did this by making the statue of liberty speak, but " give me your tired, your pouor." she breathed life into this and are statue, which is not something that would have occurred to a sculptor. in that sense, emma lazarus is extraordinarily important, you could argue more important than the guy who built it. >> and some critics even said, you gave it a reason for existence, and perhaps your work was may be more important to the work of the sculptor's, which is hard to believe, but it did forever changed the message. it is only by knowing her evolution as an american, as a jewish-american, who came to understand the plight, not only of jewish refugees but all of

those in exile, that there would not be an easy answer for everyone, especially in the urban centers. she starts to really refrain the message. -- reframe the message. i think people only know a few lines of the poem. i learned it from the irving berlin song, like years later. but as i have gotten to know emma, i read this poem in such a different way and see this whole front and that sets up the second half that we know. i will read through with, and then ask you to on pack this. it is called the new colossus. "not like the brazen giant of greek thain, with conquering limbs that stride from land to land, you're at r.c. watch sunset gate shall stand. a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoning the lightning and her name

mother of exiles. from her beacon hand close worldwide welcome. her mild eyes command the air bridge are. twin cities framed. she criesck laneds with silent lips. give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. during to breathe free. -- your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. send these to me. i lift my lamp beside the golden door." of course it is a poem of wellcome, but also a poll of protest, that she is really saying, we're not just accepting the ancient world and its ideals. we have a different idea in mind. help us make sense of this poem. >> the image of the colossus that artists had came from a lithograph, a german lithograph of the early 18th century, and

it shows a gigantic male figure astride two slivers of land cut by a harbor. this was the harbor at roads. this 18th-century lithograph was very different, archaeologists found out, from the original statute, the colossus of rhodes, but it was this warrior ramage, a male image, a powerful giant presiding of pretoria's country. i think that is we're not like the brazen giant of big fame, that is what emma lazarus had in mind. we're not doing that. >> she is starting out with a negative statement, which is not something that we think of with poetry. >> with concrete wends, astride from land to land. -- with conquering winds, the

strike from land to land. the images still going to be a mighty woman with a porch, but it is interesting the transformation has been from a male warrior image to a female image. it is not a done more woman, it is a powerful, mighty woman. -- is not a demure woman, it is a powerful, might woman. she has captured the lightning. and she gave her the name mother of exiles. she is a mother figure. >> to me, that is the big moment in the poem that nobody knows. at the mother of exiles. she is shifting now to the positive. we're not going to do the kind of things that the ancients did with their warrior culture, we're going to do something completely new and we're going to welcome all kinds of people who are suffering and who need safe harbor. and what we are going to do is we're going to have a mighty

lady go out into your harbor and p.g. welcome to our country. at -- and bid you will come to our country. her mile the eyes, i getting further and further away from the warrior image. her mild eye command the harbor. and then we going to the quotation. and there is one more negative comment. emma as the statue of liberty say, keep story plants. in other words, you ancient people, have your pop, we will be more humble. we will welcome the huddled masses, the humble people, people who have nothing, and we're on to give them something, and the statue of liberty is going to do that. >> i love thinking more about this poem, that it is not just

this trope that we have come to sing and know and love, that it is saying so much more. another thing that is seldom done, within the same much that she writes new colossus, she writes a new poem called 1492. it is really a companion piece to the new colossus. it is explicitly about a jewish majority of exile. in the year 1492, while we have the spanish inquisition, we also columbus coming to america. at the same time, we have this possibility, this new canvas. it is fascinating to see between the recount of how she convinced emma to write the poem, because she said think of all of those democrats, and this -- of all those immigrants, and this poem that is the direct

follow one of the new colossus. that we know how much her own story influenced this poem. >> she was writing from the heart. she was writing from experience. she was writing from one of those life experiences that changes. as you said, things were percolating in emma, and i think they really came together in the early 1980's in new york, out on the east river, when she was a deli and working with and getting solace to -- when she was calling and working with and giving solace to people who needed a home. the fact these people were jewish, like, lazarus, her judea's was both important to her and not import to her. even exciteaccepted into high, e

society, without and weighed 9 her jewish-ness or downplaying it, but it was not necessarily front and center for her. i think the experience of working with the jewish refugees, and then thinking about how to cast their experience in these literary terms, that was a life changing experience. it represented a change that had already taken place, and allowed her to complete that change, and she had a different identity now. now she was a person who spoke for a group of people who were part of her. the poems that she wrote, she was always a brilliant poet, but her poems were not always so connected with an internet emotional life experience -- with an intimate emotional life

