host: we brought up this question because republicans are calling for his resignation. the head of the oversight committee in the house is moving to see if he can be taken to task by the congress. but we will look at the history of attorneys general -- back in 2007, talking about all birds of gonzales, back when he resigned, ending a stormy tenure -- alberto gonzale -- michigan, brian, democrats' line. caller: mr. gonzales, to compare and contrast, he stonewalled a congressional hearing -- i do not know if it is senegal

converts. or he said "i don't know" the words to that effect. in eric holder's case he is answering all the questions they asked. he has been very forthright and effective as a prosecutor. he is going after the vote of repression laws. no question, republicans are trying to repress the latino and black and poor vote. host: indianapolis, connor, a republican. caller: good morning. i just wanted to share a few thoughts. the whole notion that republicans are trying to deny people their right to vote is just ludicrous. the voter i.d. law, we have seen time and time again -- both parties agree that it is necessary. >> watch all of today's "washington journal" any time at

the c-span video library. on this green is former education secretary margaret spellings, part of a daylong discussion of the economy and the release of the chamber's third annual enterprising states studies, looking at different states. it is just getting underway. >> taylor and this -- expand on good ideas others are doing. this is how we move the nation forward. we will hear directly from people on the front line during the great work both in states and cities. we will have a bipartisan roundtable that highlights the perspective of four of our nation's governors. jackson -- jack markell of delaware, scott walker from wisconsin. denver mayor michael hancock and

allegheny county's for its gerald. -- the journal. and last but not least, my boss, the chamber president and ceo tom donahue will talk a lot about innovation and his thoughts on that. but before that, we are going to die in to a study was commissioned, the third such work we have done at the national chamber foundation called enterprising states. you will find that publication add your spot. there are a lot of interesting and positive take a ways from the findings as well as areas that tell us where we need to continue to do work. it clearly illustrates the economic consequences when states cannot cultivate a business friendly environment, and also when they do. so, the driving mission here of the national chamber foundation is to harness the power of great ideas and to get them out so

that more people can expand upon them. before i asked the office of the study to come to the stage to formally present their findings, let me tell you a little bit about them. they have both become friends through the years working on this. joel kotkin is a fellow of the national chamber foundation and internationally recognized authority on a global, economic, political, and social trends. he is a highly respected speaker and futurist who consults for many development organizations, private companies, regions and cities. he is the author of six books, including "the next 100 million -- america in 2015 close " which explores how the nation will evolve in the next decades. -- "the next 100 million -- ameritech in 2050." he will be joined by delore

zimmerman, co-founder and president and ceo of praxis strategy. 30 years of domestic and international experience working with local, regional, in national economic development groups, companies, in universities. he has been awarded eight small business innovation research awards from usda to develop leading edge practices and tools for use by development professionals and community leaders. he has written several scholarly works on economic development and productivity and co offered "redeveloping america's productive capacity -- the heartland development strategy" with his colleague and friend joel kotkin. joining me in welcoming these two gentlemen, the enterprising state study, led by joel kotkin and delore zimmerman. [applause]

>> thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be here. we are going to talk in little bit about sort of the big picture and then a little bit about what some of the takeaways were. you know, i am not one to say that the private sector is doing great. but i have to say that america really is in a very strong position. if you go and travel around the world and worked in other countries, you realize how incredibly strong the united states really is and what our opportunities are going to be in the future. i think the key thing is for states and communities, you can hear all of the normal -- you can't do this or that -- but the reality of lot of states and communities are already overcoming these problems and really taking advantage of some of the bigger trends we see as very positive for the u.s.. the first one -- let's see if we

can get there. we take a look at what is going on in agriculture. agriculture, people do not think of it as an industry -- mostly people around the world need to eat, and the fact of the matter is we have a growing number of consumers in developing countries who are demanding higher and higher quality food. as you can see, american agricultural exports are going quite high. where you have the largest amount of good, arable land of any country in the world and our sector is without question the most advanced in the world. it drives a lot of unemployment in food-processing. if you look at the agriculture producing states, they have very strong economies. this is one of the key things i think the u.s. economy can really perform and stay ahead on in the years to come. remember, there is going to be a lot of people. take a country like china, which has a very large

population, and does not have the agricultural capacity to feed the population at the level at which they are expecting. i think there is an enormous opportunity for us throughout the world. probably the biggest game changer right now is happening with natural gas and oil production. i think if there is any critical issue in this election that people should be thinking about is how we take advantage of the fact that the united states has now really resurged as a major energy producer. i spent time in places like louisiana in texas where you can see how jobs are being created. a very important thing about u.s. energy production is it produces about 200,000 or to a budget of 50,000 jobs in the last decade, but they are very high paying jobs -- 200,000 or 250,000 jobs in the next decade. and there are very good at blue- collar jobs. you can get a job in an oil refinery or in the oil fields paying 80,000, $90,000 a year

and you don't have to go to stanford to get it. it is extraordinarily important. as we begin to become a more energy self-sufficient country, and in some areas, and to let exporting, particularly natural gas, which cut about half our trade deficit away. so, annie bahan -- anyone really interested in the long term future of this country has got to be looking at oil and natural gas as a driver in the next 10- 20 years. you can also see it, as you look in the report, you see those states who have the strongest gdp growth, many of them are in the energy belt, particularly the areas between texas and north dakota. that is beginning to spread to parts of the midwest. and i think it is going to be a real game changer and a great opportunity for a lot of states. the other thing that is very related to this is manufacturing. the shell bom alone by some estimates will create somewhere

about 1 million-2 million jobs. also support services. i have been and parts of ohio, for instance, where they are now opening steel mills and places where they were closing for the last 40 or 50 years. tremendous growth beginning to take place. the industrial resurgence is also drawing something people do not pay attention to. when we look at stem jobs -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics related jobs, those jobs that generally paid pretty well, what we find is those states that have very strong manufacturing growth also have the strongest stem growth. the idea that high tech are just a bunch of guys of hoodies and perhaps a bogus stock offerings, really is not a feature of the high-tech economy. the genius of america is the fact we have this ability to do things that has been done traditionally and now we do a

different -- differently and better. so, when we take a look at stem job growth, some of the fastest growth and because numbers are in states like michigan. we have to understand the auto industry today, manufacturing, energy today, aerospace today, much more high tech oriented, much more opportunities, and driving those kinds of jobs will create the kind of high-tech future that is much broader based band the high-tech future that you will have, let's say, if you just have a bunch of software companies. it is great there are software companies but what you really want is a base, industrial base that will need the goods and services and will be a more steady, long-term player. the last big advantage we had in the united states is really the fact that we still make babies. probably our best product. and although, as anyone who is a parent knows, they can be a pain

in the but, too. but the united states is the only major industrial country in the world that is now producing anything close to what we call replacement rate. in other words, 2.1 kids. i know nobody ever had 0.1 kids, but basically the way it works out mathematically, 2.1. right now our birthrate is teetering a little bit down because of the recession but for lots of reasons, americans still have kids. a lot has to do with we have space, we still have single- family homes, although some did not think we should, we have a little stronger belief in religion and for whatever reason people who are religious -- religious tend to have kids more than people who are not. but it really has been one of the great positives of this country. we will also have more children than native-born. but what it means of a long term is something that wi be very important fiscally, which is the number of retirees relative to

the people who are working. down the road, countries like japan and germany are going to be in this situation where they are going to have in some cases more people over the age of 65 vana under the age of 15. by 2013, that is where singapore will be, that is where spain is going to be. what you have is a system that is almost impossible to support the needs of the elderly. as you can see in this chart, the u.s., although we are aging, is not aging nearly as rapidly as many of our competitors. but this leads us to one last thing, which is both a great blessing and a great challenge. this is really what i think this job summit is all about. that is really the question of the united states -- we have children, the children one of these days will move out of the house, but fact of the matter is we have children -- and they are

innovative and sometimes crazy ideas but also sometimes good ideas but they will have new ideas. when you look at a society like japan which is rapidly aging and very hard to generate new ideas, where will have a future market? you look at germany and japan -- part of the problem is they have no growth in their domestic market. so it is very hard to stimulate their economies internally. so, the united states will have between 2000-2050 30% growth in working age population. in japan, close to 40% decline. the eu, 21% decline. china, about 10% decline. but what you will have it is society's who are aging extremely rapidly, including some of the developing countries. and what we had in america is this great wealth which is our children. and it is our job, our

generation's job, talking as a boomer, to be the to drive economic growth so our children not only can and of staying around the house playing video games but also can contribute to the future greatness of the country. so, i just hope we can focus much more on the question of jobs because that is the legacy we need to leave our kids. delore? last slide onl's the labor force growth he was talking about. a lot to look at the highlights of the 2012 enterprising states study. we've looked at five major policy areas -- of entrepreneurship and innovation, and the structure, talent pipeline, taxes and regulation, and exports and international trade. what i will do is talk about some of the recent developments in each of those. and i would like to begin by talking about a little bit of the difference between last year and this year. in 2011, this was really a year

where there were a lot of hard choices made. ways to bring spending under control and ways to modernize and reform the government. it was of this year when the governors and the states really began to crystallize their agendas for action. so, we found it very interesting as we looked at what was happening this year, as to what was going on. in a lot of states, it was ways to adjust the disadvantages and their debt. leverage existing natural resources and industry strength. and then finally, how do we improve our enterprise friendly environment? these are kind of the major themes of the study this year. the first one that i would like to talk about is taxes and regulation, and in this together, bird busting. some of the states had a moratorium on new rules and regulations.

ways to eliminate rules and regulations from statutes that are still job killing. impact stations for newly proposed rules and regulations and finally, one stop offices for government services. i would like to highlight a few of the things of the states represented today. in utah, for example, the cabin and reviews all business regulations and either modified or eliminated 368 of them. in wisconsin, all new rules and regulations were subject to cost-benefit and impact analyses related to jobs and governor walker was recognized by the institute's for legal reform of the chamber this year for reform in that state. on the tax and regulatory front, we also see that these are used as incentives in some fashion. so, we saw a lot of tax credits for investors and start-ups and

expanding businesses. tax credits for hiring employees. and then there was a lot of targeting of investments and tax credits in particular industries. for example, davis centers, aerospace, and other manufacturing centers. we also saw regulatory environments were tailored for specific industries. and i will talk about some of those. but we saw those in financial, energy, and vehicles. in california, for example, they are very strong in targeting zero emission vehicles. in nebraska and delaware this year, personal income tax relief was provided. in nebraska, there with tax incentives for data centers. in utah, a very interesting industrial banking regulatory regime that really has contributed to driving financial-services sector growth in that state. so, tax and regulatory system,

of the durt busting and the incentives as well. on the infrastructure side, we saw increased expansion of access to broadband, targeting and incentivizing specialized instruction -- data centers being one of those -- . systems for energy and power distribution. -- grid systems for energy and power distribution. in states where the ports and airports are important, we are making improvements across the board. some states established state infrastructure banks and funds. and i would say across the board there was a lot of the encouragement of public and private partnerships. build nebraska, for example, will generate 60 million -- $60 million to $70 million a year for infrastructure and the delaware they have a infrastructure fund that is capitalized at $55 million.

those are a couple of examples of what is going on in that area. skilled work force is very important for economic growth and job creation. we saw more and more industry specific programs at colleges and universities. one that sticks out, i think, is washington state's where i think they created programs at 11 universities and colleges related to aerospace skill development. stem initiatives at secondary and post-secondary level. increasing emphasis on middle skilled jobs that require less than a four-year degree. and finally a number of internship programs. in delaware, for example, there is stem council and blue caller training program directed at providing schools across the board. wisconsin has a unique program that connects business of directly with the unemployed.

and we see a lot of those kinds of programs across the states as well. exports and international trade -- this year we have seen a lot more emphasis on governors as economic diplomats. there agencies are identifying high potential foreign marts. the governor's travel there making a pitch, connecting with partners abroad, and also identifying opportunities in their states that foreign firms can take advantage of in the united states. i have seen a lot of increase in foreign direct investment this year. and compared to the rest of the world, we are certainly benefiting a lot more than the rest of the world. a lot of the states are creating international trade representatives in a foreign countries, and that kind of tapered off the last three or four years and now building up steam again. each state is evaluating the

highest -- where the highest potential art and putting representatives there. the final area is entrepreneurship and innovation. this year we have seen an increased emphasis on targeting firms, are emerging growth companies and high-growth firms. 67% of the companies that have the potential to create the most jobs. a lot of the programs to support those kinds of firms. economics gardening initiatives. this was developed in colorado first, i might mention. this works with existing firms that have great potential to expand, and they put a whole host of a supportive of resources are around the firms to help them grow. we have seen technology base economic development programs in states. some are very targeted and some are comprehensive, designed to

develop the ecosystem's surrounding the entire financial, technology, all the support systems that go into those kinds of things. it varies by state. a lot of investment funding for start-ups and expansions. and finally, almost every state has got some program or initiative to spawn university- business-government partnerships. in delaware they have a strategic fund focused on start- ups and growing companies. nebraska just passed and innovation act which focuses on technology transfer from universities and helps start up companies. utah has a unique situation -- highly educated multilingual population that has really contributed, from what we can tell, to the growth of their financial services sector, along with a number of other factors. and in wisconsin that have expanded loan support for

growing small companies. and in wisconsin, the manufacturing sector is doing quite well, into a number of business environment factors and the state. so, that is an overview of the highlights of what is going on this year. we have been very gratified by the number of states that give us a call and say we have looked at the report. and i know the people at the u.s. chamber get the same calls. and we find the study is very useful to them. that are the highlights. i am coverage you to look at the toll will report to see what is going on. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, i am tobey

mack, president and ceo of associated equipment distributors, a proud member of the board of the national chamber foundation. this afternoon it is my pleasure to introduce tom donohue, president and ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce. representing the construction equipment industry for a number of years, i worked closely with tom to the chamber on some of the nation's most pressing priorities, particularly being rebuilding of america's archaic and crumbling transportation and the structure. under tom's leadership, u.s. chamber is the nation's greatest champion of the free enterprise, american competitiveness, and market capitalism. you can't miss the steve jobs banner on the face of this building as you come up the front steps. jobs, and lots of them, are what result from the chamber process growth -- whatever's growth and competitiveness agenda becomes policy. it focuses on expanding trade,

driving the energy revolution, reforming the regulatory and legal systems, protecting international property rights, and controlling government spending. among his many accomplishments, tom has spearheaded the creation of the american free enterprise campaign. it is a visionary long-term program to defend, protect and advance the free enterprise system based on individual initiatives, hard work, incentives and rewards, and personal responsibility. tom has also transformed the chamber into a major force in the electorial process, throat -- voter education and grass- roots reference -- efforts. he knows the best way to get pro-growth policies is to elect lawmakers who will stand up for merkel's job creators. a leader of an industry that remains particularly hard-hit by economic scotia this -- sclerosis from bad policies, i am proud to be on the team of one of the nation's most effective advocate and leaders

for affected growth and jobs that go hand in hand. please, join me in welcoming tom donahue. [applause] >> thank you very much. good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i always worry at my age and reticular when people get up and give long introductions. i begin to sound more -- they begin to sound more and more like obituaries. but i do appreciate a point you made about the thing we are trying to do on the free enterprise side and the emphasis made on the work with your industry, as we do with many others. i would like to thank you, margaret, and all of your team for putting this together. two of the ends we merged together because they belong together. -- two events we merge together.

