couples was we had never seen before. the returns to higher education are greater than the ever happened. those are among some of the biggest changes that we are seeing in america today. none of that is being accounted before in any of this data. kenny stated that at any point -- can you speak to that at any point? in some ways, the question of inequality transits the very top and the question of inequality within the 99%, if you will, are very different kettle of fish. within the 99%, it is true that it is an increasingly, if you have more schooling, that there is more of a payout and that is

driving a lot of the inequality within the 99%. family structure overtime has become more important. when you look at the changes at the very top, insofar as we can tell, most of the research shows it is not so much this -- these demographic changes or these changes in education. it is more about global, markets. there is a bigger finance sector and investing your money well is increasingly important. the people who manage funds for large groups do better than they used to do or the importance of having the best person as your ceo in your industry, that has risen quite a bit over time because of global markets increasing. from what i have read and you look at these two phenomena as

as being different -- i have another slide that i need to present which shows you could news survey data to look at the share of incumbency rather than the irs data. when you do that, you find a remarkably similar trend since the mid-1980's. i did that again, lopping off anyone who is over 60 years old in the survey data. it was not really that different. might argue that retirement -- you might argue that we won't see until 10 years from now because of retirements. . >> when we talk about rich and poor, we're talking about the same people at different stages of life. when i lived in ucla, i lived in an animal hospital.

i was poor but i was acquiring huge human capital in education. it has paid off over time. when you look at the composition of in concord's at any moment in time, the top income group has at least two workers on average, sometimes more like 2.5, whereas the bottom 20% is less than half a worker per household and that is usually part time. there are few full-time workers. i am not saying they are lazy but many of them are retired or very young or very old. many of them may be students, i don't know. it is certainly true that working people make more the people who don't work in terms of labour income. dual-earner families and are

more than bnbo-earner f families. >> it is too easy to count pretax income. eti?n't we apply the that is something we can do. when you use that, you get a flat line of 1% and that can be our new basis for discussion. >> next question -- right there. >> i am an independent scholar. i have two conclusions that i draw. the first conclusion is there seems to me that the rich cannot be taxed. the cannot be taxed much, to put it another way.

maybe this debate is somewhat academic. i don't know. the second point is i am glad that mr. reynolds sees virginia as coefficient. i think is the best overall way of measuring society. if you look at post-taxation indices, the kinds of societies that have higher indices are not the kinds of societies that most of us would want to live in. >> is the u.s. turning into an oligarchy? >> i like both of those. can i have both of those? >> we tried it. we had a tax rate as high as 91% during the eisenhower years.

individual income tax brought in 7.7% of ged. -- of gdp. the individual income tax credit about 8.1% of gdp, got around to taking the top rate down to 28% and it still brought in over 8% of gdp. on the face of it, high tax rates don't work. that is what almost every country has abandoned them india cut the top rate recently. brazil, the 37% or so. i'm talking about the bric countries and they did pretty well. be careful with the international genies because they count income differently.

what we know is that the u.s. has the most aggressive and payroll income-tax. the u.s. is quite a progressive tax system partly because of the refundable income tax credits. most other countries distribute welfare payments in cash. the where men -- the u.s. always did something like food stamps or energy subsidies and stuff like that. that does not job in the data. i think the international comparisons exist, that is a good area to explore. international comparisons that defined as all the same way after tax and accounting,. that has not been done yet. >> the problem is more severe

under regimes of high tech. then the rich make the money privately. they also allocate their resources for broadcast purposes. -- for broad purposes. >> i think it is misleading to worry too much about comparing countries and industries. fundamentally, the u.s. and india do not have system alert. the poorest households in but u.s. are essentially richer than the richest households in india. milo branklovic has crunched the

numbers. genies have increased over time and there is other evidence that is not subject to all the interpretation problems. the increases are not -- are not as dramatic. the rise in inequality is something bad is going on perhaps in the u.s. we go back to where it increases and that is interesting. >> one more piece of that? >> if we use the genie it looks like it increases 93. >> 0.4% in 1904 and 0.3 other 92

in 2000 a to-the 2009. the cbo uses the tax data for the 1%, their genie is no higher than a was in the late 1980's. that was not a recession. >> gentlemen in the green shirt. >> in response to the statement we don't have the day in the u.s., what other nations are doing a good job providing data and what role does the u.s. census bureau plight in gathering this information? >> ingathering inequality dated? to capture what is going on at the very top and even within the top 100 burst -- top 1%.

it is really happen the top 1%. the problem is to capture these folks and a household survey. it would have to be a huge survey. the top 1% is a small group. that's why if you want to look at every stop, you're stuck with the irs data. the survey of consumer finances which the federal reserve board does makes a special effort to interview a lot of people at the top. they do that by getting tax information from the irs. it would be tough for the census bureau to do more >> to other countries try to

get this data? >> there are other countries where the data is bigger than the u.s.. scandinavian countries have this incredibly detailed data on everybody going back decades. bake in the ridiculous things with their income data. -- they can do ridiculous things with their income data. >> in norway, they put the amount of tax you pay on line. rob might have some issues with that. over there? >> conservatives are fond of saying that if you cut something, you'll get less of it and if you cut taxes, you'll get more of it. why is it good policy to tax work at such a higher rate than

we tax rich people for being idle? >> anybody want to --? >> here i am working. it is a practical issue. if you ask if it would be fair to tax capital gains of 35%, maybe would be fairer. i would not realize that in capital gains. the idea of this notion that never mind, nobody has to hold the dividend-paying stocks. you can put your stuff in an ira. you don't have to sell. the richer you are, the less likely you have to sell.

these issues are of practical importance. there are some things you cannot tax well. the things you can tax it liquor and tobacco. that happens all around the world. it is not because it is immoral. >> it seems a myth that the capital gains tax has been lower than income tax. the real capital gains rate in 1970 was 10 -- was well over one other%. -- was well over 0%. >> i have some data on this. when the tops tax rate briefly hit 40% before 1977, capital gains were 1.5% on the gdp.

we cut the million dollars to 20%. what was 15%, 5% of gdp. we are now taxing twice as much many games at a lower rate. that shows up because more gains are showing on tax return. they show up as increased in come when, in fact, you can see the income coming in. it had not sold at they did not see it. go up there tuesday. >> my name is steve hank and i have no affiliation. i thought you were originally going to talk about what you mean by fairness when it comes

to income inequality? looking to me at in come, all of us preserve that the income pie, we have a fixed income pie and therefore the rich are getting in, at the expense of the poor. for the most part, that is not true. hown't really understand the fact that a rich person makes billions of dollars is unfair to the poor person if there is an expanding pie and there is nothing to do with how much the rich make. >> a nice broad philosophical questions. when lebron james wins, who

loses. ? >> a lot of the literature says the top 1% has 20% of our income. they get water percent of their income as hell i look at it. there are obvious cases where there really has been high income. some of those are pretty astronomical, in the billions. what does that hurt? the only one getting hurt by a fed -- hedge fund manager getting rich is their clients. you cannot be a hedge fund clients unless you have 1 million bucks to spend. onslaught job -- and stock options =- my daughter was at aol.

the stock option turns into well end of the economy? the month, a company does well in a person gets the cash and becomes a microsoft millionaire. that hurts stockholders. since then -- since when do we worry about stockholders? the zero some concept when founders of apple or boo will rise to the bottom -- a lot of money, we figure comes and somebody. it comes from the uses of their services which are rather like. >> we are in the shadow of the national gallery here at the cato institute. no one said the bridge should be there to support local

government. then the riggleman of this their income the tax will pay the amount and we will be able to fund the government in its entirety. when you get the taxes of the ridge, is not enough. if you want to solve inequality, you will find a way to do so. >> right there. . i'm a retired consultant. it seems that if you don't normalize the bell or a forced distribution, you'll get a distortion. the of the is that on capital gains tax, it was my of standing.

it is derived from corporation profits and was sacked once. big blue chart shows a decline. he has made a good point that this is pre-tax and not after dispersion. i agree that this represents an important issue. show the market's

performance? >> the flip side of that chart -- the chart shows income excluding transfer payments but also benefit such as employer- paid medical benefits is a big part. that is a different way of getting compensation. if i were to flip on to the other part which is personal in come an hour there rising? will they are. does that mean that is the end of the market economy? >> yes, it has to be. transfer payments are just a day some light. they're usually from people who have some money to people with more political clout. >> next question? up in the back?

>> thank you, wreck from fairfax. the cbo has said the tax system is effectively progressive. here is a quote from 2009 - "of the over all federal tax system, it is progressive. the rates generally rise with income/" they have shown an for five different reports over 10 years, the effective average total credit rating is about 20% over $250,000. the income under that has been able to put away tempered -- $500,000.

-- $50,000. overall, the income, about 25- 28% for the income under that. the democratic party and the media are implying that there is not shared sacrifice. is one under% perrone yes. there is no obligation upon that whatsoever. it should be noted for the sake of completeness that there are indirect costs those are about 22%. those are progressively encouraged. if you take 26 for that edit to been approved before -- the

number before, you're getting to 60% successful. the if you want to raise the top by 4-6%, the cbs is to get it career 4% raise. that is the democratic party position. they get people to believe this and i have half the country believing that. the tax system somehow regresses. one method they use is have the top 400 . trillion of $2 indirect costs to the government.

54% is the cost of government revised. if you take 25% of the $8 trillion which i believe that is, it is $2 trillion per your waist. that is more in one year than the bottom 50% in culet assets. >> what's the question? >> you guys can comment on that. >> any responses? >> there is a great paper written in 2006 saying that the effective top income-tax rates have not changed less 50 years. the data was 30% in 1960 and 30%

in the year 2000. do we have time for one last question? guest: adam palle from the university of southern california. use of the real income of the rich have been flat throughout the 20th century. are you saying that all the growth in income in the united states over 100 years when to be non-rich? >> it is time to marry that with thwe eti number. high taxation bringing about lower recorded in come. i do not know what the answer is. let me ask one final question of

everybody. one area where i assume there would be universal agreement and it would be good to have policies and approve the living standards as before -- if he were to identify 30 seconds' worth of policy, what with everybody proposed here? i would shrink government and raise taxes and government would be able to pay for everything. >> i am speechless on that topic. there are many regulations. if you can't get a job, you are worse off. welfare hurts the poor. i think the best thing to help the poor would be to reduce their dependency and we are not moving in that direction. we're saying that providing you don't work to order try to argo

to school to hard, we will pay for your food, medical care and give you a check. that just kitschy doubt the bottom forever. -- that just keeps you down at the bottom for ever. >> i would do three things -- i would try to change the aspirations of poor kids and their families. we should try something till we get it right. if you provided savings accounts to kids when they're born, it should be progressively funded. so that four kids could no that it didn't get into a school of for two years through this city's account.

that could shift incentives for kids and their families. if we could reduce unplanned pregnancy, i think that is becoming a big problem among people don't have a college degree. i would to a grand more -- bargain between left and right and throw more money and education in return for more accountability and more flexibility. >> with that let me give some final announcements. lunch will be on the second level which is up the spiral staircase. there are restrooms on the second floor under way to lunch. look for the yellow wall. i worked here and i should know

that but i don't. join me in thanking our speakers. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up in about half an hour, we'll take you live to the pentagon for a briefing with defense secretary leon panetta and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general martin dempsey will give their monthly update to reporters and we expect questions on recent challenges to the syrian government and the egyptian president's recent leadership changes. that is live on c-span at 2:00 p.m. eastern. in the meantime, here's a portion of remarks earlier from the nuclear regulatory commission leader about short and long term objectives of the nrc and her position on storing nuclear waste at yucca mountain.

