ill give you a voucher. they will say to your mom, hey mom, here's a coupon. that's what it is. you can get a coupon. it is worth x amount of dollars and no matter how sick you get, when you hit that number you're finished. the congressional budget office a year and half a go looked a that the proposal and they said it would cost the average $6,500 more a year to get the same health care they are getting now. where are they from? i'm being serious. where are they from? what don't they understand about this country? what don't they understand about all those deseptember americans who paid their whole life, who built this country, who fought in wars, where do they think a

75-year-old is going to get another $6,500 to get the same health care they have now. ladies and gentlemen, we have a totally different view. we strengthen medicare, we have a plan to make it work all the way. we've expanded, extended and paid for the changes in medicaid. look at what they do in education in terms of the middle class. their budget the same budget they are fighting look the devil for an i bet across the way the silver el fans are making the case about this -- elephant are making the case about this. they slashed early education. 30,000 kids are go toing be thrown off of head start. 29,000 teachers, staff for special education, lose their

jobs. because of jim's leadership we went from 6 million to 9 million kids in pell graptss. how is that not good for america? [applause] in college, they are cutting. as emily knows my jill, we're big fans of emily, jim is ok but we like emily. we had the honor of having emily at the house. my wife teaches full time. she teaches 15 credits a semester with no help. [applause] that's why she's not here with me tonight. jill has an expression. any country that out educates us will out compete us. jim can tell you. he can tell you as his days as a teacher an a leading democrat on

this issue. all that education gap they talk about, all that gap it exists before the kid steps into the first classroom. so that's why the president proposed at the state of the union that every child in america have access to pre-k. we found with all the studies at your great universities here, everybody, democrat, republican, independent, every study shows that to give a kid a front end, a solid start when they are 5 years old, it increases the prospect they will graduate. it increases the prospect they won't get in trouble or be arrested. it increases the prospects of them making it through. that's why we extended pell grants. that's why we continue to call for and keep the $2,500 tax

credit for middle-class families. that's why we set a goal we're going to reach that once again will lead the world in the highest percentage of college graduates. when people i say that to say don't we already. do you where we're at? we rank 17 out of all the countries, we used to be number one. how can we win the competition of the 21st century if we don't change that? ladies and gentlemen, republicans talk about the middle class and how they care about us. they care about safe neighborhoods how many time do you hear them talk about safe neighborhoods? why did they cut the crime bill? money for cops. why did they zero it out? because of the recession we inherited.

mayors and county executives we've laid off over 15,000 local law enforcement people. they were on the street and they are gone. surprise, surprise crime is up. surprise we have a problem. they eliminated it. republican budget cuts 4,800 federal agents. 3,500 prison guards. that means you have to early release convicted demroins. they are telling me they are going to make the neighborhood i grew up in safe center we have a different idea. we want to give the cities and counties the cops the support they need. look at what is going on. when you ran the f.b.i. through your sub committee the only part they dealt with was cross state theft of automobiles and a few

other things. these are the same guys the numbers have been increased much and they have to deal with what? a big chunk of their time is dealing with terrorism. it is a whole new responsibility and these guys cut the resources an tell you how much they care. they care about keeping your neighborhood safe but the first respopeders you need -- responders infrastructure. roads bridges, highways, ports manufacturing, what does republican budget call more? no money. they call to shift jobs overseas, which you guys know about because of the job you have lost. training people who lost those jobs for new industries and high-tech jobs. my father, everyone wonders --

barack talks so much about me being from scranton. my dad after the war did not have a job, could not raise his family. so in hard times you went looking for jobs so we moved down where to where my uncle was in delaware. we came up every weekend. he found a good job, brought us down. from that time on, my brothers and my sister, if we heard once we heard 50 times, every time you hear about someone losing a job. he would use the following expression a job is a lot more about a paycheck, it is about you dignity, it is about your respect, your sense of your self-worth in your community. i don't think these guys

understand that. it is not just a paycheck. it is about who we are. it is about being able to hold your head up being able to care for your family. you can't do that without being able to make a deseept wage with a deseent standard of living. that's why we push in the beginning to bring manufacturing back home. we created 500,000 new manufacturing jobs over their objections. that's why we're proposing to bring tax cuts to those companies that bring jobs home not go aprod. there is 600,000 high-tech jobs that remain open today. why? we don't have the trained personnel for them. that's why with jim's leadership we're connecting businesses, community colleges and saying tell us what you need.

there's a great new big plant in michigan. hiring all kinds of people, deseent wages. open up a new facility, why because we have the best universities and the best community colleges in the world so we're training them. these guys voted against that, they try to eliminate all the programs. these are good desent paying jobs. no one knows better than fritz and jim and others who served. nobody knows that better than folks in south carolina. you understand we have to upgrate -- upgrade our infrastructure why we have to

invest in the port of charleston. the panama canal has been widened. you have these massive ships coming through now. guess what? most of the ports on the east coast can't accommodate them but if they can, it's real job, real money, reag dignity returned to people. so folks jim, and i probably have -- god knows how many conversations, i promise you i'm going to get you money for the port of charleston. this guy is releaptless. i mean it. why, at the end of the day, folks this is the reason i love this guy. it is all about courting people with the dignity they deserve and that means a fighting chance to have the decent job.

i know you have heard how china is going to eat our lunch. give me a break. give me a break. take just a second. there's an you fit that pointed out basic that you've been saying for a long time. american workers, south carolina workers are three times as productive as any workers in china. that is a fact. that is a fact. american workers american entrepreneur american companies are more innovative than any country in the world. how many times have you heard graduation speeches of someone saying since the mid 1990's china produces six time as many engineers as we have. they do. name me one product they brought

to the international market. name me one innovative change they made. why? in order to innovate you have to challenge the orthodox. you have to challenge what went before and you can't do that in a country that does not allow you to breathe free and speak openly. that's what makes us who we are. that's ma what makes us who we are. i don't have a doubt in my mind that we'll continue to be the world's leading economy in this decade and beyond and put this in perspective. we want the chinese economy to grow. when i was in china, i have a relationship with the president. three years ago say said they wanted me to get to know the vice president who is now the

president. i spen 10 days with him. i had to go to china after our national rating was downgraded. i went to china and they talked about how we might come back. i stood in the great hall of the people with the president of china and said we appreciate your concern but there's no need for you to come and do that anywhere it is not a problem. i said because you you own 1% of all financial instruments in this country. let me we are mind you it is never, never been a good bet to bet against america. why, because we have the strongest middle class in the world. on taxes i've been going on for a long time about the republicans.

the republican budget is more of the same. protecting tax breaks for the wealthy. i thought we've been there before pe we saw that movie before. we know how it ends but in their budget they call for continuing a $4.5 billion for oil companies that who made over $19 billion in profit. they continue. they call for a new tax cut. you won't believe this. they are calling for a $245,000 average tax cut for people making more than $1 million. that's what they are calling for. no. folks we've had a enough of this. this got us in the economic mess in the first place. the last thing, i have always have to bring the bad news because always at the end to negotiate the fiscal cliff

deals. [laughter] well the last one was a bad deal. we insisted that people at the top bracket when the bush tax cut expired go back to what they were paying for. not as a punishment, i met with c.e.o.'s and they agreed the number should go. it cut our deficit by $600 billion. folks, look, draconian cuts on the middle class and elderly, why do they do it? people say joe, it is hard to believe this is what they are proposing. in order to provide for the massive tax cuts to corp. prilt america and very wealthy that's the only way they can do it other than ballooning the deficit more than they already

have. that's why they talk a it the way they do. that's why they call for these cuts in the middle class. they talk a lot about deficits. let me talk a what my president and the congress has done. we reduced the deficit over the next 10 years by $2.5 trillion. $2.5 trillion. the proposal is to gain another $1.5 trillion. [applause] the difference is we do it fair. congressman will tell you. that will get us to the magic number. every economists you talk to will tell you if you get debt to g.d.p. below 3% that's when things take off. that's exactly what the president's proposal will do, it will get it down to 2.1% of g.d.p. you don't have the break the back and spine of the middle class to make this country grow.

the only way you can make it grow is give it a chance. folk like you i believe in the future of this country. some people say i'm an optimist. like i'm the new kid in the police station. i'm optimistic for simple reasons, i know the history and journal of this country. never has the american people when governor an even chance -- when given an even chance has never let us down. just give them a fighting chance. you know you can't be out competed they can't outinnovate us, you can't outproduce us. no country in the world has the capacity to do that. they really don't. both our business enterprises

our entrepreneurs or american people, how productive they are. let me conclude by saying, one of the things that bothers me most about the new republican party is how down on america they are. how down on our prospects they are. how they talk a how we're getting clobbered. they talk a things that have no relationship to reality. all in the name of making sure that the very few at the top do very well. they are not bad guys. they believe it. they actually believe that if you free up completely, the top 1% somehow this will trickle down. it never has. it never will. my republican colleagues talk about us being in a decline, let me remind them, it's never every, in the history of this

country been a good bet to bet against the american people. look folks, the middle class is coming back, the american people are coming back, the country is coming back and i'm absolutely positive -- absolutely positive, not because of barack obama and joe biden but because of the nature of the american people. we con to give them half a chance we will maintain our otherses the dominant economy in the world. quite frankly, in order for us to do what the world needs done we need to be the dominant economy. that's the only thing they allows us to do what we do in our foreign policy and our national security. folk as my grand pa would say keep the faith. we're coming back south carolina is coming back and america is on its way back. god bless you all and may god

protect our troops. thank you very much. [applause] >> it was a small airport in the 1920 apspp they establish d a training base during the second world war and it was an active base until after the second world war end d and it closed and everybody left pp the little town of yrvingsurvingsmrvingsarvings had a small population because there was no construction going rks tour ism was not establish d yet pp the town had not a bright

future pp every time the flight would be mentioned they would say arizona and get people interested in reactty vating the base. they had another major problem and it was hot. it is really hot here. people said you're not going to try this. oh yeah, we'll go up 2,000 feet and it is cool here. it took months to get the planes ready but they took off on the 24 of august and they did not touchdown until late october. >> this weekend the history and

life of yuma, arizona. >> two former senate budget chairman talked about the national debt at a meeting of the investment company institute. they agreed that a deal on deficit reduction is possible. this is just under an hour. >> the annual membership meeting. my name is greg johnson and for almost two years i've had the pleasure and honor as serving as the chairman. i'm here this morning to moderate this discussion with two well-known budget experts. they also happen to be admired

former u.s. senators. please join me in welcoming two former senators of the budget committee, senator kept conrad and senator judd gregg. [applause] welcome, gentleman. senator conrad played a vital role in shaping our nation's fiscal policies during his 26 years in the senate. senator judd gregg also played a vital role over the last two decades. his deep knowledge of banking issue's derivative reform has positioned him as a key person on the reform.

he served four terms as a u.s. representative for new hampshire and one term as the state's governor. he was chairman of the budget committee. he was a member of the senate banking committee. both senators were on the national commission of reform and strong opponents of the simpson bowles plan. it was modeled after legislation introduced after conrad and gregg so our guests know that plan pretty well. senator con rand is going to lead off our discussion followed by remark from senator gregg. after that i will pose questions about tax reform. senator conrad. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you very much for the opportunity. i thought i would run through a couple of quick slides to put things in some perspective then judd is going to have a chance for a few moments and we'll go to the questions from our host. this first slide puts in some perspective from a long-term perspective the revenue and spending relationship since 1950 as you can see on the slide. the red line is the spending line, the green line is the revenue line. you can see why we have big deficits. we have a big gap between the two. that gap has narrowed somewhat in the last couple of years. still, we have about $1 trillion difference between the two. you can see that spending is pretty close to a 60-year high

and revenue close to a 60-low. so i would conclude from that we have a spending and a revenue problem. clearly, spending has to be brought down but also, clearly, we have to have some increase in revenue if we're going to meaningfully close this gap. that is important in light of the baby boom generation because they are going to put enormous pressure when they start to retire. that is not a projection. they will be ready for medicare and social security. this is where we're heading in our gross debt as a result of the gross domestic product. this is the latest projection. our gross debt is over 100% of the gross domestic product and is headed to higher in 2022.

when you reach gross debt in the g.d.p. you're in the danger zone you're at the beginning of what could lead to an unsustainable situation. even more striking is our long-term debt outlook. this is according to c.b.o. you can see, right in the middle there, the dotted line is where we are today. you can see by the previous slide that the gross debt is going up in the near term. even more striking is where we're headed over the longer term. this gives a course that is totally unsustainable. i don't know any serious data that we have to take meaningful action. there might be some that say we've got 7.5% unemployment according to the latest numbers

today. so we should not be taking austerity numbers now. i agree with them. we should not take immediate austerity now but we should do it over the longer term to get us back on track. next slide. this is what is happening to the discretionary side of the budget. under the budget control act that as a share of total spending and nondefense -- are going lower than we have seen in decades. in fact since the eisenhower administration. interestingly, the part of the budget being cut is the part of the budget that is already shrinking. here is the other side of the coin. this is the part of the budget that is really growing and growing dramatically and growing in a way i think is

unsustainable. this is medicare, medicaid and other federal health spending. again as a share of gdp, looking from 1972 to 1950, you can see in 1972 he were spending about one percent of our gross domestic accounts. we are headed to 12%. that is happening in a way that is -- i think most budget experts would say -- simply unsustainable. and yet we are doing very little to rein in the spending of the federal government. when you think of what has been done, it really makes almost no sense to read we are cutting the part of the budget that is shrinking, and we are not cutting be part of the budget that is growing very dramatically. if you look at the reasons why healthcare spending is growing so hermetically, the aging

population is the primary driver of medicare, medicaid and social security cost growth. yes, there is the effect of excess cost growth, that is the yellow part of this chart. but the real driver is the aging population. and that is coming to in 10 youtube and devil us unless we find ways to effectively address it -- that is going to continue to bedevil us unless we find ways to effectively address it. let me say one thing. i did not bring this slide. i think it is important to know. you saw on the spending and revenue slide, revenue is about 15.8% of gdp last year. if you look at the five times we have balanced the budget since 1960, revenue has been close to 20% in each of those years. my own belief is we have to get revenue in that range if we are going to have an overall package that gives us back on

track. to just put into perspective how little really needs to be changed in order to achieve levels of that size, i remind you, the president asked for $1.6 trillion i and revenue last year, but to put that in perspective, we will raise $37 trillion. at the same time speaker boehner was asking for 500 billion dollars cut from medicare. if you look at the federal health care accounts which is what he was asking to save us from, he was asking for a four .5% reduction -- 4.5% reduction

i and healthcare. we cannot do 4.5 %? we cannot do 4.5% sign -- 4.5% on revenue? of course we can do 4.5%. if we could, we would be on a sustainable path going forward and i believe all of us would have a sigh of relief and say job well done. we may not like some of the specifics. certainly there may be things we dislike. we would be on a path that puts america on a sustainable course. that will be a good thing for all of us. and here. -- thank you. [applause] >> thank you, kent. i like your first name by the way. a lot of people think i am greg judd. it works for me. he was famous for his slides. having slides whenever kent is

around is like trying to follow martha stewart with recipes. he probably depressed folks with the slides and he should because they are accurate. this country is on the course to fiscal insolvency bankruptcy. we are on a path where we are not that far from the metrics you see in europe and some of the most serious situations in europe. the differences we have a huge economy and we have a resilient economy and a flexible and resilient people. so we are not as in dire shape as europe, which has unfortunately locked down and a single currency but does not

work for countries with such diverse cultures. i am fond of quoting the statements made to bob zeller, the former head of the world bank, and he was talking to the former foreign minister of australia a few months ago. and he said, "you know the united states is one debt deal away from leaving the world out of its economic doldrums." and that is absolutely true. it is a very doable event. you are talking 4.5% adjustment in fiscal policy over 10 years. and in fact a significant amount of that is already done. about $2.5 trillion has already been put into the pipeline. we need about another $2.5 trillion. fixed the debt. erskine bowles and the former governor of pennsylvania was the chairman, a very active of this group -- a very active member of this group.

we were putting forward ideas or how you can do that accomplish these changes in fiscal policy. let me name three. i think it is important to talk of the solutions now that kent has outlined the problem so effectively. the three areas of concern are entitlements, and in the entitlements accounts, the pension accounts social security and medicare, and revenue. in the social security area, this is a totally solvable issue. kent and i, if we were to have a magic wand could sit down i do not think it would take more than a half an hour. we could put in place an effective solution for social security. the committee that we sat on did exactly that.

it only has a few moving parts. you have to change what you know as the bend point, which is a means testing event. you have to change the cpi which i give the president credit for proposing. that gets social security solvent. very doable. why is it not being done? politics basically. the second issue is medicare. this is where most of the money is. medicare has an unfunded liability of approximately $60 trillion. that is with the tea. -- with a t. if you take the net worth of america, most of which you folks manage, all are stocks, houses that is $55 trillion. medicare alone has an unfunded liability after you get through this tax that exceeds our net

worth of the nation. and that is why we are in areas trouble. medicare has to be fixed. this does not mean anything draconian. it does not mean tomorrow we have to push to pull off of health care or radically adjusted their system. what we have to do over a. of time, and this will not be fixed tomorrow -- the frugality or the attempts to give fiscal responsibility into our system to not require an immediate contraction. it means we have put in place a glide path over 5, 10, mean years that makes medicare sustainable, affordable and continues to be a good system. there are a lot of ideas. there is a consortium of 30 hospitals.

the mayo clinic. baylor. a are all over the country. there are studies within these consortiums that have shown they can do much better delivery at lower cost. take for example, total knee replacement. they concluded the price i need replacement in these very highly efficient hospitals, which are rightly regarded, berries from $2000 to $20,000, but the outcomes were the same. so they are using these statistics to try to drive outcomes at lower cost. and there is something called withholding approach they have proposed, which basically incentivizing healthcare providers to produce better results at lower cost. using the caret instead of the stick, which is what we use and federal government today. there are ways to get medicare directly aligned moving in the right direction. third is revenue. simpson-bowles, which we served

on, concluded that the revenue system just does not work. the system is massively complex. totally unfair. skewed for all kinds of reasons that has nothing to do with collecting revenue. it is incredibly efficient. we suggested the zero approach. we would dramatically reduce all deductions and exemptions. dramatically reduce them. we use the revenues from that of one point $1 trillion a year under simpson-bowles, we took $1 trillion and we will raise rates. at nine percent, 15%, 23 %. we took 100 billion dollars audit it a year and we reduced the debt. so the proposed debt reduction to get to a stable gdp to debt ratio -- $1 trillion of that came from changing the way we collect revenues.

creating growth basically. by having people invest not to avoid taxes, but it returns. this is what you folks do. you give people returns. we would like you to invest for return, not avoiding taxes. this is still very doable. and there are people who want to do it. chairman camp and the house at the ways and means to many and chairman backus and the finance committee. the finance minister of australia was saying america is one debt deal away from hitting the world out of economic doldrums. we are not that far away from getting that debt deal. i genuinely believe it could happen. i think that the debt is trying to push in that direction. remember, this is a big number.

