you on the put spot. as journalism professors, we the ultimate bout function of journalism is to aid democracy, to help people govern themselves. so as court reporters, you hope that the reporter is helping the american people to understand the democratic process and the court system and the judicial system.

the second person, john tyler's second wife, but at least during the time, even though she did

not come to the white house, she did use her influence to get appointments for her nephews and sons and grandsons, so she would have been political in that way but not the way he would think the second person, john tyler's second wife, but at least during the time, even though she did not come to the white house, she did use her influence to get appointments for her nephews and sons and grandsons, so she would have been political in that way but not the way he would think of with someone like julia tyler. >> which we will learn more of tonight. and this comment, she must have had good genes. what was going on in the harrison family that it produced so many political leaders? >> they were one of the first families of virginia, so you would have had them be involved in the revolution. they have a long history of political involvement. i think it is where they are located by the mid 1800's in

the northwest territory, in this area that is opening up in the country, and these men are getting politically involved because of its. >> our facebook page asks, is it true she helped raise her son who became president? any influence she had on her son who became president? >> her home burned, and she went to live with one of the sons. what influence she had, we do not know. grandma's to have an influence. >> there was only a month in

the white house, but there were some social things and had to happen. how did that role get fulfilled without first lady? >> there were two other women who carry out her duties. one was jane irving harrison, who was a widow. she was married to one of the harrison men, but he died. now william henry asked her to serve in that capacity, and she was assisted by one of her aunts. she gave her some guidance. she was not the official hostess, but she did give guidance. >> is it true dolly madison also was around to offer advice? >> i think she offered advice whenever she got away with

it. she would have been nearby from time to time. >> one last thing legacy was she was the first presidential window to get attention for her service. how did that happen? >> for husband died in office, and she needed the assistance, so congress inappropriate $35,000 for her. >> which was not an on substantial amount of money. when he dies in office this is the first time this has happened. did it create a constitutional crisis? >> it certainly did. the constitution does indicate if the president is not there, those duties on the vice president, but it did not say what the status of that person would be. would he be carrying out the duties as vice president, as acting president, or as the new president, sir john tyler

decided he was not going to let them thing too long about it, so he declared himself president, and he had congress pass resolutions declaring him president. not everyone agrees with that, so occasionally mail came to new the white house addressed to the acting president or the vice president, and he had those documents returned unopened. >> who was tyler? >> he was born in virginia. he lived only a couple of miles down the road from the harrison a state. he was born in green way. he was an interesting president, because although he was elected on the ticket with william henry harrison, he had

been a jacksonian democrats early on in his political career and had joined the whig party, but once he became president, he abandoned the weak platform and angered them. >> we are going to learn more about the john tyler presidency and the women who served as his first lady. we are going to introduce you to the lives they had not been what we call colonial williamsburg. >> when john tyler resigned from the senate, he and his wife and their families moved here to williamsburg to establish a law practice. he reconstructed his law office. the house they live in was no

longer here. they were situated in the center of the town. the court house is right across the street. this is the beating heart of williamsburg, even in the 1830's, so all of the political activity, the social activity, they are living in the center of it in this fantastic 18th-century house. john tyler was resurrected in his political career. she is going to be operating out of the house. right here, letitia tyler suffered a stroke in 1839. that partly would paralyze her, although she was able to regain control of the family business while john tyler was getting

involved in politics. it was in this space john tyler learned he was elected as vice president to william henry harrison, and it was also here in the spring of 1841 he was informed he became the 10th president of the united states, and it was here that she learned she became the first lady of the united states. >> now we are back on set, and joining us is the gentleman you saw on the video. he is a colonial williamsburg historian. he is also an expert on the area where the tylers hail from. give us a sense of what kind of characteristics of a person of public life would bring from the office from having been there.

>> i think when you are talking about virginia, you are getting over the american revolution, not letting go of thomas jefferson and the kind of revolutionary principles but are supposed to inform public conduct and public virtue, but by the time you get to john tyler's career, those things start to coalesce into notions about states' rights, notions about what is the proper use of the constitution, notions about the extent of authority. you hear them talk a great deal about the principles of 1798, about the kentucky resolution and the ability of the states to override a unconstitutional actions, so these principles of the american revolution are being fought over, but also the kinds of things that come from

the expectation of a public leader. they need to be virtuous. that is the only way you can make a good public policy. >> stephanie johnson wants to know where did they meet. >> they met where almost everybody meets at the time. in williamsburg. they lived not that far from each other. john tyler is from charleston county in a place called green way, and letitia tyler is from kent county, which is only a stone's throw away, and we know

they met in about 1811 or 1812. john tyler went to william and mary with letitia's brother. they were the same age. they were 21 and 22 when they met, and they fell in love very quickly. >> we have been incorporating your tweets. can also call us. we are hoping you texans call up, because this administration was responsible for the annexation of texas. the tylers have a lot of children. >> it is what kept them apart

for a great deal of their married lives. john tyler was constitutionally incapable of being out of public office. he was addicted to it so left her at home to run the family, to run the business, and to continue to manage this incredible group of children they had almost from the very start. >> running their plantation would have been how large an operation? >> one of the issues is a are always on the very edge of solvency, so they never live one place more than 10 years. they are always moving around. they own between 30 and 35 slaves, and they are growing wheat and corn for about 600 acres to 900 acres, and that is between plantations.

they then moved to the other side of virginia, so they are continuing to try to figure out a way during these striking economic changes to the country and go into what is going on in 1837, to find a way they can keep their heads above water, and with john tyler gone for so long and so often, six months out of every year while the is in public office, this leaves a lot of burden resting on letitia's shoulders. >> this was a tough woman. she had a stroke and was paralyzed and continued to handle operations. >> that is indicative of the kind of life women live, even wealthy women. life was tough for them, but it was made easier for them by enslaved laborers, and they did use those to great advantage

for them. >> what is known for their attitude at this point toward slavery? >> we know quite a bit. john tyler is one of the staunchest supporters of slavery that ever inhabited the white house. he was vocal about it through most of his career, and he said, slavery is the greatest property a southerner can own. he believes it is the backbone of society. letitia we know less about. we know from a story that ends up in abolitionist press in the 19th century of a former enslaved man who had been a

who recalled that john taylor may have been less kind to enslave men and women in the field, but when it came to the enslaved men and women in the household, he stopped right there. they were under letitia's protection. they were treated well. you could read into a story like that, but john tyler's views were consistent. letitia was different. >> here is 1840 view of america through the senses. the population reached 17 million in 26 states. we consistently see 30%. slaves #2.5 million, which is almost 15% of the population, and new orleans joins the list of the largest cities in the united states. we heard about the tylers and their attitude toward slavery. give us an indication of what was happening in 1840. >> this is a tremendous time of

sexual tension. we like to think the country is divided regionally, that everyone in the north is anti slavery and everyone in the south is proslavery. it is not that simple. people in the north benefited from slavery and the slave trade until it was ended. they now move into a different economic arena. they no longer need slavery, and slippery as a threat to them because of the free labor system in the north, and the kinds of the economy that is needed to preserve institutions in the north are different from in the north are different from those in the south, so what is happening in congress is both

groups want to control legislation, because if you are in more industrialized regions, we want certain parts of laws passed to preserve the economy. if you are more agrarian, you will need laws to support that. there is a tremendous amount of concern about the expansion of slavery. it is not so much the northerners are anti slavery because they are humanitarian. it is because of how slavery impacts them or how expansion impacts them. >> our first caller from michigan. >> and now i love the

series. i would like to know what is the duration of both of the president's marriages, and how on a result of those marriages? thank you so nsich. >> >> asaw one book and referred to john tyler was the father of our country. >> >> athink they have 16 or 17 children. >> i did the total was 15. now there were 8 by letitia and 7 by julia. >> he was maduraied to letitia for 29 years, and he was married to julia for 18. >> the tylers learn of the fact

they are coming to the white house and he is the 10th president of the united states. her health is precarious. how does she carry out the role as first lady? >> it depends on how you define the role. what is first lacar? is it somebody married to the president, or do they have to fulfill these roles? she is by nature a retired person. she prefers a quiet life. now she does not like the kind of quiet activities of first lady who would normally associate with. even without her illness, i think it would have been a fairly quiet white house. that does not mean there are not other people to fulfill

these roles. that means she has to have other people do it for them. it is a close-knit family. they have a lot of daughters living in the white house. she turned that over to them. >> gary robinson asked, what role did priscilla cooper have in the white house and after her death? >> she served as hostess, and especially with the m. ithter, letitia, she is an interested person, because she was an actress at a time when it was not a good thing. it was not considered respectable, but the tylers and accepted her. letitia accepted her.

she was very close to her. she would have been performing on it is not so nsich that she was not doing anything. even tho ith she was di mabled, she is still giving orders from her bedroom. she cannot rso out the way her m. >> do we have any evidence his daughter counseled him? >> yes. she said, stay out of it. as we talk about it, he could not stng o out of politics. she gave up. as we mentioned over and over again, he rewhenected her prudence and judgment that political issues he reserved

those for conversations with his male friends. >> there were conver mations about whether there should be appropriations for this vice-president but assuched the presidency and whether they should pay for his time in the white house, yet you ascertain they pay for so much. how did they do that? >> they did not appropriate money. the white house was and i absolute mess at that time. he must have used his own funds toaugntertain p to fple, and th did entertain lavishly. >> how did they do that? >> you assume a lot of this is coming out of the salary. one of the people who was most extravampacnt was john tyler himself. he spends most of his life handing his family, tryin p to keep them outside of it, yet there are lavish entertainment,

so for some they are takin p a page out of the book. she will hold two formal dinner parties every week. every other week she will do public receptions in the evenings. she will hold public parties every month that will have as many as 1000 p to fple. she opened the white house on new year'saugve. she opened the white house on july 4. she started the tradition on the south lawn. they are finding ways to do that. they might be doin p it with miduraors, because congress does not appropriate a cent for the upkeep of the white house during his term as

president. >> ne> y, a call from marvin in los angeles. >> by next question has to do with the constitution. it mays, the electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons, for whom cannot be from the same state. if both of them came from the same county, how can they be president and vice president? on tyler was called his aoodiden a because of the way he tns,k ove as president through the death of haduraison? 1ecause he took over as president? >> thank you for the qectstion. >> first, they were born in charles city county. they were not livin p there at the time they were elected.

harrison was in ohio. john tyler was in virginia but harrison was in ohio. the other question was about -- his accident a, which don't think he was called. >> one of the nicer questions. >> absouch.tely. the accidental president forced his accident a because nobody expected john tile wore ascend to the presidency. >> what kind of issects did he face when he came to office? >> there are persona he ones and then there are broader political ones. personal ones are that p to fpl didn ty trust him. they didn't like him. they didhnt expect he would be on in the first place. he wasn't even the first choice of being vice presidential candim. party. so they were fine with letting had go out and live in waynesburg while william harrison was in the white house. those are personal things he had to live with.

politica he issues, there's certainly the issue over the renewal of the n. united states. major issues also over the tariffs and protectpresidee tar% s and apev funds, dependin p upon what part of the country you lpresideed in on what was proted and what wasn ty. the biggest one that's comes up to define the presiden a is really about the expansion of slavery is the annexation of texas and what that means for the sense of the republic or weakness that you think it has on slavery. >> next, call from harold watching us in sioux citrav iowa. >> thank you for taking my call. i reallyaugnjoy the program. we qectstion is you had a numbe of talks about jackson and tyler and they both had slaves. how did those slaves fair after3

how did those slaves fair after and during the cpresideil war? and were those plantations burnt by the yankees? how did that come out? i wil he hang up and let you answer it. thank you. >> certaiwaynrav the conion arm coming through twice actually, as a conseqectnce of mcclp>> land's peninsula campaign. and each time that the conion aairy comes thro ith, the enslaved population leaves. they take the opportunity to lou what's happening in charles city on the tyler plantation, sherwoh d forest, is that julia has left, he's fled and gone to new r irk to staten island to lpresidee with her mother. so there are enslaved people l bet behind. and it is rpororted that some o them take over the plantation. certaiwaynrav the house is, thee are some things that are done

by the conion aairy prichably ad perhaps by local people as well. the plantation is in a bit of a mess when the war is over, which is not that unusual for plantations in certain areas of the south at that time. they certainly do inflate -- enslaved people certainly do suffer during the war but they get their freedom as a consequence of it as well. so there's an incident where julia writes to president lincoln because one of her neighbors, who is a notorious professionist is aduraested a n the aairy and it happens to be part of the union army who is under the contro he of general wilde, who is commander of the african brincode. and some of the p to fple who ae attached to that unit had been enslaved a n this gentleman, attached to that unit had been enslaved a n this gentleman, william a ekton. and they were allowed to beat him and ing mlia is absolutp>> enraged at the idea. she is also concerned as well that her niece is le. behind so she's concerned about her well being. . ht she ac thoally writes to

president lincoln and complains about it and she signs her letter, mrs. ex-president tyler. she loved to use that. >> we have not even introduced julia into our tale yet. tell us about the death of letitia tyler in the white house. >> she died september 10 in 1842. she had a masspresidee stroke. >> did she die instantly? >> there's no evidence that ther gos any kind of lingering. that she dies fairly quickly. and ifss -- it hits the family like a ton of bricks. >> what there a white house funera he for her? >> not that we know of. they kport thin tr very prpresideate.

in fact, she was buried at her home, the place in new kent county, rather then at greenway quarter, rather then anyplace p>> se that they mng o have lived. she was buried at home with her parents. it was also a verrav very quiet very quiet event but it was mostly manifested in the kind of impact that it had on her children. they were devastated. >> what about the president himself? what was his reaction to ft,sin his wia t? >> at the time from his letters, we know that he was obviouslyaugburitionally attachd to letitia. she had been a huge part of his lia t for a very ft,ng tntlye a he loved her dearly. however, we also haveaugvidence that he seen ing mlia ncordiner tyler probably four months after her dou

