religion not withstanding the clause in the constitution. host: "the financial times" has an article about what mormons believe --

harry reid is a mormon. victor is an independent, you are on start. caller: have a question regarding the 15% tax return from dividend my question is -- how does he explain where balance this against in come -- warren buffett also earns mainly from in comes. warren buffett's secretary is paying more taxes than he doesthe bain history -- the white house chief of staff

selected recently as a previous bain execs. how you balance these two positions, the 15% and debate bain history for the white house chief of staff? as a citizen, i have no issue with the president being a mormon, thank you. host: as is our last call. guest: i have not reported on the latter part of that question but this is something that will be an issue for governor romney if he is the nominee. his tax right, it is not surprising he pays the tax rate because most of his gains are from capital gains and a policy of this country is the capital gains are taxed at a lower rate. there is a legitimate debate whether that is appropriate and whether people like that should be paying a lower tax rate. as the caller mentioned, warren buffett has said this is not fair.

he said his overall tax rate is 17% and he said that is lower than his secretaries tax rate and he has called for that to be changed. you have one of the wealthiest, most respected people in the country saying this. he says it is a different type of in, and it is complicated because part of mitt romney's carried interest is involved. he benefited in many ways. those in the industry would argue that there are all sorts of reasons why that should be kept garden i have written stories about it over the years. there are proposals in congress to change that system so it is more equitable and the eyes of those who think there should not be that lower rates. some people believe you have a low rate for capital gains, it helps job creation. it will be a major issue in the campaign regardless of whether mitt romney is the nominee.

host: i want to thank mike kranish for taking your calls. thank you for your time. guest: thank-you so much host: we have one more segment left. every friday, we look at america by the numbers and we will bring in a government statistician whose work looks at how healthy the american public desperate we will be right back in. ♪ >> cspan's wrote to the white house coverage showed to the candidate events leading up to the saturday south carolina primary. >> the obama administration can now with a policy that said that in our program, she cannot teach abstinence as a preferable way of avoiding out of wedlock

birth. and she cannot talk about marriage. she cannot talk about marriage as anything other than an alternative lifestyle that is no better or worse than any other lifestyle. my question is -- why? >> when the president adopts a stimulus package of hundreds of billions of dollars that nobody has read and then discovers to his great surprise two years later that the shovel-ready jobs were not shell already and a stimulus failed and leaves as $800 billion deeper in debt, at some point, he has to take responsibility. that was his plan, his proposal, and it failed. >> as candidates meet with voters to get their message out -- >> thank you. >> after the polls close

saturday evening, we will show you the results from south carolina along with candidates' speeches and your phone calls. >> if you have a saudi prince who is part of the royal family of saudi arabia who is effectively bought one of the largest news franchises in the world, bought into it, you have to look at what his motives are. >> diana west is a writer. >> there should be an argument that they should have to register as a foreign agent. >> more with the former, a washington times"writer diana west sunday night at 8:00 on c- span "q &a." >> the conspirators plan was have to -- was to have the streets lined with their guys part of whom would create a distraction so that any police escort would be drawn away and

then the rest would close in for the kill and murder abraham lincoln. >> 1861, allan pinkerton on covers evidence of a possible plot to kill the president elect saturday at 6:00 p.m. also the origins of the cold war on lectures in history with college of the ozarks professor david dalton saturday night at 8:00. sunday at 7:00, fdr's inner circle of military intelligence and diplomatic advisers and their role in fighting in world war. american history tv this weekend on cspan 3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with our final segment which is america by the numbers. today we will be looking at measuring how we measure americans held. -- health. this is the director of the national center for health statistics. what do you and your colleagues

do? >> we monitor the health of the american public. we compare it with an one group versus another group and with other countries as well our major role is to provide the information that is needed for policy and research. host: where is your information go? guest: it goes to the public and the more we can get to the public and put it in a form that is understandable by everyone, that is the great challenge but that is the great interest as well. host: our second guest is a public health professional. he is at the george washington university school of medicine. we will involve his knowledge of policy and our discussion. thank you for being here. how healthy are americans? guest: overall, we are quite healthy.

2/3 of people say their health is good to excellent and this is true across the board. that is terrific but on the other hand, when we look at this, we see there are some interesting issues. the disparities are really great. the risk of dying from heart disease for black americans is 20% higher than it is for white americans. the same is true for cancer. there are significant differences. infant mortality among black americans is twice that of white americans. there are many, many positive things we can say as we go in deeper. we can see there are areas where we do need improvement. host: since you spend your life and the public health sector, would you talk about an example

where government has had a positive effect on american policy? guest: the first example would be tobacco use. what we did in new york and other jurisdictions where taxes were put in place to make the product more and so expensive as well as other methods used to dissuade people from smoking. we saw less people smoking from that. tobacco is a good example.. another thing we have done well is to translate the information so people can see whether they are at risk. we did that with hiv and did some of that work in baltimore and we did similar work in d.c. to transfer that kind of information so people knew what the risk was and maybe change their habits. guest: about half the people

with high blood pressure have under control. that is due to a program that is now in many programs that has emphasized the importance of high blood pressure and the same is true for cholesterol. about 1/3 of people with high cholesterol have it under control. the decline in smoking has been enormous. we took the lead out of gasoline because of a survey that said -- that found to level of lead, the blood level of lead, was high in children and that led very rapidly to legislation that took the lead out and that led level has fallen to almost nil at this point. there are some areas of the country were is a problem but there are many areas where these government statistics have played a major role in telling us about issues.

we put the men from the public at legislation and public health officials -- action was taken and we have seen positive results. host: friend as in a discussion of the role of washington -- frame this in a discussion of the role of washington and how healthy as the nation been and how effective is government policy, taxation, regulation, public information campaigns. talk about whether you approve or think it is a proper for government to be involved in directing your behavior that way. that is the central core of our discussion. the phone numbers are set up by eastern and mountain time zones. it can also send us an e-mail and take tweet. 2/3 of the populace and say their health is very good or excellent and another 1/3 say

their health is good it chains is by racial demographics. more white people say they are in good health let me ask you about self-reporting. how valid of these numbers based on what you might see from the kind of statistics we keep and public health about people seeking treatment? guest: they are self-reports and they are a function of many things that are going on. they are a function of how the stock market is doing and how people feel in general about whether we are involved in wars. all that goes into this. what is amazing about that question and the answers to the question is that that has been steady for many, many years. we find the results correlate with the events that happen in people's lives so that people whose health is not good or less than good, we find there is a higher incidence of other problems they may have. we have surveys we do that get

at the health of the americans in very precise ways. we have won the travels the country, collecting a very precise representative sample of the u.s. called the national health and nutrition examination survey and it collects information by asking people but it is also in a clinical manner. we take blood samples, urine samples, physical exams, and from that we really get the very concrete information about how healthy americans are. that is how we learn that a significant fraction of people who have diabetes don't know they have it. host: i will move to our diabetes the slides -- what is the correlation between diabetes and [unintelligible] guest: if there is a concern about you being pre-diabetic,

you need to lose weight. that is generally the situation there are some people who have diabetes as a function of genetics but for many americans especially now with obesity been on the rise and continuing to move in that direction, obesity is a major affecting factor. host: if that is the case, how are americans doing with obesity? guest: the level of obesity in children has tripled over the last 25 years. it is around 18%, up from 5%. in adults, is twice that, over 35%. we just came out with these figures earlier this week, we have seen the increase has leveled off. it is not precise -- >> that is not leveling off. >guest: if you look carefully at

that line, it is not going up as steeply as it was. our researchers looked very carefully at this and see that there seems to be leveling off. we are concerned whether it is leveling off in adults but we see a leveling off in children. i think this is good news but it is not good news in the sense that the levels are still incredibly high. in terms of obesity, we are way beyond where we were 20-25 years ago. host: is there consensus among public health officials on the numbers for obesity? guest: public health officials are looking at health is not just being about health care system but the social environment in which we live and play.

the economic situation, where people live, people's employment status, the degree to which they have stress in their lives -- all those things can contribute as well as some other things that are affected by things like the first lady's let's move campaign. host: we will take a few calls and come back and look at the diabetes numbers. yucaipa, calif.. erin is watching is there. caller: i would like to call to the attention of anybody that can hear me about the strong correlation between drug use and mental illness.

nobody seems to be talking about all the illegal drugs or the prescription drugs and how it is causing mental illness and causing death. it is touching so many families. doctors keep writing prescriptions. drugs keep coming across the borders. i just don't understand it. there is no help for people. people are mentally ill -- hello? host: are you able to capture in statistics and do people report on the amounts of prescription medication they take? guest: they do and we collect that in the national health and nutrition survey. we had some special reports on that. when they come out, there is a great deal of attention to the increasing level of prescriptions that are being

written in the u.s. host: for children and adults? guest: i would have to go back and look but i would think it is across the board. it is certainly true for adults. i cannot say based on the statistics whether that is bad. this may be entirely appropriate but there is no question that there is a tremendous dependence particularly on people 65 and older. a level of legitimate, legal drug use is very high. the research to back that up, you can look at that and say the positive effects that has had on health status. if a warrant for the range of

drugs that are available, we would not have the control blood pressure host: that caller was concerned about the negatives of overuse of prescription and illegal drugs. guest: absolutely, the mental health aspect of things and the substance abuse aspect of things should get some conversation. and it ties into obesity and other diseases more people are under significant stress. more people try to deal with that a number of different ways and sometimes, unfortunately, use of prescription drugs is one way of dealing with that. i'm not suggesting that is the only reason but the writing of those prescriptions is something i know medical practice groups look at and are concerned about. we are paying attention to what is going on in people's lives and paying closer attention to

how people are using those drugs. host: other than knowing how much is being prescribed, what kind of role could there be for people who get subscriptions? guest: the patient/provider relationship and knowing your patient and having a propofol with your patient to see whether or not there is a need for continuous use of those particular drugs, if any is to be refilled echoes on for an extended period time or the needs to be a tapered off, that, activity is incredibly important which why medical homes will be important in the coming year. it is the concept of having a close relationship with their provider and improving access to care to go through a provider i regular basis. there will have someone who knows exactly what they need. it is more of their regular preventive maintenance an ongoing relationship with the provider. host: cambridge, mass. is next,

go ahead caller: i would like to pose a question to mr. sondik. he said nine out of 10 americans feel they are healthy, good to excellent. you might be walking around with some disease but i would like to know if he has any information more insight into the reason why health insurance premiums are so high and deductibles are so high and all co-pays are going up. there must be some correlation. this nine out of 10 #-- this nine at a 10numer is counter intuitive to what the facts are.

guest: in a way, you are right. does not compute with the fact that we have all -- we all have health insurance and have a variety of different elements. when we ask people this question, we don't give them any leads as to how they should analyze their health. it is an overall question. it is an introductory question. the key information is the more detailed -- have you ever been diagnosed with high blood pressure, have been told you have heart disease? how well do you function? all that sort of thing. that number overall does not, in my mind, relate to insurance. dr. vigilance might have a comment. >guest: the lack of insurance does not make you sick. the presence of insurance doesn't guarantee well mr. it in

a city like the district of columbia or less than 7% of the population is without insurance, health outcomes are still very poor. having insurance does not equal you being healthy. there are other factors that go into you being well. you may be feeling a particular way of the time of that survey and if you enter in the affirmative, it has nothing do with your insurance status, your disease status or anything else. it is important to waive that in looking at the states. guest: the answer to that question is in a sense cultural. you can go to many, many countries around the world where there is no question that the health status is very pork and you have people in those countries who will answer that they are in good health. they don't really have a basis of comparison. i view the answer to this question as how we get along

every day. we simply don't worry about our health continuously and we can have someone who has been diagnosed with cancer several years before and we ask that question and they may well say that my health today is good, relatively speaking. they are not really integrating everything which is why the survey we do and the research we do is so important. it gives us the detail that we need on what the health status of americans really is. host: diabetes got a public- relations boost over the past aek or so when a d pall ofee p, celebrity chef announced her diabetes. what can we learn from these numbers? guest: the un diagnosed as what is critical. it is about 1/4 of the total is

on diagnosed. people don't know they have it. , diabetes. diabetes is so important because diabetes relates to heart disease. it is one where people can lose limbs because of diabetes. there is blindness that can occur. the consequences downstream of having diabetes are extremely important. we know we can control part of that, at least, through the control obesity. host: how you know the numbers if much of it is on diagnosed? guest: we examined people and we take blood samples and we determine on a clinical basis whether they have diabetes or whether they are at high risk of

diabetes as well as whether it has been diagnosed. we asked them about their diagnoses. it is from that we can determine whether or not they know and how it relates to their current health status. host: let's talk about paula deen. does it help the cause when this gets into the popular media? how important is that verse is government policy? guest: i think it has a mixed effect. the atmosphere of policy is tainted and this is a produce example. the irony of some of this has not been well stated but i think her show and the popularity of shows like that don't necessarily assist us with respect to having people be

moderate in their intake of high-fat, high sugar, high salt diet. we know that is comforting to people to eat that kind of diet by regular basis, it is not comforting to us nor is it to the health-care system to deal with that on the backhand. , prevention standpoint, it is a nightmare. from the perspective of having people deal with the condition like diabetes from the back and -- once they have been diagnosed they can take a drug that she will promote for $500 per month -- that becomes another issue. we're still not looking at prevention. once you have had a couple of burgers with donuts and add weight gain and you have diabetes now take this drug. we would rather you eased back on the berbers and doughnuts in the first place and as for the prevention message comes in. host: the consequences are

fixable if you have money? guest: and it is fixable a few have insurance because they can be fixed afterwards. for some people, that is an issue with respect to income and access to food. for some folks about environment and not necessarily willfully saying that i will go ahead and do that. guest: the implications are that people should find out what their status felt actually is. -- state of health actually is. nobody knows exactly what the risk factors are. were you at risk for in the future? host: why are you asking the question of the percentage of people who have had a sugar drink on any given day-guest: this gets into diet. with our colleagues in the usda,

we collect the core information that the country has and what people actually eat. our behavior, our eating behavior is really important. if we don't understand it, we will not know exactly how all of us can change it. it is really quite interesting to look at something like this that says how often people actually have a sugar drink. you can see that people who have a sugar drink, all or all, on any given day, or any other day. 50% have a shorter drink on any given day. this tells us something about our behavior. instead of a sugar drink, someone could have had more water or milk, low-fat milk is what is recommended or non-fat milk. host: it is interesting to do a comparison of milk and sugar

drinks. what do you think is a statistician when used -- when you look at these side-by-side. guest: this is quite surprising to me. there is a high percentage, it could be higher, but there is this high percentage of daily use for drinking of milk. i think this is actually positive. there are new guidelines that have come out that recommend, i believe it is, two cups of milk per day. it is hard to call age 9-19 kids. guest: this is on flavored milk. host: would you have a sense of why girls are 10% less likely to consume milk and a daily basis? guest: i don't have a good sense

of that. host: is milk important in those years? guest: it is important earlier on. it is important throughout the developmental years. the previous slide particularly organized -- resonates. i have had my own weight challenges. there is a concern how to limit that with taxation of products like soft drinks. the milk consumption with girls is interesting to look at. guest: on the far side of that chart, it talks about people and never drink milk. that is the challenge. 7% of these people2-19 don't drink milk and this is an issue. host: i have a question

-- guest: those are good questions. in many ways, we fare very well with the other industrialized countries but in some areas, and by some critical measures of health of the overpopulation, we don't do really read anywhere near as well a summary measure looks at our longevity. our longevity is by no means as high as it is in some countries like japan. the figures are considerably higher. this is an issue. we also have a significant disparity and longevity in this country between the white population and the black population. this is one of the surprising

statistics is that over all, the black population lives five- years fewer than the white population. that is overall. that is really quite significant. that puts the black population, if we did it on a scale of countries, much further down, if you will, in countries than the white population a small portion of that is due to the other part of the question, infant mortality. infant mortality overall in this country is not the best in the mortality in the world by any means. the terrible statistic is really the intent mortality and the black population which is twice that of the white population. that is under continual research. dr. vigilance may want to offer some hypotheses as to why it is as low as it is. guest: infant mortality data

with respect to black and white populations represents a disparity. there is a piece of data that says an educated african american woman has a greater chance of having a low birth weight baby than a white high- school dropout. that's the sort number of issues that are outside of this socio- economic divide conversation. they say poor folks are more likely to have low birthweight children. some of the research and conversation about the issue of stress and how people relate to each other and the issue of race and racism in america and how that affects black women over the life course. whether or not some of that has any effect on and having a low birth weight to child or having

higher infant mortality rates, we know that access to care may be variable. that is one variable that makes a difference. prenatal care may not be the same from one population to the next. in very small jurisdictions, we see a significant disparity between the outcomes of children, of newborns based on race and it is something that needs continuous work. i think it is a function of some of the social conditions that we alluded to earlier. host: our next call is from phoenix. caller: good morning, i am interested in the statements that were made by dr sondik with respect to the life expectancy of blacks versus whites. it seems like it always comes down to a race issue. i refer to myself as a disciple of jack elaine.