to look at our nation's challenges and define ways to move against them and with them. we are here to talk about jobs and given may's dismal unemployment report, some might expect a discouraging conversation. yes, we are in difficult circumstances. economic growth is anemic and the jobless rate is chronically high and moving in the wrong direction. but if you are looking for doom and gloom from me, you will not find it. in fact, i hope everyone leaves this summit encouraged about our prospects and energized for the brighter days ahead. why am i optimistic? first, because we've got proof that things are working. the 2012 enterprising states study, which just saw a quick cut on, shows that the states that fosters strong business

environments and embrace innovation are bucking all of the national economic trends. they are growing faster and they are adding more jobs. a little later today we will hear from the governors of some of those states as well as their business and civic leaders of two of the nation's thriving cities. these leaders are finding positive solutions to major challenges and are seeing results now. there is a lot washington can learn from the governors and mayors who are running these states and cities. this is the second reason i am optimistic -- business has a plan. our government has tried with little success to stimulate growth and job creation but government-directed stimulus is not a long-term strategy to achieve sustainable growth. in order to produce millions of new jobs or to reduce -- raise

the standard of living in our country. what we need is a comprehensive plan for growth that leverages our strengths and addresses clearly our weaknesses. american jobs and growth agenda does both of those, as to the plan of many of the successful governors. our plans call for greater energy development, stronger infrastructure investment, expanded global trade, and aggressive innovation agenda, regulatory, legal, and tax reform and reining in a in a creative and constructive way, debts and deficits. if we do these things, we can speed up economic growth and jobs in a hurry without raising taxes or adding to the deficit. i would first like to focus my remarks on the issues of innovation and if you get the "wall street journal" " today

and paged through it you will find a full-page ad we have in there on innovation. in fact, each couple of months we have one of those from one of the parts of our jobs and growth plan. the innovation system is what keeps our economy humming, our businesses competitive, and hiring our manufacturers producing the standard of living improving, and our wages and benefits high. very simply, if we want to spur strong and sustainable recovery, america must ignite the innovation bloom again and still further. we must start by developing and attaining world-class talent because human capital is the primary driver of innovation. first, we need to develop a home town talents. it is no secret that america's k-12 schools in many places are

falling far behind our global competitors. what is most alarming is that our primary area of weakness is also the most vital to innovation, and that it is science, technology, engineering, math, or stem. it is estimated half of the k- 12 students are being taught science and math by teachers who, by necessity or accident, are not sufficient and those skills. so we need to reform our k-12 education system, and reece technology learning and innovative teaching technologies. and we ought to stop america's schools with the best teachers who are rewarded based on performance. we also need to strongly emphasize stem studies at every level of education. let's encourage our young people to pursue these exciting subjects and rewarding careers.

if we don't, our workers will not have the education or training that they need to join an ever-changing and highly demanding work market, particularly on the skills side. studies show that within a few short years we will have millions of high school skills jobs -- high-skilled jobs without qualified people. right now we have about 3.5 million jobs we have not got people 4. i believe it is twice that because when you build a 3.5 million, you would get a lot of the multiple out of it, as you are getting in your states. studies show within a few short years, we've got to put these people to work to keep the innovative industries in our country or we will have a great acceleration in people moving elsewhere to follow their technological dreams.

in addition to developing more homegrown talent, we can also fill the skills gap by competing in the global race for talent. and that brings me to the second major way we build a competitive work force. we must attract the world's best and brightest and put them to work in our economy. global talent is already drawn to american universities. we have the best science, engineering, and technical colleges on the planet. more than half of the graduates and phd students but being in the high-tech disciplines at u.s. universities are foreign- born. the trouble is, that after we educate them at our american institutions, then we send them home because they did not have a u.s. visa. what we should be doing is stapling a green card and a visa to their diplomas. let's get smart.

let's adopt a visa reform to make it easier for high skilled immigrants and foreign graduates of u.s. institutions to invest their talent and their personal ambition in our knowledge economy. if we don't, we will send innovation to our competitors at the expense of our own economic growth, our own job creation, and our own global competitiveness. the bottom line is that a globally competitive work force is going to require a rational immigration policy, one that harnesses the energy and innovation of enterprising foreigners. if we fail to do this, to welcome this talents to our country, and then the work will follow the talent to their country. let me say that ideas and talent

are only part of the equation. thomas edison, an american who knew a thing or two about innovation said "a vision without an execution is an hallucination." in ventures -- inventors and entrepreneurs need access to capital to help brief life to their ideas and bring them to the market. many start-ups rely on seed capital from -- where the get it? family members, wealthy individuals, local banks, credit unions, and even credit cards to help people get off the ground. recently there was a lot of excitement and a little bit of controversy over the facebook ipo. the important thing to remember about that and countless other examples is what made them possible to begin with was someone was willing to take a risk on a fledgling project or idea and to put funding and to get a chance to flourish and

grow. today, facebook has 3500 employees and is valued at $70 billion. i told my kids -- just think about it. anyway, that was largely because of an angel investors who saw some potential. large, established firms also routinely turn to america's vast pools of capital so that they can invest in new products or services can satisfy market demands. by the way, so do states and the federal government. jamie dimon, up there for a grilling today, made a point that brought a lot of the members of the senate to a more reflective set of questions. that it was our bank and only our been -- and he named three very significant states that came and showed up and help you when you were in real trouble

with your pensions. don't forget it. this capital investment creates a virtuous cycle, an idea transformed into products or services generate revenue that is often poured back into research, development, and discovery, leading to even more innovation, more jobs, and more growth. this is the process that yields cutting edge industrial techniques and more efficient business operations. so, it is critical that we keep our markets open and efficient and provide investors with predictable rules of the road so they can take appropriate and fought for risks. any measure that strangles capital formation or chokes off the flow of finance think must be revised, repealed, and i think some of dodd-frank meets that standard of review. that is why the chamber's

capital markets center is working with congress to address that question. even more importantly, we are working to breathe life back into our capital markets so they are flush with capital and able to fulfil these fundamental missions. fueling innovation, spring grove, and creating jobs and prosperity for americans. a competitive business environment is just as essential to innovation as well functioning markets. in the enterprise states that a we have fresh evidence of how states are fostering economic growth and jobs through their innovations. what do successful states have been common? tax and regulatory climate that allows companies to continuously innovate and shackled by needless delays and burdensome costs. and states that maintain a good legal reform environment can

also expect hundreds of millions of dollars or more in economic activity and tens of thousands of new jobs, according to our study. the right policies also attract manufacturers. innovation gravitates to manufacturing centers and manufacturers are some of the strongest drivers of new innovation. but when the federal government and their tax and regulatory policies are excessive, it breeds uncertainty, so those investments, the press's new technologies, drives manufacturing overseas and puts business at a competitive disadvantage. take taxes. no, you take them and keep them. but take taxes, for example. no one would hold up america's byzantine tax code as a model of efficiency or clarity or an engine of economic growth.

our tax code must be restructured so that it is simple and clear, so that it spurs growth, encourages investment and efficiently generates revenues to reduce the debt the set and meet our national priority. we must enact comprehensive tax reform does broaden the base, lores all business rates, reduces the burdens of compliance. this reform should reduce the corporate tax rate, the highest in the world, and drive innovation by permanently extending the r&d tax credit. we must also do away with specific tax provisions that target innovators. like the thing on the table right now, the $20 billion tax on medical devices that would take effect next year under obamacare. this excise tax would squelch

innovation in medical technology industry, which is so vital to all of these new developments keeping us alive so long and so healthfully. and, by the way it would threaten 43,000 industry jobs, disadvantage u.s. business and drive some companies and their jobs overseas. here, you'redo it going to do what somewhere else. innovation depends on a rational, efficient, and globally competitive tax system and currently that is not what we've got. in addition to be uncompetitive tax code, an explosion of regulations inhibits entrepreneurship and innovation. a heavy regulatory burden prevents companies and start- ups from being fast and nimble in a competitive environment. compliance costs divert time and

resources from business expansion and uncertainty restricts capital needed for innovation. we need a smarter regulatory system that preserves the economic freedom and flexibility while removing unnecessary burdens and keeping costs and mine. when entrepreneurs -- what to entrepreneurs and innovators one from government is simple -- common sense. that means clear rules based on sound science and proven benefits. and if they can't get it here, as i said before, they will find it somewhere else. we can see in the states that people are going to the states that offer them that opportunity. systematic over-regulation and punitive taxation drive entrepreneurs overseas and straight into the economies of our competitors.

what is true of capital is also true of innovators. they will go where they are welcome, where they are safe and stand a good chance of being rewarded for their efforts. strong business environment, you can see, is essential. while it is critical that the government stop pushing policies and stifle innovation, the government does play a useful role in basic research. we see it in health care, we see it in national defense, we see it in a host of places that we applaud. the public sector has traditionally supported these basic research as and should continue to do so. the equation has worked pretty well for our system, so as long -- as lawmakers face a tough and necessary decisions about spending, they've got to keep an eye on the traditional role of driving basic research.

we can't fix our entitlement problems in this country by trying to take its new nickel and dimes out of essential programs. we can fix the entitlement issue without denying anyone their fundamental coverage, by making some sensible changes. and until we do this, all of the things that i am talking about here will be all the more difficult to rationalize and fund. while we are talking about positive things, let's not forget that maintaining our investment new physical infrastructure is essential. and right now, as toby indicated, we are in trouble. in trouble on roads and bridges, in trouble on energy, infrastructure, energy production, power generation of, and the issue of moving the power around. we have sat on our hands.

we are doing well on airports now. but we have done it for some any reason -- because we don't have any money, or neither party is willing to step up and do this. there are lots of ways to do it with public-private partnership and with user fees that the users of these systems will provide. and we urge the government to get off the dime and seized the opportunity, put people back to work, improve our infrastructure, grow our productivity, and put this behind us instead of as an obstacle to our global growth. i want to say a word -- i almost finished -- and by the way, i thought this was the rather long speech of the more i talk about it and giving it, the more exciting -- excited i am about it. so hang on. at the same time we got to invest in technology of infrastructure that is vital to a wave of innovation. the u.s. internet traffic is

growing rapidly. you have all seen that -- to support services, to drive digital innovation. we've got to continue to invest in this. right now the u.n. has brought people together from all over the world to make the next rules of the internet. they want to own it. i've got news for you -- we invented it, it is ours to drive for the benefit of this country and we've got to make sure that what is done at the u.n. does not affect that negatively -- i meant to say, it does not screw with up. and we are very much on top of that. in the digital economy and the commercial activity that comes from that holds the great potential for us going forward. i think it is very important -- but less critical element, innovation. without the, innovation will not

exist. there are really two. reward -- if you don't reward people and let inventors and risk takers be rewarded, then they will go somewhere else. and the second -- and i will say a word about this in a minute -- the second is the willingness to take a risk and fail. innovators must be allowed to take these risks, and they should have the opportunity to be rewarded. first, investors must know both you -- fruits of their labor will be strongly protected by the law. without assurance of this, innovation will decline. the slow and inefficient u.s. patent process. we are making some progress but we are far behind where we need to be. through last year's passage of the reform legislation, we got some good progress, and we still need to work through the logjam of patents that are lining up now in the street. by the way, that creates all kinds of problems as people go in and try to copy patents and

tried to get a piece of what everybody is doing. it is a real complicated issue. we also need to crack down -- and i used those words strongly -- on ip fast, piracy, wrote websites. we need to fully fund, because we get it back thousands of times over, the enforcement of i.p. protection, and we need to do it well. economic incentives are equally important. in innovative ideas, there is little hope of reaching consumers and bettering our lives if we can't create economic value. if success is punished, if it is demonized -- being then maybe even today on television -- or stellarone, america will lose its talent, its capital, its ideas, and its jobs to our economic competitors. and you know, what is just as vital than success is failure.

felder is our greatest teacher. go find in the private investors and the private equity firms and they will most likely invest in somebody who has had a failure and who has come from that failure much smarter than they were before they had it. we must never abandon the idea that it is ok to take a risk and it is ok to fail. we must never rejected the notion that it is ok to make a mistake, whether you are an inventor, an entrepreneur, investor, where you are. if we instead adopt an idea that you get one shot -- if you fail, you are done -- by the way, which is sort of how it works in japan -- then we will lose not just capital and talent and jobs, but we will lose something that is fundamental and special about our system, the belief that opportunities are limitless and dreams are achievable. america is and must remain a

place where you can fall on your face, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try it again. nations at different stages of development don't necessarily have to be as innovative as we do to flourish. emerging economies can merely mimic of the advances of global powers. and their economies will grow and their citizens will find work. but for us, innovation is imperative. we innovate or we will decline. fostering the next era of innovation requires us to focus on everything i discussed today -- human talent, capital, low taxes, smart regulations, basic research, critical infrastructure, and, yes, reward for our efforts. the government in its proper limited role, there is no reason we cannot reinvigorate this economy, create jobs for

millions and millions of americans and reassert our innovative leadership in the world. at our very core, we are a nation of dreamers and do worse. fuel by free enterprise, a system that allows failure and rewards success. we have a dynamic work force. the vast majority of the world's top universities, open markets, and a cultural and quality of life that draws talent from around the world. but we are in a global race, ladies and gentleman. and we are up against a rising competitors who are growing stronger, smarter, and more aggressive. we are competing for the world's talent, for its customers and capital, and we are competing for industrial might in a global marketplace and intellectual strength in a knowledge based economy. we can never afford to rest on

our advantages. fortunately, that is not our nature. we are a nation born of dissatisfaction and ambition. we reject complacency and we crave achievement hands and danced the. when faced with an obstacle, we surmounted. when confronted with a problem, we solve it. when we have a need, we philip. when we have an idea, we invented. why? not simply because we are a self reliant people, although it is certainly true. it is because we are motivated by the possible. we constantly strive to make life better for ourselves and for others. we are inspired by the thrill of discovery and the hope of reward. and that is why i am very optimistic that we will solve our job crisis.