>> we are pleased to welcome the head of the nuclear regulatory commission for her first meeting. chairnman macfarlane was sworn in june 9. she previously served on the blue ribbon commission which is a panel created by the obama administration to look to alternatives to the yucca mountain nuclear waste repository. in 2006, she published a book about a mountain regarding technical issues about the site

and the suitability for disposing nuclear waste. she was an associate professor before that at george mason university. she held a post at georgia tech as well. we will have a few remarks from chairman macfarlane and then we will take questions. >> thank you. thank you very much. it is nice to come down to the press club and had a chance to chat with you all. i think george mentioned that my background is as a geologist. that was eons ago. no joking intended.

i was on the blue ribbon commission on america's nuclear future where we developed a strategy for dealing with nuclear waste and disposing of it. >> can you point the microphone towards you? >> i'm sorry. is that better? good. i have also published fairly extensively on nuclear waste issues. let me first tell you that at the nuclear regulatory commission, we are very much focused right now on fukushima and the lessons we have learned since fukushima. most recently, last tuesday, we had a commission meeting where we learned about the progress of our staff on dealing with these issues. we also heard from intervenors in the industry and the concerned public. it was a very good session and

we had an excellent q &a session with the others. commissioners. we are working toward developing actions out of fukushima lessons learned that will enhance the safety of the existing nuclear facilities. right now, the nrc is in process of working on four current actions that you may be aware of. first of all, to require -- we have issued three orders in the first of those orders requires that reactors have additional portable equipment to insure that they can continue to operate in the event of loss of offside power grid that additional equipment should be on-site and off site. both requirements are there.

the second order that was used had to do with adding additional instrumentation to the pools that have the standard nuclear pools to insure that the water levels in those polls and was going on there is someone we can recognize. the third order has to do with the bottom of -- the boiling water, mark one and marc two reactors. that is asking these and reactors to improve or help control sheet and the containment in the event of an accident. in addition to those three orders, we have also sent a letter asking and requiring plants to do seismic and flooding walked down so we understand better house science and flooding risks at the plant will start working on addressing bad. i understand that even prior to the fukushima accident, the

reactors or required to update their side with that analysis. in general, we also have more activity. the near term task force at the nrc that looked at the fukushima accident developed a number of recommendations. we are working through them. i just discussed the ones that are actively have been right now by we're also in the process at the nrc of looking a number of what you heard, tier one, and tier 2, potentially activities. we will be working hard on those over the next year as well. the bottom line is that we've got to get this right. we need to ensure that the plants are safe in a variety of situations and have learned a

lot from what happened at fukushima. want to continue to work on that. in terms of the agencies, let me share some strategy. particular i in would like to share with you. my number one goal is to continue the nrc's mission especially in light of what happened at fukushima of assuring that the existing fleet of nuclear reactors continues to operate safely. the nrc's mission is to ensure public elan safety and protect the environment and that will be my number one goal. i #two gaul, again, is somewhat related to fukushima but also related to my background as a geologist. looking at the intersection of geology and nuclear energy -- i think there a number of issues

there -- this is highlighted by the events that fukushima's. at fukushima. >> it was a letter to me personally -- it was highlighted to me personally last year. you may remember where we were august 23 because too experienced an earthquake. if you missed the earthquake, you're lucky. it is interesting to go through that experience. i did not experience that earthquake that i was here. i was out with my son fishing at seneca creek lake in did not know anything had happened. the light did not move, nothing. no water sloshing or movement of the ground. by the way, i have been in nepal and have felt earthquakes outside. it had to do with the geology. it reinforced the lesson to me that said -- that geology

matters. it matters where you are during an earthquake and whether you experience any ground shaking. it matters was beneath you? what is in the past? that really matters for nuclear facilities. we have to make sure we get this right. we have to make sure we really understand all the issues and we have to make sure we understand the uncertainties. the size of the earthquake at mineral, va. was not predicted and the size of the earthquake at fukushima was not predicted. so, we need to sit down and rethink these issues. we need to ensure that given a variety of situations that nuclear plants will be safe. that helps me segue into my third area of focus for the

agency. that would be the back end of the fuel cycle. geology matters with a operating plans but also matters with repository sites and the kind of thing. the back end of the fuel cycle is broader than that. we're nearly out -- we're now dealing with waste company stages. i'm not able to say about a court ruling because it is in active matter but let me just say that we know this is a pressing issue. it is a priority for us that the commission. we are now looking staff documents which is laying out some options for going forward. we will deal with that promptly. we'll have a plan to move forward quickly. that is where we are going.

there will be other issues though,. we are paying more attention to issues associated with fuel. my final goal for the agency is to improve communication. an agency like ours, an independent regulator, does not do well with the public and ensure a public will still have public confidence unless we communicate well. my initial impression is a breeding nrc documents and some of them are rather opaque. there followed acronyms. these are difficult to figure out. there is no loa- list of acronyms associate with them. when i say loa, nobody knows

what i am talking about. every time i get an opportunity to talk to the staff, i emphasize this to them that they get important internally and an externally to be more transparent with our communications. i read these documents and i imagine a grandmother lives in nearby nuclear power plant trying to slog through these documents to understand what some of the issues are. i just ran my hand. i think about grandmother is trying to open bottle tops. how do they get the ball clubs open? -- how they get the strength to open the jar? we need the public to have confidence in her work. that is an area of focus for us. there are a number of issues that will come up at plants and

we will continue to maintain our focus on that. i have been very impressed with the staff at the nrc. they are a strong group of people. i am happy to debate the issue and -- and i am convinced their main goal is also ensuring public safety. i will be happy to entertain your questions. >> if you could please identify yourself -- >> i'm sorry. steven dolly, still. i want to thank you for hosting the chairman for coming today. your predecessor took a broad view of the power particularly in the area of developing the agency budget.

you have told a couple of congressional committees that he will strive to improve collegiality and things on the specifics. to what degree do hope to involve your fellow commissioners in the development of the agency budget and more generally, will you take a broad view of matters that are administrative and under exclusive control the chairman verses issues that are considered policy and need to be taken to other members of the commission? >> thanks for your question. it is good to see you here. i always see you everywhere. he seemed to show up all the time . i feel very strongly that the commission only operates well it operates as a collegial body might get background is from academia. i see the commission as similar

to an academic departments. it is a group of pierre =, one of whom has been elected chair. the chair has some more powers and the rest of the faculty but peerhe end, they are pierre equals. before i was sworn in on july 9, i sat down with my fellow commissioners for one hour and had a discussion with them about what their concerns were and what the issues they thought were important for the commission. we are continuing that. we need on a regular basis and discuss these issues. if there is an issue that is important, i am happy to run up to their offices. that is how i see this working well. my staff has similar direction to work closely with the status

of the other commissioners. -- with the staff's of the other commissioners. tohink that's where we want go. i will leave it there. thee actively working on budget now. i cannot say much about it but we are working on it together. we are working on it in a collegial way. we are sharing information. >> the gentlemen over here? >> good morning and thank you. going back to one of your calls about improving communications -- i was wondering if you personally have had communication with your counterparts in japan? can you tell us what the level of information sharing is with

the new york task forces for is their recommendations and findings? do you share that information with a japanese nuclear tory regular commission? >> right now, i have not yet had any direct communications with any of my colleagues and where in the world. i'm just a few weeks on the job. i know i will be having more. communications with my colleagues all over the world, with other nuclear regulators. that will come. our commission hearing last week was webcast and is available, is that correct? yes. it is available for anybody to look at. we have a very active office of international programs that work very closely with our colleagues around the world. >> the gentle man right here.

>> i am from hearst newspapers. you indicated a preference for dry cask storage on site as opposed to yucca mountain solution for the back end of the fuel. what role do you think the nrc can play an urgent operators to move more quickly from cool storage to dry cask storage? >> thank you for your question. let me clarify something. i have always felt, and i think many people in the nuclear industry understand , we need a repository. for high-level nuclear waste. let me be clear about that no matter what. every country needs a repository.

in t interim, you have some options. of how to store your spent nuclear fuel. every actor absolutely requires a spent fuel pool. you cannot have a reactor without one. many reactors find that they use dry cast. i have been impressed with the performance of the drug cast in the recent earthquake. - - the dry cast. at the nrc, we are one of the tier 3 activities to look more closely at the issues associated with moving more quickly from the spent -- of the spent fuel and to the pools from drying cast so we will be looking at this issue. >> the gentle man right here.

>> hello, chairman. your predecessor expressed some concern that the seismic piece of that might be go beyond his goal of five years to implement an area that all the recommendations going forward. what is your view on how quickly seismic revaluations are slated to happen? do you think that is happening quickly? i think the seismic evaluations are happening quickly enough. they are beginning to happen right now so we should have some information fairly soon at the nrc to evaluate. there are other issues -- these are not hard and fast issues.

this more complicated is to have to wait for a shutdown to evaluate what you can do that is where the five-year period comes from. >> [inaudible] >> that was under way before fukushima. this is absolutely in progress. we should be seeing the results of this very soon. as far as i can tell, it is happening quickly enough. we could push people to move faster. >> i wanted to go back to david's question on the spent fuel.

there was some controversy about what the term expedited means. it sounded like you're interested in moving more quickly and staff said they thought expedited means anything quicker than what industry had planned. has that met your understanding? >> that's a good question. i think the staff is looking at this and i will be working with them closely to express my concerns about how quickly things should move. we have to wait a little bit until we get through some of the tier one activities which the ongoing activities that i explained in my opening remarks. then moved to these tier 2 and tier 3 activities. that is the current question about the schedule for that. that is something i am working

with staff on. >> thank you. >> i want to come back to the targets you mentioned about spent fuel. do you think the agency previously did not spend enough time on this? there is the spent fuel issue and the intersection of geology. >> i want to focus more on the intersection of geology and nuclear issues. this is something where i am directing my personal staff to spend some time on it and we will be bringing it up with agency staff as well. >> and the nuclear waste?

aware oft completely the nrc before i got there. the nrc is restricted. we don't make policy. we regulate. based on existing policy. we cannot set policy on look here reject nuclear waste disposal. that is the job of congress and the administration. we deal with issues that come to the table. >> over here? >> a was hoping to get your reaction to the milk bone shutdown. what is your perspective on the potential effects of climate change on reactors? do you have concerns about that?

>> nice to see you. it is not the first time this has occurred as far as i understand. a water outlook gets warm enough to have to shut down for a little while. i have actually asked the staff to look into the issue of what are some of the climate change -- potential climate change impacts coming down the road. one of them is the issue of water sources getting warm. hopefully, we'll have more to tell you on that. >> [inaudible] >> yes, and there are a number of other issues. >> thank you. >> in terms of the waste

confidence suspension, how long is that likely to last? it seems like it could be significant. can you give us an idea of how long this will take? >> this is one thing we are actively working on now at the commission. the staff has sent a paper to the commission giving us a number of options on how to go forward and timing and, in general, the commission feels we should work on this as efficiently as possible. we have not settled on an actual number yet. >> it sounds like you have a lot of choices. >> we probably don't have a lot of choices but we have a few.

>> if no one has a question, i will take an opportunity. i'm george. please identify yourself. >> i'm george. some have said that the nrc is not tough enough and have had numerous lapses because the nrc has not been vigilant enough. you have had the opportunity to see what the operation is like on your blue ribbon commission. chairman yazko appeared to support these kinds of suggestions by suggesting that some of the turmoil on the commission was caused by the fact that other members of the commission were not sufficiently tough on safety. he was supported by some members

in congress. to support your nomination. chairmanree with y chairma yazko among fellow commissioners? is that criticism not on target? >> thanks for your question, george. i have just been on t job a few weeks. i have some strong initial impressions of the agency. i have been very impressed with the staff and their dedication to safety. they have a willingness to stand up to industry and they believed a situation is not say. safe. i am quite sure that the agency is completing its mission of protecting public health and safety. they take safety issues very

seriously. they take their role as regulator is very seriously. the public should be assured that they have the public's best interest in mind. >> chairman azko was mistaken? >> i think the agency is carrying out its job. from what i can tell and i was not here before july 9, from what i can tell so far, i am reassured that the agency is continuing its mission and i intend to encourage them in that direction as much as i can. >> you talked about the importance of communication and communicating what you're doing. is part of that geared towards

reversing the perception that the agency has been a victim of oversight. >> that ends up being part of the message. that would be fine. if that is the public perception that the agency has been captured -- my impression so far is that is not the case at all. i want to insure that as an agency, we take the public concerns very seriously. that will certainly come out when we have public meetings and public hearings. . i want to hear from the public and what their concerns are. sometimes they have some very worthwhile concerns.