we are talking 2.5 2.5 trillion dollars. that is a big number. it is not big in the context of a $40 trillion 10 year number. i think our economy is going to explode. we are going through a massive paradigm shift. we will have the least expensive energy in the world compared to our primary competitors in the industrialized world. energy prices float through the old economy and a positive way. on top of that, we are still the place where all be -- all the technology comes from. on top of that you have massive amounts of liquidity where you go to work. the key to all of this is the american people are ready to do things that create jobs and

prosperity. so really, i think our future is extraordinarily bright as a nation that think he can get this one issue behind us and hopefully we will, things will look very bright for us as a country. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, gentlemen for those opening remarks. i have been talking to some of my colleagues on the board. they have suggested a few questions for today's meeting. we talked about the challenges be country is facing and that we're working toward a solution and you you called it a doable solution. but like many of us that are frustrated with what has happened in washington, we have identified and probably no it has to be fixed, but you do not know we are getting there to fix it with the divisiveness in the current political debate. the question is, what do you think has to happen to get to that point where we can put together a doable plan.

to have the president have a drink with mitch mcconnell? >> you know about three weeks ago senator daschle and i were asked over to the white house to meet with the new chief of staff for the president. he was asking us that same thing. my advice to them was, look. you have a lot of lands that have been put out there. bowles-simpson is a good roadmap. i think it is the best that has been produced. you have others. senator domenici and alice rivlin had a proposal on the table. a lot of timing elements. what is needed now i think is to be eyeball to eyeball and have the president really pushing democrats and republicans, starting in the senate -- i think it was a mistake to start in the house. i think it is much more

difficult to do the deal in the house. i think it is much more possible to get it done in the senate. the president and the senate agree and then lay it on the doorstep of the house. i think the pressure would then build and we could get an agreement. i agree with virtually every word senator gregg said in his resignation. this is a doable deal, and it would be a profoundly positive thing for the country to get it done. >> i agree with everything ken says. let me just nuance it a little bit. you do not things -- you do not get things by in washington unless both sides are at the table. for the president, the potential of his presidency being sidetracked by a fiscal situation is distinct. it may not occur in his term, but it may occur right after his term.

either way it will reflect on his presidency. it is a legitimate need to get this issue of the debt under control. on the republican side the publicans actually want to do that as -- republicans actually want to do that as an act of government. i agree with ken. it has to start in the senate. i think speaker boehner has made that clear he is acceptable to that. he has said, i want to see something in the senate. i think this will come from a very strong group of members across the aisle that can't and i have worked with for years. it is a big group. i think it is 30 or 40 people. they want to do a deal. they understand the parameters. what they need is for the president to be in the room. i think the most positive thing

that has happened in the last few weeks is the president has engaged. his offer on cbi was huge. it was a major step. -- his offer on cbi was huge. he is meeting with republican members of the senate. probably getting a better reception from then then some of his own colleagues. external events tend to overtake a presidency. now he is focused on terrorism and boston and what is happening in serious and north korea. that takes energy away from the effort, but hopefully he can get engaged. rex thank you. the next one is around the sequester. government spending, cutting tens of billions in spending. senator conrad you call the sequester a blunt instrument

that cuts too much too soon in the wrong places. i think many of us may agree with that statement. that said, many in congress say the sequester is not such a bad thing given the spending reductions it is forcing? is there truth to that statement yet senator gregg i think we will start with you on that. >> i think it is supposed to be a forcing mechanism. when it starts to forces the question. obviously when it starts to grab defense spending and the faa people will try to find ways to get around this. at some point if it is not repealed it will face major contraction in areas that have already taken a hit. the purpose of it was to be replaced by thoughtful, restructuring of entitlement programs to get essentially the same serving rejig -- same savings with tax reform.

you know, you have two enforcement mechanisms. you have the debt ceiling coming at us now. the sequester continues to be the rusher in the back room that will force people into an agreement, i hope, on the bigger issue of entitlement reform. senator conrad? >> i agree with that entirely. it was designed to be a forcing mechanism. i think over time it will prove to be one, especially with the need to extend the debt limit. that creates an opportunity. the great thing about washington is opportunities keep coming around. shame on us if we do not take advantage of some of these opportunities to get the job done. but we would be so much better off if we took some more balanced approach, because so

far what we have been doing is just holding onto the discretionary side of the house and that is the part of the budget that is shrinking. how about addressing a part of the budget that is growing and growing dramatically over time? that would make some much more sense. i do applaud the president from putting chains cbi on the table. that is an absolute, absolute critical first step. i have colleagues of mine who do not want to do that. i would say to them, look. you say that you care deeply about those populations dependent on social security and medicare. i think we all care about this people. social security is going to be insolvent in 20 years. medicare is going to be insolvent, according to the trustees, in 10 years. so waiting simply makes changes to those programs mordred county and -- more draconian. if you care about those people, you are not doing anything's to

help them by waiting. by waiting, you make the solutions more ciccone and. it is a mathematical certainty. thank you. >> turning to retirement savings, an issue that affects our industry. in a department where everything is on the table and we have seen variations of this and simpson- bowles and president obama's recent budget in april, that contains two provisions that would undermine a key national priority of helping americans prepare for secure retirement. first there was the overall proposal to limit the number of tax exclusions and deductions to 28% and it places a dollar

cap on the savings and retirement savings account. we believe this would add confusion to our nation's retirement system and ultimately discourage employers from creating retirement plans and workers from contributing to the plans. given the time the crisis the media frequently talks about why do you think such caps keep getting proposed and do you agree with this approach? >> the answer is no. [laughter] i will let can't take it. -- i will let kent take it. i'm not sure about the antipathy of this administration to those plans. clearly there are policy people who want push back. it makes no sense to may. we should be doing everything we can to encourage savings as a culture. there was a time in 2008 were saving started to go up. now it is going back down. it is critical we have incentives for savings. the way to do it is to reform

the tax law completely so you do not have a 28% to that stability limit. and you do not have to worry about that. and then you eliminate a lot of the deductions and exemptions that do not work so well. >> i oppose the 28% when it was first proposed. largely for the reasons judge just gave. what we ought to do is have a fundamental reform of the tax system. i have never been a fan of these formulaic approaches to reform. because what that does is it misses the opportunity to do the actual reform. in bowles-simpson, we did lay out very clearly the strategy and plan to raise additional revenues. not by raising rates but lowering rates. we are spending one point $2 trillion in tax expenditures. we are spending more through

the tax system than we are through the appropriate accounts of the federal government. and there is not an economist, a serious economist out there that does not say you would be better off reducing tax expenditures, the ducting those expenditures and lowering rates. i do believe that would help trigger economic growth and vitality. it would be stunning in its effect. >> for our industry, we wrestle with what we should be doing on this issue. i think the system is in place. it could always be better. it could be tweaked. as far as retirement and how successful 401k is, it is really the best in the world. and yet he continued to be

attacked. what is better? it would be very difficult to go to the australian system and get that passed. how can we as an industry be advocates of a plan and push back on change more effectively working with congress? >> two words. organize and educate. i think the thing that is most affected with my colleagues is to approach them when they are back in their home states, home districts, and you get much more of their attention there than you can ever get here in washington. they are pulled in so many different directions. when they are home is when they have the best opportunity to get their attention and help them understand how these things all fit together. and also, look, if you can help persuade them of the

opportunity to get the country back on track, it makes all of these things infinitely easier. otherwise, we will get warned to death with proposals like the one you just described. we are infinitely better off if we do this comprehensively. >> i agree with that. you have to come back from main street to washington. we have tough times. we have the american public with security and houses as the result of 2008 and everything we went through. there is unquestionably a populist element within our society that is making hay out of that. i agree there has to be aggressive push back. i think there has to be a message going out now that the american advantage is tied to

the ability of the person on main street who wants to be an entrepreneur, is willing to take the risk to get a reasonably priced capital investment. and that advantage is undermined when you start to attack and arbitrarily try to penalize people because it is unpopular, people who represent part of the integrated system. we have always as a nation had this unique integrated system of financial and fiscal availability of debt and credit and capital. and it involves large entities. it involves middle sized entities. retail into these. -- retail entities. if you start to handicap sections of this were all of it i undermining their ability to be effective and get those

resources out to main street, then you undermine the prosperity of main street. i think there has to be an aggressive public all is the effort of folks in the asset management system, folks in the investment business, folks in the securities business, to educate the american people on how important the industry is to their jobs, to their livelihood on main street. i think it has to be aggressive. it has got to be done by a coordinated effort. >> i think senator gregg is surprisingly good today. [laughter] >> i flew in from new hampshire. all that fresh air. >> ok. let's turn to. frank. both of you were involved with that in the crisis of 2000 and eight. -- 2008. some would say it has not gone far enough. some would say it

has gone too far. what is your assessment of dodd-frank today? >> i would say some of both. i have dear friends and community banking. if you go to any one of their institutions today, they will cite you chapter and verse regulations that emerged that made no sense at all. i have seen what they are complaining about and it is impossible to deny their complaints. on the other hand, on the question of too big to fail, i believe this. i believe we have made progress if you are talking about individual institutions in normal times. in terms of producing risk. i fear that if we are in a circumstance in which there is systemic risk, i mean across

the broad front of financial institutions, that we would be right back at it. you know, if you had a very serious economic downturn triggered by -- let your imagination run wild here. if you are faced with a very significant downturn and cities were at risk. i believe we would be right back in the soup. >> i think that dodd-frank is a disaster. i think it is buzzing a contraction of credit. i think it is reducing our competitiveness as a nation. it is not accomplishing its purpose, each was to end too big to fail, to not put taxpayer dollars in a situation where they would be used for risky investment, and to protect the consumer. all of which could have been done without a to thousand 500- page these of legislation. it is a classic example of

congress -- it will have to be revisited if we will remain competitive on mainstream. we do not know how it will all shake out. we know that there is regulation. but the regulators are having huge problems on how to view it. so, we have to stand top of the regulators and tried to communicate with them what the practical aspects of their proposals are and what the unintended on sequences may be. it has to come back to the simple issue. is the guy and the woman on main street going to be able to get credit at a reasonable price, and is the risk to the system being successfully expanded? those should be the questions

that should be the test of all regulations. >> ok. thank you. turning to the fed and current policies with the open market committee that wrapped up its meaning and is continuing to grapple with the monetary policy and the quantitative easing the purchase of billions of dollars worth of bonds and mortgage securities -- i for one get concerned when it is a good thing for the market, because it implies this continues. how in your opinion, the direction of the fed, is this the appropriate measure for the federal reserve? >> can i quickly go back to how we got in this mess? my belief is we have very unusual circumstance with a

loose fiscal and monetary policy simultaneously. it is strange to have that. we did. that proviesdes a bed for bubbles to form. i'm concerned today. quantitative easing is part of it. loose fiscal continuing. still in recovery mode, relatively weak recovery. but we've failed to put together a longer-term plan that is credible to ptut onus on track. that raises risk of bubbles again. i would wish, if i could control

things that we do the fiscal policy sid,e put - -side -- side put in a structure that is sustainable. it would do wonders avoiding bubbles. on the monetary sid, th -- side, the timing becomes an exquisit challenge. - kent's -- >> kent is right. the key is getting the fiscal house in order. if we can get a path for debt, we will get growth. but how does the fed disengage in an orderly way that won't create inflation or an economic

problem? or force banks to put up reserves. i'm not sure we know = the answer. the chairman will say he now has these unique tools that allow him to get money out of the system in an orderly way. he can force banks into borrowing from him. maybe that will work. but the balnac -- fed's balance sheet has never been expanded like it has now. i know it has a dual charge of inflation and employment, but

to me, inflation is the priority. the fed is pumpinbg billions into the system. the balance sheet is $2 trillion over where it used to be. it's serious and i don't know the way out. i believe teh cha -- the chairman. those that went through 1978 i don't want to see that again. or what happens to the economy when volcker had to do what he did. shut it down. >> we go back to 2008, i believe the successive steps

averted a depression. i believe we were headed to depression. unprecedented action was required and bernanke will go down as a hero. >> he and paulson go down as saving the world. >> we're on the same path here. when do you transition? i agree, nobody knows. that is -- you know, it's at the transition points that mistakes are most often made. if you look at economic history, moments of transition are where mistakes are made. we hope the fed has an exw

quisite sense of timing. >> you can't print a lot of money without anything behind it. we're treading on both those grounds right now. how we address the mm -- we will do it well because we're a resilient nation. >> a positive development. energy independence. we can get oil from places that were not feasible. we could become a net exporter of energy. if we became energy independent how will that affect the

economy. >> uii could not have a happier circumstance. the state is more prosperous than anytime in our state. oil and agriculture. i took a friend to north dakota to look at investment opportunities. we met with the head of economic development. he told us they have drilled 2500 wells using fracking. they intend to drill 40,000. and already the production has doubled. we will see increasing dramatic increases in

production. i can't think of a better development for a nation's economy and our position in the world than moving to energy independence. we've gone from 60% dependence to 40% adnnd by 2030 we could e be largely independent. those concerned about fracking, there are places to be concerned. north dakota is not one of them. it's down two miles. there is a formation called three forks. it's down 4 miles.

the risk is when you pierce the water. concrete steel pretty good protection. you're down so far in terms of the oil that it isn't cause for concern. i know in new york or pennsylvania it's different. we need to do it to have this opportunity. they had two hits. one well producing 5,000 barrels a day, and the other 4800. this could be a game-changer. if it's as big as we think it will be, we will hasten our move

to energy independence. >> we have to figure out how to get it out of granite. >> i will try to end my brief talk. if you look at our problems, they're more solvable than the major industrial competitors. close to 2% of a debt problem. we have, however a paradigm shift in energy coupled with the face we have this liquidity and inherently entrepreneurial. china has a policy, one person supporting two parents and four grandparents.

demographics are horrible. india, 800 million live on a dollar a day. russia who has teh gun - -the -- the gun has the law. europe has a massive debt structreure they can't solve. it will give us such a huge advantage. invest right here. one final question, just -- you both have been involved on the state level. they have a set of challenges with underfunded liabilities and deficits. how do you think the

relationship between states and federal government plays out? >> a huge fight coming over medicaid. states that are fiscally solvent. we don't have a sales tax i think they send people money all the time. we're not paying for the patronages of illinois or california or new york. the bigger issue for all the states they are insisting on massive expansions it pays about 40% of the cost.

this will put states under huge pressure. the way that it translates to is that i can't put the money into my university system. the federal government says i have to spend it on medicaid. >> i can tell you that i was called and asked what my intention was with respect to bailing out a certain state that will remain unnamed. illinois. i said, forget it. we're not bailing out illinois, california or any state. if you look at the fiscal condition of the federal government we are not in position to avail anybody out. you think of the moral hazard.

what would happen if the states that have been responsible are asked to bail out states that have been less than responsible. talk about a formula for fiscal failure, that will not happen. >> we really do appreciate you senators being with us today. my take away is that we have been identified and fixable problem. we will take that as a positive. join me in thanking the senators. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> elected the latest unemployment figures and a report on improper refunds issued by the irs.

and the director of the university of maryland health and land securities center on emergency preparedness. washington journal, live on c- span. >> we believe that opening up the gate of our memory, we are bringing people closer together. , the human being that they can do. i think of those that will save lives. all these christians that save lives by risking their own. every one of them as a hero. >> where replace the memories of those that are still with us. with the records that no one can

forget these lessons. i ask you to think about how the historic slaughter and the suffering of the holocaust reflect the human disease that takes different forms. >> and bill clinton and the nobel peace prize winner marked the opening in washington d.c.. the national rifle association's annual meeting with nra executives chris cox. your questions with the world turned upside down.

politics war, history, religion, and culture. and on c-span 3, the birmingham of -- >> and madeleine albright said the u.s. could provide more support to syria and rebel groups without backing from the un. posted by the german national security project, this was just under an hour.

>> it is my pleasure to welcome madeleine albright. she's excited to take questions. tweet away all of your member cards. we are all about social media right now. secretary albright has been a beacon of the values all around the world. beyond that, she serves as a role model. she is the north star for strong national security policy. she reminds us that america is the indispensable nation not the only nation that makes a difference, but the one required to bring out of the other nations together. the first secretary of state to be a woman. there have been so many in her shadows. she is also not afraid to dive

in the political fights. she is knocking on doors, canvassing. she is ready to get into the dirt. that is what we all need to do to get the policies that we need. i have had the honor of her guidance because she serves on our advisory board. as a testament to the endurance of leadership, madeleine albright used to be the president for the center of national policy. having her today helps us bridge generations and brings our groups together. please join me in welcoming secretary albright. [applause]

>> good morning. thank you very much. it is very nice to be with all of you here this morning. i am truly an enthusiastic backer and i am pleased to participate in this conference. i am very happy -- i feel that it is rare in life that two projects are able to connect and work together. i am thrilled to be here thank you very much. i believe this partnership between the truman project is a marriage made in the think tank heaven.

the new partnership will enable all of us to focus even more on the truman project mission to support an active, progressive and successful american foreign policy. that cause is vital, not only for the united states, but for the world. i am delighted to see so many current and future leaders. president obama has recently embarked on a second term. secretary of state kerry has already traveled to the middle east and europe and asia. the defense secretary has been on the road nearly as often. given the existence of telephones and other modern conveniences, this much flying around may seem odd, but it does reflect the complexity of the current moment and the urgency we all feel about

finding solutions. the good news is that the president and his team began from a much more favorable position than they did four years ago. i said then that every new american president inherits headaches, but in mr. obama's case, he was asked to deal with the entire emergency room in the form of an international emergency crisis, two wars and the steepest decline in america's international standing since the anon. i think we have made steady progress. we have brought our combat troops home from iraq, where they never should have been in the first place. we have struck a blow after blow against al qaeda, weakening and scattering its support structure and eliminating osama bin laden. with help from our nato allies,

we ended 40 years of dictatorship in libya. the administration has used diplomacy to tighten multilateral sanctions against iran, whose leaders are increasingly divided and under obvious stress. our message is clear that iran will not be allowed to build or acquire nuclear weapons. mr. obama has also finalized trade agreements with south korea, panama, and colombia. and presided over a surge in u.s. exports that has increased in the number of private-sector jobs. obviously, much more has to be done. the truth is that with little fanfare, president obama has become the globe's most widely respected major national leader. many have commented on the president's cool demeanor and his ability to project calm.

this matters because panic is not helpful when one is walking on a high wire. like a tightrope walker, mr. obama is trying to make forward progress without tipping too far in one direction or another. this reflects less a personal choice than it does common sense. in our era, there is no perfect formula for shaping world events. there are dangers on every side and the watchword of the moment is balance. in syria, the administration wants to build pressure on president bashar al-assad to step down without paving the way for heavily armed extremists to fill the vacuum. in north korea, our leaders have pushed back firmly against the harsh rhetoric, a reassuring allies and enlisting help at the same time as leaving the door open to some kind of

negotiations. in afghanistan, the president has honored our agreement to assist the national government, but said that we will not pursue unachievable goals. in the middle east secretary kerry is engaged in a brave effort to revive the peace process but with the understanding that we cannot want peace more than the israelis and palestinians. it is their land, their lives their futures which will be at stake. in the economic arena, the administration has gone the extra mile by pursuing a bipartisan budget agreement. mr. obama has adopted and

approached global affairs which conveys confidence but not arrogance. his strategy has been to lecture less without leading less, to use words in a civil tone that makes it easier for others to stand with us. this has logic because with most countries most of the time, persuasion works better than bullying. the administration does have its share of critics. many of these are easy to dismiss because they demand simple solutions to complex problems or because they are so obviously biased. during the recent campaign, the president was accused of apologizing for america, which he never did, of betraying israel, which is an outright lie. other criticisms, however, are more thoughtful and reflect issues with which the administration continues to wrestle.