it will be fundamental. it will require the support of our states who are here today to be recognized. it would be a fundamental breach of american principles for us not to do this. our nation's exceptional character is what propelled us to prosperity in the first place. again and again, i might say. and it is what will restore prosperity and leadership in the world to this country for generations to come. and i thank you very, very much for your patience. we gave this talk because, a, we thought you would be interested in some of its parts. and, b, we will use this innovation -- information to push in the innovation idea all over this country and i look forward now to moving the program forward and hearing from the real innovators, the governors of this country that

have stepped up and done it right. margaret? [applause] >> thank you, tom. that was terrific. and i think some of our most important american problem solvers and effective leaders are of course our governors. it is my pleasure to introduce major garrett will be introducing them and moderating the discussion. he is a highly saw after an effective correspondent who has been on the forefront of challenging national issues for more than two decades. he recently joined "national journal" white house team to cover the president and the 2012 election. prior to returning to his roots as a print journalist, he was a member of cnn's white house team and later became the chief white house correspondent for the fox news channel. he has written four books,

including "the enduring revolution -- how the contract with america continued to shake the nation" was called the -- one of the best non-fiction political books at the time. he covered president clinton's in each meant in 2004 and the -- and the 2004 and the 2008 elections and the war on terror and the war in iraq and have a broad understanding of issues that confront us. please, join me in welcoming major garrett. [applause] >> thanks, margaret, very much. tom, as i listen to your brief sermonette about rising from

ashes of failure, i said, wow, he must have seen my early live shot from cnn. i would like the governors to come out now so there is not this big overlay a formality. you see their name tags. i will have them take their seats and i will briefly introduce them and we can get the conversation going. one thing i think is probably well understood but i will underline so you can participate -- you see the white cards on the tables? i am going to start this conversation, moderate this panel for a good long while but at some point i am told the good people at the chamber will bring these cards up to me and the cards are for your purpose is to jot down questions which i will pose to the governors. they are on the table, avail yourself of them if you are so -- motivated. on my right, you're left -- on television, the right and left and the perspective of the

audience -- on my far right is governor jack markell, and he was kind enough to give me a notes saying his name rhymes with bell. thank you very much. what i will do is put in perspective and little but the conversation about jobs and the economy. i will describe for each governor the unemployment rate currently at the state and what it was at the worst part of what we now commonly referred to as the great recession. right now, bureau of labor statistics numbers. in delaware, the unemployment rate is six -- 6.8, 19th best in the country and was as high as 8.5% in january of 2010. and to my immediate right, governor dave heineman of nebraska, unemployment rate is 3.9%, second in the country and was 4.9% january of 2010. immediate left, governor gary

herbert of utah, currently 6%, 11th in the country, down from a high of 8.2%, also january of 2010. and finally on my far left -- probably the first time you have heard that, governor -- governor scott walker from the state of wisconsin, current unemployment rate 6.7%, 16th best, down from a high of 9.1%. it gives us a little broad conversation to say where the unemployment rate is now and where it was. we will talk in little bit to the governors about how they got it there and how the economies and their states adopted. i want to start with this opening question to all four, and i will start to my far right and work all the way across. use of the study, you heard some of the commentary about some of the most in poor and ideas -- you solve the study. what has been the most important driver of economic development in your state? and here is a variation i would like you to take seriously --

what is the best idea something that was brought you that did not make sense but you made -- inc. to make a huge difference? >> i want to thank the organizers for putting the heat for delaware mountains on the screen behind us here. first of all, i thought the study was great. the focus on energy, infrastructure, innovation, exports -- reining in the tax issue. all of this is right. tom, i thought your comments on innovation were spot on. i want to tie one a year and a half ago. i met an entrepreneur who -- i went to taiwan and met an entrepreneur who came to the

united states 30 years ago. she came back to taiwan and does drug research and manufacturing. she said the u.s. will always be number one in innovation. but what we do four jobs for people who do not have ph.d.'s? this is one of the questions of the day. many things that tom talked about our spot on. there are lots of programmatic and policy things that can make a difference. i will give you a specific answer to your question in a second. beyond the programmatic and the policy, the attitude -- i think attitude is as important as anything else. businesses have to feel wanted. they have more choices than ever before. there are 3 billion people in the world -- we had a national governors' association. -- meeting. he said there are 3 billion

people looking for jobs and 1.2 billion jobs available. there is a global market for jobs. that means we're in a global war for talent. the jobs are going to go where the talent is. businesses have more choices than they have ever had before. one of the interesting things in my state, probably in many states, is that a lot of constituents ask why businesses are deciding to put jobs overseas these days. my response is, as for zeneca, a very important pharmaceutical company, they are headquartered in delaware. we had a steel plant that was -- a steel plant that was an important job. they were based in russia. we had a poultry company -- we get some investment from correa that saved his jobs. businesses have lost -- lots and

lots of choices. you have to feel -- they have to feel like you will do anything to make them successful. my job is to understand the industries in our state better. we have to be more committed than any other state. with all the other programmatic pieces like bills that were outlined in the studies -- layer on top of that the right attitude and you'll go far. in terms of your specific question -- this is more of an answer about long-term. i would say that's something i saw in utah while i was out there a year ago after the national governors' association -- we had promoted before then but it can come to me. this has to do with the idea that it is absurd that we expect, no matter where we go to business, everybody will be able to speak in english. when we went to utah last year, it was a joint meeting of the national governors' association and a number of chinese

governors and party secretaries. governor herbert brought in a group of elementary school students who spoke to these governors in mandarin. according to the chinese -- very good mandarin. along those lines, i talked six months before that -- we are going to open up over the next five years in our state 20 immersion schools. these will be schools within schools where students will spend half the school day learning in a different language. a reason i was able to -- there was some push back. we sold it on economic development. a big international insurance firm has 500 employees in delaware. they serve the ex pat services for hundreds of thousands of expatriates' around the world. they have a unit in delaware and a similar unit in belgium. the average number of languages spoken by people in delaware is

one. the average of people in belgium is three. part of my job is to make sure that when companies are deciding where they want to invest their next dollar of capital, where to hire their necks and lee, -- their next employee, that our state is at the top of the list. we have to make sure our folks can speak in other languages. that is not what has driven job growth over the past two years, but in terms of looking forward is one thing that people are not thinking about. more than anything else, it is about that attitude. businesses now that you will do whatever it takes to facilitate their success. >> a lot of people around the country asked me, you must not be telling the truth when lisa your unemployment rate is 3.9%. the fact the matter is that it is a remarkable statistic and we are proud of it. they say, how could you do that? that can not be possible?

we focus on four issues -- jobs, education, efficiency in government, and taking care of families. it all starts with the fundamental financial principle that we believe in nebraska -- we do not spend money we do not have. we do not do it in our family budgets. we do not do it in our business budgets. we do not do it in state government. we modernized our incentive programs. we passed the largest tax relief package in the history of the state. we balance our budget by doing it that way, not by raising taxes. we invested in education and jobs, including $25 million in new campus at the university of nebraska at lincoln. when you do those things, you can spur your economy. let me give you a couple of examples. you can now get your driver's

license in our state in under 10 minutes. 9% of our citizens filed their income taxes electronically -- 90% of our citizens filed their income taxes electronically. five years ago, we used to hire 200 people for five months to process returns. now we do not hire anyone. more efficient, more secure, and you'll get refunds earlier. we have seen an impact on our cash flow because refunds are going out earlier than ever before. if you do these kinds of things, you can move your state forward. we have the fourth largest agricultural economy in america. that has helped us. but so has a number of other industries, including insurance and finance. again and warren buffett is trying to buy everything in america -- it is likely to own a lot of america. we're proud of our state and what we do. education -- i just learned today that the mayor of denver,

who you would hear from, is a proud college graduate of nebraska. we're glad we can help out the state of colorado, that they are headed in the right direction because of that. but if you look at our act scores and state similar to us -- every year we are number one or number two. if you put all those factors together, i believe you can move your state forward. major asked what main idea i learned from another governor -- that is an easy one. early on, when i was governor, another governor told me about the concept of building a reverse trade mission. we have done two of them since i have been governor of nebraska. we call it bringing the world to nebraska. the end result is that we have

chinese, japanese, german -- all sorts of companies from other countries are investing in nebraska. it has been amazing. i am told that if you get 25 or 30 people you'll be lucky. but a bar conferences we had approximately 125 business and government leaders from around the world. particularly for our asian friends, it is all about relationships -- taking a picture with them is very important. for an entire hour, i took a picture with every single person visiting our state. the university of nebraska was involved in this. a major business in our state. we will continue to try to do that. the final announcement i would make -- anybody who would like to relocate to nebraska, 4 number is02 471 2204.

we will give you that number one more time before we wrap up, i assure you. gary, go ahead. >> thank you, maj. fenty to the u.s. chamber of commerce to share some ideas on what is making our state more successful. i can only say amen to what has been said already by previous speakers. as i look it utah's success, i am reminded of my father, who was raised on a farm. because of that, we have always had a large garden where we have lived, even though we have been in more and more urbanized area. growing up, he said, gary, if you want to have a big crop, you first have to have good, fertile soil. it does not matter how good your seeds are if you do not have a fertile soil -- to plan your season. i see that as a metaphor for

what we need to be doing for of this country if we need to have success economically. when major asked what is the driving factor for economic success, it is a simple answer for me -- the private sector. you have got to have a fertile field in which to plant the seeds. if you believe as an entrepreneur that you will do that if he played by the rules, water, fertilizer, and we it -- at the end of the day you will have harvesttime and grow a crop. that is what we have tried to do in utah. we have done what everybody would do in trying to create a fertile field for the business entrepreneur out there. that means having a regulatory environment that makes sense and is not aggressive. we have gone through and done what they ought to do here in washington.

we have accounted -- we counted our regulations in our state. we found that we have 1969 regulations. we then got public input from everybody who had a stake. we found that we had 368 regulations that have no public purpose. did not protect the public or level the playing field. they are simply a drag on the economy. we did what any sane person would do. we eliminated or modified those in this past legislative session. it is an attitude. we are saying to the marketplace, we value the entrepreneurial business person. we want to make sure we have a government that gets off your backs and out of your wallets. the second part is tax reform. we have cut taxes in utah. we have cut the taxes from 7% to 5%, we have flattened them.

the only deductibility as we have our mortgage interest. our corporate and individual taxes are the same period where competitive when it comes to income tax rates. we cut taxes again. when it came to the unemployment insurance rate tax -- all of our 85,000 businesses in utah got tax relief. tax reform, regulatory reform. we understand the importance of energy. we developed a 10-year energy plan in utah that gives a pathway for. all of the above. we believe in a free market system -- you have to compete. the marketplace determines the winners and losers. opportunities to succeed and fail -- consequently, our energy costs in utah are 31% below the national average. that gives us the ability to

create jobs as we develop our natural resources and energy capability. it also gives us a competitive advantage to manufacturers and business entrepreneurs. costs are lower in utah when it comes to energy. last but not least, probably an area -- what is something we have done that did not originate with me as an idea? there was a study that was done by georgetown university. i think they did it for other states. they said that if we did not increase our educational performance in the state of utah over time, by 2020 our economy would underperform. utah has always fired education. the chamber of commerce -- utah has always valued education. we get high performance out of our schools.

we have 43% of our adult population who has done some kind of post high-school certification or degree. that is not adequate enough. is a global marketplace -- we are competing with the chinese. that is 1.3 billion people who want are jobs. we need to adjust our skill levels to line up with the demands of the marketplace. we need more engineers. we need more stem -- science, technology, engineering, math. so we will set a goal in utah of 66 by 2020. that means that by the year 2020, 66% of the population aged 2264 will have some kind of post high-school certification or degree. it is not a matter of wanting to do it, it is a necessity. it came out of a study out of georgetown. we said, we will do something about it. it is an ambitious goal, but it

is something that we can and will reach over the next eight years. we have had great results, as we mentioned -- our economy in utah has turned around from 8.2% unemployment rate to 6 percent now. we're down to 5.7%. we have more people engaged. people think there's opportunity out there in the marketplace. people were sitting on the sidelines are real engaged. our economy is growing at two times the national average. steven forbes of "for" magazine named best -- of forbes magazine named as the best date for businesses. i believe that if every state is what we are doing, we will all have what i call the rising tide of economic expansion which -- i do believe states

need to take the lead. thank you. >> governor walker? >> i think the timing of nebraska getting down to 3.9% unemployment coincides with nebraska getting into the big tent. if there is a reason for that -- i did not say who won that game, but i was smiling at the end. we hope you are as great a host this year. i also want to begin by echoing what gary said. attitude is a big part of that. a year and a half ago in january 2011, every time you came into the state of wisconsin on one of our major highways, there is a big sign that says wisconsin welcomes you. historically, underneath the sign there was a shingle with the name of the governor. when i came in last year, i

replaced the shingle with a new predecessor that just said open for business. it raises your point about attitude. for people coming and -- people coming in from illinois are thinking it is finally a stay open for business. for people in the state, i want to send a clear message, symbolically, but then follow up with the action. in terms of stability -- that ties read into that. i will give you a couple of examples. most of us last year had economic challenges and fiscal challenges as well. in our case, it was a $3.6 billion budget deficit. it was one of the biggest deficits we have ever had. we sought to balance it without raising taxes, without massive layoffs, without cutting things like medicaid.

i put more money into medicaid than any governor in wisconsin's history, not only to preserve -- protect families and children, but in the past medicating cut became a hidden tax as lower reimbursements that passed on to everyone else who pays for health insurance. instead, we put in place long- term structural reforms that help us balance our state budget and help everyone in our local governments balance budgets for today and years to come. what i said in the capital was that me to think more about the next generation than the next election. fixing or stabilizing our fiscal house also implies stability about financial john does. we knew we had to make it easier for employers. we over -- lowered the overall tax burden.

property-tax went down. we saw an overall reduction -- we had a 100% exemption on capital gains in our state if you make an investment in the wisconsin company. we did things tied into growth and prosperity. we ease the regulatory building and barred things that gary has done in terms of looking at antiquated regulations. we are doing more in the future so that there are not even more burdensome regulations. we did major reforms went into frivolous and out of control lawsuits. bill stood in the way of us adding more jobs in the private sector -- of those stood in the way of us adding more jobs in the private sector in wisconsin. we hear time and time again from our employers, we hear rouble say that i have jobs but not enough skilled workers to fill them. you want to counter had against the wall when you hear that. the thing, i have got people.

whether it 3.9% or 6.7% in my case, you would be -- you would like to be closer to 3% or 4%. so we tried to take a series of actions to pop connect people looking for work with the skills they need -- machinists, fabricators, welders, and others. we were taking aggressive action there. we have taken aggressive action to be a better partner with cost-effective and reliable sources of power. the state government had taken more than a billion dollars out of the state transportation fund. we start to restore that to build our business -- bridges, roads, freight rail, and airports. we knew that we could compete globally if we do that. we saw as -- exports, almost all%. that was tied in to enhance and transportation.