>> recently, you spoke about agency efforts to address going back to staff supporting safety. making sure that the agency in permit support staff and come forward and said that they have safety concerns. it is kind of an agency environment issue. i want to know what some of the things that might come out of that, that what can be done to make sure staff feels comfortable bringing up issues. >> i am still learning what some of the recent history is of the nrc. i am impressed that some of the values or openness, transparency, collaborative work environment. they are very working on that. they are conscious of their own

safety culture and they are working hard to ensure that they maintain their own safety culture. i think it is interesting when any kind of incident happens at a particular facility, especially if it becomes a long and drawn-out incident, they take the time to go through and gather lessons learned and how do we need to do things differently, do we need to change rules. it is a very reflective agency. that is my impression. >> politico. i have to ask -- [laughter] what was the agents reaction to senator reid's comments pinned it was rather surprising to all of us. >> very serious. [laughter] the agent had -- the agency had no reaction. i did not hear anybody discuss it.

i think that speaks to the strength of the agency, that we're focused on the mission and not distracted by events outside. >> jeff johnson. referring to the end of the press conference, the abstract question. members of the house and senate over the years have wanted to see nrc be a bigger promoter of nuclear power and they have gone after -- and this is nothing new, but has gone on a long time. when he were appointed, i thought it was interesting to have a geologist. i do not think there has been another geologist. >> there hasn't. but the house and -- >> the house and senate ask a lot of questions about qualifications. one implied that you had never been to a nuclear power plant.

can you defend why this is a good time to have a geologist in this position of leadership in the nrc? >> it takes me back to my main message. geology clearly matters. if that was not one of the main lessons of fukushima, i don't know what once. there was a massive earthquake. an earthquake that was not predicted. why was it not predicted? because geology is an area of dynamic knowledge. it changes with time. before the 2004 sumatra quake that created that huge tsunami in the indian ocean, seismologists had no understanding that you could get a may get quake -- a mega quake, which is larger than 8.8 -- on most subduction zones. now we have that understanding.

and it is reemphasize by the to who grew -- by the tuhoku quake. >> all of this event later in our program scheduled and any time in our video library. we will take you now to the pentagon for a monthly update from the chairman of the joint chiefs general dempsey and leon panetta. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> first of all, i wanted to indicate that, earlier today, i had a very good conversation with general sec, which is it is new general of defense -- with a general assisi, which is the new general of defense in egypt.

general alsisi expressed his unwavering commitment to they u.s.-egypt relationship, which has been an anchor of stability in the middle east for more than 30 years. i in turn indicated to him that i look forward to working with him and to continuing the relationship with egypt that we have had over the years. he takes seriously the obligations under the camp david treaty. i indicated that i look forward to working with him in the region. this morning, i also conducted a regular update. general dempsey and i both with

the general allan. he continues to do an outstanding job as the commander of the assistance force. i will give you a brief update on afghanistan as well as a result of that conversation. we discussed the progress of the campaign, specifically with regard to four key goals which we are trying to achieve in afghanistan. first, the abilities of the afghan forces, second, the pressure on the insurgency, and third forcing to maintain the international community's unity of effort. we have long expected that our forces would remain in their -- in a tough fight through this fighting season. that has been true of your --

true through these last summer months. at the same time, it is clear that we're continuing to make significant progress toward trying to achieve the goals we have laid out. on the afghan forces, the ansf continues to grow in size. two-thirds of those in uniform defending afghanistan and now afghans. and the ansf continues to grow to 350 two thousand later this year. the growth of afghan special operations, having the capability has allowed afghans to plan, conduct, and lead special operations missions every day and every night. the ana recently operated a special command consisting of 10,000 soldiers in one recent

25 operationsod, were afghan-led. they are showing real capability and that shows positive for the future. ansf has the potential to deal with a crippling and lasting to the insurgency. they have tried to take credit for a number of so-called insider attacks that have taken place in this fighting season. make no mistake about it. i have been very concerned about these incidents. both of us have been because of the lives lost and because of the potential damage toward our partnership efforts. general allan and i discussed a range of measures that he is

taking to try to stop these attacks. i will touch on a few of those pick first, to increase the intelligence presence so that we can try to get better information with regards to these kinds of potential attacks. also, to increase counterintelligence, to increase people trained in counterintelligence so they can as well identify those threats. secondly, we have a thorough vetting process. thee doing forensics on particular instance -- a particular instances that have occurred to make sure how that vetting process happened. notification process so that, when we get information, we can alert people to the threats.

we have a guardian angel program which involves identifying one individual who stands to the side so he can watch people's backs and hopefully identify people that could be involved in those attacks. general allan is meeting with the security ministers. they will talk about further steps to take to protect against these attacks. he is also meeting with the village elders. these are the people who usually about for individuals. they have to sign something that the vouchers for the character of these individuals to ensure that that is being done properly. all of this requires action by both the united states, the coalition forces, and by our afghan partners who all face the insider threat. we mustn't forget that the afghans themselves are also targets of these attacks as well.

i want to stress that these incidents, which now include 31 afghans, do not reflect the pride and dedication of the 350,000 police of the afghan national security forces. one of the reason the afghan -- the taliban is targeting in this manner is the success that the afghan partners are having on the battlefield. the reality is that the taliban has not been able to regain any territory lost. so they are resorting to these kinds of attacks to create have it. and there is -- to create havoc. we will not allow this kind of intimidation to undermine our efforts to build up the n and -- the nsf.

secondly, we're putting pressure on the insurgency, the growth of a nsf is increasingly putting pressure on the insurgency itself. as the fighting season has progressed, we have seen an increase in enemy-initiated attacks. although violence levels have remained consistent with past summers appeared a lot of this -- with past summers. a lot of this, according to general allen, we are taking back the fight. the fighting has been increasingly taking place away from major populated areas. the insurgency remains on the defensive and it has not been able to regain ground that it has lost. all of this has enabled us to continue with the transition to

an afghan lead, which is the third goal that we are after. and the transition has been and remains very much a successful operation. over half of the afghan population is predicted by the moment -- by predominantly afghan force. we hope that it willfully be implemented later this year. 75% of the afghan population, including every provincial capital, would be in the transition process and would be under afghan security and governance. security gains made in these areas have been sustained in the first six months of this year. insurgent attacks were down 15% in areas that were undergoing transition, compared to 2011. this has allowed us to introduce security-force assistance teams. these are small teams of isaf

advisers. they train, advised and assist ansf units. on unity of the effort, obviously, the transition plan has the strong support of the afghan people and the international community. because of that, we have been able to maintain a strong unity of effort with the afghan government and our international partners. in my discussions with the general allen and my foreign counterparts, i meet with a lot of those who continue to supply byces, i have been strippeuck their commitment and unity to overcome the effort appeare.

their decision to open up the nato supply lines means a great deal to us to bring containers and material that are now moving across the border into afghanistan. cross border cooperation with pakistan is increasing. general allan is meeting on a regular basis with the general kayani. i realize that there are a lot of other things going on in this country that can draw our attention. from the olympics into political campaigns to drought to some of the tragedies we have seen in communities around the country. but i thought it was important

to remind the american people that there is a war going on in afghanistan. and that young men and women are dying in order to protect this country. even as our surge forces have drawn down at -- will drawdown of the end of september and we are on track, there will remain 68,000 americans in uniform who will be deployed in a very tough fight against a determined enemy. as secretary of defense, i have said this before -- one of my toughest jobs is writing condolence letters to the families of our fallen heroes frankly, i seem to be writing more lately. more than 1950 americans in uniform have died defending our country in a can stand and thousands more, as you know, have been injured, some very

seriously. the pain and the heartbreak of this war weigh heavily on me. and i know they weigh heavily upon general dempsey as well as our other military and civilian leaders. but also as well on the families of those who have lost loved ones. and yet, when i talk to the families of the fallen, when you meet with them and meet with our wounded troops in bethesda, i am impressed by their need to see these missions through. i want to say to the american people to take the time and reflect on the sacrifices. it is because of the sacrifices that i think we're moving in the right direction. and afghanistan that can secure and protect itself.

that is a tribute to general allen's leadership and for the countless sacrifices of thousands of americans and international and afghan forces who stepped forward to make us safer. at a time when i am sure that there is an awful lot to be mad about, there is a lot to be proud of when it comes to our men and women in uniform. and we shouldn't forget that. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i obviously share our deep admiration for men and women in uniform and all those serving in afghanistan. theirs is a story of unrelenting courage and uncommon sacrifice. it is a story they share with our coalition and afghan partners. the progress does not mean an end to violence or tragedy. i was reminded of that last friday when i went to dover to grieve with families as their

flag-draped coffins return to their native soil. at that time, i was also inspired by the solemn professionalism of our airmen at dover who make sure every single dignified transfer is worthy of the fallen soldier and their family. i am returning to cobble next week to talk with general allan and other partners on how to make the anfs stronger and the taliban weaker. we will talk about efforts at every echelon to confront the insider attack that the secretary just elaborated on. i will also travel through iraq for the first time since our mission and there appeared will take stock of our efforts to continue to build a relationship through the office of cooperation. and we will talk about what is working and what is the best way forward. we meet as peers and it is

essential that our partnership continue to develop on that basis. in a similar vein, i, too, have reached that to my counterpart in egypt. i sense a positive -- for one thing, he is another army college graduate. he has a longstanding relationship with the united states army. and i sense a positive trend for a respected military. while i spoke with the previous chief, and our relationship transcends individuals. before taking your questions, allow me to offer a few thoughts on my recent and upcoming travels. i was in silicon valley recently for about a week to discuss and vulnerabilities and opportunities in cyber with

industry leaders. this is a domain without borders or buffer zones where public, private collaboration is the only to safeguard our nation's critical infrastructure. we all agreed on the need to share threat information at network speed. and i would like to see a return in congress to push legislation that does at least this. i would also like to mention our olympic athletes, 16 of which in the london games were active military men and women. i had a chance to walk through the arlington cemetery with our basketball men and women. two weeks from now, it will be our fault offical -- it will be our official delegation to be paralympics.

on that ending note, i look forward to your questions. >> could you provide a little more detail on some of the added actions that will be taken on the ongoing attacks? considering the numbers of these attacks, as you know, are on smaller teams and parties. is the intention to add intelligence to those small teams? how would be practically done? also, are there any other practical things that you are looking at in order to protect the troops, such as expanding the guardian angel across all the services? is it really possible to do this as -- is it really possible

to do this with the cost of doing business? >> first of all, you will hear us talk about these incidents more as insider attacks. it understates the effect that this is having a on the ansf itself. they are suffering from the same trend that we're suffering. secondly, i would never become contend that there is not more that we can do. i would never characterize this as the cost of doing business. as always, and there are far more story is about a positive relationship than there is about this particular insight attack trend. but it is one that we have to be focused on. for example, in one of the recent green-on-blues, it was a

special operations forces lieutenant and a sergeant who came to the aid of their american counterparts and lost their lives in the process of coming to the raid. so this is not a case where is -- coming to their aid. this is not a case where you chalk it up to the cost of doing business. we should all be encouraged by the message by president karzai condemning it. secondly, general allan is convening a conference of all of his wounded stars and senior advisers. this is the topic of that conference. more important probably is a the afghan security ministers are having a summit to talk about what they can do on their side. the secretary mentioned that john has convened an acronym

called jcft and it will look at the recruiting process, filing promptly, where did the men who committed -- what are the indicators that we missed? and we will learn something from that. we are also adding counterintelligence expertise, both inside of our own staff. i really expect them to be part of the security forces team and i would expect them to have a more robust capability. and so true are the afghans. we are adding internal counterintelligence to them. they discharged hundreds of soldiers who did indicate that they -- that some of these young men had the capability of being

radicalized, either by traveling back and forth to pakistan, by literature, by music, and so forth. >> the pentagon report in this program said that most of these incidents had to do more with personal grudges. basically, maybe americans disrespecting afghans that led to bloodshed. that there was very little taliban in frustration. are we seeing a change now where there's more taliban infiltration into these incidents? >> in talking with john allen, it is clear that there is no one source that is producing these kinds of attacks. some of it are individuals who, for some reason, are upset and they take it out.

we have seen that here in the united states often times. secondly, there is a self- radicalization that sometimes takes place within it. so waitperson may not be a member of the taliban, but it is -- so a person may not be a member of the taliban, but is suddenly radicalized with incentives for that type of thing. we have seen some of that take place in some of these attacks. and then others have some taliban ties. it is difficult to draw any kind of conclusion as to just exactly whether this is kind of a pattern, a broad pattern appeared from everybody that i have talked to at this point, these seem to be incidents that a taking place that are oftentimes caused by different backgrounds of the individuals involved.