experience. >> a lot of people don't know that she died a very young woman, that she dies but the age of 38 of hodgkin's disease. she is on travel to europe, comes home. there is a chance on the boat coming back to new york as a sick young woman, she may have gotten up on deck and seen the statute, but she may have never seen it completed before she died at home. when she dies, this poem, which is the only poll most americans know her for, is relatively unknown. after the fund raiser for the parklawn exhibition for the pedestal, the poem goes into obscurity for the most part. what happens to the poem, and then how does it get you that it with the statute and start speaking to a new generation? >> that was one of the things that most surprised me when i did the research for this book is how completely emma lazarus'

poem was forgotten for the first 20 years of its light, arguably for the first 50 years. she writes it in 1883, for the fund raiser. then it falls into obscurity, and is overshadowed by the xenophobic reaction against a huge number of people who are pouring into the united states. beginning at 18 80's, the wind out until the first world war, there were tens of millions of people who come in. these people for the most part are different, considered to be different from those who were already here. the new people come from southern europe, eastern europe. there are catholics and jews rather than protestants. that difference this worries a lot of people.

there is a huge fear that the country will become unrecognizable because so many people in it or not like the northern european protestants was settled the country originally, so many people are coming here that we're not going to know who we are anymore. burress quite a fierce reaction against it. one of the best or worst examples of that is a poem that was written in 1890, pulled the sheet at a book in 1895, first written in 1892 by a guy named aldrich. prominenteditor, a literary person. -- he was an editor, a prominent literary person. he presents the statue of liberty as a white goddess, whose purpose is to protect the united states from all of the

dangerous people who are coming in. it is that image of the statue, the first image of the statue of liberty, that is associated with immigration. it presents immigration in a negative light. the purpose is not to welcome the immigrants but to shield us. the title of his poland is "unguarded gates." "is it well to leave the gates unguarded?" these are the worries that preoccupy people. one of the things that precipitated the worry is that the u.s. government decides they need to build a center to receive all of the immigrants. they want to build the center not on the mainland but out in the harbor so that people who are considered undesirable to not even get to set foot in the country. the original idea is to build

the emigration reception center on the same island where the statue of liberty stood. that produced an up or. they said, how can we slowly -- the statue of liberty, already accepted as a great american it might be met, how could we associated with the refract? it is where ellis island came from. we will put the emigration reception center next door. it is not far away, but it is not symbolically the same place. regionally in the 1890's, the statue of liberty had been physically separated from immigration for both to be accepted. finally, in 1903, the economy is in much better shape. the last two decades of the 19th century, the economy is worse

than what we are experiencing now. it is a 2-decade-long depression. it is the gilded age, a small group of people to went extraordinarily well, a large group of people are suffering. when you have a large group of people who are suffering and unemployment is high, emigration is controversial. it was not until the economy picked up in the early years of the 20th-century and there were more authors who began to talk about the statue of liberty in positive terms and relate it to immigration. one of the really great moments, the melting pot is played. the melting pot, which is an ode to the greatness of america as a country that could receive people from everywhere, and blend them together so that we can be integrated. in that play, which became

fairly popular -- the president but to see it in 1908, the statue of liberty is represented there as the way that emma did, as a beacon of welcome from abroad. i think that begins the process, which does not come to fruition until the new deal. it is then that the poem and the statute it's rooted in the imagination as a symbol of welcome for immigrants. >> how does fdr and the new deal and the effects of world war ii change the station and people's thoughts of the statue? >> in 1924, the immigration act reduced immigration to a tiny trickle. by the 1930's, even know was obviously a time of great economic difficulty, people were

not worried about immigration because there were so few people coming in. one of the things that the roosevelt administration wanted to do with the face of the economic depression, in the face of the threats from abroad, the threats from not see germany, was to foster unity in this country. one way to do that would be too explicit we set out to make the immigrants who were now -- most of them were american citizens, many of them had been here a couple of decades -- to make them and the rest of the country feel that we were all one nation. there was an explicit effort during the new deal to create this sense of where a country of immigrants, we can be ignited around that idea, and this is a good thing. -- we can be united around that idea, and that is a good thing. then during the war, when we were confronted with these terrible forms of tyranny, the

statue of the they're pretty seemed to represent america as an island of safety in the midst of this hideous terror that was going on in europe. >> one of the exhibitions is voices of liberty, which face features testimony from holocaust survivors, finding great hope that simple. i know that you have come across great quotations? >> many of these i found in a compilation for the centennial of the statue of their party. again, completely financed by private contributions. there was not a single penny that went into the restoration of the statue of liberty. people were asked for donations, and a lot of people sent letters. he raised one from a holocaust survivor. here is what she writes.