>> who is julia gardinehe was >> who is julia gardiner, richard norton-smith called on julia gardiner is a -- she's a young woman from ft,ng island, new r in. from where in fact anna haduraison had gone to schns,l. she is from a very well-known, lon trtandin p new r in. depor in the 17th century they owned gardiner's island and family still oines nco miner's island and her father was a new york state senator. they were in washington frequently for the social seasons. and she was wp>> he known at t white house and was well known to the daughters of the tylers wasaugven known to come over no just for the parties but do thin tr like quiet ncomes of whisk. so the family knew her quite well. she was quite bel.tin' he and quite rambunctious and was very well educated both here and in eher t so it made her quite -- quite a troubling woman to be

around. >> and she quickly caught the widow president's eye. >> she quicetty ca itshe i the widow president's eyes. this moved shockingly quicetty. >> when we have to establish the difference in age between the tino. >> yes. julia gardiner is 30 years almost exactly younger i was nd wa you c tyler and so when they got married, she was 24 and he was 54. >> one of the amazing thin

at that point somebody looked over and they're passing mt. vernon. so the request was changed to stop the ship and fire the gun in honor of our first president. they couldn't turn that down. but when the ship did face downstream the gunner fired the cannon. the gun instead of firing, the right ditch blew out and killed seven people. among them son of gardiner, secretary of state, thomas gilner, secretary of the navy. everybody downstairs felt the ship when the gun exploded the ship jerked. so handsome young officers that were surrounding my grandmother, who was 23 years old at the time but very beautiful, my grandfather, he had been trying to get to her and talk to her and couldn't because of all of the handsome young male officers around. when the explosion occurred and ship shook, they rushed to go upstairs and do what it is they're trained to do and left her standing there. she knew her father was up there so she followed behind them. my grandfather is behind her to go up the steps of the deck. they came running back calling out, don't let miss gardiner follow. her father is dead. when she heard that, my grandmother fainted right back into the arms of the president. he caught her tenderly and gently. so the ship did go and dock and when it docked, he picked her up and carried her down the gang plank. as she was going down the gang plank, she came to. later she told her mother the first thing she remembered was going down the plank in the arms of the president and she struggled and her head, it felt into the quick of his arm and she could look up into his eyes and she wrote her mother

saying, i realized for the first time that the president loved me dearly. >> we told you at the outset there would be a tale of the secret marriage. so tell the story. >> june 26, 1844. it's only four months after the disaster of the uss princeton. so julia's father only been dead four months. so there's still a period of mourning that should be publicly and appropriately observed but he has -- john tyler had secured even in that rough period of time, secured the permission of her mother for them to get married. she was worried about his financial situation, whether or not he would be able to continue her into the manner that she was accustom and when he was able to do that sufficiently, she gave her permission. so they had a very, very small, private, secret wedding. at an episcopal church in new york city. only a handful of people there. one of his sons, a couple of his political friends and a few members of her family. but the public didn't know about it until the next day. >> the president disappears

from washington, checks himself into a hotel in new york city and gets married. >> uh-huh. yeah. he's just going off to basically, he's going to take a little bit of a location and pops up in new york city. and then it's in the new york city next day. by the way, the president has just gotten married to one of new york's most prominent families. >> what was the reaction at the time? >> people goss gyp -- gossips about it. it was too soon after his wife's death even though it was not so soon after the death. but they were very much concerned of the age difference. many people thinking it was unfair to julia that she was married to this man who was so much old 0er then she was. so a lot of people didn't like it. his daughters certainly did

not. >> they thought it was too soon after. >> they were very loyal to their mother understandably. but there was one daughter who never got over it, letitia. and the other daughters made their peace. and the sons never seemed to have a problem with it. but that one daughter never reconciled with her stepmother. >> here is julia tile was quite a letter writer. here's one letter she wrote to her mother, secrecy of the affair is on the tongue and the admiration of everyone. everyone says it was the best-managed thing they ever heard of. >> the secret was, yeah. >> let's go on to this because this could be rather self-revealing. the president says, i am the best of the diplomatists. i have commenced my auspicious reign and am in the quiet possession of the presidential mansion. this is a 24-year-old woman. what should we learn from this quote about her? >> she sees herself as queen of

the land. she had spent some time in europe. after she had very notoriously posed for an engraving where she was advertising a product, a store actually. and that is something that respectable woman did not do during that period. so her parents had taken -- she and her sister to europe where they were introduced at the court of louis philip of france. and she admired how the queen received her guests. and it was on -- she was seated, of course, and on a bit of a pedestal. so julia decided to do the same thing for a time. but she saw it very much as she was the first lady of the land and she was going to make the most of it. >> from a family perspective, president asked, he had children older then his second

wife. >> yes, his oldest daughter was several years older then julia. >> what was the family reaction? >> the family reaction, it was, at first, among the daughters, it was very negative and very -- that it took, letitia never reconciled to it. libby, it was three months before she even acknowledged that the marriage had taken place. for the youngest daughter that she -- she eventually came around. oldest daughter came around. but the sons were already familiar enough with julia that they were -- they were ok with it by then. >> reading that quote, do we have the sense that this was a young woman with great aspirations or was this really a love match? >> i think that there's probably a little bit of both

in that. tough for us to divide it out. mainly because the correspondence that exists between them and whatever happened in terms of their courtship, we know that john is head over heels for her. and we know that he's writing shakespearean sonnets to her. we know he's engaging in that kind of -- in that kind of very cavalieresque way of -- way of courting her. with her, the -- it depends on who you believe in terms of what were her goals are. in the end, she ends up being biggest supporter and biggest defender. and thanks to very timely advice from her mother, was able to really put that -- was really able to put that into action. >> next is the question from claire in owings mills, maryland. hi, claire. >> hi, i just wanted to say a few years ago a couple of us went to the sherwood plantation and tyler's grandson was there and he spoke to us for about an hour he was very gracious. i wonder if you can just discuss a little bit about their connection with william and mary. thank you.

>> their connection with william and mary goes back to the very beginning. you cannot separate william and mary from the tyler family at all, even to the present day of the tylers go there. harrison's father, lionel gardiner tyler was president of william and mary. his father john tyler had obviously -- the president had bonn to william and mary and had been chancellor at william and mary. his father john had go to william and mary and the place is as tied with the tylers as the university of virginia is tied with thomas jefferson. >> another quote, which may give some indication of the match between the tylers. this is julia writing about the president again, alert to her mother. really, do you think there was ever a man so equal to any emergency? it was a sort of inspiration, for his ideas are expressed at the moment of any emergency with perfect fluency and effect. question from rachel davidson -- how did julia gardiner, a northerner, feel about becoming

a slave owner upon her marriage to john tyler. >> that's an easy one. she comes from a family of slave owners. new york does not abolish slavery until 1813. there are slaves at gardiner island earned by her family she's born 1820, she's as much born into the slaving culture as anyone living in the time. >> war their slaves then? >> there must have been. tylers would have brought slaves with them. we know when the peacemaker, the gun blew up on the princeton, one of the enslaved men owned by tyler was killed. so clearly he had some of his enslaved people there in the white house with him. >> now, talked earlier about julia's daughter doing this advertisement, she earned the moniker the rose of long island. she brought the sense and sensibility to her job, eight month as first lady.

it is written in some books that she actually had the services of what would be thought of a press agent. >> she's the hanna august. >> the president himself didn't have a press tie to publicity. >> not at all. >> the more notorious, the better. she made it a point of cultivating the friendship of a reporter and she would report what was happening in the white house, news of social events and he gave her a lot of personal attention in the articles that he wrote about her. so she was out there in a way that, as i indicated before, respectable women did not do. but this is a new era. this is a time when the women's movement is under way and interestingly enough, you know, someone like julia tyler sort of fits in to a certain

extent. she's very conservative in some ways but in terms of breaking through the traditional way that a woman should behave, she's doing it in a way that other women are not at that time. >> well, this seers is called influence and image. so let's spend a few minutes on this image question with julia tyler. in addition to having loving publicity as you describe her and having someone help her with her press, she had these young women who traveled with her. they became known as the vestal virgins. who were they? how is she using them? >> well, it seem what's she did was develop her own court. and perhaps was not alone but the notion that a first lady could not possibly be seen alone, that there is -- she is representing and this is an interesting point by the development of the institution, that she's representing something much bigger and so she had these young women who were joining her. called them the vestal virgins

and a number of different things depending upon which newspaper you were reading but that she really believed that she was representing something much bigger then just being the wife of the president. and to do that t. requires display. it requires a very conscience shaping of image as an element of political communication. which gets back to the point you just made. >> she receives her guests surrounded by these women all dressed in white. >> what was the public reaction to this? did they love it or criticize it? >> she seemed to be able to do no wrong. she had her critics but a lot of people loved her. especially men. she also brought dancing to the white house. >> right. she brought the waltz. she brought the polka. she brought a number of things to the white house. but i think that when you're starting -- you're starting to get into the perceptions of

that. it does work both ways, that -- especially with the growth of the abolitionist press. that the abolitionist press starts to see these kinds of things julia's doing in the white house, level of extravagance as being yet another example of the corruption of the slave party. how particularly it's been a distressed economic period, how can they possibly be doing that? the only way they could be doing that is they're gathering wealth and benefits from the fact they own other people. so in terms of the growth of that abolitionist press and the abolitionists send people just to keep an eye on the tyler white house and report back on things like this. that what julia is doing is in fact in some quarters very different to that broader image while in other quarters, it's very beneficial to supporting the idea of the presidency. >> here's what to an certain extent she redeems herself when she responds to the duchess of sutherland, who criticized slavery in america. she writes a letter back and

says pretty much, you need to take care of business at home. you've got people from the lower classes there are who starving. so she doesn't say slavery is right. but she does imply that slavery is not as bad as what's happening. >> joe in pennsylvania, you're on for our panel. go on, please. >> hi, i love your series. >> what's your question? >> i read somewhere john tyler played the violin and did any of his wives play any musical instrument? >> thank you. do we know. >> i haven't the faintest clue. he certainly played the vial anne and if you go to sherwood forest, you can see the violin. >> and julia played the guitar. >> she played the guitar. >> speaking of music and image making, it said she was the one to have the idea "hail to the chief" being played whenever he entered the room. >> it may have been mrs. polk. >> no evidence?

>> yes. >> we will get to that next. advance here. she was obviously from the photographs of her just rather fashion conscience and wore beautiful outfits. did she become a trend setter for women at the time? >> i don't know. >> had it become the point, do we know, women were beginning to watch what the first lady were and imitate these things? >> i think this gets into the development of mass communication of the period and really what your able to do in terms of emulating dress. that while engravings are certainly appearing in more and more newspapers, you're still relying mainly on the written word in order to get across the impression of any kinds of any kind of clothing. and in a particular way you might be able to set the trend if she's wearing a veil or dolly madison or something like that. but for the most part, it's not until much later when there are many more images that are able to show up in a more sophisticated, technologically speaking american press that

you're able to get to the point where you have trends that can be identified in order to -- in order to move on. >> julia tyler was also very political and interested in her husband's political career. we move on to the influence part of her role as first lady. again, each short month she was in this role, she was very much involved in a major policy issue that we've talked about or referenced already and that's the annexation of texas. we turn to sherwood forest, where the spouse of the president's grandson, talks about julia's lobbying for this policy. let's listen. >> she loved him politically, phenomenally, my dear, for her husband. she had soirees at the white house to lobby. tyler was immensely dedicated to the concept of the annexation of texas to the union. and during that period she was able to sway john c. calhoun, a kinsman of my mother's, from carolina and able to sway john c. calhoun to vote for the annexation of texas and she worked on him but don't know if

she was successful or not but she took henry clay out to dinner. this is a woman without a chap rhone, a president's wife, alone having dinner with him and she didn't mind at all. she wrote her mother a letter, which i think is priceless. she says, mother, mr. clay was a little insulting. when i told him that my husband wanted him to vote for the annexation of texas, he said to me, i am right, texas should not be annexed to the union, and mrs. tyler, i want you to know that i would rather be right then be president. and i replied, my dear sir, my husband is both. i truly think that the reply is almost better then the statement from clay which we hear so frequently. >> how significant was julia tyler's role in the ultimate decision to annex texas?

>> well, she's keeping tabs of where people stand because she's going to congress. she's listening to the debates. she's trying to twist the arms. i don't think she's that important to it. she's representing her husband's interests certainly. she's supports that. but whether or not she has influence over any particular congressman, i'm not so sure about that. >> do you have an opinion about that? >> she certainly believes she has a lot of influence. i'm with dr. medford, there are were much more complicated in the political area of the texas annexation issue that julia tyler would solve, especially the months after the election. people know james polk will be the next president. the treaty to annex -- the treaty to annex texas had already been defeated by the

senate. and they have come up with a new, not terribly constitutional way to accomplish it if they're going to accomplish it at all so they have to go through the machinations of the joint revolutions through december 1844. but that involves much broader political questions and in terms of where people are from -- in this political realignment and of america that's going on at the time. wigs are breaking down. obviously, the republicans have long broken down. anti-jacksonians. but she firmly believes that she's responsible. john tyler believes that she's responsible, when on march 1, 1845, he signs the joint resolution to annex texas. he gives her the pen, the pen that he sign it's with. and she put it around her neck and wore it as a trophy.

did his wife julia try to redeem his good name after he died in the years following the civil war? we're going let that story unfold in the next 15 to 20 minutes. thank you for asking the question. that's where we're going in 15, 20 minutes. the evoling role of the first lady. we hear that dolly madison -- bringing her name up again -- practiced the part of parlor politics.

is this is first instance of a first lady getting more politically involved in an issue? >> talking about a main matter of public policy, it's tough to find another first lady who's so overtly engaged in a kind of effort whether that level of influence is successful or is meaningful or not. she's being out there actively supporting her husband's position on annexation. she's talking to everybody she can about it. she's writing a great deal about it. she is holding all of the social events at the white house in order to influence that piece of legislation. if we're talking about a first lady being involve in a matter of national public policy and being involved explicitly so, i think that you can peg that to

julia tyler. >> here's a question about first ladies. flotus tyler, for those who haven't watched it, first lady of the united states, that's a secret service thing, believed she had a lot of influence and rightly so. based on the first ladies seen thus far, do you think they all felt this way? influential women as spouses of the president husbands? >> not so sure they all wanted to be. she's perhaps the first that wants to get involve in that way. the other women, i think, are willing to simply play the traditional role. although, you know, you have some women who may be saying all kinds of things to their husbands. they aren't making it public. we don't know what they're saying. in terms of their influence outside of the house hold, it's not clear they even care to

serve in that capacity. most of them. >> excuse me. next is a question from linda, from spiro, oklahoma. >> it's spiro. >> welcome. >> good evening. i wanted to know, how does it affect his relationship with julia and their marriage with their children from leticia. how did their relationship -- thank you for taking my calls. >> thanks. you hit upon that earlier. but did the criticism of the daughters affect their marriage? that's the question. >> no, there's no evidence. the fact that the daughters came around relatively soon except for leticia, they became a very big, close knit family, all gathered there for the most part at sherwood forest. the civil war does a lot of that bringing them close together because of the members of the family that are casting all of

their parts like her son, robert who lives in philadelphia. they have to come back to philadelphia. they see julia not necessarily as a step mother. but they refer to her some refer to her as a sister. and they certainly come to love her and appreciate her and accept her in the family as such. >> thrown out of the party. he was a man without -- a president without a party when the next election came around in 1844. no chance of them being nominated. >> especially since he alienated the party as well. no one was there to support him. >> how did they mark the leaving the white house.