-- enhancing the transportation. we site change in attitude. two years ago, 10% of our employers felt we were heading in the right direction. two months ago, that same survey came out -- 94% of employers of reducing the right thing. i'm still scratching my head about the 6%. i want to know what was bothering them. it is about providing certainty -- proving your open for business. we are proud of the fact that we -- we used to be in the bottom 10 on nearly rank when it came to the best and worst dates of -- for doing business. we were 43. this year, we are in the top 20. i would love to compete with gary and others in the top-10

best kids to do business and. it is a change in the attitude and -- states to do business in. it is about change in attitude. ?he best idea that wasn't yours i forgot about that. sonny perdue did a program called georgia and winds in georgia. -- georgia wins in georgia. we worked on that in wisconsin. unemployment compensation was a barrier to implement -- it was a lot easier to collect unemployment and get a job. for a lot of people, if they had to have some training to get into a job, if they -- if that did not work out, they would not be able to go on unemployment. we treated a bridge of about six

weeks where you can stay on unemployment and still get assistance but can get the jobs you need, particularly in advanced manufacturing without risking losing unemployment until that time frame is up. seven or eight weeks ago iran -- i wrote a column about "the national journal" about the lame-duck session, all the things that it was clear congress would ignore dealing with. ben bernanke came up with a much more vivid metaphor, calling it the fiscal cliff. i want to ask the governors -- i hear this all the time in washington. it sounds true but it may not be true. i want to ask you because your innovating and creating jobs in the actual, real economy -- does this element of uncertainty with tax policy and all of the things due to expire at the end of the

year actually create tension, anxiety, and a drag on economic development, or is this something that, like washington tends to do, obsesses about that -- but may not have as much of a consequence? >> one difference is that all four us are required -- all four of us are required to have a balanced budget. also, about certainty -- a big thing we have to do is make sure that employers in our state, businesses in our state, know what they can expect with respect -- to policy. with respect to tax policy, improvement in schools -- this is all the issues that we talked about earlier. generally, uncertainty is absolutely discouraging to business investment, whether it is that a national level or state level.

one thing that we absolutely have to do is to provide that level of certainty, not just in one level, but across a or range of areas. >> do you agree? do you think it intensifies the closer we get to this termination date for many of the tax provisions in the code, december 31? since you are here in washington -- would you urge congress to get on the stick sooner? >> any of us who spend time talking to business now that any of us -- and the uncertainty -- uncertainty in europe, around the world, plays an impact. in our state, june is a big month in terms of settling uncertainty. we got a clear answer in terms of what will happen in wisconsin with a recall election. 94% thought we were heading in

the right direction -- a similar survey said that 87% of employers said they would add jobs in 2012. the biggest thing that was keeping them from doing it was the recall election. that is a good example where employers, even last week, -- i visited two or three employers who said they are ready to add more jobs. we feel good, we like where you are headed, we know it will continue. on the national level, i hear from employers -- it was about the other thing the nation will be looking at is what the supreme court will do when it comes to the affordable care at. there are a lot of employers -- the uncertainty. they're probably more against the mandate, but in general the uncertainty of not knowing what is coming next to the supreme court, the fall elections, anything that can be done to provide greater uncertainty -- certainty for our employers

would be effective. on last part, yes. here in washington, they look too early, they do not get the big picture. economic reagan's impact him into effect, it brought about the largest peacetime economic boom in american history. they slashed taxes and put money into american entrepreneurs hands. the only way you can improve is not through attrition but for growth. you have to put more money into the hands of people making it happen -- entrepreneurs and consumers. we'll be better off.

. >> to answer your question, yes. you have to hear that -- we can play by the rules if we know what the rules are. steve forbes indicated that he thinks $2 trillion of a venture- capital is sitting on the sidelines because of uncertainty. not knowing what the rules, they will sit back until they get some certainty and know what the rules are so that they can decide how to invest their moneys. --l give you an example scott just mentioned about the affordable care act. we have a lot of medical device companies in the state of utah. we export them around america and around the world. our export business has grown by

40%. this is the nature of the global marketplace. with the affordable care at, there is a medical device tax embedded in the program. it says we will tax you on but says that we will tax you on the revenue. that will stifle the research and development of new devices. this will cause companies like life sciences or companies in you talk to say, we need to go outside of america to do our research and development and manufacture our medical devices. that is a part that should be repealed, regardless of what happens with the affordable care act. that needs to be repealed. that is stifling innovation and the ability for us to approve product.

>> there is no question that the uncertainty of taxes and health care has had an impact on businesses across america. there is more cash sitting in corporations than ever before because of this uncertainty. the best thing of the president and congress could do right now, i don't expect this to happen because they cannot make any decision, but they could say that we're not going to raise taxes on any american and we're going to put a moratorium on all regulations. think about what that would do to the business sector of the economy. jack and i are respectively the chair and vice chair of the nga this year. what most governors would like out of the federal government is for them to give it to make a

decision, the tough decision realizing that you cannot please everyone. when are we as governors going to know the funding on the various programs that we depend on. of course, the health care program. we have our budget in balance. the affordable care act is an unfunded mandate. i think that is very unfair. we do our job in the state and the federal government sends us a bill. there are things they could do and they need to make tough decisions just like all four of us do every single day. >> do you want to wait in at all? >> no 1 in the room thought that

the status quo was acceptable. i heard from small businesses throughout our state every single day that they cannot afford the increases that people, young people gordon were not on their parents' plan were having difficulty getting access. we are moving ahead, we are planning the exchange and we will see what happens with the lawsuit. we cannot go back to the way it was because the way it was was miserable for employers and businesses throughout the country. we don't really have a health care system in this country, we have more of a sick care system because most providers and hospitals are getting paid based on how many procedures they do.

i don't know another industry where there is so much of a disconnect between what we feel in our pocket and what that actually costs. for most of us that have the insurance, we will go get a test and we will have no idea what it costs because it is not told to us. i'm very interested in what the governor was doing in massachusetts. he is looking to try to get away from the fee for service models. in our state, if you think about all the people that have some kind of health coverage, taxpayers take up the cost for 40%. when you add together medicaid, state employees and a lot -- and the like, taxpayers pick up 40% of the cost in our state. we have got to do a better job in delaware of leveraging our roles for the procurement of health care. regardless of what happens with

the affordable care act, there is a lot of work to do. >> under this question of uncertainty, let me ask all four of you, if we don't know what the supreme court will do, the supreme court does overturn some or all of law, does that create more uncertainty for your residents or businesses? >> i think that there is plenty of uncertainty and i think that the health care issue is the single most complicated challenge that we have. this is more than the education, transportation and the like. we are doing a better job for paying providers to keep us well rather than doing procedures when we are sick. there is a lot of uncertainty about how we will get there. if we don't get there, i don't see what we have as sustainable. >> i certainly agree with

myself. i hope the court rules it unconstitutional. anything in between will create more uncertainty, more complexity, hard to deal with. the second issue i would make is i think the debate was focused on the wrong issue. we focused on access, we should have been focused on cost. in my state, we are trying to focus on the wellness system. i can walk down the hall and my old office making a financial transaction to beijing, china, because we have a common financial and technological platform. if i needed my medical records within 24 hours, i would die before they got there. we do need to this electronic medical system. the patients must drive that. we have seen through our health insurance program, focusing on the cost.

>> this would appreciate a reset. the mistake that happened was that this was a bill that not everyone knows what is inside or what the meaning is. we are still getting uncertainty. we are trying to get medicaid reform. i believe that we should have health care reform. we have probably the lowest cost haircare out at -- healthcare. what we seems to be doing pretty

well in utah, no 1 asks us what is your opinion. what can you contribute to the debate. the governors were shut out of the discussion. in nevada, he has an older age population. it is demographics are different than mine. we thought about the exchange before the affordable care act. this was privately-driven. it was introduced as the contribution. we have companies out there competing for customers. this might not be the way but it is a way. we can learn from our successes,

our failures, and we have health care reform that we can reform and get a positive result. in my view, this has divided the nation in a way that is just significant and we need to push the reset button and start over. >> i think there is no doubt whatsoever that if the affordable care act was thrown out, it would create greater certainty, greater stability for employers. 1 thing in particular, even if that happened, we cannot go back to the way things were before. 1 of the first things i signed into law, a small step in the right direction.

anything that allows consumers of health care to have more skin in the game is better off. this helps about decisions not just about health-care costs, but health and wellness. the better off we would be. if you reach in your pocket and pull at your iphone or blackberry, you probably know more about your plan for your phone and your health care plan. having two teenagers, i know that have to have unlimited texting or i would speak in the poorhouse. many people cannot tell you what they have in their coverage. that is out of whack. healthcare's much more important than when you have promina or texting charges. not everything is elective. you cannot shop around when you're having a heart attack but

most of us don't have the emergency situations, most of those have collected procedures. one of the best examples is correct of our surgery. today, it is a lot less. it is not $50. you're not going to get a coupon from the phone book because you want equality. the people involved in medicine who knew that if they lowered the cost and make it affordable, not just for those with wealth with those in the middle class who could save up for it, they found out it is more cost- effective for them to get more consumers doing that. that is where the market how to drive up the quality. there has to be better ways to do this that are market- friendly, where government can engage and played a role in giving greater transparency.

we can play another roll, when we look at medicaid come up other programs, that is where many of our employers can help us out. the fact that this is a model known for a lot of other companies trying to adopt that. >> there is the filibuster, you have both done this in recent times.

>> i follow my lead from the visits that i paid to delaware businesses. i have visited probably 750 cents i became governor. i asked one question, what can we do to facilitate your success because that is the only thing that matters. what they talk about is making sure they have access to grade schools, a great work force, reasonable taxes, and a reasonable cost of doing business. they want to be in communities with strong linkages between institutions of higher ed and local companies. they want to be in a place that has the issues.

in our state, it is not something that has come up. these are this is to democrats, republicans, democrats, i could care less. i could care less for a good idea comes from. those issues i just mentioned, particularly around the work force and making sure that there are workers that can do the job today and the future, this is one, two, three. i hear a couple of things. >> as jack mentioned, the number-one issue you hear all the time is work force. i have jobs, i just don't have

enough skilled workers. i keep saying in our states, if we get that, we can lead the country, you can lead the world and improve our economy. and he is not able to do that because he does not have a guarantee of an of skilled welders. we have people that have the willingness and ethic to work. i hear that by far the most. i hear about stability.

that is what we did some of things to get our fiscal house in order. it is about the cost of doing business. this is the tax burden, the burden of complying with regulations, the burden of the frivolous lawsuits. we tried to lower the tax burden. it is a lot to do, particularly for small businesses. i would like to have a person that is just focused on sales and said of the risk-management things we have to do, all of the legal liability issues. if we get that down, we can focus on sales and production. >> we are may be the unusual stage. we did the initial tort reform. we saw this issue a long time ago. what i hear is the tax and regulatory burden climate. one of the things that you cite

is the recent tax foundation study that ranked the states among the existing firms and new firms among existing firms, we were ninth best in the country in terms of that tax and regulatory environment and for new firms, it nebraska was ranked number 1 in the country. i try to focus on lower taxes, less regulation. >> did that move change the business climate in any way? do people identify that as a new reason to move to nebraska? >> it had a big effect. basically, we do not allow trial lawyers and nebraska. [laughter] in all seriousness, we put down a great toward reform in the tournament 20 years ago and we stayed away from these frivolous lawsuits by and large and some of the other losses that you have seen. there is no question it made a huge dference in the medical arena. >> historically, utah has been a

pretty good environment that has not been excessive as far as the profession taking advantage of the issues but this is a growing concern in utah. we have doctors who are saying that i am not practicing preventive medicine. they tried to prevent themselves from getting sued. so, rather than just doing one or two tests, they are doing tandem 15 tests to prevent themselves from someone coming back and you were somehow negligent because he did not have this test. because of that, i have passed the lieutenant governor to go out into a study and review in utah to see if we can do this, to make sure we have an environment that is fair for the attorneys and those that have claims and still not inhibit the practice of common sense and good medicine. one of the areas we're looking at for example is what we call the i am sorry law.

we have doctors that cannot say i'm sorry. that is evidence they did something wrong. so, we are going to take a look at that and take a look at tort reform and see where this leaves us. this has not been a big problem but this is a growing concern for our medical doctors. >> on the medical side, we passed part of that overall package so that it really enhances the quality of care so that medical officials are not afraid to get together. they actually have assessed as to try to improve the level of quality care provided. what we have found are some of the changes we have made in the past in terms of improving medical malpractice cases. it was access to quality health care in our impoverished and roll areas and one of the biggest draws in terms of attracting people to some of the

parts of our state was the fact that they felt comfortable practicing in the state because we have a fully funded compensation fund and because of the fact that there are reasonable responsible standards when it comes to medical malpractice. that was an issue where it was not his about jobs but to the access to quality care. sometimes it seems like i it was sworn in 10 years ago. you ask what have you noticed. before the changes last year, we had examples where we had one of those cases that the "wall street journal" talked about where they went back 25 years and they said because of wet paint, anyone who had paid at that time who had done anything in wisconsin was liable for that. that is where one of those common sense fixes were people look at that and said, are you crazy. those were the sort of excess of lawsuit reform changes we made.

we have now moved on and off from that that employers to not talk about it because they are not upset about it. this was a major stop sign for business looking to come in in wisconsin to say this is something we are concerned about fifth the that is gone now, we moved on so quickly, sometimes we forget. >> some might say, does major know that there is a presidential campaign going on? i will not ask our guests to litigate any of the issues in the campaign. there is a conversation going on about state employees and local employees. what is the vitality of that, what does it mean economically? gov. walker, you are a prominent

voice on this. you talked to other governors and they will wrestle with this. i wrote in my column today that according to the latest statistics from northwestern university, you really dug into the issues of unfunded liabilities at the state level. the estimated unfunded liabilities ranges from an optimistic 4.4 trillion dollars to a pessimistic 7.1 trillion dollars. to finance without any changes at all, this would require a household tax increase of zero hundred and $30 billion. this would be to cover the understood pension benefit promises made at the city and state level across the country. if we're going to talk about

this issue, the vitality of state and local workers, their role in the economy, we had better get our arms around the unfunded liabilities. what did they mean? what did they tell us? have been given issue is it for you in nebraska and as you talk to other governors, out a given issue is it for them? this is one of are ticking time bombs that we had better reconcile ourselves to focus on sooner rather than later. >> this is one of the issues that we have been on top of all along. we are in great shape. it is clearly a critical issue now. the reason we have stayed on top of it, every time we have come into a situation where there is an unfunded liability, we go to the employees and say, you will increase your rates to cover about half of that. we have never allowed ourselves

to allow the liability to grow. i think a lot of states and pensions have always looked the other way, particularly in difficult economic times. >> chela but at the municipal level? >> there is no question that in our largest city, they have a serious problems. the previous mayors have said we will find that at a later date. this is the number-one issue that comes up next may. >> well, we have addressed pension reform in the state of utah. we have a tool track. we have made it sound and we are on the right path now. that aspect is taken care of. part of our solution is the

defined contribution and the defined benefit where you can at least predict the contribution and not have to worry about what tomorrow will bring particularly under circumstances you cannot control. part of our pension reform is involved with the contribution. i like to say that we reject the notion when it comes to the efficiency in government debt government is labor-intensive. that you cannot infect make cuts and still improve services. i have 22,256 state employees but you have to go back to the year 2000 to find a smaller number than that at the same time, it is about the second fastest-growing state in america right now. we have about six and a thousand more people that call utah home.