"i had spent many years in concentration camp by hitler. i lost father, mother, three sisters, two brothers. it was agony, hunger, torture. our uncle in the united states made an affidavit and we arrived. it was a blizzard. we pointed to that the lady, the statue of liberty, the biggest dream i ever had." you read things like that and you really understand what the statue of liberty is about and why is such an emotional symbol for us. i want to read them now, but there are earlier quotations of people who were escaping russia and remembered what it was like to see the statue and to know they were safe when they sold the statue of liberty.

bartholi, he understood. he did not think of the statue as welcoming immigration, immigrants, but he understood by placing it on the island that every ship that came into the next stage would have to almost touched the statue of liberty, because it is right at the end of the narrows. it channels every boat to a place where they have to come so close to the statue of liberty that you cannot possibly miss it. that is why when you were on that boat coming to the united states and use of the statue of liberty, you could practically reach out and touch it. it lot of people said that. everybody move to the side of the boat, we thought the boat would tip over. people were crying when they saw the statue of the liberty. and she comes alive. they speak to her, and she speaks to them and they speak to her. it is this amazing and emotional experience.

you know you are here when you see the statue of liberty. >> even though she is such a fixed icon and our memory, she always looks like she is in motion. it almost looks like she is coming out of the harbor, through the mist. in some of these more recent times, she was a very powerful symbol during 9/11. how did americans come to re- imagine her in the face of 9/11? >> after 9/11, everybody was of course relieved the statue of the body was not touched. we were especially relieved because we knew the objectives of terrorism were symbolic. one of the reasons they went after the world trade towers is because it was a symbol of american economic power. so it was easy to see that terrorists could have gone after the statue of liberty, too, so

there was a sense of relief, and also the idea that the statue of liberty, still standing after 9/11, was a symbol of the resilience of the united states. and partly the statue could become a symbol of resilience because this is not a demure little lady. this is a tough mother of the harbor who is in motion. harbach put is up, as if she is striving, moving forward. -- her back for it is up, as if she is striving, moving forward. what ever had winds are coming our way, she will stand there and protect us, standing at the gate of the united states. i think she really represented that extraordinary resilience of this city and of the country as a whole after those attacks. >> and it is like she is always lifting that plant. it is enacted the gesture, it is not a piece of antiquity.

it is for americans, for visitors, for tourists, and for american jews, a powerful symbol of the eternal light and hope. >> absolutely. if your interested, we could maybe get into the details of the construction of the statue of liberty, but this was an amazing feat of engineering in the 1880's to build the statue of the liberty. you probably know that the skeleton was built by the man who built the eiffel tower, covered by this thin layer of copper. to be able to pull that off and do have the things they up in the winds of new york harbor was an incredible feat of engineering. also, at the same time, to give the idea the statue was in motion, that is more extraordinary, i think. to be able to pull that off, to be able to have created this

work of public art that could take on all of these new meanings in different generations under different circumstances, so after 9/11 it met resilience, something the sculptor never intended, but it shows the power. this art was able to have meaning for people in all kinds of different times, different generations and extraordinary circumstances. >> i'm sure that audience members have their own meanings and memories and also questions about the statue. we will take a moment. there will be a microphone floating through the audience. if you let me know that you have a question, we ask you to keep the two questions rather than comments or statements. we would be happy to take some from the floor. in the back. >> hi. in the exhibit, there is an earlier proposed sketch of the statute in which she is holding the statute in one of our.