lalanne. the help the people in this country have to do with diet. that died was changed for the benefit of corporations making money. when you put chemicals in food, you will have some type of response to that. i work with clients every day and some of them are overweight and the first thing i ask them to do is to clean out their colons. as long as we continue with this drug epidemic -- there is medical apartheid going on in this country and worldwide it -- i dated a woman that had polio but it was cured in this country. in africa and other countries, polio was still going on. why is that when we have a cure? medical apartheid is going on in this country and around the world. host: to this use their and our time is short. guest: that there are disparities along the lines of race and that is not new.

they are well documented and need continuous study and action. i think some of these moves with the affordable care act show greater prevention to -- attention to prevention. hopefully this will even the field as opposed to outcomes. guest: the caller talked about the difference by race. raised as gives us a clue. it is not race, per se that is causing the difference and longevity. it is a variety of other factors. part of it could be generic -- genetic but it is behavior and make and the environment, education, all this is correlated high with education and with income. the challenge is to identify these issues. polio eradication is possible

and as a major priority at the cdc and in the world health organization. host: our calls are stacking up and we only have three minutes. you referred to this earlier about the decline in cigarette smoking. look in 1965 to the present time but there is a little uptick now. guest: we know that it is but we don't know why. host: the same thing among high school students and alcohol. it declined but there's an uptick again. do you know what is going on? guest: i don't know why they are drinking more but we are seeing a lot more binge drinking. i think it is part of the

social lives of young folks. it involves alcohol and the promotion about call is something that a significant about corporations and how they place things in our way, that is attractive. host: george shuman asks -- guest: i don't see this helping whatsoever i think it is an opportunity for people to get improved access because they don't need improved access. host: mobile, alabama, go ahead. i would like to commend this government-sponsored health group and asked the extreme right wing libertarian party who once states arrived of this kind of magnificent work could

be done if he returned this time to states. this is an example where government service that might davison function. host: he talked about returning to the states. what is the ability of the federal government versus individual states to respond to i think it is a trickle down to some extent. total appropriations come down in the community transformation grants that were given out to a number of jurisdictions that allow for them to do the work that is mandated by folks like dr. freed at the cdc. the framework is set by the federal government in consultation with state and local officials and then funding is applied to take care of those particular needs, be they on the clinical side or the community health side or the health policy

arena. host: we know are out of time. let's wrap up as we started, with regard to your understanding of the overall health of americans, are retrenching in the right direction? guest: i think we are. but i think we have challenges. -- i think that we are trending in the right direction. but the disparities by age and ethnicity, we need to bridge those gaps through education, provision of health care being innovative, and by people participating in the surveys, if they should be asked. it is absolutely crucial. every person who participates represents many others just like them. if we don't have it, then we don't know. host: the number one thing that would help improve people's health? guest: that has three parts. prevention, funding, and making

sure we are doing what we need to upstream to reduce the number of people coming into the oak terrace system. understanding that health is more than just about the health care system. it is a social contract and we need to help the health care votes by dealing with the social stuff so patients can be properly taken care of. and really being clear that race and police bullets matter with respect to health and health matters. host: thanks for being here. and to our viewers, thank you for being here on this friday morning. we will be back with "washington journal and 7:00 a.m. eastern time tomorrow. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> live coverage continues on c- span. 11:00 eastern this morning, the u.s. conference of mayors continues its winter meeting. new york mayor michael bloomberg this morning talks about education reform in this city followed by discussion of how the other mayors are handling the issue of in indianapolis, louisville, denver, and las vegas. c-span 2 is the southern republican leadership conference. various candidates will be speaking and there will be discussions on what it means to be a conservative, social media, and the popular vote. at 10:30 eastern, c-span3 will be there as the german foreign minister talks about the euro is speaking at the brookings institute in washington. this is the last day of campaigning by republican candidates before tomorrow's south carolina primary.

gingrich is in charleston, santorum is going to lexington, and romney is going to gilberts, south carolina. ron paul is in northstar alston. he is on c-span 2 right now. -- north charleston. >> the obama administration did just came down with a policy that said in her program she cannot teach abstinence as a preferable way of avoiding out- of-wedlock births. and she cannot talk about marriage. it cannot talk about marriage as any other than an alternative lifestyle that is no better or any worse than any other lifestyle. my question is -- why? >> when the president adopts a stimulus package of hundreds of

billions of dollars that nobody has read and then discovers to his great surprise two years later that the show already jobs or not shovel ready and the stimulus fails and leaves us $800 billion deeper in debt, at some point he has to take responsibility. it was his plan, his proposal, and it failed. >> as candidates meet with voters to get their message out -- >> thank you. >> saturday evening we will show you the results of south carolina along with candidates' speeches and your phone calls, after the polls close. >> if you have a saudi prince who is part of the royal family of saudi arabia who has bought one the largest news franchises in the world, got into it, you have to look at his motives. >> diana west talks about

culture, politics, and the spread of islam in the western world. an argument should be made that he must register as a foreign agent, given the role of the corporate structure. >> more with a former washington times editorial writer and syndicated columnist and diana west, tonight at 8:00 on c-span. >> president obama was in new york city last night for a number of re-election campaign fund-raisers. while at a fund-raiser for jewish leaders, police said support for israel is not negotiable. he also attended a nearly $36,000 per ticket fund-raiser at filmmaker spike lee's home. and $100 a ticket at the apollo theater. more than 100 people demonstrated outside the theater. if we will show you the president's comments oat the apollo theater. it lasts one hour. >> ♪

>> hello, new york. [cheers and applause] hello, new york. hello, harlem. [cheers and applause] it is good to be here tonight. [crowd chanting "four more ye ars"]

>> thank you so much. i want to thank her for the incredible introduction and being such a great mom. we are so proud of you. c, lynn.o thank our mm i want to thank the incredible performance this evening. one of my favorites, india irie. there she is. i love india. and then to know that reverend al green was here. [applause] you ♪so in love with n [cheers and applause]

those guys did not think i would do it. i told you i was going to do it. the sandman did not come out. [laughter] don't worry, i cannot sing like you, rev. i just wanted to show my appreciation. i also want to abolish a couple of outstanding members of congress with us here today. congressman charlie rangel. and congressman gerry neddler of the at the house -- are in the se. the hou you guys sit down. i have something to say.

>> thank you, mr. president. >> no, that you. i'm here tonight not just because i need your help. i am here because your country needs your help. [applause] there was a reason why so many of you got involved in the campaign in 2008. it was not because you thought it would be easy. when you decide to support somebody named barack hussain obama for president, you're not doing it because you think it is a cakewalk. you did it because you understood the campaign was not about me. about a vision we shared for america, a vision that was not an arrow and cramped -- was not narro.

it was not a vision that the most powerful among us to play by their own rules. it was a vision that was compassionate and big and bold and it said in america if you work hard you have a chance. you have a chance to get ahead. it does not matter where you were born, it does not matter what you look like, it does not matter what your name is. if you are willing to work hard, if you've got some talent, some idea, if you are motivated, you can make it. and it was a vision that said we are greater to gather than we are on our own. [applause]

that when everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules than we all do better. we all do better. [applause] that is the vision we share. that was the change we believed in. we knew it would not come easy. we knew it would not come quickly. we knew there would be resistance and setbacks. but because of what you did in 2008 we have started to see concrete examples of that change. think about it. change is the first bill i signed into law, that enshrines a simple proposition. you get an equal day's pay for nickel day's work, because we

want our daughters treated just as well as our sons. that is what changes. -- equal day's pay for an equal day's work. change is the decision we made to rescue the auto industry from collapse even when folks said no and wanted to lead detroit go bankrupt. now 1 million jobs were saved and local businesses have picked up again. and gm is once again the largest auto company in a world. and we are seeing cars rolling off assembly lines stamped with three problems words -- made in america. detained is a decision we made to stop waiting for congress to do something about raising fuel efficiency standards on our cars. so that by the next decade every car will get 55 mpg. that will save you money and our environment.

it's good for our national security. that is what changes. we got that done. change was the fight that we had stop spending $60 billion in unnecessarily to the banks in the student loan program. take that and give it directly to the students so that millions of young people all across america are able to afford a college education. [applause] that is changed. change is the health care reform bill that we passed after a century of trying that says if you get sick in america you will not go bankrupt. we already have 2.5 million young people with health insurance who did not have it, and senior is getting help on their prescription drugs. the americans will not be denied coverage because of pre-existing

conditions where insurance dropped them when they needed the help the most. that is what changes. changes the fact that for the first time in our history you don't have to hide who you love and ordered to serve this country that you love. "don't ask, don't tell" is over. [applause] we don't believe in discrimination in this country. that is part of who we are. that is what change is. change is keeping one of the first promises i made in 2008. we ended the war in iraq and brought our troops home. [applause] and in the meantime we have refocused efforts on the terrorists who actually attack us on 9/11. and thanks to the extraordinary men and women in uniform and our intelligence agency, all, is

weaker than it ever has been and osama bin laden will never walk this earth again. that is what change is. [applause] now you guys have been paying attention. all this has been easy-- none of this has been easy. some of it was risky. we were opposed by lobbyists, special interests, millions of dollars were spent trying to maintain the status quo. and a lot of the things we did were not always popular at the time. certainly, not with the crowd in washington. part of the reason we were able to get it done is you. because i knew all across america your voices were still being heard. you guys were knocking on doors, making phone calls, rooting for us, because you understood that as hard as this was it was

consistent with the vision that we campaigned so hard to bring about. you kept up the fight long after the election was over. that should make you proud. and it should make you hopeful. it should not make you complacent. you hould not make dissatisfi satisfied. because everything we did is now at stake in this election year the core of what this country stands for, that idea that no matter who you are you can make it, that idea that if we are all in it together, the idea that if there's a child somewhere who is not getting a good education, that affects me, the idea that if there is a senior somewhere losing her home, that affects me. that idea is at stake in this election. [applause]

the crisis the struck in the months before i took office, with more americans out of work than any time since the great depression, we have a chart that shows in the months right before i took office, for a million jobs lost -- 4 million jobs lost. the month after i took office, another 4 million jobs, that was before our economic policies had a chance to take effect. if we have been growing ever since. we have been adding jobs ever since then. but this was a profound crisis. it was also culmination of a decade where middle-class families got further and further behind and more and more good jobs, manufacturing jobs, left our shores.

suddenly our prosperity was built on risky financial deals or homes we cannot afford, everybody running up their credit cards. we wrapped up a greater and greater debt and incomes fell and wages flat lined and the cost of college and food and everything went through the roof. these problems did not happen overnight. we were not going to solve them overnight. it is going to take more than a few years to meet the challenges that have been decades in the making. the american people understand that. what they don't understand is leaders who refused to take action. they are sick and tired of watching people who are supposed represent them put party and of country or the next election before the next generation. president kennedy once said

after he took office, "the thing the surprised me most about washington was that it was as bad as people had said it was." i can relate to that. [laughter] we have the top republican in the senate who said his top priority was beating me. that is his top priority. top party is putting americans back to work. [applause] my top priority is making sure our kids get a good education. my top priority is making sure everybody has affordable, accessible health care. [applause] his top priority is beating me. [laughter] that shows you things are not on a level.

that is how you end up with republicans in congress voting against proposals that they used to support. [applause] use of them in december, all tied up in knots because we were proposing tax cuts for workers and small businesses. they always said that they were the party of tax cuts. suddenly suddenly -- [laughter] they did not know what to do. proposals to build roads and bridges, that did not to be a democratic issue. to be understood build america was good for america. putting cops and teachers back to work, back in the class room, back on the streets. [applause] they will fight with everything

they have to protect tax cuts for me for the wealthiest americans and then suddenly they get confused when it comes to tax cuts for the middle class. maybe they thought this was smart political strategy. maybe they thought it would advance mcconnell's agenda to beat me. but it is not a strategy not to create jobs or to strengthen the middle class. it is not a strategy to help america succeed. so we have a choice this year. we have not seen a choice this stark in years. even in 2008 -- the republican nominee was not a climate change denier.

he was in favor of immigration reform. he was opposed to torture. [laughter] [applause] the contrast this year could not be sharper. so the question is not whether people are still hurting. people are still hurting profoundly. a lot of folks out there still out of work looking for work. the question is what do we do about its? the day it that we need to have in this election is about where to go from here? the republicans in congress, candidates running for president, they have a very specific idea about where they want to take this country.

they want to reduce -- [laughter] -- they want to reduce the deficit by gutting our investments in education, by gutting our investments in research and technology, by letting our roads and bridges and airports deteriorated. i have already signed a $1 trillion in spending cuts, proposed even more, and i think it is time for us to reduce the deficit by asking those of us who are most fortunate to pay their fair share. [applause] [cheers] by the way, let me just say this, because i have been hearing a lot of republicans talking about, that is class warfare and he just wants to

redistribute and does not believe in work and is trying to create an entitlement society. let me be absolutely clear. i should pay more taxes. and folks in my income bracket should pay more taxes. certainly, folks are making billions of dollars should pay more taxes, not because i want to take their money and and just give it to somebody else. it is because we have basic investments and basic functions that have to be carried out in this 21st century if we are going to be able to compete. we are going to have to train our young people so that they can get the high skilled jobs of the future. [applause] we are going to have to make sure that we have the best broadband lines and the best

infrastructure to move products and services. we are going to have to make sure that we have the basic science and technology research that allows us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation, because other countries are making these investments and they are catching up. and if we are going to do all that without leaving america's debt for our kids, while still maintaining the strongest while makingrson earth, sure social security and medicare are there for future generations and our seniors are protected, then all of us have to do our part. [applause] that should not be a democratic idea or republican idea. that should be an american idea.

it is about responsibility, it's about taking responsibility for the country. when all of us take responsibility, we all do better. that is the idea. [applause] [cheers] the republicans in congress spend on the campaign trail running for president want -- what are you laughing? they are running for president. [laughter] they are. and they want to take medicare and make its a form of private insurance so that seniors shop around with a voucher. even if it does not cover the cost of their medicine or their care. i think that we can lower the cost -- we have to lower the cost of medicare. with reforms that still

guarantee a dignified retirement for seniors, because they have earned it. [applause] these folks act like this is an entitlement that was not earned. folks paid into this system. they will target to have some sense of security. [applause] our reforms should reflect that. they'd think the best way for america to compete for new jobs and businesses is to follow other countries in a race to the bottom. they say, if china lets you pay low wages, so they want to know roll back our minimum wage or right to collectively bargain. they say, companies can pollute in some of these other countries, so they want to get rid of protections that ensure we have clean air and water.

we should not have any more regulations than is required for the health and safety of the american people. nobody. likes red nobody likes bureaucracy. that's why i have reformed government so that we initiated fewer regulations than the previous administration with a lot more benefits, much lower cost relative to the benefits, looking to streamline government. we are saving businesses billions of dollars in reduced paperwork. -- nobody likes red tape. so we're not interested in regulation for the sake of regulation. but i do not believe in this notion that we should have a race to the bottom. that should not be what we are competing for. we should be competing to win the race to the top. we should be competing to make our schools the best in the world.