>> champagne, of course, and parties. julia tyler at the extravagant best. they start off with a party with 3,000 people. two weeks later they have a party to celebrate james knox polk and the annexation of texas and james tyler saying you can no longer say i'm a man without a party. >> they return to sherwood forest. >> hi, there. i'm following along with my first lady flash cards. i had a question with fashion. with head dress so prevalent in the earlier first lady, the first lady harrison, was that for matronly women and is that personal preference.

mainly for taylor, when would we regard as a moderate necktie? thank you. >> the modern necktie, you're getting well into the 19th century before you see that. the presidents and not to shock my historian friends by going into this subject. but the way that that develops over time is really interesting in the 1820s and 1830s after james monroe leaves the white house. he's the last of the folks that are holding on to the 18th century way of dressing so you're able to see much more modern dress progressively after. >> on the women side of the fashion, we saw rachael jackson

wearing the head bonnet as we did with anna harrison. was that city versus country, regional? or was it times changing or how did that work? >> that might have something to do with it. you see with julia tyler, something different. you can see the beads in her hair. she has feathers in her hair from time to time. so she dresses very differently. it's probably more cosmopolitan with some of the first ladies because of the urban influence and age too. i think age has something to do with it. >> anna harrison, mid to late 60s, julia tyler, 24 years old when she came into the job. so brought a little sensibility with her. they left washington in 1845 and returned to their home in the virginia tide water area in sherwood forest. how did it get its name? >> it got its name because of during one of the -- one of john tyler's breaks with the whigs, he was referred to as robin hood.

so she called it that too. she gave uniforms to the enslaved men who ran the river boat. so she had bows and arrows as part of the -- sown on the collar as a part of the uniforms. >> return to sherwood forest and learn what the tylers' life was >>ke after the white house. greenwayr was born at and he purchased this house at the end of his presidential term. he came down here once before he retired from the presidency. brought with him yuliya gardner, they were married. she said the hand of god and

nature have been kind to my sherwood forest, but i can improve upon it. she did. she had it around the ceilings, the moldings imported from italy. she had the mantlepieces brought in from italy. the knocker on the front door -- you have to look hard to see it. it has sherwood forest on it. it's been meticulously polished through the years and that was one of the contributions to the house. julia and her mother are very, very close. we are exceedingly fortunate to have many letters between julia and her mother. the room is one room wide because you want the breezes to go from the north to the south and from the south to the north. so they would sit in the hall quite frequently. and she sat in the open doorway that opened to the president.

she would sit there and the president would read the newspaper and throw oint the floor. in the gray room is a table and a table upon which we are told john tyler served julia tyler breakfast in her bedro breakfast in her bedroom after he had been around the house. after the horseback ride, he would go to the table and have breakfast with his wife. and also her mother writes her and says i understand from other people that you sleep until 9:00 in in the morning and that the president brings you breakfast in bed. she says do not take advantage to the gentleman who wrotes if who dotes upon you.

she writes about what she's doing. she records almost every occurrence of furniture in the house. her brothers david and alexander who were students at prince ton became on the instance of mrs. gardiner, the buying units. they ordered from a store. when it comes, she's distressed because the edges of it cover at the bottom the edge of the mirror face -- the window facing. her mother writes her back and says don't be so picky on minutia. she did love to entertain. we have a record of a ball she had in honor of sister margaret who came here frequently and the portrait here is a portrait of julia and margaret. she was 2 years younger than margaret. and this portrait was painted obviously to represent gardner's island because you can see the water in the background. they were very, very young when

the portrait was done. anyway, the ball that she had for margaret started at 9:00. then she said they danced the virginia rail and the waltz until the sun rose and the finest champagne flowed unceasingly among one thing that julia did here to for entertainment is they allowed all of the house servants' children to play continuously with the children of the big house. the letters julia tyler speaks of her children playing with the children in the yard. and she speaks of their dancing with the children in the yard. now supervision of the house servants and there were many -- there were a total of almost 90 slaves, a vacillating number between 61 and 92 on the plantation. so the house servants are -- i think there were 13 house servants here.

they were totally in their supervision as well as the medical care of the other students in the plantation. they were happy in this house hold. and she loved it. she refers to the melody of his voice. she always refers to his intelligence. she had a wonderful time here. >> and also these newlyweds then commenced raising that large family that we talked about, the seven children that were born to the tylers before he died in 1862. is that when he passed. >> he died in 1862. >> a question. tyler refers to the slavery issue which we've come back to throughout the program. and the country itself is marching toward the civil war. what was john tyler's post white house role in that momentous period of time? >> well, in 1861, there was an attempt to stay secession and john tyler was very instrumental

in that particular -- that last-ditch effort to do that. there was a peace conference held in washington. and he was very much -- in february of 1861. he was very much a part of that. but once that failed, he decided to back the confederacy, to back secession. and so when he died, he had been elected to the confederate congress. he was very much a secessionist. and when he died, his coffin was covered with the confederate flag. and the north, the union, did not acknowledge his having a passed. >> a former president of the united states gets elected to the confederate congress. put that in perspective. >> it's extraordinary, john tyler, the previous caller suggested he tried to stem secession. not sure how much his heart was in the washington peace

conference that went to the old willard hotel after there was a meeting in the middle of the conference with abraham lincoln in which abraham lincoln would not back off of the halt of slavery. he is all in when it comes to the -- when it comes to secession. he's likening the secession to 1776. that virginia has finally recovered all of the sovereignty that it had yielded to the federal government. in 17 -- in the constitution. and so they're back in the state in 1776 in order to be able to achieve their independence. then virginia for a brief period is a sovereign state. he's instrumental in bringing virginia full boar into the confederacy. one of the interesting things is at that time he's here in washington ostensibly trying to ward off civil war, his grand

daughter, leticia, is in montgomery of alabama dedicating the new capitol of the confederacy raising the stars and bars over that building. >> this is one she wrote to her mother about the civil war. she wrote the southerners are completely worn up to it and will not be tampered with any longer. if such a thing should occur, it would be different for the north. how did the civil war impact julia's wife especially after john died. so what happened to her after john die? >> sleeves and she goes to -- she leaves and she goes to staten island to live with her mother and she spends the entire war -- i think she actually goes to bermuda for --

>> yes. so she's not at sherwood forest. and, of course, she's impacted financially by the war because she loses her enslaved laborers, first of all. and she doesn't really, she returns there to try to get it to some kind of order, but she doesn't live there again, i don't believe. she spends the remaining years, i believe, in richmond. she has rented a home there and she spends a lot of time in richmond. but not in the county. >> and what is the public perception of her? post-war? >> well, in the south, quite good. in the north, not so good. she's still referred to as in the south as the ex-president-ress and something she insists upon. john tyler's memory is still revered in the south after the war as being somebody who's able to legitimize the cause of the confederacy.

and julia gardner tyler certainly is contributing to kind of this lost cause notion of something that she refers to as the holy southern cause. she never -- there's no rehabilitation of her husband because in the south she doesn't feel the need to be fully rehabilitated except for getting her pension. she needs that. they have two homes, sherwood forest, and a summer home near hampton, virginia. and they actually which -- which goes through the same kind of damage that sherwood forest goes through. she has to sell that property in order just to maintain sherwood forest which, again, is mostly for the family to live in. and she spends a lot of the time fighting for her pension which she doesn't get until 1881 when she's awarded $1200 per year. you may have been first lady. but your husband became a

traitor to the united states. so there's no reason why we should never honor that. >> on the phone is christopher lahey. an associate professor of history in new york. with his spouse is the co-ed tore of the julia gardner tyler papers. christopher lahey, how voluminous are her paper, and what is the broad scope of what we can learn from this woman and the white house from them? >> her papers are very voluminous. two major collections. one at the sterling library at yale university, and the other major collection at the college of william & mary. and we can learn pretty much everything about her life from the time that shemarries john tyler in 1844 until just about the time that she dies in 1889. there's a very rich source that cover every aspect of her and her children's lives. >> we've been trying to paint a

portrait of her. what would you like to add to that from your work with her history> i think that hers to remember julia for frivolity and her short time in the white house. she had another life when her husband passed away in 1862. her papers revealed her to be a strong woman, a practical woman. a very serious, self-possessed, self-assured, adaptable. she could be devoted to her family. she can be tenacious about her family particularly her children if she felt her interests are being threatened. >> what's happening with the papers. is there an interest beyond your own scholarship? talk to us about the historical interest in julia tyler. >> the main problem with julia's

papers is that she has penmanship that only a mother could love. and fortunately, my wife is very adept at reading and going through the work -- going through the papers. they're very difficult to read, which is part of the reason why scholars have not really exploited them for the potential that they hold. i think our work, hopefully, will bring more of her -- her actual experiences to life, particularly in the postpresidential years and particularly the years after her husband passed away in 1862. >> how did you get interest? >> well, i did my dissertation on john tyler's prepresidential career. and i am currently at work on a manuscript, a book manuscript on john tyler and it seemed a natural fit, a natural progression from there. once i got to the julia gardner tyler papers, i realized i wasn't good at reading them because of the penmanship. and my wife very courageously, i

think, dove into them and is transcribing them for me so i can do my work on the writing in.-- end. >> if someone is interested in learning more, are any of the papers published on-line that they can read the papers for themselves? >> yes, i think there are some on-line. again, they're very difficult to read. she has a tendency to write. she would write going left-to-right and would turn the paper and would go left-to-right upside down. it's difficult to read these. i don't know how exactly if they there are any on-line how easy it would be for a researcher. >> thank you for telling us about your scholarship and we look forward to learning more about this period of american history through the writings of julia tyler. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> a few more minutes. i want to get a couple of calls in. the next one is the call from bill in fishers, indiana. hi, bill.

caller: enjoying your show and your two guests very much. is julia a religious person? and i was wondering about her conversion to catholicism and how that influenced her later life. thank you. >> do you know? >> i think i'll leave julia to talk about it? >> was she religious? >> not really, she does join the catholic church later in life. and i'm not sure why she actually does that. but perhaps the church gains more by that than she does. because there's always been that tension between protestants and catholics in this country, even though we don't have an official religion, most people think of america as being a protestant place. but the fact that you did have a former first lady joining the catholic church in such a public way, i think, sort of elevated the status of catholicism a little bit.

>> when in her life did you do this? >> this was, i think, i know it was later in life, much later, a few years before she died, i believe. >> and john tyler is not especially religious guy, even by -- even sort of by the standards of the day. leticia was a very strong episcopalian, the first wife. he admired the strength of her faith in her. but john tyler was more of a jeffersonian epicurean i think than anything else. >> fred is watching in san francisco. you're on now, fred. >> yes, hi, thank you. the three most powerful men in washington at the time were, of course, clay, webster, and calhoun. and i was wondering if there were any -- any -- if even leticia but julia more importantly, what was her attitude towards those three men? >> thank you. >> she certainly would have been very comfortable with calhoun.

not so much clay. even though tyler had supported clay at one point. but as tyler became more separated from the whig party, then she would have gone in that direction as well. webster -- i'm not so sure. but certainly calhoun would have been the person that she would have been closest to in terms of politically. >> webster had stuck in the cabinet longer than any of the original members of the harrison cabinet. you're right. it comes down to where really were they in terms of john tyler's politics asking exactly how she felt about it. >> margaret watching in ft. river, new jersey. you're on the air. >> hello, i'm enjoying this very much. i was wonder what tyler died from. he was elected junior representative to a confederate

congress. he died a few minutes after midnight in 1862 and he was 71 years old. also, how old was he when he fathered his last child. >> are these things you know the answer to? >> he was 71. he was never sworn in as a member of the confederate congress. it was just about to be. so he was in richmond for that session. since it was early in '62. he -- he from what we know, he had caught a cold and died at that age. the last trial that they had, i think that he was 68. >> because she was 2 years old. >> 2 years old when he died. >> last in austin, texas.

a texabn after your history lesson in your state's annexation. what's your question for us? caller: my question is was the controversy over the annexation of texas about slavery or are there any other considerations about the location and geography of texas being so close to mexico. >> thank you so much. it was all about slavery in the 1840s and the 1850s. you can't really separate the whole struggle over the expansion of slavery into the west. it's about texas, it's about kansas later on. it's slavery front and center. >> now, we have about three, four minutes left. as we close out our discussion here. we learned that julia tyler as a very young woman was very adept at publicity and creating an image for herself. gary robertson asked, how did the united states view her death or had she become largely forgotten by then? did she call on the public relations skills to ensure her legacy? >> not really by the end of her

life. she died in 1889. and obviously there are a lot of things going on in the country by then. so she had been largely focusing on her family, focusing on her -- focusing on maybe a personal legacy and that sense in maintaining what the family could hold on to, something like sherwood forest so they could pass that on. so, in terms of the broader kind of working on that image later on in her life, so much of her energy was devoted to -- was devoted to the pension fight. was devoted to other things that i think was far from her mind by then. >> as we close out here, we talked about a few thingings that she did to advance the role of first lady in this country. how should we remember her historically? >> as the vivacious person she was. quite a bit ambitious. and i think her story conveys the possibilities for first ladies. not all of them pursued her path, but she was able to do

something that were significant. >> what did you say? what's her legacy? >> the jury is still out. one of the great things about this particular series is it's helping us re-evaluate what we mean by the first lady, the institution of the first lady as a part of the presidency itself. so you can see, again, the possibilities of a woman in that position. but on the other hand, you can also see the installations, perhaps with leticia's, by the women we talked about in this program. by the end of the series, we can get back together again and talk about, well, what with have we learned that is a first lady and learn what julia tyler's legacy is really is. >> what should we think about john tyler's legacy? >> glad you got to that question. >> you know, i cannot change my opinion of him. he's a person who turned his back on his own party, okay?

that's -- that's one thing. he supported a cause that actually was creating serious issues for a whole race of people. he was more than willing to perpetuate slavery forever, if possible. and so i -- i can't separate his legacy from that. >> and next week, we will learn about the life of his successor in the white house, james k. polk and we look forward to you being involved with that when we do that. let me say thank you at this point to your two guests. to howard university here in washington, d.c. where she chairs the department and taylor stuart. thank you to both of you. this series is produced in cooperation of the white house historical association and we thank them for their help. thanks for being with us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> season two of "first ladies: beginsce and image" monday, september 9. all this month, we are showing encore presentations of season one. each weeknight at 9:00 p.m.