some people have been able to do more with less. new technology, new processes. the government has not done that. the an ounce of prevention, we have this big mountain to try to climb out of. i believe that frankly, you have to make the tough decisions, if that is pension reform at local and state level, you have to do it. it will not get any easier. >> to you have any issues at the municipal level? >> i don't know all of the issues but this is the state's lead. i don't know any problems we face. i think by and large we are in good shape. >> my first day in office, the first thing we did is we lost

our government performance review or we asked a number of executives to work with state employees to focus on areas we could become more efficient. we are down by a number of oppositions. we have the first administration to reduce employment. with respect to the attention peace, the challenge is that the area of government is exactly at the moment and time when revenues are down, the demand for services can increase. our state employees are doing more with less, a very difficult time with them. with respect to the pension peace, we have one of the best funded pension plans available in the country. the states that tend to get themselves in trouble either they borrow against the pension to pay for operating expenses,

which is a disaster, or they don't make the necessary contributions each year. these are basically based on the employee's pay, how much investment returns are generating. necessary't make the contribution, you can have a bigger problem. we decided to take on the issue of pension and health reform for state employes last year. the fact that we had a well- funded pension plan made it a bit more challenging because you have a 96%, 90% pension plan. we brought the leadership of the public employee and public education unions into my office and we did a power point for them. we showed how much we were spending, how rapidly it had risen, and why it was not sustained. at the end, i said i am not interested in a debate about whether or not there is a problem to be resolved.

we have to save a hundred million dollars over five years. if you would like to have a seat at the table, we would like you to have a seat at the table. we work with them for a couple of months. my administration, the leadership of the unions, a democrat and republican in the senate. there was changes to the pension and health-care plan which will save $130 million over five years. i think that it is unfortunate when -- the idea of that we don't need teachers, that we don't need police officers and the like is absurd. we don't have good teachers, law enforcement, we will not have any jobs out there in the first place. this kind of approach, no one liked having to make these changes. when we brought them to the

table and laid it out for them, and these we were able to get to where we wanted to be. >> you initiative does reforms when you look at your funding rate at 96% of liability. i describe what the unfunded liability is and the ratio of the largest state and pension funds in this country. it is 74%. governor markell said it is not sustainable. right now it is 74%, whichs slightly better than it was at 69%, but in 2001 it was 95%. i am obsessed with this issue because i have been writing

about it all week, but it seems interesting to me at 96% you consider that unsustainable. >> the issue for me was not at 96% was too low. the issue for me was how much it takes from the taxpayers to stay funded at that level was too high. the fact is that taxpayers were putting in $90 million, $100 million a year, beyond what state employees were putting in to keep that level of funding, and it was growing quickly. the problem -- maybe you do not have this with unemployment where you are, but the problem most of us have with unemployment is medicare and health care spending is increasing significantly, squeezing out investments we want to make an even though governor walker said he put more money into medicaid and other

governors had, it is not something we particularly want to do. most of us would rather make those investments in education, infrastructure, or other things that would create jobs. it was taking a bigger portion of the taxpayer pie. the situation in europe helped me sell it. what is going on in greece and elsewhere was becoming a bigger issue and we do not want to end up in that situation. >> governor walker. >> if you look in rhode island, where our colleague, and the democratic state treasurer boldly stood up and her view was from more of a liberal standpoint, if we do not do this we cannot handle the social programs. you could come at it from whatever it might be, but the

reality is these benefits are like a virus that eat up more and more of your budget and if you do not deal witht, it will grow out of control. as a local official, i saw it firsthand there. our pension system is essentially fully funded for state employees, and at various levels depending on local principalities. when i talk to people from illinois, and this happened over a long time, they are 43% funded. the pews center has bemba rated -- has them rated as the lowest. that is almost a whole you cannot crawl out of. the time for reform is long before you get t that is part of what we did with reforms of the state and local level. that is why moody's called our

positives credit- because of reforms we put in place, and as a local official i knew how important it was not just for state government, but to win power all of our municipalities and schools in 72 counties to do more of the same. as for your original question, on one of the sunday morning shows talking about teachers and firing police, we helped preserve those jobs. under the old system, almost every one of our school districts had to buy health insurance from one company affiliated with the teachers' union. our teachers can now bid it to anyone they want. that is money that goes right back into the classroom. that has had a positive effect. whether it is through pensions, health insurance, or other

reforms, money saved their, the more you can make decisions there, our local governments and states can make money, and that is where decisions are made about teachers and police officers and firefighters. one of the things gary said that is important is it is not just spending more, it is spending more wisely. there is this false argument about raising taxes or the quality of services. if you quit quality in half, people run to your competitor, right? my kids both go to a public high school. for years i would always hear property taxes have to go up, where my kids have to study. it is a false choice. healthca is a ime example. it is not more money. it is spending it more wisely.

that is where we are forced to make tough decisions that we as governors make and sadly we fail to see made here in our nation's capital, but we have to. i grew up down the way from paul ryan, so we have talked for years about the problems that face this country, and i am glad he is one of the few people that has tried to take on the budgetary challenges, but i think it goes beyond the press of this that we face financially. -- press this that we face financial repaired -- that we face. one thing pointed out is not just the pending budget crisis. it has a direct result on free enterprise. archive said the national archives, those documents define

our freedoms. there were endowed by our creator. the reason we are able to be the leader of the free world is because we are the leader when it comes to free enterprise. if we do not have free enterprise, if we stop being exceptional, that stops us from being the leader of the free world. long term, i get worked up because we have to tell if -- tackle these issues. i do not know about you, but i want my kids to inherit an america greater than the one we inherited and we need to make major changes to make that happen. >> we have about 24, 25 minutes left. [applause] >> i promise to get to some audience questions, but before i do that, i was at a symposium on the future of medicaid a while ago and there was conversation on handing it over to the governors in the terms of a

block grant, and let them decide what to do a on it, and a thinker on social policy said my interest. -- interpretation is governors do not want the money. they do not want the responsibility or take the political heat to make the decisions that would be forced upon them. i want to lay that before the four of view. would you want it, if so why, if not, why not? >> i do not think it is a good idea. i think there is a risk of a race to the bottom. there has been so much discussion about medicaid and the desire for flexibility, and my colleagues, whether or not they agree with this approach, every time we have been with the president as governors he has

said to us if you want more flexibility on medicaid tell us ot that isre looking for. not certain about the future of health care costs and i do not want my taxpayers to be saddled with what i believe to be a significant level of uncertainty. i spoke earlier about the things i think we have to do including at the state levels to make sure we are good stewards of the tax payer money and customers money with respect to health care, focusing more on wellness and information, data exchanges and the like. i think we need to look for flexibility and get flexibility and medicaid, but i have concerns with the block grant approach. >> jack and i are good friends, but this would be one we disagree on. call it a block grant or what ever you want to call it, we

want real flexibility. i want flexibility regarding eligibility and benefits paid what i do in nebraska is different than wisconsin, massachusetts, new york, where delaware. the real flexibility that i want that so far the president is not willing to give us is the flexibility on the eligibility and benefits. i do not think we will deny the people that really need it those benefits, but, again, my state is different than certain states in the northeast. i do not want to get into the block grant argument as much as giving us real flexibility. >> jack is my friend also. [laughter] >> i do believe in block grants and i believe in real flexibility to the states, and i heard president obama talking about wanting to give us more

flexibility, but i have the sense that it is like a henry ford idea. you can have any color you want as long as you choose black. i do not know if we're getting real flexibility at least to the levels we need to do in our individual states. the one-size-fits-all approach is not healthy. we have different demographics. we were trying to get waivers. i first approached the department of health on going paperless in our medicaid waiver, and we are a high-tech state, country, and it makes sense. we do it on a voluntary basis. as we made that request, over about 10 months we kept getting rebuffed, and finally we got a denial send to utah by e-mail.

[laughter] >> i mean, the irony is rich. i had an opportunity to speak to president obama and i said what do you think, and he said is it voluntary, and i said it would be. he said it seemed like a good idea and i said can you talk to some of your people in the department of health because they deny us, and eventually we were able to work with secretary kathleen sebelius and get those approved. those take a governor talking to the president of the united states to get a bureaucrat to understand this is common sense. we ought to have flexibility to deliver service better and more efficiently, and all the time it has taken us has cost us money. we ought to have a block grant not only on medicaid, the we are trying to get a list approved by oregon, and we have been

turned down. we are trying to get recipients to say find your own private provider, you would have more choice and it does not cost more, and we have been turned down on that. i have testified before congress. i will take 20% less efficiently with less money to transportation money. i will build more roads more help you balance your budget and we will have a better deal. cities and counties are trading federal dollars for state dollars, and that is because of the onerous regulations that come with these moneys that are ours to begin with, trying to get it back with strings attached. block grant me money on education, education, transportation -- we would do more with less and save

taxpayers' dollars in net profit the process. >> governor walker, do you have anything to add? >> i will not only -- i will up the ante. jack is a friend of mine, his kids and my kids are friends, but i differ on this. i think there should be a block grant for this and a lot of other things. for anyone concerned about this think back to the bipartisan era in the 1990's. it started in wisconsin with tommy thompson. welfare reform. bill clinton signed off on it, and how did we administer it? block grants. it was a great way to deal with welfare reform and truly having reform that not only need a change of the national level but at the state level as well. when it comes to medicaid, we have a program that we put $1.2

billion into. it is more money than any governor in wisconsin history, more money than just about any governor in the country, a sharp contrast to illinois which is cutting as much as i am adding, but we made no changes to the system. we put in place a series of reforms that took us about half of the year to get signed off, but let me tell you how dramatic these changes are. we said under badger care, which is funded by medicaid, we will ask you to get health insurance from the employer before you go to the taxpayer. if you are in your 20, and you can get covered under your parents, we will ask you to go there before the taxpayer. as your income grows, we will ask it to pay more for your

premium, co-pay, and the measure of affordable we are using is exactly the measurement used at the federal level under the obama administration, so not a radical concept, yet it took half of one year to get signed off on that. the sort of things we would do as governors are things that ultimately look out for the best interest of our people. give us a chance to do it because i think we could do it more efficiently and effectively. i think block grants are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of things we could do better than the federal government. >> one last point. the real issue is real money is in eligibility and benefits. these other cost savings ideas, maybe it takes too long to get waivers and the like, but my concern, and i do not think any of these guys would do this, but there would be a tendency for

there to be a race to the bottom. if you cut off eligibility and benefits, fewer people covered, they will seek health care, bill to the emergency room, which of course is the most expensive place of all. this could be a longer conversation, but i wanted to put a punctuation point on my concern. >> three-one is probably ok, jack. >> i want you put your lightning round hat on. on a scale of 1310, thinking about europe is like watching seinfeld, i think it is funny and i do not worry about it, or 10, i want to jump out of a window.

put yourself on that continuum. >> 7.5. >> seven or eight. >> 7. >> did go. >> that is pretty high. the unemployment rate for military reserves or those coming back from iraq and afghanistan are higher than those that are not military. and what you dealing -- doing to deal with the veteran population. we'll start with you, governor walker. >> we focused on returning veterans as well as those here, things as simple as professional licenses that are oftentimes difficult and time-consuming to get. we changed the law and said if you have the equivalent training within the military of something that otherwise would take one year or half of one year to get, if we can see you are

equivalent, we changed that and allow them to go in. we took a step beyond that. we did that earlier when we all got together at nga. the first lady michelle joe biden -- michele obama and dr. biden asked us to do something similar. there was a military member and the spouse was a registered nurse. if you are registered in another place, you can immediately transfer that as a military -- is married to someone in the military. a number of changes like that. job fairs, an online service -- we think not only is it a priority, but we found for employers that hire more

veterans, their well-disciplined and well-prepared. we restored the wisconsin gi bill, which is for any veterans getting access to our university system, and they are a great asset to get additional training to. >> in utah, we have a higher the veteran program to encourage the business community to look at the opportunities to hire a that. -- a vet. when i was in the military i learned how to survey, so i would be a certified survey year because of my military trainer. we also have college universities give them credit, and the state give them credit for a license to help them become more employable. last, but not least, the department of work for services

has a program designed to help the veterans get hired. overall, it is the 49th best in the nation when it comes to taking people who are unemployed to the -- employment. the average time in utah is 14.4 weeks. it is partly because we have economic opportunity and expansion, so there are jobs available. that is the best thing we could do, and then we have the ability to train them, show them how to interview, and make sure they are lined up with their skills to find a job in the marketplace. 14.4 weeks is pretty good care >> governor heineman? >> -- good. >> governor heineman? >> this is an issue i care about deeply tired i am a veteran. we work with the national guard and a strong -- care about deeply. i am a veteran.

we work with the national guard. yesterday, in omaha, neb., we had over 100 and players showed up in these situations, 400 or so veterans and spouses as we try to connect them with an unclear to get a good job. these men and women have served our country. it is a much more difficult environment when you go to iraq and afghanistan, and we need to do every single thing we can for these veterans could >> governor markell, representative for us -- veterans. >> governor markell, wrap up for us, please >> i came from a celebration of a veterans' home, and appoint governor heineman just made is the key point. we have 114 veterans in delaware that call that a home. the specific answer is many of the programs the governor's

mansion and we passed a tax credit for companies to hire veterans. i want to make this last point. when we think about military families, in addition to what scott walker talked about, making it easier to get licenses, the other thing i have been involved in its common core standards within education. the idea is a lot of states, governors and superintendents got together to make it clear that we have to have higher, fewer, and more clear standards of what we expect our kids to know and this is important in military families because they typically spend one year or one year and half in one state and then go to another. too often they might be taught as algebra in one state, and todd this and another, and they could lose a lot.

these standards are so exciting and critical. >> i need to think a great number of people. thank you for been a sensational audience. thank you to the chamber for giving me the opportunity to moderate this panel. sometimes you can get on the cynical side. conversations are real. things change. we have four governors here who are proof positive of that and that given their time and expertise to talk about their states, what they see, and how they are changing they hope improving the lives of their residents. governor time, governor markell, governor herbert, governor walker, thank you for being here. give these gentlemen a round of applause, please. [applause] >> thank you, all. that was terrific. major garrett, that was well- done.

they will join us in a press conference if the press wants to head over there. you all are allowed a break, no -- a 15-minute break. we will get started. they said a high bar for you guys, city panel. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> a our live coverage of this summit will continue in about 15 minutes with a session on jobs and innovation at the local level. later on, the u.s. chamber will talk about its higher our heroes program that governor heineman mentioned, which aims to hire half of 1 million veterans and military spouses. during the break will get back to part of the summit from earlier in the day with the u.s.