[applause] we should be competing to make sure our workers have the best skills and training so they get the best pay. we should be making sure that college is within reach of everybody. [applause] we should be in the race to give our business is the best roads and airports. we should be in a race to support scientists and researchers that create the next clean energy breakthroughs or the medicine that might to cure pernicious diseases. we should be in the race to make sure the next generation of manufacturers does not take root in asia or germany but takes root in detroit and pittsburgh and cleveland and new york. i don't want this to be paid nation that and just buys and consumes and boroughs. i want us to be known for

selling and building all over the world. that is a race, competitithe con for middle-class security, for advanced technology, for having the best workers in the world. this is a race i know we can win. but america is not going to win if we do the same things -- if we respond to our economic challenges with the same old tired cut taxes on wealthy people, let companies do whatever they want even if it's harming other folks and some how prosperity will trickle-down to everybody else. we tried that. [laughter] the don't know if you remember, but we tried that. it never worked.

it did not work when it was tried in the decade before the great depression. it is not what led to the incredible boom in the '50s and '60s that created the greatest middle-class on earth. it did not work back in 2001 and 2003 and 2004 and 2005 and 2006 , where we had the slowest job growth of any decade. we cannot go back to this brand of you are on your own type of economics. i believe we have a stake in everybody's success. if we can attract outstanding teachers by giving her the pay and support and training she deserves, she is going to educate the next steve jobs. and not only will we have whatever the next ipad is but we will all see the economy grow.

if we provide faster internet service to a summer will business somewhere and now someone has access to the entire global theor some business right here in harlem that is selling something that previously they could only sell in a few blocks and now they can sell it anywhere. that means suddenly vacant start hiring more workers. they have customers now all over the world. -- that means suddenly they can hire more workers. we will do better. this is not a democratic idea or republican idea. abraham lincoln, first republican president understood this, the transcontinental road road is what he lost, the first -- college all while dealing with the civil war. a republican. teddy roosevelt called for a

progressive income tax because he understood that you cannot pretend you are for equality of opportunity when you have a huge inequality and you are not creating ladders to successful people. a republican. dwight eisenhower build the interstate highway system, invested in math and science education so we could compete in the race to space, a republican. there were republicans in congress that supported fdr giving millions of returning heroes, including my grandfather, the chance to go to college on the gi bill. [applause] bad idea is as -- that idea is as old as this country. you know, that idea is still there. that sense of common purpose, it is still there. we tapped into it in 2008. it is still out there all across

the country. i see it everywhere i go. it may not be in washington, it may not be in congress, but it is out there. you talk to folks on main streets, town halls, dfw halls, barber shops, they understand this. our politics may be divided, but people understand we are all in this together. they understand that no matter rise and fall, we as one nation, as one people. that is what is a stake right now. that is what this election is about. now, i know these have been three tough years. i know that some of the change folks wanted has not come as

fast as people hoped. i know that after all the stuff that has gone on in washington, it is tempting sometimes if digest's say, you know what, it's not possible, the system is broken, we give up. tempting.ttempti remember what i used to say in the last campaign, i said this, i repeated it over and over again. real change, big change, it is hard. it takes time. it takes more than a single term. it takes more than a single president. what it takes is ordinary citizens like you who just keep on fighting, keep pushing, keep

inching the country closer and closer to our ideals. that is how the greatest generation defeated fascism, brought us out of the great depression, built the largest middle class in history. that is our young people from every background were able to suffer a billy clubs and fire hoses to ensure that our children grew up in a country where your race is no barrier to what you can become. change is hard, but we know it is possible. we have seen it. i have lived it. i have lived it. i've seen it. and so, as we go into this election year, i want everybody

to understand, yes, my hair is gray. [laughter] some dents andt dings. and, yes, this financial crisis has been a wake-up call. but, you know what, there is no other country that does not envy our position. they understand that this country is still that last best hope and they are counting -- the world is counting and our fellow citizens are counting on not giving up. not giving in to despair.

if you want to end the cynicism and game playing and. -scoring - -and the point- scoring and the sound bites, then you have to send a message this year. starting right now. that you refused to back down, but you will not give up, that you intend to keep hoping and keep pushing and keep fighting just as hard as you did four years ago. you are going to keep believing in change. [applause] and if you are willing to do that -- if you are going to work just as hard, if you are able to generate that same passion and commitment, then i will be there

next to you, because i've often said -- i said in 2008, i am not a perfect man. i am not a perfect president, but i promise you that i have kept the promise i made to you in 2008. i will always tell you what i thought, i would always tell you where i stood, and i would wake up every single day fighting as hard as i can for you. [applause] i am just as determined now as i was then. [applause] and if you are willing to stand alongside me, we will not pose obstacles out of the way it -- knock those obstacles out of the way. we will reach for that vision of america and the change will come. if you will work harder this

time the last time, if the change will come. if you keep on believing, we will finish what we started in 2008. change will come. if you fight with me and press on with me, i promise you, change will come. and we will remind everybody and just why it is that the united states of america is the greatest nation on earth. thank you. god bless. god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause significa] ♪ your love keeps lifting me hire and tighter -- and higher than i have ever been lifted before you know your love keeps on listing me higher and higher

i said your love keeps on lifting me higher and higher now once i was down hearted disappointment was my closest friend but then you came and it soon departed and he never showed his face again that's why your love keeps on lifting me higher and higher i said your love keeps on lifting me highernd tig [jackie wilson singing]

>> republican presidential candidates are on the bill today crisscrossing south carolina ahead of tomorrow's first southern primary. rick santorum at this hour is in lexington. mitt romney is about to host a rally in gilbert. ron paul is hosting a whistle stop campaign event in north and charleston. newt gingrich will have a town hall today. the south carolina primary is tomorrow. we will have results coverage here on c-span. in 10 days when florida has its primary again during nevada has a primerica board for. the state of maine will last the entire week of february 4. and follow the "road to the white house" . at " we do have more live coverage coming up on c-span at 11:00 eastern today, u.s. conference of mayors continues its 80th winter meeting this week. michael bloomberg talks about education reform this morning in new york.

followed by discussion of how other mayors are handling the issue in indianapolis, louisville, denver, and las vegas. we gather tonight at a dramatic and deeply troubling time in our history and in the history of man on earth. from the past 12 months the world has known changes of almost biblical proportions. and even now, months after the failed coup that dooms a failed system, i am not sure we have to absorb the full impact, the full import of what happened. but communism died this year. >> state of the union addresses going back to 1952 online at the c-span video library. and what president obama deliver this year's address tuesday night to live on c-span. search, watch, clip, and share. it's washington your way. >> hoover argued that american

policy towards japan in 1940 and 1941 was rather provocative and perhaps in a juvenile way. he said that we are putting pins in a rattlesnake and eventually put the rattlesnake will strike back. >> for nearly a century is book remained in storage. on saturday, the former president's evaluation of executive branch decisions starting with the second world war if through the cold war with the soviet union, eastern. also, religion in america, saturday at 8:00 p.m. sunday night at 8:15, understanding our constitution by looking at "the odd clauses." every weekend on "book tv."

>> senate majority leader harry reid will postpone a vote next week on a bill to fight online piracy and counterfeiting. his decision comes amid protests this week from internet companies and search engines if that included a black out by wikipedia and a petition by google that generated more than 7 million signatures. at least a half-dozen senators who sponsored the measure now say they oppose it. republican presidential candidate rick santorum said last night that he opposed the proposed law. we spoke with a former pennsylvania senator this morning on washington journal. >> senator santorum is with us now live from south carolina. senator, thanks very much. i know it's a busy day for you. our goal with you this morning is to get as many of your questions as we can in this last hour before voting -- in this last day before voting in south carolina. thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> i will jump right into question that came to us on our

facebook page from danielle. if many returning u.s. military veterans, she writes, are in need of medical guest: the answer to that is absolutely yes they should be excluded from any kind of reductions. these are men and women who have stepped forward to defend this country. this country has a special obligation to them. they volunteered. these several people are signing up everyday and are reenlisting everyday. i can tell you as someone who grew up on a va grounds. my mom and dad met after world war ii and lived on the post at apartments for the first 18

years of my life. i had a chance to meet veterans and work with them and volunteer at the hospital. i can tell you that there are a lot of problems in the va health-care system. there are a lot of problems with government and medicine. we need to do a better job at a meeting the needs particularly when it comes to the mental health issues that a lot of these servicemen and women are dealing with because of repeated quotation, rules of engagement, and the way things are. you don't have an enemy of lining up against you in uniform. you are constantly on watch for whoever is around you. a civilian could be someone to end your life. that kind of stress, it is hard to come back to america and readjust. we have to do a lot better job than we are doing. the one thing we cannot do is cut their benefits. host: senators and storm path will be with us 15 minutes. he's on vacation from where the campaign event will be today. we will get in your calls and

facebook comments and tweets and e-mails. steve is watching us in phoenix, a republican. good morning. caller: how are you doing? my advice would be to be specific about your stance on things like the pipeline, jobs, things like that. if you want to become the nominee, i really think that would be my advice. bypass all the hoopla of and get right through the specifics with what we are going to do about the pipeline, are we going to waste our money on renewals or get back to basics and make this country great by just doing what we do best, and that is drilling, farming, mining, things like that. what do you think? guest: i cannot agree with you

more, steve. that's when i talk about all the time. i am absolutely for building the pipeline. i've been a proponent. my grandfather was a coal miner. i have worked with coal companies and believe strongly that it is one of the key is to lower power costs and generation and that the obama administration's war on fossil fuels is hurting our country. i want to eliminate all energy subsidies and let the market or. we need to get rid of green energy subsidies. what we are doing in pennsylvania, drilling 3000 to 4000 gas wells per year. the price of natural gas in the last seven or eight years has gone from $12 down to $2.70. ans because we created increased supply. we can do not maybe as much oil drilling to reduce the price

that much, but we can reduce it a lot if we open anwwar and allow more productive in host: this country the next question is from facebook from kelly. know what sheon't it means by cutting back. i assume she means tariffs. i don't support tariffs. that is just a cost for the american public. it is a tax on foreign goods, but it leaves to retaliatory tariffs on american goods. what we need to do is compete. we are not competitive with our major trading partners. we are 20% more costly on average and that excludes labor costs, which are higher than those of most of our trading partners. we have to get the government out of the ways of manufacturers can compete and bring those jobs back from overseas.

apple has thousands of people employed in china making apple products. they should be made here. i'm sure there would be made here if we had the opportunity to do so on a competitive basis. that's why the corporate tax for manufacturing should be cut to zero. i would cut it in half for everybody else. for manufacturers and processors, we want those jobs here. we need to compete against china and a 35% corporate tax is crushing our ability to compete. i would eliminate that tax and do a bunch of other things. go to our web site to see our entire manufacturing plant, called the maid in the u.s. a plan. that plan will boost our workers and small town america can dissipate in the knowledge- based economy. host: steve jobs' biography has been number one since it came out. he was asked about factories in china. his response was that one of his major problems was u.s.

educational system not producing the kinds of engineers staff that he needed to support those manufacturing jobs. he called that a larger problem than taxation. guest: we do have a problem with respect to our knowledge in math and science. there are lots of manufacturers -- manufacturing done. i was just at the plant in spartanburg and yesterday at the boeing plant. that's about as high tech and knowledge-based as you can get. we have process engineers, plenty of them. we can train them. the more jobs there are here, the more demand for those jobs. a lot of those jobs are people coming from overseas to come here. that's ok. we can import that knowledge instead of exporting blue-collar jobs. i suspect a lot of people working on apple products in other places around the world would be very happy to have the

opportunity of to come here and do the same. host: did you support the initiative to bail out detroit specifically gm? guest: i did not. i called for structured bankruptcy from the beginning. i opposed the wall street bailout, which was the funding source for the automobile bailout. i was the only one up on the stage between myself and gingrich and romney that did. even though people said there could be a financial meltdown, the bottom line is the greater meltdown over the long term for this country is having the government injected itself into the private sector in such a big way, allow the cabalists system to work is what i believe in. i believe in is to allow the capitalist system to work. the unions would not have the big ownership share of the country is the difference. the bondholders should have

gotten their fair share of the company. other than that, you would have had pretty much the same company and maybe even a better company because they would have been stripped of even more legacy costs' that it makes it hard for them to be competitive. host: in the headlines, gm once again leads the world in auto sales. call let's go back to calls for you. salt lake city, utah. independent line. erin. caller: good morning, senator. i am a scientist. i'm concerned about the fact the current republican candidates ofh the exception gingrich, have not qualified their position on whether they support medical research. medical research is important. it is crucial to control the

cost of health care. funding has stagnated. it is harder than ever for young scientists like mysel to receive funding for research. guest: i have always been a strong supporter. it's one of the things the federal government does a pretty good job at, which is basic science research. i also supported -- this was 15 years ago, the doubling of the nih, national institutes of health, to help with basic medical research and improve our knowledge of the human genome project and other things. if i think it can be done in the private market and for profit. but the basic understanding of science, which benefits a knowledge base economy, i believe in that spirit we are at a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit and are spending 40 cents of every dollar and boring most of that from china.

to go out and say we will increase funding at that level, we will not be increasing funding at any level that i can think of. we have to look at government as in a constrained resource environment. the best thing we can do for medical research is get this economy growing. if we get the economy growing, there will be a lot of other pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies and others who will sponsor more research at colleges and universities, in addition to government research. the economy growing faster be the number-one priority right now. and getting government under control will be a big part of that. while i am not saying we should cut basic or medical research, i am not looking at to that area or frankly any other area outside our commitments to protect our country through national security to grow the size of government. host: senator santorum with us about another five minutes. tony, democratic caller from columbia, south carolina. caller: senator, you just said

-- susan, i love that you picked up on gm being the number of automobile company in the world. senator, that contradicted your vote against bailing out the automobile industry. i want to ask, do you and your family still collects health care from the government? also, you will not be president of the united states. that is a facade. it's not going to happen. obama will be president again. be honest. guest: well, we will let's the electorate figure out who is going to be the next president. i don't think it has to do with honesty. gm and chrysler could have and should gone through a structured back up the process. the companies would have survived with different owners and would've been even more competitive than the current structure, because they would

not have to do things the obama administration was twisting their arms to do as a result of the money that the government gave them. no, i stand by that. i cannot remember his second statement. if you recall, i am happy to answer. host: i will move on to another facebook comment. james henry aks -- guest: i don't support teaching creationism as a complement. what i do support is academic freedom. one of the most important things that every child worries about or not worry about, but likes to learn about is who they are and where did they come from and how the world came to be. i believe we are creatures of god. god created the heavens and earth. there is the theory of evolution

out there. it is a legitimate, scientific theory that should be taught in schools. we should have a discussion about the issue of evolution, what we can learn, and what we cannot know about that theory, and also the idea of whether we are a mistake of natural law wear over time we just happened to come into place through a random process that created all that we see. from a philosophical point of view, that is an interesting thing to argue, about what science can and cannot prove. it is interesting for children to be able to sort through that and have the discussion of whether we are just a random chance or whether natural law created the universe and if

there is someone directing it. having the discussion is important from the standpoint of science and what it can and cannot prove and show. host: the last call is from illinois, a republican. caller: i want to wish you well with your campaign. i like your idea about eliminating income tax on manufacturers who produce products in the united states. my concern is that component parts are also produced here. job creation could be negligible. domestic content might be a better criteria. guest: every manufacturer, if you are producing a part, anything you make is zero corporate tax. if you are processing food

products, you are a processor. if you are manufacturing, process, manufacturing, final assembly, anybody who makes anything in america will have the zero% corporate rate. it will be a huge incentive to bring in final assembly and also making the component parts that go into making the streamliner. host: senator, what is your bottom line for the results on saturday in order to continue in florida? guest: we are going forward. this race has transformed itself in the last 24 hours. i am not sure that will show by

saturday. i have one -- won one of the two primaries. the polls are good in florida. we feel we can be competitive there and beyond that. this is a long process. we have been slaving away in the vineyards doing town hall meetings. in the last two weeks, we have had resources to compete in the race. people are starting to rally around us. we're getting the funding necessary to begin competing in the long term with a staff from the country. we feel like this is a race we can and will be successful in. we will go on after south carolina and beyond. host: how significant is the story about speaker gingrich's failed marriage to the voters you are trying to appeal to?

guest: these personal issues are difficult. when you are in public life, people can make determinations as to whether these are issues of character and whether this is the kind of person you want to put into the office of president. when you do those things when you are in public life, that has an additional level of relevance. as far as the specifics, i will not get into those. people will look at it as they will with everything else. they will assess that based on how long ago it was, the circumstances, and make the determination. i trust the american public that they will make the right decision. host: i hope we will see you again on the campaign trail. thank you for your time this morning.