eastern on c-span, programs on every first lady from martha washington to ida mckinley. we are offering a special edition of the book "first ladies of the united states of america: presenting a biography and portrait of each, first lady" comments from noted historians, and thoughts from michelle obama on the role of first ladies. now available for the discounted price of $12.95 plus shipping at c-span.org/products. thewebsite has more about first ladies, including a special session "welcome to the white house," produced by our partner the white house historical association. it chronicles life in the executive mansion. find out more at c- span.org/firstladies. span, we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, but he knew in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences, and

offering complete, gavel-to- gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. we are c-span, created by the cable industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. now you can watch us in hd. >> next on c-span, some of today's annual american bar association conference. worst with former secretary of state hillary clinton on voting rights run the country. then attorney general burkholder speaks about federal sentencing policy. later a discussion on immigration policy and the impact of immigrants on state economies. [applause] former secretary of state hillary clinton spoke about voting rights at the american bar association's annual meeting. she talked about the u.s. supreme court's decision to strike down part of the voting rights act and recent laws passed around the country impacting people's ability to vote.

the former secretary of state also received the aba medal, the highest honor the organization gives for service in the cause of american justice. from san francisco, this is 35 minutes. >> thank you, thank you very much. thank you all very much. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman, members of the house of delegates, incoming president, friends and colleagues, long time members of the aba. you so deeply grateful to for this award. those who have

received it in the past. , and intheir company some small measure, to canoe the work that the aba has championed. i know that earlier you're from attorney general holder about important issues in our criminal justice system, and this afternoon, i want to raise another such issue -- voting --hts group another area rights. another area where the aba has been active all of my professional life. to share some perspectives from four decades as a lawyer, a legislator, diplomat about why voting rights are so foundational to our democracy and our future. underscorei want to that this honor from the american bar association means so much to me because i know the

work that the aba does. it is hard to believe that it since then abars president robert mccreight called me in my office in little rock and suggested that -- and suggested that i chair the first commission on women in the profession. he was very persuasive. hearing,earing after recording the experiences of women lawyers, judges, and professors. in fact, number of my colleagues from that first commission are here with us this afternoon. no one at the aba's ever suggested that we ever is back, go slow, avoid the hard truths. aba helpedthat the start the movement for gender equality in the legal profession. that it continues to be at the forefront today with initiatives to ensure that equal work really does mean equal pay.

i want to applaud president and fellows leadership in combating human trafficking at home and abroad. so many other issues where america's lawyers can and should lead the way. i am well aware, as you are, that some people -- hard to believe -- see lawyers as part of the problem in our society, but i learned very early on that lawyers are often a central to the solution to any problem we face. as secretary of state, i saw the contributions that the aba makes run the world. your rule of law initiatives is helping to improve governance, deliver justice, and promote human rights and more than 60 countries. a few years ago, i had the of theto visit members azerbaijan women's bar association who were fighting domestic violence, child

marriage, and other abuses in the country without a strong tradition of the rule of law or a vibrant society. support made an enormous difference to these women. the world justice project, launched by former aba president bill not come, has developed a rule of law index, which i found very helpful. it measures governments around the world based on for universal principles -- first, that , peoples, and corporations should all be accountable under the law -- second, that laws must be clear, --licize, stable, and just third, that laws are enacted and enforced fairly and efficiently -- and forth, diverse, competent, and independent lawyers and judges deliver justice under the law. fore are a central concepts

any healthy democracy, including our own. although we use the term rule of law, it is not only about how law govern society, but also how law serves society. i mean this in at least two ways. first, that law can be an instrument for improving people's lives in addition to adjudicating their disputes and shaping their government. second, that the law belongs to the people, that its power flows from their consent and participation. this is about making the law a real and vibrant, as opposed to arid and abstract. it is also about ensuring while the law should never privilege the rights of some citizens over those of others, we should not be afraid to privilege justice over injustice.

as i witnessed as secretary of state over four tumultuous years the search for justice drives people to stand up against dictatorships, corruption, and oh pressure and. -- oppression. as the most powerful tool in human history to deliver this justice. student, ilaw volunteered at the new haven legal assistance association. although the work i did there sometimes felt one million miles away from the classroom where we debated precedents and procedures, it helped me see lawyers giving life to the concepts in my textbooks, using them to solve real problems, facing people every day, and it inspired me to later take a job as the first director of the university of arkansas school of law's legal clinic and say it's so, arkansas.

while there, i surf provides students providing assistance to the -- to poor families and prison inmates. not everyone at that time thought this was an appropriate use of the law. i remember there was one judge in particular, and maybe some arkansas members will remember or have appeared before him, who insisted my students qualify their indigent clients under a 19th-century statute that permitted free legal assistance only when a person's assets were worth no and the close on his or her back. i told the judge, that was an impossible standard for anyone to meet who owned an old car or even a television or anything $10, but heore than held firm. so i went to the arkansas bar association, and argued that the law should be changed.

how could we deny legal assistance when it could help save hungry children from poverty or protect battered women from abuse or stop unscrupulous bosses from exploiting their workers? the judge made his case, and the state bar association's executive committee listen to our arguments and then endorsed repealing the statute. later president carter appointed me to the legal services corporation, one of the great honors of my life. once again, there were skeptics. we had to convince congress that using the law to help for families was just and necessary cause. it was worth it. we tripled our funding. we were able to pay thousands of lawyers to work on behalf of more than one million poor clients. we help families avoid eviction, fight discrimination, receive their earned federal benefits. often in those days and many

times since, i thought of something that eleanor roosevelt said about human rights. she reminded us that they begin in small places close to home, in neighborhoods, schools, factories, and farms, and there is no better tool to expand and enforce human rights than the law. we can and should use it to help more people in more places live up to their god-given potential. the law, after all, belongs to the people, not the other way around. it is no accident that the first words of our constitution are "we the people." our nation was founded on the idea that power derives from public consent, not divine right or force of arms or discriminatory dictate. as justice sandra day o'connor revolutionaryas when it was written and what continues to inspire the world

today is that the constitution put governance into the hands of the people. this is the basis for america's social compact, and while we may and certainly will debate amongst ourselves about the role and size of government, americans of every party and striped cherished government of the people, by the people, and for the people. mostou know better than that it is easy to say it. here is where it gets trickier. if people are truly to own the law under which they live, they must have the access and information to understand those laws to participate and have confidence in their government and benefit from its policies. principles founding and the many ways our constitution has protected individual liberties, we do -- let's admit it -- have a history

of shutting people out. african-americans, women, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities, and throughout our history, we have found too many ways to divide and exclude people from their ownership of the law and protection under the law. jobs i hadfirst after law school was with the children's defense fund. , maryr pioneering lawyer wright aleman, wanted to find out why a school enrollment thane was so much lower the census of school-aged children would have suggested. as part of the nationwide survey, i went door to door in new bedford, massachusetts, asking whether the family had any children not in school today we discovered that children staying home to care for younger siblings while parents worked or even dropping out to work themselves in order to support their families. we mostly found kids with disabilities who were not

attending school. we found blind and deaf children, children in wheelchairs, children with developmental disabilities, children whose families cannot afford the treatment they needed. i remember meeting a girl in a wheelchair on the small back porch of her house where we sat and talked under the grape arbor. she so wanted to go to school, but like many, she was excluded because at that time, the public schools could not or would not accommodate children like her. along with many partners across our country, we collected the data, and we brought to washington. congress eventually enacted legislation declaring that every child in our country is entitled to an education, including those with disabilities. the struggle to bring people inside, to give them real ownership of the law, is as old as our republic. are marking the

50th anniversary of dr. king's march on washington. the 165th anniversary of the seneca falls convention. signposts on our long march to a more perfect union, and occasions to celebrate the progress we have made. a time to refocus on the remaining challenges. confidence in most of our important institutions has fallen to historic lows, even as our need for solid footing in a rapidly changing world has never been greater. has beenm of authority part of our national character since the pilgrims, and complaining about government is a treasured american pastime. is troubling that many americans continue to lose faith and trust in the press, in banks, and sports heroes, and the clergy, just about every institution. according to data from the pew

research center, majorities across all partisan and demographic groups expressed little or no trust in washington. stop and think about that for a minute. one of the observations that i have made traveling the world over on behalf of our country is how rare trust is, yet trust is the thread that weaves together the social fabric that enables democracy to exist. when citizens are alienated from their government, democracy suffers. around the world in recent years, we have seen what can happen when trust unravels and societies pull apart. in the middle east, of course, but we have also seen growing middle classes in places like brazil, turkey, india, china demand more accountability and transparency from their governments. america is the strongest and oldest democracy, and we remain

a beacon of liberty and opportunity, and nothing made me prouder than representing our values these last four years. are asking,ricans how do we ensure that the law continues to serve and belong to the people in a time when ideology and gridlock have paralyzed our politics? when the advance of technology and the dangers of terrorism have complicated efforts to balance our desire for liberty with our need for security? his all -- old demons of cremation have taken on insidious new forms? these are all challenges not just to our society, not just to our government, but to our legal system. they are strains on our social compact. i am convinced that they are tests we can meet. over the coming months, i will deliver a series of speeches focused on questions like these. today, the assault on voting

rights, which threatens to block millions of americans from fully participating in our democracy and further eroding public trust. next month at the national constitution center in philadelphia, i will talk about the balance and transparency necessary in our national security policies as we move beyond a decade of wars to face new threats. later in the fall, i will address the implications of these issues for america's global leadership and our moral standing around the world. right torn to the vote, because choosing our leaders is among the most direct and tangible ways in which citizens exercise their ownership over the law. it is at the heart of america's democratic experiment. i know this is an issue more often addressed by secretaries of state in places like florida or ohio and elsewhere, as secretary of state for our nation, i saw firsthand that how

we protect our freedoms here at home gives us the standing and experience necessary to defend human rights, democracy, and freedom abroad. i spent a lot of time over the past four years in countries that are trying to learn how to make democracy work. they need models to learn from. i was proud that they most often looked to the united states. hoursma, i talked for with generals who had taken off their uniforms and were trying to learn how to become legislators. with dissidents like aung san suu kyi who were attempting to move from protest to politics. one burmese leader of the parliament said to me, we have been studying america and trying to understand how to run the parliament. i asked if they had had seminars or workshops. no, he said, we have been watching "the west wing." [laughter] you never know.

i saw time and time again, people risking their lives for the right to vote. i'm sure you remember the famous ink stained fingers in iraq and afghanistan, the long lines in centrica. -- in south africa. takeve also seen autocrats over the rights of their citizens. in russia, vladimir putin actually accused me of personally engineering the massive protests that followed the controversial parliamentary elections of 2011. americans have had to fight to safeguard and extend the right to vote as well. when i was growing up in illinois, the youth minister from our church took a few of us into chicago on a cold january night to hear dr. martin luther king speak. afterwards, i stood in a long line to shake his hand and thank

him for his work. i was a senior in high school in march of 1965, sitting in front of our black-and-white television set, when president johnson made his historical for passage of the voting rights act. i speakt words were, " tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy." in 1972, the democratic national committee sent me to register eligible voters in the rio grande valley in texas. some of the people were understandably wary of a blonde girl from chicago who do not speak a word of spanish, or texan for that matter. [laughter] but the law along to them as much as to me. they wanted to vote. we have made real progress since those days. but we still have deep flaws in our electoral system. quarter and a third of all eligible americans remain unregistered and therefore unable to participate.

compare that to canada, our neighborhood, where most citizens are registered automatically to vote when they turn 18. i held a forum in cleveland after the 2004 election with my friend, the late congresswoman stephanie toughs jones. there were reports of african- americans waiting in line to vote for 10 hours while whites in affluent precincts next-door we to 10 minutes. african-americans received flyers telling them the wrong times and days to vote. students from kenyon college old as had to wait half a day to cast their votes. they were registered. they were eager to vote. the machines were allocated in a way that ensured young people would face long lines. seene years since, we have a sweeping effort across our country to obstruct new obstacles to voting grit often undercover of addressing a phantom epidemic of election fraud. the attorney general of south carolina justified on harsh new voter id law by declaring that "we know for a

fact that the identities of many dead people had been used or fraudulent voting," acclaim soundly rejected by a subsequent state investigation. far, more than 80 bills restricting voting rights have been introduced in 31 states. obstacle is related to raise, but anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in american elections must not be paying attention. despite the best efforts of many well-intentioned election officials, discrepancies and resources across precincts and polling stations still disproportionately impact african-americans, latino, and young voters. that is why the voting rights act, especially its requirement that jurisdictions with a history of discrimination preclear changes in their collection procedures, has played such an important role for half a century. in the past 15 years, under both

democratic and republican presidents, the department of justice has used the law to block nearly 90 discriminatory changes to state and local election rules. many more were withdrawn under scrutiny. reauthorizedngress voting rights act in 2006, more than 30 proposed changes have been stopped. know, the supreme court recently struck at the heart of the voting rights act and stripped out the preclearance formula that made it so effective read -- effective. some take the effectiveness of the voting rights act to say that this termination is a thing of the past. said, thatginsburg is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet. you will soon be soaked. the weeks since the ruling, we have seen an unseemly rush by previous to cover jurisdictions --

previously cover jurisdictions to enact laws that will make it harder for millions of our fellow americans to vote. hurried to move forward with an id law that a federal court already invalidated. by the way, it would allow a concealed weapons permit as a valid form of identification, but not a student id from the state university. that certainly seems to violate the spirit of the supreme court's 1979 ruling which rights ofhe voting college students. florida is restarting a purge of the voter rolls that is likely to disproportionately affect minority voters and bring back memories of the 2000 election and the scores of wrongly disenfranchised voters. last year, state officials to up a list of 182,000 voters they suspect it to be noncitizens. further investigation determined that only a fraction of a fraction of 1% were actually ineligible.