>> you mentioned pakistan and afghanistan relationship. [inaudible] what is the u.s. reaction? why is the u.s. not able to show a strong reaction to pakistan? >> it is very important that we do everything possible to try to get pakistan to take the right steps on their side of the border. the reality is that the communication and the relationship has gone better. general allan is meeting with general karani on a regular basis. we have been able to make progress with regards to other

areas of assistance. one area where we are making particular progress is in trying to develop better cross border operations so that both the pakistanis and the united states and afghans are all working on the global areas to identify terrorists who are creating havoc. there is no doubt that their terrorist coming across from pakistan who wind up in afghanistan and then have some cross-border incidents across the way. with general allen is open to do is that the pakistanis can help the united states identify the terrorists on the afghan side of the border and we can help identify some of the terrorists on the pakistani side of the border. so there can be better coordination to try to do with these kinds of cross border incidents. >> on syria, we have word now that many of the 48 iranian men

who were captured earlier this month by the syrian army in damascus are in fact irtc members. what were they doing there? how deep does iranian involvement run in this conflict? >> without having specific information about the individuals involved in this particular situation, it is obvious to both general dempsey and i that iran is playing a larger role in syria in many ways. not only in terms of the irtc, but in terms of assistance, training. there is now an indication that they're trying to develop and train a militia within syria. one that is able to fight against the regime.

so we are seeing a growing presence by iran. and that is of deep concern to us, th that is taking place. we do not think that iran ought to be playing that role at this moment in time. it is dangerous and is adding to the killing that is going on in syria. and it tries to bolster a regime that we think will to millie will come down -- that we think will ultimately come down. our hope is that iran thinks better of how much they do want to get involved. but in any event, we have to make sure that iran does not exercise that kind of influence in syria and try to determine

the future of the syrian people. the syrian people ought to determine their future, not iran. >> the militia you mentioned, are these iranian fighters you're talking about? have the iranians picked up arms or are they training? >> from what we have seen, a lot of it is training and a lot of it is assistance. i believe that the militia is made up of syrians. >> it is translated into the army of the people. >> mr. secretary, you talk about seeing a larger role played by iran. have either of you seen evidence of al qaeda? >> there have been reports that

al qaeda is present, but not aligned with the opposition. al qaeda is opportunistic. they are trying to find inroads into syria, but not aligned with the opposition in the way that the iranian influences are aligning themselves with the regime. >> you may statement about secretary clinton that, in a post-assad era, you don't want to see a repeat of what happened in iraq in terms of the military being dismantled. are you just throwing that out there publicly or are you specifically talking to anyone in syria or the opposition? i don't mean you preface -- i don't mean you personally, but the u.s. >> i am not. but, obviously, one of the

focuses for secretary clinton is to try to determine what a post- assad syria will look like and what steps need to be taken. there are a number of concerns that we have in that situation. how do we maintain security of the chemical biological weapons that are being stored there and ensure that they remain secure and don't fall into the wrong hands? how do we develop a process to ensure that the different segments of the opposition can come together and be able to organize in some kind of transitional government? how are we able to deal with some of the other groups that are now, like al qaeda, their involvement, how do we do with them? how do we deal with hezbollah in this process? there are a number of questions that need to be addressed in

that kind of situation. i think there is a strong diplomatic effort to try to determine what that would look like. >> and direct u.s. active in -- and direct you as active in trying to do this. >> i think the u.s. is working with our allies to determine which steps we will be taking. >> can i talk with you about military assessments on both sides of this area of conflict? for the regime, there are forces, troops, equipment. what is your assessment? are they reaching the end? can they maintain spare parts and logistics? do you believe that they have an anti-air capability? that they have the beginning potentially of heavy weapons? your assessment on the spot. >> on the kids -- on the

condition of the syrian army, it has been fighting now for 18 months or so. and the army would be taxed with that kind of pace. we are expecting that they're having -- you know, sanctions and other pressures -- they're having supply problems, morale problems, the kind of wear and tear that would come from being in a fight for as long as they have. and i believe that iran is stepping in to form this motion to take some of the pressure off of the syrian military. you may have seen the prime minister, who left syria, is now calling on syria to do the honorable thing. i think that would be an outcome that we would support. on the other side, there was a report this weekend of the mig-

23. we don't know how it was shot down. the indicator was that it had a failure of some kind convicted not appear to be mechanical. but it could have been shot down with a small arms fire. it did have surfaced-air missile capability. we have seen no indication that anyone has armed them with heavy weaponry. although, we're certainly alert to that possibility and wouldn't be surprised by it. >> given what secretary clinton said over the weekend, are you now looking again at the notion of having a no-fly zone or safe haven for new working groups? or are you absolutely convinced that a no-fly zone is no feet?

>> militarily, i explore options with partners, especially in these kinds of incidents. we have been in discussion with jordanians and the turks. they are both interested mostly in the effects that could spill from syria in to their countries. both have examined the possibility of a safe haven. but a safe haven would probably have some kind of no-fly zone. >> as we both indicated, obviously, we plan for a number of contingencies and we have planned for a number of contingencies there. right now, with regards to syria, we are focused on three areas. number one, humanitarian assistance. we provide about 81 million and we continue to work with turkey

and jordan to do what we can to provide further assistance to do with the refugees picked secondly, cbw sides continue to be a serious concern and we continue to monitor those sites, working with turkey and jordan. we have been in discussions to determine what steps need to be taken to ensure that those sites are secure and maintain so that those weapons don't fall into the wrong hands. thirdly, assisting the opposition. we are providing non-legal aid to the opposition. but our goal is to -- non- lethal aid to the opposition. as far as the no-fly zone, that is not an issue to us.

>> there has been an uptick in publicity on speculation that israel is getting ready. on august 1, you said we need every option and every effort before it undertaking military action. then it was written that time is dwindling. what is your view here? is israel closer than ever before to taking unilateral strikes against iran? and what is your general thinking about the effectiveness of those types of strikes undertaken by a nation without stealthier craft bore bumper- busting type of weaponry? >> i have said this before. i don't believe they have made a decision as to whether or not they will attack iran at this

time. obviously, they are independent. they are a sovereign country. they will make decisions on what they think is in their best national security interest good but i don't think they have made that decision at this time. with regards to the issue of where they are at from a diplomatic point of view, the reality is that we still think there is room to continue to negotiate. the additional sanctions have been put in place. they are beginning to have an additional impact on top of the other sanctions that have been placed there. the international community is strongly unified in opposition to iran developing any kind of nuclear weapon. and we're working together both on the diplomatic side as well as on the economic side to apply sanctions.

i think the effort is one that the united states and the international community will continue to press. as i said and i will continue to repeat, the prime minister of israel said the same thing. military -- any kind of military action ought to be the last alternative, not the first. >> but they say that the window is almost shut. >> of the sick, israel has to respond to that question. -- obviously, israel has to respond to that question. >> militarily, my assistant -- my assessment has not changed. i'm not privy to their planning. my assessment is based on their capabilities and i may not know all of their capabilities. but characterization's say they

could delay but not destroyed iran's nuclear capabilities. >> but that -- >> i have not changed my assessment. >> thank you. i am from venezuela. the venezuelan government has been very outspoken, highlighting its support of the soaring yen -- support of the syrian and iranian governments. >> we don't agree with a lot that venezuela does and we would obviously not agree with their approach to syria as well. i guess venezuela will have to make its own decisions as to what governments that want to support or not support.

>> have pakistan -- [inaudible] are you aware of their nuclear capability, that pakistan is extending their nuclear weapons because of terrorists inside pakistan? also, it is 65 years of independence. >> one of the things i have always tried to stress in that region is the importance of

india and pakistan working together to deal with the issues that they confront. we will never have real stability in that region without india and pakistan, and for that matter afghanistan, working together in trying to do with common threats, particularly those threats from terrorism. i really do believe, when i talk to the pakistanis, i always stress the fact that we should have common cause which refers to confronting terrorists in order confronting terrorism. terrorists -- to confronting terrorists. terrorists are a real danger to their country. members of their military have

died as a result of terrorism and it is important for them to recognize that threat and to act against that threat. in particular, it is important because they are a nuclear power and the great danger we always fear is that, if terrorism is not controlled in their country, that their nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands. >> [inaudible] >> i did not. he was here when i was a broad. >> as i was. but the chief of army staff, and recognizing the independent states, he gave a speech that i would incurred due to take a look at. >> as general dempsey said, the

war and conflict has been going on for 17-18 months. do you think that, number one, america has done enough? and, number two, is there reason in the future -- are you confident that you have enough firepower? >> with respect to that last question, there is no question in my mind that we are -- that we have positioned a significant force in the middle east to deal with any kind of contingency. we are prepared to respond to whatever the president of the united states asks us to do. with regard to syria, we are not standing still. there is a very strong

diplomatic effort that secretary clinton is involved in, working with turkey, working with jordan, working with our allies, to try to continue to bring pressure on syria. there are a number of sanctions that have been brought against syria, economic sanctions that have had an impact. at the same time, we're working on the humanitarian assistance. we're trying to secure the cbw. and we are trying to provide assistance to the opposition. i think the reality is that it is having an impact on assad. it is having an effect on the regime. we are seeing increasing defections. we are seeing problems with their military. i think that it is a matter of time. but it will take continuing

pressure. it would be helpful if the russians and the chinese were a part of that effort. but, if they are not, we believe that the international community is maintaining enough unity on this issue that they can continue to bring strong pressure on the syrian regime to bring it down and to give syria back to the syrian people. >> you said we're working on securing the cbw. what do you mean? >> we are monitoring those sites and keeping an eye on them and continuing to develop plans with the adjoining countries to ensure that they will always be secure.

[applause] >> this seceded press is reporting that nellie grey has died. she was 86. a lawyer and former federal employee, she devoted herself to the anti-abortion movement after the supreme court roe vs. wade decision. the march 1 for life was held the following year on the anniversary of the ruling. it is consistently one of the largest protests of the year in washington. >> coming up tonight at 8:00

p.m. eastern, remarks today from vice president joe biden could he spoke at a campaign rally in danville, va. this morning. in his remarks, he said this is a good thing, referring to mitt romney's decision of selecting paul ryan as his running mate. we will have the tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> now the soviet bear may be gone, but there are still woods -- still are wolves in the woods. the middle east might have become a nuclear power cade. our energy supplies held hostage. so we did what was right and what was necessary. we destroyed a threat, freed a people, and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own country. [applause] >> tonight, 10 million of our

fellow americans are out of work. tens of millions more work harder for lower pay. the incumbent president says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins. but unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin. [applause] >> c-span has aired every party convention since 1984. >> i started as a copy boy in the new york times. i was in a training program after i got at of the army for "the wall street journal." >> this weekend, "washington post" columnist walter pincus talks about his criticism of the defense department's budget

priority. >> it is about 40 people. and it has separate rulings for everybody. if you spent $4 million on an elementary school, i bet nobody would raise questions. >> c-span, created by america's cable companies in 1979, brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> top officers from several technology companies recently sat down to discuss the impact and future of american technology on the world, including social media censorship and the j censorship in other countries and the use of twitter in the -- including social media censorship in other

countries and the use of twitter in the london summer olympics. this is over an hour. >> thank you all and welcome. let me ask you to take your seats, it be made. i want to thank the jury murdoch and geena murdoch, the chairs of our gala event. [applause] on behalf of our chairman, bob steele and myself, will come to our summer gala event. we will have two conversations here. i will moderate the second. but on the theory that you have seen enough of me, zoey baird will moderate the first with cardinal warrior, an old friend and one of the great pioneers of the digital age. so let me turn it right over to the zoe baird and pat month -- and padma warrior.