>> be sure to watch "washington journal" every morning on this network. we are live as the u.s. conference of mayors continues its annual winter meeting in washington. this morning, new york city mayor michael bloomberg will talk about education reform. that will be followed by a discussion of how other mayors are handling the issue. we will also hear from president obama's senior adviser. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> we are moments away from the start of this session. we expect remarks from new york city mayor bloomberg on education reform. we will have that for you shortly on c-span. the associated press is reporting the supreme court has turned down in the amount drawn by judges in texas. the judges ordered the court to come up with new plans. the 2010 census found texas added more than 4 million new residents, mostly latinos and african-americans, since 2000. the south carolina primary is tomorrow. we will have results coverage here on c-span. in 10 days, the florida primary

is underway. nevada has caucuses on. before. the main -- nevada has caucuses on february 4. he sure to follow our coverage at c-span.org.

we are waiting for the start of the u.s. conference of mayors session this morning. they will be talking about education reform. new york city michael -- mayor michael bloomberg will be leading the discussion on educational reform. to the right is mayor villaraigosa, the president of the u.s. conference of mayors. he has been moderating most of the session this week.

>> i would like to call the winter meeting's final plenary

together. if we could bring in the mayor's and close those stevedores -- two doors back there, you are all welcome to sit closer. we have had a great conference. i think it is a reflection of the fact that more than 250 mayors from across the country come to call on our nation's leaders to do the most important thing that they could do right now. that is putting people back to work, partnering with cities to

make investments in our roads, highways, schools, bridges, ports, and airports. i could not be prouder to have been just a few minutes ago with the press conference with 80 mayors from across the country and hearing those stories. i cannot help but be inspired by the courage, steadfast commitment to justice and liberty as so many of our mayors have demonstrated. earlier today, we got to hear from rahm emanuel. i am a big fan. we heard from bill daley before him. we have heard from some of the great players of the united states of america.

-- these -- we have heard from some of the great mayors of the united states of america. if you took the top 10 economies, metropolitan areas, we have a gdp of $5 trillion. only china and the united states of america are bigger. if you took three of them, new york, chicago, and l.a., our gdp is roughly the size of france, the fifth largest economy in the world. as cities grow, so go the nation. as new york goes, let's be clear, they drive so much of the

wealth creation in our nation. this opportunity to hear from a man that i have said for a long time is one of america's great mayors, when i think about the issues michael bloomberg has been involved in, i think about the courage he has had to take on some of these tough issues. i can tell you that this is a man who has led the way. i was going off script. let me take a moment to introduce some people. they are here to my left. i apologize. i got carried away.

i did not read the teleprompter. the fellows are graduates from new york university and ucla, the university of michigan, serving in city government. i have had more than a few of them in my office and administration. let's ask them to rise so that we can recognize the outstanding young men and women who will be our future leaders. [applause] thank you. i am sorry. we have two tables full. i mentioned the issues that michael has been involved in. we have said for some time that the great thing about this conference is that we can learn from one another. michael is on the biggest state. i am on a big stage as well. we can learn from the smaller cities, and we do. i have learned a lot from michael bloomberg.

when it comes to a dancing arts , -- advancing the arts and investing in infrastructure, michael bloomberg has been an absolute leader. when it comes to reforming the new york school system, this is a man who has been focused and committed to the idea that this issue of educating our kids is the economic issue of our time, the democracy issue of our time, and the civil rights issue of our time. he has taken on virtually any one who would stand for the proposition that our kids cannot learn, that the kids of a working port cannot excel -- working for -- poor cannot excel

like those to come from the affluent communities. he has created to move the city forward. -- he has created solutions to move the city forward. please welcome my friend, mayor michael bloomberg. [applause] >> mayor villaraigosa, gracias. thank you for that kind introduction. good morning to everyone. it is a pleasure to be here. i hope all of you have had a happy new year. personally, i had a great time with my good friend lady gaga in times square. i would tell you about it, but i never kiss and tell [laughter] let me start by dispelling another rumor. there is no truth to the speculation that the only reason i came here was to collect on the bet i made with the green bay mayor on the packers-giants

game. [laughter] go, giants! the real reason i am here is to discuss an issue with all of you that i believe has reached a critical juncture in new york and around the country. that is education reform. it really is astonishing how little is being said about our schools on the campaign trail. i think everyone in the country knows education is a top concern. it is a top concern for parents and students. it affects them personally. it has to be a cut -- top concern for those of us who are not students or do not have children going to school because it affects the country's future in profound ways. these are the people who will vote and take care of us when we

are older. you cannot just walk away from what is going on in the schools. all of us have seen the reports on how american schools stack of against schools in other developed countries. when it comes to math and science, we are near the bottom of the pack. when it comes to literacy, the best you can say is that we are average. take a look at our economy. take a look at how many high skilled jobs are available today that companies cannot fill even though there are 13 million unemployed americans. the truth is they do not have the skills required for the jobs. look at what is happening to the middle class. real wages have been stagnating for years. to many young people are unable to find a career path to lead them to the american dream. is there a connection between these three developments?

i do not think there is any doubt about it. there is no doubt that if we're going to remain the world's economic superpower, we have to stop taking our success for granted. as the global economy continues to move from one driven by manual labor to one driven by knowledge and ideas, we have to move with it. we have to lead the change. we cannot do that without the outstanding public schools. when i was elected mayor, the big city public school system of the york had been failing for decades. very little was being done about it. that was true for virtually every city in this country. over the decade, mayors and governors have led the charge for reform, overhauling dysfunctional school government structures, increasing the number of charter schools, helping parents get more information about schools, and

holding schools accountable for success. mayors including rahm emanuel and kevin johnson, antonio in los angeles, and mayor booker, thanks to the leadership of these mayors and others, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has more than tripled. a good portion of that growth has come in new york city. we have opened 139 new charter schools in our city. we have created more than 500 new small schools that give parents, kids top-quality options. parents and students both deserve that. school choice is an important way to hold schools accountable

for success. when people vote with their feet, you know israel -- it is real and it is pretty obvious which direction they're going. i think it is fair to say we know we still have an enormous weight to go. work is only going to get harder. in new york and all run the country, the most promising and successful reforms are under attack from ideologues on the right and left. i remember a conversation i had with bill bennett, the former education secretary under president bush 41. and asked him why we did not have standardized, national testing. i have never forgotten what he said. he said because the right will never accept anything with the

word "national" in its and the left will never accept anything with the word "testing" in it. i think that is right. ideologues are blocking national standards. that is not allow for comparison with in the country or around the world. that is what accountability really is. i understand education is a local issue and localities should have flexibility in running the schools. to do that, we can still have national standards that hold everyone accountable for success and to let us see where we stand. if you cannot measure it, you cannot fix it. we have a saying in new york, in god we trust, but everyone else , bring data. the good news is we're moving

closer to that goal through something called a common core standards. that is something almost every state is adopting and that the obama administration strongly supports. just as the ideologue's on the right are resisting national accountability with testing, ideologue's on the left are resisting accountability through any testing. without testing, there is no accountability. without accountability, we're s agowhere we were 10 wyear was schools failing and no one doing anything about it. some said they do not want students objected to high-stakes testing in schools. let me tell you about the high- stakes testing their about to face when they get out of school. in school, you have to make tough decisions. do you hang out with the gang or not? get pregnant when you are and whether or not?

do you do drugs or not? those are high-stakes tests. our kids are subject to those tests. they have to answer those questions every day. to ask them whether they can read or write is something that will not put undue stress on them. unless we find out whether they can do that, we cannot improve the quality of the education. we cannot help students with the things they need to focus on. there are ya blogs -- are the logs -- idealogues the blood testing is ok as long as teachers cannot be removed from the classroom. we wanted race to the top funding because our state legislature passed a law requiring all teachers to be rigorously evaluated based on student achievement metrics. it was supposed to give us the

ability to identify ineffective teachers to help them become effective. if they cannot become effective, we could move them out. our school system has to be run for the kids and not for the people that work in the system. we are there to educate. [applause] our legislature passed that law. unfortunately, they put in a little thing, one giant roadblock there was anything but little. it was what made the difference. it gave the local unions the ability to veto any evaluation plan. here we are two years later, and not a single district has an evaluation program. instead, we continue to have a pass/fail system with a 98% passing rate. our students do not have the luxury of pass/fail and neither

do you and i who have to make a living. neither should our teachers. we have to raise the bar for them just as we are for our students. nobody thinks 90% of any group is in the top 30% or top 70%. we have to raise the standards. we have to help those at the bottom. if they cannot do the job, we have to replace them. the only way we're going to reform public education is by doing exactly that. i do not mean just tinkering around the edges. i mean really transforming it into a system of excellence and putting the needs of the students first. that has been my message in new york. it is the message our new governor is delivering as well. andrew cuomo has been governor for a year.

he could not have been more strongly in favor of making sure that we put an effective evaluation system in, help teachers that need help, and that those who cannot perform get moved out. the governor's inner -- the governor and i both strongly supports the right to bargain. i have said i did not agree with wisconsin. people have a right to organize. we have to decide what we're willing to do and what we're willing to not do. we should not be willing to have teachers who are ineffective in the classroom because we're leaving our kids out in the cold without the skills they are going to need to be self- supporting and without the education they need to participate in the great american dream. our job is to do what is right for our children. i have yet to hear how it is good for children to make it

harder to remove ineffective teachers from across rooms. -- from classrooms. i can promise you we will not sacrifice our children's future by giving in on that point. the system has to be run for the people we're here to serve. the attacks on education by ideologues on the right and left must be met and then it off by the sensible center. that is the people you are here with today, the mayors. mayors are pragmatists and problem-solvers. they do not have the luxury of being on both sides of an issue. they have to be explicit as to where they stand. they cannot say, i voted for it but did not vote to fund it. they have to go out there every day -- it is like saying i am pro-choice but not for women. [laughter]

mayors are where the action is. mare's pick up the garbage, educate the kids, keep calm down. they make their cities' economics work and increase life expectancy. they do all the things we want them to do. they are expected to make hard- headed decisions based on the facts and not special political interests. that is what the mayors have done on so many issues. that is what we have to do on education, including accountability measures like teacher evaluations and sensible plans to improve or find other careers for those teachers who are not getting their students to move ahead and get what they need to produce a paper in the great american dream. i spoke on martin luther king day and said all the battles are meaningless if our children do not have the skills to understand and participate and

be part of the great american dream. education is one of the basic civil rights. the reason teacher evaluations are so important is that all the best research tells us the single most important factor affecting a student progress is the effectiveness of the caution teacher. there was a recent study that got a lot of press about three weeks ago by harvard and columbia economists who found students with ineffective teachers are less likely to become pregnant, more likely to go to college, and more likely to get higher paying jobs. i think we all knew that intuitively. would anyone here want their child to be in the classroom with an ineffective teacher? of course not. we know how important great teachers are. we remember them from our own lives. great teachers make an enormous difference. if we expect the american school system to rise to the top of the pack, the only way we will get

there is with great teachers leading the way. the only way that will happen is if we do more to recruit from our reward, and retain great teachers and replaced the and effective ones. -- replaced but ineffective ones. teaching is probably the most important job there is today. i have enormous respect for teachers and in the personal investments they make in their students. over the past in years, i have worked to invest in them by expanding professional development. we have raised base salaries by 43% in the last 10 years. a starting teacher in new york city now makes $45,000. that teacher can make well over $100,000. you have to put your money where your mouth is. [applause] in the last 10 years, all of the

agencies in new york city have increased their compensation by 32%. inflation was 33% during that time. teacher incomes have gone up 105% because our teachers were underpaid. we were losing them to the suburbs. i cannot think of any better investment we can make them to have a better teacher in front of every single child. many student graduating from college today have college loans that could lead them to cross teaching off of a list of possible careers. what we do to make more teachers apply to our school system? we cannot let it happen that they go elsewhere simply because they have loans to repay. we cannot let our top students who want to be teachers to decide they cannot afford it. one program we are in the process of instituting in new york city is we have proposed an incentive to anyone who finishes

college in the top tier of the class to come teach in the new york city public schools. if you commit to stay, we will pay off up to $25,000 of your student loans. our teachers deserve it and so do our children. that is the recruitment. we also have to worry about retaining the best teachers by offering them a big raise. teachers to they have lots of options. if you are a good teacher, you are worth a lot of money in the private sector in many careers. in washington, teachers were given a choice to decide for themselves if they wanted a contract that would pay them an extra $25,000 a year if they were rated effective. guess what they did in washington, d.c.? the teachers said yes. they wanted to be rewarded for their success, just like any other person in any other job. why is anybody surprised about that? i do not know. we all want recognition and respect.

it would also be nice if we could get some money to enjoy more things. the harder we work and better the job we do, a thing most people would say, the better you should be rewarded. teachers' unions have historically opposed merit pay. more teachers today are asking why. when they are given a voice, and they say yes. by all accounts, the raises have been the essential to keeping effective teachers for moving out of the d.c. public school system. if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, mayor gray should be fired because we want to make the same offer to our teachers. we have proposed the following deal. if you are rated highly effective. two years, we will increase her salary by $25,000 a year. our teachers deserve that and so do our children. it is something we have to pardon -- bargain on with the

teachers' unions. will they stand in a way of the most effective members being rewarded for their work? i think this is an idea whose time has come. i am confident that teachers are allowed to decide the matter, they will support it in new york city the way they did in washington, d.c. we have already won the most important battle ball. that is the battle for public expectations. 10 years ago, people said you cannot fix the schools until you cure poverty. the chancellor said to me that they had the wrong way. you cannot cure poverty until you fix our schools. too many people were resigned to the reality of bad schools just as they were once resigned to higher crime rates. in the 1990's, mayor's show the world of high crime is not

inevitable. you could make the streets safer if you used data-driven strategies and help people accountable for the results. mayor giuliani dramatically cut crime in new york city. we have cut it another 35%. today, new yorkers expect the streets to be the safest of any big city in the country. the voters will not collect any 10%ure mayor who's not 100 committed to the bowl. if you expect the worst, you get the worst. if you expect to do better, you can do better. we're willing to take on the special interests to find region who find comfort in the status quo. -- we are willing to take on the special interests who find comfort in the status quo. when i took office, education was about as bad as it could get. school crime was the norm. kids were promoted regardless of

whether they learned anything. promotion was often based more on political connections than merit. we refused to except what president bush once called the soft bigotry of low expectations. we expected more of our students. that meant expecting more of the adults in charge. working with the state legislature, we abolished the broken board of education and handed control of the schools to a chancellor appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the mayor. by raising standards and inject accountability into schools, we raised graduation rates 40% since 2005. that is compared to 8% in the rest of the state. all the kids in new york state took exactly the same test. we have cut the dropout rate and school crime in half.

we've increased the number of students enrolling in college. but almost any measure, students are doing better. our school system is heading in the right direction. today parents expect the schools to be first-rate. more parents are staying in our city rather than moving to the suburbs because of the change expectations. i realize many mayors do not control their own school system, but we do have voices. we have that years -- the ears of other politicians. we're all in this together. just as we have seen on many issues, when mayor's stand together and speak together, we put problem-solving over etiology. we can make an enormous difference. if we stand together on school reform, we can make sure our kids nationwide get the education they need to keep the

american dream alive in this new century and beyond. let's go get it. thank you. [applause] >> i tell you, i cannot tell you how much i look to what mayor bloomberg has done in new york to make some of the initiatives we have. michael, i want you to know this conference of mayors last year to on the issue of seniority and tenure. we have taken on the issue of

common core standards. many of us believe that at a minimum, if mayors are not running the schools, they need to be partnering with the schools to improve their success. this is a conference that has understood from the beginning that ideology and orthodoxy are not where it is out when it comes to our kids. we need to put our kids first and challenge the adults, including those who would defend the status quo. we now have a panel discussion on education reform. i am pleased to introduce my friend, kevin johnson from sacramento, the mayor who has made education reform his absolute mantra. he has done a great deal.