these include the questions of negotiating with the taliban responding appropriately to syria's use of chemical weapons and developing a transparent policy according drone technology. this administration consists of critical thinkers who are open to new facts and ideas. this is in contrast to some leaders we have had in recent past and holds the promise of an even more effective for a policy of the next 3.5 years. as we consider that prospect it is important to understand the context within which our leaders must operate. it makes it difficult to formulate a consistent foreign policy. the first and most obvious is globalization. in little more than a generation, billions of previously isolated people have gained access to a vast reservoir of knowledge and to

the means for broadcasting their opinions to a worldwide audience. this has extraordinary consequences for government and for people who are unhappy and desire to change. the elected leaders are immune from the pressure that is now emanating from social networks and the streets. we can see the results in the partisan divide plague our country, in the division in europe, in the overthrow of arab dictators, and in russia as a pro-democracy movement. it is no accident that many countries new political leaders are popping up almost overnight and there able to capture votes. less because of their ideas than because of their skill in exploiting frustrations.

in some countries, experiments are under way in "crowd sourcing democracy." dictators and kings are uneasy. dictators and kings are uneasy. looking to the future, we must bear in mind that national leaders are increasingly vulnerable to changes in public sentiment. even as power within countries becomes more dispersed, the same is true for power among countries. in the past 15 years, several large developing countries have grown at a record pace. many have leverage and are using it.

in asia, china is testing how far it can go with claiming offshore territory. india has moved to protect its interests in afghanistan. turkey has become deeply involved in arab politics. brazil is demanding a permanent seat on the security council. qatar is planning a significant role in north africa and the persian gulf. their interests are diverse and governments often lack the political security required to compromise. the consequence is a widening gap between the pace of events which is excel rating, and the-- which is accelerating, and the willingness of world leaders to take coordinated action. these changes may be unavoidable, but they also

contain risk. the third reality we face is the evolution of the security threat appeared a direct military confrontation between major powers is less likely today that many times in the past. that is good, but the sobering fact is other nightmares loom. recent events in libya, mali boston remind us that the grievances that gave life to the al qaeda movement continued to attract followers. we have to respond in ways that will protect us in the near term without sowing the seeds of future violence. we cannot defeat terrorists by creating more of them. accordingly, we must win the battle of ideas wherever it is fought, in the classroom, and houses of worship, and on the internet. cyber warfare is a growing danger. at all level of harassment and intelligence gathering, the

battle of hackers has already begun. many of the west's leading financial and academic and media institutions have been dealt a warning below. for americans, security will always require vigilance on land, sea, in the air. but we have to strive to build a wall around our electronic infrastructure. it is little wonder that while other job sector stagnates, the market for aspiring cyber defenders has never been better. the fourth trend with which we must cope is related to the first three pillars. those of the pillars of the postwar international system which i believe are weakening. the imf and the world bank still operate and are needed, but as alternative sources of credit and capital take their place few countries look to them for guidance. in new york, the united nations,

which gained momentum in the cold war ended, has been sidetracked. as for u.n. peacekeeping, it is given the assignments that no one else wants. back when i was ambassador of the united nations, i was besieged by members of congress who worried that our sovereignty would be trampled on by world government. today, we should worry less about the ambition of multilateral institutions than because there are vital tasks that only they can do. when serving in the clinton administration, i felt america's goal was to bring nations closer together in pursuit of freedom law, and peace. the obama team has the same objective, but the process has been made more complex by the trends.

with so much going on, our leaders often have to proceed on a case by case basis improvising in the search for solutions to particular problems. in one case, we might turn to nato. we might have to act alone. at the same time, we have to strive to create more effective networks for addressing shared problems, such as proliferation, terror, the global economy, and development. our national security officials must have as many options and tools as possible. despite budget constraints, our military must remain second to none. we also have a profound interest in sustaining nato and helping the u.n. system to adapt and

developing close and cooperative bilateral relationships across the globe. cooperation requires investment in diplomacy, technical assistance, and in helping friendly countries do a better job of defending against common threats. according to surveys, the average american thinks we give about a quarter of tax dollars to foreigners. terrible. the truth is that our entire international affairs budget including everything from the protection of our ambassadors to emergency food for refugees, is equal to about 1%. i do not know about you, but i am fed up with politicians who demand a strong america and then vote to deprive our diplomats of the tools they need to protect and advance our interests. that is why our country should have a comprehensive national

security budget that will enable us not only to wage war, but to preserve peace and to lead both on the battlefield and at the bargaining table. our second imperative is education. the technological revolution has opened a huge divide between the skilled and unskilled. a gap that is affecting every measure of personal accomplishment and national strength. make no mistake, our country's technological supremacy is being challenged and we cannot afford to fall behind. finally, we have to persevere in

our support for a democracy. there are some a look at the electoral gains made by islamist parties in the arab world and conclude that democracy is more likely to cause trouble than relieve it. after all, the new government in egypt has yet to find its political footing while the country's economy has slowed and the tourist industry has crashed. in libya, gaddafi is gone, but the new regime is weak and too weak to maintain order in the face of powerful militias. among palestinians, the electoral appeal of hamas has undermined middle east peace efforts, while in iraq elections have done little to narrow ethnic and religious division. these and problems elsewhere cause me to worry that skepticism about democracy will grow. already, we you're influential voices talking about freedom up with an asterisk implying that while some people can be trusted to chart their own futures others cannot. this kind of cynicism is

typically summarized by commentators as just being realistic. i have another name for it. hypocrisy. we should remember that the alternative to democratic support is embracing government that lack the blessing of their own people. that leads not to stability, but to its counterfeit, leading the shackle to dictators, at odds with arab democrats, and unsure of ourselves. are backing for democracy is not based on our affinity for the people who win elections, but on the integrity of the electoral process and on whether democratic institutions are able to function after the voting is held. democracy provides no easy answers to the problem of governing in the digital age but it does broaden the scope of public debate and give everyone a voice so that new ideas can be heard and minority views taken

into account. though some may fear such an opening, i believe the americans should welcome meant. if we fail to value free expression, we forget our own history and forfeit our own right to lead. we live in an era of constant change and this means that we have to constantly adapt, but we should remember what does not change. 68 years ago, following the death of franklin roosevelt, harry truman became president. he was thought to be a petty politician, not very smart, and likely to fail. he had been vice president for less than two months and done little to prepare for its new job. and yet he is remembered now was one of our most effective presidents, so effective that a prestigious national security project there is his name. the reason is that harry truman

understood and reflected what is best about america. he was optimistic about the prospects for human progress but conscious of the perils posed by weakness and fear. he was proud of america's strength, but aware of the need for allies and friends. he thought of the united states as exceptional, but not because it was exempt from the rules that apply to others. america was the champion of liberty, law, and justice for all. we admired president truman because he dared to build greatly and because what he built was made to last. to honor his legacy, we must strive to do the same. to that end, i pledge my own best efforts. thank you very much. i would be happy to answer your questions. and since i am no longer in the government, i will be able to do

that. [applause] >> ok, we are ready for questions as long as you identify yourself. >> [inaudible] recent public opinion polls said the american people have no interest [inaudible] in any kind of action in syria. to what degree does that knowledge about where americans stand emboldened the regime and restrict the president in the options he has? >> let me say i think that the whole discussion about syria is

incredibly complicated. in terms of the evolution of the ideas about how to deal with syria. let me make a comment. i wrote a book, which is about what happened to the country were i was born, czechoslovakia, when the munich agreement was made. looking at that part of history, i realized something i had not in many years. how tired the british and french over from world war i. their economy was a mess, their defense infrastructure. even though i have always considered chamberlain one of the more odious characters in history, i can understand what was going on. he really wanted to make sure

there would be peace. why should we care about people in faraway places? there is no question that we are tired from iraq and afghanistan. our budget is a mess and there are questions about the strength of our defense and the structure. and yet, we do know everything that is going on inside every country, we need to care about people in faraway places with unpronounceable names. what are the right things to do? that is the discussion. there is an awareness in this country that something has to be done. it is my sense that as president obama has been saying, there is an evolution of thinking about what to do. a variety of different ways that we can help. i do not think the president

assad cares what the public thinks. he lives in his own world of denial, supported by the russians. we need to do what is right for our own people, our own stability, and what we believe is the right thing to do. >> are there any women who like to raise their hands next? >> my name is jessica. i was intrigued by what you said earlier about having a comprehensive national security budget. i work on the hill and i have seen the discussions on going about protecting the defense budget over the state department usaid budget. i was wondering if you could

talk about what it would take for us to have a comprehensive budget that would entail all aspects. >> we have talked about this for a long time. i am always happy to be here on the hill. i worked for the first chairman of the budget committee. it seemed like a very innovative experiments. in many ways, it makes sense because national security is indivisible. in terms of what has to be done, there are carryovers from one to the other. there are real questions about some of the civilian sounding

things the defense department is doing. and what happens when diplomats and usaid people are in danger zones. there is a crossover of things. the hard part about it has a lot to do with congress. there are committees whose responsibility is oversight for a particular part of the budget and they do not want to give up some of their prerogatives. whether one can do it in terms of the process is the question. if you think about it, it does make sense. i do not know what the real numbers are, but the defense budget is somewhere around $500 billion. the state department budget is more like $50 billion. that does not make any sense.

by looking at it from the perspective of the national security budget -- the other part would be a multi-year. that is a little bit of a problem because members of congress want to have some kind of control over where the money goes. the other part when i was there, the problem we had was trying to get voting on contingency. sometimes you do not know where the next thing will happen. this was really true in terms of peacekeeping operations or where we had to deploy force. it would be a huge discussion, but in the long run, it would be helpful. >> mark, now you can go. >> [inaudible] i want to follow-up on the question on syria. the things you mentioned promoting democracy, not being shackled by a dictatorship, the idea that we need to get rid of

assad, they seem to be going in the wrong direction right now. you presided over a very successful war in kosovo. no extremist there. libya was a relative success. in hindsight, if we had done some sort of a no-fly zone two years ago, al qaeda would have been less likely to interest- rate the free democratic people and given the mess there is now, what do you think we should do? >> if my grandmother had wheels, she would be a bicycle. if, if, if. i can understand what happened. let me bring up one concept that is one of my favorite issues to talk about.

it is the issue of responsibility to protect. what happened in the years i was at the u.n., we focused a lot on new activities for peacekeeping operations and since we knew what was going on inside countries, what could be done by the international community to and do things or mitigate things. there was an evolution of that. we have the canadians talking about security and coming forward with this concept, it is a leader was not able to protect his or her own people, the international community could help in that regard in some kind of support system. if the leader was actually killing his own people, there

was the responsibility for the international community to do something. what i found interesting was on libya, the responsibility to protect was talked about. we were in the middle -- this is a task force that i am cochairing plus the foreign policy with governor romney. as the libya issue came up, we were asking ourselves, did it help or did it complicated? in some ways, complicated because even though a specifically listed in the resolution, they went a little further. i do not agree with that, but that was what was the criticism, and they have gone further in order to destroy gaddafi's compound. that has some effect on how people felt about syria. syria is very different from libya. discussions about the no-fly zones and a variety of safe areas did not apply as much to syria as it had in bosnia or kosovo. even there, we had a terrible

time with establishing the safe havens. the syrian military is very strong. i did not spend a lot of time and hypothetical looking back. i do look at something else though, which is the unintended consequences of foreign policy decisions. some of the decisions that go way back in terms of how much the russians have been supplying to the syrians over the years, that somehow escaped people's notice. various other aspects have had an effect on how people look at syria and the fact about invading another muslim country. the unintended consequences of previous decisions way on me. >> do you have any advice -- >> sorry, mark, we have to move on to someone else. >> i am rachael.

>> i know you. >> you described secretary kerry's efforts in the peace process. open opportunities for more progress? >> i think some of you have heard me say this. if i were to ask any of you whether you would say if he would like to go to camp david you would say yes. i can tell you that i do not care if i ever go back. we came very close. one of the issues that was a problem is in many ways, whoever

is leader of the palestinians has the right to make decisions about the size of the palestinian state. we were also asking him to make decisions about the disposition of the holy places over which he did not have sole control. when we started calling some of the arabs, this happened because he put a generous proposal on the table. the arabs had no idea what we were talking about. where i think there has been a change is what secretary kerry was talking about. the meeting with the arab league leaders who have put the initiative on the table with some additional wiggle room, not

as a final offer, but as a basis for some negotiations. the problem is that netanyahu does not think that is the world's greatest thing, but people change their minds. i do think there is more out there at the moment that needs to be explored. i salute secretary kerry for pushing and exploring, he has been to the region three times. one of the things we do know and one of my discussions about democracy, many of you are

students or were students and you know back in class is, all you ever do is have this in less discussion as to what comes first, political development or economic development. they go together because people want to vote and eat. there needs to be economic development among the palestinians. there needs to be a way that hamas is not attractive to them as providing constituency services and jobs. that has to come out of the palestinian authority or some other way of getting economic development. i do think there are things to explore. i salute the secretary for looking into all of the options and talking to the parties. as i also said, we cannot make

decisions. the parties themselves have to make the decisions. we can put ideas on the table and look for ways to be supportive, but we cannot make the decisions for the parties themselves. >> thank you. maybe up front? >> melissa harrison. you mentioned climate change. i was wondering if you could give a few thoughts. what level of responsibility the secretary has in those discussions? >> i believe that it is one of the important issues that has to be taken up for any number of reasons. i was just listening -- i hate to tell you this, but i listen to right-wing radio as i drive which is a good idea to stay away from me. there was a ridiculous discussion today about, it is cold -- i think it is a mistake

to call it global warming, but it is climate change. all one has to do is look at various things and extremes of going on. i am from colorado. it does not usually snow there in the last week of april, beginning of may. there is positive proof that something is going on. the other is the effect that climate change has on a number of aspects that have to do with stability. i have just been involved in many discussions about problems to do with water. wait until we start arguing over water. food security. i just drove by the world bank and there are huge signs up about poverty. that has a lot of that has to do

with climate change. if people think it is only about polar bears or something, that is not what is about. it is about human security in all of its various aspects. what is interesting that many people do not know about secretary john kerry, and he has been very interested in climate change all along. he has been pushing in arguing for it for a long time. i do think there will be more. the problem is one of the reasons that i argued about partnership -- americans do not like the word multilateralism. it has too many syllables and ends in an ism. all that means is a partnership. i wrote a book to the president elect. with the audacity to hope that

this book might be useful. the need to deal with that whole side of issues, the economy, climate change, environmental issues, pandemic disease, which requires cooperation. whatever the president puts forward really does require other countries to work with us. my sense is that is a very important priority. >> keep the questions short because we are getting tight on time. >> i wanted to ask you about iran. the negotiations are ongoing but they are stagnant. the secretary has always taken

an interest in this topic. what do you think needs to be done to restart things? do you think sanctions need to be on the table? >> we are in a very interesting time as far as iran goes. they are in a state of political disarray, trying to sort out before elections in terms of -- ahmadinejad seems saner than some of the others all of a sudden. there are some issues about what he said and what is going to happen. one of the reasons things have slowed down seems to do with their domestic situation. the course i teach is the national security toolbox. the truth is there are not a lot

of tools and there. there is diplomacy, bilateral and multilateral, the economic tools, sanctions and embargoes and the threats of the use of force, use of force, intelligence, and law- enforcement. i think from what i can tell the sanctions have been useful in terms of isolating iran. in terms of creating some economic issues for them that may have an effect on what happens in these elections. we have talked about all options being on the table with iran and the president has talked -- that means all options. diplomatic aspects. i think we have to figure out how to syncopate the tools, but there are not a lot of them. they do require international

cooperation. there has been more of it on iran then one could have imagined. it continues to be of very difficult situation where all options have to be kept on the table. >> thank you, yes? >> going back to syria, would there need to be a no-fly zone in syria? you would not need a security council? >> i can tell you what happened on kosovo. we knew there was something

going on we had to do something about it. i went to moscow to try to find out what the russians intentions were if we brought it up in the security council. they have made very clear to me that they would veto it. i went back to my room and knowing full well that people listen to you in hotel rooms in russia, i called each one of the foreign ministers separately and said this is what i heard and they are going to veto this. if i was not reporting it correctly, they would correct me the next day. they did not. the bottom line is we decided that we had to go multilaterally, took it out of the security council, and went to nato. the u.n. did not like it and there have been a lot of questions in terms of, it might

have been moral, but was it legal? i think we did the right thing and a lot of people are alive as a result of it. it is an independent country. this is my personal view. i only speak for myself. these are big if's. it should be done in a way multilaterally. what is interesting about libya the arab league was the gatekeeper on that. in some ways, having that kind of a multilateral approach to it in some way an international coalition would support it, i think is important. i do not think you need to have a security council resolution, especially if it is evident that

it will be vetoed. you have just driven into a cul- de-sac. >> thank you. i am a little bit legally blind, if i am not using your name, that is why. >> i am from the department of defense. i have a question about leadership and management of the state department. secretary kerry seems to be lukewarm on the subject. i would ask you to reflect on the wisdom of conducting such a review to justify a larger budget for the state department and usaid. would you recommend that he take such a review more seriously? >> what i find -- first of all you guys have a big budget. you do not have to worry about it. [laughter] what is interesting, and i want to talk about the evolution of

what happened. when you are sitting at the state department, you really do look at that with some envy and what happens at the defense department and the qdr. if you are secretary of state, i speak for myself, in terms of not having a lot of control over various parts of the diplomatic or the civilian budget and how does usaid fit into its despite the fact that the administrator was one of my best friends, he only wanted a dotted line between him and me on budget issues. he tried to figure out how the usaid budget fits in. i had the idea that we should coordinate all lot of what we were doing -- i picked four

countries that needed to have coordinated aid in order to use the various parts of the american department will system to coordinate aid to those countries. secretary clinton came out with a qddr, which is an interesting document in terms of keeping the staff together. i did not know where you did that secretary kerry is lukewarm on it. it does not have to be every year. i do think it provides an interesting infrastructure. i would not make the assumption based on what i know -- he is

just getting started. one has to wait to see what the approach is. >> the very last question. >> [inaudible] i wanted to ask you about, with 2014 approaching and u.s. troops withdrawn from afghanistan, as well as the rise of islamic party is in much of the arab world, one thing that is greatly concerning is the rights of women. what remarks would your share? >> i never went to afghanistan when i was in office, but i did meet with women refugees and people coming out of afghanistan in terms of their heartbreaking stories about what was going on and what they needed in order to

have a normal life in afghanistan. frankly, during the clinton period, we did not recognize the taliban for that reason. the question is, how to make sure that as we move forward the rights of women are protected. i would hope that would be part of what the discussion is about. there have been advances made in that area and i do not think we can solve the problem in afghanistan by giving up on the rights of women. that would be my view. afghanistan is one of the most difficult issues in terms of its longevity.

a little bit of this idea that trying to sort out who the players are. decisions about how much time to spend with the taliban, what to do, and how to make sure that country has some kind of regular structure. i am trying to avoid saying that if the previous administration paid more attention to this, instead of going into iraq, we need not be in this position but i will not say that. [applause] >> thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> madame secretary, you have lifted up the voices of the secretary around the world. you have ended genocide in eastern europe and faced down dictators and now you are there must be a yiddish word for this -- the matchmaker between tnt and truman. we will make a pledge to you

with your continued fight for democracy around the world, we stand with you. we feel that pledged today with this plaque, a replica of the inaugural medal given out during harry truman's inauguration. thank you for everything. [applause] >> thank you all very much. click next on c-span, wrote to the white house coverage of two fundraisers in south carolina. first the state republican party's silver elephant dinner including remarks by senator ted cruz. then vice president biden at the jefferson jackson dinner. a discussion about news coverage of the sandy hook school shooting.