then there is the bronze cast in in which it is in the other arm. did bartholi change that for symbolic purposes, or is that -- >> that is a great question. he changed the arms because one of the first incarnations of the statute actually had her holding a broken chain in the hand that now holds the tablet. it was supposed to represent the abolition of slavery. by the time the statue got built, from the original conception, just a few years after the civil war, but the time of the statue got built, the abolition meeting gave way to the idea that that the statue represents the majesty of law. that is why she is holding a tablet. somewhere in there, the two hands switched, the torch from one hand to the other. i don't remember the exact

reason, but there was an engineering reason why the torch had to be in one arm and not the other, given the with the statue was going to be facing -- given the way that the statute was quick to be facing. >> other questions? >> microphone. >> i think the statute is a kind of female moses for me. he did not have a porch, but he had tablets. -- he did not have a torch, but he had tablets. this special jewish connotation of the statute? >> what were the jewish connotations and the 19th century? >> the statute as this kind of female moses. >> oh, as a kind of female

moses. that makes a lot of sense. i don't know that bartholi had the idea of moses liberating an, cultivated person at the time would know that the vocal story. the fact that his original idea was to put it in egypt, and that he had been involved in abolitionist activities certainly makes that a completely plausible sensible idea, that somewhere in there was the idea that the statue was a kind of moses, liberating the jewish slaves. absolutely. >> one of the things to mention about abolition -- that is, by the time the statue went up in 1886, it took a long time to

build, by then, the reconstruction period was over. it had turned a fair number of americans against the way reconstruction had unfolded. so the imagery of abolition had been submerged, really, enormously. the 18 eighties were a period of a lot of racial strife in this were a period0's of racial strife in this country. there were lynchings. there was an average of two lynchings every week. the african american commentary on the statue of liberty when it went up was quite hostile. it said, what does this image of liberty mean in a country where people of african origins are suffering in that way? there was a feminist reaction

to. you have made liberty a woman and we do not have the right to vote. there was a group of suffragists who chartered a boat and sailed it out to the statue of liberty for the inauguration ceremony. they had a bull horn. there were almost no women as part of the official ceremony. they spread this suffragist message, which is that, if you are going to represent women -- as liberty, guinea to give us liberty. >> the statue still serves as a counterpoint for political movements around the world. why don't we sum up by talking about ways in which the statute exists all over the world to make different statements? >> probably the one to begin with is the goddess that the chinese students put up in tiananmen square.

this very explicitly was designed to be a replica of the statue of liberty -- the young man who came up with the idea had a postcard of the statue of liberty. he was from a town of three hours by train from beijing. the reason why i know about this is that he was interviewed in "the new yorker." he told the story. he gets on the train, goes to beijing with this photograph of the statue of liberty, and he goes to the art school and he and students there decide that they need to represent their movement by creating a statue of liberty. they build this goddess of liberty out of papier-mache and other materials. at the last minute, the change the features of the statue to make it look more chinese, for fear that the government would

come down on them if they produced to obviously western of an image. but there is a photograph -- unfortunately, i could not to be rights to it, so i could not put it in my group -- book. there's a photograph of the goddess of liberty at tiananmen square looking straight at a huge banner of mao, as if to say, we are going to make it and you are not. that is the clearest representation of a way that other people have used the statue of liberty to represent ideals of liberty that they want. but there are almost 40 countries around the world that have replicas of the statue of liberty. there four in japan. there are two from earlier periods in china, pre-communist. in china. france has 13 replicas of the statue of liberty. three in paris alone. there are in the u.k. -- in

ukraine, there is a statue. any place where at a point in time people have wanted to express their desire for liberty, for change, for a better way of life, the statue of liberty is an image that has come to mind. that is why i think there are so many replicas. >> i love one of the things i have heard you say before, that she comes to represent what ever we need her for. i think that is a great idea, that she is both a piece of the past and is also leading the way for ideals. >> i think that is why, after 9/11, we needed her for reassurance, for a sense of persistence. she had been there in new york harbor for more than 100 years. she was unscathed by this attack. we could look at the statue of liberty as a hope, that she has

persisted and so will we. >> great. i know that this is only a fraction of what you touch on in your book "the statue of liberty, a trans-atlantic story." i would encourage everybody to learn from it and continue to visit here at the museum of jewish heritage. and thank you for being here tonight. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> a 7:45 a.m. on "washington journal" the cost of medicaid. they'd caught 30 a.m. christopher hayes, author of "twilight of the elites."

"washington journal"is live every morning session at 7:00 a.m. eastern. the national of education association is wrapping up its annual meeting in washington, d.c. with a speech from the national teacher of the year. she is a seventh great english teacher from burbank, california. that is why today at 11:30 a.m. eastern on cspan two. >> one of my favorite things to talk about is half of pig in half of cows and half of turkey's. this particular drug is not with drawn when they walk on to the killing floor. >> this weekend, mark that

rosenberg looks behind the food industry and seized regulatory lapses. that is sunday night at 9:00. >> and an independent state ceremony at the white house, president obama called for the passage of the dream act. his remarks committed naturalization ceremony for 25 active u.s. service members. from the east room, this is 20 minutes.