we have worked together with sacramento in support of race to the top, the idea that we need to address seniority and tenure in a positive way. he is the first native sacramentan and african- american to be elected to that office. he has been a champion for education reform. let me call on mayor johnson to introduce the panel and moderate the discussion. [applause] >> good morning to everyone. thank you for hanging around. do you have this? since it is education, we're going to have a little teacher-

pupil interaction on this in a moment. it was refreshing to have mayor bloomberg year. he is a straight shooter. as mayors, we know education needs to be front and center in all of our communities in a real way. that is why i am excited about this panel discussion. i am mayor of the city of sacramento. i have the honor to be the chair of the education reform task force. mayor villaraigosa appointed me to it. i want to thank tom cochran. his leadership as well. let me tell you what we have done the last couple of years. we brought two resolutions forward. seniority is a policy that is not in the best interest of kids. we passed the resolution last year. we also reauthorized another resolution.

all of these things are bipartisan. as mayors, we have come together around education in a bipartisan way. this booklet, you have given us a lot of input on this. this is what we have worked for. i want to thank kathy and her team for helping create this booklet. turn to page 16 and 17. this is going to inform our quick discussion. we have four mayors appear. -- up here. mayor bloomberg is an example of someone who has full control of their schools. we want to show you the spectrum. all of us if it somewhere on the spectrum. these are best case and best practice examples of what mayors

are doing in their cities. i would like for you to ask questions or join the task force. we have conference calls with arne duncan. the gates foundation is hosting the u.s. conference of mayors next month. we're putting education front and center. i felt these mayors would do great job of helping sherrod the story along the spectrum so everyone can see where they would be involved. mayor bloomberg talked about this. we have a crisis in our country. when you look at math and science, we're no longer as competitive as we used to be. we're no longer first. when you think about our dropout rates and student achievement, we have a huge disparity between african-american, latino, and white kids around the country. there's no way we will be able to compete. there will be 120 million jobs

20 years from now. we will only have 50 million students to service those 120 million jobs. that means 70 million jobs will be outsourced to china and india. this is the greatest country in the world and we're not doing right by our children. that is why i am so excited and thankful to the mayor for allowing me to talk about education today. i will give each panelists a question and then go down the line. >> is a good moderator. [laughter] >> what did you say? >> i said you are a good moderator. [laughter] [applause] >> i did agree with him. [laughter] >> now you are cutting into my time. [laughter]

let me start with carolyn goodman, the mayor of las vegas. this lady is a rock star. she got elected last july. she and her husband switched states. she has charisma. she started a private school before she ended up becoming mayor. her school was one of the only schools in las vegas to went -- that went on to have a 100% graduation rate with kids going to college. one of the things that mayors can do is a line there city services. number one it is alignment. all of us as mayors have to align our city services with the school districts. it does not cost money. it is about efficiency and building partnerships. all of us can do this. tell us the programs you have

initiated in terms of student outcome and alignment. >> i am delighted to be here and part of this group. this is an excellent pamphlet that has been given to all of you. 12 years of being here and accompanying my husband, every day of his life he would assure his population he was the happiest mayor in the universe. everybody thought it was because he was lucky to be a mayor. the reason was true because every morning i would get out of bed before him, run to his side of the bed, and applaud him so he would feel wonderful for the day. in seven years -- seven months, he has yet to come to my side of the bed yet. i find it appalling. i am going to answer this question. i am passionate about education.

i have put in 30 years, not complaining, doing something. it is time for us as mayors that we at the grass-roots level have the ability to make a difference. i am going to tell you and then i am going to answer your question. this is where life begins. this is where education begins. it is not in the failure of our high schools, middle schools, dropouts, crime. it starts right here. in our second round of questioning, i hope i will be able to address this because i am passionate and have worked in

this area for so long. we cannot get businesses to come to southern nevada or the state. we rank 48, 49, or 50 in education. my husband's focus was bringing back a blighted community. my focus is education. our children need it from the very essence. our city has provided -- to answer the question. we have the issues of the safety program. many of you probably have that where you provide care and tutoring or some type of structure before and after school. our city and state have probably one of the largest student body

numbers in the country. i think we were the fifth largest district in the country. we also have a new superintendent of schools. the first thing in the lining is working with your superintendent. we do have this before and after school program safety. we do provide snacks and food with them. when some of the schools do not have facilities and parks for athletics, we do provide those. we partner in the security program. we partner in the arts program for middle and upper schools. we provide facilities in which they can hold their programs. our budgets are as tight and depressed as they are around the country. these are ways that we can help. we provide tutorials.

33% of our growing population is largely latino, many of whom do not speak english. we do provide tutorials as english is a second language. we have an adaptive program for physically challenged children that we hold in a park indoors and outdoors. these are children from our school district. aside from summer programs, we do something started a couple of years ago. it came out of the u.s. mayors conference. that is our batteries included program for at risk young people who need to work on skills, learn how to fill out an application. we have partnershiped this with the district and partners.

it is a donation-driven public- private partnership. it is giving young people life skills, job skills, training, and internships. the biggest thing i believe in from my position and from what we've heard from mayor bloomberg -- i grew up in new york city. what we're about is the bully pulpit. that is what we have to do. we are a city manager type of government by charter. our superintendent and school district is a separate entity. i know we are limited on time and running late. did i get in everything i possibly could? >> thumbs up. >> if you look at alignment, there are other examples.

oklahoma city has a math program for kids. there is the safe summer initiative in montgomery. if you have examples, let us know. we want to catalog so all mayors will know what is going on under the alignment category. that is the bare minimum we should be doing. the second area is partnership. this is about where mayors can make things a citywide initiative. we can take advantage of our belief pulpit. we can highlight issues we think are very important. i thought a great example of this would-be mayor fischer. he is the 50th mayor of louisville. he was very successful as a business person. he is now applying his business acumen to city government. he has a great example for mayors to hear that may or may not work for your city the goal hopefully get you thinking. >> we're going to talk about our

focus on college and adults with college degrees. 55,000 more college degrees in our city by the year 2020 than what we normally would have. we have about 150,000 adults right now with college degrees. we're shooting for 205,000. when we do that, we will be among the top tier of american cities in terms of adults with college educations. education leads to innovation and jobs. we're not just focusing on that in terms of quantity. we're also focusing on the quality of degrees. we've talked about the mismatch in terms of job openings but not the right skills. it is the combination of quantity and quality. 40,000 are for your degrees. 15,000 are two-year degrees. we have sub-goals for the minority community and adults with some working college.

this is using the power of the mayors to convene. when your office calls, peter -- people tend to show up. we have a board consists of our eight colleges and universities in the louisville area, nonprofits, the jefferson county school system that has 100,000 students, and our business community is in this 110%. this came out of a project we called the greater louisville project restarted after the merger of our city and county governments in nine years ago. we were one of the last large american cities to merge like this. we identified education as one of the key drivers of change. we needed to measure so that we could grow and come up with programs to make a difference. that is where the 55,000 -- what

the 55,000 preprogram has been about. it has created a common language for us. people frequently talk about them in different ways so you get no results. we have developed a common language. we have, an action. we are able to measure ourselves. it has created tremendous enthusiasmit has also created ts enthusiasm. we spend about $900,000 a year on this. it is not a big budget program, but when you put in the board and community time, it is a very effective way to target. it builds a very effective believe to do this because we have good data back on where we are and where we need to go and a lot of action as well. that is better than just talking about how things should be and hoping it works out. the enthusiasm is spreading

throughout the community. it is one thing to have this at a top level of a board or a business,. it is another to start hearing about it on the ground and building those degrees from the ground up. that is where we are now. we are about 16 months into the program. our first year results were on track, but this is a 10-year program. it will require a sense of urgency and daily focus. we will know when we are successful if you are out in a community or at a party and a colleague says, "tell me what your company is doing in the 55,000-degree program." a lot of things we're talking about at this conference our culture changes. we cannot reach these goals just buy a little bit of continuous improvement. we need some breakthroughs and innovation in terms of the way people think and the attention they put to these issues. while we're getting better every day, we are also working on cementing that culture change.

>> thanks. let me give you an example of a culture change that we should be thinking about, in my opinion. one is third grade reading. most of you know that every kid, by the time they leave their great, should be reading at grade level. that is not happening in our country. it is not happening in most states. it is not happening in most cities. there is an initiative called third grade reading matters, and there is a booklet on your table. and the mayor is interested in being part of that, the deadline is march 12. if you put together a plan, nudge your superintended to be involved. if you put together a plan by march 12, you could be part of a network of a few select cities around the country with access to philanthropic dollars and a host of other best practices so you can be very instrumental in creating a citywide initiative. only 37% of third graders in sacramento are reading at grade level. 37%. that means 63% are not reading

at grade level. that is not acceptable. it is not a lot different from the country and the state of california. it is not a whole lot different than most of your cities. in terms of early childhood education and the things we think are important, this third grade reading initiative falls under partner at -- falls under number two. i think third grade reading is something to consider. afterwards, if you have questions, we will make sure to sign you up. the all-american city contest is going to award 10 cities next year based on their plan to attack third grade reading it in your respective cities. this is going to be an initiative we talk about over the next two or three years. third is category 3, the advocate category. there are a lot of mayors here already kind of in this bucket, but i thought mayor hancock would be a great example. he is the 45th mayor of denver,

doing great work, came up through the urban league, led the urban league. he understands community solutions. he has been very innovative. his predecessors were doing things like preschool and scholarships and taking city dollars to make sure they are putting them in their highest priority areas. young people and then scholarships for kids when they graduate. mayor hancock. >> thank you, mayor johnson. let me just say that i believe there is no greater advocate or potential advocate in this city than the mayor. the bully pulpit, the exposure, the ability to kind of grabbed the attention from the business community, community-based leaders, the media, and to direct them toward the issue is one of the more powerful tools, quite frankly, in this whole question around education. while i was running for mayor, and i spoke office in july, i was criticized for my advocacy or discussion around education

-- and i took office in july. one day, i asked an audience to name one thing that the mayor is expected to address that is not predicated on a quality education in their city. the room fell silent. it was my way to begin to demonstrate or dramatize the importance of schools on the issue of economic development, the issue of public safety. while we were doing this, of course, i watched, as we all did in denver, the kind of dysfunction that was occurring with regards to our board of education. as i watched one night for the first time ever a debate around and education system program in denver public schools, i watched as they argued about this issue on a very dysfunctional level, but not one time during the 90-minute debate did someone mention children or the interest of kids. i knew then that that i became mayor, i would play a very active role in electing good

board members to the board of education. to encourage, as well as a bullet create opportunities was very important to me. let me tell you what denver has done on and local level to encourage some of the state policies. in 2007, denver passed a new levy to support pro-compensation for our teachers, which basically says we will pay you according to your performance in denver, and the people supported it overwhelmingly to pay our teachers better if they were effective teachers. in may 2010, a state senator by the name of mike johnston fall of the plan on the state level where the new program was to deal effectively with teacher evaluation as well as with the issue of tenure in colorado. senate bill 191 simply said the

teachers 50% of their evaluation would be built around student growth. for school principals, 50% of evaluation would be based on student growth as well. not only would we evaluate based on cigarettes to get to the most effective teachers, but we would also deal with tenure so that it takes a backseat to the effectiveness rating. no longer is tenure or seniority basis for whether or not they keep jobs. we will start with how they have been measured as an effective teacher or not and then security and tenure will come into play. finally, the third element was simply that teachers who were deemed ineffective would be

placed on administrative leave. it was bold. it was transformed it. it was ground breaking legislation. we knew the unions would fight, but it would be advocacy from the ground up, led by neighbors as well. it is time to make a difference. now, we had the pro-comp plan in place. secondly, we began to deal with the challenge that face our public school system with teachers who were being rated as ineffective remaining in their jobs based on their tenure. the mayor is playing a role to encourage and influence the board of education as well as just raising the level and conversation to a place where everyone is now involved is

extremely important and one that i think that all the years -- all mayor should be prepared to play, whether you have control of education in your city or not. the bottom line is you are the most effective voice and mouthpiece for effective education. >> thanks. if you look at your booklet, the third category where it says advocates, there are some examples of where the mayor can push the envelope a little more. you can lobby on policies that you think are important. also, you can create an accountability school report card. mayor bloomberg talks about this in this bucket for mayors who have full control, but it really applies to all of us here the next speaker is the mayor from indianapolis. he has been a champion, and i want to tell the audience -- this is a bipartisan panel. you have democrats and republicans up here. mayor ballard has been a champion for the work he has been doing in indianapolis, getting a lot of national

recognition. a lot of people talk about new or lesbian ground zero for education reform, the indianapolis is doing some amazing things. he was elected 48th mayor in 2007. just got reelected. a faithful steward of taxpayer money, but he has made education a top priority. i would love for you to talk briefly about the charter- authorizing ability that you have. he is the only mayor in the country that has the ability to authorize charters. >> thank you, mayor johnson. i appreciate that very much. we had a lot of education reform. eight or nine years ago, the state house authorize -- it has had a dramatic effect. we have 11 different school systems in the city of indianapolis. plus, private schools, plus charter schools. we have over 20 charter schools in the city of indianapolis. of the 50 applicants that have

come forward while i have been mayor, we have only approved eight. it is a very difficult cut, but we have a dramatic effect when those schools are successful. stanford university recently said the indianapolis charter school option for our students really have outpaced traditional schools in learning improvements for our schools, so i think that is important. there is strict accountability. other people that do charter schools throughout the nation come to our office and ask how we hold them accountable. i held a couple of schools to the ultimate accountability message, i guess. i closed them. i am the only guy that has ever closed schools in the state of indiana that i know. i do not know about the country, but a closed schools -- but i closed schools because they were not performing. the great thing about charter schools is so many of these going to chop neighborhoods. people who want to do charter

schools, education management organizations usually come in to help anchor institutions. they usually partnered up in most cases and go into tough neighborhoods to provide an option. i like choice. i like competition in schools. i think that is important. we have general schools. no real good option unless they go to tinley, which is very rigorous with a population that just could not succeed in regular public schools. every child who graduates from there goes to a four-year college. absolutely every one of them. it is amazing if you saw what happened at that school. it also gives you a unique offering also. we have something called the hope academy, which deals with substance abuse. there's only, like, probably 30 or 50 kids in that school at any one time.

graduation is usually 6 to 12 students a year, but these kids did not succeed anywhere else. it is an amazing school. they do such good work there. recently, we opened up an academy which deals with kids with behavioral and cognitive disabilities. very special school. ollie public school in the state of indiana that deals with that. a lot of tears shed that day when we cut the ribbon. that is what charter schools can do for you. in addition, we have the mine trust, headed by a guy named dave harris. he does a great job. used to run the charter school office in the city of indianapolis for my predecessor. we are in the process of partnering with mind trust. we're going to open somewhere between 20 and 30 new charter schools in indianapolis. again, very rigorous standards. we will make sure they hold to those very rigorous standards as we go forward.

it will be a tremendous success in the city of indianapolis and the state of indiana. the other thing we have been doing is the people who have been very successful, we are expediting their applications to replicate their schools rather quickly. again, multiplied the success of the charter schools in the city of indianapolis. it has been very effective so far. we have the studies to prove that what we have been doing in the city of indianapolis has been very effective, and our kids are benefiting from it. >> all right, thank you. item four, which is partial control. they are essentially examples where mayors could authorize charters. in some cases, mayors of. school board members. many of you have talked about this as an opportunity that you wanted to consider. the last category is full control. mayor bloomberg talk about that. this is essentially mayor's -- mayors having control of your schools. raise your hand if you are a

mayor in the audience. raise your hand if you are a major that has full control of your schools. one? thank you for all the work you're doing, sir. raise your hand if you are a mayor who would like to have full control of your schools and you do not. i think almost all hands should go up. this is about accountability. you can see here along the spectrum there are all kinds of ways you can get involved. the secretary of education has made a commitment to us that he is willing to help any mayor in here who wants to do their part to explore options. it has to be where your appetite is. in california, you have to change the constitution of the state in order for a mayor to take control of the school. you can what to do it all you want. it will just not happen. somewhere along the spectrum, i hope folks are involved. ok, this is our last round. we are going to make this a little quicker, a little crisper.