>> mrs. grant was interesting. they have this extort nerval a coaster -- this extraordinary roller coaster. he was regarded as an abject failure unable to regard for his family. then he was the most popular man in the country, the man who saved the union on the battlefield. then president of united states. >> julia loved her time in the white house. she said in her memoirs, i will bright, beautiful dream. white the most wonderful time of my life. i think that gives you some idea of how much she enjoyed being first lady and how she felt her husband had finally achieved the recognition he deserved.

>> be part of our conversation on julia grant with your questions and comments by phone facebook, and twitter monday night at 9:00 eastern on c-span and c-span3. also on c-span radio and c- span.org. 's -- this year, cspan studentcam. >> my fathers friend featured in the video was unemployed in going to the the process of unemployment at the time. i thought he would be a good subject to follow. i kind of followed his life. >> at the time i had an introduction to ball course -- to law course and was it the full standard -- and learned there was a double standard for those under 18 and those

over. i realize we don't have a say in the creation of debt but we have to pay it off. >> when we picked our topic, our infrastructure and the growing need for public transportation -- they weren't very excited about the topic. after i think landed to them, they kind of cost on --- caught on and while researching, he decided we should add high-speed railsed. >> more from the winners of saturday morning at 10:00 eastern on c-span. >> texas senator ted cruz was the featured speaker at the republican arty fundraiser in south carolina at the annual silver elephant dinner. it included tribute to former senator jim demint and speeches by governor nikki haley and

senator lindsey graham and tim scott. this is an hour and a half. >> all right, all right. i saw some of you over here cutting a rug. i think we solved the mystery tonight. everybody always wants to know why democrats can't win in south carolina. he solved a mystery. did you know what video they just showed at the democratic meeting down the street? they showed a video of nancy pelosi and debbie wasserman schultz. i don't know about you great that is about as un-relatable to south carolina residents as a get three people keep beating them in the races. are you having a good time? we are here to pay tribute tonight to the great devotion and commitment of senator jim demint.

you will hear from some people who know him the best. right now, i have the honor and privilege of introducing a true reformer. a lady who is have the courage to guide our state over the past two years as our governor. she is the youngest governor and the tire united aides. she is the first minority in the first female elected' owner and south carolinas's history. she is a loving wife to michael. he is currently serving our country in afghanistan. and she is an awesome mother and i know how it is being a single parent. before dana came along after my wife passed away, i know she has to deal with the kids at home to. she is help create jobs and 45 out of 46 counties. she is recruiting businesses and making south carolina the new its state -- it state and

manufacturing for america. one 116th governor of the great it is south carolina -- the 116th governor of the great state of south carolina, nikki haley. [applause] >> thank you very much. first of all, i want to thank all of you who came up tonight and asked about michael. he is fighting off the sandstorms for not having one complaint. he is a soldier that loves his country and is doing a bass exactly what he wants to do. thank you very much for all the support you have given. the kids are doing great. we had a little fire and the house this morning. the first thing i did was where is my fun? i just knew he had something to do with it but he did not. it was an electrical fire in the basement. all is well.

it's a great day in south carolina. [applause] i want to thank you for being here because it's a great day because you are here. everything we have done has not been easy. but you have had our back some only make tough decisions, you tell us it's ok. that's not always easy to do but when you fill a room like this as much as you told it - as you filled it, and lets us natuzzi but the fight. whatever we are doing, it means something -- you let us know. whatever we're doing doing, it means something. through the pains of the obama administration, we are getting a strong south carolina and every state is getting stronger

because of the obama administration. we are getting stronger because we are fighting. because we are having to go against thesethese [indiscernible] look at south carolina versus d.c. in d.c., they are trying to cut $82 billion out of a $4 trillion deficit. and they can't figure out to do it. so they do across the board cuts. we are balancing our budget. we have surpluses. [applause] d.c. past the largest entitlement program since the 1960s's in the past obamacare -- 1960'ass when they past obamacare. he saved the taxpayers to hundred million dollars a year with what we did. -- we saved the taxpayers $200 $200

million a year million a with what we did. there is no way you'll ever see this south carolina except the obamacare medicaid expansion. not going happen. [applause] we want south carolina to become the new it state. 35,000 jobs and 45 out of 46 countiesd.s. and d.c. is suing companies like boeing. they might have sued us but we now have 7000 jobs and just announced 2000 more severe doing just fine. -- more so we are doing ustjust fine. on tuesday when everybody goes to the polls to vote in district one and they have to show a picture id to vote. you did that. [applause]

what does all this mean and a time where dc is under the obama administration? these fights meant something because housing sales are up very towards them is up unemployment is at a four-year low and the filter is full on manufacturing companies. dan rather said south carolina is the new renaissance for manufacturing. [applause] i am very proud of south carolina and tammy faye we are so excited candace glover is coming home tomorrow and she is in the top three of american idol. [applause] another reason to advertise. but i want to say one more thing. this might is about a very special couple. jim demint and debbie.

while he has fought the good fight, that he has been by his side. i want to ask them to come forward. [applause] what -- when we talk about things you're proud about, but one thing you always say is we are very proud of jim demint. but the one thing that is amazing is jim transform south carolina. but he did more than that. you transform the country. he showed us what port barrel spending was and he it in the hardest of times erie it -- hardest of times. i member when he was the lone soul fighting by himself. that is not fun.

i been there. but he did it with grace strength and with his wife by his side and he made south carolina proud and he may be -- he made the entire country take notice of our state, our fight and what we believe in. [applause] i want to make it very clear, we did not lose and demand -- jim demint. the country just got him and when we see him up there fighting with the heritage foundation, he is fighting for all of us. now it is bigger than south carolina. it is with that that i want to present the highest civilian honor in the state of south carolina because i know he could not have done this without you, debbie. you have such -- you have stood

strong and graceful. you were with him by his side and i know you can't fight without having someone that loves you with you. with that, i would like to say in grateful recognition of your contributions and friendship to count -- to south carolina, i hereby confer upon you the order of the palmetto with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto. [applause]

>> one more time for governor nikki haley. >> hello south carolina republicans. this is marco rubio. let me thank you for the privilege i had last year of speaking to you at this gathering. we have a great guest speaker and an exciting new senator who is just going to to help shape the direction of our country. tonight we honor a great man senator jim demint thomas some who believed in me when no one in washington did. he put his credibility on the line and supported me.

because of him i won the race united states senate and now serve florida and the united states senate. jim, i am always grateful to you for your support but i also want people to understand that beyond the politics and public service to our country jim has been a mentor. i watched him as a father, husband, and christian and it has helped shape the lives of those around him as well. thank you for that contribution as well. jim has now left the senate may miss his leadership but he is now taken on a new path as president of the heritage foundation. congratulations on your new role. i know you will continue to serve south carolina and all americans in this new capacity. thank you for what you have done already for me, the cause of conservatism, and these great united eight. may god bless you, may god less south carolina and may god always bless the united states of america. [applause] >> i'm, sven joe wilson and --

i'm congressmane john wilksman. six years in the house of representatives, nearly eight in the u.s. senate, jim demint has established himself as a conservative stallworth. he stands for the principles of limited government and expanded freedom and i'm happy for his success. now that success get to the heritage foundation. this is the largest conservative think tank in the united eight. they provide research to members of congress, and general public which is instrumental on successful alternative policies that are positive to the people of our country. i am grateful that jim demint will be following an extraordinary tradition of south carolina influence at the heritage foundation. one of the founders was tom rowe, a wonderful person who

saw what the foundation could do. we have a direct presence there. i know firsthand the difference it can make. it was the heritage foundation that gave us the basic information for welfare reform in south carolina when i served in the state senate. we were able to provide for thousands of people who had fully productive lives in the heritage foundation gave us the information. now as we face the fiscal crisis, we know we can rely on the heritage foundation for accurate information so that we can work until fairly unsuccessfully for a balanced budget. for our children and grandchildren. i am so grateful for the success of jim and debbie and i want to wish them well on their service and i look forward to their service at the heritage foundation. god be -- godspeed. >> senator demand, thank you

for your service to our state and country. you have been a stalwart of conservative values in our country. here service will be sorely missed in the house of representatives our loss is that gain of the heritage foundation. it is a true national leader in conservative values. i'm sure that this will continue and will be advanced under your brilliant leadership. [applause] >> senator, you survived six years on the house of representatives and two runs for state run for the u.s. senate. you survive the primary. we are sorry you left but we are happy for the new position you are in. i can think of many reasons why

they might have left the senate to work for the heritage, but your presence is still felt. the replacement is doing a phenomenal job. i want to say on a personal level i remember it was like yesterday the first time i met you. you are the same person i met 20 years ago. modest, genuine, kind hearted always willing to help. we missed you, but we still feel your influence. not bless you at the heritage -- god bless you at a heritage. >> that's it? >> yes. >> senator, it is great to be here and be with some of my best friends. there is a rule in this business that everyone loves you when you win.

i will never forget the first political event i had in 2005 running for the state house in a little tiny room in south carolina. i had about 20 people in their -- there with the same last name as i did and you showed up. [laughter] you have been a great mentor and example to what would we stand for and what we want to accomplish. it is an honor to know that even though you are gone, you are still a friend of ours. that means a great deal to all of us. >> i apologize for the cell phone. it usually on vibrate. >> we can edit that out. [laughter] >> you have set the bar high for conservatism in america.

i know you will continue in that role at heritage. thinking about the first time we were on the campaign together i remember there maybe seven people in the room, but you were there and you spoke to them. that was memorable to me. you took the time to come to a small town when you are running for the u.s. senate. thank you for what you have done as a mentor and the four of us. i look forward to continueing to work together. thank you. look forward to working with you. >> that was better than yours. >> go ahead. >> step up to the plate. >> you have no idea how hard it is to be in your seat.

i will say a couple of things. character, opus, discipline -- focus, discipline. these are all things that you embody. the time that we had an opportunity to work together will always be a part of my future. just thinking about the man as humble as yourself, you love your family and you love your faith. the thing that shines the brightest for me is that you represent a real model of faith for me. you are disciplined, focused. the fact that you love south carolina and you love this country so much and i've given so much of your dull life to public service and you continue -- and you have given so much of your public -- your life to public service.

you are always available and willing to help. i thank you for your service to the nation and to the state. god bless you. not sure if you know what you have done, but we are all appreciate if -- appreciative. thanks. >> thanks again. [applause] >> you cannot make that stuff up. [laughter] i would next speaker is new to the u.s. senate, but not new to us. tim scott has a fast rising star. he has been traveling the state to have maximal opportunity for young and old. he deserves this opportunity to live in this nation not burdened by our government. i'm excited to have him here tonight, tim scott. cap[cheers and applause]

>> thank you. god bless you. thank you. it is always good to be home in south carolina. [applause] i will tell you the more time i spend in dc -- d.c. the more i love sc. i have had hard times and my life. most of us are familiar with those times. i will tell you a quick start about when my hardest times in life and compare that to the federal government in which were having hard times. the federal government does not do a lot of things right. and you notice that? me too. after couple of years in house, we were working hard.

we wanted them to pass a budget. i go to the senate and after 1400 days, the senate passes a budget. one jillion dollars of new taxes. -- $1 trillion of new taxes. now i know why to 1400 days to happen. it is pretty pathetic. i remember when i was the senior high school, my mom and i shared a car. it was a ugly car. it was all we had. i would play football. i was getting a little sleepy so i rolled a window down. notice i did us say button. i rolled the window down. and then i rolled the window up. that i rolled it back down again. i turned the ac on and attend ac off. i turned the heat in the middle of august on.

i turn the heat off. then i woke up. driving 70 miles an hour. i do but most 16 year olds do -- i panicked. i slammed on the brakes. do you know what happens when you slam on the brakes and jerky steering wheel? your car flips. my car starts flipping into traffic. i remember yelling. i held onto the steering wheel. i was going this way. i ended up in a ditch going that way. glass everywhere. i remember folks running towards the car and yelling. one lady's voiced about. -- stood out.

she was saying, i think he is dead. i yelled back, and then -- i'm dead. i'm dead. [laughter] i'm lying on the side of the highway, collapsed on my back. the highway patrol -- god bless our emergency responders. god bless our emergency responders. [applause] boston reminds us of how important the folks who run towards crisis really are. i laid on the side of the road. i highway patrol and walked up to me and neil down and he said son, your son will be so happy you are alive. that is my mom you heard laughing right now. [laughter] i looked up at him and i said,

sir, you do not know my mama. she will kill me. this is our brand-new car. when my mother showed up at hospital hospital, i learned something very valuable. i learned that she was far more concerned about her son and she was the vehicle. what makes republicans and conservative so amazing for me is that we are not as concerned about the what as we are the who. [applause] we find strong -- fight strong for the future of america. we fight strong to make sure every single american has the access to the american dream. this is why we go to work everyday. this is why we gather. we believe in the future of this country. that is why we find it in certain policies like obamacare

and atrocity. this is destroying the amazing link between a patient and a doctor at the legislation. 3000 patients -- we know what is in it. it is awful. the regulations are seven feet three inches tall. they are still writing the legislation. still writing it. i think about the $17 trillion of debt. as much as we are concerned about what, the $17 trillion, we understand what it does to the who, but the next generation of americans that we straddle with debt that they did not create. someone taking money from the future adoration and spending it on -- future generation and spending it on ourselves, that is not compassion at all.

most my friends ask me one important question -- what does $1 trillion look like? i'm not really quite sure what it looks like, but i know this -- we are missing it every time we pass a budget in america. $1 trillion deficit the last five years. i talk to my granddaddy. he is 92 years old. god bless them. he needs your prayers right now. still drives. [laughter] y'all pray for me. he drives a ford pickup truck. he loves his ford f-150. in order to explain $1 trillion to my grandfather, as is what i told him. granddaddy, per $1 trillion do you know how many afford f-150's you can buy. he said, no.

you can get 33 million -- that is our annual deficit. we can do better. in this party, our party, is the future of this nation. we understand that what we are fighting for is the who. as long as we continue to fight for the who, we will find the why and the way. god bless you. god bless south carolina. god has already blessed america. it is our sponsor ability, our responsibility to protect that which is already blessed. god bless you. [applause]

>> senator tim scott. [applause] >> will, to quote my old buddy one more time, it has been said that no matter what time of day anywhere across the globe, there are two things you can see when you turn on your television. reruns of law and order and sanity lindsey graham being interviewed. -- senator lindsey graham being interviewed. [laughter] we are so proud of the role that he plays in our country. he fought every day for our men and women in uniform protecting the security of our nation. his persistence and insistence to find out what really happened in because he has reminded all americans while we are lucky to have him as our senior senator. i can tell you that he has been someone who has given me encouragement and i appreciate that. our senior senator, instagram.

-- lindsey graham. >> whoo. how are y'all doing? tim didn't get the memo that you're not supposed to upstage me. all of those 33 million trucks will be made in south carolina. [laughter] i know you have a bright future in politics. anybody who has been in a car wreck with head injury will fit right in. [laughter] you're standing out already pal. he votes no when he should and

yes when he should. welcome to south carolina. the democrats have joe biden and we have ted cruz. [cheers and applause] do you know what that means? we are going to finish the program the same day we started it. [laughter] thank you for coming ted. he is one of the smartest guys in the new class and he has hit the guy -- ground running. two commanders who came from south carolina will go a long way. thank you for comment. i really do appreciate it. my favorite joe biden story -- and i really like joe even i do not understand a lot what he says -- but i didn't know it takes a long time for him to say. true story.

i had just got me elected. we left on thursday and are coming back on sunday. we got on the airplane at the air force base. i leaned over to joe and i said joe tell me a little bit about delaware politics. 15 hours later, we landed and he said i will finish this story later. swear to god. [laughter] about our house delegation, we are really lucky. it is the strongest accuray member. jim had a lot to do with that. cap -- [applause] also, thank you for say no to obamacare. [laughter] [applause] everybody from the house and senate, stand up. god bless y'all.

heck ya. i spent two years in the state house and got my first check and i left. [laughter] it was opposed to be a part-time job, but it is not. damntim, you haven't on limited future in the publican party. keep on being yourself. -- you have an unlimited future in the republican party. keep on being yourself. you look really sharp. not that you didn't before, but you look really sharp tonight. [laughter] we have been doing this thing together since the 1990's.

i never seen anyone out of frustration. it is not your personality to get a and say, enough already. it was out of frustration that got you going. 2010 was a direct result of you can get this party on track. the most important -- [applause] -- the most important thing about jim is his personal side. you have the nicest family. four wonderful children and a beautiful wife. that will be ultimately to see. -- legacy. you can help us so much on the outside. 2014 is ours for the taking. you ready to take the senate back? >> yeah! >> heck yeah.