chamber of commerce president. [laughter] [applause] >> thank you very much. the afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i always worry at my age in particular when people give long introductions, they begin to sound more like obituaries. i appreciate the point you made about the things we are trying to do on the free enterprise side. and, the work that we have with your industry. thank you, margaret, and your teams for putting this together. two events we merged together because they belong together, and for all of the activity that is developing itself in such a vigorous way to look at our nation's challenges and to find

ways to work against them and with them. we are here to talk about jobs and given the dismal unemployment rate, some might expect a discouraging conversation. we are in difficult circumstances. economic growth is anemic and the jobless rate is chronically high in moving in the wrong direction, but if you are looking for doom and gloom from me, you will not find it. and fact, i hope everyone leaves this summit encouraged about our prospects and energy it -- energized for the brighter days ahead. why am i optimistic? first, we have proof that things are working. 2012 enterprise in state study, which she saw a quick cut on shows that states that foster strong business environments and embraced innovation are balking

all of the national economic trends. they're growing faster, adding more jobs. later today, we will hear from governors from some of those states as well as the business and civic leaders of two of the nation's driving cities. they are finding positive solutions to major challenges and they are seeing results now. there is a lot of washington can learn from the governors and mayors that are running these states and cities. here is the second reason i am optimistic. business has a plan. our government has tried with little success to stimulate growth and job creation, but government directed stimulus is not a long-term strategy to achieve long -- sustainable growth were to produce millions of new jobs, or to raise the standard of living in our country. what we need is a comprehensive plan for growth that leverages

our strengths and addresses clearly our weaknesses. the jobs and growth agenda does both of those, as do the plans of many of the successful governors. our plans call for greater energy development, expanded global trade, and an aggressive innovation agenda, and raining in and a creative and constructive way debt and deficits. if we do these things we can speed up economic growth, and add jobs in a hurry without raising taxes or adding to the deficit. i would like to focus my remarks on the issues of innovation. if you get the "wall street journal" today he will find a full-page and we have on

innovation. each couple of months we have one of those for one of the parts of our jobs and growth plan. the innovation system is what keeps our economy humming. our businesses competitive, and our standard of living is improving, and our wages and benefits high. very simply, if we want to spur a strong and sustainable recovery, america must ignite the innovation boom again and further. we must start by developing and attaining world-class talent because human capital is the primary driver of innovation. first, we need to develop the hometown talent.

it is no secret that america's k-12 schools in many places are falling far behind our global competitors. what is most alarming is that our primary area of weakness is also the most vital to innovation, and that it is science, technology, engineering, math, or stem. it is estimated half of the k- 12 students are being taught science and math by teachers who, by necessity or accident, are not sufficient and those skills. so we need to reform our k-12 education system, embrace technology learning and innovative teaching technologies. and we ought to stop america's schools with the best teachers who are rewarded based on performance. we also need to strongly emphasize stem studies at every level of education. let's encourage our young people to pursue these exciting subjects and rewarding careers. if we don't, our workers will

not have the education or training that they need to join an ever-changing and highly demanding work market, particularly on the skills side. studies show that within a few short years we will have millions of high school skills jobs -- high-skilled jobs without qualified people. right now we have about 3.5 million jobs we have not got people 4. i believe it is twice that because when you build a 3.5 million, you would get a lot of the multiple out of it, as you are getting in your states. studies show within a few short years, we've got to put these people to work to keep the innovative industries in our country or we will have a great acceleration in people moving elsewhere to follow their technological dreams.

in addition to developing more homegrown talent, we can also fill the skills gap by competing in the global race for talent. and that brings me to the second major way we build a competitive work force. bestst attract the world's and brightest and put them to work in our economy. global talent is already drawn to american universities. we have the best science, engineering, and technical colleges on the planet. more than half of the graduates and phd students but being in the high-tech disciplines at u.s. universities are foreign- born. the trouble is, that after we educate them at our american institutions, then we send them home because they did not have a u.s. visa. what we should be doing is stapling a green card and a visa to their diplomas. let's get smart. let's adopt a visa reform to make it easier for high skilled immigrants and foreign

graduates of u.s. institutions to invest their talent and their personal ambition in our knowledge economy. if we don't, we will send innovation to our competitors at the expense of our own economic growth, our own job creation, and our own global competitiveness. the bottom line is that a globally competitive work force is going to require a rational immigration policy, one that harnesses the energy and innovation of enterprising foreigners. if we fail to do this, to welcome this talents to our country, and then the work will follow the talent to their country. let me say that ideas and talent are only part of the equation. thomas edison, an american who knew a thing or two about innovation said "a vision

without an execution is an hallucination." in ventures -- inventors and entrepreneurs need access to capital to help brief life to their ideas and bring them to the market. many start-ups rely on seed capital from -- where the get it? family members, wealthy individuals, local banks, credit unions, and even credit cards to help people get off the ground. recently there was a lot of excitement and a little bit of controversy over the facebook ipo. the important thing to remember about that and countless other examples is what made them possible to begin with was someone was willing to take a risk on a fledgling project or idea and to put funding and to get a chance to flourish and grow. today, facebook has 3500 employees and is valued at $70

billion. i told my kids -- just think about it. anyway, that was largely because of an angel investors who saw some potential. large, established firms also routinely turn to america's vast pools of capital so that they can invest in new products or services can satisfy market demands. by the way, so do states and the federal government. jamie dimon, up there for a grilling today, made a point that brought a lot of the members of the senate to a more reflective set of questions. that it was our bank and only our been -- and he named three very significant states that came and showed up and help you when you were in real trouble with your pensions. don't forget it. this capital investment creates

a virtuous cycle, an idea transformed into products or services generate revenue that is often poured back into research, development, and discovery, leading to even more innovation, more jobs, and more growth. this is the process that yields cutting edge industrial techniques and more efficient business operations. so, it is critical that we keep our markets open and efficient and provide investors with predictable rules of the road so they can take appropriate and fought for risks. any measure that strangles capital formation or chokes off the flow of finance think must be revised, repealed, and i think some of dodd-frank meets that standard of review. that is why the chamber's capital markets center is working with congress to address that question. even more importantly, we are

working to breathe life back into our capital markets so they are flush with capital and able to fulfil these fundamental missions. fueling innovation, spring grove, and creating jobs and prosperity for americans. a competitive business environment is just as essential to innovation as well functioning markets. in the enterprise states we have fresh evidence of how states are fostering economic growth and jobs through their innovations. what do successful states have been common? tax and regulatory climate that allows companies to continuously innovate and shackled by needless delays and burdensome costs. and states that maintain a good legal reform environment can also expect hundreds of millions of dollars or more in

economic activity and tens of thousands of new jobs, according to our study. the right policies also attract manufacturers. innovation gravitates to manufacturing centers and manufacturers are some of the strongest drivers of new innovation. but when the federal government and their tax and regulatory policies are excessive, it breeds uncertainty, so those investments, the press's new technologies, drives manufacturing overseas and puts business at a competitive disadvantage. take taxes. no, you take them and keep them. but take taxes, for example. no one would hold up america's byzantine tax code as a model of efficiency or clarity or an engine of economic growth. our tax code must be restructured so that it is simple and clear, so that it spurs growth, encourages investment and efficiently

generates revenues to reduce the debt the set and meet our national priority. we must enact comprehensive tax reform does broaden the base, lores all business rates, reduces the burdens of compliance. this reform should reduce the corporate tax rate, the highest in the world, and drive innovation by permanently extending the r&d tax credit. we must also do away with specific tax provisions that target innovators. like the thing on the table right now, the $20 billion tax on medical devices that would take effect next year under obamacare. this excise tax would squelch innovation in medical technology industry, which is so vital to all of these new developments keeping us alive so

long and so healthfully. and, by the way it would threaten 43,000 industry jobs, disadvantage u.s. business and drive some companies and their jobs overseas. if you can't do it here, you're going to do what somewhere else. innovation depends on a rational, efficient, and globally competitive tax system and currently that is not what we've got. in addition to be uncompetitive tax code, an explosion of regulations inhibits entrepreneurship and innovation. a heavy regulatory burden prevents companies and start-ups from being fast and nimble in a competitive environment. compliance costs divert time and resources from business expansion and uncertainty restricts capital needed for innovation. we need a smarter regulatory system that preserves the

economic freedom and flexibility while removing unnecessary burdens and keeping costs and students see all these remarks at our website. we are continuing live coverage with a discussion of innovation at the local level. >> i am a poor substitute for margaret spelling's who is off with the governors, still doing a little interview. it is my pleasure to introduce to you one of the fellow is and our scholar, nick shultz who will moderate a panel. yes conducted original research on high-skilled immigration -- he has conducted original research on high-skilled immigration. he is a fellow like american enterprise institute, where he

specializes in political, economic and technology research. he is the editor in chief of american.com, and online journal focusing on business, economics and business affairs. he also wrote a book with arnold king called "from poverty to prosperity." this is on the list of books the drive the free enterprise debate. he is made an important contribution to ncf policy efforts, but most important, his critical thinking contributes to the national economic debate. please join me in welcoming neck shultz. >> thank you, al, and welcome to this panel, city case study.

i were to the american enterprise institute. we do a lot of work on national public policy issues. a lot of times these discussions can be very abstract. one of the things i like about what ncf does and what the chamber has been doing through its enterprising states studies and series is looking at a granular level at what practitioners are doing on the ground in states and cities. it is important to do this because that is the way we find out what policy makers are facing and what the business community is facing when we look at cities that face challenges and that takes steps to rise and meet those challenges. we have two very good examples of those today in pittsburgh and denver. i am glad that pittsburgh and denver were chosen.

they are to do all of my favorite cities, in part because of my -- there football teams are in me free in the -- in the afc.t i want to give you a couple of highlights. then we will get into the discussion. pittsburgh and denver were good choices. the u.s. has about 50 metro areas that are 1 million people or more and both pittsburgh and denver in recent years have much higher job growth than the other cities. about one percentage point higher than recent years, which is pretty remarkable. one of the things the report highlights is the importance of cities thinking about how to

create jobs and economic opportunity, and understanding what your strengths are. there is a temptation to say we need jobs and we need dynamism, and economic activity, so let's try to be like silicon valley. a lot of times that does not work. they will see the movie industry has been important for los angeles. maybe we can get movies made here. it does not look at what is really innate and specific to a city itself then try to leverage that, but pittsburgh and denver are good examples of cities that have done that, looking at their own strengths, and have said how can we go on this? both cities are known for a tradition of manufacturing. there is a perception, and i think it is a false one, that manufacturing is in decline in

this country. my colleague, and ncf fellow has done research on this. there is a boom if you look at an advanced manufacturing. the spurt in denver are good examples of cities that have looked -- pittsburgh and denver are good examples of cities that have looked to their roots. another example is both cities harness the potential of the new energy boom that is going on -- natural-gas and a light. some of the governors were saying they were fortunate to be sitting on top of these energy reserves, but as my friend who spoke to earlier, plenty of states are sitting on top of enormous energy deposits and not doing anything about it. this is where business and political leadership really matters. denver and pittsburgh are examples of cities taking

advantage of the national research -- natural resource endowments may have. those are areas where they have something in common, but one area denver has leveraged strength is trade. it is a traditional crossroads. it is built on that tradition to leverage international trade, and exports are up 70% since 2005. pittsburgh has had a tradition of higher education both with great research universities like carnegie-mellon, the university of pittsburgh medical center and the like, and it has leveraged those assets to become a real leader in things like health care, robotics, information technology and the like. it is important to think about that when trying to draw lessons for other states and communities. we will have a conversation. you should have pieces of white

paper on your table. i ask the you write down questions. we will start to my right, your left, and we will go down in here about two or three minutes, an overview from our panelists. the first is the honorable michael hancock, the mayor of denver. i will turn it over to mayor michael hancock. >> thank you. i want to thank you to the u.s. chamber for this invitation. if you look at denver and identify the words that describe our positioning, and the things that we have done over the years that have helped to sustain and ignite growth over these turbulent years, words like regionalism, partnership, particularly public/private, with my friend and colleague to

the left, kelly broke, as well as with other companies, and collaborations'. these are words that really solidified our city going forward. i will give you a hint of what i'm talking about. 154 years ago denver was considered to dead to barry. that is a direct statement from an economic development leader. when they started running trains, denver realized it connected to shy and with a train, it could create an economic opportunity as a city. fast forward to the new change in transportation where air became the more dominant form for people to move around the united states. in denver, visionaries have the foresight to open up the international airport. it did not take long before it became the most dominant form

of commerce for the city of denver. when the economy began to settle again, a visionary said let's build a new airport. we have become stifled. again, in difficult times denver responded by building denver international airport. as a result, the city began to take this journey to what i love governor herbert said -- beginning to embrace the global market. i ride in 2011 as the new mayor and we looked -- i arrived in 2011 as the new mayor and we looked at new agencies -- industries that began to embraced globalization. we will be most successful if we do a few things. number one is embraced the global market. two, worked on investing locally, which means we have to educate the workforce, make sure we are investing in leveraging

those emerging markets in the global economy, thereby having a reason why someone would want to come to your city, and why we want to go globally. thirdly, invest in our infrastructure, which denver has done over the years to build what i believe the most vibrant downtown in denver. as a result, you have companies wanting to relocate. yeah massive investment in the transit system. as a result we are the number one destination for 18-to-34- year-old's in the nation. they're coming to denver in droves, creating a new base for us. we have begun to take a look how we can use them leverage our position as a city in the midi -- in the middle of the nation, where you can get anywhere in

the world between two and 12 hours. the last thing i will say to you is through the investment of our infrastructure, is at the height of our recession, our then-mayor led the effort to invest in infrastructure that the tool of a half of $1 billion bond issue, and as we begin to emerge in denver is sitting as the number 1 city for the creation of construction jobs. we have been building investments even during these economic challenges. that vibrancy is beginning to attract more businesses and opportunities to our city and it is an awesome toll for me to use as i try to grow the city for job creation. >> kelly brough, director of the

chamber of commerce for denver. >> thank you. great to be here. in colorado, the huge benefit is the history of this country is if you set out a body of water chances were good you could find your way toward success economically and technology has changed that and position us, where in land to find our place in the world -- warwick england to find our place in the world. -- who are inladn. two places where we have been lucky and good is the development of the workforce. we are the second most educated state in the country. we are lucky because people want to move there because of the quality of life and what we deliver, and the second is we are willing to acknowledge some of our weaknesses, graduating our own kids and preparing them to be the work force we want. our willingness to call out where we are not as strong has

been a huge advantage for us. we tend to do it early and we do it with great vigor. the second thing is our business climate and recognition. also, we did not have a history of needing to build our economy the way many cities have. we did not know you needed to ask things like what is your family name, where did you go to school? we skipped those questions and went straight to do you want to contribute, and how can you get involved? i would say that attitude was our competitive edge as position does very well as we go into this next, kind of, economic future. i look forward to the discussions we are about to get into. >> now, you would expect the mayor of the city and someone with the chamber to be