>> thank you. some of you know me as zoe baird. [laughter] i've known walter long time. but we are here today to talk with padma warrior and not about me. she is the chief technology and strategy officer for cisco and formerly the chief engineer. she is a real scientist. one of the stories i can tell you to confirm that took place almost 20 years ago now when padma sent her wonderful husband, a former boarding school roommate of argent, to the grocery store to get a

pregnancy test because she thought she was pregnant. he dutifully went off and came back with the pregnancy test. she took the test and she was positive. most of us would start celebrating, but not padma. to her, nothing can be the truth unless it can be replicated so she sent him back to the store. so she got her wonderful child who is now 19 pin tell us very briefly -- who is now 19. tell us very briefly what is cisco. >> it deals with the equipment that makes the internet run. it is the backbone of the internet, the physical infrastructure that you don't see behind every time you see in -- you send a message or a tweakeet. it is a global company with about 50,000 to 60,000 employees

on a worldwide basis, including our partners. about $40 billion in revenue. my job is to develop the strategy for the company. about three weeks ago, i moved to where i run all m&a for cisco. it is a company that is made up of acquisitions. it is a 26-year-old company. we have acquired an integrated about 150 companies. so m&a is an extremely important part and i now run that. >> your background includes being a major force in the development of mobile technology when you were at motorola. you now have been with the company for a number of years. it has been a major force in creating the network that is the

internet. as you look out at how profound those changes have been and you think about your strategy is going forward and what you see happening in the expansion and explosion of data and the ability to network and connect data and the explosion of social networking and the unstructured data that is coming from social networking, do you think that this will be as profoundly impact fall on all of our lives and businesses and social interactions as the internet and mobile technology has been? if so, in what way? >> i started my career in the semiconductor industry making chips that went into building two-way communication devices that then led to the beginnings of the cell phone. i was with motorola before coming to cisco. and now motorola system -- motorola is part of google.

and when the cell phone was first invented, it was meant to be a business persons device. the idea was the only business he would feel a need to call back to the office. that is why the cell phone was invented. it took a life of its own. it is now probably about five times as many cell phone sold for every baby born. about every second five babies are born on earth. it is something we cannot live without. the internet has played a huge world and connecting person to person and is becoming a platform to connect the machines to machines. those two world are emerging.

it is interesting to see what it will create. some interesting data point to think about, i think it will be a good opportunity. we are beginning to see the use of radivideo beyond conferences. by the year 2016, four years, we will see a huge amounts of video traffic on the network to the tune of about 1.2 million minutes of video content every second. at the same time we expect in four years the wireless data will exceed wireline data. what we are consuming on cell phone devices will far exceed that is being created on wire

line construction. that tells us that mobil and the combination of what it means in the future will be huge. we just did a survey of about 5000 college students and in 15 countries. it is interesting what the survey told us. two of every five people said they would take a lower-paid job than work for a company that does not allow them to bring their own device or have access to twitter and facebook. the freedom of be able to use the device of their choice is more important to them them what they get paid for doing their job. the other data point was a one out of three said the internet was as important to them as air, water, food. [laughter] it has just become such an

.mportant part pic i look at the mobile device and how it was change. i was born in india. when i go back to india and i see the cell phone everywhere, and very remote parts of rural india, everybody has a cell phone. they use is in very different ways. it is having a huge impact. where this will go in the next decade will also begin to see what people react to in the tech industry with machine to machine communicating. wille commitcommunicating see a lot of data being sent to the network. one will be media and those type of data. the other will be small bits

of data. we're starting to see that with a web of power. it is being made better by having sensors that monitor the grid. a set of protocols. >> do you think that can be integrated into the fact that everyone can walk around with one of these to create new kinds of jobs that people are not doing today? do you think about how to enable that not just that someone wants to bring their devices to work but rather that all of a sudden they can do new things to create ways of making a living that they had never done before?

>> absolutely. we have 10,000 academies around the world where we bring in people and train people to understand how the network work. we want people on social networks. they understand technology on a deeper level. at different levels you can think about job creation. one is just laying out the structures. even though we're seeing much more can activity, there is a lot of the world war connectivity is an issue. we need to get the right type of policy is driven. and that sort of the infrastructure being put in place. then there is the aspect of what happens when things that we're used to having in the physical world turns to another world. there is an article i was reading that talks about how our brain is now actually -- we have

been habitual to using technology in a different way that changes the way our brain functions. but that means in the future is going to be an interesting aspect. it takes 20 days for and actions to become a habit and 26 for to become a good habit. if you want to stop climbing the stairs predict start climbing the stairs to have to do that for 26 days. think about how we use those devices constantly. they become habitual. it is a good habit or a bad habit. it is changing the way people's brains will function. that creates new source of innovation that will drive jobs to be different. there will be opportunity to drive different types of industries. you see this already with things like pinterest. it is a digital clipboard.

you find a web site or a picture and you pin it. when i was a kid i used to cut out pictures of magazine put it on a bulletin board. now i do it digitally. it will create new opportunities for us to share in work in a different way going forward. gaming is another thing. i was reading that today there are 7 billion hours of gaming in in every week that happens on line. video games or online gaming. some of the may think that is insane. -- of you may think that is insane. my son may be one of those people. the university of california and san francisco did research that says gaming can delay onset of dementia. it helps to be a focus.

gamers are extremely focused people. they can stay focused for very long. of time. i think we probably are figuring out what the future will be like. it is exciting to be in technology. >> when you think about being one of 51 an in class of 250 at the very prestigious institutes at new delhi and you look at where you are now in the women are round you -- around you, how do you feel that things have changed for women in engineering and science is? i know you spent a lot of time encouraging women to develop in the fields.

>> i did my studying at the institute of technology. it is known as the hot core engineering school. there were only five women in my class of about to enter 50. -- 250. i went to college when i was 16. i thought i knew everything. i realized that i was around people that are much smarter than me. it was very intimidating. what helped me get through my curriculum was the fact that there were four other women who felt the same way that i did. we stuck together and became a community that helped each other. that experience stayed with me throughout my whole life. it is very important because there are very few women in technology to help and support each other.

especially women entrepreneurs, connect them with other experience women. there is no media. there is no press. it is an informal way to share experiences. it has changed. when i started working, at just the notion that as a woman you can be yourself and be recognized and be a leader it accept a more now than it was when i started working 20 years ago when i started working in the technical industry we were told to dress a certain way, at talk a certain way, you were told to stand up when you were speaking. there were certain behavior is that were imposed on me as a woman in the industry. hopefully, these days

women can feel like they can be themselves. that is what i tell the men i mentor appeared the most important thing is to be who you are. if you love the jury, where jury. -- and jewelery, wear jewelery. be yourself. >> 20 years ago i thought one of america's great global competitive edges would be our ability to take advantage of the 50% of our population that was women and we would be able to draw on that talent in way that other countries have not. do you think that is true? is that a place where american has a competitive edge? do you think it is pretty much other countries?me in

>> we do have a competitive edge. the all reason i came to the u.s. and state was for that reason. i came to go to grad school. i came to u.s. with $100 and a one-way ticket. i felt like i could be successful here. my rishaad plan was to finish my ph.d. in go back redid my our regional plan was to finish my ph.d. in go back to teaching. i think in general that is true. both men and women can be competitive and can truly rely on their contributions. i just participated in research that we did for the congress. we bring the king and university

research and talking about is american university research weakening tax is the issue the administration for contribution by the federal government's. i do feel concerned that we ought to do more to maintain our edge in hire research. that is still where we differ in shape from other countries. it serves as a magnet to get intelligence from the rest of the world. >> in addition to taking advantage of the talents of women now go this country and investing more in research, what else do you see as potentially competitive edge for this country as we compete with india and china and others?

innovation is truly an edge here. even with in the u.s., the notion of a silicon valley is difficult to replicate. there have been many studies done on can we can do that. we are seeing more pockets of innovation come up in new york and other parts of the country which is extremely important. i was on a state department sponsored trip to russia. russia is thinking about creating a effort to where they can encourage entrepreneurs to start companies. this is where the u.s. leads the world. we need to maintain that magic formula of creating great risk taking with great ideas that young people can come up with ideas and create companies that grow into big companies like google and others.

that is what set apart from the rest of the world. we need to do everything to preserve that. >> well done. >> here's the question when president obama was elected, he was interested in you been his chief technology officer. that was not the direction you went. have you taken the job, what would your priorities be? >> i'm not very qualified to answer. there is a lot that we can do. big problems we need to salt whether it is energies or new materials. we can understand the research that happens in universities.

maybe i am biased. going back to trading a kind of things is important. i work at cisco now. it as important to look at the physical innovations we can derive as well as other innovations. but we look at new materials, the government can really sponsored large-scale research projects looking at research universities. companies to benefit from that. we can create new types of industries. that is something i would feel whoever the president has to have. >> we will not get into the question of whether you can have it all. that has been talk here a lot. how is it you managed to keep fresh and to succeed in it all

that you have a wonderful husband and child. -- in it all? yet a wonderful husband and child. your hiking this morning. every day saturday morning you take a digital detox. is that what enables you to have it all? >> every saturday morning and made a rolule. i took a job to run all of our enterprises. i was working all the time. about 1.5 years ago i made a role that on saturday mornings it is my time. i write haikus. i paint. this morning we went hiking. i really am disciplined about doing that. i am trying to make that a habit. i have done more than 66 days now. hopefully it is a good habit.

there are occasions when i have to travel. i blow my own rule. in this article i talk about it as being very good for my brain. sometimes things happening constantly, just like any exercise physically, you feel more energy. i feel when i meditate and paint poetry, i the more clearly than if i am sending a nasty e-mail. at this is a disciplined way for me to think clearly. >> it is a great privilege for all of us to have you here. [applause] >> are we going to do hand held? thank you.

while they aren't getting seated,- are getting we are honoring them for their service to technology. the reason my old hero eric schmidt is not only to talk that technologists but something we have been talking about a lot, at the effect of technology on democracy and world affairs. the best book to be written next year will be written by eric about the effect of technology in arab spring in the democracy movement and in this country. someone who is heading twitter

is looking at how it changes our democracy and the world. i will start with a tail that he told a dinner. he is the head of u.s. aid. he said some was reading the locations of the demonstrations was something she had learned at a class at the american university in cairo called social media under authoritarian regimes. reallyeric's employees did help start the revolution. how much do you think the revolutions of the arab spring were affected by technology? >> i think the revolutionary uses the technology available to them. i went to libya right after the

copy was killed. -- gaddafi was killed. they tried to overthrow this evil dictator multiple times. the dictators in and libya learned that you have to center the media and radio. they failed to center the internet because they were too old. the syrian dictator has learned that lesson and syrian is centering it today. as much as we would like to take credit for this, we should give the real credit to the people risk their lives. we were simply a tool for them to start something. it is much easier things to twitter, facebook, and youtube to start a revolution. it is not any easier to finish ait.

the saying is you use twitter to get people out on the streets. the use facebook to organize tube tod you to do post the results. >> i covered eastern europe. they were using faxes and satellite. they had organized. they created a revolution that had leaders so when it succeeded you know he was in charge. does internet revolution lack the capacity to create leaders? >> great leaders are rare. they are rare in the u.s.. seriously. somebody you can overcome -- who

can overcome the many voices and chatter. it is much harder because of social media the fact is -- media. the fact is you need someone who can rise above. in libya, there were 80 militias that came together. today there's something like 10 or 15 that have unified. they have unified using the tools available. there is no obvious a natural leader who has been 30 years fighting the great fight. assuming this goes, how will it played that maybe they will end up with a great one or a series of six months rotating year civil war kind of government. you do not know. >> it is the muslim brotherhood was organing in the street for thre30 years. >> because they are secretive

and many of them were jailed and their highly religious, and they are very organized and charismatic. they are the logical place where it haa charismatic leader woulde from. but they do not actually tell you what you're going to do. they are very careful to not actually say what the trade-offs they are going to make. >> how do you see the revolutions? did you think you were going to be a force? >> not at all. but he was really on his game he would that some people attending social media. iran, wee event and i rin

were planning to do maintenance when switzer was still in its infancy. -- when twitter was in its infancy. some call this a massive but the postpone it. it was an eye opener for everyone in the company. we sort of found out about what tunisia. on in we found out how they were using twitter to organize protests until everyone where to meet. it kind of washes over you. it is nothing we anticipated or

planned for or did anything to promote. it has all been us reacting to how people have used it. >> have you had difficult decisions? i know you said been called by the state department. what tough decisions have you had to make now that twitter has become such a political tool? >> there have been a bunch. we are blocked in iran and china. you have to make lots of decisions about what you will and will not do in those kinds of places. we remained blocked in iran and china. there are people in china who use it. >> what are you doing to push back? >> we are not going to go there in way we would have to go into the country to provide access to

the government censors. we're not going to do that. with the new government, it will be much worse for a time. it will be worse for the companies that are the there that have twitter-like clones. we were down in pakistan for a couple of days. we were asked to remove a certain number of tweet or the service would not be brought back up. we did not remove them but they brought us back up anyway. in turkey, it is considered a ridicules to retoo [inaudible] they will get officials the say you need to take these tweet

down and we do not do that. you're trying to figure out what you need to balance in terms of letting people in the country have access and making sure you are not censoring things you do not want. >> block us to the tough decision you have to make on china and maybe some other places. >> you have a situation where you have citizens the country wants. the government of the country finally does not want it on your terms. it is a power play. in turkey, we were blocked for nine months on youtube. it may have been that the generals were concerned about some of the other videos that were on youtube. no one would ever tell us that. the basic law allows them to arbitrarily sensor it at any ip level.