what i want you folks to think about -- in june, we are going to bring forward a couple policies we would like to have passed as a resolution. we are thinking about three of them, and we will talk about them briefly. i want meier goodman to talk about school choice and competition, and i will talk about charter come back after that -- i want mayor goodman to talk about school choice and competition. >> i could not agree more. we also have nagged at schools, which placed 100% in technology and math and science. very, very successful with 100% placement. the problem is there are too many students that want to get in, and we cannot afford with the budget that we have for the public-school system to go ahead and create more of these at this point. there is a huge competitiveness, however, to get into them. first and foremost, the magnet schools. charter schools depend on what

they are doing. of course, there is a great variability. the license for them is by the state. in our community, they have to meet certain standards. what has happened, though, there has been a feeling out there among the populace -- what about the students who cannot afford to buy -- afford to participate that i left in the public schools as they stand? our biggest concern is in that area. we are mandating everything. charter schools are wonderful. the competition is great. it will do nothing but raise the level of every other type of school, but my concern are the students who are left in the public-school system that cannot either get into or accessed through a lottery one of the charter schools that is succeeding very well, and how do

we help those young people? those children really take all my focus. the competition is great. we have parochial schools. independent, non-profits schools. i will tell you, representing up here with my colleagues, i am a non-partisan. i am a registered non-partisan. i am totally into both sides of the coin. let's see how we can fix this. everything we are doing -- it is a band-aid. i would never have done that but for the need to address the quality of education in this country, and we need to do it, and we need to do it from the start. the competition by the charter schools is wonderful -- or the madness schools that exist in your cities, or the parochial or independent schools, but they have to meet budgets, too, and there's dollars that are needed. we need to make sure we are taking our tax dollars and

putting them back into the public in the right places, and the right place is the quality teacher. they certainly do not hold up to standards, nor are they a lot like our entertainers, our sports figures. their salaries are an embarrassment, and it is in the quality of the teacher that makes the difference to the child, whether it is in a charter school or a magnet school, and our magnet schools have the finest teachers in the entire state. they are not down there in the public schools for the children who are the basis of our community. we have to open up the sides of buildings. we have moved from fourth grade focus to third grade focused in reading. my purpose is kindergarten. every child is able to read that is not special reads needs to start reading in kindergarten. needs to start reading and doing math in kindergarten.

then there will not be the crime. there will not be all these young people who have no skills who cannot get a job because they have no skills. so what are they supposed to do? we can fix it all in the elementary level so they do have this skill. we now in our city are thinking about putting in magnet schools at the lowest level. that is it. [laughter] >> this is going to be a rapid round. >> i am sorry. i apologize to all of you. when you have a passion, which all of you do because you are sitting here, it goes on. i am sorry. if you want to fire me, fire me. >> no way. again, when she talked about third reading and early childhood, remember, when we are talking about third grade, it is early childhood. she is talking about we want kids who enter kindergarten ready. we have to start even earlier. the one policy i want to throw

out is a charter compact. essentially saying that we believe school districts should work with charter schools and create a good working relationship, not to be adversarial when it comes to facilities, when it comes to access, when it comes to sharing best practices. that makes sense for all of us. some cities are doing it. we think it is a good policy. charter schools are not the panacea to education, but they are a good option, a good choice, and they create good, competitive competition. you will hear a little more about that. i am going to jump to mayor ballard a little bit. you talked about the charter world, but you just got new legislation that allows you to appoint a deputy of education. can you talk briefly -- >> i will be very brief. the state did a lot of good work in the last session last year, and they've made a lot of changes, which now allows me to

hire a deputy. i could have, but it would not have been effective, to be honest with you. we have done a lot of work there. we now have teacher pay increases based on being good. we rate them by highly effective, effective, needing improvement, or ineffective. it also rate that no student may be taught two consecutive years by a teacher who has been rated an effective -- rated ineffective. if you graduate in three years instead of four, we will give you $4,000 to go to college, straight up. the state will. talking about the relationship between charter schools and regular public schools, we have a relationship now to use of unused facilities. we have full-day kindergarten. collective bargaining is still there, but only for salaries and benefits. there has been a dramatic change

in the city of indianapolis and the state of indiana. i think this now allows the city of indianapolis -- even though i think they have done good work and our graduation it has been increasing steadily -- it now allows us to go to really a different place. i think we are going to take advantage of that. >> thanks. mayer brown also had the opportunity to appoint a deputy of education -- mayor brown. please make sure you share the information with us so we can get it out to others. the second policy without looking at bringing forward in june as teacher evaluation. there has got to be multiple majors for effectiveness. student achievement is measured, but what other teachers are doing around the school -- we want to bring that forward. at the end of the day, as mayor bloomberg has said, we have to make sure our kids are learning in every way. we do not want to be bodies just hear singing and dancing.

we will be talking about that, in june. i would like mayor fischer -- he is our last speaker on this today -- again, what you are doing with that 55,000 deal -- what is it called? >> 55,000 degrees. >> and the last thought you want to share with us on that? and then i will tie one policy to what your doing. -- what you are doing. >> great. the government is great putting these goals out. 55,000 degrees. we say it is great and then go away, and prickly, nothing happens. how do you get 55,000 degrees? one degree at a time. take in a bold, as operational goal like this and drill it down to the individual family, the individual student, who is really what the challenge is. we have received commitment letters from each of our board members. i always say, i am not watching the list.

i am watching the action. it is easy for people to flap their lips. now, they are getting in with their commitment. how many more degrees will come from their companies, whether they are universities or colleges? then, they have a full plan behind it. we have some confidence that we have a plan that is going to get some results. we have developed a tool for businesses so that you can survey your employees. who had some college? who wants to complete college? then you can target people, and the tuition reimbursement plan will be for them. i want to have everyone tell me, "count me in. i am part of this deal." when you all come to louisville or come to the kentucky derby or whatever you are going to come for, you will drive through the community and say at the headquarters, on their front door, a number -- 268. when you go by a church, you will see a number -- 15.

these are these organizations' commitments to the 55,000-degree program with a back up plan for each of them, one degree at a time. [applause] >> impressive. who was here yesterday? everybody. i want to connect what he said. tom freeman was very clear yesterday. he said education is critical for our country to be competitive at the global level, and the average is not good enough anymore. it is no longer acceptable. it is this notion as a country we are losing our competitive edge, and we have got to bring it back front and center. the last thing i want to talk about is a policy i want to consider that mayor villaraigosa talked about earlier. parents have to play a critical role, so let me give you an example. in this country, there were three high-profile cases.

first month was in the movie "waiting for superman." the second one was in compton where these parents were trapped and their kids were going to failing schools that were not doing very well. that was not acceptable, so these parents ended up getting threatened to resign this apparent trigger to enact a new law to give them the power and ability to move forward -- they were being threatened to be deported in compton, which is not acceptable. lastly, in akron, ohio, there was a lady to -- who falsified a record to make sure her daughter and kids went to good schools, and she got arrested. if we want parents involved, that is certainly not the message we want to send. i want the mayors to talk about how we can empower and engage parents. thank you very much for your time. let's give the panelists a round of applause. i will send it over to mayor villaraigosa.

>> thank you to the members of the panel. we will be starting lunch with our closing speaker, the senior adviser to president barack obama. or is it here? it is right in here. we will stay here. is he here? not quite yet. let me make a comment or two about what you all just heard. and the charge before us. you listened to tom friedman. as i said to him, if you read, "the world is flat quarter made when it was written five years ago, -- "the world is flat" when it was written five years ago, when he said we were not competing in math and science, people thought he was talking about the kids of privilege, the affluent and the upper middle- class.

i am sorry, that he was talking about the poor and the people at the bottom of the social economic ladder, but actually, we are not competing. our schools, the kids are the affluent. the upper middle-class are not competing in math, science, and engineering. when we talk about education reform, we talk about accountability. we talk about multiple measures have evaluation. we talk about seniority and tenure in the things we have to do to improve our schools. understand this -- we are not just talking about someone else's kids. we are talking about our own. i have a i havesc, a sudden -- i have a daughter about -- at sc, a son that was in princeton, a daughter that graduated from sic. most of us have kids to graduate from institutions of higher

learning, but they are not competing in math and science. the challenge before us is not just the challenge of improving education for someone else's kids. it is the challenge of improving education for our own, the challenge to have america's future generation the as equipped, be as smart, be as educated, particularly in math, science, and engineering, as any kid anywhere in the world. that is what this is about. mayor johnson, thank you. mayor johnson was all over me, pushing this idea that we should have this plenary again, and i said, "absolutely." thank you for your leadership. mayor ballard, mayor hancock was here, a mere -- mayor fischer, mayor goodman, thank you all.

mr. fluff -- i did not say that. boy, that was a misnomer. david pluff will be in in just a moment -- david plough. he is walking in right now. here he comes. mr. johnson and others, if you can --

i think david is coming in as we speak. he is. all right. by the way, he was going to be here a little earlier, but i saw that our panel was late, so i asked if david would come and speak to us. let me just say that our closing speaker today is david plouffe, , senior adviser to president barack obama, a key architect in the president's 2008 campaign before joining the white house. over the course of this meeting, we have been able to meet with president obama on the mark -- and numerous cabinet members. many of you met with them in breakout sessions. virtually all of them have tried to either come to the reception or to the conference. been able to make our case that

the country's metro region strive the nation's economy and our key to the full recovery from a great recession, so i am very pleased. david is here to continue this conversation with us. please help me in welcoming david plouffe. [applause] >> thanks, everyone. i am not going to start by singing and the al green -- any al green. only president obama can carry that tune. i want to thank mayor villaraigosa for inviting me to a peer hopefully many of you saw the president was in orlando, florida, yesterday, making it easier for foreign tourists to visit america. this is the kind of action we have taken many times in the

past few months where we are scouring the government and listening to a lot of people in america about things we can do on our own to help improve the economy and help improve the country. something like this seems like a small procedural detail, but it will have a huge impact in cities like los angeles, orlando, las vegas -- all around the country. people from around the world can come and spend money and learn about our country. if you are a small business owner, more tourists mean more revenue. if you are one of the many americans still looking for work, more revenue might mean more jobs. for just about everybody in this room, tourist dollars to play a role in your budget and your community. we were losing a lot of business to other countries, and that had to stop, and now it will. but this is not just an abstract policy decision. it will help people in those communities get to it -- get through some of the toughest times anyone can remember. certainly since the great depression. what is nice about talking to

all of you -- and i know members of the administration had a chance to visit with you. you were grounded, obviously, in the real world. every decision that we make in washington, that you're governors make, that you make as mayors -- you have direct impact on your constituents in a moment and the kind of cities and towns that will be billed for your residence in the coming years. when we talk about investing in education and reforming it, investing in transportation about how to create good, middle-class jobs, about how we become known again for making things that are sold all around the world, you understand how much these things mean to the people living in your cities. while you come from both parties, you know the debate in washington needs to be a lot more than about scoring political points. it needs to be about putting points on the board for you in your communities and the american people. the decisions we make have a real, direct impact. for many of your constituents, it has never been more

important that government live up to their responsibility. what is happening all around the country is people know that you are living up to your responsibilities, having to make hard decisions. county government, state government, people running businesses small and large, having to make tough decisions. workers, family members. they have weathered this recession. they have made adjustments. they have been super responsible, and they want to see that same response ability out of their institution, and they certainly need to see more of that responsibility out of this institution. that is certainly more of what we will see out of 2012. the president last month -- some of you might have seen the speech he gave in kansas where he talked about the kind of values that he believes -- and i think most people in america believe -- need to undergird our economy. that this really is a make or break moment for the middle class. we have to continue to create jobs, get grows up, bring unemployment down. but the central challenge facing the country and has been for

decades is how do we have more people in middle-class -- how do we have more people in middle- class that are more secure about it? and the people fighting to get in middle class -- so many of you here in the room represent people who are trying to get in the middle class. it is their central goal in life. we have an economy and a government and a country that is focused on that task at this make or break moment for the middle-class. that speech he gave in a small community in kansas -- but i think what is reflected there is what is happening all over the country, which is that for too many people in america now, they are not sure if they work hard and act responsibly if they are going to be rewarded, that no matter who you are or where you come from, you will have the same opportunities as people in previous generations, and that is something where too many americans have come to believe that the basic bargain may be in question, that it might be

eroded. what we are seeing here is stagnation has obviously been a problem again, going back decades. the average worker has been falling farther and farther behind. there is a growing gap between the wealthiest and everybody else. on top of that, it was exacerbated by the financial crisis. even the people we're dealing with stagnation heading into 2008, less mobility, you put what happened in 2008 over, it makes the burden of recovering for these folks even more challenging. the challenges we faced were not created overnight. they were not even created in 2008. these challenges have been going on for a long time. it will take a lot of time not just to dig out of recession but to build the kind of america where everybody gets their fair share, we play by the rules, and everybody gets a fair shake. it is a vision that says we are greater together than we are -- that we all succeed, and everybody plays by the same

rules. i think that is true for our economy, but just as important as what it means for the economy is that is the kind of america that your residents and people all across america want to live in. a sense that there are the same rules in place for everybody, that their hard work is just as valued as someone else's. that if you are not accountable, there will be consequences, no matter your station in life and no matter how powerful your legal team is. that is really what we have to build in america. we know with some certainty that there will need to be jobs created in your community to succeed going forward. we know that we have to have a manufacturing sector here. the good news is for the last three years, we have actually added manufacturing jobs. been a long time since we have done that. in communities all across america, you are beginning to see a manufacturing renaissance. we have to step on the

accelerator. president will talk about some ideas about how we can do even more. we know we have to have those manufacturing jobs that pay people $22, $24, maybe even more, an hour so that they can thrive. the remarkable thing we have right now in america is we have a moment where you are beginning to see more companies make the decision that economically it makes sense for them to stay in america or relocate in america. because you are seeing rising wages in china and the cost of business increasing their, there is a window here. president had a conference -- some of you attended this -- a couple of weeks ago on in sourcing. companies came to talk about their story, the decisions they made to bring jobs back. think about that. we could have a moment in this country where we are bringing jobs back. they had some great ideas about what we at the federal government level could do. we have to seize this moment.

because we are not going to have -- clearly, we are not going to get the job growth we need, but the kind of jobs we need will have to be a resurgence in our manufacturing sector, particularly in high- tech manufacturing. we know much of that will be in clean energy, health care technology, places not just here in the country, but where our technology and our workers can export all around the world. this is they really, really unique moment we have. you see what is happening all over the country. companies like ford are investing $16 billion in this country between now and 2015, bringing back to thousand jobs, and shifting production from companies like japan, mexico, and china, to states like michigan, ohio, and missouri. it was announced yesterday that once again, after a long absence, general motors is now the no. 1 auto maker in the world, and we should all be proud of that. [applause]

another great example, from the great city of milwaukee, an american company looked at their numbers to the point and realized that their union workers were competitive with non-union workers in china, and that they are as exporting their products to china and europe. for the first time in 15 years, they are up and running at full capacity. i mentioned the insourcing event. the ceo of an i.t. company has already hired 20 workers and the plan on hiring up to 50. we are going to lay out new ideas on tuesday, but how can we create the atmosphere, the policies, the incentives to make sure those companies are making these decisions -- they will stay rooted in your community. they will start in your community and add capacity in your community. last year was a very frustrating year here in washington.

one of the really troubling moments was that at a time when the economy was already getting weaker -- we had a really good moment, and then because of the arab spring and what happened in japan and a variety of factors in europe, the economy began to slow a little bit as we got into the summer. and then washington made it worse. it was a self-inflicted wound for our confidence in this country, to our economy, and it has taken us a long time to dig out of that. the debt ceiling debacle is something that never needs to be repeated in washington again. we are not naive. we understand we live in a very divided country, and we are heading into an election year, but the election is still 10 long months away. one thing i am sure of is and the view that might be in a new election year do not have the luxury of not focusing on the task at hand. each and every day.