boosters, but we also have chris riva paul, senior vice president -- chris while pell -- riopelle. >> a little bit about us first. we are a large health-care company focused on the dialysis space, but recently have expanded to a broader part of health care. we are delighted to call denver home. about three years ago, we announced our decision to relocate from california to colorado, and we have done that. in about one month, we will moving toward new headquarters in a special part of downtown denver. davita cares for 140,000 people in 27 locations across america

we are delighted that denver is home. we will talk more about why we made that decision. there are a lot of factors that went into it. suffice to say we believed we moved into a community that would embraces and support us in many ways and the state of colorado at out-perform significantly in that regard. i am delighted to be here and part of the discussion. >> thank you. now, we will flip to the other side of the country and go to pittsburgh. kelly mentioned how important the it was to be on a body of water. pittsburgh is not on one, but three. first, we will hear from the hon. which fitzgerald, -- rich fitzgerald. >> thank you. i want to say thank you to the

chamber for having us and for recognizing the success that the sprint has become over the last couple of years. when the industrial hit happened in the late-1970's and early- 1980's, we probably suffered more than anyone with job loss and a population loss and it has taken us many years to find a solution, and if i have -- would have to synthesize our success, in a few words it would be cooperation and diversity. we have a lot of cooperation amongst institutions, government working with business and government, with our universities, as we have nine major universities working together. they worked with the government sector and with business to partner. i would also add in our labor unions. they have been terrific partners with us in providing the type of partnership and work-force

development that i hear about all of the time. i heard the governors previously talk about bad being one of the barriers. we see the same thing. we have a lot of jobs available, not necessarily high- skilled jobs, although we do have those, too, 1500 engineering jobs in the city of pittsburgh not filled, the we also have jobs for technicians, welders, machinists. there is a great speed to of cooperation as the work force cooperates with management to make them more efficient, competitive, and make better and more marketable products. so, what we have been able to do over the past few years has really been leading the nation. our gdp has been about 5.5% while the nation has been about 1.82%. housing values have also led the nation in appreciation as we have seen jobs grow in a variety

of areas. again, when i talk about diversity to be known for steeld heavy manufacturing. we still make a lot of steel, of what has changed in steel, it is much more automated. we have had major investment in our stainless steel mills. we have a burgeoning chemical industry. we also have a burgeoning i.t. business. we are one of the major rail institutes, making the cars and the switches for people movers of the world. we have, again, a very diverse economy. one of the things i would really highlight of the change of the 30 years that i talked about is, 30 years ago, or 25-

35-year-old work force was one of the least educated in america. fast forward to 30 years later, or 25-35-year-old work force is the highest indicated in the country when it comes to postgraduate degrees. that has been a major transformation as we continue to invest in education and invest in our workers and the folks that are there. we continue to work on attracting talent, quality of life issues that have really made a great difference in our region. >> thank you, rich. next up is dennis, the ceo of the allegheny conference on community development. >> good afternoon, everybody. if you don't what the allegheny conference is, we are the metro chamber organization that represents the private sector and reduce private-sector in the area. for someone who grew up in pittsburg, being here today is

amazing. if you go back 30 years, 1983, our low point, the regional unemployment rate was 18.3%. him about that for a minute. today it is 6.7% and dropping. the real fundamental question we want to talk to you about today is how? what happened? what did pittsburg do? finally there are three things that were done over 30 years persistently, and asked the county executive said, with collaboration. one, we did not stop doing what we are good at, which was making things, financing and, and providing the energy needed to operate it. those three and -- the three industries have been reinvented through innovation. we levered world-class universe in health care institutions and the billion dollars a year of research is done there to create knowledge that did not exist 30 years ago. software, robotics, medical

devices, etc., and today there are over 1600 technology companies in the region. third, we invested in the place. we became the most livable city in america the last four years in a row. we invest in air, water, riverfront, housing, education, recreation, etc.. for those who have never been to pittsburg art not in the last 10 years, i guarantee you'll be shocked if you come and visit the place. as a result we are here today, invited to this discussion, and we are stunned and proud. >> next up is gregg, president and ceo of the bayer corp. usa and the chair of the greater pittsburgh chamber of commerce. it is good to have you with us. >> thanks everyone for coming

today. we have three businesses, one which you probably recognize from the product that maybe it took this morning, bayer aspirin. the health-care business develops products that help to diagnose and cure and prevent disease. we also have a large signs business which really focuses on enhancing crop yields as well as securing the food supply, and finally we have a material size business which is a high-tech polymer business that applies and develops and does research in the application of these materials to improve energy efficiency, to improve security, as well as to make our everyday

lives simpler. unlike chris, we are not newcomers to pittsburg. this bird has been our headquarters for over 50 years now. we started there with a handful of people and one building and have grown up with the city through that time to 2700 employees in the pittsburgh area. we have more than 50 sites across the country. i have 13,000 employees in the united states across those 50 sites. 2700 of those sit at pittsburg and not only are they doing headquarters work but also doing basic research and medical devices and high-tech polymers. we have stayed for over 50 years in pittsburgh because of the tremendous work ethic, because of the universities. i mentioned we do basic research there so the universities are critical to

bayer science for better life. that is our tagline. innovation is everything that we do, and pittsburg is a great place to innovate. >> remember, you have pieces of paper on your table, so we encourage you to write down questions and submit them. i want to draw together couple of bread, some things that i was hearing from all the participants. one is the importance of workforce to the success of the area. this is something tom talked about in his remarks in terms of human capital. when you think about that, about the work force issue, tom mentioned immigration. bringing in people who can do the jobs that are necessary. another is trying to develop the work force that is already there. what are things the city can do to try to improve the work force

situation so that businesses are attracted, so that businesses can grow organically that are already there? >> first and foremost, working closely with the school system to make sure there is zero tolerance in the community for failing schools are failing systems. we have been working to improve on that. we have created the education compact which brought together in the private sector, higher education partners to help us define ways and actionable goals that we can make an impact on. it started a few years before that when -- part of the sales tax goes to ensure that every 4- year-old in denver can go to preschool or an early childhood education program. we believe if we are going to

build a strong work force, it starts with the very young. making sure that our school ready when they enter kindergarten at age 5. we know they enter kindergarten prepared and ready to hit the ground running. they are typically reading -- the first third grade class just left class and 30% of the kids for the first time were tested proficient at the grade level or above. that far outpaces the kids who did not go through our program in denver. so we are making a commitment through the whole pipeline to make sure our kids are school ready and proficient at third grade reading and that they are graduating. that is a signal to our private sector partners that we are committed to build a strong work force.

>> that has to be music to mark critz fourier's right there. what are some other things? >> as i go around on a daily basis as an economic development director, the one thing i hear about its work force level, that is the number-one issue by far. one of the things we try to do is partner -- being whatever or customers need to get them the help they need and what they need typically its work force training. we have developed a committee system that is very flexible in the curriculum we provide with our partners. if there is a need for companies to have welders, we have a wheldon program at one of our community college campuses. whatever it might be. we have a burgeoning energy industry in western pennsylvania

and allegheny county. there has been a great influx and growth in people in those jobs, but they need to be trained to work on a natural gas rick in the controls and testing and need to be done. we try to provide our community college and work with our universities to try to provide -- meet those needs. as i mentioned before, our trade unions have some of the best training facilities in the country to bring people along. >> on the community college front, are you going out to the companies, or are they coming to you? how does it work so you are developing a curriculum for the next five or 10 years? >> a little bit of both. many of our companies stock about the fact that they will be hiring 30 workers a year for the next five years. we find out what they need. it really goes both ways.

they often bring it to us and we go out and talk to them. >> a question from the audience about small business. a lot of cities in metro's think it is really important to attract a big company to move up a huge base of operations into their area. but there is another way of looking at it, which is focusing on small business. maybe we can start with dennis and the others can chime in. how do you think about small business as a focus for creating jobs and pittsburg and the surrounding area? >> the question highlights a very important point. the attractions from our region get the most publicity, but in any healthy economy, 9% of the dogs will be created either by new start-ups or by existing companies that are expanding. attractions are important, too, but they will never dominate the economy. if you are not focused on small and medium businesses which create most of the jobs in

america, you are going to have a problem. maybe the most noteworthy in our case is we have this billion dollar a year research set of institutions that are doing all this world-class research. we have worked hard over the last 30 years to commercialize more and more of that research. that involves universities, active participation, policies and operation that involves early stage places, incubators for companies can get started and be nurtured bid involves early stage risk capital an angel capital to be able to finance these businesses. we work very hard in a public- private way, state, local governments, businesses and the private sector involvement to try to make that work. >> what about you guys, the focus on small business? >> 90% of our businesses have

less than 100 employees. the federal government defines small as less than 500. for us, that is the. a huge part of our strategy is around how to help those businesses be successful and higher and drive jobs and ensure they can grow in colorado. we are the fourth state in the country to have one employee organizations. that means one person who works for the company. we are the fourth largest number of all states in terms of the number of those we have. during the recession, one of the things we looked into is why is that? we believe because we have a more educated work force, what tended to happen is people who might lose a job tend to start their own business and take that job. we think creating an environment that allows people to take a risk and have the work force with the capacity to do it can make all the difference, and ensure you have less

unemployment as well. >> an excellent question here from someone in the audience who points out that both pittsburg in denver have posted major events in recent years. pittsburg at a g-20 summit in denver had the democratic convention. most of the both of those things cost a lot of money to put on. the person is wondering about the costs and disruptions of the city. how should other cities think about these things? >> we were very proud that president obama picked pittsburg to host the g-20 a couple of years ago, talking about cities that had transformed themselves. it was one of the first examples of what we were. were the things the president was talking about was sustainability in energy efficiency and green. we have really embraced green in our city. our convention center is the highest certification that there is.

it draws a lot of people. there is a lot of tourism dollars, a lot of conventions that want to be socially responsible. they come to pittsburgh because we have the most sustainable, the greenest convention center. we talked about the financial sector. pnc is one of the biggest banks in the world and never building up foreign dollars million skyscraper in downtown pittsburgh. -- they are building a $400 million skyscraper in downtown pittsburgh. there was inconvenient, but our folks were willing to do that because we were so proud that the world was coming to our city, to our region. we wanted to show it off, so we were willing to put up with some of the inconvenience that comes with the security of hosting the world leaders. there was a cost to it, but i think the benefits far outweigh that because it enabled us to show of our city, to talk about

some of the things that we have, and it did attract some businesses so we are able to gain from that. >>, pittsburg perspective as well. his point is exactly right, and has put a very positive spotlight, when you have looked at what has happened since the g-20 in pittsburg. the following year, we are able to attract the united nations environment program to select pittsburg as the host city in the united states for world environment day. this particular year, we are the host city for one young world, which is the dollar goes -- davos of the younger generation. we are looking at thousands of young, potential employees who are migrants and to pittsburg who will be in pittsburg-you are

talking about some very big issues. you can leverage these as well and a very intelligent way. rich and the entire team, each one of these come back to the point about public-private partnerships, each one has a partnership associated with it where the private sector is equally engaged with the public sector. >> you cannot pay for the kind of marketing and exposure that your city gets from hosting the sort of events. for four or five days, denver was the focal point of the entire world. it was a major party convention. you just simply cannot put a dollar figure on the kind of exposure that occurs. right after the convention, i used to say the good news is that everyone knows about denver

now. the bad news is, everyone knows about denver now. the second thing is, i could not have been prouder of the regional cooperation that emerged as part of the planning, execution of the convention. to walk around denver during that time and to see police officers from all over the metro region proud to represent the metro region to the world, was extremely gratifying to watch. finally, the multiplier of what occurred, as a result today we are reaping the benefits. denver is one of the top convention destinations of the world. people are coming. we are sold out for years. we have minimal time on the calendar because of the number of conventions coming to denver. you can trace that directly back to the convention being in denver and exposure regatta because of it.

>> i happened to be chief of staff for the then mayor when that the anc came to town and that is a role you do not want to be an -- windy dnc came to town. dnc came to town. the most powerful thing that came out it was, we changed our own minds about what was possible. we as a region and a community started to see ourselves being able to achieve things we never thought we could have achieved before. that might be the more powerful transformation that occurred from that experience. we now believe there is no limit in what we are capable of doing. >> another question from the audience, a question about quality of life issues and how much it matters to boosting growth in the city. chris, your company made a decision about where to locate.

obviously you had a lot of options. talk a little bit about what quality of life things mattered as you guys went to make that decision, and greg, obviously you find something about the quality of life here, but you obviously need to recruit people to come and work there. what is it about pittsburg that you can sell? >> in denver, the quality of life is an easy thing to talk about. we are lucky to be in a part of the country with a wonderful climate, access to wonderful recreation, and lots of folks move there from other places who like to engage with each other. on a high level, that then things are, for their recreation opportunities? the deeper than that, how can

our teammates engage in the community, and what are they going to find when they engage? will they find a welcoming committee in a deep way or a shallow way? will they fine grade schools and great infrastructure? can they ride their bicycles around the city of denver comfortably from one end to the other? there are dozens of factors in quality of life. the easy ones are obvious. that is why a lot of folks move to colorado. there is a lot of in -- inbound migration that helps us as an employer looking for great talent. we have a community that allows us to engage in a powerful way. that raises the quality of life for all our teammates in denver today. >> what would you like to see improved when it comes to quality of life? >> i wish the weather would get

better. if the mayor could stop the fires in northern colorado, we would be really happy. is getting smoky in denver. the greatest thing about our decision here is the collaborative nature of how the city government, state government, local business leaders are coming together. to mayor hancock i would say just to continue to invest. there is a huge commitment to collaborating in the business community, not just because of jobs, but because we want the right people to come and be part of our community. our company has done that over the last few years. thousands and thousands of hours of volunteer time. we do it because we know we are part of the city that has partnered with us. i could not tell him to do anything other than continue to do that. we are doing a great job and there are lots of examples we

can share. >> first and foremost, we have the steelers. [laughter] i guess you have to be from pittsburg to appreciate that. i will not repeat some of the things i said earlier in terms of access to universities and employers. that is very important. whether you are at a site in the city for five years or 50 years, as chris knows, you are always assessing whether you are at the right place. it is an ongoing process, very important part of the fiduciary responsibility that we have as business heads. we have made that decision many times in pittsburg. i think for us, not just universities access for our employees but also for their children is a critical issue. the quality of education in the

primary and secondary schools and at the university level is a great selling point for pittsburg. it is certainly a strength. another issue that is important for us is the cost of living. we do an assessment of all our sites and we have more than 50 across the country. we probably have a half-dozen that i would consider to be major sites in northern new jersey and in raleigh and pittsburg and berkeley and houston, kansas city. when we benchmark those sites and those major areas every year, pittsburg is the lowest cost that we have across the country. when you make a combination of very low cost, low cost of living, which means a lower cost of operation for us, combined with an outstanding education system and a great supply of trained scientists, which we higher more than those, but that

is really our lifeblood, that is a great combo. i would be remiss if i did not mention pittsburg is a great place to live and to raise a family. th is important to all our employees. for those reasons we have stayed for 50 years. every couple of years we make that assessment again, but i think pittsburg continues year after year to be our choice for those reasons. >> i saw a jolt nodding vigorously -- joel nodding vigorously. we have time for maybe two more questions. rich, i'll ask this of you and may be mayor hancock. how do you measure success? one of the things -- we can talk about all the things we would like to do but it does not mean that much unless we can say we started here and we ended up here and that is how we know we

are succeeding. what specifically are you looking at changing and how do you know when you are being successful? >> success in all the things we do in government goes to a commonality of creating and providing jobs and opportunities. one of the things about pittsburg is people love it. even many who have had to leave for 25 or 30 years -- you may have to leave pittsburg, but pittsburg never leave you. it is just a great place. i view it as trying to provide opportunities for young people when they get out of school. if they don't have to get -- if they don't have to move away. for 25 years were losing population and that has now changed. the young people are moving in, coming to us. i would say making it an attractive place to move, and the one thing about quality of

life is, we have a major presence with google in our community. google is always trying to attract people. they say once we get them here, once we get them through the tunnel, they stay. but we have to get in there. that is how i would judge that. >> we were just sitting here conferring. success comes a lot of different packages. it is judged are measured by the landing of a nonstop flight from denver to tokyo, which will bring $130 million per year in economic impact. it is judged by the decision by a company like the solar to move their mobile headquarters to

denver. those are extremely important. i understand the importance and how serious those decisions are to relocate your employees. it is a company that says we want to stay and grow bigger. pro logis built additional towers and it grew employees. everything begins to jive and is focused for the future and helping to build for the next generation. it is not about the next election, it is about the next generation. when those things are at jiving in moving your state forward, then you are beginning to reach optimal success. it is all relative and depends on what you are working on. >> we have time for one more question for kelly and dennis.

