sciu. that is all tomorrow morning on "washington journal." coming up next. thank you for joining us on this labor day weekend. we hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great weekend. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> today on c-span, "newsmakers " with tom donohue. then remarks from richard trumka. deliversnet napolitano her farewell address.

>> joining us on "newsmakers," the president and ceo. he covered economic issues for the "washington post." i was talking with some folks on the hill about being on that show. i said what should i ask him. he said ask him why it has become such a paper tiger. over the past couple of years, your priorities have not fared as well as the priorities of some of the more conservative, right-wing organizations like heritage and clubg for growth. we do not have immigration reform yet. we said we do not have infrastructure spending. you talk about the transformation of the republican party and white seems to be so

difficult to advance the interest? >> i do not agree with the argument that we are having difficulty. inyou look at our record the courts, if you look at our record which has a lot to do with the regulatory process, if you look at our record in the senate which is important, if you look at a lot of the rings that we're doing, some of those things are not making things happen. an arm of the republican party and do not want to be. i think that some of the people have created an agenda that is detrimental to republicans that are trying to make this economy stronger and trying to help them get economic growth so we can start to hire people. >> i do not really worry about the reaction that somebody would are a paper tiger we

are the toughest in town. they could lose it. if you do you said not vote to raise the debt ceiling we will get rid of you. it is not appear that the guys that voted against were gotten rid of. >> that is a good question to ask. that is a current issue. i can tell you where we would be. we do not go out to dinner so much are would you default on your mortgage? to theat would do legitimacy of the american economic system and our global position financially and what we do to the interest rate on the current debt we have and the future debt we will develop is .ust plain silly

we cannot let that happen. i know there are a lot of people, new people particularly in the house or folks and heritage who says we should bring the house down to we can build a new one. that is fine if you knew what you were talking about. you don't. conflict onto be a these issues. by the way, there will be a conflict in the primaries on these issues as well. remember my responsibility. it is not to advance the republican party. it is to advance the american business community which is a fundamental core of what drives the economy. if we dotton has said not defund obamacare the government should shut down. are the largest opponents of the obamacare being

developed. it is now there. we have been on letters that say we should get rid of it and start it again. no fundamental reality is matter what anybody is going to say right, we cannot get it done. can you stop funding and the house? can you stop funding in the senate? could you veto that? i do not think so. why don't we face up to the fundamental reality that the wings need to be done in healthcare and we to make some ?f the things happen -- a whale of ar said fight is coming up. it is a clash on the government shut down. the speaker has said he wants an equal number of cuts in

spending to the increase in the debt ceiling. he is under pressure to either defund or delay obamacare. notpresident says he will negotiate on the debt ceiling. is that a position you would support, that he should not negotiate on the debt ceiling? we have theall, preliminaries and then we have the main advance. ande is this positioning dinner meetings and talking and getting there. of peoplea lot making a lot of tough statements about what they're going to do and not going to do. that after the pushing and negotiating we will find some expense cuts. before we finish the show i want to talk to you about the gorilla in this room. the subject, there will be a lot of debate and

talk about the question of what are we going to do about the debt? when this is done, we are going to have to do some cutting to help. if we default on the debt we are defaulting on america's position on the world. -- in the world. the speaker has to make a strong case that he is not going to make this easy or he is going to extract other requirements to do the debt. i think in the end this is america. we will stand up and do it. , we discretionary spending are facing more sequester cuts. businessesheard the as well as the governments. is that the path to go? original opponent of

sequester was the president of the united states. is itns out what it does not only takes away money but it takes away flexibility. most of the cap in secretaries if you say -- cabinet secretaries if you say you can do it in a way that makes sense and the program and military leaders could do it in a much more thoughtful way, and there is a general understanding of they end up doing there is more flexibility. s they decidek where the money is spent. the real issue, although it is not so immediate, is to think about this. 10,000 people a day turned 65 in this country. every day on average. every day for the next 17 years.