>> do you try to circumvent that? >> the more we circumvent the more likely our employees will end up in jail. turkish jails are not that good. broadband is not that good. it is a real fine line. our employees face the risk of incarceration and are often called in and threatened. we tried to be careful. china is a long story which i will summarize as we tried and it did not work. bit.u pulled out of a >> a bit? we felt it was better to engage rather than to be iis strange. our theory was that we would create a thing so valuable that the citizens of china that the

government be forced to open this up because the center shipped is not going to be -- censorship will not be ok. we did that for five years. the censorship got worse, not better. after the chinese government attacked us for months and still a bunch of stuff and we have since publicized that, after they engaged in a very long campaign monitoring the details of human rights activists, we said enough is enough. we like the hong kong system better. removing to hong kong. they did not like that. it turns out there is a fire wall. it is known as the great fire wall. [laughter] it is a censorship box which basically when the information goes through it automatically censors. we solved this by making the chinese government do this.

>> what are the kinds of things that are censored? >> interesting. it is a legally for me to tell you. i will give you a summary. the mayor's son is arrested. the phone call comes from the police which says delete that reference. it is not political thought too much. it is things which are personally embarrassing to the leadership and especially the leasenior leadership. >> people may not be understanding the magnitude of how how did the government of china will come down on even a simple sarcasm. this woman in china was accessing twitter the at a private network and korea retreated -- retweeted a sarcastic joke.

she was sent to labor camp for a year. >> what about the guy in pakistan who tweeted the comments about muhamed that was immediately delete it, he fled to indonesia, flawlessly announced his location and is not unheard of since. >> there is example after example of what you would think of as the tiny stream mark that is met with rick tiniest remark which is met with kroll -- that is met with the tiniest remark met with punishment. >> the censorship is getting worse. it is reasonable to believe they are losing. the rate of adoption of the chinese social media, they cannot stop that. even if twitter was blocked,

which is a terrible thing, the way they bought it is they make it impossible to get there. they do not care because they are not elected. weibo was the way in which the chinese train incident, the train was shoddy and the government light. even in a dictatorship, and the government has an ego and cares about being in paris. even their twitter and its followers changed the government. it is remarkable. >> do you think the absence of information technology and the free flow that it enables inevitably pushes toward individual empowerment and democracy? >> certainly from individual empowerment. the numbers are staggering.

we're going from roughly 200 billion internet connected devices to on the order of 700 billion. in the next 10 years, all but the bottom billion will have reasonably high-quality smart funds. and a reasonable doubt connection -- wireless connection. whether that produces democracy is a western way of thinking. i do not think you can prove it. >> is there a natural connection/ >> that is a western view. he could say it produces chaos that has to be appropriate. my point is it does not necessarily follow this. it is not follow that lead to

free elections and multiple parties. those come out a much more societal of inspirievents. the future is going to be much more bizarre than we think. 20 years ago i thought i understood that was going on. there is nothing new. the webmark invented browser. all of a sudden i discovered there were all these voices i have not heard before. we are about to go through the same phenomenon at a global scale. we honestly have not heard from them yet. it is presented to assume they are going to want a particular democracy. from a book perspective, my conclusion is that the rate at

which things are happening is going to accelerate. and of america, weeping everything is static -- we think everything is static. this is false. there will be many such platforms that will be an offensive that will be a massive networks scale that will a powerful new forms of social activity. it is literally at a global scale modelling human personal behavior. >> do you see the people using twitter in different countries and cultures, do they use it differently? >> yes. and they do. in japan, the japanese use it a lot more as an alternative form of communication at say 2 text

messaging or a phone call as opposed to a way to keep up with the news or follow your interests. it may be the case that some of that is in reaction to the events of the kajima --, fishermen. in brazil it is almost exclusively indexed to following celebrities as opposed to giving up with the news or your interests. it is absolutely the case around the world use a much differently. >> what did you learn from the olympic tie that you have? >> the olympic tie has been fantastic. one of the fascinating things

about the olympics has been, and it will be really interesting for media to understand this change that we are going through from the filtered outside-in the view of the event where there is a broadcaster in the interview michael phelps before after the race and get this linear progression delivered to you. now before, during, and after the event you have this on filtered inside-out of view of the event by people who are at the event and even some of the participants. >> i left at the opening ceremonies, at every athlete seem to be taking photos and tweeting. it brought a tear to my eye.

i think that will fundamentally change the way media stars to think about how they delivered events to us. it will start to get boring it their view is the single filtered outside-in view while there is a multi perspective inside-out of view. >> incident billing start for the nbc folks -- we feel sorry for the nbc folks that's spent all this money on feature stories and wonderful and their kids about how the athletes and their personal stories and so forth. there is an alternative narrative. watch the olympics via twitter. >> it is just a different choice. >> have you think nbc feels

about you trumping them in some ways? >> we have a partnership with nbc that we are working with. i make no claims about how they decide to broadcast what they broadcast. the partnership has been fantastic. the london organizing committee has cameras at the event 2 tweeting. there is a camera at the bottom of people that is tweeting photos of the divers. you're getting this fascinating perspective. i think that enhances what nbc is doing. >> let me switch.

>> if you were a chief technology officer, what should america be doing now? what should government be doing now to make sure we stay competitive? >> i am part of the science adviser for the president. one of the things to know is american technological leadership came with an awful lot of help from the government. it started after world war two. he foresaw building overlying science infrastructure. that is what created everything that dick and i represent. 50'sally in the 40's and the people that laid the groundwork, all of that does not

question how it works. the question is what is the right role. it is clear that leadership is the key part of that. 18 at the top universities are in the u.s. china has zero. there's something about the american educational system college and beyond which produces people who can create things of great value for the world. we need to invest in that. let's start with investing more and in education at every level. that does not mean giving higher raises for union members. it means creating choices fight a measurement system. saying we are going to go back to producing students as good as the koreans and chinese are

producing. what about the college in india. it is phenomenal. this is such an obvious political point. i do not understand why this is a debate. some of our leaderships' operate on the assumption that the facts are optional. [laughter] the fact is that we have a demographic challenge. we have an automation challenge. jobs are being replaced by machines. the old jobs are not coming back, guys. the new jobs are correlated with high educational achievement in things american is get out. good out. finding the way to maximize that is what we should be doing.

[applause] >> you get an experacute sense r how important this is. we were recruiting this young woman who is graduating with a computer science degree from princeton. we interviewed and decided we wanted to hire her. she is choosing between twitter and google and facebook. she ended up going to book appeared i said let me get on the phone. -- she ended up going to facebook. i said let me get on the phone. this is making me look bad. i did that. to call me mr. costolo which was funny. i had this conversation that i thought really well and she said at the and i want to thank you

for taking the time out. i know you're probably extremely busy. it has been incredible for me to speak the last few days with executives from twitter, and facebook, and twitter. i had the realization that it is that hard to find a woman in engineering that is educated that well in america. it is a real problem. >> there are shortages of advanced manufacturing in midwest. what happens is the new machines are sufficiently complicated to operate. any people with college engineering degrees. we are not producing enough of them. because we do not allow foreigners to come and work here because we do not want them to come and pay taxes and create new companies and make lots more money, i'm sorry. i will stop. [laughter] [applause]

i would like to get to the stupidest policies of the government appear. >> here's the thing i do not understand. the technology and digital revolution has totally reformed most industries. i correct in journalism. talk about the destruction. the one place that has not been disrupted is the education industry. most people are still carrying textbooks. in almost every place you go, if there is a teacher standing front of a blackboard. >> the educational system below colleges run for the benefit of the adults and not the children. [laughter] that is the simplest explanation. there are many possible solutions. we should try them all.

which is also measured the outcomes. but we do repeat statistics in high school. we should apply them. [laughter] >> give me an example of how technology could disrupt this. >> they were central in creating the opportunity. roughly speaking they do a 8-10 minute videos. he's a gifted teacher. everyone watches them. the numbers. they had the brilliant idea is to see what happens if you inferred the classroom and to go to the point where when the student goes, they watched the video is. rather than doing homework. they do the homework and the class and a self-paced way. they have interesting and

powerful software. the early results which are being audited indicate a significant improvement in middle and high school class is. once assisted was valid. in a normal business if someone showed you that, you would immediately adopted. i can assure you it will take is about 30 years to do it in america. there is real proof that new technologies to education can work. the way to understand it is that if you are building knowledge and you get stuck in a classroom, you lose the whole year. if you can come up with technology that can help you learn and aggressively and in an interesting way that is largely self-taught and it is fun and interesting, you are going to excel. we plenty of examples of people that would have been marginalized that ended up at the top of the class. it is had trouble with long division.

-- they just had trouble with long division. >> talk to me about how you think about what you're in the lumber context. -- what you think about twitter in the larger context. >> what we have talked about is the fact that technology removes the barriers of time and distance between communication. now it is so collapsed with these real time communication platforms and so eliminated the barrier of time and distance that all these other artificial barriers are being removed like the barriers of socioeconomic status, the barriers of status in communication. that will for all sorts of opportunities in government and education.

if you fall of all of these discussions, you would get a remarkable education and not how to craft a character and what they think about character and each other's works. what they prefer this work to this work by this other right here. it is remarkable. it is all free. we thi one of the things you would do is gather a list of these remarkable officers are given-- new authors who are bringing this. i think we will try to basilic take the ability for others to curate this collection of conversations. we do not do a very good job. there are so many remarkable

conversations that take place on the platform. i will find out about some one in my favor conversations, whenever your family is driving you crazy, pretend you're in a woody allen movie. the response was tried that, did not work. [laughter] [applause] it is fantastic. she is my hero . we need to provide the ability for people to curate. >> what is the next phase for twister? >> that kind of ability. been able to curate events and broader topics.

>> do you wary that social media -- worry that social media can be either polarizing to our discourse or alienating in some ways? >> no. >> what is causing the polarization? >> we have had that for hundreds of years. go back to 1890. all you are seeing is the old behavior using new forms. we're finding out how people are really made. it is wonderful. think about all of these forces. voices. he can hear it with a thousand more like it appeared . >> i do think one of the

challenges before us is that there are two sides to that coin of anonymity. it enables a facilitate political speech but it also fosters hate speech. it's easy to hide behind anonymity and shout whatever obscenities you want at anybody on the platform. i think we sometimes have a tenancy -- tendency to get ourself credit for fostering political speech and being free speech but we have to keep in mind that there is another side to that. it is not necessarily as helpful. >> i will come back to that. >> is that to but anonymity? -- too much anonymity?

>> it is a ranking problem. that is what google does. if you do not want to see step full of hate speech, it should be relatively easy for the systems to figure out what you like and to organize them anyway you see at the age of politically opprobrious that you want. -- appropriate step you want. anonymity has its negatives. there are places where anonymity is really a problem. there also places where anonymity is really important. take a look at mexico. the local governments is involved. you cannot use a help line because people believe it is bugged. you need to have real anonymity to get people to tell you what they know. they're so afraid of death and retribution. it is a fine line. we will figure out as a society

where real anonymity is appropriate and where it is a terrible idea. >> in google + you are finding their way. >> we require real name policy. we fell in the beating of a social network who is in it? is the behavior appropriate? twitter did a fantastic job of this. we have now liberalized that for the same reasons slim404. it is much easier to liberalize it than to restrict it once it is in place. >> do you think anonymity leads to a coarser dialogue? >> there is lots of evidence that people online say things they would not save face to face.

that has been done ever since e- mail. think before you press send. just think. if you have to think that we probably should not press cent. [laughter] that has been known for a long time. now you happen a generation or did you have a generation who does all understand there is no delete button. -- now you happen to have a generation you does that understand there is no delay button. >> the man you metacomet about muhamed deleted in 5 seconds. i said this was gonna to be in a death row in saudia arabia. this is a generation

it's at the personal device already. as the technology gets better, all with your permission, these devices can help you decide where you should go, who you should meet, what your choices are. it is the intersection of mobile, local, and commerce on a single platform that was not possible until the last few

years. the hottest area of investment right now is in this area, for the 22-year-old's who have come out with this model to see how lives can change. they are backed up by extraordinary intelligence. in are very good in needle haystack. we do what we're really good at, and their member everything and make a very deep conversations adn option.ls -- options.