i want to bring it back to the fact that we had a state panel with governors drive before this one. obviously pittsburg in denver are two of the major engines in their state, and philadelphia to some extent, too. you are situated in a state. are there ever times that you are saying that things would be so much better if it were not for the knuckleheads in the state house? our cities able to do some things on their own, or are you bound by what is going on when it comes to taxes and regulatory environment? how can other city leaders -- are they dealing with the states are working around them in ways that are not conducive to growth? >> we never refer to anyone as a knucklehead in colorado. there is no question, yes, we are working with our state. almost every single policy issue that we impact as a chamber is a

statewide policy issue for us. that is where we spend most of our time, making sure we are creating a statewide environment that really supports business and allows us to achieve success. what is key in terms of making headway in that effort, because i cannot imagine any major city is different in terms of its needs, is that you form those relationships where there is an understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, focus on the goal you are going for and remove the distractions which can be party or platforms or other things, and really try to get everyone to look at the goal you are trying to achieve, and finally i would recommend all -- you can actually text your ideas very quickly and see if you can try to influence policy that way. >> reiterating part of that,

there is no substitute with working our state government officials. there is so much they do that affects the environment of developing an economy that you have to work with them. pittsburg is also doing something that is important. we are within 30 minutes of three other states, ohio, west virginia, and the panhandle of maryland. a lot of the issues we deal with, transportation issues, economic development clusters, work force, do not stop with those artificial boundaries. we have begun to cross state lines. we have an energy initiative with west virginia. we have a federal research initiative with cleveland. we even have a broader regional initiative with all the power of 32, which is 32 counties in four states all working together on a series of things that brings all that together. that is something we can do at a regional level that is harder to do at a state level. >> we are running out of time. i just want to encourage you all

to pick up the study that was put out by our friends. tom started to talk earlier about pointing out that despite all the partisan rancor going on in washington, there is a lot to be really optimistic about in the country. if you listen to what is going on in denver and pittsburgh,, is absolutely right. please join me in thanking our panelists for a great panel. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> as we get ready for father's day weekend, for those of you have not got a card, make sure you get out and do that before sunday. i want to start by sharing something my dad told me the day i became a marine. he said everything good in life happens when good people do good for others. as a 20-year marine veteran, it is and honor and privilege to be part of hiring of your heroes. it is program founded on the premise that good things will happen if we bring leaders from the government and the business community together in local communities across america. since march 2011, working with governors like those who are here today, are on state and local chambers, and keep partners like employers support

the guard and reserve, the department of veteran affairs, we have led a massive public coordinated grassroots campaign to help veterans and military spouses find hundreds of jobs in communities across america. good things have happened for veterans and military spouses with thousands of them finding jobs. good things have also happened for american businesses who have hired these talented men and women. we have created a movement across america. the fact is, when the hiring fare is over and they told of the tables and put away the chairs, the leaders in the organizations we have pulled together are doing this day in and day out, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. reiterating military families that are returning to the communities and helping them find jobs. before we get to the business at hand, i would like to recognize three things that have been critical to hiring our hero

success. the first is leadership. i can honestly say that none of this would have happened without the vision of our president and ceo, tom donahue, and the trust and confidence he placed in me when it chamber launched the program last year. , thank you, tom for the program to serve. the second is the partnership that we have forged with public and nonprofit organizations who share our passion to work in a collaborative way on this important issue. the employer support of the guard and reserve is at the top of that list. which is why the chambers recommitment today in the form of a statement of support is much more than just words were a symbol. lastly, the tremendous men and women who have assembled a team around the country. they are living proof that hiring a hero is good business.

i would now like to call the national chairman for the guard and reserve to the stage to say a few words. he was appointed chairman by secretary of defense robert gates in may 2007 and reappointed by secretary gates in may 2010. sgr is the department of defense agency's mission is to develop and promote the cultural employer support from public and private employers for men and women of the national guard and reserve and their families. [applause] >> thanks, kevin. we are delighted to be here and to be a partner with the chamber. the chamber is the engine that drives our economy with its 900,000 members. it is good business to hire a guardsman or reservists. we are not here just to tweak your patriotism. the chamber is the heart and soul of the business community in this country.

the guardsmen and reservists are the lifeblood of the business community. for those who may not know, the guard and reserve comprises 48% of the military strength and capabilities of this country. and they do at fort 7%-24% of the budget, depending on the economy. our budget with our lack of control and perhaps bankrupt the country without the guard and reserve force. well is not protecting us, they need you, the employers, to give them jobs rejigger while they are not protecting us. that keeps us going. the guardsmen and reservists are in every village and colony in this nation. they buy the products. they are small businessmen. they have families.

it is good business to hire a guardsman or reservists. we cannot go to a finer organization to do business with in the united states chamber of commerce. for that we are grateful and we are grateful that mr. donahue has agreed to reaffirm the support and partnership that we have with them, to support the men and women of our country and you, the employers of our country, as we march forward in progress. it is appropriate at this time that we do that. thank you. >> i was going to introduce time, but i would just have him come up and say a few words. >> last weekend, or last week, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the chamber commerce in the united states.

as a part of doing that, we spent a lot of time learning about, thinking about, and learning from what happened 100 years ago to form this great organization and what kept it together. or founders asked two fundamental questions when they established our mission. the first was, how do we best serve the business community? the second was, how can the chamber and the business community best serve our country? the concept of service in the nation was big again, in the minds and hearts of the chamber's early leaders and members. that has not changed to this day. in all areas of our national life, american leaders will step up and act for the common good. the american business community,

backed by the free enterprise system, has an extraordinary capacity to serve this nation. we approved it over and over again, creating untold numbers of jobs and opportunities in giving life millions of individual american dreams. last march, the chamber and the business community at large stepped up again because they saw the critical need. with over of million unemployed veterans in america, and the imminent drawdown of our military, we started an international campaign called " hiring our heroes." the goal was simple, helping our veterans find careers in the private sector. just 50 months after starting the program, we will complete our 200th hiring fair and i've understand we will do another 200 before the end of the year, maybe more than that. we have are replaced thousands

and thousands of our heroes in productive jobs. the program continues to expand with the support of local chambers and governors like those that are here today. by next march, it says here we will complete 300 more hiring .areirs many of the jobless veterans are guardsmen and reservists. they are facing, i think, significant challenges in rural communities with unemployment rates above 20%. which is why our relationship with the employers for their guard and reserve is so important. since we started hiring our heroes, that have been with us every step of the way and under the leadership of the chairman, the executive director, are impact will continue to grow. in just another moment we will

restate, re-signed, and recommit the chamber to this very important relationship. but before we do that, we would like to ask all the chamber employees in the audience who are veterans, guard and reserve members and military spouses to stand. i think we have a bunch of them here. [applause] so now, i want you to join me in recognizing the critical work of our team. you see, kevin learned a lot about budgets from me. he hired all these people, and then he never brought them here. we paid them but we would never see them. look at the size of this mob he

has got. there are a lot of them here. all the ones that are here, stand up for a minute. there you go. [applause] suleiman inviting up here? you are going to do it -- who am i infighting up here? while thomas and the chairman get ready, i would like to call them up to the stage while i read the statement of support. statement of support for the guard and reserve. recognize the guard and reserve were central to the strength of our nation and the well-being of our communities. in the highest american tradition, the patriotic men and women of the guard and reserve serve voluntarily in an honorable and vital profession.

they trained to respond to their community and their country in time of need. they deserve the support of every segment of our society. these volunteer forces are to continue to serve our nation, increase public understanding is required of the essential role of the guard and reserve in preserving our national security. therefore, we join our employers and pledging that we fully recognize honor and enforce the uniformed services employment and reemployment rights act. our managers and supervisors will have the tools they need to effectively manage those employees who serve in the guard and reserve. we will appreciate the values, leadership, and skills service members bring to the work force and encourage opportunities to hire guardsmen, reservists, and veterans. we will continue recognize and support our country service members and their families in crisis and in war. signed, it james g. rebholz,

leon panetta, secretary of defense, and thomas j. donohue, president and ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce. [applause] in the interest of time, we will que outside.ttpla >> thank you all for your participation today. all right, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for the fun and free prices. i was introduced long ago with

the following, after the last speaker. free margaritas will be served in the lobby. it is time for the free margaritas. thank you all for joining us today. we are going to have some ipad kiosks with the tools that will show you how to look up and learn more about your state through the application that is available as well for the national chamber foundation at the app store for iphone and ipad. we are going to give away two ipads and you do need to be present to win. chamber and government employees are not eligible for the drawing. thank you again and i look forward to seeing you at the next national chamber foundation event. for our governors and job summits, thank you all.

>> later on today, president obama awards the presidential medal of freedom to israel's president shimon peres. the ceremony is live here on c- span from the east room of the

white house at 7:10:00 p.m. -- at 7:10 p.m. eastern. jamie dimon told senators "we made a mistake. i am absolutely responsible. the buck stops with me." >> this weekend on book tv, follow davidmaraniss on his journey. the video record of his travels. then live at 7:30, he takes your calls and questions. this weekend, blaming liberals for an ongoing war of ideas, using "the tyranny of cliches." >> the idea that the further you move away to the left, the

closer you get too bad things. in some ways, the best working definition of of fascist is simply a conservative who is winning an argument. >> that is this weekend on book tv on c-span2 . >> defense secretary leon panetta said the automatic spending cuts scheduled to hit the pentagon next year would be a disaster. he said it would result in cuts to weapon systems and training. he testified today before the senate appropriations subcommittee. ying was general martin dempsey.

>> this morning of like to welcome the honorable leon panetta, secretary of defense, and general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. gentlemen, you assume these positions during a very challenging moment in history. our economy, our country is facing a budget deficit and you

have been tasked with significantly reducing the department of defense budget in an effort to cut down spending. these budget reductions come at an occasion when we are fighting a war in afghanistan and the counter-terrorism threat worldwide. while at the same time the world is changing rapidly and department of defense is being called upon to respond to threats ranging from cyberspace to weapons proliferation, instability in key regions such as we have witnessed with the arab spring.

this is a decrease over last year's enacted budget, mainly due to the drawdown of operations in afghanistan and iraq. however, over the next decade, the budget control act sets limits for dod which is $487 billion less than what the department planned to spend. in order to meet the new fiscal realities, you have produced a defense strategy to help guide the budget reductions. the strategy moves from having capability to fight two major theater wars to defeating a major adversary while denying aggression for an unacceptable calls of the other aggressor. increased emphasis on the pacific and middle east

region's. furthermore, it commits the department to institutionalized capabilities to deal with -- what was once considered nontraditional or asymmetric threats such as increasing counter-terrorism capacity, enhancing several operations against threats. most important is it the strategy of the all volunteer force, maintaining the sports as a bottle component of our national security. the defense strategy does not always taken a consideration another component of the budget control act known as sequestration. as you know, beginning on january 2, 2015, the deficit --

if the deficit reduction agreement is not reached, the gao will take its first increment of an across-the-board reduction of nearly $500 billion over the next 10 years. the gentleman, i look forward to having a candid dialogue this morning on this issue as well as others. we sincerely appreciate your service to our nation and the dedication and sacrifice made daily by the men and women of our armed services. we could not be more grateful for what those who wear our nation's uniform and those who support and lead our military do for our country each and every day. mr. secretary, general, your false statements will be made part of the record -- your full

statements will be made part of the record. >> mr. chairman, i am pleased to join you in welcoming our distinguished panel of witnesses this morning to review the president's budget request for the department of defense and to give us an overview of the needs and challenges facing our national security interests. we thank you very much for your willingness to serve in these important positions. they really are complex, and could not be more important. we appreciate the dedication and years of experience that you bring to the challenge as well, and we expect to have an opportunity today to find out some of the specific details that need to be brought to the attention of the senate. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, and i

will now call upon the secretary. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator cockrum, members of the committee, it is a distinct privilege and honor to have the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee of appropriations. first and foremost, let me express my personal thanks to all of you for the support that you provide our men and women in uniform and the department. i have had the honor of working with many of you in other capacities, and i just want to thank you for your patriotism in providing a very important public service to this country, but from my point of view right now, providing the support that we absolutely need at the department of defense in order to keep this country safe.

i am here to discuss the president's budget request for fiscal year 2013. i also want to comment as well on the problems associated with sequestration that faces us in january 2013. and mention also some of the budgetary challenges that we still face in fiscal 2012 as a result of fuel costs and other contingencies that we are facing. with regard to the fy 2013 budget request, this was the product of very intensive strategy review that was conducted by senior military and civilian leaders of the department under the advice and guidance of the president's. the reasons for the review are clear to all of us.

first and foremost, we are at a strategic turning point after 10 years of war. obviously, a period when there was substantial growth in the defense budget. second, we are now a country that is facing very serious debt and deficit problems. congress did pass the budget control act of 2011, which imposes spending limits the reduce the defense budget by $ 487 billion over the next decade. i have always recognized, based on my own background, having worked on budget issues, the defense does have a role to play in trying to get our fiscal house in order. for that reason, we looked at this is an opportunity to this is an opportunity to develo