legislators in north carolina pushed through a bill that reads like the greatest hits of voter suppression. restricted early voting, no more same-day registration, extended voting hours to accommodate long lines, stricter photo id requirements that disqualify those issued by colleges or public assistance agencies, and it goes on and on. these are all changes that would have required federal approval under the voting rights act, but now can go forward without scrutiny. by invalidating preclearance, the supreme court has shifted the burden back onto citizens facing discrimination, and those lawyers willing to stand with them. while these high-profile state laws get most of the attention, we should remember that a lot of the damage will occur below the radar at the local level. that is where the voting rights act was so important, in the small places close to home. so many potentially discriminatory changes do not require legislation or public to

date. shifting poll locations and election dates, scrapping language assistance for non- english speakers without preclearance, nobody outside the local community is likely to ever hear about them, let alone have a chance to challenge them. a small-town tried to cancel elections after bike citizens became a majority of registered voters. an election was held in the first african american mayor was elected. in charleston county, south carolina, after african-american candidates won a majority on the school board for the first time ever in 2003, county leaders attempted to resurrect voting procedures nearly identical to those that had been found to violate the voting rights act. once again, the department of justice was able to stop the change. in 2007 the texas legislature

amended the eligibility requirements for supervisors of water district so that only landowners conserve. the department of justice blocked enforcement of the new rules, noting they were -- they would disqualify a number of incumbent hispanic supervisors and there was a significant us wordy -- disparity in rates between eight and minorities. unless the whole open up by the ruling is fixed, future cases will end very differently. citizens will be victimized by the law and disenfranchised and that progress that -- toward a more perfect union will go backwards instead of forward. what can we do and why am i talking to you, the members of the house of delegates? about what can happen and what you can do? i think we need an approach that on multiple fronts at

once. stepped up enforcement by the department of justice, new legislation from congress, and grassroots action by citizens and lawyers across our country. as attorney general holder is undo, the department can discriminatory election changes. the department can build a new clearance. that would be easier and more effective if congress shifts the standard for bringing toisdiction under oversight one of discriminatory effect. it might make sense to allow citizens and civil rights organizations and lawyers to trigger federal scrutiny of problematic practices by filing a simple one-page complaint rather than a full lawsuit. that would also require an act of congress. second congress should move to pass legislation to replace those portions of the act that the court struck down.

i was in the senate and 2006 1 we unanimously reauthorized the law. after what judge us -- justice as aurg described deliberate evidence gathering process. reports documented continued discrimination. more than 15,000 pages of legislative record. the republican chairman called it one of the most extensive considerations of any piece of legislation and its nearly 30 years of service. bipartisanerwhelming vote, president bush pledged to vigorously enforce its provisions and defend them in which his administration did. our process and the congress and 2006 was an example of how the system is supposed to work. andere guided by evidence

facts, not ideology. we put principles ahead of politics. that is what congress needs to do again. it should reinforce the fundamental principles of the voting rights act and assure that citizens have the information and access they need to participate in our democracy and at the very least future changes to election procedures should be subject to mandatory advance public disclosure that includes enough information so that citizens have a chance to analyze and understand what is ifpening and seek a remedy there is dissemination. [applause] beyond the voting rights act, congress should consider additional measures to improve elections in the country including reforms that would make it easier for people to become registered and stay registered. the bipartisan commission to

improve voting that president obama announced in his state of the union addresses a good start . it is chaired by his campaign lawyer and romney campaign's lawyer and i hope the findings received a serious hearing when they are announced. in the senate i championed the bill that requires making election day a federal holiday, require states to work to reduce waiting times at polling places, put in early voting, place uniform standards for roto registration, and identification by including same-day registration across the country as well as make it a federal crime to deceive voters by sending flyers to minority neighborhoods of false information. a was important to provide paper record and improved security measures for electronic voting machines as well. there are many problems that we but preserving fairness and equality in our voting system is one that we can

and we should. state i saw the countries take steps to increase voter participation and strengthen their democratic processes. there is no reason we cannot do the same in america. i am well or that persuading a gridlocked congress to address these problems will not be easy but that does not mean we should give up and walk away. we should redouble our efforts in this is where all of you, and. enforcing the voting rights act has always depended on activists and advocates working at the grassroots level. more than ever that is what we need. i want to praise the aba for your strong stand. brief in make us shelby urged the court to uphold the voting rights act because it -- the work was not done and protections against discrimination were still needed. since 2004, the aba has worked with a nonpartisan election

protection coalition to provide on the ground legal assistance to voters, especially minority areas. fielded complaints on telephone hotlines, interceded with state and local officials to prevent abuses, and spend countless hours in polling places and courthouses. i understand the aba will mark law day 2014 next may 1 with the same, why every vote matters. when i chaired the commission on women in the profession and traveled all over the country talking to lawyers and judges and bar associations and law firms might anyone who would listen to our findings, i saw firsthand the power and reach of the people in this room and who you represent. you know the law, you speak the language, you can harness its authority. that gives you a unique ability to drive our grass, right wrongs, and help our nation lived up to our finest ideals.

richardry has a richar traditions and the united states. i ask each of you to take up your practices and communities. educate your neighbors, your local leaders about voting rights. scrutinize changes to election an op-ed, callte congressman, tell them you believe in the right to vote, not just for yourself but for your fellow citizens and tell them that our government cannot fully represent the people unless it has been fairly elected by them. --you go home [applause] to your local bar association, your courthouses, your law offices, please ask yourself what more you can do on your own

with your local bar association, with the aba, to be that advocate for justice. bring a lot to people's lives and help it serve and empower them? one of my early mentors as a lawyer was a lawyer who argued pivotal voting right cases for department.justice in 1963 in mississippi, john stepped between angry protesters and armed police to prevent a potential massacre after the murder of medgar evers. that was the kind of lawyer and later he was. years later, he gave me a photo with an inscription from tennyson's ulysses. to strive, to seek to a find, and not to yield. our nation's greatness is not a birthright. it must be earned by every generation. i am confident that we can earn it for this time.

we are at our best one we live our values, including our devotion to democracy and protection under the rule of law when we widen that circle of opportunity and extend dignity to all of our citizens. i believe strongly that that is what is called for today. there is no group that i have more confidence in being able to rise and meet that challenge than the lawyers of america and particularly, the american bar association. thank you all very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> americans for tax reform president grover norquist discusses his group's effort to repeal the healthcare law for one year. then, msnbc host re: milbury looks at his network's latest series focusing on inequalities in the u.s. criminal justice system. that, assistant editor of education week talking about the common core standards initiative and how it plays into the overall education policy in the u.s. plus your e-mails phone calls, and tweets. "washington journal" live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> ♪

if we turn away from the needs of others, we align ourselves with those forces which are bringing about the suffering. >> white house is a fully pulpit and you ought to take advantage of it. >> obesity in this country is nothing short of a public health crisis. there is so much influence in that office. it seems a shame to waste it. >> they serve as a window on the past to what was going on with american women. >> she becomes the chief confident. really the only one in the world he can trust. >> many of the women who were first ladies, a lot of them were journalists and writers. they wrote books. >> they were more interesting as

human beings in many cases than their husbands if only because they are not first and foremost defined and limited by political ambition. edith roosevelt is one of the unsung heroines. when you go to the white house today, it is edith roosevelt's white house. was too much looking down and i think it was a little too fast. >> in every case, the first lady did what fit her personality and her interests. >> you later wrote in her memoir, i myself never made any decision. i only decided what was important and went to present it to my husband. you stop and think about how much power that is. it is a lot of power.

>> prior to the battle against -- part of the battle against cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease. >> she transformed the way we look at these bugaboos and made it possible for countless people and to flourish as a result. i do not know how many presidents have that kind of impact on the way we live our lives. >> just walking around the white house grounds, i am constantly reminded about all the people who have lived there before, and particularly, all of the women. ladies, influence and image. a c-span original series artist in cooperation with the white house historical association. season to premiere september 9 as we explore the modern era and first ladies from edith oosevelt to michelle obama.

>> attorney general eric holder outlined changes to federal spending policies in a speech at the american bar association's annual meeting. the smart on crime plan includes changing how the justice department prosecutes nonviolent drug abuse offenders and intends to lower the overall prison population and save money. from san francisco, this is half an hour. >> thank you. it is a pleasure to be here. i want to thank bob for those kind words and his serving as chair of the american bar association. it is a privilege to be here with so many friends and colleagues as well as the district attorney for the northern

district of california, malinda hague, here for the 2013 meeting. i would like to thank the delegates for all you have done this week and for your dedication for serving as grateful stewards to the greatest nation the world has ever known. from the earliest days our republic has been bound together by this system and by the values that define it. these values -- equality, opportunity, and justice under law -- were first codified in the united states constitution, and they were renewed and reclaimed nearly a century later by this organization's earliest members. with the founding of the a.b.a. in 1878, america's leading legal minds came together for the first time to revolutionize their profession. in the decades that followed,

they created new standards for training and professional conduct, and they established the law as a clear and focused vocation at the heart of our country's identity. throughout history, americans of all backgrounds and walks of life have turned to our legal system to settle disputes, but also to hold accountable those who have done wrong, and even to answer fundamental questions about who we are and who we aspire to be. on issues of slavery and segregation, voting and violence, equal rights and equal justice. generations of principled lawyers have engaged directly in the work of building a more perfect union. today, under the leadership of my good friend, president laurel bellokws, this organization is fighting against budget cuts that undermine the ability of our courts to administer justice. you're standing with me, and with my colleagues across the obama administration, in dauling

calling for constitutional action on common-sense measures to prevent and reduce gun violence. and you're advancing our global fight against the heinous crime of human trafficking. in so many ways, today's a.b.a. is reminding us that although our laws must be continually updated, our shared dedication to the cause of justice and the ideals set forth by our constitution must remain constant. it is this sense of dedication that brings me to san francisco today, to enlist your partnership in forging a more just society. to ask for your leadership in reclaiming once more the values we haled hold dear. and to draw upon the a.b.a.'s legacy of achievement in calling on every member of our profession to question that which is accepted truth, to challenge that which is unjust, to break free of a tired status quo, and to take bold steps to reform and strengthen america's criminal justice system in concrete and fundamental ways.

it is time to address persistent needs and unwarranted disparities by considering a fundamentally new approach. as a prosecutor, judge, and attorney in private practice, i have seen the criminal justice system firsthand in nearly every angle. while i have the jut most faith and dedication to america's legal system, we must face the reality is that our system is in too many respects broken. the the course we are on is far from sustainable. we can improve in order to better advance the cause of justice for all americans. even as we see most crime rates decline, we need to examine new law enforcement strategies and better allocate resources to keep pace with today's

continuing threats as violence spikes in some of our greatest cities. now, as studies show, 6-10 american children are exposed to violence at some point in their lives, and nearly one in four college women experience some form of sexual assault by their senior year. we need fresh solutions for assisting victims and empowering survivors. as the so-called war on drugs enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it and the approaches that comprise it have been truly effective and build on the administration's efforts led by the office of national drug control policy to usher in a new approach. and with an outsized

unnecessarily large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter, and rehabilitate, not merely warehouse and forget. today a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many americans and weakens too many communities. and many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate these problems rather than alleviate them. [applause] it's clear as we come together today, that too many americans go to too many prisons for far too long. it is time to foster safer communities from coast to coast. these are issues the president and i have been talking about for as long as i've known him. issues he's felt strongly about

since his days these are issues the president and i have been talking about for as long as i've known him. he's worked hard over the years to protect our communities, to keep violent crimes off the streets, and to make sure those who break the law are held accountable. he's made it his mission to reduce the disparities in our criminal justice system. in illinois he passed legislation that addressed racial profiling and trained police departments on how they could avoid racial bias. in 2010, this administration successfully advocated for the reduction of the unjust 100-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder crack and powder cocaine. that's the balance of the president and i have tried to strike, because it is important to safeguard our communities and stray true to our values. and we've made progress, but as you heard the president say a few weeks ago when he spoke about the trayvon martin case, he also bleeveds that our work is far from finished. that's why over the next several months the president will continue to reach out of congress from both parties as well as

governors, mayors, and other leaders to build the great work of being done across the country to reduce violent crime and reform our criminal justice system. we need to keep taking steps to make sure people feel safe and secure in their homes and communities. at the beginning of the year i i launched a targeted justice department justice department review of federal system. today i am pleased to announce the results of this review which include a series of significant actions that the department has undertaken to better protect the american people from crime, to increase support for those who become victims, and to ensure public safety by improving our criminal justice system as a whole. we have studied state systems

and have been impressed by the policy shifts some have made. i hope other state systems will follow our lead and implement changes as well. the changes i announce today underscore this administration's strong commitment to common sense criminal justice form. -- reform. and our efforts must begin with law enforcement. particularly in these chase changing times. federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies has never been more important. it is imperative that we maximize our resources by combating violent crime, fighting against financial traud, and safe gs guarding the most vulnerable members of our society. this means that federal prosecutors cannot and should

not bring every case or charge every defendant who stands accused of scry lating federal law. some issues are best handled at the state or local level. that's why i have today directed the united states attorney community to develop specific, locally tailored guidelines consistent with our national priorities for determining when federal charges should be filed and when they should not. i have also issued guidance to ensure that every case we bring serves a substantial federal interest and complements the work of our law enforcement partners. i have directed the u.s. attorney generals to create and update comprehensive anti-violence strategies for badly aficted areas within their districts. and i have encouraged them to convene regular law enforcement foreyums with state and local partners to refine these plans, to foster greater efficiency, and to facilitate more open communication and cooperation.

by targeting the most serious offenses, prosecuting the most dangerous criminals, directing assistance to crime hot spots, and pursuing new ways to promote public safety, deterrence, efficiency, and fairness, we in the federal government can become both smarter and tougher on crime. [applause] which providing leadership and bringing intelligence-driven strategies to bear we can bolster the efforts of local leaders, u.s. attorneys, and others to fight against violent crime. beyond this work through the community oriented policing services, or c.o.p.s., office, the justice department is helping police departments department keep officers on the beat while enhancing training and

technical support. over the last four years, we have allocated more than $1.5 billion through the c.o.p.s. hiring program to save or create over 8,000 jobs in local law enforcement in the coming weeks. we will announce a new round of c.o.p.s. grants, totaling more than $110 million to support the hiring of military veterans and school resource officers throughout the country. in addition, through our landmark defending childhood initiative and the national forum on youth violence prevention, we're rallying federal leaders, state officials, private organizations, and community groups to better understand, address, and prevent young people's exposure to violence. we have assembled a new task force to respond to the exstream levels of violence faced by far too many american indian and alaska native children. next month we will launch a national public awareness campaign to call for comprehensive solutions. and through the department of civil rights division and other components we will continue to

work with allies like the department of education and throughout the federal government and beyond to confront school- to-prison pipeline and those zero-tolerance school discipline policies that do not promote safety and that transform too many educational institution frs doorways of opportunity into gateways of the criminal justice system. a minor school disciplinary offense should put a student in the principal's office, and not a police precinct. [applause] we'll also continue offering resources and support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and dating violence. earlier this summer, i announce a new justice department initiative, known as vision 21, which offers an unprecedented snapshot of the current state of

victim services. it calls for sweeping evidence- based changes to bring these services into the 21st century and to empower all survivors by closing research gaps and developing new ways to reach those who need our assistance the most. this work shows tremendous promise. more broadly, through the department's access to the justice initiative -- julls initiative, the civil rights decision and range of grant programs, this administration is bringing stakeholders together and providing direct support to address the inequalities that unfold every day in american courtrooms to fulfill the supreme court's historic decision in gideo vs. wainwright. 50 years ago last march, this landmark ruling afirmed that every defendant charged with a serious crime has the right to an attorney, even if he or she cannot afford wufpblet yet america's indigent defense

systems continue to exist in a state of crisis and the promise of gideon is not being met. [applause] to address this crisis, congress must not only end the forced budget cuts that have decimated public defenders nationwide, they must expand existing indigent defense programs, provide access to council for more juvenile defendants, and increase funding for federal public defender offices. [applause] and every legal professional must answer the a.b.a.'s call to contribute to this cause through pro bono service and help realize the promise of equal justice for all.