>> thank you very much. you can see why we invited them tonight. let's all proceeded to the gala dinner and we will have cocktails and honor our people. thank you very much. [applause] c-[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> watched every minute of the republican and democratic conventions. lots of campaign. -- lots of campaigning. we will have joe biden's comments from virginia at 8:00 p.m. eastern announcing new jersey gov. chris christie would be the keynote speaker at the convention in tampa. marco rubio will introduce mitt romney. we spoke to a reporter about the news. >> david writes for "the

washington times inside politics" blog. why did they select chris christie to be the keynote speaker? guest: ever since 2009, it's interesting because virginia and new jersey are the only two states to have off-year elections. they were thrust into the spotlight in 2009. he's brash. republicans love him. last month he asked a reporter, "are you stupid?" he's not afraid of taking on democrats, teachers' unions, what have you. you have a very divided republican party. in the end, you need someone to rev up your base and get you

ready for the last two months or so of the campaign. host: is the romney campaign looking for gov. christie to set that kind of tone at the convention? guest: in an interview with "usa today," gov. christie said he was going to try to focus more on romney's accomplishments in his time as governor of massachusetts as well as at bain capital rather than attacking barack obama which has been the default mode for the gop. it's kind of an interesting choice in that you think governor christie would be tapped to be the attack dog, which are sure he will be in part. but this may present a shift in the strategy and tone. host: a keynote speech is often

seen as a springboard for a politician. what is the general sense of his larger political aspirations beyond new jersey? guest: he has been cagey about that. it is not in his plan that this time to run for president. it has to be up there and in the short list for 2016 along with people like jeb bush, who was a vice presidential contender this year. he is rather ambitious but he also understands that maybe it's not quite his time yet which is how he phrased it when he said he was not going to run this time around. host: other news from the rnc

was the selection of senator marco rubio to introduced governor romney as he accepts his nomination. is this viewed as a consolation prize for such a rubio because he was not selected as the vice- presidential pick? or did have a larger plan for senator rubio? guest: i'm not sure i would describe it as a consolation prize. to be given the honor of introducing your party's presidential nominee at the republican national convention is a big task, start in. i just do not think the romney campaign season rubio in the same mode as paul ryan. he's very conservative. he can reach the hispanic community which is very important in tampa, fla., where

the convention is being held. it will be tough regardless whether he is getting the keynote address or the job of introducing governor romney. host: david sherfinski. can read is reporting at washingtontimes.com. >> more road to the white house coverage. vice president joe biden wrapped up a tour of north carolina and virginia saying they have "the starkest of choices when it comes to taxes and spending." the mayor ofed by danville and former senator tom periello. >> we're very honored to host the vice-president of the united states, joe biden. a more formal introduction will follow. before i can continue, would all

elected officials stand it or wave your hand? thank you for being here. we are a determined city, a city in transition from the old to the new economy. a city and region that has a megapark that will house thousands of jobs. a citand region with wonderful people, great families, great work ethic, and people who are successful, who are vigor for a successful future. we invite businesses all over the world to come take a look at us. we believe you will like it here. when you come, please bring your jobs with you. [cheers and applause] i am very proud to present to you a very dear friend, a hard- working former congressman, one who knows our city and our region well.

one who helped us with several major development projects, most notably our roberson bridge, which is now open. this project alone at, our friend,to danville $28 million. >> good morning, danville. it's great to be here with one of danville's greatest products, mayor saunders. i was proud to work with him on some economic development

products and decreasing violence. it was good to see that bridge being built, as he mentioned. this institute is the heart of innovation in southern virginia. the heart of learning. it is a statement that danville never quits. danville's best days are still ahead and it has never given up. i cannot help but see another great danville product recently, david wilson tearing it up in the preseason for the giants. [applause] i know that despite him having made it to the prose, his parents are still proud public school teachers here in the community. we have any teachers here today? [cheers and applause]

i am proud to have the honor of introducing a man who understands communities like danville, came from the steel towns of pennsylvania and knows something about communities that have had been times and tough times and understands the pride of communities never quits. he is here today as he has been before, because he believes in this community and communities like it across america. he lived the american dream, did not grow up with a lot, but made it to the u.s. senate, where he did so much, because he knew that there was a responsibility when he had made it to work to assure the american dream for so many others. when he and barack obama came through danville and other areas in 2008 that made a promise that they would wake up every day thinking about communities like this. i think that is what was on

their minds when they made a decision that they were not going to let the u.s. automobile industry die on their watched. asking a question about where you come from and whether you get it, mitt romney road about he would have let the automobile industry go bankrupt. when you have spent time in communities without manufacturing traditions, that's not your gut instinct. sometimes it is a matter of what happens right in your gut. they said that's not point to happen on our watch. it's not just detroit that's roaring back. if we feel that right here at the goodyear plant down the road. it was down 1600 jobs when they came into office and is now up to 2100 jobs and is moved from an eight-hour shift to a 12-hour shift. the leadership to be able to stand up and make that happen. that's what this election is about. whether we will build an economy that works for all americans, or just a few. and whether we will have a democracy that represents all americans or just the richest few? this is that choice. [cheers and applause]

i don't mind that mitt romney is an incredibly wealthy man. what i minded the idea that he wants to raise your taxes and cut his own. [boos] what romney himself called independent third-party analysis says the middle class taxes are going to go up to thousand dollars under mitt romney's plant. -- $2,000 under romney's plan. what he is going to get is a $4.5 million tax cut for himself. if you think about a police officer working here, they would have to work 618 years to make the same amount mitt romney made just in 2010. that was a year that he bragged about the fact he was unemployed. so we have a question of values. i think there's no better way to understand the value of a president or president of candidates than to see who they

pick as their vice presidential candidate. i know you all are here to see the big man speak, but i served with paul ryan, so i have to take a quick second. [laughter] this -- one thing i will say is true, paul ryan is absolutely one of the leaders of this congress. this is paul ryan's congress that has a 9% approval rating from the american people. this is paul ryan's congress that wants to cut benefits to seniors and veterans in order to give an even bigger tax cut to the highest earners. won so big that it makes president bush blushed. this is paul ryan's congress that decided to vote itself a five-week vacation without passing a farm bill when our agricultural communities are on tough times. congressaul ryan's that refused to work with the president on a bipartisan budget deal that could have gotten us out of this mess.

it's paul ryan's congress that has refused to act on the president's jobs bill for over a year while doing all these symbolic measures. he wants to take us back to an era where being a woman is considered a pre-existing condition in our health care coverage. [applause] i think it is possible mitt romney is the only perso in america who looked at the way this congress is behaving and said i want the brains behind that operation. [laughter] [cheers and applause] if the choice of paul ryan tells us more than we ever wanted to know about mitt romney, then the decision to make this next man vice- president tells us the world about barack obama.

[cheers and applause] this is quite simply a question of whether you get it. a question of whether you wake up in the morning understanding the struggle of the working and middle-class. jill biden and i came from the same faith tradition, a tradition that says love is the greatest amendment. -- joe biden. and it is what we do with our life that matters. our deeds. here's a man that fights for the middle class, fighting to make sure everyone has access to the american dream, no matter what zip code you are born in. if you work hard and play by the rules, you'll have a chance to make it in this country. [cheers and applause] it's my great honor to introduce to you a tried and true champion of the middle class, and advocate for the american dream, and the conscience of our nation's capital, and our vice president of the united states, joseph biden.

[cheers and applause] >> hello, danville! [cheers and applause] hello, folks. how are you?

thanks for being with us. i am looking at the future up their. -- there. it's all about stem education. i'm sure a couple of nobel laureates are up there. i'm not kidding. it's great to be backed in danville. mayor, thank you for letting me come back in. thanks for the passport. you get invited once and that's ok. get invited back, and that means he does not know any better. [laughter] i'm just kidding. look at the shape this man is

in. when he squeezes my hand, i feel like he's putting me in a vice. how about tom? [cheers and applause] this is one of the smartest guys we ever dealt with. ladies and gentlemen, i stood backstage and listened to the speech. he made it. tommy, you have said it better than i have heard anybody say it before. i am i ugly repetitious and not nearly as convincing as tom. i hope you will forgive me. -- i am midly repetitious. folks, now that governor romney has elected congressman ryan, the differences will be even more stark. this is a decent man.

as is romney. i mean that sincerely. tom and i have the same faith background and come from the same school of politics that you recognize what is good in your opponent as well as what you disagree with them on. i mean this sincerely. none of this is personal. none of this is personal. but it is critical. congressman ryan is now giving a deposition to governor romney's vague commitments that he's been making in the last year. congressman ryan and his congressional republicans, as one person said, have already done what the governor romney is promising he will do for the nation. so this is one of those rare cases.

it's almost like running against an incumbent. everybody knows what we stand for and what we want to do. we are making it clear as we can make it. but in a strange way, picking congressman ryan, leader of the republican party, a man who all the republicans have said, and it's true, is a real serious guy with serious ideas. they embraced them all. so we know now. before, governor romney had a tendency to peter ambien vague or change his position a lot -- to be vague or change his position a lot. so this is a good thing for the country that we have this stark choice. we know for certain what i have been saying for some time. there is no real distinction between what the republican congress has proposed and what governor romney plans to do. and the american people have already had a glimpse of the ryan congressional republican

budget and they rejected it. they have seen it. the polling data and the special election races, they saw it and they said that is not the place we want to go. at least it is my view that the overwhelming majority of americans are going to say that is not the place, that is not the path i want to go. i believe they will reject the governor romney and congressman ryan for attempting to impose that vision on the american people. ladies and gentlemen, they are both good man, as i said, but they have fundamentally flawed judgment. they call their plan bold and gusty. it is bold. i do not get what is gutsy about gutting medicare to pay for that.

that is not new. that is not new. it is not fair. it is not fair to the working class and it will not grow this economy. we have seen this movie before and you know how it ends. it ends in the great recession we inherited. it ends in the catastrophe for the middle class. when the president and die, when we took these offices, we said we have a different way forward. we don't think you grow the economy from a millionaires down. i come from a wealthy state, delaware.

i have never run in my state playing the populist dream about wealthy people are bad and poor people are good. i know as many patriotic people as a note patriotic poor folks. what i do not know is how ryan and romney view the middle class. we think the way you rebuild this country is you grow it from the middle class out the old-fashioned way, not from millionaires down. my dad, who may be a lot like you when things changed in the 1950's, he had to leave to find a job. that is how i got down to wilmington, delaware. my dad used to have an expression. he is to say, "a job is about a

lot more than your paycheck. it is about your dignity. it is about respect. it is about the sense of yourself and your place in the community. it is so much more than a paycheck." all that you know at least one , two, or more. all across america, through no fault of their own, they have been stripped of their dignity. they did nothing wrong. they showed up every day. they produced what the were supposed to do. they paid their mortgage on time. they paid their bills. they will up one day and found, i am in trouble. how many of you know someone --

i mean this sincerely -- who went to bed last night staring at the ceiling and wondering, am i going to be able to sleep in this bed under this roof two months from now? am i going to be able to make it? how many of you know a couple who said, you teller, you have to tell her. who is going to tell her that she cannot go back to school next year because we cannot afford it. you know people like that. i know people like that. the longest walk is a short walk up a flight of stairs to a child's bedroom to say, i'm sorry. you cannot go to george washington high school anymore because daddy lost his job.

mommy lost her job. with the bank said, we cannot live here anymore. you did nothing wrong. your house is worse off less than you paid for. my dad made that walk when i was in third grade. it wasn't tragic but i remember it. we are living at my grandfather's house in scranton. my sister used to be three years younger and now she is 20 years younger. she looks 20 years younger and she is twice as smart. i guess those things factor in. not one woman in history that has been older than any man in the biden family. my dad said, "dad is going to move away from a year."

he is going to wilmington. 157 miles. you might have said he was going to the moon. "i will try to come every weekend. i will get a good job and i'll bring you down and it will be ok." my dad believed it was going to be ok. he convinced me to believe it. it was a tragic. i realize he made a longer walk. he walked into my grandfather i's pantry and said -- my dad was a proud, graceful man. i cannot imagine what it was like to say, "i need a favor. keep jean and the kids for a year. i promise i'll pay you back."