we have 77 million people retiring. you look at the second thing, this year the federal government will spend 3.56 whatever they trillion dollars 250 billionl have a dollar a year increase for entitlements and debt. has laid out at plan that would replace the sequester with exactly the kind of entitlement reforms you are talking about. the very far-e reaching reforms that many would like to see. they would save $400 billion over the next decade out of healthcare. they would file back the payment of social security. should republicans except some tax increases in order to do

the entitlement reforms? should they take that deal? >> i think republicans and democrats alike ought to accept the fact that we are going to be 10 years from now being on the edge of not being able to fix these things. if the president cuts $400 ,illion over the next 10 years that will lead us where we are and add to that something like $2.1 trillion more than he has today. you not only have to cut some spending out of it, you have to change some program activities. you can fix it without a great deal of strain over the next two or three or four years. if you wait until 10 years, you will have a national crisis. it will be huge numbers. the debt will be much bigger. reallyer thing that is scary is everybody that gets

medicare and medicaid and social , and we are all living longer and longer. the bottom line is they think it is mine. you lied to me. it is a very difficult in. i do not think it is easy. 10 years from now we will be about 20% of the budget available to run the military. everything else in this country, because of this massive growth we can fix it, w if we should. like that requires compromise. if the system broken? can the parties come together question mark if not, why not? >> we all know we are far left and in the middle. this has happened historically. this is happened before. it is harder to make a deal. that is one of the three or four reasons i want to make an

immigration deal. we need a deal to keep the workers on the top side that we need and get the workers on the bottom side. that is why i was able to make a .eal with richard trumka they have real needs in this deal. int is how we got the deal the senate. by the way, that is how we're going to get get a deal in the house. here are the reasons you have to do that though. we need it. everything we're doing we needed. b, and i say this for the walklican folks, if you away from this deal you start the elections and 14 and 16 by handing the opposition a pretty you.weapon to use on finally, and this is the important thing, if we could do you have a bill in

the house. you have a bill in the senate. you do a conference. the president votes and signs it. he will say it worked. maybe we can do another bill. >> going back to the entitlement question. i know we want to immigration. white house the and senate democrats have said we will do entitlement reform but only if republicans agreed to raise taxes on the rich. should they take that deal? re morning lasso went down to get a paper. on the front page of your paper was a pullout about the president going around the country. he's a we do not have a deficit problem. he said we do not have a

deficit problem, we have a political problem. i am not going after the president. we do have a deficit problem. used taxesnificantly in the past to try and digest address our -- spending problem. you could always raise taxes on the rich. you're getting to the point where you're getting more and more from the rich. hit a little bit of money? yes. the point i'm trying to make, if you look at the size of the hole, if you look at how much money is engaged in what is going to happen to the federal budget, this is tough times. we have to have taxes, spending cuts, program adjustments. of course you can walk away from it.

we put out his big thing a couple of weeks ago. you do not want to fight with anyone. we want to see if we can tell the truth in this town. you would have a different agreement. >> i wanted to go back to immigration. it provides a case in point. the 14th senate republicans who voted for the bill that you wanted, only four have been supported by the chamber. they have said that they cannot support the senate bill. i am wondering where your confidence comes that something will get done. can go into next year. the toughest votes will come after the primary season when some of the republicans will not feel there will be a challenge

from the right. where do you see this coming out? when? >> we have an unintended benefit with all of the activity with the recess on healthcare. that was so consuming, judgment by lots of organizations. there is not much negative about the questions on immigration. all of us were out there. we ran unbelievable numbers. votes but what people think about this for the most part. the house can do something a little bit different. they do not have to pass a comprehensive bill. if artie passed three bills. they can go into a conference. >> everybody has to the ed about the debt and

deficit and all of that. concernedis also about looking into something positive. i is hopeful we will find a way to do that. we saw the secretary of treasury put up the issue that we will run out of money in october. it is more likely that you would run out of money. we have legitimate numbers. of the ones he is counting, i am hoping we can get a vote. if there is legitimacy that we could do it next year? of course we could do it next year. then you have a whole new bag of. i think if we can move this in, and we had a big meeting yesterday.

>> how do you get there? how do you get the votes in the house? >> how do you get than any time you keep working the issue. at home.to people you talk to people in the district. we are a little stronger on our game and the house now. the house now. it is a little bit amusing to have the great challenge that is something does not have been there doesn't mean this more or less -- does that mean more or less? you have to ask the members of the congress and the senate. then you have to look around. our deal is the work very hard. we have a lot of assets. we will use those assets.

we sure as hell will use them in the election. >> do you feel you still have for 11 citizenship million undocumented workers? is that what ends up of the law of the land? if youdo not get a bill do not have a strong path of an opportunity to participate fully in this society. when would you get a path to citizenship? i hope now. it could be altered a little. >> randy johnson said yesterday that you had recently had a conference call with the house budget committee chairman hugh has been active behind the scenes on the debt limit and migration reform.