and there is a sense in washington -- some of the pundits are already saying this -- even some members of congress are saying is that it will be hard to get anything done this year. we will have to kick these debates and these problems down the field for 2013. please, i would implore you -- demand of republicans and democrats in congress that that is not acceptable. we will have an election. there will be plenty of time to have the to and fro that that will result in. there is a lot of work to be done right now. democrats and republicans almost with unanimity at the may level -- at the male role -- at the mayoral level demanded tax cuts, and if you had not lifted up your voices, i think taxes would have gone up for everybody, but you force actions of the taxes will continue to be cut this year, and that will have a profound impact on every middle- class family. people trying to get the middle

class our businesses who need those customers. we still have a lot of work to do, so we need your help to make sure congress lands the plane, but that was a moment where the party was a little too late and a little too messy, but we finally came to get there. you have to help us make sure we do that, make sure we extend our tax cut. we will continue to make the case that helping you -- putting teachers back in your classrooms is an important thing to do. we have bipartisan support traditionally. it needs to get, given the structure is you are facing at the local level. not to mention that we are in a great competition now. the last thing we could be doing if we are going to compete and our kids are going to compete is to be shorting them in the classroom. we have to be pushing the accelerator down, not putting the brakes on. that has to be in -- that has to be a central mission of this country, and we are going to

help with that. there are job-producing ideas that traditionally have had bipartisan support that we think congress ought to work on. we may not solve all the great philosophical debates this year. but we can do some smart things to help you. we can assist in the manufacturing sector, to make sure we are pursuing tax policy that helps the middle class and also helps small businesses. we can work on education and reform, maybe do some things around immigration reform. it is a long year, and i think it is important that you hold washington's feet to the fire that this cannot be just about a speechifying this year. we're going to pursue every opportunity to work with congress. we have had some success. we signed trade deals with colombia and panama and south korea. we will be selling ford and chevy is in south korea, not just having them sell hyndai here.

we had patent reform, which was a big deal for entrepreneurs and investors. we cut taxes, repeal don't ask, don't tell, did some things with republicans, and we have had some success, and we need a lot more. we are not naive. we will continue work on every avenue where we can take action on our own. sometimes that will be because there is gridlock, that congress will not act. sometimes it is because it is a good idea. if you have ideas for executive actions we can take, we are all ears. you are going to have better ideas than we do because you are on the other end of this. honestly, seriously, if you have ideas, send them our way. we want to continue not just to scour the government, but ask people who are the partners of the government for their ideas because we are going to continue all throughout this year and the next four years after that to look at what we can do on our

own to help communities, help your cities and towns, and help our workers. the president on tuesday is going to deliver the state of the union address. it would be foolish for me to preview it too much here and get ahead of him. he is working on it as we speak. but a little sneak peek is that, as we mentioned, the president gave a speech in kansas where he talked about the values he needed to animate our country and economy, about fair play and everybody doing their fair share and everybody getting a fair shake. and about this make or break, for the middle-class and how we can create more good jobs for them. and for the first time in a long time, reverse wage stagnation and have a moment or more people are getting into the middle class. it is going to take a long time. what he will lay out on tuesday night is really putting some flesh on the bones there. and lay out his concrete ideas, his blueprint, if you will, for how we can build an america that is here to last, an economy that

is built to last. at the end of the day, that is what people want. that is what the country needs. not a short-term economic moment built on baubles -- bubbles or financial instruments. we need a durable economy and a durable country, where the -- with a real sense of what our north stars are. what i the things we need to do in the not too distant future where in your cities and all across the country we are doing the right things in terms of education and skills? some of that, by the way, requires government reform. the president announced last week he is asking congress for the ability, with presidents have all the way up until reagan, to have what is called reorganization authority. it means the president has the authority to give congress an up or down vote ideas for how to make the government smarter and leaner and more efficient. we have a government -- you are

surrounded here by a government that was built for the middle of the last century. it is not as efficient as it needs to be. it is not as strategic as it needs to be. it is not as customer friendly as it needs to be. we have made big improvements using technology, efficiency, metric measuring, and i hope you have seen a difference, but we have a lot more to do. we gave some ideas last week and said if we had such authority, what would we do? we do a lot of consolidating and a lot smarter work around our exports, our small businesses. we want to be imagined and refashion and reform the government so it is built to provide you and your city and our business is the kind of government we need in this century. one of the things we need to do is not just ideas and policies. that is important. we are going to lay it out next week in energy, manufacturing,

skills and education, some of the reforms we need to our institutions. more responsibility throughout the country. but also, that needs to be directed here. we have to again have big ambitions about the kind of reforms we need to bring to this government, so it is a true partner for you at the local government level, and it is a true partner with the private sector so that we can unleash the power of our people. this is going to be an important year. not for the reasons a lot of people are focused on, which is what happens in november. that will come, but we have an economy that is still far too challenged. now, slow progress. 22 straight months of private- sector job growth. over 3 million jobs in that time. 2011 created more jobs than any year going back to 2005, but given the deep hole we find ourselves in, it is not enough. and we have some of external challenges out there. there is some turmoil going on in the middle east. we still have a lot of

instability in europe. we have both the expiration of the bush tax cuts at the end of the year and a sequestered in terms of how we will get another $1 trillion in the deficit reduction. hopefully, everyone in this town will do that in a smart way, it with a serves your city, serves our people, serves our businesses. we cannot do anything here that would be again, another self- inflicted wound that would slow this economy. in fact, we need to do the opposite in smart ways. in the tough budget times we find ourselves in, what can we do in a collaborative way with you and our businesses to play the role government should to help put a little more acceleration on this economy. so the american people, your residence -- they have just been remarkable. they have dusted themselves off and went right back to work. they started new businesses. they have got new skills. they are saving.

some of them have even had to adjust their dreams in life, and they are doing it, and they are doing it without complaint. what they need is leaders. you guys are on the phone every day. you do not have the ability for much quantification and finger- pointing. this is more about our national leaders. they need to see their leaders here acting more responsibly, putting our nose to the grindstone. we have big debates within our party. they will not be stopped easily, but there is an area of common ground. i do not think the country wants us to wait to 2013 to make progress on our problems. i will humbly admit that the people on the ballot nov. would probably be better served if they were sure they could make progress. you always give us and our staff great ideas, great insights, a great criticism. please keep them coming. we need to be better partners with you. we need to be more innovative. all of you are doing remarkably

innovative things in your city. some of them can scale up. some of them cannot. we want to look at all of them and hopefully, we can continue to make progress, make sure we build an american economy that does a lot for all of our cities. thank you. [applause] >> many of the initiatives, david, that you have started -- started -- charted as priorities for the nation moving forward our initiatives we put together in our common sense jobs agenda in september. extending for the rest of the year the payroll tax, as you mentioned. investing in infrastructure, investing in school construction. we supported the trade agreements and said that we need the server formed to promote tourism in this country. you will see that virtually all

of what you mentioned are things that on a bipartisan basis, this organization has gotten behind. we are tired of the ideologues in both parties. we are looking for practical solutions. as you said, many of these initiatives were initiatives -- we went to republican and democratic think tanks and asked, "what are the things that could put millions of people back to work?" we came up with this set of initiatives, and they dovetail quite perfectly with the issues you raise. we will be their standing with you, standing with both republican and democratic leaders who want to put the nation first, so thank you so much. [applause] and, folks, lunch will begin in just a moment. i have got to get moving to the "national journal" real quick,

but lunch will begin right now. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> the u.s. supreme court has thrown out electoral maps drawn by federal judges in texas that favored minorities. the justices ordered the three- judge court in san antonio to come up with new plans but did not compel the use of maps created by texas was a republican-dominated state legislature. the 2010 census that at the texas added more than 20 million new residents, mostly latinos and african-americans, since 2000. republican presidential candidates continue their last push through south carolina today, ahead of the first in the nation southern primary. ron paul has moved his whistle stop to myrtle beach, south carolina. newt gingrich is going to coker college for a town hall meeting. rick santorum is headed just south of chartres -- charlotte.

mitt romney will be at the south carolina convention center for a rally this afternoon. we will have live coverage of that event. mitt romney plans to talk about jobs and the economic situation in the country with his supporters. c-span's road to the white house coverage shows you candidate events leading up to saturday's south carolina primary. >> the obama administration just came out with a policy that said that in her program, she could not teach abstinence. as a preferable way of avoiding out of wedlock birth. and she cannot talk about marriage. she cannot talk about marriage as any other than an alternative lifestyle that is no better or no worse than any other lifestyle. my question is -- why? >> when the president adopts a stimulus package of hundreds of

billions of dollars that nobody has read and then discovers to his great surprise two years later, as he himself put it, that the shovel-ready jobs were not shovel-ready, and the stimulus bill would leave us -- a stimulus failed but leaves us $800 billion deeper in debt, he has to take responsibility. that was his proposal, and it failed. >> and as candidates meet with voters to get their message out. and after the polls closed saturday evening, we will show you the results from south carolina, along with candidate speeches and your phone calls. >> some will say we are reactionary. others will say we stand for socialism. it is time for a change and so

on. we will hear those things and many more besides. but we will hear nothing but we have not heard before. >> as the candidates' campaign for president, we look back at 14 men who ran and lost for the office. you can see video of "the contenders" who had a lasting impact on american politics. >> we seek to refresh the american spirit. let the opposition collect their $10 million in secret money from the privileged few. let us find 1 million ordinary americans who will contribute $25 each to this campaign, a 1 million member club with members who will not expect special favors for themselves, but a better land for us all. >> c-span.org/thecontenders.

prime minister david cameron outlined his conservative party plan outline on the economy. he discussed his plans on remedies for what went wrong with the european economy at the end of the last decade. this is about half an hour. [applause] >> thank you for that introduction. it is great to be here. you take relatively unused space in central urban locations and make it available to entrepreneurs and start-ups. it is a key facility for people who have a great idea but cannot start in a fully fledged office. this is a great idea for the government to take up this unused space to help build a

more socially entrepreneurial society that we all want to see. meanwhile, we have to deal with the legacy of the deficit and debt. the eurozone is in deep and continuing trouble. unemployment rose again today. across europe, economies have stalled. in britain, it is clear this is an active government. everything we can to get the economy working. the massive drive on apprentice ships. regional growth, enterprise. but today many people are questioning not just how and when we will recover. they're questioning the whole way in which our economy works. economic change starts with debt in achieving growth. it must not end there. we must aim higher than just

coping with the storms affecting the international economy. we must aim to build a better economy that is truly fair and worthwhile. we will not build a better economy by turning our backs on the pre-market. we will do it by making sure market is stare and free. government, regulation, but the real solution is more innovation. my position is clear. i believe open markets and free enterprise are the best course for improving human wealth and happiness. there the engine of progress. they generate the enterprise and innovation that lifts people out of poverty and gives them

opportunity. i would go further. when the markets work properly, open markets and free enterprise can promote morality because they create a direct link between contribution and reward, between effort and outcome. the fundamental basis of the market is the idea of something for something. that is an idea we need to encourage and not condemned. we should use this crisis of capitalism to improve markets and not undermine them. i believe conservatives in particular are well-placed to do this. get a free market. notre conservative has a naive belief that all politics and politicians have to do is stand back and let capitalism rip. we know every difference in the world between a market that works and one that does not. markets can fail.

uncontrolled globalization can slide into monopolization sweeping aside the small, personal, local. but we are the party who understands how to make capitalism work. we have defended our open economy against socialism. where others see problems with problems as an opportunity to improve them. this reflects two principles always been a part of what i believe and have been at the center of conservative thinking for centuries. a vision of social responsibility. that is recognizing people are not just individuals and that companies have obligations. the second principle is a genuinely popular capitalism that should allow everyone to the success of the markets. the idea of social responsibility is not some new

departure. burke insisted on public accountability for the east company. the same spirit of responsibility help to drive the campaign against the slave traders. it led to the laws that -- it led to the factory acts that set working conditions. it is true that the great campaign for reform restraint and other movements. but social responsibility, watching over business, correcting market failure, recognizing obligations, that has been part of the conservative mission from the start. a large part of my leadership has been about renewing the leadership and tradition. corporate responsibility and environmental responsibility have been constant themes and the arguments i have made and the policies are developed. soon after i was elected leader, i said we should not just stand

for business, but we should also stand up to big business when it is in the national interest to do so. i argued the previous government turned a blind eye to corporate excess. we believe in responsible capitalism and the government will make it happen. popular capitalism is just as important a social responsibility. we need to open our markets. we need to get more people engaged in capitalism. that is what you see when you hub. throught the the consistent theme has been ambition of building a nation of shareholders. macmillan championed this giving people access of their own. margaret thatcher did the same with privatization. three years ago, i called for a

new popular capitalism that recognized what has gone wrong with capitalism and free people to make something of themselves, to get a good job, to own a home, to start the business. this mission of improving markets and ensuring they are fair and free, informed by the principles of social responsibility and genuinely popular capitalism, it should have three things at the heart. we need to be cleared of the mistakes of the last decade. we need to put the right rules and institutions in place to correct them. up enterprise opportunity so that everyone has the chance to participate and benefit from a genuine market economy. encouraged denturist spirits, and challenge the status quo. that is how we will build a more

fair and worthwhile economy. allowed the debt to get out of control. the result was a series of imbalances in our economy, between north and south, between mfg. services and may factory. government made a pact with the city. it encouraged the debt praised the economy because it needed to pay for spiraling welfare costs and a top-down interventionist state. it tolerated market failures but did not accept the markets could be made to work properly. it seemed frightened of challenging vested interests. it believed the interests of big business were always one and the same as the economy as a whole.

there was a level public spending we could not afford a model of economic growth that would not work. i understand why this has made people totally disenchanted with the markets. far from abolishing boom and bust, we have the biggest boom and then the biggest bust of the debt. when things went well, only a few seemed to get a share of the profit. to many people cannot count on their savings groans, they could not afford to buy homes, they wondered how they would pay their bills in old age. a city that should have been a powerhouse of competition and creativity. instead became a byword for financial wizardry that left a fortunate few with all of the rewards. instead of a popular capitalism, we ended up with an popular capitalism. the next question is what needs to change. we need to change the way the

free market works. we need to reclaim the principles of risk, hard work, and success with rewards. when people take risks with their own ideas and money, they will succeed in a competitive market where anyone can come along and knock them off their perch at any time. innovators to succeed and get rich. we should support business leaders who are in great rewards to keep building great businesses by doing great things with their company for our economy and society. there should be a properly functioning market for talent at the top of business. that would mean some people will earn. warts -- will earn great rewards. that is a world away from what we're used to seeing where things about not control.

the link between this, hard work, success, and reward has been broken. this is not the politics of and the -- envy. the bank of england reminded us or failure mean even less is left over for customers and shareholders. next week, the business secretariat will set out detailed proposals on executive pay including necessary legislation to follow. there is a need for new rules. we should be clear about what will bring about true responsibility. make the market work. we will do that by empowering shareholders and using the powers of transparency as well. that is why i welcome the decision by fidelity worldwide to call for better policing a boardroom pay.

markets work and is the thread that runs through this government. regulation is part of it. the last government got it the wrong way round. small companies were often strangled in red tape while the risk. we need to turn the tables so that banks work for people. we need to separate investment banking from retail banking. reporting sure the banks improperly capitalized -- we would make sure the banks are properly capitalized. we would complete the financial- services regulation. we would put in place a system that will work and protect the consumer. we are fundamentally reviewing the private initiative to strike a proper balance between risk and reward for the private sector. the collision between big business and big government on public-

sector contracts for the market worth 150 billion pounds a year. this should not be more regulation. it means less but better regulation. we need strong remarks that people can understand -- strong frameworks that people can understand. the tax code will be simpler and not more complex. it will stop abuse of the same time. this government will have reduced regulation and not increased it. the third part of the mission to improve markets to make them bear and three is about enterprise and opportunity. capitalism will never be genuinely popular and less there are genuine opportunities for everyone to participate and benefit. this means a greater emphasis on equality of opportunity. you can never create a fair economy if there are people automatically excluded from it

through poor education. if there are people encouraged to think the only to live their lives is to live on state handouts. people need the capacity to succeed. that is why this government has made the education revolution a with preschools and a complete intolerance of failure. we are slanting the funding service in favor of the poo rest. the school knows there will get more money for teaching that people and will be able to help turn their lives and prospects around. when we are having to cut public spending, we are actually investing more in early years child care. we're intervening comprehensively and early in

with children that would otherwise get a poor start in life. we believe in the insurgent economy where we support the new, innovative, and old. we give a chance to thousands who are not in business yet but would like to be. energy and ideas need the first crucial spring board. i believe britain has business potential. you can see it just yards from where i am standing. we need to end the idea of opportunity only for the few. i admire the bravery of those who turn their backs on the security of a regular wage to follow their dreams and start a company. if you take a risk and quit your job and why did the billionaire, more power to you.