6 seats in the senate. we can get the senate back. i think we are going to do that. i think 2014 is going to be a big year when people realize obamacare is doing to this country. it will be a great year for republicans. [applause] tim talked a lot about the financial situation. i want to talk very briefly about the threats that we face. how many people here believe that radical islam is a threat to our way of life? [applause] bin laden might be dead, but this movement is on the rise. this administration, i will help them when i can but their approach to this evil that the world faces is not working.

for the people of boston, you make us proud. our hearts bled for you. he showed us what it was like to be strong -- you showed us what it was like to be strong. when you look at what happened in boston, and the president and i have a disagreement disagreement on what happened in boston and the ghazi -- benghazi, his policies are failing. our system is not working. when these two guys cannot be picked up when they are doing something that is wrong, the older brother he goes back to the country he got asylum from we will fix that immigration bill. he ain't going back. [applause] were going to the pre-9/11 days of not talking to each other. i would argue what is frightening is exactly what had

happened on obama's watch. we are learning -- losing sight of the threat. for god sake, how could we not know this guy was becoming radicalized when he was on the internet for the whole world to see? political correctness is going to get us all killed. [applause] if you're interacting with islamic websites, i do not mind it at the item knocks on the door and ask, what are you doing? wednesday night how many of you believed that benghazi has been swept under the rug? [applause] the reason we're not been a it be swept under the rug is because how many people have served in the military? raise your hand. god bless you all.

there is a belief that no matter where you go, no matter how hard it might be, we have your back. we will not abandon you. after benghazi, people wondered about that. my goal is to let everyone and that military and foreign service and all those who defend this nation against evil to know that you will not be forgotten. you're going to be remembered. [applause] for those who allow this to happen, you will not get away with it. [applause] wednesday you hear from people who are on the ground. i heard their stories. the reason you have not heard about it is because the democratic census has done nothing to find the truth. can you imagine this with bush? can you imagine? stay tuned for wednesday. as long as i am in the senate we're not going to let our men

and women feel abandoned ever again. ever again. [applause] israel we live in some of the most dangerous times in world history. the reason radical islamists has killed thousands of us, they cannot get the weapons to kill millions of us. they're getting closer everyday. we have got a lot of problems to fix from the broken immigration system to the debt beyond control. we are marching toward greece financially. the number one role of federal government is to protect this nation. that is our first obligation. nikki, thank you for your husband going to afghanistan. we appreciate it. [applause] it is good to have a governor who knows what it is lack to be a military wife and have two young kids understand what daddy

does for the country. if something does not change by the end of this year, we will have a conflict with iran. how many of you believe they're trying to develop nuclear power? if you think you're developing nuclear power we'll have somebody pick you up. [laughter] our friends in israel need us now more than ever. our friends in israel are under an accidental -- existential threat. this administration is sending the worst possible message to our enemies and allies. there is a policy in libya that allowed for americans to be slaughtered. it is my belief that if we stand with israel, god will stand with

us. [applause] before this year is over, i will do everything i can as your senator from south carolina to let the world know that america does believe in standing by her friends. if we do not stop this radical islamist regime in iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, we will be on the road to armageddon. i will help this administration when i can, but i believe it is my obligation and my duty to speak truth to power and here's the truth -- under barack obama america is getting weaker and weaker and weaker. we have to win in 2014. we have to turn this country around before it is too late. god bless you. god bless you for rebuilding the republican party. chad, you have been a wonderful party chairman. if you want to be free, you're

going to have to fight for it. let's fight for our freedom. god bless you. [applause] >> senator lindsey graham. thank you for all that you do for our family, state, and our nation. ♪ >> i have read his book. he read my book. we are friends. we spent a half-hour hour within this past week speaking of the senate. at the time i did not know he was considering leaving. i have always liked the guy. even though i disagree with so much of what he has done, i appreciate emily p does this out of a belief it is not -- i

appreciate that he does not do this out of a belief it is posturing. i wish him well. >> i want to take you back 10 years. a decade ago in 2003 we were just starting out our second term as members of the u.s. house of representatives. jim demint was beginning his third and final term in the house. he was starting to make waves in washington after spending several years carefully laying out the groundwork of a large grassroots campaign for renewed commitment to conservative principles. jim when -- when we returned after having won reelection that last november, we found ourselves to be more than just fellow members of the house. we were neighbors too. our offices were in the same court or -- cooridor. we were all housed in a hallway

made of stone. party leadership in the house doesn't play a role in assigning offices, but you bet they are wishing they could keep us further apart. so close together and able to confer on a bill or amendment or strategy at a moments notice spell trouble for the powers that were. the senator was an example to me long before i decided to run for the u.s. senate. his example was one of the things that inspired me to get into the senate race to begin with. he has that she is a long- standing example of leadership -- he is a long-standing example of leadership. an inspiration to many people. the gatekeepers gatekeeper to many people. if we focused -- he was an inspiration to many people. if we focus -- we would all

benefit as a result. >> shortly after the senate passed obamacare, to hell me validate my decision, our chairwoman suggested i go to and americans for prosperity event one week ended march. on my drive to the event, i was listening to talk radio. i heard an interview with jim demint. they were talking about the enormous challenges facing our nation and how mirkin needed good men and women. -- and how america needed good men and women. i will never forget how he described the individual he wanted to see run for senate. he was looking for people wanting to join the fight. >> when he got to the senate, the easy thing for him to have done would have been to simply go along and get along and not make much noise and keep a low profile. to get comfortable and have a

job for song as he wanted it. jim was too devoted to the principles at the heart of our great party. but suppose of limited government and personal freedom and individual responsibility -- principles of limited government and personal freedom and individual spots ability. -- and individual responsibility. he insisted on standing up for those principles. that had a number of effects. one of the things it did was that it made life uncomfortable for jim was some of his colleagues. there were some who preferred the old way and do not want to have to adhere to the principles that they may advocate. there is another effect it had in 2009 and 2010. jim demint's conservative

leadership helped to build energize across the country. >> i decided to run for the u.s. senate because i knew people like jim demint needed allies. and still do. >> his early support in my campaign was instrumental to my victory in utah. once i arrived here in the senate, it was jim demint the welcomed me here and name he part of the crowd. -- and made me feel part of the crowd. all of the friends that he has from his home state allowed me to experience south carolina and the. -- envy. >> jim demint but a huge role in changing the face of the u.s. senate. he played a huge role in helping people like me get elected. mike lee was elected in utah. ted cruz in texas. and many others.

it is quite possible that none of us would have been elected if that is not in for jim demint consistent principles and leadership as a solid conservative he was. because he was willing to make himself personally on comfortable with many of his colleagues as he was willing to make that personal sacrifice for a cause he believed in, he has changed the face of the u.s. senate. we are not perfect but we republicans in the senate are far more conservative today. i think we will be going forward. i will always be grateful. i want to say thank you. >> i sometimes think back to the conservative cooridor. all of us together. all moving forward toward bigger responsibility. 10 years after we were neighbors, after a in the senate he has held create a

much larger conservative cooridor, one that spans from shore to shore. he helped recruit more conservatives to fill up the senate. senator ted cruz, yuki no speaker. mike lee of utah and me among others. -- senator cruz, your keynote speaker. mike lee of utah and me among others. jim has been quoted many times as saying, i would rather have 30 republicans in the senate who believe in principles of freedom and 60 who do not. even the republicans are in the minority in the senate the senate republican conference is anchored by conservatives largely because of jim's efforts. he made it clear that keeping the ideals of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity

strong in the senate halls. he's a man of faith and ability and courage and principle. >> my life has been enriched knowing him. because of his dedicated service -- >> to make conservative ideas so persuaded across the country that all parties have to embrace those ideals. with your help with the help of lower -- your leadership we will be so strong and vast that politicians will in the future be able to have faith and what is both proper and right. thank you, jim, for all you have done to strengthen our country. now onward. [applause]

>> jim demint made a huge difference changing the face of the u.s. senate. one of the greatest understatements in our generation. risking his own popularity with senators and sometimes going against republican leadership headwinds. he became involved in introducing conservative leadership in the hopes of restoring our republic. the names rand paul, mike lee ron johnson pat toomey, marco rubio, and ted cruz are now household names do do senator demint. that same principle has made him one of the most popular conservative leaders of our time. we are honored to have one of his disciples among us here tonight. senator ted cruz begin the 34th

senator from texas in 2012. he is a graduate of princeton university and harvard law school. he served as editor of the harvard blog review. -- law review. he has distinguished himself as a fighter for liberty and restore our country's greatness. ladies and gentlemen, we're pleased to have in south carolina our our keynote speaker, senator ted cruz. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. thank you very, very much. thank you. chad, i asked you not to mention that i went to harvard.

anytime they found i went to harvard, i nearly had apologized for it. texas and south carolina have a long connection. a connection that goes back centuries. there are two native south carolinians.william and james are in the alamo. texas fought for its freedom. one was sent out to get reinforcement. he fought his way back into the attacking army to come back to the alamo where he gave his life for freedom. that is the tradition. that is the history of south carolina and texas. it is a tremendous link. thank you for the support, south carolina. we fight side by side for

freedom. [applause] vice president joe biden is in town. you know the great thing is that you do not even need a punchline. [laughter] you just say that and people laugh. he has some great advice for us. he told everyone if anyone is attacking your home, is attacking your family, go outside with a barrel shotgun and fire both barrels into the air. that is great advice if it happens you are being attacked by a flock of geese. [laughter] the last person to follow that advice was vice president dick cheney. [laughter] he had that tragic hunting accident in texas where a

terrific lawyer from austin was shot. in the two weeks after vice president cheney's accident there were more than 200 phone calls. asking, how much for a license to shoot a republican lawyer? [laughter] also today, as it obama is down mexico. -- president obama is in mexico. in mexico, he said that mexican gun violence is due to u.s. guns. well, you know i would suggest a place he could started was not to have his department of justice selling guns to mexican drug cartels. [applause]

what i would like to talk to you about today's american spirit. something that brings all of us together. i want to talk to about four principles of the american spirit. courage, freedom, growth, and opportunity. i will start with courage. i do not know anyone who embodies her age more than senator daschle embodies -- who embodies courage more than senator jim demint. [applause] jim has many characteristics but being utterly fearless is perhaps his most unusual one. i would know in that regard him reminds me of a texan, chuck norris. [laughter] you know, some people wear superman pajamas. superman wears chuck norris pajamas.

chuck norris wears jim demint pajamas. [laughter] [applause] but jim also reminds me of another person. whose perseverance helped us defeat the mightiest army the world has ever seen. when he was in the senate, he found himself over and over again a voice in the wilderness. he did something starting in 2009 that was really quite extraordinary. he said the senate will not change unless we change the people who are in the senate. he began getting involved in the republican primaries. it is worth underscoring how incredibly unusual that was.

that was not done and yet he began going all around the country saying, i want to find strong leaders who are willing to stand up. he was concerned for every man and woman here today that our freedom is in jeopardy. he got behind candidates like mike lee and rand paul marco rubio and ron johnson, everyone of those races, the gray beards decided someone else should win. yet jim stuck his neck on the line and said we need stronger conservative leaders. everyone of them won with grassroots. [applause] in 2012, three new republicans

got elected. that was critical to all three of us to one. -- who won. i would not be in the u.s. senate without jim. [applause] that legacy has already transformed the u.s. senate. take any issue, any fight, who are the people who are charging into battle and leading the fight? they are the rand paul's in the mike lee's in the marco rubio's. the leaders who are there because of jim's support. that is how you turn the country around. the second principle is freedom. it is the foundational value of our country.

the tool that our founders crafted was the constitution. thomas jefferson described the constitution as change to bind the mischief of government. we should stand for the constitution and every part of the constitution. [applause] we should stand for the first amendment. all of us are shocked and horrified to read newspaper headlines this weekend that this administration is threatening to court-martial members of military if they share their faith with others. there comes a point where you cannot make this stuff up.

the first amendment protects our free exercise of religion. let me be clear -- the u.s. government has no authority to tell any american in the military or not that he or she cannot share his or her faith of someone else. [applause] the second amendment, president obama has been pushing an agenda aggressively to come after our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. a few weeks ago i was proud to stand with my friend, senator rand paul, sending a very short letter to harry reid that said we will filibuster any legislation that undermines the

right to bear arms. [applause] what we saw happen in the next few weeks was incredible. the american people got engaged. men and women in this room began speaking up. they began calling and saying, go after the violent criminals and come down on them like a ton of bricks, but protect the constitutional rights of law- abiding americans. [applause] during the fight to protect our second amendment, there was no one who worked harder than your senior senator, lindsey graham. [applause] as a result of the leadership of lindsey graham and tim scott and

countless others at a result of each of you speaking out and american people being heard, two weeks ago, when president obama's gun control agenda got voted on, every proposal was voted down in the u.s. senate. [cheers and applause] we should be defending the fourth and fifth amendment against an administration that recognizes no limits on its powers. i was also proud to stand side- by-side with rand paul and a 13 hour filibuster against this administration's drone policy. [applause] that began with eric holder testifying before the judiciary.

i took the opportunity to ask the attorney general a gentle question. i asked him, does the constitution allow the u.s. government to use a drone to kill a u.s. citizen on u.s. soil if they pose a threat? his response was, well, that would not be appropriate. gotta tell you my response to him was, it seems that you misunderstood my question. i was not asking about propriety. does the department of justice have a position on whether the constitution allows the u.s. government to use a drone to kill a u.s. citizen? he said it would not be appropriate. three times we went back and forth.

i thought he was going to say, i do not understand this constitution you are referring to. [laughter] during the 13 hour filibuster one senator after another came to the senate floor. thousands upon thousands of men and women all across this country got involved and got online and got on twitter. they stood for liberty. as a result, the next day the obama administration was forced to do what it refused to do for three straight weeks, which is admit in writing, no, the constitution does not let us kill a u.s. citizen on u.s. soil with a drone. [applause] we should be defending the 10th amendment. one of the most critical elements is we should repeal every single word of obamacare.

[applause] let me take the opportunity to submit your governor, nikki-- salute your governor, nikki haley, for having the courage to say no to expanding medicaid and obamacare. [applause] south carolina has a tradition a long tradition of producing fighters. nikki haley is a rock star. thank you, governor. [applause] with obamacare, as it gets implemented, it is getting less and less popular. more more people are realizing it is not working. a couple of weeks ago, the senior democrat was the principal architect of obamacare said obamacare was becoming a "train wreck."

i agree. i'm reminded of one of my heroes. senator graham was participating in a hearing on socialized medicine. the panel is explaining and talking about socialized medicine. senator graham said, you know, i feel confident that i care about my kids were than anybody else does. one of the witnesses on the panel said, with all due respect, senator, i care about your kids as much as you do. senator graham looked at him and said, really? what are their names? [laughter] there is almost no limit to what this president and this administration thinks the federal government can do. we have got to get back to the u.s. constitution.

we have got to get back to limits on federal government powers. we have got to get back to our freedom. the third principle of the american spirit is growth. i think the very top priority of every elected official is restoring economic growth. you know in the last four years our economy has grown 0.9%. 0.9%. there is only one other time since world war ii where we had less than 1% growth. 1979-1982. coming out of the jimmy carter administration, the same failed economic policy. out-of-control spending and debt and taxes. it led to the exact same stagnation. growth is fundamental to solving our problems.

if we want to get those 23 million people back to work, we need growth. if we want to turn around our unsustainable deficits and debt, we have got to have growth. if we want to ensure that we maintain the strongest military in the world to defend our national security, we must have growth. i think growth should be a bipartisan. there's no reason why we cannot be working side-by-side to get our economy going again and to build the keystone pipeline and push for tax reform and get small businesses moving. [applause] you know, a couple of days ago jay leno observed the president is having a hard time shutting down guantanamo.

i have got an idea. he should do what he always does and tax it out of existence. declare it a small business. it would be gone in weeks, days. we need growth. the fourth and final thing that we need is opportunity. growth is fundamental for so many reasons. the most important is that growth produces opportunities. for a long time i have been arguing for what i call opportunity conservatism. every policy we think and talk about should focus like a laser on opportunity. easing access to the economic ladder. the greatest engine of prosperity and opportunity and wealth creation is the free market system of the united states of america. [applause]

let me tell you something, there's no member of the u.s. senate to understand that better than senator tim scott. [applause] i love senator tim scott. let me tell you one of the reasons. he understands in his gut that if you are struggling to climbed economic ladder, the only thing that has ever worked as a free- market system that allows small businesses to prosper and allows people to stand on their own two feet that does not breed dependency, but encourages people to work and stand on their own two feet and strive for the american dream. you know, i love listening to senator scott talk about when he was in high school. he says he was close to flunking out of high school. he had failed, as he put it, both english and spanish.

when you fail both english and spanish, they do not say you are bilingual. [laughter] they say you are bi-ignorant. he tells a powerful story of meeting a man who he describes as his mentor. he owned a couple of chick-fil-a franchises. he brought him under his wing and he said, the path you are on will not take you to where you want to be. that is not how you get to the american dream. if you want to get to prosperity, you have to rely on hard work. discipline. apply yourself in school. create a small business. create jobs. you have to take advantage of the incredible opportunities in this country. that is tim scott's life. that is opportunity we should champion every single day. [applause]

you know, the unemployment we see in this economy does not fall uniformly over the population. it falls most severely on the most vulnerable of us. if you have got a college degree, unemployment right now is 3.8%. that isn't a pretty robust labor market. if you do not have a high school degree, unemployment is over 12%. african americans 14%. young people aged 16-19, over 25%. one third of young people are moving back in with their parents. one third. the obama economy that people are being hit the worst our young people, single moms, african-americans, hispanics those trying to climb the

economic ladder. as republicans, we should be challenging the way you achieve prosperity by having economic growth that allows many people to come with nothing and achieve anything. i have to say when i talk opportunity, in my life, it is not some abstract concept you read about in a book. it is a reality we all live. my dad is from cuba. he was born in cuba and grew up in cuba. as a kid, my dad fought in the cuba revolution. when he was a teenager, he was thrown in prison and tortured. he was beaten almost to death. he fled cuba in 1957. he was 18 years old. he came to texas.

when he arrived, he could not speak english. he had nothing except for $100 sewn into his underwear and a slide ruler in his pocket. when i talk to young people, they have no idea what a slide ruler is. [laughter]he got a job washing dishes making 50 cents an hour. he worked seven days a week and paid his way through the university of texas. he went on to start a small business. he worked for the american

>> everyone of us could come up here and tell a story like that. we are all the children of of those who risk everything for freedom. that is the most fundamental dna of what it means to be an american. that is why we are here tonight fighting to take our country back. i want to make two final points in conclusion. the first is change happens quickly. a lot of republicans are demoralized about november 2012. i want to remind you of 2005. george w. bush had just been reelected president. republicans had control of the house and senate and a large majority of the governorships. democrats were going on television talking about a

permanent republican majority. that was 2005. 2006, we last congress, 2008, barack obama got elected, two thousand nine, obamacare passes and here we are today. things can change quickly. because of the legacy of jim demint and the leaders in the senate and house who were fighting, i believe change will come quickly and in particular i am convinced that your help we're going to take take back the u.s. senate in 2014. how many of you have cell phones on you? can i ask you to take your cell phones out. text the word growth to 33733.

hell join us to take the senate back in 2014 -- help join us to take the senate back in 2014. stand together because we're going to take the senate back in 2014 and stand in the senate and fight together to defend our liberty. the last thing i want to say is an observation. ronald reagan famously said freedom is not passed down in the bloodstream. instead every generation has to stand and fight for it to preserve it. that is what we are called on to do tonight. i want to share with you the words written by a native carolinaian, william barrett travis. his last letter read as follows --

fellow citizens and compatriots i am besieged by a thousand or more. i have sustained a continual bombardment for 24 hours and have not lost a man. the enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion. otherwise they are to be put to the sword. i have answered the demand with a cannon shot. and our flag still ways probably from the walls -- still waves proudly from the wall. i call on you in the name of liberty among patriotism and everything dear to the american character to come to our aid with all dispatch. if this call is neglected, i am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and i like his soldier who never forgets what

is due to his own honor and that of his country. victory or death. william barrett travis, a native of south carolina and texas hero and like each and every man and woman here, someone who stood up and put it all online fighting for liberty. thank you and god bless you. [applause] fax senator ted cruz. -- >> senator ted cruz. [applause] now you know why america is talking about him. senator, you may not know this but our first celebrate -- first silver celebration was she noted by ronald reagan. not to put any pressure on you but we have high expectations

and we expected back in the state quite a bit. congratulations. a small token of our appreciation. thank you very much. god bless. [applause] rx this is our dad, jim demint. -- >> this is our dad, jim demint. talk about principles. he does exactly what he says he will be. i'm sorry dad. you want to say something? >> yeah, i'm jim demint and i approve this message. i need your vote on tuesday. ♪ ♪

>> he is a man of integrity. he represents the best of south carolina valleys. these effective, steady consistent. what the kind of person you would be proud to have as a neighbor. >> he will a great senator. he keeps his word. >> babies and gentlemen, please welcome back to the stage to chairman. >> ladies and gentlemen, senator

jim demint. >> i feel like i've died. [laughter] i have heard someone define success as when the people that know you the best, love you the most. tonight we had made me feel successful. taking so much for this tribute. chad thank you for what you have done for the party. governor, you have made us proud all over the country. i have been in about 25 cities the last few months since i joined heretics. when i mentioned nikki haley people stand up and cheer.