[applause] as we come together this morning, this same promise must lead us all to acknowledge that although incarceration that is has a significant role to play in our justice system, widespread incarceration at the federal, state, and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable. it imposes a significant economic burden, totaling $80 billion in 2010 alone, and it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate. as a nation, we are goled coldly efficient in our incarceration efforts. now, while the entire u.s. population has increased by about a third since 1980, the federal prison population has grown by an astonishing rate, almost 800 percent. it is still growing, despite the fact that federal prisons are operating at nearly 40% above capacity. even though this country

comprises just 5% of the world's population, we incarcerate almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. more than 219,000 federal inmates are currently behind bars. almost half of them are serving time for drug-related crimes and many have substance use disorders. 9 million to 10 million more people cycle through america's local jails each year. roughly 40% of former federal prisoners, and more than 60% of former state prisoners, are rearrested or have their supervision revoked within three years after their release, at great cost to american taxpayers and often for technical or minor violations of the terms of their release. as a society we pay a too high a price whenever our system fails to deliver outcomes that deter and punish crime, keep us safe, and enshoor that those who pay their debts have the chance to become productive

citizens. right now unwarranted disparities are far too bhon common. president obama said last month, it is time to ask tough questions about how we can strengthen our communities, how we can support young people. how we can address the fact that young black and lat mow men are disproportionately likely to become involved in our criminal justice system as victims as well as perpetrators. we also must confront the reality that once they are in that system, people of color often face harsher punishments than their peers. one deeply troubling report released in february of this year indicates that in recent years black male offenders have received sentences nearly 20% longer than those imposed on white males convicted of similar crimes. this isn't just unacceptable, it is shameful.

[applause] it is unworthy of our great country. it is unworthy of our great legal tradition. and in response i have today directed a group of u.s. attorneys to address sentencing disparities and to develop recommendations on how we can can address this. in this area and in many others, in ways both large and small, we as a country must re-- resolve to do better. the president and i agree that it is time to take i pragmatic approach. that's why i am proud to announce today that the justice department will take a series of significant actions to recalibrate america's federal criminal justice system. we will start by fundamentally rethinking the notion of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes.

[applause] some statutes that mandate inflectionible sentences, and this is regardless of the individual conduct at issue in a particular case, reduce the discretion available to prosecutors, judges, and juries. because they oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences, they breed disrespect for the system. when applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. they -- let's be honest -- fill the enforcement priority that we have set, have a destablizing effect on particular communities. largely poor and of color. and applied inappropriately, they are ultimately counter productive. this is why i have today mandated the modification of the justice department's charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations,

gangs, or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences. [applause] they now will be charged with offenses for which the acome anying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins. by reserving the most severe penalties for serious, high- level, or violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety and drug rehabilitation while making expenditures smarter and more productive. we have seen this approach that is bipartisan support in congress. a number of senators including durbin, leahy, lee, and paul have introduced promising legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory minute mums

in certain drug cases. the president and i look forward to working with members of both parties to refine and advance these proposals. secondly, the department has now updated its frame work for considering compam compassionate release for inmates facing extraordinary or compelling circumstances and who pose no threat to the public. in late april, the bureau of prisons expanded the criteria which will be considered for inmates seeking compassionate release for medical reasons. today i can announce fission additional expanses to our policy, including revised criteria for elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and sho who have served significant portions of their sentences. of courses, as our primary responsibilities be, we must ensure the american public is protect tected from anyone who may pose a drudge dangerous to our community. finally, my colleagues and i are taking steps to identify and share best practices for enhancing the use of diversion

programs such as drug treatment and community service initiatives that can serve as effective alternatives to incarceration. our u.s. attorneys are leading the way in this regard, working along side the judiciary to meet safety impair tiffs while avoiding incarceration in certain cases. in south dakota a joint federal tribal program has helped to prevent at-risk young people from getting involved in the federal prison system. thereby improving lives, saving taxpayer resources, and keeping communities safer. this is exactly the kind kind of proven innovation that our federal policymakers and state and tribal leaders should emulate. that is why the justice

department is working through a program called the justice reinvestment initiative to bring state leaders, local stakeholders, private marns, and federal officials together to comprehensively reform corrections and criminal justice practices. in recent years no fewer than 17 states, supported by the department and led by governors and legislators of both parties, have directed funding away from prison construction and toward evidence-based programs and services, like treatment and supervision that are designed to reduce recidivism. in kentucky new legislation has reserved prison beds for the most serious offenders. as a result, the state is projected to reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 over the next 10 years, saving more than $40400 million. in texas investments in drug treatment for nonvie leant leapt

offenders and changes to parole policies brought about a reduction in the prison population of more than r5,000 inmates last year alone. in the same year, similar efforts helped arkansas reduce its prison population by more than 1,400. from georgia, north carolina, and ohio to pennsylvania, hawaii and far beyond reinvestment and serious reform are improving public safety and saving precious resources. let me be clear, these measures have not compromised public safety. clearly, these measures can work. it is time for others to take notice.

today i can announce that i've directed all the department of justice components going forward to consider whether any proposed regulation or guidance may improse unnecessary collateral consequences on those seeking to rejoin their communities. the aba has catalog -- when people who have been convicted of crimes, i have

asked state attorneys general to review their own agencies relations and i can announce that i have directed the department of justice components to consider whether any proposed regulation or guidance may impose unnecessary collateral consequences on those seeking to rejoin their communities. [applause] the bottom line is that while the aggressive enforcement of federal criminal statutes remains necessary, we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation. to be effective, federal efforts must wls pokeous on prevention and re-entry. we must never stop being tough on crime. we must also be smart and efficient when battling crime and the conditions and the individual choices that breed it. ultimately, this is about much more than fairness, it is a matter of public safety and public good.

it makes plain economic sense. it is about who we are as a people, and it has the pow -- it has the potential to positively impact the lives of every man, woman, and child in every city and neighborhood in the united states. after wall u all, whenever recidivism crime is committed, communities are victimized, burdens are increased, and depleted resources are depleted further. today and together we must declare that we will no longer set many for such an unjust and unsustainable status quo. to do so would be to bee tray our history, our shared commitment to justice and the founding principles of our nation. instead, we must recommit ourselves as a country tackling the most difficult questions and the most costly problems, no matter how perplex or intractable they appear. we must pledge as legal professionals to lend our talents, our

training, and our diverse proexpect yiffs to advancing this critical work. and we must resolvet as a people to take a firm stand against violence, against victim zation, against inequality and for justice. this is our chance, to bring america's criminal justice system in line with our most sacred values. this is our opportunity to define this time, our time, as one of progress and innovation. this is our prosms to -- this is our promise to forge a more just society, and this is our solemn obstacle gage as stewards of the law and servants of those who protect and empower to open a frank and constructive dialogue about the need to reform a broken system. to fight those sweeping systemic changes we need and uphold our deer dearest values as the a.b.a. always has by calling or our creags not merely to serve our clients or win their cases, but

to ensure that in every case, in every circumstance, and in every community justice is done. this, after all, is the cause that's been our common pursuit for more than two decades, the ideals that have did driven our country and the goals that will drive president obama and leaders in the months ahead. of course we recognize, as you do, that the reforms i have announced today 0, others that we must explore and implement in the coming years, these will not take hold over night. there will be setbacks and there will be false starts. we will encounter resistance. we will encounter opposition. but if we keep faith in one another, and in the principles that we've always held dear, if we stay true to the a.b.a.'s history as a driver of positive change, and if we keep moving forward together, knowing that the need for this work will outlast us,

but determined to make the difference that we seek, i know we can all be confident where these efforts will lead us. i look forward to everything that we will undoubtedly achieve, and i will always be proud to stand alone to have a more just and prosperous future that all our citizens deserve. thank you all so much for having me. applause] >> explorer and engineer wellstone is a speaker at the association for unmanned vehicle systems international conference. he will deliver a morning keynote address along with lieutenant general james barkley

emma the army's deputy chief of staff in charge of drone use. watch live coverage beginning at 9 a.m. eastern on c-span [applause] .- c-span2 and a panel discussion with the privacy invocations of unmanned vehicles. that is live at one p.m. eastern here on c-span. democratic senator ben cardin spoke about the health care law and how it is funded. here's a look. >> authorizations are pretty stable. we have a federal appropriation process, we have two problems. we are operating without a budget agreement and we desperately need a budget agreement. sequestration is hurting this country badly. it is unnecessary.

it is mindless across-the-board cuts. we have to replace sequestration. no one is talking about eliminating it without comparable savings. we can get savings, part of the savings we can get is in health by bringing everyone into the system. every time the joint tax committee congressional budget office has scored the health savings, they have been conservative. we have to get it implemented so we need to fund it -- the funding to lament it properly. we need a budget agreement that make sense and gets rid of sequestration and allows for the proper funding of government. the second is we have to get over the political hurdle we have talked about before. there has been a sharp difference in how the opponents of affordable care have handled the policy of healthcare than previous problems we have had in healthcare expansion.

under george w. bush, we expanded the prescription drug part d. i opposed that. there was not a governmental plan available. universalit was not pricing. the day after that bill was theed, i worked along with people who oppose the bill to make sure was implemented as best that we could. we work together to make it work. we are not seeing that in the affordable care act. it is almost a political isolation of this issue which is calling it politics rather than trying to make it work the best that you and seeking changes that should be changed. i'm hoping we can get to that point and we can get to the resources necessary to make sure this law is implemented fairly. it is not going to be a one year implementation of the personal mandate. it will take years.

>> you can watch all of his .org.ks online at c-span night.rrow helpmate to him throughout his put coker. newspapersead the and underline passages she thought important for him to read. she was a regular fixture in the gallery and congress. typically, congress would enact a memorial to the outgoing speaker of the house thinking him for his service. when jim spoke left to run for governor emma the congress was so widely divided they refuse to do that. wroteer of politicians poems in honor of sarah when she left. a story whowas just wrote a lengthy poem lamenting the loss of sarah polk to washington society. >> the encore resignation of our

original series first ladies continues tomorrow night. immigrationion on and state economies. panelists include stephen moore and the wall street journal u.s. hispanic chamber of commerce president have year -- javier polimaris. this is one hour. >> thank you for the and thank you to our audience here and also watching us live streamed. we also acknowledge the people who are joining us a thank you. as a master glassman mentioned, we are here in texas. this is a relevant topic to

texas. especially so here in the lone star state. it is an interesting comparison. we're trying to get u.s. gdp double the rate it is now. we have been growing it at 2.5% a year. we know we can do better. when way we can do better is in the past we have grown a lot faster. at least four percent about one third of the year over the past 60 years. we know four percent growth is possible because states like texas grow four percent or even more. that is the latest data. if you compare that to the u.s. andth which is between 2 2.5%. there are lessons that can show us we can do better. we are here today to talk about immigration as well in addition to growth.

there is some sort of relationship between immigration and growth and we want to hone in on that. to 4.2s it is home million immigrants. texas -- that means 10% of all immigrants living in america are here in texas. the third most of any state behind california and new york. almost potentially tied with new york. 16% of the texas population is an immigrant. one in six. that is quite a bit. one in six people you see will be an immigrant. and eight.it is one that compares very favorably. if you dallas county, is one in

four. i think we could not be much -- in a much better face america to have this discussion. i am joined by a fabulous panel of experts. they're going to enlighten us and unpack this relationship between growth and immigration in texas. many of you have seen him on tv. immigration,ut taxes, fiscal policy, and many things. you have seen him, he has been an advocate for years and a scholar on immigration even before he was at the wall street journal. we are privileged to have you here so thank you for coming. >> thank you. >> something you do well is you look state-by-state. you look at growth and the state. what states are growing and what laying inmmigrants state economies around the country? >> first of all when amity

called me and asked me to come out here to dallas to speak at the bush institute, i leapt at the opportunity because i am of george w.er bush. thank you for the invitation to come. you still my thunder little bit when you talked about 4% growth. i would add to what you said that i do not think we can accomplish 4% growth without immigration. it is a precondition to getting to that higher growth rate. the only problem i have is 4% is too low. we are in the fourth year of non-recovery in the economy. there is no reason the economy cannot be growing much faster than it is and even aspiring to five or six or seven percent growth for several quarters which we had in the early 1980's. if you look at the quarter- century of spectacular unprecedented growth in america from 1982 2005, that was a time when we had -- we averaged

timet 4% growth. over that we had unprecedented immigration. we allowed -- we allowed legally well over 20 million americans, no americans during that time. people say that immigration is bad for the economy or depresses wages or causes higher unemployment. the evidence shows just the opposite. the biggest boom in american history was the time of the greatest immigration. that does not mean immigrants cost the growth but it is circumstantial evidence. with respectt is to states. we have devoted 10it is a good u are a texan. people are moving from california to texas.

what you have seen over the last five years, these are rough numbers, about one million new jobs in the state of texas. roughly one million lost jobs in california. that is amazing. one of the, we are seeing one of the great wealth transfers in american history from states like california that do not get it right, my home state being one of them that do not get it. the interesting thing is texas and california are the two highest immigration states. one of the interesting things is ofas does a much better job economically assimilating immigrants so that they are successful here. california is much more of a welfare state. in dr. needs immigrants into the welfare system at a much higher pace than texas does. for jobs.e to texas

people go to california for welfare. you are seeing the differing economic outcomes as a result. texas is the model that other states should be emulating. the last point i may just because this is on the top of my mind. if you -- i would urge all of you if you had not had a chance to read our editorial about immigration, i was lucky to get here last night because i was working on this late at night. one of the points we made is the --. has such an incredibly an incredible opportunity that is so much larger than any other nation has. most of the people in the world who are talented and skilled and educated and ambitious, their first choice for where they want to go if they want to leave their home country is to come to the united states. they do not want to go to israel or germany or france. they do not want to go to japan. they want to come to the u.s. and we have such an cripple

to exploit that opportunity for the benefit of american citizens. that is what this whole immigration debate is and should be about. how do we have an immigration policy which is good for the immigrants which is obvious but also good for american citizens? i am very worried that this immigration debate in washington is migrating in the wrong direction. 100 times a day in washington, what are we going to do about america's immigration problem? problem?on we have an immigration opportunity and an immigration advantage over the rest of the world. that is something that needs to be exploited. i we say when people say china will surpass the u.s., china is not going to surpass the this economically because our chinese are smarter than their chinese. this is an enormous advantage and we ought to exploit it. it is something that is

important so thank you for having this. you talked about where there is a lot of immigrants, often times there is a lot of growth. is away fromgrowth the states like california and new york. to states in the south.