i am wondering if you could characterize the role in trying to bring some order to that conference. >> long before he played in the time politics, he was a serious person. he is well respected. we had great participation with him. there is a growing sense from our own numbers and listening to him and others that at least there is a good number of people looking for a good way forward. out with theart war cries and the dances and every things. everybody is positioning themselves. sometimes this is very hard. i would come right to what you said.

if wiki have the people that have a deep respect for paul ryan we would do better -- if we could have people that have a deep respect for paul ryan we would do better. do you prefer? >> the president has added some very good people to the administration. the chief of staff, secretary of commerce web known for years. it is another set of really challenging issues. what do you do about the fed? a lot of people are down on bernanke. my own opinion is that he saved the nation. -- he did a lot of really good stuff. you have a political battle for the seat among the two prime candidates. the president mentioned a third. i have a fourth.

i said to somebody the other day over a cup of coffee, maybe if things are really challenging weekend topper nagy into staying for a while. not likely that will happen. if we were thinking about the challenges at hand, that would be it. my preference is that the president makes a choice soon and that he makes a good one. >> you do not have one between the two top contenders? >> if i did i would not tell you. >> what do you personally think of the president? >> you know we have a history of never playing presidential politics. we operate all over the world. american chambers of the board. we run 11 of the biggest u.s. bilateral trade deals. you cannot do that. you cannot go all over the inld and playing

presidential politics. you cannot do it. i think the president is well intended. i think he came to the office .ith th a lack of experience i think he has a lot more appreciation of the realities. in the first administration we almost do nothing on trade and so the very end when we got this. now we are vigorously involved in the free trade agreements. we are pushing this. principal export partner. it is china's principal export partner. that really is a problem. every economic problem we have compromises or compounds the

problems we are talking about with the debt and deficits. it amazes me to see all the line up with the president. i wonder how many really understand what it is all about? i have a lot of respect for the president. he not only did something that we have never done, but he has a lot of brazilian see. he is learning every day -- brilliancy. he is learning every day. >> i wondered if you put greater stock in experience on monetary policy or in dealing since you have so many interests internationally on dealing with international currency crises which could still hurt our economy down the road. two sets of those experiences, do you come down on

one side or the other? >> that is the critical issue. used to belicy something you could work on with some small attention to the globe. we mentioned quickly china. all of a sudden, they're pushing the u.s. for a bid to get into the pacific trade agreements. they want a free trade. why? they have tremendous demographic problems. you have extraordinary inking problems. economic growth problems. they have their issues. we have our issues. we could spend a whole show on that. .et's look at the middle east that deal could change everybody's equation. >> i want to go back to the

political question. congress problems, cannot actually not on much of anything. the fact that you were able to get the immigration to bill is like ea the senate is working. what can the chamber do? the senate is working." what can the chamber due to create a more viable republican party? >> i expect there will be more this time. they plannds on what to do. like how will you be targeted? what is your strategy? politicalch the process for lifetime. everybody's trying to get better at it. the polling is so fundamentally changed.

how do you do the polling issues? looking for ways to clarify our polling. the last election, while the senate was unbelievable, we were very successful. --went in five months before everybody. nancy pelosi was going to redistrict and steal all the conservative needs. we went in very early. we try to save the people that had some sense about what we're trying to do on the economy and business. earlier this time. we will put people in every campaign.

we do independent expenditures. nobody predetermines the results here. it is like investing in the stock market. you use all of your professional judgment. .his is what we are going to do we're going to be be there in a significant way. the one thing i am listening to what you're saying about the challenges here, one of the ways we are trying to refine those challenges and get to a place where we get a better result for the american people is to make sure we have people there to give the argument a fair shake. >> as somebody who's interested and enjoying my holidays, what , are youo to ensure going in and say we will come into your district if you do not manage to the economy in a responsible way? a smart alecnding

remark i made about the debt last time. we are very serious. we never go for or against a candidate on one or two. you cannot. help ouryou doing to economy and our country? we spend a lot more time trying to protect people from folks that want them to do stuff that just does not make sense. as a matter of fact, a lot that the ads we will do in the house. how many do you think are in play one way or another, 45? i do not know. those are ones you can gain an want you can lose. we will be very protect it. you have got to go in to send a

message on who we are and what we police. >> you just turned 75. happy birthday. how long will you say -- stay on the job? >> god will determine that. i have a lot of energy. i feel well. we have a great team. to go do something else now would be to walk out in the middle of the ball game. i told somebody recently that if you see me link and a box of flowers i am only thinking about it. >> no plans to retire. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. conversationed the with lori montgomery and jim kuhnhenn. >> the bottom line