if you invested your money in that risky start up and made a fortune. let's also recognize people who take risks and do not succeed the first time. the business does not succeed but they persevered. we have to recognize that is a to success. it is not a failure in itself. we should be open to that and encourage it. that is why we are taking a series of steps. we are improving on to ignore relief so that founders of companies get a bigger slice of the gains they make. -- brightest from around the world can start their businesses in the u.k.. we have implemented generous tax incentives for early stage investment. next week, i will be launching a new campaign to help people take a brave step into business for

themselves. it is a basic truth that people have a state in business, they n the success. is that even as our company has grown richer, participation has shrunk. we are boosting its shareholding by giving tax release -- relief for people investing in small businesses. we're taking other steps that have not been commented on. we are effectively abolishing capital gains tax for people who are prepared to have a go and invest in a start up. i do not believe we should stop there. we need more shareholders, more homeowners, more entrepreneurs. that is why we are reinvigorating the right to buy your counsel home. we're transforming the failing housing market. different types of capitalism where employees have a more direct say in the success of their company.

this is an issue of long cared about. in 2007, i established the conservative corporate movement. in a government where we are providing new rights for public sector workers to own a state with employee-led mutuals delivering almost 1 billion pounds of health services, i think it is right to take further steps. we know encouraging choice, opening up new forms of enterprise is not just right for business. it is also the best way of improving our public services. there are over 12 million co-op members in the u.k. it is a vital branch of popular capitalism. there are too many barriers to improving the record. there are over one does outdated pieces of legislation that had cost and complexity to the process.

they will be simplified in a new bill we're putting before parliament. in these difficult economic times to achieve more than just paying down the deficit, i want these times to lead to a more socially responsible and genuinely popular capitalism in which the powers of the market and obligations of responsibility really come together. we can improve the market by making it fair and free. many more people will get a stake in the economy and a share in the rewards of success. that is the vision of a better and more worthwhile economy that we are building. it is an economy where people work hard get rewards. it is an economy where people will be in control of their destinies because they started their own business or our shareholders in the company they work for or are part of a cooperative. it is an economy where everyone assets

and pass a ban on to the next generation. we can make the markets work for all of us to spread wealth and freedom and opportunity. thank you very much indeed for listening. [applause] ooo questions.óo let's start with james alexander this evening.éñññ÷ >> will you act to stop the buses of poorly performing banks from receiving bonuses? accurate. s major

anks, restricting why there's any doing my best try to restore think it'sight there should be the organization as if there's a bonus will be a lot

>> i think it's right there is a now examine this issue. account the ncial services authority material and import because of what he says aout the failures than the prime minister himself. today

how many government took last year and the action we asked rbs to take review duration committee discussions need to clearly the british government ó y can experience

business. i think we could argue that we ather so the practical two hopeful let me just remind the principle behind what you're saying is ready.÷÷÷÷÷ for too long in thisountry, as some in that businesses enterprises to.

but business status should social responsibility. the way it treats its customers, its staff, the weighting gauges with young children and see what coming to you within all the he will soon find out the corporate social responsibility would help if you have someone enterprise, what social responsibility is all about.

more in bonuses or pay out more inividends, they are going to commit their decisions. i think we all know one of the actually difficulty of getting predictable rules on tax and what is going to happen in terms of banking. //ñ i think it is important that we those targets are on course to press.

the bst can defend themselves in wakulla today. welcome. it's an historic decision that classic process that will be international year of way. and small up and down the telling the ended in an

encourage creation of new co-ops to cut the paperwork is a sensible thing to do. doing what you're doing. not just in the private sector, encourage public services is more appropriate in some rather than others. greater sense of ownership in important. t rest security, but it's also whether you feel you have a real stake in what you're doing.

pork talking about happiness and i think there's a growing understanding that it is about banks, which as you'll note the suggestion they should be paying

every business in every company in the country. properly. it's quite clear it's not in my speech, rewarding success has become straight yes. clearly you have to intervene no conservative believes that

there's all sorts of practices for instance, insider trading or obviously a conservative hopes believe you need a maximum extent of law because we can't ever trust anyone to behave lity as they cessary. somebody consistent was basically believe that kinsley licensed. behave rponsibly. if you want, the government has commercialization and

business of the things are thank you thank you indeed for >> this afternoon, mitt romney will hold a rally in north charleston, south carolina. the primary is tomorrow. today, the virginia governor is expected to endorse the former massachusetts governor. he currently serves as terror for the republican governors association. that is expected to start live at 3:45 eastern. we will have it here on c-span. the south carolina primary is

tomorrow. we will have live coverage of the results. 10 days from now, florida holds its primary. there are caucuses in nevada in february. maine holds a week of caucuses that same week. this is a live look in the state department. in a couple of moments, secretary of state hillary clinton is meeting with the german foreign minister. they are discussing relations between the u.s. and germany. they will come out shortly to answer reporters' questions. we will have it live on c-span when it gets under way -- underway.

we are waiting for the start of the joint briefing with secretary of state clinton and the german foreign minister. we will have that when it gets started in a few minutes here on c-span. until then, a look at how americans assess their own wealth from this morning's washington journal. host: tell me what you and your colleagues do for a living. guest: we monitor the health of the american public. we compare it among groups. and with other countries as

well. our major role is to provide the information needed for policy and research. host: your information goes to congress, state and local officials. guest: exactly. it also goes to the public. the more we can put it in the form that is understandable but everyone, that is the great challenge for us and a great interest as well. host: our second guest is a public health professional. he is the george washington university school of public health visiting professor in the public health practice. we're going to involve his knowledge of policy. thank you for being here. how healthy are americans? guest: overall, i think we are quite healthy. 2/3 of people say their health is good to excellent. this is true pretty much across the board. that is terrific. on the other hand, we see that

there are some interesting issues. the disparities are great. the risk of dying from heart disease for black americans is 20% higher than for white americans. the same is true for cancer. there are significant differences. infant mortality among black americans is twice that of white americans. there are many positive things we can say. as we go in deeper, we can see there are areas where we really need improvement. host: you have spent your life in the public health sector. i would imagine you believe in the ability of government to affect behavior. give us an example where government has had a positive effect on americans help. guest: the first example i can think of is tobacco use.

we saw it on the local level. taxes were put in place to make the product a lot more expensive. other advertising methods were used to dissuade people from smoking. tobacco is a really good example. another thing we have done well is to make use of the data and provide that so that people can see where they are at risk for certain things. we did some of that work in baltimore and d.c. trying to translate that information and put in people's faces so they would know what their risks were and change their behavior. guest: about half of people with high blood pressure had it under control. that is due to a program that has synthesized the importance of high blood pressure, the same

is true for cholesterol. about 1/3 of people with high cholesterol have it under control. the decline in smoking has really been enormous. we have found we took the lead out of gasoline. a survey found that blood levels of lead was high in children. that led to legislation that took the lead out. the lead level has fallen to almost nil. there are many areas where the government statistics have played a major role in telling us about issues, then putting that in front of the public, actions were taken. we have seen very positive results. talking about a

snapshot of americans helped. framed in the discussion of the role of washington. i would like to talk with you about how healthy the nation is and how effective government policies have been. how have they caused you to change your behavior to be more healthy over the years? do you approve or think it is appropriate for government to be involved in directing your behavior that way. phone lines are set up by time zone. let me ask you about self- reporting. how solid are the numbers based

on what you might see based on statistics of people seeking treatment? guest: they are self-reported. they are a function of many things going on. they are a function of how the stock market is doing and how people feel in general, whether we are involved in wars. all those things go into this. that has been steady for many years. the results correlate with events that happen in people's lives. people whose health is not good, we find there is a higher incidence of other problems they may have. we have surveys that get at the health of americans in very precise ways. we have one that troubles the country collecting a very precise representative sample of the u.s. called the national

health and nutrition examination survey. it collects information by asking people. it is also in the clinical manner. we take blood and urine samples. we do physical exams. from that, we get the concrete information about how healthy americans are. that is where we learned a significant fraction of people who have diabetes do not know they have diabetes. host: what is the correlation between diabetes and obesity? guest: there is a strong link between those things. the number one thing your physician will say if there are concerns about being diabetic is that you will need to lose weight. that is generally the situation. some people have diabetes as a function of genetics. for many americans, especially now with obesity on the rise of

the city -- now with obesity on the rise, obesity is the major factor affecting diabetes. host: how are americans doing with obesity? guest: poorly. the level of obesity in children has tripled over the last 25 years. it is around 18%. in adults, it is twice that. over 35%. we just came out with these figures earlier this week. the increase has kind of leveled off. that is not a precise term. if we hone in on the last several years and look carefully at the line, it is not going up as steeply as it was. our researchers see that there

does seem to be a leveling off. we do see a leveling off in children. i think this is good news. it is not. news in the sense that the levels are still incredibly high. were way beyond where we 25 years ago. host: is there consensus on the contributing factors for obesity? guest: there are a number of different factors. officials are looking at this thing about the social environment. economics, where people live, employment status, the degree to which they have stress in their lives, all of those things can

contribute as well as the other things. there is the first lady's let's move campaign and other things with the environment. host: we will take some calls and then look at the diabetes numbers. tell me how to pronounced town. erin, you are on. caller: i would like to call it to the attention of anybody who will hear me about a strong correlation between drug use and mental illness. nobody seems to be talking about all the illegal drove -- drugs or prescription drugs and how it

is causing mental illness and death. it is touching so many families. doctors keep writing prescriptions. drugs keep coming across the borders. i just do not understand it. there is no help for people. host: thank you so much. we will pick up on your question. are you able to capture statistics? do people report on the amount of prescription medication they take? guest: they do. we collect that in the national survey. we have had some special reports on that. there has been a great deal of attention to the increasing level of prescriptions being written in the u.s. host: for children and adults? guest: i would think it is across the board. it is certainly true for adults.

i cannot say based on the statistics whether that is bad. this may be entirely appropriate. there is a tremendous dependence on this, particularly in people 65 and older. the level of legitimate, legal drug use is very high. you can look at the research and see the positive effects it has had on our health status. we would not have 50% of the high blood pressure in this country controlled if it were not for the range of drugs available. host: that caller was concerned about the negatives of the overuse of prescription and

illegal drugs. guest: the mental health and substance-abuse aspect gets some conversation. it falls in the shadows of some of the larger pieces like obesity and a charity. in the economic downturn, a lot more people are under significant stress. more people are trying to deal with that in different ways. sometimes, unfortunately the abuse of prescription drugs is one way of dealing with it. i am not suggesting that is the only reason why people would make use of those drugs inappropriately. the writing of the prescription -- >> we go live to the state department. secretary of state clinton is holding a briefing with the german foreign minister. >> germany and the united states are steadfast allies and close partners on a range of issues. we are also good friends.

i was happy to see the minister shortly after he hit the 50-year mark. that is a very important milestone. >> thank you for the birthday cake. >> are we going to do consecutive translation on both sides or just on the german side? speak english. ok. we will not do it unless we have a question that calls for it. we discussed afghanistan. we are committed to the path forward for a stable, peaceful afghanistan. we are deeply regretting the bad news about the soldiers killed earlier today in the second attack on french soldiers this month. that follows the deaths yesterday of six u.s. marines in a helicopter crash.

let me express on behalf of all americans our deepest condolences to the families of both the french and american soldiers. we know what a personal loss that is and how important it is that we work toward our goal of security and long-term stability. i want to thank guido again for hosting the bonn conference on afghanistan last month. we appreciate the continuing bravery of german soldiers who served with such distinction as the third largest national contingent in our nato-isaf forces. we're looking forward to our work in may in chicago at the nato summit where we will advance several nato priorities. let me say clearly the united states is fully committed to

maintaining a force posture in europe that meets our enduring commitment to european security and our collective defense obligations to our nato allies. we're grateful to germany for hosting the u.s. military for many years. we will be maintaining a close relationship going forward. we recognize the trans-atlantic partnership is indispensable to our own security and well-being. we're also focused on economic security. we both recognize and appreciate greatly germany's leadership role in resolving the debt crisis facing europe. i can only imagine how challenging this is. as i conveyed to the minister, the united states stands in support of germany as it leads the way for all of the eurozone

countries to regain their economic footing and implement measures that will restore sustainable and balanced growth. we discussed at some length our shared concerns regarding iran and the steps it has taken towards furthering its nuclear weapons ambitions. we're both firmly committed to the dual track approach with pressure to bring about meaningful engagement by iran on its programs. we're closely coordinating as we implement sanctions. we talked about so many things. we talked about north africa, egypt, syria, the middle east, and so much more. as always, we have a very comprehensive agenda to cover. i appreciate your being here for us to continue the conversation. >> thank you so much, madame secretary.

i like to express my gratitude for the hospitality and warm welcome. in this special case, also for the wonderful and delicious birthday cake. we just had that a few minutes before. it was really delicious. [laughter] i would like to say this is not only an expression of our close collaboration, it is also an expression of our wonderful and personal relationship. the united states is our most important partner and ally with close cooperation across the land being essential in times of global changes and enormous political challenges. we discussed the deeply worrying situation in syria. the regime must be stopped urgently. we support the efforts by the arab league to solve the crisis. we agreed the united nations

security council must take a clear position to condemn the violence by the syrian regime. on iran, i have informed my colleague about the discussions in the european union on new sanctions. the government in iran keeps violating its international obligations on the transparency of its nuclear program. we have no choice but to pass tough new sanctions that address the financial sources of the nuclear program. one thing is clear. the door for serious dialogue remains open, but the option of nuclear weapons in iran is not acceptable to both of us. i want to repeat what i said to my colleague and friend in the last hour before.

i think it is important for all of us to see a nuclear power option -- a nuclear option is not acceptable for iran. this is not only to protect. it is also a question of the balance in the region. it is also unacceptable if we look to the situation for nonproliferation. i think this is a serious situation. we will stand united to give a common and clear and unfortunately tough answer because a nuclear option for iran is not acceptable for the region or for the world. we also discussed the situation

in the transformation countries of the arab spring. there are enormous political and economic challenges. we have to support a successful transformation. i explained our transformation partnership program which we designed in germany and was introduced in our european policy. i think it is successful. we all know we have to see and differentiate from country to country. i think this is necessary that we do not think one answer will fit all. it is necessary to give specified answers. we also discussed the preparation of the nato summit in chicago in may. it is important for us. we both want a successful nato meeting in chicago. we're looking forward to this. we're looking forward to the

hospitality of the government of the united states of america. of course, we want the summit to become a success. we will work hard for this. we also discussed what i want to underline. it is important during this crucial time in your. we also discussed the debt crisis in europe. some in the united states paid a dark picture of the continent unable to solve its problems. refinished -- we finished socialism with the support of the united states 20 years ago. we know we have to show solidarity. this is our desire and destiny as germans. we know europe is not only the answer to the darkest chapter of our own history.

it is also our life insurance in times of globalization. i think it is crystal clear that germany is committed to europe and the eurozone. we will show solidarity on the one hand. on the other hand, we also will ask for structural reform because both of the answer to this present crisis. thank you so much for the hospitality. i also want to say a few things about the killings of our soldiers and friends in afghanistan. i am shocked by the tragic deaths of the french and american soldiers in afghanistan. i would like to express my sympathy and deepest condolences in the name of the federal republic of germany to all the families and relatives.

tragic setbacks such as this must not stop our engagement for peace and reconciliation in afghanistan. thank you. thank you so much for the time and hospitality. >> i have the question on iran. it has expressed some willingness to return to talks on the nuclear program. today, we ashton released a letter she sent to the iranians in october where she calls on them to take concrete steps on confidence-building. what are the steps you are looking for the iranians to take? do you take them up there were this time that they will fully engaged? in our way of asking two