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what will happen is folks who are otherwise healthy may of had a lower premium will probably end up paying a little more. people who had illnesses will get the advantage of a little less.

it is how insurance works. >> and they cannot charge you an arm and a leg? you know what i mean? >> they cannot charge you more. they can charge people more if they smoke. and then for -- there will be an allowable distinction between different ages and geographic locations in the state. the existing conditions and do not matter at all for me it -- at all. sex does not matter. that is gone. really, there's a lot less discrimination going on with the new plans. >> last year 625,000 americans were denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions. for us, it is a great day when no longer anybody can be denied health insurance because they

have a pre-existing condition. >> thank you. >> yes, ma'am? >> and i say one thing? this really works if people sign up. because you cannot be denied for pre-existing conditions, you should not wait until you wreck. you should sign up before. those who do the right thing will have to pay more. that is how it works. you have to sign up. >> hello. marcia. i am currently on vcc and my question is, will i have the choice if i stay on vcc or will i need to actually go out and buy health insurance?

>> it is hard to know just on that. my guess is because you are on vcc, you do not qualify for medicaid. you will stay on vcc until virginia the size until they will handle the medicaid. -- until virginia decides how they will handle the medicaid. we will have to see. >> if i want to get off vcc, i can go out and buy insurance if i want to insured? i do not have to, right? >> it will depend on a lot of things like if you are married and if you have children. a lot of things going to those decisions that we would know. if you think you would be eligible for medicaid, you would theoretically have it if it is expanded. you can also check the change

and see if you qualify for that. that means if you are a family of four with an income under 20,000. >> if we do not expand, people who would've gotten the medicaid card are in a situation where we have not anticipated. expected that everybody would get a medicaid card for a family. if you do not get medicaid, you cannot afford the cost of insurance in the exchange. you have to make a certain income to get into the marketplace. under that, you are supposedly a medicaid card. there's an awkwardness if we do not expand. you are above medicaid will probably would get covered if we

accept the expansion. if we do not expand, we do not really know what is going to happen. that is one of the reasons why we are asking dr. hazel to do the right thing. like i said, virginia -- >> and you are going to get me fired, congressman. >> going through a thoughtful process before they sign up. that is why virginia is in better financial shape than the national government. when they get to the end of the process, they would notice that many of the problems of not expanding. let's go through the process. >> can i add one thing we have not mentioned? there is another option. for those who fall in the gap right now, we have federal qualified health centers. they welcome folks who fall in

the cracks to be there medical home. they will like for those folks to come in to this community health centers. it is not a substitute for an insurance package, but it is a place to go and get care and bh watch to other services -- be a triage to other services. >> they cannot meet the demand. that is our problem. >> it is not a perfect option. it is something in the interim. >> thank you. >> good evening. i am chris. frustrated insurance agent. this is a great outreach program. glad to be here. you mentioned earlier about the tax credits for small business

owners. is there a limit on the number of years of that tax credit that is allowed for the business owner to take? >> three years. >> second question i have is -- i am sorry, can you hear me now? not a verizon commercial, i promise. how do you fill about the bill on august 2 up in washington? eliminating the limit of $2000 deductible for a small employer plan. i have many clients here and have a $3000 deductible and the employer plays -- pays the last $1000 of the deductible. i am being told that cannot be offered. it was dropped two fridays ago to eliminate that caveat. how do you stand on that? >> i am not sure exactly.

>> i know the problem but not this particular bill. do you know the sponsors? >> mr. thompson introduced the following bill. to illuminate the limitation of the deductibles from employer sponsored health plans. they are not required to offer they are good people. they want to do something. >> if a small employer is not required to do anything, what ever they do, i do not see where the limitation would be. they do not have to do anything. for a large employer, it would be different. the minimum coverage. >> the issue is he i do not believe the higher deductible plans meet the minimum that have been put into place. >> if you are a small employer,

you are not obligated to do anything to do anything. >> if it does not meet the qualifications, the individual goes to the exchange. it is too much out-of-pocket. that is the requirement. >> they lose a contribution and pay with post-tax dollars. >> and get the tax credit dollars? >> possibly. >> correct. >> i will look at that. that has not been debated at all. thank you. >> you asked about the tax credit. it is up to 50%. the only way you get it is by purchasing the health insurance through the shop.

that is the market place. i just want to make sure you know that. if you have anymore questions about the marketplace for small business owners, please contact me at the e-mail. i would be happy to help you out. >> thank you. informing us of new things coming down the pipeline. my name is henry. i am a combat veteran, retired navy. my group is veterans helping veterans. we work with veterans and women within abuse. you touched somewhat on the incarceration. as you know, we are going to

have a lot of combatants coming back. it'll be high rates of ptsd which will take a lot of dollars to take care of and treat. as you know, we have both male and females in the war. back in vietnam, it was primarily males. now, when we look at tri-care and plus, it is going up. how will this new program of veterans and be able to participate in that if they cannot meet all of their requirements through tri-care? >> go ahead. >> do you mean if they were not able to qualify for tri-care, what happens to them?

they can get their health insurance in the marketplace. and also be able to get tax credits, the financial assistance for the premiums if they meet that federal poverty line. and biden who does not qualify for tri-care can go into the market ways. -- anybody who does not qualify for tri-care can go into the market place. >> will you be doing a training orientation for our veterans? a lot of them are homeless and incarcerated and dealing with ptsd. and we have a high unemployment rate we must address. >> on the ptsd, what is good about the policy is it will be available on january 1 where it will contain significant mental- health coverage. that will be extremely helpful

from that perspective. if they are unemployed, depending on medicaid expansion, if we expand medicaid, they will be eligible for a medicaid card. >> as we try to file complaints for pension, but if they have a battery discharge, they cannot a bad discharge, they cannot qualify nor healthcare unless it is military or combat related. >> they will be eligible -- if they are under $30,000, they would get a medicaid card. above that, a sliding fee, up to $94,000. they will be able to buy insurance at an affordable rate. >> part of the outreach and enrollment that needs to be done

is to reach out to uninsured veterans and there are tens of thousands in virginia. we know that. groups like yours that work directly with veterans have some options. you can become a certified application counselor and get training from the federal government so you can help provide information and give advice to the people you are working with. also, application a sisters can help people with this process. a lot of different groups are stepping up to the plate to do that kind of outreach. i agree that veterans represent a very important group of when needed good counseling and advice as we move into this new world. >> absolutely. i can be reached at --

[laughter] by the way, congressman scott -- >> you worked with my brother? >> she is not finished with you, sir. [laughter] >> i am sorry. i want to reiterate. if they get health insurance in the marketplace, these remember mental-health services as part of the benefits. every plan must offer mental health services. we are doing webinars. if you go to the va website, their whole documents of pages on the affordable care act and how they can get into the marketplace. i encourage you to go to veterans administration website.

>> i encourage you to do the orientation. most of us come back and to take a lot of patience and training to get a proper diagnosis. some are not friendly nor do they have the patience. that is why a lot of veterans and do not seek the opportunities. >> i wanted to add a couple of things. it is good to have the coverage. what we are concerned about is the lack of folks to do the work and take care of people. we do not have the army of military health professionals to handle the volume. that's what we are working on. we'll be asking for grant money. what we have talked about in the affordable care act is the innovation fund.

we are looking at trying to do a better job of incorporating mental health into the physical health practice as a way of expanding capacity. it is a couple of things. have you hooked up with the wounded warrior program? kathy wilson? >> i am familiar with kathy wilson. >> there are a couple of things there. we have a homeless initiative with the working. the good news is we have change policy. since january, we have reduced it by 18%. we are pleased with that. a disproportionate number of veterans are in that group. if you ask folks if they are

veterans, they do not respond. if you ask if they have served, they will say yes. then we can identify because they were not answering the questions. they need peers and we are trying to bring more. you do not know unless you have been there. >> one last thing. i am a peer counselor. with the incarcerated group, i am working with another gentleman. we are going to try to train the incarcerated people and get them certified and hopefully, we can take advantage of some the abandoned houses that we can put veterans and. thank you for the opportunity. >> thank you for your service and helping. before you ask a question, are there other questions after

these two? ok. other questions? >>ese seem to be the last 4. because of insurance went up and there are unique things that you had to do to get health insurance. my son rather than carry and i on my insurance policy it was cheaper for me to stay under my insurance with my job. to pick up an insurance policy for him, because it was cheaper for me.

i found that a lot of us had to do it. some of my colleagues or other people who did work for the city actually -- and they were unable. when you think about social security, furlough days, you have to become very creative and what you do so you can get to the coverage. well fortunately, my son got a full-time job -- a part-time job. what i think is unique is the company he works for did offer him an insurance policy which was cheaper than i was paying for him. what i and concerned about is the uninsured, that gap, he may be, one of those areas part-time jobs are even less secure than a full-time job. i am wondering what his options would be if that happened? would i be required to cover him

under my insurance because i do not write them -- right now? >> you are not required but you are welcomed to. >> he is 21. a college student. i can cover him to 26. when all of the changes -- my take-home pay, i had to come up with anything that was more feasible. a lot of us have found ourselves in the situation. >> i understand. you are not required. what is available, anybody under 30 can get a catastrophic plan. there will be a catastrophic plan in the marketplace specifically for young adults. this is very low premium. it's the cover catastrophic circumstances of hospitalizations. they are going to be available.

it is something he could look into. >> even if he lives with me? >> yes. >> if he is employed, he can get the financial assistance from the federal government to help pay for his premiums. he would want to look into the marketplace. or better for him to get insurance through the marketplace and he could get the subsidies to pay for the premium and co-pay. >> i would like to confirm affordability. i work for a company that has about 4000 employees nationwide. our insurer said this past year doubled on premiums. the minimum plan they offer is 35% of our income. does that qualify me or my wife for affordable care, the marketplace plan?

that is minimum. that is the small plan. >> your employer-based insurance costs you 35% of your income? >> correct. >> was it an employee only plan do you know what it would cost you? that is the way they will evaluate affordability. >> it just me, and trust to 26%. >> it will be deemed unaffordable. it exceeds 9.5% areas if it is over of your family income, you could go to the exchange and probably find something that is cheaper that would bring the tax credit.

>> what has gotten me confused is when this plan was brought out, it was brought up as a bill or care plan areas when they went before the supreme court, it was argued as a tax. since it was a tax by chief robertson, i will grant to this and i agree with it and did pass. what gives president obama the right to exempt anybody from tax? >> you are talking about delaying the employer-based mandate? >> yes. he exempted that in the middle of the night. >> first, technically, the supreme court called it and not a tax before they called it a tax. they had to answer, was is it a tax?

if it is, the law is you cannot sue to invalidate a tax until you have paid it. you do not pay it until 2014. if they ruled ruled it a tax, they would have to throw it out. later, they said you can do it under your tax authority. they called a tax after that. whether it is a tax or not is a lucid. on the question of if the president has the authority to delay the implementation of a tax, to some people, the answer is they have been doing it all the time. if it is a question of starting the regulations if you cannot get them done or for usability purposes, you need to delay it. it happens all the time. several times under the bush administration.

they did under a number of taxes. you can delay it, but not forever. you can only do it while you are getting things under order. the courts have ruled. it happens all of the time. nobody complains when president bush and did it. it was not as big a deal because people were not watching. everybody is watching the affordable health care act. delaying the effective date of a tax happens all of the time. and the president to do that has only been questioned when president obama did what everybody else did. [applause] >> my question was not about the delay. it was about the exemption. he granted it to you at your entire staff. you are exempt from this program. and then to all of the unions

said that he did. 10 different unions. >> what happened in congress was in the bill. we are the only employees and the country members of congress and the staff are the only employees in congress that lose their health insurance and have to go into the exchange. after we wrote it, we noticed that we're getting health insurance as a benefit. we go into the exchange again if we still want to get some benefit. to have the insurance. you know, i'm not sure they got the final decision. the result is we would be no worse off than before we went in the exchange. that's what's going on in congress. i thought you were talking about the ememployer mandate. >> no, the exemption. >> thank you. >> yes, sir.

>> my name is thurgood, and i don't particularly care for health insurance, but i, too have to go and read about health insurance. so i learn a little something and sometimes i don't. because there are a whole lot of definitions when you go into the hipa training, and it gets very involved. but in reading the literature, you talk about the health insurance, they talk about the members of congress. that means the members of congress have a broad plan, a computer plan, and a gold plan. that's my question. >> let me say this. the members of congress will be getting the same kind of plan that the marketplace asks everybody else. because members of congress, like i said, are the only employees in the country that cannot keep the insurance that

we got. we go into the exchange. so i was paying attention, just like you were, because that's what i have to be getting. >> that might answer my next question. you-all have ductibles and go- pays? >> we will get the same policy like i said, i was paying attention what was going on just like you were. >> and my other question is, we have an insane congress. any time you try to repeal a law that's been approved by the supreme court, you try to repeal it for the times. that's an example of doing the same thing over and over looking for different results. and it has been 40 times. what is it so bad about this affordable care act that those other people -- you all know who

i'm talking about. come on. let's get real. this is the deal. what is so bad about it that they want to repeal it so bad? is it that they don't want to have the same type of health insurance other people have? or they just want to keep on -- i don't know what they want to do. >> congressman, would you like me to try to interpret that, or -- >> what's so bad about it? >> sir, i'll try to answer a little bit and i'll bail the congressman out a little bit. the congressman and his staff will have the same insurance. as a result of that, they lost what they had before, which was through this program called the federal health insurance

benefit, which was a real good deal. now he is going to get the same insurance plan that you might get if you are in the exchange. there are some differences in the ememployer contribution to it that is different. that's not the reason the republicans have been going after this. i can assure you of that. that's the least thing they care about in all of this. do you want me to tell you what i think of this or not? >> help me out. >> i will tell you. and this is the hard part of the discussion. i have a 3-year-old granddaughter. when my granddaughter was born three years ago, her share of the federal debt was $44,000. now, the unfortunate thing is this year her share of the federal debt is $54,000. every man, woman, and child in america owes a piece of that debt. now what congress has not figured out how to do is balance the

budget. i think the essence of this program, and we talk about this money coming in, and 90% forever, the question is, who is paying for it? we borrow all this money from china. china has a billion people in the navy. we have to pay them back one day. that is what the essence of the discussion is. it boils down to, i'm not trying to judge what i'm telling you, but i think the essence here of what they are talking about is what is the proper of role of government and what is the proper role of the taxpayers and how much more of this should be taxed, paid for, and how much should be spent. that's really what this is caught up in. it's not about congress' benefits. not this time anyway. >> one of the things when we passed obama care, we made some changes in medicare. i think everybody in here

remembers $716, the number of billions of dollars. when the dust settles, the congressional research service estimates that there will be more 0 paying for it than there are services. about a trillion in services, about $1.1 trillion in new offsets so that the budget will be about $100 billion better off at the end of 10 years and a lot more better off in the future because of obama care. the question that it is a fiscal responsibility issue, there is nothing wrong with looking at the numbers. the numbers are in stark contrast of the prescription drugs. that is one of the things that passed that athey didn't pay for. that went straight to the bottom line deficit. that's where the deficit is coming from. we have tax cuts.