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please be seated. good morning. it is a special morning and distinct honor for me to be here. good morning, everybody. secretary napolitano, distinguished guests, family and friends, welcome to the white house. happy fourth of july. what a perfect way to celebrate america's birthday. the world's oldest democracy, with some of our newest citizens.

i will now call the countries represented by all those in the room. el salvador, ghana, guatemala, mexico,honduras, nigeria, palau, philippines, russia, ukraine.

if anyone's home country was not called, please stand at this time. i would like to invite the secretary of a homeland security, janet napolitano, to administer the oath of allegiance. she champions the role that immigrants play in this country. i present 25 candidates for naturalization all of whom have been interviewed by an officer of this to -- service and are eligible for naturalization. >> thank you, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. this of this pretty long so i will break it up. i hereby declare on oath

that i absolutely and entirely renounce all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereign state. of a home or which i have here to four been a subject for citizen. that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the laws of the united states of america. against all enemies foreign and domestic. that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i will bear arms on behalf of the united states when required by

the law that i will perform noncombatant services in the armed forces of the united states when required by law, that i will perform the work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law, that i take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me god. congratulations. [applause]

[applause] please be seated. congratulations to our newest american citizens. today you have earned all the rights and responsibilities that come with being a citizen of the united states. america is now your country. you have worked so hard to get here. you should be as proud this moment and this achievement, just as i am proud to call you my fellow citizens. there is no more fitting day on which to do this, to join the american family than the fourth of july, when we celebrate the 236th anniversary of our declaration of independence. this is all the more so because these new citizens are members of the armed forces, all of the 25 candidates here this morning. our nation thank you for your service. we owe the freedoms we all

enjoy to the sacrifices of men and women like you. men and women who have already sacrificed so much for our nation and have served so honorably, even before she had become your own. you have a richer lives on the line for our country even before you could officially be called americans. and all of us are honored to celebrate this moment we to endure families on this special day. america is a nation of immigrants, and we are proud of that fact. since 2001, u.s. citizenship and immigration services have naturalized over 80,000 members of the armed forces, bringing immigration services to our troops wherever they serve. since 2009, we have offered non-citizens enlistees the opportunity to naturalize before completing basic training. so that they can graduate as american citizens.

the the part of homeland security is now working with the departure of defense so that our naturalization and basic training will be a place at all our service branches by the end of the year, and we will continue to do everything we can to expedite the naturalization process for individuals like you who have already given so much to our nation cricket so let me offer -- so much to our nation. all of us are proud to call you our fellow citizens. now it is my distinct honor and privilege to introduce to you the president of the united states, barack obama. mr. president. [applause] >> thank you. good morning, everybody. secretary napolitano, distinguished guests, family and friends, welcome to the

white house. happy fourth of july. what a perfect way to celebrate america's birthday. the world's oldest democracy, with some of our newest citizens. i have to tell you personally, this is one of my favorite things to do. it brings me great joy in an inspiration. it reminds us that we are a country bound together not simply by ethnicity o bloodlines but by fidelity to a set of ideals. as members of our military, you raised your hand and took an oath of service. it is an honor for me to serve as your commander in chief. today you raised your hand and have taken an oath of

citizenship. i could not be proper to be among the first to greet you as my fellow americans. looking back, it was an act of extraordinary audacity, a few dozen delegates in that hall in philadelphia daring to defy it the mightiest empire in the world, declaring that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. 236 years later, we marvel at america's story. from a string of 13 colonies to 50 states, from sea to shining sea, from of fragile experiment in democracy to a beacon of freedom that still likes the world, from a society of farmers and merchants, largest, most dynamic economy in the world.

from a ragtag army of militias and regulars to you, the finest military the world has ever known. from a population of some 3 million, free and slave, to more than 300 million americans of every color and creed. with this ceremony today, and ceremonies like across our country, we affirm another truth. our american journey, our success would simply not possible without the generations of immigrants who have come to our shores from every corner of the glow. we say it so often, we sometimes forget what it means. we are a nation of immigrants. unless you are one of the first americans, and native american, we are all descended from folks who came from someplace else.