you know people who have made that walk. some of you may have made that walk. the president was generous enough to ask me to join him. i asked him a question. i said, you do me what you say about the middle class? -- you really do mean what you say, right? we both kid about it. we have shorthands. we want to be able to do our overwhelming objectives. a parent to say to the child, "it is going to be ok." i live in a nice house and i do very well. some people do not believe they can say, "honey, it is going to

be ok." that is what we want to restore, dignity to the middle class. help them keep their child and community college in school. protect themself from the risky financial schemes like credit default swaps and these other creative financial instruments. give tax breaks to companies who stay home and come home, not to those who go abroad. [applause] you are a piece of that. you have a piece of outsourcing here. "governor romney pioneered at bain." everybody wants to be a

pioneer, but i did not want to be on that wagon train. [laughter] when i first said that, the campaign came back and said, it is obvious vice president biden does not know the difference between of shoring and outsourcing. -- offshoring and outsourcing. can you picture two pitches at the unemployment line? what difference does it make to a man who lost his job? this guy does not get it. they do not get it. they did not get it. it is almost a basic. the progress we were making has slowed down.

it did not stop it. in spite of governor romney, we still went out and rescued the automobile industry. we saved a million jobs and created 200,000 good-paying union jobs that people can make a living on. where is it written that the united states will not lead the world again in automobile manufacturing? where is it written that we cannot do that? general motors is now the largest auto manufacturer in the world. we passed the toughest wall street regulation in history. wall street has been the greatest allocator of capital in the history of mankind.

it that turned into a casino. we put back rational rules. we improved education for the average american for less than 1% of what the nation spends on education, we have encouraged 45 states to raise their standards to better educate our children. you have some examples up there. we expanded by 3 million people the number of kids from working-class families who have a grant to attend college. the so called pell grants. 3 million more qualified kids in college today. [applause] we kept faith. we kept faith. with returnign warriosrs like my son and others coming back from iraq afghanistan with health

care and better education and finding jobs. we provided tax cuts and incentives for businesses to hire vets, which they fought against for the longest time. we cut taxes for small businesses to help them grow and they say they love small business. we help millions of families to modify their mortgages, saving them thousands of dollars a year. we also got bin laden. [cheers] let me correct that. the president of the united states and the special forces got bin laden. [cheers] i go to democratic rallies and

democratic events and the democrats will say to me, why can we get down to a bumper sticker or stand for? i said, i have a bumper sticker for you now. "osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive." that is a bumper sticker. it sums it all up, doesn't it? we are about a lot more than bumper stickers. we are about education. a priority to couple community colleges to prepare works for fair wages for decent jobs. jobs even romney can't outsource. 4.5 million private sector jobs in the face of the catastrophe

we inherited. the fastest growth since the 1990's. but that is not enough. there is a lot of people still hurting as a consequence of this recession we inherited. mitt romney says they are running to restore the dreams and the greatness of this country. what they did not say is the claims the congressman voted for and the governor supported put america's greatness in jeopardy. how do they think we got in this spot in the first place? what do they think happened? was it casper the ghost? [laughter]

who did it? how'd it happen? we were doing just fine. we had a budget surplus. we were paying down our debt and the middle class was thriving. eight years later, how did it happen? ladies and gentlemen, what they did not say is that that month in january have lost so far 750,000 jobs. before we were sworn in. >> that is right. >> we inherited. he got handed a trillion-dollar deficit for that year.

for that year. already $1 trillion in the whole. the middle class have lost $16 trillion in wealth collectively in the equity in your homes. the thing you were counting on. maybe to have some money in retirement. be able to help your mother and father. may be to send your kid to school after high school. evaporated. gone. done. these guys say they care about the middle class. [boos] my dad had another saying and i have been saying this for 20

years. my dad was the consummate host. nobody could say anything wrong in my house. some say, let me tell you what i value. my dad would say, do not tell me what you value. show me your budget and i will tell you what you value. do not tell me about your women in the workplace and do not hire any woman. let's take a look because now we have a clear picture. we have a clear picture of what the they value. look at what they know that you can look at the budget. romney said he will let the big banks are write their own rules. unchain wall street.

they will put you back in chains. they said they will do nothing about stopping the process of outsourcing. the voted down a proposal to give it tax breaks. they get a tax break for that. we will give a tax break to any company in singapore that brings the back to danville. that is not going to change the world. but they voted against it. unopposed as -- romney opposes it. i did not get these guys. they make massive cuts in medicare throwing 19 million people in distress off of medicaid including 1 million

seniors, roughly 75% of whom are women. how did the think these people in nursing homes are there/ 75% of those elderly persons in medicare in homes. they are there because of medicaid. doesn't seem to be a problem for them all. they made massive cuts in social security for the next generation. you'll get $2,700 less if you're in your 40's. that is how they are going to save the economy. allow me insurance companies to write the rules. "you have cancer. you have hit your limit. you're on your own."

"we can charge you more because you are a woman." you would think i was making this up. that is what they are proposing. they wanted to turn medicare into a voucher system. [boos] they will tell you you not be affected but we're waiting to get these next guy's coming. come on, man. this is not on the level. in my neighborhood, nobody minds chipping in. i heard a congresswoman up in north dakota say, everybody has different obligations.

she said, if you were sitting in church and because of the heavy snow and the roof collapses, you don't expect the janitor in the department store to pay as much as the owner of the department store to fix the roof. janitors do not mind contributing. everybody knows it have to beat in on the deal. you hate being played for a sucker. the american people know they are being played for a sucker. it is all and the service of maintaining the bush tax cut for the wealthy, the top 1%.

these are the facts. tom knows these side down and inside out. $800 billion of the tax cut. $800 billion will go to people with a minimum income of $1 million. $400 billion will go to 120,000 households. $400 billion going to 120,000 household while we cut medicaid, while we cut education, while we cut infrastructure. on top of that, romney comes along as does the congressman and says, we need an additional tax cut for the job creators. i'm serious.

we need an additional $1.6 trillion for the job creators. i said they are good people and they'll do not need this. this is a big price tag for the middle class. the nonpartisan tax policy center put out the price and said it was awful high. they said if the tax policy comes into law, the average middle class family with children will see a $2,000 increase in their taxes to pay for this. and he calls the president out of touch? how many of you have a swiss bank accounts? [laughter] raise your hand.

hold ethem high. hey, man, how many of you have significant millions of dollars -- we do not know how much -- invested in the cayman islands? oh, man. you guys are out of touch. how many people think you can run for president of united states and not let the american people know what your tax returns are? [applause] this is not even mitt romney's father's republican party. this is a different party. not bad, different. i have more to say but i am

saying too much already. these guys get me going and you will have trouble translating all this. she'll have tendinitis' by the time she is finished with this. let me try to sum it up. president and i have a different vision for america. raising its tenants for elementary and secondary education. making sure there is still health to get to college. keep in the 2500 tax credit to send your kids to school. maintaining the pell grants. we are the leading manufacturer in the world. we see an america where my granddaughter has the exact same rights as my grandson in every single way.

[applause] we see an america where women get paid the same as men for doing the same work. we see a country when you get crews the ill you did not have to go bankrupt to take care of yourself. we see a social security system protected. medicaid is available for people in distress. that is why we strengthen the program, extended it by eight years and we did without cutting a penny in benefits. we see an america where all we maintain the only sacred obligation of the government and that is to care for those who come back, the veterans that come back. we see an america where no

millionaire place at a lower rate than the average middle class person. we see a nation with the middle class tax cuts get cut and everybody pays their fair share when the middle class is no longer played for a sucker. look, the fact of the matter is that as the president said, this is a make or break moment for the middle class in america. literally. it is clear. no one could question what the parameters of this debate are. i haven't even talked about foreign policy. i haven't talked about these dyes that want to keep 35,000 troops in iraq and want to disagree with nato and turn responsibility over to the

afghans. i haven't talked about what the supreme court will look like after four years for civil- rights and civil liberties for four years of a romney administration. i have not talked about so much. i will end with this. presidential elections are an almost every circumstance decided by the voters on one overarching question -- does the man or woman i'm going to vote for have the character of their convictions? do they mean what they say and do what they say? [applause] ladies and gentlemen, on that score, this isn't even close. the reason we will win is my buddy, my friend has it back a lot like a ramrod -- has a

backbone like a ramrod. [applause] he is made the most difficult decisions since roosevelt and lincoln. he is never put his political fortunes ahead of what he thinks is right for the country. i have watched him stay with his position and not waffle. this man has more character in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. ladies and gentlemen, you have to help us. we got to finish what obama started. we have to finish this recovery. -- to stand with us. we need to go out there and make sure that with you, we can win north carolina again. if we do, we win the election.

god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting] >> four more years. four more years. zweibel cover president obama tomorrow, another chance to see the vice president's remarks at 8:00 p.m. all this week, looking at some of the vast -- past luncheon speeches. today, alec baldwin talking about funding for education. on wednesday, u.s. airways ceo doug parker. thursday, jim can tory and on friday ken burns. and then an encore presentation of a "q&a."

rachel libert looking at toxic drinking water in north carolina joined by marine master sgt ensminger all this week on c- span2. next up, remarks from the first geologist to hold the job at the nuclear regulatory commission. this is about one hour. >> ok. we will get started this morning. i am the editor of ihs news daily. thanks for coming out to this in our series of press breakfasts with energy policy makers. we are pleased to welcome alison mcfarlane, the chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission, to her first extended meeting

with the press since taking office. she served on the blue ribbon commission for america's nuclear future created by the obama administration to look for alternatives to the yucca mountain waste depository. in 2006, she published a book about yucca mountain about technical issues about the site, suitability for disposing nuclear waste and previous to that she was an associate professor of environmental science at george mason university and held a post at georgia tech as well. we will have a few remarks from chairman macfarlane.

please identify yourself before asking your question. thank you. >> things. thank you, george, very much. it's nice to be here. it's nice to come down to the press club and had a chance to chat with you all. i think george mentioned that my background is as a geologist from mit eons ago. interested andn involved in policy development, especially around nuclear issues. i was on the blue ribbon commission on america's nuclear future where we develop a strategy for dealing with nuclear waste and disposing of it. >> can you pull the microphone towards yourself? >> is that better? >> much. >> i have published fairly extensively on nuclear waste and energy issues.

let me first tell you that we're very much focused right now on fukushima and the lessons we have learned from fukushima, most recently, last tuesday we had a commission meeting where we learned about the progress of our staff on dealing with these issues. we also heard from intervenors from the industry and a concerned public. it was a very good discussion with an excellent q&a with the other commissioners. i thought it went very well, for those of you were able to see it. in general, we're working towards developing actions out of the fukushima lessons learned in that will enhance the safety of the existing nuclear facilities.

right now, the nrc is in the process of working on four current actions that you maybe aware of. first of all, to require -- the first of the orders requires that reactors have additional portable equipment to ensure that they can continue to operate in the event of a loss of offsite power. that additional equipment should be both on and off site. and both of those requirements are there. the second order that was issued had to do with adding additional instrumentation to the polls that housed the spent nuclear fuel to ensure that we know at all times the water levels in those polls and additional things about what's going on. the third order has to do with just the boiling water, mark one

and mark to reactors. that asks the reactors to either prove or install hardened vents to help control heat in the event of an accident. in addition to those three orders, we have also sent a letter inquiring about flooding walk-downs' to understand better the flooding risk at the plants and start working on addressing that. they're required to update the seismic hazard analysis. in general, we also have some more activity. the near-term task force at the nrc that has looked at the fukushima accident developed a

number of recommendations and we're working through them. i just discussed the ones that are actively happening right now, but we're also in the process of looking at a number of what he may have heard of as a tier two and three potential activities. we have been working hard on those. the bottom line is we have to get this right. we have learned a lot from what happened that fukushima. we want to continue to work on that. in terms of my goals for the agency, a one to share a few of them with you. -- i want to share. i have four in particular i would like to share. my first goal is to continue the nrc's mission especially in light of what happened at

fukushima in insuring the existing fleet of nuclear reactors and facilities continue to operate safely. is to ensuresion public health and safety and to protect the environment. that will be my number one goal. my number two goals, again, is somewhat related to its fukushima but also related to my background as a geologist. it is looking at the intersection of geology and nuclear energy. there are a number of issues there and this is highlighted by the events at fukushima. it was also highlighted to me personally by this experience personally by this experience last