that's how they got in the ditch they are in. obama care we very meticulously made sure, and a tv commercial is one of them, because everybody is running on how you pay for them. we like to run on the benefits. unfortunately if you are doing it right, have you to do both. you talk about repealing obama care. you get the sense you can repeal obama care without repealing vealing the taxes that paid for it. if a lot of people think if you started from scratch, the deficit would be worse. we wanted to make sure those things would be paid for. there is nothing wrong with raising the question, but the answer is that obama care was more than paid for and the next 10 years, it is going to be even more. one thing about health care, people saying about medicare and medicaid going up and up and up,

out of control. well, that is not a medicaid sure or medicare problem as much as it is a med medical problem. here that have been prescribing health care for their employees for 20 years, 30 or 40 years ago, everybody got family coverage, no problem. then after a few years, well, we'll give you coverage, but you have to pay for your family. after a few years, you pay for your family and some of your own. then it is about 50-50. then we'll get a group policy because it is cheaper, but you have to pay the whole thing. i mean, if you draw that mine line, medical care has been going out of control. and if the medicaid programs are paying medical expenses, obviously they are going to have big challenges. so we have to get medical care expenses under control, and to a

large extent obama care is encouraging people to do that. they are encouraging hospitals to get it right for the first time. if you go back to the hospital, we're not going to pay for that admission the second time anymore that if you go to the shop and you drive it out and it's broken, are you going to pay for it again? no. and i think a lot of the things secretary hazel has been talking about, how you pay the doctors. more comprehensive. finally get the medical costs under control. if medicare doesn't pay it up, then you pay the expenses fpble somebody got a much bigger hit than most people on average. the health care costs have been going up every year. last year's increase was the smallest they have had in about half a century. next year people will be paying 25% less for an individual policy than they are pig now. in new york, it is about 50%.

some will be paying 50% of what they are paying now. so obama care making sure everybody is covered. and that's going to control the cost a little bit. but medical care problems are the challenge that we're dealing with. medicare and obama care are just symptoms of it. >> if it was paid for, if it was

law, so it is being paid. basically it just adds to the deficit. next question. >> is there a mandate for providers to participate. it is great to have insurance, but you need someone to accept it. are they going to be on the system the way they are paid for medicaid or medicare? the private -- is there some kind of mandate to compel these hospitals or corporations so that once you have this insurance somebody is going to actually accept it for payment? >> the answer in short is no.

some states have looked at it. massachusetts has tried that in the past. but the answer so that is no. it is not a mandate. i think one of the challenges we find on the medicaid side right now. we pay medicaid costs 75%. we pay about 70% of that, per state. that's one of the things we have to consider. we're already cost shifting 30% on to everybody else. we, the government program of medicaid and medicare. medicare has been typically below cost, too. so it becomes a little bit of an unfunded burden on providers. it has to be worked out. you can't have a sustainable long-term program when you promise something but yet you don't pay for it. >> there is one other thing obama care is cog doing, and that is providing funding to increase the number of providers. so there will be providers there. scholarships for doctors to go into under-served areas, nurses, physicians assistants and building up the numbers of providers.

>> that's what i wanted to say, congressman. just a number of private health insurance. >> just like a doctor is not required to take insurance from any company. we are under a -- we are increasing -- it is a great time right now if you are interested in get k into the health care field that you can get loan forgiveness or scholarship funding. we realize it is important to increase the health care work force. >> thank you. we want to remind everyone, we had information passed out at

the table. the number to call is 11-800- 318-2596 for your answer. so call that answer and we can answer some of the questions we have had trouble with. i want to thank you for coming in. october 1 you can start signing up for our coverage. tell your friends, january 1, everybody, all americans will be able to afford health insurance for the first time after 100 years of trying. thank you. give our panelists a round of applause. >>ank you very much. democratic senator ben cardin held a town hall.

here is a look. parson politics played a role in washington and i am trying to stay above that. i mean that. only people who make the right decisions for them. this bill will not be repealed. you would think that the republicans in the house would have gotten a message after the 30th time. the public would not let us repealed is will. they did not want to lose the benefits they've gotten from the affordable care act. they do not want to go to a higher cost of prescription drugs. families do not want to see their young 25-year-olds kicked off health insurance policies. people like getting a check from their insurance companies. and we think is an acceptable rate for health insurance. quite frankly, americans are tired of paying the cost of other people. that is what this is all about.

in a way thathis makes sense for the american people. for governors in states that resisted the obamacare, they are now applying for funds for obamacare and we are finding more and more examples of communities seeing services in other states and saying, "why are we having that here? -- here?" states expand the medicaid population, as maryland is doing. states that have been resistant can we deny that . we areeople upstate losing money and we are losing services." it is working.

it is more efficient to rely on third-party grants. it is wonderful that we have rogue rams at a national level that help our veterans. they help our target groups. that funding source has not been very son -- very steady. look what happened with sequestration will stop it be smarter and less expensive if we had full-party reimbursement. more states will realize this. states pride themselves in wanting to regulate their own business. articular, the insurance business. the exchanges will be up in many states and operated by the federal government. it will be a challenge as to how states can regulate a federal exchange. more states are going to realize that they are compromising their own capacity to protect their own citizens without taking over

the exchanges. more and more states will take over the exchanges. i agree with you. it is a matter of time. it will be limited in a seamless way and we will have a uniform policy. part of why we expanded medicare was to make sure that we did not have people falling through the cracks. we did it as a seamless model. with the supreme court decision, it validated the constitutional authority of congress to pass the affordable care act. because of thes expansion of medicare. we think states will recognize this and come forward and let federalism work in its best ways. >> you can watch all of center cardin's remarks online. >> on the next washington journal, americans for tax reform president, grover

norquist, discusses his group's effort to repeal the health care law for one year. hismelber looks at network's latest series. editorhat, the assistant of education week talking about an initiative and how it plays into the overall education policy and unite states. plus, your phone calls and tweets. >> if we turn away from the needs of others, we align ourselves with those forces which are bringing about the suffering. >> the white house is a bully

pulpit. you have to take advantage of it. >> obesity in this country is a public health crisis. >> this is when the antennas went up. i would know someone had their own agenda. >> i think they serve as a window into the past and what was going on with american women . >> she becomes the chief confidant. >> many of the women who were first ladies were writers. cases, more many invested -- more interesting than their husbands. they are not, first and foremost, defined and limited by political ambition. >> when you go to the white -- edithay, it is easy

roosevelt's white house. >> there was too much looking down. iv was too fast. to its change of pace. >> yes, ma'am. in every case, the first lady has done what ever fit her personality. that, wrote in her memoir i, myself, never made any decisions. i only decided what was important and when to present it to my husband. think about how much power that is. that is a lot of power. >> part of the battle of this cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease. >> she transformed the way we look at these bugaboos and made

it possible for countless people to survive and to flourish as a result. know how many presidents, realistically, have that kind of an impact on the way that we live our lives. walking around the white house grounds, i am reminded of all the people who lived there before and all of the women. >> first ladies, influence and image. cooperation with the white house historical association. season two premieres on september 9. we explore first ladies from edith roosevelt to michelle obama. >> attorney general eric holder outlined changes to federal sentencing policies today. the smart on crime plan includes changing how the justice department prosecutes nonviolent drug abuse offenders and intends to lower the overall

prison population and save money. from san francisco, this is half an hour. >> thank you. it is a pleasure to be here. i want to thank bob for those kind words and his serving as chair of the american bar [captioning. performed by national captioning institute] it is a privilege to be here with so many friends and colleagues as well as the district attorney for the northern district of california, malinda hague, here for the 2013 meeting. i would like to thank the delegates for all you have done this week and for your dedication for serving as grateful stewards to the greatest nation the world has ever known. from the earliest days our republic has been bound together by this system and by the values [captionsne it.

copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] these values -- equality, opportunity, and justice under law -- were first codified in the united states constitution, and they were renewed and reclaimed nearly a century later by this organization's earliest members. with the founding of the a.b.a. in 1878, america's leading legal minds came together for the first time to revolutionize their profession. in the decades that followed, they created new standards for training and professional conduct, and they established the law as a clear and focused vocation at the heart of our country's identity. throughout history, americans of all backgrounds and walks of life have turned to our legal system to settle disputes, but also to hold accountable those who have done wrong, and even to answer fundamental questions

about who we are and who we aspire to be. on issues of slavery and segregation, voting and violence, equal rights and equal justice. generations of principled lawyers have engaged directly in the work of building a more perfect union. today, under the leadership of my good friend, president laurel bellokws, this organization is fighting against budget cuts that undermine the ability of our courts to administer justice. you're standing with me, and with my colleagues across the obama administration, in dauling calling for constitutional action on common-sense measures to prevent and reduce gun violence. and you're advancing our global fight against the heinous crime of human trafficking. in so many ways, today's a.b.a. is reminding us that although our laws must be continually updated, our shared dedication to the cause of justice and the ideals set forth by our constitution must remain constant. it is this sense of dedication

that brings me to san francisco today, to enlist your partnership in forging a more just society. to ask for your leadership in reclaiming once more the values we haled hold dear. and to draw upon the a.b.a.'s legacy of achievement in calling on every member of our profession to question that which is accepted truth, to challenge that which is unjust, to break free of a tired status quo, and to take bold steps to reform and strengthen america's criminal justice system in concrete and fundamental ways. it is time to address persistent needs and unwarranted disparities by considering a fundamentally new approach. as a prosecutor, judge, and attorney in private practice, i have seen the criminal justice system firsthand in nearly every angle. while i have the jut most faith

and dedication to america's legal system, we must face the reality is that our system is in too many respects broken. the the course we are on is far from sustainable. we can improve in order to better advance the cause of justice for all americans. even as we see most crime rates decline, we need to examine new law enforcement strategies and better allocate resources to keep pace with today's continuing threats as violence spikes in some of our greatest cities. now, as studies show, 6-10 american children are exposed to violence at some point in their lives, and nearly one in four

college women experience some form of sexual assault by their senior year. we need fresh solutions for assisting victims and empowering survivors. as the so-called war on drugs enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it and the approaches that comprise it have been truly effective and build on the administration's efforts led by the office of national drug control policy to usher in a new approach. and with an outsized unnecessarily large prison population, we need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter, and rehabilitate, not merely warehouse and forget. today a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration traps too many americans and weakens too many communities. and many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate these problems rather than alleviate them. [applause]

it's clear as we come together today, that too many americans go to too many prisons for far too long. it is time to foster safer communities from coast to coast. these are issues the president and i have been talking about for as long as i've known him. issues he's felt strongly about rve since his days these are issues the president and i have been talking about for as long as i've known him. he's worked hard over the years to protect our communities, to keep violent crimes off the streets, and to make sure those who break the law are held accountable. he's made it his mission to reduce the disparities in our criminal justice system.

in illinois he passed legislation that addressed racial profiling and trained police departments on how they could avoid racial bias. in 2010, this administration successfully advocated for the reduction of the unjust 100-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder crack and powder cocaine. that's the balance of the president and i have tried to strike, because it is important to safeguard our communities and stray true to our values. and we've made progress, but as you heard the president say a few weeks ago when he spoke about the trayvon martin case, he also bleeveds that our work is far from finished. that's why over the next several months the president will continue to reach out of congress from both parties as well as governors, mayors, and other leaders to build the great work of being done across the country to reduce violent crime and reform our criminal justice system. we need to keep taking steps to make sure people feel safe and

secure in their homes and communities. at the beginning of the year i i launched a targeted justice department justice department review of federal system. today i am pleased to announce the results of this review which include a series of significant actions that the department has undertaken to better protect the american people from crime, to increase support for those who become victims, and to ensure public safety by improving our criminal justice system as a whole. we have studied state systems and have been impressed by the policy shifts some have made. i hope other state systems will follow our lead and implement changes as well.

the changes i announce today underscore this administration's strong commitment to common sense criminal justice form. -- reform. and our efforts must begin with law enforcement. particularly in these chase changing times. federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies has never been more important. it is imperative that we maximize our resources by combating violent crime, fighting against financial traud, and safe gs guarding the most vulnerable members of our society. this means that federal prosecutors cannot and should not bring every case or charge every defendant who stands accused of scry lating federal law. some issues are best handled at

the state or local level. that's why i have today directed the united states attorney community to develop specific, locally tailored guidelines consistent with our national priorities for determining when federal charges should be filed and when they should not. i have also issued guidance to ensure that every case we bring serves a substantial federal interest and complements the work of our law enforcement partners. i have directed the u.s. attorney generals to create and update comprehensive anti-violence strategies for badly aficted areas within their districts. and i have encouraged them to convene regular law enforcement foreyums with state and local partners to refine these plans, to foster greater efficiency, and to facilitate more open communication and cooperation. by targeting the most serious offenses, prosecuting the most dangerous criminals, directing assistance to crime hot spots, and pursuing new ways to promote public safety, deterrence, efficiency, and fairness, we in the federal government can become both smarter and tougher

on crime. [applause] which providing leadership and bringing intelligence-driven strategies to bear we can bolster the efforts of local leaders, u.s. attorneys, and others to fight against violent crime. beyond this work through the community oriented policing services, or c.o.p.s., office, the justice department is helping police departments department keep officers on the beat while enhancing training and technical support. over the last four years, we have allocated more than $1.5 billion through the c.o.p.s.we f c.o.p.s. grants, totaling more than $110 million to support the hiring of military veterans and school resource officers throughout the country. in addition, through our landmark defending childhood initiative and the national forum on youth violence

prevention, we're rallying federal leaders, state officials, private organizations, and community groups to better understand, address, and prevent young people's exposure to violence. we have assembled a new task force to respond to the exstream levels of violence faced by far too many american indian and alaska native children. next month we will launch a national public awareness campaign to call for comprehensive solutions. and through the department of civil rights division and other components we will continue to work with allies like the department of education and throughout the federal government and beyond to confront school- to-prison pipeline and those zero-tolerance school policies that do not promote safety and that transform too many educational institution frs doorways oop