whether they arrived on the mayflower or on a slave ship, whether they came through ellis island or across the rio grande. immigrants sign their names to our declaration and helped win our independence. immigrants helped lay the railroads and build our cities, calloused hand by calloused hand. immigrants took up arms to preserve our union, to defeat fascists, and to win the cold war. immigrants and their descendants helped pioneer new industries and fuel are information age, from google to the iphone. the story of immigrants in america is not a story of them, it is story of us, who we are. now, all of you get to write the next chapter. each of you have traveled your own path to this moment, from

cameroon in the philippines, russia, and places in between. some of you came here as children, brought by parents who dreamed of giving you the opportunities that they had never had. others of you came as adults. finding your way to a new country and a new culture and language. all of you did something, you chose to serve. you put on the uniform of a country that was not yet fully your own in the time of war. some of you deployed into harm's way. he displayed the values that we celebrate every fourth of july. dougie, responsibility -- duty, responsibility, patriotism. we salute a husband and father, originally from mexico, now united states marine, joined by his wife sylvia and daughter,

juliet. becoming a citizen he says is another step in the right direction for my family. where is francisco? [applause] we salute a young woman from el salvador who came here when she was just 6, grew up in america, and said she always had a desire to serve and dreams of becoming an army medic. we congratulate louisa. [applause] we salute a young man from nigeria who came here as a child. i left nigeria with a dream, that we all have a destiny in life and we are all born with

the resources to make a difference. we are confident he will make a difference. we congratulate him. [applause] we salute the young man from bolivia who came to america, and listed in our military, and has volunteered to help care for our veterans. he is becoming a citizen to become part of the freedom that everybody is looking for. [applause] it has taken these men and women, these americans, yours, even decades, to realize their dream. this reminds us of a lesson of the fourth period on that july day, our founders declared their independence, but that only declared it.

it would take another seven years to win the war. 15 years to forge a constitution and the bill of rights. nearly 90 years of great civil war to abolish slavery. nearly 150 years for women to win the right to vote. nearly 190 years to inshrined voting rights. even now, we are still perfecting our union, still extending the promise of america. that includes making sure the american dream endures for all those, like these men and women, who are willing to work hard, play by the rules, and meet their responsibilities. just as we remain a nation of laws, we have to remain a nation of immigrants. that is why as another step forward, we are lifting the shadow of deportation from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children. that is why we still need a dream act to keep -- it is why

we need, what american success demand comprehensive immigration reform. the lesson of these 236 years is clear. immigration makes america stronger. immigration makes us more prosperous. immigration positions america to lead in the 21st century. these young men and women are testaments to that. no other nation in the world welcomes so many new arrivals. no other nation constantly renews itself, refreshes itself with the holt and drive and optimism and the dynamism of each new generation of immigrants. you are all one of the reasons that america is exceptional. you are one of the reasons why even after two centuries, america is always young, always

looking to the future, always confident that our greatest days are still to come. so to all of you, i want to wish you the happiest fourth of july. god bless you all, god bless our men and women in uniform and your families, and god bless the united states of america. [applause] [applause] and with that, i want you to join me in welcoming on to the stage one of america's newest citizens, born in guatemala. he enlisted in the marine corps, served with honor and afghanistan, and i know he is

especially proud, because in a few days his father walter will become a naturalized american citizen as well. where is walter? there he is over there. good to see you, walter. please welcome lance corporal byron acevedo to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> i am nervous. [laughter] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. have a great fourth of july. congratulations to our newest citizens.

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♪ [america the beautiful] ♪ [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪ >> thank you, everybody. [applause] >> this is to focus on results that we want. that can spark jobs, innovation, and expand opportunity and guarantee our competitiveness, it can put america back on top. >> you can talk about goals all you want but we have put a stop signs, we have put up stop lights, and none of it ever changes the behavior of

congress. >> i have lost total control of the committee and went to have two pitchers of beer with my chief of staff and i told him to give us a tax bill of 25%. he said ok. i said what about 26%? >> you could make the appendages to homeowners much more progressive than the domineci- rivlin plan. >> changing the tax code yesterday and today. find it on line at the cspan video library. >> coming up this morning on c- span, "washington journal" takes your calls and e-mails and after

that, new jersey mayor cory booker delivers his alma -- commencement speech at his alma maters. the elon musk and later, live coverage of president obama and ohio. he is kicking up a two this day bus tour. in 45 minutes, a look at the potential cost of medicaid to states and the federal government. the former congressional budget office director and president of the american action form is our guest. at 8:30 eastern, we will talk about the new book of christopher hayes. it explores the idea that the current economic crisis is limited to cultural inequality. at 9:00 to