when i mentioned ted cruz, people stand up and cheer. ted, thank you for taking another week and way from your family to be with us tonight. i want to thank my family debbie, and my children and in-laws here tonight. when i got involved with public rights, it made her public life much harder so i thank you all for putting up with that. [applause] i would also like to ask all the folks will forward to my congressional or senate office or campaign office to stand up for his second. please give them a hand. most of what you think i have done, they were the ones who did it. the best thing that happened to

me in public office is putting people around me who were smarter and just as passionate as i was. he kept ourselves moving in the right direction so i appreciate all my staff. i want to thank -- take a second to talk to all of you in the republican party to remind you how important it is what you do here, what to do through the year to organize the party, pull people together, keep folks focused on principles and to help the candidates get elected. we go around the country where there's a vibrant republican party who believes in conservative and will, a good candidate even if that candidate is unknown, and have an opportunity to get in front of the people so they can hear that message. i've been given credit for a lot of things helping people get elected. i do not have a vote in texas

it was people in texas and really all of the country who were inspired by a young man who was talking about the infidels of freedom that rings so true and our heart. we saw the same thing happen with rubio in florida and all over the country. our message of freedom rings true to people. he gives them hope, gives them energy, makes them want to stand up for those principles and elected candidates. in the last few months i've been in front of thousands of people and that energy that was in 2010 is still there. people are ready but they are looking for leadership. they want people to stand up for those principles like we have seen from some of these champion senators and house members particularly in our own delegation here. that inspires people when they know you will fight for them. what i hear all over the country is pretty simple. folks come up to me, they have

the sense of urgency. they will grab my arm and say thanks for fighting. we are praying for you. what can i do? all across the country, people are waiting. level at the heritage foundation is to give more support -- my role at the heritage foundation is to give more support for those standing up to those principles. we are doing it all over the state, country now, working with governors. we will work with governor haley to push back against obamacare and push for more choices in education, more energy freedom to keep more transportation dollars. the key to success is at the state level. the more states work together the more opportunity the will have to change the direction of washington. i thank you for having my back here. it's wonderful to represent a staple you can go out and take a

stand for those principles and goknow back home that people have your back. i hope you will keep praying for me and our country. you have really blessed me tonight. god has blessed all of us and i'm honored to serve you for the last 14 years. i promise i am going to continue to serve. thank you so much. >> south carolina democrats also hosted an event tonight with keynote speaker vice president joe biden. south carolina is expected to host the first southern state presidential primary and 2016. -- in 2016. [applause] >> hello folks. how are you? thank you so much. it is an honor to be here.

please sit down. thank you very much. thank you for that. for that introduction. for the job you're doing now as a state representative, and for the work you did on the issue that is nearest and dearest to my heart, you make us all proud. mr. chairman, it is good to be with you. i have an admission to make. we are actually friends. i hope it does not hurt his reputation. you have been there for not only the folks here in south carolina, but for the national ticket. you been there for every democrat around the country. i do not know anyone who was more effective in helping us.

jim, thank you for the invitation. he called and asked i was willing to do this. i said, jim, i love going to south carolina. as is i show up, the press will be coming down saying what -- abiding get ready. -- biden is getting ready. i'm delighted to be back in. i watch a tribute to you, jim. i got started in 1972. when south carolina had leaders in both parties that were nationally known. they were just south carolina senators and governors. they were nationally known. they were people who had set a standard for an awful lot of

folks to -- and both parties.-- folks to repair in both parties. his heart and soul is here in south carolina. everywhere i go around the country, in the last two campaigns, as i travel around the world, everybody knows it jim. i mean that sincerely. they know him, they respect him. this guy has the backbone like a ramrod. there's two things you have to know about him. [applause]one, he's smarter than you. the other one is he never gives up. jim, you provide so much help for so many candidates all across the country.

i do not think folks know. you are not only the number three man the congress, you are one of the leading voices in the democratic party nationwide. it is an honor. [applause] i was going to say, as i look out into the audience, i really can't see the audience, but i know from the folks i took pictures with earlier, one of the great advantages of being around a while is i have been coming coming to south carolina since 1973. i have made some of the dearest and closest friends in my political career, but personally. one of the things that happens when you try to run in a national ticket is you go around the country. you get to see the country anyway you never would. you get to meet friends who are lifelong friends.

nothing to do with politics, they would be there. they would be there. i do not want to start naming names. there is an awful lot of you who have been so good to me my whole career. i really mean that. no one better to me than the man i'm going to talk about any second. another man i got to know early on, who is again one of those and national figures everybody knew. everybody knew what he was about. governor riley, you were not only a great governor, you have a moral compass that is hard to match.

i do not know that you want me to say this. enough time has gone past by to protect us both. i was given the authority in the clinton administration to call the governor and try to talk him into going on to the supreme court of the united state of america. the governor of the court would have been better off if you were there. but i respected your decision. we miss you, old buddy. we miss you. john had a long purpose that never strayed. now -- no one ever wondered when john stood up and took the floor, that john was saying that god's truth, exactly with the facts were, and he was laying out straight up. that is why he was so respect on both sides of the aisle.

[applause] a lot of other old friends. my old friend in steve benjamin, thank you for the past work to get to. thank you for introducing me to your mom. now i understand you are they man you are. -- not understand why you are the man you are. if you excuse the point of personal privilege, the man that i admire more than any other man that i have served with, and i hate to admit this, but as a historian pointed out when i was elected my seventh term and chose between -- the senate historian came into tried to make me feel better and said now

you should know that there is only 15 people in america who have ever served as long as he did. but the point i am making is, i have known a lot of. i have known more senators -- there has never been a better man. there is never been a man with more flat-out courage and tell like it is and fits holland's -- dan fritz hollings. you talk about my early start. there is only one reason i came to the senate. i wasn't going to be sworn in. there were three people in my life at the time. one was a guy who had more integrity in his little finger

than most people have in their whole body. another one was a guy who was named fritz hollings. they get me engaged. he told me we just need you for six months. you can leave after that. fritz was part of a group of five senators that would go to dinner with their spouses. it sounds corny.

they helped save my life. when no man deserves one great love, let alone to, when i met jill, and we got married, i got a call from fritz. he said, i want to have a little get gather to introduce the colleagues to jill. at his own expense, he and pete see had every member of the supreme court had the members of the cabinet, and he put on a reception for me so everybody could meet jill. every stage of my career, both

the high points and the low points, you have been them. when people say why does joe biden, why is he so blunt? i sat next to fritz 430 two years. what do you expect me to be? what do you expect? i learned from the best. no one ever doubted fritz meant what he said. never. you taught me a lot. i make no apologies for trying to be a little bit like you. thank you, buddy. thank you for being here tonight.[applause] it is great to be back in south carolina. i mean that seriously. as i have said, i have forged relationships. i was asked if i would do his eulogy. the place of the senate used to be a place where you could actually take a look and try to find the best in other people. i did strom thurmond's eulogy. you can do that, you've got to do mine.

i said, i will be gone before you fritz. all kidding aside, our member the days we came to work. we worked together. no matter how deep the philosophic differences were, it is good to be back in south carolina knowing you're about to get another democratic rational see in the first district rate audited to do was watch that debate to understand why elizabeth is going to make make such a great congresswoman.in

the middle class, if it's not growing, the poor are damned and the middle class are stuck. ladies and gentlemen be so what's happened to the policies we had to put up with so many years before. you watched the middle class shrink. people having trouble they never have before. economists talk about the middle class in terms of dollar members. they will say the middle class

is $49,490 to %52,600. middle class is not an number. it's a value set. a way of life. -- it's not a value set. it's a way of life. of being able to own your home, to send your kid to a good school or neighborhood where it's safe. to send your kid to college. if you know anybody rich or poor doesn't have the dream to travel sunday go to college -- i have not found any distinction anywhere in the world. it is about knowing you can do that. about it enables the take parents may get old and hope -- it is about being able to take

care of your parents when they get old. that is what being middle class means. being able to care for your family and able to hold your head high. and all of a sudden last election, our republican friends about how much they value the middle class. you hear it now. i bet it's going on that silver elephant thing. i bet they are talking about the middle class. anyway i do want to make any news tonight. fritz would walk on the floor and say joe, what you gonna do today? i'm gonna be good tonight. fritz knew my dad.

a picture of my dad and mom when he came up to campaign for me. i still have it. it's hanging in my library. my dad was a gentle, good man. my dad had an expression -- don't tell -- let meme what youu value. show me your budget and i will tell you what to value. don't tell me how you care about the elderly. show me your budget to take a look at the other teams budget. we will find out what they value. they passed the budget again in the house of representatives. the ryan budget. the republican budget.

the budget they passed is absolutely no different than the one they passed last year, the one they passed the year before and the year before that. you've got to give them credit for consistency. look, medicaid -- they cut 21 million people out of medicaid. what they do not tell you is that it is not all poor folks have never had a job. these are the widows of middle- class backgrounds who are in nursing homes today only because of medicaid. where will they go? what will they do? who will care for them? tens of thousands of middle- class families in america, struggling with children of autism. they took that extra health care for medicaid. pay their taxes. they continue to pay their taxes. what are they supposed to do now? how do they make it up?

medicare. republicans say they are going to say that.-- to save it. the the truth is, they want to get rid of it. that is not an exaggeration rate with a want to do, they come back and say put us in charge. we were up -- we will replace that thing you work for your whole life. they will give you a voucher. they will say to your mom, here is a coupon. literally. that is what it is. you get a coupon worth x amount of dollars. when you hit that number, you are finished. the congressional budget office look at their first proposal.

they said it would cost the average senior 6005 hundred dollars more a year to get the same health care they are getting now. where are these guys from? i'm being serious. where are they from? what don't they understand? what don't they understand about those decent americans who paid their whole life, who built this country, who fought in wars. where do they think the 75 euros is going to get another $6,500 to get the same health care they have now? ladies and gentlemen, we have a totally different view. we strengthen medicare. we extend its life into the 20s. we have expanded and extended and paid for changes in medicaid.

look what they did in education. their budget that they are fighting for the devil for, and i bet they are making a case for this, they/elementary and secondary education. 230,000 kids will be thrown off of head start. 29,000 special education teachers for special education lose their jobs. because of jim's leadership we've gone to 9000 -- how is that not good for america? how was that not good for america? as emily knows, we are big phil we're are big fans.

we have had the honor of having emily at the house. she knows joe. my wife teaches full-time. she's the first second lady to ever have a full-time job as a teacher. she teaches 15 credits a semester.with no help. and she does it full time. that is why she is not here with me tonight. she will have an expression. any country that educates us double outcompete us. jim can tell you both as a teacher and as a nation leading democrat, all the education gap

-- you give a kid a solid start at 5, it increases exponentially the prospects of them making it through. that is lovely extended tell grants -- why we extended pell grants. that is why we set a goal we are going to reach. you know where you rank in the world for college graduates? 17th.

we used to be number one. how can we win the competition of the 21st-century if we don't change that westmark ladies and gentlemen republicans talk about the middle class and how they care about us. how many times do you hear them talking about safe neighborhoods? why do they cut the crime bill? money for cops question mark why today zero it out? because of the recession they -- we repair it did -- because of the recession we're inherited. surprise surprise, crime is up. we have laid off over 15,000 local law enforcement officials. surprised we have a problem. republican budget cuts 4800 federal agents, 3500 prison guards. that means you're going to have two early release convicted

felons. they're going to make the neighborhood i grew up in safer? ladies and gentlemen, we have different ideas. we want to give the cities and counties those 15,000 support they need. look at what is going on now. these are the same guys, the members have not been increased much. they have to deal with what? a big chunk of their time is dealing with terrorism. a whole new responsibility. these guys cut the resources? and tell you how much they care? they care? about keeping your neighborhood safe?

infrastructure -- it makes a difference how you your neighborhood looks like. roads, bridges, ports. what does the republican budget called for? no money for infrastructure. tax breaks for companies that continue to shift jobs overseas, which you have learned a lot about. cuts in programs who retrain people who lost those jobs for new industries and new high-tech jobs. my father, everybody wondered -- brock talks about me being -- barak talks so much about me being romfrom scanton. they name the sound guy was a kid he climbed out of the coal mine with a lunch pocket in my hand. the truth is, my dad after the war didn't have a job to raise his family on.

like a lot of your families, we moved to wilmington, delaware. he said i will he back a year. he came on every weekend. he found a good job. he brought us down. on that time on, my brothers and my sisters, my dad would use the phone expression -- a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. it is about your dignity. it is about your respect. your sense of your self-worth. i do not think those guys understand that. it is not just a paycheck. it is about who we are. it is not being able to hold your head up. you do not have to care for your family. you can't do that without being able to make a decent wage, with

a decent standard of living. van slowly pushed in the beginning to bring manufacturing back home. we created 500,000 more manufacturing jobs over their injections -- objections. [applause] there are six and a thousand high-tech jobs in america that remain open today. we do not have the trained personnel for them. that is why with jim's leadership, we have been out there making businesses with community colleges and they tell us what you need. there is a great big new plant up in michigan, hiring all kinds of people. decent wages. give siemens coming down opening of a brand is facility. why? because we have the best universities in the best community colleges in the world. we are training them.

these guys voted against all that. they have tried to illuminate this program. that is why we continue to insist on investing in infrastructure. good decent paying jobs. the increased productivity. they make us more competitive. no one knows better than fritz and jim who have served. no one knows that better than the folks in south carolina. you understand what we need to upgrade our infrastructure. why we have to invest in the port of charleston. [applause] i'm serious. here is what is happening. the panama canal has been widened. you have these massive ships a book to come through now. guess what? most of the ports and the east coast cannot accommodate them. if they can, it is real jobs and real money. it is real dignity return to people.

folks, jim and i have had countless conversations. we're going to get you money for the port of charleston. this guy is relentless. i mean it. at the end of the day, this is all about the reason i love this guy. it is all about according people the dignity they deserve. that means a fighting chance. i decent job -- a decent job. i know a lot of you heard about how china is going to eat our lunch. give me a break. give me a break. if it takes is a second, there is a company that point out something very basic. american workers, south carolina workers, are three times of productive as any workers in

china. as a fact. that is not chauvinism. that is a fact. america companies are more innovative. including in china. how many times have you heard speeches down here of someone standing up and saying china produces six times as many engineers as we have? they do. name me one product that they are brought the international market? name me one innovative change they have made? why? because in order to innovate you have to challenge your orthodoxy. you have to challenge what went before. you cannot do that in a country that does not allow you to breathe free and speak openly. dazzle makes us who we are.

-- that is what makes us who we are. i do not have a doubt in my mind that we will continue to be the world's leading economy in this decade. we want the chinese economy to grow. when i was in china, -- three years ago said they wanted me to get to know the vice president was now the president. i spent 10 days with him. i had to go over to china after our republican friends calls art national rating to be downgraded. i went to china and they talked about how we understand you might come back. i stood in the great all of the

people with the president of china and said we appreciate your concern, but there is no need for you to come by. you only owe one percent of all the financial insurance in this country. let me remind you, it is never a good bet to bet against america. never. why? we have a strongest middle class in the world. on taxes, i will in this. i can go on for a long time about this. the are public and budget has more of the same breed protecting tax break for the wealthy. i felt we have been there before. we saw that before. we know how it ends. in their budget, they have called for continuing a $4.5

billion tax break for oil companies who made more than $90 billion in profits.i always have to be the bearer of bad news. [laughter] the last one was not a bad deal. we insisted that people at the top bracket go back to what they were paying before. not as a punishment. and it was over 40 ceos. they all agree the numbers should go up.

it raised $600 billion and cut our deficit by another 600 billion dollars. folks, look. if you're coning cut on the middle class, why do they do it? it is hard to believe this but these guys are proposing. in order to provide for these massive tax cuts, that is the only way they can do it. other than ballooning the deficit even more than they already have. that is why they talk about it the way they do. that is why they call for these cuts to the middle class. by the way, they talk a lot about deficits. let me take what jim in congress

have done. we have reduced the deficit already by $2.5 trillion. the proposal is to gain another $1.5 trillion. the difference is we do it fair. that will get us to the magic number. every economist to talk to will tell you if you get that to gdp below three percent, that is when things take off. that is exactly what the president's raposo will do. it will get it down to 2.1%. you do not have to break the back of the middle class to have this country grow. the only way you can make it grow is to give it a chance. like you, i believe in the future of this country. some people say i'm an optimist. the white house optimist, like i'm the new play -- nook in the place.-- the new kid in the place.

-- but i'm the new kid in the place. i know the journey of this country. never have the american people never ever have the american people let us down. they are not asking for anything special. the american people are are only asking for what they paid for. just give them a fighting chance. you know, you can't be outcompeted. you can't out innovate us. let me conclude by saying, one of the things that bothers me

the most about the new republican party is how down on america they are. how down on our prospects they are. have a talk about how we are getting clobbered. how they talk about things that make no relationship to reality. also they can ensure the very few the top are wealthy.my republican colleagues who talk about us being in decline, let me remind them. it is never, ever and history of this country been a good butet to bet against the american people. the middle-class is going back. the american people are coming back. the country is coming back and i am absolutely positive. not because of barack obama and joe biden but because of the nature of the american people.

we continue to give them half a chance. we need to be the dominant economy. folks, as my grandfather would say, keep the faith. we are coming back. south carolina is coming back and south carolina is on its way back. thank you very much. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. [applause] > ronald reagan massively made

mistakes on defense. the defense budget was not just a waste of money and those eight years, it is what created the war machine refused -- we have u tosed create so much havoc and anger. it mae us an imperial power was a real negative. big government, the state is not a solution to every problem. it can wait on the private economy. therefore the idea of entrepreneurs in the idea that people should make their own decisions about some dates.

the -- fiscally he lost it. he really needed tos stand up for closing more of the deficit. ronald reagan spent a lot of time is the greatest scourge opponent of deficit spending there was. that legacy of massive deficits. that was an historical error of enormous proportion. >> more with david stockman sunday at 8:00 on c-span's q and a. >> a recent conference of the news coverage of the sandy hook elementary school shootings. and as part of the conference, journal of and local officials

discussed the neediest initial response to the shootings -- the media's initial response to the shootings. the conference was hosted by columbia university school of journalism. >> our first panel the next hour or so is entitled breaking news and trauma. they want this part of the conversation to be looking back at the hours and days and weeks after the events of december 14. and look at the role of journalist and how we as a profession interacted and how we did hear it we are lucky to be joined by some extraordinary folks. jason carroll from cnn has been called to boston and he can't be here.

but we do have a bunch of important people. all my immediate right -- the first select woman of newtown. it is a privilege to have you here as a connecticut resident and citizen of the united states, it made me feel good about the idea of political leadership. she serves as chair of the education subcommittee and communication subcommittee and other committees. she's been in newtown since 1970.

the league of women voters and the republican town committee six times on the board of education. also have lunch of fellowships and awards -- also a whole bunch of fellowships and awards. >> the chief spokesperson for the connecticut state police the next that connecticut the trooper for more than 30 years. he was assigned as a specialty canine handler, swat team member, helicopter medic and other life -- and other speciailized assignment. he is a network for many years and understand the work of leasing.

i was impressed with the clarity and discipline of communication throughout this crisis. especially as someone who is watched some other mass shootings and other large-scale events. it was quite impressive. next is the news director of wshu public radio -- of wshu public radio. she has been a board member's 2009. she is a graduate of this school. her previous career was as a national park service ranger and a teacher. she faced some important

challenges as the local public radio affiliate, as the story broke.

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>> hi, everyone. welcome back to the afternoon session where were going to be talking about a social media and we have a great deal to discuss

not just about the sandy hook incident, but also subsequently last week we had a number of lessons that were probably being discussed as well. joining me today i'm delighted to say is trained for who it is a senior strategist from npr. he has lost the written media from its title which is a picture because when that goes away, it is no longer am not sure to whatyou do. essential to the operation. the author of the buck about his experiences of aggregating and treating the arab spring, where he established a protocol to use the real-time social web for a more conversational linked

approach to news verification and reporting. on my mmediate left is shipped in may, principal of newtown high school. ship was one of the most nsistent and calm presence on social media throughout india. i know many people not just in the community, but journalists and other people outside newtown knew him as a source. and i wanted to start wth you. and again, just going back to that day because you had already established yourself as an educator who uses technology. you have presence already in social media. he used it to communicate with your students and the wider community. get on that day, you became

somebody who's known within a small community someone his identifiable to a much wider community. can you talk us through what happened on that day and where you were and what you are doing and what happened at yours cool? >> on the 14th i was not in the district. i was not say a professional development seminar and received a phone call from school that there had been an incident at sandy hook. server returning to the school arrived at newtown high school as were all the other schools in the district. so we have lockdown drills. they usually don't last very long. this is not a drill and is last in a considerable time.

so as far as information coming out, we didn't do any treaty and at that time or send anything out. at least the administration did not. as much as we try to keep the flow of information at a minimum during the lockdown because it doesn't contribute to much positive and that happens. that kind of stuff leaks out as well as leaks in. so people know building were receiving information from the outside and there was that much people in my could say other than they were in lockdown. the first message greeted and out with this sense of newtown high schoolers date. >> what time was that? >> wire to the end of the school day. i guess somewhere between 11:00 and 12:00. >> braid. you have information linking in making out. you are very measured press and

an anthogy or twitter feed. somebody who gave out information. lots of other public officials may have had a presence on the social media quite understandable reasons disappeared. did you suddenly find your undated with questions people identify not anything this? >> there are lots of questions. i think our role asfar as communicating was one of reassuring the community and the families much more than delivering information. we weren't at sandy hook. we were more concerned with how we were going to demonstrate to the world that we were strong and resilient. so during that time if you go back and read them, were thank you because as much as it was

import for our healing and about like this affects the world. one of the challenges we've had even at the high school is how do we help? tickets at the high sool or very can earn about how they. they wanted to just as much as the yankees wanted to help sandy hook, every kid in high school wanted to help sandy hook. those things are difficult because sandy hook is indated with people who want to help even within the community. so we received lots and lots of support from around the world we wanted people to recognize the hurt them and appreciated. >> was there a point at which you thought you had gone from being somebody who is just -- not just, bigger principle looking off to the sma community. did you feel any of the pressure

we were hearing about -- we personally followed ensued by the press in the same way this morning? >> i'm sure pack up far more attention than i did. i responsibility was to protect the kids from the media. the fans at runtime or parked across the street fromthe high school for days and as respectful as they were at the school grounds and not been on school grounds traffic at newtown high school is just like traffic at every other high school. when traffic was backed up reporters at approach cars come as administrators and the police to try to help kids get into school without having to do that. i think at that point, most of our communication was to help

with the healing. >> how did you deal with high schools in his? did you say they were source material for the press as well? they are notoriously familiar with expressing themselves social media, maybe a little too frequent week? they're obviously going to talk about the incident. did you talk to them about that and how the communications might be perceived and how to handle the press? >> students were fantastic. the students continuto be fantastic. the staff really were the ones we address the media issue so they can communicate on a one-on-one basis with student. very few issues arose other than being apprched at home are being approached as they left

school. those are the major issues. other than not, the students were so deeply hurt that they understood very clearly what would be helpful for them to talk about and what would not be helpful to talk about. >> you're talking about strength and yet powerful support throughout. how did you maintain the right emotional balance intones? you are remarkably measured throughout all this, which must've been extremely difficult because he knew the staff and some of the big guns and was very close to your community. pple in schools care very much about kids. that is something we always talk about it i'll think of things that kids and families always say to the degree that it really takes place. this was an opportunity to let

families know the school cared very much about their kids. hudson coaching, you know during these types of events, it is important to get out and perspectives on what's going on. it's not something there is a planned book for her. navigating the situation means talking with people who are well-versed in trauma and this type of situation. dr. johnoodall is a resource that values personally and professionally to these situations. >> what advice would you give to others who would be your situation where principals who are not thinking about how do you communicate more broadly within and outside school because i hope nobody else is put in your position, but they might be.

>> we were very lucky the structures were in place ahead of time. this could not be developed on spur of he moment. as far as establishing a blog that en if students don't go there for information, a parent go for information regularly at the school. soa sent home in addition to automated phone calls and twitter, but have a nice structure of éclairs system of communication and pieces of communication that overlaps. we didn't do any one form of communication. the calls were repeated with the blog, repeatedly twitter so the message assert to get there. >> it's maybe a beside the point question, but we were curious what your policy is about phones in school. are they banned? today used them when they

shouldn't? >> i don't think it's so much a question of whether they have been. it's a question of when to use the phone and how to use the phones. so we encourage the teachers to find ways to take advantage of students at ologies. the times that i will take away phones is when students lacking to me in the hallways as they are doing that. but we care about students safe in rocky mount stairwells using the phone is not a good idea but to share information ascent they were promoting. >> were now approaching kind of six-month the incident. is it something whichecause you're so public and still open about your work in what you're doing, do you find are frequently contacted by people still to talk about sandy hook

possessors of information. >> we still get ctacted as a school and as i was saying earlier to somebody, the key for us in terms of interaction during this event was we were more than welcome to speak with anybody who is as concerned about our healing as we were. if there was some that would facilitate students and staff in the community, we were glad to do it. >> i want to go to you now. your words are really hailed a recognize throughout the arabs sprang a somebody who got a new technique to journalists. there are so during sandy hook are your also tweaking regularly throughout the day he attracted a rtain amount of criticism.

wrote a column about you or the guardian saying that he was spreading too muchalse information asking for verification. european overemotional comment saturday. looking back now, can you tell me again a little about their day in what you are doing and how you are thinking through that process and maybe talk at the end of that about some of the pushback you've got from other journalists in the community. >> sometimaround 10:00 a.m. that day i receive tweets from random people that follow me asking if i heard a shooting at the school. they were getting reports of it. so that when i'm twitter and you can do a search around a particular geographic area, they started monitoring the traffic and one of the first thing i saw were twitter accounts from first

responders. some official comes dumpers told her she didn't see them and they didn't have the details. as time went by a started seeing trees and family members and students in lockdown trying to figure out what was going on. as they begin to capture those come you started seeing television networks picking them out. local level to nationally and internationally. i basically ban maundering as many as possible at the same time being part of a core group of people, focusing solely on the event that day. we essentially had e-mail they sent out an rich anytime there is a report that we there could confirm or could not confirm come we shared with each other as quickly as possible so we know what to keep close and also share what we felt confident

about. so i spent the day pricing information from the outside to get a better understanding of the. my twitter account is different from a typical newslett account in the sense it doesn't service a newsetter. i work with twitter followerso collect information from a variety of sources and hash out what happened like a newsroom was. i' got about 90000 twitter followers and during the arab spring they were able to translate content from every arabic dialect in the region. they would track shipping lancing flavors and identify weapons and munitions, put together background materials on the political leaders protesters said the lake. so i have an army of people who followed me and volunteer to do research roles. so i began asking people to do the same based on what we were

hearing. one of the things they did was that i heard other news organizations make certain claims such as a second shooter or a purple van somehow involved, i cited a news organization and ask followers that they'd seen any other news organization offering independent confirmation. sometimes they would say yes. we know that strew. by the southern is other news organizations speculated, but we see nothing else. so we would hash that out in a sickly but so we did all day. in the case of michael wolff and they can count on one hand the jourlists over the next 24 hours about what it is doing. their argument as i was using social media to propagate rumors, wheas if you look at my tweets each one that contained questionable information was in the context

of so-and-so is claiming this. what do we know, how has it been sourced and how we put this to rest or figure it out? of course there's times if a person drops into atwitter stream or a biased news broadcast for one or two minutes, they may not get the full context, but my twitter followers follow me for a specific reason because they try to use techniques to work with and and they know i'm not just some random twitter account. >> is that the case to say we've seen in the past week as well the act of asking for verification inadvertently push incorrect information a little further for his son say do not tweet it unless he reported. >> news organizations are being naïve as to how much of her mission is propagated. last week in austin tracy jan

there were hundreds of thousands of people who are simultaneous listeners to the traffic intent of thousands were posting face the and twitter and most news organizations generally ignored it. what was discussed was about 15 minutes to sometim 30 minutes ahead of the news organizations in terms of getting this writing getting a strong. whenever i see a bit of buckling up of information is clearly brimmer, peopldon't necessarily know what they're talking about, but it's spreading like wildfire. it's my responsibility to say hang on a second. what is your source? pretournament journalistic jargon is that the way you think we talk? or jihads is confirmed by talking to multiple independent sources? news organizations operate in a world where we used to be the sole arbiters of information

peony breaking news story would have been, we sort through the rumors, the facts. remiss to the floor and the public would be none the wiser. the social media today, the public is completely aware of rumors and reports and play a better rule is spreading them for better go. we can pretend it's not going on or acknowledge and try to chime in with them and say you may want to pull back on this or that sparse one becausee hear the same thing. there needs to be a new role in journalism where certain staff during breaking news know what's going on in the newsroom. they know people are discussing online and may serve as a facilitator and whatever appropriate way. >> you mentioned the police scanner. how much has changed even in the six months between sandia and

boston because this is something we were discussing previously to the panel where you said there was a quantity of differentst week were very, very quickly the first day people started spreading their major social mathworks is on facebook and twitter or define access to scanners. whether specifically by stan for

cpd, whichever one it was does that out quickly. at the time we reached friday literally hundreds of thousands were listening to so many there had to be volunteers which emulated the idea of inmates in available elsewhere because some sites couldn't handle the traffic. the public i getting a much stronger sense of the possibilities of how to monitor official channels in real-time. the challenges just because it's official they don't necessarily know what is true and what's not and they don't know whose voices are talking in the codes being is. they don't always realize there's tactical channels the new scum or the most informatn is going back and forth and they don't want that aired publicly. so again the situation where they almost must know a little too much for their own good and

so they realize it's there. they try to utilize it. they share with friends, but don't always understand the implications of what they are sharing. why are more of playing a role in helping them parse that? >> everybody we've heard from from the newtown community today is top of the singularity foc looking after people within the community, protecting them. how aware were you of how the story was being reported as it was unfolding? where are you getting your sources of the donation what did you at any point look at the social media traffic in the news coverage of the day? >> i didn't see the news for the week probably.

>> so you have no sense of whether the schools -- what about the students? did you have a sense of where they get their information from or how they were being affect did i have a story was reported? >> not so much. i think again they were in a real serious state of shock and some of them were probably for very good reasons for avoiding. >> just talking about the problem of the speed and the distance that incorrect infoation now reaches, we've heard this morning reporters on the other side of the world bring out reporters and newtown and asking for them to verify her concern is completely wild.

tell us about that dynamic and again it's our job to intervene in influence it. how can we do something which positively affects the speed of the spread of that information. >> social media combined with 24 hour news is created with telefon run amok. people pass along information. ev that may start his information meta-tannic is through, there's the possibility of won't be in any context. unfortunately, some bad actors who purposely take inormation and spread it just to see how far they can get it to spread. people have no shame in situations like this. what is interesting is comparing wiki news versus a situation like sandy hook or by and for that honor, the chatter is very

different because in the case of the middle east come you have a smaller number of people who are eyewitnesses and that's getting passed along through literally a larger geographic area. the average person in america doesn't know that much about egypt whereby rain or what other, so there's more listening going on then ask enough questions, whereas when you have a situation in your backya and even if you're a couple states away everyone is talking to everyone immediately. do you know anyone there? are they okay? the chatter explodes because people have much more in the best interest. ultimately, the u.s. is made -- a community small communities in the same way fewer stories that of boston, so many people make of it is. i have friends and colleagues who were there needs of the dam are one of the suspects.

his fastball in the town even i were talking about a metropolitan area of a million people. so information and connections have been very, very quickly. someone explain real-time much closer, the scale of that chatter is bigger, broader and much more intense and makes it all the harder to sort through. >> advancement in states like sandy hook out and with a slightly different responsibility, that actually being quiet rather than noisy is a better response. >> well, for a while now, like many people i've had mike turns with the 24 hour news cycle. you don't allow dead air on television during breaking news. it's just not acceptable as a people keep talking and talking and sometimes allows mistakes to

be a major information shared possibly faster than it should. we saw examples of past week, especially wednesday with numerous news organizations reporting suspects were in custody. that was the furthest thing from the truth. so it's a difficult dynamic because even if you set aside television news, online news for print papers people as part of their jobs use twitter and facebook for reporting. thanks be to faster and faster than ever before. i like to argue in certain cases, if you are able to get followers in social media to get used to it you can exercise the right to slow down. so there were times during sandy hook as was the past week in boston where twitter followers were e-mailing some pticular

question. rather than me blathering every single thing i knew i would say let me get back to you and i would go silent for a while. a while. i would check sources and go turn on the local affiliates and see what they were reporting. if there is something reported differently by two different news organizations rather than stick with one because they seemed more credible, i would share both in and ask my twitter followers to debate how these resource and why. by creating situations where you can scrutinize things and so thanks to a certain extent because no one says social media has to be fast. they made a habit it being fast and wants to breaking news first happened even while it's taking place we could pull back a little bit because the difference between tweaking something in five seconds and 50

seconds for five minutes can be a huge difference. >> is not somethinyou put into it yourself. you moderate your own behavior. >> someone asked me how much stuff i were sharing that day. if that i'm holding bk 75% of what i her because there's too much noise. too many things seem strange like for example anything about the face page that turned out to be the brother's page. it seemed too easy at that point and also the fact he wasn't in a specific location in new jersey. i just thought, let's see if we can contact someone or find someone who knows him. meanwhile the news organizations went with it. it appeared on facebook, twitter and elsewhere and not long after you started to see outlets having t retractecause the brother posted a message finally. he went public and said stop

harassing me. i'm not there. that was one of the most egregious stakes -- mistakes that day because not only was he finding out his mother was dead brothers said the brother was likely responsible for the atrocity and now people are pointing fingers him. i can only imagine what that felt like. the closest thing you compare it to is the north african boys who appeared on the cover of the post a few days ago because users with a collection of photos from the scene of boston and parse it out based on that tax, looking in other directions. they happen to have brown skin. >> this raises the question, which i think started this seemed a hook and became clear during boston that we hadn't found an adequate answer to it which is how does one influence

those communities of people who may think they are doing the right thing are actually doing a culpable amage by ms. identification of individuals is absolutely key to that. >> more people involved in the news business have to take a greater stake in these communities than themselves. i feel personally responsible on twitter because that is a community where a group of followers join me in a pulpit and in all sorts of ways. it could've easily been faced back or google or something else. that happens to be the one that worked for me. for example: the folks for diving in headfirst, they were using interesting tech geeks to examine these photos. it shows the lack a lot of the contacts and certain people were willing to share it without reminding people we don't know anything about these folks and

we need to assume they are innocent until proven guilty. i think there's something to be said about having people who do work like me in more communities, paying closer attention. by the time i found outwhat was going on it is today irony already out there. they dirty down all of this work. i wish i could've spent the time earlier on that space. i can't be everywhere at once. so i think they do need to be more people in my position or react as journalists but also iciness resident and members of communities and can develop credibility. if we raise their hands and say hang on a sec folks enough will take it seriously at the path for a moment. >> what advice wld you give because you are somebody who says i'm not a journalist. i started off as an activist and now you work for journalist organizations.

what advice would you give for people in the communities, let's say someone who did a very public, but very measured job. you are now a source at the center of the story in your identifiable through public office. a god, what is the role of somebody in that position if they themselves are a publisher now? >> is it important for public officials and others who are potential in the spotlight for whatever reason they go beyond the usual journalistic hombres of who they get to know in the business. the first example is bloggers covering local community news stories and the like. they may be fakes in the community. you don't necessarily have to become the next you're.

and colic should be aware they are out there in developing and developed a elationship in the same way organizations need to do a better job of cultivating sources and communities elsewhere. i've been able to cover a number of stories because before he came to npr usage of online work, bringing together volunteers to natural disasters such as the synonymy and hurricane katrina. i had a network of first response there's at the national level who knew i was. when twitter came along i certified in who their friends were at the state and local level. it's not unusual for one to alert me to say this is going on here. tell your local npr affiliates or whatever. the world was a bigger place in a smaller place than ever before

and we have these niche communities online that may not seem relevant right now, but they're extremely relevant members of your community because that's where they're going to talk about your community. the more time to invest in getting to know, the better off you are in terms of getting the right information out there and mobilizing as voluntes said they can help you rather than be . >> i want to ask both of you in terms of motional response and social media. you very much where your heart in your sleep when you're treating. >> when it's appropriate. i don't always. i travel a lot for work and i was the first i've been able to go to school and walk in the door and dropped him off. my daughters i elementary school and she was six. i felt like qaeda reaction that day the same way i did to boston

because i am from boston. they used to walk two blocks to the marathon line at the 23rd mile marker to cheer everyone on. i'm not going to hype that. that doesn't necessarily mean it will diving and start saying, isn't it time for congress to do this or that or why haven't we invaded this particular country to stop that dictator? i feel like without getting involved with the politics and many journalists think if you can't do when you can't do the other. i'm not saying you have to be sitting there and shrieking and having all the histrionics of things are going on because you can't function. acknowledging this is a stressful and upsetting situation, when you reported your social media, that makes you human. if you start behaving like a robot using social media, that

some people get skeptical. >> what about you? how do you feel about emotional responses online? >> i think part of our job in communicating does not necessarily have to do with the news. there are a couple reasons for doing it. the primary reason is so parents and community members feel comfortable knowing they are taking care of their kids. a big part of the message is in the town and a big part of the messages in the delivery. when we talk about the time as ms. lowe drew aside, new town doesn't have who does them inditions, nor does the high school. the challenge is to get information out good es as much in town as it does in the words.

>> do you think you are usual in high use communications? i looked at the school are retrospectively and you seem to be quite advanced in terms of techniques you're deploying and how comes you either. >> i do think there may be a difference in the media or the type knowledge it but there is not a difference in the level of caring on the level of communication. >> i want to take a couple questions -- several questions from the floor. one question here which is come through twitter. you say its journalists have a job to get involved with ac information proliferated in stopping it. somebody would like to know how you did that dealing with this quite opinionated communities.

as you say, spreads like wildfire. is there a way of doing not in developing young nerds for verifying or not verifying information. >> it would be tough if you're not respected within that community. if i said a drop twitter and say hang on folks. i don't know if i could'vegot enough attention because there's not enough quantity they are. some people know me, but it's not my name and i think that's part of the problem whereas there's enough people on twitter that if i said it received reports they take cause and spread treats around quickly because they know that's one of the roles i play there. the challenge is with twitter it's kind of an ecosystem of everything. everything you see in real life is perfect and some aren't

twitter, whereas a very specific communication with norms and mores and may treat outsiders in ways that are welcoming at least in from the perspective of outsiders. so it can be harder to go when m put in more measured journalistic response. having said that it's possible. i've been tempted by the idea of creating a set community that's basically where npr staff accountable to talk about raking news. as part of that to tell them when they're doing a good job in doing some very good is not injurious. and so it depends on the community. >> is a hard question to ask about sandy hook because there was a more detailed discussion about boston, but some

journalists raised that make it very hard question o the course isoing to be misinformation early in this worry and you talked about was there a second shooter, someone has been arrested and they haven't been arrested. this identification. doesn't really matter? ultimately it's a terrible terrible tragedy. this 26 people dead yet that doesn't change. the rest of the speculation ultimately will go away. what is the real damage done when you have people are running amok on social media? >> well, one of the clear examples of that would be last wednesday wh reports that went on for some time that suspects were in custody. even though people were staying closer to home at that point it was in lockdown the same when it was on friday.

concrete is something that happened during those hours were news organizations are reporting suspects had been captured and people went out and something had happened. of course this is all hypothetical and thankfully we haven't seen a situation where social media has caused -- as the people's lives in danger. you could argue in smaller cases they pass. one of the moroccan boys who was on the cover of the post and circulated on ad it in twitter before that by saying he was afraid to go to school. his parents or read someone will show up and shoot them. even if it's clear he didn't do it, some person who doesn't like arabs for north africa and may take them out because they are aware. there are consequences but the consequences about all of us getting it wrong. it didn't happen because social media said it was wrong.

a feedback loop was created between media and social media world with information is bubbling to the top of nasa would need to figure out how to avoid. >> i want to go to the idea to take questions. we have the mics if you have hands up in the air. look over here first. >> hi, mike patrick from waterbury, connecticut. you mentioned earlier journalists being arbiters of information and i think that's true, but i also urge you we are the conservatives as well and custodians have it. it's taditionally been idealistically than rumor, innuendo, false information over here in journalism over here. do you see it all in your approach to it and tweaking

something that says they'v heard such and such is true. can you confirm that? do you see that i.e. reading a little bit and that is a positive or negative thing to say that? >> what is different now if you think about the word media, what does that mn? middle. the information is on one side. this is for the event happen and murmurs are all tossed around. the public is somewhere over here and it is our job to parse the returned sorted out and make sure whatever the public perceives is the best representation possible what happened to be more informed because of it. i think that's an ideal journalism that's been around. the reality is now anyone who's on the public side and we ran ou me feel like it because people over here observed the event. they've got their camera phnes out, talking among themselves.

so there ar times when i worry the media feels like it's talking to itself, while the internet is doing its own thing. so i think -- i thik we c see ourselves as custodians of truth and trying to get the most accurate narrative possible. at the same time t's a missed opportunity if we ignore the chatter taking place because not everyoneill see reporting for the final version of the story. if you look at you see research on people's literacies and news topics,, whatever, it can be extremely dismal at times. they can't get worse because people think they know what they are talking about. some of them do, some of them don't. while we are continuing to do that one aspect of our job that's always been there, there is this evolving role.

npr's mission says to create a more firm public. i think that's actually dissing from informing people because it is giving them the tools they need to be more informed were better informed or better citizens in the process. i think if we try to take a more traditional approach of what it needs to be a journalist, were missing opportunities to civil society. >> question ov there. >> hi, ilia merits from nyc radio station here in new york city. my question is for you. i'm really intrigued you are such an active presence on twitter, but i'm curious because twitter has the effect of leveling the playing field making everyone equal regardless of how many followers each party may have.

do you have conversations with students on your twitter feed? if so, what is that like? how do you determine the tone and particularly around the time of sandy hook we talking astuteness that way as well as in the halls and school? >> you said something interesting when you're talking about different levels, whether it be community member or principal or parent or student. during a tragedy like ths all of those things dissolve and everybody is on the same level. so everybody heard the same and everybody needed to get the same message. i communicate with students whenever they are willing to admit to the road on twitter that they are talking to their principal. >> at talking to your principal is like talking to your mom on twitter, not some vague you want to be seen doing.

i won't friend you on facebook. i feel there's another question of a share, maybe not. start at the back of not come forward. >> india, given everything you just said where do you see the medium-term --what do you see as the medium term future. is it over social media mainly an idc is shaking out? ..

as. >> one and people

unfortunately presume it is generational and i have dealt with in turn set npr that are very much social media when it comes to journalism and some have retired because they're so gooat it but the difference is the ones who really get social media are the ones you know, and be good listeners in public. not everyone is comfortable with that. it is not a natural part of the way journalism has worked in the past. medium term we will figure that out how do we find the right people who have that level of comfort and confidence with the

i would conclude we have a spending and revenue problem. clearly spending has got to be brought down. i think also clearly we have got to have increase in revenue if we are going to meaning only close this gap. that is especially important in light of the baby boom generation because they will put enormous pressure as they begin to retire and that is not a projection. they have been born. they are alive today. they will be eligible for medicare and social security. this is where we are headed in terms of our gross debt as a percentage of our gross domestic product. and this is the latest projection from the congressional budget office. you can see that we are headed

for 115% by 2022 unless we take further action. most economists would say when you reach gross debt of more than 100% of your gdp, you are in a danger zone. you are at the beginning of what could be an unsustainable situation. even more striking as our long- term debt outlook. this is according again to cbo and you can see right in the middle there, the dotted line is where we are today. you can see by the previous slide the gross debt is going up. but even more striking is where we are headed over the longer- term. this is a course that is totally unsustainable. i do not know any serious person who has reviewed this data and concluded anything other then we have to take meaningful action. i know there are those who say

wait a minute. we have seven .5% unemployment 7.5% unemployment so we should not be taking austerity measures now. i agree we should not take immediate austerity measures but we should make commitments to austerity over the longer- term to get us back on track. this is what is happening to the discretionary side of the budget. and you can see under the budget control act that as a share of total spending, the domestic accounts -- that is defense and nondefense -- are going lower than we have seen in decades. in fact since the eisenhower administration. interestingly, the part of the budget being cut is the part of the budget that is already shrinking. here is the other

side of the coin. this is the part of the budget that is really growing and growing dramatically and growing in a way i think is unsustainable. this is medicare, medicaid, and other federal health spending. again as a share of gdp, looking from 1972 to 1950, you can see in 1972 he were spending about one percent of our gross domestic accounts. we are headed to 12%. that is happening in a way that is -- i think most budget experts would say -- simply unsustainable. and yet we are doing very little to rein in the spending of the federal government. when you think of what has been done, it really makes almost no sense to read we are cutting the part of the budget that is shrinking, and we are not cutting be part of the budget that is growing very dramatically. if you look at the reasons why

healthcare spending is growing so rapidly, the aging population is the primary driver of medicare, medicaid, and social security cost growth. yes, there is the effect of excess cost growth, that is the yellow part of this chart. but the real driver is the aging population. and that is coming to in 10 youtube and devil us unless we find ways to effectively address it -- that is going to continue to bedevil us unless we find ways to effectively address it. let me say one thing. i did not bring this slide. i think it is important to know. you saw on the spending and revenue slide, revenue is about 15.8% of gdp last year. if you look at the five times we have balanced the budget since 1960, revenue has been close to 20% in each of those years.

my own belief is we have to get revenue in that range if we are going to have an overall package that gives us back on track. to just put into perspective how little really needs to be changed in order to achieve levels of that size, i remind you, the president asked for $1.6 trillion i and revenue last year, but to put that in perspective, we will raise $37 trillion. at the same time, speaker boehner was asking for 500 billion dollars cut from medicare. if you look at the federal health care accounts which is what he was asking to save us from, he was asking for a four .5% reduction -- 4.5% reduction

in healthcare.we cannot do 4.5% on revenue? of course we can do 4.5%. if we could, we would be on a sustainable path going forward and i believe all of us would have a sigh of relief and say job well done. we may not like some of the specifics. certainly there may be things we dislike. we would be on a path that puts america on a sustainable course. that will be a good thing for all of us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, kent. i like your first name by the way. a lot of people think i am greg judd. it works for me.

he was famous for his slides. having slides whenever kent is around is like trying to follow martha stewart with recipes. he probably depressed folks with the slides and he should because they are accurate. this country is on the course to fiscal insolvency, bankruptcy. we are on a path where we are not that far from the metrics you see in europe and some of the most serious situations in europe. the difference is we have a huge economy and we have a resilient economy and a flexible and resilient people. so we are not as in dire shape as europe, which has unfortunately locked down and a single currency but does not work for countries with such diverse cultures. i am fond of quoting the

statements made to bob zeller, the former head of the world bank, and he was talking to the former foreign minister of australia a few months ago. and he said, "you know the united states is one debt deal away from leading the world out of its economic doldrums." and that is absolutely true. it is a very doable event. you are talking 4.5% adjustment in fiscal policy over 10 years. and in fact a significant amount of that is already done. about $2.5 trillion has already been put into the pipeline. we need about another $2.5 trillion.

i chair a group called fix the debt. erskine bowles and the former governor of pennsylvania was the chairman, a very active of this group -- a very active member of this group. we were putting forward ideas or how you can do that, accomplish these changes in fiscal policy. let me name three. i think it is important to talk of the solutions now that kent has outlined the problem so effectively. the three areas of concern are entitlements, and in the entitlements accounts, the pension accounts, social security and medicare, and revenue. in the social security area, this is a totally solvable issue. kent and i, if we were to have a magic wand could sit down i do not think it would take more than a half an hour. we could put in place an effective solution for social security. the committee that we sat on did exactly that. it only has a few moving parts.

you have to change what you know as the bend point, which is a means testing event. you have to change the cpi which i give the president credit for proposing. that gets social security solvent. very doable. why is it not being done? politics basically. the second issue is medicare. this is where most of the money is. medicare has an unfunded liability of approximately $60 trillion. that is with a t. if you take the net worth of america, most of which you folks manage, all are stocks, houses that is $55 trillion. medicare alone has an unfunded

liability after you get through this tax that exceeds our net worth of the nation. and that is why we are in areas -- serioustrouble. medicare has to be fixed. this does not mean anything draconian. it does not mean tomorrow we have to push to pull off of health care or radically adjusted their system. what we have to do over a period of time, and this will not be fixed tomorrow -- the frugality or the attempts to give fiscal responsibility into our system do not require an immediate contraction. it means we have put in place a glide path over 5, 10, mean years that makes medicare sustainable, affordable and continues to be a good system. there are a lot of ideas. there is a consortium of 30 hospitals.

the mayo clinic. baylor. dartmouth.they are all over the country. there are studies within these consortiums that have shown they can do much better delivery at lower cost. take for example, total knee replacement. they concluded the price i need -- on knee replacementsin these very highly efficient hospitals which are rightly regarded varies from $2000 to $20,000 but the outcomes were the same. so they are using these statistics to try to drive outcomes at lower cost. and there is something called withholding approach they have proposed, which basically incentivizes healthcare

providers to produce better results at lower cost. using the carrot instead of the stick, which is what we use and federal government today. there are ways to get medicare directly aligned moving in the right direction. third is revenue. simpson-bowles, which we served on, concluded that the revenue system just does not work. the system is massively complex. totally unfair. skewed for all kinds of reasons that has nothing to do with collecting revenue. it is incredibly efficient. we suggested the zero approach. we would dramatically reduce all deductions and exemptions. dramatically reduce them. we use the revenues from that of $1.1 trillion a year under simpson-bowles, we took $1 trillion and we will raise rates. at 9%, 15%, 23%. we took 100 billion dollars audit it a year and we reduced

the debt. so the proposed debt reduction to get to a stable gdp to debt ratio -- $1 trillion of that came from changing the way we collect revenues. creating growth basically. by having people invest not to avoid taxes, but it returns.-- but to get returns. this is what you folks do. you give people returns. we would like you to invest for return, not avoiding taxes. this is still very doable. and there are people who want to do it. chairman camp and the house at the ways and means to many and chairman bauchus and the finance committee. the finance minister of australia was saying america is

one debt deal away from hitting the world out of economic doldrums. we are not that far away from getting that debt deal. i genuinely believe it could happen. i think that the debt is trying to push in that direction. remember, this is a big number. we are talking $2.5 trillion dollars. that is a big number. it is not big in the context of a $40 trillion 10 year number. i think our economy is going to explode. we are going through a massive paradigm shift. we will have the least expensive energy in the world compared to our primary competitors in the industrialized world. energy prices flow through the old economy in a positive way. on top of that, we are still the the place where all the great ideas comes from -- all the

technology comes from. on top of that you have massive amounts of liquidity where you go to work. the key to all of this is the american people are ready to do things that create jobs and prosperity. so really, i think our future is extraordinarily bright as a nation that think he can get this one issue behind us and hopefully we will, things will look very bright for us as a country. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, gentlemen for those opening remarks. i have been talking to some of my colleagues on the board. they have suggested a few caller: questions for today's meeting. we talked about the challenges be country is facing and that we're working toward a solution and you you called it a doable solution. but like many of us that are frustrated with what has happened in washington, we have identified and probably no it has to be fixed, but you do not know we are getting there to fix it with the divisiveness in the

current political debate. the question is, what do you think has to happen to get to that point where we can put together a doable plan? to have the president have a drink with mitch mcconnell? [laughter] >> you know about three weeks ago senator daschle and i were asked over to the white house to meet with the new chief of staff for the president. he was asking us that same thing. my advice to them was, look. you have a lot of lands that plans that have been put out there. bowles-simpson is a good roadmap. i think it is the best that has been produced. you have others. senator domenici and alice rivlin had a proposal on the table.

a lot of common elements. what is needed now i think is to be eyeball to eyeball and have the president really pushing democrats and republicans, starting in the senate -- i think it was a mistake to start in the house. i think it is much more difficult to do the deal in the house. i think it is much more possible to get it done in the senate. the president and the senate agree and then lay it on the doorstep of the house. i think the pressure would then build and we could get an agreement. i agree with virtually every word senator gregg said in his presentation. this is a doable deal, and it would be a profoundly positive thing for the country to get it done. >> i agree with everything kent says. let me just nuance it a little bit. you do not things -- you do not get things by in washington unless both sides are at the table. for the president, the potential of his presidency being sidetracked by a fiscal

situation is distinct. it may not occur in his term but it may occur right after his term. either way it will reflect on his presidency. it is a legitimate need to get this issue of the debt under control. on the republican side, the republicans actually want to do that as -- republicans actually want to do that as an act of government. i agree with kent. it has to start in the senate. i think speaker boehner has made that clear he is acceptable to that. he has said, i want to see something in the senate. i think this will come from a very strong group of members across the aisle that can't and i have worked with for years. it is a big group. i think it is 30 or 40 people.

they want to do a deal. they understand the parameters. what they need is for the president to be in the room. i think the most positive thing that has happened in the last few weeks is the president has engaged. his offer on cpi was huge. it was a major step. he is meeting with republican members of the senate. probably getting a better reception from them than some of his own colleagues. external events tend to overtake a presidency. now he is focused on terrorism and boston and what is happening in serious and north korea.-- in syria and north korea. that takes energy away from the effort, but hopefully he can get engaged.>>

thank you. the next one is around the sequester. government spending cutting tens of billions in spending. senator conrad you call the sequester a blunt instrument that cuts too much too soon in the wrong places. i think many of us may agree with that statement. that said, many in congress say the sequester is not such a bad thing given the spending reductions it is forcing. is there truth to that statement yet senator gregg i think we will start with you on that. >> i think it is supposed to be a forcing mechanism. when it starts to force the question. obviously when it starts to grab defense spending and the faa people will try to find ways to get around this. at some point if it is not repealed it will face major contraction in areas that have already taken a hit.

the purpose of it was to be replaced by thoughtful restructuring of entitlement programs to get essentially the same savings with tax reform. you know, you have two enforcement mechanisms. you have the debt ceiling coming at us now. the sequester continues to be the pressure in the back room that will force people into an agreement, i hope, on the bigger issue of entitlement reform. senator conrad? >> i agree with that entirely. it was designed to be a forcing mechanism. i think over time it will prove to be one, especially with the need to extend the debt limit. that creates an opportunity. the great thing about washington is opportunities keep coming around. shame on us if we do not take advantage of some of these opportunities to get the job done.

but we would be so much better off if we took some more balanced approach, because so far what we have been doing is just holding onto the discretionary side of the house and that is the part of the budget that is shrinking. how about addressing a part of the budget that is growing and growing dramatically over time? that would make some much more sense. i do applaud the president from♪ putting chained cpi on the table. that is an absolute, absolute critical first step. i have colleagues of mine who do not want to do that. i would say to them, look. you say that you care deeply about those populations dependent on social security and medicare. i think we all care about those people. social security is going to be

insolvent in 20 years. medicare is going to be insolvent, according to the trustees, in 10 years. so waiting simply makes changes to those programs mordred county and -- more draconian. if you care about those people you are not doing anything's to help them by waiting. by waiting, you make the solutions more draconian. it is a mathematical certainty. thank you. >> turning to retirement savings, an issue that affects our industry. in a department where everything is on the table and we have seen variations of this and simpson-bowles and president obama's recent budget in april, that contains two provisions that would undermine a key national priority of helping americans prepare for secure retirement. first there was the overall proposal to limit the number of tax exclusions and deductions to 28% and it places a dollar cap on the savings and retirement savings account. we believe this

would add confusion to our nation's retirement system and ultimately discourage employers from creating retirement plans and workers from contributing to the plans. given the time the crisis the-- retirement crisis themedia frequently talks about, why do you think such caps keep getting proposed and do you agree with this approach? >> the answer is no. [laughter] i will let kent take it.>> i'm not sure about the antipathy of this administration to those plans. clearly there are policy people who want push back. it makes no sense to me. we should be doing everything we can to encourage savings as a

culture. there was a time in 2008 were saving started to go up. now it is going back down. it is critical we have incentives for savings. the way to do it is to reform the tax law completely so you do not have a 28% to that stability -- deductabilitylimit. and you do not have to worry about that. and then you eliminate a lot of the deductions and exemptions that do not work so well. >> i oppose the 28% when it was first proposed. largely for the reasons judge-- juddjust gave. what we ought to do is have a fundamental reform of the tax system. i have never been a fan of these formulaic approaches to reform. because what that does is it misses the opportunity to do the actual reform. in bowles-simpson, we did lay out very clearly the strategy and plan to raise additional revenues.

not by raising rates, but lowering rates. we are spending $1.2 trillion in tax expenditures. we are spending more through the tax system than we are through the appropriated accounts of the federal government. and there is not an economist, a serious economist out there that does not say you would be better off reducing tax expenditures, the ducting those expenditures and-- deducting those expendituresand lowering rates. i do believe that would help trigger economic growth and vitality. it would be stunning in its effect. >> for our industry, we wrestle with what we should be doing on this issue. i think the system is in place. it could always be better. it could be tweaked. as far as retirement and how

successful 401k is, it is really the best in the world. and yet he continued to be attacked. what is better? it would be very difficult to go to the australian system and get that passed. how can we as an industry be advocates of a plan and push back on change more effectively working with congress? >> two words. organize and educate. i think the thing that is most effective with my colleagues is to approach them when they are back in their home states, home districts, and you get much more of their attention there than you can ever get here in washington. they are pulled in so many different directions. when they are home is when they